ABC/Image Group LAThe holidays arent off to such a great start for Michael Ray, unfortunately. The 29-year-old was arrested early Wednesday morning in his hometown of Eustis, Florida, and charged with DUI and possession of cannabis oil.

According to Eustis Police, officers began to suspect Michael might be under the influence after they were called to investigate a minor crash in the drive-through of a local McDonalds at 3:34 a.m. Michael told police his foot slipped off the pedal as he was driving his 2012 Jeep Wrangler, causing him to hit the car in front of him.

Ray -- whose last name is actually Roach -- had blood-shot eyes, slurred speech stumbled while walking and smelled of alcohol, according to the police report obtained by ABC News Radio, and admitted he was coming from a bar. Officers started the booking procedure after Michael failed field sobriety tests, also finding a glass bottle in his pocket that Ray allegedly said contained weed oil while patting him down. Ray was taken to the Lake County Jail after booking.

ABC Radio has reached out to Michael Rays representatives for a statement.

Michael Ray celebrated his second #1 in 2017 with Think a Little Less, following his earlier chart-topper, Kiss You in the Morning. His latest single, Get to You, is currently nearing countrys top 30.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The passage of H.R. 1, the tax reform bill, will benefit owners of small businesses, according to the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA).

When Congress began its work on tax reform at the beginning of 2017, PIA was encouraged by its historic opportunity to provide tax relief for small business owners and overhaul the complicated tax structure for taxpayers. Many PIA members own independent insurance agencies that are organized as sole proprietorships, partnerships, or Subchapter S corporations. Such small businesses do not pay corporate income tax. Instead, their income "passes through" the firm and appears directly on their owners' individual tax returns, where it is taxed as normal income.

While the bill provides provisions that will result in savings for some pass-through entities, the benefit is limited by an income threshold that will prevent some PIA members from benefitting from the maximum new deduction available to certain pass-throughs. As such, many may opt to reorganize as C corporations, a process that costs money and presents logistical and compliance issues that could be overly burdensome to small businesses. Furthermore, the benefit for pass-throughs, even at its most generous, is not permanent, which leaves small business owners at a disadvantage compared to large corporations. Still, overall this legislation will be a net positive for most PIA members.

PIA will work with our members to maximize their benefit from this measure and will remain involved in the forthcoming regulatory process.

Founded in 1931, PIA is a national trade association that represents member insurance agents and their employees who sell and service all kinds of insurance, but specialize in coverage of automobiles, homes and businesses. PIA members are Local Agents Serving Main Street America SM. PIA's web address is www.pianet.com.

SOURCE National Association of Professional Insurance Agents

Related Links

http://www.pianet.com/


PHOENIX, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Creative Medical Technology Holdings, Inc (OTCQB:CELZ) provides the following discussion on a recent US News and World Report article[1] addressing advances of adult stem cells and its own patented stem cell technologies.

Stem cells are broadly categorized into "embryonic" and "adult" stem cells. Embryonic stem cells are derived from fertilized eggs and hold potential to generate every major tissue in the body. Unfortunately, embryonic stem cells are difficult to control due to their very immature state. This limits their ability to be used in patients, which has accounted for a lack of commercial success. In contrast, adult stem cells, which are classified as every type of stem cell that is not embryonic, are the basis of the technology of the two publicly traded biotech companies referenced in the article, Mesoblast and Athersys. Currently, Mesoblast is developing stem cells based on bone marrow stem cells from donors, primarily for treating heart failure, which is in the most advanced phases of clinical trials, termed Phase III. Additionally, Athersys is also using bone marrow derived stem cells from donors, primarily for use in stroke, which is also in Phase III clinical trials.

"We at Creative Medical Technologies are encouraged by this promising article that highlights the important advances being made by adult stem cell companies in addressing the significant unmet medical needs in degenerative conditions such as stroke and heart failure," said Timothy Warbington, President and CEO of Creative Medical Technology Holdings.

"For the past 7 years, we have been working on developing two types of adult stem cell therapies which are protected by issued US patents."

Our first type of technology is based on a more immediate commercialization, these therapies use the patient's own unexpanded and minimally manipulated stem cells, termed autologous stem cells, that can be rapidly implemented because of the long safety record of this type of procedure.

Our CaverstemTM procedure, involves using the patient's own bone marrow derived stem cells to treat drug-resistant erectile dysfunction. This clinically tried procedure is already being performed by doctors on the West Coast.

Our second autologous bone marrow stem cell procedure for the treatment of degenerative disc disease, termed StemSpine, is in the process of commercialization.

Our second type of technology is a "universal donor" stem cell that is similar to stem cells developed by Athersys and Mesoblast. In contrast to other universal donor stem cell types, the stem cell developed by Creative Medical Technology Holdings, Inc., termed "AmnioStemTM is derived from amniotic fluid, which possesses a higher ability to regenerate tissues as compared to other stem cell types. Our AmnioStemTM, universal donor stem cell is being developed as a treatment for stroke, with an FDA Investigational New Drug Application (IND) filing planned to initiate clinical trials.

"I am very impressed with the speed, agility, and precision that the team at Creative Medical Technology Holdings has displayed in advancing both autologous and allogeneic stem cell therapies," said Dr. Santosh Kesari, MD, PhD, FANA, FAAN, Director of the Neuroscience Research Center at the Pacific Neuroscience Institute and Member of Creative Medical Technology Holdings, Inc. Scientific Advisory Board. "I look forward to working with the company in advancing its adult stem cell therapy products, which aim to address numerous unmet medical needs."

[1] https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2017-12-18/tiny-stem-cell-companies-close-in-on-major-heart-disease-goals

About Creative Medical Technology Holdings

Creative Medical Technology Holdings, Inc. is a commercial stage biotechnology company currently trading on the OTCQB under the ticker symbol CELZ. For further information about the company go to www.creativemedicaltechnology.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

OTC Markets has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release may contain forward-looking statements including but not limited to comments regarding the timing and content of upcoming clinical trials and laboratory results, marketing efforts, funding, etc. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and, therefore, involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. See the periodic and other reports filed by Creative Medical Technology Holdings, Inc. with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on the Commission's website at www.sec.gov.

SOURCE Creative Medical Technology Holdings, Inc.

Related Links

http://creativemedicaltechnology.com


DALLAS, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Shippers Warehouse has changed its name to The Shippers Group. The new name reflects the evolving service offering of the company to a broad range of logistics and supply chain management services including co-packing and e-commerce order fulfillment. Thought of for decades as a premiere regional warehouse company in Texas, today The Shippers Group is a leading national logistics provider with 4.5 million square feet of space in 11 locations from coast-to coast.

"Several positive changes have occurred at The Shippers Group within the past twelve months. Our name change and rebranding is aligned with our strategic focus and standards of the company," explained Rob Doyle. Rob Doyle became President of The Shippers Group in late 2016. He is widely known and respected in the logistics industry having held key leadership roles in operations and business development in his career and having served as Chairman of the IWLA. Rob brings depth to the executive team and is focused on the customer working to ensure continuous improvement and operational excellence during this time of significant growth.

In the past five years, The Shippers Group has experienced substantial growth in its public and contract warehouse operations in the food and consumer goods industries, as well as automotive, packaging and e-commerce. Earlier this year, The Shippers Group opened a brand new 540,000 square foot distribution center in Austell, Georgia bringing the total square footage in the Atlanta market to over 1 million square feet.

Construction of another new facility is also underway in Dallas, Texas and is scheduled to open in the second quarter of 2018. Customers and employees are optimistic of the changes and growth that is taking place at The Shippers Group.

The Shippers Group is a leading national third-party logistics company headquartered in Dallas, Texas with distribution facilities in Texas, Georgia, California, Illinois and Virginia totaling 11 locations and 4.5 million square feet of space. In addition to warehousing and transportation services, the company provides co-packaging and e-commerce fulfillment to the food, consumer goods and automotive industries. The Shippers Group was founded in 1901 and today employs over 1,200 associates nationwide. More information about The Shippers Group is available at www.shipperswarehouse.com.

Contact:

Robin Siekerman, Marketing & Customer Solutions

The Shippers Group

(678) 981-3577

[email protected]

SOURCE The Shippers Group

Related Links

http://www.shipperswarehouse.com


Penton conducts research by analyzing companies' yearly cloud-based revenue growth along with their innovations and support model for cloud services in order to select the honoree for this prestigious award. For the 5th straight year, Synoptek is proud to have received this honor by Talkin' Cloud. This top-20 nationwide recognition by Talkin' Cloud is due in part to Synoptek's commitment to improve service delivery and expand cloud operations in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Massachusetts, New York, South Carolina, and Canada.

Synoptek Managed Public Cloud Services

Synoptek has enhanced its managed public cloud services to encompass six critical pillars: cloud readiness/ assessments, technical support, resource management, cybersecurity, compliance management, and strategic advisory. The enhanced strategy delivers a set of services to clients, both proactively and as needed. Partnering with Synoptek provides firms with technology resources, necessary skills, and the ability to address a range of issues related to cost, quality of service, and risk. In addition to Managed Public Cloud services, Synoptek provides cloud consulting and migration for firms looking for help to design, configure, and scale their cloud operations.

Synoptek advises firms in leading verticals including, but not limited to healthcare, technology, financial services, county and municipal government, and manufacturing. Synoptek offers an exclusive suite of managed cloud services including private, public, or hybrid configurations across multiple global environments. "As we continue to invest in high-caliber tools, resources, and processes annually, our delivery of assessments, deployments and managed cloud solutions does not go unnoticed," said Mike Bank, Synoptek's Vice-President. "We are once again proud to be recognized by Talkin' Cloud and other leaders in the industry as a top Cloud Services Provider. We continue to demonstrate our long-term commitment for innovative managed IT services and managed cloud services."

Previous Synoptek Recognition by Industry Leaders a Direct Link

Synoptek is continually pleased to show an improved annual ranking in the Talkin' Cloud 100 report. The company attributes this success to previous recognition by other industry leaders as a direct link. Last year, after an extensive audit and extreme technical scrutiny, Synoptek was named by Microsoft as a member of the elite Microsoft Cloud OS Network (COSN). This membership requires Synoptek to possess the infrastructure, management and support to effectively implement an Azure-based cloud environment. This allows Synoptek to accommodate customers who seek the resilient Azure environment along with full-scale IT system support in a single services provider (see COSN press release).

Synoptek's customer commitment for service excellence was also demonstrated by Confirmit's 2017 ACE Awards for: Voice of the Customer, Innovation in Customer/ Employee Engagement, and the Judge's Choice Winner for Contact Center (see press release). The company sees this recognition by both Microsoft and Confirmit as further demonstrations of their continued ambition to provide unprecedented managed IT and cloud services.

Earlier this year, MSPMentor named Synoptek the #18 most progressive total IT services provider worldwide. This was the 2nd consecutive year that Synoptek had made the top 20 MSP shortlist.

For more information about Synoptek's managed IT services and managed cloud services or the company in general, visit the Synoptek website.

About Synoptek

Synoptek provides information technology management services and support to organizations worldwide. The firm manages and operates IT infrastructure with 24/7 operations, automated toolsets, and highly skilled technologists. Synoptek is headquartered in Irvine, California, with business operations in San Francisco, Sacramento, Las Vegas, Boise, Denver, Marlborough, Pittsford, Raleigh, and New Brunswick Canada. Synoptek has been recognized as one of the Top 100 Cloud Services Providers by Talkin' Cloud and one of the Top Managed Services Providers by MSPMentor, among other honors from Inc. Magazine, Deloitte and more. Learn more about Synoptek at www.synoptek.com.

About Penton

Penton drives performance for more than eighteen million professionals, delivering insight and information along with data and workflow tools for critical business decisions. They are known to engage through dynamic education and networking events and to advance businesses with powerful marketing services programs. Talkin' Cloud, produced by Penton, is the go-to resource to learn about the business of cloud. Talkin' Cloud features news, research, Channel Expert Hour Webcasts, FastChat videos, and more. Headquartered in New York, Penton is a growth company with a track record for strong performance and success, backed by its co-owners: MidOcean Partners and US Equity Partners II, an investment fund sponsored by Wasserstein & Co., LP.

Media Contacts

Tyler Suss, Sr. Marketing Manager, Synoptek

[email protected]

Nicole Henderson, Editor in Chief, Talkin' Cloud

[email protected]

SOURCE Synoptek

Related Links

http://www.synoptek.com


ARNHEM, Netherlands, December 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Teijin Aramid today announced its intention to increase the production capacity for its Twaron super fiber by more than 25%. This additional capacity will become available within the next five years. With this capacity expansion, Teijin Aramid will be able to meet future market demand and provide its customers with the material they need to excel in their markets.

The demand for Teijin's high-performance para-aramid fiber Twaron is increasing all the time, and the market outlook is positive. Growing the aramid business is one of the Teijin Group's key strategies, with an expected growth rate of 8% per year. The company is determined to ensure that this growth will go hand in hand with an even better service for its customers. As market leader, Teijin Aramid aims to capture a substantial part of the global market growth, which should eventually lead to a future market share bigger than 50%. Several substantial investments are planned to increase production capacity which includes implementing the latest technology.

"This new investment in increased capacity will help us, as market leader, to meet market demand, anyplace and anytime," says Gert Frederiks, CEO and President of Teijin Aramid. "It's our strategy to continuously invest in both optimizing our production facilities and in increasing our Twaron capacity. This will enable us to provide our customers with best-value products, in the right quantity, the right quality, and at the best price. Combined with our long history of knowledge and expertise in aramid fibers, this will place us in an excellent position to serve the world market."

By introducing the lean methodology and internal optimization programs, Teijin Aramid has been able to increase its Twaron production capacity by 130% since 1999. Teijin Aramid is determined to keep up this best-practice way of working. It will continuously invest in its factories, implement the latest technologies, and ensure economy of scale. This will enable the company to keep up with market demand and market competitiveness, while meeting its customers' demands.

The total extra capacity is planned to be fully available in the year 2022. Teijin Aramid is currently implementing a new spinning technology at its Twaron facility in Emmen, the Netherlands, as was communicated in July 2017. The extra capacity of that investment will become available as of May 2018.

About Teijin (Aramid)

Teijin Aramid is a subsidiary of the Teijin Group and world leader in aramids with production locations in the Netherlands, Thailand and Japan. For more information: http://www.teijinaramid.com and http://www.teijinendumax.com. Teijin (TSE: 3401) is a technology-driven global group offering advanced solutions in the areas of environmental value; safety, security and disaster mitigation; and demographic change and increased health consciousness. Please visit http://www.teijin.com.

SOURCE Teijin Aramid
The Dubin Group, a boutique staffing and recruiting firm serving the Delaware Valley, has long been a player in local staffing, and always made direct hire (or "permanent placement") available under the same contingency fee model used by clients in need of talent for their contingent workforce-- temporary, contract and/ or temp-to-hire staffing needs. In 2015, The Dubin Group formally added Executive (VP & C-Level) Search, making them eligible to compete for a spot on the Philadelphia Business Journal's annual Top Executive Recruiter Contingency Search Firms list.

"Creating contingency-based Executive Search was always the plan, and just a natural progression towards fulfilling our vision," said The Dubin Group's CEO/President, Kenny Dubin. "In actuality, we've assisted countless clients with executive search needs in the last 20 years, though the division wasn't 'official'. I'm sure it's in large part why we reached #8 in our first year of review for the PBJ's list." He continues, "We are certainly not in this business to win awards  but the recognition means a great deal to us both professionally and personally".

"Being in the Top Ten amongst our local AND national industry competitors is the perfect affirmation of what we've already been doing for years," says Erica Otto, The Dubin Group's VP of Operations. "We're not just uniting clients and candidates one isolated time; we're becoming lifelong business partners-- a type of service that's difficult to assess (or rank, in this case) because it's based on a personal experience unique to each customer. While "performance" of a firm can be totally subjective, the data (number of local placements) told the story of our efforts...now we just need to be ready for what's ahead in 2018."

The Dubin Group collected raw data in a number of areas to prepare for the New Year. Their recent Philadelphia Metro HR/ Hiring Survey confirms that the local market is tighter than ever, making it even more difficult to find candidates who have the skills and experience clients need. In turn, companies and organizations will likely turn to firms like The Dubin Group to meet their hiring demands and shortage of available talent. In preparation, TDG recently welcomed five new internal staff members in 3 different operational areas: recruiting, client relations and administrative support.

"I love the team we've assembled," Otto says. "The new additions are already making their mark and became entrenched into what we call our 'Dubin Family' more quickly than we could have anticipated. We are more ready than ever to live and breathe our mission of 'Moving the Delaware Valley forward, one job at a time'."

About The Dubin Group:

The Dubin Group is a Philadelphia area staffing firm specializing in temporary and direct hire placement of business professionals, including accounting/finance, office/legal support and human resources roles. TDG's holistic approach, individualized, "boutique-style" client service & commitment to relationship (including meeting every candidate) also extends to their personalized Outplacement Workshops and Seminars. Founded in 1998 by Kenny Dubin, The Dubin Group was recently ranked in the top Executive Recruiters Contingency Search Firms by the Philadelphia Business Journal, a seven time winner of the PBJ's "Best Places to Work", including the Gold and Bronze, and a 2016 SmartCEO Magazine Corporate Culture Award winner.

Media Contact

Kenny Dubin, President/CEO

555 E City Ave #430, Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004

(610) 667-5100

[email protected]



Find The Dubin Group Online:

Website: https://www.thedubingroup.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-dubin-group

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DubinGroup

Twitter: http://twitter.com/DubinGroup

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/TheDubinGroup

SOURCE The Dubin Group

Related Links

https://www.thedubingroup.com


HARRISBURG, Pa., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Pennsylvania Secretary of Banking and Securities Robin L. Wiessmann is offering 10 resolutions to help Pennsylvania businesses protect themselves and their customers in 2018.

"Governor Wolf and I want Pennsylvania businesses to succeed, thrive, and continue to provide the necessary fuel for our commonwealth's economy," said Secretary Wiessmann. "In the midst of a technology revolution that is changing the business models of many sectors of our economy, these 10 resolutions provide positive, proactive steps businesses can take towards achieving their goals in the New Year."

Secretary Wiessmann's 10 Top Resolutions for businesses for 2018:

Protect your business and customers by getting serious about cybersecurity. Deliberate cyberattacks and cyberthreats pose substantial risk to Pennsylvania's financial infrastructure and national security. Secretary Wiessmann recently issued guidance to businesses on cybersecurity: www.dobs.pa.gov/Documents/Secretary%20Letters/All%20Business/Cybersecurity_Letter_11.13.17_FINAL.pdf Research how to start up or expand your business by raising capital through a securities offering. In Pennsylvania , selling shares of your company or making a debt offering requires either that you register your sale or seek an exemption. Learn more about this issue: www.dobs.pa.gov/Documents/Publications/Brochures/CorpFin10.17.pdf Renew your state license on time. Renewal deadlines can vary by license type. Learn more about the requirements for financial services providers at: www.dobs.pa.gov/Businesses Learn how to protect your clients from elder financial abuse. The department offers nationally recognized Senior $AFE and Elder Investment Fraud and Financial Exploitation (EIFFE) Prevention Programs to business groups. Contact us at [email protected] to learn more about you and your employees can protect your customers from this crime. Learn about how the Equifax breach could affect your business and customers. The Equifax data breach will affect businesses and consumers for months and even years. Businesses can take several steps to protect themselves and their customers, including performing due diligence on contracts they may have with Equifax and other companies that handle confidential customer information. Learn more: www.media.pa.gov/pages/banking_details.aspx?newsid=182 Protect your business from email phishing scams. An area of growing cybersecurity concern for businesses is the occurrence of business email scams or business email compromise. Learn how your employees can protect company information: www.dobs.pa.gov/Documents/Publications/Handouts/Business%20Email%20Scams.pdf Protect your customers from card skimmers. Card skimming is a serious offense that that not only affects businesses and their customers, but has also been known to have links to international organized crime. Learn about the multi-agency effort to combat skimmers and what you can do: www.media.pa.gov/pages/banking_details.aspx?newsid=178 Learn how to help your clients affected by the opioid epidemic. Financial services professionals are on the front line of the opioid crisis due to the high costs associated with addiction and treatment. Learn more how to help: www.dobs.pa.gov/Documents/Publications/Brochures/Opioid%20Guide.pdf Call your regulator with questions. The department works to ensure that the firms we supervise understand the rules under which they are expected to operate and help them navigate Pennsylvania and federal regulatory structures. Call 1-800-PA-BANKS to connect with your regulator. Become more well-informed about the marketplace. Secretary Wiessmann and her staff meet with business groups to discuss regulatory issues and industry trends, Contact her office at [email protected] .

Business groups interested in department presentations can make inquiries at [email protected]. Anyone can contact the Department of Banking and Securities at 1-800-PA-BANKS or 1-800-600-0007 to ask questions or file complaints about financial transactions, companies, or products. Members of the public are also invited to connect to the department through Facebook and Twitter, or subscribing to the department's newsletter.

Media contact: Ed Novak, 717-783-4721

SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities

Related Links

http://www.state.pa.us


SAN GABRIEL, California, December 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

ChineseInvestors.com, Inc. (OTCQB: CIIX) ("CIIX" or the "Company"), the premier financial information website for Chinese-speaking investors today, announces that the top-rated cryptocurrency podcast "Bad Crypto Podcast" recently featured an interview with its CEO, Warren Wang. On December 16, 2017, on Bad Crypto Podcast, Episode 63, titled "Interview with Warren Wang of ChineseInvestors.com" Wang shared his perspective and insights on bitcoin and cryptocurrency in China, reaching listeners in 183 countries.

Wang's interview delves into the attitude of the Chinese investors towards bitcoin versus other financial instruments, the current limitations and future possibilities for cryptocurrencies in China, and the Chinese rush to enter the bitcoin market. Referencing his own experiences and contacts in China, Warren Wang provided his personal insights into specific virtual currencies.

"Bitcoin is a worldwide phenomenon and many believe that its scale makes it a once-in-a-lifetime investment opportunity," says Warren Wang, founder and CEO of CIIX. "Bitcoin mining operations in China have already made a major contribution to the development of the bitcoin market. As the Chinese become more educated about bitcoin's potential, I expect to see a substantial impact on the market and ancillary crypto businesses. Programs such as the Bad Crypto Podcast, ChineseInvestor.com, Inc.'s Chinese daily video newscast, Bitcoin Multimillionaire, the Company's free bitcoin Chinese language news and education website, newcoins168.com, have broken down informational barriers and facilitated a free exchange of information and education globally."

In response to the Chinese community's overwhelming interest in cryptocurrency, in addition to expanding its financial education services to include the Bitcoin Multimillionaire newscast and its Chinese language education site, newcoins168.com, the Company also hosts a Bitcoin ATM at its San Gabriel, California office with plans to expand to serve other Chinese Communities throughout the United States. The Bitcoin ATM, located in the lobby of the Company's offices in the San Gabriel Hilton Plaza, is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, making it convenient and easy to purchase Bitcoin. Purchasers have access to on site customer service representatives available to provide instruction regarding the Bitcoin ATM in both Chinese and English. The machine however offers translation into five languages including traditional and simplified Chinese, English, Spanish, French and Korean. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts can purchase up to $7,000 worth of Bitcoin daily from the ATM. For those that wish to make a more significant investment, over $7,000, the Company can provide information on how to facilitate a much larger transactions.

Episode 63, "Interview with Warren Wang of ChineseInvestors.com," can be downloaded directly from the Bad Crypto Podcast website at the following location: http://badcryptopodcast.com/2017/12/17/warren-wang-63/.

About ChineseInvestors.com (OTCQB: CIIX)

Founded in 1999, ChineseInvestors.com endeavors to be an innovative company providing: (a) real-time market commentary, analysis, and educational related services in Chinese language character sets (traditional and simplified); (b) advertising and public relation related support services; and (c) retail, online and direct sales of hemp-based products and other health related products.

For more information visit ChineseInvestors.com

Subscribe and watch our video commentaries: https://www.youtube.com/user/Chinesefncom

Follow us on Twitter for real-time Company updates: https://twitter.com/ChineseFNEnglsh

Like us on Facebook to receive live feeds: https://www.facebook.com/Chinesefncom

Add us on WeChat: Chinesefn or download iPhone iOS App: Chinesefn

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain as they are based on current expectations and assumptions concerning future events or future performance of the company. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are only predictions and speak only as of the date hereof. In evaluating such statements, prospective investors should review carefully various risks and uncertainties identified in this release and matters set in the company's SEC filings. These risks and uncertainties could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements.

Contact:

ChineseInvestors.com, Inc.

227 W. Valley Blvd, #208 A

San Gabriel, CA 91776

Investor Relations:

Alan Klitenic

+1.214.636.2548

Corporate Communications:

NetworkNewsWire (NNW)

New York, New York

http://www.NetworkNewsWire.com

212.418.1217 Office

[email protected]

SOURCE ChineseInvestors.com, Inc.
NEW YORK, Dec. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Ugam, a global leader in data and analytics, today released its holiday season report, "2017 Holiday Retail Analysis: Voice Shopping." The report captures results from Ugam's testing of Amazon Echo and Google Home Mini voice devices. It also analyzes the deals retailers offered via voice during the holiday season kickoff.

The recent influx of voice devices has given retailers a new consumer touchpoint. Ugam's report examines the emergence of voice shopping and provides insights into the present and future. Here are some key findings:

Voice shopping was not heavily leveraged. After heavily promoting its Alexa-enabled devices heading into the holiday season, Amazon featured very few gift promotions for sale by voice. On Cyber Monday, Amazon offered only one out of its 5000 holiday deals via voice.

After heavily promoting its Alexa-enabled devices heading into the holiday season, Amazon featured very few gift promotions for sale by voice. On Cyber Monday, Amazon offered only one out of its 5000 holiday deals via voice. Alexa Deals were more competitive than Google Home. Google Home does not offer an equivalent to Amazon's 'Deal of the Day.' And when searching for Amazon Alexa Deals products on Google Home, it offered exact matches only 30 percent of the time. Google Home's prices on those products were higher.

Google Home does not offer an equivalent to Amazon's 'Deal of the Day.' And when searching for Amazon Alexa Deals products on Google Home, it offered exact matches only 30 percent of the time. Google Home's prices on those products were higher. Walmart and Target were the top retailers on Google Home. Most of Amazon's top competitors entered the voice commerce market by making offers via Google Home. Of those, Walmart and Target featured the most matches for Amazon Alexa Deals.

Most of Amazon's top competitors entered the voice commerce market by making offers via Google Home. Of those, Walmart and Target featured the most matches for Amazon Alexa Deals. Best Buy was the most prepared for voice shopping. The retailer's deals through Alexa were discounted more deeply than Amazon's; the average price difference between Best Buy's Alexa Deals and BestBuy.com was 30 percent, compared to a 21 percent difference between Amazon Alexa and Amazon.com. Best Buy also offered more private label products by voice, as well as much more daily deal variety, while Amazon offered the same products throughout the period.

The retailer's deals through Alexa were discounted more deeply than Amazon's; the average price difference between Best Buy's Alexa Deals and BestBuy.com was 30 percent, compared to a 21 percent difference between Amazon Alexa and Amazon.com. Best Buy also offered more private label products by voice, as well as much more daily deal variety, while Amazon offered the same products throughout the period. Philips was one of the top brands. Despite electronics not being the top category in Amazon Alexa Deals, Philips topped the list of brands prominently featured by both Amazon and Best Buy via Alexa.

Despite electronics not being the top category in Amazon Alexa Deals, Philips topped the list of brands prominently featured by both Amazon and Best Buy via Alexa. Cyber Monday was the lowest price day for Amazon Alexa Deals.

"Voice shopping enabled by devices like Amazon Echo Dot and Google Home Mini is the newest consumer touchpoint this holiday season," said Mihir Kittur, co-founder and chief commercial officer at Ugam. "However, Ugam's analysis found that most retailers are still in the very early stages of leveraging this touchpoint. With the likelihood of over 25 million devices sold in 2017, voice is an area retailers and manufacturers will need to plan for and execute on."

Ugam commissioned respondents across seven regions in the U.S. to collect data from the Echo Dot (Alexa-enabled) and Google Home Mini twice a day during the period of November 16  November 28, 2017. They collected the first six deals from Amazon and Best Buy on Echo Dot (Alexa-enabled) and compared the top six Amazon Alexa deals to each of the Google Home Mini's first product matches. This data was analyzed for the availability and price patterns of the deals by individual, region, time, channel, retailer, category and brand.

To download the full report, click here: http://www.ugamsolutions.com/resources/ebooks/2017-holiday-retail-analysis

About Ugam

Ugam is a global leader in data and analytics that helps retailers, brands and market research firms transform big data into valuable insights. The company's unique managed services offering combines a proprietary big data technology platform with deep domain knowledge and analytics expertise to empower clients to make decisions that improve their business. For retailers, online marketplaces and brands, Ugam supports better merchandising, marketing and channel management decisions through the use of analytics. For market research firms and insight-based consultancies, Ugam offers a portfolio of solutions, including end-to-end research operations, technology transitioning support, and data warehousing, visualization and reporting that enables them to better serve their clients. Five of the top 10 U.S. retailers, four of the leading Australian retailers, many of the world's largest brands and online marketplaces, and 13 of the top 25 market research firms work with Ugam because of its ability to deliver high-quality insights with unmatched customer experience. Visit us at ugamsolutions.com, follow us on Twitter @ugam, and visit our LinkedIn page.

Contact:

Xenia Alphonso

Ugam

[email protected]

SOURCE Ugam

Related Links

http://www.ugamsolutions.com


NORTHBROOK, Ill., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- UL (Underwriters Laboratories Inc.) and the Direccion General de Normas (DGN) of the Ministry of Economy in Mexico are pleased to announce the signing of a Collaboration Agreement between their organizations.

The Agreement, signed in November 2017, is intended to advance standards solutions that improve safety, security and well-being while meeting the needs of industry for greater North American harmonization of standards.

This agreement enables DGN to leverage and reference UL Standards within Mexico and permits both organizations to collaborate on joint standards development to satisfy the requirements of Mexico, the United States and/or Canada using a single development process.

"UL is delighted to enter into this important agreement with DGN. It signifies a strengthening of our relationship by providing a framework for greater standards collaboration between our organizations," said Phil Piqueira, Vice President, UL Global Standards. "Collaboration with Mexico is another means for accomplishing UL's safety mission while meeting the needs of stakeholders."

"DGN is pleased to complete this collaboration agreement with UL. It provides the opportunity for our two organizations to work more closely together on standards initiatives of importance to Mexico," said Jesus Lucatero, Deputy General Director of Operation at DGN. "We are hopeful that this agreement will help facilitate greater regional harmonization in standards in North America."

About UL

UL fosters safe living and working conditions for people everywhere through the application of science to solve safety, security and sustainability challenges. The UL Mark engenders trust enabling the safe adoption of innovative new products and technologies. Everyone at UL shares a passion to make the world a safer place. We test, inspect, audit, certify, validate, verify, advise and train and we support these efforts with software solutions for safety and sustainability. To learn more about us, visit UL.com.

About DGN

DGN is a General Directorate within the Ministry of Economy in Mexico. It is a public entity in charge of the regulation and standardization activities in the country. DGN represents Mexico at international standardization organizations such as ISO, IEC and Codex Alimentarius, which serve as a basis for the development of national standards (NMXs) and technical regulations (NOMs). Currently, DGN aims to engage with peers around the world in order to achieve greater regulatory alignment and facilitate trade among partners around the globe.

CONTACT: Brooke Arrington

Corporate Communications

UL LLC

T: (847) 664.1298

SOURCE UL

Related Links

http://UL.com


NEW BERLIN, Wis., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- United Heartland, a leading national workers' compensation insurance company, announced today that it will offer workers' compensation insurance in Connecticut, effective immediately.

This announcement reflects the continued expansion of the company's footprint throughout the U.S. (presently 19 states), and marks its first significant foray into the New England area. Earlier this year, United Heartland expanded into Oklahoma and South Dakota.

"Our entry into the Connecticut market reaffirms our assertion that there is a need for the high-touch, customer service-focused approach to workers' compensation that United Heartland excels at providing," said Steve Cooper, president of United Heartland. "Our high-touch service model allows us to be nimble and responsive to customer needs, and we look forward to working with agency partners who share that philosophy."

Under the guidance of Regional Director Tracy Bain, the United Heartland team will explore opportunities for appointing agents and identifying qualified customers within the state of Connecticut.

"Our goal is to work with Connecticut agency partners who share United Heartland's focus on our six key business segments  education, health care, long-term care, manufacturing, nonprofits/social services and wholesale/retail," said Bain. "We are confident our value proposition and tireless commitment to controlling our customer's total cost of risk will be attractive to potential customers in the state."

For additional information regarding agency appointments, contact Tracy Bain at 262-787-7464, [email protected].

About United Heartland

United Heartland is the marketing name for United Wisconsin Insurance Company, a member of AF Group. Insurance policies may be issued by any of the following companies within AF Group: Accident Fund Insurance Company of America, Accident Fund National Insurance Company, Accident Fund General Insurance Company, United Wisconsin Insurance Company, Third Coast Insurance Company or CompWest Insurance Company.

Contact:

Bob Lapinski

(517) 708-5664 or (517) 331-4890

[email protected]

AFGroup.com

SOURCE United Heartland

Related Links

http://www.unitedheartland.com


PHOENIX, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- V Digital Services closed out the year on a high note today when it was named to Entrepreneur magazine's list of the 360 best privately owned businesses in the U.S. The company placed 79th overall, putting it in the Top 25 percent of the field.

The honor comes just days after the flourishing digital advertising agency was named the 2017 Company of the Year in the Business Intelligence Group's "BIG Awards for Business" contest.

Entrepreneur 360

For its annual 360 List, Entrepreneur evaluates American small businesses based on four metrics: impact, innovation, growth and leadership. The magazine says this "360-degree" approach allows it to identify companies that "keep all their parts growing in harmony" to achieve sustained growth.

"The companies on this list truly represent the very best of the American entrepreneurial experience," noted Lisa Murray, Entrepreneur's chief insights officer.

"We're thrilled that Entrepreneur has recognized V Digital Services' continued commitment to excellence," said Scott Tobias, chief executive officer of VDS parent company Voice Media Group. VDS has posted 40 percent year-over year revenue growth, Tobias added, by laser-focusing on one vision: helping customers both large and small succeed in the digital space.

The company's ability to execute on behalf of those customers has been turning heads. In August, VDS made Inc. magazine's 2017 list of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S.; in July, it was named one of the Top 5 interactive marketing firms in Phoenix by the Phoenix Business Journal.

"2017 was obviously an incredible year for us. We are thrilled with all of the recognition we received. The team worked incredibly hard to get to where we are and they deserve all of the accolades. This year is admittedly going to be hard to top, but we're already planning great things for 2018," added Tobias. "So to all of our customers, thank you  and stay tuned!"

High-performing individuals interested in pursuing a career with VDS should visit the company's careers page at https://www.vdigitalservices.com/work-with-us/.

About V Digital Services

As a subsidiary of Voice Media Group, V Digital Services operates in 13 major U.S. cities, including the five markets where VMG continues to operate award-winning digital-forward publications such as Denver Westword and Miami New Times. The VDS team, which also serves a number of international markets, includes more than 90 analysts and account managers who specialize in helping small and large businesses master the digital realm through expertise in organic SEO, paid media, social media management, web development and both programmatic and pay-per-click advertising.

Media Contact

Scott Tobias

[email protected]

(303) 293-3535

SOURCE V Digital Services
TEL AVIV, Israel, December 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Votiro, global leader in content disarm and reconstruction (CDR) technology, a solution that protects organizations against undisclosed, zero-day exploits and other ongoing cyber threats, announced today a new product update for its secure email gateway and API solutions. Version 7.2 will have the ability to block suspicious macros (computer code that automates frequently-used tasks) allowing organizations to enjoy the proficiencies that macros offer in Microsoft Office suite.

Many companies and organizations rely on Microsoft Office Suite for their day to day activities. However, Microsoft Office documents often contain built-in macros that can be dangerous. A person with malicious intent can introduce a destructive macro, in a document or file, which can spread a virus on a user's computer. Until now, all macros were either removed from each document, or the entire document had to be blocked. The new capability can identify if a macro exhibits malicious behavior, and block the macro hence neutralizing the attack. To learn more about suspicious macros, read Votiro's latest blog on Krebs here.

Votiro's Advanced CDR technology is a signature-less technology that supports a wide range of file formats that are most commonly exploited via spear phishing, other advanced persistent threats, and cyber attacks. CDR involves disarming suspicious files by extracting from them all malicious content and reconstructing them as a clean, safe to use copy of the original file - keeping all functionality intact. Currently Votiro supports mobile and desktop editions of many file formats including the following; Microsoft Office files, RTF files, AutoCAD, Adobe PDF files, Images, Archives, Ichitaro files (which occupy the second share in Japanese word-processing software just behind Microsoft Word) among others.

Votiro continues to add and protect new file types using its CDR technology, most recently with its support Visio, a diagramming and vector graphics application, which has become a new attack vector gaining traction and popularity among businesses across the globe.

"We are very proud to be at the forefront of this industry," said Aviv Grafi, CTO of Votiro. "Votiro's CDR technology is able to neutralize cyber threats without having to identify them in advance. By removing threats in their first attempt to penetrate a network, we can provide true protection against zero-day exploits and advanced persistent threats and provide a seamless service that doesn't impede on our customers' day to day business."

Votiro has recently partnered with Micro Focus ArcSight, a cyber security company that provides big data security analytics and intelligence software for SIEM and log management solutions. Together they can now not only protect an organization, but also get detailed trending information and statistics such as the number of blocked files, the number of threats stopped and the number of attack vectors, among others. The combination of both solutions provides 360 degrees of protection and transparency for the organization.

About Votiro

Votiro provides organizations with protection against undisclosed and zero-day exploits utilized in cyber-attacks. The company's Secure Gateways provide robust protection using patented Advanced Content Disarm and Reconstruction technology to sanitize files from potential cyber-threats. Founded in 2010, Votiro has sales offices in the United States, Singapore, and Australia and an R&D center in Tel Aviv, Israel.

For more information, visit http://www.votiro.com.

Follow Votiro on Twitter - @votiro .



Media Contact

Idan Yatziv

[email protected]

+972-52-330-9099

SOURCE Votiro
Making the City of Light and the larger Paris region even easier to visit, many airlines are adding faster, more direct routes to Paris, including direct flights from Seattle on Air France and the first non-stop flights from Indianapolis on Delta Airlines . The city is also utilizing new tactics to help travelers feel more comfortable, including widespread complimentary WIFI in downtown areas, an improved city app, multi-lingual signage and announcements in the subway system, and roaming tour guides to help direct city explorers.

Whether an annual visitor or a newcomer to the city, Paris maintains its top spot as a bucket list destination with new developments and happenings including:

MAJOR EVENTS

August: Held every four years, the Gay Games advocates for acceptance and celebrates diversity, respect and equality. More than 15,000 participants from 70 countries are expected to participate in the 10 th edition of the games. Visitors and athletes from around the world can take part in more than 36 sports at exclusive facilities in Paris and the Ile-de- France region.

Held every four years, the advocates for acceptance and celebrates diversity, respect and equality. More than 15,000 participants from 70 countries are expected to participate in the 10 edition of the games. Visitors and athletes from around the world can take part in more than 36 sports at exclusive facilities in and the Ile-de- region. September: Le Golf National (near Versailles ) will host the 2018 Ryder Cup , one of the golf world's signature events and the second time in history that the iconic golf tournament takes place in continental Europe .

Le Golf National (near ) will host the , one of the golf world's signature events and the second time in history that the iconic golf tournament takes place in continental . October: The bi-annual Paris Motor Show, Mondial de l'Automobile, will celebrate its 120th anniversary at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles trade fair grounds, welcoming car lovers and trade professionals from around the world.

CULTURAL OPENINGS

New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and Foundation Louis Vuitton have collaborated for the first MoMA exhibition in France . "Being Modern: MoMA in Paris " will be displayed at Foundation Louis Vuitton through March 2018 with masterworks by artists including Max Beckmann , Alexander Calder , Paul Cezanne, Marcel Duchamp , Walker Evans , and more.

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and Foundation Louis Vuitton have collaborated for the first MoMA exhibition in . will be displayed at Foundation Louis Vuitton through with masterworks by artists including , , Paul Cezanne, , , and more. Corot et la figure at Marmottan Monet Museum: Featuring sixty masterpieces from public and private collections in Europe and the U.S., this 2018 exhibition (open February through July) organized by the Marmottan Monet Museum showcases original productions by the first modern landscaper: Camille Corot.

Featuring sixty masterpieces from public and private collections in and the U.S., this 2018 exhibition (open February through July) organized by the Marmottan Monet Museum showcases original productions by the first modern landscaper: Camille Corot. Teatre La Scala , a French music hall and historic landmark that first opened in 1874, will reopen in March 2018 after a full renovation as a 550-seat theater with restaurant. The opening show will be entitled "Scala" by multi-disciplinary movement artist Yoann Bourgeois .

, a French music hall and historic landmark that first opened in 1874, will reopen in after a full renovation as a 550-seat theater with restaurant. The opening show will be entitled "Scala" by multi-disciplinary movement artist . The Lafayette Anticipations  Galeries Lafayette Corporate Foundation will debut in spring 2018, as a public gathering place dedicated to displaying and creating works of art. The Foundation aims to support contemporary artists from the visual arts to fashion, design and the performing arts.

will debut in spring 2018, as a public gathering place dedicated to displaying and creating works of art. The Foundation aims to support contemporary artists from the visual arts to fashion, design and the performing arts. L'Atelier des Lumieres is Paris's first digital museum of fine art, located in a restored iron foundry. Opening spring 2018, the museum will include two areas for visitors: La Halle, with a continuous cycle of digital exhibitions, and Le Studio, for experienced or emerging artists. The opening will include an extended program focusing on Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele , as well as a limited-time program on Friedensreich Hundertwasser.

is first digital museum of fine art, located in a restored iron foundry. Opening spring 2018, the museum will include two areas for visitors: La Halle, with a continuous cycle of digital exhibitions, and Le Studio, for experienced or emerging artists. The opening will include an extended program focusing on Gustav Klimt and , as well as a limited-time program on Friedensreich Hundertwasser. FlyView 360 , a new concept of VR aerial simulator, will open in April 2018 at Place de l'Opera offering dynamic flights over Paris .

, a new concept of VR aerial simulator, will open in at Place de l'Opera offering dynamic flights over . Galeries Lafayette is launching a new department store on the Champs-Elysees with 7,000-square meters worth of fashion designed by Danish firm BIG. 52 Champs-Elysees marks the site of a future flagship, positioned as an upmarket department store for the 21st century.

RESTAURANT OPENINGS

Brasserie du Lutetia by three Michelin-starred chef Gerald Passedat, opens spring 2018 in a setting designed by Jean-Michel Wilmotte at the newly renovated Lutetia Hotel.

by three Michelin-starred chef Gerald Passedat, opens spring 2018 in a setting designed by at the newly renovated Lutetia Hotel. La Girafe , from the same family as La Maison du Caviar and Rasputin, brings a new rooftop dining experience to Cite de l'architecture in November.

, from the same family as La Maison du Caviar and Rasputin, brings a new rooftop dining experience to Cite de l'architecture in November. Eataly will continue global expansion with the opening of the first French flagship in a 43,055-square-foot building at Rue Sainte-Croix de la Bretonnerie in the Marais.

will continue global expansion with the opening of the first French flagship in a 43,055-square-foot building at Rue Sainte-Croix de la Bretonnerie in the Marais. Guy Savoy is set to open his Metal Cafe at the brand new Musee National de la Monnaie.

ACCOMMODATION NEWS

Early 2018 :

: Hotel Dress Code & Spa, located near Opera Garnier, will open with 33 rooms, indoor pool and spa, and a bar lounge.

located near Opera Garnier, will open with 33 rooms, indoor pool and spa, and a bar lounge.

The first Paris hotel under the Curio Collection by Hilton brand will open with a photography theme, 42 rooms and 10 suites and"La Verriere" restaurant.

hotel under the will open with a photography theme, 42 rooms and 10 suites and"La Verriere" restaurant. Spring/Summer 2018:

After a three-year renovation, the highly anticipated Lutetia by The Set Hotels will reopen with 184 rooms (previously 231), seven signature suites, an extended brasserie with open terrace, jazz bar and cigar bar. French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte designed a new courtyard, a 17-meter swimming pool and Akasha spa.

by The Set Hotels will reopen with 184 rooms (previously 231), seven signature suites, an extended brasserie with open terrace, jazz bar and cigar bar. French architect designed a new courtyard, a 17-meter swimming pool and Akasha spa.

Brach Paris , by Evok Hotels Collection group and designed by Philippe Starck , will open as a deluxe hotel in the 16th arrondissement with 59 rooms and suites with Eiffel Tower views, restaurant, bar, pastry shop, two pools, and rooftop vegetable garden.

, by Evok Hotels Collection group and designed by , will open as a deluxe hotel in the 16th arrondissement with 59 rooms and suites with Eiffel Tower views, restaurant, bar, pastry shop, two pools, and rooftop vegetable garden.

Hotel de Berri by Marriott International, a 5-star hotel with 39 rooms and 37 suites, will open in a 1930s mansion off Champs-Elysees and will include a bar overlooking the garden, a restaurant, and a modern contemporary art collection.

by Marriott International, a 5-star hotel with 39 rooms and 37 suites, will open in a 1930s mansion off Champs-Elysees and will include a bar overlooking the garden, a restaurant, and a modern contemporary art collection. Fall/Late 2018:

La Clef Champs-Elysees Paris , an apartment-style hotel, and the third property by The Crest Collection, opens in a quaint five-story Haussmann-style building along Rue de Bassano with 70 suites and a restaurant.

an apartment-style hotel, and the third property by The Crest Collection, opens in a quaint five-story Haussmann-style building along Rue de Bassano with 70 suites and a restaurant.

Opening of the first Autograph Collection Hotel by Marriot, a 50-room hotel with conference center in the former Pentemont Abbey in the 7th arrondissement.

by Marriot, a 50-room hotel with conference center in the former Pentemont Abbey in the 7th arrondissement.

Goralska Residences , a 25-suite hotel in the Castiglione / Vendome area.

a 25-suite hotel in the Castiglione / Vendome area.

The first Motel One in France , located in the 12th arrondissement.

in , located in the 12th arrondissement.

The first Hotel Fauchon with 54 rooms and suites, and 150-seat Cafe Fauchon with terrace.

with 54 rooms and suites, and 150-seat Cafe Fauchon with terrace.

The second Okko Hotel , an innovative European hotel concept offering an all-inclusive rate (including movies, open bar, fitness, and more), opening near the Montparnasse station..

, an innovative European hotel concept offering an all-inclusive rate (including movies, open bar, fitness, and more), opening near the Montparnasse station..

Maison Albar , a luxury boutique hotel, near the Opera Garnier, providing an elegant and authentic French experience.

a luxury boutique hotel, near the Opera Garnier, providing an elegant and authentic French experience.

Grand Hotel de Chantilly in Avilly Saint Leonard on 10-acres of land with 210 rooms including 23 suites, seminar rooms, several restaurants and spa.

in Avilly Saint Leonard on 10-acres of land with 210 rooms including 23 suites, seminar rooms, several restaurants and spa.

Domaine Montcel in Jouy en Josas, near Versailles on 14-hectares with 180 rooms, swimming pool, restaurant, and 3,000-square-meters of meeting rooms.

in Jouy en Josas, near on 14-hectares with 180 rooms, swimming pool, restaurant, and 3,000-square-meters of meeting rooms.

The first J.K. Place in Paris, a luxury hotel with an elegant contemporary atmosphere, will open at 82 rue de Lille .

ILE DE FRANCE REGION

Southwest of Paris , the Centre des Monuments Nationaux and the Palace of Versailles are presenting an exhibition at Chateau de Rambouillet through January 2018 featuring portraits of the Bourbon-Toulouse-Penthievre family, who owned Rambouillet during the 18th century.

, the Centre des Monuments Nationaux and the Palace of are presenting an exhibition at Chateau de Rambouillet through featuring portraits of the Bourbon-Toulouse-Penthievre family, who owned Rambouillet during the 18th century. Creation of a river marina at l'Isle-Adam, to the north of Paris , on the edge of the largest river beach in France with 120 docks for boats, a range of shops and restaurants and a hotel.

, on the edge of the largest river beach in with 120 docks for boats, a range of shops and restaurants and a hotel. Creation of an urban transport museum in Chelles, to the east of Paris , with 150 trams, buses, trolley buses, omnibuses as well as uniforms, signs, 10,000 films and 300,000 photos.

, with 150 trams, buses, trolley buses, omnibuses as well as uniforms, signs, 10,000 films and 300,000 photos. 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI and the signing of the armistice in Compiegnenot far from Paris and at the edge of the Paris Region. In honor of this momentous occasion, several events will take place in Paris and the Paris region and on the Western Front in Northern France .

the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI and the signing of the armistice in Compiegnenot far from and at the edge of the Paris Region. In honor of this momentous occasion, several events will take place in and the region and on the Western Front in . Ceremonies will be held at the Lafayette Squadron Memorial located in Marnes-la-Coquette, 11 miles east of Paris and on the way to Versailles , which honors the American volunteer pilots who flew in this unique squadron with the budding French air force during the Great War.

and on the way to , which honors the American volunteer pilots who flew in this unique squadron with the budding French air force during the Great War.

The recently reopened and redesigned Franco-American Museum at the Chateau de Blerancourt in Picardy, features memorabilia of the famed WWI American Squadron. Created by Anne Morgan in her former WWI headquarters and residence.

With a wide variety of activities, attractions and openings for visitors to take part in throughout Paris and Ile-de-France over the coming year, the City of Lights and Paris region is a must-visit destination. For more ways to visit and experience Paris and Ile-de-France in 2018, visit en.parisinfo.com https://en.convention.parisinfo.com/or en.visitparisregion.com.

This material is distributed by Quinn on behalf of Paris and Ile-de-France through Atout France. Additional information on Quinn's role with Paris and Ile-de-France is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.

SOURCE Atout France
MORRO BAY, Calif., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Winter is birding season and the Morro Bay National Estuary Preserve and its unique 800-acre wetland with salt marshes and mudflats are home more than 250 species of land, sea, and shore birds and dozens of endangered species all winter long, including Peregrine Falcons. Morro Bay, CA is a distinctive coastal destination located along the Pacific Flyway with sunny days perfect for bird watching from the Morro Bay State Park boardwalk, the Embarcadero, iconic Morro Rock, or on the water by kayak, paddleboard or boat cruise. Dictating the birding landscape is the vast, shallow open water of the bay, which is tidally drained. Small patches of woodland in the state park line the back bay where, at high tide, paddlers can cruise silently along the canals and marshes. In fact, birders descend on Morro Bay each year over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend for the Morro Bay Winter Bird Festival.

Birdwatching in Morro Bay's National Estuary is a great way to disconnect. Photo credit: Maryann Stansfield Morro Bay is offering a complimentary Restaurant Passport worth over $80 of discounts at on food, wine and beer at local restaurants.

"Winter is definitely for the birds here in Morro Bay," says Scott Collins, Morro Bay's City Manager. "The waters of our protected bay offer a paradise for both migratory and resident birds, as well as bird lovers and people who love to be active and outdoors. If you've ever seen a Morro Bay sunset, you know our charming town is a romantic destination as well, so lovebirds are always welcome too."

Lodging Discounts and Restaurant Passport

Designated as one of the "10 Best Bargain Trips for 2018" by Budget Travel, Morro Bay is offering a complimentary Restaurant Passport worth over $80 of discounts at on food, wine and beer at local restaurants.

Click here to find out how to save over $80 at Morro Bay businesses.

The Winter Bird Festival is just one example of the exciting events that take place in Morro Bay. On top of that, this bustling seaside village offers temperate Mediterranean weather, making it a must-do winter destination for all kinds of outdoor adventurers. For information on all the exciting things to do and see in Morro Bay, visit www.morrobay.org.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Susan Hartzler

Public Relations Manager

Mental Marketing

818-585-8641

[email protected]

SOURCE Morro Bay

Related Links

http://www.morrobay.org


BURLINGTON, Conn., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- An offshoot of Convention Nation, Women Nation was formed to get women face-to-face, promote their services and products, share business stories and help women business owners get the recognition they deserve. By bringing together women with similar business experiences, Women Nation is providing a web-based platform for discussion, networking and information-gathering.

Before Women Nation was formed, the women of Convention Nation have been attending women's conferences for the past three years. In those three years, Convention Nation has grown to house over 10,000 events in its database. Its employees have traveled the country to trade shows and conferences, making sure attendees and exhibitors have the best experience possible at these events and that in-person connections are made. While a plethora of events are continuously on the docket at Convention Nation, the primary focus has always been about women in business.

During that time, the several employees at Convention Nation heard a resounding cry from women all over the country, and from around the world, wondering when women would get recognition as professionals and entrepreneurs. They were wondering how businesses without Silicon Valley funding or a Harvard business degree would get noticed. It was then that the women from Convention Nation formed an offshoot to discover whether women would join them.

And that they did. With a strong determination and commitment to excellence, the website was built in two days and was soft-launched to friends and family. In only three weeks, the company was in need of a redesign and it committed to developing a platform similar to the Convention Nation platform.

Women are signing up every day and referrals are bringing even more notoriety to the company.

"Women love to hang out with other women," said Shari Melillo, Vice President of Convention Nation. "It's not the same conversation we would have around men  that's why women's conferences are so powerful. Women won't bring up the same topic around men because they don't understand us. When we offer problems we're facing, women jump in to offer real solutions. Men just don't understand our problems the same way. So the women we were talking to feel a kinship with us because we know what they are going through."

During its pre-launch, 50 businesses signed up as founding members, all of which support Women Nation's cause. They are businesses ranging anywhere from salons and bridal teams to jewelry and nutrition vendors. These women are savvy entrepreneurs, whose experience significantly contributes to the community's knowledge base. Women Nation is continually looking to add to its base of women professionals, with the goal of helping them grow their customer base and break through the barriers that are keeping them from reaching the next level of financial success.

"It's so powerful to be around a group of women, intent on solving each other's problems," said Rachel Bassett, Creative Director for Convention Nation. "We don't let our egos get in the way. We don't worry about being belittled for asking a question. Instead, there's always someone who will empathize and offer great suggestions. That's powerful, and it's why our message is so well-received by the other women we speak to daily."

Related Images

image1.png

Women Nation Logo

image2.png

Kim Estep

image3.png

Shari Melillo

image4.png

Kim, Shari and Rachel

SOURCE Women Nation
CHICAGO, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Women's March Chicago calls on women and their allies to join "March To the Polls" on January 20, 2018 at Columbus Parkway and Congress Drive, the same location where a broad-based coalition of more than 250,000 turned out for the group's inaugural march. The inaugural event was part of a coordinated global action. Organizers are planning a similar event this year but with a new focus.

Women's March Chicago's "March To the Polls"  in concert with sister marches around the country  will celebrate the year's active spirit of resistance while mobilizing marchers to prepare for the 2018 elections--national mid-term, state and local. Organizers across Illinois have joined together to plan coordinated actions in Chicago, Springfield and Carbondale to again create a sense of community, and to commit to working the political process, to improve the lives of all Illinois women.

"Now is the time to make our voices heard with our votes," said Carrie Kiley. "We need to elect lawmakers who will fight for women's rights and support women's place in power. In our own communities and across the country, we will show up for one another by demanding better laws and a woman-centered agenda that lifts up all women and their families."

Marches are planned for more than 80 cities and that number is growing, according to Women's March Chicago's Jessica Scheller, a leader of March On (www.wearemarchon.org), a national organization of women's marches and progressive organizations. Chicago's "March To the Polls" will feature music and video while marchers assemble and a rally to kick off with speakers at 11 a.m., followed by a short march. A speaker roster and route will be announced in January.

Scheller said the event will feature speakers geared toward women's participation in elections, a message that will be echoed around the country in what is being described as a "Weekend of Women" on January 20, 2018  January 21, 2018. A map of actions planned around the Weekend of Women with event details can be found at www.marchonthepolls.org.

Women's March Chicago http://womens121marchonchicago.org is now a 501c4 organization with an associated 501c3 project promoting intersectional feminism and challenging the political system on issues affecting women. It supports equal rights, equal pay, reproductive justice, affordable healthcare, affordable childcare, racial justice, criminal justice reform, voting rights, freedom from violence, LGBTQ+ rights, immigrant rights, fair wages, access for persons with disabilities, environmental protections and other critical areas of focus.

SOURCE Womens March on Chicago

Related Links

http://womens121marchonchicago.org


SANFORD, Mich., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Army veteran James Webb writes about the anguish warriors endure, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), when returning from war. His book (working title "Tom's Revenge") addresses the physical and mental health issues veterans faced in a post-American Civil War world.

"PTSD was known as Warrior's Heart back in the 1870s," James said. "After the war, many veterans from both the Union and Confederate armies had no homes to go back to, no help for their ailments and psychological scars, so they migrated west. Back then, veterans didn't have a support system like Wounded Warrior Project, or even the Veterans Administration, to help them recover."

Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) gives veterans tools and resources that smooth the transition back to the civilian world. It also shows them the power of connecting with people to help cope with the impact of physical and mental injuries.

"Writing this historic fiction book was therapeutic for treating my PTSD. Many veterans feel like their world is uncontrollable. As a writer, I control the world I create, and, unlike the real world, I know how the story progresses. Being in five different characters' heads at one time has helped me cope immensely.

"Tom, the book's hero, escapes the war-torn eastern states by settling in South Dakota," James said. "But despite being far from the turmoil, it was public indifference and his own self-doubt that refused to let him recover. From one injured soldier to another, escaping PTSD's grasp is all about step-by-step physical and psychological healing."

Setting a daily writing routine over the last 18 months helped James complete his book and stay focused on the important things in life: his family and his own recovery. "I write every day," James said, "and my wife and kids are very supportive. My wife is even helping me type and edit my final version for the publishers.

"Wounded Warrior Project is near and dear to my heart. They give modern-day veterans, their families, and friends hope for leading exceptional lives, despite the roadblocks thrown in our paths."

Forthcoming details can be found at http://newsroom.woundedwarriorproject.org/highlights?item=30923

About Wounded Warrior Project

Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) connects, serves, and empowers wounded warriors. Read more at http://newsroom.woundedwarriorproject.org/about-us.

SOURCE Wounded Warrior Project

Related Links

https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org


The four levels of shops and restaurants at the base of the luxury apartment project Opera Residences, overlooking Circular Quay, have been sold off the plan for more than $40 million to a private Sydney family.

The off-the-plan deal for 980 square metres of prime retail space at 71 Macquarie Street was struck on a sub-4 per cent yield. It was listed back in October.

The retail space has already been pre-committed to high-end fashion brands, including a two chefs' hat-restaurant and an international restaurant chain.

There is an 19-level tower being developed by Chinese developer Macrolink in partnership with Kevin Li's Landream.

Opera Residences set a new Australia apartment record last year when the penthouse sold for $27 million to Robert Salteri and his wife Kelly.
The former Dalkeith mansion built for the 1980s entrepreneur Alan Bond ranks has returned to the market.

It is being marketed as among Perth's most expensive houses with $50 million plus hopes.

The Watkins Road mansion sits on the Swan River.

Real estate agent Willie Porteous suggests the four-storey home has gained millions in value since it was bought in 2011 following its extensive renovations, including a complete make-over of the outdoor area.

He has declined to give the address or ownership details in the marketing, but the home is such a trophy offering that most of Perth recognised it immediately in the Channel 7 Story.

It has been listed by the former partner of the mining entrepreneur Steve Wyatt, Sue Gibson, who is reportedly planning to move east.

Wyatt now resides at Le Fanu House in Cottesloe, where the local paper advised he'd spent almost $11 million restoring the circa-1893 heritage property, making it Perths most expensive home renovation.

Wyatt was in a 27-year relationship with Sue Gibson, before splitting in 2014.

The property last traded for $39 million sale in 2011 when sold by businessman Barry Patterson, who was Sonic Healthcare chairman from 1999 to 2010 and previously held gold mining interests.

It last traded in 1999 for $9.5 million, which was to stand as Perths record until 2006.

The seven-bedroom riverfront mansion is set across six titles totalling 6,400 square metres. The house has 2,930sqm of internal living space over four levels, which with the extensive grounds has all the attributes of a luxury hotel, with the ability to transform from a secluded and private retreat into a fully equipped venue for the grandest of functions.

Wyatts business associate Chris Ellison set the WA real estate record when he paid $57.5 million for iron ore heiress Angela Bennett's riverfront compound in Mosman Park in 2009.

Wyatt and Ellison set up Crushing Services International, which built and operated ore-crushing plants for mining companies.

Gold mining magnate Ross Atkins bought the property in 1993 from the Bond family trust company, Armoy Pty Ltd, for $7.3 million, selling it six years later to Patterson after extensive renovation.
CKM, a London-based women's clothing manufacturer and distributor owned by the Singh Uppal family, has sold another Collingwood apartment development site.

It is among several sites its has sold to the developer Tim Gurner.

It fetched around $7 million for a 404 sq m site running from 368374 Smith Street.

The Singh Uppals also sold the historic 8500 sq m Gasworks site at 2656 Queens Parade  home to the Melbourne office of Caroline K Morgan  to Gurner for $40 million plus.
Credit Suisse has provided a $100 million funding facility to Lannock Strata Finance. Lending to body corporates to fund strata improvements, such as repairs, renovations, renewals and defect rectification is an emerging, but highly specialised area. Lannock managing director Paul Morton founded Lannock 14 years ago. It finances capital works for strata blocks around Australia for litigation and also re-development.

Morton told Fairfax Media the growth potential for strata loans was significant given the age and deteriorating condition of much of Australia's apartment stock.

"The capital value of these apartment buildings will diminish without investment in renovation or improvement and that's bad for owners," Mr Morton said. "It is a small market segment at the moment but we are buying into the growth story," Credit Suisse managing director Will Farrant said.
If you are new to iQ you can schedule a demo and learn more about this opportunity.

PSFK iQ - Where Innovators Turn for Research. Our professional-grade research platform is designed specifically for Retail and CX leaders who want to know whats next. Whether youre staying current on trends or need a real-time research partner to help you get ahead, count on PSFK iQ to deliver the info you need to make your next move.
Film award season is right around the corner, and this year two animated features based on picture books have been nominated for Golden Globe Awards. Ferdinand, which is inspired by the 1936 classic The Story of Ferdinand, is up for Best Motion Picture in the animation category. Childrens and YA author Tim Federle co-wrote the screenplay along with Robert L. Baird and Brad Copeland. Also under consideration is The Boss Baby, based on Marla Frazees 2010 picture book. We asked Federle and Frazee to interview each other about the adaptation process and seeing their work on the big screen.

Federle: Marla! Such a fan, and I know weve been within three panels of each other at book conferences past. Can I throw out a couple questions to you to begin our attempt at a snazzy PW piece? And by the way, congrats on the Golden Globe nomination for The Boss Baby! Pretty thrilled Ferdinand snuck in there, too.

Frazee: Hi Tim! Congratulations to you! And yes, Im glad you are the one to kick off this piece because Im going to try and co-opt your snazziness. Im ready whenever you are.

Federle: Were you asleep when the nominations came out? For context: I never believe people when they say they were, but I actually was! Our Ferdinand premiere was in L.A. the night before and at 6:30 a.m. my agent Brenda Bowen texted me from New York, CONGRATS!!!! and for a split second I thought shed written the wrong client.

How did you find out about Boss Baby (which I loved almost as much as your original book, by the way)?

Frazee: I was awake but unaware. I found out about it because an army vet who I befriended on Twitter posted it and it showed up in my notifications. I excitedly replied to her but like you, I halfway expected it to be a mistake. Once I found verification, I texted my editor, Allyn Johnston of Beach Lane Books. I love how so many of us are often usually asleep or unaware and then assume it is all fake news.

Like so many people (and pacifists), I love the story of Ferdinand. What is it like to be a co-writer? With your theatrical background, I assume you have a well-honed collaborative spirit. I ask as a solitary freelancer.

Federle: Awake but Unaware might actually be my memoir title, now. Or how I want to spend 2018. Co-writing is funny. I did the same on Tuck Everlasting for Broadway, and its kind of wonderful to be able to bounce story ideas (and audience feedback) off your fellow nail-biting writers. The blinking cursor is less lonely with more eyes on it. As with so many animated films, Ferdinand took literally hundreds of people (and thousands of hours) to get made. But it started with the classic book and was filtered through the lens of our director, Carlos Saldanha. Knowing that we had a brief but beloved picture book to build off of meant a lot of invention, including all new characters.

For Boss Baby, how much were you consulted? Did you basically hand the baby over and say, Have fun! And dont forget to feed it every one in a while!? I was struck by how the finished film was able to capture the tone and humor of your book, but definitely and necessarily took on a life of its own.

Frazee: You got it! It was an out-and-out adoption. I am a huge fan of animation and in fact worked at Disney for about three seconds (my one and only job-job which I took right out of college, much to the delight of my parents who had no idea what I was going to do with an art degree). So I knew enough to know what I didnt know. This is in fact a principle that often guides me! I was very curious and excited to see how DreamWorks was going to turn a 32-page picture book into a feature-length film. Damon Ross, who brought the book to DreamWorks, and the producer Ramsey Naito, were so generous about inviting me to the studio to see how it was going at various times over the many years it took to make Boss Baby. It helped that I live about 15 minutes away from the studio. Every time I saw anything, every peek I got, every person I met who was involved in some way just blew me away. So much passion and empathy was bestowed on that baby.

Ive got to shift gears a bit here. You mention that being Awake but Unaware is how you may spend 2018. Im with you on that. It seems as if both of our Golden Globe-nominated projects are bobbing around in political waters. Since I wrote The Boss Baby in 2008, I didnt have a clue that when the movie came out the main character would be voiced by Alec Baldwin, who would be impersonating Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live, who would be the President of the United States acting like the Boss Baby in 2017. But I did know that a stereotypical white male boss was still fertile ground for satire, as it had been in the 1960s, which is the era in which I chose to set the book. The Story of Ferdinand has long been considered a political allegory and was banned by Hitler and celebrated by Gandhi and Eleanor Roosevelt. How did you balance its complicated history with the political climate we now find ourselves in today? Im asking a lot, I realize. But the parallels of when it was created and the time we are currently living in are fascinating and disturbing.

Federle: I wish you could see me because Im reading this on my iPhone and keep saying, Yes, yes, yes, and people are looking at me funny. You touch upon so many things that resonate with me, especially the ways that childrens books (and the best animated films) end up speaking to so many generations. In the case of Ferdinand, it was provocative when it was first published in part because of what it said about the way the world sees us (a giant scary bull) vs. who we really are (a big fan of flowers). The fact that all these decades after its publication we are finally-ish having a proper discussion on toxic masculinity feels like strangely good timing for the film to land.

Lets pause politics for two seconds (but only two seconds), and gossip about Hollywood for two minutes. It sounds like we both had pretty amazing, albeit very different, experiences on the book-to-film journey. Did this make you... eager to dip your toes even further onto the red carpet? And since you used to work at Disney, do you have your own screenwriting ambitions?

Frazee: I like the idea of a two-minute Hollywood gossip break. I learned so much in the first 60 seconds of being on the red carpet that it would be a waste if I didnt have an opportunity to use some of my new skills (i.e., it is not necessary to make eye-contact and/or wave to all the photographers who are shouting at you). But Im not eager to repeat that experience. And I dont have any screenwriting ambitions. The only thing I have ever wanted to do was write and illustrate childrens books. I am continually challenged by that process. But I do love to get a peek behind the scenes of Hollywoodor really anything. Peeking behind the scenes is fascinating. With your wide range of experiences, I imagine that your answer to this will be quite different than mine.

Federle: I think Im still trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up.

Last couple of rapid-fire questions, Hollywood/publishing edition:

1. Who would play you in the live action movie of your life entitled All I Ever Wanted to Do Was to Write and Illustrate Childrens Books?

2. Did any funny/goofy/surprising things or fan mail happen because Boss Baby became a big hit movie?

Finally, 3. Whats your favorite procrastination technique when on deadline? This is Hollywood-related in the sense that mine is: Netflix and chill (drink wine).

Frazee: OK, lightning round.

1. Id cross my fingers and hope that it would be Rosemarie DeWitt.

2. When I did an Irish public radio interview about Boss Baby, they told me it wouldnt air until after Easter because they gave up talking about Trump for Lent. HA!

3. Really, it would take way too long to mention them all.

One last question for you: What were you wearing on the red carpet for the premiere?

Federle: No big designer. I wore a tweed blazer (felt writerly) and dark jeans (felt like dressing up for L.A.?), because the premiere was at 11 a.m. Gotta love a student matinee. And my mom wore a red leather coat because it seemed like something a matador would wear. We Federles love a theme. And dont even ask what Im wearing now because Im a freelancer and it rarely involves pants.

Marla, congrats again on worldwide domination, baby style. Ive been a fan of yours for so long that Im a little starstruck even having this conversation. Move over, Alec Baldwin!

Frazee: And congratulations to you on your amazing opening weekend! Put on some pants.
Its a 21st-century twist on the traditional over-the-transom manuscripts: Twitter pitch events. While authors have been making initial connections online with agents for several years, since author Brenda Drake launched the Pitch Wars contest in 2012, Twitter events have exploded in popularity in the last year or two. Besides #PitMad, the Twitter offshoot of Pitch Wars, these days authors and agents can establish a connection via #DVPit (for diverse books), #PitDark (horror/mysteries), #PBPitch (picture books), #KidPit (childrens literature, from board books to YA), #SFFPit (Science Fiction and Fantasy), and other hashtags.

All these wonderful books I was seeing in Publishers Marketplace, and they werent submitting to me, because they didn't know I wanted manuscripts in their genre, Jessica Sinsheimer, an agent at the Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency, recalled. Since she launched #MSWL on Twitter in 2013, which has morphed into a website with a searchable database and an online writers academy, the hashtag has become a generic short-hand in the industry for agents wish lists. I knew other agents in the same boat. Why not tell the world what we want? We have the technology.

While agents all have their wish lists, many say that the Twitter events yield better results than simply posting what they would like to see in queries from writers. [Twitter events] give us an opportunity to see something we may not have seen in our queries, noted New Leaf Literary agent Suzie Townsend.

Kat Cho, a Korean-American writer based in Chicago who is the author of a YA fantasy novel, Gumiho, inspired by a Korean fable, pointed out that many writers are unable to attend conferences and other networking events, due to geographic, financial, physical, or other limitations. Twitter events makes pitching more accessible to people from a variety of diverse backgrounds. After participating in the first #DVPit in 2016, Cho signed on with Beth Phelan, now with Gallt & Zacker Literary Agency, who launched that Twitter event while she was at the Bent Agency.

Its great being able to do this from the comfort of your own home, Cho said. A lot of people cant afford to go to pitch events in person. Theres so much knowledge concentrated in New York City, but writers are everywhere.

#PitMad and #DVPit: The 'Gold Standard'

Twitter pitching has become so popular, in fact, that several agents disclosed that they avoid social media fatigue by being extremely selective as to which Twitter events they follow. Every agent contacted by PW who accepts childrens books, however, said that they follow #PitMad and #DVPit, describing both as well-organized events with a focus, rather than simply, as Janklow & Nesbit agent Brooks Sherman puts it, organizers blasting tweets at agents and wasting your timenot just agents and editors, but also wasting the time of writers.

How is this Twitter contest going to elevate material you are not going to otherwise see? Sherman explained that he asks himself before participating in any social media event. Shermans cautious approach towards social media has paid off: he has found several clients there who have subsequently nabbed lucrative deals with large houses, most famously New York Times bestselling author Angie Thomas (The Hate U Give). More recently, after initially connecting last year with Jennifer Dugan on #DVPit, Sherman sold at auction this past summer her debut YA novel, Hot Dog Girl, to Putnam in a two-book deal.

#PitMad is, in the words of several agents, the gold standard in terms of Twitter events, and is held quarterly, for a day each time. Writers describe their completed and unpublished projects in 280 characters or less (up from 140 characters previously, thanks to Twitters relaxation of its character count). Agents tweet their own preferences and can scroll through the tweets, indicating their interest in projects by liking the tweets they want to know more about, and bypassing the others. Authors then follow up by submitting according to that particular agents guidelines. While #PitMad is the general hashtag, due to the quantity of submissions, writers are instructed to include age categories and genre/subgenre hashtags along with the #PitMad hashtag to make it easier for participating agentsas well as, increasingly, editors at publishing housesto refine their searches.

Its a whole new way to see a larger amount of premises in a short amount of time, #PitMad team member and author Heather Cashman explained. She stated that #PitMad was created to accommodate writers who were unable to participate in Pitch Wars, which is by-invitation-only and highly competitive. While Cashman, who monitors the Twitter feed, hesitated to quantify how many writers participate in #PitMad each quarter, she estimates that tens of thousands of tweets are generated each time. #PitMads website contains testimonials from more than 40 writers who have obtained representation via #PitMad, although there are many more. Cashman said that the organizers do not keep track of their successes.

Sherman praised #DVPit for being one of the best organized Twitter events out there, and several agents agreed. Phelan of Gallt & Zacker launched #DVPit in 2016 to focus upon marginalized authors and illustrators only on an honor basis, according to its website, because, Phelan told PW, she wanted to get more diverse authors published, as one agent, cant do it all. #DVPit is held twice each year, in April and in October. The first day is devoted to childrens and YA, and the second to adult projects. Participants must use the #DVPit hashtag as well as at least one category or genre hashtag. Like #PitMad, agents and editors are invited to like tweets they are interested in, so that authors can follow up according to that agent or editors submission guidelines.

To date, close to 60 writers have found representation via #DVPit, and 17 of those have landed publishing deals, including Claribel Ortega, whose most recent project is a middle grade novel, #Ghostbook, inspired by Dominican folk tales. Ortega signed on with New Leafs Townsend, who in November sold #Ghostbook to Scholastic. Ortega said that shed sent out traditional queries with no luck before participating in #DVPit, where she received more than 50 likes from agents and, subsequently, seven offers.

It was an amazing process for me, Ortega said, noting that there is a sense of urgency among agents, which results in a fast process. She described the benefits of this kind of pitching for writers, especially those from a diverse background, like her, who might suffer from a lack of self-confidence because they do not regard themselves as being part of that world. The only downside to Twitter pitching, she admitted, was that it was so public: there was added pressure to do well because everyone is watching.

Noting that condensing a manuscript to just [280] characters is difficult, Phelan emphasized that #DVPit is all team effort. A group of authors, including, at this time, Rebecca Barrow, J.S. Fields, Lana Wood Johnson, and Judy Lin, are available to do practice runs with writerswho are randomly selected via their tweets and critique their pitches.

Not only are Twitter events conducive for writers wanting to find an agent, Phelan said, they are highly beneficial for agents, especially those who feel that their slush pile has been yielding slim pickings. Its a good way to get a birds eye view and to tailor your pitches, if the slush pile isnt working, she said. Many times I cant name what I want until I see it.

Several agents and writers noted that Twitter events dont just ease the way for agents in search of projects to connect with writers; Twitter events also build connections among people who spend much of their time alone. Its as much about community as it is about finding the perfect agent, says Cho, Its half pitching, half celebration, a community-inspiring connection. Writing is so isolating. Phelan added that, especially for emerging voices, the support extended and received between so many participants makes writers feel like part of a larger community.

It gives [writers] a confidence boost, Townsend said. Sometimes editors will see tweets and tell writers theyd love to see [the project] when they get an agent. In fact, Townsend added, the visibility of these unpublished projects is a cool way to get buzz going really early.

Townsend, as well as the other agents, predicted that social media events connecting agents and writers will continue to evolve and only grow more refined. But, she added, while Twitter isnt going anywhere, I dont think the slush pile is going anywhere either; the majority of her clients still come from the slush pile.

Social media has not replaced querying; you still have to have that query letter, Phelan pointed out. And as for writers who express some trepidation over the possibility of their idea being stolen if they put it out there on social media, #PitMads Cashman said that she responds to such fears by pointing out that their idea might be unique, but theyre going to have to get it out there. Dont you want agents and publishers seeing this idea? If not, you can go ahead and just query.
The American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Mass., and the Grolier Club in New York City unveil a new childrens exhibition this fall: Radiant with Color and Art: McLoughlin Brothers and the Business of Picture Books. The exhibition, which runs until February 3, is focused on the prolific New York publisher, which was active between 1858 and 1920.

The exhibition is curated by Lauren B. Hewes and Laura E. Wasowicz of the AAS, who spoke with PW about their research process, the McLoughlin Brothers company, and their hopes for what visitors may take away from the exhibition.

While curating any exhibition comes with its challenges, Hewes and Wasowicz came up against some particular difficulties when beginning their research into McLoughlin Brothers back in 2013. Most of the nonprofit foundations that we approached were not interested in the project it was not a display of fine art, nor was it [a collection of] modern picture books that most people now living would remember, Wasowicz said. The curators ultimately relied on the support of the American Antiquarian Society and its annual Adopt a Book event for funding to proceed with their work.

Another challenge had to do with the fact that there was little existing historical documentation of McLoughlin Brothers on record. Although the publisher specialized in childrens books, most existing records concern its pirated editions of British titles. Hewes and Wasowiczs primary resource was the companys business library, which is distributed throughout several different archival collections. I used these excavated findings to construct the mosaic of what we now know about the McLoughlin firm, Wasowicz said. She noted that she also relied on PWs online database for news about the firm, which includes a 1905 obituary for its cofounder John McLoughlin Jr. and a full-page advertisement marking a milestone for the publisher in 1918.

Mining for the companys original childrens books was a true treasure hunt. My research ranged from the quiet reading rooms of university special collections to the gritty microfilm machines of city archives, Wasowicz said. Because there wasnt much in the way of concrete records, she added, I dug into the books and I let them tell me their history.

An American Story

McLoughlin Brothers was exceptional in its devotion to childrens titles; this specialization allowed the company the opportunity to, through trial and error, create books that young readers truly embraced. Brightly colored pictures, linen and board formats, and stories pulled from contemporary life all were part of McLoughlin Brothers catalogs because they knew those books sold well and were enjoyed by their customerschildren! Hewes said.

Between the years of 1860 and 1890, the firm published more than 1,000 childrens titles; in addition to contemporary stories, it offered a range of fairy tales, folk tales, animal stories, primers, and adventure stories like Robinson Crusoe and The Swiss Family Robinson. They also published games, toys, paper dolls, and other ephemera. McLoughlin Brothers was particularly innovative in its reissuing and packaging of material, cross-utilizing content across its many series and creating a recognizable brand in the process.

The exhibition features an in-depth look at the range of products that McLoughlin Brothers created, as well as an exploration of the business behind the books. The firms first offices were located in lower Manhattans printing district, but they relocated several times between 1886 and 1899; they also opened a color printing factory in Brooklyn. The company enjoyed a long tenure as an independent publisher due in no small part to its business savvy and awareness of the audience it was serving. McLoughlin Brothers focused on creating content that reached readers of different ability levels, while also introducing a wide range of price points (from one cent to $2). Their use of cutting-edge color print technologies enabled them to affordably achieve vibrant results.

Wasowicz was surprised to learn that McLoughlin Brothers had collaborated with a company that was, for all intents and purposes, their competition. In a move that far expanded the firms reach, McLoughlin partnered with D. Appleton & Company to manufacture Spanish-language picture books using illustrations developed and produced by McLoughlin under the Appleton imprint for export to Mexico, Cuba, and South Americaan arrangement that lasted into the early 20th century, said Wasowicz.

Bringing McLoughlin Brothers to Light

The firms cognizance of consumers needs and desires is made clear in display pieces like its wordless edition of Cinderella. In the exhibition catalog, Wasowicz describes the significance of the wordless format: The entire story unfolds text-free, deftly addressing segments of the McLoughlin consumer base challenged by limited literacy, including young children and newly arrived immigrants.

In addition to the many finished books on display are early drafts of illustrations and projects that were never published. For Hewes, It was interesting to see the rough and ready nature of the mock-up and layout process in the mid-19th century. She pointed to an edition of Robinson Crusoe, illustrated by Thomas Nast. AAS holds several, multi-paged, preparatory volumes that were obviously used by the design team at McLoughlin Brothers during the creative process. These include glued-down, hand-written scraps and cut up illustrations. It suggests how much autonomy might have been allowed on the press floor when first proofs were being created, Hewes said.

Both Hewes and Wasowicz have a few favorite pieces in the exhibition. Hewes particularly likes a mock-up created by illustrator William Bruton, called The Great Serpent and his Tricks (1881). Brutons graphite sketches depict events in the life of a giant serpent that takes on the roles of a firehose and a tightrope. Bruton just suggests the text with squiggles, but the drawings themselves are very lively and fun, Hewes said.

Wasowiczs favorite piece is a drawing by Sarah Noble Ives, created for The Story of Teddy Bear. Ives was one of many female artists commissioned by McLoughlin for their books. The works of fine art created by these artists might not be readily accessible in an art museum, but their work is preserved on the increasingly fragile pages of these turn-of-the-century books, she said.

Wasowicz hopes that visitors enjoy the striking beauty of these books and games for children, but also come away with the realization that the odyssey of McLoughlin Brothers is an essentially American story of innovation, competitionoften ruthlessand risk, she said. She added that the exhibition aims to show viewers how McLoughlin Brothers were instrumental in heralding in the color-filled production that is now a mainstay of picture book illustration.

I would love visitors to come away with a sense of the importance of literacy, Hewes stated. American children were very lucky that education was given priority over work, at least up to a certain age, and that all children, no matter their background, were given the opportunity to learn to read. She added that she and Wasowicz tried to emphasize literacy throughout the exhibition, providing information about literacy rates and including an image of a child reading or being read to in each section.

As Hewes and Wasowicz devoted years of research to the exhibition, life certainly didnt slow down. Between the two of them, Hewes and Wasowicz underwent Lyme disease, shingles, sending children off to college and high school, a mothers cancer and surgery, and the snowiest Massachusetts winter on record. But through it all, we made time for the McLoughlin Brothers, Wasowicz said.

The Radiant with Color & Art exhibition is currently on view at the Grolier Club, located at 47 East 60th Street in Manhattan. Open hours are Monday  Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm. Book photos courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society.
Over the course of the Childrens Book Shops 40 years in business, the tiny Boston-area specialty bookstore has weathered monumental changes in publishing, and had an outsized role in the world of childrens books. Yet if not for a lunch meeting between two strangers more than three decades ago, much of that history would never have come to pass.

Elizabeth Rusty True Browder opened the bookstore in Brookline Village, at the edge of Boston, in 1977. When she met Terri Schmitz eight years later, Browder had taken on the first full-time post as executive director of the New England Booksellers Association. Doing both jobs while raising two daughters had left her scrambling and overwhelmed.

It was very hard for me, she said, but the time had come to sell the bookstore.

For her own part, Schmitz was in desperate need of a change. Trained as a childrens librarian, she was working in the English Language Acquisitions department of Harvard Universitys Widener Library. It was a soul killer, said Schmitz, who was struggling to recover after the death of her husband three years earlier.

Schmitz leapt at the chance to meet with Browder when she read that the bookstore was up for sale. It seemed like something I wanted to do, she said. It seemed like something that would bring me back to life again.

After their meeting, Browder agreed to sell, Schmitz agreed to buy, and the future of the 900 sq. ft. bookstoreand the 25,000 volumes it holds todaywas secure.

A Small and Mighty Beginning

With childrens bookstores showing renewed vibrancy, Browder is quick to point out that there were few such stores in the 1970s, when she was looking for books for her own children. She would regularly drive to neighboring Cambridge or farther out to the suburbs west of Boston just to find a selection that suited her tastes.

I had to go out of my way to find those books, said Browder. It occurred to me that we could open a specialty shop. Soon after, Browder took an apprenticeship at Millrace Books in Farmington, Conn., and attended the ABAs bookseller training school. Then she opened her doors.

Melissa Sweet, now a two-time Caldecott Honor recipient, came to work at the store a few years later. I knew virtually nothing beyond Maurice Sendak, said Sweet. I desperately wanted to publish a childrens book, and I thought, If Im not going to get published, at least I could work in a bookstore. 

By that time, the store had become a hub for a new generation of childrens authors. With readings every Sunday, Sweet got a master class from the stores visiting authors. During those years, Browder recalled, Arnold Lobel, James Marshall, John Bellairs, Virginia Hamilton, and Chris Van Allsburg all visited the store. It was a laboratory, saaid Sweet, and I also got to understand working with the public and what they were looking for.

What the public was looking for was new kinds of childrens books, and Browder was at the forefront of championing them. At ABA conferences, she would meet in hotel lobbies with fellow childrens booksellers and talk about new content that was coming into the burgeoning childrens trade publishing market.

Something I held near and dear to my heart when the bookstore opened, said Browder, was finding books in which all children could see themselves reflected. From the beginning, we had a small and mighty section of multicultural books.

In addition to content, new formats were emerging, and not all of them had supporters. Browder remembers being on a panel in New York City with an editor, a publisher, a reviewer, and author Rosemary Wells. The subject of the panel: Are board books legitimate books or are they just toys?

The reviewer said, These? Books? but it was clear to me as a parent, bookseller, and book lover that these very sturdy books were very, very valuable to families, Browder said.

Along with Sweet, Ann Rider, executive editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers, worked at the store during Browders tenure. She said that the stores approach to childrens bookselling cemented my desire to stay in the field. All along, I knew I wanted [to work in] editorial, Rider recounts, but this stepping stone taught me so much about how the public views childrens books.

An Era of New Ownership

When the time came for Browder to sell, she said she saw an admirable successor in Schmitz. Theyre hard businesses to run, she says, and so you need someone who has book knowledge and passion for books. To take the risk of adopting the business was wonderful.

As she took the reins from Browder, Schmitz sought advice from booksellers who had a hand in shaping a generation of childrens bookselling, including Jewell Stoddard and Helen Greenie Neuberg of Washington, D.C.s The Cheshire Cat, and Carol Erdahl, who had just opened the Red Balloon Bookshop in Schmitzs native Twin Cities.

Most of all, however, Schmitz said that it was the staff of the Childrens Book Shop who helped her transition successfully. I had no idea what I was doing, said Schmitz. Longtime employee Jane Kilborn showed her many of the fundamentals for ordering books and running the store. I would have just failed miserably without her, said Schmitz.

By the late 1980s, Schmitz had come into her own and the childrens book industry was thriving, but changes would test the store in the ensuing years. Schmitz said she survived the box-store boom and subsequent rise of Amazon by retaining an expert staff that included childrens author Leo Landry, and by focusing on being trusted advisers to young readers and their parents.

In the age of Amazons you may also like, recommendations, Schmitz said that it is just as important to talk readers out of buying certain books. They trust us, she said. They wont come back if you lead them astray.

Its small, but its a jewel box, said Margaret H. Willison of the bookstore. A librarian, writer, and founder of the social media newsletter Two Bossy Dames, Willison said, Theres nothing in there that Terri doesnt want there.

As a child growing up nearby, Willison said that Schmitzs honesty and expertise were enthralling for her as a young reader. I didnt even know what my tastes in books were without Terri, said Willison, who rattled off a list of titles from I Capture the Castle by Dodi Smith to Gail Carson Levines Ella Enchanted as books she was first introduced to by Schmitz. The key to gaining her trust, said Willison, was simple. She never condescended to me.

Willison said that Schmitzs success stems from being one of the least sentimental, most refined, and razor-sharp readers she has ever known. It also comes from shrewd business decisions. For instance, when presented with the opportunity to buy her location in 1995, Schmitz found a way, despite the fact that it caused great hardship. It is a decision she credits to this day with saving the store. They would have sold it out from under me, she said.

Thirty-two years of successful stewardship allows Schmitz a certain measure of humor and confidence as she looks back, whether she is celebrating a favorite middle-grade reader, recounting an evening spent helping J.K. Rowling buy chinos in the late 1990s, or opining on the state of young adult literature todayIts written by 20-somethings for 20-somethings.

Reflecting on her experience, Schmitz said, I have loved almost every moment of it.
Recent events at two bookstores on opposite coasts have forced booksellers to grapple with more than just the rush of gift-seeking customers this holiday season. At Seattles Elliott Bay Book Company, three people were arrested protesting a Nov. 30 appearance by Mayor Jenny Durkan, while in Cambridge, Mass., police are investigated an alleged assault of a Donald Trump supporter following a Dec. 1 reading at the Harvard Coop Bookstore.

The protests at Elliott Bay occurred during a visit from Durkan, who was delivering remarks in support of small businesses on her second day in office. As Durkan began, three protesters interrupted in succession, denouncing police brutality, Durkans handling of a terror investigation in her previous work as a U.S. Attorney, and her support for sweeps to disband homeless encampments.

They assaulted her with very vile language, said Elliott Bay owner Peter Aaron, whose booksellers surrounded the first two protesters, ushering them from the store. Aaron personally removed the third. All three protesters were criminally charged.

It was kind of shocking and stunning to people, said Aaron, who described the protesters as purported anarchist supporters of Durkans far-left liberal rival in the recent election. I see the same kind of intolerance and fundamentalist militarism from some of that faction as we have become much too used to seeing from the majority of our elected officials in Washington right now. I find it ironic to say the least.

The alleged incident in Cambridge followed a reading at the Harvard Coop by historian Mark Bray, author of Antifa: An Anti-Fascist Handbook (Melville House). Following the event, Trump supporter Matthias Thorpe posted footage online claiming that he was punched in the face repeatedly by Brays supporters as he exited the bookstore. Coop president Jerry Murphy declined to comment.

Jeremy Warnick, director of communications for the Cambridge Police Department, said that an investigation is ongoing. Warnick added, however, that proof of the assault has yet to surface. One of the things weve been challenged with is evidence, said Warnick, who noted that police have not yet located independent footage or eyewitness statements that corroborate Thorpes claims. As a result, no charges have been brought.

Along with a spate of white supremacist attacks on Berkeleys Revolution Books earlier this fall, the violence at the events in Seattle and Cambridge could be seen as a rising trend, but Braywho had departed the Coop reading prior to the alleged assaultdoesnt think so. In 46 book talks around the U.S. this fall, he said that attendees have had a good faith interest in debating hard questions of free speech, tactics, and strategy around politics.

Prior to going on tour, Bray said he worried that problems might arise at some readings. While his events arent just pep rallies, he said he has been pleased by how civil they have been, even when people disagree vehemently with his positions. The concerns that one might have about presenting on the Antifa in Trumps America have not been borne out.

While his experience has been overwhelmingly positive, Bray said that social media and programmed bots can amplify negative impressions of events without actual substantiation. Aaron, who was bombarded with e-mails following the Elliott Bay protests, concurred. Gradually, over the last four or five years, social media has become so much more of a volatile factor. Following the protests, he said he was inundated with hate stuff.

The people that were incensed by the treatment of [the protesters] were very active in tarring us with the same brush as the Mayor, said Aaron. He worries that social media can make a highly rare event seem like business as usual when it is not the case. Several of our booksellers were shaken by the protests, said Aaron, [specifically] because we have not seen that kind of thing in the store.

Connie Brooks, owner of Battenkill Books in Cambridge, New York, came to a similar conclusion about the relative safety of bookstores after putting out a call to fellow booksellers about gun-carrying customers earlier this year. Curious about the political climate in fellow bookshops, Brooks asked whether booksellers in nearby New England have policies against allowing customers to open carry firearms in their stores.

I genuinely wondered about the rights of store owners versus the rights of people to open carry. I can, as the store owner, bar anyone for entry as long as I am not discriminating on the basis of color, race, gender, etc., Brooks wrote in an e-mail to PW.

After receiving only a few replies, however, and with no uptick in safety issues in her own store, Brooks decided to let the issue rest. We have not enacted a no weapons policy, nor do I think we will in the near future, said Brooks.

At Elliott Bay, Aaron believes that most customers understand that the bookstore is a welcoming presence in the community. We do not take political positions on much of anything except where it gets to matters of intolerance, he said. The way I look at it, its my house and people are welcomed into it. As for the protesters, he said, If theyre not going to behave Ill kick them out of it.
Patrice Nganang, a Cameroonian-American novelist, poet, and academic, was detained at an airport and arrested earlier this month in Douala, Cameroon, following the publication of an article critical of government repression in the country. He has been imprisoned in Kondengui, a maximum security prison in the nation's capital, Yaounde.

Nganang, an associate professor of comparative literature at SUNY Stony Brook, was born in Yaounde and educated both in Cameroon and in Germany, and holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature. He is scheduled to serve as an Old Dominion Professor at Princeton University in spring 2018, in addition to taking up a fellowship at Princeton's Humanities Council. He is the author of seven books, including the novel Mount Pleasant, which was published in English translation last year by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

The publisher learned of Nganang's transfer to Kondengui following an email from his wife, Nyasha, dated December 14, in which she wrote: "This is a very frightening development for me, as it's known to be a sinister place. The lawyers were also informed of a new charge of insulting the armed forces. The Cameroonian government does not appear to be following any defined judicial process, according to my local sources in the legal team and at the U.S. embassy."

In a statement, Jonathan Galassi, president and publisher of FSG, called for a wider attention to the issue.

"Nganang was arrested in Douala after writing critically about the Cameroonian governments brutal response to local instability and protests in the English speaking regions of the country," Galassi said. "As a result of his vocal engagement and advocacy on these issues, Nganang is currently being held in a maximum security prison, without possibility of bail, awaiting a hearing now scheduled for January 19th. We at FSG are extremely concerned about Patrice Nganangs situation, and join PEN America, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and others in calling for his immediate release and safe return to his family."

Further information is available via a Facebook page, Free Patrice Nganang.
Wildfires tearing across Southern California have forced thousands of residents to evacuate from their homes. Even more people fled ahead of the hurricanes that slammed into Texas and Florida earlier this year, jamming highways and filling hotels. A viral social media post showed a flight-radar picture of people trying to escape Florida and posed a provocative question: What if the adjoining states were countries and didnt grant escaping migrants refuge?

By the middle of this century, experts estimate that climate change is likely to displace between 150 and 300 million people. If this group formed a country, it would be the fourth-largest in the world, with a population nearly as large as that of the United States.

Yet neither individual countries nor the global community are completely prepared to support a whole new class of climate migrants. As a physician and public health researcher in India, I learned the value of surveillance and early warning systems for managing infectious disease outbreaks. Based on my current research on health impacts of heat waves in developing countries, I believe much needs to be done at the national, regional and global level to deal with climate migrants.

Millions Displaced Yearly

Climate migration is already happening. Every year desertification in Mexicos drylands forces 700,000 people to relocate. Cyclones have displaced thousands from Tuvalu in the South Pacific and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean. Experts agree that a prolonged drought may have catalyzed Syrias civil war and resulting migration.

Between 2008 and 2015, an average of 26.4 million people per year were displaced by climate- or weather-related disasters, according to the United Nations. And the science of climate change indicates that these trends are likely to get worse. With each one-degree increase in temperature, the airs moisture-carrying capacity increases by 7 percent, fueling increasingly severe storms. Sea levels may rise by as much as three feet ( PDF ) by the year 2100, submerging coastal areas and inhabited islands.

The Pacific islands are extremely vulnerable, as are more than 410 U.S. cities and others around the globe, including Amsterdam, Hamburg, Lisbon and Mumbai. Rising temperatures could make parts of west Asia inhospitable to human life. On the same day that Hurricane Irma roared over Florida in September, heavy rains on the other side of the world submerged one-third of Bangladesh and eastern parts of India, killing thousands.

Climate change will affect most everyone on the planet to some degree, but poor people in developing nations will be affected most severely. Extreme weather events and tropical diseases wreak the heaviest damage in these regions. Undernourished people who have few resources and inadequate housing are especially at risk and likely to be displaced.

Recognize and Plan for Climate Migrants Now

Today the global community has not universally acknowledged the existence of climate migrants, much less agreed on how to define them. According to international refugee law, climate migrants are not legally considered refugees. Therefore, they have none of the protections officially accorded to refugees, who are technically defined as people fleeing persecution. No global agreements exist to help millions of people who are displaced by natural disasters every year.

Refugees rights, and nations legal obligation to defend them, were first defined under the 1951 Refugee Convention, which was expanded in 1967 ( PDF ). This work took place well before it was apparent that climate change would become a major force driving migrations and creating refugee crises.

Under the convention, a refugee is defined as someone unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion. The convention legally binds nations to provide access to courts, identity papers and travel documents, and to offer possible naturalization. It also bars discriminating against refugees, penalizing them, expelling them or forcibly returning them to their countries of origin. Refugees are entitled to practice their religions, attain education and access public assistance.

In my view, governments and organizations such as the United Nations should consider modifying international law to provide legal status to environmental refugees and establish protections and rights for them. Reforms could factor in the concept of climate justice, the notion that climate change is an ethical and social concern. After all, richer countries have contributed the most to cause warming, while poor countries will bear the most disastrous consequences.

Some observers have suggested that countries that bear major responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions should take in more refugees. Alternatively, the worlds largest carbon polluters could contribute to a fund that would pay for refugee care and resettlement for those temporarily and permanently displaced.

The Paris climate agreement ( PDF ) does not mention climate refugees. However, there have been some consultations and initiatives by various organizations and governments. They include efforts to create a climate change displacement coordination facility and a U.N. Special Rapporteur ( PDF ) on Human Rights and Climate Change.

It is tough to define a climate refugee or migrant. This could be one of the biggest challenges in developing policies.

As history has shown, destination countries respond to waves of migration in various ways, ranging from welcoming immigrants to placing them in detention camps or denying them assistance. Some countries may be selective in whom they allow in, favoring only the young and productive while leaving children, the elderly and infirm behind. A guiding global policy could help prevent confusion and outline some minimum standards.

Short-Term Actions

Negotiating international agreements on these issues could take many years. For now, major G20 powers such as the United States, the European Union, China, Russia, India, Canada, Australia and Brazil should consider intermediate steps. The United States could offer temporary protected status to climate migrants who are already on its soil. Government aid programs and nongovernment organizations should ramp up support to refugee relief organizations and ensure that aid reaches refugees from climate disasters.

In addition, all countries that have not signed ( PDF ) the United Nations refugee conventions could consider joining them. This includes many developing countries in South Asia and the Middle East that are highly vulnerable to climate change and that already have large refugee populations. Since most of the affected people in these countries will likely move to neighboring nations, it is crucial that all countries in these regions abide by a common set of policies for handling and assisting refugees.

The scale of this challenge is unlike anything humanity has ever faced. By midcentury, climate change is likely to uproot far more people than World War II, which displaced some 60 million across Europe, or the Partition of India, which affected approximately 15 million. The migration crisis that has gripped Europe since 2015 has involved something over one million refugees and migrants. It is daunting to envision much larger flows of people, but that is why the global community should start doing so now.

Gulrez Shah Azhar is an assistant policy researcher at the RAND Corporation and a Ph.D. candidate at the Pardee RAND Graduate School.

This commentary originally appeared on The Conversation on December 18, 2017. Commentary gives RAND researchers a platform to convey insights based on their professional expertise and often on their peer-reviewed research and analysis.
Looking to establish its future production infrastructure, Spains public broadcaster RTVE has acquired HD equipment from Sony which can be updated in the near future for Ultra HD production.

Sony and RTVE have been partners for nearly 30 years, since the public broadcaster acquired Sonys Betacam SP equipment in 1990.









The acquired equipment represents the most-advanced technology for HD production. Both the cameras and the mixers are ready to be updated to produce 4K content, which makes it easier for RTVE to carry all the current and future productions, said Jose Antonio Bolos, key account manager, Following the agreement signed with Sony in 2016 , RTVE has now received 14 HD cameras FUJINON, two mixers, five OLED screens BVM-F170A and 47 screens LCD from the LMD series. Before the year ends, Sony will carry a second phase of the project with 14 cameras, one mixer and 32 LMD screens.The acquired equipment represents the most-advanced technology for HD production. Both the cameras and the mixers are ready to be updated to produce 4K content, which makes it easier for RTVE to carry all the current and future productions, said Jose Antonio Bolos, key account manager, Sony Professional Solutions Europe
As the festive season approaches, AMC Networks International has prepared blocks of binge-watching programming for its Spanish networks AMC, SundanceTV and Canal Hollywood, comprising hit series and films.





From 23 December to 7 January 2018, viewers will get continued programming of some of AMCs most-watched titles, including Fear the Walking Dead.On AMC, one of the most popular pay-TV signals in Spain , the company will broadcast the entire last season of Halt and Catch Fire on the evening of 23 and 24 December, the on New Year's Eve a terror film block and finally to begin 2018 it wil show the whole third season of Fear the Walking Dead.On the indie channel SundanceTV, AMC will broadcast the first two seasons of The Windsors during Christmas Day.Through Canal Hollywood, the company has readied two films blocks: Sagalovers with the complete sagas of Transporter, The Godfather, Blade and Bourne, and Los Reyes de HWD, with children movies like Megamind, Monster House or How to train your dragon.
US digital media and marketing services company Tegna plans to acquire Midwest Televisions TV broadcast stations and two radio stations in San Diego, for about $325 million in cash.





Tegna will take over CBS affiliate KFMB-TV, which leads the market in audience ratings across all demographics and is No 1 in news across all major time slots, according to Nielsen; as well as the CW station KFMB-D2. It also gains radio broadcast stations KFMB-AM and KFMB-FM. They will join Tegnas only existing holding in the state, ABC affiliate KXTV-TV in Sacramento.This is a marriage of two great broadcasting cultures. We have long admired our dedicated colleagues in San Diego and look forward to continuing the stations high-quality journalism, editorial independence and commitment to their local community, said Tegna CEO Dave Lougee. We have a proven ability to be a strategic and disciplined consolidator with a track record of acquiring profitable businesses at an attractive, accretive valuation. Looking ahead, we will continue to evaluate additional investments and select transactions to build on our growth and success with a focus on creating shareholder value.With about 1.1 million households, San Diego is the 29th largest US TV market. Tegna, which was created in 2015 when USA Today publisher Gannett Co spun off its broadcast assets from its newspaper division, owns 46 television stations in 38 cities nationwide, reaching about one-third of all television households.This transaction is a testament to the outstanding value our employees have created serving the San Diego community, Midwests president and owner Elisabeth Kimmel said. Having owned these properties for over 55 years, our family believed it imperative to find an excellent steward for television and radio stations that the community has embraced as part of the fabric of San Diego. We have found such a partner in Tegna, an innovative media company that shares our commitment to the highest levels of journalistic integrity and serving the greater good of the community. We welcome Tegna to San Diego with the knowledge that their values, resources and community leadership will serve our employees, consumers and customers for decades to come.
Since President Donald Trump declared that the United States recognizes Jerusalem as Israels capital, the question has been whether this break with past American policy weakens or advances the cause of peace. A corollary to that question is whether the move effectively excludes Washington from the peace process.

The point of the risky move is to break the logjam. Whether it might work has to be evaluated in a long-term perspective.



The Palestinian cause is waning. That cause is a full-fledged Palestinian state that, as it is usually formulated, will live side-by-side with Israel in peace and security. This is the two-state solution that must be achieved in negotiations between the two parties. Outside governments can be mediators and honest brokers, but only direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians can lead to peace.



These good-hearted formulations once seemed realistic and hard-headed, offering the most promising roadmap to reach a so-called final status agreement that would end the conflict. Final status meant resolution of all outstanding issues -- borders, right of return, security, Jerusalem -- with Palestinians agreeing to make no further claims on Israel and with the Israelis, who are in the dominant position, confident that a Palestinian state would add to their security rather than increase dangers.

This has been the roadmap since the Oslo Accords of 1993 and 1995. After a quarter-century on this road, there is still no end in sight. The peace process generation in Washington, populated by Bill Clinton, George Bush, Barack Obama and their policymakers, is passing from the scene. The civil society organizations still paving the beaten track are not optimistic.



On the Israeli side, the Likud government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu feels vindicated. On the Palestinian side, the Palestinian Authority headed by President Mahmoud Abbas feels betrayed.

In a long-term view, heres the way things look:

The Palestinian cause has effectively worn out its welcome. For no government in the Middle East or outside of it is the Palestinian right to a state a priority. Egypt (in 1979) and Jordan (in 1994) signed peace treaties with Israel decades ago. Syria is in shambles. Saudi Arabia has secretly cooperated with Israel for years and its new leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is likely to increase rather than decrease that cooperation. Iran is not a frontline state with Israel. For Tehran, Palestinian statehood is irrelevant, or seen as a complication to its strategy of expanding regional influence through Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon.



For the United States, settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict used to be a priority because of Washingtons support of Israel, but also because Arab Sunni countries were a big source of oil. However, America's shale-based energy revolution decreases the Middle Easts importance to Americas vital interests. Even protecting Israel is less important, because Israel is in less danger than it used to be. For Moscow, the Palestinian cause is basically irrelevant.



As for the peace process: No, the peace process has not broken down. There simple is no peace process, and has not been for years. Sporadic factitious negotiations are not a peace process.



Arguably, over the past few decades the worst enemy of the Palestinian people has been their own leaders. The peace process and the Palestinian cause were always a dead end so long as there was no unified leadership and one of the governing groups -- Hamas in Gaza -- maintained its vow to destroy Israel. Add to that the Middle Easts upheaval since the so-called Arab Spring in 2011, plus the arrival of Islamic State, and the persistence of al Qaeda as well as other Salafi-jihadist groups. In that context it was always unrealistic to expect Israel to agree to a Palestinian state.



That the Palestinian streets reaction to Trumps Jerusalem declaration was minor is a sign that times have changed.



The Palestinians need a post-peace-process generation of leaders, people ready to accept geopolitical and historical reality in order to turn their outlook from hopeless to hopeful. The post-Yasir Arafat leadership that has been in place for two decades is finally passing from the scene. Abbas and his cohort have little legitimacy and have no time left to help Palestinians rather than fight their own losing battle with history and vanity. They failed abysmally to organize themselves to deal with military and political defeat in the least damaging way.



The life chances of three generations of Palestinian young people have been compromised -- and for what?


Monrovia set for semistate battle with Lawrenceburg. Here's what to know.

Here's all the information you need to know before Friday's IHSAA semi-state football showdown between Monrovia and Lawrenceburg.
Officials in Tajikistan and Afghanistan say the main highway connecting the two countries across their mountainous border has been restricted for several days.

Afghan media reports on December 20 quoted officials in the northern Kunduz Province as saying that the highway has been closed near the border town of Sher Khan Bandar for four days, affecting trade at markets along the frontier.

The reports said the crossing was closed by Tajik authorities, but Tajik officials have made no announcement and no public comment on the reports.

However, officials in Tajikistan's southern districts told RFE/RL that the main road had been closed for four days to cars and people n foot, while trucks were being allowed to cross the border. They said that several other routes, including five bridges over the Panj River, had been closed for at least 10 days.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue publicly. They did not say why the roads were closed and crossings on the main road was restricted.

Tajikistan has closed border crossings several times in the past, citing reasons including the threat from Taliban militants in Afghanistan, a military operation to capture a former warlord, and operations against drug traffickers.

With reporting by Pajhwok
The European Unions top diplomat has warned that the humanitarian and security situation has deteriorated abruptly in eastern Ukraine, where Russia-backed separatists have been fighting Kyiv government forces since 2014.

The comments by EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on December 20 follow similar remarks made a day earlier by the U.S. special envoy for the Ukraine conflict, Kurt Volker, who said 2017 was the deadliest year in the region since the outbreak of violence three years ago.

The words of warning, issued in a statement by Mogherini's spokeswoman, Maja Kocijancic, came as international monitors reported intense shelling in recent days in parts of eastern Ukraine and continued violations of a cease-fire mandated under the so-called Minsk agreements.

The separatists in Ukraine's eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions have been battling Ukrainian government forces since April 2014 in a conflict that has killed more than 10,300 people.

The statement said OSCE monitors deployed in the region have seen the highest number of cease-fire violations since February 2017.

The positioning of forces near residential areas and firing from or toward critical infrastructure shows complete disrespect for peoples' lives, Kocijancic said in the statement.

Several cease-fire deals have been announced as part of the Minsk accords -- in September 2014 and February 2015 -- but they have failed to end the fighting.

The cease-fire needs to be respected, [and] military forces must disengage and withdraw heavy weapons to verifiable storage areas, she said.



We expect Russia, in particular, to make full and immediate use of its influence on the separatists in this regard.

The Trilateral Contact Group -- Ukraine, Russia, and the OSCE -- on December 20 announced that representatives had agreed on a "comprehensive, sustainable, and unlimited" cease-fire connected to the holiday period in certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions to begin on midnight on December 23.

Mogherini's spokeswoman called the agreement a "necessary step," but she added that immediate restraint in the meantime remains imperative.

We also reiterate that full, safe, and unhindered access for the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission and its technical equipment throughout the entire area foreseen by its mandate is essential.

She said the EU sees "full implementation of the Minsk agreements as the basis for a sustainable political solution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine that respects Ukraine's independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, Mogherini added.

In his December 19 comments, Volker, the U.S. envoy, warned that hostilities are again ratcheting up in eastern Ukraine.

"A lot of people think that this has somehow turned into a sleepy, frozen conflict and it's stable and now we have...a cease-fire. It's a problem, but it's not a crisis," Volker said in a speech in Washington.

"That's completely wrong. It is a crisis. This has been the most violent year, 2017, and frankly last night was one of the most violent nights, certainly since February, and possibly this year," he said.
WASHINGTON -- An American stockbroker who made a fortune in the Russian market in the 1990s and 2000s and later co-founded a posh Moscow nightclub before leaving the country died of blunt force injuries suffered as a result of a fall from a Washington, D.C. building.

The findings, released on November 16 by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME), confirm that Dan Rapoport died on August 14 after falling from a height, but do not conclusively explain the circumstances leading up to his death.



Washington police told RFE/RL that an investigation into his death had ended and declined further comment. Earlier this year, a police spokeswoman told RFE/RL that foul play was not suspected, but that final conclusions were pending the autopsy.

Rapoport's untimely death triggered much speculation because he had voiced support for ardent Kremlin foe Aleksei Navalny before leaving Russia and, while living in Kyiv in recent years, had been a vocal supporter of Ukraine and an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.



Washington metropolitan police found Rapoport's body on August 14 on the sidewalk outside 2400 M Street, a nine-story apartment building in the northwest part of the city.



The medical examiner's report said Rapoport, 52, died of multiple blunt force injuries due to fall from height and described the death as sudden/unexplained. The report also said the manner of his death was undetermined.



The OCME said no other information would be immediately released.



A preliminary police report said officers responded to a report of a jumper on the evening of August 14, and the man, later identified as Rapoport, was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was declared dead.



The apartment building has an open rooftop with a pool, running track, and seating area for residents.

The police report said officers found $2,620 in cash on Rapoport when they discovered his body on the sidewalk, along with headphones, a cracked cell phone, a Florida drivers license, and other items.



He was wearing flip-flops, perhaps indicating he had been at the pool on the roof prior to falling.



Brianna Burch, a police spokesperson, told RFE/RL in August that there did not appear to be anyone with Rapoport at the time and there were no listed witnesses. In follow-up correspondences with RFE/RL through early November, the police continued to say they did not suspect foul play.



Rapoport had recently moved back to Washington after spending several years working in finance in Ukraine. He told RFE/RL in an interview in Washington in June that business had been tough due to the countrys high political risk and war with Russia.



While some friends said they did not believe he would have committed suicide, others said he had appeared depressed.



Go-To Location



A native of Latvia and a fluent Russian speaker, Rapoport emigrated with his family to the United States in 1980. After graduating from a U.S. university, he moved to Russia in the early 1990s as a wave of privatizations swept across the country.



The sale of former state-owned companies created a booming stock market, minting a new generation of millionaires, Russian and foreign.



Rapoport was respected within Russian financial circles, where he worked for more than a decade at a local brokerage called CenterInvest, making his way up to managing partner. He claimed his clients included some of the nation's wealthiest tycoons.

In 2007, he opened a swanky nightclub in downtown Moscow called Soho Rooms, which became the go-to location for Moscows elite.



In 2012, he left Russia and returned to the United States, saying the stock brokerage industry that had made him a fortune "had died" as commission fees shrunk with improvements in technology.

But in a media interview prior to his departure, he also criticized the direction Russia had taken under Putin and expressed support for Navalny, who was jailed last year on what Western governments say were trumped-up charges.

It has really become unbearable to live in Russia, Rapoport told media outlet FinParty in June of that year. We are all now dependent on one ruler. If this person decides that you will give birth to his child, then you will give birth, and if he decide to put you in prison, then you will serve time.

He told FinParty that he would give up his American citizenship and return to Russia if Navalny became president, saying the opposition leader was sincere in his desire to fight corruption.

He is a real hero of our time and deserves respect, Rapoport said of Navalny.

Rapoports frustration with Russia and his decision to leave may have been triggered by pressure on his businesses, friends and family have said.

Under Putin, the raiding of profitable businesses by -- or with the help of -- the nations security services has flourished. Rapoport allegedly lost his stake in Soho Rooms when his partners teamed up with security officials.

"Our flight to Washington is in 12 hours. It's sad to leave Russia, but for thoughtful people, living here has become unbearable and disgusting," Rapoport wrote on his Facebook page on June 13, 2012.

When Rapoport moved to Washington, where he said his parents lived, he set up a company called Rapoport Capital to advise and assist technology startups as well as venture capital funds on fundraising options.

In 2016, four years after leaving Russia, Rapoport set up an office in Kyiv and opened a private equity fund. It was tough going. Ukraines economy struggled amid an ongoing war with Russia-backed separatists in two eastern regions and the slow implementation of Western-backed reforms.

In social-media posts over the ensuing years, he was a vocal supporter of Ukraine and an outspoken critic of Putin.

Rapoport gained a degree of publicity in January 2017 after The New York Times reported that the daughter and son-in-law of newly elected President Donald Trump had purchased a mansion owned by him and his first wife. The mansion was located in an exclusive neighborhood of the U.S. capital.

In 2018, the open-source investigative organization Bellingcat reported that Rapoport, who was Jewish, had been the creator of a fictional persona named David Jewberg, who was frequently quoted in Ukrainian media as a senior Pentagon analyst.

With reporting by Todd Prince in Washington, D.C. and Mike Eckel in Prague
BRUSSELS -- The European Union is urging Western Balkans countries and members of the Eastern Partnership program that have visa-free travel arrangements with the EU to do more to fight organized crime and corruption.

In an interview with RFE/RL on December 20, the European commissioner for home affairs, Dmitris Avramopoulos, singled out Ukraine and Moldova in particular as countries that need to speed up reforms.



He said all the countries concerned need to "step up their efforts to address irregular migration and fight organized crime and corruption in particular."

Avramopoulos spoke as the European Commission published a report on how Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Georgia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, and Ukraine implement their visa-free regimes with the EU as well as rule-of-law reforms.

It is the first such annual report since the EU adopted a visa suspension mechanism and since visa-liberalization deals enabling Georgian and Ukrainian citizens to travel freely to the visa-free Schengen area came into force earlier in 2017.

The visa-suspension mechanism allows for visa-free regimes to be halted under certain circumstances once they are in place. It was drafted as a condition for the implementation of visa-liberalization agreements for non-EU countries.

'Two To Tango'

Avramopoulos said that "no visa-free suspension is being decided or proposed today," but added that the council expects all the countries to "step up their efforts to address irregular migration and fight organized crime and corruption in particular."

The commissioner called on Kyiv to "take immediate action to safeguard anticorruption measures introduced with previous reforms and to allow further progress to be made."

The report criticizes Moldova, which was granted EU visa liberalization in 2014, over evidence of corruption and money laundering.

Asked whether Ukrainians and Moldovans should worry that visa-free EU travel could be suspended, Avramopoulos said "it is not within our intention so the question should be asked to the citizens of these countries if they really want to defend these privileges and this right. It is up to them."

"As far as the European Union is concerned, we are very positive to continue on the same path but as you understand, it takes two to tango," he added.
Welcome back to the China In Eurasia briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter tracking Chinas resurgent influence from Eastern Europe to Central Asia. Im RFE/RL correspondent Reid Standish.

Before we get started, a few announcements: The newsletter is now biweekly, rather than going out only on the first and third Wednesdays of each month. To subscribe, click here.

And I will also be launching Talking China In Eurasia, a new podcast. Im joined by the Royal United Services Institutes Raffaello Pantucci to talk about Xi and Putin. Listen to the first episode here or below.

Xi Gets Pragmatic About Russia At The G20

It was light on optimism, but U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping injected a healthy dose of pragmatism back into the U.S.-China relationship with their meeting in Bali at a time when global anxiety is rising over Russias war against Ukraine.

Finding Perspective: The meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit was far from a breakthrough, but it did repair some damage from the recent backslide in relations between both countries and send some signals that the world isnt necessarily destined for Cold War 2.0.

The more than three-hour talks saw some blunt exchanges over contentious issues like Taiwan and North Korea, but the two leaders also pledged more frequent communications and decided that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Beijing for follow-up talks in 2023.

Of particular note, Biden raised Russias invasion of Ukraine and threats by Russian President Vladimir Putin to use nuclear weapons. Both leaders reiterated their agreement that a nuclear war should never be fought, according to a White House readout.

While far from a sea change for Chinese policy, thats notable. The credibility of Beijings claims to be neutral on the Ukraine war continue to come under scrutiny, and China has shown discomfort of late with the Kremlins nuclear saber-rattling.

Xi made similar comments after a November 4 summit with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and during another G20 meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, according to the French readout.

Why It Matters: Xi is not abandoning Putin, but this marks the latest shift for Beijings balancing act over Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Four Chinese officials briefed on the February 4 meeting between Xi and Putin, where they declared a no-limits partnership, told the Financial Times that Putin didnt tell Xi the truth about the invasion and that Beijing was caught off guard by it.

What Xi knew about Putins war plans has been a topic of debate, and there is evidence to support both the idea that Xi was aware and that he was caught off guard.

Many analysts are of the opinion that Xi knew about Putin's decision to invade but expected a quick victory, which perhaps was what Putin believed at the time.

Others point to a steady stream of dismissals from Chinese officials and experts about the likelihood of an invasion in February and the fact that Beijing did not evacuate its citizens from Ukraine  like Western nations did  as evidence that China was not expecting a war.

China certainly has its own interests in keeping a distance from Moscows war and using that space to do some upkeep with the West. But perhaps the most important point here is that even if Putin did blindside Xi, China has stuck with Russia despite its battlefield failures, political isolation, and the atrocities its troops are accused of committing.

Again, this is pragmatism more than anything else. As Chinese experts often say, even if Russia is looking unattractive these days, why would Beijing abandon its main anti-Western partner as China continues to be in the crosshairs of rising American pressure?

Read More

 Want to hear more about Russia and Chinas complex relationship amid the Ukraine war? Then tune in to the debut of Talking China In Eurasia today at 2 p.m. CET/ 8 a.m. EST. You can listen live here and find the episode on RFE/RLs website and wherever you listen to your podcasts.

 Condemning Russias invasion of Ukraine and its global fallout is shaping up to be the key theme of the G20, with the Financial Times reporting that a joint communique from the summit takes aim at Moscow.

Expert Corner: The Future Of The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)

Readers asked: Did Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharifs recent trip to Beijing breathe new life into the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)? How do Islamabad and Beijing really feel about the project after all these years?

To find out more, I asked Filippo Boni, an expert on China-Pakistan relations at the Open University in Britain:

Shehbaz Sharif's visit to China was high on symbolism and relatively low on substance. While the two sides were keen to reaffirm and emphasize the strength of their strategic partnership, no significant new commitment was made. Apart from a few memorandums of understanding and attempts from the Pakistanis in the run-up to the trip to address some of CPECs issues  including payments to Chinese independent power producers  nothing major came from the visit. This is despite Sharif's attempts at revitalizing CPEC since April and the very close ties he enjoys with the Chinese leadership.

The outcome of this visit is not entirely surprising, especially if interpreted against the backdrop of Pakistan's current domestic predicaments. The security situation for Chinese nationals has deteriorated, the economy is struggling, and political instability is at one of its highest points in recent years. All these dynamics, coupled with the global scaling down of Belt and Road Initiative financing, have likely impacted Beijing's lack of commitment to new projects.

After almost 10 years and $25 billion worth of projects, there seems to be a general consensus on both sides that the first phase of CPEC  the one focused primarily on energy projects  was largely successful. The same cannot be said for the second phase, including the slow progress on the development of Special Economic Zones, and for the port of Gwadar, where little progress has been made for the ports full commercial functioning.

Do you have a question about Chinas growing footprint in Eurasia? Send it to me at StandishR@rferl.org or reply directly to this e-mail and Ill get it answered by leading experts and policymakers.

Three More Stories From Eurasia

1. 'Sweep It Under The Rug'

Recent allegations of China operating 54 overseas police stations have fueled controversy around the world and sparked investigations, but in Hungary and Serbia the new findings are being met with swift denials by authorities, despite growing evidence.

The Details: My colleagues Akos Keller-Alant from RFE/RLs Hungarian Service, Mila Durdevic from RFE/RLs Balkan Service, and I reported on the fallout from these revelations and the slew of probes launched in many European countries recently.

The stations are overseas operations of the public security bureaus from two Chinese provinces and are used to persuade citizens to return to China, including through pressure on family members at home. While most of those involved appear to be suspected of crimes such as telecommunications fraud or corruption, dissidents have also reported that the stations have been used to monitor and threaten them.

Fourteen governments have already launched investigations into the overseas police stations, and the Dutch and Irish governments have ordered China to shut down the facilities in their countries.

But in Hungary and Serbia  two countries where Beijing is said to operate such facilities and whose governments prize their warming political and economic ties with China  officials appear to be trying to sweep it under the rug, as one analyst characterized it, despite growing scrutiny from opposition lawmakers in each country.

2. Global Ripples Hit Central Asia

Political and economic shocks from Moscows war in Ukraine, coupled with added strains from tensions between Beijing and Washington, are taking their toll around the world, especially in Central Asia, where countries in the region are closely tied to both China and Russia.

What It Means: As RFE/RLs Uzbek Service reported, Vladimir Norov, the countrys foreign minister, warned about geopolitical tensions affecting stability in the region and beyond while addressing his counterparts at an Organization of Turkic States meeting in Samarkand.

The breakdown in global cooperation is felt particularly strong in Central Asia. While some economies have been able to benefit by becoming a new home for businesses and capital relocated from Russia, others are seeing investment dry up and their economies coming under strain.

World Bank Vice President for Europe and Central Asia Anna Bjerde recently warned that Uzbekistan needs to continue with its market reforms in order to withstand the global economic shocks that are to come.

RFE/RLs Kyrgyz Service also reported that the countrys government is trying to court more investment but that questions remain from investors about Kyrgyzstans stability and investment climate. According to official statistics from January to June of this year, China is the leading source of foreign investment, with $129 million during that span.

3. The Tech In Moscows Iranian Drones

A new investigation by Schemes, the investigative unit of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, looked into electronic components underpinning Tehran's production of the Mohajer-6 drone, which Russia has used in its war in Ukraine, and found that theyre far from homegrown.

What You Need To Know: The Mohajer-6 drones contain components produced by companies from the United States and the European Union, both of which have sanctions restricting the export to Iran of technology that can be used for both civilian and military purposes.

The investigation also found drone components produced in China, including a real-time mini-camera made by a Hong Kong firm.

The drone also contains a microchip bearing the logo of a California technology company and a thermal-imaging camera that Ukrainian intelligence says may have been produced by a firm based in Oregon or China.

The international tech in the drone not only highlights the complex ecosystem that allows firms and buyers to circumvent sanctions slapped on both Iran and Russia, but also the close networks between Chinese and Western tech companies that still exist, despite a recent push to break some of those linkages.

Across The Supercontinent

On The Mainland: The watchdog group Freedom House recently launched a new project called the China Dissent Monitor, which tracks protests and other forms of dissent inside China. Read it here.

Censored: Chinese authorities behind a major trade expo in Shanghai pulled an opening ceremony address by European Council President Charles Michel that was set to criticize Russia's illegal war in Ukraine and call for reduced European dependency on China, Reuters reported.

Backtracking: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has softened his countrys stance toward China, moving away from his predecessor Liz Trusss decision to label it a threat.

One Thing To Watch

How long will Chinas stringent COVID policies stay in place?

New infections are rising as a winter wave hits and popular frustration continues to boil over inside the country as investor confidence stays dented over the measures. New footage also showed crowds of residents in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou escaping a compulsory lockdown and clashing with police.

Thats all from me for now. Dont forget to send me any questions, comments, or tips that you might have.

Until next time,

Reid Standish

If you enjoyed this briefing and don't want to miss the next edition, subscribe here. It will be sent to your in-box on the first and third Wednesdays of each month.
BISHKEK -- Kyrgyz opposition politician and former presidential candidate Omurbek Babanov has called efforts to impound the property of his television channel in Bishkek a "seizure by raid."

Babanov wrote on Facebook on December 20 that the steps taken against NTS, the largest private TV station in Kyrgyzstan, were "unimaginable."

Court officers and police raided NTS on December 19, arriving at the station with a court ruling they said allowed them to impound its property.

"The NTS television channel is being seized," Babanov wrote. He suggested that those behind the raid were making illegal use of the courts.

"Are legal documents now just scraps of paper?" he wrote. "Is justice nothing, and is the main goal to shut down or take over a private television channel?"

Babanov suggested that those behind the raid "represent the interests" of Maksim Bakiev -- a son of former President Kurmanbek Bakiev, who was ousted by protests and fled the country in 2010. Both face criminal charges in Kyrgyzstan and live abroad.

NTS lawyer Amantur Abdrakhmanov told RFE/RL on December 20 that the court's December 19 decision to impound the television channel's property was based on a lawsuit filed by a company called Grexton Capital LTD.

A Kyrgyz Justice Ministry document in a database compiled by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) indicates that a company with a similar name, Grexton Trade Company, was established in Bishkek in October 2006 by the Grexton Investment Group and is headed by Sergei Kostyrin.

Kostyrin is an associate of Maksim Bakiev.

Babanov is a businessman who finished second in the October 15 presidential election but left the country after an investigation was launched into charges that he incited ethnic hatred while campaigning for the election.

The whereabouts of Babanov, who denies the allegations and also lives abroad, are not known.

The raid on NTS is likely to spark new concerns about media freedom under President Sooronbai Jeenbekov, the ruling party candidate who won the election with backing from outgoing leader Almazbek Atambaev and took office on November 24.

NTS's radio station, Sanjyra, went off the air in November after the authorities refused to extend its license.

The station remains off air, but company officials launched a new Internet TV channel called Jalbyrak (A Leaf), which broadcasts online.

The actions against NTS come four months after a court ordered privately-owned digital TV channel Sentyabr (September) to stop operations, citing what it said was "extremist" content.

Sentyabr was known for its criticism of Atambaev.

NTS carries some RFE/RL programming.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service
BISHKEK -- The leader of Kyrgyzstan's Ata-Meken (Fatherland) opposition party has been convicted on a corruption charge that he contends is politically motivated.

A court in Bishkek ruled on December 19 that Almambet Shykmamatov illegally arranged the purchase of a Mercedes for his wife using state financial structures. It ordered him to pay a fine of 5 million soms ($71,500).

Shykmamatov maintains his innocence, insisting that the case against him is politically motivated.

Shykmamatov took over the Ata-Meken party in March after its leader Omurbek Tekebaev, a former parliament speaker, was arrested in February. He was convicted of bribery in August and sentenced to eight years in prison.

Tekebaev denies being guilty, and supporters contend that the case was fabricated to prevent him from running in the Central Asian country's October 15 presidential election.

Outgoing President Almazbek Atambaev's preferred successor, former Prime Minister Sooronbai Jeenbekov, won the election and was sworn in on November 24.

Another leader of Ata-Meken, former Prosecutor-General Aida Salyanova, was charged with corruption in March, days after Tekebaev's arrest.

In October, Salyanova was found guilty and handed a five-year suspended sentence. Salyanova has maintained her innocence, saying the case against her was politically motivated.

In early November, masked assailants shot Salyanova's brother dead in his house in Bishkek. Ata-Meken party members say that killing was also politically motivated.
The Moscow City Court has banned a rally planned by opposition politician Ilya Yashin for December 24 in the Russian capital, he wrote on Facebook on December 20.

Yashin, the head of Moscows Krasnoselsky municipal district, announced earlier that he planned to stage what he called a "Free Elections Day" festival in Lermontov Park, saying that lawmakers do not need approval from city authorities to hold the event.

"The court acted swiftly. The lawsuit was filed just yesterday and today we received a lightning-fast decision... I consider the ruling politically motivated and illegal," Yashin wrote on December 20, adding that he will appeal it and that preparations for the rally will continue.

According to Yashin, the court's decision was influenced by the Moscow city authorities.

Supporters of anticorruption activist and opposition politician Aleksei Navalny are also planning rallies in 20 Russian cities, including Moscow on December 24. Navalny has been campaigning for the presidency since December of last year, but election officials said in June that he is ineligible to run due to a financial-crimes conviction that he contends was politically motivated and baseless.

The court's decision comes two days after the presidential campaign officially started in Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his decision to run for a fourth term on December 6. His high approval ratings and control over the levers of power make his victory a foregone conclusion in Russia, where government critics say election campaigns and results are manipulated by the authorities.

With reporting by tvrain.ru
Anonymous bomb threats that had prompted mass evacuations in several Russian cities have resumed.

Local officials said thousands were evacuated on December 20 from administrative buildings, schools, universities, shopping malls, markets, hospitals, and hotels in Moscow, Stavropol, Cherkessk, and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

A spate of telephone bomb threats that proved to be hoaxes had targeted some 3,500 public buildings in 190 Russian cities and led to the evacuation of more than 2.3 million people in September, Russian officials said.

Bombs were never discovered in any of the cases.

Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Aleksandr Bortnikov said on October 5 that four Russian citizens suspected of organizing the wave of anonymous bomb threats had been identified.

Bortnikov said that the four suspects are living abroad and have accomplices inside Russia.

On December 12, Deputy Interior Minister Igor Zubov said that most of the phone bomb threats came from Syria. He also named Turkey, Ukraine, the United States, Canada, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan as places from where the phone calls were made.

President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov has called the threats "telephone terrorism."

With reporting by mskagency.ru, Interfax, and RIA Novosti
The Soviet Union's initial secret-police force, the Cheka, unleashed a wave of executions and torture in the years right after the revolution of 1917 that became known as the Red Terror.

Given that brutal and bloody past, the centenary of its founding might seem like the perfect time to remember its victims.

But that's not how officials in Siberia's Tomsk region see it.

Instead, local organizers invited schoolchildren aged 3 to 16 to submit drawings "In defense of the Fatherland" to honor the original Cheka and its many successors, including the dreaded NKVD, the KGB, and today's Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).

The Cheka was founded by Feliks Dzerzhinsky, known as "Iron Feliks," on December 20, 1917.

Sponsored in part by the local FSB office and the government, organizers said the contest aimed to "reflect the activities of the state security agencies, which are inextricably linked with the history of the country."

Aleksei Sevostyanov, the head of the regional information department in Tomsk, praised the children for depicting the "heroism" of the state security apparatus in a "very precise and sincere" way, according to RFE/RL's Sibir.realii.

The submissions are evidence that "heroism" comes in many forms. They include titles like The FSB Is Always There, The Capture Of A Terrorist In A Museum, and against the backdrop of war in neighboring Ukraine, another called Struggle Between NKVD Agents And Banderites in a reference to the followers of the World War II-era Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera.

Some of the drawings touch on events that might not normally highlight the heroism, nor competence, of Russia's security services.

There are drawings depicting the 2004 Beslan school hostage crisis that ended with 334 people dead after a botched rescue, including 186 children. Most of the hostages who died were killed when Russian security forces stormed the school after days of stalemate.

Another depicts the deadly hostage crisis at Moscow's Dubrovka Theater in 2002. That theater seizure by Chechen militants ended when security forces stormed the theater after pumping in toxic gas that neutralized the attackers but also killed many hostages.
Maria Alyokhina, a member of the punk protest band Pussy Riot, has been detained while staging a protest at the headquarters of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the feared Soviet secret police.

Police detained Alyokhina on December 20 after she unfurled a banner reading "Happy Birthday, Executioners" at an entrance to the FSB building on Moscow's Lubyanka Square, she and fellow protester Olga Borisova said.

Alyokhina could be jailed for up to 15 days for the demonstration.

"We decided to come out today and congratulate the chekists, because everybody knows this is considered their holiday," Alyokhina told RFE/RL's Russian Service in a telephone interview from the police station where she was being held.

Officers and employees of the FSB are informally known as "chekists" after the Cheka, the secret police organization that was created by "Iron Feliks" Dzerzhinsky in 1917 and preceded the dictator Josef Stalin's NKVD, the KGB, and post-Soviet Russia's FSB.

Speaking at a ceremony in Moscow to mark the event, President Vladimir Putin, a longtime KGB officer and former FSB chief, said the creation of the Cheka was "an inseparable part of our history" and praised the members of security services as "true statesmen and patriots."

Under Putin, who has put many people with similar backgrounds in positions of power, December 20 is officially marked as the Day of the Security Service Workers.

Alyokhina tweeted a photo that showed two people holding the banner on the steps of the FSB headquarters on Lubyanka Square, and Borisova said she and Alyokhina tied the banner to the building's iron doors.

Borisova said she was able to leave the area because police did not realize she was involved in the protest, but that Alyokhina and two photographers, Andrei Zolotov and Denis Bochkaryov, were detained.

Alyokhina told RFE/RL that the three were initially brought to the FSB's reception area for a conversation and later taken to the Meshchansky district police precinct house. She said that a lawyer tried to meet with them but was not allowed in.

News outlet Mediazona later reported that Alyokhina would spend the night at the police station and faces a hearing on December 21 on an administrative charge of participating in an unsanctioned demonstration that hampers "citizens' access to living space, transportation facilities, or social infrastructure."

She and the photographers face up to 15 days in jail or a fine.

FSB officers "were in some kind of panic" she said of their reaction to the protest. "But I don't think anyone would be pleased to feel like an executioner. And no matter what kind of uniform one wears, every one of us has something humane inside, and it seems to me that the FSB is not excluded."

The FSB "is the direct successor of the KGB," Alyokhina said. "We just reminded them of this once again."

Alyokhina and fellow Pussy Riot performer Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were convicted of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" for a stunt in which band members burst into Moscow's Christ the Savior cathedral in February 2012 and sang a "punk prayer" against then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who was campaigning for his return to the presidency later that year.

Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova were close to the end of their two-year prison sentences when they were freed in December 2013, under an amnesty they dismissed as a propaganda stunt to improve Putin's image ahead of the February 2014 Sochi Olympics. They have focused largely on fighting for the rights of prisoners since their release.

Putin announced on December 6 that he would seek a new six-year term in a March 18 presidential election. His high approval ratings and control over the levers of power make his victory a foregone conclusion.

Critics say Putin has rolled back the advances in democracy and human rights that were made after the Soviet collapse of 1991, returning to Soviet-style methods and using instruments including the FSB and the courts to stifle dissent

With reporting by Mediazona, Novaya Gazeta, and Meduza
Statements from the Kremlin and the White House last weekend about thwarting a purported terrorist attack in St. Petersburg seemed to suggest that the United States and Russia were entering a new era of comity and cooperation.

That's not the case by a long shot, judging by the countervailing indications from the White House's new National Security Strategy, the aisles of Congress, and the State Department, among others.

The Kremlin has suggested as much, too, most recently on December 20 when President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said Russia was "working on and taking active measures aimed at defending our interests against a backdrop of possible new restrictive actions and sanctions" by unnamed countries.

Within much of the Washington foreign-policy establishment and among many members of Congress, the hardening line toward Russia is welcome in light of U.S. intelligence warnings that Moscow tried to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

But the contrast with U.S. President Donald Trump's repeated calls for greater cooperation with Moscow makes the tough talk coming from policy officials all the more striking.

"I am surprised by how tough the language is toward Russia, because while it reflects where a lot of the foreign-policy establishment is, it clearly doesn't reflect where the president is or has been," says Richard Haass, a former special assistant to President George H.W. Bush who is now president of the Council on Foreign Relations.

In August, Trump reluctantly signed into law new U.S. sanctions against Moscow for its actions in Ukraine, Syria, and cyberspace. Senior administration officials have recently accused Russia of offenses from seeking to cause "crises of confidence" in the West to abrogating a key Cold War treaty.

Such concerns were underscored by the National Security Strategy issued by the U.S. president on December 18, which calls out Russia as a "revisionist power" seeking to "undermine the legitimacy of democracies."

Cooperation Or Confrontation?

Throughout his campaign and into the early months of his presidency, Trump repeatedly called for closer cooperation with Russia and Putin.

The fight against international terrorism and Islamic State (IS) militants in particular is foremost among the areas Trump and his inner circle say Moscow and Washington should be working closely together. A nuclear-armed Pyongyang and resolving tensions on the Korean Peninsula is another.

"There's been a consistently...denying or a sanguine view about Russia and a tremendous optimism about Russia," Haass says.

Trump has also repeatedly cast doubt on the U.S. intelligence consensus on Russian election meddling.

But U.S. investigations into contacts and possible collusion between Trump campaign associates and Russians have dogged Trump's first year in office, efforts that he has decried as a "witch-hunt."

The December 17 announcements from Washington and Moscow that the CIA provided intelligence to its main Russian counterpart, the Federal Security Service, to help thwart a terror attack in Russia's second city was striking not only in its timing but also in the fulsome praise between the Kremlin and White House, something not seen in years.

The Republican-led Congress has at times sought to limit Trump's ability to maneuver on Russia. That prompted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to complain over the summer as lawmakers moved to cement existing sanctions and impose new ones.

And when Trump grudgingly signed that legislation into law, he made clear in an accompanying signing statement that he did not want to be handcuffed, particularly in his effort to resolve the 3 1/2-year conflict in Ukraine, pitting Russia-backed fighters against government troops.

"My administration particularly expects the Congress to refrain from using this flawed bill to hinder our important work with European allies to resolve the conflict in Ukraine," the statement said.

Missiles Vs. Diplomacy

Earlier this month, Congress passed a $700 billion defense-policy bill that contained several provisions that have irked Moscow. They include more money for Ukrainian security and billions more to bolster U.S. and NATO military deployments in Eastern Europe. There is also funding to develop a new ground-launched cruise missile in response to a missile that Washington says Russia has deployed in violation of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

Trump again pushed back, saying those provisions "could potentially dictate the position of the United States in external military and foreign affairs" and interfere with diplomacy.

Moscow has said a major irritant in relations was the decision by Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, in the final weeks of his presidency to seize two Russian diplomatic compounds near Washington and New York. The Russian Foreign Ministry repeatedly expressed hope for their return.

Not only has that not happened; in August, the State Department ordered the closure of Russia's San Francisco Consulate, which may have been an important site for Russian intelligence gathering.

"Russia continues aggressive behavior toward other regional neighbors by interfering in election processes and promoting non-democratic ideals," Tillerson said last month. "We, together with our friends in Europe, recognize the active threat of a recently resurgent Russia."

Last week, previewing the release of the National Security Strategy, White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster did not appear to be laying the groundwork for any softening in the administration's approach.

Russia has pioneered "new-generation warfare" that uses "subversion and disinformation and propaganda using cybertools, operating across multiple domains, that attempt to divide our communities within our nations and pit them against each other, and try to create crises of confidence," he said on December 12.

Then this week, McMaster said that "we have to counter Russia's destabilizing behavior and the sophisticated campaigns of propaganda and disinformation."

However, in the speech to unveil his administration's 68-page National Security Strategy, Trump gave only passing mention of possible threats from Russia before turning to the topic of potential partnership with Moscow, says Thomas Wright, director of the Brookings Institute's Center on the United States and Europe.

He and other foreign-policy observers and veterans say the perceived disconnect between Trump's statements and some officials' policy statements and speeches could hint that some cabinet members and other senior administration policymakers might not be totally in sync with their boss.

"There is clearly a difference between the policy...of the cabinet members of the Trump administration involved in making policy toward Russia; between them and the president and I suppose a small group of people in the White House," says Angela Stent, who served as a national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia in 2004-06.

Haass says divisions might not bode well for foreign governments -- Russia included -- trying to discern Washington's policies not just toward Moscow, but on issues like Syria, North Korea, or Iran as well.

"This is just one statement among many that this administration will make," Haass says. "The risk is that it will tend to be dismissed if the inconsistencies in it...become pronounced."
U.S. President Donald Trump has spoken to Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev in a telephone call that focused on security in Central Asia and the prospects for closer ties.

The White House said that the purpose of the December 19 call was "to discuss regional security and to explore opportunities for improved cooperation."

They also discussed "Uzbekistans role in Central Asia, including its support for President Trumps South Asia strategy and United States efforts in Afghanistan," it said in a statement.

Trump "noted Uzbekistan's reform efforts, which will set the conditions for increased trade and improved security against terrorist threats," the White House said.

Uzbekistan borders Afghanistan, where U.S. forces are involved in a war against militants that began after the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.

Forces of the extremist group Islamic State (IS) fighting in Iraq and Syria since 2014 have included Uzbeks and others from ex-Soviet Central Asia.

Suspects in several attacks in the West in recent years have been from Uzbekistan, including the man authorities say killed eight people in a truck attack in New York City in October.

Mirziyoev was named interim president after the death of autocratic longtime President Islam Karimov was announced in September 2016, and was subsequently elected in a tightly controlled vote in December that year.

He has taken steps aimed at decreasing Uzbekistan's isolation, mending tense ties with neighboring Central Asian countries, and improving the struggling economy in the former Soviet republic of some 30 million people.

A statement on the Uzbek president's website said that Trump hailed Uzbekistan's "open and constructive foreign policy and its active efforts to develop friendly ties and cooperation with neighboring countries in the region."

"The U.S. president expressed his support to the new stage of democratic changes and economic reforms taking place in our country, aiming at strengthening of the civil society, rule of law, and liberalization of economy," the Uzbek statement said.

Mirziyoev and Trump have met twice while in office -- in Saudi Arabia in May and during the UN General Assembly in New York in September.
The UN General Assembly has approved a resolution strongly condemning human rights violations in Russian-annexed Crimea and referring to Russia as an "occupying power" there.

The resolution,put forward by Ukraine and 30 other countries, was approved by 70 states. Twenty-six, including Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and China, voted against. Seventy-six countries abstained from voting.

Ukraine's Permanent Mission to the United Nations said that the resolution confirms there is an armed conflict between Ukraine and Russia and condemns the retroactive application of Russian laws to the territory, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said the resolution was the "toughest one" yet to pass the UN, which adopted its first resolution condemning human rights abuses in Crimea with a similar vote a year ago.

"The pressure on Russia is being increased," Klimkin said on Twitter.

Ukrainian diplomats at the UN said Russia, which claims that Crimeans voted to join Russia in a March 2014 referendum that has not been internationally recognized, put "enormous pressure" on UN member states to reject the resolution or abstain from voting.

Ukrainian's UN mission said the resolution condemns the compulsory naturalization of Ukrainian citizens under the Russian occupation and calls for the immediate release of unlawfully detained Ukrainians.

The measure calls for an immediate end to all rights violations, including "arbitrary detentions, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment," and demands that Russia fulfill the interim decision of the International Court of Justice on the restoration of rights and freedoms for Ukrainian citizens on the peninsula.

It urges Russia to revoke its decision declaring the Mejlis, the Crimean Tatar people's assembly, an extremist organization and banning its activities. It also called on Moscow to reverse other limitations imposed on Crimean Tatars.

The resolution also appeals to Russia to maintain the teaching of the Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar languages in the territory.

The measure condemns Russia for failing to provide access to Crimea for the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission while it commends Ukraine for providing unhindered access to Crimea for journalists and human rights activists, and for supporting media and non-governmental organizations that were forced out of Crimea after Russia's takeover.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko thanked those who co-authored and voted for the resolution, calling them the "real friends of Ukrainian Crimea" in a Twitter post.

With reporting by Unian and Kyiv Post


WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Treasury has hit the leader of Chechnya with financial sanctions under the Magnitsky human rights law, accusing him of torture and "extrajudicial killings," and another Chechen security official of involvement in the "antigay purge" that targeted gay and bisexual men in the Russian region earlier this year.

Ramzan Kadyrov, whose name was added to the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on December 20, is one of the most prominent Russian officials to be added to the list established by the 2012 law that aims to punish Russians alleged to be involved in human rights violations.

Since its passage, the law has infuriated the Kremlin, which retaliated in 2013 with a sweeping ban on American parents adopting Russian children.

Four other individuals were also added to the sanctions list: Ayub Katayev, Yulia Mayorova, Andrei Pavlov, and Aleksei Sheshenya. A total of 49 people have now been named to the public list, subjecting them to various financial and travel restrictions. An unknown number of others are believed to be listed on a classified list, as well.

Kadyrov and Katayev were targeted for "gross violations of internationally recognized human rights" in Chechnya. The Treasury Department identified Katayev as a law enforcement officer in Chechny.

"We will continue to use the Magnitsky Act to aggressively target gross violators of human rights in Russia, including individuals responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture, and other despicable acts," John Smith, director of the Treasury sanctions office, said in a statement.

On a conference call with reporters on December 20, a senior U.S. State Department official said that "one or more of Kadyrov's political opponents were killed at his direction."

By being listed on the Magnitsky Act, the individuals are blocked from much of the international banking system. Any assets they may have in the United States could also be frozen.

In a posting to his Instagram account, his preferred means of public statements, Kadyrov responded with a mocking commentary:

"The U.S. Treasury has nothing better to do, just like a cat who itches in one place. And so, I was banned from entering America. And am I going to apply for a visa, do I have assets in U.S. banks? I said it before, but again I will repeat it for the especially forgetful that I would not have gone to the U.S.A. if all the foreign currency reserves of the country were promised to me as a prize."

There was no immediate reaction to the announcement from Moscow.

The Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta earlier this year was the first to document that police in Chechnya rounded up, tortured, and humiliated dozens of gay or bisexual men.

The report was later corroborated in part by RFE/RL as well as by Human Rights Watch, which said the "antigay purge" lasted from late February until at least early April and that "it was ordered and conducted by officials in Chechnya."

Kadyrov himself denied the accusations, as did the Kremlin.

The other three were accused of involvement in the criminal conspiracy exposed by Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian whistle-blower for whom the law is named.

The United States passed the Magnitsky Act in 2012, punishing people alleged to be connected to Magnitsky's death and the massive tax-fraud scheme he helped uncover.

Magnitsky was employed by British-American financier William Browder when he was arrested and charged with the $230 million tax-fraud scheme that he helped uncover.

He died in a Moscow jail in 2009. His friends and family say he was tortured while detained.

A Council of Europe investigation concluded the conditions leading up to his death amounted to torture.

In the wake of the 2012 U.S. law, Moscow banned American parents from adopting Russian children. Congress later passed an expanded version of the Magnitsky law, amid a secretive lobbying campaign in Washington aimed at undermining the facts of the Magnitsky case.

The most prominent Russian official on the list is Aleksandr Bastrykin, the head of the powerful Investigative Committee and an ally of President Vladimir Putin.

Mark Najarian contributed to this report from Washington
A court in Vienna has decided against extraditing Ukrainian oligarch Dymitro Firtash from Austria to Spain, saying Madrid had not provided enough proof linking Firtash to alleged crimes.

Vienna's Higher Regional Court issued its decision on December 19, citing insufficient documentation linking Firtash to alleged money laundering and organized crime.

The 52-year-old billionaire faces an extradition request from the United States, where he is charged with attempting to pay $18.5 million in bribes in a bid to win mining rights in India.

Firtash has denied all the charges and says they are politically motivated and aimed at limiting his political influence in Ukraine.

Firtash was a major donor to Ukraine's former Russia-backed President Viktor Yanukovych before Yanukovych's ouster in February 2014.

After the mass protests that ended Yanukovych's reign, Firtash fled to Russia and later went to Austria, where he was arrested in 2014 on a U.S. warrant.

He was set free after posting bail of 125 million euros ($144 million dollars,) but was ordered not to leave Austria.

Firtash is the founder of a consortium involved in the fertilizer, titanium, and gas sectors, and is the main shareholder of one of Ukraine's most influential television channels.

Based on reporting by dpa and Kyiv Post


BMW G310R has been launched in many countries earlier this year. It is exclusively made at the TVS Motor plant in India, and is now going to be launched in coming weeks. Based on the BMW G310R, TVS launched a fully faired motorcycle called the Apache 310 in India.

TVS Apache 310 has been priced at about Rs 2.35 lakh on road. When a reader asked BMW on Facebook, will the G310R be priced lower than the Apache 310 or not, the reply was that it will be priced competitively as the product is aimed at the mass market.

Considering that the BMW G310R comes with lesser features and equipment as compared to the Apache 310, it is most likely going to be priced lower than the Apache 310. Both bikes are produced from the TVS Motor Company plant in Hosur.

BMW G310R is also set for launch in India sometime in early 2018, where it will rival the likes of TVS Apache 310, KTM Duke 390 in terms of price. It will sport upside down forks, a well sculpted fuel tank and massive exhaust (same as Apache 310). Engine is a 313cc, four stroke, liquid cooled, single cylinder unit offering 34 bhp power and 28 Nm torque and mated to a 6 speed gearbox. Fuel efficiency is at 36 kmpl.

BMW G310R is the most affordable BMW motorcycle ever. With the G310R, the company aims to increase their global sales, as well as reach. They will be targeting new customers, most of whom have never been a BMW customer before. International media has already given thumbs up to the made in India G310R, while BMW Motorrad has praised TVS for their manufacturing quality.

All in all, bikers in India get ready for some difficult time in choosing between multiple options on offer in the sub 500 cc segment.
Introduction

The latest, eight-generation, Passat is finally in India and is available in a price bracket of Rs 30 lakh to Rs 33 lakh. Internationally acclaimed for its comfortable cabin, lots of passenger room and efficient motors, the India-spec model comes with a powerful 2.0-litre TDI Turbo Diesel engine with a DSG transmission.

This is the second product from VW India, after the Tiguan SUV, to be based on the excellent MQB-platform. Well, premium sedan havent been doing too well on the sales charts but theres definitely a niche market of large premium sedans, slotted pretty close to entry-level products to the mighty German trio of Audi, BMW, and Mercedes.

So, basically, the new Passat will rival not only the likes of Toyota Camry but also cars like the Mercedes CLA (on price). Which brings us to two not-so-distant cousins of this new model  the Skoda Superb and the Audi A3. While the former offers a lot of real estate the latter enjoys a really high brand value.

However, what sets the new Passat apart is a pretty attractive price tag and a long list of features. Of course, an understated but distinctly Teutonic design, a potent engine, and a comfortable cabin are an additional bonus. Well describe all the virtues in our new Volkswagen Passat Test Drive Review here.

Exteriors

Well, the new Passat isnt a really thrilling car to look at. While some might even find it to be a bit dull, the Passats clientele will likely appreciate the understated elegance on offer. The new Passat gets a pretty impressive fascia that is characterized by a wide chrome-plated grille. The front grille gets four chrome bars that bend slightly inward towards the headlights, thereby forming a slightly trapezoid shape.

Just above the grille and the headlamps, theres another chrome strip that runs along the entire width of the front-end. This chrome bar is laterally connected with a clearly defined shoulder line. The wide grille, sleek headlamps and some diagonal surfaces come together to form a striking and distinctly Volkswagen front-end.

The side profile of the new Passat is characterized by the area between the beltline, running along the window sill, and the strong shoulder line, running at the height of the door handles. It is in this section that the creases and the edges come together to form a very dynamic, and an almost sportscar-like, C-pillar. Furthermore, the new Passat gets multi-spoke alloy wheels that enhance the classiness of the design.

At the rear, the taillamps have been designed to be wide and sleek to further accentuate the width of the new model. It is at the crease beneath the taillamps that the body draws inward. Basically, the upper part of the rear body protrudes more above the rear bumper than below it. This interesting play of sheetmetal lends a distinct character to the Passats posterior.

Interiors

The interior of the new VW Passat is built up of high quality, dark-coloured materials and boasts an excellent fit and finish. The dashboard gets matte-finished wood inserts to keep things classy. Theres also some piano black trim around the infotainment unit to further spruce up the dashboard. As expected from a modern day German sedan in this segment, the overall quality levels are best-in-class and wont give you any reason to complain.

World over, the Passat has won enough accolades for its comfortable cabin and the latest generation model takes the experience a notch higher. The seats are extremely supportive and the front ones offer electric adjustments along with the heating function. The drivers chair also gets memory to save the adjustments and a massage feature. Theres generous leg-space, both at the front and the rear.

However, the Passat still cant beat the Limo-like Superb in this department. The boot, at 586-litres, is fairly large and can hold plenty of luggage. Theres also a 60:40 split folding feature for the rear seat that can boost the boot space by a considerable margin.

Features

The new generation Passat offers a really very long list of features. These include-

Heated Front Seats

Drivers Seat Adjustment Memory

Massage Feature for Drivers Seat

Nine airbags

ABS

ESC

Automatic parking

Tyre pressure monitoring system

Three-zone climate control system

Touchscreen Infotainment Unit

Apple CarPlay

Android Auto

USB, Aux and Bluetooth

360-degree Camera

Electric Front Seats Adjustment

Electric rear sunshade

Electric sunroof

Driving Dynamics & Engine

For now, the new Passat will be sold in India with just one engine and transmission option  a 2.0-litre TDI Turbocharged Diesel engine with a DSG transmission. The engine pumps out a maximum power output of 175 bhp along with a peak torque of 350 Nm. The world-class oil burner starts producing the peak torque as low as 1,500 RPM and continues to offer it till 3,500 RPM. The excellent DGS transmission is a six-speed unit and offers well spaced out gear ratios. The new Volkswagen Passat has an ARAI-tested fuel efficiency of 17.42 kmpl.

The power delivery is pretty linear almost throughout the rev range. The suspension setup is perfect for Indian roads. It takes the uneven surface in its stride with quite ease and offers a smooth ride on highways. NVH levels are brilliant and you dont hear a thing from the outside world, including the noisy diesel motor.

For the driver, there is enough punch in the engine to drive the car like an enthusiast, at the flick of his finger, thanks to the steering mounted paddle shifters. The steering is precise and offers good input, making handling precise. Brakes offer a good bite and bring this huge car to stop in impressive time.

First Look Video

New VW Passat First Drive New VW Passat | First Drive (HD) Posted by RushLane on Thursday, 14 December 2017

Verdict

New generation Passat is nothing but the new Audi A6 underneath. Built on the same platform, the new Passat comes with all bells and whistles, and that too at a fraction of a price. Volkswagen claims that in this car, is simply perfect. Well, we know that no car is perfect. But, the new Passat is definitely not far away from being perfect.

[wp-review id=258789]
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

An $81 billion emergency federal disaster relief bill unveiled this week by GOP congressional leaders in Washington is expected to provide much-needed aid to California, where record-breaking wildfires have destroyed thousands of homes and killed dozens this year.

The bill doesnt actually name California  although it names other disaster-stricken states, such as Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, that were hit by hurricanes Maria, Harvey and Irma this year. The legislation, however, says relief will be provided to states affected by wildfires  and for some California representatives, that was welcome news.

I like the disaster bill, said Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena. Its done everything Ive been working on, and it covers all the issues that I raised.

The news comes after an uproar over President Trumps proposed disaster aid last month, in which he asked Congress for $44 billion  with none of that money specifically allotted toward Californias wildfire destruction. Gov. Jerry Brown has asked for $7.4 billion in extra relief this year.

ALSO Calm winds help fire crews make progress

But while the supplemental disaster aid has bipartisan support in Washington, the bill itself is being used as a political pawn, congressional Democrats warned Tuesday.

Thats because GOP leaders have attached the relief funding to a temporary spending measure to prevent a government shutdown at midnight Friday. The move is intended to garner Democratic support for the budget measure, which prioritizes funding for the Department of Defense by providing an annual spending plan, while temporarily keeping other government programs running until Jan. 19.

The bottom line is the survivors of these fires are not political-trade bait, said Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael. We should not play games with this issue.

The supplemental federal disaster aid comes after California House members partnered in recent weeks in a rare bipartisan effort to call for leaders of the House Appropriations Committee to increase hurricane and wildfire relief funding.

Lawmakers who criticized the White House disaster package praised the $81 billion bill by House Appropriations Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., but said they did not like having the bill attached to controversial measures.

Its unclear how much of the $81 billion California would qualify for.

Congress previously approved $53 billion this year on federal relief toward hurricanes in Florida, Texas and Puerto Rico, wildfires in California and other natural disasters.

California has spent an estimated $627 million fighting fires since July 1, said state Department of Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer. That figure does not include the cost of damaged homes or businesses, with damage claims reported to insurance companies from the Northern California wildfires in October reaching $9 billion, according to state Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones. Those losses far surpass claims filed after any other wildfire in state history.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has responded to 6,982 fires this year that have burned a half million acres. Thats up from 4,759 fires last year that burned 244,000 acres. After surveying the devastating fires in Southern California this month, Brown called the destruction the new normal as climate change pushes weather events to greater extremes.

Among the blazes firefighters in the state are battling is the Thomas Fire, which erupted this month in Ventura County. That fire had scorched more than 270,000 acres in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties as of Tuesday morning. The state has spent $130 million fighting that blaze.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Carolyn Lochhead contributed to this report.

Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com
Advocates for women in the military have returned to San Francisco federal court to argue in a lawsuit that the Army and Marine Corps undermined womens recently won access to combat service by barring them from battalions that dont have at least two female officers in place.

The lawsuit, filed Monday, also challenged the Marine Corps for placing men and women training for combat in separate boot camps.

Nearly a century after women first earned the right of suffrage, the (Defense Departments) segregation policies and practices still deny women a core component of full citizenship: serving on equal footing in defense of our nation, not as second-class citizens, lawyers for the Service Womens Action Network and four servicewomen said in a court filing.

The policy is the same old sex segregation by a different name, said the networks chief executive, Lydia Watts.

The Defense Department did not respond to a request for comment.

The case is an updated version of the plaintiffs 2012 lawsuit in San Francisco challenging a 1994 Defense Department policy that excluded women from all 238,000 positions in combat units in every military branch. Two months later, in January 2013, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced an end to the policy and said women would be allowed into all ground combat battalions by January 2016.

But the Pentagon has not followed through on that commitment under either President Barack Obama or President Trump, the womens lawyers said in their new filing. They cited the departments April 2016 announcement of a Leaders First policy for the Army and Marines, allowing women to join a combat battalion only after it had at least two female officers.

While military officials have described the policy as a step toward gender integration, it actually sets up servicewomen to fail, said the attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union and a San Francisco law firm.

They said only a limited number of military units  and National Guard units in only two states, Colorado and New Hampshire  have met the Leaders First requirement, while others continue to exclude women and perpetuate stereotypes about womens fitness for service.

Despite the long-standing ban, the suit noted, women have served in the U.S. military and faced enemy fire since the Revolutionary War. More than 280,000 women have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, the suit said. Among them were two plaintiffs: Marine Capt. Zoe Bedell, who led a 43-member female team that went on patrols with male units in Afghanistan, and Army Sgt. Jennifer Hunt, who was wounded by shrapnel in Iraq in 2007 and was awarded a Purple Heart.

The Marines sex-segregated basic-training camps have also been a failure, the suit said. It cited military newspaper reports that only 25 percent of women who attended the boot camps passed tests required to advance to the next stage of combat training, compared with 56 percent of female graduates from the Armys integrated training camps.

Although the new filing challenges actions of Obamas Defense Department, it also said Trump and his close advisers have expressed extreme hostility to gender integration in the military.

Four months after Panettas 2013 announcement, the suit said, Trump tweeted that the generals and top military brass never wanted a mixer but were forced to do it by very dumb politicians who wanted to be politically C? Future Defense Secretary James Mattis opposed allowing women in combat units in 2015, and declared in a court filing last month that he could not commit to maintaining the policy, the suit said.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko
Page Content

In the new year, Nevada employers will be required to provide workplace protections for employees who are victims of domestic violence. Nevada Senate Bill 361, which was signed into law by Gov. Brian Sandoval over the summer, will become effective on Jan. 1, 2018.

This law modifies Chapter 608 of the Nevada Revised Statutes to require employers to provide leave to an employee "who has been employed by an employer for at least 90 days and who is a victim of an act which constitutes domestic violence." Specifically, an eligible employee is entitled to 160 hours of leave (which may be taken in a block or intermittently) during a 12-month period following the date on which the domestic violence occurs. The leave allowed under this law may be paid or unpaid.

Eligible employees may use the hours of leave for various purposes, including the treatment of a health condition related to an act of domestic violence, counseling or assistance related to an act of domestic violence, participation in any court proceedings related to the act, or the establishment a safety plan to protect against future acts of domestic violence.

If leave is used for a reason for which leave may also be taken under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), such hours of leave must be deducted from the amount of leave the employee is entitled to take under the state domestic violence leave law and from the amount of leave the employee is entitled to take under the FMLA. Notably, unlike the FMLA, this statute does not have a minimum number of employees that must work for the organization for the employer to be subject to the law.

Under the law, an employer may not deny leave to an eligible employee or retaliate against an eligible employee for using or requesting leave, but may require documentation that supports the reason for the requested leave.

In addition, if any employee leaves employment in order to protect himself or herself (or his or her family members) from domestic violence, the former employee will nevertheless remain eligible to collect unemployment insurance benefits.

In addition to required leave, employers will be required to make reasonable accommodations for employees who are victims of domestic violence or have family members who have been subjected to domestic violence. Such accommodations may include, but are not limited to, transfers or reassignments, schedule modifications, or changes to an employee's work phone number. However, employers will not be required to implement any accommodation that would constitute an undue hardship.

The labor commissioner has prepared a bulletin that sets forth employees' rights to the benefits created under this law. The statute requires employers to post this bulletin in "a conspicuous location in each workplace maintained by the employer."

Finally, this law requires employers to maintain a record of the hours of leave taken for each employee for a two-year period following the entry of such information in the record, and to make such records available for inspection by the Nevada labor commissioner.

To ensure compliance with this law, employers may want to review and update their organization's policies and handbooks to inform employees of this newly created right. In addition, employers may want to train their management staff to ensure that such employees are aware of the law and that they can properly respond to an employee seeking assistance after an incident of domestic violence. Finally, although the statute does not specifically address such matters, employers may want to consider what, if any, physical security measures can be taken in the workplace to protect all employees from any threats of physical harm at the hands of an attacker.

Brian L. Bradford is an attorney with Ogletree Deakins in Las Vegas.  Ogletree Deakins. All rights reserved. Reposted with permission.
Back home at Southold, first Black director aims to broaden reach

Sarah Taylor performed in "The Nutcracker" as a girl and now as a "party parent." She's trying to get more kids exposed to ballet.
You have permission to edit this article.

Edit Close
New Beginnings Hair Styling Center in Georgetown is celebrating 25 years at its present location. From left are hair stylist Myra Caddell and co-owners Alma Owens, Angie Powers and Beverly Wilson.
Idaho Fish and Game Commissioner Dan Blanco has a favorite subject of late, but its one that troubles him.

Attend a meeting where the commissioner is present and you are likely to hear a few minutes of discussion about chronic wasting disease, also known as CWD.

Idahos deer, elk and moose populations are free of the disease, but its slowly marching westward. The disease has been present in Wyoming for years and this fall it was found in Montana for the first time.

The likelihood is very high that sooner or later that CWD will infect our herds in Idaho, he said Wednesday during a phone interview. Having said that, I think what we need to do is try to stave off that day as long as possible and once it does enter the state, do everything we can do to contain it.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game is in the midst of updating its CWD response plan. Toby Boudreau, assistant chief of the agencys Wildlife Bureau at Boise, said the state has done random sampling for CWD the past two decades. He agrees its probably only a matter of time before the state gets a positive test. When that happens, officials want to be ready. The response plan consists not only of a testing protocol, but also is designed to give the agency a number of different options, or tools, to use in an attempt to contain any outbreak.

Many states without CWD in their herds, including Washington, prohibit the importation of deer and elk carcasses from states that have tested positive. Some require all wild game meat brought in by hunters from CWD hot states to be deboned before it crosses state lines. Others merely forbid the importation of spinal columns or heads, where the proteins, or prions, that play a role in transmitting the disease reside. Blanco calls the prions zombie proteins.

You cant kill them because they are not really alive, he often says.

Idaho doesnt have a carcass importation ban, but Boudreau said adopting one could be a recommendation that emerges from the update process. He said a ban and many other potential tools would have to be implemented by the commission.

Our response plan is going to be adaptive in nature and describe all the tools that are possible. Some of those things involve developing regulations proposalsthings the commission will be integrally involved in, like a carcass transport rule.

That is something Blanco is advocating.

If it walks across the border of Idaho from Wyoming in a living animal that is infected, that is one thing, and you can really concentrate on the border areas and try to contain it, he said. If you have carcasses coming in and being buried in back pastures all over the state, you are conceivably spreading it throughout the state instead of just a single border area.

Blanco also wants the agency to look at other ways the disease may be brought to Idaho. Some hunters use commercially available deer urine to mask their own scent and to use it attract bucks during the rut. Blanco said there is evidence the prions can be present in urine.

I think we need to look hard at, as other states have, at the whole question of whether or not the prionsthe proteins that pass the diseaseif these proteins are present in deer urine and if it proves deer urine is a threat, we may want to look at what other states have done to restrict deer urine, he said.

Boudreau said the process to update the response plan is likely to be finished by February or March.
Milky Way Arcs Above Death Valley

From eclipses to comets and auroras, there were plenty of amazing celestial sights for skywatchers to catch this year. Check out some of the best photos taken by Space.com readers in 2017 in this year-end gallery. HERE: The arc of the Milky Way lights up the sky over Zabriskie Point in California's Death Valley National Park in a panoramic photograph captured by veteran astrophotographer Miguel Claro.



[Read more]

Deep Blue and Bright Pink Lights

Astrophotographer Hunter Davis captured this view of the Milky Way and southern lights at the South Pole.



[Read more]

'Diamond Ring' Over Oregon

Photographer Peter Robbins captured this incredible view of the sun peeking out from behind the moon just as totality came to an end in Oregon on Aug. 21. Robbins photographed the eclipse from Ochoco National Forest using a Nikon D7200 camera. To capture the "diamond ring effect" with a brilliant burst of light, he set used a tiny aperture setting of f32.



[See more photos.]

Moonbow under the Aurora by Petricca

A double moonbow meets the northern lights under starry skies in this photo by astrophotographer Giuseppe Petricca.



[Read more]

Geminid Meteor Over Alaska

A gorgeous, green meteor flies toward the northern lights in this stunning image by astrophotographer Matthew Skinner. He captured the meteor over a mountain range near Palmer, Alaska just after midnight on Dec. 14, when the Geminid meteor shower was at its peak. To the left of the meteor, a lime-green aurora peeks out from the top of the mountain range. [The 2017 Geminid Meteor Shower: Amazing Photos by Stargazers]

Starry Sky over Denmark

A shimmering sky of stars dances above skywatcher Ruslan Merzlyakov in this stunning image taken on Jan. 20, 2017 in Stenbjerg, Denmark.



[Read more]

Comet 41P & NGC 3198

Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacombini-Kresak zooms past the barred spiral galaxy NGC 3198 in this photo taken by astrophotographer Chris Schur on March 14. At the time, the glowing, green comet was about 16 million miles (25 million kilometers) from Earth. This "April Fool's Day Comet" will make its closest approach on April 1, passing within 13.7 million miles (22 million km) of the Earth. NGC 3198, also known as Herschel 146, may appear close by, but it lies 47 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major.



[Read more]

Venus Lights Up the Night Sky Over Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland

The bright planet Venus reflects off the ocean surface and illuminates the evening sky at the Causeway Coast in Northern Ireland in this photo by Miguel Claro.



[Read more]

Iridium Flare Over Maine

Astrophotographer Charles Cormier unexpectedly captured this Iridium flare in the night sky over Limerick, Maine. These short bursts of light happen when sunlight reflects from Iridium communications satellites that orbit the Earth.



[See more photos.]

Northern Lights from Denmark

Astrophotographer Ruslan Merzlyakov took this image over Feggesund, Mors island, Denmark on April 22.



[Read more]

Reflection of the Milky Way

Chirag Upreti

Stars of the Milky Way reflect off of California's Lake Sabrina in this image by astrophotographer Chirag Upreti. To the left, a meteor streaks over a snow-capped mountain peak of the Eastern Sierra.



[See more photos.]
Virgin Galactic's second SpaceShipTwo, VSS Unity, glides to a landing during an Aug. 4 test flight in the skies above Mojave, California. That flight remains the latest test flight of the suborbital vehicle.

BROOMFIELD, Colo.  Virgin Galactic will carry out a dedicated research flight of its SpaceShipTwo suborbital space plane for the Italian space agency ASI, with an Italian payload specialist on board, under an agreement announced Dec. 18.

Speaking at the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference here, George Whitesides, chief executive of Virgin Galactic, said the letter of intent with ASI covered a flight of SpaceShipTwo from Spaceport America in New Mexico in 2019. The agreement includes training of the Italian payload specialist who would fly on the mission.

"I think this is an important example of a government space agency contracting with a commercial space company to conduct human-tended suborbital research," he said. [How Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Works (Infographic)]

ASI is the second space agency to buy a SpaceShipTwo research flight. NASA, through its Flight Opportunities program for suborbital research, contracted with Virgin Galactic several years ago for a dedicated SpaceShipTwo flight to perform experiments, although that flight has yet to take place given the vehicle's extended development.

Whitesides said the research ASI will perform on the flight is linked to Space Rider, a reusable spaceplane that the European Space Agency is developing. Payloads can be flown on SpaceShipTwo suborbitally, he said, before later orbital missions on Space Rider or on the International Space Station.

"The exciting thing here is proving out that idea that this can be one step on an integrated chain of research platforms that enable scientists and technologists to build up capabilities in stepwise fashion that reduces risk and cost and increases the speed of iteration," he said.

Whitesides did not provide many details on the development of SpaceShipTwo itself. The second SpaceShipTwo, named VSS Unity, is still in the glide flight phase of its test program, although its last flight was more than four months ago, on Aug. 4. Whitesides said that the company was still planning to carry out one more glide flight before beginning the powered flights, where SpaceShipTwo will ignite its hybrid rocket motor.

"We've been doing a lot of work on the vehicle to be prepared for that phase of flight," he said. "We're looking forward to having a full 2018 with powered test flights. That will be a very exciting phase for our company. We're going to take our time to do it right."

He said the powered flight program will have many "test points" to go through incrementally as the vehicle first makes it to space on those flights, and then to "refine the various aspects of the customer experience" such as evaluating the interior of the vehicle.

Beyond the fact that the powered test flights will take place in 2018, Whitesides did not give specific schedules for the vehicle. "The team is making really good progress, and we're excited to get into that in the future," he said of the upcoming powered test flight campaign.

Whitesides also had little to add about a planned billion-dollar investment into Virgin's group of space companies by a Saudi Arabian fund. The Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia said Oct. 26 it will invest $1 billion into Virgin Galactic, Virgin Orbit and The Spaceship Company, with an option for an additional $480 million. The agreement, at that time, was still in the form of a non-binding memorandum of understanding.

"We're working through the partnership with PIF. We're very excited about that partnership," he said when asked about the status of the deal. "We'll announce more as we're ready to do so."

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.
BROOMFIELD, Colo.  After carrying out a successful test flight of a new version of its New Shepard suborbital spacecraft, a Blue Origin executive said Dec. 18 that the company was now about a year away from starting to fly people.

Speaking at the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference (NSRC) here, Jeff Ashby, a former NASA astronaut who is director of safety and mission assurance for Blue Origin, said the Dec. 12 flight of the vehicle from Blue Origin's test site in West Texas was a major milestone for the company.

That flight featured both a new version of the cylindrical propulsion module as well as "Version 2.0" of its crew capsule, now outfitted with the large windows that are a distinctive feature of the spacecraft. The capsule carried 12 experiments as well as a test dummy, dubbed "Mannequin Skywalker," to measure the environment a human would experience on those flights. [Watch Blue Origin Launch "Mannequin Skywalker" on New Shepard Capsule 2.0]

The crew capsule from Blue Origin's New Shepard vehicle after landing Dec. 12 on a suborbital test flight. The capsule carried experiments as well as a test dummy to collect data on what people will experience on future flights. (Image credit: Blue Origin)

The flight was the first in more than a year for New Shepard, after the final test flight in October 2016 of the previous version of the vehicle. "We learned a lot from it, which is why you saw the one-year hiatus before we began flying again," Ashby said. That time allowed the company to make the vehicle more reliable and "human-capable," he said.

Besides being a successful demonstration of the new flight hardware, the test flight was the first performed under a launch license awarded by the Federal Aviation Administration in August. Previous test flights took place under an experimental permit, which is designed to streamline the regulatory process for suborbital vehicle testing but does not allow the vehicle to carry cargo for hire.

"You have to be licensed in order to collect revenue," Ashby said. "So last week was the start of a revolution. It was our first revenue flight for payloads: a huge, historic moment for us."

"This was our first commercial flight, which in many ways was the flight that I had been waiting for since my first NSRC," said Erika Wagner, business development manager at Blue Origin, said during a panel discussion later at the conference. "We had paying customers on board, both NASA and commercial."

Blue Origin will continue to carry research payloads on future test flights of the vehicle. Wagner said the manifest for 2018 is largely full now, although the company said not disclosed a schedule of flights of the vehicle.

The company plans to later fly humans, both as payload specialists for human-tended experiments as well as on tourist flights. Those flights, though, are still at least a year away.

"We're probably a year and a half, two years out from when we're actually able to fly tended payloads," Ashby said. "We're about roughly a year out from human flights, depending on how the test program goes. We have a bunch more tests to do, and we're going to fly some human test flights before we put paying people in the rocket."

Blue Origin has yet to start selling seats on New Shepard flights. "We have not yet opened our website for tickets yet, and we won't do that until we're flying the versions of the rocket and capsule that people will ride on, to be delivered some time next year," he said. "But we think there's a lot of interest."

Ashby said the development of New Shepard, along with the reusable first stage of SpaceX's Falcon 9, was part of a "revolution" in spaceflight. He recalled a meeting a decade ago convened by Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton, head of Air Force Space Command, that included experts from NASA and the Air Force Research Laboratory to examine ways to reduce launch costs.

"The sense in that meeting was that flyback or rocketback boosters were not a viable way to proceed," he recalled. Such boosters, the meeting concluded, cost too much payload to preserve payload for a landing and, "based on the space shuttle experience, couldn't be made to be operational."

What changed, he said, were improvements in computer systems that enabled pinpoint landings, as well as autonomous flight termination systems. He also credited the "deep-pocketed investors from the dot-com era that had a passion for space," like Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos.

"It is an amazing time," Ashby said. "What was unfeasible  and, even if it could be done, they said uneconomical  is now becoming commonplace."

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.
Paul Sutter is an astrophysicist at The Ohio State University and the chief scientist at COSI science center. Sutter is also host of Ask a Spaceman and Space Radio, and leads AstroTours around the world. Sutter contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

You would think that electrons would be easy enough to describe. Mass. Charge. Good to go. Those two little numbers can be used to describe a whole host of electromagnetic phenomena. But researchers have learned that those particles are much more complicated than that.

That became clear when Otto Stern and Walther Gerlach shot some silver atoms through a varied magnetic field in 1922 and saw something they couldn't explain. The setup required silver atoms that were electrically neutral  with their electrons' charge perfectly balancing that of the protons. If you were to run this experiment and not know anything about quantum mechanics (a la Stern and Gerlach), you might expect one of two results. [The 5 Most Ingenious Experiments in Astronomy and Physics]

In the most boring possible result, the neutrality of the atoms would nullify any interaction with the magnetic field, and they would straight-line sail through the apparatus without even blinking.

However, if the components of the atom were to behave like little metal balls that didn't merely have mass and charge, but could also spin on their own axis, then that angular momentum would indeed interact with the surrounding magnetic field, producing a torque. This is a totally normal and well-known electromagnetic effect that you can try at home, assuming you have strong magnetic fields and rapidly spinning metal balls.

Since each individual atom would have a random torque in a random direction, that interaction would spread out the trajectories of the atoms, sending them splattering against a screen after exiting the magnetic field.

Stern and Gerlach were surprised because they got neither.

Taking a fork in the road

Instead, the two German scientists found themselves staring at two distinct splotches of deposited silver atoms. Instead of going in a straight line, and instead of spreading out evenly, it appeared that the silver atoms had conspired to separate themselves into two distinct camps, with one group heading up and the other going down.

The experimenters were witnessing one of the first in-your-face clues that the subatomic realm operates on rules that are far from the familiar ones. In this case, quantum effects were in full force, and researchers soon realized that atoms (or more precisely, the particles that comprise atoms) have a previously unknown property that only reveals itself in the presence of a magnetic field.

And since those atoms kinda-sorta behaved as spinning balls of electrically charged metal, this new property was dubbed "spin." And so particles like electrons suddenly had three properties: mass, charge and spin.

Taking it out for a 'spin'

And just like mass and charge, we can perform experiments to discover the nature of the spin property and how it interacts with the other forces and particles in the universe. And it turns out that spin has some pretty weird properties indeed.

For one, the magnitude of a particular particle's spin is fixed. By definition, electrons have a spin equal to 1/2. Other particles might have spin of 1, 3/2, 2 or even 0. And the magnitude of a particle's spin determines what directions of the spin we can actually measure.

For example, a spin 1/2 particle like an electron can only ever be measured to be +1/2 or -1/2, corresponding to the up and down deflections of the Stern-Gerlach experiment. A spin 1 particle, such as a photon, can be measured to have directions +1, 0, or -1, and that's it. I know its confusing notation, but youre going to have to blame the physicists who first describing it a hundred years ago.

Keep in mind that the actual direction of the spin could point anywhere  imagine a little arrow tagged onto each and every particle. The length of that arrow is fixed for each kind of particle, but we're only ever allowed to measure a limited number of directions. If the arrow is pointing even slightly up it will register in any experiment as +1/2. If it's a little bit down or very much down, it doesnt matter, we get -1/2. And that's it.

It's like the most useless GPS navigation in the world: Instead of giving you accurate directions, you're only told, "Go north 500 steps," or "Go south 500 steps." Good luck finding that restaurant.

Taking it to the limit

That right there is the bedeviling nature of quantum mechanics: It fundamentally limits our ability to measure things at small scales.

After enough experimentation, the "rules" of spin were added to scientists' knowledge of quantum physics, concurrently being developed in the 1920s. But it wasn't exactly a natural fit. The formulation of the quantum world that most folks are familiar with  say, the famous Schrodinger wave equation the allows us to compute probabilities of particle locations  doesn't naturally include the concept of spin.

The trouble stems from the approach that Erwin Schrodinger took when he went to figure out all this quantum business. By the early 1920s, Einstein's theory of special relativity was already old news, and physicists knew that any law of physics must incorporate that. But when Schrodinger wrote a relativistically correct version of his equation, he couldn't make heads or tails of it, and abandoned it for the less-correct, but still workable, version that we know and love. While incredibly useful, Schrodingers picture of quantum mechanics doesnt automatically include any description of spin  it has to be inelegantly tacked on.

But around the same time, a certain theoretical physicist named Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac was also puzzling out the quantum world and went full bore with an approach to quantum mechanics that included special relativity. And unlike his buddy Erwin, he was able to crack the mathematical code and figure out its implications. One of those implications of uniting quantum mechanics with special relativity was  you guessed it  spin. His mathematics automatically included a description of spin. If he had worked it out a few years before the experiments of Stern and Gerlach, he couldve predicted their results!

Instead we discovered quantum spin through experimentation, but Dirac taught us that in order to understand this strange particle property we have to put ourselves in a fully relativistic, and quantum, state of mind. As tempting as it may be, we have to totally discard any thoughts of subatomic particles being tiny, little spinning metal balls; their behavior is much more complex than that metaphor might suggest. Indeed, there are probably no useful metaphors at all.

There is simply no classical description of this enigmatic property. Instead, spin is a fundamental property of our universe, manifested only in the intersection of quantum mechanics and special relativity, without macroscopic metaphors. Its only through Dirac's mathematical machinery that we can make predictions about spin behaviors that we need in order to do physics. Thus we have an unfortunate case where the only way to answer the question "What is spin?" is to simply point at the math of Dirac and shrug.

Learn more by listening to the episode "How are we to understand quantum spin?" on the Ask A Spaceman podcast, available on iTunes (opens in new tab) and on the Web at http://www.askaspaceman.com. Thanks to Dean B., Pete E., @nirbnz, Kari Kale, and @sowjuinil for the questions that led to this piece! Ask your own question on Twitter using #AskASpaceman or by following Paul @PaulMattSutter and facebook.com/PaulMattSutter. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
Artistic impression of a habitable planet (center) near a pulsar (right). Such a planet must have an enormous atmosphere that converts the deadly X-rays and high-energy particles of the pulsar into heat.

Although pulsars regularly blast out deadly gamma rays and X-rays, alien planets in orbit around them could theoretically be habitable, a new study finds.

However, these pulsar worlds are likely not friendly to humans  according to the study, the planets' environment would be more like the bottom of the sea on Earth.

When a large star explodes in a supernova at the end of its life, it can leave behind a dense core of matter called a neutron star. Neutron star matter is the densest known material  a sugar cube-size piece has the mass of a mountain, about 100 million tons. The mass of a single neutron star exceeds that of the sun while fitting into a ball smaller in diameter than London. [Inside a Neutron Star (Infographic)]

Pulsars rotate extraordinarily rapidly, up to thousands of revolutions per second, and they flash like lighthouse beacons  hence their name, which is short for "pulsating star." They regularly blaze with gamma rays and X-rays and spew out energetic particles. According to the new study's researchers, the Milky Way galaxy hosts about 1 billion neutron stars, about 200,000 of which are pulsars.

Despite the violent nature of pulsars, they can still have planets. In fact, the first exoplanets that astronomers discovered orbit the pulsar B1257+12, located about 2,300 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Virgo.

Three worlds are known to orbit B1257+12, one of which is about one-fiftieth Earth's mass, while the other two are "super-Earths" about four times Earth's mass. Since these three exoplanets were discovered in 1992, astronomers have also discovered one Jupiter-size world around the pulsar PSR J17191438 and another Jupiter-size world around PSR B1620-26, which is a binary system containing a pulsar and a white dwarf star.

Now researchers suggest that life could exist on those pulsar-orbiting planets. "Despite emitting deadly particles and radiation, pulsars might have an habitable zone," study co-author Alessandro Patruno, an astrophysicist at Leiden University in the Netherlands, told Space.com.

Since there is life virtually wherever there is water on Earth, astronomers often judge a world as potentially habitable if it exists in a zone where liquid water could survive on its surface. In the new study, researchers found "habitable zones" could exist around neutron stars.

"Such a habitable zone can be as wide as the one that exists around normal stars," study co-author Mihkel Kama, an astrophysicist at the University of Cambridge in England, told Space.com.

The scientists used the Chandra Space Observatory to analyze X-rays from the pulsar B1257+12. Their calculations suggest this pulsar's two super-Earths might be warm enough to have liquid water on their surfaces, Patruno said. [The X-Ray Universe: Chandra X-Ray Space Observatory Pictures]

The researchers noted the habitability of planets around pulsars depended on at least two key findings. For one, atmospheres a million times thicker than Earth's are likely needed to protect any life on their surfaces from pulsar radiation. This would make conditions on these worlds similar to ones found in Earth's deep seas.

"The atmospheric pressure you find on the surface of these planets is comparable to or even higher than the pressure you have in the Mariana Trench," which at 36,000 feet deep (11,000 meters) is the deepest known point on Earth's surface, Kama said.

"However, since we know that life exists in the depths of our ocean, some form of life might certainly exist in these high pressure and warm environments," Patruno said.

Another key finding was that habitable worlds around pulsars are likely super-Earths with masses up to 10 times that of Earth, whose stronger gravitational fields help them hold onto their atmospheres for a billion or so years, the researchers said. The scientists calculated that radiation from pulsars would obliterate the atmosphere of a smaller planet within a few thousand years, leading any liquid water on their surfaces to boil away.

The researchers started this work "expecting to find that it is impossible to have an habitable zone around pulsars," Kama said. "Instead we quickly realized that for super-Earths this is a very solid possibility. Add on top of that the fact that the only multi-planetary pulsar system known has two super-Earths and our excitement skyrocketed."

For worlds in the habitable zones of pulsars, "the high energy particles and radiation will keep the atmosphere warm enough to allow liquid warm water to exist," Patruno said. "Since there is hardly any visible light reaching the planet  pulsars emit almost no visible light  this opens up very unexpected scenarios for exotic habitable environments."

The scientists do note that even a thick atmosphere cannot block all of the high-energy radiation from pulsars. "Some of it might still reach the surface of the planet, which might then be detrimental for any form of life," Kama said.

Patruno and Kama detailed their findings online Dec. 19 in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Follow Charles Q. Choi on Twitter @cqchoi. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques, set to fly to the International Space Station for Expedition 58/59 in December 2018, trained for spacewalks at NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston.

LONGUEUIL, Quebec  It's always a party when a Canadian astronaut is counting down to a space mission.

David Saint-Jacques held his first major mission event Nov. 29 at the Canadian Space Agency headquarters near Montreal. He unveiled the experiments in which he will likely participate during his stay on the International Space Station, starting in November 2018.

He spoke on stage for only about 10 minutes, but it seemed everyone in the country's space community was represented at the event. There were scientists, Canadian delegates from the International Space University, which is based in France, the chair of Canada's Space Advisory Board and even a few dozen attendees from a space conference happening on site that same day.

"Space is hard on the human body," Saint-Jacques said in front of about 125 people. "Right now, I'm training in Russia and Houston, and I'm as healthy as I'm ever been  but as soon as I arrive on board [the space station], my body will begin to deteriorate. I will quickly start to feel the effects of microgravity." [The Human Body in Space: 6 Weird Facts]

In both French and English, Saint-Jacques rapidly walked the audience through 10 of the experiments he plans to perform on the station  including experiments examining the health of his arteries, how well he navigates and the state of his psychological health.

Saint-Jacques, who was a medical doctor in Canada's north before joining the space program in May 2009, said the problems astronauts face in space are often similar to those people face on Earth. Hardened arteries are a problem for the elderly and people with sedentary lifestyles, as well as for astronauts. Bone studies in space benefit those with osteoporosis on Earth, Saint-Jacques said.

In French, he added that he will be very busy with his experiments, but he plans to use his spare time to "share his perspective with Canadians as much as possible." Saint-Jacques will use photographs and social media to provide orbital views of the planet and its environment, he added.

In a separate interview with Space.com, Saint-Jacques said he has just started the practical training of his mission after passing his academic exams. His practical training exams will take place in about six months, ecause Saint-Jacques is a backup astronaut for another mission just prior to his.

Helping seniors on site

Saint-Jacques will be the first Canadian in space since Chris Hadfield's widely covered mission of 2012-13. Hadfield, Canada's first space station commander, used social media to attract attention from all over the world. A lesser-known fact is that Hadfield ran an incredibly productive science mission on the space station, including participating in a University of Waterloo experiment called Vascular.

Vascular, which is short for Cardiovascular Health Consequences of Long-Duration Space Flight, examined how stiff arteries affect blood flow. Now, Vascular's principal investigator Richard Hughson and co-author Danielle Greaves, both researchers at Waterloo, have two follow-up space experiments in store for Saint-Jacques and his crewmates.

"Astronauts live a very sedentary lifestyle," Hughson said in an interview following the event. He said that based on mission logs he has consulted, a typical astronaut has aerobic exercise for only 30 minutes daily, and a similar amount allocated for resistive exercise. The rest of the 2-hour period astronauts receive for exercise daily is buried in maintenance: setting up equipment, taking it down and changing clothes twice in microgravity (no easy feat.)

The lack of aerobic exercise leads to a form of insulin resistance, a disorder in which cells cannot properly absorb the important hormone, similar to what is found in sedentary adults on Earth. Hughson said astronauts "age" rapidly in space due to weightlessness. Arteries experience 10-20 years' worth of hardening in a typical six-month mission, for example.

The new experiments look at artery stiffness (in an experiment called Vascular Echo) and cardiovascular health more generally (Vascular Aging). Hughson said he expects to recruit eight to nine astronauts for each experiment. Echo, which is ongoing, will conclude in two years, and Aging (which begins shortly) will finish in four years.

For his experiments, Hughson compares the measurements from astronauts with data from seniors on Earth. In the largest collaboration in Canada of its type, Hughson's team partnered with the Village at University Gates, a long-term-care facility with 192 beds that is on the University of Waterloo's north campus, Hughson said.

The facility, which opened in August 2015, allows researchers to study seniors in their residences instead of bringing them into a lab, where the results are harder to track over time, Hughson said. The company running the facility, Schlegel, will start construction on a 228-suite senior's residence on campus in the next month, Hughson added, which will accompany a $9-million expansion of his own research facilities on aging.

Psychological health in space

While most of the other experiments that Saint-Jacques discussed will focus on aspects of astronaut health, the investigation At Home in Space stands alone. The University of British Columbia-led work is the first Canadian experiment to tackle psychosocial matters in space, the researchers said.

Principal investigator and sociologist Phyllis Johnson, a researcher at University of British Columbia, told Space.com that in a long-term space mission, the six-person International Space Station crew frequently participates in cultural events. The completion of tough spacewalks often results in a celebratory meal, for example. Crewmembers often mark 100 days in space for a given crew with a small ceremony. Additionally, the crew together decides on which national holidays to honor during its mission. [Holidays in Space: An Astronaut Photo Album]

Finding out how astronauts form culture in space has many potential applications, including learning how to protect spacefarers' psychological health and that of teams that participate in isolated, confined expeditions on Earth in the Arctic, Antarctic or other remote locations. Johnson will collect questionnaires from astronauts five times: twice during the mission, once before the mission and twice after the mission (three weeks after and six months after).

"When you come back, you might feel different six months hence," Johnson said when explaining why she will do a second follow-up survey post-mission. The first few weeks are still filled with mission excitement, while in the longer term, astronauts face losing constant contact with their crewmates and need to reintegrate into their families.

While the Canadian experiment is the first of its kind, previous, non-Canadian experiments have also explored psychological health in space. A prominent example is "Behavioral Issues Associated with Isolation and Confinement: Review and Analysis of Astronaut Journals," which NASA astronaut Scott Kelly participated in during his one-year mission in space.

These "introspective reports" from astronauts "can provide useful information about the factors that affected individual and group performance during the confinement," said principal investigator and Anacapa Sciences president Jack Stuster said in a NASA brief.

The full list of experiments

In the words of the Canadian Space Agency, here are brief descriptions of the experiments in which Saint-Jacques will likely participate during his mission.

At Home in Space (Johnson, University of British Columbia)  Canada's first psychosocial experiment on board the ISS: It examines how multinational crews of astronauts adapt to living together in space during long-duration missions.

 Canada's first psychosocial experiment on board the ISS: It examines how multinational crews of astronauts adapt to living together in space during long-duration missions. Bio-Analyzer (Ian D'Souza, Honeywell/Com Dev)  New Canadian instrument that will perform near-real-time analysis of blood, providing data on multiple biological markers for research purposes.

 New Canadian instrument that will perform near-real-time analysis of blood, providing data on multiple biological markers for research purposes. Bio-Monitor (Jean-Francois Roy, Carre Technologies)  New Canadian bio-monitoring system, including a smart shirt, that will monitor astronauts' vital signs and support the identification and mitigation of risks to humans in space.

 New Canadian bio-monitoring system, including a smart shirt, that will monitor astronauts' vital signs and support the identification and mitigation of risks to humans in space. Immuno Profile (Chen Wang, University of Toronto)  Investigates and monitors astronauts' immune systems over long-duration missions on board the ISS.

 Investigates and monitors astronauts' immune systems over long-duration missions on board the ISS. MARROW (Guy Trudel and Odette Laneuville, University of Ottawa)  Aims to establish if microgravity causes fat accumulation in the bone marrow and impacts the production, function and destruction of red and white blood cells.

 Aims to establish if microgravity causes fat accumulation in the bone marrow and impacts the production, function and destruction of red and white blood cells. MicroPREP (Teodor Veres, National Research Council of Canada)  New Canadian lab-on-a-chip technology based on centrifugal microfluidics. From a sample of body fluids, this technology can isolate multiple macro-molecules such as DNA, along with proteins or rare cells required to assess immune system state.

 New Canadian lab-on-a-chip technology based on centrifugal microfluidics. From a sample of body fluids, this technology can isolate multiple macro-molecules such as DNA, along with proteins or rare cells required to assess immune system state. TBone (Steven Boyd, University of Calgary)  Studies the effects of weightlessness on bone quality, as bones age at an accelerated rate in space.

 Studies the effects of weightlessness on bone quality, as bones age at an accelerated rate in space. Vascular Aging (Hughson and Greaves, University of Waterloo)  This experiment will study the repercussions of weightlessness, nutrition, physical activity and radiation on the cardiovascular system, and on the onset of insulin resistance in orbit.

 This experiment will study the repercussions of weightlessness, nutrition, physical activity and radiation on the cardiovascular system, and on the onset of insulin resistance in orbit. Vascular Echo (Hughson and Greaves, University of Waterloo)  This study examines how and why some astronauts experience arterial stiffening in space, in order to find ways of slowing vascular aging.

 This study examines how and why some astronauts experience arterial stiffening in space, in order to find ways of slowing vascular aging. Wayfinding (Giuseppe Iaria, University of Calgary)  Aims to better understand how space affects astronauts' orientation, navigation skills and brain function.

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
Badajoz, Dec 20, 2017 (SPS) -the University of Extremadura has hosted a round table on human rights in Western Sahara and its ongoing violation by the forces of occupation of the Moroccan regime.

The speakers of these conferences were: Hameiduha Emhamed, Saharawi delegate for Extremadura and Jaidima Yumani, Saharawi activist for human rights.

The lecturers explained in detail the situation of the people from the origin of the conflict to the present day, emphasizing the urgent call to put an end to the violations of the most basic human rights by the Moroccan forces of repression and greater solidarity with the prisoners of Gdeim Izik in order to get their release.

At the same time, the speakers demanded the end of the illegal Moroccan occupation and the indiscriminate plundering of the natural resources of Western Sahara.

The event was attended by a large audience, mostly professors and university students. SPS

125/090/TRA
T HE Bank of England extended an olive branch to the EU on Wednesday by unveiling plans to keep Londons doors open for European banks operating in the UK after Brexit.

The central banks Prudential Regulation Authority, led by Sam Woods, will allow European bank giants to operate their UK divisions through a branch structure instead of forcing them to turn into costly subsidiaries, it said.

The move is set to save European banks millions in setting up full-blown subsidiaries and keep many of them in London.

"Keeping the UKs financial system open to foreign institutions is in the best interests of the UK, EU and global economies," the Bank of England said.

Moving to a subsidiary structure would have led to an additional capital buffer requirement for European banks of around 40 billion (35 billion), according to Boston Consulting Group.

There are around 77 UK bank branches operating in the UK, including big employers like Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas and Societe Generale, and many bank executives were warning privately they would leave London if the PRA forced them into the subsidiary regime.

The boss of one major global bank in the UK said: This move is extremely welcome as a first step in the negotiations with Europe over financial services. Thank God we have the mature and knowledgeable heads at the Bank of England, who actually understand how complicated this stuff is.

So many politicians on both sides have taken aggressive positions with no real understanding of how important it is that we agree a system where we can all trade together. We need more olive branches.

The move also had big tax implications for the UK Treasury, with figures from UK Finance showing half of the 34 billion tax take from banks for the year ending 2016 coming from foreign entities.

With Brexit looming in March 2019, banks would have needed to apply to set up subsidiaries within the next three months due to the year-long authorisation process involved.

Last month, Woods (pictured) said the regulator was rushing to get EU banks up to speed on its post-Brexit policy.

However, the PRA policy is dependent on financial regulators in Europe co-operating with the proposal to maintain the status quo.

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier suggested slim chances of that this week by claiming that the UK would lose the financial services passport, which allows free access to sell services across the 27 EU states, after Brexit.

An EU bank director in London said: This is a great step forward. The hassle and cost of setting up as a subsidiary in London would have been huge.
F inding enough wood for the fire is a festive challenge usually associated with households rather than Britains biggest power station.

But Drax admitted on Wednesday it will take a 10 million hit to earnings this year, because problems at its rail unloading facilities will restrict biomass deliveries to two of its generating units.

In order to eke out supplies, the North Yorkshire firm will reduce output on the two renewables units before they are taken offline for a short period.

About 70% of the electricity produced by Drax  enough to power Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield and Liverpool  is made using compressed wood pellets rather than coal. The firm anticipates the rail outage will last into the new year, but with coal and other operations continuing unaffected.

Investors were unimpressed and shares fell 10.1p, or nearly 4%, to 266.3p.

The FTSE 100 was little changed after rallying in previous sessions on hopes that US President Donald Trumps tax bill will be approved before Christmas: it was off 4.67 points to 7539.42.

Low-cost airline easyJet was among the blue-chip risers as the tailwinds supporting chief executive Johan Lundgren in the first month of his new job continued. The latest boost came from Panmure Gordon as the broker removed its Sell rating on the stock and increased its target for 2019 profits by 20%.

It said the recent acquisition of Air Berlin operations at Tegel airport could add 50 million in profits and there should be some benefit from Ryanairs labour issues. Analyst Mark Irvine-Fortescue said: Ryanairs usual response of aggressive fares and/or capacity growth may be a little blunted having yielded to pilot unionisation.

Panmures new target price of 1300p is still below present levels: the FTSE 100 firm rose 14p to 1430p today.

The FTSE 250 was 4.17 points lower at 20,337.34, with Tullow Oil up 6.9p, or 4%, to 189.4p after analysts at Jefferies upgraded their crude oil price forecasts for next year.

Discount retailer B&M benefited from Liberums assessment that the chain is a stock for all seasons.

Amid improved momentum in the core UK business, Liberum said there was room for B&M to return more than 500 million to shareholders over the next three years. It raised its target price to 475p, although this wasnt enough to prevent shares falling half a penny to 409.8p.

Bodycote was 5p cheaper at 892p after the heat treatment specialist announced a long-term agreement with metal components business Doncasters.

United Oil & Gas, the Dublin-based company established in 2015 by former Tullow Oil management, rose 6% to 4.5p as it said it had raised 1.25 million from a share placing.
TWIN FALLS  The only suspect not to plead guilty to the 2015 robbing and beating of Tigre Darin Martinez will come before a jury for the second time in January.

Dwayne Lee McCormick, 33, faces felony counts of aggravated battery, robbery and robbery conspiracy. He and three others allegedly robbed and beat Martinez, 45, hours before Martinez was found dead of a methamphetamine overdose in a Twin Falls basement.

A May jury trial for McCormick was declared a mistrial after Martinezs sister, Tabithea Clifford, turned over photographs and audio recordings relevant to the case to prosecutors days before the trial.

The new evidence cast doubt on whether McCormick had actually participated in the crime, and would have significantly changed the defenses trial tactic, McCormicks attorney said at the time.

Another jury trial for McCormick on Jan. 16 will proceed as scheduled, a pretrial conference Tuesday morning confirmed.

McCormick also faces a felony charge for assault or battery upon certain personnel, to which he has also pleaded not guilty. A jury trial is scheduled for March 7.
T escos 3.7 billion takeover of cash-and-carry firm Booker gained the final all-clear on Wednesday from the competition watchdog, paving the way for a vote on the deal in the New Year.

The Competition and Markets Authority said it had no concerns about the tie-up following a near-year-long investigation, and despite criticism that the deal could hurt smaller rivals.

The CMAs Simon Polito added that the watchdog had carefully listened to feedback from retailers and wholesalers, but deems the sector already highly competitive and judges the merger wont disrupt the status quo.

The deal could turn Tesco into a major supplier to corner shops, serving 125,000 independent convenience stores as well as 468,000 restaurants and pubs.

A clutch of Bookers rivals, including Spar and Bestway, had previously asked the CMA to block the deal amid fears the merger could lead to price increases.

The competition regulator said: Tesco and Booker do not compete head-to-head in most of their activities. Booker does not own the shops it supplies and these retailers are free to set their prices and decide which products to stock. So, although these shops compete with Tesco, Booker cannot directly determine how they compete.

Theres little trepidation over the shareholder vote expected at the end of February.

There are some smaller Booker shareholders wanting to negotiate a better price, but they wont have enough votes, said Bruno Monteyne of Bernstein.

In March, however, two of Tescos biggest investors came out against the acquisition, with Schroders urging Tesco chairman John Allan to stop the deal.

The supermarkets giant bid for Booker sparked a wave of consolidation in the industry, including Morrisons tie-up with convenience stores chain McColls as well as the Co-op, which clinched a 143 million takeover of Nisa last month.
I have a love-hate relationship with Christmas. Its the relentless pressure that starts building from Guy Fawkes night. The non-stop bombardment of images of the perfect Christmas, the perfect relationships, families and of course a truckload of cash to splash about on the most lavish of gifts.

Its become a festival of shopping and consumerism  and thats just my family. I genuinely believe that if you stopped buying presents for anyone over the age of 10, Christmas would turn into a much more magical occasion.

Besides, lets get real, presents are always such a major disappointment. Everyone is rubbish at it. People mean well but it always ends in a rictus smile with the words I, erm really like it no, honestly which is code for have you got the gift receipt?

Ive had some corkers. The best was when I got a dartboard. And it wasnt even a real one. It was a safety one made out of Stickle Bricks. Id been hoping for a Sindy House. You can imagine my disappointment.

I too fess up to being awful at shopping. I have a gender-fluid approach to Christmas shopping which means heading into town on Christmas Eve with no clue as to what Im going to buy, mainly buying stuff for myself and then doing a last-minute three for two supermarket sweep in Boots and hoping that everyone I love is really into exfoliating. Theyre not.

Shopping for grown-ups is a waste of time, money and energy. If we all stopped this ludicrous activity immediately it would seriously help close our productivity gap. Yes. And a merry Christmas to you too.

Can you tell Im in a festive mood? I am actually now warming to Christmas because of two activities which I think should be made mandatory. The first is watching Its A Wonderful Life. I saw this for the first time at the BFI on Sunday and I blubbed like an orphan from start to finish.

Ive had present corkers, like a dartboard made of Stickle Bricks when I really wanted a Sindy House

All the cliches ring true about the film being a fable for modern times. Its a film about why your life matters right now  even if youve think youve arsed everything up or you feel invisible and insignificant. This is a really hard time of year for people emotionally and financially, whether its money issues, family separation, depression or the increasing epidemic of loneliness. As annoying as your family  and, indeed, you  can be, I defy anyone to watch that film and not want to hug your loved ones and go speak to your neighbour.

The other activity which always lifts the soul is a spot of carol singing. As someone from a Muslim background and not particularly religious, there is something strangely life-affirming about going to a lovely candlelit church and singing your heart out.

I sometimes feel a bit po-faced about religion and why it matters to people until I found myself having a near-religious experience at St Pancras Church belting out Oh Come All Ye Faithful, especially that last verse when the choir and the big organ really kicks in.

There is something magical about people coming together and singing. Its a bit like posh, sober karaoke to be honest but theres nothing nicer. I remember fondly going to midnight mass with my brother-in-law, who could not be more different to me politically, culturally or religiously but we would have the best time and bond, especially over the post-show mulled wine and mince pies.

If thats not the spirit of Christmas then I dont know what is. Mind you, Christmas is always a bit tricky at home. Being Muslim, we feel that we shouldnt celebrate it. But being Indian we have to have the biggest blingiest tree possible. Thats modern Britain for you.

Period drama reaches No 10 tonight

Period poverty is not something out of Poldark. Its a serious issue facing women and girls. When poverty is on the rise and its hard enough to get food on the table, sanitary products can start to look like luxury products which of course theyre not. There are stories of women and girls using socks or rags or taping tissue to their underwear because they cant afford to buy the products they need.

Tonight sees a protest outside No 10 with speeches from women including Jess Phillips MP and model Adwoa Aboah, pictured, and model Daisy Lowe asking Theresa May and Justine Greening to provide girls on free school meals access to free sanitary products. The campaign, called #FreePeriods, is the brainchild of 18-year-old Amika George, who was moved by hearing stories of schoolgirls missing school because they were ashamed of not having the right products during their periods.

This is a matter of dignity. Poverty shouldnt stop girls getting an education because its their time of the month. This is one period drama we could all do without.

Baking queens rise to the top

In a year of much snark, we could all learn a thing or two from those wonderful queens of baking, Mary Berry and Prue Leith.

Leith replaced Berry on the Great British Bake Off after six years when the show moved from the BBC to Channel 4 but theres no hard feelings as they were photographed together wearing matching pink aprons to cook a Christmas dinner.

Prues apron said, What would Mary do? and Marys said, What would Prue do?

I wonder if Mary could resist adding Tweet the winner six hours early to hers?
H e may have a successful solo career these days but Johnny Marr has always been a musical collaborator.

Since leaving The Smiths in 1987, hes teamed up with the likes of Kirsty MacColl, New Order, Bryan Ferry, Pet Shop Boys and The Cribs, and his latest partnership comes in the form of Maxine Peake.

One of the finest actors working in the UK, Peake  a fellow Mancunian  lends her narration to The Priest, a spoken word track highlighting the plight of homeless people in Manchester.

The piece is based on blogs by Joe Gallagher, a writer who experienced homelessness on the street of Manchester a few years ago. With such a troubling topic at its heart, The Priest's Christmas time release is particularly fitting.

When Maxine and I first started working together, we were meeting in the city centre a lot and you just couldnt ignore the rapid escalation of the homeless community on the streets, he says.

I think everyone can relate to it in the UK. The issue of homelessness is beyond anyones political or ideological opinion. In other words, everyone can relate to the dire circumstances regardless of your ideology. Deep down we know that its not right  its just become so accepted."

The accompanying video features Molly Windsor, who co-starred alongside Peake in the hard-hitting BBC series Three Girls, who does a powerful job portraying a young woman in the grips of homelessness.

Musically, the track is a real departure, too, with the virtuosic guitar playing youd normally associate with Marr instead replaced with emollient textures and an expansive, widescreen feel.

My impulse was that I wanted to do something different to what I was doing with my new solo stuff, Marr says. Decades on from his first forays into the industry, it seems he still has the capacity to defy expectations.

Talk turns to politics, and the enduring political affiliations of Marrs music.

The Smiths era-defining back catalogue has, of course, long resonated with those on the left of the political spectrum: there's a famous image from 2011's anti-austerity protests of a young woman standing up to riot police wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the Smith's Hatful of Hallow cover. It epitomises the Smiths enduring lefty appeal and shows that decades on from the bands rise to prominence, the impact of their politics is still being felt.

Oli Scarff/Getty Images

However, while Morrissey might be doing all he can to diminish the left-leaning connotations of his music with a series of increasingly outrageous public statements, Marr is doing all he can to make sure his politics and music are kept separate.

Theres so much that you can do in music that has magic in it and idealism and a sense of freedom. Im not going to get completely bogged down by bullshit and hypocrisy, he says.

Because I tend to sing about external things, inevitably some of life and the living of it in this day and age goes into the new songs. In other words, Im not rolling my sleeves up thinking: 'Im going to make a political record.' If that aspects in there, its by accident.

He goes on to say that they didnt set out with a plan to highlight a particular social issue with The Priest, and only by letting things happen organically can you express complex ideas in a nuanced way.

"Thats OK, because you feel like youre able to be artistic and still be an artist without being entirely contaminated, like these people that shall remain nameless I guess, Marr says, coyly.

Getty Images

If youre lucky enough to have people follow you and want to listen to you, youre missing a trick if other things get in the way of great riffs. Seriously, Im not being glib there. Thats probably one of the best things that I can do in this situation.

Reflecting, Marr adds: "You think about Joe Strummer and of course everybody knew where he was at [politically]. Hes come to stand for something pretty big now but its always a good listen.

If you can manage to do all the above and it still be a good listen, then youre doing a good job.

Johnny Marr & Maxine Peaks The Priest is available to buy now
S imon Wright has ambitious plans for the apples that supermarkets decide not to stock. Having started making ginger beer as a side project a few years ago, Wright eventually left his job in drinks marketing - I always knew I was going to do something off my own back - and now runs Londons first cidery.

If youve been along the Bermondsey Beer Mile in the last six months, you may well also have passed his business on Druid Street - indeed you may have stopped to swig a mulled cider during the open taproom that runs from Wednesday to Sunday nights. If not, listen in, because Wright's plan is to take cider in the direction that craft beer has gone.

Visiting Hawkes HQ late one Monday morning, I arrive just as several hundred kilograms of apples are being delivered in wooden crates outside. Moving past these, Wright gives me a tour of his two arches - one, the pressing and fermentation zone and the other the blending, administrative and taproom area.

I try out the 'raw' newly fermented cider, which is pretty good, and that evening I taste the single variety cider, which is delicious. Later, I leave fully convinced of Wrights plans for city-wide cider domination.

How many products do you make now?

Weve got our alcoholic ginger beer, which is how this started. Our cider range includes two Urban Orchard blends, one apple and one mixed berries, made partly with what is known as gradeout apples and also with apple donations from around London. Weve also got a single variety cider and we have a special apple and beer related product that were launching in February.

Why did you start the business?

The cider itself I started at home in 2014, which is where the name Urban Orchard came from as we were using donated apples from Londoners, which is still the premise and ethos. As thats grown, weve now become a proper cider company. But it all started because I was making ginger beer and also had a friend who owned a pub on Broadway Market, so we would try it there, and they were the first ones to sell it. We were really fortunate that people liked it, as we were literally just making and selling it on the hoof, testing it, asking people for feedback, and going from there. We couldnt afford to build a cidery or brewery at the time but ginger beer was one of those products that I felt had quite a big market but no competition. After about five months we were picked up by a big UK pub and restaurant operator called Mitchells and Butlers and everything stemmed from there.

What was the market like?

Much the same as it is now. The reason we came to this arch on Druid Street was because we knew that Hawkes would be more of a kind of a circumstantial find, because people come here for the breweries as part of the Bermondsey Beer Mile tour. What better place to have a cidery in London than an area where people who are into that stuff would fall upon us? Anyway the education of cider is still pretty low, so the fact that people come here and see it being made and the fact that we sell other peoples ciders means we can educate people a bit on what the product is. Fifty per cent of people who come in still say the last time they drank cider was a bottle of White Lightning sitting on a park bench when they were younger. So now its about a re-education and helping people understand what the craft is.

Where do you sell your products?

Ninety per cent of what we sell to is pubs, and then fast-casual places places like Byron Burger and Honest Burger. We sell mainly in London, and we also sell in 200 of the biggest Marks & Spencer stores, and in Whole Foods Markets, but were planning to sell to more supermarkets. We also export to Norway, and have a USA deal pending. We want to take cider and push it forward in the direction that craft beer has gone, so we need to spread ourselves wider and just try to educate buyers that its not all about the bigger brands.

How have you financed this?

We were completely self-funded for three years up until a year ago when we caught the attention of private individuals who also felt that cider was going to go the same way as craft beer, which enabled us to have some cash to build Londons first cidery. Hopefully by the end of this year well be going in for another round of investment. Its been a big undertaking - we got the keys in February, opened the doors in June and started pressing in August.

Where and how is it made?

We press twice a week every other week at the moment, and we can do 1.2 tonnes of apples per hour. Then we put them into these fermentation tanks - two 5000-litre ones, doing the equivalent of about 9000 pints each, and two 12,500-litre thousand litre ones doing the equivalent of about 19,000 pints. Unlike beer, where youve got to have lots of equipment, all weve got to do is make sure that its warm enough to start the fermentation, which then takes three to four weeks. Then, with the cider in its purest form, without any additions of sugar or sulphites, its very dry - akin to more of a West Country cider. That all gets piped next door where well make the additions and blending, before kegging it up and sending it away to get bottled. Were aiming to get another site soon so we can look into barrel ageing, some new products, and maybe something spirits-based.

Was it important to start a London business?

For us, if youre going to have the first of something you want it to be in London just because of the density of population and visitors, and I also think Londoners care about where their stuff comes from. To be able to walk into places and say that we are Londons cider company is also big plus for us.

Are there any ingredients that have been made in or around London?

The majority of apples are called cold-store, or gradeout apples that dont make it into the shops because theyre not round or big enough. Theyre mostly culinary eating apples like Braeburn and Gala and come from Kent. Those will be 96 to 97 per cent of our volume, and the rest is made up of our donated fruit, which we blend into the final product. There are of course small nuances from that in every batch, but most people probably wont detect it. Its generally consistent. Making our main product enables us to do cool stuff on the side like planting apples trees all around London - the idea is that it goes full circle.

What has it been like running a business in London?

Great from the point of view of craft cider producers who really like us because now theyve got somewhere dedicated to cider where they can sell their product. From a practicality point of view, in terms of making the stuff, its difficult. Trying to get apple deliveries in and out quickly, and pressing them all, isnt easy - so it just means you have to make it an untraditional way. A lot of the West Country cider producers will mature their product over the winter because theyve got the space to do that. We have a couple of weeks maturation time, because we havent got that tank space. That results in a younger drink, but since our main apple product is a bit like a Pilsner or a pale ale in lager terms, the one we get right every time, its nice and drinkable. We produce cooler stuff on the side.

Do you still drink your cider?

Yeah, its still a pleasure - I think were all drinking too much of it! Weve recently taken on a winemaker called Roberto and the experience that hes introducing into our products is great.

Can you describe the life of a cider maker?

Monday morning is about planning out the production and our sales - sitting down with the guys so that they know what theyve got to be pressing in the week in order to meet our demand. The rest of the week is going out and getting that demand, so focusing mainly on running the business, sales growth, and seeing customers.

Are there other London producers that you admire or that youve enjoyed working with?

London-wise, and from a beer perspective, the guys from Anspach & Hobday down the road are great - theyre small-scale but theyre all about pushing beer in different directions and challenging perceptions. Theyve been a big influence on us, and were always chewing things over with them.

Theres also a craft cider producer called Tom Oliver in Hereford and from a craft cider perspective, hes been a massive influence in how we produce - what to add and what to take away, and so on.

Hawkers Cidery is at 92 Druid Street, SE1 2HQ (taproom open Wed-Sunday evenings).
T okyo is a city that needs no introduction. A big, bustling, neon-lit hub of excitement, entertainment and enterprise that ceases to sleep.

Shangri-La offers a calm retreat from this marvellous mania, as well as a sky-high vantage point to admire it from.

Where is it?

The hotel is conveniently located next to Tokyo Station, which is one of the citys busiest hubs, and comes complete with a direct connection to Narita airport.

If you dont get lost in the winding tunnels of the subterranean complex (which, admittedly, is something of a tradition) then you could make it from your carriage to reception in under ten minutes.

The hotel is set right in the thick of the Marunouchi business area, but also a stones throw from the shops, bars, restaurants and nightlife of Ginza  plus youre well connected to anywhere in the city and beyond via the stations hub of subway, overground and bullet trains.

Style:

Opulent Asian-influenced design / Shangri-La

If youre familiar with Londons Shangri-La hotel in The Shard, then youll have an idea what to expect. Opulent, Asian-influenced luxury design sees dark wood paired with shining chandeliers and intricate artworks. Given Tokyo has one of the worlds most stunning skylines, the view from outside gives the inside some strong competition for attention.

Facilities:

The hotel has no problem living up to its five star credentials with all the slick service youd expect, and then some. Theres an on-site gym, spa, sauna and traditional Japanese onsen bath plus a swimming pool with some impressive vistas of its own.

Food & drink:

The hotel's Nadaman restaurant / Shangri-La

The hotels contemporary Japanese restaurant Nadaman draws well-heeled locals as well as hotel guests in with its kaiseki tasting menu, while the area surrounding the hotel is full of fantastic food options  as most corners of Tokyo tend to be.

Guests staying in the premium Horizon Club rooms  or able to get an upgrade  also have access to the top floor lounge, where cocktails and Champagne are served pre-dinnertime and snacks and soft drinks are available around the clock.

Extra-curricular:

Tokyo is the worlds biggest city, so theres no shortage of things to do and see. The hotel is perfectly placed for ticking off a tourist site in the form of the Imperial Palace just down the road, and handily close to Tsukiji fish market should you want to watch a tuna auction.

Other essential neighbourhoods to check out are Shinjuku for nightlife, Harajuku for crazy shopping and Hello Kitty, and Akihabara for electronics and manga-themed eccentricity, all of which are just a few stops away.

Conveyor belt sushi at Hanamru (Shutterstock) / Shutterstock / EQRoy

If youre eating out of the hotel, Hanamru, set in the adjoining shopping complex, is known as one of the best conveyor belt sushi restaurants in the city, as well as one of the best value. Its easy to see why, but just be prepared for a little queue at busy times.

Alternatively, head to the arches around Yurakucho station for a wealth of fantastic hole-in-the-wall noodle bars, or explore the many izakayas of Shinjuku and the tiny bars of Golden Gai.

Which room?

There are no inferior rooms here, and because the hotel doesnt even start until the 26th floor, great views are guaranteed. Even the entry-level deluxe rooms are among the biggest in Tokyo and come with a decadent walk-in wet rooms. There are premier options and suites should you wish to really indulge.

Best for:

A super-luxury city break with top transport links for exploring everything Tokyo has to offer.

When to go:

Tokyo has year-round charm, but its still worth picking your season based on your preference. At the height of summer in late July and August the heat and humidity levels reach their most intense, while spring and autumn are cooler. Late March and early April marks the the famous cherry blossom season, though does see the city get rather busy as a result.

Details:

Rooms from 355 a night, Marunouchi Trust Tower Main Building, 1-8-3 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; shangri-la.com/tokyo.
A victim left permanently scarred by Arthur Collins' brutal nightclub acid attack said "justice has been done" after he was jailed for 20 years.

Phoebe Georgiou, 23, suffered horrific injuries when 25-year-old Collins hurled the corrosive substance over a crowd on the dancefloor at Mangle E8 nightclub in Dalston, east London.

Collins, the ex-boyfriend of reality TV star Ferne McCann, was jailed for 20 years on Tuesday after a judge described his actions as "a deliberate and calculated attack".

Ms Georgiou told the Sun that she welcomed the sentence and hoped it would serve as a warning to others.

Acid attack: Phoebe Georgiou, pictured, was a victim of the Mangle E8 nightclub attack / PA

She said: "When I heard the sentence I felt that justice had been done and I hope this gives the message to people that carry acid that there will be serious consequences."

But she also said felt "violated" that Collins's defence lawyer, George Carter-Stephenson QC, had produced posts taken from hers and other victims' social media accounts, apparently showing their lives had returned to some kind of normality.

Among the snaps were photos of her doing yoga and spending time with family in Greece.

She said: "I felt quite violated when they brought up the yoga because that's been the main thing getting me through this.

CCTV shows the moment Arthur Collins throws acid in nightclub

"What you put out on social media is you trying to be that confident girl."

On Tuesday, she described in court how she lay in a hospital bed for weeks after the attack without being able to move for fear of rupturing her scars.

"You couldn't find a shred of human decency to admit what you have done. I have been given a life sentence by you," she told Collins.

Guilty: Arthur Collins / Metropolitan Police

Sixteen people suffered chemical burn injuries in the incident and three people were temporarily blinded in the attack  one of whom still suffers from blurred vision in one eye.

Collins, the father of Ms McCann's baby daughter Sunday, told his trial he did not know the bottle contained acid, believing it to contain a liquid date rape drug, which he had snatched from two men after overhearing them planning to spike a girl's drink.

But the jury at London's Wood Green Crown Court convicted him of five counts of grievous bodily harm with intent and nine counts of actual bodily harm last month.

Judge Noel Lucas ordered that as well as his 20-year prison term, Collins, of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, will additionally be subject to five further years on extended licence.

CCTV: Arthur Collins was pictured throwing the acid in the club / Metropolitan Police

Twenty-two people reported injuries to the police after the acid attack at the club on April 17, which was packed with bank holiday revellers.

Collins told his trial he had been out celebrating the news of Ms McCann's pregnancy, which they had announced to her family the previous day.

At his sentencing hearing, the court heard Collins had threatened a similar attack on a former partner's mother.

He received a caution for racially aggravated harassment for ringing the woman in the middle of the night and threatening her with an acid attack and to have her raped.

He has six previous convictions including threatening words, possession of cocaine, drunk driving and assault.

He was still subject to a suspended sentence for punching a man at a nightclub when he carried out the attack at Mangle.
P olice are investigating after Labour heavyweight David Lammy allegedly received an email warning that he could face a similar death to murdered MP Jo Cox.

The MP for Tottenham shared an image of an email which accused him of attacking the white population of Britain to gain black supremacy."

Under the subject heading your aims for a black Britain, the message said: I would like to offer you a friendly warning.

"As you attack the white population of Britain in your aims to gain black supremacy in this country, remember what happened to Jo Cox.

I am not one of them but there are those out there who would like to see you suffer the same fate. Be careful!!

David Lammy tweeted the email on Tuesday / Twitter

Jo Cox, a fellow Labour MP and friend of My Lammy, was stabbed to death in her Batley and Spen constituency by white supremacist Thomas Mair in the days before the Brexit referendum last June.

Mr Lammy responded to the email in a Twitter post, saying: Thank you for your friendly warning and reference to Jo Cox, my friend & colleague who was murdered.

However if this is meant to be a subtle way of intimidating me, scaring me or stopping me raising important issues as an elected representative it isn't going to work.

He added on Wednesday: "Thanks for supportive tweets, emails messages and letters I am very grateful indeed. This was reported to the police yesterday, and will not put me off fighting for what I believe in."

A spokesman for Mr Lammy said the police were immediately informed and added that Tottenham MP would not be commenting further.

Earlier this year he told the Standard how his children had been frightened by the horrific racist abuse he is bombarded with online.

The Remain campaigner received a barrage of vile abuse on Twitter after he called on Parliament to block Brexit, including messages which read: Hang N***** and Go Back to Africa.

Mr Lammy also recently finished conducting a review into the over-representation over-representation of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) individuals in the criminal justice system at the request of the Prime Minister.

The Standard has contacted the Met Police for further comment.
A Met detective involved in two rape prosecutions that collapsed in one week has been removed from active cases pending a review.

Detective constable Mark Azariah, 37, has been taken off active investigations pending the outcome of the review, the Met said on Wednesday.

He has not been suspended.

It comes as Scotland Yard mounted an urgent review of 30 sexual offence cases after a second rape prosecution collapsed in less than a week over problems relating to the disclosure of evidence.

The 30 live cases involving both rapes and serious sexual assaults are all about to go to trial and will be examined as a priority in liaison with the Crown Prosecution Service.

Liam Allan / Sky News

In addition, hundreds more sex cases in earlier stages of investigation will be reviewed to ensure officers are handing over all relevant digital evidence to defence lawyers.

The trial of Liam Allan, 22, was halted at Croydon Crown Court last week, after police failed to disclose texts from the complainant until the case came to court.

The second prosecution against Isaac Itiary, 25, who was facing trial for the alleged rape of a child under 16, collapsed when police disclosed evidence involving the complainants text messages which showed she routinely posed as a 19-year-old girl.

Mr Itiary, from Wandsworth, was charged in July but police only disclosed the further relevant material in response to a request from the defence last week.

All charges were dropped at an emergency hearing at Inner London Crown court yesterday.

Today Commander Richard Smith, who oversees Met rape investigations, said the Met accepted errors had been made in the Liam Allan case but said - on the face of it - the disclosure process had worked as it should have done in the case of Mr Itiary.

He said: In the case of Mr Itiary the disclosure process was an ongoing one. In this instance the defence served their defence case statement and that should trigger a further review of material and that is what happened.

As a result of that request, further material was found that supported their defence case statement and it was disclosed in the normal way. On the face of it, that is how the defence disclosure process should work.

He added: There were clearly errors in the Liam Allan case and we are interested in establishing exactly what happened there, we are conducting a very detailed review with our colleagues in the CPS.

We do not know whether or not the Liam Allan case is a systemic issue that will affect everything or whether it is simply a number of errors that have combined to bring about the failing of that case.

He said none of the cases were conducted by a single officer but the detective involved had been taken off investigations as a precaution for the time being.

He said: This is a pragmatic step while we understand what has gone on.

He said the review was is being conducted by senior officers from the child abuse and sexual offences command and the CPS.

Mr Smith also said the two cases highlighted the difficulties police face holding and reviewing the vast quantities of information generated by mobile phones and computers.

He said: The issue for us is that when legislation was written 20 years ago no-one could forsee the amount of material that was going to arise in these cases.

The cases we are looking at, particularly rape cases, generate huge amounts of data that may or may not be relevant but needs to be held by us.

The cases are a huge embarrassment for the Met and the CPS and will fuel claims that police have become more biased towards victims of rape allegations.

Concerns have previously been raised at the most senior level of the criminal bar that disclosure failures and lack of resources will lead to miscarriages of justice.

Angela Rafferty QC, the chair of the Criminal Bar Association, suggested unconscious bias stops the police and the CPS impartially and thoroughly investigating and scrutinising complaints in sexual offence cases.


C ounter-terrorism detectives are questioning four men held as part of an operation to foil a suspected Christmas attack.

A series of raids in South Yorkshire and Derbyshire on Tuesday saw armed police and an Army unit swoop on a flat above a fish and chip shop amid fears there may have been explosives at the property.

Three men, aged 22, 36 and 41, were detained at different addresses in Sheffield and a 31-year-old man was arrested in Chesterfield, police said.

An Army bomb squad was deployed in the north Derbyshire town, where armed officers and investigators focused on a property above a takeaway on Sheffield Road.

A police officer and bomb squad officer at the scene of the arrest in Chesterfield / PA

Residents were woken up by armed police at around 5.30am as officers blew the front doors off a number of properties in a set of coordinated raids.

There are fears the men may have been planning an attack on the capital over Christmas.

Terror incidents across the UK in 2017

A security source told the Sun the group may have been planning to target a Christmas market in or around London.

Residents in surrounding properties described being ordered from their homes as police evacuated the area during the morning raid as a precautionary measure.

The Daily Mail reports five properties were searched in total as part of a long-running investigation into Islamic extremism.

Four men were arrested on suspicion of plotting terror attacks / PA

Local resident Lizzie Fogarty, 27, told the Mail: "The police were all in black with helmets and guns with a torch aimed at the house.

"All you could hear was 'Get down, get down'. I could hear them sweeping the house."

Ms Fogarty claimed there had been "a lot of coming and going" from the house recently.

A man was later seen being taken away from the area wearing only his boxer shorts, according to onlookers.

All four of the arrested men were taken to a police station in West Yorkshire for questioning.

They were arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism under Section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

Police also searched the Fatima Community Centre, Brunswick Road, Burngreave, Sheffield / PA

Mohammed Ojaky, 31, told the Mail police searched his barbershop and the flat above.

He said: "They showed me details of a man and said they thought he was connected to here. I did not know this man.

"I was happy for them to search here and let them into the flat, but then they left and we opened as usual."

Police said the arrests were intelligence-led and pre-planned as part of an investigation by Counter Terrorism Policing North East.

Derbyshire Constabulary Assistant Chief Constable Bill McWilliam said: We of course understand that police activity of this nature can be unsettling.

However, please be reassured, the arrest we wanted to make has been made.
P olice are hunting two thugs after a man was stabbed repeatedly following a petty argument on Oxford Street.

The young men, believed to be aged in their late teens or early 20s, knifed the victim a number of times and slashed him across the face, police said.

The early morning incident took place at the Tottenham Court Road end of the capital's busiest shopping street.

Scotland Yard said the 32-year-old victim was rushed to a central London hospital with serious injuries. He has since recovered.

Investigating officer, Detective Constable Jamie Grocott, said: "This was a shockingly violent attack that escalated from a petty late-night argument.

There is no justification for such violence and it is only by good fortune that the victim's injuries were not life-threatening.

It is very important that these men are identified as soon as possible."

Police in Westminster have released images of two men they wish to identify following the incident, which happened at about 4.30am on September 30.

Anyone who can assist in identifying either of the men pictured should call Westminster CID on 101. Alternatively, call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
The following editorial appears on Bloomberg View:

As a statement of policy, the U.S.s new National Security Strategy is mostly unobjectionable. As an expression of President Donald Trumps worldview, however, it is oddly encouraging. The question is whether Trump will stand by the words that went out in his name.

The policy first: The greatest difference between this weeks document and previous ones  they are required by Congress  is its emphasis on domestic security. Unfortunately, this is also the issue on which it is weakest. Promised new investment in border security, immigration control and domestic missile defense will not necessarily make Americans safer. And while it stresses the need for improved cybersecurity, there arent many specifics to show that the administration understands the problem.

Another shortcoming is the reports downplaying of climate change, which the Pentagon considers one of the greatest threats to U.S. security. Simply urging the nation to lead in energy misses the point.

The reports treatment of China is also worrisome. It lumps Beijing in with Moscow as a revisionist power and names it a strategic competitor in the economic as well as military spheres. Unfortunately, this vague assessment (what does the term mean, exactly?) is followed by more tough talk on trade with China that could lead to a self-defeating trade war. Nor does the plan offer any details about how to increase Beijings cooperation on North Korea.

So how exactly is the report encouraging? Its the idea that Trump  at least on paper  is promoting alliances, addressing the threats posed by authoritarian powers and acknowledging the benefits of the global system the U.S. has upheld for seven decades.

For example, the document tries to reassure those who were concerned by Trumps initial hesitation to back NATOs mutual-protection clause, calling the alliance one of our great advantages over our competitors and warning that Russia is using subversive measures to weaken the credibility of Americas commitment to Europe.

More generally, the report warns that simply engaging rivals will not turn them into benign actors and trustworthy partners, a seeming slap at past outreach to Iran and a welcome sign from an administration that has sometimes seemed soft on Russia and China. It also rightly acknowledges that there will be occasions in which interests may align for cooperation with great-power rivals  what the administration calls principled realism.

The usual question about a bureaucratic exercise such as this is what impact it will have on policy. The more immediate question is what influence it will have on a particularly impulsive president.

There is reason to be skeptical on both counts. Trumps bellicose speech announcing the strategy  in which he barely mentioned Russia, downplayed alliances and returned to the sourness of his America First campaign  raised questions about how carefully hes read it and how closely hell follow it.

Still, viewed as more of a compass than a road map, the National Security Strategy at least provides a sense of direction. Whether its the right direction  and in many cases its not  at least now the administration has elucidated its rationale for moving forward.
P olice today launched raids on a gang suspected of a series of smash and grab moped robberies in central London.

In early morning raids officers swooped on four addresses in south London in an investigation into a number of robberies at high profile stores in central London and the City in recent months.

Two people were arrested in connection with the smash and grab raids and a third was held for drugs offences.

An axe was discovered hidden in the bathroom during a search of an address in Rotherhithe.

An axe was allegedly discovered hidden in the bathroom of one property / Jeremy Selwyn

A teenager was led to a police van from the house in handcuffs.

The group were wanted in connection with smash-and-grab raids at two department stores where they made off on mopeds with 62,000 worth of Mulberry handbags in September.

Two men, aged 18 and 24, were held at their homes in Southwark for offences including burglary and conspiracy to commit burglary.

Another 18-year-old was held on suspicion of drugs offences.

A suspect is led away from the scene in handcuffs / Jeremy Selwyn

Police said the joint Met police and City of London operation was ongoing.

Detective Chief Inspector Edelle Michaels, from the City of London Police, said: Moped-enabled crime is on the rise.

"Often these crimes are carried out by the same groups of individuals, operating in gangs. Todays arrests will go a long way in disrupting some of these groups and will undoubtedly send out a very strong message to those involved, or thinking of becoming involved, in such crimes.

A police officer smashes down the door in the early-morning swoop / Jeremy Selwyn

Det Supt Lee Hill, of Southwark Police, who oversaw the operation, said the moped gangs were known to increase their activity in the run up to Christmas.

He said:  Moped related crimes is a priority for us now as it has grown over the past year.

The types of people who do this are a menace to society and blight our communities and we want to match them head on.

The raids were part of the Mets ongoing war against moped muggers codenamed Operation Venice.

The raids come as Met police have adopted several new methods to combat the scourge of moped robbers in London.

Police are using the stinger devices to deflate tyres and a forensic spray to mark individuals committing offences so they can be identified later. Detectives say they are achieving significant results against moped gangs with cases of robbers being jailed for more than ten years for offences.


A boy of 14 who was allegedly trafficked to sell drugs 100 miles from his north London home has been reunited with his family in time for Christmas.

He went missing last month after telling his mother and three siblings that he would see them after meeting his friends at a youth club.

However, the teenager, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, did not come home.

His family said that although his behaviour had changed dramatically in the year since he was excluded from school, he had never disappeared before.

They reported him missing to police and appealed on social media for information on his whereabouts, with a cousin posting regularly.

Media in Australia and the familys native Nigeria picked up the story after noticing what appeared to be an alarming number of teenage boys missing from the borough in north London.

Then, last Monday, a shopkeeper in Boston, Lincolnshire, sent a private message to the cousin saying that he had just spotted the boy.

He was holed up in a block of flats being forced to sell drugs in a case of modern slavery.

The teenagers family believe that, like hundreds of other vulnerable children, he had been forced into county lines dealing, a distribution network in which urban gangs run drugs to country towns. The cousin passed the information to police and about 24 hours later, on Tuesday afternoon, the boy was brought home.

His mother told the Standard: I just held him, I couldnt speak. I always believed I would see him again. It was a big test of my faith. We will have a Christmas together, a nice quiet Christmas.

She revealed that during her online search for her son she was targeted by trolls. People were messaging me saying, Your son is dead. Why are you looking for him? You know hes in a river somewhere. Talking of her ordeal, the mother said: You cant sleep, you are in this physical pain that you cant ever imagine leaving your body until you see them again.

The boys cousin said the 14-year-old had gone to a school with other children with behavioural problems who he claimed had lured him into trouble. He said police had more cases than they could handle. Something needs to be done at grassroots level. Many of these drug dealers are actually not users, fast money is their motivation.

A Met spokesman said that county lines drug dealing was presenting a national challenge to police.
L ondons minority groups are to be targeted as part of a major 400,000 crackdown on far-right and Islamic State terrorism in the capital.

From January, a new project led by the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan will encourage people living in some of the capitals most marginalised communities to spot and identify extremists spreading hateful ideologies. A similar drive is to be launched in Manchester.

It comes as the Mayor pledged to improve and renew efforts to tackle violent hate crime after the capital saw four terrorist attacks this year at Westminster, London Bridge, Finsbury Park and Parsons Green.

Experts will work with local authorities, stakeholders, womens groups and communities as part of the London-specific project, called Countering Violent Extremism, which will run throughout next year in City Hall.

Across the city some communities remain marginalised, disengaged and unempowered, allowing the spread of hateful and violent ideologies with tragic consequences, City Hall said.

Sadiq Khan lays a wreath at the 7/7 Memorial in Hyde Park to mark the 12th anniversary of the 7/7 terror attacks in London. / Getty Images

The idea is to stop extremism as its roots by empowering people in vulnerable communities to spot and stop extremists in their tracks.

It will also work with experts who have a specialist knowledge of the community to carry out a full and frank assessment of existing counter-extremism programmes and the work of the governments Prevent agenda in the capital.

London is one of the most diverse and open cities in the world, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said.

London Bridge and Borough Market terrorist attack 1 /40 London Bridge and Borough Market terrorist attack Police and paramedics treat an injured person Daniel Sorabji/AFP/Getty Images A woman is helped to an ambulance at London Bridge Daniel Sorabji/AFP/Getty Images Armed police at London Bridge Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire Emergency personnel tend to wounded on London Bridge Yui Mok/PA Wire Daniel Sorabji/AFP/Getty Images Daniel Sorabji/AFP/Getty Images Debris and abandoned cars remain on London Bridge Chris J Ratcliffe/AFP/Getty Images People walking down Borough High Street Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire Armed Police officers on London Bridge Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire People flee along Borough High Street Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire Police officers outside the Barrowboy and Banker Public House on Borough High Street Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire Shocked onlookers in Borough High Street Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire Police sniffer dogs on London Bridge Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire Armed Police talk to members of the public outside London Bridge Hospital Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire People run down Borough High Street Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire A helicopter lands on London Bridge Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire An armed officer on London Bridge Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire Police officers on Borough High Street Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire Emergency personnel on London Bridge Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire Armed police on Borough High Street Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire Armed Police officer looks through his weapon on London Bridge Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire People run along Borough High Street Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire Police at the scene on Southwark Bridge Carl Court/Getty Images A paramedic rushes to the scene Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire An armed officer on London Bridge Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire A paramedic at the scene Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire Armed police on Borough High Street Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire Emergency personnel on London Bridge Yui Mok/PA Wire Police officers outside the Barrowboy and Banker Public House on Borough High Street Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire People are lead to safety away from London Bridge Carl Court/Getty Images

But, as the experts have warned, we cant escape the fact that the capital faces a growing threat from violent extremism. This year the UK has seen an unprecedented shift in the threat of terrorism.

I am determined to do everything in my power to improve the work that safeguards the vulnerable and roots out and stops the people who are spreading vile ideologies and promoting terror with such violent and tragic consequences.

This means engaging with Londoners to see what more we can all do to strengthen, integrate and empower communities to speak out and challenge hate crime and extremist views.

European terror attacks in 2017

It means protecting vulnerable people who are at risk of extremism and sharing best practice. And it means a more strategic and tailored approach that can make a real difference in preventing extremism across the capital.

Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley, the head of National Counter Terrorism Policing, said: "Whilst it is less visible than this year's tragic events, I see evidence of determined efforts to radicalise the vulnerable in our communities.

Tributes for Westminster & Parliament Attack 1 /26 Tributes for Westminster & Parliament Attack A police officer places flowers and a photo of Pc Keith Palmer on Whitehall near the Houses of Parliament in London Dominic Lipinski/PA A floral tribute to the victims of yesterday's terror attack is left at the security cordon near Westminster Abbey in central London Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images Metropolitan Police in a minute's silence at New Scotland Yard Sky News A minute's silence is observed outside New Scotland Yard in London to pay respect to the victims of yesterday's terror attack in Westminster Jonathan Brady/PA MP's in a minute's silence at the House of Commons BBC Conservative MP James Cleverly pays an emotional tribute to his friend Pc Keith Palmer, telling the Commons he was a "strong, professional public servant". PA The flag above the Houses of Parliament in London flies at half mast the day after a terrorist attack Jeremy Selwyn People leave flowers at the scene after an attack on Westminster Bridge in London Hannah McKay/Reuters Flowers outside the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London Gareth Fuller/PA Flowers at the Police Memorial after yesterday's terror attack on the Houses of Parliament in Westminste Alex Lentati Cressida Dick in a minute silence today at New Scotland Yard for Westminster terror victims Jeremy Selwyn A bunch of roses is layed at the Metropolitan Police headquarters at New Scotland Yard in central London Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images Flowers arrive in Westminster the day after the attack Jeremy Selwyn The Union Flag on Portcullis House flies at half mast following yesterday's attack Carl Court/Getty Images Flowers are laid at the scene after an attack on Westminster Bridge in London Hannah McKay/Reuters Terror attack: Flowers placed below a police cordon on Westminster Bridge Hannah McKay/Reuters Prime Minister Theresa May makes a statement in Downing Street, London Richard Pohle/The Times/PA Flowers are laid at the scene after an attack on Westminster Bridge in London Hannah McKay/Reuters Two policemen stand guard at a cordoned off area on the way to the Houses of Parliament in central London Matt Dunham/AP The royal standard at full mast above Buckingham Palace in London the day after a terrorist attack Jonathan Brady/PA

The Mayor's determination to bring extra weight to London's efforts to prevent the spread of violent extremist ideologies is very welcome."

The UKs current threat level from international terrorism is severe  the second highest grade and meaning an attack is highly likely.

It comes as counter-terrorism detectives are questioning four men held as part of an operation to foil a suspected attack at a Christmas-themed market in the capital.

The Countering Violent Extremism project has been given a 400,000 cash boost from the Mayor and similar work is underway in Manchester following the attack on Manchester Arena in May, City Hall said.
T heresa May is facing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn at Prime Minister's Questions for the last time before the Christmas break.

The clash comes in the wake of Michel Barnier's announcement that the EU wants the Brexit transition period to end on December 31, 2020.

In her speech in Florence in September, Mrs May suggested an "implementation period" should last for about two years, potentially stretching to spring 2021.

Traditionally, the last PMQs before Christmas is a relatively lighthearted affair.

But with EU negotiations, Donald Trump and rising homelessness on the agenda, there is no telling how today's session might go.

Follow the Standard live blog here for all the latest news, views and analysis.
T heresa May has admitted that she would delay Brexit "in exceptional circumstances".

The Prime Minister was responding to Julian Lewis, the Conservative MP for New Forest East, during Wednesday's PMQs.

When asked if she would use an amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill to maintain the UK's membership "indefinitely", Mrs May said she would "only in exceptional circumstances...and for the shortest possible period of time".

Britain is currently scheduled to leave the EU on March 29, 2019, although EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier announced plans for a "transition period" to run until the end of 2020.

Theresa May hails 'important' Brexit step

Mrs May told the House of Commons: "We want to make sure we have the same legal position as the EU.

"I can assure my honourable friend this clause would only be used in exceptional circumstances and for the shortest possible time."

Amendment 400, introduced by Tory MP Oliver Letwin, seeks to allow the Government to amend the Brexit date if deemed necessary.

The amendment is set to go to a vote in Parliament on Wednesday night, a week after the Prime Minister suffered a Parliamentary defeat at the hands of rebels in her own party.

Senior sources indicated that the Government would accept amendments that will allow ministers to amend the date.
M Ps have voted on putting the precise time and date of Brexit into law.

Theresa May's Government wanted to include that the UK will leave the EU at 11pm on March 29 2019 in its EU Withdrawal which is currently going through Parliament.

Tory rebels and opposition parties criticised the plans and a compromise amendment giving more flexibility is expected to help Mrs May see off a rebellion.

The debate came as Damian Green resigned as First Secretary of State.

Read our coverage of Wednesday's events as they happened.
C hildren returning to Britain from Syria and Iraq who have been brainwashed by Islamic State may pose a terror threat, the Home Secretary has warned.

Amber Rudd highlighted the potential risk from youngsters who had spent formative years in the clutches of the extremist group, having been taken to the region by their parents.

Giving evidence to Parliaments Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) about the threats faced by Britain, Ms Rudd said: It is absolutely a serious threat.

The families coming back will be potentially having children who are going to be vulnerable, who are going to need protecting - but also potentially fighters themselves who could be a danger to society and could radicalise other people.

So we are aware of all those different issues it is something that everybody in Europe is very aware of.

An Isis militant pictured in Syria / Reuters

MI5 told the committee that since Syria collapsed into civil war in 2011, more than 850 UK-based individuals of national security concern were thought to have travelled to the Middle Eastern country, neighbouring Iraq and the region.

It is believed that about half have returned to the UK. More than 300 are thought to remain in Syria and about 100 have been killed.

A further 6,000 fighters from elsewhere in Europe are estimated to have travelled to fight with IS.

Publishing the ISCs annual report, chairman Dominic Grieve said: We note that the dispersal of foreign fighters from Syria and Iraq raises serious questions as to when and where they will resurface, and with what intent.

There will also be a serious challenge to reintegrate children who have grown up in the so-called caliphate.

He said the scale of the terror threat was unprecedented, adding: MI5 have told us it represents a pace which they have not experienced before.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson recently said British jihadis should be barred from Britain and hunted and killed.

He said: I do not believe that any terrorist, whether they come from this country or any other, should ever be allowed back into this country.

We should do everything we can do to destroy and eliminate that threat.

But the Governments independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, Max Hill QC, has said the authorities should look to reintegrate young and naive jihadis who travel to warzones, rather than prosecute them, on their return.

Ms Rudd told the committee that as IS has lost territory it has sought to weaponise people in Britain and other countries to carry out attacks.

The Security Service chiefs told the ISC: There is part of [IS] which is functionally best described as an external operations department, which has a whole bunch of people who pretty much all day every day are plotting terrorism in the West in various countries in various ways. The ISC also warns of the growing cyber threat, including from Russia.

MI5, MI6 and the police have foiled at least nine terror plots this year but five attacks have got through, including at Westminster and London Bridge.

Police were today questioning four men, aged 22 to 41, after raids in South Yorkshire and Derbyshire yesterday to foil a suspected Christmas atrocity.
T he White House has pledged to announce details of Donald Trumps proposed visit to the UK imminently amid speculation that he will travel to London within weeks.

The US President is considered increasingly likely to be present for the official opening of his countrys new embassy on the banks of the Thames at Nine Elms in February.

Mr Trump and Theresa May spoke on Tuesday, in their first phone conversation after the Prime Minister criticised the President for re-tweeting videos posted by far-right group Britain First.

Mr Trump had then hit back at her on Twitter, sparking fears of a diplomatic rift.

Donald Trump is coming to London

Asked whether the possibility of a visit to the UK had been discussed during the call, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said: "That invitation has been extended and accepted. We're working with them to finalise the details, which we expect to announce soon.

Mrs May's offer of a state visit this year was put on hold amid fears of demonstrations against the US president, but there has been widespread speculation that he could open the embassy on a more low-profile working visit, which would not involve a meeting with the Queen.

A spokesman for the US Embassy in London said any announcement would come from the White House.

Ambassador Woody Johnson, a close friend of Mr Trump who was appointed by the president earlier this year, last week came close to confirming plans for a visit when he was asked whether he expected a presidential visit for the embassy opening.

"Absolutely, I think he will come, I hope he will come," Mr Johnson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Neither Downing Street nor the White House made any mention of a discussion of a possible visit in their official accounts of Tuesday's phone call, which focused on their differences over Mr Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and their shared concern about the humanitarian situation in Yemen.
T he Brexit "transition period" will come to an end on December 31 2020, the European Union has said.

The EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier gave a speech in Brussels on Wednesday suggesting that the UK will keep its obligations and benefits until then.

The announcement came as British and European parties sought to move onto Phase Two of negotiations.

Pundits say such a plan will effectively keep Britain in the EU until the end of 2020.

Mrs May is said to have agreed a compromise with Tory rebels (Getty Images) / Bloomberg via Getty Images

He said: "There should be no 'cherry picking'...the United Kingdom will continue to participate in the customs union and the single market (with all four freedoms).

"The union acquis should continue to apply in full to and in the United Kingdom as if it were a member state.

"Any changes made to the acquis during this time should automatically apply to the United Kingdom.

"All existing union regulatory, budgetary, supervisory, judiciary and enforcement instruments and structures will apply, including the competence of the court of justice of the European Union.

"The United Kingdom will be a third country as of 30 March 2019. As a result, it will no longer be represented in union institutions, agencies, bodies and offices."

Mr Barnier stressed that this process would be subject to the UK's own "red lines" over its own Brexit timetable.

He also said Britain would not be "automatically covered" by all EU free trade agreements - 750 in total - such as Ceta, the Canada trade deal.

Theresa May is said to have compromised with Tory rebels over plans to fix the date of Brexit in law in a bid to avoid a second embarrassing Commons defeat.

Senior Government sources indicated that the Government would accept amendments that will allow ministers to amend the date.

Mr Barnier closed a press conference in Brussels by answering a question on what would happen "if the British parliament rejected the transition period".

He said he "does not like to speculate" and emphasised the need for political groups to build trust as talks continued.

The BBC's Laura Kuenssberg said Mr Barnier's opening gambit was reminiscent of early Phase One talks in which Westminster clashed with Brussels for months but that "compromises are likely to be found".

Research by the University of Birmingham recently found that 12 per cent of UK output was at risk from a bad trade outcome, compared with just 2.6 per cent of European output.

In economic terms the UK is in a very weak bargaining position," it said.
P rince Harry and fiancee Meghan Markle have arrived at Buckingham Palace for the Queen's Christmas lunch.

The newly-engaged royal couple, who are to wed in May next year, were pictured arriving at the palace in a Land Rover Discovery.

The Queen traditionally hosts a festive lunch for her family before leaving for her private Sandringham estate, where she spends December 25.

American actress Ms Markle will join the Queen and other senior members of the royal family for Christmas Day.

Meghan Markle arriving at Buckingham Palace. / Jonathan Brady/PA

It is a break with tradition with the honour usually only extended to married partners.

Harry driving the couple through a throng of photographers. / Philip Toscano/PA

Harry and Meghan got engaged on November 27 after weeks of fevered speculation.

Prince William with son Prince George in the backseat. / Rex

A few days later, the beaming couple met members of the public at their first public royal engagement in Nottingham.

Princess Charlotte at the back seat of the car on their way to Buckingham Palace. / PA

They are to marry on May 19 at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.

Prince William and Kate Middleton arrive for Christmas lunch. / Philip Toscano/PA

Also pictured arriving for the traditional Christmas lunch with Her Majesty was Prince William with wife Kate Middleton and children Prince George and Princess Charlotte.

The young family of royals arriving for Christmas lunch. / PA

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge is expecting their third child in April next year.

The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall arriving for lunch. / PA

Other invitees for the festive Wednesday lunch include Prince Charles and Camilla as well as the Prince and Princess Michael of Kent with daughter Gabriella of Windsor.

For the main event, the royals show up at Sandringham on Christmas Eve in order of rank.

The family gather to decorate the tree and play charades, which is reportedly the Queen's favourite game.

They then swap "cheap and cheerful" gifts before tea at 4pm in the white drawing room before moving to the red drawing room where gifts have been laid out on tables for each family member.
A n elderly Canadian couple have been left heartbroken after being separated for the first time in 70 years just a week before Christmas.

Herbert Goodine, 90, was told he had to leave the care home where he lived his wife Audrey Goodine, 89, and move into a nursing home because of his worsening dementia.

Their daughter Dianne Phillips shared details of the decision on Facebook and the post has since gone viral, sparking outrage across the country.

She wrote: "When talking to my parents yesterday I listened to my mother weep and I could hear my father in the background.

My mother said, 'Christmas is over for us now and this is the worst Christmas that we will ever have. Why could they not have waited till after the holidays?'"

Herbert Goodine, 90, was moved to a nursing home after being reassessed / Facebook

Mrs Phillips said her requests to the New Brunswick authority to delay the move by one week, so the couple could spend Christmas together, were denied.

She shared an update after the weekend to confirm that her father had been moved. She explained that he had been reassessed a week ago and now requires a higher level of care.

Dianne Phillips is hoping to find new accommodation for her parents next year / Facebook

But she added: My father may have needs, however, like any other citizen he has the right to enjoy his life and spending this season with his wife was part of that.

The Victoria Villa Special Care Home responded to the Facebook post by stating it had to follow the rules and regulations set by the government.

The spokesperson added: In fact, its against the law for me to not follow the rules and I could lose my licence. At this point the decision has been made and it is out of my hands.

Mrs Phillips said her family is looking for new accommodation where her parents, who have been married for 69 years and together for 73, can both reside.
D isney World has unveiled a new robotic Donald Trump in its refurbished Hall of Presidents.

Mr Trump was added to the Hall of Presidents at Walt Disney World where every former US leader is depicted in an audio-animatronics show.

The exhibit is currently closed for maintenance; however Disney released a preview of the new addition online on Monday.

During the show, Mr Trumps robot speaks about the presidency. According to the Disney blog, the voiceover for the robot was pre-recorded by Mr Trump just as every president has done for the attraction since the early 1990s.

In the pre-recorded message Mr Trump describes America as a "nation defined by its people."

Many people have taken to Twitter to poke fun at the robotic President.

One person who goes by the Twitter handle @DustinGiebel, dubbed the original video with audio from Trump's speeches and the famous clip from the Access Hollywood tape released during the pussy grabbing scandal.

Many were quick to comment on the likeness of the robot to the president with many claiming that it looked more like the actor Jon Voight.

Others said that the robot resembled Hilary Clinton.

Madame Tussauds Orlando posted the popular meme which compares a real photo of Mr Trump and the robot.

Mr Trump has not yet responded to the exhibit.
D onald Trump has threatened to cut off financial aid to countries that back a UN resolution opposing the recognition Jerusalem as Israels capital.

The US Presidents comments came ahead of a UN General Assembly vote on the issue.

Mr Trump took the step amid international criticism earlier this month.

"They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us," he told reporters at the White House.

Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital in early December. / Getty Images

"Let them vote against us. We'll save a lot. We don't care."

US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, warned member states that President Trump had asked her to report on "who voted against us".

The US vetoed the resolution put forward by the United Nations Security Council rejecting Donald Trumps recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital.

Donald Trump Makes A Statement On Jerusalem

The UK had joined the 13 other members of the council in backing the resolution in a show of global concern over the presidents move.

But Haley called it "an insult" and said she wielded the veto "in defence of American sovereignty and in defence of America's role in the Middle East peace process".

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Theresa May personally restated her disagreement with Mr Trump's decision in a telephone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Mr Trump sparked protests across the Middle East when he broke from decades of US neutrality in the on December 6 to announce he recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital and would move the US embassy from Tel Aviv.

Mrs May moved quickly at the time to say she regarded the decision as "unhelpful for prospects for peace in the region" and to restate Britain's position that the status of Jerusalem - claimed as capital by Israelis and Palestinians - should be settled as part of a negotiated settlement.
A t least 12 people have died after a tourist bus overturned in eastern Mexico.

The bus was carrying passengers from a cruise ship to visit Mayan ruins in the state of Quintana Roo when the incident occurred. A child was reportedly among the dead.

Authorities have not yet established the nationalities of the victims but tourists from the US, Brazil and Sweden were on the bus.

Footage from the scene showed the bus on its side, with some survivors lying on the pavement and others walking around.

At least 12 people died in the crash / AFP/Getty Images

Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises said in a statement that passengers from two of its ships, the Celebrity Equinox and Serenade of the Seas, were involved in the crash. The company expressed its sympathies and said it was assisting with medical care and transportation.

Paramedics attend to injured passengers at the side of the road / AFP/Getty Images

Civil Defence spokesman Vicente Martin said in investigation has been launched into cause of the crash, which occurred as the bus was on its way to the ruins at Chacchoben, about 110 miles south of Tulum.

A cruise ship passenger who passed the scene on another bus minutes after the accident said there were swerve marks all over the surface.

The bus company, Costa Maya Mahahual said in a statement that a guide and driver were aboard the bus as well as the tourists.
Microsoft is removing from employees' contracts provisions that barred them from suing the company over sexual harassment claims.

Only a "small segment" of employees had the provisions, which require them to go to arbitration for such claims, in their contracts.

The change comes as Microsoft is supporting legislation that would ban such clauses from employment agreements at all companies.

Mandatory arbitration clauses have come under fire of late; critics charge that they silence victims of sexual misconduct.

Microsoft is making it easier for employees to sue the software giant over sexual harassment.

The company is removing language found in some of its employees' contracts that barred them from filing suit over workplace sexual harassment claims. Previously, employees subject to the provisions would have had to go to arbitration to resolve such claims, a private process that can hide the identities of repeated perpetrators.

"Because the silencing of voices has helped perpetuate sexual harassment, the country should guarantee that people can go to court to ensure these concerns can always be heard," Brad Smith, Microsoft's president and chief legal officer, said in a blog post announcing the changes. He added: "The easiest mistake any employer can make is to assume that 'this could never happen here.'"

When a harassment case goes to private arbitration, a victim is usually barred from publicly releasing any details, including the names of any alleged harassers. Critics say that such provisions effectively silence victims, allowing abuse to continue.

Microsoft supports "The Ending of Forced Arbitration of Sexual Harassment Act of 2017," proposed legislation from senators Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina that would end such provisions, Smith said. But as part of supporting the bill, Microsoft reviewed its own

contracts and found that a "small segment of our employee population" had arbitration clauses in their agreements, he said. The company decided it couldn't support the Gillibrand-Graham bill and continue to include or enforce arbitration clauses in its own employment contracts, he said.

The software giant is just one among many companies that have included arbitration clauses in their employees contracts. Companies often favour arbitration, because it can be less expensive than a public trial and can allow them to avoid bad publicity.

The issue of mandatory arbitration for harassment cases gained national attention last year when former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson sued network president Roger Ailes over alleged sexual misconduct. A mandatory arbitration clause in her 11-year-old employment contract prevented her from taking the matter to court, but her legal team circumvented the matter by suing Ailes personally.

More than 56% of American workers  about 60 million  are subject to mandatory arbitration clauses that cover all kinds of claims, including sexual harassment, according to the Economic Policy Institute's survey of nonunion private-sector employers.
A model who lost her leg after contracting toxic shock syndrome (TSS) from a tampon has revealed she now faces losing her other leg.

Lauren Wasser, 29, lost her right leg in 2012, throwing her modelling career in jeopardy. She contracted TSS from using a tampon while on her period. Initially she suffered flu like symptoms however her condition worsened culminating in a heart attack which left her on life support.

She suffered gangrene in both her legs and eventually doctors were forced to amputate her right leg below the knee.

Doctors recommended removing her left leg, however Ms Wasser chose to fight to save it.

Now, the model, actress and activist uses her harrowing experience to teach others about the dangers of TSS and tampons.

She recently opened up about her ordeal in an interview with InStyle magazine and discussed the likelihood that doctors may have to remove her second leg.

The model described the continuing effects she suffers from TSS including the pain caused by her remaining left leg which has an open ulcer, no heel and no toes.

She explained how over the years, her body has produced a lot of calcium, which causes my bones to grow on that foot.

Ms Wasser had to undergo further surgery to have the bone shaven down on her right leg, but revealed that ultimately she will have to have it removed.

In a few months, Im inevitably going to have my other leg amputated. Theres nothing I can do about it, she said.

Despite the continual struggles she faces both mentally and physically as a result of TSS, Ms Wasser said she was completely proud of her golden right leg.

Toxic Shock syndrome is a rare and life threatening bacterial infection. It can cause symptoms such as high fever, low blood pressure, vomiting, confusion and seizures.

It most commonly occurs in women using tampons.

Each year TSS effects about one in 100,000 women.

Ms Wasser shared with InStyle that she is grateful to be alive and hopes to be able to make more women aware of the dangers of TSS, a condition which has claimed so many lives.
N orth Koreas leader Kim Jung-un is believed to have executed a senior official following a failed nuclear test which killed 200 people.

A tunnel collapsed at the underground Punggye-ri nuclear site following the weapons accident in September but the incident was kept under wraps by the secretive state for nearly two months.

The base had been used to test nuclear weapons amid rising tensions between North Korea and the US over the last year.

Park In-young, the head of North Koreas Bureau 131  which is responsible for military facilities  was reportedly dismissed and killed, a Japanese newspaper has reported.

North Korea TV shows video of ballistic missile launch

The claims come from an unidentified North Korea defector, the newspaper said.

Kim Jong-un pictured giving an order to test-fire the newly developed intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-15. / EPA

It added that the reason for the execution could be a delay in carrying out North Koreas sixth nuclear test, which happened at the start of September but had been scheduled for earlier in the year.

Another reason could be the chief was held responsible for the failed missile test and tunnel collapse.

North Korea: Ballistic Missile Test - In pictures 1 /29 North Korea: Ballistic Missile Test - In pictures AFP via Getty Images AP AP People watch reports about the launch of the short-range ballistic missiles Getty Images North Korean government shows a test of a missile launch in North Korea AP North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un watching through binoculars as a new-type of tactical guided short-range missile is launched at an undisclosed location in North Korea AFP/Getty Images A test of a missile launch in North Korea AP People watch a TV showing images of North Korea's missile launch during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea AP A man watches a news report about the North Korea missile launch EPA North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches a missile test in North Kore AP Kim Jong-Un admires the launching of the Hwasong-15 missile AFP/Getty Images The new missile is thought to be capable of reaching anywhere on the US mainland AFP/Getty Images Missile: the Hwasong-15 missile which is capable of reaching all parts of the US AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images AP AFP/Getty Images Missile test: The launch AFP/Getty Images AFP/Getty Images Rocket power: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un pictured giving an order to test-fire the newly developed intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-15 EPA The Hwasong-15 missile was launched in the early hours of Wednesday AFP/Getty Images

The alleged execution follows speculation of another official, General Hwang Pyong So, being purged after he disappeared from public engagements.

On Tuesday, the UKs new defence secretary warned Britain must step up to deal with North Korea as it continues on its arms programme.

Gavin Williamson said the regime is a massive threat and real danger to the UK.
D onald Trump is on the verge of his first major legislative triumph after the US Senate backed the most significant overhaul of the countrys tax system for a generation.

The landmark piece of legislation includes $1.5 trillion of tax cuts, including a permanent break for corporations and temporary cuts for individuals.

After the bill was passed by a majority of 51-48 in the US Senate, it will return for final approval in the House of Representatives where Mr Trumps Republicans also have a majority.

The bill faced opposition from every Senate Democrat, while all Republicans voted in favour of it. Republican John McCain, a vocal critic of Mr Trump, missed the vote as he undergoes treatment for brain cancer.

The package could be signed into law within days by Mr Trump if it passes the final hurdle of voting, as is expected. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Mr Trump was on course to deliver tax cuts for Christmas.

US President Donald Trump is reported to stand to save millions thanks to the plan / AFP/Getty Images

Republicans consider the legislation vital in their quest to retain control of Congress in next years mid-term elections, while Mr Trump hopes the plans will make up for his failure to manage to reform health care earlier this year.

The bill will see the rate of corporation tax slashed from its current 35 per cent to 21 per cent, while the top rate of tax from individuals will be cut from 39.6 per cent to 37 per cent.

Chuck Schumer, the Democrats most senior Senator, criticised the plan, saying: How can Republicans defend this? The only people who want it are their very wealthy paymasters who seem to run the Republican party these days and theyre running it into the ground."

Only 24 per cent of Americans say the tax plan is a good idea, while 41 per cent think it is a bad idea, according to an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.

Paul Ryan, the Republican leader of the House of Representatives, said before voting took place: Today, we give the people of this country their money back. The bottom line here is that a typical family making the median family income will get a $2,059 tax cut next year.

The Joint Committee on Taxation and the Congressional Budget Office, both of which are Congress-based independent research groups, found that the bill would disproportionately benefit the wealthy and corporations.

Mr Trump himself is expected to make huge savings of up to $30 million on tax as a result of the reforms, the Guardian reported.

The bill also contains provisions allowing drilling for oil in Alaskas Arctic national wildlife refuge.
A British former assistant to Harvey Weinstein, who accused him of attempting to rape a colleague, has called for a change in the law on gagging orders.

Zelda Perkins, who worked for Miramax in London, broke a non-disclosure agreement earlier this year to accuse Weinstein of sexual harassment.

She said she signed the confidential agreement in 1998 when she was 24 and had shared a 250,000 payment with another woman who claimed she was sexually assaulted by Weinstein.

Ms Perkins described the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) process as "immoral" and told the BBC's Newsnight programme that lawyers told her she "didn't have a chance" of exposing his alleged behaviour.

She called for the UK law on NDAs to be reformed in order to stop the rich and powerful being able to cover up sexual assault and harassment.

"The last 19 years have been distressing, where I've not been allowed to speak, where I've not been allowed to be myself," she told the BBC.

Weinstein denies allegations of non-consensual sex / AP

Ms Perkins said she had not been allowed to talk to a therapist about her time at Miramax or explain where she had received the money from to her accountant.

She said she had fought to get terms included in the NDA, such as a commitment for Weinstein to attend therapy.

"It's not just distressing for me, but for lots of women who have not been able to own their past, and for many of them, their trauma. Although the process I went through was legal, it was immoral."

She quit Miramax after a colleague claimed the producer had tried to rape her during a work trip at the Venice Film Festival.

The co-worker came to her "extremely distressed", Ms Perkins said.

Weinstein denied the claim of attempted rape and the women took legal action but were told by lawyers they did not have many options, she said.

"We had no physical evidence because we hadn't gone to the police when we were abroad, and ultimately, it would be two young women's words against Harvey Weinstein," she told the BBC Two programme.

"In hindsight, my lawyers were giving me the advice they thought was best.

"However, they were saying, 'You will get dragged backwards, forwards and sideways through the courts. As will your family, as will your friends, as will anybody who knows anything about you. You haven't got a chance. You will be destroyed'."

She added: "I understand that non-disclosure agreements have a place in society, and for both sides. But it's really important that legislation is changed around how these agreements are regulated."

Ms Perkins had previously broken her silence in an interview with the Financial Times in October when she accused Weinstein of repeatedly harassing her, starting when he allegedly asked her to massage him when in his underwear.

Weinstein, who denies allegations of non-consensual sex, has been accused of sexual harassment and abuse by dozens of women since a bombshell investigation published by The New York Times.
V ictoria Beckham posted a picture of a bottle of wine she shared with her husband David that is known to sell for thousands of pounds.

Victoria, 43, enjoyed a glass of Screaming Eagle with her other half to celebrate their son Brooklyns return to London from New York for Christmas.

She shared a snap of the former footballer holding the pricey product alongside the caption: Kisses x.

But the post was heavily criticised by some who branded her shameful for appearing to pay for an expensive wine when there is so much poverty in the world.

Pricey: David Beckham holding a bottle of Screaming Eagle (Instagram/ Victoria Beckham ) / Instagram/ Victoria Beckham

One person tweeted: Victoria Beckham, why give her anymore publicity. Spending 2500 on 1 bottle of wine. Shame her into making a charitable contribution of same amount (sic).

Another posted: Its shameful, give the amount to Crisis at Christmas it would buy numerous dinners for the homeless (sic).

Victoria Beckham posts funny video of husband David on Instagram

A third wrote: 2.500 for a bottle of wine @victoriabeckham shameful indulgence with so much poverty and homelessness in the world. And posting a photo of it is so wrong.

Screaming Eagle is a Californian wine from Napa Valley, which has an average price of 2,426, according to winesearcher.com.

In 2000 a six-litre bottle sold for 500,000 after fetching the eye-watering amount at a charity auction.

The criticism comes a day after Victoria sparked a gender stereotyping debate after posting a photo of the poem, What Are Little Boys Made Of?, which was branded harmful to little girls.
Countries & Areas

Search for country or area A Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan B Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burma Burundi C Cabo Verde Cambodia Cameroon Canada Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Costa Rica Cote dIvoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czechia D Democratic Republic of the Congo Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic E Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia F Fiji Finland France G Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana H Haiti Holy See Honduras Hungary I Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy J Jamaica Japan Jordan K Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan L Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg M Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Morocco Mozambique N Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria North Korea North Macedonia Norway O Oman P Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Q Qatar R Republic of the Congo Romania Russia Rwanda S Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Sweden Switzerland Syria T Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu U Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uruguay Uzbekistan V Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnam Y Yemen Z Zambia Zimbabwe
This page may have been moved, deleted, or is otherwise unavailable. To help you find what you are looking for:

Enter Search Term(s):

Still cant find what youre looking for? Send us a message using our contact us form. To report a broken link or other problems with the website, please include the URL.

Thank you for visiting state.gov.
In November 2017 American B-52H heavy bombers used their latest upgrade, the CRU (Conventional Rotary Launcher) in combat for the first time. CRU enables a B-52 to carry eight large (or 34 small) JDAM smart bombs internally. The CRU itself is an accessory and not all B-52Hs will carry them. But all B-52s are being modified so the CRU can quickly removed or installed and work with the fire control system. The CRU allows more smart bombs and missiles to be carried that are reprogrammable by the crew while in the air. This is essential for most B-52 missions, which simply provide smart bomb support for a large area (most of Afghanistan, all of Iraq and so on). With the CRU dozens of smart bombs can be launched quickly and that was recently done in an attack on multiple heroin production sites in southern Afghanistan. Similar tactics can be used against North Korean artillery and missiles units.

The CRU is one of several new features associated with the 1760 IWBU (Internal Weapons Bay Upgrade). The B-52H has long had a CSRL (Common Strategic Rotary Launcher) for the internal weapons bay but that was only for nuclear weapons. Without a rotary launcher installed the internal bomb bay carries unguided bombs. Since the 1990s the B-52H has been carrying smart bombs externally, attached to hard points under the wings. Carrying anything on those hard points creates aerodynamic drag during flight which increases fuel consumption and requires more inflight refueling to obtain the same time in the air.

The first CRUs were delivered for installing and flight testing in mid-2016. Testing and delivery of more CRU continued until it was used in combat over Afghanistan in November. CRU and the IWBU continue to be upgraded so CRU can handle JASSM cruise missiles and MALD (Miniature Air Launched Decoy) a small missile which not only acts as a decoy but also carries electronics for jamming and or deceiving enemy sensors.

Since 2013 there has been a major upgrade in B-52 electronics and fire-control systems. These changes included CONECT (Combat Network Communications Technology) and 1760 IWBU (Internal Weapons Bay Upgrade). The IWBU was necessary to use CRU but both upgrade programs are being applied throughout the air force to provide standardization of communications and use of smart bombs.

Earlier upgrades enabled B-52 crew to program (enter GPS coordinates for a target) smart bombs carried. Initially this was done so smart bombs carried under the wings could be programmed by the crew and later that was expanded to include those carried internally. This upgrade simply means wiring the bomb bay so that smart bombs can be plugged into the upgraded aircraft fire control system. This was important because that made it possible to carry other programmable weapons like the MALD and the JASSM (long range smart bombs used for taking out enemy air defenses). By 2017 about half the B-52s had their bomb bay wiring upgraded.

Back in 2006 the B-52 was modified so it could carry over a hundred of the 130 kg (285 pound) Small Diameter Bombs (SDB, also known as the GBU-39/B). The bomb rack inside the B-52 was modified to carry 32 SDBs instead of 15 larger bombs. The B-52 could already carry more SDBs under its wings using special racks that held 4 SBDs where one larger bomb would normally be. Initially all these SDBs had to be programmed (with target location) on the ground. This was all for mass precision strikes from one bomber, something that has not been required yet. The large bomb capacity of the B-52 was a 1960s innovation which enabled one B-52 to carry 108 500 pound unguided bombs for carpet bombing missions.

Until the recent upgrades, the SBDs carried internally had to receive their target coordinates on the ground, not in the air. The ability to enter or change GPS coordinates in smart bombs is necessary now because heavy bombers typically stay in the air over the combat zone for 8 hours or more at a time, delivering smart bombs as needed by troops on the ground. The B-52 also has its own targeting pod now that enables the crew to spot targets, program one of its smart bombs, and take them out without needing GPS coordinates from someone on the ground.

Despite being the oldest American combat aircraft in service the B-52s have been regularly upgraded with new electronics and minor tweaks for new bombs. For example in mid-2017 the B-52H was certified as able to use PDU-5 leaflet bomb. This is a variant of the cluster bomb long carried by B-52s. But instead of dispersing 247 bomblets from a larger canister the PDU-5 disperses 60,000 leaflets over several square kilometers. The PDU-5 has been used regularly since 2001 to warn people (usually in target areas) that a bombing or artillery attack is coming. Normally PDU-5s are delivered by jet fighters but helicopters have been used and the test drops from the B-52H is to ensure that there are no problems with the bomb colliding with the aircraft once dropped. The B-52H PDU-5 test wasnt an upgrade as much as standard safety check. As with the CRU the B-52H isnt able to use a newly installed feature until after several tests followed by use, if possible, in a combat zone.

Another reason for the longevity of the B-52 has been its reliability and relatively low maintenance cost. The B-52H has a better reliability record than much more recent aircraft and much smaller aircraft. For example the U.S. Air Force mission capable or readiness rate (percentage of available aircraft able to do their job) varies by type and technology. Age has less to do with it than you might think. As of 2015 the B-52H rate was 72 percent compared to 47 percent for the B-1B heavy bomber and 71 percent for the F-15E fighter bomber.

This greater bomb carrying capability makes the B-52 even more effective, as it is cheaper to have one "bomb truck" over the combat zone rather than several fighter-bombers. With a max takeoff weight of 240-250 tons the BUFF (Big Ugly Fat Fellow) is basically a large aircraft designed to carry bombs cheaply and efficiently. The readiness rate of these bombers remains high because it was not designed to operate at supersonic speed or carry out stressful maneuvers. Although the remaining B-52s are all at least 50 years old, most of the internal gear has been replaced with modern electronics and furnishings. Its all flat screens and modern gear. Look closer and you see a lot of 50 year old metal.

The B-52 is one of the cheapest (along with the B-1B) to operate heavy bombers in the air force, and one of them can cover all of Afghanistan. Early on B-52s were often based on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia and from there can support operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. In late 2001, ten B-52s dropped a third of the bomb tonnage in Afghanistan. That's a remarkable record for a 1950s aircraft design. The B-52 carried that much of the load because it was the most cost-effective American heavy bomber. The B-52 also has a lower accident rate than the B-1 and B-2. Compared to the supersonic B-1 and high-tech B-2, the B-52 is just a flying truck. Thus the B-52, despite its age, was long the cheapest, safest, and most reliable way to deliver smart bombs over Afghanistan. In the last few years the B-1B became the cheapest (per flight hour) heavy bomber to operate but not by much and mainly because the cost of maintaining a 60 year old aircraft gets higher with age simply because more things wear out and have to be replaced. But because of its large bomb load and ability to handle smart bombs the B-52H is one of the cheapest ways to deliver a smart bomb.

For example, over Afghanistan, carrying a dozen 909 kg (2000-pound) JDAM (GPS-guided bombs) or a larger number of smaller bombs, a B-52 could circle a combat area for hours, waiting for the special force guys or Air Force controllers on the ground to send them the coordinates of a target. The JDAM landed (over 90 percent of the time) within 16 meters (50 feet) of the location the ground troopers wanted it. Better yet, most of the bombs arrived within 10 minutes of the request.

By 2017 most of the B-52 combat missions to Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria were flown out of Qatar. In 2017 these missions led to about 1,500 bombs dropped, half of them unguided. The B-52H carpet bombing is still effective in part because the fire control system for such missions has improved continually since the 1960s. Each carpet bombing mission can involve over a hundred bombs from two or more B-52s. With smart bombs its usually one target, one bomb.

The B-52 was the principal heavy bomber throughout most of the Cold War (1947-91). The B-52 prototype first flew in 1952. The last one built, a B-52H, was in 1962. The B-52 has seen a lot of action in Vietnam, the Persian Gulf War, in the Balkans, and over Afghanistan. It has a crew of five (pilot, copilot, navigator, electronics warfare officer, and radar navigator). There used to be a gunner for a rear-firing 20mm cannon but this was eliminated in the 1990s. Automation can reduce crew size even more. The 1970s era B-1B has a crew of four, and the 1980s era B-2 has a crew of two. The only B-52s flying are the B-52H model, which has been much modified since the last one rolled off the assembly line.

A true replacement for the B-52 was never built because no one foresaw the development of such accurate smart bombs and the ability of the U. S. Air Force to destroy most anti-aircraft defenses. Indeed, even when faced with heavy defenses, the B-52 was able to fight its way through. During the twelve days of Linebacker II raids against North Vietnam in 1972, 15 B-52s were shot down by Soviet-built SAM-2 missiles. The 150 B-52s stationed in Guam flew 729 missions, for a loss rate of 2 percent. But because of the number of sorties flown, 10 percent of the B-52s involved were brought down. Of the 92 airmen in the downed aircraft, 33 died.

After Vietnam the B-52s received several generations of new electronic warfare equipment, learning much from the experience during Linebacker II. But there never was enough money to keep the B-52 completely up to date, especially with the equipment needed to use some of the newer bombs. As a result, some B-52s got their JDAM equipment just before the 2001 war in Afghanistan. The B-52 was upgraded to use JDAM before the B-1B because the B-52 is more reliable. In any event, the upgrade was cheap - wiring from the weapons officer's station to the bombs so GPS location data could be changed in flight. The 50-year-old B-52 soon became the weapon of choice over Afghanistan, able to hang around for hours and drop one-ton JDAM bombs on demand.

Currently, the Air Force has the capacity to shut down the high-altitude missile systems of just about anyone and then bring the B-52s in at high altitude to avoid low-altitude anti-aircraft guns and mobile antiaircraft missile systems. The B-1B and B-2 were built to deal with even more intense antiaircraft defenses they would face in the Soviet Union. But with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, no one else had such an air defense system. Perhaps, in the future, a nation like China may build another such formidable antiaircraft defense system. For the moment, because of the lack of first rate air defenses to stop it, the B-52 can still hack it in the combat zone, even delivering nuclear weapons.

The air force expects to keep some (as many as fifty) B-52H bombers in service until the mid-2040s.
Mexico's long-term drop in the birth rate may be good economic news -- we will know in about thirty years. Mexico's current birth rate is children 2.2 per woman. In 1960 is was around 6.7 (an estimate, no one is quite sure what it was but 6.7 is close and more than six per mother is huge). Rising education levels and the country's increasingly productive domestic economy factor into the seven-decade drop in the birth rate. Why has the domestic economy improved? Hard core Mexican nationalists don't want to admit it, but the North American Free Trade Agreement forced the economy to modernize. Long term, the improved economy and stable population growth will mean fewer Mexicans will seek work in the U.S. What does this mean for the Cartel War? Not much, at least not directly. The drug cartels have moved into extortion rackets, robbing the nation's more productive businesses. That's why the government needs to focus on the nation's corruption and crime problem as a corruption-crime problem, not as a drug war. Former president Felipe Calderon tried to do that but corruption is harder to deal with than drug cartels. (Austin Bay)

December 17, 2017: In the west (Nayarit state) cartel gunmen hung three dead bodies from a highway overpass near Tepic. A banner spread across the bodies promised there would be future attacks in the state. Authorities report that the Beltran Leyva and Sinaloa cartels are fighting a turf war for control of Nayarit state. Investigators believe the murders were committed by Los Mazatlecos, a small, independent cartel operating in Nayarit state. Los Mazatlecos is allied with Beltran Leyva.

December 16, 2017: Progress continues on a major natural gas pipeline project that will linking U.S. gas fields with Mexico. CFE, Mexico's state-run electric utility expects a new 269 kilometers long pipeline running from a gas production "hub" and compression station in Nueces County, Texas, to Mexico. The pipeline runs through the Brownsville, Texas area. CFE expects the pipeline will begin carrying gas in October 2018. It will have a capacity of around 2.6 billion cubic feet of gas per day.

December 15, 2017: Mexico's Senate passed the new Law of Internal Security which gives the military new security powers and affirms that the military is the central operational organization in the Cartel War. The new law has many critics, but supporters argue all it does is legalize what the military has been ordered to do for 11 years. It was 11 years ago this month that the Calderon government sent the military into Michoacan state in an attempt to end the violence stirred by drug cartels. The advocates contend the new laws will resolve certain constitutional issues regarding the use of the military in domestic crime fighting operations. The president is given clear authority to authorize the use of military forces in an anti-crime operation. They point out that the military is currently conducting anti-cartel operations in 27 of Mexicos 32 states. In 2012 when Enrique Pena became president, the military was operating in six states. That is more than a bit ironic. Pena said he was going to "demilitarize" the drug war. He found out the military was the only instrument that worked. Critics, however, argue the military will become more unaccountable. The Iguala Massacre of September 2014 is only one of many complaints about military irresponsibility and misbehavior. Opponents of the new legislation point out that in the time frame January 2012 to August 2016, citizens filed 5,541 complaints the military brutality. (Austin Bay)

The U.S. government has formally asked for the extradition of former Tamaulipas state governor Eugenio Hernandez who served from 2005 to 2010. The U.S. wants to try him money laundering and fraud charges that he was indicted for in 2014. Mexico arrested Hernandez this year on embezzling charges.

December 12, 2017: In the west (Michaocan state) the town of Tancitaro calls itself Mexico's avocado capital. The country is the world's biggest producer of avacados. The government estimated Mexico sold two billion avocados in the U.S. in 2016. Drug cartels, however, have attempted to extort money from avocado growers and take over production and transportation operations. In response Tancitaro formed its own community defense force to protect its citizens and its avocado business. The force operates as a municipal public security agency and has already earned a media nickname, the Avocado Police. Except it isn't a police force, not really. Everyone who serves in Tancitaro's force is either from the town or the immediate vicinity -- in other words, the citizens know the individuals serving in the group are reliable and are defending their own homes and interests. The force is responsible to the mayor and works with the municipal police. One of its primary missions is manning checkpoints throughout Tancitaro and protecting local businesses and farmers, which is one reason avocado growers provide some of the money supporting force operations. Businesses and citizens in the area gave money to buy body armor and weapons for individuals serving in the force. However, members of the force avoid carrying weapons openly. The mayor has told media that everyone in the force works in a job connected to the avocado business. So far no one in Tancitaro has called the public security force a "vigilante" organization. Why did the town organize this group? Municipal police were outgunned by cartel gang members and federal authorities (federal police and military) could not provide constant security. A local volunteer group not only provided useful reinforcements for the police and also attracted a lot of media attention. Both of these factors discourage the cartels, who are then tempted to seek a less risky venture.

December 11, 2017: Chihuahua state authorities reported that within the last week cartel gunmen have executed two municipal police chiefs. In Casas Grandes the police chief was killed when his vehicle was ambushed by cartel gunmen. The chief of Cuauhtemoc was shot in the back of his head while eating in a restaurant.

December 9, 2017: Ricardo Anaya, president of the National Action Party (PAN) resigned his party position. He said he intends to seek the PAN nomination for president and run for president in 2018. The announcement comes a day after (December 8) the PAN, the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and the small Citizens Movement party agreed to form a coalition against the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and far left candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (known as AMLO) and his National Regeneration Movement (MORENA). AMLO, a one-time PRD presidential candidate, left the PRD and formed his own party. The election will be held in July 2018. The PAN/PRD coalition is calling itself "For Mexico in Front." The new coalition is significant because all three participating parties have agreed to support the same candidate for president. Mexican pollsters think Anaya is the likely candidate though the PRD's Miguel Angel Mancera (mayor of Mexico City) is a possibility. The likely PRI candidate is former finance minister Jose Antonio Meade. One recent Mexican opinion poll had AMLO leading the 2018 presidential race with Anaya a close second.

December 8, 2017: In the north (Tamaulipas state) seven gunmen believed to belong to La Vieja Guardia /La Vieja Escuela Los Zetas cartel faction were killed in a shootout with a police task force. Security forces found the cartel gunmen in a training base that had rather sophisticated living quarters.

December 5, 2017: Both the DEA and Texas state security officials report that Los Zetas cartel has split into two antagonistic factions that are now separate drug trafficking organizations. One faction is called the Old Guard/Old School Zetas (La Vieja Guardia, also called Vieja Escuela) and the other one Northeast Cartel (Cartel del Noroeste). In early 2016 there was some talk of a deal to end the split. However, the turf war the factions have waged over Nuevo Laredo (Tamaulipas state) has been so vicious, bloody and sustained that authorities have concluded the split is permanent. Meanwhile, as the Zetas spin-offs kill one another, the Jalisco New Generation cartel (CJNG) has moved into border towns in Mexico and Texas.

December 1, 2017: Based on the numbers from January 1 to November 1, the government now estimates there will be between 25,000 to 26,000 homicides in Mexico this year. The figure for January through October is 20,878 murders. Based on the number of homicide cases under investigation, 2,371 suspected homicides were committed in October. Sometimes the totals fluctuate slightly as investigations proceed. But under any circumstance, October 2016 was a horror. If the number holds up it may set a new record for homicides in a single month.

November 28, 2017: No one is safe and violence is pervasive. That seems to be the national reaction to the November 20 murder of Adolfo Lagos Espinosa, vice president of the Televisa media conglomerate and CEO of its telecommunications division. Lagos was riding his bicycle outside of Mexico City (near Teotihuacan) when gunmen tried to rob him. He was shot in the stomach and died. Now police believe his own bodyguard may have shot him accidentally in the confusion. It appears the attempted robbery was not premeditated. The gunmen thought Lagos looked like someone out on the street and he was worth robbing. That may or may not prove to be accurate, but that's the way the murder is being interpreted politically. It has stoked nation-wide outrage, at lot of the outrage focused on President Pena. The fact another national figure was murdered on the same day added more political fuel. Criminals murdered Silvestre de la Toba Camacho, president of Baja California Sur state's human rights commission. That job involves being a state-wide ombudsman for detecting and investigating bad behavior by anyone, but particularly security forces and the criminal organizations that are responsible for most of the murders, rapes, robberies and other mayhem. De la Toba was killed in the resort city of La Paz (also the state capital). Police have concluded that del la Toba was assassinated -- definitely premeditated. That is no consolation. Critics of the government argue that Lagos' murder demonstrates that criminal violence is rampant and the government has lost control. Even a multi-millionaire with a bodyguard isn't safe from street violence. The complaint ties into public disgust with corruption. The public has concluded criminals believe they won't be caught and prosecuted.
It's easy to forget, but technology is often used for good causes and as a way of helping those in need. Over in the UK city of Nottingham, the world's first vending machine for homeless people has just been installed, allowing those sleeping on the streets to stock up on free essentials any time during the day or night.

The machine, which is now available at the Broadmarsh Intu shopping center, dispenses items such as water, fresh fruit, energy bars, sanitary pads, socks, and sandwiches. It even contains antibacterial lotion, toothbrush and toothpaste packs, and books.

The project is the work of Huzaifah Khaled, founder of the Nottingham homeless charity Action Hunger, which restocks and monitors the machine daily. He says most of the food contents come from redistribution organizations that attempt to reduce food waste, while other items are bought using charitable donations.

Vending machine for the homeless, in partnership with @thefriary88 - a day centre for the homeless in Nottingham @_actionhunger pic.twitter.com/ZhCi09CBs8 --- Ken Loach (@KenLoachSixteen) December 19, 2017

To ensure the machine isn't abused and used only by those most in need, up to 100 homeless people will be given traceable key cards handed out by the Friary, a drop-in advice center. Each person can use their card to receive an item from the machine up to three times in one day. They must check in at the Friary once per week for the cards to continue working.

"The measure is designed to prevent singular dependency on our machines - we want our low-cost solution to complement other services that are available, as engagement with professionals and local support services is instrumental to breaking the cycle of homelessness," the charity said.

29-year-old Khaled developed the project while completing his PhD in law at the University of Cambridge, and even managed to convince N&W Global Vending to give him a 10,000 ($13,400) machine for free, reports the Guardian.

Khaled hopes to expand the initiative across the country and into the US. He aims to have 25-30 of them in the UK by the end of 2018, while next year will also see two machines appear in New York, followed by more in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. It looks as if the program could be taken up by other countries, too. "I've had emails from people in Greece, Spain, Australia and China, all wanting to know more," said Khaled.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Thursday that his country has the highest economic growth in Latin America and the Caribbean, despite the sanctions imposed against it. | Read More
The Hypocrisy of Big Oil and API







hypocrisy

/hpakrse/ (alternate pronunciation /bi oil/)

noun 1.

the practice of claiming standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform.

synonyms: deceit, dishonesty, mendacity

ALERT... Prepare For A Shocking Information Discovery

By Marc J. Rauch

Exec. Vice President/Co-Publisher

THE AUTO CHANNEL







I came across a website titled "FillUpOnFacts.com." It's a website sponsored by the American Petroleum Institute (API) to bash ethanol. The hypocrisy begins with the website's name; the website is filled-up with lies.

This website lists 13 categories, and then links to details that API pretends are facts to support their bashing of ethanol. I provide a list of these categories below, along with my own previously published responses that explain why API is wrong on these issues.

However, without having to go through the 13 categories and my responses, there's a far easier way to prove the duplicity of Big Oil's attacks on ethanol.

For decades - while Standard Oil and other gasoline companies vehemently protested against ethanol fuels in the United States - Standard Oil, Cities Service (CITGO), and other American-based oil companies, sold ethanol-gasoline blends in Great Britain - where they marketed these fuels as being more powerful, cleaner, and cooler running.

In the 1920's, a consortium of scotch whisky distillers began producing and marketing an ethanol-gasoline blend for automobiles called "Discol." A few years later, the Discol name was licensed by another British company (Cleveland Petroleum Products) to sell an ethanol-gasoline blend, provided that Cleveland continued to use the alcohol produced by its distillers for the fuel blend. In the 1930's, Standard Oil (ESSO/Anglo-American Oil) purchased about half of Cleveland Petroleum Products. In 1958, ESSO purchased the remaining shares of Cleveland Petroleum.

The following are some of the print advertisements used to promote Cleveland Discol ethanol-gasoline fuel. The ads span the 1930's through the 1960's:

Here's a British television commercial from 1966 for Cleveland Discol ethanol-gasoline fuel:

Here's two British newspaper ads in the 1930's for Cities Service ethanol-gasoline blend called "Koolmotor."

As you see, the message told to the consumers in Great Britain about ethanol was far different than the story told to the American people, then and now. The benefits mentioned in the Discol ads include:



 Ethanol (alcohol) contributes to a brilliant performance and better mileage

 Engines run cooler and cleaner

 Ethanol has long been used to prevent icing in aircraft and car engines

 Amazing acceleration and smoother running

 More miles per gallon

 Highest anti-knock value

 It's thermal efficiency is higher than non-ethanol gasoline (BTUs are irrelevant)

 Less carbon is produced, ethanol actually removes carbon deposits

Great Britain wasn't the only place in Europe that sold ethanol or ethanol-gasoline blended fuels; alcohol was used extensively throughout Europe, South America, and Asia. Italy's brand was Benzacool, Hungary had Moltaco, Sweden had Lattybentyl, South Africa Natelite, Brazil's big brand was Alcool, and in the late 1930's America had an ethanol-gasoline blend called Agrol.

"The Forbidden Fuel," a book co-authored by William Kovarik, Hal Bernton, and Scott Sklar details the use of ethanol throughout the world. Bill Kovarik expands on all this through his Internet presentations, such as his History of Biofuels at Environmental history / biofuels.

In post-prohibition America, ethanol-gasoline fuels were often sold without all the boogeyman histrionics used by API members in recent years.

For example, in the 1970's, Texaco was producing an ethanol-gasoline blend and selling it in the United States. Here's a TV commercial from 1979 featuring Bob Hope promoting corn alcohol blended with gasoline.

Today, Canadians don't seem to know much about ethanol-gasoline blends. But here are 1984 and 1986 TV commercials from Mohawk gasoline stations in Canada. They sold an E10 ethanol-gasoline blend. It gave consumers "faster starts, more power, and cleaner emissions."

The great significance in all this is that prior to our modern Ethanol Renaissance (and production of vehicles with "ethanol-compatible components" starting in the 1990's) tens of thousands of vehicles... sorry, make that hundreds of thousands of vehicles... no, I mean millions of vehicles in Europe, the Americas, and Asia were powered by fuels that contained ethanol. On top of that, we have to assume other internal combustion engine devices (lawn mowers, chain saws, stationary machines) throughout the world used ethanol-gasoline blends at one time or another.

With all these millions of engines using ethanol-gasoline blends, where are all the newspaper/magazine reports of ethanol causing engine damage? Where are all the stories from the 1920's, 30's, 40's, 50's, and 60's screaming about ethanol corroding engine parts? Where are all the stories about ethanol causing less power and fewer miles per gallon? How could there not be hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of published complaints that singled out ethanol as the evil-doer?

Of course, there wouldn't have been such stories sponsored by the oil companies since they were promoting the ethanol-gasoline blends as a superior fuel, but what about all know-it-all ethanol-haters who nowadays haunt and troll every publication and media outlet they can find with ethanol-horror stories. Surely there must have been empty-headed know-it-alls in those days insisting that because of ethanol's lower BTU values that it must deliver less power.

(Incidentally, in all the years up to the 1980's that the petroleum oil companies sold ethanol-gasoline they weren't "forced" to do it, there were no "ethanol mandates." They did it because it was the right thing to do. They did it because they knew that ethanol added power, cleaned the engines, emitted less pollution, and was the least expensive way to mitigate engine knock.)

A Remarkable Revelation

Well, a newly published report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) sheds some light on this subject, and at the same time throws some shade (as the young people say) on a possible suspect for the modern complaints against ethanol. Can you guess who that suspect is?

If you said "petroleum oil producers and blenders" you win a kewpie doll. Imagine, the oil industry causing the very same problems that they blame on ethanol; ain't that a kick in the head?

The report is titled, "Sulfate Salts in Gasoline and Ethanol Fuels  Historical Perspective and Analysis of Available Data." It was published in September 2017, and can be found at https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy17osti/69001.pdf.

Here's the thing, as I often say during my public speaking appearances, all liquids are corrosive, and one of the most corrosive liquids in the world is water. Water is so corrosive that if metals aren't treated or cared for, it could cause our largest aircraft carriers and biggest passenger jets to fall apart. Yet, we drink water, we wash in water, we even bathe new born babies in water. But because the corrosive characteristics of water can be overcome with appropriate materials, babies can go about 60 or 70 years before they start to corrode (yes, you're supposed to laugh at this point).

Gasoline is corrosive, too. Inhibitors are added to gasoline to reduce corrosion. Many, many people think that non-ethanol gasoline is some kind of benign fluid gently caressing engine components, and protecting the metal and rubber parts in some kind of an on-going mechanical love ballet.

Hah! Gasoline is a toxic, caustic, corrosive liquid.

Unbeknownst to most people, especially those ethanol-bashers who wouldn't want to learn any real facts, prior to the invention of leaded-gasoline ethanol was considered the best substance to put in your vehicle's engine during long periods of inactivity. That's right, it was recommended to fill your vehicle's fuel tank and fuel system with ethanol fuel. In his 1919 maintenance manual for the Ford Model T (the world's number one selling automobile for almost two decades), Victor Page wrote, "Denatured alcohol (ethanol fuel) is without doubt the best substance to use as it does not have any destructive action on the metals and rubber hose, will not form deposits of foreign matter, and has no electrolytic effect." No literature of the period was ever published to refute that recommendation.

You can find Victor Page's manual at https://books.google.com/books?id=dqEgAAAAMAAJ. The above quote is located on the top of page 156.

When tetra-ethyl lead was added to gasoline by the General Motors scientists in the early 1920's it worked like ethanol in quieting engine knock. However it was highly corrosive, so they had to add ethylene dibromide to the gasoline-tetraethyl lead fuel mixture. Now they had a poison (gasoline), mixed with another poison (tetraethyl lead) in order to stop the engine knock caused by gasoline, with yet another poison (ethylene dibromide) to stop corrosion caused by tetraethyl lead. It's like a triple-threat poisonous concoction unleashed on the public by a science-fiction madman - except it really happened.

The advent of leaded-gasoline also led to changes in the design and manufacture of engine components to help handle this fuel. These changes probably were at least part of the reason why ethanol may have gone from being the harmless substance described by Victor Page to a potential corrosive fuel.

However, the new report released by NREL introduces the distinct possibility that the modern complaints of ethanol corrosion are the result of intentional or accidental monkeying with the ethanol-gasoline blends by the oil industry (or cronies of the oil industry) to denigrate ethanol.

Could the oil industry or its minions be responsible for this? Would they stoop to doing this?

Of course they would, trillions of dollars are at stake. The petroleum oil industry colluded with the Nazis before and during World War II in order to insure their position of dominance after the war in case the Allies lost. They're responsible for unleashing terrible poisons into our air and water. Oil wars have killed millions of Americans, and untold tens of millions of people around the world. Oil industry carelessness has killed millions of non-human animals of all types.

On the other hand, perhaps it's all just a coincidence? Perhaps the sheer competitive desire by the oil industry to keep their engine fuels the dominant engine fuels, even though there is a superior fuel (ethanol) at hand, just lends itself to circumstantial conjecture?

I can go with circumstantial conjecture. I don't think I need to paint a picture of premeditated death and destruction... as long as everyone understands that everything else I've written here isn't coincidence or circumstantial conjecture. Ethanol was the best fuel to use in internal combustion engines; it was the safest fuel to use in internal combustion engines; it provided the most power for internal combustion engines; and that ethanol is still the best, safest, most powerful fuel to use in internal combustion engines (spark ignited and compression ignited engines).

And now I'll return to the lies posed by the API website

FillUpOnFatcts.com indexes the following 13 issues. My replies can be found under the headings

The RFS Needs Reform

'Reform' suggests an evil act has been perpetrated. No one has committed more evil acts than the oil industry. Read "Why Does AAA and Big Oil Feel They Must Lie to America?" by CLICKING HERE

The Cost of Mandates

The U.S. and our fellow citizens have been kept chained to oil for a century and a half via onerous taxation, an unpopular law of prohibition, military conscription, and never-ending tax-payer subsidies. Read all about oil subsidies in Part 4 of my full-length report "Truth About Ethanol" by CLICKING HERE

The Reality of America's Energy Revolution

API is complaining that cellulosic ethanol hasn't yet come to fruition. Their argument is a ruse. They looking for something to complain about, like Chico Marx' nonsensical add-on complaint in "Night At The Opera." He said, "Yeah, and your ice isn't cold enough."

It's not important that cellulosic ethanol isn't being used more, we have no shortage of ethanol or ethanol-crops. Here's my response to a Big Oil shill who complained that things are moving too slowly: CLICK HERE .

Outdated Supply and Demand Projections

API has built many of it's anti-ethanol arguments on outdated information and production techniques. The oil industry funded studies conducted by David Pimentel and Tad Patzek are rife with rotten data. Read all about the Pimentel-Patzek sham studies in Part 5 of my full-length report "Truth About Ethanol" by CLICKING HERE.

Disconnect Between EPA Mandate and Technology

Read about the real disconnect. Taking On EPA, CAL Air Resources Board, Obama, and Big Oil.

What is the Blend Wall?

The Figurative Ethanol Blend Wall is a Fictional Ethanol Blend Wall.

E15 and Your Car

Big Oil E15 horror stories show up in the most remote places. To read about the debunking I did of one story CLICK HERE.

Fairytale Thinking on E85 and Ethanol Mandates

The fairytale thinking is in believing that E85 is limited to certain vehicles. All gasoline-powered automobiles can use E85, not just flex-fuel vehicles. Consumers can 'splash-blend' their own blend levels to save money and get better MPG results. CLICK HERE to read "Using E85 in Non-Flex Fuel Vehicles Can Save Almost $1 per Gallon and Fight Terrorism."

The RFS is Bad Policy

We use as much corn for ethanol as we do because we grow it for ethanol production. If the ethanol market didn't exist farmers wouldn't grow as much corn as they do. Even with the amount of corn that used for ethanol, we have virtually as much corn for human consumption as we did in the past. There is no shortage of pop corn, corn-on-the-cob for picnics, tortilla chips, or canned corn. Read "Biofuels Are Worth Every Effort and Cost" for more details.

A Bumpy Ride for Motorcyclists

Motorcycles and Ethanol (E10) - The Shocking Truth.

Rising Ethanol Blends Don't Float All Boats

Mercury Marine, the world's largest manufacturer of marine engines likes E10 and thinks it's a better fuel than ethanol-free gasoline. To read/watch Mercury's ethanol webinar CLICK HERE.

Outdoor Equipment and the RFS

One of the oil industry's most pernicious myths about ethanol concerns small engines. To read my take on ethanol and small engines CLICK HERE .

How Has the RFS Evolved Over Time?

You want to know how the RFS has evolved over time? Go to Los Angeles Airport and look north. On many, many days you can see the Hollywood Hills. In Pasadena you can look to the west and south west and see the ocean. This wasn't true in the late 1980's and 90's.

 On February 14, 2018 I had the opportunity to present this paper in speech form at the Renewable Fuels Association NATIONAL ETHANOL CONFERENCE is San Antonio, Texas.

The following is the complete video of that presentation.
Senator Al Franken. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Senator Al Franken announced on Wednesday that he will officially step down from his position on January 2, 2018, following multiple allegations of sexual misconduct.

In his resignation speech earlier this month, Franken said he wanted to be respectful of that broader conversation about sexual assault, but that some of the allegations against him are simply not true. He also expressed frustration that he was being forced to resign, while President Trump, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by over 20 women, was not.

I, of all people, am aware that there is some irony in the fact that I am leaving, while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the Oval Office, he said.

Prior to his resignation, the Senate Ethics Committee opened an investigation into Frankens past behavior, after he was accused of groping and forcibly kissing numerous women.

Frankens replacement, Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Tina Smith, will be sworn in on January 3.
Glenn Thrush. Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

In late November, amid a wave of allegations against powerful men in various industries, New York Times political reporter Glenn Thrush was accused of sexual misconduct against young female colleagues in a Vox report  specifically, unwanted kissing and groping. He was suspended without pay from his job and released a statement in which he apologized, denied some of the accusations, and chalked others up to his dealing with alcoholism. Now, the Times reports that hell be returning to work in late January but will no longer be on the team covering the White House.

Per the Times, lawyer Charlotte Behrendt led an investigation involving dozens of interviews then prepared a report for top editors. From there, they decided not to go forward with his dismissal.

While we believe that Glenn has acted offensively, we have decided that he does not deserve to be fired, executive editor Dean Baquet said.

We understand that our colleagues and the public at large are grappling with what constitutes sexually offensive behavior in the workplace and what consequences are appropriate, he continued. Each case has to be evaluated based on individual circumstances. We believe this is an appropriate response to Glenns situation.

Thrush did not comment.
Photo: Luis Enrique Carmona Perlaza/EyeEm/Getty Images

Former journalist Juan Thompson was sentenced today to 60 months in jail after pleading guilty to cyberstalking and making fake bomb threats against Jewish community centers and other organizations in January and February of 2017.

Thompson made the threats in the name of his ex-girlfriend Francesca Rossi, a New York City social worker. According to the FBI, Thompsons actions were part of an elaborate revenge campaign against Rossi.

At Thompsons sentencing on Wednesday, Rossi told the court the NYPD failed to protect her until the entire country was also terrorized.

For the first time, Rossi is speaking out about her experience, and she has shared her victims impact statement exclusively with the Cut.

According to Rossis account, the abuse began shortly after she started dating Thompson. For months, Rossi received threatening texts from her ex-boyfriends, but soon realized it was actually Thompson posing as these men. (Around this time, Thompson was fired from his job as a reporter at the Intercept for fabricating sources.)

Rossi said she broke up with Thompson, but the harassment just got worse. Rossi told the court that for nearly a year, Thompson contacted Rossi incessantly: He sent her death threats; posed as strangers threatening to end her life; demanded payment for naked pictures; posted her picture, address, and phone number on websites and encouraged people to attack her; and told her employers she possessed child porn. But when she went to the police, she was told there was nothing they could do.

The reality is that I asked for help from law enforcement over 20 times, Rossi said. I asked for restraining orders to stop him. I was told by police, verbatim, It will get worse and then we can try to help.

It did. Thompson told the NYPD that Rossi was planning to shoot up a Brooklyn police station, and emailed a news station with a death threat against her and the NYPDs chief of police. Then Thompson began calling in bomb threats against Jewish community centers during a period when these threats were on the rise, and the FBI got involved. He was arrested within a month.

The charges of cyberstalking and hoax threats Juan pled guilty to are inextricably linked, Rossi said. If the police had recognized the stalking and abuse as domestic violence when I reported it, many times, hundreds of peoples lives would be different.

This is not an internet crime, technology may have facilitated it, but all of this occurred in real life, Rossi added. The police diminished my abuse because my life-threatening attacks came from phones and computers. This is what domestic violence looks like now. My abuse was not legitimized until an entire community, and the country was terrorized.

Read Francesca Rossis Full Statement:

I stand here in front of you today, grateful to be alive. Men like Juan Thompson usually end up murdering their victims. He stalked, harassed and threatened me with such insidious methods, I feared for my life. Every day. Despite being present today at his sentencing, Im not convinced that he still wont try to kill me.

We are here today because Juan Thompson threatened 12 Jewish Community Centers, in my name, as a part of his abusive tactics aimed at destroying my life. We are here because domestic terrorism is rooted in violence against women.

Now think to yourself, how many times during the day does your phone vibrate, with an alert about an email, text, post, status update, phone call imagine each time you receive an alert, your mind goes blank, and your body becomes paralyzed in fear and you cant breathe  because each of these alerts is caused by a person who is threatening to harm you, and everyone you know.

When I met Juan Thompson, I thought I had met the perfect man. He was charming, intelligent, handsome  he was a passionate journalist who said he could change the world through his words. He said all the right things. We fell in love over dinners and deep conversations about social justice.

Still, a seed of doubt began to grow in my mind. Although the media coverage of my story has reported that Juans abuse began when I ended our partnership, the reality is that Juan was actively abusing me while we were in a relationship, and living together. His pattern of impersonating sources and defrauding people wasnt limited to his work  he spent the entirety of our relationship using those same tactics to isolate, shame and abuse me.

When I met Juan Thompson, I thought I had met the perfect man. He was charming, intelligent, handsome.

After a year together, things started to fall apart and the real Juan emerged. He was accused of plagiarism and falsifying sources by his employer and was immediately fired. His public persona and career were ruined in an instant. I assumed the role of supportive partner and stood by his side, believing his cover story and dismissing the accusations of fraud. He had an excuse for everything  and I believed him.

Juans campaign was methodical and extensive. While we were living together, I spent months believing that ex-boyfriends were stalking and threatening me. I received an onslaught of texts, emails, and phone calls with horrible false accusations about me.

A nude picture of me was found on Facebook, posted by an impersonated ex-boyfriend as his profile picture. I received a lawsuit, supposedly filed by an exs wife, falsely alleging that I had spread an STI to her husband and therefore to her. I didnt know it was a fake until we found out the lawyer who purportedly filed it had been impersonated.

During this time, I sought support from Juan, unaware that he was directing and inflicting the emotional turmoil I was experiencing. He constantly compared himself to these men and harped on their supposed transgressions. I started to feel paranoid, not understanding why so many of my exes were stalking and trying to hurt me.

When I retained a lawyer to pursue a case against the ex-boyfriend who had supposedly posted revenge porn, she asked me a sobering question: Are you certain that this wasnt actually done by your current boyfriend? I was shocked at the possibility  and to learn that New York State does not have a revenge porn law. Youd be surprised, she explained, the majority of people who experience this kind of manipulation are actually being stalked by their current partner.

She was right. The man I trusted and shared my home with was actively trying to destroy me. Its hard to explain how I felt when I realized that all of the harassment I had endured was actually perpetrated by the man I was in love with. My prior months of torment flashed before me as I realized that Juan was behind all of it, receiving vicarious pleasure through my psychological pain. I felt like my insides were being ripped apart as my mind shut down from its attempts to process the horrific reality.

Its hard to explain how I felt when I realized that all of the harassment I had endured was actually perpetrated by the man I was in love with.

I had no idea this was only the beginning of the nightmare. The shock never really wore off, but the terror set in. And I have lived in fear for my life every day since.

I ended my relationship with Juan as soon as my lawyer confirmed he had authored the fake lawsuit. He refused to believe it was over and would not leave my apartment. I wanted him out of my life and I believed that breaking up would end his torment. Juan only escalated.

Every day for the next nine months, the life I loved and had worked so hard to build became unrecognizable. My joy and passion was taken from me. I felt no emotion other than fear and dread about what would happen next.

Juan went after me where he thought he could hurt me the most. Ive dedicated 15 years of my life to my career as a social worker. I work with vulnerable clients and they trust me with their lives. I am passionate about the work I do with, and for them. Juan knew this. When he lost direct access to me, he began to attack me in my professional world.

The day after I broke up with Juan, he tried to get me fired. He repeatedly contacted my agencys senior management team while posing as multiple journalists and claimed to be investigating me for various professional and ethical infractions. He said I had been pulled over for drunk driving, he said I was being investigated for spreading an STI to numerous partners, he said I bought drugs from my clients  any one of which I could have been fired for. None of which were true. Because I had already informed my employer of the situation, they were on alert for suspicious emails and phone calls. They refused to engage with Juans fake personas, which only further antagonized him.

He began harassing my supervisors, our board of directors, my co-workers and employees for the next nine months. Through the personas he invented, he attempted to extort tens of thousands of dollars from the agency. He sent pictures of guns to Human Resources alleging that they were mine, and that I was the one threatening him. He accused me of being anti-Semitic and racist. He sent faxes, emails, postings, made up news articles, and phone calls in attempts to get me to lose my job. And it didnt stop there  Juan made similar accusations to the professional social work board I am licensed under, resulting in an investigation that could have jeopardized my entire career.

I would receive emails with subjects lines such as this bullets for you slut or your life will be destroyed.

On top of managing the intensity of my workload, I had to learn how to cope with receiving threatening emails in my work inbox all day, every day. In between stabilizing my clients emotional crises, I struggled to keep from drowning myself as I received emails from Juan with pictures of me, allegedly linked to sex tapes he threatened to expose. Which made me fear he had secretly recorded me. While sitting at my desk, I would receive emails with subjects lines such as this bullets for you slut or your life will be destroyed. He sent me my familys home addresses and told me they were next. When my boss would call me, I didnt know if it was work related or because they had received another threat against me from Juan.

Every day I go to work knowing that my bosses and co-workers know personal and private things about my life and have seen images that I didnt invite them into. That humiliation cannot be undone.

What I was experiencing was Intimate Partner Violence, at work and in my personal life. It is petrifying because the person you love becomes the person you fear. I had no respite from his torment. Every single day, Juan texted, called, and emailed me relentlessly. Sometimes he would pose as a friend or family member of his, like his mom or a fabricated best friend, claiming he loved me and he never meant me harm. Sometimes he would pose as a person trying to extort me and demand payment or else naked pictures and videos of me would be posted all over the internet. Sometimes he would pose as strangers, threatening to end my life  and sometimes he would call, as himself, claiming he had been framed. And when I didnt respond, his cycle would start again  apology, extortion, threat, denial.

I could not think about anything else. I felt like a shell of a person, watching myself shrink deeper into the psychological torture I was experiencing.

When he didnt get a response from me, he took to any media outlet he could get to listen and defamed me publicly. He even went as far as faking his own near death. He emailed news outlets inflammatory fake stories about me. He made Tumblr pages about me and any man I had dated, complete with pictures and references to STIs. He filmed videos on YouTube about me, and then posted videos of him commenting on the grotesque stories he had developed. He did these things as himself, as fake personas he had invented complete with pictures and profiles, and as people he impersonated. Technology gave him an omnipresence over my life. Beyond phone calls, emails and texts, he used every digital platform imaginable to harass me  Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, OKCupid, Tumblr, YouTube, Venmo, and Google. Every time my phone buzzed, I panicked. When I thought it couldnt get worse, he doxed me on 8chan, a website known for hosting child pornography and where men promote violence against women, including rape and murder. He posted my picture, home and work addresses and phone numbers, urging the websites users to target me. He crowdsourced his attacks on me. I felt like the walls were closing in. Everywhere I turned, Juan was there. Waiting to destroy my life, career, relationships, and probably kill me.

I felt like the walls were closing in. Everywhere I turned, Juan was there. Waiting to destroy my life, career, relationships, and probably kill me.

While coping with the fear and trauma that I was personally dealing with on a daily basis, I received calls, texts, and emails from my family and friends whom Juan had also targeted with his methods. I was left to worry about how I could manage going to work every day and dealing with the reality of my life, while also managing the fact that Juans terror was spreading to so many people around me, and at times, their workplaces and their extended families. That I know of, Juan went after at least 47 people in my life. Sometimes it was someone as close to me as my 92-year-old grandmother, calling me afraid for her safety and mine. Or my mother, receiving emails of a photo of my face, with a gun sight target superimposed on it demanding payment. People distantly linked to me were receiving emails about me from Juan or someone that Juan was impersonating. He stalked other people AS me, and to this day Ill never know how many people he did that with. Each time I learned Juan had abused someone else, I was triggered and reminded of my own trauma, and I was worried about their safety as well as my own. Based on the escalation of email threats I had been receiving, I was constantly fearful that my family, my friends, my employer, and my clients, were in as much danger as I was.

He tried to take away everything and everyone that was important to me. Separation and isolation are central aspects of intimate partner violence, and acted as the foundation for Juans campaign. Most people didnt understand what I was going through and distanced themselves from me; others were becoming victims and getting fatigued by the vicarious, secondary, and direct trauma. Sympathetic loved ones would continually ask me Well, why hasnt he been arrested yet? not understanding that these obvious crimes were not being legally distinguished as domestic violence. Everyone watched as Juans abuse escalated and my life grew more terrifying.

The reality is that I asked for help from law enforcement over 20 times. I asked for restraining orders to stop him. I was told by police, verbatim, It will get worse and then we can try to help. Because he was using the internet as his method of violence, the police did not recognize the severity of harm. They couldnt or wouldnt do the investigative work because Juan was masking his identity through anonymous email accounts, VPNS, and the TOR browser, making his threats, in their minds, untraceable. I watched him escalate every day. Yet the police were very responsive to Juan, believing his false accusations when they came to investigate me, not him.

Five months before Juans arrest, he sent a threat to a Brooklyn police station, stating I was planning to quote shoot up the precinct. The NYPD Intelligence Division tracked me down in the middle of my workday to assess the validity of this threat. They left assured that I was not who had made the threat but they could not verify and locate the person who had, despite me telling them it was undoubtedly Juan Thompson. Two weeks later, he emailed a news station with a death threat against me and the Chief of Police. This truly solidified my fear that Juan was trying to kill me. Soon after, the NYPD firearms division showed up at my apartment to investigate me for selling guns. If the police had believed that I was planning a violent attack on a NYC police station with my arsenal of alleged guns, I could have been seriously harmed, or worse. I know that was Juans goal. He was now using law enforcement as a weapon against me.

Each time I came into contact with the police, I was fearful of what would happen, due to Juans continued escalation of violence framing me to law enforcement agencies. I felt paralyzed, hopeless and powerless, every moment of my life. Even so, I had no other recourse and I continued to ask them for help. Each time I told the officers that I knew my abusers name and I believed it was going to get worse. When the FBI showed up at my apartment because Juan had used my name to threaten a Jewish Community Center in San Diego, I was petrified and enraged. I handed the FBI a 31-page timeline chronicling each threat Juan had made against me and all the people in my life. The FBI said to me, Hes escalating. I had been experiencing this level of abuse for nine months. Four days later, Juan was arrested for making 8 threats against Jewish Community Centers, while pretending to be me. I have learned from the media that it was actually 12 centers.

Juan devoted over an entire year to destroying my life. He painted me as an anti-Semite, a racist, a drunk, a slut, a drug dealer, a child pornographer, and a gun runner. He did everything that he could to instill terror in my life. Computers, phones, and tablets all became the apparatus for his abuse. The police confiscated 25 electronic devices from Juan when he was arrested. I will never know the full extent of his harassment, the content he disseminated and whatever else he may have done in my name. I do know that as a result of him pretending to be me and stalking others, he has ended marriages, targeted families, damaged relationships, threatened the police, and engaged in domestic terrorism against Jewish communities nationwide. He struck fear into the heart of the Jewish community in his vendetta against me. These hoax threats were not victimless pranks  they altered the course of hundreds of peoples lives. We still dont know that Juan wouldnt have carried out his threats.

The police diminished my abuse because my life-threatening attacks came from phones and computers. This is what domestic violence looks like now.

The abuse and victimization that I was subjected to is not unusual. Intimate Partner Violence needs more legal attention, given that 93 percent of female homicides are committed by a man the victim knows. We know that in the past year, each man who has committed domestic terrorism has a history of domestic violence. The charges of cyberstalking & hoax threats Juan pled guilty to are inextricably linked. If the police had recognized the stalking and abuse as domestic violence when I reported it, many times, hundreds of peoples lives would be different.

Today I speak to you as Francesca Rossi not Victim-1. There is no way I can articulate here the pain I felt daily as Juan threatened my entire existence. Im here because I have the resources and strong support, but the long-range effects of this trauma are undeniable. Part of me thinks that Juan is probably taking pleasure in hearing the pain he caused me right now  he always had a voyeuristic enjoyment in my suffering  why else would he have anonymously terrorized me when we slept in the same bed? Im here because I need everyone to know the destruction that Juan is capable of. And that digital technology should be recognized as a powerful weapon to inflict violence. Countless people are subjected to the same type and degree of stalking and abuse that Juan inflicted on me. And worse.

This is not an internet crime; technology may have facilitated it, but all of this occurred in real life. The police diminished my abuse because my life-threatening attacks came from phones and computers. This is what domestic violence looks like now.

My abuse was not legitimized until an entire community, and the country, was terrorized. Juan used modern technology to exploit antiquated laws. However, we can prevent this from happening to other women. Let my story shape the way we recognize the modern behaviors of attack and the weapons that are used. Let us Believe Women when they tell us of their abuse, because the men who inflict it only get worse. I urge you to not let there be a next time, dont let Juan do this to another woman, another community, or the country.

Juans pathology and misogyny will still exist when he comes out. Each time we see an act of domestic terrorism, we find its roots in violence against women. Every time. And I do not trust he wont do this again. I know there are other Juans out there, doing this to other women. We have the power to stop them, starting right now by holding Juan Thompson fully accountable for his crimes.
6-Week-Old Baby Missing After Mom Killed in Houston, Dad Found in San Antonio

Texas authorities issued a statewide Amber Alert on Wednesday for a month-old baby girl who was missing after her mother was found dead from multiple stab wounds, Dallas News reported.

Houston police first thought that 6-week-old Shanally Flores was with her father Thomas Bernardez. But officers later located Bernardez in San Antonio while he was driving his blue Toyota Celica.

The missing girls mom was found stabbed to death at an apartment in Houston earlier on Tuesday, Dec. 19. Police did not release the mothers name. She was stabbed several times.

Bernardez told investigators that he is not involved with the death of the missing girls mom. He was flagged as a person of interest.

Police initially reported that Shanally Flores was 11 months old but have since updated her age to 6 weeks. She is 30 inches long and weighs 20 pounds.

The girl is considered to be in grave danger, police believe.

Anyone with information on the girls whereabouts is encouraged to call Houston police at 713-308-3600.

From NTD.tv
Video grab of Mexican police officers standing guard in the area where a bus driving tourists to Chacchoben archaeological zone overturned in the road between El Cafetal and Mahahual, in Quintana Roo state, Mexico on Dec. 19, 2017. (Manuel Jesus Ortega Canche/AFP/Getty Images)

8 Americans Dead in Bus Crash in Mexico

There were 8 Americans among the 12 who died in a bus crash in southeastern Mexico on Tuesday, Dec. 19. The bus carried passengers from two Royal Caribbean cruise ships on a day trip to Mayan ruins in Chacchoben when it flipped over on a highway.

Identities of the victims havent been released yet. Fanya Shamis, 78, of Coconut Creek, and her 11-year-old grandson may have died in the crash, according to Shamiss grandson, Benjamin Shababo, Sun Sentinel reported.

He said another relative of his is in a hospital and the family is missing two more.

We dont have really concrete information, Shababo said. Were all scared. Its just really scary to process this in my head that possibly something really bad happened to them.

The other fatalities were two Swedes, one Canadian, and one Mexican. All were tourists, except for the Mexican tour guide, Fox News reported.

Among the 18 injured, seven were from North America and two were from Sweden.

Chris Brawley was on a later bus that got to the scene minutes after the crash, he said.

The bus clearly lost control somehow as there were swerve marks all over the road surface, Brawley said. He also said the road was dry and the sky was clear that day.

There were 31 people in the bus, including 27 passengers of the Celebrity Equinox and Serenade of the Seas cruise ships. The bus left the port of Mahahual at about 9 a.m. and was about an hour on the way when it crashed.

Images from the scene show the bus on its side and at least one body lying on the ground with passengers and first responders around.

The news from Costa Maya about a bus accident involving #CelebrityEquinox & #SerenadeoftheSeas guests is heartbreaking, The Royal Caribbean Cruises stated in a release. Our hearts go out to all those involved. We are doing all we can to care for our guests, including assisting with medical care and transportation.

The news from Costa Maya about a bus accident involving #CelebrityEquinox & #SerenadeoftheSeas guests is heartbreaking. Our hearts go out to all those involved. We are doing all we can to care for our guests, including assisting with medical care and transportation.  RCLcorp (@RCLcorp) December 19, 2017
Arizona Mom Shoots Toddler to Death, Police Say

An Arizona mom is accused of shooting her 2-year-old boy before attempting to kill herself, officials said.

Alyssa Pettibone, 26, was taken into custody on Monday, Dec. 18, for second-degree murder after she was taken to a hospital for stab wounds that were apparently self-inflicted, police in Buckeye said. The toddler, Hudson Pettibone, was found shot once, according to police.

The boy was pronounced deceased by fire personnel on scene, Buckeye Police said in a news release.

Police released the name of the child at the familys request, according to Buckeye police spokeswoman Tamela Skaggs, reported Fox News.

Hudsons body was found after police received a 911 call at a home in Buckeye on Friday. His mother was found with stab wounds and was taken to a hospital.

There was somebody injured, but no suspects, so I was thinking accident or accidental shooting, neighbor Jeff Morris told Fox 10.

I dont understand why a mother would do that to her child, he added. You hear a lot about this. Holidays bring out the worst in people, I guess.

After she was released from the hospital, Pettibone was taken to jail, police said.

When police interviewed the woman, she said she was sorry while she knew she was in deep, deep, deep. She added: No one would understand I, according to AZCentral.com.

Police said in their report that Pettibone had control/ownership/jealousy issues, while there were signs that she was mentally disturbed, according to the report.

Pettibone was ordered held on $750,000 cash bail, it was reported.

Police are still continuing to investigate. Her next court date is 8:30 a.m. on Dec. 22 in Maricopa County Superior Court.
A historical subway train is used for the 2014 home opener game at Yankee stadium in New York City on April 7, 2014. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Drunk Mom Charged for Leaving 9-Year-Old Autistic Son to Wander Streets

A mother from Bronx, New York was charged after police said she was drunk at homewhile her autistic 9-year-old son wandered around a Subway station by himself.

And its the second time in weeks she has neglected her son.

Charisma Bellamy, a 37-year-old mother and Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) conductor was charged with endangering the welfare of a child, according to an exclusive article by the NY Daily News.

It allegedly happened in the 161st St. Station on the D line at about 11:25 p.m on Monday, Dec. 18.

Authorities have not yet revealed if the 9-year-old boy walked to the station by himself or took the subway.

Authorities said a stranger saw the boy on the southbound platform by himself. The good Samaritan then took him to the police facility inside the same station. Officers recognized the boy from an incident earlier this week.

After taking the boy back to his home on Anderson Ave, over a quarter mile away, the officers were let inside by the boys 11-year-old brother.

Unnamed sources told the Daily News that they found Bellamy inside the housepassed out and drunk.

At an earlier incident back on Dec. 9, police found the same boy wandering the same station. Upon returning the boy home, they were also let in by the older brother. Bellamy was found inside passed out as well.

EXCLUSIVE: An autistic 9-year-old boy was found wandering in a Bronx subway station while his @MTA conductor mom sat home drunk  for the second time this week https://t.co/YZ6xT9OMvA  New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) December 20, 2017

During the earlier incident, she got the same endangerment charge but there was not enough evidence to prosecute her.

Bellany has had no previous issues at her work with the MTA, according to Transport Workers Union Local 100 conductors rep Crystal Young.

Young declined to comment on the charges.

This is a private issue, Young told the Daily News. It doesnt have anything to do with her performance at work.

Honestly, people should respect their privacy, she added.

Some comments from social media urged for the children to be taken away by social services, while others stress that the mother just needs some support.

Clearly this is lack of supervision at the very least. Where is ACS in all of this? Clearly the children need to be removed. 2 reported incidents in less than a month. What about the incidents that are not detected? one person wrote.

She needs help! Not judgment ! The MTA should offer her a program. Social work maybe to help with her sons needs programs etc. God bless and help her thats all Im saying, another commented.

Another person pointed out When your child is roaming the streets while youre drunk and your career is involving the public you automatically lose the respect to privacy.'

From NTD.tv
Florida Sheriffs Deputy Bitten by Dog when Responding to a Call

A sheriff deputy from Dade City, Florida, was bitten by a dog when responding to a call from a delivery person.

Robert Lewis and his partner turned up to a home after they received a report that one of the dogs had bitten the FedEx delivery person, reported ABC News.

When they arrived, they were greeted by two unfriendly dogs. As Lewis tried to take a picture of the dogs, one of the dogs came up to the deputy and started biting him.

They got me good, Lewis could be heard saying in his body camera video.

Lewis was bitten just above the knee.

He bit you twice, his partner pointed out.

The deputy then went to the hospital to get stitched up, reported the news station.

Despite being attacked, the officers did not use their guns.

According to animal control, the dogs owner gave up custody of them and they are a mixed breed, reported ABC News. The dogs are now being held under quarantine and no charges have been filed so far.

Another similar incident which also occurred in Dade City in 2015, did not end so positively. When a deputy was responding to a residential alarm call, he was charged at by an 88-pound Rottweiler. The deputy shot at the dogs feet out of self-defense, reported TBO.

What to do if a dog attacks you?

According to Dr. Sophia Yin, most dogs that race to you even aggressively do not have the intention of biting, reported the Pet Health Network.

The charge, bark and growl are just a threat to get you to go away, Yin wrote. When you stand still instead of continuing to move, they bark and back away and if you step towards them they back away faster. So once youve stopped and they realize youre not going to run away for them to chase, they will generally walk away on their own.

The veterinarian suggests that if you feel that a dog is actually going to bite, you can try holding something firmly as a shield between you and the dog. It is also important not to use the object to push towards or to hit the dog.

The wider, and flatter the object the better so he cant grab it, Yin said.

From NTD.tv
Former Today Show Staffer Says Relationship with Matt Lauer an Abuse of Power

Former Today show staffer Addie Zinone spoke on camera for the first time on Monday, Dec. 19, with NBCs Megyn Kelly, detailing the blowback shes gotten since coming out about her brief consensual relationship with fired Today show host Matt Lauer. She also revealed why she made the decision to go public about their affair.

Zinone, who was a 24-year-old production assistant for the show when the month-long relationship with Lauer started, said she wasnt speaking out to present herself as a martyr, but to put a face to some of the allegations that have come since Lauer was fired.

Im coming forward and saying yes, this was consensual, [but] it was an abuse of power, she told Kelly. I want to put a face and a story to these womens accusations because Im seeing that theyre being doubted and so I thought, Ive got to validate their claims. This happened and Ive got to explain it in embarrassing detail because I want them to understand commonalities in our stories.

She said shes been contacted by several women who shared her situation, but didnt want to specify if they had also been involved with Lauer.

Zinone said that over the years, she stayed in touch with Lauer via email, mostly when a journalist would reach out to ask about her tryst with him.

Writing in Variety, she said she pulled into her driveway in West Virginia one day after the affair had ended to find a reporter from the National Enquirer in her driveway. She told him that she and Lauer were just friends. Then she contacted Lauer.

He wrote back, Who did you tell? After that, he completely ghosted me. He left me to handle all this on my own, which I did, she wrote.

NBC announced on Nov. 29 that Lauer had been fired after a female employee and her attorney came forward with sexual harassment allegations.

Zinone said she always assumed that Lauer had affairs with other women based on the ease with which he cheated on his wife with her. But she never thought it would be with other NBC employees.

I thought if he continued that behavior, and what he did with me, there would have to be other people coming forward over 17 years, we would have heard about that, right?

When the news broke, Zinone said it was comforting to know that others had been through a similar experience, but also frightening because she started getting calls from news media asking if she would tell her story. And the pushback after her story, she said, is as intense as she anticipated.

I understand that people are going to paint me as a homewrecker, as a slut and a whore those are things I have been called. It was suggested yesterday to me, Please, please go get hit by a bus,' she said.

Lauer hasnt responded to her account of their relationship, but said in a statement shortly after his firing that some of what is being said about me is untrue or mischaracterized, but there is enough truth in these stories to make me feel embarrassed and ashamed. I regret that my shame is now shared by the people I cherish most.
Friend of Virginia Woman Killed by Dogs Claims Story Doesnt Add Up

A friend of the Virginia woman who was killed by her pet dogs cant believe what happened.

Bethany Stephens, 22, was found dead in a wooded area last week at around 8:20 p.m. local time off Manakin Road, Goochland, Virginia, according to local broadcaster WTVR. Her father had called 911 after 8 p.m. to report that he found her in the woods.

Deputies who responded to the incident described a grisly scene, saying the dogs were eating her, a local sheriff said.

Let me cut right to the chase, the most important detail that we did not release because we were worried about the well-being of the family is that in the course of trying to capture the dogs early Friday morningwe turned and lookedI observed, as well as four other deputy sheriffs, the dogs eating the ribcage on the body, Goochland County Sheriff James Agnew said on Monday, Dec. 18, in an update.

But a friend, Barbara Norris, told WWBT in Richmond that its unexpected that her dogs would attack Stephens.

She said, Those dogs would not attack her. Theyd kill you with kisses  I cant tell you if it was a blunt force or if it was a mauling, but I know those dogs didnt do it The only time they got aggressive is if they thought there was a threat going towards her.

Friends told WRIC that Stephens had been receiving death threats before the attack.

The family of Stephens gave permission for the pit bulls to be put down.

The injuries were very severe, Agnew added. The most prevalent damagethe damage was so extensive [on the body] that there was nothing left to compare the bite marks to.

BREAKING: Dogs that @goochland Sheriffs office says mauled Bethany Stephens to death euthanized Saturday. Family gave permission. Presser at 4pm. @CBS6 pic.twitter.com/QqZH6poCVC  Laura French (@lfrenchnews) December 18, 2017

Officials do not suspect foul play in Stephens death.

Investigators are still evaluating statements made by other witnesses.

We had a number of witnesses came forward and we were able to put a time frame together and peoples movements together and they dont fit with that particular narrative, the sheriff noted. Having said that, we are still following up on those; we are still doing forensic tests.

A local police official, Sgt. Mike Blackwood, stated that the dogs were left with her father. They were, as he put it, held up in the cold inside a small kennel before the attack.

[Stephens father] wasnt taking care of them  it wasnt his responsibility, Blackwood alleged.

Shawn Whitlock, who is an investigator with the sheriffs office, told the Washington Post that there were no signs that she was killed any other way.

Nothing that said domestic violence. Nothing that said she was stabbed. Nothing that said she was shot. No bones, no injuries to the throat area. . . . There was no particular bleeding inside the esophagus, which wouldve been conducive with choking her out. None of that, Whitlock told the Post.

But officials noted the questions surrounding details of the case.

I dont think theres any way we can definitively say what caused the attack, Agnew told the Post.
Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Thorbjoern Jagland (L) sits by Nobel Peace Prize laureate President Barack Obama during the prize award ceremony at City Hall in Oslo on Dec. 10, 2009. (OLIVIER MORIN/AFP/Getty Images)

Israeli Politician Calls On Obama to Return Nobel Peace Prize Over Hezbollah Report

A prominent Israeli politician says former President Barack Obama should return his Nobel Peace Prize if reports that his administration blocked an investigation into drug trafficking by the Hezbollah terrorist group are true.

Politico reported on Dec. 15 that the Obama administration blocked a years-long investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) into alleged drug and weapons trafficking, as well as money laundering and other criminal activities by Hezbollah.

DEA investigators had gathered proof that the Iran-backed terror group had sent multi-ton loads of cocaine into the United States, according to the report.

Hezbollah made hundreds of millions of dollars from the operation, which it, in turn, used to finance its terrorist operations. Hezbollah is officially listed as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.

Hezbollah has frequently carried out rocket attacks against Israel over the past two decades.

According to the Politico report, the Obama administration threw an increasingly insurmountable series of roadblocks in the way of the investigation as it was pursuing a nuclear deal with Iran in 2015.

Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 after having been in office for less than nine months.

This was a policy decision, it was a systematic decision, David Asher, an illicit-finance expert who helped establish and oversee the investigation, told Politico.

If the Politico report is accurate, Obama must return his Nobel Peace Prize, said Yair Lapid, chairman of the Israeli Yesh Atid Party, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 after having been in office for less than nine months.

Israel warned repeatedly that there can be no connection between the nuclear deal and anti-terror activity, certainly against Hezbollah.  We also warned of this specifically, because of the proven link between Hezbollah and Iran, Lapid said.

Israeli MP and chairperson of the center-right Yesh Atid party, Yair Lapid, speaks during a press conference in Jerusalem on Dec. 12, 2016. (THOMAS COEX/AFP/Getty Images)

Israel has been a longtime critic of the Iranian nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, that was reached between the United States, Iran, and other world powers in 2015.

Critics have pointed out that the deal in effect ensures that Iran will be able to develop a nuclear weapon by 2026. At that point, key limitations on its enrichment of uranium are to be lifted, allowing the Iranian regime to install and operate thousands of advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges. According to experts, a nuclear weapon could then be developed within six months.

Because Irans development of advanced missile technology and ballistic missiles is not covered by the nuclear deal, Iran is able to continue developing these.

Israeli soldiers carry the coffin of Amir Menashe, who was killed in an attack in Bulgaria, during a ceremony at Ben Gurion International Airport on July 20, 2012, near Tel Aviv, Israel. Israel has placed the blame for the attack, which killed eight Israeli tourists, on Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

In October, the Trump administration said it would renegotiate those parts of the nuclear deal. If that does not work, President Donald Trump said he will terminate the deal and negotiate a different one.

Up until the Obama administration, every American president fought terrorism uncompromisingly, Israeli Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Hanegbi wrote on Facebook. I am convinced that the Trump administration will not turn from that tradition, and that the outrageous and mistaken policy that was revealed this week will not be repeated.

Former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Michael Oren, who currently serves as a deputy minister in the prime ministers office, said that the Obama administration was willing to do anything to reach a deal with Iran.

Then-Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren in Washington on Nov. 8, 2009. (NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)

It was clear that the government was willing to do anything to reach an agreement, including ignoring Iranian terror that took the lives of hundreds of Americans and Israelis and hundreds of thousands of Syrians, Oren told the Jerusalem Post.

This expose and others that may be published in the future must strengthen our resolve to cancel or at least significantly change this dangerous agreement.
Man Beat Girlfriends 5-Year-Old Son for Opening Christmas Present Early, Mom Says

An Oklahoma man viciously beat his girlfriends son on Saturday, Dec. 16, to punish him for opening a Christmas present early.

Bridgette Payne, the boys mother, left the child with boyfriend Wesley McCollum when she went to do holiday shopping, according to her Facebook post.

When the mom returned home, McCollum told her that Ayrian, her son, was sent to bed early for unwrapping a gift which was under a Christmas tree.

All was well until Payne went to check on the sleeping boy. She found her boy covered in bruises on his arms, back, and face, as well as a handprint on his cheek, KTLA reported.

Words cannot explain seeing your baby like this and having no clue what happened, Payne wrote in the Facebook post. Wesley hurt me bad mama, is all he kept saying.

Payne said she absolutely lost it when she saw her boy and broke down in tears. Then she called the cops.

Officers arrived at the womans home shortly after 10 p.m. and arrested her boyfriend on charges of child abuse and child neglect, KJRH reported.

I cannot sleep because I imagine my innocent child going thru this and I wasnt there to protect him, Payne wrote on Facebook. For a grown man to punch a child over and over and slap him and beat him with a belt ALL over is no man at all. He is the lowest scum on earth.

According to Payne, the McCollum tried to explain that he punished the boy to teach him a lesson because he needed to learn to listen.

Payne said that the violence was completely unexpected. Since she started dating McCollum 10 months ago she never saw him angry, she wrote on Facebook.

I never EVER thought he would do this or I would of never been with him, Payne wrote. Plain and simple.

Payne said she was in an abusive relationship with the childrens dad until finally getting away two years ago when he almost killed me in front of this son!

After leaving her husband, she vowed to never get into an abusive relationship, but ended up in one anyway.

There is an evil inside of some people no one sees and thats how this happened, Payne wrote on Facebook. If I could change my son places in a heartbeat I would.

After sharing her story, thousands of people responded with messages of support. The post has since been shared more than 8,000 times and liked 12,000 times as of Dec, 20.

To everyone who has been there for us, thank yall so much! Payne wrote. I will keep you updated as we go through court dates and stuff, hopefully justice will be served so he cant hurt another child!

From NTD.tv
Man Saves Kidnapped Girl, Returns Rescue Money to Family

A man who helped rescue a missing Minnesota teen ended up with a reward of $7,000. Instead of keeping it, he gave it to the girls family.

Melchert, 65, was given the reward money for finding 15-year-old Jasmine Block, of Alexandria, who went missing on Aug. 8. During her disappearance, she was abused and beaten by her captors, according to the Star-Tribune.

Community Speechless Over Mans Actions With Missing Teen Reward Money . Earl Melchert told Jasmine, her mother, https://t.co/Ud5rmMwrQU  RWC News (@RWC_News) December 18, 2017

I was not interested in the $7,000 reward, it wasnt a big deal, Melchert told the paper. I wanted to give it to the family. They need it more. It went to a good place. I hope Jasmine is OK.

On the day he found her, Melchert, a hunter, saw a dark spot in a grassy field in Barrett, Minnesota. At first, when it started moving, he thought it was a deer, but as it got closer, he realized it was a girl walking toward him. And not just any girl.

It was, Oh my gosh, this is the girl from Alexandria that has been missing,' Melchert recalled. Id seen her picture on the internet, in newspapers, in bulletins and on signs. I recognized her right way.

When he approached her, she was frantic and crying.

I got dispatch on the line and told them I had the Block girl in my pickup and that she is alive and looks fine, Melchert said. There was silence [on the other end], like it was a dropped call. Then they said, Dont get off the line, dont hang up. Well send help. 

Jasmine was located by the Alexandria Police Department on the night of Tuesday, Sept. 5, and she was transported to a nearby hospital for minor injuries, NBC News reported at the time.

Three suspects were arrested in her disappearance. They were later identified as Thomas Barker, 32; Joshua Holby, 31; and Steven Powers, 20, according to the WCCO-TV.

Barker tied her up with zip ties and then he, his roommate, and friend over the next several weeks assaulted her and threatened her with weapons, Alexandria Police Chief Rick Wyffels told the station.

According to a police update, she had been left alone for the first time when she escaped on Tuesday.

Officials said she then swam across Thompson Lake. There, she ran to a farm, and a man called 911.

On the way to the police station, Block was able to identify the vehicle of her kidnapper. Police gave chase and arrested one of the suspects.

This is an unbelievable young woman, Wyffels added. She has a lot of strength. We think a lot of her and her family. Theyre all amazing people.
Miracle Baby Born After Being Frozen as an Embryo for 24 Years

An East Tennessee couple recently welcomed their new daughter into the world who spent 24 years frozen as an embryo.

Emma Wren Gibson was born on Nov. 25, 2017, to parents Benjamin and Tina Gibson, according to a press release from the National Embryo Donation Center (NEDC).

She holds the all-time record for the longest-frozen embryo to come to birth, according to research staff at the University of Tennessee Preston Medical Library.

Baby Emma had been cryopreserved for more than 24 years prior to being transferred to her mothers uterus. She was frozen on Oct. 14, 1992, and thawed on March 13, 2017.

Two days after the embryo was thawed, Gibson was implanted and became pregnant, a procedure performed by Dr. Jeffrey Keenan. Gibson, 25 at the time, carried to term an embryo conceived one and a half years after she was born.

Do you realize Im only 25? This embryo and I could have been best friends, Gibson told Fox News.

Were just so thankful and blessed. Shes a precious Christmas gift from the Lord, she added. Were just so grateful.

The couple, who got married seven years ago, learned they werent able to naturally conceive a child.

My husband has cystic fibrosis, so infertility is common, Gibson told the news station.

Before taking up embryo adoption, the couple had fostered multiple children and enjoyed doing so. Gibson said her father had suggested the idea of embryo adoption which initially she had no interest in.

I was like, Well, thats nice, Dad, but were not interested. Were knee-deep in foster care right now, she told Fox News. I kind of blew it off. I had no interest in it.

After thinking about her fathers words, she decided to do some research into the procedure. Weeks later, the couple submitted their application for embryo adoption.

During August of last year, I just came home one day; I looked at Benjamin, and I said, I think we need to submit an application for embryo adoption, Gibson told the news station. On a whim, we filled out an application and submitted that night.

Weighing 6 lbs. 8 oz. and measuring 20 inches long, Emmas healthy birth was also a moving occasion for NEDC lab director Carol Sommerfelt who thawed the embryo back in March.

It is deeply moving and highly rewarding to see that embryos frozen 24.5 years ago using the old, early cryopreservation techniques of slow freezing on day one of development at the pronuclear stage can result in 100 percent survival of the embryos with a 100 percent continued proper development to the day-3 embryo stage, said Sommerfelt.

The overjoyed father thinks their little Emma looks pretty perfect.

Emma is such a sweet miracle, Emmas father said. I think she looks pretty perfect to have been frozen all those years ago.
Fresh Corn Season Might Be Over, but You Can Still Have Delicious Cornbread Using Frozen Corn
A mother in Auckland, New Zealand, was kicked off a public bus for breastfeeding her 2-month-old infant. (Stock photo via UNICEF/A.Krepkih)

Mother Booted Off Bus by Driver for Breastfeeding Crying Newborn

A mother and her two-month-old infant were allegedly asked off a public bus in the New Zealand capital of Auckland, after a passenger complained at the sight of the woman breastfeeding her baby.

Jamie Deane, 24, told Stuff that as a result she was forced to walk 20 minutes to her destination with a fussy baby in sweltering temperatures.

Auckland mum says passenger complained about her breastfeeding on bus https://t.co/TLijwFtM4u pic.twitter.com/cp4JyNQc8V  Stuff.co.nz News (@NZStuff) December 19, 2017

Deane told Stuff she was catching a ride across town on Friday, Dec. 15 at about 4:30 p.m. local time, when her little girl started to cry. So Deane began to breastfeed.

A passenger reportedly went up to the driver and complained.

Deane told Stuff that soon afterwards, the bus stopped and the driver asked both mother and child off the bus.

Deane demanded to know the reason she was being kicked off public transit. The response was because she was breastfeeding.

You cant be breastfeeding on a bus. Thats just wrong, the bus driver allegedly told Deane, according to Stuff.

Deane said she was shocked by the attitude of the complaining passenger and the response of the driver, particularly since she says she was discreet when feeding her child.

I was fully covered and had a cloth over me. You couldnt see any skin, said Deane.

She was upset at the treatment she and her baby were subjected to that day, but added that it wasnt an isolated incident.

Earlier that same day she was told off by four young girls on a train for breastfeeding, the 24-year-old told Stuff.

A lot of women around here are getting abused because of breastfeeding in public. I just dont see what the point is, the 24-year-old said. Its stupid how people are so offended by breastfeeding.

Deane said that made the incident on the bus worse was that nobody stood up for her.

Nobody said anything, which is sad.

The mother said the backlash shes faced against breastfeeding in public has made her anxious.

Stuff cited NZ Bus General Manager Claire Neville as stating that the incident had not been formally reported, but that an inquiry would be launched to investigate.

Neville said there was no official policy in place concerning breastfeeding on buses.
A pedestrian watches a monitor in Tokyo, Japan showing an image of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un in a news report on Sept. 3, 2017. (Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images)

North Korea Testing Anthrax Warhead For ICBM: Report

Reports are swirling that North Korea has begun testing an anthrax-loaded warhead for its intercontinental ballistic missile after Japans Asahi Shimbun newspaper quoted an anonymous intelligence source in Seoul.

The report comes on the heels of a White House National Security Strategy that points at similar concerns.

North Korea has vehemently denied the allegations, but past intelligence reports on the isolated regime reveal agricultural facilities with dual-use potential to produce anthrax.

Claims

According to Asahi Shimbuns source, North Korea is carrying out heat and pressure tests meant to mimic what a warhead would undergo as it descended to the earth during the final stage of its trajectory.

The tests are meant to determine whether anthrax germs can survive at temperatures up to and above 7,000 degrees. That is the temperature an ICBMs warhead can reach as it streaks through the atmosphere on its descent.

According to the newspaper, an unconfirmed intelligence report claims North Korea has already successfully tested such a warhead under those conditions.

Dual-use facilities

North Korea is believed by South Korean and American intelligence agencies to already be developing biological agents or at least the capacity to mass produce such agents.

In an October report, The Belfer Center at Harvards Kennedy School summarized evidence that North Korea has a biological weapons program capable of producing anthrax, smallpox, and other biological agents. The regime may already possess 13 biological agents, ranging from botulism and cholera to the plague, claimed the report.

Experts say that North Koreas drive to create biological pesticides and fertilizers may provide the facilities as well as a cover for a biological weapons program.

Propaganda photos of the Pyongyang Bio-technical Institute released by the North Korean state media in 2015 revealed that the Pyongyang Bio-technical Institute could produce military-sized batches of [biological weapons], specifically anthrax, read the Belfer report.

National security

The White House acknowledges the risk of such a program in its just-released National Security Strategy.

It warns that as North Koreas missile program continues to develop, it does more than provide the regime a way to hit the United States with a nuclear weapon.

North Korea is also pursuing chemical and biological weapons which could also be delivered by missile, reads the strategy.

North Koreas denials

Pyongyang, however, denies it has any biological weapons program.

A statement carried by state-run news agency that was republished by KCNA Watch said the allegations were groundless.

According to the statement issued by a North Korea foreign affairs official, the biological weapons allegations are an attempt to cook up untruths as truths, stubbornly insisting that black is white.

Assassination evidence

The February murder of Kim Jong Uns older half brother and credible successor to the regime, Kim Jong Nam, revealed biological weapons could be a preferred tool for the North Korean regime.

Kim Jong Nam was allegedly murdered by a Vietnamese woman and an Indonesian woman in a conspiracy with four North Korean fugitives.

Nam was the heir apparent to the North Korean regime until he fell out of favour in 2001. He was believed in some quarters to still be Chinas favored ruler of North Korea.

He was murdered with VX, a nerve agent and banned chemical weapon. Apparently aware of the threat, Nam had a dozen vials of antidote for lethal nerve agent VX in a bag he carried with him on the day he was poisoned.
Nurse Accused of Stealing Opioids, Allegedly for Her Personal Use

A nurse from Forsyth Medical Center in North Carolina has been accused of stealing the opioid drug Fentanyl, allegedly for her personal use.

Hayley Lammon Brown, 28, from the town of Elkin was arrested on Monday, Dec. 18, and charged with one count of embezzlement of a controlled substance by employee and one misdemeanor count of assault on a law enforcement officer, according to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation.

The Elkin Police Department went to Browns home on April 20, in response to a call about a possible drug overdose involving her husband, Matthew Brown.

An Elkin woman who lives down the street from Elkin High School was arrested by SBI yesterday for allegedly stealing fentanyl from Forsyth Medical Center where she was a nurse. She has since been fired. @myfox8 pic.twitter.com/YG91Wjzgjm  Alex Rose (@AlexRoseNews) December 19, 2017

Sergeant Joseph Johnson was exposed to the drug through his bare hands during the investigation and required hospitalization. He has since made a complete recovery.

Fentanyl is a very potent drug, more potent than heroin, 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine and the cause of nearly half of fatal drug overdoses, said John Keane, special agent in charge of the SBIs Diversion and Environmental Crimes Unit.

Breaking an addiction to fentanyl is a steep uphill battle, and the SBI, along with many other agencies, urge the utmost caution to consumers who are prescribed pain killers by their doctors.

Brown has since been released on a $5,000 bond.

Source: National Institute on Drug Abuse

Its definitely more potent when its ingested or shot up through syringes, Captain Tara Tucker with Forsyth County EMS told CBS affiliate WFMY-TV. Physical contact is a lower risk factor, but as first responders people should be wearing their gloves when theyre going into those types of scenes.

Nurse accused of stealing Fentanyl from Winston-Salem hospital https://t.co/x6cso87mWj pic.twitter.com/vCor1rJ99e  FOX8 WGHP (@myfox8) December 19, 2017

In 2015, over 33,000 Americans died as a result of an opioid overdose, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

According to Fox News, Novant Health released a statement Tuesday morning that read: Novant Health takes any allegation of illegal activity very seriously. We are cooperating fully with the investigation. While it is corporate policy not to comment on investigations in progress, you can be assured that if illegal activity is discovered, we will assist the authorities in prosecuting offenders and take any appropriate steps to prevent the reoccurence.
Sarah Nilson, 32, and Vincente Calogero, 38, are accused of attempting to sell their children in exchange for money and drugs. (Los Angeles Police Department)

Police: California Couple Tried to Sell Kids for Money & Drugs

A couple from California were arrested after they tried to sell their children for money and drugs, police said Monday, Dec. 18.

Last Thursday deputies responded to a possible child abuse call from a home located at the 100 block of Avenue J-8 in the city of Lancaster.

Its unclear what exactly led the residents to call authorities.

When police arrived at the scene they arrested parents Vincente Calogero, 38 (a white male) and Sarah Nilson, 32 (a white female) at about 4 p.m., Los Angeles Police Department said in a news release.

Calogero and Nilson were attempting to give and/or sell their two sons. The suspects were transported to Lancaster station where they are currently booked for felony child endangerment, child neglect, and being under the influence of a controlled substance.

They are being held on a $100,000 bail.

The department praised the residents who alerted them to the incident.

Lancaster Station Detectives would like to commend the residents of Lancaster who intervened in response to the danger the children were in and contacted law enforcement. We remind the public if you see something suspicious, say something! police said.

The two sonsboth minorswere not identified and are safely in the custody of Department of Children and Family Services personnel. The ages of the minors had not been released by police as of writing.

The department is asking for any additional witnesses to the incident to come forward in the child endangerment and neglect investigation.

Anyone with information regarding this case who may have seen the suspects abusing the children or had the suspects approach them in order to give away their children, and/or sell their children in exchange for drugs or money, are encouraged to contact Lancaster Station at (661) 948-8466 or Detective Gore at (661) 940-3855.

Comments on the departments Facebook page called the parents behavior sick.

Are you freaking kidding me? These people are sickening. I cant believe parents would do such a horrible thing. Just heart breaking, one person commented.

From NTD.tv
Rosie ODonnell Offers Money to Senators for Tax Bill Vote, Gets Backlash

Former talk show host Rosie ODonnell is facing backlash for offering to pay Republican senators to oppose the tax bill. Her critics said its tantamount to bribery.

The ex-View host promised Tuesday night to give a $2 million apiece to Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) if they voted against the bill.

2 million cash each, she tweeted. Later, she wrote: susan  2 million dollars cash  call if u want to negotiate, according to the New York Daily News.

i swear, she wrote in another tweet, i will write them a check.

i will HAPPILY pay any GOP senator 2 million dollars to vote NO, she said in another. they have been paid obviously.

If they vote NO  NO I WILL NOT KILL AMERICANS FOR THE SUOER RICH (sic), she also wrote.

No Republican senator voted in opposition to the measure.

Offering members of Congress money in exchange for an official act is a federal offense.

Do u think your family is proud of u @sennatorcollins? ODonnell tweeted along with a photo of Collins family. She wrote: woman  mother  grandmother  sister  daughter u have betrayed us all, according to The Federalist.

susan  2 million dollars cash

call if u want to negotiate do u think your family is proud of u @sennatorcollins woman  mother  grandmother  sister  daughter

u have betrayed us all dear god

ask for forgiveness

redeem ur soul tomorrow #NOTSEXIST pic.twitter.com/wa0QcMXNk2  ROSIE (@Rosie) December 20, 2017

Commentator Louise Mensch then told ODonnell that her tweets could constitute bribery, but ODonnell responded with:

i disagree

it is obvious there is a price

corker had one

collins too

flake

almost brave

he crawled out backwards

2 million to any GOP senator

who votes no

on KILLING AMERICANS

MILLIONS WITH OUT HEALTH CARE

MY GOD HAVE WE NO SO

Rebecca Roiphe, a New York Law School professor, said its not clear if her tweets violated the bribery clause.

Its political commentary, Roiphe, who is a former prosecutor, told the NY Daily News. What shes trying to do is show these people had already been bought off.

It all rides on what her intent was in writing that tweet, she told the newspaper. And trying to buy influence isnt the point of this whole string of these tweets. What shes trying to do is fake-offer a bribe to point out that theyve already been politically been bought.

The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives gave final approval on Wednesday to the biggest overhaul of the U.S. tax code in 30 years, sending a sweeping $1.5 trillion bill to President Donald Trump for his signature.

The House approved the measure, 224-201, passing it for the second time in two days after a procedural foul-up forced another vote on Wednesday. The Senate had passed it 51-48 in the early hours of Wednesday.

By cutting taxes and reforming the broken system, we are now pouring rocket fuel into the engine of our economy, Trump said in a statement after the vote.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Navy Airman Francisco Rivera was found dead in his home in Bremerton, Washington after an apparent murder suicide on Dec. 13. (MC3 Ian Kinkead/Navy)

Sailor From USS Nimitz Involved in Apparent Murder-Suicide

A navy airman assigned to the USS Nimitz was found dead in his Washington apartment in an apparent murder-suicide.

Police from Bremerton, Washington, report that Airman Francisco Rivera, 23, allegedly stabbed his wife, Marie Aurora Rivera, 22, and then hanged himself.

Two of the couples friend found the bodies and called the police to the couples home at 131 Marion Ave. North around 6:55 p.m. on Dec. 13, said Bremerton Police Lt. Randy Plumb.

Police said there were obvious signs of a violent struggle inside the home.

The Kitsap County Coroners Office, which autopsied the bodies, reported that Marie Rivera had been stabbed several times.

Bremerton police and Navy officials both said they are investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident.

Because the investigation is ongoing, Navy officials would not disclose whether Airman Rivera exhibited any warning signs of mental illness or sought counseling or medical care while deployed. Such services are readily available on the ship, they said.

Francisco Rivera had just returned on Dec. 10 from a six-month deployment on the USS Nimitz nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, where he was deployed with the Air Department. According to the Navy, Rivera had no disciplinary actions on his record.

Cops all over the place. a firetruck. an ambulance, neighbor Jena Staples told the Komo News. Obviously we thought something domestic had happened.

I think its pretty pathetic of him because he killed her and then hung himself, said Alexis Gregory, another neighbor.



Neighbors said the couple had recently moved into the home.

Francisco and Marie Rivera were natives of Anchorage, Alaska. Rivera was still living in Anchorage when he enlisted in 2015.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and crew members affected during this difficult time, Navy officials said.

From NTD.tv
Officer Claus "arrested" Abominable Snowman on Dec. 18, 2017, as part of a campaign to crackdown on impaired driving. (St. Helens Police Department)

Santa Arrests Abominable Snowman for Drunk Driving in Police Campaign

Police arrested the Abominable Snowman on Monday, Dec. 18, as part of an increased effort to make people think twice before drinking and driving this holiday season.

Officers from the St. Helens Police Department are participating in a high visibility enforcement (HVE) campaign to crackdown on drunk, drugged and high drivers between Dec. 15 and Jan. 1, which police regard as some of the most dangerous driving days of the year in the United States.

Impaired driving has become an increasingly dangerous occurrence in St. Helens during the winter holiday season, Sgt. Jose Castilleja said in a statement. Our goal is simple, to deter people from driving after theyve been drinking or using drugs, including marijuana, in order to save lives.

As part of the departments impaired driving campaign, new honorary patrol officer, Officer Claus, made the arrest in the early hours of Monday morning after receiving calls of a driver swerving between lanes on Columbia Boulevard and sideswiping a parked vehicle.

Snowman, who admitted to drinking a little too much peppermint schnapps at a holiday party, was charged with DUI and reckless driving with a blood-alcohol level at .16 percent, twice the legal limit in Oregon.

He thought that he would be okay to drive the short distance back to his house. Clearly, that was not the case, Officer Claus said.

As many as 10,000 Americans die each year in alcohol-related crashes. Over a five-year period, almost 4,000 people died in drunk driving crashes during the month of December, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Mr. Snowman is very lucky that more serious property damage or injury to a pedestrian or fellow driver did not occur, Officer Claus said.

Oregon police joked that Snowman is due to appear in court on Dec. 20 and could face jail time and fines.

We hope that he can be a lesson to anyone that may consider drinking and driving during the holidays, Officer Claus added.

Columbia County law enforcement agencies have provided a number of important tips to keep people safe during the holiday season:

Plan ahead. If you are planning to drink, plan ahead: volunteer to be a designated driver, designate a sober driver or arrange for a taxi to pick you up at a set time.

Be responsible. If you are hosting a party, offer plenty of non-alcoholic beverages and help your guests be responsible. Dont let someone who has been drinking get behind the wheel.

Walking or bicycling after dark? Wear bright clothes to help you stand out.

Buckle up, every trip, every time.

Drive defensively at all times.

Whatever you drive, whether its a sleigh or a car, be smart and safe this holiday season. If youre impaired, you will be arrested, said Sgt. Castilleja.

From NTD.tv
U.S. Coast Guard cutter Thetis sent out a patrol boat that found a sea turtle entangled in cord tying together packages of cocaine. (By Chief Petty Officer Bill Mesta (https://www.dvidshub.net/image/288820) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)

Sea Turtle Found Entangled in $53 Million Worth of Cocaine

The U.S. Coast Guard found a sea turtle trapped in cords tying together 1,800 pounds of cocaine.

The drugs were first spotted by a military plane over the eastern Pacific Ocean on Nov. 19, according to the Miami Herald. The coast guard then headed out to investigate.

They found the turtle entangled in cords that strung together 26 packages of cocaine worth a whopping $53 million, NBC News reported.

Coast guard personnel were able to cut through the cords that had tightly become wrapped around the turtles neck and fins.

There were some marks on her neck, so she may have been there a day or two, Commander Jose Diaz told NBC News.

In total, the team found 75 feet of cord trapping the turtle and removed all of it so no other sea life would get caught.

The cocaine was found floating in the water, without a smuggling vessel in sight.

They probably felt the heat coming and got rid of it, said Diaz of whoever lost the drugs, via NBC News.

The Coast Guard cutter USCGC Thetis, stationed in Key West, Florida, was on a 68-day deployment when it successfully tracked down the 1,800 pounds of cocaine, the Sun Sentinel reported. Altogether on its two month patrol, the team on the USCGC Thetis arrested 24 smugglers and seized over 14,892 pounds of cocaine as well as 14 pounds of marijuana.

The deployment was part of Operation Martillo  an international effort to target drug trafficking routes along the coast of Central America. The operation began in 2012 and includes 14 countries.

Although opioids are still the biggest source of drug use in the U.S., cocaine is making a comeback, leading to increased production in Colombia, NBC News reported.

Please support independent journalism by sharing this article.

From NTD.tv
Toddler Caught in Middle of Florida Mall Brawl

So much for holiday spirit.

Video footage shows the moment six women brawl in front of Victorias Secret in a mall in Fort Myers, Florida, as a toddler gets caught in the center of it all.

The clip, posted by David Milburn, shows the women stomping on another as she tries to cower and protect herself. A boy who was being pushed in a toy car stroller could be seen nearby, reported the Miami Herald.

There was a lot of yelling, Milburn told KPRC2. I couldnt understand what they were saying though. I mean, there (were) just so many of them.

No one really intervened no one tried to break it up, Milburn said of the incident.

VIDEO: Florida mall fight includes woman pushing toddler in stroller. https://t.co/YO8QwYKZYr pic.twitter.com/7h57lZGJOO  Miami Herald (@MiamiHerald) December 18, 2017

According to the KPRC2 report, the fight was apparently motivated by the killing of Samuel Jones, who was shot in Lehigh Acres on Saturday, Dec. 16.

The girl was down and she pulled the baby over and kicked her in her face and took off running  left the baby, Milburn said of the child. The baby was there all by itself, you know, so he stood there to try and kind of make sure I guess nothing happened to the child, Milburn added.

Milburn said the mall needs to increase security ahead of Christmas.

They need to step up their game. Its a big mall; a lot of stuff can happen, Milburn said.

This totally breaks my heart! https://t.co/C2TUAlMwDJ  Headline Politics (@HeadlinePolitic) December 20, 2017

Police responded to the incident.

Upon arrival, the incident had already dissipated and police did not find a confrontation going on, Fort Myers Police Department, Capt. Jay Rodriguez told the News-Press publication. Approximately two hours later police were called back to the mall in reference to apparent injuries that occurred previously and spoke to complainants.

Rodriguez added that the victims filed a police report of simple battery.

Linda Deverso-Pakulis, the wife of Lt. Chip Pakulis, of Lee County, also allegedly posted a racist message in connection to the video. The post included a slur and said they should be sent back to Africa. The post said, And they wonder why everyone picks on them? Watch the video! Send them back to Africa! World peace with then begin!

The Lee County Sheriffs Office said Monday that the post containing racially inappropriate and hateful remarks was the result of a hack. The hacking was immediately reported to Facebook by the account holder and the account was subsequently deleted so as to avoid any additional postings, Undersheriff Carmine Marceno told Fox News.

Deverso-Pakulis later wrote: Late last night someone posted under my name comments regarding an altercation that took place at the Edison Mall, Dailymail reported. As a result I notified Facebook that my account was compromised and I deactivated the account at that time.

Police said that an investigation into the brawl remains open. The police report stated that six suspects assaulted two women, the station reported. Floridas Department of Children and Families is investigating.

The footage can be viewed below (Warning: Contains potentially upsetting content):
Trump Takes Strong Stance Against UN Countries Who Vote Against US

US ambassador to the UN says she will be taking names of countries that vote against US in controversial Jerusalem resolution

President Donald Trump and his ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said that they will be taking the names of those who vote in favor of a controversial UN resolution that criticizes Americas decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem.

At the UN were always asked to do more & give more. So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl, abt where to locate OUR embassy, we dont expect those weve helped to target us, Haley wrote on Twitter.

On Thurs therell be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names, she said.

At the UN we're always asked to do more & give more. So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl, abt where to locate OUR embassy, we don't expect those we've helped to target us. On Thurs there'll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names. pic.twitter.com/ZsusB8Hqt4  Nikki Haley (@nikkihaley) December 19, 2017

On Monday, Haley used the U.S. veto power to prevent a similar resolution from passing in the UN Security Council. While the resolution drafted by Egypt does not call the United States by name it states a deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem.

Earlier this month, President Trump announced that the United States would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. He also announced that the United States would begin plans to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Trump is not the first U.S. president to have promised to do so, but while similar promises were made by Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, he is the first to have acted.

I fulfilled my campaign promise  others didnt! pic.twitter.com/bYdaOHmPVJ  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2017

The United States has been required under law to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem since 1995 after Congress adopted the Jerusalem Embassy Relocation Act.

The 1995 act has widespread bipartisan support in Congress. The act was reaffirmed by a unanimous vote in the Senate six months ago.

Trump called out the UN countries who take money from the United States but then vote against it.

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media during a meeting with congressional leaders in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on Nov. 28, 2017, in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch-Pool/Getty Images)

They take hundreds of millions of dollars, and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us, Trump said at the White House on Wednesday.

Were watching those votes. Let them vote against us. Well save a lot. We dont care, he said.

During his first eleven months in office, Trump has stood up for Americas interests over those of other countries and international organizations.

This isnt like it used to be, where they could vote against you, and then you pay them hundreds of millions of dollars, and nobody knows what theyre doing, he said.

People are tired of the United Statesthe people that live here, our great citizens that love this countrytheyre tired of this country being taken advantage off, and were not going to be taken advantage off any longer, he said.
Update: Man Charged After Boy Found Dead in Swing Seeks to Push Trial Date Back

Warning: Article contains graphic content

Attorneys for an Iowa man accused of killing his child in August are asking a court to delay his trial, according to The Courier.

Zachary Paul Koehn, 28, was slated to appear before a jury on child endangerment and murder charges in January in Chickasaw County District Court in New Hampton, Iowa, according to the report.

Defense attorney Steven Drahozal submitted a motion to move the trial to March. A new trial date hasnt been set, the report stated.

In the incident, Koehn was charged in the death of 4-month-old Sterling Koehn, who was found in a swing at their apartment in Alta Vista on Aug. 30. They were charged in late October.

The boys mother, Cheyanne Renae Harris, 20, was also charged in the case.

The boy had likely been dead in the swing for more than a week. Medics were called to the couples Alta Vista apartment on Aug. 30 and made the gruesome discovery, according to reports.

The cause of death was a failure to provide critical care, a court complaint stated. The facts of this case go far beyond neglect and show circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to human life.

The boy was found in a powered swing seat in a different bedroom from where the couple and the other child slept, WHO-TV reported at the time.

The child was underweight, and a forensic entomologist discovered the boy had not had a diaper change, bath, or been removed from the seat in over a week. The medics also discovered the presence of maggots, reports at the time stated.

An ambulance responded to the couples home after Koehn called to report that his son had diedjust a few hours after he claimed Harris fed the child.

Harriss trial is scheduled for Jan. 31.
The scene where an Amtrak passenger train derailed on a bridge over interstate highway I-5 in DuPont, Washington, Dec. 18, 2017. (Reuters/Steve Dipaola/File Photo)

Victims of Amtrak Train Derailment Identified

A rail advocate and a transit employee were among the three people killed in Mondays Amtrak train derailment, Fox News reported.

Zack Willhoite and Jim Hamre were killed when an Amtrak train traveling 80mph in a 30 mph zone derailed from a highway overpass and smashed onto the roadway underneath, wrecking several cars. Willhoite was a transit employee and Hamre was a rail advocate. Both were members of the Rail Passengers Association.

Another 100 people were taken to hospitals, 10 with serious injuries.

Jim was among the countrys most-respected and effective rail advocates and a good friend and mentor to me. I will miss his counsel, and our community is poorer for his loss, Rail Passengers Association President Jim Mathews said in a statement, reported Fox News.

Both Jim and Zack have been advocates of transit and passenger rail for decades, and we cant thank them enough for their work. Our thoughts are with their families at this time, as they work through this tragedy, Mathews continued.

The chair of Pierce transits Advisory Board, Chris Karnes, described Willhoite as a rail aficionado.

Its heartbreaking to hear that Pierce transit employee and rail aficionado Zack Willhoite did not survive the derailment, Karnes wrote on Twitter. He helped our advisory committee with IT issues, and behind the scenes he was a writer and advocate for better transit for all. He will be missed.

Workers lifted mangled train cars onto flatbed trucks on Tuesday from the wreckage of the train. All 12 carriages and one of its two locomotives tumbled off the rails, officials said.

Workers used two towering cranes in wet, windy weather as they sought to reopen the southbound lanes of Interstate 5  a major West Coast highway stretching from the Canadian border to Mexico. They expected to remove five of the cars and the locomotive by Tuesday afternoon and take them to a nearby U.S. military base for further examination by federal investigators, officials said.

The locomotive alone weighs more than 270,000 pounds and will require an extra-large truck to move, Dan Hall, the regional commander for the Washington State Patrol, said at a news conference.

Its going to take quite a feat to get that out of there, Hall told reporters. Were still working on the logistics on how exactly were going to do that.

The southbound stretch of highway will remain closed for several days, the Washington State Department of Transportation said.

The train was traveling on a new, slightly quicker route between Seattle and Portland, Oregon, with 86 people aboard, 80 of them passengers, Amtrak said.

The derailment has placed Amtrak, the countrys main passenger rail company, under renewed scrutiny following a series of fatal incidents.

The stretch of track where the derailment happened had previously been used by slow-moving freight trains but was recently upgraded to handle passenger trains as part of a $181 million project to cut travel time between Tacoma and Olympia.

Washington states transportation department said the track underwent weeks of inspection and testing before the new route was inaugurated on Monday.

Reuters contributed to this report.

From NTD.tv
The scene where an Amtrak passenger train derailed on a bridge over interstate highway I-5 in DuPont, Washington, on Dec. 18, 2017. (Reuters/Steve Dipaola)

Washington Mayor Predicted Problems with High-Speed Train Route Before Accident: Report

A Washington mayor fought against the rail line that carries high-speed passenger trains from Tacoma to Olympia, and predicted that because of safety issues with the route, fatalities were inevitable. On Monday, Dec. 18, his prediction came true when an Amtrak passenger train jumped the rails in DuPont, killing at least three and leaving 10 critically wounded.

Lakewood Mayor Don Anderson said he thought it was only a matter of time before someone was hurt, although likely for a different reason than what happened Monday.

I didnt predict a time, but I did say somebody is going to get killed, he told the Seattle Times on Monday. I hoped that wasnt right.

This catastrophic derailment is horrific. My thoughts are with those injured & our first responders who rushed to the scene. The City of Seattle has offered our assistance & is ready to work with Amtrak, local, state, federal officials in the aftermath of this tragic incident.  Mayor Jenny Durkan (@MayorJenny) December 18, 2017

He said he was worried about the number of at-grade rail crossings along the trains route, and that because the high-speed passenger train was being put on a little-used freight line instead of a new one, a lot of safety features that he thought should be in place were grandfathered out.

The principal risk we identified was actually the number of crossings and the lack of familiarity people had in the area with trains, he said. We thought a train-vehicle collision was virtually inevitable.

He said that if the line had been built from scratch, there likely would have been more tunnels and overpasses built to protect people at crossings.

He also objected to the new line on monetary grounds, saying that for the number of people who use the high-speed passenger service, using taxpayer money for it was not justified.

The derailed Amtrak train  traveling at more than 80 miles per hour in a 30-mile-per-hour zone  met its tragic fate off a highway overpass on the I-5 highway at about 7:30 a.m. The train fell onto highway traffic, hitting five cars and two semi trucks.

There were 86 people on board, Amtrak reports, 10 of who were taken to the hospital in critical condition and another four with moderate injuries, according to the Washing State Patrols blog.

The cause of the accident is still under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Woman Accused of Trying to Rob Target During Shop With a Cop Event Hospitalized

A woman arrested on Tuesday, Dec. 19, for trying to steal $1800 worth of merchandise from a Target store in Framingham, Massachusettswhile around 65 police officers were on hand for a childrens charity eventhas been rushed to hospital from court, after telling officers she swallowed bags of drugs, David Robichaud of WBZ-TV reported via his Twitter account at 9:10 a.m. local time on Dec. 20.

BREAKING: Woman accused of ripping off Framingham Target during charity event being rushed to hospital from court after telling officers she swallowed bags of drugs. pic.twitter.com/WAzigbiUPx  David Robichaud (@RobiWBZ) December 20, 2017

Minutes earlier, Robichaud reported via his Twitter account that the presiding judge had set the womans bail at $250 after the womans defense attorney said the woman was unable to afford the $500 cash bail that prosecutors had called for during a bail hearing the day after her arrest.

Melissa Allen, 32, was apprehended by deputies as she tried to leave the Rte. 30 store with a buggy containing a range of items, including clothes and electronics, WCVB5 reported.

Police said they also found her carrying stolen jewelry, according to CBSBoston.

Allen was caught during the Shop with a Cop event, at which officers played Santas elves to more than 180 needy children.

The accused walked into the store during the event and spoke to several of the officers on hand, said Framingham police spokeswoman Lt. Patricia Grigas, according to MetroWest Daily News.

You couldnt have walked into Target and not know there was something going on, said Grigas. There were cops in uniform everywhere.

She then allegedly filled a large Rubbermaid container with over $1800 worth of goods and attempted to push it out of the store in a shopping cart without paying, police said, according to CBSBoston.

When store security stopped Allen, she put up a stink, and then fought with police, kicking a police cruiser door several times, Grigas told reporters.

Allen has been charged with larceny of property worth more than $250, resisting arrest, and providing police a false name during booking.

During her arraignment Wednesday in Framingham District Court, prosecutors told the court Allen has a criminal history.

The defense called her a victim of the opioid crisis.

Prosecutors say she has criminal history and 8 prior defaults. Defense says shes victim of opiod crisis.  David Robichaud (@RobiWBZ) December 20, 2017

Not long after the judge set bail, it was reported that Allen had been taken to the hospital.

This is a developing story. Stay tuned.
Danielle Paris, seen in a mugshot for a different offense, was arrested after she allegedly spit in the face of Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo. (Houston Police Department)

Woman Charged for Spitting in Houston Police Chiefs Face, He Speaks Out

A woman from Houston was arrested after she spat in the face of Houstons police chief during an arrest at a Walgreens store last Saturday.

Danielle Paris, 40, appeared in Court on Monday, Dec. 18, and was charged with harassment of a public servanta felonyaccording to NBC affiliate KPRC.

Paris was stealing from a Walgreens located on Washington Avenue when Houston Police Department Chief Art Acevedo noticed her. He was off-duty at the time.

At the time, Acevedo was buying something for a family member when he saw Paris leaving with unpaid items, cursing and harassing customers inside the store.

Unfortunately, were never really quite off duty. I called 911 on my cellphone, Acevedo told KPRC. But as Paris was about to leave, I had to take police action, Acevedo continued.

According to the Houston Chronicle, Acevedo first called for help, then identified himself as an officer before going in for the arrest.

Authorities say Paris was intoxicated and resisted arrest, allegedly kicking the chief and spitting directly into his face.

Just last month, Paris was arrested for spitting at another officer, who was unnamed. However, her charge was later reduced to only a misdemeanor.

At the time, she was given 60 days in jail but her time was later reduced to 16 days.

The police chief told KPRC that her previous arrest was too lenient.

My concern is the person that was arrested and charged with a third degree felony to another officer that was plea bargained down to a misdemeanor and at some point, we shouldnt wait until somebody ends up getting hepatitis or some other kind of communicable disease from someone who makes a habit of spitting in first responders faces, Acevedo told KPRC.

Under Texas State Law, spitting comes under Harassment of a public servant. It is punishable as a felony of the third degree, with a maximum possible fine of up to $10,000 and a maximum prison time of up to 10 years.

Poll Time: Have Your Say

The chief said the incident leads to a bigger issue on the effectiveness of the citys judicial system which is part of the conversation were having in this city about way too many people not being held accountable. How many times people get to spit in the face of a police officer before theyre being held on what the law requires, he told KPRC.

According to Fox News, Paris is currently being held at the Harris County Jail on $3000 bail. She was due in court again on Tuesday, Dec. 19.

From NTD.tv
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.
How to watch and what to know about Northern Iowa at South Dakota
To help us keep this website secure, please wait while we verify you're not a robot! It will only take a few seconds...

Loading...
Nebraska regulators have declined requests to amend its approval allowing TransCanada Corp.s Keystone XL pipeline to run through the state.

The Nebraska Public Service Commission says in an order that in a unanimous vote it denied all motions filed, including by TransCanada and those opposed to the project.

TransCanada said it had wanted to have the order reconsidered to address some questions raised in the decision, which could have helped thwart lawsuits.

Opponents have challenged the commissions decision in November to approve an alternative to TransCanadas preferred route through the state, saying the commission overstepped its jurisdiction and newly affected landowners were denied due process.

The company said it will take time to review the decision and determine the appropriate next steps for the project in Nebraska, but that the company remains committed to the Keystone XL project.

The Nebraska decision was closely watched as it was the last major regulatory hurdle for the pipeline that would bring about 830,000 barrels a day from Alberta to U.S. markets.

Read more about:

SHARE:
Foreign buyer home purchases are declining in a region of Ontario covered by a non-resident tax, according to provincial government figures released Wednesday.

People who arent citizens or permanent residents, as well as foreign corporations, accounted for 1.9 per cent of the transactions in the Greater Golden Horseshoe Region  which includes Toronto  from Aug. 19 to Nov. 17.

That is down from 3.2 per cent from the previous three months. It is also not much higher than 1.6 per cent outside the Greater Golden Horseshoe Region, which is not covered by the tax.

Read more:

CMHC data shows foreign buyers account for small portion of Toronto homeowners

CREA slashes its 2018 home-sales forecast due to tighter mortgage regulations

Toronto area housing prices expected to remain flat in 2018: Report

In Toronto, 3.8 per cent of transactions were made by foreign buyers in the same August to November period, which is lower than the 5.6 per cent in the previous three months.

The 15 per cent tax was imposed in the Greater Golden Horseshoe area  stretching from the Niagara Region to Peterborough  on buyers who are not citizens, permanent residents or Canadian corporations. In the first month after the tax was imposed in late April, foreign buyers made up 4.7 per cent of home sales in the region.

It was imposed at a time that the housing market in the Toronto area and beyond saw year-over-year price increases of more than 30 per cent.

The average selling price in the Greater Toronto Area decreased by two per cent last month compared to November 2016, due in large part to a smaller share of detached home sales versus last year.

Finance Minister Charles Sousa said Ontarios housing plan  which included the foreign buyer tax as well as other measures to cool the market and expanded rent controls  is having the desired effect.

Average home resale prices have moderated when compared to the extreme year over year price increases experienced earlier this year, he said in a statement. The housing supply has grown steadily and people now have more affordable alternatives. Ontario continues to welcome new residents who contribute to its strong economic growth.

The province has so far collected about $133 million from the tax, though that includes transactions that could be subject to rebates, such as people who subsequently get citizenship or permanent resident status, as well as foreign nationals working in Ontario and international students.

Nearly two-thirds of that money was collected from transactions in Toronto.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. and Statistics Canada released data Tuesday showing that foreign buyers make up a minuscule portion of the overall housing market in the country, but what they own is more expensive and newer than the average Canadian homeowner.

SHARE:
The past 36 hours have reinforced Europes role as the toughest cop of American tech giants.

With a flurry of announcements, regulators across the continent signalled continued scrutiny of Silicon Valley in the year ahead. The European Unions top court Wednesday ruled Uber Technologies Inc. must be regulated as a transportation service, a blow to the companys attempts to avoid taxi rules and licensing requirements.

The ruling followed hard-hitting statements Tuesday by German and French regulators. Andreas Mundt, Germanys leading competition regulator who built a career on tackling beer and sausage cartels, attacked Facebook Inc. over its alleged misuse of user data. Across the border, Frances privacy watchdog gave Facebook another headache, giving its WhatsApp messaging app one month to stop sharing data with its parent.

And even last Friday, Italian authorities were ordering Amazon.com Inc. to pay $118 million (U.S.) to end a fiscal probe into tax evasion.

The announcements cap a year in which European authorities have battled with Silicon Valleys biggest technology companies. Notable clashes include Apple falling out with Ireland over a 2016 decision to pay $15 billion in back taxes, Alphabet Inc.s Google being hit with a record $2.8-billion fine over shopping ads, and Facebook, Twitter Inc. and YouTube facing inquiries for the spread of extremist content and hate speech.

Perhaps the most poignant example of Europes growing distrust of big tech came in September, when EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova branded Facebooks social network a highway for hatred and revealed how she deleted her own account on the social network.

There is little evidence to suspect 2018 will get any easier. Here are some of next years looming battlegrounds: Google is facing more antitrust punishments related to its Android phone software and dominance in online advertising. A court will decide whether Uber should lose its taxi licence in London, the companys biggest European market. Facebook, in addition to the added antitrust scrutiny, will face increased pressure to crack down on misinformation and other harmful content on its platform, as will Twitter and YouTube.

New privacy rules going into effect in 2018, will give regulators in each European country more authority to fine technology companies for improperly collecting or sharing data on users. While proponents of the regulation say Europe is providing a much-needed check against the power of global tech companies, advocates for the industry say it undercuts the regions attempts to produce its own globally-influential tech companies.

This is a blow to the EUs ambition of building an integrated digital single market, The Computer & Communications Industry Association, an industry trade group, said today, following the Uber decision.

Whats unclear is the impact Europes actions are having. Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook all reported record results in 2017, showing the companies business models are as healthy as ever  despite new fines and regulations.

While the U.S. has largely taken a hands-off approach to regulating the tech industry, that could change as its power grows. There is rising pressure in the U.S. to treat Big Tech more aggressively, but it is unclear if that effort will have success, said Michael Carrier, co-director of the Rutgers Institute for Information Policy and Law in New Jersey.

The biggest risk for Silicon Valley may be if Europes approach is emulated. The rest of the world will look to the U.S. and Europe as the two polestars guiding their analysis of Big Tech, said Carrier.

Read more about:

SHARE:
An arbitrator appointed to work out a deal between Ontarios 24 colleges and their faculty members  they were ordered back to work last month after staging the longest strike in their history  has given them a 7.75-per-cent pay hike over four years and a $900 return-to-work payout. The decision also included general references to the need for academic freedom.

Announced Wednesday morning, the arbitrators award on salary increases is what the College Employer Council had included in its final offer.

While the union had sought academic freedom for instructors to determine teachings and course content in consultation with management, the arbitrator defined this as the right to enquire about, investigate, pursue, teach and speak freely about academic issues without fear of impairment to position or other reprisal, which is consistent with what many colleges already have on the books.

The arbitrator also said each full-time faculty member will receive a $900-payout, while partial-load instructors will get $450. This puts an end to the thousands of grievances already launched over back-to-work issues.

This payment is in full and final satisfaction of all claims, grievances or other complaints related to workload arising from return to work from the strike, the decision states.

Mediation-arbitration was held between the colleges and Ontario Public Service Employees Union from Dec. 14 to 16.

Some 12,000 faculty, who are members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, went on strike in October and remained on the picket lines for five weeks. Their main issues were precarious work  a task force will deal with the issue of growing part-time and contract work  and academic freedom.

A full-time professor would have lost up to $10,000 in salary during the strike.

Amid fears as many as 500,000 students were close to losing their semester, the government, in an unusual weekend sitting last month, passed back-to-work legislation.

Students were also given the option of withdrawing from school by Dec. 5, without academic penalty, and about 10 per cent of full-timers, or almost 26,000, have since dropped out. They received a full refund on their tuition fees.

In a typical year, college students must withdraw from their courses in the first two weeks of school to qualify for a refund. About 2.55 per cent usually do.

Ontarios colleges said they are very pleased with the arbitrators award, which is consistent with the colleges bargaining positions. The award enshrines the academic freedom policies that exist at most colleges while providing the same percentage salary increase that the colleges tabled before the strike started.

Sonia Del Missier, chair of the colleges bargaining team, called it a workable award that is in the best interests of all parties . . . . The strike has been a terrible experience for our students and everyone affected. We appreciate all the efforts being made by faculty and staff to recover from these events and continue the education and training of our students. We will be focused on rebuilding our positive working relationship with faculty that is in the best interests of the colleges, our students, and our communities.

SHARE:
A retired Whitehorse teacher says Yukon government lawyers knew about alleged sexual abuse of at least one student by her former principal nearly three years before he was arrested and removed from his school, but she was ordered to keep it quiet.

Sandra Henderson was a teacher at a Whitehorse elementary school in 1984. She had successfully campaigned to have a French immersion program created at the school when the man, identified in court documents only as J.V., took over as principal.

In the spring of 1984 Henderson said she was subpoenaed to act as a French language translator in a hearing over allegations that J.V. had sexually abused a child in his foster care.

When she first received the subpoena, Henderson said she had no idea the scope of the allegations. She said she doesnt know what was said before or after the hearing she translated and whether any other proceedings took place after the hearing or the final outcome of the case.

She said she clearly remembers at the outset of the hearing being told by Yukon government lawyers in the room that anything said was confidential and she was legally prevented from revealing it.

I was sworn to secrecy, confidentiality. And thats where I learned about (J.V.), she said.

Henderson, now 78, said she knew the child in question as a student.

He was a bright young man. I can still see his face.

He had been placed in J.V.s foster care because his biological mother had been convicted of drug charges, she said.

A source with knowledge of the case, who asked not to be named for legal reasons, confirmed the child in question was taken into J.V.s care, though they were not involved in the hearing about sexual assault allegations and had no knowledge of it.

During that hearing, Henderson said the childs mother accused J.V. of sexually abusing her son in the shower. After the hearing Henderson said J.V. returned to work.

It would be almost three more years before J.V. was arrested and charged in 1987 with sexually assaulting five other children  he was a foster parent to three of them, and a youth group leader to another.

He pleaded guilty to all charges, and was sentenced to five years for each count, to be served concurrently. He now lives outside of Whitehorse on a large rural property.

J.V. is also at the centre of a series of lawsuits filed against him, and the Yukon Government alleges he sexually assaulted at least six other children, some of whom were his students. Many of his alleged victims struggle to keep their lives together.

J.V. declined to comment for this story.

The Yukon government said it would not comment on the decisions of a past government, or how a particular personnel matter was handled 33 years ago.

If allegations of abuse were to be brought forward today, our government would take immediate action, Sunny Patch, the governments cabinet office spokesperson, said in an emailed statement.

That action would include removing the employee from the workplace immediately and working closely with the RCMP on an investigation, the statement said.

In a statement the government said it has faced roughly 40 lawsuits over sexual abuse at the hands of government employees, and paid roughly $2.5 million to settle them.

The child in the case Henderson translated for is not a part of the criminal charges against J.V., and is not part of any of the lawsuits that the Star is aware of.

Henderson said before the hearing took place J.V. told her she should try to get out of it.

After the hearing, Henderson said J.V. subjected her to a campaign of bullying and intimidation that ultimately forced her to change schools.

He went to great lengths to get me out of his school. He said I was too difficult to work with, I was this, I was that, she said.

At one point, Henderson said she discovered a handmade mock-up of a passport calling her a frog and insisting she should move to France. She was so upset she turned the passport over to the RCMP, she said.

It was so disgusting, so racist.

The final straw came when J.V. created a petition calling for Henderson to be moved to another school. He got some of the other staff at the school to sign it, Henderson said, including some who had followed him from his previous posting at a different elementary school.

Henderson said some of the staff who signed the petition were close friends of J.V.s, and would get special treatment like 10 days off in the fall to go hunting.

Sandra Henderson couldnt get five days off to go to my mothers funeral. Some of these people were his favourites, and they may have known. Thats the difference, she said.

In November 2015 Henderson wrote to Piers McDonald, who was education minister at the time of the J.V. hearing. She explained in full why she feels she was targeted by J.V. for removal from the school.

A week later McDonald wrote back, commending Henderson for her many accomplishments as a Yukon teacher, and acknowledging the controversial implications surrounding the decision to make the transfer over your objections. His letter said he did not know Henderson had played a role in the J.V. hearing.

Henderson still gives private French lessons to students in Whitehorse. She carried the knowledge of what J.V. is alleged to have done for years, scarred  she says  by his bullying and her inability to tell anyone about it.

I didnt even tell my husband.

Read more about:

SHARE:
Its 1979. A 20-year-old student misses her period.

I was in my third year of university. I used oral contraceptives but I got pregnant, the woman, now in her late 50s, said in a recent interview from Montreal. I hadnt finished my degree. I wasnt ready for a family.

She avoided the French-language Catholic hospital where she lived in Moncton, N.B., and instead booked an appointment with a gynecologist at the citys English-language hospital.

If you were early enough, I heard he would perform an abortion. Its where all the French girls went, she says.

But there was a catch: she was told she had to be suicidal to obtain the procedure.

I had to say I would kill myself. It had to be a life-or-death situation, she recalls.

She declared herself mentally ill, but says now she felt lucky considering the difficulty some women had getting abortion services at the time.

I was in a safe environment in a hospital. It wasnt a back-alley office somewhere, she says. I didnt die and I wasnt left infertile.

Read more:

Abortion clinic buffer zones coming to Ontario

Abortion safe-zone bill passes third reading

Opinion | Heather Mallick: Ottawa police wont protect abortion clinic despite pleas

This January marks 30 years since the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the countrys abortion law as unconstitutional.

The Jan. 28, 1988, Morgentaler decision overturned a law that criminalized abortions unless a panel of doctors agreed a womans life or health was threatened by the pregnancy  likely the rule that compelled a Moncton gynecologist in the 1970s to require a woman to declare herself suicidal.

The countrys highest court found the criminal law violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantee of life, liberty and security of the person.

Bravo for the women of Canada! Henry Morgentaler, doctor and abortion rights advocate, said outside the Supreme Court chambers. Justice for the women of Canada has finally arrived!

Three decades later, the landmark abortion ruling still stands as the countrys touchstone on abortion rights.

But the issue continues to be a source of polarizing debate, and voices on both sides have called for legislation: Anti-abortion groups want a criminal law banning or restricting abortion, while advocates of womens right to choose say legislation is needed to improve abortion access and curb harassment against doctors and patients.

Even though 30 years have passed since the abortion law was struck down in Canada, we unfortunately are still dealing with the same issues, says Arlene Leibovitch, Morgentalers widow and owner of the Toronto and Ottawa Morgentaler clinics.

Anti-abortion groups rally outside abortion clinics, wielding graphic placards and intimidating doctors and patients, she says.

The Morgentaler clinic in Ottawa has been subjected to some of the most vicious protesting in the province and womens rights to privacy have been grossly compromised, Leibovitch says. Its extremely stressful for both the staff and the patients to get basically attacked by a barrage of very vivid posters and signs and people yelling at them as theyre coming into the clinic.

Ontarios so-called bubble zone legislation  aimed at creating safe access zones outside abortion clinics  is expected to take effect soon. But she questions why its taken three decades for the province to act.

How could this still be happening in this day and age when abortion has been legal for 30 years?

The Supreme Courts watershed 1988 decision made Canada one of a handful of countries without a law either restricting or ensuring access to abortion.

Its a legislative void some anti-abortion politicians and advocates have tried hard to fill. They argue that the intention of the court was not to remove all limits on abortion, but rather to ensure those limits didnt violate a pregnant womans right under the charter.

But attempts to re-criminalize abortion have failed.

As justice minister in Brian Mulroneys Progressive Conservative government, Kim Campbell introduced a bill in the late 1980s that would have made abortion a criminal offence unless performed by a doctor who believed the health or life of the woman was threatened.

The bill, which replaced the opinion of a hospital committee with one physician, was approved by the House of Commons only to be defeated in the Senate following a tied vote in 1991.

Since then, successive federal governments have sidestepped attempts to criminalize abortion. Several private members bills have attempted, and failed, to make aspects of abortion illegal, including a bill to criminalize inducing an abortion after 20 weeks gestation and a bill to make it an offence to injure an unborn child while committing an offence against the mother.

Abortion rights advocate Joyce Arthur argues that granting legal rights to a fetus is a slippery slope that could lead to restricting the rights of pregnant women in the future.

We need to make sure anti-choice (advocates) have no grounds to build on, says Arthur, executive director of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada. Without any restrictions, they dont have a framework to build on.

In other countries, Arthur says criminal laws that make abortions illegal after certain gestational ages are used as a foothold by anti-abortion activists to try to further limit abortion access.

Yet abortion opponents argue the Supreme Courts Morgentaler decision left the fetus unprotected.

We literally are a lawless nation with respect to abortion, says Jack Fonseca with Campaign Life Coalition, a group that opposes abortion. A woman could legally abort her unborn child at any point before going into labour, right up to the moment of birth.

The Toronto-based organization wants an outright ban on abortion with few exceptions.

Natalie Sonnen with LifeCanada, an anti-abortion group, says any law at this point would be better than the current situation where abortion can be obtained throughout all nine months for any reason.

But Joanna Erdman, Dalhousie Universitys MacBain Chair in Health Law and Policy, says those claims are false.

Its really a red herring. Its a total falsehood that someone just walks into a clinic in Canada and asks for a late-term abortion and gets it, says Erdman, an associate professor at the universitys Schulich School of Law.

While there is no criminal law restricting abortion, she says its treated like any other medical procedure and is regulated by medical policies, codes of ethics and protocols.

We have no unique criminal law provision on abortion because there are lots of laws that regulate abortion as a medical procedure, Erdman says. Suggesting that women are regularly accessing late abortions just doesnt at all reflect the reality of abortion practice.

In 2015, the Canadian Institute for Health Information recorded a total of 100,104 abortions across Canada in both clinics and hospitals.

Only hospitals, where about one-third of abortions are performed, report gestational age. About 2.5 per cent of abortions were induced at a gestation over 20 weeks, according to the federal agencys figures.

However, Arthur says hospitals do the vast majority of late-term abortions. As most clinics only do abortions up to 12 or 16 weeks, she estimates just over 0.5 per cent of abortions are done after 20 weeks.

In practice, almost all abortions over 20 weeks are done for lethal fetal abnormalities. The fetus is not viable and wont survive after birth, Arthur says. A small minority are done for other compelling reasons, such as a girl abused by her stepfather.

Erdman adds that for the most part, late-term abortions are absolutely tragic cases of wanted pregnancies in which there is a diagnosis. Its absolutely cruel to force a woman to carry a stillbirth to term and not have a way to intervene.

Meanwhile, finding a physician who is trained and willing to perform late-stage abortions makes them largely inaccessible.

Lianne Yoshida, medical co-director of the Termination of Pregnancy Unit at the QEII Hospital in Halifax, says abortions later in pregnancy are limited for many reasons.

The main one is surgical expertise. The procedure is more complicated and requires different equipment and skill set for the doctor to be able to do them safely, she says.

The recurring anti-abortion stance that the lack of a criminal law will lead to women aborting a nine-month-old fetus is one Arthur calls misogynistic and insulting.

Its been refuted over and over again but they keep saying it, she says. Its based on the assumption that women are so stupid and callous that they are going to have an abortion at nine months for any trivial reason and a doctors will do it. Its nonsense and its infuriating, and its a form of hate speech against women and doctors.

Arthur adds: Weve had no restrictions on abortion for 29 years so that itself is proof we dont need any.

Early in his career, Morgentaler turned women seeking abortions away. It was illegal, and he didnt want to break the law.

But it gnawed at his conscience, Leibovitch says, and in 1969 he opened his first abortion clinic.

For Henry, the fact that women were dying was wrong and unnecessary. Its a very simple procedure, she says, noting that abortions up to 12 weeks take about two to three minutes.

Morgentaler was repeatedly arrested and thrown in jail for performing abortions. But juries repeatedly acquitted him, refusing to enforce a law perceived to be unjust.

Even after the landmark 1988 ruling, Morgentaler continued to advocate for abortion funding and access across the country despite death threats and the bombing of his Toronto clinic.

Young people today have a hard time understanding how incredibly hard the fight was to achieve the rights that they have, Leibovitch says. Women were trying to self-induce abortions from unqualified doctors with devastating results. They were often subjected to perforation and a lot of them bled out or ended up with massive infections unable to have children in the future.

While access to abortion has improved significantly since the Morgentaler decision, women in rural areas are often forced to travel some distance for the service.

I think access has absolutely made huge strides but there are still barriers, says Sarah Hobbs Blyth, executive director of Planned Parenthood Toronto.

Only one in six hospitals in Canada performs abortions and some provinces have no standalone abortion clinics at all. New Brunswick, meanwhile, continues to refuse to fund abortions at the provinces only clinic.

We have had a significant and long-standing lack of leadership within executive branches of government to actually make access to abortion a barrier-free reality, says Sandeep Prasad, an Ottawa-based lawyer and activist with Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights.

For example, Mifegymiso, the two-step abortion pill, became available in France and China in 1988  the same year Canada decriminalized abortion.

Health Canada didnt approve Mifegymiso until July 2015, and barriers still remain to its use  it can only be prescribed up to nine weeks, and can be subject to a requirement for an ultrasound.

Its been available for 30 years and its just reaching the Canadian market now, Prasad says, noting that while an ultrasound is recommended, there are other safe methods to rule out ectopic pregnancy and confirm gestational age.

In many areas of sexual reproductive rights, we have a long way to go as a country.

Its been almost 30 years since that cold January day when the countrys highest court struck down the criminal law against abortion.

While there continues to be opposition to abortion, multiple polls in recent years suggest Canadian attitudes have shifted towards a womans right to choose.

Leibovitch credits much of the progress in the area of womens reproductive rights to Morgentaler, who passed away in 2013.

Henry Morgentaler was an extremely brave and courageous man who fought for what he believed in and for the rights of the people of Canada, she says.

He suffered through the Holocaust, lost almost his entire family, pursued a medical degree despite anti-Semitic climates that were still ongoing in Europe and he arrived in this country as an immigrant and struggled for decades so others could have rights.

Read more about:

SHARE:
A well-known Toronto defence lawyer who survived being shot says his attackers 12-year sentence is ludicrous and there would be no such plea deal if the victim was a judge.

What went down today would not have gone down if it was a Crown attorney that was shot, or a judge, or a police officer, Randall Barrs told reporters.

But Superior Court Justice John McMahon, who sentenced Grayson Delong, 52, on Tuesday, said while Barrs may be unhappy with the result, he is satisfied the Crown quite fairly and responsibly accepted a guilty plea to aggravated assault, reduced from attempted murder after a preliminary hearing.

Summarizing the admitted facts, McMahon said Delong shot Barrs twice in the leg when he was in very close proximity to the lawyer. At the time, Barrs was placing items into the trunk of his car outside his law office on Bedford Rd. at around 3:15 p.m. on Sept. 20, 2016.

If the accused had the specific intent to kill the victim, he clearly would have targeted the victims torso or body mass or his head, McMahon told court.

He called the shooting a brutal targeted attack in broad daylight.

After shooting Barrs, Delong was also shot that afternoon by Halton Regional Police officers who had tailed the petty criminal from the Brampton courthouse. Barrs said he plans to sue the force for gross negligence because the surveillance team failed to stop Delong, who was disguised as a construction worker and wearing a wig.

Halton police didnt reply to a request for comment Tuesday afternoon.

Barrs refused to submit a victim impact statement and wasnt in court for the sentencing. He said he didnt want to be part of the process.

While there was evidence Delongs gun also discharged twice from within the vehicle  he did not admit to firing the gun. Barrs is unconvinced, sarcastically suggesting maybe elves pulled the trigger.

Barrs, 67, said he also feels let down by Toronto police, and said he still wants a full and proper investigation of what was behind this thing.

Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said Tuesday he is open to speaking to Barrs, but I certainly cant guarantee a different outcome.

I will say being on the victims end of the judicial system can tend to be a not satisfying one, Saunders said.

Ive heard that over and over again, walking through my homicide cases and other types of investigations, it has left a very bad taste in the victims mouths.

With credit for time served, Delong was sentenced to a further nine years, seven months in a federal penitentiary.

SHARE:
Detectives, especially those whove put in years of their career on the notoriously demanding homicide squad, must aim to keep an open mind when approaching each and every death. Even if it has similarities to past cases, every new investigation must be approached with fresh eyes, treated as a completely unique situation.

Thats not likely to be a problem for Toronto police Det.-Sgt. Susan Gomes. The file that landed on her desk this weekend is undoubtedly unlike any other in the veteran cops career.

The homicide detective is the lead investigator now examining the suspicious deaths of Barry and Honey Sherman, the billionaire couple whose mysterious demise has captivated Toronto and beyond, and left family and friends reeling.

The founder of drug giant Apotex and his wife were found dead in their North York home before noon Friday  a grisly discovery that was made, police sources say, by the couples real estate agent, who entered the $6.9 million house after being unable to make contact with the couple.

Read more:

Barry Sherman was under investigation for breaking lobbying rules

Shermans were people who cared about other people

Apotex focused on navigating past terrible tragedy after death of founder Barry Sherman

A police source with knowledge of the investigation told the Star that the couple was found together, by their indoor pool, hanging off a nearby structure. Both were in a semi-sitting position, according to a police source.

Post-mortem results show both Shermans cause of death was ligature neck compression, death from hanging or strangulation caused by a cord-like object, such as a belt or rope.

The probe now led by Gomes and her homicide team is a suspicious death case. Neither of the deaths have been classified as a homicide, though an early police theory was that it was a case of murder-suicide, a scenario the Shermans four children and close friends strongly deny.

In a year-end interview with the Star on Tuesday, Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders would not comment on the status of the probe or reveal any new details about the case. But the chief said he wants to speak to the Shermans family.

Im just trying to line that up, Saunders said.

A former homicide detective told the Star this week that the squad likely took on the role as lead investigator because its officers are the most experienced in probing suspicious deaths.

This is undoubtedly the case for Gomes, a Toronto cop of nearly 30 years. Her early career saw her working out of south Etobicokes 22 division in the mid-1990s, where her cases included investigating the theft of name-brand clothing and alcohol from retailers. The probe resulted in the arrest of five men and the seizure of $100,000 worth of goods.

In 2010, Gomes took on the slaying of Andrew Philly Dowden, a 17-year-old who was fatally shot and whose body was discovered on the banks of the Humber River. Three underage teens later served four years in prison in connection to the death.

Over the years, she has also probed several fatal shootings, including the heartbreaking death of Lecent Ross, the 14-year-old girl who was shot with an illegal handgun inside a home on Jamestown Cres. in July 2015. In March, a 15-year-old who cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act pleaded guilty to criminal negligence causing death, receiving a three-year sentence.

More recently, Gomes took on the high-profile case of Anthony James Kiss, who was charged with manslaughter after he drove his car into Dario Humberto Romero  a split second decision he said he made after he saw the man chasing after a woman with a knife. That charge was later withdrawn at the request of the Crown.

In 2014, Gomes was nominated for the Ontario Women in Law Enforcements Excellence in Performance Award for a case in which she devoted hours examining 8,000 text message and other cellphone data to help solve a drive-by shooting. In 2015, she was awarded a teamwork commendation by the Toronto Police Services Board.

In an interview with the Toronto Sun near the beginning of her career, Gomes, who was competing as a rower at the World Police Fire Games in 1997, said she relied upon physical fitness to help deal with the stresses of the job.

Tactics to ease the pressure will come in useful now, as the high-profile Sherman suspicious death case is watched across the country and beyond.

Lets face it, she told the newspaper. In our work, stress is major.

With files from Betsy Powell

SHARE:
Inside the cozy basement of the Arab Community Centre of Toronto, a small group of women get together for tea, snacks and conversation.

Its an unseasonably warm late November day, and the women, all newcomers to Canada, have travelled a long distance to get to suburban Scarborough, many having made the trip on public transit. They get together about once a week to exchange stories and catch up on each others lives.

Fatima Darwish is telling the group about her life now, much different than the one she left behind in Aleppo, Syria.

Back then she was the equivalent of a junior high school teacher, instructing several subjects from physics to Arabic. Now shes hoping to get onto the teaching rolls of a privately run Toronto Arabic school. Despite perfect fluency in English, she isnt optimistic of her prospects of teaching in the Canadian public school system.

Theres no space for me, maybe next year I will try again, Darwish said. Its hard because you need Canadian experience to get a job, and we are all newcomers.

But on the whole, life is better here even though its so different from Syria, she says, laughing as she adds: Starting with the weather.

The women make small talk, exchanging smiles and a few laughs. Theyre prodded gently by meeting facilitator Roula Ajib to practise their English. Some can only speak a few words, others are almost fluent.

Most of them are of Syrian origin, having arrived in Canada a little more than a year ago. With the help of the community centre, the women learn English, plan careers and focus on the next chapter of their lives.

They also get a rare opportunity to speak openly about their feelings and the trauma suffered from the civil war in their homeland that has left hundreds of thousands dead in almost seven years.

The women get to express themselves, said Bayan Khatib from the Al-Quazzaz Foundation for Education and Development and the Syrian Canadian Foundation, which runs a group therapy program for Syrian women new to Canada, focusing on mental health.

Sometimes they need convincing to share their thoughts, but once they start speaking and expressing themselves they dont want to stop.

During the sessions, a therapist offers counselling, and the women can take part in yoga as well as learn more about wellness, from eating healthy to engaging in self-care.

After years spent in a refugee camp in Jordan, Nadima Abdolahaq arrived in Quebec, where she studied French.

Now in Toronto, she studies English at an ESL-equivalent program with hopes of pursuing a career in daycare. Like many of the women, she is a mother, with five young children.

Almost everyone in the group has lost loved ones to the civil war. Abdolahaq, who lived in a suburb of Damascus, says 50 members of her family have died, including a cousin whose death she learned of the same day. Other relatives are imprisoned or facing torture at the hands of the ruthless Syrian regime.

I expect Ill never see my brother or sister again, and they are my only family left, she said through an interpreter.

Other group members offered support, promising Abdolahaq in Arabic she will one day return to her homeland, if only for a visit.

Well all go together and youll cook for us when we get there, they say laughing.

All of the women agree they consider Canada home now. They face heavy obstacles for full integration, but feel empowered by gatherings such as these.

When we come here every week, we feel so relaxed, Ajib said. We are happy because we are one family. We are here for each other.

SHARE:
BRUSSELSSeparatist politicians in Catalonia have been pushing for independence from Spain. After three months of political turmoil, new Catalan elections are scheduled for Dec. 21.

The European Union has sided wholly with the Madrid government, which rejects Catalan independence. One key reason: Many other regions in Europe have their own nationalist movements, which, if successful, could destabilize member nations in the bloc.

How many movements are there?

According to the European Union, its 28 member states contain 276 regions with varying political structures and categories, including states, countries, regions and communities. Some, like Catalonia and Scotland, have their own representative offices in Brussels. And the European Parliament has a coalition of regional parties, the European Free Alliance, that occupies 2 per cent of the seats.

Of the 276 regions, some are pressing for independence or much greater autonomy.

Which are the most prominent?

Catalonia, Spain

Catalonia has its own history, culture and language, as do some other parts of Spain.

Catalonias push for autonomy in the 1930s was one of the reasons behind the Spanish Civil War, and the resulting Franco dictatorship crushed many civil liberties, suppressing the Catalan language. After Francos death in 1975, Spains return to democracy was enshrined in a new constitution, which created a decentralized but not formally federal state.

In 2006, a new statute of Catalan autonomy, which had been drafted by a Socialist-led regional government, was approved in a regional referendum, as well by Catalan and Spanish lawmakers. The statute might have forestalled the current crisis over yet more extreme independence demands, but it was rejected in part by Spains constitutional court in 2010, after Spains conservative Popular Party had campaigned fiercely against it.

During the financial crisis, the regional government in wealthy Catalonia pushed unsuccessfully for a better tax deal with the national authorities. In September 2015, a coalition of separatist parties won a majority of the seats in the Catalan Parliament, but they did so with only 48 per cent of the votes in regional elections.

The separatist coalition then organized an independence referendum on Oct. 1, 2017, even after it had been declared illegal by Spains government and courts. Based on this highly controversial referendum, separatist lawmakers voted to declare independence from Spain on Oct. 27, after which the central government stepped in and took administrative control of Catalonia.

Read more:

Catalonia residents head to polls again as divisions deepen over independence

EU takes historic step toward sanctions against Poland over justice system overhaul

Next phase of Brexit talks with U.K. will be dramatically difficult, EU warns

Basque Country, Spain and France

The Basques have their own history, culture and language. Although the region straddles France and Spain, aspirations for greater autonomy have been almost exclusively limited to the population on Spanish soil.

During Gen. Francisco Francos dictatorship, a separatist group known as ETA pressed for Basque independence with a violent campaign of bombings and assassinations. After Francos death in 1975, the Basque region recovered its autonomy and the power to raise and spend its own taxes. But ETA continued its campaign of terror to claim a homeland, known as Euzkadi, and killed more than 800 people over four decades. A significantly weakened ETA eventually announced a ceasefire in 2011, but the group is yet to formally disband, as demanded by the Spanish government. ETA is recognized as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

In recent years, mainstream Basque politicians have made some efforts to gain more autonomy. In 2004, the Basque regional Parliament approved a plan for a new statute of autonomy, which Spanish lawmakers rejected.

Scotland, United Kingdom

Scotland joined with England to form Britain in 1707, and has had an active independence movement for decades. A Scottish Parliament was established in 1999 with limited power over matters such as health, education and the environment, and the pro-independence Scottish National Party now forms the government there. After winning a majority in the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, the party pressed for an independence referendum, with the consent of the British government. In 2014, after a bitter campaign, Scots voted 55 per cent to 45 per cent to remain in the United Kingdom.

In the 2016 Brexit referendum, a majority of Scots voted to remain in the European Union, while Britain as a whole voted to leave. But the Scottish National Party has delayed pressing for a second referendum on independence.

Flanders, Belgium

Flanders, known for its medieval cities and its First World War battlefields, is one of three regions in the federation of Belgium, but is home to the majority of the countrys 11 million inhabitants, and produces about half its GDP. Flemish people speak Dutch, whereas Walloons  residents of the second largest region, Wallonia  speak French and some German.

Flanders has existed as a political entity since the Middle Ages, encompassing the territory around the cities of Ghent, Bruges and Ypres, but never achieved full sovereignty. Belgium itself, founded in 1830, is a relatively young country in Europe. The Flemish independence movement emerged in the late 19th century and gained momentum after World War II. From 1970 onward, the region progressively obtained autonomy, following six constitutional revisions that transformed Belgium from a unitary country into a federation.

Today, Flanders has its own Parliament and government, with authority over language, culture, education, municipalities, public works, the economy and even foreign trade. The Flemish independence movement is represented politically by the New Flemish Alliance, a conservative nationalist party that is part of the current federal government, and Flemish Interest, a smaller populist party with strong anti-immigrant views. Both parties demand independence.

Corsica, France

The mountainous Mediterranean island of Corsica is one of Frances 18 regions. Its inhabitants make up 0.5 per cent of Frances population of 67 million. The islands main economic activities are tourism and subsistence-oriented local commerce.

Because Corsica is close to Italy, Italian culture has historically had a strong influence on the island, reflected in the local tongue, Corsican.

Corsican nationalism emerged after World War I and grew into a movement demanding more autonomy and even independence. Since the 1970s, there have been flare-ups of political violence in Corsica, including bombings and assassinations carried out by groups supporting the independence movement. The French state has always opposed full independence, but over the past decades, it has granted greater autonomy to Corsica than to any other region and invested strongly in its infrastructure.

The Corsican nationalist movement is primarily represented by two political parties: Femu a Corsica, which demands more autonomy, and Corsica Libera, which is separatist. During the territorial elections of 2015, a regionalist coalition supported by both nationalist parties won 36.9 per cent of the vote. In a landslide victory on Sunday, Corsican nationalists won 56.5 per cent of the vote in the second round of territorial elections, confirming continuing calls for greater autonomy from Paris.

Lombardy, Italy

With more than 10 million inhabitants, Lombardy is the most populous of Italys 20 regions, and its capital, Milan, is the countrys financial and fashion centre.

Italys 1948 constitution gave five regions  Valle dAosta, Friuli-Venezia-Giulia, Sardinia, Sicily and Trentino-Alto Adige/Sudtirol  broader powers in areas including finance and administration. But regions in the north still have active separatist movements. Since 2013, Lombardy has been governed by members of the Lega Nord, a party founded in 1991 through the federation of several hybrid separatist movements, including the local Lega Lombarda.

An early incarnation of the party envisioned the creation  and secession  of a state known as Padania, which included northern regions as well as Umbria, Tuscany and the Marches. The party has since abandoned its separatist longings to pursue a broader support base, and in October it dropped the Nord from its name.

The Pro Lombardia Indipendenza movement is the regions only active secessionist group. It has seats in only five municipalities and is part of the European Free Alliance.

Veneto, Italy

Veneto separatists still mourn the decline of the Most Serene Republic of Venice, a sovereign state in northeastern Italy that held sway for around 1,100 years before it fell to foreign forces in 1797. The Veneto has its own widely spoken language, Venetian.

The regional council last year also sought to have the Venetian people recognized as a minority, but the national government challenged that measure this year. Numerous movements in the region  broadly known as Venetists  still aspire to significantly greater autonomy, if not independence. Some are long-standing parties like the Liga Veneta, which helped found the Lega Nord. Since 2010, the region has been governed by the Northern League.

In some cases, Veneto separatists have clashed with the law. A group of separatists who occupied the Campanile in St. Marks Square in 1997 was sentenced to prison. Members of the National Liberation Movement of the Venetian People who attended a 2009 protest march in camouflage were accused by the police of being a paramilitary group. In 2014, a group of separatists was briefly arrested on terrorism charges.

Have any separatist movements succeeded in Europe?

Here are two recent examples, one violent and one peaceful.

Yugoslavia was founded after the First World War, uniting the Slavic peoples of the Balkan Peninsula under one sovereign state for the first time in history. But there were religious and ethnic divisions, with repeated eruptions of violence. The collapse of the Soviet Union made the collapse of Yugoslavia almost inevitable, and the country broke up in a civil war as the majority Serbs tried to enforce their dominance and hold on to all of Bosnia and the majority-Muslim Serbian province of Kosovo. The Bosnian and Kosovo conflicts provoked international intervention by NATO and the United Nations. Today, the former Yugoslavia has seven successor states: Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Kosovo. Five European Union countries do not recognize Kosovos independence, and Spain is one of them.

Czechoslovakia broke up peacefully after the collapse of the Soviet Union in what was called the velvet divorce of 1993. Since then, both its successor states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, have joined the European Union.

Read more about:

SHARE:
BARCELONAIn Barcelona, Catalonias cosmopolitan capital, there is no sign of the independent country that the regions former leaders proclaimed with great fanfare nearly two months ago.

The Spanish flag still flies alongside the Catalan one above the regional government building. The square where a jubilant crowd celebrated what it thought was the birth of a new republic is adorned only with Christmas decorations.

The movements leaders are in jail or have fled the country after staging a brazen Oct. 1 referendum on secession that was declared illegal by Spains government and highest court.

Read more:

Spanish judge withdraws arrest warrants for ousted Catalan leader, his ex-cabinet members

Spain to brief EU on alleged cyber interference in Catalonia referendum

Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy urges Catalans to oust separatists in election

But as voters return to the polls Thursday  this time to elect a new regional government in an election called by Spain as a way out of the crisis  Catalonia has been left deeply polarized by this falls dramatic events.

Friendships have been broken, families split. Many Catalans who had mixed feelings about independence, or didnt care about the issue much, now feel compelled to take a position.

Gabriel Brau, a 50-year-old photographer with little interest in politics, said he will vote for the first time since the 1980s, and it will be for one of the parties that favours independence. Or rather, against those who dont, because he finds them complicit in Spains crackdown.

During the October referendum, Spanish police used rubber bullets and truncheons against voters, who formed human barriers to keep them out of polling stations.

What happened on Oct. 1 affected me in a powerful way, Brau said. I was thinking, What if they did that to my son? That is not democracy. ... I dont want these people to govern my country.

The other side has also been galvanized.

Catalans who oppose independence previously kept a low profile. Coming out as a unionist, they say, would have resulted in scorn, insults and even accusations of treason from pro-independence friends and neighbours.

But in the aftermath of the referendum they for the first time gathered for mass rallies similar in size to those achieved by the independence movement.

Cristina Calaco, 51, said she was so appalled by the way the secessionist leaders unilaterally pushed through the referendum, I wanted to pack my bags and leave Catalonia.

But after seeing unionists with Spanish flags on the streets, she was emboldened to publicly display her allegiance to Spain.

These days, when pro-independence neighbours bang pots and pans in noisy balcony protests, she said she opens her window and shouts Viva Espana  long live Spain.

Spains heavy-handed response may have raised eyebrows in Europe, but it didnt lead to any significant support for Catalan secession. No European Union country has recognized the declaration of independence that Catalonias parliament adopted on Oct. 27.

On the surface, independence now seems further away than before the referendum. The Spanish government applied never-before-used constitutional powers take direct control of the region. The plan is to restore autonomy after Thursdays election produces a new regional government.

Yet the Catalans supporting a total breakup with Spain now seem more committed than ever, saying the governments tough response showed the true nature of the Spanish state.

They dont realize how many people they converted, said Ana Pousa, 38, who was born in the northwestern Galicia region but grew up in Catalonia and now hesitates to call herself Spanish.

The movement for secession to a large extent is driven by the notion that Catalonias history, culture and language make it separate from Spain. Its also about economics: Wealthy Catalonia pays more taxes to Madrid than it gets back in government handouts, something that frustrated many Catalans during the deep recession that started in 2008.

But there is also a sense of victimhood that can be hard to grasp for outsiders. Independence activists, often middle-class intellectuals, say they are being repressed by the Spanish government, drawing parallels to the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, when Catalans were banned from speaking their language in public. On a square in Barcelona this week, some activists even made comparisons to the struggle against apartheid in South Africa.

There are dynamics, aspects that you can compare: how the state abuses its power, said Heiko Voigts, a 46-year-old South African who married a Catalan. But I wouldnt compare too much.

Some of the pro-independence leaders are in pretrial detention for staging the referendum illegally. Others face preliminary charges of rebellion and sedition, among them Carles Puigdemont, the former Catalan regional president who fled to Belgium. He risks up to 30 years in prison if he returns to Spain.

Spains conservative prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, has rejected questions over the separation of powers prompted by the crackdown, saying his government has no say over the countrys independent courts.

His own ministers dont always help him making that case, though. Just this weekend his deputy, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, boasted that the governing party had effectively beheaded the independence movements leadership. Party colleagues later said she meant that only in a political sense.

Thursdays election could see pro-independence parties return to power, or it could yield a new coalition led by parties who want Catalonia to remain in Spain.

Either way, the rift between the two sides is likely to remain deep.

Now it seems you cant be in the middle and say, I dont know what I want, Pousa said.

She said while she respects everyones views, some unionists say awful things like, I wish (the police) had beaten more people.

She used to think of herself as Galician, Catalan and Spanish all in one, but the situation has made her reconsider her relationship with Spain.

Hearing myself saying Im Spanish sounds strange, she said. Because now it means something different.

Read more about:

SHARE:
CALGARYA lawyer for a Canadian on death row in Montana believes its only a matter of time before the death penalty in much of the United States is abolished and his client will be free to return home.

Ronald Smith, 60, is originally from Red Deer, Alta., and has been on death row since 1983 for fatally shooting Harvey Madman Jr. and Thomas Running Rabbit while he was high on LSD and alcohol near East Glacier, Mont.

He originally asked for and was sentenced to death but later changed his mind and has been fighting execution ever since. He has had a number of execution dates set and overturned.

Read more:

Death row populations shrink as U.S. gradually abandons capital punishment

Ronald Smith deserves to live says co-accused

Canadian on death row in Montana hangs hope of returning home on Liberals

I think were in the waning days of the death penalty in the United States, said Ron Waterman, a senior counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union who has represented Smith since 2008.

Last year, I think weve only had 20-some executions and those are really isolated to only three or four states, and only three or four counties in those states.

Most of the United States has moved beyond this and there comes a time where the courts are going to say this is in fact cruel and unusual punishment.

Lethal injection has been the sole method of execution in Montana since 1997. It is the only state that specifies the death penalty must be accomplished by an ultra-fast-acting barbiturate.

Executions in Montana have been on hold since 2008 when the civil liberties union filed legal action that argued that the sedative pentobarbital, which was being proposed by the state as a replacement for the previously used sodium pentothal, could lead to an excruciating and terrifying death.

District Court Judge Jeffrey Sherlock sided with the civil liberties group and rejected an appeal by the state of Montana.

Sherlock has now sanctioned the state over its year-long delay in complying with a court order to turn over documents that could reveal if there was manipulation of an expert witness.

The group questioned whether the testimony of Roswell Evans was manipulated at trial to bolster the states unsuccessful claim that pentobarbital was suitable for executions.

Weve got some emails and were now looking at those and trying to ascertain what else is there, Waterman said. Theyre going to make us unpack this whole thing piece by piece so theyre not going to go easily.

I dont know that its going to have any direct or immediate impact on the case itself.

Waterman said it is more a case over legal fees and whether Montana acted in a vexatious manner.

As for Smiths future, Waterman doesnt see the current ban on executions in Montana changing any time soon. It would require a new statute being introduced and adopted by both sides of the legislature and would have to be signed by the governor.

They didnt change the statute during the last legislative session so the next time up is 2019. Im not hearing anybody really being that keen about changing (it).

The Canadian government officially intervened on Smiths behalf last year when it asked Gov. Steve Bullock to grant him clemency.

My hope would be ultimately that we can find clemency for Ron so that he can move back to Canada, Waterman said.

If the death penalty is abolished he would be eligible to be moved right away.

SHARE:
Rumours swirled around the death of Bethany Lynn Stephens, a young woman from rural Virginia who, authorities said, was mauled to death by her dogs while out on a walk last week.

Many suspected that someone else killed her and doubted that the dogs were responsible. Goochland County Sheriff Jim Agnew said the misinformation, particularly on social media, was widespread and has complicated the investigation. So he decided to disclose one gruesome detail that he had been reluctant to divulge out of concern for Stephens family  in hopes of reassuring the public that there isnt a killer on the loose.

Shortly after officers found Stephens body, guarded by her two dogs, they began talking about how to catch the animals. When they turned back around, they saw that the dogs had walked over to the body.

Read more:

Montreal moves ahead with plan to repeal pit-bull ban

OSPCA to spare 18 pit bulls in alleged Ontario dog-fighting ring from euthanasia

I observed, as well as four other deputy sheriffs observed, Agnew said, then paused before continuing, the dogs eating the rib cage on the body.

A friend of Stephens was later able to capture the dogs, the sheriff said.

Agnew held a news conference Monday afternoon, four days after Stephens father found her in a wooded area almost a kilometre from a main road in Goochland, Va., a community about 50 kilometres outside Richmond. Authorities said the 22-year-old had been gone for about a day since leaving to walk her dogs, so her father went out to look for her in the area she frequented. There, he found the canines, guarding what he first thought was an animal carcass.

Ms. Stephens was terribly, terribly injured, but it was very apparent to us that she had been dead for quite some time, Agnew told reporters, adding later that the damage to her body was so extensive that there was nothing left to compare bite marks to.

Agnew said many have inundated his office and social media with calls, emails, attacks and false narratives about how Stephens died. He told The Washington Post earlier that investigators dont suspect foul play and that evidence recovered from the scene, including defensive wounds on her hands and arms, showed that the dogs were responsible for her death.

Investigators also have looked into statements from other witnesses, including the possibility that Stephens was killed by someone or something else and that the dogs were trying to protect her. But investigators dont believe that is what happened. Agnew said at least one of the dogs had a significant amount of blood on its collar and neck.

Now, having said that, we are still following up on those. Were still doing some forensic tests. Were still doing interviews, Agnew said. But ... from the evidence that we observed, from the evidence that we collected, that narrative doesnt fit.

Authorities said the bite marks on Stephens, including the ones on her skull, were consistent with canine marks. Had she been attacked by a bigger animal, such as a bear, Agnew said, the bites wouldve punctured her skull.

Shawn Whitlock, an investigator with the sheriffs office, said there was no sign that she was killed any other way.

Nothing that said domestic violence. Nothing that said she was stabbed. Nothing that said she was shot. No bones, no injuries to the throat area ... There was no particular bleeding inside the esophagus, which wouldve been conducive with choking her out. None of that, Whitlock told reporters.

There is also no evidence that she had been sexually assaulted, authorities said.

Still, at least one question remains. Why did these dogs, who friends said had a strong bond with Stephens, turn on her?

I dont think theres any way we can definitively say what caused the attack, Agnew told reporters.

Sgt. Mike Blackwood, of the sheriffs office, has a theory.

Stephens had been living elsewhere and had left the dogs with her father. The dogs, which were previously indoor animals, were left in a kennel outside with little human contact, aside from a visit from Stephens about five times a week, Blackwood told reporters.

Just trying to create a little background with what might have occurred with that when they became a little distant from their owner towards the end, he said.

Stephens friend Barbara Norris was among those who werent convinced by authorities account of her death, saying the dogs, which Stephens had been raising since they were puppies, would never turn on her, ABC affiliate WRIC reported.

Theyd kill you with kisses, Norris told NBC affiliate WWBT.

Norris said the dogs kennels looked as though they had been forced open and suggested that something may have happened to Stephens after she walked the dogs, so the animals forced themselves out to help her.

Agnew did correct some misinformation that had come out of his office. Authorities said earlier that the dogs were bred for fighting  a piece of information apparently provided by one of Stephens friends.

We have been able to follow that up today, and we have determined that that is false, Agnew said.

Earlier estimates that the dogs each weighed up to 125 pounds also were overstated, he said, adding that he does not have the exact weight of the animals. Agnew told The Post earlier that the dogs combined weight was about twice that of Stephens, which was a little more than 100 pounds.

They were very large dogs ... They were not quite that large, no, Agnew said.

During an earlier news conference, he had described the dogs as very large brindle-colored pit bulls.

The dogs were euthanized Saturday, with the familys permission.

I think it was in the best interest of our community and for public safety to do that, Agnew said. Once a dog tastes human flesh, its no longer safe to have that dog around humans.

Their bodies are being preserved until authorities find a lab that can perform a necropsy, Blackwood said. Toxicology results on Stephens will not be available for three months.

SHARE:
Romes official Christmas tree is shedding needles so quickly it has become a jolly joke for city residents.

The 70-foot-high tree, which was lit up on Dec. 8, started dropping needles at a fast clip as soon as it was hoisted into the middle of bustling Romes main square, Piazza Venezia.

Romans have dubbed the tree The Mangy One. Theyre also needling Romes mayor about the forlorn-looking specimen, which cost 48,000 euros ($73,260 Canadian) to transport from South Tyrol, an Italian Alpine region.

The city said Tuesday it is investigating why the tree is ailing.

Despite the trees 600 silver-coloured decorative balls, the half-bare branches lend the square a forlorn rather than festive look.

Critics note that across town, the Vaticans Christmas tree, from Poland, appears healthy.

Rome's official Christmas tree placed in Piazza Venezia Square, left, and a Christmas tree placed in St. Peters's Square at the Vatican on Dec. 19.







SHARE:
While around the world borders are closing and immigration rules are tightening, Canada still prides itself on being open to immigration, aiming to welcome nearly a million immigrants over the next three years. But this does not extend to welcoming many young people from certain countries  youth who hope to gain international work experience in Canada.

Britain, for example, is one of these countries  it can take up to three years for an under-30 applicant to get a one-time non-extendable working holiday permit thats good for only two years.

This puts a damper on the idea of globetrotting young people gaining international experience on both sides of the ocean. Canadian youth lose out on opportunities in Britain and its harder than it used to be for British young people to be exposed to Canadian life.

Its bad business too  an inefficient way to sell the virtues of Canada to the world. This doesnt help at a time when Canadian officials, right up to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, are trying to expand Canadas trade and export markets.

I always liked the idea of Canada and after visiting Quebec in 2016 the decision was made, says Daniel Wigley, 25 from London, England. Except for one problem  under the convoluted work permit system nothing has been decided and he is still waiting for his chance.

Thats because to apply to come to Canada as a temporary young worker, you must enter a computerized lottery. Like many young Brits, Wigley has been waiting for months, with no idea when  or whether  his lucky number will come up.

Ive found the whole process rather frustrating. To move abroad takes a lot of effort and planning, I did not think it would take this long to get a yes or no as to whether I may even apply for a visa, let alone have it approved, he says.

Whats more galling to aspiring world travellers is that Canada has agreements, called Youth Mobility Arrangements, with 33 countries and foreign territories where Canadian youth are allowed to work while they travel, and their young people can work here.

It sounds great in theory, but the agreements seem arbitrary. For Australia, the invitations for this type of work permit are for the most part unlimited, while for Ireland, there are more than 7,000 spots for a country of less than 5 million people.

For the United Kingdom, however, where the population is nearly 65 million, the quota for under-30s working holiday permit is only around 5,000. Further to this, some countries enjoy agreements that allow three categories of youth work permits  but not Britain, which has only one.

Why punish aspiring youth workers like Daniel Wigley, who want to learn about us for few years and then go home? Its not necessarily Canadas doing; the Youth Mobility Agreements that Ottawa negotiates are reciprocal, and apparently, the British are shutting their doors so we have to reciprocate. The quota for young Canadians going to the U.K. to work this year is around 5,500 places.

Is there a way around this? Surely our ministry of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada could find one if they put their minds to it. Just because Britain is in the throes of Brexit negotiations and, according to polls, rising anti-foreigner sentiment, doesnt necessarily mean we need to be as restrictive with our own intake of temporary youth workers.

Its not as if these young people are coming here to displace Canadian workers or sponge off our social safety net. Their permits last only two years, enough time to work at ski resorts or in remote areas where they can learn more about Canadian life.

Indeed, the Conference Board of Canada reported that immigration boosts real GDP growth, which means more people spending money and working to provide goods and services.

At the very least, there ought to be a better way to welcome temporary young visitors who are willing to work than to subject them to a lottery. Making them roll the dice is simply cruel.

And at the very best, opening the system to allow more young visiting workers is an opportunity  to demonstrate that while the world may be slamming its doors, we still make visitors feel welcome.

Tessa Elliott-Israelson worked for two years as legal support at corporate immigration firms in London. She is completing her qualifications to become a lawyer in Ontario and hopes to specialize in immigration.

SHARE:
By any measure Delilah Saunders is a fighter. Indeed, the 26-year-olds energetic activism for Indigenous women and human rights earned her Amnesty Internationals Ambassador of Conscience Award earlier this year.

Now the Inuk woman from Happy Valley-Goose Bay in Labrador is fighting for her life, and in doing so she is drawing attention to another wrong that needs righting. That is the refusal of Ontarios health system to put people on the wait list for a liver transplant if they havent abstained from alcohol for the previous six months.

Saunders, who is struggling in Torontos University Health Network with acute liver failure, has been denied access to the waiting list because she doesnt meet that criterion.

Its a rule that was originally established because doctors believed long-term sobriety was a key indicator of whether a transplant would be successful in the long run. They preferred to give scarce livers to patients with what they thought was the best chance of success.

However, the evidence is mounting that this is a policy based as much on moral judgment as on scientific evidence. And if thats the case, it amounts to discrimination.

In Ontario it starts with the Trillium Gift of Life Network, which co-ordinates organ donations in the province and implements those sobriety rules.

It does so even though other health institutions in North America and Europe have deemed the requirement unnecessary for positive health outcomes.

Indeed, three studies between 2008 and 2016 that reviewed liver transplant patients with alcohol disorders in the United States and Europe concluded that patients being sober for more than six months and staying sober afterward had only a minor effect on transplant success.

At the same time, health and ethics experts say the criterion discriminates against disadvantaged people who you might expect to experience higher-than-average rates of alcohol abuse. That would apply to Indigenous people, who often suffer from addiction issues due to intergenerational traumas such as residential schools.

As Arthur Schafer, the founding director of the centre for Professional and Applied Ethics at the University of Manitoba told CBC Radios The Current: The most disadvantaged people get doubly disadvantaged because we deny them life-saving transplants. He compared the rule to denying someone life-saving treatment because they were hit by a car while jay-walking.

Disturbingly, Trillium is denying Saunders access to the wait list even though it is also now questioning its own six-month rule. By August, it plans to launch a three-year pilot program that will make almost 100 patients with alcohol disorders eligible for liver transplants without having to be sober for a full six months.

One wonders why the test run is even necessary. In a document discussing the pilot program, Trillium itself says there is insufficient evidence for the six-month sobriety policy as it stands.

There were no survival differences between problem drinking and non-drinkers, said the document, referring to a Canadian study from 2009. There is also no clear evidence that mandating a brief, arbitrary specific duration of sobriety is effective.

Saunders is not alone in her battle to get on the wait-list for a liver transplant. Others have filed constitutional challenges against the policy.

As victims of the rule and their families point out, many people dont even have six months to live without a liver transplant to prove they can go without alcohol.

On a brighter note, Saunders family reported on Monday that her health is improving and she may not need a transplant after all.

But in the meantime she has shone a spotlight on a policy that needs changing. Trillium should ensure its transplant policy is based solely on scientific evidence and not discriminatory, moralistic attitudes. At the moment, there is ample reason to question whether that is the case.

SHARE:
Its been a rocky second year for the Trudeau government, and ending it with a slap on the wrist from the federal ethics commissioner doesnt help.

Its clear that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should have been more careful about accepting family vacations on a private island owned by the Aga Khan, as he himself acknowledged on Thursday while offering a contrite apology.

The problem for his government, though, goes deeper. The besetting sin of Liberals goes by the word entitlement  the sense that for all their talk about ordinary Canadians they dwell in a separate, higher realm than the rest of us, a realm where taking a private helicopter to a private island is just the kind of thing you do when you want to get away from it all.

Its hard for the party to shake that image. It was fed when the prime minister clung on to his cash for access fundraisers, before finally doing away with the practice. It reared its head when senior staffers in the Prime Ministers Office charged hundreds of thousands of dollars in moving expenses (later withdrawn).

And, most damagingly, it appeared this fall when Finance Minister Bill Morneau neglected to report one of his private corporations, one that owned a villa in southern France, while publicly preaching tax reform.

These stumbles are a problem for the Liberal party, to be sure. More importantly, they are a problem for a government whose central message is that it wants to make sure the system serves all the people, not just a privileged few. The Liberals have seen how populism fed by a fundamental sense of economic injustice can send other countries off the rails, and they are determined to make sure Canada does not go down that path.

To succeed, though, ordinary citizens must feel their government truly has their interests at heart. Entitlement is another word for privilege, and if it takes root it will fatally undermine attempts at reform. The alternative is the kind of demagoguery we see growing in the United States, Europe and elsewhere.

Its also vital that ethical standards are upheld, and are seen to be upheld. For that to happen, Ottawa needs a stronger ethics commissioner than it now has.

Unfortunately, the signs are not good. The government twice extended the mandate of outgoing ethics watchdog Mary Dawson, who faulted Trudeau on his island getaways. But its rushed, last-minute appointment of career civil servant Mario Dion to replace her is not promising.

The government would do itself and the country a favour by strengthening the role of the ethics commissioner, in consultation with other parties. The public expects a higher standard of behaviour, and politicians must deliver that or suffer the consequences.

Read more about:

SHARE:
Theres a line in one of the city budget briefing notes that presents a handy summary of the progress of our city council under John Tory. The majority of the budget proposals that the reviewers identified as having positive equity impacts are not included in the preliminary operating budget, the note reads, but are on the list of proposals provided to budget committee and council for review.

This observation comes from the external reviewers studying the equity impacts of changes in the 2018 operating budget  in particular theyre studying proposed changes for their effects on gender equity and low-income people  and was first brought to my attention by a tweet from my Metro colleague Matt Elliott. Its worth noting that the budget process is a long one  this one wont be approved by city council until February  and that the mayor and budget chief Gary Crawford have said they support funding many of the things the briefing note mentions as being left out, such as anti-poverty measures, an anti-Black racism action plan and an Indigenous office.

Whatever the specific result for any of these particular measures, the simple sentence noting that the majority of the measures that would make the city a more equitable place to live that have been passed by council remain left out of the default budget proposal as presented by staff stuck with me. Because coming from an election-year budget document, it seems like neat shorthand for how far the city has come, and how far it still has to go, after almost one full term under Mayor Tory.

The fact were looking at a briefing note about the equity impacts of the budget is itself a signal of change (the city only began preparing such reports after a motion by Kristyn Wong-Tam in 2016, albeit one Tory voted against, but one his council passed). And its conclusions show a dramatic change, because they are about things the city leadership wants to do and may put into the budget, rather than things the city leadership wants to cut and may eliminate from the budget.

Anyone who paid even passing attention to city politics earlier this decade will recognize the sea change this represents. Under Mayor Rob Ford, the budget process was little more than a drawn out fight about what should be cut and how deeply. Doug Ford would muse that the city was lousy with unneeded libraries, Mayor Rob would go on TV and suggest all community grants be eliminated, consultants would suggest the city could stop fluoridating the water and shoveling snow on side streets. Then people would line up all night to plead to have the services they depended on preserved.

If were instead talking about plans to build up the city and make its services better, thats progress.

Under John Tory, the city has developed such plans  a bunch of them. In his annual state-of-the-city address this fall to an audience at the University of Toronto, city manager Peter Wallace kicked off his presentation in part by noting the city has a whole bunch of really good plans that council has approved on an aspirational basis, for a transportation and transit network, fighting poverty through TO Prosperity, Tenants First, Transform Toronto which is our effort to show some leadership in actually combating the key sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and a whole variety of things, and well continuously add and frankly do add to that list in every council meeting.

Wallace stressed that these were, in his opinion, really good plans. They are practical, they make sense together. If implemented, he said, they will actually make a tangible difference in the quality of life of our residents.

But obviously, theres that if. That the city has not just aspirations, but concrete plans to accomplish them, is great. Accomplishing them requires a further step: paying to implement them. The obstacle to getting there is John Torys other mayoralty-defining program, of holding the line on property tax increases.

The question is, Wallace said of all these great plans, can we actually get there?

That may be a useful framing for the next election, I think. After the tumultuous Rob Ford years, many voters looked to Tory as a stabilizing force, the ultimate moderate. Now that things have settled down, and we have plans to accomplish much, the question ought to be, are we willing to move aggressively to achieve these plans?

We have Doug Ford already promising to be on the ballot with his answer to that question, which is no. He represents those who think these plans arent worth accomplishing in the first place, and that we ought to scale everything back.

The question is who will represent the city of yes? Who will be the candidate of taking these really great plans and getting them done  and footing the bill to make sure it happens?

It could be Tory himself. He could go to the electorate and say, In this first term, I kept my promise to hold the line on property taxes. During that time, weve made some progress, and weve done the work to plan out what more substantial progress would take, and where it would take us. Give me a new mandate to actually get us there. He could do that, though if hes planning to he certainly hasnt given any public signals of it yet.

He could perhaps more predictably present himself again as the slightly-less-Ford moderate, continuing to oppose necessary tax hikes but continuing to encourage really good plans that will remain aspirational. As an election strategy, it might work. The allure of dreaming of big returns while insisting on paying small amounts is powerful  its the reason lotteries are so profitable.

That would leave a lane open for another candidate  and for council candidates  to say yes not just to plans, but to decisive action.

We should hope someone represents that option. Weve come a long way as a city recently, we really have. But we still have far to go.

Edward Keenan writes on city issues ekeenan@thestar.ca. Follow: @thekeenanwire

Read more about:

SHARE:
Donald Trumps national security strategy is an attempt to bring some coherence to his world view.

It doesnt always succeed.

Released on Monday, the 68-page document is meant to set out the security challenges facing the U.S. president and explain how he intends to meet them.

It continues a tradition that goes back to the 1980s when Ronald Reagan was president.

This particular document appears to reflect the foreign affairs logic of one wing of the Republican Party. But it doesnt always reflect the stated views of Trump.

Whether it ends up guiding the foreign affairs policy of the U.S. administration remains an open question.

The strategy begins with Trumps dystopian view of America as a nation that has fallen behind. The reason (and again this is pure Trump) is that feckless U.S. presidents, such as Barack Obama and George W. Bush, allowed other nations to take advantage of Washington.

The fundamental mistake these presidents made was to forget that, although the Cold War was over, America still faced rivals.

Who are these rivals? When campaigning for president, Trump liked to blast Iran and China. The anonymous authors of his security strategy add in Russia and North Korea.

Iran and North Korea are treated in the document as dangerous rogue states that must be dealt with harshly. But at some level, Russia and China are even more dangerous since, as revisionist competitors, they threaten U.S. primacy worldwide.

The document suggests that Russia and China pose a greater threat to the U.S. than even terrorism. But all are involved in fundamental contests between those who value human dignity and freedom and those who oppress individuals and enforce unanimity.

This is language reminiscent of the Cold War. It is also language that Trump does not usually apply to Russia and China.

Indeed, at times Trump has actively praised both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping. His beef with China is more economic than political. And while Trumps ministers routinely decry Russian intentions in Eastern Europe, he himself usually does not.

The document does pick up on and expand Trumps economic themes. It claims that the president is not a protectionist, who would destroy the post-1945 regime of international economic institutions.

Rather, it says, those institutions were distorted and undermined by the decision to expand the liberal trading system to countries that did not share our values, a thinly disguised reference to China.

Completely missing from the document is Trumps campaign pledge to avoid unnecessary military adventures. In fact, the security strategy says that the dog-eat-dog nature of foreign relations requires America to be willing to confront China and Russia everywhere.

China and Russia want to shape a world antithetical to U.S. values and interests, it says.

Trump has been reluctant to accept allegations from his own spy agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The security strategy is not as shy.

While not naming the U.S. as a target it flatly accuses actors such as Russia of using information tools in an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of democracies and otherwise interfere in the domestic politics of countries around the world.

What does this all mean? In terms of the big decisions, the answer may be: Not much. If Trump attacks North Korea, for instance, it will not be because of something written in the national security strategy.

Nor is the existence of this strategy likely to prevent Trump from issuing confusing and contradictory tweets about foreign affairs.

But on day-to-day issues, Trumps underlings now have their new Cold War marching orders. In key areas, this document might not have much to do with the platform Trump was elected on  or even what he thinks now. But it is the closest thing to a Trump doctrine that we have.

Thomas Walkom appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Read more about:

SHARE:
Ashford Hospitality Trust is a real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on the hospitality industry. The companys portfolio is concentrated in upper upscale, full-service hotels across the US. The portfolio strategy seeks to optimize total returns by maximizing the value of new acquisitions while paying dividends over time. The company boasts a geographically diversified portfolio of dominant branded full-service hotels. Ashford Inc externally advises Ashford Hospitality Trust.

Ashford Hospitality Trust is the culmination of decades of real estate experience dating back to the 1960s. Now based in Dallas, TX, the company was founded and went public in 2003. The company is geared to withstand the ups and downs of the hospitality and hotel cycles. The company is committed to disciplined capital market activities, has a successful transaction track record, and brings value-added asset management to the table.

Ashford Hospitality Trust is guided by five principles that best describe the company. These are Ethical, Innovative, Profitable, Engaging, and Tenacious and all key components of its reputation for integrity.

The companys portfolio is well-diversified across brands and includes but is not limited to Courtyard, Crown Plaza, Embassy Suites, Hampton Inn, Hilton, Marriot, Ritz-Carlton, and Sheraton. Properties are located in 25 of the 50 US states and Washington, D.C. targeting the top 25 markets in the nation. The company also owns a number of private and boutique names as well.

Ashford Hospitality Trust was founded by Monty J. Bennet who is the Chairman of the Board as well as Chairman, CEO, and President of Ashford, Inc which also trades on the NYSE. Mr. Bennet has more than 25 years of experience in the hospitality industry including owning and operating major hotels.
Weatherford International plc, an oilfield service company, provides equipment and services for the drilling, evaluation, completion, production, and intervention of oil and natural gas wells worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Western Hemisphere and Eastern Hemisphere. It offers artificial lift systems, including reciprocating rod, progressing cavity pumping, gas, hydraulic, plunger, and hybrid lift systems, as well as related automation and control systems; pressure pumping and reservoir stimulation services, such as acidizing, fracturing and fluid systems, cementing, and coiled-tubing intervention; and drill stem test tools, and surface well testing and multiphase flow measurement services. The company also provides safety, downhole reservoir monitoring, flow control, and multistage fracturing systems, as well as sand-control technologies, and production and isolation packers; liner hangers to suspend a casing string in high-temperature and high-pressure wells; cementing products, including plugs, float and stage equipment, and torque-and-drag reduction technology for zonal isolation; and pre-job planning and installation services. In addition, it offers directional drilling services, and logging and measurement services while drilling; services related to rotary-steerable systems, high-temperature and high-pressure sensors, drilling reamers, and circulation subs; managed pressure drilling, conventional mud-logging, drilling instrumentation, gas analysis, wellsite consultancy, and open hole and cased-hole logging services; reservoir solutions and software products; and intervention and remediation services. Further, the company provides equipment and drilling tools; tubular handling, management, and connection services; equipment rental services; and onshore contract drilling and related services through a fleet of land drilling and workover rigs. Weatherford International plc was incorporated in 1972 and is headquartered in Baar, Switzerland.
America Movil, S.A.B. de C.V. provides telecommunications services in Latin America and internationally. The company offers wireless and fixed voice services, including local, domestic, and international long-distance services; and network interconnection services. It also provides data services, such as data centers, data administration, and hosting services to residential and corporate clients; value-added services, including Internet access, messaging, and other wireless entertainment and corporate services; data transmission, email services, instant messaging, content streaming, and interactive applications; and wireless security services, mobile payment solutions, machine-to-machine services, mobile banking, virtual private network services, and video calls and personal communications services. In addition, the company offers residential broadband services; IT solutions for small businesses and large corporations; and cable and satellite pay television subscriptions. Further, it sells equipment, accessories, and computers; and offers telephone directories, wireless security, call center, advertising, media, and software development services. Additionally, the company provides video, audio, and other media content through the Internet directly from the content provider to the end user. It sells its products and services under the Telcel, Telmex Infinitum, and A1 brands through a network of retailers and service centers to retail customers; and through sales force to corporate customers. As of December 31, 2021, the company had approximately 286.5 million wireless voice and data subscribers. America Movil, S.A.B. de C.V. was incorporated in 2000 and is based in Mexico City, Mexico.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Albany

New York is asking the federal government to order removal of old railroad oil tankers now being stored on tracks in the Adirondacks, as well as to evict the owner of the tracks.

On Tuesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the state Department of Environmental Conservation is asking the Federal Surface Transportation Board to rule that Chicago-based Iowa Pacific Holdings, which owns the Saratoga & North Creek Railway, has legally abandoned the line for the allowed purpose of freight hauling.

Such a ruling could allow the state to retake possession of the 30-mile line, which runs from Tahawus in the Adirondacks High Peaks to North Creek in Warren County, where rail cars could be stored.

This fall, the company started accepting obsolete DOT-111 oil tanker cars for storage as part of plans to lease enough track space to store 2,000 cars or more. That many cars could stretch for 20 miles if stored end-to-end.

"We will not stand by and allow it to be used as a commercial dumping ground," said Gov. Cuomo. "New York is prepared to exhaust all legal options to end this practice once and for all, and to help ensure the natural resources of the North Country are protected from blight and from harm."

Cuomo also said the state has written to billionaire investor Warren Buffet, whose sprawling Berkshire Hathaway investment company owns some of the cars, urging that they be removed from the line.

Iowa Pacific Holdings President Ed Ellis had no comment. DEC General Counsel Robert Berkman wrote to Ellis that the state, which during 2010 to 2012 supported the company's plans to haul rock from the former Tahawus mine, never "intended or ... agreed" that Iowa Pacific could use the tracks as a "commercial disposal site."

DEC's petition to the federal board called Ellis' plan a "20-mile long visual blight and environmental and ecological hazard in the heart of New York's most valued parkland."

After announcing plans this fall to accept the tankers, Ellis told officials in Warren and Essex counties, as well as the state, which all oppose such storage, that his company needs rental payments for the tanker cars in order to maintain the rail line. He also has said he might not have to accept the tankers if public funds could be found to cover such expenses.

Environmental groups in the Adirondacks also want the tankers removed and applauded the state's action.

"We congratulate the Governor and the DEC on making this application to stop the trashing of the Adirondacks," said Peter Bauer, executive director of Protect the Adirondacks. If federal officials grant the state's request, "it will open the door for long-term discussion on the ultimate use for this entire line," he said.

John Sheehan, a spokesman for the Adirondack Council, said the state is on "firm legal footing" in its challenge.

The tankers already stored are DOT-111 models, which have been pulled almost entirely from the national rail fleet that hauls crude oil because of safety concerns and stricter federal laws. That is leaving owners of the tankers looking for storage space.

The nationwide demise of the DOT-111, a workhorse for decades, has been driven by a glut of oil that has reduced overall shipments of more expensive Bakken fields crude from North Dakota, and new federal safety laws adopted in late 2015 that require newer tanker designs for shipment of crude oil, ethanol and other explosive liquids.

Shaped like a long black cylinder and able to carry 30,000 gallons or more of crude oil, the DOT-111 became infamous in the summer of 2013 when several of the tankers derailed and exploded in the small Canadian city of Lac-Megantic in Quebec, causing a firestorm that killed 47 people.

That year, the model made up more than half of the U.S. rail fleet hauling crude oil, according to figures from the Association of American Railroads. A spate of other derailments and explosions involving DOT-111s followed the Lac-Megantic disaster, causing critics to call out the relative fragility of the DOT-111.

Its presence in the crude fleet began to decline, falling to 32 percent in 2014. By the time Congress passed new laws in 2015 requiring the DOT-111 to be phased out for crude oil shipments by January 2018, the older tankers accounted for just 15 percent of the fleet hauling crude. That fell to 4 percent in 2016, according to the Association of American Railroads.
How many steps will it take to walk off Thanksgiving dinner?
HMD Global is getting serious about the Nokia brand it now manages. After rolling out a series of budget and midrange Nokia phones, the company now offers a flagship device, the Nokia 9 PureView. There's a lot to like about this phone beyond its unique camera system. The Nokia 9 has a sleek, notch-free design and its gorgeous 5.99-inch, QHD+ display is among the most colorful we've tested.

But it's hard to overlook the phone's many shortcomings, such as poor battery life and finicky fingerprint reader. And, while the five-lens setup is capable of producing outstanding photos, processing times are sluggish and image quality is inconsistent.

Still, the $699 Nokia 9 gets you a lot of phone for your money and has some appeal for professional photographers who want more control over shots taken with their smartphone.

Price and Availability

The Nokia 9 comes in a single model, with a 5.99-inch, QHD+ display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 CPU, 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Blue Midnight is the only color option at launch.

(opens in new tab) Nokia 9 PureView

The phone went on sale in the United States and the United Kingdom in March for $699 and 549, respectively. Don't hesitate to place your order, because HMD is calling the Nokia 9 PureView a limited-release phone.

Consumers can buy the Nokia 9 unlocked at most online retailers, including Amazon (opens in new tab), B&H Photo Video and Best Buy (opens in new tab). The Nokia 9 works with GSM networks like those operated by AT&T and T-Mobile; customers at Verizon and Sprint, which both use CDMA networks, are out of luck.

Nokia 9 PureView Specs

Swipe to scroll horizontally Price

$699

Display (Resolution)

5.99-inch, QHD+ POLED (2880 x 1440) Rear Camera(s)

Five 12 MP (f/1.8): 3 Monochrome, 2 RGB Front Camera(s)

20 MP (f/2.0) CPU

Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 RAM

16GB Storage

128GB microSD

None Battery

3,320 mAh Battery Life (Hrs:Mins)

8:45 Colors

Midnight Blue Size

6.1 x 3 x 0.3 inches Weight

6.1 ounces



Design: A five-eyed jewel

The Nokia 9 has an attractive if conventional design. There is no notch or hole punch interrupting the 5.99-inch display, nor are there any curved edges. Yes, there are bezels surrounding the display, but they're relatively thin, and the phone still looks sleek and modern.

While I appreciate the direction HMD took with the Nokia's look, I do wish it had used the extra real estate on the top and bottom of the display for front-facing speakers, instead of placing them on the bottom. And, the now near-extinct headphone jack is also absent from this phone.

The Nokia 9 may look ordinary by today's standards, but it certainly isn't boring. The phone's gorgeous Midnight Blue paint job is beautifully outlined in chrome trim and flanked by silver-lined volume and power buttons.

Turn the device around and your eyes will immediately be drawn to the five lenses staring back at you. Positioned in an asterisk shape, the bizarre grouping of lenses is unlike anything I've seen on a phone before. Everyone in our office who got a glimpse of the Nokia 9 had a different opinion about the camera module  reactions ranged from intrigued to horrified, though most leaned toward the latter.

Personally, my arachnophobia kicks in every time I gaze at the spider-like pattern of Zeiss lenses, which makes it hard to appreciate the luxurious ocean-blue glass surrounding the camera array or the subtly curved edges that conform to your grip.

If you're not smitten by the Nokia 9's blue finish, then I'm afraid you're out of luck. Midnight Blue is the only color available at launch, making it one of the few phones you can't buy in black, white or some shade of gold.

While flagship phones routinely offer 6-inch-plus displays these days, the 5.99-inch screen on the Nokia 9 still leans toward the larger end of the scale. I had to stretch my fingers to swipe notifications down from the top of the display. That said, the Nokia 9 doesn't feel as cumbersome as the OnePlus 6T or the larger iPhone and Galaxy models.

MORE: Best Phablet: Top Big Screen Phones (6 Inches or Larger)

The Nokia 9 may not be as indestructible as its legendary forbearers, but its 6000-series aluminum frame and the Gorilla Glass 5 covering the display should guard the phone against bumps and scrapes.

Security: Slow and inconsistent

The Nokia 9 PureView has an optical fingerprint sensor embedded in the display for secure login. The OnePlus 6T also uses this authentication method, but its effectiveness varies from one device to the next. In the case of the Nokia 9 PureView, it's more miss than hit.

There was a brief hesitation from the moment my finger landed on the sensor to when the phone unlocked. Compared with the OnePlus 6T's sensor, which instantaneously brought me to the home screen, the Nokia 9's scanner felt sluggish. That fraction of a second may not sound like a big deal, but it adds up if you check your phone dozens of times a day. And, like most optical sensors, the Nokia 9's pales in speed and convenience compared with the new generation of ultrasonic sensors found in phones like the Samsung Galaxy S10.

Making things more frustrating, the area in which you can place your finger is small, and you'll receive a Not Recognized message unless you press directly in the center. Despite these annoyances, the fingerprint sensor remains the best way to unlock the Nokia 9, as long as you don't mind entering a passcode every now and then.

MORE: Best Android Antivirus - Top Free and Paid Mobile Security



HMD also added a facial-recognition feature (think Face ID) to the Nokia 9 in an early software update, but it's just as clumsy. The camera failed to recognize my face almost every time I tried using it after having just locked the phone. Other times, it didn't even try searching for my face. On a positive note, when it did work, TrulySecure was quicker than the fingerprint sensor.

Display: Jaw-dropping colors

There's a lot of hype surrounding those five cameras on the rear of the Nokia 9, but the phone's 5.99-inch QHD+ (2880 x 1440-pixel) POLED display might just be its standout feature.

The Nokia 9's panel is fairly luminous, reaching a peak brightness of 430 nits. While that doesn't top the blinding display on the Apple iPhone XS Max's screen, it's brighter than the displays on the Google Pixel 3 (362 nits) and the OnePlus 6T (405 nits).

Covering 252.3 percent of the sRGB color gamut, the Nokia 9's display is more colorful than those on the OnePlus 6T (223 percent), Pixel 3 (202 percent) and Galaxy S10 Plus (136.5 percent). With a Delta-E score of 0.45, color accuracy is also pretty good, although the Pixel 3 (0.35) and the iPhone XS Max notched even better results (Color accuracy scores closer to 0 are better.)

MORE: How to set up screen mirroring to your Sony TV from a smartphone

When I watched a trailer for the upcoming superhero film Dark Phoenix, Mystique's hair was a saturated, fiery scarlet that popped against her inky, pastel-blue skin. When compared side-by-side with the OnePlus 6T, the Nokia 9's display exhibited more vivid colors that burst off the display, and I preferred the Nokia's warmer white balance.

Cameras: More promise than perfection

There's a lot to unpack with the Nokia 9's five cameras, but let's start with how it all works. Unlike other phones with multiple lenses, the Nokia 9 doesn't have optical zoom or a superwide-angle feature. The Nokia 9's goal is to produce the very best image possible, not to give people millions of ways to take the same shot.

To that end, each of the five 12-megapixel, f/1.8 aperture lenses captures a scene when you press the shutter button. Three monochrome sensors are tasked with capturing light at different exposures while two RGB lenses soak in the colors. Those images are then combined and processed by a digital signal processor (DSP).

There are a couple of downsides to this setup. For one, images take a long time to process. Most of the images I snapped took about 10 seconds, but bokeh shots  especially those in low light  needed about 25 seconds. You can continue using the Nokia 9 and even take photos while the DSP works its magic in the background, but you can't check to see how your photo turned out. Another shortcoming is that none of the lenses has optical image stabilization, so you'll have to keep the phone steady when you're shooting in low-light conditions.

While the Nokia 9 is capable of producing some breathtaking photos, not every picture we captured looked great. This low-light shot in a branch of the New York Public Library has a haze to it, as if someone had turned on a fog machine. While the Pixel 3 oversaturated colors a bit, the photo it produced is punchier, clearer and more dynamic.

In these cupcake images, the Nokia 9 displayed tons of detail, but once again, the colors look lifeless when compared with the more natural photo taken by the OnePlus 6T.

The Nokia 9 rebounded on this bookshelf shot. I really can't find fault with this photo. The scene looks crisp and perfectly exposed, and the colors are punchy and accurate. In comparison, the Samsung Galaxy S10e's image is too yellow, and you can't see as much detail in the wood.

The Nokia 9 PureView also did a better job than the OnePlus 6T in this shot of a Manhattan street. The OnePlus 6T's photo looks washed out, so it's missing a lot of details you can see in the Nokia 9's nicely exposed image. Check out the brick sidewalk tiling or the details on the right-most building.

The haziness returned in a Portrait mode picture shot by the Nokia 9 at a branch of the New York Public Library. While the Bokeh mode properly outlined my frame, my face looks ghastly in this shot. The iPhone XS' Portrait shot is brighter, and the colors are far more accurate.

The Nokia 9 has a time-of-flight sensor on the back that creates a depth map of the scene you shoot. HMD claims the camera can capture more depth information (1,200 layers) than any other phone. One benefit of this tech is that Depth photos can be refocused in post using Google Photos. Furthermore, the depth tool lets you choose a focal point, then adjust the intensity of the foreground and background blur around it.

All that sounds great, but as you can see in the photo below, the Nokia 9 struggled to keep only the recruiting station in focus while blurring the rest of the scene. You'll notice that the cars and buildings on the left side as well as the chairs on the right of the image remained in focus.

Using its three monochromic lenses, the Nokia 9 can shoot black-and-white pictures natively. I'm pretty pleased with this image of the Flatiron Building. There is plenty of detail and the exposure is on point, even with the sun peeking through the clouds.

The 20-MP, front-facing camera on the Nokia 9 maybe captures far too much detail for my liking, but in all seriousness, this shot I took in Times Square looks great. You can see individual strands of hair in my beard, and the reddish tone in my face looks natural.

Professional photographers will appreciate the Nokia 9's manual controls and the ability to capture RAW DNG files. These rich files are great for editing because they retain all the information that's otherwise lost when photos are compressed into bite-sized JPEGs. The downside to RAW is that image files are massive, and without an SD card slot on the Nokia 9, photographers will really have to manage the phone's 128GB of built-in storage.

Oddly enough, I prefer the RAW image compared with the JPG I shot in New York City's Grand Central Station. While perfectly exposed, the Nokia 9's photo processing drained the colors from the grand room. In fact, those circular fluorescent lights emit a warmer color than what you see in the RAW shot.

One consequence of the five-lens system is that an image could be compromised if only one lens has smudges or fingerprints on it. I found myself constantly wiping my sleeve on the back of the phone to make sure that the lens glass was clean.

Performance: Flagship speeds, a year late

The Nokia 9 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 mobile-processing platform and comes with 6GB of RAM. The Snapdragon 845 is a good processor, and I didn't run into any performance problems during my testing, but it's still last year's CPU. Other flagship Android devices coming out this year are going to run on the Snapdragon 855, so you're giving up some performance for a lower price.

The Nokia 9 scored an 8,912 on the Geekbench 4 overall performance test, topping the Pixel 3 (7,216) and nearly matching the OnePlus 6T (8,972) and Galaxy Note 9 (8,876). As expected, the new Galaxy S10 (10,732) and Galaxy S10e (10,513), both of which are equipped with the Snapdragon 855, blew away the Android competition. However, Apple phones still dominate when it comes to performance; the iPhone XS, running Apple's A12 Bionic processor, scored an outstanding 11,420.

MORE: 10 Best Video Editing Apps for Smartphones and Tablets

In our video-editing test, the Nokia 9 PureView needed 3 minutes and 18 seconds to transcode a 4K clip to 1080p resolution in the Adobe Premiere app. That's a somewhat disappointing result, considering most flagship phones can complete that test in less than 3 minutes, like the Galaxy S10 Plus (2:26) and Pixel 3 (2:52). Amazingly, the iPhone XS took just 39 seconds.

Apps opened quickly and games ran smoothly on the Nokia 9. On 3DMark's Sling Shot Extreme OpenGL graphics test, the Nokia 9 scored a 4,653, topping the Pixel 3's score of 4,400 and the iPhone XS' 4,244. However, the Galaxy S10 Plus dominated with a score of 5,648.

While the Nokia 9's performance results feel behind the curve compared with other flagships, the phone didn't feel slow in my real-world testing, which involved streaming music on Google Play Music, browsing web pages with at least a dozen Google Chrome tabs open and playing mobile games, like the racer Asphalt 9.

Software: Sweet Android Pie

The Nokia 9 is an Android One phone, which means it runs an unmodified, bloatware-free version of Android. It's a refreshing approach, in contrast to the heavy-handed attempts by some phone makers to put their mark on Google's streamlined operating system.

MORE: Android 9 Pie Review: Google's OS Gets Smarter

Since it runs pure Android 9 Pie, the Nokia 9 adopts everything we love about the latest OS version, including improvements to adaptive brightness, UI tweaks and App Actions. Better yet, the interface is clean, and none of the included features feels redundant.

HMD promises quick software updates for the Nokia 9, and the company will support two years of version updates and three years of security updates.

Battery Life

The Nokia 9's 3,320-mAh battery is on the smaller side for a 5.99-inch phone, and it showed on our Tom's Guide battery test, which involves surfing the web over T-Mobile's LTE network with the screen set to 150 nits. The Nokia 9 lasted only 8 hours and 45 minutes, more than an hour less than the average smartphone.

That below-average runtime falls hours short of the competition, including the Galaxy S10 Plus (12:35), OnePlus 6T (10:23) and even the iPhone XS (9:41).

Nokia, in the company's former incarnation, was among the first to adopt Qi wireless charging in phones, so I'm happy to see that tradition continue with the Nokia 9 PureView. The Nokia 9 also supports fast charging via an included 18-W charger.

Bottom Line

If you're wondering if Nokia is back, the simple answer is: Yes. The Nokia 9's five-camera setup is a return to the days when Nokia was known for staking out new ground. While some kinks need to be worked out, the unique camera system is capable of producing outstanding images.

Even more impressive is the Nokia 9's gorgeous 5.99-inch, QHD+ display, which is among the most vivid we've tested. Additionally, Android purists will appreciate the phone's stock Android 9 Pie and HMD's track record for keeping their phones up to date.

Unfortunately, the Nokia 9's battery life, at less than 9 hours, is a major shortcoming, and its fingerprint sensor also disappoints. Photo processing is downright sluggish, and some of the images we took looked washed out. Not to mention, the Nokia 9 relies on last year's processor, and there is no SD card slot to store the supersize RAW images it supports.

Overall, the Nokia 9 is a great option for photo enthusiasts who want a versatile camera that can shoot in RAW, or anyone in search of a reasonably priced flagship phone that runs stock Android. While the OnePlus 6T remains the king of the "budget" premium category, the Nokia 9 has us eagerly anticipating HMD's next move.



Credit: Tom's Guide
Hello,

My husband and I are from the U.S. and ideally would like to visit Australia, Tasmania Island, and New Zealand. However, we will likely be limited to 3 weeks sometime during May or June 2018. When we travel we like to do lots of outdoor activities like hiking, camping, skydiving, etc., check out cultural activities, willing to try any type of food (we've eaten monkey and fried scorpions just to give an idea), and we like to see a range of landscapes from desert to beach to forests. We also LOVE to go off the beaten path to areas that are less touristy hidden gems of either culture of scenery. We were very interested in seeing the Aurora Australis but I've been reading that it's nearly impossible to see to the naked eye and I would not be photographing it. We missed the northern lights when we went to Iceland, so I had hopes that we could make up for it but not sure if that can happen.

So, given what I've shared, I'd like advice on the following:

a) Should we choose to only go to Australia or only New Zealand? Or, should we opt to just hit a few key sites in both countries? Should we even bother going to Tasmania?

b) Based on the above, what would be your recommended itinerary (e.g., 1 week in Australia with sites listed and 2 weeks in New Zealand with sites listed, vice versa)

c) Why do you recommend the sites listed in the itinerary you recommended above?

Any other advice appreciated.

Thanks,

Monica
You will be heading south from Tamarindo on highway 21 and taking the turnoff south of Nicoya on to highway 18. There are no malls along your route, but one place that you could stop (roughy half way) is Mi finca restaurant, at the turnoff from highway 18 on to Highway 1 in Limonal. There are several Scarlet Macaws that hang out behind the restaurant and you could watch them while your husband has a nap in the car after lunch. Unfortunately, the parking lot (although supervised) is a busy place as it is alongside the busiest highway in Costa Rica.

South of there you will be travelling along that highway, before heading west and south, skirting Puntarenas and Caldera. There are several other restaurants along the way, although I haven't stopped at them myself. Further south, you will be crossing the Rio Tarcoles, where you can view the crocs below the bridge. I can't think of any other suitable places along your route to stop, but others may have suggestions.

Keep your valuables with you when you stop and try to park in supervised locations as theft of luggage from vehicles does occur.
There is a luggage storage at the international terminal (walk from domestic to international, and the first entrance there has the storage.

Depending on traffic it will take around an hour. Instead of a taxi you could take the bus to Ben Than market.

I would check in 2 hours before the flight, so you should get a taxi from D1 to the airport at 9pm (when I flew to Beijing I checked in 1 1/2 hours and was still fine, but 2 hours is better) .

So if you arrive at the airport around 3:30, you will be out with your bag maybe 30 or 60 minutes later. it will take an hour into D1, so you might get to D1 around 6pm, having approximate 3 hours time at D1. If the congestion is not too bad. Should be enough for a nice final dinner with the family.

Hope this helps a bit.
I'm traveling Vietnam with a friend but due to the bad weather and possible storms here we have been planning to spend rest of our vacation somewhere else in Asia. Now our concern is that we have got the single entry visa which means we possibly are not allowed back to the country once we leave, but our flight back home leaves from HCMC. Are we allowed to come back even to the airport although our visa is not in effect anymore?
@BrooklynBrdge and @LindaE - I would keep it to 3 cities then - Land in NYC, fly to Chicago and then go to Detroit.

@Jay1676 - now not purchased tkts yet, have to, since wanted to first plan out where all to go.

a) So, would you recommend this sequence - 3-4 N in NYC then Fly to Chicago spend another 3 N there and then do a road trip to Detroit and do the rest of the piece there. Also, can it be Detroit first and Chicago later (am not sure of how would the airfares vary)

b) While I will put my query for the road trip in the road trip forum, Niagara I assume is doable from Detroit.

c) Also if I dont do the rental car from Chicago, I assume the road trip by bus is still better/faster than train.
Is your company in need of the most reliable and efficient best Best Jasmine Tea s in the market? Your good luck led you to the ideal situation, so congratulations! You are in the best possible place. By eliminating the need to read through dozens of Best Jasmine Tea reviews, we are saving you time and stress.

Many customers find it difficult to decide which Best Jasmine Tea product to buy. The dilemma is brought about by the many types of Best Jasmine Tea in the market. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a clear understanding of how you may choose the most suitable Best Jasmine Tea available in the market.
Alliance High School is a boy's secondary school in Kenya. It was the first school to offer education to African boys during the colonial period after it was founded in 1926 by an alliance of protestant missionaries. Over the years, the prestigious learning institution has proven to be one of the best by producing well-moulded alumni. So, what is the schools fee structure, entry mark and activities?

Students of Alliance High School pose for a group photo. Photo: @ahskenya

Source: Facebook

Alliance secondary school is like the S.I. unit for education standards in Kenya. The prestigious high school, home to some of the brightest minds in the country, has never compromised on quality education ever since it was established. As a result, it ranks among the top national schools in Kenya with a remarkable track record.

However, if you are searching for admission to Alliance High School Kenya, it would be best to learn more about the school's requirements and life.

Alliance High School history

Alliance High School (popularly referred to as Bush) was established on March 1, 1926, by the Alliance of Protestant Churches  The Church of Scotland Mission (now referred to as the Presbyterian Church of East Africa or PCEA).

Do you have a groundbreaking story you would like us to publish? Please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690.

Alliance was one of the first high schools in Kenya during a time when white settlers believed that Africans were best suited as a source of cheap labour. However, it took the intervention of missionaries to set up learning institutions like Alliance to educate ordinary Kenyans at the beginning of the 20th century.

Alliance High School is located 22 kilometres from Nairobi's central business district and is quite close to Alliance Girls High School.

The famous learning institution has always been among the top-performing schools during the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams.

The most exciting thing is that Alliance was ranked the top school in Kenya from 1960 to 1985, creating a solid reputation as a centre for academic excellence. The school's motto is "Strong to Serve".

Alliance high school Nairobi admits students from all over the nation. These students come in with different talents. Through the training offered at the school, they are nurtured to grow and become men that will make beneficial impacts in the future governments they are meant to serve.

Admission requirements and enrolment procedure

Students of Alliance High School in a class session. Photo: @ahskenya

Source: Facebook

Alliance High School is a national school in Kenya; therefore, it abides by the standards set by the government for qualification for admission to national schools.

Of course, students must submit their interest to join their desired national schools before they do their national examinations. It is at this point that one chooses the school among other options.

The cut-off point for national schools varies yearly based on performance, but if you attain 400 marks and above, you have a high chance of joining the school. The most important thing to note is that the Alliance High School entry marks for people from marginalized areas might be lower because of the hardships they undergo while studying.

Therefore, you might score 380 marks in your KCPE and miss a slot, but someone from Mandera might score even lowers marks but secure an admission.

Once results are announced and the form one selections are complete, you can go to the Ministry of Education official portal and download your admission letter. Then, get it certified, through a stamp, from your primary school's principal before presenting it to Alliance on the admission day.

Alliance High School Kenya fees

Alliance high school Kenya fees structure is no different from other national high schools. According to government regulations, schools should charge a certain amount per year. The state then supplements this budget with an annual boost, as specified below.

Alliance High School fee structure. Photo: educationnewshub.co.ke

Source: UGC

The school administration is prohibited from authorizing any fee increment without the ministrys directive upon request. Unfortunately, there seems to be a blatant disregard for the set boarding fee that schools should charge, with principals and administrators blowing the fee structures out of proportion.

This trend has been ongoing since 2007, which has seen several bright but poor students miss chances in the best schools because they cannot afford fees. As a result, only those lucky enough to get scholarships and sponsorships can fulfil their dream of studying in their dream schools.

School activities

If you are fortunate enough to attend Alliance High School, you will have a lot on your plate besides the regular classroom environment. The school has a chess club, a band, a golf club, and a research club.

You can also join various faith-based unions, including the Christian Union (C.U.), S.D.A society and a Sunday School society. If you want more, you can engage in the various sports activities in the learning institution.

Chess club

The Alliance Chess Club consists of over 150 members, and more than 400 students know how to lay the game in the learning institution. In addition, club members take part in local and regional tournaments and even teach other schools. The current patrons of the club are Madam Gladys Otido and David Ombese.

The Alliance High School Band (Men In Brass)

The band was created in 2008 by Mr. John Lugaka, the former music teacher at the school but is now at St. Mary's Academy. The band is now an integral part of the secondary school, performing various functions, including:

Leading the national anthem on Mondays, Fridays and national holidays.

Leading hymns on band Tuesday.

Performing during significant school events.

Representing the school in the national school festivals.

Offering musical accompaniment to the scouts.

Golf club

The Alliance High School Gold club is one of the newest. Its establishment has allowed students to visit the prestigious Muthaiga and Karen gold clubs.

Research club

Alliance's Research club is dedicated to collecting relevant information, including people's opinions, and converting it into meaningful data. The club has partnered with other secondary schools to create a research forum.

Alliance High School uniform

Students of Alliance High School pose for a group photo. Photo: @ahskenya

Source: Facebook

Students at Alliance wear white shirts, khaki shorts, grey socks with two blue stripes on either side of a red stripe; black or brown shoes, jungle green pullovers and a blue tie. Also, students wear grey trousers on weekends, Wednesdays, and during school events.

Prefects have a different dress code. Junior prefects wear ties with red stripes while senior ones wear black ties. Senior commoners adorn navy blue ties.

Alliance High School dormitories

Alliance has thirteen dorms, enough to host its student population. Four of these student hostels were built in 2017 and accommodate 1,800 students. The dorms include the following:

Livingstone House

Aggrey House

Wilberforce House

Grieve House

Arthur House

Francis House

Smith House

Sellwood House

Campbell House

Sanders House

Stansfield

Wangai House

Paul Otula Complex

Notable school alumni

Alliance is famous not only for offering the best learning facilities but because of its popular list of alumni. Some of them include:

John Gachora - Managing Director of N.I.C. Bank and former vice president, Bank of America

James Gichuru - founding member of the Kenya African National Union (KANU) party

Johnson Gicheru - former Chief Justice of Kenya

John Keen - activist for multi-party democracy in Kenya

Maina Kiai - former Chairman of the Kenya National Human Rights Commission

Mbiyu Koinange - first Kenyan African to hold a degree,

Eliud Mathu - first African member of the Legislative Council

Kenneth Matiba - first African Permanent Secretary in Kenya and prominent opposition

David Mwiraria - former Finance Minister

James Mworia - Managing Director of Centum Investment Company

Duncan Ndegwa - first African and longest-serving Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya

Ronald Ngala - first and only president of the first opposition party in Kenya, the Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU)

Peter Anyang' Nyong'o - Kenyan politician and prominent multi-party activist in 1980s and 1990s Kenya

James Orengo - prominent politician, activist and lawyer

Ngugi wa Thiong'o - author, novelist, and playwright.

Amos Wako - second Attorney General of Kenya

David Wasawo - first East African to receive a degree in science; zoologist and educationist

Alliance High School contacts

The following are Alliance High School contacts if you want to get in touch with the learning institution:

Alliance High School

P.O. Box 7-00902 Kikuyu.

Telephone +254 20 2015026

Cell Phone +254 733 141 290

Email: info@alliancehighschool.ac.ke

Fax +254 20 201 4424

Alliance high school website: alliancehighschool.sc.ke

Alliance high school contacts are available on their website. You can always reach them via their cell phone number. Parents can always reach out to get clarifications or write the alliance high school principal whenever they want to know more about the school.

Alliance High School plays an essential role in training the children of Kenya. That is why the school has an impressive collection of notable alumni renowned in Kenya and other parts of the world.

Are you trying to figure out the ideal way of getting your Kenya Certificate Secondary School leaving certificate? Tuko.co.ke featured an informative article providing more information on how to access this important document.

Of course, one must visit their former secondary school to access the critical document that shows you completed your high school education. What else should you know regarding access to the leaving certificate?

Source: TUKO.co.ke
- Uganda's Parliament on Tuesday, December 19, voted overwhelmingly to pass Bill that sought to remove presidential age limit that was capped at 75

- The ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party members who supported the controversial Bill carried the day with 317 votes against 107 from the opposing side

- The Age Limit Article 102(b) of the 1995 Constitution of Uganda prevented presidential candidates outside the age bracket of 35  75 from vying for the top office

- With the restricting Constitutional requirement out of the way, the 73-year-old President Yoweri Museveni will be free to vie again in 2021

After the drama that characterized the Age Limit Debate in Uganda's Parliament, the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party had the final laugh.

The Ugandan Parliament on Tuesday, December 19, overwhelmingly endorsed the Bill that sought to remove the presidential age limit (capped at 75) through constitutional amendment, thanks to NRM's numerical strength in the chamber.

According to reports by the local media, NRM members who supported the controversial Bill carried the day with 317 votes against 107 from the opposing side.

READ ALSO: Drama as 6 Ugandan MPs are suspended amid debate on Bill seeking to extend Museveni's rule

Speaker of the Parliament of Uganda, Rebecca Kadaaga, addressing members of the house before Age lifting amendment vote on Tuesday Afternoon at the Uganda Parliament in Kampala. Photo: Ronald Kabuubi.

Install TUKO App To Read News For FREE

The Age Limit Article 102(b) of the 1995 Constitution of Uganda prevented presidential candidates outside the age bracket of 35  75 from vying for the top office.

And now with the restricting Constitutional requirement out of the way, the 73-year-old President Yoweri Museveni will be free to vie again in 2021.

READ ALSO: Museveni's press secretary in hot soup over a deceptive tweet he posted 8 months ago

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has been pushing for removal of presidential age limit so that he can vie again in 2012.Photo:Courtesy.

The protracted Age Limit Debate resumed on Monday, December 18, with a stormy session that ended with six Members of Parliament forcefully ejected and suspended from the chamber.

"Th six lawmakers were suspended for a single session for undermining the authority of the speaker, Parliament spokesperson Chris Obore told Reuters.

READ ALSO: Two terms of 5 years is just a joke - Museveni tells MPs

Initial attempts to debate the Bill, which was introduced in September this year by a member of the NRM party, also winded up in street protests and fist-fights between those supporting the Bill and those opposing it.

Endorsement of the Bill means that Museveni could be Uganda's president for life. The Constitutional requirement that restricted him has been removed.

READ ALSO: New list of Africa's longest serving presidents after the dramatic exit of Robert Mugabe

Swearing in of Raila Odinga is a huge mistake, the Attorney General warns - On Tuko TV

Source: TUKO.co.ke
Trinidad and Tobago Red Force are into the final after beating Barbados Pride in a nail biter by 10 runs in Antigua Wednesday evening.

T&T made a daunting 312 for 6, with 111 from skipper Nicholas Pooran, while Amir Jangoo and Darren Bravo hit half-centuries.
The Cabinet of Ministers has defined the National Police as INTERPOL National Central Bureau, the National Police website reports.

The government has defined the National Police as INTERPOL National Central Bureau. The decision is aimed at bringing the regulatory and legal acts of the Cabinet in line with the law of Ukraine on National Police, reads the report.

Also, according to the adopted governments resolution, the head of the National Police should submit a report on the results of INTERPOL National Central Bureau's activities at the beginning of each year to the Ukrainian Interior Minister, who, in turn, will then inform the Cabinet of Ministers on the carried out activities.

iy
Russian-backed militants launched 32 attacks on positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in ATO area in Donbas in last day.

This is reported by the ATO Headquarters press center.

The enemy violated ceasefire in ATO area 32 times over the past day. As a result of the enemy shelling, two Ukrainian soldiers were killed, five servicemen were injured and one more was wounded, the statement reads.

In Luhansk direction, illegal armed formations used 120mm mortars and small arms to fire at Ukrainian positions near Travneve and Stanytsia Luhanska (16km north-east of Luhansk).

In Donetsk direction, Russian-backed militants used 82mm mortars and grenade launchers to launch attacks on the defenders of Novotroitske (32km south of Donetsk), Lebedynske (16km north-east of Mariupol) and Butovka coal mine (11.4km north-west of Donetsk). The illegal armed formations used infantry weapons and machine guns to fire at Ukrainian positions near Hnutove (19km north-west of Mariupol), Verkhniotoretske (22km north-east of Donetsk) and Starohnativka (52km south of Donetsk).

ish
The Ukrainian Armed Forces are ready for aggravation of the situation in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone in eastern Ukraine.

Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak told this to reporters before a governments meeting on Wednesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine now are ready for the change of the situation, he said.

According to him, the escalation of the situation is taking place so that to accuse Ukraine of violating the ceasefire regime.

iy
Two Ukrainian soldiers were killed, and six servicemen were injured in hostilities in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone in eastern Ukraine over the past day.

Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Spokesperson for ATO Oleksandr Motuzianyk said this at a press briefing on Wednesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

"One Ukrainian soldier was killed in Novotoshkivske (53km north-west of Luhansk) due to the enemy shelling, and another one was killed near Verkhniotoretske (22km north-east of Donetsk) as a result of the explosion of unknown explosive device. Six servicemen were injured in the ATO zone and they were immediately sent to hospitals, Motuzianyk said.

At the same time, he added that Russian-backed militants continued to attack the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces using the weapons prohibited under the Minsk agreements.

ish
The UN General Assembly has approved a resolution entitled "Situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine," which was supported by the UNGA's Third Committee last month.

The vote was held in New York on Tuesday, December 19, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

The resolution was supported by 70 UN member states, 76 abstained, and 26 countries voted against the document.

As reported, a draft resolution on human rights in Crimea was introduced on October 31, 2017. The document, in particular, confirms that there is an international armed conflict between Ukraine and Russia and condemns the retroactive application of the Russian legal system in the occupied territory and the imposition of automatic Russian citizenship on Ukrainian citizens.

The resolution urges Russia to fully implement the order of the International Court of Justice on interim measures to restore the rights and freedoms of Ukrainian citizens on the peninsula and calls on the Russian occupation authorities to ensure the availability of education in the Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar languages.

At the same time, the document reaffirms concern that the UN human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine continues to be denied access to Crimea, despite its existing mandate, and includes the requirement to prepare a second thematic report on Crimea by the end of the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly (September 2018) and update the Human Rights Council on the issue at its 37th session (March 2018).

In addition, the document welcomes Ukraine's positive decisions in the context of simplifying procedures for unhindered access to Crimea by journalists and human rights defenders, as well as Ukraine's support for media outlets and NGOs that were forced to leave the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territory.

The document also requests the UN Secretary-General to coordinate the actions of the UN structures to ensure the implementation of the provisions of the resolution.

op
On December 20, the final meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group on settlement of the situation in Donbas will take place in Minsk, Belarus.

This is reported by Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

"Four subgroups of the Trilateral Contact Group on various issues are expected to meet before the final meeting," reads a statement.

The Ukrainian side states that it plans to discuss the issue of ceasefire along the entire collision line during the winter holidays.

ish
The European Union demands that Ukraine immediately step up the fight against corruption, which is one of the main requirements for the functioning of a visa-free regime for Ukrainian citizens traveling to the Schengen area.

This is stated in the European Commission's annual report on the implementation of visa-free regime benchmarks for Western Balkans and Eastern Partnership countries, which was published on Wednesday, an Ukrinform correspondent in Brussels reports.

"In view of recent developments, Ukraine also needs to take immediate action to safeguard anti-corruption measures introduced with previous reforms and to allow further progress to be made," the EU's governing body said.

The European Commission will report again to the European Parliament and the Council on the continuous fulfilment of visa liberalization requirements in 2018.

As reported by Ukrinform, the EU, by granting the visa-free regime to third countries, including Ukraine, adopted the so-called preventive mechanism for possible cancellation of visa-free travel if partners do not fulfill visa-free criteria.

op
The city government of Vienna has handed over about six tons of humanitarian aid to the hospitals in Mariupol.

The Embassy of Ukraine in Austria reported this on its Facebook page.

"About six tons of necessary technical assistance were handed out - first of all, hospital beds, wheelchairs, medical equipment and furniture for hospitals," the embassy informed.

ish
The new role of patronage nurses

Had this encounter taken place a few months before, Bibinur would have stayed for only 510 minutes before going back to work. But now, Bibinur is working at a polyclinic that participates in a pilot programme for universal progressive patronage nursing.

With support from UNICEF, the new model of home visits to pregnant women and families with children under five shifted the focus from quantity to improving the quality of these visits. The model also encourages cooperation between social and medical services. Vulnerable families dealing with issues like substance abuse, lack of income, health issues, violence at home and other challenges will receive additional attention  often requiring several specialists in addition to patronage nurses, such as psychologists and social workers.

Trained patronage nurses have become akin to private investigators: they can spot signs of neglect, abuse, poor relationships, economic hardship, hazardous environment and unsanitary conditions. In the past, patronage nurses were primarily concerned with childrens physical development. They now view each childs development in the context of the wider environment: Is the father present and engaged? Is the mother happy and rested enough to spend time with her child? Is the environment stimulating for cognitive development? Is the food nutritious enough?



Overcoming depression

Equipped with new knowledge gained through UNICEF-supported trainings, Bibinur understands that Almagul needs mental health care. On her next visit, she comes with a psychologist who determines that Almagul is suffering from postpartum depression.

They draw up an action plan and the psychologist works with Almagul four times a week for a month. As Almagul becomes more trusting and receptive to outside help, Bibinur teaches her the importance of bonding with her child, breastfeeding, and interacting and playing with him.

I told her that if she misses this crucial period of time in the life of her son, she will never manage to repair the damage to their mutual understanding, love and relationship, Bibinur says.

The idea of the unique opportunities offered by the first 1,000 days of life is at the heart of this new patronage nursing model. During this time, a childs brain grows and develops at an unprecedented pace. Action or inaction during this period will have lifelong consequences. Improving primary care, helping parents and caretakers provide the best conditions for their childrens development can have a positive ripple effect throughout society, nurturing a generation of healthy, smart, confident adults who give back to their communities.

I was happy to see things changing. Almagul became more open, she even started laughing! says Bibinur. She began breastfeeding, taking care of her son and spending time with him. She now brings him to polyclinic for immunization and regular check-ups; she even calls me to ask things.
GENEVA, 19 December 2017 - 2017 has been a very difficult year for the children and women in CAR, and sadly we are not expecting the situation to improve in the coming months.



2017 has seen a dramatic increase in violence- the previously unstable regions, such as the center and the north west, have remained very tense. In addition, the entire south east- that had previously been spared by the crisis, is now the worst hit region.



Humanitarian access is constantly hampered by criminal and armed groups activities. This year only, 14 aid workers have lost their lives in the country, and the aid organizations had to temporarily suspend their activities in several locations throughout 2017.



Children and women are of course the first victims: half of CAR population is in need of humanitarian support, that is 2.5 million people, including 1.3 million children.



With 601,000 IDPs (same numbers as in early 2014) and 538,000 refugees abroad, this means that more than 1 in 5 Central Africans have been forced away from home.



A few examples

Currently 20% of the schools are closed because of insecurity; the schools that are open have too many pupils and not enough teachers- half of the teachers are community supported and not officially certified- so there is a long way to go if we want to ensure quality education.

Reports of childrens rights violations are on the rise- in 2017, 50% more documented incidents than the previous year, twice the number of children recruited into armed groups- And we know that the verified numbers are only the tip of the iceberg because of restrictions on humanitarian access.

Immunization campaigns have been disrupted in several regions due to persistent insecurity

Basic healthcare needs are not met -especially in regions where the NGOs are no longer able to operate.



As UNICEF Representative, I am very concerned about the lasting impact this crisis is having on children. We have a whole generation at risk of growing up traumatized, without proper education, without healthcare and constantly exposed to the most horrific violence.



UNICEF Response



In these extremely difficult conditions, UNICEF does whatever it takes to deliver:

Education: temporary learning spaces for over 50,000 children in 2017- we are hoping for more in 2018 (85,000). We are also working with the Ministry of Education to improve quality of education.

Protection: 1,900 children released from armed groups in 2017 only (over 10,000 since 2014); BUT we need money to provide them with reintegration support. (Just half of them have received the whole package)

RRM (Rapid Response Mechanism): through partners that are able to react when there is a humanitarian shock in remote areas, we have been able to provide Non Food Items (mats, mosquito nets, blankets, cooking supplies etc) to close to 25,000 households and emergency water and sanitation interventions to almost 72,000 people



This is a critical time for funding.



This year we received less than half (46%) the funding needed to meet the humanitarian needs. In 2018 the needs are growing: we are going to need every support we can get, if we do not want the children of CAR to be left to a terrible fate.

###



Notes for editors:

Photo and video assets available here: http://weshare.unicef.org/Package/2AM4080HW02Z
Urothelial carcinoma is the most common urological malignancy. Nonspecific immunotherapy using the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccine has long been the mainstay for the treatment of high-risk superficial bladder carcinoma in an adjuvant setting after transurethral endoscopic resection. In metastatic disease, cisplatin-based chemotherapy remains the main therapeutic modality. In Europe, the standard second-line chemotherapy for patients with cisplatin-refractory tumours is vinflunine. Other systemic treatments with a lower level of evidence include paclitaxel and docetaxel. Studies of tumour microenvironment indicate a significant role for the immune system in the pathogenesis of urothelial tumours and the presence of a CD8 lymphocyte infiltrate is associated with better survival. In urothelial tumours, the correlation between PD-L1 expression in the tumour and the response to PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors has been repeatedly demonstrated in clinical studies. Several inhibitors of PD-1/PD-L1 pathway are undergoing advanced-phase clinical trials and atezolizumab, nivolumab, pembrolizumab, durvalumab, and avelumab have already have received permanent or temporary registration status in the United States, mostly as second-line treatments for patients progressing on cisplatin-based chemotherapy. Three of these agents are currently registered in Europe: nivolumab for second line treatment and atezolizumab and pembrolizumab for first line treatment in patients not eligible for cisplatin as well as and for second line treatment. These novel immunotherapeutic agents for bladder cancer are relatively well tolerated and therefore potentially useful for patients with contraindications or intolerance to platinum regimens. The main toxicities include asthenia/fatigue, lymphopenia, anaemia, musculoskeletal pain, decreased appetite, and nausea.Key words: bladder cancer - imunotherapy - PD-1 receptor - antibodies - monoclonal This work was supported by the Czech Ministry of Health CR - RVO Thomayer Hospital - TN 0064190. The author declare he has no potential conflicts of interest concerning drugs, products, or services used in the study. The Editorial Board declares that the manuscript met the ICMJE recommendation for biomedical papers.Submitted: 29. 8. 2017Accepted: 3. 10. 2017.

Klinicka onkologie : casopis Ceske a Slovenske onkologicke spolecnosti. 2017 Jan [Epub]

T Buchler

PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29239187
[Editors Note: Despite an increase in remittances from migrant workers, a new report on labor migration in Southeast Asia produced by the International Labor Organization and International Migration Organization, calls for a shift in policy making to more migrant-centered approaches. VOA Khmers Nov Povleakhena and Khan Sokummono spoke with Ben Harkins, the reports co-author and a technical officer with the ILOs Asia-Pacific office, about what Cambodia can do to improve the situation for overseas workers.]

VOA: First of all, can you tell us about the significance of your report regarding Cambodian migrant workers?

Ben Harkins: One key thing we did find is that Cambodians are particularly vulnerable to abuses abroad. We found about 80 percent reported that they suffered labor rights violations in destination countries, and that certainly does have a negative impact on the long-term benefits that they receive from migration. We did look at the practices and conditions that might improve the benefits for Cambodian migrants, and really what we found was that its labor rights protection in destination countries that are most consistently important in facilitating a positive outcome for them. And to facilitate that, yes, we really need to improve protection of the rights of Cambodian migrants, both in destination countries and also during their recruitment in Cambodia, so that we ensure that they have a safe and rewarding migration experience.

VOA: The report calls for a shift in the focus of migration policies in Asean, to a more migrant-centered approach. Can you elaborate on the Cambodia context?

Ben Harkins: What weve found is often the way governments look at migration and its impact on development is very much focused on how large the scale of remittances are that are sent back home. And what weve tried to do is say, Look, its actually a much more complex change that takes place for migrants. It's not only that they have these short-term increases in their incomes that are sent back in remittances, but also they really develop a lot of skills abroad that they can use when they return back home if things go well. Also [there are] broader changes to their livelihood when they return. They may move into higher skilled jobs which afford better wages and working conditions. So you cant really just simplify a migration experience into the number of remittances that were sent home. You need to look more holistically at how migration affected the lives of migrant workers and their family members.

VOA: What lessons can Cambodians learn to improve the conditions for migrant workers?

Ben Harkins: I think there is a need for much more intentional labor migration policies on the Thailand side to make sure that migrants are able to come and enjoy decent work opportunities for employers in Thailand, that Thai employers get their labor needs filled by Cambodian migrants that are qualified for those jobs. You really need a long-term policy on migration to Thailand. These ad hoc approaches are sometimes causing difficulties and need to be reconsidered.

VOA: Both jobs in Thailand and Malaysia offered to migrant workers are low-skill jobs. How can we prepare access to skill development for those workers?

Ben Harkins: I think its a key point. What the report calls for is really expanding skills training for migrants that match with employer requirements, but also skills training that doesn't create an additional burden on the time and resources of migrant workers. So we know most migrants from Cambodia are currently recruited based upon the need for low-wage workers rather than their skills match with the job opening, and we do think that a closer matching of migrant workers' skills with employment opportunities would really benefit both employers and migrants, because it would contribute to increased productivity, but also better wages and working conditions for migrants. I think one option that we've seen from this report thats an effective modality that doesn't add to the cost and time for migrant workers is on-the-job training programs and paid apprenticeships. What we are recommending is that partnerships be built between employers and technical and vocational, education and training institutions that can promote skills training system that is really more inclusive for both women and men migrant workers, and also responsive to labor market needs in destination countries.

VOA: What are the impacts of the flow of migrant workers in Asean? Do you think there is a threat to countries like Cambodia where so many workers travel abroad?

Ben Harkins: What we see primarily from Cambodia is migrants going abroad for low-skilled jobs, and I think what were trying to get across with this report is that there are actually real potential benefits to Cambodia to having migrants go abroad and obtain new skills that they can bring back into the Cambodian labor market, [as well as] of course all the increased financial resources which can help them to establish businesses, which can help them to support their families, which can help them to pay for medical costs, education costs for their family. I think we see that actually there are a lot of benefits from migration for Cambodia, and we just think that there are steps that could be taken to increase positive benefits, and reduce some of the negative outcomes that do occur Cambodian migrants. What we found in our report in particular was yes, we need to try to avoid migrants going into debt when they go abroad, we need to be sure that they receive labor rights protections in destination countries, we need to be sure that they do have opportunities to increase their skill levels, and finally, when they do return to Cambodia, that there are viable employment opportunities so that they aren't forced to migrate again just to obtain a job.
Senate and House Republicans gave U.S. President Donald Trump his first major legislative win. VOA National Political Correspondent Jim Malone joins Steve Miller to break down the implications. An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman (Bahram Ghasemi) denied It supplied weapons to Yemeni Houthi rebels in its nearly three-year conflict with a Saudi-led coalition. The denial followed Tuesday's latest attempted missile strike from Yemen on Saudi Arabia's capital. It was destroyed by Saudi air defenses with no casualties reported. Middle East Institute scholar Zubair Iqbal told VOA's Victor Beattie there is no definitive proof the rocket came from Iran.
The 193-member United Nations General Assembly will hold a rare emergency special session on Thursday at the request of Arab and Muslim states on U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Palestinian U.N. envoy Riyad Mansour said the General Assembly would vote on a draft resolution calling for Trump's declaration to be withdrawn, which was vetoed by the United States in the 15-member U.N. Security Council on Monday.

The remaining 14 Security Council members voted in favor of the Egyptian-drafted resolution, which did not specifically mention the United States or Trump but which expressed "deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem."

Mansour said on Monday he hoped there would be "overwhelming support" in the General Assembly for the resolution. Such a vote is non-binding, but carries political weight.

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley, in a note on Twitter, warned the United States would remember those who voted for the resolution criticizing the U.S. decision.

"At the UN we're always asked to do more & give more. So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl abt where to locate OUR embassy, we don't expect those we've helped to target us. On Thurs there'll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names," she wrote.

Under a 1950 resolution, an emergency special session can be called for the General Assembly to consider a matter "with a view to making appropriate recommendations to members for collective measures" if the Security Council fails to act.

Only 10 such sessions have been convened, and the last time the General Assembly met in such a session was in 2009 on occupied East Jerusalem and Palestinian territories. Thursday's meeting will be a resumption of that session.

Trump abruptly reversed decades of U.S. policy this month when he recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, generating outrage from Palestinians and the Arab world and concern among Washington's western allies.

Trump also plans to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. The draft U.N. resolution calls upon all countries to refrain from establishing diplomatic missions in Jerusalem.

Haley said on Monday that the resolution was vetoed in the Security Council in defense of U.S. sovereignty and the U.S. role in the Middle East peace process. She criticized it as an insult to Washington and an embarrassment to council members.

Israel considers Jerusalem its eternal and indivisible capital and wants all embassies based there. Palestinians want the capital of an independent Palestinian state to be in the city's eastern sector, which Israel captured in a 1967 war and annexed in a move never recognized internationally.
Austria's new chancellor traveled to Brussels on Tuesday on his first foreign trip since being sworn in, aiming to dispel concerns that his coalition with the far right spells trouble for the European Union.

Responding to a letter on Monday from European Council President Donald Tusk that underlined EU worries, 31-year-old conservative leader Sebastian Kurz tweeted back that his new government would be "clear pro-European and committed to making a positive contribution to the future development of the EU."

A day after he took office at the head of a coalition with the far-right Freedom Party (FPO), Kurz delivered that message in person to Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, whose EU executive has responded to October's election with little of the outrage that greeted the FPO's first taste of government in Austria 17 years ago.

At a joint news conference in Brussels, Juncker said he would judge Kurz's government by its deeds.

"This government has a clear pro-European stance. That is what is important for me," Juncker said.

The FPO has distanced itself from its Nazi-apologist, anti-Semitic past, while surges in irregular immigration and militant attacks have pushed the European political mainstream rightward, leading to a much more muted reaction than in 2000.

But a French member of the Commission was wary: "Things are doubtless different from the previous time, in 2000," tweeted Socialist former finance minister Pierre Moscovici. "But the presence of the far right in government is never without consequences."

Confirmation of the FPO's return to a share of power raises concern that small, wealthy Austria will be an intractable voice on EU asylum reform and efforts to increase the EU budget.

The bluntest criticism has been south of the Alps, where a plan to offer Austrian citizenship to people living in Italy's German-speaking border region has rekindled worries over old territorial arguments.

"Iron Fist, Velvet Glove"

A junior foreign minister in Rome said the offer may be couched in a "velvet glove of Europeanism" but bore "a whiff of the ethno-nationalist iron fist."

Kurz assured Italians on Tuesday that he would consult Rome on the plan, which is a long-standing FPO policy, adding he would speak to Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni.

For an EU battered by mounting nationalism that goes well beyond Brexit, there is concern too that criticism of Brussels in Vienna may help fuel the euroscepticism of former communist member states in Central Europe, including Poland, where the Commission is seriously considering imposing sanctions that were initially designed in response to the FPO's rise early this century.

Speaking in Brussels, Kurz said he would make it Austria's task to bridge the gap between EU member states in the east and the west, adding his country would fight to stop illegal immigration into the EU.

In a letter of congratulation to Kurz, Tusk made clear his concerns about the new coalition in Austria: "I trust that the Austrian government will continue to play a constructive and pro-European role in the European Union," Tusk wrote, noting that Austria will from July enjoy six months of influence in Brussels as chair of EU ministerial councils.

Germany and France, the EU's lead powers, also indicated a vigilance about Austria in their comments on Monday which highlighted Kurz's pledges to foster European cooperation.

Kurz's visit to Brussels comes on the eve of an important Commission meeting on Wednesday, where Juncker's team will consider recommending sanctions on Poland for its continued defiance of warnings that its new laws on the judiciary are contrary to EU democratic standards.

"We are in a difficult process, which I hope will turn out to be a process of convergence. But not all bridges to Poland will be burnt tomorrow," Juncker said.
A U.S. federal court sentenced a Brooklyn resident to 15 years in prison on terrorism charges, according to the Department of Justice.



Kazakhstan citizen was charged with conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, Islamic State. He first expressed support for Islamic State in 2014, according to court filings.



"Saidakhmetov's plan was to become a battlefield soldier for ISIS, but should that not come to pass, he was prepared to bring the fight to our streets by attacking police officers and FBI agents in the U.S.," according to the Department of Justice statement.



Saidakhmetov was arrested in 2015 while attempting to board a flight to Istanbul, from where he planned to travel on to Syria.



After serving his sentence, Saidakhmetov will be deported.
Ray and Curry Sawyer's Christmas tree is up, still waiting for their grandkids to decorate it. The presents are hidden away in closets, waiting to be wrapped, the ingredients for gingerbread men are sitting in cupboards, and the kindling for the fireplace has been chopped.

A monster of a wildfire burning in Southern California froze the Sawyers' plans for a big family Christmas and has forced the couple from their Santa Barbara home for nearly two weeks.

Even if their beloved home of five decades survives the next predicted onslaught of winds, the Sawyers are preparing for Christmas in yet another hotel.

"This is getting ridiculous," said the 82-year-old Curry Sawyer from her hotel in Goleta on Tuesday.

"My husband has the feeling, 'Why aren't they letting us back in?' but they've got hot spots up there and if we get more Santa Ana winds, we're going to be back to square one," Sawyer said. "I'm not sure we're out of the woods."

The Sawyers are among dozens of frustrated evacuees who've been away from home for days and weeks, living out of hotels or evacuation shelters, or staying with friends or family. Some have no home to go back to while others are hoping theirs survive.

The Sawyers were planning a big family Christmas with their sons, who each are married and have a daughter, and live in Los Angeles and Amherst, Massachusetts.

If their home doesn't make it, or if a mandatory evacuation remains in place come Christmas, Sawyer said the family will make do in Los Angeles. Her son's home can accommodate her other son's family, but Sawyer and her husband would have to stay in a hotel.

"We'll be more just trying to cramp ourselves into a small space," she said. "But at least we'll be together."

Hundreds in shelters

As of Wednesday, 432 people were still staying at evacuation shelters run by the Red Cross, agency spokeswoman Georgia Duncan said.

The shelters are preparing to stay open for Christmas and many agencies are donating toys so that the children there have presents to open.

One company already donated more than 100 bicycles, mostly for children. And Christmas came early for one 5-year-old boy who was handed a Mickey Mouse doll.

"He just grabbed it and cried because he had lost all of his toys and just thought there would be no Christmas," Duncan said. "To him, yesterday was Christmas."

Marolyn Romero-Sim, her husband and their 9-year-old daughter have been at an evacuation shelter in Ventura for two weeks after they watched their home of four years, an RV, burn in the wildfire, along with their beloved dog, their Christmas tree and a few presents.

The family is trying to save money for another RV, but knows Christmas will probably be spent in the shelter.

"I try not to let my daughter know, but I feel horrible," the 34-year-old Romero-Sim said through tears Tuesday. "She's being so understanding. She's just thankful we're going to be together for Christmas."

Battling the Thomas Fire

The devastating fire that began Dec. 4 is responsible for two deaths, has destroyed at least 750 homes, and has burned about 423 square miles (1,095 square kilometers), making it the third biggest in the state since accurate records were kept starting in 1932.

Officials estimate that the Thomas Fire will grow to become the biggest in California history before full containment, expected by Jan. 7.

A respite from powerful winds allowed firefighters to reach 50 percent containment on the fire, and crews were taking advantage of calm conditions Tuesday by performing a controlled burn to remove swaths of dry brush along the fire's northern edge.

"We're going to take a lot of that fuel out of there," fire Capt. Rick Crawford said. "That way when the winds come back, there'll be nothing left to burn."

Hot, gusty winds that caused a huge flare-up and forced more evacuations last weekend are expected to whip up again Wednesday.

Although some evacuations were lifted Monday and more residents were being allowed to return Tuesday, hillside homes are still threatened in Santa Barbara, where firefighters mounted an aggressive air attack on stubborn flames.

Firefighter Cory Iverson, 32, died Dec. 14 of burns and smoke inhalation while battling the flames. The blaze is also blamed for the Dec. 6 death of a 70-year-old woman who died in a car crash on an evacuation route.

More than 8,000 firefighters from nearly a dozen states are battling the blaze.

The cause remains under investigation. So far, firefighting costs have surpassed $130 million.
In the heart of Barcelona lies a foreboding reminder of Spain's past. La Modelo prison is located just a few blocks from the Catalan capital's main railway station and many of the city's major tourist attractions.

The jail housed political prisoners during the 40-year dictatorship under General Francisco Franco. More than 1,000 were executed.

Barcelona was the last bastion of republican resistance in the Spanish civil war, falling to Franco's forces in 1939. In the four decades of dictatorship that followed, many continued the opposition fight underground. Among them was Felipe Moreno, who was eventually caught and jailed in 1975. He has watched the recent events with growing alarm.

The Spanish government arrested many leaders of the Catalan independence movement in October, following a disputed referendum on secession from Spain. Moreno says the governments actions echo the repression of the Franco era.

To think, in this day and age, that they can arrest you for political thoughts if you do not accept the state," Moreno said. "The government says there are no political prisoners, but in the Franco era they said the same thing. We were enemies of the regime and we were accused of terrorism.

In the hills outside Barcelona lies the village of Vilarsar, yellow ribbons adorn almost every tree and lamppost  symbols of support for Catalonias jailed independence leaders.

History supports independence

The village is at the forefront of the independence campaign, led by Mayor Xavier Godas, whose grandfathers fought for Catalan republicans against General Francos troops. He said he feels the weight of history behind his independence campaign.

Keeping alive the flame of republican freedom. By that I mean the fight against domination. That is something that goes beyond the 40 years of dictatorship. It has been transmitted through generations, and is not only to do with national motives, but with principles of democracy, said Godas.

The Spanish government claims it is trying to uphold that democratic principle. Catalonians will vote in regional elections Thursday, after Madrid dissolved the regional government following the October referendum. Polls suggest the vote is evenly split between pro- and anti-independence parties.

Whatever the outcome, Vilasar Mayor Xavier Godas said he will continue the fight to break away from Spanish rule.
The U.N. childrens fund (UNICEF) warns children in Yemen risk death as access to clean water runs out, due to import restrictions of fuel into the country.

Saudi Arabias blockade of humanitarian and commercial goods into Yemen is causing a crisis on many levels. UNICEF says the blockade is creating a severe fuel shortage, causing steep price hikes and deepening the countrys already serious water and health crisis.

UNICEF reports the cost of diesel fuel has doubled during the past month, jeopardizing the provision of water especially for the poorest families. It says water pumping stations serving more than three million people in 14 cities are quickly running out of fuel.

Spokesman Christophe Boulierac says prices of commercially trucked water, a main source for one-fifth of the population, have skyrocketed.

For over two thirds of Yemenis living in extreme poverty, safe water is now completely unaffordable ... Almost 400,000 children suffer from severe, acute malnutrition in Yemen ... and they are fighting for their lives and the poor access to safe drinking water is one of the most important causes of malnutrition," said Boulierac.

UNICEF warns the lack of safe water and other vital services are having a serious impact on health care and sanitation for children. It says thousands of children are in a particularly weakened condition and are vulnerable to outbreaks of diseases including acute watery diarrhea and cholera. It notes life-saving vaccines worth millions of dollars are at risk of being damaged because they cannot be properly stored without fuel.

UNICEF is urgently calling for an end to the blockade. It warns the crisis afflicting the Yemeni population, and children in particular, will spiral out of control unless fuel and other life-saving humanitarian aid can freely enter the country.
When Chiles President Michelle Bachelet leaves office in March, it will mark the end of a generation of women leaders in Latin America, leaving the region without a female head of state as it shifts to the right politically.

At the start of this decade, women held the top jobs in Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica and Chile, collectively representing about 40 percent of the population in a region better known for its machismo.

But conservative Sebastian Pineras victory in the second round of Chiles presidential election on Sunday drew that period to a close.

Bachelet was the first of her female counterparts to rise to power in a leftist tide that swept South America during a commodities-fueled economic boom. She served as president from 2006 to 2010 before winning re-election in 2013.

Together with Brazils Dilma Rousseff and Argentinas Cristina Fernandez, Bachelet embodied the major strides made by women across a region that has passed laws deterring rampant violence against women and set quotas for political participation that have given Latin American women a bigger share of parliamentary seats than in Europe.

But now some worry that progress on women's rights could stall.

Were seeing a shift to conservative politics that is questioning the advances of the last 15 to 20 years said Eugenia Piza-Lopez, who works on gender in Latin America for the United Nations Development Program.

Conservative groups are targeting gender equality across the region, said Piza-Lopez. Protests over curriculums aimed at empowering girls to rise above traditional female duties have helped topple education ministers in Peru and Colombia.

During campaigning in Chile, Pinera voiced concerns about the countrys declining birth rate as he took aim at changes to abortion laws under Bachelet, who loosened a strict ban to make exemptions for rape, unviable fetuses and the risk of death during labor.

While there is no definitive study showing female leaders do more to advance women's well-being than men, Farida Jalalzai, a political scientist at Oklahoma State University, said her research on Latin America suggested that was the case.

Dilma (Rousseff), for example, would take a policy that was already in existence and reframe it in ways that made it clear it was a womens issue, whether it was poverty or home ownership, Jalalzai said.

Piza-Lopez said Fernandez, who ruled Argentina from 2007 to 2015, helped narrow the gender poverty gap with her generous spending on social programs aimed at women.

Stella Zervoudaki, head of the European Union delegation in Chile, pointed to Bachelets creation of a ministry of women, her programs to finance companies led by women and work for marriage equality.

Im not sure this would have been as forceful without a woman leader, Zervoudaki said. She said Bachelet had pressed for a chapter on gender in an update to an EU trade agreement that called for progress on equal pay, fair maternity leave and better access to technology for women.

Corruption, scandals

In a region where corruption scandals often hurt presidencies, South America's women leaders were no honorable exception.

Rousseff was removed from office in 2016 on accusations she manipulated budget laws and was later charged with graft. A judge in Argentina has charged Fernandez, now a senator who is also under investigation for graft, with treason for allegedly covering up Iran's possible role in a 1994 bombing.

Both women deny wrongdoing. Rousseff recently visited Fernandez in her apartment in Buenos Aires to commiserate, and has said sexism played a role in her own impeachment.

Brazil's conservative President Michel Temer appointed an all-male cabinet after Rousseff's exit. She was voted out after lawmakers held up signs saying bye, dear!

In contrast, Pinera said on Monday he would announce the women and me who would form his team, a sign he would create a balanced cabinet, perhaps taking his lead from Bachelet, whose first cabinet was exactly half men and half women.

Bachelets own approval ratings were hit hard after her daughter-in-law was accused of using political ties to get access to a bank loan.

Six elections

Although Latin America is poised to hold six elections next year  in Costa Rica, Paraguay, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico and Brazil  the chances for another female president are slim.

In Mexico, leftist front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has repeatedly referred to his rival Margarita Zavala as the wife of Felipe Calderon  her husband and a former president  angering her supporters, who charge it is sexist. She is polling around 10 percent of votes.

In Brazil, Marina Silva, who has lost the presidency twice, recently joined the race and lies third in most polls.

A number of female candidates are expected to compete in Colombia's presidential race, though none is expected to win.

Maria Eugenia Vidal, the governor of Argentina's largest province of Buenos Aires, is the country's most popular politician, according to several polls, but is not expected to run for president in 2019.

Still-rampant sexism and sexual harassment in politics remain deterrents to women who want to rise to the top, said Mercedes Araoz, Peru's Prime Minister and a former presidential candidate.

Ive been a victim (of sexual harassment), Araoz recently told journalists. Its important to realize how discouraging it can be.
With millions of people on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe and children facing unspeakable violence, the Democratic Republic of Congo was the most neglected crisis in 2017, according to a survey of aid agencies.

Overshadowed by the Syrian war and Rohingya refugee exodus from Myanmar, Congo barely made headlines despite horrific violence that has erupted in the center of the vast country, they said.

The Central African Republic, with its "off the charts" vulnerability, and Yemen  ravaged by war and hunger  ranked behind Congo in the Thomson Reuters Foundation poll of 20 leading aid organizations.

"A massive humanitarian crisis has been unfolding in the Congo almost unnoticed," said Mark Smith, World Vision's emergencies chief. "The scale and brutality of what is happening to children in hard-to-reach places is almost unimaginable."

An insurrection against the government in the Greater Kasai region has displaced more than 1 million people in what the Norwegian Refugee Council called a "mega-crisis."

Food shortages have left millions hungry with hundreds of thousands of children at risk of dying.

Agencies have received accounts of mass killings, rapes and beheadings. There have also been reports of horrendous attacks on babies and young children.

Children as young as 10 have been recruited by armed groups, while others left orphaned are sleeping alone in forests.

Kasai's poor roads and telecommunications have made access challenging, contributing to its invisibility, agencies said.

Provinces in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo also remain volatile. Across the country, 13.1 million people need assistance, nearly a third of whom are displaced.

World Vision said it believed years of repeated and overlapping conflicts in Congo meant it had "fallen off people's radar"  a view echoed by others.

'Deliberate starvation'

Congo was named by nearly half those polled, but many said there had been such a plethora of crises in 2017  with at least four countries at risk of famine  that it was hard to pick the most neglected.

Oxfam named Central African Republic (CAR) as "the most forgotten of forgotten crises" with 2.4 million people needing help "in a country that most people don't even know exists."

CAR has been racked by violence since mainly Muslim rebels ousted the president in 2013, provoking a backlash from Christian militias.

The U.N. refugee agency said 1.1 million people  nearly a quarter of the population  had fallen through the cracks and warned the "calamitous situation" would worsen unless a massive funding shortfall was addressed.

Although Yemen has made headlines this year, agencies said the coverage did not begin to reflect the enormity of what was happening.

"The lack of public awareness ... is truly shocking given the sheer scale of suffering and deliberate starvation of much of the population," said Jean-Michel Grand, executive director of Action Against Hunger UK.

This week marked 1,000 days since the escalation of a conflict which has uprooted more than 2 million people, left 8.4 million close to famine and triggered a massive cholera epidemic.

The warring parties have attacked schools and hospitals and restricted aid.

"The past year has been incredibly harrowing," said Islamic Relief Worldwide CEO Naser Haghamed. "Despite an increase in media coverage and political intervention, the true scale of the emergency is still not dominant in the consciousness of the wider world."

International Medical Corps said the level of need was "unfathomably immense" and the situation almost entirely man-made.

'Weapon of war'

Two agencies flagged the displacement crisis in the Lake Chad Basin, which was voted the most neglected emergency in last year's poll.

An eight-year campaign by Boko Haram militants to create an Islamist caliphate has affected millions of people.

With most coverage focused on Nigeria, Plan International singled out the impact on its forgotten neighbor Niger where more than 400,000 people need help.

It said militants were killing and threatening teachers, forcing children to miss school and raising their vulnerability to sexual violence, abduction and enslavement.

"These children deserve the world's attention. The violence which is robbing a generation of an education and forcing them to grow up in a world of fear has got to stop," said Plan's humanitarian director Roger Yates.

With starvation threatening millions in Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen, one agency picked famine as the year's most neglected crisis.

Mercy Corps' humanitarian chief Michael Bowers said food was increasingly being used as a "weapon of war" with little action taken by the international community.

"Global hunger is on the rise for the first time this century," he said. "We fear 2018 will look much like 2017 without a massive drive to fight back hunger."
The Czech parliament revoked an election of a Communist-era policeman to a police oversight job on Tuesday after some lawmakers claimed the vote was manipulated.

Earlier, the lower chamber entrusted oversight of the police force to Zdenek Ondracek, former member of a Communist-era special unit which tried to crush the peaceful 1989 uprising that helped to bring down Communist rule.

The unprecedented appointment of a Communist lawmaker as chairman of parliament's General Inspection of Security Forces commission appeared to be part of complex manoeuvring by the new prime minister, billionaire businessman Andrej Babis, and his ANO party to get backing for a minority government.

Secret ballot

After the secret ballot, some lawmakers challenged the result with claims that it was unclear how many in the 200-seat lower chamber actually participated in the election. Ondracek received 95 votes, but due to the uncertainty it was impossible to determine whether he got the required majority.

Speaker of the house, ANOs Radek Vondracek, then declared the vote confused and said that it would be repeated in January.

The ANO has 78 seats in the new 200-seat lower house. Babis is seeking support or at least acquiescence from lawmakers of the other eight parties in parliament.

The far-left Communists with 15 seats, and far-right, anti-European Union SPD party with 22, have lent support in initial parliamentary votes in return for committee posts, but no deal has been announced on their backing for an ANO cabinet.

The secret ballot vote on Tuesday to appoint Ondracek was the first time the Communist party has gained such a post in nearly three decades since the fall of communism.

In 1989 his police unit used water cannon, clubs and dogs to disperse anti-regime protests. The demonstrations eventually led to the peaceful overthrow of Communist dictatorship in what became known as the Velvet Revolution.

A video from 1989, posted on YouTube, shows Ondracek defending police actions in an interview with state television.

It is sad that it happened only one day after we remembered the anniversary of (late president and leading anti-Communist dissident) Vaclav Havel's passing. The times have changed, said Vit Rakusan, deputy chairman of the Mayors and Independents party.

Communist party deputy chairman Jiri Dolejs, however, defended the appointment.

Police work should be scrutinised by those who understand it, he told reporters.

Babis faces charges

In October, the Communist party suffered the worst election result in its nearly 100-year history. Still, it is the only faction so far to say it could back the ANO government.

Direct or indirect support might also come from the SPD party of Czech-Japanese businessman Tomio Okamura.

Other parties have shunned Babis, mainly due to pending police charges against him over allegations he concealed his company's ownership of a farm and conference center a decade ago to illegally obtain a 2 million-euro European Union subsidy.

Babis, who was appointed prime minister this month and whose cabinet took power last week, has until mid-January to win a confidence vote. President Milos Zeman has said Babis will get a second try if his first attempt to form a government fails.
3 Seats are jammed together with other debris on an upside-down Amtrak train car sitting on a flat bed trailer taken from the scene of Monday's deadly crash onto Interstate 5.
The executive arm of the European Union has launched unprecedented disciplinary proceedings against Poland, contending that Warsaw's controversial judicial reforms undercut the independence of Polish courts.

European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans of the Netherlands told reporters in Brussels that 13 laws adopted by Poland in the past two years created a situation in which the Polish ruling majority "can systematically politically interfere with the composition, powers, the administration and the functioning" of judicial authorities.

He said "the rule of law is under threat" in Poland, violating a key underpinning of EU principles, judicial independence.

Timmermans gave Warsaw three months to withdraw the measures, but Polish justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro said despite EU condemnation of the laws, the "reform" of its judicial system would continue.

Poland's right-wing Law and Justice party began making the changes after taking over the government in 2015, saying they were necessary to combat corruption and overhaul a judicial system that was rooted in the country's communist past.

Poland's new prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said last week, "I am firmly convinced that sovereign states, and Europe must be a Europe of sovereign states, have an absolute right to reform their judicial systems."

A spokeswoman for the ruling party, Beata Mazurek, said the commission's action "has no merit. It is, in our opinion, a purely political decision." She said it may be related to Poland's refusal to accept Muslim migrants fleeing wars and strife in the Middle East.

The European Commission action could, at least in theory, lead to a suspension of Poland's voting rights at the European Council, although that would only be possible after a lengthy administrative review of the two-year-old dispute and votes by the 28-nation EU membership against Poland.

In the first stage of the review, at least 22 member states would have to "determine that there is a clear risk of a serious breach" of the rule of law by Poland's adoption of the laws affecting the independence of its judiciary.

Any actual sanctions against Poland's EU voting rights would require a unanimous EU vote, aside from Poland, and Polish ally Hungary has already said it would veto such a move.

With the possibility of actual sanctions remote, the EU has been looking for other ways to force Poland to change the new laws, possibly by linking EU funding to Warsaw for infrastructure projects if it believes EU values and rulings are not being respected.
The European Union's executive may trigger a process on Wednesday to begin to strip Poland of its voting rights in the bloc, officials say, as months of tensions between Brussels and Warsaw come to a head.

In what would be an unprecedented move, the European Commission could invoke Article 7 of the European Union's founding Lisbon Treaty to punish Warsaw for breaking its rules on human rights and democratic values.

Unless the Polish government postpones these court reforms, we will have no choice but to trigger Article 7, said a senior EU official before a Commission meeting on Wednesday, where Polands reforms are on the agenda.

Polands new prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in Brussels last week that the decision has already been made."



The Commission's deputy head Frans Timmermans warned in July that Poland was perilously close to facing sanctions.

Such a punishment could still be blocked. Hungary, Polands closest ally in the EU, is likely to argue strongly against it.

But the mere threat of it underlines the sharp deterioration in ties between Warsaw and Brussels since the socially conservative Law and Justice (PiS) won power in late 2015.

The Commission says Polands judicial reforms limit judges independence. Polish President Andrzej Duda has until Jan. 5 to sign them into law.

If all EU governments agree, Poland could have its voting rights in the EU suspended, and may also see cuts in billions of euros of EU aid.

The PiS government rejects accusations of undemocratic behaviour and says its reforms are needed because courts are slow, inefficient and steeped in a communist era-mentality.

Following a non-binding European Parliament vote last month calling for Article 7 to be invoked, the Commission appears to have little leeway to grant Warsaw more time to amend its legislation.

The reforms would give the PiS-controlled parliament de facto control over the selection of judges and end the terms of some Supreme Court judges early.

The Council of Europe, the continents human rights watchdog, has compared such measures to those of the Soviet system.

The Commission fears letting Poland off the hook could weaken its hand, especially in the ex-communist east, and risk damaging the EUs single market and cross-border legal cooperation.
Fighting in eastern Ukraine has escalated to the worst level in months, officials monitoring the conflict said Tuesday, after the shelling of a front-line village wounded eight civilians and destroyed or damaged dozens of homes.

A Russia-backed insurgency erupted in 2014 and the bloodshed has continued despite a cease-fire deal that was meant to end a conflict in which more than 10,000 people have been killed, with casualties reported on a near-daily basis.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which monitors the implementation of the peace agreement, said it had recorded 16,000 cease-fire violations from December 11 to December 17, a 35 percent increase from the week before.

"We note with concern a sharp deterioration in the security situation with cease-fire violations reaching levels not recorded since February this year," chief monitor Ertugrul Apakan said in a statement.

Violence near Avdiivka

In February, a surge of violence around the government-held industrial town of Avdiivka cut off power and water to thousands of civilians on the front line.

Apakan said the latest escalation reflected an established trend "in which a recommitment to the cease-fire by the sides was followed by a steady increase in the level of violence, culminating in fierce fighting."

Apakan's comments followed warnings from aid agencies about the humanitarian situation in the eastern Donbass region, particularly given Monday's attack on the government-controlled village of Novoluhanske.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Twitter that heavy shelling near Novoluhanske was affecting 2,000 residents. People were fleeing the area in blizzard conditions, it said.

Eight civilians were wounded and more than 50 buildings were damaged in the shelling, which also temporarily cut power supplies, the regional Kyiv-controlled Donetsk administration said.

A Reuters witness saw residents picking their way through the rubble of destroyed homes and surveying fire-blackened buildings.

The Ukrainian military on Tuesday accused pro-Russian separatists of deliberately firing more than 40 times from multiple-launch rocket systems at Novoluhanske.

Rebels say they were targeted

Meanwhile, the rebel command said attacks from the Ukrainian side had almost doubled in the past 24 hours, according to separatist news website DAN.

Rebels denied attacking Novoluhanske and said the Ukrainian military had fired at the village to justify their attacks on separatist-held civilian areas, according to DAN.

In an effort to end the deadlock, the international community, including the United States, has in recent months been advocating for the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in the Donbass.

Both Kyiv and Moscow backed the idea but disagreed about whether the troops should be positioned on the rebel-controlled part of the Ukraine-Russia border, so no decision was made.

Russia denies accusations from Ukraine and NATO that it supports the rebels with troops and weapons.
Hundreds of South Sudanese refugees entered the Democratic Republic of Congo this week after South Sudanese government forces captured a rebel base near the border.



Amid gunfire late Sunday, South Sudanese troops entered Lasu town, which had been the rebels' second general headquarters. The rebels pulled out the next day.



Mary Awate fled her home to the forests when the clashes began. With her children to take care of, she spent two days hiding in the bush before reaching the Congo border on Tuesday.



"We just heard the sound of the gun, especially these big ones, so everyone just started running in the bush," she said.



The new arrivals fled to the Congolese town of Aba. More than 30,000 people had already gone there since the start of South Sudan's civil war in December 2013.



More than two million people have fled South Sudan during the war. There have been many ceasefires declared, but none have been observed.

In Aba's hospital, Isaac Bida lay with a bullet wound in his back. He said he was shot by South Sudan government troops near Lasu as he tried to flee on a motorbike.



Bida said he is a civilian.



"When I saw the soldiers before from far away," he said. "... They were calling me, please come come, but something came into my mind to be careful of them, and as I tried to turn and go, they shot three bullets. The fourth one hit me. ... Maybe they thought I was a rebel."



Refugees were still entering Aba on Wednesday. Liwa Morris Taban, the chairperson of the South Sudan refugee community in Aba, said some of the new arrivals are in critical condition after fleeing through the forests.



He urged fellow refugees to stay at the refugee site, rather than go back to South Sudan to search for lost relatives.



"It is very, very risky for them to go back to South Sudan," he cautioned. "People are running from there, they are fearing government soldiers. ... It is very hard for me as chairperson of the site to allow people to go back. I know some left their relatives, their kids behind and they have that intention of going to bring their kids, but its a bit risky."



A new round of peace talks between the government and rebels began this week in Ethiopia.

Thirty-five-year-old Charity Awate, who fled the Lasu fighting with her husband and six children on Tuesday, said the fresh fighting has dimmed her hopes of an end to violence.



"At first we heard of the talks and we were happy," she said, "but now we have been chased to Congo, we are not confident in that. "



With no peace in sight, she and others must look toward a new life as refugees in Congo.
U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley has warned other United Nations envoys that she will be taking names when the U.N. General Assembly holds a rare emergency session on Thursday to consider a resolution rejecting U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital.

The President will be watching this vote carefully and has requested I report back on those countries who voted against us, the letter, seen by VOA, says. We will take note of each and every vote on this issue.



In a reversal of long-standing U.S. policy, President Donald Trump announced earlier this month that Washington would recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital and begin preparations to build a new embassy there.



That announcement was met with a move in the U.N. Security Council on Monday to adopt a resolution noting its deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem.



While not specifically mentioning the U.S. decision, the text also said, any decision and actions which purport to have altered the character, status, or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded."



Fourteen of the councils 15 members voted in favor of the draft resolution, but the United States used its veto power to block its adoption.



The United States will not be told by any country where we can put our embassy, Ambassador Haley told council members after the vote.

Haley followed up with Tuesdays letter with a tweet:

At the UN we're always asked to do more & give more. So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl, abt where to locate OUR embassy, we don't expect those we've helped to target us. On Thurs there'll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names.

In Washington Wednesday, President Trump praised Haley for sending a message at the U.N. to all of these nations that take our money and then they vote against us at the Security Council, or they vote against us potentially at the assembly.

They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us. Well, were watching those votes. Let them vote against us, well save a lot. We dont care, Trump said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House.

At the U.N., several diplomats said they had received Haley's letter, but did not plan to change their stance.



Our position on this case has been very clear, we have had the opportunity to express ourselves in the Security Council, so that is our very strongly principled position, said Swedens U.N. ambassador Olof Skoog. For us this is not at all about our bilateral relations with the United States, which is very good.

Thursdays emergency General Assembly session was requested by Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour, with the backing of Arab and non-aligned countries.



Mansour told reporters on Monday he hopes there will be "overwhelming support" in the General Assembly for the measure rejecting U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital. He said the Palestinians would continue applying pressure to urge the Trump administration to reverse its position.



General Assembly resolutions are non-binding, but still carry moral weight, demonstrating the majority opinion of the international community.



Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its eternal capital, while the Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state and say the United States is no longer a reliable partner in the peace process.



The Trump administration says it is committed to a two-state solution in the Middle East if that is what the parties want, and that the physical location of its embassy should have no bearing on the talks.
Saudi Arabia said Wednesday that it would keep Yemen's Houthi rebel-controlled port of Hodeidah open to humanitarian deliveries for 30 days despite another rebel missile attack on Saudi territory.

"Keen to maintain humanitarian aid to the brotherly Yemeni people and as a result of intensified inspection measures, the coalition command announces that Hodeidah port will remain open," a statement said.

The Saudis also said four new cranes would be brought to the port to help unload ships.

The Saudi-led coalition trying to drive the Houthis out of Yemen imposed an air and sea blockade on the country last month after a missile attack on the Riyadh airport.

It eased the blockade on Hodeidah to let desperately needed food, fuel and medical supplies get to Yemeni civilians. But the port is still closed to commercial traffic, and relief workers said that's preventing aid from getting in.

The Saudis said the rebels were getting weapons through Hodeidah, but as pointed out in the coalition statement, ship inspections have intensified.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Wednesday again took issue with what he called "baseless accusations" made by the United States that Tehran has been arming the Houthis.

Via state media, Zarif called the U.S. moves provocative and said U.S. officials were trying to "hide their support for the bombardment of the innocent Yemenis through such accusations."

Iran has admitted supporting the Houthis but has denied giving them weapons, including the missiles fired into Saudi Arabia. The U.S. supports the Saudi-led coalition.

The Trump administration has said it is "deeply disturbed by aggressive Houthi actions supported by Iran's provision of advanced weapons, which threaten regional security and prolong the Yemeni conflict."

It also says if Iran is sending missiles to Yemen, it would violate two international arms embargoes  one against the Houthis and one against Iran.

Last week at a military base in Washington, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley showed reporters what she said was debris from a short-range missile of Iranian origin recently fired by the Houthis into Saudi Arabia.

The Saudis say the rebels have shot more than 80 missiles into the country since it began airstrikes against the Houthis in 2015. The missiles have been intercepted and no damage has been reported.

The Saudi-led airstrikes have killed or wounded more than 14,000 civilians and wiped out entire neighborhoods. This misery comes on top of a looming famine in Yemen, a cholera epidemic, and a severe shortage of fuel to run generators to power hospitals and water treatment plants.

The Houthis seized the Yemeni capital of Sanaa in 2014, forcing internationally recognized President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi to flee to exile in Saudi Arabia.

He has since returned to the Yemeni port of Aden. The Houthis still control the capital and large parts of northern Yemen.

The power vacuum in Yemen has opened the door for extremists, including Islamic State, to set up bases in the country.
Five lawsuits against the Trump administration's decision to end a program protecting some young immigrants from deportation face a key federal court hearing in San Francisco that could put an early end to the legal challenges or give them a big boost.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup will hear arguments on Wednesday to determine whether to block President Donald Trump from rescinding the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program while the lawsuits by California and other plaintiffs play out in court. The judge is also considering a request by the Trump administration to throw the lawsuits out. Alsup is not expected to rule immediately.

DACA has protected about 800,000 people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children or came with families who overstayed visas. The program currently includes hundreds of thousands of college-age students commonly referred to as "Dreamers,'' based on never-passed proposals in Congress called the DREAM Act that would have provided similar protections for young immigrants.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced in September that DACA would be phased out, saying President Barack Obama had exceeded his authority when he implemented it in 2012.

The move sparked a flurry of lawsuits in different federal courts across the country, including one in New York that was filed by 15 states and the District of Columbia.

Alsup is considering five other lawsuits, including one brought by California and three other states and another by the governing board of the University of California school system.

The lawsuits seek a court order blocking the administration from rescinding DACA, saying the decision has not been "reasonably explained'' and is causing "catastrophic and irreparable harm to DACA recipients'' by forcing them to decide whether to leave schools, jobs and even family members in the U.S.

The U.S. Department of Justice said in court documents that DACA was facing the possibility of an abrupt end by court order, so the administration's decision to phase it out was less disruptive.

Under the Trump administration's policy, DACA recipients will be allowed to stay in the U.S. for the remainder of their two-year authorizations. The administration also gave any recipients whose deferred action was due to expire within six months a month to apply for another two-year term. The DOJ wants Alsup to dismiss the five lawsuits.

Alsup had ordered the Trump administration to turn over all emails, letters and other documents it considered in its decision to end DACA, but the U.S. Supreme Court put that order on hold earlier in December.
Twelve people have been killed  with eight Americans among them - in Mexico Tuesday after a tour bus carrying passengers from Royal Caribbean cruise ships crashed along a highway. Two Swedes, one Canadian and a tour guide were also among the dead.

Local officials said excessive speed and driver negligence were to blame when the bus carrying 31 passengers flipped and struck a tree.



The bus was traveling to Mayan ruins in the state of Quintana Roo - home to the popular resort city of Cancun.

The state government said four Americans, three Canadians, four Brazilians and two Swedes were hospitalized with injuries. The Swedes were transported to the U.S. for treatment.



By Wednesday afternoon, only one Brazilian and three Americans remained in local hospitals, officials told the Associated Press.

The Swedish and Canadian governments confirmed the deaths of their citizens, but the U.S. embassy in Mexico City confirmed only that there were "multiple'' American deaths and several injuries.
The United Nation's special human rights envoy to Myanmar says the government is barring her from visiting the country to assess the current situation in the East Asian nation.

Wednesday's announcement by Yanghee Lee coincides with Myanmar's military disclosing the discovery of 10 bodies in a mass grave in northwestern Rakhine state, which more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims once called home before fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh to escape a brutal military offensive.

The grave was discovered Monday in the village of Inn Din. The army says it is conducting an investigation.

The South Korean-born Lee said she is "puzzled and disappointed" by the government's decision, which gives off "a strong indication that there must be something terribly awful happening in Rakhine."

Amnesty International condemned the decision, calling on the international community to demand access to the region.



"The Myanmar military claim they have done nothing wrong during the past months. If so, the authorities should have nothing to hide. Why are they denying access for independent and impartial investigators?" said James Gomez, Amnesty Internationals Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

Myanmar's military has been accused of launching a scorched earth campaign in August against Rohingya villages in response to attacks on Myanmar police outposts by Rohingya militants.

Rohingya refugees have told human rights workers of a host of atrocities committed by security forces, including random shootings, rapes and the burning down of homes and entire villages. Myanmar dismisses the stories as exaggerated, and the army has cleared itself of any abuses.

The United Nations has described the reported actions carried out by Myanmar forces as "a textbook case of ethnic cleansing."

The Rohingya minority has been denied citizenship and other rights in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

Myanmar views the Rohingya as immigrants from Bangladesh, despite the fact that many families have lived in Myanmar for generations.

WATCH: Turkish Prime Minister Addresses Rohingya Crisis

Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim visited the Mainnaghota refugee camp in southeastern Bangladesh on Wednesday and echoed the U.N.'s assessment of the treatment of the Rohingya.

"This is ethnic cleansing," he said. "No doubt about it."

He called on Muslim nations to send aid, saying if they want to "do a blessing," the Rohingya refugee camps are "the best place. If they want to serve their religion, this is the best place."

While in Bangladesh, Yildirim handed over two ambulances from Turkey for use in the medical treatment of Rohingya refugees.
The United States and Canada said Tuesday that nations from around the world would convene January 16 to show solidarity against North Korea's nuclear program.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, meeting in Ottawa, said the meeting would take place in Vancouver.

The meeting will involve the "sending states'' that sent forces as part of a U.N. command to support South Korea during the Korean War. They'll be joined by additional countries, including Japan, South Korea and India.

Tillerson said the meeting would seek to advance the pressure campaign on North Korea and send a unified message that the global community won't accept the North's becoming a nuclear state. He said the pressure campaign would keep intensifying.
Two opposition parties, the Gorran and the Kurdistan Islamic Group (Komal), have withdrawn from Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), party sources said.

The withdrawals came Wednesday after two days of violence in the region, as Kurdish demonstrators protest years of austerity measures and unpaid public sector salaries.

Regional tensions escalated after the central government in Baghdad imposed stringent measures due to the KRG's holding of an independence referendum, on September 25, in which the Kurds voted overwhelmingly to secede.

The decision to withdraw came in defiance of Baghdad and alarmed neighboring Iran and Turkey, which have sizable Kurdish minority populations.

The opposition parties have said they support the demands of the protesters but urged calm after two days of deadly protests.

At least three people have been killed and more than 80 others injured since Tuesday in clashes with Kurdish security forces, local officials said.

On Monday and Tuesday, protesters also attacked several offices of the main political parties in northern Iraq's Sulaimaniya province.

There were no major protests Wednesday in Sulaimaniya, but security forces from the regional capital of Irbil have been deployed in the area, enforcing curfews after Tuesday's violence.

Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said Tuesday while on an official visit to Germany he understood the protesters' frustrations, but that torching the offices of political parties was "not helpful."

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq said Wednesday it was "deeply concerned" about the unrest and issued a plea for restraint.

"The people have a right to partake in peaceful demonstrations, and the authorities have the responsibility of protecting their citizens, including peaceful protesters," UNAMI said.

The U.N. mission also urged the KRG to respect the rights of the media after Kurdish security forces took a private Kurdish television station, NRT TV, off the air.
Pope Francis is set to offer a final commendation Thursday at the Rome funeral of Cardinal Bernard Law, even as Laws critics recalled him as the disgraced archbishop of Boston in the United States who covered up the actions of pedophile priests.

The Vatican said Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the dean of the College of Cardinals, will celebrate the funeral mass in St. Peters Basilica for Law, who died earlier this week in Rome at the age of 86 after a long illness. Pope Francis will then offer a blessing for Law, as he has done previously at other cardinals funerals.

Law oversaw the Catholic churchs archdiocese in Boston in the northeastern U.S. for 19 years before he was forced to resign in 2002 as allegations mounted that he had hidden widespread pedophilia by dozens of parish priests, often moving them from one church to another rather than removing them from the ministry. The archdiocese eventually paid $95 million as compensation to more than 500 victims.

As he left the U.S. for Rome to become archpriest of the Papal Liberian Basilica of St. Mary Major, Law said, To all those who have suffered from my shortcomings and mistakes I both apologize and from them beg forgiveness.

The scandal of abusive priests spread, however, eventually reverberating through several archdioceses in the U.S. and in other countries.

As news of Laws death became known, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said, We highly doubt there is a single victim of abuse who will ever receive the same attention, pomp and circumstance by Pope Francis.

Every single Catholic should ask Pope Francis and the Vatican why, the group said. Why Laws life was so celebrated when Bostons clergy sex abuse survivors suffered so greatly? Why was Law promoted when Bostons Catholic children were sexually abused, ignored, and pushed aside time and time again?

Laws successor in Boston, Cardinal Sean OMalley, reacted to his death by apologizing to the victims of clergy sex abuse.

I recognize that Cardinal Laws passing brings forth a wide range of emotions on the part of many people. I am particularly cognizant of all who experienced the trauma of sexual abuse by clergy, whose lives were so seriously impacted by those crimes, and their families and loved ones, O'Malley said. To those men and women, I offer my sincere apologies for the harm they suffered, my continued prayers and my promise that the archdiocese will support them in their effort to achieve healing.

One survivor of the clergy sex abuse, Alexa MacPherson, said at a news conference, With his passing, I say I hope the gates of hell are open wide to welcome him because I feel no redemption for somebody like him is worthwhile.

Another victim, Robert Costello, said, I dont really consider him a cardinal or a man of God. There were plenty of priests who knew what was going on but they had their own secrets to hide.
White House staff members met with a group of senators Tuesday to talk about the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which has benefited hundreds of thousands of undocumented youths.

The result of the private meeting, first reported by Politico, was a pledge by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly to present a list of border security and immigration policy changes to be included in any legislative fix to help DACA recipients. Sources told Politico that Kelly could return with a new list of demands within days.

According to people who attended the meeting, the new plan may come in January, and it would allow nearly 800,000 DACA immigrants, who were brought illegally to the United States as minors, to continue to work and study in the country.

Politico said a half-dozen senators have been working to come up with a bipartisan solution on DACA. They were prompted by President Donald Trump's announcement in September that the DACA program would end. It is set to expire March 5, and work permits that have not been renewed will begin to be phased out at that time.

Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona said senators could not reach an agreement until they knew what the Trump administration was inclined to sign.

"We couldn't finish this product, this bill, until we knew where the administration was. ... And that's why this meeting was so important," Flake told Politico after the meeting with Kelly.

Also on Wednesday, Trump renewed his immigration priorities.

At a Cabinet meeting, the president vowed to end the diversity visa program, known as the the green card lottery, and cut family-based immigration, which critics call chain migration. He also called on Congress to fund his proposed border wall.

"When we take people that are lottery  [other countries] are not putting their best people in the lottery. It's common sense.  They put their worst people into the lottery. And that's what we get, in many cases. So that's not going to be happening anymore. We're going to end it," Trump said.

No near-term DACA solution

Lawmakers in both parties said Tuesday that Congress was not expected to resolve the DACA issue before next year.

Senator Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, also attended the meeting and said the closer officials get to the March deadline "the more nervous I get, not to mention the way these young people feel. I'm sorry that it's taken this long.

"Our belief is that if this matter is not resolved this week ... that we have another chance to finally come up with a bipartisan package of things to include" by mid-January, Durbin said.

Meanwhile, DACA recipients opened Dream Act Central, a tent space on Washington's National Mall that is serving as headquarters for a final push to urge Congress to pass legislation replacing the DACA program.

A large-screen television at the site, which faces Capitol Hill, shows stories of young undocumented immigrants, known informally as Dreamers. The term is based on never-passed proposals in Congress called the DREAM Act, the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, that would have provided residence and employment protections for young immigrants similar to those in DACA.
South Carolina's capital on Tuesday passed the first U.S. city-specific measure banning bump stocks, joining a movement to halt the use of the gun accessory that drew national scrutiny after it was found to part of a Las Vegas shooting rampage in October.

The Columbia City Council voted to approve a measure that bans the attachment of the devices to weapons in city limits.

The measure does not ban possession of bump stocks, which can make semiautomatic rifles fire hundreds of rounds a minute like fully automatic machine guns.

Last month, Massachusetts became the first state to pass a law that explicitly bans bump stocks.

Steve Benjamin, the mayor of Columbia, said at the council meeting he hoped the measure would provide a framework for other cities looking to enact similar legislation.

"One of the common refrains that you hear, whether it was in Texas or Vegas or Sandy Hook, is that a good guy with a gun could have stopped the carnage," Benjamin, a Democrat, said in a phone interview on Monday. "It's time for the good guys with guns to begin to pass some really good policy."

Authorities said Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock had 12 rifles outfitted with bump stocks in the hotel room where he launched his attack on an outdoor concert, killing 58 people and wounding hundreds in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Since then several states and cities have proposed measures outlawing or restricting the attachments, and the U.S. Justice Department said earlier this month it was considering a ban on certain bump stocks.

California and New York do not prohibit bump stocks outright, but the devices fall under the definition of an automatic weapon, which are illegal in those states, according to Anne Teigen, who covers firearm legislation for the National Conference of State Legislatures. Some other states and the District of Columbia have assault weapons bans that could include bump stocks.

"We are not aware of any cities that have passed ordinances banning bump stocks," said Tom Martin, a spokesman for the National League of Cities.

The Columbia measure also would ban the use of other gun attachments that allow rifles to fire faster. Using such devices would be a misdemeanor, and owners would be required to keep them stored separately from any weapon.

Trigger-enhancing devices are not gun parts, gun components, weapons or ammunition, which state law prohibits cities from regulating, Benjamin said.
China is widely forecast to bolster its military power next year in the South China Sea to resist Japan, India and the United States, as well as the Asian states that dispute Beijing's maritime claims.



Scholars believe China will eventually enhance radar surveillance and let fighter jets use tiny islets for stopovers. Beijing might declare an air defense identification zone or other means of maritime control, too, they suggest.



It probably hopes the United States, along with militarily powerful allies such as Japan and India, will stay out after they jumped into the dispute this year, according to Oh Ei Sun, international studies instructor at Singapore Nanyang University.



"I don't think they're primarily offensive in nature, but of course with those installations in place, they will have more bargaining chips, they're in a stronger position to say the U. S. should not perform [freedom of navigation operations] and such in the South China Sea," Oh said.



New hardware



China this year added installations in the Paracel and Spratly Islands, said the Asia Maritime Transparency Institute of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

In 2017, China built underground storage areas, administrative structures and "large radar and sensor arrays," said the Washington-based research group. The construction covered about 290,000 square meters "of new real estate."

Beijing built most actively at Fiery Cross reef in the Spratlys, it said, including work to finish tunnels that are likely for ammunition storage. High-frequency radar gear also appeared on the reef, it adds.



China is the most militarized of six governments that claim all or part of the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea, which is valued for fisheries and fossil fuels. It has been building up islets since 2010.



China has enough installations to land fighter jets, refuel, rearm and let crews rest, said Collin Koh, maritime security research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.



State-run China Central Television said earlier in the month the military had deployed jet fighters to Woody Island in the Paracel chain.



China may draw a line of control around its holdings in the Spratly Islands, contested by four Southeast Asian countries plus Taiwan, and consider an air defense identification zone, the initiative's director Gregory Poling said.



China declared an air defense identification zone off its east coast, in a sea disputed by Japan, in 2013.



Outside influence

Analysts say China's buildup is aimed at claimants Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam as well as powerful nations that do not claim ownership over the sea.



But the United States particularly irks China as a powerful arms supplier and military trainer for the Philippines. Washington sends naval vessels into the South China Sea periodically to back its position the waters are open to freedom of navigation.



"When the Chinese are suddenly trying to stop resupply of the Philippine forces at Pag-Asa or on the Sierra Madre [ship] at Second Thomas Shoal, then [Philippine President Rodrigo] Duterte is going to face an enormous amount of pressure to react strongly," Poling said, referring to two Manila-held features in the Spratly chain.



"The only way the Philippines can possibly react, really, is to strengthen the defense relation with the U. S.," he said.



India, a Western ally, upgraded its partnership with Vietnam last year year as part of its Act East policy, which analysts say is designed to check Chinese expansion.



Japan, an ally of the United States, passed a helicopter carrier through the sea in mid-2017, adding to repeated comments from Tokyo the waterway should be ruled by international law.



China bases its claim to about 90 percent of the sea on historical fishing records. It has eased the dispute through offers of aid and investment around Southeast Asia. Next year, it's due to sign a code of conduct with regional countries to head off accidents at sea.



Deterrent effect



After appeals by other claimant countries a U. N. arbitration tribunal said China lacked a legal basis to much of its claim.



But China's buildup has continued. It's "like the Cold War," when opponents stocked nuclear weapons to head off attacks, Oh said.



Some other countries see China's current level of control as a "fact," Koh said.



But in November, heads of state from Australia, India, Japan and the United States met in Manila to call for "free, open, prosperous and inclusive" Asian seas, according to an Indian external affairs ministry statement.



China, which resents the role of outside powers in the South China Sea, sees provocation from outside players as cause to keep strengthening its claims, Koh said.



"Now they are trying to demonstrate to the U. S. or allies like Japan and Australia that China is in to stay, and more importantly it's not just purely staying power," he added, "It's the ability to sustain and project force in that area. "
Polls show that more than half of American voters disapprove of President Donald Trump's performance in office. However, many voters in rural America support the president. They say the polls are not accurate and that politicians in both parties and the media are working to undermine him. Mike OSullivan paid a visit to rural Lassen County, California, one of the rural areas where Trump has strong support.
Turkish citizens wishing to visit the United States will again be able to apply for visas, but not anytime soon.

The U.S. Embassy in Ankara announced this week that the earliest appointments for applications are in January 2019, more than a year from now.

The U.S. suspended all nonimmigrant visa services in Turkey Oct. 8 in response to the arrest of Metin Topuz, a consulate employee in Istanbul, on terrorism charges. Turkey shut down visa services in the U.S. in retaliation.

WATCH: Student Arif Yediren

The two nations resumed limited visa services in early November, around the time of a visit to Washington by Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.

In a statement on Twitter this week, the U.S. Embassy said visa appointments are still limited, but we are prioritizing F, J, M, and petition-based work categories, as well as applicants with medical and business travel.

The statement added that appointments are available for January 2019, and applicants can always choose to apply outside of Turkey.

F, J and M visas provide for different kinds of academic and vocational studies in the U.S.

A State Department official told VOA Wednesday that the purpose of the suspension in visa services was to minimize visits to the embassy and consulates while we assessed the commitment of the government of Turkey to the security of our diplomatic facilities and personnel.

Few details offered

The State Department declined to elaborate on the reasons for the yearlong delay in visa appointments.

But several Turkish citizens tell VOA in Istanbul the more than yearlong wait just to apply for a visa will hurt many Turks.

"How many American citizens come to Turkey in order to make money besides the appointed soldiers and the diplomatic personnel and their families," Murat Akyuzoglu, a lawyer, asked. "But hundreds of thousands of Turks live in the U.S. and all of those people's friends and families live here."

WATCH: Teacher Gunes Sagmen Oztanrsever

A teacher said the U.S. owes Turks "an explanation" while two students called the waiting period a political and anti-Muslim policy.

The visa spat has been a low point in a long-running deterioration in relations between the U.S. and Turkey, a key NATO ally straddling Europe and the Middle East, and once a Cold War listening post into the Soviet Union.

Relations worsened with an attempted coup in Turkey in July 2016, which the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blamed on dissident cleric Fethullah Gulen, who now lives in self-imposed exile in the U.S.

WATCH: Lawyer Murat Akyuzoglu

Washington has rebuffed repeated Turkish requests for his extradition, saying Ankara has not provided satisfactory evidence of his involvement in the coup attempt. Gulen has denied the accusations. Turkey has accused Topuz, who remains in custody, of being tied to Gulen's network.

The U.S.-Turkish relationship has also been troubled by American support for the Peoples Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish militia that played a vital role in the war against Islamic State extremists in Iraq and Syria. Turkey sees the group as a terrorist organization linked to a Kurdish separatist movement in southeastern Turkey.

Erdogan said last month that President Donald Trump had promised in a phone call to cut off arms shipments to the YPG. But the Pentagon later said any arms shipments would be decided based on needs on the ground.

WATCH: Student Taha Celik

More recently, Turkey has been angered by the trial in New York of Mehmet Hakan Atilla, deputy head of the Turkish state-owned Halkbank, who is accused of helping to circumvent U.S. sanctions on Iran.

During testimony in late November, Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab, the prosecution's star witness who has pleaded guilty in the case, accused Erdogan and his then-finance minister, Ali Babacan, of being aware of the sanctions-evasion scheme. Erdogan has criticized the probe as politically motivated.



VOA's Ken Schwartz contributed to this report.
Turkey's president is railing against the United Arab Emirates' foreign minister, who retweeted a post that accused the Turkish leader's Ottoman "forefathers" of mistreating Arabs and stealing manuscripts from the holy city of Medina.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday called on UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed al Nahyan to "know (his) place!" without naming him directly.

Erdogan said the Ottoman Pasha who governed Medina between 1916 and 1919 was protecting the holy city and its treasures, adding: "O you poor (man) who is slandering us, where were your ancestors at the time?"

Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said: "It is a shame that @ABZayed, FM of UAE, retweets this propaganda lie that seeks to turn Turks & Arabs against one another, again. It was Fahreddin Pasha who bravely defended Madina against the British plans then. Is attacking President Erdogan at all costs the new fashion now?"

The squabble comes at a time when Turkey has sided with Qatar in a diplomatic dispute with the UAE and other Gulf nations over Doha's alleged support to extremists and overly warm ties to Iran.
Ugandan legislators voted late Wednesday to amend the country's constitution to allow 73-year-old leader Yoweri Museveni to extend his rule, potentially guaranteeing him a life-time presidency.

A provision in the current constitution limits the age of a presidential candidate at 75 years, which would have made Museveni ineligible to stand at the next polls in 2021.

At the end of Wednesday's daylong House debate, which capped a protracted and violence-marred process to remove that age limit, MPs voted 315-62 in favor of the amendment.

"The bill passes," said speaker Rebecca Kadaga after announcing tally results, prompting raucous celebrations from the mostly ruling party MPs who favored the bill.

Earlier in the day, two lawmakers were dragged away and detained when they tried to enter parliament, as the divisive debate proceeded in the chamber.

Police had blocked some legislators from entering the building, and live television footage showed two of them being driven away in security vehicles. Both opposed the bill.

The legislators blocked by police were attempting to enter parliament to serve court documents on Kadaga, who was presiding over the debate.

The document called on her to appear in court at 2 p.m. in respect of "the irregular suspension of our members of parliament," independent lawmaker Wilfred Niwagaba told a local television station minutes before he was detained.

Six MPs  all opposed to removal of the age cap  were suspended from parliamentary proceedings on Monday for alleged disorderly conduct and refusing to heed the speaker's instructions.

The bill to amend the constitution was introduced in parliament October 4 by a Museveni loyalist, after two consecutive days of brawling in the debating chamber between those opposed and those in favor, supported by security personnel.

On the second day, security personnel  who some MPs said were soldiers from an elite military unit  entered the chamber and violently ejected at least 25 MPs that the speaker had suspended from proceedings for alleged misconduct.

Second extension for Museveni

Wednesday's vote was the second time Ugandan parliament has changed the constitution to allow Museveni to extend his rule. In 2005, they voted to remove a limit of two five-year terms, which blocked him from standing again.

The bill also extended the length of a term for MPs to seven years from the current five. The limit of two terms was also re-imposed for the president, although that only means Museveni would be limited to two more terms, starting with the 2021 election.

"Are you not seeing what happened in Zimbabwe? Do we want his excellency to end like Gaddafi of Libya?" opposition legislator, Gilbert Olanya, who opposed the amendment, said in Wednesday's debate as he attempted to persuade colleagues to reject it.

Several African leaders have amended laws designed to limit their tenure. Such moves have fueled violence in countries including Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan.

Initially hailed for restoring political order and fostering economic growth, Museveni has lately come under mounting pressure fueled by runaway corruption, and accusations he uses security forces to maintain his grip on power.

Both military and police personnel were heavily deployed around parliament this week, which opposition MPs say was meant to intimidate members.
The United States needs to encourage domestic production of a handful of minerals critical for the technology and defense industries, and stem reliance on China, U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said Tuesday.

Zinke made the remarks at the Interior Department as he unveiled a report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), which detailed the extent to which the United States is dependent upon foreign competitors for its supply of certain minerals.

The report identified 23 out of 88 minerals that are priorities for U.S. national defense and the economy because they are components in products ranging from batteries to military equipment.

The report found that the United States was 100 percent net import reliant on 20 mineral commodities in 2016, including manganese, niobium, tantalum and others. In 1954, the U.S. was 100 percent import reliant for the supply of just eight nonfuel mineral commodities.

"We have the minerals here and likely we have enough to provide our needs and be a world trader in them, but we have to go forward and identify where they are at," Zinke told reporters at an Interior Department briefing.

He also blamed previous administrations for allowing foreign competitors like China to dominate mineral production for minerals, such as rare earth elements, used in smartphones, computers and military equipment.

Zinke said the report is likely to shape Interior Department policy-making in 2018, as the agency looks to carry out its "Energy Dominance" strategy, expanding mining and resource extraction on federal lands.

The survey is the first update of a 1973 USGS report that catalogued the production of minerals worldwide. The update was started under the Obama administration in 2013.

Many of the commodities that are covered in the new volume were of minor importance when the original survey was done, since it pre-dated the global electronics boom.

The USGS and Interior Department said the report is meant to be used by national security experts, economists, private companies, the World Bank and resource managers.

It does not offer policy recommendations, but Zinke will rely on the findings as he prioritizes research into certain mineral deposit areas on federal land and plans policies to promote mining.

"We do expect that to lead to policy changes. The USGS is not involved in policy, but I suspect you will see some policy changes," said Larry Meinert, lead author of the report.
Democratic Senator Al Franken will leave office on Jan. 2, a spokesman for the Minnesota lawmaker said Wednesday.

Franken announced his plans to resign earlier this month in the wake of several sexual harassment allegations, but did not announce a date.

He said earlier Wednesday that he would deliver a series of speeches on the Senate floor before he leaves the chamber.



Replacement named

Franken will be replaced by Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Tina Smith, also a Democrat.

The demise of Franken's Washington tenure unfolded over the past few weeks. It was touched off by claims made by a Los Angeles radio host and former model, Leeann Tweeden. She accused Franken of forcibly kissing her when they both were on a 2006 tour to entertain U.S. troops in the Middle East.

Tweeden posted a picture of a smiling Franken holding his hands over her breasts while she was sleeping on a return flight to the United States.

Franken apologized to Tweeden, but soon after other women also accused the one-time television and film comedian of unwanted advances.

He variously apologized, said the incidents did not occur or said he remembered the encounters differently. But as the allegations mounted, dozens of his Democratic colleagues in the Senate demanded that he resign.

Defiant speech

Franken announced his resignation in a defiant speech on the Senate floor earlier this month, saying it was ironic that he was quitting even as President Donald Trump remains in office after more than a dozen women accused Trump during his 2016 campaign of unwanted sexual advances.

Trump, a Republican, says none of the accusations against him is true, but he is facing new calls from Democratic lawmakers to answer the specific allegations. Six senators, all Democrats, have called for his resignation.
Christmas is quickly descending on us and everyone is rushing to finish his never-ending lists. To make this season of giving a truly meaningful one, Save the Kids Ph (STK), a non-profit organization made up of kids who want to help kids, came up with the idea of Kalinisan Kits. Margarita Te, STKs founder and president says, These are our organizations version of care packages and contains basic needs such as slippers, towel, soap, a toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo and conditioner all in one attractive and reusable drawstring bag.

Weve made the package hassle-free and convenient for people to give as donations to orphanages or street children, for example, and contain a gift tag also, if you opt to give the kits to those friends or family that are a little harder to give gifts to. They can then donate these to those who need it the most, adds Martin Alindogan, co-founder and Vice President of Save the Kids Ph. The purchase of a kit, each sold at Php 200, will not only help Save the Kids with their outreach projects, but also encourage the recipients to maintain good health and proper hygiene.

Ambassadors of Save the Kids Ph, a non-profit organization made up of kids who want to help kids

The initial batch of thousands of kits were immediately sold out by the end of November, just a couple of weeks after its launch. Truly, so many benefactors are encouraged and willing to share their blessings this season.

Save the Kids Philippines is a non-profit organization that aims to help displaced and disadvantaged Filipino kids find their path towards a brighter future. The organization was established with the belief that providing food and basic needs during the aftermath of a devastating experience is not sufficient. The long path to recovery entails equipping them with the necessary tools to go beyond the difficulties they have faced. Because of this, STK came up with the S.A.V.E. Program  a four-pronged approach towards the kids going through the rehabilitation process. In this program, they explore various activities such as Skills-building, Art therapy, Values-formation and an Educational Activity in each carefully-chosen location. The absolute goal is to SAVE 10,000 kids by educating, empowering and uplifting their lives, and helping them build a better future.

The organization is constantly looking for high school student volunteers who can help in their outreach programs. If you are interested in helping end the poverty and exploitation plaguing our world today, or if you just generally enjoy helping for a cause, here are some things you could do:

ADVERTISEMENT

 Sponsor our Outreach Activities

 Host a Goods Drive (clothes, food, books, etc.)

 Become a Drop-off Point (for collection of donations in kind)

 Donate in Kind

 Donate Your Time through:

Storytelling

Sports/Yoga/Meditation clinics

Dancing/Acting/Singing workshops

Painting / Arts & Crafts

Photography

Tutorials

For more info, find them online at: www.savethekids.ph, #SavetheKidsPH, fb.com/SavetheKidsPH

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.
Violent protests eased Wednesday in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region, but concerns remained that the crisis could grow as opposition politicians quit Parliament and the government cracked down on media accused of fomenting the unrest.



The protests began mostly peacefully Monday over unpaid wages, poor services and government corruption but turned violent Tuesday as security forces tried to prevent people from gathering. Several people were killed as security forces opened fire with rubber bullets and tear gas. The United Nations called for calm and restraint.

Curfews were imposed in several areas. The Ministry of Culture said Wednesday that it had suspended NRT's Kurdish and Arabic services for a week to "stop chaos" and force media to commit to the "ethics of journalism."

Karwan Anwar, secretary of the journalist syndicate in Sulaimania and editor in chief of PUK Media told VOA's Kurdish Service that NRT violated journalistic principles by airing interviews with people who encouraged attacks on government offices and private property.

Westganews.net reported the abduction of Sarkawt Shamsulddin, NRT TV's Washington bureau chief in Sulaimania after he reported live on Facebook about the suspension and arrest of Shaswar Abdulwahid, owner of Nalia group of companies and Nalia Radio and Television (NRT), for allegedly promoting violent protests in the province.

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad issued a statement supporting "freedom of expression in Iraq as a key component of the country's democratic foundation."

"It is the duty of the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government to protect the freedom of the press and to allow media to exercise their profession responsibly," the embassy statement said. "The United States believes that more voices, not fewer, are needed for democracy to flourish in Iraq and elsewhere in the region."



The U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq, known as UNAMI, urged Kurdish security forces "to exercise maximum restraint in dealing with the demonstrators.''

The mayor of the town of Rania, Hiwa Qarani, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that at least two civilians were killed and 80 wounded the day before.

The situation in Iraq's Kurdistan has deteriorated since it voted overwhelmingly to pursue independence from Iraq and ran into punitive measures from the Iraqi government.

Although the demonstrators are directing their demands at the Iraqi government, they say they have lost faith in the Kurdistan government and are demanding that it resign.

"We are here to demand our legitimate rights and our livelihood," one protester said. "This government has not kept the promises it made. This Kurdish government lacks the basic requirements of governing."

Two parties removed their legislators from the provincial government Wednesday, and the parliamentary speaker resigned in response to the violence.
Vladimir Putin's torso, which he sometimes bares during sporting pursuits, is a familiar part of his public image. How much Putin reveals of the man behind the buff exterior is another question.

After 18 years as Russia's leader  and with another six-year term sure to follow a March election  Putin doesn't show the appetites or vulnerabilities that can personalize Western politics, even when staged or spun. If he has moments of merriment or melancholy, they happen in private.

His air of shadow, distance and restraint also stands out in Russia's more rigid political culture. Never has Putin burst into wild dancing a la Boris Yeltsin or confessed a boyish affection for arena rock like Dmitry Medvedev did as a self-described Deep Purple fan.

He may be chronically on guard, deliberately not exposing his inner life out of concern that opponents could exploit it. Or he might be exhibiting his essence: a man so focused on power that other interests blur. When U.S. President George W. Bush met Putin in 2001 and said he'd gotten "a sense of his soul," some critics snorted that Putin had no soul.

"He doesn't like people naturally," Mikhail Zygar, a top editor at independent Dozhd TV and the author of All the Kremlin's Men, said. "He considers those politicians who talk about values to be cheating him."

Yet others see a strong strain of warmth in Putin. "Easy-going," encouraging and even healing is the description offered by Yuri Tolstoy, who was one of Putin's law professors in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg.

Tolstoy, now 90, says the 65-year-old president visited him this fall after he received Russia's highest civilian honor.

"I must say that after the recent meeting with Vladimir Putin, my health has improved. He has filled me with life energy," Tolstoy told The Associated Press.

"He is a charming and witty man. He is sincere and open in communication with anyone," said another of Putin's former professors, Dzhenevra Lukovskaya. "Speaking globally, I'd say President Putin meets the challenges of the national self-identification of Russia."

'Tactical player'

Russia appears to be the self-identification of Putin as well. If he lacks an overarching system of ethics and moral imperatives, he has an essential sense of being Russian, perhaps of embodying Russia itself.

"He's not there because he's believes he's a dictator. No, he believes he's the man who's trying to save the country," Zygar said.

At the same time, "Putin is not a strategical player as he is portrayed; he is a very tactical player, he is good at responding" in Zygar's view.

He cited Russia's military offensives in Syria as an example. Putin's motivation in starting the Syria campaign was exasperation with the international criticism over Russia's backing for separatist rebels in Ukraine's war.

'Hooligan' years

What's known of Putin's youth suggests that he hungered for two kinds of power  visible and clandestine  in an environment imbued with both Russia's suffering and its valor.

Putin was born Oct. 7, 1952, to factory-worker parents in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, a city pervaded by memories of a nearly 900-day Nazi siege during World War II. One of his older brothers died of diphtheria during the siege; the other died a few months after birth.

According to First Person, a book of interviews published after he became acting president in 1999, Putin and his parents lived in a dismal communal apartment with a wretched toilet down the hall.

Putin said he responded to the rough circumstances by becoming a childhood "hooligan," one of the few in his school barred from joining the Communist Young Pioneers. In his early adolescence, Putin channeled his aggressive tendencies into the martial arts, a sport he practiced avidly into late middle-age.

In a moment of naive determination, he says he went to a local KGB office to ask about joining the spy service. He was told the agency was highly skeptical about the trustworthiness of prospective agents who walked in from the street.

"All those years in university, I waited for the man at the KGB office to remember me," Putin said. One day "a man came and asked me to meet with him. He didn't say who he was, but I immediately figured it out. ... If they didn't want to say where, that meant it was there."

Putin's ultimate assignment with the KGB turned out to be Dresden, in the Soviet Union's close ally, East Germany. When Putin later rose to prominence in Russia, many sniffed that being posted in a friendly country didn't speak well of his acuity in the intelligence game.

"I would not exaggerate the importance of his KGB years," where he was more of a bureaucrat than a spy, Zygar said. Instead, he sees Putin's epiphany as something that happened after he left the KGB and became a deputy of Anatoly Sobchak, St. Petersburg's reform-minded mayor.

Lesson in defeat

Sobchak was such a democrat at heart that he allowed an open election and then accepted his defeat in it.

"That was a tragedy for Sobchak's team and a tragedy for Putin personally and that was the lesson  how you should never repeat those mistakes: free and fair elections, open debates and really influential opposition," Zygar said.

The lesson is likely to apply to the 2018 presidential election. The only truly influential opposition aspirant, anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny, is almost certain to be blocked from the ballot because of a felony conviction.

That means Russians who hope to see Putin unseated focused on longshot Ksenia Sobchak  Anatoly Sobchak's daughter, a television personality who has never held office and who as yet has not qualified for the ballot.

Putin's dominance of Russia's politics manifested itself with extraordinary speed.

Few, if any, politicians have stepped more quickly from the shadows to subject of rapt interest at home and abroad. Before being named Yeltsin's prime minister in August 1999, he was head of the Federal Security Service, one of the KGB's successor agencies, a post that inherently lacks visibility.

Yeltsin shuffled prime ministers at an alarming rate, and Putin might have become just another to go through the revolving door. But the next month, while commenting on the early days of the second war against Chechen rebels, he made an impression.

"If we capture them in the toilet, then we will waste them in the outhouse," he said

Public image

Adamant, macho, and a touch of crude language  the remark seemed to reveal the essence of Vladimir Putin.

He's rarely strayed from that public image since then. Occasionally, there's a brief sweet moment of him cuddling one of the puppies foreign dignitaries have given him. He once amused, or shocked, his audience by kissing the belly of a boy whose cuteness had touched him.

But glimpses of the private man are few. He makes no appearances with his two adult daughters. The 2013 announcement that he and wife, Lyudmila, were divorcing was a piece of precise stagecraft. The couple appeared on national television at an opera intermission, praised the performance and then said they were separating.

Control appears so integral to Putin's nature that it can be difficult to visualize how he would cope with not being Russia's president. If he wins re-election, he would be termed out of office in 2024.

"I do not expect him to retire after the presidency. I think he is more likely to take some other position overseeing things in Russia from a different perch," said Dmitry Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center.
As they probe a deadly train derailment in the northwestern U.S. state of Washington, federal investigators say they hope crew members will be able to give information in the coming days that will help explain Monday's accident.

The train went off the tracks on a curve south of Seattle traveling 129 kilometers per hour in an area where the speed limit was 48 kilometers per hour.

National Transportation Safety Board member Bella Dinh-Zarr told reporters Tuesday that the train's emergency brakes were automatically activated, rather than being initiated by the engineer, when the accident took place.

She also said that in addition to the engineer, there was also a conductor inside the cab who was "getting experience and familiarizing himself with the territory."

There were about 80 passengers and six crew members on board the train. The derailment sent some of the train cars onto a highway below. Three passengers were killed and more than 70 were injured.

Dinh-Zarr said all of the crew members were hospitalized and that investigators were scheduling interviews with them once they are medically cleared.

The train was operating on a new route along refurbished freight tracks meant to give passengers a faster trip through the region.

Dinh-Zarr said testing of the new route began in January and that Amtrak crews had been operating trains without passengers on the tracks for at least two weeks before the derailment.

The NTSB has examined a data recorder from the train's rear locomotive and will be comparing those results to a recorder investigators obtained from the front locomotive on Tuesday. The agency also has inward- and outward-facing cameras from the train, but Dinh-Zarr said those were damaged in the derailment and had been sent to the agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C., to be evaluated.

Dinh-Zarr also said it is standard protocol to look at the possibility crew members were distracted, including examining their cell phone records, as well as a number of other potential factors that could play a role in an accident.

"We look at it from the beginning of the run all the way to the end of the run, and to see as the crew makes changes, as the engineer makes decisions, how that influenced the activity," she said.

The stretch of track where the derailment took place does not yet have a system known as positive train control, which can take control of a train and either slow it down or make it come to a stop if it exceeds speed limits.

Local officials said the system was due to be operational in the area by the middle of 2018.

That would beat a deadline ordered by Congress that came after a series of earlier train accidents. Congress originally mandated railroads have positive train control in place by the end of 2015, but rail companies won a delay that pushed the deadline to the end of 2018.

Amtrak President and CEO Richard Anderson said Tuesday it makes "scientific sense" to utilize the technology.

"We are hug supporters of positive train control. We have all of our capital allocated to get it done," he said. "There's no one that wants positive train control more than Amtrak."

In May 2015, an Amtrak train derailed in Philadelphia as it went into a curve at more than double the posted speed limit. Eight people died in that accident, which investigators blamed on the engineer being distracted by radio conversations between trains and dispatchers about trains being hit by rocks.

The site of the Philadelphia derailment was not equipped with positive train control technology, and the NTSB determined the accident could have been prevented if that system or another form of control had been in place to force the train to follow the speed limit.
Laura Lopez is a Mexican immigrant living in Florida who has been racing against time to avoid deportation.

Lopez said she arrived at the post office just after the cutoff time and missed the deadline set by President Donald Trump to renew her paperwork for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that helps young immigrants brought into the country illegally.

Lopez, 30, blamed the chaos of Hurricane Irma while juggling a move from Miami to Daytona Beach as reasons why she missed the cutoff.

As a result, her status as a recipient of DACA ends Friday. Her driver's license, car insurance and housing lease are all in jeopardy once the program goes away for her.

"Everywhere I go, everything and everyone reminds me I have an expiration date" said Lopez, who is still trying to show proof that she attempted to send her renewal package the day before the October 5 deadline. "The government is playing with the lives of families."

Lopez is one of thousands of immigrants who are losing their protection from deportation under the administrative program established by President Barack Obama in 2012, including many who missed the deadline or saw their applications lost in the mail. The immigrants also are being provided a glimpse of what will happen if Congress is unable to come up with a permanent replacement. Thousands more will start seeing their protections end in March.

Here are some questions and answers about the process:

Why the rush?

In theory, DACA recipients should be protected until March.

Under the program, immigrants get two-year permits that let them work and remain in the country. Trump rescinded the program this year, but he let immigrants renew their papers if they were set to expire between September and March. Immigrants had to reapply by October 5 and pay a $495 fee.

The government said 132,000 of the 154,000 people eligible for DACA renewals applied in time, leaving more than 20,000 without protection from deportation.

There have been other problems.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said 900 requests were mistakenly rejected for being late, despite having arrived at the filing sites on time. Those applicants were told to reapply by December 2.

The agency said it was still working to determine how many requests were affected by U.S. Postal Service delays, following reports of late deliveries of documents from immigrants who sent their papers well in advance. These applicants are now waiting for instructions on how to resubmit their renewal requests.

Can these immigrants be deported?

Advocacy groups are highlighting the detention in Pennsylvania last week of a Guatemalan immigrant whose DACA renewal was reportedly among the ones delayed by the Postal Service. After Osman Aroche Enriquez, 26, was pulled over by police for what advocates said was an expired vehicle registration, he was transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and detained for three days.

The agency released him based on what ICE called an "exercise of discretion."

"His case calls into question how many 'Dreamers' in similar situations are languishing in detention, and how many are living in fear of deportation due to expired status or post office delays," Church World Service said in a statement.

("Dreamers" is a term commonly used to refer to DACA recipients. It comes from the DREAM Act  Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors  which offered protections similar to those in DACA but was never approved by Congress.)

The government does not turn over information about DACA recipients to deportation agents unless they are targeted for a criminal investigation. That means immigrants with expiring paperwork won't be automatically deported, but they can be if they get stopped by police or arrested on criminal charges.

Officials say there are no plans to change how the government handles personal information of applicants.

However, Francis Cissna, USCIS director, said "the guidance has always said that that policy could change. It has always said that; it still says that."

Where does Congress stand?

On Capitol Hill, the most promising avenue for legislation seems to be with a bipartisan group in the Senate, led by Senators Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, and Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican.

They claim good progress on negotiations to give young immigrants protections through legislation that would be added to a sweeping spending package next month.

But the White House is adamant that other issues, including Trump's long-promised U.S.-Mexico border wall and increased funding for immigration enforcement inside the country, be addressed in the package. The Trump administration is also planning to move to a merit-based immigration structure.

The path forward is assuredly tricky, but there is widespread bipartisan support for the young immigrants among lawmakers.

What could a solution look like?

Legislation would put the immigrants on a path to U.S. citizenship by granting permanent legal status to more than 1 million people who arrived before they turned 18 and pass background checks, among other criteria.

The bill proposes legalizing the status of those who were admitted to the DACA program.



The head of the agency that runs the program rescinded by Trump says any legislative fix will require money and time to implement, depending on how many people end up benefiting from the solution.
Zimbabwes President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Wednesday vowed to ensure the rule of law, fight corruption, enact laws that attract investors and conduct free and fair elections next year. But the opposition says the countrys new president and his government are no different from the old regime of Robert Mugabe.

Mnangagwa pledged that Zimbabwe would unveil a "robust" re-engagement policy and open up to foreign investment, as he delivered his first State of the Nation address since taking office nearly a month ago.

The president's remarks come as he prepares to head to South Africa Thursday to meet with potential investors.

Mnangagwa also sought to reassure Zimbabweans about the integrity of elections, expected in 2018.

My government is committed to entrenching a democratic society driven by the respect for the constitution, the rule of law, mutual tolerance, peace and unity. To this end, [the] government will do all in its power to ensure that the 2018 general elections are credible, free and fair.

However, the president's special adviser Christopher Mutsvangwa told the media last weekend that the ruling ZANU-PF party would use the military to ensure victory next year.

The International Commission of Jurists told VOA that Mnangagwa  who came into power on the back of the army  must not rely on the military for policing Zimbabweans as the country prepares for the elections.

Opposition skeptical



Tendai Biti, a member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party and a former finance minister, says many Zimbabweans are worried about the military's involvement in politics and that Mnangagwa's Cabinet had been militarized by having two retired generals, including the one who announced the army had taken over state institutions.

We have nothing per se against the military, but we know that the essence of the rule of law and constitutionalism is that of democracy, and democracy is a government for the people and by the people. So the people that are ultimately decisive in our country are ordinary citizens who have the right to choose men and women who will serve them. You cannot make a transition from a barrack to a public office and we are concerned about that, Biti said.

Nelson Chamisa, the vice president of the main opposition party Movement for Democratic Change, says the new government has nothing to offer Zimbabweans.

We are only confident that we will form the next government, we know it and Mr. Mnangagwa knows it. We are going to be the next government - that is why they are panicking. But even if we form the next government, it is going to be a very good dispensation for Mr. Mnangagwa and his team. We will be very inclusive and tolerant of the opposition, Chamisa said.

Mnangagwa is expected to appoint former head of the army Constantino Chiwenga as his vice president after retiring him this week pending redeployment.
It didnt take long for speculation to begin that China, Zimbabwes main trade partner, was involved in the recent removal of Robert Mugabe as president of the southern African nation.

The ties between his replacement, Emmerson Mnangagwa, and businesspeople and politicians in China added fuel to the fire.

But political analysts who monitor relations between the giant of the Far East and Africa dismiss conspiracy theories that China was a catalyst for political change in Zimbabwe.

The close relationship between military and party elites in China and Zimbabwe goes back to the 1970s, when Zimbabwean liberation forces fought whites-only rule.

Cobus van Staden, a senior foreign policy researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs, says, "Several ZANU-PF senior leaders were trained in China, including Emmerson Mnangagwa, the new president.

He says the Mugabe regimes bonds with China grew stronger after the United States instituted financial sanctions in the early 2000s in response to Zimbabwes human rights violations.

Van Staden says the Chinese were very visible in Zimbabwe under Mugabe.

Notably, they built a new parliament building. Theyre heavily invested in some of the extractive industries in Zimbabwe. Theyre a client of the Zimbabwean agriculture sector, so they buy a lot of tobacco. Retail and other smaller Chinese companies are also involved in Zimbabwe. So the (Chinese) involvement is more complex than it looks from the outside. Its less simply big companies riding in and taking resources; its a more fine-grained engagement.

Van Staden understands why some see a hidden Chinese hand behind recent events. For one thing, Chinese firms have made the new president and some military commanders wealthy with diamond mining contracts.

A visit to Beijing by the army general who led the operation against the Mugabe government, Constantino Chiwenga, also bolstered rumors of Chinese involvement. Chiwenga was in China just days before the army took control of the government.

There is probably a pretty good chance that China was probably informed that this is going to happen, before (it happened). However, that does not mean that China had any kind of active role in making it happen.

Van Staden says Chinas record in Africa shows it doesnt instigate regime change. He also points out that China is more heavily invested in places that are much more volatile than Zimbabwe, such as South Sudan, but it doesnt interfere there.

What the events in Zimbabwe rather reveal, says van Staden, is Chinas growing influence on world events.

China is now on a level in Africa where it is informed of these kind of things beforehand. Chinas now occupying a position in Africa on the same level as the U.S. or the U.K. As the West retreats from multilateralism Chinas interested in stepping into some of those roles.

Van Staden says the relationship between China and Zimbabwe had become strained in recent years because of Zimbabwes failure to settle debt.

But indications are that this tension is easing under Mnangagwa. For instance, in the past few weeks, China signed a deal to refurbish the airport in Harare, and quickly sent senior envoys. He says Beijing has made clear they want a friendly relationship.

And, he says, theres no difference between Chinas presence in Zimbabwe and that of other countries.

The Western characterization of China (and the Chinese) as being these kind of robbers of Africa is very self-serving, especially because many European and American companies are involved in exactly the same sectors in exactly the same way as Chinese competitors.

He says Chinas record in Africa shows that it adapts to whatever political and economic systems it finds, and is unlikely to impose any conditions on Zimbabwe.

I think China is not going to go anywhere; its going to probably become an even more prominent partner to Zimbabwe.

And so too are other nations, says van Staden, should the fledgling president keep his promises of reforms.
Less than a month after a military intervention forced longtime leader Robert Mugabe to step down, the new leaders of ruling ZANU-PF party have big plans for Zimbabwe.

Retired General Sibusiso Moyo announced the military takeover on November 15 and has been appointed to serve as foreign minister. He sees opportunities to revive Zimbabwe's struggling economy.

"Our primary interest at the moment is economic development and emancipation of our people," Moyo told VOA's Zimbabwe Service. Zimbabwe's long-ailing economy will recover, according to Moyo, through direct foreign investment, tourism and exports to worldwide markets.

ZANU-PF hopes to jump-start the economy by collaborating with Zimbabweans in the diaspora and creating a more appealing environment for investment. "We are opening up to all our friends," Moyo said.

'Zimbabwe isn't poor'

The ruling party is right to focus on Zimbabwe's economy as it defines its post-Mugabe platform, according to Chipo Dendere, a visiting assistant professor of political science at Amherst College in Massachusetts. But to truly open up, the country must come to terms with endemic corruption.

"Zimbabwe isn't poor," Dendere told VOA, speaking over the phone from Harare. In fact, the country is endowed with valuable minerals such as gold, diamonds and platinum. But, Dendere said, the wealth has been stolen. During Mugabe's regime, he and his allies stole more than $2 billion in diamond revenue, according to Partnership Africa Canada (PAC), a group tracking mismanagement of global natural resources.

So far, the government seems to be putting pressure on officials to bring back money, according to Dendere. But with so many people who have stolen, it's unclear how the government will serve a greater good without violating human rights or falling into partisan traps.

"If the government fails to deal with the economic challenges, then Zimbabwe is going to be in great disarray," Dendere said. Fixing Zimbabwe's economy begins with addressing its many infrastructure problems, such as pothole-ridden roads and an aging and leaky water system.

Real change?

Some, including Dendere, remain skeptical that ZANU-PF will enact real change. "It's one thing to be excited about a new government. But I think people need to be cognizant of the fact that the people that are in power right now ... are the same people that have been in power for the last 37 years," Dendere said.

The government has not, in fact, changed, Moyo conceded, but it will do things differently with new personalities in power.

Dendere, meanwhile, questions what's new. The ideology for the ruling party is unlikely to change, she said, based on language used at the party congress this month.

Still, Moyo sees opportunities for dialogue and improvement. "We are not a government of a party. We are a government of all the people of Zimbabwe. And therefore, when there are issues which need dialogue, they must be discussed in house," Moyo said.

For Dendere, aspects of ZANU-PF's legacy are, in fact, worthwhile. "This is the legacy that brought us independence, the end of colonialism. But it's also the legacy that gave a lot of power to one party and the centralization and consolidation of power around the president and the people that are closest to him."

Space for opposition

Zimbabwe is due to hold elections next year. ZANU-PF will have more than half a year to consolidate power and win over citizens who had become disenchanted with Mugabe's rule. But Dendere said opposition parties would be more competitive than ever in 2018 if they could hone their messaging.

The MDC Alliance represents eight opposition parties. They've struggled to convey a compelling message, Dendere said, because ZANU-PF has co-opted their old mantra: Mugabe must go. Now, they need to find a voice of their own.
They say that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. But if you take her love away, it gets a helluva lot worse  something the Germans would find out the hard way.

Mariya Vasilyevna was born on August 16, 1905, in Crimea as one of ten children. Coming from a family of dirt poor peasants, she was a serf  which is a fancy word for slave. As such, they could neither go anywhere nor do anything without their landlords permission.

It was hardly surprising, therefore, that she took to Communism like a fish to water. Awful though that may sound to the rest of us, it freed her from a life of indentured bondage and allowed her to get an education, a job in a cannery, and later, work as a telephone operator.

Then in 1925, she met the love of her life  Ilya Oktyabrskaya. The Russian Empire had given way to the Soviet Union three years before, and Ilya was a Soviet army officer who must have taken her on interesting dates because Mariya became fascinated with the military.

She joined the Military Wives Council, trained as an army nurse, learned how to drive cars (unusual for women back then), and how to use different weapons. She once wrote to her sister and said, Marry a serviceman and you serve in the army.

Despite their best efforts, the couple couldnt have children, but they at least had each other. And they comforted themselves with the sincere belief that they were helping to build a new and better country for their people. It was almost perfect.

Until June 22, 1941. Wanting to increase German territory and destroy communism, Hitler ordered the invasion of Russia  known as Operation Barbarossa. It involved 3.8 million German personnel, 3,350 tanks, 2,770 planes, and 7,200 artillery pieces  making it the largest invasion in history.

Hitler had originally made a pact with Stalin to keep the Soviet Union out of the war. While it lulled the Soviets into a false sense of security, they nevertheless prepared for an invasion. Yet when it came, they were still taken by surprise.

The Red Army General Staff were convinced that the Germans would come north of the Pripyat Marshes into Belorussia  which was correct. Stalin believed, however, that the invasion would come south of it, since that led to the economically important regions in Ukraine.

They were still deploying their forces when the Germans came. And while some Soviet tank models were superior to what the Germans had, they didnt have enough of them. The Soviets also lacked ammunition, radios, and supply trucks  giving the Germans a massive advantage.

For her safety, Mariya was sent to Tomsk in Siberia, and there did her best to keep her spirits up. But advanced though Soviet tanks were, their infrastructure and communications systems were otherwise. Two years would pass before she learned the fate of her beloved Ilya.

He was killed by German soldiers just outside Kiev in August 1941. Mariya went berserk. Then she sold everything she had and wrote to Stalin:

My husband was killed in action defending the motherland. I want revenge on the fascist dogs for his death and for the death of Soviet people tortured by the fascist barbarians. For this purpose, Ive deposited all my personal savings  50,000 rubles  to the National Bank in order to build a tank. I kindly ask to name the tank Fighting Girlfriend and to send me to the frontline as a driver of said tank.

Probably terrified shed come after him if he refused, Stalin wrote back and said, Sure!

The State Defense Committee werent as convinced. But they did understand the publicity value she provided, so they got her a T-34 medium tank.

She was then put through a five-month tank training program  unlike male recruits who were given far less time before being sent to the war front (often still unprepared). That done, Mariya was assigned to the 26th Guards Tank Brigade as a driver and mechanic in September 1943  becoming a laughingstock.

A woman!? In a tank!? Named Fighting Girlfriend!? There was a real war going on with real people dying! This was no time for a publicity stunt!

Clearly, they hadnt heard about what happens when a woman loses the love of her life  especially when she loses them to Nazis. But her sister knew, because Mariya wrote to her, claiming that, Ive had my baptism by fire Sometimes, Im so angry I cant even breathe.

Everyone else would find out on October 21, 1943, in Smolensk. Located 220 miles west-southwest of the capital at Moscow, the Germans had taken the city in 1941, but could go no further. The Russians took most of it back on September 25, 1943, but were still dealing with German resistance.

Mariya revved up Fighting Girlfriend and charged  taking out several anti-tank guns and machine gun nests before getting hit. Against orders, she jumped out, and despite heavy enemy fire, fixed the damage before jumping back in to fight. The last German defense rings were finally gone, and their route to Moscow was no longer secure.

They called her mother after that, but it wasnt enough. They also promoted her to the rank of Sergeant.

Weeks later on November 17, the Soviets recaptured the town of Novoye Selo in Vitebsk. Mariya attacked German defensive positions till an artillery shell blew out her tank tracks. Under cover fire, she again jumped out to fix her beloved tank, before rejoining her unit.

January 17, 1944, saw her outside the town of Shvedy, still in Vitebsk. Mariya attacked several German trenches, machine-gun nests, and artillery guns, when, you guessed it  her tank was hit by a German anti-tank shell.

As usual, she hopped out to fix the Fighting Girlfriend. She had just done so when her luck ran out. Another anti-tank shell blasted several meters away, showering her with shell fragments  some of which slammed into her head.

Mariya never regained consciousness. She was taken to a hospital near Kiev and lay in a coma for two months before finally rejoining her beloved Ilya on March 15, 1944. By August, they made her a Hero of the Soviet Union.
WASHINGTON  Congress is dealing two blows to President Barack Obama's health law.

Here's the first: Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee say they've abandoned their effort to force a year-end budget bill to restore federal payments to insurers that have helped contain premium costs.

The lawmakers say they'll continue the push next year.

The decision marks a retreat for Collins. She wanted enactment this year as a condition for backing the GOP's tax bill.

In the other, the tax legislation ends the tax penalty the health law imposes on people who don't purchase coverage.

That requirement prods many people to buy insurance.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates ending those penalties will lead to 13 million additional people being uninsured and premiums growing by about 10 percent.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
BAYOMBONG, Nueva VizcayaA proposed energy project is being worked out here between the provincial government and officials of West Flanders City in Belgium.

A delegation of Belgian officials led by West Flanders Deputy Director Jean de Bethune recently visited the province and met with Gov. Carlos Padilla, Vice Gov. Lambert Galima Jr. and other provincial officials.

Padilla said the visitors also toured possible sites for the proposed energy project, which is expected to be built in partnership with five local government units of the province.

During the Belgians three-day visit, the project was discussed with the recipient and partner LGUs, St. Marys University, Nueva Vizcaya State University, Agrizkayas store processing center and demo farm, and officials of the Munguia Multipurpose Cooperative in Barangay Oyao in Dupax del Norte town.

The Belgians will soon discuss their accomplishments and the preparatory stage of the synergy project, which is targeted in a three-year program, Padilla said.

ADVERTISEMENT

An agreement will also be finalized and signed among the sponsor, recipient LGUs, academe, provincial government, and civil society organizations, he added.

This will help our farmers in coping with the challenge of climate change that ill redound to the further development of the provinces agricultural and natural resources, the governor said.

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.
Congress on Wednesday passed the most significant overhaul of the U.S. tax code in 30 years, delivering a landmark legislative victory to President Trump and the Republicans that had once seemed impossible for the fractured party.

The sweeping measure imprints a clear conservative vision on the tax code that will affect nearly every household and business. Corporations will see a massive tax cut, while most Americans will see temporary savings of various sizes. And in a move that may prove politically perilous, Republicans delivered the biggest gains to the wealthy.

The bills passage comes after Republicans had consolidated their hold in Washington but became entangled in a string of high-profile failures during their first year in power. This time, the GOP was able to hold together, driven in part by fear of ending the year without a single major legislative achievement.

The passage kicks off an intense period of uncertainty for consumers and businesses as both scramble to understand the changes and take advantage of the end of the calendar year to minimize tax bills. Some local governments said they were flooded with calls from homeowners seeking to pay their 2018 property taxes this year to avoid a cap on real estate tax deductions that will begin next year.

The legislation also will play a huge role in the coming campaigns for the 2018 midterm elections. Republicans hope their plan will set off a flurry of economic growth and win over a public that polls suggest is deeply skeptical. Democrats, meanwhile, plan to characterize the bill as a giveaway to the wealthy, in hopes that the message will help them retake Congress in November.



President Trump, flanked by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, left, and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, holds a Cabinet meeting Wednesday. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

At the White House on Wednesday, Republicans were united in ways they havent been at any point during the Trump presidency, rebounding from internal divisions that plagued them when they sought to overhaul the nations health-care laws.

[How Republicans pulled off the biggest tax overhaul in 30 years]

Were going to see something thats going to be very special. Were bringing the entrepreneur back into this country, Trump said at the White House, flanked by dozens of Republicans. Were getting rid of all the knots and all the ties, and ultimately what does it mean? It means jobs, jobs, jobs.

After a months-long effort that stalled several times, the final votes Wednesday and Tuesday night proceeded smoothly. Through cajoling, threats and concessions, Republican leaders had secured support from an overwhelming majority of their members. All but 12 House GOP members voted for the bill and zero Senate Republicans voted against it, enough to overcome Democrats unanimous opposition.

The core of the plan is a massive and permanent cut to the corporate tax, lowering the rate to 21 percent from 35 percent, but it also includes new tax breaks for other businesses and temporary cuts to individual income tax rates at all levels.

The bill also doubles whats known as the standard deduction, which many middle-class and working-class Americans use to reduce their tax payments. It greatly expands a child tax credit, although families with higher incomes see more of the increase than those who make less. But it will reduce deductions that new home buyers can take for mortgage interest payments and will scale back deductions Americans can take for taxes paid to state and local governments.

The bill also reduces the estate tax, a levy on inheritances charged only to the wealthiest Americans. Under the bill, a couple could pass on up to $22 million in assets without the beneficiaries having to pay the tax. The plan also exempts more families from the alternative-minimum tax and repeals an alternative-minimum tax for corporations.

[Will your taxes go up or down in 2018 under the new tax bill?]

In furious floor speeches ahead of the votes, lawmakers previewed the coming struggle over the publics perception of the measure that will continue through the midterm elections.

Republicans promised their plan would raise the fortunes of the middle class through rates cuts and an avalanche of economic growth, promising higher wages. Democrats cited nonpartisan analyses that found the bulk of the bills benefits go to corporations and the wealthy, accusing the GOP of an act of class welfare that will bust the federal budget while enriching corporations and billionaire donors.

This bill is not centered on a middle-class tax cut, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said. The fleeting sugar high this plan offers some middle-class families is just a distraction from its giveaways to multinational corporations and powerful donors.

Much of how the bill will ultimately affect the middle class depends on decisions that have not yet been made. In 2018, the vast majority of Americans would see their taxes go down.

In the bills later years, however, many of the individual tax cuts are set to expire, leaving a broad swath of Americans paying more than they do right now. Republicans promise that a future Congress will intervene to prevent that tax hike from happening, while Democrats have questioned why the GOP procured a permanent cut for corporations while subjecting the middle class to years of uncertainty.

[The final GOP tax bill is complete. Heres what is in it.]

Equally in dispute is the bills ultimate impact on the nations finances. Congresss official tax scorekeeper found that the plan would add more than $1 trillion to the deficit over 10 years, even after economic growth is taken into account. That figure would climb sharply if the individual tax cuts are extended.

Republicans dispute that analysis, arguing that surging economic growth will reduce or even eliminate their plans impact on the deficit. Democrats, meanwhile, have accused the GOP of fiscal recklessness that will eventually be paid for on the backs of the middle class. In truth, tax experts say, the impact of the tax plan on the federal budget over 10 years is difficult to pinpoint because a tax cut of this scope has not been enacted in recent history.

Republicans were handed instant selling points Wednesday when AT&T and Comcast announced new $1,000 bonuses to a combined 300,000 employees. And Fifth Third Bancorp, a large Cincinnati lender, announced it would raise its minimum hourly wage to $15 an hour and give a one-time bonus of $1,000 to 13,500 employees because of the tax changes.

This bill means more take-home pay, Trump told reporters earlier. It will be an incredible Christmas gift for hard-working Americans.

Other companies, however, say they plan to use the new tax breaks to bump stock dividends or buy back shares, moves that would enrich executives but do little for the workers they employ.

[The tax bill is likely to become more popular after passage. Heres how Republicans plan to sell it.]

Senior White House officials said Trump will probably wait until January to sign the tax bill into law to avoid immediately triggering a 2010 law known as PAYGO, or pay-as-you-go. The budget law requires spending cuts to Medicare and other programs if legislation is approved thats projected to add to the deficit.

If Trump were to sign the tax bill into law before Congress adjourns in December, lawmakers could be forced to vote on the PAYGO waiver measure as soon as next month to prevent immediate spending cuts. That could amount to as much as $25 billion to Medicare throughout next year.

Signing the tax bill into law in January would probably defer such a spending cut until 2019, giving Congress almost a year to come up with a solution. The PAYGO rules can be waived if 60 senators vote in favor, but Republicans will control only 51 Senate seats next year, meaning they will need to cut a deal with Democrats to prevent the cuts to Medicare from going into effect.

The bill also extends beyond taxes and into health care by scrapping a central part of the Obama-era law known as the Affordable Care Act. The repeal of the financial penalty for not purchasing health insurance does not go into effect until 2019. Projections vary on how the mandates absence will affect the health-care system, but the Congressional Budget Office has estimated it will result in 13 million fewer people having health insurance after a decade.

Trump heralded this aspect of the bill Wednesday.

When the individual mandate is being repealed, that means Obamacare is being repealed, he said.

Many Democrats and Republicans have said this is not true, although the change would mark the most substantial GOP step so far in dismantling President Barack Obamas signature law. All other aspects of the health-care law would remain intact, and some Republicans have said they want to pursue new legislation that would lessen the impact of repealing the individual mandate.
In the days leading up to a critical Senate vote this month on the GOP tax plan, Republican Sen. Rob Portman (Ohio) met secretly with Sen. Joe Manchin III (W.Va.) in the moderate Democrats hideaway office in the basement of the Capitol.

Manchin told Portman that he would consider joining the tax effort, if only a few changes were made. Chief among them: Instead of cutting the corporate tax rate to 20 percent, a top Republican goal, reduce it to 25 percent  and use the proceeds for bigger middle-class tax cuts. Other Democrats, Manchin suggested, might follow.

Portman took the request to Republican leaders, who rejected it.

For Republican leaders, the prospect of a bipartisan deal that could have solidified public support for the tax plan was far outweighed by the imperative to keep the GOP unified and the belief that deep cuts in corporate taxes, more than anything else, were the recipe for economic and political success.

I would have preferred for it to have been bipartisan, Portman said. There were certain things that he was looking for that didnt fit with the consensus that we had reached with the Republican conference.

The result is a bill passed along strict partisan lines that now awaits President Trumps signature  the GOPs crowning legislative achievement in the first year of the partys control of Washington.

The decision to spurn Democrats underscores the political risks undertaken by the GOP, which pushed forward on the tax bill despite polls showing that it is one of the most unpopular pieces of legislation in recent history and independent, nonpartisan analyses projecting that it will disproportionately reward the wealthy and corporations, offer only moderate benefits to the middle class, and substantially drive up the deficit.

Republicans argue, however, that the cuts will spur economic growth and that everyday Americans will reward the GOP for creating jobs, boosting their paychecks and simplifying the tax-filing process for millions of households.

My view of this: If we cant sell this to the American people, we ought to go into another line of work, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said after the final bill passed his chamber.

Republicans plowed forward even as foreboding political currents swirled: the Russia investigation pushing Trumps approval ratings ever lower, a political upset in Alabama underscoring the fragility of the GOPs majorities in Congress as midterms loom next year. The bill itself grew more unpopular in every successive poll, yet the outside threats seemed to sharpen the need to claim a political prize. Republicans dug in and stuck to their schedule, a nearly unheard-of achievement for a major bill.

The strategy was effective for several basic reasons, according to interviews with more than a dozen Republican lawmakers, aides and lobbyists.

[The final GOP tax bill is complete. Heres what is in it.]

After earlier efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act collapsed, Republican leaders decided to abandon the GOP principle of making sure the tax bill would not add to the deficit and instead invested their faith in the view that tax cuts can pay for themselves.

They learned from the calamitous health-care efforts, deciding to keep the tax negotiations fluid until the very end, and used a variety of techniques to coax reluctant Republican lawmakers to support the legislation.

They managed to contain a volatile president, using his support where helpful but trying to avoid rhetorical broadsides that could upend the sensitive negotiations.

And they held closely to their views that deep corporate tax cuts were the most important thing to ensure the success of the bill, and that, despite the legislations billing, tax cuts for working families had to be a second-tier goal.

Without a dramatic reduction in the corporate tax rate, Republicans said, they would have lost their chance to make U.S. companies more competitive in a globalized economy.

The president cared a lot about the business rate  it was the single biggest topic the president talked about, National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn said Wednesday.



House Majority Whip Steve Scalise R-La.) walks through the Capitol after the House passed its tax bill. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

The push begins

It was the day after the presidential election, and Rep. Kevin Bradys cellphone was blowing up.

Trump had secured a shocking win, ending six years of divided power in Washington. Business executives, lobbyists and fellow lawmakers were all ringing Brady (R-Tex.), the House Ways and Means chairman, asking one question:

Whats border adjustment?

It was a wonky-sounding term, for years an idea discussed only in academic circles, but it also stood out as a powerful tool that could allow Republicans to hold fast to their long-held belief that a tax overhaul shouldnt add to the deficit.

It was, in fact, the only serious idea they had to significantly remake the tax code  crucially, dropping the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to the low 20s or below  without significantly driving up the deficit.

The provision was effectively a new tax on imports, and it would not just generate about $1 trillion in new tax revenue but also serve as an incentive for businesses to keep operations in the United States.

Republicans had included the border-adjustment tax in their 2016 campaign plan, a document largely ignored until Trump won. But now Republicans controlled the levers of power, and the House agenda had the most complete tax plan around.

It just went up to a new level of intensity, right the day after the election, Brady said.

For some industries  particularly retailers and manufacturers who purchase their raw materials abroad  the implications were glaring: The corporate rate would be lowered on their backs.



Rep. Kevin Brady R-Tex.) makes his way to a House Republican conference at the Capitol on Tuesday. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

[The tax bill is likely to become more popular after passage. Heres how Republicans plan to sell it.]

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.)  whose constituents include the worlds largest retailer, Walmart  compared the idea to something out of Orwell: Some ideas are so stupid only an intellectual could believe them, he said in a February floor speech. This is a theory wrapped in speculation inside a guess.

As the Republicans faced a lobbyist revolt at the start of the new administration, private negotiations among what was called the Big Six  the top Republican leaders in the House and Senate, the chairmen of the two tax-writing committees, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Cohn  werent going any better.

McConnell and Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, didnt see the border tax as politically feasible. While Trump appeared to endorse the concept at times, seeing it as the type of border tariff he had campaigned on, divisions within the White House kept him from embracing it. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and Brady, who had spent years warning of the risks of mushrooming federal deficits, were loath to abandon it.

There appeared to be no way forward, and some in the party had already begun to lower their expectations of a once-in-a-generation tax overhaul.

Divisions on the deficit

It took a massive failure on another policy to clarify things.

Early on the morning of July 28, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) turned his thumb downward, casting the deciding vote against his own partys health-care bill, and his colleagues immediately feared he had done even worse.

From the beginning, the GOPs effort to remake the nations health-care system was racked with infighting propelled by ideological, temperamental and geographical divisions within the party  not to mention delay after delay that only amplified waves of public protests that relentlessly targeted individual lawmakers.

It seemed quite possible the tax effort would fare similarly.

But hours before McCains vote, the Big Six released a statement: While we have debated the pro-growth benefits of border adjustability, we appreciate that there are many unknowns associated with it and have decided to set this policy aside to advance tax reform.

As Republicans pondered how they had failed so badly on health care, the Big Six had made a fateful decision that would clear the way for the tax overhaul. The group had killed the border-adjustment tax, and with no plausible alternative, they had effectively removed the requirement that the tax plan not add to the deficit.

Brady said he and other Republicans were convinced that the tax effort would boost economic growth enough that the requirement was no longer necessary.

"In my view, over time this tax reform plan will recoup these revenues," he said. "Without tax reform, we are doomed, to a slower economy and higher deficits."

The failure on health care, Portman said in an interview, concentrated the mind on how do we avoid this when it came to tax legislation.

Even if Republican leaders were prepared to borrow money to pay for the tax bill, they still had to win over the support of Republican lawmakers who saw the nations rising debt as the biggest threat to American prosperity. Chief among them was Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), a member of the Senate Budget Committee with an independent streak who had been openly clashing with Trump.



Sen. Bob Corker R-Tenn.) speaks to reporters at the Capitol. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post)

McConnell asked Corker to craft a deal with Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.), a longtime advocate of supply-side doctrine who believed big tax cuts spur economic growth.

The two senators, McConnell later said, represented the yin and yang on the issue.

White House officials initially thought they could not achieve a very big tax cut  maybe $1 trillion  but for months, Toomey had been pressing his colleagues for at least double that. Toomey persuaded White House officials to request a larger package from his colleagues on the Senate Budget Committee, while he would continue advocating for the even bigger number he wanted, making the administrations request seem modest.

During a meeting in McConnells office with the Republicans on the Budget Committee, the plan played out perfectly, Mnuchin said the White House wanted a $1.5 trillion tax package, according to a person involved in the discussions who requested anonymity to describe the private deliberations. Toomey said he wanted a package that was more than $2 trillion, and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) chimed in that he wanted a tax-cut package that was even bigger than that.

The White House and a number of Republicans were bombarding Corker with huge numbers all at once, numbers that were much bigger than many had thought possible.

Corker settled on the $1.5 trillion range, with the expectation that later steps would be taken to limit the impact of the legislation on the debt.

A corporate-rate standoff



President Trump speaks during a bicameral meeting with lawmakers at the White House on Dec. 13. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)

From the beginning, the centerpiece of the plan was the reduction in the corporate rate, and for more than a year, Trump had promised 15 percent.

On Capitol Hill, that number was considered unworkable. it would open a gaping revenue hole and create a huge gap between the rates paid by owners of other businesses not organized as taxable corporations

Publicly, the president kept the pressure on. But privately, Trump signaled to tax negotiators some flexibility. Twenty is a pretty number, he said on one conference call in early summer.

[The essential trade-off in the Republican tax bill, in one chart]

While Trump and the House felt comfortable with 20 percent, McConnell and Hatch wanted more flexibility. But by late September, the negotiators knew they needed to be on the same page, providing very broad principles to the House and Senate's tax-writing committees.so they could shape legislation that would pass their respective chambers

The result would be a unified framework sparse on details. It would look a lot like the House blueprint, including a 20 percent corporate rate. But it would omit the difficult provisions  any offsets that would help pay for the plan.

With days remaining until the Big Six was due to release its framework, Trump dropped a bomb on the proceedings: Under no circumstances, he privately told the negotiators, would he accept a corporate rate over 18 percent. That would cost hundreds of billions of dollars more over the coming decade and threaten the viability of the entire effort.

It fell to Ryan to walk Trump back from the edge: If you agree to 20 percent, he told the president on a phone call, we will keep it there.

Trump relented.

He was very vocal about his views on this stuff, said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.). But I do think that he was good at interacting with people who had differences of opinion about the legislation but not browbeating them, not embarrassing them but really working with them.

Securing the votes

Even with broad agreement on the shape of the legislation, the House and Senate faced two sharply different calculations.

For the House, it came down to a bloc of blue-state Republicans threatened by a proposal to significantly scale back or do away with the state and local tax deduction.

The tax break had been part of the federal tax code since the income tax was first instituted in 1913, and it had largely survived every effort to scale it back thanks to the clout of lawmakers from New York and other high-tax states that disproportionately benefited.

But in 2017, the politics were different: There were no Republican senators representing New York, New Jersey, California and other high-tax states. There were a handful of GOP House members from those states, but not so many that Republican leaders felt they absolutely had to be accommodated.

This time around, House Republicans proposed limiting the deduction to allow people to reduce only up to $10,000 in property taxes.

That was enough to split the bloc: Several Republicans representing the New York suburbs abandoned the bill, but most Upstate Republicans and Rep. Tom MacArthur of New Jersey got on board. The 14 California Republicans, meanwhile, were keeping relatively quiet. The $10,000 property tax deduction didnt help their constituents much at all: California has relatively low property taxes and relatively high income taxes.

But the nation's most powerful California Republican, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), privately assured them that the problem would get fixed. It might not happen in the House bill, he told them. It might not happen in the Senate bill, either. But he promised them that it would get fixed, and 12 of the 14 ultimately voted to pass the bill.

"The bill would not have passed if we didn't have the support and votes from New York and California," said Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the House majority whip. "Kevin made a commitment: This will get fixed in conference, and he never wavered in seeing that through."

In the Senate, McConnell faced a different complication. There wasnt one bloc of potentially aggrieved lawmakers but at least nine Republicans who could present problems. Republicans could afford to lose only two votes given the chambers 52-to-48 split.

Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and McCain had doomed the Affordable Care Act repeal earlier that summer, on a combination of concerns about drastic changes to health care and the Senate bypassing its usual process.



Sen. Susan Collins R-Maine) departs the Senate on Monday. (Bill OLeary/The Washington Post)

Corker and Sen. Jeff Flake (Ariz.), both of whom had announced they wouldnt be running for reelection, were worried about the impact on the federal debt.

Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Mike Lee (Utah) were upset that their proposed expansion of a child tax credit benefiting families wasnt included in the bill.

And Johnson and Sen. Steve Daines (Mont.) complained that businesses that pay taxes through the individual tax code  so-called pass-through entities  werent getting as significant a rate cut as corporations.

With the health-care debate this year, similar types of concerns had led the Republicans to, in rapid succession, present different versions of the legislation, failing each time to advance it.and embarrassing Republican leadership and the White House

This time around, McConnell worked to avoid a similar situation.

He and top lieutenants summoned lawmakers in small groups to his ornate suite of offices on the second floor of the Capitol to fill them in on details of the bill and hear out their concerns. Before each group departed, McConnell delivered a message: Dont draw red lines, least of all in public, about what should be in or out of the bill.

If you can, keep your powder dry, Thune said, summing up McConnells message. Dont go out and publicly define yourself in a way that prevents you from ultimately being able to get back to yes. 

For the most part, lawmakers heeded McConnells request, even as tax writers added controversial measures to the Senate bill. Most notably, they made the individual tax cuts sunset in 2025 and added a repeal of the Affordable Care Acts individual mandate.

But one by one, all but one of the senators were won over.



Sen. Marco Rubio R-Fla.) walks in before Ivanka Trump, the daughter and assistant to President Trump, at a news conference on the importance of the child tax credit to working families. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

Collins got agreement from McConnell to pass legislation  still to be delivered  stabilizing the health-care law. Murkowski got a provision that would enable drilling for oil off Alaskas shores. McCain was convinced that the Senate had followed the type of process he had insisted upon.

The other high point for me was John McCains decision to come on board early. . . . It meant a lot to me personally, McConnell said. I think that was a critical moment for us.

Flake got a promise that Congress would move forward to address the status of young undocumented immigrants who had come to the United States as children. Johnson and Daines were given a more generous pass-through provision.

Rubio agreed to vote the measure, suggesting he would pull back his support if Republicans later made the plan more advantageous for the wealthy without doing more for working families.

The bill finally passed the Senate in the early morning hours of Dec. 2, after a wild night full of last-minute scrambling as Democrats erupted in fury over leaked drafts with portions crossed out and revisions scribbled in the margins.

Corker was the lone no vote after leaders couldnt overcome his concern about estimates the bill would add at least $1 trillion to the deficit.

Final steps

Then came the process of reconciling the House and Senate bills. The effort was in precarious shape, especially with two ailing GOP senators, Thad Cochran of Mississippi and McCain, whose ability to show up for the final vote was in question.

Republicans absorbed a political body blow when Democrat Doug Jones won a special Senate election in Alabama, but they stayed on track, more determined than ever to deliver the legislation to Trump by Christmas.

At the 11th hour, Republicans pushed up the corporate tax rate to 21 percent while moving the effective date of the corporate tax cut earlier and reducing the top income tax rate.

But then Rubio threatened to oppose the bill unless the child tax credit was sweetened; leaders met his demand. And in a surprise move, Corker announced that he would vote for the bill after all, angrily denying that language that could benefit real estate developers had anything to do with it.

Failure was never an option, Scalise said. We knew we had to get this done.

Stunningly for legislation of such magnitude, Republicans had stuck to their timetable. Everything was lined up for final passage through the House and Senate on Tuesday. But after the House had acted and left for the night came one final hiccup  Senate Democrats succeeded in last-minute parliamentary maneuvers that knocked out a few minor elements of the bill.



House Speaker Paul D. Ryan R-Wis.) has his weekly meeting with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell R-Ky.) in the speakers office on Dec. 12. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

One piece the Democrats successfully challenged? The title of the legislation itself, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, was found impermissible under the chambers arcane guidelines.

So the House had to come back into session Wednesday to pass a revised bill, an anticlimactic finale for the first tax overhaul in three decades.

One thing is certain: The nation has a new tax code. Much of the rest is a guessing game.Only in coming years will the parties learn who wins and loses as a result of the legislation and whether workers will see the benefits that have been promised them.

As for Manchin, the Democrat who wanted to get to yes, he says he regrets that Republicans didnt welcome his overtures. He had also objected to the bills Affordable Care Act mandate repeal but gave Republicans a number of ways to address his concerns that he felt were reasonable.

They were determined to make this a political bill, a partisan bill, and they didnt need anybody. They didnt want anybody, he said early Wednesday morning as the Senate passed the final bill. I even said, Dont you at least want the appearance  even if you get two or three of us  even if you get one of us? 

Damian Paletta and Jeff Stein contributed to this report.

Read more:

The Health 202: The tax overhaul is actually a big win for insurers and drugmakers

Will your taxes go up or down in 2018 under the new tax bill?

The Finance 202: The next fight over the GOP tax package is just around the corner
The Republican overhaul of the tax code sets the stage for years of politically fraught debate over what the government should provide for its citizens and how much it should demand in taxes.

President Trump and Republicans in Congress are celebrating the $1.5 trillion legislation as a big tax cut for workers and businesses. And for the time being, it is that  80 percent of the country will pay lower taxes next year.

But the short-term gains come with a cost: The legislation also makes the countrys debt problem even worse, in all likelihood forcing policymakers in coming years to make difficult decisions about spending cuts, tax increases or both.

The debate could touch on some of the most value-laden questions facing the nation  what type of financial security to provide the elderly, what safety net services should be offered to the poor, and how much the government should try to shrink economic inequality.

The challenging landscape is partly the result of choices Republicans made with their tax bill and partly the result of deeper economic forces in the economy. The GOP decided to cut taxes without offsetting spending cuts, driving up the deficit.



House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., speaks in his office just after House approval of the Republican rewrite of the tax code. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP) )

But the country is also going through a profound demographic shift in which millions of baby boomers are retiring from the labor force and joining the rolls of Medicare and Social Security.

The nation already owes $15 trillion to investors and foreigners. Even before the tax bill, the country was on track to hit $25 trillion in debt in the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

That would be the highest in modern American history. The tax bill adds another $1 trillion to $2 trillion to the total.

We are just dooming ourselves to a larger tax increase or spending cuts in the future, said Marc Goldwein, senior policy director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. At some point our leaders are going to look at our finances  or the markets will force them to  and say this is unsustainable.

[The final GOP tax bill is complete. Heres what is in it.]

Republicans are already previewing how they intend to address the debt. They say they are looking as soon as next year to begin an overhaul of the entitlement system  Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security  in hopes of limiting spending.

They are also seeking to target the safety net, pledging to curb eligibility in an effort to encourage people to seek work instead of relying on government assistance.

We are going to focus next year on people. On getting people from welfare to work, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said Tuesday on the House floor.

The GOP is not unified on these questions. Trump promised not to touch Medicare and Social Security, two programs that are popular among his base of working-class white voters.

Democrats, meanwhile, say they expect to roll back significant elements of the tax plan if they gain power in the future. Democrats have taken issue with the plans disproportionate benefits for the wealthy and corporations.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) went as far as to call the bill Armageddon.

I think the problem with the bill is it increases deficits by at least $1 trillion, largely to finance a giant tax cut for the wealthy and corporations, said Lily Batchelder, a tax law professor at New York University and former Obama administration official.

[Trump, at last, looks to notch a legislative win with tax bill. But can he redirect his presidency?]

Democrats might not have a chance to do so unless they recapture the White House in 2020, but there is precedent  President Obama and congressional Republicans agreed to end the George W. Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans in a fiscal pact forged on New Years Eve, 2012.

Still, asking Americans to stomach spending cuts or tax hikes can prove difficult. Technically speaking the tax-cut legislation is supposed to trigger an equivalent amount of spending cuts under a congressional rule enacted in 2010 out of concern for the mushrooming federal debt. Congress is widely expected to waive the rule.

And while Republicans set a significant part of their package  tax cuts affecting individuals  to expire in 2025, to comply with a Senate rule limiting the impact of legislation on the deficit, they say their expectation is those tax cuts will be extended, bringing the price tag of the tax bill well beyond $1.5 trillion.

For the next eight years, however, the GOP tax bill itself gives the vast majority of Americans a tax cut. Only 5 percent will pay more next year, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center's analysis of the final bill, and most of those are people earning six figures who live in major cities like New York and San Francisco.

Its not the kind of disaster many in the media have made it out to be, says economist Tyler Cowen of George Mason University. Theres a good chance it will prove popular next year once people see their taxes go down.

Whatever the future holds, its clear the GOPs decision to increase the deficit to cut taxes breaks with recent precedent. Republicans started the year promising to fix Americas corporate tax code, but to do it in a way that was deficit neutral.

A big fiscal deal nearly achieved in 2011 by Obama and then-House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) would have raised taxes while cutting spending  modeled after the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles Commission that had made similar recommendations.

Even President Ronald Reagans tax overhaul in 1986, which many Republicans regard as the gold-standard, was structured to be revenue neutral. The new GOP bill took a far different approach.

The bill is very consistent with Republican ideology that the solutions are all in the private sector, said William Gale, co-director of the Tax Policy Center and former staff economist at the Council for Economic Advisors under President George H.W. Bush. Businesses, corporations and pass-throughs are getting big breaks at the ultimate expense of the governments ability to address any of the pressing social or domestic issues.

Theres widespread agreement that in the short term, the tax bill will grow the economy a bit faster, perhaps eclipsing a rate of 4 percent for a quarter or two.

The question is what happens after the initial bounce. Republicans argue that upswing will continue for many more years, as businesses invest more. If this projection proves accurate, it will alleviate many of the fiscal pressures facing the country, since economic growth itself will help stabilize the debt.

I dont think the tax bill pays for itself, but Im not as concerned about deficit impact as others are, says Glenn Hubbard, dean of Columbia Business School and President George W. Bushs chief economist. We need to raise productivity growth in the U.S. A tax cut on business income is a very big step in that direction.

But if that optimism proves unwarranted, as many analyses predict, it could present a peril to the nation, especially if an economic downturn or a foreign policy crisis requires the government to step up spending.

I thought it was bad enough we had debt at record levels, says Goldwein. But its going to get worse.

Read more:

Will your taxes go up or down in 2018 under the new tax bill?

The Finance 202: The GOP tax plans lopsided numbers
Surprises are nice but, sometimes the best Christmas gifts are the ones you give yourself.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas recently released its usual year-end projections of the state's power market. The outlook has shifted dramatically since May (which is when ERCOT releases its first take every year) in one crucial respect: reserve margins.

Texas Power Market's Projected Spare Capacity Vs. Peak Demand

9.3%

This is the level of spare capacity versus expected peak demand, and Texas' rule of thumb is that you want a buffer of 13.75 percent of that demand. Back in May, ERCOT projected a buffer of 18.9 percent next summer. That's been slashed by more than half to just 9.3 percent.

Greg Gordon, an analyst with Evercore ISI, has helpfully compiled data showing how these outlooks have moved over the years. To simplify things, the chart below shows just five years of projected reserve margins for each of the December reports going back to 2013 (I've also thrown in this year's May report for comparison):

This isn't because power demand is expected to surge; ERCOT has slightly raised its projected growth rate across the next decade, but the forecast for peak demand in summer 2018 has actually been cut by half a percent.

Instead, years of falling wholesale power prices due to all that excess capacity did their job and pushed power producers to shut down plants. A net 2.5 gigawatts of expected summer capacity has been taken out since ERCOT's last report in May. The biggest contribution to that came from Vistra Energy Corp., which is closing 4.3 gigawatts of coal-fired plants (the net number is lower because that measures both additions to capacity from elsewhere and factors in capacity utilization of different plants).

Shutting down facilities is rarely a cause for celebration in corporate circles. In this case, though, Vistra's self-help is not only good for the environment, but by tightening the reserve margin, it has perked up Texas power futures no end:

Shares in Vistra and NRG Energy Inc. -- another big Texas generator -- are actually lower or only slightly higher, respectively, since those futures jumped. This is probably because they've been overshadowed by other initiatives at both companies -- namely Vistra's acquisition of Dynegy Inc. and NRG's ongoing activist-inspired process of trying sell assets and cut costs.

That may change as summer gets closer. In Texas, wholesale power prices can jump to a cap of $9,000 per megawatt-hour when the grid is straining to meet demand. But, as Evercore ISI's Gordon pointed out in a report this week, the state's power producers haven't enjoyed such scarcity pricing since 2011, as excess capacity and the growth of cheap wind power have kept a lid on the market. The sudden drop in spare capacity could generate a few windfalls next summer, particularly if it's hotter than usual.

The flip-side of such prices is that they should encourage more generation. That doesn't necessarily mean more capacity getting built. The biggest source of power in Texas is natural gas, forecast by ERCOT to account for 65 percent of effective capacity next summer. Yet the state's gas-fired plants are relatively underutilized, running only 34 percent of the time in 2016, according to data from the Energy Information Administration. With cheap gas flooding into the region as a side-effect of surging oil output from the Permian shale basin, expect those plants to run more -- which is why Vistra's been buying them.

On the other hand, higher pricing could provide further momentum for renewable-power sources. Volatile electricity costs tend to make signing long-term power purchase contracts backing solar projects particularly attractive for corporate or industrial electricity customers. These two groups, which account for 63 percent of power consumption in Texas, are also likely to sign up for more energy efficiency and demand-management programs if prices spike. These have risen steadily over the years, from less than a gigawatt in 2014 to a projected 2.7 GW next year and 3.7 GW by 2022.

The last time ERCOT cut its projected reserve margin by anything like this year's dramatic move was in December 2011, when the level of spare capacity over the following five years was cut by 4.9 percentage points, on average, relative to the May report (this year's figure is 7.6 points). It's worth examining just how quickly supply and demand responded to that the last time around:

The message there is that Texas' power producers should enjoy their self-made Christmas gift, because it won't necessarily keep giving.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Gadfly columnist covering energy, mining and commodities. He previously was the editor of the Wall Street Journal's "Heard on the Street" column. Before that, he wrote for the Financial Times' Lex column. He has also worked as an investment banker and consultant.

To contact the author of this story: Liam Denning in New York at ldenning1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net.

2017 Bloomberg L.P.
Young Sheldon (CBS at 8:30) On the midseason finale, Sheldon (Iain Armitage, right) is forced to tutor his brother Georgie (Montana Jordan, left) when his poor grades threaten his status on the football team. (Sonja Flemming/CBS)

Listings for Dec. 21.

(All times Eastern).

Mom (CBS at 9) Christy and Bonnie look for the thief after their home is robbed at Christmas time. (This and the next two CBS listings are midseason finales.)

Life in Pieces (CBS at 9:30) The Short family celebrates Christmas.

S.W.A.T. (CBS at 10) The team gets stuck working during holiday time when a drug cartel's cache is stolen.

Top Chef (Bravo at 10) The Denver omelet is the basis for a Sudden Death Quickfire.

Special

Inside the Actors Studio: Kristen Wiig (Bravo at 8) Host James Lipton interviews the actress of "Saturday Night Live" and "Bridesmaids" fame.

Returning

Peaky Blinders (Netflix streaming) The British period drama returns for Season 4.

Documentary

The Family I Had (ID at 9) This film follows a mother 10 years after her son (then 13) murdered her 4-year-old daughter.

Circus Kid (Sundance Now streaming) Lorenzo Pisoni grew up in a circus family. This film tells their story and shows their impact on the New American Circus Movement.

Late Night

Fallon (NBC at 11:34) Jason Sudeikis, Amy Sedaris, Robert Kelly.

Meyers (NBC at 12:37) Rebel Wilson, Sen.-elect Doug Jones (D-Ala.).
Democrat Shelly Simonds was declared the winner of Virginias 94th District by one vote on Tuesday. On Wednesday, judges called the race a tie between Simonds and Republican David Yancey. (Joe Fudge/Daily Press via AP)

This story has been updated.

A court has declared a tie Wednesday in a Virginia House of Delegates election that one day earlier appeared to have gone to a Democrat by a single vote.

A three-judge panel certified the 94th District in Newport News as tied at 11,608 to 11,608, a day after a dramatic recount appeared to give Democrat Shelly Simonds the victory over Delegate David Yancey.

Yancey successfully challenged an uncounted ballot he said should have been included in his total.

By state law, the winner of the tie will be determined by lot. It was not immediately clear how or when that will take place.

The outcome probably will decide which political party controls the House of Delegates. If Yancey wins, Republicans will hold on to power by one seat, 51-49. If Simonds wins, a rare power-sharing agreement would have to be worked out between Democrats and Republicans.

Simonds, a school board member, had initially appeared to lose Novembers election by 10 votes. On Tuesday, she was declared the winner: 11,608 votes to 11,607. But Yancey said that an uncounted ballot with marks for both Simonds and Yancey should have been counted. That ballot had a slash mark through Simondss name. The panel of judges decided the ballot would count for Yancey.

The recount was one of four scheduled for House races with very close outcomes.

Last week, Republican Delegate Tim Hugo held on to his seat in Fairfax County after a recount made little change to his 100-plus vote lead. Two more recounts are set Wednesday and Thursday for districts in and around Richmond and in the Fredericksburg area.
Columnist

Hello, Carolyn: One of my best girlfriends (were in our 40s and 50s) has started dating a former lover of mine. Because Im a private person, my friends possibly knew of him  Im single  but didnt press for details. They all know him independently through a group affiliation we share.

He became former earlier this year because he constantly let me down, from canceling a date as Im literally on my way to taking a phone call while Im talking with him about facing my oncologist about my cancer progress  the whole range of disrespectful. No biggie, I respected him enough to accept how he wanted to be and we just transitioned back to friendship.

A few weeks into their dating experience, however, hes already doing the same to her  last-minute cancellations, etc. Her desire for marriage may blind her to how disrespectful his behavior can be.

So, two questions: Do I have to crack my own shell of privacy and tell my friend I had a thing with a guy shes now dating? Hes obviously not mentioned it. If I wait to see if it becomes serious, then its an even harder conversation. I feel really uncomfortable about each of the say/dont-say options.

And do I share with her some of the thoughtless and disrespectful things hes done? Not least of which, I think, is dating one of my best friends without a heads-up to me.

Maybe I should talk to him? I dont like being in this position!

 Say/Not Say?

Say/Not Say?: These lose-lose decisions always feel the hardest, obviously, because you don't see any courses of action you like, but inaction leaves you stuck in the limbo of facing an unwanted choice. It's lose-lose-lose, in a way.

But theres usually a good decision  or a merely less-bad one  to be found by breaking a situation down to its most basic facts.

Here, you have two certainties at the foundation of everything: Your privacy is yours, and your friends relationship is hers.

So your best choice is going to be the one that comes closest to honoring these two facts.

Which means you say as little as possible, and you disrupt the relationship as little as possible.

You rightly point out that choosing to say nothing will loom larger and get weirder as their relationship progresses. That means speaking up might feel like butting into their business but is actually more respectful of their relationship  and your privacy  than silence. Silence plants a drama mine that one of you is almost certain to step on someday.

The truth gains potency daily, so speak up soon. I should have said something right away, Im sorry  I erred on the side of minding my own business but instead it felt like keeping a secret from you. Anyway, I dated [name] for [time period], until [date]. Thats all. Im happy for you both. Crack your privacy now, on your terms, to preempt its demolition by others later.

Thats all, by the way, means no comment on his thoughtlessness (or her marital-desperation blindness, ahem) because their actions and feelings and relationship are theirs. Yours become relevant only when youre asked, and even then, you speak only of and for yourself.

Write to

Carolyn Hax

at

tellme@washpost.com

. Get her column delivered to your inbox each morning at

wapo.st/haxpost

.
Jeanay Bullock, left, workforce development manager at Bright Beginnings, shows off appropriate work attire during a fashion show at the District charity in November. Tamara Perez, right, its family and community engagement manager, narrates for the crowd. (John Kelly/The Washington Post)

Columnist

The question that brought tears to Adia's eyes was a simple one: Tell us about yourself.

I started crying, Adia said. The first thing I thought was, Im a mom. 

In a job interview, that suddenly didnt seem like enough.

It was workforce development week at Bright Beginnings, a charity that has a two-generation approach to combating homelessness in the District. Bright Beginnings operates a preschool for children from homeless families, preparing them to successfully enter kindergarten. It also offers programs for parents, to help them improve their lives by completing an education or getting a job.

Scheduled for the last day of workforce development week was a bit of fun: a fashion show to demonstrate proper workplace attire, held in a large, light-filled room of the Perry School building at First and M streets NW. Before then, parents such as Adia  a 30-year-old mother of two  could take sessions on topics like setting goals, writing resumes and nailing the job interview.

[Bright Beginnings gives a helping hand to a mother learning to be a parent]

Clients had kicked off the week with what Jeanay Bullock, Bright Beginnings' workforce development manager, called a "Sip & Paste": sitting and creating vision boards exploring their hopes when it came to work.

From there, things got more specific. Bullock explained that job-seekers should scrutinize their social media feeds, since employers would be looking for any questionable posts. You need to clear that up, she said.

Also important: having someone else proofread your resume. There was agreement all around.

"I can edit her resume," said one Bright Beginnings client, nodding to a woman seated nearby. "When it comes to mine, I can't."

But what was really eye-opening  and stressful  were the mock job interviews. A one-on-one job interview was tough enough, the Bright Beginnings clients agreed, but a panel job interview  being grilled by three or four people  was really anxiety-producing.

You come in with no confidence, one client lamented.

One suggestion: Make eye contact with the interviewers. Dont look up at the ceiling. That makes it look as if youre timid or scared.

"That's the last thing you want to exude," said Tamara Perez, family and community engagement manager at Bright Beginnings.

What was the balance, some clients wondered, between saying too little in a job interview and saying too much?

When Im having anxiety, I may overtalk, one mom said.

Adia had lost it when it had been her turn in the mock panel interview.

"Who am I?" she said to herself. She was a mother to a 7-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy, but she didn't think that's what they wanted to hear. They meant, "Tell us about your skills, your work history, your education. . . . "

I burst out crying, Adia said. She had completed a course in cosmetology but had yet to pass her licensing exam.

"I don't want you to think you're just a mom," said Shaquita Tillman, the disabilities and mental health manager at Bright Beginnings. She pointed out that any parent who successfully gets two or three kids out the door for school and makes sure they're fed and clothed already has awesome time-management skills.

After her mock interview meltdown, Adia had sat back down and calmed herself as other women took their turns.

She told herself: My skills are just as important as the people who went before and after me.

Then she did it again.

They liked the second one better, Adia said. They see more in me than I saw in myself. Thats something I need to work on.

She vowed to get her cosmetology license.

When it was finally time for the fashion show, volunteers demonstrated some dos and donts. Sweatpants and slippers? Okay for the grocery store. Not for a job.

One woman showed off business casual as Bullock narrated: Shes wearing boots, but theyre not too high. Her clothes are not too tight. The slacks do give her a professional feel.

Bullock herself illustrated the epitome of a sedate work uniform: pleated skirt, heels and a blouse buttoned to the neck.

As she strutted on the imaginary runway, the crowd egged her on. You have to work it! someone shouted, demanding that Bullock sashay.

Work it!

Okay!

Look at you!

Everyone was.

You can help

Adias son is a student at Bright Beginnings preschool. Her daughter is a graduate, now getting straight As in first grade.

People need to understand that this place is a blessing, Adia said. It helps not just the kids but the parents themselves.

Bright Beginnings is a partner in The Washington Post Helping Hand. To help families like Adia's, visit posthelpinghand.com and click where it says "Donate."

To give by mail, make a check payable to Bright Beginnings and send it to: Bright Beginnings, Attn: Helping Hand, 128 M St. NW, Suite 150, Washington, D.C. 20001.

Twitter: @johnkelly

For previous columns, visit washingtonpost.com/johnkelly.
THE DISTRICT

53-year-old woman dies in apartment fire

A woman who was critically injured in a fire Monday night at an apartment building in the Brentwood neighborhood of Northeast Washington died early Tuesday, according to D.C. police.

The victim was identified as Monica Allen, 53, of Northeast. Another woman also was injured and was hospitalized for evaluation. A firefighter suffered minor injuries.

The fire broke out about 10:40 p.m. in the 1400 block of Downing Street NE. Firefighters rescued Allen from the burning apartment on the first floor. She died at 1:32 a.m. Tuesday.

A cause of the fire remained under investigation.

 Peter Hermann

MARYLAND

Accohannock tribe is

granted Indian status

The tiny Accohannock Native American Tribe, largely based on the Eastern Shore, has received Maryland Indian Status from Gov. Larry Hogan (R). It is the third tribe in Maryland to receive the distinction.

Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford (R) presented an executive order to the tribe that qualifies it to receive federal, state and nonprofit assistance for its work. Five years ago, former governor Martin O'Malley gave similar status to the Piscataway-Canoy Tribe and the Piscataway Indian Nation.

There are 58,000 people with American Indian heritage living in Maryland, according to the governors office. About 400 of them are a part of the Accohannock Native American Tribe.

 Ovetta Wiggins

3 killed in small-plane

crash; all lived in area

Three people killed in the crash of a small plane in Indiana were identified Monday as two adults and the child of one of them, all residents of the Washington area.

One was Louis R. Cantilena Jr., a professor of medicine and pharmacology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, according to Richard W. Thomas, the universitys president. Cantilenas daughter, Amy, also died, Thomas said in a statement.

The other man killed was Paul F. Schuda, according to a statement from the Civil Air Patrol, which quoted the Associated Press.

Schuda is listed as the director of the training center of the National Transportation Safety Board. The uniformed services university described him as a friend of Cantilenas family.

Cantilena was flying a single-engine plane that crashed near Oldenburg, Ind., on Saturday. It was en route from Kansas City, Mo., to an airport in Frederick County, Md.

 Martin Weil

THE REGION

Head of state police

plans to step down

The superintendent of the Virginia State Police plans to step down after serving four governors, a spokeswoman for the department said Tuesday.

Col. Steven W. Flaherty, who was originally appointed by Gov. Mark R. Warner in 2003, plans to retire when Gov. Terry McAuliffes term expires in January. Flaherty joined the department in 1975.

Flaherty, in a statement, called the job the greatest honor of my life.

Lt. Colonel Gary T. Settle, a 32-year law enforcement veteran, will succeed Flaherty as superintendent.

The announcement comes two weeks after a scathing report criticized police response to a white-supremacist rally, which caused widespread violence and claimed the life of a protester in Charlottesville in August.

The announcement also comes one day after Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas announced that he was stepping down amid criticism of his department's handling of the rally.

Corinne Geller, a Virginia State Police spokeswoman, said the timing of Flahertys retirement had nothing to do with the report or criticism of the departments handling of the Charlottesville rally.

Hes been planning this for some time, Geller said.

 Justin Jouvenal
David Blair is seeking the Democratic nomination to become Montgomery County executive. (Friends of David Blair)

David Blair, who is running to become Montgomery's county executive, did not regularly vote in primary elections before 2014. The omission sets him apart from his competitors in Maryland's largest jurisdiction, who describe voting as a core civic duty.

Blair, a wealthy Potomac businessman, voted in each general election over the past 10 years as well as in primaries in 2014 and 2016. But according to data from the Maryland State Board of Elections, he did not vote in gubernatorial or presidential primaries in 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012.

During those days, I was probably more focused on building our business and had an unpredictable schedule, Blair, 48, said in an interview. It doesnt surprise me that I might have missed some elections.

Turnout in party primaries typically lags far behind turnout for general elections. In Montgomery, 38 percent of registered voters cast ballots in the 2016 primary, compared with 74 percent in the general. But Mark Rozell, dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, said voters expect those who run for office also to be active voters.

A lack of the most basic level of party activity  voting  is seen as a lack of serious commitment both to the party and to its issues, Rozell said.

Former Rockville mayor Rose Krasnow (D), who also is vying to succeed Isiah Leggett (D), the current county executive, said elected officials shape the lives of county residents. "So to not even step up and vote is almost an abdication of your civic responsibility," she said.

Blair is the only candidate for county executive who has never held elective office. In the June 26 Democratic primary, in addition to Krasnow, he faces three longtime County Council members  Roger Berliner (D-Potomac-Bethesda), Marc Elrich (D-At Large) and George L. Leventhal (D-At Large)  and Maryland House Majority Leader C. William Frick (D-Montgomery).

Each of them, in addition to Republican candidate and former state delegate Robin Ficker, has voted in every primary and general election since at least 2006.

Blair founded Catalyst Health Solutions, a pharmacy-benefit management organization, in 1999 and was its chief executive until 2012. He said he has become more attuned to local politics over the past decade as his acute awareness to policy decisions increased.

As I became more aware of what really drives our environment and our community and understanding the importance of local elections, you see a larger participation in primary elections, he said.

His opponents say there is no excuse for not voting.

Democracy depends on participation, Berliner said. So the people that seek to lead our county should certainly be among those who have participated.

Elrich said that even those who vote strictly along party lines have a choice during the primaries. You cant just put a D in front of somebodys name, he said. If you havent voted on this stuff, then it must not be very important to you.

State records also show that Blair, Frick and Ficker all changed their party affiliations at different points.

Blair registered to vote as a Republican at age 18, largely because his father was a Republican, he said. He switched to the Democratic Party in 2003.

I was probably less politically aware of the stark differences between the parties, Blair said. As I moved through my 20s, it was pretty clear that my values aligned with the Democratic Party.

Frick said he became unaffiliated in 2003 while trying to build his career as a young lawyer in Washington during the Republican administration of President George W. Bush. He later re-registered as a Democrat.

Ficker was unaffiliated from March 2006 to November 2007, a 20-month span that included an unsuccessful run for county executive as an independent.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) on Wednesday promised legislation to shield state residents from paying higher taxes under the Republican tax plan approved by Congress.

The governor said his proposal would include ways to return to taxpayers any revenue that lands in state coffers as a result of Congress shrinking the amount of state, local and property taxes that can be deducted from federal income taxes.

Thats my holiday gift to the people of Maryland, Hogan said, adding that Comptroller Peter Franchot (D) is still determining the exact impact of the federal measure on state residents.

A leading Democratic lawmaker who is seeking to run against Hogan in November immediately denounced the governors idea, saying the state will need any new revenue it gets to offset the impact of federal cuts to health care and other essential programs.

The decision by Congress to cap state and local tax deductions at $10,000 is expected to hit residents of high-tax states such as Maryland, California, Connecticut and New York especially hard. Nearly half of Marylanders take the deduction, with the average amount being more than the proposed $10,000 limit, according to a recent analysis from the Government Finance Officers Association.

Hogan said the congressional plan would give the state hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenue because residents taxable income will increase when the federal government scales back personal exemptions and deductions.

Our goal will be to leave all that money in the pockets of hard-working Marylanders, the governor said. Im confident that our partners in the General Assembly who have expressed concern over the impact of the federal bill will support us unanimously in this legislation.

Democrats have criticized the governor for not speaking out against the GOP tax overhaul as it made its way through Congress in recent weeks, noting that Republican Govs. Charlie Baker (Mass.), John Kasich (Ohio) and Phil Scott (Vermont) have opposed the proposal. The GOP plan would provide more relief to the wealthy than the middle class and working poor. Many of the breaks for individuals are set to expire by 2025, while cuts for corporations and other businesses are permanent.

Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr. (D-Montgomery), vice chair of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee and a candidate for governor, said he is extremely concerned that Hogan wants the people of Maryland to pay for the Republican Partys tax scam.

Madaleno agreed that Maryland would receive significantly more tax revenue under the federal plan but said the state would need that money to make up for possible reductions in programs such as Medicaid and the health-care exchanges put in place under the Affordable Care Act, which Republicans might overhaul to pay for the tax plan.

His Republican colleagues have put us on a vicious cycle downward, and hes trying to push us into that vortex, Madaleno said. I hope Governor Hogan will participate in rebuilding a fair tax code in our state.
A damaged ceiling at the nonprofit Family Crisis Center of Prince Georges County, which operates the only shelter for abused women and their children in the county. Residents have complained about the conditions of the housing and food at the shelter. (Obtained by The Washington Post)

Prince Georges County housing inspectors and family services officials are investigating conditions inside a county-funded safe house for domestic-violence survivors after residents reported living in mold- and pest-infested rooms, eating spoiled food and enduring cold nights without heat.

The county pays the private nonprofit Family Crisis Center Inc. of Prince Georges County $385,000 a year to operate the 55-bed shelter, which is the only facility in the county that provides temporary housing for abused women and their children.

The Family Crisis Center, which also offers counseling and outreach services to domestic-violence victims, receives hundreds of thousands more dollars each year in state and local grants.

Residents of the shelter  whose location is kept private for security reasons  approached reporters during the weekend to say that their concerns had been ignored by the organizations executive director, Sophie Ford. The residents presented videos and photos of mold in bathrooms, broken windows and rust.

One young mother, who declined to give her full name out of fear for her safety, said that shelter staff members were friendly, but that there was never enough money for groceries.



Dirt and mold at the shelter run by the Family Crisis Center. (Obtained by The Washington Post)

The food was like slop, said the woman, who asked to be identified by her first name, Jay. It got so bad that my children wouldnt eat it, and I wouldnt let them. I went to the store nearby to buy whatever I could find.

Ford did not respond to requests for comment. But in a statement posted on the crisis centers Facebook page, the organization said it is investigating the complaints and making repairs to the century-old building. The statement denied that the safe house lacked heat or that any of its 46 residents consumed rotten food.

It is our highest priority to protect our population, the statement said. Therefore we take any and all complaints very serious. . . . These allegations strike at the core of our mission.

Elana Belon-Butler, director of the countys Department of Family Services, visited the crisis center facility on Monday and saw leaking shower heads, filthy air vents and other problems.

I was not aware of the extent, severity and complexity of the issues, said Belon-Butler, adding that she is awaiting a complete report from inspectors. I saw a number of things I am concerned about.

The county Department of Family Services conducts quarterly site inspections of shelters it contracts with, notifying the organizations ahead of arrival. Officials are reviewing past reports, including the one from the most recent Nov. 29 site visit. The shelter has been funded by the county since 1993.

"Specifically, what we are going to wait to see is whether or not there has been any violation of the grant agreement," Belon-

Butler said. "We are taking this very seriously."

Prince Georges leads the state in domestic-violence-related homicides. The safe house is part of a network of services  including a year-old Family Justice Center focused on helping abuse victims  aimed at combating the violence.

The Family Crisis Center was paid $108,000 by the county this fall to expand services to southern Prince Georges. Since 2012, the organization has won at least $630,000 in county grants. The shelter also received $1.2 million in the past two years from the Governors Office of Crime Control and Prevention.

A grant coordinator from the state inspected the shelter on Tuesday after WUSA-TV reported on the residents complaints, agency spokesman Robert James said. No major problems were reported during two site visits earlier this year.

The state also investigated complaints about the shelter in 2015, James said. After several staff members were removed, he said, conditions improved.

Keiyauna Stanley, a former manager of the shelter, said she was fired in November after contacting the organizations board of directors about conditions at the house and unpaid utility bills.

Carolyn White Williams, the head of a nonprofit that donates toys and clothes to the women in the shelter, said, The issues have been going on for a mighty long time.

White Williams, founder of Sister 4 Sister Inc., said she complained about insufficient funds and shelter mismanagement during a recent County Council oversight hearing but did not receive a response that satisfied her.

My heart is with those women. It makes me really, really angry, she said.

County Council Chair Dannielle M. Glaros (D) called the allegations about the shelter disturbing and unacceptable.

We anxiously await more details from the inspections and the results of this investigation before determining the best next steps to support the needs of the residents of the Family Crisis Center, she said in a statement.

Prince Georges County States Attorney Angela Alsobrooks (D), who is running for county executive, successfully sought state funding this year to provide additional short-term housing options for domestic-violence victims.

Her spokesman, John Erzen, said Alsobrooks was motivated in part by long-standing concerns about the crisis center.

We wanted to try and bring another option when people are looking to get out of dangerous situations, Erzen said.
Cardinal Bernard F. Law, the Boston archbishop who became one of the most influential Catholic leaders in the United States before resigning in 2002 amid revelations that he and other prelates had known for years of rampant child molestation by parish priests, a scandal that has been called the churchs darkest crisis of the modern era, has died at 86.

The Vatican announced in a statement early Wednesday that Cardinal Law died after a long illness, without offering further details. He had been recently hospitalized in Rome.

For more than half a century, Cardinal Law dedicated himself to the church, an institution that became his home after his itinerant upbringing as the son of a commercial and military aviator. As he rose from parish priest to Boston archbishop  the steward of one of the most Catholic American cities  he promoted traditional Catholic doctrine and envisioned the church as a guarantor of social justice in the 20th century.

He began his ministry in segregated Mississippi, where he used his authority as editor of a diocesan publication to denounce racism. Later, as a bishop in Missouri, he made room at a seminary for about 200 Vietnamese priests and brothers who had left their home after the fall of Saigon in 1975.

Cardinal Laws theology transcended scripture to encompass affordable housing and literacy education. Poor countries, like poor parishes, he argued, at times deserved debt forgiveness from their creditors. Years before Pope John Paul II began his historic efforts to mend the churchs scarred relationship with the Jewish community, Cardinal Law sought interreligious dialogue.



Cardinal Law, center, appears in Boston's Suffolk County Superior Court in 2002 for a hearing in the Geoghan case. (George Martell/Pool/ Boston Herald)

On matters of theology, he shared John Pauls doctrinal conservatism. He became one of the popes point men in the United States, said David Gibson, an authority on the Catholic Church, as John Paul sought to reshape its ranks by identifying like-minded priests and installing them as bishops, archbishops and cardinals.

But controversy engulfed Cardinal Law in the early 2000s, when a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation by the Boston Globe, later dramatized in the Academy Award-winning film "Spotlight," led to revelations that church officials had covered up sexual abuse in the priesthood for decades by shuffling alleged offenders among parishes.

Cardinal Law was never accused of committing sexual abuse, and he denounced the offense as a terrible evil. But for many Catholics as well as non-Catholics, he became a symbol of the churchs failure to protect the young from priests who exploited the trust that traditionally accompanies their role.

While I would hope that it would be understood that I never intended to place a priest in a position where I felt he would be a risk to children, Cardinal Law said in an apology in November 2002, the fact of the matter remains that I did assign priests who had committed sexual abuse.

In the course of legal proceedings arising from the scandal, Cardinal Law was called to give depositions in several civil cases and, in February 2003, appeared before a criminal grand jury considering potential indictments of him and other high-ranking Boston-area prelates.

Later that year, then-Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly concluded that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute the Boston Archdiocese or its leaders. But his office released a report on the matter, declaring that "the mistreatment of children was so massive and so prolonged that it borders on the unbelievable."

Although not bearing sole responsibility for the wrongdoing, Cardinal Law, the report found, had direct knowledge of the scope, duration and severity of the crisis experienced by children in the Archdiocese; he participated directly in crucial decisions concerning the assignment of abusive priests, decisions that typically increased the risk to children.

1 of 66 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Notable deaths in 2017 View Photos Remembering those who died in 2017. Caption Remembering those who died in 2017. Katherine Frey Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.

Among the most notorious offenders in the Boston area was Father John J. Geoghan. Church documents unearthed as the scandal was uncovered showed that Cardinal Law had known of accusations against Geoghan and still permitted the priest to continue his pastoral work. In all, Geoghan would be accused of abusing 150 children, mainly boys, over decades and in numerous parishes.

Another priest, Peter J. Frost, was removed from active ministry in 1992 and later described himself in a letter to Cardinal Law as a sex addict, also revealing that one of his victims had committed suicide.

In later correspondence, Cardinal Law told Frost that he hoped the priest would one day return to an appropriate ministry, bringing with [him] the wisdom which emerges from difficult experience. Frost was ultimately removed from the clerical state.

In a 2002 civil deposition related to the case of Paul R. Shanley, a priest who was later defrocked and then convicted in 2005 of child rape and other charges, Cardinal Law presented himself as a leader who had delegated many personnel matters to his subordinates.

He attributed the shroud of secrecy about abusive priests to concern for victims and their privacy. A victims lawyer pressed him on the point, suggesting that there have been other focuses, have there not, Cardinal Law?

"There have been and there are," he replied, according to an account in the Globe.

One of those has been to avoid scandal in the church? the lawyer asked.

Thats correct, Cardinal Law said.

As reports mounted of coverups in dioceses around the world, some church leaders argued that they had been ignorant of the trauma of sexual abuse and that they had treated offending priests not as criminals, but as sinners deserving of mercy. That defense was insufficient for many victims and other critics, who charged that church officials  exemplified by Cardinal Law  had guarded their ranks at the expense of children.

Many could read his career as a cautionary tale about the perils of power in the church, said Gibson, a national reporter for the Religion News Service and author of The Coming Catholic Church (2003). He became a creature of and a victim of the clerical culture. . . . There were bishops right, left and center who did the same things that he did.

Cardinal Law stepped down as archbishop on Dec. 13, 2002, and later moved to Rome, where he served, until shortly before his 80th birthday, as archpriest of a basilica.

His stature, achieved after years of ecclesiastical leadership, made his downfall particularly painful for the faithful who continued to love the church while recognizing that it had grievously erred.

An itinerant childhood

Bernard Francis Law was born on Nov. 4, 1931, in Torreon, Mexico. His father, a pilot, was Catholic; his mother was Presbyterian before converting to her husbands faith.

As a youth, Cardinal Law made frequent moves with his parents, including to Colombia, Panama and the Virgin Islands. In St. Thomas, he was elected president of his mostly black senior class, according to a biographical sketch in the book Bostons Cardinal: Bernard Law, the Man and His Witness (2002).

He studied medieval history at Harvard University, from which he graduated in 1953. After completing his religious training at St. Joseph Seminary in Louisiana and the Pontifical College Josephinum in Ohio, he was ordained in 1961.

His first assignment was in the Natchez-Jackson Diocese in Mississippi. Amid boiling racial hatred, the young priest helped found and then led an interfaith council on human relations. A Unitarian minister who served with him was shot, according to the biographical sketch, and the home of a rabbi was bombed. Cardinal Law reportedly received death threats.

Later, in Washington, he joined the organization now known as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and led a committee on interreligious understanding. He served as bishop of Springfield-Cape Girardeau in Missouri before succeeding Humberto Medeiros as archbishop of Bostons 2 million Catholics in 1984. The next year, he was elevated to cardinal, a prince of the church.

In Boston, Cardinal Law was credited with helping to ease race relations during the divisive court-ordered busing for public schools. He urged voters to make abortion, which the Catholic Church opposes, the critical issue in elections. Politically well-connected, he spoke as frequently as once a month with George H.W. Bush during his presidency, the Globe reported.

In international affairs, Cardinal Law became a visible envoy for the church. He met with Cuban leader Fidel Castro eight years before John Pauls historic visit to the communist country in 1998, traveled to Vietnam, and led humanitarian relief efforts after natural disasters in Latin America.

In 2002, as the sexual-abuse scandal intensified, The Washington Post interviewed Thomas H. OConnor, a historian at Boston College who had followed Cardinal Laws career. Reflecting on his accomplishments, OConnor paraphrased a line from Shakespeares tragedy Julius Caesar.

Theres going to be a lot of good, the historian said, interred with his bones.

Betraying the sacred trust

Cardinal Laws public response to sexual abuse within the clergy could be traced at least to 1992, when he was confronted by claims that a former Massachusetts priest, James R. Porter, had molested dozens of children in the 1960s. Cardinal Law decried the tragedy of a priest betraying the sacred trust of priestly service but described abusive clergy as the rare exception.

In 1993, Porter was sentenced to 18 to 20 years in prison. Three years later, a Waltham, Mass., woman filed the first in what would be a raft of lawsuits against another priest  Geoghan  whom she said had abused her three sons.

Through a lawyer, Cardinal Law admitted that, as archbishop in September 1984, he was advised of accusations that Geoghan had molested seven boys. Geoghan nonetheless was transferred to another parish, where he was permitted to lead altar boys. Reports of abuse continued.

It is most heartening to know that things have gone well for you and that you are ready to resume your efforts with a renewed zeal and enthusiasm, Cardinal Law wrote to Geoghan in 1989, as reported by the Globe, after moving the priest to his new parish. Church records showed that Geoghan had been medically cleared for work.

In 1998, under Cardinal Laws leadership and with John Pauls approval, Geoghan was defrocked. He was strangled in 2003 by a fellow inmate at a correctional facility in Massachusetts, where he was serving a prison sentence for fondling a boy at a pool.

The Boston Archdiocese reached settlements with many of Geoghans reported victims. Such settlements, made in dioceses across the United States, were estimated to have cost the church more than $2 billion.

In January 2002, Cardinal Law issued a public apology for his reassignment of Geoghan. In the same announcement  belatedly, to many critics  he said that priests would be required to notify law enforcement authorities of alleged sexual abuse.

In the ensuing months, Cardinal Law came under growing pressure to resign. His public expressions of remorse culminated with his remarks in November 2002, at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, where he said that the forgiving love of God gives me the courage to beg forgiveness of those who have suffered because of what I did.

He acknowledged the devastating effects of this horrible sin  substance abuse, depression, in some cases suicide  and sought to assuage the sense of shame many victims suffer by assuring them that the perpetrators were to blame. He urged anyone living with the awful secret of sexual abuse by clergy or by anyone else to come forward so that you may begin to experience healing.

No one is helped by keeping such things secret, he said. The secret of sexual abuse needs to be brought out of the darkness and into the healing light of Jesus Christ.

His resignation came the following month. Cardinal Law later was a chaplain at the Sisters of Mercy of Alma convent in Clinton, Md., and maintained posts on Vatican committees, including the one that nominates bishops.

He assumed his post at the papal basilica of Saint Mary Major in 2004. After John Pauls death in the next year, Cardinal Law participated in the conclave that selected Joseph Ratzinger, later Benedict XVI, as the new pope.

Cardinal Law had no known immediate survivors.

In his apology at the Boston cathedral, he reflected on the priests whom he had known in his youth, and who had made an enduring impact on his life.

They represented all that was good to me, said Cardinal Law. Like countless others, I placed great trust in them.
Janet Benshoof was an ACLU litigator before she founded the Global Justice Center and the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York. (Lynn Savarese/For the New Abolitionists Campaign)

Janet Benshoof, a human rights lawyer who campaigned to expand access to contraceptives and abortion, leading organizations that advocated on behalf of women from the mainland United States to Burma, Iraq and Guam, where she was once arrested for protesting the most restrictive abortion law in America, died Dec. 18 at her home in Manhattan. She was 70.

She was diagnosed in November with uterine serous carcinoma, an endometrial cancer, said her son David Benshoof Klein.

Ms. Benshoof (pronounced ben-shawf) began her legal career just before the 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade established a woman's right to an abortion. She spent the next four decades fighting to uphold the case's legacy in the United States and to expand women's reproductive freedom around the world, founding the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights and Global Justice Center to defend clients that included abortion providers facing bomb threats as well as rape victims in war zones.

Proclaiming the motto "Power, not pity," she acquired a reputation as a fierce presence in the courtroom  as a litigator for the American Civil Liberties Union, she argued sex education and abortion cases before the Supreme Court  and as a frank, even funny guest on news programs such as "Good Morning America" and "The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour."

"I feel like I'm married to the mob," she told the New York Times in 1998, half-joking after Buffalo obstetrician Barnett Slepian was murdered by an antiabortion activist. "Saturday night, after the doctor was shot, another client called and talked for an hour. He was also in Upstate New York. He said, 'Do you think I could just get police protection until the leaves fall off?' He thought once the trees were bare and there was snow on the ground he'd be okay. It would be harder to find cover and not to leave tracks."



Ms. Benshoof at a Washington protest march in 2000, wearing a flag across her mouth to symbolize a rule that she said hindered womens health organizations from advocating for reform of abortion laws. (Michael Robinson-Chavez/The Washington Post)

Ms. Benshoof, who professed to being more worried about turbulent plane rides than militant abortion foes, played a supporting role in many of the legal and cultural flash points that followed Roe. At the ACLU, where she led the Reproductive Freedom Project before founding her own organization in 1992, she made abortion one of the group's top priorities, expanding the project's annual funding from $70,000 to $2.2 million.

She made national headlines in 1990, when she flew to the U.S. territory of Guam to lobby against what was then considered the country's most severe abortion legislation: a law that banned the advocacy of abortion and outlawed the procedure except when the life of the woman was threatened.

Ms. Benshoof arrived after the bill was signed into law, but at a news conference she stood up and announced that women who are pregnant, seeking an abortion, should leave the island and head to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Hawaii.

One day later, she was arrested for soliciting women to have abortions  a violation of the new law  and faced a $1,000 fine, a year in prison and the wrath of the islands governor, Joseph F. Ada.

"It's her right to question it, but she's making a mockery of our abortion law," he told People magazine. "That's not nice."

Legal niceties prevailed, however. The charges against Ms. Benshoof were dropped after the island faced an ACLU-backed lawsuit over its abortion law, which appeared to challenge the outcome of Roe. Five months after it was passed, the legislation was struck down by a federal district judge who ruled that Guam, like the rest of the United States, was bound by the Roe ruling.

Janet Lee Benshoof was born in Detroit Lakes, Minn., on May 10, 1947. Her father was a county prosecutor, and her mother was a teacher-turned-homemaker.

1 of 66 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Notable deaths in 2017 View Photos Remembering those who died in 2017. Caption Remembering those who died in 2017. Katherine Frey Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.

She received a bachelors degree in political science from the University of Minnesota, graduating summa cum laude in 1969, and graduated from Harvard Law School three years later, paying her tuition using money from a summer job at an A&W Root Beer stand.

Ms. Benshoof said she encountered a female lawyer for the first time while at Harvard, where she developed a friendship with future Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, co-founded the Harvard Women's Law Association and met her husband, Richard Klein, who became a law professor. Their marriage ended in divorce.

Survivors include her husband of six years, Alfred Meyer of Manhattan (Ginsburg officiated their wedding); two sons from her first marriage, David Benshoof Klein and Eli Klein, also of Manhattan; and a sister.

Ms. Benshoof worked for South Brooklyn Legal Services, filing class-action lawsuits on behalf of low-income clients in New York, before joining the ACLU in 1977. She left the organization 15 years later, during the "year of the woman," taking her entire staff with her in what ACLU Executive Director Ira Glasser described as a "dead of night" departure.

Weeks later, she received a $280,000 "genius" grant from the MacArthur Foundation, providing what she described as a bit of much-needed financial stability as she established what was then known as the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy. (She said she also donated some of the money to a women's health clinic in Minnesota.)

In one of Ms. Benshoofs most enduring achievements, the center effectively launched the use of the morning after pill as an emergency contraceptive, filing a petition to the Food and Drug Administration in 1994 that asked for companies to label birth control pills as postcoital contraceptives.

Two years later, the FDA published a notice affirming the safe and effective use of the pills after sex, following a contentious hearing in which Ms. Benshoof testified that the pills could prevent up to 1.2 million unwanted pregnancies and as many as 1 million abortions each year. Opponents likened the emergency birth control method to murder.

You would think that finding ways to stop unwanted pregnancies would be common ground, Ms. Benshoof said at the time. The fact that it isnt shows just how anti-woman the antiabortion movement really is.
Prince Georges County

These were among incidents reported by the Prince Georges County Police Department. For information, call 301-772-4710.

District 1

HQ: Hyattsville

301-699-2630

ROBBERIES

Annapolis Rd., 6600 block, 3:02 a.m. Dec. 4. Robbery reported.

14th Ave., 7900 block, 12:45 p.m. Dec. 4. Robbery reported.

CARJACKING

25th Ave. and West Park Dr., 10 p.m. Dec. 4. Carjacking reported.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Allison St., 3500 block, 6:18 a.m. Dec. 9. From auto.

Allison St., 3700 block, 9:58 a.m. Dec. 5. From auto.

Allison St., 3700 block, 11:24 a.m. Dec. 5. From auto.

Amherst Rd., 2400 block, 7:29 p.m. Dec. 8. From auto.

Annapolis Rd., 6200 block, 8:05 p.m. Dec. 10. Shoplifting.

Annapolis Rd., 7400 block, 10:28 p.m. Dec. 4.

Annapolis Rd., 8400 block, 4:44 p.m. Dec. 6.

Avalon Pl., 1800 block, 7:40 a.m. Dec. 6. From auto.

Baltimore Ave., 8500 block, 9:41 a.m. Dec. 4.

Baltimore Ave., 8500 block, 12:26 p.m. Dec. 4.

Baltimore Ave., 8500 block, 12:49 p.m. Dec. 5.

Berwyn Rd., 4700 block, 6:10 a.m. Dec. 4.

Berwyn Rd., 5000 block, 6:57 a.m. Dec. 4.

Carters Lane, 6000 block, 8:01 a.m. Dec. 5.

Cherry Hill Rd., 9300 block, 8:06 a.m. Dec. 6. From auto.

Fairbanks St., 6400 block, 11:47 a.m. Dec. 9. From auto.

Fairwood Rd., 6700 block, 5:54 a.m. Dec. 7. From auto.

Flanders Dr., 6400 block, 4:07 p.m. Dec. 6. From auto.

Flanders Dr., 6500 block, 10:42 p.m. Dec. 9.

Fox St., 4900 block, 3:54 p.m. Dec. 7.

Garrison Rd., 7400 block, 10:40 a.m. Dec. 4.

Greenbelt Rd., 4700 block, 6:46 a.m. Dec. 5. From auto.

Greenbelt Rd., 5900 block, 9:19 a.m. Dec. 6.

Greenleaf Rd., 5800 block, 8:59 p.m. Dec. 4.

Harland St., 6000 block, 9:27 p.m. Dec. 4.

Harmon Ave., 3700 block, 7:10 a.m. Dec. 6. From auto.

Hospital Dr., 3000 block, 8:30 a.m. Dec. 6. From auto.

Hospital Dr., 3000 block, 10:38 a.m. Dec. 7.

Jackson St., 5000 block, 12:40 p.m. Dec. 9. From auto.

Knox Rd., 4500 block, 8:06 p.m. Dec. 6.

Lake Ave., 2400 block, 2:42 p.m. Dec. 8.

Landover Rd., 5800 block, 9:24 a.m. Dec. 5.

Landover Rd., 6500 block, 8:25 a.m. Dec. 6. From auto.

Lewisdale Dr., 2200 block, 2:20 p.m. Dec. 4.

Metzerott Rd., 1800 block, 5:10 a.m. Dec. 5. From auto.

Metzerott Rd., 1800 block, 9:22 p.m. Dec. 7. From auto.

New Hampshire Ave., 6800 block, 3:06 p.m. Dec. 6. From auto.

New Hampshire Ave., 6800 block, 2:51 p.m. Dec. 7.

Oglethorpe St., 2000 block, 3:07 p.m. Dec. 4.

Pierce Ave., 5100 block, 12:57 p.m. Dec. 7.

Queens Chapel Rd., 3100 block, 5:25 p.m. Dec. 5.

Quentin St., 8300 block, 5:03 a.m. Dec. 6. From auto.

Quincy St., 6900 block, 10:04 p.m. Dec. 7.

Redfield Ave., 6600 block, 12:51 p.m. Dec. 10. From auto.

Rhode Island Ave., 4900 block, 6:08 a.m. Dec. 9. From auto.

Riggs Rd., 5800 block, 8:30 a.m. Dec. 10. From auto.

Riverdale Rd., 7700 block, 11:36 a.m. Dec. 6.

Riverdale Rd., 7700 block, 5:49 p.m. Dec. 10. Shoplifting.

Toledo Pl., 3300 block, 7:36 p.m. Dec. 6.

Underwood St., 3900 block, 8:18 a.m. Dec. 8. From auto.

16th Ave., 5400 block, 4:23 p.m. Dec. 5.

18th Ave., 7000 block, 9:39 a.m. Dec. 6. From auto.

22nd Ave., 8600 block, 2:30 p.m. Dec. 5. From auto.

25th Ave., 7200 block, 4:27 p.m. Dec. 9. From auto.

36th Ave., 8700 block, 1:35 p.m. Dec. 4. From auto.

48th Ave., 4800 block, 8:11 a.m. Dec. 9. From auto.

51st Ave., 9100 block, 10:36 a.m. Dec. 10.

52nd Ave., 5000 block, 4:50 a.m. Dec. 9. From auto.

55th Ave., 5000 block, 2:06 p.m. Dec. 9. From auto.

57th Ave., 8400 block, 7:01 a.m. Dec. 8.

64th Ave., 3800 block, 10:52 a.m. Dec. 6. From auto.

85th Ave., 5300 block, 6:30 p.m. Dec. 5.

KIDNAPPING

New Hampshire Ave., 6700 block, 7:32 a.m. Dec. 10.

VEHICLE THEFTS

Annapolis Rd., 5400 block, 9:13 a.m. Dec. 7. Stolen vehicle.

Annapolis Rd., 7500 block, 9:29 p.m. Dec. 5. Stolen vehicle.

Belcrest Rd., 6700 block, 4:36 p.m. Dec. 6. Stolen vehicle.

Cherokee St., 4700 block, 1:36 p.m. Dec. 9. Stolen vehicle.

Cherry Hill Rd., 9300 block, 8:03 p.m. Dec. 10. Stolen vehicle.

Chillum Rd., 1200 block, 12:31 p.m. Dec. 10. Stolen vehicle.

Dean Dr., 3600 block, 1:47 p.m. Dec. 8. Stolen vehicle.

Edmonston Rd., 4900 block, 1 p.m. Dec. 5. Stolen vehicle.

Jefferson Ct., 7400 block, 12:16 a.m. Dec. 10. Stolen vehicle.

Lawrence Pl., 5100 block, 7:58 a.m. Dec. 9. Stolen vehicle.

Lebanon St., 1900 block, 5:17 a.m. Dec. 6. Stolen vehicle.

Paducah Rd., 5000 block, 2:38 a.m. Dec. 4. Stolen vehicle.

Parkwood Rd., 6100 block, 7:49 a.m. Dec. 7. Stolen vehicle.

Rhode Island Ave., 5000 block, 1:20 p.m. Dec. 6. Stolen vehicle.

Southwark Terr., 7000 block, 3:40 p.m. Dec. 10. Stolen vehicle.

Talbert Lane, 800 block, 2:14 a.m. Dec. 9. Stolen vehicle.

Toledo Terr., 3400 block, 12:32 p.m. Dec. 5. Stolen vehicle.

Woodberry St., 2100 block, 6:29 a.m. Dec. 9. Stolen vehicle.

16th Ave., 5700 block, 12:23 p.m. Dec. 10. Stolen vehicle.

VANDALISM

Bladensburg Rd., 3600 block, 2:48 p.m. Dec. 6.

District 2

HQ: Bowie

301-390-2100

ASSAULTS

Central Ave., 12100 block, 2:14 p.m. Dec. 6. Cutting.

Crain Hwy. NW, 4100 block, 6:49 p.m. Dec. 8. Cutting.

Shelter Lane, 12300 block, 8:42 a.m. Dec. 9.

ROBBERIES

Annapolis Rd., 15400 block, 2:57 p.m. Dec. 6.

Worrell Ave., 9300 block, 7:16 p.m. Dec. 10. Robbery reported.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Annapolis Rd., 15900 block, 11:35 a.m. Dec. 6.

Birdseye Lane, 2700 block, 5:24 p.m. Dec. 10.

Brady Ave., 8400 block, 3:31 p.m. Dec. 10.

Brimfield Dr., 5000 block, 6:21 p.m. Dec. 8.

Byward Blvd., 9700 block, 9:33 p.m. Dec. 8.

Campus Way S., 10100 block, 8:10 a.m. Dec. 7. From auto.

Central Ave., 12100 block, 6:21 p.m. Dec. 4.

Commerce Dr., 800 block, 2:32 p.m. Dec. 9. From auto.

Crain Hwy. NW, 2300 block, 2:08 p.m. Dec. 9. From auto.

Crain Hwy. NW, 3500 block, 3:45 a.m. Dec. 6.

Dolbrook Lane, 14400 block, 11:46 a.m. Dec. 10. From auto.

Dubarry Ave., 9300 block, 8:39 a.m. Dec. 6.

Dubarry Ave., 9400 block, 4:59 p.m. Dec. 4.

Dunwood Valley Dr., 14300 block, 11:10 a.m. Dec. 10. From auto.

Edmond Way, 3700 block, 4:51 p.m. Dec. 6. From auto.

Ellerbie St., 5600 block, 6:42 p.m. Dec. 6.

Ellerbie St., 5700 block, 6:39 p.m. Dec. 7.

Emerald Way, 15300 block, 7:21 p.m. Dec. 10.

Emerald Way, 15600 block, 3:47 p.m. Dec. 9.

Enterprise Rd., 1500 block, 2:41 p.m. Dec. 4.

Fairwood Pkwy., 12500 block, 2:15 p.m. Dec. 6.

Farnsworth Lane, 14000 block, 8:31 a.m. Dec. 8.

Harry S. Truman Dr., 200 block, 12:56 p.m. Dec. 8. From auto.

Harry S. Truman Dr. N., 500 block, 6:15 a.m. Dec. 7. From auto.

Health Center Dr., 14900 block, 5:10 a.m. Dec. 8. From auto.

High Bridge Rd., 6000 block, 8:06 a.m. Dec. 9.

Largo Center Dr., 800 block, 5:55 p.m. Dec. 6. From auto.

Largo Center Dr., 1000 block, 11:37 a.m. Dec. 6.

Laurel Bowie Rd., 7400 block, 1:48 a.m. Dec. 9.

Lord Sterling Pl., 13500 block, 8:49 a.m. Dec. 8. From auto.

Lottsford Rd., 8800 block, 8:30 a.m. Dec. 8. From auto.

Lottsford Rd., 9400 block, 5:32 p.m. Dec. 6. From auto.

Northview Dr., 4100 block, 8:04 p.m. Dec. 7.

Old Lottsford Rd., 11500 block, 9:07 a.m. Dec. 10. From auto.

Oxbridge Way, 9900 block, 7:21 p.m. Dec. 9.

Perth Amboy Ct., 100 block, 4:07 p.m. Dec. 7.

Prince Pl., 10200 block, 10:22 a.m. Dec. 10. From auto.

Race Track Rd., 6800 block, 10:31 a.m. Dec. 8.

Rockport Lane, 4300 block, 4:11 p.m. Dec. 4. From auto.

Saville Lane, 3200 block, 7:24 a.m. Dec. 5. From auto.

St. Michaels Dr., 900 block, 6:34 a.m. Dec. 7. From auto.

Town Center Blvd., 3900 block, 2:02 p.m. Dec. 5.

Tulip Tree Dr., 10300 block, 10:33 p.m. Dec. 6.

Utica Pl., 9100 block, 7:18 a.m. Dec. 4. From auto.

Villa Ct., 11400 block, 3:58 p.m. Dec. 7. From auto.

Westphalia Rd., 10000 block, 3:33 p.m. Dec. 6. From auto.

Whiteholm Dr., 12600 block, 2:28 p.m. Dec. 9.

Whitfield Chapel Rd., 5600 block, 4:42 a.m. Dec. 5. From auto.

Woodshade Ct., 1900 block, 9:11 a.m. Dec. 7. From auto.

VEHICLE THEFTS

Annapolis Rd., 8800 block, 10:51 a.m. Dec. 7. Stolen vehicle.

Annapolis Rd., 9400 block, 11:35 p.m. Dec. 5. Stolen vehicle.

Burkes Promise Dr., 4400 block, 9:27 a.m. Dec. 4. Stolen vehicle.

Campus Way S., 10100 block, 5:38 a.m. Dec. 4. Stolen vehicle.

Caraway Ct., 1300 block, 3:18 p.m. Dec. 7. Stolen vehicle.

Crain Hwy. NE, 3500 block, 6:04 p.m. Dec. 6. Stolen vehicle.

Dario Rd., 4300 block, 7:35 p.m. Dec. 4. Stolen vehicle.

Eddinger Rd., 16400 block, 6:57 a.m. Dec. 4. Stolen vehicle.

Imperial Oaks Lane, 4600 block, 9:18 a.m. Dec. 8. Stolen vehicle.

Martin Luther King Jr. Hwy., 9800 block, 10:26 p.m. Dec. 7. Stolen vehicle.

Penn Randall Pl., 8000 block, 9:46 a.m. Dec. 4. Stolen vehicle.

Penn Randall Pl., 8100 block, 10:14 a.m. Dec. 9. Stolen vehicle.

St. Michaels Dr., 1000 block, 7:32 a.m. Dec. 5. Stolen vehicle.

Sutherland Cir., 4400 block, 8:20 a.m. Dec. 10. Stolen vehicle.

VANDALISM

Doveheart Lane, 15400 block, 6:55 p.m. Dec. 6.

Excalibur Ct., 3700 block, 4:42 a.m. Dec. 7.

District 3

HQ: Palmer Park

301-772-4900

ASSAULTS

Greig St., 6600 block, 10:07 p.m. Dec. 9.

Greig Ct., 7000 block, 12:45 p.m. Dec. 5.

Ronald Rd., 6600 block, 9:22 p.m. Dec. 4.

ROBBERIES

Dynasty and Hil Mar drives, 3:42 p.m. Dec. 4. Robbery reported.

Surrey Square Lane, 6100 block, 12:35 a.m. Dec. 10. Robbery reported.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Addison Rd., 4900 block, 11:50 p.m. Dec. 5. From auto.

Ardwick Ardmore Rd., 8400 block, 7:50 p.m. Dec. 7. From auto.

Ardwick Ardmore Rd., 8400 block, 9:56 a.m. Dec. 9.

Ardwick Ardmore Rd., 8400 block, 2:23 p.m. Dec. 10. From auto.

Ardwick Ardmore Rd., 8400 block, 3:09 p.m. Dec. 10. From auto.

Atwood St., 6600 block, 1:43 p.m. Dec. 10. From auto.

Benning Rd., 1200 block, 11:38 a.m. Dec. 10. From auto.

Brightseat Rd., 700 block, 4:10 a.m. Dec. 6.

Brooks Dr., 2100 block, 3 p.m. Dec. 8. From auto.

Brooks Dr., 2100 block, 11:59 a.m. Dec. 10.

Byers St., 3900 block, 2:54 p.m. Dec. 5. From auto.

Cedar Post Dr., 6200 block, 12:35 p.m. Dec. 8.

Central Ave., 6200 block, 2:55 p.m. Dec. 7. From auto.

Central Ave., 6300 block, 12:30 p.m. Dec. 9. From auto.

Central Ave., 6800 block, 5:17 p.m. Dec. 8.

Central Ave., 7400 block, 1:08 p.m. Dec. 9.

Central Ave., 8600 block, 10:23 a.m. Dec. 6.

Community Dr., 3700 block, 11:27 a.m. Dec. 5.

Dillon Ct., 1300 block, 10:59 a.m. Dec. 4. From auto.

Donnell Dr., 3700 block, 12:02 p.m. Dec. 5.

Dunmore Pl., 500 block, 3:46 p.m. Dec. 4.

G St., 7200 block, 11:19 a.m. Dec. 4.

Greeley Rd., 7400 block, 8:07 p.m. Dec. 4.

Hampton Park Blvd., 500 block, 7:16 a.m. Dec. 8. From auto.

Hampton Park Blvd., unit block, 1:10 p.m. Dec. 4. From auto.

Hampton Park Blvd., unit block, 9:54 p.m. Dec. 5. From auto.

Hampton Park Blvd., unit block, 11:22 p.m. Dec. 9. From auto.

Heath St., 4900 block, 5:28 p.m. Dec. 4.

Hillview Rd., 8600 block, 1:40 p.m. Dec. 7.

Jericho City Dr., 8800 block, 12:09 p.m. Dec. 6. From auto.

Johnson Ave., 7900 block, 6:13 a.m. Dec. 7. From auto.

Joplin St., 7200 block, 1:30 a.m. Dec. 5.

Lubbock Rd., 5400 block, 8:49 a.m. Dec. 10.

Marlboro Pike, 4800 block, 3:25 p.m. Dec. 7. From auto.

Marlboro Pike, 4800 block, 11:19 a.m. Dec. 8. From auto.

Marlboro Pike, 5500 block, 11:34 a.m. Dec. 4.

Martin Luther King Jr. Hwy., 5900 block, 10:10 a.m. Dec. 6.

Martin Luther King Jr. Hwy., 8600 block, 4:46 p.m. Dec. 10.

Mason St., 7400 block, 4:30 p.m. Dec. 4.

Parkland Dr., 2900 block, 2:08 p.m. Dec. 8. From auto.

Pennsy Dr., 3100 block, 9:26 p.m. Dec. 8. From auto.

Regency Park Ct., 5600 block, 12:03 p.m. Dec. 7.

Regency Pkwy., 3500 block, 3:16 p.m. Dec. 6.

Regency Pkwy., 3800 block, 7:40 a.m. Dec. 6. From auto.

Ritchie Marlboro Rd., 1400 block, 9:39 a.m. Dec. 8. From auto.

Ritchie Station Ct., 1700 block, 6:49 p.m. Dec. 5.

Ritchie Station Ct., 1700 block, 1:40 a.m. Dec. 7.

Seat Pleasant Dr., 6200 block, 5:45 a.m. Dec. 5. From auto.

Silver Hill Rd., 4700 block, 2:24 p.m. Dec. 5.

Silver Hill Rd., 5400 block, 10:05 a.m. Dec. 6. From auto.

Starboard Dr., 7100 block, 6:37 a.m. Dec. 10. From auto.

Victorianna Dr., 600 block, 5:26 p.m. Dec. 4.

Walker Mill Rd., 8800 block, 8:04 a.m. Dec. 5.

Walters Lane, 3300 block, 4:11 p.m. Dec. 5.

58th Ave., 800 block, 2:05 p.m. Dec. 10. From auto.

62nd Pl., 500 block, 10:14 a.m. Dec. 6.

VEHICLE THEFTS

Capital View Terr., 1300 block, 7:06 a.m. Dec. 7. Stolen vehicle.

Columbia Park Rd., 6100 block, 4:17 p.m. Dec. 7. Stolen vehicle.

County Rd., 2100 block, 9:13 a.m. Dec. 9. Stolen vehicle.

Cryden Way, 8000 block, 10:47 a.m. Dec. 9. Stolen vehicle.

Darel Dr., 2500 block, 4:20 p.m. Dec. 10. Stolen vehicle.

English Chestnut Ct., 800 block, 8:36 a.m. Dec. 5. Stolen vehicle.

Fire House Rd., 2400 block, 7:41 a.m. Dec. 7. Stolen vehicle.

Glen Willow Dr., 900 block, 7:15 a.m. Dec. 5. Stolen vehicle.

Hil Mar Dr., 6500 block, 8:39 a.m. Dec. 7. Stolen vehicle.

Marlboro Pike, 7600 block, 10 a.m. Dec. 4. Stolen vehicle.

Marlboro Pike, 7600 block, 9:43 a.m. Dec. 7. Stolen vehicle.

Marlboro Pike and Penn Crossing Dr., 5:50 a.m. Dec. 4. Stolen vehicle.

Palmerton Terr., 600 block, 3:42 a.m. Dec. 8. Stolen vehicle.

Pennsylvania Ave., 6500 block, 7:31 a.m. Dec. 7. Stolen vehicle.

Regency Park Ct., 5600 block, 1:35 p.m. Dec. 7. Stolen vehicle.

Rollins Lane, 5700 block, 9:11 p.m. Dec. 4. Stolen vehicle.

Shady Glen Terr., 7300 block, 12:18 p.m. Dec. 5. Stolen vehicle.

59th Ave., 700 block, 9:02 p.m. Dec. 7. Stolen vehicle.

District 4

HQ: Oxon Hill

301-749-4900

ASSAULTS

Gifford Lane, 6400 block, 7:55 a.m. Dec. 8.

St. Barnabas Rd., 3600 block, 5:58 p.m. Dec. 6.

St. Barnabas Rd., 5100 block, 4:37 a.m. Dec. 9.

ROBBERIES

Alice Ave., 2200 block, 3:03 p.m. Dec. 7. Robbery reported.

Olson St., 2300 block, 12:53 a.m. Dec. 8. Robbery reported.

St. Barnabas Rd., 4800 block, 6:48 p.m. Dec. 4. Robbery reported.

Wheeler Hills and Wheeler roads, 2:02 a.m. Dec. 8. Robbery reported.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Allentown Rd., 4500 block, 9:51 a.m. Dec. 6.

Allentown Rd., 6000 block, 6:39 a.m. Dec. 4. From auto.

American Way, 100 block, 6:30 p.m. Dec. 6.

Audrey Lane, 600 block, 5:11 p.m. Dec. 7.

Auth Rd., 5000 block, 2:50 p.m. Dec. 5. From auto.

Berkley St., 2300 block, 8:33 a.m. Dec. 8. From auto.

Brinkley Rd., 2600 block, 10:09 a.m. Dec. 5. From auto.

Cady Dr., 700 block, 2:21 a.m. Dec. 7. From auto.

Cooper Dr., 9000 block, 12:07 p.m. Dec. 5.

Copperville Way, 3700 block, 1:43 p.m. Dec. 7.

Dawn Lane, 2200 block, 8:11 a.m. Dec. 7. From auto.

Deal Dr., 5100 block, 7:17 p.m. Dec. 7.

Dixon St., 3600 block, 5:04 a.m. Dec. 8. From auto.

Haras Pl., 5200 block, 8:48 a.m. Dec. 10. From auto.

Howie Ct., 6600 block, 7:25 a.m. Dec. 8. From auto.

Indian Head Hwy., 8400 block, 7:33 a.m. Dec. 5. From auto.

Joe Klutsch Dr., 6200 block, 8:04 a.m. Dec. 8. From auto.

Kennebec St., 1100 block, 8:45 p.m. Dec. 6.

Lancelot Rd., 9100 block, 10:16 a.m. Dec. 8. From auto.

Livingston Rd., 6100 block, 9:04 p.m. Dec. 7.

Livingston Rd., 7400 block, 2:15 p.m. Dec. 9. From auto.

Maxwell Dr., 6200 block, 12:36 p.m. Dec. 4. From auto.

Maxwell Dr., 6300 block, 9:54 a.m. Dec. 4. From auto.

Mel Mara Dr., 100 block, 5:04 p.m. Dec. 5. From auto.

MGM National Ave., 100 block, 9:31 p.m. Dec. 6.

MGM National Ave., 100 block, 1:34 a.m. Dec. 7.

MGM National Ave., 100 block, 8:32 p.m. Dec. 7.

Old Palmer Rd., 9000 block, 6:25 a.m. Dec. 8. From auto.

Oxon Hill Rd., 6100 block, 11:09 a.m. Dec. 8.

Oxon Hill Rd., 6100 block, 3:06 p.m. Dec. 8.

Oxon Hill Rd., 6800 block, 2:09 p.m. Dec. 4.

Oxon Hill Rd., 8200 block, 4:23 a.m. Dec. 5.

Oxon Hill Rd., 9200 block, 10:28 p.m. Dec. 4.

Palmer Rd., 1100 block, 10:07 a.m. Dec. 10. From auto.

Rena Rd., 4400 block, 10:58 a.m. Dec. 9. From auto.

River Bend Rd., 400 block, 6:13 a.m. Dec. 9. From auto.

Rosier Rd., 500 block, 9:47 a.m. Dec. 10. From auto.

Round Table Dr., 500 block, 8:06 a.m. Dec. 7. From auto.

Southern Ave., 2600 block, 7:19 a.m. Dec. 8. From auto.

Southview Dr., 1500 block, 9:34 p.m. Dec. 7.

St. Barnabas Rd., 4500 block, 12:29 p.m. Dec. 9. From auto.

St. Barnabas Rd., 10:53 a.m. Dec. 8. From auto.

Stamp Rd., 4800 block, 9:39 a.m. Dec. 6. From auto.

Sutler Dr., 4800 block, 8:42 p.m. Dec. 4.

Wilkins Dr., 5100 block, 8:19 p.m. Dec. 6.

23rd Pkwy., 4300 block, 7:50 p.m. Dec. 6. From auto.

VEHICLE THEFTS

Allentown Rd., 8700 block, 7:03 a.m. Dec. 4. Stolen vehicle.

Branch Ave., 3300 block, 10:08 a.m. Dec. 9. Stolen vehicle.

Brinkley Rd., 2900 block, 6:19 p.m. Dec. 5. Stolen vehicle.

Fisher Rd., 5800 block, 7:03 a.m. Dec. 4. Stolen vehicle.

Fort Foote Rd., 9600 block, 10:27 a.m. Dec. 4. Stolen vehicle.

Iverson St., 2300 block, 7:46 p.m. Dec. 5. Stolen vehicle.

Iverson St., 2300 block, 1:48 p.m. Dec. 7. Stolen vehicle.

Loughran Rd., 9100 block, 7:04 a.m. Dec. 6. Stolen vehicle.

MGM National Ave., 100 block, 4:48 a.m. Dec. 9. Stolen vehicle.

Oxon Hill Rd., 8500 block, 9:41 p.m. Dec. 9. Stolen vehicle.

South Barnaby Rd., 5100 block, 7:54 a.m. Dec. 8. Stolen vehicle.

Wentworth Dr., 1100 block, 5:09 a.m. Dec. 8. Stolen vehicle.

31st Ave., 3200 block, 12:15 p.m. Dec. 5. Stolen vehicle.

VANDALISM

Round Table Dr., 400 block, 8:41 a.m. Dec. 5.

District 5

HQ: Clinton

301-856-3130

ASSAULTS

Colonial Lane, 7900 block, 9:14 p.m. Dec. 6. Cutting.

Oak Orchard Ct. and Pin Oak St., 9:01 p.m. Dec. 8. Cutting.

ROBBERIES

Branch Ave., 8800 block, 10:27 a.m. Dec. 8. Robbery reported.

Old Branch Ave. and Wolverton Lane, 10:34 p.m. Dec. 4. Robbery reported.

Temple Hill Rd., 8600 block, 6:17 p.m. Dec. 5. Robbery reported.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Addie Ct., 6400 block, 11:13 a.m. Dec. 8. From auto.

Allentown Rd., 6300 block, 3:31 p.m. Dec. 4. From auto.

Bellefonte Lane, 8200 block, 11:14 a.m. Dec. 8.

Branch Ave., 8700 block, 3:11 p.m. Dec. 5. Shoplifting.

Branch Ave., 8700 block, 1:52 a.m. Dec. 6.

Brandywine Rd. and Crain Hwy. SW, 6:54 p.m. Dec. 5.

Caldran Dr., 9400 block, 7:19 a.m. Dec. 5. From auto.

Calico Aster Ct., 10700 block, 11:14 a.m. Dec. 8.

Chew Rd., 6300 block, 6:58 p.m. Dec. 4.

Crain Hwy. SE, 5700 block, 9:16 a.m. Dec. 9.

Crain Hwy. SW, 6400 block, 11:17 a.m. Dec. 10.

Crain Hwy. SE, 16000 block, 1:40 p.m. Dec. 4.

Dale Dr., 9700 block, 5:44 a.m. Dec. 7. From auto.

Dewdrop Way, 7100 block, 6:52 a.m. Dec. 5. From auto.

Hollaway Dr., 10700 block, 11:21 a.m. Dec. 8.

Marlboro Pike, 9300 block, 7:18 a.m. Dec. 5. From auto.

Marlboro Pike, 9300 block, 8:08 p.m. Dec. 5. From auto.

Mayapple Ct., 7900 block, 1:44 a.m. Dec. 5. From auto.

Old Indian Head Rd., 10100 block, 12:09 p.m. Dec. 5.

Osborne Hill Dr., 6600 block, 9:08 a.m. Dec. 10. From auto.

Pembroke Dr., 7400 block, 10:58 a.m. Dec. 4. From auto.

Piscataway Rd., 9100 block, 1:49 p.m. Dec. 6. From auto.

Symposium Way, 6400 block, 3:35 a.m. Dec. 7. From auto.

Temple Hill Rd., 8400 block, 3:26 p.m. Dec. 4.

Thrift Rd., 10500 block, 5:28 a.m. Dec. 7. From auto.

Trumpet Lane, 9500 block, 12:09 p.m. Dec. 8.

Waco Dr., 10900 block, 5:20 a.m. Dec. 7. From auto.

Woodyard Rd., 8900 block, 2:38 a.m. Dec. 8.

VEHICLE THEFTS

Stuart Lane, 9000 block, 6:17 p.m. Dec. 10. Stolen vehicle.

Woodyard Rd., 8900 block, 5:47 p.m. Dec. 4. Stolen vehicle.

District 6

HQ: Beltsville

301-937-0910

ROBBERIES

Laurel Bowie Rd., 12000 block, 7 p.m. Dec. 5. Robbery reported.

Tuscany Dr., 11600 block, 9:51 p.m. Dec. 7. Robbery reported.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Attleboro Ct., 13500 block, 4:52 p.m. Dec. 7.

Baltimore Ave., 10900 block, 2:37 p.m. Dec. 4. From auto.

Baltimore Ave., 11800 block, 2:57 p.m. Dec. 6.

Beltsville Dr., 11700 block, 9:13 p.m. Dec. 10.

Bramble Lane, 14000 block, 7:23 a.m. Dec. 6. From auto.

Brewer Rd., 5300 block, 9:44 p.m. Dec. 10.

Briarwood Dr., 13800 block, 3:43 p.m. Dec. 5. From auto.

Brown Branch Rd., 13800 block, 8:04 a.m. Dec. 5. From auto.

Chapel View Dr., 3100 block, 4:19 p.m. Dec. 4.

Cherry Lane, 9000 block, 5:19 p.m. Dec. 9. From auto.

Evans Trail, 11200 block, 6:58 p.m. Dec. 9.

Howard Terr., 10800 block, 9:48 a.m. Dec. 8.

Laurel Bowie Rd., 12700 block, 7:04 p.m. Dec. 8.

Powder Mill Rd., 4000 block, 6:14 p.m. Dec. 9. From auto.

South Laurel Dr., 11700 block, 8:43 a.m. Dec. 8. From auto.

VEHICLE THEFTS

Briarwood Dr., 13800 block, 5:57 a.m. Dec. 5. Stolen vehicle.

Cherry Hill Rd., 11400 block, 7:58 p.m. Dec. 6. Stolen vehicle.

Laurel Bowie Rd., 13300 block, 7:25 a.m. Dec. 7. Stolen vehicle.

Pheasant Run Dr., 12100 block, 6:05 p.m. Dec. 4. Stolen vehicle.

District 7

HQ: Fort Washington

301-292-5300

ASSAULT

Allentown Rd., 10000 block, 11:08 a.m. Dec. 4.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Accokeek Rd., 3500 block, 11:54 p.m. Dec. 6.

Admiral Ridge Rd., 2700 block, 7:11 p.m. Dec. 7. From auto.

Bryantown Lane, 7500 block, 9:26 a.m. Dec. 8.

Captains View Lane, 11000 block, 2:11 p.m. Dec. 7.

East Tantallon Dr., 600 block, 8:21 a.m. Dec. 8. From auto.

Holly Hill Dr., 16100 block, 9:22 a.m. Dec. 7.

Kirkpatrick Ct., 3200 block, 1:43 p.m. Dec. 6.

Kisconko Rd., 9700 block, 12:46 p.m. Dec. 10. From auto.

Livingston Rd., 15700 block, 1:34 p.m. Dec. 8. From auto.

VEHICLE THEFT

Baileys Pond Rd., 2400 block, 6:37 p.m. Dec. 7. Stolen vehicle.

Greenbelt

These were among incidents reported by the Greenbelt Police Department. For information, call 301-474-7200.

ASSAULT

Breezewood Ct., 6100 block, Dec. 7.

ROBBERIES

Edmonston Terr., 9100 block, Dec. 9. Robbery reported.

Edmonston Terr., 9100 block, Dec. 11. Robbery reported.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Canning Terr., 8200 block, Dec. 11.

Cherrywood Lane, 5900 block, Dec. 8.

Greenbelt Rd., 5900 block, Dec. 10. Shoplifting.

Greenbelt Rd., 6000 block, Dec. 11. Shoplifting.

Greenbelt Rd., 6000 block, Dec. 11. Shoplifting.

Greenbelt Rd., 7500 block, Dec. 11.

Ridge Rd., 400 block, Dec. 8.

Springhill Terr., 6100 block, Dec. 7.

Village Park Dr., 6700 block, Dec. 12.

VEHICLE THEFTS

Breezewood Dr., 6100 block, Dec. 9.

Breezewood Terr., 9000 block, Dec. 8.

VANDALISM

Breezewood Terr., 9000 block, Dec. 7. Malicious destruction.

Greenbelt Rd., 6000 block, Dec. 9. Malicious destruction.

Hanover Dr., 7200 block, Dec. 10. Malicious destruction.

Hyattsville

These were among incidents reported by Hyattsville police. For information, call 301-985-5060.

ROBBERY

Hamilton St., 3700 block, Dec. 6. Robbery reported.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

America Blvd., 6500 block, Dec. 5.

America Blvd., 6500 block, Dec. 5.

Belcrest Rd., 6500 block, Dec. 1. From auto.

Calverton Dr., 6900 block, Dec. 8. From auto.

Hamilton St., 3000 block, Dec. 4.

Hamilton St., 3800 block, Dec. 8. From auto.

Jefferson St., 3500 block, Dec. 5. From auto.

Madison St., 4300 block, Dec. 10. From auto.

Queensbury Rd., 4100 block, Dec. 10. From auto.

West Hwy. E., 3300 block, Dec. 4. Shoplifting.

West Hwy. E., 3500 block, Nov. 29. Shoplifting.

West Hwy. E., 3500 block, Dec. 4. Shoplifting.

West Hwy. E., 3500 block, Dec. 5. From auto.

West Hwy. E., 3500 block, Dec. 7.

West Hwy. E., 3500 block, Dec. 8. Shoplifting.

West Hwy. E., 3500 block, Dec. 9. Shoplifting.

West Hwy. E., 3500 block, Dec. 9.

West Hwy. E., 3500 block, Dec. 10. Shoplifting.

West Hwy. E., 3600 block, Dec. 5.

West Hwy. E., 3700 block, Dec. 8. Trespassing.

31st Ave., 5700 block, Dec. 5. From auto.

31st Ave., 5700 block, Dec. 7.

VEHICLE THEFTS

Emerson St., 4500 block, Dec. 7. Stolen vehicle.

Gallatin St., 3600 block, Dec. 8. Stolen vehicle.

Hamilton St., 3900 block, Dec. 8. Stolen vehicle.

39th Ave., 5700 block, Dec. 11. Stolen vehicle.

VANDALISM

Belcrest Center Dr., 2900 block, Dec. 5.

Belcrest Center Dr., 2900 block, Dec. 7.

Belcrest Rd., 6200 block, Dec. 5.

Oglethorpe St., 4200 block, Dec. 8.

Rosemary Lane, 3400 block, Dec. 10. Property damage.

Laurel

These were among incidents reported by Laurel police. For information, call 301-498-0092.

ROBBERY

Philip Ct., 14600 block, midnight Dec. 9. Robbery with firearm.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Baltimore Ave., 13600 block, midnight Dec. 8. Shoplifting.

Baltimore Ave., 14700 block, midnight Dec. 7. Shoplifting.

Castle Ct., 15500 block, midnight Dec. 6. From vehicle.

Dell Pl., 100 block, midnight Dec. 8. From vehicle.

Fifth St., 800 block, midnight Dec. 11. From vehicle.

Fort Meade Rd., 9600 block, midnight Dec. 8. Shoplifting.

Fourth St., 14700 block, midnight Dec. 8.

Laurel Ave., 300 block, midnight Dec. 4.

Montrose Ave., 300 block, midnight Dec. 9. Shoplifting.

Oakpointe Dr., 14200 block, midnight Dec. 9.

Sharon Ct., 100 block, midnight Dec. 8. From vehicle.

Spring House Lane, 9400 block, midnight Dec. 1. From vehicle.

Washington Blvd., 300 block, midnight Dec. 7.
A D.C. neighborhood advisory commissioner was arrested and charged Tuesday with driving under the influence in Maryland.

Paul Trantham, who represents a neighborhood in Ward 8 of Southeast Washington, also is accused by Prince Georges County police of cursing and using racial slurs at officers and urinating on the floor of the police station.

A police statement described him as being belligerent throughout the incident.

Trantham said Wednesday morning in a brief conversation that the officer is not telling the story correctly of how it went. He said he didnt have time to elaborate because he had to get his car out of an impound lot.

According to a police statement, Trantham admitted in an interview with a local TV station that he had consumed alcohol before he drove. He said he couldnt recall whether he used racial slurs against our officers, according to a police statement.



Paul Trantham is seen in this 2009 file photo at a D.C. Council meeting. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)

Trantham is an elected neighborhood advisory commissioner, an unpaid position where members serve two-year terms to represent their neighborhoods in advising the D.C. government. He is a longtime neighborhood activist known for speaking out on incidents of violence in the area he represents, including a shooting at a recreation center on Monday that left a teenager dead over a pair of $220 sneakers.

[Police identify youth fatally shot at recreation center in Southeast Washington]

The incident started early Tuesday morning, just after midnight, when police say an officer pulled over a blue Subaru that was seen swerving from lane to lane on Indian Head Highway in Oxon Hill.

In a police report, the officer said he saw the driver falling asleep at a stop light. When the officer shined a light on him several times to get his attention, the driver  who was later identified as Trantham  looked at him with bloodshot eyes.

At first, Trantham refused to stop but eventually pulled into a parking lot of a nearby store, police said. He allegedly told the officer he had drunk two Heineken beers.

Trantham then refused to take a sobriety test, police said. When the officer asked him to step out of the car, he shouted that he knew Rushern L. Baker III, the Prince Georges county executive, and that he was a certified private investigator.

Trantham was taken to a local police station, where police say he demanded to see a supervisor, screamed at officers and used racial slurs. He again refused a sobriety test, according to police, and as an officer read him his rights, Trantham stood up and urinated on the floor in the police station, then ordered them to clean up the floor.

[Residents, activists sound off on state of police in the District]

Trantham then asked to use the restroom to complete his business, according to the police report. When taken to the restroom, he slammed the door and said he wasnt coming out. After five minutes, two officers went in and found him sitting on a toilet.

He told officers that he was a D.C. public official and he would have all officers fired in the morning because we dont know who he is, according to the report.

A video, posted by Prince Georges County police, shows an officer outside a bathroom door asking Trantham to come out. At one point, the officer says, Sir, dont make me come in there.

Trantham is heard cursing at the officer and refusing to exit. At the videos end, Trantham said, Im done with talking. Have a good day.

Police officials said Trantham also accused officers of being homosexual for coming into the bathroom.

Trantham faces several charges, including resisting arrest and traffic violations, such as driving while intoxicated, driving under the influence, unsafe lane change and failure to stop at a stop sign.

Prince Georges County Police Chief Henry P. Stawinski III said in a statement that he had reviewed the police report and video footage of the incident and decided to release them. Doing so, he said, was in keeping with my practice of providing facts to the public when I have them.

Stawinski said he found Tranthams use of racial epithets during this incident and disparaging characterization of the gay and lesbian community in his public statement offensive.

The chief went on to say he fully supported the actions taken by the officers involved in [Tranthams] arrest, and I commend them for their professional conduct in the face of inflammatory and hateful conduct.

Trantham posted bond and was released.
Former Maryland delegate Michael Vaughn (D), right, and his attorney William Purpura leave federal court in Greenbelt in March after an early proceeding in his case. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

A former Maryland state delegate facing federal corruption charges was confronted last year by FBI agents in a hotel room decorated with poster-size surveillance photos purportedly showing him collecting bribes  a meeting that occurred the same morning he allegedly accepted a $5,000 cash kickback bundled up in a rubber band.

The new details in the Prince Georges County liquor board scandal emerged after attorneys for Michael Lynn Vaughn filed a court motion in his ongoing case arguing his statements from the hotel room meeting should be barred at trial because he was not properly informed of his rights during the interrogation.

Federal prosecutors contend the April 12, 2016, meeting at a Holiday Inn in College Park was voluntary and Vaughn didnt need to be told his rights because he was not officially in government custody at the time.



The FBI searched the Board of License Commissioners in Largo, Md., on Jan. 5. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)

Vaughn, who was a Democratic legislator from Prince George's County until he resigned in January citing health issues, was one of eight people arrested in connection with a wide-reaching bribery scheme involving the county liquor board, liquor store owners, lobbyists and lawmakers. He is the only one of the eight who plans to go to trial.

In the hotel room, one FBI agent asked Vaughn if he had received something during a breakfast meeting that day and if so, would Vaughn like to give it to the agent.

Vaughn then reached into his pocket, pulled out a bundle of cash wrapped in a rubber band (which contained $5,000), and handed the cash to the agent, the governments court filings state.

A judge is set to consider the recent filings Thursday morning at a motions hearing in federal district court in Greenbelt.

Almost a year after the meeting in the hotel, a federal grand jury indicted Vaughn on eight counts of wire fraud, conspiracy and bribery in connection with actions that occurred during his time in office between 2012 and 2016. The government accuses Vaughn of accepting more than $10,000 in cash from liquor store owners in the county in exchange for official actions that would boost their sales. Authorities also accuse Vaughn of misusing campaign funds to cover his personal expenses.

The government alleges liquor store owners paid Vaughn and former state delegate and Prince Georges Council member Will Campos (D) thousands of dollars in exchange for favorable votes on legislation that would help their businesses in a case the government calls Operation Dry Saloon.

[Former Md. State Del. Will Campos pleads guilty to accepting bribes for official favors]

In the court documents filed Nov. 22, Vaughn's attorneys argue that FBI agents told Vaughn they were taking him to a hotel room to "explain the evidence gathered against him" five days after obtaining search warrants for his house, office and social media accounts. When Vaughn arrived, he found the hotel room was "decorated in evidence gathered by law enforcement, including among many items, poster-size surveillance photos of Mr. Vaughn purportedly taking bribe money."

The photos were an effort to intimidate him while he was being interrogated, Vaughns attorneys assert in court filings. They say he was then interrogated and kept in custody but denied access to a lawyer.

Specifically, Mr. Vaughn was not advised that he had a right to an attorney prior to speaking to the agents. Notably, part of the planned enforcement action included having an attorney waiting at the United States District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, the court filings state. Vaughns attorney William B. Purpura waited four hours after having been appointed to represent Mr. Vaughn. The agents did not inform Mr. Vaughn he had appointed counsel, nor did they contact Mr. Purpura to allow access to Mr. Vaughn.

Vaughn then spoke to agents without being warned of his right to remain silent, a violation of his Fifth Amendment rights, his lawyers argued.

A statement taken at a familiar location such as a home is one factor, but not the determining factor in evaluating the totality of the circumstances, Vaughns attorneys wrote. Mr. Vaughn was taken to a hotel, an unfamiliar location designed and decorated to intimidate him with evidence of his guilt.

Vaughns lawyers did not respond to a request seeking comment on the recent filings.

[Federal bribery charges filed over Prince Georges County liquor licenses]

Assistant U.S. attorney Menaka Kalaskar argued in a court response filed Dec. 11 that Vaughn was not in official government custody at the hotel. FBI agents said they wanted to explain some of the evidence gathered against Vaughn during the course of an ongoing FBI investigation, court documents from prosecutors state.

Vaughn, the government argues, was told he could leave at any time at least five times and was offered food, water and bathroom breaks during the interview.

The defendant knew that he was not in custody, knew that he could leave at anytime, but instead consented to an interview in which he gave incriminating statements, the government wrote. Any claim to the contrary is just buyers remorse.

A motion Vaughns attorneys filed in June also asked that a judge suppress information collected from wiretaps of his phone numbers and a number associated with state Sen. Doug J.J. Peters (D). Peters has not been charged in the case or named as an investigative target. The motion does not indicate why Peterss conversations would be of interest.

Bruce Marcus, an attorney representing Peters, said he does not know why Vaughns attorneys named his client in the motion.

Theres no reason for us to know, Marcus said. Public defenders are representing Michael Vaughn and they are slinging as much mud as they can sling. As to why they would write stuff, I have no earthly idea.

Asked if Peters is a target in the investigation, Marcus said that he has not received any kind of letter or notification to that effect. They dont really involve us with what their plan is or what their investigation outline is.

Vaughn is scheduled to go to trial in February.

The payments in the broad bribery case were made through former Prince Georges liquor board director David Son, the government has said.

Liquor store owners Young Paig and Shin Ja Lee, Hyattsville lobbyist Matthew Gorman, Rockville accountant Felix Ayala, Son and Campos have all pleaded guilty in their cases. Former liquor board commissioner Anuj Sud pleaded guilty in the case on Dec. 15.

Ovetta Wiggins contributed to this report
A man wanted in the fatal stabbing of a 24-year-old man in Fairfax County has been taken into custody in New Hampshire, police said.

Endless Taylor, 24, has been charged with murder in the Dec. 1 killing of 24-year-old Luis Bonilla, Fairfax County police said. He was arrested in Hudson, N.H., after police got a tip he might be in the area of Lowell, Mass.

Fairfax County police officers were on routine patrol when they found Bonilla near a wooded area in the 7100 block of Fairchild Drive around 11:15 p.m. on Dec. 1, police said. Officers attempted to resuscitate Bonilla, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Taylor was later identified as a suspect in the case, police said. Taylor and Bonilla were acquaintances and police said they are investigating a disagreement between the two in the weeks leading up to the killing.
Georgeanne Usova of the American Civil Liberties Union, left, and others gather on Oct. 20 outside the Department of Health and Human Services to protest the Trump administrations policy to block detained undocumented teens from accessing abortion services. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)

The Justice Department has formally withdrawn its appeals in a fast-moving case this week involving two undocumented teenagers seeking abortions, clearing the way for them to end their pregnancies.

Until Tuesday, the case challenging the Trump administrations policy of impeding access to abortion services for unaccompanied minors in custody had appeared to be on a fast track to the Supreme Court.

But government lawyers dropped their appeals at the high court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit late Tuesday after obtaining new information about one of the teens in federal custody.

The government said in court filings that it had received information from the teens home country that she is not a 17-year-old minor, but 19 and therefore an adult.

The 19-year-old, who is about 10 weeks pregnant, was quickly transferred to the Department of Homeland Security and released from government custody Tuesday night, according to court filings. Court papers do not name the teen, her home country or the state where she was being held.

Separately, the Justice Department chose not to oppose a court order from Monday that allowed the second teen, who is 17, to end her pregnancy. The government did not disclose its reasons other than noting the differing circumstances. The 17-year-old is close to 22 weeks pregnant.

In a statement, Brigitte Amiri, an attorney for the teenagers who is with the American Civil Liberties Union, said: We are pleased that these two young women are able to finally get the care they need. But the governments policy is still in place. These two cases show how the government continues to abuse its power by denying abortion access.

[Judge clears abortions for two immigrant teens in U.S. custody]

The Department of Health and Human Services cares for unaccompanied minors taken into federal custody after crossing the border illegally. The agencys office of refugee resettlement has since March prohibited federally funded shelters housing the minors from taking any action that facilitates an abortion without approval from the director.

The government says in court filings that it has strong and constitutionally legitimate interests in promoting its interest in life, in refusing to facilitate abortion, and in not providing incentives for pregnant minors to illegally cross the border to obtain elective abortions while in federal custody.

The Obama administration did not generally pay for abortions for teens in custody, but officials did not block immigrants in custody from having the procedure at their own expense.

[Trump administration suggests disciplinary action against ACLU lawyers in abortion case]

Although the individual cases involving the two teens are now resolved, the larger challenge to the administrations new policy remains. U.S. District Court Judge Tanya S. Chutkan has been asked to decide whether the broader case over the policy can go forward on behalf of other pregnant immigrant minors in federal custody in recent years.

That challenge was initially filed by a Central American teenager who terminated her pregnancy in October after a favorable ruling from the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

In the legal machinations this week, the Justice Department had anticipated a similar result and had simultaneously asked the D.C. Circuit and the Supreme Court to halt Chutkans order late Monday as it applied only to the 19-year-old.

That preemptive maneuver was a sign that the solicitor generals office was not taking any chances this time. In the similar case in October, lawyers for the other pregnant teen in custody moved quickly and were able to arrange an abortion for her before the Justice Department had time to ask the high court to intervene.

A separate administration request is pending at the Supreme Court to vacate the D.C. Circuits judgment from October.
Protesters outside the Health and Human Services Department in October object to the Trump administrations new policy of refusing to facilitate abortions for pregnant teens in federal custody. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)

Two undocumented teenagers seeking to end their pregnancies in the face of opposition from the Trump administration appear on track to obtain abortions without intervention from a federal appeals court.

The administrations new policy of refusing to facilitate abortions for pregnant minors in U.S. custody seemed to be headed to the Supreme Court early this week, with its politically volatile mix of questions involving abortion rights and illegal immigration.

Instead, Justice Department lawyers said Tuesday that they had just obtained the birth certificate of one of the pregnant teens at the center of the challenge. She is not a 17-year-old minor, the government said, but an adult at 19.

The 19-year-old, who is about 10 weeks pregnant, will be transferred to Department of Homeland Security custody imminently, according to court filings. And as an adult in immigration detention, she can presumably obtain the abortion she has been seeking for nearly a month, according to government policies on detained adults described in court filings.

Separately, the Justice Department chose not to oppose a court order Monday  without disclosing why it was not challenging the order  allowing the second teen, who is 17, to end her pregnancy. She is close to 22 weeks pregnant and can now access abortion services.

[Judge clears abortions for two immigrant teens in U.S. custody]

Although the two individual cases appear to have been resolved, a larger challenge to the administrations new policy is pending in U.S. District Court in Washington and has implications for the hundreds of pregnant immigrant minors in federal custody in recent years.

That broader challenge was initially filed by a Central American teenager who terminated her pregnancy in October after a favorable ruling from the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

A separate administration request is pending at the Supreme Court to vacate the D.C. Circuits judgment from October.

[Trump administration suggests disciplinary action against ACLU lawyers in abortion case]

The Department of Health and Human Services is responsible for caring for unaccompanied minors taken into federal custody after crossing the border illegally. Since March, the agencys office of refugee resettlement has prohibited federally funded shelters housing the minors from taking any action that facilitates an abortion without sign-off from the director.

The government says in court filings that it has strong and constitutionally legitimate interests in promoting its interest in life, in refusing to facilitate abortion, and in not providing incentives for pregnant minors to illegally cross the border to obtain elective abortions while in federal custody.

In contrast, adult women in immigration custody are not subject to the same constraints. The government arranges and pays for transportation for such procedures, according to court filings.

Lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union say the administration's new policy imposes an "undue burden" on the constitutional right of teens in custody to choose to end their pregnancies and that the Trump administration is essentially vetoing that right.

Unaccompanied immigrant minors have a particular need for reproductive care, according to the ACLU, because a high number are victims of sexual assault immediately before, during and after they cross the border.

During the Obama administration, the government did not generally pay for abortions for teens in custody, but officials did not block immigrants in custody from having the procedure at their own expense.

Hours after a court hearing Monday, U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan ordered the government to allow access to abortion services for the two undocumented teenagers. The teen identified in court papers as Jane Poe is about 22 weeks pregnant and, her lawyers said, fast approaching the point in her pregnancy after which she will no longer be able to obtain an abortion.

Justice Department lawyer August Flentje told the judge that the director of the office of refugee resettlement, Scott Lloyd, had determined it was not in the best interests of Jane Poe to get an abortion, in part because she struggled with the decision. As recently as Dec. 4, according to court papers, she did not want an abortion and only last week changed her mind to proceed.

Late Monday, the Justice Department simultaneously asked the D.C. Circuit and the Supreme Court to intervene and halt Chutkans ruling as it related to the 19-year-old, who is about 10 weeks pregnant. Government lawyers asked the high court for two weeks to vet and approve a potential sponsor to take custody of the pregnant teen and presumably facilitate the abortion.

In a filing Tuesday, the government said that the new information about the teens age will likely make the governments appeal and motion moot imminently.

A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit on Tuesday also asked government lawyers to provide a precise timetable for whether and when the 19-year-old, after being transferred to Homeland Security custody, will be permitted to obtain an abortion.
Control of Virginia's legislature hung in limbo Wednesday after a three-judge panel declined to certify the recount of a key House race, saying that a questionable ballot should be counted in favor of the Republican and tying a race that Democrats thought they had won by a single vote.

The court declares there is no winner in this election, Newport News Circuit Court Judge Bryant L. Sugg said after the panel deliberated for more than two hours.

He said that the ballot in question contained a mark for Democrat Shelly Simonds as well as a mark for Republican Del. David Yancey but that the voter had made another mark to strike out Simondss name.

Officials presiding over the five-hour recount on Tuesday had discarded that ballot en route to a historic reversal of the original election outcome. Yancey had emerged from Election Day with a 10-vote lead in the 94th District, but the recount uncovered enough additional ballots for Simonds to give her a one-vote victory.

That seemed to set up the House for a rare 50-50 split between Republicans and Democrats, ending 17 years of GOP dominance and making headlines nationwide.



This is the ballot that was scrutinized in the race for the Virginia House of Delegates 94th District in Newport News, Va. (City of Newport News, Virginia)

But Republicans challenged that decision in court Wednesday, saying the voter had selected every other Republican on the ballot and intended to vote for Yancey.

[From Tuesday: A single vote leads to a rare tie for control of the Virginia legislature]

The judges  all of whom were elected by a Republican-

controlled legislature  agreed, leaving the race tied at 11,608 votes each for Yancey and Simonds. The balance of power in the House stands at 50-49 in favor of Republicans until the Newport News race can be resolved.

State law says the winner of a tied House race will be determined by lot  leaving the fate of the chamber to what is essentially a coin toss.

James Alcorn, chairman of the State Board of Elections, said the winner will be chosen by placing names on slips of paper into two film canisters and then drawing the canisters from a glass bowl (or his bowler hat). The drawing has been scheduled for Dec. 27 11 a.m. at the elections board in Richmond.

Complicating the tiebreaking vote is the need to ensure that both a Democratic and Republican representative of the three-member elections board will be available during the holidays.

We were not planning to get together in the next week, said Alcorn, a Democrat appointed by outgoing Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D).

But it doesnt end there. If the loser of the coin toss is unhappy with that result, he or she can seek a second recount.

[Virginia is holding recounts in four House races. Heres how they work]

News of the court decision pulsed through political circles that, just a day before, had been roiled by the notion that Simonds had taken the seat from Yancey by a single vote in the recount.

As he was leaving the courthouse Wednesday, Yancey said the ruling today makes certain every vote in this historic election was counted.

The turnaround shocked Democrats, who on social media were still celebrating their unlikely rise to power in the House of Delegates. Before the Nov. 7 elections, Republicans outnumbered Democrats in that chamber by 66 to 34. The GOP has a smaller, 21-to-19 edge in the state Senate, where ties votes can be broken by a Democratic lieutenant governor. With Democrat Ralph Northam set to take over as governor on Jan. 13, the party is primed to flex its newfound muscle.

But the Newport News outcome now leaves things unclear. The House Democratic Caucus vowed to fight the judges decision, calling it erroneous, though some legal experts expressed skepticism that the party has avenues for a challenge.

We are currently assessing all legal options before us as we fight for a just result, said Marc Elias, the lawyer for the Democrats. The Republicans themselves had affirmed that this result was accurate yesterday before changing their minds today.

After conceding this seat and their majority, they are now desperately trying to claw both back like a snarling dog that wont let go of a bone,  he said, quoting a recent editorial by the RichmondTimes-Dispatch.

[It was state lawmaker day at a local school and both Simonds and Yancey showed up]

But according to lawyers for Yancey, the questions about the recounts lone disputed ballot were a late-breaking surprise to them, as well.

Kenneth Mallory, a paid election official chosen by the Yancey team, had spotted the ballot about halfway through the Tuesday recount. He said he thought the ballot clearly looked like a vote for Yancey, but the other official he was working with  selected by Democrats  disagreed.

"I felt hurried to move on and proceed. I was new to this process, and I was caught up by his argument," Mallory wrote in a letter to the judges outlining his concerns.

The ballot was tossed aside as invalid, the precinct was wrapped up and the recount moved on. At the end of the day, Republican and Democratic officials alike stated that they were satisfied with the process and outcome.

But a volunteer observer working for Yancey  John Alvarado, who also happened to be Yanceys campaign manager  had seen Mallorys discomfort during the recount. State law limits the ability of observers to communicate with election officials during the recount, but afterward, Alvarado sounded the alarm with Yanceys legal team, according to Republican lawyer Trevor Stanley.

Stanley reached out to Mallory Tuesday evening, but Mallory declined to talk until he got assurances from the citys Electoral Board that he was allowed to do so, the lawyer said.

Mallory, meanwhile, said he had been agonizing about his failure to act during the recount. A middle school civics teacher, Mallory, 33, said in an interview that he had wanted to take part in the recount so he could talk about it with his students.

He wrote in his letter that he lamented his failure to act on the questionable ballot, and that he shared his misgivings with his wife and parents.

Finally, about 10 p.m. Tuesday, Yanceys team talked with Mallory and heard his concerns. They urged him to write out his thoughts and sign them so they could take them to court in the morning, when the judges would convene to certify the results.

Once the judges read the letter and heard arguments from the lawyers, they spent two hours studying the ballot in question before ruling.

GOP leaders in the House of Delegates, who on Tuesday had conceded the recount and pledged to share power with Democrats in what they believed would be a chamber split 50 to 50, issued a new statement after Wednesdays turn of events.

While it appeared yesterday that Shelly Simonds was elected, its obvious now that the result will remain unclear for a while longer, said a statement from House GOP leaders Kirk Cox, Tim Hugo and Nick Rush.

Simonds, who appeared on MSNBCs Morning Joe Wednesday morning as the surprise victor of a tense recount that reset state politics, could not be reached for comment.

It is not clear whether a final decision in the Simonds-Yancey matchup will settle control of the House of Delegates.

Even as the court was considering whether to certify Tuesdays recount in the 94th House District, two other recounts are taking place this week  at least one of which may further reshuffle politics in Richmond.

Election officials on Wednesday evening were finishing a recount in the 68th House District in Richmond, where Republican Del. G. Manoli Loupassi trailed Democratic challenger Dawn Adams by 336 votes, but the outcome appeared unlikely to change.

And a recount is set for Thursday in Fredericksburgs District 28, where the Republican leads by 82 votes. Democrats have also challenged that race in federal court, where they are seeking a new election because more than 100 voters were mistakenly given ballots for the wrong legislative district.

House Democrats were meeting in Richmond on Wednesday night to elect their own leadership for the coming General Assembly session, which starts Jan. 10. They were set to vote on their designee for speaker but held off in light of the uncertainty in the Simonds-Yancey race and in District 28. Otherwise they reelected their current caucus leadership.

House Minority Leader David J. Toscano (Charlottesville) is vying with his partys longest-serving member, Del. Kenneth R. Plum (Fairfax), for the speaker position.

After the courts ruling threw the balance of power back toward Republicans, Plum said he thinks Democrats need to be realistic about whats ahead.

Irrespective of these last-minute backs and forths, its clear that the people are divided in their choice, he said. And I think whats incumbent upon us is that we do a power-sharing arrangement [with Republicans] where we can get some work done.
Alexis Canete rests on his luggage on Dec. 18 as he waits in the Delta ticket line to get back home to Cuba at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta. (John Spink/AP)

The FBI is part of the probe into what caused a fire that knocked out power to the world's busiest airport in Atlanta, but an agency spokesman said Tuesday that there was no sign of anything connected to terrorism.

Theres no indication at this point of anything nefarious, FBI spokesman Kevin Rowson said.

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has also been involved in the investigation, Georgia Power spokesman Craig Bell said.

Were bringing everything we have to bear to the situation to make sure this doesnt happen again, Bell said Tuesday.

No conclusions have been drawn as to the cause of the fire, which took out the airports power supply and its backup electricity for about 11 hours Sunday. The blackout stranded thousands of passengers on grounded jets and in darkened concourses and led to the cancellation of more than 1,500 flights just ahead of the frenzied holiday travel period.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the main hub for Delta Air Lines, is a crucial cog in the nations air travel system. Delays there typically ripple across the nation because so many U.S. and international flights are routed through the Atlanta hub.

Because of the magnitude of Sundays outage, we want to be able to rule out any possible scenario that wasnt equipment malfunction, Bell said.

We really dont expect any answers like that to come forth for a few days, he said.

The power company is working with the airport to explore how to prevent the situation from happening again.

Among ideas being discussed are encasing in concrete the area that holds key electric equipment or moving parts of the system to other areas. The blaze took out the main power and the backup system because the fire burned through parts of both in the same underground utility tunnel, authorities have said.

Delta and other carriers said they expected to be running normally Tuesday. But passengers trying to catch Tuesday morning flights faced wait times of up to an hour just to get through the main security checkpoint in the domestic terminal, the airports website showed.

On Tuesday  two days after the outage  passengers were still sleeping in the atrium area thats often used for events aimed at showcasing the worlds busiest airport. Video from news outlets showed passengers sprawled out on benches and chairs and luggage piled up in a nearby area of the domestic terminal.

Hartsfield-Jackson serves an average of 275,000 passengers a day. Nearly 2,500 planes arrive and depart each day.
MASSACHUSETTS

ISIS backer sentenced in plot to kill blogger

A man convicted of leading an Islamic State-inspired plot to behead a conservative blogger who upset Muslims when she organized a prophet Muhammad cartoon contest was sentenced Tuesday to 28 years in prison.

David Wright, 28, was sentenced by a judge in Bostons federal courthouse two months after jurors found him guilty of conspiring with his uncle and a Rhode Island man to kill blogger Pamela Geller on behalf of the terrorist group.

Wrights attorneys had asked for a 16-year sentence, saying he should be given the chance to redeem himself after serving his time. Wright insisted he never really wanted to hurt anyone but pretended to support the Islamic State group to get attention online.

Prosecutors and Geller wanted Wright to get life in prison. Prosecutors portrayed Wright as the leader of the conspiracy to kill Geller, who has spearheaded scores of events across the nation to decry Islamist extremism, such as the cartoon contest in Garland, Tex.

The plot to behead Geller, of New York, was never carried out. Instead, Wrights uncle Ussamah Rahim told Wright on a recorded phone call that he decided to go after those boys in blue, referring to police. Wright told his uncle that was beautiful and encouraged him to delete all the data from his computer before carrying out his attack.

Hours later, Rahim was fatally shot by authorities after he lunged at them with a knife when they approached him in Boston.

The third man charged, Nicholas Rovinski, of Warwick, R.I., pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy, testified against Wright and is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday. Prosecutors are seeking 15 years behind bars.

The cartoon contest Geller organized in 2015 ended in gunfire, with two Muslim gunmen shot to death by police.

 Associated Press

WISCONSIN

To applause, Catholic priest reveals hes gay

A Roman Catholic priest in Milwaukee has come out as gay, writing that he will no longer live in the shadows of secrecy and plans to be authentic to his gay self.

The Rev. Gregory Greiten disclosed his sexual orientation on Sunday to the St. Bernadette Parish and was greeted with a standing ovation from his parishioners, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. He also wrote a column that was published Monday in the National Catholic Reporter.

Its rare for a priest to come out. Greiten said he revealed his sexual orientation because he wants to be a role model for others. He said hes helping to break the silence of gay men in the clergy so he could reclaim his own voice.

I will embrace the person that God created me to be, Greiten wrote. In my priestly life and ministry, I, too, will help you, whether you are gay or straight, bisexual or transgendered, to be your authentic self  to be fully alive living in your image and likeness of God.

Greiten wrote that he has decided to stand with the few courageous priests who have taken the risk to come out of the shadows and have chosen to live in truth and authenticity.

Greiten met with Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki before coming out, according to an archdiocese spokeswoman.

We support Father Greiten in his own personal journey and telling his story of coming to understand and live with his sexual orientation, Listecki said in a statement Monday. As the Church teaches, those with same-sex attraction must be treated with understanding and compassion.

 Associated Press
A shell attack against a military airport in the city of el-Arish, in the Sinai, killed one military officer and wounded two others during a visit by two cabinet members.

The attack according to army spokesperson, Col Tamer El-Rifai, also damaged a helicopter.

The attack took place during a visit by defense and interior ministers. Their visit was unannounced, reports say.

The Egyptian army and security forces have been fighting jihadists in the restive peninsular since the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi in 2013. A branch of the Islamic State group (IS) and other militant groups have staged attacks against state forces.

Authorities last month blamed IS for an attack on Al-Rawdah mosque in the neighboring city of Bir al-Abed. Over 200 people were killed during a Friday prayer.

Jihadist attacks have also targeted civilians including Christians.

The interior ministry has announced deployment of 230,000 forces to secure Christmas celebrations.
KENYA

Election turmoil killed 92, rights panel says

Ninety-two people were killed during Kenyas months of election turmoil and dozens of others were sexually assaulted, a human rights watchdog said Wednesday.

Most victims were felled by the bullet and authorities must account for how the officers under their command used the live ammunition that had been assigned to them, according to the report of the independent Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.

The group reported 86 cases of sexual or gender-based violence, saying it was extremely worried by the emergence of sexual violence as a weapon of subjugation during political contests.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga has accused security forces of killing scores of his supporters. Police have denied it. They also called a recent Human Rights Watch report alleging gang rapes by men in uniform in opposition strongholds utter falsehoods.

Odinga lost the August presidential election but challenged the results over alleged irregularities, leading the Supreme Court to nullify the vote.

Odinga boycotted the court-ordered repeat vote in October, saying electoral reforms had not been undertaken. President Uhuru Kenyatta won that election.

 Associated Press

CANADA

Watchdog: Trudeau broke conflict rules

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau violated conflict of interest rules when he vacationed last Christmas at the private Bahamian island owned by the Aga Khan, Canadas federal ethics commissioner concluded Wednesday.

Mary Dawson said in a report that Trudeau broke conflict of interest laws that prohibit a minister from accepting gifts or advantages that could reasonably be seen as influencing government decisions.

The only exception is if the person offering the gift is a friend, but Dawson said that exception did not apply in this case. Trudeau has repeatedly called the Aga Khan, the hereditary spiritual leader to the worlds Ismaili Muslims, a longtime family friend.

Dawson said that the Aga Khan and his foundation were registered to lobby and that Trudeau did not properly recuse himself on two occasions in May 2016 from government meetings about a grant to the endowment fund of the Global Center for Pluralism, where the Aga Khan is chairman of the board.

Trudeau said he was sorry he did not clear his vacation with the ethics commissioner and said he would in the future.

I fully accept the report of the commissioner. Her responsibility is to protect the integrity of the office. . . . It is important that as we move forward that we learn from this mistake. I take full responsibility for it, he said.

Trudeau is not expected to be sanctioned or penalized.

 Associated Press

8 Americans among 12 killed in Mexico bus crash: Eight Americans, two Swedes and a Canadian were among those killed in a bus crash Tuesday in southeastern Mexico, officials said. A tour guide was the 12th fatality. The Quintana Roo state government said the injured included three Canadians, four Brazilians and four Americans. A state prosecutor said a preliminary investigation showed that the crash was caused by the driver's negligence and possible speeding. The driver is in custody.

17 reported killed in airstrikes on Syrian village: Airstrikes on a Syrian village in the rebel-held northwestern province of Idlib killed at least 17 people, including women and children, according to activists and rescue workers. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes killed at least four children. The Syrian Civil Defense, first responders also known as the White Helmets, said the airstrikes hit a residential compound in the village of Maar Shurin, destroying an entire block. It put the death toll at 19.

Activist detained in Moscow: An activist from the punk collective Pussy Riot and two photographers were detained during a protest outside the headquarters of the main Russian intelligence agency in Moscow. An associate of Maria Alekhina said she and Alekhina unfurled a placard saying "Happy birthday, butchers!" outside the building that used to house the KGB and is now home to the FSB. The associate said that she managed to escape but that Alekhina and the photographers were detained.

Iranian ex-vice president gets 63 years in prison: The semiofficial Iranian Students News Agency said a former vice president has been sentenced to 63 years in prison over misuse of public funds while in office. The sentence against Hamid Baghaei is the longest for a former official in Iran in decades. Baghaei was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's vice president in charge of executive affairs. The verdict comes amid frequent criticism by Ahmadinejad and his allies of Iran's judiciary.

 From news services
FINALLY, AFTER four decades, a regional leader has proposed a long-term, earmarked funding formula for Metro that amounts to an adequate, sustainable and realistic means of assuring a healthy future for the transit system. Now it's time for leaders in the District and Maryland to reckon with Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe's blueprint and offer similarly serious plans of their own.

Limited by Virginias constitution to one term and set to leave office next month, Mr. McAuliffe, a Democrat, didnt bother with the political gamesmanship that has so far characterized competing formulas for Metro offered by officials in the District and Maryland.

He did not pretend that raiding other transportation and transit projects for the next few years, on its own, was a sufficient strategy for rescuing Metro, as did Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican. Nor did Mr. McAuliffe try to shift the burden of cost-sharing, as District officials have in proposing a regional sales tax that would reduce the citys contribution but nearly double Northern Virginias.

Instead, Mr. McAuliffe urged a limited menu of new taxes on Northern Virginia, coupled with substantial cost-shifting from other regional transportation priorities, that would yield $150 million annually  the state's share of $500 million in additional annual spending on maintenance and safety that Metro says is the minimum required to regain long-term safety and reliability.

Unlike Mr. Hogan's proposed funding, Mr. McAuliffe's would be earmarked and permanent  and in that sense put Metro into the ranks of every other major American transit system. Unlike D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), whose constituents represent more than half of Metro's ridership, Mr. McAuliffe didn't try to airmail his obligations across the Potomac River. And unlike Virginia Republicans, Mr. McAuliffe doesn't deny a basic truth  that without substantial, predictable new funds, Metro faces a death spiral.

The tax hikes in Mr. McAuliffe's plan apply to hotel stays, home sales and wholesale gasoline in Northern Virginia, and they are modest. They would add $5 to a $500 hotel bill (mainly paid by business travelers). They would increase the grantor's tax paid by the seller of a $700,000 home by about $700, to $1,750. And they would probably add 30 cents, at most, to the cost of a 15-gallon fill-up at the gas station. The tax yield would be $65 million annually.

More painfully, perhaps, the plan would shift $85 million in annual spending to Metro from Northern Virginia roads, bridges and other transit projects  a major chunk of the states annual regional transportation spending. Thats a big hit, but it reflects Metros critical importance.

Mr. McAuliffe's plan, in concert with similarly serious approaches from Maryland, the District and the federal government (whose employees make up 40 percent of Metro's rush-hour passengers), would meet the transit system's needs. It's not a stopgap, and it's not a ploy; it's an opening bid in what are likely to be protracted, complex negotiations. It recognizes that without a no-nonsense rescue plan, the consequences for Metro, and for the national capital region, are dire.
An earlier version of this editorial incorrectly stated that former Peruvian president Alejandro Toledo had been charged with accepting bribes in exchange for government contracts. A judge has ordered his preventive detention, but Mr. Toledo has not been formally charged.

THE CORRUPTION scandal that has disrupted governance in Brazil for nearly four years has been slowly spreading across Latin America, thanks to the confessions of a construction company that paid hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes in more than a dozen countries. The vice president of Ecuador was sentenced to six years in prison last week for accepting payoffs from the Odebrecht construction company, and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has been accused by a company official of taking campaign contributions in exchange for contracts.

Nowhere has the damage been greater, however, than in Peru, where two former presidents have been charged with crimes  and a third may be removed from office this week. What makes the trouble worse is that President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, the target of an opposition-led impeachment vote scheduled for Thursday, has not been shown to be guilty of any wrongdoing, other than misleading the public.

There's little question that Peru's fragile democracy was penetrated and corrupted by Odebrecht, which admitted in a 2016 settlement with the U.S. Justice Department to paying $29 million in bribes in the Andean country. But the company says it did not make illegal payments to Mr. Kuczynski, a former Wall Street banker who took office just 16 months ago on an anti-corruption platform. Instead, it paid some $4.8 million to two consulting companies owned by Mr. Kuczynski or a close associate over the course of a decade.

Mr. Kuczynski, who was serving in a previous government during some of the contracts, says he had recused himself and did not know about the work. He says he was involved in only one transaction, for consulting on an irrigation project, while he was out of office. There is no evidence that he accepted bribes or campaign cash in exchange for government contracts, the allegation made against former presidents Alejandro Toledo and Ollanta Humala. But Mr. Kuczynski made misleading statements, denying until last week that he had any connection to Odebrecht.

That has been seized upon by the populist leader he defeated in the 2016 election, Keiko Fujimori, who is herself under investigation for receiving Odebrecht money. Last week Ms. Fujimori launched an impeachment motion against Mr. Kuczynski on grounds of "permanent moral incapacity," a charge that requires no tangible demonstration of wrongdoing, much less a trial. With 71 seats in the 130-member parliament, Ms. Fujimori easily gathered the votes necessary to mandate a vote on removing Mr. Kuczynski, who controls only 18 parliamentary seats.

Mr. Kuczynski has handled the Odebrecht affair poorly, but his removal would do only more damage to Peruvian democracy. Having been fairly elected, he would be ousted at the initiative of his defeated opponent on vague grounds after a week-long process. The constitution says his term should be completed by one of his two vice presidents. But Ms. Fujimori, who has already orchestrated the removal of three cabinet ministers and is targeting several supreme court justices, appears intent on dismantling the government piece by piece. That is not corruption fighting; it is abuse of power.
THE NATIONAL Security Strategy issued by the Trump administration Monday differs from those of previous presidents in some fundamental ways, as might be expected given President Trump's transgressive nationalism and protectionism. It also differs from some of the policies the president himself has favored so far, especially with regard to Russia and China. That, too, might be taken as unsurprising, given the widely reported and mostly unsuccessful attempts by the president's national security staff  the authors of the strategy  to reconcile his impulses with core U.S. foreign policy interests.

On the whole, the document may be a poor predictor of the administrations actions  especially as the president, according to the chief national security spokesman, may not have read it. It nevertheless is worth reviewing as a marker of how far Mr. Trumps administration is departing from its predecessors, and as a marker of what his top aides hope to persuade him to do.

Worth noting first is what is missing from the strategy, compared with those of Barack Obama and George W. Bush. For the Trump administration, there is no threat from climate change; no commitment to promote democracy and human rights, other than by example; and no impetus to seek the reduction, much less the elimination, of nuclear weapons.

The Obama and Bush administration strategies saw free-trade deals as in the U.S. national interest; the Trump administration sees them as an instrument used by competitors to take advantage of America. The Trump plan further defines "porous borders" as a national security threat and predictably prescribes a wall as the solution. More surprisingly, it calls the growing national debt a "grave threat" to national security, even as Mr. Trump prepares to sign a tax bill that will add at least $1 trillion to that debt.

Even more jarring is the difference between the strategy's treatment of Russia and China, and Mr. Trump's actions thus far. The document portrays China and Russia as dangerous rivals who want to "shape a world antithetical to our interests and values." But Mr. Trump so far has done little but heap praise on autocratic rulers Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin. In a speech nominally meant to introduce the strategy, he instead exulted over a friendly phone call he had received from Mr. Putin.

The strategy praises U.S. alliances and reaffirms support for NATO, but in his speech Mr. Trump reiterated misguided claims that "immensely wealthy" allies had been "delinquent in . . . payment while we guarantee their safety." The document says the United States will favor democracies over unfree states, but Mr. Trump has clashed more with the leaders of Britain and Germany than Saudi Arabia and Malaysia.

In short, the new National Security Strategy is less a coherent policy framework than a strained justification of some of the presidents prejudices and an attempt to wish away others. Friends and foes of the United States trying to guess this administrations next moves will have to keep following Mr. Trumps tweets.
Columnist

A senior U.N. envoy who visited Pyongyang this month carrying a pressing appeal for diplomacy was told by his North Korean hosts that it was too early for steps that might ease the confrontation over their nuclear program.

"There was no sense of urgency" among North Korean officials, said one source familiar with the Dec. 5 to 9 journey by Jeffrey Feltman, the U.N. undersecretary for political affairs and a former senior U.S. diplomat. His trip, which has received relatively little attention, was the first to Pyongyang by a high-level U.N. official in six years.

The North Korean reluctance to enter talks now puts it on a potential collision course with the United States. President Trump warned this week: "America and its allies will take all necessary steps to achieve a denuclearization and ensure that this regime cannot threaten the world. . . . It will be taken care of."

The exit ramps from this crisis appear to be narrowing in both Washington and Pyongyang, creating new worry, frustration and resolve. North Koreas seeming disinterest in any early negotiations was convincing diplomatic theater, if it was theater, said one analyst.

Feltman made three requests of the North Koreans during his 15 hours of talks, sources said. He proposed that they reopen military-to-military channels that were cut in 2009, so that the risk of accidental war might be reduced; he urged them to signal that they were ready to engage the United States in talks, following their Nov. 29 proclamation that North Korea had completed its "state nuclear force"; and he asked them to implement Security Council resolutions condemning their weapons programs.

To dramatize his message about the risk of unintended conflict, Feltman gave North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho a copy of historian Christopher Clark's study, "The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914." Ri was the most senior North Korean official Feltman met.

Feltman was carrying a letter from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, arguing that Pyongyang's attempt to gain nuclear deterrence could produce the very conflict that it seeks to avoid. Feltman's message was reviewed before the trip by the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia, the nations that joined in the "Six-Party Talks" with North Korea from 2003 to 2009 that sought unsuccessfully to halt its nuclear program.

Analysts interpreted the North Korean response as an indication that Pyongyang plans more missile and nuclear tests to convincingly demonstrate its ability to strike the U.S. mainland with a nuclear-tipped missile. They dont feel they are quite there yet, said one source. Such additional North Korean weapons tests might trigger a U.S. response.

The North Koreans engaged in spirited exchanges with Feltman, posing many questions about U.S. decision-making, the sources said. But they were elusive when asked to explain how they wanted the United States to change its hostile policy toward the regime, and what they meant in the Nov. 29 announcement that North Korea had completed its state nuclear force.

The North Koreans evidently want to bargain, but from a position of maximum strength. They agreed, for example, that a restoration of military-to-military contacts would at some point be necessary, but not yet. They also agreed that denuclearization is the ultimate long-term goal for Korea, but not yet. And they expressed interest in a follow-up meeting, though nothing specific is planned.

One perversely encouraging sign is that after Feltman urged the North Koreans to engage the Security Council more closely, U.N. ambassador Ja Song Nam attended a Council discussion Friday with Guterres and senior diplomats focusing on the danger of accidental war on the Korean Peninsula.

In the 10 days since Feltman's mission, concern about the danger of conflict has increased in Washington. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reiterated last week that he wants talks with Pyongyang: "We're ready to have the first meeting without precondition; . . . we can talk about the weather if you want." But the White House was displeased, and Tillerson backtracked, saying that Pyongyang would have to "earn its way back to the table," presumably by halting weapons tests. Tillerson's aides say he just wanted "talks," not negotiations.

A chilling warning came last week from national security adviser H.R. McMaster, who said that U.N. sanctions against North Korea "might be our last, best chance to avoid military conflict." Asked Tuesday by CBS about the North Korean nuclear threat, McMaster said: "I don't think we can tolerate that risk."

The sleepwalkers of 2017 should consider: On the brink of conflict, you never know just where the edge of the cliff may be.

Twitter: @IgnatiusPost

Read more from David Ignatius's archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
Columnist

Congratulations, Republicans. Now you have your own Obamacare.

Emerging from their caucus meeting in the Capitol basement Tuesday morning, House Republicans were jubilant about their tax bill, which was on course to clear Congress on Wednesday.

Its a total winner, said Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.). And I never lie.

Veteran Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) observed: Theyre pretty giddy in there.

Rep. Neal Dunn (R-Fla.), a urologist, announced: This is good medicine for America.



Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Ky.) and other Republicans. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

And for that prescription, added Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), you dont need a second opinion.

Dont you?

The deeply unpopular bill has the support of only a third of Americans, most of whom (correctly) perceive that its a giveaway to rich people and big corporations. Any concerns that this wont translate into a political win for Republicans? ABC Newss Mary Bruce asked House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.).

No concerns whatsoever, Ryan replied. He blamed the bills unpopularity on opponents and the media spreading mistruths and said opinions will improve when people experience whats in the bill. When people see their withholding improving and see bigger paychecks, a simpler tax code, Ryan said, results will make this popular.

Where have I heard this before? Ah, yes, it was March 2010, as Obamacare was about to clear the House. Then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said people should look beyond the "controversies" surrounding the bill, to when people experience its "very exciting" benefits. "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it," she said.

Obamacare did much of what was advertised, and its popularity grew. But it didn't do everything that was promised, and anything Americans didn't like about the health-care system became the fault of Obamacare, even if unrelated to the law. Now, Republicans are making impossibly high promises, and if anything goes wrong  if the economy doesn't boom, wages don't soar and the middle class doesn't rebound  it will be the fault of this legislation, soon to be labeled "the Trump Tax" by Democrats.

The parallels are eerie. In 2010, as now, lawmakers who drafted the legislation were confident it would be transformational. Then, as now, the legislation passed on an entirely partisan basis, with the opposition complaining about a hurried process and side deals.

Actually, the Trump Tax is in worse shape than Obamacare was. USA Today reported last week that the bill had "the lowest level of public support for any major piece of legislation enacted in the past three decades, including the Affordable Care Act in 2009." In March 2009, the Quinnipiac poll found opposition to Obamacare exceeded support by nine points; the latest Quinnipiac poll finds opposition to the tax bill exceeding support by 29 points.

Republicans worked hard to convince Americans that Obamacare was a transfer of wealth from the middle class to the poor. Democrats can now argue, truthfully, that the Trump Tax is a transfer of income from the middle class to the wealthy and big business. Under the law, the middle fifth of American households will see an average increase in after-tax income next year of $930, while the top 1 percent get an average increase of $51,140, according to the Tax Policy Center. The rich even get a greater proportional increase in after-tax income: 2.3 percent, compared with 1.4 percent for the middle class.

While the forgotten man Trump lured with phony populism gets little benefit, the things that bothered the forgotten man about the tax code  a tangled mess of loopholes for businesses, the rich and Wall Street  remain intact. This will be a bigger albatross for Republicans than Obamacare was for Democrats, argues Democratic strategist Jesse Ferguson. They own the tax code. When you are upset about taxes, youre going to be upset about the Trump Tax.

On top of that, Republicans now have claimed ownership of health care. The tax bill kills the individual mandate that underpinned Obamacare, which will leave 13 million additional people without coverage.

Tuesday morning, Ryan declared (falsely) that the bill would "especially" benefit middle-income families. He said it would "bid up" wages, repatriate jobs, provide economic growth of 3 percent a year and create upward mobility. The bill, he said, "is what it will take to help people who are struggling."

Maybe he's right and all those blue-chip economists and the nonpartisan analyses by the Joint Committee on Taxation, the Congressional Budget Office and others are wrong. Maybe growth will dramatically exceed forecasts, millions will enter the labor force and find work, wages will soar and the $1.5 trillion tax bill will pay for itself. But if all that doesn't happen, the Trump Tax will be blamed.

Twitter: @Milbank

Read more from Dana Milbank's archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, center, and Justice Anthony Kennedy, right, listen as President Trump speaks at Gorsuchs swearing-in ceremony in the White House Rose Garden on April 10. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)

The collapse of three of President Trumps judicial nominations in the span of a week has embarrassed the White House, revealed weaknesses in its vetting process and threatened to cause Senate Republicans to apply more scrutiny to the presidents picks.

In their push to fill scores of vacancies on federal circuit and district courts at the historic pace demanded by Trump, White House officials have overlooked vulnerabilities in the backgrounds of some nominees. Critics allege that White House counsel Donald McGahn, who is overseeing the process, has sacrificed traditional qualifications for ideological purity and youth.

But the downfalls of three nominees  Jeff Mateer, Matthew Petersen and Brett Talley  are also aberrations in what has been a quiet yet undeniable success for Trump: a year-long drive to permanently alter the judiciary by nominating and confirming conservative jurists to lifetime appointments on the federal bench.

The president has told advisers that he is focused on three main criteria: that his nominees be young (in most cases under age 50, and preferably under 40), conservative and strict constitutionalists.

He clearly understands that this is going to be one of his enduring legacies, said Leonard Leo, a Trump adviser on judges and the executive vice president of the Federalist Society. He is excited about how many more judges hes going to get to pick. He likes to know the statistics, the facts and figures.



Neil M. Gorsuch, right, meets with Sen. Richard Blumenthal D-Conn.), on Feb. 8 during his confirmation process. (Bill OLeary/The Washington Post)

Typically when discussing potential nominees, Leo said, Trump asks one overarching question: Hell say, Hes not weak, is he? 

So far, Trump has nominated 59 people for federal judgeships. Among them, 19 have been confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate: Justice Neil M. Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, 12 circuit court judges and six district court judges.

President Trumps judicial appointments have been one of the most prominent accomplishments of the year, and for decades to come Justice Neil Gorsuch will put his mark on Americas jurisprudence, said Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president.

[Trump to inherit more than 100 court vacancies, plans to reshape judiciary]

Remaking the judiciary is arguably the most ideological project of Trumps presidency. The campaign to fill court vacancies has been led by McGahn, who has deep roots in the conservative movement, and he has a willing partner in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

The push has support from conservative activists who helped propel Trump to victory in last years election as well as other Republicans who are critical of the president in other areas.

Its one of the major pillars of a successful presidency, because it has an impact on the country for 30 or 40 years and its embraced by both economic conservatives and social conservatives, so its a win-win, said Scott Reed, chief strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.



White House counsel Donald McGahn oversees the judicial nomination process. (Albin Lohr-Jones/Bloomberg News)

The effort has been marred by the three recent high-profile failures. Mateer was forced to withdraw when it was discovered he had said in 2015 that transgender children are part of "Satan's plan." And Talley had his nomination fall apart after he reportedly posted a defense of "the first KKK" in an online comment in 2011 and because he failed to disclose a conflict of interest: His wife, Ann Donaldson, works for McGahn as chief of staff in the White House Counsel's Office.

Then there is Petersen, who also is close to McGahn, having worked with him on the Federal Election Commission. Petersen withdrew Monday after being publicly humiliated by a viral video showing him struggling to answer basic questions about legal procedure in his Senate confirmation hearing.

McGahn got caught with his fingers in the jar trying to slip his buddies in there, but theyre playing for averages  so you got 12 done and missed on two. So what? said one Republican strategist close to the White House, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid.

White House officials said Talleys and Petersens ties to McGahn are not the sole reasons they were nominated. Talley had an influential booster in Sen. Luther Strange (R-Ala.), with whom he has worked, while Petersen was promoted by some conservative lawyers as a sensible addition to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia because of his expertise in election law.

This months trio of failures could alter the dynamic in the Senate, where many of Trumps nominees have sailed through.

Ive heard some of my colleagues question whether the administration will make them walk the plank again for nominees who are so obviously and disastrously unqualified, said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

So far this year, four of Trumps nominees have been judged by the standing committee of the American Bar Association to be not qualified. By comparison, no nominee received that rating from the ABA during President Barack Obamas first two years in office. Trumps aides have criticized the associations process.

Nan Aron, president of the Alliance for Justice, a liberal advocacy group, said the failures should be a wake-up call.

The fact that three now are out signifies, I think, something important about the cumulative impact of a string of wholly unsuitable judicial candidates, Aron said. Finally senators are saying, Enough is enough. 

Trump has also come under criticism for the lack of diversity among his nominees, who are overwhelmingly white and male.

[How unusual are Trumps not qualified judicial nominations?]

While the White House has suffered from disorganization in some areas, the judicial nominee process has been relatively efficient and analogous to those in past administrations.

Trump's sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, is a senior judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. But despite this, the president has given McGahn almost unilateral authority to run his nominations process.

McGahn and his staff curate lists of names that have been developed with input from Vice President Pence, Conway and what one adviser called the conservative illuminati, including Leo, lawyer Chuck Cooper and some key GOP senators, such as McConnell and Sen. Tom Cotton (Ark.). For instance, Pence strongly pushed for Amy Coney Barrett on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit and Don Willett on the 5th Circuit; they were confirmed.

Its been a machine, said Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, who has been helping McGahn identify nominees. Theres been a concerted push to find people with paper trails showing dedication and intellectual commitment to originalism and textualism, rather than simply someone who you think might be a loyal Republican or otherwise checks certain partisan boxes.

Many of the nominees were first identified during the 2016 campaign and transition. The White House plays a heavier hand in selecting circuit court nominees, because they represent regions of the country, but sometimes defers to home-state senators for recommendations on district court nominees.

McGahn took control of the process early on, when the West Wing was chaotic, but some other advisers have chafed at his top-down approach, which they say has led to avoidable errors and at times strained relations with some senators who feel cut out of the process.

Candidates visit the White House for interviews, which take place in the counsels office and tend to last about an hour, according to officials. They are quizzed about legal statutes, criminal procedure and precedents, and their writings and career backgrounds are dissected. Working with a team of 20 or so, McGahn usually picks a couple of finalists for each vacancy and asks for Trumps sign-off at weekly meetings.

Sometimes Trump brings up names of people he has heard about or calls outside advisers like Leo to ask about particular candidates, but he largely assents to the recommendations of others. Critics accuse him of outsourcing the process to the Federalist Society, the Heritage Foundation and other conservative groups.

While McConnell and Trump, and McGahn and Trump, have clashed on other topics, the men have largely been simpatico on judges. Trump has told advisers that he has received more praise on judges than any other topic and has outdone his predecessors. In a recent meeting with Christian conservative activists, Trump praised McConnell for having blocked so many of Obamas nominees to preserve vacancies.

Ive got to hand it to him, the president quipped, according to someone in the room. When I walked into the Oval Office on the first day, there were over 100 judgeships waiting for me.

Leo said Trump is acutely aware of how much his supporters care about judicial appointments. He is engaged in a way that I would not have imagined, that is not typical of presidents, he said.

Blumenthal said that, much to his chagrin, Trump is shifting the federal courts in seismic and lasting ways and shifting the ideological frame of the judicial branch.

McGahn has prioritized candidates in their 30s and 40s, calculating that they could hold their seats on the bench for decades.

Its not a knockout factor, but theres a thumb on the scale for nominating younger people, said John G. Malcolm, a vice president at the Heritage Foundation who advises the White House.

At the recent conservative activists meeting, Trump joked that friends had asked to become judges now that he was president, according to two people in the room. The president said he recommended them to his staff, but his aides tossed out their names.

The reason: They were too old.

I had to tell them no, Trump said of his friends, according to attendees.

The president then paused, laughed and offered a clarification: Actually, I had someone else tell them no.
President Mahmoud Abbas of Palestine has sent delegations to Moscow and Beijing to seek the intervention of the two UN Security Council members in the peace process with Israel after the Palestinian leader ruled out the US mediation following President Trumps move to declare Jerusalem capital of Israel.

A delegation met with Russian authorities Tuesday to have Moscow as replacement in the peace process currently at standstill since 2014.

We are now in Russia, and some of us will go to Beijing to deliver the same message on the importance of seeking international sponsorship for the peace process under the banner of the United Nations, said Saleh Raafat, a member of the delegation.

President Abbas last week during an emergency summit of the Islamic Conference Organization in Istanbul indicated that the US has disqualified itself as neutral peace broker between Palestinians and Israelis after Trump on December 6 raced alone to declare Jerusalem capital of the Jewish state.

The old city has been subject of dispute between the two feuding sides, with Israelis claiming it is an eternal part of their history and territory while Palestinians hope to make the eastern side of city the capital of their future state.

Russia in 2016 sought to host both Abbas and Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu but the two leaders dodged the meeting.

Russian deputy envoy to the UN, Vladimir Safronkov on Monday said Moscow is ready to be an honest mediator. The Russian diplomat made the comments after the US vetoed an Egypt-written draft resolution backed by France and the UK rejecting Trumps declaration.

China, following a meeting between President Xi Jinping and Abbas in July, made a four-proposal plan to lead to peace between Palestinians and Israelis.

Israel and Palestine are considered major partners in Beijings ambitious One Belt, One Road initiative.

An Israeli delegation is expected to visit Beijing as well, Israeli media reports.
Reps. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, left, asking to interview the FBIs Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, right, and two others from the agency. (Jim Lo Scalzo/European Pressphoto Agency)

The Republican chairmen of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees are asking the Justice Department to let them conduct transcribed interviews with three top FBI officials as part of an ongoing joint probe into how officials handled the investigation of Hillary Clintons use of a private email server.

Reps. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions late Tuesday asking to interview the FBI's Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, FBI chief of staff James Rybicki and FBI counsel Lisa Page, beginning as soon as Thursday.

Goodlatte and Gowdy released the letter shortly before the House Intelligence Committee finished grilling McCabe in an eight-hour, closed-door session on Tuesday. Gowdy is a member of the intelligence panel and participated in the interview.

Leading Republicans, have criticized McCabe and even called for his removal from the FBI in recent days. Gowdy complained to Fox News on Tuesday that McCabe "cuts across every facet of every investigation in 2016" involving Clinton or President Trump.

McCabe postponed a scheduled interview with the House Intelligence panel last week. According to Bloomberg News, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) also called for McCabe's ouster this week.

Democrats have defended McCabe, criticizing those calling for his removal. Leaving the interview with McCabe Tuesday night, House Intelligence Committee ranking Democrat Adam B. Schiff (Calif.) said the calls to fire McCabe were irresponsible.

He has been a professional FBI agent and works with an impressive team of other agents, and I dont know that I understand the calls that Ive heard from some to fire him, Schiff said.

The other two FBI officials named in Goodlatte and Gowdys letter have already emerged as people of interest in other congressional inquiries into Clintons use of a private email server while secretary of state. Grassley named Rybicki as one of two FBI officials who, according to transcripts from an internal FBI inquiry, recalled former FBI director James B. Comey circulating drafts of the statement he would make exonerating Clinton months ahead of time.

Grassley accused the FBI of "conclusion first, fact-gathering second." The FBI later posted a heavily redacted document containing a May 2016 email from Rybicki to a small group of top FBI officials asking for "any comments" on the statement being drafted.

Page has also captured investigators' attention after it emerged earlier this month that she was trading pro-Clinton, anti-Trump text messages with Peter Strzok, a top counterintelligence at the FBI with whom she was having a romantic affair.

Several committees on Capitol Hill, including the ones Gowdy and Goodlatte chair, have demanded interviews and documents from Strzok following that revelation. Both Strzok and Page worked on the Clinton email probe and were members of special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs team investigating Trump, until their bosses discovered they had been exchanging politically charged texts.

McCabe, who worked closely with both Strzok and Page, has also come under fire because of those texts.

Goodlatte and Gowdy's committees announced their joint probe into the FBI and DOJ's handling of the Clinton email investigation in late October. Democrats have accused the GOP of using the investigations "to distract attention" from parallel investigations into allegations of ties between the Trump campaign and Kremlin officials. Democrats are concerned that Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee are racing to wrap up their probe of Trump by the end of the year.

Read more at PowerPost
House Republicans abandoned plans on Wednesday to vote on a long-term reauthorization of a powerful government authority to conduct foreign surveillance on U.S. soil, apparently succumbing to internal party demands for time to negotiate an extension with more-stringent limitations on when authorities can access Americans' communications.

There isnt any chance that a long-term FISA reauthorization has the support of the overall conference, Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said Wednesday, referring to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act of 2008, which gives the National Security Agency the authority to collect emails and other communications of overseas foreign targets from U.S. companies.

Lawmakers are expected to approve a short-term extension of the surveillance authority in its current form, keeping it in place until Jan. 19  that being the same date the short-term budget extension pending before Congress this week is set to expire.

Absent congressional action, the Section 702 program will expire at the end of the year  a worst-case scenario for the intelligence community, which has ranked an extension of the program as its highest legislative priority for 2017. But Republican members of the Freedom Caucus, as well as members of the House Judiciary Committee, have insisted that Congress place more-significant restrictions than GOP leaders were planning to impose on the FBIs ability to access information about Americans who may have been in touch with foreign targets.

Party leaders had rallied around an effort from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) to pass a long-term extension of the Section 702 program that would have incorporated a requirement that the FBI seek a court order before viewing the contents of queries for information about Americans communications in the program database. The restriction, which is based on a proposal first floated by Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), would apply only to criminal cases.

But by midafternoon Wednesday, Nunes told reporters that the reauthorization effort was dead for now and that decisions about how to proceed were being made above my pay grade. The House Rules Committee also canceled plans to review the proposed legislation Wednesday afternoon.

It is not yet clear whether congressional leaders expect to pass the short-term extension of the surveillance program as part of a must-pass spending bill the House and Senate will vote on this week, or alongside it. Meadows told reporters late Wednesday that congressional leaders were polling the caucus to determine whether there would be enough votes to pass the measures together.

The nearly three-week extension of the government's existing authority under Section 702 would buy negotiators in the House and Senate time to work out remaining differences among their proposals.

The Senate Intelligence Committee has pushed for a much less restrictive proposal than the Houses measures, requiring the FBI only to request a ruling from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on the legality of a query for information about a known U.S. person from the Section 702 database before viewing its contents. The secret court considers any request for foreign intelligence or for a law enforcement purpose to be legal.

Nunes said late Wednesday that the House had struck "an agreement with the Senate" about the particulars of a long-term extension but that the Senate "would never sign off" on the deal  something he attributed mainly to Democrats.

He guessed that in the new year, the compromise Section 702 legislation will be very similar to the legislation he filed late Tuesday.

"There's not much left to negotiate on," he said.

Read more at PowerPost
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) announced plans to resign from the Senate earlier this month following multiple allegations that he had groped women. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

Tim Murphy is a retired congressman home in southwestern Pennsylvania. Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Tex.) voted with almost all Republicans on Tuesday in support of tax cuts, even shaking House Speaker Paul D. Ryans hand after the vote.

John Conyers Jr.s reign as dean of the House is finished, and he has been banished back to Detroit after nearly 53 years of service. Freshman Rep. Ruben Kihuen (Nev.), like every other House Democrat, voted against the Republican tax bill.

All four men were caught up this fall in the reckoning over sexual harassment and hostile workplaces that has swept the nation, facing allegations of inappropriate behavior with either staff members or constituents.

The resulting sanctions, however, have been haphazard and inconsistent.

Some lawmakers, such as Murphy (R) and Conyers (D), have been run out of office. Others, including Farenthold and Kihuen, have clung to their seats by announcing that they will not run for reelection  but will serve the remaining 13 months of their terms.



Rep. Blake Farenthold R-Texas) arrives for a meeting of House Republicans on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. Farenthold announced that he wouldnt seek reelection next year following allegations that he sexually harassed female staff members, but he will remain in his seat until January 2019. (Susan Walsh/AP)

Even congressional leaders acknowledged that there is little consistency about what zero tolerance truly means in the #MeToo moment.

Its a completely legitimate question, Ryan (R-Wis.) said Tuesday when asked about the disparity. First of all, each of these members make their own decisions on how to proceed.

Ryan and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) can apply only so much pressure. They are both capable of making resources scarce and reelection difficult for transgressing lawmakers, but that hasnt stopped some of the accused from digging in and dragging out ethics investigations before leaving office at the end of next year.

New data released on House harassment, sex discrimination claim settlements

The inconsistency has led a small cadre of supporters to call for Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) to reconsider his pending resignation. The accusations that he groped women, they have said, should not lead to the political death penalty without due process. Supporters of Conyers initially thought he was being judged according to a different standard from others amid allegations that he had propositioned women on his staff over two decades.

Its ultimately the decision of a member and their constituents. I mean, the real remedy is at election time, said Rep. Keith Ellison (Minn.), the vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee, which has aggressively demanded immediate resignations from accused Democrats in office. I cant imagine a legal way to enforce an absolute uniform standard.

Ryan and Pelosi have appointed a bipartisan group of lawmakers to craft a sweeping set of internal reforms that can update laws governing how Congress handles these cases. These lawmakers have little concern for the current inequity in how some lawmakers have seen their careers end and others have received a temporary reprieve.

Well, I think for years probably, the women have been saying, Weve suffered through a lot,  said Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.), who is helping lead the effort to craft new rules. I mean, the public wants to see that theres consequences the way there was for Matt Lauer, for members.

Women on Capitol Hill want real change this time. Will it happen?

NBC fired Lauer from the Today show after receiving what executives called credible allegations involving sexual impropriety and assault  and before those accusations had even surfaced publicly. His former co-anchors broke the news of his departure on the air.

But that sort of immediate action does not happen in Congress, where each lawmakers executive board is their constituents. All Ryan and Pelosi can really do is request an ethics investigation.

Now leadership, either Republican or Democrat, can put pressure on people to leave, and try to hold a standard in their mind that theyre going to hold to, but the House cant come up with one standard, said Rep. Cedric L. Richmond (D-La.), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Some members have ducked beneath the media frenzy and faced little scrutiny. Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (D-Fla.) is one such lawmaker. Although the Treasury paid out a settlement of at least $200,000 after a woman accused Hastings of sexual harassment, the former federal judge has largely eluded the kind of drumbeat for him to resign that others have faced. Hastings has vehemently denied the charges.

Comstock said her group is forging consensus to establish better counseling or legal representation for staffers or other alleged victims, so they can go through the process without being forced to hire a lawyer.

The group is also close to making a bold recommendation: No sexual relationships will be allowed between members of Congress and their employees.

No non-platonic relationships between members and staff and subordinates. Thats something that clearly creates a hostile workplace, Comstock said. We want to make sure that is a bright line and official policy, that people understand that  from the interns all the way up to the members.

The bipartisan group is also in full agreement to abolish the system allowing taxpayer-funded settlements of sexual harassment claims against lawmakers. Certainly everyone is in agreement on no payment for any members for any sexual harassment settlements, she said.

These payments  dubbed hush money by critics, and usually accompanied by a nondisclosure agreement  have proved to be the most politically toxic revelation of recent months.

On Tuesday, the House Administration Committee released new details of these cases, including about $174,000 in payouts for sex-related settlements in six congressional offices from 2008 through 2012. Previously, the panel released data from 2013 to 2017, which included an $84,000 payout to settle a case against Farenthold.

[Treasury paid $174,000 in tax dollars to settle House harassment claims]

Conyers settled a sexual harassment claim through his own congressional account, masquerading the payout as severance to his accuser.

Both faced calls to resign immediately, but only Conyers did. His case involved more accusers over a longer period of time, while Farenthold has been in office only seven years.

Some hope that once the tumult dies down, a new office can be established to vet these allegations, rather than the current, little-understood Office of Compliance or the Ethics Committee, which is methodical and secretive.

Id almost prefer a whole different entity, or set up an entity within Ethics, that is basically EEOC for Congress, Richmond said.

Franken in his resignation speech noted that the ethics probe would have lasted for months or years, hanging a cloud over his service during that period no matter the ultimate judgment.

While recognizing inconsistency of current events, Ryan told reporters that he was focused on setting up the right procedures for going forward that would update the laws and rules governing these cases.

So that we have standards, so that we have the right kind of transparency, he said.

Read more from Paul Kane's archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.
The traffic in the Kathmandu Valley is typical of South Asian cities, with roads clogged with cars, motorcycles weaving past buses, dust filling the air.

But there is one important difference in Nepals capital: Its quiet.

In April, Kathmandus traffic police introduced fines to stop unnecessary honking, restricting the usage of car horns to emergencies or for driving around sharp curves in the road. Within weeks, the soundscape of Kathmandu was transformed from piercing horns to something more akin to silence.

In all of South Asia, this is one of the most successful initiatives by the traffic police, said Madhu Sudan Silwal, a senior police officer who has spent most of his life ushering traffic on Kathmandus roads. This is our pride.

For many who live in Asia, to drive without honking seems an impossible feat. How else can you express frustration to fellow drivers in rush-hour traffic jams or hurry a jaywalking pedestrian out of your way without shifting your foot from accelerator to brake?

[Leaving at rush hour? Heres how far youre likely to get from Americas largest cities ]

Kathmandus horn ban is a public-policy triumph in a country that over the past two decades has experienced a royal massacre, a civil war and frequent changes of government. What makes it even more remarkable is that almost none of the citys traffic lights work; instead, 1,300 uniformed traffic police choreograph the flow of vehicles with a flourish of hand signals.

Mingmar Lama, who was chief of traffic police when the horn ban was introduced, said the rule was instituted to reduce noise pollution and because honking is an uncivilized act.

I wanted drivers in Kathmandu Valley to be civilized, he said. Now if you blow the horn, people will look at you, just like in a developed country, as if you were uncivilized.

The ban was rolled out in Kathmandu at the start of Nepals new year in April. It is now being tested in smaller cities, and soon, authorities hope, the entire country will be horn-free.

The small Himalayan nation, sandwiched between India and China, rarely gets to brag about its advancements, as its neighbors zoom ahead on various metrics, sending satellites into space or building glittering new cities and railways. The horn ban, traffic police say, is a mark of Nepali societys sophistication.

Now all the foreigners feel Nepals people are good, said Sarbendra Khanal, Kathmandus current traffic police chief.

[Heres the worst traffic hot spot in the U.S., according to a new study]

Khanal said the ban has led to less noise pollution and less speeding on roads, as drivers are more cautious because they cant use their horns.

Initially, traffic police said, the ban met with some resistance. Some accused the authorities of using it as a moneymaking scheme; others simply found it too hard to shake the habit of honking. Public awareness campaigns and fines of around $4.80 brought drivers into line. For many Nepali drivers, the fine is significant  nearly a third of a taxi drivers daily earnings.

The transformation has been impressive, said Bhushan Tuladhar, chairman of the Kathmandu-based Environment and Public Health Organization. The streets are more pleasant now, he said. Using the horn was just accepted before, even though it was irritating to everyone. Now if you honk, people look at you and say, What the hell are you doing? 

The ban, Tuladhar said, required little more than good enforcement. And it brought about a huge behavioral change in the city.

Before, your hand just automatically went to the horn, he said. You pressed the horn before you hit the brakes.

[A year after Nepals devastating earthquake, Everest climbers return]

At first individually incentivized with a 15 percent cut of the fines, traffic police sprang into action. Since the ban was adopted, police have issued 16,759 fines, although the number issued per month dropped from 3,722 in the first month to 1,422 in the most recent Nepali calendar month. (Nepal does not use the Western calendar.)

The bans success has prompted new enthusiasm for other initiatives. Khanal said the valleys traffic police also are working on programs to fix Kathmandus streetlights, ensure that all school buses are painted yellow, reduce drunken driving and introduce car-free zones in the city.

When I brief traffic officers, he said, I tell them, You are here to serve the nation. This is the most interesting, most challenging job.

Drivers say the roads are safer and friendlier without obnoxious honkers. It makes our job fun, said Krishna Manandhar, a taxi driver in the city. It was totally different before.

Pradeep Bashyal contributed to this report.

Read more

Nepal is in crisis, and it has nothing to do with the earthquake

As Nepal votes, China and India are watching closely

Why Sherpas from a remote village walked for hours to vote in landmark Nepal election

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
Arabic-speaking demonstrators protest in Berlin against the recent announcemment by President Trump recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Protests against Israel, sparked by President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as its capital, are once again forcing Germany to weigh the value of free speech against the burden of its Nazi past.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators have been burning Israeli flags in the center of Berlin while chanting anti-Semitic slogans threatening violence against Israelis. One protest Friday took place only 100 yards from the citys somber Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a reminder of Germanys responsibility for the worst mass murder in history.

A few thousand protesters have taken part so far. Except for several arrests, German authorities have generally refrained from interfering, even as top officials said they were ashamed by the evil face of anti-Semitism on display.

But Deidre Berger, the director of the American Jewish Committee in Berlin, said she believes that flag burning can incite violence against Jews and that Germanys response does not adequately deter such anti-Semitism.

Of course, freedom of expression needs to be respected  but if in the heart of Berlin flags [with the Star of David] are being burned, surely the police should intervene. Its incitement even if it may not be a direct violation of existing law, Berger said.

She argues, further, that Berlin authorities should hire more Arabic translators to monitor protest speeches.

That raises another difficult issue: Although anti-Semitism is not hard to find among German right-wingers, the protests have sparked concerns among some politicians and Jewish associations that Germany may be failing at preventing the proliferation of prejudices, especially among refugees.

What, in other words, should Germany do about the attitudes of Middle Eastern immigrants who dont share a sense of responsibility for the Holocaust?

In a speech on Friday, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier reminded refugees and other migrants of the need for tolerance in a country that shoulders such a historical burden. This responsibility does not recognize caveats for migrant backgrounds and no exceptions for newcomers, Steinmeier said.

A recent survey commissioned by AJC Berlin found widespread anti-Semitism among refugees. Officials have also expressed concerns over the influence of the Turkish government on the almost 2 million German Turks, even though many of them have lived here for decades, especially after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the recognition of Jerusalem a red line for the Muslim world and threatened last week to cut ties with Israel.

Research conducted by AJC Berlin has found that educational factors may have contributed to recent escalations at anti-Israel protests, too. Some teachers here, Berger said, were reluctant to discuss Israel and anti-Semitism in classes with a disproportionate share of second- or third-generation migrants, fearing a student backlash.

Anti-Semitic crimes here have slightly increased since the 2015 influx of refugees into the country, even though right-wing extremists are still responsible in the vast majority of cases. Far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) politician Bjorn Hocke provoked outrage when he called Berlins Holocaust memorial a memorial of shame, and other members of the party have also recently been accused of fueling hatred.

Flag burnings as a sign of protest may be common elsewhere, but they are seen as especially problematic in Germany. The country has had strict hate-speech laws since the end of World War II; it is illegal, for example, to deny the Holocaust. At the same time, Germany since 1945 has fully committed itself to democratic values, including, within limits, freedom of speech.

Burning a country's flag is only a crime in Germany if it's an official banner  for instance, if it belongs to an embassy. If flags were bought privately or made by the protesters themselves, authorities are unable to intervene under existing laws unless they specifically prohibited the burning of items in advance of a protest.

Germans are debating whether the burning of the Israeli flag is inherently anti-Semitic, and whether Germanys existing laws against hate speech allow anti-Israel extremists too much leeway.

Protest organizers have in the past defended the burning of Israeli flags as being directed against the countrys politics, and not against Jews in general.

Lawmakers from various parties are nonetheless demanding tougher measures.

It is Germanys task to protect Israel. We are obliged to guarantee that Holocaust survivors have at least one place they can always go, Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, a Social Democrat, said Dec. 14.

We have been watching this unfold for too long already, Jens Spahn, a senior member of Chancellor Angela Merkels Christian Democratic Union, who supports tougher laws, told the newspaper Die Welt.

However, some Social Democrats and members of other parties say that existing laws need to be enforced but not changed, and emphasize the importance of upholding free speech.

Opponents of tougher laws argue that authorities already have means to stop the escalation of protests. After officials explicitly banned the burning of flags at a demonstration in front of Berlins central railway station last week, protesters refrained from doing so even as they continued to voice strong attacks against Israel.

In a video of the event, an unnamed speaker can be heard saying into a microphone as hundreds listened: "We are here on the streets to protest against the occupying power Israel, which should disappear once and for all."

Berger, of the AJC, emphasized that longer-term approaches apart from tougher protest laws are needed.

Weve heard again and again that anti-Semitism wont be tolerated  but what really matters are actions, said Levi Salomon, spokesman for Berlins Jewish Forum.

Read more

U.S. allies reject Trumps Jerusalem pronouncement as very dangerous and catastrophic

Hamas has called for a new intifada against Israel. Heres what that means.

Hezbollah rally attracts thousands as Trumps Jerusalem fallout continues

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
As voters in Catalonia ready themselves for Thursday's election results, they will not be alone in anxious anticipation. Nobody has bet more on the outcome than Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who has urged Catalans to step back from what he sees as an illegal, reckless insistence on independence.

The ballot comes less than two months after Catalans voted to secede from Spain and unilaterally declared independence, prompting Rajoy to dissolve the rebellious regional Parliament and call for early elections  in the hope that voters would sweep aside the secessionist politicians.

But the last opinion polls taken before the parliamentary election show support for the pro-independence and unionist parties evenly divided. It is possible that Thursdays election will resolve nothing and that Rajoy and the central government will be left with a divided, restive Catalonia.

[In the boxing ring and on the streets, Catalonia is split ahead of latest vote]

In another possible blow, the last pre-election surveys suggest that Rajoys Popular Party could lose seats in the regional election  even after the prime minister made a personal appeal for a massive turnout among his supporters.

Many voters who oppose a breakaway Catalonia appear ready to punch the ballot for the centrist, reformist Ciudadanos, or Citizens, party.

Ines Arrimadas, the leader of the Citizens party in Catalonia, declared, If we govern, our priority is going to be social policies, not the secessionist process.

She said the people want to move on. The 2 million people in Catalonia who voted for independence in October might disagree.

In an interview with the news outlet El Pais, Arrimadas warned that if separatists win, "everything will repeat itself like a deja-vu" and that Madrid and Barcelona will again find themselves locked in confrontation, with secessionist leaders unable to take on their posts, because they are in jail or in exile.

If Rajoy's surrogates slip further in Catalonia, one reason might be a corruption scandal swirling around his party in a long-running case targeting dozens of business and political figures in a kickbacks-for-contracts scheme.

It is not only the Spanish government that is chewing its nails. Most of Spain and its powerful business groups oppose an independent Catalonia.

European leaders, too, have made clear they would not recognize an independent Catalonia and want the matter settled and the situation returned to constitutional normalcy, as Rajoy puts it.





[Catalan separatists counted on support from the E.U. But they got the cold shoulder.]

In the aftermath of the chaotic independence referendum  judged illegal by the constitutional courts  more than 2,000 companies have decided to uproot their fiscal headquarters from Catalonia to seek stability elsewhere in Spain.

Though the issue of Catalonia's future stirs deep passions in the region, most people in Madrid previously saw the Catalan question as a marginal issue.

No one in Madrid nor in the rest of Spain would have predicted a few years ago that this institutional crisis would play out this way, said Joan Navarro, Madrid-based partner at the consulting firm Llorente & Cuenca. But today, we Spaniards are watching with moderation and hope that this conflict is solved as quickly as possible.

The business community is watching closely what is happening in Catalonia, Navarro said, because everything suggests that the election results tomorrow lead to two scenarios  that of instability or that of strengthening the rhythm of economic growth.

[Analysis: Catalonias latest election may have no winners]

If the gravity of the Catalan issue caught Madrids citizens by surprise, it also stirred their sense of solidarity with the people of Catalonia who want to remain in Spain  who call themselves the silent majority.

I was posting images and stories of Catalans who spoke out against independence on my Facebook, said Madrid resident Nuria Stisin. I was proud of them for standing up. I thought it was very brave of them because it wasnt easy.

The pro-independence narrative in Catalonia often paints those who want to remain in Spain as fascists or far right, nostalgic for life under the dictator Francisco Franco. But in Madrid the support for union crosses political lines.

There are plenty of people on the left in Spain who are strongly pro-union, who see whats happening in Catalonia as a manipulation, said Ken Dubin, a political scientist at IE Business School in Madrid.

Some in Madrid hope the election is a way to peacefully end the bitterness stirred between secessionists and unionists, but analysts predict that will not be easy.

Even though for years weve known that this was a serious concern, when you looked at polls up through September, almost nobody outside of Catalonia seemed worried about it, said Lluis Orriols, a sociology professor at Madrids Carlos III University. Whats more, they saw it as a nuisance. That has changed.

The Spanish flags are still flying, Orriols said, but the Catalan question continues to generate concern among the Spanish population, which now sees it as one of the main challenges in the country.

Booth reported from Barcelona.

Read more

How Catalonias independence went from dream to defeat in just a month

Meet the two jailed activists behind Catalonias independence movement

Catalonias independence vote: What you need to know

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
In an unprecedented move, Belgium appointed a female Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, which has long been criticized for violating womens rights.

The Belgian media reported that Dominique Mineur, who is performing her duties in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as envoy, would move to Riyadh in 2018 summer.

Probably the ban on driving was often cited as the most absurd constraint on women. The ban was lifted recently in a push by the young Crown Pricne, Mohamed Bin Salman, to modernize the Saudi society.

However women still need to cover their hair and have the consent of a male guardian to travel abroad and take other key decisions that affect their lives.

Yekaterina Majering Mikadze, a Georgian diplomat appointed in 2010, previously had responsibility for Saudi Arabia, but was based in Kuwait and covered a number of neighboring countries. When Georgia later opened an embassy specifically for Saudi Arabia in 2015, it appointed a male ambassador in Riyadh.
European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said the decision to trigger proceedings against Poland that could lead to sanctions had been made with a heavy heart. (Virginia Mayo/AP)

The European Union's executive arm triggered unprecedented disciplinary action against member state Poland on Wednesday, after months of tensions over what the E.U. calls a "clear risk of a serious breach of the rule of law" in the country.

But in an indication that Poland remains unwilling to back down, its president soon afterward signed into law sweeping changes to the judicial system that are at the core of the dispute.

The European Commission's decision to initiate a process under the E.U.'s Article 7 does not result in any immediate sanctions, but it could ultimately strip Poland of its E.U. voting rights  a penalty that some describe as the "nuclear option." Such a move, however, would require the unanimous support of other bloc members, and Hungary's E.U.-skeptical government has pledged to block it.

Wednesdays decision highlighted the growing strain between E.U. headquarters in Brussels and Warsaw, where an E.U.-friendly Polish government was replaced by a right-wing one in 2015.

Poland, the birthplace of Eastern Europes pro-democracy movement in the 1980s, has long been praised as a role model for its transition from communism. A vast majority of Poles still support the E.U., and Poland remains one of the largest beneficiaries of E.U. funds. But the ruling Law and Justice party has been at odds with several of the blocs recent decisions, which it considers too liberal.

[In Poland, a window on what happens when populists come to power]

The blocs action Wednesday stemmed from Polands controversial changes to its justice system. The measures were widely criticized elsewhere in Europe as an affront to the rule of law and a threat to democracy.

Some fear that the E.U. action against Poland could undermine public support for the bloc, playing right into the hands of the government.

But the European Commissions deputy head, Frans Timmermans, said that the dispute centers on issues critical to the future of the E.U. and that the Article 7 decision was made with a heavy heart.

"This is not just about Poland, it is about the EU as a whole," he wrote on Twitter.

If you put an end to, or limit, the separation of powers, you break down the rule of law, and that means breaking down the smooth functioning of the union as a whole, Timmermans said.

Poland has three months to address the E.U. concerns, but it has shown little willingness to make concessions. On Wednesday, the government indicated that it considered the E.U. decision unfair, calling it "essentially political, not a legal one.

"It puts an unnecessary burden on our mutual relations, which may render it difficult to build understanding and mutual trust between Warsaw and Brussels," the Polish Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Poland stands ready to defend the legality of its reforms at the Court of Justice of the European Union, it continued.

Polands ruling party has repeatedly clashed with E.U. officials in recent months, notably over proposed press freedom restrictions and refugee resettlement plans.

Among the changes to the judicial system that were considered was a measure that would allow the government to remove Supreme Court justices and another that would give it effective control over judicial appointments.

In an unexpected move only days after Parliament approved both the measures, President Andrzej Duda rejected them, though he allowed two other changes to proceed  one of which gives the government more control over local courts.

Poland needs a reform, but a wise one, he said in a statement at the time. I am aware I will be criticized, probably by both sides of the political scene, but I make my decision with great responsibility for the Polish state.

Dudas endorsement Wednesday of modified versions of the proposals he earlier rejected clears the path for a sweeping overhaul of Polands justice system.

Read more:

Polands long march toward democracy is threatened by quick steps away from it

Polands president unexpectedly intervenes to protect independent courts

Polands autocratic counterrevolution draws nearer

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
President Trump suggested Wednesday that billions of dollars in U.S. foreign aid could hinge on how countries vote on a U.N. resolution condemning his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital and move the U.S. Embassy there.

In a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Trump said he would be watching those votes in the General Assembly when it meets in emergency session Thursday on the U.S. decision.

They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us, he said. Well, well be watching those votes. Let them vote against us; well save a lot. We dont care.

But this isnt like it used to be, where they could vote against you, and then you pay them hundreds of millions of dollars and nobody knows what theyre doing.

He ended by asserting, Were not going to be taken advantage of any longer.



Palestinians place on the ground a representation of a U.S. flag during a protest Dec. 20, 2017, against President Trumps decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. (Mussa Qawasma/Reuters) )

Trumps remarks came after Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, warned on Twitter that the US will be taking names of countries that support the resolution. And in a letter she sent to more than 180 U.N. ambassadors of member nations, she said she would report back to Trump on how they voted.

We will take note of each and every vote on this issue, she wrote.

The hardball tactics used by Trump and Haley further raised tensions over the U.S. announcement on Dec. 6 to unilaterally recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital and begin preparations to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv. Israel, which captured the eastern part of the city in the 1967 war and annexed it, considers the city its undivided, eternal capital. The Palestinians want to make East Jerusalem the capital of a future Palestinian state, and all countries that have diplomatic representation in Israel maintain their diplomatic missions in Tel Aviv to avoid taking a stand on the Jerusalem issue.

[Trumps plan to move U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem angers Middle East Christians]

On Monday, the United States exercised its Security Council veto to block a resolution on the council declaring Jerusalem a final-status issue to be determined through negotiations and urging countries not to relocate their embassies in the city. All 14 other countries on the council, including U.S. allies Britain and France, supported the resolution.

Now, the nonbinding resolution is going to the General Assembly, where the United States does not have veto power.

In her letter to the U.N. ambassadors, Haley said the United States is not asking other countries to move their embassies to the city, though we think it would be appropriate.

We are simply asking that you acknowledge the historical friendship, partnership and support we have extended and respect our decision about our own embassy, she wrote.

Neither Trump nor Haley mentioned any specific countries that could be affected. Apart from Israel, only two other countries receive more than $1 billion in annual aid  Egypt and Jordan.

It is not clear whether the tough talk will swing any votes.

A spokesman for Haley said she had received positive feedback on her letter.

Ambassador Haley has received numerous replies from ambassadors who are appropriately concerned about maintaining their friendships with the United States, he said.

But the suggestion that U.S. aid would be linked to the U.N. vote was swiftly criticized by Turkey, which accused the White House of further isolating itself through its threats.

We expect strong support at the U.N. vote, but we see that the United States, which was left alone, is now resorting to threats, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said before leaving Istanbul for New York. No honorable, dignified country would bow down to this pressure.

David Makovsky, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said the principle of taking U.N. votes into account in bilateral relations is sound, but he questioned whether the emotional issue of Jerusalem should be the place to take a first stand.

Do you start a new policy on a vote that has the most religious resonance in the Muslim world? he said. Im not against the principle. But you have to apply it more with a scalpel than a sledgehammer, given the issue at stake.

Aaron David Miller, a Middle East analyst at the Wilson Center, said Trumps rhetoric appeals to his supporters.

[Trump has for months been determined to move U.S. embassy to Jerusalem]

The administration is doubling down after the Jerusalem decision, playing on the presidents aversion to the U.N., to allies that dont pay up and stand up in support of Washington, and on long-standing commitments to have Israels back at the U.N., Miller said. Being tough in New York plays well with the base and squares with the presidents tough-guy image.

This is not the first time Haley has vowed to note which countries vote with the United States at the United Nations. On her first day, she told reporters that for those who dont have our back, were taking names.
When you have a long-term illness like multiple sclerosis, you may have moments when you get stressed out. There are many ways to keep those feelings under control, including relaxation methods and exercise. To help manage your emotions, it helps to learn the warning signs that you are under too much stress.

How to Know When Stress Is Taking its Toll Your body sends out physical, emotional, and behavioral warning signs of stress: Some of the emotional signals you may notice are that you: Get angry

Find it hard to concentrate

Feel worried

Become sad

Have frequent mood swings Physical warning signs include: Stooped posture

Sweaty palms

Fatigue

Weight gain or loss You'll know you're starting to show behavioral warning signs when you: Overreact

Act on impulse

Use alcohol or drugs

Withdraw from your relationships

What Can I Do to Reduce Stress? Part of your strategy to cut stress is to keep a positive attitude and accept that there are some events that you can't control. Also try to follow these tips: Assert your feelings, opinions, or beliefs instead of becoming angry, combative, or passive. Learn relaxation techniques.

Exercise regularly.

Eat well-balanced meals.

Get enough sleep and rest.

Don't rely on alcohol or drugs to end stress.
South Africas ruling ANC party has elected businessman and former political stalwart Cyril Ramaphosa as the partys leader and likely the next president of South Africa.

President Jacob Zumas Vice-President Ramaphosa beat Dlamini-Zuma by about 200 votes and secured the presidency by a slight margin.

The business mogul and former trade union leader was supported by ANC chairperson Baleka Mbete who expressed her backing for him late on Saturday night.

Ramaphosa, viewed positively by investors and markets for his potential as a reformer, will become the countrys next president if the ANC wins South Africas general elections in 2019.

The ANC has received a majority of the vote in general elections since the end of apartheid in 1994.

In the 1980s, the 65-year-old became an active member of the National Union of Mineworkers, serving as its secretary general for nine years.

He was elected secretary general of the ANC in 1991, and in the years that followed was a key negotiator on behalf of the party during South Africas transition to democracy.

The ANC veteran was elected by Jacob Zuma to serve as deputy president in 2014.

Zumas presidency, tainted by graft accusations, has tarnished the image of ANC, and raised the prospect of splits. South Africas sovereign dollar bonds extended gains after Ramaphosas election.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 19/12/2017 (1794 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Friends of Shoal Lake 40 gathered in front of the Manitoba legislature in chilly temperatures Tuesday to ensure the off-reserve portion of Freedom Road will be built as planned.

Its freezing, but we are from Winnipeg, so I dont think the cold should stop us from going out and supporting this really important conversation, said Ashlyn Haglund, one of the participants.

We shouldnt have to be talking anymore. We should just be building the road, she said, voicing her concern as to why it has taken years for the road to be built.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS A Tuesday protest supports Shoal Lake 40 First Nations contention that a road off the reserve is necessary to fix an ongoing crisis.

In 1917, the Shoal Lake First Nation was relocated to a man-made island following construction of an aqueduct that supplies fresh water to Winnipeg.

This isolation cut off the reserve from essential health services, such as safe water. In 2011, Shoal Lake 40 proposed to build an all-weather access road  Freedom Road. This December, the on-reserve part of the road was completed early and under budget. Tuesday, the three levels of government met for the annual progress report.

Now that the on-reserve portion is completed, the Friends of Shoal Lake 40 wanted to make sure the off-reserve portion will begin construction as planned.

Jeff Friesen, chair of the Friends of Shoal Lake 40, said the First Nation cannot afford any more delays.

Every day, we are putting people at risk by not completing this road, he said. Due to the reserve being isolated, people have to walk on the ice to cross over.

(If they need) groceries, if they need medical attention, they have to (walk on ice), and in these kinds of seasons, we are putting people at risk.

The isolation has also prevented infrastructure from being built on the reserve and resulted in the loss of economic opportunities for the people there.

Shoal Lake 40 Chief Erwin Redsky said it is important for his community to have the road finished as soon as possible because its an ongoing crisis that needs to be fixed.

He said at the progress meeting on Tuesday that he was told the project will be open for bidding as part of the Manitoba infrastructure tendering process in January. Once the tender is awarded, Redsky said he is hoping construction will start shortly after.

Hopefully in early 2019, (the project) will be completed, he said.

Redsky said the past couple of years have been historic, and this next step will be completing the final piece of the puzzle.

We are very excited, he said. We are going to be reconnected to Canada.

nadiah.sakurai@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 19/12/2017 (1794 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Where is Winnipegs Christmas spirit?

Local charities operating holiday campaigns to help the hungry are finding their donation stockings emptier so far this season.

Winnipeg Harvest and the Salvation Army are reporting large drops in donations, the Christmas Cheer Board says it is running a bit behind but it is still positive, and Siloam Mission is praying the donations it still needs come during the next two weeks.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Salvation Army volunteer Roy Dueck stands with a donation kettle at Polo Park shopping centre Tuesday. The charitable organization is reporting a big drop in cash donations this year.

Kate Brenner, Winnipeg Harvests executive director and a longtime employee with the organization, admits her first Christmas campaign since the retirement of former leader David Northcott earlier this year is proving to be a difficult one.

In all the years Ive been here, Ive never seen this happen, Brenner said Tuesday. One-third of our annual donations come in during December, and were way behind. We usually raise $1 million, and were just over $370,000 at this point.

Its pretty significant.

Maj. Rob Kerr, the Salvation Armys divisional secretary for public relations with the Prairie division, said donations put into the local Christmas Kettle campaign were at $185,000 on Monday.

Our goal is $375,000, and we have increased a lot since Monday when we let people know, Kerr said. Were at $225,000 now (Tuesday), but we still have a long way to go.

The final day of our campaign is Saturday, but it is very encouraging what we have received so far.

Kerr said the donations all have a local impact  especially in the geographic area where the kettle itself is located.

If the kettle is in St. James, it goes to a St. James after-school program If it is in St. Vital, it helps the Barbara Mitchell (Family Resource) Centre or our south location If in the centre of the city, it helps our work-readiness program, which helps people prepare resumes or do a job interview, he said.

It also helps fill food hampers and food assistance at Christmas, but its not just Christmas. These donations help year-round.

Both Brenner and Kerr say the recent downturn in donations isnt just a Winnipeg phenomenon  its happening across the country.

Brenner said she first received the heads-up at a conference with Food Banks Canada in September.

The major food banks came asking me if Id seen the softening in food and cash donations that they had, she said. I said no we havent.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Winnipeg Harvests Kate Brenner calls the drop in cash donations this month pretty significant.

We were fine in September, October, and November  we were even a bit ahead  but then December came, Brenner said. Were still seeing donations from our major supporters and donors, but it is the $10, $20, and $50 donations from individuals that have seen a huge drop. Thats the difference.

Kerr said Salvation Army kettles across the country have experienced a steep decline in donations  the annual Christmas campaign has raised more than $12 million, but thats $9 million below its goal.

Kai Madsen, the Christmas Cheer Boards head elf, said its hard to tell where the organization is at with donations because many are raised by outside groups. The board expects to send out more than 18,000 hampers this season.

Madsen said, so far, the Cheer Board itself has received $276,000 in donations, compared to last years $280,000 at this time. Its goal is $850,000.

All I can say is Im hoping what has happened in the past will continue this year, he said. Im not worried, but if you wrote a cheque last year, please send another one this year  we are counting on it.

Siloam Mission spokeswoman Kathi Neal said the holiday season is essential to the missions annual budget because it raises 30 per cent of its annual revenue during the month of December.

We work hard all year, but the next two weeks are crucial, Neal said. Manitoba is the best philanthropic province in the country. We are optimistic, but we need our donors to come through for the rest of the month.

These last two weeks are critical.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 20/12/2017 (1793 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Late in November, Russian President Vladimir Putin met the leaders of Iran, Turkey and Syria, allegedly to discuss a final peace settlement in the Syrian civil war. On Dec. 11, he was in Syria to announce a partial withdrawal of Russian troops from the country because they had inflicted a total rout on the jihadist militants of Islamic State. Is the war really over?

Islamic State, formerly known as IS, no longer exists as an actual, physical state in either Iraq or Syria. Last summer, it lost Mosul, Iraqs second city, to Iraqi troops backed by U.S. air power. Over the past four months it has lost all of eastern Syria, including its capital Raqqa, to a variety of forces, including Kurdish, Syrian and Iranian troops and American and Russian bombers.

Just one year ago, Islamic State controlled a territory the size of Belgium and the Netherlands, with seven or eight million people. Now it is homeless, and even its propaganda output has dropped by 90 per cent as its video-production facilities were overrun one after the other. Its credibility among the faithful has taken an even bigger hit.

Mikhail Klimentyev / Pool / The Associated Press Files Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses the troops at the Hemeimeem air base in Syria on Dec. 11 after announcing a partial withdrawal of troops.

When the IS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared the re-founding of the traditional Islamic Caliphate in the territory controlled by IS in mid-2014, he was claiming, quite specifically, that the enterprise had Gods blessing. So, its deeply embarrassing when it loses all that territory again within 30 months to the local enemies of God and their infidel foreign allies.

The standard tactic of prophets, when their prophecies dont come true, is to say that God is just testing peoples faith. We are already seeing some of this in IS propaganda, but the people who watch it are not complete fools. If they are fanatics interested in waging jihad, they will not abandon the idea, but they will look for some other organization that has a better claim to divine support.

That alternative organization, at least in Syria, is al-Qaida. It still has credibility because it planned and carried out the 9/11 attacks, and its Syrian branch still controls most of the province of Idlib in northwestern Syria. It was never as interested as Islamic State in attracting foreign volunteers, but if youre a Syrian jihadi, its now the destination of choice.

The Syria branch of al-Qaida was known as al-Nusra for a long time, but in the past two years it has changed its name approximately every second weekend in a bid to disguise its origins. It wasnt trying to hide its loyalties from potential recruits. It was pretending to be a moderate rebel group so that it wouldnt get hit by American bombers.

This didnt actually fool the Americans, of course, but it did allow them to denounce the Russians  who were bombing al-Nusra/al-Qaida  as evil allies of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, who were killing good rebels. Oh, and killing innocent civilians, too, as if American bombs never hit civilians.

Al-Nusra was the Russians main target because it was a bigger threat to the survival of the Syrian government than Islamic State. It was al-Nusra, for example, that controlled the eastern half of Aleppo, Syrias biggest city, until Assads forces took it back a year ago with the help of Russian bombers and artillery.

Remember how the western media covered the end of that siege? They never mentioned al-Qaida or al-Nusra, and you never saw a fighter in the video clips coming out of east Aleppo. They just ran the footage of suffering civilians without any further comment or context.

It was hard to tell whether Barack Obamas State Department was being delusional or merely hypocritical, but it insisted that there was a third force of non-jihadi Syrians that was also trying to overthrow Assad. The U.S. was supporting them, and the wicked Russians were trying to kill them. But the third force didnt exist: it had been swallowed up by al-Nusra years ago.

So the U.S. bombed Islamic State and nobody else, while the Russians only did that occasionally. Instead, they concentrated on bombing al-Nusra, which held territory much closer to Syrias big cities. And Washington scored propaganda points by claiming that the Russians were bombing innocent civilians and good rebels.

Now, with Islamic State defeated, the U.S. forces will probably leave eastern Syria. (They have no legal status there, since they were never invited in by the Syrian government or authorized to intervene by the United Nations.) But most of the Russian forces will stay, because it will probably take another year to destroy al-Nusra in Idlib province. So why was Putin in Syria to announce a Russian troop withdrawal? Because theres a presidential election coming up in Russia, and he wanted to declare a victory and bring some troops home now. But the war goes on.

Gwynne Dyer is an independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 20/12/2017 (1793 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Last week, city council approved the 2018 budget, albeit with some heated debate, including a motion to raise the municipal business tax by $10 million, or 15 per cent. While the motion was defeated, it underscores an all-too-familiar refrain from a small minority on council: small business is a cash cow that can be endlessly milked.

It takes major sacrifices to start a business. The vast majority of startup owners dont draw a paycheque in their first few years. Over 80 per cent of startups are personally financed to get up and running. That typically involves putting not only retirement savings, but often family savings into the business. It can even include re-mortgaging the family home. In the early years, credit cards are sometimes maxed in order to meet the next payroll, or to just keep the lights on.

Once its started, running a business is extremely difficult. Across Canada, 30 per cent of all business owners are forced to shut their doors in their first two years of operation. In the first five years, almost half of all businesses fail. Other research has shown only a third of all businesses last a decade.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Mayor Brian Bowman

Those arent easy kitchen-table conversations to have. Could you ask your loved ones to put the family savings into a venture which, statistically, has an almost 50 per cent chance of failing within five years?

Despite these risks, small business owners power our economy. There are over 23,000 businesses with employees in Winnipeg; nearly 70 per cent have fewer than 10 employees, while 94 per cent of our businesses have fewer than 50. Across Manitoba, over 70 per cent of all private-sector employment comes from small business. From 2005 to 2015, small business accounted for almost 90 per cent of the 1.2 million private-sector jobs created across Canada.

Without these entrepreneurs and risk-takers, we wouldnt have a functioning economy. We couldnt support our communities, our families and our quality of life.

Despite this, some elected officials seem intent on exploring new ways to stymie and penalize small business. The federal governments proposed business- tax changes are a case in point.

Business owners pay more than their fair share of municipal taxes toward roads, parks, police and fire, transit, water and waste, and more. Businesses arent freeloaders; on top of the jobs they create, they are often among the first to help out local charity campaigns and causes.

A recent C.D. Howe report indicates Winnipeg has the highest municipal business tax burden of any large city west of Montreal. A recent Altus Group report shows our commercial property owners pay twice as much in property taxes as residents do. The same report shows Winnipeg was the only city outside of Alberta to see commercial property taxes increase year over year.

We are the only major city in Canada with a municipal business tax, a tax that does not consider ones ability to pay. That tax raises about $60 million a year for Winnipeg. This was the same tax four councillors were looking to increase by almost 15 per cent. Imagine if your property taxes rose 15 per cent.

Perhaps this is why more Canadians are choosing to forego starting their own businesses. In 1984, the entry rate of new firms as compared to existing firms was at 24 per cent across Canada. Since then, that rate has declined by more than half. In Manitoba alone, the number of annual business starts has declined by almost 12 per cent from 2008 to 2015. Fewer small businesses means fewer jobs, less income and a shrinking tax base to pay for the services we all enjoy.

In the words of the World Bank, Innovation and entrepreneurship are recognized as key building blocks of competitive and dynamic economies. Countries and regions with vibrant innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems tend to witness higher productivity rates, leading to increased economic growth and more robust job creation, the main pathways through which the poor can escape poverty. As we all rush to get our holiday shopping done, the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce encourages you to shop local, and to take the time to thank our local entrepreneurs. Do not, like some indifferent to the plight of small business, take it for granted that these shops will always be there. Nothing is guaranteed in their world, and they could be gone tomorrow, at the cost of our community and the prosperity of hundreds of thousands of Winnipeggers.

Loren Remillard is president and CEO of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, and a proud son of two former small business owners.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 20/12/2017 (1793 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The rules are imposed on a tattered calendar hanging behind my desk in the Winnipeg Free Press newsroom: one dog per day, two days a week, with a nominal donation to the Miracle on Mountain campaign.

Endearing dog names such as Spirit, Precious and Dash, and a few refined ones such as Walter, Oslo and Oliver, are scribbled on each page of the calendar, beginning in the month of March.

That was when the Free Press newsroom on Mountain Avenue became a dog-friendly workplace  and since then, many reporters and editors have seen the positive impact mans best friend can have on a work environment.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Walter, swapping his traditional office tie for something more festive, lends a hand, er, paw, to the Free Presss Miracle on Mountain campaign, which supports the Christmas Cheer Board.

From where I sit, Ive caught sight of widening smiles on my hardworking co-workers faces as Oliver, my territorial but loving one-year-old Lhasa Apso cross, clumsily chases a ball across the newsroom. Ive heard boisterous laughter from tireless colleagues as associate editor Wendy Sawatzkys short-haired, laid-back mutt Walter saunters into the office wearing a red silk tie around his brawny neck.

Ive secretly observed colleagues snuggle up beside reporter Alexandra Pauls gorgeous, snoozing Karelian Bear Dog, Spirit, and others get down on their hands and knees when they needed a hug from editor Scott Gibbons quick-moving Havanese, Oslo.

Ive delighted in the camaraderie while caring for cannabis reporter Solomon Israels 13-year-old, toothless toy poodle Precious when she couldnt be left alone. And Im always overjoyed to join in the quiet, friendly chatter with young hires and veteran reporters alike who simply want to share a few stories and memories about their own beloved pets.

Im certain its not just me who enjoys the quiet companionship of the newsroom dogs. It seems everyone, including the few non-dog-loving types, take some pleasure in this heartwarming privilege, a unique workplace perk that few businesses embrace.

Its also one that, along with the Free Press newsrooms annual book sale plus payroll deductions from staff building wide, helped raise almost $7,000 for the Miracle on Mountain.

Dogs and books are just two ways our newsroom family have looked to support the Christmas Cheer Board by way of donations.

What can your workplace family do to make a difference? What clever ideas can bring your office together and also raise money for those less fortunate?

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Walter gets into the spirit of the holidays, helping out with the Miracle on Mountain charity at the Winnipeg Free Press.

Whatever your pet project might be, I know the Christmas Cheer Board will be more than appreciative.

Please make cheques out to the Miracle on Mountain. The mailing address for cheques is new this year, so a quick reminder: Miracle on Mountain, c/o 1355 Mountain Ave., Winnipeg, MB, R2X 3B6.

leesa.dahl@freepress.mb.ca
Morocco will have to wait until 2018 to hear the final verdict on its application for ECOWAS membership.

A committee, made up of the five heads of state of Nigeria, Togo, Cote dIvoire, Ghana and Guinea Conakry, will study Moroccos membership to the ECOWAS, stated a communique sanctioning the works of the 52nd ordinary summit of the regional organization, held in Abuja over the weekend.

It was unclear whether technical considerations would be posited or whether both political and strategic aspects will prevail.

An impact study on the Kingdoms membership was commissioned earlier this year and ECOWAS teams travelled to Morocco to carry it out. The study report was released on December 7, just a week before the summit.

At the conclusion of the Abuja summit, the regional bloc decided to set up a committee composed of the Togolese, Ivorian, Ghanaian, Guinean and Nigerian presidents to adopt the terms of reference and oversee the in-depth study of the implications of Moroccos full membership, as well as the status of Tunisia as an observer and Mauritania as an associate member.

The study highlighted that from a legal standpoint, there is no provision allowing Moroccos accession, but nothing prevents it either.

In terms of security, Moroccos accession would be a value added for the region; and from a commercial point of view, the Kingdom is the second non-ECOWAS African investment partner in the region, after South Africa.

Actually, Morocco is no stranger to the zone given the economic and political links it already has with the member states.

In this regard, it should be recalled that, with the exception of Togo, Mohammed VI visited the other four countries making up the membership steering committee before Morocco submitted its membership application. The Monarch has even visited Cote dIvoire twice in 2017, in February and November.

It is up to the Committee of Five Heads of State to set the deadlines for Moroccos membership.
April 1, 2017, marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of the celebrated Romanian pianist and composer Dinu Lipatti, who died at the young age of 33 in 1950. Despite his premature death, Lipatti left a legacy of outstanding recordings of some of the major works of classical music, and is justly considered one of the greatest musicians of the twentieth century.

Lipatti was born into a musical family of upper-middle-class Greek origin in the Romanian capital of Bucharest. The wealth of his parents, and their connections with Romanias leading artists and musicians of the inter-war period, provided additional opportunities for Lipatti to realize his musical talent.

His father, a jurist and diplomat, was a talented amateur violinist acquainted with Romanias best-known composer of that time, George Enescu, who would become Dinus godfather. Lipattis mother studied natural sciences and literature at the university.

Dinu Lipatti made his first public musical appearance at the tender age of four. He went on to study under composer Mihail Jora (until 1928), reputedly one of the best teachers in Romania at that time. Lipatti also started composing and received early recognition for a piano sonata and violin sonata in 1932 and 1933.

In 1933, he participated in an international piano competition in Vienna. In 1934, Lipatti moved to Paris. The city was at this point one of Europes musical centers, a status temporarily elevated due to the rise of the Nazis. Hitlers coming to power in 1933 drove many of Germanys most outstanding musical, intellectual and artistic figures into exile, with many of them initially fleeing to France.

Lipatti took up his studies at the Paris Conservatory, where he took classes in piano with Cortot. He also studied composition with Nadia Boulanger and Igor Stravinsky. His musical and personal relationship with Boulanger, who would later teach composition to a diverse list of some of the twentieth centurys best-known composers, including Aaron Copland, Elliott Carter and many others, would become particularly close and formative. They maintained a correspondence for years to come, and in 1937 they recorded Johannes Brahmss waltzes for two pianos together in Paris. He also became close friends with the Romanian pianist Clara Haskil, who was more than 20 years his senior. The two often performed together and greatly admired each others work.

Lipatti quickly earned a reputation as a sensitive and brilliant pianist. At the same time, he continued to pursue composition. He followed closely the works of contemporary composers who were performed widely in Paris, among them Stravinsky, Maurice Ravel, Jacques Ibert, Francis Poulenc, Bela Bartok, Bohuslav Martinu, Florent Schmitt and Sergei Prokofiev.

In 1939 he left Paris and returned to Romania. He would play concerts in the German-Romanian occupied territories, including in Berlin. It is not clear what Lipattis political views were at the time. He did not seem to enjoy his visit to wartime Berlin. Haskil, one of his closest friends, was forced to flee the Axis territories because of her Jewish origins.

In 1943, already showing signs of illness, Lipatti moved to Geneva, Switzerland, a move facilitated by the help of his friends. He started teaching at the local conservatory, and toured in Switzerland and later Italy and other western European countries.

In 1946, Lipatti signed an exclusive contract with EMIs English Columbia record label, headed by the now-legendary musical producer Walter Legge. The pianists health was already deteriorating. He was diagnosed with Hodgkins disease, at that time hardly treatable.

Despite the efforts of friends and fellow musicians, among them Yehudi Menuhin and Stravinsky, who collected money to help finance Lipattis costly cortisone treatments, his recordings and concert recitals became less and less frequent. On September 16, 1950, Lipatti, greatly weakened by illness, performed his last concert in Besancon, in eastern France, a live recording of which has since become legendary. He had plans for concerts in Zurich and London, but succumbed to complications of his illness less than three months later.

Two major influences on his playing and composing should be highlighted: first, the legacy of the Romanian national school, which, under the influence of the Hungarian composer Bela Bartok, increasingly used folk elements in their works. Second, Lipatti was significantly influenced by Italian composer Ferruccio Busoni, who made the case for a new classicism. Busoni explained this term as follows: By a young classicism I understand the mastery, the view and the exploitation of all conquests of preceding experiments: their introduction into firm and beautiful forms. This art will be both old and new.

Busoni made the case for a return to polyphony (multiple voices) and a new form of objectivity in music. In a letter from 1920, he advocated the shedding of the sensual and renunciation of subjectivism (the path to objectivitythe stepping back of the author vis a vis his work, a purifying path, a hard path, a trial by fire and water), the reconquest of merriness ( Serenitas ): A new classical music is necessary. Classical: beautiful, masterly, of lasting value, simple and intense ( eindringlich ).

These passages would also best describe Lipattis style of interpreting the works of other composers. His playing was of extraordinary simplicity, and without any added sentimentality, yet often stunningly beautiful and intense. While not without a hint of romanticism, Lipatti by and large moved away from the very romantic interpretations of Baroque composers like Johann Sebastian Bach and the classical works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart that were common among the great pianists of the 1920s. Particularly noteworthy, in the opinion of this author, are his recordings of Robert Schumanns Piano Concerto in A Minor, as well as of Frederic Chopins works. Lipatti played these deeply romantic works with great emotional intensity and an amazing clarity of sound, which shines through even though the recordings were made with limited technology by present-day standards.

Legge always spoke in the highest terms of Lipatti. In a BBC interview in 1970, he described Lipatti as a pianist unlike any other in our time, who was highly intelligent, earnest, generous to all, the most modest man. When asked in another interview what, in his view, distinguished Lipattis playing, Legge said: Integrity. Musicianship.  He was a virtuoso in the highest sense of the word. He had achieved a technical perfection that was incomparable.  He used it for purely musical purposes.  A consciousness of playing everything as perfectly and as beautifully as humanly possible.

Describing his own aesthetic views, Lipatti made a passionate plea for contemporaneous interpretations of musical works in the late 1930s, and an adjustment to contemporary technological standards:

Let us never forget, true and great music transcends its time and, even more, never corresponded to the framework, forms, and rules in place at the time of its creation: Bach in his work for organ calls for the electric organ and its unlimited means, Mozart asks for the pianoforte and distances himself decisively from the harpsichord, Beethoven demands our modern piano, which Chopinhaving itfirst gives its colors, while Debussy goes further in presenting through his Prelu des glimpses of Martenots Waves [early electronic musical instrument]. Therefore, wanting to restore to music its historical framework is like dressing an adult in an adolescents clothes. This might have a certain charm in the context of a historical reconstruction, yet is of no interest to those other than lovers of dead leaves or the collectors of old pipes.  How right Stravinsky is in affirming that Music is the present! Music has to live under our fingers, under our eyes, in our hearts and in our brains with all that we, the living, can offer it.

He also considered the consequences of the still-nascent recording technology, and the general conservatism among musicians in creating their concert programs that will sound familiar to contemporary concertgoers:

At times, radio and records confront the practicing artist with demands which lead him away from the actual idea of his art. There is a tendency toward absolute technical perfection, but one that is bare of all genuine capacity to enthusiasm and without empathy. Added to this is the pressure to constantly make compromises in order to please the audience. Hence the lack of imagination, when it comes to the concert programs. Why does no one have the courage to play music which is worth being played? Instead, we musicians are content with works about whom we know that they will surely fill the concert hall. We have created an audience which has no interest for new works or for older, unknown compositions.

Lipatti did not say everything there is to say to explain what are genuine and serious problems in classical music, perhaps today even more than when he wrote these passages. Amid the constant cost pressures and the demands of the record companies, in a musical world dominated increasingly by financial interests and starved of public funds, the ability of artists to choose what and when they are playing is extremely limited. Moreover, the education and growth of an audience for classical music that goes beyond the well-known pieces of the most famous composers of the past is a task that falls not only upon interpreters, but also shows the need to raise the cultural level of broader layers of society. Nevertheless, Lipattis opinions should be considered, especially by young musicians who are starting their careers under circumstances that are, despite advances in technology, in many respects more difficult than they were for Lipatti.

Lipattis career as a concert pianist was dramatically cut short, and even in the time he had he was not able to travel widely. While famous among and admired by fellow musicians, he did not reach a very large audience during his lifetime. His main legacy is, therefore, his recordings. His career was, as Legge put it, largely posthumous.

Lipatti made his name as a pianist of international fame with his recording of the A Minor piano concertos by Edvard Grieg (1947) and Schumann (1948). He also recorded Chopins 3rd Piano Sonata in B Minor and his First Piano Concerto in E Minor. In July 1950, in an almost heroic effort, he recorded all the waltzes of Chopin, a project he had prepared for some two years and that was made possible only by his cortisone treatment. Several more recordings exist, dating back to as early as 1936, from various radio recording sessions. Some of these have been rediscovered only recently.

All in all, his recordings are relatively few in number, and many, despite digital remastering, are available only with relatively poor sound quality. The fact that they still remain extremely influential and popular speaks to the extraordinary quality of Lipattis playing. Its intensity and depth have often been explained by the fact that he felt death hovering over him for most of his active life as a pianist. Others, like Karajan, have resorted to mystical explanations. However, neither explains the immediacy with which Lipatti still speaks to audiences.

Whatever the particulars of his upbringing, Lipatti formed part of an entire generation of outstanding musicians whose playing was to influence how classical music was composed, understood and developed in the twentieth century. This generation included, to name but a few, the French violinist Ginette Neveu (born in 1919) and, above all, the great Soviet musicians Sviatoslav Richter (born in 1915), David Oistrakh (born in 1908) and Emil Gilels (born in 1916).

They were the product of an inter-war climate that was shaped by the Russian Revolution and intense social struggles in all of Europe, which, despite the rise of fascism and increasing economic crisis, produced a complex and rich cultural environment. They played before war-torn audiences, before people who had lost their loved ones in war and revolution and sought consolation in music. This heightened sense of the relevance and significance of music for both their audiences and themselves, in what were extraordinarily difficult times, could not but inform their playing. While emphasizing fidelity to the compositions they played, they thus all developed an extremely distinctive sound and style of playing, which made their interpretations highly characteristic.

Young musicians who, through no fault of their own, are often all too soon thrown into the highly competitive and financially dominated classical music business, would do well to draw inspiration from Lipattis playing and that of his contemporaries, and study their approach to both composition and interpretation. Meanwhile, it is hoped that many more people will continue to listen to Lipattis recordings, all of which are available on YouTube and Spotify.

Selected recordings by Dinu Lipatti:

His last recital in Besancon

Griegs Piano Concerto

Chopins 3rd Piano Sonata

Schumanns Piano Concerto under Herbert von Karajan

Mozarts Piano Concerto No. 21 under Herbert von Karajan
On December 18, the Socialist Equality Party (SEP), the Sri Lankan section of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), paid tribute to Keerthi Balasuriya. Balasuriya was the general secretary of the SEPs predecessor, the Revolutionary Communist League (RCL), from its inception in 1968. He died due to a sudden heart attack on December 18, 1987, just weeks after his 39th birthday.

Party members and supporters took part in the commemoration, which was held at the general cemetery at Borella, Colombo.

K. Ratnayake, the national editor of the World Socialist Web Site in Sri Lanka, chaired the event, which began with one minutes silence to honour the memory of comrade Balasuriya.

Ratnayake explained the importance of Balasuriyas unrelenting political struggle, especially against the descent into national opportunism by the leadership of the Workers Revolutionary Party (WRP), then the British section of the ICFI.

When Keerthi passed away in 1987, the ICFI was in a profound fight for the development and flourishing of Trotskyism. This was after the struggle against, and break from, the British WRP renegades in 1985. He joined this struggle led by comrade David North, who is now the chairman of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site.

The death of Keerthi was a huge loss for the RCL and the ICFI. On the basis of this renewed fight for Trotskyism, our movement has taken giant theoretical and political strides. We are now in the midst of a deep crisis of world capitalism and unfolding social struggles, and that is why the lessons of the history of our movement are essential in preparing the working class for socialist revolution.

Ratnayake then read to the gathering a letter sent by North on behalf of the SEP (US) and the International Editorial Board of the WSWS.

Vilani Peiris, Balasuriyas life-long companion and SEP political committee member, underlined the international foundations of the struggle to establish the RCL and Balasuriyas role in the partys founding. The RCLs formation was based on the political principles elaborated at the ICFIs Third World Congress in 1966.

Peiris said Balasuriya had pointed to the need to settle political accounts with the Pabloite leader Ernest Mandel, who was being fraudulently described as the foremost Trotskyist economist, and who argued that a new period of capitalism had dawned.

Peiris then turned to those once-glorified leaders, like Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh and Fidel Castro. Their nationalist perspectives have collapsed. In Sri Lanka, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) glorified them, rejected the revolutionary role of the working class and insisted that the peasantry was the revolutionary force. Keerthi engaged in relentless theoretical and political struggle against such conceptions, elaborating an internationalist line. These lessons are important for the younger generation, which is turning to our movement.

Wije Dias, the general secretary of the SEP, began his speech by referring to the year-long and worldwide centenary events organised by the ICFI to commemorate the 1917 Russian Revolution. In these events, insistence was laid on the decisive role played by the revolutionary party of Lenin and Trotsky in establishing working class rule, supported by the peasants.

This centenary has raised before us the responsibility to re-work our own history, as part of the world party of socialist revolution, to train new cadres for the continuation of the struggle begun in 1917, and to fulfill the tasks of our own October in this country and South Asia.

We decided to make the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the death of comrade Keerthi Balasuriya the first step of the campaign for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Revolutionary Communist League, the predecessor of the SEP. Keerthi played the leading role in the group that established the RCL and justifiably became the partys general secretary for 20 years until his untimely death.

Dias continued: Keerthi was just 19 years when the RCL was founded. He was fresh to politics, unlike us. We were a few years older than him and had to go through the torturous events of the great betrayal of the fake Trotskyist Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP), which joined the bourgeois government of Sirima Bandaranaike in 1964, and also the experience of the split-away group, the LSSP (Revolutionary), which followed the same criminal revisionist political line laid down by the Pabloite tendency. Keerthi had the advantage of coming directly under the influence of the politics of the ICFI.

He was quickly able to grasp the essence of the long drawn-out struggle carried out by the ICFI against the national opportunists, in order to train a new generation of revolutionary fighters based on Trotskys theory of permanent revolution. That is why he was elected to be our leader. His untimely death in December 1987 cut short an invaluable and devoted service to the cause of international socialism. The fact that a whole group of us, who were with Keerthi from the preparatory days of founding the RCLmyself, Ratnayake, Wickremasinghe and Wakkumburaare still in the political battleground is testimony to the power and ever-increasing relevance of the program upon which Trotsky called for the founding of the Fourth International in 1938.

Dias concluded: As comrade David North stated in his letter to this meeting, Keerthi was at the height of his productive revolutionary work after the ICFI split from the renegades of the Workers Revolutionary Party of Britain. He was energetically engaged in international work with our Trotskyist co-thinkers, to resurrect the revolutionary socialist program of the ICFI and re-establish the Trotskyist foundations of the world movement. It is on the basis of that invaluable work that we have to recruit and train a new layer of workers and youth to continue that struggle. This is the only way to stop the development of barbaric dictatorships and another world war, and to reorganise the productive forces of the entire globe on a socialist basis, in order to satisfy the fundamental democratic, as well as social, needs of world humanity.
The investigation into the financing of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist militia by construction firm Lafarge-Holcim exposes the fraud of the so-called war on terror waged by France and its NATO allies. In fact, over five years, a multi-billion-dollar firm that leads the CAC-40 French stock exchange deliberately funded a terrorist militia that carried out attacks across Europe and in France.

This directly raises the role of the state and the Socialist Party (PS) government of former President Francois Hollande. It reacted to the deadly terror attacks of January and November 2015 in France by imposing a state of emergency and promoting the neo-fascist National Front (FN), inviting its leader Marine Le Pen to the Elysee Palace. It also used the state of emergency as a pretext to brutally repress protests against its anti-worker labor lawclaiming that protests undermined the police work of the war on terror and the unification of France in a struggle against Islamism.

At that timeaccording to investigations of six Lafarge executives in the last two weeks, including ex-CEO Bruno Lafont and general manager Eric OlsenLafarge was financing the very terror militias in Syria whose attacks were cited as a reason to impose the state of emergency.

Le Monde called the investigation of Lafarge executives a political thunderbolt, adding: This is the first time a CAC-40 CEO has been implicated in terrorist activity.

Moreover, Lafarge resorted to lies and the production of false documents to justify its financing of terror groups. The National Service of Judiciary Customs (SNDJ), who carried out the questioning of Lafarge executives that led to their indictment, concluded that the companys French management allowed for these financial transfers by creating false accounting documents.

The evidence provided by Lafarge itself refutes its alibithe claim that it paid off the terror groups only because IS was threatening a Lafarge cement factory located near Raqqa, the IS stronghold in Syria. A report by London-based auditor PriceWaterhouseCoopers, commissioned by Lafarge, found that Lafarge paid $13 million to various Islamist militias in Syria from 2011 to 2015. This financing went on into 2015, well after Lafarge closed its Raqqa cement factory in September 2014.

According to lawyers for Sherpathe NGO that first brought a suit in 2016 over this issue for endangerment of human life, and thus triggered an investigation for financing a terrorist entity by three anti-terror or financial judges in the Paris prosecutors officemost of this money went directly or indirectly to IS.

Another report by US law firm Baker McKenzie, also commissioned by Lafarge, found that Lafarges Syrian subsidiary alone paid nearly $5.6 million to various terror militias, including $500,000 to IS. The son of former Syrian Defense Minister Firas Tlass reportedly served as the intermediary for the payments.

Thus, while the French political establishment was debating in 2014 or 2015 whether to bomb IS in Syria, Lafarge was still financing the terror group. Hollande ultimately gave the order to bomb IS positions in Syria after the 13 November 2015 attacks. Until then, France only bombed IS positions in Iraq, leaving open the possibility of profiting from IS actions in Syria as part of its war for regime change in that country.

What emerges from this inquiry is not the image of a company that stayed in Syria, as its executives claimed, to represent France or to extract profits from Frances largest non-oil-related investment in the Middle East, and therefore had to pay protection money to IS. Rather, a deliberate decision was taken to finance organizations that the PS government was at the time presenting as legitimate allies of convenience in its war, carried out with the aid of Washington and the other NATO powers, to topple the Syrian government.

A bitter battle is proceeding inside official circles in France over this scandal, which financial and judicial circles in the US and UK are also clearly following closely.

This week, Sherpa asked the prosecutors office to launch an inquiry for obstruction of justice, accusing Lafarge of having aimed to buy the silence of its six indicted executives and to get ahead of the interrogations that they might be subjected to.

The NGO repeated its demand that the investigation not concentrate only on Lafarge, but also reveal the role of French state authorities at the time. Its spokesmen criticized the nervousness, the complacency, or even the complicity of these authorities. Its lawyer, Marie Dose, asked: Who can guarantee that in the meantime, part of the money paid to IS did not ultimately go to finance a terror attack in France?

In fact, the Lafarge affair raises not only the role of France but of all the major NATO imperialist powers, including the United States. Starting in 2011, these powers set up with the Persian Gulf oil sheikdoms networks to arm and finance the Syrian terror groups to the tune, ultimately, of billions of dollars. This has devastated Syria, claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, and forced over 10 million Syrians to flee their homes.

The media and political authorities in the NATO countries tried to downplay as much as possible the politically criminal character of this warand in particular the fact, admitted by US officials in 2012, that NATOs allies in Syria were terror militias tied to Al Qaeda.

The Lafarge affair also highlights the reactionary and lying role of petty-bourgeois pseudo-left groups like Frances New Anti-capitalist Party, who were supporters and accomplices of the war. They shamelessly presented Islamist militias in Syria as products of a mass popular uprising. As the CAC-40 financed various Islamist militias on the ground in Syria, a former French colony, these groups took up the task of promoting the lie that this was a Syrian democratic revolution.

Under these conditions, the question must be asked: why are PS officials not on trial, starting with former President Hollande himself? Hollande took the extraordinary step in 2012 to recognize the Islamist militias in Syria as that countrys legitimate government. A document issued by Sherpa this October has in fact demanded that French ambassadors to Syria and former PS Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius be investigated. However, French media are largely downplaying this central aspect of the affair.

Lafarges actions in Syria also underscore the politically illegitimate and fraudulent character of the state of emergency, whose anti-democratic provisions President Emmanuel Macron has now adopted permanently as law by passing his anti-terror legislation. While imperialism financed IS terrorists, it used their crimes in Europe to justify repressing constitutionally-protected protests by workers and youth against attempts to suppress their social and democratic rights, acquired over generations of struggle by the working class.
The new US National Security Strategy released this week and the speech delivered by President Donald Trump Monday to introduce it constitute a grim warning to humanity that US imperialism is firmly embarked on a road that leads to a nuclear third world war.

While the document has largely been passed over in silence by the presidents ostensible political opponents in the Democratic Party and given relatively short shrift by the establishment media, more thoughtful ideologists of imperialism have noted the far-reaching changes presented in the document.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, the historian Arthur L. Herman declared Trumps National Security Strategy heralds a profound shift back to the world before 1917: an anarchic international arena in which every sovereign state, large or small, has to rely on armed strength for its security.

In this new era Herman writes, might inevitably makes right. Only power matters, and the big powers inevitably dominate the small.

Herman adds, This is the world of Otto von Bismarck, who said in 1862: The great questions of the time are not decided by speeches and majority decisions. .. but by iron and blood.

An editorial in the Wall Street Journal lauded the documents unvarnished realpolitik, praising its identification of China and Russia by name as revisionist powers that seek to challenge American power, influence, and interests. With a glee that resembles nothing so much as the war fever gripping the ruling classes before the First World War, the Journal hails the document as an important corrective from the sunny assurances of the Obama years and his proclamations that the tide of war is receding.

The international press has likewise drawn far-reaching conclusions from the document, with Brendan Thomas-Noone proclaiming in the Australian that, despite the uncertainty surrounding the Trump Administration, the document reveals a longer-term shift in the US foreign policy consensus from global economic integration to great power competition.

He continues: The security strategy argues that the US is entering a new era of great power competition with revisionist statesChina and Russia. For several decades now, US policy has been to engage these powers, bringing them into international institutions and integrating them with the global economy. It was thought that this would, as the strategy puts it, turn them into benign actors and trustworthy partners. It adds that for the most part, this premise turned out to be false.

To the extent that there has been criticism from the Democrats and their media allies, it has largely centered on the failure of both the document and the speech to explicitly denounce Russia for its alleged meddling in the 2016 election. This line of faultfinding only tends to support the overall bellicose character of the administrations policy, merely advancing a tactical quibble over whether Russia or China should be the priority target in US war preparations.

Mandated by a law passed in 1986, the annual presentation by the White House to Congress of a National Security Strategy (NSS) is supposed to outline Washingtons worldwide interests, goals and objectives and present proposed short-term and long-term uses of the political, economic, military, and other elements of the national power to achieve them.

If the latest NSS and Trumps speech have elicited little in the way of substantive criticism, it is undoubtedly because there has been a strong element of continuity in US strategy over the course of the past quarter century since the Stalinist bureaucracys dissolution of the Soviet Union and the proclamation by Washington of a new unipolar moment.

In essence, that strategy has been based on the conclusion that the liquidation of the USSR had relieved US imperialism of previous restraints upon the use of military force in pursuit of its global interests. The predominant layers within the US ruling elite embraced a strategy based upon the delusion that US military supremacy could be actively employed as an instrument for offsetting the relative decline of American capitalisms dominance of the globe.

This belligerent posture was a manifestation not of American capitalisms strength, but rather its degeneration and the fears within the US ruling class that the much-celebrated American Century could be coming to an end.

In 1992 the Pentagon adopted a foundational Defense Planning Guidance document spelling out Washingtons global hegemonic ambitions. It stated:

There are other potential nations or coalitions that could, in the further future, develop strategic aims and a defense posture of region-wide or global domination. Our strategy must now refocus on precluding the emergence of any potential future global competitor.

The 1990s saw the implementation of this new policy through the first Persian Gulf War and the brutal intervention to break up Yugoslavia, culminating in the US-led bombing of Serbia in 1999.

The events of September 11, 2001 provided the war on terror pretext for a vast escalation of global American militarism. Washingtons policy was spelled out in a 2002 National Security Strategy issued by the Republican administration of George W. Bush adopting the doctrine of preventive warfare. This doctrine held that the US could attack any country in the world that it perceived as a potential threat to US interests, a policy that essentially repudiated the Nuremberg principles on aggressive war that provided the legal foundation for the trial and execution of the surviving Nazi leaders.

The doctrine found swift application in the US invasion of Iraq, on the phony pretext of weapons of mass destruction, producing one of the greatest war crimes since the fall of Hitlers Third Reich.

Democratic President Barack Obama, elected based on the misconception that he would initiate a reversal of Bushs policy, embellished upon the preventive war doctrine in his justification of the unprovoked 2011 US war of aggression against Libya. He insisted that US military force was justified even when our safety is not directly threatened, but our interests and values are, adding that this included actions aimed at ensuring regional security, and maintaining the flow of commerce. In other words, Washington reserves the right to launch aggressive war anywhere that the profits and markets of US banks and corporations are at stake.

While there is an unmistakable continuity between these earlier elucidations of the doctrine of global US militarism and the belligerent NSS document and speech delivered by Trump, there is also a significant break, reflecting the deepening crisis of American and world capitalism and the fact that the latest stage in the ongoing US struggle for world hegemony is aimed ever more directly at Russia and China, both nuclear powers.

In his speech, Trump cast himselfmuch in the manner that Adolph Hitler did in Germany eight decades agoas the savior of the nation and the champion of the forgotten man come to reverse a sellout to foreign interests by too many of our leadersso manywho forgot whose voices they were to respect, and whose interest they were supposed to defend.

Underlying this stab in the back rhetoric is the fact that the past quarter century of US military aggression has produced one debacle after another while demonstratively failing to reverse the decline of American capitalism on the world stage.

At their core, the NSS document and Trumps speech reflect the conclusions drawn from this experience by the top brass of the US military, whose representativesMcMaster, Mattis and Kellynow dominate the White House and US foreign policy. Described by leading Democrats as the adults in the room, their prescription is for a massive escalation of US militarism.

The document laments the strategic complacency of the US over the past period, the failure to build military capacity and acquire new weapons systems, as well as the idea that war could be won quickly, from stand-off distances with minimal casualties. Clearly, what they have in mind are an unprecedented increase in military spending and new wars in which the deaths of US soldiers will once again be counted in the tens and hundreds of thousands.

Above all, however, the text departs from previous NSS documents in its open embrace of nuclear war as a viable option. The document states that a buildup of the US nuclear arsenal is essential to prevent nuclear attack, nonnuclear strategic attacks, and large scale conventional aggression, strongly suggesting that the US military is prepared to launch a nuclear first strike in response to a nonnuclear challenge. It goes on to affirm that fear of [nuclear] escalation will not deter the United States from defending our vital interests.

History, Leon Trotsky warned on the eve of the Second World War, is bringing humanity face to face with the volcanic eruption of American imperialism.

This prognosis has found powerful confirmation in the threats emanating from Washington this week. The lack of any significant opposition makes it clear that there is no peace faction within the US ruling establishment. The prospect of a thirdnuclearworld war can be countered only by the international working class mobilizing itself as an independent revolutionary force against imperialist war and its source, the capitalist system.
The Socialist Equality Party in Australia and the Socialist Equality Group in New Zealand conducted the last in a series of successful public meetings celebrating the centenary of the 1917 Russian Revolution and discussing its contemporary significance.

Held in Wellington and Sydney, on December 14 and 17 respectively, the events were part of the world-wide commemorations by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), the world Trotskyist movement and publisher of the World Socialist Web Site.

Over 120 people attended the Sydney meeting, including workers, professionals and retireessome of whom travelled from as far away as Newcastle and the Blue Mountainsas well as high school and university students. International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) members and supporters came from Western Sydney University, Macquarie University and the University of New South Wales.

The meeting was addressed by SEP national secretary James Cogan and Oscar Grenfell, a member of the SEP national committee and IYSSE convenor. It was chaired by SEP national committee member Linda Tenenbaum and followed by an extended question and answer session.

Oscar Grenfell, the first speaker, drew parallels between the historical, economic and political factors that produced the Russian Revolution and the deepening crisis of world capitalism today. Explaining the rise of financial parasitism, job destruction and attacks on basic rights, he warned about the catastrophic consequences of a US war against North Korea and the recent, increasingly bellicose, threats by President Trump and senior members of his administration.

The ruling elite has responded to the crisis of its system by turning to militarism that threatens a new world war, which would involve the use of nuclear weapons, and threaten the very existence of humanity. As we meet, millions of people are watching the threats of the Trump administration to launch a catastrophic attack on North Korea, with shock, horror and outrage, he said.

Grenfell warned that as the US stepped up its threats against North Korea, Germany, Japan and other imperialist powers were rearming and preparing ideologically for war.

In every country these war preparations are accompanied by massive expenditure on the military, tax cuts for the rich and fierce social attacks on the working class at home, he said. Grenfell then commented on the filthy campaign being orchestrated by the Australian political establishment to whip up anti-Chinese xenophobia and fan allegations of Chinese interference in Australian politics.

This campaign is aimed at creating a nationalist and jingoistic climate, to dragoon the working class behind Australias frontline role in the US plans for war against North Korea and China. It goes hand in hand with a broader promotion of nationalism, including through the McCarthyite purge of alleged dual citizens from the federal parliament, on the grounds that they are insufficiently loyal to the Australian state, Grenfell said.

Delivering the main report, SEP national secretary James Cogan drew out the political significance of the revolution, which demonstrated that the working class was, indeed, a revolutionary class.

For the first and only time in history the working class, under the leadership of Lenin, Trotsky and the Bolshevik Party, established a government of, for and by the workers.

Cogan detailed the critical struggle conducted by Lenin within the Bolshevik Party between February and October 1917, Trotskys role and the fight against elements within the party, such as Zinoviev and Kamenev, who opposed Lenins call for the Soviets to seize power.

The SEP national secretary told the meeting that there had been a noticeable right-wing shift in the attitude of pro-capitalist academics, journalists and others, towards the centenary of the revolution, throughout 2017.

Initially, most of them sought to dismiss its historic significance, Cogan said, and referred to Sheila Fitzpatrick, professor of Russian history at the University of Sydney. If there is a lesson to be drawn from the Russian Revolution, she wrote, it is the depressing one that revolutions usually make things worse, all the more so in Russia, where it led to Stalinism.

This assertion, Cogan said, denies the truth that the Stalinist degeneration was ultimately the outcome of the isolation of the revolution, and seeks to expunge from history the defence by the Trotskyist movement of the perspective of world socialism in the face of immense persecution and difficulties.

Claims that the dissolution of the Soviet Union represented the failure of the perspective of world socialism cannot be substantiated, Cogan insisted. This is also reflected in the fact that, by the final months of 2017, a very different tone was appearing in bourgeois commentaries, with fears that the example of the October Revolution will be embraced by a generation of workers and youth who are being offered nothing but disaster by capitalism.

This anxiety was expressed, Cogan continued, in the Australian parliament, when extreme right-wing senator Cory Bernardi passed a motion last October, denouncing any celebration of the Russian Revolution.

On November 6, the New York Times published a column by American academic Simon Sebag Montefiore, the author of an admiring biography of Stalin.

Montefiore admitted that the October Revolution continued to reverberate and inspire, but, offering a piece of advice to the bourgeoisie everywhere, suggested that the revolution could have been defeated if only Lenin had been assassinated. The Provisional government, Montefiore declared, should have found and killed him, but failed to do so.

Cogan told the meeting that by October 1917, Lenin was not simply an individual but headed a vast, powerful and politically conscious mass movement of the working class, which was won to the internationalist socialist strategy of the Bolsheviks.

The Russian Revolution, Cogan concluded, was not of simply of academic historical interest, but provided the most essential lessons for the international working class today. It posed the necessity for the expansion of the ICFI, which was based on the entire historical legacy of Bolshevism and Trotskyism, he said, and appealed for those in attendance to join its ranks.

Following these reports, audience members asked a range of thoughtful questions. These included: what is the goal and purpose of world socialist revolution; how will society be organised; what form of socialism does the SEP support. One young man said that he agreed with the partys goals, but wanted to know what he could do, as an individual.

Another audience member asked about the repudiation of due process in the course of the right-wing sexual witch-hunt campaign, while a worker from Africa powerfully condemned the appalling conditions confronting the vast mass of the population there, and those responsible for it. He then asked about the relationship of the ICFI to the African continent.

In his reply to the latter question, SEP national committee member Nick Beams emphasised the two fundamental criteria that determined whether someone was a genuine socialist. Firstly, he said, they must base themselves on the political independence of the working class, as the sole social force capable of overthrowing capitalism. Secondly, they must be internationalists, in the understanding that the working class is a global class. In Russia, in 1917, that meant comprehending the Russian Revolution, not as a national event, but as the first shot in a world process.

In Africa we can see the tragedy produced by the false forms of socialism advanced in that continent. Virtually every African leader in the 1950s and 60s proclaimed themselves a socialistfrom Nasser in Egypt, Julius Nyerere in Tanzania, Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo in Zimbabwe, to Nelson Mandela in South Africa.

What did these so-called socialist leaders do when they came to power? They accepted all the national borders drawn up by the previous colonial powersthe French, Belgian, German and British. Secondly, they all accepted one or another form of Stalinismthat is, nationalism.

Beams reviewed in some detail the political record of Mandela, and his role in politically blocking the socialist revolution in South Africa, as he assisted the South African bourgeoisie to make the transition from apartheid, while ensuring the preservation of capitalism.

So what do have now? Beams asked. The white faces of the political servants of the ruling elite have been replaced with black faces. South Africa now has the highest level of social inequality in the world, and the former head of the trade unions, Cyril Ramaphosa is one of the countrys richest men, he explained. The day after the centenary meeting, Ramaphosa was elected president of South Africa's ruling ANC, setting the stage for him to succeed President Jacob Zuma, accused of widespread corruption.

Referring to the question about what any individual could do to fight for world socialist revolution, Beams said the crucial factor was to develop socialist consciousness in the working class, in advance of the mass revolutionary upheavals produced by the breakdown in the capitalist system. This can only be undertaken through the development of the ICFI around the world, he said, providing the sort of leadership that Lenin and Trotsky gave in 1917.

Quoting from articles published on the World Socialist Web Site, Linda Tenenbaum exposed the right-wing character of the current sexual witch-hunt campaign, being led in the US by the New York Times and the Democratic Party, and its repudiation of any conception of democratic rights.

The ICFI and all its sections, including the SEP in Australia, opposed feminism and all other forms of identity politics, she said, because these movements sought to divide the working class on the basis of entirely secondary or tertiary characteristics. The fundamental division in society is not gender or skin colour, nationality or race, but class, she declared.

Tenenbaum referred to the unsubstantiated inappropriate behaviour allegations against acclaimed Australian actor Geoffrey Rush, and how they were being used to destroy his career.

Feminism and the so-called #MeToo movement, she said, had no interest in the plight of working-class women, but represented well-off sections of the middle class, who were only interested in furthering their own privileged lives and careers.

The speaker explained that the use of unsubstantiated allegations and trial by media represented a repudiation of the presumption of innocence and due processbased on centuries-old legal and constitutional principles and rights that protected citizens from false and unsubstantiated accusations. In the case of Rush, and of several of the recent American victims of the witch-hunt, the accusers had been afforded the right to anonymity, while their prey have had their careers, and in some cases, their very lives destroyed, without so much as a trial in a court of law, a jury, evidence, or the cross-examination of witnesses.

This campaign, she added, was of a piece with the promotion of nationalism and xenophobia, by both the government and the leading media outlets, against foreign agents, particularly those of Chinese origin, and their influence over Australian politics. The purpose of both witch-hunt campaigns was to create a climate of confusion and disorientation among ordinary working people and to divert their attention and concerns away from the rapidly escalating social crisis, and the seriousness of the threat of a US-led war in the Asia-Pacific region, under conditions where every parliamentary party had fully committed itself to the Trump administrations military agenda.

The SEP, Tenenbaum explained, was the only organisation in the country opposing this hysterical campaign, which had, in the vast majority of cases, advanced not a shred of evidence that any crime had been committed. The ICFI and the WSWS were providing the only political leadership and analysis to all those who wanted to fight this assault on fundamental democratic rights in every country.

The audience responded to all the answers with enthusiastic applause, and discussion continued long after the formal conclusion of the meeting. Several attendees made thoughtful comments to WSWS reporters about what they had learned, indicating they had followed the speakers and the discussion with keen interest. More than $400 worth of Marxist literature was sold and over $5,500 donated during a collection for the SEPs special fund.
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
Tbilisi Mayor to Increase Fines for Illegal Tree Felling

By Gvantsa Gabekhadze

(TBILISI)  Newly-elected Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze plans to increase fines for illegally cutting down trees within the city limits.Kaladze said the citys natural ecology is being destroyed by illegal construction projects, particularly near the banks of the Mtkvari River that bisects the Georgian capital. The construction crews cut down dozens of trees in the process and severely alter the natural landscape of the cityThe move is part of Kaladze ambitious plan to drastically increase the number of green areas in Tbilisi, which in recent years has suffered from a spike in pollution and poor air quality.
Watch Access Hollywood on Yahoo View.

Some of Hollywoods most outspoken women are responding to actress and filmmaker Rose McGowans recent denunciation of Golden Globe nominees who reportedly plan on wearing black at next months ceremony to demonstrate against industry-wide sexual misconduct. On December 17, Amber Tamblyn published a four-tweet thread reacting to McGowans initial claim that Meryl Streep and others would show hypocrisy with their silent protest.

Read More:Harvey Weinstein Sexual Assault Documentary in the Works at BBC

Tamblyn has written two New York Times op-eds (here and here) addressing the alleged inappropriate behavior of powerful men in Hollywood; McGowan publicly stated on October 12 that she was raped by Harvey Weinstein and has been a long-time supporter of abused and harassed women in the industry.

You dont have to support and stand with us, but we stand and support you. You may take below the belt shots at us but we will not take them at you in return.  Amber Tamblyn (@ambertamblyn) December 17, 2017

And we stand together in this fight, shoulder to shoulder, weapon to weapon, woman to woman (and man), body to burned body. And our arms are open. And our hearts two fold. And our fire will be a universal scorch. Heed the mantra: #ChangeIsComing  Amber Tamblyn (@ambertamblyn) December 17, 2017

Asia Argento, McGowans recent dinner companion and another Weinstein rape accuser, then wrote that Tamblyn should have called McGowan or tweeted directly to her friends attention; Tamblyn replied that they the thread had been proceeded by a lengthy phone discussion.

Story continues

Asia, I did. I spoke to her for over an hour.  Amber Tamblyn (@ambertamblyn) December 17, 2017

McGowans onscreen sisters from Charmed, Alyssa Milano  who is credited for helping popularize the #MeToo movement  and Holly Marie Combs both answered Tamblyn as well.

I stand by every woman in the pursuit of permanent change and gender equality.  Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) December 17, 2017

You just did to @rosemcgowan what you claim you dont support her doing to others. Every activist for every cause the world over has different methods but share a common and more important message that should remain the same. And undiluted above all else.  Holly Marie Combs (@H_Combs) December 17, 2017





Also coming to McGowans defense was Dylan Farrow, author of a recent LA Times op-ed questioning why the #MeToo movement hasnt stopped the film community from collaborating with her estranged, adoptive father, Woody Allen. In the early 90s, Farrow contends that Allen sexually assaulted her, when she was just seven years old. Dylan Farrow is the sister of Ronan Farrow, The New Yorker writer who convinced Argento and others to go on-record accusing Weinstein of rape.

Respectfully, I do think @rosemcgowan makes an important point. If the goal is to effect change and take a stand, what is needed now are brave actions from powerful allies. For people like us, Hollywoods voice is more important than their dress. Without it we will be forgotten.  Dylan Farrow (@realdylanfarrow) December 18, 2017

The Golden Globes will take place on Sunday, January 7 at the Beverly Hilton.

Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.

Related stories

Harvey Weinstein Sexual Assault Documentary in the Works at BBC

Minnie Driver Wants Men Everywhere To Know 'They Can't Tell Women About Their Abuse'

Terry Crews Accuses WME of Hacking His Computer and Spying on Family Amid Sexual Assault Case
Fox News contributor Kevin Jackson insinuated Tuesday that the FBI may have tried to assassinate President Donald Trump on Outnumbered. The theory was raised during a discussion of anti-Trump text messages from FBI agent Peter Strzok, who later went on to join (and be removed from) Robert Muellers special counsel investigation.

Well, I think theyre going to say, is it  what was his intent, right? Jackson said of Strzok, Because thats exactly what FBI Director, former FBI director Comey said when he was letting Hillary Clinton off the hook. And his intent, regardless of whether it was an assassination attempt or whatever, it was definitely something.

Jacksons statements shocked the panel, with an audible gasp emanating from one of the shows regular hosts, Harris Faulkner.

Also Read:Fox News' Jeanine Pirro Blasts Mueller Investigation: 'People Are About to Revolt'

Whoa, whoa, whoa, she said trying to offer him a lifeline. I know how things get clipped on social media, I just want to make sure that we press on the fact that no one has floated any sort of an idea that it was.

But Jackson doubled down.

Oh, its been floated, he said cutting off Faulkner. When I talk about this, Im talking about social media stuff and, you know, thats out there, Im not talking about media sources.

Nothing credible, Sandra Smith jumped in with desperation.

Well, I mean yeah, Jackson reluctantly conceded.

Also Read:Fox Attempts to Stifle Outrage Over Rupert Murdoch's Comments About Sexual Misconduct

The moment is the most extreme in what has been a consistent and loud drumbeat on the network against the special counsel, the FBI and the Department of Justice.

Story continues

Only earlier this week, network firebrand Judge Jeanine Pirro warned that the web of deep state corruption among the intelligence services had brought Americans to the edge of revolt. Fox News primetime opinion hosts have regularly called for Trump to fire Mueller, though the president has so far said he has no plans to do so.

A spokesperson for Fox News confirmed that the mater had been addressed with Jackson

Watch above.

Related Video:

Watch news, TV and more on Yahoo View.



Related stories from TheWrap:

Fox News' Jeanine Pirro Blasts Mueller Investigation: 'People Are About to Revolt'

Rupert Murdoch Is 'Liar or Delusional' About Sexual Harassment, Says Ex-Fox News Analyst

Fox News Is Most-Watched Basic Cable Network in 2017

Fox News Host Rakes Roy Moore Spox Over Yearbook: 'We Have to Be Factual'
The News in Brief

Senior Lawmakers Voice Support to Mandatory Gender Quotas Bill



Senior lawmakers from three parliamentary parties of Georgia, including the ruling Georgian Dream-Democratic Georgia (GDDG), the European Georgia and the United National Movement, voiced their support to the mandatory gender quotas bill, which, if approved, would set mandatory quotas for women to help increase the number of female members in the Parliament and municipality councils..



GDDGs Eka Beselia, who chairs the committee for legal issues, said in her remarks at the conference that the bill was timely, adding that the tentative date for its adoption would be early spring of 2018.



Georgian Dream parliamentary majority leader Archil Talakvadze hailed the bill, saying, We believe that the mechanism of quotas is the best decision in a mid-term perspective in order to increase womens participation in the Parliament, and politics in general.



Opposition United National Movement member Tina Bokuchava also expressed her support to the initiative, saying that the introduction of mandatory quotas as a temporary measure was necessary and the bill would be supported by a majority, if not all [UNM] faction members.



Her words were echoed by European Georgias Elene Khoshtaria said she was personally against quotas as a woman as it is demeaning both ideologically and psychologically, but promised not to generalize her personal position on the matter and added that the party would very actively and seriously consider supporting the bill.



Parliamentary Chairman Irakli Kobakhidze, who also addressed the conference, endorsed the bill as well. Kobakhidze said in his remarks that the financial incentives that current political party regulations envision to promote womens representation are realistically, rather ineffective, and that it was necessary to think of other measures to encourage womens participation in politics.



A mandatory quota system would be the best measure that, if approved, the bill will increase womens representation in the Parliament at least to 25% that will be a significant progress from the current figure of 15%, Parliamentary Chairman Irakli Kobakhidze noted.



MP Ada Marshania of the Alliance of Patriots, who also attended the conference, said in the Q&A session that the faction would also endorse the legislative proposal. (Civil.ge)







Payment of Property Tax on Cars in Georgia to Start from 2018



(TBILISI) -- Car owners in Georgia will soon start paying property tax for the vehicles, according to local media reports.



Families with an annual income of 40,000-100,000 GEL will have to pay no less than 0.05 percent and no more than 0.2 percent of the vehicle cost, while families with an annual income of over 100,000 GEL will have to pay no less than 0.8 percent and no more than 1 percent of the vehicle cost. (Agenda.ge)




Meryl Streep is firing back after Rose McGowan criticized her response to the Harvey Weinstein allegations.

On Saturday, McGowan, who claims Weinstein assaulted her in the past, called out the Oscar winner on Twitter, writing that Streep continued to work with the disgraced producer for years despite his bad reputation. The Scream actress also slammed a proposed plan to protest sexual misconduct in Hollywood by wearing black to the Golden Globes, sarcastically suggesting the women instead wear dresses by Marchesa, the fashion label founded by Weinsteins estranged wife, Georgina Chapman. (McGowan has since apologized for suggesting the women wear Marchesa dresses, tweeting that the comment was beneath her.)

It hurt to be attacked by Rose McGowan in banner headlines this weekend, but I want to let her know I did not know about Weinsteins crimes, not in the 90s when he attacked her, or through subsequent decades when he proceeded to attack others, Streep said in a statement Monday.

In McGowans tweet, which has since been deleted, she wrote, Actresses, like Meryl Streep, who happily worked for The Pig Monster, are wearing black @goldenglobes in a silent protest. YOUR SILENCE is THE problem. Youll accept a fake award breathlessly & affect no real chance. I despise your hypocrisy. Maybe you should all wear Marchesa.

Streeps statement continued:

I wasnt deliberately silent. I didnt know. I dont tacitly approve of rape. I didnt know. I dont like young women being assaulted. I didnt know this was happening.

I dont know where Harvey lives, nor has he ever been to my home.

I have never in my life been invited to his hotel room.

I have been to his office once, for a meeting with Wes Craven for Music of the Heart in 1998.

HW distributed movies I made with other people.

HW was not a filmmaker; he was often a producer, primarily a marketer of films made by other people- some of them great, some not great. But not every actor, actress, and director who made films that HW distributed knew he abused women, or that he raped Rose in the 90s, other women before and others after, until they told us. We did not know that womens silence was purchased by him and his enablers.

Story continues

HW needed us not to know this, because our association with him bought him credibility, an ability to lure young, aspiring women into circumstances where they would be hurt.

He needed me much more than I needed him and he made sure I didnt know. Apparently he hired ex Mossad operators to protect this information from becoming public. Rose and the scores of other victims of these powerful, moneyed, ruthless men face an adversary for whom Winning, at any and all costs, is the only acceptable outcome. Thats why a legal defense fund for victims is currently being assembled to which hundreds of good hearted people in our business will contribute, to bring down the bastards, and help victims fight this scourge within.

Rose assumed and broadcast something untrue about me, and I wanted to let her know the truth. Through friends who know her, I got my home phone number to her the minute I read the headlines. I sat by that phone all day yesterday and this morning, hoping to express both my deep respect for her and others bravery in exposing the monsters among us, and my sympathy for the untold, ongoing pain she suffers. No one can bring back what entitled bosses like Bill OReilly, Roger Ailes, and HW took from the women who endured attacks on their bodies and their ability to make a living.. And I hoped that she would give me a hearing. She did not, but I hope she reads this.

I am truly sorry she sees me as an adversary, because we are both, together with all the women in our business, standing in defiance of the same implacable foe: a status quo that wants so badly to return to the bad old days, the old ways where women were used, abused and refused entry into the decision-making, top levels of the industry. Thats where the cover-ups convene. Those rooms must be disinfected, and integrated, before anything even begins to change.

Over the weekend, Amber Tamblyn criticized McGowans tweets, accusing her friend of shaming and taunting the women who planned to take part in the protest. This is beneath you, Rose, she wrote on Twitter.

Over 50 women have accused Weinstein, 65, of sexual assault and misconduct since The New York Times and The New Yorker documented decades of alleged sexual misconduct and sexual assault involving a number of women in detailed articles in October. McGowan was one of the first women to come forward  accusing the producer of rape.

Meryl Streep and Harvey Weinstein

Streep first spoke out about the allegations in October, writing in a statement, The disgraceful news about Harvey Weinstein has appalled those of us whose work he championed, and those whose good and worthy causes he supported. The intrepid women who raised their voices to expose this abuse are our heroes.

The actress continued, One thing can be clarified. Not everybody knew. Harvey supported the work fiercely, was exasperating but respectful with me in our working relationship, and with many others with whom he worked professionally.

Streep was nominated for an Academy Award for her turn in 2013s August: Osage County, which Weinstein executive produced. She won an Academy Award for 2012s Weinstein Company release, The Iron Lady. At the 2012 Golden Globes, upon accepting the award for Best Actress (Drama) for her performance in The Iron Lady, Streep said: I just want to thank my agent and God Harvey Weinstein.

In a statement to PEOPLE, Weinsteins attorneys have denied any allegations of sexual assault.

Mr. Weinstein has never at any time committed an act of sexual assault, and it is wrong and irresponsible to conflate claims of impolitic behavior or consensual sexual contact later regretted, with an untrue claim of criminal conduct, his lawyers said. There is a wide canyon between mere allegation and truth, and we are confident that any sober calculation of the facts will prove no legal wrongdoing occurred.

Nonetheless, to those offended by Mr. Weinsteins behavior, he remains deeply apologetic.
The Swedish Prime Minister has backed calls for new sexual assault law [Photo: Getty]

The Swedish Prime Minister, Stefan Lofven, has agreed to back calls for a new law on sexual consent.

The proposed changes will mean that if a person has not verbally agreed or demonstrated a desire to engage in sexual activity then forcing them into a sexual act will be illegal.

Under current Swedish law, rape covers a multitude of sexual offences but proof of threat or violence is required to prosecute.

But such evidence will no longer be required in order to prosecute an offender under the new law.

Stefan Lofven has shown his support for proposed changes to laws on sexual assault in Sweden [Photo: Getty]

Speaking at a press conference, Lofven said: It should be obvious. Sex should be voluntary. If it is not voluntary, then it is illegal. If you are unsure, then refrain!

The proposed changes, which will be legislated in 2018, will enable cases to be taken more seriously in the eyes of the law.

The Swedish government is also set to introduce further legislation with proposed laws against human trafficking and sexual exploitation in the works. The planned changes come in light of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment.

There is a 10-year plan in place too, in order to prevent mens violence against women. The scheme aims to introduce electronic tagging of domestic abusers and the improvement of victim support services in the near future.





Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for non-stop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyleUK.

Read more from Yahoo Style UK:

Why are women being blamed for the Harvey Weinstein scandal?

One in 10 women are assaulted at work, new study reveals

What its really like to be a victim of stealthing
Tad Cummins, the Tennessee teacher who disappeared in March with a then-15-year-old student before being found more than a month later in Northern California, believes he was coerced by authorities and his wife into admitting to having sex with the teenager, his attorney argued in a motion obtained by PEOPLE.

The motion, which was recently unsealed by a federal judge, requests that Cummins statements to authorities about his alleged sexual relationship with Elizabeth Thomas should not be used in court.

The psychological pressure and coercion brought to bear upon the Defendant by his wifes admonishment to him to confess would have bared fare less weight upon the Defendant  even the next day as he spoke to known Agents  had he known his wife was actually an enlisted informant and that she was not acting solely in his interest or the interest of the marriage, the motion states.

Cummins is charged with kidnapping and sex crimes for allegedly abducting Elizabeth, a freshman at Culleoka Unit School, where Cummins was a teacher, on March 13. Both authorities and Elizabeths family allege she was groomed for months by Cummins, who was fired from his teaching job during their disappearance.

In April, the pair was found sleeping in a secluded shelter in Northern California. Cummins was arrested while Elizabeth was safely recovered and later returned to Tennessee, where she received treatment.

Shortly after his arrest, Cummins wife, Jill, told Inside Edition that when she spoke to her husband from behind bars and asked if he slept with the teen, he said Yes, I did.

Elizabeth Thomas and Tad Cummins

Cummins attorney accuses authorities of using Jill Cummins as a government informant and threatening his client with harsher penalties if he did not confess to sleeping with the teen, the motion states.

 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.

Elizabeth and Cummins vanished from Maury County, Tennessee, on March 13 and had been the subject of an AMBER Alert for 38 days before they were found.

Story continues

During their disappearance, disturbing details of the alleged relationship between Cummins and Elizabeth came out. Most notably, before the pairs disappearance, Cummins had been suspended without pay after being accused of kissing Elizabeth inside his classroom earlier in January.

During the AMBER Alert, prosecutors revealed the pair allegedly traded romantic messages via Cummins school email.

Jill Cummins

Two weeks before Cummins and Elizabeth were found, Jill Cummins filed for divorce.

 For more compelling True Crime coverage, follow our Crime magazine on Flipboard

In May, Elizabeth celebrated her 16th birthday privately, surrounded by family.

She has since returned to her hometown of Columbia, where she is being homeschooled and also babysits, Elizabeth told the Columbia Daily Herald.

It is unclear at this time whether she plans to testify in court. Cummins attorney has declined to comment on his case. Elizabeths family and attorney could not be reached for comment by PEOPLE.

Cummins is set to go to trial in Nashville in April, according to court documents obtained by PEOPLE.
A judge has ordered federal officials to allow two teenage immigrants in federal custody to have abortions.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in the District of Columbia issued a temporary restraining order that bars officials from preventing the teens from leaving the shelters where theyre being held.

Neither the identities of the girls nor of the separate shelters where theyre living were revealed. The teens are referred to as Jane Roe and Jane Poe. Theyre both 17 years old.

Officials are required to transport the teens or allow them to be transported, promptly and without delay  to an abortion provider, in order to obtain any pregnancy or abortion-related medical care, Chutkan ruled. She said the girls constitutional right to decide whether to carry their pregnancies to term needs to be preserved.

One of the teenagers is 10 weeks pregnant; the other is 22 weeks pregnant. Justice Department officials said they would allow the teen further along in her pregnancy to obtain an abortion. But they quickly filed a notice of appeal to both the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of the teen who is 10 weeks pregnant, in part because a sponsor has been identified for Ms. Roe. If the sponsor is approved, the government would release Ms. Roe to the sponsor, mooting her claim to injunctive relief, lawyers argued. They also argued that the government may make decisions favoring life over abortion; it is not obligated to facilitate Ms. Roes procedure.

Keeping the teens in the shelters is part of a Trump administration policy not to allow any females in detention to obtain an abortion, which the American Civil Liberties Union argued violated their constitutional rights.

Before President Donald Trump took office, unaccompanied immigrants in detention could obtain an abortion if they paid for it with private funds. Detained immigrants must still pay for abortions with private funds, but new Trump administration rules bar federally funded shelters from taking any action that facilitates abortion  unless written approval is given by the director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement. The current director, E. Scott Lloyd, a staunch Catholic, opposes abortion rights. He has personally contacted young women to convince them to carry their pregnancies to term, according to the ACLU.

Story continues

Last week, when the ACLU took on the case, officials of the federal Department of Health and Human Services said in an email to The New York Times that the girls were free to leave the country or to find sponsorship to stay in the country legally and leave the shelters. Otherwise, HHS does not believe we are required to facilitate the abortion, the email said.

ACLU attorney Brigitte Amiri accused the administration of a cruel and dystopian crusade to block abortion access for some of the most marginalized people in our country. She said in a statement that the ACLU is prepared to keep fighting for as long as we need to.

The ACLU and the Trump administration last went head-to-head in October over a 17-year-old immigrant who was 11 weeks pregnant and had been blocked from obtaining an abortion. The ACLU won a stay from Chutkan, whose ruling was upheld on appeal. The teen quickly obtained an abortion before the Justice Department could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Related Coverage

Appeals Court: Teen Immigrant Can Get Abortion Over Trump Administration Objections

'Jane Doe' Got Her Abortion. Trump Policy Will Still Block Them For Other Immigrant Teens.

Also on HuffPost

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Police reported multiple fatalities from the scene of a devastating train derailment south of Tacoma, Washington on Monday morning.

Amtrak Cascades Train 501, with service from Seattle to Portland, derailed at about 7:40 a.m. on Monday morning. At least six passengers were killed when train cars plummeted off the tracks and onto the highway below, according to the Associated Press.

There were approximately 78 passengers and five crew members on board, according to a statement from Amtrak. At least 90 people have been transported to local hospitals.

At 7:40 this morning the train derailed...There were some fatalities and there were a lot of injuries. And some people were able to get off the train, official says of Amtrak derailment in Washington state https://t.co/2CyKkppdRE pic.twitter.com/aQhxZwnmcc  CBS News (@CBSNews) December 18, 2017

The train was performing its inaugural run on newly-constructed tracks, part of a $180.7-million project meant to speed up passenger rail service. The track had previously transported freight trains, but Mondays journey was the first with passengers onboard. Amtrak predicted the new route would allow for faster and more frequent trips between Seattle and Portland.

All SB lanes of I-5 blocked near Mounts Road in Pierce County due to derailed train car. Avoid area! pic.twitter.com/SBH7dCc6yg  WSDOT Tacoma Traffic (@wsdot_tacoma) December 18, 2017

First up close images of scene coming from @wspd1pio Trooper Bova, this is heartbreaking to see. Our thoughts & prayers to everyone involved. pic.twitter.com/ws460sjWRo  Pierce Co Sheriff (@PierceSheriff) December 18, 2017

An official told AP that preliminary signs indicate the Amtrak train may have struck something on the track before going off and that the incident was unlikely a maintenance issue because the tracks were new.

We felt this rocking and creaking noise, and then all of a sudden it felt like we were heading down a hill, passenger Chris Karnes told CBS News, and the next thing that we know, we're being slammed into the front of our seats, and the windows are breaking, and then we stop, and there's water that's gushing out of the top of the train and all the lights go out and people are screaming."

The train was going 81 miles per hour before it derailed, according to Transitdocs.com. At least seven of the trains cars derailed from the tracks onto the highway below during morning traffic. There were no fatalities reported among motorists.

Breaking News: Amtrak Train # 501 That's Part Of a New High-Speed Service That Just Launched Today, Has Derailed Going 18 Miles An hour In Washington State. Injuries & Casualties.

Prayers For Everyone Today.

pic.twitter.com/NTANuKPGcr  ~Marietta? (@MDavisbot) December 18, 2017

A few hours after the incident, President Trump tweeted that the accident shows more than ever why our soon to be submitted infrastructure plan must be approved quickly. Seven trillion dollars spent in the Middle East while our roads, bridges, tunnels, railways (and more) crumble! Not for long!

The train accident that just occurred in DuPont, WA shows more than ever why our soon to be submitted infrastructure plan must be approved quickly. Seven trillion dollars spent in the Middle East while our roads, bridges, tunnels, railways (and more) crumble! Not for long!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 18, 2017

He also tweeted thoughts and prayers are with everyone involved in the train accident in DuPont and thanked first responders.

Amtrak has temporarily suspended train service south of Seattle and the National Transportation Safety Board has launched an investigation.

"Today's tragic incident in Pierce County is a serious and ongoing emergency," Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said in a statement. "Trudi and I are holding in our hearts everyone on board, and are praying for the many injured. They are our top priority, and I know first responders are doing everything to ensure everyone has the care they need."

Those with questions about passengers on the train can call 800-523-9101.
Congress spent $115,000 in taxpayer money to settle sexual harassment claims, just so you know

Member offices in the House of Representatives settled at least three claims of sexual harassment and retaliation between 2008 and 2012 for $115,000, according to data released Tuesday by the Congressional Office of Compliance. Another five cases of sex discrimination were settled during that same period.

The largest sexual-harassment settlement cost taxpayers $85,000, while the other two cases of sexual harassment and retaliation were settled for $10,000 and $20,000. The sex discrimination settlements ranged from $8,000 to $15,225. In all, $342,225.85 worth of settlements were paid between 2008 and 2012.

The Office of Compliance revealed these details to the Committee on House Administration, which is conducting a review of the issue within Congress. That effort was sparked by both reports of sexual harassment within member offices and complaints about the arduous and secretive process victims have to go through when they come forward with workplace complaints on the Hill.

The information released Tuesday follows an earlier report that revealed an $84,000 settlement was paid in 2014 to settle a compliant against Rep. Blake Farenthold, a Texas Republican. While Farenthold denied wrongdoing, the Republican Congressman announced last week that he would not seek re-election.

Congress paid out $115,000 in three sexual harassment claims from 2008 - 2012, the House disclosed Tuesday: https://t.co/8V72U9FyXB pic.twitter.com/t42FucXHBF  CBS News (@CBSNews) December 19, 2017

Related article: Lessons for 2018 from one of Americas most tumultuous years

The data the Office of Compliance sent to the committee includes no names, and the office provided no information about the substance of the claims or complaints. Thats largely by design. Earlier in December, the Committee held a hearing on possible reforms to the 1995 law that dictates how complaints are handled. That hearing showed just how difficult it is to glean specific information about sexual harassment. The way the law is written, the strict confidentiality not only binds the parties, but it specifically binds our office from discussing those claims, Susan Tsui Grundmann, the offices executive director, testified.

Story continues

In a Dec. 15 letter to Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.), the chairman of the Committee on House Administration, Grundmann said that because there are no charging documents created during the mandatory counseling period that victims are required to undergo, there is no documentation on the specific complaints that employees raised during the follow-up mandatory mediation period.

In addition, Grundmann said, because settlements are conducted under strict non-disclosure provisions the Office also does not know what led to the settlement or why the parties agreed to settle in the first place. The OOC has traditionally treated sexual harassment claims as a form of sex discrimination, Grundmann said, and has not necessarily separated claims of harassment from other forms of sex-based mistreatment like pregnancy discrimination. In some instances all forms of discrimination were labeled as civil rights cases.

Thus, we have claims classified in the category of civil rights that may or may not contain an allegation of sex-based discrimination, Grundmann writes. And we have claims classified as sex discrimination that mightbut do not necessarilyinvolve allegations of sexual harassment.

In a statement Tuesday, Harper said he would continue pressing the Office of Compliance for more information. As I have stated from the beginning of this review, one case of sexual harassment is one case too many, Harper said, in part. We will continue to investigate the OOCs record keeping practices as part of our extensive review.
A judge just ordered the Trump administration to allow abortions for two undocumented immigrants

After the Office of Refugee Resettlement tried to stop two undocumented 17-year-olds in federal custody from obtaining abortions, on December 18th a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to allow the two undocumented immigrants to have abortions.

U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan granted the American Civil Liberties Unions request for a restraining order on December 18th that would allow two pregnant 17-year-olds to have abortions.

Chutkan said that she made her decision in order to preserve the teens constitutional right to decide whether to carry their pregnancies to term. She put a hold on her decision for 24 hours to allow for an appeal.

The administration appealed the decision, asking the Supreme Court to halt the abortion of one of the girls on December 18th, just after Chutkan released her decision. The Department of Justice listed different circumstances as its reason for pursuing the block. The other teen, whose abortion had not been appealed, was cleared to undergo the procedure on the morning of December 19th.

The two girls came to the U.S. from their home countries without their parents and are known as Jane Roe and Jane Poe. They are being detained in Office of Refugee Resettlement centers in two different states  both of which do not require parental consent for minors seeking abortions.

Two big things happened yesterday in our fight to stop the Trump administration from blocking young immigrant women's access to abortion: A federal judge granted our request for a temporary restraining order to stop the admin from blocking them, but the government has appealed.  ACLU (@ACLU) December 19, 2017

The court cleared the way for one Jane to obtain her abortion today. But the government is taking its dystopian crusade to force the other young woman to carry a pregnancy to term against her will to SCOTUS.



We're ready. #JusticeforJane  ACLU (@ACLU) December 19, 2017

The Department of Health and Human Services originally denied the teens requests for abortions, saying they could only terminate their pregnancies if they found a sponsor or returned to their home countries.

In October, the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled that a different undocumented 17-year-old could receive an abortion in the U.S. The ACLU has also filed a class action suit to stop the Trump administration from preventing unaccompanied minors from getting abortions.

We are glad to see the ACLU supporting the rights of undocumented immigrants. Women should have autonomy over their bodies and the right to the health care they need  including abortions. The fight womens access to health care is far from over, but Chutkans decision is a step in the right direction.
The Last Jedi hints at a love triangle, and I have really mixed feelings about it

From Han and Leia, to Anakin and Padme, weve had our share of romance in that galaxy far, far away. Star Wars: The Last Jedi is no exception, and it might have hinted at more to come. Now, if you dont want to be spoiled about all the ~luv~ going around, then AVERT YOUR EYES BECAUSE SPOILERS FOLLOW. Dont care about spoilers, or saw it already? Great, lets jump right in

If you thought there was a lil sumthin sumthin going on between Rey and Finn in The Force Awakens, it seems you were partially right. Because in The Last Jedi, Rey appears  this is only speculation, but it sure as hell came off this way  to have some feels for Finn.

Whereas in The Force Awakens, Rey and Finn spend most of the film together  working to save the galaxy and developing a deep friendship, and maybe more in the process  they spend most of The Last Jedi apart. Rey is off training with Luke, learning the ways of the Force so she can stop the First Order in its tracks. Elsewhere in the galaxy, Finn is also combating the dictatorship  this time with Rose by his side.

Finn and Roses relationship doesnt seem romantic at first.

They team up to track down the Master Codebreaker  played by Justin Theroux, ICYMI  so they can get through the First Orders defenses and stop them from tracking the Resistance through lightspeed. But after Rose saves Finns life in a climactic final battle by knocking him out of the way of fire and stopping his suicide mission, the pair have a *real* romantic exchange

Finn: Why would you stop me?

Rose: I saved you, dummy. Thats how were going to win  not fighting what we hate, saving what we love.

Right after that, she plants one on him. Then, she passes out from her injuries.

When everyone is reunited after the battle, Rey sees the pair together.

Rey just had her big reunion with Finn; they shared a passionate hug  more passionate than the Finn-Rose kiss, if you ask me  when she lifts a bunch of rocks using the Force like a boss, allowing whats left of the Resistance to escape their mine hideout. Pretty soon after, Rey spots Finn tending to a still-passed out Rose, and while Rey doesnt say anything explicitly, the look in her eyes suggests shes a bit sad to see Finn with someone else (again, speculation).

Story continues

Also worth noting? Right before this moment, Rey meets Poe, and there appeared to be a bit of a spark there. Because, hello, he said I know to her, and we all know the significance of those two words (also, the Force Awakens novelization hints at Rey and Poe being a thing). So to recap, Rose likes Finn; Finn appears to like Rose back; Rey seems to like Finn too, but might also be interested in Poe; and looks like Poe likes Rey. Okay, so yes, this is more of a love SQUARE than TRIANGLE. #MATH

Heres my issue

I am all for women having it ALL. Because why cant women have room for a career, love, family, friends, and so on in their lives? We are fully dimensional human beings with many interests off-screen, so that should be represented on-screen. That said, sometimes one of the aforementioned needs to take priority.

And in the case of Rey, work (sure, lets call it that) *needs* to take priority, because the fate of the galaxy is literally at stake. Thats not to say she shouldnt have any room for romance. (Maybe she and Poe will fall for each other while participating in Poes favorite pastime: Blowing stuff up.) But so help me, if Rey turns into a jealous cliche or if these boys (or others) in any way distract her from saving everyone, Ill throw a tantrum so intense that Kylo Ren will look zen.

Do I think that will happen? No, because so far, the latest batch of Star Wars films have been feminist as hell. In The Last Jedi alone, Rey, Leia, Holdo, and Rose each have their big, badass moments, and are total equals to their male (and alien) counterparts. Not to mention, Rose makes a good point about love being a motivating factor in the Resistances efforts. And lets be honest, shipping is fun.

But if these characters, Rey in particular, are about to get some romance in their lives, it should support their hero journeys  not overpower them. Got that, J.J. Abrams?
In more Matt Damon says something horribly tone deaf about sexual misconduct news, Damon recently told Business Insider that we should all spend more time discussing the men in Hollywood who arent sexual predators. The full quote reads, "We're in
Meghan Markle has already given us a few hints about her future bridal gown, describing her dream wedding dress as classic and simple, perhaps with a modern twist. But while she claims to prefer simple gowns, the future royal has her eye on an elaborate designer to create her dress for the big day.

Israel-based designer Inbal Dror confirmed to People that they sent a sketch for Markle to consider at the request of Kensington Palace.

We received a request from the royal family to send a sketch, a spokesperson for the brand told People. Unfortunately its a secret and I cant give more details about the sketch.

If Markle decides to go with Dror, it will certainly be a surprising choice for the bride-to-be. The designer is known for its sheer, plunging, and embellished creations, often complete with figure-hugging mermaid hemlines or high-slit silhouettes. Inbal Drors 2018 bridal collection featured plenty of sheer and plunging creations with strategically placed embellishments.

RELATED: Meghan Markle Said This Workout Immediately Changed Her Bodyand We Tried It

Here are three more things to know about the Israeli designer.

1. Dror worked with fashion designer Roberto Cavalli before opening her own label in Israel in 2010.

She relocated to Milan to work for the brand before moving back to her home country.

2. Beyonce and Naomi Watts are fans of the label.

Queen Bey wore one of Drors bridal creations to present an award at the Grammys in 2016. The sheer panels and high slits are Drors signature.

3. Inbal Dror is only available in one store in the U.K.

The label is sold at one boutique, Morgan Davies, in the United Kingdom, but is more widely available in the United States.
One of Donald Trumps judicial nominees just withdrew after a viral video revealed hes never tried a case in court

President Donald Trumps appointments have always drawn scrutiny. And on December 18th, one of Trumps judicial nominees, Matthew Peterson, withdrew after a video of him struggling to answer questions at his confirmation hearing went viral.

Peterson had been nominated to serve as a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He penned a resignation letter to Trump in which he said that he didnt want to be a continued distraction to the president.

In a five-minute clip of the confirmation hearing, Peterson told Senator John Kennedy that he has never tried a case in court and has taken fewer than five depositions. He later said that his background is not in litigation. Throughout the questioning, Peterson was unable to answer a single one of Kennedys questions.

I understand that the path that many successful district court judges have taken has been a different one than I have taken, Peterson said.

The video was shared by Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and has been viewed more than eight million times.

MUST WATCH: Republican @SenJohnKennedy asks one of @realDonaldTrumps US District Judge nominees basic questions of law & he cant answer a single one. Hoo-boy. pic.twitter.com/fphQx2o1rc  Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) December 15, 2017

Peterson currently serves as the commissioner for the Federal Election Commission, and most of his experience is in campaign finance law. He graduated with a law degree from the University of Virginia.

Two of Trumps other judicial nominees have also withdrawn this month. Brett Talley removed his name from consideration after it was discovered that the American Bar Association rated him as not qualified due to his lack of courtroom experience. Nominee Jeff Mateer withdrew after speeches surfaced in which he described transgender children as part of Satans plan and called the legalization of same-sex marriage disgusting.

Its unnerving that Trumps judicial nominees have been so unfit for the role. Judges have the potential to impact the law in major ways  like the court ruling that LGBTQ people cant be fired for their sexual orientation. If the people who serve on these courts arent qualified, it could negatively affect us all for decades. Judges are important, and we need our president to realize this when he makes his nominations.
Who is Tanya S. Chutkan, the judge who said the Trump administration must allow undocumented immigrants access to abortions?

On December 18th, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya S. Chutkan ordered the Trump administration to allow two 17-year-old undocumented immigrants, known as Jane Roe and Jane Poe, to receive abortions. One of the pregnant girls was reportedly allowed to have her abortion today, December 19th. The other girls procedure is currently being stalled by the Supreme Court.

Judge Tanya Chutkan is originally from Kingston, Jamaica. She received her B.A. in Economics from George Washington University and her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. While at the University of Pennsylvania, she was the Associate Editor of the Law Review and a Legal Writing Fellow.

Chutkan worked at her own private law practice for three years. She then worked for eleven years as a trial attorney and supervisor for the District of Columbia Public Defender Service. Chutkan later specialized in litigation and white-collar criminal defense at Boies, Schiller, & Flexner LLP.

Under the Obama administration in June of 2014, Chutkan was appointed to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

This is the second time Judge Chutkan has ordered the Trump administration to grant an undocumented teen an abortion. In October, another 17-year-old girl in federal custody, identified only as Jane Doe, received government backlash upon requesting an abortion.

Tanya Chutkan, the same federal district judge who blocked the government from interfering with a detained immigrant teenagers abortion in October, did so again for two new minors in a ruling Monday. The government has already appealed the ruling https://t.co/RDgxy0b2VF pic.twitter.com/ER0WUaShAS  National Law Journal (@TheNLJ) December 19, 2017

A new Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement policy states that federally-funded shelters cannot facilitate abortion-related actions for unaccompanied minors without the approval of the offices director. A hearing was called on the matter of Jane Doe in October. Chutkan argued that regardless of Jane Does immigrant status, her constitutional rights should be respected. At that time, the teen had already received permission to have an abortion from a state judge in Texas.

Story continues

The D.C. Court of Appeals ultimately granted Jane Doe permission to receive the abortion.

Two big things happened yesterday in our fight to stop the Trump administration from blocking young immigrant women's access to abortion: A federal judge granted our request for a temporary restraining order to stop the admin from blocking them, but the government has appealed.  ACLU (@ACLU) December 19, 2017

The court cleared the way for one Jane to obtain her abortion today. But the government is taking its dystopian crusade to force the other young woman to carry a pregnancy to term against her will to SCOTUS.



We're ready. #JusticeforJane  ACLU (@ACLU) December 19, 2017

Unfortunately, the Trump administration has shown no sign that theyll abandon their cruel and dystopian crusade to block abortion access for some of the most marginalized people in our country. Were prepared to keep fighting for as long as we need to. https://t.co/EBYdYGdXhO  ACLU (@ACLU) December 19, 2017

According to a statement made by Judge Chutkan on December 18th, the government is trying to enforce ultimate authority to unilaterally veto the reproductive choices of the unaccompanied minors in its custody.

Time is ticking for the teen who has yet to be granted her abortion. We hope that the ACLU and Chutkan will keep fighting until the administration recognizes the girls constitutional rights.
The Trump administration is going to drop climate change from its list of threats, and it makes no sense

Since his inauguration in January, President Donald Trump has fought to undo the legacy of President Barack Obama. And, once again, Trump appears to be reversing Obama-era decisions. The president is expected to drop climate change from the national security strategys list of threats.

Trump will present the strategy during a speech this afternoon, December 18th. Although the policy says that climate policies will continue to shape the global energy system, it does not recognize climate change as a threat to national security. Instead, it addresses the climate as part of a section referred to as energy dominance. The NSS during the Obama administration, on the other hand, prioritized climate change.

In contrast, the Pentagon does consider climate change a threat to security due to the increasing strength of storms, rising sea levels, and refugees fleeing severe weather. The Fourth Annual Climate Assessment, issued by the national government in November, stated that climate change is caused by human activity and warned that it will lead to natural disasters such as heatwaves and flooding.

In June, Trump announced announced his decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord, an agreement signed by 195 countries to commit to reducing their carbon footprints. The president has long denied the reality of climate change on Twitter.

The only global warming that people should be concerned with is the global warming caused by nuclear weapons because of our weak U.S. leader  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 15, 2014

Record setting cold and snow, ice caps massive! The only global warming we should fear is that caused by nuclear weapons - incompetent pols.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 19, 2015

I will be announcing my decision on the Paris Accord over the next few days. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 31, 2017

Trumps address is expected to focus on his America First approach to foreign policy and highlight China and Russia as competitors.

They are determined to make economies less free and less fair, to grow their militaries, and to control information and data to repress their countries and expand their influence, an excerpt of the speech released by Reuters says.

The Trump administrations decision to no longer list climate change as a security threat is not exactly surprising. But it is discouraging. Each year has been getting consistently hotter than the last, so we need to combat climate change now more than ever. We need a government that will stand up for the protection of our planet, not stand in its way. We just wish the Trump administration would realize how urgent climate change really is.
Things are not that different, surprisingly, for our countries, muses Nadya Tolokonnikova, leader of notorious Russian feminist punk/art collective Pussy Riot. Its not the easiest time right now, and sometimes I find myself in political depression. Its not always easy, but I know its not easy for our people in other countries as well. You [Americans] got your own s***.

This comment, of course, leads to a conversation about the reportedly chummy relationship between President Trump and Russias president, Vladimir Putin, of which Tolokonnikova says: I think its harmful for the world politics, this trend of authoritarian leaders and so-called strong hands, but I think in fact just a really insecure bunch of men who are trying to hide their insecurities with their machismo. So, I dont really feel like its good it became a trend. However, she adds on a more positive note, But I see that people are really ready to resist. I was in the United States when Womens March happened.  I loved the spirit of it, and I loved that people of even different views sometimes, or different political views, decided to join each other to protest against Trump. Thats something that we have to relearn, I guess, how to make our governments accountable for what theyre doing.

Tolokonnikova is visiting Yahoos Los Angeles headquarters to promote Pussy Riots first-ever live U.S. concerts at L.A.s Lodge Room and Bootleg Theater, followed by an onstage conversation with Chelsea Manning and Laurie Anderson at Houstons Day for Night festival. These momentous events take place five years after Pussy Riot became an international cause celebre, when Tolokonnikova and four other Pussy Riot members were charged with hooliganism and sentenced to jail for two years for staging a sacrilegious protest performance at Moscows Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Now, even after that horrific ordeal, Tolokonnikovas spirit and sense of humor are very much intact, and she chucklingly admits that during her incident-free stateside concerts this month, she hasnt felt the same rush of adrenaline that she gets when playing guerrilla events in her native land. Because if you are an artist who has strong political beliefs in Russia, you cannot really expect that you will go to venue and you will play the whole show without being shut down!

Story continues

Pussy Riot perform their first U.S show in Los Angeles. (Photo: Consequence of Sound)

Surprisingly, Tolokonnikova still resides in Moscow. (I feel like home is a big thing for me, and Russian culture and Russian language. Our art is tied with Russian politics. The reason why we started to do what we had started because we want to get rid of Putin, because we want to change our country, because we want to live our lives in a crazy, colorful, punk way and not being persecuted because of that. We still think its achievable. We still have hopes.) However, she has spent a good deal of time recording music in America and therefore has a unique vantage point when it comes to U.S. politics and art. In May 2016, she even donned Trump drag for Pussy Riots prescient, Jonas Akerlund-directed Make America Great Again music video, a darkly humorous depiction of a Trump dictatorship; however, when the video came out before the presidential election, it suddenly seemed less amusing.

I didnt want to predict it [the election], I didnt, Tolokonnikova says of the controversial video, but I felt like people are not treating elections here seriously enough. Im not American, and I dont live in America, so I may be wrong about it. But I just felt like Hillary Clinton supporters, people who are standing for progressive values, they werent concerned enough with this threat that were coming from far-right Republicans and from Donald Trump himself. I think a lot more things could be done and a lot more bridges could be built.

Its interesting, and unexpected, to hear a woman known for her extreme political views argue for bridge-building between the left and right. (Punk is, for me, is to challenge status quo, including your own status quo, all the time, surprise every day and give people something that they dont expect.) But Tolokonnikova points out that living in bubbles of our ideology is a disease of our time. Its not just about Republicans. Its about us, too. Its about people of progressive ideology. We dont want to talk with Trump supporters. I dont necessarily want to talk to people who support Putin, but I have to, because otherwise we will never build this bridge, build this understanding. How can we act together? We need to somehow communicate and do things together.

Thats why I think its really important to build alternative institutions, civil society institutions like educational institutions, health care institutions, alternative media [like MediaZona, the independent Russian news service Pussy Riot launched in 2014], to show people that we really can be helpful to them.  Its important to talk to people, and its important to build this trust and understanding. Its important to listen to people. Sometimes you want to not use ideological terms in order to achieve this understanding. We dont want to attack a person right away with a lot of words like, I dont know, isms.

Tolokonnikova further explains that this mindset was even why Pussy Riot chose to stage their 2012 church performance. If you take a look at the 60s, you see Martin Luther King, you see Malcolm X. People did know how to use religion not to oppress themselves but makes themselves more free. And it seems like right now Christian rights, they grab the religion, and its really not easy for activists to use religion, which is basically a good thing. If you read the New Testament, thats a really powerful thing, she says. Thats why we went to the church. We wanted to bring Christians on our side. We wanted to say, No, no, no, real Christians, they shouldnt vote for Putin, because hes not an honest man. Hes killing people.

During her time in prison, Tolokonnikova learned about the importance of bridge-building and sharing information. Even though prison guards had forbidden other inmates to talk to her, in an attempt to isolate her and turn my life into hell, she managed to make friends, many of whom were initially pro-Putin. Just in one month, you can totally change somebodys worldview, not by preaching or by trying to change their mind actively, but just giving them a lot of literature, books, or magazines, she recalls. So after one month I spent in one correctional facility, I opened the room, and I saw my fellow prisoners in a circle. They were discussing Putin. They were discussing his recent reforms. They were discussing corruption in the government, in police stations. One month ago, they would all say to me, No, no, no, we like Putin. Were really up for his government! Without me saying anything, they were just reading magazines [and changing their minds].  They were so brave, so you just learn how brave people are and how warm and how just incredible human spirits.

Pussy Riot recently released the dystopian video for Police State, starring Chloe Sevigny, which was inspired by Tolokonnikova living more than half her life under Putins rule. (The level of corruption is just incredible. Theyre stealing everything. We are a really wealthy country with a lot of natural resources, but people are really poor because everything goes to not just the 1 percent, but a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny particle of 1 percent.  We dont want to take it anymore.) But the collectives next single and guerrilla-style music video, Nasheed, sounds like it might be a little more lighthearted. Tolokonnikova explains: It means Our World. Basically, its an homage to this infamous phrase, kind of something like your MAGA.  We are suggesting in this song that we need to occupy the FSB building in the middle of Moscow and open a toy store.

And, back to the subjects of MAGA and how Tolokonnikova has maintained an unbroken spirit despite everything she has endured, she keeps things in perspective by looking back at the rape scene that she had to film for the above-mentioned Make America Great Again music video. I never had this [assault] experience in my [real] life, luckily, but even playing it, it was just disgusting. So, for the second half of the day after that, I was crying on the set. I have to be judged, but I have tears in my eyes. I cant even imagine what people who went through rape, I dont know how they keeping up their spirit. You were asking me how did I went through jail, but I think there are much worse things in life. And so, when I was in jail, I was thinking about I dont want to be self-pity, because its not the worst situation. Im still safe physically. I still have my mind. I can think, I can make art, and I can help other people. And through helping other people, I can help myself.

Watch Nadya Tolokonnikovas full conversation with Yahoo below.

Follow Lyndsey on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Amazon, Tumblr, Spotify
Queen Elizabeth II has died at the age of 96. She was the U.K.s oldest monarch and the oldest reigning female monarch in world history.

Her husband, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, died last year in April, at the age of 99. The loss left a huge void in her life, according to her son Prince Andrew. Understandably so; the royal pair had been married for 73 years.

Long before Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were couple goals (at least to some royal watchers), Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip had a love story for the ages.

The royal couple  William and Harrys grandparents  werent the most expressive pair in public (you wouldnt have seen them engaging in PDA, like Meghan and Harry) but their love story was just about as romantic as they come.

They first met as children at a 1934 royal wedding. Then, in July 1939, a 13-year-old Princess Elizabeth encountered Philip Mountbatten, then 18, at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth. Some time after, the pair became pen pals, Ingrid Seward, the editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine and author ofMy Husband & I: The Inside Story of 70 Years of the Royal Marriage, said.

Princess Elizabeth dances with her then- fiance, Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, in July 1947. (Photo: PA Images via Getty Images)

Princess Elizabeth dances with her then- fiance, Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, in July 1947. (Photo: PA Images via Getty Images)

He was different than all the aristocratic rich young men Elizabeth had met previously. He had no money and no estates, but had royal blood in abundance  they were cousins through Elizabeths great-grandmother Queen Victoria, Seward told HuffPost. (Philip was originally a prince of Greece and Denmark, though hed go on to abandon his Greek and Danish royal titles to marry into Britains royal family.)

Elizabeth developed a bit of a crush.

Philip was so handsome, he was almost beautiful, Seward said. From the moment Elizabeth saw him again when she was 13 years old and he was 18, she never looked at another man.

Story continues

The pair walk arm in arm in November 1947. (Photo: Mirrorpix via Getty Images)

The pair walk arm in arm in November 1947. (Photo: Mirrorpix via Getty Images)

They wed in November 1947 when Elizabeth was 21. The marriage that followed is chronicled in Netflixs popular drama series The Crown, which includes some pretty juicy details: The second season implies that in the mid-1950s, Philip had a fling with renowned ballerina Galina Ulanova.

Though Philips faithfulness has often been the subject of speculation, Seward said the ballerina plotline is more fiction than fact.

Galina Ulanova did dance Giselle for the queen on her first and only visit to the U.K., but the dancer was accompanied by her husband on the visit, Seward said. She never met Prince Philip, who left for his five-month tour a week after she arrived in the U.K.

The real royal couple and their

The real royal couple and their "Crown" counterparts, played by Claire Foy and Matt Smith. (Photo: Keystone-France/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images/Netflux)

Seward noted that the real queen and her husband are far more interesting and nuanced than their on-screen characterizations on The Crown.

The queen has much more humor than the character portrayed by Clarie Foy, and Prince Philip is far more determined, royal and masculine than the TV character, she said. They belong to an era that never showed emotion in public but in private, had many more laughs.

What else is there to know about the queen and Philips private and public love story? Below, Seward and other royal experts take a look back on the royal couples biggest moments in 73 years of marriage.

The Engagement

Bettmann via Getty Images

The Engagement

Elizabeth found Philip, who joined the Royal Navy and served in World War II, to be "dashing" and a breath of fresh air, Seward said.



From left to right: Princess Elizabeth, Philip, Queen Elizabeth (later, the Queen Mother), King George VI and Princess Margaret.

The Wedding

Getty Images

The Wedding

The pair married on Nov. 20, 1947, at Westminster Abbey -- an event many in Great Britain anticipated greatly after many years of austerity and darkness during World War II.



"For months, the public was treated to tantalizing hints about the details of the bridesmaids dresses, and the cake and so on," Sarika Bose, a royal expert and a lecturer in Victorian literature at the University of British Columbia, told HuffPost. "Here you had this young couple that represented hope for a new, happier age after the war."

Getty Images

With austerity measures still in effect, Elizabeth had to save up ration coupons to purchase the material for her wedding gown. Here, Elizabeth and Philip make their way down the aisle of Westminster Abbey, London, on their wedding day.

Royal Visits

Keystone via Getty Images

Royal Visits

Philip and Elizabeth show off their square dance moves in 1951 in Ottawa, Canada, on one of many royal visits they made around the world. After the wedding, Philip had to to let go of many of his own career ambitions, Bose said.



"Prince Philip was reluctant to leave his career in the Royal Navy, as he was progressing well on his own steam," she said. "In marrying the woman who would be queen, he knew he would always have to compromise in many ways, starting with giving up a career in the Navy that suited his active personality."

Starting A Family

PA Images via Getty Images

Starting A Family

In 1948, Philip and Elizabeth welcomed their firstborn, Prince Charles. Three more children would follow: their only daughter, Anne, and sons Andrew and Edward.



As husband and the queen's consort, Philip had never taken the job lightly. His friend and private secretary Michael Parker once recalled: He told me his job first, second and last was never to let her down.

Becoming Queen

Getty Images

Becoming Queen

As depicted on "The Crown," Princess Elizabeth learned she would become queen while on an official visit to Kenya in 1952. Her father, King George VI, had died, and it was Philip's duty to relay the news, said Marlene Eilers Koenig, a royal historian who runs the blog Royal Musings.



"I can't imagine how difficult it was for Philip to be told that his father-in-law was dead and then have to take Elizabeth on a walk to break the news," Eilers Koenig said. "Not only that she was now queen, but that her beloved father had died."

The Coronation

Keystone via Getty Images

The Coronation

The newly crowned Queen Elizabeth II and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, wave at the crowds from the balcony at Buckingham Palace. The 1952 coronation happened six years into their marriage and left the Duke a bit unsettled. Many accounts suggest that the couple held very traditional views about gender roles in marriage, despite Elizabeth's position.



"Suddenly, Elizabeth was the boss," Seward said. "She took great care to not to emasculate her husband and therefore behind the scenes, allowed him to make all the decisions. He was still the alpha male and according to all accounts, they had a loving and passionate, but private, relationship."

Adjusting To Their Roles

PA Images via Getty Images

Adjusting To Their Roles

The couple, pictured here at a polo match in 1957, had trouble adjusting to their new lives.



Elizabeth had a lot to learn as queen and also had everyday jobs in addition to opening hospitals and other royal duties, Bose said. She was concerned for her husbands need for a sense of identity and gave him duties. Eventually, he was able to establish several very worthy charity initiatives, like the Duke of Edinburghs Award.

The Last Son

Keystone via Getty Images

The Last Son

In 1964, Elizabeth II and Philip welcomed their fourth and last child, Edward.

Protecting The Monarchy

Anwar Hussein via Getty Images

Protecting The Monarchy

Philip has always been protective of his wife and the royal family's standing in the world, Seward said. That was particularly true following the very public divorces of their sons, Prince Charles (from Princess Diana, pictured here in pink) and Prince Andrew (from Sarah, Duchess of York) in 1996.



"The queen has always valued her husband's strong opinions and he was very protective of her and anyone who damaged the institution of the monarchy," Seward said. "He saw both Diana and Fergies behavior as damaging to the monarchy and, therefore, to his wife. They both devoted their life to duty at a cost to their personal life, but it was what they both felt they had to do."

Celebrations Later In Life

PA Archive/PA Images

Celebrations Later In Life

Elizabeth  pictured here with Philip at St. Paul's Cathedral in London on her 90th birthday  acknowledged her husband's dedication to her during a celebratory speech to mark 60 years as queen.



"Prince Philip is, I believe, well-known for declining compliments of any kind. But throughout he has been a constant strength and guide," she said in 2012.

Their 70th Anniversary

James Devaney via Getty Images

Their 70th Anniversary

The royal couple  pictured in June 2017 with their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren  recently celebrated their 70th anniversary.



"Their displays of affections have largely been confined behind the palace walls, but I am certain that there is great romance there," Eilers Koenig said. "It's still there, even now, after more than 70 years of marriage."

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.

Related Stories
UPDATE: Dec. 21  Alabama Secretary of State John Merrills office said Thursday it had located the man who made an off-the-cuff comment to a TV station last week about people coming from different parts of the country to vote in the Senate special election. The man is a registered voter in the state, the office said.

Thanks to the help of concerned citizens interested in the credibility and the integrity of the electoral process, the Alabama Secretary of States Office was able to identify the young man who was anonymously featured on the news broadcast. After additional research was conducted, it was determined that this young man has lived and worked in Alabama for more than one year and is currently a registered voter in this state, Merrills office said in a statement. We applaud this young mans energy, excitement, and enthusiasm for the electoral process and we are always encouraged when we observe Alabamians who are actively engaged in campaigns and elections in our state.

Not only is that case closed, the door has been slammed and nailed shut! Merrill wrote in a text message to HuffPost.

PREVIOUSLY:

Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill says he is investigating concerns of voter fraud in last weeks Senate special election, even though he has publicly said there is no evidence of it.

Merrill, a Republican, told Fox10 Monday he was investigating a viral clip of a Doug Jones supporter on election night. In a spontaneous interview in the moments after the race was announced for Jones, the supporter spoke about getting people out to vote.

We came here all the way from different parts of the country as part of our fellowship and all of us pitched in to vote and canvas together and we got our boy elected, the supporter, who is not identified, says.

Even though he says there wasnt voter fraud in the election between Jones and Roy Moore, who has refused to concede the race, Merrill said he wants to find the man in the clip and clarify what he was talking about.

Story continues

Well, its very disconcerting when someone whos not from Alabama says that they participated in our election, so now its incumbent upon us to try to identify this young man, to see what kind of role he played  if it was to simply play a canvassing roll, or if he was part of a process that went out and tried to register voters, or if he himself actually became a registered voter, Merrill said. He added it was unlikely voter fraud would have occurred at the polls because Alabama has a strict photo ID law.

In an interview, Merrill said his office had received 70-80 allegations of voter fraud since Election Day, some of which he said werent credible at all. Merrill said he had an obligation to do his due diligence and try and find the man in the video after several people had contacted his office about it.

Ive gotta do everything I possibly can to try and find this kid and figure out: Was he just exuberant in his expression? Was he overly enthusiastic about what was going on? he said. Those things make perfect sense to me. Hes a kid, probably never been on TV before. If he had, he probably hadnt been on more than a couple of times, probably never been on TV in a situation that was that intense with that much going on.

Merrill added that the Jones campaign was helping him try and locate the man and is asking anyone who has information about him to contact his office.

Merrills probe comes as the NAACP Legal Defense fund pressed him over obstacles people faced at their polling places last Tuesday. Those issues included confusion about the process of voting if a voter had been labeled inactive by the state and poll workers who incorrectly told people the address on their ID had to match the address on the voter rolls.

Bernard Simelton, the head of the Alabama state conference of the NAACP, said he worried a voter fraud investigation would deter people from turning out at the polls in the future.

People in the African-American community in particular who may have even just an outstanding ticket, when they hear that theres an investigation, that may deter them, he said in an interview. Simelton added that his group had heard from three people who were unable to vote in the special election despite voting in 2016 and would ask Merrill to investigate.

Voter fraud has been in the national spotlight since the 2016 election amid President Donald Trumps repeated claims, without evidence, there was widespread voter fraud and between three and five million people who voted illegally. Despite the presidents unsupported claims, several studies and investigations have shown widespread voter fraud is not a widespread problem.

In May, Trump convened a White House panel to investigate election integrity and appointed several members to it who have a history of exaggerating voter fraud. Critics say the panel is an effort to weaken confidence in American elections to justify restrictive voting laws.

I think its crazy that an off-hand comment is being used to suggest that there was a massive voter fraud scheme. It is almost as if they are actively looking for ways to perpetuate a myth of massive voter fraud, Joshua Douglas, a law professor at the University of Kentucky, said in an email.

Rick Hasen, an election law expert and professor at the University of California, Irvine, said he believed Merrill had to investigate the comment.

I think he has to investigate every credible issue. If he didnt he would just be open to charges of allowing voter fraud, even though this looks to be a big nothing, he wrote in an email.

Randall Marshall, executive director of the Alabama chapter of the ACLU, said Merrills investigation was unnecessary, and Merrill himself has said he believes Jones is the legitimate winner of Tuesdays elections.

One has to wonder about the priorities of our secretary of state. I mean this translates to the theater of the absurd, to try and track down an excited utterance of someone talking about helping to get out the vote, Marshall said.

Moore still has not officially conceded the election and in a fundraising email on Saturday said his campaign was investigating reports of voter fraud. There have not been any credible allegations that such fraud occurred, but a fabricated story alleging people were caught voting with fake IDs went viral on Facebook.

Merrill said members of Moores team had asked his office to share complaints it had received about voter fraud, which he could not legally do. As of Monday, Merrill said his office had not received an actual complaint of voter fraud from the Moore campaign.

The news clip Merrill is using as the basis for his investigation was also picked up by InfoWars, a site that frequently peddles demonstrably false conspiracy theories.

Earlier this year, Democrats accused Merrill of stoking fears about voter fraud when his office suggested nearly 700 voters could face prosecution for violating a new state law barring voters from one party from voting in the primary contest of another. After further investigation, Merrill announced his office would not pursue charges against a single voter.

The results of the Alabama Senate special election must be certified by Jan. 3. Merrill has maintained that Moore can request a recount if he pays for it, a claim disputed by election experts. Merrill told HuffPost that his office had not received any official overtures from the Moore campaign about a potential recount.

This article has been updated to reflect that a NAACP Legal Defense Fund spokeswoman contacted HuffPost to correct a misstatement that the group had already met with Merrill. It has also been updated to include comment from Merrill and the results of the investigation.

Also on HuffPost

Alabama State Capitol (Montgomery, Ala.)

Pictured on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Alaska State Capitol (Juneau, Alaska)

Pictured on Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2011. (AP Photo/Chris Miller)

Arizona State Capitol (Phoenix)

Pictured on Friday, April 23, 2010. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

Arkansas State Capitol (Little Rock, Ark.)

Pictured on Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)

California State Capitol (Sacramento, Calif.)

Pictured on Thursday, Jan. 5, 2006. (Photo by David Paul Morris/Getty Images)

Colorado State Capitol (Denver)

Pictured on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2006. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

Connecticut State Capitol (Hartford, Conn.)

Pictured on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 1999. (AP Photo/Bob Child)

Delaware State Capitol (Dover, Del.)

Florida State Capitol (Tallahassee, Fla.)

Pictured on Monday, Jan. 3, 2011. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Georgia State Capitol (Atlanta)

Pictured on Tuesday, November 13, 2007. (Photo by Jessica McGowan/Getty Images)

Hawaii State Capitol (Honolulu)

Idaho State Capitol (Boise, Idaho)

Pictured on Monday, Jan. 14, 2008. (Ned Dishman/NBAE via Getty Images)

Illinois State Capitol (Springfield, Ill.)

Pictured on Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2004. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)

Indiana State Capitol (Indianapolis)

Pictured on Saturday, Feb. 4, 2012. (Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

Iowa State Capitol (Des Moines, Iowa)

Pictured on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2011. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Kansas State Capitol (Topeka, Kan.)

Pictured on Thursday, April 15, 2010. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

Kentucky State Capitol (Frankfort, Ky.)

Pictured on Wednesday, April 12, 2006. (AP Photo/James Crisp)

Louisiana State Capitol (Baton Rouge, La.)

Pictured on Monday, Jan. 14, 2008. (Matthew HINTON/AFP/Getty Images)

Maine State Capitol (Augusta, Me.)

Pictured on Monday, Oct. 17, 2011. (AP Photo/Pat Wellenbach)

Maryland State House (Annapolis, Md.)

(Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

Massachusetts State House (Boston)

Pictured on Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2007. (Photo by Darren McCollester/Getty Images)

Michigan State Capitol (Lansing, Mich.)

Pictured on Wednesday, April 13, 2011. (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

Minnesota State Capitol (St. Paul, Minn.)

Pictured on Friday, July 1, 2011. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)

Mississippi State Capitol (Jackson, Miss.)

Pictured on Thursday, June 10, 1999. (AP Photo/Rogelio Solis)

Missouri State Capitol (Jefferson City, Mo.)

Pictured on Friday, Oct. 16, 2000. (Photo credit should read ORLIN WAGNER/AFP/Getty Images)

Montana State Capitol (Helena, Mont.)

Nebraska State Capitol (Lincoln, Neb.)

Pictured on Wednesday, Nov. 25, 1998. (AP Photo/S.E. McKee)

Nevada State Capitol (Carson City, Nev.)

New Hampshire State House (Concord, N.H.)

Pictured on Friday, Dec. 28, 2001. (Todd Warshaw//Pool/Getty Images

New Jersey State House (Trenton, N.J.)

Pictured on Friday, Aug. 13, 2004. (Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images)

New Mexico State Capitol (Santa Fe, N.M.)

New York State Capitol (Albany, N.Y.)

Pictured on Sunday, March 16, 2008. (Photo by Daniel Barry/Getty Images)

North Carolina State Capitol (Raleigh, N.C.)

Pictured in 1930. (AP Photo)

North Dakota State Capitol (Bismarck, N.D.)

Pictured on Thursday, April 19, 2012. (AP Photo/Dale Wetzel)

Ohio Statehouse (Columbus, Ohio)

Pictured on Tuesday, March 8, 2011. (Photo by Mike Munden/Getty Images)

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Comedian Amy Schumer learned of an amazing moment in her genealogy when she sat down with Henry Louis Gates Jr on Finding Your Roots. At the turn of the 18th century, her ancestors in the Massachusetts had a run in with the French allied Native Americans. Gates Jr. said, "Your 8th great-grandfather's sister and two brothers were captured by native Americans and then taken as prisoners to Canada. Sarah was 14 years old at the time. Henry Louis Gates Jr: John was 12 and Zachariah was only 7." While the Sara was ransomed and sent to live in a convent in Montreal, the two boys ended up living with the Caughnawaga tribe in the Mohawk territory of Canada. A few years after the abduction and during a time of peace, a militia man was sent to retrieve the boys from Canada. But when he spoke with the tribe's chief speaker, he recounted "Those taken by them were adopted into families and held not as prisoners, but as children, and it was not their custom to compel any to return, but should leave them to their own liberty." The children chose to remain with the Caughnawaga tribe. Despite additional attempts to bring them back to Massachusetts, the children insisted on staying with the Native Americans, where they prospered. In fact they became two of the wealthiest people in the Mohawk territory. Gates Jr. said, "I've been doing this show eleven years. I love American history. I teach, in my day job. And I've never heard a story like this."
Montreal (AFP) - Synagogues in Montreal and Toronto -- Canada's two largest cities -- and elsewhere received threatening antisemitic messages at the start of Hanukkah, sources said Tuesday.

In Montreal, two synagogues alerted police "about the threats," said police spokesman Benoit Boisselle, adding that a "hate crime" investigation has been launched.

Four other synagogues in Toronto, others in Kingston and Hamilton, Ontario; and another in Edmonton, Alberta received antisemitic messages saying the "Jewry must perish" alongside a swastika and a bleeding star of David, according to the Canadian branch of B'nai Brith.

"Sadly, we've seen the swastika make something of a comeback this year, defacing the walls of high schools, university campuses, and public property," said the group's president Michael Mostryn.

"Today, it is more imperative than ever that we condemn this symbol of racism and hatred."

Mosques in Canada have also recently been desecrated, and extreme right-wing groups in Quebec have marched to protest against immigration.
WASHINGTON  Lawmakers in the House issued more than $100,000 in taxpayer-funded settlements to address sexual harassment claims from 2008 to 2012, according to new data released Tuesday.

The Office of Compliance, where lawmakers and staffers file such claims, provided the numbers to the Committee on House Administration, which deals with the chambers rules and regulations, amid a recent cascade of sexual misconduct allegations against lawmakers that has forced congressional leaders to re-examine procedures for dealing with such incidents.

According to the data, there were at least three settlements related to sexual harassment claims involving unnamed House members offices from 2008 to 2012, totaling $115,000. That was part of a total of more than $340,000 in settlements involving House offices, which also included various cases of discrimination.

The settlements, which are not named, came from a little-known Treasury Department fund that is used to settle workplace claims involving Capitol Hill lawmakers.

Sexual misconduct claims against congressional lawmakers have recently led to resignation or retirement announcements from members of both parties, including Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) and Rep. Ruben Kihuen (D-Nev.).

Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) announced he will not seek re-election amid sexual harassment allegations. (Photo: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images)

In 2014, Farenthold reportedly used the taxpayer fund to pay $84,000 to settle a sexual harassment claim from his former communications director, Lauren Greene. According to the Office of Compliance, that settlement was the only House payment from the fund over the last five years that involved sexual harassment.

Farenthold would not confirm or deny that the payment involved his office, saying in a statement that the Congressional Accountability Act prohibits me from answering that question.

Some lawmakers have now called for more transparency involving settlements.

Earlier this month, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) called for the release of similar data involving Senate offices. But on Monday, the Office of Compliance denied his request, saying that it does not possess reliable information.

Story continues

Legislators in both the House and the Senate have introduced proposals to restrict the use of taxpayer-funded settlements. A bill in the Senate includes a provision to force lawmakers to pay settlements out of their own pockets, part of broader legislation that aims to overhaul the byzantine system for addressing sexual misconduct incidents in Congress.

If you have more information about sexual misconduct settlements on Capitol Hill, contact us at scoops@huffpost.com.

Also on HuffPost

Taking Security Seriously

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) talks with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) before the start of a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing concerning the roles and responsibilities for defending the nation against cyberattacks, on Oct. 19, 2017.

With Liberty And Justice...

Members of Code Pink for Peace protest before the start of a hearing where U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions will testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on Oct. 18, 2017. Committee members questioned Sessions about conversations he had with President Donald Trump about the firing of former FBI Director James Comey, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, the ongoing investigation about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and other subjects.

Whispers

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), right, speaks with Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) before a confirmation hearing for Christopher Sharpley, nominee for inspector general of the CIA, on Oct. 17, 2017.

Not Throwing Away His Shot

Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the musical "Hamilton," makes his way to a meeting of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies in the Rayburn Office Building during a round of meetings to urge federal funding for the arts and humanities on Sept. 13, 2017.

Medicare For All

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), center, speaks on health care as Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), left, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), right, listen during an event to introduce the Medicare for All Act on Sept. 13, 2017.

Bernie Bros

Supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) pack his office on Sept. 8, 2017. Members of the "Draft Bernie for a People's Party" campaign delivered a petition with more than 50,000 signatures to urge the senator to start and lead a new political party.

McCain Appearance

Sen. John McCain, second from left, leaves the Capitol after his first appearance since being diagnosed with cancer. He arrived to cast a vote to help Republican senators narrowly pass the motion to proceed for the replacement of the Affordable Care Act on July 25, 2017.

A Narrow Win

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, center, speaks alongside Sens. John Barrasso, left, John Cornyn, right, and John Thune, rear, after the Senate narrowly passed the motion to proceed for the replacement of the Affordable Care Act on July 25, 2017.

Kushner Questioning

Jared Kushner, White House senior adviser and son-in-law to President Donald Trump, arrives at the Capitol on July 25, 2017. Kushner was interviewed by the House Intelligence Committee in a closed-door meeting about contacts he had with Russia.

Hot Dogs On The Hill

Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) prepares a hot dog during the American Meat Institute's annual Hot Dog Lunch in the Rayburn Office Building courtyard on July 19, 2017.

And Their Veggie Counterparts

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) visits the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals veggie dog giveaway on July 19, 2017, countering a National Hot Dog Day event being held elsewhere on Capitol Hill.

Poised For Questions

Callista Gingrich, wife of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, waits for a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on her nomination to be the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican on July 18, 2017.

Speaking Up

Health care activists protest to stop the Republican health care bill at Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on July 17, 2017.

In The Fray

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) speaks to members of the media after announcing the revised version of the Senate Republican health care bill on Capitol Hill on July 13, 2017.

Anticipation

Christopher Wray is seated with his daughter Caroline, left, as he prepares to testify at a Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing on his nomination to be the next FBI director on July 12, 2017.

Up In Arms

Health care activists protest to stop the Republican health care bill at Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on July 10, 2017.

Across A Table

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) meets with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Capitol Hill on June 29, 2017.

Somber Day

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) speaks about the recent attack on the Republican congressional baseball team during her weekly press conference on Capitol Hill on June 15, 2017.

Family Matters

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), right, and his sons, Jack, 10, and Brad, arrive in the basement of the Capitol after a shooting at the Republican baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia, on June 14, 2017.

A Bipartisan Pause

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), right, coach of the Republican congressional baseball team, tells the story of the shooting that occurred during a baseball practice while he stands alongside Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.), left, a coach of the Democratic congressional baseball team on June 14, 2017.

Hats On

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.) reacts about the shooting he was present for at a Republican congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia, as he speaks with reporters at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on June 14, 2017.

Public Testimony

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is sworn in to testify before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on June 13, 2017.

Comey's Big Day

Former FBI Director James Comey testifies before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election on Capitol Hill on June 8, 2017.

Conveying His Point

U.S. Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats testifies at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on his interactions with the Trump White House and on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act on June 7, 2017.

Selfie Time

Vice President Mike Pence takes a selfie with a tourist wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat inside the U.S. Capitol rotunda on June 6, 2017. The vice president walked through the rotunda after attending the Senate Republican policy luncheon.

Budget Queries

Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney testifies before the House Budget Committee about President Donald Trump's fiscal 2018 budget proposal on Capitol Hill on May 24, 2017.

Flagged Down By Reporters

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, leaves a closed committee meeting on Capitol Hill on May 24, 2017. The committee is investigating possible Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election.

Shock And Awe

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) hold a news conference on the release of the president's fiscal 2018 budget proposal on Capitol Hill on May 23, 2017.

Seeing Double

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) arrives in the Capitol for the Senate Democrats' policy lunch on May 16, 2017.

Honoring Officers

President Donald Trump speaks at the National Peace Officers Memorial Service on the West Lawn of the Capitol on May 15, 2017.

Whispers

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.), right, and ranking member Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) talk during a hearing with the heads of the U.S. intelligence agencies in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on May 11, 2017.

Skeptical

Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates arrives to testify before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election on Capitol Hill on May 8, 2017.

Differing Opinions

Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) gives a thumbs-up to protesters on the East Front of the Capitol after the House passed the Republicans' bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act on May 4, 2017. The protesters support the ACA.

Real Talk

United States Naval Academy Midshipman 2nd Class Shiela Craine (left), a sexual assault survivor, testifies before the House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Military Personnel with (2nd from left to right) Ariana Bullard, Stephanie Gross and Annie Kendzior in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on May 2, 2017. Kendzior, a former midshipman, and Gross, a former cadet, were both raped twice during their time at the military academies. The academy superintendents were called to testify following the release of a survey last month by the Pentagon that said 12.2 percent of academy women and 1.7 percent of academy men reported experiencing unwanted sexual contact during the 2015-16 academic year.

In Support Of Immigrants

Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.), center, is joined by dozens of Democratic members of the House of Representatives to mark "Immigrant Rights Day" in the Capitol Visitor Center on May 1, 2017 in Washington, D.C. The Democratic legislators called on Republicans and President Donald Trump to join their push for comprehensive immigration reform.

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Photo: ModCloth

The Womens March in January was chock-full of powerful, original artwork put onto signs and shirts for the world to see. And graphic designer Deva Pardue was among the artists to contribute to the imagery on display. She designed the famous image of three side-by-side fists thrust upward, each representing a woman of a different skin tone.

Her illustration went viral after she shared the photo of it on Instagram at the start of the year. But more recently, it popped up somewhere else entirely  and Pardue, who is a design director at the Wing, was not involved. According to Fast Company, Pardue received messages that womens retailer ModCloth, owned by Walmart, had been selling clothes with an almost exact replica of the design front and center.

Pardue sent the company a cease-and-desist letter, with which the company complied; the store removed all items with her design on Nov. 6.

But Pardue wasnt satisfied. She posted about the situation on social media, alleging that the brand not only stole her design  used to raise money for charity  but had yet to respond to her letters.

Theyve since ignored two cease-and-desist letters from my lawyer, Pardue wrote. A shameful example of huge corporations profiting from grassroots movements. She tweeted at the ModCloth executives shortly after, including CEO Matt Kaness, to tell them that she has not received compensation for use of her work.

.@modcloth owned by @walmart stole and monetized my copyrighted Femme Fists image which was designed to raise money for women's orgs. They've since ignored two cease & desist letters from my lawyer. A shameful example of huge corporations profiting from grass roots movements. pic.twitter.com/YZUXkNZnXT  Deva Pardue (@DevaPardue) December 19, 2017

Also, this  @jet_fashion, a South African retailer, has been selling this shirt since the summer and has ignored a cease & desist letter. Another ex. of corporations stealing from artists & sucking the life out of social movements. https://t.co/knzAfR089L. pic.twitter.com/DK7OAewqdT  Deva Pardue (@DevaPardue) December 20, 2017

Pardues design is part of For All Womankind, an initiative she founded to raise money for nonprofit groups working to advance womens rights and equality. Since launching in December 2016, the organization has raised $12,000 for the Center for Reproductive Rights and Emilys List.

Story continues

ModCloth tweeted to Pardue to address the allegations, claiming that the items were removed from the site and that the team was not aware of the design beforehand.

Thank you for reaching out! This top was manufactured by a third party vendor. As soon as we were made aware of the image, we removed the top from the site in November. It is no longer available on the site at all. If you have any questions, please email social@modcloth.com  ModCloth (@ModCloth) December 19, 2017

Still, Pardue wrote: I have emailed you, multiple times, & have sent physical cease & desist letters that cost me money. I have received absolutely no response from you until this very underwhelming tweet.

Yahoo Lifestyle has reached out to Pardue for comment but has not yet received a response.

ModCloth told Yahoo Lifestyle that the company worked on the design with a third-party vendor.

We were not aware it was an original design or we would have never gone forward, said ModCloth spokesperson Aire Plichta Reese. The miscommunication of not connecting with her was what the issue was. We emailed her as soon as we could asking if its OK with her to donate sales of shirts to charity of her choice.

Reese did not confirm whether or not Pardue accepted. ModCloth is also looking into the third-party vendor. She called the situation a mistake and said the brand plans to tighten up the system it has to prevent similar situations.

ModCloth is one of many brands over the years that have faced allegations of design theft from indie creatives, especially for the popular Womens March designs. Pardue claims that African retailer Jet Fashion is also selling her three-power-fist design without permission. Amanda Brinkman, co-founder of Google Ghost and the designer behind the now-iconic Nasty Woman shirt, also had her design lifted and put on other companys shirts without permission. Retail site Redbubble has tons of knock-off Womens March designs that appear to have not been approved by their creators, including the official Womens March logo by Nicole LaRue.

Brinkman told Allure that she used the money from the shirts to raise money for Planned Parenthood  more than $130,000  but has lost would-be sales to the knockoff versions.

Pardue said she was tired of the rip-offs. These huge companies are just assuming I cant afford to sue them, she said in a tweet. Which I cant.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

 The Amazon gift guide: 45 stylish gifts for the whole family

 The best holiday gifts under $100, according to beauty experts

 15 statement shoes to buy now to boost your 2018 shoe game

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.
By Ben Blanchard and Jess Macy Yu

BEIJING/TAIPEI (Reuters) - China has condemned a Taiwan government probe into a tiny but passionately pro-China opposition party, the latest flashpoint between Beijing and a self-ruled island it considers its own.

Taiwanese investigators searched the homes of four officials from the New Party, which currently has no members of parliament, on Tuesday on suspicion they had violated the National Security Act.

A New Party delegation, including at least one of those whose homes was raided, party spokesman Wang Ping-chung, visited China last week as part of a scheduled trip to meet China's policy-making Taiwan Affairs Office.

The New Party has denounced the raids as politically motivated and retribution for their opposition to Taiwan independence and support for union with China.

Taiwanese prosecutors and the government have not given details of what the party members are suspected of. Unlike in China, where the legal system is controlled by the ruling Communist Party, democratic Taiwan has an independent judiciary.

Taiwan media has reported that the case could be linked to that of Chinese citizen Zhou Hongxu, jailed by a Taiwan court in September for breaching national security laws.

Speaking to reporters in Taipei on Wednesday, New Party spokesman Wang Ping-chung said he knew Zhou, and that Zhou had attended party events held in the past.

"In 2014, when I successfully became a representative of the party, he came to an event to offer his support. Later he participated in our organization events so we of course know him."

In a short statement released late on Tuesday, China's Taiwan Affairs Office praised the New Party for its stance in opposing Taiwan independence and upholding the "one China" principle, which states that Taiwan is part of China.

"Recently, the Taiwan authorities have shielded and connived with Taiwan independent splittists, and taken various moves to wantonly crack down on and persecute forces and people who uphold peaceful reunification," it said.

Story continues

"We strongly condemn this and are paying close attention to developments," the office said.

The New Party broke off from the Nationalists, who once ruled all of China, in 1993. Defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with the Communists.

Relations between China and Taiwan have soured since Tsai Ing-wen of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party won presidential elections last year. China suspects she wants to push for Taiwan's formal independence.

Tsai says she wants to maintain peace with China but will defend Taiwan's security.

The Chinese military has stepped up air force patrols around Taiwan in recent weeks. China has never renounced the use of force to bring what it considers a wayward province under Chinese control.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Jess Macy Yu; Editing by Paul Tait and Nick Macfie)
Malene Lauritsen with a turkey bone - University of Exeter

Poultry bones dug up from a street may be the remains of the first ever turkey dinner in England, archaeologists believe.

The 16th century bones - two thighs and a wing  have been analysed by University of Exeter archaeologists and identified as among some the first turkeys to be brought to England from the Americas.

The first turkeys were introduced to England in 1524 or 1526 by William Strickland, an English landowner and trader who made his fortune sailing to the New World and eventually became an MP.

Strickland is recorded as having bought six turkeys from Native American traders, and after he sailed back with them to Bristol, which is 80 miles away from Exeter, sold them for tuppence each.

When turkeys first appeared in England they would have been a rare sight and the first ones are more likely to have been kept as pets for display of wealth rather than served as food.

Professor Alan Outram, zooarchaeologist and Head of Archaeology at Exeter, said: As the date of these bones overlaps with the historical evidence of Sticklands introduction of the birds, the remains of this feast may well represent the earliest physical evidence for a turkey dinner in Britain.

"This is an important discovery and could allow more research to be carried out about early domestic breeds and how the turkey has changed genetically since the 16th century.

Professor Alan Outram and Malene Lauritsen Credit: University of Exeter

The bird became very popular after 1550 and already a common sight at Christmas dinners by the 1570s, before Thanksgiving in America was even invented. Popular history even suggests that Henry VIII may have had turkey for Christmas.

The bird became so popular that thousands of turkeys were driven in to London like cattle in the 17th century.

The bones were found in 1983 as part of excavations at Paul Street, in central Exeter, before the building of a shopping centre but have never been identified or dated. Archaeologists at the University of Exeter have now examined the bones and judging from pottery lying beside them, they date from the period 1520 to 1550.

Story continues

Analysis by Malene Lauritsen, a post-graduate researcher in the University of Exeters archaeology department, has proved from the bones that the turkeys were butchered and were probably eaten as part of a feast by wealthy people.

They were found together with the remains of a veal calf, several chickens, at least one goose and a sheep. This selection of food  some of which were very expensive at the time  suggests this was the rubbish created by a feast attended by people of high status.

Turkeys were first imported from America Credit: Tom Grill, The Image Bank

What is exciting about these turkey bones found in Exeter is that they date from almost exactly the same time as the first birds came to England," added Ms Lauritsen.

Their age certainly means it is possible that these are the remains of one of the first turkeys to come to England, or a turkey bred from this group."

Wild turkeys were eaten by native Americans and their feathers were also used for ceremonial purposes, including headdresses and robes.

Strickland made such a fortune importing the birds that he able to buy a stately home in Yorkshire and even adopted the turkey on his family crest in 21550, the first time it had been depicted in Britain.

The village church where Strickland is buried still has images of turkeys depicted in its stained-glass windows.

The bones found during excavations at Paul street, in central Exeter, have been stored in boxes in the Royal Albert Memorial Museums stores, and are on temporary display.
Ottawa (AFP) - Canada and the United States announced Tuesday they will host a summit of foreign ministers in Vancouver on January 16, including envoys from Japan and South Korea, to seek progress on the North Korean nuclear crisis.

"We believe a diplomatic solution to the crisis is essential and possible," Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told a joint press conference with visiting US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Tillerson said the meeting would seek to further increase pressure on North Korea to come to the table to negotiate an end to its nuclear program.

This could include "other steps that could be taken to put additional pressure on the regime in North Korea," as well as preparing for the prospects of talks, he said.

"We (will) continue to find ways to advance the pressure campaign against North Korea," Tillerson said, "to send North Korea a unified message from the international community that we will not accept you as... a nuclear weapons nation, and that all of us share one policy and one goal -- the full complete verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula."

"It's all intended to lead to talks. Otherwise we wouldn't need to do this. We would just go straight to the military option," he said.

"The White House supports diplomatic talks," Tillerson added, dismissing suggestions of a rift between US President Donald Trump and his chief diplomatic.

Freeland said Canada and the United States "are aligned with the rest of the world in our position that these provocative and illegal acts cannot be tolerated. We fully support regional and international efforts to address the North Korean threat and the work of the UN Security Council."

The so-called Vancouver Group will also include Australia, Belgium, Britain, Colombia, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Turkey.

Story continues

Throughout the afternoon, Tillerson and Freeland also discussed Canada-US border security, North American defense, energy and environmental cooperation, and the ongoing renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which binds the two countries with Mexico to form the world's second-largest trading bloc after the EU.

They also discussed the plight of the Rohingya in Myanmar and "the potential for a peacekeeping mission" in Ukraine.

Freeland will travel to Ukraine to meet with government officials on Wednesday.

As well, said Freeland, she and Tillerson considered "the crisis in Venezuela and what actions we can take individually, together and in cooperation with the Lima group... to address the deteriorating political, economic and humanitarian situation there."

Canada hosted foreign ministers of 12 countries of the Americas in October to try to find ways to cool the fierce power struggle that had been raging for months between President Nicolas Maduro's left-wing nationalist government and the center-right opposition.

Later Tuesday, Tillerson was to meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau before heading back to Washington.
Sanaa (AFP) - The Saudi-led coalition conducted multiple air raids in Yemen on Wednesday, a day after Huthi rebels fired a ballistic missile at Riyadh in an attack Washington said was enabled by Iran.

The Saudi-led strikes killed 11 civilians in the Huthi stronghold of Saada, a tribal chief and witnesses said, while unidentified assailants attacked Huthis guarding the Sanaa residence of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was killed by the Shiite rebels earlier this month.

US President Donald Trump spoke Wednesday with Saudi King Salman following the ballistic missile attack that targeted Salman's residence.

"Trump expressed solidarity with Saudi Arabia following the ballistic missile attack against King Salman's official residence... an attack enabled by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps," the White House said.

The US and Saudi Arabia have accused Iran of supplying the Huthi rebels with the missile involved in another attack over Riyadh last month, with US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley presenting what she called "undeniable" evidence that the missile was "made in Iran."

Tehran has denied supplying ballistic missiles to the Huthis.

During Wednesday's ground operations against the Sanaa residence of Saleh, an unspecified number of Huthi guards were killed, residents said.

A tribal chief told AFP that 11 civilians were killed and eight others wounded in an air strike on the Huthi rebel stronghold of Saada in northern Yemen.

The pro-Huthi television channel Al-Masirah gave the same death toll and added that women and children were among those killed, while 19 people were wounded.

Witnesses and a security source said other coalition air raids targeted a rebel camp south of Sanaa and a second camp to the west.

The rebel-run Saba press agency said 38 people, including women and children, were killed or wounded in raids targeting different parts of Yemen.

- 1,000th day -

Story continues

The Huthis said the target of Tuesday's ballistic missile was a "large gathering of Saudi regime leaders in Yamamah Palace", where Salman later unveiled the country's 2018 budget.

An Arab national living in Saudi Arabia was arrested Wednesday for expressing support for the missile attack in a tweet, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

Yemen is in the midst of a bloody war between the Huthis and pro-government forces, who were expelled from Sanaa in September 2014.

Rebel chief Abdelmalik al-Huthi said Tuesday's attack was timed to coincide with the 1,000th day of the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen's conflict.

On November 4, a missile launch from Yemen targeted Riyadh's airport, triggering a sharp Saudi response -- the full closure of Yemen's ports and borders that were already under an extensive blockade.

At the time, the UN aid chief warned that the siege -- namely on the key rebel-held port of Hodeida -- could trigger the worst famine the world has seen in decades.

The blockade was partially lifted three weeks later amid massive international pressure.

The coalition issued a statement Wednesday saying it would not resort to closing Hodeida port.

"The coalition leadership announces the port of Hodeida will remain open for humanitarian and relief supplies and the entry of commercial vessels, including fuel and food vessels, for a period of 30 days," said the statement, carried on the state-run Saudi Press Agency.

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May spoke to Salman and welcomed the decision to reopen the port.

"The Prime Minister strongly condemned yesterday's attempted missile attack on the Yamama Palace in Riyadh, and welcomed the restraint shown by Saudi Arabia in the face of unacceptable Huthi aggression," Downing Street said in a statement.

Coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki, speaking at a news conference in Riyadh, described the continuing missile fire as a "serious escalation".

Maliki said that since the coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 over 80 ballistic missiles had been fired at Saudi Arabia and that the alliance had killed more than 11,000 Huthi rebels.

- Hadi terms for dialogue -

Saudi Arabia and America have accused Iran of being behind the missile attacks on Riyadh.

Tehran again denied the charge Wednesday, saying it has "no arms link with Yemen".

Yemen's President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi on Tuesday raised the bar for dialogue with the Huthis, saying they must surrender their weapons before the start of any peace talks.

"We do not have a partner with whom we can reach peace," the exiled president said at a meeting with a number of ambassadors.

Hadi issued stern conditions for dialogue: the restoration of his government to power; the surrender of Huthi arms; and the handover of state institutions.

More than 8,750 people have been killed since Saudi Arabia and its allies joined the government's fight against the rebels, triggering what the UN has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos on Tuesday named Gustavo Bell as the government's chief negotiator in peace talks with Marxist ELN rebels and said the government will work toward extending a ceasefire with the insurgent group. Bell, who was vice president under President Andres Pastrana from 1998 to 2002 and is currently ambassador to Cuba, replaces Juan Camilo Restrepo, who guided talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN) since they began in February. Santos said in a televised address the government hopes to extend a ceasefire that began in October and ends on Jan. 9. "With the ELN, we have for the first time achieved a stoppage of hostilities that, while not perfect, has been positive. We will work toward improving it and extending it in January," Santos said. The ELN on Sunday said it is willing to continue the ceasefire if there is sufficient progress in peace talks. It said it would assess the government's willingness to overcome hurdles. The ELN and the government have been in negotiations in Quito for 10 months, after a long and secret exploratory phase, in a bid to end more than 53 years of war. Santos, who leaves office next year, signed a peace accord in late 2016 with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which has now become a political party and hopes to fight the government at the ballot box. The ELN's first-ever ceasefire is being supervised by the Roman Catholic Church and the United Nations. The 2,000-strong ELN, which has regularly bombed oil infrastructure and taken hostages, has continued kidnapping despite the ceasefire. An indigenous leader in Choco province died in October after being taken by the group. (Reporting by Helen Murphy; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
This image provided by the Twitter page of @fendifille shows a computer at Greater Preston CCG as Britains National Health Service is investigating an issue with IT Friday May 12, 2017. (@fendifille via AP)

In May, North Koreas WannaCry virus encrypted hundreds of thousands of devices across the world, halting production at companies, slamming hospital infrastructure, and causing serious problems.

In a press conference Tuesday, Tom Bossert, the White Houses Homeland Security Advisor, and Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity and Communications Jeanette Manfra officially attributed the attack to North Korea and called for increasing collective defenses.

It was a call for cooperation and action against a global antagonist. As Manfra put it, a company cant single-handedly defend itself against a nation-state attacker. But the announcement also brought up a suite of issues for companies as they step into an increasingly murky cybersecurity landscape.

A U.S. company is not the U.S.

The White House officials made one thing clear: an attack on a U.S. company was not tantamount to an attack on the U.S. as a country. (In reverse, this does not apply, as many countries direct private citizens to carry out attacks at their behest.) But at the same time, Manfra said, our adversaries are not distinguishing between public and private, so neither should we.

This may sound like doublespeak, but its a good illustration of how complicated cyber-issues are today. Cyber norms are not in place yet. Cyber norms, according to Alex McGeorge, head of threat intelligence at cybersecurity firm Immunity Inc., are essentially a framework for what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior. (Akin to a regular norm like how corporate espionage is frowned upon generally, but state-run espionage is generally accepted as common practice.)

Cyber norms are really interesting because how each country views them is very different, said McGeorge. For example, the U.S. cant make a private citizen hack on its behalf, but in China, he says, its common practice. The establishment of cyber norms is the next great challenge of the next few decades.

Story continues

Tom Bossert, homeland security adviser to President Donald Trump, holds a press briefing to publicly blame North Korea for unleashing the so-called WannaCry cyber attack at the White House in Washington, U.S., December 19, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Figuring out whats normal is just the first hurdle, however. Deciding how to respond is the next problem. According to Larry Johnson, CEO of CyberSponse and a former lead cyber investigator with the U.S. Secret Service and Treasury, criminal acts by states usually flow out of law enforcement and into State Department diplomacy.

For example, in the past, when North Korea was counterfeiting U.S. currency (they were buying the same ink and paper because they could go to the suppliers as a nation-state, said Johnson)  the case was closed and the State Department resolved the matter diplomatically, with North Korea making concessions.

Another option is to not interfere and collect intelligence. You let the criminal activity go so you can gather intelligence, said Johnson.

Are companies on their own? Sort of.

The US government exploits gaps in companies security for intelligence collecting. According to Bossert, only 10% is kept for intelligence gathering and the rest is given to companies so they can patch them and keep their customers data safe. (WannaCry was made from a leaked NSA tool, which itself came from the 10% of vulnerabilities the government uses.)

This is 90/10 framework of ethical disclosure of bugs is another example of a contentious cyber norm, and it has been in debate since the 90s. We have a lot of smart people and little headway, said McGeorge. Its going to continue to be a murky issue but now with more people with less tech expertise [start getting involved].

Besides continuing to turn over most of the vulnerabilities the government finds and notifying companies when theyve been hacked, its not clear what the public-private cooperation will look like, even though Bossert and the DHS have promised to help.

In this Monday, May 15, 2017, file photo, employees watch electronic boards to monitor possible ransomware cyberattacks at the Korea Internet and Security Agency in Seoul, South Korea. (Yun Dong-jin/Yonhap via AP, File)

Some companies might want help in terms of more aggressive action against North Korean hackers, but its also possible that it might be done with a heavy  and unwelcome  hand, though Bossert stressed the voluntary nature and robust privacy and liability protection.

What the help will look like and whether companies want the help may turn into a thorny issue. According to McGeorge, companies are asking themselves: Is this going to entail DHS dispatching a team of nerds to my network? If youre Apple or Google, you might not want this. Someone else might have a different opinion, though, he said.

One reason you might not want to call the feds if you dont have to, Johnson, the former Secret Service lead cyber investigator, told Yahoo Finance, is because a cyber incident might turn into a PR disaster.

Once you call the government, all bets are off that you wont be front page of [the Wall Street] Journal or the [Washington] Post saying you were hacked or breached because of lousy security, said Johnson. I think thats a big part of it.

For now, nothing is getting simpler.

DHS isnt telling companies that theyre on their own, said McGeorge. But how they will help hasnt been fleshed out. And what are the laws to protect you from the government when the feds are helping?

If theres one silver lining, however, its that McGeorge views Bossert and Manfra as being very competent with a good understanding of the complexity of these issues.

Ethan Wolff-Mann is a writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @ewolffmann. Confidential tip line: FinanceTips[at]oath[.com].

Read More:

American Airlines just resolved its 15,000 flight fiasco

The phone industrys clever plan to stop robocalls

Jack Dorsey on bitcoin and cryptocurrency

How cutting the 401(k) limit would affect peoples saving

Former ambassador: Mexico has moved on from NAFTA

Big bitcoin-friendly companies like Microsoft and Expedia hedge their bet

The real reason Mexico will never pay for the Trumps wall: Itd be treason

How Waffle Houses hurricane response team prepares for disaster

Trump weighs slashing one of the most popular tax deductions
BEIJING (Reuters) - Cooperation between China and the United States will lead to a win-win outcome for both sides, but confrontation will bring mutual losses, China said on Tuesday, after the United States branded it a competitor seeking to challenge U.S. power. China hopes the United States can abandon its mentality of zero-sum games and seek common ground while respecting differences, China's U.S. embassy said on its website. "On the basis of mutual respect, China is willing to exist peacefully with other countries including the United States," it said. "But the U.S. ought to adapt to, and accept, China's development." China has always been a contributor to global development and a protector of the international order, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Hua Chunying said later in Beijing. "Cooperation is the only correct choice for China and the United States," she said, adding that it was not surprising for the two to have disagreements but that they should find constructive ways to handle them. China's economic and diplomatic activities around the world are broadly welcomed and no country or report will succeed in distorting the facts or deploying malicious slander, she told a daily news briefing. As the world's two largest economies, China and the United States have a responsibility to protect global peace and stability and promote global prosperity, Hua added. "We urge the U.S. side to stop intentionally distorting China's strategic intentions." In a new national security strategy based on U.S. President Donald Trump's "America First" vision on Monday, the United States lumped China and Russia together as competitors seeking to erode U.S. security and prosperity. The singling out of China and Russia as "revisionist powers" comes despite Trump's own attempts to build strong relations with Chinese President Xi Jinping as the two sides seek to rein in North Korea's nuclear and missile programs. The new U.S. strategy reflects an unwillingness to accept the reality of China's rise, the state-run Global Times said in an editorial. "But because of the enormous size and strength China has already achieved, they won't be able to suppress China," the widely-read newspaper said. However, Trump was basically reiterating his standard line on China rather than threatening any specific action, said Shi Yinhong, head of the Centre for American Studies at Beijing's Renmin University. "Since he took office the Chinese government's line on Trump has always been: Don't really look at what he says, but look at what he does," said Shi, who has advised the government on diplomacy. "So the strong words against China in the report the Chinese government won't really care about." A senior U.S. administration official said China was attempting to revise the global status quo through its aggression in the South China Sea. China says its expansion of islets in the South China Sea is for peaceful purposes only and it can, in any case, do what it wants, as it has irrefutable sovereignty there. The U.S. administration also warned that intellectual property theft by China was a national security problem. (Reporting by Ryan Woo and Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Gao Liangping; Editing by Nick Macfie and Clarence Fernandez)
Some engaged couples like to look like movie stars in their save-the-date cards. Others opt for regular vacation pics or romantic photo shoots. Toronto couple Caitlin Bailey and Clayton Hoy did something a little less traditional: They re-created a family portrait theyd seen on Awkward Family Photos, and the results are skin-crawlingly bad in the best possible way.

Caitlin Bailey and Clayton Hoy scare their guests with this save-the-date card. (Photo: Robin Sharp)

This awkward dad looks kind of like Clayton; thats kind of what inspired us to do this exact photo, Bailey tells Yahoo Lifestyle. (The photo in question from 1976 became a meme known as Vengeance Dad.) We have all these really nice, classic engagement photos, but we kind of knew a really long time ago that we wanted to do this exact photo, and we were actually able to get the cats to pose  kind of.

Photo: Robin Sharp

When searching for a photographer, they found Robin Sharp, whose personal Facebook profile features her husband, their cats, and a lot of lasers. Clearly, she was the woman for the job. The weird proportion of Hoys head to Baileys body, Hoys expression, and the caption  Save the date  or else  combine to make him seem a lot like the lead suspect in a true-crime series.

Congratulations?

I swear he doesnt look like a psychopath in real life, Bailey writes on Reddit, where she posted the photo this week. Yahoo asked her for a couple of normal photos, just to be sure.

Clayton and Caitlin in a less awkward photo. (Photo: Courtesy of Caitlin Bailey)

The tone of this pic, while not for everyone, is emblematic of their close, silly relationship, Bailey says. The two met on OkCupid, were living together within five months, and knew right away that they were right for each other.

While some commenters on Reddit lamented that their own family would disapprove of a save-the-date notice like this, Bailey said shes had an overwhelmingly positive reaction from friends (one is already using it as his Christmas-tree topper) and family.

Both of our parents have just accepted that were ridiculous and are just going to be doing our own thing, she said, though she admitted that shell have to let her more traditional mother be in charge of the real wedding invitations.

Story continues

At their wedding this coming July, Bailey doesnt know yet whether there will be anything as hilarious as this photo. Well probably do our own silly vows of some kind, she said. But after that, shes pretty sure that she and her fiance will make these awkward photos a tradition. Shes already got photo No. 2 picked out.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.
A California man was arrested after authorities said he slipped inside a chimney to burglarize a business but got stuck instead.

Jesse Berube, who police called a criminal Santa, had to call 911 to be rescued from the narrow chimney he crawled into on Dec. 13 to allegedly gain access into the business, the Citrus Heights Police Department said in a news release. Authorities said he wiggled just enough to be able to call for help.

Firefighters had to use special equipment to free the 32-year-old suspect, according to authorities. Berube was not injured but he was later arrested for burglary, police said. His nose appears to be covered in soot in his mugshot.

Criminal Santa does not have the same skills as the real deal, the police department tweeted.

Berube could not be immediately reached for comment Tuesday. Its unclear if he has a lawyer.
300 new Russian cars are set to be delivered to Cuba next month: Jeroen Swolfs

Cuba has significantly increased its trade with Russia, as Donald Trumps government tightened US restrictions on the neighbouring communist state.

A number of Russian state companies are in the process of negotiating deals with the Caribbean island as it seeks to fill the void left by other trading allies.

Cubas main trading partner is still China, but it is once again strengthening economic links with Russia, which it formed an alliance with during the Cold War.

The deepening links with Russia come as the USA under Donald Trump reverses its policy of increasing engagement with Cuba.

Foreign policy experts say Moscow is seizing on that rollback as a way to undermine American influence in its own backyard.

Russia sees it as a moment to further its own relationship with Cuba, said Jason Marczak, Director at the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center told Reuters.

The more the Russian footprint increases in Cuba, the more that will reinforce hardened anti-US attitudes and shut out US businesses from eventually doing greater business in Cuba.

Russia is eager to increase its influence in Latin America and its exports to Cuba have increased by 81 per cent in the last year.

A total of 300 new Russian-made Lada cars will be delivered to Cuba next month, replacing some of the decades-old Soviet vehicles that dominate Cubas streets.

Unable to import or afford newer vehicles, many Cubans have become experts at patching up cars that should be long past their used-by date.

Igor Sechin, the head of Russian state oil company Rosneft, travelled to Havana last weekend to meet with Cuban President Raul Castro. They are believed to have discussed a significant new energy deal that would benefit Cuba, which currently relies heavily on Venezuela for its fuel needs.

Venezuelan shipments to Cuba have dropped by more than 40 per cent since 2014 after the South American countrys economy collapsed. Power shortages are now common in Cuba and its government is exploring new possibilities for securing cheap energy.

Story continues

Rosneft started shipping oil to Cuba in May for the first time since the end of the Cold War.

Another Russian company, Sinara, last month began delivering 75 locomotives to the Caribbean island as part of a $190 million deal.

State-owned Russian Railways, meanwhile, is currently in negotiations about a $2.2 billion deal to upgrade hundreds of miles of Cuban railways and build a new link between Havana and the beach resort of Varadero.

Many of the Russian companies working in Cuba have benefitted from funding from the Russian state, which wants to strengthen its alliances in Latin America.

Mr Trumps predecessor, Barack Obama, had eased the trade embargo that severely limits the goods that Cuba is able to import.

In contrast, the Republican has retightened restrictions, describing Cuba as a brutal, brutal regime and saying: We will not be silenced in the face of communist oppression any longer.

One Russian official told Reuters that trade between his country and Cuba could increase from $248 million last year to $400 million this year.

In recent years Russia has written off $35 billion in debt that Cuba owed from the Soviet era.

Additional reporting by agencies
Two daycare workers have been arrested after surveillance footage allegedly captured one of them burning five toddlers with a hot glue gun while the other watched and laughed, police and prosecutors say.

The Chicago Police Department said Lizandra Cosme, 32, and Susana Gonzalez, 27, face charges after five children were injured at the Childrens Learning Place, where they were working, on Dec. 1.

Video footage allegedly showed Cosme putting hot glue on the hands and arms of the five 2-year-olds, who appear to grimace in pain as theyre burned, according to ABC 7 Chicago and CBS Chicago. Gonzalez, an assistant at the daycare center, can be seen laughing nearby, the news stations said.

Each of the child victims winced and some whined at the hot glue gun application, a prosecutor said Monday at a court appearance, according to ABC7.

Cosme was denied bail at the hearing.

Three girls and two boys were hurt in the incident, police said, but the extent of their injuries is unclear. It is also not immediately known what prompted the burnings, the Chicago Tribune reports.

During Mondays hearing, Cosmes defense attorney said Cosmes actions were not malicious, according to ABC7. The attorney said Cosme, who has been working with children for a dozen years, screwed up.

Prosecutors said Cosme brought the hot glue gun from home to work on a Christmas project, ABC7 reported. She was watching 16 children at the time of the hot glue gun incident, the news station reported.

Cosme and Gonzalez could not be immediately reached for comment Tuesday. Cosme was arrested Sunday and faces five felony counts of aggravated battery to a child, police said. Her next court appearance is Dec. 26. Gonzalez was charged with five misdemeanor counts of causing the circumstances of endangering a child.

The Childrens Learning Place is a licensed child-care facility that serves children between the ages of 6 weeks and 6 years, according to its website. There are four locations in Chicago.

Story continues

In a statement, Lissa Druss Christman, a spokeswoman for the daycare center, said two workers were terminated immediately after the alleged incident. The well being of our students is paramount, Christman said.

The Department of Children and Family Services said it is investigating the incident and did not provide further details.

This article originally appeared on People.com
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - A Papua New Guinea court has given hundreds of asylum-seekers who were held for years in a controversial Australian detention center the right to sue the PNG government for compensation, Australian media reported on Saturday. Papua New Guinea's Supreme Court rejected an attempt by the PNG government to stop the asylum-seekers seeking compensation on Friday, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported. The government had tried to argue that the time frame for such attempts to sue for compensation had passed but the court rejected its application. "The finding opens the way to a major compensation and also for consequential orders against both the PNG and Australian governments," Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul told Australian Associated Press. The decision comes two months after the PNG government closed the detention center on remote Manus Island, which had housed about 400 male asylum-seekers. Conditions in the camp, and another on the tiny Pacific island of Nauru, have been widely criticized by the United Nations and human rights groups. The two camps have been cornerstones of Australia's contentious immigration policy, under which it refuses to allow asylum-seekers arriving by boat to reach its shores. The policy, aimed at deterring people from making a perilous sea voyage to Australia, has bipartisan political support. The closure of the Manus island camp, criticized by the United Nations as "shocking", caused chaos, with the men refusing to leave the compound for fear of being attacked by Manus island residents. Staff left the closed compound and the men were left without food, water, power or medical support before they were expelled and moved to a transit camp. Papua New Guinea's Supreme Court declared in 2016 that the detention of asylum-seekers on behalf of the Australian government was illegal and that it breached asylum-seekers' fundamental human rights. The asylum-seekers will now go back to court in February to seek orders from Australia and Papua New Guinea for them to be settled in a safe third country. The United States announced on Friday that it had agreed to accept about 200 more refugees from Manus island and Nauru under a deal struck between Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and former U.S. President Barack Obama. Another 50 refugees had already been accepted as part of the deal, under which Australia agreed to accept refugees from Central America. U.S President Donald Trump has called the deal "dumb". (Reporting by Alana Schetzer; Editing by Paul Tait)
General assembly to vote on rejecting US recognition of city as Israeli capital

Trump: Were not going to be taken advantage of any longer

Donald Trump has threatened to withhold billions of dollars of US aid from countries which vote in favour of a United Nations resolution rejecting the US presidents recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

His comments came after the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, wrote to about 180 of 193 member states warning that she will be taking names of countries that vote for a general assembly resolution on Thursday critical of the announcement which overturned decades of US foreign policy.

Speaking at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Trump amplified Haleys threat.

Let them vote against us, he said.

Well save a lot. We dont care. But this isnt like it used to be where they could vote against you and then you pay them hundreds of millions of dollars, he said. Were not going to be taken advantage of any longer.



The warning appeared aimed largely at UN members in Africa, Asia and Latin America who are regarded as more vulnerable to US pressure.

Egypt, which drafted Mondays UN security council resolution which the US vetoed, is particularly vulnerable, receiving $1.2bn in US aid last year.

But Trumps comments may also resonate elsewhere  including in the UK, which is hoping to negotiate a quick post-Brexit trade deal with Washington.



The emergency UN general assembly meeting was called for Thursday to protest against the US veto at Mondays security council meeting on a resolution to the Jerusalem issue  which was supported by all other 14 members.

The security council resolution demanded that all countries comply with pre-existing UN security council resolutions on Jerusalem, dating back to 1967, including requirements that the citys final status be decided in direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Key US allies Britain, France, Italy, Japan and Ukraine were among the 14 countries in the 15-member council that voted in favour on Monday, and were expected to do the same at the assembly on Thursday.

Story continues

Diplomats expect strong support for the resolution, which is non-binding, despite the US pressure to either abstain or vote against it. However, a council diplomat said Canada, Hungary and the Czech Republic might bow to US pressure and not support the draft resolution.

Critics point out the the Trumps recognition of Jerusalem  as well as the US veto  are both in opposition to numerous security council resolutions.

Trumps extraordinary intervention marked the latest escalation of diplomatic tensions over a decision that has seen the US widely criticised and isolated. It came after a day of high drama.

In a letter to UN ambassadors, Haley told countries  including European delegations  that she will report back to the US president with the names of those who support a draft resolution rejecting the US move at the UN general assembly on Thursday, adding that Trump took the issue personally.

The new draft resolution for Thursdays general assembly is very similar to Mondays defeated security council resolution. Unlike the security council, however, where permanent members can wield a veto, there are no veto rights in the general assembly.

The resolution reaffirms 10 security council resolutions on Jerusalem, dating back to 1967, including requirements that the citys final status must be decided in direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

It affirms that any decisions and actions which purport to have altered, the character, status or demographic composition of the holy city of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded.

The draft resolution demands that all states comply with Security Council resolutions regarding the holy city of Jerusalem, and not to recognize any actions or measures contrary to those resolutions.

Referring to Haleys letter, which was disclosed by the Guardian and other media organisations on Wednesday morning, Trump said: I like the message that Nikki sent yesterday at the United Nations.

Our great citizens who love this country are tired of this country being taken advantage of  were not going to be taken advantage of any longer.

In her letter, Haley wrote: As you consider your vote, I encourage you to know the president and the US take this vote personally.

The president will be watching this vote carefully and has requested I report back on those who voted against us, she continued.

Haley followed the letter by tweeting: At the UN were always asked to do more & give more. So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl, abt where to locate OUR embassy, we dont expect those weve helped to target us. On Thurs therell be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names.

The council is composed of 15 members. There are five permanent members:

 China

 France

 Russia

 United Kingdom

 United States

There are also 10 non-permanent members elected for two-year terms by the UN general assembly. The current non-permanent members are listed below (end of term date in brackets):

 Bolivia (2018)

 Egypt (2017)

 Ethiopia (2018)

 Italy (2017)

 Japan (2017)

 Kazakhstan (2018)

 Senegal (2017)

 Sweden (2018)

 Ukraine (2017)

 Uruguay (2017)

Responding to the US threats, the Palestinian foreign minister, Riyad al-Maliki, and the foreign minister of Turkey  a co-sponsor of the UN vote  Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters at Istanbuls Ataturk airport that they believed UN member countries will ignore pressure from Haley.

No honourable state would bow to such pressure, Cavusoglu said.

The world has changed. The belief that I am strong therefore I am right has changed. The world today is revolting against injustices.

A senior diplomat from a Muslim country said of Haleys letter: States resort to such blatant bullying only when they know they do not have a moral or legal argument to convince others.

A senior western diplomat, described it as poor tactics at the United Nations but pretty good for Haley 2020 or Haley 2024, referring to speculation that Haley might run for higher office.

Shes not going to win any votes in the general assembly or the security council, but she is going to win some votes in the US population, the western diplomat said.

A senior European diplomat agreed Haley was unlikely to sway many UN states.

We are missing some leadership here from the US and this type of letter is definitely not helping to establish US leadership in the Middle East peace process, the diplomat said.

The tabling of the resolution followed a weekend of negotiations aimed at securing the widest consensus possible on the issue. The vote has underlined once again the widespread international opposition to the US move, even among some of its closest allies.
Addis Ababa (AFP) - The European Union called Wednesday for an independent probe into clashes between two of Ethiopia's largest ethnic groups, which officials say left at least 61 dead last week alone.

There have been a string of recent clashes over the border between the two ethnically demarcated Somali and Oromia federal regions, "causing many casualties and the destruction of properties", said the EU.

The cause of the latest violence is not clear but it has raised concerns of growing ethnic divisions in Africa's second most-populous country.

In a statement the EU called for "independent investigations (into) all acts of violence."

On Thursday and Friday last week, scores lost their lives in the West Hararghe region near the border between the Somali and Oromia states -- with both sides giving different death tolls.

On Sunday, the spokesman for the Oromia state government Addisu Arega Kitessa said armed men had attacked Oromos on Thursday, killing 29 people and burning down hundreds of homes.

A day later 32 Somalis living nearby were killed in retaliation, he wrote on his personal Facebook account.

An open letter from Somali elders to the government and international rights groups mentioned "200 killed" on Friday in an "ethnic cleansing campaign" which they say has been under way since 2004, but has intensified in the past three years.

The letter recalled that the "Ethiopian Somali community... traditionally lived in western Hararghe of Ethiopia for many centuries. Because of this, more than 90 percent of us speak Oromia and not the Somali language."

Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn addressed the nation on state television on Sunday, offering his condolences for what he referred to as a "mass killing".

The EU said the clashes were "deeply worrying, in particular as regards their increasingly ethnic nature" and welcomed a decision by Hailemariam to set up a task force to probe the killings.

For over two years Ethiopia's government has faced unprecedented social, economic and political protests, leaving hundreds dead and prompting government to install a 10-month state of emergency that was lifted in August.
Eva Longoria is pregnant with her first child at age 42. (Photo: Getty Images)

Eva Longoria is pregnant! The 42-year-old actress, who is four months along, is expecting a baby boy with husband Jose Baston. The baby is due after her 43rd birthday.

The couple, who began dating in 2013 and wed in May 2015 at a lavish Mexican ceremony, did not wait long to start their family, which was a decision that came as a surprise to fans.

Eva Longoria is pregnant at 42 and Im here for it.Quad said shes going to be an older mother too  Gigi Smith (@Daisy5730) December 20, 2017

Eva Longoria pregnant at 42I still got time!  Mary Jane Herrera (@maryjaneh1980) December 20, 2017

Longoria has been open about her conflicted path to motherhood, telling Parade in 2014, Ive always wanted a family. I believe in family. But children are a product of love. So I dont think Ill go off and have a baby by myself. I do not have that need to procreate. Later, she told People of motherhood, Its just not in my future.

The actress is one of many Hollywood women to delay pregnancy  Janet Jackson gave birth to her first child at age 50, Mariah Carey and J-Lo had twins at ages 41 and 38, respectively, and Gwen Stefani birthed her third child at age 44.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, women in their 30s are having more children than their younger counterparts. Thats an important change, after three decades of women in their late 20s owning the highest birth rates, reports the Associated Press. And while advances in IVF technology are likely playing a part in the trend, theres no way to know for whom.

Story continues

Gwen Stefani and her son Kingston Rossdale. (Photo: Getty Images)

The public attitude toward families has also shifted. Per the Pew Research Center, 40 percent of people say motherhood should wait until a woman has established her career, and one-fifth say ambitious women shouldnt have children at all.

For those who wish to wait, heres the good news: Women can have healthy babies even in their 40s. While its true that birth defects rise with age and pregnancy rates decline, a womans fertility doesnt necessarily flatline at age 35.

A groundbreaking 2013 story published in The Atlantic by psychologist Jean Twenge found that many modern fertility statistics are based on ancient birth records. In other words, millions of women are being told when to get pregnant based on statistics from a time before electricity, antibiotics, or fertility treatment, wrote Twenge. Most people assume these numbers are based on large, well-conducted studies of modern women, but they are not. When I mention this to friends and associates, by far the most common reaction is: No  No way. Really?

She added, In short, the baby panic  which has by no means abated since it hit me personally  is based largely on questionable data. Weve rearranged our lives, worried endlessly, and forgone countless career opportunities based on a few statistics about women who resided in thatched-roof huts and never saw a lightbulb. In Dunsons study of modern women, the difference in pregnancy rates at age 28 versus 37 is only about 4 percentage points. Fertility does decrease with age, but the decline is not steep enough to keep the vast majority of women in their late 30s from having a child. And that, after all, is the whole point.

Mariah Carey and her twins. (Photo: Getty Images)

And when women use in vitro fertilization (IVF), the odds of conception can be even better. We see women in their early 40s doing well with IVF, says Guy Ringler, MD, a reproductive endocrinologist at California Fertility Partners in Los Angeles. After 42, pregnancy rates with IVF drop precipitously.

There are some risks to delaying motherhood, says Ringer. Pregnant women over the age of 40 are at increased risk of complications during pregnancy, including hypertension in pregnancy, diabetes in pregnancy, preterm labor, and operative delivery such as cesarean section.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.




For picture posts from 2010 and earlier, see the Earlier Picture Posts Page
By Paul Carsten and Aaron Ross ABUJA/DAKAR (Reuters) - Cameroonian troops this month crossed into Nigeria in pursuit of rebels without seeking authorization from Nigeria, causing a falling-out between the governments behind the scenes, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. At least one incursion was confirmed by a Nigerian government official, two Nigerian military officers and two foreign diplomats, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity. Nigerian security forces were deployed to the border to stop any further crossings, said a military source. The Cameroonian and Nigerian governments said in separate statements there were no incursions. Relations between the two countries are good, Cameroon said. Cameroonian military officials and pro-government media accuse Nigeria of sheltering Anglophone insurgents. For the past year they have been based in the dense equatorial forests that straddle the border between the two countries, fighting for an independent state they call Ambazonia. At least 7,000 people have fled as refugees from Anglophone Cameroon to Nigeria following a crackdown ordered this year by President Paul Biya to quell the insurgency, which represents the gravest challenge yet to his 35-year rule. French is the official language for most of Cameroon but two regions speak English and these border Nigeria, which is also Anglophone. "Cameroonian troops were in Nigeria," said a foreign diplomat. "Zero warning, zero authorization." The troops crossed into Nigeria at least twice this month, the diplomat and a Nigerian military official told Reuters. The incidents have caused anger on both sides and could sour diplomatic relations further as Cameroon increases pressure on its Anglophone regions, according to the diplomat and a Nigerian government official. "Tensions are high and could escalate," the government official said. Cameroon government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary denied that troops had crossed the border illegally. "Relations between the two countries are cohesive when it comes to fighting against terrorism. Cameroon and Nigeria are on the same wavelength." Nigeria's foreign minister, speaking to Reuters after a cabinet meeting in Abuja, also denied the incursions. "The (Nigerian) government had investigated and discovered that it's not true," said Geoffrey Onyeama, Nigeria's foreign minister. But the Nigerian government official and a diplomat said Cameroon had threatened to suspend senior Nigerian embassy officials in Yaounde after they lodged complaints. Tchiroma and Onyeama denied this. Governments in Africa often play down diplomatic disputes and present a show of harmony even during bitter rows. On Monday, rebels killed four gendarmes, Cameroon's government said, the latest raid on police and military positions in the country's southwest region. "TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY" Nigeria has for decades been West Africa's powerhouse but the militaries of the two countries have cooperated extensively to confront a threat posed by Islamist militant group Boko Haram. The group has staged attacks in Nigeria for years but more recently it has also conducted deadly assaults in Cameroon. Cameroon has repeatedly pressed Nigeria to allow it the right of hot pursuit for Boko Haram militants and the issue has left the countries at loggerheads. After Cameroon's military crossed the border this month in pursuit of separatist insurgents, Nigeria sent security forces to deter any future attempts, said one of the military sources. "We were not for war but keeping the peace and protecting our territorial integrity. They were asked to leave and they did and everything has been brought under control," the source said. "Many refugees have crossed into Nigeria and many more are still crossing and the Cameroon authorities appear to be concerned that the situation may escalate if they keep coming into Nigeria." Two Cameroonian military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters separatists had set up bases and launched attacks from Nigeria. One attack was on Dec. 14 and involved two groups of at least 100 separatists, one of the officials said. "How do you explain that these guys come to attack us and then leave without being troubled across the border? When we drive them back, these separatists withdraw toward Nigeria," the official said. Julius Ayuk Tabe, the Nigeria-based chairman of the Ambazonian Governing Council, the political wing of the armed resistance, said he was not aware of any separatist military bases in Nigeria. Cameroon's linguistic divide harks back to the end of World War One, when the German colony of Kamerun was carved up between allied French and British victors. The English-speaking regions joined the French-speaking Republic of Cameroon the year after its independence in 1960. French speakers have dominated the country's politics since. (Reporting by Paul Carsten in Abuja, Aaron Ross in Dakar, Tife Owolabi in Yenagoa and Anamesere Igboeroteonwu in Onitsha; Additional reporting by Felix Onuah and Camillus Eboh in Abuja; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)
By Sue-Lin Wong BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese tourists are still visiting Pyongyang from China's border city of Dandong, tourism sources say, even after authorities unofficially halted the tours just ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's visit to China last month. A group of 40 Chinese tourists left on Friday from the border city of Dandong to Pyongyang, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters, a sign local authorities have not been strongly enforcing curbs on tourist flows. "This is the largest group to go in from Dandong since the curb," a tour operator said, adding the tourists traveled by train into North Korea for a four-day tour. The Dandong Tourism Bureau declined to be interviewed for this story. When asked for comment, China's foreign ministry said they did "not understand the situation." Local businesses in China are known to find ways around policies introduced by local authorities or Beijing, whether in good times or bad. "There's always a way around government policies," said one Dandong-based tourism source. "You know how Chinese people are." "I think the central government will be very annoyed at Dandong for lifting the travel restriction," the tour operator said. MONEY-MAKER FOR NORTH Tourism to North Korea is not banned by the United Nations and is one of the few remaining ways that North Korea earns hard currency. The Korea Maritime Institute, a South Korean think-tank, estimates that tourism generates about $44 million in annual revenue for North Korea. The U.N. has ramped up sanctions over North Korea's accelerating missile program over the past year, curbing key export industries including coal, seafood and textiles. Simon Cockerell, head of Beijing-based Koryo Tours which organizes travel to North Korea, said he saw 3 to 4 busloads of Chinese tourists in Pyongyang in mid-November. "But I'm not sure where they entered from or what visas they were on," he said. "If you have a visa to North Korea, it doesn't say where you can and can't go. So once you enter into Sinuiju or Rason, you could travel onwards to Pyongyang. The North Koreans wouldn't care," Cockerell said. Sinuiju and Rason are popular entry points for Chinese tourists traveling overland into North Korea. TRUMP'S VISIT China never publicly announced a ban on Chinese tourists visiting Pyongyang and strongly opposes unilateral sanctions, which it says undermines U.N. unity. But the day before U.S President Donald Trump's first official visit to China in early November, Reuters exclusively reported that the Dandong Tourism Bureau had told Chinese tour operators based in Dandong to halt trips to North Korea's capital of Pyongyang. Trump has frequently praised Chinese President Xi Jinping Trump with whom he has been working to exert pressure on North Korea through strict enforcement of sanctions over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Dandong, a city of 800,000 people in northeastern Liaoning province, is the main trading hub on the Chinese side of the border and most tour companies that take Chinese tourists to North Korea are based there. The U.N. sanctions have particularly hit Dandong's economy this year. Almost all tours to North Korea have stopped and many Dandong-based companies who traditionally conducted business with North Korea are struggling, sources told Reuters. "A lot of the more successful Chinese businessmen have gone on holidays because there's nothing for them to do around here at the moment," said one Chinese businessman in Dandong. China's trade with North Korea has already fallen to its lowest in months. Beijing has repeatedly said it is rigorously enforcing U.N. resolutions aimed at reining in Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs. North Korea has accelerated the pace of its missile tests this year. Pyongyang said its latest test on Nov. 28 was an intercontinental ballistic missile that it said could deliver heavy nuclear warheads anywhere in the continental United States. (Reporting by Sue-Lin Wong; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
(Reuters) - Several countries, the United Nations and journalist groups are demanding the release of Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo from detention in Myanmar. The reporters were arrested on Dec. 12 after being invited to meet police officials on the outskirts of Yangon. They had worked on stories about a military crackdown in Rakhine state, scene of around 650,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh since late August. Myanmar's Ministry of Information has said the reporters "illegally acquired information with the intention to share it with foreign media," and released a photo of them in handcuffs. It said the reporters and two policemen faced charges under the British colonial-era Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years, though officials said they have not been charged. Their exact whereabouts are not known. "We and their families continue to be denied access to them or to the most basic information about their well-being and whereabouts," Reuters President and Editor-In-Chief Stephen J. Adler said in a statement calling for their immediate release. "Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo are journalists who perform a crucial role in shedding light on news of global interest, and they are innocent of any wrongdoing," he said. Here are the comments on their detention from governments, politicians, human rights groups and press freedom advocates around the world: LATEST REACTIONS - The European Union urged Myanmar on Monday to release the two Reuters reporters "as quickly as possible." A spokeswoman for the EUs foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said, "Freedom of the press and media is the foundation and a cornerstone of any democracy." - Dutch ambassador to Myanmar Wouter Jurgens said on Monday that "we urge the government for their immediate release or to provide clarity about their situation and what crimes they are accused of without further delay". - Vijay Nambiar, a former special adviser on Myanmar to the U.N. Secretary-General, said in a statement to Reuters on Monday that the detentions had caused "widespread disappointment within and outside the country that is likely to further damage the international reputation and image of Myanmar, already under stress as a result of its handling of the Rakhine crisis." - The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) called on Myanmar authorities to immediately disclose the whereabouts of the pair. "All detainees must be allowed prompt access to a lawyer and to family members," Frederick Rawski, the ICJ's Asia-Pacific Regional Director, said in a statement on Monday. - Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kano said in response to a question from a Reuters reporter on Tuesday: "Freedom of the press is extremely important, including in order to protect fundamental human rights. The Japanese government would like to watch (this matter) closely." - Republican Thom Tillis and Democrat Chris Coons, the leaders of the U.S. Senate Human Rights Caucus, said they were "gravely concerned" about the arrests of the Reuters journalists and that freedom of the press was critical to ensuring accountability for violence against the Rohingya. Democratic congressman Ted Lieu, a member of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, called the arrests "outrageous and a direct attack on press freedom." GOVERNMENTS, MULTILATERAL ORGANIZATIONS - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said last week the United States was "demanding their immediate release or information as to the circumstances around their disappearance." On Tuesday, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert reiterated the U.S. demand for the reporters' immediate release. - British Minister for Asia and the Pacific Mark Field said, "I absolutely strongly disapprove of the idea of journalists, going about their everyday business, being arrested. We will make it clear in the strongest possible terms that we feel that they need to be released at the earliest possible opportunity." - Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom called the arrests a "threat to a democratic and peaceful development of Myanmar and that region." She said, "We do not accept that journalists are attacked or simply kidnapped or that they disappear ... To be able to send journalists to this particular area is of crucial importance." - U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said countries should do everything possible to secure the journalists' release and freedom of the press in Myanmar. Guterres said, "It is clearly a concern in relation to the erosion of press freedom in the country." - Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland, the former managing director and editor, consumer news, at Thomson Reuters, tweeted that she was "deeply concerned" by the reports about the arrests. Global Affairs Canada, the Canadian government department that manages its foreign and trade relations, issued a statement on Saturday calling for the reporters' release and said "no person should ever face intimidation in the exercise of their profession." - President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani called on Myanmar to protect media freedoms and release the two reporters. - Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said its embassy in Myanmar was registering Canberra's concern at the arrest of the two journalists. "A free and functioning media is an essential part of a modern democracy," the department said in an e-mail to Reuters on Monday. - Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, information adviser to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said, "We strongly denounce arrests of Reuters journalists and feel that those reporters be free immediately so that they can depict the truth to the world by their reporting." JOURNALISTS, NGOS - The Committee to Protect Journalists said the arrests were "having a grave impact on the ability of journalists to cover a story of vital global importance". - The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said there was no justification for the arrests and the charges being considered against the journalists were "completely spurious". - Advocacy group Fortify Rights demanded the Myanmar government immediately and unconditionally release the two Reuters journalists. "The environment for media right now is as hostile as it's been for years, and if adequate pressure doesn't mount on the civilian and military leadership, we can expect it to worsen," Matthew Smith, chief executive officer of Fortify Rights, said on Thursday. - Myanmar's Irrawaddy online news site called on Dec. 14 for the journalists' release in an editorial headlined "The Crackdown on the Media Must Stop." The newspaper said that "it is an outrage to see the Ministry of Information release a police record photo of reporters handcuffed  as police normally do to criminals  on its website soon after the detention. It is chilling to see that MOI has suddenly brought us back to the olden days of a repressive regime." - The Southeast Asian Press Alliance said the two journalists were "only doing their jobs in trying to fill the void of information on the Rohingya conflict." - The Protection Committee for Myanmar Journalists, a group of local reporters who have demonstrated against past prosecutions of journalists, decried the "unfair arrests that affect media freedom". - The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Myanmar said it was "appalled" by the arrests and "gravely concerned" about the state of press freedom in Myanmar. - The Foreign Correspondents' Club in Thailand, The Foreign Correspondents' Association of the Philippines, the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents' Club, the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Hong Kong and the Editorial Committee of The Society of Publishers in Asia have also issued statements of support for the journalists. (Compiled by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Martin Howell and Jonathan Oatis)
By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Crews battling Southern California's sprawling wildfire made incremental progress in containing the two-week-old blaze but faced forecasts for stronger winds on Wednesday that threatened to make it the biggest in state history. Firefighters halted the spread of the so-called Thomas fire at 272,000 acres (110,100 hectares) as of Tuesday and carved containment lines around 60 percent of its perimeter, up from 55 percent, a coalition of fire and law enforcement agencies said. With progress being made against the blaze - which has scorched the dry coastal mountains, foothills and canyons of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties northwest of Los Angeles - officials said they had cut the number of firefighters to 6,500 from a peak of 8,500 over the past few days. However, wind gusts from the north were expected to accelerate to 50 miles per hour (80 km per hour) at sunset on Wednesday and continue into Thursday, creating extreme fire danger conditions for Santa Barbara County, the National Weather Service said. Ventura County, which has taken the brunt of the fire, is likely to experience 40 to 50 mph (64 to 80 kph) winds on Thursday and Friday, it said. Fire managers were cautiously optimistic that they could protect populated areas against the predicted return of stronger winds, but were not letting their guard down. "We are not out of the woods yet on this fire," Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown told reporters on Tuesday. "As we are all aware, this fire has proven to be very stubborn and very unpredictable." Brown said some 2,000 of the county's evacuees were allowed to return to their homes on Tuesday. The Thomas blaze, which became California's second largest wildfire on Tuesday, is nearly as large as the 2003 Cedar fire in San Diego County, which consumed a record 273,246 acres (110,579 hectares) and killed 15 people. More than 1,000 homes and other buildings have gone up in flames, and about 18,000 structures remained listed as threatened since the fire started on Dec. 4. The cause has not been determined. One firefighter died last Thursday near the town of Fillmore in Ventura County. The Thomas fire was initially stoked by hot, dry Santa Ana winds blowing with rare hurricane force from the eastern desert, spreading flames across miles of drought-parched chaparral and brush in California's rugged coastal terrain. (Writing by Peter Szekely in New York; additional reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; editing by Frank McGurty and Jonathan Oatis)
By Julia Fioretti BRUSSELS (Reuters) - France's data privacy watchdog may fine messaging app WhatsApp if it does not comply with an order to bring its sharing of user data with parent company Facebook into line with French privacy law. The French data protection authority - CNIL - said on Monday it had told WhatsApp to comply with the order within one month, and pay particular attention to obtaining users' consent. If WhatsApp does not comply it could sanction the company, it said. The CNIL said WhatsApp did not have the legal basis to share user data with Facebook and had violated its obligation to cooperate with the French authority. WhatsApp, bought by Facebook in 2014, said it would begin sharing some user data with the social media group in 2016, drawing warnings from European privacy watchdogs about getting the appropriate consent. In October, European Union privacy regulators criticized WhatsApp for not resolving their concerns over the messaging service's sharing of user data with Facebook a year after they first issued a warning. The French regulator said WhatsApp had not properly obtained users' consent to begin sharing their phone numbers with Facebook for "business intelligence" purposes. "The only way to refuse the data transfer for business intelligence purpose is to uninstall the application," the CNIL said in a statement. The regulator accepted the transfer of user data for security purposes seemed to be essential to the functioning of the application. But the watchdog also said the same did not apply for "business intelligence" purposes which aim to improve the apps' performance. "Privacy is incredibly important to WhatsApp. Its why we collect very little data, and encrypt every message," a spokeswoman for WhatsApp said. "We will continue to work with the CNIL to ensure users understand what information we collect, as well as how its used. And were committed to resolving the different, and at times conflicting, concerns weve heard from European Data Protection Authorities with a common EU approach before the General Data Protection Regulation comes into force in May 2018." European data protection authorities can only impose small fines at the moment, but a new EU privacy law entering into force next year will increase fines to up to 4 percent of a company's global turnover. The CNIL said it had repeatedly asked WhatsApp to provide a sample of French users' data transferred to Facebook but the company had explained it could not do so as it is located in the United States and "it considers that it is only subject to the legislation of this country." Separately, Germany's cartel office said on Tuesday it had found Facebook had abused its dominant market position, in a ruling that questioned the company's model of monetizing the personal data of its users through targeted advertising. (Reporting by Julia Fioretti; Editing by Jane Merriman and Mark Potter)
BERLIN (Reuters) - German federal prosecutors on Tuesday finalised their ban on an Islamist association accused of radicalizing youngsters, saying that complaints about the ban from two members of the group had been withdrawn. Last year, the interior ministry banned the Islamist group "True Religion," saying it had persuaded about 140 people to join militants in Iraq and Syria. [nL8N1DG28O] Following the ban, police launched dawn raids across Germany on about 190 mosques, flats and offices linked to the group. The federal prosecutor said that since the association itself had not complained about the ban and the two members' complaints had been withdrawn, the prohibition ruling was final. The case comes as Germany commemorates last year's Islamist-motivated attack on a Berlin Christmas Market which killed 12 people and injured many others. (Reporting By Riham Alkousaa; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
Half of American voters believe President Donald Trump should resign over the multiple sexual misconduct allegations against him, according to a poll published on Tuesday by Quinnipiac University.

Trump has been accused of some form of sexual misconduct, ranging from harassment to assault and rape, by 21 women.

According to the survey, 59 percent of women and 41 percent of men say that Trump should leave office because of the allegations. The findings demonstrated a clear partisan divide on the issue, with 85 percent of Democrats and only 7 percent of Republicans favoring the presidents resignation.

Self-identified independent voters were somewhat split, with 52 percent calling for Trumps resignation and 44 percent saying he should stay in office.

More than half (66 percent) of voters believe that Trump does not respect women as much as he does men.

The poll surveyed 1,230 American voters through telephone interviews between Dec. 13 and Dec. 18.

Trump has denied all allegations against him, most recently tweeting that the accusations are fake news. In October, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders suggested that all of Trumps accusers were lying.

Multiple members of Congress, including Sens. Cory Booker (N.J.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), have called on the president to resign over the allegations. More than 100 Democrats in the U.S. House recently signed a letter urging Congress to open an investigation into the accusations.

Four of Trumps accusers recently held a press conference to call on Congress to investigate their claims.

People are being held accountable for unwanted behavior, but we are not holding our president accountable for what he is and who he is, Jessica Leeds, who accused Trump of groping her on a plane over 30 years ago, said in a press conference last week.

The full Quinnipiac poll can be read here.

A new poll from Quinnipiac revealed that 50 percent of voters think President Trump should resign from office over sexual misconduct allegations. (Photo: SAUL LOEB via Getty Images)

Related...

A Running List Of The Women Who've Accused Donald Trump Of Sexual Misconduct

4 Trump Accusers Call On Congress To Investigate Sexual Misconduct Claims

Story continues

Half Of American Voters Believe The Women Accusing Trump Of Sexual Misconduct

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
By Gustavo Palencia

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - The president of Honduras declared himself re-elected on Tuesday despite calls from the Organization of American States (OAS) for a fresh vote over allegations of fraud and deadly protests following last month's disputed election.

In Washington, his rival asked the United States and others to reject the result and cut off aid, warning that protests in which more than 20 people have died could escalate into generalized violence unless there is a new election.

The opposition alliance said it would file a legal challenge to the country's electoral tribunal's verdict that President Juan Orlando Hernandez won the Nov. 26 election.

Hernandez spoke for the first time since the tribunal issued that verdict on Sunday. A partial recount did not tip the result in favour of his opponent, TV host Salvador Nasralla, the tribunal said.

Hernandez, who is an ally of the United States, said in a televised address that he would bring "peace, harmony and prosperity" to the poor Central American nation.

"As a citizen and president-elect of all Hondurans, I humbly accept the will of the Honduran people," said Hernandez, a conservative who has led a military crackdown on the country's violent gangs.

Nasralla, who leads a centre-left coalition, called for a new vote monitored by international observers, saying Hernandez was holding onto power illegally.

"Honduras runs the risk of falling into an undesired and fratricidal civil war, with unforeseen consequences in the Central American region," he told reporters.

At least 24 people, including two police officers, have died in simmering protests around the country since the opposition declared fraud, according to the Honduran human rights group COFADEH, which tracks kidnappings and murders by the state. However, for the most part the protests have been relatively small.

Opposition leaders have accused government security forces of firing into barricades and peaceful protests. A military official said troops are firing only into the air and only if they are in imminent danger, such as coming under fire. Opposition leaders deny protesters are armed with guns.

Story continues

The political unrest has hit a country that struggles with violent drug gangs, one of world's highest murder rates - although murders have dropped under Hernandez's crackdown - and endemic poverty. Together, these drive a tide of Hondurans to migrate to the United States.

CUT OFF AID

Nasralla travelled on Monday to Washington to meet with OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro and a senior State Department official.

Following his visit, the U.S. State Department urged Honduran political parties to raise any concerns about the official results through a formal legal challenge this week - the step that Nasralla's opposition alliance said later in the day that it would take.

However, Nasralla earlier rejected the value of a legal challenge, saying the courts are controlled by Hernandez. Instead, he said the United States, Latin American countries and other foreign powers should push for fresh elections, not recognise the current results and cut off aid to Honduras.

In the midst of the post-election chaos, the U.S. State Department certified late last month that the Honduran government has been fighting corruption and supporting human rights, clearing the way for Honduras to receive millions of dollars in U.S. aid.

As results rolled in on Nov. 26, Nasralla initially seemed headed for an upset win. But results abruptly stopped being issued. When they restarted, the outcome began to favour Hernandez, arousing suspicion among Nasralla supporters.

Shortly after the electoral tribunal backed Hernandez's victory on Sunday, the OAS said the election did not meet democratic standards and called for a re-run.

On Monday, one of Hernandez's top officials rejected the call for another vote.

Hernandez, 49, has been supported by U.S. President Donald Trump's chief of staff, John Kelly, since Kelly was a top general.

(Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in Washington; Writing by Michael O'Boyle; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Frances Kerry)
The Indian Detective (Photo: Netflix)

If The Indian Detective pops up as a recommended item on your Netflix home page, chances are youve been watching some stand-up comedy specials, and maybe some Star Trek reruns. This new four-episode series stars Canadian comedian Russell Peters as a laughable cop, with William Shatner making welcome appearances as a bad guy. Peters, whose stand-up act is apparently pretty popular up north, plays Constable Doug DMello, who at the start of the show is put on suspension from his Toronto job for general incompetence. He uses his time off to visit his father in Mumbai, India. (Dad is played by Anupam Kher, whos been good in everything from Bend It Like Beckham to Silver Linings Playbook.) There he stumbles upon a murder, real estate business corruption, and drug smuggling, much of it involving Shatner, who plays a businessman named Marlowe. Shatner is almost effortlessly good  he exudes menace as easily as he releases carefree silliness in the new season of Better Late Than Never.

As an actor, Russell Peters is a stand-up comic, by which I mean all his lines are delivered as punch lines to jokes set up by the dialogue  whether the conversation is meant to be humorous or not. The tone of the show veers back and forth between comedy and suspense. The name that pops out in the credits is Frank Spotnitz (The X-Files, The Man in the High Castle), whos listed as co-creator and co-writer on every episode. Theres little of Spotnitzs talent for dramatizing tension here.

The Indian Detective delves into fish-out-of-water territory when Constable Doug explores his ethnic roots in Mumbai in the company of his father. To give you an idea of the humor level, a big recurring joke is that Dad wears a ludicrously phony hairpiece. Indian Detective plays out like a tidy little PBS Sunday-night cozy-mystery show. Bear this in mind if youre looking for something to watch with your mom, who likes Inspector Lewis or Midsomer Murders, during the holidays.

The Indian Detective is streaming now on Netflix.

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:
By Agustinus Beo Da Costa JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's vice president said on Tuesday that calls for a boycott of U.S. goods over President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel were misguided - not least because of the country's reliance on U.S. technology. There have been a series of protests in the world's biggest Muslim-majority country since Trump's controversial move this month to reverse decades of U.S. policy. At a rally of about 80,000 people on Sunday, the Indonesian Ulema Council, a body of Muslim clerics, called for a boycott of U.S. and Israeli products if Trump did not revoke his action. Vice President Jusuf Kalla told reporters that Indonesia was trying to put pressure on Washington through the United Nations and it was not even practical to stop using American products. "Do not be emotional... do we dare to boycott iPhones, stop using Google. Can (you) live without them?" he asked. "(You) cannot live without them now. If you go out of the house now, you put (an iPhone) in your pocket," he said. Kalla said that even if people stopped watching U.S. movies, other American goods such as specialized petroleum equipment were vital in oil-producing Indonesia, Southeast Asia's biggest economy. There have been a series of protests in Indonesia over the issue of Jerusalem, including some where hardliners burned U.S. and Israeli flags. The status of Jerusalem, a city holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians, is one of the biggest barriers to a lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace. Asked about how to proceed after Washington vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for the U.S. declaration on Jerusalem to be withdrawn, Kalla said that dialogue was the only solution. "There had been three wars, and Palestine's territory has become smaller, so there must be a dialogue, peace," he said. Indonesia enjoys a trade surplus with the United States and is one of 16 countries that the Trump administration has said could be investigated for possible trade abuses. Tutum Rahanta, deputy chairman of the Indonesian Retailers Association, said it was up to consumers whether to buy American products. "If it is advice or a call to boycott, it depends on the consumers whether to use the products or not." (Additonal reporting by Cindy Silviana; Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Nick Macfie)
Israeli Base at Reim (Israel) (AFP) - Israel is ready to pay the price for the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as its capital but will not accept Palestinian rocket fire, Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Tuesday.

President Donald Trump's December 6 decision to recognise Jerusalem and move the US embassy there has led to near-daily protests in the Palestinian territories, with at least 15 rockets or projectiles fired at the Jewish state from the Gaza Strip.

A number have fallen inside the Palestinian enclave itself or been intercepted by Israel's missile defence systems, but a few have hit Israel.

They have caused minor damage but no injuries, although the attacks have raised fears of a new round of confrontation with Gaza's rulers Hamas, with which Israel has fought three wars since 2008.

"It was clear to us that the US President's declaration (on Jerusalem) will have a price, and I repeat, we are ready to pay the whole price. This determination (on Jerusalem) is important," Lieberman said during a visit to a military base near the Gaza border.

"We will not tolerate any leakage" of rockets fired from Gaza at Israel, he added.

Since the last round of conflict in 2014, Islamists Hamas and Israel have observed a tense ceasefire.

The Israeli army believes the rocket fire from Gaza has not come from Hamas but from more radical Islamist groups, broadly called Salafists.

Lieberman said Hamas had arrested Salafists in recent days, but there has been no confirmation of this from Hamas.

"Israel is ready and set like never before," Lieberman added.

"Hamas has also understood and internalised (this), and this is why we've seen dozens of Salafi activists arrested by Hamas."
By Michelle Nichols and David Brunnstrom UNITED NATIONS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has called on the U.N. Security Council to blacklist 10 ships for circumventing sanctions on North Korea, documents showed on Tuesday, while South Korea's President suggested curtailing military exercises with Washington to ease tensions ahead of next year's Winter Olympics. Documents seen by Reuters said the 10 vessels had been conducting ship-to-ship transfers of refined petroleum products to North Korean vessels or transporting North Korean coal in violation of U.N. sanctions imposed over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs. The ships would be blacklisted - meaning countries would be required to ban them from entering their ports - if none of the 15 members of the Security Council's North Korea sanctions committee object by Thursday afternoon. North Korea is under a U.N. arms embargo and the Security Council has banned trade in exports such as coal, textiles, seafood, iron and other minerals to choke funding for Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs. In September, the council put a cap of 2 million barrels a year on refined petroleum products exports to North Korea. The ships targeted for blacklisting were Xin Sheng Hai (flag unknown); the Hong-Kong-flagged Lighthouse Winmore; the Togo-flagged Yu Yuan; Panama-flagged Glory Hope 1 (also known as Orient Shenyu), Kai Xiang, and Billions No. 18; and the North Korean-flagged Ul Ji Bong 6, Rung Ra 2, Rye Song Gang 1, and Sam Jong 2. Four ships were designated for carrying coal from North Korea by the council's North Korea sanctions committee in October. The United States has led a drive to step up sanctions on North Korea in response to Pyongyang's efforts to develop nuclear-tipped missiles capable of hitting the United States. In Ottawa on Tuesday, Canada and the United States said they would co-host a foreign ministers meeting in Vancouver on Jan. 16 to demonstrate international solidarity against North Korea's nuclear and missile tests. Representatives of the countries that sent troops or other military support to the U.N.-backed effort to repel North Korean forces after the 1950 invasion of South Korea will attend. Japan, India and Sweden will also attend, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said. "We can't talk unless North Korea is ready to talk," Tillerson told reporters after meeting with Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland. "What's important for North Korea to know is that this pressure campaign will not abate, we will not be rolling any of it back, it will only be intensified as time goes by, and it will remain in place until they agree to give up their nuclear weapons and allow us to verify the fact that is what they have done," he said. Freeland said the world had to demonstrate to North Korea that it was united in condemning Pyongyang's actions. "The international pressure campaign - we believe it's going to be successful, and a successful outcome of the international pressure campaign is a diplomatic engagement," Freeland said. Washington has warned that all options are on the table, including military ones, to prevent North Korea's missile development. On Friday, Tillerson had urged North Korea to carry out a "sustained cessation" of weapons testing to allow the two countries to hold talks. North Korea paused its missile testing for more than two months before firing a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile in late November. U.S. officials say it has given no indication it is willing to discuss giving up its nuclear program and Pyongyang has repeatedly denounced U.S. and South Korean military drills, which it says are a prelude to invasion. On Tuesday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said he was willing to ease tensions ahead of next year's Winter Olympics in South Korea by curtailing joint military exercises. "It is possible for South Korea and the U.S. to review the possibility of postponing the exercises," he told NBC News. "Ive made such a suggestion to the U.S., and the U.S. is currently reviewing it. However, all this depends on how North Korea behaves." A spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Command, Commander Dave Benham, declined to discuss any plans for exercises. Earlier on Tuesday, Japan and South Korea, both U.S. allies, urged China to put more pressure on North Korea. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said after talks with South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha that China - North Korea's neighbor and only big ally - was implementing Security Council resolutions but could do more. China routinely says it is meeting its U.N. obligations on North Korea and has urged "all sides" to pursue dialogue. The U.S. Navy's top officer, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson, said on Tuesday that vessels from the eastern Pacific could be moved to reinforce U.S. naval power in Asia as Washington contends with increased threats in the region and accidents that have weakened its maritime force. China has been irritated by stepped-up U.S. naval deployments in the Pacific and along with Russia has proposed that Washington and Seoul halt major military exercises in exchange for North Korea freezing its weapons programs. Washington has warned North Korea it would be "totally destroyed" in the event of war and on Monday U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled a new national security strategy stressing the need to deal with the challenge posed by Pyongyang. This week Washington publicly blamed North Korea for a massive worldwide cyber attack in May that crippled hospitals, banks and other companies. A White House official said on Tuesday that Facebook Inc and Microsoft Corp disabled a number of North Korean cyber threats last week. Researchers say a series of cyber attacks has netted North Korean hackers millions of dollars in virtual currencies like bitcoin, with more attacks expected, as international sanctions drive the country to seek new sources of cash. (Reporting by Josh Smith in Seoul, Jeremy Wagstaff in Singapore, Tim Kelly and Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo, David Brunnstrom, Susan Heavey and Idrees Ali in Washington, Michelle Nichols at the United Nations, Warren Strobel and Leah Schnurr; Writing by Linda Sieg, Nick Macfie and Grant McCool; Editing by James Dalgleish)
By Dustin Volz

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Moscow-based anti-virus company Kaspersky Lab sued the Trump administration in U.S. federal court on Monday, arguing that the American government has deprived it of due process rights by banning its software from U.S. government agencies.

The lawsuit is the latest effort by Kaspersky Lab to push back on allegations that the company is vulnerable to Kremlin influence.

The Department of Homeland Security in September issued a directive to U.S. civilian agencies ordering them to remove Kaspersky Lab from their computer networks within 90 days. The order came amid mounting concern among U.S. officials that the software could enable Russian espionage and threaten national security.

The ban was codified last week when President Donald Trump signed legislation banning Kasperky Lab from use across civilian and military agencies.

Kaspersky Lab has repeatedly denied it has ties to any government and said it would not help a government with cyber espionage.

"DHS has harmed Kaspersky Labs reputation and its commercial operations without any evidence of wrongdoing by the company," the company's founder, Eugene Kaspersky, said in an open letter to the agency published on Monday.

In an attempt to address suspicions, the company said in October it would submit the source code of its software and future updates for inspection by independent parties.

U.S. officials have said that step, while welcome, would not be sufficient.

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

(Reporting by Dustin Volz; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
VALLETTA (Reuters) - The bomb used to kill Maltese anti-corruption blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia was probably triggered by a call from a boat off Malta, an investigator said on Tuesday, laying out initial evidence against three suspects.

Caruana Galizia died in the powerful blast as she was driving near her home in the village of Bidnija on Oct. 16 -- a killing that appalled Europe and raised questions about the rule of law on the tiny Mediterranean island.

Brothers Alfred and George Degiorgio, and Vince Muscat were arrested earlier this month in connection with the murder. The three men, who were known to police, have denied any wrongdoing.

Police started laying out their evidence against the trio to a Malta court which will decide whether to order a trial.

One of the chief investigators, Keith Arnaud, described how a team from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, brought in by the Malta government to help solve the crime, had focused on a phone number which received a text message at the time of the explosion in Bidnija.

Police say the number was not attached to a mobile phone but to a circuit board used in remote-control devices. The appliance was switched on at 2 a.m. local time in Bidnija on the day of the explosion and went off the grid at the time of the blast.

Part of the circuit board was later found in the wreckage of the car.

Cell phone data suggested the device was triggered by a call from off the coast. CCTV video showed a boat owned by the Degiorgio brothers putting to sea at around 8 a.m. on the day of the killing. It was later seen still at sea at 2.50 p.m. and was idling at the time of the explosion before returning to harbour.

The three suspects had never been the target of any of Caruana Galizia's often fierce blogs, leading to questions over their possible motive. The blogger's family say the people who ordered the killing remain at large.

Arnaud revealed that police had already been tapping the phone of George Degiorgio at the time of the murder and had heard him asking two separate people to top up the credit of a mobile phone number on the morning of the blast.

Story continues

He did not go into further details, but local media have reported that the same number might have triggered the bomb.

Arnaud was the first person called to testify in the pre-trial hearing, which has been delayed twice over the past week after the initial two magistrates assigned to the case recused themselves.

A third magistrate, Claire Stafrace Zammit, rejected calls by the defence for her also to abstain from the case because Caruana Galizia had once praised her husband. She dismissed the request as frivolous.

The hearing will resume on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Chris Scicluna; Editing by Crispian Balmer and Gareth Jones)
McKayla Maroney has filed suit over a confidentiality agreement. (AP)

Note: This story contains graphic details of abuse which some readers may find disturbing.

A lawyer for Olympic icon McKayla Maroney is charging that USA Gymnastics paid her to keep silent about abuse she suffered at the hands of former team doctor Larry Nassar.

John Manly, an attorney for the gold medal-winning gymnast, has filed suit on her behalf against USA Gymnastics in Los Angeles Superior Court. He contends the organization sought to buy her silence, paying her a reported $1.25 million, according to the Wall Street Journal, while she was emotionally traumatized from the effects of Nassars abuse.

I want people to understand that this kid had no choice. She couldnt function. She couldnt work, Manly told ESPN. They [USAG] were willing to sacrifice the health and well-being of one of the most famous gymnasts in the world because they didnt want the world to know they were protecting a pedophile doctor.

Nassar has pleaded guilty to 10 counts of criminal sexual conduct, and is scheduled to be sentenced in Michigan in January. He is already serving 60 years in prison on child pornography charges. Nassar, who served as USA Gymnastics doctor during four Olympic Games, also faces civil lawsuits charging he abused more than 140 women during medical exams.

Maroney violated the confidentiality agreement when she posted about Nassar on Twitter in October. While she has not spoken publicly since then, both she and her mother Erin submitted statements to the court overseeing Nassars sentencing. As ESPN noted, the details of that abuse are disturbing, as in the case of one incident in Tokyo in 2011:

[Nassar] drugged her, made her lay nude on a treatment table, straddled her and digitally penetrated her while rubbing his erect penis against her, Erin Maroney wrote. She was only 15 years old. She said to me, Mom I thought I was going to die. This experience has shattered McKayla. She has transformed from a bubbly, positive, loving, world class athlete into a young adult who was deeply depressed, at times suicidal. At times, I was unsure whether I would open her bedroom door and find her dead.

Story continues

Manly dismissed the possibility that Maroney could be facing a countersuit from USA Gymnastics for violating the confidentiality agreement. Confidentiality agreements in child sex abuse cases are unlawful in the state of California and have been for years, he told ESPN. Were basically saying USAG and its lawyers violated the law by asking McKayla to agree to it and that she should be free to talk about her abuse to whomever she wants, whenever she wants.

Maroneys lawsuit charges that Nassar abused her continuously over a period of five years, and also took photographs of her, possibly during examinations. Also named in the suit are the United States Olympic Committee, Nassars employer Michigan State University and Nassar himself.

____

Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.

More from Yahoo Sports:

 Inappropriate Snapchat post ends high school QBs career

 Patriots boot Bradys longtime trainer from sideline

 Derek Jeters disastrous meeting with Marlins fans

 NBA icons end decades-long beef in emotional moment


Meghan Markle arrives at Buckingham Place for the Queen's Christmas lunch on Wednesday - i-Images Picture Agency

Meghan Markle has joined Prince Harry at Buckingham Palace to attend the Queen's Christmas lunch, as she is further welcomed into the Royal family.

The US actress was photographed in the passenger seat of a Land Rover Discovery driven by her fiance as they arrived for the event on Wednesday afternoon.

The couple looked relaxed as they passed waiting photographers. The prince, 33, was smartly dressed in a suit, shirt and tie and the 36-year-old former Suits star wore a patterned outfit.

The Queen traditionally hosts a festive lunch for her family before leaving for her private Sandringham estate, where she spends her winter break.

It has already been confirmed that Ms Markle will be part of the Royal party at Sandringham for Christmas and is expected to greet crowds ahead of the morning church service.

Her appearance at the Buckingham Palace lunch is another indication of how quickly she has been accepted into the monarchy ahead of the wedding. Tradition reportedly dictates that the lunch is attended by only relatives and spouses.

Meghan Markle was driven into Buckingham Palace by Prince Harry in a Land Rover Discovery Credit: Tim Rooke/REX/Shutterstock

Dozens of members of the extended Royal family  most of whom do not get an invitation to Sandringham  gather each year for the family get-together.

It is believed to be the first time that Ms Markle will have met many of Prince Harry's extended family members.

The Duke of Cambridge drove his family into Buckingham Palace, with the Duchess of Cambridge in the passenger seat of the Range Rover.

Their children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, sat in the rear seats either side of their Spanish nanny, Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrive at Buckingham Palace Credit: Jonathan Brady /PA

Prince George looks out the window of a car driven by his father, the Duke of Cambridge Credit: Tim Rooke/REX/Shutterstock

Princess Charlotte gazes at photographers through the windscreen as the family arrive at Buckingham Palace Credit: Andrew Parsons / i-Images

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall smiled at passers-by and tourists who were likely delighted at the unexpected chance to see so many members of the Royal family.

The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall arrive at Buckingham Palace Credit: Mark Stewart

Sisters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, the Duke of York's children, were also spotted arriving for the lunch by car.

Princess Beatrice smiles as she attends the Christmas lunch Credit: Tim Rooke/REX/Shutterstock

Her sister, Princess Eugenie, was also pictured arriving for the family get-together Credit: Jonathan Brady /PA

Among the other Royals to attend the event were Prince and Princess Michael of Kent and their daughter Lady Gabriella Windsor.

Story continues

Prince and Princess Michael of Kent arrive at the gates of Buckingham Palace Credit: Jonathan Brady /PA

Prince and Princess Michael of Kent's daughter Gabriella of Windsor in the back of the couple's car Credit: Philip Toscano /PA

The Duchess of Gloucester and Princess Alexandra were among the other attendees.

The Duchess of Gloucester drives herself to the Christmas lunch Credit: Jonathan Brady /PA

Princess Alexandra (right) is in jovial mood as she arrives at Buckingham Palace Credit: Jonathan Brady /PA

Prince Harry and Ms Markle will be married on May 19 at Windsor Castle's St George's Chapel - an event which will be one of the royal highlights of 2018.

They got engaged on November 27 and a few days later a proud prince introduced his bride-to-be to the nation during a series of official events in Nottingham.

Prince Harry introduced Meghan Markle to the nation in Nottingham earlier this month Credit: Joe Giddens /PA

After the couple's engagement was announced last month, Ms Markle, the American actress, is set to appear at church with the Windsors at Sandringham on Christmas Day.

Palace aides have already said that the prince and Ms Markle's wedding will "reflect their characters and personalities" and be a moment of "fun and joy".

They will tie the knot in the historic surrounds of the Castle's 15th century St George's Chapel.

Ms Markle, who is to become a British citizen, is being both baptised and confirmed ahead of the religious ceremony.

Meghan Markle grid

The Royal family are paying for the wedding, including the church service, the music, the flowers and the reception.

But the security costs for the high-profile event are falling to the taxpayer.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle: The story of their relationship, in pictures

The Queen will be there, as will the rest of the Royal family, along with Ms Markle's parents Thomas Markle and Doria Ragland.

Prince George and Princess Charlotte look set take on the roles of pageboy and bridesmaid.

Full interview: Harry and Meghan reveal engagement joy

Harry proposed to Suits star Ms Markle during a cosy night in over a roast chicken dinner after a 16-month whirlwind romance.

In their engagement interview he told of how "the stars were aligned" when he fell for his future wife, whom he met on a blind date.
Meghan Markle attended the Queens Christmas lunch on Wednesday afternoon [Photo: Getty]

Meghan Markle was dressed to impress today as she prepared to meet the entire Royal Family at the Queens annual Christmas lunch.

The former actress was pictured being driven by fiancee Prince Harry to Buckingham Palace.

Meghan chose a 300 lacy dress by Self Portrait [Photo: Rex]

Meghan chose a slightly unexpected look, opting for a 300 midi dress by Self Portrait; a London-based brand created by Malaysian designer Han Chong.

The short-sleeved style featured a semi-sheer lacy top and black midi skirt. Naturally, its sold out.

The 36-year-olds glossy hair was kept down with a pair of diamond drop earrings providing the perfect accessory.

The former Suits stars semi-sheer dress is now sold out [Photo: Self Portrait]

William, Kate, George and Charlotte were also spotted en route to the Palace. The Duchess of Cambridge was dressed in a darker look featuring a fur-collared coat.

The two little royals sat in the backseat accompanied by their nanny Maria Borrallo.

William and Kate also attended [Photo: Getty]

The Queens Christmas lunch is the chance for the monarch to catch up with members of the Royal Family who wont be invited to Sandringham on Christmas Day.

As well as immediate members of the royal family, the Queens more distant relations will attend including the most beautiful royal, Lady Amelia Windsor.

Prince George was also spotted in the back of the car [Photo: Rex]

Meghan is set to spend Christmas Day with the Queen, Prince Philip, Harry, William, Kate, Prince Charles and Camilla at Her Majestys Sandringham estate in Norfolk.

They will make a public appearance as they attend their regular church service.

Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for non-stop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyleUK.

Read more from Yahoo Style UK:

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle spotted Christmas shopping

Israeli designer could be behind Meghan Markles wedding dress

Meghan Markle will spend Christmas with the Royal Family at Sandringham
Gumaro Perez Aguilando was 12th media worker killed this year in Mexico

Nothing and no one protects us. Criminals have permission to do as they want

The Gulf coast state of Veracruz has become notorious as one of the most dangerous places in the world to work in journalism. Photograph: Carlos Jasso/Reuters

A Mexican journalist has been shot dead while he attended his sons school Christmas pageant as attacks on the countrys press continue unabated.

Gumaro Perez Aguilando was attending the school event in the town of Acayucan on Tuesday, when a pair of gunmen burst into the building and killed him in front of a classroom full of schoolchildren, witnesses told local media.

His death marked the 12th murder of a media worker in Mexico in 2017, according to the press freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders (RSF). The killing puts Mexico alongside Syria as the most murderous country for journalists, according to RSF.

Perez covered police matters for several publications and founded the news site La Voz del Sur in the violent city of Acayucan, in Veracruz state, where drug cartel and organised crime activities have been rife. He also worked in the communications department of the local government.

Perez had not reported any threats against him, said Ana Laura Perez Mendoza, president of the State Commission for the Care and Protection of Journalists.

He was third journalist murdered in the Acayucan in recent months. Candido Rios Vazquez, a reporter with El Diario de Acayucan, was killed with two others outside a convenience store in August, even though he was enrolled in a federal government protection program after receiving threats from a mayor in the region, according to media reports.

A month earlier, photojournalist Edwin Rivera Paz, a Honduran national, was shot and killed by gunmen on a motorcycle in Acayucan, site of a Mexican immigration processing centre. Rivera had fled Honduras earlier in the year after a colleague there was killed.

Veracruz, which stretches along Mexicos Gulf coast, has become notorious as one of the most dangerous places in the world to work in journalism. At least 19 reporters were murdered there during the 2010-2016 administration of former governor Javier Duarte, who fled Mexico, but was brought back to face corruption accusations in court.

Story continues

It continues being the same nightmare, said Miguel Angel Diaz, founder of Plumas Libres, an online news site in the state capital Xalapa. Nothing and no one protects us. Criminals have permission to do as they want.

Despite promises of action from the authorities several high-profile killings of journalists in 2017 have brought no charges or convictions.

Miroslava Breach, who covered criminal activities in northern Chihuahua state, was shot dead in March as she drove her child to school. One of the publications she contributed to, the newspaper Norte in Ciudad Juarez, subsequently closed, with the owner citing journalist safety as a motive.

Javier Valdez, founder of the newsweekly Riodoce in western Sinaloa state, was pulled from his car and shot in the street as he left his office in May.

Perezs murder comes as Mexico remains convulsed with violence. The country recorded 20,878 homicides over the first 10 months of 2017, making it the most murderous year since the government began tracking such data in 1997.
By Gabriel Stargardter MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico recognized Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez on Tuesday as the winner of last month's election, just days after the Organization of American States called for a fresh vote to dispel widespread allegations of fraud. The statement by Mexico, an important player in Central America, strengthened the position of Hernandez, who declared himself president-elect on Tuesday. It could pave the way for more countries, including the United States, to weigh in the incumbent's favor. "Mexico respectfully calls for the democratic institutions, the political forces and the people of Honduras, in a mark of respect and agreement, to definitively conclude this electoral process," the foreign ministry said in a statement. Mexico's announcement was brokered in coordination with the United States, two sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said. The presidents of Guatemala and Colombia had recognized Hernandez, a staunch U.S. ally. The Mexican foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The statement was requested by Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray, one of the sources said. Honduras' ambassador in Mexico was alerted of the move on Monday. The embassy did not immediately respond to request for comment. It is likely to enrage the center-left opposition, led by TV star Salvador Nasralla, who has accused Hernandez of stealing the election, sparking violent nationwide protests. The General Secretariat of the OAS on Sunday said the election was plagued with irregularities and should be redone to meet democratic standards. (Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter; additional reporting by Julia Love; editing by Grant McCool)
By John L. Smith LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday declared a mistrial in the criminal case against Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and three others for their role in a 2014 armed standoff with U.S. government agents, and rebuked prosecutors for withholding evidence from the defense. Bundy, two of his sons and another man were charged with 15 counts of conspiracy, assault and other offenses stemming from the confrontation, which galvanized right-wing militia groups challenging federal authority over vast tracts of public lands in the American West. U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro told federal prosecutors they had willfully violated evidence rules in failing to turn over pertinent documents to the defense, adding that "the failure is prejudicial" to ensuring a fair trial. The ruling came a month after prosecutors began presenting their case to a federal court jury in Las Vegas. Navarro had warned prosecutors last week that she might declare a mistrial after listing documents previously undisclosed by prosecutors that could be used to impugn government witnesses or bolster defendants' arguments that they felt surrounded by government snipers before the standoff. In a stinging rebuke on Wednesday, Navarro said prosecutors knew or should have known of the existence of memos from Federal Bureau of Investigation agents that might have been helpful to the defense. Those memos and other documents, some 3,300 pages in all, were not turned over until well after an Oct. 1 deadline, and then only after repeated efforts by Bundy's defense counsel, Navarro said. Defense attorneys have long argued the Bundy family felt threatened by government "snipers" positioned on a hill above their ranch. Navarro set a retrial date for Feb. 26, 2018, but whether a new trial will occur is uncertain. Acting U.S. Attorney Steven Myhre said prosecutors have yet to decide whether to pursue the case. Even if they do, defense lawyers will argue for the charges to be dismissed altogether at a hearing set for Jan. 8. Bundy's attorney, Bret Whipple, said the judge's decision sent a clear message to prosecutors that the case should be dismissed. "I think we have a very strong case that this will never be tried again," Whipple said. UPROAR OVER CATTLE The April 2014 revolt at the heart of the trial was sparked by a court-ordered roundup of Bundy's cattle by agents of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) after Bundy had refused for two decades to pay fees required to graze his herds on federal property. Hundreds of supporters, many of them heavily armed, answered Bundy's public pleas for support and rallied from all over the country to his ranch near Bunkerville, Nevada, about 75 miles (120 km) northeast of Las Vegas, in a show of force to demand that his impounded livestock be returned. Police and government agents, vastly outgunned, ultimately retreated rather than risk bloodshed, and no shots were fired. Bundy, his sons Ammon and Ryan Bundy and co-defendant Ryan Payne, a Montana resident prosecutors linked to a militia group called Operation Mutual Aid, have cast the uprising as an act of patriotic civil disobedience against government excess. "I dont believe theres a jury in this country that would convict us," Ammon Bundy said after the hearing, adding, "I believe that God has favored us." Prosecutors contend Bundy, 71, and his followers were defying the rule of law by threat of violence, rather than engaging in an act of legal protest. The most serious counts the defendants face carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Ammon and Ryan Bundy were acquitted last year, along with five other people, in a separate conspiracy case arising from a six-week armed occupation early last year of a U.S. wildlife refuge in Oregon by a group of activists protesting federal land management. A would-be fifth defendant in the Nevada case, internet blogger and radio host Peter Santilli Jr., pleaded guilty on Oct. 6 to conspiracy and faces a possible six-year prison term. Six lesser-known participants in the Nevada showdown went on trial earlier this year. Two were found guilty; one of them received a prison term of 68 years, while the other awaits sentencing. Two more pleaded guilty to lesser charges in exchange for a maximum one-year prison term. Yet another group of six defendants from the Bunkerville standoff, including two other Bundy sons, Dave and Mel Bundy, were due to stand trial after the Cliven Bundy case concludes. One of them, Micah McGuire, pleaded guilty in November to conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer. He faces up to six years in prison when sentenced. (Reporting by John L. Smith; writing by Peter Szekely in New York and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; editing by Steve Orlofsky and Jonathan Oatis)
Two-thirds of Americans believe the proposed tax reform bill would benefit the wealthy more than it would the middle class, according to a CNN poll released Tuesday.

That viewpoint differs from the narrative Republicans and President Donald Trump have been pushing to garner support for the legislation, which 55% of Americans said in the CNN poll that they opposed.

Thirty-three of Americans said they favored the bill, while 60% of Republicans said it would benefit the middle class more than rich Americans.

The House will vote on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act on Tuesday afternoon as Republicans try to push the bill before the holiday recess. If the bill passes, it will move on to the Senate for a vote later on Tuesday or on Wednesday. And if its passed there, it will move on to Trump to be signed into law.

Sixty-three percent of Americans said they do not believe Congressional Republicans and Trump made a good faith effort to work with Democrats on the tax bill, according to the CNN poll. The 1,097-page bill cuts the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% and also lowers the tax rate overall.

Economics experts told TIME this week that the bill favors higher-income inners and businesses more than it does the middle class. While the bill doubles the standard deduction for middle-class families, its tax cuts for corporations and elements like doubling the minimum for the estate tax would aid wealthier Americans.

The largest cuts proposed in the bill would benefit Americans earning in the 95th to 99th percentile, according to the left-leaning think tank Tax Policy Center. Congresss Joint Committee on Taxation said in an analysis of the bill Monday that middle-income households will get 23% of the tax cuts proposed in the bill, according to The Wall Street Journal.

CNN surveyed 1,001 adults between Dec. 14 and Dec. 17. The full polls margin of error is plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.
(Reuters) - Workers had cleared all the wrecked train cars blocking a major West Coast highway by Wednesday morning, two days after the Amtrak train derailed in Washington state while speeding onto a bridge, state transportation officials said.

It took about a day longer than hoped, but crews had carted off the biggest chunk by the afternoon: the 270,000-pound (122,470-kg) locomotive involved in the Monday morning rush-hour crash in the city of Dupont, which killed three train passengers and sent about 100 people to hospitals.

The affected southbound stretch of Interstate 5, which runs from the Canadian border to Mexico, will remain closed indefinitely, the Washington State Department of Transportation has said. Workers were clearing debris and may need to make repairs to the road surface, the department said.

Federal investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are seeking answers about the crash's cause in interviews with the train's engineer and a trainee conductor who were in the locomotive's cab.

NTSB members say they are focused on whether the engineer was distracted, but are timing their interviews with the crew this week around their recuperation from injuries. Investigators are also examining the wrecked train cars, which have been taken to a nearby U.S. military base.

"The debris is being taken to the same place where all the rail cars are and I am sure it will be inspected just as if it is evidence," Washington State Patrol Captain Dan Hall told a news conference. "There is still some debris down there that is significant in size."

The accident occurred during the train's inaugural run on a new, slightly quicker route between Olympia and Tacoma, with 86 people aboard, 80 of them passengers, Amtrak said. It was traveling at 80 miles (129 km) per hour, more than twice the speed limit for the curved portion of track leading to the bridge.

NTSB investigators have found that the train's emergency brakes were automatically activated during the derailment rather than being engaged manually by the engineer.

Story continues

They also said a safety system known as positive train control, which automatically slows trains if they go too fast, was not installed on the rail line. Congress had extended a mandatory deadline for having the system installed on all passenger railways to 2018.

The derailment placed Amtrak, the country's main passenger rail service, under renewed scrutiny following a series of fatal incidents.

At least two of the three people killed in the derailment were transit enthusiasts who wanted to ride the inaugural run along the new route.

The Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office identified the third victim through fingerprints as Benjamin Gran, 40, of Auburn, Washington, on Wednesday afternoon.

GRAPHIC: Map of derailment site - http://tmsnrt.rs/2BFg2I5

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
Ms Hockley is pictured with her family

The mother of a child born in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting has ripped President Donald Trump for an appalling lack of humanity and decency after he invited the head of the National Rifle Association to the White House on the anniversary of the slaughter.

Nicole Hockley, whose 6-year-old son was one of 20 children killed in that attack, slammed Mr Trump for failing to recognise the shooting on its five-year anniversary, even though he invited the NRA boss to the White House Christmas Party that evening.

Not only did he ignore the five-year remembrance completely  not even a single tweet  he slapped us all in the face by having none other than NRA President Wayne LaPierre at his White House Christmas party that night. The appalling lack of humanity and decency has not gone unnoticed, Ms Hockley wrote in a Facebook post.

While they ignorantly partied and remained uninformed on an issue that kills thousands of Americans every year, I was crying myself to sleep, she continued. While they got the chance to kiss their children goodnight, I kissed the urn holding my beautiful boys ashes.

Following the massacre that killed her son, Ms Hockley joined another parent to start Sandy Hook Promise, a non-profit that works to protect children from gun violence.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed that Mr LaPierre had been at the White House Christmas Party, but said that she wasnt sure if the President met with the NRA chief.

The NRA spends millions of dollars each year to lobby the federal government, and wields considerable membership rolls to pressure members of Congress  and state legislatures  to advance pro-gun policies, or protect gun rights. In 2016, the group spent $3,188,000 to lobby the federal government, for instance, and spent over $54 million on outside expenditures, according to data from the Centre for Responsive Politics, making it the eighth biggest outside spender that year.
By Tom Miles GENEVA (Reuters) - The U.N. independent investigator into human rights in Myanmar called on Wednesday for stronger international pressure to be exerted on Myanmar's military commanders after being barred from visiting the country for the rest of her tenure. Yanghee Lee, U.N. special rapporteur, had been due to visit in January to assess human rights across Myanmar, including alleged abuses against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State. But Myanmar had told her she was no longer welcome, she said, adding in a statement that this suggested something "terribly awful" was happening in the country. "From what I see right now Im not sure if they are feeling pressured. Im not sure if there is the right kind of pressure placed on the military commanders and the generals," she later told Reuters by phone from Seoul. She said it was alarming that Myanmar was strongly supported by China, which has a veto at the U.N.'s top table in New York. Other countries including the United States and human groups were advocating targeted sanctions on the military, she said. "It has to work. And Im sure the world has to find a way to make it work. And I think the United Nations and its member states should really try to persuade China to really act towards the protection of human rights," she said. More than 650,000 Rohingya have fled into Bangladesh since Aug. 25, when attacks by Muslim insurgents on the Myanmar security forces triggered a response by the army and Buddhist vigilantes. Surveys of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh by aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres have shown at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed in Rakhine state in the month after violence flared up on Aug 25, MSF said last week. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein has called the violence "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing" and said he would not be surprised if a court eventually ruled that genocide had taken place. Lee had planned to use her visit to find out procedures for the return of Rohingya refugees, and to investigate increased fighting in the Kachin and northern Shan areas of Myanmar. Lee, in an earlier statement, said Myanmar's refusal to cooperate with her was a strong indication that there must be "something terribly awful happening" throughout the country, although the government had repeatedly denied any violations of human rights. "They have said that they have nothing to hide, but their lack of cooperation with my mandate and the fact-finding mission suggests otherwise," she said. She was "puzzled and disappointed", since Myanmar's Ambassador in Geneva Htin Lynn had told the U.N. Human Rights Council only two weeks ago that it would continue to cooperate. "Now I am being told that this decision to no longer cooperate with me is based on the statement I made after I visited the country in July," she said. Lynn did not respond to a request for comment. Neither Zaw Htay, spokesman for Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, nor Kyaw Moe Tun, a spokesman for the ministry of foreign affairs that Suu Kyi heads, were immediately available. (Reporting by Tom Miles, additional reporting by Simon Daniel Lewis; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
Hong Kong (AFP) - Reporter Mratt Kyaw Thu has won the 2017 Agence France-Presse Kate Webb prize for his compelling and rigorous coverage of ethnic strife in his native Myanmar, AFP announced on Tuesday.

The award recognises exceptional journalism in difficult or dangerous conditions, and is named after one of AFP's finest correspondents who died in 2007 at the age of 64.

Mratt Kyaw Thu, 27, was recognised for a series of articles focused on ethnic and religious conflict in Myanmar's Shan and Rakhine states in 2016 -- the latter a precursor to the exodus of nearly 650,000Rohingya Muslims from Rakhine earlier this year.

The stories were published in the weekly English-language news magazine "Frontier", which has established a reputation for independent reporting in a country where rights groups say media freedoms have worsened, despite the installation of a civilian-led government last year.

Two local Reuters journalists face up to 14 years in jail after they were detained under the Official Secrets Act last week.

"AFP is particularly pleased that a Myanmar journalist will receive the Kate Webb award for the first time since its inception in 2008," said AFP's Asia-Pacific regional director, Philippe Massonnet.

"Journalists work in a tough environment in Myanmar, where press freedom is a constant battle in which Mratt Kyaw Thu is one of the regular combatants," Massonnet said.

The Kate Webb award carries a 3,000 euro ($3,500) prize and will be formally presented at a ceremony in Yangon in the New Year.

Kate Webb earned a reputation as a fearless reporter while covering wars and other historic events in Asia during a career spanning four decades.

To honour her passion for encouraging and supporting regional staff, the prize recognises journalists who are locally-hired in Asia.

"This award is recognition for me personally but also for the struggles of all Myanmar journalists, who are in a very difficult situation right now," Mratt Kyaw Thu said, after learning he was the winner of the 2017 prize.

Story continues

"Friends are being arrested for doing their job. Myanmar journalists are being watched closely by the military and government  it's worse than before," he said, adding that the prize would give him "strength and encouragement".

The prize is administered by AFP and the Webb family.

The 2016 award went to the independent Afghan TV station Tolo.
A new podcast, For a Bad Time, Call  is all about womens anger. (Photo: Getty Images)

Your anger is real, your rage is valid  and now, theres a number to call when you feel either of these emotions. The number is associated with the new podcast For a Bad Time, Call  which, in the creators words, is dedicated to womens anger. Women can can call the podcasts number to express their anger about anything  from oblivious men to a defective bag of chicken nuggets.

Anne Jaconette and Clare Roth thought of the idea last spring  months before the presidential election and the public uptick in womens rage. Jaconette and Roth, who met while at Northwestern University, were frustrated that womens anger was never taken seriously.

I suggested, What if there was a number you could call and shout out all the anger youre holding inside? and Clare basically replied, We could make that happen, Jaconette tells Yahoo Lifestyle.

And make it happen they did. Jaconette, who is from Brooklyn, N.Y., and Roth, who hails from Columbus, Ohio, joined forces to launch the podcast right when the news of the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault allegations broke. Though they didnt create the hotline in response to that, the timing worked nicely for their mission. Women called the hotline with all sorts of scenarios that made them angry, and Jaconette and Roth strung them together for listeners.

To make it into a podcast is important because it lets other women know that theyre not alone  that the things that are frustrating them are frustrating others, Jaconette explains.

First, they solicited friends to call in to test the idea, but then about six weeks ago, non-friend started calling. So far, theyve received more than 100 calls and have released three episodes. One woman talks about how her boyfriend broke up with her. Another is just fed up with being fed up all the time. One caller, in particular, really stood out to Jaconette.

Its one woman talking about how difficult it is to speak to her mom about her sexual assault, and it really speaks to what the entirety of the podcast is about: women connecting to other women about some of the universal pain weve experienced, she says.

Story continues

Considering all the anger women have held in throughout history, the number of calls is no surprise.

Pamela Stone, a sociology professor at Hunter College and author of Opting Out? Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Home, tells Yahoo Lifestyle the angry woman trope used to silence women who express themselves or their emotions has been around forever, in most womens experience. She explains that the stereotype in itself  or even using the word venting to describe women who are blowing off steam  is a form of oppression because it diminishes and discredits womens right to be angry, which disempowers them.

Research indicates that, so far, this tactic to keep women quiet has worked. A 2015 study found that people perceived women who were angry more negatively than they perceived men who were angry. The angry men were actually seen as powerful. Another study of women in the workplace found that even sad women were better received than angry ones. This can cause girls and women suppress their anger, which puts them at higher risk for ailments such as anxiety and panic attacks, according to the American Psychological Association.

Stone explains that women of earlier generations would deal with their anger by discussing their emotions with each other, but now  thanks to social media  theres increased visibility and strength in numbers.

I would point to the consciousness-raising groups that arose in 60s and 70s as a way of giving women a safe space to share their personal experiences, and in the process realize how widely shared they were, she says. Shared consciousness gives way to group identification and ultimately the seeds for social movements and social change. This process warp-speeded with social media, as the #BLM and #MeToo examples illustrate.

As more women become empowered to speak out, others will join. And as weve seen, people will have no choice but to listen. For now, founders Jaconette and Roth just want to give women a space to speak out, period.

If it can continue to be a sounding board, to be a place for women to connect and feel validated in their emotions, then well be happy, Jaconette says. We do have thoughts of expansion for the future, longer interviews, maybe some themed episodes, but for now were focusing on highlighting womens voices and ensuring the hotline stays strong.

Had a bad time? Call 1-669-BAD-TIME and get ready to rage.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.




Donald Trumps ratings arent looking too great

Donald Trumps chances of getting re-elected in 2020 arent looking too great, after a new survey revealed that only one-third of Americans are planning on voting for him again.

The poll, conducted by NBC News/Wall Street Journal, found that only 36 percent of voters were willing to definitely or probably cast their ballot for Trump in 2020.

In contrast, 38 percent of respondents said they will definitely cast a bill for Trumps yet-to-be-determined Democrat opponent.

The poll also asked respondents about Trumps chance of impeachment  and its here where he fares slightly better.

Hillary Clinton was defeated by Trump at the US election

The poll found that 41 percent of people think Congress should hold impeachment hearings to oust him from office, while 54 percent of the 900 people polled are against it.

Earlier today, it was reported that Trump will visit the UK in February 2018 to open the new US Embassy, although he wont be visiting The Queen.

It is believed that Trump discussed the visit during a phone conversation with Theresa May, with details discussed by Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Saunders

That invitation has been extended and accepted. And were working with them to finalise the details, which we expect to announce soon, she said.

And well keep you guys posted on that once thats finalised.
As Montana wildlife officials consider a second special hunt for deer suspected of carrying chronic wasting disease, Sen. Jon Tester has asked Congress to send some help.

The fatal neurological disease appeared in some deer shot during the 2017 big game season. In south-central Montanas Fish, Wildlife & Parks Region 3, four mule deer bucks, one mule deer doe and one whitetail doe have tested positive for the disease. Another mule deer buck tested positive in FWP Region 4 near the Canadian border.

Tester, D-Montana introduced the Chronic Wasting Disease Support for States Act on Tuesday. It would authorize $60 million to help state and tribal wildlife management agencies stop the spread of the disease through research grants, management plans and rapid-response units in newly infected areas.

The bill would be the Senate companion of Rep. Ron Kinds Chronic Wasting Disease Management Act, which the Wisconsin Democrat introduced to the House of Representatives on Nov. 17.

Of the challenges our wildlife populations face today, chronic wasting disease is one of the most urgent, National Wildlife Federation President Collin OMara said in an email statement. The contagious, always-fatal neurological disease has now been found in elk, deer and moose herds from the northern Rockies to the Midwest to the Northeast.

In early December, FWP authorized a special hunt to gather deer samples in south-central Montanas Carbon County. The 1,200 deer-B hunting licenses released on Dec. 11 sold out in three hours. The special season lasts until 200 whitetail and 200 mule deer specimens are collected or Feb. 15, 2018.

The state Fish and Wildlife Commission meets Thursday to consider a similar special hunt for mule deer north of Chester. That hunt would offer 335 B tags; 60 either-sex and 275 antlerless permits. It would end with the harvest of 135 mule deer or by Feb. 15. The public can listen in on the conference call with the Fish and Wildlife Commission at 1 p.m. Dec. 21. Audio of the call will be available at regional offices, FWP headquarters in Helena and online at fwp.mt.gov.

All deer killed in CWD special hunts must be submitted to FWP biologists for sampling. CWD is a progressive, fatal neurological disease that effects deer, elk and moose. It is not known to infect humans, but has no known cure for animals.

The Centers for Disease Control recommends not consuming animals that test positive for CWD. The CDC also recommends getting deer, elk or moose from CWD-positive areas tested prior to consumption.

In Wyoming, Chronic Wasting Disease has led to a 21 percent annual decline in the mule deer population and a 10 percent decline in the white-tail deer population, according to Testers staff. Before the recent infection of Montana deer, Montana was CWD- free for nearly 20 years. At least 22 other states and two Canadian provinces have reported CWD in their wildlife populations.
Even though Xiang Xiang was only born only a few months ago, shes proving herself to be quite the show-off.

The 6-month-old giant panda cub made its first public appearance at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo, Japan, Monday by demonstrating her superior climbing skills on several trees inside her enclosure.

More than 100 special guests, including Tokyos governor Yuriko Koike and the wife of Chinas ambassador to Japan Wang Wan, watched as the panda cub climbed and slid down tree trunks.

The public will be allowed to visit with Xiang Xiang via tickets distributed through a lottery system.

Xiang Xiang, meaning fragrance or popular, was born to mom Shin Shin as a result of the zoos breeding program.

RELATED STORIES

Panda Cubs Celebrate Their Second Birthday a World Apart

Cuddly Red Panda Cubs Seen Wrestling and Bonding With Mom at Zoo

Zoo Panda Is Anything but Lonely as He Happily Entertains Himself

Related Articles:
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) appeared on NBCs Today show on Wednesday to discuss the Republican tax bill and the impact it will have on workers, leading host Savannah Guthrie to ask him if he was living in a fantasy world.

Guthrie expressed skepticism that the bill would lead to higher pay for workers, and to buttress her point she quoted former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg:

CEOs arent waiting on a tax cut to jump-start the economy  a favorite phrase of politicians who have never run a company  or to hand out raises, wrote Bloomberg in an op-ed earlier this month. Its pure fantasy to think that the tax bill will lead to significantly higher wages and growth.

Guthrie then pushed Ryan, asking: Ill ask you plainly, are you living in a fantasy world?

"Are you living in a fantasy world?" - @SavannahGuthrie asks House Speaker Paul Ryan the morning after the Senate passed the GOP tax bill. pic.twitter.com/uu8frcPNdC  NBC News (@NBCNews) December 20, 2017

Ryan insisted surveys show that the huge corporate tax cuts at the center of the GOP bill will spur business leaders to pay people more money, higher wages.

Senate Republicans passed the bill early Wednesday, and the House is poised to give it final approval later in the day and send it to President Donald Trump. Ryans efforts to defend the measure come amid one new poll showing only 24 percent of Americans think its a good idea. Attacks on the bill include that it benefits the wealthy, as opposed to the dwindling middle class, and that it will add an estimated $1.6 trillion to the governments deficit.

On ABCs Good Morning America on Wednesday, Ryan rebuffed the criticism about the bill not helping the middle class. I think minds are going to change and I think people are going to change their view on this, he said.

Story continues

On the Today show, he told Guthrie that it isnt possible to predict how the tax bill would affect the deficit.

Paul Ryan on the campaign trail in 2012 as the Republican vice presidential candidate. (Photo: Brian Snyder / Reuters)

Guthrie referred to Ryan as a longtime budget hawk, and asked: Are you saying that the growth youre going to get from this tax cut will equal the amount it would cost on the deficit side so that its a wash, so that youre not adding to the deficit at all because of this? she asks.

Nobody knows the answer to that question because thats in the future, he said. But what we do know, this will increase economic growth.

He went on to say that many Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, and that another group of people in this country are about one check away from living paycheck to paycheck, and the U.S. needs faster economic growth so that people can get ahead.

Thats what were doing, Ryan said. The average tax cut for the median family of four in America is going to be $2,059. $2,000, if youre living paycheck to paycheck, is a serious tax cut.

This tax cut is going to cost 1.6 trillion dollars more to the deficit- are you saying that the growth were going to get from this tax cut will equal what we get from the deficit?



Speaker Ryan: "Nobody knows the answer to that question." pic.twitter.com/fCtWT8AQ3S  NBC News (@NBCNews) December 20, 2017

Journalist Soledad OBrien responded to Ryans comment with a tweet noting that a family of four that gets a $1 million dollar tax cut and a family of four with zero tax cut has an average of half a million in tax cuts.

Projecting deficits, meanwhile, is always a matter of looking into the future, so Ryans answer on the issue skirted the key question of the tax bills impact of the governments red ink.

Rep. Rod Blum (R-Iowa) told HuffPost in October that, sadly, it doesnt seem in [Washington] that people are very concerned about the debt or the deficit anymore.

Blum, though, has supported the tax bill. And as the clock runs down to the measure becoming law, it doesnt seem as if Blum or Ryan are concerned either.

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

Also on HuffPost

Outgoing Speaker of the House John Boehner, Republican of Ohio, uses his gavel to call a vote for a new Speaker in the House Chamber at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, October 29, 2015. US Representative Paul Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, is expected to become the new Speaker later today. AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Boeing has taken the wraps off its design for an uncrewed aircraft system for refueling United States Navy jets from aircraft carriers mid-flight, and it looks giant. Unveiled on Tuesday, the company is submitting the drone to the Navy as part of the MQ-25 competition, in which multiple defense contractors are building their own version of the refueling drone.

Boeing has been delivering carrier aircraft to the Navy for almost 90 years, Don BD Gaddis, a retired admiral who leads the refueling system program for Boeings Phantom Works technology organization, said in a statement. Our expertise gives us confidence in our approach. We will be ready for flight testing when the engineering and manufacturing development contract is awarded.

Boeing is currently completing engine run tests, with a view to hosting deck handling demonstrations early next year.

First revealed in May, the competition is aimed at extending the range of aircraft like the F/A-18 Super Hornet, EA-18G Growler, and F-35C fighters, which only have a range of around 500 to 600 miles. The uncrewed aircraft system will be used to combat the use of anti-ship missiles that are increasingly capable of destroying aircraft carriers up to 1,000 miles away from the shore. Competition proposals are due on January 3.

The MQ-25 will provide a robust organic refueling capability to make better use of our combat strike fighters and extend the range of the carrier air wing, Naval Air Systems Command spokesperson Jamie Cosgrove told Scout Warrior in May.

View Boeings entry in all its sheer size below:

Boeing's entry.

After the Navy released its final request for proposals in October, Northrop Grumman announced it would not put forward a bid, with it believed the company was skeptical it could deliver a design that both met specifications and would be profitable for the company.

Lockheed Martin and General Atomics are the other two companies expected to put forward a proposal before the deadline, and all eyes are on to see how the final vehicles may differ from Boeings entry.

Story continues

Photos via Boeing, Flickr / .RGB.

Photos via Boeing, Flickr / .RGB.

Written by Mike Brown

More articles by Mike  Follow Mike on Twitter

tweetshare

More From Inverse
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis has put the late Polish Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, a towering figure of Polish religious freedom who was persecuted by communist authorities during the Cold War, on track for sainthood.

A Vatican statement on Tuesday said Francis has approved a degree recognizing the "heroic virtues" of Wyszynski, who died in 1981. It is the one of the first steps in the process that can lead to sainthood.

When he was named cardinal by Pope Pius XII in 1952 communist authorities did not allow Wyszynski to travel to Rome for the formal investiture until 1957.

He was placed under house arrest from 1953 to 1956 for refusing to punish priests who opposed the government.

A theological conservative, Wyszynski was said to have played a key role in the conclave that elected Pope John Paul II, a fellow Pole, in 1978.

The next step towards eventual sainthood in Beatification, which requires that a miracle be attributed to Wyszynski.

The Church teaches that God performs miracles but that saints who are believed to be with God in heaven intercede on behalf of people who pray to them.

A miracle is usually the medically inexplicable healing of someone.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
Recent changes in the dynamics of Yemen's civil conflict  widely seen as a proxy war between rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran  are making it very hard to predict what could happen next in the Middle East.Tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran ramped up Tuesday following another missile launch from Houthi rebels in Yemen aimed at the Kingdom. Saudi Arabia said the blame for the missile, reportedly intercepted on its way to Riyadh, lay directly with Iran."This hostile and indiscriminate act by the Iran-back Houthi armed group proves the continued involvement of the Iranian regime in supporting (the) Houthi armed group with qualitative capabilities," a Saudi spokesman said Tuesday, according to the country's press agency. Iran has denied the allegations. An expert in Middle East affairs told CNBC it was worrying as it was difficult to predict where Saudi Arabia and Iran's rivalry could lead . "We don't know where it's going and we can't really talk about it like an established dynamic with established norms. This is a totally new situation for the region and I really struggle to predict what's going to happen next," Marcus Chenevix, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) analyst at TS Lombard, said Wednesday. "The thing to remember with Saudi Arabia and Iran is that this is very new. People act like Sunni and Shia (rivalry) is ancient but it's not actually. What's going on is that this is the first time for a very long time that there hasn't been an external arbiter in the Middle East who basically defines everyone's diplomatic relationships," he said. "For a long time it was America and Russia, then it was just America and now there's no one. So there's a power vacuum and that power vacuum is pretty recent  the Iranians saw it first and Saudi Arabia has only really been engaging in this kind of rivalry for the last five years."The death of SalehThe missile launch on Tuesday came as Yemen's civil war drags on. Saudi Arabia and Iran have taken opposing stands in an ongoing battle for power and dominance in the country that followed the "Yemeni Revolution" in 2011 which prompted regime change.Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia and the Western world back Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, who became head of state after an uprising against former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011.Meanwhile, the Houthi movement wanted Saleh back in power and, allegedly with Iranian support (which Tehran denies), took control of Yemeni capital Sana'a and government ministries, pushing the Hadi government into exile.The alliance between the Houthis and Saleh ended abruptly in November when the former president decided to end the allegiance. He was then killed by the Houthi group while trying to flee the capital.That now leaves a delicate situation in which Saudi-backed forces in Yemen are fighting allegedly Iranian-backed Houthis . TS Lombard's Chenevix said that Saleh's death was a game changer in the conflict."The really big development is not the missile but the death last month of Ali Abdullah Saleh, the former Yemeni dictator. In the past the Yemen civil war was about Yemen, it was about the north of Yemen not wanting to be federalized and cut off from oil," he said."But now that Saleh is dead and it's just the Houthis versus the Saudi-supported cause, the Yemen war has become a lot more of a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran  and that makes it much more troublesome, and it makes it a lot more about Saudi. I would expect to see a lot more missiles coming out of Yemen," he said.More missilesWhile the U.S. called Tuesday for Iran to be punished for its support of the Houthi rebels (among other things), there is opposition in the United Nations Security Council (notably from Russia) over whether to do so. Meanwhile, the civil war in Yemen shows no signs of abating, with Saudi Arabia continuing to lead airstrikes against Houthi rebels in the capital . According to the United Nations, Saudi coalition airstrikes have killed 136 non-combatants in Yemen since December 6. The war is widely seen as a proxy conflict between Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia and its regional nemesis, the Shia-dominated Iran. Saudi Arabia blames Iran for supplying the Houthis with weapons, which Tehran denies.Chevenix said the war was "devastating" for Yemen and its civilians."The effect on Yemen has been devastating. Yemenis talk to say it's like Somalia. The Yemen Data Center reckons there's been about 16,000 airstrikes, a lot of which were on civilian targets, so the effect is absolutely devastating." Recent changes in the dynamics of Yemen's civil conflict  widely seen as a proxy war between rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran  are making it very hard to predict what could happen next in the Middle East. Tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran ramped up Tuesday following another missile launch from Houthi rebels in Yemen aimed at the Kingdom. Saudi Arabia said the blame for the missile, reportedly intercepted on its way to Riyadh, lay directly with Iran. "This hostile and indiscriminate act by the Iran-back Houthi armed group proves the continued involvement of the Iranian regime in supporting (the) Houthi armed group with qualitative capabilities," a Saudi spokesman said Tuesday, according to the country's press agency. Iran has denied the allegations. An expert in Middle East affairs told CNBC it was worrying as it was difficult to predict where Saudi Arabia and Iran's rivalry could lead . "We don't know where it's going and we can't really talk about it like an established dynamic with established norms. This is a totally new situation for the region and I really struggle to predict what's going to happen next," Marcus Chenevix, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) analyst at TS Lombard, said Wednesday. "The thing to remember with Saudi Arabia and Iran is that this is very new. People act like Sunni and Shia (rivalry) is ancient but it's not actually. What's going on is that this is the first time for a very long time that there hasn't been an external arbiter in the Middle East who basically defines everyone's diplomatic relationships," he said. "For a long time it was America and Russia, then it was just America and now there's no one. So there's a power vacuum and that power vacuum is pretty recent  the Iranians saw it first and Saudi Arabia has only really been engaging in this kind of rivalry for the last five years." The death of Saleh The missile launch on Tuesday came as Yemen's civil war drags on. Saudi Arabia and Iran have taken opposing stands in an ongoing battle for power and dominance in the country that followed the "Yemeni Revolution" in 2011 which prompted regime change. Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia and the Western world back Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, who became head of state after an uprising against former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011. Meanwhile, the Houthi movement wanted Saleh back in power and, allegedly with Iranian support (which Tehran denies), took control of Yemeni capital Sana'a and government ministries, pushing the Hadi government into exile. The alliance between the Houthis and Saleh ended abruptly in November when the former president decided to end the allegiance. He was then killed by the Houthi group while trying to flee the capital. That now leaves a delicate situation in which Saudi-backed forces in Yemen are fighting allegedly Iranian-backed Houthis . TS Lombard's Chenevix said that Saleh's death was a game changer in the conflict. "The really big development is not the missile but the death last month of Ali Abdullah Saleh, the former Yemeni dictator. In the past the Yemen civil war was about Yemen, it was about the north of Yemen not wanting to be federalized and cut off from oil," he said. "But now that Saleh is dead and it's just the Houthis versus the Saudi-supported cause, the Yemen war has become a lot more of a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran  and that makes it much more troublesome, and it makes it a lot more about Saudi. I would expect to see a lot more missiles coming out of Yemen," he said. More missiles While the U.S. called Tuesday for Iran to be punished for its support of the Houthi rebels (among other things), there is opposition in the United Nations Security Council (notably from Russia) over whether to do so. Meanwhile, the civil war in Yemen shows no signs of abating, with Saudi Arabia continuing to lead airstrikes against Houthi rebels in the capital . According to the United Nations, Saudi coalition airstrikes have killed 136 non-combatants in Yemen since December 6. The war is widely seen as a proxy conflict between Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia and its regional nemesis, the Shia-dominated Iran. Saudi Arabia blames Iran for supplying the Houthis with weapons, which Tehran denies. Chevenix said the war was "devastating" for Yemen and its civilians. "The effect on Yemen has been devastating. Yemenis talk to say it's like Somalia. The Yemen Data Center reckons there's been about 16,000 airstrikes, a lot of which were on civilian targets, so the effect is absolutely devastating."



More From CNBC



Top News and Analysis



Latest News Video



Personal Finance


Photo credit: Getty

From ELLE UK

As we all know, weddings aren't exactly a cheap affair, with a recent survey estimating the average cost of a white wedding now amounting to a whopping 27,161.

So, it comes as no surprise that Prince Harry is looking to take on some additional duties in the royal family to help save up for his big day with Meghan Markle next May.

Well, sort of.

Earlier this week, the 33-year-old received news of a big promotion in the form of Captain General of the Royal Marines, taking over the role from his grandfather, Prince Philip, with Queen Elizabeth II's approval.

Photo credit: Getty

'The Queen has been pleased to give her formal approval to the appointment of His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales as Captain General Royal Marines,' Buckingham Palace said in a statement.

Receiving the honour, Harry told representatives of 163 states meeting in Vienna for the occasion, that he hopes to see the eradication of landmines throughout the world by 2025.

The Prince said: 'Twenty years ago this year, my mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, walked through a cleared minefield in Angola.

'She witnessed first hand the pain and suffering of those whose lives and limbs had been destroyed by landmines.'

Photo credit: Getty

Earlier this year, Philip announced his retirement, carrying out his final public engagement with the Marines - of which he's served in the honourable role since 1953 - so it came a fitting closure to the end of a busy year for the Royals.

In August, the Duke of Edinburgh attended a parade at Buckingham Palace to mark the Royal Marines 1664 Global Challenge, making it his 22,219th solo official engagement, carried out since 1952.

Congratulations, Harry!

You Might Also Like
If you had any doubt that Prince William is a very modern royal, then may we present this years Royal Variety Performance.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were the guests of honour at this years bash at Londons Palladium theatre, which was hosted by Miranda Hart.

The show, which went out on ITV on Tuesday (19 Dec) night featured the usual mix of music, comedy and cabaret, but what we werent expecting was for William to become the star of the show, when he galloped (yes, galloped) in the Royal Box.

(Photo: ITV)

Wow.

It was all part of an on-going sketch that saw Miranda attempt to get the royal to take part in her favourite activity  galloping.

After asking the cast of Annie to put the request to the second-in-line to the throne, he actually agreed.

Twitter was delighted...

Never normally one to watch the #RoyalVarietyPerformance HOWEVER it must be said that Prince William had been a pretty good sport so far. Never seen any other royals galloping on TV  Lucy Love (@lucy_jlove) December 19, 2017

What a legend Prince William is joining in Twice ! #galloping #RoyalVarietyPerformance @ClarenceHouse  Jayne Clark (@Jayneyclarkyy) December 19, 2017

Prince William galloping is one of the best things Ive ever seen....  @mermhart is just brilliant! #RoyalVarietyPerformance  AJ  (@ItsAmandaJ) December 19, 2017

Prince William is such a good sport #gallop #RoyalVarietyPerformance  Billy Bradley (@BillyBradley) December 19, 2017

Prince William doing a gallop at the Royal Variety has made my night.  Amy Carter (@amycarterrr) December 19, 2017

Prince William galloping!! Oh what do our kids do to us  #RoyalVarietyPerformance  Nadine Shirley (@MumsNWivesblog) December 19, 2017

Prince William just galloped on the royal variety show. When will your prince ever?  Sophiiee (@Sophiiee1999) December 19, 2017

It wasnt the only time William brought the house down as hed also gamely taken part in an earlier sketch when Miranda managed to rope him into a re-imagining of a skit from her BBC sitcom.

As the comedian opened the show, she called upon the audience to recreate a posh party by shouting such fun! or doing that upper class British mumble.

After the attendees had played their part in the sketch, William also joined in by shouting such fun! from the royal box.

Yes, William, wed have to agree.

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

April 2017

Attending the Easter Day service at St. George's Chapel, the Duchess wore an outfit by Catherine Walker and the Duke opted for a navy blue suit and monochrome tie.

March 2017

Attending a meeting with French President Francois Hollande at the Elysee Palace in Paris, the Duchess wore a bottle green coat by Catherine Walker and the Duke opted for a navy blue suit and patterned tie.

March 2017

Attending a dinner at the British Embassy in Paris, the Duchess looked elegant in an icy blue Jenny Packham and the Duke wore a black tuxedo.

March 2017

Posing in front of the Eiffel tower as they visit a 'Les Voisins in Action' event, the Duchess opted to wear Parisian label Chanel and the Duke wore a dark grey suit with a red tie, which complimented the detailing in Kate's outfit.

June 2016

Standing on the balcony of Buckingham Palace for the Trooping the Colour, the Duchess wore an outfit by Alexander McQueen (the same one she wore for Charlotte's christening) and a hat by Philip Treacy, and the Duke wore the regiment uniform.

June 2016

Attending Royal Ascot at the Ascot Racecourse. Both the Duke and the Duchess wore elegant headwear. The Duchess opted for a Dolce & Gabbana lace dress and a fascinator by Jane Taylor.

April 2016

Posing in front of the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, the Duchess chose a striking shift by Naeem Khan.



The two later recreated a famous photo of William's late mother, Princess Diana, sitting alone on a marble bench in front of the Monument of Love.

October 2015

Attending the Royal Film Performance of 'Spectre' at London's Royal Albert Hall.



William gave the guys black-tie goals, while the Duchess stunned in an ice-blue Jenny Packham gown.

April 2014

Posing at Auckland Harbour in New Zealand. Dressed down in nautical-themed outfits, the royal couple proved they can do low-key dressing too, with the Duchess wrapping up in a 79.99 blazer from Zara.

September 2013

Attending the Tusk Conservation Awards at The Royal Society in London. The Duchess sparkled in a silver Jenny Packham gown, while William looked dapper in a Tuxedo.

September 2012

The couple showed us power dressing at its finest at an official engagement. The Duchess donned her favourite Stuart Weitzman cork wedges - one of her most recycled fashion items.

June 2011

Arriving at a charity event for Absolute Return for Kids, ARK, in London.



The Duchess of Cambridge glowed in a Jenny Packham gown, while Prince William kept things classic once again.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Prince William and Kate Middleton are in matching colors and smiling in a new family photo for their holiday card.

Decked out in coordinated blues, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who are expecting their third child in April, appear with their children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, in their annual tradition of sharing Christmas wishes. Over the years, the royal family, from Queen Elizabeth II to Prince Harry, have shared holiday greetings through photos.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are pleased to share a new photograph of their family. The image features on Their Royal Highnesses' Christmas card this year. The photograph shows The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with their two children at Kensington Palace. It was taken earlier this year by @chrisjacksongetty Their Royal Highnesses have also announced this morning that Princess Charlotte will attend the Willcocks Nursery School in London from January 2018. The Willcocks Nursery School has said: "We are delighted that The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have chosen the Willcocks Nursery School for Princess Charlotte. We look forward to welcoming Charlotte to our nursery in January." A post shared by Kensington Palace (@kensingtonroyal) on Dec 18, 2017 at 3:25am PST

The photo was shot by Chris Jackson, a royal photographer for Getty Images. Jackson said on Instagram that he shot the family portrait earlier this year. The royal family announced that Princess Charlotte will attend the Willcocks Nursery School in London starting in January.

Last year, the family shared a photo from their trip to Canada as their holiday card.
President Trump made quite a show on Monday of heralding the release of his administrations new National Security Strategy. Its an impressive document, one that offers a serious roadmap to protect the homeland, promote American prosperity, secure peace through strength, and extend U.S. influence globally. Trump used the occasion to tout what he considers his most impressive accomplishments and to make clear that this document reflects not only his administrations ambitions but his personal plans, as well. A few problems:

One, if, as the strategy document asserts, the president wants to promote U.S. values and expand U.S. influence around the world, hes going to need help. U.S. rivals are stronger than they used to be, and U.S. influence has diminished as the Cold War recedes into history. To pressure North Korea, press China on trade, beat back challenges from Russia, exert more influence in the Middle East and battle terrorism, hes going to need allies. The Middle East is only becoming more combustible. ISIS is defeated in Iraq and Syria, but its fighters are returning home and posing new threats, and the groups influence continues in cyberspace. These are not battles that should be fought without friends.

When President Trump walked away from the Transpacific Partnership, an enormous trade deal that includes many of Chinas neighbors, earlier this year, he passed on an opportunity to strengthen ties with Asian partners. By allowing NATO members to question his commitment to the Atlantic Alliance, he encouraged them to hedge their bets on Washington by improving relations with Beijing. By walking away from the Paris Climate Accord, he allowed Chinas President Xi Jinping to claim the high ground on global environmental activism. (Its noteworthy that this new document doesnt mention climate change as a threat to U.S. national security.) The president doesnt seem to see the need for allies.

Two, the first time the president tweets something that appears to contradict the new strategy, how should the world understand the contradiction? Does Trump believe his own strategy? How does the principle of America First square with plans to promote democracy in other countries? How much will the administration expect taxpayers to invest in the democracy promotion project? The strategy doesnt answer these questions, and the distance between Trumps rhetoric and some of the more high-minded, values-based principles in the document obscure more than they reveal. In fact, the speech Trump used to introduce the document had plenty of contradictions of its own. He would have done better to simply release the strategy.

Three, leaders lead by example. Everyone in the world can see that the United States has become a bitterly divided country, and that there is no longer any pretense that politics stops at the waters edge. There is as much petty partisan bickering over foreign policy as over domestic policy. In that sense, the Cold War era is well and truly finished. Add the presidents indifference to rule of law in the United States, and there is little chance that the governments and citizens of other countries will welcome Washingtons advice on how to build a healthy democracy.

U.S. influence around the world weakened during the Obama years. The pace has quickened under President Trump. Nothing in the new National Security Strategy will change that, because actions still speak louder than words. The problem is not the message but the messenger.
NextShark

A 19-year-old TikTok user has gone viral after sharing a video of their eulogy to their deceased father at his funeral, in which they call him a racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, Trump-loving man. The user, identified as Saga, goes by the handle @saginthesunforever and has self-described themselves as a Black supremacist on their TikTok bio. Saga, who uses the pronouns they/them, has received widespread backlash after their viral video was re-posted to Twitter by controversial conservative account Libs of TIkTok on Tuesday.
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
Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani who is starting a six-nation West Africa tour in search of new markets and to counter his country's isolation by its neighbours (AFP Photo/)

Dakar (AFP) - Qatar's emir landed in Senegal on Wednesday at the start of a six-nation tour of West Africa as Doha seeks out new markets after Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries cut ties with the wealthy emirate.

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani's is expected to visit Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea, Mali and Senegal, according to foreign ministry spokeswoman Lulwa al-Khater.

The visit is part of Doha's drive to open up new markets and diversify its economy amid an ongoing blockade by its neighbours, Khater said.

The emir landed in Senegal on Wednesday evening, while the Guinean presidency said in a statement he would arrive in Conakry on Thursday.

Karim Wade, the son of former Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade, lives in exile in Doha as part of a deal brokered with the emir to free the former minister from a prison sentence handed down for corruption.

A source close to the Malian presidency told AFP that President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was also expecting Al-Thani on Thursday.

Khater said the six countries on the emir's itinerary had "strong economic potential and opportunities despite some security challenges in some of them".

The emir is to sign cooperation agreements in health, education, mining, energy and food security.

Khater said Qatar will also be providing $13.8 million to fund a cancer hospital in Burkina Faso.

Qatar has sought to establish new global trade links in an attempt to alleviate its regional isolation by powerful Saudi Arabia with which it shares its only land border.

On June 5, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic and economic ties with gas-rich Qatar, accusing it of links to extremist groups and being too close to Shiite Iran, Riyadh's arch-rival.

Doha denies the charges.
Rebel Wilson gave an inspired performance when she dropped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. She and Fallon gave a Christmas twist to the popular segment, Google Translate Songs.

The two sang holiday classics that had been run through Google translate until they were only bizarre shells of their former glory. For example, Wilson sang Homes Are Covered, which is the translated version of Deck the Halls.

Fallon sang a silly version of Jingle Bells, titled Bells Make Sound. Some of the lyrics were: Sing a song while having a nightmare/ Oh bells makes sounds, bells make sounds, bells always make sounds/ Its funny that its a walk in the seal of a horse, hey!

Finally the two joined forces to perform a duet, I Ran Through the Land of Cold Unknowns  which is a lot like the song (Walking in a) Winter Wonderland.

They sang, Later ask me for advice/ And we start to be asleep/ To achieve peace of mind/ We arent scared of fights/ I ran through the land of cold unknowns!

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. on NBC. Watch clips and full episodes of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon free on Yahoo View.

Watch as Rebels Pitch Perfect 3 co-star Anna Kendrick sings Christmas (Baby Please Come Home):





Read more from Yahoo! Entertainment:

Tell us what you think! Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, or leave your comments below. And check out our host, Kylie Mar, on Twitter, Facebook,or Instagram.
Donald Trumps first legislative achievement is a monstrosity of doctrinaire conservatism that attacks education, healthcare and the lives of ordinary people

Donald Trump holds an American flag made of wood as he speaks about tax reform alongside ordinary Americans in the Oval Office this month. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

The Republican party has achieved something nobody thought possible. They have taken the broken, regressive, loophole-riddled US tax code, and made it worse.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 has nothing to do with economics. It is pure politics. Economists struggling to understand the unwieldy legislation are like biochemists attempting to explain contemporary ballet. Nobody seriously believes that the bill will boost growth. Everybody knows that it will massively increase the deficit; the only argument is whether it will be by $1.5tn, or just $1tn. The legislation has been drafted at breakneck pace, with few opportunities for costings or analysis: a recipe for errors. Senator Elizabeth Warren joked that she spent more time choosing her new refrigerator than the Senate managed for tax reform.

But for Republican lawmakers, the bill hits some very sweet political spots. Corporations? Check. The wealthy? Check. Obamacare haters? Check? When the deficit balloons, as it must, Republicans will then use that to justify cutting spending, especially on pensions and healthcare. Their cynicism is breathtaking. Their ruthlessness is impressive. Wait for the new Alabama senator, Doug Jones, to take his seat before voting? Are you kidding? There will be no waiting. This is brute force politics.

It is a tragedy, too. The only potential silver lining of Trumps presidency was that he might do something to help the struggling middle class, Main Street not Wall Street. He ran on this very promise. But this bill offers the working class and middle class little or nothing  crumbs from the table at best. It provides a huge boon, however, to corporations and to the wealthy. This is not a populist tax bill. It is a plutocrat one.

For business-friendly congressional Republicans, three provisions in particular represent big wins: doubling the threshold for paying estate tax to $11m, slashing the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, and cutting the top rate of income tax to 37%. It is fitting that House Speaker Paul Ryan is heading for the exit. This is about as good as it will ever get for him.

Story continues

Against a backdrop of rising inequality, the passage of this bill will mark an extraordinary triumph for doctrinaire conservative thinking. With control of both houses of Congress and the White House for the first time since 2005, Republicans have seized their moment.

During Trumps ascent, congressional Republican leaders said, in effect, He may be mad dog, but hes our dog. Ryan and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell held their noses and hoped that, for all Trumps populist rhetoric, they would be able to exploit his presidency to ram through some traditional Republican tax cuts.

It says everything about the Trump administration that on this single issue, it would have been better with Bannon in it

For a while, it was not clear that Trump would be brought to heel. In one ear, he was being advised by Steve Bannon to raise taxes on the wealthy and give real cuts to the middle class. Into the other, multimillionaire treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin wanted surging tax cuts for the rich. Plutocrat Steve won the day; populist Steve has long since been banished. It says everything about the Trump administration that, on this single, narrow issue, it would have been a better one with Bannon still in it.

Trump describes the bill as a great, big, beautiful Christmas present for middle class Americans. But its not true. Even the handful of provisions helping ordinary families, such as an increase in the personal income deduction, will deliver modest gains. In the Senate version of the bill, on which the compromise version is largely based, families in the middle 20% of the income ladder families see a tax cut of less than $1,000 next year. Those in the top 1% will see an average $28,000 cut.

Wealth inequality has grown even more rapidly than income inequality in the US. But Republicans seem to think that protecting massive inheritances from tax is the way to go. Already, the estate tax is only paid by the richest 0.2% of families. After the bill passes, that number will shrink to a mere handful. Most of them will find a way to dodge it by creative movement of money. As Gary Cohn, economic advisor to the president, helpfully explained, only morons pay the estate tax.

Worse, even the meagre initial benefits going to ordinary families are here today, gone tomorrow, because of two provisions in the bill that are not in the headlines. The income tax cuts expire in 2026 but the corporation tax cut does not. By 2026, many of the benefits for ordinary workers will have evaporated.

The bill is also likely to provoke a rush to self-employment. The dramatic cuts in rates for corporations and partnerships will create a huge incentive for workers to set themselves up as small businesses. A two wage-earner couple with an income of $250,000 a year would see little change in their tax bill; a couple with the same income generated through a small business would see an $11,000 annual cut, according to the Tax Policy Center.

To be fair, there are some elements of the bill that progressives would likely applaud in a different context. Reducing the cap on the mortgage interest deduction to $750,000 is a welcome step, hopefully the first towards gradual removal of this absurd and regressive provision. Capping state and local tax deductions at $10,000 will hit affluent taxpayers living in high-tax, mostly Democratic cities and states. It is a surgical strike on the liberal elite. But still, it is not clear why upper middle class Americans who choose to live in these places should be subsidized by those living in lower-tax, largely Republican areas.

The bill will not just impact the income and wealth of American households; it also has significant consequences for health and education. This is because the US does a huge amount of social policy through the tax code, one reason it is so complex.

The abolition of the mandate associated with Obamacare will help send healthcare markets into a death spiral, as the bills drafters know only too well.

Meanwhile, there is a tax boost in the bill for people sending their children to private elementary and secondary schools. Tax-exempt educational savings plans, known as 529 plans, previously restricted to spending during the college years, will be available for private K-12 education. Only affluent families benefit from these plans, of course, so it is yet another regressive element in a broadly regressive bill.

The Republican tax bill is sloppily designed and economically reckless. It is certain to lead to more tax avoidance and certain to massively increase the deficit. It provides a massive boon to the rich and little or nothing to the middle class and working class.

As such, it also represents a huge political risk. The gamble Republicans are taking is that the voters who put Trump into the White House will fail to notice that they are not among the beneficiaries of the first major piece of legislation to bear his signature. Trump is not draining the swamp. He is watering it.
A week after Doug Jones was voted Alabamas new senator-elect, his opponent Roy Moore has yet to concede defeat.

On Monday, Moores campaign team sent out another email to supporters seeking funds for an Election Integrity Program that would look into alleged reports of potential voter fraud.

The integrity of this election  and future elections  is hanging in the balance, the email read.

Roy Moore just sent out this new fundraising email: pic.twitter.com/kqFTc8fVZw  Lauren Walsh (@LaurenWalshTV) December 18, 2017

Moore, whose campaign was plagued by multiple allegations he sexually harassed teenage girls when he was in his 30s and sexually assaulted one, said last week that his campaign team had collected numerous reported cases of voter fraud, which it planned to send to Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill.

However, Merrill told WHNT-TV on Monday that he had yet to receive such a report from the Moore campaign. Merrill previously said that his office had investigated reports of alleged voting irregularities and had not found any merit to them.

In the days since Jones surprising election win, Moore has repeatedly insisted to his supporters that the battle rages on.

In this race, we have not received the final count to include military and provisional ballots. This has been a very close race and we are awaiting certification by the secretary of state, Moore said in a video released last Wednesday.

Officials have said that it was very unlikely those final votes would change the outcome of the election.

Jones, the first Democratic senator from Alabama in 25 years, told CNNs Jake Tapper that it was time for Moore to move on.

Alabama has spoken. It was a close election, theres no question about that, but elections can be close sometimes. But now its time to heal. Now its time to move on and go to the next thing, he said.

Story continues

Jones defeated Moore by about 20,000 votes  or 1.5 percentage points. President Donald Trump, who endorsed Moore, has also called on the former judge to concede.

I think he should. He tried, Trump told reporters on Friday.

Twitter has been abuzz this week with news of Moores continued refusal to concede:

Roy Moore is still not admitting he lost the Alabama election

Related...

Roy Moore Dings Mitt Romney's 'Courage' After Mitt Calls Roy A 'Stain' On The GOP

Alabama Sen. Shelby Didn't Vote For Roy Moore. Now Moore's Supporters Hate Him.

All The Republicans At Roy Moore's Party Had The Same Reaction

Also on HuffPost

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Kremlin-funded television network RT has launched a French-language news channel following criticism and concerns from both France and the United States of it being a mouthpiece for Russian propaganda.

RT, formerly known as Russia Today, announced the launch of RT France on Monday with a vow that it will shed light on issues the network thinks have been overlooked by French news networks.

President Emmanuel Macron in May slammed RT and fellow Moscow-based media organization Sputnik as organs of influence and propaganda. That criticism followed allegations by Macron that RT had meddled in his countrys presidential election and had provided biased reporting in favor of his political opponent, who was supported by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Macron admitted he denied certain Russian news reporters access to his campaign headquarters because of what he considered their lack of credibility.

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, seen with Russian President Vladimir Putin in May, has criticized RT as a Russian propaganda outlet. (Photo: POOL New / Reuters)

I have always had an exemplary relationship with foreign journalists, but they have to be journalists, Macron said.

RT Frances chief executive, Xenia Fedorova, denied spreading misinformation when questioned by Reuters on Monday. She noted that just hours ahead of the channels first broadcast, RT France had received resistance from the French government, which did not grant credentials to cover news conferences inside the French presidential Elysee palace.

There was just one example of when we actually managed to visit. That was actually during the Trump visit to Paris, she said, referring to U.S. President Donald Trumps visit to France in July.

RT, according to its website, aims to provide international audiences with a Russian viewpoint on major global events.

The head of Frances CSA broadcasting authority, Olivier Schrameck, said that it will be closely monitoring RT and will intervene if there are any anomalies, Agence France-Presse reported.

RT has been accused of meddling in presidential campaigns in both France and the United States. (Photo: Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The U.S. intelligence community has similarly accused RT of presidential election meddling by intentionally slanting reports in favor of then-candidate Trump.

Story continues

In October, Twitter formally banned both RT and Sputnik from advertising on its platform because of the U.S. governments findings.

We did not come to this decision lightly, and are taking this step now as part of our ongoing commitment to help protect the integrity of the user experience on Twitter, Twitter announced in an online blog.

Early this year, the U.S. intelligence community named RT and Sputnik as implementing state-sponsored Russian efforts to interfere with and disrupt the 2016 Presidential election, which is not something we want on Twitter, it continued.

RT France, which will be based outside of Paris, will air in Belgium, Canada and the Mediterranean. Its content can also be viewed online. RTs other languages include English, Arabic and Spanish.

Related Coverage

Russian State Media Have Definitely Picked A Side In The U.S. Presidential Race

Russian State Media Get Access To White House Meeting While U.S. Press Kept Out

Putin Has Most Putin Response To Whether Hed Shower Next To A Gay Man

Also on HuffPost

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Disturbing details have emerged in the alleged domestic violence case that left Palin family patriarch Todd Palin bloodied and beaten up by his own son.

Local police swarmed the Palin compound in Wasilla, Alaska, after Sarah Palin called 911, telling the dispatcher that her son Track was beating his father, Todd.

The former Alaska governor told police her son was freaking out and on some type of medication, according to the police report.

Cops say Track, 28, was allegedly drunk when he showed up to pick up a truck at his parents home.

He was met at the front door by his father, Todd, who was holding a gun, reportedly to "protect his family." Police say Track Palin threw his father to the floor, got on top of him, and began beating him with his fists.

Todd sustained injuries to his head and had "liquid coming from his ear," according to the police report.

Track refused to step outside when police got there and went to the roof. Twenty minutes later, he surrendered and was placed in handcuffs.

Sarah Palin has not commented on her familys latest controversy. In 2016, the former vice presidential candidate said Track, who served in Iraq, may suffer from PTSD.

Track Palin was arraigned Sunday and charged with felony first-degree burglary and misdemeanor fourth-degree assault. He was still being held at Mat-Su Pretrial Facility as of Monday evening, according to reports. He was being held on $5,000 bond.

RELATED STORIES

Outta Sight! Man Under Arrest for Domestic Violence Throws Glass Eye at Doctor and Nurse: Cops

Bobbi Kristina Brown's Ex Arrested on Domestic Violence Charges Involving New Girlfriend: Cops

Son of a Gun: Bristol Palin Took Her 7-Year-Old Boy Shooting to 'Teach Them Young'

Related Articles:
Charlie Lee, who created the cryptocurrency litecoin in 2011, announced on Tuesday night that he has sold off all his litecoin in order to avoid accusations of anything untoward.

The move came right after Coinbase added bitcoin cash to its platform (and to GDAX, its separate institutional exchange) and was swiftly accused of insider trading because the price of bitcoin cash soared a few hours before Coinbases announcement. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced in a blog post that Coinbase will investigate whether any of its employees engaged in insider trading with their knowledge that the site would be adding bitcoin cash.

Charlie Lee is the former director of engineering at Coinbase. He left the company this year to focus on litecoin full-time. In a post on Reddit late on Tuesday night, he wrote (bolding ours):

Whenever I tweet about Litecoin price or even just good or bad news, I get accused of doing it for personal benefit. Some people even think I short LTC! So in a sense, it is conflict of interest for me to hold LTC and tweet about it because I have so much influence. I have always refrained from buying/selling LTC before or after my major tweets, but this is something only I know. And there will always be a doubt on whether any of my actions were to further my own personal wealth For this reason, in the past days, I have sold and donated all my LTC. Litecoin has been very good for me financially, so I am well off enough that I no longer need to tie my financial success to Litecoins success. For the first time in 6+ years, I no longer own a single LTC thats not stored in a physical Litecoin. (I do have a few of those as collectibles.) This is definitely a weird feeling, but also somehow refreshing. Dont worry. Im not quitting Litecoin. I will still spend all my time working on Litecoin.

Lee added that he wrote the Reddit post before the Bcash on GDAX/Coinbase fiasco.

He did not divulge how many coins he sold or how much he made, but said, I can tell you that the amount of coins was a small percentage of GDAXs daily volume and it did not crash the market.

Story continues

At 3 a.m. EST, Lee again tweeted out his Reddit post and added, Satoshi Nakamoto, your move. Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonym that the original creator (or creators) of bitcoin used in 2009, and some fear that Satoshi still holds a massive amount of bitcoin and could crash the market if they unloaded all at once.

Litecoin is built off bitcoins source code, and like bitcoin, operates on a blockchain. Lee has said he intended litecoin to be the silver to bitcoins gold.

But there are a few technical differences between litecoin and bitcoin: litecoins network is faster than the bitcoin blockchain (mining a block of litecoin transactions takes an average 2.5 minutes compared to bitcoins 10 minutes); litecoin transaction fees are lower; and litecoin has a supply cap of 84 million coins, compared to bitcoins 21 million.

Litecoin is up more than 7,000% in 2017 through Dec. 20.

Disclosure: The author owns 1 litecoin, purchased in 2016 for reporting purposes.



Daniel Roberts covers bitcoin and blockchain at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter at @readDanwrite.

Read more:

What is litecoin?

Coinbase adds bitcoin cash

How to buy bitcoin

Bought bitcoin? You must practice cold storage

What exactly is the blockchain?

Why bitcoin matters

The 11 biggest names in crypto right now
By Elias Biryabarema KAMPALA (Reuters) - Ugandan legislators voted late on Wednesday to amend the country's constitution to allow 73-year-old leader Yoweri Museveni to extend his rule, potentially guaranteeing him a life-time presidency. A provision in the current constitution limits the age of a presidential candidate at 75 years, which would have made Museveni ineligible to stand at the next polls in 2021. At the end of Wednesday's day-long House debate, which capped a protracted and violence-marred process to remove that age limit, MPs voted 315-62 in favor of the amendment. "The bill passes," said speaker Rebecca Kadaga after announcing tally results, prompting raucous celebrations from the mostly ruling party MPs who favored the bill. Earlier in the day, two lawmakers were dragged away and detained when they tried to enter parliament, as the divisive debate proceeded in the chamber. Police had blocked some legislators from entering the building, and live television footage showed two of them being driven away in security vehicles. Both opposed the bill. The legislators blocked by police were attempting to enter parliament to serve court documents on House speaker Rebecca Kadaga, who was presiding over the debate. The document called on her to appear in court at 2:00 PM in respect of "the irregular suspension of our members of parliament," independent lawmaker Wilfred Niwagaba told a local television station minutes before he was detained. Six MPs - all opposed to removal of the age cap - were suspended from parliamentary proceedings on Monday for alleged disorderly conduct and refusing to heed the speaker's instructions. The bill to amend the constitution was introduced in parliament on October 4 by a Museveni loyalist, after two consecutive days of brawling in the debating chamber between those opposed and those in favor, supported by security personnel. On the second day, security personnel who some MPs said were soldiers from an elite military unit entered the chamber and violently ejected at least 25 MPs that the speaker had suspended from proceedings for alleged misconduct. Wednesday's vote was the second time Ugandan parliament has changed the constitution to allow Museveni extend his rule. In 2005, they voted to remove a limit of two five-year terms, which blocked him from standing again. The bill also extended the length of a term for MPs to seven years from the current five. The limit of two terms was also re-imposed for the president, although that only means Museveni would be limited to two more terms, starting with the 2021 election. "Are you not seeing what happened in Zimbabwe, do we want his excellency to end like Gaddafi of Libya," opposition legislator, Gilbert Olanya, who opposed to the amendment, said in Wednesday's debate as he attempted to persuade colleagues to reject it. Several African leaders have amended laws designed to limit their tenure. Such moves have fueled violence in countries including Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. Initially hailed for restoring political order and fostering economic growth, Museveni has lately come under mounting pressure fueled by runaway corruption, and accusations he uses security forces to maintain his grip on power. A combination of both military and police personnel were heavily deployed around parliament this week, which opposition MPs say was meant to intimidate members. (Reporting by Elias Biryabarema, editing by Katharine Houreld and John Stonestreet)
Senate Republicans have passed the biggest overhaul of the US tax system in almost 30 years, sparking widespread condemnation from Democrats who say the new law will benefit the rich at the expense of the middle class.

After a year filled with Republican infighting and political turbulence, Congress is now on the cusp of handing President Donald Trump his first major legislative victory with its passage of the sweeping $1.5 trillion tax bill.

Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat House minority leader, called it the worst bill in history at a press conference on Tuesday night. Its a disgusting smash-and-grab. Its an all-out looting of America, a wholesale robbery of the middle class, she said.

Both the Senate  with a vote of 51-48 along party lines  and the House of Representatives approved the measure to enact large tax cuts in two separate votes.

But hours after the House had voted 227-203 to pass the final tax bill, Senate Democrats announced that the legislation contained multiple provisions that violate Senate rules. This means the House must pass the bill again on Wednesday with those measures withdrawn, before the final text can head to the Presidents desk to be signed into law.

A visibly angry Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, told Republicans they would rue the day they passed the bill during remarks on the Senate floor.

This tax bill will be an anchor around the ankles of every Republican. If they havent learned it yet, they will learn it next November, he said.

Mr Schumer also condemned Republicans for talking during his speech. This is serious stuff. We believe youre messing up America. You could pay attention for a couple of minutes, he said.

Mr Trump took to Twitter to praise House Republicans for their initial vote in favour of the tax bill. Congratulations to Paul Ryan, Kevin McCarthy, Kevin Brady, Steve Scalise, Cathy McMorris Rodgers and all great House Republicans who voted in favor of cutting your taxes! he wrote.

Story continues

The President also confirmed he would hold a press conference at 1pm in the White House after the final vote in the House has taken place.

The United States Senate just passed the biggest in history Tax Cut and Reform Bill. Terrible Individual Mandate (ObamaCare)Repealed. Goes to the House tomorrow morning for final vote. If approved, there will be a News Conference at The White House at approximately 1:00 P.M.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 20, 2017

Both chambers must pass identical bills before the President can sign the legislation into law. However, the second House vote will be seen as little more than a formality before Republicans  and Mr Trump  can celebrate their success.

Republicans and the administration have marketed the bill as a gift for the middle class and have asserted that the package of tax cuts for corporations, small businesses and individuals will boost economic and job growth.

In an interview with Fox News programme Fox & Friends, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said middle-class Americans would see the biggest benefit out of this tax package  even though multiple analyses show the plan will disproportionately benefit the wealthiest Americans.

The plan is seemingly unpopular with the public  with one recent CNN poll suggesting 55 per cent of the public now oppose it  and Democrats have repeatedly called it a windfall for corporations and the wealthy.

Protesters chanting Kill the bill, dont kill us interrupted the Senate vote on passage of the tax bill. Visitors in the Senate gallery stood up shortly after the vote began and started chanting. Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding, stopped and repeatedly called on the Sergeant at Arms to restore order in the gallery.

The vote took place with a heavy US Capitol Police presence outside the chamber in expectation of the protests and demonstrators had interrupted the House debate on the bill earlier in the day.

About a quarter of the tax cuts for individuals included in the tax bill would go to middle-class Americans, according to an analysis by the Joint Committee on Taxation.

The committee found that middle-class taxpayers would get about $61bn in tax cuts in 2019 under the bill. However, those same individuals would see their taxes rise overall after a decade, according to the report.

Republicans have asserted that the legislation is needed to maintain their majorities in both the House and Senate during next years mid-term elections.

When we get this done, when people see their withholding improving, when they see jobs occurring, when they see bigger paychecks, a fairer tax system, a simpler tax code, thats whats going to produce the results, said House Speaker Paul Ryan, who has worked for years on a tax overhaul.

Democrat Senator Jeff Merkley slammed the Republican tax plan as a bank heist.

This is the biggest bank heist, not just in American history, but in the history of the world happening here tonight brought to us by the powerful and the privilege and this is absolutely unacceptable, the Oregon senator said on the Senate floor.

This is a diabolic bill, Mr Merkley said. This is an abomination in a government of, by and for the American people.

Ms Pelosi made clear that her party will have no issue in using the bill during campaigns next year. This bill will come back to haunt them, as Frankenstein did, she said.

Earlier in the day, Senate Republicans had criticised their Democratic colleagues for not participating in their tax rewrite efforts.

Republican House members roared and applauded as their chamber passed the package  before later finding out they will have to take another vote.

After the vote on Tuesday, Mr Ryan declared, This was a promise made. This is a promise kept, as he and other Republican leaders called a victory news conference moments later.

After the second vote in the House, Mr Trump will finally get to sign a major bill into law after nearly a year in office.

The president warmed up for what is likely to become a public victory lap by tweeting his congratulations after the first vote to Republican leaders and all great House Republicans who voted in favour of cutting your taxes!

Congressional Republicans, who faltered badly in trying to dismantle Barack Obamas Affordable Care Act  or Obamacare  see passage of the tax bill as crucial to proving they can govern.

But it is clear the American public may take some convincing. Along with permanently lowering the corporate tax rate from 35 per cent to 21 per cent, the bill also repeals the Obamacare requirement that most individuals have health insurance  a provision that would lead to 13 million fewer people with health insurance over the next decade, according to nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Tax cuts for corporations would be permanent while the cuts for individuals would expire in 2026 in order to comply with Senate budget rules. The tax cuts would take effect in January, and workers would start to see changes in the amount of taxes take out of their monthly salaries in February.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate will vote on final tax legislation on Tuesday evening, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said, potentially allowing President Donald Trump to sign the bill into law as early as Wednesday. "Congress is standing at the doorstep of a historic opportunity," McConnell said on the floor of the Senate as he announced the vote's timing. The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the same legislation at 1:30 p.m. EST (1830 GMT). If both chambers of Congress pass the bill, Trump will be able to meet his goal of signing it into law before Christmas. (Reporting by David MorganEditing by Chizu Nomiyama)
COLUMBIA FALLS  School closures, downed power lines and challenging commutes announced the arrival of winter weather Wednesday in northwest Montana.

An avalanche warning also was posted for the mountains of west-central Montana, including the Bitterroot, Rattlesnake, southern Missions and southern Swan mountains near Seeley Lake.

And if that's not challenging enough, bitter cold temperatures are set to arrive Friday.

The storm dumped over 17 inches of snow in 24 hours Wednesday on the community of Hungry Horse.

Snow plow crews reported over three feet of snow between West Glacier and Devils Creek in the past 48 hours. Other crews reported 14 inches of snow had fallen between Noxon and Bull Lake. Glacier Park International Airport in Kalispell reported 11.4 inches.

Schools in Columbia Falls, Whitefish, West Glacier and Troy were closed Wednesday. Polson schools were running on a two-hour delay.

Columbia Falls School Superintendent Steve Bradshaw said many of the schools bus routes were impassible following a storm that brought lots of snow and high winds.

Ive had easier mornings, Bradshaw said. The county worked really hard to stay ahead of the snow and theyve done a good job. But last night, the wind blew hard enough that I figured I would get that 5:30 call telling me the buses couldnt go.

Five of the 21 bus routes travel up in the canyon around the Hungry Horse community.

Bradshaw was told the snow was blowing hard enough in Hungry Horse that state plow crews were stalled by large drifts up to three feet deep.

One of my longtime bus drivers told me that was the first time that he had seen that happen, Bradshaw said. We also run buses on a number of country lanes. Very few of those have been plowed out this morning.

Bradshaw said it was hard to know just how much snow had fallen in Columbia Falls.

It might have been somewhere between 12 and 18 inches, he said. The wind blew so hard that its hard to measure. Last night, we also had a freezing type of rain that fell on top of the snow. It made for some treacherous driving conditions.

National Weather Service meteorologist Genki Kino said communities north of Polson received the most snow from the storm.

The snow levels didnt get quite low enough for Missoula and the Bitterroot Valley, Kino said, although snow began falling in Missoula about 7:15 a.m.

A surge of arctic air will change that later this week.

Were looking at some colder air moving into the region Thursday night into Friday through most of western Montana, said National Weather Service meteorologist Trent Smith. We could get a quick shot of snow in most areas in the range of a half inch to three-quarters of inch, but the bigger picture will be the significantly colder temperatures on Friday and Saturday. All of western Montana could see lows below zero and highs in the single digits to the teens.

While the models are still a little bit uncertain, Smith said there appears to be a chance for snow on Christmas Day.

Winter has arrived, Smith said.

This story contains information from the Associated Press.
By Hyonhee Shin SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's coast guard said it fired 249 warning shots over a group of Chinese fishing boats "swarming around" one of its patrol ships in South Korean waters, prompting a call for restraint from Beijing. South Korean coast guard vessels regularly chase Chinese boats suspected of fishing illegally in South Korean waters, at times sparking violent confrontations, complicating a relationship which is key to efforts to try to rein in North Korea's nuclear and missile programs. A fleet of 44 Chinese fishing boats fortified with iron bars and steel mesh on Tuesday began to rush the patrol boat which broadcast warnings to steer clear, the coast guard said. The coast guard vessel fired 249 shots over the boats until they retreated. "The Chinese fishing boats sought to swarm around and collide with our patrol ship, ignoring the broadcast warnings," the coast guard said in a statement. China, which has in the past lodged diplomatic protests with South Korea over the use of force by its coast guard, expressed "serious concern" about the reports. "We hope that South Korea appropriately handles the relevant issue and in the course of law enforcement takes no extreme actions that endanger people's safety," foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters in Beijing. Seoul's foreign ministry said the coast guard followed domestic law in its use of weapons in a "legitimate step" against the boats which made a "mass violation of the country's waters for illegal fishing". In September last year, three Chinese fishermen were killed in a fire on their boat when a South Korean coast guard crew trying to apprehend them for illegal fishing threw flash grenades into a room where they were hiding, according to the South Korean coast guard. A month later, two Chinese fishing boats illegally fishing in South Korean waters crashed into and sank a coast guard vessel, the coast guard officials said. (Reporting by Hyonhee Shin and Heekyong Yang; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Nick Macfie)
SEOUL (Reuters) - China has resumed its ban on group tours into South Korea, South Korea's inbound travel agency said on Wednesday, an issue that erupted last year as part of China's retaliation over the South's deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system.

"I was told from my boss this morning that our Chinese partners (based in Beijing and Shandong) said they won't send group tourists to South Korea as of January," the official from Naeil Tour Agency told Reuters by phone. The move was probably due to visa refusals by Chinese authorities, the official said.

The move came despite South Korean President Moon Jae-in's recent visit to China, which showed some signs of a thaw in relations since the row over the anti-missile system broke out last year.

(Reporting by Dahee Kim and Yuna Park; Editing by Paul Tait)
Sketches for a wedding dress, possibly for Meghan Markle, by Israeli designer Inbal Dror - A portion of this document contains content that is copyright GettyImages 2016.

From Queen Victoria to Catherine Middleton royal brides have made a point of wearing wedding dresses designed by the best British designers of the day.

But it looks as if Meghan Markle may be about to break with tradition, this time by selecting an outfit crafted by a foreign designer.

The Israeli designer Inbal Dror has been asked to submit designs for the dress to be worn by the American actress when she marries Prince Harry on May 19 next year.

Preliminary sketches submitted by Miss Dror have already emerged, and if they are anything to go by, Miss Markels bridal gown is likely to be a marriage of tradition and modernity.

The 41 year-old is known for the long trains on her dresses - and if she incorporates one into the actresses outfit it will no doubt be interpreted as recalling the long train worn by Harrys mother Diana, when she married Prince Charles at St Pauls Cathedral in July 1981.

Model showing off Inbal Dror's Fall 2017 collection, New York Bridal Week Credit: H. Walker/WWD/REX/Shutterstock

There has already been speculation that Miss Markel will incorporate the Lily of the Valley into her outfit, a flower which featured in Diana's own wedding bouquet.

But Miss Dror is also famed for her risque creations, with plunging necklines, figure-hugging mermaid hems and sleeveless bodices a trademark feature.

Meghan Markle grid

A spokeswoman for Dror told The Telegraph she was asked last week by a representative of the royal family to submit a sketch for a wedding dress for Miss Market.

"She was asked to do a sketch last week by the royal family. Unfortunately its a secret and I cant give more details about it," she said, adding that the sketches seen so far may not be the final drafts that Miss Dror actually submitted to the palace.

"It is important to say that these are just preliminary sketches and werent distributed by her. She has no idea how they made it to the world media."

Diana, Princess of Wales and her husband, Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales pictured by Patrick Lichfield at Buckingham Palace on the day of their wedding in July 1981. Credit: Lord Lichfield/Getty Creative

Commentators described her as a left field choice for Miss Markel. As a review of her Fall 2017 collection in Vogue put it: Dror is not known for dressing blushingly demure brides.

Story continues

Miss Dror, a graduate of the Shenkar Fashion Art Academy in Tel Aviv, has previously designed outfits for international superstar Beyonce - who wore a bridal gown from the designers Fall 2016 collection to present an award at the Grammys in 2016, and a bodysuit on stage during the Formation World Tour - and Naomi Watts.

After college she worked in Milan for four years with Italian designer Roberto Cavalli before opening own bridal label back home in Israel in 2010.

Copy of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle: The story of their relationship, in pictures

The tradition of picking a named designer for a royal wedding dress was established by Queen Victoria in 1840, when she chose a lace was designed by William Dyce, head of the then Government School of Design, later known as the Royal College of Art, and mounted on a white satin dress made by Mary Bettans.

Victoria asked that the plain, cream-coloured satin gown be made from fabric woven in Spitalfields, east London - where the areas weavers were suffering in the face of cheap foreign imports - and trimmed with a deep flounce and trimmings of lace hand-made in Honiton and Beer, in Devon, to demonstrate her support for British industry.

Queen Elizabeth chose a design by Norman Hartnell and Dianas dress was made with ivory silk taffeta and lace by Elizabeth Emanuel and was valued at the time at 9,000.

A spokesman for Kensington Palace said: We appreciate theres a lot of interest in this but were not saying anything on this subject at the moment.

There will be plenty of detail to come over the coming weeks which we will release in good time. Until then people will have to be patient.
A woman was thrown out of a Starbucks in Walnut Creek, California, earlier this month after she berated two Asian customers with racist insults.

The patron verbally attacked Annie An, a Korean international college student, after she heard An conversing in Korean with her tutor Sean Lee. An caught some video of the incident on her phone and shared it on Facebook.

In her post, An said that before she began recording, the woman told her, This is America. Use English only. Later the woman allegedly added, I dont want to hear foreign language.

... Oriental. I hate it, the woman can be heard saying in the video.

Im sorry, but theyre allowed to speak their language here, a Starbucks employee is heard responding.

President Obama said that everyone in here in America ... should speak English, the woman says

Theyre completely allowed to use their own language, the employee reiterates.

At one point, the woman types on her laptop keyboard and declares, Youre going to be in trouble when I get this letter out  before another customer notes, Youre pressing numbers over and over again.

The Starbucks worker repeatedly asks the woman to leave and threatens to call the police.

Eventually police officers arrived  An wrote that they were called by Starbucks  and escorted the woman out of the establishment.

The video of the incident has since gone viral with almost 900,000 views as of Tuesday and has been covered by multiple media outlets.

Lee told local news station KRON that he had been discussing an essay with An when the other woman got worked up.

We didnt provoke her, Lee said. We were just minding our own business. This lady just suddenly says, Dont you dare say that again.

Although the womans comments were far from pleasant, they did not stop the pair from continuing to chat in Korean. Lee wrote on Facebook that they kept speaking in Korean between her freakout and cops arriving, which pissed her off even more.

Story continues

Since the incident, people across social media have reached out to An and Lee, offering words of support and solidarity. Grateful for the messages, Lee said he hopes the video can show that bigotry is not a thing of the past.

In our day-to-day pursuits and responsibilities, its all too easy to forget that racism and anti-immigrant sentiments are a real thing in this country, even in the Bay Area that so often touts diversity, Lee said on Facebook.

Imagine this happening to your family and friends. Ive always cognized this issue, but my first, real-life encounter with racism has brought it to the forefront of my mind. I hope it does the same for you.

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
Typically, ocean waters flow gently westward, in part driven by the massive, slow waves generated by the Earth's spin. Even when whirlpools or eddies pop up, they tend to flow along with the rest of the water. But sometimes two eddies can combine into something called a modon, a massive vortex that can break off from the ocean's regular flow.

Nine of these modons, which were spotted around Australia between 1993 and 2016, were analyzed using satellite imagery and ocean temperature data. The modons  which can resemble massive smoke rings in the water  were found to travel several times faster than the ocean's typical currents, a new study finds.

In the study, which was published Dec. 4. in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the scientists said they didn't see any clear evidence on how the modons formed. However, the strange swirls could result from one of two processes: two opposite-spinning eddies fusing together or one larger eddy splitting off into two pieces that spin in opposite directions, the study said. [In Photos: Travel Australia's Great Ocean Road]

Regardless of how the modon is formed, its overall structure is the same: The modon consists of two vortices spinning in opposite directions of each other, with their tails joining together beneath the surface of the water. In the paper, the scientists described the phenomenon as the bottom half of a smoke ring bisected by the surface of the water. YouTuber "Physics Girl" illustrates the half-ring well in a video where she uses food dye to show how two separate vortices interact and join together.

These massive vortices aren't short-lived. The study found that they can last for up to six months before splitting apart, and then, those individual vortices can spin for several months beyond that. One crossed the entire Tasman Sea, the body of water between Australia and New Zealand, according to the study.

In some cases, the modons broke apart when they collided with a continental shelf; in other cases, the scientists couldn't deduce the reason from the available satellite data.

Story continues

Still, what stood out about these powerful vortices is that they could travel either east or west at up to 7.9 inches (20 centimeters) per second  a speed that's several times the speed of Rossby waves, which averages 4-8 inches (1-2 cm) per second in the analyzed region. (Rossby waves are waves that naturally result from the Earth's rotation, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.) Sometimes the modons would pivot toward the north or south, strengthening whichever eddy was spinning in that direction and weakening the other before balancing out again, the study found.

Because these oceanic smoke rings travel independently and faster than ocean currents, the researchers suggested in the paper that the modons can rapidly transfer water, heat and minerals from one place to another, and even speculated that they could carry small organisms for great distances in their tow.

Original article on Live Science .

Editor's Recommendations
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Air strikes killed 19 people in a village in Syria's rebel stronghold of Idlib overnight, a rescue service there and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday. The strikes pounded Maar Shureen in the northwestern Idlib province and injured 25 other people, the Britain-based Observatory said. The dead included seven children, it said. The war monitoring group added that Syrian government or Russian aircraft had struck the village. Russia's Defence Ministry denied involvement, saying in a statement carried by RIA news agency that its jets had not flown in that area. There was no immediate comment from the Syrian military, which says it only targets militants. Idlib's civil defense, a rescue service known as the White Helmets which operates in rebel territory, said on social media that fierce bombing killed 19 people overnight. "There were two consecutive strikes...The second strike came shortly before rescue teams arrived," Mustafa Youssef, who heads the Idlib civil defense, said. The Damascus government lost Idlib after insurgents took over the provincial capital in 2015. It has since become the only province fully under opposition control, and the most populated insurgent-held part of Syria. Hayat Tahrir al Sham, the Islamist alliance spearheaded by the former al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, is the dominant rebel force in Idlib. This has raised fears among some civilians and other rebel factions that the province could come under attack and turn into a major battlefield. Thousands of civilians and fighters have poured into Idlib in the past year, bussed out of towns and cities which Syrian troops seized with the help of Russia and Iran-backed militias. Government forces and their allies stepped up air strikes against opposition towns in the Hama countryside and the southern part of Idlib, rebels said last week. The province, bordering Turkey, is part of Russian-brokered de-escalation agreements that seek to shore up ceasefires in parts of western Syria. Turkey, which had long backed some Syrian rebel factions, set up observation posts in Idlib in October under a deal with Russia and Iran to reduce fighting there. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said the military operation in Idlib was largely completed. The deployment was also seen partly aimed at containing Kurdish influence nearby in northern Syria. (Reporting by Ellen Francis; Editing by Toby Chopra)
A British surgeon has pleaded guilty to charges that he marked his initials into patients' organs using a medical instrument called an "argon beam coagulator," according to news reports. But what exactly is this instrument, and are its effects permanent?

The surgeon, Simon Bramhall, admitted to the charge of assault for his 2013 actions, in which he used the argon beam to sign "SB" into the livers of two patients during transplant surgery, The Guardian reported yesterday (Dec. 13). A colleague later discovered Bramhall's initials on a patient's liver during a follow-up surgery, and Bramhall was suspended and then resigned from his position at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham in 2014.

An argon beam coagulator is an instrument that creates a stream of argon gas, which is then used to transmit an electrical current. [10 'Barbaric' Medical Treatments That Are Still Used Today]

With the electrical current following through it, the gas stream "creates a very thin char" on the surface of an organ to which it is applied, said Dr. Dmitri Alden, a surgical oncologist specializing in liver, pancreas and bile-duct surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, who was not involved with the case. The argon beam tool is used mainly to control bleeding of the liver and spleen during surgery, Alden said. "We're able to 'paint' the raw surface [of the organ] where the bleeding is coming from," he said.

The process can look dramatic, like "something out of 'Star Wars,'" Alden said, referring to the glowing electrical current that bursts from the tip of the instrument.

However, "as dramatic as it looks, it creates minimal damage," Alden told Live Science. "It controls the bleeding, but it does not penetrate deep into the organ," so there's no risk of damaging the internal structure, he said.

The scar left by the procedure will go away over time, Alden said. Following the procedure, the tissue underneath the scar heals, and later, the scar will either fall off or get absorbed. If the patient later has another operation on the same organ, doctors won't find any traces of the argon beam burn, Alden said.

Story continues

But in the case of Bramhall's patient, the liver had existing damage and did not heal normally, which made the marks visible to another doctor, according to the BBC.

Although the procedure is not harmful, using it to write initials on an organ "is a big deal from an ethical standpoint," Alden said. "I'm appalled" by this, he added.

Bramhall was released on bail and will be sentenced Jan. 12, according to The Guardian.

Original article on Live Science.

Editor's Recommendations
The Tesla Semi is on a roll. Elon Musks electric truck isnt expected to hit the road until 2019 at the earliest, but the companys promise of between 300 to 500 miles of range per charge has professionals excited. While a number of companies have publicly announced their order numbers, some are holding off for real-world validation. One analyst thinks that this is a good thing.

If this is the case, we expect the order momentum to increase in the coming months, Adam Jonas, automotive analyst with Morgan Stanley, said in a note released Monday. This may be both as a result of orders begetting orders as well as customers getting past the goal line on their conviction. The Tesla semi has already received important validation from some customers.

The team confirmed over 250 units from public order announcements. These include nearly 200 from PepsiCo, Sysco and Anheuser-Busch, which only placed their orders in the last two weeks. Wal-Mart also plans to order 15 trucks, as well as major package delivery company DHL which plans to order 10 vehicles.

Jonas team spoke with XPO Logistics, who has been testing prototypes for the last 18 months. The company claimed that the truck lived up to Teslas claims. These include a five percent performance boost over diesel trucks, fast recharging time (Tesla claims a 30-minute wait from one of its new solar-powered Megachargers), anti-jackknifing features that stop the truck from maneuvering dangerously, and payload capabilities similar to a diesel truck.

The Tesla Semi.

However, range is still a relative unknown. The company claims that the entry-level 300 mile range model will have a price of $150,000, with a 500-mile edition coming in at $180,000. Both of them require a $20,000 reservation. Its impressive, but Tesla will need to deliver on both this promise and that to build a Megacharger station every 400 miles in the United States, a combination of which Tesla says could cover 80 percent of shipping round trips.

Story continues

At the same event, Tesla announced the second-generation Roadster, a $200,000 vehicle capable of reaching 0-60 miles per hour in 1.9 seconds. It also has a 200kWh battery pack, capable of running for 620 miles. The company has scheduled the launch for 2019.

Tesla has the lineup and the ambition  its now time to deliver, Jonas said. Between the Model 3 rollout, the gigafactory, the Semi and the Roadster (not to mention the upcoming Model Y and pickup, which Tesla also teased at the event), Tesla should have its hands full for the next three years.

Photos via Tesla

Photos via Tesla

Written by Mike Brown

More articles by Mike  Follow Mike on Twitter

tweetshare

More From Inverse
China, the world's biggest polluter, unveiled plans on Tuesday for a national carbon market likely to become the world's largest exchange for emissions credits.

Environmentalists praised the move as an important step in the battle against climate change as China burns more coal than any other country, giving it the ignominious title of top greenhouse gas emitter.

Although the long-delayed emissions exchange scheme will initially cover just the power generation sector, it is expected to surpass the European Union's carbon market, currently the world's biggest.

"The purpose of this programme is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," said Zhang Yong, vice chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission.

The country is the largest investor in renewable energy but has faced an uphill battle transitioning from coal, which is used to generate roughly three-quarters of its power according to the International Energy Agency.

China is seen as a potential leader in the fight against climate change after the US retreated from the Paris accord.

"The world has never before seen a climate programme on this scale," said Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), which provided technical assistance to pilot carbon trading programmes in China.

"China has stepped up its climate leadership dramatically in recent years, and is now increasingly seen as filling the leadership void left by the US," Krupp said in a statement.

- Billions of tonnes of carbon -

The emission exchange outlined by the National Development and Reform Commission may slowly change the calculus for utilities and other coal-burners.

"We aim to reduce emissions through market-based mechanisms," Zhang said, adding that the immediate focus for establishing the carbon credits exchange is on the power generation industry.

"Some 1,700 electric companies emitted more than three billion tonnes of carbon," Zhang said.

Story continues

"This is where we will get to it," he said, without giving more details, including the programme's timeline.

The project expands on the lessons learned from seven provincial and city carbon exchanges.

"With just emissions trading in the power generation industry, the scale will exceed that of every country in the world," said Li Gao, an official in the commission's climate change department.

Coal generates most of the nation's power but the country has moved rapidly this winter to limit the dirty fuel's use in northern China, though it had to reauthorise it in some areas due to natural gas shortages.

EDF said China's power sector represents 39 percent of the nation's total emissions.

- Lessons from EU shortcomings? -

The EU Emissions Trading System puts a cap on the amount of carbon dioxide allowed to be emitted by large factories and other companies.

The firms can trade in quotas of these emissions -- the idea being to provide a carrot to improve energy efficiency or switch to cleaner sources so that they keep within the ceiling.

But the EU last month agreed to reform the ETS as critics said the market, which covers about 40 percent of Europe's industrial emissions, has proven ineffective.

Carbon allowances were too generous, resulting in a carbon price too low to encourage savings.

Carbon Market Watch, which scrutinises such trading schemes, said a "number of uncertainties remain" around China's plan, including concerns over the quality of emissions data and the measuring, verification and reporting systems in many Chinese provinces.

Nevertheless, Femke de Jong, policy director at Carbon Market Watch, said: "The launch of the Chinese carbon market shows that there is increased commitment around the world to price pollution and direct investments into clean technologies."
A Missoula man originally accused of raping a woman received a mostly suspended jail sentence Tuesday after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor.

When he was first arrested in 2015, Matthew Aaron Smith faced a felony county of sexual intercourse without consent  Montana's law for rape. Just before his trial was set to begin in November, Smith and prosecutors agreed to amend his charge to a misdemeanor of sexual assault in exchange for a no contest plea.

On Tuesday, District Court Judge Karen Townsend imposed a six-month jail sentence, suspending all of that time except for the 39 days Smith had already served after his initial arrest. Smith will be on misdemeanor supervision for the remaining suspended portion of his sentence.

According to court documents, Smith went to his ex-girlfriend's home in downtown Missoula in August 2015 after she broke up with him. The woman told investigators Smith sexually assaulted her.

In a subsequent interview with police, Smith admitted to the assault, a court affidavit said.

On Tuesday, Deputy County Attorney Brian Lowney requested a six-month jail sentence with four of those months suspended, meaning that with the time Smith had already served after his arrest he would still have needed to spend three weeks in jail. Lowney said the six-month jail sentence is the maximum that can be imposed under the law, which in his opinion isn't high enough.

"This is a case that warrants a penalty," Lowney said.

Lowney said Tuesday that charge was changed to a misdemeanor due to the potential difficulty in proving the evidence of the case lined up with the definition of without consent in the felony statute that was in place at the time. That definition was later updated during the 2017 session of the Montana Legislature.

Smith's attorney argued for a deferred sentence, citing his client's lack of criminal history and his wish to finish his education at the University of Montana without having a conviction on his record.

"My truest intent is just to progressively move forward in a positive way," Smith said.
Investigators are preparing to quiz the engineer and other crew members from a fatal train derailment as questions mounted as to why a safety system designed to prevent such incidents was not in operation.

Bella Dinh-Zarr, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), confirmed the Amtrak train on a new route between between Seattle to Portland was travelling at 80mph  50mph faster than it was supposed to be  when it left the tracks.

If a train is going around a curve and its going too fast, yes, it can derail, she said.

The train accident that just occurred in DuPont, WA shows more than ever why our soon to be submitted infrastructure plan must be approved quickly. Seven trillion dollars spent in the Middle East while our roads, bridges, tunnels, railways (and more) crumble! Not for long!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 18, 2017

In the hours since Amtrak train 501 derailed close to Tacoma, Washington, killing three people and sending some of its 14 cars onto vehicles on a highway beneath, questions have focussed on a safety system known as positive train control (PTC) that was not installed at the time of the accident.

The locomotive was in the process of getting a system of PTC installed but it was not yet functional, Ms Dinh-Zarr said, adding that an emergency brake was automatically activated.

Under a federal law passed in 2008, all railroads are required to have PTC, which automatically slows trains if they exceed a speed limit, by the end of 2018. Congress pushed back an initial requirement to have the technology operational nationwide by 2015.

The Washington state Department of Transportation has said that the entire Cascades route will have the system in place by the end of next year. Geoff Patrick, a spokesman for Sound Transit, the regional transit agency which owns the stretch of track where the derailment happened, told The Independent PTC was not yet in operation on the track. It was due to be active by the second quarter, which he said was ahead of schedule of several other operators.

Story continues

Asked if its earlier implementation would have saved lives, he said: That is not something Id speculate about.

Gov Jay Inslee similarly declined to say whether the technology may have prevented the accident, deferring to the NTSB investigation. But he did mildly rebuke Donald Trump for saying in a tweet that the accident illustrated the need for legislation funding infrastructure improvements, saying the President did not follow my advice, which is lets not jump to conclusions before we make decisions.

None of us, including myself should be making conclusions about the causes of this accident at this moment, Mr Inslee told reporters.

Investigators are working to schedule interviews with crew members who have been admitted to hospital, including the train's engineer, once they have recovered sufficiently, Ms Dinh-Zarr said.

A data recorder from one of the train's locomotives and cameras, which were badly damaged in the accident, are being sent to a laboratory in Washington, DC, where NTSB staff will try to extract information and piece together an accounting of the derailment.

Investigators have determined that, at the time of the crash, the engineer was in the train's cab with a conductor who was getting experience and familiarising himself with the territory while the on-duty conductor was in the train's passenger section, Ms Dinh-Zarr told reporters.

The train was carrying 80 passengers at the time, dozens of whom were injured and taken to hospital. At least 10 were said to have suffered serious injuries.

As federal investigators launched their inquiry into what caused the derailment, details about the dead began to emerge.

Two of the people identified led lives devoted to railroad transit, described in a statement from the Rail Passenger Association as passionate advocates for passenger railroad.

Zack Willhoite had been working for Pierce Transit for nearly a decade, most recently as a customer service support specialist, and served on the board of a nonprofit rail advocacy organisation called All Aboard Washington. Jim Hamre was a board member of the Rail Passengers Association and a veteran of the Washington State Department of Transportation.

Jim was among the country's most-respected and effective rail advocates and a good friend and mentor to me. I will miss his counsel, and our community is poorer for his loss, Rail Passengers Association President Jim Mathews said in a statement. Both Jim and Zack have been advocates of transit and passenger rail for decades, and we cant thank them enough for their work.

Grief and tributes flowed online from friends and colleagues, who described the two men as tireless railroad enthusiasts. Separately, UK Prime Minister Theresa May expressed her condolences for the victims in a phone call with Mr Trump.

Workers were using cranes and flatbed trucks to heft the remaining train cars off of the crash site and transport them to a secure location, labouring through steady rain and wind. Authorities said Interstate 5, a major west coast highway stretching from the Canadian border to Mexico, could remain closed for days, continuing to snarl traffic throughout the area.

This is a very careful, delicate operation, Travis Phelps, a spokesman for the Washington State Department of Transportation, told reporters.

Once those cars are transported to a secure facility, National Transportation Safety Board will have access to gather evidence as they continue conducting their investigation of the derailment.

The part of track where the derailment happened at around 7.30am had previously been used by slow-moving freight trains but was recently upgraded to handle passenger trains as part of a $181m project to cut travel time between Tacoma and Olympia, the news agency said.

The state transportation department said the track underwent weeks of inspection and testing before the new route was inaugurated on Monday, setting off from Seattle for Portland at 6am.

After the derailment, people who were injured called out to rescuers, including people who had been in their vehicles nearby and who rushed to help. Among those who offered help were Daniel Konzelman, who was driving to work in Olympia with his girlfriend, Alicia Hoverson, when he noticed the train passing him.

I noticed it was going really fast. Id never seen a train going that fast in the past. I drive that stretch every day, he told the Seattle Times.

He added: I looked up and saw the train was hanging off. I was like, Oh my gosh, this was major.

One of the three people to lose their life, was identified as Zack Willhoite, an employee of a local transit agency and a rail advocate.
Turkey has suffered a series of terror attacks over the past two years (AFP Photo/)

Istanbul (AFP) - Turkish authorities will not allow New Year celebrations at Istanbul's iconic Taksim Square for security reasons, state media reported Wednesday, quoting local officials.

Ismail Kilic, local police chief of Istanbul's Beyoglu district, said security measures had been doubled this year following a string of attacks over the past two years.

"Measures for New Year will be at the highest level," he was quoted as saying by state-run news agency Anadolu.

Turkey has suffered a series of terror attacks attributed to Kurdish militants and the Islamic State group, including a shooting at popular Istanbul nightclub Reina during a New Year 2016-17 party in which 39 people were killed.

Images released by police during the manhunt for the attacker were taken from a chilling silent video the IS gunman Abdulgadir Masharipov purportedly took on Taksim Square with a selfie stick, before going to the elite waterside nightclub to carry out the attack.

"We will double the measures because the Reina assailant changed his location having seen the measures at Taksim," Kilic said.

After his capture in a police raid, Masharipov, an Uzbek citizen, confessed to the shooting and reportedly said he was ordered to scout for a new target by IS leaders as Taksim was not suitable for an attack.

The suspect said he later took a taxi for a tour along the shores of the Bosphorus at around 1900 GMT when he spotted the Reina nightclub. "It didn't look like security measures were high," he said.

The Islamic State group took responsibility for the bloodbath, the first time it has openly claimed a major attack in Turkey.

Of the 39 people killed in the Reina attack -- which took place just 75 minutes into 2017 -- 27 were foreigners, including citizens from Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iraq and Morocco.
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey will take the resolution calling on the United States to withdraw its declaration of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital to the United Nations General Assembly, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday. The resolution was introduced to the U.N. Security Council on Monday by Egypt, a non-permanent member, but was vetoed by the United States, despite the 14 other votes in favor. "Now, God willing, we will carry the resolution to the U.N. General Assembly," Erdogan a joint news conference with the Djibouti's President Ismail Omar Guelleh. "A two-thirds support in the General Assembly would actually mean the rejection of the decision made by the Security Council," he added. (Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Writing by Ali Kucukgocmen; Editing by Dominic Evans)
This is the time of year when everyone is encouraged to think about those who are less fortunate. And Los Angeles Rams players Tavon Austin and Robert Quinn dont take that lightly. The two of them helped Shwonna Cox and her six children, who had recently been homeless, settle into a four-bedroom apartment on Tuesday.

Gary Klein at the Los Angeles Times wrote up the story, and its heartwarming. Austin and Quinn worked with the Rams and LA Family Housing, a non-profit organization that helps people transition out of homelessness and poverty, to help the Cox family, and the result was incredible.

The Rams Robert Quinn (94) teamed up with teammate Tavon Austin in helping a family in dire need. (AP)

Good work off the field by Rams Robert Quinn and Tavon Austin. https://t.co/q7qadJNg6Y  Gary Klein (@LATimesklein) December 20, 2017

When Cox and her children walked into their new apartment on Tuesday, it was fully furnished, and a total surprise. (Seeing the two Rams players there was also quite the surprise.) Austin and Quinn had paid for everything: beds, TVs, living room furniture, a dining room table and chairs, and a fully stocked kitchen. But that wasnt all: there were even Christmas decorations and presents under the tree. Theres a video of the family entering their home for the first time, with Quinn and Austin answering the door for them, which you can watch here.

This is the second straight year that Austin and Quinn have done this for a family in need. Klein spoke to Molly Higgins, the Rams vice president of community affairs and engagement, who said that both Austin and Quinn had expressed a desire to do something like this, but had approached her separately about it. Higgins found the perfect way for the players to give back to the community.

The Rams partnered with United Way, which connected the team and LA Family Housing. The players paid to furnish an apartment for a mother and her children in Sun Valley. We checked in on them and they are doing outstanding, Higgins said. It really was kind of that fresh start, that new beginning, and they were able to really turn their life around.

Story continues

Both players feel strongly about giving back and helping others. Not just because they have the ability to help, but to make the world a better place for everyone, one person at a time. Heres how Robert Quinn expressed his feelings:

When youre blessed as tremendously as we are as athletes, and what we get paid to do and all that, and you have an opportunity to give back and bless people that have come up through some hard times, you give back and try to make their lives a little bit easier, Quinn said. Like I always say, if together we as a people work together, we can bring heaven on earth. So this is just my start of trying to put heaven here.

Tavon Austin felt the same way:

I always want to do something to help a person. You cant help everybody in the world but at least you can get to one, and thats where my heart has always been, so thats what is to me. I just feel good they have a place to rest their head and call a place home.

This was the second year that Austin and Quinn gave back like this, but if their comments are any indication, it definitely wont be the last.

     

Liz Roscher is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on twitter! Follow @lizroscher
By Tom James

DUPONT, Wash. (Reuters) - U.S. safety inspectors probing the deadly wreck of a passenger train that careened off a bridge onto a highway in Washington state are eager to question the engineer and a conductor-in-training who were in the cab of the locomotive, officials said on Tuesday.

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials hoped interviews with all crew members would shed light on why Train 501 on Amtrak's Cascades line was going more than twice the speed limit around a curved stretch of track when it derailed on Monday.

The accident occurred during the train's inaugural run on a new, slightly quicker route between Olympia and Tacoma, with 86 people aboard, 80 of them passengers, Amtrak said.

NTSB officials said they planned to interview all the crew members in the next two days, once they sufficiently recover from injuries suffered in the wreck, including the conductor-in-training who was with the engineer at the time.

Safety board member T. Bella Dinh-Zarr told reporters that NTSB investigators would seek to determine, among other factors routinely examined, whether the engineer was distracted while driving the ill-fated train.

"Distraction is one of our most-wanted-list priorities at the NTSB," she said.

She also said investigators had determined that the train's emergency brakes were automatically activated while the derailment was occurring, rather than engaged manually by the engineer.

In addition, she confirmed that a safety system known as positive train control (PTC), which automatically slows trains if they go too fast, was not installed on the rail line. She said Congress had extended a mandatory deadline for having the PTC system installed on all passenger railways to 2018.

None of the crew has been identified. All were hospitalized, Dinh-Zarr said.

Three people aboard the train were killed when all 12 carriages and one of the train's two locomotives tumbled off the rails onto Interstate 5 near the town of DuPont, about 50 miles south of Seattle, officials said. Another 100 people were taken to hospitals, 10 with serious injuries.

Story continues

Some motorists were among the injured, though nobody on the highway died.

Recorded data recovered from the rear locomotive showed the train was going 80 miles (129 km) per hour on a bend in the track where the speed limit was 30 mph (48 kph), NTSB officials said on Monday night. The board said it was investigating whether other circumstances besides speed were involved, such as track conditions, signals, mechanical issues and human factors.

Speaking at an afternoon news conference on Tuesday, Dinh-Zarr said that a conductor "who was getting experience and familiarizing himself with the territory" was present in the locomotive cab with the engineer. NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson described that second Amtrak employee as a "conductor-in-training."

Dinh-Zarr said it was not unusual for conductors who are learning a new train route to ride in the cab with the engineer. She said another conductor was posted in the passenger section of the train at the time.

The derailment placed Amtrak, the country's main passenger rail service, under renewed scrutiny following a series of fatal incidents.

SEEKING TO REOPEN HIGHWAY

Meanwhile, workers lifted mangled train cars onto flatbed trucks from the wreckage site, using two towering cranes in wet, windy weather as they sought to reopen the southbound lanes of Interstate 5, a major West Coast highway stretching from the Canadian border to Mexico.

They expected to remove five of the cars and the locomotive by Tuesday afternoon and take them to a nearby U.S. military base for further examination, officials said.

The locomotive alone weighs more than 270,000 pounds (120 tonnes) and will require an extra-large truck to move, Dan Hall, the regional commander for the Washington State Patrol, said at a news conference.

The southbound stretch of Interstate 5 will remain closed for several days, the Washington State Department of Transportation said.

At least two of the three people who died in the derailment were transit enthusiasts who wanted to see the maiden run of a new route for the train line, said Abe Zumwalt, director of policy research for the Rail Passengers Association.

Jim Hamre and Zack Willhoite were members of the association, the Washington, D.C.-based organization said in a statement identifying the two men as victims of the wreck. Willhoite worked for a local transportation agency, Pierce Transit, as a customer service support specialist.

"They were best friends and they took all kinds of trips together, and given that yesterday was an inaugural run on a service that both had advocated for tirelessly, it made sense that they were on board," Zumwalt said in a phone interview.

(Additional reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York and Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles. Writing by Jonathan Allen and Steve Gorman; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Cynthia Osterman)
Kampala (AFP) - Ugandan lawmakers voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to remove presidential age limits, paving the way for President Yoweri Museveni to serve a sixth term in office.

The highly controversial bill passed with 315 votes for, 62 against and two abstentions, after three days of chaotic debates in which some opposition MPs were suspended, while others walked out.

The bill will pass into law once it is signed by Museveni.

Under current laws Museveni, 73, would not be eligible to run for office again in 2021 as candidates over 75 are not allowed.

The new bill re-introduces presidential term limits, which were scrapped with the introduction of multi-party politics in 2005, however this will only come into force following the next election -- meaning Museveni could serve two more terms.

And in a move widely viewed as a quid pro quo for lawmakers backing the unpopular age limit bill, the terms of MPs and local government officials were extended from five to seven years, pushing parliamentary elections to 2023.

Human rights lawyer Nicholas Opiyo told AFP the moves were "a reversal of Uganda's democratic process".

"To remove the age limit -- one of the most important safe guards -- will entrench a dictatorial and autocratic regime in Uganda, " Opiyo said.

"In a country where -- according to international observers -- elections do not represent the free will of the people... the age limit was the only safety valve left which will allow the peaceful transfer of power from Museveni."

Opiyo called the move to reintroduce term limits a "facade".

"It's not being made in good faith -- it's being made to mask a broader scheme to remove the age limits."

Spokesman for the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party Rogers Mulindwa denied that the law was designed to benefit Museveni personally.

"The NRM can choose President Museveni or someone else to stand in the next elections. If he happens to be one of the first beneficiaries then there is no problem. We have also seen that people above 75 are celebrating," Mulindwa said.

Story continues

"Lifting the age limit opens opportunities to all ages -- young, middle aged and old ones so they can contest the presidency. It should not be limited to 35 to 75 year olds -- that's discriminatory."

On the move to extend parliamentary term Mulindwa said that would benefit everyone "even the opposition."

Museveni, a veteran former rebel leader, seized power in 1986, ending years of brutal and murderous rule under Idi Amin and Milton Obote.

He once said leaders who "overstayed" in power were the root of Africa's problems, however as he ran for a fifth term in office in 2016 he said it was not the right time for him to leave office, as he still had much work to do.
The University of Montana Foundation confirmed Tuesday it sold Montana Island Lodge on Salmon Lake and identified the price at $1.6 million  far below an earlier $6.5 million sale price.

The 18,000-square-foot property was on the market for $6.5 million in spring 2014. The property was more recently offered at $2,499,000, according to the website of a real estate company that marked the property as "sold."

A warranty deed notes the title was transferred Monday to MEBC LLC with a mailing address of 40060 Paws Up Road in Bonner.

In January 2016, former UM vice president for finance Mike Reid said a significant price decrease from $6.5 million would not help the campus. At the time, UM was debating whether to put the property on the market again.

At $6.5 million, Reid said UM would recover maintenance money it put into the property, an estimated $1 million over 18 years as of 2014, and it would receive a share of the remaining $5.5 million.

"If we had to drop that price a lot, it doesn't really benefit the institution," Reid said at the time. "We don't get the full sale amount."

A donor agreement notes proceeds from the sale will be split among the four UM campuses, he said earlier. The UM Foundation noted philanthropist Dennis Washington donated the property in 1995 for the benefit of UM.

The Missoulian requested information about the lodge from UM last week and followed up Tuesday with specific questions about the sale after noting the deed had been filed with the Missoula County Clerk and Recorder. UM Foundation President and CEO Cindy Williams responded with a news release confirming the sale, but she did not address the reason for the significant price drop.

"It will be a few weeks before details are compiled regarding maintenance costs and distributions to campuses," Williams said in an email.

The news release praised the donors: "The Washington family, through the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation, is the largest private supporter of the University."

It also noted UM asked the foundation to sell the property after operating the lodge as a retreat and conference center "for several years." The property was listed for sale in the spring of 2014, and that listing expired in October 2015.

"Per the donors wishes, net proceeds from the sale will be distributed to the UM campuses in consultation with the Commissioner of Higher Education," according to the news release.

The property was listed on the website of Bergquist Donnelly Real Estate and PureWest Christies International Real Estate. In a text, Cole Bergquist declined to comment Tuesday but said he would be available to discuss the property in the near future.

Reporter Dillon Kato contributed to this story.
Eric Martinez decided to pop the question to his girlfriend, Cammy Rynae Cuoco, creating an unforgettable Little Mermaid fantasy. To pull off his underwater proposal, he enlisted the help of Del Sol Photography and photographer Polly Dawson. The couple traveled to Riviera Maya in Mexico, and Martinez got down on one knee in a cave with a stunning ray of light shining through. Wait, thats not all. A big surprise followed. Cuoco dressed up as a mermaid for the second part of her proposal. She slipped into a custom-made mermaids tail, and Martinez brought a ring pop to complete the wow-worthy moment. Photographer Dawson told Yahoo, I thought it was really fun to play with the idea of that iconic proposal shot and create truly fairy-tale images.
White House National Security Advisor HR McMaster - AFP

The US is ready to forcefully "denuclearise North Korea," Donald Trump's national security adviser has said, calling the state a "grave threat". As tensions between the US and the communist state increase, General HR McMaster said the US was not ruling out war as they prepared to bring the regime to task.

"We're not committed to a peaceful resolution - we're committed to a resolution," Gen McMaster told the BBC.

"We want the resolution to be peaceful, but as the President said, all options are on the table. We have to be prepared, if necessary, to compel the denuclearisation of North Korea without the cooperation of that regime."

Gen McMaster added: "The chances of war - who knows what they are - they could go up or down based on what we all decide to do."

Gen McMaster also criticised North Korea for its repeated nuclear missile tests, calling the state a "grave threat".

In November the North Korean regime claimed to have successfully completed their most advanced nuclear test to date in a show of military strength.

US President Donald Trump sits beside HR McMaster Credit: AFP

The state said the intercontinental ballistic missile, topped with a "super-large heavy warhead," had the potential to hit the continental US.

Gen McMaster said the chance of war could change "based on what we all decide to do". But he added: "North Korea is a grave threat to all civilised people across the globe."

President Trump has previously tweeted that North Korea's leadership "won't be around much longer". The comment was interpreted as a declaration of war by its regime.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un Credit: AFP

It came as the US publicly blamed Pyonyang for unleashing the so-called WannaCry cyber attack that crippled Britain's NHS as well as banks and other companies across the globe earlier this year.

"The attack was widespread and cost billions, and North Korea is directly responsible," Tom Bossert, homeland security adviser to President Trump, wrote in a piece published on Monday night in the Wall Street Journal.

Story continues

"North Korea has acted especially badly, largely unchecked, for more than a decade, and its malicious behavior is growing more egregious," Bossert wrote. "WannaCry was indiscriminately reckless."

On Tuesday Britain publicly named the Lazarus Group as the shadowy North Korean cyber crime group it believes was responsible for the ransomware attack.

The Foreign Office said the National Cyber Security Centre had assessed that it was "highly likely" the attack in May was the work of cyber criminals.

North Korea has repeatedly denied responsibility for WannaCry and called other allegations about cyber attacks a smear campaign.

Gen McMaster also accused the Russian government of "a sophisticated campaign of subversion" to undermine free and open societies.

He said Russia's alleged meddling in US elections was "certainly" a national security threat.

"I believe that Russia is engaged in a very sophisticated campaign of subversion to affect our confidence in democratic institutions, in democratic processes - including elections," he said.
(MOSCOW)  As the most serious challenger during Vladimir Putins 18 years in power, Alexei Navalny has endured arrests, show trials and facefuls of green antiseptic that damaged his vision.

But in an interview Monday with The Associated Press, he said the biggest thing keeping him from becoming Russias next president is a political system that punishes him for rallying support and conspires to keep his face off the airwaves.

Putins approval rating is astronomical and he is widely expected to win another term with ease, but the fact that he wont even say Navalnys name suggests the anti-corruption crusader has struck a nerve. Navalnys criminal record will probably keep him off the ballot  a sign, he says, of how much he frightens the political class.

Navalny, in his first interview since the start of the presidential campaign, said he would win it if I am allowed to run and if Im allowed to use major media. And he said the Kremlin knows it.

Its the main reason they dont want me to run, he said. They understand perfectly how ephemeral the support for them is.

That support certainly looks strong: The latest independent poll, conducted this month by the Levada Center, suggests 75% of Russians would vote for Putin. People in much of Russia back Putin as a matter of course, and Navalny supporters are routinely heckled, arrested and fined when they try to spread their message.

But there are also signs that enthusiasm for Putin may be starting to wane. Another Levada poll, conducted in April, found that 51% of people are tired of waiting for Putin to bring positive change  10 percentage points higher than a year ago. Both polls surveyed 1,600 people across Russia and had margins of error of 2.5 percentage points.

Navalny hopes to capitalize on that discontent.

Putin has nothing to say, Navalny said. All he can promise is what he used to promise before, and you can check that these promises did not come true and cannot come true.

Story continues

Navalny gets out his message on social media, using Twitter and Telegram and broadcasting a weekly program on YouTube. But television  the main source of information for most Russians  remains off limits because its controlled by the government.

Other opposition candidates are expected to run, notably socialite Ksenia Sobchak, the daughter of Putins mentor  but there is wide speculation that her candidacy is a Kremlin plot to split Navalnys support. The only other candidates who are critical of Putin have too little support for the Kremlin to view them as threats.

Putin himself has announced his re-election bid but so far refrained from any campaigning events. Even so, his face is everywhere  at his annual news conference last week, carried live for nearly four hours on Russian television, he touted his accomplishments and even taunted Navalny  but stuck to his practice of not saying his name.

Navalny was not a candidate during Russias last presidential election in 2012, but he spearheaded massive anti-government protests that rattled Putin. Amid dwindling popularity, Putin seized Ukraines Crimean peninsula and threw support behind separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine, striking a chord with millions of Russians who felt like losers in the outcome of the Cold War. Now, people are tiring of the Ukrainian conflict and becoming more focused on their own economic woes, providing fertile ground for Navalnys message.

Navalny published his full election platform last week, focusing on fighting corruption and funneling more money into education and health care. He calls for a windfall tax on oligarchs and huge cuts to Russias bloated bureaucracy. Unlike Putins focus on foreign policy, Navalnys platform is almost entirely domestic, which he credits for growing support in places like Novosibirsk, Russias third-largest city, where he drew a large crowd in October.

Our government is in the grip of illusions. They deal with Syria and theyre not interested in whats happening in Novosibirsk, and people there feel it, Navalny told the AP. That translates into the fact that Im receiving more support.

The blue-eyed Moscow lawyer first made his name in 2009 when he began publishing investigations into corruption at Russias biggest state-owned companies. When the AP first interviewed Navalny in 2010, he was a lone wolf, but he has since acquired allies and supporters who have been made investigations into official corruption their full-time job.

With the visibility came the backlash: The 41-year old Navalny has been convicted on two sets of unrelated charges, and his brother was sent to prison in what was largely viewed as political revenge. A conviction on one of the charges bars Navalny from running for public office without special dispensation  and the election official who will consider that request in the coming weeks has already said she sees no legal grounds for him to run.

In his only formal election campaign, Navalny ran for Moscow mayor in 2013 and got nearly 30% of the vote.

His presidential bid began a year ago, when he started to build a network of supporters across Russia. He currently counts over 190,000 volunteers, most of them young, from Russias western exclave of Kaliningrad to Vladivostok on the Pacific. His supporters have opened campaign offices in 83 cities and towns, including many where Putin is accustomed to winning by a landslide.

On his most recent visit to Putins heartland, 1,000 people braved temperatures of -15 Celsius (-5 Fahrenheit) to hear him speak in the industrial town of Novokuznetsk, where Putin got 77% of the vote in 2012.

Many of those in the crowd sounded weary of the president but said they saw no alternative. Asked about Navalny, many said they had heard very little about him.

While Navalny has captured the attention of a younger generation and the politically active via social media, he conceded he wont be able to reach the broader population as long as he is barred from state television.

We have won among the active political class despite the ban, he said. The politically active class will turn the politically dormant one in our favor. Its going to happen in this election if Im allowed to run.
The Donald Trump administration has concluded that the North Korean government was behind a May ransomware outbreak known as WannaCry, adding the weight of the U.S. intelligence community to private-sector security firms conclusions that Pyongyang orchestrated the use of the virus.

In a briefing with reporters on Tuesday, White House counterterrorism and homeland security advisor Tom Bossert said the attack was was directed by the government of North Korea and that Pyongyang used intermediaries to carry out the operation.

Everything that happens in North Korea happens with and by the direction of their leadership, he added. The United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Japan have seen U.S. analysis and they join us in denouncing North Korea for WannaCry, he said.

Such a clear-cut statement from the U.S. government, which has put significant resources into countering North Korean cyber operations, represents the latest attempt in Washington to pressure Pyongyang amid rapidly escalating tensions. The United States and the United Nations have ramped up economic sanctions on North Korea in response to the countrys missile and nuclear tests.

But Bossert acknowledged that the United States is running out of options to force North Korea to abandon its disruptive activities, including firing off intercontinental missiles and launching cyberattacks around the world.

President Trump has used just about ever lever you can use short of starving the people of North Korea to death to change their behavior, Bossert said. We dont have a lot of room here left here to apply pressure to change their behavior.

North Korean hackers continue to utilize American platforms for their work. On Tuesday, Facebook said it had deleted accounts last week operated by North Korean hackers to make it harder for them to conduct their activities, and Microsoft revealed that it disrupted malware used by Pyongyangs cyber forces.

In calling out North Korea on Tuesday, Bossert appealed to countries that may be knowingly or inadvertently sheltering Pyongyangs hackers to more aggressively go after those operatives. North Koreans can travel outside of North Korea to hack, or they can rely on people outside of the country with better access to the internet to carry out this malicious activity, Bossert said. We need other countries, not just other companies, to work with us.

Story continues

In pointing at other countries, Bossert sidestepped the U.S. role in the bugs development. North Korean hackers used a vulnerability discovered by the U.S. National Security Agency that was leaked online by a mysterious group known as the Shadow Brokers. In WannaCry, North Korean hackers effectively took a stolen American cyber weapon and pointed it at computer users around the world.

But they didnt point a very effective weapon. Ransomware like WannaCry is designed to infect computers, encrypt their contents, the demand a ransom to decrypt the files. But WannaCry was sloppily written, and paying ransoms did not lead to decryption. If the virus was part of a plan to raise funds for a cash-starved regime, it failed: The hackers appear to have made no more than $140,000 from the operation.

Other cyberattacks have been more profitable. Security researchers have linked North Korean hackers to an audacious assault on Bangladeshs central bank, which saw hackers initially make off with $81 million. Other reports have tied North Korean hackers to attacks on South Korean bitcoin exchanges, which are used to trade the cryptocurrency.

Still, the slapdash nature of WannaCry has baffled researchers and made it hard to figure out exactly how North Korea carries out its cyber offensives. The sloppy code has led some researchers to conclude the worm prematurely escaped from a development environment  essentially a closed-off computer system used to build digital tools  before it was ready for use. Others speculate the code might have been the project of freelance hackers who had carried out previous work for North Korea and were trying to make money on the side.

How they operate is often a little mysterious, Bossert acknowledged Tuesday. With perfect knowledge, we would be able to address the North Korean problem with more clarity.
North Korea has been publicly blamed for the WannaCry cybert attack (Rex)

North Korea has been publicly blamed for the WannaCry cyber attack which hit the NHS and networks around the world.

President Donald Trumps homeland security adviser, Tom Bossert, said the country was directly responsible for the ransomware attack that was widespread and cost billions.

Mr Bossert was writing in the Wall Street Journal as Mr Trump unveiled a new US national security strategy which includes strengthening the countrys cyber defence capabilities.

The attack is believed to have infected machines at 81 health trusts across England (Rex)

The adviser wrote: After careful investigation, the US today publicly attributes the massive WannaCry cyber attack to North Korea.

The attack spread indiscriminately across the world in May. It encrypted and rendered useless hundreds of thousands of computers in hospitals, schools, businesses and homes.

While victims received ransom demands, paying did not unlock their computers. It was cowardly, costly and careless. The attack was widespread and cost billions, and North Korea is directly responsible.

MORE: Heroic moment fireman rescues honeymoon couples baby from third-floor window of fatal Loch Lomond hotel fire

MORE: Victim of Birmingham car crash was drug dealer freed from jail after 130mph police chase

In October, Home Office minister Ben Wallace said the UK Government believed quite strongly that a foreign state was behind the cyber attack and named North Korea.

Pyongyang had been widely blamed for the cyber attack in security circles, and Microsofts president, Brad Smith, also pointed the finger at Kim Jong Uns secretive state.

The attack that began on May 12 is believed to have infected machines at 81 health trusts across England  a third of the 236 total, plus computers at almost 600 GP surgeries, according to a National Audit Office (NAO) report released in October.

Homeland security adviser, Tom Bossert described the attack and cowardly (Rex)

The probe found that almost 19,500 medical appointments, including 139 potential cancer referrals, were estimated to have been cancelled, with five hospitals having to divert ambulances away after being locked out of computers.

Story continues

However, the report found the attack could have been prevented if basic IT security measures had been taken.

All infected machines were running computer systems  the majority Windows 7  that had not been updated to secure them against such attacks.

Mr Wallace suggested the attack could have been motivated by an attempt by the economically isolated North Korean state to access foreign funds.
People use night vision goggles to look at the night sky during a UFO tour in the desert outside Sedona, Arizona: REUTERS/Mike Blake

The truth as to whether Donald Trump believes in aliens may be out there  but the White House isnt certain.

Asked about the Presidents views on UFOs after reports revealed a secretive federal initiative to track potential extraterrestrial sightings, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said hadnt heard either way.

Does the president believe in the existence of UFOs and would he be interested in restoring funding for that program? a reporter asked.

Somehow that question hasnt come up in our back-and-forth over the last couple of days, but I will check in on that and be happy to circle back, Ms Sanders replied.

There was little doubt on the parts of some people involved in the UFO programme, according to The New York Times.

Robert Bigelow, described as an aerospace entrepreneur and friend of former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid whose company received much of the money from the since-lapsed federal program, said he was absolutely certain that aliens have visited Earth. Mr Reid told the Times that the programme was one of the good things I did in my congressional service.

And Mr Trumps former presidential rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton, has also embraced the possibility, telling a New Hampshire newspaper in 2015 that we may have been visited by aliens already and that Im going to get to the bottom of it.
My name is Bana Alabed. I am eight years old and a refugee. Like millions of other children I had to run away from my country because of the war and I lost many thingsincluding my home. Do you know our crimes? Just that we were born in Syria.

The Syrian War is going on seven years and many people are still suffering inside and outside the country. Children, like me and my brothers, who should go to school are in refugee camps, or they are dying. The lives of many Syrian families are very hardnot enough food or medicine and bombs falling out of the time. The Syrian people want an end to the war so they go back home and rebuild a better life. I want to come home one day soon.

But we need help. That is why I went on Twitter last year so that I could tell people what was happening and they would help us. Many people cared about us and have helped Syriabut we still need much more help. We need to end the war once and for all.

When I was in Aleppo, I saw many terrible things. Everyday bombs would kill neighbors and people were always running all around. All the people in the city just wanted the war to stop but it didnt until all of East Aleppo became rubble. Everyone in my city lost someone to the war. I lost my best friend to a bomb, she was just a child and not a fighter? What was her crime?

This is what Syrians are running away from, this is why we are going to anywhere that is safe. We look for peace in other countries. We have no choice if we want to live. You who have peace, ask yourself: What if you were in Syria right now? Wouldnt you want to run away to a place of peace and a better life?

When I finally got out of Aleppo, I tasted what peace was like for the first time in many years. Turkey welcomed me and my family. Now for the first time, I can go to school, and play outside without hearing the bombs. I love school even more than I thought I would and have made many new friends from all over the world. But I am just one in millions of refugees who is very lucky.

Story continues

The world can do better and be kinder to refugees. We are innocent. Refugees need homes, jobs and education. Especially the children because education is our right. Without education, our future is lost and we cant grow up to make the world better from what weve learned and take care of other people and our families.

I am grateful that I have peace and education, but what if the whole world opened the gates of peace and education to every refugee like me? The world will be a better place.

I believe the most important thing is for all of the wars to end. Without peace, we will always have refugees.
By Emelia Sithole-Matarise HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa gave his clearest signal yet on Tuesday that he would appoint as vice president the military leader who led the de facto coup that ousted former leader Robert Mugabe last month. At a ceremony marking Constantino Chiwenga's retirement and handover of the military reins to Phillip Sibanda at an army barracks near Harare's international airport, Mnangagwa lauded Chiwenga for his consistency and steadfastness. "I therefore urge you to maintain the same loyalty, robustness and dedication to duty as you move to your next assignment which is quite prominent," he said without elaborating. Mnangagwa said on Friday he would fill the two vice presidential posts in the following few days. Chiwenga is the top contender in what is seen as a reward for helping to end Mugabe's 37-year rule. Mnangagwa has appointed several senior military officers to his cabinet and the ruling party's executive politburo since he was sworn in as president on Nov. 24 in what some political analysts say reflects the army's consolidation of power since it turned against the 93-year-old Mugabe. Chris Mutsvangwa, special adviser to the president and the influential leader of the war veterans' association, rejected criticism of the military appointments, saying they were not unique to Zimbabwe. He pointed to the former generals in U.S. President Donald Trump's cabinet. He also denied a report by the privately owned NewsDay newspaper that he had said the army would play a role in elections due next year. "It's a lie ... I said there was a team which helped to undo the dynastic tendencies of geriatric Mugabe and his mid-wife (sic)," he told reporters at his offices in Harare. "I promised to the new president that we are going to deliver an electoral victory but that team specifically excludes the army because the army had played a role earlier and because the army is a professional army and does not get involved in election campaigns." The elections are due by July 2018 but Mnangagwa has said they may be held sooner than expected. Mnangagwa told members of his ruling ZANU-PF party on Friday they would have to start fixing the economy if they wanted a chance of winning next year's vote. The southern African nation's economy collapsed in the latter half of Mugabe's rule, especially after the violent seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms. (Additional reporting by Philamon Bulawayo; Editing by James Macharia and Hugh Lawson)
Balloons, flowers and a cross are set up at the scene where Karina Morales-Rodrigues, 27, and Marta Martinez, 30, were tragically shot Saturday morning near the corner of South First and East Walnut in Yakima, Wash., Sunday, March 27, 2016. (SOFIA JARAMILLO/Yakima Herald-Republic)
The waiting rooms of Montanas community health centers are thousands of miles from the U.S. Capitol, but what happens under that dome is hurting the health of thousands of Montanans.

Right now, Montana community health centers are experiencing a federal funding cut of 70 percent that took effect Oct. 1. Centers across the state are making hard choices to trim costs, save jobs and keep doors open. Our health centers are not alone. The federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has projected that the impact of the funding cliff will result in the closure of 2,800 health center locations, elimination of more than 50,000 jobs, and a loss of access to care for more than 9 million patients.

The disruption is already evident. Many health centers in Montana are already making the tough choices about cutting costs amid a massive funding shortfall  implementing hiring freezes, cutting back on programs and deciding whether to close rural sites. In rural areas, where people typically drive miles in any direction to a provider, site closures will pose a significant hardship.

Why should this matter? Because we save lives. In Montana, 17 community health centers in 48 locations are part of a nationwide network that started more than 50 years ago to provide quality primary care in places where doctors and services were scarce or nonexistent.

We are the family doctor to more than 106,000 Montanans in communities all across the state, almost 1 in 10 Montanans receive their healthcare in one of our health centers. We provide affordable access to primary care and help reduce the incidence of chronic disease in the most economically challenged rural and urban communities all over Montana.

Our patients have a more affordable option for preventive care than a hospital emergency room, a fact which allows us to generate millions in health care cost savings in Montana. We are also innovators, working with community partners to respond to public health crises, such as the opioid epidemic and the recent wildfires that raged this summer in Lincoln and Seeley Lake.

There is little doubt that health centers have contributed significantly to cost savings for the American taxpayer. Not only do most Republicans and Democrats support our program, they also want a funding cliff fix. So why cant Congress get the job done? We are up against a host of factors that include a ticking clock and a busy legislative calendar that is focused on dollars, not doctors or the people who need them.

Congress must act now and turn their attention to fix the community health center funding cliff. Lets hope they act before its too late.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attacked the police on Tuesday evening for the string of ongoing corruption investigations being conducted against him, saying that the majority of the recommendations made by the police are thrown to the garbage.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



Speaking at a Likud party event celebrating the eighth and final night of Hanukkah, the prime minister slammed the series of protests that have been staged in recent weeks in Tel Aviv over governmental corruption, while adding that any recommendations to indict him for wrongdoing carried little weight.

The slanderers in the street squares will try to inflate the balloon before all the air is out of it, a confident Netanyahu said, before slamming the investigations against him. It is a waste of time, a waste of public money. So there will be recommendations. So what?

(Photo: Kobi Richter/TPS)

Here is a little spoiler for you. In a few weeks journalists and commentators will return to the TV studios and will open the newscasts with the explosive headlines: The most serious recommendations. It has to be said very serious, among the most serious the state has ever known,' he added sardonically.

Of course, you are asking yourselves how I know all this. By January, almost a year ago, it was leaked that the police will recommend that an indictment is submitted against Netanyahu. Theres good journalism. They knew even a year ago, just a few days after me, that an investigation would be opened.

So I have a question, why did they need another five investigations? Why did they need another year?

Continuing his tirade, he said that a fact that was likely unknown to the public was that the vast majority of the police recommendations end with nothing. I am talking about recommendations against thousands of citizens and public figures, ministers, MKs. It begins in the headlines and explodes and most of the time it ends with nothing.

(Photo: Motti Kimchi)

Responding to the speech, police officials said it was "very strange and expressed bewilderment as to why the prime minister was launching his fresh verbal assault.

We have no idea why he is speaking to us and why he is attacking us, a senior police official told Ynet. It seems he now speaks for the attorney general because he knows what is in the case. We didn't know about this speech. No one prepared us for it but it sounds strange.

Netanyahu lights Menorah (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

Regarding the claim made during the speech that as early as January this year an indictment was already in the offing for Netanyahus alleged acceptance of illicit gifts from Arnon Milchan, also known as Case 1000, the official said that this could be attributed to the changing details in the case.

It is true that since then we continued to investigate and overturn every rock in order to get o the truth and now we have a now a case of bribery, not accepting receiving gifts. That is the reason that the investigation was extended. When everything is publicized, everyone will understand what materials we have collected.
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Education Minister Naftali Bennett are pushing a new Basic Law that would limit the Supreme Court's ability to disqualify laws passed by the Knesset.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



The bill stipulates the Supreme Court would only be able to strike down a Knesset law with a panel of nine justices or more and a two thirds majority.

Opponents argue the proposal would allow lawmakers to bypass the court when politically convenient. The Supreme Court and the attorney general are expected to strongly oppose Bennett and Shaked's proposal.





The High Court of Justice: A three-judges panel will not be enough to strike down law (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

"The High Court of Justice has turned the Knesset into a useless vessel," Bennett told Ynet on Wednesday.

The proposed Basic Law: Legislation sets out to determine and regulate the relationship between the Knesset and the Supreme Court. It would be the first time the Knesset officially recognizes the court's authority to annul laws, a controversial matter which is not embedded in any law but rather based on a ruling by the Supreme Court itself.

The legislation would specify in what cases the Knesset can override a court's decision to annul legislation.

"You won't find anywhere (in law) that anyone authorized the High Court to strike down laws. It doesn't exist," Bennett said. "And yet the court has given itself the right over the past 30 years to disqualify quite a few laws. This is unacceptable."

The education minister went on to say that "Four million go out to vote in elections, the MKs work on a law for a yearand then the judges cancel it. Does this sound reasonable to you? The annulment of a law should only happen in a very rare case of extreme government tyranny."

As an example, he raised Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon's law to tax owners of three or more apartments. "The High Court came and cancelled this law. What is this? Who gave it the right? Why bother even having elections?" he said.

Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

Since all coalition parties hold veto power, it is highly unlikely the proposal could pass in the current government. Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu) has repeatedly stated he would oppose any attempt to harm the Supreme Court and is expected to veto the bill in its current form. "It has no chance," said a Kulanu source.

The Bayit Yehudi Party is aware of the difficulties in passing the bill in the current term, but is hoping to include it in its coalition agreement with the next government so it would pass in the next term.

The bill also seeks to fortify existing Basic Laws against changes by a chance (as opposed to absolute) majority of MKs.

Bennett and Shaked are also hoping to restrict the court's ability to strike down any legislation that is a derivative of the Basic Law such as Basic Law: The State Budget, leaving only regular legislation vulnerable to the court.

The Supreme Court has always supported a Basic Law that would recognize its authority to annul legislation. But it also strongly opposes giving the Knesset power to enact laws with only a thin majority of 61 MKs, a state of affairs that holds the court hostage to the whims of the coalition.

The Supreme Court believes that legislation should require a minimum of 75-80 supporting MKs in order to pass. It also wants to minimize the Knesset's ability to enact legislation meant to bypass the court.

In their proposal, Shaked and Bennett write that the bill comes on the heels of "a series of controversial judicial interferences in legislation and government decisions," citing the court's decision to strike down certain clauses in the Anti-Infiltration Law, annulling the law to tax owners of three or more apartments and laws relating to the budget and the IDF draft.

Shaked and Bennett (Photo: Gil Yohanan)

In addition to the requirement that only a two-thirds majority of a nine panel Supreme Court can overrule legislation, as opposed to a mere panel of three, the proposed bill recognizes the court's authority to do so but with a series of stringent conditions.

A law would have to deviate from one of the Basic Laws for the court to annul it. Furthermore, if the law passed its third plenum reading with the necessary majority, the court could not strike it down.

The bill includes a clause whereby if the court rescinds a law, the Knesset can legislate it anew with a slim majority of 61 Knesset members, out of a total of 120. The law will then be valid for a period of five years with an option to extend.

Any judicial authority finding flaw with a new law can challenge it at the High Court in two phases: a three judge panel will examine whether there is merit in the legal challenge, and if they find there to be, the case will go before a nine judge panel.

Submissions of Basic Law proposals can only be presented by the government, the Knesset Constitution and Law Committee or a minimum of 20 MKs. A majority of 61 MKs will be necessary at each of its three readings and the third reading must take place during a special Knesset session.

"The necessity of this bill comes after a series of High Court rulings that violated the longstanding status quo between the legislative and judicial branches of government," Bennett and Shaked write in their proposal.

"Over the last year, citizens and legal experts have been shocked by the court's initiatives to revoke legislation on mere procedural grounds, unlike in the past when the court intervened only on substantial matters. For the first time, the court rescinded a clause of a Basic Law," they added.





The Supreme Court (Photo: Noam Moskovich)

They were also concerned with the court's seeming disregard for the Basic Law clause that enshrined aspects of the Zionist character of the state, such as the Law of Return.

Before submitting the bill, Bennett declared: "Today we tell the court, not everything is subject to adjudication. In recent years, the court has annulled government legislation too easily. The government ought to govern and the judges ought to judge. (This bill) will elucidate the boundary between the branches of government."

Shaked criticized the judicial activism that has "harmed Israeli democracy and usurped the people's right to choose From the current judicial chaos there will be order and a balance will be achieved between the three branches of government," she said.

Former Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Zionist Union) called the proposed bill "the fulfillment of Bayit Yehudi's threat to take a D9 bulldozer to the Supreme Court and part of a plot to harm Israel's gatekeepers, their goal is that there should be no one to stop them from turning Israel into an undemocratic bi-national state."

Ilan Gilon, chairman of the Meretz Party, asserted that "Bennett and Shaked are continuing to destroy Israeli democracy We must now stand guard to protect a strong and independent judiciary."

Other MKs from the Zionist Union as well as Yesh Atid expressed opposition to the bill, calling it demagoguery, and saying the Bayit Yehudi MKs are trying to "destroy the Supreme Court" with anti-democratic legislation under the guise of sorting out the branches of government; and that they are conducting a destructive revolution.
Some 30 Teva employees protested against the planned mass layoffs in the company early Wednesday outside the home of Board of Directors member Galia Maor.

Protesters held up signs saying "Galia is a failure," "Disgrace" and "Workers not slaves."
Nur Tamimi was arrested by the IDF early Wednesday on suspicion of being involved in the attack on an IDF officer and soldier along with her cousin Ahed Tamimi in the West Bank village of Nabi Salih.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



The 21-year-old Nur was documented along with her 17-year-old cousin Ahed slapping and hitting IDF soldiers, but failing to provoke a response from them.

Ahed Tamimi was arrested early Tuesday and taken for questioning by police. Border Policewomen who came to arrest her had to use moderate physical force against her after she physically resisted arrest and threatened to hit the soldiers.

Tamimi cousins provoke IDF soldiers in Nabi Salih

A video of the incident, taken during a weekly demonstration held in the village this past Friday, showed soldiers displaying restraint in the face of slaps, pushes and kicks by the two cousins, who attempted to entrap them to respond.

Bassem Tamimi, Ahed's father told Ynet that, "The occupation forces from the police and Border Police acted cruelly and used violence. They searched the house and caused damages, confiscated our computers, cellphones, cameras and every electronic device. They beat the children after taking their cellphones by force."

X

He went on to claim that "This arrest was done after incitement in the media, which aroused public interest among the Israeli society. I saw in the Israeli media calls to protest against Ahed on the streets of Tel Aviv, after they tried to portray the soldier as a poor victim of Ahed's actions."

In addition to Nur Tamimi, IDF, Shin Bet, Border Police and police forces also arrested 17 wanted suspects across the West Bank overnight.

Palestinians also violently clashed with Israeli forces securing the entry of hundreds of Jewish worshipers into Joseph's Tomb in Nablus. Palestinian rioters burned tires and hurled stones at the forces, who used crowd dispersal measures.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was heckled while delivering a speech Tuesday during the International Bible Quiz by members of the group dubbed No selling to murderers.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



The activists, who were eventually removed from the lecture theater, interrupted the prime ministers speech as they waved placards and signs while chanting, Light unto the nations, dont sell to murderers.

PM Netanyahu (Photo: Eli Mendelbaum)

The group activists were demanding that Israel put a halt to arms sales to murderous regimes, placing particular emphasis on demands to nullify military aid they say is being given to Myanmar.

Jewish morals and our shared values obligate us to be a light unto the nations and not lend a hand to slaughter, the group yelled during the speech at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem.

The group is also taking steps to advance legislation that would forbid the government from providing assistance to regimes engaged in ethnic cleansing and genocide.

Eventually, the crowd shouted the activists down with cries of support for the prime minister, chanting Bibi, Bibi!

Activists heckle the prime minister (Photo: Eli Mendelbaum)

The activists are also demanding that Israel halt arms exports to Honduras amid violent protests there following disputed elections.

A group representative, lawyer Eitay Mack, sent a letter to Israel's Defense Ministry asking that it freeze or annul the arms sales over accusations of human rights abuses committed by Honduran security forces. The letter, sent last week, comes after weeks of protests following Honduras' November 26 election, in which at least 14 people have been killed.

Israel typically keeps its arms exports classified and Israel's Defense Ministry had no immediate comment. Honduras disclosed details of a $209 million arms deal last year that includes communications equipment and surveillance drones for the army and cyber security systems for Honduras' intelligence service.

The goal of inhibiting the Israeli government's ability to sell arms unabated to murderous regimes has united lawmakers across the board.

Last year, MK Yehuda Glick (Likud) and Tamar Zandberg (Merez) joined forces to advance a bill prohibiting Israel from exporting weapons to countries with poor human rights records.

The people of Israel returned to the land of Israel in order to be a moral lighthouse, to show justice and integrity to the world, Glick said. If we are forced to produce weapons then they have to be in order to protect lives rather than take lives in an immoral manner. This is our moral obligation.
A prime minister has never been sent to jail for lying. Lying for the Land of Israel is okay, and the Land of Israel is meBenjamin Netanyahu.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



At the climax of his speech Tuesday night at the Kfar Maccabiah convention center, the prime minister told his listeners about what the Israel Police had done to President Reuven Rivlin (Boo, the crowd chanted when his old friends name was mentioned). The police, Netanyahu said, recommended that Rivlin be indicted, and the attorney general tossed the recommendations in the trash.

Because I am the prime minister, and you shall have no other prime ministers before me (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

The police did launch seven different probes against Rivlin. It was in 2001, 16 years ago. At the end of the investigation, which lasted years, the police recommended that all the seven cases be closed, six for lack of guilt and one for lack of public interest. Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, today a Supreme Court justice, decided to accept the police recommendation and close the cases. There was a delay of justice, and thats a shame, but there was no distortion of justice. Netanyahu lied.

That doesnt mean that every police recommendation should be accepted. Absolutely not, neither from a legal perspective nor from a public perspective. But it does mean that Netanyahu is in such a bad state that he is willing to lean on anything, even on his bitter enemy Rivlin, even on something that never happened.

Tuesday evenings event was a milestone in Netanyahus delegitimization campaign against the police recommendations. After failing to thwart the recommendations through a bill initiated by Knesset Members David Bitan and David Amsalem, he is trying to thwart them through speeches.

He has a double goal: To neutralize the expected public damage following the police recommendations and, most importantly, to create the impression that Attorney General Avichai Mandelblits desk will be covered next month with a pile of stillborn files. According to Netanyahu's version, the police are one thing and the State Attorneys Office is another thing. The State Attorneys Office will start working on the different cases from the very beginning, from scratch.

Thats a lie, of course. The discussions at the attorney generals office are the end of a process, not the beginning. The police investigations against Netanyahu were conducted with the very active participation of an overseeing prosecutor, Liat Ben-Ari. When questions were raised, they were brought to State Attorney Shai Nitzan and AG Mandelblit, who decided on them. These three people were not accidental observers in the investigations management; they were full partners.

Its no coincidence that the outgoing head of the Police Investigations and Intelligence Department, Major-General Meni Yitzhaki, had so much praise for the heads of the State Attorneys Office in his farewell speech about two weeks ago.

I watched the way you handled the burning dilemmas on your desk. It takes courage, and you have courage, he said to Mandelblit. Moving on to Nitzan, he said: The shrewd and witty Shai, always sharp and to the point, challenging as always. And he referred to Liat Ben-Ari as woman of the year, saying that the entire 1000 cases series, everything that is known and everything that is still secret, it was all managed by you.

By youin other words, by the State Attorneys Office.

Netanyahu at Tuesday's Likud event (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

The police will hand over their files and recommendations next month. Mandelblit and his team will reread the files, ask the police for additional material if needed, listen to Netanyahu's version in a hearing with his lawyers and make their decisions.

The police recommendations in Case 1000 (which concerns illicit gifts allegedly received by Netanyahu and his wife), and perhaps in Case 2000 (which focuses on an alleged deal between Netanyahu and Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Arnon Mozes) too, will likely include bribery charges. Theres no guarantee that the attorney general will accept them word for word. The evidence against Netanyahu could be presented in different ways, from a rebuking public report with no teeth to serious bribery charges which will lead to a political earthquake.

Previous prime minister clashed with attorney generals who were not appointed by them. Mandelblit was appointed by Netanyahu after serving as his cabinet secretary. This episode casts a shadow on every decision the AG makes. On the other hand, he sees Netanyahu's campaign against the law enforcement system and hears his former boss lying like a criminal. The decisions awaiting him are not simple.

Netanyahu will try to bargain. His speech Tuesday evening marked the bargaining limits. His message was directed at the AG: The police will say bribery, Ill say theres nothing and youll suggest something in the middle. Breach of trust, for example. This faltering clause in the law, which says a lot but actually says nothing, will place me in an unpleasant situation. Ill cry out against it from every stage, but it wont force me to resign. At the most, Ill call elections, get reelected and come back.

Because I am the prime minister, and you shall have no other prime ministers before me.
A 52-year-old resident of Ofakim has been arrested in Israel after an indictment was filed against him in the state of Pennsylvania in the US for the rape of a 15-year-old girl.

According to the indictment, he raped the girl while she was shopping with her friend at a clothes store he owned.

As part of Israel's extradition agreement with the US, the suspect will be brought for a remand extension on Thursday, where the court will also determine whether to extradite him.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu will travel to New York for Thursday's special session of the UN General Assembly to discuss the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, foreign ministry sources said on Wednesday.

They said the minister would go to the United States after meeting his Iranian and Azeri counterparts in Baku on Wednesday. One official said he would travel via Istanbul and be accompanied by Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki.

Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour has said the General Assembly would vote on a draft resolution calling for the US declaration to be withdrawn. The draft was vetoed by the United States in the 15-member UN Security Council on Monday.

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan has sharply criticised Trump's move, and hosted a summit of Muslim leaders last week which called for eastern Jerusalem to be recognized as the capital of Palestine.
Washington doesnt seem to agree on much. But the fact that more than 20 senators from both sides of the aisle have signed onto a recently proposed bill shows that regulatory relief isnt a Democrat versus Republican issue, its a Main Street versus Wall Street issue.

The bill in question is a common-sense piece of legislation that delivers on what it promises: to better allow credit unions and small banks to serve consumers. The fixes included in S. 2155, the bipartisan Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act, would be a boon to Main Street while retaining tough protection from Wall Street for consumers.

Provisions in this bill would ease mortgage lending and free up capital for small businesses, two essential ways to grow an economy that have suffered from both the financial crisis and the regulations put in place in response to it.

In Missoula, credit unions and small banks help our communities thrive and our small businesses grow.

The backbone of Main Street is the collection of small institutions that provide for the community. It's no surprise that their primary lenders are credit unions and small banks. And those same credit unions and small banks are who community members turn to when they need mortgages and auto loans.

But these local financial institutions are facing challenges brought on by Washington bureaucrats. Now's the time to loosen the regulatory restrictions that are limiting our ability to help their communities.

Thats why S. 2155 is a much-needed win for Main Street. We continue to recognize U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, along with the 16 other committee members who have supported the measure, and urge U.S. Sen. Steve Daines and others to back the legislation.

By granting credit unions parity with banks on certain types of apartment loans, $4 billion in capital will become available to Main Street businesses to expand operations, hire additional staff and invest in their communities. Imagine what Americas small businesses can do with access to extra capital, especially coming from smaller, local financial institutions like credit unions.

The president of Montanas Credit Unions, Tracie Kenyon, explains the S. 2155s benefits best. The regulatory relief this bill provides, she says, is a major step forward in moving away from a system that treats credit unions and small banks the same as the biggest banks. The relief takes them into a more tailored regulatory climate that gives credit unions, the original consumer protectors, ways to more efficiently serve their owner-members.

This bill would adjust reporting thresholds for credit unions and small financial institutions. This will free up more time and resources for us to devote to member service and invest in consumer-friendly products and services.

In addition, the legislation will help protect seniors vulnerable to financial exploitation and give consumers better and more efficient ways to purchase a home. Provisions in the legislation also push the Treasury to study ways to better combat cybercrime.

Most importantly, this bill strengthens consumer protections while leaving those that the Dodd-Frank Act put into place to institute necessary reforms for Wall Street. It is the farthest thing from the gift to Wall Street some opponents claim it is. Nothing in it helps the big banks. Nothing in this bill takes away important consumer protections put in place due to the actions of Wall Street and other bad actors.

Rather, S. 2155 protects the most vulnerable and preyed upon among our fellow Montanans  seniors, veterans and victims of fraud. Support for the bill equates to support for what is right, right now.
A senior IDF officer explained Tuesday the challenges soldiers serving in the West Bank face on a daily basis while dealing with the Palestinian population, after a video went online showing two Palestinian women hitting a soldier and an officer in an effort to provoke a reaction out of them.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



"Very quickly, you give up on being right and you want to look for a way to be smart. The person who's right speaks from his gut, while the smart one speaks with the tools he's been given," the officer told Ynet.

The two young women seen in the video kicking, slapping and punching the soldiers, who displayed restraint in the face of the provocation, have been arrested, while the Central Command continues its investigation into the incident.

Ahed and Nur Tamimi hit soldiers in Nabi Salih

The company commander, a captain, and the soldier continued operational duty after receiving the full backing of their superior officers for their conduct.

A source close to the officer and soldier said that "they don't regret their response for a moment and would have done the same even without the presence of a camera."

The army, meanwhile, has begun implementing the lessons learned from the incident, instructing all forces in the West Bank to arrest such provocateurs on the spot.

"This is a serious commander who used his judgment and came between his soldiers and the provocateurs," the senior officer told Ynet.

"The video doesn't show what happened before thatthe soldiers were there because there was violent rioting ... The soldiers' response should be praised for the way they acted: professionally and ethically," he continued.

"We're operating in a space filled with people, and we need to differentiate between incidents in which a soldier acts in violation of orders or against IDF values, and incidents in which a soldier acts in accordance with IDF values and uses judgment, even if his decision is not perfect in the end," the senior officer added.

"We have fighters and commanders who are top of the line, and we need to equip them with a toolbox that contains tools for every eventuality ... I teach my soldiers to act based on the IDF's values."

The incident in Nabi Salih brought to the forefront one of the main weapons of choice in the West Bank: the camera. The IDF learned to put it to good use after Palestinian videos helped sway international opinion in their favor.

"At the end of the day, the force doesn't act differently because there's a camera pointed at it," the senior officer said, adding that the challenge cameras pose is the fact that those looking at videos or photos give their own interpretation to what they're seeing.

The Nabi Salih incident

X

"We don't know how to deal with people's interpretations. We don't want the soldiers to focus on interpretation, but on the professional and mental aspects. I want the soldiers and the commanders to use their judgment," he explained.

There has been a revolution in the way the IDF's Judea and Samaria Division now implements lessons learned from different incidents.

For example, soldiers now participate in workshops that include simulations of incidents such as the Nabi Salih one, with professional actors playing the Palestinians.

At the Hebron Brigade, over 500 soldiers have already attended classes on Krav Maga and lectures on intelligence, held discussions to learn from incidents and videos of terror attacks, and participated in conversations with senior officers from the Judea and Samaria Division.

And the results can be seen in the field. Since January 2017, troops arrested 58 Palestinians carrying knives at the Jewish settlement in Hebron without firing a single shot.

"There are dozens of incidents in the different sectors, provocations done by radicals on all sides, sometimes a few times a day," the senior officer said.

"Our test is to not allow these provocations to affect people. Two years ago, we broke photographers' cameras. We learned from that as well and made sure soldiers know that if someone provokes them, that person will be dealt with later on. There are quite a few Palestinians who get arrested or summoned for a talk and warned."

The officer went on to say that "safeguarding human life and human dignity doesn't end in cases like that."

He elaborated with an example: "Soldiers who were on a patrol a year ago, in a Palestinian area close to the Jewish settlement in Hebron, heard screams from a Palestinian home. Even though it was theoretically of no interest to them, they entered the home and saw a husband beating his wife, who was bleeding. The soldiers provided the woman with medical treatment, called the Red Crescent, and transferred her husband to the Palestinian security forces."
Thousands of people attended the funeral Wednesday in Holon Cemetery of four members of the Azan family who perished in a Brooklyn house fire Monday caused by a Hanukkah menorah.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



The first funeral procession took place Monday in Brooklyn just hours after the deadly fire in the Flatbush neighborhood, with thousands of mourners from the city's Syrian Jewish community accompanying Aliza (Luza) and her three childrenMoshe, Yitzhak and Henriettain their symbolic funeral that took place before they were flown to Israel to be buried.

(Photo: Motti Kimchi)

The fire department released a statement late Monday saying fire marshals determined the blaze to be accidental, caused by an "unattended lit menorah."

Minister Aryeh Deri (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

Interior Minister Aryeh Deri and the Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef were among the people in attendance. Many others traveled from the Syrian community in Holon to pay their final respects.

Aliza's brother at the funeral (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

When the Temple existed the public would bring sacrifices, but the public paid for these sacrifices and some were made for their people. For our sins, when there is no Temple, God takes pure souls as a public sacrifice, Deri said at the funeral.

Yossi and Aliza Azan

Our enemies never stop wanting to destroy Israel and part of the protection is that God takes the righteous. There are no words that can console the family. God chose you to make a public sacrifice. We dont understand the ways of the almighty.

Charred house after the fire (Photo: MCT)

Alizas husband and father of the deceased children, Yossi Azan, remains in hospital in serious condition in New York. Aliza was 39 years old, while Henrietta, Moshe and Yitzhak were aged 3, 11 and 7 respectively,

Henrietta (right), Yitzhak (bottom), Shilat (left), Aliza (second from top-left), Yossi (top-center), Shilat (left) and Daniel (top-right)

Two other children, Shilat, 16, and Daniel, 15, were also hospitalized in serious condition after the fire.

Aliza's father at thr funeral (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef said that he knew the mother who would bring in guests when I visited them in New York. We all need to do some soul searching  We dont ask why did God do this, because everyone goes to the next life. May God send a speedy recovery to all the wounded and may we see the speedy resurrection in our days.

His brother, the former rabbi of Holon, Avraham Yosef, also spoke at the funeral. Our pain is extreme. This is a precious family, loved and endowed with huge blessings, he said, adding that their deeds saved many lives.

The Azan family's loss was not the first to strike the borough: less than three years ago a fire ravaged the home of the Sassoon family , also Syrian Jews, claiming the lives of seven children. Monday's fire was no less devastating, claiming the life of Aliza, 39, and her three children: 11-year-old Moshe, 7-year-old Yitzah Hillel and 3-year-old Henrietta Leah.
Air strikes killed 19 people in a village in Syria's rebel stronghold of Idlib overnight, a rescue service and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday.

The Observatory, a Britain-based war monitoring group, said Syrian government or Russian aircraft struck the village. There was no immediate comment from the Syrian military or Russia, which have both repeatedly said they only target militants.

The strikes pounded the town of Maar Shureen in the northwestern province of Idlib and the dead included seven children, the Observatory said.

Idlib's civil defence, a rescue service known as the White Helmets which operates in rebel territory, said fierce bombing after midnight killed 19 people.

The Observatory said 25 others had been injured.
Indonesia will allow tariff-free imports and give direct market access to some Palestinian goods beginning in the new year, the Indonesian trade minister said on Wednesday.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



Palestinian goods now come to Indonesia through Jordan. Starting on January 1, some Palestinian goods will be shipped directly to Indonesia, said Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita.

Jewish men pass a store selling Palestinian clothing in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City (Photo: Getty Images)

"We're opening market access for dates and olive oil. This is as requested by Palestine," the minister told reporters in Jakarta, after meeting his Palestinian counterpart at a World Trade Organization meeting in Buenos Aires.

"We're also asking them for a list of products they want to export and they need to import."

A Palestinian woman picks pineapples during a harvest at a farm in Khan Yunis (Photo: Getty Images)

Lukita also said that Indonesia, which has the world's biggest Muslim population, had stated its support for the Palestinians to become a member of the World Trade Organization.

Thousands of Indonesians have rallied in recent days to protest against US President Donald Trump's official recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
A radical right-wing party, with Nazi roots, in the Austrian government ? What else is new?

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



This isnt the first time that the nationalistic Freedom Party (FPO)which was founded in 1956, and which was led from 1986 till his death in late 1999 by Jorg Haider, the son of a fanatic Nazi who was one of Adolf Hitlers supporters and friends, and a Nazi himselfis part of the government in Austria.

The first time was in 1999, when the party won a major achievement in the elections, and then-Chancellor Wolfgang Schussel was forced to invite it into his government to form a coalition.

Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache celebrating election achievement. His pro-Israel statements cant conceal the facts (Photo: Getty Images)

Those days, I attended a ceremony for new Austrian army recruits at the site of the Mauthausen concentration and extermination camp, which was built by the Germans and Austrians in the 1930s. The new defense minister, one of the representatives of Haiders party in the government, sought to emphasize through that ceremony that neither his party nor Austria itself remained anti-Semitic. I was the only Israeli invited to the ceremony, and I knew the reason of course.

Its true that Heinz-Christian Strache, who has been leading the party since 2004 (Haider left to start another, more radical party, which wasnt very successful, and was killed shortly afterwards in a road accident, which many in Austria believe was no accident but rather an assassination), has been trying to convince the world that it is no longer a fanatic or anti-Semitic party, and has even visited Yad Vashem in Israel. But all of Straches efforts, as well as his pro-Israel statements, cant conceal the fact that the new foreign minister on behalf of his party, Karin Kneissl, compared Zionism to Nazism in the past.

New Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs Karin Kneissl, who previously compared Zionism to Nazism

In Austria, it seems, that doesnt count as a reason not to give Kneissl one of the most senior positions in the new government. This beautiful country in the heart of Europe, after all, has a clear history of hating Jews. Despite the Jews huge contribution to the Austrian art, culture and economy in the beginning of the 20th century, the German Fuhrers people (Hitler was born and raised in the Austrian town of Braunau) voted almost unanimously in a 1938 referendum in favor of the annexation (Anschluss) of Austria into Germany. We all know what happened next.

After the war, the Austrians managed to convince the Allies that they had been victims of the Germans and won benefits granted to victims (Austrian-American Jewish filmmaker Billy Wilder, by the way, wrote in his autobiography that the Austrians biggest achievement was making the world believe that Hitler was a German and Beethoven an Austrian). In 1970, possibly as part of their rehabilitation attempt, the Austrians elected a JewBruno Kreiskyas chancellor.

All that, however, doesnt clear them of anti-Semitism and Xenophobia. To this very day, for example, most Austrians are against taking in foreigners or refugees. Xenophobia is the main factor that won the nationalistic Freedom Party 26 percent of the votes in the recent elections. The open, blatant anti-Semitism may have gone underground, but many Austrians today dont feel compelled to pretend they dont hate Jews.
Violent clashes broke out Wednesday afternoon between around a thousand Palestinian rioters and Israeli Border Police in Qalandiya in yet another day of rage declared in the West Bank by Palestinian factions, including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbass Fatah party.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



Border Policemen came under attack as Molotov Cocktails and a barrage of rocks were hurled at them ahead of the UN General Assembly vote scheduled for Thursday in a rare emergency special session at the request of Arab and Muslim states on US President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital

Day of Rage in Qalandiya (:  )

X

Day of rage in Qalandiya (Photo: AFP)

Sporadic violent eruptions also dotted other Arab-populated areas, including in Hizma, where soldiers were pelted with rocks.

In Ramallah, a march was held and led by Fatah deputy party leader Mahmoud Al-Aloul, as the continuing current of protests galvanized towns and cities in the West Bank, including Nablus, Hebron, Halhul, Qalqilya, Bethlehem, Tulkarm and Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza.

Boder Police in riots (Photo: AFP)

The violent unrest has permeated the area for more than two weeks since Trumps declaration, and the latest show of anger was declared in anticipation of US Vice President Mike Pences visit to Israel Wednesdaya visit that was eventually delayed.

Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour said the General Assembly would vote on a draft resolution calling for Trump's declaration to be withdrawn, which was vetoed by the United States in the 15-member UN Security Council on Monday.

The remaining 14 Security Council members voted in favor of the Egyptian-drafted resolution, which did not specifically mention the United States or Trump but which expressed "deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem."
The police have concluded their investigation into the incident in Qursa, when a Palestinian rioter was shot dead by an Israeli settler, determining the shooting was done in self defense, and that there is no sufficient evidence to warrant prosecution.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



The case was passed on to the State Attorney's Office on Wednesday.

Earlier this month, a group of 20 Israeli teens hiking near the village of Qusra came under attack by a group of Palestinian rioters who started hurling stones at them.

One of the guides who was lightly wounded in the clashes

The two parents who accompanied them rushed the teens to a nearby cave to hide, while one father shot and killed one of the rioters, 47-year-old Mahmoud Zaal Odeh.

"Dozens of Palestinians threw stones and rocks at us, we were in a life-threatening situation, and we were trying to protect the children," said the father, whose son was among the group. "I had to shoot in self-defense. I hope common sense prevails, and people understand what happened here."

After the shooting, dozens of Palestinians surrounded the cave where the teens were hiding and continued throwing stones.

The Israelis were eventually rescued by IDF forces that arrived at the scene.

Following the incident, the father was questioned on suspicion of causing death by negligence.

Some 20 Palestinians suspected of taking part in the violent rioting and throwing stones were arrested, and one was charged with attempted murder on Monday. The court extended the remand of the other suspects.

Attorney Adi Kidar of Honenu, who represents the two fathers, welcomed the police announcement. "My clients acted in line with the law, as any citizen in clear and immediate danger is expected to act. In an ideal situation, the fathers who accompanied the bar mitzvah trip would've received a certificate of appreciation from day one. They risked their lives in a very serious incident to protect the kids and themselves. Unfortunately, they found themselves under investigation. I'm glad the Israel Police announced today that their version has been checked and accepted. Now we expect the police to put their efforts into bringing all of the rioters to justice."
A former Nazi SS guard known as the Bookkeeper of Auschwitz, now 96, has filed a challenge against his jail sentence, his lawyer said Tuesday, arguing that imprisonment would violate his "right to life."

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



In one of the last cases against a surviving Nazi, Oskar Groening was found guilty in July 2015 of being an accessory to the murders of 300,000 people at the death camp.

He has been living at home despite the conviction as he mounted an appeal against his imprisonment.

Oskar Groening (Photo: AFP)

After a court ruled last month that he was fit to serve his four-year prison sentence, his defense team has now turned to Germany's Constitutional Court, claiming that jailing Groening at such an advanced age flouted his basic rights.

"In terms of constitutional law, it should be examined if the health condition of Mr Groening allows for his basic right to life and physical integrity to be guaranteed" if he went to jail, his lawyer Hans Holtermann told the DPA news agency.

But the case before the Constitutional Court does not trigger a suspension of the sentence, meaning that Groening could be served with the notice to go to jail at any time.

Groening worked as an accountant at Auschwitz, sorting and counting the money taken from those killed or used as slave labor, and shipping it back to his Nazi superiors in Berlin.

He also on several occasions assigned to "ramp duty," processing deportees as they arrived by rail in cattle cars.

Oskar Groening (Photo: AP)

During his trial, Groening acknowledged "moral guilt" but said it was up to the court to rule on his legal culpability.

He had previously been cleared by German authorities after lengthy criminal probes dating back to the 1970s.

But a case was reopened against him after the legal basis for prosecuting former Nazis changed in 2011 with Germany's landmark conviction of John Demjanjuk.

Demjanjuk, a former death camp guard, was sentenced not for atrocities he was known to have committed, but on the basis that he worked at the Sobibor camp in occupied Poland and had thus been a cog in the Nazis' killing machine.

Demjanjuk died in 2012 before his appeal could be heard, but that verdict spurred new investigations against several elderly former Nazis.

Among a handful of convictions since is that of Reinhold Hanning , found guilty of complicity in the mass murders at Auschwitz. He died aged 95 this year, before he could serve his jail term.

A case against former SS medic Hubert Zafke collapsed in September after the court found that the 96-year-old was unfit to stand trial.

More than one million European Jews were killed at Auschwitz before it was liberated by Soviet forces. Yet of the camp's 6,500 SS personnel who survived the war, fewer than 50 were ever convicted.
MK David Bitan (Likud) asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to relieve him of his role as the chairman of the coalition amid a police corruption investigation against him.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



In a statement issued by Bitan, he explained he wanted to step down from the role "due to the fact the current situation makes it difficult for me to do my job, and I do not want to impede the work of the coalition."

Bitan went on to say he "thanks the prime minister for the trust and support all along. I will continue serving with great honor as an MK for the Likud party and do everything in my power to continue representing the public who put his trust in me."

MK David Bitan (Photo: Yoav Dudkevich)

Likud MK David Amsalem, chairman of the Internal Affairs and Environment Committee of the Knesset, is set to replace Bitan with the position.

Among the candidates to replace Bitan was MK Yoav Kish (Likud). After Amsalem's election to the post, Kish congratulated him on the appointment, saying he will "help him as much as possible."

"I was offered the position of Chairman of the Internal Affairs Committee by the Prime Minister," he added. "I will decide on this in the coming days."

Amsalem (L) and Bitan (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

Bitan is suspected of bribery, fraud, money laundering and breach of trust offenses and of receiving bribes in return for promoting the interests of others, including a member of the Jarushi crime family, in return for paying off debts to loan sharks.

Police are working to recruit one of two suspects in the case as a state witness. One option is Moshe Yosef, a businessman dubbed Bitan's "banker," while the other is real estate developer Dror Glazer, who is suspected of giving Bitan NIS 250,000 in bribes.
Islamic State has claimed an attack on an Egyptian military airport that killed one officer and wounded two others in the town of Arish in the North Sinai region on Tuesday, the group's Amaq agency said, but provided no evidence.

The Islamic State fighters used a cornet rocket to attack a military airport while targeting the interior and defense ministers, a statement from the group said on Wednesday.
Ever wonder how Texas decides where to build that new highway? What about the grocery store chain's pick for its new location? Or even how the feds divvy up tax dollars for your neighborhood school?

The census, that's how.

For most Americans, the census is a mere inconvenience that rolls around every 10 years. But for anyone who relies on the results  and there are many, from academic researchers to state legislatures drawing election maps, to federal officials divvying up $600 billion in spending  the accuracy of the census is more than a benefit. It's absolutely critical.

That's why it's alarming that the 2020 census is being threatened on two fronts: first, by Congress' refusal to adequately fund it and, second, by a growing concern about the impact of President Donald Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric and fears that his administration will try to politicize the count.

This country can't afford for either to happen.

For generations, the census has been the gold standard when it comes to documenting demographic change in America. Without it, we wouldn't know basic facts about the people who live here, such as their standards of living and housing conditions, and what health care programs are required to serve them.

We understand the desire to rein in costs; getting an accurate nationwide headcount costs billions. But the census is worth paying for, especially since it will be conducted online for the first time instead of by mail. The online method is projected to cost $1.5 billion less than the $17 billion officials said it would have cost doing it the old way.

Already, a $200 million cut through the 2017 fiscal year has meant scrapping two of three dry runs of the new system and plans for smartphone canvassing in group living quarters like college dorms and prisons.

Then there's Trump's crackdown on immigration  including a suggestion to ask about immigration status on the census. It's helping fuel larger concerns that minorities  legal and undocumented  will be even harder to count.

Equally troubling is the White House's reported interest in University of Texas at Dallas professor Thomas Brunell for deputy director of the Census Bureau. Here's a guy who has testified on behalf of partisan defendants in gerrymandering cases who argues against the benefits of having a mix of Democrats and Republicans in voting districts.

Allowing politics to seep into what is supposed to be a nonpartisan count will erode public trust that the 2020 count will be fair and accurate.

The census is the only reliable way to measure many changes in our communities, from poverty rates and racial makeup to educational attainment and income levels. An undercount would be a devastating blow, particularly to fast-growing and racially diverse states like Texas.

We urge Congress to give the Census Bureau the funds it needs to do it right. Bungling it could have dire consequences.
Workers from the Teva tablet factory in Jerusalem have decided to expand their protest internationally against the mass layoffs expected to begin this year and continue until the end of 2019.

The decision comes after an emergency meeting was held by the company committee and the Histadrut National Labor Federation Chairman Yoav Simchi.

The workers said they would continue to occupy the factory and that they are considering more drastic measures to put a halt on the redundancy plan, including staging a hunger strike.
A Hamas terror cell arrested by the Shin Bet planned to kidnap Likud MK Yehuda Glick and IDF Arabic-language spokesman Maj. Avichay Adraee, according to the indictments filed against them on Wednesday.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



The indictments against cell leader Muad Ashtiyah, 26, and Mahmoud Ramadan and Ahmed Ramadan, both 19, also revealed the three later changed their plans. To make it easier to carry out the attack, they decided to try to kidnap an IDF soldier or an Israeli settler instead.

Ashtiyah acquired weapons for the planned abduction and recruited the other two members. According to the indictment, to kidnap Glick or Adraee, "the defendant learned about them and gathered information on them using the internet."

The members of the Hamas cell

Glick has survived an attempt on his life before being elected to Knesset over his activism work to allow Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount.

On October 30, 2014, after an event in Jerusalem, Islamic Jihad member Mutaz Hijazi shot and seriously wounded him. The terrorist was shot dead by police at his home in east Jerusalem the next day, at the end of a manhunt for him.

In addition, an animation video portraying an assassination of Glick made the rounds on Palestinian social media pages a year and a half ago.

Despite his uniform and rank, Maj. Adraee is considered one of the more well known figures in the Arab media. In an interview with Ynet a year ago, he said he had more than 1 million followers on Facebook, 160,000 followers on Twitter, tens of thousands of followers on Instagram and several million views on YouTube. Adraee has also become a source of information that many leading Arab news sites rely on.

But his popularity also carries with it criticism, and he's been threatened, had caricatures drawn of him, had imitations done of him and suffered verbal abuse.

MK Glick, Maj. Adraee (Photo: Saadiya Gortzki, Yuval Chen)

The Shin Bet said the members of the Hamas cell were in contact with Omar Assida, a Hamas militant and member of the Hamas top command in the Gaza Strip, who is responsible for organizing military actions and the flow of terror funds from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank.

The Hamas command in Gaza provided guidance and financing for the planned abduction, the objective of which was to use the hostage to bargain for the release of Palestinian prisoners.

In its investigation, the Shin Bet learned the cell members conducted observations at major junctions, main roads and bus stops in the area to gather intelligence for the planned attack. The cell leader also made inquiries about possible safe houses in the Nablus area to hide their hostage.

The Shin Bet seized weapons the cell members planned to use to carry out the kidnapping, including a handgun, an electric shocker and pepper spray.
Hundreds of Israeli diplomatic staff protested outside of their respective embassies and consulates around the world Wednesday. They are demanding that the delayed reforms affecting their employment status be implemented before the end of 2017.

The staff informed the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday that they refuse to sign contracts for 2018 until the reforms are implemented. The Histadrut labor union is assisting the FM employees with organizing a general strike as of January first.
US President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital will stoke violence in the region, former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal said, dismissing reports of prior consultations made with Riyadh over the move.

"It is a very bad decision. The consequences will be more bloodshed, more conflict rather than peaceful resolution," Prince Turki, a senior royal family member and a former ambassador to Washington, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday in Riyadh.

But Saudi Arabia stopped short of calling for any Arab action against the decision. Palestinian officials say Riyadh has been working for weeks behind the scenes to press them to support a nascent US peace plan.

"The reaction here was total surprise," said Prince Turki, who now holds no government office but remains influential.

"... If there has been prior consultation or anything like that, why would the King go through the process of telling him (Trump) this is a bad idea and make that known publicly?"
Denmark will no longer take in refugees under a UN resettlement programme after passing a law on Wednesday that enables the government to determine how many may enter the country instead of accepting a set quota.

Since 1989, Denmark has agreed to take 500 refugees a year selected by the United Nations under a programme to ease the burden on countries that neighbour war zones.

But after the European migration crisis in 2015 brought almost 20,000 claims for asylum, Denmark has refused to take any UN quota refugees and the centre-right government's new law aims to cut total refugee numbers to no more than 500 a year.

Last year, more than 6,000 people claimed asylum in Denmark. Between January and November this year a little over 3,000 people did.

The opposition Social-Liberal Party said opting out of the UN programme would increase pressure on countries already accommodating large numbers of refugees, and the move could encourage others countries to follow suit.

Under the new law, the immigration minister will decide how many refugees will be allowed, but the number can never surpass 500 each year unless there is an "exceptional situation".
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to cut off financial aid to countries that vote in favor of a draft United Nations resolution against his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



"They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us. Well, we're watching those votes. Let them vote against us. We'll save a lot. We dont care," Trump told reporters at the White House.

The 193-member UN General Assembly will hold a rare emergency session on Thursday at the request of Arab and Muslim countries on the controversial US decision.

US President Trump (Photo: AFP)

"I like the message that Nikki sent yesterday at the United Nations, for all those nations that take our money and then they vote against us at the Security Council, or they vote against us potentially at the assembly," Trump said, commenting on US Ambassador Nikki Haley's statement to UN member states in which she warned of possible retaliation should they support a resolution criticizing Washington's decision.

The US "will be taking names," she threatened, asserting Trump will take the vote "personally."

Trump's threat (: )

X

Haley's warning letter to most of the 193 UN member states and threatening tweet on Wednesday drew sharp criticism from the Palestinian and Turkish foreign ministers who are flying to New York for the General Assembly vote. They accused the US of intimidation.

The Palestinians sought the General Assembly vote after the United States on Monday vetoed a resolution supported by the 14 other UN Security Council members that would have required Trump to rescind his declaration on Jerusalem as Israel's capital and not move the US Embassy there.

Unlike the Security Council, assembly resolutions are not legally binding but they do reflect world opinion.

In Wednesday's letter, reportedly sent to over 180 countries, Haley said the Trump administration is "simply asking that you acknowledge the historical friendship, partnership, and support we have extended and respect our decision about our own embassy."

"The president will be watching this vote carefully and has requested I report back on those countries who voted against us," she wrote in the letter obtained by AP. "We will take note of each and every vote on this issue."

Her tweet was sharper: "At the UN we're always asked to do more & give more. So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American (people), (about) where to locate OUR embassy, we don't expect those we've helped to target us. On (Thursday) there'll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names."

At the UN we're always asked to do more & give more. So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl, abt where to locate OUR embassy, we don't expect those we've helped to target us. On Thurs there'll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names. pic.twitter.com/ZsusB8Hqt4  Nikki Haley (@nikkihaley) December 19, 2017

This was not the first time that Haley threatened to keep track of US opponents.

On Jan. 27, the day she arrived at the United Nations as ambassador, Haley announced a new way the United States would be doing business. The Trump administration's goal is to show US strength, speak out, and defend its alliesand as for countries opposing America, "We're taking names," she said.

The letter on the Jerusalem vote was the first time since then that Haley vowed to compile a list.

Her action recalled to some veteran UN diplomats the run-up to the Iraq war in 2002 when then US President George W. Bush launched a campaign against France and other opponents of military action who refused to support a Security Council resolution to authorize war. The resolution, which then British Prime Minister Tony Blair was pressing for and the US backed, was withdrawn by Britain because it was certain to be defeated as a result of strong council opposition.

What action the United States might take against countries that vote against Thursday's General Assembly resolution remains to be seen.

The resolution is co-sponsored by Turkey, chair of the summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and Yemen, chair of the Arab Group at the UN.

Trump at the cabinet meeting, with State Secretary Tillerson to his right and Defense Secretary Mattis to his left (Photo: AFP)

Before Haley's letter and tweet, Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour told The Associated Press he expected "massive support" in the assembly.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki and Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport on Wednesday before flying to New York for Thursday's vote, that they believe UN member countries will ignore "pressure" from Haley.

Al-Maliki said he believes that on Thursday countries will vote their conscience, and "they will vote for justice, and they will vote in favor of that resolution."

"No honorable state would bow to such pressure," Cavusoglu said. "The world has changed. The belief that 'I am strong therefore I am right' has changed. The world today is revolting against injustices."

The resolution that will be put to a vote is very similar to the defeated Security Council resolution.

It reaffirms 10 Security Council resolutions on Jerusalem, dating back to 1967, including requirements that the city's final status must be decided in direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

It "affirms that any decisions and actions which purport to have altered, the character, status or demographic composition of the holy city of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded."

The draft resolution "demands that all states comply with Security Council resolutions regarding the holy city of Jerusalem, and not to recognize any actions or measures contrary to those resolutions."
WASHINGTON  The United States is reliant on China and other nations for the overwhelming majority of critical minerals used for manufacturing everything from smartphones to wind turbines and cars, a new federal report says.

The report released Tuesday by the U.S. Geological Survey says the U.S. relies on foreign sources for a majority of all but two of the 23 minerals identified as critical. The minerals are produced in China, Russia, South Africa, Brazil and other countries.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke called the report troubling and said the reliance of imported minerals, especially by the military, poses a "very real national security risk."

"We are vulnerable as a nation," the former Navy SEAL added.

"It is time for the U.S. to take a leading position" on critical minerals such as platinum, manganese and rare-earth elements, Zinke told reporters at a briefing.

"America first includes critical minerals," Zinke said, referring to a national security strategy adopted by President Donald Trump that he says puts "America First."

The USGS report updates a widely used report from 1973. The previous report was published when many of the commodities covered in the new volume were only of minor importance. Advanced technologies have increased the demand for and production of mineral commodities for nearly all elements in the periodic table, the report said.

Rare-earth elements are integral to nearly all high-end electronics and are produced almost entirely in China. The U.S. has reserves of rare-earth elements in California and other Western states, but has been "undercut" by low-production costs in China, the report said.

Lawrence Meinert, deputy associate director of the Geological Survey, said the U.S. has "deposits of every element in the periodic table" but faces economic and regulatory hurdles to production.

While the U.S. produces platinum group elements at a mine in Montana, the mine is not large enough to supply the nation's demand, the report said. Similarly, a former California rare-earth mine has been idled amid financial difficulties and bankruptcy.

Zinke did not make any policy pronouncements. But he and other officials called for increased U.S. production of platinum, manganese and other critical minerals, especially on federal lands.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, called development of critical minerals crucial to U.S. national security.

"We have to pay greater attention to this threat, and we have to take steps to resolve it now," she said.

Murkowski has sponsored legislation aimed at preventing mineral supply shortages and boosting U.S. industrial competitiveness. The measure would require Interior to identify and quantify critical U.S. mineral resources and streamline the permitting process for new mines.
Carpetbaggers seek Montana's U.S. Senate seat

The case of Buckley v. Valeo was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court over 40 years ago. It allowed individuals to spend an unlimited amount of their own money on pursuing a public political office. Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot took advantage of this decision when he ran for president in the 1990s. This decision also allows people who have made their millions in one state to carpetbag into another state in attempt to buy political offices in another probably less populace state.

We have two of these carpetbaggers in the Republican primary trying to buy the U.S. Senate seat which is up for election in 2018. They are Troy Donahue and Matt Rosendale. Actually, Rosendale has had some success at his carpetbagging. After he moved into Montana with his out-of-state millions, he was able to buy some seats in the Montana Legislature shortly after he arrived here. He spent a million dollars of his own money trying to buy Montana's lone House seat a few years ago, but was unsuccessful. I have met him in person and listened to what he has to say a number of times. To me he sounds like the typical East Coast sophisticate who fancies himself an expert in about everything he is talking about.
Tulare, CA - Tulare Police say a tip helped them bring down 34-year-old Victor Olguin. He is an accused child molester with at least two known victims.

On the street where he lives, his neighbors say they were completely unaware.

"The person who you least expect that's what always happens, that's what's so hard," said neighbor Josh Grihalva.

Detectives say Olguin molested an eight and 10-year-old over a period of four years.

They say he knew the victims' families. The crimes allegedly happened inside his home on East Roosevelt Avenue.

"It's still scary to think that you live in a nice neighborhood and come to find out that this is happening to children, it's horrifying."

After arresting Olguin earlier in December, detectives searched through his belongings.

That is when they made another disturbing discovery -- images of child pornography.

"When it comes to children, we don't have a driver's license picture that we can match up or anything really to identify, so we're concerned that these might be pictures of other victims," said Sgt. Jon Hamlin.

The police department hopes Olguin's picture will get people's attention and encourage any other potential victims to step forward.

"That's insane those poor kids and those poor families, I wouldn't wish that on anybody," said Grihalva.

Olguin is already facing nine counts of felony child molestation.
WAPELLO  After Jan. 1, the Louisa County Board of Health should be back to full membership.

On Tuesday, the Louisa County Board of Supervisors agreed to appoint a Grandview-area woman to the volunteer board.

Breanne Hammond would replace one of two members dismissed in January for allegedly failing to communicate or meet with the supervisors.

Craig Helmick and Rita Adam both disputed those charges and filed a lawsuit against the supervisors. They claim they were dismissed because the health board had raised salaries for some employees in the Louisa County Public Health Services. State law gives local boards the power to set public health services salaries.

In their lawsuit, Helmick and Adam asked the court to void their dismissals and re-instate them for the rest of their terms, which expire Dec. 31, 2018. They also requested their attorney fees be paid.

In September, District Court Judge Shawn Showers issued a ruling supporting the supervisors, leading the pair to appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court.

The state Supreme Court has not yet heard the case.

With the case pending, the supervisors appointed Joellen Schantz to fill one of the vacant seats in March, but delayed taking action on the remaining seat.

Supervisor Brad Quigley, the supervisors representative on the board of health and it chairman of the board, said Hammond has a good background in community health.

He said she serves as the site manager for the Community Health Centers of Southeastern Iowa clinic in Columbus City. She is also a registered nurse.

County officials said Hammonds term will start Jan. 1.

In other appointment action, the supervisors agreed to table a decision on an appointment to the Louisa County Conservation Board after questions of gender equality were raised.

According to officials, Sam Willson, Wapello and Elizabeth Kling, who currently serves on the Louisa County Conservation Board and whose first term will expire at the end of the year, both filed applications.

Both candidates were strong, Quigley said, but he favored reappointing Kling because she has served only one term. Supervisor Chair Chris Ball said he was not certain, leaving the potential deciding vote up to Supervisor Randy Griffin.

Griffin said he intended to abstain, because he is the supervisors representative on the Louisa County Conservation Board and was not comfortable voting on the appointment.

The same issue came up in connection with Quigleys vote for the board of health appointment, but Quigley said Hammond was a strong candidate with good support from public health services staff. She was also the only applicant for the position.

As the supervisors continued to discuss the possible stalemate, Auditor Sandi Elliott reminded them that state law required county governments to consider gender balance on local boards.

Klings appointment would leave two women on the five-member board, while Willsons appointment would creat a four men and one woman board. The supervisors agreed an opinion from county attorney Adam Parsons was needed before any final action and tabled a decision.
Thursday, Dec 21

City of Muscatine reception for outgoing City Council members. The City of Muscatine will host a farewell reception for its outgoing City Council members from 4:30-6:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 21, in the City Hall Council Chambers. The public is welcome.

Gilda's Club hosts 'Cancer and Diabetes: Managing a Dual Diagnosis." Gilda's Club will host "Cancer and Diabetes: Managing a Dual Diagnosis," a free community workshop, from 6-7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 21, at First Presbyterian Church, 401 Iowa Ave., Muscatine. Grace Bowling, RN, will teach participants about different types of diabetes, the cancer-diabetes connection and how to eat healthy for healing and recovery. For more information and to register, call Gilda's Club at 563-326-7504 or email kelly@gildasclubqc.org.

Sunday, Dec 24

Cedar Valley United Methodist Church Christmas Eve services. Cedar Valley United Methodist Church, 1791 155th St., West Liberty, will hold Christmas Eve services at 10:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 24. During the evening service, the Christmas story will be told through scripture and song. For more information, call 563-320-0501.

Sweetland United Methodist Church Christmas Eve services. The Sweetland United Methodist Church Christmas Eve services will be 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 24. At the afternoon service, the Christmas story will be told through scripture and song at the church, 1709 Sweetland Road, Muscatine. For more information, call 563-506-3958.

Nichols United Methodist Church Christmas Eve services. Nichols United Methodist Church on Main Street in Nichols will hold services at 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 24. During the evening service, the Christmas story will be told through scripture and song. For more information, call 563-320-0501.

New Era Lutheran Church candlelight service. New Era Lutheran Church, 3455 New Era Road, Muscatine, will have a candlelight Christmas Eve service at 7 p.m. Dec. 24. All are welcome. For more information, contact Shirley Petersen, 563-263-3527, or email shirleyraepetersen@gmail.com.

Thursday, Dec 28

Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre production of 'The Snow Queen', Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre's production of "The Snow Queen" will be at 11 a.m. and again at 2 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 28, at Owl Glass Puppetry Center, 319 N. Calhoun, West Liberty. Tickets are $5. Groups of 10 or more who reserve in advance may attend for $4 each. Eulenspiegel's adaptation of the beloved Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale uses miniature Bohemian marionettes that interact on the pages of two extra-large pop-up storybooks. The cast also includes a flamboyant storyteller who relates to the audience as well as the puppets. Space at the center is limited, so reservations are a good idea. For more information, call 319-627-2487 or visit http://www.puppetspuppets.com

Sunday, Dec 31

American Legion New Year's Eve party. The American Legion New Year's Eve party will begin at 8 p.m. at 110 S. Houser St., Muscatine. Admission of $5 will include food and party favors. The public is welcome. Music will be provided by 99% Pure Country.
MUSCATINE  While visiting with voters in Muscatine, gubernatorial candidate John Norris said addressing the lack of mental health services in Iowa is one of the first steps to improving the economy.

Norris, a Montgomery County native and Democrat, stopped at Elly's Tea and Coffee downtown Wednesday to share his campaign message with Muscatine residents. Norris formerly served as chief of staff to Tom Vilsack, when he was governor and U.S. secretary of agriculture. He also served as a U.S. minister counselor for agriculture to the United Nations in Rome.

In traveling across the state, Norris said the biggest concerns he hears from voters regard the privatization of medicaid and lack of mental health services. And he believes both issues are negatively affecting Iowa's economy.

Norris said his first priority is reversing the privatization of Medicaid.

"When you squeeze services down and delay payments, you're chasing away mental health providers," Norris said. "It's hard to get professionals to come to a state where they can't successfully practice in or make the living they would expect to make."

He also proposes lifting the cap on the mental healthy levy and considering funding sources other than property taxes. Norris said each region needs a strategic plan and a higher level of oversight, plus the authority to choose to raise the levy.

Another problem with the state's health system, he said, is that it mainly caters to adults.

"There is no system for children, so it all falls on the schools," Norris said. "And the data shows, half of the kids born today are eligible for Medicaid. And the number of kids on free and reduced lunch has doubled."

"We need to break the cycle of poverty, and to do that, we need to build life skills and resiliency at early ages," he said.

High school students who do not plan on attending college, he said, should participate in a job training program through local schools, community colleges and manufacturers. He said teaching teens how to "show up for work," plus earn a paycheck before graduating high school, will not only decrease crime, but improve manufacturers' ability to find skilled workers.

"In Iowa, if there are 300 open positions, 40 percent of applicants can't pass a drug test," Norris said. "That's because kids are self-medicating because they can't get the mental health services."

Norris said having skilled workers ready to enter the field will attract more companies to the state. But, he said Iowa needs to stop offering so many tax incentives  or what he called "giveaways"  to large out-of-state corporations.

"If you come to a state for a handout, when the handout expires, you're going to move on," he said. "And [the legislatures is] talking about a tax cut again this year. And just like the federal government, it'll go to the folks who don't need it."

Iowa's current economic state, he said, is a "race to the bottom." He said the state needs to offer higher wages, "welcome anyone to be an Iowan" and start training employees for the future of automated manufacturing.

Also at Wednesday's meet-and-greet, Norris said Iowa is facing a water quality crisis and should rethink the funding of water and environmental programs. He said it is time for Iowans to accept the science behind climate change, introduce more cover crops and preserve wetlands to start addressing the issues.

He proposed funding water quality initiatives through property taxes, and then using the former state and federal funding to pay for mental health services. Flipping the funding sources, he said, could help address both problems.

Whether he was discussing access to health care, education, the workforce or the environment, Norris said his main goal is restoring "hope to rural communities struggling to see what the future is."

In July, Norris was the sixth declared candidate in Iowa's Democratic primary. After stopping in Muscatine, Norris took his campaign tour to Davenport.
MUSCATINE  There are at least 26 abandoned properties in the city of Muscatine that have been left to deteriorate for several months, according to Community Development Director Dave Gobin.

This year, the city has been working to either take over the title of such properties or force the property owners to rehabilitate the buildings. Gobin said the main goal is getting the properties back on the tax roll, plus increasing property values by cleaning up the neighborhoods.

A section of Iowa Code, Chapter 657A, provides some remedy to the problem, by allowing a municipality, nonprofit housing agency or neighboring property owner to go to court and force rehabilitation.

State Sen. Mark Lofgren (R-Muscatine) and former state representative Walter Conlon, of Muscatine, however, say the current code is "cumbersome and expensive." The local politicians hope to streamline the statute and make it easier for municipalities to clean up nuisance properties.

"I kind of call it the 'Clean up Iowa Bill,'" Lofgren said. "I do think by getting these properties before they have to be torn down will be a good thing. Neighbors will be happy and I think it'll be a domino effect. If one property is maintained well, the next door neighbors will do the same and it'll circulate around the neighborhood, and hopefully, around the state."

The ideal situation, Conlon said, would be to force the property owners, lienholders or lenders to rehabilitate dilapidated properties before the issue goes to court.

We want to encourage lenders, which is usually Uncle Sam  when obviously the property is abandoned  to go in there, fix it up, get the title and get somebody in there paying mortgage payments, Conlon said.

When a property owner or lender does not respond, however, municipalities or neighbors can undergo a lengthy court hearing process in order to force rehabilitation of a property, according to Conlon. He added the court costs typically fall on whoever initiates the proceedings.

In Lofgren's drafted bill to amend the code, the party initiating the rehabilitation would be reimbursed for court fees and other expenses.

In addition, he wants to change the law so that a city building inspector or local housing officer would act as the initial gatekeeper. Conlon said including a building administrator in the process would ensure each property in question is worth pursuing for rehabilitation.

After an inspection with the owners and lenders, and if the rehabilitation is deemed economical, the neighbor or municipality could take the case to court after 30 days.

Unless the property owner or lender comes up with their own rehabilitation plan, Conlon said, the court would put the property under the control of a receiver, which would be funded by a court-ordered mortgage against the property.

Finally, the receiver would sell the mortgage to a local financial institution or investor, who  after completion of the repairs  would foreclose the mortgage as necessary to get paid, Conlon said.

Meanwhile, the bank would be showing the property, and by the time the foreclosure is complete, can close it the next day. Then, youre happy to have a real, live paying property owner next door to you, Conlon said.

Along with streamlining the process, Conlon said the proposed bill also says a court can order rehabilitation of a property, even if the mortgage loan and property taxes are up-to-date, as long as the property is vacant and in need of substantial repair.

The goal of the law, Conlon said, is to make sure properties are rehabilitated before they lose their value.

If the value of the property is cost of lot minus rental of bulldozer, it wont work, Conlon said in his proposal. However, the law would give incentives to plaintiffs to act early enough after abandonment to ensure that the property does not deteriorate to the point where rehabilitation is not cost effective.

Lofgren said he is working on the bill with politicians from both parties, plus several state agencies, such as the Iowa Finance Authority and state Real Estate Association. He hopes it will be one of the first bills the Senates Local Government Committee works on this session.

Itll be so much better for the city to have the property on the tax roll, for Power and Water to have it hooked up to utilities, and neighbors to enjoy a better condition of the property, Lofgren said. Its really an economic development tool.
MUSCATINE  The Iowa Department of Natural Resources granted $3,500 to Fruitland Fire Department.

"This one of the first times we've put in for a DNR grant," Fire Chief Don Briggs said. "Now we've got somebody that has used (the DNR) before."

That somebody is Josh Michel, who comes to Fruitland from Cambridge, Iowa's fire department.

"They had success with the DNR grants in the past," Michel said. "I thought we'd try our luck for the same grant here. We were lucky enough to be successful and chosen for the grant this year."

Gail Kantak, the DNR's forestry fire supervisor explained that it is a pass-through grant that comes from the U.S. Forest Service to the DNR for the forestry program. Though the amount of grant money changes from year to year, Kantak estimated that on average the department receives $160 to $200 thousand to grant out to volunteer fire departments that serve populations 10,000 or less across the state. The maximum a department can receive is $3,500.

Michel explained that the department has a wishlist of equipment they are looking to get bought or repaired.

"We had a list of things that would come in handy for wildfire that would generally increase the safety of firefighters," Michel said.

These would include several protective masks, fire gloves, five gallon water bladders, fire rakes, and more.

"There are quite a few things on this list that we can knock off, so this grant money is definitely very helpful," Michel said. "It enhances the safety of fire department members. With some of the equipment getting replaced it also helps our effectiveness and ability to provide fire safety to our residence."

Briggs said that if the department can get half of its wishlist paid for by someone else, then it is certainly worth it.

Among the purchases, the fire department is planning to buy several charcoal filter masks for use in grass fires.

"When we go into grass fires you are on the back of these trucks, and it's awkward with the full air pack on," Briggs said. "These are just little charcoal filter masks that you put on with little canisters. They're a bit like the old gas masks for the practice for the nuclear bombs. They make it so we don't have to carry around the full air canister while putting out grass fires."

The department has struggled with outdated and broken-down trucks and equipment. Briggs explained that more expenses are to come. For three years, he has been trying to secure a new water pumper for Fruitland.

"We get turned down for several grants because of our size," Briggs said.
MUSCATINE  Laura McDonald has a farm and teaches a fifth grade class. That class was introduced to one of the pygmy goats from her farm Tuesday.

Fifth grade, McDonald explained, is a particularly tough year for some students.

"It's a year where it is really hard to get kids to sit down because they are very social, McDonald said. They are discovering their friendships and who is noticing them and it is just all about the socialization.

Getting them all to focus at one time can be difficult, so McDonald said incentivizing students with the promise of bringing a miniature goat to class becomes a way of bringing out the best in students.

A lot of the kids living here in town do not have that opportunity (to handle goats), McDonald said. And what we've found today is that not only has it been great for these kids to have the goat come in and visit them, but we've had a lot of special needs students come down to the room today. Kids that would normally not speak or would normally not be able to look you in the eye, or students that would normally shy away from interaction, they've wanted to touch the goat and pet the goat and interact in a way that they wouldn't normally."

Though she has raised a number of different animals over the years, McDonald is raising mostly chickens and pigmy goats. This is McDonalds first year teaching at Mulberry Elementary. Before, she spent two decades teaching in rural Missouri. Since she started teaching, she said she has been on the lookout for ways the farm and the school can blend together.

"Ive always had animals in the classroom, McDonald said. Not only did we have our goats and chickens, but I also volunteered at an animal shelter. Rabbits. Turtles. Ive brought in a little of everything.

This year, six pigmy goats were born on McDonalds farm. And every time her students would hear about them, she saw they would get really excited. It got her thinking about how the goats could be used to provide incentive for students to live up to expectations in the classrooms.

Even the jobs that I wouldn't want to do like cleaning the cage, they will work to have that responsibility, McDonald said. Whether its meeting a reading goal or meeting a math goal or getting 100 percent on the test, kids will go for it if they can have that interaction.

Kate Olson, a fifth grader in McDonalds class, said that having a goat in the class made her excited about coming to school. She said it even encouraged her and other students to be more calm in the classroom.

I learned that (goats) have to be really calm if you are going to play with them, Olson said. You have to be really calm around them or else (they) get really excited.

Mulberrys Principal Mary Beilke said that when McDonald approached her about bringing a goat to class she "needed to know a little more about them.

Since it was something the students wanted, Beilke and McDonald decided it would be a great incentive for good behavior in the classroom.

Whether its meeting a reading goal or meeting a math goal or getting to 100 percent on the test, kids will go for it if they can have that interaction, McDonald said.

Lately she has even being using goat herds to teach fractions.

I tell my kids, how a third will get sold to Farmer Joe and a forth are going to another farmer. How many goats will I have left in the herd? McDonald said.

In the end, the introduction of the pygmy goat, in McDonalds mind, is a challenge to the orthodoxy of todays schools.

I think in schools we've gotten so sterile in general with curriculums, with rules, with procedures, with paperwork, with what we can and cannot have in the classroom, McDonald said. I've found that having animals in the classroom promotes a sense of calm. The kids are comfortable. And when they are comfortable and relaxed and they feel safe, they are going to learn a lot more.
MUSCATINE  Muscatine residents can legally bring in the new year with a bang.

In March, the Iowa legislature legalized the sale and use of consumer-grade fireworks for the first time in the state. The first sales period took place over the Fourth of July holiday, and the second begins Dec. 26.

In October, the Muscatine City Council decided to limit the time period when residents can shoot off fireworks within city limits this winter. The use of fireworks is only allowed between 9 a.m. on Dec. 31 and 12:30 a.m. on Jan. 1.

Muscatine Fire Marshal Mike Hartman said the city decided to limit when people can use fireworks because of complaints received over the Fourth of July holiday.

"We got a lot of feedback this summer," Hartman said. "People were very upset with the extensive time period where people could use fireworks."

From July 1 through July 8, residents were allowed to shoot off fireworks on private properties in the city of Muscatine. But, the fire and police departments received hundreds of calls regarding people illegally using explosives.

"I think a lot of people who weren't involved in the beginning ended up having complaints by the end," he said. "There were a lot of complaints about noise, materials left behind, the smell and smoke. Elderly people had issue with the noise ... people with small dogs ... and a lot of people who are veterans were very tense because of the noise."

Before adopting the new restrictions on fireworks, councilmen said they hope a shortened use period would lessen the number of complaints and calls to the police department.

This year, Muscatine officers responded to 266 fireworks-related calls, up from 97 the previous year. From June 1 through July 8, the police arrested 10 people for violating the fireworks ordinance, compared to zero arrests related to fireworks during the previous year.

And while the Fourth of July was a hectic time for Muscatine's first responders, Hartman expects the excitement to diminish by next summer.

"What we saw this year is people saying 'hey, I've never been able to do this my entire life,'" he said. "But Iowa isn't the first place to legalize fireworks, and you typically see after the first year, there's a drop in sales and use."

Iowa legislators and the state fire marshal, Hartman said, are still considering the final rules and safety regulations for fireworks use.

"The legislation was very rushed," Hartman said. "What would typically take six months, they put out in six weeks."

He said finalizing safety regulations is in progress, and he expects the state to issue finalized rules in the next few months.

In the meantime, Hartman reminds Muscatine residents to use caution if they choose to shoot off fireworks on New Year's Eve. He said tent sales are not allowed in the winter because of increased danger, such as a higher chance of static electricity build-up. And people should be careful if lighting fireworks while wearing scarves or loose clothing.

While the sale of fireworks is legal in Muscatine beginning Dec. 26, Hartman said so far, no vendors have applied for permits, so he does not expect any sales this winter.
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 []
When the entire inventory for Old Moon Vintage recently moved from Napa to Oakland, none of the customers noticed. Thats because the shop, which opened in 2014, is web-based, selling on the popular platform Etsy. Brook-Lynne Worthen, the stores owner, describes herself as a one-lady operation, but has hopes to expand in the next year.

After three years of being solely an online retailer, the proprietor has goals to open a brick-and-mortar store in Berkeley with her husband who is a tattoo artist. The shop will sell her vintage pieces and serve as a tattoo studio for him.

Thats why they moved from Napa to the East Bay, where they feel they will have a larger in-person clientele. However, Worthen credits her friends in Napa for contributing to her success and helping to get her started.

She explained that they not only purchase her goods, but model for her as well. They are only part of her customer base now, though, as she said she ships all over the world, which is one of the things she likes best about the job. Outside of the U.S., she said the two countries receiving the most Old Moon Vintage are Australia and Canada.

The young entrepreneur got her start by working for Crush Vintage, another online retailer based in Napa. Worthen began assisting the owner of Crush Vintage with her boutique which sold through eBay before eventually moving to Etsy.

Of the two platforms, she noted that they felt eBay was for selling anything and Etsy was of higher quality. When it came to her own brand, Worthen said she decided Im just going to do Etsy so I can build it nicely.

The idea for Old Moon Vintage came about organically. The owner explained that when she would go with her boss from Crush Vintage to find inventory, she would be drawn to items from the 1970s and newer, but Crush usually sells things from the 1960s and older.

She launched Old Moon Vintage in 2014 and continued to work for Crush until 2016 when her own shop required her full-time attention. The transition, she said, was a fun and scary jump.

Worthen cited estate sales as a source for finding inventory for her shop, but said she is constantly on the lookout wherever she goes. How does she know what will sell? She said its just trial and error sometimes.

Its hard because I know what I like and what I want other people to wear, Worthen said. You have to watch the trends and see whats coming back. Hunting for the inventory is my favorite part.

Pricing is another thing she said she always has to be aware of.

Worthen noted she tries to keep everything at Old Moon Vintage under $150 and most things are under $80, so whatever she purchases must be at a price that leaves room for her markup.

Again, she said she uses trial and error to work out pricing and likened vintage to the stock market saying that when trends change, prices change.

Much like any business owner, Worthen said the biggest challenge she faces is keeping sales up. Every day Ive got to make sure someone is buying a dress so I can buy groceries, she joked.

Highly aware of the competition that she says is increasing every day, Worthen noted that she makes sure her vintage is quality and that her store stands out. The latter is why she said she loves being online.

She said she thinks of social media as free advertising. I work really hard to keep my online profile up, she explained, saying that Instagram was the most effective social media platform for Old Moon Vintage.

This, along with some back-end analytics, is also how she gains insight into who her customers are. Someone will post a picture and tag Old Moon Vintage and Ill get to see them! she said.

Worthen described her clientele as being ages 20-30 and both male and female. She said she thinks part of the age bracket has to do with the fact that her models are usually in their late teens and early 20s. She also tries to appeal to everyone by using models with a range of looks so that her customers worldwide can connect with them.

She anticipates serving a similar demographic in Berkeley when she does decide to open a physical storefront. However, her main goal is to make her customers, whomever and wherever they are, happy.

I just want people to be really excited about their item, the same way I was when I found it. And I want people to feel like they have their own unique style.

For more information on Old Moon Vintage, visit: etsy.com/shop/OldMoonVintageShop
Sonoma State Universitys stellar Department of Physics & Astronomy has put the university on the heavenly map of the universe  an asteroid is now officially named 25164 Sonomastate.

Dr. Lynn Cominsky, professor and chair of the department, recently received word of the name designated by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the body recognized by the world's astronomers as the sole authority for naming stars, asteroids and planets.

I think its incredibly exciting that Sonoma States contributions to space science are being recognized by this naming, said Cominsky.

25164 Sonomastate is located in the main asteroid belt, between Jupiter and Mars. It is about 3.1 kilometers in size (almost 2 miles) and orbits the sun every 3.6 years.

SSU Professor Emeritus Joseph S. Tenn suggested the name to astronomer Larry Wasserman at the Lowell Observatory Near-Earth Object Search at the Anderson Mesa Station in Arizona. Wasserman discovered the asteroid in 1998, which gave him the right to propose a name to the IAU.

The web citation on the naming notes that Sonoma State has a nationally recognized Education and Public Outreach program for space missions and STEM teacher education, and its physics students have built a successful CubeSat satellite.
Legislative shenanigans come on little cat feet.

And so it went on Friday, when Republicans sitting on silent haunches appear to have added a last-minute provision to their monumental tax overhaul. The addition would allow real estate investors -- guys like President Donald Trump -- to see their business income taxed at a lower, more favorable rate than they would otherwise have had to pay.

That wasn't an entirely new development. Congress had spent more than a month debating giving owners and developers of commercial real estate with significant employee payrolls some sort of a tax break, as Bloomberg News reported early last week. But as three reporters from the International Business Times first told us over the weekend, Congress dropped safeguards Friday that would have prevented investors with lots of assets but relatively few employees -- yes, guys like Trump -- from taking advantage of the more favorable rates.

How did that happen? You can imagine Trump turning away from his TV screen for a minute or two to ask whatever aide was tasked with briefing him on the final dimensions of the bill, "What's in this for me?"

But it's unlikely that the president needed to be ham-handed. His fellow travelers in Congress understand that the surest way to get his support is to appeal to his self-interest. Maybe, amid the tumult over resolving differences between House and Senate versions of the tax bill, they thought no one would notice. Until the IBT reporters did.

Senator Bob Corker, a wealthy Tennessee Republican and real estate investor who will benefit from the change, told IBT that he didn't go from being against the tax bill to being for it because of the switch. In fact, he acknowledged, he changed his mind without giving his party's final tax bill much scrutiny at all.

"I had like a two-page summary I went through with leadership," Corker said. "I never saw the actual text."

Corker, who isn't seeking re-election next year, asked Senator Orrin Hatch, the veteran Utah legislator who is helping to steer the tax bill along, to explain how the break for real estate investors came to pass.

Hatch replied in a letter to Corker on Monday:

"It takes a great deal of imagination -- and likely no small amount of partisanship -- to argue that a provision that has been public for over a month, debated on the floor of the House of Representatives, included in a House-passed bill, and identified by (the Joint Committee on Taxation) as an issue requiring a compromise between conferees is somehow a covert and last-minute addition to the conference report."

For the sake of argument, let's give Hatch the benefit of the doubt and concede that there was nothing last-minute about tax code changes benefiting real estate investors. Even if Hatch wins that point, the provision's existence is still numbing. After all, it's a sop to the rich in a deeply flawed bill that already is stocked with benefits for companies and wealthy individuals.

The real estate break also undermines the notion, which the president himself has avidly promoted, that the tax bill aims to help working Americans.

"This is going to be one of the great gifts to the middle-income people of this country that they've ever gotten for Christmas," Trump told reporters on Friday at the White House when asked about the bill. This echoed some things he had said in September, when he declared that the Republican plan was "not good for me, believe me" because the legislation had "very little benefit for people of wealth."

Trump also trotted out his daughter Ivanka on TV on Monday to pitch the same snake oil, and she chatted on Fox & Friends about "historic tax reform" that is aimed at "middle income tax relief."

No, it's not. It's a tax plan loaded with treats for the affluent and is one that that will damage the finances of local, state, and federal governments (which is probably one of the chief goals of the legislation anyway). It's a bill that actually gives corporations the tax windfall that the Trumps claim the middle class is getting.

The Trumps know this, of course. As I've noted before, part of Trump's primary electoral base mirrors his traditional business base: working- and middle-class consumers. He's always been adept at selling those constituencies a bill of goods. When the tax bill first started taking shape in October, I asked this question:

"The details of the tax plan Trump tries to push through Congress will demonstrate whether he truly supports average Americans -- or, like a classic grifter, if he's willing, instead, to profess his love for his marks right up until the moment that he fleeces them."

Now we know the answer.
Benefit wine auction raises $260,000 for North Bay Fire Relief Fund

On Thursday, Dec. 7, the California State Society hosted a wine auction fundraiser in Washington, D.C. to support Redwood Credit Union Community Funds North Bay Fire Relief Fund.

The event was held in conjunction with Congressman Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena), the Wine Institute, and WineAmerica.

Thompson was the master of ceremonies for the evenings program, which raised $260,000 and was held at Altrias Washington D.C. offices.

The live auction, led by Steve Zacharias of the Zachys Auction House, included lots provided by Jackson Family Wines, Napa Valley Vintners, Sonoma Valley Vintners and Growers Alliance, Duckhorn Wine Company, Colgin Cellars, Screaming Eagle, Hall Wines, and more. The silent auction included premier California selections, as well as contributions from vineyards in Oregon, Washington, and New York.

Thompson said, I am so grateful to everyone who helped make this event such a success: the California State Society, the wine community, sponsors, donors, and so many of my Congressional colleagues. Thanks to everyones efforts, we were able to raise an astounding $260,000 to help the communities hit by these devastating fires. That money will help those whove just lost everything to begin rebuilding their lives.

The Redwood Credit Union Community Funds North Bay Fire Relief Fund supports the immediate needs of people and businesses in the four affected counties who were impacted by the North Bay fires.
The death toll from the October wildfires that raked Napa and Sonoma counties stands at 44. But on Sunday afternoon  within sight of hills still blackened more than two months later  survivors gathered to remember the winged, furry and hooved creatures that also succumbed to the flames.

With words drawn from St. Francis of Assisi and Native American ritual  along with music, memorial stones and the reminiscences of animals lost or rescued  more than 50 people gathered for a memorial to house pets, horses, livestock and wild animals.

We acknowledge their suffering and we give them our love, said Lisa Levinson of In Defense of Animals, which organized the ceremony together with the Napa-based Jameson Animal Rescue Ranch. We also praise the heroic people who came to their aid.

It was a time to ponder both animal companions lost, and those who survived to comfort their human partners. Dixie Keith, one of the participants, knew both sides of the coin.

The Santa Rosa resident walked onto the clubhouse terrace with Katie, a 10-year-old Jack Russell, in one arm. She made it through the fire, but my horse didnt, she said quietly, holding in the other hand a framed photograph of herself and Giorgio  the Arabian horse she owned for 27 years, until he was trapped by the Tubbs Fire on a property at Riebli Road outside Santa Rosa.
A panel discussion about the 2017 growing season and a climate address for Napa will highlight this years Napa Vintage Report, to be held at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 18, at the Westin Verasa Napa, 1314 McKinstry St.

Mark Anderson, director of The Vintage Report, said attendees can look forward to a day of learning and communicating with the worlds leading winemakers, viticulturists, and scientific researchers.

During the Vintage Report, the group will take a scientific look at the 2017 growing season in Napa and discuss the impact on vineyard performance. They will review the effect of climate on plant development and discuss how this influenced vine and fruit physiology. Specifically the group will discuss the implications of smoke-related issues and how this can impact wine quality.

The Vintage Report will host a panel discussion involving vineyard managers and winemakers from across the region to speak about their knowledge of best practices in the context of the 2017 growing year. Panelists include:

- Thibaut Scholasch, Ph.D., founder and vice president of Research and Development, Fruition Sciences

- Nicolas Bernard, Research and Development Manager, Vivelys

- Elizabeth Wolkovich, Associate Professor, University of British Columbia

- Gregory V. Jones, Director, Center for Wine Education, Linfield College

- Eric Herve, Ph.D., Research Scientist for ETS Labs

- Federico Casassa, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo

As part of the Vintage Reports analysis, Jones will be delivering the State of the Climate and dive into up-to-date projections for 2018. Finally, the symposium will close with a group discussion on the 2012 harvest and look at practical results five years after the release of that vintage.

Early Bird tickets at $295 until Jan. 8, are still available for the event and can be found at: vintagereport.com/en/napa-2017#attendForm. After Jan. 8, the cost is $395 general admission. To livestream the event, the cost is $50.

The Vintage Report is open to cellar and vineyard professionals including winemakers, vineyard managers, viticulturist, assistant winemakers and winery owners. In addition to Napa, the Vintage Report will hold conferences in Paso Robles, Sonoma, Oregon, Bordeaux, Provence and Burgundy.
Pennies, nickels, and dimes may accomplish little on their own, but together they can do much. We feel this way about ourselves, as well; hashtags such as #NapaStrong demonstrate this, as we can all appreciate the power in community.

On Friday, Dec. 8, students at Howell Mountain Elementary School in Angwin demonstrated not only what combined pennies, nickels, and dimes can do, but the power of community. When the HMES staff and students learned of the Angwin Fire Departments need for a power generator, they decided to take action.

We are currently looking at a backup power source such as solar or battery backups for a more green approach, said JR Rogers, fire chief for the department. Obviously, the firehouse still needs to operate in the event of an emergency or power loss, so we need something that can continue to power computers, radios, and other equipment so we can remain mission-ready at all times.

The department, staffed entirely by a group of 30 volunteers, needs $30,000 in order to complete the backup power project. Thanks in part to the students, staff, and families of HMES, the department currently has $17,000 toward that goal.

We place high value on community pride, said Janet Tufts, principal and superintendent of HMES District. She added that the school chose this fundraiser project to enrich students knowledge of the civic responsibilities of becoming an engaged community member.

Engaged community members put effort into identifying areas of need, generating a plan, enlisting support to fill the need, and following through with the action plan, Tufts said. The activity was a definite win-win for all who participated.

An internal friendly competition got excitement running high, as each classroom worked to raise the largest amount of money during the coin drive. Vinnie Rothwells third- and fourth-grade combination class raised $234, winning a pizza party prize. A close second was Michael Luques fifth- and sixth-grade combination class, which raised $210.

It felt great to be helping the fire department get something they need, said Kayla St. Clair, third-grader at HMES. And to think that we played a role in helping them get the money to buy the generator felt especially good.

Angwin Fire Department personnel were surprised when they received a phone call from one of the HMES staff to accept the donation.

We had no idea they were doing that for us, Rogers said with a smile. I was shocked and incredibly grateful. Its so fantastic to see the community support.

During the school assembly on Dec. 8, students hosted a Q&A with the firefighters so the students could all learn more about why the money was needed. Then, a small group of students presented a large mock check to the attending firefighters, in the amount of $844. This was followed by an enthusiastic school cheer.

To have those students do that for us is just awesome, says Rogers. We love our community of Angwin.

To learn more about HMES, including upcoming events and recent news, visit hmesd.org or call 965-2423.
There are two new people at the St. Helena Chamber of Commerce who will play a pivotal role as St. Helena businesses and the downtown vibe look to rebound from the fires and the lingering effects of the recession.

Were referring to Amy Carabba-Salazar, the Chambers new president/CEO, and Joaquin Razo, vice president and chief strategy officer.

We met Razo last week and hope to meet Carabba-Salazar early in the new year. Being at the Chamber for only one month, Razos unfamiliarity with St. Helena is to be expected. He and Carabba-Salazar are assessing where the Chamber is and where members want it to go in 2018 and beyond.

The Chamber needs to serve its members, Razo said. That seems like an obvious point, but weve heard from some merchants who feel that only certain segments of the Chamber had been served in the past. We hope the Chamber is going back to the basics of marketing local businesses and the city at large, after years of mixing marketing with sometimes controversial political initiatives.

Razo talked about plans to define and expand the citys digital footprint. When asked what that meant, he described it as the web, social media and online influencers.

For example, on Dec. 30 food blogger Teri Turner, who goes by the handle @NoCrumbsLeft, is holding a social media meet-up to highlight St. Helena businesses. So far 75 people have signed up to meet at Gotts and then tour St. Helenas restaurants and shops. The goal is to generate the kind of promotional buzz that St. Helena has been lacking.

On top of that, wed like the Chamber to find out more about St. Helenas target market and develop strategies accordingly. We understand that millennials respond well to the digital and social media strategies Razo referred to, but we dont want to miss out on other audiences.

However, the Chamber also needs to focus on internal issues. We encourage the new Chamber leadership to meet one-on-one with each of the merchants on Main Street. It is important for the Chamber to hear their concerns and their ideas about how to increase St. Helenas potential now that the Chamber is building a new strategy. Merchants are eager to help. Some of them have been in the city for over 30 years, so they can offer a strong historical perspective.

We encourage the Chamber to strengthen its communication with the city and understand the different fees and permit requirements so the Chamber can communicate clearly with any new merchant interested in coming to St. Helena. Creating a more vibrant business scene will only be possible if the Chamber, landlords and merchants, the council, city staff and the community take active roles in supporting it.

We also would love to see a distinctive event to bring shoppers to St. Helena during the off-season when tourism slows down. Over the years weve seen events like the Mustard Festival and Cheers develop a loyal following only to be disbanded for various reasons, and in the absence of anything particularly fun and exciting  and with hotels popping up in neighboring cities  local merchants are seeing potential shoppers go to Napa, Yountville and Calistoga instead.

Calistogas annual Lighted Tractor Parade appeals to locals and tourists. Other towns throughout the Napa Valley celebrate Christmas with special events designed to build excitement and bring people downtown. They include light shows, the arrival of Santa Claus on a firetruck and parades down Main Street.

What could be a unique twist to make St. Helena attractive and bring people to shop downtown? We have heard ideas about Victorian Winterland, A Christmas Dream and others. Maybe the Chamber along with the city could hold a contest or a gathering to plan a unique theme for next holiday season.

All of these ideas are worth exploring next year. To bring people to shop downtown, we need to create positive memories to offset the current vehicle traffic, lack of visitor-friendly restrooms, lack of parking and other deficiencies.

We need better holiday decorations. In a letter to merchants, Carabba-Salazar acknowledged the complaints and pledged to straighten things out in time for the next holiday season.

We are happy that the Christmas wreaths and lights are up. Its an example of how the city, Chamber and merchants can collaborate to create something that benefits us all. But it should have gotten done sooner. Early missteps can occur of course, but the town and its merchant base cant afford many more.

We liked the Chambers latest 30-second marketing video, which has already attracted more than 40,000 views. The message that St. Helena is open for business aligns with the valley-wide marketing campaign informing folks that despite the fires the Napa Valley is far from a smoking wasteland.

Razo and Carabba-Salazar have their work cut out for them. We wish them luck and join local merchants in offering them a helpful hand. Collaboration is what will bring positive results.
Prophetic words from 1887

Im enclosing a quotation that sounds like it was written today (Dec. 12, 2017).

Some of your readers may remember the writer who once lived in St. Helena  Ellen White.

Please share with your readers:

Already, the restraining Spirit of God is being withdrawn from the earth. Hurricanes, storms, tempests, fire and flood, disasters by sea and land, follow each other in quick succession. Science seeks to explain all these. The signs thickening around us, telling of the near approach of the Son of God ... We are standing on the threshold of great and solemn events. Prophecy is fast fulfilling. The Lord is at the door.  Ellen White, The Review and Herald, Jan. 11, 1887.

Robert Burgess

Calistoga

Most importantly, we provide love

We Care Animal Rescue is a no-kill, free-roaming refuge for cats and dogs in The Napa Valley. We are honored to be a part of this years annual Napa Valley Give! Guide. The Napa Valley Give! Guide has given the community a chance to donate funds to support our mission. With over 200 cats and a handful of dogs, We Care provides shelter, medical care and most importantly love.

Also as a sanctuary, we are open to the public, so they too, can contribute to our community cats. We offer volunteer opportunities, pet adoptions and open hours for those who just want to come and spend time with a furry friend.

Please keep the animals of We Care in mind as the holidays are here and so is the wrap up of the Napa Valley Give! Guide. The last day to donate is Dec. 31. Not only do We Care, but we love.

Katarina Padilla

We Care Animal Rescue

St. Helena

From John Muir to social injustice

In 1976, naturalist T. H. Watkins published John Muirs America. He must have felt that he knew Muirs soul so well that he composed three imaginary conversations with the venerable old mountain man. The first dialogue began on the veranda of Muirs home in Martinez, Calif. The two men discussed many ecological topics as they wandered up to Muirs scribble den. After discussing some of his inventions, Muir rocked back in his chair and closed his eyes until Watkins innocently wandered into the controversial role that Thomas Huxley played in popularizing Charles Darwins theory of evolution.

The old man exploded out of his silence, thrusted forward in his chair and slapped the flat of his palm on the desk top.

Huxley  that bloodless coof! That fool! He and his kind took the work of Darwin and twisted it to fit their vision of the world. And damme, what a cold and heartless world they would have had it be. They called it survival of the fittest, but no matter what they might have called it, was a damnable theory, a dark and chilly reasoning that chance and competition accounted for all things. Oh it was a useful theory  that I canna deny. It justified all manner of cruelty just as my fathers piety excused all manner of cruelty to his children. Should a man be inspired to destroy his best friend in the marketplace, why, he could shrug it off as the natural consequence of living in the great soulless machine of the cosmos.

But it was a damnable theory because it ignored the one real truth of the world, the truth that lives in every rock, flower, leaf, tree and animal including man: it was all created by a loving God, and His love covers all the earth as the sky covers it, and fills it in every pore.

Forty years later, Watkins words have become a fulfilled prophecy. On July 1, 2015, an undocumented immigrant discharged an illegally obtained handgun that resulted in the death of a young woman who was out for a walk in San Francisco. The trial was recently concluded with the jury rendering a verdict of not guilty.

Contrary to all the blather from media pundits, politicians and lawyers, the jurys acquittal of the alleged criminal had less to do with ethnicity, immigration status or birth-origin, and more to do with socio-cultural, regressive de-evolution in an increasingly soulless society.

The positive proof of this emerged from the fact that in spite of the perpetrator admitting (on a KGO TV interview) that he pulled the trigger of the lethal weapon, the jury agreed with the twisted logic of the defense lawyers.

Tragically, events like these are going to become more common. In the name of political correctness, our public el-hi schools, colleges and universities are systematically sanitizing curricula, removing all references to spirituality. This will doubtlessly produce generations of morally bankrupt adults who are proponents of the Godless religion known as situational ethics.

Some of the fruits from this evil tree were recently borne for all to see in the San Francisco courthouse. Of all the countless millions of words generated by this tragedy, two lines stand out.

The day after the verdict was announced, the headline of a SF Chronicle editorial: Justice was not served.

And one of the jurors anonymously commented; I need to spend some time collecting my thoughts.

Indeed, dont we all?

In his classic book, Religions, Values and Peak Experiences, psychologist Abraham Maslow expressed concern for an increasingly spiritless U.S. society. He suggested that the subject of human spirituality could be added to a suitably enlarged biology curriculum without breaching the wall that separates church and state.

Lowell H. Young

Retired biology teacher

St. Helena

McCorkle Avenue neighbor responds to McGrath

I am writing in response to Mr. McGraths updated letter of Dec. 12, 2017. I live directly west of his 632 McCorkle Ave. property.

I would like to address two of Mr. McGraths assertions:

TARPS

The first tarps covering the biggest pile of toxic soil were applied in November 2017, not in May when the potentially hazardous soil was first excavated, as claimed by Mr. McGrath. I have dated pictures showing that all dirt piles on the property were uncovered, since they were first excavated, until November. The latest excavation was in May 2012. All piles of soil, including the big pile of toxic soil, sat bare for at least six months, as corroborated by several other concerned neighbors. When the big pile was finally covered with a tarp in November, parts of it were still uncovered and exposed. Two small piles of dirt remain uncovered. I do not know if the toxicity of these smaller piles has been determined.

INSIGNIFICANT CONTAMINATION

Regarding Mr. McGraths claim: This is not Love Canal or Erin Brockovich or Flint, Michigan. This is nominal contamination caused from long-term storage of auto parts. The same auto parts that we all park in our driveway or garage every night.

The previous owner of the property told me that for over 50 years he dumped used oil and other toxins into a pit on his property, about 25 feet north of his house. All kinds of motors, engines, and car batteries were part of his toxic waste dump. He was a car mechanic by trade, had several vehicles on his property, stored and changed the oil in these vehicles himself, and discarded it on site.

I do not know the extent of contamination on this property. I will leave that up to the experts, which in this case, is the Regional Water Quality Control Board.

More shall be revealed.

Bobbi Monnette

St. Helena
Two years ago, Emorys Student Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) got its first therapy dog, Beowulf, a Native American Indian dog who assists with therapy and attends special events.

Two years later, CAPS has a second dog: Beowulfs little brother, Finn. The nine-month-old Finn is a product of a second litter, the first having produced Beowulf, making Finn a full sibling to Beowulf.

Both dogs are contract workers at CAPS.

Finn has been brought on in the last few weeks. Hes all fresh and raring to go, says Colleen Duffy, therapist and interim training director at CAPS, and owner of the canine siblings.

Did CAPS hope to add to its services with a second dog? Before Duffy answers, she checks what Finn has picked up, as he dives into all of Beowulfs toys. Were just incredibly vigilant with what hes got in his mouth, Duffy says. Beowulf tolerates Finns expropriation of her toys until she decides its time to show little brother who is the alpha dog and puts him in his place.

People were always asking are you going to get a second dog? We didnt really have plans to until he came along and we were asked if wed take him, Duffy continues. Because we had so many requests from the community, its like ah, a second dog. We could trade them in and out. And hes got the temperament for it.

In addition to participating in animal-assisted therapy, Beowulf has attended almost 50 events in the two years shes been with CAPS.

We had no idea how popular she would be, so we were getting a lot of outreach requests for her in the community, her owner explains. She did some of those, but its a different set of skills.

When Finn came along with his social temperament, he naturally fit that niche of special events. With Beowulf, its more trauma work, whereas Finn is out and about being a cute little presence and representing CAPS as well, Duffy says.

Temperamentally, the two siblings are very different dogs.

Beowulf, who is almost three years old, has a docile, calming temperament, while Finn is a party boy, she says.

He loves people. Hes very friendly, sniffy, likes to say hi and give hugs and little kisses, Duffy says.

The impact of therapy dogs

Wanda Collins, assistant vice president of counseling and psychological services, calls Beowulf a wonderful addition to the CAPS staff and expects Finn to be equally helpful.

Whenever I am out on campus talking with groups of students, they express enthusiasm that we have a therapy dog and most have seen or heard of Beowulf. Shes our most popular staff member! Collins says. Adding Finn, with his friendly demeanor, to our outreach initiatives will bring a lot of joy to Emory students.

Since being on staff, Finn has already worked at several events. The first was with Beowulf, a meet-and-greet at Alabama Residence Hall. His first solo event was the Wonderful Wednesday for the Respect Program to promote the Take Back the Night march and rally.

There were over 200 people he interacted with, Duffy says.

Finn has also attended an Active Minds speak-out where stories about mental health issues and related struggles were read; the librarys pet therapy study break; and a meet-and-greet with nurse anesthetists.

Interacting with students, Finn is very, very friendly. When anyone passes by, he wants to say hi. Hes Mr. Social, Duffy says.

She also describes Finn as a special needs boy, noting that he has congenital cataracts.

Because of his visual impairment, Finn could not be trained as a service dog.

We have to be more vigilant around stairs. He can see shadows and movement, relying a lot on his sense of scent because hes really quite visually impaired, Duffy explains, demonstrating by tossing a ball near Finn, who doesnt turn his head toward the ball as it bounces close by.

Hes seen the ophthalmologist and when hes a year old, he may be eligible for cataract surgery, she says. I think having a dog that has a disability is really cool as well.

As Duffys duties at CAPS have shifted, she says she and Finn will do events that are the best bang for my time and his time and when can we do it, what is reasonable. A lot of the stress reduction events hell do, as well as end-of-the-year special events, like the Campus Life holiday luncheon.

We try to make as many events as we can, she says, adding that they do need notice ahead of time to attend.

Duffy says the two dogs are very well-suited for their respective jobs.

Duffy will be doing more training around animal-assisted therapy with Beowulf, now that shes three years old. With Finn, the training will center more on the social meet-and-greets and being polite.

Beowulf has raised the profile of CAPS on campus and Finn does it even more.

Many people come in and just ask for Beowulf, Duffy notes. They say I dont want therapy; I just want the dog. So she is an incredible rock star.

For those whove experienced trauma or acute anxiety, Beowulf can be very soothing. Shes really gifted at being highly attuned to people who have been interpersonally harmed or struggling with grief and loss. Shes done exceptional work, Duffy says.

She gets a lot of requests from other counseling centers who want to know how they can get a therapy dog.

I have a presentation that talks about the differences between service dogs, therapy dogs and emotional support dogs. I think other people are realizing the impact that dogs can have, she says. Im incredibly grateful to Dean Ajay Nair and Wanda Collins in Campus Life for their support and recognition of the benefits of having the dogs at Emory.
Toyota City, Japan, December 13, 2017-Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) and Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic) announce today an agreement to begin studying the feasibility of a joint automotive prismatic battery business.

This agreement between the two companies aims to help find solutions to pressing societal issues such as global warming, air pollution, the depletion of natural resources and energy security. Furthermore, this agreement is intended to address growing demand and expectations for electrified vehicles. In order to realize these objectives, Toyota and Panasonic target further advancements in automotive batteries, which are crucial technologies in electrified vehicles.

Since Toyota and Panasonic began their business relationship in 1953, the two companies have been challenging each other with the goal of mutual improvement, particularly in honing their manufacturing capabilities (monozukuri). With the business environment undergoing drastic change, both companies have realized the importance of collaborating with trusted partners and looking past conventional boundaries to contribute to the world through monozukuri and creating new value.

Through activities such as launching the Prius, the world's first mass production hybrid vehicle (HV), in 1997, and the Mirai fuel cell vehicle (FCV) in 2014, Toyota has a record of taking on difficult challenges in its effort to realize a sustainable mobility society. Leveraging the know-how and experience accumulated through the continuous refinement and commercialization of its electrification technologies, Toyota is working on the development of a full range of environmentally friendly vehicles including HVs, PHVs (plug-in hybrid vehicles), FCVs, and EVs (electric vehicles) that fit the needs of customers' lifestyles worldwide.

Panasonic has positioned automotive lithium-ion batteries as one of its key businesses, and its automotive batteries are used by many automakers worldwide. Panasonic's technological capabilities which achieve various requirements for such batteries are well regarded in the market. The company is making efforts to further enhance the safety and capacity of its automotive prismatic batteries, making use of its accumulated technological knowledge in the battery business.

Toyota and Panasonic recognize the importance that further advancements in battery performance, price and safety, as well as a stable supply capacity, will have on encouraging further popularization of electrified vehicles. Both companies will consider details of the collaboration with the aim of achieving the best automotive prismatic battery in the industry and, ultimately, contributing to the popularization of Toyota's and other automakers' electrified vehicles.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-19 21:11:28|Editor: Yurou

Video Player Close

KABUL, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Unknown gunmen abducted and killed an imam or prayer leader of a mosque in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province on Monday, a local TV channel reported Tuesday.

"Hijratullah, imam of a mosque in Rodat district, was killed after being kidnapped by unidentified armed men ridding motorbike after evening prayer on Monday," 1TV reported.

No one has claimed responsibility for the killing.

In a similar incident, gunmen attacked and killed a religious scholar in the southern Zabul province on Monday.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-19 22:06:48|Editor: Yang Yi

Video Player Close

Zhang Dejiang (R), chairman of China's National People's Congress Standing Committee, meets with Vietnamese National Assembly Vice Chairman Do Ba Ty in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 19, 2017. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei)

BEIJING, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Chinese top legislator Zhang Dejiang on Tuesday met with Vietnamese National Assembly Vice Chairman Do Ba Ty, calling for more exchanges between the two legislative bodies.

Zhang said Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), made his first overseas visit after the 19th CPC National Congress to Vietnam.

China's National People's Congress (NPC) and the Vietnamese National Assembly should prioritize implementing the consensus reached by both leaders and enhance exchanges and cooperation at all levels, said Zhang, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee.

He also encouraged both sides to exchange experiences on governance and legislation and improve the legal environment for economic cooperation and personnel exchanges so as to consolidate the foundation of public support to strengthen bilateral ties and build a China-Vietnam community with a shared future.

Do Ba Ty said the uniqueness of Vietnam-China ties is more outstanding with the direct guidance of both leaders.

The National Assembly of Vietnam stands ready to enhance relations with China's NPC and boost mutually beneficial cooperation, Do Ba Ty said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-19 22:57:03|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

by Tao Jun, Bui Long

HANOI, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Officially launched only over a year ago, the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) mechanism has already borne fruit, with considerable contribution from China, said a Vietnamese environment official.

"China has worked as a lead partner of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation mechanism not only at the beginning of the cooperation but also during the business for sustainable development of the Lancang-Mekong river and, especially, for the socio-political stability in the region in the long run," Hoang Quoc Dung, member of the executive board of the Vietnam Association for Conservation of Nature and Environment, told Xinhua in Hanoi, after the third LMC foreign ministers' meeting concluded in China.

At the recent meeting in China's Yunnan province, the ministers from China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam agreed to deepen practical cooperation by implementing the consensus reached by their countries' leaders to facilitate cooperation projects and build a community with a shared future of peace and prosperity among Lancang-Mekong countries.

Speaking at the meeting, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh hailed China's role in the LMC mechanism and its proactive engagement of Mekong countries.

Minh also acknowledged the LMC's prominent achievements in the past over a year, including the completion of many early harvest projects.

"Among other significant achievements are the 45 early harvest projects which have or are already being implemented," Dung noted.

The Joint List of the LMC Early Harvest Projects was endorsed by the first LMC leaders' meeting in China's Hainan province in March 2016.

The joint list, along with the Sanya Declaration and the Joint Statement on Production Capacity Cooperation among Lancang-Mekong Countries, laid a solid foundation and charted the course for LMC development.

"China's speeding up of the establishment of joint working groups on key priority areas was also seen as a remarkable event," Dung said.

It is important to have had series of meetings, with the participation of leaders, foreign ministers and senior officials respectively, which can be seen as "opportunities for the six LMC countries to share views and gain mutual understanding," he said.

Thanks to the ever-increasing opportunities created since the first LMC leaders' meeting, Lancang-Mekong countries have been able to publicly and frankly share views for better understanding and closer cooperation, according to the Vietnamese expert.

The LMC mechanism will not only help boost multilateral cooperation among the Lancang-Mekong countries but also bilateral cooperation between Vietnam and China, Dung said, noting that China can help Vietnam more because it has a geographical advantage.

"Geographically, China's snowfield of Tibet is where the Lancang-Mekong river originates while it ends in Vietnam's lower Mekong Delta. It means Vietnam, as the farthest downstream nation, mainly relies on the upper Lancang-Mekong river's countries and China, the world's second-largest economic power, in particular," Dung said.

The Lancang River originates in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau in southwest China. It is called the Mekong River once it flows through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam before emptying into the sea.

More than 326 million people live along the 4,880-km-long waterway, which flows through an area of more than 795,000 square km.

The second LMC leaders' meeting is slated for Jan. 10-11, 2018, in Cambodia.

With better understanding and closer cooperation under the LMC mechanism with its three pillars, the Mekong countries will reap the benefits from more achievements in various spheres, especially in key priority areas, Dung said.

The three pillars are political and security issues, economic and sustainable development, and cultural and people-to-people exchanges.

The key priority areas cover connectivity, production capacity, cross-border economic cooperation, water resources, agriculture and poverty reduction.
Nigerian villagers fetch water flowing from a tap island that is part of a new treatment system upgraded by Chinese firm CGC Nigeria Limited. (Xinhua)

by Olatunji Saliu and Zhang Baoping

ABUJA, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Fetching water freely from a public tap constructed adjacent to her house on Monday, Rita Okoye who lives in Kwali, a rural community situated near Nigeria's capital city of Abuja, has felt much relieved compared to her searching all-day for water to complete her daily chores in the past.

Pregnant with her sixth child, Okoye, in her second trimester, had lived together with her family for seven years in that community amid the shortage of potable water.

The community, with a population of 85,837, used to have a public water supply scheme which was constructed 30 years ago and had undergone several rehabilitations since establishment.

A Nigerian child drinks water from a tap island that is among facilities upgraded with the help of Chinese firm CGC Nigeria Limited. (Xinhua)

The public water scheme was last rehabilitated in 2012, and it had been abandoned since then.

According to Okoye, for five years since 2012, most residents of Kwali depended on mobile water vendors who sold untreated water to them in jerrycans.

"We spent so much money, at least 36,000 naira (approximately 100 U.S. dollars) a year buying untreated water from those vendors," the expectant mother told Xinhua in an interview.

On Monday, aid came to the local residents when the Chinese firm, CGC Nigeria Limited handed over an improved water source to the community.

The Chinese company, at a ceremony held to hand over the improved water source to the community, said its aim was to fulfill its corporate social responsibility goals to the people of Kwali.

Ye Shuijin, the managing director of the Chinese firm in Nigeria, said in fulfilling its social responsibility goal to the community, the company has installed a solar-powered system to replace the standby generator being used to operate the waterworks, thereby reducing the operational cost and the frequency of the electricity generator maintenance.

It also rehabilitated and upgraded a 140-cubic meter ground surface tank, a 190-cubic meter elevated tank, two separate 100-cubic meter overhead tanks and two boreholes. It also provided and constructed four new boreholes and carried out water reticulation with the construction of 11 tap islands, to mention a few.

From this improved water source, the supply cuts across the entire town, running through the schools, markets, offices, and homes of the local people.

At least 3,000 people can have access to potable water from 29 fetching points every day due to the Chinese firm's efforts, Ye noted.

A Nigerian villager fetches water flowing from a tap island that is part of a new treatment system upgraded by Chinese firm CGC Nigeria Limited. (Xinhua)

Many of the local residents who trooped out to welcome their Chinese guests and local officials to the handing over ceremony were full of praises to the Chinese firm, particularly for solving a major perennial problem of the Kwali community.

Onna Anselm, a trader who has lived in the community for 13 years, said the improved water supply gift by the Chinese firm came at the right time.

"We're already in the dry season when water is usually very scarce here. But at this time, the problem has been solved because people can now walk to the fetching points to get potable water from the taps," Anselm said.

After rehabilitation by the company, the water supply scheme has been developed to compose of about 4,400-meter length of a new pipeline.

"This will greatly improve the standard of living of the people, as indeed, water is life," the local resident added.

A Nigerian villager fetches water flowing from a tap island that is part of a new treatment system upgraded by Chinese firm CGC Nigeria Limited. (Xinhua)

While launching the waterworks for use, minister of Nigeria's Federal Capital Territory, Mohammed Bello urged the people of the community to take good care and ownership of the project to avoid damage of the water supply source.

Hailing the Chinese firm as a very important stakeholder in the Federal Capital Territory, Bello said that the firm has decided to support local people through the rehabilitation of the waterworks. "And for us, we are immensely grateful to the company and also to the entire group in China for this laudable project," Bello added.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 00:47:40|Editor: Xiang Bo

Video Player Close

BEIJING, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- China and the United States, both major powers of today's world, need to work together to address global challenges on many fronts. However, Washington seems to disagree.

The United States introduced its new national security strategy Monday, which referred to China and Russia as "revisionist powers" and listed them as "competitors" trying to alter the status quo that favors the United States.

Later on Monday, the Chinese embassy spokesperson in Washington made a quick response, saying that for both countries, cooperation leads to win-win outcomes, whereas confrontation results in mutual losses.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying echoed this in Beijing, saying that maintaining healthy and stable bilateral ties is the correct choice for the welfare of the two peoples and the international community.

The United States wants to secure its crown as the world's sole superpower, but it must not forget that with strength comes responsibility. It needs to work with China and other countries to address global challenges such frail economic growth, terrorism, and climate change.

According to a Chinese proverb, solidarity brings more power. China is willing and ready to take action with the rest of the world, including the United States.

One of the most evident signs of this is China's constant call for the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, which promotes win-win cooperation instead of zero-sum competition.

The U.S. move goes against consensus reached by leaders of the two countries to develop bilateral relations and the reality in which both countries share common interests in many areas.

Trade with China, the largest trade partner of the United States, helps each American family save 850 dollars every year. In 2015, bilateral trade and mutual investment created 2.6 million jobs for the United States.

During the state visit by U.S. President Donald Trump to China last month, the two countries signed deals worth 253.5 billion U.S. dollars, consisting of 34 cooperation agreements and letters of intent.

The two countries also have made efforts to cooperate in bilateral and international affairs.

During President Trump's visit, the two sides also agreed to advance the four high-level dialogue mechanisms: the diplomatic and security dialogue, the comprehensive economic dialogue, the law enforcement and cybersecurity dialogue, and the social and people-to-people dialogue.

As spokesperson Hua said in her response, China and the United States, the world's largest developing country and developed country respectively, have important responsibilities in maintaining world peace and development.

China, as a beneficiary of globalization, understands the importance of cooperation and partnership, and welcomes the world to benefit from its growth.

Related:

News Analysis: Trump's speech, national security strategy contradictory: experts

CAIRO, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump's speech on his national security strategy in many ways contradicted the document itself, experts in the Middle East said Tuesday.

In a speech outlining his administration's first national security strategy on Monday, Trump touted again his campaign logo of "America First." Full story

Spotlight: Trump's national security strategy stresses competition, economic security

WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump Monday announced the national security strategy, the first of its kind since he took office in January and the 17th since the former Reagan administration began to submit the report to the Congress in 1987.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks about his administration's National Security Strategy at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC, December 18, 2017. (AFP Photo)

MOSCOW, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The new U.S. national security strategy is imperial in nature, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday.

"A quick reading of the strategy, especially of those parts that somehow mention our country, on the whole, reveal the imperial character of the document," Peskov told reporters.

"There is a persistent reluctance to renounce the concept of a unipolar world, as well as a rejection of a multipolar world," he said.

However, the spokesman said the document also contained "some modest positive points," including a willingness to cooperate in areas that correspond to U.S. interests.

All relevant departments of the Russian government will thoroughly examine the 68-page long document, he said.

On Monday, the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump published a new version of the country's national security strategy, outlining its worldwide interests, goals, and objectives relevant to U.S. security.

The report referred to Russia and China as "revisionist powers," listing them as "competitors" seeking to alter the status quo that favors the United States.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 02:38:05|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

by Liang Xizhi, Deng Qian

LONDON, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- While China's leading mobile-payment platforms, Alipay and WeChat Pay, are accelerating its expansion in global market in 2017, shrewd European businesses are also trying to adapt themselves as soon as possible to the new consuming habits of Chinese consumers in hopes of grabbing the huge potential brought by China.

A win-win business model is being fast established as the two sides are getting closer via a new way of payment.

MOBILE-PAYMENT TAKING ROOT IN EUROPE

The year of 2017 has witnessed the fast expansion of China's mobile-payment in Europe, as two China's major online payment platforms, Alipay and WeChat Pay, have appeared in many busy commercial zones in Europe, from duty-free shops in airports to vintage shops in high streets of major European cities, from the most popular outlets in Britain to chain stores in Germany.

They are taking root in Europe with not only their payment services but also their management and their long-range plan.

Alipay, for instance, has been used in the large part of the Europe. Ant Financial, the operator of Alipay, has set up branch offices in Britain, Luxembourg and other European countries.

Peng Yijie, vice president of the group, told Xinhua that Alipay has reached cooperation with BNP Paribas, Barclays Bank, Yusin Bank, SIX, Wirecard, Concardis, Ingenico and others to jointly work to promote mobile commerce in Europe.

Among them, BNP Paribas, Barclays UK, Yusin Bank, SIX currently have access to some 930,000 merchants in Europe.

What matters is not only the number, but also the convenience they could offer in consumption.

Through the cooperation with local banks, Alipay users are able to do easy payment when they consume in these merchant stores. Via POS machines, consumption can be completed by just scanning the barcode, the same way as what their peers in China are doing now.

It's still not all the plan of Alipay, which has established cooperation with German payment service provider Concardis.

Although the cooperation with Concardis has made the Chinese online payment platform available in over 200,000 German merchants, including major chain stores such as Metro, Aldi and Douglas, its operator Ant Financial has a more ambitious plan of extending its services to 2 billion users worldwide in 10 years.

According to the plan, in the future, 60 percent of Alipay's users will come from outside Germany. In addition to the online payment market, the Chinese company aims to help its business partners to promote the development of inclusive finance in the world.

A PROFITABLE ADAPTION

Over the past decades, thanks to the remarkable economic development in China, Chinese purchasing power has been on notable rise.

Chinese consumers become more and more important to many markets around the world, with no exception in Europe. European merchants know well about the importance of the potential of Chinese consumers, so that they are active in adapting themselves to the new Chinese consuming habits.

Value Retail is the developer and operator of a boutique collection of nine luxury outlet shopping villages in Europe, which include Bicester Village, the first and most successful one located in the UK, with 6.8 million consumers coming from all over the world each year. Among them, Chinese consumers are Bicester Village's highest spenders.

Sadie Tew, senior retail director of Value Retail, told Xinhua that at present 15 brands in the shopping village accept Alipay or WeChat Pay, and consumers can also use Alipay or WeChat Pay to purchase gift cards in the visitor center. Starting from next Spring Festival, most merchants in the shopping village will accept Alipay or WeChat Pay. "I am in charge of this project, and we recognize that this is very important to Chinese tourists," said Tew, who also showed her Alipay Application on her mobile phone.

WeChat Pay landed in Camden Market this November, a major consumption landmark in London. As the cradle of punk culture, there are massive different styles of stores, attracting tourists from all over the world who want to experience the avant-garde street culture of London.

Ceri Davies, the operation director of Camden Market, said he was delighted to introduce WeChat Pay into the sales system. "Hundreds of thousands of Chinese tourists come to London every year. We feel that this is another way to continue to carry the Camden Market forward, which will also help to attract new visitors to our shops, stalls and restaurants."

"Camden Market, as an enduring tourist place, attracts over 30,000 visitors per day and this way is believed as an effective way to adapt to the growing number of local Chinese and Chinese tourists. We have been looking for innovative ways to support businesses and hope that this convergence could enable us to continue to meet the diverse needs of London," he said.

Yin Jie, who is in-charge of WeChat Pay's cross-border business operations, told Xinhua that WeChat Pay focuses on Chinese tourists in the UK and has already been used in wide-ranging ways, such as for shopping, brand retail, hotel bookings and restaurants bills.

Yin said WeChat Pay supports the payment access in 19 foreign countries and regions and lands over 13 countries and regions and supports direct billing via 12 foreign currencies. "We also hope that the China's mobile-payment and intelligent life model can be explored in more countries in the future."

Valoot Technologies Limited is a Hong Kong financial technology company which facilitated the cooperation of WeChat and numbers of cross-border payment agencies and business owners in the UK. Zhou Bei, chief operating officer of the company, told Xinhua that the number of Chinese tourists with higher purchasing power going out is increasing and the scale is huge.

She said this has become an indispensable consumer power for local businesses, making it necessary for local businesses to adapt to Chinese consumers' payment habits, which helps to boost the rapid growth of China's third-party payment market.

Due to the huge impact of Alipay and WeChat Pay in Chinese market and their expansion in overseas markets, foreign peers have noted that China is already at the leading stage in the field of financial technology payments. Foreign countries need to learn from China in turn, said Zhou.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 02:58:07|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

ANKARA, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday calls on UN member nations to back a draft resolution on the status of Jerusalem, a day after the U.S. vetoed it at the UN Security Council (UNSC).

"I invite once again all UN member nations to defend the historical status of Jerusalem," Erdogan said during a joint news conference with his Djiboutian counterpart Ismail Omar Guelleh in Ankara.

Turkey will continue to follow the development on this issue until the end, Erdogan stressed.

On Monday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry expressed regrets in a statement about the U.S. veto of the resolution, saying the move "reveals once again that this country is no more objective."

The United States, a permanent member of the UNSC, vetoed Monday a draft resolution that rejected the establishment of diplomatic facilities in Jerusalem, while the other 14 members of the Security Council voted in favor of the Egypt-drafted text.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 04:28:31|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations General Assembly will hold an emergency special session on Thursday after the United States vetoed an Egypt-drafted resolution which targeted to make the United States withdraw its decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, UN sources said here Tuesday.

Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour also expressed hope that the General Assembly will vote on a draft resolution calling for U.S. President Donald Trump's declaration to be withdrawn as well, sources said.

The United States on Monday vetoed a Security Council draft resolution on the status of Jerusalem. All other 14 members of the Security Council voted in favor of the Egypt-drafted text. But as the United States, which is a permanent member of the Security Council, has veto power, the draft resolution failed to be adopted.

The General Assembly rarely holds emergency sessions and Thursday's meeting will be a resumption of that session, sources said.

Mansour and several Arab countries' officials have met with UNGA President Miroslav Lajcak after the United States vetoed the draft resolution, sources said.

President Trump on December 6 announced his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, prompting violent protests across the Middle East, Europe, and beyond.

UN Resolution 377 states that the General Assembly can call an emergency session to consider a matter "with a view to making appropriate recommendations to members for collective measures," if the Security Council fails to act.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 05:18:47|Editor: Xiang Bo

Video Player Close

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday passed the final Republican bill to overhaul the tax system in three decades, which would slash income taxes for corporates and individuals while widening American budget deficit and income inequality.

The Republican-controlled House approved the legislation, called the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, by a vote of 227-203, with all Democrats and 12 Republicans voting against it. Now the bill heads to the Senate, where lawmakers were due to have a final vote Tuesday evening.

While Republicans have a majority of 52 seats in the Senate, they can only afford to lose two votes of senators to pass the tax bill without any support from Democrats.

The House and Senate Republicans had separately passed their own versions of tax bill several week ago, and they came to an agreement on resolving their differences in the tax bill last week.

The final tax legislation would keep the seven individual income tax brackets, while lowering the top individual income rate to 37 percent from the current 39.6 percent.

It would also cut the corporate income tax rate to 21 percent from the current 35 percent and create a 20-percent deduction for income of pass-through businesses such as limited liability companies.

Overhauling the tax code is a top priority for the Trump administration and congressional Republicans before next year's midterm elections. They insist that the broad tax cuts for corporations, small businesses and individuals will boost U.S. economic and job growth.

But Democrats have criticized that the Republican tax legislation would mostly benefit the wealthy and large corporations and increase U.S. budget deficit.

"This Republican bill is not tax reform," House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday, claiming Republicans are "exploding the deficit to fill the pockets of the wealthiest and corporate America."

"Americans see this tax scam for exactly what it is - overwhelmingly the polls are showing that the American people reject this - they know it will not help them overwhelmingly," she said.

While the bill would reduce taxes on average for all income groups in both 2018 and 2025, the top one percent of U.S households would receive the largest benefits, according to a new study by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center published on Monday.

The study also found that the top one percent taxpayers would receive an average tax cut of 0.9 percent of after-tax income in 2027, while low- and middle-income taxpayers would see little change.

While the Trump administration argued that the tax cuts would pay for themselves with faster economic growth, other analyses from independent think tanks and economists have found that the growth effects from tax cuts would be relatively small and U.S. budget deficit would inevitably increase.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) said in a recent analysis that the tax legislation could cost about two trillion to 2.2 trillion U.S. dollars in the next decade, pushing up U.S. public debt to between 98 percent and 100 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2027, compared with 91 percent under current law.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 05:33:53|Editor: Chengcheng

Video Player Close

CHICAGO, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Gold futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange settled lower on Tuesday, as U.S. Treasury yields jumped on an uptick in housing starts for November.

Market players were wary of taking new positions before the holiday season. Gold is on track to post its narrowest trading range of any quarter in a decade in the last three months of the year.

The most active gold contract for February delivery went down 1.3 dollars, or 0.1 percent, to close at 1264.20 dollars per ounce.

U.S. Treasury yields hit session highs and the yield curve steepened as U.S. housing starts unexpectedly rose in November. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose more than seven basis points to 2.466 percent, its highest since late October.

As for other precious metals, silver for March delivery dropped 5.2 cents, or 0.32 percent, to settle at 16.153 dollars per ounce. Platinum for January rose 0.9 dollar, or 0.1 percent, to close at 914.1 dollars per ounce.
Al-Ahram editor-in-chief Alaa Sabet (L) discusses Mideast issues and means to solve the crises in an interview by Xinhua on Dec. 10, 2017. (Xinhua/Meng Tao)

CAIRO, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The restive Middle East region has gone through conflicts and disorders in the outgoing year 2017 with regional and international powers, alliances and blocs as key players, while earnest dialogue and unity are called for to find solutions to the region's chronic crises.

Extending from northern Africa to western Asia, the region has been the most tense worldwide throughout history, passing through a dozen of conflicts in the past few decades, including the Arab-Israeli wars, the Lebanese civil war, the Iraqi-Iranian war, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the division of Sudan and the tribal conflicts in Yemen.

Over the past few years, particularly following the so-called Arab Spring uprisings that toppled some powerful Arab leaders, turmoil has further hit Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen, with Lebanon suffering political instability and the Palestinian-Israeli peace process facing a deadlock.

POLARIZATION

The world's two main big powers, the United States and Russia, are obviously key players in the regional developments, with both playing political and military roles along with their regional allies, to maintain their interests in the conflict-stricken region.

The United States under President Donald Trump, who took office in January 2017, showed massive support to its number one regional ally Israel, disregarding its settlement construction on occupied Palestinian territories, failing to exercise pressure on Israel to engage in a real peace process and finally recognizing the disputed holy city of Jerusalem as Israel's capital despite Arab and Islamic uproar.

Receiving hundreds of billions of dollars, Washington vowed support for its oil-rich Gulf allies led by Saudi Arabia against Iran, Russia's regional ally that is criticized by the United States and the West for its nuclear program.

Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran are considered main regional rivals, with each attempting to expand influence through allying with rival big powers and regional players. Since March 2015, a Saudi-led Arab alliance has been launching airstrikes against the Iran-backed, Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen, a group that helped overthrow of Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and recently killed former President Ali Abdullah Saleh after he turned against them.

On the other hand, Russia, supported by Iran and its loyal ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, uses its weight and power to protect the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, with Russian troops fighting side by side with the Syrian army against what they refer to as terrorist groups.

Demanding removal of Syria's Assad and seeking to exercise pressure on Iran and Hezbollah, Saudi Arabia played a role in the recent resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, who blamed Iran and Hezbollah for it in a televised speech from Riyadh, although he later went back on the resignation.

"Polarization is so big in many countries of the region that has reached a hard stage of conflict due to the different interests of world powers. So, there is a need to engage in real dialogue between the region's states, while Western states should limit their interference in the region and their conflict on its soil," Al-Ahram editor-in-chief Alaa Sabet told Xinhua in a recent interview.

With regards to China as a rising big power, the giant Asian country approaches the Middle East differently and practically, based on mutual economic interests, win-win development of regional developing states and non-interference in other countries' domestic affairs, stressing that development and dialogue are the main axes for resolving regional conflicts.

"The Chinese role is very important. China has a lot of relations and interests in the region and a real and big desire for openness towards the Middle East, which is very important," Sabet said, adding that "China diplomatically is doing very well and it approaches the region with very well-studied steps."

COUNTERTERRORISM

Countering global terrorism, a U.S.-led international alliance, mainly involving the United States and other Western countries besides some Arab states, started in 2014 airstrikes against targets of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group in Iraq and Syria.

Hence, the Middle East region has become the battlefield of a U.S.-led international anti-terror alliance, a Russian-led alliance including Syria, Iraq and Iran and a Saudi-led anti-Shiite Arab alliance against the Houthis in Yemen, with members of each coalition seeking to preserve their own interests.

With the IS defeat and decline in Raqqa and Mosul, the group's de facto capitals in Syria and Iraq, the IS militants are expected to flee and seek shelter with their fellows in Libya and Egypt, where their affiliates have proved strong presence.

In Egypt, for instance, the IS claimed most of the terror attacks that killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers as well as dozens of the Coptic minority since the former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, together with his currently outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, was toppled in July 2013 due to mass protests against his one-year rule.

On Nov. 24, a terrorist attack against a mosque in North Sinai killed at least 310 Muslim worshippers and wounded over 120 others, marking the deadliest terror operation and the first against a Muslim mosque in Egypt's modern history. But no group has yet claimed responsibility for this one.

The Egyptian leadership under President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi has been engaging in an anti-terror war over the past few years, accusing the Brotherhood of being behind all terrorist operations that took place in the country since Morsi's removal, and Qatar of supporting terrorism, sheltering Brotherhood members and interfering in the Egyptian domestic affairs.

The rift led Egypt to join a Saudi-led blockade against Qatar in early June, cutting its diplomatic ties and economic cooperation with Qatar to pressure the rich emirate to give up its support for the Brotherhood and generally to stop interfering in other countries' domestic affairs, a charge that has been repeatedly denied by Qatar.

The outgoing year has also seen greater world concern for achieving stability in Libya via political dialogue between major Libyan rival parties, while Egypt is keeping a close watch on its 1,200 km western border with eastern Libya that has been a smuggling destination of arms and militants over the past few years.

Libya is torn by a civil war and run by two rival administrations, one in the capital Tripoli northwestern the country and the other in Tobruk city in the northeast, which makes the North African country a suitable incubator for IS militants.

In early November, Egypt arrested a Libyan militant who was involved in a recent anti-police deadly attack in a desert area southern the capital Cairo. Being the only survivor of security raids following the anti-police attack, the Libyan militant confessed that his group leader was an Egyptian affiliated with al-Qaida and that all other members of the group were killed in the raids.

Terrorism and political disorder in the region are closely interrelated, as terrorists find chaotic spots most suitable for their activities and recruitments, as clearly seen in war-torn Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen.

Since most of the terror groups claimed themselves as Islamists and justified their violence by misleading and deceptive interpretations of Islamic texts, the Palestinian cause and the Israeli occupation of the disputed holy city of Jerusalem are among the main reasons for growing regional and global terrorism.

In Egypt's North Sinai governorate for example, the IS-affiliated terrorist group that carried out most of the attacks over the past few years referred to itself in the beginning as "Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis," meaning "Supporters of Jerusalem," before changing its name to "Walayat Sinai" meaning "Sinai State" or "Sinai Province" and declared loyalty to the IS.

This is why Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital is expected by many to foster extremist thoughts although it is not an excuse for extremism.

Generally, many experts believe that the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq sowed the seeds for the growth of terrorist groups as well as the general chaotic situation in the Middle East region afterwards.

"The regional issues are interrelated and highly complicated. At many times, it is in favor of some countries like the United States that such regional disorders continue. The United States complicates regional conditions for its own interests," Sabet said.

WAY OUT

Years of prolonged chaos and miseries have shown that the use of force and military actions will not solve the Middle East crises and conflicts, but only aggravate them. So the problems could only be tackled in different approaches: namely, the political and economic ways.

Most regional states are Arabs, yet polarizations and conflicting interests disbanded them into a fragile bloc that occasionally gather at the Cairo-based Arab League headquarters at times of emergency with no real effective outcomes on the ground.

Inter-Arab dialogue and unity are a prerequisite for regional settlements, as a united Arab nation would be a significant power to push forward for long-awaited solutions and to be reconsidered by big powers upon making any decisions related to the region.

Regional powers, such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, also need to rationalize and prioritize the region's security and stability over narrow interests, which only serve to escalate the situations in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen.

Development and economic growth, in turn, are basic factors for regional security and stability, given that the Middle East region in general and the Arab world in particular have sufficient resources for mutual fruitful economic cooperation that would limit chances for polarization, disorder and terror.

"As 2017 was a year full of regional challenges and conflicts, we hope that 2018 will be a year of Arab-Arab and Islamic-Islamic closeness and unity in order to face such challenges," Sabet said.
Etihad Airways, the national carrier of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has announced Dec. 19, 2017 a reduction of its flights on the Abu Dhabi-Tehran route since Dec. 25 and full suspension since Jan. 24. (AFP photo)

DUBAI, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Etihad Airways, the national carrier of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has announced Wednesday a reduction of its flights on the Abu Dhabi-Tehran route since Dec. 25 and full suspension since Jan. 24.

Etihad Airways said in a statement that the airline will cut its flights between Dec. 25, 2017 and Jan. 23, 2018 from five flights to two flights a week.

The company expressed its apologies to its guests for any inconvenience caused by these changes.

The UAE has condemned in a statement the Iran-backed Houthis' attack on Tuesday targeting Riyadh with a ballistic missile from Yemen, especially "the negative and dangerous role played by Iran and the supporter of the Houthi group."

"This cowardly attack once again raises the dangerous and negative role played by the Islamic Republic of Iran in support of these coup militias and its aggressive practices by providing the Houthi group with ballistic missiles that threaten peace and security in the region," the statement said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 06:14:08|Editor: Chengcheng

Video Player Close

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker (R) shakes hands with Austria's new Chancellor Sebastian Kurz during their meeting in Brussels, Belgium, on Dec. 19, 2017. Austria's new Chancellor Sebastian Kurz Tuesday reaffirmed his government's pro-European stance in his first official trip to Brussels, in an attempt to dispel concerns over the line-up of his government. (Xinhua/Ye Pingfan)

BRUSSELS, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Austria's new Chancellor Sebastian Kurz Tuesday reaffirmed his government's pro-European stance in his first official trip to Brussels, in an attempt to dispel concerns over the line-up of his government.

Speaking at a joint press conference with European Commission President Jean Claude-Juncker and EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations following their meeting, Kurz stressed that Austria is a pro-European country.

"We want to make contribution to a strong European Union. We are looking forward to that, "said the 31-year-old Kurz, the youngest leader in Europe.

For his part, Juncker said Kurz's first visit to EU institutions "sent a positive signal."

"This government has a clear pro-European stance, it's most important to me," Juncker said.

He also clarified that it was the EU's 14 member states rather than EU institutions which slapped sanctions against Austria in 2000, when the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) first entered the government.

Kurz's meeting with Juncker came on the heels of a "good meeting" with European Council President Donald Tusk, during which the young leader, as he tweeted, " reaffirmed the Austrian government's pro-European position & its full commitment to further developing the EU."

"Looking forward to closely cooperating on the upcoming Austrian EU Presidency in 2018," he added.

Tusk also hailed their meeting, tweeting, "very positive and constructive discussion with Chancellor @sebastiankurz. I see in him an energetic, determined and pro-European leader."

Kurz is set to meet European Parliament President Antonio Tajani on Wednesday.

Austria's new coalition government, headed by Kurz, the leader of the conservative People's Party (OVP) , was sworn in on Monday, amid protests concerning its right-wing leanings.

Coalition partner, the far-right Freedom Party (FPO), has seen a return to power, following protracted negotiations with the OVP after the Oct. 15 election. Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache is new vice-chancellor.

Tusk on Monday sent a letter of congratulation to Kurz, saying, "I trust that the new government will continue to play a constructive and pro-European role in the EU."

Austria is set to take over the EU's rotating presidency in the second half of 2018.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 06:19:11|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

MEXICO CITY, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- A Mexican reporter was shot dead on Tuesday while attending a Christmas celebration at his son's elementary school, authorities said.

One or more armed assailants fired on Gumaro Perez Aguilando in front of children and parents gathered at the school in Acayucan, a town in the southern part of the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz.

Perez covered the crime beat for local daily Voz del Sur (Voice of the South), and "recently signed a letter demanding justice" for the killing of another reporter in Veracruz, according to Mexican daily El Financiero.

Perez, 34, also worked for the City Hall in Acayucan, one of several towns affected by drug trafficking violence in the state.

The governor of Veracruz, Miguel Angel Yunes, said via Twitter a special team of state prosecutors were assigned to investigate the case, and that police would offer his family protection.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley (R, front) vetoes a UN Security Council draft resolution on the status of Jerusalem at the UN headquarters in New York, on Dec. 18, 2017. The United States on Monday vetoed a Security Council draft resolution on the status of Jerusalem. All other 14 members of the Security Council voted in favor of the Egyptian-drafted text. But as the United States, which is a permanent member of the Security Council, has veto power, the draft resolution failed to be adopted. (Xinhua/UN Photo)

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations General Assembly will hold an emergency special session on Thursday after the United States vetoed an Egypt-drafted resolution which targeted to make the United States withdraw its decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, UN sources said here Tuesday.

Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour also expressed hope that the General Assembly will vote on a draft resolution calling for U.S. President Donald Trump's declaration to be withdrawn as well, sources said.

The United States on Monday vetoed a Security Council draft resolution on the status of Jerusalem. All other 14 members of the Security Council voted in favor of the Egypt-drafted text. But as the United States, which is a permanent member of the Security Council, has veto power, the draft resolution failed to be adopted.

The General Assembly rarely holds emergency sessions and Thursday's meeting will be a resumption of that session, sources said.

Mansour and several Arab countries' officials have met with UNGA President Miroslav Lajcak after the United States vetoed the draft resolution, sources said.

President Trump on December 6 announced his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, prompting violent protests across the Middle East, Europe, and beyond.

UN Resolution 377 states that the General Assembly can call an emergency session to consider a matter "with a view to making appropriate recommendations to members for collective measures," if the Security Council fails to act.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 06:34:13|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

LONDON, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Two of the global financial hubs the City of London and Hong Kong will be working closely together to provide financing, and legal and insurance expertize for the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, a leading City of London executive has said.

"The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is enormous, ambitious," and has been called by the Chinese leader as "the project of the century," Sherry Madera, City of London Corporation (CLC) special adviser for Asia told Xinhua in an exclusive interview on Tuesday.

Madera had just returned from Hong Kong where the CLC had officially joined Hong Kong's Infrastructure Financing Facilitation Office (IFFO) on Monday, a body run by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) to facilitate infrastructure investment and financing for the BRI.

Madera said the IFFO, founded last year, now had 80 entities taking part and aimed to be a knowledge-sharing platform, for discussions about infrastructure financing for the BRI and how that can be done efficiently.

"London is the only international city that has joined the IFFO," said Madera.

According to City of London Economic Research (CLER), London played a dominant role in global foreign exchange with daily turnover of 2.7 trillion U.S. dollars accounting for 41 percent of global share.

CLER figures for 2014 also showed that London dealt with 71 percent of international bond trading, that 20 percent of the global foreign equity market was listed there, and 18 percent of global cross-border lending was arranged in the city more than any other global center.

London sees the BRI as a project where it can profit by offering its special expertise, said Madera, and a joint approach with Hong Kong, itself a global financial center with a very particular role to play in Asia, would be a win-win for all parties.

"The City of London has a real strategic partner role in the IFFO, as defined by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) -- it is important for us to walk the walk," said Madera.

"This is a really good example of where London and Hong Kong are not competitors -- the pie on this is so big, and by being able to work together it is going to grow," she said.

The BRI is a project which has seen dozens of countries, regions and international organizations sign cooperation agreements with China.

Madera said that after attending the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing in May it was clear that there was a need to "mobilize private capital alongside government funds in order to build out Belt and Road infrastructure."

"This is going to need to be educational, cultural and business mindset that is going to have to happen; it is not just flipping a switch," said Madera.

EXPERTIZE IN LAW, INSURANCE, FOREX

London's expertize in law, insurance and foreign exchange trading, and its deep and liquid markets of capital could be of value to the building and expansion of infrastructure along the Belt and Road.

Cooperation between the City of London and Hong Kong would benefit the BRI and both parties, said Madera.

"As the deepest capital market in the world capital flows through London. It is the strongest infrastructure financing center, we have a history of structured finance and that is an obvious sharing point (with Hong Kong)," said Madera.

Madera said that London, as the second largest offshore center for trading renminbi (RMB) after Hong Kong, had a role to supplement and support Hong Kong in facilitating finance for BRI.

"It is going to be a matching of multiple currencies, and in that London is second to none as the number one global financial center for foreign exchange," said Madera.

Hong Kong and London's legal frameworks were very similar and were also a global benchmark used in transnational infrastructure projects, and these legal principles and templates could be utilized through the IFFO, according to the official.

London as the world's third largest insurance center had expertize to offer Hong Kong in the areas of geo-political insurance, climate change and environment insurance and cargo insurance for BRI projects.

"There is a real benefit from London's point of view to engage on those three topics of foreign exchange, the law and insurance," said Madera.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 06:34:14|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

MEXICO CITY, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Mexico views its economic relationship with China with optimism, with e-commerce to help spur those ties, according to Paulo Carreno, general director of Mexican trade promotion agency ProMexico.

"We are very optimistic about what can happen with China next year and over the coming years," Carreno, whose agency is part of the Economy Ministry, told Xinhua.

China "is and will continue to be a highly important strategic market," he added.

In presenting an overview of his agency's 2017 accomplishments and 2018 goals, Carreno underscored Mexico's negotiations with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, which aims to help small and medium-size Mexican companies access the Asian market via the online sales platform.

E-commerce will undoubtedly be an effective tool for expanding business, and so there's the agreement being signed between ProMexico and Alibaba, said Carreno.

During China's recent "Black Friday," or "Singles' Day," Mexico succeeded in selling nearly a million avocados online, he added.

"Mexican business owners have shown their interest in China and Chinese business owners have shown their interest in increasing Mexican exports," ProMexico's chief said, noting there was a lot of room for growth in trade.

From 2015 to 2016, Mexico's exports to China grew 11 percent, and from 2016 to September 2017, they grew a record 30 percent.

Carreno aims to introduce new exports in 2018, including Mexican handicrafts and jewelry available through Alibaba. His agency is studying the possibility of establishing a warehouse in China to speed up the delivery of online purchases.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 06:44:15|Editor: liuxin

Video Player Close

Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos addresses lawmakers during the parliament's session for the 2018 state budget in Athens, Greece, on Dec. 19, 2017. Greek lawmakers ratified on Tuesday evening the 2018 state budget. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)

by Maria Spiliopoulou

ATHENS, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Greek lawmakers ratified on Tuesday evening the 2018 state budget.

The government appears confident that it will be the last one tabled in parliament while Greece is under a bailout program and opposition parties are expressing fear that the circle of austerity will not close soon.

The budget was approved with the backing of the 153 deputies of the two-partite Left-led ruling coalition, while 144 MPs voted against. A total of 297 lawmakers participated in the roll-call vote, which was broadcast live on the parliament's television channel.

It projects 2.5 percent GDP (gross domestic product) growth next year up from 1.6 percent for this year and a 3.8 percent of GDP primary surplus for 2018 up from 2.4 percent forecast for 2017.

Both estimates are higher than the targets set by the current three-year bailout program which expires in the summer of 2018.

Addressing the plenary shortly before the roll call vote Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras argued that the 2018 budget heralds the post-bailout era and Greece's return to normalcy.

"The country will honor the commitments it has made towards its creditors and will achieve a stable and lasting access to the international markets at favorable rates," he said.

The debt-ridden country has been shut out by international markets since 2010, when it resorted to the first bailout to avoid disorderly default.

Following several rounds of painful austerity measures and structural reforms the ailing economy is recovering, according to Athens' and lenders' estimates.

Main opposition conservative New Democracy party leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis, as well as other opposition parties, argued during the debate that despite some positive financial indexes other numbers are still negative and Greece will most likely need further belt-tightening measures after next summer.

"There will be no clean exit from the memoranda, as new measures are expected to be applied as far as the year 2020, and there will be tough supervision from the country's creditors," Mitsotakis said during his speech.

Over taxation imposed to meet bailout targets is still strangling growth and the real economy, according to critics.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 07:19:19|Editor: Chengcheng

Video Player Close

U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan (C) speaks during a press conference after the House of Representatives passed the tax bill at the Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., the United States, on Dec. 19, 2017. The U.S. House of Representatives will have to vote again on the Republican tax bill on Wednesday as some provisions in the bill didn't comply with Senate budget rules. The Senate parliamentarian has advised that three provisions in the Republican tax bill, which passed the House Tuesday afternoon, violate the so-called Byrd rule, according to Bernie Sanders, ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee. (Xinhua/Ting Shen)

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. House of Representatives will have to vote again on the Republican tax bill on Wednesday as some provisions in the bill didn't comply with Senate budget rules.

The Senate parliamentarian has advised that three provisions in the Republican tax bill, which passed the House Tuesday afternoon, violate the so-called Byrd rule, according to Bernie Sanders, ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee.

"In the mad dash to provide tax breaks for their billionaire campaign contributors, our Republican colleagues forgot to comply with the rules of the Senate," Sanders said Tuesday in a statement.

"It is our intention to raise a point of order to remove these provisions from the conference report and require the House to vote on this bill again," he added.

While the Senate still plans to vote on the tax bill Tuesday evening, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said the House will have to take another vote on the tax legislation Wednesday morning.

Overhauling the tax code is a top priority for the Donald Trump administration and congressional Republicans before next year's midterm elections. They insist that the broad tax cuts for corporations, small businesses and individuals will boost U.S. economic and job growth.

But Democrats have criticized that the Republican tax legislation would mostly benefit the wealthy and large corporations and increase U.S. budget deficit.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 07:24:20|Editor: Chengcheng

Video Player Close

MEXICO CITY, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Mexican, Canadian and U.S. automakers are trying to dissuade the U.S. government from changing the rules of origin contained in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a Mexican industry leader said on Tuesday.

"We are in an educational phase, in which we want the decision-makers in the United States to help us persuade those who are pushing for an unrealistic change," the president of the Mexican Automotive Industry Association (AMIA), Eduardo Solis, told reporters.

As part of negotiations to modernize the two-decade-old accord, the White House wants to change the rules so that no less than 85 percent of a vehicle must be made in North America to be eligible for NAFTA's preferential rates. The current minimum is 62.5 percent.

Trump's negotiators additionally demand 50 percent of components be U.S. manufactured, a proposal both Canada and Mexico have balked at.

Last week, negotiators from all sides met in Washington to pore over the thorniest proposals of the NAFTA talks, including the rules of origin.

"The only proposal the industry has on the table is to not change anything, because of how well it's gone for us with the initial version of the agreement," said Solis, who attended the Washington sessions.

"My counterparts feel exactly the same way and we are persuading those we have to persuade that we don't have to change anything," he said.

A "very important and complex" stage of negotiations is coming up and it will be "essential" to maintain a strong stand on preserving the current rules, he said.

The sixth round of talks are to be held in Montreal, Canada, from Jan. 23 to 28.

Negotiations to update NAFTA, which was signed in 1994, began in mid August on U.S. President Donald Trump's insistence the treaty benefits Mexico and Canada to the detriment of U.S. industry and jobs. But most observers agree all three have benefited from the agreement.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 07:42:23|Editor: Yang Yi

Video Player Close

Photo taken on Dec. 19, 2017 shows the 2017 China Business Summit On Achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) held in Beijing, capital of China. The summit kicked off here Tuesday, including keynote speeches and forum sessions thatintroduce Chinese enterpises' innovative ideas and practical experience on achieving sustainable development. (Xinhua/Lu Peng)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 07:29:22|Editor: Chengcheng

Video Player Close

CHICAGO, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) grains closed mixed on Tuesday, with soybean futures falling for the ninth time in 10 sessions on technical selling and forecasts for crop-boosting rains in South America.

Corn firmed on short-covering after touching contract lows, but prices remain capped by abundant supplies.

The most active corn contract for March delivery went up 0.5 cent, or 0.14 percent, to 3.475 dollars per bushel. March wheat delivery fell 1 cent, or 0.24 percent, to 4.195 dollars per bushel. January soybeans dropped 5.5 cents, or 0.57 percent to 9.56 dollars per bushel.

Private exporters on Tuesday reported to the U.S. Department of Agriculture export sales of 145,000 tonnes of soybeans for delivery to unknown destinations during the 2018/2019 marketing year. The marketing year for soybeans began Sept. 1.

Trading was light as investors moved to the sidelines ahead of the year-end holidays. Grain markets will close early on Friday and remain closed through Monday for the Christmas holiday.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 08:22:00|Editor: Chengcheng

Video Player Close

Photo taken on Dec. 19, 2017 shows candles and flowers placed at a commemoration for the first anniversary of a deadly terrorist attack on a Christmas market at Breitscheidplatz of Berlin, capital of Germany. The German government on Tuesday asked victims for forgiveness as Berlin commemorates the first anniversary of a deadly terrorist attack on a Christmas market in the capital. Anis Amri, a Tunisian national with radical Islamist views, killed a total of 12 people and injured around 100 others when he drove a truck into a crowd of pedestrians at the Breitscheidplatz Christmas market on Dec. 19, 2016. (Xinhua/Shan Yuqi)
U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan speaks during a press conference after the House passes the tax reform bill at the Capitol in Washington D.C., the United States, on Dec. 19, 2017. The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday passed the final Republican bill to overhaul the U.S. tax system in three decades, which would slash income taxes for corporates and individuals while widening American budget deficit and income inequality. (Xinhua/Shen Ting)

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. House of Representatives will have to vote again on the Republican tax bill on Wednesday as some provisions in the bill didn't comply with Senate budget rules.

The Senate parliamentarian has advised that three provisions in the Republican tax bill, which passed the House Tuesday afternoon, violate the so-called Byrd rule, according to Bernie Sanders, ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee.

"In the mad dash to provide tax breaks for their billionaire campaign contributors, our Republican colleagues forgot to comply with the rules of the Senate," Sanders said Tuesday in a statement.

"It is our intention to raise a point of order to remove these provisions from the conference report and require the House to vote on this bill again," he added.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks during a press conference as the House passes the tax reform bill at the Capitol in Washington D.C., the United States, on Dec. 19, 2017. The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday passed the final Republican bill to overhaul the U.S. tax system in three decades, which would slash income taxes for corporates and individuals while widening American budget deficit and income inequality. (Xinhua/Shen Ting)

While the Senate still plans to vote on the tax bill Tuesday evening, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said the House will have to take another vote on the tax legislation Wednesday morning.

Overhauling the tax code is a top priority for the Donald Trump administration and congressional Republicans before next year's midterm elections. They insist that the broad tax cuts for corporations, small businesses and individuals will boost U.S. economic and job growth.

But Democrats have criticized that the Republican tax legislation would mostly benefit the wealthy and large corporations and increase U.S. budget deficit.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 08:34:33|Editor: Yang Yi

Video Player Close

VIENTIANE, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- A bunch of students in the National University of Laos (NUOL) here have been awarded Chinese Ambassador Scholarships.

Speaking at the awarding ceremony on Tuesday, Chinese Ambassador to Laos Wang Wentian said Chinese Embassy supports NUOL and the education development of Laos, offers helps to outstanding students, especially low-income students with good academic performance so that they can realize their own life values and dreams.

Chinese Embassy in Laos is willing to create more opportunities for Lao students to study in China and learn more about the country, Wang said.

President of the NUOL Somsy Gnophanxay, for his part, said the support of Chinese Embassy plays an important role in talent training and socio-economic development of Laos.

Somsy asked students who gained scholarships to study well so as to become backbone of national development of Laos.

The Chinese Ambassador expressed his hope that Lao students will take the opportunity to realize their own dreams and also the dreams of Laos, contributing to further nurturing the friendship between the two countries.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 09:09:40|Editor: Chengcheng

Video Player Close

SYDNEY, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- A 25-year-old man who allegedly traveled to Syria to fight in terrorism-linked activities has become the first Australian-based person to be charged with "foreign incursion offences" and is set to appear in court on Wednesday, according to police.

The suspect, who was allegedly in the Syrian conflict zone from March 2015 before returning to Australia half a year later, was arrested in his home in the southwest Sydney suburb of Mount Lewis early on Tuesday.

He was charged later that day "with incursion into foreign countries with the intention of engaging in hostile activities," the Australian Federal Police and New South Wales Police Force said in a joint media release.

The man, who could get a life sentence if found guilty of the foreign incursion, is also facing offences related to drugs and stolen property.

The case sends a clear message that it is "illegal to fight for a terrorist organization, anywhere," New South Wales Police Force Assistant Commissioner Mick Willing, Commander Counter Terrorism and Special Tactics Command, was quoted as saying.

"Anyone who thinks they can, needs to reconsider that position," he said.

Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton told ABC Radio on Wednesday that the man was the 81st person since 2014 to be charged with a terror offence.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 09:34:45|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

Photo taken on Dec. 14, 2017 shows high-rise buildings in Phnom Penh. Cambodia's economy is expected to remain strong in the short-to-mid term despite political concerns, senior officials said, although analysts foresaw current political issues as possibly adversely affecting growth prospects. (Xinhua/Sovannara)

by Mao Pengfei, Nguon Sovan

PHNOM PENH, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia's economy is expected to remain strong in the short-to-mid term despite political concerns, senior officials said, although analysts foresaw current political issues as possibly adversely affecting growth prospects.

Economy and Finance Minister Aun Pornmoniroth said Cambodia would still be able to achieve economic growth of around 7 percent per annum in the short-to-medium term.

"Based on the forecast, economic growth is projected to grow 6.9 percent in 2018, the same as 2017, pushing up the nation's GDP (gross domestic product) to about 24.5 billion U.S. dollars," he told parliament during a budget law debate in November.

He said the GDP per capita was predicted to be 1,568 U.S. dollars in 2018, an expected rise of 9 percent from 1,435 U.S. dollars in 2017.

The Southeast Asian country's economy has traditionally been driven by garment exports, tourism, construction, and agriculture.

GROWTH DRIVERS

According to government figures, the country exported garments and footwear products worth 5.6 billion U.S. dollars in the first nine months of 2017, up 7 percent compared to the same period a year earlier. As for tourism, 4.3 million foreign visitors came to Cambodia during the first 10 months of the year, up 10 percent on year.

On the construction side, the country attracted 6.2 billion U.S. dollars in investment projects during the first 10 months of the year, up 27 percent on year.

Last month, the World Bank also predicted strong growth for Cambodia in the medium term, saying the country's economy was expected to increase 6.8 percent in 2017 and by 6.9 percent in 2018 despite risks including uncertainties related to next year's national election.

"The medium-term outlook remains positive, boosted by export diversification and underpinned by healthy inflows of foreign direct investment and an improving global outlook," the World Bank said in its updated report, adding that "potential election-related uncertainties pose downside risks to the outlook."

POLITICAL TURBULENCE

On Nov. 16, the country's Supreme Court dissolved the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) after its leader Kem Sokha was arrested on Sept. 3 and charged with treason for conspiring with a foreign power to attempt to overthrow the government.

The court also banned the CNRP's 118 senior members from politics for five years.

Chheang Vannarith, a senior fellow of the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, said the current political situation would adversely affect the nation's economic outlook.

"The dissolution of the CNRP will lead to a deeper political crisis and instability in the country," he said. "Cambodia will face high risks and uncertainties within the context of looming international sanctions to be imposed by the United States and the European Union."

Mey Kalyan, a senior advisor to the Supreme National Economic Council, said the political situation might have an adverse effect on the economy, but only in the short-term.

"In the case of Cambodia's current situation where the national election will take place next year, it is likely that there will be some negative impacts in the short term, as many people will take a 'wait and see' attitude," he said.

"This is very normal in other countries too. However, in the medium-to-long run, the impact could turn positive as the cloud of uncertainty will have cleared."

BUSINESS AS USUAL

Sok Eysan, a spokesperson for the ruling Cambodian People's Party, said legal measures against the opposition party and its leaders were to enforce the rule of law and to maintain the country's peace and stability.

"I don't think the legal measures against the law-violating opposition group will lead to instability," he said. "As you see everything is moving forward as usual -- investors and tourists are still coming to Cambodia."

In Channy, president and chief executive officer of Acleda Bank, agreed that the current political situation would not hurt economic growth thanks to investors' confidence in the country's political stability.

"As a banker, I do not see any signs that the growth will slow down," he said. "I believe that foreign investors will continue to come to Cambodia because of their confidence in political stability here and the high potential for investment."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 09:49:48|Editor: liuxin

Video Player Close

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders said here Tuesday that U.S. President Donald Trump has accepted an invitation by British Prime Minister Theresa May to visit her nation and the president has been "tough" on Moscow.

According to the White House, Trump called May earlier on Tuesday, the first since their twitter dispute, and the two leaders "exchanged holiday greetings and warm wishes for Christmas and the New Year." They also discussed next steps in forging peace in the Middle East.

The "special relationship" between Trump and May has been questioned in recent weeks following the U.S. president's retweeting of several videos clips posted by a British far-right group. May said Trump's decision was wrong and Trump responded by asking her to take care of her nation. British parliament members have urged May not to invite Trump for a state visit next year.

Speaking of May's invitation, Sanders said it has been "extended and accepted," adding that the White House is working with the British side "to finalize the details, which we expect to announce soon."

Asked why Trump did not use harsh rhetoric against Russia in his speech on the national security strategy on Monday, Sanders said Trump and the White House have always been "tough" on Russia.

"The president has weighed in on Russia and his feelings on that a number of times. The policy and the strategy put forth in that very detailed paper was that of the president and it reflects his views," she said.

She added that Trump "has been clear what his position is. We've been tough on Russia, we've put sanctions on Russia, we've imported energy, and impacted them in a big way. The president has not been soft in this process."

In the national security strategy and the speech, the Trump administration labeled Moscow as the United States' "competitor" and "rival power" seeking to undermine the Washington-led international order and U.S. interests. Russia has denied such an allegation repeatedly.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 09:49:48|Editor: Yang Yi

Video Player Close

VIENTIANE, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The latest Lao government dada showed tourist arrivals fall in the period from January to September in 2017 except that more Chinese are visiting Laos, local daily Vientiane reported Wednesday.

The number of foreign tourists visiting Laos in the first nine months of this year dropped by 9.1 percent to just over 2.88 million people compared to the same period in 2016. The Chinese are the only nationality whose numbers increased, according to the latest statistics from the Lao Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism.

More than 429,000 Chinese visited Laos, an increase of 5 percent compared to the first nine months of 2016.

Lao authorities blame the global economic slowdown and uncertain situations in many parts of the world for the decline in foreign tourist arrivals.

These include the ongoing fighting against Islamic State in the Middle East, the immigration crisis and disputes in other regions.

Deputy Director of the Tourism Research and Administration Division under the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, Bounthavy Sisava, said that the relative high cost of living in Laos could also be blamed for the decline in tourist arrivals.

Tourist numbers from all the major regions dropped in the first nine months of this year, following a decline in tourist arrivals last year after many consecutive years of rising numbers.

The number of visitors from the Asia-Pacific region fell by 7 percent to just over 2.7 million compared to the first nine months of last year.

Holiday-makers from ASEAN countries also dropped by 7 percent, to just over 2.1 million people.

Visitors from two other major regions -- Europe and the United States -- fell by 34 and 35 percent to 113,982 and 43,224 people respectively.

Laos has also witnessed a considerable drop in the number of high-end tourists from countries like the South Korea, Japan, and Germany by 17, 38 and 37 percent respectively.

Thai nationals continued to dominate the Lao tourist market share. Although the number of Thais vacationing in Laos fell by seven percent to just over 1.3 million people, Thais accounted for almost 48 percent of overall foreign tourist arrivals.

Foreign tourist arrivals for the whole of 2017 are expected to fall by 11.2 percent compared to 2016, following last year's drop of 10 percent.

In an effort to bring in more tourists in the years to come, the Lao government has launched Visit Laos Year 2018 which officially began on Oct. 28.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 09:59:50|Editor: liuxin

Video Player Close

TUNIS, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi issued Tuesday a decree calling for finally holding municipal elections on May 6, 2018, a date delayed twice.

"The extension of the municipal elections date for May 6, 2018, remains a sovereign decision of the Independent High Authority for Elections Council (ISIE) far from any pressure from any political party," Mohamed Tlili Mansri, the president of the Tunisian electoral body, told Xinhua, without giving a reason for the delay.

The date was last delayed from Dec. 17, 2017 to March 25, 2018.

Mansri said the elections will be "in full respect of the norms of neutrality and transparency," and "will ensure the strengthening of the democratic transition in Tunisia and introduce the concept of the decentralization of power."

Approximately 5,380,000 people have registered to vote until now, according to Mansri.

The ISIE has 27 regional offices spread over the 27 electoral constituencies throughout the Tunisian territory, which comprises 350 municipalities.

The preliminary results of these municipal elections, the first since the popular uprising of January 2011, will be announced before May 9, 2018 and the final results will be announced on June 22 of next year, said the electoral body leader.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 10:09:54|Editor: liuxin

Video Player Close

OTTAWA, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Canada and the United States will co-host a Foreign Ministers' Meeting on Security and Stability on Korean Peninsula in Vancouver on Jan. 16, 2018.

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland announced the meeting alongside U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson who arrived here for his first visit to Canada for a series of meetings, including a sit-down with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

"The security threat posed by North Korea is a global challenge that affects us all. A diplomatic solution is both essential and possible, and we will continue to work with our allies and regional partners, including the United States, Japan and South Korea, in pursuing our common objective of a secure and stable Korean peninsula," said Freeland.

"We continue to find ways to advance the pressure campaign against North Korea, and send a unified message from the international community: We will not accept you as a nuclear weapons nation. We share one goal, full and complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Tillerson said.

He said this display of solidarity sends a message to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) that the rest of the world is prepared to talk. "We can't talk unless North Korea is ready to talk. We're waiting for them to indicate a readiness to talk -- this pressure campaign will not abate. We will not be rolling any of it back."

Most of the countries which joined in the 1950-1953 Korean War have been invited to participate in the Vancouver meeting.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 10:14:57|Editor: liuxin

Video Player Close

BEIJING, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- At the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Gambian President Adama Barrow is scheduled to embark on a week-long state visit to China on Wednesday.

The following is a brief introduction of the Gambian president:

Born in 1965, Barrow had been a real estate developer before becoming a politician.

He joined the United Democratic Party (UDP) in Gambia in 1996 and has served as the party's deputy treasurer, a regional coordinator and its treasurer.

He was elected the president of Gambia in December 2016 and took office in February 2017.

The visit is Barrow's first state visit to China.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 10:24:29|Editor: liuxin

Video Player Close

This undated photo released by Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) on Dec. 19, 2017 shows an endangered Asian giant softshell turtle on a sandbar of the Mekong River in Cambodia. Conservationists have found a nest of the globally endangered Asian giant softshell turtle on a sandbar on the Mekong River between Kratie and Stung Treng provinces in northeast Cambodia, a Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) statement said Tuesday. (Xinhua/WCS)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 10:30:01|Editor: liuxin

Video Player Close

YANGON, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- A forensic investigation into 10 bodies uncovered in a village in Maungtaw, Myanmar's western Rakhine state, has begun with a medical team, judicial personnel and local administration, Myanmar News Agency reported Wednesday.

The 10 bodies were found in a mass grave in Indin village after the authorities acted on an anonymous tip-off, said the police.

The military authorities warned in a statement that action would be taken against the killers of the 10 victims, saying that the security forces were ordered to follow rules of engagement in conducting law enforcement measures to restore rule of law following Aug. 25 terrorist attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) extremist terrorists in the area.

In the terrorist attack, ARSA committed besieging and threatening villagers from ethnic villages, members of the police force, government staff and Buddhist monks and raided the villages and police outposts.

The attacks on police outposts have displaced residents from a number of areas in Maungtaw of the state.

Following the return to normalcy of Rakhine situation, Myanmar formed the Implementation Committee of Recommendations on Rakhine State in September to implement the recommendations of the final report of the Advisory Commission, led by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

The government has also invited cooperation from local and international community in rebuilding and resettlement efforts for conflict-torn Rakhine state.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 10:55:07|Editor: Yang Yi

Video Player Close

by Xinhua writer Ma Jianguo

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- China could play a much bigger and more active role in global governance using the platform of the United Nations (UN), as China's governance notions agree with the organization's goals, a senior UN expert said here Tuesday.

"President Xi's idea of building a community of shared destiny for mankind is well in line with the UN agenda, which prioritizes peace and development," said Abdelkader Abbadi, an author and international consultant who has worked at the UN headquarters for 50 years.

As the biggest contributor to peacekeeping, China has proven it is a real advocate of UN ideals and is setting a great example for the world, with its role in South-South cooperation and its remarkable progress in bringing over millions out of poverty over decades, said the expert.

China is playing an active role in global peacemaking and peacekeeping, as it puts its traditional philosophy of peace and good neighborliness into modern practice, he said.

In 2015, the General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda with 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) covering mankind's endeavor to address the issues of climate change, population, poverty, refugees, economic and financial instability, and inequality that, if not properly handled, could endanger the world economy, peace and stability, said Abbadi.

All these problems, he said, are evolving into global threats that demand efforts from each and every member of the international community.

The SDGs are also an expression of interdependence. No matter whether poor or rich, small or large, all nations depend on one another for our future, he said.

Developed economies will be at risk if they do not address the problem of inequality, said the expert, adding that no nation could enjoy sustained development if the global ecosystem is destroyed.

Our future generations need collective wisdom and actions, Abbadi said.

From this perspective, all of the 17 SDGs, especially climate change and pollution, are global challenges that must be solved by the world as a whole, and if not handled properly, these issues might pose inter-generational problems, he said.

Through its Belt and Road Initiative, China is showing that it is truly embracing the notion of being partners with and sharing its success with other nations, said the UN official.

The expert quoted the Chinese saying "Improve yourself when you are poor, commit to the world's welfare when you are rich."

"Now that China is better off and has such powers, the UN should be the best platform for it to practice its traditional philosophy, and make our world a better place to live," said Abbadi.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 11:15:11|Editor: liuxin

Video Player Close

SYDNEY, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Climate change may have a larger impact on saltwater crocodile populations than previously thought, with the reptiles' nesting periods particularly susceptible to flooding or drought, a latest Australian research has found.

The freshly laid embryos of saltwater crocodiles that were studied in Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory did not exhibit arrested development in low-oxygen environments, unlike those of turtles. It meant that the large predators may lack the ability to delay nesting for extended periods of time during adverse weather conditions, Sean A. Williamson, a Monash University researcher who lead the report on the findings, told Xinhua on Wednesday.

"So with climate change we know that particular areas of Australia are going to start receiving more rainfall or potentially less rainfall ... if there are more extreme flooding events, then this could be detrimental for crocodile nesting and mean that the mothers' reproductive efforts each year are less likely to succeed," said Williamson.

The saltwater crocodile is the largest living reptile and there are about 100,000 of them in the wild in the Northern Territory, which has vast coastal wetlands and rivers that offer an ideal habitat for the animals, according to the local government. The crocodile is a "critical part of aquatic ecosystems" as a key predator, and related farming and tourism activities are valuable parts of the economy, it said.

The latest findings offer novel information about the development of reptiles and the impact of adverse nesting conditions on them, said Williamson.

"It's of ecological importance because that means that their reproductive assets ... are probably wasted. It's also important for crocodile managers and zoos."

The report was published in the Royal Society Open Science scientific journal.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 11:15:12|Editor: liuxin

Video Player Close

HAVANA, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Cuba's economy showed "discrete progress" this year despite "financial and cash constraints" and the devastating impact of Hurricane Irma, Economy and Planning Minister Ricardo Cabrisas said Tuesday.

"The economy was severely restricted and operated under difficult circumstances due to the lack of foreign currency to make payments and the availability of refined oil products," Cabrisas was quoted by local media as saying while addressing lawmakers of the economic affairs working group of Cuba's National Assembly.

The island country's economy is expected to grow 2 percent in 2017 and official figures will be released by Cabrisas on Thursday when lawmakers gather for this year's final session at the parliament.

Cuba's economy shrank 0.9 percent in 2016 due to a cash shortage and a decrease of export revenue as its trade partners' economies weren't doing well.

Cabrisas said the "intensification" of the U.S. embargo against the island as well as the rollback in the thawing of ties with Washington after the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump also affected the country's economy in 2017.

"However, not everything is negative and there has been significant growth in the tourism sector, which this year attracted more than 4.5 million visitors to our nation," he said.

For next year, Cabrisas added that there will be "priorities" in the economic plan with an emphasis on recovery from hurricane damage and investments in infrastructure development.

The government will also focus on increasing food production, the sugar harvest and the sustainability of basic services for the people, he added.

"The tense financial situation will persist in 2018, therefore a realistic plan must be designed to guarantee expected incomes, eliminate unnecessary expenses, make progress in crucial investment programs and assure the rational use of resources," he said.
This undated photo released by Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) on Dec. 19, 2017 shows an endangered Asian giant softshell turtle on a sandbar of the Mekong River in Cambodia. (Xinhua/WCS)

PHNOM PENH, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Conservationists have found a nest of the globally endangered Asian giant softshell turtle on a sandbar on the Mekong River between Kratie and Stung Treng provinces in northeast Cambodia, a Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) statement said Tuesday.

"This is the only remaining area in the country where these huge turtles still breed," the statement said. "This nest is now being protected by local communities until all eggs are hatched and the hatchlings will be then released into the river."

The Asian giant softshell turtle (Pelochelys cantorii) is listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List as globally endangered. It was thought extinct in the Cambodian portion of the Mekong River until its re-discovery in 2007 in a 48-km stretch of the river in Kratie and Stung Treng provinces.

According to the WCS, since 2007, 378 nests have been protected and 8,528 hatchlings released.

This undated photo released by Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) on Dec. 19, 2017 shows eggs of endangered Asian giant softshell turtle on a sandbar of the Mekong River in Cambodia. (Xinhua/WCS)

"From now until June is the breeding period of the Asian giant softshell turtle. This is the first nest we have found so far this year," said Som Sitha, WCS's technical advisor to the Turtle Conservation Project.

"We will work hard with the Fisheries Administration and local communities to find more nests along the Mekong River and protect them from egg collection."

He said the Asian giant softshell turtle is a very rare species that will become extinct in the near future if proper action is not taken to conserve them.

"There are not many individuals left. Everyone can help conserve the species by not buying or eating their meat or eggs," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 11:50:17|Editor: Xiang Bo

Video Player Close

SYDNEY, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- A delegation of state officials have welcomed China's Hainan Airlines to Australia's tropical north, after the first direct flight from China's Shenzhen to Cairns landed safely on Wednesday morning.

Queensland State Tourism Minister Kate Jones described the new route, with two services per week, as a "game changer" for the region.

"With a travel time of just under eight hours this will provide the quickest route for Chinese travellers to Australia," Jones said.

"And provide tourists direct access to two World Heritage-listed natural wonders - the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics Rainforest."

The flight path is expected to bring more than 30,000 Chinese visitors to Cairns over the next two years and is set to boost the region's economy by over 50 million U.S. dollars.

As Queensland's most valuable and fastest growing international market, Chinese tourists arrivals have been rapidly increasing in the state's tropical north.

But despite the area's idyllic white sand beaches and sundrenched attractions, the lack of direct access from the Chinese mainland has proved somewhat of a barrier for local tourism operators and hindered the state government's goal of making the area the most desired location for Chinese visitors.

Cairns Airport Chief Executive Officer Norris Carter said with direct flights now operating, it will be much easier to capitalize on the market.

"With more than 80 percent of our Chinese visitors currently using a domestic flight to get to and from Cairns, this new service will enable them to spend less time travelling and more time enjoying everything tropical North Queensland has to offer," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 12:10:22|Editor: Xiang Bo

Video Player Close

BEIJING, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Latin America has been going through an adjustment period in 2017, with economic recovery underway, political tensions eased, and regional countries changing foreign policies based on their respective needs and the international situation.

ECONOMIC, POLITICAL RECOVERY

Negative growth had been a cloud hanging over the continent for two consecutive years, but was finally dispelled by the recovery in 2017, a major result of price hikes concerning coal, oil, natural gas and metals on the global market.

The upbeat is further supported by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, which forecasts that economic growth in the region will be 1.2 percent this year and 2.2 percent in 2018.

However, the gradual recovery is unlikely to turn into a strong rebound due to multiple internal and external uncertainties, such as languished commodity prices, the faltering renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and slow progress in the structural reforms of regional countries.

The political arena has witnessed no bombshell. Brazilian President Michel Temer, who took office after his predecessor Dilma Rousseff was impeached for fiscal wrongdoings and was removed from office last year, avoided an impeachment as Brazil's lower house voted to drop corruption charges against him in October, securing Temer's term due in 2018.

December marks a new step towards political stability for the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela, which garnered a sweeping victory in regional elections, winning 308 municipalities out of 335, after the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable agreed to talks with the government to address a bitter power struggle that has existed for years.

In Argentina, despite widespread opposition, the government has secured an upper hand in pushing forward a series of market-oriented economic reforms. A recent case of President Mauricio Macri's victory was the Congress' approval of a pension system reform Tuesday.

Yan Jin, a research fellow on Latin American issues with China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said the right wing has been regaining strength after last year's power struggle with the left, and is promoting structural reform and consolidating power.

Meanwhile, the left wing is taking this opportunity to build up its political and social influence, Yan said.

CHANGES IN U.S. POLICY

For years, the United States has adopted a "carrot and stick" approach towards its relations with Latin America, but several changes occurred since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January.

Although the U.S. Congress hasn't ratified the building of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, Trump has so far not changed his stance on the issue, keeping to the promise he made in his presidential campaign.

Controversy was provoked over the U.S. demand for renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), as the fifth round of talks in Mexico bore few fruits. Mexico faces mounting pressure from the U.S. government, who said the treaty has harmed the American economy and threatened to scrap the agreement.

The United States has also witnessed setbacks in its relations with Cuba, as the current administration retreated from progress made by the Obama administration in normalizing bilateral ties.

Furthermore, the United States announced several rounds of sanctions against Venezuela over President Nicolas Maduro's efforts to establish a National Constituent Assembly, and led the European Union and some Latin American countries to pressure the Maduro administration.

Xu Shicheng, a research fellow with the Institute of Latin American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (ILAS CASS), a top national academic organization, pointed out a weakening unity of Latin American countries under such circumstances, adding that less progress has been achieved as the regional integration process faces multiple obstacles.

MULTIDIMENSIONAL FOREIGN TIES

Latin America has been adding new dimensions to its foreign relations, expanding mutual development with Europe and Asia, and gaining momentum in fostering closer ties with China.

In 2017, the region was designated as the natural extension of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, a new maritime route as part of the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China in 2013.

Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Peru and others have also shown their intention of joining the initiative and forming a strategic cooperation with China.

"China is undergoing a shift in economic structure, while Latin America is experiencing changes and economic recovery. The new year will witness closer development between the two parties," said Guo Cunhai, assistant researcher at ILAS CASS.

"How will both sides exchange governing experience to achieve a win-win situation is a topic that is worth our focus," Guo said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 12:25:24|Editor: Xiang Bo

Video Player Close

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- MyHSR Corporation, Malaysia's project delivery vehicle for the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (KL-SG HSR), and its Singaporean counterpart, on Wednesday called for a joint tender for an Assets Company (AssetsCo), which could cost more than 10 billion U.S. dollars by some estimate.

The AssetsCo, viewed as the "crown jewel" of the KL-SG HSR project, will be responsible for designing, building, financing and maintaining all rolling stock, as well as designing, building, financing, operating and maintaining all rail assets such as track-work, power, signalling and telecommunications for the project, MyHSR and SG HSR said in a joint press release.

The AssetsCo will also coordinate the system's network capacity for operations and maintenance needs, it added.

"We welcome all interested parties to submit their best proposal for the AssetsCo tender," said MyHSR Corp Chief Executive Officer Mohd Nur Ismal Mohamed Kamal in the statement, adding "the KL-SG HSR project is a complex and extensive transport infrastructure project for both countries, which will generate huge socio-economic benefits arising from the increased connectivity and travel efficiency."

SG HSR Managing Director Rama Venkta said they have received enthusiastic responses from the market for the project so far.

According to the statement, the tender aims to identify an AssetsCo, which will provide a solution that prioritizes safety and security, availability and reliability, proven technology, operations flexibility, customer centric design, value for money, and collaborative project implementation with MyHSR Corp and SG HSR.

MyHSR Corp and SG HSR welcome the interest of all companies, whether they are based in Malaysia, Singapore or overseas, it added.

The call for tender came one year after the governments of Malaysia and Singapore signed a legally-binding pact on the project. The HSR project will cut travel time between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore to 90 minutes once it runs into operation by the end of 2026. Companies from China, Japan and Europe have long expressed interests in this project.

In a separate tender notice released by MyHSR and SG HSR, a set of minimum criteria have been laid out. For instance, communications systems provider for the project must have designed, integrated and delivered systems with a period of operations more than two years and with an aggregated size of more than 100 km.

Rolling stock providers must have designed and delivered trainsets into commercial services with more than five years in service and delivered more than 10 trainsets.

Bidders will have until June 29, 2018 to submit proposals to MyHSR and SG HSR and a tender briefing will be held in Kuala Lumpur on Jan. 23, 2018. Through this open, fair and transparent procurement process, MyHSR and SG HSR target to jointly select a qualified bidder by the end of next year, it said.

Prior to the AssetsCo tender, other tenders related to the project, such as social impact assessment and joint development partner, have been called.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 12:35:28|Editor: Xiang Bo

Video Player Close

PANAMA CITY, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- China's national carrier, Air China, is expected to open the first connecting flight between China and Panama in 2018 as the two sides have laid the groundwork, airport officials said here Tuesday.

Air China executives have met with Panamanian airport officials over the specific issues, Panama City's Tocumen International Airport said.

The flight is expected to be launched in March 2018, and includes a technical stopover in Houston, the U.S. state of Texas.

The carrier that has flights to 180 cities in 38 countries or regions has said it plans to open a regional office in Panama.

The new flight was announced during Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela's state visit to China on Nov. 16-22, and is to operate twice a week.

Panama is a hub in Latin America, with flights to 35 cities throughout the Americas and Europe.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 13:15:33|Editor: Yang Yi

Video Player Close

PINGYAO, SHANXI, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- It is a cold winter's night. Outside the ancient walled city of Pingyao in northern China, hundreds of people gather to watch an unusual theatrical production.

Eight women in traditional costume towel-dry six muscular and freshly-bathed men, when suddenly the women fiercely bite into the men's arms as they howl in pain.

"If you die, the teeth marks will guide your spirits home," a narrator tells the audience.

This was how bodyguards were sent off to protect merchants in the Qing Dynasty, and the scene has been brought to life by Chinese director Wang Chaoge in her interactive play, "Another Glance at Pingyao."

The play is part of a series of theatrical performances created by domestic directors, often held at UNESCO World Heritage sites, to rediscover history and traditional culture. In many ways the show symbolizes the city's recent artistic renaissance.

The performance focuses on a cultural trope all-too-familiar to Chinese -- preserving the family bloodline. But the story, about a bank owner who threw all his wealth into rescuing an employee's kidnapped son and died with 232 bodyguards in the course, also touches on business culture and character traits the Chinese are proud of.

"I was awed by the spirit of integrity and righteousness. I saw many were moved to tears," said a viewer, in an online forum.

"[The play] epitomizes the character of Shanxi merchants," said another member of the audience, a Pingyao native. "We hold loyalty and fraternity in high esteem."

The play has been a huge success, grossing 100 million yuan (15 million U.S. dollars) in 2017 alone, with tourists travelling to Pingyao, in Shanxi Province, from far and wide to catch this unique take on Chinese history, culture and belief.

A CITY OF HISTORY

The walled city of Pingyao was built to its current form in the 14th century, and was named a world heritage by UNESCO in 1997, as "an exceptionally well-preserved example of traditional Han Chinese city."

The city put itself on the map in the 19th century as China's financial center. Banks flourished as Shanxi merchants expanded their businesses across the country.

"In its heyday, Pingyao hosted 22 bank centers and controlled nearly half of the money in the country," said Gao Chunping, a researcher with Shanxi Academy of Social Sciences.

Today tourists come in great numbers to the bank museum -- an imposing courtyard which houses the remnant of China's first draft bank, Rishengchang, which was set up in 1823.

"People often marveled how the banking forefathers created ultra-safe pin codes playing with Chinese characters," said Gao Xianhui, a local tour guide. "It was a time we rarely use Arabic numerals. And yet there was very few cases of pin theft fraud."

But Pingyao's golden days did not last. In the early 20th century, the banks collapsed one after the other, as the Qing imperial government fell and an influx of foreign banks came in equipped with better technology.

The city became soon an economic backwater, and until a few years ago, visitors struggled to find ATMs in this former banking hub.

But now the city is in the ascendancy once more, littered with souvenir shops, restaurants, museums and theatrical performances like Wang Chaoge's.

A new genre of business has risen in the city, which teems with studios teaching centuries-old folk art, such as woodcut prints, paper-cutting, Peking opera masks and earthenware.

Hou Quanying, 68, a paper-cutting master, said that even foreigners frequented her studio, and they loved the artwork pasted onto windows during festive occasions.

Deputy county government head Liu Guangming has said that "culture is the soul of Pingyao." Today that sounds more true than ever.

"This ancient city can only be brought to life if administrators give its rich history and traditional culture full play," he said.

Cities rise, fall, and rise again, whether it is in commerce, the arts or culture. And Pingyao is no different.

On top of its annual film and photography festivals, and lavish Chinese New Year celebrations, the government plans to further play up the cultural card next year by introducing an international sculpture festival with European partners.

Liu said the festival would also highlight the Shuanglin temple, which houses some of the country's finest examples of colored Buddhist sculptures dating to back to the 12th century.

"Preserving history is the future for us," said Liu, reading the slogan on display at the entrance of the government building.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 13:30:40|Editor: liuxin

Video Player Close

JALALABAD, Afghanistan, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- At least five Islamic State (IS) militants, including a local IS judge, were killed and seven others wounded in an operation in Khogyani district of Afghanistan's eastern province of Nangarhar, authorities said on Wednesday.

"A joint anti-IS operation is ongoing in Khogyani. Five militants, including an IS judge named Qari Basir, were killed and seven others wounded, and two heroin factories were destroyed within the past 24 hours in the district," army Corps 201 Selab based in the region said in a statement.

About five kidnapped villages were also freed and several landmines were recovered and destroyed by the security forces over the period in Khogyani.

The statement noted that the security forces would continue to press to militants unless they renounce violence and join the peace and reconciliation process.

Since earlier this month, the security forces have been clashing with IS militants in Khogyani, southwest of provincial capital Jalalabad city. The clashes have forced hundreds of villagers to flee.

The IS group has yet to make comments on the report.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 14:40:52|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

LHASA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region has vowed to pull 140,000 people out of poverty in 2018, local authorities said Wednesday.

The region plans to remove 2,000 villages and 25 counties from the country's list of impoverished areas.

From 2016 to 2020, Tibet is projected to invest over 200 billion yuan (30 billion U.S. dollars) to eradicate poverty, with 90 percent of the investment going to infrastructure and poverty-relief projects in the poorest areas.

The region will also accelerate the pace of relocation to help more residents live a better life.

China aims to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 14:50:54|Editor: liuxin

Video Player Close

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Tuesday called for regional efforts to bring stability to Lebanon and asked Lebanese political parties to disassociate themselves from external conflicts.

In a press statement, the UNSC welcomed Prime Minister Saad Hariri's return to Lebanon and his decision to continue his term while reaffirming strong support for the stability, security, territorial integrity, sovereignty and political independence of Lebanon.

The UNSC called upon all regional states and organizations to work for the stability and security of Lebanon, in full respect of its sovereignty and integrity, said the statement.

"The members of the Security Council called upon all Lebanese parties to implement a tangible policy of disassociation from any external conflicts, as an important priority," it said.

Hariri announced his surprise resignation in a televised speech from Saudi Arabia on Nov. 4, triggering a political crisis in Lebanon and heightened regional tensions. Hariri withdrew his resignation earlier this month.

The Security Council reaffirmed its support for the ongoing efforts of the Lebanese authorities to restore normal functioning of institutions and prepare for the holding of legislative elections by May 2018, said the statement.

It also called upon the Lebanese government to accelerate its program of reforms in order to ensure political and economic stability, with full participation of both women and men.

The Security Council encouraged the international community to increase its support to Lebanon's political, social and economic stability.

Noting that the Lebanese Armed Forces are the only legitimate armed forces of Lebanon, the statement also showed support for their efforts to extend the control of the Lebanese government over all Lebanese territory.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 15:05:56|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

by Xinhua Writer Zhang Yongxing

SUVA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Fiji, a small developing island state in the South Pacific region, is now playing a leading role in fighting climate change widely considered to be one of the biggest threats facing mankind.

For Fiji, 2017 is certainly a significant year as the state has done a lot in dealing with climate change, including co-hosting the U.N. Oceans Conference in New York in June and presiding over COP23-- the U.N. climate negotiations in Bonn, Germany in November. In fact, Fiji has made history by becoming the first such state to preside over COP23.

According to Inia Seruiratu, Fiji's Climate Champion for COP23 and Minister for Agriculture, Rural and Maritime Development and National Disaster Management, the future of Fiji is at stake. The future of our planet is at stake. And Fiji has taken on these climate change-linked responsibilities not only for every Fijian and every Pacific islander but for all 7.5 billion people on earth.

For Fiji and the rest of the world, it is imperative to act now to save the planet by reducing carbon emissions and reducing the impact of climate change.

Voreqe Bainimarama, president of COP23 and Fijian prime minister, has stressed that "We have only one planet to call home and now is the time to move forward together to save it."

"I appeal to the entire world to support Fiji's efforts to continue building the global consensus to confront the greatest challenge of our age. We owe it not only to ourselves but also to future generations to tackle this issue head on before it is too late," he said.

"Unless the world acts decisively to begin addressing the greatest challenge of our age, then the Pacific, as we know it, is doomed."

For Fiji, climate change is really a "to be or not to be" question because the consequences of inaction will be catastrophic.

A study released in Bonn this November showed that by 2050, Fiji's annual losses due to extreme weather events could reach 6.5 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) because of the impact of climate change, with more than 32,000 people pushed into hardship every year.

According to Fiji's National Climate Change Policy, global sea level changes will more than double by the end of this century. Fiji has since 1993 recorded a 6mm increase in its sea level per year, larger than the global average. The rapid rise of sea levels and the resulting saltwater intrusion that stems from the increased ferocity of coastal floods have made portions of the island nation uninhabitable.

As a small state with more than 300 islands and a population of around 900,000, Fiji is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change and the unsustainable exploitation of the oceans.

Fiji very keenly feels the negative effects of climate change, including unpredictable storms of extreme intensity, such as Tropical Cyclone Winston.

Winston lashed the island state and killed 44 people and caused serious economic losses in February 2016.

In addition, the sea levels rising has caused the Fijian government to identify quite a number of villages to be relocated to higher ground.

Meanwhile, warming seas have caused changes in fish populations and the bleaching of coral reefs.

Currently, Fiji has relocated three villages to higher ground, and the country has another 42 to 43 villages earmarked to be moved to higher ground from coastal areas.

Having assumed the presidency of the the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations at COP23, and being the first nation to ratify the 2015 U.N. Paris Agreement, Fiji fully understands the pivotal role "green growth" plays in creating a sustainable economy.

The COP23 has been fruitful and has given a voice to smaller nations that have been most affected by climate change, but who have previously not had a sizable role in negotiations. It has also brought together the international community in the same boat to drive decisive action to limit the rate of global warming.

Fiji and the countries involved, launched the Ocean Pathways Partnership to further action to protect their oceans from climate effects.

They also reached an historic agreement on agriculture, an action plan on gender and a decision that benefits local communities and indigenous peoples. They secured greater funding for critical climate adaptation work, and took the next step in ensuring that the Adaptation Fund shall serve the Paris Agreement.

Finally, they launched a global partnership to provide millions of climate-vulnerable people around the world with affordable access to insurance.

Fiji, which has pledged to transition completely to renewable energy sources by 2030, has adopted a reforestation policy intended to store carbon from freshly planted trees. Working alongside the Global Environment Facility, the Green Climate Fund and several United Nations agencies, Fiji has initiated efforts to monitor and launch rapid responses to climate-related risks.

Fiji has, this October, hosted high-level delegations from around the world to begin dialogues to find ways of addressing the impact of climate change. As one of the 43 nations on the Climate Vulnerable Forum, Fiji has been a vocal proponent of limiting the temperature rise from global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

In 2017, Fiji became the first small island developing state to join the Under2 Coalition, which is an international pact among cities, states and countries committed to limiting the increase in the global average temperature to below 2 degrees Celsius by either reducing their greenhouse gas emissions from 80 percent to 95 percent below 1990 levels, or holding emissions to less than 2 annual metric tons per capita by 2050.

Besides Fiji's first-ever National Climate Change Week being launched in September, the island state also became the first country in the Pacific, the first emerging economy and the first small island state to issue this November a 100 million Fiji dollars (about 48 million U.S. dollars) Green Bond.

The Green Bond will fund projects for climate mitigation and adaptation to build a stronger, more resilient Fiji. In fact, Fiji is also the third in the world to issue the sovereign Green Bond, after France and Poland.

The successful COP23 and the measures Fiji has taken have made the world aware of Fiji in a way that has never been experienced in the nation's history.

Fiji is now more than a vacation spot and a rugby powerhouse, it is a global leader which is at the forefront of the most pressing issue of our time, climate change.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 15:15:58|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

NEW DELHI, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Fringe right-wing groups in India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh warned local schools not to celebrate Christmas and New Year, officials said Wednesday.

The groups have threatened to disrupt the celebrations.

"A group called the Hindu Jagran Manch (Hindu awakening platform) has warned schools in Aligarh against celebrating Christmas, saying they could do so at their own risk," an official said.

"In a letter to schools, the group has demanded that children should not be asked to bring gifts or participate in Christmas programmes."

The group said such activities were "a step towards forced conversions" of Hindu students.

"We will decide on a course of action on receiving their (the schools') response," Sonu Savita, a leader of the Hindu Jagran Manch, was quoted by a local news agency as saying.

Apart from Hindu Jagran Manch, another fringe group Vishwa Hindu Mahasangh (world Hindu mega association) told media they want to register "peaceful but vociferous" protests against what they call "obscene behavior" during the New Year celebrations in hotels and restaurants.

Meanwhile, police said they would take preventive measures to ensure smooth Christmas celebrations.

"We will take preventive actions against them," Rajesh Pandey told media. "We will heavily bound down them so that they can't resort to any action that causes insecurity among school children, school management or parents."

However, the threats have send a scare among the parents of school children, reports said.

Last week, police in central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh detained a group of priests and seminarians conducting carol singing ahead of Christmas, alleging a conversion bid.

A car belonging to Christian priests was also torched by the activists of right-wing group.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 15:20:59|Editor: pengying

Video Player Close

KUNMING, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- A wild boar spread havoc in a peaceful village in Yongshan County, southwest China's Yunnan Province, injuring five farmers, according to local police.

The incident in mountainous Heitie village, initially saw the marauding boar attack a villager fetching firewood, surnamed Xu, biting him on the jaw and calf. Not finished, the creature then attacked a farmer surnamed Liu, and finally went on to wound three more villagers before finally making its escape into the mountains.

The raging boar was quickly reported to police, and the injured taken to local hospitals.

Medical expenses will partly be covered by a commercial insurance purchased by the local government for residents hurt by wild boar.

China has seen more wild animal harassment in recent years, as the animal population continues to grow due to an improved environment and tougher laws protecting wildlife.

To cope with increasing incidents of wild animals harming residents, Yunnan local governments have purchased commercial insurance for people that live in regions with an abundance of wild animals.

The government pays the premiums, and insurers investigate and compensate people up to 200,000 yuan (30,300 U.S. dollars) when animals cause trouble.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 15:36:03|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

RABAT, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Shared Sacred Sites exhibition has opened in the Moroccan city of Marrakech on Tuesday, sending an invitation to explore religious tolerance in the Mediterranean world.

Held in the reinvigorated Dar El Bacha museum, the exhibition features a variety of digital and traditional works of art and artifacts, depicting the phenomenon of followers from different communities of faith in the Mediterranean attending the same sanctuaries.

The exhibition focuses its attention on contact situations where sites and figures of sanctity place distinct traditions in communication.

The principle objective of the exhibition is to inform a wide audience about these surprising phenomenon that concern, today as in the past, millions of people around the Mediterranean.

About 70 percent of the works exhibited belong to the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations (MuCEM) in Marseilles, while 30 percent of them are from Moroccan museums, the director of the Moroccan National Museum Foundation (FNM) Mehdi El Kotbi told the press at the opening of the exhibition.

The exhibition reflects Morocco's place as a land of religious tolerance and dialogue between different religions, El Kotbi said.

Designed first based on research conducted by the French National Center for Scientific Re-search and Aix-Marseille University, the exhibition takes a fresh look at the religious be-havior of Mediterranean populations and highlights some of the most interesting phenomenon in the region, namely the sharing and exchange between religious communities.

The exhibition was first launched in 2015, at the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations (MuCEM) in Marseilles, France. From November 2016 to February 2017, it was featured at the Bardo Museum in Tunis, Tunisia.

Before arriving in Morocco, the exhibition landed in September in Thessaloniki, Greece.

In the face of rising fundamentalism and far-right extremism, the exhibition offers for the public until March 19 a genuine place for a deeper understanding of the complexity of exchanges between Mediterranean religions.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 15:46:05|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Four militants including a Taliban key commander Qari Feda Mohammad alias Mudasir Mawlawi were killed in airstrikes against militants in Afghanistan's troubled Helmand province on Wednesday, spokesman for provincial government Omar Zawak said.

"Acting on tip off the security forces conducted airstrikes and targeted the car of Taliban notorious commander Qari Feda Mohammad alias Mudasir Mawlawi killing him along with three of his armed men on a road in Marja district at around 11:00 a.m. local time today," Zawak told Xinhua.

Taliban militants who are in control of parts of the restive Helmand province are yet to make comment on the report.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 15:46:06|Editor: pengying

Video Player Close

BEIJING, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The total number of China's domestic and inbound tourist trips will surpass 5.1 billion this year, up by more than 11 percent from 2016, a report showed Wednesday.

Tourism revenue this year will be more than 5.3 trillion yuan (about 802 billion U.S. dollars), up 13 percent from a year earlier, according to a report jointly released by the China Tourism Academy and the data center of the China National Tourism Administration.

In 2016, the overall contribution of tourism to the national economy stood at 11 percent, with total tourism revenue up 13.6 percent to 4.69 trillion yuan.

With the fast expansion of tourism, China has become the world's largest source of outbound tourists and the fourth largest destination of inbound tourists.

In the first three quarters this year, the number of domestic tourists rose 13.17 percent year on year, with revenue from domestic tourism surging 16.55 percent.

The report forecast that China's tourism revenue would be more than 6 trillion yuan in 2018.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 16:01:10|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

DAMASCUS, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Tuesday the economic siege imposed on Syria by the West has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in Syria, amid an outcry by humanitarian organizations regarding the situation in a rebel-held area east of the capital Damascus.

"The economic siege, as well as the terrorist war, waged on Syria has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in the country," Assad said during his meeting with Francesco Rocca, the president of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), in the capital Damascus.

The Syrian president stressed that the government with all of its institutions is working to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people as a result of the "crimes and inhuman actions committed by the terrorist groups."

Assad also spoke of the importance of boosting the cooperation between the Syrian government and the IFRC during the crisis.

The president's remarks came amid an international outcry for the situation in the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta region in the eastern countryside of Damascus, where fighting has intensified recently between the government and the rebels.

A day earlier, the ICRC said in statement that that it was alarmed by intensifying fighting in Eastern Ghouta, as it "is taking an unacceptable toll on everyday life in the area.

The ICRC also spoke of the "hostilities" some government-controlled areas have suffered from.

"The humanitarian situation in Eastern Ghouta has reached a critical point. As so often in Syria over the last six years, ordinary people are once again trapped in a situation where life slowly becomes impossible and where goods and aid are severely limited," said Robert Mardini, the ICRC's Middle East director.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said on Tuesday that 212 people have been killed in Eastern Ghouta as a result of airstrikes and shelling since mid-November.

On the other hand, rebels' mortar shells from Eastern Ghouta killed at least five and injured dozens Tuesday.

Parts of the Eastern Ghouta region were included in the Russian-backed de-escalation zones' deal, but some areas are controlled by the Levant Liberating Committee, otherwise known as the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front, and the allied al-Rahman Legion, which are excluded from the deal.

A few aid shipments were delivered to areas in Eastern Ghouta, but according to activists, the shipments were scarce and not enough for the 400,000 people in the area.

Earlier in the day, the UN Security Council approved the delivery of humanitarian aid across conflict lines in Syria for another year.

The council voted 12-0 to extend the mandate of the cross-border convoys.

Russian UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, however, demanded changes in the resolution, saying the program "undermines the sovereignty of Syria."

For his side, acting Charge d'affaires of Syria's permanent delegation to the UN Munzer Munzer said Syria still delivers humanitarian aid to people in need, adding that the distribution process should be coordinated with the Syrian government and this needs the respect for the Syrian laws and regulations.

Munzer reaffirmed Syria's continuous efforts to provide all possible facilitation to deliver assistance materials to the Syrian citizens in need according to the mechanisms agreed upon within the Syrian laws and regulations.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 16:26:14|Editor: pengying

Video Player Close

SHENZHEN, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- A second auction will be held on Taobao, Alibaba's e-commerce platform, on Thursday, for the third of three Boeing 747 freighters, after it was not sold with the other two planes during a previous auction.

The third plane failed to find a buyer during the auction on Nov. 21, Alibaba said Wednesday, adding that the opening bid will start at 98 million yuan (14.8 million U.S. dollars), compared with 122.6 million yuan during the previous auction.

The Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court in south China's Guangdong Province confirmed that two buyers will enter the bidding in the second online judicial auction on Thursday.

The court said the first two freighters were both bought by China's leading delivery firm SF-Express after it outbid an Israeli firm.

Online judicial sales allow foreign buyers to bid, as opposed to a restriction on foreign buyers in offline auctions, the court said.

The freight planes were previously owned by Jade Cargo International, the first Chinese cargo carrier with foreign investment. The company folded in 2013.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 16:36:16|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

OTTAWA, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson here Tuesday with the two sides discussing collaboration in international security and regional trade, the Prime Minister's Office said.

They discussed the importance of a unified response to the threat posed by the nuclear and missile tests conducted by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) as well as the situation in Venezuela.

They also discussed the importance of concluding negotiations on a revamped North American Free Trade Agreement, which has Mexico as the third signatory.

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland announced earlier Tuesday that Canada and the United States will co-host a Foreign Ministers' Meeting on Security and Stability on the Korean Peninsula in Vancouver on Jan. 16, 2018. Most of the countries involved in the Korean War (1950-1953) have been invited to the Vancouver meeting.

Calling the security threat posed by the DPRK a global challenge that affects all, Freeland said a diplomatic solution is both essential and possible. "We will continue to work with our allies and regional partners, including the United States, Japan and South Korea, in pursuing our common objective of a secure and stable Korean Peninsula," Freeland said.

Tillerson said the international community was continuing to find ways to advance the pressure campaign against the DPRK and send a unified message from the international community: "We will not accept you as a nuclear weapons nation. We share one goal -- full and complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."

This display of solidarity, he said, was an indication to the DPRK that the rest of the world was prepared to talk. "We can't talk unless North Korea (DPRK) is ready to talk. We're waiting for them to indicate a readiness to talk. This pressure campaign will not abate. We will not be rolling any of it back," he said.
US President Donald Trump speaks about his administration's National Security Strategy at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC, December 18, 2017. (AFP PHOTO)

TEHRAN, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday refuted the U.S. President Donald Trump's national security strategy as "imbalanced" and "one-sided," Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi said that the document published by the Trump administration is full of "futile efforts" to introduce Iran as a threat, which is totally rejected and condemned.

"The unwise content of this imbalanced and one-sided strategy clearly shows that the U.S. government is trying to play the blame game in face of the challenges, dysfunctions and self-created problems it has always been dealing with in the domestic and international arena," Qasemi was quoted as saying.

The threats that the United States assumes to be facing mostly emanate from wrong policies, behaviors and practices of its politicians and statesmen over the past decade towards other nations of the world, especially their numerous mistakes in the sensitive and strategic West Asian region and the Persian Gulf, he said.

The new U.S. national security strategy is a reckless one which will undoubtedly lead the world towards more insecurity, increase instability and expand terrorism, he added.

Trump on Monday announced the national security strategy, the first of its kind since he took office in January and the 17th since the former Reagan administration began to submit the report to the U.S. Congress in 1987.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 17:01:20|Editor: Lu Hui

Video Player Close

by Xinhua writers Guo Ying and Zhao Wanwei

BEIJING, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- More than 20,000 students from 31 junior high schools of Beijing's Tongzhou District have two teachers for each subject. One is the class-based teacher at their school; the other is a Beijing Excellent Teacher who offers regular tutoring and individualized tutoring online.

They benefit from Beijing's Middle School Teachers Online Tutoring Service Platform. Initiated by Beijing Municipal Education Commission and first adopted in Tongzhou, the project encourages core teachers from Beijing's public middle schools to offer real-time tutoring, for free, especially in less advantaged schools.

The project collects students' whole learning process data, diagnoses and analyzes learning problems, and models the knowledge and ability structure. It will present a personalized analysis report for students, teachers and parents.

Li Yi, deputy director of Beijing Municipal Education Commission, considers it a public service innovation thanks to the development of Internet Plus and big data technology.

"This is a very effective way to share high-quality educational resources and provide an accurate, personalized education service," Li said.

Information technology has been revolutionizing education development over the past five years. At a recent forum on technology and education, Deputy Minister of Education Du Zhanyuan said China will promote the application of information technology to advance education reform and ensure equitable access to education.

"In the past five years, Internet access rates in primary and secondary schools have risen from 25 percent to 90 percent and multimedia classrooms have increased from under 40 percent to 83 percent. The number of online learning spaces for teachers and students has soared from 600,000 to more than 63 million," said Du.

"Using information technology, we also solved the problem of insufficient course setting for more than 4 million students in remote and impoverished areas where there is a serious shortage of teachers."

Du said the application of Internet technology calls for cooperation between education and industry. Some education technology enterprises are integrating technologies and the Internet into education to give children a better learning experience.

Chinese firm TAL Education Group developed a "Magic Mirror System" based on facial recognition technology and artificial intelligence (AI). The camera captures students' facial expressions in class and analyzes whether they are concentrating and understanding. The system generates a learning report for each student. Student feedback data also helps teachers to promptly adjust teaching schedules.

Chinese Internet giant Baidu is also betting on technological innovation in education. Baidu Education has cooperated with more than 1,000 schools and more than 5,000 educational organizations. Recently it launched the Baidu Intelligent Class system to help educators explore student-centered teaching models and provide individualized learning resources.

"We will integrate Baidu's cutting-edge technology such as AI, big data, and cloud computing into educational applications," said Baidu president Zhang Yaqin.

Michael Moe, CEO of U.S.-based Global Silicon Valley (GSV) Capital, has watched education technology enterprises around the world. GSV Capital has invested in online education platform Coursera and organized the annual ASU-GSV Summit on education technology.

Moe said Chinese education enterprises have been stepping up appearances at U.S. education summits.

"Many Internet-based enterprises in China have carried out innovative exploration in education and China's education-technology industry stands at the forefront of the world," Moe said.

Moe cited VIPKid, an online English education company in China, as an example of China's potential in education-technology industry. "It's hard to imagine a young Chinese education starter growing like that in less than five years."

Moe believes that in the knowledge-based economy, education increasingly makes a difference to not only how an individual does, but how a company does, and how well a country does.

"China is a country that puts emphasis on education. I believe more successful education technology enterprises will emerge, which will change the education landscape," Moe said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 17:01:20|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

SHANGHAI, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Chinese companies' overseas equity oil yield is expected to exceed 200 million tonnes in 2018, almost equaling China's domestic annual oil output, an executive with the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) said Wednesday.

"China's oil and gas companies have increasingly expanded presence in Belt and Road countries, making progress in resource exploitation, oil-gas pipeline construction and industrial chain layout," said Qian Xingkun, deputy head of the Economic and Technology Research Institute under the CNPC, at the 2017 China Oil and Gas Reform Summit.

According to a report released by the China Petroleum Enterprise Association, investment and output of Chinese oil and gas companies in Belt and Road countries accounted for over 50 percent of their total overseas investment and production respectively.

"China is expected to increase its dependance on oil and gas imports for a considerable time to come, thus cooperation in the field will remain important between China and the Belt and Road countries," said Zang Jianjun, executive director of the China CEFC Energy Company.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 17:26:32|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

BEIJING, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. national security strategy unveiled by President Donald Trump Monday has raised concerns worldwide with the international community calling it confrontational and contradictory and displaying an outdated Cold War mentality.

CONFRONTATIONAL, NOT CONSTRUCTIVE

Instead of promoting cooperation between countries, the new security strategy sparks confrontation in the global community and hampers constructive resolution of pressing international issues, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday.

"Its key message - 'to preserve peace through strength' - sets the line not for constructive cooperation with other countries on an equal basis and in the interests of a joint resolution of existing problems, but for confrontation," the statement read.

The ministry said the plan of action outlined in the strategy clearly demonstrated Washington's strive to retain its weakened domination and superiority in the global arena by all means.

A Kremlin spokesperson called the strategy "imperial". "There is a persistent reluctance to renounce the concept of a unipolar world, as well as rejection of a multipolar world," spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

"Destabilizing policies and actions by some countries to maintain their hegemony in pursuit of absolute power are responsible for instability in several parts of the world, including ours," the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Selcuk Colakoglu, director of the Turkish Center for Asia Pacific Studies, said the U.S. strategy indicates a more confrontational approach toward Russia, China, Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

GAP BETWEEN TRUMP'S STRATEGY AND ACTION

The media and experts pointed out that Trump himself did not seem to be totally buying the new national security strategy himself. The president's viewpoint seemed to differ from that of his establishment-minded foreign policy advisors.

The Atlantic magazine said on Wednesday that's Trump's speech unveiling the strategy "butchered it in a revealing way." The strategy declares that the Trump administration will pursue a "strategy of principled realism." But what Trump said was, "Our new strategy is based on a principle, realism."

Also, the strategy presented Russia as a power bent on undermining U.S. interests and meddling in the U.S. presidential race last year. But in his speech, Trump did not mention the alleged Russian intervention in the election he won. Instead, he talked about a phone call from his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, mentioning how the latter had thanked him for providing intelligence to foil a major terror attack in Russia.

"Trump's speech highlighted the gap between his theories and his actions," said Norhan al-Sheikh, professor of international relations at Cairo University. "His speech is contradictory. He seems to be dealing with a hypothetical world."

After calling Russia and China two "revisionist" powers seeking to undermine U.S. influence, values and interests, Trump immediately called for building a "great partnership" with them, al-Sheikh pointed out.

Moreover, Trump demanded that NATO allies contribute more to the cost of protecting Europe, threatening to retreat otherwise. But his administration has been vowing to restore the U.S. presence in the international area, which had diminished under his predecessor Barack Obama.

FROM AMERICA FIRST TO AMERICA ALONE

"Trump's doctrine reveals a zero-sum vision that leads to a zero-sum strategy. It is a vision of an alien world that's hostile to U.S. interests," broadcaster Al Jazeera said in an article on Wednesday. "That's not America first; it's America alone."

China on Tuesday urged the United States to abandon its Cold War mentality and the outdated zero-sum game concept.

"We hope the U.S. side will take China-U.S. relations objectively and rationally, and abide by its commitments," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said.

Maintaining a healthy and stable bilateral relationship is the correct choice for the welfare of the two peoples and the international community, Hua added.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 17:41:38|Editor: Lu Hui

Video Player Close

BEIJING, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping Thought on Socialist Economy with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era has taken shape, according to a statement released after the Central Economic Work Conference concluded on Wednesday.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 18:06:48|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley (R, front) vetoes a UN Security Council draft resolution on the status of Jerusalem at the UN headquarters in New York, on Dec. 18, 2017. The United States on Monday vetoed a Security Council draft resolution on the status of Jerusalem. All other 14 members of the Security Council voted in favor of the Egyptian-drafted text. But as the United States, which is a permanent member of the Security Council, has veto power, the draft resolution failed to be adopted. (Xinhua/UN Photo)

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations (UN) General Assembly will meet for a rare emergency session to discuss the status of Jerusalem on Thursday after the United States vetoed earlier an Egypt-drafted request asking Washington to withdraw its decision to recognize the city as Israel's capital.

According to UN sources, Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour said his country hoped that the General Assembly would draft a resolution urging the U.S. move, declared on Dec. 6 by President Donald Trump and triggering large-scale outrage in the Arab and Muslim world, to be withdrawn.

Washington vetoed on Monday a draft resolution submitted by Egypt to the Security Council expressing "deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem," without explicitly calling out the United States by name.

The resolution sought to ensure that any attempts to alter the characteristics or demographic composition of the Old City of Jerusalem had no effect and were rescinded.

It also demanded that the final status of Jerusalem be decided through direct negotiations between Israel and Palestine, as was included in the previous 10 resolutions on the issue dating back to 1967.

Despite the yes votes cast by all the remaining 14 members, the no vote by the United States, a permanent member and veto-wielding power of the Security Council, was enough to block the passage of the draft.

Mansour was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying on Monday that he hoped there would be "overwhelming support" in the 193-member General Assembly for a resolution seeking similar demands.

Resolutions raised in the General Assembly, unless those proposed to the Security Council, cannot be vetoed and are not legally binding but will nonetheless catch attention if they see two-thirds of the member states in favor.

Turkey, which doesn't hold a rotating Security Council membership for the time being, requested the General Assembly meeting together with Yemen.

"A two-thirds support in the General Assembly would actually mean the rejection of the decision made by the Security Council," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a press conference Tuesday.

U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said after the Security Council meeting that her country's veto was an embarrassment to the other 14 members rather than the United States.

She later wrote on Twitter that "the U.S. will be taking names" of those criticizing the U.S. choice at the General Assembly.

Ankara and Washington have been experiencing tensions in bilateral ties as Erdogan accused the U.S. government of sheltering Fethullah Gulen, who the president said masterminded last year's failed coup to overthrow him.

Thursday's General Assembly meeting will be a resumption of a rarely-held emergency session which, according to UN Resolution 377 passed in 1950, can be convened to consider a matter "with a view to making appropriate recommendations to members for collective measures" if the Security Council fails to act.

There have been altogether 10 such emergency sessions in the UN history, and the last of its kind was held in 2009 to discuss the situation on the occupied Eastern Jerusalem and Palestinian territories.

China, one of the five permanent members of the Security Council, warned the complicated and sensitive nature of the status of Jerusalem following the U.S. veto, saying the Palestinian issue is at the root of the peace process in the Middle East.

"We support the just cause of restoring the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people and support the establishment of a fully sovereign, independent State of Palestine based on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. China's position will not change," said Wu Haitao, charge d'affaires of China's permanent mission to the UN.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who said the United States was no longer a mediator in Middle East peace -- some of his sharpest rhetoric following Trump's announcement on Jerusalem -- wrapped up visits to Saudi Arabia and Qatar on Tuesday and continued his journey to Paris in efforts to solicit more support for his state, according to his adviser.

The adviser, Nabil Shaath, told reporters in Moscow on Tuesday that the president will travel to the Russian capital soon as well. The Kremlin has expressed willingness to help de-escalate the ongoing tensions surrounding the region.

Saying Moscow was "rather alarmed over the situation around Jerusalem," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Shaath that his country will do all it can to promote constructive negotiations between Israel and Palestine, according to a report by Russia's TASS news agency.

The status of Jerusalem is at the center of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Jewish state claims the entire holy city to be its "eternal and indivisible" capital while the Palestinians want to set the eastern part of the city as the capital of an independent Palestinian state.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 18:06:49|Editor: Lu Hui

Video Player Close

ISLAMABAD, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani security forces on Wednesday successfully foiled a terror attack targeting the Balochistan provincial governor and arrested two terrorists during a raid in the Pakistani province, an official said.

Balochistan Home Minister Sarfraz Bugti said that two suspected suicide attackers were arrested for making a plan to attack Balochistan Governor Muhammad Khan Achakzai in the Gulistan area of Killa Abdullah in the province.

The security forces also seized two suicide vests along with a huge amount of arms and ammunitions, said Bugti.

The terror plot was crafted in Afghanistan and the timely action had saved many lives, the provincial home minister said, adding that the detainees belong to the group involved in a suicide attack on Punjab Home Minister Shuja Khanzada back in August, 2015, which killed 22 people including Shuja Khanzada.

The operation came days after four suicide bombers attacked a church in the provincial capital of Quetta, killing nine people and injuring some 57 others.

Two terror attacks had been foiled by security forces so far after the Quetta church attack.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 18:26:54|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Up to 17 militants were killed over the past 24 hours as the government forces backed by air force pounded Taliban positions in Nad Ali district of the poppy-growing Helmand province, provincial government spokesman Omar Zawak said Wednesday.

The government forces, according to the official, targeted Taliban positions in parts of Nad Ali district from the ground and air over the past 24 hours, killing 17 insurgents and injuring five others.

A number of arms and ammunitions have either been captured or destroyed during the operations, the official added.

Taliban militants haven't made comment yet.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 18:31:56|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

LONDON, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Facebook said it was reviewing the account of Britain-based far-right group Britain First to decide whether to suspend it.

"There are clearly issues with their page on Facebook," Facebook's Director of Public Policy Simon Milner said, adding that a number of posts had been taken down.

"We are obviously reviewing it, but we are very, very cautious about political speech," Milner told The Telegraph daily.

Together with representatives from Twitter and Google, Milner was called before the British Parliament's Home Affairs Committee on combating online hate speech on Tuesday.

Britain First is a right-wing group campaigning against multiculturalism in the United Kingdom. The group was deregistered by the Electoral Commission as a political party this November.

Twitter also suspended Britain First's account recently, as well as accounts of its leader Paul Golding and his deputy Jayda Fransen.

The suspension is part of Twitter's new move to reduce hateful and abusive content. The company announced it would start enforcing updated rules from Monday.

"Specific threats of violence or wishing for serious physical harm, death, or disease to an individual or group of people is in violation of our policies," Twitter said, specifying its hateful conduct policy and rules against abusive behavior.

Britain First has been posting unverified videos depicting alleged violence and crimes committed by immigrants or Muslims.

Several anti-Muslim videos published on social media by Fransen were under the spotlight recently after U.S. President Donald Trump reposted them, putting strain on U.S.-UK ties and sparking global controversy.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 18:36:57|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- At least seven Afghan police personnel and 15 militants were killed after Taliban attacked security checkpoints in northern province of Kunduz early on Wednesday, local police said.

"Armed militants attacked the security posts in Daadusi village of Archi district and the security forces repelled the attackers after a three-hour clash and exchange of gun fire," provincial police spokesman Inham Uddin Rahmani told Xinhua.

Five security force members and three civilians were also injured after a Taliban rocket propelled grenade struck a house in the district bordering Tajikistan, Rahmani added.

The Kunduz province, as well as neighboring Baghlan and Takhar provinces, have been the hotbeds of heavy clashes over the past couple of months as Taliban has been trying to attack the government forces in the once relatively peaceful region.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 18:46:59|Editor: pengying

Video Player Close

Zhang Dejiang (R), chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC), meets with Hakim Benchamach, speaker of Morocco's House of Advisors, the upper house of the Moroccan parliament, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 20, 2017. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

BEIJING, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Chinese top legislator Zhang Dejiang met with Hakim Benchamach, speaker of Morocco's House of Advisors, the upper house of the Moroccan parliament, on Wednesday.

China-Morocco relations have taken the lead in China's relations with African and Arab countries, with a strategic partnership established in 2016, said Zhang, chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC).

As 2018 marks the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between China and Morocco, China will work with Morocco to deepen cooperation in various areas and push forward bilateral relations, he said.

Zhang said China's NPC hopes to share experience with the Moroccan parliament in national governance and legislation, work together to promote cultural exchanges and provide a sound legal environment for practical cooperation between the two countries.

Benchamach said his country has a strong will to advance ties with China, and Morocco's House of Advisors looks forward to more exchanges with China's NPC.
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (2nd left) and Chinese representatives look at a crystal model of the rehabilitated terminal building of the Roberts International Airport on Dec. 18, 2017. (Xinhua/China Harbour Engineering Company LTD.)

MONROVIA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has lauded China's assistance in rehabilitating the terminal and runway of the Roberts International Airport, saying it marked an important turning point in the development of the country's main airport.

Sirleaf, at a dedication ceremony in Harbel town on Monday, said the Chinese government's support has made the facility able to accommodate even the largest of aircrafts.

"I hope we will be able to attract back some of the large airlines that used to serve Liberia in days past," the president said.

She noted before its rehabilitation, the runway, constructed in the 1970s, had largely deteriorated due to no periodic maintenance, causing difficulties for landing planes.

"We also know that we had a terminal that had been destroyed and what was being used was really most inadequate for those coming to our country for various occasions," she said, attributing the destruction to the two decades of conflict that beleaguered the West African country.

Sirleaf paid tributes to the Chinese government for its continued support to Liberia and the partnership that "continues to grow stronger and stronger between China and Liberia."

The project, which costs 50 million U.S. dollars, was partly financed by a loan from the Export-Import Bank of China.

A Chinese construction firm, China Harbor Engineering Company, handled the project that began in September 2016.

Chinese ambassador to Liberia Zhang Yue described the rehabilitation project as "a strong indicator of the strong partnership" between Liberia and China, noting the repair can help usher in more airlines and inject dynamism to the economic recovery of Liberia.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 19:27:10|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

COLOMBO, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Sri Lankan government said on Wednesday that it would enforce a ban on begging along the roads or in public transport in capital Colombo from Jan. 1, local media reported.

Megapolis and Western Development Minister Champika Ranawaka said that according to a survey conducted by his ministry in partnership with the Charity Commissioner of the Public Assistance Department of the Colombo Municipal Council and the Social Empowerment and Welfare Ministry, around 600 beggars are begging within the Colombo city limits.

He said considering the inconvenience caused to the public and as a measure of the Colombo city beautification program, it had been decided to prohibit begging in and around Colombo from Jan. 1.

He said the beggars would be rehabilitated as the Sri Lankan government had constructed a rehabilitation center in southern Sri Lanka.

"We will first deal with those helpless beggars with kindness. However, those who doing this as a profession should immediately find other livelihood or we will take stern legal action against them using the provisions in the Municipal Council Ordinance," Ranawaka said.

He also said children who were begging would be enrolled in schools and the sick would be taken care of.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 19:27:11|Editor: pengying

Video Player Close

BEIJING, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- China hopes to enhance political mutual trust and expand cooperation in all fields with Gambia during President Adama Barrow's visit, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Wednesday.

Barrow will pay a state visit to China from Wednesday to next Tuesday, at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

China and Gambia resumed diplomatic relations in March 2016 after ties had been severed for 21 years. Barrow is the first Gambian president to visit China since the two countries resumed ties.

During the visit, President Xi will hold a welcoming ceremony and banquet for Barrow, and they will hold talks and attend a signing ceremony of cooperation documents, Hua said at a daily press briefing.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and top legislator Zhang Dejiang will also meet with Barrow, respectively.

Hua said Barrow will also visit southern Chinese cities of Xiamen and Guangzhou.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 19:32:13|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

COLOMBO, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Sri Lankan government on Wednesday expressed confidence in resuming its tea exports to Russia by mid January after Russia imposed a temporary ban on Sri Lankan tea exports from Dec 18.

Minister of Plantation Industries Navin Dissanayake told a weekly cabinet briefing here that President Maithripala Sirisena had written to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday asking him to lift the ban, and the island country was hopeful to resume its exports within the coming few weeks.

Dissanayake said that a delegation would also leave for Russia to hold talks once a date is confirmed from the Russian side.

"We have requested for a date to hold talks with the Russian side. Once the date is given we will send a delegation from Sri Lanka to sort this issue. We are hopeful we can solve this soon as Russia and Sri Lanka share very close ties," he said.

Russian agricultural safety watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor, placed temporary restrictions on imports of all agricultural products from Sri Lanka, including tea, from Dec. 18, after it found an insect, known as the Khapra beetle, in the packaging of one consignment of tea from Sri Lanka.

Russia is the second largest tea market for Sri Lanka following Iran. Russia imported 143 million U.S. dollars worth of Ceylon Tea in 2016, which was 11.3 percent of Sri Lanka's tea exports.

Dissanayake said that a thorough probe was underway regarding the discovery of the beetle but explained that the larva of the beetle was found in the outer packaging and not inside the tea.

He further expressed doubts on whether this larva may have originated from Sri Lanka as the consignment had gone through other ports before finally making its way to Russia.

Dissanayake further said that all steps were being taken to ensure the quality and hygiene of tea exported to other countries and if Russia proposed further recommendations to secure safety of the tea, then Sri Lanka would implement those recommendations.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 19:42:17|Editor: pengying

Video Player Close

HANGZHOU, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Leaking gas was blamed for a restaurant blast that killed three and injured 44 in Hangzhou, capital of eastern China's Zhejiang Province, local authorities said Wednesday.

The blast occurred in a fish restaurant on July 21, leading to direct economic losses of over 7 million yuan (1.06 million U.S. dollars).

According to the provincial work safety administration, the initial blast was caused by an electric spark from a freezer compressor in the gas-saturated kitchen, igniting other fuels which led to the explosion of a 50-kg bottle of liquefied petroleum gas. The whole restaurant was engulfed in flames.

The administration said the restaurant had not passed the fire department inspection but was in operation, so the owner should bear legal responsibility.

The investigation team also suggested punishment of several local party and government officials, including a deputy head of the district.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 19:42:17|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

ANKARA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Police detained 10 Islamic State (IS) suspects in Turkey's central city of Eskisehir as part of counter-terrorism operations, state-run Anadolu Agency reported Wednesday.

The suspects are identified as Iraqi nationals and were detained during simultaneous raids across the city, according to security officials.

Turkish security forces have been involved in a long-running campaign to crack down IS attacks in which more than 300 people have lost their lives.

Turkey has so far arrested more than 5,000 suspected members since IS emerged as a terrorist group in Syria, and deported over 3,290 foreign fighters from 95 countries.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 19:47:20|Editor: pengying

Video Player Close

PHNOM PENH, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- China's Alipay, the world's largest online and mobile payment platform, signed a partnership agreement on Wednesday with Cambodia's Pi Pay, allowing customers to use their Alipay wallets to pay at Pi Pay's Point of Sale payment systems across Cambodia.

The partnership will see Alipay become immediately available as a payment option for Chinese tourists across Pi Pay's merchant network in Cambodia, which consists of over 1,400 businesses, including high-end dinning, haute couture fashion, spa treatment, mini-marts and petrol stations, said a joint statement released at the signing ceremony here.

The acceptance points will cover Phnom Penh before being expanded to Siem Reap and Preah Sihanouk provinces in the near future, the statement said.

"With the partnership, Chinese tourists travelling to Cambodia will be able to use the Alipay app for payments wherever Pi Pay QR codes are available," it said. "Cambodian merchants who are partnered with Pi Pay will be able to use their Pi Pay terminals to take payments from Alipay users."

Cherry Huang, general manager of Alipay's cross-border business for South and Southeast Asia, said Alipay aims to enable the smart lifestyle for Chinese consumers and to bring the convenience that they enjoy at home to overseas countries they travel to.

"With Cambodia being a popular destination among Chinese travelers, we are excited to work with Pi Pay as our acquiring partner to benefit our users and at the same time, to provide an effective platform for local businesses in Cambodia to reach Chinese consumers," she said. "Together with Pi Pay, we will be able to provide Alipay users the same convenience they enjoy back home when they travel in Cambodia."

China is the largest source of tourists to Cambodia. According to a Cambodian tourism data, nearly 950,000 Chinese tourists had visited Cambodia in the first 10 months of 2017, up 45 percent over the same period last year. It is expected that about two million Chinese tourists will see Cambodia in 2020.

Pi Pay's chief executive officer Tomas Pokorny said since its launch in July, Pi Pay has rapidly grown to become the go-to-mobile payment options across Phnom Penh, with more than 168,000 downloads of the app and 27 million U.S. dollars being spent or transferring by users.

"The partnership will allow Alipay customers to pay for goods and services in Cambodia through Pi Pay terminals," he said. "We're confident that it will add an additional boost to Cambodia's vibrant tourism industry."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 19:52:22|Editor: pengying

Video Player Close

COLOMBO, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- A Sri Lanka-China exhibition portraying the history and culture of the Maritime Silk Road kicks off at the Colombo National Museum on Wednesday to celebrate the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Sri Lanka.

Titled "Gone with the Wind and Waves Maritime Silk Road Chinese Cultural Relics Exhibition", the event is organized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Wayamba Development and Cultural Affairs, the Art Exhibition China and the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka, in a bid to inform the Sri Lankan public of the strong cultural ties shared between the two countries since ancient times.

Speaking at the launch of the exhibition, Director of Art Exhibition China Zhou Ming said that the 27 sets exhibited were extremely valuable objects from the collection of two Chinese Maritime Museums.

He said the exhibits bear testimony to the glorious history of the China-Sri Lanka maritime silk road and illustrate prominent historical figures including that the Ceylon Prince and Princess.

"The year 2017 marks the 60th anniversary of China-Sri Lanka diplomatic relations. This exhibition presented on this memorable occasion will surely play an important role in cementing the bilateral friendship and strengthening the people to people connectivity among countries along the silk road," Zhou said.

"We hope this exhibition will continue to honour the China-Sri Lanka friendship and write a new and glorious chapter for our relations," he added.

Colombo National Museum Superintendent Ranjith Hewage thanked the Chinese delegation for organizing the event, saying that relations between China and Sri Lanka had only been strengthened since ancient times.
Photo taken on Feb. 9, 2016 shows the scene of Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong, south China. (Xinhua/Li Peng)

LONDON, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Two of the global financial hubs the City of London and Hong Kong will be working closely together to provide financing, and legal and insurance expertize for the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, a leading City of London executive has said.

"The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is enormous, ambitious," and has been called by the Chinese leader as "the project of the century," Sherry Madera, City of London Corporation (CLC) special adviser for Asia told Xinhua in an exclusive interview on Tuesday.

Madera had just returned from Hong Kong where the CLC had officially joined Hong Kong's Infrastructure Financing Facilitation Office (IFFO) on Monday, a body run by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) to facilitate infrastructure investment and financing for the BRI.

Madera said the IFFO, founded last year, now had 80 entities taking part and aimed to be a knowledge-sharing platform, for discussions about infrastructure financing for the BRI and how that can be done efficiently.

"London is the only international city that has joined the IFFO," said Madera.

According to City of London Economic Research (CLER), London played a dominant role in global foreign exchange with daily turnover of 2.7 trillion U.S. dollars accounting for 41 percent of global share.

CLER figures for 2014 also showed that London dealt with 71 percent of international bond trading, that 20 percent of the global foreign equity market was listed there, and 18 percent of global cross-border lending was arranged in the city more than any other global center.

London sees the BRI as a project where it can profit by offering its special expertise, said Madera, and a joint approach with Hong Kong, itself a global financial center with a very particular role to play in Asia, would be a win-win for all parties.

"The City of London has a real strategic partner role in the IFFO, as defined by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) -- it is important for us to walk the walk," said Madera.

"This is a really good example of where London and Hong Kong are not competitors -- the pie on this is so big, and by being able to work together it is going to grow," she said.

A view of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben in London, Britain, on July 25, 2012. (Xinhua/Li Ga)

The BRI is a project which has seen dozens of countries, regions and international organizations sign cooperation agreements with China.

Madera said that after attending the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing in May, it was clear that there was a need to "mobilize private capital alongside government funds in order to build out Belt and Road infrastructure."

"This is going to need to be educational, cultural and business mindset that is going to have to happen; it is not just flipping a switch," said Madera.

EXPERTIZE IN LAW, INSURANCE, FOREX

London's expertize in law, insurance and foreign exchange trading, and its deep and liquid markets of capital could be of value to the building and expansion of infrastructure along the Belt and Road.

Cooperation between the City of London and Hong Kong would benefit the BRI and both parties, said Madera.

"As the deepest capital market in the world capital flows through London. It is the strongest infrastructure financing center, we have a history of structured finance and that is an obvious sharing point (with Hong Kong)," said Madera.

Madera said that London, as the second largest offshore center for trading renminbi (RMB) after Hong Kong, had a role to supplement and support Hong Kong in facilitating finance for BRI.

"It is going to be a matching of multiple currencies, and in that London is second to none as the number one global financial center for foreign exchange," said Madera.

Hong Kong and London's legal frameworks were very similar and were also a global benchmark used in transnational infrastructure projects, and these legal principles and templates could be utilized through the IFFO, according to the official.

London as the world's third largest insurance center had expertize to offer Hong Kong in the areas of geo-political insurance, climate change and environment insurance and cargo insurance for BRI projects.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 20:07:24|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

by Mahmoud Fouly

CAIRO, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The recent U.S. veto of a UN Security Council resolution rejecting President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital is expected to isolate Washington and to harm the Middle East peace process, said Egyptian political experts.

On Monday, the United States vetoed the UN draft resolution that aims to protect the status of the disputed holy city of Jerusalem and halt Trump's recent decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem despite Arab, Islamic and international warnings.

Although vetoed and blocked by the United States, the draft resolution was backed by all 14 other members of the UN Security Council.

"By this move, the United States withdraws itself from the peace process and puts itself in an isolated position," said Abdel-Raouf al-Reedy, former Egyptian Ambassador to the United States and head of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs.

Trump's controversial decision on Jerusalem, made on Dec. 6, was met by regional and international rejection, condemnation and warning of its serious repercussions on peace, security and stability in the Middle East region as well as the chances for a settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

"The move obstructs and undermines the peace process and negatively affects the prospects for settlement achievement, because the United States is an important party in the Middle East peace process and the U.S. position is supposed to be moderate, objective and unbiased," Reedy told Xinhua.

The decades-long Palestinian-Israeli conflict emerged since the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and the Western-backed creation of Israel in 1948.

The Palestinians seek to establish an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital in the light of the UN-proposed two-state solution based on the pre-1967 borders.

"This U.S. position on Jerusalem actually contradicts the principles of the international law and the UN charter, because East Jerusalem, although its issue is kept for the final settlement stage, is a Palestinian occupied land since 1967," the Egyptian ex-ambassador to Washington told Xinhua.

The draft resolution vetoed by the United States was initially proposed by Egypt, despite the closeness and exchange of remarks of praise between Trump and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, which indicates that regional allies would not approve a U.S. decision that provokes their peoples.

"The Arab public opinion is the driving force that will affect the U.S.-Arab relations following Trump's move and veto, for Arab governments have to take into account the positions of their peoples," Reedy pointed out.

Israel is blamed by the international community for the deadlock of the peace process due to its settlement expansion policy on Palestinian occupied territories, which is generally rejected even by its strongest ally, the United States.

The Cairo-based Arab League similarly said in a statement on Tuesday that the U.S. veto on Jerusalem will "increase Washington's isolation," describing it as "flagrant defiance of clear and maybe rare of international consensus."

After the U.S. veto, the 193-member UN General Assembly will hold an emergency meeting on Thursday at the request of Arab and Muslim countries on Jerusalem, with some Arab and regional states vowing to raise the vetoed UN draft resolution for another vote at the special session.

U.S. representative at the UN Nikki Haley warned in a letter to many UN member states on Tuesday that her country will remember those states that voted against the U.S. decision, adding that Trump will be attentively watching the vote at the UN General Assembly.

The Palestinian issue was the center of Arab concerns for decades, before the so-called Arab Spring uprisings that toppled a number of veteran Arab leaders and turned more attention to domestic political, economic and security challenges.

"A strong and influential Arab position is unlikely amid the current conditions," said Gamal Salama, dean of the faculty of economics and political science at the Suez Canal University.

He explained that the Palestinian cause after Trump's recent decision will enter a phase of "massive retreat" due to the current critical and uncertain circumstances of Arab states that are suffering unstable domestic conditions.

For decades, the United States has been brokering peace negations between its number one regional ally Israel and the Palestinians, yet the recent U.S. moves on Jerusalem raised further doubts about the U.S. integrity, fairness and non-bias as a Middle East peace mediator.

The senior political science professor believes that the recent veto of the U.S. administration against the UN draft resolution on Jerusalem will lead to cold U.S.-Arab relations.

"I believe Arab-U.S. relations will go through a stage of uneasiness in the coming period due to the massive political recklessness of Trump's administration," Salama told Xinhua, hailing the significance of Egypt's proposed draft resolution in favor of the Palestinian rights.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 20:42:33|Editor: pengying

Video Player Close

BEIJING, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- China Wednesday expressed "serious concern" over reports of the Republic of Korea (ROK) coast guard firing shots at Chinese fishing boats.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying made the remarks at a regular press briefing.

It was reported that the ROK coast guard on Tuesday fired more than 200 shots to expel over 40 Chinese fishing boats in ROK Exclusive Economic Zone after the boats ignored broadcast warnings.

"We hope that the ROK side can properly handle the issue, avoid taking extreme measures that endanger people's safety in the process of law enforcement, and protect Chinese fishermen's safety and legal rights," Hua said.

She added that China always attaches great importance to the management of overseas fisheries and takes effective measures to maintain the order of fisheries.

Hua urged the ROK enhance communication with China and work together to safeguard order of fishery production in related waters.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 20:47:35|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

HARARE, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe's electoral body said Wednesday over 4.7 million people have registered to vote in next year's elections during a two-month registration blitz that ended Dec. 20.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said while mobile registration centers have closed, registration is continuing at 63 static district centers across the country, ZEC said.

ZEC had initially targeted to register 7 million voters for next year's polls but it later admitted that the figure was unrealistic and revised it down to about 5 million.

There have been calls from various stakeholders including political parties for the registration blitz to be extended to accommodate many potential voters.

The state-run Herald newspaper quoted ZEC acting chairperson Emmanuel Magadu as saying that they expected to extend the blitz by a month to January 2018.

The electoral body has since requested 7.9 million U.S. dollars to fund the extended registration period.

Zimbabwe is using the biometric voter registration system for the first time to compile a new voters' roll. Thus all eligible Zimbabweans are required to register afresh for next year's polls.

In the last 2013 elections, 5.8 million Zimbabweans were registered for the polls.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who last month took over from former president Robert Mugabe, has been endorsed by the ruling ZANU-PF party as its presidential candidate for the 2018 elections.
Nigerian soldiers participate in an operation in Nigeria's northeastern state of Borno, March 16, 2016. (Xinhua/Wale Salau)

ABUJA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Twenty Boko Haram fighters have been killed by Nigerian forces in an ongoing operation to rout remnants of the terrorists, the Nigerian military said Wednesday.

Timothy Antigha, the army spokesman, said 17 other Boko Haram fighters were captured by the military strike force fighting to smoke out the terrorists inhabiting remote islands in Lake Chad basin within the Nigerian territory.

Antigha said following the military operation, which started about two weeks ago and was preceded by coordinated air and artillery bombardment, the Nigerian troops rescued over 100 elderly men, women and children.

According to the spokesman, six soldiers who were injured during the operation are receiving treatment at a military medical facility.

A preliminary investigation revealed that many of the rescued people were held against their will and forced to work on farms with penurious wages, Antigha noted.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 21:02:41|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

MANILA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Two months after the Marawi conflict ended in the Philippines, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday that thousands of its displaced residents remain dependent on aid.

"It has been almost two months since armed conflict ended in Marawi City but thousands of displaced people remain unable to return home and are in need of help and attention," the ICRC said in a statement.

A majority of the displaced people staying in municipalities east of Lake Lanao come from the worst affected parts of Marawi City that have not opened for return yet. "They are still dependent on relatives, the authorities and aid organizations," the relief agency said.

The ICRC said it continues to distribute food and hygiene supplies to thousands of people still displaced in Lanao del Sur.

Aisah Toroganan, a mother of five who is currently seeking refuge in the eastern part of the lake, is one of the recipients of the ICRC aid.

Aisah and her family have been living with her aunt in Molundo, a town in Lanao del Sur province, since the fighting broke out between government security forces and pro-Islamic State (IS) extremists in May.

The Toroganans left their home and everything they had behind once they felt it was too dangerous for them to stay in the besieged Marawi.

"Where we live now, we are 34 people occupying three small houses in the compound. The place is cramped and we can barely find a place to sleep," she said.

She added, "We try to find ways to earn extra cash to support ourselves. I, for example, use my skills as a seamstress by offering sewing services to neighbors, but that is not enough to help us make ends meet. Most of us still rely on the assistance, especially food rations, that the government and other agencies give us."

Like the other displaced residents, Aisah is looking forward to return to their house in Marawi once they will be allowed to do so. She hopes to receive seed capital to restart her business as well as cash to repair any damages of their house.

Philippine government said displaced Marawi residents are being thoroughly screened before allowing them to enter the devastated city to ensure that no militants can penetrate the city again.

The five-month conflict claimed the lives of more than 1,200 people and forced thousands of its residents to flee.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 21:02:43|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

HELSINKI, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Unemployed people receiving jobless benefits in Finland woke to a reality on Wednesday that they have to "look actively for a job" or face a cutback in their benefits.

Described by the opposition parties as "a cruel punishment of the jobless", the legislation was passed in parliament on Tuesday with votes 103-90. The measure was one of the policy changes based on the program of the current coalition government.

While described by the unions and the opposition as using a stick to force people to accept work, the official formulation said the law is a measure against "incentive traps". The term refers to situations where it is more advantageous to remain on the unemployment benefits than to take up a job.

Jarkko Eloranta, the chairman of the central "blue collar" labor organization SAK, said the next government must dismantle the system that punishes the unemployed.

The move has been difficult for the Blue Future party in the government coalition and some MPs of the Blue Party speculated the cutbacks could be called off, but group chairman Simon Elo said the "government is united".

Conservative MPs noted the "requirement to be active" came to the Finnish rules some 20 years later than in many other countries.

To avoid an under-five-percent-reduction in the benefits for 65 days, an unemployed person must show that he has worked 18 hours, earned as an entrepreneur 240 euros or participated for five days in activities arranged by the public employment service offices, during a three-month period.

In the Finnish dual unemployment compensation system, the penalty would be on average 66 euros a month for those getting salary adjusted benefits and 32 euros a month for those getting the basic compensation.

Currently, salary based benefit is paid roughly for a year and a half in most cases. Thereafter the person "drops" to the universal unemployment benefit of 697 euros per month that will continue without time limit. This reform did not change the dual system. Last year the salary-based period was reduced from 500 working days to 400.

The change is to take effect in January, 2018.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 21:07:48|Editor: pengying

Video Player Close

KUNMING, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Chinese and Lao companies participating in a transnational railway project on Wednesday said they will abide by rules and a code of conduct to ensure the project will not be tainted by corruption.

A pledge was signed by the companies, and employees attending Wednesday's ceremony took a collective vow against corruption.

The companies said they will draft specific measures to stamp out malpractice at every phase of the project, from procurement and construction to operation management. They will enhance the exchange of information and severely punish those found to take or offer bribes.

Work on the China-Laos railway, with a cost of 37.43 billion yuan (around 5.7 billion U.S. dollars), began in December last year. The 414-km line is designed for trains running up to 160 km/h.

The project is led by China Railway Group and uses Chinese equipment as well as Chinese standards. The railway is expected to open in 2021.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 21:17:49|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

RABAT, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Morocco's trade deficit increased 3.3 percent between January and November 2017 compared with a year before, reaching a total of 18.32 billion U.S. dollars, the foreign exchange regulator said on Wednesday.

The rise in the deficit was driven by a hike in imports by 6.7 percent to 42 billion dollars from 39.37 dollars in the same period last year, according to exchange regulator statistics.

The hike was due to 28.6-percent increase in energy bills and 3.4-percent rise in equipment imports rose 3.4-percent, the same source pointed out.

Total exports rose 9.4 percent year on year, but stood at only 23.68 billion dollars, pushed by the rise of 12.2 percent in phosphate exports, and 8.5 percent in agriculture exports, the exchange regulator said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 21:22:50|Editor: pengying

Video Player Close

MANILA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Philippine Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (PT&T) plans to expand broadband Internet and emergency WiFi service in the Philippines with a Chinese partner's assistance, PT&T chairman Salvador Zamora has told Xinhua in an interview.

PT&T announced Tuesday that it signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) in Beijing with a Chinese telecommunication company Chengdu Zhongxing Tiantong Technology Corporation.

Established in 1962, PT&T once was a major telecommunication provider in the Philippines. Now with the new Chinese business partner, PT&T is looking forward to taking part in the competition in the Philippine telecommunication business.

"Our first step is to expand our true broadband service in the Philippines. When I said true broadband service, I mean the true average speed, not the up to' speed," Zamora said.

The Philippines lags its neighbors in Southeast Asia on the speed of Internet service.

According to speed tests conducted by a website called Speedtest Global Index in September, the Philippines ranked 94th out of 121 countries for mobile Internet, while it was 91st out of 131 countries for fixed broadband. In both categories, the study said the Philippines was outranked by its five Southeast Asian neighbors Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

Besides the speed, Zamora said the penetration of Internet connection in the Philippines is only 15 percent, meaning that 85 percent of the areas remain unserved, especially in the central Philippine Visayas region and in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao.

"In our case, we are looking forward to providing the internet service, especially the unserved portion of the market," Zamora said.

He said PT&T and its Chinese partner Zhongxing Tiantong "are going to roll out fully nationwide broadband Internet service which can link all the islands of the country, from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao in three years."

"We want to attract new consumers in the areas that have no access to the broadband internet," Zamora said.

Moreover, Zamora said they also plan to provide "emergency WiFi or telecommunication service" in the country. Already, he said they plan to launch the system firstly in Laguna, a province south of Manila.

In the MoA which was signed on this Monday, PT&T and Zhongxing Tiantong are to explore the feasibility of engaging in a project that will provide free wireless broadband services in designated public areas before, during, and after the occurrence of disasters in the Philippines.

Zamora said PT&T has the mandate from the government to provide emergency telecommunication service.

"We hope the emergency service can be used when the disasters happen," he said, adding that its Chinese partner can provide the necessary help in setting up the emergency telecommunication service.

In November, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the president has offered to China "the privilege to operate the third telecommunications carrier" in the Philippines.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Tuesday that he wanted the third telecommunications player from China to start providing services to consumers by the first quarter of 2018.

With the entry of a Chinese telecommunication company, the Duterte administration hopes to break the duopoly of two major telecommunication providers, Globe Telecom Inc. and PLDT.

"Look forward to better telecommunications in terms of internet speed and access," Roque said.

PT&T chairman Zamora said China makes a good partner, saying that China is developing fast in the telecommunication technology.

Zamora also confirmed reports that PT&T is now in talks with eight Chinese telecommunication companies "in different degrees."

"Some are in preliminary (stage), some are in the grant stage, some are suppliers," he said.

Zamora said PT&T welcomes Chinese companies as partners. He expressed hope that PT&T will break the duopoly.

"That's what we hope to do. We hope to provide better service that has not been serviced and let the Filipinos choose instead of joining the monopoly game," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 21:42:53|Editor: Yurou

Video Player Close

Photo taken on Dec. 16, 2017 shows a jar of genuine slovenian honey in Tuhinj valley, Slovenia. On Nov. 17 this year, the UN economic and financial committee unanimously backed the resolution to declare May 20 World Bee Day. On Wednesday, a resolution is to be formally adopted by the members of the UN General Assembly. (Xinhua/Matic Stojs)

LJUBLJANA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Three years since the Slovenian Beekeeper's Association launched the proposal to the United Nations (UN) to celebrate World Bee Day, the initiative is now finally expected to be formally confirmed at the UN assembly session on Wednesday.

On Nov. 17 this year, the UN economic and financial committee unanimously backed the resolution to declare May 20 World Bee Day. On Wednesday, a resolution is to be formally adopted by the members of the UN General Assembly.

May 20 has long been a festive date in Slovenia, as it honors the birthday of a beekeeping pioneer, Anton Jansa (1734-1773). Jansa's home village Breznica in northern Slovenia has become known as the cradle of Slovenian beekeeping.

Jansa dedicated his life to beekeeping and in 1770 became the first royally-appointed teacher of apiculture for all Austrian lands. He was appointed head of the first beekeeping school in Vienna, according to the reports by Slovene Press Agency.

It has become generally recognized that bees and beekeeping are vital for ensuring food security, as well as preserving the entire ecosystem and natural biodiversity.

In Slovenia, a country rich in biodiversity, beekeeping is a prime part of its identity, enjoying a status equal to that of other types of agriculture.

To better preserve and protect the bees, Slovenia was among the first countries in the EU to prohibit in 2011 the use of certain pesticides that are harmful for bees. It is also the only country in the EU that has protected its bee by legal means.

Furthermore, Slovenia will endeavor to convince the EU that the bee is an endangered animal species and that better conditions for its survival have to be ensured.

It is in this vein that Slovenia is striving to proclaim May 20 as World Bee Day at the UN level: to further raise awareness of the importance of bees and beekeeping,

Beekeeping in Slovenia has been practiced for centuries and has gained international recognition for its uniquely painted beehive panels and the special traditional architecture of its beehives.

Slovenia is home to the native Carniolan honey bee (Apis mellifera carnica), which is among the most popular bee species in the world, valued for its non-aggressiveness.

The preparations to celebrate the first World Bee Day are well underway. While the proposed construction of a honeybee park in Slovenia will take longer than initially hoped for, Jansa's memorial painted beehives, which present an important part of the Slovenian beekeeping heritage, have already been fully renovated and are now on display to visitors.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 21:47:54|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

KWALE, Kenya, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan security officers on Wednesday foiled a terror attack and seized rifles and ammunition in the coastal county of Kwale.

Police said they recovered two AK-47 rifles and 73 rounds of ammunition at a hideout believed to be used by Al-Shabaab militants to plan attacks during the festive season.

Msambweni police boss Joseph Chebusit told reporters that he believed one of the guns recovered was snatched from two police officers killed at an Anglican church in Ukunda during a terror attack.

The two officers were killed and two rifles stolen by gunmen riding on motorbike on September 3. The assailants escaped after stealing one rifle from the officers.

Anti-terror police said they are pursuing at least five returnees who escaped during the raid that led to the recovery of the firearms.

Coast regional police boss Larry Kieng said police have heightened security to deal with terrorism threats during the festive season.

Kieng said security agents are prepared to provide security for both foreigners and locals during the festive season.

Kieng said public and private vehicles using the Lamu-Garsen road have been advised to seek security escort due to security threats posed by the Al-Shabaab group.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 21:47:54|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Two Kurdish Gorran and Islamic parties withdrew Wednesday from the government of the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan in northern Iraq amid widespread anger over unpaid salaries and corruption.

"The Kurdish Change Movement (Gorran) and the Islamic Group of Kurdistan (Komela) decided to withdraw from Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), headed by Nichervan Barzani," a source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The two parties' decision came after a meeting of their leaderships, in which they discuss the massive protests in some of the region's cities and towns that left many Kurdish people killed and wounded.

Kurdish Parliament Speaker Yousif Mohammed, from Gorran Movement, also decided to quit his post after a demand by his party after the meeting.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 21:52:56|Editor: pengying

Video Player Close

TOKYO, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Chinese bike-sharing company Mobike Technology Co., Ltd. and Japan's leading social messaging platform Line Corp. announced Wednesday to set up a strategic partnership.

Under the partnership, Tokyo-listed Line is to make an investment into Mobike's Japanese subsidiary and to get less than 20 percent of the stakes of Mobike Japan.

The deal will also allow Line's 71 million users to have access to Mobike's bike-sharing services by scanning the QR code on the bikes with their Line app, and paying the fees with their Line Pay account.

Takeshi Idezawa, president and CEO of Line, said at a joint press conference that bike-sharing services have caught a lot of attention recently in Japan and Line is hoping to make life of its clients more convenient through cooperation with Mobike.

Line will also support Mobike's development in Japan through Line's network with local governments and private companies, he said.

Hu Weiwei, founder and president of Mobike, said that through partnering with Line, Mobike will provide tens of millions of Line users with more convenient services for finding, unlocking and paying for bikes.

After huge success in the domestic market, Chinese bike-sharing companies are accelerating their steps into the global market.

Mobike Japan has launched bike-sharing service in Sapporo, Hokkaido, in August.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 22:08:03|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

MOSCOW, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Russian State Duma, lower house of parliament, said Wednesday it had passed in the third and final reading a bill to introduce tough punishment for telephone hoaxes.

The bill on amendments to the Criminal Code sets penalties ranging from fines of 200,000 rubles (around 3,400 U.S. dollars) till a prison term of up to 10 years, depending on the level of the danger of the call and severity of its consequences.

"Unfortunately, the existing Criminal Code does not provide for punishment for systemic attacks," Duma Deputy Pavel Krasheninnikov, one of the initiators of the bill, said in a statement.

"The new amendments are set to become an efficient tool for law enforcement agencies," he added.

For the law to come into effect, the bill has to be endorsed by the Federation Council, Russia's upper house of parliament, signed into law by Russian President Vladimir Putin and officially published in the government gazette or the legal Internet portal.

Since September, Russia has been hit by a wave of hoax calls about planted bombs, which led to the evacuation of various public buildings and caused significant financial losses.

So far, nobody has claimed responsibility for these calls and law enforcement agencies complained that it was difficult to find the perpetrators, who operated from abroad using complicated equipment and schemes.

Earlier this month, Putin signed an amendment to the law on communications, which allows blocking directory numbers of suspected "telephone terrorists."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 22:08:04|Editor: liuxin

Video Player Close

Publishers from China and India show the books "Red Poppies" and "Hollow Mountain" in Hindi language in New Delhi, India, Dec. 20, 2017. Two popular books, "Red Poppies" and "Hollow Mountain", originally written by Chinese celebrated author Alai were released in Hindi here on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Zhang Naijie)

NEW DELHI, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Two popular books, "Red Poppies" and "Hollow Mountain", originally written by Chinese celebrated author Alai were released in Hindi here on Wednesday.

The books, translated to Hindi language by an Indian journalist Anand Swaroop Verma, were released amidst a gathering of writers, academicians, scholars, and publishers from both India and China.

Speaking on the occasion, Zhou Hongbo, the editor-in-chief of Chinese publishing house Commercial Press, said, "Our publishing house wants close cooperation with Indian ones. It is good to see Indian publishers publishing Chinese literary works in Hindi language."

Indian speakers on the occasion too laid stress on translation and publishing of Chinese literary works in India so that Indians could get to know more about the Chinese and the people-to-people contact is increased.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 22:13:05|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

CAIRO, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi held a meeting on Wednesday with his defense and interior ministers a day after their visit to North Sinai's Arish city during which a terror attack killed an officer, the Egyptian presidential spokesman said in a statement.

On Tuesday, a shell attack against Arish airport killed an officer and wounded two others, causing partial damage to a helicopter during the visit of Defense Minister Sedqi Sobhi and Interior Minister Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar, who returned to Cairo later in the evening.

"During the meeting, the president received a report from the defense and interior ministers on the security conditions of North Sinai and the measures and procedures made to fight terrorism and establish security and stability in that region," presidential spokesman Bassam Rady said.

He noted that the meeting came "in the light of their Tuesday's visit to Arish city to check on the forces and the security conditions there."

The meeting also included the country's chief of staff and the heads of the general intelligence and the military intelligence agencies.

Egypt has been fighting a wave of terror activities that killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers since the military toppled former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 due to mass protests against his one-year rule and his currently outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.

The terrorist attacks were centered in North Sinai and targeted security forces before they gradually extended to other provinces, including the capital Cairo, and dozens of the Coptic minority with church bombings.

Most of the attacks were claimed by a Sinai-based terrorist group loyal to the Islamic State (IS) group.

On Nov. 24, a terrorist attack against a mosque in a town of Arish city killed at least 310 Muslim worshippers and wounded over 120 others, marking the deadliest terror attack and the first against a Muslim mosque in Egypt's modern history. But no group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Following the mosque attack, President Sisi ordered the army's chief of staff to restore security and stability in the restive part of the Sinai Peninsula within three months.

Over the past few years, the Egyptian security forces have killed hundreds of terrorists and arrested a similar number of suspects during the country's anti-terror war declared by Sisi, the army chief then, following Morsi's ouster.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 22:28:08|Editor: Zhou Xin

Video Player Close

WARSAW, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Poland on Wednesday regretted the European Commission decision to launch Article 7, saying the Commission's decision is "essentially political, not legal in its nature", Poland's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"We are always ready for talks. During the last European summit, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki confirmed our will to continue the dialogue at the highest level with the Commission, which was positively welcomed by the other side," it said.

"We hope that soon we will be able to present our position in a direct and open manner," it said.

The European Commission said earlier on Wednesday in a statement that it has triggered Article 7 and launched an unprecedented censure against Poland over a judicial reform dispute.

"There is a clear risk of a serious breach of the rule of law in Poland," it said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 22:38:31|Editor: pengying

Video Player Close

A worker makes artificial flowers in a workshop at Qianzhuang Village of Guanzhuang Township in Longde County, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Dec. 20, 2017. Located in the remotest mountainous region of Ningxia, Qianzhuang Village used to be one of the most underdeveloped areas in whole China. Local authorities tried very hard to eliminate poverty. With the help of a company from coastal developed areas, a factory making artificial flowers was built here in July of this year. The products were mainly exported to European and Middle East countries. Aged villagers, especially housewives worked at the company right in the neighborhood. One could make an extra earning of more than 300 U.S. dollars here, in the meanwhile, the housewife could also attend the family due to the flexible time of work. (Xinhua/Wang Peng)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 22:33:08|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

WARSAW, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Poland on Wednesday regretted the European Commission decision to launch Article 7, saying the Commission's decision is "essentially political, not legal in its nature", Poland's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"We are always ready for talks. During the last European summit, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki confirmed our will to continue the dialogue at the highest level with the Commission, which was positively welcomed by the other side," it said.

"We hope that soon we will be able to present our position in a direct and open manner," it said.

The European Commission said earlier on Wednesday in a statement that it has triggered Article 7 and launched an unprecedented censure against Poland over a judicial reform dispute.

"There is a clear risk of a serious breach of the rule of law in Poland," it said.

Over a period of two years, the Polish authorities have adopted more than 13 laws affecting the entire structure of the justice system in Poland, according to the Commission statement.

"The European Commission is taking action to protect the rule of law in Europe. Judicial reforms in Poland mean that the country's judiciary is now under the political control of the ruling majority," it said.

The Commission has given Warsaw three months to introduce its latest rule of law recommendations, the fourth set it has issued with regard to Poland so far.

The Commission is now requesting the European Council and the European Parliament to analyze the situation in Poland and decide whether there is a clear risk to the rule of law, Commission vice president Frans Timmermans told reporters.

Dubbed so-called "nuclear option", Article 7 has never been triggered against any EU member state before. The procedure could eventually lead to Poland losing its voting rights in the 28-member bloc.

Under Article 7, the European Council, or heads of national governments, may declare that there is a risk of a serious breach of European values by a member state.

Such a declaration requires a four-fifths majority and may subsequently involve sanctions against the member state in question. Among other consequences, the country could be stripped of its vote in the European Council.

The Polish lower parliament passed the National Judicial Council reform bill and the Supreme Court reform bill earlier this month.

The judicial reforms have caused many controversies among Polish citizens and among foreign institutions as well. The reforms include changes in the electoral system of the members of National Council of the Judiciary and Supreme Court judges' retirement.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 22:33:09|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

TBILISI, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Congress had agreed to sell the Javelin man-portable anti-tank system to Georgia, said Georgian Defense Minister Levan Izoria on Wednesday.

"We have an important success regarding purchasing the anti-tank Javelin missiles from the United States," said Izoria, who wrote to the U.S. Defence Department for this purchase on March 29, adding that the U.S. Congress had made a positive decision on this issue Tuesday.

Addressing lawmakers in the parliament, Izoria said that Georgia had asked the United States for the Javelin missiles multiple times for years but implementation of defense reforms was one of the conditions the United States requested from the country.

The United States had recognized the reforms Georgia has undertaken with Tuesday's decision, Izoria stressed.

According to the statement from the Ministry, Izoria also spoke highly of the fast expanding cooperation between Georgia and NATO in recent years, saying the alliance had recognized Georgia as one of the most trusted partners by jointly conducting a series of military drills.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 22:58:13|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

WARSAW, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Poland on Wednesday regretted the European Commission decision to launch Article 7, saying the Commission's decision is "essentially political, not legal in its nature", Poland's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"We are always ready for talks. During the last European summit, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki confirmed our will to continue the dialogue at the highest level with the Commission, which was positively welcomed by the other side," it said.

"We hope that soon we will be able to present our position in a direct and open manner," it said.

Morawiecki, who became new prime minister earlier this month, said Poland is attached to the rule of law principle as the EU is, according to Polish Press Agency.

Morawiecki said the judicial reforms were necessary, and suggested that dialogue between Warsaw and the European Commission needed "openness and honesty".

He added that he believed Poland's independence could be reconciled with the united Europe concept.

The European Commission said earlier on Wednesday in a statement that it has triggered Article 7 and launched an unprecedented censure against Poland over a judicial reform dispute.

"There is a clear risk of a serious breach of the rule of law in Poland," it said.

Over a period of two years, the Polish authorities have adopted more than 13 laws affecting the entire structure of the justice system in Poland, according to the Commission statement.

"The European Commission is taking action to protect the rule of law in Europe. Judicial reforms in Poland mean that the country's judiciary is now under the political control of the ruling majority," it said.

The Commission has given Warsaw three months to introduce its latest rule of law recommendations, the fourth set it has issued with regard to Poland so far.

The Commission is now requesting the European Council and the European Parliament to analyze the situation in Poland and decide whether there is a clear risk to the rule of law, Commission vice president Frans Timmermans told reporters.

Dubbed so-called "nuclear option", Article 7 has never been triggered against any EU member state before. The procedure could eventually lead to Poland losing its voting rights in the 28-member bloc.

Under Article 7, the European Council, or heads of national governments, may declare that there is a risk of a serious breach of European values by a member state.

Such a declaration requires a four-fifths majority and may subsequently involve sanctions against the member state in question. Among other consequences, the country could be stripped of its vote in the European Council.

The Polish lower parliament passed the National Judicial Council reform bill and the Supreme Court reform bill earlier this month.

The judicial reforms have caused many controversies among Polish citizens and among foreign institutions as well. The reforms include changes in the electoral system of the members of National Council of the Judiciary and Supreme Court judges' retirement.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 22:58:15|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

ABUJA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Ten people were confirmed dead after a commercial bus and a truck collided in Nigeria's southwestern state of Ogun, an official said on Wednesday.

Babatunde Akinbiyi, a spokesman for the local traffic police in the state capital of Abeokuta, said the accident happened on the Abeokuta-Ibadan expressway late Tuesday.

According to Akinbiyi, the truck driver lost control of the vehicle, causing it to collide head-on with the bus.

He said the truck driver sustained an injury in the accident.

The traffic police spokesman blamed the incident on speeding and negligence on the part of the truck driver.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 23:08:16|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

RABAT, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Morocco attracted nearly 2.35 billion U.S. dollars of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first 11 months of 2017, up 14.6 percent from last year, the foreign exchange regulator said Wednesday.

In 2016, FDI in Morocco declined 29 percent to 2.3 billion dollars after reaching 3.2 billion dollars in 2015, according to the United Nations Conference for Trade and Investment (UNCTAD).

Still, Morocco overtook its neighboring Maghreb nations including Algeria (1.5 billion dollars), Tunisia (958 million dollars) and Libya (493 million dollars), UNCTAD statistics show.

In addition, tourism revenues in Libya increased 6.5 percent to 6.8 billion dollars in the same period, while remittances from 4.5 million Moroccan expatriates rose 3 percent to 6.3 billion dollars.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki arrives at EU headquarters for an EU Summit in Brussels, Belgium, Dec. 14, 2017. (Xinhua/Ye Pingfan)

WARSAW, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Poland on Wednesday regretted the European Commission decision to launch Article 7, saying the Commission's decision is "essentially political, not legal in its nature", Poland's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"We are always ready for talks. During the last European summit, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki confirmed our will to continue the dialogue at the highest level with the Commission, which was positively welcomed by the other side," it said.

"We hope that soon we will be able to present our position in a direct and open manner," it said.

Morawiecki, who became new prime minister earlier this month, said Poland is attached to the rule of law principle as the EU is, according to Polish Press Agency.

Morawiecki said the judicial reforms were necessary, and suggested that dialogue between Warsaw and the European Commission needed "openness and honesty".

He added that he believed Poland's independence could be reconciled with the united Europe concept.

The European Commission said earlier on Wednesday in a statement that it has triggered Article 7 and launched an unprecedented censure against Poland over a judicial reform dispute.

"There is a clear risk of a serious breach of the rule of law in Poland," it said.

Over a period of two years, the Polish authorities have adopted more than 13 laws affecting the entire structure of the justice system in Poland, according to the Commission statement.

"The European Commission is taking action to protect the rule of law in Europe. Judicial reforms in Poland mean that the country's judiciary is now under the political control of the ruling majority," it said.

The Commission has given Warsaw three months to introduce its latest rule of law recommendations, the fourth set it has issued with regard to Poland so far.

The Commission is now requesting the European Council and the European Parliament to analyze the situation in Poland and decide whether there is a clear risk to the rule of law, Commission vice president Frans Timmermans told reporters.

Dubbed so-called "nuclear option", Article 7 has never been triggered against any EU member state before. The procedure could eventually lead to Poland losing its voting rights in the 28-member bloc.

Under Article 7, the European Council, or heads of national governments, may declare that there is a risk of a serious breach of European values by a member state.

Such a declaration requires a four-fifths majority and may subsequently involve sanctions against the member state in question. Among other consequences, the country could be stripped of its vote in the European Council.

The Polish lower parliament passed the National Judicial Council reform bill and the Supreme Court reform bill earlier this month.

The judicial reforms have caused many controversies among Polish citizens and among foreign institutions as well. The reforms include changes in the electoral system of the members of National Council of the Judiciary and Supreme Court judges' retirement.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 23:18:19|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

XINING, China, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- China has three teams make the semifinals of the Qinghai International Curling Elite after the last round robin matches concluded on Wednesday.

The Chinese men's team, women's team and women's junior team, all ranked the top four in their respective groups, thus making the semifinals to be held on Thursday morning, with the finals slated in the afternoon.

In the men's actions on Wednesday afternoon, Switzerland beat the United States 8-5 and Scotland edged China 9-8. Thus, China placed third on the overall standings with a 6-2 win-loss record after Switzerland and Scotland, and Norway ranked fourth with a 5-3 win-loss sheet.

In the women's matches on Wednesday evening, China had a tough match with Sweden to tie for 7-all through the regular 10 ends. In 11th end, the Swedish skip swirled the last stone into the house for the winning point. And the Chinese junior team had a solid performance, beating Canada 9-8.

On the women's standings, Russia ranked first, followed by China, Switzerland and Chinese Junior.

On Thursday, China will meet Scotland, Norway play Switzerland in the men's semifinals, while the women's semifinals put China against Switzerland, and Russia vs Chinese Junior.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 23:28:24|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

CAPE TOWN, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Social media have become a platform for crime syndicates to extort money from unsuspecting patrons, especially high-profile personalities, in South Africa, Minister of Home Affairs Ayanda Dlodlo warned on Wednesday.

"We have detected incidents of fake social media accounts attempting to solicit money from members of the public and we have reported this matter to the Hawks (a special anti-crime unit) for thorough investigation," Dlodlo said.

In one case last week, cyber criminals impersonated Dlodlo to solicit money from social media users, according to the minister.

Dlodlo said a fake account bearing her name was created as a platform to solicit money through a purported contract deal to the amount of 25 million rand (about 2 million U.S. dollars).

This "deal" is said to be a business venture between Dlodlo and another cabinet minister in terms of which a member of the public is being asked for certain kind of information to qualify for a share of 50 percent in the purported transaction, said the minister.

In a statement issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Dlodlo denied being involved in any deal of the nature described in the fake correspondence.

These impostors create numerous fake accounts not just for misinformation and personal data compromise, which are common mischiefs on social media, but to extort money, she said.

Dlodlo said her department will never ask people to pay money through social media for any of their services, and anyone who comes across such requests should report these to the authorities.

The minister emphasized that social media networks are critical platforms for information flow and exchange around the globe, but are also dangerous hunting grounds for cyber criminals who are sparing no effort in using easy access of these networks for their nefarious deeds.

"We would also like to warn those who are involved in this illegal activity that the law will come hard on them," the minister said.

South Africa is ranked as the world's third hardest hit country by cyber crime.

According to the South African Banking Risk Information Center, South Africans lose in excess of 2.2 billion rand (about 173 million dollars) to internet fraud and phishing attacks annually.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 23:38:28|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

AMMAN, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Jordan and Iran on Wednesday reiterated their rejection of U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, state-run Petra news agency reported.

At a meeting between Lower House Speaker Atef Tarawneh and Iranian Ambassador to Jordan Mahabati Fardous, the two sides discussed the latest development in Jerusalem.

Tarawneh said Jordan will take part in the 13th meeting of conference of member countries of the Organization of Islamic Conference that will be held in Tehran next month.

Jordan will continue to support the Palestinians and help them realize their aspirations to build an independent state, he added.

Tarawneh also stressed the need for cooperation between Jordan and Iran.

For his part, Fardous also highlighted Iran's rejection of the decision by Trump.

The Iranian ambassador voiced support for Jordan's custodianship on the holy Islamic and Christian sites in Jerusalem, urging unity among regional countries to face Israeli occupation.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 23:38:28|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

BUDAPEST, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen on Wednesday termed as unprecedented and incredible the European Commission's decision to launch the Article 7 procedure against Poland over its controversial judicial reforms.

"The decision seriously violates the sovereignty of Poland," Semjen said in an interview with Hungarian news agency MTI.

"It is unacceptable that Brussels put pressure on sovereign states and arbitrarily punish democratically elected governments," he added.

"The Polish-Hungarian friendship and the commitment of the Hungarian government towards the treaties oblige us to oppose the European Commission's decision on all the forums," Semjen stressed.

"The Hungarian government is today and in the future standing by Poland and will continue to protect Poland against an unfair, and conceptual political process," he said.

To MTI's question of whether this could mean that Hungary would veto the decision against Poland, Semjen replied with a firm "yes".

Earlier on Wednesday, the European Commission said in a statement that it has triggered Article 7 and launched an unprecedented censure against Poland over a judicial reform dispute.

"The Commission has today concluded that there is a clear risk of a serious breach of the rule of law in Poland," it said.

Dubbed so-called "nuclear option", Article 7 has never been triggered against any EU member state before. The procedure could eventually lead to Poland losing its voting rights in the 28-member bloc.

Under Article 7, the European Council, or heads of national governments, may declare that there is a risk of a serious breach of European values by a member state.

Such a declaration requires a four-fifths majority and may subsequently involve sanctions against the member state in question. Among other consequences, the country could be stripped of its vote in the European Council.

Semjen said that it was unfair that the European Commission did nothing when some European member states failed to comply with European treaties, while it then "politically initiated proceedings against the Polish government".

"This is a typical case of double standards, and what the European Commission is doing now goes against the European values," Semjen underlined.

He also said that Central Europe and Poland were today the engines of European economic development. "Europe needs Poland," he added.
File Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump (L) and British Prime Minister Theresa May (R) attend the handover ceremony of the new NATO headquarters during a one-day NATO Summit, in Brussels, Belgium, May 25, 2017. (Xinhua/Ye Pingfan)

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders said here Tuesday that U.S. President Donald Trump has accepted an invitation by British Prime Minister Theresa May to visit her nation and the president has been "tough" on Moscow.

According to the White House, Trump called May earlier on Tuesday, the first since their twitter dispute, and the two leaders "exchanged holiday greetings and warm wishes for Christmas and the New Year." They also discussed next steps in forging peace in the Middle East.

The "special relationship" between Trump and May has been questioned in recent weeks following the U.S. president's retweeting of several videos clips posted by a British far-right group. May said Trump's decision was wrong and Trump responded by asking her to take care of her nation. British parliament members have urged May not to invite Trump for a state visit next year.

Speaking of May's invitation, Sanders said it has been "extended and accepted," adding that the White House is working with the British side "to finalize the details, which we expect to announce soon."

Asked why Trump did not use harsh rhetoric against Russia in his speech on the national security strategy on Monday, Sanders said Trump and the White House have always been "tough" on Russia.

"The president has weighed in on Russia and his feelings on that a number of times. The policy and the strategy put forth in that very detailed paper was that of the president and it reflects his views," she said.

She added that Trump "has been clear what his position is. We've been tough on Russia, we've put sanctions on Russia, we've imported energy, and impacted them in a big way. The president has not been soft in this process."

In the national security strategy and the speech, the Trump administration labeled Moscow as the United States' "competitor" and "rival power" seeking to undermine the Washington-led international order and U.S. interests. Russia has denied such an allegation repeatedly.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 23:43:31|Editor: Yurou

Video Player Close

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov (C),Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (R) and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif shake hands before the fifth trilateral meeting of Azerbaijani, Iranian and Turkish Foreign Ministers in Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec 20, 2017.(Xinhua/Tofik Babayev)

BAKU, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Azerbaijan, Turkey and Iran pledged to strengthen peace, stability, prosperity and cooperation in the region, said the Baku Statement of the three countries on Wednesday.

The statement was adopted following the fifth trilateral meeting of Azerbaijani, Iranian and Turkish Foreign Ministers, Elmar Mammadyarov, Mohammad Javad Zarif and Mevlut Cavusoglu.

They reaffirmed their commitment to further enhancing solidarity and cooperation based on deep-rooted historical, religious & cultural commonalities and shared values.

The ministers underlined their commitment to further expanding cooperation to promote economic progress and sustainable development. The parties also agreed to continue close consultations on regional and global issues of common interest at different levels and platforms.

They also agreed to implement joint projects and programs in the fields of energy, transportation, banking, telecommunication, industry, agriculture, tourism and environment, with a focus on new projects for the development of transport and transit potential in the region.

They welcomed the launching of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway link project which directly connected the three countries, stating that the project creates favorable conditions to increase the transit potential on various routes.

As for the relations among the banking networks, all parties agreed to share their experience and information on international banking procedures while combating money-laundering and the financing of terrorism. [ The ministers also stressed the importance of increased cooperation to fight against terrorism, separatism and violent extremism as well as other forms of crimes.

The next trilateral meeting will be held in Turkey.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 23:43:31|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

TRIPOLI, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Libyan eastern-based army has dismantled a number of terrorist networks responsible for assassinations and bombings in the eastern city of Benghazi, a military source said Wednesday.

The terrorist cells and criminal elements dismantled admitted "assassinations and bombing on government institutions and security headquarters over the past few years," an army officer said.

Some of the arrested have provided classified information to terrorist groups during the control of the army forces on neighborhoods and towns in Benghazi to target the army, the officer added.

Security and military services in the city have contributed in the weeks-old process.

Benghazi, Libya's second largest city and the birthplace of the 2011 uprising that toppled former leader Muammar Gaddafi, has witnessed a three-year war between the army led by General Khalifa Haftar and extremist groups.

Haftar announced in June the takeover of the entire city of Benghazi after the defeating of the rival armed groups. However, some militants still remain in the city and mainly use landmines to cause damage.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 23:43:34|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

NAIROBI, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- A job fair by Chinese companies that opened on Wednesday is providing about 1,000 opportunities for Kenyan students, a marked increase from 400 vacancies at last year's event.

Li Xuhang, Charge d'Affaires of the Chinese embassy in Kenya, told a media briefing in Nairobi that the recruitment fair provided a platform for the young people in need of linkages with Chinese enterprises.

"Over 50 Chinese companies participated in the job fair with nearly 1,000 job opportunities," Li said during the Second Job Fair by the Chinese Enterprises.

The day-long event was hosted by the Confucius Institute of the University of Nairobi with the support of the Chinese enterprises and the Chinese communities in Kenya.

Li urged Chinese companies to take full advantage of the job fair to select young talents and train them to reach their best potentials.

The Chinese diplomat said in recent years, China-Kenya relations have enjoyed the best momentum ever and the friendly cooperation had accomplished remarkable results.

Li said as China continued its endeavor to promote international cooperation, especially through the Belt and Road Initiative, the Sino-Kenya cooperation is ushering in a golden era.

Peter Mbithi, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nairobi, said that the job recruitment exercise aims to establish active networks and links between students and potential employers.

Mbithi said that fair will also strengthen the university's critical contribution to sustainable development through its core academic function of research and teaching and amplified focus on employability.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 23:48:35|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

CAIRO, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The remittances of Egyptian expatriates rose by 20 percent to reach 24.2 billion U.S. dollars since November 2016, the highest in the country's history, the official MENA news agency reported.

"Total money transfers hit 24.2 billion dollars from November 2016 to November 2017, up 20 percent," MENA quoted a source at the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) as saying.

Remittances of Egyptian expatriates are one of the major sources of hard currency in the country along with the revenues of the Suez Canal and the tourism sector.

Egypt decided last year to fully float the exchange rate of its local currency to contain shortage of the U.S. dollar reserves and embark on a strict three-year economic reform program.

Suffering economic slowdown over the past few years due to political turmoil and security challenges, the floatation of the Egyptian pound encouraged the International Monetary Fund to support Egypt's economic reform by a 12-billion-dollar loan, a third of which has been delivered to the North African country.

"The pound liberalization managed to end the black market in Egypt and to encourage Egyptian expatriates to transfer their funds to Egyptian banks," said the CBE source.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 23:48:35|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

BERLIN, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) and the Conservatives Union announced on Wednesday that they will hold exploratory talks for government formation from Jan. 7 to 12, according to local media.

The decision was announced after lengthy deliberation among SPD chairman Martin Schulz, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) head Chancellor Angela Merkel and Horst Seehofer, head of CDU's Bavarian sister Christian Social Union, and other senior officials from the three parties, Focus Online said.

"It was a good conversation in a trusting atmosphere and we agreed on the further procedure of sounding out," the three parties said in a joint statement after the meeting.

Party leaders agreed to discuss 15 topics, including finance/taxes, business, energy, family and migration, integration and others.

The statement also noticed that a report of exploratory talks will be presented on Jan. 12, which will be discussed by every party.

Germany is now in a vacancy of new government since the Sept. 24 federal elections, the longest period ever since 1949.

The exploratory talks between SPD and the Union came after the breakdown of the talks between Union, the Free Democratic Party and the Greens in late November, mainly on issues of migration and energy.

The SPD, which rejected to form a new grand coalition with the Union after a landslide loss in federal elections, changed its stance after increasing social pressure on it.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-20 23:58:37|Editor: Yurou

Video Player Close

DHAKA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- To support the flood response, the Ministry of Commerce (MoFCOM) of China has partnered with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to provide four million U.S. dollars for early recovery efforts in Bangladesh.

This is a part of MoFCOM's Disaster Recovery Support in South Asia, said the U.N. agency in a statement received here Wednesday.

Under this partnership, UNDP will provide 13,000 flood-affected households in flood-hit Bogra, Gaibandha, Lalmonirhat, Kurigram and Nilphamari districts with emergency shelter and households items packages including materials to repair housing and to keep warm in the upcoming winter months.

Additionally, UNDP is partnering with UNFPA to ensure that 14,000 flood-affected women and girls will be provided with emergency dignity kits containing clothing, personal hygiene items and a flashlight, and 125 health workers provided with emergency health response kits to serve women and girls' health needs.

In recognition of the government of Bangladesh's support to the Rohingya, the Chinese contribution will also support the procurement of medical supplies for health facilities serving Rohingya women and girls in Cox's Bazar, 292 km southeast of capital Dhaka.

China will also provide support in Pakistan and Nepal to restoring the livelihoods of the flood-affected people, said the statement.

It is expected that, with this first of its kind initiative, UNDP and the Chinese government will have stronger collaboration with a larger impact on disaster management and early recovery in Bangladesh and in South Asia, it added.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 00:08:39|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

HONG KONG, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- About 200 experts discussed opportunities brought by the Belt and Road Initiative at a workshop held in China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on Wednesday.

An important document was signed last week with regard to the Belt and Road Initiative, namely the "Arrangement between the National Development and Reform Commission and the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for Advancing Hong Kong's Full Participation in and Contribution to the Belt and Road Initiative" in Beijing, said Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, Chief Secretary for Administration of the HKSAR government.

The arrangement will allow Hong Kong to give full play to its unique advantages under "one country, two systems" to contribute to the country, while at the same time seize those opportunities brought by the Initiative to provide new impetus for Hong Kong's economic growth, he said.

The relevant measures will help reinforce and elevate Hong Kong's position as international financial, transport and trade centers, promote partnership between mainland and Hong Kong enterprises, spawn the demand for Hong Kong's professional services and present Hong Kong's home-grown talents with promising prospects, thus enhancing the upward mobility of younger generations, he said.

The meeting was held by China Daily Asia Leadership Roundtable, attracting consul generals from 27 countries, as well as representatives from companies, think-tanks and academics in Hong Kong.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 00:18:41|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

ABUJA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian police on Wednesday confirmed that seven kidnapping suspects have been arrested for allegedly killing a local oil worker in Nigeria after he had paid a 10 million naira (27,778 U.S. dollars) ransom to them.

The police said the 64-year-old victim identified as Ubani Onyema, a production manager in the local Niger Delta Petroleum Resources Limited, was kidnapped on Oct. 16 in Port Harcourt, Nigeria's oil hub and capital of Rivers State in the south of the country.

Soon after Onyema's abduction, a ransom call was made to the hostage's company and the amount that was agreed upon was paid but the abductors still kept the victim and later killed him, according to Abba Kyari, a police inspector investigating the abduction and killing.

The police inspector said the suspects had confessed to committing the crime and that the victim died as a result of gunshot wounds during the abduction.

Nigeria's police chief Ibrahim Idris on Monday said the security agency was working hard to curtail the activities of kidnappers troubling the country, saying high-profile kidnappings have been reduced to a low level due to effective policing.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 00:18:42|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

ADDIS ABABA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The state-owned Ethiopian Electric Power has unveiled two geothermal energy projects with a combined capacity of generating 1,000 megawatt of electricity.

The EEP signed two agreements worth 4 billion U.S. dollars on Tuesday for the purchase and implementation of the Corbetti and Tulu Moye geothermal plants, which are expected to be completed within eight years.

The two projects are regarded as the first of their kind in Ethiopia's geothermal resources development to be run by the private sector.

One of the two projects, Corbetti, is expected to sell electricity to the government at an equivalent of 0.075 U.S. dollars a kilowatt, which is said to be the lowest rate in the east African region.

Azeb Asnake, CEO of Ethiopian Electric Power, said during the signing ceremony that the Ethiopia government has identified 22 sites that are sustainable for geothermal power development across the country.

According to the Ethiopian Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Electricity, the country now has 4,300 MW of installed power generation capacity, and projects with a total capacity of over 9,000 MW are under various stages of construction. Others with over 3,000 MW in capacity are at preparatory stages.

Studies show that Ethiopia has an estimated 10,000 MW of geothermal energy potential.

Electric power generation is an important part of east African country's ambitious drive to become a lower middle income economy within in 10 years.

Its mega hydropower project, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), on the Blue Nile River, is 63 percent complete, according to the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Electricity.

Construction of GERD project, regarded as Africa's largest dam upon completion, started in April 2011 with an estimated cost of 80 billion Ethiopian Birr (about 4.7 billion dollars).

Primarily aimed at generating electric power, the GERD project has a capacity of 6,450 MW upon completion, although Ethiopia is still working out differences over the dam with Sudan and Egypt.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 00:23:43|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

BUCHAREST, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Moldova on Wednesday signed agreements with two top European banks to finance connecting its national electricity networks with Romania.

Under the agreements, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) will each allocate to Moldova 80 million euros (94.76 million U.S. dollars).

"This is an energy mega project meant to enhance Moldova's energy security and give a real alternative to the present electric energy system," stressed Octavian Calmic, deputy prime minister and minister of economics and infrastructure.

"This project will provide Moldova with energy security," EU's Representative in Moldova Peter Michalko said, adding the project was a first step in the process of integrating Moldova into the European electricity market.

The investment covers the construction of a 600 MW back-to-back converter station in Vulcanesti, near the southern border with Romania, a 400KV high-voltage overhead line between Vulcanesti and the capital city of Chisinau, as well as for the upgrading and expansion of the substations in Chisinau and Vulcanesti.

The overall cost of the project is estimated at 270 million euros. Moldova will also sign agreements with the World Bank for loans worth 70 million euros and a grant agreement with the EU Neighborhood Investment Facility (EU NIF) worth 40 million euros.

The project is of critical importance for the diversification of Moldova's electricity resources, as the former Soviet republic, sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine, has only one single power station across the country and as many as 80 percent of its electricity depends on imports from Ukraine.

The interconnections will be built over three years, between 2019 and 2022.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 00:23:44|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

LISBON, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Portuguese prison guards are to strike between Christmas and New Year, their union leader announced on Wednesday.

Jorge Alves, head of the National Union of Prison Guards (SNCGP), said the industrial action comes as a consequence of new shift patterns being imposed "unilaterally and in such a way as to jeopardize security in the affected prison establishments".

The first wave of strikes will take place between Dec. 24 and Dec. 27 in six prisons: Lisbon, Porto, Pacos de Ferreira, Coimbra, Castelo Branco and Funchal. These are the prison establishments where the General Directorate of the Prison Service (DGSP) has imposed new working timetables.

The SNCGP opposes the new timetables, arguing they do not give due consideration or recompense for irregular shift patterns, including night shifts.

Further strikes will take place from Dec. 31 to Jan. 2 at the same six institutions and at other prisons, in accordance with the independent prison guards union.

Alves told the Portuguese Lusa News Agency that basic services of food and medication would be guaranteed for prisoners.

Prisoner visits would likewise not be affected, as visits are not permitted during public holidays.

Nevertheless, it will be a disruption at what is a particularly sensitive time for prisons. Inmates are considered to be more psychologically vulnerable over the Christmas period, traditionally a social and family-oriented time.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 00:28:46|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

RIYADH, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud affirmed on Wednesday his country's firm stand on the rights of Palestinians to have East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, Saudi Press Agency reported.

He said so while receiving visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The two leaders reviewed regional issues, during which the Saudi king also stressed the rights of Palestinians to have their independent state.

Saudi Arabia expressed early this month disappointment to the decision of the U.S. President Donald Trump recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and relocating the U.S. embassy there.

The step does not change the inalienable and preserved rights of the Palestinian people in Jerusalem, and other occupied territories, said the country.

Saudi Arabia also warned that the move exemplify a drastic regression in the efforts to move the peace process forward, and is a shift away from the U.S. historically impartial position with regard to the Jerusalem issue, which will further complicate the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 00:28:47|Editor: liuxin

Video Player Close

Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi (R) meets with Tanzanian Foreign Minister Augustine Mahiga in Beijing, capital of China, Dec. 20, 2017. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao)

BEIJING, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi on Wednesday met with Tanzanian Minister for Foreign Affairs Augustine Mahiga and Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza.

During the meeting with Mahiga, Yang said China will make efforts to cement contacts with Tanzania in all fields, enhance exchanges on governance experience, strengthen mutual political trust, and advance coordination on regional and global issues.

Mahiga appreciated the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and the common development vision, expressing Tanzania's will to be a good cooperative partner of China.

When meeting with Arreaza, Yang hailed the development of the China-Venezuela relationship, saying China will push forward ties with Venezuela to make the relationship yield benefits to the two peoples.

Arreaza said Venezuela is ready to actively participate in the Belt and Road Initiative and reinforce bilateral cooperation.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 00:58:51|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

GENEVA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The number of illegal private security firms operating in Ghana, despite an existing law to regulate them, is a worrying concern, the UN Working Group on Mercenaries said Wednesday.

Government figures suggest there are some 400 groups employing around 450,000 people, in a country where the police force numbers around 33,000, said the UN Working Group on Mercenaries in a statement.

"The ratio between police and private security personnel, even if the latter are unarmed, is among the most worrying I've seen in any country," said Patricia Arias, one member of the group which released a statement.

An estimated 1.3 million illegal weapons and reported arms smuggling into the country had worsened these security threats, they noted.

"We have seen many times how countries like Ghana, with rich natural resources and porous borders, can fall prey to 'mercenarism' and mercenary-related activities when the security situation is undermined by violence - often at the hands of armed groups," said Arias.

The group took part in an official mission to Ghana from Dec. 8-15 and urged the government to introduce tougher measures to regulate the private security industry.

Along with that they issued a warning that the spread of vigilante groups and armed individuals threatens the country's peace and stability.

"Ghana is often referred to as an 'oasis of peace' in the region and has so far escaped the scourge of mercenarism and foreign armed groups," said Anton Katz another member of the delegation.

He said Ghana had even become "a place of refuge for many who have fled armed conflicts and instability in their home countries."

"We commend Ghana for achieving this peace and stability. It is crucial that it continues, and addressing current security threats can help achieve this," he said.

The group raised concerns, however about the huge number of private security companies and the spread of vigilante groups and armed individuals, including those collaborating with foreigners in illegal mining, known as "galamsey".

"Combating these threats effectively now can prevent potential tensions and conflicts that may open the door to mercenary activities," the experts said. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 01:03:52|Editor: ZD

Video Player Close

BRUSSELS, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission on Wednesday took an unprecedented step by triggering Article 7, the first time in its history, and launched an unprecedented censure against Poland over a judicial reform dispute.

"The Commission has today concluded that there is a clear risk of a serious breach of the rule of law in Poland," the Commission said in a statement.

Dubbed so-called "nuclear option", Article 7 has never been triggered against any EU member state before. The procedure could eventually lead to Poland losing its voting rights in the 28-member bloc.

In response, Poland regretted the decision to launch Article 7, saying the Commission's decision is "essentially political, not legal in its nature", Poland's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

To make the situation more complicated, Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen said his country will veto any EU's sanction decision on Poland in the future.

ARTICLE 7

At issue in Poland is what critics describe as two years of legislation which put the judiciary under the control of the ruling Law and Justice party, compromising independent courts and the rule of law.

"Within a period of two years, a significant number of laws have been adopted -- 13 in total -- which put in serious risk the independence of the judiciary and the separation of powers," Commission vice president Frans Timmermans told reporters in Brussels.

"Judicial reforms in Poland means that the country's judiciary is now under the political control of the ruling majority. In the absence of judicial independence, serious questions are raised about the effective application of EU law," Timmermans said.

Under Article 7, the European Council, or heads of national governments, may declare that there is a risk of a serious breach of European values by a member state.

Such a declaration requires a four-fifths majority and may subsequently involve sanctions against the member state in question. Among other consequences, the country could be stripped of its vote in the European Council.

Many commentators, however, see even the evocation of the measures as a sign that Brussels is taking the issue in Poland very seriously.

According to Wednesday's statement from the European Commission, the EU institution opened a dialogue with Polish authorities in January 2016 under the Rule of Law Framework, going through a three-phase process to resolve potential conflicts between national and EU law.

The Commission has given Warsaw three months to introduce its latest rule of law recommendations, the fourth set it has issued with regard to Poland so far.

"ESSENTIALLY POLITICAL"

Poland responded angrily, saying the Commission's decision is "essentially political, not legal in its nature", Poland's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"We are always ready for talks. During the last European summit, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki confirmed our will to continue the dialogue at the highest level with the Commission, which was positively welcomed by the other side," it said.

"We hope that soon we will be able to present our position in a direct and open manner," it said.

Morawiecki, who became new prime minister earlier this month, said Poland is attached to the rule of law principle as the EU is, according to Polish Press Agency.

Morawiecki said the judicial reforms were necessary, and suggested that dialogue between Warsaw and the European Commission needed "openness and honesty".

"I believe that Poland's sovereignty and the idea of United Europe can be reconciled," he added.

Poland's judicial reforms have caused many controversies among Polish citizens and among foreign institutions as well. The reforms include changes in the electoral system of the members of National Council of the Judiciary and Supreme Court judges' retirement.

HUNGARY TO VETO ANY SANCTION

Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen termed as unprecedented and incredible the European Commission's decision.

"The decision seriously violates the sovereignty of Poland," Semjen said in an interview with Hungarian news agency MTI.

"It is unacceptable that Brussels put pressure on sovereign states and arbitrarily punish democratically elected governments," he added.

"The Polish-Hungarian friendship and the commitment of the Hungarian government towards the treaties oblige us to oppose the European Commission's decision on all the forums," Semjen stressed.

"The Hungarian government is today and in the future standing by Poland and will continue to protect Poland against an unfair, and conceptual political process," he said.

To MTI's question of whether this could mean that Hungary would veto the decision against Poland, Semjen replied with a firm "yes".

Semjen said that it was unfair that the European Commission did nothing when some European member states failed to comply with European treaties, while it then "politically initiated proceedings against the Polish government".

"This is a typical case of double standards, and what the European Commission is doing now goes against the European values," Semjen underlined.

UK POSITION

Observers will be looking at British Prime Minister Theresa May's planned visit to Warsaw on Thursday, to see whether she will discuss the recommendations from the European Commission, despite Britain's own difficulties with the EU after Brexit.

"We place great importance on the respect for the rule of law and we expect all our partners to abide by international norms and standards," May's spokesman told reporters.

"The prime minister will raise her concerns with the prime minister when they meet tomorrow," said the spokesman.

European commissioners have recommended EU member states issue a formal warning to Poland under the Article 7 procedure, warning Poland's government was putting fundamental democratic values at risk.

Thus far, the UK has remained neutral in the growing rift between Poland's hardline government and the EU, concerned about the optics of Brussels appearing to interfere with a country's domestic affairs.

Having recently reached agreements with Brussels that will allow Brexit negotiations to reach the second phase, however, there is speculation that May might have reason to support the EU position.

"I hope Theresa May will firmly raise this issue in Warsaw," Guy Verhofstadt, European Parliament Brexit negotiator, told British daily newspaper The Telegraph.

"This visit is an important first test of the UK's pledge to defend European liberal democratic values, as we move forward together to build a strong security partnership," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 01:03:53|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Two Kurdish parties withdrew Wednesday from the government of the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan in northern Iraq amid widespread anger over unpaid salaries and corruption.

"The Kurdish Change Movement (Gorran) and the Islamic Group of Kurdistan (Komela) decided to withdraw from Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) headed by Nichervan Barzani," Abdul Razzaq Sharif, head of Gorran media office, told Xinhua.

The two parties' decision came after a meeting of their leaderships, in which they discussed the massive protests in some of the region's cities and towns that left many Kurdish people killed and wounded.

Kurdish Parliament Speaker Yousif Mohammed, from Gorran Movement, also decided to quit his post after a demand by his party.

Gorran Movement has four ministers in the KRG cabinet, while the Islamic Group has two.

The massive demonstrations continued for the third day in several cities and towns in Sulaimaniyah Province, including the town of Rania, witnesses at the scene said.

Earlier in the day, Gorran Movement issued a statement about the protests in the Kurdish region, saying the demonstrators were pushed by the failure of the regional government in facing the corruption and injustice during the past years.

"Resorting to demonstrations and protests in the streets of the cities and districts of the Kurdistan region is due to the failure of governance, monopoly, corruption," the movement said.

"We call upon the Peshmerga and Asayish (Kurdish security) forces and the police to maintain the security of demonstrations and not to take up arms against their sisters and brothers, and to take responsibility for protecting the lives and property of the citizens," the movement said.

On Tuesday, heavy casualties erupted in the town of Rania in Sulaimaniyah Province when the security forces opened fire and used tear gas after protesters torched offices of the Kurdish parties, leaving five people killed and some 80 others wounded.

Clashes also erupted in the city of Sulaimaniyah when the security forces fired rubber bullets and used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, with people admitted to hospital for suffocation and rubber-bullet wounds.

Hundreds of Kurdish security forces were deployed in the provincial cities, while attempting to avoid clashes with protesters.

The protests were sparked by frustration over unpaid salaries to teachers and other civil servants, in addition to the deterioration of basic services and widespread corruption.

The provinces of the Kurdistan region have been suffering from financial and economic hardships as a result of disagreement with the federal government in Baghdad over distribution of crude oil revenues extracted from the northern oil fields.

The financial hardship has increased after the Iraqi forces retook control of the oil-rich province of Kirkuk and some other oil wells in the disputed areas on Oct. 16.

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 on Sept. 25.

The independence of Kurdistan has been fiercely opposed by the Iraqi central government.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 01:03:53|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

TIRANA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Albania and Macedonia will jointly operate the border and customs post of Qafe Thana in southeastern Albania, Albanian Speaker Gramoz Ruci and his visiting Macedonian counterpart Talat Xhaferri told reporters Wednesday.

The two speakers told a joint press conference that such moves aimed at further facilitating cooperation between the two countries.

They also agreed to step up bilateral cooperation in all fields.

"Albanian and Macedonian parliaments will address outstanding issues between two parliaments as well as those under the previous agreements between the state institutions of Macedonia and Albania. These include environment, review of border waters, facilitating the movement of goods and people," Ruci said.

Macedonian speaker Xhaferri praised the approval by Albanian parliament of the law on minorities, describing minorities as a bridge linking the two countries.

Ruci in turn praised Macedonian for passing a language law, Albanian language in particular, which he voiced hope that it would be approved by the institutions of Macedonian state.

The two officials told reporters they discussed plans to reintroduce the ferry line Ohrid-Shen Naum-Pogradec, and mutual recognize standards for agricultural and dairy products.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 01:08:54|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

RIGA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission has decided to release 3.46 million euros to the Latvian farmers whose crops perished in the past summer's heavy rainfalls and floods, representatives of the European Commission's Representation in Latvia informed.

In this way, the European Union is keeping the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's promise to provide support to the flood-stricken farmers in Latvia.

The European Commission admits that the prolonged rains Latvia saw in the harvesting season from August to October were extraordinary and unprecedented. Adverse weather conditions also hampered the sowing of winter crops.

The 3.5 million euros support to Latvia is part of a wider EU assistance granted to the three Baltic states and Finland. The recipient countries are expected to absorb the 15 million euros financing by the end of September 2018.

In accordance with the EU's draft regulation, the flood compensations will be provided to those farmers who have not yet received any compensations for the damages caused by the rainfalls and floods and who have been unable to sow winter crops because of the bad weather, the Latvian Agriculture Ministry said.

Earlier, the Latvian government allocated almost 15 million euros from its contingency budget to nearly 3,000 flood-stricken farmers.

Latvia applied for EU assistance in October after its agricultural sector had lost an estimated 37 million due to the flooding.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 01:13:55|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

ISTANBUL, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Amid increasing reports of a potential Turkish military operation against Kurdish militia-held Afrin in northwestern Syria, most analysts who spoke to Xinhua remain highly skeptical about the prospect though they do not rule out a limited strike on the militia.

LOW BET ON AFRIN

"Despite all the indications, I don't see a military operation against Afrin as probable under the current circumstances," said Haldun Solmazturk, a former general with the Turkish military.

Turkish media reports about a military intervention being in the works have increased after Russia announced last week a partial withdrawal of its troops from Syria, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed once again on Sunday that Ankara would clear its borders with Syria and Iraq of terrorist groups.

Naming several towns under the control of the Kurdish militia in Syria known as the People's Protection Units (YPG), the president said Afrin, Manbij, Tal Abyad, Ras al-Ayn, Qamishli and all the way to the Iraqi border will be cleaned of terrorists.

"It's unthinkable for either the U.S. or Russia to allow such a military intervention against Kurds," remarked Solmazturk, who chairs the Incek debates at the Ankara-based 21st Century Turkey Institute.

Whenever local media reports spoke of an imminent military operation against Afrin in the past, both Moscow and Washington would indicate their opposition to the intervention by displaying video footages of their troops in the company of the Kurdish militia.

Ankara perceives the YPG-held cantons, in particular the one in Afrin which is closer to the Mediterranean Sea, as a major national security threat.

Russian President Vladimir Putin went to Ankara for talks with Erdogan the day he announced Russian troops' withdrawal from Syria, and his visit was followed by that of two top U.S. generals -- U.S. Central Command Commander Joseph Votel and Curtis Scaparrotti, commander of U.S. Forces in Europe.

"I feel the probability of a major military operation against Afrin is quite low," said Sinan Ulgen, chairman of the Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies.

Noting that Russia does not want to leave the Kurdish card on the U.S. hands, he said "I don't think Moscow would stop offering protection to the Kurdish militia."

In his view, a Turkish military intervention against Afrin would result in Kurds' breaking with Moscow.

Since summer, top Turkish officials have now and then threatened a military operation against Afrin, the only Kurdish canton on the western side of the Euphrates River.

Murat Bilhan, a former diplomat, thinks Ankara would carry out a military operation to drive the YPG out of Afrin even in the face of opposition from the U.S. and Russia.

"Turkey can't tolerate the (YPG) formation in Afrin which is vitally important as far as its security is concerned," said Bilhan, deputy chairman of the Istanbul-based Turkish Asian Center for Strategic Studies.

Ankara is concerned that a potential unification of the three Kurdish cantons along the Turkish border could risk cutting off Turkey's physical ties with Syria.

It is widely argued that the U.S. seeks a Kurdish state reaching out to the Mediterranean.

Bilhan feels that Russia is unwilling to give up on the Kurdish formation in Afrin, but would not intervene in case of a Turkish military offensive given the high-level cooperation between Ankara and Moscow.

Ankara sees the YPG as the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which has been fighting against the Turkish government for more than 30 years.

Turkey has announced the YPG presence on the western bank of the Euphrates as a red line due to concern that the Kurdish militia may attempt to push further to the west to reach the Mediterranean.

Solmazturk believes that two reasons are behind Russian and U.S. opposition to a Turkish intervention against the Kurdish militia.

The first is the Syrian government, which Ankara does not recognize as legitimate, would oppose a Turkish military move.

The second is related to the efforts by the U.S. and Russia to stabilize the situation in Syria after defeating the Islamic State (IS).

"A military intervention against Afrin would counter such efforts," argued Solmazturk.

In a bid to lay the ground for peace talks, U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Putin declared in a joint statement last month that they ruled out any military solution in Syria from then on.

The joint statement only excludes fighting against terrorist groups such as the IS and al-Nusra Front.

BARGAIN TO CONTINUE

Ulgen, a former diplomat, feels that Russia may give the green light for a limited operation in which Turkish troops would seize some checkpoints around Afrin.

Russia, which has some troops in Afrin, is reportedly withdrawing its soldiers from the canton. The move is interpreted as a Russian nod to an intervention.

In October, Turkey sent some troops to Syria's Idlib province which borders Afrin under a deal with Russia and Iran struck in Kazakhstan's Astana to settle the crisis in Syria.

Turkish troops have now had Afrin surrounded from all sides, with soldiers in Idlib being positioned in such a way so as to contain Afrin from the South, according to press reports.

Ulgen believes that a military operation against a relatively smaller place like Qamishli, which is in northeastern Syria and under YPG control, is more likely following a deal with the U.S.

Washington may feel the need to say yes to such an operation with a view to mending ties with Turkey, he argued.

Turkish and U.S. ties have been rather strained lately over an array of issues.

Erdogan said the U.S. has sent over 4,000 truckloads of weaponry to the YPG so far, while Washington argued that the cooperation is only tactical as it has used the YPG as a ground force against the IS.

The U.S. green light for a military operation will have its limits, Ulgen said, noting that any further operations against the YPG would certainly require tough negotiations with Washington.

In contrast, Solmazturk does not think Washington would allow any operation against the two YPG cantons on the eastern part of the Euphrates, namely Jazira and Kobani.

The European Union would also oppose such a move and Trump, already in trouble in domestic politics, would not be able to account for such a move to Congress, he argued.

Since the Syrian civil war began, the U.S. has reportedly built around a dozen military bases in areas under YPG control other than Afrin.

"At best, the U.S. would only allow Turkey to carry out a limited operation against PKK camps in northern Iraq," said Solmazturk.

Many feel it may cost Turkey dearly to unilaterally intervene into Afrin without first reaching a deal with the major powers.

It is more difficult to get out of a territory captured than seizing it militarily, said Solmazturk, underlining the importance of an exit strategy for a military operation.

Syrian President al-Assad described on Monday all those who fight for the interests of foreign powers as traitors, targeting in particular the YPG under U.S. sway.

Until recently, both Moscow and Damascus favored YPG's participation in the peace process and the Syrian government spoke of a Kurdish autonomy as negotiable.

Assad's statement may be taken as a message laying the ground for potential cooperation between Ankara and Damascus, since the YPG represents a threat to both now.

This may open a window of opportunity for Turkey to deal with the militia if Ankara agrees to cooperate with Damascus, Ismail Hakki Pekin, a former chief of intelligence in the Turkish military, was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

Many analysts feel the Turkish government needs to urgently get into touch with the Syrian government to act jointly against common threats.

It is not possible to effectively tackle the YPG problem and the terrorist groups in Idlib without cooperating with Damascus, Solmazturk said.

The Idlib province, which is largely controlled by the al-Nusra Front, is estimated to have around 15,000 to 20,000 armed rebels who are excluded from peace talks.

Noting the jihadists in Idlib pose a very big threat to Turkey, Solmazturk stated "it's crazy, politically and militarily, to target Afrin without first dealing with Idlib."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 01:18:58|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

by Christine Lagat and Wang Xiaopeng

NAIROBI, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Habibu Abdikadir Abdi has lived in Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya with her husband and nine children since 2008 while dire economic circumstances have forced her to undertake strenuous jobs in order to put food on the table.

The 32-year-old Somali refugee found a safe haven in the sprawling complex that once housed about 400,000 fellow country men and women who fled war and natural calamities in the Horn of African State.

Habibu and her young offspring are lucky to have escaped the devastations of civil strife that has engulfed her native country for two and a half decades though living in a foreign country without a formal job has been an agonizing experience.

Speaking to Xinhua at Dadaab refugee camp on Tuesday, Habib decried financial hardships endured by her entire household in recent times thanks to declining support from foreign benefactors.

Currently, Habib ekes out a living from cleaning jobs that earns her 2 dollars a day while her husband's jobless status has made it a herculean task to feed and educate the young children.

"The food and financial aid meant for us has been declining," said Habib, adding that female refugees have borne the brunt of a cut back on humanitarian assistance.

Habibu retains an emotional attachment to her homeland and in particular the capital city of Mogadishu that she calls her hometown but the thought of going back there disturbs her given the volatile security situation.

She is among a growing number of Somalia refugees awaiting repatriation back home under a tripartite agreement signed between the UN Refugee Agency, Kenya and Somalia governments in November 2013.

Though Habibu loves her native country, she is still pondering on whether it is prudent to relocate due to the fragile security situation as well as climatic vagaries like droughts that have had a devastating impact on local communities.

Despite the fact that obtaining food rations has been a nightmare in the refugee camp, she is yet to make a decision on a permanent relocation to her hometown.

Habibu embodies the dilemma facing Somalia refugees living in Kenya whose desire to relocate to their mother land is constrained by the tragic reality of encountering new forms of security threats, poverty and social stigma.

Faxti, an 18-year-old Somalia refugee who settled at Dadaab camp in 2010 with her family members looked forward to a safe return to her native country with a mixture of nostalgia and anxiety.

The young woman who is a native of the port city of Kismayo in south central Somalia defied self-doubt and doomsayers to jump into a plane that ferried her and the next of kin back to Somalia on Tuesday.

"I want to go back to Somalia, because it is my home country," Faxti told Xinhua on Tuesday before she boarded a UN plane that ferried fellow refugees back home.

On Tuesday alone, 90 Somalia refugees left Dadaab camp to Kismayo to start a new life after years of sojourn in a foreign land.

The voluntary repatriation of Somalia refugees that commenced in early 2014 has been going on smoothly save for minor logistical hitches.

Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, revealed that about 75,000 Somalia refugees have so far returned home while an additional 20,000 is awaiting repatriation.

Speaking at a media briefing in Nairobi on Wednesday, Grandi said the international community will support voluntary repatriation of Somalia refugees to enable them participate in their country's reconstruction.

"Majority of Somalia refugees living in Dadaab camp are willing to be repatriated back home on condition they are guaranteed security and access to basic services like education, housing and health," said Grandi.

He had earlier visited Somalia, Djibouti and Dadaab refugee camp to assess the living conditions of people displaced by conflicts.

The UN refugee agency official urged multilateral lenders and host countries to channel investments to projects that can enhance resilience of displaced persons in the face of poverty and limited opportunities in life.

According to the UN Refugee Agency, the Dadaab refugee complex has a population of about 238,600 registered refugees and asylum seekers as of November 30.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 01:24:00|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

BAKU, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Azerbaijan's population is projected to hit 10 million by the year 2019, the country's minister of labor and social protection of population said here on Wednesday.

Azerbaijani nationals under the age of 14 account for 22.6 percent of the country's total population, while those aged 14-29 years account for 25 percent, Salim Muslumov told a conference.

Those aged 30-64 account for 46.1 percent of the total population, while the number of people aged 65 years and older account for 6.3 percent, according to the minister.

Muslumov said that from 2005 to 2016, Azerbaijan's economically active population grew 17.2 percent with higher growth rates observed in the spheres of construction, accommodation of tourists, catering, information and communication.

The current population of Azerbaijan is about 9.872 million, based on the latest United Nations estimates. Azerbaijan population is equivalent to 0.13 percent of the total world population.

Azerbaijan ranks No. 90 in the list of countries (and dependencies) by population, with 55 percent of the population urban. The median age in Azerbaijan is 30.7 years.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 01:39:04|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

CAIRO, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- An Egyptian court acquitted on Wednesday two former ministers over corruption charges, state-run MENA news agency reported.

The two tourism ministers, Ahmed al-Maghrabi and Zohair Garana, who served under former President Hosni Mubarak before his ouster in February 2011, were accused of profiteering and facilitating the seizure of state-owned lands in Red Sea city of Hurghada.

Wednesday's ruling of the Cairo criminal court can be appealed.

In November, the Court of Cassation had annulled a previous ruling acquitting the two former ministers of all charges in the case.

Maghrabi and Garana stood trial again after the prosecution said the first ruling was marred by legal problems.

The prosecution had revealed that Maghrabi, who had served as tourism minister before taking up duties of the Housing Ministry, allotted a state-owned plot of land in Hurghada at a very low price to a company owned by Garana to establish tourist projects.

Mubarak and most of his regime men, including his two sons Gamal and Alaa, have been in custody following the January 2011 uprising, yet they have eventually been acquitted in retrials over charges including corruption, illicit gains and responsibility for killing peaceful protesters.

Mubarak's senior security officials have also been cleared of responsibility for the killing of hundreds of protesters during the 2011 uprising.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 01:49:07|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

RABAT, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The first China Trade Week (CTW) Morocco opened on Wednesday in the Moroccan economical hub Casablanca with the participation of some 100 Chinese and Moroccan companies.

Held by Chinese group MIE Events, this three-day event brings together Moroccan's business people face-to-face with Chinese companies, creating a unique opportunity for exchange and developing trading and business relations.

The event offers a platform for local business community to meet Chinese manufacturers and take advantage of the event's high quality and competitively priced products.

The organizers expect some 4,000 people to visit Casablanca International Fair which hosts this event.

The CTW is hosted for the first time in Morocco, and has been held in the United Arab Emirates, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana and Ethiopia.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 02:09:09|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

KIEV, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Trilateral Contact Group on the settlement of the situation in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday reached an agreement on a fresh round of ceasefire and a prisoner exchange between the conflicting sides, a spokesperson for Kiev's delegate said.

Darka Olifer, the spokesperson for Ukraine's representative in the group Leonid Kuchma, wrote on Facebook said that the indefinite ceasefire in the conflict-hit region will be launched on midnight Dec. 23 to enable civilians quietly celebrate the winter holidays.

During the group's meeting, she said, the representatives of the Ukrainian government and pro-independence insurgents have confirmed their readiness to exchange the detained persons before the New Year and Christmas holidays.

The participants of the meeting have expressed a "joint commitment to the full implementation of the Minsk Agreements," Olifer said.

The comprehensive ceasefire and the prisoner swap are the key parts of the Minsk peace agreements designed to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 10,000 people since April 2014.

Previously, the Ukrainian government and insurgents have declared more than 30 rounds of the truce, which helped to ease the hostilities in the restive area.

Kiev believes that insurgents are holding at least 162 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians captured in the conflict, while rebels estimate that the government is holding 309 of their supporters.

The trilateral contact group is a group of representatives from Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) that was formed as means to facilitate a diplomatic resolution to the armed conflict in the Donbas region.

Insurgent representatives also participate in the meetings of the diplomatic group.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 02:14:12|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

KHARTOUM, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Wednesday urged the African countries to implement the decisions of the African Union (AU) summit and withdraw from the membership of the International Criminal Court (ICC) if it failed to respond to the African demands.

Al-Bashir on Wednesday held talks in Khartoum with President of Rwanda Paul Kagame, who is the head of the current AU session.

"Sudan is inviting its brotherly African countries to implement the decisions of the AU summit, particularly the withdrawal from the ICC membership, if it failed to respond to the African demands," said al-Bashir when addressing the session of the joint talks.

He praised Rwanda's strong positions in support of Sudan's just causes at the regional and international forums as well as its stance against the ICC.

He further commended Rwanda's contribution in field of achieving peace and stability in the African continent via its active participation in the peacekeeping missions.

President of Rwanda Paul Kagame, for his part, reiterated keenness to enhance his country's ties with Sudan in all fields in a manner that achieves common interests.

Addressing the session of the joint talks, he said Sudan and Rwanda can work together as friends to achieve the interests of their peoples.

He renewed his country's firm stance against the ICC, saying it is a position adopted by the AU summits that urged its countries to withdraw from it and not to recognize it.

President Kagame arrived in Khartoum on Wednesday in an official visit to Sudan in response to an invitation by his Sudanese counterpart.

Last February, the AU passed a resolution on colective withdrawal from the ICC, but the decision is non-abiding as Nigeria and Senegal are opposing the withdrawal decision.

South Africa and Burundi have previously withdrawn from the ICC, accusing it of unfairly targetting the Africans.

Around 34 African countries have signed the Rome Statute which established the ICC.

On March 2009, the ICC issued an arrest warrant against al-Bashir for allegedly committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan's Darfur region.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 02:44:20|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

JUBA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations humanitarian agency on Wednesday welcomed news of the safe return of the six aid workers who went missing days ago in South Sudan's Western Bahr el Ghazal region.

The six aid workers, including one international and five locals, were traveling on Raja-Wau road when they went missing on Sunday evening.

Alain Noudehou, the Humanitarian Coordinator for South Sudan said the six aid workers, working with Solidarites International, HealthNet TPO, and AFOD, are all accounted for.

"The Humanitarian Coordinator commends all those who worked to ensure the safe return of the NGO staff and particularly the efforts of the UN's World Food Programme," Noudehou said in a statement issued in Juba.

He reminded all parties of their obligation to respect the neutrality of on-going humanitarian operations and facilitate safe and unhindered access for humanitarian workers providing life-saving aid to vulnerable people throughout the country.

"These aid agencies were implementing food assistance, livelihoods, health, and nutrition interventions in an area heavily impacted by food insecurity and malnutrition," Noudehou said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 02:44:21|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

KAMPALA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations refugee agency on Wednesday said Germany has increased its support to South Sudan refugees and host communities in Uganda by 1 million euros.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement here that the donation brings Germany's contribution to 17 million euros between 2017-2019.

"The contribution will help UNHCR to provide protection and life-saving assistance to the refugees in Uganda. The funds will be implemented over a period of three years, including 13 million euros in 2017, 2 million in 2018 and 2 million in 2019," the statement said.

In addition, the UN body said, the German Development Bank (KfW) signed with it a 15 million euro agreement for 2018-2021.

The KfW funds will support local capacity-building in the areas of water, education and peaceful coexistence with refugees and local communities.

"The ongoing influx of refugees from South Sudan needs to be stopped. Uganda cannot take another million of displaced people," the statement quoted Albrecht Conze, German Ambassador to Uganda as saying. "We call upon IGAD, the EAC and the leaders of the region to make every effort for termination of the violence and fighting in South Sudan."

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the East African Community (EAC) both regional bodies have been engaged in efforts to end fighting in South Sudan.

Fighting in the country started in December 2013, forcing thousands of people to flee to neighboring countries.

Uganda hosts over 1 million South Sudanese refugees, according to UN figures.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu speaks during a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Foreign Ministers Council in Istanbul, Turkey, December 13, 2017. (Reuters Photo)

ISTANBUL, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Wednesday urged the UN General Assembly to recognize the "invalidity" of the U.S. decision to declare Jerusalem as the capital of Israel after Washington vetoed a draft resolution asking it to withdraw this move.

The top Turkish envoy urged the General Assembly, which is scheduled to hold a rare emergency session on Thursday to discuss the status of Jerusalem, to move against the U.S. decision with "a strongest support possible."

"Not only Muslims but also the Christians are very disturbed by the U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel," Cavusoglu said in Istanbul at a joint press conference with his Palestinian counterpart Riyad al-Maliki before leaving for the United States.

Following her country's veto of the Egypt-drafted request on Monday, U.S. ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley tweeted that "the U.S. will be taking names" of those criticizing its choice at the General Assembly.

"What are you going to do after taking the names? Are you going to punish those countries too?" Cavusoglu demanded, adding that "the world rebels against injustice now. No dignified state will submit to such repression. Nobody will bow to this pressure."

In response to the unilateral decision made by U.S. President Donald Trump on Dec. 6, Turkey called for an extraordinary summit of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul on Dec. 13, which declared East Jerusalem the capital of Palestine "under occupation."

Trump's decision has sparked clashes and protests in countries from the world, as the status of Jerusalem is among core issues to be settled through negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 03:29:29|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

CAIRO, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Egypt will receive 2 billion U.S. dollars tranche of a three-year International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan, IMF announced on Wednesday.

In a statement, the IMF said its executive board approved the installment after reviewing Egypt's economic reform program supported by an arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF).

In November 2016, Egypt agreed a three-year, 12 billion U.S. dollars IMF loan program that is tied to ambitious economic reforms such as subsidy cuts, tax hikes, enacting the value-added tax, as well as the devaluation of its local currency.

The IMF and the Egyptian authorities reached in November a staff-level agreement on the second review of Egypt's economic reform program which finalizes granting Egypt the two billion U.S. dollars.

The IMF added that the agreement on the second review reaffirmed that authorities' commitment to their reform program.

The completion of the review allows Egyptian authorities to draw about 2.03 U.S. billion dollars, bringing total disbursements to 6.08 U.S. billion dollars.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 03:34:30|Editor: liuxin

Video Player Close

Photo taken on Dec. 15, 2017 shows Chinese students attending a class at the Modern Greek Language Teaching Center of the National University of Athens in Athens, Greece. The National University of Athens warmly welcomed the first ever group of Chinese students to learn the Greek language, history and culture as part of joint efforts of Greece and China in recent years to bring the two peoples closer. (Xinhua/Marios Lolos)

by Maria Spiliopoulou

ATHENS, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- In fluent Greek, a Chinese student at the National University of Athens introduced himself as Andreas, a very popular Greek name which can be easily remembered by any Greek.

Andreas, or 22-year-old Song Xunhui his Chinese name, is one of the 23 Chinese students who are studying in the National University of Athens.

From Beijing Foreign Studies University, they are the first ever group of Chinese students in the National University of Athens to learn the Greek language, history and culture as part of joint efforts of Greece and China in recent years to bring the two peoples closer.

During a class break in the Modern Greek Language Teaching Centre of the university campus, the 23 Chinese students spoke to Xinhua in fluent Greek about their life in Greece and their aspiration to help further strengthen bilateral ties in the future as "ambassadors" of Sino-Greek friendship and collaboration in all sectors.

Song is one of them. Although he is a new student to the National University of Athens, he is not new to Greece.

Two years ago, back home, when he packed his suitcase to travel to Greece with his 22 classmates to learn Greek, after studying English, he did not speak a word.

"Before arriving in Greece I did not know Greek at all...The truth is it is a very difficult language in my opinion, but we are doing well," he told Xinhua.

After a few months at the University of Ioannina in western Greece and two months of courses in Athens, his command of the language is impressive.

Their teacher Viviana Tzovara is impressed with their hard work. Andreas, Iliana, Costas along with the other Chinese students are always eager to learn as much as possible about Greece, a country boasting glorious ancient history like their motherland China.

"There are certainly similarities, many similarities. For example, both in China and here we pay great attention to families. Also, we say that Chinese people are hospitable, so are you," Song said.

But in addition to the history, ancient Greek philosophy and art, the Chinese students find that the modern Greece is also very attractive.

"We came to find the truth...Now we can have a correct opinion on Greek people," Jinyao Wang or Costas told Xinhua, referring to the negative stereotypes of the "lazy Greek who is to blame for the debt crisis."

"I feel great honor being here in Greece for studies and acting, let's say, as a bridge... I will tell my parents and my friends that Greek people are very good and hospitable," he said.

"It is very important to strengthen students and programs exchanges," he added.

Eleni Karamalegou, Dean of the School of Philosophy of the Athens University and President of the Interdepartmental Committee which oversees the function of the Modern Greek Language Teaching Centre, could not agree more.

The Greek professor, her colleagues and the 20,000 Greek students of the Philosophy School have warmly embraced the first group of Chinese students arriving at the Athens University with scholarships under a cooperation agreement reached with the Beijing University. In the past there were only sporadic cases of Chinese nationals who joined the classes, she explained.

Karamalegou strongly believes that through cooperation in the tertiary education new horizons of mutually beneficial cooperation may be created.

"We believe that China represents another great civilization. If we pay closer attention we will see that these two civilizations have some common characteristics which give us the possibility to also seek scientific partnerships in the future," the Dean said.

The 23 Chinese students who enrolled this autumn are among the about 700 students who will receive certification of the level of knowledge of Modern Greek next summer.

"They are given a comprehensive view of Greece, the modern Greece, as well as the historical Greece, and I believe that this is good," Karamalegou said.

"It is a unique experience for a student having the chance to learn about subjects he/ she is interested in regarding the European civilization and the Greek civilization in a country where this civilization was born and developed. (It is a unique experience) being close to the monuments, having the opportunity to visit them and practice on site," she noted.

Following the successful cooperation with the Beijing Foreign Studies University, the National Athens University is exploring opportunities to expand and deepen ties with more Chinese universities.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 03:39:31|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

GENEVA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Swiss government said Wednesday it has decided to extend for 12 months the freeze of assets belonging to the former presidents of Tunisia and Ukraine.

The Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs also said in a statement that the government agreed to end with immediate effect a freeze of assets from Egypt in place since 2011 and partially lifted over the years.

"At its meeting on Dec. 20, the Federal Council decided to extend for one year the freeze on the assets of ousted presidents Ben Ali (Tunisia) and Yanukovych (Ukraine) and their entourages," said the statement.

The purpose of this decision is to support the judicial cooperation between Switzerland, Tunisia and Ukraine, said the statement.

Tunisian assets worth 56 million Swiss francs (57 million U.S. dollars) were blocked in 2011 following a public uprising in the north African country.

Another 70 million Swiss francs held in Swiss bank accounts were frozen in the after a crisis in Ukraine in 2014.

In both cases, the freeze was due to expire in January for Tunisia and in February for Ukraine.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 03:54:33|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

TRIPOLI, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Libya's Tripoli-based Higher Council of State on Wednesday called on the eastern-based parliament to commit to the UN-sponsored political agreement.

Aburrahman Swehli, the head of the council, made his remarks during a meeting here with the British Ambassador to Libya, Peter Millett.

According to the council's media office, the meeting discussed political developments in the country and the UN-proposed action plan in Libya.

Swehli called on the eastern-based parliament "to clearly define its position on the political agreement and to recognize it as the sole reference for managing the country before moving to any other steps," the council's office said in a statement.

The statement added that Swehli stressed that "all political bodies, including the House of Representatives, derive their legitimacy from the political agreement."

Swehli also stressed the council's support for the political process based on consensus and partnership, and rejection of unilateral measures by the parliament, the statement added.

He was referring to an attempt to appoint a new governor of the Central Bank in violation of the terms of the locally and internationally recognized political agreement, said the statement.

Libya is suffering a political division between eastern government based in Tobruk and western governments based in Tripoli, including two divided Central Banks.

Libyan political parties signed a UN-sponsored agreement to end the state of division in the country. However, Libya remains politically divided amid insecurity and chaos.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 03:54:33|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

VIENNA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Austria's New Chancellor Sebastian Kurz made his first address to parliament in his new role on Wednesday, reiterating his plan to bring about a "comeback" for the country ,and a new style of governance.

He said the government plans to create an Austria that "we are all proud of and from which everyone in the country can benefit."

Kurz, the People's Party leader, was sworn-in to his leadership role on Monday.

He appealed for trust in the government's "new way," and said it will not have seen its agenda through until Austria is in a better position than it is today.

Kurz further made an acknowledgment that Austria's history be kept in mind, including the darker chapters of the 1930s, as well as an affirmation of the importance of Europe for the country.

He also thanked Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen for his participation in the coalition negotiations over the past two months, as well as former coalition partner the Social Democrats, for a professional handover of the ministries it held over the past legislative period.
British Prime Minister Theresa May arrives at the EU headquarters for an EU Summit in Brussels, Belgium, Dec. 14, 2017. (Xinhua/Ye Pingfan)

LONDON, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Theresa May is scheduled to visit Poland on Thursday, a day after the European Union (EU) launched unprecedented action against the country for a "serious breach" of its values, which could ultimately lead to Warsaw being stripped of its voting rights in Brussels.

May will travel to Warsaw as part of a landmark diplomacy drive centered on defense and security, as well as economic cooperation, accompanied by her most senior cabinet ministers.

As the prime minister is flying to Warsaw for crucial talks on Brexit with Mateusz Morawiecki, who took over at the head of the Polish government last week, she will personally raise concerns about Poland's judicial reforms, which was criticized by the EU as an anti-democratic threat to the country's rule of law, when she meets the new Polish prime minister.

"We place great importance on the respect for the rule of law and we expect all our partners to abide by international norms and standards," May's spokesman told reporters.

"The prime minister will raise her concerns with the prime minister when they meet tomorrow," said the spokesman.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki arrives at EU headquarters for an EU Summit in Brussels, Belgium, Dec. 14, 2017. (Xinhua/Ye Pingfan)

The Thursday visit is seen as a test of the UK's commitment to the EU's liberal, democratic values and future relations with Europe.

European commissioners have recommended EU member states issue a formal warning to Poland under the Article 7 procedure, which has never before been used, warning Poland's government was putting fundamental democratic values at risk.

Thus far, the UK has remained neutral in the growing rift between Poland's hardline right-wing government and the EU, concerned about the optics of Brussels appearing to interfere with a country's domestic affairs.

The stakes for May's upcoming visit rose dramatically on Wednesday as the EU launched unprecedented disciplinary action against Poland over controversial reforms.

The Polish lower parliament passed the National Judicial Council reform bill and the Supreme Court reform bill earlier this month.

The judicial reforms have caused many controversies among Polish citizens and among foreign institutions as well. The reforms include changes in the electoral system of the members of National Council of the Judiciary and Supreme Court judges' retirement.

On Wednesday, the EU launched what has been dubbed the "nuclear option" by invoking Article 7 of the its treaties, a process that could see Poland's voting rights in Europe suspended.

Brussels warned Wednesday that "the rule of law is under threat" in Poland and accused the government of a "naked abuse of political power."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 05:19:53|Editor: Yurou

Video Player Close

PARIS, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Carhaix-Plouguer, a quiet city in the northwestern French region of Brittany, had plunged into an economic impasse for several years. But today, this small city with about 8,000 inhabitants has been boosted by Synutra, a baby milk factory with investment from China.

The Synutra dairy group, based in China, invested more than 200 million euros (237 million U.S. dollars) in the Synutra factory in Carhaix, which now has around 350 employees.

Since the investment in September 2016, the plant processes hundreds of tons of fresh milk daily for powdered infant formula to export to China.

Apart from roughly 10 Chinese employees including interpreters, the production site is entirely French. Several locals were also provided training and jobs with Synutra.

"This plant really plays a role in driving local development," according to Patrick Bischofberger, director of the plant. Through the production chain effect, "four times of the number of employees, 1,400 people can benefit from Synutra's activities. In addition, 800 milk producers benefit from our presence," he said.

The factory has cleared initial fears of foreign investment and "today, Synutra organizes open door meetings, inviting schools, politicians to visit our factory," said Bischofberger.

Synutra's spillover effects are confirmed by transport service companies, florists, and cleaners in Carhaix. Stephane Jacquel, co-manager of a local cleaning company, told Xinhua that a fifth of his company's business comes from Synutra.

The dynamism brought by Synutra is "colossal" for Carhaix, said local mayor Christian Troadec.

"The benefits of the presence of Synutra are visible. Since the construction of the factory in 2014, hundreds of workers worked daily on the site, providing economic opportunities for restaurants, hotels and shops in Carhaix," he said.

Troadec called Synutra "a development asset" of Carhaix, not only because of its economic benefits, but also the effect of its arrival example.

"The establishment of Synutra also fosters Carhaix pride, because we can see that Carhaix is able to host international companies, and that's very important. Today it's a Chinese dairy company; tomorrow, maybe, another company will come," said the mayor.

Seen from this angle, Synutra brought not only dynamism, but also hope to the city.

The change happened to Carhaix reflects the healthy development of the economic ties between the two countries.

Earlier this month, China and France held the fifth High-Level Economic and Financial Dialogue in Beijing with fruitful cooperation outcomes.

The dialogue, co-chaired by Chinese Vice Premier Ma Kai and French Economic Minister Bruno Le Maire, saw 71 outcomes in mutually beneficial cooperation, covering areas including investment, automobiles, aerospace, nuclear energy, high-end manufacturing, green finance, the Belt and Road Initiative and third-party markets.

The two sides agreed to align the "Made in China 2025" strategy with France's "Industry of the Future" strategy, so as to strengthen innovative high-end manufacturing cooperation.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 05:19:53|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

TIRANA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Albanian institutions should step up efforts to fight corruption, Bernd Borchardt, head of Organization for Security and Cooperation in European (OSCE) office in Tirana told reporters Wednesday.

"The international bodies should build instruments but it is the duty of Albanians to use them in order to yield concrete results," Borchardt said at the closing event of three-year OSCE project "For supporting the anti-corruption measures in Albania."

Head of OSCE presence here praised engagement of government representatives, civil society, business and students' community.

Borchardt also thanked the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Italian School of Public Administration, for their trust and support.

"Your insight, cooperation and involvement, have been crucial to move towards our common goal: fighting against corruption," Borchardt said.

Considering this project an anti-corruption achievement, Ambassador said that it was visible by the excellent cooperation reached between different actors representing civil society and institutions.

"We believe that your willingness to work with us in this project is strong evidence that you have decided to take action on corruption in Albania," he noted.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 05:39:55|Editor: Yurou

Video Player Close

ALGIERS, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on Wednesday congratulated his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the occasion of the 59th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, official APS news agency reported on Wednesday.

Bouteflika extended congratulations and wishes for well-being and prosperity to "the friendly Chinese people" in his message to Xi.

"This anniversary is an opportunity to put forwards friendship and solidarity characterizing the decades-long relations linking our two countries," he added.

Bouteflika hailed "the qualitative development of bilateral cooperation since the establishment of the comprehensive strategic partnership," saying the Chinese investment in Algeria and the growing commercial exchanges "testify to the vitality of our bilateral cooperation."

Algeria and China "have always shown mutual solidarity and support in all circumstances, while in light of current challenges in international relations, we will continue our cooperation, so as to achieve stability and promote our two countries," Bouteflika further noted.

He also expressed optimism concerning the future of bilateral relations, regarding the multiple opportunities, particularly in the industrial, technological, agricultural and tourism fields.

Bouteflika concluded his message by expressing his "satisfaction with the cultural exchanges," mentioning the donations from China for "the realization of cultural projects in Algeria," including establishing an opera hall in Algiers.

Bilateral relationships between Algeria and China have been enhanced by the comprehensive strategic partnership established in 2014.

Some 790 Chinese companies are operating in Algeria in the fields of public works and construction, in addition to energy and trade.

According to figures from Algeria's customs, China is the largest commercial supplier of Algeria during the first ten months of 2017.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 05:54:58|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

BUJUMBURA, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Over 180,000 Burundian citizens who lived in exile since April 2015 have returned home, a senior Burundian government official said on Wednesday.

Burundi plunged into a crisis at that time when Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza decided to run his controversial third term. His candidature, which was opposed by the opposition and civil society groups, resulted in a wave of protests, violence and even a failed coup on May 13, 2015.

Some 100,025 Burundian citizens who had fled the 2015's crisis had returned to Burundi Until Dec. 31, 2016, following the call of President Nkurunziza made by the end of 2015, assistant to the Burundian home affairs and civic education minister Therence Ntahiraja told Xinhua by telephone.

Between this January and mid-August, over 68,000 Burundian citizens came back from exile, he said.

A tripartite meeting held on Aug. 31 in Tanzania between Tanzania, Burundi and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) set the target of repatriating around 12,000 Burundian refugees in Tanzania till the end of this year. But the Burundian government has received over 13,000 returnees in this voluntary repatriation process, said the official.

The Burundian government and UNHCR are planning to repatriate over 60,000 Burundian refugees in 2018, he said.

The Burundian government had reiterated its call for the repatriation of Burundian refugees who fled the country's 2015 crisis, saying the country is at peace.

There are 428,514 Burundian refugees haven't returned to Burundi, among them 391,636 refugees fled the country since the crisis occurring in April 2015, according to figures from UNHCR, last updated on Dec. 11, 2017.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 06:00:00|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

by Xinhua writers Xu Jing, Miao Zhuang, Wang Ping

CHICAGO, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The world's largest private seed company Stine Seed joined U.S. President Donald Trump on his visit to China in November, and signed a collaborative agreement with one of its local partners there.

Talking of the agreement, Lijuan Zhao, Stine Seed's Country Manager of China, was excited. "It demonstrated Stine Seed's commitment to the Chinese market and to the Chinese farmers," Zhao told Xinhua, adding that "it will enable us to have a platform to further our expansion in China more efficiently and effectively."

"Our goal is to deliver our high-yielding genetics to as many Chinese farmers as possible. We are very positive on China and very grateful to participate in the world's second largest seed market," Zhao said.

Stine Seed's experience in China is just an epitome of the ever increasing agricultural trade between China and the United States.

EFFORTS AT GOV'T LEVELS

In their first meeting at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, the U.S. state of Florida, in April, U.S. President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping initiated a 100-day action plan, with China's re-opening of its market to U.S. beef as top priority.

On June 20, China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine announced that beef imports from the U.S. were permitted in China.

On June 27, U.S. retail giant Wal-Mart's membership store Sam's Club in Beijing started selling American beef, signaling that China has lifted a 14-year-ban on beef imports from the United States.

The U.S. government, in turn, has pledged to issue regulations on the export of China-made chicken and poultry.

President Trump's visit to China in November also proved fruitful for U.S. farmers: Chinese buyers will buy extra 12 million tons or 5 billion U.S. dollars' worth of soybean from the U.S. in the 2017-2018 seasonal year, among 253.5 billion dollars' worth of economic and trade cooperation intentions reached.

In the intermission, more than 20 Chinese and U.S. enterprises signed agricultural transaction contracts worth 5.012 billion dollars in Des Moines, capital of the Midwest U.S. state of Iowa, in July, under which Chinese enterprises will import 12.53 million tons of soybean and 371 tons of pork and beef from U.S. companies.

This is more than doubling the 2.1-billion-dollar contract value signed by a Chinese delegation in the United States in 2016.

In an effort to ease trade imbalance with the United States, starting from the 1990s, China has sent procurements delegations to the United States. Of China's purchases of American goods, agricultural products are a staple part.

"It seems that our governments are working together to re-establish that opportunity," said Iowa Cattlemen's Association CEO Matt Deppe. "We are excited about that, we are really getting ready to work with the Chinese when that opportunity comes from where our governments are working together, to produce and export the type of products those consumers would be demanding."

China "is a very important market, it is a very important topic both for our governments and producers in our state." "We are really interested and hopeful that the two governments continue to work forward in that direction in a way that's very good for all," Deppe added.

ENTHUSIASM AMONG FARMERS

China is the largest market for American soybeans after the U.S. market itself, importing nearly 30 percent of the soybeans produced in the United States.

Paul Burke, North Asia Regional Director of U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC), told Xinhua that U.S. soybean industry has been exploring the Chinese market for 35 years.

"U.S. soybean farmers opened their office in China in 1982. They invested in programs that supported China's goals of achieving sustainable food security and food safety for 13 years before selling their first shipments of soybeans to China in 1995," Burke said.

USSEC, representing 10 U.S. soybean exporters, "will continue to conduct these market development programs in China in efforts to achieve a win-win environment between U.S. soybean producers and the Chinese soybean processing and animal production industries," said Burke, adding the expectations that bilateral relationship "will remain steadfast."

USSEC Country Director of China Xiaoping Zhang estimates that the U.S. will sell a total of 14 billion dollars' worth of soybeans to China by the end of August 2018.

Zhao of Stine Seed echoed Burke's words. Being the world's second largest seed market, "China is of strategic importance to Stine Seed Company," Zhao told Xinhua.

"Our main products are corn and soybean seeds, which are the major field crops in China. And given the similar latitude for the production areas, it's natural for us to try to select our best genetics that also work well for China."

Talking about the agreement signed in November, Zhao said, "The significance of this contract is to allow the U.S. largest privately-held seed company to have a major presence in China."

Iowa Soybean Association CEO Kirk Leeds has visited most of Chinese provinces. "When we go to China, and we do it quite often, it is about relationships. And it is our product meeting your needs. It is less technical, it is less let's-help-you, it is more how-can-we-work-together."

"The soybean industry in Iowa and U.S. recognize that China is a major customer and we have to work very hard to maintain that."

"Any disruptions in the trade and relationship between China and U.S. have serious consequences for American agriculture, and soybean industry specifically. That's why we invest in these relationships. Meeting the consumers there is investing in those relationships," Burke said.

RE-ENTRY OF U.S. BEEF, PORK INTO CHINA

Also notable in the agricultural transaction contracts signed in Des Moines in July is: besides 12.53 million tons of soybean import, Chinese enterprises will buy 371 tons of pork and beef from U.S. companies.

After 14 years' suspension, China has reopened its door to U.S. poultry and meat products in mid-2017.

Iowa Premium Beef is excited about the opportunity, and has applied to export beef to China.

Mikel Gager, Iowa Premium food safety manager, is confident of the quality and safety of his products. "Our facility operates everyday under a very high level of food safety awareness. We have a very fine food safety record."

Covering an area of 200,000 square feet, the plant processes 1,150 head of cattle per day.

Iowa Premium has been in the process of reaching out and trying to build the business contacts with companies that are already doing business with China. "We're trying to build the relationships with those types of companies so that we can get our high quality beef right into the marketplace in China," Gager told Xinhua.

According to statistics of U.S. Department of Agriculture, China has emerged as a major beef buyer in recent years, with imports increasing from 275 million dollars in 2012 to 2.5 billion dollars in 2016.

America is the world's largest beef producer and the world's fourth largest exporter, with global sales of more than 5.4 billion dollars in 2016. Until the ban took effect, America was China's largest supplier of imported beef, providing 70 percent of China's total intake.

It is estimated that China's re-opening of its market to U.S. beef and meat products will benefit some 60 million U.S. cattle ranchers.

AGRICULTURE UNDERPINS CHINA-U.S. TIES

Agricultural products have always been an advantageous product where U.S. holds trade surplus with China.

According to China Customs statistics, bilateral agricultural products trade volume reached 31.2 billion dollars in 2016. China's import from the U.S. was 23.8 billion dollars, while export was 7.4 billion dollars; and China held a trade deficit of 16.4 billion dollars.

U.S. statistics show that China is the second largest destination market of U.S. agricultural products, receiving 15 percent of U.S. agricultural products export.

China is also the first largest destination market of U.S. soybean, receiving 62 percent of its total soybean export; and the second largest destination market of U.S. cotton, receiving 14 percent of its total cotton export.

A U.S. farmer exports about 12,000 dollars' worth of agricultural products to China on average every year.

Stapleton Roy, a former U.S. ambassador to China, told Xinhua: "The agricultural cooperation (between China and the U.S.) became a very important part of the relationship. Most people, most Americans and most Chinese are simply not familiar with this. And yet it is one of the underpinnings of the relationship."

"We are both having agriculture as very important part of our economies. The number of farmers has been going way down in both countries, but the agricultural productivity has been rising very rapidly."

"This is one of the reasons when even we have differences on a whole variety of areas, we have this underpinning of cooperation. And it is very very important to build on that underpinning," Roy added.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 06:05:01|Editor: Yurou

Video Player Close

MINSK, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Contact Group on Ukraine has reached an agreement on ceasefire in the conflict zone in east Ukraine starting from Saturday, a special representative said here on Wednesday.

Martin Sajdik, the special representative of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in the trilateral contact group on Ukraine, told local media that the negotiators had reached a deal with representatives of the certain areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

All parties have reiterated their commitment to a comprehensive, stable and timeless ceasefire from Dec. 23, the diplomat said.

According to the previous agreement, the Contact Group on Ukraine also reaffirmed the need to exchange prisoners before the Christmas and New Year holidays.

The next meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine will be held on January 18, 2018.

The trilateral contact group is a group of representatives from Ukraine, Russia and OSCE that was formed as means to facilitate a diplomatic resolution to the war in the conflicting Donbas region.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 06:15:02|Editor: yan

Video Player Close

MEXICO CITY, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- A fatal Mexican bus crash that killed 11 foreign tourists and a Mexican guide is being investigated as a possible case of "culpable homicide," local authorities said on Wednesday.

The tour bus flipped over on Tuesday morning as it was taking 29 cruise ship passengers to Mayan ruins near the Caribbean resort of Mahahual, in the eastern state of Quintana Roo. A total of 31 people were on board, including the guide and driver, who fled the scene and remains missing.

The State Prosecutor General informed that due to the vehicular accident on the Cafetal-Mahahual state highway, it has opened an investigation against whoever may result responsible for the crime of culpable homicide.

"So far, the driver is a fugitive and it's likely he's injured, but we don't know how he left the site of the accident, how he was able to escape or whether anyone helped him," said a statement from the prosecutor's office.

Officials don't yet know what caused the bus to flip over, but say skid marks on the highway show the driver lost control of the vehicle, which swerved off the asphalt and traveled another 100 meters before the driver attempted to regain control but failed, tipping the vehicle onto its side.

The fatal victims included eight U.S. citizens, two Swedes and a Canadian, while among the injured taken to hospital were Americans, Swedes, Canadians and at least one Brazilian.

Several of the injured have been able to return to their cruise ships.

Royal Caribbean said via Twitter on Tuesday that most of the bus passengers were from its cruise ships Celebrity Equinox and Serenade of the Seas, both of which were docked in Mahahual.

The bus was taking the passengers to the nearby Mayan ruins of Chacchoben, located some 70 km inland from the coast.

From January to September of this year, 214 cruise ships sailed into the tourist port of Mahahual, bringing with them some 640,216 passengers, according to Mexico's Tourism Ministry.
The U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Laboon from the 6th Fleet casts anchor at Georgia's Black Sea port of Batumi on June 28, 2015. The U.S. warship arrived here for a scheduled port visit. (Xinhua/Li Ming)

TBILISI, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Congress had agreed to sell the Javelin man-portable anti-tank system to Georgia, said Georgian Defense Minister Levan Izoria on Wednesday.

"We have an important success regarding purchasing the anti-tank Javelin missiles from the United States," said Izoria, who wrote to the U.S. Defence Department for this purchase on March 29, adding that the U.S. Congress had made a positive decision on this issue Tuesday.

Addressing lawmakers in the parliament, Izoria said that Georgia had asked the United States for the Javelin missiles multiple times for years but implementation of defense reforms was one of the conditions the United States requested from the country.

The United States had recognized the reforms Georgia has undertaken with Tuesday's decision, Izoria stressed.

According to the statement from the Ministry, Izoria also spoke highly of the fast expanding cooperation between Georgia and NATO in recent years, saying the alliance had recognized Georgia as one of the most trusted partners by jointly conducting a series of military drills.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 06:25:04|Editor: Yurou

Video Player Close

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud by phone on Wednesday, discussing issues concerning Yemen and Iran, said the White House on Wednesday.

During their phone call, Trump expressed solidarity with Saudi Arabia following the ballistic missile attack against King Salman's official residence on Tuesday, said a White House statement released in the day.

Yemen's Houthi movement on Tuesday announced that it had fired a ballistic missile towards a royal palace in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, Houthi-controlled state Saba news agency reported.

On the same day, Saudi Arabia accused Iran of trafficking missiles to Yemen, indicating that the missile intercepted 25 km away from Riyadh was made in Iran.

In the statement released on Wednesday, the White House accused Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for enabling the attack.

The U.S. accusations that Tehran supplies missiles to Yemeni Shiite Houthis were refuted by Tehran repeatedly.

In their phone call, the two leaders also agreed on the importance of reinvigorating a political process to end the war in Yemen, said the White House.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-21 07:00:09|Editor: Yurou

Video Player Close

DUBLIN, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The national average house rent in Ireland has risen 7 percent higher than the boom-time peak recorded a decade ago, said a government agency here on Wednesday.

The Residential Tenancies Board (RTB), a government-run organization responsible for registering tenancies and dealing with disputes between tenants and landlords in Ireland, said that the monthly house rent paid by new tenants in the country reached a national average of 1,056 euros (1,254 U.S. dollars) in the third quarter of 2017, up nearly 7 percent compared with the previous high of 988 euros recorded in the last quarter of 2007.

In Dublin, the capital of the country, the average monthly rent paid was 1,518 euros, up 9.8 percent compared with the third quarter of last year, with the average in the greater Dublin area (Meath, Wicklow and Kildare) standing at 1,086 euros, a 6.5 percent increase over a year ago, said the RTB.

The house rent in Ireland witnessed a sharp decline after the global financial crisis. However, the local house rental market has witnessed a consistent rise after hitting the lowest point of 746 euros per month in the first quarter of 2012.

Rosalind Carroll, Director of the RTB, attributed the recovery of the Irish house rental market mainly to demographic and economic growth matched with low levels of supply in the country.

She said that nearly 30,000 new tenancies were registered across the country in the July-September period of this year, 6,000 more compared with the same period of last year, adding that the rapid rise in demand would continue to put significant pressure on the private rental market and those trying to find a place to live in the country. (1 euro = 1.19 U.S. dollars)
Never send a cop to do a man's job
A Nigerian woman was allegedly forced out of the employment of Ericsson Nigerian Limited by an Indian and three other staff of the company.

Joy Ndukwe, a former Account Manager for Airtel Nigeria at the company, said she was harassed, maltreated and forcefully eased out of the employment of the telecommunication company by Atul Ojah, the Indian, and three other staff of the company.

Stanley Imhanruor, also claimed that the company has refused to pay her terminal benefits despite the ill treatment she was subjected to.

Mrs. Ndukwe joined the services of the company as a contract staff in April 2001 and was offered regular employment in June 2006.

Consequently, she was elevated and designated as the Account Manager for Airtel Nigeria Limited, a portfolio she claimed covered 70 per cent of Airtel Nigeria total sales in the 14 countries where Ericsson operates in Africa.

Ericsson Nigeria, a corporate body registered in Nigeria, is a global brand and subsidiary of Ericsson Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, located in Stockholm, Sweden.

According to Mrs. Ndukwe, following her employment as regular staff in 2006, she was placed on an annual salary of N2 million, after which it was reviewed to N2.2 million in 2007. She added that based on the performance of the last review conducted in April 2017, her annual remuneration was placed at N9. 2 million (N9,172,834).

ALLEGED CONSPIRACY

Trouble started when Mrs. Ndukwe applied for the position of Account Manager for Airtel West Africa after the company called for application to fill the vacancy on its website.

She argued that she performed well at the interview and was tipped as the candidate to fill the vacancy.

Things, however, took a different turn when her Indian boss, Atul Ojha, allegedly launched a series of attacks to ensure she did not clinch the job and was eased out of the companys employment.

She also claimed that several staff of the company sent in congratulatory messages to her, saying her acceptance letter had been deposited with her boss as the only successful candidate. She explained that rather than hand over the letter to her, Mr. Ojha offered to assist her with an external job at American Towers, an offer she rejected.

Subsequently, she said she was summoned to a meeting in September by one Omoniyi Adejoro, another staff of the company.

At the meeting, Mrs. Ndukwe said she was bullied and harassed for having the effrontery to apply for placements reserved for expatriates. She explained that she, however, stood her ground and refused to be intimidated, saying such claims contradict the companys recruitment policy.

Thereafter, she said she was directed to resign voluntarily by Mr. Omoniyi, together with two other non-Nigerian staff of the company, Aaakash Seghal and Rutger Reman.

Mrs. Ndukwe said the pressure and intimidation took a toll on her health, prompting her to embark on medical sick leave in September. She, however, claimed that even while on sick leave, attempts were made by the trio to kidnap her and compel her to sign an agreement indicating that she voluntarily resigned.

Mrs. Ndukwe explained further that she was threatened by Mr. Ojha and others that if she refused to resign and allow them announce the name of their preferred candidate, her position as Account Manager of Airtel Nigeria would be declared vacant and her terminal benefits would be slashed.

The ex-Ericsson staff claimed that after she refused to bow to pressure, Mr Ojha and others allegedly caused her profile to be removed from the companys system globally, a development that created the impression that she had resigned even when she was still on sick leave.

Subsequently, in a letter dated October 10, the company declared her position redundant and purportedly computed her terminal benefits at N25, 708, 969.

The companys decision also led to the withdrawal of her health insurance services at Reddington and Saint Nicholas hospitals, where she had been hospitalized for extremely high blood pressure and nervous breakdown occasioned by the harassment suffered in the hands of her Indian boss and others.

But Mr. Imhanruor said contrary to the companys computation, Mrs. Ndukwes terminal benefit for the 11 years and 122 days of her service at the company is N37, 440,610, adding that despite repeated demands the company has refused to pay.

The companys spokesperson, Toju Egbedi, said the matter had been referred to the court and the company would not want to comment on it.

There is an active ongoing court case around this issue and Ericsson can therefore not comment. Ericsson has previously communicated that a key component of the companys focused business strategy is to reduce costs and increase efficiency, the statement read.

Executing on these plans to cut costs has unfortunately had an impact on some of our employees across the world, including in Nigeria. We are, however, making every effort to ensure that our core values of professionalism, perseverance and respect are adhered to in dealing with all affected employees. In addition, Ericsson has a firm Code of Business Ethics, which it ensures all employees acknowledge that they have read and understood at the time of employment.

The acknowledgment process is refreshed every other year. When we uncover irregular activity or employee misconduct, we take action to limit the risk and ensure that this is not repeated anywhere within our organization, the company concluded.

Mr. Imhanruor said the case was important because there is need to look into corruption and unfair treatment of workers in the private sector.

More often than not we just concentrate on the government but the rate of mis-governance is more in the private sector. There is also the issue of racial discrimination because the other guys involved are Indian guys, he said.

The case had been taken to court and it came up for the first time on November 29. It has however been adjourned till January 2018.
Fine china and silverware at each place setting may not be a common occurrence at the family dinner table on any given evening, but recognizing how and when to use those special utensils as well as knowing which glass of water belongs to those around the table during a formal occasion could 
Morocco has decried the attempted Houthi missile attack, which targeted Tuesday (Dec.19) the Saudi capital, and renewed its solidarity with Riyadh in its fight to ensure the security of its territories.

The North African Kingdom also voiced deep concern over this dangerous escalation, which worsens the Yemeni crisis, undermines the regions stability and increases the sufferings of the brotherly Yemeni people, says a press release issued by the Moroccan Foreign Affairs ministry.

It is the third missile attack launched against Saudi Arabia by Houthi rebels in two months. According to Saudi officials, the missiles, intercepted by the Saudi air force, are supplied by Tehran.

The Saudi-led coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki said: this aggressive and arbitrary act by the armed Houthi Iranian group proves the continued involvement of the Iranian regime in supporting the Houthis  with the aim of threatening the security of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

He also said that the control of Iranian-made ballistic weapons by terrorist organizations, including the Iran-backed Houthi armed militia, is a threat to regional and international security, and the targeting of populated cities is contrary to international humanitarian law.

Last week, the US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley unveiled the remains of two missiles supplied by Iran to the Houthis. She said they are compelling evidences of Irans interference in Yemen.

Iran has flatly rejected the US and Saudi accusations that it provided weapons to Yemens Houthi rebels.

We have no arms deal with Yemen [] We reject the accusation that Iran supplies weapons to different groups [in the Middle East] and we strongly deny it, Irans Foreign Ministry spokesman, Bahram Ghassemi, was quoted as saying by the Iranian news agency Isna on Wednesday (December 20th).

Some press reports say the missile attack may have been a response to Saudi air raids that the UN human rights commission said had led to 136 civilians being killed and another 87 injured in strikes on Sanaa, Saada, Hodeida, Marib and Taez governorates between December 6 and 16.

The fighting intensified after Houthi rebels killed Saleh, punishing him for switching to support the Saudis. The Houthis have since hunted down Salehs supporters in Sanaa.
Egypt has increased the alert level to high in preparation of the Christmas celebrations given the massive church and mosque bombings the country suffered earlier this year.

Egypts Interior Ministry has ordered 230,000 police officers to secure churches while putting all security departments on high alert, the MENA news agency said.

Egypt will have to increase protection of the 2,626 churches nationwide, including 1,326 Orthodox churches, 1,200 Protestant churches and 200 Catholic churches, the agency added.

Last April in Egypt, Islamic State militants killed at least 44 Coptic Orthodox Christians as they attended Palm Sunday services at two separate churchesone at St. Georges Church in Tanta, and another one at St. Marks in Alexandria.

And last Christmas, 24 Christians were killed in a terrorist attack at St. Pauls Church in Cairo.

That attack struck at the heart of Egypts Coptic Church. St. Pauls is adjacent to St. Marks Cathedral, the home of Pope Tawadros II. The pope was unhurt in the incident because he was traveling out of the country at the time of the attack.
Bill de Blasio. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

While he has long demonstrated an interest in building a national profile, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio has repeatedly denied that he intends to run for president. Still, Tuesday found de Blasio in Iowa, which is a place that people who are thinking about running for president tend to visit. (Its not his first trip to the state.)

De Blasio, who was very easily reelected in November, was in Des Moines to give a speech at a fundraiser for the organization Progress Iowa. The New York Times reports that the mayors talk focused on the theme of moving the Democratic Party to the left. He also spoke about his progressive accomplishments in New York, including universal prekindergarten and his effort to expand access to mental health care.

De Blasio wasnt the only New Yorker in town. Around a dozen officers from the citys largest police union, the Patrolmens Benevolent Association, traveled to Des Moines to protest at the mayors appearance. The PBA and de Blasio have clashed frequently throughout his mayoralty, with the relationship reaching a low point in 2014, when the union encouraged members to turn their backs on him at the funerals of cops killed in the line of duty. Theyre currently engaged in stalled contract talks. Wherever he goes, were going to go, said a PBA representative. (Meanwhile, the Transport Workers Union, which has taken Governor Andrew Cuomos side in the fight over who to blame for the awful state of New Yorks subways, paid for a full-page ad in the Des Moines Register declaring that Phony Bill is no Bernie Sanders!) Of the demonstrators, a de Blasio spokesperson said, Were more than fine with their protests and wish them safe travels.

Beer summit? PBA and @NYCMayor are having a brew in a hotel lobby pic.twitter.com/Lzsh5c0np2  Jillian Jorgensen (@Jill_Jorgensen) December 20, 2017

Before his speech, de Blasio told reporters, This is what I feel called to do, and Im going to do this kind of thing wherever possible, whenever possible. When asked whether his time would be better spent focusing on things in New York, he said, I can walk and chew gum at the same time. I can do my job as mayor of the city and still work on my core beliefs. For the record, he also said, No, Im not running for president.
French president Emmanuel Macron speaks during at the One Planet Summit outside Paris. Photo: Eric Fefferberg/AFP/Getty Images

With the U.S. abdicating leadership on the issue of climate change, other global powerhouses are stepping up to claim the mantle.

Among the most eager is France, where President Emmanuel Macron has been one of the worlds leading critics of President Trumps decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord.

This week, Macron and the French government took another step in the attempt to establish France as climate role model for the rest of the world, passing a new law that bans oil and gas production in the country by 2040. Though it sounds impressive, the move is largely symbolic. Just one percent of Frances oil is produced domestically, while the rest is imported, according to the Associated Press. Still, symbolism is important for Macron, who has pledged to Make Our Planet Great Again, an obvious dig at Trump.

Very proud that France has become the first country in the world today to ban any new oil exploration licences with immediate effect and all oil extraction by 2040. #KeepItInTheGround #MakeOurPlanetGreatAgain  Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) December 19, 2017

Among the challengers to Macron in his attempt to become Captain Planet is Chinas Xi Jinping. In October, he issued veiled criticism of Trump, calling out countries retreat into self-isolation and declaring that China has taken a drivers seat in international cooperation to respond to climate change.

Now hes introducing the worlds largest market for greenhouses gases, an attempt to provide a financial incentive for the countrys dirtiest power plants to clean up their acts. The market is still years away from coming online and it wont cover industry outside of power plants, but the move is still seen as a huge win for climate advocates.

On Tuesday, the original Captain Planet, Al Gore, called it yet another powerful sign that a global sustainability revolution is underway.
Expect unintended consequences of their tax cuts. Photo: Olivier Douliery/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Most weeks, New York Magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich speaks with contributor Alex Carp about the biggest stories in politics and culture. Today: the political effects of the GOP tax cuts, the state of relations between the Trump White House and Special Counsel Bob Mueller, and Steven Spielbergs The Post.

As the Republican tax bill hurtles toward being a done deal, opposition to it has soared, with two-thirds of the public now seeing it as a boon to the wealthy, according to a CNN poll. What will be the consequences of pushing through something thats so deeply unpopular?

You dont need to hear from me all the ways in which this egregious bill is a boon to the wealthiest Americans at the expense of everyone else. But the immediate political consequences of the bill are less clearcut. Yes, as things stand now, the bill has the lowest level of public support for any major piece of legislation enacted in the past three decades, as USA Today put it; even Obamacare polled higher upon passage in 2009. But it would be foolish for Democrats to assume this makes 2018 a slam dunk: Among other gimmicks, the bill is cleverly structured so that most Americans will see some sort of tax cut, however nominal, in their paychecks next year. Much of the bills dire longer-term impact on the middle class and the poor wont kick in by the 2018 midterms.

This means that the political consequences of the tax bills passage could be up for grabs next year. Already, the GOPs biggest donors, the bills biggest beneficiaries, have been pouring money into campaigns to sell it to voters. Its up to Democrats to get into the trenches with tough and clever counter-messaging that will explain in concrete and un-wonky terms why the bill is a disaster for most Americans. Mere scare words (eg., Nancy Pelosis invocation of Armageddon) will not reach those turned-off-by-Trump suburbanites who have been defecting from the GOP in special elections this year, from Virginia to Alabama.

The midterms could well be a wave election but not if Democrats fail to make their case and instead repeat the Clinton campaign error of expecting anti-Trumpism to do most of the work for them. In that regard, I have to confess to being baffled by the prevailing liberal political spot on television these days  the ad in which the Democratic billionaire Tom Steyer calls for Trumps impeachment. David Axelrod was exactly right when he called it more of a vanity project than a call for action. What is the ads point after all? As long as Congress remains in GOP hands, there will be no impeachment. Period. What anti-Trump voter (now nearly two-thirds of the country) needs to be reminded that this president is unfit for the White House? This ad amounts to little more than a masturbatory diversion, wasting time, energy, and money that could instead be poured into the blistering economic argument required to flip one or both chambers to the Democrats.

Nonetheless, though the Democrats cannot count on Trump doing their work for them, he may yet be a help. He has oversold the tax bills potential dividends with his usual panoply of lies and misinformation from the start, and will keep doing so, since its the only legislative victory of his presidency. Its also possible that with this bill in hand  the bill that Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan have cared most passionately about  the GOP will feel free to foil other Trump legislation (if there is any), thus raising already dangerous levels of pique and self-immolation even higher. Thats one unintended consequence of this atrocious legislation that may actually prove enjoyable.

Robert Muellers team is expected to meet with President Trumps lawyers in the coming days, following a wave of partisan attacks on the Mueller investigation. Will the meeting smooth things over, or is this the beginning of the end of the White Houses cooperation?

Since Thanksgiving, the White House and its auxiliaries, led by Fox News, has been seizing on anything it can to smear the Mueller investigation as biased and corrupt. Many feel, not without reason, that this disinformation campaign is a prelude to Trump firing Mueller, no matter how frequently the White House denies it has any such plan in mind. In any case, nothing will be smoothed over.

But the Washington Post report this week that Trumps lawyers are meeting with Muellers to sound them out on when the investigation will reach its conclusion adds another fascinating element to the portrait of the presidents precarious mental state. As the Post explains, Trump has fully bought into his lawyers repeated predictions that the Mueller probe is about to wrap up  an imaginary deadline they first said would be reached by Thanksgiving and then by Christmas and that they now say will be early next year. Though no one can say with certainty what the virtually leakproof Mueller operations timetable will be, the Post did find that members of his team have said that their work would take most of 2018, at the least. Yet Trump has completely bought into the fantasy that his long Mueller nightmare is over and that his exoneration is around the corner.

Those sympathetic to Trump are constantly giving blind quotes to the press about the ineptitude of his legal team. That may well be the case. But whats more revealing is that Trump is so insulated from reality  and surely not just about the Mueller investigation  that he would believe the phony optimism peddled by his lawyers despite publicly known developments (the plea deal of Michael Flynn, for instance) suggesting that the probe is accelerating, not retreating. A 4-year-old who believes in Santa Claus is arguably more in touch with reality than the ostensible leader of the most powerful nation on Earth.

This weekend Steven Spielberg releases The Post, his movie about the publication of the Pentagon Papers and, more broadly, an adversarial press facing off against the White House. Will his film rally audiences to real news?

It is hard to imagine a better-timed movie than Spielbergs retelling of the Posts decision to join the New York Times in its historic legal and journalistic battle to publish the classified internal history of Vietnam War decision-making, the Pentagon Papers, in 1971, after the Nixon Administration attempted to stop the presses. And the film takes on another timely issue that sets it apart from, say, Spotlight (with which it shares a screenwriter): the role of a brave female corporate pioneer  Katharine Graham, the Posts publisher, inevitably played by Meryl Streep  in leading her paper into an existential battle despite the often condescending opposition of most of the powerful men in her business orbit and her elite Georgetown social circle.

The focus on Graham is a refreshing creative decision on the part of the filmmakers (which includes several female producers): She might well have been dramatized as second fiddle to the Posts flamboyant and crusading editor, Ben Bradlee, particularly since Bradlee is portrayed by Tom Hanks. But even Hankss performance defers generously to Streeps Graham; his characterization is determinedly non-showy, an unexpected departure from both the public Bradlee persona and the bravura Jason Robards turn in All the Presidents Men.

That said, I dont for a second believe that this movie will be seen by many Americans who dismiss legitimate news media as fake news or win over any who wander in by default because they couldnt get into The Last Jedi. Not unlike those Tom Steyer impeachment ads, The Post will preach, however eloquently, to the choir.
On Monday, hours before he realized his policy dream of handing the ultrawealthy a massive tax cut, House Speaker Paul Ryans staff tweeted a video of the congressman touting his Ayn Randian vision over and over for the last two decades. The aim was to portray Ryan as a determined warrior who has fought hard throughout his career to reform an overly burdensome tax code. Instead, it just emphasized what a charlatan he is.

Today has been a moment decades in the making. Let's get it done. pic.twitter.com/abuqrCEMPb  Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) December 19, 2017

The video begins in 1998, with a 17-year-old Ryan (okay, he was actually 28 or 29 at the time, but he sure looks like a confident pre-frosh who just wandered over to the College Republicans table), proclaiming on C-Span that our tax system is punishing all those systems that make America great. The next clip jumps a decade to the House floor in 2008, by which point Ryan had become a rising star in a GOP that had fully committed itself to discredited supply-side dogma. I am introducing a road map for Americas future, he intones, with the sort of grandiosity that made him a favorite of credulous reporters for so long.

But then, the video snippets take on a distinct, and, given the circumstances, odd, theme: simplification.

In 2010, Ryan touts a very simplified system, so that businessmen, entrepreneurs, and individuals can actually have a clean, easy postcard to fill out and move on.

In 2011, he says, Get rid of the loopholes, lower the tax rates, make us more competitive.

In 2015, he says, The only way to fix our tax code is to simplify, simplify, simplify.

One slight problem with that: The tax bill Ryan is about to usher into law does nothing of the sort. As the New York Times puts it, It leaves nearly every large tax break in place. It creates as many new preferences for special interests as it gets rid of. It will keep corporate accountants busy for years to come. And no taxpayer will ever see the postcard-size tax return that President Trump laid a kiss on in November as Republican leaders launched their tax overhaul effort.

And loopholes? The GOPs sloppy, rushed process in passing the bill ensures that savvy tax lawyers  a.k.a. those employed by the rich  will be exploiting its arcane new rules to their clients maximum benefit for years.

The fact that Ryans staff would tweet out a video that so thoroughly contradicts what Ryan is actually about to do is a reminder that the Speaker has paid very little price for the deceptions that have defined his career. Having positioned himself as a serious policy wonk, he has abandoned almost all the promises he made about making taxes more straightforward, but has emerged triumphant on the one thing he really wanted to do: make the wealthy much, much wealthier.

We are in a generational-defining moment for our country, Ryan remarks at the end of the video.

We may well be. Just not in the way he thinks.
Enes Kanter. Photo: Elsa/Getty Images

Knicks center Enes Kanter is a wanted man in Turkey because he tweeted mean things about President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier this year.

Anadolu Agency, a state-run news service, says Istanbuls chief prosecutor has drawn up an indictment of the 25-year-old and is seeking to throw him in jail for four years.

Kanter is an outspoken critic of Erdogan, who hes called the Hitler of our century, and a supporter of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen. The exiled Erdogan opponent is accused of orchestrating a failed coup in Turkey last year. Kanter has vocally refuted that story, arguing that the coup was faked by Erdogan and used as a front to crack down on dissent.

For his opinions, Kanter has been labeled a terrorist in Turkey. In May, his passport was revoked, leaving him stranded in a Romanian airport as a minor diplomatic crisis unfolded. He eventually made it back to the U.S., but he has not stopped his criticism of the Turkish regime.

Asked Wednesday about its latest attempt to silence him, Kanter criticized Erdogans authoritarian tendencies. Ive said this before, that dude is [a] maniac, Kanter said. Think about it. I mean, America, youve got freedom of speech  or you had. Youve got freedom of speech. Youve got freedom of whatever you want to say. I mean, its a free country.

But its not like that in Turkey. You cannot criticize or you cannot even say nothing bad about the dude.
They have a surprisingly decent graphics department over in Crazyland. Photo: Anonymous

A new conspiracy theory called The Storm has taken the grimiest parts of the internet by, well, storm. Like Pizzagate, the Storm conspiracy features secret cabals, a child sex-trafficking ring led (in part) by the satanic Democratic Party, and of course, countless logical leaps and paranoid assumptions that fail to hold up under the slightest fact-based scrutiny. However, unlike Pizzagate, the Storm isnt focused on a single block of shops in D.C., or John Podestas emails. Its much, much bigger than that.

As most terrible things do, this story begins with a post on /pol/, a sub-board of the more-or-less-anonymous, anything-goes website 4chan. Over the last few years, /pol/  which technically stands for politically incorrect  has slowly but surely become a top contender for the ever-coveted title of the most upsetting community online. Its the sort of place where neo-Nazis and people who believe women shouldnt have basic human rights used to meet before we started verifying them on Twitter and electing them to public office. And as of late, its expanded its ranks to include fringe members of all shapes and sizes.

On October 28, someone calling themselves Q began posting a series of cryptic messages in a /pol/ thread titled Calm Before the Storm (assumedly in reference to that creepy Trump quote from early October). Q claimed to be a high-level government insider with Q clearance (hence the name) tasked with posting intel drops  which he, for some reason, called crumbs  straight to 4chan in order to covertly inform the public about POTUSs master plan to stage a countercoup against members of the deep state. It was, in short, absolutely insane. However, thanks to some rather forced coincidences  like Q kind of, sort of guessing that Trump would tweet the word small on Small Business Saturday, and this one time the internet decided that Q was totally on Air Force One because he posted a blurry picture of some islands while Trump was on his trip to Asia  and a whole heck of a lot of wishful thinking, people believed he was the real deal.

So he kept talking.

This is obviously very real news. Nothing insane going on here at all. Photo: Anonymous

According to Q, Trump was never really involved with Russia, and isnt actually under investigation by Mueller & Co. On the contrary, Q insists that its actually Clinton and Obama who were corrupted by Putin (and are now actually under investigation by Mueller) because theyre obviously just evil, money-hungry globalists wholl do anything for the highest bidder. (Oh, yeah, and theyre also apparently into raping and killing children, though the crowd is split over whether this is because theyre satanists or just part of some weird blackmail scheme involving the CIA.) Q also claims that Trump, the genius that he is, figured all of this out way back when he was just a measly presidential candidate, and has been pretending to love Putin and/or be involved with Russia ever since as a way to force a third party to investigate these horrors  without drawing the attention of those evil Dems-who-must-not-be-named, of course  because hes just that selfless of a leader.

The More You Know. Photo: Anonymous

In this fantasy world, all of the far rights wildest dreams come true: Q promises that Clinton, Obama, Podesta, Abedin, and even McCain are all either arrested and wearing secret police-issued ankle monitors, or just about to be indicted; that the Steele dossier is a total fabrication personally paid for by Clinton and Obama; and that the Las Vegas massacre was most definitely an inside job connected to the Saudi-Clinton cabal.

They believe all of this will be coming to a head any day now. That The Storm  of arrests, political turmoil, and Republican vindication  is coming. Though there have been some, uh, miscalculations as for exactly when.

For example, take this crumb left by Q on November 1:

Q Clearance Patriot My fellow Americans, over the course of the next several days you will undoubtedly realize that we are taking back our great country (the land of the free) from the evil tyrants that wish to do us harm and destroy the last remaining refuge of shining light. On POTUS order, we have initiated certain fail-safes that shall safeguard the public from the primary fallout which is slated to occur 11.3 upon the arrest announcement of Mr. Podesta (actionable 11.4). Confirmation (to the public) of what is occurring will then be revealed and will not be openly accepted. Public riots are being organized in serious numbers in an effort to prevent the arrest and capture of more senior public officials. On POTUS order, a state of temporary military control will be actioned and special ops carried out. False leaks have been made to retain several within the confines of the United States to prevent extradition and special operator necessity. Rest assured, the safety and well-being of every man, woman, and child of this country is being exhausted in full. However, the atmosphere within the country will unfortunately be divided as so many have fallen for the corrupt and evil narrative that has long been broadcast. We will be initiating the Emergency Broadcast System (EMS) during this time in an effort to provide a direct message (avoiding the fake news) to all citizens. Organizations and/or people that wish to do us harm during this time will be met with swift fury  certain laws have been pre-lifted to provide our great military the necessary authority to handle and conduct these operations (at home and abroad).

POTUS will be well insulated/protected on AF1 and abroad (specific locations classified) while these operations are conducted due to the nature of the entrenchment. It is time to take back our country and make America great again. Let us salute and pray for the brave men and women in uniform who will undertake this assignment to bring forth peace, unity, and return power to the people. It is our hope that this message reaches enough people to make a meaningful impact. We cannot yet telegraph this message through normal methods for reasons Im sure everyone here can understand. Follow the questions from the previous thread(s) and remain calm, the primary targets are within DC and remain at the top (on both sides). The spill over in the streets will be quickly shut down. Look for more false flags  stay alert, be vigilant, and above all, please pray. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Love is patient, love is kind. God bless my fellow Americans. 4,10,20

Im not sure if youre aware of this, but November has come and gone without the slightest hint of a Q-style military-backed Armageddon. Yet, this pretty glaring mistake doesnt seem to have weakened anyones faith in Q. If anything, its brought more followers into the fold.

Over the last month and a half, the Storm has spread from the depths of 4chan and 8chan to Reddit, YouTube, and Twitter, where its found hundreds of thousands of devout followers. Some of the most popular explainer videos boast nearly 200,000 views, and the QAnon hashtag has gotten so popular, its honestly difficult to track. (I signed up for one of those freebie Track Your Hashtag Now! services and #QAnon hit the 2,000-post limit within four hours.) Some poor soul even took the time to write a 117-page book charting Qs rise to power, which Im guessing has been seen at least as many times as this very aggressive Imgur guide, which was at 137,000 views as of Sunday night.

#QANON #TheStormIsUponUs #WAKEUP #PayAttention

WAS IMPOSSIBLE/"ANOMALOUS" ATLANTA AIRPORT "POWER" & "CELL" OUTAGE (INCREDIBLY BOTH) A PRECURSOR TO "Q'S" 10 DAYS OF DARKNESS, OR A "Q" TYPE "EXTRACTION" OF A HIGH VALUE #DARKSTATE ASSET FLEEING THE COUNTRY? https://t.co/zleW68261E   WakeUP2017  (@Deplorable80210) December 18, 2017

If #Qanon is a LARP, it's the most elaborate in history and now involves admins and board owners of 8. The greatest Geopolitical events since WW2 are being live blogged by an insider. What a timeline #Q pic.twitter.com/osBQdZzs9G  NihilistZerO (@_NihilistZerO) December 15, 2017

UNPOPULAR OPINION: I believe in Jeff Sessions and think Mueller is team Trump. I think this entire investigation, including this Flynn situation, is the beginning of the Obama/HRC cabal takedown. #artofwar #qanon  Austen Fletcher (@fleccas) December 3, 2017

Its been a little over a year since Edgar Welch, military-style assault rifle in hand, walked into a D.C. pizza parlor, convinced it was part of a child sex-trafficking ring run by Hillary Clinton, and the internet hasnt gotten better. If anything, its worse.

Sure, in the wake of Pizzagates brief encounter with reality, a lot of changes were made: Reddit shut down the conspiracys designated sub, Twitter suspended some of the movements most vocal supporters, and the whole thing was debunked time and time again by the press. But its more evident now than ever that this was merely a Band-Aid, not a cure. And now, here we are a year later with the same thing. Sure, its a bit bigger and a whole lot less focused, but at its core, its the same. What is there even left to try? We know that stopping the conversation doesnt work. Neither do the facts. How can we even begin to argue with hundreds of thousands of people who choose to believe that a top government agent is speaking to them through 4chan, that Trump has been playing a game of 4-D mind chess this whole time, and that the Las Vegas massacre was an inside job? Is the next Edgar Welch already out there, scrolling through the Calm Before the Storm thread, and if so, is it even possible to stop him?
There was drama at parliament today as Ndorwa East MP, also shadow attorney general Wilfred Niwagaba exchanged blows with the deputy attorney general Mwesigwa Rukutana.



Niwagaba had come together with some of the suspended MPs to parliament with High court sermons for Speaker Rebecca Kadaga and the attorney general. The sermons are reportedly for case against Kadaga over the suspension of the six MPs on Tuesday.



The MPs Allan Ssewanyana, Ibrahim Ssemujju, Gerald Karuhanga and Mubarak Munyagwa were in a green Noah vehicle alongside Niwagaba before they were intercepted at the parliament main gate.

Wilfred Niwagaba getting arrested

This prompted Busiro East MP Medard Ssegoona who was in the House to come to Niwagaba's rescue before an argument ensued with the police and the deputy attorney general who had to rush at the parliament's main gate.



Although Ssegoona had asked the police who were stopping the MPs on why Niwagaba was being stopped, police couldn't answer but only stated that there is an order to stop him.



Niwagaba on his side said that he has a court sermon and in which the speaker is supposed to appear in court. He says the injunction was on the MPs who were stopped.



"The speaker is supposed to appear at 2;00pm, so I have to take this injunction to her. And there is no law that bars me from entering Parliament", he told the police.



Rukutana however said that the speaker cannot be served at the House in such a manner but through an assistant. He claimed the speaker needed to get the notice formally.



An argument ensued with buttons of Rukutana's shirt torn off before he was rescued by police. Police then lifted both Ssegona and Niwagaba out of parliament and bundled in a police vehicle.
A lot has been said about last Fridays traffic gridlock that apparently ensued after traffic police deliberately abandoned Kampalas busiest junctions at rush hours just to make a point.

It was their way of responding to suggestions by Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) Executive Director Jennifer Musisi and World Bank officials that they interfere with the smooth flow of traffic by overriding traffic lights, thus exacerbating gridlocks.

As a result, a lot of people were stuck in traffic for many hours on that Friday night as the city witnessed one of its worst jams.

Traffic police are some of the most unappreciated public employees in Uganda. They work under very difficult conditions for long hours and earn peanuts.

They have to put up with arrogant, unreasonable and often clueless drivers every single day.

Often, they can only look on as security officers, politicians and other undisciplined state agents and individuals undermine their authority by stubbornly refusing to observe basic traffic rules.

Think about the traffic policewomen, especially, who must arrive at their work station as early as 6am and endure standing up all day, come rain come shine.

Theirs is not only a thankless, difficult job; its also dangerous. For instance, there have been reports of drivers deliberately running over traffic police officers while others, especially women, have been kidnapped by criminal-minded motorists.

Yet, many people whom these officers toil day and night to serve never appreciate their predicament. What people tend to think about is the traffic polices high propensity for bribery, not realising that there would be no bribery if the drivers stopped giving.

But the drivers will not stop because most of the time they are in violation of traffic rules and want an easy and quick escape route.

Therefore, if there is anything we can learn from last Fridays gridlock, its acknowledgment and respect for such unsung heroes contribution, notwithstanding their shortcomings.

We may disagree with their methods of traffic control but we can do so respectfully while acknowledging the sacrifices they make to ease the traffic flow and keep ungrateful motorists safe.
Two key issues dominated debate the past week, a massive traffic crisis in Kampala and the continued push to amend the Constitution so Mr Museveni can ostensibly misrule till he dies.

Both underline moral crisis confronting us as a nation. The traffic mayhem in Kampala found me away in my ancestral city of Mbale attending the Bamasaba Convention and Cultural Festival.

Great place to be for all sorts of reasons yet badly beaten by the same viruses eating away the rest of the country: impunity, irresponsibility, incompetence and imprudence. Manafwa and Market streets, both in the heart of what is supposed to be eastern Ugandas powerhouse, are a sorrow spectacle of filth, rot, decay and despair.

I fortuitously escaped what has been dubbed the mother of all traffic jams in Kampala last Friday, but if you have lived in Kampala over the last ten years, there must have been at least once when a traffic lockdown imprisoned you for hours to no end.

In 2011, my wife and I spent eight hours driving from the centre of town to Lubowa, where we lived then, a distance of six kilometres!

A heavy downpour on a Friday evening cut off Entebbe road, the lone road to the airport. Any attempt to find an alternative route was naught. Everywhere was a cul-de-sac.

In 2011, this was mainly an Entebbe-road problem; last Friday, it was city-wide. In the former case, a huge rainfall cut off a major road out of the city; in the latter, apparently traffic police withdrew their services of managing and regulating traffic in the city.

Reason? Enraged by what they considered an unfair criticism from Kampalas executive director, Jennifer Musisi.

Whatever the comments of Ms Musisi, the leadership of the Uganda Police Force and its traffic department had no business abdicating their duty of ensuring law and order. This is a constitutional mandate from which to withdraw amounts to criminal negligence.

Under normal conditions, in systems of rigorous public accountability, someone would have to answer for what happened last Friday.

There is no doubt that there is a problem with the manner in which traffic officers manage roads, many times disregarding traffic signals even when traffic flow is light and can be ably managed by the signals.

So, Ms Musisis critical remarks (I never heard or read the remarks in contention; so, I dont even know what she exactly said) were not totally out of order. But this is not where the crux of the problem lies.

The real problem is the moral bankruptcy of our society. Driving on Kampalas roads can be a nightmare.

Matters are worse in the suburbs. There is something utterly staggering about Uganda today: the sheer lack of the most basic sense of courtesy, of common decency, and sticking to doing the right thing however inconveniencing.

Whoever builds a house erects a wall-fence right in the road. We park anywhere and vend goods everywhere.

There is the unruly conduct of commuter taxis. These chaps instantly stop anytime and anywhere they want, re-join the road without any due regard to other road users, overtake from anywhere, drive on the shoulders, and create lanes where they shouldnt.

They consider themselves super-drivers who know it all. In reality, they are just ignorant and bereft of the basic rules of the road and lack the moral campus to be part of a civilized public.

Their totally unacceptable behaviour is easily rivalled by passenger motorcycle riders. The path laid by these two categories has been steadily followed by private car drivers.

The whole mess of misconduct with impunity is given its fullness by government vehicles including police and the military. The sum of all this is a society where rules are not followed (and no consequences or hardly punitive enough) and the moral fibre has been ripped apart.

With such a raging crisis, only one of the many, the last thing to talk about is whether a 73-year-old ruler of more than three decades has had enough time to rule. This betrays a raw lack of a sense of contrition and owning up to the mess staring at us.

Rather than engage in shameless manipulation, the right thing to do is for the regime and its leadership to concede that they have hit a dead end and have nothing fundamentally useful to offer.

Instead, shockingly, the life-president-designate insists a five-year presidential term is too short, a joke!

When did he realize five years are too few and why does he think seven years is not a joke too? Why not 20 years? Better still, why no no-terms entirely?

It is the same ruler who not too long ago was on record stating he can never be party to changing the age limit. Does he have the moral authority to lead a morally bankrupt society?



The author is an assistant professor of political science at North Carolina State University.
Our country has so far paid nearly Shs 100 billion to promoters of the removal of the presidential age limit from the Constitution to allow Gen Yoweri Museveni seek reelection in 2021.

Members of Parliament from Gen Musevenis ruling NRM alone have pocketed more than Shs 40 billion so far.

He first authorized parliament to give each MP Shs 29 million for consultation on whether age limits should be removed or not. I am talking about Article 102(b) of the Constitution which stops a 75-year-old person from contesting for president.

The total amount spent on fake consultations by MPs was over Shs 12 billion. The NRM MPs then initially demanded Shs 800 million each because passing the amendment was going to make many of them extremely unpopular.

The money asked was too much and, after negotiations, it came down to Shs 200 million each. But I think because there are many people offering support in order to get money, eventually each MP has been given Shs 40 million.

This is what they have been picking from a building near Housing Finance Bank in Kololo. A female bodyguard to Museveni was the one distributing it. She spent two days at Kololo. An NRM MP told me of a room full of money stuffed in (budeeya) sisal-made bags.

Each MP given money was made to sign in a book. Some opposition MPs also pocketed this money. Theirs was delivered through agents.

We are 451 MPs in parliament, which means at least Shs 20 billion was spent on them. The NRM MPs who sit on the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee were each given Shs 300 million to sign the report on this bill.

This amounts to Shs 6 billion. In total, therefore, more than Shs 40 billion has been spent on bribing MPs. You remember the money Museveni gave out to the NRM Central Executive Committee (CEC) members to popularize the satanic proposals?

Police and the military are on high alert nearly every day waiting to pounce on the protesting population. I think when you add all this, the total cost comes to over Shs 100 billion.

That is on the monetary side. There is another huge cost that awaits our country. Here I am not talking about the possibility of a rebellion or violence about being ruled by a vulnerable person.

I think Museveni has made too many mistakes that have eroded his clout as a leader. And sinning in public has left him extremely vulnerable. The push to remove age limits has exposed him more than the removal of term limits did.

It is the reason NRM MPs can publicly ask him for logistics and he delivers. The classic case of this vulnerability played out on Monday morning during a cabinet meeting at the prime ministers office near Parliament.

Museveni drove in at about 9am to chair a cabinet meeting called specifically to discuss the extension of a term of office from five to seven years. Museveni told his cabinet that since the mandate that the population gave us was five years, extending the term of the current Parliament would bring a backlash.

Gen Moses Ali told Museveni that during the same election, the population elected a president for the final term, since he would be more than 75 years old come the next election.

But we are now changing it, he said.

Moses Ali, himself an old man of about 84, told Museveni that since we are giving you something, let us also take something.

But what moved Museveni most was the revelation that if he stops MPs from extending their term by two years, they will automatically sabotage his push for the removal of the age limit.

If that is the case, a senior minister told me, Museveni said go ahead and give yourself two years.That is how much we have degenerated. I am told Rebecca Kadaga was initially opposed to this legal gerrymandering but she eventually gave in.

For me, that is the great risk that we face as a country. In Tanzania, the new leader has been saying no to many things including unnecessary travels by MPs. He is able to reign in on his ministers. Ours has been overcome by so many personal mistakes in his insatiable appetite for power.

That is why I am not talking about smaller things like our suspension from Parliament. [Ssemujju and five others were suspended on Monday by the speaker for improper conduct] Of course we were suspended illegally but that is no cost to the country.

The real cost is on Uganda being ruled by a vulnerable person unable to contain his human resource. The vulnerability is increasing by the age.



semugs@yahoo.com

The author is Kira Municipality MP and opposition chief whip in parliament.
Ola's rivalry with Uber has just entered a whole new dimension. Seven months after Uber launched its on-demand food delivery app UberEATs in India, Ola on Tuesday announced that it will acquire Foodpanda's India business. In the bargain, the food delivery business in the country is likely to get a big boost, much to the delight of couch potato foodies.

Under the deal, Ola bought Foodpanda's India business from Berlin-based Delivery Hero Holding GmbH, one of Europe's biggest startups and a leading global online food ordering and delivery marketplace, in exchange for its stock.

The online cab aggregator did not divulge details about the number of shares sold, but a Times of India report says that the deal is likely to have valued the food delivery venture at under $50 million. Ola has also committed investments of $200 million in the Foodpanda India business, which is the largest such funds infusion in an Indian online food ordering and delivery company to date.

Speaking on the deal, Ola co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal said: "I'm excited about our partnership with Delivery Hero as we team up to take Foodpanda India to the next level." He further said that, "As one of India's pioneers in the food delivery space, Foodpanda has come to be a very efficient and profit focused business over the last couple of years. Our commitment to invest $200 million in Foodpanda India will help the business be focused on growth by creating value for customers and partners."

With this new development, Ola Founding Partner Pranay Jivrajka has taken over as interim CEO of this business unit, supported by the existing leadership team at Foodpanda India, while ex-CEO and co-founder Saurabh Kochhar has decided to move on to pursue other opportunities.

Foodpanda may have steadily lost ground to rivals Zomato and Swiggy, but it has been doing well of late. In December 2016, Delivery Hero had acquired the entire global operations of Foodpanda from German e-commerce investor Rocket Internet and the fresh infusion of funds gave it a leg-up.

With over 15,000 restaurants across 100 Indian cities on its platform, its revenue for 2016-17 climbed to Rs 62.16 crore from Rs 37.81 crore in the previous fiscal. More significantly, the company's losses have declined 69% to Rs 44.81 crore compared to Zomato's reported loss of Rs 389 crore and Swiggy's widening loss of Rs 205 crore.

Last month Foodpanda had said that it aims to be profitable by 2019, which is great news for its new parent company. Ola said Foodpanda India will benefit from its scale and efficiencies as a platform and it will continue to collaborate with Delivery Hero on building the online food delivery ecosystem in the country.

On a more sober note, Ola has much to learn from its disastrous previous foray into the food delivery business-Ola Cafe shut down in 2016 after less than a year of being launched as a pilot project in a few tier-one cities. But given that this time it is pegging its fortunes to a business with scale, Ola just might emerge second time lucky.

With PTI inputs


Nawaz Sharif accused superior judiciary of adopting double standards

ISLAMABAD: Ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday accused the superior judiciary of adopting double standards while dispensation of justice and announced to launch movement for the restoration of justice in the country.



Speaking to media after adjournment of his case at the accountability court, Nawaz said there should be same law for everyone. Comparing the Supreme Courts decision in Panama Paper case against him with the verdict in PTI chief Imran Khans disqualification case, he alleged the double standards were visible. He said an imaginary income was portrayed as his asset by the court, whereas the assets admitted by Imran Khan were declared to be not his assets.



Urging that there should be same standards of law for everyone, he said a movement for restoration of justice in the country will be started like that initiated for the restoration of judiciary.



The former prime minister said a joke was being made with the people of Pakistan which could not be tolerated anymore. He said he will ensure that true justice is dispensed to everyone. Without giving any benefit of doubt, a sitting prime minister was removed, he regretted. This is murder of justice and is intolerable. Neither PML-N nor nation can ignore it. We will take it to its logical conclusion, he added.



Nawaz also regretted Supreme Courts decision of referring petition against PTIs alleged foreign funding to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) with the direction to check financial records of the last five years instead of deciding the matter by its own.



Earlier, Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Captain (r) Safdar appeared before the accountability court in response to corruption references filed against them by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on the Supreme Courts July 28, 2017, orders in the Panama Papers case.



The NAB produced three of its witnesses before judge Muhammad Bashir, who recorded their statements against Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz. The court directed NAB to produce two more witnesses on the next hearing.



The prosecution witnesses whose statements were recorded are: Shakeel Anjum Nagra, an official of NAB, Afaq Ahmad, a director of the foreign affairs ministry, and Yasir Bashir, an employee of a private bank.



In his statement, Shakeel Anjum Nagra stated that he had received the certified copies of the report of the joint investigation team (JIT), formed on the Supreme Courts orders to investigate the Panama Papers scam. He stated that he sent the copies of the report to the departments concerned.



In his testimony, Afaq Ahmed stated that Pakistans embassy in Qatar had received the letter of Prince of Qatar Hamza Bin Jasim on May 28, 2017. He stated that the letter addressed to JIT head Wajid Zia was handed over to him (Wajid Zia) on May 30, 2017. He stated that he was summoned by the JIT through a letter written to the secretary of foreign affairs ministry on May 31. He said he appeared before the JIT on June 1, 2017, and recorded his statement, besides answering various questions.



In his testimony, Yasir Bashir stated that he had provided the record of bank accounts and transactions of Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz to the NABs investigators. He also produced before the court the details of bank transactions that took place from the accounts of Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz. He stated that the bank had not found any discrepancies in the accounts of Maryam Nawaz.



During the cross-examination of Yasir Bashir, Nawaz Sharifs senior counsel Khawaja Haris contended that the bank details provided to NAB by Yasir Bashir were not prepared by him thus he could not claim authenticity of these details. He also contended that the documents were inadmissible to the court, being unattested and unverified.



Meanwhile, the court adjourned the hearing until January 3.



NAB had filed a total of three graft references against the ousted premier and his family members. Nawaz Sharif and his sons Hassan and Hussain Nawaz are accused in all the three references  Jeddah based Al- Azizia Steel Company, Avenfield properties in London and Flagship Investments.
Pakistan obliged to help America as it receives massive payments from Washington every year: Donald Trump

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump, while unveiling his new national security strategy, reminded Pakistan that its obliged to help America because it receives massive payments from Washington every year.



We have made clear to Pakistan that while we desire continued partnership, we must see decisive action against terrorist groups operating on their territory. And we make massive payments every year to Pakistan. They have to help, said the president while addressing his nation from the Ronald Reagan building in Washington.



This was the only reference to Pakistan in his speech, although the 56-page document that he released deals with it in more details, urging Pakistan to continue demonstrating that it is a responsible steward of its nuclear assets.



The policy paper also says that the United States continues to face threats from transnational terrorists and militants operating from within Pakistan.



The new strategy, however, focuses more on the domestic front and identifies two greatest transnational threats to homeland security: Jihadist terrorists and international criminal organisations.



And to prevent jihadists from entering the United States, it suggests tightening Americas immigration system by ending lottery visas and chain migration, which allows family members of a US citizen to settle in the country.



The plan also reinforces President Trumps pledge to build a wall on the US border with Mexico to prevent illegal immigrants from entering the United States.



The paper says that the jihadist use barbaric cruelty to commit murder, repression, and slavery, and virtual networks to exploit vulnerable populations and inspire and direct plots.



The strategy identifies four vital national interests, or four pillars as:



Protect the homeland, the American people, and American way of life; Promote American prosperity; Preserve peace through strength; Advance American influence.



Top on the list of external threats are revisionist powers, such as China and Russia, that use technology, propaganda, and coercion to shape a world antithetical to our interests and values.



Regional dictators are the next because they spread terror, threaten their neighbours, and pursue weapons of mass destruction.



Then come the jihadist terrorists who foment hatred to incite violence against innocents in the name of a wicked ideology.



Transnational criminal organisations, last on the list, are blamed for spilling drugs and violence into our communities.



The White House says that the strategy articulates and advances the President Trumps concept of principled realism and acknowledges the central role of power in international politics.



The domestic part of the new policy suggests targeting threats at their source: confront them before they ever reach our borders or cause harm to our people.



It promises to redouble efforts to protect critical US infrastructure and digital networks and also underlines the plan to deploy a layered missile defence system to defend America against missile attacks.



The new strategy says that America will use its energy dominance to ensure international markets remain open, and that the benefits of diversification and energy access promote economic and national security.



It promises to rebuild Americas military strength to ensure it remains second to none. It also urges US allies and partners to take greater responsibility for addressing common threats.



We will ensure the balance of power remains in Americas favour in key regions of the world: the Indo-Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East, it declares.



The new strategy says that America must continue to enhance its influence overseas to protect the American people and promote their prosperity.
Pakistan rejected allegations levelled by Trump administration

Pakistan on Tuesday categorically rejected the allegations levelled in the Trump administrations first foreign policy announced a day earlier, saying they "trivialise" its counterterrorism efforts and sacrifices to promote peace in the region.



In an official response to Trump's new national security strategy, which presses on Pakistan to intensify its action against militant groups it alleges are operating from Pakistani soil, the Foreign Office (FO) said the "unsubstantiated" and "unfounded" allegations are contrary to ground realities and reaffirmed Pakistan's commitment to its counterterrorism efforts.



"Pakistan rejects such unfounded accusations that belie facts on ground and trivialise Pakistans efforts for fighting terrorism," said a statement issued by FO spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal.



Pakistan has been at the forefront in the fight against terrorism and its cooperation resulted in the core of Al Qaeda being "decimated" from the region, the FO statement said.



The FO claimed that the Afghan soil is being used by hostile elements against Pakistan despite substantial US presence, and "Pakistan continues to suffer at the hands of state-sponsored terrorism, funded and abetted by our neighbours through proxies".



It said Pakistan's proposals for effective border management to prevent cross-border movement of militants and return of Afghan refugees have not made any headway so far.



"On the other hand, a malicious campaign is underway to undo Pakistans achievements in the war against terrorism."



"Indiscriminate" counterterrorism and counter-extremism operations by Pakistani security forces have brought peace and stability to Pakistan, FO said, adding that the gains against terrorism have come "at a tremendous cost of blood and treasure".



It emphasised that Pakistan remains committed to continue the fight against sympathisers and abettors of terrorism to ensure that its soil is not used for carrying out violence anywhere.



"We expect the same commitment from our neighbours and other regional and global actors," it said.



The FO reiterated Pakistan's stance that a solution to the Afghan conflict lies in political settlement owned and led by the Afghans.

Censure of US support for India



The FO also took a swipe at the United States' efforts to prop India as a regional power, saying countries should be given such statuses on the basis of their "constructive contributions".



"Ironically, a country with a record of defiance of UNSC [United Nations Security Council] resolutions, introduction of nuclear weapons in South Asia and use of terrorism as a state policy is being projected as a regional leader," the FO statement said.



It said violence committed by India in held Kashmir and ceasefire violations along the Line of Control (LoC) targeting civilians are undermining strategic stability in South Asia.



It stressed that Pakistan has put in place a highly efficient, robust and centralised command and control mechanism to secure its nuclear arsenal.



The country remains "committed to protect our sovereignty, territorial integrity and national interest determined by the people of Pakistan", the FO said.



The Trump administrations first foreign policy  announced on Monday  urges Pakistan to demonstrate that its a responsible steward of its nuclear assets and warns that the fear of a nuclear conflict with India remains a key concern in Washington.



The new policy also insists that Pakistan take action against militants on its soil and intensify its counterterrorism efforts if it wants to continue its partnership with the United States.
The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has urged graduands of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) to help address the root causes of conflicts on the continent.



The root causes of these conflicts, the President said, include underdevelopment, poverty, corruption, inequitable access to resources, youth unemployment, poor governance, human rights abuse, climate change, weak law enforcement and governance institutions, and the lack of free and fair elections.



Addressing these issues, President Akufo-Addo noted, is key towards consolidating peace, and prevent relapse into violence in post conflict countries.



President Akufo-Addo made this known on Wednesday, 20th December, 2017, when he delivered the graduation address at the joint graduating ceremony of students who have completed the Master of Arts in Conflict, Peace and Security Studies, Master of Arts in Gender, Peace & Security, and Executive Master of Arts in Conflict, Peace & Security Studies programmes from KAIPTC.



The President urged graduands to also bear in mind that the traditional challenges to security on the continent, such as chieftaincy conflicts, armed robberies, land disputes, religious intolerance, ethnic conflicts and political rivalry, are being compounded by contemporary threats like drug and human trafficking, proliferation of small arms and light weapons, cyber-crime and activities of nomadic herdsmen.



Additionally, the emergence of transnational organised crimes, together with the evolving nature of terrorism, especially in the Sahel region, he added will continue to undermine our efforts of creating a progressive, prosperous, peaceful and stable continent.



Having gone through this institution, you are primed with problem-solving ideas and initiatives: the nation, the continent of Africa, and the world at large await your contributions, no matter how small, to securing our peace. There is, today, limited room for conventional thinking. Therefore, always strive to be different, and do not be afraid of failure, he told the graduands.



Govt will support KAIPTC



Supporting KAIPTC to carry out its mandate, President Akufo-Addo indicated, is one thing that has to come naturally to Government.



Moreover, the Centres efforts to expand its physical infrastructure, as part of a number of strategic activities, is worthy of mention. This institutions long-term financial and institutional sustainability is dear to Government, he said.



Through the Ministry of Finance, President Akufo-Addo assured that Government will support KAIPTC to complete its Training and Academic Block, to guarantee additional training opportunities for interested participants, and to assure the roll-out of additional academic programmes to meet the expected demand, thereby, increasing the stock of critical peace and security practitioners and experts in dire need on the continent.



With Government embarking on an industrialisation agenda, with the aim of transforming the structure of the Ghanaian economy from one dependent on the production and export of raw materials to a knowledge-based, value-added, industrialised economy, with a modernized agriculture, it was the expectation of President Akufo-Addo that institutions of higher learning, such as Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, will assist in this regard, and gear their programmes and courses towards imparting the critical skills needed for the 21st century.



In thanking the past and current members of the Governing Board and Executive Management of Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre for the great work in superintending over the institution, President Akufo-Addo extended a well-deserved appreciation to all the hard working staff of the Centre for their commitment and dedication.



We must all remain committed to our collective vision  to build a new African civilisation, where the rule of law is not a slogan, but a directive principle of governance; where we deliver social and economic transformation that has a meaningful impact on the lives of our peoples; where strong and vibrant economies create jobs for the masses of African youth, and, thereby, create societies of opportunities and aspirations for all; where the African peoples are no longer pawns nor victims of the world order; and where the vision of our founding fathers of a progressive and prosperous Africa is manifest. Let us be up and doing. Our destiny beckons, President Akufo-Addo said.

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












Vistas de pagina en total

Precio del Brent To get the BRENT oil price, please enable Javascript.

Precio del WTI To get the oil price, please enable Javascript.

Precio del Oro To get the gold price, please enable Javascript.

Dolar USA Vs Euro

Archivo del blog





































PROHIBIDO OLVIDAR



OTAN = Asesinos



OTAN = NATO = Muerte



Mas temprano que tarde los derrotaremos



Hipocresia 3.0



El principe Carlos habla sobre el alto costo de la vida Es un chiste?



Las verdades son simples



Opinar es un peligro



Ejemplo de dignidad



El Nuevo Orden Mundial



Historica foto para el record Guinness







Se pegaron un tiro en el pie



Si palabras



Ya no enganan a nadie



No hacen falta palabras







Lo volvio a hacer



Capitalismo=embuste



Historico Bitcoin



La bateria mas grande de Holanda



El futuro es solar



Nec plus ultra, nec variatur



Fisica y culturalmente



Jamas nos callaran



Sin ellas, no seremos



Deja vu



Nada que celebrar



Hasta cuando?



Colombia Hoy



Para nunca olvidar



'Parasite' painted on a statue of Queen, Elizabeth in Kent, England



Sin palabras



La UE le apunta a la paz



Cada vez mas solo



LULA y su Pueblo



Bye Bye



Homenaje al genial Quino



Fueron ellos



Una imagen que resume



Tan bajo ha caido que se deja tocar el trasero?



Porky y el Nene (archiconocido narcotraficante)



Ladrones al poder



Asi mira el perrito a su amo



Crazy



Clamor popular



La nueva inquisicion



Bolivia



Chile Hoy



Eso es todo amigos!



Piensalo!



Pinerachet



No More Trump



Adios Macri, hasta nunca



La Marioneta se desinfla



Asi o mas cinico



Almugre



Mexico en 1794



Mas arrastrado imposible



Hasta cuando!



La pura verdad



Solidaridad con Palestina



Serie Capitalismo



Espejismos de la clase trabajadora



Asi es!



Comerciantes o delincuentes



No pasaran!



Asi es la vida



USA HOY



01/01/1959



La avaricia no tiene limites



AYUDA HUMANITARIA?



Chile Hoy



Asi son las cosas



Mapa Electoral de Venezuela



Patagonia argentina?



Un aniversario mas del mayor genocidio de la Humanidad



Retrato del franquismo en Espana



Visca Catalunya!



El Chulo de Madrid



Cuando la policia se roba la democracia



Una imagen dice mas que mil palabras



La purita verdad



Asi gobierna la maldita burguesia



Mi pobre clase media



Como Chavez nadie



Comparte La Colmena via twitter Twittear

Programa de la MUD



Asi o mas clarito



Por que Trump no ataco Corea del Norte?



Hace 15 anos Por que la OEA no se pronuncio?



Una verguenza nacional



La luz que nos guia



La Union Europea Premio Nobel de la Paz?



Feudalismo ayer y hoy



Obama, el mentiroso



Curiosa coincidencia



Un mundo de cerdos



No es extrano?



La Marioneta



Los ricos protestan, los pobres celebran



MARICORI Y OBAMA



Cuantas muertes este ano?



USA TODAY



USA HOY 6



USA HOY 5



USA HOY 4



USA HOY 3



USA HOY 2



USA HOY (1)



Insaciable



Cronologia de un agresor



Guarimbear en USA



Mexico hoy



Bolivar y Chavez



Primero Amargado



Dios los cria y ellos se juntan



USA hoy (III)



USA hoy (II)



USA hoy



Mexico hoy



Mexico hoy



Mexico hoy



Obama



La verdad sea dicha



Los ricos



Que no nos vea Obama



Pobre Obama



SOS PALESTINA



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



VICMAN



Archivo del blog Archivo del blog marzo (4) abril (9) mayo (8) junio (10) julio (11) agosto (10) septiembre (17) octubre (11) noviembre (15) diciembre (10) enero (9) febrero (10) marzo (8) abril (5) mayo (6) junio (8) julio (13) agosto (10) septiembre (7) octubre (12) noviembre (8) diciembre (15) enero (17) febrero (11) marzo (11) abril (12) junio (6) julio (11) agosto (15) septiembre (5) octubre (15) noviembre (14) diciembre (11) enero (13) febrero (9) marzo (10) abril (8) mayo (7) junio (12) julio (12) agosto (8) septiembre (8) octubre (4) diciembre (8) enero (35) febrero (20) marzo (29) abril (19) mayo (21) junio (27) julio (21) agosto (28) septiembre (40) octubre (47) noviembre (21) diciembre (34) enero (62) febrero (81) marzo (117) abril (141) mayo (114) junio (111) julio (126) agosto (98) septiembre (160) octubre (234) noviembre (493) diciembre (319) enero (219) febrero (267) marzo (230) abril (291) mayo (347) junio (223) julio (179) agosto (191) septiembre (239) octubre (350) noviembre (406) diciembre (353) enero (284) febrero (202) marzo (274) abril (250) mayo (232) junio (251) julio (188) agosto (249) septiembre (230) octubre (178) noviembre (141) diciembre (164) enero (187) febrero (147) marzo (211) abril (190) mayo (199) junio (164) julio (162) agosto (174) septiembre (182) octubre (225) noviembre (114) diciembre (132) enero (223) febrero (147) marzo (133) abril (108) mayo (387) junio (465) julio (785) agosto (748) septiembre (485) octubre (681) noviembre (754) diciembre (805) enero (708) febrero (896) marzo (735) abril (831) mayo (723) junio (555) julio (658) agosto (619) septiembre (457) octubre (455) noviembre (295) diciembre (269) enero (534) febrero (556) marzo (205) abril (119) mayo (194) junio (255) julio (294) agosto (182) septiembre (207) octubre (340) noviembre (351) diciembre (281) enero (114) febrero (128) marzo (216) abril (195) mayo (116) junio (141) julio (182) agosto (181) septiembre (50) octubre (72) noviembre (104) diciembre (88) enero (168) febrero (102) marzo (151) abril (207) mayo (43) junio (72) julio (35) agosto (146) septiembre (54) octubre (46) noviembre (48) diciembre (57) enero (133) febrero (218) marzo (196) abril (177) mayo (156) junio (158) julio (264) agosto (456) septiembre (524) octubre (473) noviembre (450)

Chavez Cuanto te queremos!



Por culpa de Chavez



Cerveza Polar







Algun dia Colombia volvera a la ideologia de Bolivar







Translate













LOS REVOLUCIONARIOS NO TOMAN CACA-COLA No se trata solamente de un capricho, sino de una sana actitud en todos los sentidos. Desde la solidaridad con el pueblo colombiano donde la empresa Caca-Cola ha cometido los mas grandes abusos contra sus trabajadores incluyendo el presunto secuestro y asesinato de los dirigentes del sindicato, hasta la proteccion de la salud de nuestros hijos, enviciados por ese jarabe de cola y azucar, que les produce obesidad prematura. Pensemos tambien los revolucionarios, que ese dinero que gastamos en los refrescos es utilizado por esas empresas para financiar el terrorismo en nuestro pais. Es cierto, no se trata solo de la Caca-Cola, sino tambien de la cerveza, de los cigarrillos y todos esos articulos innecesarios y mas que eso, daninos para nuestra salud. Podriamos incluso pensar en un dia de parada para cada uno de ellos. Es cuestion de irnos organizando. Pero para empezar, que tal si dejamos de comprar Caca-Cola y sus similares?



























Cuando lo extraordinario se vuelve cotidiano...



Discurso del Acto de Grado en Barinas en 12 de Febrero del 2005 Queridos Graduandos:



Mas que un discurso, quiero dirigirles algunas palabras que escribi anoche, despues de visitar en las clinicas, a los estudiantes heridos, a consecuencia de los enfrentamientos con la policia de hace apenas dos dias.



Me ha tocado por razones del destino, ser la persona que les otorgue el titulo que bien merecieron con sus estudios. Y me siento sumamente orgulloso de serlo. Me consta que la Universidad de Los Llanos Occidentales Ezequiel Zamora, a pesar de lo dicho por los enemigos de esta universidad, es una universidad de primera.



No tendremos la mejor planta fisica, en los salones hace calor. En el comedor hace calor. Pero no es en lo material que las cosas deben valorarse. El mayor capital es el ser humano. Y en eso, nuestra UNELLEZ, lo digo con conocimiento de causa, esta sobrada. Los llaneros venezolanos son nobles, valientes, de coraje.



En la UNELLEZ hacen vida, en este momento, aproximadamente 67000 personas. El 97% de ellas son estudiantes. Jovenes que, como Ustedes hasta el dia de hoy, buscan ese titulo, que constata los anos de dedicacion y de estudio.



Los jovenes son el rio de la vida, ustedes graduados deben ser los capitanes de esos barcos que naveguen por el rio de la vida.



Nuestra Patria atraviesa momentos muy dificiles porque decidio dejar de ser esa matrona de edad vetusta y complaciente, para ser joven, rebelde y altanera. Nuestra imagen ya no es la de una acaudalada ricachona mayamera. En nuestro rostro brilla ahora la sonrisa del Che Guevara, con su diente delantero torcido, su pelo largo y su boina con la estrella.



Entender esto, a mi me ha tomado practicamente toda la vida. Tengo 53 anos, y ya perdi mi oportunidad de derramar sangre joven a causa de un ideal.



Ustedes son jovenes, estan en la flor de la vida. No cometan por favor el error de renunciar a su instinto de rebelion. El Che Guevara fue Ministro de a Economia en Cuba. Los billetes y las monedas se adornaban con su rostro. Nada de eso le importo. Primero fue a Angola donde paso un penoso ano de combate. Despues se fue a Bolivia, donde encontro la muerte. El Che era el ultimo que comia, el que cargaba la mochila mas pesada. Siempre se sacrificaba por los demas en un estoicismo que mas parecia fervor religioso que ideologia marxista.



Si quieren un modelo de vida. Ahi lo tienen.



Dije hace unos momentos que el 97% de la poblacion de la UNELLEZ es estudiante. Se imaginan Ustedes la Universidad que podriamos tener si todos los estudiantes tuvieran la abnegacion, la combatividad del Che?



Los momentos que se avecinan van a requerir de una gran unidad del pueblo venezolano. La alternativa de continuar siendo libres o regresar a la pobreza se nos planteara en los proximos dias de forma enmascarada, o quizas peor, desenmascarada, vestida con uniforme de soldado del Imperio.



Por nuestra parte podemos esperar lo mejor. La macroeconomia no podria ir mejor, la justicia social ha mejorado notablemente. Las misiones ocupan un papel muy importante en el pago de dicha justicia social. Aqui en Barinas ya hemos cumplido con dos de las misiones, la mision Robinson y la mision Sucre. No hay analfabetismo y no hay exclusion en la educacion superior, en estas tierras de Zamora.



Pero ay malhaya! Son precisamente estos exitos los que nos hacen mas antipaticos al Imperio. Para ellos, somos inclusive un mal ejemplo que se esta contagiando al resto del continente y cuidado sino al resto del mundo.



Nunca venceremos al Imperio. Estara siempre ahi, acechando. Por lo menos hasta que el mismo no se autodestruya. Porque, sepanlo senores, el neoliberalismo es canibal. Cuando le ataque el hambre, se devorara a si mismo.



Ustedes, queridos graduandos, a partir de hoy pasan a conformar la elite profesional que debe sostener este pais en los proximos cuarenta o cincuenta anos. Anos decisivos para el logro de nuestra libertad y del rescate de nuestra Soberania.



No se dejen comprar. No se dejen corromper. No se dejen gritar. No se dejen pisar. Que nadie les diga que comer, o que vestirse, o que leer. Sean siempre autenticos, rebeldes, contestatarios. Pero eso si, profundamente patriotas, dignos de ser hijos de Bolivar.



Muchas gracias y que Dios los bendiga.





Alguna duda?



Medio siglo de Holocausto Palestino



Oscar Zanartu Nacio en Caracas en 1960. Ha realizado exposiciones individuales en las galerias Minotauro, Clave y San Francisco, y en salas de Coro, estado Falcon, y Puerto Ordaz, estado Bolivar. En Paris su obra ha sido exhibida en el Centro Cultural Tanagra, en la Exposicion Cite Internationale des Arts, en las galerias De Mars y Arver Space, al igual que en la Galeria Municipal Levallois, en Levallois Perret (Francia). En muestras colectivas, su obra se ha expuesto en Belgica, Francia, Estados Unidos y Venezuela; en Caracas intervino en la exposicion "Del genesis a la memoria", 1995, organizada por la Fundacion La Previsora. En 1982 obtuvo el Premio Nacional Critven y en 1990 la Mencion de Honor Jose Antonio Paez, en la Embajada de Venezuela en Paris. En 1991 se le concedio el primer premio de Pintura Itinerante, en Levallois Perret, Francia.



OZ1



OZ2



OZ3



OZ4



Homenaje a Jason Galarraga



La Victoria de Samotracia



Odalisca



Mas fotos de la nevada del pasado agosto 2008



























La Sierra Nevada de Merida



Nuestro precioso Churum Meru



Homenaje a Picasso



Autoretrato



Sabes lo que bebes en una Coca-Cola?

La formula de la Pepsi tiene una diferencia basica con la de la Coca-Cola y es intencional, para evitar el proceso judicial. La diferencia es a proposito, pero suficientemente parecida como para atraer a los consumidores de Coca-Cola que prefieren un gusto diferente con menos sal y azucar.

Mi profesion?

Tuve que aprender quimica, entender todo sobre componentes de gaseosas, conservantes, sales, acidos, cafeina, enlatado, produccion, permisos, aprobaciones y muchas otras cosas. Monte mi propio mini-laboratorio de analisis de productos.

Sal en la Coca Cola?

A patadas. El Cloruro de Sodio no solo refresca sino da mas sed, como para pedir otra gaseosa. Y no resulta desagradable porque la sal mata literalmente la sensibilidad al dulce... del que por cierto tambien tiene mucho: 39 gramos de azucar.

De los 350 gramos de producto liquido, mas del 10% es azucar, o sea que en una lata de Coca-Cola mas de un centimetro y medio es puro azucar en polvo. Aproximadamente tres cucharadas soperas llenas de azucar por lata!!La formula de la Coca Cola es muy sencilla:

Concentrado de azucar quemado caramelo- para dar color oscuro y gusto

Acido fosforito (para darle el sabor acido)

azucar (HFCS-jarabe de maiz de alta fructosa)

Extracto de hojas de la planta de Coca (Africa e India) y otros pocos aromatizantes naturales de otras plantas

Mucha Cafeina

Conservante que puede ser Benzoato de Sodio o Potasio

Dioxido de Carbono en cantidad para sentir freir la lengua cuando se bebe

Sal para dar la sensacion de refrigeracion

El uso del acido fosforito y no del acido citrico como en todas las demas gaseosas, es para dar la sensacion de dientes y boca limpia al beber. El acido fosforito literalmente frie todo y dana el esmalte de los dientes, cosa que el acido citrico lo hace en menor grado.Trate de comprar acido fosforito para ver las mil recomendaciones de seguridad que te dan para su manipulacion (quema el cristalino del ojo, quema la piel, etc...). Esta prohibido usar el acido fosforito en cualquier otra gaseosa; solo la Coca Cola tiene permiso. Porque claro, sin el acido fosforico, la Coca Cola sabria a jabon.El extracto de coca y otras hojas casi no cambia en nada el sabor. Es mas bien un efecto cosmetico. El extracto forma parte de la Coca-Cola porque legalmente tiene que ser asi. Pero sin el, no se nota ninguna diferencia en el gusto, que esta dado basicamente por las cantidades diferentes de azucar, azucar quemada, sales, acidos y conservantes.Sabor a que...? ja, ja, ja.

Aqui en Bartow, sur de Orlando, hay una empresa quimica que produce aromatizantes y esencias para zumos. Envian diariamente camionadas de sales concentradas y esencias para las fabricas de helados, gaseosas, jugos, enlatados y comida colorida y aromatizada.Cuando visite por primera vez la fabrica, pedi ver el deposito de concentrados de frutas, que deberia ser inmenso, especialmente los de naranja, pina, fresa y tantos otros. El encargado me miro, se rio y me llevo a visitar los depositos inmensos... pero de colorantes y componentes quimicos.

Las gaseosa de naranja no contiene naranja.

En los zumos dizque de fresa, hasta los puntitos que quedan en suspension estan hechos de goma (una liga quimica que envuelve un semi-polimero).

Pina, es un popurri de acidos y goma.

La esencia para helado de aguacate usa peroxido de hidrogeno (agua oxigenada) para dar la sensacion espumosa tipica del aguacate.

Bebidas Light?

Quieres saber la cantidad de basura que tiene un refresco 'light'? Yo ni siquiera los uso para destapar mi lavaplatos pues temo que danen los tubos de PVC. Los productos endulzantes 'ligth' tienen una vida media muy corta. Por ejemplo el

Despues de toda mi experiencia con la produccion de bebidas embasadas, puedo afirmar sin dudar un segundo: la mejor bebida es el agua, como tambien los jugos exprimidos de naranja o limon. Nada mas, cero azucar y cero sal.



Publicado por loretahur



En realidad, la formula secreta de la Coca-Cola se puede detallar en 18 segundos en cualquier espectrometro optico, y basicamente la conocen hasta los perros. Lo que ocurre es que no se puede fabricar igual, a no ser que uno disponga de unos cuantos millones de dolares para ganarle la demanda que te metera la Coca-Cola ante la justicia (ellos no perderian).La formula de la Pepsi tiene una diferencia basica con la de la Coca-Cola y es intencional, para evitar el proceso judicial. La diferencia es a proposito, pero suficientemente parecida como para atraer a los consumidores de Coca-Cola que prefieren un gusto diferente con menos sal y azucar.Tuve que aprender quimica, entender todo sobre componentes de gaseosas, conservantes, sales, acidos, cafeina, enlatado, produccion, permisos, aprobaciones y muchas otras cosas. Monte mi propio mini-laboratorio de analisis de productos.A patadas. El Cloruro de Sodio no solo refresca sino da mas sed, como para pedir otra gaseosa. Y no resulta desagradable porque la sal mata literalmente la sensibilidad al dulce... del que por cierto tambien tiene mucho: 39 gramos de azucar.De los 350 gramos de producto liquido, mas del 10% es azucar, o sea que en una lata de Coca-Cola mas de un centimetro y medio es puro azucar en polvo. Aproximadamente tres cucharadas soperas llenas de azucar por lata!!La formula de la Coca Cola es muy sencilla:Concentrado de azucar quemado caramelo- para dar color oscuro y gustoAcido fosforito (para darle el sabor acido)azucar (HFCS-jarabe de maiz de alta fructosa)Extracto de hojas de la planta de Coca (Africa e India) y otros pocos aromatizantes naturales de otras plantasMucha CafeinaConservante que puede ser Benzoato de Sodio o PotasioDioxido de Carbono en cantidad para sentir freir la lengua cuando se bebeSal para dar la sensacion de refrigeracionEl uso del acido fosforito y no del acido citrico como en todas las demas gaseosas, es para dar la sensacion de dientes y boca limpia al beber. El acido fosforito literalmente frie todo y dana el esmalte de los dientes, cosa que el acido citrico lo hace en menor grado.Trate de comprar acido fosforito para ver las mil recomendaciones de seguridad que te dan para su manipulacion (quema el cristalino del ojo, quema la piel, etc...). Esta prohibido usar el acido fosforito en cualquier otra gaseosa; solo la Coca Cola tiene permiso. Porque claro, sin el acido fosforico, la Coca Cola sabria a jabon.El extracto de coca y otras hojas casi no cambia en nada el sabor. Es mas bien un efecto cosmetico. El extracto forma parte de la Coca-Cola porque legalmente tiene que ser asi. Pero sin el, no se nota ninguna diferencia en el gusto, que esta dado basicamente por las cantidades diferentes de azucar, azucar quemada, sales, acidos y conservantes.Sabor a que...? ja, ja, ja.Aqui en Bartow, sur de Orlando, hay una empresa quimica que produce aromatizantes y esencias para zumos. Envian diariamente camionadas de sales concentradas y esencias para las fabricas de helados, gaseosas, jugos, enlatados y comida colorida y aromatizada.Cuando visite por primera vez la fabrica, pedi ver el deposito de concentrados de frutas, que deberia ser inmenso, especialmente los de naranja, pina, fresa y tantos otros. El encargado me miro, se rio y me llevo a visitar los depositos inmensos... pero de colorantes y componentes quimicos.Las gaseosa de naranja no contiene naranja.En los zumos dizque de fresa, hasta los puntitos que quedan en suspension estan hechos de goma (una liga quimica que envuelve un semi-polimero).Pina, es un popurri de acidos y goma.La esencia para helado de aguacate usa peroxido de hidrogeno (agua oxigenada) para dar la sensacion espumosa tipica del aguacate.Quieres saber la cantidad de basura que tiene un refresco 'light'? Yo ni siquiera los uso para destapar mi lavaplatos pues temo que danen los tubos de PVC. Los productos endulzantes 'ligth' tienen una vida media muy corta. Por ejemplo el aspartamo , despues de tres semanas mojado, pasa a tener gusto de trapo viejo sucio.Para evitar eso, se agregan una infinidad de otros productos quimicos, uno para alargar la vida del aspartamo, otro para neutralizar el color, otro para mantener el tercer quimico en suspension porque sino el fondo de la gaseosa quedaria oscuro, otro para evitar la cristalizacion del aspartamo, otro para realzar el sabor, dar mas intensidad al acido citrico o fosforito que perderia su sabor por el efecto de los cuatro productos quimicos iniciales... y asi sucesivamente.Un consejo final !!Despues de toda mi experiencia con la produccion de bebidas embasadas, puedo afirmar sin dudar un segundo: la mejor bebida es el agua, como tambien los jugos exprimidos de naranja o limon. Nada mas, cero azucar y cero sal.Publicado por loretahur

MARGARINA o MANTEQUILLA La margarina fue producida originalmente para engordar a los pavos; cuandolo que hizo en realidad fue matarlos.Las personas que habian puesto el dinero para la investigacion quisieronrecobrarlo asi que empezaron a pensar en una forma de hacerlo.Tenian una sustancia blanca, que no tenia ningun atractivo como comestible,asi que le anadieron el color amarillo, para venderselo a lagente en lugar de la mantequilla.Que tal esa?... Ahora han sacado algunos nuevos sabores para vender mas alos incautos como usted y yo.CONOCE USTED la diferencia entre la margarina y la mantequilla?Siga leyendo hasta el final... porque se pone bastante interesante!Comparacion entre mantequilla y margarina:

1.- Ambas tienen la misma cantidad de calorias.

2.- La mantequilla es ligeramente mas alta en grasas saturadas: 8 gramos,comparada con los 5 gramos que tiene la margarina.

3.- Comer margarina en vez de mantequilla puede aumentar en 53% el riesgo deenfermedades coronarias en las mujeres, de acuerdo con un estudiomedico reciente de la Universidad de Harvard.

4.- Comer mantequilla aumenta la absorcion de gran cantidad de nutrientesque se encuentran en otros alimentos.

5.- La mantequilla provee beneficios nutricionales propios mientras lamargarina tiene solo los que le hayan sido anadidos al fabricarla.

6.- La mantequilla sabe mucho mejor que la margarina y mejora el sabor deotros alimentos.7.- La mantequilla ha existido durante siglos mientras que la margarinatiene menos de 100 anos.

Ahora... sobre la margarina:

1.- Es muy alta en acidos grasos trans. (Si, esos que recien ahora loscientificos descubrieron que son malisimos y los gobiernoscomenzaron a prohibirlos) .

2.- Triple riesgo de enfermedades coronarias.

3.- Aumenta el colesterol total y el LDL (el colesterol malo) y disminuye elHDL (el colesterol bueno).

4.- Aumenta en cinco veces el riesgo de cancer.

5.- Disminuye la calidad de la leche materna.

6.- Disminuye la reaccion inmunologica del organismo.

7.- Disminuye la reaccion a la insulina.

Y he aqui el factor mas inquietante (AQUI ESTA LA PARTE MAS INTERESANTE! ):A la margarina le falta UNA MOLECULA para ser PLASTICO...!!Solo este hecho es suficiente para evitar el uso de la margarina de porvida, y de cualquier otra cosa que sea hidrogenada (esto significaque se le anade hidrogeno, lo cual cambia la estructura molecular de lassubstancias).Usted puede ensayar lo siguiente:Compre un poco de margarina y dejela en el garaje o en un sitio sombreado.Dentro de unos dias notara dos cosas:

* No habra moscas; ni siquiera esos molestos bichos se le acercaran (esto yale debe decir a usted algo).

* No se pudre ni huele mal o diferente porque no tiene valor nutritivo; nadacrece en ella. Ni siquiera los diminutos microorganismos puedencrecer en ella.Por que? Porque es casi plastico!!



No a la guerra, Si a la Paz



Misterios de la ciencia...



Los costos de la guerra



medicos y capitalismo...



Capitalismo...



medicos (2)



Quien educa a nuestros hijos?



Los Medios...



Sin Palabras...



Chistes feministas

- Cual es el problema, Eva?

- Se que me has creado, que me has dado este hermoso jardin, todos estos maravillosos animales y esa serpiente con la que me muero de risa... pero no soy del todo feliz...

- Como es eso, Eva? - replico Dios desde las alturas.

- Me encuentro sola, y ademas estoy harta de comer manzanas...

- Bueno Eva, en tal caso, tengo una solucion... creare un hombre para ti.

- Que es un hombre?

- Un hombre sera una criatura imperfecta, con muchas artimanas. Mentira, hara trampas, sera engreido... vamos, que te va a dar problemas... Pero, va a ser mas fuerte y rapido que tu y le gustara cazar y matar cosas... Tendra un aspecto simple, pero como te estas quejando, le creare de tal forma que satisfaga tus... eh... necesidades fisicas... Y tampoco sera muy listo, y destacara en cosas infantiles como pegarse o dar patadas a un balon... Necesitara tu consejo siempre para actuar cuerdamente.

- Suena bien - dijo Eva, mientras levantaba la ceja ironicamente.

- Cual es el truco?.

- Pues... que lo tendras con una condicion.

- Cual?

- Como te decia, sera chulo, arrogante y muy narcisista... asi que le tendras que hacer creer que le hice a el primero... recuerda... es nuestro secreto... de mujer a mujer.





Por que a los hombres no les puede dar la enfermedad de las vacas locas?  Porque todos son unos cerdos

Un dia, en el Paraiso, Eva llamo a Dios: Tengo un problema.- Cual es el problema, Eva?- Se que me has creado, que me has dado este hermoso jardin, todos estos maravillosos animales y esa serpiente con la que me muero de risa... pero no soy del todo feliz... - Como es eso, Eva? - replico Dios desde las alturas.- Me encuentro sola, y ademas estoy harta de comer manzanas...- Bueno Eva, en tal caso, tengo una solucion... creare un hombre para ti.- Que es un hombre?- Un hombre sera una criatura imperfecta, con muchas artimanas. Mentira, hara trampas, sera engreido... vamos, que te va a dar problemas... Pero, va a ser mas fuerte y rapido que tu y le gustara cazar y matar cosas... Tendra un aspecto simple, pero como te estas quejando, le creare de tal forma que satisfaga tus... eh... necesidades fisicas... Y tampoco sera muy listo, y destacara en cosas infantiles como pegarse o dar patadas a un balon... Necesitara tu consejo siempre para actuar cuerdamente.- Suena bien - dijo Eva, mientras levantaba la ceja ironicamente.- Cual es el truco?.- Pues... que lo tendras con una condicion.- Cual?- Como te decia, sera chulo, arrogante y muy narcisista... asi que le tendras que hacer creer que le hice a el primero... recuerda... es nuestro secreto... de mujer a mujer.Por que a los hombres no les puede dar la enfermedad de las vacas locas?  Porque todos son unos cerdos

Ellas...



Ellas (2)...



Tres venganzas femeninas VENGANZA NUMERO 1

Hoy mi hija cumple 21 anos y estoy muy contento porque es el ultimo pago de pension alimenticia que le doy, asi que llame a mi hijita para que viniera a mi casa y cuando llego le dije:

-Hijita, quiero que lleves este cheque a casa de tu mama y que le digas que: Este es el ultimo maldito cheque que va recibir de mi en todo lo que le queda de su puta vida!!! Quiero que me digas la expresion que pone en su rostro.

Asi que mi hija fue a entregar el cheque. Yo estaba ansioso por saber lo que la bruja tenia que decir y que cara pondria.

Cuando mi hijita entro, le pregunte inmediatamente: -Que fue lo que te dijo tu madre?

-Me dijo que justamente estaba esperando este dia para decirte que no eres mi papa!



VENGANZA NUMERO 2

Un hombre que siempre molestaba a su mujer, paso un dia por la casa de unos amigos para que lo acompanaran al aeropuerto a dejar a su esposa que viajaba a Paris.

A la salida de inmigracion, frente a todo el mundo, el le desea buen viaje y en tono burlon le grita:

- Amor, no te olvides de traerme una hermosa francesita Ja ja ja!!

Ella bajo la cabeza y se embarco muy molesta.

La mujer paso quince dias en Francia.

El marido otra vez pidio a sus amigos que lo acompanasen al aeropuerto a recibirla.

Al verla llegar, lo primero que le grita a toda voz es:

- Y amor me trajiste mi francesita??

- Hice todo lo posible, - contesta ella - ahora solo tenemos que rezar para que nazca nina.



VENGANZA NUMERO 3

El marido, en su lecho de muerte, llama a su mujer. Con voz ronca y ya debil, le dice: - Muy bien, llego mi hora, pero antes quiero hacerte una confesion.

- No, no, tranquilo, tu no debes hacer ningun esfuerzo.

- Pero, mujer, es preciso - insiste el marido - Es preciso morir en paz.

Te quiero confesar algo.

- Esta bien, esta bien. Habla!

- He tenido relaciones con tu hermana, tu mama y tu mejor amiga.

- Lo se, lo se Por eso te envenene, hijo de puta!!!



machismo y cibernetica



Chiste machista La NASA ha enviado al espacio una mision experimental tripulada por dos monos y una mujer.Apenas abandona la atmosfera, se establece comunicacion con Houston.

-Atencion, simio 1, verifique sistemas hidraulicos, controle adecuada presion de los propulsores de arranque. A 60.000 pies disminuya un 25% la velocidad.

El simio hace la sena de OK.

-Atencion, simio 2, nivele al cruzar la estratosfera y active sistemas anticongelantes. No olvide monitorear sistemas de comunicacion e indicadores de presion. Comprendido?.

El simio hace la sena de OK.

-Atencion, Houston llamando a mujer: no se olvide.

-Mujer: Si, si, ya se! -interrumpe enojada- que no me olvide darles de comer a estos monos de mierda y que no se me vaya a ocurrir tocar nada!.



.Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti.

Un abogado mantiene un romance con su secretaria.Al poco tiempo, esta queda embarazada y el abogado, que no quiere que su esposa se entere, le da a la secretaria una buena suma de dinero y le pide que se vaya a parir a Italia.Esta pregunta: Y como voy a hacerte saber cuando nazca el bebe ? El abogado responde: Para que mi mujer no se entere, tan solo enviame una postal y escribe por detras: Spaghetti. Y no te preocupes mas, que yo me encargare de todos los gastos.

Pasan los meses y una manana la esposa del abogado lo llama al bufete, algo exaltada: Querido, acabo de recibir el correo y hay una postal muy extrana viene desde Italia. La verdad, no entiendo que significa.El abogado, tratando de ocultar sus nervios, contesta:Espera a que llegue a casa, a ver si yo entiendoCuando el hombre llega a casa y lee la postal, cae al suelo fulminado por un infarto.Llega una ambulancia y se lo lleva. Ya en el hospital, el jefe de cardiologia se queda consolando a la esposa y le pregunta cual ha sido el evento que precipito tan masivo ataque cardiaco.

Entonces la esposa saca la postal y se la muestra diciendole: No me explico, doctor; el solamente leyo esta postal. Vea usted mismo lo que trae escrito.Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti, Spaghetti."Tres con salchicha y albondigas y dos con almejas



Gol !!!!



Chistes de Borrachos Entra un borracho a su casa todo manchado con lapiz labial por todos lados hecho un desastre, y la mujer le pregunta:-Hombre que te paso?Y el borracho le responde:-No me vas a creer, me pelee con un payaso!



Este es un borracho que entra en un bar y le dice al camarero:-Me da cinco copas de whisky?Al rato:-Me da cuatro?Al rato:-Me da tres copas?Despues:-Me da dos copas?Luego le dice:-Me da una copa?Y le dice al camarero:-Ves? Cuanto menos bebo, mas borracho estoy!


Centers Health Care, the company that has bought nursing homes around the region in recent years, is under fire for its care of residents at a nursing home it owns in Schenectady.

The Daily Gazette of Schenectady published an article earlier this week about loved ones of residents raising concerns about treatment at Schenectady Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing.

As resident families did at the company's Warren Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing last year, they complained that the decline in care began after Centers Health Care took over. Many of the questions seem to relate to staff numbers, as we have heard at Warren Center.

(Centers' defense has been that it accepts sicker residents, and more rehabilitation residents, than the county did when it owned the Warren County home.)

A track record of similar problems at other homes run by Centers Health Care had prompted a significant pushback from opponents of the Warren County nursing home, but the county sold anyway. A number of supervisors are now getting the complaints from loved ones of residents, but there is little they can do at this point.

It's the state that keeps approving sales of nursing homes to Centers Health Care, despite the dropping federal ratings and problems that seem to occur at their facilities.

-- Don Lehman
The week before Christmas was a week of giving.

On Monday, after an article in The Post-Star appeared about a new food pantry at Whitehall schools, a man stopped at Hannaford on Broad Street in Glens Falls, put down $500 and had 50 of the stores meal packages delivered to The Country Cupboard, which is available for all needy students at the junior-senior high school.

This one person is going to make a huge difference in 50 peoples lives, said Deb Mackey, the school districts food service coordinator who started the pantry recently after seeing a need.

We are overflowing with food for the kids, she said.

Over the top

Pete Brock, who runs Sams Diner in Glens Falls and the annual Small Business Challenge for Operation Santa Claus, received a last-minute anonymous donation of $4,000 from a woman who said she wanted to help. Also, a $3,000 donation from the Full Moon restaurant in Lake George came in to help him top his goal of $28,000, based off of last years total.

Those were a couple of great donations and this year was really a lot of fun, said Brock, whose total of $33,924 will help provide coats, hats and gloves to 617 children. There are a lot of good people out there.

The push from Brock helped put the overall Operation Santa Claus program over its $160,000 goal and will allow it to help 2,400 students in 32 school districts.

I have to admit, I was a little nervous, because we were off about 10 percent before the first article appeared in The Post-Star, said program coordinator Frank Munoff. Sams Diner is just amazing. Peter is so humble, but he shows you how one man can make a difference. Its just really terrific.

The Full Moon, which is one of the regions most active businesses in terms of fundraisers, also donated directly to Operation Santa Claus, as did the Adirondack Corvette Club, Hudson Falls school clubs and personnel and the WCKM radio auction.

In addition to the money raised, Fitzgerald Bros. and Full Moon helped raise about $6,000 in food certificates. Wendy Mathews, coordinator of WCKM radios Adopt-A-Child program, was able to get toys to 940 children.

Books as gifts

Early Wednesday afternoon, Santa Claus was sitting in front of the fireplace at The Queensbury Hotel reading There was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow to dozens of students from Warren County Head Start, each of whom was holding a copy of the book to take home.

The Kiwanis Club of Glens Falls put on the event, which also included Washington County Head Start, and will see both programs get traveling libraries for the schools.

Generosity incredible

In Hudson Falls, volunteers from Marine Corps Detachment No. 2 had toy distribution down to a science Tuesday.

People would pull up in their cars, hand over their letters and the volunteers would get bags of toys, plus a teddy bear for each child, courtesy of Glens Falls National Bank.

Coordinator Mike Fish said the group was able to service all 310 families, which accounted for nearly 750 children.

We got the donations we needed. I like to think the economy is picking up, he said. The generosity of the region is incredible. People have really responded since we have begun to focus exclusively on local families.

Prior to several years ago, the local group was part of the larger Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots program, which serves the entire Capital Region.

Toys come in

Tri-County United Way received a shipment of several hundred toys and school supplies Wednesday morning from the states annual toy drive, coordinated by the office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Collection sites were set up at various state agencies throughout the state. Jeff Quain, as representative of the governors office, was there, as were state officials and state Sen. Elizabeh Little, R-Queensbury and Assemblyman Dan Stec, R-Queensbury.

The toys were distributed to local agencies including Family Service Association, Family YMCA of the Glens Falls Area, WAIT House, Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Southern Adirondacks, The Salvation Army of Great Glens Falls and Ben Osborn Memorial Fund.

Still needing help

Even veteran volunteers were surprised at the number of people waiting outside the Salvation Army of Greater Glens Falls on Tuesday while the volunteers and staff took a little time for lunch.

We are still running behind on toys, said Cynthia Dean, who runs the site at 37 Broad St. in Glens Falls with her husband, David. People can feel free to drop off toys and we will get them to people.

The group did 445 food baskets and will serve a total of 462 families comprised of 1,700 individuals. It also provided multiple toys for 554 children.
QUEENSBURY  Plans to demolish two decades-old hangars at Warren County Airport have been stalled for more than two years as the county waits for word on a possible state grant for the project.

The two t-hangars are for airplane storage and predate the airport, having been moved from their prior location off Aviation Road, before the school complex was built. The airports fixed base operator, Rich Air, has wanted to replace them for years because of their condition. The county owns the hangars, and would lease the land to Rich Air for new hangars.

They are old hangars and are in tough, tough shape, acting county Administrator Kevin Geraghty said this week.

The county applied for a state grant to demolish the hangars and build new ones but has not heard whether the funding is coming. That has resulted in Rich Air awaiting a decision on the project since the fall of 2015.

Steve Abbott, Rich Airs general manager, told county supervisors the company wants to move forward as quickly as possible and also wants to replace the main hangar.

We cant wait any longer, he said. They are in deplorable condition and we have been waiting since October 2015.

We want to get going. We are at 100 percent occupancy, Abbott added.

Queensbury at-Large Supervisor Rachel Seeber suggested the county let Rich Air go ahead and do the work at its own expense.

I know we are waiting for grant funding, but they (the hangars) are horrible, Seeber said.

Warren County Public Works Superintendent Jeff Tennyson said the state has been considering the grant application, but there has been no word on when a decision will be announced.

The state Department of Transportation has made its recommendations to the governors office, but the governors office has not yet publicly revealed which projects will get funded, Tennyson said.

It could be the day after Christmas, it could be next spring, he said.

A spokesman for the governors office could not provide information on the matter Wednesday.

Tennyson said said the t-hangars have been inspected and are structurally sound. There are other sites on the airport property where Rich Air could build new hangars while waiting for the grant decision.

Rich Air recently got federal approval to build four new hangars at the airport, independent of the t-hangar situation. The county Board of Supervisors also approved those new hangars.

Abbott said building additional new hangars without demolishing old ones would potentially cause concern about oversaturation of hangar space.

We want to try to work together, is what we are getting at, he said.

But Horicon Supervisor Matt Simpson said supervisors cant give you an answer about the t-hangar replacement while the answer on state funding is awaited.
LAKE GEORGE  Lake George is receiving a $70,000 grant to help develop a comprehensive economic development strategy for the areas under the jurisdiction of the Lake Champlain-Lake George regional planning Board.

U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Willsboro, announced on Tuesday that the town is the recipient of the grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration.

The money will fund the development of the plan to support private capital investment and job creation in the region, which comprises Warren, Washington, Essex, Hamilton and Clinton counties, according to a news release.

This grant will fund half of the projects $140,000 cost.

"This important funding will help foster public and private partnerships to support economic development in our region, Stefanik said in a news release. This funding will go a long way toward developing our local workforce, promoting conservation, and improving our infrastructure. I thank the EDA for making this funding a priority.
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
Welcome Guest! You Are Here:
GENESEO -- The Christmas Commandos from Grace United Methodist Church in Geneseo recently completed their shock attack and able to make Christmas a bit brighter for the 19 families on their list.

Members of the 7th through 12th graders in the church youth group took holiday baskets to the doorsteps of area residents.

Rev. Mark Graham at Grace said the idea of the Christmas Commandos is to play a game of ding dong ditch. The group takes the basket to the door, rings the doorbell and then runs back to the cars. The idea is for no one to see them make the delivery.

It is an activity that honors peoples privacy and yet is a fun activity for the youth, Rev. Graham said.

The youth groups Commando Ministry was funded from donations from individuals as well as the church's mission budget.

Church members and other area residents submit names of families and elderly persons living alone who might need some extra help during the holiday season. That information is given to the church office and kept confidential.

The holiday baskets contain ham, milk, eggs, stuffing mix, mashed potatoes and gravy mixes, ingredients for green bean casserole, corn, fruit, brownies, cinnamon rolls and cereal.

The baskets were delivered Dec. 17, with participants ringing doorbells or knocking on doors.

The students and I want to follow the example set forth by Jesus and feed the hungry, Rev. Graham said. We dont ask questions. I believe we are here to serve and love, and providing a Christmas meal is just one way we can practice the love of Jesus.

The congregation has been generous in its support of the Christmas Commandos ministry for many years, Rev. Graham said.

The idea of Christmas Commandos was brought to Grace Church by Sarah Hilman, the wife of Chuck Hillman who previously was director of youth ministries at Grace Church. Mrs. Hilman said she was a member of a youth group at the Silvis United Methodist Church which offered a similar outreach.

The ministry has continued for nearly 10 years.

"Its a fun way to do service and a different twist on the food basket concept," the Rev. Graham said. "Christmas Commandos is a response to the gift that we were given through Christ and we want to be able to give something back.
What are your favorite holiday traditions?

When my children were small we always cut a fresh tree from a Christmas tree farm, decked our halls, brought out festive dishes and linens, and unpacked the box of Christmas books.

We would drive through the cemetery to see vignettes depicting the Christmas story and wind our way through the best decorated neighborhoods in town, gawking through steam-covered windows at the light displays while carols blared from our cassette player.

I wonder what my children would say their favorite tradition from childhood was, or if the traditions are even remembered.

Were those moments more important to me than to them?

My favorite Christmas tradition from childhood was helping my mom deliver goodies to her friends. Mom would carefully arrange the treats on a doily, fight with the plastic wrap to cover the plate, and tie a colorful bow.

Then we would visit a retired nurse and a few other interesting women. When they thought I was mindlessly nibbling on divinity, I would sit in the glow of a lit tabletop ceramic Christmas tree and absorb their adult conversation, enthralled by the relationships of grown women and intrigued by the fact that these women we visited lived alone.

Now that its my turn to be a grown woman I have friends who live alone; some by choice, but some because the people they lived with have died or moved away. Those whose loved ones are gone are left feeling empty-handed and empty-hearted. Empty nest parents experience this also and have often lost their parents around the time their children leave home.

What was once done to bring joy to others loses some of its meaning when those people are not around to enjoy the effort. So we have to ask ourselves, What now? What do we do now that the traditions our holidays centered around seem unimportant? And what made those traditions important in the first place?

Another fond tradition from my childhood was our neighborhood Christmas caroling. I lived in the quintessential 1960s neighborhood where children spilled from every house.

Each year all the children would parade from house to house to sing carols. The sidewalks were neatly shoveled allowing us to tromp on the cold concrete and slide across the occasional patch of ice.

At each house the bigger kids would wait for the younger ones to climb the steps and scoot their way to the front to ring the doorbell. We would stomp our boots on the stoop trying to warm our tingly feet. An older boy would start the song by strumming his guitar, our voices were visible when our breath hit the chilly night air.

Parents stood in the doorways of each home, beaming at us to show appreciation for carols which were probably far more joyous than they were melodious. The final performance was at the home of the caroling organizers. We were invited to come inside for cocoa and cookies.

Crowded in the basement with our drippy boots we would loosen our scarves and cradle the steaming cup in icy fingers. While the chocolatey goodness warmed our noses and bellies, the camaraderie of our brothers, sisters, and friends warmed our hearts.

I believe this is what makes tradition valuable. It is something that warms our hearts. This is the answer to, What do we do now?

We dont try to recreate our old holidays if those traditions feel empty without those whom we are missing. We figure out what will warm our heart, what will bring us peace.

My wish for you this holiday season is that you find your peace.

Those whose loved ones are gone are left feeling empty-handed and empty-hearted.
The Quad-City International Airport received the green light Tuesday to join lobbying efforts advocating for legislative and regulatory changes that would boost the airport's revenues.

Airport officials plan to add the Quad-City airport's voice to efforts to get Congress to increase the fee that airlines charge each outbound passenger. Known as a passenger facility charge, or PFC, the fees are all passed through to the airports for use to fund infrastructure projects.

Advocated by the Airport Counsel International  North America and other airports, the proposed regulatory change would increase the maximum PFC from $4.50 a passenger to $8.50 a passenger.

Angela Burch, the airport's controller, told the authority that the PFC issue has seen push back from the airlines but "airports are mostly in favor of it."

The Quad-City airport, she said, currently uses its PFC funding to pay back interest on general obligation bonds and in the past used it for a major runway rehabilitation project and the purchase of snow removal equipment and five new loading bridges.

"The PFC has been capped at $4.50 since 2000," she said. Increasing it to $8.50, would give airports the same purchasing power in today's dollars, Burch said.

In addition, Aviation Director Bruce Carter said the airport wants to collaborate with its peer airports in Springfield, Bloomington and Rockford to lobby the Illinois Legislature to expand the existing taxing boundaries of airport authorities.

Both efforts gained traction Tuesday when the Rock Island County Metropolitan Airport Authority unanimously approved a resolution directing staff to begin dialogues with other airports and on various regulatory and legislative changes.

According to Roger Strandlund, the airport's attorney, the other Illinois airports have contacted Quad-City airport officials about the taxing district issue.

The board has had preliminary discussions about expanding the taxing district, but to do so would require new legislation. As the law is now, the airport authority is not authorized to collect taxes from taxpayers in all the county's townships.

"I think if we get four airports together as one we have a better chance of increasing the taxing district," Carter said.

The Central Illinois Regional Airport in Bloomington attempted to expand its tax base earlier this year from Bloomington-Normal to cover all of McLean County. But the change did not advance in the Illinois General Assembly.

"It takes on a new life with the other airports (involved)," Strandlund said.

The airport authority's approval now gives airport staff the authority to begin having discussions related to regulatory and legislative changes that address funding. "This will enable Bruce (Carter) to know... that he has the backing of the board," Strandlund said of the board action Tuesday.

According to Strandlund, both the state and federal lobbying efforts "go toward helping the same problem -- the infrastructure problems airports are seeing."

In other business, the airport authority:

Approved a $2.87 million contract with Tri-City Electric Co. for phase 1 of a project to upgrade the airfield's electrical system. Assistant Aviation Director Ken Carley said the work will begin in March and take about nine months to complete. The work will replace the electrical cabling that powers the edge lighting along Runways 9-27 and its taxiways. He said the total project is $3.3 million and received federal and state funding. A second phase will be completed in fiscal 2020.

Endorsed the airport's new Fly Local Alliance. Marketing representative Cathie Rochau said the effort now has the support of 15 Quad-City businesses, which have endorsed the initiative and have committed to flying local when possible. "Hopefully this is going to turn the dial on our retention efforts," she told the authority.

Accepted the financial audit from RSM US. RSM's Heidi Hobkirk told commissioners that the airport had received a clean, or unmodified, opinion for the fiscal 2017 audit.

Learned that Chairman Jim Bohnsack was reappointed to a five-year term on the airport authority by Rock Island County.
The Live Nativity at St. James Lutheran Church in Bettendorf provided the perfect Christmas outing on Saturday for Ken and Meg Wiebel of Moline and their grandson, Charlie Fanello.

We had Charlie for the day and were looking for an activity, said Meg. We had talked about the manger and Baby Jesus, and here we are!

Charlie, 3 years old, giggled as a goat, one of eight farm animals making an appearance at the annual event, stretched his head beyond his pen to get more food.

The experience of Charlie and his grandparents is just what Pastor Amy Diller and the congregation at the church at 1705 Oak St. hoped for.

The Live Nativity is a way to spread Gods love to the community and to remember the true meaning of Christmas, Diller said as she prepared to read the Gospel of Luke retelling the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.

The readings occurred every half hour from 4 to 7 p.m. as the manger scene in the church parking lot came to life, first with Mary (Jill McKafson) and Joseph (Derek Crooks) seated on bales of hay, and then joined by young angels with sparkling halos, shepherds and the three Wise Men as their roles unfolded in the Christmas story.

McKafson cradled a baby doll in swaddling clothes in her arms. Congregation member Deb Crooks, one of the Live Nativity committee members, said its too cold to have a real baby out there, but children attending the event still walk up to the scene to double check.

Dillers recitation of the Christmas story was interspersed with the singing of Christmas carols by a chorus of congregation members.

Visitors sat on chairs or stood in the parking lot for the 20-minute performance. The pastor asked them to join in on the last song, Silent Night. In the chilly and clear evening, the voices began hesitantly and increased in volume as the song went to two verses.

Judy Larson handed out hot chocolate, cookies and mini-candy canes with the pastors business card attached.

The long-time congregation member enjoys volunteering for the event.

I think its great, she said. I just love it.

Dressed as a shepherd, Dana Jo Smith, owner of Tuf-A-Nuf Stable in Buffalo, Iowa, laughed at the reactions of children to her menagerie of Scooter the mule, three goats, a rabbit, a banty rooster and several Silkie banty chickens.

She takes the time to haul the animals to events like the Live Nativity because she thinks its important for people to see farm animals. Her friend, Katie Briegel, also dressed as a shepherd, was happy to assist her.

The temperature hovered around 31 degrees, but no one in the congregation was complaining. Last years event was accompanied by snow and bitter cold temperatures in the low teens.

Visitors on Saturday were invited into the church hall, where they were greeted with tables decorated with poinsettias and the inviting aromas of homemade soup and spiced cider. The church, which operates a food pantry, also was accepted donations of canned goods.

Shirley Richlen, who helped staff the kitchen, has been a member at St. James since 2002.

When I joined I said Im not going to just sit in church; I want to be involved, she said.

The Miller family of Bettendorf  parents Jody and Nate and children Joseph, 13, and Kayla, 10  gathered around a table where kids could decorate the biblical figures of the Christmas story for their own Bethlehem Box, an unfinished wooden container that they could take home. At another table, colorful beads and ribbon were crafted into snowflakes.

Smiling faces of visitors and congregation members alike told the story of a successful event.

Its going great, said Deb Crooks, returning to the church hall after her role as a caroler was over for another half hour.

Her husband, Kelly Crooks, said dressing up as one of the Wise Men gets him in the spirit of Christmas and brings you closer to the story.

We see a lot of people from the neighborhood. The church members are here all doing something. Its gotten better every year, he said.
A man serving time in a federal prison for violating his supervised release in a gun case has now been charged in the shooting death of Richard B. Smith Jr. last year in Rock Island.

Police on Tuesday announced that an arrest warrant has been issued for Aaron Demerio Ellis, 26, on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated battery with a firearm. Bond on the warrant has been set at $1 million cash.

On Nov. 14, 2016, police responded to a shooting at 12th Street and 10th Avenue and found Smith, 37, with an apparent gunshot wound. He was transported to a local hospital and was later pronounced dead.

A 16-year-old suffered a non-life-threatening injury and was also transported to the hospital.

Rock Island police have also charged Ellis with three counts of aggravated battery with a firearm stemming from a shooting that occurred on Aug. 7, 2016, at 16th Street and 2nd Avenue.

Three people suffered non-life-threatening gunshot wounds and were treated at a local hospital and later released.

In September 2013, Ellis was sentenced to 21 months in prison and three years of supervised release in U.S. District Court, Rock Island, for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

He violated the terms of his supervised release and was sentenced to 24 months in prison and a year of supervised release.

Earlier this year, he again violated the terms of his supervised release and was sentenced Nov. 2 to 16 months in prison.

According to Bureau of Prison records, Ellis is serving his sentence in Oxford, Wisconsin.

Ellis also has felony convictions of possession of a controlled substance and criminal damage to property in Rock Island County, according to court records.
Two more arrested in alleged conspiracy to defraud grandparent of prison inmate

Two more people have been arrested in connection with what police say was a four-month conspiracy to defraud the grandparent of a prison inmate out of more than $35,000.

Gavin Nathaniel Epping, 18, of 2709 Greenway Drive, Bettendorf, and Faith Nicole McLaughlin, 22, of 1557 W. 14th St., Davenport, face charges of ongoing criminal conduct, first-degree theft, and conspiracy to commit a non-forcible felony.

Bond was set Monday at $40,000 cash or surety for McLaughlin. She waived her right to a preliminary hearing and will be arraigned Dec. 28.

Bond was set at $25,000 cash-only on Monday for Epping. He has a preliminary hearing Dec. 29.

Both remained in the Scott County Jail on Tuesday morning.

On June 27, Davenport police received a report of fraud.

According to arrest affidavits filed in the case, from Feb. 14 through June 23, Epping, McLaughlin and at least two others falsely represented themselves as employees of a law firm representing a current Iowa Department of Corrections inmate.

They told the inmates grandparent that the money was needed for attorneys fees and for the inmates medical needs that required payment, according to the affidavits.

During the four months of the scam, the conspirators received 20 checks totaling $35,875.87 from the inmates grandparent, according to affidavits.

Two others, Miranda Faye Patterson, 19, and Audrey Elaine Slyter, 30, both of Davenport, also face charges in connection with the case.

Patterson posted $10,000 through a bail bond company and was released from the jail on Dec. 13. She will be back in court Friday for a preliminary hearing.

Slyter posted $25,000 through a bail bond company and also was released on Dec. 13. She will be arraigned Dec. 28.

Ongoing criminal activity is a Class B felony under Iowa law that carries a prison sentence of up to 25 years.

First-degree theft is a Class C felony that carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence, while the conspiracy charge is a Class D felony that carries a maximum five-year prison sentence.

--Tara Becker

Audit: More than $20,000 in FFA fundraiser proceeds missing

A special state audit report says more than $20,000 in revenue from fruit sale fundraisers either wasn't collected or deposited for an FFA program in eastern Iowa.

The report from the Iowa auditor's office says the audit covered July 1, 2011, through June 30 this year. The money raised each year helps cover Maquoketa district FFA travel and rooming costs for conventions. Students start selling the fruit in November and it's delivered before winter break.

The report says auditors determined that deposits varied greatly from estimated sales. For example, in 2014 the actual deposit was nearly $7,000 less than anticipated.

Jackson County Attorney Sara Davenport said Tuesday that she hadn't yet seen the audit report and said her office hadn't been contacted by law enforcement regarding the findings.

--Associated Press
A plan to close two elementary schools in Bettendorf and build a new one was prematurely leaked to the public, and came to light about three weeks before it was scheduled.

Bettendorf Superintendent Michael Raso said the leaks came during ongoing studies of the district facilities. It was hoped that a full presentation would be ready in early January, he said.

But on Monday, Board President Gordon Staley decided to make public the recommendation from the board's facilities committee that calls for Thomas Jefferson and Mark Twain schools to be closed and construction of a new, three-section building.

"Leaks caused this issue to come up earlier than planned," Raso said. "Some of the information out there may be inaccurate."

The facilities plan also would move Edison Academy at the Thomas Edison Education Center to a leased facility for five years. Other improvements would be in sync with recommendations by Legat Architects, Moline.

According to an e-mail from district officials, the plan is based on recommendations from district administrators, a recent assessment of district facilities by Legat Architects, as well as requests from principals for updated student learning environments.

Andrew Champion, a school board member elected in September, objects to the move. On Tuesday, Champion said while the district needs capital improvements, it does not need a new school.

"As a community member, board member and parent, I really thought we'd put this subject behind us," he said.

Champion cited several studies that have been conducted, and said it's clear the community wants all district buildings to be upgraded.

That the issue has come up again is "a continuation of trust issues in the district," Champion said.

Staley, on the facilities committee, favors a new school, and said it makes sense to have a 21st-century facility for Bettendorf students. Thomas Jefferson and Mark Twain are 65-70 years old, he said, and are outdated.

Bettendorf needs to plan for the future, he said, 15-20 years down the road, when the City of Bettendorf may annex land to the north to allow growth.

The cost of a new school may be more than remodeling, Staley said, but it makes sense, if remodel estimates are two-thirds to three-fourths the cost of new. That's the same methodology used when the district decided to build Grant Wood Elementary School, currently under construction in central Bettendorf.

Immediate, negative reaction to the plan comes mainly from the two elementary school communities. "Some of the reaction is based on fear, and speculation," Staley said.

According to Celeste Miller, Bettendorf's director of communications, the facilities recommendation is posted on the district's website and an e-mail message on the topic was sent out to district parents.

Stakeholders from the Jefferson and Mark Twain communities will be consulted, Staley said. Public meetings are scheduled, and there will be open microphones at board meetings so residents can speak to board members.

The community is part of the decision, Staley said, but he hopes residents can set aside emotions and look at the facts, and make a decision based on facts.

The plans will be presented at a public meeting at 6 p.m. Jan. 8 at the Bettendorf High School Performing Arts Center.
Initiative from one Bettendorf Middle School student made the difference in the schools drive to collect 1,000 pairs of socks for homeless people in the Quad-Cities.

As a fundraiser, sixth-grader Gwyneth Hayes made and sold ornaments in two designs: snowflakes and painted glass orbs. Proceeds were used to purchase 215 pairs of socks.

That effort ensured the drive would exceed 1,000 pairs, and on Tuesday, Bettendorf Middle School students donated a total of 1,030 pairs of socks to Humility of Mary Shelter, Davenport.

Gwyneth hand-made 50 Christmas ornaments and sold them for $3 each, or two for $5. Sales tallied up to $153. The purchase of 215 pairs of socks was concluded at Walmart, "where the lady who helped us loved it when she heard we were giving the socks to homeless people," she said.

A few subsequent donations made the final tally 1,030 pairs, language arts teacher Susan Owen said.

Owen headed the socks collection effort, as part of the school's project-based learning on homelessness. In the unit, the sixth-graders took several weeks to answer an essential question: "What is it like to walk a mile in some else's shoes?"

As part of the homeless project, the students heard from Christine Adamson, director of services for Humility of Mary Shelter.

When Adamson told the children the importance of warm, clean socks to the homeless people, the students took it to heart.

The socks drive was launched in October, and the class had 252 pairs in hand by Dec. 5. After that, the donations came in quickly.

"Once we passed the 500 mark, the momentum picked up," Owen said. The students talked about the topic every day.

Counting became a bit obsessive. Finally, Owen said, they counted socks in a package, put a number on the package, and set it aside as "done."

When the students learned about the 1,030 total, some of them got tears in their eyes, Owen said, noting the young people truly want to help other people who need assistance.

Adamson, at Humilty of Mary, had no idea what 1,030 pairs of socks would look like. So, the merchandise was picked up by a driver in a big SUV.

"We are really, really thankful for the middle school students for collecting for us," she said. "We are happy, too, that they took such an interest in this."

The socks will be distributed through the Humility of Mary's new Corner Closet, located near to the organization's shelter on Vine Street, Davenport.

It's good to not have to worry about supplying socks to the homeless at this time, Adamsom said.

"We don't have to worry about that just now," Adamson said.
SIOUX CITY, Iowa  A new supervisory order by the Iowa Supreme Court will enable individual counties to seek to allow weapons in public areas of floors of a courthouse that are not totally occupied by the court system.

The order could alter the dynamics of courthouse security in the state.

Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Cady on Tuesday issued a two-page supervisory order, to update his weapons prohibition order of June 2017, 12 days before an expanded gun rights bill took effect in the state.

Cady's new order said the other elements of the June order remain, but after consultation with chief judges, sheriffs and other county officials there can be a way for weapons to be taken in floors without court system elements.

"Upon written request of a county board of supervisors, or other controlling entity, the chief judge shall modify the weapons prohibition imposed by the supervisory order by eliminating the prohibition in public areas on those floors of a courthouse not totally occupied by the court system," Cady wrote.

Once a chief judge grants the modification, Cady wrote, "the court relinquishes to the requesting entity any authority over the regulation of weapons in the public areas on a floor of a courthouse not totally occupied by the court system."

Whether guns would be allowed in the Woodbury County Courthouse has been a contentious issue since the gun law passed in the spring.

The new law, among other things, broadens the states so-called stand-your-ground provision, so a law-abiding citizen does not have a duty to retreat in a public place before using deadly force when confronted with danger to life or property.

Woodbury County Board Chairman Matthew Ung told the Journal on Tuesday he's glad the Iowa Supreme Court "retract(ed) its overreach displayed in its June 19th order" and shows "some deference to separation of powers."

Ung added, "If the Sheriffs Office then continues to ban all lawful, permitted carry, their office would no longer only be in violation of county policy, but a court order as well."

Woodbury County Sheriff Dave Drew said Tuesday he understood Cady's order.

We will continue to comply with any orders that come from the court, as we have previously, Drew said.

In late June, a majority of the supervisors voted to rescind a prior ban on weapons on county property, including the Woodbury County Courthouse. The supervisors said that was necessary to comply with the new state law expanding gun rights. However, Drew said he would keep enforcing the security program in the courthouse.

That program since 2014 has included personnel staffing metal detectors to find weapons such as guns. Drew said the security steps are needed to ensure that people are safe, as he said Iowa sheriffs are required to help carry out rulings by courts.

Drew pointed to the June 19 supervisory order wording that "all weapons are prohibited from courtrooms, court-controlled spaces and public areas of courthouses." The county supervisors, including Ung and others, said that was an "over-reach" by the court and conflicted with the new gun law.

Additionally, the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors on July approved a change to the employee handbook that allows county employees who have concealed-carry permits  but not open-carry permits  to bring guns to work in the courthouse and two other county building spots.
The biggest tax overhaul in 30 years divided Republicans and Democrats representing the Quad-Cities in Congress on Tuesday, with the House approving early in the afternoon and the Senate debating it late into the evening.

U.S. Reps. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, and Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., voted against the tax package, which passed the House on a 220-203 vote.

Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, Iowa Republicans, were expected to back the legislation while Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, Illinois Democrats, were expected to oppose it.

Bustos, in remarks early Tuesday, called the plan a "scam" that will hurt middle-class Americans, even raising taxes on some of them.

She added that Republicans are rushing the bill through because they "know that in the fine print are new loopholes that make it easier for companies to shift our work out of America and pay less taxes."

Bustos' office pointed to changes in how multinational companies are taxed on overseas profits, which the Tax Policy Center said could encourage companies to shift jobs overseas. Bustos said the bill would create jobs, but in China, Mexico and Malaysia.

The House vote went largely along party lines, with backers saying it would mean tax cuts for people at all income levels and lead to economic expansion. Critics, though, said most of the benefits are going to wealthy Americans and corporations that don't need a tax cut when the economy is already growing.

A dozen House Republicans voted with all the Democrats against the proposal. In Iowa and Illinois, all the Republicans supported the plan.

Among them was Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, who pointed to a study by the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation that said the measure would lead to an additional jobs in Iowa.

He also praised the proposal's language that eliminates the penalty for not having health insurance, a key part of the Affordable Care Act. He called the plan "an early Christmas present to American taxpayers."

Loebsack, Iowa's only Democrat in Congress, echoed Democrats' claims that the debt created by the plan will lead to entitlement cuts. "All of this is laying the ground work to cut Medicare and Social Security, gutting the benefits seniors have earned after a lifetime of work. Its just wrong," he said.

The House was expected to have to vote again on the plan Wednesday, because it included a handful of provisions that ran afoul of Senate procedural rules and were removed. The revote was necessary because both ends of Congress must pass the identical bill.

In remarks on the Senate floor late Tuesday, Grassley rejected the idea the bill was tilted toward the wealthy and said all income groups would benefit. He said it was time that the corporate tax codes 35 percent rate was lowered. It will go to 21 percent under the legislation.

These business tax reforms are crucial to getting our economy growing again, he said.

President Donald Trump has said he wants to sign the bill by Christmas.
Beginning Thursday  for the first time in more than four-and-a-half years  pedestrians and bicyclists may access Sylvan Island from the Moline shore.

The city plans to unveil a new bridge to the 35-acre island during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 11 a.m.

"It is finally here!" Lori Wilson, director of the Moline Parks and Recreation Department, said Tuesday in an email.

The steel structure installed by General Constructors Inc. of Bettendorf stretches 200 feet across Sylvan Slough, a secondary channel of the Mississippi River.

In April 2013, engineers deemed the former 145-year-old bridge unsafe for foot traffic, and the city of Moline fenced off the walkway to prevent people from crossing it. Since the closure, only those with boats have accessed what previously has been called a gem of the Mississippi for bikers, hikers, bird watchers and anglers, just south of the Rock Island Arsenal.

Moline received a $1.1 million grant in 2014 from the Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program, which is funding 80 percent of the $820,560 project. The city is paying for the remaining 20 percent.

The Illinois Department of Transportation awarded the contract for the job this past April, and General Constructors began working in early September.
Rock Island County Board members voted Tuesday to table a plan to demolish or renovate the courthouse, putting off the fate of the historic building indefinitely.

Board members Edna Sowards, Brian Vyncke and Don Johnston were absent.

Last week, the Public Building Commission approved an intergovernmental agreement with the county board stipulating that if a buyer did not come forward to purchase the courthouse, or if no funds were available to renovate the building by July 18, board members would hand the deed over to the PBC for demolition.

As part of the agreement, the PBC agreed to pay $1.6 million for the cost of asbestos abatement, demolition, and construction of a memorial park in place of the courthouse.

Board member Kai Swanson recommended postponing an agreement with the May 31 deadline indefinitely, and motioned to table the July 18 agreement.

Board member Richard Brunk suggested forming a committee to explore different options for the courthouse.

Chairman Kenneth "Moose" Maranda said he had not been contacted by anyone to table the intergovernmental agreements.

"I have not been approached to bring anything to this board," he said. "What are we exploring?"

"We need to assess the building to determine what the needs are should we be able to secure funding," Brunk said.

"The funding we are trying to secure is to tear it down," Maranda said.

Board member Scott Terry said there previously was an ad hoc committee formed in 2013 to explore options for the courthouse.

"If that is the path this board wants to take, I think it is the responsible thing to do," Terry said.

Board member Drue Mielke said he agreed with Brunk.

"I don't think we really know what we have in the courthouse. What is the value currently?" Mielke asked.

The historic courthouse, built between 1895-97, was designed by the Kansas City architectural firm of Gunn & Curtis in the Spanish renaissance style. Rock Island stone cutter Charles Larkin constructed the Bedford limestone exterior. Floors in the central rotunda area are made of marble or tile.

Several resident spoke during the public comments portion of the meeting, offering support for keeping the courthouse.

Italo Milani, an architect by trade, said the limestone exterior of the building adds to its sound structure.

"That building has value," Milani said. "The reports on the (poor) condition of the building are bogus. The building is solid. Why not take it and put it good use?"
As part of a television documentary, a Dubuque psychic visited a Davenport salvage yard in an effort to find the remains of Trudy Appleby, who went missing in 1996.

Derric Carter, 25, owner of Carters Auto Salvage (formerly Big Reds), 3426 S. Concord St., said a California production crew arrived at his salvage yard Monday, along with medium Moriah Rhame.

A representative from the production company tried to contact Carter several times before he agreed to let the crew and the psychic onto the property. Carter eventually agreed to shut down his operation for the afternoon and received $1,500 for the use of his land and time, he said.

A cadaver dog and a drone were part of the proceedings, he said.

People uninvolved in the official investigation and CBS are producing a show called Midwest Medium, Moline Police Detective Michael Griffin confirmed in an email. Rhame led the crew to the salvage yard, he said.

I went and watched (Monday) but we did not have any involvement and, at this time, we do not believe that business has anything to do with the investigation, Griffin said.

A man who answered the phone at the number listed for Rhame said she had no comment.

Carter was skeptical about allowing the crew to film there. He even called the previous owner to discuss it, and also spoke with Griffin beforehand.

I dont believe in the supernatural for the most part, he said. If they dug around back there and they found some trace of her, I would completely rethink my life.

He said it was interesting to talk with the medium and watch the filming. In one location, The dog had extensive interest in that area, Carter said.

Attempts to reach Trudy Appleby's father were unsuccessful.

Family and friends of the missing girl continue to keep the spotlight on the case.

Amber Holderfield of East Moline was Trudy's best friend. She said other friends and family members know about the psychic's investigation.

"It's been so long that I don't get my hopes up because I've done that so many times," Holderfield said. "It would be great if the psychic is right."

But she realizes that Trudy's remains may not be found in Holderfield's lifetime.

Those who were close to Trudy, she said, "are broken every day of our lives."

In August, at a memorial vigil at First Baptist Church, East Moline, that has been held annually since Trudy disappeared, her father said he received many calls after Moline police issued a news release naming the late William Ed Smith as a possible person of interest in the case.

We have all the pieces  where she left, who she left with, Appleby said.

Smith, who died in 2014, is believed to be the last person to have seen 11-year-old Trudy Appleby in 1996, according to the news release. Police identified Smith as a possible person of interest.

In the news release, Griffin said Trudy was last seen near her home, and that on Aug. 21, 1996, she got into the passenger side of an older model, gray-colored vehicle with an unknown male.

At the vigil, Appleby said a witness  whom he identified as David Whipple  saw Smith in a similar vehicle Aug. 21, 1996, near his residence on Campbell's Island, East Moline. The witness saw a young female in the passenger seat of that vehicle and believed that person to be Trudy, whom the witness knew.

Information obtained from the investigation showed that Smith often traveled to the areas of Blackbird Island or Dynamite Island, which are accessible only by boat on the northern edge of Campbells Island.

In October, Moline and Illinois State police searched a property on Campbell's Island where Whipple once lived. The house on the property was razed by Rock Island County in 2004.

The investigation has shown that Smith had access to a vehicle similar to the one that was described as having picked up Trudy Appleby on Aug. 21, 1996. Leads from the investigation show that vehicle may have been scrapped shortly after she disappeared, according to the release.

Griffin said in the release that Smith died Dec. 23, 2014, and never admitted knowledge about Trudys disappearance, although he may have been the last person known to be seen with her before she disappeared.

The Appleby family, along with Crime Stoppers of the Quad-Cities, is offering a $10,000 reward for information about Trudys disappearance or any other information that will lead to a resolution in the case. Anyone with information is asked to call the Moline Police Department at 309-524-2140.
JOHNSTON, Iowa  More work remains to convince federal government leaders that the U.S. should not withdraw from a North American trade agreement, especially since such an action could damage Iowas agriculture economy, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said Tuesday.

Reynolds a week ago traveled to the nations capital to discuss the trade agreement with top federal leaders, including Vice President Mike Pence and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.

During her weekly news conference Tuesday at DuPont Pioneer headquarters in this Des Moines suburb, Reynolds described those discussions as healthy but added that Iowa leaders must continue to urge federal leaders to be cautious with the trade agreement.

President Donald Trump has said the U.S. must renegotiate multiple international trade deals, including NAFTA, a trade agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico that was signed in 1994.

Iowa government and agriculture leaders say a U.S. withdrawal from the trade agreement would devastate Iowas economy. Canada and Mexico are Iowas top trade partners.

It would be devastating, Reynolds said.

During her most recent trip to Washington, D.C., Reynolds spoke about the trade agreement with Pence, Perdue, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. Reynolds said she made clear to those leaders that a U.S. withdrawal from NAFTA would crush Midwest farmers who already are feeling the pinch of low commodity and land prices.

Their intention is to hold ag harmless, but the fact of the matter is whenever we talk about pulling out (of trade deals), commodity prices are affected immediately, and that will be one of the first casualties that well see, Reynolds said. So were going to hold them accountable. Were going to continue to have conversations.

Ross earlier this year said he thinks farm groups and advocates are exaggerating when they say a U.S. withdrawal from NAFTA would hurt farmers.

Reynolds said she told Ross that farmers concerns are legitimate.

I indicated to (Ross) that (farmers) are feeling the pressure and theyre concerned, Reynolds said. And if you think theyre going to stand down and just let this be a negotiating tactic, theyre not. Youre going to hear from me. And youre going to hear from Iowa farmers about the impact that this would have on the ag economy, not only in Iowa but in the Midwest and across this country. Its serious.

The U.S., Canada and Mexico met in November to negotiate potential changes to the trade agreement. U.S. officials expressed frustration that the other countries did not seem willing to make changes, while Canada and Mexico said some of the U.S. demands would be harmful for all three countries under the agreement.

Reynolds said her administration will continue to communicate their concerns to the federal administration, especially their concern regarding what might happen if the U.S. withdraws from the trade agreement.

This would have a devastating impact, Reynolds said. Free and fair trade, modernizing, were all about that. But we just need to be very careful about how we talk about this moving forward.
I'm writing to respond to columnist Barb Ickes' recent piece on assisted suicide. Americans are being tricked by the devil himself. This topic should never, ever have surfaced.

It's as evil as abortion, which is the murder of babies in the womb. God gave us the 10 Commandments. The fifth commandment clearly states "Thou shalt not kill."

What is so hard about that to understand?

We humans have no right whatsoever to take the life of anyone, whether it's a baby in the womb or someone who's terminally ill. God gave us out life. Only God can take it. We belong to him.

There are those pushing the Death with Dignity Act. The myth is in its name. The only way we can have dignity is doing everything God's way.

Ruth Weber

Davenport
A discussion intended to provide information on Rapid City Collective Impacts proposed transformation center turned into an indictment Tuesday on the lack of details related to the project.

The conversation, which attracted a robust crowd at the Pennington County Board of Commissioners meeting, came after Commissioner Ron Buskeruds request at the boards Dec. 5 meeting for someone from Collective Impact to come before the board at their next meeting to discuss the projects details.

However, no one from Collective Impact attended Tuesday's meeting and without any representation, the board debated whether it would be fair to allow members of the public to ask questions about the project. Commissioners Lloyd LaCroix and Mark DiSanto seemed to think it unfair.

The way this was presented to the public wasnt right, LaCroix said, explaining he thought it duped people into thinking the board would be providing information on the project at the meeting rather than requesting information from Collective Impact. "Were not going to hear all the sides.

LaCroix added that he believed Collective Impact would come forward with information at public meetings in the near future. Commission Chairwoman Deb Hadcock, though, had no issue with allowing the discourse.

Ive been going around to many groups ... and I dont feel like those answers, the data and what theyve shown me are coming together, Hadcock said, expressing dismay that by asking questions about the project, people suddenly assumed she was against it.

Show me your proof, and show me your data.

Hadcock added that having to find out about the $16 million projects location in the newspaper when it will be located across the street from the countys campus and neighboring the restoration center was the real disingenuous act.

Commissioner Ron Buskerud held no punches when offering his take, calling the location "terrible."

The transformation centers proposed location is just east of the countys soon-to-be-opened restoration center, 321 Kansas City St. It would be situated on properties including 121, 131, 141, 151, 201 and 217 Kansas City St., a house at 216 Quincy St., and a long, narrow storage building behind the Archaeological Research Center of the South Dakota State Historical Society.

When DiSanto opined that the county has little say on the matter given that Collective Impact project manager Charity Doyle has stated the program will not be asking for any money from the county  its expected to ask for $7 million from Rapid City  Buskerud quickly disagreed.

We have a big investment to protect, he said of the $14 million restoration center. In past interviews, Doyle has stated she hopes the restoration center and transformation center could collaborate. I think we have an absolute right to know whats going on, Buskerud added.

Immediately after the discussion, assistant state's attorney Jay Alderman explained that the county did indeed have some control over the situation.

As part of the purchase agreement with local developer Hani Shafai when the county purchased the former NAU building for its restoration center, the county had the right of first refusal for all other Shafai-owned properties in the area. Shafai currently owns 121, 131, 141, 151, 201 and 217 Kansas City St.  comprising the College Station apartments, National American University Animal Health Center and Archaeological Research Center of the South Dakota State Historical Society  and a home at 216 Quincy St. just behind the Archaeological Research Center.

Alderman and Mike Kuhl, construction project manager in the county's Buildings and Grounds Department, said the College Station apartments were not part of the right of first refusal clause, which gives the county the right to buy the properties from Shafai before he enters into a purchase agreement with another party. Kuhl said the county would have 45 days from the date of a signed offer on the properties to decide whether to respond and buy the property instead.

With that newfound knowledge, the board then allowed members of the public to speak.

Joseph Wright, associate vice president for research and economic development at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, spoke on behalf of the schools interim president, Jan Puszynski. Wright expressed the schools concerns about how the centers location would affect student safety and efforts to create a corridor linking the school to downtown Rapid City.

Jamie Hale, president of DarCEO Inc., a professional engineering firm involved in industrial, military/aerospace and medical markets, said he was considering making a $4 to $5 million investment in the downtown area but was hesitant given the lack of information available on the project. Hale said he wanted to see a 20-year business plan to understand the long-term economic impact of such an endeavor.

I dont think the due diligence has been done, he told board members, later adding outside the boardroom that if the center was successful, he would expect the operation costs to decrease over time as less homeless people required assistance.

Darren Haar, who serves as a board member for several city and county organizations including the Pennington County Drug and Alcohol Board, also spoke up. He said that casting off those concerned with the project as not in my backyarders was unfair and prevented the dialogue and information sharing necessary to make a smart, informed decision.

We just have a lot of questions, said Haar, who is also the current Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Mines and chair of the Black Hills Regional Angel Fund, which is designed to provide funds for local entrepreneurs in exchange for equity in the business.

Please hear our concerns, review our data and let us see yours.

Outside the boardroom after the discussion concluded, Haar questioned how Collective Impact decided on the size of the proposed 4-acre campus. He also wants more information on the operation and maintenance plan, and what consideration was given to placing a number of similar, smaller centers around Rapid City as opposed to one large, central location.

Haar and others have expressed concern that the campus may attract an influx of homeless people from other states that lack such services.

He also mentioned past decisions in Rapid City when data, planning and information were lacking and resulted in poor decisions, citing The Journey Museums location and civic center plan in 2015 as two examples.

Late Tuesday evening, Collective Impact sent out a news release saying a public presentation of the proposed transformation campus would be held at an undetermined date in late January. No other details were provided.
A familiar face at many of the activities around Chadron was honored recently by one of the organizations she serves.

Northwest Community Action Partnership (NCAP) celebrated Jane Druecker as its Volunteer of the Year with a reception Dec. 12. The award recognizes an individual who embodies the mission of NCAP to help people, change lives and engage communities to alleviate poverty.

Druecker has volunteer with the Retired Senior Volunteers Program (RSVP) for 21 years, actively serving at nearly half of the 50 non-profit sites supported by the Dawes and Sioux county organization.

She is decisive. She is straightforward, said RSVP coordinator Rachel Johnson. But it was Janes selfless act to step outside her comfort zone to help NCAP accomplish more that cemented her nomination for Volunteer of the Year.

As NCAP searched for an AmeriCorps volunteer to work in emergency preparedness, Johnson and NCAP Director Karen Harbach were about to give up when they found the perfect candidate in Tyler Woodard. Woodard was a newly minted graduate of St. Louis University with a degree in emergency management. Despite the opportunity NCAP offered to dive head first into emergency preparedness, Woodard initially turned down the agencys offer. AmeriCorps volunteers are paid a small stipend, but Woodard said it would not be enough to handle his student loan obligations and living expenses.

Undeterred, NCAP put out a call for help to RSVP volunteers to find housing. Within a short period of time, Jane stepped up and offered to share the lower level of her home for the entire year, Johnson said. Janes extraordinary act of kindness and selflessness allowed Northwest Community Action to continue its work in disaster preparedness and the Panhandle of Nebraska is stronger and more resilient because of it.

For her part, Druecker said having Woodard in her home was a great joy; he even taught her to use the computer.

As part of RSVP, Druecker has worked at Closer to Home, the American Legion, United Way, the Dawes County Historical Museum, the Post Playhouse and the Salvation Army, just to name a few. She was also one of the first to volunteer for RSVPs newest endeavor, CARE Callers, which provides a daily call of assurance to senior citizens living alone.

In addition to her work with RSVP, Druecker is the president of the Chadron Arts Center board, has held multiple positions in PEO and is active in her church. She plays in the bell choir and is in the Step Sisters dance group, often performing for area senior citizens with both groups.

Janes favorite volunteer service is when she is shoulder to shoulder with other volunteers working for the common good, Johnson said.

I do enjoy people. Its easy for me to be a volunteer, Druecker said.
An effort to eliminate noise pollution in Crawford has stirred up opposition from residents just outside the city limits recently.

There is an ongoing effort to convert the railroad crossing at Annin Street to a quiet crossing, meaning trains would no longer blow their whistles as they approach the intersection. But in order to do that, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad says the railroad crossing at Mill Road just outside of town must be closed. Those who use that crossing strongly objected to such a move at the Nov. 28 Dawes County Commissioners meeting, saying the crossing is needed for access to homes along the road, as well as for semi trucks for agricultural purposes and emergency response vehicles.

The Nebraska Department of Transportation is offering to pay roughly $342,000 toward the project if it proceeds, said Crawford Mayor Dave Nixon.

Its something the community has wanted for 20 years. Id be remiss if I didnt pursue the opportunity, he said.

The noise from the train whistles is a quality of life issue within the city, he continued.

It does have a negative effect.

Supporters and opponents of the project appeared before the county board because Mill Road and the area surrounding it are governed by Dawes County, not the City of Crawford. The issue is expected to arise again in the new year, when the commissioners will be asked to direct Road Superintendent Larry Hankin to conduct a road study.

That move is expected at the Jan. 9 meeting. A county road study takes 30 days to conduct, and then the commissioners are required to hold a public hearing on the results before they can make any decision on closing a road.

Based on that timeline, Nixon said its likely no action will occur until at least March, noting that hed like to find a compromise that meets everyones needs.

A large part of what wed like to accomplish will depend on (Hankins) report, he said.
Dr. Laura Gaudet, Professor and Chair of Chadron State Colleges Counseling, Psychological Sciences and Social Work department, urged newly minted masters degree recipients to take calculated risks and replace fear with excitement during her commencement speech Friday afternoon at Memorial Hall.

During the exercises, 81 graduates earned their degrees. Irma Torres of Scottsbluff, Nebraska, offered the opening moment of reflection and Megan Dimmit of Alliance, Nebraska offered the closing moment of reflection.

As you transition to your professional life, take reasonable, achievable, conceivable risks with your endeavors. Embrace your challenges and opportunities even when they seem a little daunting. Exchange the fear of trying new things with excitement, Gaudet said.

She shared her experiences presenting about traumatic brain injury at professional conferences in several foreign countries the past few years as examples of meeting challenges in spite of initial trepidation.

She praised CSC students for opening themselves to challenges and facing them on a regular basis.

Many of you come from first-generation college families. You continue to impress me with your hard work, determination and perseverance. You are my teachers, she said. Commencement is the natural time to acknowledge the trials and tribulations, but also a time to rejoice in the attainment of ones goal.

Gaudet emphasized the importance of relationships in successful personal and professional lives.

While you are out in the world doing good work, remind people that we are all human beings. Always thank the people who helped you along the way. None of us achieve things in this world alone; your professors, family members, colleagues and friends helped you achieve this great goal. Help those who follow behind you with their next great achievement, Gaudet said.

She left the graduates with a prompt to be prepared for job titles that likely may not even currently exist.

As you go forth in this next phase of your life, say yes to your professional endeavors; Know that the opportunities you will be offered in the future will be much greater. Many of these career opportunities are not even on the horizon today, Gaudet said.
Niles Bennett was an infantryman who died in May 1928.

John Rotolo was an infantryman who died in August 1928.

Arlen Cox was a seaman with the U.S. Navy who died in December 1928.

Their names appear on just three of some 1,500 grave markers in the Hot Springs National Cemetery.

They and their comrades in arms were honored Saturday during the annual Wreaths Across America event.

Wreaths Across America was founded to continue and expand the wreath-laying ceremony that takes place at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. It was started by Maine businessman Morrill Worcester in 1992 with a mission of remembering and honoring veterans and teaching others about the sacrifices they have given.

Since then, the organization has coordinated wreath-laying ceremonies at more than 1,200 cemeteries in all 50 states.

Volunteers distributed 509 wreaths throughout the Hot Springs cemetery after a formal opening ceremony led by South Dakota Representative Tim Goodwin.

The freedoms we enjoy today have not come without a price, he said, reading from the scripted part of the Wreaths Across America program.

The ability to worship as we choose, to travel freely and vote without explanation are all examples of what veterans have fought and died for throughout the course of history.

The United States of America was founded on the ideals of freedom, justice and equality, he continued.

For those in the audience who answered that call, Goodwin, a veteran himself, offered a heartfelt thank you. Also taking part in the ceremony was the Crazy Horse Composite Civil Air Patrol, the American Legion Riders Battle Mountain Post 71 and American Legion Post 71.

The formal part of the ceremony concluded with members of each branch of service laying a wreath for the Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Merchant Marines and the more than 93,000 prisoners of war and missing in action.

Volunteers were then set loose to lay wreaths throughout the cemetery, and were encouraged to speak the name of the fallen aloud as they did so.

Kevin Whyte and his daughter Kendra, Junior Miss Southern Hills, were among the volunteers. While Whyte said he came to support his daughter, the visit to the cemetery struck a deeper cord.

Its a way of teaching my family our history, he said, noting that several members of his family served in the armed forces at one time or another. Whyte himself served in the Army in the mid-1980s.

Its a beautiful morning to be out here, he said, adding that the wreath tribute is a great way to honor those who served.

Sam and Julie Boettcher of Custer brought their granddaughter, Alexys Schille of Rapid City, to the Wreaths Across America event. Theyve seen the program grow from a scant two dozen wreaths to the more than 500 this year as they make the trip annually.

This is awesome. I was blown away, Julie said. I think next year theyll fill the rest of it, Sam added.

They both have relatives in the service and believe its important to pay respects to the fallen.

Its just our way of honoring them, Sam said of their annual trip to the Wreaths Across America event.

The ceremony and view of so many wreaths decorating the cemetery brings a lump to your throat, Julie said, when you realize the enormity of the sacrifice the countrys veterans have made.

Day to day you dont think about that, she said.

The National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers was completed in 1907. The cemetery was established for the interment of veterans who died while residing there. In 1930, the home became part of the Veterans Administration and, in 1973, the cemetery was one of 21 cemeteries transferred to what was then known as the National Cemetery System.
PIERRE | The head of the state Department of Transportation said Monday that Dakota Southern broke a federal regulation regarding hazardous materials when it stored rail cars on a siding.

The South Dakota Railroad Board meets today to decide whether to take away the companys lease for the state-owned Mitchell-Rapid City line. Transportation Secretary Darin Bergquist made the comments in testimony to the Legislatures Government Operations and Audit Committee.

Dakota Southern wasnt represented at the meeting Monday. State records show Michael Williams and Tammy Williams of Kansas City, Mo., own Dakota Southern.

The MRC regional railroad authority leases the line. Dakota Southern operates under a sub-lease.

Rep. Susan Wismer, D-Britton, participated Monday by telephone. Wismer distributed to legislators copies of the Mitchell Daily Republic newspaper story reporting on a meeting where MRC officials discussed complaints about Dakota Southern last week. Im very disappointed, she said.

Wismer asked whether DOT administrators ever instigated any enforcement before federal regulators have.

Im not sure how to answer that, Bergquist replied. My staff does not have authority over FRA matters. I do not have staff that has the ability or the knowledge to go out and try to enforce those federal regulations.

Wismer asked whether Bergquist took concerns to Dakota Southern that were raised by GOAC. He replied that Dakota Southern listened and was aware of the committees concerns.

Sen. Neal Tapio, R-Watertown, asked whether Dakota Southern had violated its lease for the state-owned line.

Its a difficult question to answer. I would say technically with the FRA violations they have (violated agreement), Bergquist responded. He said the rail board would make the decision today.

Tapio asked for clarification about who makes the decision. Thats the rail boards decision, Bergquist said.

The Wheat Growers blew the whistle on Dakota Southern for placing 11 cars loaded with liquid natural gas on a siding the Wheat Growers organization owns at Kennebec, according to Tapio.

It seems like something that could turn dangerous, he said.

Bergquist said he didnt know until the MRC meeting that Dakota Southern didnt have permission from Wheat Growers to use the siding. He said the state board could deem it illegal conduct and break the lease.

Rep. Hugh Bartels, R-Watertown, said issues regarding Dakota Southern existed for the past year. Its time to resolve the matter, Bartels said.

The board gets some conflicting information, Bergquist said. Its certainly been an ongoing struggle for the board, I would agree with that.

Bergquist said moving a train car subjects it to federal regulation and the federal agency conducts spot checks.

Sen. Deb Peters, R-Hartford, asked whether any state laws need change. Bergquist said no. We have certain responsibilities with regards to what we own, he said.

Rep. David Anderson, R-Hudson, suggested a different perspective: Interject us as the landlord. In this case, were the landlord.

Bergquist said the line is maintained for the benefit of the shippers. He said two camps developed in recent years: One side wants the lease terminated and the other supports Dakota Southern.

So the board is hearing from both sides of the issue, Bergquist said.

As he testified, the two previous owners of Dakota Southern  brothers Alex and Dick Huff, both of Oacoma  sat about 10 feet away, sometimes smiling as Bergquist answered.

The Huffs spent time talking to legislators during the next break, with Dick Huff telling Bartels the current owner wasnt good.

Bergquist testified the state board doesnt take lightly the termination of the line and the disruption of service to shippers. All are factors the board weighs, Bergquist said.

He said there is one party that has expressed interest in taking the lease if Dakota Southern is terminated. So we are looking at some of those today, even, he said.

Tapio said there has been a pattern of red flags about Dakota Southerns conduct on the line.

Bergquist acknowledged it felt at times that the state board and the department were pulling Dakota Southern along to get necessary work done. He said the shippers by and large are being served but at the same time the concerns are being brought up.

Thats what the board is going to struggle with, Bergquist said.

Rep. Jean Hunhoff, R-Yankton, wanted to know the roles of the rail board and Bergquist. She is the other co-chair for the committee.

Its time we need to know, where does the buck stop? Hunhoff said, adding that legislators need to see some problem-solving.
South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks officials are seeking information on an apparent poaching incident in which two spike elk were shot and left to rot near Pringle.

Conservation Officer Ron Tietsort said local residents heard gunshots Dec. 13, and the elk were discovered in a field the next day after magpies had started to eat the carcasses. The carcasses were found in a field off Pleasant Valley Road near 20 Mile Road, about 12 miles southwest of Pringle.

"We have a cow season going on right now, so it's possible that hunter shot these elk and then saw they were spikes when they (the hunters) got up to them and left them lay," Tietsort said.

Hunters who shoot the wrong animal should contact GF&P right away, Tietsort said. "It's just such a terrible waste of good quality elk meat," he said. "If someone did do this on accident, call us and tell us about it  we can work something out and at least salvage the meat."

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the South Dakota Turn in Poachers hotline 888-683-7224 or contact the Tietsort directly at 431-7048.

TIPs provides reward money for information that leads to the arrest of poachers. Since the program began in 1984, there have been over 11,200 investigations that have resulted in around 3,900 arrests.

Poachers have paid more than $750,000 in fines and an additional $580,000 in liquidated civil damages. TIPs has paid out more than $161,000 in cash rewards to individuals who provided information.
Drugs, money and a gun were worth more to Donald Willingham than the life of a state trooper, Pennington Countys head prosecutor said.

Willingham is accused of multiple felonies, including the attempted killing of Trooper Zachary Bader in October 2015, and his trial got underway Tuesday morning.

County states attorney Mark Vargo said the attack happened while Willingham and three friends were traveling from Seattle to Chicago, carrying at least 40 pounds of marijuana and $30,000 in cash. Bader saw their Chevrolet Suburban speeding along Interstate 90 in Pennington County, pulled the vehicle over and issued a warning ticket to the driver.

The encounter turned more serious when Bader asked the passengers to exit the vehicle so he could search it. The trooper had detected the smell of marijuana inside the SUV and, on top of that, heard different stories from the driver and his three passengers about where the group was headed, Vargo said.

A dashcam video recorded from Baders patrol car, presented to jurors, showed the trooper inspecting items in the vehicles back compartment then reaching for his handcuffs as he walked off the camera's view.

Sounds of a struggle could be heard while two men and a woman ran toward the Suburban. Another man jumped inside and the vehicle sped away, leaving the sound of someone moaning in apparent pain and distress.

He was fighting for his life, Vargo said of Bader, who was found lying face-down by a ditch on the interstate. The left side of the trooper's face was bloodied beyond recognition, said a witness who was one of the first passersby to discover him and call for help.

Willingham, 35, of Renton, Wash., is being tried for attempted first-degree murder and aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer. He also is facing charges of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, possession of marijuana, as well as commission of a felony with a firearm that he allegedly brought along to protect the drugs.

Willinghams most severe charges  attempted murder and aggravated assault  each carry a penalty of up to 25 years in prison.

Vargo, in his 20-minute opening statement, said Willingham went back and forth denying and admitting his offenses. This included beating up the trooper and transporting multiple bags of marijuana, the state's attorney said.

The drugs were found along a rural South Dakota highway, where they were reportedly discarded by the defendants as they fled the scene. A photo from one of the defendants' cellphones led investigators to the spot.

Willinghams lead attorney, Dennis Doherty, told jurors during his opening statement to keep an open mind and to wait till theyve heard all testimonies before forming an opinion on the case.

Some serious matters are in great dispute, he said, adding that lawyers' assertions are not evidence.

Keep in mind: The prosecutors were not there. They were not witnesses, said Doherty, a Chicago lawyer retained by Willingham. Doherty earlier requested the court to exclude from trial the sounds of pain and distress recorded by the trooper's dashcam.

Doherty asked jurors to consider each of his clients charges separately. He spoke for only two minutes, and the presiding judge asked to confirm that he was done.

Willingham and his companions were arrested in Wall about an hour after they left Bader. A Pennington County sheriffs deputy who was looking for their vehicle spotted it by accident when he stopped to refuel in Wall. The Suburban was parked behind a motel, its four occupants inside or near it.

The Suburbans driver during the traffic stop, Chase Sukert, his sister and Willinghams girlfriend, Desiree Sukert, and a common friend, Jonathan Melendez, were also accused of multiple felonies. They were charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, possession of marijuana, commission of a felony with a firearm and accessory to a crime.

All three, also Washington state residents, pleaded guilty in May 2016 to possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and being an accessory to a crime. Their pleas came as part of a deal with the Pennington County States Attorneys Office, in which they agreed to testify against Willingham at trial. They are expected to be sentenced sometime this week.

In the dashcam video, Chase Sukert was heard telling Bader inside the patrol car that the group was attending a family reunion in the Midwest. From inside the Suburban, on the other hand, Desiree Sukert, Melendez and Willingham told Bader they were headed to school in Iowa.

Bader will be testifying at the trial, Vargo told the jury. The trooper was hospitalized and returned to work with the South Dakota Highway Patrol about a year ago.

Retired 7th Circuit Judge Wally Eklund is presiding over the trial, which is scheduled to run till Thursday. Eklund was assigned to the case in 2015 and the state Supreme Court ordered him to continue hearing it even after his retirement last year.

Willingham is detained at the Pennington County Jail in lieu of a $5 million bond, the highest bond amount among the jails current inmates.
As Congress on Tuesday and into early Wednesday voted to advance a massive Republican-supported overhaul of the U.S. federal tax system, the reaction from Montana's delegation aligned with that of their prospective parties.

Republicans Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Greg Gianforte both praised the passage. The House passed the bill Tuesday afternoon 227 to 203 and the Senate 51-48. The House must vote on the bill again Wednesday to approve three changes made in the Senate.

Democrat Sen. Jon Tester voted against the bill.

Getting the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act across the finish line means families will see bigger paychecks, Main Street businesses will be able to hire more workers, and America will compete and win on the world stage, said Daines. Montanans hard-earned dollars belong in their pockets, not in Washington, D.C.s coffers.

Daines said 99 percent of Montanans will receive a tax cut, though the cuts for individuals expire in 2025. The bill also eliminates the fine people paid for not having heath insurance, something Daines had long railed against. According to the senator, Montanans have paid nearly $7.8 million in fines since the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

Daines also said about 71 percent of Montanans use a standard deduction, which is doubled under the bill.

Gianforte also praised the bill.

Santa came early for hardworking Montanans with tax reform that will let them keep more of what they earn, Gianforte said. Montanans of all income levels will see their taxes cut. These tax cuts keep $800 million in the hands of Montanans, not sent 2,000 miles to the federal governments coffers.

Tester criticized the bill, saying it will add more than $1 trillion to the national debt and provides 83 percent of its cuts to the top 1 percent of wage-earners.

Those of you who vote yes on this bill will do so at the expense of our kids and grandkids, Tester said. They will be paying this tab long after we are gone. This bill will limit their opportunities and cap their potential.

Tester said the bill's elimination of fines for those who don't get health insurance will raise premiums by 10 percent next year for those with coverage. Other changes, he said, will force cuts as high as $25 billion to Medicare.

"It will become more expensive to see your doctor. It will be harder for rural hospitals and clinics to keep their doors open. And more folks will end up in the emergency room. They will be sicker and their treatment will be more expensive and the rest of us will be forced to pay for it.
A Montana State Prison inmate waited a month for medications to treat his asthma, seizures and diabetes. He was placed in an upstairs cell for more than a week and denied a cane, despite telling staff he had torn knee ligaments and needed help walking. And one day, when he collapsed while walking, prison staff laughed at him and instructed another employee not to assist.

Those allegations are listed in a complaint to the Montana Human Rights Bureau that Jeffrey Arthur Mewes, age 57, filed in August. The complaint accuses the state, the Department of Corrections and Michael Fletcher, warden of the Montana State Prison, of discriminating against Mewes based on his age and disability status, and of retaliating against him for reporting the discrimination.

Attorney Michael Doggett of Missoula is representing Mewes. Mewes was most recently a Missoula resident, having moved there from Kalispell in June 2016 while serving parole.

Doggett shared the complaint, the department's response and Mewes' rebuttal with Lee Newspapers.

The bureau has until Jan. 30, 2018, to make a finding in the case.

Mewes arrived at the prison on Feb. 3 after violating parole on a DUI conviction. (Mewes has DUI convictions in Montana from 2002, 2003 and 2013, all of which are listed as fourth or subsequent offenses.) Mewes filled out a medical receiving questionnaire that day and was screened by a prison nurse the next.

Mewes told staff he required a cane or walker, since hed been hit by a car two months earlier. Intake staff also documented multiple medical conditions, including diabetes, Hepatitis C, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

But Mewes said he wasnt prescribed his 11 daily medications until March 3, when he met with the prisons doctor. The departments response to Mewes complaint does not dispute that, noting Mewes was prescribed his daily meds on March 3 during his initial doctor appointment.

The DOC declined to clarify whether Mewes had waited a month for the medication, and if so, why. The department cited the pending litigation and federal and state privacy laws as reasons not to comment on the case.

DOC spokeswoman Judy Beck did provide a brief statement about inmate accommodations.

"Under our [Americans with Disabilities Act] policy, the department is committed to ensuring that all inmates are provided adequate medical care and reasonable accommodations for their known disabilities," the statement read.

In April, two months after arriving at the prison, Mewes was moved from a ground-floor cell to an upper tier cell. He still hadnt received a cane, walker or other device, despite subsequent requests, he said.

Mewes said his mobility was so limited, due to pain in his back, that he missed meals for two days and skipped showers for two weeks due to the upstairs placement and lack of accessibility in the showers. Instead he used a sink in his cell to clean up, he said.

Staff moved Mewes because the ground-floor unit was becoming crowded, the DOC said in a response it filed with the Human Rights Bureau. The department did not respond to Mewes allegation that he missed meals and showers due to the placement.

One day, while walking toward the stairs to get to his cell, Mewes fell, collapsing to the floor, hitting his head and breaking his glasses, according to the complaint. An officer later checked on Mewes and told him that when Mewes fell, guards and a sergeant saw the fall and told the officer not to assist. They were laughing, the officer told Mewes.

Mewes later gave a complaint form to a nurse because the officer would not accept it, he said.

Mewes also wrote that he did not know the names of any of the prison staff involved because guards wear their name tags facing inward to the shirt so they cannot be read.

The DOC responded that prison staff on duty the night in question had no knowledge or information about Mewes falling.

Mewes attorney countered that Mewes can relay only his own experience, since he does not control whatever the Department writes down or films.

Mewes remained in the upper tier cell for 12 days. Halfway through his time there he made an emergency visit to the doctor for severe back pain shooting into his chest. A week later, his back pain returned and a doctor ordered him moved to the infirmary.

Mewes was wheeled to the infirmary on a cart, not a wheelchair.

Mewes said he was treated unfairly because he requested better accommodations, and that several guards and the warden himself would complain to me about the attention I was receiving, and for sending complaint forms, Mewes said.

In its response, the DOC wrote that it denies having discriminated or retaliated against Mewes. Ira Eakin, an attorney for the department, filed the response.

Mewes has received adequate, if not excellent, health care since his arrival at MSP, Eakin wrote.

Mewes received 19 medical appointments in seven months, the departments response noted.

The department sought to have the complaint dismissed because it was not signed by Mewes, just by his power of attorney. It also argued the staff behavior Mewes describes does not rise to the level of discrimination, and that Mewes claims of retaliation were baseless.

Even if everything Mewes says is true, he has not shown that the actions or inactions of any DOC employee were motivated by a discriminatory intent, the department wrote.

The department suggests Mewes was a frequent complainer. Michele Steyh, the unit manager who Mewes said saw him fall one day, recalled him as a vocal inmate.

She remembers that Mewes had been in prison before, and she said Mewes was not shy about reporting incidents, kiting for needs, particularly medical, and that Mewes was familiar with the grievance procedure, the department wrote.

Doggett, the attorney representing Mewes, said he will appeal the decision if the bureau finds no discrimination has occurred.
Home Sales 2017

Home sales jumped in Northeast Ohio and across the nation in November, and prices continued to climb.

(John Bazemore/AP Photo)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- November home sales jumped notably in Ohio, as nationwide purchases surged to their swiftest clip in more than a decade.

In the Buckeye State, the pace of November sales was up 6.9 percent from a year before, according to seasonally adjusted annualized data from the Ohio Association of Realtors. Buyers snapped up 11,732 new and existing homes last month.

Across the country, sales of previously owned homes were 5.6 percent higher than they were in November 2016, based on similarly adjusted annualized figures from the National Association of Realtors. The trade group said Wednesday that sales hit their strongest stride since December 2006.

"Faster economic growth in recent quarters, the booming stock market and continuous job gains are fueling substantial demand for buying a home as 2017 comes to an end," Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the national Realtors, said in a news release.

But, he noted, cash buyers and move-up buyers accounted for the majority of sales last month. Low inventory and rising prices continue to pose hurdles for first-time buyers, who don't necessarily have a substantial down payment on hand.

Nationwide listings were down 9.7 percent in November from a year before. At the recent pace of purchasing, there's only 3.4 months worth of supply on the market.

Pete Kopf, president of the Ohio Realtors, expressed hope that more homeowners will put their properties up for sale in 2018.

"Home sales across Ohio in November were remarkably strong, as sales activity during the month reached an all-time high - besting any month since we began tracking data in 1998," he said in a blog post on the organization's website.

Prices also continue to climb. The average sale price for a new or previously owned home in the state was $174,689 in November, up 7.7 percent from a year before.

The national Realtors report median - or middle - prices instead of averages, and their numbers don't include newly constructed homes. The group said November's median sale price was $248,000, for a 5.8 percent annual gain.

"Price appreciation is too fast in a lot of markets right now," Yun cautioned. "The increase in homebuilder optimism must translate to significantly more new construction in 2018 to help ease these acute inventory shortages."

A separate report on nationwide sales of new homes will be released Friday.
Lady Gaga will join the list of superstars with regularly scheduled shows in Las Vegas in 2018, on December. Photo: AP

LAS VEGAS: Lady Gaga will join the list of superstars with regularly scheduled shows in Las Vegas in 2018, when she kicks off a two-year residency in December.

Gaga in a statement Tuesday says it has been her life-long dream to perform in Las Vegas. She says she is humbled to be joining a historical line-up of performers that include Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley.

The announcement comes at the end of a successful year for the superstar that included a stunning Super Bowl performance and a sold-out tour.

MGM Resorts International did not immediately announce performance dates at Park Theater.

The 5,300-seat venue is located at the Park MGM casino-resort, formerly known as the Monte Carlo. It hosted the residencies of Cher and Ricky Martin.
Guwahati, December 20 : In a bid to associate the pravasi Assamese living in Karnataka with the States transformation into a new growth engine for a new India, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananada Sonowal appealed them to lend their hands and be a part of the new journey of the state towards prosperity.

Interacting with the Assamese diaspora in Bengaluru on Tuesday evening, Sonowal made an ardent appeal to all living in Karnataka to lend their expertise and contribute to the forward march of the state.

Your profession might have kept you away from your home state. However, the distance should not be a bar for you in becoming an active partner of the states journey to growth, Sonowal said.

Giving a brief outline of the immense potentials of the state in almost all the sectors, Sonowal apprised them of the State Governments initiatives of charting a new growth mantra of judiciously tapping the resources of the State and requested the Assamese diaspora to extend their cooperation in governments bid in repositioning Assam as the springboard for Indias Act East Policy.

He emphasised that the Centres new Act East Policy as the natural corollary has given the State several opportunities to become the gateway to 10 South East Asian Countries.

Moreover, Assams geographical proximity with the ASEAN countries has presented vibrant markets with nearly 80 crore consumers to be served. In

this backdrop, State Government would organise a Global Investors Summit in Guwahati on February 3-4, 2018 to elicit investments from all the potential business houses, Sonowal added.

Sonowal said that, Assam is proud of its natural resources and lush green environment and the state government is committed to bolster an economic growth in sync with its ecology without disturbing the environment.

He also sought the cooperation of all living in Karnataka to extend their helping hands and be an active partner of the state governments bid to make Assam one of the fastest growing economies and put it (Assam) among the five most developed states of the country.

Sonowal urged them to be an ambassador of goodwill between Assam and Karnataka.

Information and Technology Minister Keshab Mahanta also interacted with the Assamese diaspora on the occasion.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Kathmandu Nepal: Following the directives of the Supreme Court (SC), the Apex Court of Nepal, the Nepal Police has on filed a document forgery case against former Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Nepal Police and newly elected parliament member of CPN-UML, at Kathmandu District court on Wednesday.

As of the accusations labeled against Silwal, the Nepal Police has also accused Silwal of manipulating his internal evaluation performance evaluation form while he was a DIG contending for the top post.

The SC had categorically ordered for a full investigation over the issue of document forgery case against former DIG Silwal.

Even though the police filed the case, he has not been taken into judicial remand. Nepal Police deserves the right to take into control to make stronger the investigations, but it is stated that he would not be taken into control as investigations are going on over the issue of forgery ceases.

As Silwal is the elected representative from the Lalitpur -2 for the federal parliament, different forms of opinions are surfaced in the market over the issue of the case against Silwal.

It is said that the case was filed after taking consent form the attorney General Basanta Ram Bhandari. It is said that Bhandari has given nod to initiate action against newly elected lawmaker Nawaraj Silwal in line with the Supreme Courts recent verdict.
Kathmandu, Nepal: President Bidhya Devi Bhandari has urged the top leaders of left alliance to resolve the differences seen recently over the issue of ordinance on the National Assembly (NA) election through political consensus.

President Bhandari has made the appeal during a meeting on Wednesday with CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli and CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

The leftist leader duo-Oli and Dahal had reached at Presidents residence, Sheetal Niwas on Wednesday afternoon.

The leftist leader have met the president in the mean time when the parities particularly the government head Nepali Congress and the leftist alliance of main opposition CPN UML and the Maoist Center have been divided over the issue of forming the national assembly.

The Nepali Congress led government has repeatedly been urging the President Bhandari to authenticate the ordinance regarding the formation of the national assembly.

However, the leftist alliance, particularly the UML has been exerting pressure not to authenticate the ordinance.

The UML wants to adopt the direct election system even to form the national assembly which is not liked much by the CPN Maoist Center.

The pressure exerted by the UML has created a dilemma to the president Bhandar on whether to authenticate the bill respecting to the constitutional provision or to follow the order made from the UML, the party in which the president had worked as the leader and cadres.

I cannot alter the constitutional and legal ways, so resolve the issue through discussion, President Bhnadari had said during the meeting held with the top brass of the leftist leaders.
Although the actual date has not yet been finalised, Lucapa Diamond Company Limited has announced that it will hold the next sale of rough recovered from alluvial mining at the Lulo Diamond Project in Angola in early 2018.

According to the company, the timing of this sale is designed to maximise sale proceeds by selling into a usually stronger demand period at the beginning of the year.

On offer at this sale will be 2,160 carats of diamonds including the exceptional 129 carat and 78 carat Type IIa D-colour Lulo diamonds recovered from Mining Block 6 in November 2017.




The conclusions of the European technical mission carried out in the Moroccan Sahara to evaluate the impact of the EU-Morocco fisheries agreement have distraught the Polisario leaders and their Algerian sponsors.

The audit, commissioned by the European Union, has actually turned down the separatists allegations on an illegal exploitation of the Sahara natural resources and at the same time rejected their claims that the Polisario is the only representative of the Sahara.

Immediately after the publication of the European Commission report on the socio-economic impact of the Morocco-EU Fisheries Agreement on the provinces of Dakhla-Oued Eddahab and Laayoune-Boujdour-Sakia El Hamra and on their populations, the Polisario stepped up to denounce the European technical missions official visit in the city of Laayoune on December 7.

The separatist front emphasized that this mission poses serious legal problems with regard to its legality, arguing that the mission should initially seek its endorsement to conduct the investigation in the Sahara.

But the Polisario leaders seemingly have a short memory. They forgot the verdict issued by the European Court of Justice on 21 December 2016, stating that the separatist front has no standing to act on behalf of the Sahrawis and could not claim to be the exclusive representative of the Sahara.

Like the courts verdict, the conclusions of the audit report, made public lately by the European Commission, flatly deny the Polisarios absurd allegations, especially since the majority of Sahrawis live in the southern provinces under Moroccan sovereignty, while only a tiny minority is settled in the Tindouf camps on Algerian soil.

On the basis of the conclusions of the technical mission, the report states that 75% of the socio-economic impact of European sectoral support benefits the Dakhla-Oued Eddahab and Laayoune-Boujdour-Sakia El Hamra regions.

It is therefore another blow that the European Commission has dealt to the Polisario, showing clear evidence that the major beneficiaries of the Morocco-EU fisheries agreement are the Saharan provinces and their populations.
Thank you for reading!

Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.
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.
If you are currently a print subscriber but don't have an online account, select this option. You will need to use your 7 digit subscriber account number (with leading zeros) and your last name (in UPPERCASE).
 "The Unconstitutionality of Criminal Jury Selection" | Main | Brennan Center provides its latest encouraging accounting of crime in 2017 

December 19, 2017

Notably lenient Nebraska sex offense sentence reversed based on notably questionable judicial comments

This local press report, headlined "Sentence of probation in Nebraska sexual assault case overturned; judge called 12-year-old girl the 'aggressor'," reports on an interesting state appellate court sentencing reversal. Here are the basic details:

The Nebraska Court of Appeals has overturned a Kearney judges decision to put a man on probation for a felony sexual assault conviction. In its ruling issued Tuesday morning, the Court of Appeals said Buffalo County District Judge Bill Wright considered forbidden and irrelevant factors when he decided to place Taylor Welty-Hackett on probation. In February, Wright placed Welty-Hackett on four years of intensive supervised probation for attempted felony first-degree sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl on Aug. 1, 2015, in Kearney. The charge was punishable by up to 20 years in prison. The Court of Appeals ordered Welty-Hacketts case be sent back to Buffalo County, where he will be resentenced by a different judge. A hearing date hasnt been set. Buffalo County Attorney Shawn Eatherton had argued that Welty-Hacketts sentence was too lenient. During the Feb. 23 sentencing hearing, Wright called Welty-Hacketts victim the "aggressor" in the case saying, She made the advances. Wright also went on to tell Welty-Hackett that he screwed up big time, but Ive got to find some way of bringing balance back into the system, given the nature of whats been occurring in this community. The Court of Appeals said Wrights statement about the promiscuity of teenage girls and the need to bring balance into sentencing sexual offenders went beyond consideration of the facts in the case. If the sentencing judge (Wright) went awry in this case, it was only in failing to provide a more detailed explanation on the record of the multiple factors in the PSI (pre-sentence investigation report) which clearly justified the probationary sentences. ... Such failure caused the trial judges brief mention of the defendants small stature to become the focus of attention, when in reality it was but a minor point, the Court of Appeals ruled.

The full opinion in Nebraska v. Welty-Hackett, No. A-17-239 (Neb. Ct. App. Dec. 19, 2017) (available here), makes for an interesting read. Here are some of its concluding paragraphs:

Unlike in State v. Thompson, the sentencing judges comments in this case were more than just a brief mention of factors not relevant to imposing sentence. The courts discussion of the general promiscuity of teenage girls and the need to bring balance into the system was fairly substantial. Further, the comments had nothing to do with this particular defendant, in contrast to State v. Thompson. We recognize that the trial judge in this case indicated he had reviewed the PSR before the sentencing hearing. While the information contained in the PSR may well have supported the probationary sentence imposed, we cannot determine from the judges comments at sentencing how much weight was given to the permissible and relevant sentencing factors compared to the impermissible and irrelevant factors. We note, however, the courts final comments before imposing sentence that Welty was getting the benefit of the courts desire to find some way of bringing some balance back into the system, given the nature of whats been occurring in this community. Because it appears that the trial courts reliance upon the impermissible and irrelevant sentence factors largely influenced his decision to impose probation, we find it necessary to vacate the sentence imposed and remand for resentencing before a different judge.

December 19, 2017 at 09:37 PM | Permalink

Comments

I noticed a certain extremely biased closed-minded individual on the C&C site has the nerve to reference the SL&P site in his post but will not comment here because he cannot control the comment contents here, while censoring comments there.

Posted by: albeed | Dec 20, 2017 3:06:45 PM

albeed | Dec 20, 2017 3:06:45 PM:

Ha ha! I think you are referring to that fruitloop Bill Otis.

I don't blame people a whole lot for wanting to stick to forums that are more friendly or that they can control. I am okay if people are just tired of other people being a-holes and want to live in a nicer environment. But those people really do need to realize that they are not living in actual reality, but in a biased one.

I didn't have much interaction with the fruitloop Otis, but enough that revealed what he is. I told most of "my story" on here regarding the BS SEX Offender Registries and he and a couple of his retard sidekicks basically said they didn't believe me. But the problem for fruitloop Otis was that everything I said was undebatable fact and they really had no reasonable reason to not believe it. They just didn't want to. It didn't fit what they liked. So that is what fruitloop Otis is about. Warped reality. I know "close-minded" fits him well.

I did scan that blog quickly and noticed that fruitloop wrote a post opposing legalizing drugs. That is a pet peeve of mine, actually. I always have to start with a disclaimer that I've never used drugs (other than alcohol!), but I truly don't think any drug should be illegal. We need to make America an actual free country and stop sticking our noses up our neighbors' asses. It is not my business what my neighbor puts into his/her own body. Let's all sign up for some personal accountability for a nice change. Smart people are not going to start taking meth if it becomes legal. And clearly the fact it is illegal isn't doing any good.

I really think that people who want drugs to be illegal are mostly just serious control freaks. They can't stand not trying to control or moralize on other people. And they loooooooooooove big government helping them and playing their "war" games. They love their drug business.

F all of them. Let's make America free. Time to take it back from the stupid people.

Posted by: FRegistryTerrorists | Dec 22, 2017 2:46:01 PM

Post a comment
As one of the activities to boost mutual work on technology between Vietnam and South Korea governments, Vietnam Software and IT Services Association (VINASA) and Korea Virtual Augmented Reality Industry Association (KOVRA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on December 19 in Hanoi about the cooperation in the development of virtual reality technology.



Virtual Reality (VR) is the technology which allows its users to acquire true feeling when interacting with the virtual environment. For instance, when users wear a VR headset and look around in a projected environment of ocean, they will have a feeling that they are actually diving into the deep sea.



Augmented Reality (AR) and VR are considered the two key elements in the 4th Industrial Revolution and have a promising future of being widely used in various aspects of life via the creation and development of suitable content.



According to Mr. Dao Dinh Kha, Director General of the Department of Information Technology (Ministry of Information and Communications), to keep up with international technology trends, the industry of software and IT in Vietnam is trying its best to develop a strong foundation as well as capable human resources through cooperative relationships and supports of others.



With this MOU and the grand opening ceremony of the VR experience zone camp (operated by 3D Factory of Korea) in Lotte Center, Hanoi, the collaboration between Vietnam and Korea regarding VR technology has begun.



By TRAN BINH  Translated by THANH TAM
SIOUX CITY | A new supervisory order by the Iowa Supreme Court will enable individual counties to seek to allow weapons in public areas of floors of a courthouse that are not totally occupied by the court system.

The order could alter the dynamics of courthouse security in the Woodbury County Courthouse and elsewhere in the state.

Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Cady on Tuesday issued a two-page supervisory order, to update his weapons prohibition order of June 2017, which came 12 days before an expanded gun rights bill took effect in the state.

Cady's new order says the other elements of the June order remain, but after consultation with chief judges, sheriffs and other county officials there can be a way for weapons to be taken in floors without court system elements.

"Upon written request of a county board of supervisors, or other controlling entity, the chief judge shall modify the weapons prohibition imposed by the supervisory order by eliminating the prohibition in public areas on those floors of a courthouse not totally occupied by the court system," Cady wrote.

Once a chief judge grants the modification, Cady wrote, "the court relinquishes to the requesting entity any authority over the regulation of weapons in the public areas on a floor of a courthouse not totally occupied by the court system."

Whether guns would be allowed in the Woodbury County Courthouse has been a contentious issue since the gun law passed in the spring.

The new law, among other things, broadens the states so-called stand-your-ground provision, so a law-abiding citizen does not have a duty to retreat in a public place before using deadly force when confronted with danger to life or property.

Woodbury County Board Chairman Matthew Ung told the Journal on Tuesday he's glad the Iowa Supreme Court "retract(ed) its overreach displayed in its June 19th order" and showed "some deference to separation of powers."

Ung added, "If the Sheriffs Office then continues to ban all lawful, permitted carry, their office would no longer only be in violation of county policy, but a court order as well."

Woodbury County Sheriff Dave Drew said Tuesday he understood Cady's order.

We will continue to comply with any orders that come from the court, as we have previously, Drew said.

In late June, a majority of the supervisors voted to rescind a prior ban on weapons on county property, including the Woodbury County Courthouse. The supervisors said that was necessary to comply with the new state law expanding gun rights. However, Drew said he would keep enforcing the security program in the courthouse.

That program since 2014 has included personnel staffing metal detectors to find weapons such as guns. Drew said the security steps are needed to ensure that people are safe, as he said Iowa sheriffs are required to help carry out rulings by courts.

Drew pointed to the June 19 supervisory order wording that "all weapons are prohibited from courtrooms, court-controlled spaces and public areas of courthouses." The county supervisors, including Ung and others, said that was an "over-reach" by the court and conflicted with the new gun law.

Additionally, the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors on July approved a change to the employee handbook that allows county employees who have concealed-carry permits -- but not open-carry permits -- to bring guns to work in the courthouse and two other county building spots.
According to court documents, Dean and two accomplices entered a home in the 2300 block of Leech Avenue at about 11:35 p.m. Friday and forced two people to the floor at gunpoint. The three ransacked the house and took a cellphone, approximately half a pound of marijuana and a .40-caliber rifle, court documents said.
SIOUX CITY | Briar Cliff University in Sioux City has signed an agreement with Northwest Iowa Community College in Sheldon, Iowa, allowing students with an associates degree in nursing to complete their Bachelors of Science Nursing degree through BCU.

Officials from both schools praised the so-called articulation agreement, as a means to offer convenience to nursing students.

Briar Cliffs RN (Registered Nurse) to BSN program is specially designed for graduates of NCCs Associate Degree Nursing Program who want to pursue a bachelors degree in nursing. In the new agreement, students can transfer up to 90 credit hours from Northwest Iowa Community College and apply them towards a BSN degree at Briar Cliff. That means students have the opportunity to earn their bachelors degree online in two years or less.

Northwest Iowa Community College President Alethea Stubbe praised the partnership.

Briar Cliff officials tout the affordable value of the nursing training options. In addition to the RN-BSN degree, Briar Cliff also offers graduate programs for students who want to pursue additional nursing education.
NORTH SIOUX CITY | The fire district that includes North Sioux City and Dakota Dunes plans to partner with Sioux City for paramedic services beginning next year.

Such an arrangement will allow the district to move toward its ultimate goal of staffing its own 24/7 paramedic response in the near future.

The Dakota Valley Fire District board on Tuesday voted 5-0 to approve a concept that will allow Sioux City Fire Rescue's new Emergency Medical Services Division to provide paramedic service within the district's boundaries beginning next year.

The agreement must still be finalized and go before the Sioux City Council for approval early next year. But district leaders say Sioux City will start assisting with paramedic service beginning Jan. 1 even as the details are hammered out.

"I think this is a wonderful resolution," board president Aaron Tyler told the Journal. "It's given us time to build a good foundation for an EMS service for our own community while partnering up with a great community, Sioux City, to help."

For many years, the district -- which encompasses North Sioux City, Dakota Dunes, Big Sioux Township and Wynstone -- has had an agreement with Siouxland Paramedics to provide ambulance services.

Siouxland Paramedics, however, has announced it will no longer provide emergency services after Jan. 1, citing financial difficulties.

North Sioux City Fire Department has since prepared itself to begin responding to ambulance calls within city limits. Under its agreement with Sioux City, North Sioux would provide first response to a scene with its own ambulance, but in cases where advanced assistance is needed, Sioux City would then respond with a paramedic and transport the patient using a Sioux City ambulance.

Sioux City would then require the district to guarantee an amount per patient that would be paid to Sioux City. Sioux City would bill each patient, but if it only collects a portion of the guaranteed amount set forth in the agreement, Dakota Valley would make up the difference. The agreement would also include a minimum amount per year.

Dollar amounts are among the details being finalized.

North Sioux City Fire Chief Bill Pappas said the department is looking at hiring enough paramedics to provide 24/7 response in the future, which would cut down on paramedic response times.

Due to state budget restraints, such a move would require an "opt-out" vote by the public next year to raise taxes to fund the new positions.

In the interim, he said, he feels good about the current resolution.

"It took us a long time to get here, but I think this is the right way to go," Pappas said.

Sioux City Fire Rescue officials have said such a partnership with Dakota Valley could allow them to employ a few additional paramedics. The city's new EMS Division currently plans to wield a staff of 27 employees.
WINNEBAGO, Neb. | A Ho-Chunk Inc. subsidiary won a $100 million contract Tuesday from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The five-year contract was awarded to Flatwater Solutions, part of Ho-Chunk's Flatwater Group, which has done extensive contracting for the federal government. Ho-Chunk is the economic development corporation for the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska.

Under the deal, Flatwater Solutions will purchase office furniture and provide design, installation, and removal services in support of all bureaus and offices within the Commerce Department. It covers all the department's locations in the continental U.S. and its territories, with primary locations in metro Washington, D.C.. Other locations could include Boulder, Colorado; Seattle, Kansas City, Missouri; and Hampton Roads, Virginia.

In a news release, Erin Morgan, a Ho-Chunk executive and Flatwater vice president of strategic development and operations, said the company is excited to again work with the Commerce Department.

Pete Tracey, who heads up the Flatwater Groups furniture division, was pivotal along with his team members in bringing the project to life, she said. This particular contract enables us to utilize our expert turnkey initial outfitting and transition planning services to provide quality solutions and excellent customer service.

The Flatwater Group is a collective of small businesses that strives to deliver quality, cost-effective products and services to federal agencies. It specializes in office, health, and technology solutions, professional support services, raw and fabricated metals, and logistics services.

Flatwater, based in Winnebago, Nebraska, also has offices in the Bellevue/Omaha area and outside of Washington.
SIOUX CITY | Four Siouxlanders are among the 44 Iowa students who have been nominated by U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley to be considered for appointments to U.S. military service academies.

Those nominated include Robert Phillips, of Sioux City, to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point; and Sheryl McGowan, of Sioux City, Kitty Turner, of Sioux City, and Kyle Puttman, of Orange City, to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis.

Additionally, Grassley has nominated the daughter of the other U.S. senator from Iowa, Joni Ernst, for an appointment to West Point. Libby Ernst, of Red Oak, was nominated.

These young Iowans who want to enter the academies and serve our country are a remarkable reflection on our state. Their accomplishments, leadership and desire to serve are exceptional, and signal continued excellence in the U.S. armed forces," Grassley said in a release.

Grassley has the annual opportunity as a U.S. senator to nominate either current or future Iowa high school graduates for a select few service academy placements. The U.S. Air Force Academy, U.S. Military Academy and U.S. Naval Academy all select at least one qualified student from Grassleys nominations.

Students may receive more than one nomination.

Grassley noted the high quality of Iowa nominees results in several Iowa students being offered admission to attend each of the academies. The students then choose whether to attend the academy.

Grassley will make announcements as academy appointments are offered to Iowans.
MASON CITY, Iowa | Its been about a year since the developers of the Rock Island Clean Line project withdrew an application to build the controversial overhead transmission line in Iowa.

Since then, other developers have publicly revealed their plans to transport the abundance of wind-generated electricity from Iowa and other upper Midwest states to larger markets, including Trey Ward.

Ward is the CEO of Direct Connect Development Co. and lead on the SOO Green Renewable Rail project, a proposed 349-mile underground transmission line that would be built alongside Canadian Pacific Railway routes.

"Some of the best wind resources in the world are obviously found in Northwest Iowa and SOO Green brings that cheap renewable energy to eastern markets like Chicago," Ward said.

While the proposed route starts outside Mason City, Iowa, and ends in Plano, Illinois, SOO Green's project map also shows that Sheldon and Algona are "available."

Our converter station to be located outside Mason City will withdraw power directly from the multi-state high voltage transmission grid, enabling us to draw power from wind farms located in Iowa, southern Minnesota and the eastern Dakotas, Ward said. Northwest Iowa, with its great wind resources, will very much be a part of our project.

The more than $2.5 billion SOO Green project would create 600 construction jobs and 200 in-direct jobs.

"These numbers do not include the jobs created to construct the winds farms enabled by the (high voltage, direct current) line, nor do they reflect the broader economic development opportunities for the region," Ward said.

Construction is projected to start in 2020 and SOO Green would be in service by 2024, based on Ward's current trajectory.

Meanwhile, Houston-based Clean Line Energy Partners insist the Rock Island Clean is still alive. The purpose of this project was to erect a 500-mile overhead line starting in Northwest Iowa's O'Brien County over private land and deliver wind-generated electricity to Illinois and states in the eastern part of the U.S.

However, a recent ruling by the Illinois Supreme Court provided yet another setback for Rock Island, an obstacle Ware hopes to avoid.

"Our goal is to build the transmission line in a socially and environmentally responsible manner respecting landowners' rights," he said

Having an underground transmission line is one of the advantages Ward thinks SOO Green has over other projects including Rock Island, which faced a lot of backlash from landowners.

The fact that SOO Green has the majority of its land already under control is a huge competitive advantage, he said. One of the largest single impediments for competing transmission projects is that they need to secure land rights. Landowners in several states, including Iowa, have pushed back against private corporations taking their land for the developers benefit.

They are additionally agitated with the viewshed and other impacts of large, overhead transmission lines near the family farm. SOO Green does not have these issues.
At one time the city had 16 skating rinks, some hills for sledding, swimming pools all around the town, most within walking distance. All of the rinks are gone now along with the sledding hills and most of the swimming pools.

They are saying that the new Cone Park is a quality of life improvement for Sioux City. Maybe so if you have a car and are rich and live in the newly developing southeast part of town. For the rest of us, it won't make much difference. - Ed Porter, Sioux City
ANNAPOLIS (December 19, 2017)Various systematic issues within the Maryland's Juvenile Services Education System have consistently interfered with students receiving instruction at the same quality as that available to pupils in traditional public schools, according to quarterly reports from an independent monitoring unit.



The Juvenile Services Education System, more commonly referred to as JSES, was established in 2004 by the state Legislature in effort to provide a comprehensive education program for children within the state's Department of Juvenile Services.



Under the supervision of the state's Department of Education, all offenders are required to have six hours of education daily, with lesson plans stemming from the state's College and Career Readiness Standards, including core courses like language arts, mathematics and sciences.



Inmates who participate in correctional education programs are 43 percent less likely to return to prison than those who did not, according to a study released in 2013 from the RAND Corp., a research organization in California.



A more individualized structure within Maryland's juvenile detention and placement centers could be beneficial to the education system, the Juvenile Justice Monitoring Unit housed in the Office of the Maryland Attorney General found.



"We conduct unannounced visits, but we tend to prioritize facilities that we think are struggling," said Nick Moroney, the director of the monitoring unit. "Kids are coming in off the street and they have different needs educationally."



The Juvenile Services Education System is a year-round program, unlike a traditional public school that is open for around 10 months with vacation time. Average time for a youth within a detention center is about 30 days, but can vary from a few weeks to six months, according to the Department of Juvenile Services.



In the 2016 fiscal year, the number of youths in detention before conviction was 2,033, while the number of youths awaiting placement in a treatment facility was 742.



The three most common offenses for children in detention are second-degree assault, robbery, and burglary, and the age of youths average between 14 and 19 years old, with more than 70 percent between 15 and 17, according to the Department of Juvenile Services.



All detention facilities within the Juvenile Services Education System are organized by living unit, which is based on individuals' charges and the relationships the youths have with one another, rather than by grade level, according to the monitoring unit.



Grace Reusing, an assistant public defender within the Public Defender's Office, has been filing complaints on behalf of families in the Juvenile Services Education System since 2014, all of which state that practices within the program, including failure to provide Individualized Education Programs for those with special education needs, are in violation of federal law.



When a violation is found, the administrative staff of the Juvenile Services Education System is required to address the complaint and document the reparations, according to Deborah Grinnage-Pulley, executive director of the system.



In one-and-a-half-hour classes, with about 12 students per classroom, teachers are expected to teach curriculum that fits the needs of each student, regardless of the skill level of each individual.



Ivor Mitchell, the former principal of the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center, one of the 13 facilities, served as an employee of the Juvenile Services Education System from July 2015 to July 2017 and was the third administrator at the Baltimore center in four years, he said. He quit his position, he said, because he constantly found himself disappointed with how the system was run.



"They take curriculum from the public school system, and therefore is based on a 10-month scale," Mitchell explained. "There are things like spelling bees and math competitions, which is okay, but it really is academic babysitting versus giving them a chance to gain traction."



Another issue accounted for in the monitoring unit's reports is retaining the teachers, who are hired by the state Department of Education.



The areas in which there are difficulties finding certified teachers include technology education, special education and math, according to Sylvia Lawson, deputy state superintendent for school effectiveness and chief performance officer.



"One reason for the issue of (staff) retention is that the surrounding school systems just pay better in the metro area where many of the facilities are located," said Margi Joshi, a monitor of several facilities.



The state's Department of Education, with help from the Office of Human Resources, offers a sign-on bonus and retention bonus as incentives to hire certified teachers who will continue employment with the Juvenile Services Education System, according to a written response from the Department of Education to a monitoring unit report. The response also states that administrators of the Juvenile Services Education System have recently hired a human resources liaison who is dedicated solely to finding staff for the program.



Moroney also explained that teachers and principals who work for the Juvenile Services Education System see working year-round as a major issue in terms of their wanting to stay in the system.



Funding for the program comes from three places: $16,602,385 from the state, making up 83.1 percent of total funding, $1,013,311 from the federal government, with 5.1 percent of total funding, and $2,365,221 from local system reimbursement, contributing 11.8 percent of total funding, according to the state's Department of Education.



Maryland state Sen. Dolores Kelley, D-Baltimore County, has advocated for an increase in funding for JSES programming in order to attract and retain teachers and other staff.



"I was really trying to get them to agree to a bill that didn't get anywhere because I was asking for comparable pay and standards," Kelley told the University of Maryland's Capital News Service. "Many things that are very basic that any public school would be taken to the woodshed for not doing, haven't been done. The vision is just not there on part of the department."



The Maryland Department of Budget and Management determines salary based on a variety of factors, including years of service and regional location of the school, according to the state Department of Education. While annual wages can be similar for teachers in the Juvenile Services Education System and teachers in local public schools, educators who work in the Department of Juvenile Services' facilities do not get summers off.



All facilities are equipped with computer labs, smart boards and iPads for student use, but there are several factors that prohibit the children from benefiting from technology, according to Kelley and agency monitors.



"Our observation on that is that technology is not consistently available to kids and teachers in MSDE (Maryland State Department of Education) JSES (Juvenile Services Education System) schools," Moroney told Maryland's Capital News Service in an email. "Stuff breaks and takes forever to get fixed."



The state's Department of Education provides professional development to teachers on the most effective ways to integrate technology into their daily lessons, according to Grinnage-Pulley.



"The kids are very aware of the fact that one really promising way to get back on track is school, they very much understand that," Eliza Steele, one of the monitors from the Juvenile Justice Monitoring Unit, explained. "But they're stuck in a system that doesn't represent a fair opportunity to get out of it."



Mitchell, as well as the team of monitors, explained that many educators and principals will have ideas for how to introduce programs that they feel will be meaningful for the kids, but they'll be shot down by the administration for not following the current system.



"Adhering to (the Maryland College and Career Ready Standards) is critical to the future success of those students," Grinnage-Pulley told the University of Maryland's Capital News Service in an email. "There is plenty of room for teacher creativity within the parameters set forth."



Grinnage-Pulley noted that the standards, which are used by Maryland public schools, are designed to make certain students who return to traditional schools do not fall behind.



According to a 2012 study from the Federal Interagency Reentry Council, 66 percent of youths do not return to school after they are released from juvenile services facilities.



"You come in thinking that you are going to be a change agent and what you quickly realize is that what they want you to do is be a soldier and implement bureaucratic strategies that you know don't work," Mitchell stated.



Cheltenham Youth Detention Center, which was renovated and reopened on Nov. 16, 2016, prides itself on having a computer lab, smart boards in every classroom and elective courses, such as pottery, available in its education hall.



The facility is in Prince George's County and has the capacity to fit 72 male inmates; as of Nov. 17, 42 boys were housed in the facility.



The principal of Cheltenham, Michael Dodson, requires his teachers to submit a semester schedule, as well as weekly lesson plans to ensure teachers from the state Department of Education and employees from Maryland's Department of Juvenile Services are on the same page.



As of last month, there were 11 teacherssix dedicated to core courses, four for classes geared toward special education and one resource teacherwho work at the facility.



When Dodson arrived in July, he made an effort to transform the designated classrooms into real workspaces by asking the teachers to decorate the white, cinder block walls with things that would typically sit in a public school classroom. The math classroom is filled with colorful posters, while the social studies room has a map on the back wall.



"The atmosphere is very important because if a classroom looks like the schools these kids used to go to, they'll be more engaged and willing to learn," Dodson explained. "Our kids have great relationships with their teachers, and the ones who have been here longer are very protective of their teachers."



He also requires teachers to incorporate technologyeither the computer lab or iPadsat least once a week. Programs such as office skills management and career research development are also offered for the young men at the facility.



While Dodson is having success at Cheltenham, the system in its entirety is not promoting the best solution for children in the juvenile justice system, according to the monitoring unit.



"It seems to us it doesn't make sense to keep doing the same thing and seeing the same result," Moroney said. "MSDE (Maryland State Department of Education) itself really needs to advocate in a much better way for the JSES (Juvenile Services Education System) to be properly resourced."



The state should evaluate the feasibility of the Department of Education Juvenile Services Education System continuing to maintain responsibility for education services within the facilities, monitors wrote in their most recent report.



Moroney told the University of Maryland's Capital News Service that he suggests some laws and regulations be revisited, or that pilot programs and charter schools could be the better route for these children.



"It should be the most direct, high-impact program because you have an audience that is captive until their release, for a lack of a better wordthey want to learn," Ivor said. "Their back is against the wall, life has moved on without them and they know it. They want an opportunity not just to learn but to progress their educational futures."
A Safe Station stands as part of Maryland's Brooklyn Park Fire Department Dec. 1, 2017. It is one of the most popular ones in Anne Arundel County. (Photo: Sue Kopen Katcef)

ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, Md.

Jenna Keefer poses with Angel Traynor, a recovery-housing director in Anne Arundel County. They met while Keefer was in treatment and have both struggled with drug addiction during their lifetimes. (Photo courtesy Jenna Keefer).

(December 19, 2017)Among a growing number in Maryland, Jenna Keefer has struggled with drug addiction.Keefer moved in with her then-boyfriend when she was 18 years old. She said they started experimenting with different prescription pain pills before later turning to heroin."It just, you know, snowballed out of control. I was a full blown heroin addict in the next five years," Keefer said.A program in Anne Arundel County helped her turn her life around: She was the first person to go through the county's "Safe Station" program.In April, Anne Arundel County pulled together resources to create a multidisciplinary effort, opening up police and fire stations in the county to anyone seeking treatment for drug addiction. It teams up law enforcement, the state's attorney's office and a 24-hour crisis team.Keefer's sister urged her to give the program a try."I was determined that I wasn't doing anything. I wasn't going to take any of their suggestions. I was just going to appease my family basically," she said. "I was scared of judgment, scared to be looked down on, but it was just the complete opposite."Keefer grew up in Brooklyn Park, Maryland, and moved to Glen Burnie, Maryland, about 10 years ago. Now, the 29-year-old said, she has been clean for six months.Maryland has spent millions to fight its opioid addiction crisis. Still the lives lost to opioid overdoses are in the thousands, and the numbers continue to grow.Statewide, at least 1,069 people have lost their lives so far this year because of opioid-related overdoses, according to state health department data.Anne Arundel County is one of the hardest hit areas. County police say so far this year over 900 overdoses have been reported, and more than 100 residents have lost their lives due to an overdose.The safe station program has already helped at least 186 county residents, according to county police. As of the end of September, 63 percent of those residents had either completed treatment, were still in it, or opted for outpatient services. Police also say there have been over 300 total visits to the stations since its creation."After the first month we had more than anticipated, but then from then on it's just kind of exploded," said Jen Corbin. Corbin leads the county's Crisis Response Team. The 24-7 unit gets a call from the fire or police station once someone shows up. They help with the next steps toward treatment."Really it's their choice because they're going here willingly, wanting help," she said. Corbin also said one of the hardest parts of her job is looking past the addiction. "There's another person there."Michael O'Malley is a firefighter at the Brooklyn Park station, one of the county's most popular Safe Stations, according to police. It is also the same station Keefer visited.Firefighters and police officers are the first to answer the doors at the stations, talking with individuals until the crisis response team arrives.A few of O'Malley's family members have struggled with drug addiction, he said."If we only help one person, what did it cost us? It cost us a little bit of time. I don't think that's a big thing to ask to help somebody restart their life," he said.Having family members dealing with addiction, O'Malley said, he started off skeptical of the program."Seeing how many people we've actually helped, seeing just how much it means to them just to have someone actually care what they have to say, I definitely have bought in 100 percent to this program now," he said."I was definitely scared, but that kind of all started drifting away once they started talking to me, and, you know, just talking to me like I was a normal person," Keefer said.Wes Adams is the state's attorney for Anne Arundel County, and knows about drug addiction all too well."I grew up in addiction. My dad was an alcoholic and an addict. Both of my wife's brothers we've lost to addiction," he said.Now, he's fighting back."I have an ability that maybe not everybody hasso I'm going to leverage that and try to save people."Because many inpatient facilities won't accept individuals with open warrants, Adams works with addicts who come into the Safe Stations with them. Before the start of the Safe Station program, people had to serve their warrants, often spending a few nights in jail before they could more forward. Now, Adams said, treatment can come before their court dates.'"They're into treatment so that when they finally do come to court, they're in a better frame of mind. Presumably we're going to get better outcomes from that particular offender," he told the University of Maryland's Capital News Service.While going through treatment, Keefer met Angel Traynor, a director of five recovery homes in Annapolis.Traynor says there's a small window of opportunity to help someone suffering from addiction."It's a great program, some place you can go where you're not going to be judged, and you're going to get that help that you're asking for," she said.But Traynor and Corbin agree there are places where even this initiative falls short.Treatment centers' limited hours of operation have limited the program's potency. While the Safe Stations themselves as well as the crisis response team are 24-7, many of the treatment facilities are not."That's really hard when you can't get them in right then, or it's 11 o'clock at night and nobody's taking people," Corbin said. While the centers may run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Corbin says addiction does not."You just don't want them to return to the environment."Maryland's Opioid Operation Command Center Executive Director Clay Stamp said the state is working to expand these hours."That's the good news. The bad news is time's not on our side, because every day we have people dying," he said.Even after treatment, space in recovery housing is limited."It's the beds. We need more treatment beds," Traynor said. According to Corbin, recovery housing isn't currently covered by the state when individuals don't have their own funds or insurance. Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene told Capital News Service those funds won't come until fiscal year 2019."People come out of in-patient and then they have no place to land," she said. "I think that's where our system has broken down.""It's not treatment and done. That's not how it works. It's a whole continuum of care that needs to happen to help those people," Traynor said.Keefer said she tried to find help through rehabilitation facilities before going through the Safe Station program."It was either so much money that there's no way I would ever be able to pay for it or they didn't take my insurance," she said. "I know that's a lot of people that are still out using's problem."Some people may not have private insurance or qualify under Medicaid. In those cases, the state's rates for treatment match those specified under Medicaid, according to the state health department.Twenty-four hour, residential treatment centers provide a range of different services depending on the needs of the individual receiving treatment. Because of this, the rates range from almost $200 to almost $350 per day for each person, depending on the type of treatment needed.Traynor said she does believe county and state officials are aware of many of these problems."I think they all realize something has to change," she said. "Governor Hogan is invested and wants to find a way up and out of this that is not jailing because we're not going to jail our way out of this issue."For now, the program is continuing to make a difference for many in the area. Despite the everyday struggle, Keefer said she's beginning to enjoying life beyond addiction."From 10 years of using 'til now, it's just amazing. Waking up and wondering what I'm going to eat for breakfast, not where I'm going to get my next fix it's just the best feeling I could ever have."
A 5-2 vote from Palm Beach County made history today by becoming the first county in Florida  as well as the largest county in the United States  to ban the practice of conversion therapy for minors.

Conversion therapy refers to a number of therapeutic methods aiming to change an individual's sexuality or gender identity. LGBT youth are usually placed into these types of therapy by their parents who believe that changing their sexuality is the best option.

However, the practice has been condemned by nearly every major psychological association including the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, World Health Organization, American Psychiatric Association and more, and has been found to lead lasting effects on children's propensity for intimacy, relationships and more.

We applaud the efforts by the county commissioners to ensure that the children of Palm Beach County are protected from these harms, and that their families arent duped by trusted professionals to whom they turn for support during a vulnerable time, Carolyn Reyes, the Youth Policy Counsel and Coordinator of the National Center for Lesbian Rights Born Perfect campaign to end conversion therapy, said.

She continued, Numerous studies have linked conversion therapy to depression, substance abuse and even suicide, and these risks are particularly acute for youth.

This ban, like the others enacted in Florida cities such as Miami Beach, Key West and Wilton Manors will only affect state-licensed psychologists and children under the age of 18. Clergy members and other non-licensed therapists are not affected by the ban and are still free to practice conversion therapy.

Alongside county commissioners, the ban was made possible by the efforts of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), NCLR and more.

This countywide ban will encompass 39 municipalities as well as unincorporated areas within the county, more than doubling the 16 cities in Florida that had previously passed similar bans. A number of states such as California, Nevada, Oregon and Vermont have passed statewide bans, but multiple attempts to enact the same statewide in the state of Florida have failed.

Broward County is working on a similar ban and is expected to enact it in January. Gainesville City Commissioners are also expected to enact a ban in the coming months.

Palm Beach County made history today, becoming the first county in Florida to ban conversion therapy for minors, Senior Policy Counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center Scott McCoy said.

We applaud the countys commissioners for supporting the well-being of LGBTQ youth, and for taking a stand against this extremely dangerous and fraudulent practice that claims to change an individual's sexual orientation or gender identity.
Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson directed state officials to allow for same-sex parents to receive birth certificates with both of their names listed.

State Circuit Court Judge Tim Fox ordered the governor and state officials to follow the ruling in the US Supreme Courts 2017 case Pavan v. Smith, according to Metro Weekly. The case found that same-sex couples have the same rights as straight couples in being listed on a childs birth certificate, even when they are not the biological parents.

Arkansas has a presumption of parentage, law which states the male married to a female is given parental rights even if they are not the biological parent. The Supreme Court found that same-sex couples should have that same right.

We are pleased Governor Hutchinson is taking this step to ensure that married same-sex parents in Arkansas are treated equally, the family law director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights Catherine Sakimura said in a statement. This is settled law.
When I write my columns for SFGN, sometimes I must remember all my readers were not 18 years old in 1968, that some of you may not remember Vietnam, Watergate or Woodstock. Some of you may not even know George Carlin.

Today, Donald Trumps latest antics, a move out of Rick Scotts playbook, bring back the life and legacy, the lunacy and the laughter of George Carlin. More than just being a comedian, George Carlin was a piercing social theorist, a biting monologist, and an ever so sophisticated individual.

He came to American notoriety in 1972, when he went on stage doing a monologue titled Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television. These words were fuck, shit, piss, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits. Even today, I am uncomfortable using them in print or my writings. I think there is a better way to say things.

At the time, the words were considered highly inappropriate and unsuitable for broadcast on the public airwaves in the U.S., whether radio or television.

As such, they were avoided in scripted material, and bleep censored in the rare cases in which they were used.

Broadcast standards differ in different parts of the world, then and now, although most of the words on Carlins original list remain taboo on American television.

The list was not an official enumeration of forbidden words, but rather was compiled by Carlin for use in his routines. Nonetheless, a New York City radio broadcast on WBAI featuring these words led to a U. S. Supreme Court ruling that helped establish the extent to which the federal government could regulate speech on broadcast television and radio in the United States. The Federal Communications Commission reprimanded the station.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the FCC action in 1978, by a vote of 5 to 4, ruling that the routine was indecent but not obscene. The Court accepted as compelling the governments interests in:

Shielding children from potentially offensive material, and

Ensuring that unwanted speech does not enter ones home.

The Court stated that the FCC had the authority to prohibit such broadcasts during hours when children were likely to be among the audience, and gave the FCC broad leeway to determine what constituted indecency in different contexts. This eventually led to the Communications Decency Act, but if you have heard him at his public rallies, it is one of many laws that our current president apparently has no use for.

However, while our president has no problem being vulgar, acting despicably, or cursing frequently, he does have a problem with some words when they involve protecting the rights of minorities, speaking out about diversity or enhance the stature of African-Americans. Some would even call Trump racist, but hey the White House has a new unofficial explanation. He is just racial.

Frankly, I think he is Neanderthal and the latest playbook he is using is proof for the pudding. Last week, his administration directed policy analysts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the use of seven specific words and phrases would be prohibited.

On the list are the words vulnerable, diversity, entitlement, transgender, fetus, evidence-based, and science-based. The decision has not only been deemed as reckless and dangerous, but an offense to the scientific community.

Floridas governor Rick Scott used the same tool to ban the words climate-change. As CNN has noted, this would not be the Trump administrations first attack on scientists or their abilities to communicate to the public. Since his days on the campaign trail, Donald Trump has denied, belittled or argued against the impacts of climate change.

Ever since he assumed the office of the presidency, he has not only surrounded himself and his cabinet with climate change skeptics, but has acted to suppress scientific action and thought. He is a moron, essentially, and he proves it daily.

I mean I went back to George Carlin but this is even reminiscent of the masterful book and play Inherit the Wind. We already knew about Mike Pence. We may have people in this administration denying the theory of evolution. I dont have to tell you about the Scopes trial do I? Damn, just go google it, okay?

This goes far beyond an attack on lexicon or word-choice. A ban on words not only creates barriers for scientists who need to communicate, but also breaks public trust in the areas they are meant to investigate and research. William Jennings Bryan. Donald Trump. Brothers of the same mother.

The defense attorney in the Scopes case was Clarence Darrow, one of Americas finest. They have made one man plays of his stature and nobility, one of the finest lawyers our country has ever seen, a man whose career every attorney looks up to.

In his closing, and this was back in 1925, he said We have the purpose of preventing bigots and ignoramuses from controlling the education of the United States.

As for me, I admired George Carlin, and even got to interview him once. A genius with words, clarity with insight, a marvelous modern man. Go watch that video on YouTube. You will love it, even today. I promise. He would not be as polite with Trump as Clarence Darrow was with William Jennings Bryan.

Today, George Carlin would tell Donald Trump to Go fuck yourself, motherfucker. How can you oppose climate change and diversity, inclusion and transgender people? I think I join with Carlin in using those indecent words in my column. Trump made me do it. I know its sad. But, anything goes for the white wing.
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.




Standardbred Canada will announce the names of the 2017 OBrien Award finalists on Wednesday, December 20, at 2:00 p.m. (EST) on the website.

There will be two finalists in each of the 12 horse categories and five people categories. Finalists are the top two point earners from ballots cast by OBrien Award voters across the country plus one Fan Ballot that is made up of all of the votes cast by readers and members for the online ballot.

The OBrien Award winners will be announced and honoured at the annual awards banquet on Saturday, February 3, 2018 at the Hilton Mississauga/Meadowvale (formerly the Delta Meadowvale Hotel) in Mississauga, Ontario.

Tickets and program ads are now available for purchase by contacting the Industry Marketing Department at (905) 858-3060 x 207 or 243.

For more information on hotel reservations, the schedule for the OBrien Awards and more, click here.
Judy Davis-Wilson, the current executive administrator of the Delaware Standardbred Breeders Fund and involved at the highest levels of the sport for more than 40 years, has been appointed by United States Harness Writers Association President Tim Bojarski to a six-year term on the Hall of Fame Screening Committee, which ultimately decides the ballot candidates for the sports highest honour, the Hall of Fame, every summer.

A daughter of two noted Delaware-based horsepeople (Olin and Ruth Davis), Judy has worked at tracks in her native state and nearby Pennsylvania, for the United States Trotting Association, and for the Hambletonian Society as stakes manager for ten years before assuming her current position. Davis-Wilson served as president of USHWA from 2006-2008 and as treasurer for several years after that, and she has been voted the Alan Prince USHWA Member of the Year.

Judy Davis-Wilson has worked in the sport in many capacities since age 15, and has watched the careers of several generations of horsemen progress and produce statistics and performances that would make them Hall of Fame material, noted Bojarski. The wealth of experience and exposure she has gained in harness racing, along with her integrity, makes her a desirable member of the screening committee.

In a straight Harrington-Harrington swap, as Davis-Wilson comes on the screening committee, her lifelong acquaintance from the Mid-state Delaware city, Randy Manges, concludes a 12-year service on the committee.

(USHWA)
Longtime Standardbred breeder/owner William Mulligan passed away on Monday, December 18 at the age of 87.

Mulligan owned nearly 300 horses in his career and was the breeder of more than 200.

Among the top horses he owned was Spellbound Hanover 3,1:54.3 ($962,395), who was the Nova Award winner as the top two-year-old trotting filly in 2000. Trained by Bill Popfinger, she captured the $346,000 Merrie Annabelle and the $131,325 Matron that year.

As a broodmare, she is the dam of $2.5 million winner Marion Marauder, the 2016 Trotter of the Year, who was bred by Mulligan.

A complete obituary and arrangements will be posted when available.

Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of William Mulligan.

(USTA)
Forging Soul Cap Co., A Scripture-inspired Hat Company, Launches on Kickstarter

Contact: Ryan Pape, Founder & President, Forging Soul Cap Co., 203-561-2606FORT MILL, S.C., Dec. 20, 2017 / Standard Newswire / -- Forging Soul Cap Co., a designer and manufacturer of scripture-inspired hats, officially launched its crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter.Forging Soul hats are designed to insert the power of scripture into any setting. Each hat features an unobtrusive, scripture-based design associated with a different biblical verse.The company is inspired by the life and tragic passing of Dylan Pape  who survived cancer, lived with serious medical issues, and who was tragically shot and killed by police in March 2016. The company aims to empower people to overcome adversity through scripture."What I admired most about my brother was his faithful and fearless attitude. It wasn't about how many times he got knocked down, but that each time he got back up and kept moving forward. That's the spirit of Forging Soul," said Ryan Pape, Founder & President of Forging Soul. "The word forge in our company name has a double meaning at the core of our message. First, it's that you continue to forge ahead no matter what life throws your way. Second, it's that you recognize life's trials are forging you into the strongest version of yourself."In addition to its empowering message, Forging Soul is dedicated to making an impact. The company donates 10% of all purchases to support charities that promote mental health in adolescents. It hopes to help eradicate the stigma surrounding mental health in America's youth.The Forging Soul snapback hat collection is offered for both men and women. The hats are one-size fits most and available in multiple designs and colorways.Forging Soul hats are available for pre-order via Kickstarter until January 8th. The hats will retail for $31.99 plus shipping, but can be pre-ordered for $25-30 including shipping.For more information visit Forging Soul on Kickstarter:
Water restriction status signs have been erected at key locations in Whakatane and Ohope to remind residents of the need to conserve water until the current period of dry weather ends.

Whakatane District Council infrastructure general manager Tomasz Krawczyk says in recent years, voluntary water use reductions have ensured that reservoir storage for the Whakatane and Ohope water supply schemes stayed at an acceptable level, allowing formal restrictions on hose and sprinkler use to be avoided.

Tomasz says consumers may also have noticed a slight earthy taste in the drinking water supplied via the Ohope and Whakatane water schemes.

The current dry conditions have reduced the Whakatane River flow, and combined with relatively high water temperatures, that has led to an increase in algae levels, he explains. To address that, we have increased the level of water treatment being undertaken.

Tomasz assures consumers that the water supply is safe to drink. Our water supply is chlorinated and UV-treated and complies fully with New Zealands Drinking Water Standards. In conjunction with the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, we will continue to monitor river conditions and algae levels while the dry spell continues.

The council is also monitoring river water salinity to guard against salt water intrusion into the treatment system during very high tide/low river flow conditions. If necessary, water can be drawn from further upriver.

While there is no immediate threat, Tomasz says the council has put in place a three-stage restriction process, beginning with a call for voluntary reductions in water use. If needed, stage two would see the current blue voluntary conservation signs replaced by orange signs, indicating that hoses and sprinklers can only be used on alternate days, between 6am-8am and 6pm-8pm. The third stage, marked by a red water restriction status sign, would see a total ban introduced on all hose and sprinkler use.

We hope that restrictions can be avoided, but thats entirely dependent on the river flow and tidal situation and the ability of households and businesses to voluntarily reduce their water use, says Tomasz.

Water conservation tips:

Bucket-wash cars or boats, if possible

Dont refill or top-up swimming pools

If you know you have leaking taps, fix them now

If you see a leaking water line, report it to the Council as soon as possible

Flush toilets sparingly

Avoid using your bath and cut your shower time down as much as possible

While waiting for hot water to flow through to showers or taps, catch the unused water in a bucket for use in washing machines or for other purposes.

Further information will be provided to update consumption and water storage trends.
Mira Costa became the first team this season to win a set against Cathedral Catholic, but the Mustangs eventually fell in four sets in the CIF SoCal Regional final Tuesday night.
During the fall, something happens to cooks. Taste buds steer toward deep, hearty flavors and comfort foods, and for so many of us, that means that soup is on.

One of my favorites is French onion soup. This time of year, its a constant on many restaurant menus. It is loved for its beefy broth, sweet onions and layer of melted cheese. Add in some toasted bread, and it satisfies as a meal.

The onions, of course, are paramount, and I like a good amount of onions in the soup. In every spoonful, you should encounter onion, broth, cheese and bite of bread. Thats what brings French onion soup together.

ONIONS TO USE

The most common type is the yellow onion. But you can also use white onions, sweet onions and Spanish onions. If its a deep flavor youre after, try red onions. Slice them in -inch-thick slices. I like to cut them into 1/4-inch half circles so they are discernible. If the onions are sliced too thin, you run the risk of having them cook too fast and burn or cook down next to nothing.

COOK THE ONIONS

Start out heating some oil in a pot or Dutch oven. Make sure the onions have some space. Most recipes call for cooking down or caramelizing the onions so they release their natural sugars. When the sugars are released, the onions change color. How dark you want them to be is up to you. A honey color to a deep amber is generally safe. Keep in mind that the darker the color, the deeper the flavor. Just be certain to keep an eye on the onions so they dont burn.

Youre aiming for a sweet taste, not a burned one. Also, dont stir the onions a lot, or they wont caramelize properly.

AND THE CHEESE?

Ah, the cheese. Another best part of French onion soup. The classic route calls for Gruyere (groo-YEHR), a cows milk cheese that has some nutty nuances. You can use several varieties, but choose wisely. French onion soup demands a good melting cheese. Options include muenster, fontina, Havarti and provolone.

AND THE BROTH?

Most onion soups call for a beef broth or stock. You need to keep in mind that many store-bought broths or stocks are high in sodium.

Many cheeses also have plenty of sodium. So you need to balance the two so the soup isnt overly salty. It is best to choose reduced-sodium varieties.

One of my favorite soup bases is reduced-sodium Better Than Bouillon. It is sold in a 3 1/2-ounce jar, and you use 1 teaspoon to 8 ounces of boiling water.

The original version of todays recipe (adapted from Martha Stewart Halloween magazine, October 2011) calls for Morbier (MOR-byay), a creamy and mild cows milk cheese from France. Look for Morbier cheese at specialty shops. Or substitute with muenster.

Onion soup with cheese

Serves: 6

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Total time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 pounds yellow onions, peeled, thinly sliced into half circles

1/4 teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup sherry

8 cups fat-free, low-sodium beef or vegetable broth

4 sprigs thyme

1/4 cup port wine, optional

1/2 French baguette, sliced 1/4-inch thick

1 clove garlic, cut in half

6 slices (about 1 ounce each) Muenster or Morbier cheese

Directions

In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium heat. Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until dark golden and caramelized, 30-40 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the sherry and bring to a boil over medium-high heat; continue boiling until the sherry is reduced by half.

Add the broth and thyme. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until onions are very soft, about 30 minutes. Stir in port, if using.

Meanwhile, heat broiler with rack in middle. Place the bread slices on a baking sheet and broil until lightly toasted. Remove from the broiler and rub the cut side of the garlic on the slices.

When the soup is done, turn the broiler back on and ladle the soup into 6-ounce ramekins. Top each with a toasted baguette slice or two. Drape cheese on top of bread so it hangs over the edge of the ramekin slightly. Place ramekins on a rimmed baking sheet and broil until cheese is browned in spots, about 2 minutes. Remove from the broiler and serve immediately.

 Adapted from Martha Stewart Halloween, October 2011 issue. Tested by Susan Selasky for the Free Press Test Kitchen

Nutrition information per serving: 243 calories (44 percent from fat), 11 g fat (5 g saturated fat), 20 g carbohydrates, 11 g protein, 789 mg sodium, 20 mg cholesterol, 2 g fiber.
The freighter KM London remains moored at the Port of Longview under Coast Guard orders not to leave following Thursday night's grounding near Stella.

A report on the condition of the 35,000-ton vessel was not available Monday from the Coast Guard or its agent, Transmarine Navigation. A Transmarine representative said Tuesday his company no longer has any involvement in the matter.

The ship, loaded with wheat and drafting 42 feet, went aground outside the northern side of the Columbia River shipping lane just downstream of Longview. It was refloated during Friday morning's high tide and taken by tugboat to the Port of Longview, where it remains docked at Berth 7. The vessel, launched just a month earlier, sustained at least some damage because the grounding caused water to leak into bow.

An investigation into the ground is continuing, according to Petty Officer Levi Read of the Coast Guard station in Astoria. He said he agency has no timeline for completing its investigation or lifting is "Order of the Port" hold on the ship.

"It can't move until we say it can move," Read said.

The Liberian-flagged vessel is owned by a subsidiary of the giant Yang Ming shipping company and was en route from Vancouver to Japan.
TACOMA  The Longview School District paid its own law firm to conduct what it described as an independent investigation into the use of a controversial isolation booth at Mint Valley Elementary School in 2012, according to testimony in a federal civil rights lawsuit Tuesday.

Documents related to the investigation have never have been made public and were ruled inadmissible for the trial during the discovery phase of the lawsuit.

Although the investigation was paid for using taxpayer money, lawyers representing the school district have argued that investigation is work product and therefore privileged material. Its findings have remained off-limits throughout the two-year lawsuit despite a motion to compel evidence.

The investigation was conducted by Dionne & Rorick, the districts general counsel at the time, according to testimony. The investigation followed a public outcry sparked by photos of a 44-foot padded box at Mint Valley Elementary School posted to Facebook by an angry Longview mother in November 2012.

But U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Bryan agreed Tuesday to consider a motion by the plaintiffs to admit the investigation as evidence after its contents were referenced by former Longview School District Assistant Superintendent Chris Fritsch.

It was a particularly noteworthy moment during the twelfth day of the federal jury trial because it appeared to at least open the door for the records to be admitted as evidence.

In his testimony, Fritsch said the district launched the investigation shortly after photos of the booth surfaced online in which Longview mother Ana Bate said her son told her that students were being placed inside the box for stuff we all do.

The images of the windowless booth sparked a social media firestorm and resulted in relentless media coverage by local and national media outlets over the ensuing days.

We started the investigation to see if there was any merit to  what was being alleged on the Facebook post, Fritsch said Tuesday.

Results of the investigation ultimately did not warrant any disciplinary action, Fritsch said Tuesday. Throughout the trial, the districts lawyers have argued that the booth was used lawfully at all times.

Jill Diehl, the districts special education director at the time, also testified Tuesday that she found the booth was used appropriately through her own investigation.

Diehl said she shredded her notes related to the investigation for confidentiality reasons after converting them into typed copy.

Diehl said her investigation primarily involved former special education teacher Jerry Stein and two paraeducators who oversaw use of the both. Stein has been named as a defendant in the suit along with former Mint Valley Principal Patrick Kelley and former Longview School District Superintendent Suzanne Cusick.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in November 2015 by the families of five former Mint Valley students who claim they suffered severe psychological injuries when they were placed inside an isolation booth five years ago.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs also argue that students were forced inside the padded room at the school, and that this violated their constitutional rights.

All of the former students testified last week that they were placed inside the isolation booth when they were general education students. The booth was housed inside a classroom used for Mint Valleys Children's Learning Center, which served the districts most behaviorally challenged students.

Parents of the students, who are named as plaintiffs in the suit, have also testified that the childrens disabilities were aggravated when they were allegedly forced inside the booth.

But the district is denying that four of the children were ever placed inside the booth. And upon cross-examination, the districts defense attorneys have used school and medical records to argue that the childrens disabilities existed before they made their allegations. The defense has also argued that the childrens disabilities were aggravated by childhood trauma, not by the booth.

In addition to the children and parents, the plantiffs has also called a forensic psychologist to testify that the children are not lying, while the defense has called their own psychologist to cast doubt upon the kids claims.

Tessa Green was the last of the parents to testify Tuesday. Kelley, the former principal, is expected to finish testifying Wednesday. Hell be followed by Cusick, who is testifying through deposition.

The plaintiffs are also expected to call a doctor hired to evaluate the student who the district admits was placed inside the booth. Stein and two paraeducators are also scheduled to testify Thursday or Friday.

The trial is scheduled to run through Christmas and could possibly conclude after the first of the year.

Attorneys for the suing families say damages could be tens of millions of dollars if they win the case.
Earlier this week, an Amtrak train derailed in Pierce County reportedly killing three people and injuring many more. Our prayers go out to the accident victims and their families of this terrible tragedy.

The rail industry has come under increasingly hostile fire from state agencies and environmental groups over safety issues. In light of this weeks tragedy, it makes sense to research rail safety.

Our goal, as with past editorials weve written, such as the Truth on taxes, is to offer facts on the issue.

Two good sources of information and data on rail safety are the Association of American Railroads (AAR) at www.aar.org and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) at www.fra.dot.gov.

According to the AAR website, the more money invested to modernize and improve rail traffic equals better safety. This does not surprise us. The rail industry is capital intensive, meaning it costs significant amounts of money to build, use and maintain railways.

Railroads invest more than 40 cents out of every revenue dollar back into the rail network, notes the AAR. This is a huge amount of money. Most businesses dont come close to this kind of re-investment percentage.

Given the rail industry is capital intensive, it also is not surprising that literally billions of dollars have been spent in the last 35 years. According to AAR, railroads invested more than $635 billion between 1981 and 2016; and plan to spend another $22 billion in 2017.

Given this vast investment of money and labor, we expect to see rail safety improve over time  and it has. According to 2017 data from the Federal Railroad Administration, across the United States train accident rates are down 44 percent, equipment-caused accident rates are down 34 percent, track-related accidents are down 53 percent and the train derailment rate is down 44 percent.

FRA safety database reports for 2016 in Washington state reveal trains carried 3,319,350 passengers over 89,620,418 passenger miles.

Over those 89.6 million passenger miles, zero passenger deaths were recorded, while 38 passengers were hurt. Some of the injuries people suffered took place when riders got on and off trains, stumbled while on board trains, were assaulted while riding on trains or were related to train accidents.

In other data highlighted by the FRA, highway-rail and trespassing incidents account for 95.8 percent of all fatalities. A highway-rail incident is described as any impact between a rail and a highway user at a crossing site, including vehicles and other highway or sidewalk users at either public or private crossings.

Overall, according to the Federal Railroad Administration and the Association of American Railroads trains are a safe mode for moving people and goods.

We learned while reading about this weeks train derailment in Pierce County that PTC (Positive Train Control) was not being used on the stretch of track where the Amtrak line crashed.

Positive Train Control is somewhat like the feature in new cars where the vehicles are automatically stopped if sensors detect they will crash into something.

The federal Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 mandated that passenger railroads and class I freight railroads install PTC by the end of 2015 on main lines used to transport passengers or certain toxic materials. The deadline for PTC installation has been extended a few times since then as systems were installed and tested. Further extensions are available up to the end of 2020, according to the AAR.

The idea behind PTC is to make train traffic safer. What PTC is supposed to prevent is train-to-train collisions and derailments caused by excessive speed  which is what appears to be part of the issue in this weeks Amtrak crash after news agencies reported the train was traveling 80 mph in a 30 mph stretch of track.

PTC also will avert trains from being steered onto sections of track where maintenance activities are taking place. Finally, PTC is supposed to stop a train from moving through a track switch that is in the wrong position so the train doesnt wind up on the wrong track.

Positive Train Control will not prevent issues that cause accidents. In cases of equipment failure, PTC likely wont be of any assistance. If an automobile is driven in front of a train, PTC wouldnt be able to stop a moving train quickly enough to avoid an accident. The same goes for people who trespass and stand, sit or lie on tracks.

It may take quite some time for the investigators to determine what caused this weeks tragic Amtrak train crash in our state. Again, our thoughts and prayers go out to the people and families devastated by the accident.

We know the train was traveling way too fast. We also know accident statistics show train traffic typically is very safe.

Given the rail industrys track record of safety and investment, we hope this weeks Amtrak tragedy isnt used as a reason to demonize rail traffic. We should not let fear and misinformation stymie progress in the rail transportation and cargo industries.
Durable use of renewable energy stressed

The 4th International Conference on Mechanical Engineering and Renewable Energy (ICMERE) was held at Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET) organised by Mechanical Engineering of CUET on Tuesday.

Chittagong Bureau :

Finance Secretary of the Ministry of Finance Md. Muslim Chowdhury said, we must go ahead with industrial development through durable use of renewable energy .

He said now the world is thinking to use the durable energy instead of fossil fuel and health hazard energy which destroy the environment.

He disclosed it while addressing the concluding session of the 3-day long International Conference on renewable energy at a city posh hotel on Tuesday evening as Chief Guest.

The finance secretary hailed the role of CUET for arranging such a international conference which will play a key role to proceed with the renewable energy.

Dean of Mechanical Engineering of Chittagong University of Engineering Technology (CUET) and Chairman of Conference Committee Prof. Dr.Sajal Chandra preside over the concluding session attended by its Vice Chancellor Prof Dr. Rafiqul Alam as special guest.

Among others, Head of Mechanical Engr.Department Prof. Dr. Jamaluddin Ahmed, Prof. Akio Miyara of Japan University of Saga, and President of conference technical committee Prof. Md.Mahbubul Alam spoke on the occasion.

Dr Mizanur Rahman , Secretary of Conference Technical Committee and Associate Profession delivered address of welcome in it, a CUET sources said. This is fourth time of conference arranged by CUET in Chittagong, sources added.

Teachers, researchers, students of 11 foreign countries attended the conference, sources added.

Mentionable that KY Steels, Confidence Cement Company and Industrial Engineering and Services patronised the conference.


Victory Day observed at city schools

Students of the International Turkish Hope School in the city are seen performing cultural events to mark the Victory day\'2017 on the school premises recently.

Campus Desk :

The Victory Day 2017 was observed at Manarat Dhaka International School and College, International Turkish Hope School (ITHS) and at Banophool Adibashi Greenheart College (BAGC) with proper honour, great enthusiasm and solemnity.

Fatima Jemaima Rahman, Vice Principal of Manarat College inaugurated an Art Competition to mark the day. Hundreds of students took part in the competition. Fatima Jemaima Rahman said, victory in the Independence War was a great achievement for us. We must uphold this achievement at any cost. She also added that we have to take inspiration from the Independence War in every sphere of our life.

Banophool Adibashi Greenheart College (BAGC) arranged special discussion and aesthetic cultural events to mark the day. A special discussion about liberation war in 1971 was held at the College campus. Rector Prof Tarun Kanti Barua presided over the discussion. Acting Principal Sudip Kumar Mondal, Assistant Professor Sheikh Shamima Rahman Shyamoli, Lecturer Sadhana Kirti Chakma and Assistant Teacher Md.Golam Kibria spoke on the occasion. Students of the college Shreya Chakma and Kafshad Tayush Noor joined the discussion.

International Turkish Hope School (ITHS) organized Victory Day Celebration program at the ITHS auditorium in the main campus decorated with colorful festoons and digitized banners portraying the memorable moments of the nation's victory in the war of liberation.

To celebrate the magnificent occasion with due respect and enthusiasm, the school has arranged a two-hour program including stunning Bengali group dances, tuneful patriotic songs, poem recitation and a splendid drama, which outstandingly depicts the scenario of the Liberation war in 1971.

Principal of ITHS, Roksana ZARIN, paid homage to the valiant freedom fighters and millions of martyrs, who shed their lives for making Bangladesh a free nation. He had shown his humble gratitude towards all the students, respected parents and the teachers present at the jovial event.

The event was honoured to have the worthy presence of Mr. Masud Ahmed; Comptroller and Auditor General of Bangladesh, Chief Guest, Prof. Dr. Mashiur Rahman; Pro-Vice Chancellor of National University, Special Guest and Mr. Jewel Aich; Freedom Fighter, Magician & Musician, Special Guest. In their address to the guests, they paid tribute to the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, heroic armed forces that had to sacrifice for the nation's victory and stated their astonishment on the immense emphasis and importance given to the culture and mother tongue of Bangladesh, in this English-medium institution. They ended their valuable speech wishing the students of ITHS prosperous lives ahead and their strong belief that they are to make entire nation proud in near future.


Banophool Adibashi Greenheart College celebrates 47th Victory Day

Campus Report :

The 47th great victory day 2017 was observed at Banophool Adibashi Greenheart College on 16 December Saturday with great enthusiasm and festivity. To mark the day Banophool Adibashi Greenheart College arranged Special discussion and Aesthetic cultural events.

On the occasion of the 47th great victory day A special discussion about liberation war in 1971 and Today's dreamy Bangladesh was held at Banophool Adibashi Greenheart College campus. Rector Professor Tarun Kanti Barua presided over the discussion. Acting Principal Sudip Kumar Mondal, Assistant Professor Sheikh Shamima Rahman Shyamoli, Lecturer Sadhana Kirti Chakma and Assistant Teacher Md.Golam Kibria Speaking of the discussion. College students Shreya Chakma and Kafshad Tayush Noor informative Speaking at the discussion.

As part of the victory day's programmes, a colourful cultural events arranged by Banophool Adibashi Greenheart College's students and teacher. In this episode, the patriotic songs are sung by student Nurani Jannat Lamia, Momi Chakma and Jannatul Ferdous Puspo. Assistant Professor Syed Nasir Afzal and lecturer Mandira Chowdhury impressed everyone by reading patriotic poetry. Students, Departmental heads, All teacher, A large number of officers and stuffs are attended the victory day programme.


Aggressive loan operation by banks not acceptable

BANGLADESH Bank has frozen Tk 51 crore from ONE Bank's current account and Tk 25 crore from Premier Bank as a restraining devise to stop their aggressive lending practices which has already taken them past the permissible limit of advance-deposit ratio (ADR). The huge number of banks in this small economy is simply racing to grab clients and in doing so they are breaching the lending regulation to a level of high risk. The mad race among the established and new banks has led to immoral practice, making the entire banking sector ailing. When the prime eligibility of opening a bank is 'political obedience' the system is bound to fall in trouble and that's happening in the country right now.

As per BB rules, conventional commercial banks are not allowed to lend more than 85 percent of their deposits. In the second week of November, ONE Bank's ADR stood at 90 percent and Premier Bank's 88 percent. The Central Bank had asked the two banks to bring down their loan to deposit ratios within the regulatory limit but they failed to do so. It has then blocked the said amounts from the deposit with the Central Bank on December 17 in line with the Bank Company Act, 1991 -- a first incident in case of private commercial banks. The penalty means the banks will not be allowed to show the blocked amount as cash reserve ratio and they will not enjoy any interest in the sum. It is a rare move taken by the Central Bank.

Premier Bank had recently appealed to the Central Bank not to freeze any amount. The Central Bank also warned two more banks - Islami Bank Bangladesh and Union Bank - of the same consequence if they did not check their reckless lending. For Islamic banks and Islamic wings of the conventional commercial banks, their loan and deposit ratio can go up to 90 percent, but the two bank's ratios have gone beyond this ceiling. The Central Bank's enhanced vigilance comes as Farmers Bank recently plunged into the pits of liquidity crisis - an episode that has raised questions about the continued existence of the four-year-old bank.

The ongoing instability in the country's banking sector has arisen due to government's reluctance to check misuse and misappropriation of funds of state-owned banks such as Sonali, Janata, and BASIC bank and later forceful change of directors of Islami and Social Islami Bank under the government supervision. Particularly banks licensed in 2013 under political consideration are in mess but neither BB nor the government took steps to enforce professionalism in their management. It ultimately plunge them into trouble, what was clearly assumed earlier by economists.

We ask the Central Bank and the government to strongly regulate the banks and their loan operations so that they remain safe before going closer to a plunge. Depositors money must be well protected and the banking sector also needs stability to help smooth socio-economic growth. Any exception will be suicidal to the economy.




Rangpur City Corporation election is a litmus test for EC

THE electoral battle for Rangpur City Corporation today is crucial for all the three - Awami League, BNP and Jatiya Party as they are considering the polls from different perspectives. But more than who wins or lose, it's a crucial litmus test for the Election Commission to arrange it in the most efficient and neutral manner. Also irrespective of winning or losing, we expect the political parties to accept the results. Moreover, if the future mayor is elected from the opposition party, the government shouldn't anyhow restrict and control his activities or unnecessarily put him behind the bars. A number of such incidents have happened in recent times. Not to forget, a winner from the opposition is also an elected representative.

Historically, our record of holding polls has been marred by dissension and violence; which has ultimately resulted in the sapping of public confidence in our democratic system and institutions. But a change to this prevailing unwholesome tradition is essential. Though city mayoral elections are held at a local level following a limited participation, but they appeared useful in giving clear hints about first-hand popularity ratings of our political parties and overall political wind. The country is expecting to hold what is arguably one of the most important parliamentary elections in its history next year, especially given that the previous one in 2014 was seriously tarnished by controversy. Thus, for the EC and the various parties that will be contesting the polls, the mayoral election could be taken as a preparatory test before that. How the EC handles its responsibilities will play a big role in restoring the confidence of the people in the system.

Some 400 thousand Rangpur city dwellers are likely to participate in today's polls and we expect the law enforcement agencies to ensure peaceful voting. Apart from that, the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) will also be used in one of the polling centers on a trial and error basis - the EC should not only make the best of it but also pinpoint its reliability and weaknesses.


2 alleged JMB activists held in city

Members of RAB in a drive arrested two suspected members of Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) from Ikbardi in Araihazar upazila of Narayangonj on Monday night.

bdnews24.com :

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) has detained two suspected activists of banned militant outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh JMB in Dhaka.

Mizanur Rahman, 37, and Ibrahim Shahjahan, 30, were arrested in Sayedabad around 8:30pm Tuesday, RAB-11 Commander Lt Col Kamrul Hasan told bdnews24.com. The RAB

found jihadi books and leaflets on them, according to Hasan. The suspects are followers of the Sarwar-Tamim group, a revived faction of JMB, and are charged of militancy in multiple cases filed with Narayanganj police, he said.

The JMB came into the limelight by claiming responsibility for around 500 simultaneous bomb explosions at 300 locations across the country in 2005. The government banned the outfit and executed its top leaders, Shaykh Abdur Rahman and Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai. The remaining members formed another outfit, neo-JMB, which carried out most of the militant attacks over the past few years including the killing of 20 people including 17 foreigners at an upscale Gulshan cafe last year, according to police.

The RAB identifies the same outfit by the name, Sarwar-Tamim group. The radical group had lost most of its top leaders in police raids conducted over the last one year, according to law-enforcement agencies.
10 bodies found in Myanmar mass grave

Reuters, Yangon :

Myanmar authorities have found 10 bodies buried in a mass grave on the edge of a village in Rakhine State, the military-run newspaper Myawady reported on Tuesday, a day after the army said it had launched an investigation at the site.

About 650,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled from Rakhine state and sought refuge in neighboring Bangladesh in recent months after a violent crackdown there by Myanmar security forces in response to attacks by militants.

Rights monitors have accused troops of atrocities, including killings, mass rape and arson during the crackdown. The United States has said it amounted to "ethnic cleansing".

The Myanmar military has said its own internal investigation had exonerated security forces of all accusations of atrocities.

A team including police, a local administrator, judge and doctor had examined the grave site, at the village of Inn Din, about 50 km (30 miles) north of the state capital Sittwe, on Tuesday and discovered 10 unidentified bodies, Myawady said.
Haley sends warning letter to UN members

Al Jazeera News :

US Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, has sent a threatening letter to members of the UN General Assembly ahead of a vote on a resolution against the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

In the letter, obtained by Haaretz, Haley wrote that US President Donald Trump "will be watching [Thursday's] vote carefully" and "requested I report back on those who voted against us"

The warning came after the US was outnumbered 14 to 1 as it vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Monday against Trump's decision on Jerusalem.

Trump announced on December 6 that the US formally recognises Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and will begin the process of moving its embassy to the city, breaking with decades of US policy.

The move led to a wave of global protests, with tens of thousands of people taking to the streets in recent days to denounce his decision.

Threatening words Furious over the Security Council resolution against the move, Haley on Tuesday said it was "an insult" that would "not be forgotten".

"It's one more example of the UN doing more harm than good in addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," she said on Twitter.

Haley's letter to the General Assembly members echoed her tweets in which she said the US "will be taking names" during Thursday's vote, which is expected to pass with an overwhelming majority.

"As you know, the General Assembly is considering a resolution about President Trump's recent decision on Jerusalem. As you consider your vote, I encourage you to know the president and the US take this vote personally," Haley said in the letter.

"Twenty-two years ago, the US Congress declared that Jerusalem should be recognised as the capital of Israel, and that the US embassy should be moved to Jerusalem. President Trump affirmed that declaration by officially recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel," she wrote.
Nationalisation of 6,000 pry schools demanded

UNB, Dhaka :

Bangladesh Non-Government Primary Teachers' Association on Wednesday submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina demanding nationalisation of 6,000 non-government schools as well as the job of 24,000 teachers working in these educational institutions.

As part of their scheduled programme, around 2,000 teachers from across the country gathered at the Children Welfare Parishad auditorium in Topkhana from where they started for the Prime Minister's Office in procession around 11am for submitting the memorandum, said a press release.

However, police obstructed them at the High Court intersection.

Later, the law enforcers allowed a four-member delegation, led by

Bangladesh Non-Government Primary Teachers' Association Convener M Shahjahan Ali Sujon, to go to the PMO where they submitted the memorandum to the PMO director.

The association leaders said Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman nationalised some 37,000 non-government primary schools in 1973 and present Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina nationalised 26,193 more such schools as well as the job of teachers, demanding allocation in the next budget for nationalising some 6,000 schools, which are yet to get these facilities, and the job of 24,000 teachers.

The teacher association also announced programmes to press for their demand.

As part of the programmes, the teachers will form human chains in front of all upazila press clubs in phases from January 15 to February 15 next and in front of district press clubs from March 1 to March 31.

If the demand is not met by then, Bangladesh Non-Government Primary Teachers' Association will announce a greater movement through a press conference at the Jatiya Press Club in the capital, the release said.
UN agencies scale up relief for Rohingyas

A young Rohingya refugee and her 10-month-old niece for a walk in the early morning at Kutupalong camp in Cox\'s Bazar to warm up from the cold inside their shelter.

Desk Report :

As the Rohingya refugee emergency in Bangladesh enters its fourth month, the United Nations agencies are scaling up their relief work to respond to a range of issues, including outbreak of diphtheria, lack of access to sanitation, and sexual violence.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has released $1.5 million from its contingency fund to deploy additional staff and resources to combat a rapidly spreading outbreak of diphtheria among Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazar.

The disease has so far killed 21, with more than 1,500 probable cases reported, according to the UN News Center.

"The Rohingya refugees are an extremely vulnerable population, with low routine vaccination coverage," said Roderico Ofrin, Regional Emergency Director, WHO

South-East Asia Regional Office. "The funds released will be crucial to sustaining our efforts until we receive more support from donors for this response."

For 2018, the health sector will request additional funding to help 1.2 million people living in refugee camps and temporary settlements.

Meanwhile, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), people are continuing to arrive in Bangladesh from Myanmar.

However, the agency reports that the pace of the influx has now slowed, with estimated average arrival rates having dropped from 745 per day in November to 100 per day so far this month. In a UNHCR supported quick assessment survey, refugees expressed numerous worries, including feeling unsafe at night given weak shelters and a lack of lighting, and concerns about general safety.

Access to sanitation is still insufficient, leading sometimes to long queues for latrines. Women and girls are anxious about the shortage of private bathing spaces, forcing some to wash outside their shelters in the early morning hours.

The survey also found that some children have to walk longer distances to fetch water and bring firewood. Parents and children want access to education and more safe places for children to play.

Health services are also a wide concern. Increased mental health support for those who have witnessed the killings or suffered torture or rape remains crucially needed.

Refugees cite continued feelings of depression and rejection, especially among the elderly and disabled. Many young people are worried about their uncertain future.

Some refugees said that irregular food distributions and long queues had meant going hungry for days.

Drawing upon the findings of this latest assessment, UNHCR will further refine and reinforce its protection and assistance.
'I was blindfolded, taken to unknown place': Utpal

Staff Reporter :

Kidnappers blindfolded him and took him to an unknown place in a microbus, said journalist Utpal Das, who went missing over two months ago and left by 'kidnappers' in Narayanganj early Wednesday.

'I was taken to a place where I had to stay in a tin-roofed house. I was not tortured there, they provided me food regularly, but some masked men used to demand money,' he told local journalists after returning home in Narsingdi with Bhulta thana police of Narayanganj.

'I couldn't see their faces as they used to come to me wearing masks,' reports media.

Journalist Utpal Das added that unidentified kidnappers, claimed that the abductors inspired to kidnap him after a mobile phone conversation in front of Star Kebab in the city's Dhanmondi.

The abductors also pressed him for giving the information of sources of huge amount of deposited money in bank and other financial institutions, he said.

But he could not say who the kidnappers were or where they had detained him.

Utpal said, "They grabbed me from behind, put me in a car and blindfolded me so that I couldn't see their faces. I was kept in a tin-roofed house. The abductors slipped food under the door three times a day. There was no bed so I slept on the floor. There was an attached bathroom. They beat him at first, he said."

"You have a lot of money, so give us the money, they said. They seized my phone. I was blindfolded and put on a car. They drove around for several hours before dropping him at the filling station," he said.

They untied my blindfold and told me to only open my eyes when the car left, the journalist claimed.

Utpal was given his phone back before the abductors left. He made a call from the phone and was picked up by police about an hour later, he added.

Utpal's parents and some relatives arrived at Bhulta Police Outpost around 2:30am.

"I am alright," Utpal said, embracing his mother. "Nothing happened to me." Utpal's sister Binita Rani told the media that they called Utpal's phone after hearing he had been found. Utpal then told them he was in Bhulta.

A general diary was filed by the family on Oct 23, she said. At the time a man had called from Utpal's phone asking for Tk 100,000. He called again the next day demanding more money.
Khaleda Zia sends legal notice to PM over 'slandering'

Staff Reporter :

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia on Tuesday evening sent a legal notice to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who is also the President of Bangladesh Awami Leage.

Khaleda's lawyer Barrister A M Mahbub Uddin Khokan sent this by post

and courier service alleging that the premier brought false claims against Khaleda Zia about her wealth abroad and defamed her.

The notice demanded unqualified apology for the "malicious, defamatory and tortuous" statements against Khaleda Zia within 30 days, otherwise warned of filing a defamation suit. The notice also demanded to publish the apology in the front page of all national dailies, electronic media, online newspapers and in social media outlets.

After sending the notice, Barrister Khokan said that Khaleda Zia does not have any shopping mall or any wealth abroad. Prime Minister's statement is defamatory for Khaleda Zia.

Addressing the Prime Minister, the legal notice said, "On December 7 in 2017, in a media briefing at the Gonobhaban, you made some defamatory statements against Khaleda Zia which were broadcast in the electronic media and were published in all the daily newspapers, online newspapers and many social media outlets."

It also said, "In the said briefing, you made some false and malicious statements against Khaleda Zia, stating that she owns a shopping mall in Saudi Arabia and has huge wealth there and that she is also involved in money laundering. You also made some false statements against her son."

"The allegation made by the Prime Minister against Khaleda Zia and her son are concocted, motivated and malicious. That the allegations made by you are calculated to tarnish her reputation as the most popular leader of Bangladesh with impeccable and clean image. The said false, motivated and malicious statements are designed to lower her in the estimation of the people of Bangladesh and people abroad. Your false allegations against Begum Khaleda Zia and her family members are intended to bring her hatred, redicule and contempt," also addressed to the Prime Minister.
Farmers Bank fails to pay staff salary

Special Correspondent :

Farmers Bank will not pay December salary to its officials and employees due to its persistent fund crisis as a result of bad governance and ice of irregularities in disbursement of loans.

"The bank is now in pitiable shape and faces a severe liquidly crisis. Even, it is now failing to pay back the depositors' money. Such a situation has forced us to halt payment of salary to the officials and employees



in this month," Azmat Rahman, Chairman of the Banks Executive Committee told The New Nation yesterday.

He said, the bank is now undergoing through an acute liquidity crisis as a result of eroding confidence of the depositors as well as unrelenting disbursement of loans by its former management. "The situation has also forced the bank to stop disbursement of fresh loans," he said.

The scam-hit bank sought a deposit support amounting to Tk 300 crore from the central bank on November 9 to tackle its liquidity crisis, but was refused. "We're trying to mobilize funds through various initiatives to overcome the current crisis," Azmat Rahman said.

He further said that they had asked the bank's officials to speed up recovery drives in their respective branches. We have also taken the initiative to mobilise funds by issuing a bond worth Tk 500 crore to meet up the bank's liquidity crisis.

"All these initiatives are expected to yield good result and help overcome the fund crisis. Our officials and employees would be paid the salary as soon as the outstanding loans are recorded," he added.

The bank has over 1,500 employees and officials. It had Tk 5 crore expenditure per month to the head of officials and employees salary. Farmers Bank board has recently undergone a major reshuffle. Mohammad Masud has been made its chairman replacing Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, a ruling party lawmaker. Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir and Audit Committee Chairman Md Mahabubul Haque Chisty were forced to step down from the board in line with a BB directive to reconstitute the bank's board. The central bank on Tuesday removed Farmers Bank Managing Director AKM Shamim for violating the banking laws and hampering the interests of the depositors.

As of September this year, Farmers Bank's non-performing loans (NPLs) amounted to Tk 377.68 crore, up by around Tk 100 crore from a year ago. The bank's NPL accounted for 7.45 per cent of the bank's total outstanding loans.

Earlier this month, the commercial bank failed twice to honour a cheque of Tk 35.44 crore presented by Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Ltd due to fund shortage.

The state owned telecom firm got the money later.

A central bank report has recently mentioned that Farmers Bank did not have any capacity to pay back the depositor's'' fund.

Between September and November in 2015, the BB conducted special inspections at three branches of the Farmers Bank in the city's Gulshan, Motijheel and Shyampur, and found gross violations of the banking rules in disbursing loans of around Tk 400 crore.

As of August, the bank's total deposits amounted to Tk 5,170 crore and loan portfolio Tk 4,854 crore. The bank's advance-deposit ratio has been above 85 percent for several months, which goes against central bank rule.


City streets earmarked for car parking

Experts fear chaos in traffic system

This photo was taken from Motijheel area.

Sagar Biswas :

Although there is a great deal of disagreement among experts, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police [DMP] authorities on Wednesday formally introduced 'on-street parking' in some designated roads in the city's busy areas in exchange of fee.

There are widespread speculations that it would further intensify traffic congestion, if authorities legalise on-street parking on specific roads in the busy commercial and residential areas.

It's a common scenario in the city that police and drivers often are locked in argument for unauthorised on-street parking.



Without any hesitation, the traffic police fine them, though the city authorities cannot ensure adequate legitimate parking spaces. From now, parking on roads is legal, though different researches have already showed that parking eaten up more than 10 per cent of road capacities in Dhaka.

"Road parking procedure had started a few months ago. Just now, we're officially announcing it giving the names of the streets. We've informed the matter officially to both city corporations," Joint Commissioner of DMP [Traffic] Mir Rezaul Alam said. According to the officials, the city corporations [Dhaka north and south] will float tenders to engage contractors to collect fees for legal on-street parking.

Several car owners, however, have welcomed the authorities' decision saying that it would reduce hassle when police collect bribe taking chance of illegal parking, and even sometime they use wrecker and file cases charging huge amount of fine. "It's a good initiative. There is no legal parking in front of hospitals, schools or markets. We've to pay fine for parking our cars on the streets. Hope, it will reduce our hassle," Zahir Uddin Khokan, an official of a private bank, said.

But differing with the DMP's latest policy, Reasat E Noor, a civil engineer from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology [BUET] in a research paper said that on-street parking already reduced more than 10% of road capacities in Dhaka. "If on-street parking is legalised, even if only on specific roads, it will increase traffic congestion manifold," he had cautioned. It could be mentioned here that the 'metered on-street parking' system is available in many western cities across the world.

Chief Town Planner of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) Md Sirajul Islam recently said the city corporation and the traffic division of DMP had jointly worked to legalise on-street parking on specific roads in Dhaka.

The DSCC engineering department has worked under a project to mark parking spots on some roads in commercial and business areas, Sirajul said. "The decision of legalising on-street parking has been made to reduce haphazard street parking," he said. According to DMP Traffic Department, under Traffic East Division 13 roads have been marked to park for on-street parking. Besides, nine designated roads under Traffic South Division, 25 roads under Traffic North Division and seven roads under Traffic West Division have been kept for parking. Of them, 120 cars could be kept on one side from in front of Investment Board office to People's Insurance while 30 cars could be parked on the both sides from Janata Bank head office to Biman office in Motijheel.

Besides, another 60 cars could be kept from Rahmat Crossing to AGB Coloney in Motijheel while several other roads in Motijheel including in front of Ideal School would be available for parking of vehicles. Even car parking is also allowed at bust Kamalapur area. At present, tens of thousands of motorised and manual vehicles now operate on only 250 km long arteries of Dhaka's 2,200km roads. Although the minimum road requirement is 25 per cent of the whole city, Dhaka has only 7.5 per cent road space. As a result, hundreds of vehicles do not get sufficient space to move.

The World Bank draft report -named 'Towards Great Dhaka, a new urban development paradigm eastward' recently said that Dhaka's roads increased 5 per cent from 1995 to 2005 while vehicles movement increased 134 percent.

As per information provided by Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, at present there are 341,915 registered cars in Dhaka city while 27,396 cars were registered in 2016 alone.


Hostile takeover of AB Bank feared

Kazi Zahidul Hasan :

Five star hotels in the capital have become the safe haven for a section of wealthy people now working to take over private commercial banks one after another.

They have already taken over two banks under their grips after arranging board meetings in hasty manner held in luxury hotels in Dhaka under massive security arrangement.

AB Bank Limited, the first private commercial bank in Bangladesh, will hold its Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Emergency General Meeting (EGM) at Hotel Le Meridein in the capita today (Thursday).

Rumours run high that a dramatic change in the bank's board and top management will take place in the meetings following the similar takeover of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited and Social Islami Bank Limited when a Chittagong-based Business Group bought majority stakes of the banks.

Former Foreign Minister and BNP leader M Morshed Khan is now holding 25 per cent stake of AB Bank.

"The initiative was taken after the Chittagong-based business group move forward to buy shares of the bank. It has bought a number of shares of AB Bank in the last six months to capture the bank," a senior AB Bank official told The New Nation yesterday, on condition of anonymity.




It is naive to think Bangladesh can assure security of Rohingyas

Editorial Desk :

In blatant denial to the reality in the ground, Bangladesh and Myanmar on Tuesday set up a high-powered Joint Working Group (JWG) to start "safe and voluntary" repatriation of Rohingya refugees within the next one month time. They struck the arrangement at a time when violence in the Rakhine State is still forcing people to flee instead of showing any sign of improvement that the refugees will feel free to go back. The Bangladesh side is living in fool's paradise if they believe they will be able to assure security of Rohingyas in Myanmar. Bangladesh should have threatened action against Myanmar for calling Rohingyas as Bengalis and forcing them to take shelter in Bangladesh.

The fact is that the deal says repatriation will be voluntary in full safety and dignity but in the prevailing situation no Rohingya will fell free from fear to go back only to be killed because of any agreement with Bangladesh. Bangladesh will look foolish by pretending Myanmar takes Bangladesh as a force to reckon with.

The working group formed in the light of the MoU signed between the two countries on November 23 has called for repatriation to start from January 23 but in the truest sense of the term it betrays the reality by all accounts.

The Foreign Ministry people including its Secretary is anxious to prove that the deal with Myanmar has importance in solving the Rohingya crisis bilaterally while lacking the understanding that the crisis of ethnic cleansing and throwing out a states' own people is an international problem and has to be solved internationally.

Crawling of Bangladesh government before Myanmar government means nothing



to Myanmar government. Satellite imagery obtained by Human Rights Watch (HRW) shows over 40 villages were torched in October and November to force people to flee when Myanmar claimed the violence has stopped and normalcy restored in the troubled areas. Our government should have asked the question why it is still forcing people to flee when its representatives in Dhaka are working out the repatriation arrangement.

Over 650,000 Rohingya refugees have taken shelter in Bangladesh since August 25 but it appears the new arrangement for repatriation will go nowhere. There is hardly any hope of meaningful repatriation and it is almost certain the fate of Rohingyas will remain hanging without the UN involvement in the process. The government of Myanmar is using Bangladesh to weaken international pressure.

HRW has already warned the process is bound to face deadlock and it can only work by rewriting the deal taking the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as a third party in the deal to force Myanmar to accept the realities.

In fact Rohingya refugees is an international problem and UNHCR is the right body to carry out the repatriation with all international standards. International human right organizations also must have a role to monitor the repatriation and make sure refugees are properly rehabilitated in their abandoned homes and villages. They can't be left to the mercy of Myanmar government to disappear at the end.

We have always said Bangladesh is not in a position to secure safety of Rohingyas after repatriation. Past agreements with Myanmar have proved futile. Rohingya refugees are an international problem and Bangladesh must join international efforts to compel Myanmar government to create safe situation within the country for their return. Bangladesh must not appear foolish before the international community.




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.
A Franklin County man has been indicted on nine meth-related offenses.

According to a news release from United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois Donald S. Boyces office Wednesday, Carl L. Darnell was charged on a nine-count indictment with possessing pseudoephedrine pills intending that they be used to manufacture methamphetamine.

Darnell was arrested Nov. 30, according to an online portal for court records.

According to the release, if convicted, Darnell faces up to 20 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine on each count.

Darnell has appeared in court, where he was ordered to be held without bond.

The release said the investigation into Darnells case was conducted by the Illinois State Police, Southern Illinois Drug Task Force, the Sesser Police Department, the Franklin County Sheriffs Office, the Energy Police Department, the West Frankfort Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

 The Southern
Gov. Bruce Rauners recent complaint that he is not in charge of the state is as troubling as it is curious.

First, the statement smacks of self-pity. Second, the message indicates the governor either doesnt understand the constitutional role of his office, or his doesnt understand the concept of leadership. Finally, it was a blatantly political statement, a thinly veiled jab at Democratic Speaker of the House Mike Madigan.

To be fair, Rauners business background and lack of government experience may have created a personal misunderstanding of his current job.

Unlike a CEO, a governor cannot simply make a decision, fire off a text or email and have an underling implement his plan. That may be the way the business world works. In public life, that kind of power is only associated with dictators.

Illinois government, like the federal government, is based on three equal branches. Its basic eighth-grade civics, but this system of checks and balances was set up to keep one person from assuming too much power  ostensibly, being totally in charge.

That system is sometimes unwieldy. It is sometimes inefficient. And, to a former CEO, it is likely frustrating beyond belief.

Considering Illinois downward spiral in the past 20 years, Illinois citizens deserve, and need, leadership, not necessarily someone with is in charge. Leadership carries more responsibility than simply issuing orders.

Rauner came into office with a turnaround agenda he believed, and continues to believe, would solve most the states problems.

Much of that agenda has been stymied by Madigans House of Representatives and John Cullertons Democratic-controlled Senate. Again, we understand being frustrated by the inertia built into the political system.

But, effective leaders dont complain they arent in charge. They find ways to get things done.

Leaders work diligently to cobble together compromises to move the state forward. The role of the governor is not to score political points for himself or his party, it is to serve the best interests of the people of Illinois. No politician gets everything they want, nor should they.

The real world of Illinois politics requires relentless work and a willingness to compromise. Granted, the Democratic legislature hasnt gone out of its way to make Rauners job any easier. But, no one should assume the role of governor thinking the job is going to be easy, especially when both houses of the General Assembly are controlled by the opposite party.

Rauner has overseen one of the most tumultuous three years in Illinois political history  an incredible statement in itself, considering the number of men who have moved from the governors mansion to the big house.

The governors first term is rapidly coming to a close. In 11 short months, Illinois voters will determine whether Gov. Rauner deserves a second term.

That means he has roughly 320 days to demonstrate his leadership.

We give the governor props for his appearance in Cairo this weekend. Granted, the public housing situation in Cairo is not of Rauners making. Conditions at the Elmwood and McBride housing units were deplorable when he took office. And, the housing units were under the jurisdiction of the Alexander County Housing Authority before the federal government stepped in last year.

Very sad, he said Saturday after touring Cairo. No one should ever live in those conditions. Its frankly outrageous.

Gov. Rauner is not devoid of political talent. Rauner can work the room like a seasoned politician. It would have been nice to see him intervene on behalf of the people of Cairo earlier. Perhaps the weight of the State of Illinois would have moved the process along more quickly.

If nothing else, active intervention from the governors office would have been a much needed display of leadership. And, thats better than being in charge.
The South Carolina Cancer Alliance (Alliance) is pleased to award $5,000 to improve rural health in Bamberg County. These funds will be used to recruit and train volunteers who will educate Bamberg residents about cancer prevention and early detection. Evidence has shown that rural counties in South Carolina experience significantly higher cancer incidences, cancer mortality, and smoking rates. Due to many factors, such as access to care, lack of public education, and limited resources, these cancers tend to go undiagnosed until they are in late-stage, which is the deadliest.

As a result, the Alliance has implemented a Rural Health Initiative (RHI) in Bamberg County. The purpose of the RHI is to link Bamberg County residents with a health care provider located in their community who will provide or refer them to appropriate screening services. The Alliance has been actively working with local community leaders to ensure the appropriate government officials, health care professionals, and faith-based organizations are involved and engaged in these efforts. Through this collaboration, we developed a customized approach to address the cancer burden in Bamberg County.

"I have lived in Bamberg County for over 20 years. I have seen firsthand how cancer has devastated so many families and friends in our community. I recently began volunteering with the South Carolina Cancer Alliance to implement local strategies to address cancer in Bamberg. The Alliance has invested funds into our county to implement strategies to increase our cancer screening rates throughout our county," said Joyce Bolen- Bamberg County Task Force Chair.

On January 25, 2018, the Alliance and other community partners will host a free training session at the Bamberg County Job Corps Center Gymnasium from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The purpose of this training session is to educate Bamberg County residents about cancer prevention and early detection services. If you would like more information on how to become an Alliance Ambassador and/or to register for the training session, please call 803-708-4732. Lunch will be provided, and space is limited.

For more information on how you can volunteer, please call Henry Well at the South Carolina Cancer Alliance 803-708-4732 or info@sccancer.org.
DENMARK  Denmark received a positive report from its independent auditors for the 15th consecutive year in a row, Administrator Heyward Robinson reported at the Dec. 19 Denmark City Council meeting.

Mayor Dr. Gerald Wright thanked the employees who handled the work to make the positive audit possible.

We have maintained our budgets with positive audits for 15 years without an increase of our millage rate, Wright noted.

Also during the meeting, Robinson reported he met with officials of the Rural Infrastructure Authority on Dec. 14 to review the requirements of the grant for Denmark's water and sewer line extension to serve the Emergency Medical Center for Bamberg and Barnwell Counties. The $500,000 grant was awarded last month, and the grant period is from Nov. 6, 2017 to Nov. 5, 2019.

Everything is moving ahead," the administrator said. "If everything falls into place, we should be able to bid out the water and sewer extension in February 2018."

Robinson also reported that the city will hold a public hearing at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 20, at Denmark City Hall to review the Booker/Mills water upgrade Community Development Block Grant project.

In other business, the mayor discussed the possibility of establishing a walking trail in Denmark.

I recently attended a meeting with a group, along with Councilman Calvin Odom, that is trying to start a walking trail, Wright said.

He said a walking trial would improve the appearance of Denmark and provide a place for individuals to walk within the city.

Council accepted the information but took no action on it.

Robinson reported that the citys streetscape project is currently under review by the S.C. Department of Transportation and that the project will be advertised for bids once the SCDOT approves the plans.

In addition, he reported South Carolina Electric & Gas will be cutting tree limbs on power lines in the new year and asked those with concerns about limbs to contact SCE&G directly.

Councilwoman Bervay L. Carter reported the Dogwood Festival Committee is in need of new volunteers. She said the group's next meeting will be at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 16, at the Railroad Depot. The committee meets at 5:30 p.m. on the third Tuesday of the month.

Cedric Hudson of the Public Works Department reported seven water leaks were repaired. In addition, he said he faxed a list to the SCDOT regarding sidewalks and roads that need repairs.

It was announced that Denmark City Hall will be closed Friday, Dec. 22 through Tuesday, Dec. 26 for Christmas and on Monday, Jan. 1 for New Year's Day.

The west side of the city will follow its normal schedule for garbage pickup, it was noted. Garbage pickup for the east side of the city be changed from Thursday, Dec. 21 to Wednesday, Dec. 20, and the Friday, Dec. 22 pickup schedule for the east side will be changed to Thursday, Dec. 21, officials said. Tuesdays route for the west side will be changed to Wednesday, Dec. 27. The east side will follow its normal garbage pickup schedule the week of Christmas, it was announced.

Also during the meeting:

Police Chief Leroy Grimes reported two vehicles were stolen within the past month. Grimes said a car and a van were stolen, noting both vehicles were returned unharmed. He advised citizens not to leave their keys in their vehicles, not to leave vehicles' running while inside a business and not to leave purses and valuables in vehicles.

Denmark (police) created 23 new cases, including simple assault, burglary, domestic violence, vandalism of property, theft from motor vehicles, theft of motor vehicles, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, driving under suspension and traffic collisions, etc., (this past month), Grimes said.

Burglaries have been cut (about) in half in comparison to this time last year," he said. "Shoplifting has gone down."

He reported there were 52 cases of burglary/breaking and entering this time last year in comparison to 28 at the same time this year, while there were 23 cases of shoplifting this time last year versus 19 currently.

Kevin Peachey of the Denmark Fire Department reported the department responded to 22 fire calls last month.

Council went into executive session at the end of the meeting to discuss a contract for the new city hall. No votes were taken after council returned to public session.
DENMARK -- Members of the Denmark Technical College Area Commission were asked to help build support for the college in the local community during a training session on the DTC campus on Dec. 11.

Dr. Tim Hardee, president of the S.C. Technical College System, opened the meeting by reminding commissioners of the importance of being good advocates for Denmark Technical College in the community.

Right now, we have very little local support, and we need your help in changing that," Hardee told them. Calhoun County significantly invests in their technical college as a small county. We have to establish relationships with (Bamberg County) and get them to recognize that they have some ownership if they want Denmark Technical College to become successful. Industry has to become involved, too.

Commissioner Jim Kearse asked if Denmark Tech is getting any help from the Savannah River Site.

There are certain things that they can do if they will, Kearse said.

Hardee said he is more concerned with getting Denmark Tech to the point where its students are good candidates to work at SRS.

Commissioner Kevin Whitt, who is an SRS employee, said the commission is "working on that."

Denmark Technical College President Dr. Christopher Hall said he asked Bamberg County for $250,000 and Barnwell County for $300,000 for the college this year.

We received $500 from Barnwell County," Hall said, adding that Allendale County provides the college with a facility for classes."

He said he recently spoke with the Washington, D.C. alumni of Denmark Tech and asked them to become more involved in the recruiting process for the college. Currently, the school has 551 students and 151 dual-enrolled students, Hall said. Upon the written approval of their principal, qualified high school juniors and seniors may be granted early admission to the college on a space-available basis. Requirements for early admission are the same as for the admission of new students. Upon graduation, the student may apply for admission as a regular student in a degree, diploma or certificate-granting curriculum.

Hall said he is also working to streamline the intake process for registration.

We would like to get back to 551 students for the spring semester but, traditionally, enrollment goes down in the spring, the president said.

Hall said he had been in contact with adult education programs but many of them are having trouble with students passing the placement test.

Commissioner Herman Wallace asked if some of the Denmark Tech staff and faculty vacancies could be filled by November 2018. Hardee said the budget would determine how quickly the board could fill the vacancies.

We cant hire and not have the finances to pay them. If you dont invest in recruitment, we won't have the students. But, we want to hire ASAP, Hardee said.

Hall said he recently interviewed five public safety officers for the college and had narrowed the applicants down to two. The school also needs a financial director and a director and coordinator for the Upward Bound program, he said.

Charles Boykin of the Boykin and Davis Law firm also provided training for the commissioners. One key issue Boykin addressed was that area commissioners have very limited power, with the exception of the president, as it relates to personnel.

The president must be allowed to work within the process that is already established by the General Assembly," he said.

"The commissioners will get calls. Commissioners should resist the temptation to assert themselves into personnel matters because in my experience, nothing good happens when that is done," Boykin said.

Kearse asked what protocol should be followed if the college's president does something wrong. Boykin said the process would reveal that.

At the end of the day, there are enough checks and balances in place to find out what is going on," the attorney said.
South Carolina State University has 47 candidates seeking 12 open positions on the board of trustees.

Five of the 47 candidates sit on the temporary, seven-member board governing the university: Chairman Milton Irvin, Dr. Doris Helms, Donnie Shell, Jeff Vinzani and B.R. Skelton.

Trustee Steve Swanson has not filed to return to the board and is instead seeking to become a College of Charleston trustee. Past Chairman Charlie Way announced his retirement from the board last week.

S.C. State has been led by an interim, seven-member board since 2015. The new board was brought in to help stabilize the university when it was experiencing financial and accreditation problems.

Members are to serve until a new board is installed on June 30, 2018. The new board will have 12 members appointed by the General Assembly and one appointed by the governor.

Helms said the interim board works well as a team and wants to continue the good thing that has been started.

"I think we have come a long way," she said. "We are accredited, we are out of the financial hole we were in. Our applications are up. I think the university is on a very positive trajectory, which I find very exciting.

She is hoping some of the current board members will be retained.

"We have learned an unbelievable amount," she said. "There is a lot of knowledge now the six of us share. I think it would be nice to not lose that knowledge."

Like Helms, Skelton believes S.C. State is, making significant progress overcoming some of the problems it had.

Skelton said, Most have been solved but there are still some issues that need to be addressed."

Skelton, who arrived on the board in July, says the existing board has made valuable contributions and continues to make valuable contributions but he is open to seeing how the process plays out.

Trustee Jeff Vinzani said, "I feel like we have not finished what we were trying to accomplish.

"Once we started, we had so many different crises we had to deal with from balancing the budget, to meeting enrollment goals and getting reaccredited, with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, he said.

Vinzani noted it has taken the current board over a year and a half to get to the point, where we are stable enough to try to move forward.

"I have grown to love the school and it really is one of the most important jewels in the university, public college system in South Carolina," Vinzani said. "It has so much potential and it means so much to the state."

Vinzani said keeping some of the existing board will ensure the knowledge gained over the last year and a half is retained.

"You lose a lot of momentum if you start over again," he said.

The S.C. General Assembly's College and University Trustee Screening Commission announced in August that it was seeking letters of intent from people wanting to serve on the new S.C. State board.

Sen. John Matthews, D-Bowman, and other lawmakers discussed phasing in a new board of trustees, rather than having the General Assembly elect an entirely new board.

Only one person filed for a seat on the new board by the deadline. The trustee screening committee then extended the filing deadline to Dec. 19 to ensure it had candidates for the board.

Candidates for the board will be screened by the commission in March 2018.

The General Assembly will meet in a Joint Session in April 2018 to elect college and university trustees. The new trustees will begin serving July 1, 2018.

Candidates who have submitted letters of intent to sit on the board include:

1st Congressional District - seat 1 (term expires June 30, 2022)

 Dana David Ahern, Summerville

 George A. Freeman, Mount Pleasant

 Anthony Lloyd Jenkins, Goose Creek

 David M. Rubin, Summerville

 Monica R. Scott, Charleston

 Shaundra Young Scott, Charleston

2nd Congressional District - seat 2 (term expires June 30, 2020)

 Yolanda Dortch, North Augusta

 Hamilton R. Grant, Columbia

 Travis Johnson, Warrenville

 Annie Bradley Patrick, Blackville

3rd Congressional District - seat 3 (term expires June 30, 2022)

 Garrett Callahan McDaniel, Laurens

 Daniel R. Varat, Piedmont

4th Congressional District - seat 4 (term expires June 30, 2020)

Zandra L. Johnson of Greenville

 G. Hubbard Smalls, Simpsonville

 Chrissundra Alberta Proctor Smith, Duncan

5th Congressional District - seat 5 (term expires June 30, 2022)

 Herbert C. Crump, Jr., Rock Hill

 Donnie Shell, Rock Hill

6th Congressional District - seat 6 (term expires June 30, 2020)

 Wilbur B. Shuler, Orangeburg (filed by the September 14, 2017 deadline)

7th Congressional District - seat 7 (term expires June 30, 2022)

 Lavon Herschel Allen, Darlington

 William H. Hughes, Conway

At-large - seat 8 (term expires June 30, 2020)

 Ken Claxton, Columbia

 Doward Keith Harvin, Hemingway

 Irma Smith Lowman, Columbia

 Billy Ray Skelton, Six Mile

 David Franklin White, III, Orangeburg

At-large - seat 9 (term expires June 30, 2022)

 Herbert Gadson, Charleston

 Alexandria Tamila James, Irmo

 Rodney C. Jenkins, Columbia

 Lawrence Joseph Land, Charleston

 Rodell Lawrence, Orangeburg

 Richard D. Leonard, Orangeburg

 Leo Richardson, Columbia

At-large - seat 10 (term expires June 30, 2020)

 Enoch K. Beraho, Irmo

 Milton M. Irvin, Bluffton

 Valencia LaToya Johnson, Columbia

 Edward Tessier Pendarvis, Charleston

 Deon T. Tedder, Charleston

At-large - seat 11 (term expires June 30, 2022)

 Michael A. Addison, Orangeburg

 Rosemounda Peggy Butler, West Columbia

 Ronald D. Friday, Blythewood

 Doris R. Helms, Johns Island

 Quincy Franklin Mack, Sumter

 Ronald Paul Maggiore, Charleston

At-large - seat 12 (term expires June 30, 2020)

 Dwayne Trevino Buckner, Walterboro

 Gene Gartman Jr., Orangeburg

 Emory Jackson Hagan III, Columbia

 Michael Jeffrey Vinzani, Mount Pleasant

This story has been changed to add a name the commission failed to include in its original press release.
WASHINGTON -- The presidency was never meant to be a profit center for a nepotistic, money-grubbing family. But that was before the Trumps moved in.

This scandal is lying in plain sight, overlooked because of the constant stream of missteps, outrages and distractions that come and go at an exhausting pace. While everyone watches his Twitter feed, President Donald Trump is using the White House like a marketing agency for his family brand. This is not normal or acceptable -- and it surely isn't what laid-off factory workers and coal miners had in mind when they jumped on the "populist" Trump train.

Last week, Ivanka Trump opened a retail store inside Trump Tower, her father's New York skyscraper, to sell her eponymous foreign-made handbags and other items. We can now finally dispense with the notion that she is an "unpaid" adviser to the president.

It's not a very big store -- more of a glorified kiosk, really -- but the conflict of interest is obvious. She and her husband, Jared Kushner, are in positions where they can influence U.S. policy toward the countries where her products are made, such as China, Indonesia, Vietnam, India and Bangladesh. The store is located where it can siphon money from Trump-supporting tourists who make pilgrimages to Trump Tower while visiting the sights of Manhattan.

This is just the latest example of how the Trump family is seeking to monetize the presidency. We haven't seen anything like it since 1977, when Jimmy Carter's brother started hawking Billy Beer. (President Carter, at least, had the decency to be embarrassed.)

As is the case with other family members, including the president, Ivanka Trump has refused to divest herself of her business interests. Instead, the Trumps and Kushner have put them into trusts -- but in a way that provides not even a fig leaf of probity.

That's because the businesses -- including the Trump Organization, the president's umbrella enterprise -- are still operating and are being run by family members whose aims are pecuniary, not patriotic. Do you believe for a moment that Trump pays no attention to how his sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, are handling his company? Or that Ivanka Trump and Kushner are unaware of what his siblings are doing with the troubled Kushner family real estate empire and Ivanka's fashion line? I don't.

Consider this sequence of events: Trump is elected president in November 2016. The membership initiation fee at his Palm Beach club, Mar-a-Lago, doubles to $200,000 in January 2017. Following his inauguration, Trump spends 34 days thus far -- fully a 10th of his presidency -- at Mar-a-Lago, mixing freely with members in a setting hidden from the prying eyes of the news media.

If you had a corporate or private cause to plead with the president of the United States, and you had ample resources, might you consider a $200,000 Mar-a-Lago membership a promising investment? I think you might.

The Trump International Hotel in Washington, just down Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, has become what The Washington Post called "a kind of political clubhouse" for Trump associates and organizations, such as political action committees, that support the Trump agenda. Last month, for example, the Trump 2020 campaign held a "VIP reception" there that cost $30,000, according to the Post, and featured deviled eggs and lobster BLTs.

There are plenty of other nearby hotels that could have hosted such an event -- the W, the Willard, the J.W. Marriott. The campaign just happened to choose one whose profits accrue to Trump's bottom line.

Likewise, for some reason, the Trump International has become a popular place for foreign delegations to stay while visiting Washington. Many legal scholars believe this line of business violates the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution prohibiting federal officials from receiving gifts or profits from foreign governments. At least three lawsuits have been filed seeking clarification from the courts.

It is true that Trump and his family have lost some business. Many if not most of the charities that once used Mar-a-Lago for their annual galas have decided to go elsewhere this year. Ivanka Trump's product line was dropped by Nordstrom and Nieman Marcus because of low sales. Skittish investors have backed away from deals that could rescue Kushner from his potentially ruinous $1.8 billion purchase of a white-elephant Fifth Avenue office building.

But the presidency isn't supposed to be a matter of pluses and minuses on a balance sheet. The president campaigned on a pledge to clean up Washington. Instead, he has created a huge new federally protected wetland -- the Trump Family Swamp, Inc.
By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijan's prominent theater and film actor, director, and honored art worker Jahangir Novruzov has won the "XVII Direkleraras? Seyirci Odulleri" theater prize in Turkey.

The actor was awarded for directing "Ah, bu evlilik..." play, consisting of A.P. Chekhov's small dramatic works, staged at the Adana Metropolitan Municipality Theater. The prize was presented to Novruzov at a ceremony in Adana, Trend Life reported.

The son of deceased folk artist Nasiba Zeynalova was born on July 31, 1954 in Baku.

He entered the Institute of Arts named after M.A. Aliyeva. He studied in the class of People's Artist of the USSR Mekhdi Mammadov. His thesis was defended on the stage of the Theater of Musical Comedy. He staged the operetta "My Mother-in-law" by Georgy Khugayev. Further, he began to work in this theater.

In 1985, Novruzov was appointed the chief director of the Sheki State Drama Theater. During the years of work in theater, he went on tour to Kazan, Tashkent, Samarkand, Moscow, and Prague.

Novruzov's play "Muscovy Jordan and the Dervish Mastalishah", based on the play by Mirza Fatali Akhundov was awarded the first prize.

In 1990, he was appointed chief director of the Russian branch of the Young Spectator Theater.

His play "To be or not to be", based on Shakespeare's Hamlet, was awarded to the first place at the festival organized by Azerbaijan Union of Theater Workers.

In 2011, by decree of the President Ilham Aliyev, Jahangir Novruzov was awarded the title of Honored Artist of Azerbaijan for achievements in the field of art and merit in the development of the Azerbaijani diaspora.

Notably, he was awarded the "Tiyatro icin Emek Odulu" in the past theater season.

Novruzov, who has been living in Turkey since 1995, works at the State Conservatory Theater Department at Cukurova University in Adana for 20 years. He is also deputy chairman of Azerbaijan Association of Culture and Solidarity in Adana.
By Trend





Turkey and Iran welcome the candidature of Baku for hosting World EXPO-2025 in the Republic of Azerbaijan, according to the Baku Statement signed following the 5th trilateral meeting of foreign ministers of Iran, Turkey and Azerbaijan, Mohammad Javad Zarif, Mevlut Cavusoglu and Elmar Mammadyarov in Baku on December 20.

According to the Baku Statement, the three ministers emphasized their commitment to the Urumieh, Nakhchivan, Van and Ramsar Statements adopted in the previous trilateral meetings of the ministers of foreign affairs.

They reaffirmed commitment to further enhance solidarity and cooperation among the peoples of the three countries based on deep-rooted historical, religious and cultural commonalities and shared values that will serve to strengthen peace, stability, prosperity and cooperation in the region.

The officials underlined their commitment to further expand cooperation particularly in the areas that would contribute to economic progress and sustainable development, and emphasized their common interest to strengthen peace and stability in the region and stressed in this context their commitment to principles of international law, including in particular, respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity, inviolability of internationally recognized borders and peaceful settlement of all disputes.

In this regard, they reiterated the importance of the earliest resolution of Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the basis of the above-mentioned principles.

Mammadyarov, Zarif and Cavusoglu agreed to continue close consultations on regional and global issues of common interest at different levels and platforms and within the framework of international and regional organizations such as the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, and the Economic Cooperation Organization, with a view to enhancing regional and international peace, security and stability.

The ministers welcomed the declaration and final communique adopted at the OIC Extraordinary Summit on December 13, 2017 in Istanbul, with regard to Al-Quds Al-Sharif.

They also agreed to strengthen economic-trade cooperation, to use the existing potential for promotion of investments and trade, as well as to support promotion of cooperation by implementing of the joint projects and programs in the field of energy, transport, banking, telecommunication, industry, agriculture, tourism and environment.

Underlining the significant steps taken to increase the transit potential of the three countries situated on international transit corridors and geographically favourably located as well as to integrate to the international transit system, the three ministers stressed upon the importance of further enhancement of cooperation for implementation of the new projects for development of transport infrastructure and increase of transit potential.

Underlining the significance of participation of the three countries in large-scale international transport projects, which are strategically important for increase of the quantity and quality of the competitive transit transportation between the Asia and Europe, for socio-economic development, the three officials welcomed the launching of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway which creates favorable conditions to use the transit potential of the three countries on East-West, South-West, North-South routes, stressed the importance to take necessary steps for earliest completion of Rasht-Astara railway.

Mammadyarov, Zarif and Cavusoglu underlined the importance of strengthening cooperation in the field of civil aviation to reach the high potential, as well as to further benefit from the geographical advantages of the three countries and expressed their willingness to enhance commercial collaborations in the petroleum, gas and petrochemical fields.

They agreed to develop and enhance relations among the banking networks of the three countries and to share experience and information on international banking procedures as well as on combating money-laundering and financing terrorism.

The ministers stressed the importance of continued cooperation among three countries to build and run information infrastructures in order to bridge the digital divide in the region.

They also underlined the importance to cooperate within the framework of global and regional economic organizations, to attract the attention of these organizations to the priority spheres, such as trade, transport, tourism, agriculture, communication and energy, as well as to promote and support implementation of the projects in the common interest of the three countries by these institutions.

The ministers emphasized the importance of strengthening cooperation to mitigate and prevent environmental degradation, with a view to attaining the relevant goals of 2030 sustainable development agenda adopted by the United Nations in September 2015.

Condemning all forms of intolerance and discrimination based on ethnicity, race, religion and belief and underlining the importance of nurturing tolerance, respect, dialogue and cooperation among different cultures, civilizations and peoples, Mammadyarov, Cavusoglu and Zarif emphasized the significance of the 7th Global Forum of the Alliance of Civilizations of the United Nations held in Baku, Azerbaijan on April 25-27, 2016.

The three ministers underlined the importance to further strengthen cooperation in the fight against terrorism, separatism and violent extremism in all their forms and manifestations, transnational organized crime and illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and their precursors, and arms, human trafficking, crimes against cultural and historical heritage, cybercrimes and illegal migration; took note of the UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/68/127, entitled A World against Violence and Violent Extremism (WAVE) initiated by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

They stressed their determination not to allow their territories to be used by any people or group of individuals, under any circumstances, for any threat and activity against each other; strongly condemned foreign support to separatism, and emphasized their commitment to promote and protect human rights at the national and international level, and declared that the promotion and protection of the rights of all human beings in the world can better be achieved through cooperation and dialogue.

The ministers underscored yje significance of Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) which reflects the success of the multilateral negotiations and diplomacy; acknowledged that the successful implementation of JCPOA requires the complete fulfilment of the stipulated obligations by all the parties for allowing them to fully enjoy benefits provided in JCPOA; taking into account the Islamic Republic of Irans adherence to its obligations under JCPOA as confirmed by the International Atomic Energy Agency which is a part of the Resolution 2231 (2015) of the UN Security Council, recalled the commitments of all the UN members to contribute to the implementation of JCPOA.

They also underlined the importance of promoting Islamic solidarity to confront challenges facing the Islamic World and stressed intention for more active and effective cooperation to strengthen Islamic fraternity, understanding and tolerance, and in this respect, noted the significance of the 4th Islamic Solidarity Games for promotion of Islamic culture and moral values around the world held in high level in Baku on May 12-22, 2017.

Cavusoglu, Zarif and Mammadyarov stressed on importance to follow up of the decisions taken during the previous meetings, as well as the Trilateral Sectoral Cooperation Action Plan for 2016-2018.

The three ministers reiterated the importance of holding regular meetings in the trilateral format to continue coordination and cooperation on regional and global issues.

The parties agreed to hold the next meeting in Turkey.
By Trend





Kuwait and Tajikistan are eager to bolster ties on all possible domains, especially within the economic sector, said Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Tuesday, Xinhuareported.

Meeting with visiting Tajik Minister of Economic Development and Commerce Nematullo Hikmatullozoda, KCCI Chairman Ali Al-Ghanim said that both nations are eager to seek more venues of cooperation.

He called on the Tajik delegation to provide all the necessary data to inform Kuwait on business opportunities in Tajikistan.

Hikmatullozoda said that Tajikistan is interested in boosting economic cooperation with Kuwait, affirming that the current visit by the Tajik delegation was aimed at improving commercial exchange between the two nations.

He said that his meeting with the KCCI chairman focused on the business and investment opportunities in Tajikistan.

The Tajik minister took part in the second Kuwaiti-Tajik joint economic, commercial, and scientific committee meeting held on December 18-19.
Family-run businesses face significant challenges and need to assess their strategy carefully in light of the impending introduction of value added tax (VAT) in the UAE, said professional services firm EY.



The increased compliance requirements mean that family-run businesses would need to decide which department would be responsible for VAT and related compliance. It may be the right moment to assess the duties and responsibilities of a family office in this regard, if already in place, or assess the feasibility of the set-up of a family office as part of the familys wealth strategy, added EY.



EY and Thomson Reuters have partnered to discuss the impact of VAT on family-run businesses, the various opportunities and challenges that businesses may face, and how best to tackle these obstacles to be prepared for VAT implementation.



David Stevens, GCC VAT Implementation Partner, EY said: To ensure VAT readiness, family-run businesses in the GCC need to conduct a comprehensive VAT impact assessment of the operations, goods and service flows, identifying and segregating business and family related expenses, and defining the scope of the required VAT and organizational structure and resources (e.g. family office etc.).



It is vital for family businesses operating in the GCC to raise awareness across the entire organization, educating all employees about the implications of VAT and potential penalties in the case of non-compliance.



Ismael Hajjar, Mena Private Client Services leader, EY said: This is an ideal time for GCC family businesses to reconsider their approach to ownership structures and family governance along with conducting VAT assessment analyses.



In fact, reviewing the legal structures and considering efficient tools to streamline the family wealth with business investments are important prerequisites for a successful VAT implementation. Ignoring such measures may result in significant costs and inefficiencies.  TradeArabia News Service
Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (Sama) Governor Ahmad bin Abdulkarim Al-Khulaifi has denied any intention to break the Saudi riyal's peg to the US dollar.

The governor made the remarks at a press conference, a Saudi Press Agency (SPA) report said.

He stressed the currency linkage has contributed to the Saudi economy and ensured monetary stability.
Binzagr Company, a leading distributor in Saudi Arabia, has purchased 163,453 sq m of land in the Industrial Valley at King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) to set up a new logistics centre aiming to bolster its customer services.



The new facility will also guarantee the quality of Binzagrs products, in addition to enhancing the speed, flexibility of movement and transportation of its products around the kingdom through the land bridge.



The new land purchase will add to its previous acquisition of 300,000 sq m in the Industrial Valley. Construction is expected to commence by Q2 2018 and the first production line is scheduled to be operational by Q3, 2019.



Establishing these new facilities reflects Binzagrs confidence in the Industrial Valleys standing, as well as the features that characterise it as a major logistics centre on the Red Sea serving the entire region including Saudi Arabia, the GCC countries, and the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region.



We are very pleased and proud that Binzagr has decided to expand their presence in the Industrial Valley based on their future business needs, said Fahd Al Rasheed, managing director and Group CEO, King Abdullah Economic City.



By making this further investment, Binzagr recognises KAEC-IV as the main logistics hub on the Red Sea and in the entire region. In addition, the land bridge will enable us to easily reach all regions of the Kingdom.



Al Rasheed also expressed his pride in the growing number of investors in KAEC, which shows the prestigious standing the city has acquired as one of the largest and most important investment destinations regionally, as well as one of the most prominent business incubators for both local and international investments in the kingdom.



The Industrial Valleys strategic location and its unrivalled transportation facilities, including King Abdullah Port, which is capable of serving the worlds largest container ships, and the citys connection to the national road network, link KAEC to local and overseas markets, enhance opportunities for commercial growth and provide job opportunities for citizens.



Currently, Binzagr Company distributes over 1,500 stock keeping units (SKUs) comprising 55 leading brands spread across 28 categories. The companys consumer product portfolio includes ambient food and drinks, chilled and frozen food products, personal and home care products, and automotive tyres.



We have gained the trust of local consumers by offering our high quality products over a period of many decades, said Abdullah Binzagr, CEO and chairman of Binzagr Group.



As always, we have absolute confidence in the Saudi economy and our expansion in the Industrial Valley aims to support the companys future growth and promote our leadership in the field of product distribution and the FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) sector.



We are confident that our investment in King Abdullah Economic City will support our efforts to make a difference in our products and services, in addition to adding value to all those customers who consume our products. We believe that the outcomes will show as soon as we start operations in our new location at King Abdullah Economic City, he added.



Ayman Mansi, CEO of the Industrial Valley in KAEC said: Binzagr is a valued tenant company in King Abdullah Economic City. As one of the leading distribution companies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, operating with the highest international standards and relying on high quality networks, Binzagr is a brand name we rely on to add value. This is in line with our ambitions to supply local and international markets with high quality products, based on the variety of products offered by the company and the special standing theyve had with Saudi consumers throughout the generations.



The logistics services sector attracts special attention since it is our largest sector and is growing at an accelerating pace, which makes the Industrial Valley a major destination and an advanced supply point for logistics and industrial services, due to its location and logistics linkage, he added.



KAE) is the largest privately-funded new city in the world. Situated on the west coast of Saudi Arabia, covering an area of 181 sq km, approximately the size of Washington DC. It comprises King Abdullah Port, the Coastal Communities residential districts, the Industrial Valley and the Hejaz district, which includes the Haramain high speed rail station. The city is under development by Emaar, The Economic City, a publicly listed Saudi joint-stock company established in 2006.  TradeArabia News Service
Azizi Developments, one of the fastest growing developers in the UAE, said it will be investing Dh9.1 billion ($2.5 billion) across its operations in the country next year, significantly higher than its investments in 2017.



The budget was approved by Azizi Group chairman Mirwais Azizi during the company's year-end gala dinner held recently in Dubai. It was attended by Saeed Al Tayer, the chairman and CEO of Meydan Group, and Fawad Azizi, the deputy CEO of Azizi Developments.



The increase in the spending is aimed at meeting the developers commitment to further develop the Dubai real estate market by establishing unique community lifestyle projects in key locations across the city.



A real estate investment arm of Azizi Group, the company currently has a portfolio of over Dh20 billion ($5.4 billion) in the emirate and more than 100 projects at various stages of development.



CEO Farhad Azizi said: "We are pleased to announce that we have allocated Dh9.1 billion towards expanding our business even further in Dubai in 2018. Our developments will include new residential projects in upcoming locations and community-style projects in high-potential areas across the city."



"While 2017 was one of the busiest years for us operationally, we expect to see further business growth and development in 2018  especially as we near the commencement of Expo 2020, one of the biggest events on Dubais calendar for the next few years," noted Azizi.



This year has been hugely transformational for Azizi Developments, with many projects delivered across key locations in Dubai, including in Al Furjan and Palm Jumeirah.



The Emirati developer had launched two mega residential developments  the canal waterfront project Azizi Riviera valued at Dh12 billion and Azizi Victoria in Mohammed Bin Rashid City  District 7, twice the size of Azizi Riviera.



Both of these mega projects are expected to meet the growing demand for premium residential real estate in Dubai over the next few years.



Azizi said the group's priorities for 2018 are to meet its commitments to customers while maintaining a healthy balance sheet and capital discipline.



"The sooner we can achieve our long-term goal, the sooner we can further grow our business and build on the success of 2017 and work to exceed next years goals while remaining a construction-driven real estate company," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation (Empower) said it has been awarded a major contract by the Dubai government to provide 2,459 refrigeration tons (RT) of district cooling capacity to Museum of the Future.



Groomed to become the incubator for futuristic innovation and designs, the Museum of the Future was launched by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, as a platform to showcase and experiment on the latest inventions from startups and global technology champions.



It will also test human capabilities and limitations in developing long-term development solutions to the challenges facing future cities.



One of the worlds largest district cooling services provider, Empower said the agreement reflects the positive reception and increasing interest of the property sector in investing in environmental sustainability as a key factor to improve growth.



It also underscores the economic advantage of adopting district cooling in real estate development, said the company in a statement.



On the contract win, CEO Ahmad Bin Shafar said: "A hub for the future of humanity is being built right here in Dubai. Providing the Museum of the Future with a sustainable cooling solution is in line with the UAEs sustainability agenda and Empower will ensure that the air-conditioning requirements of the technology center will meet the highest international standards."



"It is part of Empowers DNA to support such projects as the future is in sustainability and the successful completion of this project would pave the way for many innovative projects  including those that will optimize our natural resources to dramatically improve our ways of doing business and lifestyles," he stated.



The project which is built at the heart of Dubais business district near the Emirates Towers on Sheikh Zayed Road, will gather selected researchers, inventors, research centers, companies and funders under one roof.



Upon completion, the project will house innovation laboratories for health, education, smart cities, energy, and transport and will be a permanent museum of future innovations in all sectors, highlighting sustainable development, said Bin Shafar.



Empower supplies district cooling to a wide scope of buildings that ranges from residential buildings to hospitals, educational institutions, hotels, hotels, commercial and retail buildings and institutes, he stated.



By adding Museum of Future to its portfolio, Empower is now able to meet the varied cooling requirements of specialised and tailor-made buildings and structures, as well as the peak-load requirements of such buildings, he added.-TradeArabia News Service
Aldar Properties, a leading UAE-based real estate developer, said it has completed the acquisition of International Tower, a high-quality office building located in Capital Gate district of Abu Dhabi, for Dh658 million ($179 million).



The Capital Gate district is home to a vibrant combination of private and public sector organisations, as well as a range of hospitality outlets and the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.



Located at the heart of this premier business hub, International Tower is well positioned to attract a high-quality mix of tenants. Key anchor tenants include Abu Dhabi Systems & Information Centre (ADSIC), Aecom, Wood Group, McKinsey & Company and BAE Systems.



The prime office tower, which boasts 39,000 sq m of NLA (net lettable area) of Grade A commercial space, will immediately contribute to Aldars net operating income supported by a strong mix of existing tenants and robust occupancy.



The acquisition of International Tower will complement Aldars existing Dh18-billion ($4.9 billion) asset management portfolio of quality real estate assets across the retail, residential, office and hospitality sectors and further back the group's asset management strategy to grow net operating income.



Commenting on the deal, CEO Talal Al Dhiyebi said: "This clearly demonstrates our belief in the strength of Abu Dhabis commercial real estate market. With a strong mix of existing tenants, this grade A office tower will make an immediate contribution to net operating income, in line with our strategy to grow recurring income from our portfolio of high-quality assets."



"Supported by our strong balance sheet, we will continue to assess the market for opportunities that will further drive growth of our portfolio," he added.



In addition to the acquisition of International Tower, Aldar also recently announced it will retain a proportion of the Waters Edge residential development for its asset management portfolio, said a statement from Aldar.



These announcements demonstrate Aldars ambition to further invest in developing a world class, high-quality asset management portfolio, it added.-TradeArabia News Service
Canon Middle East (CME), a leader in imaging solutions, hosted its regional partners at an event in Dubai, UAE, and showcased latest innovative imaging products and solutions that are to transform and support the growth of their businesses in a fast-paced, technologically-enabled future.



Held over two days, the Annual Partner Conference aimed at further cementing Canons role as a partner of choice for organisations within the evolving world of business, said a statement.



Highlighting Canon Incs 80-year imaging history and marking Canon Europes 60-year anniversary, the conference engulfed a Be future ready theme.



In line with promoting Open communication, New possibilities and Extended horizons (One), the conference featured an exhibition-like flow which demonstrated the full Canon Eco system range for consumers and businesses alike.



Thus, allowing its partners to experience Canons journey throughout its decades long history and encounter the progression and projection of how technologies can be used in the future.



Anurag Agrawal, managing director of CME, said: The conference is a flagship event for CME, and this year we are also celebrating Canon Incs 80th year of operation and Canon Europes 60th year anniversary.



We embarked on this journey to not only showcase our achievements, but to also focus on what we can offer businesses and consumers in the decades to come, he said.



We are looking to the future as it eminently approaches and we want to equip our partners with the best possible agile and seamless solutions that deliver maximum efficiency levels, increase productivity and enhance their competitive advantage, he added.



Canons products and solutions were not mere standalones, but part of a journey to emphasise oneness. Interactive walls and tunnels displayed fantastic imagery as the partners walked through the various zones, which were also combined with immersive projection experiences and multi-dimensional holograms to create a visually compelling, intriguing and futuristic experience for the visitors.



The live demonstration of Canons consumer products and solutions working together seamlessly followed the Live for the story theme and incorporated the Shoot-Remember-Share ecosystem which is tied to Canons consumer- bound range of products.



The exhibition also combined several elements that brought Canons story of the past and future to life. Emphasising the importance of standing out from the rest of the competition, Canons range of business solutions embodied an Evolve-Inspire-Improve ecosystem which was accompanied by the live demonstration of five value propositions Differentiate, Transform, Accelerate, Simplify and Evolve.



All of which would trigger higher efficiency levels, growth rates, and profitability levels; ultimately allowing the partners to witness hands-on what Canon is all about; innovation.



Agrawal added: During this years conference, Canon was able to truly demonstrate how our products and services work together to from a whole. Culminating the exhibition with Elemental a fictitious beauty brand campaign developed from scratch by Canon with photographer and filmmaker Clive Booth to highlight the power of print for businesses.



The campaign followed Canons ethos of storytelling through compelling imagery; whether it is for individuals or businesses communicating their brand. Further demonstrating how our innovations are interconnected to better serve our customers, and showcases to our partners what opportunities lie for their businesses, he said.



At the conference, Agrawal also highlighted the path-breaking initiatives taken by Canon in 2017 which included opening the first Innovation Centre in the region, serving as a live showroom for businesses to view and test Canons products and solutions first hand.



In addition, Canon hosted the second Frontiers of Innovation Forum in partnership with MEED earlier this year. The forum provided a platform for driving innovation, sharing ideas, and gaining insights and experiences between the public and private sectors to generate solutions for the future of industries and societies.



The conference served as a key platform for the company to highlight its achievements over the past 80 years and address what the future of imaging holds for its partners in the region. Hosting the entire Canon Eco system, concluded with a series of organised excursions, an exclusive gala dinner and an awards ceremony to acknowledge the top performing partners for the year, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), a major industrial company in the UAE, has signed a long term supply agreement with Shaheen Chem Investments which paves the way for the construction by Shaheen of a chemical complex in Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi.



Once it starts production early next decade, Shaheens ethylene dichloride and caustic soda plant will supply all its caustic soda output to EGAs Al Taweelah alumina refinery for a period of 15 years, said a statement.



This will entirely meet EGAs needs for this raw material, it said.



Construction of the plant will significantly boost the UAEs production of caustic soda, an important raw material in industries from petroleum products to chemicals manufacturing as well as alumina refining.



The new plant will be the first in the UAE to produce ethylene dichloride, which will be sold to third parties, it added.



Ethylene dichloride is a precursor chemical that is mostly used to manufacture vinyl chloride, which in turn is used to make polyvinyl chloride. Polyvinyl chloride is a plastic which is used to make pipes, bottles and other products.



Ethylene dichloride and caustic soda manufacturing is a new industry for Kizad and construction of the plant is expected to boost Kizads role as an industrial centre for Abu Dhabi and the UAE.



The long term supply agreement was signed by Abdulla Kalban, managing director and chief executive officer of EGA, Shaheens chairman Rashed Al Suwaidi and Shaheens managing director Walid Azhari.



The signing was witnessed by Abdelkareem Al Masabi, executive vice president - Ports of Abu Dhabi Ports which is the master developer and operator of Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi.



Kalban said: The construction of a caustic soda plant next to our alumina refinery guarantees our supply of this vital raw material at competitive prices for years to come.



I am pleased that our companys demand for caustic soda is creating further industrial expansion in Abu Dhabi, continuing EGAs long-standing contribution to the diversification of our economy as we grow our own business, he added.



Al Suwaidi said: We now look forward to building our plant at Kizad to supply EGA with the caustic soda it needs. We are also excited to become the first producer of ethylene dichloride in the UAE and to later bringing vinyl chloride and polyvinyl chloride production to the country.



The new plant will be built near to EGAs Al Taweelah site on a 300,000-sq-m plot and has room for future expansion. The production capacity of the first phase of the plant is expected to be 130,000 tonnes per year of caustic soda and 160,000 tonnes per year of ethylene dichloride.



Shaheen envisages a later second phase of the project, which will double caustic soda production capacity and begin production of vinyl chloride and polyvinyl chloride.



The UAE currently imports all its polyvinyl chloride needs. Local production could spur the development of manufacturers using polyvinyl chloride at Kizad.



EGA is currently building Al Taweelah alumina refinery next to its Al Taweelah aluminium smelter. The refinery will process bauxite ore into alumina, which is the feedstock for aluminium smelters.



Al Taweelah alumina refinery is the first to be built in the UAE and will meet 40 per cent of EGAs alumina requirements, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
Airbus successfully provided the latest in secure communication services to help facilitate operations of the Fortune Global Forum 2017, one of the most influential forums on economic development in the world, which was recently held in Guangzhou, China.



The annual conference, hosted by Fortune magazine, saw the participation of more than 1,000 conventioneersincluding international politicians and senior business executives from more than 150 of the worlds top 500 companies. Airbus' successful implementation demonstrates its excellence as the official Tetra equipment supplier of the Guangzhou Government Shared Tetra network, which is the second largest city-wide Tetra network in the world.



In order to ensure the smooth running of the event, 1,000 government members of staff were equipped with smartphones provided with the Airbus application Tactilon Agnet. The app allowed officials to communicate securely and simultaneously in groups with the local authority organisations, who were using their mission-critical Tetra network during the event. At the same time, Tactilon Agnet and the tens of thousands of Tetra users were dispatched from the same command and control centres.



Guangzhou information Technology Security Evaluation Center, the entity responsible for administrating the Guangzhou Tetra Shared Network, confirmed in a statement that the unified command control of Tetra and LTE were adopted, which allowed the network to provide good performance during the Fortune International Forum. Moreover, the Tetra and LTE convergence platform ran smoothly and led to the success in securing this international event.



Selim Bouri, head of Middle East and Asia-Pacific for Secure Land Communications at Airbus, said: For the first time in China and Asia, the convergence application for secure narrow- and broadband communications has been implemented by Airbus. Therefore, this years Fortune Global Forum marks another milestone. Again, after providing professional mobile radio technology for the Belt & Road Forum in 2017, we have demonstrated convincingly our expertise and experience in secure communications for this years outstanding convention.



Protected wireless communication was entirely integrated during the event into the Guangzhou Government Shared Tetra network for public safety. It now consists of four Tetra switches and around 400 Tetra base stations. As well as 45,000 subscribers from various authorities, including the emergency response office, the police, rescue services, fire departments, the city administration and other governmental institutions.



Since 2009, Airbus has played a significant role in the overall efforts to upgrade the Guangzhou Government Shared Tetra network. At present, the company is supplying and overseeing the complete migration to the latest version of Internet Protocol (IP), which will also cover the city's new metro lines. The upgrades and extensions are expected to be fully completed in 2018--reaching six Tetra switches and 540 Tetra base stations. - TradeArabia News Service
After a contentious, three-hour public hearing last Tuesday night, the Casper City Council approved selling two city-owned buildings to local entrepreneurs hoping to bring new apartments and an apparel store to downtown.

City Council was split on the decision, with five members voting to sell the buildings and three voting against.

Shortly after the city received the bids in October, a conference center consortium urged Council to reject the bids because a study revealed the land in question was the best spot to potentially develop a roughly $70 million hotel and conference center.

The buildings, which are located on Ash Street north of Midwest Avenue, include the former Ka-Larks gymnastics studio and the former Milos Toyota body shop.

After struggling with the decision for a few weeks, Council decided to hold a hearing to let local residents voice their views. City Council chambers were full Tuesday night, with 18 people speaking in favor of accepting the bids, and 3 speaking against selling the properties.

***

The Downtown Development Authoritys CEO, Kevin Hawley, urged council to have faith in the consortiums vision for Casper.

The group includes representatives from the Downtown Development Authority, Casper Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Amoco Reuse Agreement Joint Powers Board and the Economic Development Joint Powers Board/Forward Casper.

While developing a hotel and conference center may sound overly ambitious, Hawley said the David Street Station  a public downtown plaza  was also a controversial project prior to its construction.

Everything we said we were going to do with the David Street Station, weve done, he said.

Given that the plaza recently opened and is not yet complete, the CEO also explained that its difficult to currently determine the value of the Ash Street buildings, which are located nearby.

But the majority of those who spoke Tuesday night encouraged Council to accept the bids.

Doing so would send a message that the city supports the energy and creativity of local entrepreneurs, said William Conte, a professor at Casper College who attended the hearing with about a dozen of his students.

Others expressed concerns that the large facility would negatively alter the landscape, dramatically increase downtowns traffic and take away needed business from other local hotels.

Multiple speakers said they supported the idea of developing a hotel and conference center, but felt the group should pick another location because they want the historic Ash Street buildings to be preserved.

The consortium also analyzed two other potential sites, including a Platte River Commons property and an area just west of the downtown core owned by Casper Redevelopment Corporation and the Natrona County Public Library Foundation. A study concluded that these locations were less desirable because they are further away from the citys center and would therefore generate less foot traffic downtown.

***

After listening to residents, Councilman Bob Hopkins said he firmly supported accepting the bids. The consortium told Council at a Dec. 12 meeting that they could present a concrete financial plan in six months, but Hopkins wasnt convinced.

The idea of having numbers together in six months is a myth, he said Tuesday.

Councilman Shawn Johnson, who pointed out at a meeting earlier this month that previous plans for a hotel and conference center never panned out, said Tuesday that he agreed with Hopkins.

Although he stated that the conference center sounded like a long shot, Councilman Charlie Powell said he was still voting to reject the bids because the facility could have a huge impact on Casper.

I dont want to take any action that reduces the likelihood of having that facility built, he said.

Explaining that the request for proposal process was flawed, Vice Mayor Ray Pacheco said he was also rejecting the bids.

There are many unknowns, he said.

Ultimately, Mayor Kenyne Humphrey and council members Dallas Laird, Shawn Johnson, Bob Hopkins and Chris Walsh voted to approve the bids. Vice Mayor Ray Pacheco and councilmen Jesse Morgan and Charlie Powell voted against them. Council member Amanda Huckabay was absent.

I didnt feel we were going to get it, so yeah, its a surprise, said David Kelley, who won the bid for the former body shop. The owner of Ashby Construction intends to use the building as office space for his own business and will then build three buildings next to it to rent out as apartments.

Scott Cotton, a co-owner of 1890 Inc., won the bid for the former gymnastic studio. Cotton previously explained that his custom apparel store needs a larger space to meet customer demands.

The buildings were part of the Plains Furniture property block, which also included a former livery stable that has not yet received a bid. City officials purchased the properties in early 2016 with no exact plans for their use.

Brandon Daigle, the chairman of the Downtown Development Authority, confirmed Wednesday that the consortium will continue on with their plans to bring a conference center to Casper using one of the other potential sites.
Health officials are investigating a rise in hepatitis A cases in Natrona County, the Wyoming Health Department announced Wednesday.

Authorities have so far confirmed five cases among residents of the county, the health department said. Before that, the last hepatitis A infection in the area occurred in 2012, said Clay Van Houten, Infectious Disease Epidemiology Program manager with the health department.

Typically, only two hepatitis A cases are reported annually in all of Wyoming, he said.

Kim Deti, spokeswoman for the health department, declined to say whether those who contracted the illness in Natrona County are homeless or transient people. But she said thats been the case in other outbreaks across the county.

She said she similarly didnt want to speculate whether this outbreak was related to another in Salt Lake City.

Casper-Natrona County Health Department executive director Kelly Weidenbach did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday morning.

Cases arent always related to something like a restaurant, she said. They can be spread by something as simple as not washing your hands after using the restroom.

Youd be surprised at how much of a difference it can make, Deti said.

She said that receiving the vaccination is the best way to prevent contracting hepatitis A.

It is part of the routine vaccine that people receive, she said. If some people have trouble affording that, it may be covered by some of the public vaccine programs.

Hepatitis A can cause liver infections and is typically spread when people eat or drink something contaminated with a tiny amount of infected feces, according to the health department.

It can also be spread by being in contact with someone with the disease, users of injection and non-injection drugs, men having sex with men, and traveling to countries with high rates of hepatitis A, according to the department.

Symptoms include fever, fatigue, abdominal pain and jaundice. However, young children usually do not show symptoms even if they are infected, Van Houten said.

The increases in local cases comes amid reports of several large outbreaks nationally, including an outbreak now occurring in Salt Lake City.
The Wyoming Supreme Court decided Tuesday to allow three Casper residents to sue a rent-to-own company in Natrona County courts alleging the company invaded their privacy.

A Natrona County Circuit Court judge initially threw out the case after concluding that Wyomings tort law does not recognize suits on the basis of invasion of privacy. After two appeals, the Wyoming Supreme Court ruled that intrusion torts should be recognized in Wyoming and the case can now return to circuit court to be tried on its merits.

Were pleased that the supreme court cleared this up, said local attorney John Robinson, who argued the case with John LaBuda of Pinedale.

Aspen Way owns the local franchise of Aarons Sales and Leasing, which rented laptops to the plaintiffs. The three plaintiffs filed suit alleging that the company installed software on the laptops without their knowledge. The software could be used to remotely access the laptops cameras, capture the content of the laptops screens and log keystrokes entered on the laptops, plaintiffs allege.

Adam Warren, who argued for Aspen Way Enterprises in the case, declined to comment for this story.

After the dismissal in circuit court, lawyers for the plaintiffs appealed the case to Natrona County District Court, which in February concurred with the circuit courts decision.

Lawyers for the plantiffs  Gretchen Howard, Audrey Kinion and Steve Winn  then appealed to the state supreme court, which reversed the two lower courts decision on Tuesday, citing Wyomings stance on common law.

The justices note that Wyoming was one of only two states that had not made a decision on invasion of privacy torts. Of the other 48 states, only two states explicitly have refused to recognize intrusion torts, the court wrote in its opinion.

The court also noted Wyomingites preference for personal privacy in making its decision.

Justice William U. Hill wrote in the courts decision: Given our states policy favoring privacy interests and the legislative enactments protecting those interests, we find the tort of intrusion upon seclusion to be well adapted to our circumstances and state of society.

Hill is due to retire from the bench in February.

Another Casper couple is suing the company in federal court alleging similar intrusion. That case has been going on for more than six years. Robinson is representing a Casper couple in the federal case.
Wyoming health officials warned lawmakers last week that a federally funded program to insure children is running out of money and will end this spring unless Congress acts.

The funding for Childs Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, expired Sept. 30 after Congress failed to reauthorize it. The program insures roughly 3,300 children in Wyoming, a Wyoming Department of Health spokeswoman said. The children come from families who fall in a financial gap. They make too much to qualify for Medicaid and too little to afford private insurance.

Nationwide, about 8.9 million children were enrolled in CHIP last year, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation and Medicaid figures.

Both Sen. John Barrasso and Sen. Mike Enzi support reauthorizing the program and both predicted that would happen soon.

Enzi has been in contact with the state of Wyoming to ensure that the state will not face a funding shortfall in the near future, and children will not lose coverage in the state, the senators spokesman Max DOnofrio said in an email. He has also been engaged with those members leading on this issue in the Senate towards extending this program.

In Wyoming, the federal government provides 88 percent of the funding for CHIP, health department director Tom Forslund told lawmakers last week. The state covers the remaining 12 percent and contracts the program through Blue Cross Blue Shield  essentially the only private insurer in the state and the only one to participate in the Obamacare exchanges.

The two-year program budget total that is being requested for state fiscal years 19 and 20 is roughly $29.8 million, department spokeswoman Kim Deti said in a email. Of that, roughly $26.2 million would be federal funds with remaining general funds (covering the states contribution).

That estimate assumes that the program is reauthorized, she added.

For now, the state is using leftover funds from last year. But they wont last forever: Forslund estimated funding would run out by April, and if Congress does not reauthorize CHIP, the department will begin informing families this winter that their children are going to lose insurance.

On a national level, the program has bipartisan support and the hang up appears to be how to fund the program going forward. In November, the House passed a reauthorization bill that many Democrats voted against, objecting to provisions that would affect Obamacare, according to the Washington Post. The paper reported that its quite possible a deal will be reached before Christmas.

Should that not happen and the federal funding is completely cut off, Wyoming will almost certainly have to end the program. While some states have said theyll continue to fund it 100 percent through their general fund, Wyomings current fiscal situation makes that a near certain impossibility, Forslund told lawmakers.

Obviously Wyoming isnt in a position to do it, he said.

Indeed, CHIP is not even the largest shortfall the health department is facing. For the current two-year budget cycle, which ends June 30, the state has a $32 million Medicaid shortfall. The health department has been slashed by $100 million department in recent years as state lawmakers grapple with deficits brought on by the energy downturn.

Deti, the department spokeswoman, said theres hope, but without funding, the state would have few options. She said some families can pursue insurance through the states health care exchanges, which would allow them to enroll despite the fact that open enrollment ended late last week.

Still, Wyoming is relatively fortunate. Other states are already informing families.

We do have a little more time than some states youre hearing about nationally, Deti said.
POWELL  Researchers at the University of Montana say proposed fee increases at Yellowstone National Park would drive down visitation and cause gateway communities to lose millions of dollars worth of business from tourists.

National Park Service officials have proposed raising the entrance fee at 17 popular national parks to help deal with billions of dollars worth of maintenance projects that have been put on hold.

In Yellowstone, Park Service leaders want to raise the cost of a seven-day vehicle pass from $30 to $70 from May through September.

Researchers at the University of Montanas Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research say the proposal would drive down Yellowstone visits by 1.2 percent; based off 2016 numbers, that would mean about 45,800 fewer people visiting the park.

As with most goods or services in our economy, a price increase leads to a decrease in demand. In the case of a national park, this means a reduction in the number of visits, Jeremy Sage, the lead author of the study, said in a statement.

The study concluded that the drop in visitation would, in turn, lead to a 0.6 percent drop in tourism spending in the Greater Yellowstone area. That would mean a loss of $3.4 million, the authors say; the National Park Service previously estimated that visitors spent around $524.3 million in Yellowstones gateway communities in 2016.

At $70, concerns may be legitimately raised that many families are being priced out of visiting the major parks in the U.S., according to the Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research.

The institutes researchers worked off the assumption that raising entry fees will have the same negative effect on visitation as rising fuel costs, figuring that an entrance fee is a lot like a toll.

The institute predicts that visits by locals  that is, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho residents  will drop by nearly 3 percent and that visits from other Americans and Canadians will fall by 1.1 percent. Foreign visits, meanwhile, would dip by just 0.07 percent under the studys projections.

As for why the change would discourage locals more than international visitors, the authors say that a $40 increase on a $30 entrance fee is a large change for local visitors within an hour or twos drive to the park, yet rather small for an international traveler paying more than $1,000 per airline ticket.

A Wyoming resident currently faces an average travel cost of $106.48  meaning the proposed $40 fee hike would make the trip 37.6 percent more expensive, the study says.

For an international visitor, however, the extra $40 in entrance fees  tacked onto a Yellowstone trip that already costs more than $4,480 on average  represents only a 0.9 percent bump.

The paper from the Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research recommends that the National Park Service reconsider the fee hikes and thoroughly investigate the potential impacts of the proposal.

At $70, concerns may be legitimately raised that many families are being priced out of visiting the major national parks in the U.S., the authors wrote. As such, the rationale behind the increased revenue strategy should be questioned.

The Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research paper suggests charging international visitors a higher fee. In reviewing other national parks across the globe, the authors say thats common. For example, Kilimanjaro National Park in Tanzania charges its residents roughly $4.45 a day for admission, while visitors from other countries pay about $70.

That idea of raising national park rates for foreigners was also suggested to U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., at an event in Cody on Dec. 9.

I wouldnt have any problem with that, Cheney responded, suggesting buses could face higher rates.

While I think we want to encourage visitors, obviously, she indicated such a system wouldnt be much different than states offering lower fees to in-state residents.

I know there has been hesitation, but Im not exactly sure what the obstacles been, Cheney said, adding, I know its something that theyve been looking at.

Earlier, Cheney asked the Cody audience what they thought of the proposed fee hikes in Yellowstone. The murmurs through the crowd indicated general displeasure.

I wish they could figure out a way  and they may be doing this  where they could have a fee increase on the big busses that come through, for example, without having to have an impact on everybody else, or have a resident discount that applies more broadly, Cheney said. Its a challenge across the board.

She said that, in all her meetings with Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, the first thing he mentions is the backlog in the national parks, the maintenance backlog, and his need for additional revenues.

The Park Service says it has around $12 billion worth of maintenance projects that have been awaiting funding. The proposed fees increases would raise an extra $68.6 million a year, according to Park Service estimates, bringing the total amount of annual entrance fee revenue to $268.5 million.

Zinke has said hiking the fees and shoring up the national parks infrastructure would help protect and preserve them for future generations.

Most of a parks entrance fees  80 percent  go to projects within that park. The other 20 percent is distributed to other national park sites.
Vector, a small-satellite launch startup based in Tucson, says it has inked an agreement with a Tempe company to host a decentralized cryptocurrency on a planned network of satellites.

Nexus will be the first company to deploy a cryptocurrency on a satellite orbiting the Earth when it debuts on Vectors planned GalacticSky Software-Defined Satellite platform sometime in 2019, the companies said Wednesday.

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Nexus are essentially digital or virtual money that uses cryptography  encrypted computer code  to secure transactions, create new units and verify transfers.

Nexus was founded by Colin Cantrell, a computer software and hardware expert who created the Nexus currency. He is the son of Vector co-founder and CEO Jim Cantrell.

By hosting the cryptocurrency in space with GalacticSky, Nexus would no longer be tied to a nation-state and can create the backbone for a more decentralized financial system, the companies said.

Nexus will be able to distribute its data  contained in coding known as blockchain  across multiple satellites for improved reliability and performance, they said.

With Bitcoins valuation at an all-time high, people are beginning to accept cryptocurrency as a real form of payment, but there are still problems with storage and ownership, Colin Cantrell said in prepared remarks.

Placing the Nexus system on the GalacticSky platform will advance the companys mission of providing the world with a decentralized currency that can be accessed virtually anywhere, any time, he added.

The companies said their partnership will highlight unique uses for GalacticSkys technology and further prove the versatility of the satellite system.

Additionally, future Vector customers will be able to pay for launches using Nexus cryptocurrency, known by the abbreviation NXS.

Housing Nexus cryptocurrency on our GalacticSky platform not only validates our proof of concept, but demonstrates how prolific this opportunity is for startups looking to innovate in space without the need to build their own satellite, Vectors Jim Cantrell said.

Meanwhile, Vector also announced a partnership with Astro Digital, a satellite imaging startup based in Mountain View, California, to conduct a dedicated launch in 2018 featuring one of Astro Digitals satellites.
We've collected a few front pages from newspapers.com to give you a look at some Dec. 20 papers in history. With a subscription to newspapers.com you can search the Arizona Daily Star and many other newspapers using keywords or dates, and download articles or pages.
TWO KILLED, 15 INJURED IN PIONEER HOTEL BLAZE

Guests Plunge From Windows

At least two deaths were verified and more than 15 injuries were reported in fire that swept through the 41-year-old Pioneer International Hotel early this morning. It was feared the death toll would be much higher.

Reporters on the scene said that four bodies were brought to the mezzanine level about 2 a.m. and firemen had called for a resuscitation on the ninth floor. Several other sheet-draped bodies were seen there. The fire broke out shortly after midnight.

Robert Trooper, hotel auditor, said he got a call from a guest who said she saw flames in the stairwell on the third floor.

An unidentified room clerk said the flames shot up the elevator shaft of the 250-room hotel, leaving a wake of smoke in the upper floors of the 11-story building.

At 1:45 a.m. St. Mary's hospital had reported one person dead on arrival and 15 others injured. At that time it was not known whether any injured had been taken to other hospitals.

Those injured included persons who jumped from the upper floors.

One witness said, "People were jumping from the windows and splattering on the sidewalk. It was awful. Firemen were screaming to people through their horns to stay on the floors for oxygen."

Witnesses said they saw bodies, illuminated by floodlights, leaping from the rooms of the 10th floor and the roof.

Mrs. Lee Atkinson, who had just left the hotel when the fire broke out, said she heard young people screaming. "I wanted to go back in and help them. It was awful," she said.

"I'll never forget this as long as I live. People hanging on the ledges, yelling."

At 1:15 a.m. a man named "Bill" found his way to a balcony on the eight floor overhanging Pennington Street. A friend on the street below, who had found his way out of the hotel, called to him to remain where he was, that he was safe where he was.

"Bill" disappeared and reappeared at another window on the east side of the hotel. A sheet rope from the floor above him dropped past the window. He grabbed at it and slid down to the fourth floor of an addition to the building.

The dead person was later identified as a woman who jumped from the seventh floor, struck a balcony overlooking Stone Avenue and fell to the sidewalk. Her name was not available.

Firemen pleaded with hotel guests not to jump from the building. At first the message was given in English by Capt. Ellis Franklin. Later, an unidfentified fireman spoke to the guests in Spanish.

With flames still out of control at 1:55 a.m. the fire department issued a "Yellow Alert" putting all emergency equipment in the city into action. "This is like a disaster sutuation," the department spokesman said.

Edwin Santschi, retired electrical inspector for the City of Chicago, said flames were biting through the door of his room on the fifth floor. He said he tried to douse the flames with water from an ice bucket. In the hallway he said he saw four other guests crowding at the window "ready to jump."

Father Cahelare, of St. Augustine Cathedral, arrived at the scene soon after midnight. He was seen giving the last rites to a guest on the second floor of the hotel.

Several hundred employes of the Hughes Aircraft Co. were at the company annual party. Some left, and others sped through the building leading guests, most of the elderly people, to safety.

"Many were doing brave things," a witness said.

One man stood on a window ledge on the fourth floor for 15 or 20 minutes before firemen could get a ladder to him.

Fire escapes on the north side of the building were blocked by fire, making escape by that avenue impossible. Several volunteers on the south side of the building obtained a fire ladder to raise on that side of the building to help guests escape.

Three hook and ladder trucks were used to assist in rescue work, two on Stone Avenue and one on Pennington.

Officers sped to the scene from regular duty with the sheriff's office, U.S. Border Patrol, South Tucson Police Department and the Tucson Police Department.

One police officer, at the early stages of the fire, braved the interior of the hotel to give aid, but could only get to the third floor where he was stopped by smoke and flames.

At the height of the fire some of the guests lowered themselves to the annex building which houses Shoe City on Pennington Street.

Fireman Arth Apodaca fell four floors from a fire ladder. Observers said he did not appear to be critically injured.

Despite the intensity of the blaze, electricity oddly remained on in the hotel and on its signs.

The fire department's command post was established in front of Steinfeld's department store. Harold Steinfeld, owner of the store, and his wife, Peggy, live on the ninth floor of the hotel.

Firemen poured a tremendous amount of water on the flames. Water was seeping through the upper floors to the lower levels and after the fire had been controlled, C. Edgar Goyette, vice-president and resident manager, began salvaging records on the mezzanine floor. He was working in a small sea of water.

The hotel was built in 1929 and has long been a Tucson landmark. Albert Steinfeld built the Pioneer at the corner of Stone and Pennington on property which housed an old Methodist church when he bought it in 1904.

Harold Steinfeld recalled in later years that it was not considered a good business deal, as the property was "away out of the business district."

Under the Steinfeld ownership the site saw first, a building housing the offices for the Southern Pacific of Mexico and the old Epes Randolph railroad lines. This was in 1910. The ground floor was occupied by a fruit and vegetable shop, a drug store and other shops.

Baum and Adamson, one of the city's oldest auto supply firms started business on that corner.

In 1929, Albert Steinfeld built the Pioneer on the site with the idea of financing the hotel and then selling it to outside interests. The Depression wiped out the deal and the hotel remained in the Steinfeld family hands until early 1963, when it was sold to a group of Tucson businessmen.

The hotel has gone through several remodelings, the latest major one was in 1967 with a price tag of $750,000.
A man arrested last year in connection with a long-running string of Tucson massage parlors pleaded guilty today to operating a brothel and receiving money from prostitutes.

Ulises Ruiz was charged in Feb. 2016 with six felonies, including illegal control of an enterprise, keeping a house of prostitution, money laundering and receiving the earnings of a prostitute.

After nearly two years of motions, status conferences and hearings, Ruiz accepted an agreement with the Pima County Attorney Wednesday, pleading guilty to two felonies: keeping or maintaining a house of prostitution and receiving the earnings of a prostitute, said Pima County Superior Court spokeswoman Krisanne LoGalbo.

Ruiz was scheduled for trial on Jan. 9. Instead, he will be sentenced in on Feb. 1 in front of Judge Howard Fell.

In June, Ruiz's girlfriend and co-operator of the "By Spanish" massage parlors was sentenced to two years of probation and 600 hours of community service after pleading guilty in May to the same charges as Ruiz, according to Arizona Daily Star archives.

Police say that "By Spanish" operated out of multiple locations across Tucson from late 2011 until January 2015, when police raided 10 locations associated with 'By Spanish" and an offshoot business, "Daisy's Delights."

Contact lists from cell phones seized in the raid turned up phone numbers for multiple TPD employees, Air Force personnel, firefighters, Border Patrol agents and other local government employees.

In September, Stephanie Garcia, the admitted operator of "Daisy's Delights" was also sentenced to two years of probation after pleading guilty to the same charges as Lopez and Ruiz, Star archives show.

Garcia was previously employed at "By Spanish," but left the business to start her own.

During an interview with an undercover officer, Lopez told the woman about the operation and how employees were required to pay a $40 cut for each sexual service performed, according to Arizona daily Star archives.

Police said that based on that $40 cut, Lopez and Ruiz had the potential to make more than $250,000 per year.

In November 2015, Ruiz pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct after he was arrested months before for allegedly hitting a neighbor with a mini bat when he caught her taking pictures of cars parked at a north side location of "By Spanish."
On Dec. 12, the Pima County Board of Supervisors approved a nearly $16 million list of pavement repair projects in unincorporated Pima County over the next two years that left many residents of Green Valley and other parts of District 4 frustrated.

On Tuesday, however, the board reversed course, approving changes to how proceeds from the road property tax will be spent in the district. Substitutions requested for District 1 projects were not considered by the board, meaning the projects originally recommended by county transportation staff and approved by an advisory committee will move forward.

The previously approved list of projects largely bypassed Green Valley, which was slated to see just $51,437 of work in the first year and will now get around $600,000 in road repair work. Thats because the criteria used to come up with the original list prioritized roads with higher traffic volumes and a PASER rating of 5, meaning they are in poor condition but not yet failed and thus cheaper to fix. Few roads in Green Valley meet that criteria.

The community was unfairly caught up in a formula that may have made sense countywide, but held unintended negative consequences for the repair of roads in Green Valley, District 4 Supervisor Steve Christy said before voting for the substitutions.

Don Weaver, president of the Green Valley Council, which had been pushing for the modifications to the project list, said we followed the guidelines and we got it approved, which is great.

Christy was joined by supervisors Ramon Valadez and Sharon Bronson, who said she was reluctantly supporting the District 4 modifications. District 1 and District 4 were the only two districts where substitutions of projects were requested.

That reluctance, Bronson explained, was due to concerns she had about the criteria used for picking projects, which she felt neglected the many rural residents of her district. She said shed like to revisit how we decide as a community which roads are going to get priority before the next year of road property tax-funded projects.

Supervisors Richard Elias and Ally Miller voted against the changes in the projects.

Elias said he thought the board made a fair decision last week, and that it was based on the well-being of the entirety of Pima County, as opposed to the specifics of one individual district.

Miller said it was sad modifications for her district were not reconsidered by the supervisors.

I feel terrible that Supervisor Christy chooses to make a motion today that leaves out District 1, she said.

She said the proposed substitutions for her district, which replaced most of the staff-recommended projects for the first year, were the result of substantial public outreach and consideration of hundreds of repair requests.

Millers office submitted a summary of the methodology used by her two appointees to the Pima County Transportation Advisory Committee to decide which substitutions to make. Among other things, they considered projects that would make the greatest impact for safety, especially as it relates to the elderly and disabled persons, and equitable distribution.

Several residents of Sabino Town and Country Estates, a District 1 subdivision that would have gotten over $200,000 worth of work if the modifications had been approved, said they were disappointed in the boards vote not to approve changes to the list of projects. Now they arent slated for any road repair work.

It doesnt speak well for citizen advocacy, said resident Linda Leedberg, referencing the numerous requests made by her neighbors, many of whom also spoke at advisory committee meetings.

Norie Nelson, president of the Hidden Valley homeowners association, was similarly disappointed after the meeting. The five subdivisions that make up her neighborhood near Sabino Creek werent included in the project list approved last week, but would have gotten over $1 million in road repair with the requested substitutions, nearly 40 percent of the entire District 1 allocation.

We thought there might be reconsideration when they heard from the citizens, she said.

Nelson was less certain about why Millers advisory committee appointees had recommended that her neighborhood get such a sizable portion of the road property tax proceeds destined for District 1. She said she had contacted Millers office, and several neighbors told her they had made requests for repairs as well.

Records provided to the Star by Millers office show that a handful of Hidden Valley residents contacted their supervisor regarding road conditions in the neighborhood. A database of requests for road property tax repairs maintained by the department of transportation and obtained by the Star contains no entries from Hidden Valley residents.

By contrast, Sabino Town and Country Estates residents accounted for over 17 percent of the 566 submissions. Residents of Orangewood Estates submitted over 40 percent of those requests, but the neighborhood was not proposed as a substitution and was not included in the original list for funding.

Its a mystery to me, Nelson said when asked why her neighborhood would have benefited so greatly from the District 1 funding substitutions.

She said her neighborhoods roads are in terrible shape and was looking forward to the repairs, but added: I dont think we should have any more priority than anybody else  I know ours arent worse. Its bizarre.

Miller and Christopher DeSimone, one the supervisors advisory committee appointees, did not respond to requests for comment.
The Air Force will issue a study this spring on the environmental impact of basing F-35 Joint Strike Fighters at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base  though D-M so far has been passed over as a base for the next-generation stealth fighter.

In January, the Air Force announced Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Texas, as its preferred location for the first Air Force Reserve base to host the F-35, ahead of D-M and other bases that were finalists.

But the Air Force is writing an environmental impact statement on basing F-35s at D-M anyway, because it remains a reasonable alternative site along with Homestead Air Reserve Base, Florida, and Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, said Capt. Josh Benedetti, chief of public affairs at D-M.

D-M plans to publish a notice of intent regarding the F-35 study in the Federal Register in late March or early April, Benedetti said.

Three separate public-comment meetings on the study are tentatively planned for late April or early May, he added.

The F-35 study is required under the National Environmental Policy Act because the new jet hasnt flown here as part of regularly scheduled training.

The idea of basing F-35s in Tucson has drawn vehement opposition from some local residents who say the next-generation fighter jet is inappropriate for D-M because of noise, health and safety concerns.

Bryan Foulk, chairman of the business-backed Davis-Monthan support group DM50, said local groups along with the states congressional delegation continue to lobby the Air Force to assign D-M new missions, including an F-35 unit, citing D-Ms access to vast training ranges and unmatched flying weather.

Our message is, were open for business, were open to any mission set you want, Foulk said.

The Air Force wants to phase out D-Ms biggest mission set  the A-10 Thunderbolt II close air-support jet  though that plan has been put off amid Congressional opposition and high demand for the aircraft.

Business and civic leaders worry that D-M could be diminished or even vulnerable to closure if it loses major missions, citing D-Ms annual local economic impact of nearly $1 billion.

Rep. Martha McSally, a Tucson Republican and former A-10 pilot, said D-M may yet get an F-35 unit, as the Air Force decides where to base more than 1,700 F-35s it plans to acquire over the next three decades.

Its a viable base option, and there are still additional basing decisions to be made, McSally said.

The Air Forces F-35A model is significantly louder than jets that fly regularly at D-M, including the A-10 and the F-16 Fighting Falcon, and critics say the new, single-engine F-35 poses a safety threat to urban neighborhoods.

A group of Tucson residents sued the Air Force in January 2015, alleging its decision to significantly expand visitor-unit training at D-M  including some louder jets but not the F-35  was based on a flawed environmental assessment.

The lawsuit became moot in September when the Air Force said it was withdrawing its training expansion plan, after the National Guard decided to drop funding to staff its Operation Snowbird winter-training facility at D-M.

Tucson Forward, a nonprofit group of local residents formed in 2011, opposes the use of F-35s at D-M or at the Air National Guard 162nd Wing at Tucson International Airport, citing noise and safety issues and concerns about property values and negative effects on tourism.

Mary Terry Schiltz, president of Tucson Forward, said the group will continue to oppose basing of F-35s in Tucson, citing neighborhood associations in the region that have formally opposed the F-35 for years.

To undertake another EIS for basing F-35s in Tucson is a colossal waste of resources, further exacerbating the extreme waste and documented failures of the boondoggle F-35, with exorbitant costs and risks to our environment, safety for pilots and the public, Schiltz said.
Margie Rye, a popular Tucson radio personality from the 1980s-90s who fell in love with radio while watching her father launch an FM station in the familys Bisbee home, died on Thursday, Dec. 14. She was 54.

Her husband, Steve Clement, said the cause of death was complications of alcoholism.

Margie Wrye, who went by the name Margie Rye throughout her nearly 20 years on Tucson radio, was born on Jan. 12, 1963, in Huntsville, Alabama, where her father, William Wrye, was a NASA aerospace engineer.

The family moved to Bisbee in 1972 and William Wrye went to work at Fort Huachuca in neighboring Sierra Vista. At night, he built an FM radio station  first called KBAZ and later KZMK  in the familys basement.

She would hang out with him in the basement and watch him work on the radio at night, recalled her husband. She wouldnt leave his side. She was fascinated by it.

Her father died in 1979  a month before the station went live and a month before Rye, then 16, graduated from Bisbee High School, according to an autobiography she posted on a tribute page. Rye wrote in the post that she helped file a license extension with the FCC so her mother could sell the station.

Rye moved to Tucson to attend the University of Arizona and in 1982, her second year studying radio and TV, she took a job in telephone research at KWFM. She told Tucson Lifestyles magazine in 2015 that daytime DJ Bob Cooke was impressed with Ryes deep, smoky voice and helped her land a tryout with program director Jim Ray.

The next thing I know, Jim says, Hey Margie, you want a job on the air? Ill give you a tryout. It was Saturday, from 2-4 a.m., she recalled in that 2015 interview.

Months later, Cooke was shot and killed by a fan. Clement said the death was a seminal moment in Ryes life, prompting her to drop out of college and devote her life to radio.

Rye worked at several Tucson stations, including KWFM/KCEE, Cool 92.9, and KLPX, and became a celebrity back home in Bisbee. She is perhaps best known for her midday KLPX segment the Daily Dinosaur, in which she would play older records based on a single theme.

The Daily Dinosaur, that was her trademark, that was her show, he husband recalled, adding that Ryes legacy also was in the relationships she developed with listeners.

She was always there to take a phone call, to play a request. Someone would be having a bad day and she would play a song that would make them feel better, and they would let her know that, he said.

I think it was her passion and her personality. You really push yourself harder when youre a female in a mostly male-dominated business, added Ryes former colleague Gina Brandt, who now owns her own advertising agency.

Brandt said Rye set herself apart from the competition by creating promotional events that celebrated the radio station and the community.

She really stood out in the market. Everybody knew who she was, Brandt said.

She was really engaging when she was out and about. She was very outgoing on and off the air.

She was so passionate about it, said Linda Diana, who started working in radio sales for KLPX parent Lotus Communications in 1986; she is still with the company as a regional account manager.

Rye met her husband at Cool 92.9, where he worked in sales. When they started their family in late 1993, We made the choice together for her to stay home, said Clement, who is now vice president of sales for Clear Channel Outdoor.

The couple had a second son four years later and Rye, who had tip-toed back into radio part-time, returned in the early 2000s when the boys were older. She worked for KLPX from 2003-09.

Clement said his wife spent her post-radio days refocusing on her lifelong love of photography.

In addition to her husband, Rye is survived by sons Will and Sam, both of Tucson.

Visitation will be from 1 to 2 p.m. Friday, Jan. 5, at Brings Funeral Home, 6910 E. Broadway, where services will begin at 2 p.m. A reception will follow at Macayos Mexican Kitchen at 7040 E. Broadway.
PHOENIX  The question of whether utility regulator Bob Burns gets to grill the top executive at Arizona Public Service and review the companys political spending could turn on what a judge decides is the meaning of the word and.

What is clear is the Arizona Constitution spells out that the Corporation Commission, and the several members thereof have the power to inspect and investigate the books, methods and affairs of any corporation whose stock is sold in Arizona. That same section says that power extends to enforce the attendance of witnesses and the production of evidence by subpoena.

On Tuesday, Matthew Price, an attorney for APS, urged Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Daniel Kiley to read that as applying solely to the commission as a whole  at least by majority vote  and not any one individual commissioner. He said if the crafters of the Arizona Constitution wanted to empower individual commissioners, they would have used the word or.

But Bill Richards, who represents Burns, said that interpretation makes no sense.

He said if the constitutional right to demand records and issued subpoenas referred only to the entire commission, then there would be no need for the language mentioning the individual commissioners. And Richards said thats not the way constitutional provisions are read.

What Kiley decides could do more than set precedent for whether any of the five individual commissioners have the right to ask questions that, as in this case, the other four have blocked after concluding they are irrelevant.

If the judge rules Burns does have that individual right, that would open the door for him to argue that his being denied that right voids the 4-1 vote earlier by the commission that allowed APS to get another $7 million a month from customers, including a 4.5 percent rate increase for residential customers.

Commission attorney Tim LaSota told Kiley that, if for no other reason than that, he should throw Burns lawsuit out of court. He said the vote has occurred, the rate hike was approved, and that Burns had his chance to object but was outvoted.

It is majority rule, LaSota said. That is the end of the story, now and forever.

What Burns is after are any records of spending by APS and parent Pinnacle West Capital Corp. on political races, lobbying and public relations.

He is particularly interested in finding out if the companies were the source of $3.2 million in spending by anonymous sources in the 2014 election to help secure the election of Republicans Tom Forese and Doug Little to the utility regulatory panel. A company spokesman will neither confirm nor deny its role in the race.

The company already has admitted it put another $4.2 million into last years campaign to defeat the two Democrats who were running.

Richardson told Kiley all that is crucial to why Burns wants his rights as an individual commissioner affirmed.

They secured potentially the allegiance of a majority, with one extra vote to spare, he said. And that majority would have literally millions of reasons to prefer and favor APS over its customers.

What Burns wants, Richardson said, is to look at whether the rate hike was justified. That includes whether Pinnacle West, which gets all of its money from the utilitys profits, is using dollars from customers who have no choice from whom they buy their power for things Burns contends they should not have to pay for, like political donations, lobbying and public relations.

Richardson told Kiley the political spending of APS to elect candidates of their choice makes it all the more important that Burns gets to ask his questions.

LaSota derided the whole contention.

This business about regulatory capture, owning people, is pure fantasy that only exists in the plaintiffs mind, he told the judge.

LaSota said the final rate deal, which was for less than the utility sought, was agreed to by 29 of the 39 parties to the case, including the solar industry and the Residential Utility Consumer Office.

Kiley gave no indication when he will rule.
PHOENIX  A state lawmaker is declaring his own war against the governors war on opioids.

Rep. Jay Lawrence, a Scottsdale Republican, wants to make it illegal for any state or local government or agency to limit the amount of regulated painkillers that physicians can prescribe at any one time. He said thats an issue best left to doctors and their patients.

The timing of his bill, HB 2030, comes as Gov. Doug Ducey prepares his own legislation  going in the opposite direction.

State health Director Cara Christ said earlier this year she would limit prescriptions for what she calls opioid naive patients  those who have not been taking opiates in the past three to six months  to a pill supply of no more than five days.

Christ also said Arizona law should have a limit on daily dosages to less than 90 morphine milligram equivalents, or MMEs. Thats the same as 90 milligrams of hydrocodone or 60 milligrams of oxycodone.

The risk of overdose doubles above 50 MMEs a day, say the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Lawrence said Ducey is off base.

I do not believe that government can step in to tell the medical profession and tell medical doctors what is correct to prescribe, he said.

Lawrences proposed legislation drew a sharp response from gubernatorial press aide Daniel Scarpinato, who said opioid abuse has reached epidemic proportions and state intervention is necessary.

In the last year, weve had hundreds of people die ... from opioid-related overdoses, he said. Thats a huge number of people.

Scarpinato said the problem is getting worse.

So, absolutely, something more needs to be done here, he said.

He said Ducey isnt seeking to impose some restrictions over the objections of doctors, as many physicians are involved in crafting a final plan.

Thats also the position of the Arizona Medical Association.

The association is committed to actively participating in the governors stakeholder process and focusing on the comprehensive legislation expected from it, said Pele Peacock Fischer, its vice president for policy and political affairs.

Lawrence said he is not disputing that there is a problem. But hes not convinced hard and fast limits are appropriate.

Instead, he said, the key is physician oversight.

I believe we have enough disciplines in place, he said. And I want to see those disciplines in place so we know who is prescribing, how much theyre prescribing, and if someone is shopping doctors.

Scarpinato said the governor believes that oversight of doctors, by itself, is not enough.

He pointed to reports that four doctors in Mohave County prescribed 6 million doses of opioids in one year.

One of the doctors wrote 20,232 prescriptions amounting to more than 1.9 million pills, or about 7,350 a day.

Thats in a county with about 210,000 people, though there is some question whether the proximity to Las Vegas figured into the prescriptions.

We need to give law enforcement the tools in law to be able to hold them accountable, Scarpinato said.

Scarpinato acknowledged that what Ducey wants appears to be at odds with his repeated calls for less regulation.

Were not talking about blow-drying hair, he said. Were talking about drugs that can be miracle drugs for some but are very addictive and weve seen can lead to death.
A new report shows nearly 2,000 teaching positions in Arizona remain vacant four months into the school year.

And 866 teachers have quit since August or just never showed up.

The survey of 172 districts and charter schools also found that more than 3,400 teaching positions that schools had hoped to fill this year are being staffed by individuals not meeting standard teaching requirements. They includes people awaiting certification, but also student teachers, those with emergency certification and those who are teaching interns while pursuing alternate methods of certification.

Tuesdays report comes three months after a similar survey by the Arizona School Personnel Administrators Association found 1,300 positions not filled.

Unfortunately, the state has not made gains, said Justin Wing, the associations past president who did the report. As the data suggests, we continue to worsen.

The numbers did not surprise state Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas.

She said the problem is a combination of low salaries  Arizona is 50th in the nation for paying elementary school teachers and 48th for those in high school classrooms  and bureaucratic hassles ranging from paperwork to overly restrictive rules on how teachers are supposed to give lessons.

Douglas has proposed increasing the state sales tax to deal with the former and said changes in teaching standards should help address the latter. But she said the heavy reliance by schools on filling the vacancies with employees who do not meet standard requirements is bad for children.

The survey says Arizona schools started the year with nearly 8,600 openings.

Four months into the year, in other words, they still could not find qualified applicants for more than one out of every four positions.

So what did schools do?

Wing said 716 of those classrooms are now being run by long-term substitutes.

An additional 560 of those vacancies are being covered by having teachers working extra periods. And 210 of the vacancies are being dealt with by packing more students into a classroom than a schools class-size limit.

Of those positions schools were able to fill, 40 percent are being staffed by those who, by various special rules, are allowed in the classroom although they are not certified. The largest share of these  more than 1,280  are those for whom certification is pending.

But 963 of these positions were filled by people with emergency teaching certificates, people who lack any actual training in how to teach but have some professional background in the subject, such as math or physics.

That is not a long-term solution: These certificates are valid for one year and are available only three times to any individual.

Schools did take advantage of a new state law that provides an alternate pathway to getting a teaching certificate, something other than graduating with a teaching degree.

It allows those who have at least a bachelors degree to initially become interns while pursuing a year-long alternative certification program. There are 787 people in this category.

Douglas said part of being a good teacher is not just being an expert in ones content area, but being passionate about it, which in my opinion you dont get taking 24 credits in a subject.

She said its important to meld both content and an education curriculum. You have to have credits in pedagogy, too, how do I teach this, how do I relate to children, Douglas said. And maybe some ethics courses might be a good thing.

Nor was Douglas enthusiastic about the alternative pathway program, in which people intern in a classroom while going to school for their teaching courses.

What happens to the kids that have been in their class for those maybe one or two or three years when theyve maybe not been as successful as they could have been if they had both pieces of the puzzle? she asked.

The Arizona School Boards Association is not specifically opposed to alternate paths to teaching, said spokeswoman Heidi Vega.

But a teaching certificate is not just a regulatory requirement, she said. It should carry with it a guarantee of a certain level of knowledge and preparation to teach.

The new report also found another way schools have put teachers in the classroom: 234 came from other countries through professional visas allowing them to work here.

The report also found that 866 teachers who had been hired are no longer there. That includes 83 who did not report to work at the beginning of the school year and an additional 156 who simply abandoned their jobs. Districts reported that an additional 627 resigned, but under conditions in which the school agreed to release them from their contracts, Wing said.

Douglas has proposed boosting the current 0.6-cent sales tax for education to a full penny. She figures that would raise about $400 million, with $300 million earmarked for teacher pay, enough, she figures, to translate into about a 10 percent pay hike.

A more ambitious plan by a group of retired business executives would add a full penny to the current levy, to raise $340 million for teacher pay while other cash would go to school construction and repair.

The Legislature approved a 1.06 percent pay raise for teachers this year with the promise of an identical boost next school year.

Daniel Scarpinato, press aide to Gov. Doug Ducey, said its not just Arizona that faces a teacher shortage.

There are some positive steps that have been made, he said, including additional dollars and a program that pays off the debt of some teaching students accepted into a special program.

The governor is committed to continuing to get more dollars and support to teachers every year he is in office, Scarpinato said, though Ducey is dead set against any tax hike to raise the funds.

Douglas took issue with arguments by some business interests that the statistics showing Arizona teacher pay at or near the bottom nationally are misleading because they fail to consider cost of living.

Our cost of living does not support that low of a salary schedule, she said.

Douglas said while Arizona is relatively less expensive than New Jersey, where she came from, it still is in the middle of the pack in cost of living compared with other states.

Our teachers dont belong down on the bottom, she said.
David Morgan has been a thorn in the side of Cochise County law enforcement for years.

The police, the jail, the Sheriffs Department, the prosecutors  all have been the subject of his critical reporting, casting many of them as corrupt, misguided or incompetent.

Now they think hes crossed the line. Theyre even investigating him for a crime.

But theyre probably wrong.

Morgan is what you might call a citizen journalist, a blogger, or an activist-reporter. Take your pick or write your own descriptor. In short, hes like many people around the country who have taken advantage of the miracle of the internet to start their own news outlet.

The Cochise County Record is what he calls his news outlet, but much of his reporting occurs on a Facebook page with the unwieldy name Cochise County Courts, Crime, Jail, Justice & Politics.

Thats where Morgan reported the scoop that has landed him in his latest conflict with the Cochise County Attorneys Office and the Sheriffs Department. Morgan, you see, tends to stand up for defendants in the criminal-justice system, and he has a special interest in Roger Wilson, now sitting in the Cochise County Jail accused of first-degree murder.

On Oct. 6, Wilsons then-attorney, a Tucson-area lawyer named David Wilkison, filed a motion to send Wilsons indictment, for killing a young man named J.D. Arvizu on June 22 in Hereford, back to the grand jury.

Here, Wilkison wrote, the State presented testimony to the Grand Jury in an extremely biased manner by picking and choosing what parts of different stories from different witnesses to present to the Grand Jury. This is in direct violation of the very premises (sic) of what a grand jury proceeding stands for: A fair and unbiased presentation of the evidence due to the ex parte nature of the hearing.

Crucially, Wilkison attached the entire grand jury transcript to the motion, meaning that it was public record after he filed it. Grand jury transcripts are normally secret unless filed this way.

Morgan obtained the transcript and promptly published it online.

How he obtained it is partly in question. Morgan told me that the night the transcript was filed, he didnt have the money to buy a copy of the 87-page document, and Wilkison sent him the whole filing, including the transcript, later. (Wilkison declined to comment for this column.)

Exactly how he (Morgan) came into possession and when he came into possession of the transcript is part of whats being investigated, Cochise County Attorney Brian McIntire told me, noting there are three versions of the event and they dont jibe.

Soon after Morgan posted the transcript on Oct. 8, McIntires office asked him to remove it and he declined, saying he wanted to consult a lawyer. It wasnt until Oct. 16 that a judge ordered the original motion and transcript sealed.

Soon after, the Sheriffs Department  actually, the same detective who testified at the grand jury hearing in question  began an investigation into Morgan. You see, it is a misdemeanor under Arizona law to unlawfully disclose grand jury testimony.

ARS 13-2812 says A person commits unlawful grand jury disclosure if the person knowingly discloses to another the nature or substance of any grand jury testimony or any decision, result or other matter attending a grand jury proceeding, except in the proper discharge of official duties, at the discretion of the prosecutor to inform a victim of the status of the case or when permitted by the court in furtherance of justice.

Detective Todd Borquez has gone as far as to serve a search warrant on Facebook to get the information about who posted the transcript.

The Cochise County Attorneys Office has also requested a temporary restraining order, asking a judge to force Morgan to take down the transcript. So far, no judge has ruled, and Morgan is hoping to get a judge from outside Cochise County to consider the case.

The animosity in the Cochise County law-enforcement community against Morgan goes back especially to 2012. Thats the year Morgan made a public records request not just for the accident-scene photos but also the autopsy photos resulting from the fatal vehicle crash in which then-Sheriff Larry Dever died. He was driving drunk, very drunk, in the woods near Williams and the accident-scene photos showed the alcohol.

But asking for and publishing the autopsy photos, to many, seemed a bridge too far. After that, in 2014, the state Legislature restricted access to autopsy photos, exempting them under the states public records law.

I dont deal with Mr. Morgan. Hes a blogger, Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels told me. Theres never anything positive. Everythings a conspiracy. Hes not reasonable.

But its unlikely the Cochise County authorities are likely to prevail, for a couple of reasons. One, UA law professor Jane Bambauer told me, is that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that journalists may publish leaked documents, as long as they didnt induce illegal leaking. It doesnt matter if the journalists represent the New York Times or the Cochise County Record.

Another is that theres no real argument that when a document is filed and not sealed, it becomes part of the public record. Thats common in Pima County, as both Public Defender Joel Feinman and Deputy County Attorney Malena Acosta told me.

Once it becomes part of the public record, once it is attached, theres nothing wrong with that at all, Acosta said of the issue of public disclosure of a transcript. Acosta is the department's legal adviser for the grand jury.

Perhaps most important, the issue of the use of secret grand juries is a legitimate public issue. They are one-sided by design, with only the prosecutor, the court reporter, the grand jury and the witnesses ever appearing. Theres no judge and no defense attorney.

As Feinman told me, There arent two sides in a grand jury proceeding. Theres one side. The deck could not be stacked more in favor of an indictment. Even if the prosecutor is a fair-minded person, the system is set up so that you dont hear from the defense or defendant.

So even if you think Morgan was tasteless in his pursuit of autopsy photos, if you dont think hes a legitimate journalist, or if you think he has a bias against law enforcement, you have to acknowledge he probably has case law on his side. Hes also chasing a real story. No wonder the authorities find him such a pain.
PHOENIX  The City Council has unanimously approved a proposal to name a terminal at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport after Arizona Sen. John McCain.

Council members voted Tuesday after the city's citizen-led Heritage Commission unanimously backed the proposal a day earlier. The commission reviews proposals to name city facilities.

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton proposed last month that Sky Harbor's Terminal 3 should become the John S. McCain III Terminal to honor the 30-year member of the U.S. Senate.

The terminal is undergoing a $590 million renovation that's expected to be completed by 2020.

Terminal 4 is named after another long-serving Republican senator from Arizona who also ran for president  Barry Goldwater, who died in 1998.
WASHINGTON  Republican Sen. Jeff Flake said Wednesday that party leaders have assured him the Senate will vote in January on bipartisan legislation to protect certain young immigrants from deportation.

Flake, who had pressed for a guarantee during talks for his support on the tax bill, said in a statement he was pleased that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was committed to bringing the immigration bill "we are currently negotiating to the Senate floor in January."

At issue is President Donald Trump's decision to rescind an Obama-era executive order that created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which gave protected status to about 800,000 young immigrants who are in the United States illegally. Many were brought here as infants or children and have known no other country except the United States.

In scrapping the order, Trump gave Congress until March to come up with a legislative solution.

Republicans leaders don't want to take on the contentious issue of immigration this year but promise it will be taken care of in 2018. Democrats have pressed for a fix before the end of this year.

Although Flake, R-Ariz., said the Senate will vote, it remains unclear whether the House will back such legislation. In 2013, the Senate supported a bipartisan bill overhauling the immigration system and providing a path to citizenship for some 11 million living here illegally. The measure died in the Republican-led House.

Under the program, the young immigrants get two-year permits that let them work and remain in the country. Trump rescinded the program this year, but he let immigrants renew their documents if those documents were set to expire between September and March.

Immigrants had to reapply by Oct. 5 and pay a $495 fee.

The government says 132,000 of the 154,000 eligible renewals applied in time, leaving more than 20,000 without any protection from deportation.

Teresa Younger, president and CEO of the Ms. Foundation for Women, said Congress needs to act now.

"The lives of nearly 800,000 young people in our country hang in the balance," she said. "People who have spent the majority of their lives in this country, going to school, starting careers, and settling with families are now at risk of deportation."
I saw the photograph of Trump grasping a glass of water with both hands. As a person who suffers from essential tremor in my hands I will occasionally do the same thing. Touching the glass with both hands tends to prevent, or stop shaking. Sometimes the second hand just has to touch the glass to stop the shaking. The shake can range anywhere from mild to fairly severe. Its quite an experience to (unintentionally), toss a glass of red win, which I have done.
On Dec. 9, Tucson East Elks Lodge #2532 played host to 75 children from Steele Elementary School with a shopping trip to Kmart on Broadway. Each child was accompanied by an adult volunteer. Each child received about $100 in new clothes, including shoes and winter jackets. Then it was off to Peter Piper Pizza for food and games.

The volunteers were made up of lodge members and spouses, teachers, friends of members and, for the first time, about 20 employees of Costco Store 407 on Grant Road. Then on Dec. 16, the same group of volunteers packed and delivered 100 food baskets to basically the same needy families in the community. All funds were raised by lodge members with events throughout the year. This is the 30th year the lodge has put on these events. Our slogan is "Elks Care-Elks Share"
Help India!

New Delhi, Dec 18 (IANS) Congress President Rahul Gandhi has said that his plan is to transform the Congress from bottom upwards and he will like to bring in many new, young, exciting and dynamic faces.

In his first interview as party president with National Herald and Qaumi Awaz, Gandhi rubbished BJPs claims that his party fought the recently held Gujarat state elections of casteist lines and said that the party brought the OBC, Dalit and the Patidar communities together on a Congress platform.

Support TwoCircles



Gandhi also strongly attacked the Narendra Modi government, saying there is bankruptcy in the nation.

Answering a query, Gandhi said his plan was to transform the Congress from bottom upwards.

But it is not just my plan, it is the desire within the Congress party to transform, evolve and change itself, and I would try and help to enable that, he said.

Gandhi said he will bring further democratise the Congress.

That is certainly my intention. We have done a lot of work in the Youth Congress and NSUI, and very successful work at that. We would like to bring in as many new faces, young faces, exciting faces and dynamic faces (as we could). Thats not to say that people who are experienced or older should not have space.

Gandhi alleged that the Modi government had far less talent compared to Congress-led UPA government.

Just imagine those names. Compare a Manmohan Singh Ji with Mr. Modi. Compare a Chidambaram to Mr. Arun Jaitley. Tell [me], who can you compare Pranabda with in their government. Tell me, who can be compared with Mr. Antony in their government. So, when you actually look at them, from a policy perspective, its not much weight there. You can see it, when you listen to them. I mean, what is being done to Indias foreign policy is an out and out disaster, he said.

Asked about fear and insecurity among the people, Gandhi said it has happened earlier.

Look at Indian history  this has happened. A sort of polarisation you saw in the 1990s as well. But I primarily think that this country stands together, and we believe very deeply in love and affection..

He alleged that there has been a large organised defamation campaign against the Congress party, carried out by the BJP and the RSS.

I really felt this in Gujarat, that certain myths have been created, which are just lies, he said, adding that Jawahar Lal Nehru and Sardar Patel were friends. He said Sardar Patel had also banned the RSS.

Answering a query, Gandhi said the party has a lot of talent and has lot of work to do. There are a large number of new people that we have to bring forward. There is tremendous talent in the Congress party that we have to utilise.

We are going to show to the country, the true face of the Congress Party. You are going to see a change in the Congress party, you are going to see more of people who excite you, people about whom you can say that they are somebody very interesting who have been put there by the Congress party. We would like to be associated with decent persons and solid persons.

Gandhi alleged that BJP believes in a philosophy guided by hatred. Their leaders have been imbibed with such philosophy for years. Look at the comments made against an ex-Prime Minister.

Gandhi said Congress was a dynamic and an organic party and will open its doors and provide the youth of the country with an alternative vision, thats premised on love and brotherhood.

The Congress president said Indians had thought three years ago that we could bear with the shortcomings in RSS vision for India if they can deliver economic growth. While flaws in RSSs vision still remain, Indians havent benefited a great deal economically either.

Gandhi said the central problem of the country was that it is simply not producing enough jobs. He also slammed demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax and said economy had been crippled.
Help India!

Gandhinagar, Dec 18 (IANS) Gujarats ruling BJP on Monday pledged to retain power as its candidates forged ahead of the main opposition Congress in 98 of the 182 Assembly seats, six more than the half-way mark needed to control the House.

Trends from counting centres had indicated a see-saw battle for about 45 minutes, with the Congress at times inching ahead of the Bharatiya Janata Party. But ultimately the BJP sprinted ahead but not in the emphatic manner as exit polls had predicted.

Support TwoCircles



Trailing initially after the vote count began at 8 a.m., BJP nominees were on the victory lap in 98 constituencies and the Congress in 80. The probable winners in four seats appeared to be smaller parties or independents.

In a surprising development, both Chief Minister Vijay Rupani (Rajkot West) and Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel (Mehsana) were trailing to their Congress opponents.

At one time, overjoyed Congress activists, expecting a victory, began celebrating in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar. The stock markets too took a beating. But the Congress celebrations were shortlived.

We are going to form a government in Gujarat. People have voted for us on development issues, BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain told the media.

Before the BJP crossed the half-way mark, Congress spokesperson Shobha Oza was equally confident.

People have got sick and tired of the 22 years of BJP misrule in Gujarat. The Gujarat model which the BJP touted so proudly to take power nationally is not clicking in Gujarat We are sure we will form the government.

It was the first Assembly election in Gujarat since Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister in 2014. Modi had led the BJP to victory in the election in 2012.
Help India!

By Mirza Mosarraf Hussain, TwoCircles.net

The murder of Afrajul Khan in Rajsamand district of Rajasthan a couple of weeks ago has also severely impacted the lives of hundreds of Bengali Muslims working in the region, with many returning to Bengal in fear that they could be the next victim.

Support TwoCircles



Since the murder of Afrajul, more than 250 labourers working in Rajsamand have left, either temporarily or for good.

The incident has left such a scar on the minds of the Bengali workers that some have even left their possessions behind and taken the first train home. But, with jobs left behind, the biggest worry for these workers is to figure out how will they survive and for how long. Given that agriculture can employ them as labourers for a maximum of three months, many are already looking for alternative income sources. Some, however, are also hoping that they can return to Rajsamand once the conditions become normal. Nevertheless, all the workers have been left counting losses.

Take the case of Room Khan, the brother of Afrajul, who was also working there with him. He said to TwoCircles.Net, We had been working there for more than 15 years. We felt that we were settled down there and could manage our families. But now we dont know what our fate will be. We cannot go back until or unless the situation becomes normal and even if it becomes normal, how can we stay there with the experiences of such horrific incidents? He added, We are now obliged to find some alternative place for work to earn our livelihood.

Md. Jiaul Hossain, a construction agent from Afrajuls village, said, At first, many labourers, including me, fled the place because we realised that if he (Afrajul) was killed in such a manner, our lives also might not be spared. Rajsamand is the only place I have ever worked, and I had to leave my work incomplete.I will return once the situation becomes normal. He also said that many workers who were working under him have gone to Orissa and Purnia district in Bihar for some alternative jobs.

Md. Safikul Chowdhury, a day labourer working there in Rajsamand, said that there were also some labourers who did not leave immediately in the aftermath of the incident, rather a week after the murder. We left for home on December 14. We caught the first available train when we saw that a huge crowd had walked in support of the murderer Shambunath Raigar in Udaipur, 70 km away from our place. The murder, and then the support for the accused made me really scared. Our families, which were extremely scared after the murder, got even more worried when they heard that several marches had been taken out in support of the accused. Our families insisted we come back immediately.

Chowdhury said that Rajsamand was now their second home. My father came here as a worker and we have been living in that region in a rented house for more than 40 years. I will wait until everything calms down and then go back.

Md Rafiul Sk, another labourer who returned to Syedpur from Rajsamand, is currently looking for other means of livelihood in the locality until everything becomes settles in Rajsamand. I am 38 years old and I have a family to take care. Where else will I get employment? I have to go back there once the situation there becomes cool. Now I am trying to find some agricultural work in the locality. Allah knows how many days I have to wait.
Help India!

By Neha Dabhade

Support TwoCircles



Recently in Rajsamand, Rajasthan, Shambu lal Raigar brutally hacked Mohammad Afrajul, a migrant from Malda, West Bengal to death with his own tools and set fire to his body. This ghastly act was captured on camera by Raigars 14-year-old nephew who then circulated the video on social media. Raigar on the video justified his actions by arguing that he was saving Hindu women from love jihad and similar consequences would follow for Muslim men if they indulged in Love Jihad (Indian Express, 2017). Investigations found that the 48-year-old victim hadnt married a Hindu girl. Though this brutal act foregrounds important questions regarding the targeting of Muslims, spreading hatred against them and an infringement of their rights with steadfast impunity, the act also necessitates discussion on so-called Love Jihad which has dominated the public discourse.

Love Jihad is a term coined by Hindu supremacists who allege that Muslim men trap Hindu women and convert them to Islam. Rajsamand case is not isolated in its bid to spread hatred against Muslims. There is a systematic campaign to malign and target the Muslim community under this campaign since a few years. Such targeting of any community is condemnable but there is also a need to locate women in this campaign and its implications on their rights and agency. The vitriolic campaign the Hindu supremacists would have us believe is to expose the libidinal vices of the Muslim men. What this smokescreen really covers is the attitudinal violence which manifests in different forms  honour killings at the behest of Khap Panchayats, beating up of women in public spaces when seen with a man, portraying them to be objects of procreation with no agency of their own when they are asked to reproduce certain number of children for the nation.

While literature on womens movement and communalism is replete with discourse of how womens bodies are sites of community honour during communal riots at the time of partition and subsequent riots and violence in order to dehumanize the other community during communal violence, it is imperative to reiterate that violence against women is not limited to communal violence alone especially today when the trend of communal violence is changing. For example, there are not large-scale riots, where a substantial number of innocent from one community are targeted. Communal violence today relies more on creating a discourse which justifies the targeting of a community and strengthening structures of inequality. The Hindu supremacists have deployed ways and strategies to subjugate women  not only women from other community but women from their own community and perpetuate violence against them. This is achieved by imposing and naturalizing a discourse which draws boundaries around them restricting their liberties and controlling their choices. Love jihad is one such way. Love jihad is part of a larger communalised discourse where womens agency is appropriated by fundamentalists and multiple patriarchies are reproduced in insidious ways.

Today the Hindu supremacists with the tacit and sometimes overt support of the State are deepening unequal power structures and patriarchy through vicious campaigns and propaganda which they claim is to protect the Hindu women. All these campaigns strengthen their masculinized and exclusivist discourse which undermine womens liberties.

Two points are particularly important and worth emphasis. Though the right has always entrenched inequality and discrimination against women, what is so different now in campaigns like love jihad or the broader narrative on women in India today? First, the legitimacy that this fabricated campaign is gaining owing to the judgments like Kerela judgments and very little or no condemnation by the State is having a normalizing effect on this appropriation of womens agencies and choices. Not only is there no condemnation, but the State takes no action against vigilantes and forms squads like anti-Romeo squads which have been given a free hand to indulge in moral policing. Though there has always been a bid to control womens bodies and the paranoia around their sexuality, such acts of controls were not institutionalized or form the dominant discourse enjoying legitimacy in that sense.

Second, the structures of control were more rigid in rural areas and some degree of loosening of this structure took place in the middle and upper middle class in urban areas where the women negotiated for their right to work, mobility and to some extent sexuality or choosing a partner (inter-caste marriages even today have severe consequences and honor killings are not limited to rural areas alone). The change was also largely due to the womens movement which challenged patriarchy and asserted womens liberties and equalities. But this limited space that was created is also threatened by this attempt to entrench traditional discriminatory gender norms by Hindu right-wing politics. Right-wing politics and fundamentalism naturalizes and sacralises the family and sexuality and secludes women from the public sphere. Right-wing politics manipulates womens issues which results in disempowering women. This trend is a definite setback to the womens movement. This marks a shift in the discourse which was dominated by sexual violence against women during communal riots to everyday violence through different social structures when one tries to understand the impact of right politics on women.

The case of Hadiya is a case in point. Hadiya, earlier Akhila Ashokan is a 24-year-old homoeopathy student in Kerela. Her story sums up perfectly the issue at hand. She converted to Islam out of her own free will and married a man of her choice. However as pointed out by authors like Janaki Nair and others, different sections of the society completely infantilized her and her choices. The Kerela High Court annulled her marriage with Shafin Jahan, a Muslim man and gave her custody to her parents. Her parents virtually kept her locked inside the house with Hadiya begging for her freedom and wanting to live with her husband. The Supreme Court allowed her to go to college and continue her education but appointed the principle of the college as her guardian as if she was a chattel and not an adult full citizen of the country! The case of her marriage will be heard later by the Supreme Court thus prolonging her agony and injustice. All this is abhorrent to the notion of full citizenship rights of a woman. An adult woman who is a citizen of India we would have liked to believe is entitled to exercise her fundamental rights of right to religion and right to life. They are violated with impunity though women activists have been protesting and demanding justice for Hadiya.

There is very analytical literature available to understand how and women gravitate towards the right-wing politics and how women become perpetrators as well as victims of violence reproducing hyper-masculinized nationalism and end up strengthening patriarchal structures. But not much is said about the power mechanism at work in campaigns like love jihad. Here the centrality of womens body in communalized discourse is the focus. The agenda is reclaiming Hindu women and mobilizing them against the Muslims, in turn, reproducing multiple patriarchies at different levels- police, judiciary, families, community. Women have to pitch their fight for liberties at all these levels making it all the more arduous for them. This is what makes such campaigns so detrimental to the rights of the women and lays down ideological underpinnings of Hindutva.

The control of womens bodily autonomy and the policing of strict gender norms is a hallmark of fundamentalist ideology that transcends all religious and geographical boundaries. In Hitlers Germany, Aryan women were encouraged to have more children while even before the holocaust there were large-scale sterilizations of Jewish women. In India for instance, a five day fair was organized the Hindu Spiritual and Service Foundation (HSSF) in Jaipur in November 2017. The focus was to address issues like family and human values, womens honour, patriotism, environment, ecology and pollution. Its noteworthy that it was made compulsory from government schools to attend it by the Rajasthan government. At the fair, Bajrang Dal was freely distributing manuals on love jihad which detail the ways in which Muslim men supposedly trap Hindu women  friendship in school, bike ride, hanging out in restaurants, chatting on mobile, addressing their parents with respect and blackmailing through obscene pictures. It also prescribes remedies and precautions to the affected Hindu family  frequently check the females belongings, call and SMS details, warn if a Muslim boy is found with a Hindu girl, call Muslims as disgusting/terrorist/smuggler/ traitor/Pakistan supporter in front of females at home (Jain, 2017). If one has to interpret this, outlining such ways dont only spew hatred against Muslims and but also undermines many decisions a woman is entitled to take as a free citizen of the country  whom to interact with/ make friends with, who to share public space with and ensuring public spaces are equally accessible to women, freedom to choose what kind of relationship they want to have with the opposite sex or even same sex! The Hindu supremacists also seek to deepen their idea of a patriarchal family which rests on the hierarchies and authority where women are considered property and honour of the family. Thus any amount of control and restrictions are justified as seen in the case of Hadiyas parents and the reasoning of the Kerela High court.

Beti Bachao Baho lao campaign by the Hindu Jagran Manch is a form of reverse love jihad. In this case, encouragement is given to Hindu men to marry Muslim women by giving them social and financial security. The target is to get 2100 Muslim women into the Hindu fold in six months. The group has initiated a campaign in Uttar Pradesh in 2016, save Hindu girls by distributing pamphlets openly to educate the girls and their families (Verma, 2017). This step is vicious and exposes the attitude of the Hindu supremacists which view women as commodities. This brings the focus back to the overt nature of such campaigns and points towards the support it has of the State. The state and the Hindu supremacists that it supports naturalize this control and oppression by garbing it under Indian culture and revivalism of the glorious past. It puts womens choice and control especially over their bodies in jeopardy. The recent rule by the Home ministry to ban condom ads from 6 am and 10 pm can be seen in the same context. While womens movement has been fighting for womens reproductive rights, the State is undermining the process by again portraying such ads as not according to culture and in effect undermining the liberty and choice of women.

As outlined above, Hindu supremacist and the state are placing a formidable challenge before the womens movement in India and womens lives as a whole. Their status as free citizens is systematically undermined by a regressive discourse which is used also to fan communal tensions and stigmatizing vulnerable communities. It will be immensely timely if such campaigns can be seen in the larger framework of oppression of women and deepening of patriarchal structures. The location of women in national agenda has to be critically examined and debated by all sections of the society. The control of womens agency and liberties under the patronizing pretext of saving should not be allowed to be used for undermining their own rights and spreading hatred against other communities. Instead, the State must be questioned and made accountable for the policies which affect womens real issues like livelihoods, healthcare, education, equal laws etc to ensure they truly are citizenship rights in reality and not just in the Constitution. It is not surprising that India fares poorly when it comes to human development indicators related to women even in comparison to countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Different sections of the society, which has uncritically internalized the need for control over women since they are portrayed as bearers of honour, must be made aware of the agenda of such campaigns. This means creating a different vocabulary of rights for women, a narrative which emphasizes on equality and non-violence. Else women stand to lose the hard earned space and rights they have after struggling for so long.

This article was published first in Secular Perspective December 16-31, 2017.
The Community Standards that Facebook created awhile ago are atrocious. When I tried to share numerous Blasting News articles on political groups where I would find readers interested in my content, I was banned from doing so. This is because it breached the Social media site's "Community Standards." They have centralised their control over the groups people create and stolen their autonomy to decide who should post on their group pages.

However, when Conservative Party member Paul Everitt-Clay attempted to report the 'Kick A Tory' event, Facebook said this did not breach their "Community Standards." Only in the world of social media is it acceptable to create an event advocating violence towards those who hold a different point of view, but it is unacceptable to share content on groups where users are likely to interact with it.

"Facebook has become a bastion of left-wing violence"

The truth is, Facebook has become a bastion of left-wing violence. The social media site completely fails to delete and detect content from hard-line lefties who advocate hurting those with alternative views. Facebook has failed in its duty to protect those who use the site to share their political activities and views.

In no way does this article defend those on the centre-right who also issue similar threats to people. Both sides are guilty of breeding a violent culture. It is common among political Facebook groups of all persuasions to witness members threatening each other. Yet the reason why left-wing violence deserves a special mention in this article is because it is becoming increasingly common for lefties to threaten others through alternative means.

Take Peter Ward, the Labour member who anti-establishment blog Guido Fawkes exposed the other day for threatening to blow up a Conservative Party dinner. He made his status public for everyone to see, yet Facebook failed to do anything about it. As a result, Dewsbury Conservatives had to cancel their Christmas event for security reasons.

It was only when someone reported it to Guido that something was done about it.

"Many on the left are willing to go as far as creating events to discourage centre-right activists from engaging in politics"

The same problem lies with this 'Kick A Tory' event. Many on the left are willing to go as far as creating events to discourage centre-right activists from engaging in politics.

They tarnish the reputations of those on the left who do not advocate violence, but sadly this has become more common on the centre-left since Jeremy Corbyn became Labour Party Leader.

Facebook must do more to prohibit violence from both sides of the political spectrum, particularly those on the left organising violent events. Surely these events breach their "Community Standards" more than sharing relevant content on interested Facebook groups?
With recent campus and Hollywood rape controversies rising across the globe, Sexual Assault has come into the public consciousness like never before. But are we supporting the victims, or are we failing them?

Police support

The number of rapes and sexual assaults reported to the police has been increasing in recent years, rising by 37% in 2015. This grew a further 11% in 2016, to 112,021 reported rapes or sexual assaults, however, the police only referred 6,855 of these cases to prosecutors.

Out of 1000 alleged sexual assaults, 994 will walk free.

Only 36 of those cases will be reported to police; only 11 will be referred to a prosecutor; and only 6 will end up convicted, with a criminal record. There is clearly an issue in how cases of rape and sexual assaults are dealt with when robberies or cases of assault and battery crimes end with more than three times the convictions than those of rape and sexual assault.

The Crown Prosecution website will proudly tell you that the volume of prosecutions is the highest ever recorded; standing at 4,643, leading to 2,689 convictions, but when 112,021 sexual assaults are reported, that starts to feel rather insignificant.

With all the claims and accusations of sexual assault coming out it might be worth taking a better look at how we deal with these cases.

Many women refuse to talk to the police as they fear the backlash they will receive, or that they might not be believed. Even more male victims are scared to come forward, afraid that they will be laughed at and their abuse will be minimised. 10.8% of rape reports arent classified as crimes by the police, which only encourages the idea that victims will not be believed should they choose to report it.

Survivors of sexual assault face a society that is all too ready to blame the victim  they must have brought it on themselves by being too drunk or wearing clothes that are too suggestive. People are taught not to get raped when in fact, we need to be teaching people not to rape. Sexual Education classes rarely touch satisfactorily on the idea of consent.

Rape Crisis organisations

The lack of support and belief in survivors of sexual assault is shown so very clearly in the availability of Rape Crisis Centres. At its peak in 1984, there were 68 organisations to support survivors, in 2017 there are only 47 organisations in England. There is only 1 in Wales. Until 2010 Rape Crisis organisations were told to go local for funding. The funding that they do have now has faced a series of cuts.

These organisations are likely to be the first point of contact for many victims of sexual assault, unsure or wary of going to the police straight away. The work they do to help victims is key in their recovery process, providing them with therapy vital to overcoming the trauma that comes with serious sexual assault.

More and more people are accessing Rape Crisis organisations, and in the wake of the Weinstein scandal, and all of the accusations surfacing about men in the public eye the organisations are dealing with far more non-recent cases. Organisations are facing far more pressure on their services, and with so few centres available across England and Wales leaves many victims dealing with the consequences alone.

A big re-think needs to happen about how we deal with cases of sexual assault. There needs to be more support for the survivors. The culture of victim blaming needs to stop. And maybe once we start listening to the victims and support them through their ordeal, we can start to fix the culture that has lead to repeated occurrences of sexual assaults.
On December 16, an international convention was held in Paris, gathering leaders from all over the #world to discuss the best policy for dealing with the Iranian regime. There is a hope that these conferences will help the International Community to build a consensus regarding the policy going forward into 2018.

The speakers included senior political figures, former military commanders, and experts from the U.S., middle east, Europe and representatives of the Iranian opposition. This represented a diverse range of the political spectrum, allowing for multiple viewpoints, as well as a variety of factors to be considered.

Leaders speak for change in Iran

The speakers included General James Conway, former Commandant of the U.S. Marines; John Baird, former Foreign Minister of Canada, Maryam Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), Gilbert Mitterrand, President of France Libertes; Michele de Vaucouleurs, member of the French National Assembly and President of the Parliamentary Committee for Democratic Iran; Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, former German Minister of Justice; Rama Yade, former French Minister for Human Rights.

Iran act in the region

A number of speakers elaborated that #Tehrans belligerence in the region is not a sign of its strength, but its weakness in the face of acute crises in various areas, in particular, social and economic problems at home.

The speakers called on the international community in general and the EU, in particular, to adopt a principled and firm policy vis-a-vis Tehran and to side with the Iranian peoples desire to have democracy and a respect of human rights. Many called on the EU to include the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on its list of terrorist organisations.

Speakers call on governments

More than a dozen dignitaries from the US, France, Canada, EU and the Middle East who addressed the conference, condemned Tehrans gross Human Rights Violations, nefarious conduct in the region, including sponsoring terrorist and extremist groups, and its continuing ballistic missile program.

The speakers pointed out that Tehrans policy and conduct have not changed subsequent to the nuclear agreement, and that Tehran has been emboldened in pursuing its destructive policies.

Many of them called on their own governments to change their policies regarding how they deal with the regime, making relations conditional on addressing human rights violations and a moratorium on executions.

We call on the French government to condemn the appalling violations of human rights in Iran. We recently hosted in our town hall an exhibition on the 1988 massacre in Iran. We are committed to this cause until freedom is restored to the people of Iran, said Jean-Francois Legaret, Mayor of Paris 1st District.

In the end, the biggest victims of the Iranian regime are the Iranian people, who want and are going to continue to call for a change in the regime to address the social and economic damage caused throughout the country by the mullahs and their military arm, the IRGC.
Despite having hinted at it for years, the American people, and indeed the world, were surprised when billionaire businessman and former star of The Apprentice Donald Trump announced his intent to run for President.

They were even more stunned when, after being written off as a joke candidate by most, 'The Donald' managed not only to be nominated as the Republican candidate, but also beat his opponent Hillary Clinton to become the 45th President on the United States.

Trump's historic election victory was the first time that any non-politician had won the race to the presidency for many a generation.

Though Trump isn't the only one ever

Ronald Reagan was the 40th President of the United States. He was famous the world over, and that was before he even entered politics.

As a Hollywood actor, he appeared in 53 movies before turning his sights to becoming the Governor Of California - a feat that he managed in 1966.

15 years later, he was elected as President and remained in power for most of the 1980s.

More recently, Austria-born actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, also a famous actor, followed in Reagan's footsteps by becoming the Governor of California.

Even if he desired it, however, Schwarzenegger would never have been allowed to sit in the Oval Office, as the American Constitution states that only a natural born citizen of the United States can become President.

Who could be in line for 2020?

Famously, Kanye West announced his intent to run for the presidency back in 2015, and Trump's victory last year only strengthened his conviction.

The announcement from 'Yeezy' was met with a lot of positivity, with many fans thrilled to hear the rapper was going to enter politics.

After a recent meeting with the President, however, it has been reported that, after a productive discussion, West will not run against Trump, and instead sees 2024 as the right time for a Presidential run.

More recently, actor and wrestling star Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson is, according to several reports, "seriously considering" entering politics and a run for the presidency.

In an interview with USA Today, Johnson pointed out 2020 as the most likely time that he would run, but has admitted that there is still a lot to be figured out.

'The Rock' appeared in a recent Saturday Night Live sketch in which he chose fellow Hollywood star Tom Hanks as his running mate, leading to rumours of a Johnson/Hanks ticket in three years' time.

He'd have my vote. I'll be keeping an eye on this story. It'd be nice to see a man with sound morals and the true heart of a Patriot elected to the highest office in the land.#THEROCKhttps://t.co/IBXSpAMQFX  We the People... (@MonkeyPigeon) December 18, 2017

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has, on many occasions, strenuously denied he is interested in a presidential run.

Nonetheless, many have observed he has made several moves in recent months that look suspiciously political, such as visiting and making speeches in 'swing states' and hiring pollsters, photographers and other personnel who have worked on the campaign trail with Barack Obama.

Zuckerberg's association with Facebook, however, could prove problematic when it comes to any political ventures. The social media giant has already admitted they sold $100,000 worth of advertising to "Russian accounts" prior to the 2016 election - which is still under investigation courtesy of well-documented corruption allegations.
The future of the internet as we know it changed last week. As expected, the FCC voted along party lines to repeal Obama-era Net Neutrality laws. The laws were initially put in place to protect the web from becoming a place dominated by just a few corporations who could afford to pay for special privileges. Now, that idea seems to be headed out the window. Along with it will go other parts of society that don't necessarily seem to be directly linked to the core equality legislation of the internet. One of those areas is the field of science.

Science will suffer

The repeal of net neutrality laws will destroy the equality of access people once had to the internet. Companies will likely be forced to institute fees for users to access their websites. In turn, fewer and fewer people will be able to afford using those websites. At a bare minimum, enterprising members of the science community may not be able to share or conduct valuable research, in the same manner, they're able to now.

 #NetNeutrality Update 



Over 500 of us have signed the petition telling our representatives in Congress and our state attorney generals to support and pass legislation to protect the net.



Let's DOUBLE THAT. SIGN AND SHARE: https://t.co/fwY0S0aBWa pic.twitter.com/GvpDfn7d8A  March for Science (@ScienceMarchDC) December 15, 2017

The repeal goes beyond that.

With the FCC in charge of the repeal, there is now concern about censorship on the internet. The current administration clearly has issues with certain topics judging by the latest mandate they sent the CDC, encouraging them to eliminate words like "transgender" and "science-based" from their vocabulary. Their ability to control the types of content people see could be one of the lasting legacies of the net neutrality appeal, especially when it comes to the battle against science.

Doctoral student Greg Blumberg brought up another issue while discussing net neutrality with Forbes. He posited that it would be harder for people to get accurate weather warnings, potentially leaving people susceptible to the dangerous elements.

Science is often thought about in abstract terms, with visuals of laboratories and experiments coming to mind. Weather reports are a very practical application of science. Losing fair or timely weather warnings could spell disaster.

Fighting for net neutrality

The FCC made their ruling, but the furor over the decision continues, as does the fight for net neutrality. Some politicians have argued that the repeal should be put up for a vote in Congress under the guise of the Congressional Review Act. Several states have already volunteered lawsuits to combat the decision. The groundswell opposition is still forming around the country.

Can you imagine us repealing environmental regulations because some big corporations say, Hey, we promise not to pollute again?



That's exactly what the @FCC did with #NetNeutrality. I will sue to protect the free and open internet. pic.twitter.com/rY1R9qQl7O  Eric Schneiderman (@AGSchneiderman) December 19, 2017

The fight to save net neutrality - and science - rages on.
A bus carrying Tourists from a couple of tourist ships met with an accident in Mexico. The accident led to the death of 11 persons on board, including the guide and a child. The bus flipped on its side and landed in the adjacent field as it was on its way to the popular site of the Mayan ruins. The road was narrow and, apart from the dead, another 20 are believed to be injured. Among them are seven Americans and two Swedes who have been sent to nearby hospitals.

The New Zealand Herald reports that most of the passengers were from two cruise ships belonging to the Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises.

The ships were the Celebrity Equinox and Serenade of the Seas, and the authorities are trying to establish the identities of those killed.

How it happened

A passenger of the Serenade of Seas, which was one of the cruise ships of the Royal Caribbean, provided a few details. In his opinion, the accident happened soon after 9 AM. He was in a bus that was following the one that flipped over and met with the accident. He had arrived at the scene soon after the accident and noticed swerve marks on the surface of the road which would indicate a possible loss of control of the vehicle.

He added that the weather was clear, the road was dry, and there was no evidence of any crash or collision but, the road was a narrow, two-lane road with no shoulder or guardrail.

The convoy of buses was headed to Chacchoben which is located about 175 kilometers south of Tulum. The bus that met with the accident was loaded with tourists who were going to visit the Mayan ruins, which are a favorite tourist spot in Mexico.

Such accidents are bad for tourism

The US Embassy in Mexico said their officials were trying to ascertain whether the casualties included any American citizens.

Local investigators were working to determine the cause of the crash, while identification of the dead is also in progress.

The bus was owned by the Costa Maya Mahahual, and the route to the Mayan ruins must have been a well-traveled one. In spite of that, the accident happened. The bus company must treat it as a wakeup call and take necessary measures to ensure the safety of its passengers.

They must also exercise utmost caution while detailing the vehicles and drivers for such prestigious journeys.

Tourists visit a country to enjoy a few days of freedom away from the hustle and bustle of life and to take in the new sights and sounds. They love to travel and have to depend on local tour operators to take them to their destinations. They do not want to face accidents of this nature that have an adverse effect on tourists and tourism.
"Days of our Lives" spoilers reveal that many fans are unhappy with the NBC soap opera's lack of villains. The series has always had a very heavy storyline involving Salem's most notorious. However, since the death of actor Joseph Mascolo, and his onscreen character, Stefano DiMera, it seems that "DOOL" is sorely lacking a big bad, but all that may change in the new year.

Tyler Christopher's character to shake things up?

According to the latest "Days of our Lives" spoilers and news, actor Tyler Christopher is coming to the soap in a new, mysterious role.

The actor's character has yet to be confirmed, but after a photo of an upcoming script was posted online, many fans believe that the actor will be playing a character named Stefan. These rumors excited fans, who believe that "DOOL" wouldn't name a character Stefan unless he was connected to the legendary Stefano DiMera in some way. This has sparked speculation that Tyler Christopher's character could be the next big villain on the soap opera, and fans are excitedly awaiting his arrival to find out what is in store for Salem.

The DiMera family legacy

As many "Days Of Our Lives" viewers know, the DiMera family has always been a huge presence in Salem. They are a counterpart to the town's most beloved and well-respected family, The Hortons.

In the past, DiMera villains have included Andre DiMera, EJ DiMera, and Kristen DiMera, with Stefano DiMera leading the way for his children. However, since Stefano and EJ's deaths, the family has been rather tame. Chad DiMera is a good guy, and his brother Andre has seemingly settled down as well. There really is no one to make the citizens of Salem fear what's around the corner.

Cue, Stefan.

Another DiMera causing trouble in Salem?

While nothing has been confirmed, many "Days of our Lives" fans are convinced that Tyler Christopher's character will be revealed as another long lost DiMera family member. When he comes to town in late December, he'll be sure to cause a scene and stir up some major drama for the people of Salem.

He'll seemingly be rolling into town with former "DOOL" bad girl, Vivian Alamain, and the pair are surely going to be up to no good. Fans are on the edge of their seats waiting to find out what kind of chaos the duo will cause in the new year, and which of the soap opera's beloved characters they will target. Could Chad and Andre be looking at trouble, or perhaps Hope, Rafe, Victor, or Maggie? Be sure to tune in weekday afternoons on NBC to find out.
Jill Duggars husband, Derick Dillard, has made the news yet again, but this time it is actually for a good reason. Dillard congratulated his brother-in-law Joseph and his wife Kendra on getting pregnant. I have to say it is good to report on Derick Dillard with news that is not just negative, as, over the past few months, he has never been out of controversy. For example, it was just last month where he was fired from the Duggar TLC reality television show Counting On for making some rather transphobic comments toward Jazz Jennings. None the less, you can continue to read below to see what Dillard said about Josephs baby news.

A report by PopCulture.com provided most of the information used in this article.

What did Derick Dillard say about Kendras pregnancy news?

As mentioned above, one of the most controversial Duggar family members, Derick Dillard decided to congratulate Joseph and Kendra on their baby news. Dillard took to his Twitter account to congratulate the pair by saying Congratulations to Joe and Kendra on expecting your first child! Yall will make awesome parents, and Israel and Sam are always up/down for some new cousins! This Duggar family member and his wife Jill are parents themselves, as they have two children named Israel and Sam, so they should know how exciting it is to raise a baby in the Duggar family.

I have attached Dillards congratulatory tweet below so you can see exactly what he said.

Congratulations to Joe and Kendra on expecting your first child! Yall will make awesome parents, and Israel and Sam are always up/down for some new cousins!  Derick Dillard (@derickmdillard) December 18, 2017

Joesph and Kendra Duggar just recently announced that they were pregnant to US Weekly.

This is what the Duggar couple said when they were announcing their pregnancy news: We are so excited to share with you that we are expecting the gift of a child ourselves!

When did the rumors of Kendra Duggar being pregnant start?

In case you forgot, many people were speculating online that Joseph and Kendra Duggar were expecting a child before the news of the two being pregnant was even announced.

The rumor mainly started when Kendra and her family took a family photo for the Thanksgiving holiday, and in the photo, Kendra's mother was in front of her. By Kendras mother being in front of her in the picture, many thought she was covering her daughters stomach so they couldnt see her daughters possible baby bump. Regardless, you can catch up with the rest of the Duggar family on their reality television series Counting On and you can also follow them on their social media accounts. It is also worth mentioning that the man who congratulated the pair on their baby news, Derick Dillard, will not be appearing in the series as he, again, was fired after making some transphobic remarks online.
scheana marie doesn't want anyone to mention what she does at SUR Restaurant -- but it isn't clear why. After posting an image of herself posing in lingerie and sitting in bed, the "Vanderpump Rules" star took major offense at a woman who pointed out that she was a waitress in the comments section of her photo.

"You are a waitress," the woman wrote. "Youre old," Scheana Marie fired back. Then, after the woman noted that she hadn't had any work done to her face to keep herself looking young, the "Vanderpump Rules" star took things one step further by recommending Botox and filler to her.

"Maybe you should try some, she typed.

Scheana Marie is, in fact, a waitress

While Scheana Marie appeared to have a major problem with the woman mentioning her position as a waitress at SUR Restaurant, the fact of the matter is that she is a waitress at SUR Restaurant. In fact, if she wasn't a waitress at the restaurant, she likely wouldn't be famous at all, aside from her affair with the married Eddie Cibrian, of course.

As fans of Scheana Marie will recall, she first made a name for herself about 10 years ago as one of the mistresses of actor Eddie Cibrian, who had cheated on wife Brandi Glanville numerous times. However, despite his past relationship with the reality star, it was LeAnn Rimes who Cibrian chose to carry on with and later married.

While the reality star was ultimately removed from the headlines after the scandal concluded, she later made a name for herself as one of the staff members of Lisa Vanderpump's restaurant, SUR Restaurant, which became the setting for "Vanderpump Rules" in 2013. That said, she apparently doesn't want to be known for her job at the venue.

Scheana Marie is facing backlash because of her relationship status

After she was seen informing her former husband, Mike Shay, at the end of season five that she wanted a divorce, she debuted her new relationship with Robert Parks-Valletta on the first episode of season six. Right away, her co-stars questioned her about moving on from her marriage so quickly and she also faced backlash on Twitter and Instagram.

To see more of Scheana Marie and her co-stars, including Robert Parks-Valletta, Stassi Schroeder, Jax Taylor, Brittany Cartwright, Lisa Vanderpump, Tom Sandoval, Kristen Doute, Ariana Madix, Katie Maloney, and Tom Schwartz, tune into new epodes of the sixth season of "Vanderpump Rules" on Mondays at 9 p.m. on Bravo TV.
Christmas is one of the top holidays worldwide. The feast is celebrated by Christians in commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ. All over the world, people have different ways of celebrating this holiday.

On the Northern Mainland of South America, sits Guyana a sovereign state also included in the Caribbean region due to its strong cultural ties with countries in that region. Guyanese have a special place for Christmas. A friend in Guyana recently told me that each year, two to three weeks before Christmas, families invest heavily in giving their homes a facelift.

The understanding of Christmas among the Guyanese

But why do families clean their homes around Christmas yet the same houses are cleaned daily or weekly throughout the year? My Guyanese friend opines that it could be a tradition or a practice induced by the urge for competition.

The cleaning involves whipping of walls and repainting, cleaning and replacing windows as well as fixing the floors. Previous years varnish on furniture is sandpapered and replaced with new. Starting mid-November in Guyana tailors switch to making new curtains and chair coverings. On rare occasions, those that cannot afford new curtains have the old ones cleaned, ironed and kept ready for Christmas.

According to a post on gtfeducation.org by Guyanese priest Dr.

Henry Chan, the main thrust of the Christmas Celebration among the Guyanese is to have the best home for baby Jesus Christ. The home has two dimensions: the inside and the outside. To Guyanese, Christmas is symbolic of new birth within ones soul as well as the remembrance of the birth of the baby, Jesus. Notes Dr.

Chan

Costly Christmas preparations and special dishes

A majority of those who spend a lot during Christmas are the poor; they end up entering the New Year broke after spending all their December salary and earnings on Christmas preparations and festivities. This kind of spending, according to Guyanese source, is unnecessary in Guyana where the basic cost of living is estimated at $500 against a basic monthly salary is $250.

Although there exists a section that earns a monthly salary of between $500 -800, the debate on how much should be spent over Christmas will not stop people from welcoming the joy of Christmas in style and in line with their traditions.

Special dishes characterize Christmas celebrations in Guyana and Christmas would be incomplete without pepperpot - a stew containing beef parts such as shanks totters and tails as well as garlic pork. Preparation for these two dishes begins a couple of days or weeks before Christmas just as is the case with the face-lifting of homes.
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.

0108263 License for publishing multimedia online



Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349
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.
HA NOI  The Bkav Technology Group on Tuesday signed a co-operation agreement on developing scientific technology with Ha Noi University of Technology (HUT)s School of Electronics and Telecommunication (SET).

According to representatives of Bkav, for many years, besides the field of network security, the company has expanded its field research and production of high-tech products, such as SmartHome and Smartphone.

Bkavs CEO Nguyen Tu Quang said HUT, with a full range of research and training such as mathematics, physics, mechanics and electronics, as well as telecommunications, information technology and automation, is a significant partner for any technology enterprise. Especially, to produce a phone, such as a Bphone, Bkav will need to use the knowledge of most of these science and technology fields.

In the world, the cooperation model among research institutes, universities and enterprises is inspired very early and always effective. Therefore, Bkavs representative confirmed that in addition to signing with the SET, the company will continue to promote co-operation with other potential units of the HUT to be ready for technology breakthroughs that can be applied to smartphones in the future, competing with global brands.

Nguyen Huu Thanh, director of SET, said the collaboration with external companies is part of HUTs strategy to improve the capacity of science and technology. This co-operation is the beginning of a partnership that will bring Bkavs products together with better technologies to Vietnamese consumers, he added.

In August 2017, Bkav officially introduced the second version of Bphone, the first made-in-Viet Nam smartphone. The phone works with Qualcomm Snapdragon 625, a chip popular around the world for its efficient power management.  VNS
HCM CITY  Kaspersky Lab and its distributor Nam Truong Son Group on December 20 introduced their latest products to protect customers against online threats.

The 2018 Kaspersky Internet Security and Kaspersky Total Security products have new features such as wifi security notifications and secure connections (for Mac), protections against infection during forced system restarts (for PC) and app locks (for Android).

They also feature new enhancements, including a URL advisor, system watcher, trusted application mode, support for safe money scenarios in Microsoft Edge, and support for the latest operating systems.

The number of connected devices is increasing in households, with many devices connected to the internet for shopping and sharing videos. The increase in connections, however, is also accompanied by concerns about online safety.

According to the Kaspersky Security Network, 39 per cent of users are at threat of online attacks like hacks, malware, phishing and others.

Kaspersky Lab in its yearly research discovered that 63 per cent of internet users were worried about fake email and websites.

To help users feel more secure, the products URL advisor feature will enable internet users to find a link in the search engine that will identify suspicious or phishing sites or sites that could harm users computers.

The new products also include features that help prevent complicated ransomware and prevent children from accessing improper applications and websites.

The latest editions of Kaspersky Internet Security and Kaspersky Total Security are available for update starting on December 20. Commercial products will be available in the market from January 15.  VNS
ONG THAP  Property developer FLC Group on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with southern ong Thap Province to invest in four large projects in the locality.

The signing was witnessed by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and other leaders during an investment promotion conference.

The four projects with total capital of VN5.7 trillion (US$251.1 million) will focus on tourism, resort and agriculture. These are the FLC My Phu complex of hotel, convention centre and villas, FLC Sa ec resort, FLC Tam Nong resort and FLC Cao Lanh complex.

They are expected to be completed in 2020.

FLC has invested in many localities in the country, including Thanh Hoa, Vinh Phuc, Binh inh and Quang Ninh, as well as Quang Binh, Nghe An and Ha Tinh.

With the open and transparent investment environment, we expect the projects will be implemented soon, contributing to the development of modern and synchronous infrastructure in ong Thap in particular and the Mekong Delta region in general, a FLCs representative said.

In recent years, ong Thap has always been listed at the top of localities with high Provincial Competitiveness Index, the Viet Nam Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index and administrative reform.  VNS
Viet Nam News

HA NOI  Foreign firms control 75 per cent of mergers and acquisitions (M&A), Nguyen Quoc Viet, deputy general director of AVM Viet Nam Company, said yesterday.

Viet told an Industrial Investment Promotion through M&A conference held in Ha Noi that the foreign companies acknowledged Viet Nams growth potential and were ready to implement deals with high prices thanks to their capital advantages.

They expect double or triple digit growth for consumption and retail sectors, he said, adding that Viet Nam had huge potential due to its rapid integration into the world culture of young people.

He said foreign investors would buy at high prices knowing they could get better yields in a few years by improving money flow and administration.

M&A activities in Viet Nam in recent years have rapidly increased in number and economic value, he added.

Last year, the total value of M&A deals in Viet Nam reached a record level of US$5.82 billion with an annual growth rate of 12 per cent. However, most M&A deals in 2016 had a modest value of less than $20 million each. There were two big deals valued at more than $1 billion.

In the first quarter of this year, total M&A deals fell by 25 per cent from the same period last year to $1.1 billion.

The sale of 343.6 million shares or a 53.6 per cent stake in the Saigon Beer, Alcohol and Beverage Corporation (Sabeco), brought an estimated VN110 trillion ($4.89 billion), making it the biggest deal so far. The deal will bring the total value for M&A deals in the country this year to $8 billion.

Vu Ba Phu, director of the Viet Nam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) said many foreign investors poured capital into Vietnamese listed firms to realise long-term targets of getting a toe-hold in the country.

Of these, investors from Japan, South Korea and Thailand had been investing in consumer goods, financial services, retail, distribution and building materials.

However, there were not many deals from big investors in the EU and north America, which are considered to have big potential. This is why Viet Nam should further promote international investment, Phu said.

Viet Nams industrial sector has seen strong development. The average index of industrial production (IIP) growth rate has been more than 7 per cent a year since 2012.

Metal production posted an 18 per cent increase in 2016, following by electronics and computers at 13 per cent.

Figures from the General Statistics Office showed that the IIP in the first 11 months of the year posted 9.3 per cent year-on-year rise.

The figures reveal that Viet Nams industrial sector has been in strong growth. If local industrial firms promote co-operation with foreign companies that have high technologies and professional management, they have opportunities for further development, he said.

Tran Kim Oanh, director of the Vietrades Centre for Industry and Trade Investment Promotion, said many Vietnamese companies built long-term development strategies, but M&A was one of their most important tools.

Local investment funds have seen development both in quantity and scale, thus contributing to more M&A deals. With the advantage of deep understanding of the domestic market, investment promotion through M&A should pay more attention to potential local firms, Oanh said.  VNS
HA NOI  Viet Nam needs a legal framework for the development of digital banking, heard a conference held by the State Bank of Viet Nam in Ha Noi on Tuesday.

Deputy Governor of the central bank Nguyen Kim Anh said the rapid development of information and technology, especially the fourth industrial revolution, was bringing opportunities for digital banking.

The digitalisation of banking services would help the sector improve convenience in providing financial services, Kim Anh said, adding that digital banking had potential to become a core business of banks in Viet Nam.

This is big opportunities for credit institutions and financial technology (fintech) companies, he stressed.

However, he added there were risks regarding system errors, security issues and money laundering.

Digital banking was different from traditional banking from policies, products and services, Pham Tien Dung, Director of the central Banks Payment Department said.

It is important to have a legal framework for digital banking development, Dung said. In the short-term, relevant regulations must be revised for amendments, Dung said, adding that in the long run, a law on payment should be issued to regulate issues such as payment services of non-bank institutions, mechanisms to protect users and data security.

According to Dung, payment was especially important in digital baking.

Many types of payment services have been developed, such as Internet Banking, SMS Banking, Mobile Banking, Mobile Payment and online card payment, but they lacked links and failed to give customers smooth experiences, Dung said.

He cited statistics that 25 fintech companies which provide payment services are licensed in Viet Nam but only five are profitable.

He said Viet Nam was still in the early stages of digital banking.

Pham Anh Tuan from the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Viet Nam said that security must be given special importance in digital baking

Cross-border transactions was also a challenge Viet Nam during the development of digital banking, Tuan said.

Experts said that the legal framework for digital banking should focus on ensuring security, protecting user information and preventing frauds.

A representative from the Ministry of Public Security said that a citizen database was being developed to connect with other systems such as banking and health care in order to simplify procedures in individual verification.  VNS
HCM CITY FrieslandCampina Viet Nam has been ranked among the 100 most sustainable businesses of 2017 for its contributions to the sustainable development of the country.

The company has reduced the use of energy by 15 per cent and water by 25 per cent and cut CO2 emissions by 40 per cent compared to 2010.

Its programme for the milk industry development, en om om, which builds new schools in disadvantaged areas, provides nutrition education and does research, bring benefits to the community.

For instance, the company has collaborated with the Red Cross for a campaign called Drinking Milk- Exercising- Healthy that benefits 75,000 children at 112 schools nation-wide.

It also is working with Agriterra, a Dutch agriculture agency founded in 1997 to promote, facilitate and support lasting co-operation between rural organisations in the Netherlands and in developing countries, to train Vietnamese farmers in best practices.

This is the second year that the list has been drawn up by the Viet Nam Business Council for Sustainable Development of the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry along with the Ministries of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs, Industry and Trade, and Natural Resources and Environment, the Viet Nam General Confederation of Labour, and the State Securities Commission of Viet Nam.

It honours enterprises and organisations that pioneer sustainable development in the country. VNS
HA NOI  International Finance Corporation (IFC) announced on Tuesday a successful syndicated senior loan package transfer of US$110 million to An Binh Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ABBANK) as a joint effort to boost the latters small and medium enterprises (SMEs) lending.

The loan is the first phase of a $150 million financing package from IFC and Goldman Sachs for ABBANK, with more than one third of the said funding intended for women-owned SMEs.

Tuesdays statement from ABBANK indicated its aim to triple outstanding SME portfolio and quadruple lending to women-owned SMEs, which are expected to go beyond $1 billion by 2021.

IFC disclosed that out of the total $150 million financing package, it would contribute $40 million from its own account, $70 million from Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited (ICBC), Bangkok Bank Public Company Limited and Maybank International Ltd and $40 million from two other international lenders to be decided by 2018.

At least $45 million will be exclusively allocated to women-owned SMEs, Kyle Kelhofer, IFC country manager for Viet Nam, Cambodia and Lao PDR, said.

This project will promote women-owned SMEs as a viable business opportunity when provided with tailored products, appropriate offerings and right marketing. Subsequently, it will support the growth of women-owned SMEs, which will in turn create jobs and drive wage growth, he added.

ABBANK confirmed it would make use of the said much-needed syndicated funding from IFC and partner banks.

Long-term funding for SMEs is going to become critical in Viet Nam, as SMEs account for more than 98 per cent of the countrys businesses and 50 per cent of employment, according to IFCs research.

However, IFC also found that only 30 per cent of registered SMEs have access to formal financial services, which is even more difficult for women-owned SMEs, with an estimated credit gap of $1.2 billion per annum.

The loan scheme was launched in cooperation with the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women initiative, a global finance facility since 2014 to enable access to capital to more women entrepreneurs.

IFC became ABBANKs foreign investor with 10 per cent equity stake in 2013.  VNS
HA NOI  After 10 years of membership in the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Viet Nams export and import value has increased four times to reach over US$400 billion, or 170 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP), according to the General Department of Customs (GDC).

At a ceremony organised by the GDC in Ha Noi yesterday to mark the $400 billion trade milestone, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong inh Hue heaped praise on the achievement, attributing it to right policies of the Communist Party of Viet Nam.

He also appreciated efforts made by the customs sector, especially in reforming its administrative procedures.

Hue noted that the nations trade value had doubled every five years and its GDP has also increased.

The trade value touched $100 billion for the first time in December 1, 2007 with the GDP reaching $77.4 billion that year. Corresponding figures in 2011 were $200 billion and $133 billion.

The growth trend continued, reaching $400 billion in trade value and nearly $225 billion in GDP for 2017.

Notably, Hue said, Viet Nam saw very strong growth in trade value from 2015 onwards, going from $300 billion to $400 billion. This was due, the Deputy PM said, to the effectiveness of Free Trade Agreements that Viet Nam had signed.

The good results in trading affirmed the correct policies on international economic integration espoused by the Party over the past 20 years and the Governments consistent implementation of those policies, Hue said.

He noted that after joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2007, Viet Nam had actively and consistently negotiated bilateral free trade agreements.

Achievements in trade and foreign investment after joining the WTO demonstrate that international economic integration had promoted strong reforms of domestic economic institutions, improving national competitiveness, he added.

According to the World Trade Organisation, in 2006, Viet Nams total export and import turnover ranked 50th and 44th in the world. In 2015, the nation jumped 23 and 16 steps, occupying 27th and 28th positions, respectively. 

GDC statistics also indicate that structure of export and import products has seen positive changes.

At present, Viet Nam has 30 export groups with an annual turnover of at least $1 billion each, including textiles, leather, footwear, coal and crude oil.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) pouring into Viet Nam over the last five years has contributed US$60 billion to the export value, the GDC said.

Meanwhile, in the first 11 months of 2017, key import products included electronics, computers and accessories ($34 billion), machines and tools ($30.7 billion), phones and spare parts ($14.4 billion), fiber ($10.3 billion), iron and steel ($8.3 billion), plastic ($6.7 billion), petrol ($6.3 billion) and materials for the textile, garment and footwear ($5 billion).

Viet Nam has trade relations with more than 200 countries and territories, gradually moving import-export market from Asia to Europe, America.

The high trade deficit recorded in the years 2006-2011 has reduced and the nation has even recorded trade surpluses in recent years, the GDC said.  VNS
HA NOI  FPT Corporation has reduced its ownership at FPT Retail and FPT Trading to under 50 per cent, the corporation announced on Tuesday.

FPT Retail and FPT Trading are two companies in charge of retail and telephone and IT products distribution.

Starting last Monday, FPTs ownership at FPT Retail is 46 per cent. At FPT Trading, it is 48 per cent.

FPT Retail and FPT Trading are no longer subsidiaries, but will become associates of FPT.

This move will reduce FPTs revenue significantly from next year, but this is a positive step as FPT will become a purely technology and telecommunications corporation, Tri thuc tre reports.

Once there is no longer revenue from FPT Trading and FPT Retail, the two main contributors to FPTs revenue will be FPT Telecom and FPT Software.

The remaining revenues include system integration, IT services, digital content, education and investment.

After selling 47 per cent of the shares to Synnex Corporation, FPT Tradings name has been changed to Synnex FPT Joint Stock Company early this month.

For FPT Retail, FPT sold 30 per cent of shares to Dragon Capital and VinaCapital and another 8 per cent to other investors.

It is expected that FPT Retail will list its shares on HCM Stock Exchange (HoSE) before April 30 next year.  VNS
Viet Nam News

HA NOI  Transport regulations will be reviewed to ensure a fair business environment for firms, Deputy Minister of Transport Le inh Tho said at a conference on Tuesday to review a two-year pilot project of applying technology in passenger transport, including car and motorbike hailing services, such as Uber and Grab.

Tho said rapid technology development was posing challenges to State management agencies due to confusion in defining whether Uber and Grab were technology platforms connecting passengers with drivers or transportation companies.

Many other countries are facing similar battles.

Tho admitted that many rules were now no longer appropriate, creating an unfair environment between traditional taxi firms and new ones like Uber and Grab.

It is necessary to create a fair and transparent environment for every business, Tho said, adding that the existing regulations would be reviewed to create business equality.

Tho said that if necessary, technology taxi firms would be required to register legal entities in Viet Nam.

The Ministry of Transport also urged traditional taxi firms to promote the application of technology and enhance their services to avoid being left lagging behind.

The Ministry of Finance proposed that the operation of Uber and Grab in Viet Nam be clarified to set a base for how they were regulated.

Hoang Thi Ha Giang, Deputy Director of the Tax Policy Department, said clear regulations were needed to efficiently collect taxes from Uber and Grab, which was stil a headache.

Traditional taxi firms, who have fallen into difficulties since the rapid expansion of Uber and Grab in Viet Nam in recent years, called for equality in management.

Traditional taxi firms said that they were under tighter regulations than Uber and Grab, such as bans on using several streets, paying more tax - and higher operation costs.

Truong inh Quy, deputy director of taxi company Vinasun, said that Uber and Grab should be regarded as a transportation company rather than a technology platform.

Sharing the same viewpoint, Vu Van Vien, Director of Ha Noi Department of Transport, said that banning technology taxi companies was not an appropriate solution but agreed regulating them could work.

o Quoc Binh, chairman of Ha Noi Taxi Association, said that the Uber and Grab boom put significant pressure on the traffic system.

Binh said that tax collections for the two types of business were unfair. He urged the pilot programme to be halted.

A report by the Ministry of Transport showed that the pilot programe was now implemented in four provinces and cities, namely Ha Noi, Quang Ninh, Khanh Hoa and HCM City. This involved 866 transport companies with a total of more than 36,800 vehicles.

Ten companies provided technology platforms to implement transportation e-contracts, including Uber and Grab.  VNS
HA NOI  Shares rebounded on Wednesday after a brief fall on Tuesday, boosted by energy and bank stocks on investors expectation of positive Q4 earnings from these companies.

The VN-Index on the HCM Stock Exchange edged up 0.22 per cent to close the session at 953.51 points. The southern market index decreased 0.7 per cent on Tuesday.

On the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, the HNX-Index rallied 0.52 per cent to end at 113.95 points after a 0.3-per-cent drop on Tuesday.

Overall market condition was neutral with 231 stocks declining, 238 rising and 255 closing flat on the two exchanges.

Energy and bank stocks were the major supporter of the markets rally on Wednesday.

The three biggest listed energy companies  PV Gas (GAS), Petrolimex (PLX) PetroVietnam Drilling and Well Serivces (PVD)  climbed 1.9 per cent; 4.5 per cent and 2.6 per cent, respectively. Other smaller companies such as PetroVietnam Technical Services (PVS), PetroVietnam Drilling Mud (PVC) and PetroVietnam Coating (PVB) gained values of 3-8 per cent.

Seven of 10 lenders on the two exchanges rallied with the Big Four (four biggest banks by market value and assets)  Vietcombank (VCB), Vietinbank (CTG), BIDV (BID) and VPBank (VPB)  increased between 1.7-2.9 per cent each.

According to BIDV Securities Co (BSC), stocks with good fundamentals and high expectations on the last-quarter earning results continued to draw investments.

We believe that the market is gradually overcoming the strong correction and ready to conquer the new peak when the Q4 results will attract large amounts of cash flow, analysts at BSC wrote in a yesterday report.

On the defensive side, brewer Sabeco (SAB) dropped by the maximum limit of 7 per cent on HCM Citys bourse for a second day under heavy profit-taking pressure after the successful divestment auction.

Other substantial losers included Vinamilk (VNM), down 1 per cent; DHG Pharmaceutical (DHG), down 2.1 per cent; Mobile World Group (MWG), down 0.7 per cent; Coteccons Construction (CTD) and Binh Minh Plastics (BMP) down 2.6 per cent.

Liquidity improved slightly with a total of 292.2 million shares worth a combined VN6.5 trillion (US$285 million) being traded on the two markets, up 3.3 per cent in trading volume and 1.6 per cent in trading value compared to the previous session.

Foreign investors concluded as net buyers for a third straight day on HCM Citys exchanges, picking up 5.5 million shares worth a net value of VN143 billion. They were also net buyers in Ha Noi for a modest net value of VN18.4 billion.  VNS
HCM CITY  Representatives of HCM Citys administration, led by the citys Party Secretary Nguyen Thien Nhan, yesterday visited the citys Archbishop and the office of the Episcopacy of Viet Nam ahead of Christmas and the New Year.

On behalf of the citys administrators, Nhan congratulated bishops, priests, monks and all Christians nationwide, wishing them a merry Christmas and a peaceful, prosperous New Year.

He also detailed some of the citys recent socio-economical developments and plans for the upcoming years, with the Party, authorities and citizens set to implement the resolutions set at the 10th citys Party Committee Congress.

Nhan expressed his delight on learning that the citys archdiocese and Christians have significantly contributed to various fields, including education, health care and charity in recent years.

He hoped that the archbishop, bishops and priests of the citys archdiocese would continue to assist the citys leaders to encourage Christians to join in building and protecting the nation and building a city with better living quality.

Archbishop Bui Van oc thanked the citys leaders for providing best conditions for Christians to fulfill their duties and contribute to development in recent years.

He expressed hope that ties between the archdiocese and the citys administration will develop further so that the citys Christians can continue to contribute to fulfilling the development targets of HCM City.

On the same day, the northern province of Quang Ninhs Peoples Council Chairman Nguyen Van oc met with priests ahead of Christmas.

He sent his best wishes to all Christians in the province and expressed his expectation that they would continue to promote their Christian traditions while contributing to the development of the province.

A meeting between the representatives of Gia Lai Provinces Peoples Committee and the representatives of the provinces Protestants, Thanh Tam Church and Kon Tum Archbishop was also held yesterday.

According to Protestant pastor Huynh Duy Linh, religious believers and Christians in particular strongly believe in the guidance of the State and Party, therefore they will further participate in patriotic campaigns and promote national unity.

The Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee in Vinh Long Province also held a meeting to congratulate the Christian dignitaries and to wish them a merry Christmas.

Speaking at the event, the provinces Party Secretary Truong Van Sau acknowledged the contributions of the local Christian community to the development of the province. He also expressed his wish that they would continue to promote patriotism in the years to come.  VNS
HA NOI  The Belarus Embassy in Viet Nam granted a collection of 21 volumes of books reproduced in the style created by Francysk Skaryna to the National Library of Viet Nam on Tuesday.

This is part of the events to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Belarusian printing and one of the greatest historical figures of Belarus, the educator Francysk Skaryna.

Speaking at the book donation ceremony in the National Library of Viet Nam, the Ambassador of Belarus to Viet Nam Vladimir Goshin said: I hope that these books will be useful for the readers, allow them to get acquainted with the history and culture of our country, and will serve as a solid foundation for strengthening friendly relations between Belarus and Viet Nam.

Starting from 2015, the National Library of Belarus donated a multivolume facsimile edition to the worlds largest libraries and museums. Similar events have already took place in several countries of the world and have become a major event in the international cultural relations of our country, the ambassador added.

Director of the National Library of Viet Nam, Kieu Thuy Nga said: The unique collection of books will be important part of our collection of foreign materials preserved in the library.

This year marked the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Belarus and Viet Nam.

The year 2017 is rich for significant events both in the history of bilateral relations between Belarus and Viet Nam, and in the sphere of cultural co-operation between the two countries, said the ambassador.

In May, Days of Culture of Belarus were held in the capital city of Ha Noi and northern mountainous province of Lao Cai.

The preparation for the Days of Culture of Viet Nam in Belarus, which will be held in June 2018, have also begun, according to the ambassador.

Francysk Skaryna was an outstanding Belarusian public figure, printer, philosopher humanist, writer and medical scientist.  VNS
HA NOI  The special relations between Vietnamese and Lao Parties and States hold strategic meaning for peace, stability, co-operation and development in each country, the region and the world.

General Secretary of the Communist Party of Viet Nam (CPV) Nguyen Phu Trong and General Secretary of the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party (LPRP) and President of Laos Bounnhang Vorachith made the statement during their talks in Ha Noi yesterday.

They described the friendship and solidarity year 2017 between Viet Nam and Laos as an important milestone in the two countries relations.

In the future, the two countries will face many difficulties in building, safeguarding and reforming the nation. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen co-ordination in implementing development strategies in their respective societies while improving bilateral co-operation efficiency.

Viet Nam and Laos pledged to closely work to more effectively realise agreements signed between the two countries parties and States and the Viet Nam-Laos Joint Statement.

The two sides will spare no efforts to deepen their political ties and increase experience sharing in building parties and a political system.

They will focus on personnel training, promoting the spirit of the friendship solidarity year and raising public awareness of the special relations between Viet Nam and Laos, especially among youngsters.

The Vietnamese and Lao leaders agreed to continue providing mutual support at regional and international forums, especially at the United Nations, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS).

The two countries vowed to co-ordinate with GMS nations and international organisations to sustainably use and manage the water resources of the Mekong River, while strengthening links with Cambodia to implement efficiently the trilateral agreement on Cambodia-Laos-Viet Nam Development Triangle Area.

Regarding the East Sea, Vietnamese and Lao leaders stressed the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security, safety and freedom of navigation and overflight in the sea.

They agreed to settle any disputes via peaceful means and in line with international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea and the early building of the Code of Conduct in the East Sea.

After talks, the host and guest witnessed the signing of an agreement between the Vietnamese and Lao Governments on the construction of the Lao National Assembly building and the handing over of a certificate on the Laos-Viet Nam Port Joint Stock Company to the Lao side and a collection of books Viet Nam-Laos, Laos-Viet Nam friendship roads.

The Lao leader invited General Secretary Trong to visit Laos, and the later accepted the invitation with pleasure.

PM hails success of friendship year with Laos

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc met visiting General Secretary of the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party and President of Laos Bounnhang Vorachith in Ha Noi yesterday.

PM Phuc expressed joy at the success of the Viet Nam-Laos Friendship Year 2017, saying that the Governments of both countries have guided their ministries, sectors, localities and businesses in implementing Viet Nam-Laos joint statements and agreements reached by their leaders, as also co-operative pacts, programmes and plans, contributing to political stability, socio-economic development and international integration of each country.

Bounnhang Vorachith commended the two governments for their close coordination and effective work in assessing bilateral cooperation and addressing obstacles in the implementation of key co-operative projects as well as outstanding problems in bilateral ties.

He urged the two governments to continue providing strong leadership in implementing bilateral agreements so as to foster comprehensive co-operation between the two countries.

In particular, the Lao leader requested that Viet Nam promote cooperation with Laos in agriculture, and expressed thanks to Viet Nam for allowing his land-locked country to use the Vung Ang Port (in the central coastal province of Ha Tinh) for economic development.

Phuc affirmed that the Vietnamese Government would actively carry out bilateral agreements and take effective measures to remove obstacles in bilateral economic cooperation.

He took the occasion to thank the Lao Party and State for their sympathy and timely support for flood and storm victims in central Viet Nam.

The Lao leader is paying an official friedly visit to Viet Nam from Tuesday to Thursday, the second of its kind during his tenure (2016-21). It is made at the invitation of Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President Tran ai Quang.  VNS
HA NOI  Chairwoman of the Viet Nam National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan hailed the ongoing visit to Viet Nam of General Secretary of Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party and President of Laos Bounnhang Vorachith as an important event in bilateral ties.

At a meeting with the Lao Party and State leader in Ha Noi yesterday, NA Chairwoman Ngan said the two sides successfully held activities for the 2017 Viet Nam-Laos, Laos-Viet Nam friendship year.

She noted that the diverse activities exerted widespread influence on people of the two countries, helping them gain a better understanding of the Viet Nam-Laos alliance and the mutual support of the two Parties, States and peoples during their past struggles for national liberation and the present cause of development.

Lao President Bounnhang Vorachith lauded effective co-ordination between the Vietnamese and Lao legislative bodies over the years, affirming their constructive contributions to the fruitful relationship between the two countries.

Host and guest agreed on the need for the two countries national assemblies to enhance the sharing of information and experience, and their co-operation in supervising the implementation of Viet Nam-Laos Joint Statements, agreements reached by leaders and Governments of the two countries and other co-operation programmes.

They shared the view that the two legislative bodies should push for changes and supplements to mechanisms, policies and laws to step up collaboration in trade and investment between Viet Nam and Laos.

They also emphasised that the two sides should support each other at regional and international forums.  VNS
HA NOI  Viet Nam is ready to contribute more to United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations, said Deputy Minister of National Defence Sen. Lieut. Gen. Nguyen Chi Vinh.

Vinh made the commitment at a workshop to strengthen the role of ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) member states in enhancing peacekeeping capacity and developing partnership with the UN, organised by the Viet Nam Peacekeeping Centre, and the Embassies of Canada and the Republic of Korea in Ha Noi on December 19-20.

The senior officer highlighted the significance of the event, affirming that Viet Nam was working to improve its ability in peacekeeping operations with its internal forces and support from other countries, especially ARF members.

Viet Nam wanted to propose initiatives on connecting regional peacekeeping centres, he said, adding that the sharing of experience and training and equipment assistance had improved Viet Nams ability in the field.

Barbara Nadeau, Charge daffaires of the Canadian Embassy in Viet Nam, affirmed ASEANs role in making security policies in the region.

She also underlined the need to seek more effective measures to deal with conflicts in the world.

Meanwhile, Lee Miyon, Envoy at the Republic of Korea Embassy in Viet Nam, stressed the important role played by the UN in addressing complex security issues and extremism.

At the two-day workshop, participants, including those from 26 ARF member nations, the European Union and international organisations, will share experience, views and lessons related to UN peacekeeping operations as well as measures to promote co-operation and improve ARF member nations capacity in the work.

Initiatives to develop links between ARF member states and the UN in peacekeeping operations are also on the table.  VNS
BINH PHUOC  The 11th meeting of the Joint Co-ordination Committee on Cambodia-Laos-Viet Nam (CLV) Development Triangle Area was declared a success in Viet Nams southern province of Binh Phuoc on December 19.

The event was chaired by Vietnamese Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung, Cambodian Minister of Commerce Pan Sorasak and Lao Minister of Planning and Investment Souphan Keomisay.

The ministers approved recommendations submitted by the Senior Officials Meeting of the CLV Development Triangle Area, and noted with satisfaction the implementation of the adjusted master plan on regional socio-economic development during 2010-2020, and the amended memorandum of understanding on incentives in the area reached by the three countries.

Lauding the contributions of partners to regional development over the years, the ministers asked agencies of the three countries to hold more conferences with the partners to mobilise financial support for priority projects.

They called for stronger CLV co-operation in such areas as security and external affairs, economy, trade, investment, tourism, culture, education, environment, telecommunications and information and communications technology.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Development was asked to work with Lao and Cambodian partners to complete the plan on rubber industry development in the CLV Development Triangle Area.

The meeting requested that Cambodia complete procedures to enforce the agreement on trade promotion and facilitation in the development triangle area.

Lao Minister Souphan Keomisay suggested increasing investment attraction, tapping the strength of each locality and creating an open business environment in the area.

Cambodian Minister Pan Sorasak said the outcomes of the meeting will help reduce poverty and improve living standards of regional residents.  VNS
HA NOI  Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc yesterday discussed potential areas for stepping up bilateral co-operation with Morocco in a meeting in Ha Noi with President of the Moroccan House of Representatives Habib El Malki.

He lauded the outcomes of talks between his guest and National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, and stressed his belief that the ongoing trip in Viet Nam by the Moroccan legislator would open up good prospects for the partnership between the two countries governments and parliaments.

For his part, Habib El Malki praised Viet Nams socio-economic achievements, adding that as both countries were investing heavily in infrastructure as a basis for economic development, there was great potential for bilateral engagement in the field.

Morocco was willing to share its experience with Viet Nam in its sectors of strength like clean energy, fertiliser production, banking, and IT with Viet Nam, he said.

The Moroccan legislator stated that Viet Nam was an important partner of his country, urging the two countries should co-ordinate to increase bilateral trade.

Morocco wanted to increase the exchange of high-ranking delegations with Viet Nam, he said, expressing his wish that PM Phuc would soon pay an official visit to his country to promote comprehensive cooperation.

PM Phuc agreed that the two sides should share experiences in fields of their strength, and should act promptly to increase bilateral trade next year. He said that Viet Nam, as a participant in various new-generation free trade agreements and an APEC member economy, could help Morocco expand its market.

The PM also suggested tourism and agriculture as areas for greater bilateral co-operation.

Phuc said he would assign relevant agencies to study the potential for joint projects with Morocco, but in the immediate future, the two sides should promote exchanges between their business communities.

Party chief: Vietnam, Morocco should intensify bilateral ties

Viet Nam and Morocco should strengthen bilateral relations, bring into play co-operation mechanisms, increase the exchange of delegations at all level as well as people-to-people exchanges, Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong said yesterday.

Speaking at a reception held for President of the Moroccan House of Representatives Habib El Malki in Ha Noi, he welcomed the parliamentarians visit, describing it as a highlight in friendly relations between the two legislatures and the two nations.

Trong thanked Morocco for its solidarity with and support for Viet Nam during its past struggles for national liberation and reunification and in the current process of national construction and development.

The Party chief also spoke highly of Moroccos role in the Middle East-North Africa region.

Malki affirmed his desire and determination to promote friendship and cooperation between the two countries in general and the two parliaments in particular.

He said the two countries should capitalise on opportunities and potentials to foster bilateral ties for mutual development.

Malki lauded Viet Nams external and internal policies as well as its achievements and role in the region and the world.

He said he believed that under the leadership of the CPV, the Vietnamese people would obtain greater successes in national construction, protection and development.  VNS

 VNS
HA NOI  Some 20 government officials have received penalties for slacking off in managing the activities of Muong Thanh Group, chairman of Ha Noi Peoples Committee Nguyen uc Chung said.

The wrongdoings of Muong Thanh Group  one of the largest private hotel chains in Viet Nam  and streamlining of Ha Nois workforce were two major issues discussed at a meeting between chairman of the citys Peoples Committee and voters in Hoan Kiem District on Tuesday.

Answering voters concerns as to why investigations into Muong Thanh Groups violations on land use rights were progressing slowly, chairman Chung said that after the citys inspectorate framed charges against the group at the beginning of 2016, the citys Peoples Committee immediately transferred all legal documents to the police for further investigation.

The citys Party Committee and Peoples Committee constantly urged the police to collaborate with the Ha Noi Peoples Procuracy to speed up the investigation so as to announce convictions and impose penalties, he said.

The citys Party Committee has also conducted inspections to identify wrongdoings of officials at the ward and district levels in Thanh Tri and Hoang Mai districts, he added.

City has applied strict administrative sanctions on 20 officials with management responsibilities of Muong Thanhs activities, he said. Legal proceedings will be carried out if more serious violations are detected.

Citizens should respect the investigation process, he added.

Four charges were framed against the Muong Thanh Group last year -- illegal constructions, building constructions with height exceeding permitted levels, building in areas that are not allowed and projects failing to meet fire protection standards.

Voters also voiced concerns over the slow workforce streamlining process at State-own agencies in the city, to which chairman Chung said the city has completed workforce planning and proposal of positions for all its departments, agencies and political organisations.

If the proposal is implemented properly, by 2021, the city will have cut off 2.5 per cent of its current workforce in accordance with the order from the Partys Politburo, he said.

The city gives priority to those who wish to retire prematurely, he added. Those with fake qualifications will be laid off, he said.

Performance, capability and qualification will be the foundation for workforce streamlining from now until 2021, he said.

The city has cut off some 8,000 Government officials from the workforce since 2015. It aims to remove another 7,400 in 2018.  VNS
HA NOI  General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee, Nguyen Phu Trong, and General Secretary of the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party (LPRP) Central Committee and President of Laos, Bounnhang Vorachith, attended an exhibition featuring Viet Nam-Laos relations in Ha Noi on Wednesday.

The event was hosted by the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) and the CPV Central Committees Commission for External Relations to mark the Viet Nam-Laos Friendship and Solidarity Year 2017.

VNA General Director Nguyen uc Loi and head of the commission Hoang Binh Quan, both CPV Central Committee members, welcomed the two Party chiefs and senior leaders of Viet Nam and Laos and introduced the photos featuring the bilateral relations.

The exhibits include 55 photos by VNA journalists, capturing historical moments of the friendship and solidarity between Viet Nam and Laos, and reflecting the co-operation between the two nations in politics, socio-economy, culture and security-national defence during the past struggle for national liberation and the current cause of national construction and protection.

They also feature a meeting between late Presidents Ho Chi Minh and Souphanouvong in the Viet Bac Northern Liberated Zone, a talk between late Presidents Ho Chi Minh and Kaysone Phomvihane, delegation exchanges of the two countries leaders over the years, jointly signed co-operation agreements and achievements by each nation.

The event marks the 55th anniversary of Viet Nam-Laos diplomatic ties and the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Viet Nam-Laos Treaty on Amity and Co-operation.

Earlier, the Lao General Secretary and President and his delegation laid wreaths at the Monument to War Heroes and Martyrs and paid tribute to President Ho Chi Minh at his mausoleum.  VNS
HA NOI  The Supreme Peoples Procuracy has pronounced the second verdict charging former director of a River Pipeline project Hoang The Trung for violating construction regulations and cause serious consequences.

Danviet.vn reported on Wednesday that the Supreme Peoples Procuracy recommended a 10-year prison term for Trung  the highest punishment for his violations.

According to the verdict, a River Water Pipeline Project, invested by Viet Nam Construction and Import-Export Joint Stock Corporation (Vinaconex), was started in 2004 and completed in 2009. As much as VN1.45 trillion (US$63.9 million) was invested in the project. After put into use, between February 2012 and October 2016, the pipeline broke 18 times.

The broken pipeline cost the pipeline operator VN17 billion ($750,000) to fix. Moreover, 177,000 households were affected because of the interrupted water supply and there was a delay in supplying over 1.7 million cubic metres of water.

The Ministry of Construction examined the work and concluded that the incidents were caused by the substandard pipes.

It claimed Trung and his accomplices did not fulfill their responsibility, signing 73 assessment documents and accepting over 5,000 substandard pipes.

In April 2016, the Supreme Peoples Committee issued the first verdict in the case, however, the Ha Noi Peoples Court returned the verdict and called for further verification of the funds needed to fix the pipeline breaches.  VNS
HCM CITY  Early diagnosis can help save the lives of children with primary immunodeficiency, doctors said in HCM City last week at a meeting with parents of patients with the disorder.

PTD, a seven-year-old resident of uc Hoa District in the Mekong Delta province of Long An, was normal until he reached three. His mother told online newspaper vietnamplus.vn that they noticed a tumor growing on his right leg. A year after it was surgically removed, PTD kept falling sick and losing weight.

A bone marrow examination done at Childrens Hospital No 1 showed that he had primary immunodeficiency.

PTDs limbs have been shrinking as the disorder worsens. Within this year, the disease has spread to his middle ears, causing hearing loss and making him partially deaf.

We spend VN12 to 15 million (US$528  660) every month on his medicines and treatment. When my son could no longer enjoy free healthcare for children under six, the local authorities supported us in getting insurance for people with disabilities. Otherwise, we could not be able to afford the treatment, said PTDs mother.

Le Thi Minh Huong, deputy director of the National Childrens Hospital, said that from 2010 to 2016, their immune-allergy-joint department received 10 to 15 cases of primary immunodeficiency every year.

She said that the disease was caused by hereditary or genetic defects wherein not enough immune cells are being generated.

It is estimated that one in 2000 people suffer from different types of immune system disorders. Although some disorders are present at childhood, the disease can affect anyone at any age. Patients with immunodeficiency are more susceptible to infections that can lead to serious complications and even death.

Speaking at the meeting, Huong called for more favourable public health policies for patients with primary immunodeficiency.

Patients suffering immune system disorders need lifelong treatment to maintain their health. Therefore, it is urgent that policymakers adopt policies and insurance packages for those patients who are above 16, in order to ease their financial burden, she said.-VNS

Doctors say parents should bring their children to medical facilities for diagnosis when any of the following symptoms are seen:
HCM CITY- The Ministry of Health should resume supply of malaria drugs to hospitals in many provinces that have not had the disease for a long time, according to health experts.

The HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases has admitted a 55-year-old patient from the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre who was brought from a local hospital after her health steadily worsened despite two weeks of treatment.

However, the local hospital did not have drugs to treat her malaria and had merely transfused blood.

Dr Nguyen Hoan Phu of the HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases said the ministry should provide drugs such as Artesunate to provincial-level hospitals for treating malaria since the disease could return despite a long absence.

If patients with malaria are not treated in a timely fashion, they could get a severe form or drug-resistant malaria like the patient from Ben Tre, he said.

Besides, more training in malaria treatment should be provided to improve diagnosis, especially at grassroots-level hospitals, and ensure doctors do not fail to distinguish between malaria and dengue.

A 28-year-old man who returned from Angola was brought from a hospital in ong Nai Province to the HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases earlier this month with acute liver failure.

According to Sai Gon Giai Phong (Liberated Sai Gon) newspaper, doctors at the ong Nai hospital had diagnosed him with dengue fever.

But doctors at the HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases said he had severe malaria.

Despite intensive care, he could not be saved, Phu said.

This year the hospital has admitted 113 patients with malaria, including 19 severe cases.

In November the citys two paediatrics hospitals admitted four children from ak Nong and Binh Phuoc provinces with malaria.

Dr Truong Huu Khanh, head of Paediatrics Hospital 1s infectious and neurological diseases department, warned on his Facebook page: [Doctors] have to be very careful in diagnosing. The hospitals doctors did not think two children from ak Nong Province could get malaria because they had not seen patients with malaria for a long time.

In the past malaria patients mostly used to be adults, but children are susceptible to getting severe forms of malaria and even die, according to the doctor.

The HCM City-based National Institute of Malariology-Parasitology-Entomology reported that 1,041 people were infected with malaria in the Central Highlands province of Lam ong and the countrys southern region  the two places it monitors  compared to 1,422 last year.

Binh Phuoc Province had the highest number of patients, 810, followed by Lam ong with 117 and ong Nai Province with 18.

According to the World Health Organization, malaria is a life-threatening disease, though preventable and curable, caused by parasites transmitted through the bite of infected female anopheles mosquitoes.

Last year there were an estimated 216 million cases of malaria in 91 countries, an increase of 5 million from 2015, while the number of deaths remained almost unchanged at 445,000, it said.

Symptoms usually appear 10 to 15 days after the bite, starting with possibly mild fever, headache and chills making it difficult to recognise as malaria.

But if not treated within 24 hours, P. falciparum malaria can progress to severe illness, often leading to death. VNS
HA NOI  Viet Nam and Indonesia should put more efforts into strengthening their strategic co-operation to face challenges posed by the shifting geopolitical nature of the Asia-Pacific, according to speakers at a conference in Ha Noi yesterday.

Experts in international relations, national defence, and economic and cultural studies gathered to discuss the role of regional organisations in promoting Indonesia-Viet Nam ties.

The conference was held in relation to a chain of major regional events in which both countries played a part, namely the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in a Nang City in November, the fiftieth anniversary of ASEAN in the Philippines in August, and Party Secretary General Nguyen Phu Trongs visit to Indonesia in April.

Regional co-operative structures, such as ASEAN, APEC and the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), have been playing a great role in promoting regional development between their member countries, said former Indonesian Ambassador to the United States, Soemadi Djoko Moerdjono Brotodiningrat.

However, these structures, especially ASEAN, were facing great challenges posed by the engagement of the worlds major powers in the region, namely the Indo-Pacific strategy that the United States and Japan aim to pursue, the surge of protectionism in the US, and Chinas One Belt, One Road initiative, he said.

In this shifting geopolitical context, new ways of maintaining stability of the Southeast Asian region need to be examined, Soemadi said.

ASEAN should focus on maintaining its centrality. This is considered important, not as a Southeast Asian issue but to ensure that regional co-operation will not be dominated only by the most powerful, he added.

"ASEAN must also ensure the activities of its economic community by maintaining open regionalism, one of ASEANs basic principles, he added. This is the principle that affects all ASEAN policies, which are geared towards establishing partnerships of different parties, the freedom to control bilateral trade agreements, and to participate in most ASEAN economic cooperation," he said.

The strategic co-operation between Viet Nam and Indonesia needed to be strengthened as both countries have a critical geographic position in the region, said Associate Professor Tran Khanh from the Institute of Southeast Asia Studies under the Viet Nam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS).

While Indonesia is considered as a bridge between the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean, Viet Nam can be considered as a link between the seas and mainland, he said.

Both countries should be highly aware of these critical positions in relation to the global context, he added.

"More actions should be implemented to actualise the strategic partnership relations that the two countries agreed to establish in 2011, especially when pressure from political competitions, protectionism and national interests between the two is becoming increasingly immense," he said.

"The two countries have not fully harnessed their potential to collaborate," said Nguyen ang Tien, chairman of the Viet Nam-Indonesia Friendship Association (VIFA). Indonesia has only invested in 59 projects worth US$437 million in Viet Nam by April 2017, and Viet Nam has seven projects worth $107 million in Indonesia," he added.

Tien said difficulties in investment policies and customs should be solved to facilitate economic collaboration between the two countries. Social, cultural exchanges and human resources collaboration should also be facilitated.

Nguyen ang Quang, former Vietnamese Ambassador to Indonesia, said that there was an inter-relation between the power of regional structures like ASEAN and the bilateral relations between their members.

Indonesia and Viet Nam are both important factors of ASEAN, he said. The power and unity of ASEAN will be elevated if the bilateral relation between the two countries is strengthened.

New issues will emerge in the two countries bilateral relation as the results of the US and Chinas new strategies and initiatives, he added.

We need to foresee the impacts of these new ideas, not only the challenges but also the opportunities, he said.  VNS
HA NOI  An increasing number of elderly people and children have been hospitalised in recent days as the northern region was struck by cold weather.

The cold snap hit the region late last week and is expected to be the coldest this winter.

The National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting said the average temperature was between nine and 12 degrees Celsius in much of the northern and north-central region, including Ha Noi, yesterday.

Associate Professor Tran Minh ien, deputy director of the National Hospital of Paediatrics (NHP), said the hospital admitted more children suffering from respiratory problems such as bronchitis and pneumonia recently.

About 2,000 children come to the hospital for medical check-ups daily on average, ien told Tien Phong (Vanguard) newspaper.

He predicted the figure would increase if the weather stayed as cold in the coming days.

The cold weather might also increase the risk of contracting diarrhoea for children.

o Manh Hung, head of NHPs dissemination and customer care department, blamed poor resistance and adaption to weather changes on the increase in the number of children seeking treatment.

He said the hospital had taken measures to cope with the surge in admissions.

To reduce waiting time and to give doctors more time for consulting, more doctors were mobilised to work and more check-up rooms were prepared in hospitals, Hung told Viet Nam News.

In addition to dissemination for parents on the necessity of keeping their children warm, the hospital also prepared more beds for patients and provided more blankets for them.

Associate Professor Nguyen Tien Dung, former head of Bach Mai Hospitals Paediatric Ward, said it also experienced a rise in the number of children hospitalised recently.

The most common ailments were respiratory diseases such as sore throats, tonsillitis and pneumonia.

Dung advised that parents should keep their children warm during cold days. They should not play outside if the temperature is below 15 degrees Celsius.

The cold weather did not only affect childrens health but also the elderly.

Ha Noi Heart Hospitals second branch has seen a sharp rise in the number of patients seeking treatment over the past three days.

Each day, it received between 1,000 and 1,200 patients with cardiovascular diseases. Most were elderly.

Snow appeared on Fansipan Peak in Sapa Town of the northern mountainous province Lao Cai on Tuesday, attracting tourists.  VNA/VNS Photo Huong Thu

Snowfall in Sa Pa

The mercury in Lao Cai Province yesterday dropped remarkably compared with the day before, with temperatures as low as 5.5 degrees Celsius in the mountainous district of Bac Ha and 3.3 degrees Celsius in Sa Pa Town.

Snowfall blanketed Fansipans peak, which at 3,143 metres above sea level is considered the roof of Indochina.

Tourists flocked to Sa Pa Town to admire the rare sight.

According to Lao Cai Provinces Agriculture and Rural Development, the prolonged cold weather has so far killed 76 heads of cattle, resulting in losses of nearly VN1 billion (US$44,000). Sa Pa District is the locality with the most dead cattle, 67, followed by Van Ban and Si Ma Cai district.

In the northern moutainous province of Lai Chau, local authorities outlined plans to cope with cold weather and diseases for humans, cattle and plants.

o Ngoc An, chairman of Lai Chau Provinces Peoples Committee asked concerned agencies to take measures to minimise the damage and prevent diseases.

District leaders were requested to stay up to date on weather forecasts and to call on local residents to store food and take care of cattle during the cold weather.

Strict punishments will be imposed on leaders of localities suffering serious damage caused by irresponsibility, he said.

The provincial Health Department has asked units under its leadership to monitor the disease situation and be proactive in detecting infectious diseases.

The provincial Education Department has requested school in the locality to adjust school times so that students would not have to come to classes if the temperature drops below 7 degrees Celsius.

Weakening storm

Typhoon Kai-tak, which has left a trail of destruction in the Philippines in recent days, became the 15th typhoon to enter Vietnamese waters this year. However, the national weather bureau has said that it will make little impact on the mainland as it has already weakened considerably at 180km east of Viet Nams Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago. Near the typhoons centre, wind speeds were 60-75km/h.

In the next 48-72 hours, the typhoon is expected to move in the east-southeastern direction at 20km/h.  VNS
HA NOI  The police on Tuesday decided to prosecute former General Director of the Viet Nam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) Phung inh Thuc for causing serious economic loss.

The Investigation Police Department under the Ministry of Public Security issued a decision to start legal proceedings against Thuc for alleged deliberately violating the States regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences, according to Article 165 of the Penal Code.

He was suspected of committing violations while directing the implementation of the Thai Binh 2 thermal power project.

The prosecution of Thuc was part of the polices investigation into the case of deliberately violating the States regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences and committing embezzlement in PetroVietnam and PetrolVietnam Construction Corporation.

Thuc, born in 1954, was banned from leaving his residence area at Dich Vong new urban area, Dich Vong Ward, Cau Giay District.

He served as PetroVietnams general director between 2008 and 2010, and as its chairman from 2011 to 2014.

In a related move, the Investigation Police Department also decided to prosecute a former board member of PetroVietnam, Phan inh uc, over allegations of deliberately violating the States regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences.

He was suspected of mismanagement in the case involving PetroVietnams investment in OceanBank, which caused a loss of over VN800 billion (US$35.4 million).  VNS
HA NOI  Ha Noi plans to put up kiosks at hospitals for people to lodge complains or their dissatisfaction about health check-ups and treatment quality via a software.

These complaints and opinions will then be sent to the municipal Department of Health, according to deputy director of the department, Tran Thi Nhi Ha.

People will use the software installed at these kiosks and tick on what they feel satisfied or dissatisfied with, relating to health check-ups and treatment services at hospitals in the city, and the department can know immediately how many complaints each hospital receives from patients each day, she said.

For example, patients can assess the time they have to wait for a health examination, the payment method, fees charged and the attitude of medical workers towards patients.

The move is aimed at improving the quality of health services, thus helping to increase patients satisfaction, she said. Increased satisfaction from patients means the hospitals would have more patients and more income, she added.

According to a survey by the health department, up to 96 per cent of surveyed patients were satisfied with the services of local health establishments and attitudes of medical workers in 2017.

However, Ha said the figure did not reflect the reality of the whole picture of the citys health sector.

Therefore, the department will install kiosks equipped with software to provide more opportunities for patients to review or comment on health services at hospitals more objectively and proactively. The move will be seriously implemented to force hospitals to renew and improve the quality of their health services, Ha said.

The Ministry of Health in 2016 issued a set of criteria to assess hospitals on improving services and increasing patient satisfaction. The 83 criteria were tested over a three-year basis.

Nineteen of the criteria were related to patient care, 14 to work force development, 38 to professional quality, eight to quality improvement and four to professional knowledge.  VNS
HA NOI  A programme of cooperation in support of ethnic minority development for the period 2017-20 was launched on Wednesday.

Under the cooperation agreement signed by the Governments Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs (CEMA) and the Embassy of Ireland in Viet Nam, a grant of 12 million euros (US$14.2 million) will be provided to the Programme for the Development of Extremely Difficult Communes in Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas (often called Programme 135).

This grant aims to improve infrastructure and help poor ethnic minority communities in five provinces, including Ha Giang, Hoa Binh, Quang Tri, Kon Tum and Tra Vinh, increase their access to basic services.

The two parties also signed an agreement approving a grant of EUR600,000 ($710,100) for technical assistance for CEMA to enhance the effectiveness of development programmes and policies for poverty reduction in ethnic minority and mountainous areas in 2017-20.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Cait Moran, Ambassador of Ireland to Viet Nam, said that the Embassy of Irelands Mission Strategy for Viet Nam and the Mekong Sub-region 2017-20 was set out at a meeting between Irelands Minister for Education, Richard Bruton, and Deputy Prime Minister of Viet Nam, Pham Binh Minh, in November this year.

It embeds ethnic minority development as a key priority for Irelands engagement in Viet Nam, which has provided 60 million for work in this area since the start of Irelands development programme in Viet Nam in 2007.

To complement and strengthen support to Programme 135 and to CEMA, Ireland provides support to Vietnamese and international non-governmental organisations and to UN agencies to pilot and scale up new models in ethnic minority empowerment, and to share lessons and experience, with a strong emphasis on food and nutrition security, gender equality and climate-smart development.

o Van Chien, member of the Party Central Committee, Minister and Chairman of the CEMA, said that the signing ceremony was an important event in improving cooperation between the embassy and the CEMA.

He expressed his gratitude for the embassys support during the past years and hoped to continue to receive more help in the work, especially in poverty reduction.  VNS
CAN THO  The Can Tho  Phung Hiep BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) toll station in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho became the latest toll station in the country to slash fees after drivers complaints.

The new fees took effect yesterday following a direction from the Ministry of Transport earlier this month.

The new fees are lower than the old ones by 7 to 15 per cent, with the lowest being VN30,000 (US$1.30) and the highest being VN180,000.

Vehicles belonging to permanent residents, organisations or enterprises in neighbouring areas, including Ba Lang Ward of Can Tho City and Tan Phu Thanh Commune of Hau Giang Province, enjoy larger reductions.

Buses get a 100 per cent reduction while other types of vehicles get their tolls cut by 30-35 per cent compared to the new fees applied to vehicles in general.

The Can Tho  Phung Hiep BOT toll station went into operation in April last year with fees ranging from VN35,000  200,000. The toll was set up to pay for a project to widen National Highway 1 at the 22km-long Can Tho-Phung Hiep section, which cost more than VN1.8 trillion.

Drivers complained that the fees at the station were too high. Many of them drove on smaller local roads to avoid paying fees, leading to their degradation.

Local people who travel the road every day, argue that they have to pay the fees for the whole route while their vehicles only run a short distance.

Removal of toll station

In HCM City, the Peoples Committee on Wednesday approved the Department of Transports proposal to remove the long-defunct Thu Thiem toll station to reduce traffic congestion at the Thu Thiem tunnel under Sai Gon River.

Traffic jams at both entrances of the tunnel have become a daily occurrence due to a huge surge of commuters travelling from District 2 to the citys downtown every day.

Reports by the city Department of Transport shows about 45,000 cars and 230,000 motorbikes travel through the tunnel every day.

According to the department, the toll station, despite being out-of-operation, still blocks the entrance of the tunnel and makes congestion worse.

The department suggested moving the toll station to another BOT project in need of one.

The 12-booth Thu Thiem toll station was originally built to collect fees for the reparation and maintenance of the tunnel.

However, since its completion in 2011, it was only used for collecting fees for a one-month trial. Competent authorities explained that since the birth of the Road Maintenance Fund in 2013, the cost for reparation and maintenance of the tunnel have been borne by the fund so fee collection became void.

In recent days, tunnel and traffic police have been using various measures to reduce congestion, including car bans in certain hours, opening new lanes for motorbikes during rush hours or adjusting traffic light timers at nearby intersections.  VNS
HCM CITY  HCM City has taken the lead in prenatal and newborn screening, with 80 per cent of total births in the country receiving screening since 2011, according to the citys Population and Family Planning Division.

The division released its report at a meeting on Wednesday in HCM City held on the occasion of Viet Nams Population Day on December 26.

The report said that 247,900 pregnant women in the city had been screened since 2011, including 14,000 who were found to have some kind of disease. A many as 233,400 newborns were tested, and of these, 970 had a disease.

Prenatal and newborn screening has reduced the rate of babies born with disabilities.

Nguyen Huu Hung, deputy head of the citys Department of Health, said there was still low awareness about the benefits of prenatal and newborn screening.

The Government only provides free prenatal and newborn tests to detect abnormal health problem and tests for a Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency and for congenital hypothyroidism for newborns. Other tests are charged.

Nguyen Van Tan, deputy head of the General Office for Population Family Planning, said the city had seen positive results from prenatal and newborn screening.

However, the city has the lowest fertility rate in the country, with 1.3 to 1.4 children per woman.

The city should develop action plans to raise the fertility rate, Tan said.  VNS
HA NOI  The sustainable development of the Mekong Delta must go in hand with its long-term ability to recover and adapt to the multi-dimensional impacts of climate change, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh inh Dung has said.

Deputy PM Dung on Tuesday chaired a meeting in Ha Noi on a project to adjust the construction planning of the Mekong Delta.

The meeting was attended by construction, investment and planning leaders and people from the agricultural and rural development ministries and the Government Office.

The project was planned by the Ministry of Constructions Southern Institute for Spatial Planning (SISP) and examined by a Belgium-US consulting firm.

It aims to attain sustainable development geared towards green growth and adaptation to climate change in the Mekong Delta, and helping the area to reach an important position in the country and Southeast Asia.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy PM Dung said he appreciated the efforts of SISP, the consulting firm, and local and international scientists in developing the project.

He said the project had the right approach to issues concerning the delta, starting from a comprehensive evaluation of internal and external factors, to developing effective scenarios to response and adapt to climate change.

Apart from visible external factors such as climate change, sea level rise, and impacts from the exploitation of hydropower from the upper Mekong River, the negative and positive impacts of internal factors such as the eco-socio development process and investments in construction activities should also be intensively evaluated, Dung said.

This evaluation will serve as the foundation for further analysis and identification of challenges posed by climate change and the deltas internal development, he said. "Water management is of utmost importance since water is the core attribute of the Mekong Delta.", he added.

The Deputy PM said the project should provide a comprehensive evaluation on the storage of both groundwater and surface water and propose options for protecting the areas water resources.

Other issues that sholuld be focused on were energy, industrial development and minimum height of constructions, he said.

He requested the Ministry of Construction to direct research parties to collaborate with expert agencies to research, evaluate, and propose development strategies.

The Mekong Delta has been identified as a key area for agricultural, aquaculture production and fruit growing in the country. It greatly contributes to national food security and plays an important role in exporting farm products to international markets.

The areas population is expected to reach 18-19 million by 2030, of which 6.5-7.7 million will live in urban areas, in accordance with the urganisation rate of 35-40 per cent and average growth rate of 2.4-3.3 per cent.  VNS
HCM CITY  Women have given birth to a total of 5,643 babies via in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) at Tu Du Obstetrics Hospital in HCM City since 1998, according to the hospital, one of the leaders in offering IVF services in the country.

Its IVF success rate, which is among the highest in the country, nearly doubled from 25 per cent in 2011 to more than 45 per cent last year.

According to Dr Le Quang Thanh, the head of the hospital, it not only provides maternal and child care but also offers technical support for hospitals in 32 cities and provinces in the south.

The hospital, which celebrated its 80th anniversary last week, receives around 3,500 medical treatment and health-check cases and more than 200 delivery cases per day.VNS
UNITED NATIONS, United States  The UN General Assembly will hold an emergency session on Thursday to vote on a draft resolution rejecting President Donald Trumps decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israels capital after the US vetoed the measure at the Security Council.

Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN reacted angrily to the move, tweeting: On Thurs therell be a vote criticising our choice. The US will be taking names, in rhetoric reminiscent of her bosss threatening style.

Turkey and Yemen requested the urgent meeting of the 193-nation assembly on behalf of the Arab group of countries and the Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

The two countries circulated a draft resolution on Tuesday that mirrors the vetoed measure, reaffirming that any decision on the status of Jerusalem has no legal effect and must be rescinded.

Egypt had put forward the draft at the council which was backed by all 14 other Security Council members in the vote on Monday.

Like the Egyptian draft, the text before the assembly does not mention Trumps decision but expresses deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem.

Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour said he expected overwhelming support for the measure stating that Jerusalem is an issue to be resolved through negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

The General Assembly will say, without the fear of the veto, that the international community is refusing to accept the unilateral position of the US, Mansour told reporters.

No country has veto powers in the 193-nation assembly, contrary to the council where the US, along with Britain, China, France and Russia, can block any resolution.

Trumps December 6 decision to recognise Jerusalem broke with international consensus, triggering protests across the Muslim world and drawing strong condemnation.

Key US allies Britain, France, Italy, Japan and Ukraine were among the 14 countries in the 15-member council that voted in favour of the measure.

US Ambassador Haley described that 14-1 vote an insult and warned it wont be forgotten.

After the clash at the top UN body, the White House announced that US Vice President Mike Pence was delaying a trip to the Middle East planned for this week.

Israel seized control of the eastern part of the city in the 1967 Middle East war and sees all of Jerusalem as its undivided capital. The Palestinians view the east as the capital of their future state.

Several UN resolutions call on Israel to withdraw from territory seized during the 1967 war.  AFP
OTTAWA  Canada and the US announced on Tuesday they will host a summit of foreign ministers in Vancouver on January 16, including envoys from Japan and South Korea, to seek progress on the North Korean nuclear crisis.

We believe a diplomatic solution to the crisis is essential and possible, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told a joint press conference with visiting US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Tillerson said the meeting would seek to further increase pressure on North Korea to come to the table to negotiate an end to its nuclear programme.

This could include other steps that could be taken to put additional pressure on the regime in North Korea, as well as preparing for the prospects of talks, he said.

We (will) continue to find ways to advance the pressure campaign against North Korea, Tillerson said, to send North Korea a unified message from the international community that we will not accept you as... a nuclear weapons nation, and that all of us share one policy and one goal -- the full complete verifiable denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.

Its all intended to lead to talks. Otherwise we wouldnt need to do this. We would just go straight to the military option, he said.

The White House supports diplomatic talks, Tillerson added, dismissing suggestions of a rift between US President Donald Trump and his chief diplomatic.

The so-called Vancouver Group will also include Australia, Belgium, Britain, Colombia, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Turkey.

Throughout the afternoon, Tillerson and Freeland also discussed Canada-US border security, North American defense, energy and environmental cooperation, and the ongoing renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which binds the two countries with Mexico to form the worlds second-largest trading bloc after the EU.

They discussed the plight of the Rohingya in Myanmar and the potential for a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine.

Freeland will travel to Ukraine to meet with government officials on Wednesday.

As well, said Freeland, she and Tillerson considered the crisis in Venezuela and what actions we can take individually, together and in cooperation with the Lima group... to address the deteriorating political, economic and humanitarian situation there.

Canada hosted foreign ministers of 12 countries of the Americas in October to try to find ways to cool the fierce power struggle that had been raging for months between President Nicolas Maduros left-wing nationalist government and the center-right opposition.

Later Tuesday, Tillerson was to meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau before heading back to Washington.  AFP
WATERLOO  Squad cars made a special delivery to Iowa veterans in time for the holidays this week.

Waterloo police collected necessities including personal hygiene items, socks, blankets, snacks and the like in recent weeks, and on Tuesday officers distributed them to veterans at the Country View care center in Waterloo and the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown.

We just wanted to do something a little special for them, to thank them, said Investigator Stacy Hesse with the police department.

In the past, the police department has worked with Black Hawk County officials to provide gifts for veterans at Country View around Christmas.

But this year, there were only seven veterans residing at the county-run facility, so police decided to expand the program to cover residents at the Iowa Veterans Home, Hesse said.
WATERLOO  A Waterloo man who said he was carrying a BB gun and was too drunk to stick up a store has been found guilty of robbery.

Marlon Derrell Harris Jr., 28, had undertaken an intoxication defense, arguing he had been drinking before the January stickup at Alis West Side Liquor on West Fifth Street so he didnt have the mental capacity to form the intent to commit the crime.

He also argued during his October bench trial the item he was carrying in his waistband and flashed at a store employee and a patron while taking cigarettes and a bottle of liquor was only a BB gun.

On Monday, Judge Brad Harris, no relation, issued a verdict disputing the BB gun claim, noting employees had identified it as a 9 mm handgun and store surveillance footage showed a weapon that was different than the BB gun the defense submitted at trial. Judge Brad Harris found Marlon Harris guilty of first-degree robbery in the liquor store robbery.

He also found Marlon Harris guilty of second-degree theft for allegedly stealing $3,000 worth of tools and an $800 laptop from a truck and carrying them to an apartment building following the robbery and possession of methamphetamine for a pipe containing meth found when he was arrested days later.

Marlon Harris had earlier pleaded to charges of operating a vehicle without owners consent and driving while suspended for driving off in the truck that had been left running at a Kwik Star convenience store blocks from the liquor store.

First-degree robbery is punishable by up to 25 years in prison upon conviction, and second-degree theft carries up to five years in prison. Sentencing will be at a later date, and prosecutors intend to seek sentencing enhancements, alleging Marlon Harris is a habitual offender.
WATERLOO  Black Hawk County altered its budget to cover cost overruns at Country View and a fundraising shortfall for the Hartman Reserve Nature Center renovation.

Members of the county Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a budget amendment that includes using about $3.2 million of general fund reserves to cover unexpected costs.

The amendment includes a $2 million subsidy for Country View, a county-owned nursing and mental health care facility, which has been running deficits for several years.

Country View runs out of cash WATERLOO  Black Hawk County is dipping into its savings to bail out the financially struggl

Weve had higher monthly losses than we were anticipating when we were looking at the budget last year, said Susan Deaton, county finance director. We have several issues affecting the cash flow at Country View.

The supervisors had already voted to subsidize Country View with $1 million from county reserves at the midway point of the fiscal year. Deaton suggested the additional $1 million budget amendment to cover the second half of the year due to the uncertainty of the operation.

The amendment also includes tapping the general fund to finish financing for a $3 million replacement of the east wing of the Hartman Reserve Nature Centers interpretive center.

Right now we are looking at using approximately $200,000 out of general fund reserves for the Hartman renovation, Deaton said.

While the bulk of the nature center project was funded with grants and donations, the supervisors agreed in August 2016 to guarantee the project should the nonprofit Friends of Hartman Reserve fail to cover what was a $762,000 fundraising shortfall at the time.

Supervisors will back up renovations at Hartman WATERLOO  A funding guarantee has cleared the way for a $3 million renovation of the Hartma

The project, which is nearly complete, later received a $480,000 Community Attraction and Tourism grant from the Enhance Iowa Board but is still about $200,000 short of the goal.

Local governments are required to hold public hearings and adopt budget amendments before spending more than had been included in originally adopted budgets.

Most of the items are due to the timing of capital projects that were carried over from (fiscal year 2017) to FY 18, said Susan Deaton, county finance director.

The amendment included spending $606,000 for a jail security project that had been budgeted for the prior year, for example. It also involved more than $450,000 in flood recovery projects that were mostly funded by federal revenue sources.
WATERLOO -- A new supervisory order issued by the Iowa Supreme Court is unlikely to change a ban on guns in the Black Hawk County Courthouse.

Chief Justice Mark Cady issued an order Tuesday which would allow counties to request permission to allow individuals to carry weapons on courthouse floors not completely occupied by the court system.

A previous order issued in June barred weapons in courtrooms, court-controlled spaces and public areas of courthouses.

That order was a response to a law adopted in the last legislative session that included controversial "stand-your-ground" language and made it more difficult for local governments to restrict legally carried firearms from public places.

The Black Hawk County Board of Supervisors has maintained a ban on weapons in the entire courthouse, except for those carried by law enforcement or used as evidence in trials. It is enforced by a metal detectors at the courthouse's single public entrance.

Board chairman Frank Magsamen said supervisors are reviewing Cady's order but noted "it is unlikely we will be changing our policy."

Black Hawk County Sheriff Tony Thompson is also recommending the supervisors maintain the current courthouse security policy.

"The unique issue with the Black Hawk County Courthouse is that we have three separate floors of court designated space," Thompson said. "With 14 courtrooms to secure, if we dont secure the weapons restriction from the front door, we would have a terrible time securing the courts at all."

Black Hawk County provides court space on the third and fourth floors, mixed courtroom and county offices on the first floor, and county offices on the second floor and in the basement.

The new gun rules could impact other county courthouses in Iowa.

Cady's order says the other elements of the June rules remain, but after consultation with chief judges, sheriffs and other county officials there can be a way for weapons to be carried on floors without court system elements.

"Upon written request of a county board of supervisors or other controlling entity, the chief judge shall modify the weapons prohibition imposed by the supervisory order by eliminating the prohibition in public areas on those floors of a courthouse not totally occupied by the court system," Cady wrote.

The issue has been contentious at the Woodbury County Courthouse in Sioiux City.

Woodbury County Board Chairman Matthew Ung told the Sioux City Journal he's glad the Iowa Supreme Court "retract(ed) its overreach" and showefd "some deference to separation of powers."

In late June, a majority of the supervisors voted to rescind a prior ban on weapons on county property, including the Woodbury County Courthouse. The supervisors said that was necessary to comply with the new state law expanding gun rights.

However, the sheriff at the time said he would keep enforcing the security program in the courthouse.
JOHNSTON  More work remains to convince federal government leaders the U.S. should not withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement, especially since such an action could damage Iowas agriculture economy, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said Tuesday.

Reynolds a week ago traveled to the nations capital to discuss the trade agreement with top federal leaders, including Vice President Mike Pence and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.

During her weekly news conference Tuesday at DuPont Pioneer headquarters, Reynolds described those discussions as healthy but added Iowa leaders must continue to urge federal leaders to be cautious with the trade agreement.

President Donald Trump has said the U.S. must renegotiate multiple international trade deals, including NAFTA, a trade agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico signed in 1994.

Iowa leaders say a U.S. withdrawal from the pact would damage Iowas economy. Canada and Mexico are Iowas top trade partners.

It would be devastating, Reynolds said.

During her most recent trip to Washington, D.C., Reynolds spoke about the trade agreement with Pence, Perdue, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. Reynolds said she made clear to those leaders a U.S. withdrawal from NAFTA would crush Midwest farmers who already are feeling the pinch of low commodity and land prices.

Their intention is to hold ag harmless, but the fact of the matter is whenever we talk about pulling out (of trade deals), commodity prices are affected immediately, and that will be one of the first casualties that well see, Reynolds said. So were going to hold them accountable. Were going to continue to have conversations.

Ross earlier this year said he thinks farm groups are exaggerating when they say a U.S. withdrawal from NAFTA would hurt farmers.

Reynolds said she told Ross farmers concerns are legitimate.

I indicated to (Ross) that (farmers) are feeling the pressure, and theyre concerned, Reynolds said. And if you think theyre going to stand down and just let this be a negotiating tactic, theyre not. Youre going to hear from me. And youre going to hear from Iowa farmers about the impact that this would have on the ag economy, not only in Iowa but in the Midwest and across this country. Its serious.

The U.S., Canada and Mexico met in November to negotiate potential changes to the trade agreement. U.S. officials expressed frustration that the other countries did not seem willing to make changes, while Canada and Mexico said some of the U.S. demands would be harmful for all three countries under the agreement.

Reynolds said her administration will continue to communicate their concerns to the federal administration, especially their concern regarding what might happen if the U.S. withdraws from the trade agreement.

This would have a devastating impact, Reynolds said. Free and fair trade, modernizing, were all about that. But we just need to be very careful about how we talk about this moving forward.
GREENE  Four-year-old Landry Hull was born with a special heart.

And his parents never want him to question why.

Its really special, said Hulls mother, Wendy Schmitt, of Greene. We want him to embrace it, and we get to help him do that.

At 27 weeks, Hull was born weighing less than 2 pounds with a heart defect, and he spent his first six months in and out of the University of Iowa Stead Family Childrens Hospital. He had two open-heart surgeries before he turned 2.

During that time, Hull and his parents, Schmitt and Tim Hull, found a home away from home at the Ronald McDonald House Iowa City.

Being from north central Iowa  over two hours away  there was no way we could drive back and forth every day, and there was no way we could afford seven months in a hotel, Schmitt said. (The Ronald McDonald House) provided us a place to stay right next to the hospital, and it was affordable.

Its because of their experience at the Ronald McDonald House that Hull  with the help of his parents, the communities of Greene and Allison and North Butler Elementary School  held an 11-day toy drive this month for the Ronald McDonald House in Iowa City to collect toys for families who likely wouldnt be able to spend Christmas elsewhere.

The Ronald McDonald House Charities of Eastern Iowa & Western Illinois provides families whose children are seriously ill or injured and require days, weeks or months of specialized treatment comfort and amenities while their child recovers, according to its website.

The organization serves about 4,000 children and their families each year at its three locations: the Ronald McDonald House Iowa City, the Ronald McDonald Family Room at the childrens hospital and the Ronald McDonald Family Room at St. Lukes in Cedar Rapids.

The toy drive kicked off with an assembly at North Butler Elementary, where the Bearcat Choir performed and two teachers dramatized The Twelve Days of the Toy Drive.

That was really fun to get to be able to do, said North Butler Elementary Principal Laura Tracy.

Tracy said she decided to partner with Hull, a North Butler preschool student, for his toy drive by being a drop-off site because hes an amazing kid and a miracle and it teaches the children and the staff theres nothing greater than doing something that makes a difference for other people.

It turned out to be an incredible project that none of us expected, she said. Its something his parents will never forget as well as all of us too. Its a memory that will be with us forever.

Tracy said the school will hold a closing ceremony Thursday to celebrate the success of the toy drive, the schools food drive and the fact theyre Bearcats.

Hulls toy drive collected hundreds of new, unwrapped toys from stocking stuffers to big-ticket items totaling $3,000, estimated Schmitt.

(Landry) was so excited, she said. He kept jumping up and down.

On Monday, Hull and his parents picked up the toys from their collection sites, and on Tuesday they delivered them to the Ronald McDonald House.

It was huge, Croskrey said. There were hundreds of toys under that tree.

After Christmas, children who come to Ronald McDonald House can choose a toy to keep.

When Hull was asked what his favorite part of the toy drive was, he said doing something nice.

Schmitt said Hull and his family will be spotlighted during the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Eastern Iowa & Western Illinois 34th annual Red Shoe Run/Walk in May 2018.
Since it ignited, the Thomas fire has burned more than 250,000 acres in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties and become the third-largest fire on record in California. Last Thursday, it killed a firefighter. But as frightening as this beast of a blaze really is, the overall trends look even worse.

Prior to 1995, the United States averaged one mega-fire a year, according to the U.S. Forest Service, which gives that title to blazes that burn more than 100,000 acres. During the last decade, California has met that old average all by itself, while the United States as a whole is now experiencing nearly 10 such fires annually. Researchers predict, by the middle of this century, twice the amount of U.S. land will burn in bad fire years than does today.

Of course its not just land that burns. Developments are springing up in ever more fire-prone forests, canyons and mountains. One in three U.S. homes  some 44 million residences  are in the wildland-urban interface, or WUI, where they abut fire-prone forests and open space. California, along with Florida and Texas, has the highest concentration of homes in the WUI. And with rents skyrocketing in cities, developers are pushing into some of Southern Californias most flammable rural areas at an ever-increasing rate.

The Thomas fire will likely rage past the winter solstice, marking yet another troubling trend. To date, the warming and drying climate has expanded the nations fire season by some 78 days overall. Firefighters in California already talk about their year-round fire season.

Not only are the conditions ripe for the Thomas fire to continue its devastation, but theres a real possibility of more large fires breaking out in the coming months.

Southern California was parched, with Los Angeles recording just 4 percent of its historic average of rainfall since Oct. 1, even before the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned last week a strengthening La Nina weather pattern would likely lead to an unusually warm and dry winter in the region. A persistent high-pressure ridge in the Pacific has held back precipitation and cooler temperatures, leading some climatologists to worry the state is about to fall back into a deep drought. Californias snowpack is at 34 percent of normal for this time of year.

Although the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection has abundant resources to deal with normal wildfires in any month of the year, mega-fires that burn outside the historical fire season prove challenging for both the state and the nation. In the past, many wildland firefighters were college students earning money for tuition. During the winter, theyre in school, and the federal equipment needed to help battle fires may be offline, stored in warehouses.

At this point, its indisputable more winter mega-fires are coming. Yet many of the stakeholders affected by wildfires of increasing size and frequency cant look away from their narrow self-interests to focus on the crisis at hand.

Every bad fire season brings calls from the timber industry to increase logging in forests, overgrown after a century in which the United States snuffed every wildfire. Its true some of our forests have 10, 20 or even 40 times more trees than they had prior to the nations zero-tolerance policy toward wildfires, and well-managed timber harvests can reduce the fire risk in some woodlands. But those who present such harvests as a win-win of business profits and a reduced chance of fire often neglect to acknowledge an obvious truth: Most of the vegetation increasing the risk is brush, deadfall and small trees that have little economic value, while the big, thick trees that hold the financial payoff can resist and survive most flames. Timber operations that harvest the big trees but leave the small ones may actually fuel big blazes, not mitigate them.

Like the timber industrys supposed win-win solutions, some ranchers push managers of public lands to allow more cattle to munch down heavy loads of flammable grass to reduce the chance of fire. Here again theres an obvious logical flaw: Overgrazing in many parts of the Southwest has allowed dense stands of trees to encroach on grasslands, in some cases leading to more severe wildfires rather than fewer.

Even thoughtful attempts to make communities more resilient to wildfires have spotty records. Certainly its smart to build homes with defensible space around the structure, use fire-resistant building materials such as metal roofs and keep flammable materials such as propane tanks and woodpiles away from the house. But those efforts are for naught if residents dont diligently rake up needles and leaves, clean out their gutters and mow the grass, or if developers use their fire-wise construction to justify pushing homes into ever more combustible landscapes.

Meanwhile, as the wildfire problem worsens, Californias commitment to preparation is rather fitful. The state levies fines of up to $500 for homeowners who fail to clear dangerously fire-prone vegetation, and Cal Fire can seek restitution in the courts from people who negligently start wildfires. Last July, however, in a deal to extend the states cap-and-trade program, state legislators suspended a $150 fire-prevention fee that was charged to some 800,000 California residents who live in rural areas. (The Republican lawmakers who reviled that fee ought to take a look at the latest firefighting invoice.)

To deal with the trend toward larger, more frequent, year-round mega-fires, California will need to take a longer view. It will have to stand up to industries whose claims arent supported by science, to developers and planners who promote building into fire-prone landscapes and to citizens who dont want to foot the bill for living in a state filled with forests and fire.
Reprinted from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Sunday.

No truer words have been spoken within the Trump White House than those of Press Secretary Sarah Sanders on Dec. 11. Sanders thought she was referring to reporters when she said:

You cannot say that its an honest mistake when youre purposefully putting out information that you know to be false or when youre taking information that hasnt been validated, that hasnt been offered any credibility, and that has been continually denied by a number of people, including people with direct knowledge of an incident.

A reporter in the White House press room responded, Are you speaking about the president?

From Inauguration Day to July 21, the president averaged at least one verifiable public lie for every three days he served in office. His rate dropped to one every 7.5 days from July 21 until Monday, according to statistics compiled by PolitiFact and The New York Times. The drop in the second half of the year could be attributable to John Kellys arrival as chief of staff. The retired general came to the job intent on limiting the presidents access to rumors, innuendo and unverifiable reports from pseudo-news sources.

Kelly got rid of senior aides known to be feeding Trump blatantly false information. But the truth wars continue unabated. Sanders critique Monday referred to erroneous reports that were corrected, sometimes with apologies and disciplinary action, by the news organizations that published or broadcast them. Trump doesnt apologize or correct his factual errors.

When the news media calls him out, he typically labels the truth-tellers as fake news.

Sanders has little patience for reporters who ask the White House to correct the record. A typical response was her June 8 retort about suggestions by former FBI Director James Comey that the president had lied to him: I can definitively say the president is not a liar. I think its, frankly, insulting that that question would be asked.

Sanders and her predecessor, Sean Spicer, also have wiggled out of tough questions by responding that the president has been very clear on whatever the issue is, so its time to move on. Sanders is renowned for rolling her eyes and saying, I think I just answered that, even when shes done no such thing.

This is how the White House avoids addressing its most uncomfortable truths  that the president cannot be trusted to be honest, whether its the size of attendance at his inauguration or the video he retweeted of a supposed Muslim migrant beating up a Dutch boy (the attacker was neither a Muslim nor a migrant).

These are not honest mistakes. A White House that distributes false information and refuses to correct the record has no business pointing the finger at professionals dedicated to the truth.
Q: WWE wrestlers are displaying the Bible verse John 3:16. Can you print what that verse is?

A: Here it is from the New International Version: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Q: Is it true the Irish band Rend Collective will be at Irish Fest next year?

A: It looks as if the festival is still working on the lineup for 2018, and the band doesnt have it listed on its website either.

Q: At the Hawkeye Community College farm there is a cow with a bulls eye painted on the side of it. What is the reason for the bulls eye?

A: The caller might be referring to a fistulated steer at the farm. The animal was operated on in March. That involved making a 4-inch diameter incision into his side and then removing that portion of the skin and flesh, called a fistula. A rubber flange, or cannula, that fits around the incision, was installed after the surgery. The hole was then plugged with a big stopper that can be removed. The opening is in the steers stomach.

Q: Im a fan of the roundabouts in Cedar Falls. I thought the reasons they were being put in was for safety and would eliminate T-bone type accidents, but now I see there are several left turn lanes by College Square Mall. Are these an invitation for side impact accidents? Can someone with the city comment on this?

A: Cedar Falls Community Development Director Stephanie Houk Sheetz replies: As a part of the corridor planning, the city balanced the safety of major intersections with the access requests of businesses along University Avenue. There are several three-quarter access points (a left turn only) for business access. Restricting the movement to one type of turn only, helps to decrease the potential for an accident.

Q: In a Courier obituary in the preceded in death by section isnt it redundant to list that a 96-year-old person, who recently died, was preceded in death by their parents? Ive also seen it listed this way in other papers.

A: It was precisely for that reason that we used to have a rule that we would include parents in that section only for people younger than 65. But so many people complained and told us it was inaccurate and disrespectful, we changed our policy on it several years ago.

Q: Can the police legally hail someones vehicle down to take it to chase someone?

A: According to Capt. Dave Mohlis with the Waterloo Police Department, Legally, yes, but it is not an accepted practice by most law enforcement agencies. The last time this occurred in Waterloo was back in the mid-1970s.

Q: On Fixer Upper on HGTV do all the furnishings they put in the house to show it stay in the house after the new owners take over the property?

A: No, according to interviews done with homeowners whove been on the show, although they are free to buy any pieces they want to keep if they have any money left.
Kentucky will try to keep top-ranked Georgia from a perfect SEC finish
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.
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)
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.
Dec 20, 2017

Silicon Valley-based Carbon, a start-up that makes super fast 3D printers for manufacturing and design, today announced the first closing in a total raise of $200 million in Series D funding.

The funding is supported by a unique mix of investors that directly align with the strategic direction of the company: global financial institutions Baillie Gifford (Scotland), Fidelity Management & Research Company (U.S.), and ARCHINA Capital (HK); strategic industry partners Hydra Ventures (the corporate venturing arm of adidas), GE Ventures, and JSR Corporation; and Emerson Elemental (the environmental practice of Emerson Collective). The funding is also supported by current investors including Sequoia Capital, Silver Lake Kraftwerk, and Reinet Investments. Other investors are expected to be disclosed in early 2018.

Carbon intends to use the funds to fast-track its global expansion plans and product roadmap, and will double down on its deep commitment to enabling customers to move to real-world, mass digital production at scale.

The age of digital 3D Manufacturing is here, and this funding  with this incredible group of global financial investors, customers, and partners  validates our vision to fundamentally change how the world designs, engineers, makes and delivers products, said Dr. Joseph DeSimone, Carbons CEO and co-founder.

This funding will help us realize new classes of workers and business models, where product design and engineering is facilitated by cloud-based computing and a wide range of scanning, sensor, and simulation technologies that enable the creation of perfectly tuned  even personalized  products that have been previously impossible to produce.

Founded in 2013, Carbon's novel approach combines connected, data-centric hardware with over-the-air software updates and innovative materials, enabling creators to make finished products in less time and without as much waste. It allows users design and produce previously unmakeable products, both economically and at mass scale.

We were inspired by Carbons commitment to innovating environmentally sustainable supply chains, dematerializing and minimizing waste streams, while scaling engines of additive manufacturing that can support economic growth in communities everywhere, said Andy Karsner, Managing Partner of Emerson Elemental. We see the potential to enable a new class of workers and tools for 21st century opportunities that strengthen our communities and the environment.

We believe Carbons digital light synthesis technology will play a crucial role in transforming manufacturing in multiple industrial sectors, especially in Japan and the Asia Pacific region more generally," said Nobu Koshiba, President of JSR Corporation.

Posted in 3D Printer

Maybe you also like:












Mary Wakefield in The Spectator:

Ten years ago, I had a strange debate about faith with a famous Jesuit and an agnostic psychoanalyst in a monastery on a cliff-top in Syria. At the time I thought Id made some valuable additions to the discussion. The notes I took then record my own contributions with horrible precision. Looking back on it, I was just an observer. The main players were Father Paolo DallOglio, an Italian priest whod made his life in the Middle East, and Bernard S., a highly regarded Jungian analyst: neat, Swiss, troubled. The scene of this chat was Deir Mar Musa, a 6th-century monastery that Fr Paolo had restored, perched high on a ridge in the foothills of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains. Mar Musa had been abandoned since the 9th century, but thanks to Paolos charm and drive not only was it rebuilt, but there was once again a community living there: young Christians devoted to what they called dialogue with Islam. There were also dorm rooms for tourists such as Bernard and me. Id done Damascus and wanted to feel intrepid. It was morning. The sky was pinkish and the desert below the clifftop, a soft mouse-brown. Fr Paolo was sitting at the communal breakfast table eating bread and yoghurt. Big man. Big head. Grey habit, say my notes. I remember wishing there were eggs. Sitting opposite him was Bernard, slightly older, in his early sixties and with the agitated air of a man whod been carrying a question a long time. He got straight to the point.

How can an intelligent man like you, Fr Paolo, believe in the truth of Christianity? he asked. I understand its symbolic importance, but Ive studied the early Church and I know how much Christianity took from Hellenism and the other resurrection myths. So while I believe in the historical Jesus how do you have actual faith? Bernard S. was very distinctive-looking. Great furrows ran from points along his hairline and converged in a crease between his eyes, as if each separate anxiety had marked its own progress across his head. Paolos answer was the only answer a believer can really give. You take a leap and the light comes on. Ask and you shall receive. All I know is my own experience, he said. I learnt about Jesus Christ, I walked with him and, as I got to know him, I discovered his divinity  and he became the means for me to express my own divinity.

More here.
Sune Engel Rasmussen in The Guardian:

Mohsin Hamid is depressed. The novelist, twice nominated for the Man Booker prize, has seen the three places he calls home  Pakistan, America and Europe  betray their fundamental ideals and become increasingly unwelcoming.

In Pakistan, where he was born, the elected government caved in to a mob of extremist protesters by sacking a minister they accused, essentially, of being a bad Muslim. In a country created as a homeland for south Asias Muslims, the fight over who fits that bill means hardly anyone is safe from unfounded accusations of blasphemy. Students have been lynched arbitrarily and, in 2011, the governor, Salman Taseer, was shot for criticising the blasphemy laws. To Hamid, the stunning capitulation to the mob signals the breakdown of an uneasy coexistence between the government, the military and the courts, allowing raw power to rule.

These are incredibly disheartening times. I feel more depressed than I have in a long time about the political direction of Pakistan, says Hamid at his home in Lahore, where he now lives with his wife and two children. Since Pakistan was founded in 1947, there has been a conflict between the notion that citizens are equal, and that certain people can ascribe to themselves the right to decide who is Muslim, he says. The question is: who is Muslim enough? And 70 years after creation, the answer is that nobody is Muslim enough.

But Pakistan is not alone in narrowing definitions of who belongs. Hamid thinks western countries that tout principles of equality fail one group in particular: migrants.

More here.
From Scientific American:

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is typically tasked with conducting critical science, and its myriad jobs include trying to prevent Zika-related birth defects and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases among transgender women. But when the CDC makes its case for 2018 budget funds, it should not use seven specific words: evidence-based, science-based, vulnerable, fetus, transgender, diversity or entitlement, according to the Trump administration. The news, broken by The Washington Post, sent tremors through the public health and policy communities. Are you kidding me?!?! tweeted Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon. This. Is. Unacceptable, wrote the American Public Health Association. The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, did not immediately respond to Scientific Americans request for comment. How much does it really matter if a government agency avoids certain language in documents sent to Congress, the Office of Management and Budget and other agencies? Perhaps a great deal. Scientific American spoke with Lera Boroditsky, a cognitive scientist at the University of California, San Diego, about the significance of this recent news, why words matter and how language changes our perceptions of the world.


Completion of Odotech transaction

Sydney, Dec 20, 2017 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Envirosuite Limited ( ASX:EVS ) ("the Company") is pleased to advise that, further to the ASX announcement released 8 December 2017, the Superior Court of Canada has now approved the transaction for the Company to acquire the assets of Odotech Inc from the Trustee in accordance with the asset purchase agreement.



A company presentation detailing the transaction will be released to the ASX on 21 December 2017.





About EnviroSuite Limited





EnviroSuite Limited (ASX:EVS) (FRA:57P) is an environmental management technology company that has developed a leading Software-as-Service platform which translates data into action in real-time.

Using proprietary algorithms built on more than 30 years of environmental consulting experience, Envirosuite's platform provides a range of environmental monitoring, management and investigative capabilities.

Envirosuite's platform is used worldwide by a range of clients in the mining, oil refining, transportation and water management industries and by governments looking to regulate industry in accordance with community well-being.

To learn more, please visit: https://www.envirosuite.com


Research Report by Independent Investment Research

Brisbane, Dec 20, 2017 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Sayona Mining Limited ( ASX:SYA ) ( DMNXF:OTCMKTS ) ("Sayona" or the "Company") is pleased to advise that Independent Investment Research ("IIR") has a released an updated research report on the Company titled "Solid Progress On All Fronts - Update December 2017". The Company commissioned IIR to write this research report. IIR is an independent investment research house based in Australia and the United States.



To view the report, please visit:

http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/8Q83BZ8I





About Sayona Mining Limited





Sayona Mining Limited (ASX:SYA) (OTCMKTS:SYAXF) is an Australian, ASX-listed (SYA) company focused on sourcing and developing the raw materials required to construct lithium-ion batteries for use in the rapidly growing new and green technology sectors. The Company has lithium projects in Quebec, Canada and in Western Australia.

Please visit us as at www.sayonamining.com.au
Game-changing agreement encompasses Artificial Intelligence, 1.1bn user Database of and industry-leading Publishing Platform



BIG Partnership with Zeta Global

Sydney, Dec 20, 2017 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Big Un Limited ( ASX:BIG ) (or 'the Company') is pleased to announce that it has agreed to a strategic marketing partnership arrangement with US-based Zeta Global (Zeta). Named one of the 50 Most Promising Private Companies in America in 2014 by Forbes, Zeta is recognized as a market leader in data analytics, marketing database management and channel market automation technology and has a database of more than 1.1bn individuals. The partnership arrangement encompasses the use of Zeta's Marketing Cloud to enable acquiring new BIG clients, driving users to BIG properties and the sharing of signal data in key verticals including travel & hospitality and health & beauty. The partnership also provides BIG with the use of exclusive Artificial Intelligence models across all three pillars of BIG's business model covering B2B2C. As part of the agreement, BIG will take control of a beauty publishing platform for a nominal fee (US$1) in exchange for a data sharing arrangement.



Zeta Global



Founded by David A. Steinberg and John Sculley (former CEO of Apple Computer and Pepsi-Cola) in 2007, Zeta is a data-driven marketing technology innovator whose SaaS-based Marketing Cloud and People-based Data Cloud helps 500+ Fortune 1000 and Middle Market brands acquire, retain and grow customer relationships. The Company's highly-rated ZetaHub technology platform has been recognized in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Digital Marketing Hubs (February 2017) and in its Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Campaign Management (April 2017) competing with offerings from Oracle, IBM, Salesforce and Adobe. Operating on four continents with more than 1,300 employees, the company is headquartered in New York City, with Centers of Excellence in Silicon Valley, Boston, London, and Hyderabad, India.



Zeta recently raised $140m series F funding through GPI Capital and Blackstone's GSO Capital. Last week, Zeta announced the successful acquisition of Disqus, a global publishing platform that powers more than 4 million global publishers who host more than 2 billion visitors per month. Co-founder John Sculley recently gave an overview via Cheddar.com on how he sees the digital advertising landscape changing and how he feels Zeta is now uniquely positioned to challenge Google and Facebook.



Partnership Details



Regarding the partnership with BIG, David Steinberg, Zeta's CEO, said "Zeta's goal is to help marketers acquire more customers, keep the ones they have for longer and grow their value. Zeta typically works with enterprises directly, but we also have partnerships with top tier organisations like BIG that have unique assets & capabilities that are complementary to ours." Steinberg added, "I am so impressed with the BIG platform, its exceptional management team and of course, their video content. We believe this exclusive marketing arrangement will be mutually beneficial to the companies and our stakeholders."



As part of the partnership arrangement, BIG will take control of Youbeauty.com for US$1. BIG already has a strong B2B hair and beauty publishing presence in Australia following its acquisition of BHA Media Ltd earlier this year. Youbeauty.com has a database of more than 1m global consumers and receives around 140,000 unique visits per month. Inclusion of Youbeauty.com into the BIG publishing stable completes BIG's B2B2C video marketing offering positioning the Company to potentially dominate the digital video sector for beauty and lifestyle.



Artificial Intelligence (AI)



In July of this year, Zeta Global acquired Boomtrain for approximately US$40m. Boomtrain is a machine-learning centric marketing platform that is able to apply Artificial Intelligence (AI) in order to utilise and deliver appropriate video marketing content to consumers on behalf of advertisers. When combined with access to BIG's 150TB video content library, BIG will be able to offer its SME and advertising/sponsorship clients disruptive video marketing benefits. The paring of Zeta's global data base with state of the art AI and BIG's large SME video content library and Autogen technology will allow BIG to market "never seen before" video technology marketing services.



Strategic Benefits



The Company has leveraged its first mover advantage and achieved a strong presence in Australia by successfully capitalizing on both organic demand for video and through its aggregation and acquisition strategies. Partnering with Zeta Global provides strong strategic benefits that include:



- The pairing of Zeta's strong front end digital marketing capabilities with BIG's unique front end video content marketing



- The ability to offer the above pairing of services to an audience of 1.1bn



- Strong US presence and digital marketing support



- Reduction in the cost of SME acquisition (pillar one)



- Significant advertising and sponsorship opportunities (pillar two)



- Speed of on boarding large volumes of BIG platform and mobile app users (pillar three)



Outlook



US Partnership To Boost Expansion



The Company's global expansion strategy focuses on identifying and securing strong strategic partnerships. BIG's management team anticipate accelerated US market penetration and brand recognition provided by its strategic partnership with Zeta Global over the next 12 months. Further updates relating to Zeta Global will be provided in January 2018.



Richard Evertz CEO of Big Un Limited says "We have established the worlds first social media video review platform. Our unique business model although still in its infancy, is gaining strong traction in Australia and the US. Obviously, the US represents a huge market opportunity for BIG however, the challenge of engaging SME's and consumers en masse is no small task. I am therefore incredibly excited by the transformative nature of this agreement. Zeta, its management team, its global capabilities and digital marketing muscle place it in a league of its own. This partnership completes a momentous 2017 for BIG and we are honored that Mr.Steinberg and his team have identified and acknowledged the true global potential of BIG by partnering with us. We are extremely confident that we will on board over 50k SME's in the calendar year 2018 through this partnership alone".



ABOUT ZETA GLOBAL



Zeta is a data-driven marketing technology company that helps brands acquire more customers, keep the ones they have for longer and grow their value. Zeta creates personalized customer experiences by leveraging first party data, artificial intelligence and award-winning technology that drive better outcomes for marketers. Founded by David A. Steinberg and John Sculley (former CEO of Apple Computer and Pepsi-Cola) in 2007, Zeta has more than 1,300 professionals operating out of 25 offices across the globe. Zeta is headquartered in New York City, with Centers of Excellence in Silicon Valley, Boston, London, and Hyderabad, India. Zeta recently raised $140m series F funding through GPI Capital and Blackstone's GSO Capital.





About Big Un Ltd





Big Un Ltd (ASX:BIG) is the parent company of Big Review TV Ltd. Big Review TV are innovative disruptors in the online video space delivering subscription based video technology products and services. The Company has operations across Australia and in New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, Hong Kong, Singapore and Vancouver and was listed on the ASX in December 2014.


Acquires Two Leading European Customs Solutions Providers, ABM Data Systems (pan-Europe) and CustomsMatters (Ireland)

Sydney, Dec 20, 2017 AEST (ABN Newswire) - WiseTech Global ( ASX:WTC ) today announced two acquisitions of European customs solutions providers, both headquartered in Dublin. ABM Data Systems, a leading developer and provider of customs clearance solutions accredited for the UK, Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden and Germany, and CustomsMatters, the leading customs solution provider in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.



ABM Data provides advanced solutions across customs clearance, bonded warehouse and point of delivery management. ABM Data customers include Expeditors, UPS, DSV, Yusen, JAS, Tigers, Heavey RF, and many other exporters, customs brokers, freight forwarders, distributors and logistics service providers.



CustomsMatters provides e-customs solutions through its cloud-hosted customs compliance platform, myCustoms, and customs brokerage and consulting services to customers including DHL, UPS, OAG Cargo, SwissPort, WFS, Aramex, Sisk Healthcare, G&J Distillers, Dairygold, Geodis and many other organisations and logistics providers.



WiseTech Global CEO, Richard White, said "With the potential for increased complexity as Brexit and EU trade changes evolve, WiseTech's ability to provide deeply integrated customs clearance solutions ultimately reduces risk and costs while improving productivity, security and compliance at the borders. Together, these transactions provide WiseTech with market leadership and execution ability across Ireland and further insights into European customs - a key foundation for the challenges ahead. Regardless of 'hard borders', or how 'frictionless trade' plays out, our speed to market for automated and integrated customs solutions and highly scalable capacity will ensure we can help logistics providers across Europe meet the regulatory challenges and exponential volume growth to come."



"Customs clearance management needs rich software, effective integration and a deep understanding of regulatory requirements to enable on-time, on-budget, accurate compliance. As volumes, complexity and compliance requirements increase across the global supply chain, effective customs clearance solutions that can ease the burden on logistics providers, mitigate risk and boost productivity, become critical. Our continued expansion of our European footprint, by adding customs market leadership in Ireland and broader pan-European capability, will, over time, substantially increase productivity for all our customers.



"We have worked with the ABM Data team for years and now is the right time to bring them into the WiseTech Global family. Their technology capability, deep pan-European customs knowledge and agile product development team will be applied to our Universal Customs Engine to accelerate and facilitate rapid customs localisations and next-generation development."



ABM Data Managing Director, Stewart Bourke, said, "We have a shared vision with WiseTech for a deeply integrated global customs solution, and by joining the WiseTech group, we can leverage the global strength and powerful innovation capability of WiseTech, to accelerate development opportunities across Europe. ABM Data and WiseTech Global will together focus on delivering significant and far-reaching improvements in customs declarations management and cross-border compliance."



WiseTech Global CEO, Richard White, said, "Customs clearance is a complex process with growing transaction volumes, rapidly changing legal requirements, and significant potential penalties. With CustomsMatters' deep historical experience in Ireland and the UK, and their award-winning customs management solutions, we are looking forward to working together with both EU and the UK authorities to enable our customers in the region to effectively manage cross-border operations during and after Brexit."



CustomsMatters Managing Director, Stephen Tracey, said, "Becoming part of the WiseTech Global group with its vision and extensive reach across the global supply chain is an exciting step forward for CustomsMatters. We will be able to develop more powerful, integrated and automated functionality for our customers. With CargoWise One's significant customs capabilities our brokerage and compliance team will be able enhance our service offering in Ireland and elsewhere."



Remaining under the leadership of respective Managing Directors, Stewart Bourke and Stephen Tracey, the operations of both ABM Data and CustomsMatters will be integrated within the WiseTech Global group and each business will continue to deliver their customs management solutions directly to their customers, along with WiseTech's powerful global logistics platform, CargoWise One.



WiseTech's global integrated platform, CargoWise One, enables logistics service providers to execute highly complex transactions in areas such as freight forwarding, customs clearance, warehousing, shipping, land transport and cross-border compliance and to manage their operations on one database across multiple users, functions, countries, languages and currencies.



Along with our recent acquisitions in Australia, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Taiwan, North America and the Netherlands, the addition of ABM Data and CustomsMatters to the WiseTech Global group is in line with WiseTech's stated strategy of accelerating long-term organic growth through targeted, valuable acquisitions across new geographies and larger, globally capable adjacencies.



About ABM Data Systems (ABM Data)



Founded in 2006, ABM Data is a leading provider of innovative automated customs and brokerage solutions. Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, with a team of 20 people, ABM Data develop and provides customs declaration management and related international trade software solutions. ABM Data has deep experience managing the implementation of large-scale European customs and logistics system integration projects.



ABM Data's product lines are CustomsWare and TransportForce. Their pioneering on-demand customs clearance solution, CustomsWare, is accredited for all customs regimes in Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, UK, Switzerland, Sweden and Germany, and includes solutions for bonded warehousing, delivery management and web-services. TransportForce offers a fully integrated web-based ePOD and tracking system including full EDI support.



For more information about ABM Data Systems visit http://www.ABMDataSystems.com



About CustomsMatters



Founded in 1988, CustomsMatters is a leading provider of innovative automated customs and brokerage solutions in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the UK. Headquartered in Dublin, with a team of 7 experienced customs and technical professionals, CustomsMatters provides customs clearance solutions for hundreds of customers, from small businesses to multinational companies including DHL, UPS, OAG Cargo, SwissPort, WFS, Aramex, Sisk Healthcare, G&J Distillers, Dairygold, Geodis, ATA Tools and many other organisations and logistics providers.



CustomsMatters achieved Authorised Economic Operator status in 2009, which is recognised as the 'gold standard' for companies involved in international trade and is recognised throughout all 28 member states of the EC.



For more information about CustomsMatters visit http://www.customsmatters.com





About WiseTech Global Ltd





WiseTech Global Ltd (ASX:WTC) is a leading developer and provider of software solutions to the logistics execution industry globally. Our customers include over 17,000 of the world's logistics companies across 160 countries, including 41 of the top 50 global thirdparty logistics providers and all of the 25 largest global freight forwarders worldwide2. Our flagship platform, CargoWise, forms an integral link in the global supply chain and executes over 50 billion data transactions annually.

At WiseTech, we are relentless about innovation, adding over 4,000 product enhancements to our global platform in the past five years while bringing meaningful continual improvement to the world's supply chains. Our breakthrough software solutions are renowned for their powerful productivity, extensive functionality, comprehensive integration, deep compliance capabilities, and truly global reach.

For more information about WiseTech Global or CargoWise, please visit wisetechglobal.com and cargowise.com
The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has asked theatre owners in Maharashtra to give equal space to Marathi film Deva Ek Atrangee, the release of which is coinciding with superstar Salman Khans Tiger Zinda Hai.

The Raj Thackeray-led party said the producers of the Marathi film are not getting theatres to screen their movie as Tiger Zinda Hai is releasing on the same date  December 22.

In a letter to the theatre owners, Amey Khopkar, the president of MNS Chitrapat Sena, on Tuesday warned them of using special language if they fail to comply.

If you dont understand this language then we will have to use our special language to make you understand, he wrote.

Tiger Zinda Hai is produced by Yash Raj Films and stars Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif in the lead roles.

Deva Ek Atrangee is directed by Murali Nallappa and features Ankush Chaudhari, Tejaswini Pandit and Spruha Joshi.

You have probably forgotten that you are running a cinema theatre in the land of Maharashtra. We are compelled to write to you to remind that our sentiments have been hurt, Kopkar said.

He also said that the producers of Deva are trying to exhibit the film but they are being repeatedly told that no theatres are available as Tiger Zinda Hai is releasing on the same date.

Using their name and influence, the producers have captured all the theatres. What will the other filmmakers do? Where will they go? If the Hindi filmmakers do such monopoly, what will the Marathi filmmakers do? Will other states tolerate such dadagiri'(hooliganism)? he asked in the letter.

It is our duty to give rights to Marathi films and for that we shall do whatever it takes. Just because we are patient and understanding, doesnt mean we are weak. Believe in live and let live, Khopkar further said.
James Annamalai has termed the allegations made by Chetan Rajhans, spokesperson of Sanatan Sanstha, pertaining to the receipt of threat letter received by the outfits ashram in Ponda, Goa as baseless. Chetan had alleged that James had sent the letter to Sanatan Sanstha and it contains his name, mobile number and signature. On the other hand, James said that his name and mobile number was being misused and conspiracy has been hatched to defame him. James added that his mobile number has been misused by several persons. Defending himself James added that just because his name, contact details and signature appears in the letter, that doesnt mean that the letter is written and sent by him. He said that the accused has forged his signature.

James Annamalai expressed, Can anybody write a letter to any organisation giving false statement mentioning mobile number and signature? Why should I write a letter to some organisation? If somebody writes a letter mentioning my name and mobile number, that doesnt mean I have written it. My mobile number and signature was used by one of my associate before who was working in the finance department. My name and mobile number has been misused several times. All police stations of Bengaluru have my mobile number.

When AV asked why he didnt change his mobile number, James replied, Why should I change my number as I have been using this number since last 20 years. Sujith Gidwani has written to BJP president in Karnataka that I am converting Hindus to Christianity. He is making false allegations against me.
After 17 years, a city court finally sentenced Suhaib Ilyasi, a former TV producer, to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife. Ilyasi, was a television presenter of once popular criminal hunt show Indias Most Wanted, was earlier convicted by the Karkardooma Court in connection with the death of his wife, Anju Ilyasi, way back in the year 2000. Suhaib was found guilty on the charge of murder under the Indian Penal Code. Ilyasis mother-in-law Rukma Singh had sought inclusion of the additional charge of murder against him for her daughters death on January 11, 2000. Section 302 of Indian Penal Code entails death penalty as the maximum punishment. Ilyasi was earlier charged under milder sections 304B (dowry death) of IPC and had moved the court against a decision of the police to form a fresh medical panel to ascertain the nature of his wifes death. He had alleged that the formation of the medical board was illegal as it was being done after filing the chargesheet and framing of charges for the offence of dowry death.

His was a love marriage; both families were opposed to the relation; however, they got married in London in the year 1993 under the Special Marriage Act. They also had a nikah and Anju took the name Afsan. They lived in London until October 1994. Upon returning to India, Anju refused to live in Ilyasis house and returned to London after 6 months to her brother. Her brother Prashant, who was working in London at the time, later said that Anju was considering divorce at the time, but he convinced her to stay in the marriage. In April 1994, Ilyasi came to London, the couple reconciled and they returned to India after a month. The next year their daughter Aaliya was born.

During their stay in London, they had arrived at the idea of a television show, similar to the British show Crime Stoppers, which they named Indias Most Wanted. Initially, Anju was the anchor in the television pilots, but by the time the show went on air on Zee TV in March 1998, Ilyasi had become the anchor. Around this, Anju left again and went to her sister in Canada. Indias Most Wanted was initially planned for 52 episodes but Zee TV renewed it. Later Ilyasi moved the show to Doordarshan under the name Fugitive Most Wanted. Zee TV, which owned the copyright, continued to produce Indias Most Wanted and Manoj Raghuvanshi became the host. Ilyasi went to Canada in October 1998 to persuade her to return. IIyasi converted his software firm Aaliya Productions, into a private limited company and put 25 per cent shares in Anjus name.

Anju returned in February 1999. They bought a new apartment at the same time in Mayur Vihar, in east Delhi, for Rs 1,500,000 and spent 10 months redecorating it. They moved into the house in December 1999. They planned to celebrate Anjus 30th birthday on January 16 with a grand party. On January 10, 2000, Ilyasi called two police constables who were guarding his house at 11:15 pm; he told them that his wife had stabbed herself and asked them to call an ambulance. The policemen were there because Ilyasi had claimed that he was getting death threats from the underworld due to his show. Anju was taken to a nearby nursing home and later to the AIIMS, New Delhi, where she was declared dead on arrival. Anju Ilyasi had died from excessive bleeding from wounds, which were described as self-inflicted in the initial forensic report, ruling out murder.

The Central Forensic Science Laboratory report said that six fingerprint characters were found but 13 were required to match it to a person. Both the stab wounds were downwards and backwards, left to right on the accessible parts of the abdomen. There was no tearing on the T-shirt she was wearing. Ilyasi claimed that they had having an argument recently. He was playing with his child in another room, when Anju picked up an imported butchers knife and stabbed herself. Anjus mother was in Canada at the time of death. Anju had visited her father hours before her death. Ilyasi moved into his in-laws residence ostensibly to help them with the grief. On January 17, police filed the case as a suicide.

Now after many years, Ilyasi got life imprisonment by the Delhi Court. On February 15, 2000, his wifes sister Rashmi Singh, who ran a Montessori school, arrived from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. After month, Rashmi filed a police complaint saying that Anju was tortured for dowry and she was driven to suicide. On March 28, Ilyasi was arrested and charged with dowry death, mental harassment and destroying evidence. On March 30, the shows scheduled episode did appear on the Doordarshan channel. Following the arrest, some of Anjus family also changed sides. Rashmi and her mother Rukma quarrelled with their family and moved into a relatives house. Rashmi claimed that Anju had an unhappy marriage for seven years. In 1997, during a visit, she saw Ilyasi assaulting Anju. She said that the apartment in which they were living was purchased with money provided by her. She also said that she had purchased the apartment for Anjus safety, but later retracted the statement. On April 14, Rashmi Singh gave an undertaking to the Delhi High Court that she wouldnt take the child Aaliya without the courts permission. The court also asked her not to take the child outside Delhi. The petition had filed by Ilyasis parents that Rashmi might take the child to Canada. Then, Aaliya was two-and-a-half years old. On June 2, 2000, Ilyasi was granted bail by the Delhi High Court on a personal bail bond of Rs 200,000 and two sureties of the same amount. He was asked to submit his passport, not moved out of Delhi without permission, and not threaten the witness or tamper with evidence. On May 29, 2001, the Delhi High Court allowed Ilyasi to travel outside Delhi. He had sought permission to go to Mumbai for work. The court said he might do so after informing the police of his plans two days in advance.

Meanwhile, the doctor who carried out the post mortem did not deny the possibility of homicide. Sharma also told the court that even though Ilyasi claimed to snatch the knife away from Anju, neither his nor Anjus fingerprints were found on the knife. Ilyasi argued that the doctor cannot be relied upon because he was later transferred from the mortuary department after allegation of unprofessional work. The sessions court rejected the plea for additional murder charges in February 2011 after finding no new material in the case. In an interview in 2012, Ilyasi said that the murder charges were being sought to take custody of his daughter, then 15. Anyways, the truth is yet not clear, and question still remains who killed Anju Ilyasi?

(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@afternoonvoice.com)
Latte Da held a Grand Opening and Open House to show off their new business to Akron last Friday, December 8. Though they have been open since May 2, they wanted to wait until the Christmas season to hold this celebration. Owners Kirk and Diane Wells have worked hard to make this a successful business and the residents of Akron appreciate all their hard work and the good products they offer. The Akron Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon cutting to officially welcome them into the community. Shown above, from left to right, are: Lori Baer, Town of Akron; Julie Strand, TBK Bank; Susan Watson, Bank of Colorado; Diane and Kirk Wells, owners of Latte Da; and Susan Gunnels, Farmer State Bank. The Chamber would like to welcome Latte Da into our community and wishes you well on your new enterprise.
The Washington County Board of Commissioners, Terry Hart, Leland Willeke, Lea Ann Laybourn, Social Services Director, Rick Agan, and Road and Bridge Supervisors, Jason Lockard and Steve Williams attended the CCI (Colorado Counties Inc) Annual Winter Conference in Colorado Springs November 27-29. The special guests to speak at the CCI Eastern District Meeting were Clarke Becker from Workforce, Sally Clark representing Colorado USDA Rural Development and Greg Etl from DOLA.

The county commissioners were also asked to give updates on their successes and challenges. A public hearing for the 2018 budget is scheduled for Tuesday, December 12, 2017 at 10:00 a.m. in the old courtroom at the courthouse. CSU will host Pesticide Application Training for commercial and private applicants in Akron on Thursday, February 22, 2018. Location TBA. Washington County Employment Agreements are being reviewed by personnel and commissioners.

The commissioners have received letters of intent to fill vacancies on our various county boards. The commissioners will host a Holiday Employee Appreciation on Tuesday, December 19, 2017 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the commissioners office.

The Board of Commissioners has exhausted all options in negotiations to secure management of our rural healthcare clinic. In all efforts to meet with CEOs from distinguished hospitals, bottom line is those hospitals cant afford to send nurse practitioners or doctors from their clinics 4-5 days weekly to support our clinic and theirs. The good news is Yuma District Hospital is in the final process of negotiating and credentialing a contract for Dr. Robert Fillion to practice at the Akron Clinic. Dr. Fillions passion for his existing patients remains obvious and clear and desires to practice in Akron. The commissioners goal is to continue to have access to healthcare in our town and county.
For the third year in a row, Birmingham has been named one of America's top food cities by the national restaurant guide Zagat.com.

The Magic City is No. 24 on Zagat's latest list of the 30 Most Exciting Food Cities in America 2017.

Last year, Birmingham was No. 14 on Zagat's list of the 26 Hottest Food Cities of 2016.

Also, in 2015, Zagat ranked Birmingham No. 1 on its list of America's Next Hot Food Cities.

Here's what Zagat's Abigail Abesamis wrote about the Birmingham restaurant scene this year:

All eyes are on The Magic City, especially after Food & Wine Magazine relocated much of its staff to Birmingham earlier this year. It's delivering with a wave of globally focused eateries like the popular Pizitz Food Hall with stalls representing cuisines from Ethiopia, Asia, the Middle East and more, plus Fero, an Italian restaurant from lauded NYC chef Akhtar Nawab (Alta Calidad). Favorite local sushi chef Abhi Sainju opened his first solo concept, Abhi, and hip EastWest serves modern Asian fusion.

Birmingham continues its legacy of Southern cooking and fine dining establishments like chef Frank Stitt's Highlands Bar and Grill (James Beard finalist) with top-notch farm-to-table concepts like Roots & Revelry from chef Brandon Cain (Saw's Soul Kitchen, Post Office Pies) and Root to Tail from chef and Food Network host Ben Vaughn.

On the sweets front, Big Spoon Creamery, a small-batch ice cream concept from two Bottega vets, opened a storefront, and hit pop-up Hero Doughnuts found a permanent home in Homewood.

Other Southern cities on Zagat's 2017 list include Asheville, N.C. (30); Lexington, Ky. (26); Richmond, Va. (25); Nashville (20); Miami (19); Dallas/Fort Worth (16); Houston (13); Raleigh, N.C. (12); Atlanta (9); New Orleans (8); Charleston, S.C. (7); and Austin, Texas (2).

Los Angeles is No. 1 on the list.

To see the complete list of the 30 Most Exciting Food Cities in America 2017, go here.
Former Alabama state superintendent Dr. Joseph Morton has taken an influential role in getting the department of education back on track after a tumultuous year, and that has some asking questions.

The questions arise from Morton's dual roles as president of the Business and Education Alliance of Alabama (BEA) and also as a paid consultant for the Alabama State Department of Education.

The BEA is a nonprofit organization created by the Business Council of Alabama (BCA) in 2013 with the mission of fostering connections between the business and education communities in Alabama to improve public education in Alabama. The BEA has produced a series of reports diving into education policy issues and making recommendations for improvements.

BCA has played a controversial role in education in recent years, championing both school choice and tax credit scholarships, both generally unpopular with educators in Alabama. As such, some educators have grown wary of BCA's involvement, and thus BEA's, in reform efforts.

BCA CEO president and CEO William Canary defended BEA's role in education reform efforts, saying BEA is "both pro-business and pro-education" and the organization "provides accurate and unbiased information to leaders in both the public and private sectors so they can better determine and implement the public policy that is best for our state."

Dr. Michael Sibley, Director of Communications at the Alabama State Department of Education, said Morton is being paid by the department as an "education consultant" with a salary of $1,989.90 twice monthly. His first paycheck was issued Nov. 15.

According to BEA's 2015 tax forms, the most recent available, Morton was paid $48,000 in his role as president and devoted 25 hours weekly to that position. Canary serves as secretary of the BEA's board and said via email that Morton serves as "a consultant not an employee."

Though not commenting specifically on whether Morton's dual roles raise any concerns, Ethics Commission Executive Director Tom Albritton said, "The best way to avoid the appearance of conflicts is to avoid dealing as a public employee or official with any issue that the outside observer would reasonably view as benefitting your personal interests."

Morton told AL.com in a written statement that the only reason questions are being asked about this connection is because he has been charged with issuing letter grades, A through F, for schools and systems. Resistance to publication of those report cards is strong, he said.

Morton said "resisters" to school report cards are setting up "smokescreens" in an effort to "attack and try to eliminate the person making the enacting of the Report Card law a reality." He said there are other educators who "view Report Cards as an avenue to demonstrate to their communities where they are on students successes and how they will improve."

Morton said when Richardson was appointed interim state superintendent in September after Michael Sentance resigned, "[Richardson] asked me to help him in several key areas: Improve and complete the federal required ESSA Plan, get Alabama started on a pathway to a high-quality student assessment, and make Alabama complaint with a 2012 law passed by the Legislature on Report Cards for schools, which some people have successfully delayed."

State board of education member Betty Peters, R-Kinsey, said Morton's current affiliation with BEA does raise concerns about his objectivity moving forward. "It makes me a little uncomfortable," she said. But, she said, Richardson's past service as chairman of the Alabama Public Charter School Commission raises the same concerns for her.

Morton served as state superintendent from 2004 until 2011 and was deputy state superintendent under now-interim and former state superintendent Dr. Ed Richardson from 1995 until 2004, when Morton was appointed to the top position.

Morton said he initially volunteered his time to help Richardson, but "after working one month with no pay or travel reimbursement, Dr. Richardson authorized I be paid," adding, "at best, it has turned out to be about a break-even arrangement."

"I do this work because I believe in what Dr. Richardson is trying to accomplish," Morton said, "and I believe in those educators who support positive changes in all of education and particularly K-12."

In education, the same players, including the BEA, A+ Education Partnership, Council for Leaders in Alabama Schools, School Superintendents of Alabama, Alabama Education Association, and the Alabama Association of School Boards, are always at the table when reforms are being considered.

A similar set-up exists in other policy areas, including health care, transportation, and infrastructure where the same advocacy groups and governmental agencies converge when change is proposed.

Still, some are now wondering what kind of influence the BEA, through Morton's role as Richardson's right-hand man, will wield.

Not weighing in on whether anything Morton has done could be considered improper, but generally speaking, Albritton said, "The appearance of impropriety is not itself a violation, but can nonetheless damage the public's confidence in their government."

Business and Education Alliance of Alabama 2015 tax form by Trisha Powell Crain on Scribd
The ruling BJPs narrow win in Gujarat shows that all is not lost for the opposition.

The narrow victory Indias ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured in the assembly elections in the western state of Gujarat and northern state of Himachal Pradesh has brought some relief to its leadership.

While both states gave the mandate to the BJP, it was the win in Gujarat that really mattered for the party. Gujarat, a long-time stronghold of the BJP, is the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who used to be chief minister there in the early 2000s. It is also the state that Modi promotes as a model of development.

Naturally, the victory was seen as a mark of approval for the Modi governments rule, especially the economic policies it has introduced since 2014

The BJP won 99 seats in the 182-member state house, crossing the 92 seat halfway mark required to rule. But this was in no way an easy or definitive victory for the party.

A closer look at the results also shows that there are signs of reinvigoration of the opposition Congress Party, and there are reasons for the BJP to worry about its positions in Gujarat.

Indigenous opposition in Gujarat

BJPs victory was predictable. The party is in control of the central government, so it had immense financial and organisational resources at its disposal. Also, immediately before the election, the partys fortunes were on the rise across India. It had very recently won elections in Uttar Pradesh, the largest state in India very convincingly.

Moreover, the BJP had successfully painted an image of Congress as a pro-Muslim and anti-Hindu party.

Yet not all was quiet and smooth in Gujarat. Before the elections, the state saw massive protests by traders against a new taxation regime introduced by the central government. There were reports of widespread resentment in rural areas and farmers were on a war path against the ruling party. Repeated atrocities against Dalits had shaken the conscience of the country, and the Dalits were out on the street, blaming the BJP for the violence.

As a result of these disturbances, the much-hailed Gujarat model came under scrutiny in the public arena, and some community leaders openly criticised it. For the first time since 2002, a space for a substantive discussion on the issues of education, health, farming, trading, small industries and land was created in Gujarat.

Public unrest also made space for new community leaders to emerge. Hardik Patel, a 24-year-old activist of the socially and politically dominant Patidar caste, which has been a traditional support base for the BJP, led an aggressive campaign against the government and Modi himself.

Similarly, Jignesh Mevani, a 35-year-old lawyer and former trade unionist, led a strong movement after the mob lynching of Dalits by members of the so-called upper castes. Alpesh Thakor, a 40-year-old leader from the upper-caste Kshatriya community, also mobilised people in opposition to the BJP.

The emergence of these three leaders was significant, as they were opposition voices coming from within Gujarat. Earlier efforts against the Gujarat government did not have strong local or indigenous voices to back them. Modi as State Minister succeeded in convincing the Hindus of Gujarat that opposition to him was actually an insult to them and Gujarat. But it seems that since hes moved from Gujarat to Delhi, other local party leaders were not as successful in controlling public opinion.

This is the context in which the recent assembly election was fought. Modis key policies, which have been severely criticised by opposition parties and economists as well, were being tested. The discontent in Gujarat was apparent.

An unequal battle

Rahul Gandhi was fighting an unequal battle with his back to the wall. But he negotiated with the local agitators and managed to bring them into the Congress platform. Thakor joined the party, Patel declared his support openly, and Congress Party supported Mevanis candidacy by allowing him to fight for a secure seat in the assembly that was held by the Congress Party since the last election. These moves changed the perception of Congress being an outsiders party with no local stakeholders.

Gandhi also framed his campaign in economic language, constantly talking about the distress of the farmers and the unemployed youth. He presented himself as a devout Hindu, thus deflecting BJP attempts to brand him an imposter and pseudo-Hindu. Gandhi also strategically refrained from talking about the atrocities and isolation faced by the minorities in Gujarat.

Gandhis success in making the Congress party a stronger contender in the Gujarat election made the BJP desperate and forced it to move further into its safe majoritarian platform. The whole central cabinet and entire party machinery were sent into the state to campaign. The winter session of parliament was delayed to allow Modi and his ministers to campaign in Gujarat.

Personally leading BJPs efforts in Gujarat, Modi used his time-tested formula of fearmongering against Muslims and Pakistan. He went as far as telling the electorate that there was a Pakistan-inspired conspiracy hatched by the former prime minister, former vice president and a senior Congress leader to interfere in the Gujarat elections.

A victory in defeat for Congress

The pollsters predicted an easy win for the ruling BJP, but the election results told a different story. The BJP failed to touch the three-digit mark, and Congress managed to enhance its tally considerably from the previous election.

Interestingly the Gujarati media, which is conventionally seen as pro-BJP, called this result a defeat in victory for the BJP and a victory in defeat for the Congress. The leader of the far-right Shiv Sena party in Gujarat, an ally of the BJP, has also classified this result as a moral defeat for the Modi-led BJP.

BJPs victory, of course, shows that Modi still holds significant sway in his home state and that anti-minority sentiments in Gujarat are still an effective political tool.

However, on the whole, the results are a much-needed breather for parliamentary democracy in India. Against all odds, the opposition has carved out a fighting space for itself. The Congress Party has managed to demonstrate that it is still in the reckoning. Its leader Rahul Gandhi has shaken off the image of a reluctant leader who ducks and shies away from a rough battle.

Modis image, despite the electoral win, has taken a severe blow in the eyes of the public and the media. This has opened up many possibilities for politics of India and the 2019 parliamentary election which till yesterday was seen as yet another easy win for the BJP. Suddenly, it now seems that the 2019 vote is open game.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
The past year was a watershed year for the Middle East and 2018 promises to continue on this path. Wars began to wind down across the region but challenges remain in managing conflict resolution. Next year will be defined by post-war transitions to peace talks, ballot boxes, and reconstruction. Two areas are the exception to this trend: Yemen is the only country that will start the new year without a roadmap to peace and territorial disputes along western Syria, from Idlib to Deraa, will continue next year.

Turmoil across the Middle East makes it harder to narrow down the main political issues that will dominate 2018. However, five of them should be watched in 2018 because of their regional and international impact.

1. Will Syrian refugees return home?

There are currently 5.4 million Syrian refugees registered with UNHCR, most notably in the neighbouring countries of Turkey (3.4 million), Lebanon (1.5 million) and Jordan (650,000). Syrian refugees began to return in small numbers in 2017, and that process might accelerate in 2018 as these countries are facing growing security and socioeconomic tensions. Jordan and Turkey have buffer zones on their border with Syria and will face fewer difficulties in enforcing this decision. However, in the case of Lebanon, the Syrian regime fully controls the border and the challenge is to overcome the Lebanese differences over engaging Damascus. The potential return of Syrian refugees could take precedence over the stalled Syrian peace talks and have a significant impact on reconstruction efforts and local governance.

2. Jerusalem and remaking regional alliances

Palestine is becoming once again a central issue in Arab politics as public pressure is compelling governments to take decisive actions and US recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital was the triggering point. As a result, Jerusalem will continue to play a key factor in reshaping Middle East politics in 2018. Ankara is drifting away further from Washington, Amman is taking distance from Riyadh, and Tehran is seizing the opportunity to rally allies. As no peace process is looming on the horizon, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will be weakened further and will have to heighten his rhetoric to match Hamas reaction. The US strategy to rally Saudi Arabia and Israel against Iran will also struggle, as Riyadh will be pressured to take the lead on the Palestinian issue if violence increased in the West Bank. Jerusalem will test old alliances and shape new ones as the Syrian war is winding down.

3. Shakeup in Riyadh: local politics drive foreign policy

The unpredictability of Mohammed bin Salman (known as MBS) in 2017 will most likely continue in 2018. Since ascending to power as deputy crown prince in 2015, MBS has been amassing powers. He pursued that objective with urgency this year, which had an effect across the Middle East. Saudi domestic politics have been guiding the countrys foreign policy and distracting from the turmoil at home. When former Crown Prince Mohamad bin Nayef was forced to resign in June, Saudi Arabia led the embargo against Qatar. When Saudi princes and businessmen were rounded up in the Ritz Carlton in November, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri was forced to resign during a trip to Riyadh. If MBS is more secure in ascending to power, Saudi foreign policy could revert to a rather conventional approach. However, uncertainty could risk escalating Riyadhs rhetoric abroad. Saudi Arabia, under MBS, is at a crossroads in 2018.

4. Going back to the ballot box: Iraq and Libya

The year 2018 will witness a return to the ballot box in key countries across the region. Egypts presidential elections next March and Lebanon parliamentary elections in May should have no surprises or major impact. However, Libyas presidential and parliamentary elections (tentatively scheduled for mid-2018) and Iraq parliamentary elections in May are consequential.

Iraqs Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who scored two recent political victories by defeating the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and aborting the Kurdish independence referendum, should secure a majority along with his allies. He is leading an anti-corruption campaign in the period leading to the elections, as pro-Iranian factions are coalescing to endorse former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Abadi staying in power would be the best chance for the US to contain Iran. The question is whether Tehran will flex its political muscles during the elections and purposely make Abadis victory difficult.

Libya is the major electoral unknown of 2018, as elections are not fully confirmed yet. We might witness an interesting face-off in the presidential race between the old guard, General Khalifa Haftar who served in the Libyan army before defecting and Saif al-Islam, the son of the former ruler of Libya Muammar Gaddafi. Haftar is favourite to win with the current chairman of the UN-backed Government of National Accord and Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj likely to keep his post. It remains to be seen whether the country is ready to secure and organise a nationwide election, and whether Libyan rivals can show restraint and overcome their distrust to work together.

5. Will ISIL make a comeback?

ISIL, as a central authority with geographical control, has been decimated but the threat it poses is far from being gone. The radical group is gradually converting into an underground operation that could continue launching attacks in Syria and Iraq or across the world. It remains to be seen whether the group will become an ally of al-Qaeda, or continue to act as a rival. If the lack of stability and reconciliation persists in Syria, Iraq or Libya, ISIL or other radical groups might once again exploit the political vacuum to gain strength.

While these five issues are expected to stand out in 2018, history has not always been kind to the Middle East nor to those who forecast politics. One thing is certain, unpredictability will mark political developments in 2018.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
China is likely to become the global post-American hegemon. And that might be bad news.

In less than a year in office, US President Donald Trump has managed to alienate more allies and provoke more enemies faster and more decisively than any of his predecessors in recent history. All of a sudden, we face the simultaneous threats of war from the Korean Peninsula to the Middle East.

Meanwhile, US chief rival, China, has steadily expanded its influence across the Asia-Pacific region and beyond, wooing both the East and the West with an enticing package of economic mega-initiatives, which seek to transform the world in Beijings image.

While Trump is picking fights with new and old adversaries, China is steadily expanding its spheres of influence. Day by day, its becoming increasingly clear that the world is on the cusp of a post-American order, if not a new era of Chinese hegemony. And neither outcome is necessarily a cause for celebration.

Chinas soft power coup

From Europe to Asia, friends and allies of the US have been watching Trumps tempestuous presidency in dread.

His midnight rants on Twitter, incoherent policy on major geopolitical flashpoints, penchant for firing senior advisers, apparent Islamophobia, and constant berating of free trade and the broader international liberal order have dramatically undermined confidence in US global leadership. And controversial decisions by his administration have been increasingly alienating US allies.

According to one survey covering 37 nations in five continents, confidence in the US presidency doing the right thing for the international community has virtually collapsed; as many as 74 percent of respondents expressed little to zero confidence in Trumps global leadership acumen.

In major allied nations such as Japan and South Korea, 78 and 88 percent of respondents said they had confidence in Barack Obama in the last year of his presidency; for Trump, these numbers are now respectively 24 and 17 percent.

The emergence of China as a new pillar of the international order isn't necessarily a cause for celebration. by

Washingtons fickleness has eased in Beijings charm offensive. China has courted even some of US closest allies such as the Philippines.

And surveys show that a growing number of people, including in the Philippines, support their countrys pivot to China amid doubts over American wherewithal and commitment.

With the Trump administrations aggressive rhetoric escalating over the past year, China has adopted a much more balanced and diplomatic stance on the world politics stage. Beijing has opposed Trumps suggestions of decertifying the Iranian nuclear deal and his belligerent statements on North Korea. China has also openly rejected Trumps decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel by emphasising the necessity for a two-state solution, where East Jerusalem becomes the capital of Palestine.

If the White House continues down the foreign policy path it has adopted in the first year of Trumps presidency, China will have a much easier time presenting itself as a non-interventionist superpower, which favours peaceful solutions to intractable conflicts, and perhaps even as a global arbiter.

China: The new champion of free trade

In a bizarre twist of events, Trump (a billionaire and former real estate magnate) has also become the new voice of economic protectionism and a chief critic of economic globalisation.

Throughout his international visits, including in Asia, he has called for fair trade and bilateral trade agreements, directly challenging the US century-old commitment to the global liberal order.

In response, the most powerful allies of the US, including Japan, Australia and Europe, have pushed ahead with alternative trade arrangements which directly bypass Washington.

In stark contrast to Trumps rhetoric, communist China has presented itself as the new vanguard of the international economic order.

The American bully may be on its way to permanent decline, but its likely successor is far from reassuring. by

During his speech at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam in November, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for more open, more balanced, more equitable and more beneficial global trading arrangements, praised proposed and existing multilateral trading regime[s] and underlined the necessity for practice[ing] open regionalism.

While Trump unilaterally nixed the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, China supported alternative trading arrangements such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, which covers 16 nations across the Asia-Pacific region.

China has doubled down on its economic influence by launching the trillion-dollar One Belt One Road Initiative earlier this year, a mega-project that aims to connect Asia to Europe and Africa via a new network of Beijing-funded roads, railroads and shipping lanes. The message is clear: Where the US offers criticism and threats, China offers investments and hope.

Will China be a better hegemon than the US?

The emergence of China as a new pillar of the international order isnt necessarily a cause for celebration.

For a reality check, one must take a sober look at Beijings limited respect for human rights and democracy, support for oppressive and dangerous regimes, mixed record on the success of its investments across the developing world, territorial assertiveness and direct challenge to international norms and laws, as well as increasing interference in the affairs of smaller nations.

From Asia to Africa and Latin America, a growing number of developing countries have found themselves drowning in unsustainable debt, thanks to white elephants built by Chinese infrastructure companies.

Unable to settle their debt and optimise mal-designed infrastructure projects, poor nations have been forced to grant Beijing full stake in their critical infrastructure and resources such as seaports (Sri Lanka), major public land (Laos), and natural resources (Venezuela).

China hasnt behaved as belligerently as the US (yet), but there are enough reasons to cast doubt on the long-term designs of the Asian powerhouse in the developing world.

The American bully may be on its way to permanent decline, but its likely successor is far from reassuring.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Protesters call for the KRG to resign, and storm government and political parties in Sulaymaniyah province.

Security forces have killed at least five protesters who were demanding the resignation of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in the Iraqi Kurdish region.

Dozens were also wounded in the Tuesday demonstration, as anger that grew over a failed bid for independence in September took hold of the northern province.

The rallies started on Monday, when protesters attacked the headquarters of the regions five political parties and a building of the security services in the Sulaymaniyah province.

In addition to anger over rising tensions with Baghdad following a failed independence referendum, protesters also rallied against government corruption, delayed salary payments and the authorities failure to provide basic services.

On Tuesday, protesters set fire to the offices of two political parties in the town of Raparin. Security forces injured at least 100 people, medical sources said.

Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, the 51-year-old KRG politician, has called on the demonstrators to protest peacefully.

These are challenging times for our region. Your frustrations are understandable, and I hear them, he said, according to the Kurdish Rudaw media agency. But violence is never acceptable. I call on all of you to conduct your protests peacefully.

Barzani also called for unity, and voiced hope for a better future.

We are stronger when we are united. I appreciate your resilience and patience in this difficult period. We have gotten through much worse in the past, and I still believe that, together, we will build a better future.

Regional tensions

The region has been tense since the KRG held an independence referendum on September 25, in which the Kurds voted overwhelmingly to split from the rest of Iraq.

The central government in Baghdad imposed strict measures following the vote, such as capturing Kirkuk city, retaking oil fields and mobilising troops on the border.

The vote had little support from the regional and international arena, with Turkey and Iran  countries also home to Kurdish minorities  voicing their disconcert.

For its part, the KRG said in a statement on Tuesday that while it recognised the protesters legitimate right to demonstrate, the targeting and torching of government and party offices in Sulaymaniyah province were unacceptable.

We are concerned with the uncivil actions and the violence used today in a number of cities and towns across Kurdistan, the statement said.
Egypt has extended Mahmoud Husseins detention 10 times in one year, and he has still not been formally charged.

When his daughter Hagar graduated from high school, Mahmoud Hussein clipped articles from newspapers about universities from the confines of his prison cell.

He wanted to be there for Hagar as she was about to embark on a new journey  higher education, and inform her of the best choices.

When I visited, I found that hed made a list of universities that are suitable for her, says Zahra Hussein, Hagars sister.

At 23 years old, Zahra is the second oldest of Husseins nine children.





Wednesday marks one year since Egypt arrested the Al Jazeera journalist, who is now 51 years old having celebrated a recent birthday at Cairos Tora prison.

To date, Hussein has not been formally charged.

Were all unable to adjust, says Zahra. The house is dead. Dad is under arrest, so there is no happiness coming in.

An Egyptian national who was based in Qatar, Hussein was stopped and questioned for 15 hours by authorities, after travelling to Cairo on holiday last December 20.

He was accused of incitement against state institutions and broadcasting false news with the aim of spreading chaos, allegations he, his lawyers and Al Jazeera strongly deny.

He is in poor physical and mental condition and is being denied adequate medical treatment.

After he fractured his arm last summer, officials refused to let Hussein undergo surgery or have his cast changed.

Human rights groups say there are currently around 60,000 political prisoners in Egypt, many of whom have disappeared.

There are at least 20 journalists currently languishing in Egyptian prisons, according to a new report from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

I go through many phases of depression, and then I feel that I cant continue, says Zahra, who has adopted the role of family caretaker since her fathers arrest.

As Hussein was being branded a terrorist who works for Al Jazeera by Egypts media, her bosses sacked her, saying they could not risk keeping her employed. She now works from home as a freelance translator.

I never wanted to be placed in this terrifying situation. Ive always had this comforting idea that dads here. If any problem arises, dad will solve it.

As part of his imprisonment, Hussein spent around three months in solitary confinement before being moved to a cell with other prisoners.

At the time of his arrest, Sherif Mansour of CPJ said: Egyptian authorities are waging a systematic campaign against Al Jazeera, consisting of arbitrary arrest, censorship, and systematic harassment.

Al Jazeera Media Network has said it rejects all the baseless allegations against Hussein, and condemns the unfair detention, in addition to obtaining false confessions by force.

Furthermore, the network holds the Egyptian authorities responsible for Husseins safety and well-being.

We are still convinced he is with us

Hussein is the oldest of nine siblings and hails from a village within the Giza governorate.

The first member of his family to attend school, he has two degrees from Cairo University  one in political science, and another in law.

I loved school very much, he told Al Jazeera in a March 2016 interview for an internal staff magazine. I used to be top of my class through high school.

In 1988, Hussein started his journalism career as politics editor with the Cairo-based Sawt al-Arab Radio (Voice of Arabs Radio). He later became a broadcaster at the station.

During his years in radio, he also worked for several research centres in Egypt.

He joined the state-run Nile TV in 1997 as a political affairs correspondent, before later being promoted as the channels head of correspondents.

He spent years in Palestine where he interviewed Yasser Arafat, former chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), and covered major events such as Israels withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2006.

He then worked with several Arabic news channels, eventually becoming Sudan TVs Cairo bureau chief. During those years, Hussein also taught at the Radio and Television Institute in Cairo, giving courses on news production and editing.

In 2010, Hussein joined Al Jazeeras Cairo bureau as a correspondent, after freelancing for the network. He covered Egypts 2011 revolution which toppled former President Hosni Mubarak and the events that followed, up until the closing of Al Jazeeras Cairo bureau in 2013.

He then moved to Al Jazeeras headquarters in Doha, where he worked as a news producer.

Hussein is someone who knows how news is made, says Majed Khedr, his manager in Doha.

Sitting in Al Jazeera Arabics bustling newsroom, Khedr remembers Husseins ability to lighten the mood in a stressful work environment.

What is unique about Mahmoud is his fun spirit. He has a good sense of humour, Khedr says.

He always brought food, and it was usually Egyptian food This was Mahmouds spirit, God bless him.

His name is still in our daily work schedule because we are still convinced he is with us.

Anas Zaki, a news editor at Al Jazeera Arabic, described Hussein as someone who was always there for his friends.

The pair studied at university together and have been friends for more than 30 years.

If someone called Hussein in distress late at night, he would rush to their house and never make him feel like he sacrificed his sleep or comfort, Zaki says.

Despite by Zahra

, he would have easily solved it.]

According to Zahra Hussein, her father has expressed fears about his parents dying while hes in prison. His mother suffers from heart complications.

Weekly visits are restricted to three people. With a large number of siblings and children, this means some relatives must wait months to see Hussein.

Despite all my attempts, I feel like I cant do anything for dad, says Zahra.

I feel like if he was outside and I was inside [prison], he would have easily solved it.

I put my faith in God, but I mostly feel desperate.




Sides are expected to discuss the functioning of de-escalation zones as deadly violence continues to rage.

Delegations from the Syrian government and some opposition groups are arriving in Kazakhstans capital, Astana, for talks spearheaded by Russia, Turkey, and Iran.

Delegations of the guarantor countries of the cessation of hostilities in Syria are arriving in Astana to participate in the next round of talks, the Kazakh foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

{articleGUID}

The meetings, which start on Thursday and end Friday, come as violence continues in the war-torn country.

Air raids reportedly killed 19 people  including seven children  in the rebel stronghold of Idlib province overnight Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The province bordering Turkey is part of Russian-brokered de-escalation agreements aiming to shore up ceasefires in parts of western Syria.

The eighth round of the Astana talks is expected to address the functioning of de-escalation zones.

The focus will also be on the release of detainees, transfer of bodies, and search for the missing, the Kazakh foreign ministry said in a statement earlier this month.

Several de-escalation zones were agreed to in mainly opposition-held areas of the country during previous meetings, with Russia, Turkey, and Iran acting as guarantors.

Failed Geneva talks

The talks in Astana will take place a week after a separate UN-backed conference on the future of Syria gathered in the Swiss city of Geneva, but failed to break the deadlock between the opposition and the Syrian government.

Fighting rages on in the nearly seven-year war that has killed hundreds of thousands of Syrians and displaced millions of others.





In Eastern Ghouta  on the outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus  hundreds of thousands of people remain trapped under government bombardment.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory said more than 200 civilians, including many children, have been killed in air raids on Eastern Ghouta since mid-November.

The humanitarian situation in Eastern Ghouta has reached a critical point, said Robert Mardini, Middle East director of the International Committee of the Red Cross, in a statement on Tuesday.

As so often in Syria over the last six years, ordinary people are once again trapped in a situation where life slowly becomes impossible, and where goods and aid are severely limited.
Fundraiser for Aymen Derbali, who was seriously hurt in the Quebec mosque shooting, aims to pay for an accessible home.

One of the last things Aymen Derbali remembers is standing in the Quebec City mosque as a gunman opened fire on worshippers all around him.

But the father of three did not panic.

Instead, he drew the attackers focus on himself, in the hopes of saving his fellow congregants.

I tried not to panic or flee, Derbali recently told The Globe and Mail.

I tried to concentrate so that he wouldnt fire on others. I would rather have been paralysed for life than to have fled and been left unscathed, without having done something to help people.

Six Muslim men were killed in the targeted attack on the Quebec Islamic Cultural Centre on January 29.

Derbali was shot several times at close range and rushed to a local hospital in Quebec City, where he spent two months in a coma.

When he finally woke up, he learned that he would never walk again.

He is a hero

Now, Canadians are raising money to help Derbali, who uses a wheelchair and is undergoing treatment, move into a new home with his family that will meet his needs.

Essentially, he is a hero, said Amira Elghawaby, an Ottawa-based volunteer with DawaNet, a Muslim community group in Ontario that organised the fundraiser.

He was shot seven times. Two bullets are permanently lodged in his spinal chord now. He cannot walk. He has been in a rehabilitation centre since the tragedy, Elghawaby told Al Jazeera.

Derbalis wife and three children currently live in a small apartment on the fourth floor of a building in Quebec City, she said.

Its completely inaccessible. If theres any type of emergency, if theres a fire or anything else, theres no way for him to leave safely, Elghawaby said.

In a video shared by DawaNet, Derbali said his condition was improving every day.

Im moving my arms and Im doing physiotherapy, he said, thanking the people who have reached out to check on his health.

By Wednesday, the online campaign had raised just over $33,800 (over $43,500 Canadian dollars).

Organisers hope to raise $311,000 ($400,000 Canadian dollars) to help Derbali move into a home that is wheelchair accessible.

Elghawaby added that it is important for him to live near the mosque, where he still attends weekly Friday prayers.

His heart is there. Even despite this tragedy, hes very connected to the local community, to his brothers and sisters there, she said.

It really is up to all of us to step up and be a hero in his life.

Hate crimes

Muslim communities in Quebec and across Canada are still reeling from what happened.

Alexandre Bissonnette, a Quebec university student, was arrested and charged with six counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder in relation to the attack.

But as the one-year anniversary of the deadly shooting nears, Quebec City officials have warned about a rising number of hate incidents targeting the local Muslim community in 2017.

{articleGUID}

Robert Pigeon, the citys police chief, recently told reporters that police-reported hate crimes targeting Muslims or Muslim institutions in the city doubled since the shooting.

So far this year, 71 hateful incidents were reported in Quebec City and 42 of those targeted Muslims, Pigeon said, according to CBC News.

Last year, 21 out of 57 total reported hate incidents in the city were directed at Muslims.

According to Elghawaby, Derbalis story should be seen as an incredible act of courage and sacrifice in the face of hatred.

The best way to confront hatred is through love. The love that already has been showered on Aymen and his family  is really hopeful, she said.
Catalonia will vote in snap elections on Thursday in a bid to end its separatist crisis. Where does the region stand?

Catalonia, the breakaway region with its own culture and language in northeastern Spain, is set to hold snap elections on Thursday that are widely seen as another referendum on independence.

The Catalan parliament declared independence from Spain on October 27 after an October 1 independence referendum that saw 90 percent vote to separate, although turnout was less than 50 percent and marred by violent repression from Spanish police.

The Catalan regional government was quickly dismissed after Article 155 of the Spanish constitution, a previously-unused measure that allows the national government to assume the role of regional government, was enacted.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said at the time that Article 155 and new elections would reestablish normalcy.

{articleGUID}

While Rajoy would like to see a Catalan government in favour of remaining a part of Spain, this isnt guaranteed. Unionist parties have gained support in the polls, but they dont have a clear victory ahead.

The Catalan political arena is once again divided between unionism and separatism, as it was in the 2015 election that put the separatist government in power.

The vote

There are 135 seats in the Catalan parliament. A party or coalition must win 68 seats for an absolute majority.

According to most polls, the centre-left Catalan Republican Left (ERC), headed by imprisoned former Catalan Vice President Oriol Junqueras, looks to pull ahead of the centre-right Together for Catalonia (JxCat) coalition, headed by former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, who is in self-imposed exile in Brussels, by a slight margin.

ERC is projected to win between 30 and 32 seats, while is expected to win around 29. Then, the anti-capitalist left-wing Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP) is expected to win between seven and ten seats.

On the unionist side, the politically undesignated but generally right-wing Citizens (Cs) party leads the pack with an expected 31 to 35 seats. The Socialist Party of Catalonia, the regional branch of the centre-left national Spanish Socialist Party, is projected to win between 18 and 22 seats.

The Peoples Party of Catalonia, the regional representative of the right-wing Peoples Party, should garner between five and seven seats.

{articleGUID}

The remaining eight or nine seats will be allocated to the In Common We Can coalition, a joining of left-wing groups that are not explicitly unionist but do not support separatism, either.

Its a toss-up, according to Ruben Martinez, an organiser with a Barcelona-wide pro-independence network called the Committees to Defend the Republic (CDR). It will come down to a few seats in small provinces, Martinez told Al Jazeera. They could go to CUP or In Common We Can.

Catalonias political future

If pro-independence parties win a majority, they will likely press forward with a separatist agenda. While independence is the driving force for JxCat and ERC, there has been a rupture between the separatist parties.

PDeCat and ERC formed the Together for Yes pro-independence coalition in the 2015 elections, which won a plurality of votes. However, they were unable to put together a joint list for Thursdays elections.

Puigdemont still views himself as the rightful Catalan president, telling reporters in Brussels that he hasnt been dismissed by those who can do it, which is the Catalan parliament, I act as the president here, too.

But Puigdemont may have competition from his former vice president, Junqueras.

Junqueras has been imprisoned since November 2, when eight ministers were jailed for their pro-independence actions. He is the only member of the former Catalan government that remains in prison, though two pro-independence civil society organisers, Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sanchez  who is running on the JxCat ticket  are still behind bars.

The dismissed vice president told Catalan radio in a short phone interview from prison that he remains behind bars is because ERC has been forthright in their support of independence, in what some saw as a call-out for Puigdemont, who fled Catalonia after declaring independence.

If the unionist parties were to garner a majority, the clear leader would be Ines Arrimadas, the head of the Cs. Arrimadas is staunchly pro-Spain.

Arrimadas sits at the top of the list for the most popular unionist party in Catalonia, but she drew criticism after comparing Puigdemont and Junqueras with the armed Basque separatist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, which waged a rebellion against the Spanish state that killed hundreds of civilians.

The Cs often present themselves as working-class Catalan unionist party, although many Catalans feel Arrimadas and the rest of the party are aligned with the right.

Prohibited colours, alleged threats

For many Catalans, the right is increasingly seen as a threat. Martinez, the organiser with the CDR, said that impunity is increasing for far-right attacks, as well as repression from the right-wing national government.

{articleGUID}

Martinez pointed to the prohibition of displays of yellow, one of the colours of the Catalan flag which is closely related to the independence movement, on public buildings.

On December 17, eight Catalan teachers from La Seu dUrgell, a town near the French border, were charged with inciting hate for hosting a debate on the independence process in their primary school.

Marta Rovira, the secretary-general of ERC who leads the party while Junqueras remains in prison, said on December 15 that Spanish authorities told separatist Catalan politicians that if they win the election and continue with the independence push, there will be blood  there will be scenarios of extreme violence.

Martinez hopes for the best and plans to continue organising in defence of the Catalan Republic, but the moment [in Catalonia] is maddening.
Turkish president responds angrily to UAE FMs retweet of an account accusing Ottoman governor of abuses against Arabs.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has attacked the United Arab Emirates foreign minister after he retweeted a post attacking a historical Ottoman leader.

Without mentioning Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan directly, Erdogan said some Arab leaders were antagonising his country in order to cover their ignorance and their incompetence.

The angry rebuke comes a day after a spokesperson for the Turkish president, Ibrahim Kalin, accused the UAE of spreading divisive propaganda after the UAEs most senior diplomat retweeted a post claiming Fahreddin Pasha, the Ottoman governor of Medina between 1916 and 1919, had committed crimes against local Arabs and stolen their property.

These are Erdogans ancestors and their past with the Arabs, the tweet said.

The city, which houses the Prophet Muhammads tomb and is revered by Muslims, was ruled by the Ottomans until they were defeated by the British and their Arab allies in World War I.

While Fahreddin Pasha was defending Medina, you miserable ones who slander us, where were your ancestors? by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Kalin responded immediately, directly admonishing Abdullah bin Zayed for sharing the post, which he said aimed to turn Turks and Arabs against one another.

It was Fahreddin Pasha who bravely defended Medina against the British plans then, he wrote.

Erdogans remarks during a speech on Wednesday went a step further: While Fahreddin Pasha was defending Medina, you miserable ones who slander us, where were your ancestors? He asked.

President #Erdogan goes after #UAE FM @ABZayed & says:

 It is clear that you know nothing about our ancestors.

 The Arab peoples are our brothers but there are SOME rulers in the Arab world who keep targeting #Turkey to cover up their weakness & even hide their treachery https://t.co/wdTiq93bwk  Saad Abedine (@SaadAbedine) December 20, 2017

The spat marks a new low point in relations between Turkey and the Arab Gulf state, with Ankara throwing its support behind Qatar after it was subject to a blockade and other punitive measures by four Arab states, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Egypt.

The Arab quartet accuses Doha of supporting extremism and their regional rival Iran, a charge Qatar vehemently rejects.

Turkey has built a military base in Qatar and deployed soldiers there, as well as supporting the Arab Gulf state with necessary products blocked from entering by the four countries.
Back from Brussels Prime Minister Theresa May wrote an open letter to the citizens of other European Union states.

Back from Brussels with a hard-fought Brexit deal, Prime Minister Theresa May wrote an open letter to the three million citizens of other European Union states living in Britain.

I know our country would be poorer if you left and I want you to stay, she wrote after striking the initial agreement, which promises to secure their British residency rights after Brexit and allows the negotiations to move onto trade relations.

But for some EU nationals  who have endured uncertainty over their rights since the Brexit vote in June 2016, not to mention an unpleasant feeling that many Britons do not want them around  Mays December 8 deal is too little, too late.

Its too late to keep German nurse Daniela Jones in the chronically short-staffed National Health Service (NHS), where she worked for 35 years.

Its too late for French psychotherapist Baya Salmon-Hawk, who after 40 years in Britain has moved to Ireland to remain in the EU.

Its too late for French accountant Nathalie Duran, who is planning early retirement in France because after 31 years as a taxpayer in Britain she objects to being told she has to pay a fee and fill in forms to be granted a new settled status.

I will have to regretfully decline your generous offer for settled status and oblige your lovely countrymens wishes and go home, she wrote on Facebook in a response to May laden with irony.

Duran told Reuters that the prime ministers late outpouring of love for EU citizens, after years of tough talk on the need to cut immigration, could not mask negative attitudes towards immigrants unleashed by the Brexit vote.

I think its turning ugly, said 56-year-old Duran. Its now OK to say go home foreigners.

EU citizens, particularly those from the poorer eastern member states such as Poland and Romania, have complained of increasing hostility from some Britons.

They find themselves accused of stealing jobs from Britons and driving down wages, even though unemployment is at a four-decade low, or of overburdening health services as patients, even though many help to provide them by working for the NHS.

Official figures show hate crimes in Britain surged by the highest amount on record last year, with the Brexit vote a significant factor.

The impact of Brexit on EU citizens in Britain is a serious concern for sectors of the economy that rely heavily on European workers, such as hospitality, construction, agriculture, care for the elderly and the cherished NHS.

Britain wont leave the bloc until March 2019, but many EU nationals are already voting with their feet. In the 12 months following the referendum, 123,000 of them left Britain, a 29 percent year-on-year increase.

They were still outnumbered by the 230,000 EU citizens who arrived to live in Britain in the same period, although that figure was down 19 percent on the previous year.

A British job for a British worker

Not everyone is making plans to go: 28,500 EU citizens applied for British citizenship in the 12 months after the referendum, an 80 percent year-on-year jump. With personal and professional roots often running deep, many more have applied for permanent residence documents.

UK citizenship would be an option for nurse Jones, 61, who moved to England from Munich just before her 18th birthday. That was in 1974, the year after Britain joined what is now the EU.

Today she has a grown-up British son and a British husband. But as a point of principle, she cannot see why she should apply for something she never needed in the past.

Despite my enormous love for Britain, I do not feel that I am British, was how she put it in a letter to Ruth Deech, a pro-Brexit member of parliaments House of Lords, sent in February to lobby her on the EU citizens rights issue.

In a one-line response to the long, impassioned letter, which made clear Jones had worked for 35 years in the state NHS, Deech said she should have applied for UK citizenship.

Jones replied it had never been necessary and explained that she was already a dual German and US national through her German mother and her American father, a serviceman in the US army who was posted to Germany in the 1950s.

Deech sent another one-liner: You sought US citizenship  presumably you could have shown the same commitment to this country.

Jones was dismayed by that response, which in her eyes lacked understanding and respect. She began to think she needed to look after her own interests better.

A few months later, she quit her NHS job at a doctors office in Yateley, a small town southwest of London. She is now re-training as a foot and ear care specialist and plans to work privately.

I still like looking after people, but I want to do it on my own terms, she told Reuters. Its time to get out. Work for myself, start a little business.

Jones wrote to Deech again, saying: I have now freed up a British job for a British worker. This time she got no response.

Deech declined an interview request from Reuters, but said in an emailed response to questions that obtaining a British passport might be a good idea for any EU citizen who is (probably needlessly) concerned.

A new adventure

French national Baya Salmon-Hawk, 61, initially reacted to the Brexit vote by trying to make sure her residency rights were not under threat. Having lived in England for 40 years, had her son there, owned a home, worked in a variety of jobs and paid taxes, she thought that should be straightforward.

But when she made inquiries about a permanent residence permit she had obtained in 1977, she was told this was no longer valid, and she would have to re-apply by filling an 85-page form and providing numerous documents, including details of every time she had left the country and returned, stretching back years.

Salmon-Hawk was struggling to adjust to the new reality. Having believed previously that she was integrated into British society, she felt unwelcome for the first time.

I just dont understand whats happened to the UK, she said. I became quite easily upset by all this, and I didnt want to live like that any more.

She and her 74-year-old wife Audrey Evelyn, who is British, decided to leave. They sold their house in a village north of London, and in July this year, they moved to County Kilkenny in Ireland, where Evelyn has family ties.

At times, Salmon-Hawk has wondered if they made the right decision. I may have made a foolish mistake. I have woken up in the middle of the night in a state of panic, she said.

But she is starting a new venture as a professional story-teller at Hook Lighthouse on the southeast coast of Ireland, telling visitors tales from Irish history.

I thought I was done, I was settled, and Im not. Im having a new adventure.
The European Commission began the process of sanctioning Poland on Wednesday due to concerns of judiciary independence.

The European Commission, the executive body of the EU, has begun the process of enacting Article 7 of the EU Treaty against Poland, citing a clear risk of a serious breach in the rule of law due to perceived threats against an independent judiciary.

Over the past two years, Polish authorities have adopted more than 13 laws affecting the entire structure of the justice system in Poland, the EC said in a statement on Wednesday.

The ECs concerns over the ruling, rightwing populist and nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) partys policies have grown over the past two years, since the party won an outright majority in 2015  the first party to do so since the transition from communism to democracy.

The EC says the PiS governments judiciary reforms stack the courts with friendly judges, by giving the president much discretionary power to extend the mandate of Supreme Court judges, and imposing a younger retirement age on already-serving magistrates, among other reasons.

These moves contribute to a lack of an independent and legitimate constitutional review and judicial independence, the EC claimed.

{articleGUID}

Witold Waszczykowski, Polish foreign minister, dismissed the ECs concerns on Wednesday, saying Poland was importing [legal] solutions that already exist in many EU member states.

Waszczykowski said the EC was applying a different standard to Poland, which held its first free elections in 1990, after the fall of the Soviet Union.

We do not agree to double standards if there, in other European countries, the so-called old democracies, these solutions can exist, while in the Polish so-called new democracy these solutions are not accepted by EU officials, Waszczykowski said.

Article 7 has never been used by the EU and requires four-fifths of the EUs 28 member states  22  to agree that Polands moves constitute a serious breach before sanctions can be imposed.

It remains to be seen if this many EU members would agree to sanctions for Poland. Hungary has stated it will not support the move.

The Eastern EU, which includes mostly former Soviet satellite states, has seen a wave of rightwing populist governments in recent years that have received criticism from Western member states.

Hungarys Fidesz was one of the first rightwing, populist political parties to seize power in the east.

{articleGUID}

Viktor Orban, the prime minister, famously said in 2014 that he wanted to create an illiberal democracy in Hungary, which has been sent to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for laws that target foreign-funded NGOs and the Central European University, a higher education institution known for its international student body and support of liberal democracy.

The Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary were similarly sent to the ECJ for not accepting their share of refugees under a 2015 resettlement programme.

Hungary and Poland have taken no refugees, while the Czech Republic has taken 12.

The EC move gives the Polish government three months to respond to its concerns. For now, it is largely seen as symbolic.

Polish President Andrzej Duda signed into law the judicial overhaul that puts courts under political control on Wednesday evening, just hours after the EC announcement.
Changes will increase transparency around the export of technologies used for both civil and military purposes.

The European Union is working to adopt a new regulation that will introduce tougher export controls for technologies which can be used to spy on citizens.

The new rules, which were proposed last year, are up for a plenary vote early next month in the European Parliament, where they are expected to pass.

Proponents say the proposal is aimed at making the export of dual-use items  goods, software and technology designed for both civil and military applications  more transparent.

They also say it will strengthen the protection of human rights by preventing governments outside the bloc from obtaining European technology products that can be used for the online surveillance of their citizens.

These changes are very important. It shifts the focus not to just human security, but also freedom of assembly, freedom of expression and privacy, Lucie Krahulcova, of Access Now, a digital rights organisation, told Al Jazeera.

Governments should be held accountable to make sure the technology that is traded through them is disclosed in a public manner.

Under the new framework, companies and member states will be obligated to disclose which countries are buying these spy technologies. Currently, this is done voluntarily.

If the current proposal is approved by the European Parliament, the new regulation will then need to be adopted by the European Council and the European Commission before it passes into law.

Spying software

Dual-use items include a wide range of goods, including chemicals, toxins, lasers, sensors, electronics and computers.

The regulations covering their usage were originally aimed at avoiding nuclear proliferation, according to Marietje Schaake, a Dutch member of the European Parliament.

So, a regular water pump that also can be used in nuclear facilities has to go through extra vetting to prevent it being used for nuclear purposes by the buyer, she told Al Jazeera.

This focus on the development of weapons exists until today, without, however, taking into account recent technological advancements that allow certain dual-use items to be used to spy on citizens.

In particular, surveillance technology sold by private firms has made huge leaps, allowing companies to sell software and hardware that can be used, for example, to track peoples mobile-phone or internet usage.

A lot of commercially available technologies offer authorities potentially devastating spying and hacking capacities, said Schaake, who has been fighting for years to update the European rules to be more inclusive of surveillance equipment.

We have to make sure that these technologies dont get used to abuse human rights.

{articleGUID}

Dual-use technologies have legitimate use cases  law enforcement agencies can use the location of a mobile phone for example to check the alibi of a murder suspect.

However, surveillance technology can also be employed to spy on human rights activists, protesters and journalists.

It was this type of technology that was used by the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to track and arrest opponents during the 2011s uprising.

With these changes, we will get a better view of what each country exports and to which country it gets sent, said Krahulcova.

Right now, its really hard to actually know how big this business is

Krahulcova said European governments are not legally obligated to say how many licences are granted, while getting information from the companies themselves is even more difficult.

Often, small companies selling this tech are part of bigger companies, making it really hard to track everything, she said, noting that the new laws should provide more insight into the extent of the problem.

The only way weve had so far to find out how big this industry is by following the money.

Human rights abuses

The ease with which companies are able to sell these technologies was made clear in April, when an investigation by Al Jazeera revealed how remarkably effortless it was to buy dual-use technology made by private companies, including European ones.

That investigation revealed that some companies had few or no problems to sell to state actors known for human rights abuses.





Apart from improving transparency, advocates also say the proposed regulation will also strengthen freedom of speech.

Right now, encryption software which ensures people can safely communicate without anyone reading their messages are also marked as dual-use technology.

However, under the proposed rules, encryption technologies will be exempted from being labelled as dual-use.

Currently, exporting encryption tech means going through the checks that all the dual-use systems have to go through. We dont want to do that, said Schaake.

Encryption is an important tool to protect human rights.

Both Schaake and Krahulcova said they expected the European Council and European Commission to introduce some changes to their rules, which would limit their transparency. They added, however, that they were happy with the overall proposed changes.

The European Union sends out a strong statement with these new laws  we are raising the standards, said Schaake, urging other countries to follow the blocs example.

While we dont want to hinder companies unnecessarily, we take a targeted approach to protecting human rights across the world  In the end, companies that really dont want to follow the law may always find a way to avoid it.

But by implementing the changes we are making now, we will at least take human rights more seriously.
More than 80 injured in protests called by the Palestinian leadership against US presidents Jerusalem declaration.

More than 80 Palestinians have been injured in fresh protests across the West Bank, two weeks after US President Donald Trumps recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital, according to the Red Crescent.

At least three people were injured with live bullets, more than 20 with rubber-coated steel bullets and 40 by tear-gas inhalation in Wednesdays protests called for by the Palestinian Authority, several political parties and trade unions.

The confrontations with the Israeli army unfolded after Day of Rage rallies were staged in various areas of the occupied West Bank including Hebron, Nablus, Bethlehem and Jericho.

The largest demonstration commenced at the Qalandia military checkpoint, the main point splitting the occupied West Bank from Jerusalem and a constant flashpoint in the conflict.

Jihad Barakat, a local journalist who was reporting from Qalandia, estimates that about 5,000 Palestinians attended the rally there, which took off at about 12pm local time (10:00 GMT).

{articleGUID}

There was at least one injury at Qalandia from live ammunition and there was heavy use of tear gas. On the Israeli armys jeeps, there are these guns that fire about 30 tear-gas canisters consecutively, so the whole area becomes filled with smoke, he said.

A number of politicians also joined the protests, including the Minister of Health Jawad Awwad, Hamas leader Jamal al-Taweel, and Fatah spokesman Osama Qawasmeh.

Local activist Mariam Barghouti told Al Jazeera that the rally at Qalandia turned violent when the Israeli forces began firing tear gas.

  the crowd grew smaller leaving only young Palestinians who began to confront the army with stones, continued Barghouti, explaining that the army then responded with rubber bullets and live ammunition.

The rallies come exactly two weeks after Trump decided to declare that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

He also said the US would move its embassy, currently located in the Israeli commercial capital Tel Aviv, to Jerusalem.

While there have been daily protests against Trumps decision, most of the reaction on the ground is being seen as top-down in nature  that is, called and organised by political leaders as opposed to grassroots activists.

{articleGUID}

Barghouti said that the rally at Qalandia started with a big crowd mostly affiliated with Fatah, which is the ruling political party in the occupied West Bank.

If you ask any of the guys protesting, theyll tell you: Trump wasnt any new news for us. Theres no momentum, said Barghouti.

Others on the ground have also expressed their indifference to Trumps declaration.

Palestinians in the West Bank, who number more than three million, are already cut off from Jerusalem by the Israeli separation wall and need difficult-to-obtain permits from the Israeli military to enter.

Similarly, the two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are under a suffocating siege and need military permits, which are rarely issued, to visit Jerusalem.

To regular people, it doesnt really matter if the embassy stays in Tel Aviv or is relocated to Jerusalem, Amani Khalifa, a Jerusalem-based activist, said in a recent article.

Due to Jerusalems importance to followers of the Abrahamic religions, the citys status has long been the main sticking point in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

{articleGUID}

Israel occupied the eastern half of the city, which houses the Old City and the religious landmarks such as the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, in 1967.

It then proceeded to annex it and in 1980 proclaimed it as its eternal, undivided capital.

Israels control and sovereignty over the city, however, is not recognised by any country in the world.

As of now, all embassies in Israel are based in Tel Aviv, although some countries have maintained diplomatic posts in Jerusalem.

The Palestinian leadership, which is committed to establishing a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as the capital, sees Trumps declaration as a potentially fatal blow.

But for the average Palestinian in the occupied territories, the US announcement has merely underlined the obvious.
US ambassador warns General Assembly members that the president will be watching before vote on status of Jerusalem.

US Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, has sent a threatening letter to members of the UN General Assembly before a vote on a resolution against the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

In the letter, obtained by Haaretz, Haley wrote that US President Donald Trump will be watching [Thursdays] vote carefully and requested I report back on those who voted against us 

The warning came after the US was outnumbered 14 to 1 as it vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Monday against Trumps decision on Jerusalem.

Trump announced on December 6 that the US formally recognises Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and will begin the process of moving its embassy to the city, breaking with decades of US policy.

The move led to a wave of global protests, with tens of thousands of people taking to the streets in recent days to denounce his decision.

Threatening words

Furious over the Security Council resolution against the move, Haley on Tuesday said it was an insult that would not be forgotten.

Its one more example of the UN doing more harm than good in addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, she said on Twitter.

{articleGUID}

Haleys letter to the General Assembly members echoed her tweets, in which she said the US will be taking names during Thursdays vote, which is expected to pass with an overwhelming majority.

As you know, the General Assembly is considering a resolution about President Trumps recent decision on Jerusalem. As you consider your vote, I encourage you to know the president and the US take this vote personally, Haley said in the letter.

Twenty-two years ago, the US Congress declared that Jerusalem should be recognised as the capital of Israel, and that the US embassy should be moved to Jerusalem. President Trump affirmed that declaration by officially recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, she wrote.

However, the presidents announcement does not affect final status negotiations in any way, including the specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem.

The president also made sure to support the status quo of Jerusalems holy sites, and did not advocate changes to arrangements at the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif, Haley added in her letter.

US will not be able to use privilege

Anticipating the US veto in the Security Council, the Palestinian leadership in the occupied West Bank promised to take the issue to the General Assembly to seek the passing of a resolution there.

Riyad al-Maliki, foreign minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA), said in a statement on Monday: The member states of the General Assembly will be asked to vote on the same draft resolution that we presented to the Security Council, which the US has blocked with the veto.

In the General Assembly, the US will not be able to use this privilege, he added.

Since the 1970s, when it first began exercising its veto power, the US has shot down some 42 Security Council resolutions relating to Israel and its actions in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Turkey, a long-time ally of Palestine, is also leading efforts to pass a resolution through the UNs General Assembly.

A vote in favour of the resolution in the 193-member UN General Assembly, however, is not legally binding. This means it would only serve as a recommendation and would act as an expression of the international communitys stance on Jerusalem.

At the request of Turkey and Yemen, the UN General Assembly is set to meet at 15:00 GMT on Thursday for the discussion about Jerusalem.
UN investigator says decision to bar her suggests something terribly awful is happening in restive Rakhine state.

The government of Myanmar has barred a UN human rights investigator from visiting the country and withdrawn cooperation with her for the rest of her tenure.

Yanghee Lee, a UN special rapporteur, was to visit in January to assess the state of human rights across Myanmar, including in Rakhine state where a brutal military crackdown has sent more than 650,000 minority Rohingya fleeing into neighbouring Bangladesh.

Refugees fleeing the violence have told of a systematic campaign of mass killings, rape, and arson. The UN has described the situation as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.

I am really deeply disappointed and very saddened by this decision of Myanmar to deny cooperation with my mandate and with any other human rights mechanisms, and most of all to silence people who speak out on these kinds of atrocities, Lee told Al Jazeera.

In a statement on Wednesday, Lee said she was puzzled and disappointed by Myanmars decision.

This declaration of non-cooperation with my mandate can only be viewed as a strong indication that there must be something terribly awful happening in Rakhine, as well as in the rest of the country, she said.

Abuses by security forces

Lee said she was told the decision was in response to a statement she made following a visit in July.

At the time, she criticised abuses by security forces in Shan and Rakhine states and complained of increasing restrictions on her access.





Journalists and activists who met her were also subjected to state surveillance, she said.

Myanmar criticised her statement as biased and unfair.

Lee took up the rights monitoring role in 2014 and is required to visit Myanmar two times a year in order to report to the Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly.

Myanmar has also refused entry to a separate UN fact-finding mission appointed by the Human Rights Council to investigate allegations of human rights violations in various conflict zones, including in Rakhine.

Zeid bin Raad al-Hussein, the UN rights chief, has said the security clampdown against the Rohingya minority in Rakhine may amount to genocide, a charge the government has denied.

The crackdown came in response to attacks on border posts by a Rohingya armed group on August 25.

Amnesty International called Myanmars decision to ban Lee outrageous.

It is a further indication that authorities will do anything they can to avoid international scrutiny of their human rights record, said James Gomez, Amnestys director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
Heavily scarred child, known only as Karim, lost his mother in government artillery attack in Eastern Ghouta.

An image of a heavily scarred Syrian baby whose mother was killed in an artillery barrage launched by government forces has sparked an outpouring of sympathy on Twitter and other social media platforms.

The three-month-old child, known only by his first name, Karim, lost his left eye and suffered wounds to his skull in the attacks on the besieged Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta.

A portrait of Karim by the Syrian refugee artist, Fares Jasem, which shows a rose covering the childs scars, helped raise social media awareness about the boys plight, with some describing him as a symbol of the suffering children in Syria have undergone since the civil war started in 2011.

Activists launched a number of hashtags in solidarity with Karim, including #SolidarityWithKarim and #StandWithKarim.

https://twitter.com/hassna_wan/status/943308822818430977?ref_src=twsrc^tfw

As the social media campaign took hold, Twitter users posted pictures of themselves with a hand covering one eye.

Those taking part included Bana al-Abed, a Syrian refugee who rose to international prominence for her tweets and video blogs from the city of Aleppo during the fighting between rebels and government troops there in 2016.

Dear friends , I stand with 2 months old baby Karim who lost his eye & mother in Syria . What is the crime of a baby? Please #StandWithKarim pic.twitter.com/IIWhSVRrIN  Bana Alabed (@AlabedBana) December 19, 2017

Others included the British permanent representative to the UN, Matthew Rycroft, who featured in a photo published by the British Foreign Office covering one eye.

Siege of Eastern Ghouta

Speaking at the UN on Tuesday, Rycroft said Russia should use its influence over the Syrian government to help the entry of food and other supplies into Eastern Ghouta, as well as allowing the evacuation of the injured.

Its just a thirty minute journey from Eastern Ghouta to Damascus to receive treatment, he said, adding: It really is a matter of life and death.

 :    #_                  ..    .

    #_. pic.twitter.com/aOxT8mhBTW      (@FCDOArabic) December 19, 2017

Turkeys deputy prime minister, Hakan Cavusoglu, also weighed in on the campaign, emphasising his countrys opposition to the Syrian government over the targeting of civilians.

While the world was playing three monkeys over Syria, Turkey always stood by (babies like) Karim, as well as other oppressed people, he said.

Solidarity with Karim 

Civil Defense teams and men in the #Alatarip #Aleppo are united with the #karim of the child who lost his eye and his mother in the bombing of a criminal from the criminal gangs Lion in the #Ghouta#SolidarityWithKarim pic.twitter.com/HGAz8qLwzj  mohamed aldamashqi( ) (@mohamedsyrian10) December 18, 2017

Karims image is not the first image of a child victim of Syrias war to go viral and drum up such outpouring of sympathy.

In August 2016, the image of a boy, plucked from the rubble, sitting expressionless in the back of an ambulance after an air raid in Aleppo, became emblematic of the Syrian governments campaign of aerial bombardment.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitor of Syrias war, puts the total number of casualties from Syrias war at around 500,000 people.
In the aftermath of ISILs ejection from Raqqa, no one has stepped up to rebuild the devastated city and the presence of YPG fighters is unsettling the returning local population.

People displaced from the Syrian city of Raqqa say they are being pressured into returning to their destroyed homes.

Parents there are worried about their young children stepping on unexploded bombs.

The mostly Arab population is also fearful of the number of Kurdish-led fighters controlling the city.

Fighters of the YPG militia deny accusations that they have cleansed Arabs from their towns and villages.

Al Jazeeras Osama Bin Javaid reports from the western bank of the Euphrates river.
Women and children among the dead after air raid follow the downing of a Houthi-rebel missile targeting Riyadh.

Air raids by a Saudi-led military coalition across Yemen have been blamed for killing 11 civilians, a day after Houthi rebels fired a ballistic missile at the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

The deadly attacks came on the 1,000th day of the devastating war that has killed about 10,000 people and left millions facing starvation.

The pro-Houthi Al Masirah television channel said 11 people were killed  including women and children  and 19 others wounded in Thursdays air raids in Saada province in the countrys far north.

A Houthi source told Turkeys Anadolu news agency that Yemens capital, Sanaa, was also struck by a series of air raids.

Fighter jets launched two attacks on Saadas Old Quarter, killing the 11 civilians, Abdelellah al-Ezi, head of the provincial health office, told German news agency dpa.

The aircraft later bombed the area as medical workers attempted to help the victims, al-Ezi said. So far we have not been able to reach the area as jets are flying overhead, he said.

{articleGUID}

There was no immediate comment from the Saudi-led coalition.

For 1,000 days, the Arab worlds poorest country has been embroiled in a regional proxy war, with the Saudi-led coalition attempting to oust from power the Houthi rebels, who are widely believed to be backed by their rival, Iran.

Amid widespread internal displacement and destruction, about 14 million people  more than half of whom are children  do not have access to clean water and sanitation.

Saudi Arabia intensified its embargo on Yemen in November, closing all land, sea and air ports after Houthi rebels fired a ballistic missile towards Riyadh.

On Tuesday, the Houthis launched a second ballistic missile that was shot down before hitting the capital.

Helen Lackner, a Yemen analyst from SOAS, University of London, said it is unlikely the devastating war will end anytime soon with all sides dug in.

We have a situation now where the Houthis feel that they are on a winning streak  Attacking Riyadh is just another sign of their feeling of superiority militarily, she told Al Jazeera.
Saudi Arabia has permanently closed its only land border with Qatar, which continues to be blockaded by the kingdom and some of its Gulf neighbours.

According to a document issued by Saudi Arabias customs directorate on Tuesday, the Salwa border gate had been shut permanently since Monday night.

The letter said Saudi officials ordered the closure.

The move comes as an ongoing diplomatic crisis nears eight months.

The gate was first closed two weeks after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain cut diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of financing terrorism and maintaining too close a relationship with their regional rival, Iran. Doha denies the allegations.

{articleGUID}

The border was then reopened for two weeks in August for pilgrims who wished to perform the annual Hajj pilgrimage to pass through.

At the time, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani welcomed the move, but said it was a politically motivated decision.

Although officially well-received by Qatar, the move had sparked outrage from Qatari citizens on social media, who demanded the siege be lifted entirely.

The Arab quartet blocked direct air and land transport to and from Qatar and closed their airspace to all Qatar Airways flights after severing ties with Qatar.

Earlier this month, the annual regional summit of the six GCC countries was cut short, failing to resolve the ongoing crisis.

As part of the blockade, the Saudi-led group also asked all Qatari nationals to leave their countries, but Doha has not imposed similar restrictions on the four Arab nations.
Lawsuit says 92 asylum seekers faced egregious abuse in Senegal on December 7 on failed deportation flight from US.

More than 90 Somali men and women were subjected to inhumane conditions and egregious abuse on a failed deportation flight that lasted nearly 48 hours and was eventually forced to return to the United States earlier this month, according to a class-action lawsuit filed this week.

Ninety-two Somali nationals were being deported by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to Somalia from the US state of Louisiana on December 7 when their flight made a stop in Dakar, Senegal.

But the flight never reached Somalia and was forced to return to the US on December 9.

For more than two days, ICE agents subjected Petitioners to inhumane conditions and mistreatments including acts of serious physical violence that resulted in still untreated injuries, the lawsuit, which was filed in US District Court, reads.

The plaintiffs, Somali asylum seekers who are currently being held in immigration detention in South Florida, are asking the court to issue an order preventing their deportation to Somalia.

According to the claim, for the duration of the nearly 48-hour journey, which included 23 hours on the runway in Senegal, the deportees said they were forced by ICE agents to stay seated and chained at their wrists, ankles, and waists.

When the flight was in Dakar for 23 hours, ICE officers and contract guards beat, kicked, choked, pushed, straightjacketed, threatened to kill, and berated people on the plane, it continues.

ICE and contract guards on the plane also stopped the deportees from accessing the toilet, the lawsuit alleges, forcing people to try to urinate in bottles or on themselves.

ICE agents wrapped some who protested, or just stood up to ask a question, in full-body restraints. ICE agents kicked, struck, or dragged detainees down the aisle of the plane, and subjected some to verbal abuse and threats, the lawsuit states.

ICE denies allegations

ICE has denied the allegations of mistreated onboard the Somali flight as patently false, according to a statement released at the time and included in the lawsuit.

No one was injured during the flight, and there were no incidents or altercations that would have caused any injuries on the flight, ICE reportedly said.

The agency said the plane landed in Senegal for refuelling and to change pilots. The aircraft, including the detainees and crew on board, remained parked at the airport to allow the relief crew time to rest, the agency said.

While it remained parked, air conditioning remained in use on the plane, the ICE statement continued.

Detainees were fed at regular intervals to include the providing of extra snacks and drinks. Lavatories were functional and serviced the entire duration of the trip.

Under the purview of the US Department of Homeland Security, ICE is responsible for issues of immigration detention and deportation, among other functions.

Beatings and abuse

ICEs protestations are in sharp contrast to testimonies from passengers who were aboard the flight.

After about 20 hours, I stood up and asked what was going on and why we were waiting, said Farah Ali Ibrahim, an asylum seeker and a named plaintiff in the lawsuit, in a statement.

An officer grabbed me by the collar, and I fell to the floor. Officers began dragging me down the aisle and beating me.

ICE agents later put Ibrahim in a straitjacket, he said.

Legal experts working on behalf of the plaintiffs say the US has an international obligation not to deport them because their safety in Somalia cannot be guaranteed.

In October, a devastating bombing in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, killed at least 358 people and injured hundreds more.

Just last week, a suicide bomber killed 18 police officers in Mogadishu. The December 14 attack was claimed by al-Shabab, a group with ties to al-Qaeda.

The failed deportation flight has drawn attention to the asylum seekers and may leave them open to abuse upon their return, according to Rebecca Sharpless, director of the immigration clinic at the University of Miami Law School, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the asylum seekers.

The December 7 flight has received widespread media coverage in Somalia. Everyone knows they are coming, Sharpless said in a statement.

It is not safe for these men and women to return, especially in light of the escalation of terrorist violence in Somalia in the last weeks.

The case is an emergency because ICE intends to deport the asylum seekers from the US as early as today, according to the statement.
A timeline of events as Al Jazeera journalist Mahmoud Hussein marks 400 days of detention by Egypt.

Wednesday marks 400 days since Al Jazeera journalist Mahmoud Hussein was detained by Egyptian authorities while on holiday last December.

Hussein was taken by Egyptian security officers on December 20 last year and accused of reporting false news with the aim of creating chaos.

Al Jazeera Media Network denies all allegations against Hussein and has demanded his immediate and unconditional release.

Here is a timeline of the events since Hussein joined the Qatar-based news organisation.

2010: Started working for Al Jazeera in Cairo.

2013: Following Egypts July 3 Coup, Al Jazeeras Cairo bureau is closed.

2015: Hussein moves to the headquarters in Doha.

December 19, 2016: Hussein travels to Cairo on holiday.

December 20, 2016: Hussein arrives in Cairo and is stopped, questioned and detained by authorities for 15 hours, according to his family.

{articleGUID}

December 23, 2016: According to his family, Hussein was brought home at 1:30am, in handcuffs, along with approximately 30 police officers  some were masked. They searched his entire house.

When they couldnt find anything, they arrested two of his brothers.

The family didnt know their whereabouts until local media announced their arrest a few days later.

His brothers were later released without charges.

December 25, 2016: Egypt confirms Husseins arrest. He is allegedly accused of disseminating false news and receiving monetary funds from foreign authorities in order to defame the states reputation.

Smear campaign begins against Hussein, and three videos of him are circulated in local media, including one of him confessing.

January 4, 2017: Husseins detention extended for 15 days.

February 4, 2017: Husseins detention extended by 45 days, marking the fourth time its been extended.

March 21, 2017: Hussein released from solitary confinement after three months and placed into a cell with other prisoners.

June 13, 2017: Hussein sustains an injury to his left arm leading to its fracture. He did not receive medical attention for 72 hours due to the prisons medical unit being unequipped for such situations.





July 17, 2017: Hussein not allowed to undergo surgery or have his cast changed.

October 17, 2017: Hussein marks 300 days in prison.

November 4, 2017: Husseins detention is extended by 45 days, for the ninth time.

December 12, 2017: Hussein turns 51 in prison.

December 14: Husseins detention is extended by 45 days, for the tenth time.

December 20, 2017: One year in detention.

January 24, 2018: 400 days in prison.
Donald Trumps tax reform bill lowers individual and corporate tax rates but critics say it unjustly benefits the rich.

Donald Trump has praised a tax reform bill passed by both houses of the US Congress as a historic victory for the American people, as the contentious legislation represents the first major tax overhaul in over three decades.

The president hailed the legislation, which was passed by the House of Representatives for a second and final time on Wednesday after hitting a procedural snag a day earlier, as an incredible Christmas gift for hardworking Americans.

I said I wanted to have it done before Christmas; we got it done, Trump said during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Trump held a press conference alongside Republican members of the House and Senate on Wednesday afternoon to celebrate the bills passing.

We are delivering HISTORIC TAX RELIEF for the American people!#TaxCutsandJobsAct pic.twitter.com/lLgATrCh5o  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 20, 2017

This is going to mean companies are going to be coming back. I campaigned on the fact that were not going to lose our companies any more. Theyre going to stay in our country, Trump said from the lawn of the White House.

We have companies pouring back into our country and that means jobs.

After hours of debate, the US Senate passed the tax overhaul motion in the early morning hours Wednesday, 51-48, with the votes falling along party lines.

That followed an earlier vote in the House of Representatives, where Republicans also hold a majority, passed in a similar fashion.

The tax overhaul will now go to the presidents desk, where Trump will sign it into law.

He has not yet specified when the bills signing will take place.

The deepest rewrite of the tax code in three decades provides dramatic tax breaks to US corporations, and families at all incomes levels will see their income tax drop starting next year, with the largest benefits going to the rich.

Hogan Gidley, a White House spokesman, criticised Democrats for opposing the legislation and said they would pay a price at the ballot box during next years midterm elections.

We put forth a bill that actually gives tax cuts to the middle class, about $2,000 on average per family, and no Democrat decides to vote for it? Its absolutely incredible, Gidley told Al Jazeera.





Last week, Trump said the tax plan  the first major change to the US tax code since 1986  would fulfil a campaign promise to give middle-class Americans a substantial tax cut before the end of the year.

The bill has been a major focus for Trump, who has been unable to pass significant legislation since he took office last January.

{articleGUID}

A typical family of four earning the median family income of $73,000 will receive a tax cut of $2,059, Republicans said when they unveiled the final version of the bill last Friday.

Democrats, who were opposed to the legislation, said it unfairly rewards corporations and wealthy Americans and would add $1.5 trillion to the federal deficit over the next 10 years while raising taxes on some middle-class families, according to Reuters.

Some Democratic legislators have called it a tax scam, while the Democrat-leaning Huffington Post headlined with The heist is here.

Honored to preside as the Senate voted to pass @POTUS historic pro-growth, pro-jobs tax cuts for the American people. #MAGA pic.twitter.com/LfayXxqnTw  Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) December 20, 2017

But Trump said the bills focus is on creating jobs and giving tax cuts to the countrys middle class.

The heart of our bill is a tremendous amount of relief for the middle class, including a doubling of the child tax credit and a nearly doubling of the standard deduction. Thats going to be tremendous for people, Trump said during the cabinet meeting.

He said Americans would start seeing the results of those cuts in February.

Trump also boasted about cutting hundreds and hundreds of regulations through the tax measure.

We have plenty of regulation. Regulation is not the worst thing. But overregulation is. Were stifling in our country, he said.

Winners and losers

Under the legislation, income tax rates will be reduced across all seven individual tax brackets.

But the bill gives individual citizens and married couples that fall into the highest income bracket  earning $500,000 and up annually  the largest income tax cut, which will drop from 39.6 to 37 percent.

The corporate tax rate will be lowered from 35 percent to 21 percent, effective January 1.

The cuts are projected to add about $1.46 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, which is just shy of the $1.5 trillion the bill is allowed to cost.

{articleGUID}

According to the Tax Policy Center, an independent analysis centre run by the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, households would get an average tax cut of about 1.6 percent of after-tax income thanks to the bill, or about $1,200.

However the bill will reduce taxes three times as much for business owners than for workers, the centre estimated.

For example, individuals who make their salaries from wages would get an average cut of 1.5 percent of after-tax income, but owners of pass-through businesses such as partnerships and sole proprietorships would get an average tax cut of 4.3 percent of their after-tax income.

A pass-through business is not subjected to the corporate tax rate. Instead, business profits are passed on to the business owner, who reports that income on his or her individual income tax return and pays taxes on it that way.

That means a software engineer may pay less in taxes as a consultant than as an employee  even if she does exactly the same work at exactly the same pay.

Or, a partner in a real estate development firm might get a far bigger tax cut than a surgeon employed by a hospital, even though their income is the same. This violates a basic rule of good tax policy: that taxpayers with similar situations should be treated similarly, the centre said.

But while corporations will see their taxes lowered indefinitely, tax breaks for individuals will only remain in place until the end of 2025.

Other changes

The bill boosts the Child Tax Credit from $1,000 to $2,000 for single filers and married couples. It will begin to phase out for families making $400,000 annually.

The bill also eliminates what is known as the individual mandate penalty tax in the Affordable Care Act health plan, also known as Obamacare.

The individual mandate imposes financial penalties on people who do not have health insurance, without a valid exemption.

{articleGUID}

According to a Congressional Budget Office report released last month, getting rid of the individual mandate would lower the federal budget deficit by $338bn.

But insurance premiums would go up by about 10 percent while the number of people without health insurance would go from four million in 2019 to 13 million in 2027, the report found.

The bill also eliminates what is known as the alternative minimum tax.

This tax  which can apply to corporations and individuals  is designed to capture more income tax from households that would otherwise claim large deductions and have less tax liability, according to a report by the Tax Foundation, a tax policy non-profit group.

The House-Senate Conference Committee said getting rid of this tax would allow job creators to focus on growing their business and hiring more workers, rather than on burdensome paperwork.

Strong criticism

Democrats have come out strongly against the legislation, but without the votes in either House of Congress, could not do much to stop it from passing.

A UN rights expert also recently criticised Trumps plan for tax reform, saying it stakes out Americas bid to become the most unequal society in the world and will greatly increase income inequality.

{articleGUID}

The bill is essentially a bid to make the US the world champion of extreme inequality, Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and rights, said in a preliminary report released last week.

Alston said the bill will shred crucial dimensions of the US social safety net and gut social programmes.

Childrens Defense Fund, a nonprofit organisation working to reduce poverty among children, has previously called the proposed tax plan unjust, expansive and immoral.

A provision in the bill would also open up a key ecological area in the Arctic to oil and gas exploration, a move that has been condemned by environmental and indigenous rights groups, as well as Democratic legislators.

Future generations should have access to enjoy the same public lands that we do. Protecting the wonder of the #ArcticRefuge from drilling is one of many reasons we must fight the GOPs tax scam.  Senator Patty Murray (@PattyMurray) December 13, 2017

This legislation threatens irreversible ecological destruction of this pristine landscape in order to deliver tax breaks to billionaires, environmental group EarthJustice said in a petition against the tax reform plan.
Countries put on notice for intending to vote for resolution decrying US recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital.

US President Donald Trump has threatened to cut aid to countries that vote in favour of a draft UN resolution condemning the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Trump said at the White House on Wednesday the US would be watching those votes in the General Assembly.

They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us. Well, were watching those votes. Let them vote against us. Well save a lot. We dont care, Reuters news agency quoted Trump as saying.

The UN General Assembly will hold an emergency session on Thursday to vote on the controversial US decision.

The motion is expected to pass easily in the 193-member UN body, but it will be non-binding.

Trumps comments came after Nikki Haley, US ambassador to the UN, sent threatening letters to UN member states, urging them to vote against the motion.

Haley also said on Twitter the US will be taking names of countries that vote in favour of the resolution.

At the UN we're always asked to do more & give more. So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl, abt where to locate OUR embassy, we don't expect those we've helped to target us. On Thurs there'll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names. pic.twitter.com/ZsusB8Hqt4  Archive: Ambassador Nikki Haley (@AmbNikkiHaley) December 19, 2017

Riyad al-Malki, Palestinian foreign minister, on Wednesday accused the US of threatening member countries of the UN General Assembly in advance of the vote.

Malki said American officials were committing another mistake when they have distributed this famous letter trying to threaten countries, [and] threaten their sovereign decision to choose how to vote.

This is really a new definition of world order in politics and it seems that the American administration  are putting their stamp on a new political reality that many countries will reject, Malki said.

The UN session would show how many countries will opt to vote with their conscience.

Trump declared on December 6 Jerusalem to be Israels capital and announced the intention to move its embassy to the city.

The contentious move prompted large-scale protests and condemnation from leaders around the world.

US veto

The US vetoed on Tuesday an Egyptian-sponsored UN Security Council resolution that called on countries not to establish diplomatic missions in Jerusalem.

The US was outnumbered 14 to 1 when it vetoed that resolution.

Al Jazeeras Mike Hanna, reporting from the UN headquarters in New York, said the Swedish ambassador to the UN has signalled the country would vote in favour of the resolution.

What were going to be seeing in the General Assembly Thursday, on that particular vote, is likely to be a sweeping condemnation now not just of attempts to alter the status of Jerusalem, but also in a way an opinion poll on President Trumps isolationist policies, he said.
Donald Trumps tax reform bill lowers individual and corporate tax rates but critics say it unjustly benefits the rich.

The US Senate has narrowly approved a sweeping overhaul of the tax law, putting President Donald Trump on the brink of his first major legislative victory, in what his opponents called a scam and a heist.

After hours of debate, the US Senate passed the motion in the early morning hours on Wednesday, 51-48, with the votes falling along party lines.

The bill hit a procedural snag  minor changes needed to be made in order for the legislation to comply with Senate rules  and it will be sent back to the House of Representatives for a second vote on Wednesday.

After easily passing in the House on Tuesday, the Associated Press described it as a temporary speed bump as the legislation moves to Trumps desk, where it is expected to be signed into order before the Christmas holiday break.

The deepest rewrite of the tax code in three decades provides dramatic tax breaks to US corporations, and families at all incomes levels will see their income tax drop starting next year, with the largest benefits going to the rich.

This really is a generational defining moment, Paul Ryan, the Republican speaker of the House, said before the vote.

This is our country. This is our moment. We will reclaim the principles that have guided us for generations so that our nation is more united, more confident, and more free. pic.twitter.com/9EpTgQg4wK  Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) December 19, 2017

Last week, the president said the tax plan  the first major change to the US tax code since 1986  would fulfil a campaign promise to give middle-class Americans a substantial tax cut before the end of the year.

We want to give you, the American people, a giant tax cut for Christmas, Trump said on December 13.

{articleGUID}

A typical family of four earning the median family income of $73,000 will receive a tax cut of $2,059, Republicans said when they unveiled the final version of the bill last Friday.

This is a historic moment for the American people, said Kevin Brady, a Republican congressman from Texas and chair of the House-Senate Conference Committee that drafted the bill.

For the first time in 31 years, the House and the Senate have now come together to deliver pro-growth tax reform that will help more Americans across our country keep more of their hard-earned money, he said in a statement.

Speaking after the vote, Brady added that on January 1, America will have a new tax code for a new era of American prosperity.

Tax scam

Democrats, who were opposed to the legislation, said it unfairly rewards corporations and wealthy Americans and would add $1.5 trillion to the federal deficit over the next 10 years while raising taxes on some middle-class families, according to Reuters.

Some Democratic legislators have called it a tax scam, while the Democrat-leaning Huffington Post headlined with The heist is here.

But Trump said the bill will create jobs, raise wages, close special interest loopholes, and cut taxes on US businesses. When government loosens its grip, there is no summit we cannot reach, he said last week.

Honored to preside as the Senate voted to pass @POTUS historic pro-growth, pro-jobs tax cuts for the American people. #MAGA pic.twitter.com/LfayXxqnTw  Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) December 20, 2017

The bill has been a major focus for Trump, who has been unable to pass significant legislation since he took office last January.

To pass, it needed to gain approval in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, where Republicans hold a slim majority.

Mike Pence, US vice-president, postponed a planned visit to Israel and Egypt because he is committed to see the tax cut through to the finish line, a spokesperson from his office said. Pence presided over the Senate vote on Tuesday.

Winners and losers

Under the legislation, income tax rates will be reduced across all seven individual tax brackets.

But the bill gives individual citizens and married couples that fall into the highest income bracket  earning $500,000 and up annually  the largest income tax cut, which will drop from 39.6 to 37 percent.

The corporate tax rate will be lowered from 35 percent to 21 percent, effective January 1.

The cuts are projected to add about $1.46 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, which is just shy of the $1.5 trillion the bill is allowed to cost.

{articleGUID}

According to the Tax Policy Center, an independent analysis centre run by the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, households would get an average tax cut of about 1.6 percent of after-tax income thanks to the bill, or about $1,200.

However the bill will reduce taxes three times as much for business owners than for workers, the centre estimated.

For example, individuals who make their salaries from wages would get an average cut of 1.5 percent of after-tax income, but owners of pass-through businesses such as partnerships and sole proprietorships would get an average tax cut of 4.3 percent of their after-tax income.

A pass-through business is not subjected to the corporate tax rate. Instead, business profits are passed on to the business owner, who reports that income on his or her individual income tax return and pays taxes on it that way.

That means a software engineer may pay less in taxes as a consultant than as an employee  even if she does exactly the same work at exactly the same pay.

Or, a partner in a real estate development firm might get a far bigger tax cut than a surgeon employed by a hospital, even though their income is the same. This violates a basic rule of good tax policy: that taxpayers with similar situations should be treated similarly, the centre said.

But while corporations will see their taxes lowered indefinitely, tax breaks for individuals will only remain in place until the end of 2025.

Other changes

The bill boosts the Child Tax Credit from $1,000 to $2,000 for single filers and married couples. It will begin to phase out for families making $400,000 annually.

The bill also eliminates what is known as the individual mandate penalty tax in the Affordable Care Act health plan, also known as Obamacare. The individual mandate imposes financial penalties on people who do not have health insurance, without a valid exemption.

{articleGUID}

According to a Congressional Budget Office report released last month, getting rid of the individual mandate would lower the federal budget deficit by $338b.

But insurance premiums would go up by about 10 percent while the number of people without health insurance would go from four million in 2019 to 13 million in 2027, the report found.

The bill also eliminates what is known as the alternative minimum tax.

This tax  which can apply to corporations and individuals  is designed to capture more income tax from households that would otherwise claim large deductions and have less tax liability, according to a report by the Tax Foundation, a tax policy non-profit group.

The House-Senate Conference Committee said getting rid of this tax would allow job creators to focus on growing their business and hiring more workers, rather than on burdensome paperwork.

Strong criticism

Democrats have come out strongly against the legislation, but without the votes in either House of Congress, could not do much to stop it from passing.

On Twitter before the Senate vote, Diane Feinstein, a Democratic senator from California, said the bill was a disaster that raises taxes on millions of middle-class Americans and balloons the federal deficit.

To review, the #GOPTaxPlan:  Unfairly harms Californians by limiting state and local deductions.

 Raises taxes on millions of middle-class families.

 Balloons the federal deficit. The Senate will vote on this bill in a matter hours. It's a disaster.  Senator Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) December 19, 2017

A United Nations rights expert also recently criticised Trumps plan for tax reform, saying it stakes out Americas bid to become the most unequal society in the world and will greatly increase income inequality.

{articleGUID}

The bill is essentially a bid to make the US the world champion of extreme inequality, Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and rights, said in a preliminary report released last week.

Alston said the bill will shred crucial dimensions of the US social safety net and gut social programmes.

Childrens Defense Fund, a nonprofit organisation working to reduce poverty among children, has previously called the proposed tax plan unjust, expansive and immoral.

A provision in the bill would also open up a key ecological area in the Arctic to oil and gas exploration, a move that has been condemned by environmental and indigenous rights groups, as well as Democratic legislators.

Future generations should have access to enjoy the same public lands that we do. Protecting the wonder of the #ArcticRefuge from drilling is one of many reasons we must fight the GOPs tax scam.  Senator Patty Murray (@PattyMurray) December 13, 2017

This legislation threatens irreversible ecological destruction of this pristine landscape in order to deliver tax breaks to billionaires, environmental group EarthJustice said in a petition against the tax reform plan.

Future generations should have access to enjoy the same public lands that we do. Protecting the wonder of the #ArcticRefuge from drilling is one of many reasons we must fight the GOPs tax scam, Democratic Senator Patty Murray said on Twitter.
There is so much confusion about the meaning of the term. In fact, "liberalism" seems to be a word at war with itself. For example, "illiberal" means "restricting freedom of thought or behavior." Yet people in government who call themselves "liberal" used the force of law to impose politically correct thought and behavior on a Christian baker who declined to provide a wedding cake for a same-sex couple because of his faith. So we have an illiberal policy, imposed by "liberals." What is going on here?

The key to untangling the confusion is this one remarkable fact: in politics, the term "liberal" today means the precise opposite of what it meant to America's founders. The important point to understand is that the name of liberalism was confiscated by the political enemies of (true) liberalism.

The term "liberal" comes from the Latin "liber," meaning "free." Liberalism originally referred to the philosophy of liberty, the great tradition in political thinking the American founders did so much to define and advance. Washington's celebrated "Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport" of 1790 makes perfectly clear how the founders used the term: "The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy  a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience[.]" According to the founders, "liberal" is all about liberty. In their time, the word was not at war with itself.

The liberalism of the American founders focused on reining in the powers of government. The purpose of the founders' design of the government was protecting our unalienable rights from encroachment by people in the government. But today's so-called liberals are dedicated to expanding government into every area of life and to attacking the safeguards of liberty in the founders' design. Whether they are using Obamacare to force Americans to buy government-approved insurance or attacking the Electoral College and the 1st and 2nd Amendments, they are the sworn enemies of the founders' gift to us.

Ludwig von Mises puts it like this in his book Liberalism:

In the United States "liberal" means today a set of ideas and political postulates that in every regard are the opposite of all that liberalism meant to the preceding generations. The American self-styled liberal aims at government omnipotence, is a resolute foe of free enterprise, and advocates all-round planning by the authorities[.] ... Every measure aiming at confiscating some of the assets of those who own more than the average or at restricting the rights of the owners of property is considered as liberal and progressive.

Today, "liberal" and "progressive" often travel together as virtual synonyms, but originally the Progressives made it clear they were the enemies of liberalism. The Progressives intended to replace America's founding principles with new, improved Progressive principles. Instead of overthrowing the American system by means of a bloody revolution, their plan was to do it progressively, one step at a time.

To understand Progressivism, let's start with Woodrow Wilson. He proudly called himself a Progressive, and here he is making clear what he thought of the founders' ideas: "No doubt a great deal of nonsense has been talked about the inalienable rights of the individual, and a great deal that was mere vague sentiment and pleasing speculation has been put forward as fundamental principle[.]" "Nonsense," he said of the principles of the American founders.

Wilson was a disciple of the 19th-century German philosopher GWF Hegel. According to Hegel, the process of history itself renders the ideas of each earlier period obsolete. Therefore, according to Hegel and to Wilson, the founders' principles were relevant only to the time of the founders. The founders believed that the proposition that all men are created equal is, as Lincoln said, "an abstract truth applicable to all men and all times." According to Hegel and Wilson, it was merely an idea for another time.

By championing Hegel, Wilson played a leading role in introducing an alien strain of thought into the American body politic, a strain of thought that rejected the self-evident truths and the unalienable rights of the founders. Hegel rejected the idea of individual liberty, exalting the state instead. "One must worship the state as a terrestrial divinity." Consequently, a more accurate name for Wilson's political philosophy would be "statism," though Progressivism was obviously a more appealing-sounding label to present to America's voters. However, that label soon lost its appeal.

The Progressive policies of the Woodrow Wilson era quickly gave Progressivism a bad reputation. FDR was a proud Progressive who had served in the Wilson administration, but running as a Progressive had become politically unwise by 1932. Prohibition, enacted at the crest of the Progressive wave in 1919 during Wilson's administration, had not exactly turned out to be a crowd-pleaser. The country was mired in the Depression, making it painfully clear that the Federal Reserve, one of Progressivism's crown jewels, had not in fact smoothed out the business cycle as promised. And the Progressive income tax, another of Progressivism's most prized accomplishments, was a sore point for many voters.

Time for a name change!

And what a change it was. Nowhere is FDR's genius for politics more evident than in his decision to call himself a liberal. FDR stole the label of the philosophy of liberty and bestowed it on the Progressives. Thanks to FDR, the illiberal party of the state  the party of government, the self-proclaimed political enemies of the classical liberalism of the founders and of limited government  got away with calling itself liberal.

FDR's theft left the proponents of the philosophy of liberty without a name. What should they call themselves? As Charles Kesler writes in his book I Am the Change: "FDR suggested, helpfully, that they ought to call themselves conservatives, a designation they were loath to accept because it sounded ... vaguely un-American[.] ... Robert Taft, 'Mr. Conservative,' was still insisting he was a liberal in 1946." The people who wanted America to continue to live according to the Constitution at first resisted taking FDR's helpful suggestion. They finally gave in when they decided that the Progressive theft of their name had succeeded.

The philosophy of America's founding documents is the classical liberalism of the founders. It has been under attack in politics and academia by the Progressives for over one hundred years. Consequently, it is now only dimly remembered, if at all, even by those Americans who are alarmed by what the Progressives are doing to America.

Robert Curry serves on the Board of Directors of the Claremont Institute and on the Board of Distinguished Advisers of the Ronald Reagan Center for Freedom and Understanding. He is the author of Common Sense Nation: Unlocking the Forgotten Power of the American Idea from Encounter Books. You can preview the book here.
Middle-fingered the establishment. Railed against "the Queen." Thumbed his nose at manners. Spit on convention. Name-called. Talked dirty. Fought dirty. Fought back. Cursed. Infuriated the press. Didn't need to be liked. Pissed on the old rules. Made mayhem. Made sense.

Donald Trump is the punk rock president.

Trump's raw, paradigm-nuking candidacy was a flip of the bird to the entrenched, systemic corruption of the establishment. He threatened the status quo and the elites in the same way punk rock threatened corporate rock and disco in the late '70s  seeking nothing less, in both instances, than their total destruction. Very Johnny Rotten.

The fire in the belly of punk rock is the same incendiary source that ignited Trump's rise. It is rooted in the rejection of a gamed system and is wedded to confrontation. The disaffected youth of the late 1970s were surrounded by things that infuriated them: dwindling job prospects; staid, safe, bourgeois music on the radio; and a system designed to keep them down. They were angry and insulted  and they weaponized that discontent into a powerful cultural force.

Trump did the same. He was furious about the lies of the Clintons, about political correctness, and about Obama's assaults on the Constitution. He also never forgot or forgave Obama's mean girl mockery of him at the 2011 White House Correspondents' Dinner. All of these sharpened Trump's resolve to upend the apple cart. And so he did  flipping it upside-down proper on November 8, 2016.

Turns out the corrective for "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees was "God Save the Queen" by the Sex Pistols. And the corrective for Barack Obama was Donald Trump.

Trump's ascendancy mirrors punk's hostile takeover of the culture in that both were examples of unskilled outsiders, with little to no experience in their respective fields, rising up with a ton of attitude to lay waste to the powers that be. Punk rockers were often musicians in only the most generous sense of that word. Many had barely played their instruments at all before they threw themselves on stage in front of an audience. They made it up as they went along.

So did Trump. He likewise had zero political experience and was rough around the edges in his debates and during unscripted moments. Trump flew by the seat of his pants and seemed to improvise as he went along, relying on his persona and his attitude. Punk made no apologies for its rawness and its realness  and neither did Trump. Punk bands were often loud and obnoxious, and their lack of calculation was euphoric for the genre's acolytes. This was also true for Trump's supporters who saw their unconventional candidate willing to throw caution, decorum, and political correctness to the dogs.

Like the wave of punk bands who bonfired respect for cultural icons such as the queen of England and American royalty (think the Sex Pistols, the Dead Kennedys) Trump also had no problem insulting war heroes (John McCain), imaginary American Indians (Elizabeth Warren), and the reigning dynasties of American political life for the last 40 years (the Bushes and the Clintons). When Trump emptied his clip, the strafing disrespect was every bit as much a shock to civilized society, the left, and the media as it was when punk bands first roamed the earth with their safety-pinned cheeks and hosanna of "F yous."

But while it spit its discontent with the wild-eyed fervor of youth, punk rock, like so many contra-movements, never had an idea what might replace the corrupted system it railed against. This is true in politics as well: when you change regimes without a cogent plan, anarchy may ensue. We saw this happen in the aftermath of the Iraq War; in the Arab Spring; and in Libya, after Hillary Clinton's, Barack Obama's, and Susan Rice's feckless decision to oust Gaddafi resulted in a country in flames  with a newly established and burgeoning slave trade. (Thanks, elites.)

So did Trump have any plan beyond MAGA when he defeated Hillary Clinton in a clear referendum on Barack Obama's presidency? His critics are a chorus of "no!" on this question, and certainly he's had many embarrassing missteps, including the roll-out of his immigration ban, his turnover of Cabinet members, and his inability to deliver on the promised repeal of Obamacare. But is Trump's presidency the dumpster fire of ineptitude his haters claim?

Even his most ardent detractors would concede that Trump's Cabinet picks have been impressive, by and large, and his nomination of constitutional originalist Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court was a triumph. Precipitous job growth, a booming stock market, and a farewell to the TPP count as unqualified successes. The Supreme Court has now upheld the immigration ban sometime attorney general Sally Yates and the lower courts virtue-signaled and grandstanded against. And Trump has now achieved his first major legislative win with tax reform. So, not unlike the many punk bands who almost inadvertently found themselves becoming decent musicians the more they failed and forged ahead, Trump fought through his mistakes, warmed to the job, and began to notch wins, almost in spite of himself.

Much of this is due to a willingness to roll up his shirtsleeves. Trump is a workhorse. He proved it during his tireless 2016 campaign, when he ran circles around the self-satisfied, moribund Clinton campaign and stayed up late into the night  to the consternation of many of his supporters. But his trigger-worthy tweets and day-to-day incitements of the left belie a wily calculation. Trump often throws a tweet that-a-way to draw attention from what he wants you to miss over here  like a street hustler playing a shell game.

The president is also far more considered than the hysterical media would have us believe. When things were chaotic, he brought in General Kelly to establish order. Trump's clear-eyed agenda enabled him to help win the war against ISIS in Raqqa, roll back Obama-era regulations, sign more bills into law than any president in over a half century, and reduce the power of the Executive Branch to return it to its pre-Obama checks and balances with the other two branches of government.

In his work ethic and his unexpected discipline, Trump recalls the proto-punk gods The Ramones, who toured virtually nonstop for nearly 22 years, barely stopping to even take a breath between songs. As any fan of their live shows can attest, Ramones concerts were essentially one long, awesome song, broken up every two to three minutes by a loud count of "1, 2, 3, 4!" The Ramones turned a Queens-based, outer-borough attitude into a well oiled machine of contempt for convention and the establishment. And they did it with a sense of humor. Sound like someone we know?

And just in case you think comparing the counter-culture anarchy of punk rock to a loudmouth billionaire who wears a (too long) tie is a laughable stretch, consider this: John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) recently stated that Trump "terrifies politicians," which is a "joy to behold for me." He further wondered aloud if Trump might be "a possible friend" and referred to him as a "political Sex Pistol."

My fellow citizens, I give you your president: Donny Rotten.

God save America  I mean it, man!
The politician that runs the University of California wants to give the rest of the nation advice on how to handle free speech. University of California President Janet Napolitano recently created a national think tank open to discussion of the premise that the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution that guarantees free speech should be modified according to changing student views. Because funding for the center will come from the UC presidential endowment, as well as private philanthropic efforts, Napolitano apparently is subject to no financial accountability to the university she serves as chief executive.

Napolitano named herself Chairwoman of the National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement, located at the University of Californias Washington DC Center. Two UC administrators will act as her co-chairs and eight nationally-known trustees, including Barbara Boxer, act as the board. All but one trustee  a UCLA law student seeking a process to navigate the [free speech] gray area that we are in right now  are from outside UC.

The Center will select 20 fellows every year to help shape the national debate about free speech and civic engagement.

The Center appears to have sprung full-blown from Napolitanos immediate staff with no review by the faculty-run UC Academic Senate or agenda action by the UC Board of Regents. A UCLA dean declared Im as surprised as you are!

A nonacademic, Napolitano is a master of amassing bureaucratic power. Last year she engineered a change in the University of California Board governance and bylaws so that most questionable decisions raised there are to be decided by the University President (Napolitano). And she is politically deft, having likely ensured UCs continuous involvement in managing Los Alamos National Laboratory by partnering with Texas A&M University, the alma mater of the U.S. Secretary of Energy, who will make the final decision.

Her arguments for the free speech Center ring hollow.

Napolitano applies straw men rationales. She characterizes current constitutional free speech as free speech Darwinism, too harsh for todays snowflakes. But no thinking professor would introduce To Kill a Mockingbird, for example, without preparing students by discussing the novels time and Jim Crow setting. Napolitano advocates her version of safe spaces, specially created places where students can gather with others of similar backgrounds to share experiences and support one another. But students from similar backgrounds currently are not prohibited from gathering together on campus if they so choose.

Napolitanos main basis for advocating a change in free speech norms is the changed demographics of the University of California student body since UC Berkeleys 1960s Free Speech Movement, when 55 percent of students were male and mainly white. Todays UC students are 53 percent women; 42 percent are first in their families to attend college; 40 percent of this years entering class self-identify as either black, Latino/Latina, or from another underrepresented ethnic or racial group; others raise the issue of their sexual identity.

Napolitano then links todays college demographics to the 2016 Gallup/Knight Foundation Surveys free speech findings -- 72 percent of college students would restrict political speech that may upset or offend members of certain groups and two-thirds of college students would restrict slurs and other offending language intended to offend specific groups of people. Napolitano combines these findings that some of todays students seem less wedded to First Amendment values than previous generations with changes in college students demographics, and implies the combination could curtail the social Darwinism of constitutional free speech.

That is why her administration introduced faculty training to recognize microaggressions, everyday expressions about which some students may become frustrated or angry. Professors should avoid saying America is a land of opportunity and I believe the most qualified person should get the job and calling a student articulate.

However, alternative explanations of the Gallup/Knight findings readily come to mind. Many students enter college with inadequate high school instruction in civics and their free speech rights. And many colleges waive college-level classes in civics and the U.S. Constitution for students with credits in such high school classes, seriously reducing college students knowledge about these topics. For example, What Will They Learn?, the 2017-18 Report of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, finds only 17.6 percent of 1,100 U.S. higher education institutions require a course in U.S. Government or History.

More importantly, the 2017 Survey of Americas College Students by Hart Research Associates for The Panetta Institute of Public Policy contradicts Gallup/Knights free speech findings. Hart reports a majority (68%) of students feel that protecting free speech is more important than making sure that people do not feel hurt, while 32% believe the opposite. And a majority of students (64%) feel that their schools are striking the right balance between protecting free speech and preventing hate speech. These measures remained steady since the previous year. Furthermore, more than two-thirds (69%) say inviting controversial speakers to campus is a good thing because it stimulates debate and thought while 31% say controversial speakers should be avoided to make sure all students feel safe.

Before rushing headlong to support one viewpoint, a serious scholar would acknowledge and resolve these contradictory survey results.

The UC Academic Senate should call time out regarding Napolitanos Free Speech Center. The U.C. Academic Senate should determine the costs of the proposed Center and then consider alternative uses for these funds. Would fees from administering the National Labs be utilized? Would the funds be better spent on grad student post-docs and/or on joint research projects between UC profs and lab researchers? What alternative methods to shape the national debate about free speech could be introduced to better utilize the talents of U.C. scholars? For example, The Volokh Conspiracy, one of the most widely-read blogs in the Country administered by UCLA Law Professor and First Amendment specialist Eugene Volokh, could provide a possible discussion and publication venue.

My recommendation is to follow the UCLA Daily Bruin comment of UCLA student garyfouse, that the time and effort devoted to the Napolitanos Center could be better spent protecting free speech on UC campuses, something that is a definite problem.

Velma Montoya, Ph.D. (Economics, UCLA) is a former Regent of the University of California.
The thought of Civil War has been in the minds of many people lately, on both sides of the political and cultural divide. This is not a thing to be wished for, though no one should kid themselves into believing its impossible either. Let us take a sober look at what such a conflict might entail.

To begin with, it would not look like the first American Civil War, which was essentially a war between two regions of the country with different economic interests. The divide created two separate countries, both initially contiguous, intact, and relatively homogeneous. The lines of demarcation now are only somewhat regional, and tend to correspond to differences between urban and rural populations, as well as differences of race and class. A second American Civil War would be much more similar to the Spanish Civil War, with the leftists dominating the cities and conservatives controlling the countryside. Conflicts of this nature, with enemies mixed geographically, are a formula for spontaneous mass bloodletting. India-Pakistan during the 1947 partition comes to mind as another modern example. Given an absence of legitimate government and the friction of proximity, ordinary people can be moved to settle grievances by killing one another without the need for governments to egg them on.

Some dimensions of a future civil war would be, I think, largely unprecedented. When lesser countries have imploded in violence in recent times, they have done so with most of the world around them still intact. There were other nations to offer aid, assistance and intervention, welcome or unwelcome. There were places for refugees to go. The collapse of the worlds remaining superpower would take much of the world down with it. A global economic crisis would be inevitable. The withdrawal of American forces from bases across the world to fight at home would also create a power vacuum that others, even under economic strain, would be tempted to exploit. Whichever side gained control of our nuclear arsenal, our status as a nuclear power would probably persuade other nations not to interfere in our conflict militarily, but the collapse of trade alone would produce crippling effects that would be hard to overestimate. Many components for products our manufacturing sector makes are globally sourced. Add to this the breakdown of our transportation system, dependent on oil and transecting one new front line after another. The internet would fail. It is a frail enough now. Financial systems would fail. What happens if the banks find half their assets suddenly in hostile territory? All Federal government functions, including Social Security, would fail, many of them losing their very legitimacy to one side or the other. Food production, heavily dependent on diesel fuel, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, not to mention a steady supply of genetically engineered seeds, would slump alarmingly. In short, most things we depend on are now held together by a network of delicate and complex connections. Without those connections, would you have a job? If so, in what medium of exchange could your employers manage to pay you? What would there be for you to buy? Does your town, your county, or even your state have the ability to marshal its resources into a viable economy? How many people in those entities could deal with anything worse than a weather disaster, in which they count on the fact that help is coming soon?

From an economic perspective, I think it is fair to say that the left would have a bigger problem than the right. Cities cannot feed themselves under any conditions, and what food could be grown on Americas resource-starved farms would be gobbled up by people nearer and dearer to the farmers. Leftists would have to both secure vast territories around their urban strongholds and relearn from scratch the generations-lost art of food production. Liberal enclaves stranded in the hinterland would simply be untenable. We, on the other hand, would be critically short of new Hollywood movies. Without a steady supply of the works of Meryl Streep and Matt Damon, millions of conservatives would instantly drop dead from boredom  that is, according to Meryl Streep.

Up through the middle of the 20th century, cities were major hubs of industry, but liberal preoccupations with environmentalism have driven much of our surviving industry into rural areas. The domination of the South by the sheer scale of Northern industry that happened in the 1860s would not repeat itself in a future war. Both sides would probably have the means to manufacture basic military essentials, but producing sophisticated items like fighter planes would be simply too complex for the remaining economic base. It would be a war of soldiers, not of million-dollar robots. Were the war to stretch into years, the left would likely destroy their own economy with unfettered socialistic policies. This actually happened to the Spanish Republic in the 1930s. I can image their modern counterparts struggling to make eco-friendly weapons and organize culturally-sensitive, politically-correct collective farms.

Militarily, the left has other problems. They have saddled themselves with a longstanding disdain for military history and thought. A mob of whiney, untrained Antifa or BLM protestors doth not an army make. In recent decades, the left has sought not so much to co-opt the military as to rot it from within. When your idea of a military hero is Bowe Bergdahl or Bradley call-me-Chelsea Manning, it is evident that youve planned to fight your battles exclusively in the movies. The officer corps, or the part of it thats worth the name, is ours. Although the left probably has a certain pool of minority ex-soldiers to draw on, I doubt they have a single general officer that still has his original issue genitalia. Ill take a Texan and a Tar Heel against a metrosexual and a social justice warrior any day -- while admitting that the latter might conduct a far more colorful parade. Much would depend on how the military happened to fragment, but even if one side or the other got the lions share of it there simply arent enough soldiers in the armed forces to garrison the entire country. More troops would have to be raised, equipped, and trained.

The right would probably win a real war, for all the reasons I have sketched above. I suspect it wouldnt take the three years to decide the issue that it took in Spain, but predicting a short war has usually proven to be a fools occupation. Long or short, tens of millions of people would likely starve to death before war and reconstruction were over -- far more than would die in actual fighting. Having seen a person starve to death, it is not a fate Id wish on friends and family members -- or even on my enemies. It might be, after all the legal shenanigans are done, the necessary cost of keeping western society alive -- but it would no heroic action movie. Utopian ideologies die hard. War is hell.
It's a perfect Christmas gift for conservatives: Senate Democrats beclowning themselves in defense of a professional clown who sits among them. Poor Al Franken was relegated to the status of collateral damage in the desperation of his Senate Democrat colleagues to use claims of sexual harassment as a tool to expel Roy Moore, the presumptive winner of Alabama's special election to replace Jeff Sessions. Instead, they watched as Moore was defeated, and the expectation that Moore would be a handy albatross to hang on the neck of President Donald Trump evaporated before their eyes. They had anticipated that the expulsion of Moore would lead to Democrat congressional majorities and thus the nirvana of impeachment, the holy grail of Democrat politics at the moment.

Franken's promise to resign "in the coming weeks" was an obvious move to hedge against the possibility of Moore being defeated. And now that there is no political gain to be had from forcing Franken out, two Democrat senators are publicly stating their regrets, while two others are sneakily privately telling journalists they also regret their haste in joining the mob demanding the end of Franken's political career.

There can be little doubt that Franken, who adores the status of being a senator, really, really doesn't want to resign. The problem is that repudiating his promise would be more than a little embarrassing, even though Franken has never confessed to actual misbehavior and never really apologized for it, either.

The reasons publicly being offered by the two willing to speak on the record are self-discrediting on their own, only in part because they are dishonest about the real reason  the planned expulsion of Moore  they took that position in the first place. The remarks on their face constitute evidence that the senators are not to be trusted because they rush to judgment and follow the psychology of the mob.

Here is what Joe Manchin  who never called on Franken to resign  had to say, on the record, to Politico:

"What they did to Al was atrocious, the Democrats," said West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin in an interview for POLITICO's Off Message podcast to post on Tuesday. ... Manchin ripped into the members who issued statements insisting that Franken resign  only to gather on the Senate floor the next day to watch him announce he was doing just that. "The most hypocritical thing I've ever seen done to a human being  and then have enough guts to sit on the floor, watch him give his speech and go over and hug him? That's hypocrisy at the highest level I've ever seen in my life. Made me sick," Manchin said. He added, "Here's a man, that all he said [was], 'Take me through the Ethics Committee. I will live by whatever decision and I will walk away thinking about this opportunity I've had while I was here. But you find out if I'm a predator.'" Manchin said he hopes Franken reverses his decision, but even more that the senators who led the charge against him reconsider and call for the two-term senator to stay until the ethics process is complete. "I hope they have enough guts ... and enough conscience and enough heart to say, 'Al, we made a mistake asking prematurely for you to leave.'"

The other senator willing to go on the record publicly, Patrick Leahy, has been less effusive:

In a statement released late Monday, Leahy said "I have stood for due process throughout my years as a prosecutor  I regret not doing that this time. The Ethics committee should have been allowed to investigate and make its recommendation."

This is a startling confession for a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, where a lack of regard for due process ought to be disqualifying.

Other senators are, for the moment, sticking by their guns. They are not willing to beclown themselves  yet.

However, keep in mind that the Senate Ethics Committee will take up Franken next year. I would watch closely for signs that that it will give him a pass. If I were Leann Tweeden, who was the first to complain, I would stand by for a campaign of attack intended to discredit her.

If the ethics committee concludes there is no proof that Franken misbehaved, then expect the Democrats to change their minds and start talking about the importance of due process. The rhetoric of "justice" will be employed, with simultaneous vow to hunt down real "anti-woman" offenders (i.e., Republicans). Democrats can spout hypocritical rhetoric like this in their sleep, after all.

If that develops, the lieutenant governor of Minnesota, Tina Smith, the former Planned Parenthood executive who has been named by Governor Mark Dayton as Franken's replacement, will be told to get back in line and wait for her chance to gain national office. Expect her to gain a speaker slot at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.
The unquestioning media support that Democrats receive for their narratives  regardless of their truth or falsity  has led congressional Democrats out on a limb that President Trump is about to saw off, when he signs the tax reform bill. Unlike foreign policy or regulatory reform, people pay much more attention to their personal experience than to political rhetoric. In fact, voters care so much about the economy that they will see that the Democrats have been blowing smoke at them.

James Freeman of the Wall Street Journal calls it "The February Surprise"  the increased paychecks that the vast majority of American workers will experience in February, when the tax reform bill is implemented by IRS issuance of withholding guidelines in January. The contrast between the positive personal results and the extreme rhetoric of Democrats opposing it will come home to voters in a very personal way.

Yesterday, on the House floor, Nancy Pelosi, in the words of Lifezette, went off the deep end, complete with goofy signs.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) accused Republicans on Tuesday of embracing "moral obscenity and unrepentant greed" in the "holy season" by pushing sweeping tax-reform legislation to the finish line less than a week before Christmas. Pelosi warned the GOP to rethink the bill she claimed would benefit the country's richest citizens while engaging in "monumental, brazen theft from the American middle class and from every person who aspires to reach it." "Today we gather on this floor in the midst of a holy season," Pelosi said. "In this holy time, the moral obscenity and unrepentant greed of the GOP tax scam stands out even more clearly." "In this season, we celebrate the miraculous blessings of God. We reflect on the wondrous joy of children and our responsibility to them. We remember our duty to live justly," Pelosi added. "And for those of us blessed to serve in this Congress, we must remember our special responsibility to govern fairly, to meet the needs of all of God's children." But Pelosi was just getting started. She claimed the tax cut bill "does violence to the vision of our Founders" and "disrespects the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform. And it betrays the future and betrays the aspirations of our children."

So the vast majority of Americans will be receiving more pay, even before the economy booms  as it will certainly do barring disastrous events (a war in Korea, for example)  and raises wages. They will figure out that to Nancy and her pals, keeping more of the money you earn is a "moral obscenity."

James Carville long ago coined a dictum that Democrats appear to have forgotten: "It's the economy, stupid." President Trump not only remembers, but can be counted upon to remind us of the Democrats' opposition to letting taxpayers keep more of their money. The nine months between the cuts taking hold and the midterm election is just long enough to give birth to renewed GOP congressional majorities if Republicans play their hand right.
I must confess that I find New Yorks senior senator, Chuck Schumer, annoying at best to listen to. He finds it difficult to speak without a tone of condescension in his voice and characteristically assumes a stance of moral, as well as intellectual, superiority to those who dare to disagree. In other words, a singularly repellant man, whose election and re-election by the voters of New York State remain a mystery to me. Who could stand to vote for such an obnoxious man? Evidently, New Yorkers see his behavior as normal and acceptable.

But yesterday, on the Senate floor, we saw evidence that his colleagues among the Solons share at least some of my aversion to listening to Schumer being his snide and obnoxious self. His anti-tax reform bill rant last night was so crushingly ignored that he complained multiple times that nobody was listening to him.

NBC News (!) tweeted out a 24-second excerpt from his Senate speech that included a demand that the presiding officer of the Senate (Jeff Flake at that particular moment) restore order ("Can we have order, Mr. President?"), meaning stopping the side conversations. He added even more plaintively, "We believe you're messing up America. You could pay attention for a couple of minutes."

"We believe you're messing up America. You could pay attention for a couple of minutes"



Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer asks for order during debate over GOP tax bill on Senate floor. pic.twitter.com/NeGgV28qvV  NBC News (@NBCNews) December 20, 2017

Paula Boyard of PJ Media tweeted out a picture of the only person in the Senate paying attention to Schumer, Patty Murray. This might be because she was the only senator in the field of vision of the C-SPAN TV cameras focused on Schumer. Senators all know that the rules governing C-SPAN's cameras require them to focus only on the speaker, not the reactions of the chamber.

Patty Murray is all of us listening to Chuck Schumer right now. #taxbill pic.twitter.com/7waGkq0zzT  Paula Bolyard (@pbolyard) December 20, 2017

Hat tip: Paula Boyard, PJ Media
Politico's bombshell report published yesterday alleging that the Obama administration ripped apart a government law enforcement program that was probing the terrorist group Hezb'allah's criminal networks around the world is being denied by former Obama officials.

The thrust of the three-part expose is that the government had initiated a huge investigation into drug-running, arms-smuggling, human trafficking, and other criminal enterprises that Hezb'allah was profiting from around the world. That probe was squashed by the White House in order to curry favor with Iran so that a deal on the Iranian nuclear program could be achieved.

The Obama administration believed cracking down on Hezbollah's trafficking would undermine nuclear negotiations. As David Asher, a former Pentagon illicit finance analyst and a key player in Operation Cassandra, told Meyer: "This was a policy decision, it was a systematic decision. They serially ripped apart this entire effort that was very well supported and resourced, and it was done from the top down." The details are troubling. One example involves Ali Fayad, whom DEA agents suspected was the Hezbollah operative who reported directly to Russian president Vladimir Putin as a weapons supplier in Iraq and Syria. In 2014 Fayad was arrested by Czech authorities. Meyer reports that even though Fayad was indicted by U.S. courts for planning the murder of U.S. officials, "top Obama administration officials declined to apply serious pressure on the Czech government to extradite him to the United States, even as Putin was lobbying aggressively against it."

The Obama-era officials went after the Politico reporter responsible for the story instead of addressing its salient facts.

Mediaite:

"These federal investigators were watching and gathering evidence of Hezbollah sort of transforming itself from a political power and a terrorist organization to one that was trafficking in drugs and other criminal conspiracies to make hundreds of millions of dollars," Meyers explained to Shannon Bream. "And the theory was... that were doing it to raise money to help rebuild after the Israel War and to help in expansion they were doing globally. So they gathered evidence, they designated about a couple dozen super facilitators as people that were connected to the conspiracy but when they really tried to delve deeply into these people, they got shot down." Bream then asked Meyer to react to former Obama State Department spokeswoman (and now Fox News contributor) Marie Harf, who said the narrative in the Politico report was "false" and dismissed the anonymous sources as "low-level" and "ideological," as well as former National Security Counsel spokesman Tommy Vietor, who denied that the Obama administration was "soft" on Hezbollah and that the story was a "figment of the imagination." Meyers pointed out a "theme" to these critiques, and while he said he was a "big fan" of Harf's, her assertion that his sources were "low-level" people was "sort of ridiculous." "They were not ideologues. They are not flawed. I don't know what she's talking about," Meyer continued. "These were the people, one was a Pentagon person, one was a DEA person. But I also talked to many, many dozens of other people to get sort of ground truth and see what their allegations were held up to the light of day. So this is not a story in 14,000 words where I was just taking spin from some people."

The major media outlets who have bothered to report on this incredible story are taking their cues from the Obama officials. Nothing to see here; move along.

What the Politico investigation shows is that the Iran nuclear deal was far more than an agreement to curb the Iranian nuclear program. Ultimately, the deal ended up enabling Iran's proxy Hezb'allah to make a difference in the Syrian civil war and allowed the terrorist group to gain huge influence in Iraq by helping the government rid itself of ISIS. Hezb'allah was able to do this because of hundreds of millions of dollars that poured into its coffers  profits from illegal enterprises, including the selling of drugs in the United States.

And the Obama administration could have severely restricted that criminal activity and greatly impacted the terrorist's profits.
White House chief of staff John Kelly met with about a dozen senators yesterday to begin laying the groundwork for a compromise that would keep 800,000 children of illegal aliens from being at risk to be deported.

The potential deal means that the continuing resolution to keep the government funded through January 19 will be addressed without the threat of a government shutdown by Democrats over the DREAMer issue. Some Democrats were insisting that the immigration issue be resolved at the same time that a government funding measure was voted on.

But it appears that with a commitment from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to hold a cloture vote in mid-January on DREAMers, a shutdown has probably been averted.

Politico:

At the Tuesday meeting, Kelly and other administration officials went into detail about how much of the southern border is currently fenced and how much more the White House would want in exchange for a DACA deal, according to people who attended. Senators also pressed the White House on other immigration demands, such as an overhaul of the nation's asylum system or a change in policy toward unaccompanied minors who are apprehended at the southern border, and whether they needed to be included in the current DACA talks. "Which of those policy items, or immigration law changes, do we need to make as part of this and what can wait for something else?" Flake said, summing up the questions from senators. "There's a lot of nice things we need to do as part of broader comprehensive reform, but we need to have a bill in January and we need to know what has to be in it and what the administration will support." The bipartisan group of senators  Flake and Durbin, Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Cory Gardner (R-Colo.)  has discussed a legalization plan that would marry the DREAM Act, drafted by Durbin and Graham, with a more conservative proposal for Dreamers written by Tillis and Lankford, Flake said. Those seven senators attended Tuesday's meeting with Kelly, as did Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas), and Republican Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia.

With the Christmas and New Year's holidays, plus the start of a new congressional term on January 3, it appears that there is precious little time to get a comprehensive measure passed by mid-January. That's why it's likely that only the border wall and the DACA extension will be negotiated.

Don't look for Democrats to acknowledge a "wall" at all. It will be referred to as "enhanced border security." Dems have pledged not to fund the wall and their liberal base will try and hold them to that.

Republicans' commitment to taking up a DACA deal next month won't spare Democrats the fury of liberal groups that have demanded that any spending bill this year include a solution for Dreamers. Democratic leaders have signaled that they won't risk a government shutdown this month to secure relief for the Dreamers, though some lawmakers have vowed to withhold their votes for any must-pass funding measure without an immigration fix. Durbin, the influential second-ranking Senate Democrat, is firmly in the camp of senators who won't vote for a spending bill without help for Dreamers. That group also includes liberal Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Durbin was asked by reporters Tuesday if there was a divide between him and Schumer over where to draw the line on the issue, and acknowledged that there "may be."

Republican nose-counters on the government funding bill believe that the number of Democrats who will oppose the spending bill won't be enough to derail it. You can count on up to half a dozen Republican senators to vote against the continuing resolution, which leaves little margin for error. Trump may have to twist a few Republican arms to prevent the shutdown.

But with the promise to address the measure in January, some of those Democrats who want the issue resolved before the new year may agree to shelve their protest. They realize that voters will take a dim view of the Democratic Party if they shut down the government over an issue that will be resolved before Trump's March deadline.
Purple Heart Ceremony AMHERST COUNCILMEMBER SHAWN LAVIN AND MILITARY ORDER OF THE PURPLE HEART  Chapter 187 Western New York announced that Amherst was designated as a Purple Heart Community on Nov. 9....

Residents express concern over dam repair, zoning code changes Debates grew contentious among board members and residents once again, during Monday evenings Williamsville Village Board meeting. Two hearings were continued for further discussion, and some residents raised concerns about...

Towns seek input on Willow Ridge- Parkview draft action plan The towns of Amherst and Tonawanda are seeking input from residents of the Willow Ridge and Parkview neighborhoods on the recently released Willow Ridge-Parkview draft action plan. The next step...
As the Royal Anguilla Police Force continues its investigation into the murder of Sulamita Fleming-Concepcion of South Hill they continue to appeal to the public for any information they may have concerning the murder.

Fleming-Concepcion whose body was discovered on Tuesday 5th December, 2017 at about 5:00pm in the Shoal Bay died as a result of a number of stab wounds she received.

She was last seen around 12:00 noon on Monday 4th December, 2017 in the area of the Sandy Ground/South Hill roundabout. At the time she was dressed in a light coloured orange top with a long black pant.

As the Police continue its investigation into this incident they continue to appeal to members of the public who may have any information regarding the incident to contact the Valley Police Station with such information. Anyone who may have seen the deceased between 12:00 noon on Sunday 3rd December and 12:00 noon on Monday 4th December 2017 are asked to telephone the Criminal Investigation Department or to speak to any Police Officer of their choice with such information. The telephone number is 497-2333.

Additionally information can be sent via the RAPF Tips Website by logging on to www.gov.ai/911 which is a secure website.
(ANSA) - Milan, December 20 - A Milan judge on Wednesday sent to trial 15 defendants, including Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi and former chief Paolo Scaroni, over alleged bribes paid to land the OPL 245 oil licence in Nigeria. The companies Eni and Shell have been indicted too. The trial will start on March 5. Eni said it was guilty of no wrongdoing and gave its backing to Descalzi following the indictment alleged international corruption over the 2011 acquisition of a stake in the OPL 245 licence.

"Eni's Board of Directors has reaffirmed its confidence that the company was not involved in alleged corrupt activities in relation to the transaction," a statement read. "The Board of Directors also confirmed its full confidence that chief executive Claudio Descalzi was not involved in the alleged illegal conduct and, more broadly, in his role as head of the company.

"Eni expresses its full confidence in the judicial process and that the trial will ascertain and confirm the correctness and integrity of its conduct".


(ANSA) - Rome, December 19 - The supreme Court of Cassation on Tuesday upheld a seven-year term for the former treasurer of a defunct Italian political party for embezzling more than 20 million euros in public election funds. Luigi Lusi, a former Senator in the centre-left Daisy Party, had had hot term reduced from eight years to seven because two misappropriation charges timed out.

The now-defunct Daisy Party was among a number of Italian parties hit by funding scandals in recent years, increasing public disillusionment with politics.

"Justice has been done," said former Daisy chief Francesco Rutelli.

"Honesty and determination have defeated theft and calumny," he said.

"The victory is complete, thanks to the confiscation of the ill-gotten gains, which at our request will be donated to the State".

On appeal, accountant Mario Montecchia's sentence was reduced to three years. This was upheld by the Cassation Court.

Montecchia's former colleagues Giovanni Sebastio and Diana Ferri had their sentences cut to two years and 10 months respectively.

Those terns were also upheld by the supreme court.


Turkey issues 110 arrest warrants for alleged Gulen links Suspects accused of using coup-plotting app

(ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, DECEMBER 20 - Turkish police on Wednesday arrested dozens of people in Istanbul and Ankara on suspicion of links with the alleged coup-plotting network of Fethullah Gulen. In total 110 arrest warrants were issued. In the capital warrants were issued for the arrest of 51 former employees of educational institutions run by 'Gulenists', which were closed under the state of emergency decreed following the failed coup attempt in July 2016. At least 36 of the suspects are accused of downloading ByLock, the app allegedly used by members of the organisation to exchange information. A further 59 arrest warrants were issued in Istanbul for the same charges.



Of these, 30 have already been executed, Anadolu reports.



(ANSAmed).




5.5 mln Catalans to vote in regional elections on Thursday Voting from 9 until 8, 18 candidates in jail or exile

(ANSAmed) - BARCELONA, DECEMBER 20 - Some 5.5 million Catalan voters will be able to cast their ballots Thursday to elect the 135 new MPs of the regional parliament.



The latest figures were released on Wednesday by the central government's representative in Catalonia, Enric Millo. There are 38 lists and the 2,680 voting stations will be open between 9 AM and 8 PM. The elections have been called by Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy through the powers vested in him by the Madrid Senate after the proclamation of the 'Catalan Republic' on October 27 and the subsequent ousting of regional president Carles Puigdemont and his government. Eighteen pro-independence candidates in the elections have been charged with 'rebellion' and 'sedition' for involvement in the political plan for independence, while Puigdemont is in exile in Belgium alongside four ministers and Vice President Oriol Junqueras, the head of the ERC list and the likely winner of the elections according to polls, is in jail in Madrid with three other pro-independence leaders. (ANSAmed).




ANSAmed - Tomorrow's events in the Mediterranean

(ANSAmed) - ROME, DECEMBER 20 - These are the main events scheduled for tomorrow in the Euro-Mediterranean area THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21 ROME - Abarico Theatre, premiere of show "Hijra - Exile of the Flautist" by Moroccan artist Nour Eddine Fatty.



ROME - Foreign Ministry hosts an international conference on 'Dialogue between cultures and religions in promoting peace: 800 years of Franciscan presence in the Holy Land'.



(ANSAmed).




Erdogan denies Ottomans forces looted Medina Turkish president says UAE FM's accusations are baseless

(ANSAmed) - ISTANBUL, DECEMBER 20 - Turkey and the UAE on Wednesday trade accusations over an alleged historical incident.



The two have long been on opposite sides of a Gulf crisis involving Qatar.



The argument erupted after UAE foreign minister Abdullah bin Zayed al-Mahyan retweeted that the Ottoman governor of Medina, Fahreddin Pascia, who was in power between 1916 and 1919, had been accused of sacking the city holy to Islam and stealing some sacred items from the tomb of the Prophet Mohamed that are now exhibited in Istanbul. The tweet was posted on Saturday and accused the Turks of having stolen most of the manuscripts from the Mahmudiyah library and having sent them to Turkey. "These are Erdogan's ancestors, and their history with Arab Muslims,'' read the tweet.



Turkish president Recept Tayyip Erdogan reacted on Wednesday by saying that ''those miserable people who are delirious enough to shamelessly and tirelessly say Erdogan's ancestors stole sacred items from there and brought them to Istanbul - it was to protect them from the people that came to invade''. He then accused the UAE and other countries not explicitly named of ''plotting'' against Turkey, suggesting hostility to the key role taken on by Ankara in the Muslim world as part of the clash over Jerusalem. (ANSAmed).




Holy Land pilgrim numbers down, Pizzaballa says 'Trump's decision on Jerusalem has pushed peace away'

(ANSAmed) - JERUSALEM, DECEMBER 20 - The number of pilgrims travelling to the Holy Land for Christmas has fallen in response to the tension created by Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Monsignor Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Apostolic Administrator of Jerusalem, has said. "Dozens of groups of pilgrims" have cancelled their trip, Pizzaballa told journalists at the traditional pre-Christmas meeting. He then appealed to pilgrims the world over not to renounce their journey. "Unilateral decisions" such as Trump's decision on Jerusalem "will not lead to peace, on the contrary they will push it further away," Pizzaballa said. "Politics is the major absentee right now. And this is a source of frustration and disorientation. There is a need for politics." (ANSAmed).






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 Gulf regions leading conference and trade show for commercial aircraft maintenance, MRO Middle East is focused on commercial aviation maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO). The event offers networking among industry leaders representing airlines, regulators, suppliers, and service providers.

MRO Middle East allows attendees to reach and interact with top-level airline, MRO and OEM executives in the commercial aviation industry, connect with policy and decision makers and find new providers and business opportunities. As the second fastest-growing MRO market, the Middle East is expected to reach $7 billion, the result of 7.3% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) by 2023. Upwards of 5,000 commercial MRO professionals will be in attendance with exhibitors from more than 70 countries.

The MRO Middle East Exhibition (January 23-24), co-located with Aircraft Interiors Middle East (AIME), is open to industry professionals only and will feature a number of key OEMs, MROs, suppliers and manufacturers leading the industry today. The Exhibition Hall is 90 percent sold-out and interested parties that wish to exhibit are encouraged to contact an Aviation Week Events sales rep immediately. Click here to see who is exhibiting.

New this year, Airline Engineering & Maintenance: Middle East will serve as the conference portion of the event and is taking place on January 22. The one-day conference will be attended by key stakeholders in the aviation aftermarket to network and discuss emerging opportunities in the Middle East

Conference speakers include:

Ziad al-Hazmi, CEO of Lufthansa Technik Middle East

Abdulla H. Al-Hudaid, VP M&E, Jazeera Airways

Aqeel Al Zarouni, UAE General Civil Aviation Authority

Ashwani Sharma, VP Engineering & Quality Manager, Air Costa

Frederic Dupont, VP Technical Sales, Etihad Airways Engineering

Guillaume Mille, Head of Flight Hours Services Sales, Airbus

Arun Kashyap, heading of Engineering and Maintenance, SpiceJet Airlines

Yasin Birinci, Turkish Airlines Technic

Aviation Week Network and Tarsus F&E LLC Middle East present MRO Middle East. Platinum Sponsors are HEICO, Satair and StandardAero, and Gold Sponsors are Embraer, Lufthansa Technik and MTU Maintenance.

The rapid growth of the MRO industry in the Middle East, surpassing $4.6 billion annually, shows no signs of slowing down, said Lydia Janow, Managing Director/Events & Tradeshows, Aviation Week Network. MRO Middle East is the leading Gulf region trade show. Professionals involved in any aspect of aviation maintenance, repair, and overhaul will have the opportunity to network with those who are fostering growth in the region, developing cutting-edge technology, and pushing the industry forward.
"I thanked Mr. el-Sisi for the fact that they recognised the SSJ-100 certificate. We will certainly resume the negotiation process. We have identified not only the SSJ but also the MC-21-300. The negotiation process for the aircraft always takes time, but I have the confidence that we will find an interesting solution," Manturov explained, quoted by Interfax.

The Egyptian flag carrier has been in talks with Sukhoi Civil Aircraft since 2015. Initially, the contract was supposed to cover twelve firm orders and twelve options. However, the deal was not signed before a terrorist attack downed a MetroJet (Russia) A321 in October 2015. This event lead to a decline in diplomatic and tourism relations between Russia and Egypt and led to a suspension of direct commercial air traffic. Russian investigators concluded that the aircraft, flying from Sharm el Sheikh to St. Petersburg, had been brought down by an onboard explosive device. The disaster killed all 224 passengers and crew, nearly all of them Russian citizens.

In February 2016, Manturov told Rossiya 24 that he was negotiating a deal for up to forty SSJ-100s with EgyptAir. In October of that year, the Russian regional jet's type-certificate was recognised by the Egyptian authorities.

Russia and Egypt may also resume direct air traffic in spring 2018, Russian president Vladimir Putin told reporters following the meeting with el-Sisi. Minister of Transport Maxim Sokolov added that it could happen as early as February 2018.
The government was asked whether the economy was stagnant due to demonetisation, which was announced in November last year.

New Delhi: The finance ministry on Tuesday said it is difficult to pinpoint the impact of note ban on the economy and affirmed that there was no stagnation.

The overall growth of the economy is dependent on many factors, including the rate of capital formation and savings and utilisation of technology, among others, said minister of state for finance P. Radhakrishnan in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha. It is difficult to pinpoint the impact of demonetisation, the minister said.

The government was asked whether the economy was stagnant due to demonetisation, which was announced in November last year. The economy is not facing stagnation, he replied.

To support his argument, Mr Radhakrishnan said the growth in second quarter of the fiscal increased to 6.3 per cent, as compared to 5.7 per cent in April-June period.

In an another development, the Centre favours including petroleum products in the ambit of the GST but it would want a consensus with the states before taking such a step, finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Tuesday.

During the Question Hour in Rajya Sabha, Congress leader and former finance minister P. Chidambaram sought to know the governments position on bringing petrol and diesel under the GST. He also sought to know why the prices of petrol and diesel did not decline with a fall in the global crude prices.

Mr Jaitley responded saying that a person familiar with the issue had asked the question. He said the UPA in its draft GST bill had kept petrol out of its ambit as it knew that the issue would be a deal-breaker between the Centre and the states.

Now you are in the opposition and have a greater flexibility in changing your position, he said.

He said the present government has persuaded the states to include petrol within the GST and the states reluctantly agreed to do so. Mr Jaitley said the Centre favoured bringing petrol with the ambit of the GST. However, it is only when the states demand it and a consensus is formed, it would be done.
Ameya Khopkar, chief of the partys film cell, has also written to the minister for cultural affairs Vinod Tawde regarding the issue.

Mumbai: Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena are up in arms against the makers of 'Tiger Zinda Hai' and the exhibitors screening the film.

The party has threatened to stall the release of the Salman Khan-Katrina Kaif starrer if prime time threatre slots for Marathi film Deva are not made available, according to a report in The Times of India.

Ameya Khopkar, chief of the partys film cell, has written a letter to film exhibitors warning them that the party workers would take to the streets and corner theatres if the Marathi film is not accommodated.

Another Marathi film 'Gachchi' is also on the look-out for screens, according to reports.

We are here to serve the cause of Marathi...We urge you to co-exist peacefully with Marathi filmmakers. If you fail to understand this language of reconciliation, then we will have to talk to you in our special language, Khopkar warned.

We want the state government to end the misery of Marathi filmmakers. We will start our stir if the government fails to take action against the makers of Tiger Zinda Hai, senior MNS functionary said.

Khopkar has also written to the minister for cultural affairs Vinod Tawde, who was quoted as saying, The government has already set rules and norms for prime time slot for Marathi cinema. If there is violation, the government will step in and take stern action.

However, film exhibitors are reportedly keen to go ahead with their earlier decision. The daily quoted a suburban theatre manager saying, It is impossible to pull out a Salman Khan film, which has come like a ray of sunshine at the end of the year. He has the largest fan following among any star in India, so the first three days are always housefull. Moreover, we have had bleak collections in the past two months with not a single picture doing good business. Padmavati was due to release on December 1, but it has been deferred as well. At this rate, we will have to close down.

He also hoped that the police and state government take steps to protect them, in case a violent situation breaks out.

The MNS had have a long history of disrupting films. Karan Johars films Wake Up Sid and Ae Dil Hai Mushkil both had run-ins with the party, the former for using Bombay instead of Mumbai in a dialogue and latter for featuring Pakistani actor Fawad Khan after crumbling of Indo-Pak ties following attacks in Uri last year.

Their opposition against Pakistani actors continued when Mahira Khan starred in Raees. The matter, however, cooled down after Shah Rukh Khan called on Raj Thackeray.
Karnan was arrested from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu on June 20 after he evaded the police for over a month.

Karnan had earned the dubious distinction of becoming the first sitting high court judge to have been sentenced to jail. (Photo: PTI/File)

Kolkata: Former Calcutta High Court judge CS Karnan is set to be released on Wednesday after serving a six-month jail sentence, which was handed out to him by the Supreme Court for contempt.

Karnan was arrested from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu on June 20 after he evaded the police for over a month.

His wife, Saraswati Karnan, who resides in Chennai, is scheduled to arrive in the city this evening, along with her elder son.

"He (Karnan) is scheduled to be released tomorrow. I am coming to Kolkata to accompany him back to Chennai," Saraswati Karnan said on Tuesday.

Saraswati Karnan, a professor of economics in a Chennai college, said she had last met her husband at the Presidency Correctional Home here a month-and-a-half ago.

"I found him in good spirits and health," she said.

Karnan had earned the dubious distinction of becoming the first sitting high court judge to have been sentenced to jail.

The apex court had sentenced him to six months in jail for contempt of court on May 9. Karnan was a serving judge of the Calcutta High Court at that time.

A seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice of India J S Khehar, had asked the West Bengal director general of police (DGP) to take Karnan, who was on a warpath with the apex court for months, into custody.

The Supreme Court had earlier issued a bailable warrant against the judge to secure his presence before it in connection with the contempt case.

Karnan had appeared before the apex court on March 31, a first in the country's judicial history, and asked for restoration of his powers as a pre-condition for his re- appearance, but the plea was rejected.

Karnan, who had enrolled as an advocate with the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu in 1983, was appointed a judge of the Madras High Court in 2009. He was transferred to the Calcutta High Court on March 11, 2016.

He was transferred from the Madras High Court for his repeated allegations against and run-ins with the then chief justice and fellow judges of the court.
Slim Gujarat margin sends alarm bells ringing in BJP.

Bengaluru: Alarmed by its thin margin of victory in the Gujarat elections, BJPs national president, Amit Shah has summoned the partys Karnataka core committee members to Delhi for a meeting on Wednesday to draw up a strategy for the 2018 state elections.

Apprehensive about the growing prominence of Chief minister Siddaramaiah in Karnataka, the BJP could focus on him rather than Congress national president, Rahul Gandhi in the run-up to the elections, say sources. Mr Shah is reportedly keen on learning the response that the Chief Minister has been getting on his ongoing tour of the state and could chalk out a strategy to counter him.

Interestingly, Union minister Ananth Kumar Hegde has also been invited for the Wednesday meeting although he is not a member of the BJP core committee. Going by sources, the party is impressed by his aggressive speeches during the on-going Parivarthana Yatra and plans to give him additional responsibility to counter Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in the 2018 state elections. With the party also working on a strong Hindutva agenda for the coming poll, it hopes to make use of Mr Hegdes skills in this area, according to party insiders.

Sources close to the Minister say Wednesdays meeting in Delhi could be crucial for Karnataka and reveal he could get a prominent role to play in the BJPs campaign strategy.

Mr Shah is expected to also assess the election preparations made by the state unit of the party and look into whether it has strengthened the party organisations and reconstituted the booth committees as instructed.

Besides the Parivarthana Yatra being led by state unit chief, B.S. Yeddyurappa across the state will also come in for close scrutiny, say sources. The yatra has covered nearly 100 constituencies across the state in 50 days. Mr. Shah is expected to review preparations for the mega rally planned at Hubballi on December 28 as well.
Chanda (25) has fallen sick and had to be admitted to the hospital frequently.

Bhopal: Chanda Gadaria, the jeans-clad bandit who had once dreamed of reviving the reputation of the Chambal ravines by stepping into the shoes of Phoolan Devi, a dreaded dacoit of her time, is now facing an uncertain future.

Currently lodged in Shivpuri district jail in Madhya Pradesh as an undertrial, the frail looking Chanda (25) has fallen sick and had to be admitted to the hospital frequently.

She had been ill for the past one month. She was shifted to the district hospital in Shivpuri a couple of days ago and was on Tuesday discharged, jailor of Shivpuri district jail Mr Dilip Singh told this newspaper.

Contrary to her reputation of being a ruthless bandit, Chanda, arrested in February, 2106, is known for her good behavior with the prison staff as well as the inmates of the jail, Mr Singh said. She has been facing charges of abduction for ransom. I have falsely been implicated by the police. False stories were circulated about me to frame me, she told the media while being treated in the district hospital of Shivpuri. She also dismissed the claim by the police that slain dacoit Chandan Gadaria, the leader of her gang, was her husband. I had been subjected to torture by my father-in-law. I had informed Chandan, who used to visit my parents home, about this. Chandan had then asked me to join his gang to escape the misery, police quoted her as saying after her arrest last year.
Karnan had earned the dubious distinction of becoming the first sitting high court judge to have been sentenced to jail.

Karnan was earlier transferred from Madras HC for his repeated allegations against and run-ins with the then chief justice and fellow judges of the court. (Photo: File/PTI)

Kolkata: Former Calcutta High Court judge C S Karnan was on Wednesday released from jail after serving six-month term awarded by SC for contempt of Court.

Karnan was arrested from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu on June 20 after he evaded the police for over a month.

Karnan had earned the dubious distinction of becoming the first sitting high court judge to have been sentenced to jail.

The apex court had sentenced him to six months in jail for contempt of court on May 9. Karnan was a serving judge of the Calcutta High Court at that time.

A seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice of India J S Khehar, had asked the West Bengal director general of police (DGP) to take Karnan, who was on a warpath with the apex court for months, into custody.

The Supreme Court had earlier issued a bailable warrant against the judge to secure his presence before it in connection with the contempt case.

Karnan had appeared before the apex court on March 31, a first in the country's judicial history, and asked for restoration of his powers as a pre-condition for his re- appearance, but the plea was rejected.

Karnan, who had enrolled as an advocate with the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu in 1983, was appointed a judge of the Madras High Court in 2009. He was transferred to the Calcutta High Court on March 11, 2016.

He was transferred from the Madras High Court for his repeated allegations against and run-ins with the then chief justice and fellow judges of the court.
A high court appointed committee was assaulted and confined by some ashram inmates when it went to inspect the premises.

The panel alleged that the girls in the ashram were in animal-like condition behind iron grills and surrounded by barbed-wire topped walls. (Photo: File/PTI)

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday ordered CBI probe into an ashram in north Delhi where girls and women were allegedly kept in illegal confinement.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar asked the CBI Director to set up a special investigation team forthwith and seize all records pertaining to FIRs lodged in connection with alleged rape and suicides of the girls there.

On Tuesday, the high court had asked the police to conduct an inspection of the ashram, 'Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya' in Rohini in the capital saying it was "extremely dangerous" that girls and women have been allegedly kept in illegal confinement in the name of preaching about God.

The high court-appointed panel has told the court that they were assaulted and confined for nearly an hour by the some ashram inmates when it went to inspect the premises on Tuesday.

It also informed the court that over 100 girls kept there in confinement and most of them are minors.

The high court also ordered inspection of the ashram's building, housing male staff, to check whether any minor boy was kept confined there.

The panel alleged that the girls in the 'Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya' were in animal-like condition behind iron grills and surrounded by barbed-wire topped walls.

It also tells the court that the girls have no privacy even while bathing.

The court had on Tuesday ordered that the inspection should be video-graphed and Delhi Commission for Women's chief Swati Maliwal should also accompany the police.

The bench had further directed Virender Dev Dixit, referred to as the founder and spiritual head of the Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya at A-1/351-352, Vijay Vihar, in North Delhi's Rohini to cooperate with the police during the inspection drive.

Dixit has been arrayed as a party in the petition filed by an NGO, Foundation for Social Empowerment, which informed the court that several minors and women were allegedly being illegally confined at the "spiritual university" at Rohini in New Delhi and are not allowed to meet their parents.

It informed the court that a couple had lodged a rape complaint with the police, but no FIR had been registered till date.

The NGO has alleged that girls were in confinement at the "university" for 14 years and more.

While producing one girl in the court, who, the NGO claimed, had managed to get out of the premises, it alleged that she was raped during her stay there, which she has not even disclosed to her parents.

The NGO also alleged that girls confined at the ashram have committed suicide in the past, but police never registered a case in this regard.
The BJD under Naveen Patnaik had decided to raise Mahanadi tribunal and Polavaram issues during the winter session of the Parliament.

The BJD parliamentarians also on Tuesday, reportedly, moved an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha on the dispute. (Photo: ANI)

New Delhi: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leaders on Wednesday staged a protest in front of the statue of Mahatma Gandhi outside the Parliament, demanding the formation of a tribunal to resolve the Mahanadi river water dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

"We are demanding the formation of tribunal to resolve the Mahanadi river water dispute. Earlier, the Central Government assured us to form the tribunal but they cleared that now there is no chance to form the tribunal. This is an atrocity for the people of Odisha," one of the protesting BJD leaders said.

The BJD Parliamentary party under the chairmanship of Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had decided to raise Mahanadi tribunal and Polavaram issues during the winter session of the Parliament.

The BJD parliamentarians also on Tuesday, reportedly, moved an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha on the dispute. However, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha is yet to accept the notice.
The court responded to a petition filed by an NGO claiming the Centre's move reflected its 'hypocritical approach.'

The Government is on the one hand promoting family planning and awareness about AIDS and STD, but on the other, it is obstructing dissemination of condom advertisements, the court said. (Photo: File/Pexel)

Jaipur: The Rajasthan High Court issued a notice to the central government on Wednesday seeking to know the reasons behind its decision to bar airing of condom advertisements on TV channels between 6 am and 10 pm.

A bench of Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice DC Somani issued the notice while hearing a petition filed by an NGO against the Government's order.

In an advisory to all television channels on December 11, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry asked them to not air condom advertisements between 6 am and 10 pm, as these "could be indecent/inappropriate for viewing by children".

The NGO claimed that the action of the ministry was against the interest of public. It also claimed the move showed the "hypocritical approach" of the government.

The Government is on the one hand promoting family planning and awareness about AIDS and STD, but on the other, it is obstructing dissemination of condom advertisements that are crucial for family planning, reducing abortion deaths and awareness about HIV-AIDS and STD (sexually transmitted diseases), petition said.

The plea contends that kids and adolescents must also know about safe sex and they be given sex education. "There is not an iota of reason as to how an advertisement for condom is an unhealthy practice," it noted.

Earlier, the ministry said that it was brought to its notice that some channels repeatedly carried advertisements of condoms, which were allegedly indecent, especially for children.

It referred to Rule 7(7) of the Cable Television Networks Rules 1994, which says, "No advertisement which endangers the safety of children or create in them any interest in unhealthy practices or shows them begging or in an undignified or indecent manner shall not be carried in the cable service".

It also cited Rule 7(8) that states, "indecent, vulgar, suggestive, repulsive or offensive themes or treatment shall be avoided in all advertisements". The ministry asked TV channels to broadcast the advertisement only between 10 pm and 6 am.
The manifesto for Karnataka, which was in its final stages, would be submitted to the central leadership of the party by January 15.

BJP workers celebrate with cut-outs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah at the party headquarters in New Delhi on Monday after the party's victory in the Assembly elections in Gujarat on Himachal Pradesh. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Charged by its success in Gujarat, the Congress, it seems, has made its manifesto for the state a template for all other Assembly elections, including Karnataka, which goes to polls as early as March-April next year. Top leaders told this newspaper that the Congress manifesto for Karnataka, which was in its final stages, would be submitted to the central leadership of the party by January 15.

The manifesto committee, headed by senior leader Veerappa Moily, has already covered three out of four zones in the state, top sources said.

Karnataka can be roughly divided into four regions  North Karnataka (which is again sub divided into Mumbai-Karnataka region and Hyderabad-Karnataka region), central Karnataka, South Karnataka and coastal Karnataka (Udupi and Mangaluru).

The Congress is the incumbent and holds 123 seats in the 224-member Assembly. The BJP and JD(S) have 44 and 39 members in the Assembly respectively.

The sources said that the party is likely to borrow heavily from its Gujarat manifesto and keep focus on agrarian crises, farmers loan waivers, job creation and unemployment benefits. Out of the total 224 seats in the state some, 130-140 can be classified as rural. Karnataka has been reeling under a drought for the last almost five years.

In Gujarat, the Congress has benefited majorly from rural votes. It piped the BJP to garner the maximum vote share in rural Gujarat.

The Congress and its allies won 80 seats in Gujarat as against the BJPs 99. Though not a win, the party claimed a moral victory in the state which is the home state and stronghold of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah. The Moily-led campaign committee has identified five major local issues as well which would be included in the draft to be presented before the top Congress leadership next month.

However, in lieu with the Gujarat model of campaigning the party was likely to steer clear of issues which might polarise the electorate. The state has witnessed communal tension in Udupi and Mangalore.

Incidentally, the Congress was supposed to hold its plenary session which would have ratified Rahul Gandhis election in Bengaluru the reasoning being that with the state going to polls next year it would have enthused the party cadre. However, now they feel that holding the plenary there would mean that they are using the state machinery to organise party functions.
The Prime Minister was given a standing ovation by party leaders for the recent electoral victories in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday cautioned BJP leaders against getting complacent ahead of the coming crucial electoral battles in the states, and in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, and asked them to strengthen the organisational roots (booth level). Mr Modi, who was attending the first BJP parliamentary party meeting after the recent electoral victories, also got emotional, thrice, as he recalled how the party had gained electorally as well as organisationally since its inception and how party stalwarts, including patriarch and former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee, had groomed young leaders, including himself. The Prime Minister was given a standing ovation by party leaders for the recent electoral victories in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. In his speech, Mr Modi also pitched for promoting young faces inside and outside the party for a New India, a vision for 2022 promoted by his government. Later, party MPs from Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat also met the PM separately to congratulate and felicitate him.

Asking BJP leaders not to get affected by the Oppositions disinformation campaign against the party, the PM said that booth-level work, is the root of the a poll campaigns, the road to election victory. He called for strengthening the party at its roots across the country, parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar quoted the PM as saying at the meeting.

Mr Modi, sources said, turned emotional as he recalled how the party organisation was built in Gujarat and young leaders were groomed by their seniors, including Mr Vajpayee. He also fondly recalled how Mr Vajpayee congratulated him in person when the party fared well in 1999 Lok Sabha election from Gujarat, noting that he, then a relatively new entrant to the BJP from the RSS and a general secretary in charge of the state, was not widely known in the party, sources said. It was learnt that he said the Congress under Indira Gandhi had got to rule 18 states but the BJP and its allies were already in power in 19 states now, and the party had achieved such a political feat in its three-and-a-half-year rule at the Centre. He got emotional when he recalled the work of Makrand Desai, Arvind Maniyar and Vasantrao Gajendragadkar, among others, in building the party, known as the Jan Sangh in its earlier avatar, in Gujarat, sources said.

Despite the Congress claiming a moral victory after scoring its highest tally in Gujarat and pushing the BJP to its lowest score in the last many elections, Mr Modi asserted it was a big win for his party in his home state.

Seeking the promotion of young leaders at every level in the organisation, Mr Modi referred to his association with party chief Amit Shah and spoke about how he groomed Mr Shah, 14 years younger to the PM.

In his address, Mr Shah attacked the Congress over its claim of a moral victory in Gujarat, saying it was a laughable exercise for the Opposition party to see a victory in defeat.

Meanwhile, the BJPs legislature party meeting in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat to choose its leader is likely to take place on Thursday and Friday respectively. While senior leader and five-time MLA Jairam Thakur is said to be leading the race for Himachal CM, the names of Union minister J.P. Nadda and Hamirpur MP Anurag Thakur are also doing the rounds. Three MLAs have offered their seat to P.K. Dhumal, who was the partys CM candidate but lost his seat. In Gujarat, the BJP leadership is likely to continue with incumbent CM Vijay Rupani, with Nitin Patel as his deputy.
West Bengal has 42 Lok Sabha seats, of which Trinamul Congress won 34 in 2014 despite the Modi wave.

New Delhi: At a time when Congress president Rahul Gandhi, bolstered by the results in Gujarat, seemed to be the most likely choice to be the united Oppositions face for the 2019 parliamentary polls, Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has thrown her hat in the ring.

The message that the West Bengal chief minister is the most credible face for taking on the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was delivered in Delhi by her partys chief spokesperson, Derek OBrien.

Mamata Banerjee has four decades of experience in politics, she has been Cabinet minister at the Centre multiple times. She has come back with a thumping majority (in Bengal). She has experience, credibility and credentials After Gujarat polls, she has the best credentials to take on the BJP in 2019, Mr O Brien told reporters on Wednesday.

Interestingly, this direct message comes a day after Ms Banerjee spoke over the phone with Patidar leader Hardik Patel and Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani, to congratulate them for their moral victory in Gujarat.

I am not surprised that young leaders from across the country are reaching out to her (Ms Banerjee) for her guidance and to learn from her experiences, Mr OBrien said, and added, She has the finest credentials to take on the BJP in 2019.

Questioned as to whether Ms Banerjee wants to be the prime ministerial face before 2019 polls, Mr OBrien didnt give a direct answer but said that Bengal will play an important role in the run up to the elections, and added that Bengal will play the lead role after the 2019 polls.

West Bengal has 42 Lok Sabha seats, of which Trinamul Congress won 34 in 2014 despite the Modi wave.

The Congress improved performance in Gujarat elections notwithstanding, the Trinamul chiefs assertive claim is an indication of the cracks that are likely to deepen as deliberations over putting together a united Opposition front against the BJP get more formalised in the coming months.

Among the Opposition parties, the Trinamul Congress and the DMK are the two parties likely to garner the maximum number of seats in the 2019 general elections.

Mr Gandhis elevation as the Congress president has sparked off speculation whether Sonia Gandhi will also step down as the UPA chairperson. And this, sources said, has led to apprehension among many Opposition parties which had loosely come together before the presidential elections in July this year.

Many top Opposition leaders say that the new Congress president is politically their junior and that they feel more comfortable in dealing with Mrs Gandhi who stitched together the UPA-1 and UPA-II coalitions.

This sentiment is visible in Parliament. Floor coordination among political parties has been nil in the Winter Session with almost no Opposition party supporting the Congress demand for an apology from Prime Minister Modi over his remarks against former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Mr OBrien, who is also the Trinamul Congress Rajya Sabha member, however, denies this. He said that every party has their own issues and that his party is focussing on job creation, FRDI Bill and Aadhaar linkage.

This is part of the Trinamool Congress muscle-flexing to secure their position ahead of 2019 polls, and in a possible coalition thereafter. It might be recalled that in 2004, when Mrs Gandhi had taken over as the UPA chairperson, there were similar discordant murmurs from certain top allies and regional satraps.
The accused has rubbished allegations saying it was a cover-up because he saw the student and her male friend in a compromising position.

The college chairman said that the victim did not know the name of the accused, so the administration identified the peon and handed him over to the police. (Representational Image)

Bhubaneswar: A first year female MBBS student of a private medical college was allegedly raped in the college campus in Bhubaneshwar, police said on Wednesday.

The female student in her FIR at Mancheswar Police Station alleged that she was raped by a peon of the college while she was returning to hostel on Tuesday night.

"We have arrested a man based on the complaint of the girl. Both the victim and the accused have undergone medical examination," Bhubaneswar Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Satyabrata Bhoi told reporters adding that the police have also recorded the statement of the victim under Section 161 CrPC.

The private medical college chairman Tirupati Panigrahi said: "The incident that occurred at around 7.30 pm yesterday came to the light at around 12 pm. The girl did not know the peon's name. We identified the accused and handed him over to the police."

The accused has been identified as Manoj Khuntia, a resident from Athagarh in Cuttack district, police said.

Khuntia claimed that he is innocent and allegations against him are false and baseless.

"At around 9 PM last night, I saw the girl student and her male friend in a compromising position, while I was coming from the canteen after having my dinner. I shouted on them and told that I would take up the matter with the Principal," said Khuntia.

Khuntia said: "They requested me not to reveal the matter before anyone and promised that they would never commit same thing in college campus. Later, I went to my room, but the police brought me here at around 4 AM today."
According to police, the arrested accused would first marry victim grooms and then rob them off their valuables like jewellery and cash.

The accused's con gang included her mastermind husband, who would make all the wedding arrangements and search for new targets as well as coordinate throughout the course of the plan, say police. (Photo: AFP | Representational)

Moradabad : The Uttar Pradesh Police has arrested a woman from Moradabad , accused of running away with the belongings of men, intending to marry her - on the first day of their 'marriage'.

Her con gang included her mastermind husband, who would make all the wedding arrangements and search for new targets as well as coordinate throughout the course of the plan.

The accused would first marry the victim grooms and then rob them off their valuables like jewellery and cash.

The con bride took the idea to become rich from Bollywood movie 'Dolly Ki Doli' featuring actress Sonam Kapoor.

A native of Uttarakhand's Dehradun, Preeti has duped at least 12 men till now.

Meanwhile, Superintendent of Police (SP) Uday Shankar said, "We had been searching for her from past few days. Many people refused to file any complaint due to their respect in the society. The police have arrested Preeti and her husband. We are also looking for other people of her gang."
The party has appointed central observers for both the states to oversee the legislature party meeting to select its leader.

New Delhi: Suspense continues over who will be the chief minister of BJP in Himachal Pradesh where the party won the Assembly elections but its chief ministerial candidate, P.K. Dhumal, lost to the Congress candidate. Names of senior leader and five-term MLA Jairam Thakur and Union health minister J.P. Nadda are doing the rounds for the top post.

In Gujarat, where party president Amit Shah had declared before the election that incumbent chief minister Vijay Rupani would continue, swearing in could take place on December 25, which is party patriarch and former PM Atal Behari Vajpayees birthday.

Though Mr Rupani is the favourite, speculation continues over his fate after the BJPs subdued performance.

When asked who will be Gujarats next chief minister, Mr Rupani, in Ahmedabad, said The BJP fought this election in Gujarat with my face. But the final decision will be taken by the partys parliamentary board. Sources disclosed the BJPs parliamentary board could take a final call on the issue by the end of this week.

The BJP won Assembly elections in both the states whose results were declared on Monday. BJP won 99 seats in the 182-member Gujarat Assembly, securing seven seats more than the 92 needed for a simple majority, while the Congress and its allies won 80. The BJP won 44 seats in the 68-member Himachal Pradesh Assembly.

Sources disclosed that Mr Shah held a meeting with some party leaders from Himachal Pradesh, including Mr Thakur, at his residence earlier on Tuesday. The party has appointed central observers for both the states to oversee the legislature party meeting to select its leader.

After the 2012 Gujarat elections, Narendra Modi had taken oath of office for the fourth time on December 25. Sardar Patel stadium in Ahmedabad could be the likely venue of the swearing-in ceremony. Sources disclosed that Mr Modi, Mr Shah, chief ministers of BJP-ruled states among other senior party leaders are likely to attend the swearing-in ceremony.
Brain lesions can make people prone to committing crimes if they occur within the network responsible for morality, a study has found.

The study is the first systemic mapping of brain lesions associated with criminal behaviour -referred to as acquired sociopathy. (Photo: Pixabay)

Brain lesions can make people prone to committing crimes if they occur within the network responsible for morality and value-based decision-making, a study has found.

The study, published in the journal PNAS, is the first systemic mapping of brain lesions associated with criminal behaviour - a medical phenomena referred to as acquired sociopathy.

Famous cases of acquired sociopathy include Phineas Gage, a railroad worker who in 1848 exhibited anti-social behaviour after surviving an explosive blast that sent an iron rod through his brain, and Charles Whitman, the "Texas Tower Sniper," who had a brain tumour and murdered 16 people in 1966.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) in the US reviewed more recent cases of brain lesions associated with criminal behaviour, examining MRI and CT scans of those individuals.

One group of 17 cases had a definitive correlation between criminal behaviour and a brain lesion.

A second group of 23 cases had an implied correlation when researchers did not know whether the brain lesion occurred before or after the criminal behaviour.

In both groups, the lesions were at different areas of the brain.

The researchers used neuroimaging analyses - large datasets compiled from healthy volunteers organised into a connectome, similar to a map of brain activity.

While the lesions were in different brain areas, they were all connected to the same brain network.

"We looked at networks involved in morality as well as different psychological processes that researchers have thought might be involved - empathy, cognitive control and other processes that are important for decision making," said Ryan Darby, assistant professor at VUMC.

"We saw that it was really morality and value-based decision making - reward and punishment decision making - that the lesions were strongly connected to," said Darby, who did the research during a fellowship at Harvard Medical School in the US.

Lesions in patients with criminal behaviour were more strongly connected to this moral decision-making network than lesions in patients without criminal behaviour, suggesting that connectivity to this network was specific to criminal behaviour.

"This is a relatively new approach that we have developed," Darby said.

"We have previously used it to understand other disorders where it wasnt really clear why brain lesions in different locations caused hallucinations or delusions," said Darby.

"In those diseases, it was also found that it was a common brain network connected to the same areas. We were the first to apply this to looking at criminal behaviour," he said.
Researchers urge parent to encourage their kids to exercise to reap the benefits.

Washington: Parents, take note! Here's another reason to encourage your kids to exercise as it improves their attention and memory.

Researchers found that pupils' best responses to tests came after physical activity that was set at their own pace, as opposed to exhaustive exercise. The study is part of the BBC Learning's Terrific Scientific campaign - designed to inspire school children to pursue a career in science - and part-funded by the University of Edinburgh and the Physiological Society.

In the sixth investigation of the series, more than 11,000 school pupils across the UK conducted a scientific investigation to discover the impact of taking a short break from the classroom to complete a physical activity on their mood and cognitive abilities. The study was jointly led by Dr Colin Moran and Dr Naomi Brooks, of the University of Stirling's Faculty of Health Sciences and Sport, and Dr Josie Booth of the University of Edinburgh's Moray House School of Education.

Dr Brooks explained: "Anecdotal evidence suggests that short breaks involving physical activity can boost concentration and happiness in pupils. While this is positive, the evidence is not conclusive and this is what we asked the children to help investigate. "Ultimately, we found that 15 minutes of self-paced exercise can significantly improve a child's mood, attention and memory - enhancing their ability to learn."

A total of 11,613 children in the UK signed up to participate in the research - including 1,536 from Scotland - and they were asked to answer questions about how happy and awake they were feeling, before completing attention and memory tasks on a computer. Children completed the tasks both before and after they participated in each of three outdoor activities of varying intensities:

-A bleep test: This was the most intense activity, where the children ran in time with bleeps, which got gradually quicker, until they felt close to exhaustion.

-A run/walk activity: This was of intermediate intensity where the children ran or walked at a speed of their own choice for 15 minutes.

-A control activity: This was the least intense activity where the children went outside to sit or stand for 15 minutes. This was used to compare whether physical activity had a greater impact than simply going outside.

In total, more than 7,300 children provided information on at least one of the key measurements, related to mood and cognition, and participants completed 22,349 batches of computer tasks.

Compared to the control, children reported feeling more awake after taking a break and doing exercise for a short time. Both the bleep test and the run/walk made participants feel more awake than the control activity, although they felt most awake after the run/walk. The children also said they felt better after doing the run/walk but reported no difference in the way they felt after completing the bleep test, compared to the control activity.

Children responded quicker to the attention task after completing the run/walk, compared to the control and bleep test activities, and were better at controlling their responses after doing the run/walk and bleep test than they were after the control activity.

Following the run/walk, children's ability to remember words in sentences improved, while there was no difference between the bleep test and control activity. However, there appeared to be no real difference to their ability to remember shapes. "Overall, our study concluded that exercising leads to improvements in children's mood and cognition," Dr Moran said. "In most tasks, participating in a run/walk activity was more beneficial that doing the bleep test, where children should be closer to exhaustion. However, in most cases, doing the bleep test was no different from completing the control activity."

Dr Booth said: "This suggests that children should be encouraged to exercise at their own pace during short breaks from class. This may help children be more ready to learn when they return to the classroom."

"However, they should not be discouraged from doing more vigorous exercise as in most cases the effect of the bleep test was no different from the control activity.

"Importantly, this exercise should be in addition to normal physical education and also at a time when the class teacher thinks the class would benefit the most from a break."
A study by the CPCB scientists, including its air laboratory chief Dipankar Saha, has found that about 11 % of PM2.5 in Delhi are salt particles.

New Delhi: Air-borne particles from the salt mines of Afghanistan are pushing up the levels of air pollutants in Delhi, a team of scientists has found. Initially, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) team had thought that the wind might be carrying sea salt from either the Bay of Bengal or the Arabian Sea. Subsequently, the source of the pollutants was traced to Afghanistan.

A study by the CPCB scientists, including its air laboratory chief Dipankar Saha, has found that about 11 per cent of PM2.5 in Delhi are salt particles.

However, since the study was undertaken during the winter months, the scientists ruled out the possibility of the particles being carried from the sea as the wind direction was generally from the north or north-west during this period.

We undertook a study, using the trajectory models of the s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis-tration. That is when we found that the salt particles were coming from those areas of Afghanistan, which have large salt pans, Saha said.

The scientists also found the presence of metals such as chromium and copper in the citys air, which Saha said were being emitted by the electroplating industries in Haryana. PM2.5, which are essentially ultrafine particulates 30 times finer than the human hair, are mainly composed of sulphates, nitrates, ammonia, sodium chloride, black carbon, mineral dust and water.
Trump's December 6 decision to recognise Jerusalem broke with international consensus, triggering protests across the Muslim world.

The UNGA will hold an emergency session Thursday to vote on the proposed measure that the US vetoed at the Security Council. (Photo: File)

United Nations: US Ambassador Nikki Haley on Tuesday warned countries that she will report back to President Donald Trump with the names of those who support a draft resolution rejecting the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The UN General Assembly will hold an emergency session Thursday to vote on the proposed measure that the United States vetoed at the Security Council.

"The president will be watching this vote carefully and has requested I report back on those countries who voted against us," said the letter from Haley seen by AFP.

"We will take note of each and every vote on this issue," she wrote to several UN ambassadors.

Haley posted on Twitter, "the US will be taking names" during the vote on Thursday at the 193-nation assembly.

At the UN we're always asked to do more & give more. So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl, abt where to locate OUR embassy, we don't expect those we've helped to target us. On Thurs there'll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names. pic.twitter.com/ZsusB8Hqt4  Nikki Haley (@nikkihaley) December 19, 2017

Turkey and Yemen requested the urgent meeting on behalf of the Arab group of countries and the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

The two countries circulated a draft resolution on Tuesday that mirrors the vetoed measure, reaffirming that any decision on the status of Jerusalem has no legal effect and must be rescinded.

Egypt had put forward the draft at the council which was backed by all 14 other Security Council members in the vote on Monday.

Like the Egyptian draft, the text before the assembly does not mention Trump's decision but expresses "deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem."

Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour said he expected "overwhelming support" for the measure stating that Jerusalem is an issue "to be resolved through negotiations" between Israel and the Palestinians.

"The General Assembly will say, without the fear of the veto, that the international community is refusing to accept the unilateral position of the United States," Mansour told reporters.

No country has veto powers in the General Assembly, contrary to the council where the United States, along with Britain, China, France and Russia, can block any resolution.

Trump's December 6 decision to recognise Jerusalem broke with international consensus, triggering protests across the Muslim world and drawing strong condemnation.

Key US allies Britain, France, Italy, Japan and Ukraine were among the 14 countries in the 15-member council that voted in favour of the measure.

After that vote, Haley described the 14-1 vote "an insult" and warned "it won't be forgotten."

She went further on Tuesday, warning in her Twitter post: "At the UN we're always asked to do more & give more. So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl, abt where to locate OUR embassy, we don't expect those we've helped to target us.

"On Thurs there'll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names."

After the clash at the top UN body, the White House announced that US Vice

Israel seized control of the eastern part of the city in the 1967 Middle East war and sees all of Jerusalem as its undivided capital. The Palestinians view the east as the capital of their future state.

Several UN resolutions call on Israel to withdraw from territory seized during the 1967 war.
The NSS also seeks Pakistan to take decisive action against terrorists.

The 68-page document said the US will seek to increase quadrilateral cooperation with Japan, Australia, and India. (Photo: AP/File)

Washington: Describing India as a "leading global power", the US Wednesday unveiled its new National Security Strategy (NSS) that said it will "deepen" America's strategic partnership with India and support its leadership role in Indian Ocean security and throughout the broader region.

With an eye on China's One Belt One Road (OBOR) and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the US administration said it will help South Asian countries "maintain their sovereignty" as China increases its in increases its influence in the region.

The NSS also seeks Pakistan to take decisive action against terrorists.

"We welcome India's emergence as a leading global power and stronger strategic and defence partner," said the National Security Strategy unveiled by President Donald Trump.

The 68-page document said the US will seek to increase quadrilateral cooperation with Japan, Australia, and India.

"We will expand our defence and security cooperation with India, a Major Defence Partner of the United States, and support India's growing relationships throughout the region," the NSS said, noting that its vision for Indo-Pacific excludes no nation.

India-US defence relationship was mentioned in the context of Indo-Pacific region, whereas it gave a very prominent role to India in South and Central Asia.

Read: Refocusing on America first: Trump admin to outline new national strategy

"We will deepen our strategic partnership with India and support its leadership role in Indian Ocean security and throughout the broader region," according to the NSS which the White House said sets a positive strategic direction for the US that will restore America's advantages in the world and build upon our country's great strengths.

The NSS said it will press Pakistan to intensify its counter-terrorism efforts, since no partnership can survive a country's support for militants and terrorists who target a partner's own service members and officials.

"The United States will also encourage Pakistan to continue demonstrating that it is a responsible steward of its nuclear assets," it said adding the US will continue to partner with Afghanistan to promote peace and security in the region.

In an apparent reference to the OBOR and CPEC, the NSS said, "We will help South Asian nations maintain their sovereignty as China increases its influence in the region."

In an apparent reference to the OBOR and CPEC, the NSS said, "We will help South Asian nations maintain their sovereignty as China increases its influence in the region".

The recent Chinese move in Sri Lanka and Maldives is seen as efforts on their part to encroach eat on their sovereignty with similar fears in Pakistan.

India has objected to CPEC as it passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The US, it said, continues to face threats from transnational terrorists and militants operating from within Pakistan.

"The prospect for an Indo-Pakistani military conflict that could lead to a nuclear exchange remains a key concern requiring consistent diplomatic attention," NSS said.

US interests in the region include countering terrorist threats that impact the security of the US homeland and its allies, preventing cross-border terrorism that raises the prospect of military and nuclear tensions, and preventing nuclear weapons, technology, and materials from falling into the hands of terrorists, it said.

"We seek an American presence in the region proportionate to threats to the homeland and our allies. We seek a Pakistan that is not engaged in destabilising behaviour and a stable and self-reliant Afghanistan," the NSS said.

Insisting that it is committed to supporting the Afghan government and security forces in their fight against the Taliban, al-Qaeda, ISIS, and other terrorists, the NSS said the US will bolster the fighting strength of the Afghan security forces to convince the Taliban that they cannot win on the battlefield and to set conditions for diplomatic efforts to achieve enduring peace.

"We will insist that Pakistan take decisive action against militant and terrorist groups operating from its soil," it said.
Some 625,000 Rohingya refugees have fled the Rakhine state of Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh in the last six months.

Nauert also said that Bangladesh has been so generous in accepting hundreds of thousands of refugees and the US government has provided significant financial assistance to help. (Photo: File)

Washington: The US has appealed for dignified and voluntary return of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh to Myanmar, while it said that conditions are not conducive enough for such a move.

Some 625,000 Rohingya refugees have fled the Rakhine state of Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh in the last six months.

"In terms of the repatriation plan, we'd like to see the plan. We've heard about it in concept, but one of the things that would be important to be in that plan is the voluntary, safe and dignified return," State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters.

"It (repatriation) has to be voluntary. People have to feel like it's safe to go home. If they don't feel like it's safe to go home, it's probably not going to be safe to go home. They have to have a dignified return. That means treating the people well as they decide to return home," she said.

Insisting that repatriation needs to be voluntary, she said the refugees can't be forced to leave one country to go to another country.

"They have to feel safe and ready to go home," she said.

"We hope that the refugees will eventually be able to go home, to go home to Burma. More than 600,000 of them have been forced across the border since August alone, and now it's December," she said.

Nauert also said that Bangladesh has been so generous in accepting hundreds of thousands of refugees and the US government has provided significant financial assistance to help.
Pak was being stretched to fight militants on the western front with Afghanistan and face Indian army on the eastern border with India.

Janjua said that Pakistan wants peace in Afghanistan but the same is under stress due to involvement of India which wants to create a two front situation for Pakistan. (Photo: File)

Islamabad: National Security Advisor Nasser Khan Janjua Wednesday accused India of creating a "two-front situation" for Pakistan, saying such a policy would be detrimental for regional peace and stability.

His statement came during his talks with visiting Special Representative of Germany for Afghanistan and Pakistan Markus Potzel who was accompanied by German Ambassador Martin Kobler.

According to a statement by the NSA office, the two sides discussed the regional security situation and the prevailing situation in Afghanistan.

Janjua said that Pakistan wants peace in Afghanistan but the same is under stress due to involvement of India which wants to create a "two front situation" for Pakistan.

"India is self-seeking a two front situation which does not auger well for the region. All major powers of the world need to play their role in keeping the region stable and balanced," he said.

He meant to say that Pakistan was being stretched to fight militants on the western front with Afghanistan and face Indian army on the eastern border with India.

The NSA also said that for "regional peace and stability, it is imperative for both the countries to engage with each and resolve their disputes."

He said Pakistan and India should resolve their disputes for the sake of better future.

Janjua also said Pakistan wanted peace in Afghanistan and urged for political settlement of the Afghan issue.

"To end miseries of Afghanistan and its people, warring sides should seek a political solution to the conflict as the perpetual war of last 16 years has given us nothing but human miseries and sufferings," Janjua added.
In the message to the faithful Mar Sako addresses a thought to the "holy city for Christians, Muslims and Jews". An invitation to rebuild Iraqs homes and cities recently liberated from ISIS. Christians and Muslims must rebuild their homeland "hand in hand" with a view to "tolerance and coexistence, peace and security".

Baghdad (AsiaNews)  The Chaldean Patriarch of Baghdad, Louis Raphael Sako has issued an invitation to Iraqi Christians to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, who have been suffering from injustice and displacement for 70 years and a call to pray for Jerusalem to remain a holy city for Christians, Muslims and Jews, in his Christmas message to the faithful which he has shared with AsiaNews.

The Iraqi primate also reflects on those parts of the country recently freed from the threat of the Islamic State (IS, ex Isis), he asks that homes are restored and the liberated towns got reconstructed. This is a big challenge that we need to encounter reaching out to this New Phase based on fundamental principles".

Mar Sako remembers the past discrimination against the Christians, the threats and abuses perpetrated by the jihadists that led to an exodus of the community from their homes, from their lands in the Plain of Nineveh. An exodus that has almost halved the national Christian community, compared to 1.5 million people before the American invasion of 2003.

Today the liberation of those areas "oblige the Iraqi Government as a foster mother for all to work seriously for; facilitating the return of Christian to their homes and properties; preserving their rights as indigenous citizens; recognizing their culture, civilization and heritage as an essential part of Iraq's history; and preventing demographic changes in their historical geographic areas".

On the occasion of Christmas, the Chaldean primate exhorts the faithful to "to learn lessons from the past to get rid of their fears, pessimism and personal interests that divided them; clarify their visions, approaches, and unite their stances in order to consolidate their presence and their role in the public affairs and political process in a genuine national partnership away from dependency and custody".

Iraqis hope is to look at this victory as a firm step forward to: attain security and stability; deal with the consequences that affected the general situation; put things at the right track; consolidate the foundations of true citizenship; resolve outstanding matters in a peaceful ways and through dialogue especially the "Kurdistan file"; eliminate corruption; get rid of the widespread religious discrimination; reform the current legal, political, social, educational, and economical matters by changing it radically; and to schedule elections on time.

With the hope that war and terrorism, the economic crisis and the arms race, the jihadist violence resulting in the barbarism of the IS are behind us, the prelate continues, the hope for the future is that the objectives of "security and stability" can be achieved. The priorities identified by the Chaldean primate include: consolidate the foundations of true citizenship; resolve outstanding matters in a peaceful ways and through dialogue especially the "Kurdistan file"; eliminate corruption; get rid of the widespread religious discrimination; reform the current legal, political, social, educational, and economical matters by changing it radically; and to schedule elections on time.

The hope is that Christians can rebuild their homeland, their future "hand in hand with their Muslim brothers, because - warns the Chaldean patriarch - the future can not be built without tolerance and coexistence" to give new luster to that "beautiful mosaic that is Iraq ". This is why, he adds, "we must walk together on the path of hope" with the help and closeness of the international community. "This is our land and we want to stay here".

Finally, Mar Sako calls on the Iraqi Church to "read the signs of the times" and respond "to the frequent invocations of Pope Francis", which urges the Christian community to "deepen" the spiritual element by abandoning longing for "power and money". Added to this are "sincere initiatives" in the direction of "unity" following the footsteps of Jesus Christ.

He concludes: "In regards to Muslims, an honest dialogue is a MUST [...] a dialogue that must go beyond formalisms" to "establish peace and security, as well as promote the values of tolerance, justice, freedom and dignity for all ". (DS)
Two priests, Fr George from an underground community, and Fr Aloysius, from an official community, describe how China is preparing for the Christian festivity. Although there are some bans and prohibitions, the Christmas atmosphere  however commercialised  has invaded the countrys cities. Yet, the true meaning of the celebration is found only in the church. Thousands of people fill Beijing churches.

Beijing (AsiaNews)  Giving an apple for Christmas has become popular among Beijing's Christians, so much so that parishes give one to everyone who comes to midnight mass. Why? Because in Chinese apple and peace sound very much alike for they contain the element ping.

Streets, shops, and shopping malls are full of Christmas signs. In churches, the solemnity is prepared with songs, decorations, cribs, but above all by building "the crib in the heart".

These are some of the things that two priests, Fr George, from an underground community, and Fr Aloysius, from an official community, have sent to AsiaNews. Here's what they wrote.

Fr George

Our people celebrate the birth of Jesus in different ways. We prepare the crib, decorate the church, and organise musical moments and shows. During this period, we also engage in welfare and charitable activities with a dinner on Christmas Eve and many other things.

The life of faith is concentrated above all in the liturgical celebration. At the beginning of Advent, priests must prepare well every step so that the hearts of the faithful can reach the birth of Jesus.

For the liturgical aspect, the crib is prepared to represent carefully the birth of Jesus. More liturgical information is provided to the faithful so that everyone is ready to walk into the new liturgical year together with the Holy Church.

We emphasise daily meditation a lot. The word of God helps us to follow better the way of the Lord. We must underline the importance of the time of Advent, carefully preparing the homily and preaching faithfully to all the faithful. Without a spiritual life and an open heart, all other Christmas activities appear empty and superficial.

We must bear in mind the importance of the Sacrament of reconciliation and priests must be able to offer the laity enough time to receive it. In such cases, it is advisable to invite some priests from neighbouring parishes to meet the needs of the faithful.

Preparing the crib is not the exclusive work of the parish priest or the nuns. I believe it is a good opportunity to invite lay people to collaborate. Moreover, the crib must be simple bearing in mind the poverty and humility of Our Lord. Through humble repentance, hard sacrifice, prayer and dedication, we can build our crib in the heart.

Love is not limited to words alone, but manifests itself through actions. At Christmas, we pay more attention to the last and the poor, reserving the best places in the celebrations for them, so that they feel more the love of the Lord near the crib and the altar. For the sick, I believe that the best gift is to visit them and bring them the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.

With much advance we prepare the group of masters of ceremony and the choir. An ordered and solemn liturgy, accompanied by music and songs, helps the faithful to enter more in an atmosphere of thanksgiving and in the mystery of faith on Christmas Eve.

After we receive the Pope's Message (the Urbi et Orbi Message on Christmas Day), we share it with lay leaders. But it is important for priests to savour it well first, in a personal way.

At the time of Jesus, there were so many hostels in Jerusalem, but there was no room for the Child. I recently read that Christmas is boycotted in some parts of China. After 2,000 years, there is still so much hostility towards Jesus in many parts of the world.

I remember that a few years ago we prepared everything for Christmas, but they banned us from celebrating the afternoon of the day before. Since we could not celebrate Christmas Eve Mass, only 30 people remained that night.

Christmas is upon us again. Will it be a Christmas of peace? The Child Jesus smiles from the manger and embraces all the peoples of the world. He is the King of Peace.

Fr Aloysius

In December in Beijing, shops, restaurants, bakeries, and shopping malls are always decked out with plenty of Christmas decorations. There are not only advertising posters, but starting from mid-December, even salespeople wear Santa Clauss red hood.

Last night, I went to a clothing store. I saw that, in front of the shop, there was a small but cute stuffed reindeer. To celebrate Christmas, there are lights and Christmas trees everywhere, in the squares, in front of buildings, and sometimes even in residential areas.

Slowly, I realised that Christmas today does not represent an exclusively Christian festivity, but it has become increasingly popular and commercial. Alongside this growing phenomenon, there are counterexamples. For instance, several schools and universities have banned all kinds of Christmas celebrations.

The city is immersed in the Christmas atmosphere: Christmas trees, Santa Claus, Christmas music, etc. But for Christians, the true meaning of Christmas is found only in the Church. Every year in Beijing, hundreds, thousands of people take part in the Christmas Mass.

Local churches try to celebrate as many masses as possible and hand out admission ticket in advance for free. Unfortunately, due to the crowds and the limited size of the churches, it is sometimes difficult to meet the needs of every individual member.

In particular this year, after some fires in the city, the churches will be even more strictly controlled.

Gift giving at Christmas is part of the symbols of this festive day. Is there any special gift in China? Yes: giving an apple.

In Chinese, homophony often affects communication. On Christmas Eve, an apple is given because the word apple (ping guo) sounds like the word peace (he ping). Placed inside in a colourful box, with a greeting card, the apple has now become a typical Christian gift in China. Anyone who goes to church might get one.

The joy of Chinese Catholics also lies in the two Masses on Christmas Eve: one is celebrated in the late afternoon, the other towards 11.30 in the evening.

During the three or four hours between the two Masses, several activities are often organised: a vigil with the Taize prayer, or a Christmas concert. Thanks to dances, songs and many other shows, the celebration reaches its highpoint.
The status quo must be preserved until a just peace agreement between Israel and Palestine is reached. In Bethlehem, the angels announced the dawn of a "new day" and the birth of a "divine" economy, God's providence, bringing forth joy, hope and peace to a world torn apart by violence, injustice and greed.

Jerusalem (AsiaNews)  The Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem released their Christmas letter. In it they reiterated their support for the status quo in the city.

Attempting to possess the Holy City Jerusalem, or confine it with terms of exclusivity will lead to a very dark reality, the letter says.

The latter goes on to say that At this moment the worlds gaze is fixed on Jerusalem, a city that is holy to all Abrahamic faiths.

In view of this, the prelates reaffirm our clear position in calling for the preservation of the Status Quo of the Holy city until a just peace agreement has been reached between the Israelis and Palestinians on the bases of negotiations and International law.

Meanwhile, The Christians of the Holy Land know that their presence and witness is strictly related to the holy sites and their accessibility as places of meeting and encounter for unity between peoples of different faiths.

An exclusive political approach to Jerusalem would deprive the city of its real essence, which is that of a sacred gift, [. . .], hallowed ground to the entire world.

Once, the angels announced a new day to the shepherds in Bethlehem. Victimised by the injustice of the Roman occupation and excluded from socio-political economy, the latter were confronted with a different economy: Gods providence.

Thus, the proclamation of Jesuss coming demands participation in the Divine economy in bringing forth joy, hope and peace to a world torn apart by violence, injustice and greed.

The letter goes on to call for renewed commitment to praying for the Middle East, asking the Prince of Peace to inspire the hearts and minds of all those in authority to walk in the path of peace, justice and reconciliation among the nations.

In concluding, the heads of the Churches in the Middle East note that As we celebrate the coming of Christ as the light of the world, we are inspired by and take comfort in the words of the hymn of Zechariah  the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
The Filipino president hopes that the other side will do the same. The peace process ended due to Maoist attacks. Leaders of various religious groups express support for the ceasefire. Anti-rebel paramilitary violence continues in Mindanao.

Manila (AsiaNews)  Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte has unilaterally declared a ten-day ceasefire with Communist rebels to allow people to celebrate a stress-free Christmas, two weeks after peace talks with the insurgents broke down.

Duterte ordered the army and police to suspend offensive operations from 24 December to 2 January "to lessen the apprehension of the public this Christmas season", noting that he expected the Maoists and their political leaders to "do a similar gesture of goodwill."

Speaking to reporters, the president said he did not want to add more strain to what people are now suffering".

There was no immediate reaction from the Communist rebel movement, whose top leaders and negotiators have been living in exile in The Netherlands since the late 1980s.

Duterte restarted a stalled peace process and freed several Communist leaders as a gesture of good faith when he came to office last year but he recently abandoned talks due to escalating rebel attacks.

The president has repeatedly accused the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People's Army (NPA), of duplicity, declaring them a "terrorist organisation putting an end to the three-decade peace process.

The rebel forces, estimated to number around 3,000, have been waging a protracted guerrilla warfare in the countryside for nearly fifty years in a conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people.

Within hours of the presidents statement, leaders of various religious groups expressed support for the ceasefire.

The Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP), which brings together five Christian groups including the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, called the truce "a wonderful gift to the Filipino family".

Despite the president's ceasefire, the situation in southern Philippines remains tense.

"At first, the news of the ceasefire was welcomed, sources in Mindanao told AsiaNews said. However, government-linked paramilitary groups such as the Magahat Bagani Force or the Citizens' Armed Forces Geographic Unit continue their abuses, unsettling local communities.

"They accuse tribal people of collaborating with the rebels and are engaged in acts of intimidation against humanitarian associations working with locals. They even threaten to shut down schools for children who cannot afford an education. Despite appeals by civil and military authorities, paramilitary groups feed tensions."

According to several human rights groups like Human Rights Watch, the regular army bears responsibility for covering up these abuses.

"As long as the army fails to control the armed groups, there can be no effective truce, sources said. It is important for us to stop this cockfight because it is a war between desperate people and does not help anyone.

Small farmers are afraid, and cannot even work their land. The only hope for these people is to see peace talks between the government and the rebels restart.

To this end, civil society groups presented a Peoples peace agenda on 29 November to the authorities, security forces and armed groups. The proposal is the product of talks between the communities and sets guidelines for a true process of reconciliation."
Tomorrow the 193 member countries will vote on a motion presented by Turkey and Yemen on behalf of OIC. It follows the document presented to the Security Council and marks the international isolation of Washington. US Ambassador: "We will take note of names" for probable economic retribution.

New York (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The UN General Assembly is ready to vote a draft resolution that rejects the [controversial] decision by US President Donald Trump to recognize the holy city Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the US embassy there . The emergency session of the 193 member countries is scheduled for tomorrow in New York, at the request of Turkey and Yemen on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

In recent days, the United States has used the right of veto to the Security Council, to reject a similar motion proposed by Egypt. A resolution which obtained 14 votes out of 15 and confirmed the international isolation of Washington on an issue that also concerns Pope Francis and the Christian leaders of the region.

Turkey and Yemen circulated the draft resolution late yesterday afternoon, largely reflecting the similar document presented in the Security Council. It reaffirms that any [unilateral] decision on the status of Jerusalem has no legal value and must be rejected.

As in the resolution presented by Cairo, the text that will be submitted to the General Assembly does not directly refer to President Trump's decision; however, it expresses "deep regret about the recent decisions concerning the status" of the holy city.

The Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour expects "overwhelming support" for the resolution, which also states that the situation in Jerusalem "must be resolved through negotiations" between Israel and Palestine.

The United States, through its ambassador to the UN, has begun to issue threat. In a tweet issued on the eve of tomorrow's vote, Nikki Haley said that "the US will take the names" of those who vote on the motion. "At the United Nations - she underlined - they always ask us to do and to donate more. So, when we make a decision, by the will of the American people, on where to place our embassy, we do not expect to be targeted by those we have helped. On Thursday there will be a vote that criticizes our choice. We will take the names of those who vote".
by Paul Wang

In a letter in poem form, Liu Xia, wife of the great dissident, says she is "going crazy" after years living in isolation without the possibility of meeting anyone. In Shenzhen, the work of a Chinese-French artist focuses on Liu Xiaobos imprisonment and Nobel Prize. The author and his wife are currently in custody.

Hong Kong (AsiaNews)  The death of Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese dissident who won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, is still an open wound for his wife Liu Xia, but also for the police.

A few days ago, the friends of the late dissident  who was left to die from cancer in prison  expressed concerns about her after she was able to send a letter abroad.

To this day, Liu Xia (picture 1) remains under close watch, and is unable to see and meet her friends.

In a letter written in the form of a poem addressed to the 2009 Nobel Prize for Literature, Herta Muller, Liu recounts her state of depression by saying she is "going crazy".

In one passage, she writes: "I am too lonely, / I do not have the right to speak / speak loudly. / My life is similar to that of a plant / I am lying like a corpse."

The letter was published on 9 December by one of Lius friends, the intellectual and dissident Liao Yiwu, who now lives in exile in Germany.

Meanwhile, a Chinese-French artist, Hu Jianmin, managed to exhibit a mural that refers to Liu Xiaobo at the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Biennale of Urbanism Architecture which opened yesterday (picture 2).

An empty blue chair (symbolising Lius empty chair at the Nobel Prize ceremony) and a row of red iron bars (symbolising a prison) amid an idyllic traditional Chinese landscape were among the images Hu Jiamin painted at the centre of a triptych mural.

The artwork remained on display for only one day. Late last night, plainclothes policemen covered it with a promotional banner and took Hu and his wife Marine Brossard to the police station.

The authorities opened an investigation into the case as if there were "political problems" with it. The fate of the artist and his wife remains unknown.
by Vladimir Rozanskij

Moscow (AsiaNews) - According to the newspaper Kommersant, one of the most authoritative in Russia, the Russian government has launched a powerful rearmament plan for the next 10 years, which, moreover, has not made public. To this end, according to the program, 19 trillion rubles (about 320 billion euros) has been allocated. The priority of this program should focus on nuclear deterrence systems, on ultrasound weapons and also on technical supplies for airborne troops.

According to Kommersant, after long discussions between the various institutions involved, the definitive variant of the state armaments program in the period 2018-2027 has now reached the Kremlin. It may be signed by President Vladimir Putin as early as this week. The document provides for the allocation of almost 20 trillion rubles for the rearmament of the army and the Navy fleet.

Referring to sources very close to the presidential administration, the newspaper explains that proposals for nuclear deterrence include the adoption of ultrasonic and high precision remote controlled weapons (the so-called smart weapons), such as the new strategic complex RS-26 "Rubezh" and RS-28 "Sarmat" (the new intercontinental ballistic anti-missile systems, also known as Avangard systems).

Furthermore, the focus will be on the general armed forces, which have not been adequately funded in the past few years. Airborne or VDV troops will have to be re-equipped, according to their needs, with Ratnik technology, also known as the "the soldier's uniform of the future", in which the latest supplies of armoured materials, navigation aids and night vision systems are used, and adapted to the psycho-morphological conditions of the individual soldier. The anti-aircraft defense systems will obtain the S-300B4 missile systems, which defend ships from any type of air attack and "Tor-M2" ZRK, to protect strategic ground targets. The army will be able to use the T-90 and T-14 "Armata" tanks, and other armored vehicles of the latest generation such as the "Kurganets-25" modular platform and the "Boomerang" troop transport vehicles.

For the aeronautics, more jets are to be purchased, Su-30CM and Su-35, able to dominate the skies in any daytime or night-time weather conditions, and also Su-34 bombers, which achieved great successes during the Syria raids, as well as Mig-35 jets and strategic missile transporters Tu-160M2. Finally, more than 10 new naval projects, different supplies of super-modern aircraft carriers for naval aviation and sea-based missile batteries and new diesel-electric submarines, including newly developed nuclear submarines, of the Huskey type, are expected in the next decade.

The Russian specialists are convinced that they can return to the splendor of the Soviet period, in which Russian armaments competed with the Americans as leaders of the global arms race. This way Russia will be "able to solve its problems without the help of anyone", as President Putin has been repeating for days, putting this self-sufficiency (military, economic, political) as the main purpose of his next presidential term. At a military exercise in the Sary-Shagan polygon in Kazakhstan, in recent days, Putin said that "the ability of the economy to rapidly increase the size of arms production at the right time, is one of the main conditions to guarantee the safety of the State. To this end, major industries, both state and private, must be kept ready".
The Hindu nationalist party gains 99 seats out of 182, while the Congress Party wins 77. In the same round of voting also the Himachal Pradesh, where the nationalists triumph. Gujarat is most important electoral state. Now the BJP rules in 19 states out of 29.

New Delhi (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party has won the elections in the Indian state of Gujarat. The counting of the ballot papers ended yesterday. The Hindu nationalists took 99 seats out of a total of 182, against the Congress Party of Rahul Gandhi that won 77. Despite electoral polls indicating otherwise, the Prime Minister's party got the majority of the State Assembly with a minimum amount of votes.

The elections in Gujarat took place between December 9 and 14. In the same session the State of Himalachal Pradesh also voted, with the BJP winning 44 seats out of 68 and Congress 21. 68% of eligible voters turned out in Gujarat and 74% in Himachal Pradesh.

The victory in the two states marks a significant step for national politics. To date, the Hindu nationalist party governs 19 state assemblies out of 29. According to experts, this margin could greatly benefit Modi's candidacy for the general elections scheduled for 2019.

The State of Gujarat is considered a sort of political showcase for the premier himself, who was chief minister here from 2001 to 2014. For this reason, he was personally involved in the electoral campaign, taking part in over 30 rallies. For many, losing "his" state would have meant "losing face".
Agreement for the verification of refugee identities and the logistics of their return. There are 655 thousand persons displaced by violence in August, 70 thousand who fled in October 2016.

Naypyitaw (AsiaNews / Agencies) -Bangladesh and Myanmar reiterate their commitment to the repatriation of Rohingya refugees, starting in January. The foreign secretaries of the two countries met yesterday in Dhaka to finalize the agreement signed on November 23. The agreement promises the "safe and voluntary return" of refugees from camps set up in Bangladesh along the border. Among them there are not only the last 655 thousand displaced by the violence in August, but also the more than 70 thousand of October 2016.

A new working group "will ensure the start of the repatriation within two months", elaborating a time schedule for the verification of the identity of the refugees and the logistics of their return, according to Bangladesh Foreign Minister A.H. Mahmood Ali.

The international humanitarian organization Medecins sans frontieres (MSF) declares that at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed during the violence that broke out last August in the western Burmese state of Rakhine. The Myanmar army speaks of only 400 victims and claims to have operated to ensure the stability of the region, threatened by the "Bengali terrorists" of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (Arsa).

The civil government of Myanmar, led by democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi, has launched some emergency resolution projects. Through the Union Enterprise for Humanitarian Assistance, the initiative led by the democratic leader Myanmar authorities are planning to implement the report of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine chaired by Kofi Annan, as well as economic development programmes.
Arab worlds criticism of US ambassadors use of veto. The motion approved with 14 votes out of 15, confirming US isolation. Satisfaction of Israeli premier Netanyahu. The PLO no longer recognizes the United States as an interlocutor in the peace process.

New York (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The Arab world strongly criticizes the United States use of its veto yesterday afternoon during a UN Security Council session, to block a resolution [approved with 14 votes out of 15] declaring any "decisions" on Jerusalem devoid of legal value. The reference, even if there was no direct mention, was related to the decision of US President Donald Trump to recognize the holy city as capital of Israel and to arrange the transfer of the embassy.

The vote confirms the international isolation of the United States: even many of its historical allies in Europe such as Britain and France approved the resolution promoted by Egypt. In recent weeks, the US administration's decision has raised protests and indignation - with dead and wounded - and concerned by Pope Francis and the Christian leaders of the region.

Speaking at the end of the vote, the Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour called it "paradoxical that while we were waiting for a peace plan from the US, the administration instead decided to further obstruct peace and delay its realisation. The US decision encourages Israel to persist in its crimes against the Palestinian people and to continue its occupation of our territory. No rhetoric will hide this complacency in prolonging the occupation," he added.

The Lebanese Foreign Minister also "deplored" the US veto in the Security Council. At the same time he "welcomes the favorable vote of 14 member states" and hopes for the presence of a new "impartial" mediator who can lead the region to peace, avoiding a progressive escalation of conflicts.

Yesterday's vote once again strengthened the axis between the United States and Israel, with Prime Minister of the Jewish state Benjamin Netanyahu releasing tweets and a video message in thanking US ambassador Nikki Haley for the decision. The head of American diplomacy at the United Nations defended the "courage and honesty" of the US, the only ones to "recognize a substantial truth". "Jerusalem - added Haley - has been the cultural, political and spiritual homeland of the Jewish people for thousands of years and there is no other possible capital".

In his message Israeli premier Netanyahu thanked the US ambassador for having "lit the candle of truth", "the only one who knew how to defeat the many", because "truth overcomes lies".

Also yesterday, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) announced that it no longer recognizes the United States as an interlocutor of the peace process. "We will no longer allow the US to be a mediator or a partner," said Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. He also confirmed his intention to obtain full recognition of Palestine - now a non-member observer country - at the United Nations, despite a failure in the previous attempt in 2011.

Abu Mazen has signed 22 international agreements and treaties that strengthen the legal status of Palestine on a global scale. These are strategic agreements make it "a key partner" in the discussion of "essential" issues affecting the entire planet.
More than two people were killed every week on average this year defending their right to land and resources, with the Philippines recording the highest number of casualties amid a government crackdown on rural communities, a rights group said.

In the fight for land and the environment, communities around the world are locked in deadly struggles against governments, companies and criminal gangs exploiting land for products including timbre, minerals and palm oil.

At least 116 people were killed between January 1 and November 30, according to advocacy group PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP). The victims included farmers, indigenous people and activists, with women making up a tenth of the total.

The Philippines accounted for 61 victims, followed by Brazil with 22, said the report.

This has been yet another year of continuing and intensifying attacks against rural communities that are asserting their right to land and resources, the report said.

Alarmingly, global and regional developments that create conditions for greater land and resource grabbing continue to emerge and fuel social conflicts and unrest in rural areas. The number of victims this year is lower than the 171 killed in the same period last year, PANAPs data showed.

A separate estimate by UK-based advocacy group Global Witness puts the number of victims at 170 so far this year.

The final tally could equal, or exceed that of 2016, which was the deadliest year on record with about 200 deaths, a spokeswoman told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

In Asia, land rights defenders were also killed in India and Myanmar, and in Latin America, killings were recorded in Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Guatemala and Venezuela, according to PANAP.

More than half the rights violations  including threats, assaults, arrests and displacement  involved mining companies.

Plantations, power plants, infrastructure projects and real estate developments were also hot spots for violations.

In the Philippines, killings and other forms of repression targeting farmers, indigenous peoples and activists spiked dramatically, with massive displacements of rural communities set to continue, the report said.

Harassment of women land activists in Southeast Asia is on the rise, the report said, while in Myanmar, the government has taken over vast swathes of land in Rakhine state after driving out hundreds of thousands of Rohingya.

Chinas multi-trillion dollar Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to recreate the old Silk Road with massive infrastructure projects connecting China to Europe and beyond, will also see land grabs and huge displacements, PANAP said.

PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP), through the reports of our partners and networks and based on our regular monitoring of news and developments, has recorded a total of 142 cases of human rights violations related to land conflicts and struggles in 21 countries from various regions covering the period January 1 to November 30, 2017:

Meanwhile, NGO Amnesty International said India is among the deadliest countries for defenders of rights related to land, territory and the environment.

In its global report Deadly but Preventable Attacks: Killings and Enforced Disappearances of Those who Defend Human Rights, , the rights watchdog said: In India, journalists, land rights activists, and those advocating the rights of ethnic and religious minorities, Dalits and Adivasis (tribal) are among those at risk of attack.

According to an Amnesty release, as many as 3,500 human rights defenders were killed worldwide since 1998 while the number in 2016 was 281-- a significant increase from 156 defenders killed in 2015 and 136 in 2014.

Also, 48 journalists were killed worldwide in 2016, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Asmita Basu, Programmes Director at Amnesty International India, said human rights defenders were painted as a threat to development or traditional values.

Human rights defenders, instead of being recognised and protected by the state, are portrayed as criminals, foreign agents, anti-nationals and terrorists, and painted as a threat to development or traditional values. Such labels are divisive, signal contempt for constitutional rights, and give a green light to further abuses, she said, as per the release.

The report has brought together stories from around the world including that of journalist Gauri Lankesh, who was fatally shot outside her home in Bengaluru in September 2017.

It also mentioned Chhattisgarhs Jailal Rathia, who had challenged the Adivasi land grabbing and later died of what was suspected as deliberate poisoning, and killing of Maharashtra Dalit activist Chandrakant Gaikwad.

The report focused on the gravest of violations against human rights defenders-- killings and enforced disappearances.

The motives behind these attacks are multiple and layered. Some people are attacked because of their legitimate activities, for example, as they stand up to powerful actors violating human rights, share information and raise awareness, or confront discriminatory public opinion and social norms. Others are attacked both for what they do and who they are, it said.

The human rights defenders included those defending the rights of women, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people and indigenous peoples and minority groups, it added.
With images of ballistic missiles, beleaguered refugees and bombastic despots still fresh in our minds, thoughts now turn from the year that was to the one to come. Asia Pacific Foundation Canadas crack team of dedicated researchers has once again turned its collective gaze to the future to produce our fourth annual year-end blog highlighting things well be watching in Canada-Asia relations, news, and current events in 2018.

South Korea Welcomes a Wary World

South Korea will begin the New Year with an exciting start as the host of the 2018 Winter Olympics. Taking place in Pyeongchang from February 9 to 25, this is the second time the country has hosted the Olympics; its first being the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul. The 2018 Games are unique in that they are set to take place in the middle of a developing security situation as North Korea continues to test ballistic missiles that threaten the region, and beyond. Canada is expected to send 220 athletes to compete in 14 different sporting events.

China Says No to Foreign Waste

Come the bleary light of post-holiday morning, the world will wake up to the startling realization that China no longer wants its recyclables and solid waste. Quite abruptly this past summer, China announced legislation that will ban imports of four classes and 24 types of solid wastes starting January 1, 2018. As the worlds largest importer of many types of solid waste, experts predict that this condemnation of foreign garbage by China will result in the immediate destabilization of global recyclable commodity market prices and undermine current solid waste trade flows.

Trading in Noodle Soup, or Broth

Among the noodle soup of Asia-focused trade discussions that took place in 2017, none has captured the publics attention as much as the possibility of negotiations on a Canada-China FTA. Canadas involvement in discussions on the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), overtures toward a Canada-ASEAN free trade agreement, and ongoing negotiations toward a Canada-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement all pale in comparison to the prospect of a trade deal with China, home to more than 145 million middle class adult consumers, and climbing.

Asia Shoots for the Moon (and Beyond)

A new space race is building to a fervent crescendo, with China, India, and Japan having setting their sights on becoming space powers. Their respective space agencies have lofty plans for space exploration, including landing lunar rovers on the moons surface by 2019 (China, India, Japan), and collecting samples from Mars (China) and its moons later on (Japan).

In recent years, China has become more ambitious, with plans to build its own permanent space station by 2022, and a manned mission to the moon by 2036.

Projecting Power at the Movies

Cultural waves from the Asia Pacific are not new in North America: Anime and manga from Japan and K-Pop from South Korea are firmly established in the North American zeitgeist. However, since the first wave of Asian martial arts films became popular in North America in the 1970s, Asian influence in Hollywood has largely stagnated. We predict that 2018 will see the Asia Pacifics big cinematic breakthrough, especially from China.

A Trump-Kim 'Hamburger Summit'

During the past few months, Trump has both venerated North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and admonished him over the country's nuclear program. Experts regard Trump's fickleness and North Korea's continued progress in nuclear capability as a recipe for a global security disaster.

An informal meeting between Trump and Kim may be the way the two countries begin to defuse tensions over North Korea's nuclear ambitions. During his presidential campaign, Trump expressed openness to the idea of Kim visiting the United States and sharing a hamburger [at] a conference table.

Chinese Tourists Like Canadas Never Seen

The changing patterns of Chinese international tourism have already been well charted, but for Canada the sheer scale of visiting Chinese tourists will be massive. Canada welcomed 624,865 travellers from China in 2016. The number is expected to double to a targeted 1.25 million by 2021. This influx poses serious challenges for infrastructure, transportation, and business capacity in Canadas tourism sector, and beyond.

Democracy on the Decline in Southeast Asia

2018 will be a pivotal year for Southeast Asian democracy. Cambodia, Malaysia, and Thailand are all scheduled to hold elections, but their incumbent governments have been undermining the norms and institutions needed to make these elections truly free, fair, and meaningful.

The War in (Cyber) Space

Governments across the Pacific are responding by investing heavily in cybersecurity defences. Moving into 2018, we will continue to see more countries toe the fine line between striving to be cyber powers and protecting their citizens cyber privacy. We can expect to see an increasing number of countries responding to these challenges, which will result in the proliferation of cyber-governance initiatives managing and policing cyberspace.

Bridging Asias Gender Gap

While much work still needs to be done to bridge the existing gender gap, women entrepreneurs, particularly in Southeast Asia, are on the rise and will be an economic force to reckon with in 2018. In 2017, women in Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines were more likely to start a business than ever  participating in the total entrepreneurial activity of their country at equal and higher levels than their male counterparts. Not only are women-owned small business growing at a fast rate, but prominent women are also emerging at the top of their sectors.
British Columbias largest-ever forestry trade mission to Asia has focused on strengthening ties with the powerhouse economy in China and further diversification of markets for the provinces high-value wood products.

The China leg of the trip concluded with four stops in Jiangsu Province following participation in the third-annual Sino-Canada wood conference in Shanghai.

This trade mission is a key way for our new government to help strengthen B.C.s rural economies and protect family-supporting forestry jobs, said Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development Minister Doug Donaldson, who is leading his first trade mission.

Ive been encouraged to hear that government officials, builders and developers in China want to continue our favourable trade relationship in wood products.

The Sino-Canada wood conference, an important platform to promote Canadian forest products in China, focused on how wood can help China meet its ambitious targets related to prefabrication and green building. The country aims to save energy and reduce carbon emissions by increasing the proportion of prefabricated construction in new structures to 30% in the next 10 years.

In Jiangsu, trade mission delegates met with Gu Xiaoping, Party Secretary General and Deputy Minister of the Jiangsu Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and other officials to discuss the latest developments and the use of innovations such as the prefabricated wood infill walls and cross-laminated timber. Through its partnership with B.C., Jiangsu Province has become a leader in wood-frame construction in China.

Also in Jiangsu, Canada Wood China signed an MOU with Yadong Construction and Development Group for future co-operation on the application and promotion of wood construction technology. In China, MOUs are a first step in commercialization.

The company, a top real estate developer in Jiangsu, showed delegates how it is using wood to build resort home and tourism projects such as the Liyang project, which includes wood-frame villas, a hotel and commercial facilities. Tourism is booming in China, leading to more projects using wood-frame construction, CLT or mixed applications

Trade mission delegates ended their time in China with a tour of the Jiangsu Urban and Rural Construction College. The college wants to position itself as a leader in wood-frame construction training.

Trade missions are a cornerstone of provincial-federal-industry market development efforts in Asia, and raise the understanding about the specific needs of key markets like China and Japan.

Quick Facts:

Jiangsu, immediately north of Shanghai, is Chinas fifth-most populous province and has a population of over 79 million people.

In 2016, B.C.s softwood lumber exports to China totalled over $1 billion.

In 2016, B.C.s forest sector directly supported 60,000 workers and their families in more than 140 B.C. communities.
By Dongwoo Kim and

Yingqiu Kuang

Asia Pacific Foundation

What began in China as a youth-driven social movement to celebrate being single has now morphed into a shopping holiday that makes Black Friday look amateurish.

Every Nov. 11, on Singles Day, shoppers across China take to their phones and computers to scour e-commerce sites for deals on goods they desire. They place their orders, sleep and wait for the parcels to arrive the next day.

In the worlds second-largest economy, this shopping holiday originally created to celebrate or console singles has exploded. This year, Singles Day sales on the e-commerce platform Alibaba surpassed US$25B, making it the worlds most lucrative shopping day.

The social context behind the genesis of Singles Day itself is fascinating (think millennial relationship anxiety and retail therapy). But for this post, we are particularly interested in the consumer infrastructure that makes US$25.3B in daily sales possible and the opportunities that it presents to Canadians.

There are many stories in circulation about the origin of Singles Day which became a popular social phenomenon and celebration across China during the 1990s. What we know is the date Nov. 11 (11/11) was chosen because it has four numeral ones, which work as a nifty metaphor for singles linking with each other to become a pair.

Jack Mas Alibaba capitalized on the zeitgeist in 2009 by declaring Singles Day a holiday in order to boost sales during a down season for its e-commerce platform, Taobao/T-Mall. Their slogan that year was No significant other? You can still go online and shop! The campaign was an absolute hit. The year after, Ma successfully reinvented and marketed the celebration as a day to shop online and treat yourself to something nice. With that he broadened his customer base to all consumers, regardless of relationship status. Singles Day has since become a national shopping holiday like no other.

While other e-commerce platforms, most notably JD, and offline retail stores also have a piece of Singles Day sales, this holiday is chiefly associated with Alibaba. On Singles Day in 2016, Alibaba broke its record, processing US$17.8B in transactions. That figure was more than 40 per cent higher than the total sales revenue during Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the US for the same year, according to Euromonitor Research.

Three things have made this e-commerce sales tsunami possible: a young and increasingly affluent middle class, the availability of e-commerce platforms couched in broader fintech/social media systems allowing for the collection of big data, and inexpensive and efficient delivery logistics.

Over the past decade, the number of young, middle class consumers in China has grown. Their willingness to shell out on online retail platforms has made the country one of the worlds fastest-growing consumer markets. Here are some key figures:

Despite overall slowing economic growth in China, new consumption in the country is expected to expand by US$1.8T by 2021, boosting the total to US$6.1T. That projected growth rate is equivalent to adding another consumer market the size of Germanys to the Chinese economy.

Approximately 80 per cent of young adults in China's large cities shop online and the share of e-commerce is expected to increase from anywhere between 24 and 31 per cent by 2020.

By 2020, the number of upper-middle-class and affluent households will double to 100 million. At that point, they will account for 30 per cent of all urban households, compared with 17 per cent today and only 7 per cent in 2010. The buying power of this cohort will then make up 55% of Chinese urban consumption.

As online shopping demand grows, Chinese e-commerce tycoons such as Taobao, Jingdong, and Sunning have evolved to become efficient and nimble enough to ensure it is met. No longer do these companies simply collect cheap commodities in massive warehouses to shop to consumers. Today, e-commerce companies develop their own technologies and have expanded their services to make online consumption easier and faster. Recent data shows over 10 million stores are now open on Taobao, attracting nearly 507 million users.

Most importantly, these e-commerce platforms are woven together with other lifestyle applications, including messaging apps and online wallets, which make online shopping easier for consumers as well as providing e-commerce companies with big data. For instance, Alibaba and Tencent (which has a partnership with Jindong) owns Alipay and WeChat, used by 520 million and 889 million users, respectively. Alipay and WeChat contain various lifestyle functions such as messaging and e-payment which makes online shopping easier.

Chinese e-commerce players also leverage e-commerce services with key social media platforms. For instance, your friend sends you a WeChat text to recommend an item. You can check out the reviews and pay for the product with WeChat wallet, WeChats e-payment system.

All these integrated consumption ecosystems have big data implications. With a system that is akin to an amalgam of Amazon, Paypal, Uber, Google Maps, and more, the big data collected provides a more complete profile of consumers to these e-commerce giants, allowing them to fine tune their marketing campaigns.

Of course, none of this would be useful if the deliveries didnt come in time or were too expensive. In China, delivery services are reliable and extremely affordable. Seven major logistics companies dominate the Chinese market and are capable of dealing with the flood of parcels mainly thanks to cheap labour. In large part, this has been the reason why e-commerce has been so successful in China: customers dont have to pay $88 for Amazon Prime to have next-day delivery. Instead, they pay about $4 for overnight deliveries.

However, cheap and abundant labour wont always be available. As the Chinese economy grows and elevates more low-income people into the middle class, it will be increasingly difficult to find a workforce for manual labour, like parcel delivery. The heads of these e-commerce ventures are aware of this and have started investing heavily in the tools of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, such as automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI), or Internet of Things (IoT), to remain competitive amid rising labour costs. The Chinese government deems AI a priority and is committed to creating strong supporting infrastructure. Alphabets Eric Schmidt warned the U.S. that China is expected to surpass Americas lead in the field within the next five years.

In this context, Chinese logistics companies have shown long-term vision and intent to maintain low delivery costs through the integration of AI in their operations. Since last year, most of the logistics companies in China have established and operated their own smart logistic centers. Cainiao, for instance, uses robots called Little G for the final legs of parcel delivery and JD hopes to replace some of the forklift operators in its warehouses by the end of this year, according to the Economist. These two companies also plan to dispatch driver-less trucks for delivery within the next three years. A few days ago, Alibaba even showcased drones delivering parcels to islands.

Singles' Day has already become a noticeable phenomenon outside China for both consumers and business owners. A Forbes article just made a case that U.S. retailers should follow Chinas lead and embrace Singles Day over Black Friday.

Alibaba already offers international sales through Aliexpress, in which customers outside China (including Canadians) can purchase affordable Taobao goodies. Other third-party agents such as Superbuy or CNstrom, both endorsed by Alibaba, can facilitate Singles Day splurging outside China as well.

Further, we say that Singles Day is going to become a phenomenon in Canada because these e-commerce giants have already floated plans to operate here  and this is a great opportunity for Canadian small and medium sized businesses (SMEs). Alibaba has already established a Canadian headquarters in Toronto, where Jack Ma appeared alongside Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to tell 2,500 Canadian businessmen (mostly in startups and SMEs) to take advantage of the Taobao opportunity at the Gateway 17 Conference. The CEO of T-Mall said Alibaba would establish a special section for foreign business owners to organize some sort of a trade show to help them connect to 1.38 Chinese consumers. He offered incentives such as complete assistance with international shipping and customs and occasionally, even free shipping.

Canadian brands are already extremely popular in these e-commerce platforms. The story about how 90,000 Nova Scotian lobsters were sold on Taobao in one day positioned the Chinese e-commerce market as a modern day El Dorado. But unlike El Dorado, Taobao is a very real opportunity for Canadians and Singles Day offers the best opportunity for both buyers and sellers here to experience the scale and intensity of this powerful online marketplace.

The views expressed here are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.
Aunt Leahs Place, a Metro Vancouver charity providing housing and support for youth aging out of foster care and young moms and babies, has been selected as one of Canadas Top 10 Impact Charities for 2017 by Charity Intelligence (Ci).

Charity Intelligence picks the Top Ten 10 most effective Canadian charities that combat issues such as hunger, homelessness, health, and improving education. According to Kate Bahen, Managing Director of Charity Intelligence, What we are often seeing is that Canadian donors are looking more and more for impact and in December we released our Top Ten Impact List of the 10 Highest Charities that for every dollar you donate, these are delivering six-fold increase on your donation.

One of those is a very small Vancouver-based charity called Aunt Leah's that is doing unbelievable results in helping break the cycle of children in Foster Care by providing housing and education and supports. It's a little, small front-line charity that has results that are up there with the biggest charities in the world.

What we do at Aunt Leahs is to stop the cycle of homelessness and foster care by providing housing and a family-like support system for youth who are aging out of foster care and for young moms. Says Executive Director Sarah Stewart, Without a supportive home to go to, these momsmany of whom were foster kids themselves-- would be homeless and lose their babies to the foster care system.

Marcia Tait is one of those moms who has benefited from Aunt Leahs support. Marcia came to the Thresholds program on a cold day in February of 2015. The staff listened to Marcias story and assured her that this was the place she needed to be. She moved into Thresholds a few days later.

Today Marcia and her youngest daughter, who she is now reunited with, are living independently in their own apartment and Marcia acts as a Peer Mentor for Thresholds current and past moms.

Marcia and her daughter make volunteering at Aunt Leahs Tree Lot part of their new family tradition. She starts looking forward to volunteering at the Tree Lot in August. She is having such a great time helping people chose their trees this year. Says Marcia.

It is estimated that half of BC foster youth will experience homelessness. The University of Victoria report, Avoiding the Precipice, found that Aunt Leahs services and supports helped former foster youth avoid homelessness and maintain market housing.

According to the study an average of 86% of Aunt Leahs participants were safe, independent and in housing. In 2016, 93% of moms leaving the Aunt Leahs Threshold Program, a unique program that provides housing and support for homeless moms and their children, secured safe housing and maintained custody of their children.

A recent report, OPPORTUNITIES IN TRANSITION: An Economic Analysis of Investing in Youth Aging out of Foster Care in their 20s states Support for social and community connections should recognize the role of service organizations in assisting youth aging out of care find and maintain adequate housing An evaluation of Aunt Leahs Link program found that it successfully helped youth aging out of care work through housing issues.

The report demonstrates the cost benefit of supporting this vulnerable population. Annual costs of up to $268 million are associated with the adverse experiences many youth aging out of foster care at 19 encounter, while a much lower level of investment - $57 million per year  would be required to improve outcomes and reduce costs.

Aunt Leahs is looking forward to having even greater impact going forward.

They have recently partnered with BC Housing to acquire ownership of a 10-unit apartment building and a five bedroom home, giving them increased capacity to provide affordable housing to youth from foster care and moms from care and their babies.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2018, Aunt Leahs has a long tradition of social entrepreneur ship, operating several businesses which both give employment opportunities to youth from care and generate almost 20% of its annual revenue.

The biggest revenue generator is the Aunt Leahs Tree Lots which are now open in Vancouver, North Vancouver, Burnaby, New West and Coquitlam. One hundred per cent of profits from the sale of the trees go to support the housing programs. In addition Aunt Leahs youth gain valuable job experience working on the lots.

Our customers love the fact that they can help provide housing for vulnerable youth and young moms and babies by just buying a Christmas tree. says Angelina Oates, Tree Lot Coordinator.

For a lot of families an Aunt Leahs Christmas tree is a cherished part of their Christmas tradition.

https://auntleahs.org/social-enterprise/tree-lots/


(By Kheng Guan Toh/Shutterstock.com) (By Kheng Guan Toh/Shutterstock.com)

The new Home Affairs super ministry is now in place in Australia with Peter Dutton, former immigration minister, at the helm of the Government department taking care of immigration, law enforcement and security.Dutton said it is a significant change at a time when Australia is facing a growing number of challenges and needs to counter evolving threats from terrorism, organised crime and the 'sinister' use of new technology.Now the Minister for Home Affairs, Dutton said that too often Governments are forced to act in the midst of a crisis or its immediate aftermath. 'The scale and complexity of our challenges are increasing; exacerbated by the evolution of technology and the sophistication with which criminals and terrorists operate,' he explained.'For us to ensure continued successful responses, we require coordination and cooperation across departments, agencies and strong central policy support. This is what Home Affairs will do, it will enhance cooperation and coordination on a more enduring basis into the future,' he added.Within the new ministry are Alan Tudge as Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, Angus Taylor as Minister for Law Enforcement and Cyber Security and Alex Hawke as Assistant Minister for Home Affairs.Dutton explained that the new Department of Home Affairs will have responsibility for ensuring a nationally consistent approach to terrorism, cyber security, organised and transnational crime, while securing the integrity of Australia's migration programmes and protecting our borders by managing the movement of people and goods.It will be established incrementally over the next six months and combine the existing Department of Immigration and Border Protection with elements of the existing departments of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Attorney General, Social Services and Infrastructure and Regional Development.Drawn under the portfolio will be the Australian Border Force, Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, Australian Federal Police and the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) will become part of the Home Affairs portfolio after passage of legislation early next year.Dutton also explained that these agencies will remain operationally independent with the Department providing strategic and policy leadership while the role of the Commonwealth Counter-Terrorism Coordinator will continue under Home Affairs, ensuring a nationally consistent approach to terrorism and close engagement between the Commonwealth, states and territories.The current Special Adviser to the Prime Minister on Cyber Security will become the National Cyber Security Advisor.
Being on the pension does not stop you from sponsoring a partner for a partner visa.



DIBP may not grant another student visa, they would need to meet the requirements for the visa. There is a sticky with a list of migration agents that post on this forum. You can also do skype consults.



Just remember make sure your evidence is solid as having sponsored someone before DIBP will look at the application more closely.



I am not sure when you calculated the 5 years but it is from the original application date. Also technically you could apply before the 5 years is up as it is when the decision is made on the new application but if it is risky as DIBP can always look at the application before the 5 years and make a decision then - it would be easy money for them.
1.One of the requirements is to be living together. For a de facto application, it states "show that you and your partner are living together or, if not, that any separation is only temporary".You can take a look here at the partner migration booklet: https://www.border.gov.au/Forms/Documents/1127.pdf It's a little out of date in regards to some things but the requirements in terms of living together haven't changed as far as I'm aware.2. You can only apply online now, paper applications are no longer accepted.3. You have to apply for the 1st stage and 2 years after initial applications, you apply for the 2nd stage.
Electrify America will install more than 2,800 Level 2 EV charging stations by June 2019 in 17 of the biggest metropolitan areas in the United States, with approximately 75% of the new charging station sites located at workplaces.

Having the charging stations at places of work aligns with Electrify Americas goal to increase charging infrastructure at the workplace, the second most likely place a vehicle spends time parked, Electrify America said in a release.

Employees with chargers at their workplace are six times more likely to drive a plug-in electric vehicle than the average worker, and chargers located at the workplace can potentially double an electric vehicle owners daily driving range, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

The other 25% of charging stations will be located at apartment buildings, condominiums and other multi-family properties, Electrify America said. The charging stations will be located at approximately 500 sites, all with more than one charging station.

The initiative by Electrify America is part of a $2 billion investment in electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure and education in the United States over the next 10 years, the company stated.

The Level 2 charging stations will provide for a charging speed up to 25 miles of driving range per hour, the company stated, which would allow drivers to fully charge their electric vehicles at their home or workplace.

Having chargers where people work  and live  will help them see that an electric vehicle can be their primary vehicle because charging is convenient and reliable at the places where they spend time, said Mark McNabb, CEO of Electrify America.

Workplace and multi-unit dwelling charging stations will be installed in six California metropolitan areas, and other areas such as Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, New York City, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Washington, DC, the company said in a release

SemaConnect, EV Connect, and Greenlots will collaborate with Electrify America to move forward with the initiative, according to Electrify America. These organizations will work with property developers, office space facility managers and other real estate site hosts to install, operate and maintain charging stations, for workplaces and residential property owners.
Photo of the Oklahoma Supreme Court justices courtesy of the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Dec. 19 struck down a new state law that established a program for first-time DUI offenders and abolished the appeals process for drunken driving suspects who try to retain a drivers license, according to a report from The Oklahoman.

The justices ruled that the law  previously blocked by the court because of the legal challenge  was unconstitutional because it violates a constitutional guideline that Oklahoma laws focus on a single subject. According to the ruling, the law addresses multiple subjects including revoking drivers licenses, requiring ignition interlock devices, and administering blood and breath tests.

State lawmakers passed the legislation earlier this year. Four attorneys filed a lawsuit in June challenging the laws constitutionality before the measure ever went into effect. The suit argued that the law denied suspects due process rights.

In late October, the state Supreme Court decided to block the law from taking effect until the justices could rule on the legal challenge. Ultimately, the decision to strike down the law was made by a vote of 5-4.
Photo via Raysonho/Wikimedia.

Avis Budget Group today announced that Avis Car Rental and Budget Car Rental are offering customers across Canada vehicles equipped with winter tires.

These vehicles are available in Quebec, as required by law, and on certain vehicles at select corporate Avis and Budget locations in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa and Atlantic Canada.

Although the standard Mud and Snow (M+S) all-weather tires provided on our Avis and Budget vehicles are adequate, we know that some customers prefer to rent a vehicle equipped with winter tires, said Bill Boxberger, vice president and general manager, Canada, Avis Budget Group. For this reason, we offer such vehicles so that we can continue to meet all our customers mobility needs.
Green Motion has sold a master country franchise in Albania to Nertil Duli. Photo courtesy of Green Motion.

Green Motion has sold a master country franchise in Albania to a local entrepreneur, Nertil Duli.

The first Green Motion location is planned to open in early 2018 at the capitals airport, Tirana International Airport Nene Tereza.

Further expansion throughout Albania is planned with sites opening across various locations.

I am personally delighted to welcome Nertil to our family, said Richard Lowden, the founder and CEO of Green Motion. Nertil is a highly experienced businessman and is committed to delivering the very best car rental service in Albania and I have no doubt that he will be a credit to our network.
Leo Lihong Cai is executive vice president and chief marketing officer of eHi Car Services. (Photo courtesy of eHi Car Services.)

Leo Lihong Cai, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of eHi Car Services will deliver the breakfast keynote address at the 2018 International Car Rental Show.

In his address, New Mobility in China, Cai will discuss how the worlds largest middle class and internet user population is embracing the sharing economy and new transportation solutions.

One of the largest car rental companies in China, eHi Car Services offers leisure and corporate car rental and car services at more than 2,500 locations in 200 cities.

Prior to joining eHi, Cai served in executive positions at EMC Corporation, Hewlett-Packard, and Mercury Interactive Corporation. Cai holds advanced degrees from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, University of Missouri, and University of California, Berkeley.

"China is the growth market to watch when it comes to innovative transportation solutions, says Chris Brown, executive editor of Auto Rental News, and eHi Car Services is leading the charge. Were excited to learn from Dr. Cai about the breathtaking changes and challenges facing the worlds largest automotive market.

The 2018 International Car Rental Show will convene April 15-17 at Ballys Las Vegas. Visit here for updates and to register. Full schedule coming soon.
One of my principle aims as a columnist is to elevate discourse, thereby contributing to meaningful social progress. Especially progress in my
Harold Pierce covers education and health for The Californian. He can be reached at 661-395-7404. Follow him on Twitter @RoldyPierce
A man charged with killing a man at Heritage Park in 2017 has been acquitted of most charges, according to court records.
'We thought it was the end of the world': Forty years later, people still remember fear, uncertainty of monumental 1977 dust storm
Eloy Ortiz Oakley is chancellor of the California Community Colleges, which serves 2.1 million students at 114 colleges. Courtney L. Cooper is president of the Student Senate for California Community Colleges.
For the past two years, the message has been resounding: The baking industry is experiencing fundamental change. From consolidation to shifting consumer demands to new trends in specialty products, change is whats driving growth  growth that is once again apparent in the number and size of current construction projects.

Expansion for a bakery means more than adding square footage. It means adding product offerings, equipment, production lines and employees. Most importantly, it means revenue  for both the companies and the communities in which theyre growing. In this special report, Baking & Snack takes a qualitative look at some expansion projects and how they are affecting the bakery business, the economy and the environment.

Making a match

In early 2009, Kings Hawaiian along with a team of real estate experts began scouting out potential sites for a new bakery in a 300-by-500 mile area of the Southeast, eventually targeting specific sites in the Carolinas, Texas, Florida and Georgia.

Georgia was the top state, but not necessarily in terms of economic incentives, noted John Linehan, executive vice-president of the bakery headquartered in Torrance, CA. Georgia won out based on community, quality of workers and appropriate collaboration of city, state and local officials.

By appropriate, I mean they didnt wink at ways to get around rules, he added. They had rules and regulations for permits that were very fair and very protective of the environment, clearly written  very black and white and not a lot of gray. They were very collaborative, not in getting around the regulations, but in helping companies get compliant with the regulations.

The Hall County Chamber of Commerce does not enter into any collaboration lightly, according to Tim Evans, vice-president, economic development for the chamber. We look at the jobs, the quality of the jobs, the investment made by the company, the benefits they can provide, the quality of the company itself and their financial strength, Mr. Evans said. Hall County officials went so far as to visit the Kings Hawaiian Torrance facility.

Before making a final decision, Mr. Linehan and Mark Taira, Kings Hawaiian CEO, toured several locations via helicopter and became specifically interested in a 20-acre site in Hall County that had a partial building on the property. It was actually a three-wall shell with a roof and a dirt floor, Mr. Linehan said.

Kings Hawaiian began negotiating the deal in July 2010 and completed it in December. The first shovel hit the dirt March 2011, and the 120,000-sq-ft bakery began running test product in September before ramping up to full production by December.

Mr. Linehan credited county and state officials for expediting the project. The chamber of commerce in Hall County is like no other that I have ever worked with, he said. Theyre very proactive.

Initially, Kings Hawaiian projected that the single-line bakery had enough capacity to supply its customers through 2015, but it became clear by 2013 that double-digit annual sales growth would require the company to not only install a second line in its existing facility in 2014 but also build a second 120,000-sq-ft bakery scheduled to open in late 2014.

Kings Hawaiian did not initially plan to build the new bakery adjacent to the Oakwood, GA facility, Mr. Evans recalled, but the company was having a hard time finding a community with a business environment that could match that of Hall County.

Like the existing operation, the new bakery will eventually house two production lines and include a new parking lot to accommodate somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 employees.

Power of partnership

Its no secret that with a new construction project comes what seems like an insurmountable mound of red tape, hence the reason why partnerships among businesses and governments are so vital.

At Custom Foods in De Soto, KS, the company broke ground this summer on a 27,000-sq-ft expansion that will triple capacity and create a footprint that would increase sales by 600% over time. The frozen dough manufacturer relied on partnerships with the De Soto Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Council (EDC) to navigate the process leading up the ground breaking in July.

The De Soto EDC assisted Custom Foods at both the local and state levels by guiding the bakery through the development process, including sharing contacts and resources and identifying any potential hurdles ahead of time. By providing this support, Custom Foods was able to take advantage of specific incentives that the company might otherwise not been aware of, said Sara Ritter, executive director of the De Soto Chamber of Commerce and EDC.

Custom Foods garnered significant, long-term tax benefits by working with local agencies. We got a tax abatement for 10 years, and it adds up to about 75% of the tax over the lifetime of the incentive, said John Khoury, Custom Foods president and co-owner. The government here is always looking for growth, so theyre willing to work with businesses to get things done.

The Kansas Department of Commerce also played an integral role in helping identify incentives for Custom Foods, revolving around the De Soto EDC. Our connection with the Kansas Department of Commerce enabled the company to take advantage of sales tax exemptions on construction materials, Ms. Ritter said, adding, We worked together as a team to ensure the project would remain in De Soto and the state of Kansas.

The importance of a good strategic partnership also comes into play when seeking financing. For example, Kings Hawaiian enjoys a long-standing relationship with GE Capital, Norwalk, CT. In 1997, GE Capital, Corporate Finances food division financed a processing line at the bakerys facility in Torrance. Helping support Kings Hawaiians expansion efforts, GE Capitals experience in financing for the food industry opened other doors for the bakery, such as making introductions with experts to help in site selection.

When seeking financing to grow a business, a company should partner with a financial institution that specializes in that specific industry  for wholesale baking, the food industry space  with a solid track record with long-term references in that area, said David W. Hasenbalg, managing director and food and beverage specialist at GE Capital, Corporate Finance.

It is also important, Mr. Hasenbalg noted, to ask a financial institution for examples of bakeries it has financed in the past, especially those projects that were from the ground up.

Jobs, jobs, jobs

In todays shaky employment climate, states and local communities are chomping at the bit for the shot at job creation, and new a new construction project is like a pied piper for job seekers, for both construction and the completed facility. And where the jobs come, incentives will follow.

In Hall County, job creation is a primary love language. It has an unusually high concentration of food processing facilities, and with more than 10,000 people employed, this manufacturing sector accounts for almost 10% of the countys workforce.

Many times, job creation is at the heart of incentive programs for new construction projects. In De Soto, any company that requests incentives is subject to a cost-benefit analysis to identify the number of jobs and direct financial benefit that will be created for the community.

The city needs assurance that the return on their investment  the abatement or incentive  makes good sense for the community as well, Ms. Ritter explained. The community needs validation that the project will maintain the existing tax base, provide an economic benefit and create jobs. Most importantly, there needs to be proof that but for the incentive, the project would not be feasible otherwise. Custom Foods worked with the city to provide the data that confirmed the project met the qualifications for financial incentives.

A capable workforce is the linchpin to attracting businesses in Georgia, according to Philip Wilheit Sr., chairman of the board of regents of the University System of Georgia.

You cant have a quality economic development program without a quality higher education program and vice versa, said Mr. Wilheit, president and CEO of Wilheit Packaging, Gainesville, GA. When I have the opportunity to do something with Kings Hawaiian on economic development, Im able to merge the two together.

Mr. Evans agreed. When a new facility opens, on Day One you need to turn on that line and have 100 or so people who know how to bake bread, he noted. Thats where the Georgia Quick Start Training Program was able to provide customized training for Kings Hawaiian employees.

Under Gov. Nathan Deal, Georgia ranked as the top state for business and No. 1 for the quality of its workforce in 2014, according to CNBC. The state generated more than 250,000 jobs during the past four years, observed Mr. Wilheit, who serves as the governors campaign manager.

He called the states Quick Start program the tip of the spear for attracting new businesses. Training, which is done through Lanier Technical College, located about three miles from the Kings Hawaiian facility, is offered at no cost to the company.

Growth all around

When looking at expansion, its important to think beyond how high or wide the walls are. The investment  whether from governmental incentives or the bakery itself  can benefit myriad areas in a bakery operation.

For Custom Foods, its not so much the addition of lines that will take up the new space; its that the new space will allow the bakery to break up existing production in order to run multiple lines at once. That will contribute to projected triple capacity. Its about not only the building but also the equipment were putting in, Mr. Khoury said. Its going to account for about 40% of the expansion.

New equipment going into Custom Foods will include a spiral freezer, mixers and a dough chunker for the bread and pizza dough line. We currently have the divider itself, but were going to be separating that off of the current freezer that it goes into. It will be in its own area, he continued, Were upgrading our refrigeration, which is a huge expense in itself, and were expanding our holding freezer, which will increase freezer storage capacity by 400%.

Expansion does not have to take place within the walls of a facility to benefit the company  and the community.

At Kings Hawaiian, once construction on the new facility is completed, the company anticipates more than 300 jobs will be added, requiring a substantial amount of parking. To make that happen, the access road needed to be realigned and the elevation adjusted. Because Kings Hawaiian was creating so many jobs, we had an opportunity to apply for some grant funds to help with the relocation of that road, Mr. Evans said. We were able to make a good arrangement to help make the site work when it was not originally intended to do that.

The road improvements will positively impact surrounding properties as well as improve sight lines and overall safety. All those things had an impact on our grant application, Mr. Evans said. We can eliminate some future problems, and all that played into the road grant application.

How green is green?

Sustainability is one of the biggest buzzwords in construction and economic development today. Whether its a matter of political correctness, governmental incentives or good old corporate responsibility, bakers are thinking green.

But what exactly constitutes green, and what does it take to get there? While many facilities are going for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification, such as Mile Hi Bakerys recent expansion in Denver, LEED design isnt for everyone. Were not getting a lot of people coming to us saying, This facility must be LEED,  noted Jim Kline, owner of the Ensol Group, Erwinna, PA, and Baking & Snack contributing editor. But we get people who say, When we go through this design process, we want to evaluate what is the cost-effective approach to going green. 

Mr. Kline suggested that when a bakery is ready to invest, the question to ask should be, What will benefit the world and us? Its important to remember, he emphasized, that a bakery doesnt have to necessarily have a LEED Gold certified building to be mindful of its sustainability efforts. Sustainable design is more about evaluating all options and making a responsible and informed decision than it is about having the right certifications or products.

All you can do is make the best decision you can, Mr. Kline advised, and that goes for a greenfield bakery built from the ground up or an existing brownfield facility converted into a food-safe operation.

As the industry continues to evolve, bakers should remember that growth doesnt just happen in the bricks and mortar; it extends far beyond the walls of a facility, and growth for the bakery means growth for the community at large, as well.
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.
Hon Teddy Mwambire with Egypt diplomats. PHOTO | FILE

The Ganze MP Hon Teddy Mwambire met the Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt Mohmoud Ali Jalaat discussing the constituency bid for investments. The bid for looking investors to improve the life and economic status of the constituency started immediately when the current legislature assumed constituency office."In the quest to build partnerships in our desired transformative development advancement aspirations, I'm pleased to convey his greatest wishes for Egypt to work with Ganze so as to attain the positive transformative development goals." Hon Teddy Mwambire said."I'm thankful for my brother Hon Mwambire for his hard work. Egypt is a desert country but we have managed to build an agricultural empire. I know most of us know Egypt for exporting rice. Despite being a desert country we are the second largest exporter of rice in Africa. Everything is possible." Egpyt Diplomat said.The Diplomats will be looking forward to partner with the constituency in delivering basic functions and needs to the people of Ganze. Among the things discussed; building firm foundation for the constituency economic pillar, dual agricultural enhancement in the area and Education matters concerning the local.
Latest Articles

is Indias Leading and most trusted website for Banking Jobs. The portal has complete information about all Banking and Insurance Jobs, its latest notifications, from all state and national level jobs, and updates. These exams and jobs are regularly updated as per the official information available. Check thehere.
Sen. Jack Latvala has resigned amid an FDLE investigation for sexual misconduct allegations.

Latvala, a longtime Republican lawmaker from Pinellas County, was accused of making inappropriate comments and unwanted physical contact against a female Senate staff member over a period of four years.

PDF: Read Sen. Jack Latvala's resignation letter



Senate investigation report on Latvala released Tuesday



Finds probable cause that most of the allegations against Latvala are true

RELATED: Who will replace Latvala?



Latvala wrote in a letter to Republican Sen. Joe Negron: "I've had enough. If this is the process our Party and Senate leadership desires, then I have no interest in continuing to serve with you." Negron called the resignation the "right decision."



Latvala's resignation will take effect at midnight on Jan. 5.

Just in: @JackLatvala is resigning from the #Florida Senate, writing in a letter to @JoeNegron that "I've had enough. If this is the process our Party and Senate leadership desires, then I have no interest in continuing to serve with you."  Troy Kinsey (@TroyKinsey) December 20, 2017

A state Senate special master, in a report issued Tuesday, said Latvala should be sanctioned and face the FDLE investigation.

The staffer claims Latvala began making inappropriate comments about her clothing and body parts during the 2013 and 2014 sessions. She said she asked him to stop and he didn't. Then in 2015, it escalated to rubbing her thigh while she sat by herself in the bar of the Governors Club Lounge.

She tendered her resignation to the lawmaker she worked for but returned to work a few months later.

In her resignation email she said:

"Yes, I am under personal stress and that isn't your fault or problem. But even without that I would not be okay continuing to work for the Senate, it is a cesspool. I was trying to clear my head last night in the GC and I couldn't even do that because of Jack Latvala."

The complaintant said Latvala continued with unwanted physical contact in 2016 and 2017.

Latvala denies the allegations. In testimony to the special master, Latvala said he would not make those kinds of comments to the complaintant because " she is someone who would be very unpredictable with any kind of remarks like that."

In the report of Latvala's testimony, he did admit that he was known to say those kinds of things. The special master said, though Latvala had been through sexual harassment training, he did not recognize those types of comments as possibly offensive.

The special master recommended that the Senate sanction Latvala for being in violation of Senate rules.

In his resignation letter, @JackLatvala also details his indignation over calls for his ouster "even though we still have anonymous accusers with no opportunity for me to have the privilege our U.S. Constitution affords to confront our accusers in cross examination."  Troy Kinsey (@TroyKinsey) December 20, 2017

The special master also said allegations that Latvala may have traded physical contact or sexual contact for support of legislative initiatives, made by another complaintant, should be referred to law enforcement and to the Florida Commission on Ethics.

The special master also recommended that the entire Florida Senate body, along with its staffers, should go through sexual harassment training, and a review of the culture of the Senate should be conducted.

Gov. Rick Scott was among those calling for Latvala to resign.

In a statement Wednesday, Gov. Scott said: "Now that the special master report is complete and probable cause has been found, it is time for Senator Latvala to resign. Resigning is the best thing he can do now for his constituents, colleagues and the state."

Latvala posted a repsonse Tuesday night on Facebook:
The impact of Hurricane Maria continues to be felt in Bay area schools. Along with the influx of students from the island into the region's schools -- 947 students in Hillsborough schools as of Dec. 14 -- teachers from Puerto Rico are also looking for positions in Bay area classrooms.

RELATED STORIES

Teacher Jackeline Rolon Quinones recently started teaching at Pierce Middle School in Tampa. She left the island last month.



"We were struggling in Puerto Rico, in the schools without power since Maria hit the island," Quinones said.



A lot of the students at Pierce Middle have relatives who have been hit hard by the devastation in Puerto Rico. Pierce Middle School principal Pablo Gallego Alvarez said he had a teacher vacancy and wanted to help.



"The population that we serve here at Pierce, between the students in Puerto Rico and the students from Cuba, make up the majority of our students, more than 80 percent of them, so we felt the need to help our families," said Alvarez.

Quinones said it will take time, but she knows this will be better for her family.



"It is different," Quinones said. "It is like the American dream, like we say, but I know my family and I will adapt and it's new opportunities for us."



Even more teachers have left Puerto Rico in search for work in Bay area schools. According to the district, there are seven candidates who could soon be interviewed for teaching jobs in Hillsborough County.
Florida House Rep. James Grant doesn't fit the mold of a typical politician.

That's because he's not. He's a young entrepreneur who has some fresh ideas about solving Tampa Bay's traffic problems. Those ideas start by involving some of the most innovative minds in our area.

"So, how can we create an invitation to entrepreneurs and innovative companies to solve stated problems, like congestion and the traffic we experience here?" said Grant, who represents District 64.

That is why he and Sen. Dana Young of Tampa have co-sponsored bills to create a statewide alternative transportation authority.

"I think why you should care is that it would represent a radical transformation in how we procure innovation," Grant said.

"And so, to a single mom in Odessa or a working professional in Keystone, areas of my community that are quite frankly not transportation focused but often house people who work downtown or work in St. Pete, what does our community look like when it's truly an organism that allows somebody to get where they're trying to go faster, cheaper and more enjoyably?"

If passed, the bill provides $25 million to the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority. Money can only be used after local or private matching funds are provided.

If a company wants to invest in autonomous vehicle technology or to improve the way we design roadways, matching money may be able to support those projects. It cannot involve adding more lanes, something that has failed in cities like Atlanta.

There isn't a silver bullet to solving Tampa Bay's traffic problems. Grant hopes this new approach is the next best thing.


In his Criminal Justice class at Newsome High School, Carlos Somellan has been teaching an emotional lesson of giving.

Teacher Carlos Somellan asked students to collect toys

More than 500 toys taken to St. Joseph's Hospital

Toy drive was dying daughter's last wish, teacher says



This holiday season, the retired lieutenant urged his students to collect toys for young cancer patients. The teens brought in more than 500 toys, then the class traveled to St. Joseph's Hospital for a special delivery.

"It was very heartwarming to know that we were doing something good for the community, especially these kids, said senior Josh Organ.

By bringing in the toys, the students were doing something special for their teacher also.

"I lost my daughter to cancer," Somellan said.

The toy drive was her dying wish.

"She said, 'Dad, I need you to make sure that kids, very young kids, who are going through this, do something to help them, do something to help them with their pain,'" Somellan said.

So Somellan did what only a dad could do. He organized a toy drive to make sure his daughter's wish would come true.

He knows she would be proud of his efforts.

"This is absolutely something that would be right up her alley," Somellan said. "That was her. She was about giving and loving. That was her. Thats the way she lived her life."
Orange County voters resoundingly rejected the creation of a hospital district in a special election Tuesday, turning down a proposal to create a taxing authority tasked with bringing a hospital to the county.

Of the 7,597 ballots cast, 83.5 percent were against the district.

County officials were required to hold the election after receiving a petition signed by at least 100 residents calling for the creation of the district.

If approved, the proposal would have created a board of directors who could tax residents up to 18 cents per $100 of appraised property value to fund or attract a hospital in the area.

County Judge Stephen Brint Carlton said he wasn't surprised by the outcome, though he expected the results to be closer.

He said county officials are going to continue to try to attract a hospital to the county, though past conversations indicate the vote may have hurt that effort.

Though the election was spurred by a citizens' petition and not a county effort, "basically everyone that we have talked to has wanted to see a hospital district in Orange County," he said of companies considering opening in the community.

"This may make it less likely that they'll come to Orange County, but we'll continue to try to see what we can do," he said.

Opponents of the district criticized the potential tax hike, which would have been up to $180 per year on a house valued at $100,000.

Daniel Wood, a Vidor resident who voted against the district Tuesday, said the possible tax increase would be too much for a plan that might never come to fruition.

"They might go on 10 years taking taxes and not do anything," he said. He might have reconsidered his vote had there been a plan in place to immediately open a hospital, he said, but the impact on his taxes would still be the deciding factor.

Other critics of the district argued that the issues that caused Baptist Hospital in Orange to shut down would prevent any other hospital from being sustainable as well.

Baptist shut down in-patient services in 2015 and closed the emergency department in January 2017.

Orange County now has only free-standing emergency rooms, which do not accept Medicare or Medicaid.

Baptist cited competition from those facilities, declining reimbursement rates, decreasing demand and an increasing number of uninsured or underinsured patients in their decision to end services in Orange.

Proponents of the district said it would incentivize a company to open a hospital in the county after three years of efforts to bring one to the area failed. A private company in partnership with a hospital district could receive higher reimbursement rates for Medicaid and Medicare, and funding generated by the tax could also support the facility, they said.

Aurora Silveira, who lives in an unincorporated area of the county, voted for the district Tuesday because the distance from Orange County to hospitals in Beaumont and Port Arthur concerned her.

The higher taxes would be worth it, she said, if it helped the county's residents. She has insurance through her job, but worried about her husband and others on Medicare, which isn't accepted by the for-profit emergency rooms in the county.

Wood said the distance from Orange County to hospitals in Beaumont, including in eastern parts of the county, isn't far enough to worry him.

Many opponents at a forum held last month agreed, arguing that medical care is easily accessible in Jefferson County, and that there isn't enough need within the county to support a hospital, while others said a hospital is necessary but disagreed with the taxing plan proposed.

LTeitz@BeaumontEnterprise.com

Twitter.com/LizTeitz
A Beaumont man accused of killing his brother's friends while they were playing video games more than two decades ago is still not competent to stand a criminal trial, a Jefferson County judge decided on Wednesday.

David Lee Williams, 57, has been at the Rusk State Hospital since 1996, when it was determined that the U.S. Army veteran suffering from mental illness had no motive for killing 24-year-old Kenneth Wayne Patton and 23-year-old Raymond Payne.

Re-evaluated annually, Williams' case was reviewed this week by Judge John Stevens. It is scheduled to be evaluated again in December 2018, the court coordinator said.

On the evening of March 17, 1996, Williams' brother, Preston Williams, had stepped out to a nearby store around 5 p.m. He left his two friends behind to play video games at his mother's Rockwell Street house and returned to the sound of gunfire, according to previous Enterprise reporting.

Joy Williams, the defendant's mother, is quoted in The Enterprise saying her son had "been in and out of mental institution two or three times" and was not taking his medication.

Williams, who was 36 at the time, allegedly used a .38-caliber revolver without provocation.

The family members of the victims had filed a lawsuit in August 1996 against the pawn shop that sold him the gun, alleging they were irresponsible in making the sale.

In November 1999, EZ Pawn reached a $650,000 settlement with the families, which included the creation of two trusts for minors that were awarded $200,000 each.

READ MORE FROM 2013: Competency up for review in 1996 murders

To be found competent for trial, a defendant must be able to understand the charges against them and aid his lawyers in his own defense, according to Texas state law.

MGstalter@BeaumontEnterprise.com

Twitter.com/morgGstalt
Judges with the Ninth Court of Appeals reversed the ruling of a Jefferson County drunk driving case after the defendant argued his blood sample had been illegally taken, court records show.

Randy Blanchard was charged in a drunk driving case following Port Arthur crash that killed one motorcyclist on March 17, 2012.

Francisco Chavez, 31, was struck and killed while driving on the 2300 block of Memorial Boulevard. Port Arthur Police Department records alleged that Blanchard failed to yield right-of-way and hit the motorcycle head-on.

READ MORE: Man released on $25K bond for intoxication manslaughter

On Wednesday, the appeals court ruled that since Blanchard wasn't allowed to argue against the handling of his blood sample in the 252nd District courtroom, his plea deal was unfairly determined.

At the time of the crash, an officer testified that Blanchard had slurred speech, bloodshot and watery eyes and had smelled of alcohol. Court records state that Blanchard had confessed to drinking four beers that day.

There was no field sobriety test because Blanchard was taken to the hospital, the records state.

Blanchard refused to provide a blood sample and an officer did not make attempt to contact a judge for one, records show. Instead, a nurse was ordered to draw a vial. After he was released, the officer arrested Blanchard for intoxication manslaughter and took him to jail, records state.

A similar case in Utah grew to national attention after a nurse refused to follow the exact same order from Salt Lake City Police officer. She was arrested and later reached a $500,000 settlement.

RELATED VIDEO: Utah nurse, violently arrested for doing her job, reaches settlement

A detective told the court that in 2012, "the standard practice followed by Port Arthur police officers allowed the officers to obtain a suspect's blood without a warrant if the collision being investigated involved a fatality," Justice Hollis Horton wrote in the opinion. However, it was still required.

Blanchard took a plea deal in July 2016 and was eventually placed on community supervision for ten years. He was also ordered to serve 150 days in jail.

Because the Jefferson County 252nd District Court wouldn't allow the prosecution to suppress the blood test, they have leverage in the plea bargaining process, the decision states. The trial court's judgment was reversed and remanded for more hearings.

RELATED: Port Arthur man pleads guilty in fatal drunk driving crash

MGstalter@BeaumontEnterprise.com

Twitter.com/morgGstalt
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

A police sergeant was fired Monday after the Fort Worth Police Department reviewed body camera footage of him allegedly ordering another officer to use a Taser on a woman at the scene of a domestic disturbance, according to a press release.

Sgt. Kenneth Pierce was terminated after 22 years in law enforcement when the incident came under a use of force review.

Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald said in the release that in August, Pierce was called to the scene of a domestic disturbance. As the woman in the video produces identification, the officer becomes "impatient, initiated an unnecessary physical confrontation, and then ordered a rookie officer to 'Tase' the woman," according to Fitzgerald.

YUCK!: Woman charged with spitting on Houston police chief

Now Playing: Fort Worth Police Sgt. Kenneth Pierce ordered another officer to Taze a woman, according to bodycam footage. Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald said Pierce "initiated an unnecessary confrontation," according to a release. Video: Fort Worth Police Department

Police did not identify the location where the incident occurred, however, it appears to have occurred at an apartment complex.

The video footage is nearly 13 minutes long and the physical confrontation begins at the 7:21 mark.

Fitzgerald said out of respect for the woman's privacy, police are not identifying her. Charges against the woman have been dropped after reviewing evidence and the video, Fitzgerald said. He added the woman has not responded to the police department despite reaching out multiple times.

TRAGIC: Houston mayor and police chief speak at vigil of slain transgender woman

"I'm confident that everyone who sees this video, including members of this department, will agree this supervisor's response and subsequent behaviors are absolutely unacceptable," Fitzgerald said in the release. "We are built on a foundation of being problem-solvers. Pierce responded in an opposite manner, and he escalated the situation endangering everyone including his fellow officers."

Fitzgerald added that the case iss "eerily reminiscent" of Jacqueline Craig, a Dec. 21, 2106 arrest that gained national attention. Video of Craig and Fort Worth Police Officer William Martin went viral and Martin received a 10-day suspension.

"In my mind, all people should be treated with dignity and respect. That's non-negotiable," Fitzgerald said.

See the incident in full in the video above.

Will Axford is a digital reporter for Chron.com. Read more of his stories here and follow him on Twitter.
Texas police have arrested a man accused of threatening to kill churchgoers and city employees, according to the Alice Echo News Journal.

Wade Clayton Randolph, 34, was arrested Monday in San Diego, Texas, a small town roughly 60 miles west of Corpus Christi.
Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque (right) and his Myanmar counterpart, U Myint Thu, sign an agreement in Dhaka establishing a joint working group for the repatriation of Rohingya refugees, Dec. 19, 2017.

Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed Tuesday to establish a bilateral group to oversee the voluntary repatriation, starting next month, of as many as 700,000 Rohingya Muslims who fled violence in Rakhine state since October 2016.

Bangladeshi Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque and his Myanmar counterpart, U Myint Thu, met in Dhaka, where they approved a joint working group (JWG) as required by an agreement signed last month to begin returning the refugees from camps and settlements in southeastern Bangladesh and resettling them in neighboring Rakhine.

Today we have formed the joint working group to oversee the repatriation of the displaced Myanmar nationals, Manjurul Karim Khan Chowdhury, the director general of the Southeast Asia desk at Bangladeshs foreign ministry, told BenarNews after the officials from both countries signed off on documents creating the JWG.

The 30-member group would consist of two delegations of 15 representatives from each country, and the foreign secretaries would lead their respective sides, Chowdhury said.

On Nov. 23 in Naypyidaw, the two governments agreed to begin the repatriation process by Jan. 23. It would affect about 700,000 Rohingya if they choose to return to Myanmar, including 655,000 Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh in the last four months, officials said.

The agreement covers refugees who escaped eruptions of violence in Rakhine in October 2016 and August 2017. There is no end date for the repatriation.

However, Rohingya refugees who are sheltering in Bangladesh expressed displeasure over the agreement. They said they feared more violence targeting members of their minority group, if they opted to return to Myanmar.

We will not go now. The military and Moghs (Buddhists) will torture us again, Mohammad Alam, a refugee sheltering in southeastern Coxs Bazar district, told BenarNews in a phone interview.

Another refugee, who identified herself only as Nargis, expressed the same sentiment.

They will confine us to shelter homes and annihilate us gradually. We will first observe whether they would grant us citizenship, then we will consider returning, she told BenarNews.

JWG to visit Rakhine

Chowdhury, the Bangladeshi foreign ministry official, said the agreement required Bangladesh to prepare a list of refugees and hand it over to Myanmar.

They will verify the placement of these people, and report back to the working group, he said. When they give clearance, we will send those verified people.

The agreement also requires that the refugees, who are stateless because Myanmar has refused to recognize them as citizens, show proof of past residence in Myanmar.

Chowdhury said returnees would be taken to temporary shelter homes and then settled in their original homesteads.

Human rights organizations and refugees, however, have accused Myanmar military and security personnel of burning down Rohingya villages and neighborhoods as well as committing atrocities against Rohingya civilians, including killings and rapes, during a crackdown that followed attacks carried out on government security posts by Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) insurgents on Aug. 25. Myanmar government and military officials have denied the allegations.

On Monday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) identified 40 new burned villages in Rakhine state, increasing the total to 354 Rohingya communities that were destroyed by violence since the military crackdown began in late August, Radio Free Asia (RFA), a sister entity of BenarNews reported.

Dozens of buildings were torched the same week the repatriation agreement was signed in November.

The Burmese armys destruction of Rohingya villages within days of signing a refugee repatriation agreement with Bangladesh shows that commitments to safe returns were just a public relations stunt, Brad Adams, HRWs Asia director, said.

The satellite imagery shows what the Burmese army denies: that Rohingya villages continue to be destroyed, he said. Burmese government pledges to ensure the safety of returning Rohingya cannot be taken seriously.

Meanwhile, Bangladeshs government issued a statement on Tuesday saying the JWB would seek assistance from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), along with mandated U.N. agencies and other international organizations, during the repatriation process.

Mohammed Abu Asaker, a UNHCR spokesman, said his agency would work with the two governments.

We are waiting for the proposal, he told BenarNews.

Last month, when the bilateral deal was struck, UNHCR officials at the agencys Geneva headquarters expressed grave concerns for the safety of Rohingya who would be repatriated to Rakhine under the agreement.

Their return must be voluntary, and take place in safe and dignified conditions that pave the way for lasting solutions, UNHCR said in a statement on Nov. 24.

At present, conditions in Myanmars Rakhine State are not in place to enable safe and sustainable returns.

We will set ourselves on fire

Also on Tuesday, Oxfam, the British-based NGO, said in a report that interviews with more than 200 Rohingya revealed that many refugees, especially women, were deeply traumatized by their experiences, including being raped and seeing loved ones killed. Some threatened to commit suicide if forced to return to Myanmar, according to Oxfam.

Rohingya refugees interviewed by Oxfam in Bangladesh say they will not go back to Myanmar until their safety can be guaranteed and they have equal rights, including being able to work and travel freely, the report said.

Refugees were unwilling to be repatriated without such guarantees, despite reporting feeling unsafe at night in overcrowded, makeshift settlements in Coxs Bazar, Oxfam said.

I want to go back to my home  when we are treated as citizens, when there is no violence, when women are not tortured and kidnapped, when at last we can be free, Fatima Sultan told Oxfam. If we are forced to go back we will set ourselves on fire.

In related news, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday that 21 Rohingya had died of diphtheria in Bangladeshi refugee camps.

The deaths were among the more than 1,500 cases of diphtheria reported since Nov. 10, according to WHO. The contagious disease, which can be controlled through vaccination, can cause breathing difficulties leading to death, if not treated.
Filipino security forces killed at least five pro-Islamic State (IS) militants in a massive ground and air strike in the restive southern Philippines, the military said Wednesday.

A military aircraft fired rockets on positions controlled by Abu Turaipe, the leader of a local IS cell operating in a remote part of North Cotabato province. Turaipe is believed to have assumed the leadership of IS after troops killed Isnilon Hapilon in October, at the end of a five-month battle against IS-backed militants holed up in Marawi City, about 86 km (53 miles) to the north.

At least four soldiers were wounded in fighting during a ground assault that followed the airstrike on Tuesday, Capt. Arvin John Encinas, spokesman for the militarys 6th Division, told BenarNews.

Five of our targets were killed in the airstrike. The information came from villagers but we are validating the enemy fatalities. Our wounded men are out of danger, he said.

They have enough numbers of strength to conduct atrocities across the region. Thats why we need to eliminate them, Encinas added.

He said he had no information on whether Turaipe, who controls a massive marshland area in the south, was among the slain suspected militants.

Three years ago, Turaipe quit the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the main separatist rebel group in the southern Philippines, after it signed a peace deal with Manila.

The MILF opted to settle for expanded autonomy in the south, an idea that Turaipe rejected.

He broke away from the insurgent chain-of-command and led his followers, who numbered in the few dozen, to press on with the fight.

But his faction mostly engaged troops in hit-and-run attacks and largely stayed out the IS-led siege of Marawi.

I am very determined to defeat the threat groups and thwart them from doing terroristic activities in Central Mindanao, said Maj. Gen. Arnel dela Vega, commander of the Armys 6th Division.

He appealed for support from communities to help capture Turaipe, whose band of fighters is believed to be backed by Malaysian militants, according to army intelligence.

On Monday in the island province of Basilan farther to the south, suspected Abu Sayyaf militants believed to be linked IS, killed a soldier and wounded two others in an ambush in the town of Tipo-tipo.

Local police chief Senior Inspector Mujahid A. Mujahid said soldiers were conducting a routine patrol when they were attacked.

The Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), founded in the early 1990s, is notorious for carrying out bombings, kidnappings and beheadings.

ASG was responsible for a ferry bombing on Manila Bay in 2004 that killed more than a hundred people.

Hapilon had led an ASG faction before he was named the emir of the IS in the region last year.

President Rodrigo Duterte declared the Marawi fighting over in late October after fighter jets pounded the militants in near-daily bombing runs.

The battle left 1,100 people dead, including 930 militants and 165 soldiers and police.

A military intelligence report said pro-IS militants had regrouped elsewhere and were actively seeking new recruits.

Felipe Villamor contributed reporting from Manila.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte gestures as he addresses troops during the 82nd anniversary celebration of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in Quezon City where he declared a Christmas truce with communist rebels, Dec. 20, 2017.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared a unilateral Christmas ceasefire with communist rebels on Wednesday, just days after branding them as terrorists and closing the door on peace talks.

The suspension of military operations is to run from Christmas Eve to Jan. 2 in the predominantly Catholic nation, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said.

This unilateral ceasefire should lessen the apprehension of the public this Christmas season, Roque said.

Troops have been stepping up operations against the communists since Duterte listed them as a terrorist group when asking congress to expand martial law in the south until December 2018.

Roque said the government was expecting the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) to pull back offensives by its armed wing, the New Peoples Army (NPA) as a gesture of goodwill.

Christmas holds a special place in the hearts of our countrymen, Roque said. In the observance of this occasion, we hope that all Filipinos would stand together as one nation and aspire for peace in our beloved Philippines.

The declaration pertains to combat operations only and troops would not stand down in case of rebel attacks, he said.

Air, ground attacks kill 5 militants

Meanwhile, military officials said Wednesday that security forces had killed at least five pro-Islamic State (IS) militants in a ground and air strike in the southern Philippines a day earlier.

A military aircraft fired rockets on positions controlled by Abu Turaipe, the leader of a local IS cell operating in a remote part of North Cotabato province.

Four soldiers were wounded after troops launched a ground attack following the airstrike, Capt. Arvin John Encinas, spokesman for the militarys 6th Division, told BenarNews.

Our wounded men are out of danger, he said.

The ceasefire announcement came less than two weeks after troops announced a major advance against the NPA, dislodging its fighters from four strategic camps in the south, including one where they were believed to be making landmines and bombs.

Local army spokesman Capt. Patrick Martinez said the declaration meant troops directly on the frontline would cease their offensive immediately.

Some will go down the mountains and stand down in the camps, he said. We are eager to see if the NPA will reciprocate the peace gesture of the president.

The ceasefire has raised questions because the government has a policy of not negotiating or dealing with terrorist organizations.

Duterte said he declared it because he did not want to add to what people are now suffering.

The ceasefire is a unilateral action of government to refrain from attacking, Duterte said. A lot of people are going around, even at night enjoying Christmas or whatever, going to Mass.

He said armed clashes put a lot of strain on the people and he hoped that with the declaration, the rebels would also cease their attacks.

Also on Wednesday, two police officers who had been held captive for more than a month by rebels in the southern town of Surigao del Norte province were freed. The officers, whose identities were not released, were held in solitary confinement at an undisclosed area in the south.

Felipe Villamor in Manila and Jeoffrey Maitem in Cotabato, Philippines, contributed to this report.
A ruined section of Marawi city is seen from a bank of Lake Lanao, Oct. 26, 2017.

At first sight, the devastated buildings in the southern Philippine city of Marawi tell the story of how government forces, in the year 2017, clobbered pro-Islamic State (IS) militants in a battle that lasted five months. But in the year ahead, military officials and analysts warn, they cannot rule out a resurgence in violence perpetrated by extremists.

The IS-linked militants appear to have been emboldened by the publicity around the battle in Marawi, enabling them to regroup and entice new fighters to their cause, analysts said.

The city itself now appears to be calm, as the government carefully vets the returning 200,000 people who were displaced when the gunmen took over the Islamic city in May.

Heavily armed troops guard roadblocks amid the constant hum of tractors working to clear debris from the business center of Marawi, once a sprawling military reservation and prosperous trading hub in the south.

But while the guns have fallen silent and relative peace has returned, military officials concede that the remnants of the Filipino fighters who fought alongside their foreign counterparts have remained active and still pose a threat at the start of a new year.

Col. Romeo Brawner, commander of the militarys task force in Marawi, said intelligence reports suggested that the gunmen had regrouped in the hinterlands of nearby Butig town after recruiting dozens of new fighters.

A civilian informant, who asked not to be named for security reasons, told BenarNews that the group was apparently plotting to mount fresh attacks, targeting the Mindanao State University campus in Marawi.

We have received the same report and we have alerted all police stations in Iligan City to step up security measures, said police Senior Superintendent Leony Roy Ga, referring to the nearest city about 28 km (17.5 miles) north of Marawi.

The Marawi fighting, the most intense military campaign that the Islamic State (IS) has supported outside Syria and Iraq, killed 1,200 people, including almost 1,000 militants and their leader Isnilon Hapilon.

Other top militant leaders and fighters from nearby Indonesia and Malaysia and as far as Chechnya were among those believed slain, the military said.

President Rodrigo Duterte had said that while the extremists suffered a huge number of fatalities and almost 150 suspected militants were arrested in Marawi, about 200 others named on the militarys wanted list had escaped and remained at large.

He emphasized this as part of his argument in extending martial law through the whole of 2018 in the southern island of Mindanao, where, he warned, IS still held sway despite Hapilons death. Lawmakers approved his request on Dec. 13.

Mindanao, the Philippines second-largest island that lies near the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah, has been roiled for decades by local insurgencies and separatist movements, but has also become a sanctuary for Southeast Asians wanted in their countries for militant activities.

IS fighters in Mindanao are allegedly now being led by Abu Turaipe, an obscure militant leader who controls a vast marshland area far from Marawi and where some Malaysian militants have recently been spotted, according to intelligence reports.

There are no official reports on the number of foreign fighters who joined the Marawi fighting, but local newspapers said government forces had killed at least 13 foreigners, including Malaysians and Indonesians, during the battle that erupted on May 23.

The presence of foreign fighters in Marawi led Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines to launch trilateral air and maritime patrols this year to rid their shared boarders and common sea lanes of IS and other militant threats.

A woman looks for family mementoes to salvage from her home in the southern Philippine city of Marawi, which was flattened by five months of aerial bombings and firefights between government forces and pro-Islamic State militants, Nov. 23, 2017. [Mark Navales/BenarNews]

Discontent and revenge killings

Francisco Lara, head of International Alert, a think-tank that has closely tracked the spread of violence in the restive south, warned that the governments failure to deliver on its promise to rebuild Marawi could provoke a new wave of violence in the new year.

Surviving militants could tap into this discontent among the youth to grow their ranks, amid the overall lawlessness in the Muslim south, where large areas remain mired in poverty, he said.

The big problem now is whether the central government in Manila could deliver on its promise of full rehabilitation and rebuilding of Marawi.

If it is done well, it would serve as a counterpoint to extremism, Lara said.

With Muslim families having lost their homes and livelihood, there too is the threat of rido or revenge killings targeting clans primarily of those who joined the Marawi siege, Lara warned.

There will be those that will seek revenge. They had, after all, lost their property and their loved ones, he said.

He warned that attacks could happen, but not on a scale previously seen in Marawi.

It may be difficult to mount the same operations, but given some time, then they may attempt another broader-type operations, Lara said.

Schools under tight guard

As of early December, about 92,400 people out of Marawis more than 200,000 population had returned. Schools have also reopened, but under tight guard, and power has been restored in some parts as the city.

Military spokesman Col. Edgar Arevalo said troops were clearing villages of debris and unexploded ordnance to allow more people to return.

He said that while the military had pulled out most of the six battalions sent to Marawi, troops were still on heightened alert because of reports of militants engaged in recruitment efforts.

There are activities that we do to make sure they cant get new members and attack like what they did in Marawi, Arevalo said.

Troops have helped build about 500 temporary shelters in Marawi, where civilians could stay while their documents are being sorted out, he said.

The government has also opened an operations center in Marawi to help returning residents get their lives back, said Social Welfare Undersecretary Emmanuel Leyco.

But for Alih Ibrahim Reyes, a 53-year-old father of six, recovery would be next to impossible.

Reyes, who was among those allowed to return to Marawi to discover their house pockmarked with bullets and all its appliances looted, said six of his nephews had left the evacuation camp in the first three months of the fighting.

They could have joined the militants, he said.

I begged them to stay. But they decided to all leave anyway. They said, Why stay when we dont have anything to eat? Reyes said, adding his nephews were likely enticed by their friends to join what they claimed as a Muslim versus Christian struggle.

I told them, what struggle? They destroyed our community and now we have nothing, Reyes said. But up in the mountains, their stomachs are full.

Jeoffrey Maitem in Cotabato City, Philippines contributed to this report.
For Immediate Release, December 20, 2017 Contact: Robert Ukeiley, Center for Biological Diversity, (720) 496-8568, rukeiley@biologicaldiversity.org

Christopher Ahlers, Clean Air Council, (215) 567-4004 x 125, cahlers@cleanair.org Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration Delays in Reducing Deadly Soot in California, Idaho, Pennsylvania OAKLAND, Calif. Conservation and public-health groups filed a lawsuit against U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt today for failing to enforce air-quality standards that limit deadly soot pollution. Todays lawsuit seeks to force the EPA to ensure that communities in California, Idaho and Pennsylvania are taking legally required steps to meet clean-air standards to reduce soot, also known as fine particulate matter. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Soot, which comes mainly from burning fossil fuels in cars, power plants and other industrial facilities, causes thousands of premature deaths every year, as well as a range of debilitating health problems for people and wildlife. By failing to enforce common-sense measures to reduce soot, Trumps EPA is sentencing thousands of Americans to asthma and heart attacks and death, said Robert Ukeiley, environmental health senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. People in these states desperately need cleaner air. But Pruitt doesnt mind sacrificing human health if it pumps up the profits of his buddies in the fossil fuel industry. Todays suit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Environmental Health and Clean Air Council asks the federal court to order EPA to make a finding that the three states have failed to submit plans to reduce dangerous soot levels. The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to set nationwide health and public welfare-based standards for particulate pollution, and sets mandatory deadlines for states to develop plans to achieve and maintain those standards. The EPA and these states are ignoring their duty to clean up our skies to protect all of us from dangerous pollution, said Christopher Ahlers, a staff attorney at Clean Air Council. Theres no reason for the EPA to delay stronger protections that hold polluters accountable and protect Americans suffering from dirty air. The Trump administrations refusal to clean up toxic soot is especially threatening to the health and well-being of children, added Caroline Cox, research director at the Center for Environmental Health. The risk air pollution poses to children is serious because their bodies are still developing, they are more active and spend more time outside. If exposed during childhood, underdeveloped lungs may never recover to their full capacity. Background

Soot, labelled fine particulate matter or PM2.5 by the EPA, is produced mainly from the burning of fossil fuels. Particulate matter is made up of tiny particles about 30 times smaller than the width of the average human hair, which can lodge deep in the lungs. Along with causing health problems, it causes regional haze, harms plants, and acidifies water bodies. There is no known safe level of fine particulate matter, because even minute amounts lead to death and disease. An EPA study found that Clean Air Act programs to reduce fine particle pollution prevented more than 160,000 deaths, 130,000 heart attacks and 1.7 million asthma attacks in 2010 alone. The Clean Air Act has also helped to keep the U.S. economy healthy by creating jobs, with more than 1.7 million Americans employed in the environmental technology industry helping to keep our air clean.
For Immediate Release, December 19, 2017 Contact: Michael Robinson, (575) 313-7017, michaelr@biologicaldiversity.org

Haley McKey (202) 772-0247, hmckey@defenders.org Tricolored Bat Closer to Endangered Species Act Protection Deadly White-nose Syndrome Has Decimated Tiny Bat Species WASHINGTON In response to a scientific petition from the Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced tricolored bats may warrant federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. The tricolored bats precipitous decline is due primarily to the deadly disease known as white-nose syndrome, which has killed millions of hibernating bats across the United States and Canada. Were glad this little bat is one step closer to the protection it so desperately needs to survive, said Michael Robinson, a conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity. If this bats going to make it, the Trump administration needs to dramatically boost research efforts to find a cure for white-nose syndrome and protect its habitat. White-nose syndrome is caused by a fungus that originated in Europe and may have been brought to North America by people visiting caves here. It was first discovered in upstate New York in 2006 and has spread fast, affecting at least seven species of hibernating bats so far. Tricolored bats are among North Americas smallest bats and have one of the longest hibernation periods. Because of their long hibernation and preference for hibernating sites with a temperature range that is ideal for the fungus, theyre extremely vulnerable to white-nose syndrome, suffering close to 100 percent mortality in infected sites. Since they also have low reproductive rates, tricolored bats have been nearly extirpated from several states. Endangered species protections would give the tricolored bat a real shot at survival, and the clock is ticking, said Defenders of Wildlife Southeast Representative Kat Diersen. Those protections would require federal and state agencies to take far more care to protect caves where the bats roost and hibernate, and hopefully boost veterinary responses to white-nose syndrome. Even before the catastrophic advent of the fungus, tricolored bat numbers were dropping because of disturbances by people at their hibernation and roost sites, collisions with wind turbines, habitat loss to development and agriculture, pesticide poisoning and extreme weather caused by climate change. Background

Weighing between about .1 and .3 ounces, the tricolored bat is the smallest bat in the East and Midwest. Its size and a fluttery, slow flying style sometimes lead it to be mistaken for a moth. Its fur appears yellowish-brown to reddish, while each individual hair is tricolored, brown at the tip, yellow in the middle and dark at the base. Tricolored bats are entirely insectivorous, helping limit mosquitoes and agricultural pests.
Mratt Kyaw Thu, 27, was recognised for a series of articles focused on ethnic and religious conflict in Myanmar's Shan and Rakhine states in 2016 - the latter a precursor to the exodus of nearly 650,000 Rohingya Muslims from Rakhine earlier this year.

Reporter Mratt Kyaw Thu. Image provided.

The stories were published in the weekly English-language news magazine Frontier, which has established a reputation for independent reporting in a country where rights groups say media freedoms have worsened, despite the installation of a civilian-led government last year.

"AFP is particularly pleased that a Myanmar journalist will receive the Kate Webb award for the first time since its inception in 2008," said AFP's Asia-Pacific regional director, Philippe Massonnet. "Journalists work in a tough environment in Myanmar, where press freedom is a constant battle in which Mratt Kyaw Thu is one of the regular combatants," Massonnet said.

Crusading AFP reporter

The prize, with a 3,000 euro purse, honours journalists working in perilous or difficult conditions in Asia, and is named after a crusading AFP reporter who died in 2007 at the age of 64, after a career covering the world's trouble spots  including Afghanistan.

"This award is recognition for me personally but also for the struggles of all Myanmar journalists, who are in a very difficult situation right now," Mratt Kyaw Thu said, after learning he was the winner of the 2017 prize. "Friends are being arrested for doing their job. Myanmar journalists are being watched closely by the military and government  it's worse than before," he said.

The prize will be formally presented at a ceremony in Yangon in the New Year.
#CreativeMorningsCT: TNW's Linda Mertens on mental health, the role of creatives and top 2018 trends

The most recent Creative Mornings talk took place on Thursday, 30 November and featured Linda Mertens from The Next Web (TNW) where she spoke about her initiative, Normaal Gesproken, a project focused on creating an inclusive conversation about mental health.

Linda Mertens, program manager at The Next Web. Image provided. I caught up with Mertens, who is based in Amsterdam, and asked her to elaborate a bit more on the themes discussed in her talk, what her job at TNW entails and how she thinks South Africa stacks up in terms of technology and creative ability when it comes to the rest of the world. Can you please tell us more about The Next Web and what your job there entails? Can you please tell us more about The Next Web and what your job there entails?

The Next Web is a media and events company with a focus on technology and entrepreneurship. It started in Amsterdam in 2006 with a meet-up for 300 tech-savvy entrepreneurs from the local scene. Fast forward 12 years later and our blog reaches 10+ million readers per month, we founded a Tech Hub (TQ) together with Google for Entrepreneurs, and we organise one of the world's largest festivals on the future of technology, business, and creativity. At TNW, I'm part of the events team and responsible for programming TNW Conference and TNW New York. Throughout the year I research emerging technologies, the way they'll impact our lives and businesses tomorrow and beyond, trends and who's doing innovative stuff in the tech and creative industries. Thanks to that I get to interact with and meet the brightest minds and most inspiring people out there. Next stop, The Next Web Amsterdam - Boomer edition By Vuyani Ngabaza, Issued by The Talent Boom 11 May 2017 Please take us through some of the key thoughts you shared during your talk at Creative Mornings. Please take us through some of the key thoughts you shared during your talk at Creative Mornings.

As this month's theme was Death, my Creative Mornings talk didn't have anything to do with TNW but regarded my own initiative: Normaal Gesproken, translated to Generally Speaking. It's born out of my Master's graduation project and out of the desire to create a more open, educated and inclusive conversation about mental health. Some key thoughts I hope the audience walked away with: Everything in life has a counterpart. Without darkness, there is no light. We can't always be happy, be fine. Sometimes we're sad and that's okay. Don't let your thoughts or emotions take the steering wheel, accept them as they are and they will come and go. Depression is no sign of weakness, and one mustn't be ashamed of having this disease. Open up the dialogue with your loved ones about what goes through your mind when you're in a darker period. Making mine part of the experience and journey of getting better definitely helped me feel less lonely during my depressions and after many years, I've started to recognise their unconditional love. It's super scary to let people in but eventually, this is the thing that will save your life. Self-medication through alcohol and drugs is not a sustainable solution. For me, it doesn't work to live a celibate life either. Together with my therapist I found a way to have a healthier relationship with alcohol and stopped using it as an escape. A hangover makes it a lot more difficult to fight the voices in your head, and it's really not worth it. Don't forget a picture is just is a fraction of reality. Social media is the showreel of other people's highlights, no wonder we feel overwhelmed by what we see on our social feed and think their lives are so much more awesome than our own. Unlearn yourself to compare your life to others. If someone you know is depressed or burned-out, don't try to cheer them up. This might sound weird but just don't. Listen, have empathy for their sadness. Don't talk about all the things that should make them happy (loving family, good job, healthy relationship, supporting friends) because it only emphasises how "weird" they are for being depressed. Have you been feeling down, low in energy, or an intense loneliness for a while? Share these thoughts with a friend and perhaps, step into the doctor's office and ask to be referred to a psychologist. They won't judge, that's kind of their whole thing. #CreativeMorningsCT: "Block out all the outside noise, the naysayers, the dream-killers" By Juanita Pienaar 5 Jul 2017 What role do creatives play in this ever-evolving technological world and its future? What role do creatives play in this ever-evolving technological world and its future?

Without creativity, there would be no ever-evolving technological world. It all starts with an idea and for that, you need inspiration and creativity. It's important to sometimes step out of your routine, out of your comfort zone, Hence why Im in Cape Town at the moment. New experiences, different cultures and conversations with people I've just met, are the fuel for my best ideas. But also, taking it slow. When you're always in a rush to check the next box, your brain will never have time to rest and the conscious and unconscious parts won't meet. That's where the Eureka happens. I think we got this far as humans thanks to our curiosity, our hunger to discover, learn and share stories. That to me is creativity.

You attended the Cannes Lions Festival this year. What was the experience like for you and do you mind sharing some insights from the Festival with our readers? You attended the Cannes Lions Festival this year. What was the experience like for you and do you mind sharing some insights from the Festival with our readers?

It was a very overwhelming experience. I go there as part of RA*W for Advertisers, an initiative that promotes on-the-job learning and seeks to empower advertising professionals at the beginning of their careers. Im a board member there at the moment. We travel to the French Riviera with a group of 30 juniors from the Dutch advertising scene. As its very difficult to get (financial) support from your agency to go to Cannes, we help them get the budget and the time away from their desks. I think the struggle to go there in your early years is ridiculous but lets save that for a different conversation. Some of my insights.

For me, it was super inspiring to see what this industry is doing with the technologies we research, cover and programme at TNW as well. I would describe it as applied technology. I love it. It shows me the concrete, creative examples of something that to me also feels very abstract and somewhere far away from reality. One thing I missed in Cannes was any coverage on sustainability. The footprint of this event is immense, so much consumption at sponsored beaches and yet, no talk was programmed about anything related to sustainability. Hopefully, well see more of that in 2018 because although its more popular to talk about diversity and AI, we shouldnt forget to take care of Mother Earth. That and brands are super into chatbots.

What are the key technological and innovative trends you can identify for 2018, specifically focussed around creative industries? What are the key technological and innovative trends you can identify for 2018, specifically focussed around creative industries?

There are two technological innovations dominating most of my professional conversations: Blockchain and AI. Some might call them buzzwords and I'm sure they are, hence why it's so important to fully understand the way they work and their implementations. Both are very applicable for creatives, you see it already happening. Musicians writing songs together with AI, or distributing a new album via Blockchain technology. The latter one enables an artist to keep more money from the actual sales in comparison to using a music publisher.

Creative industries by nature thrive on collaboration and I think now is an amazing time to work as a creative and explore how far you can go working (together) with technologies. I'm really looking forward to seeing where AR and VR are going to take us in terms of immersive storytelling. The physical body and imaginative experience are no longer connected and that is very exciting.

You are currently based in Amsterdam. How do you think South Africa compares in terms of technology and creative ability when it comes to the rest of the world? You are currently based in Amsterdam. How do you think South Africa compares in terms of technology and creative ability when it comes to the rest of the world?

The rest of the world is a very big place and I surely havent experienced all of it, so thats a difficult thing to say. What I see happening in Cape Town is amazing though. They don't call it Silicon Cape for nothing, there's so much entrepreneurial spirit and positive energy vibrating through this city. The open-minded, warm culture of South Africa makes it a very welcoming community for me to interact with. There's a huge need to disrupt the way things have been going for many years. Lets be honest, this country has a few issues to solve. For example, the educational system and equal opportunities for South Africans from various backgrounds. Luckily, there are some very bright and devoted people working on that.

Access to higher education urgently needs to be decentralised for South-Africa to grow and flourish, at least I think so. A lot of the current problems come from a lack of information and education to the masses. You see solutions coming from the bottom-up and I hope the next few years will show us just how good it can get when we start including everyone in the conversation.

Follow @CapeTown_CM for their latest updates. Themed talks are held monthly and are free to attend.
During the festive period plastic nurdle clean-up operations will focus on priority estuaries and remote beaches in KwaZulu-Natal in order to allow beach-goers uninterrupted access to frequented areas. Clean-up operations at all popular bathing areas along the KZN coast have been halted till 8 January 2018.

Thus far, at least 3.5 tonnes of nurdles have been recovered and the authorities are working around the clock to track and recover as much of the plastic polyethylene nurdles lost from shipping containers, following the storm on 10 October in the province. Four containers fell off vessels in the harbour when ships lost their moorings during the storm, of which two containers were carrying nurdles.

Joint effort

The Joint Operations Committee consisting of the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA), Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA), Transnet National Ports Authority (TPNA), KZN Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (EDTEA), Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) and South African Local Government Association (SALGA) have met regularly since the storm to manage and contain clean-ups in the harbour and along the coast.

SAMSA principal officer Captain Hopewell Mkhize, based in Durban, said the JOC would like to remind the public that any nurdles sighted in a bathing area would not make the area unsafe for bathing and beach-related activities. Mkhize urged adults to supervise children in ensuring that they do not ingest any item picked up from the sand, including nurdles.

Clean-up continues

Over the past few weeks, the clean-up has moved from the Durban beaches towards the North Coast beaches, namely Clarke Bay, Grannys Pool (second clean-up), Shakas Rock, Thompsons Beach, Mvoti beach, Villa Royale beach and Ballito main beach. Areas which have also been prioritised are the Tugela Mouth and Amatikulu lagoons.

Additional resources and personnel provided by the DEA have been brought to sites, and are assisting to speed up the clean-up operations. During the clean-up operations different types of plastics and waste, not emanating from the containers, were also spotted and collected.
Now that Cyril Ramaphosa has secured the ANC's top job, he and his team will have to roll up their sleeves to restore confidence and boost investment in the economy. But have they got the New Deal economic plan right? Leon Greyling, MD of Alexander Forbes Investments and Lesiba Mothata, executive chief economist of Alexander Forbes Investments, think that incorporating the two-tier city economic model will achieve 3% GDP growth.

Where to begin?

The immediate challenge to the incoming ANC leadership is that the economy is facing cyclical and structural weakness, which requires decisive and swift action. President Jacob Zuma has committed the fiscus to an unsustainable free education plan, which requires urgent attention. Clearly South Africa cannot commit itself indefinitely to free education when it does not have sufficient capital to continue with its growth plans without the need to borrow. South African Airways and the Post Office were bailed out on borrowed funds. How does the country sustain free education without borrowing?

In the past three years, there has been a deliberate intent to change the budgeting process, which has left the National Treasury greatly weakened. The priority for the new leadership should be to restore confidence in and credibility of this institution.

Revise the New Deal economic plan

The New Deal put forward is missing important dimensions  micro-economic reforms aimed at removing economic concentration. While it is admirable to focus on re-industrialising South Africa and boosting the economy via small- and medium-sized companies, Ramaphosas plan lacked detail of how he intends to shift the economy away from the four major cities. Even after 23 years of democracy, South Africas economic structure is little changed. Data from Statistics South Africa show that about 65% of the economy is generated in three provinces, which in turn suggests it comes from four cities  Pretoria, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.

Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator at the Financial Times, wrote in November 2015 that South Africa should turn parts of the country into free economic zones. In essence, South Africa would do what China did under Deng Xiaoping who built a new economy around the old one.

Develop a two-tier city economic model

Martin Wolfs suggestion means South African authorities should consider running a two-tier city economic development strategy by creating special economic zones (SEZs). The intention would be to improve tier-1 cities, as it currently is envisaged in the new deal, but also to nurture existing and build new tier-2 cities. Tier-1 cities are the traditional hubs  Pretoria, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, while tier-2 cities are the smaller hubs, such as Nelspruit, Kimberley, Rustenburg, Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein and Polokwane.

South Africa can easily come up with half a dozen economic themes that can be expressed in tier-2 cities, with the exception of one  an international finance centre that could be established in Hillbrow, Johannesburg.

In these zones, a favourable tax structure and reduced regulatory requirements should be implemented to attract investment.

During his inaugural speech as a professor of economics at the University of the Witwatersrand, former South African Reserve Bank governor, Tito Mboweni, suggested South Africa should pursue setting up an international finance centre in the Hillbrow area, to harness the countrys deep financial market infrastructure and attract investment. Mauritius seems to have taken the pole position as a finance centre for doing business in Africa, and South Africa needs to challenge this. Since positioning itself as a financial services hub of Africa, Mauritius has achieved average GDP growth of 4% in the past 10 years.

Benefits of a two-tier city model

Two-tier city development strategies will be transformative in nature. They will bring the economy to the people. South Africas wealth cannot indefinitely be hosted in the big cities, to the exclusion of the majority. Building mega-city projects in Nelspruit, Kimberley, Rustenburg, Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein and Polokwane brings economic prosperity to where it is most needed.

In addition, a two-tier city strategy will accelerate collaboration between private and public funders. The blending of private and public capital to support infrastructure spending in mega-city projects will unlock opportunities for growth and development.

In a nutshell, if a Ramaphosa-led ANC were to augment the plans put down in the new deal with a two-tier city strategy, the envisaged 3% GDP growth could be sustainably achieved.

However, the immediate issues to deal with are that of unity, balance of power in the National Executive Committee (NEC) and the appointment of the head of the National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP). It seems the ANC remains divided along ideological lines as represented by the make-up of personalities in the top six.

Furthermore, the balance of power within the NEC, whether pro-Ramaphosa or alternative, will be a key determinant of the resolve to introduce meaningful structural reforms. The individual he appoints as head of the NDPP will set the tone for the appetite the incoming leadership has in dealing with public sector corruption. From this, we will be able to tell whether it is a new dawn or a lame duck.
FWJK recently announced that it has awarded a construction contract worth R535m to Concor Western Cape for the construction of its new 16 on Bree residential development in Cape Town's city centre.

According to Dave Williams-Jones, CEO of FWJK Developments, the 371-apartment development will, at 36 storeys, become the tallest residential building in Cape Town when complete in May 2020. Construction work commences on 1 March 2018 with the demolition of four buildings on Bree Street and will include the retention of two heritage facades.

The building, designed by FWJKs architectural division, will have as its neighbour the FNB Portside building, currently the tallest building in Cape Town.

Williams-Jones added that 16 on Bree was the first of three high-rise towers that it was planning to develop in the city centre where demand for residential accommodation continued to increase due, amongst other factors, to the appealing lifestyle that Cape Town offers.
A Port Elizabeth automotive and engineering company is positioning itself as a visionary for the industry, with plans to develop skills and small businesses through a newly established incubator.

By starting this incubator, Steelbest Manufacturing - which provides sheet metal production components for both automotive and non-automotive uses - is hoping to breed a new generation of designers, engineers and business leaders from its premises in Redhouse.

Chief operations officer Clyde Erasmus said the idea for the incubator, which will welcome 20 professionals and graduates in March, was born out of a desperate situation following the company's inception in April last year.

"We came into the manufacturing game [because] there was a lot of business - but three months in, we realised there was no work out there," Erasmus said.

"The challenge that dawned on us was that [we had to] prove our worth in the market."

Besides being a BEE level 1 company, Erasmus realised they would need more of an edge over their competitors.

"[We thought] if we can design [our own products], we can manipulate the market and control what happens. That is where the idea was born."

For this reason, the incubator would be divided in two parts, Steelbest sales and marketing manager Simon Meyer, who also manages the incubator, said. "We are creating two streams that we hope will meet," Meyer said.

"On the one side, we will have pure designers, who will be taught to draw on different platforms - for automotive functions, but we've also kept it flexible to allow for maritime and aerospace engineering [possibilities].

"The second group will be existing SMMEs that we can assist. We want to put these two groups in the same space, so we can have a mix of businesses with good ideas and designers that can translate those ideas into prototypes."

Meyer said each qualified designer could bring 12 job opportunities downstream - which he believed was a key selling point in getting financial support for the incubator from the Department of Small Business Development.

"Incubatees could work for other companies [after the programme], or join the SMMEs that form part of the programme, or we could even create a stand-alone entity of designers."

The incubator will welcome 10 would-be designers and 10 entrepreneurs early next year, though the initial plan was to work with only 10 people in total, Erasmus said.

"We started something and saw a different, much bigger need.

"At the moment we are forced to source materials from Europe and translate them for [local] needs, but if we can design [products] in South Africa, with South African materials, we can create opportunities for our mills to provide steel to the country."

Interested parties can still apply for a spot in the incubator programme. For more information, contact az.oc.tsebleets@pvsr by 19 January 2018.

Source: Herald
Three law enforcement officers have been arrested by the Hawks' Serious Anti-Corruption Unit for allegedly stealing R1 million.

The three - Warrant Officer Tefo Maimane, 49, Warrant Officer Eric Melaphi, 41, both attached to the Hawks Serious Commercial Crimes Unit and Detective Constable Khumbulo Gadivhana, 36, from Hillbrow SAPS - are accused of conspiring to steal and stealing R1 million in an armed robbery in Edenvale and Hillbrow respectively.

Their arrest follows allegations that in September this year four police officials, driving in two vehicles, stopped a vehicle in Norwood alleging that the driver was driving recklessly.

The driver insisted that they proceed to the nearest police station.

He was hauled to Norwood police station where a search was conducted and [the police members] allegedly found two boxes full of cash including a receipt indicating the total amount which the victim had exchanged for his employer, Hawks spokesperson Captain Ndivhuwo Mulamu said on Wednesday.

Captain Mulamu said the suspects left the police precinct and proceeded to the Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crimes Court building on Eloff Street in a police escort.

They allegedly offloaded the two boxes and entered one of the offices where they shared the R1 million and returned the remainder to the driver.

An investigation ensued after the matter was referred by the SAPS to the Hawks which culminated in the arrest of the three on Tuesday.

Efforts to track the fourth suspect down are underway.

Gauteng Head of the Hawks, Major General Prince Mokotedi, expressed his gratitude to the members and congratulated them for the courage they had shown in arresting their own.

Since we implemented a zero tolerance [approach] to corruption, we have arrested 102 police officials in Gauteng from March 2016 to date. The Serious Anti-Corruption Investigation Unit was beefed-up with 18 members and we are now reaping the fruits of arresting corrupt individuals, Mokotedi said.

He warned unscrupulous members that the police will not relax until the Hawks, particularly in Gauteng, gets rid of all the bad elements. The blue wall is greatly impeding our success to tackle organised crime. Once broken, our progress to bust crime syndicates will be accelerated, he said.

Meanwhile, the trio, Maimane, Melaphi and Gadivhana appeared briefly in the Johannesburg Magistrates Court on Tuesday and their case was postponed to 27 December 2017 for a formal bail application.
The South African Revenue Service (Sars) has followed through on threats to take legal action against the author of The President's Keepers, Jacques Pauw.

Image credit: ANA via IOL website

Pauw's bombshell book contained revelations over the tax affairs of President Jacob Zuma, including that he was paid a R1m-a-month salary for at least four months after he became president in 2009.

The payments, according to Pauw, were made by long-time Zuma ally, Durban businessman Roy Moodley.

Sars, in papers filed in the High Court in Cape Town on Friday, is seeking a declaratory order affirming its position that Pauw contravened confidentiality clauses in the Tax Administration Act by publishing the information and, in so doing, broke the law.

Affidavit by Sars commissioner Tom Moyane

The application relies on an affidavit by Sars commissioner Tom Moyane.

"The declaratory orders sought are necessary given the importance and magnitude of the contravention," Moyane's affidavit reads.

"Such declaratory orders are imperative in order to give confidence to the public knowing that taxpayer information would not be willy-nilly disclosed by third parties who have no authority to be in possession of such information and to disclose it without consequence."

Moyane cites section 67 (3) of the Tax Administration Act and interprets it as follows: "What this subsection implies is that if a person receives Sars's confidential information which has been disclosed to him or her and the information was not disclosed in compliance with the Tax Administration Act, the person to whom the information has been disclosed is prohibited from disclosing it further."

The papers go on to cite every single "contravention" of the act that Sars could find in Pauw's book, which totals 14 pages of numerous extracts.

Legislation could not be used to hide a crime

Pauw told TimesLive on Tuesday that he was not worried about it at all, but could not fathom what Sars's motive could be.

He said he did not perceive the court application as an attack on the credibility of his book, but that in effect Sars had confirmed the allegations relating to Zuma's tax affairs, among other things.

"I could only have contravened the act if what I published was true, otherwise I have written a fiction which can't be a contravention of any law. I don't understand what they are trying to achieve. They have already laid charges against me at the Hatfield police station for contravening this act," Pauw said.

Pauw said he and his legal team would strongly argue that legislation could not be used to hide a crime.

"I don't think any journalist has ever been charged under the [Tax Administration Act], so it will be very interesting. But we will go to court and challenge them."

Clear and compelling public interest

NB Publishers said in a statement on Tuesday that it would continue to support Pauw and that it stood by the book.

"We believe that by bringing this application, Sars has conceded the truth of the parts in the book it names in the application," the statement read.

"We are proud to say we will defend our author and the book vigorously against Mr Moyane's application because there is clear and compelling public interest in The President's Keepers revealing that President Jacob Zuma has perverted the law-enforcement agencies of this country to hide the fact that he is not tax-compliant and that he received a salary from Roy Moodley's company while in office."

The application was not filed as urgent and is expected to be heard early in the new year.

Source: BDpro via I-Net Bridge
The hospitality industry is one in which increased automation is not a risk to the futures of careers as customer experience and satisfaction are indisputably dependent on the human factor.

Automation may help improve efficiency of service, but it cannot take over the creation of the experience which is what consumers in this sector are looking for. However, along with the great prospects, there will also be greater competition for positions, which means that prospective entrants into the field should ensure they can stand apart from their peers with a solid qualification, focused both on theory and practical experience, under their belt.

All studies and forecasts also underscore the continued creation of jobs in this sector, which is good news for those who are considering this exciting field, says Erika Theron, academic dean at The Private Hotel School, an Advtech tertiary institution based in Stellenbosch.

Deon Roets, academic head at Capsicum, Advetechs culinary school, agrees that opportunity combined with education in the field bodes well for the future of hospitality and culinary professionals.

Consumers continue to become more educated and discerning, and any business in the hospitality industry is well aware of the need for their employees to be professional and effective in the workplace, and to ensure that valued visitors receive the best possible service and experience, he says.

The hospitality industry isnt just expanding internationally. The growth in South Africa remains exceptional but with more discerning consumers it is critical that training focuses on ensuring that graduates are able to cope with demanding customers, says Roets.

Statistics show that the tourism sector remains one of the fastest-growing economic sectors, contributing about 4.5% to total employment in 2015/2016. SA saw a 14% growth in tourist numbers from August 2015-August 2016 and 1,200 new hotel rooms between July-December 2017. A staggering 20,000 new jobs were created since 2014.
The combined road and rail scheme for the Greater Maputo Metropolitan Area, known as the Metrobus, undertook its first, experimental journey on Monday, reports the independent television station STV.

Passengers started their journey at about 5am, travelling by bus from the localities of Bobole, Tsevene, Michafutene, Agostinho Neto village and Memo to Marracuene rail station, about 30 kilometres north of Maputo.

At Marracuene, they boarded the second-hand railcars imported from New Zealand by the private company Fleetrail. The Fleetail train left Marracene at 6.05am and arrived at Maputo Central station at 7.25am, stopping at three stations en route.

This first experience was free of charge, and did not cover what is likely to be the most important route for Metrobus, which is the line from Matola to Maputo.

Among those travelling on Metrobus was Transport Minister Carlos Mesquita, who said this was part of a long journey towards guaranteeing mobility of citizens with efficiency, safety and dignity.

The country is facing financial difficulties, but that doesn't mean we should stop having initiatives and creating conditions so that partners who want to join with the government can help solve the problem of urban transport, said Mesquita.

Making maximal use of existing routes

The combination of road and rail transport, he added, will make the best and maximal use of existing routes.

Metrobus is a private initiative, which depends on the cooperation between Fleetrail and the publicly owned ports and rail company, CFM, which is leasing use of its tracks to Metrobus.

According to the general manager of Fleetrail, Amade Camal, when Metrobus begins commercial operations, its first routes will be to the west of the capital, from Matola and Machava to Maputo Central station. In June, the commercial operations will extend to the routes from Maracuene and Boane to Maputo, and as from December 2018, Metrobus will be running services from Ressano Garcia and Goba, on the borders with South Africa and Swaziland, to Maputo.

Camal said that Fleetrail has decided to reduce the price of a monthly train and bus pass from the initial proposal of 3,500 meticais (about $60) to 2,500 meticais. A family pass, for four people, will cost 6,250 meticais.

These prices are much more expensive than those charged by CFM for its train services, or by the owners of the minibuses (known as chapas) which provide much of Maputo's passenger transport. But Fleetbus is not aiming its services at the poor.

The idea, Camade explained, in an earlier interview, is to persuade middle-income Mozambicans to leave their cars at home and travel on the Metrobus instead. For someone who drives from Matola to Maputo and back every day, the Metrobus price is competitive, since he would certainly spend more than 2,500 meticais on fuel in a month. It will also be much quicker: Camal said the Matola-Maputo journey will only take 15 minutes by Metrobus.

Fleetrail currently has four railcars, each with four carriages, and a fleet of 100 buses of varying sizes. Each Metrobus train can carry 540 passengers, all seated. The trains will run all day, unlike the CFM trains, which only run at peak hours.

Buses donated by Chinese government

Also on Monday, a fleet of 26 buses, each able to hold 60 passengers, began operating in the outer Maputo urban district of KaMavota. These are part of the consignment of 200 buses donated by the Chinese government. They will operate routes from the neighbourhoods of Albazine and Magoanine to central Maputo.

This is a major boost to the Maputo municipal bus company, EMTPM, which up until now has only had four buses for the KaMavota routes. The 26 new buses will be able to carry about 23,000 passengers in a day.

I think this is the best Christmas present the government could have offered to the public, given the transport crisis that Maputo and Matola are facing, said the Maputo municipal councillor for transport, Joao Matlombe. This shows the government's commitment to finding solutions to the transport crisis.

The KaMavota routes are also served by some of the city's 400 or so licensed private minibuses (known as chapas). But there are not enough of them, and the gap has been filled by illegal (but largely tolerated) operators who cram passengers into pick-up trucks, referred to ironically by the English phrase My Love.

Matlombe promised that KaMavota will receive more buses in the near future. An independent study calculated that this urban district needs at least 60 buses.
Nightscape at Design Indaba 2018 has promised to expand your creative horizons through a collection of local and international artists who are notorious for breaking boundaries and ushering in the new.

Image supplied.

Expect an immersive wonderland of installations, activations, gourmet street food, DJs, VJs, VIP hospitality suites, interactive performers, films, exhibitions and live music, that will explode onto the Artscape Piazza in Cape Town from 21-24 February 2018. The festival programme is especially noteworthy for its stellar acts sourced from across the African continent.

Intended to showcase the future of creativity, Nightscape at Design Indaba 2018 takes live performance to a new level of spectacle through exciting collaborations with VJs such as local visual artist Duce, who brings stunning art to the dancefloor. The famously talented Zaki Ibrahim will combine her unique voice and style with a visual extravaganza.

Poetic and futuristic

An astonishing performance art act set to appear is Crystal Wings, who creates an atmosphere of alternative theatre by straddling cosmic landscapes and fairy tale scenes. Crystal Wings features dancers in fabulous, fantastical costumes; voluminous skirts look like flowers or sea sponges and the large fluctuating wings first are stars and then become whirling lunar butterflies. Crystal Wings is at once poetic and futuristic.

Adding to the experiential nature of Nightscape at Design Indaba 2018 is Moonlight Invasion, a performance act that can only be experienced live. It is an invitation to flee from the real world and plunge into the magic of mystery. Featuring stilt-acrobats and dance-actors gliding among the crowd, Moonlight Invasion creates living pictures that interact with festivalgoers. Their dance becomes a magic ritual able to lift the audience into a dreamy dimension.

And once youre transported, get ready for smooth beats and unique sounds from an eclectic mix of DJ sets featuring international pioneers and local heavyweights. Steloolive is an Accra-based sound and fashion artist who is leading the electronic music scene in Ghana. Alec Lomami brings his Afro-pop all the way from Kinsasha, while DJ Lady Venom adds her incredibly poetic style to the mix.

Unheard sounds and soundscapes.

The South African DJ contingent ranges from Beat Sampras, formed out of a once-off collaboration performance when both members organically stumbled upon something they were looking for musically; to Urban Village, whose sound can perhaps be best described as polyglot, for it attains its originality through a mix of languages both novel and familiar. Thor Rixons unfamiliar acoustic instrumentation captures unheard sounds and soundscapes.

Other notable performers include local Future Soul electronic sister duo Kajama, and Darkie Fiction - a duo that has exploded onto the South African music scene and whose latest single was produced by yet another Nightscape at Design Indaba 2018 performer, the increasingly in-demand beatsmith Jakinda.

Above and beyond the extensive electronic lineup, Nightscape at Design Indaba 2018 also includes an astronomical array of live bands. Rising star Petite Noir brings his rich tapestry of American Rock influence and African shuffles, underlying strong messaging and haunting vocal melodies. Also on stage is local guitar legend Guy Buttery, a true virtuoso guaranteed to amaze and impress. The award-winning jazz of Shabaka and The Ancestors is an intended throwback to the era when African jazz was played as a spiritual path to resistance and creative survival.

Film Fest

Also forming part of Nightscape at Design Indaba 2018 is the Design Indaba Film festival and two key exhibitions, the Emerging Creatives programme and the Most Beautiful Object in South Africa. Further expanding the visual aspects of Nightscape is Film Fest  a collection of design-oriented films being screened every night from Thursday to Saturday. For the first time ever, Film Fest is free of charge to all Nightscape attendees with seating allocated on a first come first serve basis.

Although Nightscape at Design Indaba 2018 will be taking place in conjunction with the Design Indaba Conference and Simulcast, you dont need to be a conference delegate to attend. Festival tickets are available to the general public.

An all-access, three-night pass allows festivalgoers to experience the full offering of creative excellence. Alternatively, a one-night ticket will allow you to catch a smaller selection of the amazing performing acts and progressive installations on offer. The one-night ticket is R250 while the three-night pass is R600 (saving you R150). Whatever your creative appetite, youll find something to satiate it at Nightscape at Design Indaba 2018.

Tickets for Nightscape at Design Indaba 2018 are available from Webtickets and are sold separately to the Design Indaba Conference and Simulcast.

For updates on the Design Indaba Festival of Creativity 2018 and for ticketing information please click here. To view the programme, please click here.

Facebook  @designindaba

Twitter  @designindaba

Instagram  @designindaba
WASHINGTON, USA - At a time when the media is being accused of peddling "fake news," Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks are bringing Hollywood star power to a movie celebrating journalism and the virtues of a free press.

The Post, which comes out in theatres in the United States on Friday, recounts the nail-biting behind-the-scenes story of the 1971 publication by The Washington Post of the Pentagon Papers, which exposed the lies behind US involvement in the Vietnam War.

Directed by Spielberg, whose long list of credits includes Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, Jaws and E.T., The Post stars Streep as aristocratic Post publisher Katharine Graham and Hanks as the newspaper's scrappy executive editor Ben Bradlee.

The drama at the heart of the film revolves around Graham's decision to go ahead and publish the Pentagon Papers, a move which could have had potentially fatal consequences for the family newspaper she took over eight years earlier upon the suicide of her husband.

Braving legal and financial peril

The Pentagon Papers, leaked by whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, were a 7,000-page classified report which determined  contrary to the public assertions of US government officials  that the Vietnam conflict was unwinnable.

The New York Times published excerpts until the administration of President Richard Nixon obtained a court injunction barring the newspaper from continuing to do so on national security grounds.

That's where the Post stepped in, braving legal and financial peril to take up the torch.

Spielberg, Streep and Hanks attended a screening of The Post at the shrine to journalism, the Newseum, in Washington last week, located just a few blocks from the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Not present but looming over the event was President Donald Trump, who has waged a vitriolic campaign against media outlets he believes are unfair to him.

Dishonest, phony and fake news

Trump has been particularly scathing about CNN and The New York Times but he has also repeatedly attacked the Post, calling it "dishonest," "phony" and  his favourite  "fake news."

He refers to the newspaper in his tweets as the Amazon Washington Post, a reference to Jeff Bezos, the owner of online retail giant Amazon who purchased the Post from the Graham family in 2013.

Speaking to reporters on the red carpet at the Newseum screening, Spielberg, Hanks and Streep  once dismissed by Trump as "overrated"  were reluctant to call out the president by name and downplayed suggestions the movie was a shot across the bow of his White House.

"I think it's very, very important that our movie is seen not as a political, partisan play on the part of what they call the liberal media or Hollywood," Spielberg said.

"I see it not as a partisan movie," he said, "but a movie about patriotism and a movie about the courageous media, the Fourth Estate, and what they did to be able to get the Pentagon Papers published, which then led to Watergate."

Fresh threats to press freedom

Watergate, of course, was the subject of a 1976 Hollywood blockbuster in which The Washington Post also played a starring role  All the President's Men featuring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

Despite Spielberg's protestations, reviewers are finding parallels inescapable between The Post and its championing of the media and the non-stop vilification of the press by Trump.

"(The Post) takes you back to a time when the outcome was precarious, and the freedoms we thought we took for granted hung in the balance," said Variety. "Just as they do today."

For The New Yorker, The Post is "not a period movie."

"Instead, it is squarely addressed to the present day, striving for the urgency of a headline," it said. "The film is here to warn us of fresh threats to press freedom."

Source: AFP via I-Net Bridge
Reciba en su email: noticias de ultima hora, analisis tecnicos o el cierre de mercado

Email no valido Nombre requerido Recibira las informaciones mas relevantes del dia en tiempo real Que informacion desea recibir? Noticias de Ultima hora Boletin Cierre de Mercado Boletin analisis tecnico Boletin Fundsnews Debe seleccionar un tipo de boletin Acepto la Politica de privacidad Debe aceptar la politica de privacidad Responsable EMPRESAS DEL GRUPO WEB FINANCIAL GROUP Finalidad La remision de informacion, novedades y promociones Establecimiento o mantenimiento de Relaciones Comerciales. Legitimacion Consentimiento del interesado. Interes legitimo en el desarrollo de la relacion comercial Destinatario Empresas del Grupo WEB FINANCIAL GROUP Derechos Acceso, rectificacion, supresion, limitacion, oposicion y portabilidad Informacion adicional Politica de Privacidad de nuestra pagina Web + INFORMACION
Jermaine Dupri (Thaddaeus McAdams/ExclusiveAccess.net)It appears that Janet Jackson may be rekindling her romance with ex-lover Jermaine Dupri.

A source tells Us Weekly that the pair were spotted "cuddled up and holding hands" at an after party in Atlanta on December 17.

Janet was supposedly celebrating the end of her United States leg of her State of the World tour that day.

The source adds that Janet and Jermaine are "100 percent together and in love."

As previously reported, it was rumored that the pair reconnected back in September and November, following Janet's split from estranged husband Wissam Al Mana in September, after five years of marriage.

Their marriage was Janet's third and Wissam's first.

As of September, Janet was seeking full custody of their 10-month-old son, Eissa.

Janet and Jermaine began dating in 2002 and broke up in 2009.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.




The premier International Air and Space Fair will be held from 3 to 8 April 2018 at the Arturo Merino Benitez Airport in Santiago, Chile.



Over the years, FIDAE has gained prominence as the most important aerospace, defence and security exhibition business platform in Latin America.



The 20th edition of the exhibition will showcase Civil Commercial Aviation, Defence, Aircraft Maintenance, Airport Equipment & Services, Space Technology and Homeland Security.



Exhibitors include the world's biggest and best-known brands and delegations will comprise of government authorities, management teams and company executives, members of the Armed Forces, telecommunication and commercial services markets, development and research teams as well as officers in charge of military units, all with a varied level of decision and purchasing power.



View the Link
International companies are continuing to invest in Ireland while employment is growing.

Morgan McKinley's latest employment monitor shows November was one of the most active in terms of job announcements, despite a 10% decrease in job opportunities.

The group is also recommending that planning processes be streamlined to help attract and facilitate large-scale investment.

Trayc Keevans from the group said there is a continuing confidence in the Irish professional jobs market.

"We had a record two months in the months prior to this of jobs being brought to the marketplace," she said.

"What is interesting, though, is there's been an uplift of 21% on year-on-year figures in the number of professionals registering for new opportunities. This is largely reflected in the confidences that's in the marketplace right now," she added.
The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) has today completed the early repayment in full of Irelands outstanding loans from the IMF, writes Denise ODonoghue.

The bilateral loans from Denmark and Sweden were repaid in full yesterday. In total some 5.5 billion was repaid early.

The repayment discharges all of the remaining IMF principal loan obligations that were originally to fall due from January 2021 to December 2023, as does the repayment of bilateral loans from Sweden and Denmark.

The Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe, TD welcomed the early repayments.

"These early repayments mark a further significant milestone for Ireland in its continued robust economic recovery," he said.

"They will also generate interest savings estimated to be of the order of 150m over the remaining life of the loans. This will further improve Irelands debt sustainability.

"Ireland greatly appreciates the support provided by the IMF, Denmark and Sweden, at a time of great uncertainty. We will never forget the solidarity shown to Ireland.

"We also appreciate the cooperation of the remaining Programme lenders in facilitating these early repayments.

"As Ireland continues to recover we will keep making decisions that are in the best interests of our country, our future prosperity and, most importantly, our people."

- Digital Desk
Musician and campaigner Bob Geldof has donated a vast archive of material from the Band Aid Africa famine relief effort to the Irish state.

Hundreds of letters from private individuals and well-known public figures, artwork, poetry and musical recordings are among the trove of memorabilia from the 1984 fundraiser given to the National Library of Ireland in Dublin.

Geldof and co-writer Midge Ure's first version of Do They Know It's Christmas? raised 8 million for famine relief in Ethiopia.

Bob Geldof speaking at the National Library about the donation of the Band Aid archive. pic.twitter.com/cNPrHbAJ0r  National Library of Ireland (@NLIreland) December 20, 2017

They gathered a group of musicians together in 1984 for the charity single. It featured Geldof's fellow Irishman Bono, George Michael, Duran Duran and Bananarama, among others.

It helped inspire Live Aid concerts in London and Philadelphia, which raised millions more.

Geldof said: "This then is our thanks and gratitude to Ireland and the Irish.

"We want you to use this gift for the benefit of those in whose name we too will continue to work."

Do They Know It's Christmas? was recorded again in 1989, 2004 and 2014, with the most recent incarnation used to fight the Ebola disease outbreak in west Africa.

The archive will be transported from London where it had been in storage. It will be catalogued, preserved, selectively digitalised and exhibited.

It reveals the enormous level of organisation behind Band Aid in which the aid was distributed.

Geldof added: "Eight miles between the richest continent and the poorest there were 30 million people dying in a world of surplus. That was morally repulsive."

Library Director Dr Sandra Collins said the archive captures a special moment in time.

It includes a letter to Bob Geldof from a child saying "I sold some conkers outside my house in October to raise fifteen pounds for the people in Ethiopia".

A letter from a girl called Sarah reads: "For all the work and effort you have done, you should have the Nobel Peace Prize and I think you're great and if you brushed your hair you would look quite handsome".
By Steve Neville

Popular Cork comedy sketch artists CCCahoots have released their debut short film online today.

The short, titled FitzGibbons Budget Funerals, rounds of a hugely successful year for the trio.

The new video tells the tale of a Cork family who detect a gap in the market for affordable funeral services.

Shot in mockumentary style, it details the working life of the Fitzgibbons in their new venture.

Comedians Tadhg Hickey, Laura OMahony and Dominic McHale form the CCCahoots group which started in 2014 and the trio found success releasing their sketches online.

Earlier this year their first sitcom, The School, was broadcast on RTE2.

Find more of CCCahoots work on Faceebook and YouTube.
By Tom Tuite

A UK lotto millionaire accused of defilement and rape of an underage Irish teenage girl has been served with a book of evidence and returned for trial to the Central Criminal Court.

The British man was arrested in Dublin in July after he travelled to Ireland to speak to the teens mother about his relationship with her daughter whom he allegedly met through an internet chatroom.

The businessman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was originally charged with four counts of defilement by engaging in a sexual act with a child under the age of 17 years on dates in 2016 and this year. That charge carries a five-year sentence.

However, 44 additional charges were later brought against him in connection with the investigation and bail was refused.

Some 35 of the new charges were for defilement of the girl, there were four counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault, one allegation of assault causing harm to the girl and one charge of possessing child pornography.

He appeared again before Judge Victor Blake at Cloverhill District Court and was served with a book of evidence.

Judge Blake noted that the Director of Public Prosecutions had directed trial on indictment and he made an order sending the man, who is in his late twenties, forward for trial to the Central Criminal Court where he will face his next hearing in the New Year.

Earlier, Garda Stephen Faulkner had objected to bail on the grounds the accused was a man of considerable wealth, a flight risk and some of the charges carried life sentences.

Garda Faulkner alleged the man frequently travelled over from the UK by ferry to meet the girl and gardai have recovered videos of sexual activity between them from the defendants phone. However, it was alleged she told gardai she felt she was not in control of the situation.

He said a complaint was made by the teens mother in January.

The girl outlined that she met him through a named online chatroom, the bail hearing was told.

Garda Faulkner said the girl was subscribed to the under-17s category of the website.

They exchanged details and communicated through Snapchat and WhatsApp, he alleged.

Garda Faulkner said it was alleged the man first came to Ireland to meet her last year.

It was alleged they stayed in a hotel in Dublin and had sexual intercourse. She was aged 15 at the time and had told the accused, the court has heard.

Garda Faulkner alleged that the man came back by ferry every four to six weeks.

Last year he bought her a designer ring worth 2,500, telling the shop assistant it was an engagement ring, the judge was told.

Bank records showed he won a substantial amount in the UK lotto, the garda had told the hearing.

The defence said the man, who has not yet indicated how he will plead, could face a two-year wait until his trial was reached.
The Cabinet has approved a number of measures aimed at tackling gender balance issues in Ireland.

A symposium is being planned for January at which experts, businesses and unions will discuss how to deal with the gender pay gap.

A review on the number of women on corporate boards is also planned for early 2018.

Ireland has been consistently below the EU average for the number of women at boardroom level.

Meanwhile, a number of Government Departments are trialling gender budgeting, which is where budgets are analysed to assess the different effects they may have on men and women.
Update December 22: Osra has been found safe and well

Earlier: A 58-year-old woman has gone missing from her home in Dublin.

Osra Connaughton was reported missing yesterday to gardai.

She was last seen at 11:50am yesterday morning at Foxfield St. John, Raheny.

Osra is described as five foot six inches tall with fair hair. She was last seen wearing a navy coat with a grey collar, brown shoes and navy tracksuit bottoms.

Anyone with information should contact Raheny Garda Station on (01) 6664300, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111 or any Garda station.

- Digital desk
Ryanair boss Michael OLeary says the decision to recognise unions was his idea.

In an interview with Reuters - he warned unions that if they put forward unreasonable demands he would simply shift planes and jobs to other jurisdictions.

Mr OLeary once said hed rather cut off his own hands than negotiate with unions.

IMPACT has refused to rule out strike action - unless the company confirms in writing that it recognises the union - by noon tomorrow.

- Digital desk
By Ann OLoughlin

A six-year old girl who sued over the circumstances of her birth at Waterford Regional Hospital has settled her High Court action for a once off lump sum payment of 8.8m.

Martha Gallagher, Mr Justice Kevin Cross was told is visually impaired and also has difficulty with her right side peripheral vision.

Marthas mother Siobhan Gallagher told the High Court the family were glad the case was over and wanted the lump payment settlement which was negotiated after a day of mediation talks so they could finally finish with medical assessments for court.

"We place a huge value on a happy househld and we want to live our lives and move on," she told Mr Justice Kevin Cross.

Martha Gallagher,The Blaskets, Dunmore East, Co Waterford had through her mother Siobhan sued the HSE as a result of the circumstances of her birth at Waterford Regional Hospital in June 2011.

Mrs Gallagher it was claimed was brought to the hospital on June 8, 2011.

It was claimed the mothers labour progressed throughout the day but the baby suffered distress which was allegedly not observed or monitored . It was claimed this was especially during the afternoon when the CTG monitoring was allegedly abnormal but this and other clinical signs of foetal distress were allegedly not observed or properly treated.

Martha, it was claimed was eventually delivered at 9.16pm having suffered prolonged partial asphyxia during the course of labour.

There was it was claimed an alleged failure to interpret the signs of foetal distress from early afternoon onwards and and an alleged falilure to respond appropriately or at all to the abnormal foetal heart rate in the hours prior to delivery.

The claims were denied and the settlement was without admission of liability.

Mrs Siobhan Gallagher told the court when she was admitted to the hospital everything was going well until the afternoon when she said it seemed "incredibly busy" and a membner of the team did not seem to be familiar with the equipment. She desc ribed the situation as "higgledy piggledy."

She said it seemed to her for a time nobody seemed to be taking control of the situation.

When Martha was born, she said she did not cry for a very long time and she was taken in to a room to be treated and it seemed a "a lifetime" before she could hold her baby.

She said in the weeks that followed she noticed the babys head was small and when she brought her back for a regular check up several weeks after the birth she still had the head the size of a newborn. Martha did not walk until she was about three years old but the problems with her vision were only diagnosed about one and a half years ago.

Approving the settlement Mr Justice Cross said it was a good one and he complemented Marthas parents Siobhan and Colm for their care of their daughter and said he knew Martha was a joy to her whole family.
By Ann O'Loughlin

The recognition of trade unions for the first time by Ryanair has "nothing to do" with the airline's defamation action against three pilots, a judge said in his charge to a High Court jury.

Mr Justice Bernard Barton was giving directions to the jury of 10 men and two women on the 24th day of a trial which had been scheduled to last just over a week when it started last month. It is now in its seventh week.

Following his charge today, Mr Justice Barton sent the jury home and said they could begin their deliberations tomorrow.

They have been asked to consider whether, as Ryanair claims, a 2013 email from three members of the Ryanair Pilot Group(RPG) - Evert Van Zwol, John Goss and Ted Murphy - defamed the airline by saying it had misled the market and facilitated insider trading, among other things.

The three deny the email, entitled "pilot update: what the markets are saying about Ryanair", was defamatory or meant what the airline said it means.

Mr Justice Barton said members of the jury heard Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary say the company did not recognise trade unions.

"We all saw Mr O'Leary in the witness box and heard what he said about unions and his attitude to unions", he said.

"Before this case is over, we have all become aware through the national media, that Ryanair has announced it is going to change and maybe that is a source of comfort to the three defendants.

"But it has absolutely nothing to do with this case and must not form any part of this case. Your deliberations concern a pilot update published on September 12, 2013," he said.

What the defendants intended to do, and they indicated what they had intended to do by the update, is not determinant in the case. The only people who can make that decision is the jury, he said.

The judge reminded the jury that even though the update mentioned two members of the Ryanair board, David Bonderman and Michael Horgan, as having sold shares/share options, irrespective of whether they say they were offended by the email, they are not the plaintiffs in the case. The plaintiff is Ryanair and the law says that defamation applies equally to a corporation.

It was also not necessary to show an individual or corporation suffered any fiscal loss because the law presumes if you defame somebody that there is damage, he said.

The judge said this was not a case where each of the three defendants were jointly and severally liable for the actions of all. If the jury found malice on the part of one, which would defeat the defence of qualified privilege which the court found applied in this case, it did not attach to the other two.

While Ryanair said a missing email produced by an consultant to the RPG during the trial showed there was malice, the judge was satisfied the defendants did not know anything about that email.

The judge said the law was silent on whether he could give guidance on the amount of damages, should the jury get to that point, but he said that in catastrophic injury cases, involving awards of millions, the maximum amount for injury to a person is between 400,000 and 500,000. The rest of the award in those cases was to pay for the person's care for the rest of their lives, he said.

The judge also told the jury that they should try to reach a unanimous verdict but if it transpired they could not do so, it was not the end of the case and they should come back to the court.
By Brion Hoban

A man who was convicted of kidnapping a child in London has been jailed for the abuse and rape of a teenage boy here in the mid-90s.

The man, who cannot be named to protect the anonymity of the victim, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to rape and sexual assault of the boy at a location in Dublin on dates between June and September 1994. The victim was aged 13 at the time and the man was 19.

Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy imposed a sentence of seven years imprisonment. He also ordered that the man be subject to five years of post release supervision.

He said he was taking the man's guilty plea and genuine remorse into consideration.

The man has 28 previous convictions, including a conviction at the Old Bailey in London for kidnapping a male under the age of 14.

Detective Garda Gabriel Duffy told Patrick McGrath SC, prosecuting, that the accused moved into the same house as the boy and became friends with the boy's mother.

During a visit by the boy to the man's room he asked the boy to pull him off. After molesting the boy he gave him money and warned him not to tell anyone what happened.

The man raped the boy twice during two subsequent incidents. He threatened to tell his mother that the child was smoking hash if he reported the abuse.

During the third attack the boy protested and the man punched him in the head. He raped him and continued to punch the boy repeatedly when he screamed for help.

While this evidence was given in court the man shouted: I talked him into it, there was no violence used. He repeated several times that there had not been any violence.

The court heard that the man, who has lived in Ireland, was abused himself as a child and later went on to work as a rent boy.

Justice Patrick McCarthy said that the fact that he found himself working as a prostitute was a matter of great sadness.

He was arrested for the offences after the victim made a complaint to gardai. He initially denied all allegations but he later showed genuine remorse for his actions, the court heard.

In a victim impact statement, the boy said that the emotional trauma of the event had plagued him throughout his life. He said he was unable to be a father figure to his own children and had given up on life.

Sean Gillane SC, defending, said that his client had been effectively homeless since his teenage years and had suffered from chronic alcoholism.

Mr Justice McCarthy said that the fact that the man was a victim of child abuse himself did not excuse his actions but it was a factor in assessing his moral culpability. He said the abuse he suffered may have dulled his understanding.

He ordered the man be registered as a sex offender.

- Digital desk
Jubilant US Republicans pushed to the verge of the most sweeping rewrite of US tax laws in more than three decades early today.

After midnight, the Senate narrowly passed the legislation on a party-line 51-48 vote.

Protesters interrupted with chants of "kill the bill, don't kill us" and vice president Mike Pence repeatedly called for order. Upon passage, Republicans cheered, with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin among them.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell insisted Americans would respond positively to the tax bill.

"If we can't sell this to the American people, we ought to go into another line of work," he said.

President Donald Trump hailed the vote in an early morning tweet and promised a White House news conference on Wednesday after the House completes legislative action on the measure.

The early morning vote came hours after the Republican party rammed the bill through the House, 227-203. But it was not the final word in Congress because of one last hiccup.

Three provisions in the bill, including its title, violated Senate rules, forcing the Senate to vote to strip them out. So the massive bill was hauled back across the Capitol for the House to vote again on Wednesday, and Republicans have a chance to celebrate again.

Hours earlier, House Speaker Paul Ryan, who has worked years toward the goal of revamping the tax code, gleefully pounded the gavel on the House vote.

Republican House members roared and applauded as they passed the 1.5 trillion dollar (1.2 trillion) that will touch every American taxpayer and every corner of the US economy, providing steep tax cuts for businesses and the wealthy, and more modest help for middle- and low-income families.

Despite Republican talk of spending discipline, the bill will push the huge national debt ever higher.

"This was a promise made. This is a promise kept," Mr Ryan and other Republican leaders said at a victory news conference.

After the delay for a second House vote, the measure then heads to President Donald Trump, who is aching for a win after 11 months of legislative failures and nonstarters.

Congressional Republicans, who faltered badly in trying to dismantle Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, see passage of the tax bill as crucial to proving to Americans they can govern - and imperative for holding on to House and Senate majorities in next year's midterm elections.

"The proof will be in the paychecks," Senator Rob Portman said during the Senate's night-time debate. "This is real tax relief, and it's needed."

Not so, said the top Senate Democrat as the long, late hours led to testy moments.

"This is serious stuff. We believe you are messing up America," New York Senator Chuck Schumer told Republicans, chiding them for not listening to his remarks.

The Republican party has repeatedly argued the bill will spur economic growth as corporations, flush with cash, increase wages and hire more workers. But they acknowledge they have work to do in convincing everyday Americans. Many voters in surveys see the legislation as a boost to the wealthy, such as Mr Trump and his family, and a minor gain at best for the middle class.

Democrats called the bill a giveaway to corporations and the wealthy, with no likelihood that business owners will use their gains to hire more workers or raise wages.

Tax cuts for corporations would be permanent while the cuts for individuals would expire in 2026 to comply with Senate budget rules. The tax cuts would take effect in January, and workers would start to see changes in the amount of taxes withheld from their paychecks in February.

For now, Democrats are planning to use the bill in their campaigns next year. Senate Democrats posted poll numbers on the bill on a video screen at their Tuesday luncheon.

"This bill will come back to haunt them, as Frankenstein did," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said.

The bill would slash the corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%. The top tax rate for individuals would be lowered from 39.6% to 37%.

The legislation repeals an important part of the 2010 health care law - the requirement that all Americans carry health insurance or face a penalty - as the Republican party looks to unravel the law it failed to repeal and replace this past summer.

AP
A member of the DUP has indicated his party could have supported an amendment to the UKs flagship Brexit legislation guaranteeing the rights of people in Gibraltar.

Ian Paisley also urged ministers to confirm their assurances meant Gibraltar "will not be treated anyway differently than any other part of the United Kingdom".

The pro-Brexit DUP give the Tories a majority in the British House of Commons through their confidence and supply arrangement with the British Government.

British Brexit minister Steve Baker said the Government was "steadfastly committed to the interests of Gibraltar".

New clause 56 to the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill, tabled by SNP MP Peter Grant, aims to ensure the Bill does not remove or prejudice rights in Gibraltar after Brexit.

North Antrim MP Mr Paisley said: "This is the one amendment that actually would have attracted, probably, support from this bench, and its because of the assurances the minister has given, and importantly the assurances that the Prime Minister gave even today at the despatch box, that we feel very relieved for Gibraltars sake.

"Is he essentially saying that the protections that he is now affording to Gibraltar effectively means that it will not be treated anyway differently than any other part of the United Kingdom?"

Mr Baker told British MPs both the UK and the EU were clear Gibraltar was subject to the withdrawal agreement and the Bill only extended specifically to Gibraltar in one minor way.

He added: "I understand, though, the concerns being expressed through this amendment.

"In response to those concerns, I hope I can reassure that access to the UK market for Gibraltar is already protected by law, and it is the unshakeable objective of the UK Government to ensure the seamless continuation of existing market access into the UK and enhance it where possible."

Mr Grants amendment has gained support from a cross-party group of MPs, including a number of Conservatives.

The SNPs Europe spokesman told Mr Baker: "Ive no doubt that the people in government in Gibraltar will be grateful for his assurances.

"But for absolute clarity, the wording of this amendment intends to make sure with 100% certainty that even inadvertently, nothing in the Bill can damage the interests of the people of Gibraltar.

"Can the minister tell us with absolute certainty that if this amendment is not put into the Bill, that theres nothing in the Bill that will cause that damage.

"Objectives are good, assurances are good, promises are good. Can he say with absolute certainty that nothing in the Bill will ever damage or prejudice the interests of the people of Gibraltar?"

Mr Baker replied: "What I can say to him is that this Bill only extends to Gibraltar in the way which I have set out.

"The Governments policy is as I have indicated to him, and we remain steadfastly committed to the interests of Gibraltar."
Following are calls and arrests reported Oct. 30 to Nov. 12 by the Brush Police Department. An arrest should not be construed as guilt, but merely as the result of a police charge. Subjects arrested are held on bond at the Morgan County jail, unless otherwise noted.

Monday, Oct. 30

No time  Information taken on non-criminal case.

Tuesday, Oct. 31

10:05 a.m.  Traffic accident near Spruce and Edison Street. Summons issued.

Wednesday, Oct. 1

11:00 a.m.  Harassment reported in 100 block of Carson Street.

No time  Information taken. Case under investigation.

Thursday, Nov. 2

6:37 p.m.  Orlando Medina, 29, of Brush arrested on parole violation in 500 block of Clayton Street. Held without bond.

No time  Assist other police agency.

No time  Information taken on non-criminal case.

Friday, Nov. 3

12:48 p.m.  Megan Mehring, 30, of Brush arrested on Morgan County warrant for assault near Weisbart and Mill Streets. Held without bond.

Saturday, Nov. 4

11:32 p.m.  Criminal mischief reported in 300 block of E. Edison.

Sunday, Nov. 5

No calls reported

Monday, Nov. 6

No calls reported

Tuesday, Nov. 7

10:11 a.m.  Traffic accident in 1000 block of N. Colorado Avenue.

No time  Information taken. Case under investigation.

Wednesday, Nov. 8

7:45 a.m.  Stormy Schmidtke, 38, of Brush arrested on two Missouri warrants for failure to appear in 100 block of S. Colorado Avenue. Held without bond.

7:45 a.m.  Justin Schmidtke, 40, of Brush arrested on Larimer County warrant for failure to appear in 100 block of S. Colorado Avenue. Held on $150 bond.

No time  Information taken on non-criminal case.

11:59 a.m.  Fraud reported in 1100 block of N. Colorado Avenue. Case under investigation.

4:19 p.m.  Theft and criminal mischief reported in 500 block of Curtis Street.

No time  Information taken on non-criminal case.

Thursday, Nov. 9

No time  Information taken on non-criminal case.

No time  Information taken. Case under investigation.

3:44 p.m.  Aaron Thompson, 37, of Brush arrested on Morgan County warrant for assault and child abuse in 300 block of Turner Street. Held without bond.

Friday, Nov. 10

12:12 p.m.  Travis Wilson, 29, of Sterling arrested on criminal impersonation near Eaton and Colorado Avenue. Held without bond.

12:34 p.m.  Juvenile female contacted on assault and harassment in 700 block of Industrial Park Road. Summons issued.

No time  Information taken on non-criminal case.

Saturday, Nov. 11

No time  Information taken on non-criminal case.

Sunday, Nov. 12

No time  Information taken. Case under investigation.

No time  Information taken on non-criminal case.

No time  Information taken on non-criminal case.
Following are calls and arrests reported Oct. 12-26 by the Morgan County Sheriffs Office. An arrest should not be construed as guilt, but merely as the result of a police charge. Subjects arrested are held on bond at the Morgan County jail, unless otherwise noted.

Monday, Nov. 20

9:39 p.m.: Brooke Marlowe, 24, of Greeley was arrested for obstructing a peace officer, a protection order violation and violation of bail bond conditions in the 18000 block of Centennial Road. No bond. Joseph Spahn, 32, of Greeley was arrested for attempt to influence a public servant, obstructing a peace officer, resisting arrest and false reporting to authorities. No bond.

Tuesday, Nov. 21

Between Nov. 20 and Nov. 21: Deputies investigated the theft of a 24 inch bicycle rim, a Christmas tree, lights and a red sled valued at $80 and criminal mischief resulting in $15 in damage to a padlock in the 26000 block of Highway 34. Case is open.

Wednesday, Nov. 22

11:09 a.m.: Sabrina Heffley, 36, of Brush was arrested for felony menacing and driving under restriction in the 600 block of Dessa Street. No bond.

4:57 p.m.: Kailynn Aiken, 25, of Brush was issued a summons for dog at-large in the 900 block of North Custer.

Thursday, Nov. 23

Between midnight and 7:30 a.m.: Deputies investigated an incident of second-degree agricultural burglary, second degree-criminal trespass and the theft of hay bales, a water pump, a forced water heater and miscellaneous dishes and statues valued at $2,000 in the 1400 block of MCR 12. Case is open.

7:59 p.m.: Michael Deherrera, 34, of Fort Morgan was arrested for violation of a protection order in the 13000 block of Highway 71. No bond.

Friday, Nov. 24

5:23 a.m.: Luis Torres-Agron, 20, of Brush was arrested for driving with no proof of insurance, driving without a license and speeding in the 23000 block of Highway 34. $1,5000 bond.

10:37 p.m.: Scott Griffith, 52, of Fort Morgan was arrested for attempt to influence a public servant and violation of a protection order in Fort Morgan. No bond.

Saturday, Nov. 25

Between Nov. 19 and Nov. 25: Deputies investigated the theft of a Miller 35 wire fed welder valued at $2,000 in the 16000 block of MCR 7. Case is open.

Sunday, Nov. 26

Deputies investigated an incident of criminal mischief resulting in damage to a passenger mirror valued at $200 in the 16000 block of MCR 19. Case is open.

12:39 a.m.: Deputies investigated an incident of harassment by phone in the 700 block of Cotton Street. Case is open.

10:35 p.m.: Hector Estrada, 31, of Fort Morgan was arrested on a warrant out of Morgan County District Court in the 15000 block of MCR 15. $10,000 bond.

Monday, Nov. 27

3:00 p.m.: Eric Cordova, 27, of Brush was issued a summons for violation of a protection order in the 900 block of North Custer Street. No bond.

3:33 p.m.: David Fierro, 19, of Wiggins was arrested on three warrants and for a protection order violation in the 16000 block of MCR 7. No bond.

5:18 p.m.: Noe Maniz, 29, of Fort Morgan was arrested for possession of contraband in the first-degree, attempt to escape, introducing contraband in the second-degree, introducing contraband, menacing and criminal mischief resulting in $750 in damage to a brick and mortar wall at the Morgan County Detention Center. Case is open.

Tuesday, Nov. 28

No calls reported.

Wednesday, Nov. 29

No calls reported.

Thursday, Nov. 30

No calls reported.

Friday, Dec. 1

Noon: Nathan Maly, 34, of Fort Morgan was arrested on a warrant out of Morgan County Court for failure to appear on the original charge of driving under restriction in the 400 block of Warner Street. $1,500 bond.

1:42 p.m.: Mica Batara, 28, of Colorado Springs was arrested on a warrant out of Morgan County Court for failure to appear on the original charge of speeding. $1,000 bond.

5:00 p.m.: Jon Bonkins, 51, of Denver was arrested on a warrant out of Morgan County Court for failure to comply on the original charge of violation of a protection order. $5,000 bond.

Saturday, Dec. 2

1:05 p.m.: Joel Zamarano, 36, of Fort Morgan was arrested on a warrant out of Morgan County Court for failure to appear on the original charge of driving under restriction, driving under FRA suspension and evading an interlock system. $2,000 bond.

1:08 p.m.: Deputies investigated an incident of second-degree burglary and the theft of a red handle post hole digger, a red handle shovel, a wood handle shovel, a childs toy humvee and gloves valued at $100 in Fort Morgan. Case is open.

4:11 p.m.: Billy Pierson, 53, of Fort Morgan was arrested out of Morgan County City Court for failure to comply on the original charge of disorderly conduct. $500 bond.

6:30 p.m.: Deputies investigated an incident of third-degree assault, harassment, false imprisonment, violation of a protection order and domestic violence in the 29000 block of Third Street. Case is open.

Sunday, Dec. 3

Between Oct. 1 and Dec. 3: Deputies investigated the theft of three car batteries, a Lincoln Wire Welder, 15 tow chains, a table saw, handtools and a welding cable valued at $2,700 in the 1200 block of MCR 3. Case is open.

1:30 p.m.: Ismael Flores, 30, of Aurora was arrested on a warrant out of Morgan County Court for a probation violation and driving under restriction. $7,000 bond.

7:30 p.m.: Fatumo Harabey, 27, of Phoenix, Arizona, was arrested on a warrant out of Fort Morgan Municipal Court for failure to appear on the original charge of careless driving in the 19000 block of Highway 34. $1,500 bond.

Monday, Dec. 4

5:11 p.m.: Deputies investigated the theft of a Vivint doorbell camera valued at $200 in the 1400 block of Highway 34. Case is open.

Tuesday, Dec. 5

4:41 p.m.: Carol Covelli, 74, of Weldona was arrested on a warrant for attempt to influence a public servant in the 11000 block of Highway 144. $2,000 bond.

10:28 p.m.: Jamie Mateo Diego, 37, of Brush was arrested for failing to stop at a stop sign and driving a vehicle without a valid license near the intersection of MCR 28 and MCR R. $750 bond.

Wednesday, Dec. 6

9:19 p.m.: Jennifer Egleston, 34, of Docono was arrested on a warrant for failure to appear on the original charge of theft out of Weld County. $9,000 bond.

11:19 p.m.: Deputies investigated a first-degree burglary, a second degree assault and criminal mischief in the 100 block of South Maple Street. Case is open.
The Colorado Legislature passed a bill that was signed into law recently that has far-reaching implications for our state.

The Rural Sustainability Act is a great example of a team effort for the good of the state that will have positive ripple effects across Colorado for years to come. It shows what can be accomplished when policy makers go the extra mile to find real solutions for Colorado.

It prevents deep funding cuts to hospitals throughout the state, especially rural hospitals by fixing the hospital provider fee. The bill also directs nearly $2 billion to transportation through four years to address critical infrastructure and transportation needs. Especially important for higher education, the bill invests $120 million in desperately needed building repairs at colleges, universities and state buildings throughout Colorado.

We, at the University of Colorado, have been working with legislators and representatives from sectors critical to our states economy during the past two sessions on the bill. We were impressed with the bipartisan approach from legislators that got it over the finish line this year.

Any team effort requires leaders, and I tip my hat to Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, Sen. Lucia Guzman, Rep. John Becker and Rep. K.C. Becker, who provided substantial leadership for the effort. But virtually every member of the Colorado General Assembly played an important role in this crucial effort.

While CU will receive some of the controlled maintenance funding for long-neglected projects, most of our benefit is indirect. Had the bill not passed, we would have faced more cuts to our already low state funding. Colorado already ranks 48th nationally in funding higher education, so further cuts would have been devastating.

The legislation also fit with our approach of serving Colorado. We collaborated on the bill for the good of the state with legislators and representatives from a variety of sectors: health care, transportation, K-12 and higher education.

CU touches all those sectors and more. We prepare the highly skilled workforce Colorado needs to thrive, develop innovations in our research laboratories that improve lives and contribute significantly to our economy, and provide health care services that make life better for tens of thousands of Coloradans.

While much of CUs contributions emanate from our four campuses, we are proud to be in communities large and small in every corner of Colorado. CU has nearly 300 outreach programs around the state, ranging from water quality testing in southwest Colorado to doctors visiting communities across the Eastern Plains, to nurse practitioners working in rural communities around the state.

CUs Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy and Nursing, along with our physical therapy programs, partner with six regional Area Health Education Centers around Colorado to provide continuing education to health professionals and pipeline programs to the health professions for students in underserved communities.

CU doctors travel the state, providing care in specialty areas like cancer and in general practice, as well. They are affiliated with some 400 clinics across our state.

We were happy to be part of the team that promoted the Sustainability of Rural Colorado initiative. Its the right thing for our state and, again, we applaud the Colorado Legislature for stepping up to the plate. Were also proud of CUs continued role in furthering the economy, health, culture and quality of life in Colorado. We both were founded in 1876 and have grown together ever since.

Bruce D. Benson

President

University of Colorado
Three of the four Brush city council members that made up the council majority that voted on Nov. 13 to deny Mastronardi Produces application for a special use permit to construct temporary employee housing at their BrushCo Farms facility offered an explanation for their votes at Mondays council meeting.

Mastronardi had requested such feedback following the rejection of their permit and council had agreed to provide it in a resolution that would be written based on those comments.

City attorney Robert Bo Chapin had suggested that such a resolution be written and approved by the council saying when we grant a permit there is a resolution and when we deny a permit I think its equally important that we have a resolution to set out the councils findings on the decision.

Councilman Rick Bain said that he had several reasons for his decision to vote against issuing the permit. However, he said his concerns about the proposed housing sites close proximity to the neighboring Colorado Energy Management power plant (formerly known as the Brush Cogeneration Facility) and the noise that it generates were chief among them.

Bain said Mastronardis representative at the two public meetings held on the application had reported that Mastronardi had updated the findings of a 2001 noise study that showed that the site could be exposed to 50.3 decibels of noise, exceeding the residential limit of 50 decibels.

It was stated that he updated that study but I didnt find that, he said. Really all he did was explain that that was within the legal limit if you rounded down that decimal.

Bain said he was also concerned about Mastronardis proposed solutions for the noise issue.

Mastronardi did claim that if we allowed the special use permit and noise were a problem they would look at solving that problem by either having residents close windows or adding insulation to the building, he said. I didnt think that was a reasonable solution.

Bain said he was also bothered by Mastonardis inability to explain their 200 percent employee turnover rate. The representatives had said that turnover rate had created the need for Mastronardi to bring in temporary foreign workers through a visa program. Mastronardi would be required to provide housing for workers brought in through that program.

They said they tried raising wages and that didnt work and they tried busing people in but if you have a 200 percent turnover rate theres a reason for it, he said. Its possible that it could be some kind of management problem that the city shouldnt become involved in.

Bain said he was also bothered by the representatives response when questioned about a $180,000 fine that Mastronardi had been levied in the past for discharging chemicals from their BrushCo Farms facility into Beaver Creek.

I didnt think it was reasonable for Mastronardi to claim that there was a learning curve and that they didnt understand they were discharging those chemicals, he said.

Councilwoman Jeanine Anderson said she was concerned about public health issues that would result from allowing residences to be built in an area that had been previously zoned for industrial use and where a power plant is already located.

This was originally an industrial use area and they wanted to have people living there and basically there 24-hours-a-day, she said. If they are working and living there then they wouldnt be able to get away from the sound.

Anderson said she also found the sound study Mastronardi presented to the city unacceptable because it was 16 years old. She said she also voted no because the neighbors of the planned site showed up in force and said they did not want [the permit approved].

Councilwoman Kim Dykes said she had also voted no out of concern about both noise and the objections of community members.

As everyone knows we are [elected] not to vote in our own thoughts but in our constituents thoughts, she said. I had many approach me in my zone that felt they want to keep the business here but they didnt feel this was the right way. Theres already noise issues for the residents that live nearby and we would now be putting people that much closer.

Dykes also said that she felt that it should be pointed out that while council had previously decided to change the zoning of the area of the proposed housing site to allow Mastronardi to apply for a special use permit to construct the housing, that decision did not mean that the council would automatically approve such a permit.

Their lawyer made a comment that we made the change in zoning so that they could come back for special use, she said. But anybody could apply for that special use permit and there was no guarantee that the permit would be approved and that it was a done deal. To me it was yes you are welcome to apply and we will look at everything at that point.'

Councilman Heath Becker, who made the motion to deny the permit, was absent from Mondays meeting. Chapin had said that it would make sense for Becker to provide comments for the resolution that would be submitted to Mastronardi.
A 54-year-old Fort Morgan woman died in a crash that involved two vehicles on Interstate 76 early Wednesday morning.

According to Colorado State Patrol Trooper and Public Information Officer Josh Lewis, Lequeta Vickey Roth was declared dead at the scene of the crash.

Lewis said state patrol was still investigating the accident Wednesday but Roths husband, Kenneth, said Roth was hit by an oncoming vehicle as she and Kenneth were helping another motorist who had hit a deer and was stopped in the roadway. That oncoming vehicle also collided with the vehicle that hit the deer.

The remains of that deer could be seen lying a short distance from a GMC Arcadia that had sustained serious damage as troopers investigated the accident late Wednesday morning.

Lewis said he did not yet have access to details about the driver of the oncoming vehicle and any other individuals who might have been involved in the crash when the Times spoke with him Wednesday morning.

According to Lewis, the crash was called in to state patrol at about 6:06 a.m. Wednesday morning. The crash occurred in the westbound lanes of I-76 near mile marker 63, which is about three miles west of Wiggins.

Lewis identified the other vehicle involved in the crash as a 2007 Dodge. However, he said it was not yet clear from the information he had available Wednesday morning which car had hit the other.

The GMC Arcadia could be still seen in the center median facing east as troopers investigated the crash at around 10 a.m. Wednesday morning. It had sustained serious damages to all sides but particularly its rear. The Dodge appeared to have already been moved from the scene by that time.

Lewis said he did not have the information to confirm one way or the other if the Arcadia had rolled over.

Westbound I-76 was closed for four miles at the Highway 34 exit following the crash. The Colorado Department of Transportation reported that all lanes of westbound I-76 had reopened at 12:05 p.m. on Wednesday.

Lewis said the investigation into the crash is still open. The Times will provide an update on that investigation when more information is made available.
A 24-year-old man is facing a slew of felony charges for illegal straw purchase of 21 guns at gun stores, almost exclusively in Bucks County. Leonard Truesdale was arraigned on Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2022, on 21 counts each of making false statements on firearm purchase forms, criminal conspiracy to make false statements on firearm purchase forms and selling or transferring...
Burnham-On-Sea and Highbridges Mayor, Cllr Bill Hancock, has issued a Christmas message to local residents.

In it, he looks back at a busy year of community activities across the two towns and wishes residents a happy Christmas.

He says: Since I began my Mayoral year, I have had the pleasure of attending numerous events and functions to represent the towns and to support dozens of community groups.

When I was appointed Mayor back in May I declared my intention to promote local youth activities. The young people of today are our future and they need to have the confidence and skills to flourish as they become adults and take our country forward. My chosen charity for the year is Somerset Time for Youth who bring great joy to children with special needs.

This group featured in our Civic Service in October and I look forward to hosting a fundraising event for them in February. I was also honoured to present Civic Awards to four worthy members of the community and to celebrate young people who gave impressive musical performances.

Highlights of the year so far have been the Remembrance Services which were well attended by the public. Our thoughts at this time of year are with the men and women serving today in our armed services, and for the families of those who are involved in conflict.

Community groups have been extremely active this year and we were very pleased to be able to help the Mens Sheds group get off the ground. They are now providing a great social environment for chaps to meet and undertake useful practical projects which also benefit the community.

An eye-opening experience for me this year was a visit to the Foodbank in Burnham where I met the dedicated volunteers who give their time so generously to help those who are struggling. Included in our festive thoughts, we think of all those who will find Christmas a difficult period.

Radio Somersets Children in Need appeal came to The Esplanade this year. I was happy to say a few words on air to underline the important role of this charity. We even joined Claire Carter as she headed out of town on her final day of the Great Wellington Walk.

Burnham and Highbridge Town Council has now signed up to support the Plastic Free Coastline Campaign. We plan to continue to raise awareness of the problems with single-use plastics, help to clean up our beaches and work with the local businesses to encourage a transition to the use of environmentally friendly materials.

The Council is now catching up with the digital age with a new Twitter account. Well be using this to communicate more quickly and effectively with our community.

From the bottom of my heart I thank Rev Sharon Crossman, the Mayors Chaplain for her help and guidance so far this year, as well as the Mayors Cadet Rebecca Fear who has been by my side at all the key civic events. My Deputy Mayors Peter Clayton and Andy Brewer have been a tower of strength and have willingly represented the council at those functions which I was not able to attend. Id also like to thank the folk in the council office who keep everything running smoothly behind the scenes and make my life much easier.

To everyone I have had the privilege of meeting this year, thank you so much for giving me and my wife Frances such a wonderful welcome. We look forward to next year with hope and love, and I know that I will continue to enjoy serving our wonderful community.

I am delighted to send warm wishes to everyone in Burnham-On-Sea and Highbridge for a joyous Christmas and healthy, happy and peaceful New Year.
is all set to take on Google, Microsoft and Amazon in Indias growing cloud computing services space with the opening of its first data centre in the country in January.
Unlock 30+ premium stories daily hand-picked by our editors, across devices on browser and app.

Full access to our intuitive epaper - clip, save, share articles from any device; newspaper archives from 2006.

Curated newsletters on markets, personal finance, policy & politics, start-ups, technology, and more.

Pick your 5 favourite companies, get a daily email with all news updates on them.

26 years of website archives.
Private health care chains have come under attack in the backdrop of recent lapses and errors. There have been allegations against them earning astronomically high margins on consumables. Bhavdeep Singh, chief executive officer at Fortis Healthcare, spoke to Ajay Modi & Veena Mani on recent allegations and said private hospitals needed to follow self-governance and there was scope for improvement. Edited excerpts:
Advertisements of sanitary ware usually tend to seduce the audience with glamorous celebrities who can be an echo of the style and elegance of the products on offer. In a new television commercial (TVC), Kajaria Ceramics promotes its bath ware brand Kerovit with a whacky take on traditional advertising by riding on the star appeal of Bollywood actor Anushka Sharma. The TVC shows the actor trying to retrieve a pet that has ventured into the bathroom of a house. As she goes in, she is unable to resist a few dance moves, almost against her will. In the closing scenes, a man and a woman appear before her with the dog, leaving her embarrassed as she sneaks away complimenting the bathroom.
The startup investor community in India has once again raised concerns over the so-called Angel Tax with the government, pointing out that if the issue is not fixed Indias dreams of becoming the startup hub of the world will not be realised.
Some relief is in the offing for telecom operators as the Telecom Commission (TC) will meet on Friday to consider the measures proposed by the inter-ministerial group for easing the financial stress in the sector.
Vodafone on Tuesday launched another entry-level 4G smartphone with a cashback scheme, which brings down the smartphone's effective price down from Rs 3,690 to Rs 1,590. The company had previously launched a similar offer in partnership with Micromax.
Tata Steels announcement on capacity enhancements at its Kalinganagar plant shows its renewed domestic focus after streamlining the European operations. The company plans to expand its Kalinganagar (Odisha) steel-making capacities from the current three million tonnes per annum (MTPA) to eight MTPA in four years.
The contract for an estimated 22 Sea Guardian drones will be worth approximately $2 billion. The Sea Guardian, built by US firm General Atomics, is the naval version of the legendary Predator B armed drone, with which the US has killed terrorists in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in New Delhi will on Thursday pronounce its verdict in the Rs 1.76-lakh-crore 2G spectrum scam, deciding the fate of several top leaders of Indian industry and politics. Among the top India Inc officials facing charges of irregularity in the case are the Essar groups Ruias, Unitech promoter Sanjay Chandra, DB Realtys Shahid Balwa and some of the key executives of the Anil Ambani-led Reliance group.

The court will also decide the future of former telecom minister A Raja, former telecom secretary Siddartha Behura, and Raja's former personal secretary R K Chandolia.
The government today termed as "motivated" and "baseless" the controversy over the deal and asserted that the fighter jets have been bought at better terms.

In a written response to a question in the Lok Sabha, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said all the provisions of Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) have been followed and an inter-governmental agreement was signed on September 23, 2016 after the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS).

"The allegations are motivated and baseless. The government has bought the aircraft on better terms," she said.

The question was asked by six MPs, including three from the BJP, BJD member Bhartruhari Mahtab, Samajwadi Party member Tej Pratap Singh Yadav and Shiv Sena's Rahul Shewale.

The Congress had alleged a "huge scam" in the deal to buy 36 fighter aircraft saying this was done unilaterally without following the DPP, without any inter-governmental agreement and in the absence of the then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.

The Congress had also made it an election issue in the Gujarat polls.

In response to a question on the number of surgical strikes made by the Army in the last three years, the defence minister did not given any direct answer.

"Based on specific and credible inputs, Indian Army strikes at terrorists/ infiltrators at the borders from time to time, in order to preserve the unity, integrity and sovereignty of the nation," she held.

In response to another question on whether the government foresees a two-front war at western and northern borders and initiatives taken by the government to deal with situation like Dokalam and proxy war by Pakistan, Sitharaman said the government is fully seized of the security threats and remains prepared to deal with all kinds of security challenges.

"Appropriate measures are taken from time to time to maintain/ upgrade the country's defence preparedness to safeguard the sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of India," she said, adding that the government regularly reviews the threat perception to secure borders.

Replying to another question, her deputy Subhash Bhamre said 103 defence personnel lost their lives in encounters with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir from 2014-16.

On whether military expenditure as a percentage of GDP has reduced over a period of time, Bhamre said the defence budget was 1.54 per cent of the GDP.

"Defence expenditure as a percentage of GDP may appear to be decreasing due to increasing trend in the growth of GDP. However, defence expenditure is increasing every year in absolute terms," Bhamre said.
Ahead of India-China 20th round of the SR-level talks, Beijing said the Doklam stand-off between the two countries had posed a 'major test' for the bilateral ties, adding it was important to learn a lesson from the conflict to avoid it in future.

"In 2017, China-India relations have maintained a good momentum generally but the Doklam incident posed a major test for the two countries. We should learn lessons from this incident to avoid any further conflict of this kind in the future," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing here on Tuesday.

Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and China's State Councillor Yang Jiechi are designated Special Representatives to the respective countries in the 20th round of India-China border talks which is expected to be held this week in New Delhi. The two nations will meet for the first time after the 73-day military stand-off at Doklam (Donglang) near the Sikkim border.

The Special Representative meeting will also allow both the sides to exchange their views on the international and regional issues of major concern, Hua added.

She further said that the meeting was not only a high-level channel for the border issue discussion, but also the platform for strategic communication.

"We should follow our historical conventions on the border to uphold the tranquillity and peace in the border region as well as safeguard the larger picture of the India- China relations," Hua averred.

Discussing about the Doklam stand-off's impact on the talks, Hua said the issue also figured in the recent visit of Foreign Minister Wang Yi to New Delhi.

Though the talks are scheduled for December 22, an official announcement is yet to be made from both the sides.
The US has concerns about JuD chief running for office in Pakistan in 2018, a senior Trump Administration official has said.

The Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) head and LeT founder had earlier confirmed that his organisation Jammat-ud-Dawah will contest the 2018 general elections in Pakistan under the banner of the Milli Muslim League, which is yet to be registered with the Election Commission.

"Saeed, who was released by Pakistan from house arrest last November resulting in angry reaction from the US, was the "mastermind" of the Mumbai terrorist attacks and is leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba," State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said.

"It's a group that the US government considers to be a terror organisation. We have many conversations with the government of Pakistan. One of the things that happened recently was that this guy was held on house arrest. Pakistan released him from house arrest, and now there's word that he may be running for some sort of office," she said reporters here.

Saeed, who has a $10 million American bounty on his head for terror activities, was freed by Pakistan on November 24.

He is a UN and US designated terrorist.

"I want to remind folks, we have a $10 million Reward for Justice programme that would reward for information that would bring him to justice. So I want to make that clear, so that everybody knows -- $10 million, out for this guy. And we would certainly have concerns about him running for office," Nauert said.

The US had also strongly condemned the release of the Lashkar-e-Taiba leader from house arrest and had called for his immediate re-arrest and prosecution.

However, top Pakistani diplomats based in the US have said that there is no evidence against Saeed.

"I can tell you his organisation that was responsible for those attacks is considered a foreign terror organisation. It's considered a foreign terror organisation by the US government for a reason, and for a good reason," Nauert said.

"I would imagine that, if we had any intelligence, and that's not an area that I can discuss anyway, but we would certainly share it with the Pakistani's on that front. I hope they'll do the right thing," Nauert said.

"I hope that they will do the right thing and remind folks across Pakistan, we have a $10 million reward for this guy," the spokesperson said.

The banned JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Taiba which carried out the 2008 Mumbai terror attack in which 166 people were killed.
The Delhi government order cancelling the licence of Max Hospital, Shalimar Bagh, has been stayed by an appellate body, following which the facility resumed its operations today.

The Court of Financial Commissioner stayed the cancellation order issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) till the next hearing, January 9, according to its order, a copy of which has been accessed by the PTI.

The hospital group had on December 13 filed an appeal in the Financial Commissioner's court against the cancellation of the licence of its hospital in north-west Delhi by the DGHS of the city government.

"The operation of impugned order is stayed till the next date of hearing. Fixed for arguments on provision of Section 8 (2) & 8 (4) of the Act (Delhi Nursing Home Registration Act, 1953)," the Financial Commissioner has said in the order.

The petitioner's lawyers submitted before the Court of Financial Commissioner that under the provisions of the said act, no such orders shall come into force until after the expiration of a calender month from the date on which it was made. Or where notice of appeal is given against it, until the appeal has been decided or withdrawn.

According to the Financial Commissioner's order, the counsel for the DGHS submitted that the cancellation order was passed under Section 7 and not Section 8 (2) of the Act.

Section 7 of the act says the supervising authority may at any time cancel the registration of a person in respect of any nursing home on any ground which would entitle it to refuse an application for the registration of that person in respect of that home.

Or on the ground that the person has been convicted of an offence under this act or that any other person has been convicted of such an offence in respect of that home.

The Financial Commissioner is a statutory post and the incumbent exercises the powers of the Lt Governor or Chief Commissioner, delegated under various statutes, according to details on the website of the Financial Commissioner.

The DGHS of the Delhi government's health department had cancelled licence of the hospital for multiple instances of alleged medical negligence, including a case in which one of the twins was found alive after being declared dead by the facility.

Earlier in the day, Max Healthcare issued a statement, claiming, "Max Hospital, Shalimar Bagh has resumed its operations from today, following a stay order issued by the appropriate appellate authority to whom an appeal was made."



The licence cancellation case pertains to the premature twins, one of whom was wrongly declared dead on November 30 at the hospital where he was born, and who died during treatment at a nursing home in Pitampura a week later.

Both the babies were declared stillborn by the hospital and handed over to the family allegedly in a polythene bag. But to their utter horror, they found that the boy was still alive, while they were on way to do their final rites.
To look for signs of life beyond our solar system, the US space agency could send a spacecraft to the nearby Alpha Centauri system by 2069, according to a mission concept presented by a scientist.

Details of the mission concept was presented by Anthony Freeman of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the 2017 American Geophysical Union conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, the New Scientist reported on Tuesday.

Although most of the technology needs for such a mission does not exist yet, it could involve travelling at one-tenth the speed of light.

The impetus came from a 2016 US funding bill telling to study interstellar travel that could reach at least 10 per cent of the speed of light by 2069, the report said.

The Alpha Centauri star system, located in the constellation of Centaurus at a distance of 4.3 light-years from Earth, is the closest star system to the Earth. It has three stars -- Centauri A, Centauri B, and Proxima Centauri.

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) discovered in 2016 an Earth-sized planet that orbits in the habitable zone around Proxima Centauri.

New research, published in the Astronomical Journal, suggests that there may some small, Earth-like planets around Alpha Centauri A and B as well.

Right now, only one human-made spacecraft has left our solar system?Voyager 1, which launched 40 years ago and is currently traveling at about 38,000 miles per hour, less than one per cent of one per cent of the speed of light, the Newsweek reported.
The Pakistan High Commission here on Wednesday issued visas to the mother and wife of Kulbhushan Jadhav to visit Islamabad to meet the death row prisoner.

"Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi issued the visas to the mother and wife of Commander Jadhav to visit Islamabad to meet him," Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal said.

On December 17, 2017, Pakistan had said that the visa applications of Jadhav's wife and mother had been received and were being "processed".

Jadhav's mother and wife are expected to arrive in Pakistan on Saturday via the Wagha Border. Informed sources said that during a meeting on Monday, Pakistan's Security Committee cleared the visas for Jadhav's mother Avantika Jadhav and his wife.

Pakistan had rejected India's plea for consular access to Jadhav, a retired navy official who has been sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court for alleged spying.

Kulbhushan Jadhav was sentenced on charges of espionage and terrorism.

India maintains that Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the navy. Pakistan claims he was arrested from Balochistan after he reportedly entered from Iran.
Prime Minister on Tuesday reached out to the people of cyclone Ockhi-hit areas of Lakshadweep, Tamil Nadu and Kerala and assured them all possible help from the Centre to rebuild their lives and trace those missing.

Modi said search operations to trace the missing fishermen in Kerala and Tamil Nadu would continue and expressed hope that all of them would come back home before Christmas.

"I am here to assure you that India stands shoulder to shoulder with all those affected by Cyclone Ockhi. We will leave no stone unturned in the rescue and relief operations," said the prime minister, who addressed a gathering of fisher folk at Poonthura, a fishing hamlet near Thiruvananthapuram.

"Some of our people are stranded in foreign nations. The Ministry of External Affairs and various embassies are working to bring them back. Some people also got stranded in parts of India's western coast. We have rescued many of them," he said.

On a day-long hectic tour, Modi held high-level discussions with the chief ministers of Tamil Nadu and Kerala and the administration of the union territory of Lakshadweep and reviewed the situation post-Ockhi.

During the meetings, both Tamil Nadu and Kerala demanded a special financial package from the Centre to tide over the destruction caused by the natural calamity and wanted the cyclone to be declared as a disaster.

Modi, who reached Kavaratti, Lakshadweep's capital, in the morning, discussed with top officials and people's representatives the situation in the union territory.

He also found time to meet some local people, the victims of the calamity, and interacted with them.

Talking to PTI over phone, Lakshadweep administrator Farooq Khan said as per a rough estimate, damage caused due to the cyclone in the union territory was to the tune of Rs 150 crore.

"We are processing the cases of those affected by the cyclone Ockhi to get maximum relief for them. We have conveyed our requirements to the Centre," he said.

Lakshadweep MP Mohammad Faizal said the administration has sought an immediate aid of Rs 150 crore for rebuilding the basic infrastructure damaged in the devastating cyclone.

The MP said Modi has assured all central assistance to the island.

Though there was no loss of life or injuries, roughly 1000 houses had been damaged in the island territory, the majority of which are in Minicoy, an official said.

At Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, the prime minister held a high-level meeting in which Chief Minister K Palaniswami presented a memorandum seeking Rs 9,302 crore central aid.

Palaniswami later told reporters that his government sought Rs 5,255 crore assistance towards implementing permanent rehabilitation measures in Kanyakumari and another Rs 4,047 crore to cater to other parts of the state, including state capital Chennai, affected by the north east monsoon.

At Poonthura, which bore the brunt of the cyclone, the prime minister gave a patient hearing to weeping women, children and men, who lost their kin and livelihood in the cyclone.

"The whole country is with you in this time of sorrow. We will do everything to search for the missing fishermen," Modi said.

"...We pray to God that before Christmas, all the missing persons return," the prime minister added.

Modi later took part in a high-level meeting, in which Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan sought a special central assistance of Rs 7,340 crore for rehabilitation and rebuilding of cyclone affected coastal villages.

This package is beside the Rs 422 crore sought by the state under the Disaster Relief Fund.

The prime minister assured the state government that the package would be considered sympathetically, an official release said later.
The 16-year-old student of Gurgaon's Ryan International School, who had been accused of the murder of Pradyuman Thakur, will be treated as an adult, the Juvenile Justice Board said on Wednesday, days after it denied him bail.

He will be produced in court on Friday, the board said. If convicted, he will stay in a correctional home till he is 21 years old and then be transferred to a jail", said Sushil Tekriwal, lawyer of Pradyuman's family.

"It is a historic verdict in such heinous offences. What happened in Nirbhaya case that the juvenile will be free in 3 years, such an instance will not be repeated, the maximum length of imprisonment will be awarded to the accused, the stringent and severe prosecution will follow in the sessions court. It is a landmark judgement that JJB has given," the lawyer told Business Standard

Pradyuman's father thanked the judiciary for the decision.

Speaking on the Juvenile Board's decision, Varun Thakur, Pradyuman's father said, "We always knew that the journey is long but we will go till the end to get justice for my child and all other children who might be vulnerable."

On Friday, the Juvenile Board took cognisance of the psychological report of the accused. The report emphasised that the juvenile was well aware of the consequences of the crime.

The Class XI student, who is accused of murdering seven-year-old Pradyuman, was produced before the JJB again on Wednesday and remanded to another 14 days in judicial custody.

He will be lodged in an observation home in Faridabad during this period and produced before the JJB on December 20.

The cold-blooded murder case of Pradyuman took a new dimension after the CBI trashed the probe by the Gurugram police and gave a clean chit to bus conductor Ashok Kumar, who was arrested with the charges of murder and sexual assault in connection with the case, and arrested the juvenile.

Pradyuman was found in a pool of blood with his throat slit inside Ryan International School in Gurugram.
has overtaken as the most valuable celebrity in the country, according to the latest Duff and Phelps brands report.
Indian reports of the Trump administrations recently released new Security Strategy (NSS) are over the top. Indias designation as a leading global power caught the attention of some Indian newspapers. We appreciate the importance given to India-United States relationship the official spokesman exulted, noting that the two responsible democraciesshare the same objectives.



It is, however, important to put the words of the document in a proper perspective to understand that the new American NSS and the very obvious contradictions between its words and the practice of the Trump administration in the past year. As a Security Council (NSC) staffer noted, it was not clear whether the president had actually read the entire 55-page document. Donald Trumps policymaking is often through early morning tweets and has said in the context of his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, I call the final shots.



So, with this caveat let us see where India figures in all this besides being told that it will get support to become a leading power. One thing is clear, in contrast to the villains of the NSS  China and Russia India is in a sweet spot. It falls squarely in the opportunity category, rather than in that of threats or even competition that the US says it otherwise confronts.
The Rajasthan High Court issued a notice to the central government today seeking to know the reasons behind its decision to bar airing of condom advertisements on TV channels between 6 am and 10 pm.

A bench of Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice D C Somani issued notice to the central government, hearing a petition filed by an NGO.

In an advisory to all television channels on December 11, the information and broadcasting ministry asked them to restrict airing of condom advertisements to slots between 10 pm and 6 am, as these "could be indecent/inappropriate for viewing by children".

The NGO claimed that theaction of theministry was against the interest of public.

The NGO also claimed the move showed the "hypocritical approach" of the government, wherein it is on the one hand promoting family planning and awareness about AIDS and STD, but on the other, it is obstructing dissemination of condom advertisements that are crucial for family planning, reducing abortion deaths and awareness about HIV-AIDS and STD (sexually transmitted diseases).

The plea contends that kids andadolescents must also know about safe sex and must be given sex education. "There is not an iota of reason as to how an advertisement for condom is an unhealthy practice," it noted.

Earlier, the ministry said that it was brought to its notice that some channels carried advertisements of condoms repeatedly which were alleged to be indecent, especially for children.

It referred to Rule 7 (7)of the Cable Television Networks Rules 1994, which says, "No advertisement which endangers the safety of children or create in them any interest in unhealthy practices or shows them begging or in an undignified or indecent manner shall not be carried in the cable service".

It also cited Rule 7 (8) which states that "indecent, vulgar, suggestive, repulsive or offensive themes or treatment shall be avoided in all advertisements", and asked TV channels not to telecast the advertisements of condoms.
External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj expressing concerns over reports of Sikhs being forced to convert to Islam in Hangu district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province said, she will take up the matter with Pakistan government at the earliest.

"We will take this up at the highest level with Government of Pakistan. @IndiainPakistan Sikh community in Hangu 'being forced to convert'" Swaraj tweeted on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, Chief Minister of Punjab, Capt. Amarinder Singh urged the External Affairs Minister to take up the matter at the highest level with Pakistani authorities.

"Request @SushmaSwaraj ji to take up this issue with Pakistan. We cannot allow the Sikh community to be victimised in such a manner. It's our duty to help protect the Sikh identity and the @MEAIndia should pursue the matter at the highest levels," he tweeted.

Member of Sikh community in Pakistan have reportedly lodged a complaint with the deputy commissioner of Hangu in this regard.
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Tuesday issued a Gazette notification that makes nod of beneficiaries must for changing their subsidy-receiving bank account.

The UDAI notification asked the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to immediately disable the override feature on the APB ( Payment Bridge) mapper.

The notification has been issued after the complaints of certain telecom service providers and banks opening a new bank account of the holder and putting that bank account on NPCI's APB mapper overriding the existing bank account mapping without the consent of the holder.

As a result many Aadhaar holders complained that their subsidy, particularly of LPG gas (PAHAL), is not being credited in their designated bank account.

As per the extant instructions, every bank has to obtain express consent of the individual before putting his bank account on the mapper. Non-compliance of these instructions at the ground level is leading to aforesaid complaints and inconvenience to account holders.

As per the notification, "NPCI shall allow override request pertaining to an Aadhaar holder only if it is accompanied by the name of his current bank on the APB mapper and confirmation from the requesting bank that it has obtained the requisite consent of the Aadhaar holder for switching to the requesting bank on the mapper. Till above is implemented, NPCI shall disable the override feature on the APB mapper immediately."

It further adds: "Banks shall send request for mapping of a new account or overriding an existing bank account to NPCI only after taking explicit informed consent of their customers. Banks shall inform each account holder through SMS and email within 24 hours that a request has been sent to NPCI to put his bank account on the mapper or, as the case may be, to change his bank account on the NPCI mapper."

The says that in case a beneficiary does not want to put his/her new bank account on the mapper, then the customer should be provided a methodology to reverse this mapping.

The notification also says if a customer does not have email or mobile number then his/her physical signature on a paper consent form should be obtained prior to sending the request to NPCI mapper.
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Tuesday said all the villages of the state would be electrified by the end of this month.
Now that the Rajya Sabha has passed the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bill, the premier B-schools are readying themselves to grant degrees. The Bill, which will be promulgated into an Act under the Parliament once the President of India signs it, declares the 20 IIMs as institutes of national importance, thereby vesting upon them degree-granting powers.
Carmakers have sought a number of incentives to push electric vehicles  a 5 per cent goods and services tax (GST), income tax (I-T) benefits, waiver on road tax and toll charges, free parking, and a 50 per cent reduction in power tariff for charging these vehicles.
After a wake-up call from Uttar Pradesh's chip scam, government-owned oil marketing companies Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) are tightening end-to-end monitoring of product movement and dispensing. They now plan to introduce e-key facility as part of their strategy to have complete automation and real-time monitoring of their 55,000-odd outlets in the country by December 2018.
While Congress members disrupted proceedings of both Houses of Parliament on Wednesday, the highlight of the day was Prime Minister Narendra Modi turning emotional as he reminisced sacrifices of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers and leaders in building the party in Gujarat, where it scored a sixth win.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is going slow in printing of Rs 2,000 notes as the cash situation normalises in the economy.
NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar says the Gujarat election has sent out a message that youth is unsatisfied, as what is being achieved is probably not in sync with their aspirations.
Canadian mall owners are adding condos and apartments to their shopping centers, seeking to capitalise on a supply-constrained housing market while reducing exposure to a struggling retail sector.

Developers such as RioCan REIT, Canada's largest property trust, and the property units of some Canadian pension funds are turning prime land that has historically not been put to best use - such as parking lots or low-rise retail - into housing in one of the world's most expensive, supply-constrained residential markets.

In the greater Toronto area, there were 12,500 new homes available to purchase in October, less than half the average between October 2000 and 2015, according to Altus Group.

The rental market is just as tight. Toronto has a 1 per cent rental vacancy rate, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. That was despite the highest level of rental construction in 25 years in the third quarter, according to Urbanation Inc.

Home prices have surged more than 60 per cent in Vancouver and 40 per cent in Toronto in the last three years. Even pullbacks in these markets this year following policies to dampen price gains appear to be reversing on continued demand and limited supply.

"The population is growing and there's no real land left in Canada's biggest cities, said RioCan Chief Executive Ed Sonshine. "Demand for retail space isn't growing... it makes perfect sense on so many levels."

In Toronto, RioCan is creating ePlace, a development with about a fifth of the retail space of some of its other malls, 1,100 condominiums and apartments, and some offices.

The 466 rental apartments will add the first of 10,000 residential units the shopping centre developer plans to own by 2025 across 50 properties.

Buyers are responding. All the condos at ePlace, expected to be completed by early 2019, have already been sold.

Even owners of thriving malls are joining in.

Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto is Canada's most productive mall, with C$1,653 ($1,285) of sales per square foot for the year ended June 30, according to a Retail Council of Canada study.

But owner Oxford Properties, the real estate unit of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, is seeking to add as many as 1,496 residential units, offices and hotel space under a planned revamp.

Oxford is betting that better public transit and technological changes such as autonomous vehicles will reduce demand for parking, said Bradley Jones, head of retail at Oxford.

MORE MALL VACANCIES

Rising retail vacancies, exacerbated by the demise of Sears Canada and Target Corp's Canadian operations over the past few years, "have caused even more people to start thinking that there are alternate uses for part of their sites," said Matthew Smith, head of national retail investment at Jones Lang LaSalle.

And, if a concentration of retailers around transport nodes is weighing on businesses despite their location, changing some to residential could reduce that burden, Smith said.

It's not simply about plopping a few apartments on or adjacent to existing malls, however. Owners like Cadillac Fairview (CF), a unit of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, have concluded that the traditional mall, anchored by department stores with chain stores and fast-food restaurants in between, may no longer be as profitable.

CF plans to spend about C$2 billion to add residential units at four of its malls, in addition to one under construction in Toronto, said Finley McEwen, its senior vice president for development.

Many of the redevelopments include "turning the malls inside out," putting specialty stores, sit-down restaurants and other non-traditional mall occupants facing outward, which, combined with the residential units, create a space that's more alive, McEwen said.

"Mixing uses creates a vibrancy after hours, they create safer streets ... And they become naturally more attractive," he said.

($1 = 1.2861 Canadian dollars)
A wildfire that's burned hundreds of homes in coastal mountains northwest of Los Angeles is now the second-largest blaze in California history.

State fire officials say the 425-acre Thomas fire burning in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties is slightly larger than the 2012 Rush fire in Lassen County.

The fire, which is only 55 percent contained last night, is only about 1,200 acres smaller than the state's largest fire. That blaze, the 2003 Cedar fire in San Diego, killed 15 people.

A firefighter and a fleeing civilian have died in the Thomas fire that broke out on December 4. It continues to threaten 18,000 homes and other buildings.

Firefighters say decreasing winds and higher humidity are helping them but brush in the area remains tinder-dry.

Crews taking advantage of calm winds will perform a controlled burn to remove swaths of dry brush as they build containment lines around Southern California's enormous wildfire.

Fire spokesman Captain Rick Crawford said yesterday that officials will remove potential fuels on the fire's northern edge so that when winds whip up again today "there'll be nothing left to burn."



He says residents near the city of Ojai could see new smoke from the controlled burn.

The blaze northwest of Los Angeles is the third largest in state history. It's 50 per cent contained. Some evacuations were lifted Monday and Crawford says more residents are being allowed to return yesterday.

However he cautions that homes are still threatened in parts of Santa Barbara County, where firefighters plan an aggressive air attack on stubborn flames.
If you ever wanted to directly get in touch with SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, you just missed your chance. In a Twitter faux pas, Musk has accidentally revealed his private phone number on the micro-blogging site.

The billionaire intended to share the number with Oculus Virtual Reality (VR) Co-founder John Carmack late on Tuesday perhaps as a private direct message, asking him to give a call.

But Musk, who has 16.7 million followers, accidentally tweeted it for all.

Musk later deleted the tweet and redirected the number, which now plays a recorded message from the video game God of War, The Telegraph reported on Wednesday.

"By the Gods you've done it," the message begins. "Somehow you've found your way here to me. I offer you my congratulations and my respect."

Musk, who hopes to colonise Mars, co-founded PayPal and sold it to eBay in 2002. He now heads the ambitious space company Space X and luxury electric cars brand Tesla Motors, besides an array of other ventures.

Musk earlier this year called for urgent regulation for drones or machines that pose "fundamental risk to the existence of human civilisation".

The tech celebrity joined Twitter in 2009.
Wildfires tearing across Southern California have forced thousands of residents to evacuate from their homes. Even more people fled ahead of the hurricanes that slammed into Texas and Florida earlier this year, jamming highways and filling hotels. A viral social media post showed a flight-radar picture of people trying to escape Florida and posed a provocative question: What if the adjoining states were countries and didnt grant escaping migrants refuge?
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, accompanied by members of the Republican Conference, speaks at a news conference about the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Acts at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. Photo: Reuters
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Wednesday said Myanmar had refused access to a UN Special Rapporteur tasked with assessing the human rights situation in the country.

There have been widespread claims of persecution against the mostly Muslim minority Rohingya community, hundreds of thousands of whom migrated to neighbouring Bangladesh fleeing sectarian violence associated with a crackdown against Rohingya rebels by Myanmar's security forces.

"The government of Myanmar has informed UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee that all access to the country has been denied and cooperation withdrawn for the duration of her tenure," the OHCHR said in a statement.

Lee was scheduled to visit Myanmar in January to assess the human rights situation in the country, including the alleged abuses against the Rohingyas in western Rakhine state, Efe news reported.

Lee said the Myanmar government's attitude and lack of cooperation was "a strong indication that there must be something terribly awful happening in Rakhine as well as in the rest of the country".

Non-profit Doctors Without Borders last week estimated that at least 6,700 Rohingyas, including 730 children under five, were killed during the first 30 days of the crisis that began on August 25.

A special rapporteur appointed by the UN to a specific country is required to make at least two visits a year in order to prepare a complete report for the Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly.

Since her appointment in 2014, Lee has visited Myanmar six times, although she was not always granted unfettered access by the country's authorities, who at the time cited security concerns.

The Myanmar government went one step further on Wednesday by completely blocking Lee's trip.

"It is a shame that Myanmar has decided to take this route. They have said that they have nothing to hide, but their lack of cooperation with my mandate and the fact-finding mission suggests otherwise," Lee said, while still hoping that the authorities might reverse their decision.
Saudi air defences shot down a ballistic missile fired by Yemens Houthi group towards Riyadh on Tuesday, the Saudi-led coalition said, in an attack that could escalate a proxy war between the kingdom and Iran.
Microsoft Corporation co-founder Bill Gates has lauded the Bollywood film "Toilet: Ek Prem Katha" and said that it has educated audiences about India's sanitation challenge.

The movie was amongst his seven inspiring things in 2017.

"There's no denying that 2017 was a really tough year... but it also delivered some amazing moments of hope and progress. Here are some inspiring tweets that you may have missed," Gates tweeted on Tuesday.

Later he re-tweeted a link from the Express Tribune and wrote: "'Toilet: A Love Story,' a Bollywood romance about a newly wed couple, educated audiences about India's sanitation challenge."

Directed by Shree Narayan Singh, "Toilet: Ek Prem Katha" revolves around a man named Keshav, who falls in love with Jaya and gets married to her. However, she complains that there is no toilet in the house and he tries to pacify her with temporary arrangements.

Actress Bhumi Pednekar, who stars opposite Akshay Kumar in the film, thanked Bill Gates for recognising our efforts.

"'Toilet: Ek Prem Katha' is our contribution towards ending a practice that affects a very large population of the world. We truly hope open defecation will be a thing of the past. To a brighter and better world. Say no to open defecation," she added.
(RCom) rose as much as 45% in intra-day trade today after the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) adjourned the hearing of insolvency petitions filed against Reliance Communicationsto early next month after a group of the telecom operator's lenders sought time to consider converting the company's loans into equity.
At a time when Indias burgeoning mutual fund sector has re-conquered its lost distributor base in recent years, the industry is trying various measures to hand-hold foot soldiers to further the penetration of mutual funds.
Tata Steel was down 2% to Rs 693 on the BSE in intra-day trade on equity dilution concerns as the company's board approved to raise up to Rs 12,800 crore through rights issue to finance organic and inorganic growth plans.
The Rajya Sabha was adjourned till 2 pm on Wednesday after an uproar by the Opposition in the House over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remark on his predecessor Manmohan Singh over a 'secret meeting with Pakistani officials'.

The Congress party had demanded a clarification from Prime Minister Modi over his allegation, to which the BJP outrightly denied.

Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said, "This is not the way. Nobody is going to give an apology. Nothing happened in the House. The statement was not made here."

Naidu repeatedly reminded members of their conduct and asked them to return to their seats after they went to the well of the House shouting slogans. He also asked them to not create obstruction and allow other members to raise important issues.

However, Naidu was forced to adjourn the house till 2 pm.

During a poll campaign in Gujarat, Prime Minister Modi had claimed that Manmohan Singh and former vice president Hamid Ansari had attended a secret meeting at Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar's house in Delhi in which Pakistani envoy and foreign minister of the neighbouring country also participated.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Actor Anil Kapoor is really 'happy' for bagging award of 'best supporting actor' award at the Zee Cine Awards.

The actor was awarded for his portrayal of the lovable Kartar Singh, a bachelor living the high Punjabi life in London in Bollywood flick 'Mubarakan'.

The 60-year-old actor, "This is really exciting. Thank you Zee, thank you to my fans and well wishers. It was a blast shooting for this film and I'm happy to receive an award for it. I'm raring to go after this".

The movie, which is a romantic comedy film, was directed by Anees Bazmee.

It also stars Ileana D'Cruz and Athiya Shetty.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Uttar Pradesh government has approved the setting up of 'Cow Protection Committees' in each district of the state.

The order, issued by the state government on Monday, said these committees will headed by the district magistrate and senior police official and ensure efficient management and operation of 'gaushalas' (cow-shelters) across the state and make them self-sufficient.

The chairman of the newly setup Uttar Pradesh 'Gau Sewa Aayog', Rajeev Gupta, under which the committees will function, told ANI that these panels would rescue and look after cattle, which may be getting illegally slaughtered or smuggled.

"Whenever illegal cow slaughter and smuggling is prevented, the number of animals in cow shelters increases. So, we want better upkeep of cattle in these shelters and make them self-sustaining by selling their byproducts," Gupta told ANI.

The nod comes after Supreme Court, in September, asked for a compliance report from all the states in connection with cow vigilantism.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday dismissed IndiGo's plea against the order of Delhi airport operator, Delhi International Airport Pvt Ltd (DIAL), directing the airline to partially shift its operations along with SpiceJet and GoAir, from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2.

However, the high court extended the deadline till February 15 for the airline to shift the operation to the new terminal.

Earlier, DIAL had asked IndiGo that from January 4, 2018, its flights to and from Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru would be from T2 only, as it wanted to expand overcrowded T-1's capacity.

However, citing that moving a part of its flights to other terminal would hit its operations, the low-cost airline moved high court on November 14.

The T-1 currently handles 24 million passengers as opposed to its capacity of 20 million. In order to expand its capacity to 40 million, it had asked the three airlines to partially shift their operations. However, GoAir was allowed to shift all its operations to T-2, which irked IndiGo and it claimed "discriminatory approach" on the part of DIAL.

Meanwhile, Spicejet has maintained that it would shift its operations to T-2 only if IndiGo would do so.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The European Commission has triggered Article 7 for the first time, against Poland over a judicial reform dispute, saying that there is a clear risk of a serious breach of the rule of law in Poland, the Guardian reported.

The EU has triggered a process that could ultimately see Poland stripped of voting rights in Brussels in an unprecedented step designed to force the country's rightwing government to drop reforms the bloc regards as a threat to the country's democracy.

According to the commission's Vice-President Frans Timmermans, 13 laws, adopted over the past several years by Warsaw, have created a situation, where the Polish government "can systematically politically interfere with the composition, powers, the administration and the functioning" of the judicial authorities.

The EC has also formally advised the other 27 member states that the legislative programme of Poland's government is putting at risk the fundamental values expected of a democratic state, including judicial independence.

The issuing of a formal warning to Poland has been recommended, ahead of further possible sanctions, in an act, that will exacerbate a growing sense of crisis over Poland's membership of the EU.

Frans Timmermans warned in the summer that the EU was 'perilously close' to launching Article 7 over around 40 pieces of legislation, relating to the country's judiciary.

He has described the reforms by the ruling Law and Justice Party as a danger to the integrity of the internal market, as well as the Polish people.

The Polish government insists that the judiciary retains too much of the institutional architecture, that was in place during Poland's time as a communist state, and needs to be purged and placed in a new legal framework.

The most serious sanction possible would be to suspend the member state of its voting rights in EU institutions, but that would require unanimity among the member states in a subsequent vote. Hungary's rightwing regime has insisted it would never support such a move.

The development will prove highly awkward for British Prime Minister Theresa May, who will be in Warsaw for a UK-Poland summit on Thursday. She hopes to push forward her vision of a post-Brexit trading relationship with the rest of Europe.

May, who will be travelling with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, and Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, is likely to be asked which side of the argument she supports.

The UK government has been ambiguous over its position, due to concerns that Brussels should not be meddling in domestic affairs.

In July, the Polish parliament introduced a set of draft laws to reform the judiciary system. Polish President Andrzej Duda vetoed two of these bills, which concerned the National Council of Judiciary and the Supreme Court, but reintroduced them once amended.

Nevertheless, they were criticized by the EC since they threatened the principle of the separation of powers.

The row over the Polish government's reforms to the country's judiciary has been going on for the last two years. But, it appeared to have come to a stop in the wake of the Polish senate's decision last Friday to approve the legislation. It has given the executive greater control of the Supreme Court and National Council of the judiciary, which appoints judges.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In a bid to allow users to exercise control over what's posted online related to themselves, social media giant Facebook announced the expansion of its facial recognition tool, to the extent of identifying users in photos, even when they've not been tagged in it.

Starting today, users will be notified when someone uploads a photo with them in it - even if they're not tagged. Subsequently, the user can choose to add their tag to the photo, or leave themselves untagged, or report the photo if they think it's inappropriate.

The new tool, the company says, will notify you when friends and mutual acquaintances upload photos you're tagged in. While the feature will also work with profile photos, it won't be available in Canada or the EU, where data laws restrict the use of facial recognition.

"We really thought this as a privacy feature for a long time. If someone posts a photo of you, you might not know about it. Now, the users can access the photo, and they can communicate to the person who posted it," Rob Sherman, Facebook's head of privacy, told The Verge.

While this would be an ideal situation to handle social media harassment, it could also prove to be a good way to cherish old memories and share the same with people of their choice.

Facebook says the new tool will also be used to improve its automatic text descriptions, which would tell visually impaired users not just what is in a picture, but also who.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
HW News was the only news network to have predicted 95 to 105 seats for BJP and 75 to 80 seats for Congress almost 2 months before the Gujarat elections.

Sujit Nair, Managing Editor says the brief to the research team was to talk to all stakeholders in Gujarat, the farmers, small traders, business communities, patidaars, hindus, OBCs, dalits and muslims across Gujarat to figure out why they will vote for or against BJP.

This would give us the understanding of deep rooted resentments against the BJP or the verdict in its support. We set forth on this exercise with the premise that the general populace will be voting for or against BJP.

The observations from the extensive research and people interactions gave expression to the critical ground realities. The analytics leading from this helped us draw near precise conclusions on the way the communities will be voting on the D-Day.

"Armed with this insight, we went on to draw the general mood of the Gujarat electorate and highlighted how the agrarian crisis, disappointment amongst trade and business community could put the ruling dispensation on notice," said Sujit Nair.

"While there were strong anti BJP sentiments amongst certain sections of the society, there were also sections that were hard-core pro-BJP," he added.

HW convincingly stated that Hardik Patel, the agitating paatidars and dalits will lend their support in favor of Congress rather than aligning with the BJP. It was proved right.

The drastically different views expressed by Sujit Nair and HW News were received with mixed reactions.

While Sujit was trolled bigtime, it also generated vast viewership and helped HW News Network to emerge as the most trusted digital news channel on Gujarat Elections.

HW News Network garnered an astonishing 8.61 million viewership for the Gujarat Elections and was the only news network that got its predictions bang on.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Baloch Organisation (WBO) has launched its #FreeBalochistan human rights awareness campaign in New York, after a successful month of implementing the same campaign in London, UK.

The New York campaign has kicked-off with more than 100 taxis carrying adverts with the slogan, "#Free Balochistan from human rights abuses by Pakistan".

"Balochistan was annexed by Pakistan against the people's will in 1948 and has been under military occupation ever since, with mass kidnappings, torture and executions by the Pakistan army. Pakistan wants to keep this hidden. We are doing this campaign to expose these abuses," said Bhawal Mengal, spokesperson for the Baloch Organisation (WBO), which has organised the advertisements.

"Thousands of Baloch people have been murdered or disappeared by Pakistani armed forces. The killings are happening right now, the American weapons that were given to Pakistan to use against the Taliban are being diverted and misused to attack the secular Baloch people, including F-16 fighter jets and Cobra attack helicopters," he added.

Asserting that the campaign's goal is to raise awareness among the Americans about the ethnic persecution and gross human rights violations in Balochistan and support the Baloch people's quest for peace and freedom, Mengal urged the US to cut off all military aid to Pakistan and hold it accountable for its crimes in the region.

In London, the campaign received positive feedback from the public, including from the Baloch diaspora in the United Kingdom.

Despite repeated attempts by the Pakistani government to shut down the #FreeBalochistan advertising campaign in London, the UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled against Pakistan's bid to censor the adverts; acknowledging their legitimate, humanitarian and peaceful character.

"Balochistan comprises almost half the land mass of the current borders of Pakistan. It has fabulous oil, gas and mineral wealth which is being exploited by Pakistan, while the Baloch people live in abject poverty. To keep control, the government in Islamabad is resorting to terror tactics and is giving free rein to religious extremists operate in the region. It is using them as a proxy third force against the nationalist movement, which has a long tradition of democracy and secularism," Mengal further said.

"Pakistan's iron-fisted rule in Balochistan is so brutal that it will not allow journalists, human rights monitors and aid agencies to enter the region. These adverts are much needed to defend the human rights of the Baloch people and to expose the atrocities of the Pakistani military and intelligence agencies," he said.

Mengal described Baloch Organisation as a peaceful, lawful lobby against Pakistan's war crimes and human rights abuses in Balochistan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Family of a woman in Hyderabad has alleged that she was trafficked to Saudi Arabia on the pretext of job, and appealed to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to bring her back.

As per Nuszath Begum's family, two agents had offered her a job at a hospital in Saudi Arabia, but after reaching there, she was taken to Abha and has since been employed as a maid at a house.

"The employers there deny her proper food and sleep, and make her work the whole day. My wife was sick and the employers are not even taking her to hospital for checkup," Md. Ahmed, the victim's husband told ANI.

The family has also filed a complaint with the Jawaharnagar Police against the agents, but the perpetrators are on the run from authorities, he informed.

"My daughter is sick and they are not even availing any medical treatment for her, they continue to torture her and make her work on little food. She says she will commit suicide if not rescued from the clutches of her employers," Lateefa Begum, the victim's mother said.

The agents who duped the family also took Rs 40,000 from them.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A financing agreement for IDA Credit worth USD 125 million (equivalent) for the "Skills Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancement Operation (STRIVE) Project" was signed by the Government of India and the World Bank in the national capital on Tuesday.

The agreement was signed by Sameer Kumar Khare, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance on behalf of the Government of India and Hisham Abdo, Acting Country Director, World Bank (India) on behalf of the World Bank.

The objective of the operation is to improve access to quality and market-driven vocational training provided in it is and apprenticeships.

The result areas for the project include improved performance of industrial training institutes; increased capacities of state governments to support industrial training institutes and apprenticeship training; improved teaching and learning; and improved and broadened apprenticeship training.

The closing date for the project is November 30, 2022.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The sleuths of Special Operation Team (SOT) Rachakonda on Wednesday busted an infant selling racket by arresting a six member gang.

The police apprehended the culprits from Venkateshwara Swamy Temple here in Saroor Nagar.

The police also rescued a six-day-old baby girl. The infant has been handed over to the Child Welfare Committee (CWC).

The culprits have been identified as Kedavath Ravi, Kedavath Saroja, Vadithyavath Rukka, Mudavath Lakshman, Narsingh and Varithyavath Redya.

According to media reports, the gang trapped a poor tribal couple of Mahboob Nagar District and bought their new born for Rs. 15,000.

The police have also seized one car, four mobile phones and Aadhar cards.

A sumoto case U/sec. 370(4) IPC, Sec 75, 81 of Juvenile Justice Act 2015 has been registered at the PS Saroornagar police station.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leaders on Wednesday staged a protest in front of the statue of Mahatma Gandhi outside the Parliament, demanding the formation of a tribunal to resolve the Mahanadi river water dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

"We are demanding the formation of tribunal to resolve the Mahanadi river water dispute. Earlier, the Central Government assured us to form the tribunal but they cleared that now there is no chance to form the tribunal. This is an atrocity for the people of Odisha," one of the protesting BJD leaders told ANI.

The BJD Parliamentary party under the chairmanship of Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had decided to raise Mahanadi tribunal and Polavaram issues during the winter session of the Parliament.

The BJD parliamentarians also yesterday, reportedly, moved an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha on the dispute. However, the Speaker of the Lok Sabha is yet to accept the notice.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least 12 people died and 18 got injured after a bus carrying cruise ship passengers in eastern Mexico crashed and flipped on a highway.

According to the local media reports, at least seven are American among several injured.

However, authorities have not disclosed the nationalities of those dead.

"We express our condolences to all those affected by this tragedy," a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy said on the crash. "We are in contact with local authorities and are working with them to determine if there were U.S. citizens on board. We will continue to monitor the situation."

The injured were rushed to the hospitals in Bacalar and Chetumal.

United States Department of State spokesperson Heather Nauert said that representatives from the U.S. mission in Mexico are reaching the spot to assist the US citizens involved.

"We know that lots of families and individuals are traveling this time of year," she said. "We're working with local authorities."

Further details are awaited.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has cleared Montelukast Sodium, a bulk drug / API manufactured by Morepen Laboratories Ltd., for sale in the US market. This gives Morepen an entry into the Rs. 2000 crore (Approx. $ 300 million) US market for Montelukast. The first commercial orders for the bulk drug are expected in Q2 of FY 2018-19.

Expressing happiness on the development, Sushil Suri, Chairman and Managing Director, Morepen Laboratories Ltd., said, "It's a big development for us as it is in recognition of our continuous efforts to produce world class API's over more than three decades. Our image as a quality API supplier gets cemented with the entry of Montelukast in the US market. It would provide a major boost to the company's top line and thus the bottom line in the years to come."

Montelukast's global market is estimated at about Rs. 13000 crore (Approx. $2 billion) out of which US market alone is Rs 2,000 crore. The patent for Montelukast has expired in all the markets worldwide. In US, the product patent got expired in 2012 and subsequently process patent expired in 2014.

Montelukast is another blockbuster product for Morepen after Loratadine. Morepen is amongst the largest producers of Montelukast globally with an annual capacity of more than 30 tons. Besides, Morepen is the market leader for Montelukast in India with over 50 per cent market share, supplying to almost all major finished dosage manufacturers in India. Already crossed Rs 100 crore annual sales from Montelukast Sodium alone, Morepen is going to get a business of around Rs. 500 crore from this API in next three to four years.

Morepen holds process patent for Montelukast Sodium Amorphous for US, Canada and Europe markets. The company's manufacturing process yields very less impurities, very less residual solvents, higher assay, better color of the API and is an environment friendly process as it does not involve use of class II solvents.

Morepen's API Montelukast supplies are regular to various countries in Europe and also to China. Morepen also holds accreditations for other countries including Canada, Russia, Taiwan, Iran for Montelukast. Commercial sales of Montelukast are presently reaching customers in about 35 countries. U.S. supplies would also commence following the USFDA clearance.

Montelukast is manufactured at Morepen's Masulkhana facility, which has been inspected by various global regulatory agencies like US FDA, EU GMP, TGA and others. Montelukast is manufactured under strict quality control complying with cGMP requirements and meeting various other global manufacturing standards having already obtained COS (Certificate of Suitability) in Europe and IDL (Import Drug Licence) from China.

In the First Half (H1) of FY 2017-18, ended September 30, 2017, Morepen has reported a rise of 9 per cent in its net profit at Rs. 12.34 crore on its net sales of Rs. 257 crore. Morepen has also recently entered into a tie-up with Vesale Pharma International of Belgium to strengthen its position in the Rs. 1000 crore Probiotics market in India.
Union Minister of State for Agriculture Krishna Raj was immediately rushed to a hospital after she fell ill during the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) parliamentary meeting at Parliament's Library Building in New Delhi on Wednesday.

She was taken to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital for treatment in an ambulance.

32-year-old Raj is a Member of Parliament (MP) from Uttar Pradesh's Shahjahanpur.

The party parliamentary meeting was held after BJP's victories in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly polls.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP Chief Amit Shah were both present at the meeting today.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A group of Naxals attacked Bihar's Masudan Railway Station and abducted three officials, including an Assistant Station Master.

The incident took place after the Naxals had called for Bihar and Jharkhand 'bandh' on December 20.

The Assistant Station Master had called up the Maldah Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), saying the Naxals threatened to kill them if trains continued plying on the Masudan track.

The Naxals also torched station property in the incident - which took place late last night.

The incident has affected the operation of trains on Bhagalpur-Kiul line.

A joint team of the police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) have started the search operation to locate the abducted officers.



Maoists kill tribal youth in Odisha



On Tuesday, maoists killed a tribal youth in Odisha's Malkangiri district suspecting him to be a police informer.



The armed rebels barged into 22-year-old Muya Kabasi's house at Jandraguda village under the jurisdiction of Mathili police station area yesterday night, dragged him out and beat him to death, the police said.



The Border Security Force (BSF) and the police have started combing operation in the area, said Superintendent of Police of Malkangiri district Jagmohan Meena.



The Maoists left a poster near the body threatening the villagers of similar consequences if they work for the police.



The rebels had killed another person on December 9 in Chitrakonda area of the district suspecting him to be a police informer.
Nine Projects from Andhra Pradesh has been selected for SKOCH - order of Merit Award this year, out of which five projects are from the Ministry of Panchayat Raj and Rural Development, Information Technology.

Andhra Pradesh Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Minister Nara Lokesh congratulated the officers and employees of the concerned departments.

The following are the projects selected under different categorie:

- Minister Dashboard - under the category of SKOCH Blue Technology

- Jalavani - under the category of SKOCH Blue Technology

- LED Lights monitoring through IOT - under the category of Mobility

- Solid Waste Managemnt System using RFID - under the category of Blue Technology

- NTR Jala Siri - under the category of Blue Economy

Skoch awards celebrate human excellence and agents of change in Indian society. These awards are based on the philosophy of spreading positive Socio-Economic changes through recognizing persons/organisations who have contributed immensely to salutary transformations in society and governance by displaying exemplary leadership abilities.

They are the highest independently instituted civilian honors in India.

Skoch awards have become the only independent benchmark of best practices in India in the fields of governance, finance, banking, technology, corporate citizenship, economic and inclusive growth.

Every year these awards will be conducted under different categories at Delhi who have contributed immensely and gives an opportunity with industry and share the vision of the state at the senior most level.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
United Nations-designated terrorist Hafiz Saeed has found a new supporter in Pakistan Chief of the Army Staff, Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, who has hailed the Mumbai attack mastermind as 'active' to resolve the Kashmir issue, as every other citizen of Pakistan.

This statement is being viewed as Bajwa comparing every Pakistani citizen with the chief of banned terror outfit - Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD).

Bajwa, speaking at an 'in-camera session' of the Senate Committee of the Whole in Islamabad, deliberated on a wide range of topics from to counter-terrorism operations and foreign policy.

When asked about Hafiz Saeed's role in fighting for the country, especially the Kashmir issue, Bajwa said, "Like every other Pakistani, Saeed can also take up the Kashmir cause."

Bajwa's statement has come close on the heels of former Pakistan president General Parvez Musharraf declaring support for the terror outfits - Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and JuD.

At the event, Bajwa further said if the Army's role was proved in the recent Faizabad sit-in, he would resign from his post.

About 2,000 activists of Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLY) and its allied groups staged protests and sit-ins on highway and railway lines in several cities of Pakistan for nearly three weeks in November. The protests paralysed the life in Islamabad by occupying the Faizabad interchange, linking the Pakistani capital with Rawalpindi.

Bajwa was responding to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Mushahidullah Khan's question.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pakistan has been mobilising widespread protests and calling on the Arab world to pressurise the United States to revert President Donald Trump's decision of recognising Jerusalem as capital of Israel.

The Middle East Media Research Institute has published an article titled, "Pakistani religious, political leaders react to President Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel", which cited statements made by the Pakistani religious and political leaders that appeared in Roznama Islam, a pro-Islamism Urdu daily, from December 7-10, 2017 against the US President's move.

"U.S. President Donald Trump announced the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and also that the U.S. Embassy would be moved there from Tel Aviv. The announcement sparked protests in the Islamic world, since Muslims consider Jerusalem to be the First Qibla, or direction of prayer, before it was superseded by Mecca. Leaders of political and religious parties in Pakistan also condemned the U.S. announcement in speeches and press statements and at protest rallies in towns across the country," the article read.

"According to a media report, protests were held by different religious and political groups in Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Multan, Karachi, Quetta, Hyderabad, Faisalabad, Bahawalpur, Muzaffargarh, and other towns across Pakistan on December 8, and also on previous days. The lead organizations holding the protest rallies included Jamaatud Dawa (the charity arm of the Pakistani jihadi organization Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)), Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan, Jamiat Ahle Hadith, Difa-e-Pakistan Council (Defense of Pakistan Council, a network of militant religious groups that includes Jamaatud Dawa), Jamiat Ahle Hadith, Jamaat Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, Milli Muslim League (a political party in the making and established by Jamaatud Dawa leaders), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, and Pakistan Ulema Council, among others," it added.

The article further went on to quote the statements made by the Pakistani religious and political leaders, in which they condemned the United States Jerusalem recognition and harshly criticised the President Trump of the decision.

Global terrorist and Jihadi Commander Hafiz Muhammad Saeed said, "The oppressed Palestinian Muslims are calling for help; they are today awaiting a Salahuddin Ayyubi; for the defense of Jerusalem, every child of Muslims is ready to sacrifice his life."

Militant leader Allama Aurangzeb Farooqi said, "The current Islam-enemy President [Trump] is pursuing the dangerous plan of stoking a war between the crescent and the cross."

While, Jamaat-e-Islami Leader Naeemur Rehman called for a million man march, Islamic Scholar Mufti Muhammad Naeem termed the US President Trump's decision to recognise the Jerusalem as the capital of Israel as declaration of war against the world of Islam.

"The Trump decision is against the entire Muslim Ummah and an attack on the first Qibla"; we stand by the resistance movement of Hamas"; Jamaat-e-Islami calls for million man march on December 17," said Rehman.

"To recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital Is Trump's declaration of war against the world of Islam"; America, by becoming the agent of the Jewish lobby, is pursuing a policy of destroying all Muslim countries," said Naeem.

Pakistan's National Assembly also passed a resolution calling the US Jerusalem move an attack on the Muslim Ummah.

"This assembly considers the shifting of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to the occupied Jerusalem as an attack on the Muslim Ummah."

Former Pakistan president Gen. Pervez Musharraf said, "Trump's policies are pushing the world toward destruction.
The Parliament has passed the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2017 with the Rajya Sabha adopting it today.

The Lok Sabha had cleared the bill earlier in the monsoon session.

The bill intends to strengthen corporate governance standards, initiate strict action against defaulting companies and help improve ease of doing business.

It provides for more than 40 amendments to the Companies Act, 2013, which was passed during the previous UPA regime.

Replying to issues raised by the members during a discussion on the bill in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Corporate Affairs P P Chaudhary said the amendment would ensure better corporate governance and improve the ease of doing business in the country.

The minister dismissed the apprehensions raised by members that the government was not doing enough to ensure that companies comply with the Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, provisions.

"The government has already issued notices to many companies for not complying with CSR provisions under the Companies Act," Chaudhary said.

On the government's promptness in taking action against companies at fault, Chaudhary said the government has taken several step against such firms which were not taken in last several years. He said the government has taken action against over two lakh shell companies and Special Fraud Investigation Office was looking into it.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
People living with rare diseases are at greater risk of experiencing poor quality of life such as increased levels of anxiety, depression, pain, fatigue.

"These findings suggest that the quality of life needs of people with rare diseases are not being met and that more work is needed to provide psychosocial support for this group," said Bogart, Oregon State University, whose work focuses on the psychosocial implications of disability. "There is a disparity here and intervention is needed."

About 350 million people worldwide live with at least one rare disease, and there are about 7,000 diseases classified as rare because they affect small numbers of people.

While each disease may have its own set of characteristics and impacts, researchers have found that people with rare diseases often share similar characteristics and experiences - including little information or treatment, lengthy times to diagnosis and isolation. Because of this shared experience, they may also benefit from similar types of psychosocial supports, Bogart said.

"Even though their diseases are different, their experience is similar," Bogart said. "There is some benefit to looking at this group collectively, rather than trying to work with each small rare disease group independently."

For the study, researchers surveyed more than 1,200 U.S. residents with rare diseases, asking them to complete questionnaires about their disease and their quality of life.

The survey group represented 232 different rare diseases, including ataxia, Bell's palsy, Ehlers Danlos syndrome, mast cell disorders and narcolepsy, and 13 percent of the group had more than one rare disease. The researchers also found that study participants waited on average nine years before receiving a correct diagnosis.

Compared to a representative sample of U.S. residents, people with rare diseases experienced worse anxiety than 75 percent of the population; worse depression than 70 percent of the population; worse fatigue than 85 percent of the population; worse pain than 75 percent of the population; worse physical functioning than 85 percent of the population and worse ability to participate in society than 80 percent of the population.

"There is something specific about having a 'rare' disease that contributes to poorer quality of life," she said. "Many people struggle with getting an accurate diagnosis, which also can lead to a constant de-legitimization of their experience, with people wondering if it is 'all in your head.'"

Study participants with systematic and rheumatic diseases had the poorest quality of life profiles, and those with neurological diseases also had very poor quality of life. People with developmental anomalies experienced fewer quality of life problems than the other groups.

The findings suggest that quality of life issues such as psychosocial support should receive more priority from organizations and funding agencies that support people with rare diseases and disorders, Bogart said. Supporting quality of life is especially important for people living with one of the 95 percent of rare disorders that have no effective treatments.

Including psychosocial support in organizational mission statements, providing psychosocial support through support groups or conferences and making funding for psychosocial support a priority could help address quality of life issues for people with rare diseases, in part by helping reduce stigma and isolation and improving access to information and treatments.

"Some people with rare diseases may never meet another person with that disease," Bogart said. "That can be very isolating. Conferences are one way to bring people with similar experiences together to share. It helps them feel connected, normalized and validated."

People with rare diseases who are experiencing poor quality of life also should seek support from a mental professional, a rare disease group and/or peers with rare disorders, she said.

The findings were published in Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least 17 civilians were killed and dozens injured in a Russian airstrike in Syria's northwestern city of Idlib, reported Turkey's Anadolu News Agency on Wednesday.

Hajj Yousif Yousuf, the local head of the Syrian Civil Defense volunteer group, also known as the 'White Helmets' said: "The attack targeted a residential area in Maarushin town in the province late Tuesday."

He said several women and children were among the victims and expects the death toll to increase, as there are others still trapped under the rubble.

"Search and rescue operations are continuing," added Yousuf.

The city of Idlib falls within a network of de-escalation zones, set up in Syria by Turkey, Russia, and Iran, in which acts of aggression are forbidden.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011 when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

According to United Nations (UN) officials, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and more than 10 million have been displaced in the ongoing civil war.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least 136 civilians were killed in airstrikes carried out by the Saudi-led coalition forces in Yemen in 10 days.

The United Nations has expressed concerns over intensified airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition.

A spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Rupert Colville in a news conference in Geneva on Tuesday said, "We are deeply concerned at the recent surge in civilian casualties in Yemen."

The recent wave of violence began in the country following the killing of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa on December 4.

"136 civilians and non-combatants were killed and some 87 injured as a result of airstrikes in Sanaa, Saada, Al Hudaydah and Taizz governorates in the period from December 6 to 16," Colville said.

According to UN, a total of 5558 civilians have been killed and 9,065 others injured in Yemen since March 2015.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In a landmark development projected to significantly enhance the growth opportunities available to MSMEs in the Asia-Pacific region, Singapore-based e-commerce company Shopmatic on Wednesday announced its strategic partnership with the Asia-Pacific MSME Trade Coalition (AMTC), a working committee of the Asia Trade Association (ABTA).

The association which is aimed at extending Shopmatic's innovative e-commerce offerings and technological capabilities, will enable MSMEs to cater various high-potential markets across the region through AMTC, enabling them to build, launch, manage, and scale their online presence in a seamless and hassle-free manner.

Shopmatic's latest partnership is aimed at empowering micro, small and medium businesses across the Asia-Pacific region. As part of the association, Shopmatic and AMTC will work closely on several initiatives aimed at enabling better opportunities for MSMEs - locally, regionally, and globally. Businesses in the high-potential sector will also be able to access the benefits offered by both organisations as an automatic feature of their memberships with either Shopmatic or AMTC.

"The Asia-Pacific region is one of the most vibrant, dynamic, and exciting geographies, especially given the rapid technological adoption that the region has witnessed recently. Despite this, many MSMEs are yet to fully tap into the massive potential that this growing digital penetration represents due to unfamiliarity with technology or a lack of expertise. This is the gap that we, at Shopmatic, have been addressing," said Anurag Avula, CEO of Shopmatic.

"The association with AMTC will allow us to reach out to many more businesses in the region, as well as to bridge the gap between smaller businesses and government agencies, furthering our mission of enabling MSMEs to scale their operations online, conveniently and without hassles," he added.

The association with AMTC will also allow Shopmatic to gain greater participation and voice in trade development initiatives across the region, as it looks to empower more MSMEs with the tools required to make the digital leap and be more relevant in an increasingly digital-first business ecosystem.

Partnering with AMTC, the largest MSME-focussed group in the Asia-Pacific will also help Shopmatic in building an MSME-friendly environment in line with government policies across multiple geographies.

"Our main goal at AMTC is to advocate and facilitate the growth of international trade in the region for micro, small, and medium enterprises. Shopmatic's e-commerce platform will enable members of AMTC to quickly develop an online presence, start selling, and growing trade in the region. Existing subscribers on Shopmatic will benefit from AMTC's expanding library of resources, region-wide network, and support from a pan Asian trade association," said Annie Fong, spokesperson for the Asia-Pacific MSME Trade Coalition (AMTC).

Shopmatic provides end-to-end assistance for businesses to create their online stores - from choosing free domains and templates to importing pictures and textual content, facilitating listings on major e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and eBay and accepting digital payments.

Shopmatic also entered into strategic partnerships with leading domestic and international companies in order to enable smoother operations for business owners.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) will be strengthening its presence and establishing new border posts in Sikkim along the Bhutan frontier, near Doklam region that recently saw a standoff between Indian and Chinese troops.

"Doklam is on India-China border, which is not our mandate but we are more alert in the area next to it and there is going to be slightly increased strength on the border just below the tri-junction (India-Bhutan-Tibet), which is on the southern side," said SSB Director General Rajni Kant Mishra after attending 54th raising day of the force here.

"The battalion headquarters is coming up in Yuksom in Sikkim while more sanctioned border out posts (BoPs) will be established in the area," Mishra said.

The Indian and Chinese troops had engaged in a standoff on the plateau for over two months earlier this year after the latter began constructing a road on the disputed territory.

The standoff ended on August 28 after the two sides decided to disengage their troops.

The SSB is also planning to put a laser fencing system at certain points along India's border with Nepal and Bhutan to keep a watch and prevent infiltration and smuggling in the region.

"The areas where keeping a watch physically and doing surveillance is difficult, we take help of technologies; laser is one of the technologies. There are two pilot projects that are going to run," Mishra told ANI.

The laser fence will reportedly be installed at one location each along Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bhutan boundaries.

However, this project is in initial phase and authorities are testing if such places can be fenced by using such a technology.

"We are in contact with the DRDO, they had shown a demo in their location but it is not installed yet," he added.

The SSB is also planning to raise fencing on a patch of India-Bhutan border to stop human trafficking.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Uttar Pradesh Police have arrested a woman from Moradabad, accused of running away with the belongings of men, intending to marry her - on the first day of their 'marriage'.

Her con gang included her master mind husband, who would make all the wedding arrangements and search for new targets as well as plan to co-ordinate.

The accused would first wed the victim grooms and then rob them off their valuables like jewellery and cash.

The con bride took the idea to become rich from Bollywood movie 'Dolly Ki Dolly' featuring actress Sonam Kapoor.

A native of Uttarakhand's Dehradun, Preeti has duped at least 12 men till now.

Meanwhile, Superintendent of Police (SP) Uday Shankar said, "We had been searching for her from past few days. Many people refused to file any complaint due to their respect in the society. The police have arrested Preeti and her husband. We are also looking for other people of her gang.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The United States Senate on Wednesday approved the largest overhaul of the U.S. tax code in more than three decades.

The Republican tax-cut bill was passed along party lines, 51-48 with minor changes so that it would comply with Senate budget rules.

Earlier, the House of Representatives passed the bill by a 227-203 vote, making good on the Republican Party's promise to enact tax relief by the end of the year.

The bill now needs to be approved by the House once again as technical changes were made to it in the Senate, before being signed into law by Trump.

According to the Hill, the bill would temporarily lower rates for individuals and families. It would also reduce tax breaks important to states and cities with higher taxes by placing a $10,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction.

US Vice President Mike Pence delayed his visit to Egypt and Israel until next month to ensure Senate passage of the GOP tax bill.

Earlier, he was scheduled to leave on Tuesday for the two-nation visit.

"The largest tax cut in American history is a landmark accomplishment for President Trump and a relief to millions of hardworking Americans," Pence press secretary Alyssa Farah said in a statement.

U.S. President Donald Trump also hailed the passing of the GOP tax cut bill.

"The United States Senate just passed the biggest in history Tax Cut and Reform Bill. Terrible Individual Mandate (ObamaCare)Repealed. Goes to the House tomorrow morning for final vote. If approved, there will be a News Conference at The White House at approximately 1:00 P.M," Trump tweeted.

Earlier in November, the House passed a bill to cut taxes on businesses and individuals as part of the Republicans effort to overhaul the American tax system.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With Congress president Rahul Gandhi facing criticism from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for watching a movie after his party lost two key assembly elections, the Samajwadi Party on Wednesday asked the "narrow minded" party to rise above such "mentality" that pertains to one's personal life.

"Why is BJP so narrow minded? Why are they pertaining to one's personal life? Now if someone had their 'suhaag-raat' (Wedding night) that day, they will say as to why is that person having his wedding night. This is very low of them. It would be better for them if they come out of this kind of mentality," SP leader Naresh Agarwal told ANI.

Just a day after the defeat in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections, the results of which were declared on Monday, the new Congress president was haunted by questions over his commitment towards as he was spotted watching latest Hollywood film Star Wars in New Delhi's PVR Chanakya movie theatre.

Gandhi is yet to visit Gujarat to review the party's performance to analyse in detail why Congress failed to dislodge the BJP from the state, which has ruled the state for 22 long years.

BJP leaders also attacked Rahul Gandhi for exhibiting such non-serious attitude, raising doubts on his ability to lead a party.

However, Congress spokesperson Randeep S Surjewala defended party chief on Twitter by saying that he is just like 'every other Indian'.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
On 19 December 2017

Bharat Financial Inclusion announced that the Competition Commission of India has, vide its letter dated 19 December 2017 intimated that CCI on 19 December 2017, considered the proposed amalgamation of Bharat Financial Inclusion with IndusInd Bank and approved the same under sub-section (1) of Section 31 of the Competition Act, 2002. The order of CCI in this regard is awaited.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Floor price is Rs 805 per share

Canara Bank has proposed to sell 4,00,000 equity shares of face value Rs. 10/- each of National Securities Depositories (NSDL) which is 1% of the total paid up equity share capital of the company. Accordingly, Bank has floated RFQ for subscription to the aforesaid equity shares.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Corporation Bank rose 1.16% to Rs 39.35 at 9:41 IST on BSE after the bank said that its board will meet on 22 December 2017, to consider raising of capital by the bank.

The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 19 December 2017.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 26.19 points, or 0.08% to 33,810.55.

On the BSE, 5,419 shares were traded in the counter so far, compared with average daily volumes of 29,000 shares in the past two weeks. The stock had hit a high of Rs 39.85 and a low of Rs 39 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 64.70 on 5 May 2017. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 38.05 on 24 October 2017.

Corporation Bank reported net loss of Rs 1035.20 crore in Q2 September 2017 compared with net profit of Rs 206.28 crore in Q2 September 2016. Total income fell 7.1% to Rs 5344.59 crore in Q2 September 2017 over Q2 September 2016.

Government of India holds 70.76% stake in the bank (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.)
Key indices settled with small losses after a rangebound and lackluster session of trade as profit booking emerged after market hit record high. Weakness in global stocks weighed on sentiment. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, fell 48.90 points or 0.14% at 33,787.84, as per the provisional closing basis. The Nifty 50 index dropped 17.85 points or 0.17% at 10,445.35, as per the provisional closing basis.

The movement of indices was restricted within a small range around the flat line throughout the session. Realty stocks jumped. Auto and bank stocks dropped. Indices snapped four-day winning streak today, 20 December 2017.

The market swung between gains and losses near the flat line in early trade. The Sensex and Nifty, both, hit record high at the onset of the session. Stocks soon slipped into the red and traded with small losses in morning trade. Indices turned positive in mid-morning trade and traded with small gains till mid-afternoon trade. Stocks once again slipped into the red in late trade.

The Sensex gained 119.57 points or 0.35% at the day's high of 33,956.31 in early trade, its record high. The index fell 81.80 points or 0.24% at the day's low of 33,754.94 in late trade. The Nifty gained 31.25 points or 0.3% at the day's high of 10,494.45 in early trade, its record high. The index dropped 26.05 points or 0.24% at the day's low of 10,437.15 in late trade.

Among secondary indices, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index provisionally rose 0.36%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index provisionally gained 0.79%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On the BSE, 1588 shares rose and 1,125 shares fell. A total of 174 shares were unchanged.

Realty stocks extended recent gains. DLF (up 4.55%), D B Realty (up 5.04%), Sobha (up 0.9%), Indiabulls Real Estate (up 6.07%), Unitech (up 5.79%), NBCC (up 0.36%), Housing Development & Infrastructure (HDIL) (up 5.27%), and Oberoi Realty (up 0.41%) edged higher. Godrej Properties declined 0.31%.

Bank of India fell 3.92% after the bank said that the Reserve Bank of India has placed the bank under prompt corrective action framework. The announcement was made during trading hours today, 20 December 2017.

The Reserve Bank of India vide their letter dated 19 December 2017, has placed Bank of India under Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework, consequent to the onsite inspection under the risk based supervision model carried out for year ended March 2017, and the report issued thereof. This is in view of high net non-performing assets (NPA), insufficient common equity Tier 1 (CET1) capital and negative return on assets (RoA) for two consequent years. This action will contribute to the overall improvement in risk management, asset quality, profitability, efficiency, etc of the bank.

Amara Raja Batteries rose 3.43% after the company said it commissioned two-wheeler battery plant in Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh. The announcement was made during trading hours today, 20 December 2017.

Amara Raja Batteries said that the first phase of the plant which was commissioned will have a capacity of 5 million units. The plant will have an ultimate capacity of 17 million units with an estimated investment of Rs 700 crore taking the total capacity for two-wheeler batteries to 29 million units. The plant will employ 1,300 people at full capacity.

Meanwhile, the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2017 which seeks to bring about major changes in the Companies Act, 2013, was passed by the Rajya Sabha yesterday, 19 December 2017 by a voice vote. The bill, which was adopted by the Lok Sabha in July, will now have to receive the assent of the President to become law. The amendment seeks to strengthen corporate governance standards, initiate strict action against defaulting companies and help improve ease of doing business in the country.

Overseas, European and Asian stocks dropped even as Senate passed Republican tax bill in 51-48 vote sending the tax cut package back to the House of Representatives for a final vote later in the day.

US stocks ended with modest losses yesterday, 19 December 2017, pulling back from all-time highs. Stocks remained lower as the House of Representatives, as expected, passed tax legislation that would slash corporate rates but will have to vote again today because the current draft doesn't comply with Senate rules.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Key indices were trading with small gains after turning positive in mid-morning trade. At 11:20 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, rose 40.68 points or 0.12% at 33,877.42. The Nifty 50 index gained 14.55 points or 0.14% at 10,477.75.

The market swung between gains and losses near the flat line in early trade. The Sensex and Nifty, both, hit record high at the onset of the session. Stocks slipped into the red and were trading with small losses in morning trade. Indices turned positive in mid-morning trade.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.59%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 1.02%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The broad market depicted strength. There were more than two gainers for every loser on BSE. 1,610 shares rose and 746 shares fell. A total of 148 shares were unchanged.

Cement stocks dropped as Coal India said that its board has introduced evacuation facility charges at Rs 50 per tonne for dispatch of coal on all dispatches except dispatch through rapid loading arrangement. Shree Cement (down 0.12%), Ambuja Cements (down 0.52%), and UltraTech Cement (down 0.02%) declined. ACC rose 0.02%.

Grasim Industries declined 0.61%. Grasim has exposure to the cement sector through its holding in UltraTech Cement.

Telecom stocks were mixed. Reliance Communications (up 3.37%) and MTNL (up 11.63%) gained. Bharti Airtel (down 0.63%), Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (down 2.81%) and Idea Cellular (down 0.81%) declined.

Shares of Bharti Infratel rose 0.41%. Bharti Infratel is a provider of tower and related infrastructure and is a unit of Bharti Airtel.

HDFC Bank declined 0.11%. The bank said that the board of directors of the bank, at a meeting held today, 20 December, 2017, have approved raising of funds aggregating up to Rs 24000 crore. The announcement was made during market hours today, 20 December 2017.

Out of which, the amount of Rs 8500 crore shall be raised through equity issue on a preferential basis to HDFC, the promoter of the bank. The balance shall be raised through issuance of equity shares/convertible securities/depository receipts.

Dewan Housing Finance Corporation rose 1.88% after the company said that it proposes to issue secured redeemable non-convertible debentures amounting to Rs 75 crore, including a greenshoe option of upto Rs 300 crore on private placement basis.

The issue will open on 22 December 2017 and close on the same day. The tenure of the instrument is 1151 days. The instrument offers coupon of 7.97% per annum compounded annually, payable on maturity. The rating agency CARE has put a rating of AAA to the said issue. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 19 December 2017.

Overseas, Asian stocks were mixed with investors awaiting the final votes on US tax-cut legislation. US stocks ended with modest losses yesterday, 19 December 2017, pulling back from all-time highs. Stocks remained lower as the House of Representatives, as expected, passed tax legislation that would slash corporate rates but will have to vote again today because the current draft doesn't comply with Senate rules.

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 stock market continued to trade with small gains in afternoon trade. At 13:15 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, rose 46.27 points or 0.14% at 33,883.01. The Nifty 50 index gained 12.65 points or 0.12% at 10,475.85. The movement of indices was restricted within a small range around the flat line so far.

The market swung between gains and losses near the flat line in early trade. The Sensex and Nifty, both, hit record high at the onset of the session. Stocks soon slipped into the red and traded with small losses in morning trade. Indices turned positive in mid-morning trade and traded with small gains so far.

Among secondary indices, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.47%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 1%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On the BSE, 1,652 shares rose and 893 shares fell. A total of 174 shares were unchanged.

IT stocks were mixed. Wipro (up 0.79%), Infosys (up 0.74%) and HCL Technologies (up 0.29%) gained. Persistent Systems (down 0.69%), Tech Mahindra (down 0.32%) and TCS (down 0.26%) dropped.

Metal and mining stocks nudged higher. National Aluminium Company (up 4.39%), Jindal Steel & Power (up 3.81%), Steel Authority of India (up 1.98%), Hindalco Industries (up 1.87%), Hindustan Zinc (up 0.61%), Hindustan Copper (up 0.49%), JSW Steel (up 0.53%) and Vedanta (up 0.17%) gained. Tata Steel (down 1.06%) and NMDC (down 0.26%) edged lower.

Strides Shasun rose 2.7% at Rs 816.75 after the company said that its wholly owned Singapore subsidiary has entered into definitive agreements with Trinity Pharma, South Africa (Trinity) for acquisition of controlling stake in Trinity. Under the terms of the agreement, Strides Pharma Asia, Singapore will acquire 55% stake in Trinity for a cash consideration of South African Rand 55 million (approximately Rs 27.50 crore).

The current management will stay as minority partner and will continue to run the business under the supervision of Strides. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions including approval from the South African regulatory authority, Transaction Regulation Panel and expected to close on or before 5 January 2018. The announcement was made during trading hours today, 20 December 2017.

Meanwhile, the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2017 which seeks to bring about major changes in the Companies Act, 2013, was passed by the Rajya Sabha yesterday, 19 December 2017 by a voice vote. The bill, which was adopted by the Lok Sabha in July, will now have to receive the assent of the President to become law. The amendment seeks to strengthen corporate governance standards, initiate strict action against defaulting companies and help improve ease of doing business in the country.

Overseas, Asian stocks dropped after Senate passed Republican tax bill in 51-48 vote sending the tax cut package back to the House of Representatives for a final vote later in the day.

US stocks ended with modest losses yesterday, 19 December 2017, pulling back from all-time highs. Stocks remained lower as the House of Representatives, as expected, passed tax legislation that would slash corporate rates but will have to vote again today because the current draft doesn't comply with Senate rules.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Key indices traded slightly higher in mid-afternoon trade. At 14:20 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, rose 26.53 points or 0.08% at 33,863.27. The Nifty 50 index gained 9.15 points or 0.09% at 10,472.35. The movement of indices was restricted within a small range around the flat line so far.

The market swung between gains and losses near the flat line in early trade. The Sensex and Nifty, both, hit record high at the onset of the session. Stocks soon slipped into the red and traded with small losses in morning trade. Indices turned positive in mid-morning trade and traded with small gains so far.

Among secondary indices, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.52%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.99%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On the BSE, 1,644 shares rose and 963 shares fell. A total of 178 shares were unchanged.

FMCG stocks were mixed. Tata Global Beverages (up 0.63%), Nestle India (up 0.86%), Marico (up 2.24%), Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Health Care (up 0.36%), Hindustan Unilever (HUL) (up 0.76%), Dabur India (up 0.3%), Colgate Palmolive India (up 1.61%), and Bajaj Corp (up 0.41%) gained. Britannia Industries (down 0.35%), Jyothy Laboratories (down 0.13%), GlaxoSmithkline Consumer Healthcare (down 0.36%), and Godrej Consumer Products (down 0.83%) declined.

Shares of most power generation and power distribution companies gained. Torrent Power (up 1.52%), Adani Power (up 0.71%), Reliance Infrastructure (up 0.98%) and Reliance Power (up 2.03%) gained. Tata Power Company (down 0.01%), Power Grid Corporation of India (down 0.67%), NTPC (down 0.44%) and NHPC (down 0.18%) declined.

Coal India rose 0.9% after the company said that its board has introduced evacuation facility charges at Rs 50 per tonne for dispatch of coal on all dispatches except dispatch through rapid loading arrangement. It will come into force with immediate effect. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 19 December 2017.

As a result, the company would be generating around an additional revenue of Rs 2500 crore for the full year and around Rs 800 crore for the balance period of FY 2018.

Meanwhile, the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2017 which seeks to bring about major changes in the Companies Act, 2013, was passed by the Rajya Sabha yesterday, 19 December 2017 by a voice vote. The bill, which was adopted by the Lok Sabha in July, will now have to receive the assent of the President to become law. The amendment seeks to strengthen corporate governance standards, initiate strict action against defaulting companies and help improve ease of doing business in the country.

Overseas, European and Asian stocks dropped after Senate passed Republican tax bill in 51-48 vote sending the tax cut package back to the House of Representatives for a final vote later in the day.

US stocks ended with modest losses yesterday, 19 December 2017, pulling back from all-time highs. Stocks remained lower as the House of Representatives, as expected, passed tax legislation that would slash corporate rates but will have to vote again today because the current draft doesn't comply with Senate rules.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Key indices slipped into the red and were trading with small losses in morning trade as investors booked profits after market scaled record high. At 10:20 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, fell 14.79 points or 0.04% at 33,821.95. The Nifty 50 index dropped 3.20 points or 0.03% at 10,460.

The market swung between gains and losses near the flat line in early trade. The Sensex and Nifty, both, hit record high at the onset of the session. Stocks slipped into the red and were trading with small losses in morning trade.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.33%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 0.72%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong. On the BSE, 1,388 shares rose and 709 shares fell. A total of 118 shares were unchanged.

Coal India rose 0.95% after the company said that its board has introduced evacuation facility charges at Rs 50 per tonne for dispatch of coal on all dispatches except dispatch through rapid loading arrangement. It will come into force with immediate effect. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 19 December 2017.

As a result, the company would be generating around an additional revenue of Rs 2500 crore for the full year and around Rs 800 crore for the balance period of FY 2018.

Realty stocks extended recent gains. DLF (up 1.54%), D B Realty (up 1.3%), Sobha (up 1.37%), Indiabulls Real Estate (up 3.79%), Unitech (up 0.74%), NBCC (up 1.13%), Godrej Properties (up 0.54%), Housing Development & Infrastructure (HDIL) (up 2.54%), and Oberoi Realty (up 0.47%) edged higher.

Auto stocks also advanced. Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) (up 0.49%), Ashok Leyland (up 0.72%), Maruti Suzuki India (up 1.52%), Eicher Motors (up 0.4%), Bajaj Auto (up 0.43%), Hero MotoCorp (up 1.37%), Tata Motors (up 0.86%) and TVS Motor Company (up 0.22%) gained.

Somany Ceramics rose 2.62% after the central bank withdrew restrictions placed on the purchase of shares of the company by non-resident Indians under portfolio investment scheme. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 19 December 2017.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) yesterday, 19 December 2017, notified that the aggregate foreign share holding by non-resident Indians (NRIs) under portfolio investment scheme in Somany Ceramics have gone below the prescribed threshold limit stipulated under the extant FDI Policy and FEMA regulations. Hence, the restrictions placed on the purchase of shares of the above company are withdrawn with immediate effect.

Corporation Bank gained 1.03% after the bank said that its board will meet on 22 December 2017, to consider raising of capital by the bank. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 19 December 2017.

Overseas, Asian stocks were mixed with investors awaiting the final votes on US tax-cut legislation. US stocks ended with modest losses yesterday, 19 December 2017, pulling back from all-time highs. Stocks remained lower as the House of Representatives, as expected, passed tax legislation that would slash corporate rates but will have to vote again today because the current draft doesn't comply with Senate rules.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
New Zealand defeated the West Indies by five wickets in the first One-Day International (ODI) match, taking a 1-0 lead in the three-match series here on Wednesday.

Put in to bat, the Windies scored 248/9. In reply, New Zealand overhauled the target with four overs remaining. George Worker (57), Colin Munro (49) and Ross Taylor (49 not out) were the major contributors to New Zealand's cause.

For the West Indies, opener Evin Lewis (76) and middle-order batsmen Rovman Powell (59) contributed handsomely.

Chasing 249, opener Worker and Munro got off to a flying start as the pair forged a 108-run stand before Kesrick Williams dismissed Munro.

After adding a few more runs, Worker was also dismissed by Ashley Nurse.

But then, skipper Kane Williamson (38) and Taylor played sensibly and helped their team to get past the 170-run mark.

In the 32nd over, the skipper was sent packing by Jason Holder. At that time it was too late for the West Indies as New Zealand were almost close to the target.

Todd Astle (15), who was playing with Taylor, completed the proceeding and helped their team to take the crucial lead.

Brief scores: West Indies 348/9 (Evin Lewis 76; Doug Bracewell 4/55) against New Zealand (249/5 George Worker 57, Ross Taylor 49 not out; Jason Holder 2/52)

--IANS

gau/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday slammed Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal for a stay order on the Delhi government's decision to cancel the licence of Max Hospital here for declaring a live newborn baby dead.

On December 8, the Delhi government had cancelled the Shalimar Bagh-based 250-bedded hospital's licence after its doctors on November 30 declared the baby dead.

On Wednesday, the hospital said operations were resumed after the Court of Finance Commissioner on Tuesday put on hold the December 8 order.

AAP leader Dilip Pandey said the court has given the Lieutenant Governor all administrative powers of Delhi and he should be accountable.

The leader also said that the party doubted whether the appellate authority who stayed their government's decision "worked for the people or for crony capitalists".

Meanwhile an official statement from Baijal's office distanced itself from the decision.

"The matter with respect to Max Hospital licence is not before the LG. It is before the Court of Financial Commissioner. It is also clarified that no Max officials have met the LG or any officer of Raj Niwas," it said.

--IANS

nkh/ksk/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The upcoming Salman Khan starrer mega-budget film "Tiger Zinda Hai" has run into a political controversy barely two days ahead of its scheduled December 22 release.

While the Maharashtra Navnirman Chitrapat Sena (MNCS) has warned cinema owners against booking all shows for Tiger Zinda Hai and denying slots to two Marathi films, other parties like the Congress and the Shiv Sena also joined the controversy with their own party lines.

MNCS President Amey Khopkar told the media that the screening of the movie should not be at the cost of the Marathi films, "Deva" and "Gachhi", which must be allotted suitable prime time slots.

"We are not against the release of any film, including Tiger Zinda Hai, our objection is why should all the slots be reserved for just one film and all others have no slots to exhibit their films," Khopkar said.

On Tuesday, the MNCS shot off letters to all cinemas, demanding proper prime-time slots for the Marathi films, failing which it would agitate against the Salman Khan film.

Mumbai Congress President Sanjay Nirupam has come out in favour of "Tiger Zinda Hai", but a party legislator Nitesh Rane has espoused the cause of the Marathi film industry, while the Shiv Sena has also toed a pro-Marathi line in this matter.

Terming the plight of Marathi film-makers "comparable to hawkers", Sena MP Sanjay Raut demanded that they should be given equal treatment in releasing their films.

However, theatre owners are in a quandary since Tiger Zinda Hai is the first mega-budget film after several months, and probably the last this calendar year, after protests and threats pushed back the release of the much-anticipated Sanjay Leela Bhansali film "Padmavati" to 2018.

Khopkar said the MNCS, part of the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), would not tolerate "the monopolising of theatres by Yashraj Films in this manner".

"They should not forget that they do all their film shootings in Maharashtra. If this matter is not resolved amicably, we shall be forced to stop even their shoots," Khopkar warned.

He termed it as tragic that Marathi film-makers "have to beg" for screens in their home state because big film companies book all cinema halls in advance for exhibiting their films.

According to MNCS activists, nearly 95 per cent of all shows in all theatres in the state have been blocked for "Tiger Zinda Hai" for its Friday release, leaving others with unviable options like early morning or late night shows which are poorly patronised.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that Yashraj Films has stipulated all theatres to have at least five shows of "Tiger Zinda Hai", hoping to lure cinema buffs and Salman Khan fans in the Christmas holiday season.

--IANS

qn/nir/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Arunachal Pradesh Governor B.D. Mishra on Wednesday briefed Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat on the security environment along the international border in the state.

Mishra, a retired Brigadier of the Indian Army, briefed Sitharaman on the border security environment and the high morale of the soldiers deployed in the border areas of the state.

Arunachal has a long international border with Bhutan in the west (160 Km), China in the north (1,080 Km) and Myanmar in the east (440 Km).

The Governor also apprised the Defence Minister of the coordination interaction which he had with the GOC 3 Corps and GOC 4 Corps and the Formation Commanders, whose troops are deployed along the India-China border in Arunachal Pradesh.

On the initiative of the Governor, the central government has decided that eight villages, which have been identified by the army in the forward most segment of the international border, will be developed into self-sustaining units with proper living amenities for the people living in those villages.

The Governor suggested the Defence Minister for early start of work for the Sainik schools in the state. It was decided that the foundation stone of the Sainik schools would be laid as early as possible and construction work must commence latest by February 2018.

Sitharaman appreciated the Indian soldier's good work and welfare activities, which they are rendering to the civil population in border areas.

During the meeting, it was resolved that more welfare schemes will be introduced for the civilians by the Indian Army in coming months.

Earlier in the day, Mishra also met the Indian Army chief General Rawat at the Army Headquarters here and discussed the ensuing army recruitment drive in Arunachal Pradesh.

--IANS

rrk/nir/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least 136 civilians and non-combatants have been killed in air strikes led by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen since December 6, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Tuesday.

"We are deeply concerned at the recent surge in civilian casualties in Yemen as a result of intensified air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition, following the killing of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sana'a on December 4," Xinhua quoted Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the UN rights office, as saying.

The Saudi-led coalition carried out seven air strikes on December 13 that struck a military police compound in the Shaub district of Sana'a and damaged a prison building and the prison yard, killing at least 45 people and injuring 53.

All the victims were said to belong to the Resistance Forces loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, said Colvillle.

At the same briefing, the UN Children's Fund UNICEF said fuel was running out in water pumping stations serving more than three million people, half of them children.

--IANS

sku/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A city college student has been arrested for allegedly running a social media page that regularly posted obscene memes about celebrities and statesmen, police said.

"Manimoy Aich, a third-year student of a south Kolkata college, was arrested on Tuesday night for maintaining a Facebook page named 'Specified Tarkata' that uploaded several obscene and vulgar memes about celebrities and statesmen," Kolkata Police said on its Facebook page.

"The youth from West Bengal's Midnapore district was arrested from a mess in south Kolkata's Garia. His cell phone and pen drive have been seized," the post said.

The alleged Facebook page faced widespread criticism from the users after it posted a vulgar meme of Indian freedom struggle hero Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose a few days ago. There were also distasteful troll messages and memes on Nobel awardee Rabindranath Tagore and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the page.

An online petition was started by some users for a ban on the page for posting objectionable contents at regular intervals.

Police said they received numerous complaints about the page and used their cyber cell to locate Aich, who was the page's administrator.

--IANS

mgr/ssp/ahm/tsb

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Cardinal Bernard Law, a former US archbishop who became a symbol of the Roman Catholic Church's systematic protection of paedophile priests due of his failure to stop abuse in Boston city, has died. He was 86.

The Vatican announced that Law died early on Wednesday in Rome after being ill and hospitalised.

At the height of his career, Law was one of the most powerful American leaders of the church and was beloved by the conservative Pope, John Paul II, under whom he served.

But he became the public face of the church's clerical abuse scandal in 2002 when the Boston Globe's Spotlight investigative reporting team found that Law had repeatedly moved abusive priests from parish to parish when he became aware that they were molesting children.

Law at first refused to be drawn into the scandal. But the Globe's reporting overwhelmed the church and he was forced to resign.

He sought forgiveness but never faced criminal charges in the US for his repeated failure to protect children in Boston who were subjected to abuse.

"To all those who have suffered from my shortcomings and mistakes, I both apologise and from them beg forgiveness," Law said when he stepped down in December 2002.

The Spotlight team's uncovering of widespread child abuse by the Catholic clergy in the Boston Archdiocese won a Pulitzer prize.

The dramatization of the team's investigation, a 2015 movie also called "Spotlight", won the 2016 Best Picture Academy Award.

The scandal reverberated through the church, exposing similar allegations worldwide that compromised its moral authority and led to years of multimillion-dollar settlements.

The Vatican outraged victims of abuse and several activists when it decided to pluck Law out of his archdiocese and bring him to Rome, where he enjoyed his retirement and could be seen at functions and parties.

In 2004, he was appointed archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major, one of four principal basilicas in Rome. When John Paul died the next year, Law was among bishops who presided at a memorial mass for the pontiff in St. Peter's Basilica.

His second career at the Vatican further undermined the church's legitimacy.

Since 1950, over 6,500 American priests have been accused of abusing children. The US church has paid more than $3 billion in settlements to victims, according to studies commissioned by US bishops.

The church continues to face intense criticism under new Pope Francis.

This year, Cardinal George Pell, who served as the secretariat of the economy, the third most senior position in the Vatican hierarchy, was charged with sexual abuse in his native Australia on charges that date back decades.

He became the most senior member of the clergy to face criminal allegations. Pell, who has denied the charges, has taken leave from his position while he defends himself in court.

In 2013, Pope Francis created a commission to help the church tackle abuse.

--IANS

soni/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday asked why Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not approach security agencies if he felt that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was hatching a conspiracy against him with Pakistan's support.

Talking to reporters after the Congress walked out of the Lok Sabha, Kharge said if Modi believed that Manmohan Singh was part of a conspiracy, he should have taken the help of the intelligence agencies, filed an FIR and got Manmohan Singh arrested.

"By taking the matter to public, you have breached the oath of secrecy," he said.

Kharge said it was wrong on the part of Modi to cast aspersions on the patriotism of a former Prime Minister.

Asked if the Congress, which has been protesting in both the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha on the issue, wanted an apology from Modi, he said: "Let him come to the House and explain it first."

Modi, during the Gujarat poll campaign, claimed that at a dinner meeting at Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar's residence, Manmohan Singh and other guests discussed the Gujarat election Pakistani diplomats.

--IANS

ao/nir/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The United States Congress passed a mammoth tax reform bill on Wednesday giving embattled President Donald Trump his first major legislative victory enabling him to redeem at least one of his election campaign promises in a year of political turmoil.

In the highly polarised political atmosphere, the tax overhaul did not get a single vote from the Democratic Party, which has denounced it as a give away to corporations and the rich at the expense of the poor.

The bill will now go to Trump for his signature to become law.

The highlight of the tax reform is cutting the corporate tax to 21 per cent from 35 per cent, which Trump and the Republicans say would stimulate the economy through more investments.

The legislative victory is a breath of fresh air for Trump, who had so far not been able to fulfill his campaign promises, which include a wall to prevent illegal immigration through Mexico.

Trump is also under pressure from an investigation into Russia's alleged interference in last year's election that brought him to power.

He called the passage of the bill "a historic victory for the American people" and "an incredible Christmas gift for hardworking Americans."

However, Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democratic Party member of the House of Representatives, criticised it as "a bad deal for working families and our country" that "will squeeze middle class families."

After weeks of bargaining among Republican Party members of the Congress, the bill was passed on Wednesday night in the Senate and by a second vote for procedural reasons in the House Representative on Thursday with no input from the Democratic Party legislators.

It would also cut income taxes for most people, although the reductions would end in 2025, at which time it could be renewed.

The bill also simplifies some aspects of tax filing, although it does not fulfill the promise of simplifying it to the extent that the tax form would shrink to the size of a postcard.

The bill also gives Trump and the Republicans a partial victory on their promise to repeal the health insurance programmed introduced by former President Barack Obama. It ends a provision that penalises those who do not have insurance coverage, which is expected to lead to higher health insurance premiums when healthy people opt out.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)

--IANS

al/sku/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Greek parliament have ratified the 2018 state budget as the government appeared confident that it will be the last one tabled while the country was under a bailout programme.

The budget was approved on Tuesday evening with the backing of the 153 deputies of the two-partite Left-led ruling coalition, while 144 MPs voted against, reports Xinhua news agency.

A total of 297 lawmakers participated in the roll-call vote.

It projects 2.5 per cent GDP (gross domestic product) growth next year up from 1.6 per cent for this year and a 3.8 per cent of GDP primary surplus for 2018 up from 2.4 per cent forecast for 2017.

Both estimates are higher than the targets set by the current three-year bailout programme which expires in 2018.

Addressing the plenary shortly before the roll call vote, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras argued that the 2018 budget heralds the post-bailout era and Greece's return to normalcy.

"The country will honour the commitments it has made towards its creditors and will achieve a stable and lasting access to the international markets at favourable rates," he said.

The debt-ridden country has been shut out by international markets since 2010, when it resorted to the first bailout to avoid disorderly default.

--IANS

ksk

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Various security agencies will hold on Thursday a mega mock drill across Haryana on how to conduct rescue operations after an earthquake but motorists should be ready to face traffic jams as usual on the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway.

The exercise would help assess the preparedness of each district in the state to handle disaster management, officials said on Wednesday.

"The aim is to analyse how prepared we are to deal with a calamity and whether we have enough resources for disaster management," Gurugram Deputy Commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh told the media. Police Commissioner Sandeep Khirwar was present at the event.

"As many as seven prominent sites in Gurugram district have been shortlisted as incident locations for the drill," Singh said.

Teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), National Security Guard (NSG), Central Reserved Police Force (CRPF) and several other departments will participate in the exercise that will start at 10 a.m.

All hospitals, including private ones, have been directed to immediately treat the 'injured' brought to hospitals, said Singh.

The sites in Gurugram chosen for the drill include MGF Mall on MG Road, Rail Vihar near Subhash Chowk, MDI Institute on Sector 17, Udyog Vihar, HUDA City Centre, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India in Manesar and the Mini Secretariat.

Police vans will blow sirens at these locations.

"An emergency operation centre will be set up at the Mini Secretariat. During the exercise, all the teams will be connected to the control room via wireless," Singh said.

Khirwal said authorities had made adequate arrangements to ensure smooth traffic across the city that borders Delhi.

"Considering the panic among people during such exercises, a stampede is expected. The teams will have to ensure that no mishap happens," he added.

Asked about the daily traffic jams at the toll plaza leading to Delhi, the officers remained silent.

The toll plaza officials said they were unaware of the planned exercise.

"We have not received any letter or order from the administration to remove the boom barriers during the drill. Our functioning will be the same as on other days," Kirpal Singh, an official of the company managing the toll booth, told IANS.

--IANS

pradeep/nir/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea of IndiGo against DIAL's decision to shift a part of its operations from Terminal 1 (T1) to the newly opened Terminal 2 (T2) of the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) here.

Justice A.K. Chawla, however, extended till February 15, 2018 the deadline to shift the operation to the new terminal.

IndiGo, India's biggest airline by market share, had approached the court challenging a Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) decision related to shifting a part of the airline's operations to a new terminal.

DIAL, which operates the airport here, had asked three airlines operating from T1 to shift a third of their flights to T2 to enable it to expand the terminal to meet growing passenger traffic.

Defending its decision, DIAL said T1 had exceeded its capacity and if airline operations were not shifted partially, it would lead to overcrowding.

DIAL had said safety and security of passengers was its primary responsibility and in case of fire or terror threat, an overcrowded airport would lead to serious consequences for which it alone would be answerable, not the airlines.

IndiGo contended that shifting partially from T1 to T2 would result in confusion and cause inconvenience to passengers. By this decision, IndiGo will be spread across three terminals as it operates international flights from Terminal 3 (T3).

Seeking quashing of DIAL's decision, IndiGo said the decision would strain its operations and proposed alternative solution of giving the entire T1 exclusively to it and shifting the other two carriers to T2.

The DIAL had directed IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir to relocate their operations in "parts" and split their operations by shifting flights to and from some sectors, namely Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru, to T2 with effect from January 4, 2018.

It also said that the capacity of the three airlines to and from the three sectors would amount to around eight million persons per annum and shifting those to T2 would considerably reduce the burden on T1.

--IANS

gt/pgh/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
HDFC Bank's Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based chatbot 'Eva' will now work with Google Assistant on millions of Android devices, the company announced on Wednesday.

'Eva' -- built for HDFC Bank by Bengaluru-based Senseforth AI Research -- claims to have answered more than five million user queries with more than 85 per cent accuracy.

"The Google Assistant rollout will make the bank's services accessible to even more customers right on their phones," Nitin Chugh, Country Head - Digital Banking, HDFC Bank, said in a statement.

Users can just say "Ok Google, talk to HDFC Bank" to their Google Assistant to interact with 'Eva'.

"Our AI-driven chatbots with text messaging and voice interactions will help bring millions of non tech-savvy customers into the fold of digital economy," added Ritesh Radhakrishnan , CTO and co-Founder, Senseforth.

'Eva' currently handles over 50,000 semantic variations for thousands of banking related intents, tracks and analyses everyday customer issues and gains a deeper understanding of their behaviour patterns

"We're excited that HDFC's aEva' chatbot now works with the Google Assistant, where millions will now have access to banking-related information," said Monisha Varadan, Strategic Partner Development Manager, Google.

--IANS

na/ksk

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The House of Representatives will have to re-vote on Wednesday on Republicans tax bill as the legislation is expected to pass both chambers in Congress.

Shortly after the US House of Representatives approved the final version of the Republican tax bill, a Senate parliamentarian ruled against three provision of the legislation, forcing the House to hold a second vote.

The bill passed along sharp partisan lines, 227 - 203, with 12 House Republican members opposing the it and no Democrats voting for it, CNN reported.

But shortly after debate started in the Senate, the House Majority Leader's office advised its conference to be prepared to vote on Wednesday citing Senate rules that would likely strip out certain parts of the final bill in order to pass with a simple majority.

After the bill clears the House again, it will then go to US President Donald Trump for his signature before the Christmas holiday.

Speaker Paul Ryan spoke from the floor and said that this vote on the tax bill was a "generational defining moment."

"This is without question the single most important thing we can do to once again make America the best place to do business," Ryan was quoted as saying.

The bill is the first overhaul of the US tax code in more than thirty years.

--IANS

sku/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan said that he does not feel like a 50-year-old man and is motivated to entertain his fans as the he completes 25 years in the film industry.

The actor, who was present at the Zee Cine Awards 2018 on Tuesday, received an award for completing 25 years in bollywood, which coincided with the silver jubilee celebration of the channel.

While receiving the award, Shah Rukh said, "Honestly, when I came to Mumbai, I thought of working here for two years and going back to Delhi. But then my films started doing well and in the blink of an eye, 25 years were over."

"Well, I am a 50-year-old man and in last 25 years, nothing has changed. My fans love me immensely, their support and interest to watch me in films have never changed. I do not feel my age. Rather I want to keep entertaining people for the rest of my life," he added.

Zee Cine Awards 2018 will be telecast on Zee TV on December 30.

---IANS

aru/sku/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Indian government on Wednesday said that it has entered into a "financing agreement" with World Bank for $125 million to fund a skill development programme.

According to the Ministry of Finance, the agreement for IDA (International Development Association) credit equvilant to $125 million was entered on Tuesday and will be utilised for the "Skills Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancement Operation (STRIVE) Project" which closes on November 30, 2022.

"The Objective of the operation is to improve access to quality and market-driven vocational training provided in it is and apprenticeships," the Ministry said.

"The result areas for the project include improved performance of Industrial Training Institutes; increased capacities of state governments to support industrial training institutes and apprenticeship training..."

--IANS

rv/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In the wake of the massive outflow of Rohingya refugees sparked by violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state, India and Myanmar on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the development of the state.

Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar signed the MoU on India's behalf in the presence Myanmar's Minister for Social Welfare Win Myat Aye, Indian Ambassador to Myanmar Vikram Misri tweeted.

According to Misri, the MoU is a government-to-government (G2G) agreement on long-term socio-economic development of Rakhine.

Following the signing of the MoU, Jaishankar called on Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi in Nay Pyi Taw.

Misri said that during the meeting, the discussions focused on delivering on commitments made during the bilateral summit between Suu Kyi and visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September. The commitments included a development package for Rakhine and extending the bilateral agenda.

Jaishankar's visit is of strategic importance after more than 650,000 Rohingyas fled to neighbouring Bangladesh since violence erupted in Rakhine late August.

The minority Rohingya community does not enjoy citizenship in Myanmar and is sparingly given refugee status in Bangladesh.

Human rights monitors have accused Myanmar's military of atrocities against the minority population during its clearance operations following Rohingya militants' August 25 attacks on multiple government posts.

Earlier this month, global humanitarian NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said that at least 6,700 Rohingyas were killed in the violence.

India has maintained that the issue should be handled in a humane manner, development activities should be initiated in Rakhine and conditions should be created for the safe and secure return of the refugees to their homes.

New Delhi has also sent relief material for the refugees in both Rakhine and Bangladesh.

Earlier on Wednesday, Jaishankar also held a meeting with Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar Security Forces Min Aung Hlaing.

--IANS

ab/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Rome, Dec 21 (IANS/AKI) Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano on Wednesday hailed the resumption of United Nations brokered peace talks in Geneva between the Syrian government and opposition.

"I greatly appreciate the efforts made by UN envoy Staffan De Mistura on Syria's behalf during the last round of negotiations in Geneva," Alfano said, referring to the eight round of talks that ended in Geneva last Thursday without a breakthrough.

"On the other hand, while I recognise the commitment and the pragmatic and constructive approach shown by the opposition, the continuing refusal by Damascus to commit to the talks by resorting to pretexts and setting preconditions is deplorable," he said.

The guideline for the eighth round of talks was the 2015 unanimously adopted UN Security Council Resolution 2254, which endorses a peace map for Syria with a focus on setting in motion a new constitutional process, governance, counter-terrorism, and freeing detainees as a confidence-building measure.

"A political solution to the Syrian conflict can only occur through the Geneva process under the auspices of the UN and in line with UNSC Resolution 2254," Alfano stressed.

In an apparent reference to Russian-sponsored Sochi peace process to be held in February, he said: "We hope that other possible international initiatives in support of the Syrian political process do not present themselves as alternatives to the Geneva framework."

"Doing so could risk prolonging Syria's civil war."

--IANS/AKI

vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Former Calcutta High Court judge Justice C.S. Karnan was released from prison on Wednesday after serving a six month term for contempt of the Supreme Court.

Wearing a suit and a blue tie, the retired judge came out of the Presidency Correctional Home (in Bengal, jails are called correctional homes) at around 10.30 a.m., escorted by the police and prison officials.

He was received by his wife Sarassati Karnan and elder son who had flown in to the city from Chennai on Tuesday evening.

Counsel Mathew J. Nedumpara said Karnan would stay in Kolkata for a few days.

"His physical condition is stable now. Karnan will stay in Kolkata for the next few days as he has some personal works pending. He will move to Chennai after that," Nedumpara told IANS.

The 62-year-old judge was handed out the prison term on May 9 by the apex judiciary.

A seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by then Chief Justice J.S. Khehar, had asked the West Bengal Director General of Police to take Karnan into custody.

After remaining untraceable for over a month, he was arrested on June 20 by the West Bengal CID officials from Coimbatore and brought to Kolkata the next evening.

He was the first sitting judge to be sentenced to prison.

Karnan retired on June 12.

--IANS

mgr-ssp/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.)
Kerala Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader M.P. Veerendra Kumar resigned from the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, days after rebel party leaders Sharad Yadav and Ali Anwar were disqualified from the Upper House.

Addressing reporters here, the 80-year-old who was also the JD-U state chairman, said he submitted his resignation to Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu.

"I resigned because as per the rules, I am a member of (Bihar Chief Minister) Nitish Kumar's party and I should sit with them. But now he has moved to follow the Sangh Parivar agenda and I just cannot accept that," the leader said.

"I know I got this seat last year when I was a part of the Socialist Janata Democratic (SJD) party in Kerala, which was part of the Congress led UDF. Later after my election, the SJD merged with the JD-U.

"But now with Nitish tagging along with Sangh Parivar forces and the BJP, I do not want to be a burden to the UDF by being tagged with Nitish Kumar. Also I checked with Election Commission and with Rajya Sabha and I found out that legally and technically, I will not be able to be a member outside of Nitish Kumar's party and hence I have quit," he added.

Nitish Kumar's decision to break away from the Grand Alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress in Bihar and align with the BJP-led NDA in July triggered a rebellion in the party.

JD-U's founder leader Sharad Yadav led the rebel faction to protest against Nitish Kumar's decision. He was disqualified from the Rajya Sabha along with Ali Anwar on December 4.

On his future course of action, Veerendra Kumar said that at the moment his main concern was that they have no party.

"I spoke to Sharad Yadav and he is also discussing and debating on the way forward and the need for a party. Once I am back in Kerala, I will sit down with my people and chalk out what needs to be done," he said.

The SJD was formed in 2009 when Veerendra Kumar along with his supporters broke away from the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) after he was denied his Kozhikode seat to contest the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.

--IANS

sg/ksk/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
RJD leaders Tejashwi Yadav, Tej Pratap Yadav and Misa Bharti on Wednesday attacked the Bihar government over rising crime and wondered why television channels were silent over the issue.

Opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav asked: "Dear patriotic and law-abiding channels, why are you not discussing and debating all-time high crime and corruption in Bihar?"

The former Deputy Chief Minister, a son of RJD leader Lalu Prasad, posted a tweet regarding the murder of a Home Guard in Siwan district on Tuesday.

Former Bihar Health Minister and Lalu's elder son Tej Pratap Yadav said the crime rate had soared like never before in Bihar, now ruled by the Janata Dal-United and the Bharatiya Janata Party.

"Every day there are reports of murder, rape, loot, extortion, abduction and Bihar is touching a record in crimes... Media, particularly TV channels, have deliberately decided to ignore (this)," he tweeted.

Lalu's elder daughter Misa Bharti, a Rajya Sabha member, too attacked the state government and targeted the media for not highlighting the spurt in crime.

"No one crying 'jungle raj', no prime time debates," she tweeted.

Lalu Prasad's family has been increasingly using Facebook and Twitter to target Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP.

--IANS

ik/mr/ksk

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Lok Sabha was on Wednesday adjourned till 2 p.m. as AIADMK and TDP members created ruckus in support of their demands.

However, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan conducted the Zero Hour amid the protests and "The Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2018" was introduced.

Soon after the House reassembled at noon after the first adjournment, the AIADMK and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) members trooped near the Speaker's podium and started sloganeering.

The AIADMK is protesting over the Cauvery water dispute while the TDP is demanding special status for Andhra Pradesh.

Mahajan requested the protesting members to return to their seats but they did not relent.

As she asked BJP MPs to table the papers for the legislative business, AIADMK member G. HariA threw some torn papers and a file in the air.

Amid the din, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad introduced the Aadhaar Bill which was opposed by Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy, Congress' Shashi Tharoor and Revolutionary Socialist Party leader N.K. Premchandran calling it a "violation of Supreme Court judgement".

"This is complete violation of the Supreme Court ruling. Why private agencies are being authorised to use Aadhaar for authentication?" Roy asked.

Expressing strong opposition against the bill, Tharoor said: "This bill enables private organisations to get Aadhaar details which is violation of Supreme Court judgement. The bill is immature in protecting the right of privacy. The bill must be withdrawn."

Saying the bill "fringes the right of privacy", Premchandran said: "Kindly see the definition of Aadhaar. The original Aadhaar definition has been changed... Since it is violation of Supreme Court judgement, I strongly oppose the bill."

Clarifying the importance of the bill, the Law Minister said: "It is not mandatory for all to give Aadhaar details for authentication or KYC... We are not violating the Supreme Court judgement."

The Speaker tried to conduct the legislative business but the agitating members continued their protest, forcing her to adjourned the House till 2 p.m.

Earlier, the House was adjourned till noon.

Soon after the House assembled for the day, Mahajan wished the House a happy New Year and started the Question Hour amid the din.

Mahajan expressed dissatisfaction over the behaviour of the members and called it "unruly".

"This is not done. Please go to your seats. Your problem will not get resolved like this. You should talk to the Minister and not protest like this. You are not sending a good message to your constituencies too. This unruly behaviour is not proper," she said.

As the din continued, Mahajan adjourned the House till noon during Question Hour.

--IANS

rak-bns/mr

(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.)
Mahan Air, Iran's private carrier, proposes to launch flights connecting Hyderabad to Tehran and Mashhad, which houses a prominent Shia shrine, Iran's Consul General here said on Wednesday.

Earlier, Aseman Airlines, another private carrier, was planning to launch flights connecting Hyderabad to the holy city of Mashhad.

However, this could not materialize due to some technical issues, said Iran's new Consul General in Hyderabad, Mohammed Haghbin Ghomi.

Under the new proposal, Mahan Air will operate the flight on Hyderabad-Tehran-Mashhad route. "This flight will be launched in the near future," he told reporters.

To begin with, this will be a weekly flight. Depending on demand, the frequency may be increased to thrice a week.

Hyderabad will become the first Indian city to be connected to Mashhad, the capital city of Khorasan province and famous for Ali Reza shrine. A large number of Shia Muslims travel to Mashhad for 'ziarat' (pilgrimage).

Hyderabad has a large population of Shia Muslims. The Iranian consulate here issues 5,000 to 6,000 visas every year and the visitors include pilgrims, businessmen and traders.

The flight will also make Hyderabad the first city in south India to be connected to Tehran.

Mahan Air currently operates four flights a week between Tehran and Delhi and two flights a week between Tehran and Mumbai.

--IANS

ms/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A survey participated in by 20,000 people has revealed that a majority of them were not comfortable linking their Aadhaar numbers with ecommerce sites and mobile wallets.

In the survey conducted by citizen engagement platform LocalCircles, 61 per cent said they would not be comfortable in linking their Aadhaar number with their eCommerce site accounts while 30 per cent said they were fine with it.

When asked if they would be comfortable in linking their Aadhaar number with their payment wallet accounts, 49 per cent said no, 33 per cent said yes, while 18 per cent were neutral.

The next question asked consumers if they have been approached to link their Aadhaar with their credit card, insurance policy or mutual fund account.

In response, 77 per cent said they have been approached while 18 per cent said no.

Citizens have expressed strong concerns about their Aadhaar data being leaked or hacked as a result of linking their Aadhaar with private operators, LocalCircles said in a statement.

A related poll asked citizens if there should be a financial penalty for banks, telecom providers or any other organizations that compromise their Aadhaar, bank or call transaction details, to which 94 per cent replied in an affirmative.

They said that in case of data leakage, the respective bank or telecom operator should be severely penalised to ensure that they keep the data security measure to the optimum levels.

--IANS

mg/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Maoists have attacked a railway station in Bihar, killing one person and abducting two to enforce their shutdown, police said on Wednesday.

Dozens of armed Maoists attacked the Masudan railway station on Jamalpur-Kieul rail section late on Tuesday night.

They killed a deputy village body head, torched cabin panel and abducted two railway employees to enforce a shutdown they had called on Wednesday

Train services on that stretch was stopped.

--IANS

ik/in/sar/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Maoist guerrillas on Wednesday damaged a mobile tower and set it on fire in Jharkhand's Giridih district even as security forces seized five IEDs in West Singhbhum district, police said.

Maoists -- who have called a 24-hour shutdown in Jharkhand and Bihar -- blasted the mobile tower of a private company at Mirzadih village and set it on fire.

The five improvised explosive devices -- each weighing 10 kg -- were seized from a jungle in West Singhbhum.

Meanwhile, peopled faced inconvenience on Wednesday as buses did not ply from the state capital Ranchi to various places in Jharkhand districts. Shops were closed in Khuti, Latehar, Simdega and other districts. Coal transportation was also hit.

Security forces have launched an operation against Maoists at Budha Pahad in Latehar district.

The rebels attacked the Masudan railway station on the Jamalpur-Kieul section in Bihar on Tuesday night, killing one person and abducting two officials, police said on Wednesday.

--IANS

ns/tsb/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Rabat, Dec 20 (IANS/MAP) Moroccan Minister of Energy, Mining and Sustainable Development and the head of the EU delegation in the country held talks to strengthen cooperation in the energy sector.

Morrocan Minister Aziz Rabbah and head of the EU delegation, Ambassador Claudia Wiedey, met on Tuesday.

During the meeting, Rabbah highlighted the major events undertaken by Morocco as part of its energy strategy in the context of climate change, coastal issues, air pollution and the circular economy, said a statement by the Ministry of Energy.

"Sustainable development, energy and mining need to be considered as part of an integrated approach in order to facilitate investment. These two sectors are important economic levers that should attract the interest of major donors," said the statement.

Rabbah also raised topics that could be the subject of future partnerships with the EU, particularly the exchange of experiences of EU member countries and associations, improvement of governance of energy project management, promotion of energy sector investments and upgrading of the electricity distribution network.

--IANS/MAP

soni/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday called for the immediate release of two journalists arrested in Myanmar two weeks ago for allegedly possessing leaked documents relating to police operations in Rakhine State.

Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, who work for Reuters, were arrested on December 12 in Yangon and face 14 years in jail if found guilty of violating official secrets legislation.

"Myanmar authorities should immediately release the two Reuters journalists whose detention appears aimed at stopping independent reporting of the ethnic cleansing campaign against the Rohingyas," said Brad Adams, Asia director of HRW.

"Their secret, incommunicado detention lays bare government efforts to silence reporting on critical issues," he added.

The two journalists have been accused of obtaining classified documents by deception from two policemen - also arrested and charged with similar crimes - who returned from Rakhine after carrying out security duties.

The HRW said authorities have not provided any information on the whereabouts of the arrested journalists and denied them access to counsel or family.

Over 650,000 Rohingyas have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh to escape the offensive that the Myanmar Army launched in August in response to a series of attacks on government posts by Rohingya rebels.

"The Myanmar government's increasing restrictions on the should not be taken lightly and concerned governments should encourage the government to stop targeting journalists," Adams said.

--IANS

ksk/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
North Korea on Wednesday rejected reports by some US media that Pyongyang is pushing forward her "biological weapons development programme" amid its development of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) capacities.

The Director of Press of the Institute for American Studies of North Korea Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that such accusation is another example of the US habit to pander fiction as "truth", Xinhua news agency reported.

"It is the US that conducts military aggressions and cruise missile attacks on sovereign states in broad daylight while faking 'possession of WMD' and 'use of chemical weapons' of those countries," said the statement.

It recollected when US troops openly used biological weapons during the Korean War and inflicted needless suffering on innocent civilians.

"They are also the American politicians and the white supremacists making conceived attempts for state terrorism and racial extinction through overt research and development of the biological weapons in the worldwide-scattered US laboratories," it said.

The US daily Washington Post said this month that US intelligence officials sent a report as early as 2006 to US Congress, warning secret work was underway on a biological weapon in Pyongyang. The report was widely relayed by other US media outlets.

--IANS

ahm/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
No Rohingya has been deported in the last three years while 330 Pakistan and 1,770 Bangladesh nationals were sent back to their native countries in the same period, Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju informed the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

In a written reply, the Minister, however, said it was not possible to have a correct estimate of migrants who enter the country without valid travel documents.

He said the central government is vested with powers to deport a foreign national under Section 3(2)(c) of the Foreigners Act, 1946.

"These powers to identify and deport foreign nationals illegally staying in the country have also been delegated to the state governments and union territory administrations and the Bureau of Immigration under the said Act.

"Detection and deportation of such illegal immigrants is a continuous process. A revised procedure for the detection and deportation of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants was communicated to the states and union territories in November 2009, which was partially modified in February 2011 and further modified in February 2013," Rijiju said.

The procedure includes sending back then and there the illegal immigrants who are intercepted at the borders while entering India illegally, the Minister said.

He said the central government was also implementing a mission-mode project on Immigration, Visa and Foreigners Registration and Tracking (IVFRT) which will facilitate improved tracking of foreigners by integrating and sharing information captured during visa issuance at missions, during checks at immigration check posts and during registration at the offices of the Foreigners Regional Registration Officers.

The Minister confirmed some instances of violation of law and involvement of foreign nationals in illegal activities.

He said that registration of cases and action thereon comes within the purview of the police stations and state governments and union territory administrations concerned, but he did not give data regarding the issue, saying that "statistical data of this nature is not centrally maintained".

Law enforcement agencies also maintain a strict vigil on the activities of foreigners in the country and take appropriate action in cases of illegal activities, Rijiju added.

--IANS

rak/tsb

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Indian Army's Northern Command chief, Lt Gen Devraj Anbu on Wednesday visited forward areas on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch and Rajouri districts, a defence statement said.

The statement by the Udhampur-headquartered Northern Command said that Anbu visited forward areas in Poonch and Naushera sectors, and reviewed security situation and operational preparedness.

He also commended all ranks for their dedication & professionalism, it added.

The Pakistani Army has been resorting to frequent ceasefire violations on the LoC this year, especially in these two districts.

--IANS

sq/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Accusing Pakistan of hatching a controversy with Rohingya "terror groups", Bangladesh minister and ruling Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader on Wednesday said India and Bangladesh should join hands in fighting the menace of terrorism which was the common enemy of both nations.

Quader, who holds the road transport and bridges portfolio in Bangaldesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's cabinet, praised her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi for his contribution in boosting Indo-Bangla bilateral relations.

Refering to the Teesta water sharing issue, he said Dhaka wanted a solution which was "logical, practical and acceptable to both countries".

Coming down heavily on Pakistan, the senior Bangladesh politician told reporters: "They (Pakistan) cannot stomach anything which is good for our country. Now they are hatching a conspiracy with the Rohingya terror elements".

Asked to elaborate on his conspiracy theory, Qader said his government has received reports of Pakistan's spy agency ISI plotting a conspiracy "with the terror groups among the Rohingya people".

He also criticised Pakistan for opposing the Bangladesh government whenever an attempt was made to punish the 1971 Liberation War criminals.

"Pakistan does not let go of any opportunity to pin-prick Bangladesh. They speak against the Bangladesh government whenever we try to punish our Liberation War criminals," he said.

Describing India as a time-tested friend, who stood by Bangladesh during its worst crises, Quader said Modi has played a crucial part in further boosting bilateral relations.

In this regard, Quader referred to how the process to sign the Land Boundary Agreement was sped up in 2015.

"The bilateral relations have now reached a new high. It is a constructive partnership," he said.

He said discussions were continuing on the Teesta issue. "During his visit to Dhaka (in 2015), Modi had assured our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, and this assurance has made our people hopeful. We are hoping for a logical, practical and acceptable solution to the Teesta issue."

On terrorism, he said, "India and Bangladesh should fight together against terrorism. It is a common enemy of both countries".

--IANS

ssp/sku/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pakistan's Sindh province has hiked the quota of females in the police force from 2 per cent to 5 per cent, it was announced on Wednesday.

The move came in pursuance of a 2015 decision by the Sindh Service Tribunal, which deals with matters relating to the terms and conditions of service of civil servants, Dawn reported.

According to the decision, a 5 per cent quota is to be reserved for female personnel in each rank.

This means the strength of female deputy superintendents would increase to 19, inspectors to 80 and sub-inspectors to 187.

The Sindh Police will also have 347 women assistant sub-inspectors, 579 head constables and 4,131 constables, the notification said.

The increase in female police officers will considerably boost the dismal overall figures for policewomen in Pakistan, put at 5,731 by the National Police Bureau earlier this year.

--IANS

ahm/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India and China will hold the annual meeting of their Special Representatives on their border row here on Friday, it was announced on Wednesday.

The External Affairs Ministry said that while National Security Advisor Ajit Doval will be India's Special Representative at the 20th Meeting of the Special Representatives, China will be represented by Yang Jiechi, State Councillor and a Communist Party Politburo member.

Indian and Chinese troops were locked in a face-off earlier this year in Doklam region near the India-China-Bhutan trijunction.

Earlier this month, the Doklam issue came up for discussion during a meeting between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi here.

The last Special Representatives' meeting was held in Beijing in April 2016. India and China dispute their winding border and went to war over it in 1962.

--IANS

ab/mr/ksk

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The government on Wednesday informed the Lok Sabha that it had so far infused a capital of Rs 51,858 crore in Public Sector Banks (PSBs) under its 'Indradhanush Plan' since 2015-16.

"The government allocated Rs 22,915 crore in 13 PSBs during FY 2016-17 under the first tranche of capital infusion, of which Rs 16,414 (75 per cent) was infused upfront and the remaining was to be infused based on the performance of the respective banks," it said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.

The data shared by the government along with the reply showed that out of the total Rs 51,858 crore, Rs 25,000 crore was infused in 2015-16, Rs 24,997 crore in 2016-17 and Rs 1,861 crore in 2017-18.

"The government proposed to make available Rs 70,000 crore out of its budgetary allocations for infusing capital in the PSBs. Funds of Rs 25,000 crore each in the financial years 2015-16 and 2016-17, and Rs 10,000 crore each in financial years 2017-18 and 2018-19, were envisaged," it said.

--IANS

vv/tsb

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The by-polls to West Bengal's Sabang assembly seat, slated for Thursday, may not usher in any change of government, but still involve lot of prestige - both for some of the state's political stalwarts as also for the political outfits in the electoral fray.

At a personal level, senior politicians like Mukul Roy and Manas Bhunia are desperate to prove their worth to the bosses of the new parties they have crossed over to.

On the other hand, the state's principal political parties - Trinamool Congress, the Congress, the BJP and the Left Front - all need to prove a point or two at Sabang, for long a Congress stronghold.

The by-election, necessitated by Bhunia's decision to quit Congress and join Trinamool earlier this year, has triggered a five-horse race.

The Trinamool has nominated Bhunia's wife Gita Rani Bhunia, the Congress has opted for a local leader Chiranjib Bhowmick, Rita Mondal is the Left Front nominated Communist Party of India-Marxist aspirant, while the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate is Antara Bhattacharyya.

There is also a contestant from the Socialist Unity Centre of India-C.

Manas Bhunia, a seven-time legislator from the constituency in West Midnapore district, had won the seat as a Left-backed Congress candidate in last year's assembly polls with a massive 50,000 plus margin over Trinamool's Nirmal Ghosh.

Bhunia, who has been criss-crossing the constituency from daybreak till late into the night, is desperate to ensure a big win for his new party to prove that the Congress' support base has shifted with him to the Trinamool.

The Trinamool, eager to wrest one of the last Congress bastions in the state, has sent a number of party heavyweights including its supremo Mamata Banerjee's nephew and MP Abhishek Banerjee for campaigning.

On the other hand, Congress state President Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has seemingly taken the contest as a challenge to retain the seat, even though he admits that his party could have put up a more formidable fight if the CPI-M had backed the Congress instead of fielding its own candidate.

With its popularity on a continuous downslide over the past few years, the by-polls are an opportunity for the CPI-M, which is contesting the seat for the first time. During the 34 years of LF rule, the combine had fielded Biplobi Bangla Congress candidates.

Faced with a steady erosion of its support base across the state, with the BJP aggressively canvassing to emerge as the main challenger to the ruling Trinamool, the CPI-M has opted to field its own candidate in an effort to stop any more blood letting.

"We are aiming for a win. In the worst case, we will finish at number two," said a CPI-M leader said on condition of anonymity.

For the BJP, which is positioning itself as the alternative to the Trinamool, Sabang is a litmus test to show its continuous ascendancy in state . The party has conducted a high-voltage campaign, with all its leading lights in the state, coming to Sabang to woo the voters.

Roy, who joined the BJP recently, has campaigned vigorously, and is said to be the mastermind in planning the party's strategy for the by-poll. This being the first election in the state after the former confidant of Mamata Banerjee pitched his lot with the BJP, Roy is going all out to ensure a descent show for the saffron outfit.

An electorate of 2,45,259 is eligible to exercise its democratic choice.

To ensure fool-proof security, the Election Commission has deployed eight companies of central forces.

Counting of votes will be held on December 24.

--IANS

ssp/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The US State Department has expressed concern over Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief and alleged mastermind of 2008 Mumbai terror attack Hafiz Saeed running for office in Pakistan's general elections next year.

US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert in a press briefing on Tuesday said that the US "would certainly have concerns about him running for office" while referring to the rise of the Milli Muslim League (MML), a political party backed by Saeed which is a front for the JuD.

Nauert blamed the Lashkar-e-Taiba founder for the Mumbai attack that led to the death of 166 Indians and foreigners.

Saeed, who was set free in November from a 300-day-long house arrest due to lack of evidence, also carries a $10 million US bounty for his role in terrorist activities.

While emphasising on Washington's concerns regarding Saeed, Nauert said: "I want to remind folks we have a $10 million reward for Justice programme... for information that would bring him (Saeed) to justice. So I want to make that clear so that everybody knows, $10 million out for this guy."

While answering a question regarding Pakistan's decision to set Saeed free, Nauert said, "I would imagine that if we had any intelligence (that would help Pakistan take action against Saeed) and that's not an area that I can discuss, anyway -- but we would certainly share it with the Pakistanis on that front. I hope they'll do the right thing."

The US and the UN classify Saeed's JuD as a terrorist group and it is alleged to be a front organization for LeT.

Saeed was individually designated by the UN under the Security Council Resolution 1267 in December 2008.

--IANS

soni/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Taking the gaming industry in India to a new level, Samsung India on Wednesday launched the world's biggest QLED curved monitor for gaming enthusiasts and business professionals for Rs 1,50,000.

"Samsung has always been at the forefront of consumer-centric innovations and the launch of QLED curved monitor is in line with that very commitment," Puneet Sethi, Vice-President, Consumer Electronics Enterprise Business, Samsung India, told reporters here.

The 49-inch ultra-wide curved monitor packs 'High Dynamic Range' (HDR) technology which offers better contrast, depth and range to colours.

The monitor uses "eye saver mode" and "flicker free technology" which enhances eye comfort, obstructs blue light, thereby reducing eye fatigue.

The bezel-less curved QLED monitor with aspect ratio of 32:9 provides a motion picture response time with low input lag (which is how fast the screen responds to commands), thus reducing eye strain and preventing "ghost" images, the company said.

It also features quantum-dot technology and a wider colour spectrum.

Connectivity options include multiple input ports that make it easier to connect the display with any device.

The monitor is available at Samsung shops and will be available at retail stores soon.

--IANS

vc/ksc/na/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Lucknow Frontier of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), which mans the porous India-Nepal border, celebrated its 54th Foundation Day here on Wednesday.

Rita Bahuguna Joshi, the Uttar Pradesh Tourism and Women Welfare Minister who was the chief guest, lauded the work done by the force.

Inspector General Alok Sharma apprised the guests of the work being undertaken by the SSB and said the force was also educating people in the border areas on various government schemes.

He asaid it was challenging to curb trans-border crime, smuggling and anti-national activities due to the open porous border.

Eleven officials and 18 juniors of the Lucknow division won awards on the occasion.

--IANS

md/pgh/mr

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The US Senate on Wednesday approved the final version of the first overhaul of the US tax code in more than three decades, handing President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans their most significant legislative victory of 2017.

The bill passed the Senate 51 to 48 with no Democrats backing the bill while all present Republicans voted for it. The final result was announced by Vice President Mike Pence who presided over the vote.

Earlier, the House passed the bill on Tuesday but technical changes were made to it in the Senate. The bill will go back to the House on Wednesday for a re-vote where it is expected to pass again, the New York Times reported.

It will then head to the President's desk for his signature before Christmas, making good on the Republican Party's promise to enact tax relief by the end of the year.

The $1.5 trillion tax bill will have broad effects on the economy, making deep and lasting cuts to corporate taxes. It will also lower income tax bills in 2018 for the vast majority of households, though the wealthy would see far more relief than the middle class and working poor.

The plan would revise nearly every part of the tax system by lowering income tax rates at all levels and restructuring deductions. And it extends beyond taxes and into healthcare by scrapping a central part of the Affordable Care Act.

Trump acknowledged the Senate's vote in a tweet: "The US Senate just passed the biggest in history Tax Cut and Reform Bill. Terrible Individual Mandate (ObamaCare) Repealed."

The approval of the bill in the House and Senate came over the objections of Democrats, who accused Republicans of giving a gift to corporations and the wealthy.

At around midnight, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer made his final pitch to his colleagues to vote against the tax bill. He said that "this is some bill for the middle class", noting the heftiest provisions will help corporations.

Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, called the tax bill a scam, saying it "is simply theft - monumental".

Under the final tax bill, the corporate tax rate would fall to 21 per cent, from the current 35 per cent, a move that Republicans bet will increase economic growth, create jobs and raise wages.

Individuals would also see tax cuts, including a top rate of 37 per cent, down from 39.6 per cent.

The size of inheritances shielded from estate taxation would double, to $22 million for married couples, and owners of pass-through businesses, whose profits are taxed through the individual code, would be able to deduct 20 per cent of their business income.

But the individual tax cuts would expire after 2025, a step that Republicans took to comply with budget rules.

The tax changes will affect businesses and individuals unevenly. The bill strikes at a core component of the Affordable Care Act, eliminating the requirement that most people have health coverage or pay a penalty, a move that the Congressional Budget Office projects will increase premiums for people who buy insurance.

It will also open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil and gas drilling, a defeat for environmentalists who have fought against such action for decades.

(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 Swiss Federal Council said Wednesday it does not support "burqa ban" initiative that called for a nationwide ban on face-covering headgear.

Instead it issued a counter-proposal that no woman should be forced to hide her face, Xinhua cited Swiss news agency ATS as saying.

The council said it has the backing of the major political parties, except for the Swiss People's Party.

The Federal Council, the national executive of the government, a group made of representatives of major political parties, recommended that voters reject the "burka ban" initiative.

The "burka ban" initiative was handed in with enough signatures to have a referendum on it by its promotors, the Rightwing, Swiss People's Party (SVP), in September. No date has yet been set for the vote.

The SVP initiative wants face-covering headgear to be banned in public places all over Switzerland apart from a few exceptions, such as for health reasons.

The initiative of the Federal Council on the other hand contends that "No woman should be forced to hide her face."

The government plans to include its proposal in the penal code that it is punishable to compel a person to hide his or her face.
Film: 'Chhuri'(Short Film); Director: Mansi Jain; Starring: Tisca Chopra, Anurag Kashyap, Surveen Chawla; Rating: ***

After the tangy Chutney it is the teekhi Chhuri for the very talented Tisca Chopra. Seeing "Chhuri", I can't help wondering about this hugely accomplished actress' preoccupation with adultery. In both the short films that Tisca Chopra has produced she plays a vengeful housewife who takes unexpected revenge on her husband's mistress.

In "Chutney" the location was a dusty off-Delhi North Indian town. In "Chhuri" the milieu--metropolitan Mumbai is far more accessible and identifiable as a place where extra-marital relationships just happen. The strikingly-shot film opens with the morning-time bustle of an upper middleclass highrise apartment. The juice in the blender, the sizzling omelette in the pan, kids eating, squabbling and getting ready for a Sunday with the family.

Quickly director Mansi Jain, much appreciative of the economy of expression required of her, introduces us to the man of the house, played with inexplicable smugness by Anurag Kashyap. We see Kashyap peeping into his phone with a leery impishness. Yes , that's right. He is having an extra-marital affair.

"How can you take this so lightly, you're hopeless," the daughter excoriates her mother, the woman of the house.

Just think. If Shabana Azmi in "Arth" had a daughter, and a sense of humour, wouldn't the narrative of her husband's affair been radically different. Tisca Chopra invests no tears in the cheated wife's role? Rather she takes the horny bull by his horns and shakes up the Other Woman's sexy citadel by blabbering of domestic obligations .

Not that the Other Woman feels any guilt. She is just annoyed when the wife suggests that they come to an understanding on how to share the unfaithful husband(who hides in the mistress' cupboard while the two women negotiate).

It's a hilarious take on adultery done with flair and flamboyance . Tisca delivers her Cheated Wife's diatribe with such confidence, she almost makes adultery look like a silly game. Poor Surveen Chawla, typecast as a Seductive Siren tries to have fun smooching and cuddling with Kashyap.

Oh, didn't I tell you? Anurag Kashyap gets to do all the touch-feely stuff with Ms Chawla. His achche din are upon him,I am sure.For some strange reason he keeps thrusting his bare legs into the camera every time he is seated. Then Surveen too joins him with her legs up on the table.

Maybe Tisca and her capable director are trying to tell us that these two ill-behaved people deserve one another.

Suffice it to say that the denouement of the adulterous dilemma is way too simple to be taken seriously. The light-hearted approach to a domestic crisis is made palatable and appealing by Tisca Chopra's tearless hardheaded performance.At one point she is shown determinedly climbing up many flights of stairs to her Soutan's apartment while she, the Wanton Woman, is seem getting intimate with the husband.

The Wronged Wife never seemed more empowered.

--IANS

skj/nv/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
At least 50 near extinct indigenous collections of paddy, 21 varieties of raggi, two types of foxtail millet and 41 varieties of plant parts used for medicinal purposes were on display at the second edition of the 'Khadyotsav' in Odisha's Jajpur district.

An exhibition of more than 80 varieties of ethnic and age-old traditional and tribal food was set up at the food festival.

There were 30 varieties of traditional cake called "pitha" (in local parlance), 10 types of rice, 25 types of curry, 35 types of roots, tubers and much more which the tribals have been using for ages.

The Khadyotsav was organised by Sukinda Chromite Mine (SCM) of Tata Steel on December 18, said a statement on Wednesday.

It witnessed an array of agro-food diversities among different ethnic and tribal groups of the region and other parts of the state. Around 200 tribal women had displayed their dishes in 30 stalls.

Exotic items like Black carpenter ant chutney, bamboo shoot pickle, country chicken khichdi, cakes made of Mahul flower were also a big hit among the visitors attending the exhibition.

Experienced chefs of star hotels of Bhubaneswar like Mayfair, Trident, Ginger assessed the cuisines, interacted with the participants and checked feasibility of adopting some of the delicacies in their menu.

R.R. Satpathy, General Manager (Operations) of Ferro Alloys and Minerals Division, Tata Steel said this was part of a series of similar events Tata Steel is doing with an aim to contribute its bit towards Sustainable Development Goal of United Nations which wants to strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world's cultural and natural heritage.

It will also help spread awareness on rich tribal food diversity of the region, he added.

Bijya Parida, senior chef of Hotel Mayfair said local delicacies like Khir Kakra, Kanti (sweet dish made of black gram cakes), mischi ki sag (a kind of spinach) are very good and can be introduced in hotel's Odia food restaurant.

Sukinda MLA Preeti Ranjan Gharai said programmes like these will go a long way in promoting the cause of biodiversity and helping in preserving the dying ethnic and tribal food habits of Odisha.

--IANS

cd/pgh/vm

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An emergency meeting of the General Assembly on Thursday will take up President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as capital of Israel after the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution criticising it.

Assembly President Miroslav is convening the special session at the request of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Arab Group at the UN, his Spokesperson Brenden Varma told reporters on Tuesday.

On Monday US Permanent Representative Nikki Haley vetoed the Council resolution introduced by Egypt seeking to express "deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem" and ask other countries to not follow Washington and move their embassies to the city considered holy by Jews, Christians and Muslims.

All the other 14 members of the Council voted for the resolution.

Unlike in the Council there is no veto in the Assembly and a resolution criticising the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital and move it embassy there is expected to pass easily because even Washington's allies broke ranks with it and supported the Egyptian resolution.

Technically Thursday's meeting is a continuation of the emergency special session that last met in 2009, Varma said. Its theme is "Illegal Israeli Actions in Occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory," and it first convened in 1997, he added.

Unlike the regular annual sessions of the Assembly which end after a year, an emergency special session can continue indefinitely and be reconvened periodically even after a gap of several years.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)

--IANS

al/sku/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Union Minister Krishna Raj was rushed to a city hospital here on Wednesday after she fell ill during a party meeting in Parliament.

Raj, the Minister of State for Agriculture, was rushed to the Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital after she complained of dizziness while attending the Bharatiya Janata Party meeting held in Parliament's Library Building.

The minister is stable now, the hospital said.

--IANS

rup-vn/in/ksk

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With reference to Importing worries (December 20), the editorial has a justification in stating that raising customs duties has many downsides. The sudden and untimely duty hike on electronic items is going to add to the woes of the whole electronics industry. India is only just building a production base, and it has been dependent on China which exports electronic items ranging from components to telecom instruments to the tune of $42 billion a year. These cannot be indigenised by force in the name of making in India or hiking duties so steeply. We do not have a strong manufacturing base for these items such as China, Taiwan, Korea and even Thailand. As the editorial aptly pointed out, raising import duty is not the right solution to support the Make in India initiative.
I have changed three jobs in the past. I havent withdrawn Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) from any of the companies. I want to transfer all the three to my Universal Account Number (UAN). Can you please explain the process? I have EPF slips from my employers. Is it possible to transfer EPF without attestation or visiting the previous companies as I have changed cities?
The newly elected BJP MLAs of Gujarat are likely to meet in Gandhinagar on December 22 to elect their leader who would be the next chief minister of the key western state, party sources said on Wednesday.

Union minister Arun Jaitley and party general secretary Saroj Pandey, who have been appointed central observers for the election, will hold consultations with the MLAs before the new chief minister is announced.

Though incumbent Vijay Rupani continues to be th a favourite for the coveted job, there is speculation about his continuance given the BJP's narrow victory in its bastion.

The BJP has 99 seats in the 182-member Assembly, seven more than the 92 required for forming government but its lowest in a long time. The Congress and its pre-poll allies have 80 seats, with the main opposition party having 77.

BJP chief Amit Shah had said during the campaign that the elections would be fought under Rupani. Since Modi was the face of the BJP in the keenly fought electoral battle, a last minute change cannot be completely ruled out, sources said.

Many in the party wonder if the top leadership would go for somebody from the Patidar community, as the party prepares for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Though the Patidars have traditionally backed the BJP, a section led by young community leader Hardik Patel turned against the party over the quota issue.

The BJP leadership's propensity for springing a surprise while making its choices for top positions, be it a chief minister or the president, has left many guessing if someone new will be chosen to helm the state.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and Manohar Lal Khattar and Trivendra Singh Rawat, his Haryana and Uttarakhand counterparts, were all surprise choices. So was President Ramnath Kovind.

Even Rupani was seen as a surprise choice when the party decided to replace Anandiben Patel last year. While many thought Nitin Patel was an obvious replacement of Anandiben, he was eventually made the deputy chief minister.

Rupani is known to be close to Amit Shah, has a clean image, and is seen as caste neutral, qualities which may finally tilt the scales in his favour.

(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.)
As many as 176 government officers were asked to retire in public interest for being non-performers, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

"As per the available information, provisions under Financial Rules 56 (j) and similar provisions under service rules have been invoked/recommended in case of 53 Group A officers and 123 Group B officers of central civil services, during the period from July 1, 2014 till October 31, 2017," Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said in a written reply.

The FR 56 (j) has provisions for a service review of a government employee. The review is to be conducted twice, first after 15 years and again after 25 years of completion of qualifying service.

The personnel ministry had earlier said that the records of 11,828 Group A officers, including 2,953 from the all India services like the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the Indian Police Service (IPS) and the Indian Forest Service (IFoS), have been reviewed.

The service records of 19,714 Group B officers were also reviewed to eliminate the deadwood and the corrupt, according to the ministry officials.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
As many as 31,318 Indians have died in foreign countries since 2014 with more than half of the deaths being reported from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

Replying to a written question, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh also said that there are 15,405 Indians in foreign jails since 2015.

Highest number of prisoners are lodged in Saudi Arabian jails (5,590), while 1,132 Indians are in jails in Pakistan.

However, due to the strict provisions of privacy laws, the US, Canada, Australia and many countries in the Europe do not share full information about Indian prisoners in their jails, the minister said.

Giving details of the deaths of Indians in 106 countries, Singh said over 10,000 nationals have died in Saudi Arabia while over 6,000 Indians have died in the UAE since 2014. Eight such deaths have been reported from Pakistan.

Countries which have reported significant number of deaths, include Bahrain, Canada, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar and the US.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A total of 64 paramilitary personnel have been killed in the line of duty this year, with the highest 47 being from the CRPF, the government informed Parliament today.

Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju, in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, said those killed in action include seven from the Border Security Force, two from the Sashastra Seema Bal and eight from the Assam Rifles.

The highest number of Central Armed Police Forces troops killed, 47, were from the Central Reserve Police Force.

The CRPF is the lead anti-Naxal operations force of the country, the BSF guards the Pakistan and Bangladesh borders and the SSB is tasked to man the Nepal and Bhutan frontiers.

Rijiju said the data was updated on November 30.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
There was a need to liberate city planning of the "tyranny of images", noted architect Rahul Mehrotra asserted, while lamenting that urban planners want metro cities such as Delhi and Mumbai to look like Singapore or Shanghai.

He was speaking at the second Jhabvala memorial lecture here yesterday, the series instituted by the School of Planning and Architecture and the Jhabvala family.

It was organised in memory of the legendary architect and professor CSH Jhabvala who had also authored the book, 'Old Delhi, New York'.

"It is about time that planning for our cities is liberated of the tyranny of images," Mehrotra said.

"Planners want Delhi or Mumbai to look like Singapore or Shanghai; then, Nasik wants to look like Mumbai; and, this tyranny perpetuates itself in planners' imagination-- irrespective of the needs, environment, capacities and resources," he said.

The 1959-born architect, urbanist and educator, is also Professor of Urban Design and Planning and Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, and part of the urban conservation movement in the country, particularly Mumbai.

Mehrotra, also rued that 99 percent of the professional narrative was devoted to catering to the "fancies and preferences" of "one per cent" affluent clients.

According to him, this bias was producing "an architecture of indulgence" ignoring the issues of inequality, pluralism, conservation and ecology.

Sharing fascinating details of his iconic work on the planning and architecture at the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, Mehrotra suggested that conservation did not mean "status quo" and argued it was possible for a sensitive architect to "conserve, preserve, and yet innovate and improvise".

At the time of Independence, there was only one school of architecture and now India could boast of 426 accredited schools, he was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the organisers.

This proliferation in the professional schools and architects was "reinforcing the indulgence bias", he claimed.

Mehrotra also talked of the profession's "protocols and practices" which, he said, needed a "rethink".

The Council of Architecture needs to encourage young architects to learn about the needs and practices in smaller towns. Internships of architectural students need to be in these towns, and the Council should facilitate this, he said.

He urged younger practitioners to learn to make a distinction among "patrons, clients and users" and their different needs.

Asserting that there were no "absolute solutions," Mehrotra argued that it was imperative for the architects and planners to think of "transition" before working for "transformation".

The first lecture in the series, was delivered last year by eminent architect Raj Rewal.

Iconic Hall of Industries and Hall of Nations buildings at Pragati Maidan in Delhi, which were demolished earlier this year, were designed by Rewal.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A court here today granted bail to Vikas Sachdev, a private firm executive arrested for allegedly molesting teenage Bollywood actor Zaira Wasim onboard a Delhi-Mumbai flight on December 9.

City civil and sessions court judge A D Deo granted bail to Sachdev (39) on a personal bond of Rs 25,000.

The court also directed Sachdev, a resident of suburban Kandivli, to visit the Sahar police station on the first Sunday of every month and not influence any witness in the case.

Opposing the bail, Assistant Public Prosecutor Munna Inamdar said the relief should not be granted to Sachdev since the offence is of serious nature.

Defence lawyer Harvinder Singh Anand said the complaint lodged by the actor with police was an afterthought as she had not raised the issue with the cabin crew of the flight.

He also argued that Sachdev was illegally detained by the police before his arrest.

The court accepted the defence argument and granted bail to Sachdev.

Sachdev is working as western regional manager with Sun Broadcast in Mumbai.

Wasim had accused Sachdev of molesting her on board the Mumbai-bound Vistara flight on December 9.

The incident was disclosed by the "Dangal" actor herself who had posted a video narrating her ordeal on the flight.

Following an outrage, Sachdev was booked under section 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of IPC, and relevant sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) since the actor is a minor and was arrested a day after the incident on December 10.

"He kept nudging my shoulder and continued to move his foot up and down my back and neck," the actor had said in an Instagram post soon after she alighted at the Mumbai airport.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of the Mumbai Customs today arrested three persons including a Sudanese national in connection with smuggling in three different cases.

In the first case, the AIU officials said they intercepted Sudanese national Alaaeldin Mustafa Gasmalla after his arrival from Khartoum via Jeddah and his search led to recovery of 1563 grams of gold worth Rs 39.41 lakhs.

In the second case, the officials said that Mushtari Sheikh was intercepted and a search of his baggage resulted in recovery of USD 60000 cash equivalent to Rs 38.22 lakhs in Indian money.

AIU officials said that he had concealed the currencies in a jam bottle, bread packets, talcum powder pack and biscuit packet etc.

In another case, the customs officials said Arif Dawood Khan was apprehended and checking of his baggage led to recovery of USd 67200 equivalent to Rs 42.80 lakhs.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An air quality report by the US consulate here has shown that the PM 2.5 level at the city's Park Street area has surpassed Delhi's Chanakyapuri locality on Tuesday, with environmentalists and people here expressing concerns.

The particulate matter (PM) level -- an important index in measuring pollution -- in the Chanakyapuri area of Delhi had improved from 292 Acceptable Quality Limit (AQL) to 189 AQL between noon to 6 pm on Tuesday. In Park Street here, the count went up from 274 AQL to 288 AQL during that time, the consulate website report says.

Expressing concern over the report, environmentalist S M Ghosh said diesel cars are the main contributing factor to the alarming level of pollution in the city.

The West Bengal Pollution Control Board is doing very little to reduce the fleet of diesel cars, he alleged.

The situation, however, improved this morning with the PM 2.5 level at 171 AQL, far higher than the minimum alarming level of 151 AQL (acceptable quality limit), the website said.

In New Delhi, the AQL count shot up to 389 at 1 pm today, it added.

WBPCB Chairman Kalyan Rudra, however, said there was no reason to panic as the report covers just one area and does not give a complete picture.

The WBPCB is initiating a number of measures to ensure good ambient air quality for the people here, Rudra said.

There are 14 WBPCB air pollution monitoring units in the city and their display boards have been put up across the thoroughfares here to give updates on Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM) and PM 2.5.

Environmentalist Ghosh, however, said three pollution monitoring devices in the city are lying defunct for months now.

"The WBPCB is sitting on a proposal by environmentalists to increase the monitoring devices across the city from 14 to 25. They (WBPCB) would not admit but three of their monitoring units are lying defunct for several months," he alleged.

Debmit Dutta, a 39-year-old telecom engineer who works at an MNC in the Salt Lake area of the city, said he has ordered special air filter masks online considering the situation.

"The situation is not very different here from that of Delhi, I feel. I have ordered masks online and hopefully it will protect us from the toxic air to an extent," he said.

West Bengal Public Health Engineering Minister Subrata Mukherjee said the situation here is better than Delhi and necessary steps are being taken to curb air pollution.

Echoing similar sentiments, West Bengal minister Sovon Chatterjee said, "I am yet to go through the contents of the US consulate report. But the government is taking every measure to reduce pollution level.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The SAD today urged Pakistan High Commissioner in India, Sohail Mahmood, to ensure protection to the Sikh families living in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, after reports said they were being forced to convert to Islam by a government official in the northwestern province.

A delegation of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), led by party president Sukhbir Singh Badal met Mahmood in New Delhi, and sought Pakistan government's intervention to stop the reported attempts being made to convert Sikhs to Islam.

The meeting came a day after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said India will take up the issue at the highest level in the Pakistan government.

The Express Tribune, a leading Pakistan daily, this week published a story about the Sikh community raising serious concerns after being forced to convert to Islam by the government official in Hangu district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

The SAD delegation also urged the Pakistan high commissioner to take strict action against any official who coerced Sikhs to convert to Islam, an SAD statement said here.

The SAD members requested Mahmood that a party delegation be allowed to visit the Sikh families in Pakistan's northwest.

Mahmood told the delegation that an officer of the provincial administration had an altercation with the Sikh community members and that he had been suspended. A committee has been formed to probe the matter, he added, according to the statement.

Badal also brought to the notice of the Pakistan high commissioner that the Akal Takht was the supreme religious authority of the Sikhs and dates decided by it to mark religious events should be adhered by the Pakistan government.

He said it was unfortunate that a small group of unelected representatives were deciding the dates in Pakistan.

Badal, meanwhile, also took up the conversion of Sikhs in Pakistan with External Affairs Minister Swaraj.

Swaraj assured the SAD president that her ministry would take up the issue of forcible conversions with the Pakistan government and safety of the Sikh community residing in that country would be ensured, the statement added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Actor Alia Bhatt is all praise for Bollywood veteran Amitabh Bachchan, with whom she is set to work in Ayan Mukerji's "Brahamastra" and says the megastar makes sure people around him do not get intimidated by him.

Bachchan, Alia and Ranbir Kapoor are teaming up for the fantasy film, which is being produced by Karan Johar.

The movie will go on floors next month.

Asked if she was nervous while working with the megastar, the actor said, "Amit ji is such a warm person, he tries to make everyone feel comfortable. He won't intimidate intentionally, but of course you're working with a legend, so something will happen."



"I am very excited. Every time we met, we used to wonder when we will work together. Finally, the day has come," she added.

The "Badrinath ki Dulhania" actor was speaking at the red carpet of Zee Cine Awards here last night.

Asked about reports of her co-starring with Ranveer Singh in Rohit Shetty's "Simba", Alia responded saying, "I am starring opposite Ranveer in 'Gully Boy', which I am starting in January."



The actor, further, denied being in talks for "Simba".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Agri export body APEDA today organised the first trial shipment of green chillies from Varanasi to Dubai, a move aimed at encouraging entrepreneurs to boost export of fresh vegetables from eastern Uttar Pradesh.

Eastern Uttar Pradesh is one of the potential areas for export of fresh fruits and vegetables, such as green chillies, okra, bitter guard, green peas, brinjal and mango and guava etc.

"Despite the potential of fresh produce in Uttar Pradesh, exports are not taking place due to logistic constraints," the Commerce Ministry said in a statement.

To address this concern, the Agricultural and Processed Food Exports Development Authority (APEDA) has sensitised exporters to source produce from Uttar Pradesh.

"As an outcome of this effort, one exporter has agreed to export green chillies and green peas from Varanasi to Dubai. Necessary tie up with importers has also been facilitated by APEDA," the statement said.

With the efforts of APEDA, facilities of custom clearance and phyto-sanitary certificate issuance at Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport, Varanasi are being set up to facilitate exporters from the region.

SpiceJet airline has also come forward to facilitate trade from Varanasi by sending the consignment via Delhi.

APEDA organised the first trial shipment export of green chillies etc. by Elite Oceanic Trading Pvt Ltd from Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport, Varanasi to Dubai.

APEDA an organisation under the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, responsible for promotion and development of export of various agro products.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Army today paid tributes to two soldiers who died in an avalanche along the Line of Control in Kashmir's Gurez sector.

Lance Naik Marigendra Nath Pramanik and Sepoy Shiv Singh were part of an operational team which was serving in the formidable heights along the LoC and got swept away during a snow slide, along with another soldier, on December 11.

Their bodies were found on December 18.

General officer Commanding of Chinar Corps Lt Gen J S Sandhu and all ranks paid homage to the soldiers in a solemn ceremony at BB Cantonment here, an army official said.

"In a show of solidarity, officials and representatives from the civil administration and other security agencies also joined in paying their last respects to the martyrs," he said.

The bodies were recovered due to the efforts of the specially equipped Avalanche Rescue Teams who were working in inhospitable conditions, he said.

Pramanik, 32, had joined the Army in 2003 and hailed from village Kumar Chak in Purva Midnapur district of West Bengal.

He is survived by his parents, wife and two children.

Sepoy Singh, 32, hailed from Gullarwala Karsouli village in Solan, Himachal Pradesh. He had first donned the uniform in 2009.

He is survived by his mother.

"The mortal remains of the martyrs were flown for last rites to their native places, where they would be laid to rest with full military honours," he said.

The official said the Army stands in solidarity with the bereaved families of the soldiers and remains committed to their dignity and well-being.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Army personnel guarding the over 4,000 km-long Indo-China border will now get the benefit of the liberalised family pension, the defence ministry announced today.

At present, the liberalised family pension is given to army personnel deployed along the Line of Control and International Border (IB) with Pakistan.

"Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has approved that the same benefit of Liberalised Family Pension be extended to Army Personnel working along Line of Actual Control (LAC) along India-China borders," the defence ministry said in a statement.

It said the Liberalised Family Pension provides for 100 per cent of last "reckonable" emoluments in comparison to normal family pension which provides for 30 per cent of the last "reckonable" emoluments.

The move comes months after Chinese and Indian troops were locked in a 73-day border standoff from June 16 when Indian soldiers stopped Chinese personnel from building a key road close to India's 'chicken's neck' corridor.

The ministry said Liberalised Family Pension covers accidental death or injury sustained due to natural calamities such as flood, avalanches, landslides, cyclone, fire and lightening or drowning in river while performing operational duties or movements in action against enemy forces and armed hostilities in operational area.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Arunachal Pradesh Governor Brig (Retd) Dr B D Mishra held a meeting with Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Delhi today and briefed her on the border security environment in the north eastern state.

An official communique here said Mishra apprised the defence minister about the high morale of the soldiers deployed in the Indo-China borders of the state and the coordinating interaction which he had with the GOC 3 Corps and the GOC 4 Corps, the Formation Commanders.

Sitharaman appreciated the Army's good work and welfare activities for the civil population in border areas, the communique said.

During the meeting, it was resolved that more welfare schemes will be introduced for the civilians by the Indian Army in the coming months.

At the initiative of the governor it was decided that eight villages which have been identified by the Army in the forward most segment of the international border, will be developed into self sustaining units with proper living amenities for the residents.

To Mishra's suggestion for early start of work for the Sainik Schools in the state the meeting decided that their foundation stones would be laid as early as possible and construction work would commence latest by February 2018.

The governor also met Chief of Army Staff, General Bipin Rawat at the Army headquarters and requested him to conduct pre-recruitment programmes in every Arunachal district to motivate and encourage maximum number of able youths to join the Indian Army, the communique said.

"This will not only provide ample employment avenues to the youth of Arunachal Pradesh but also give them an opportunity to serve the country," he said.

Rawat assured that Army teams will go to every district to help the prospective army recruitment candidates in documentation, physical fitness and train them to compete in the recruitment, scheduled to be in February 2018.

He instructed the Director General Army Recruitment, who was called in the meeting, to render all help to the youth in Arunachal Pradesh so that they can be selected for the Army, the communique added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A bill to exclude bamboo from the definition of 'tree' under the Indian Forest Act was passed by the Lok Sabha today amid a protest by opposition members against the promulgation of an ordinance on the matter last month.

Piloting the bill to amend the Indian Forest Act, 1927, in the lower house, Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Harsh Vardhan said the changes in law would encourage bamboo plantation by farmers.

The bill permits felling and transit of bamboo grown in non-forest areas, he said, adding that it would help improve the rural economy.

He clarified that bamboo grown on forest lands would continue to be classified as tree and would be guided by restrictions as per the law.

The bill, which will replace the ordinance promulgated by the President on November 23, seeks to exempt bamboos grown on non-forest areas from the requirement of permit for felling or transit under the Forest Act.

Observing that bamboo taxonomically is grass, the minister regretted that it took 90 years for the government to correct that anomaly.

"Had the legislative changes been made earlier, it would have benefited the country's economy," he said, adding the law hindered the growth of the bamboo industry.

India imports bamboo despite being its second largest producer after China and this is the reason for brining the amendment, he said, adding that the ordinance was not promulgated in a hurry and that it had been in the making since 2013.

On account of the definitional anomaly, the state of objects and reasons of the amendment bill said, farmers have been "facing hardships in getting the permits for felling and transit of bamboos within the State and also for outside the State..."



Harsh Vardhan also made a case for strengthening the bamboo mission to help the people associated with the industry.

Bamboo, the minister added, also found mention in 'Arthasharta' and was described as green gold as well as poor man's timber.

India, he added, was the second largest producer of bamboo after China having as many as 136 varieties of the agriculture produce.

Bamboo, the minister said, is used extensively in variety of applications such as furnishing, yarn, pulp and paper, handicrafts, decoration, musical instruments, etc.

Several opposition members including N K Premachandran (RSP) and Aparupa Poddar (Trinamool Congress) objected to the promulgation of the ordinance, saying it amounted to bypassing Parliament.

Premachandran wanted to know what urgency prompted the government to bring an ordinance on November 23, weeks before the winter session of Parliament.

To a question as to how many states have supported the amendment, the minister said 23 states have supported the changes.

The government is in talks with Rajasthan, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala to convince them about the benefits of the legislative changes, he said.

Among the members who participated in the debate included P D Rai (SDF), Sunil Kumar Singh (BJP), Jaiprakash Narayan Yadav (RJD), Konda Vishweshwar Reddy (TRS), Tathagata Satpathy (BJD) and Pappu Yadav (RJD).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The ban on country's shrimp exports to Thailand and Kuwait is expected to have a negligible impact on the frozen shrimp industry due to its increasing global demand, a report said.

The Department of Fishery (DoF), Thailand imposed a temporary suspension on five categories of shrimps including Penaeus Vannamai (vannamai) and Penaeus monodon (black tiger) from India due to a presence of virus - Infectious Myonecrosis (IMNV). The announcement of Thailand's suspension has come within a fortnight of Kuwait's ban on the import of Indian shrimp, due to the suspected appearance of an acute disease.

The ban on shrimp exports to Thailand and Kuwait is however, expected to have a negligible impact on the Indian frozen shrimp industry as they constitute only 0.3 per cent at Rs 43.5 crore during H1FY18 of the total frozen shrimp exports from the country, ICRA Ratings said in its report here.

"The majority of the Indian exports to Thailand are also for further re-processing and are in the medium count ranges of 31-40 counts. But closely following the Kuwait ban, the Thailand suspension could impact public perception of Indian shrimp quality; the same needs to be watched," ICRA Ratings vice president Pavethra Ponniah said.

During FY17, frozen shrimp exports from India witnessed a healthy growth of 25 per cent to Rs 24,370 crore in FY17 from Rs 19,492 crore in the previous year, supported by 19 per cent year-on-year volume growth and balance from growth in realization.

The robust volume growth was supported by increasing global demand for Indian shrimp and weak production in major aquaculture regions such as Vietnam and Thailand. The growth trend continued during H1 FY18 with volumes rising by 33.6 per cent, the report said.

India's exports to USA witnessed 24 per cent year on year growth supported by robust demand and relaxations in the regulatory regime in FY17.

Country's exports to Vietnam also registered a 76 per cent year on year growth aided by the lower domestic production in Vietnam coupled with increasing demand from EU and USA.

Going forward, healthy growth in demand of Indian frozen shrimp exports is expected to continue despite the negative sentiments regarding the imposition of ban on Indian shrimps. The robust export growth is expected to be well supported by growth drivers in major export destinations, the report said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) told a court here today that it was likely to file a charge sheet soon against Delhi-based businessman Gagan Dhawan, who was arrested in a Rs 5,000-crore money laundering case.

Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma, who was scheduled to hear Dhawan's bail application today, posted the matter for January 3, considering the submissions made by Special Public Prosecutor Nitesh Rana on behalf of the ED.

In his bail plea, the accused had sought the relief saying he was not required for further investigation and that no purpose would be served by keeping him in custody.

Dhawan, arrested on November 1, was sent to judicial custody on November 15 by the court after Rana contended that the accused was not needed for further custodial interrogation.

The ED had alleged that Dhawan had facilitated the directors of Gujarat-based pharma firm Sterling Biotech Ltd (SBL) in buying several properties and helped them misuse and divert the credit facilities of several banks, totalling Rs 5,000 crore.

"An amount of Rs 1.5 crore was received by the accused from the SBL group. Prior to that, the amount of bank loans was rotated in various companies of the SBL group," according to the agency.

The lower court had, on November 14, issued non-bailable warrants against two other persons -- SBL directors Nitin and Chetan Sandesara. The agency told the court that Chetan might have left the country.

Dhawan was arrested in an alleged bank fraud case, involving SBL, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The firm as well as Dhawan were also being probed by the ED for allegedly bribing senior income tax department officials in an earlier criminal complaint.

The CBI had recently booked Sterling Biotech, its directors Chetan Jayantilal Sandesara, Dipti Chetan Sandesara, Rajbhushan Omprakash Dixit, Nitin Jayantilal Sandesara and Vilas Joshi, chartered accountant Hemant Hathi, former director, Andhra Bank, Anup Garg and some unidentified persons in connection with the alleged bank fraud case.

It had alleged that the company had taken loans of over Rs 5,000 crore from a consortium led by Andhra Bank, which had turned into non-performing assets.

The FIR had also alleged that the total pending dues of the group companies were Rs 5,383 crore as on December 31, 2016. The ED had taken cognisance of this FIR to lodge the money laundering case against them.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The bitter turf war between Chief Minister V Narayanasamy and Lt. Governor Kiran Bedi on a plethora of issues intensified in Puducherry in 2017.

Introduction of a direct daily flight to and from Hyderabad coinciding with the 56th Liberation Day of Puducherry and launching of a Smart City Development Limited in October to implement the Centre's Rs 1,800 crore Smart City Project for making the former French colony an international tourist destination were some of the positive developments during the year.

Principal Secretary (PWD) of the Delhi government Ashwani Kumar was appointed as the chief secretary of Puducherry in November and incumbent Manoj Parida was shifted to the national capital.

Gurmeet Singh, a professor of chemistry in Delhi University, assumed the office of Vice Chancellor of Pondicherry University in November replacing acting VC Anisa Basheer Khan.

However, the issue of differences between Bedi and Narayanasamy kept the state in .

On July 4, Bedi inducted three members of the BJP as nominated legislators on July 4 in her office Raj Nivas after Speaker V Vaithilingam allegedly declined to recognise their nomination on the ground that there was "no official communication to his office from a competent authority".

A strong protest erupted with the ruling Congress and its alliance partner, the DMK, and some other parties raising a banner of revolt against the Centre for "arbitrarily deciding the names of the three nominated members without any recommendation from the state government".

The Congress, the DMK and a number of other parties organised a bandh on July 7 which was followed by a day-long closedown on July 8 to protest against the nominations.

The parties alleged that Bedi was functioning like "an agent of the BJP" and was interfering in the routine functioning of the elected government.

The issue of appointment of the nominated legislators is now pending for disposal before the Madras High Court following a petition filed by a ruling Congress MLA challenging it.

Apart from the strong objection of Narayanasamy and his colleagues over Bedi's "style of functioning", a resolution was brought in by the opposition AIADMK in the assembly to urge the Centre to rein in the Lt Governor.

It was converted into an official resolution and was adopted unanimously by the House.

There were also differences between Bedi and the government on several other issues.

Bedi pointed an accusing finger against the authorities charging them of finalising students for MBBS and PG courses in private medical colleges by violating rules.

She also sought a probe by the CBI into the modalities adopted for admission to medical colleges and two IAS officers of Puducherry and a few other officials were booked by the CBI in connection with the alleged irregularities in the admission process.

Bedi also continued with her weekend visits to rural, urban and semi-urban areas to see for herself the "lack of amenities" and listen to the grievances of the locals.

These visits also evoked strong protests by legislators of the ruling Congress and its alliance partners.

Unfazed, she asserted the purpose of the visits was to ensure that the funds earmarked for development are spent without any room for deficiency or shortcomings.

The opposition AIADMK spared no forum to point out that there were serious financial constraints and these should be overcome through judicious planning.

The Lt Governor came forward with a slew of austerity measures to ensure conservation of money. She banned business class flight travel by all officials as "a severe financial crisis is prevailing in Puducherry".

She said that this ban "is applicable for all without any exception".

The Lt Governor's intervention to restore to the legally entitled owners residential plots and houses allegedly encroached upon by some anti-social elements in Thattanchavady block here was another important highlight of the year.

Bedi also introduced the official website of her office besides open house sessions to receive complaints from the public and to address them without loss of time.

Another year is about to end without the Union Territory witnessing panchayat polls.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The West Bengal government said today it has hiked the state-sponsored scholarship amount for meritorious students from Rs 45 crore to Rs 200 crore.

minister Partha Chatterjee said the hike is in sync with the government's policy to encourage poor, meritorious students to pursue higher studies.

"We have hiked the allocation of Vivekananda Scholarship from Rs 45 crore to Rs 200 crore so that the students may study up to the medical, engineering levels," Chatterjee said.

Chatterjee was speaking at a function to distribute 'Jahar Lal Chandra Merit Scholarship' to 43 Secondary Examination toppers from different districts.

Asserting that the talent in West Bengal was the best for 'international competition', Chatterjee said "we have again turned Bengal into an educational hub where 12,000 students are coming from abroad to study every year."



Chatterjee said from 13 universities six-and-a-half years back, the present government has built 23 more universities and increased four lakh seats in state-run and private degree and engineering colleges.

Chatterjee said the state government has recruited 1 lakh teachers at Madhyamik and Primary levels to clear backlog and upgraded schools, especially in rural areas.

Chatterjee also said that in the past few years, girls belonging to minority and tribal communities were topping ranks.

"I have figures to show that girls are moving ahead of boys in attaining success in studies all over the state. This does not indicate that boys are inferior to girls, but it shows our families are bringing girls to the front row," he said.

Referring to the Kanyashree project of the state, Chatterjee said, many people had wondered why such a project was launched when the state is financially in a tough situation.

"But when it got international recognition, everyone started praising it. This shows we fail to acknowledge our own achievements unless it is feted globally," he said.

Each recipient of the Jahar Lal Chandra Merit Scholarship will get Rs 50,000 annually.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A plot to assassinate the Balochistan Governor has been foiled by Pakistani police after they arrested two men near the Pak-Afghan border, officials said.

Quetta's Deputy Inspector General, Abdul Razzaq Cheema told a media yesterday that two men have been arrested who were plotting to kill the provincial governor Muhammad Khan Achakzai during a planned visit to his village.

"Hamid Bashir from Punjab and Munawar Ahmed from Quetta have confessed to the plan. They were arrested during a raid in the Gulistan area near the border with Afghanistan," he said.

They were planning to carry out a suicide bomb attack on the Governor.

He said a large cache of weapons and explosives, including two suicide vests and land mines, were found in a compound during the raid carried out after receiving a tip- off.

Balochistan's Home Minister, Mir Sarfaraz Bugti said that investigations revealed that the Qari Taliban group which now operates out of Afghanistan was behind the plan to carry out the attack on the governor.

He said the same group was behind the assassination of late Punjab Home Minister Shuja Khanzada in 2015.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An additional public prosecutor and a circle officer were arrested by the Bihar Vigilance Bureau today from Sitamarhi and Nalanda districts while accepting bribe.

According to a report from Sitamarhi, vigilance sleuths arrested Satyendra Kumar Tiwari, additional public prosecutor at the district court. He was caught red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 21,000.

Deputy SP, Vigilance, Maharaja Kanishk Kumar Singh, who led the vigilance team which laid the trap, said Tiwari had demanded the sum from an accused in a case with the promise of helping him out.

A report from Nalanda district said circle officer of Hilsa, Subodh Kumar, was caught red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 20,000.

Deputy SP Gopal Paswan, who led the vigilance team which carried out the operation, said a complaint was received from Rinku Devi, resident of a village, that the official had demanded bribe for mutation of a piece of land.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Central Board of Secondary (CBSE) has warned schools against selling books from private publishers in their premises.

"The schools can open small outlets in their premises only to sell NCERT books and other stationery items. They are not allowed to sell any book from private publishers," the Board said in a communication to schools.

"Selling books other than those from NCERT will be considered a violation and will attract action against the school. Parents are free to buy textbooks and stationery items from either the shop in school premises or vendors outside," it added.

Amending its earlier directive, the CBSE in August allowed schools to open shops in their premises to sell NCERT books, stationery and other material required by students.

The Board had earlier asked managements to not run schools as "commercial establishments" and stop selling books and uniforms in their premises.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Brain lesions can make people prone to committing crimes if they occur within the network responsible for morality and value-based decision-making, a study has found.

The study, published in the journal PNAS, is the first systemic mapping of brain lesions associated with criminal behaviour - a medical phenomena referred to as acquired sociopathy.

Famous cases of acquired sociopathy include Phineas Gage, a railroad worker who in 1848 exhibited anti-social behaviour after surviving an explosive blast that sent an iron rod through his brain, and Charles Whitman, the "Texas Tower Sniper," who had a brain tumour and murdered 16 people in 1966.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) in the US reviewed more recent cases of brain lesions associated with criminal behaviour, examining MRI and CT scans of those individuals.

One group of 17 cases had a definitive correlation between criminal behaviour and a brain lesion.

A second group of 23 cases had an implied correlation when researchers did not know whether the brain lesion occurred before or after the criminal behaviour.

In both groups, the lesions were at different areas of the brain.

The researchers used neuroimaging analyses - large datasets compiled from healthy volunteers organised into a connectome, similar to a map of brain activity.

While the lesions were in different brain areas, they were all connected to the same brain network.

"We looked at networks involved in morality as well as different psychological processes that researchers have thought might be involved - empathy, cognitive control and other processes that are important for decision making," said Ryan Darby, assistant professor at VUMC.

"We saw that it was really morality and value-based decision making - reward and punishment decision making - that the lesions were strongly connected to," said Darby, who did the research during a fellowship at Harvard Medical School in the US.

Lesions in patients with criminal behaviour were more strongly connected to this moral decision-making network than lesions in patients without criminal behaviour, suggesting that connectivity to this network was specific to criminal behaviour.

"This is a relatively new approach that we have developed," Darby said.

"We have previously used it to understand other disorders where it wasn't really clear why brain lesions in different locations caused hallucinations or delusions," said Darby.

"In those diseases, it was also found that it was a common brain network connected to the same areas. We were the first to apply this to looking at criminal behaviour," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Hundreds of British citizens who returned to the UK from war-torn Syria and Iraq have brought back children brainwashed by the Islamic State terror group with them, a new report warned today.

The UK Parliament's influentialIntelligence and Security Committee (ISC), which published its annual report, has warned of the "complications" of "children growing up inside the so- called 'Caliphate', educated and indoctrinated by Daesh [ISIS]".

"The reintegration of those who have spent their formative years in such an environment will present a serious challenge for the government and the agencies when they return to the UK," warns the committee made up of senior cross-party British MPs.

"We note that the dispersal of foreign fighters from Syria and Iraq raises serious questions as to when and where they will resurface, and with what intent," chairman Dominic Grieve said.

"There will also be a serious challenge to reintegrate children who have grown up in the so-called Caliphate," Grieve said.

UK home secretary Amber Rudd while giving evidence to the committee admitted this posed "absolutely a serious threat".

"Families coming back will be potentially having children who are going to be vulnerable, who are going to need protecting; but also potentially fighters themselves who could be a danger to society and could radicalise other people," she said.

Senior intelligence officials told the UK's national security oversight body that more than 850 British citizens of "national security concern are thought to have travelled to Syria, Iraq and the region".

They were joined by 6,000 Europeans on the terror front line.

"It is believed that around half of those have returned to the UK, more than 300 are thought to remain in Syria, and around 100 have been killed in fighting in the region," MI5, UK's counter-terrorism security service, told the ISC.

British Prime Minister Theresa May reacted to the report, saying she was determined to "do what is necessary to keep citizens safe".

"Sadly this year has shown that the threat from terrorism cannot always be contained. Too many innocent families' lives have been ruined across the UK from international terrorist attacks," she said, in reference to a string of ISIS-inspired terrorist attacks across the UK this year.

UK police and intelligence services recently revealed that they had succeeded in foiling at least nine terror plots this year.

That number is believed to have hit 10 after a series of dawn anti-terror raids by armed officers yesterday to foil what is believed to be a Christmas terror plot.

British Police continue to question the four arrested men, aged between 22 and 41, after the raids in South Yorkshire and Derbyshire.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Cabinet today cleared the cadre review proposal of border guarding force Sashastra Seema Bal by giving it 19 new posts, aimed at enhancing its operational capabilities.

The decision came on a day when the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) is celebrating its 54th Raising Day.

The proposal of the restructing of the group 'A' category of executive officers of the force will lead to "net creation of 19 posts of various ranks from Assistant Commandant to Inspector General (IG) ranks."



A government statement said the Cabinet sanction will result in the increase of two posts in the rank of IG, eleven posts in Deputy IG/Commandant rank, two posts in the Deputy Commandant (DC) rank and four in the Assistant Commandant (AC) rank.

The 96,000 personnel strong force was raised in 1963, in the aftermath of the Chinese aggression the previous year, and is now tasked to guard open Indian borders with Nepal and Bhutan.

The last such exercise was undertaken in the force in 2011.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Traders' body CAIT today wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealing for the passage of the Consumer Protection Bill during the ongoing session of Parliament.

"The Consumer Protection Act will be a vibrant tool to empower consumer movement in the country and as such the Act which is pending before Parliament since a long time should be passed in the current session of Parliament itself," the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said in a communication to the prime minister.

The traders' body said that the inordinate delay in the passage of the bill is going against the wishes of the prime minister who strongly advocated the necessity of the bill while addressing an International forum couple of months back.

While inviting attention of the prime minister towards the new Consumer Protection Bill introduced in Parliament in 2015, CAIT urged that the bill be taken on priority and must be passed in the current session.

CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said the law was on the anvil to crack down on misleading advertisements and will lay great emphasis on consumer empowerment.

He further said that the bill is critical not only for consumer protection but will also differentiate between the roles and responsibilities of small and genuine retailers.

"It will certainly put an end to unfair practices and will also enable the creation of a powerful Central Consumer Protection Authority," Khandelwal said.

He also argued that the bill should also adequately address the long standing problem of misleading celebrity driven endorsement whereby celebrities should also be held responsible for the products they endorse.

"Engaging Brand Ambassadors for product promotions has become widely prevalent and consumers are guided or misguided by such endorsements irrespective of the quality of the products. It is imperative that liability should be cast upon Brand Ambassadors under the Consumer Protection Act," CAIT said in a statement.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Canada and the United States announced they will host a summit of foreign ministers in Vancouver on January 16, including envoys from Japan and South Korea, to seek progress on the North Korean nuclear crisis.

"We believe a diplomatic solution to the crisis is essential and possible," Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told a joint press conference with visiting US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Tillerson said the meeting would seek to further increase pressure on North Korea to come to the table to negotiate an end to its nuclear program.

This could include "other steps that could be taken to put additional pressure on the regime in North Korea," as well as preparing for the prospects of talks, he said.

"We (will) continue to find ways to advance the pressure campaign against North Korea," Tillerson said, "to send North Korea a unified message from the international community that we will not accept you as... a nuclear weapons nation, and that all of us share one policy and one goal -- the full complete verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula."



"It's all intended to lead to talks. Otherwise we wouldn't need to do this. We would just go straight to the military option," he said.

"The White House supports diplomatic talks," Tillerson added, dismissing suggestions of a rift between US President Donald Trump and his chief diplomatic.

The so-called Vancouver Group will also include Australia, Belgium, Britain, Colombia, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Turkey.

Throughout the afternoon, Tillerson and Freeland also discussed Canada-US border security, North American defense, energy and environmental cooperation, and the ongoing renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which binds the two countries with Mexico to form the world's second-largest trading bloc after the EU.

They discussed the plight of the Rohingya in Myanmar and "the potential for a peacekeeping mission" in Ukraine.

Freeland will travel to Ukraine to meet with government officials today.

As well, said Freeland, she and Tillerson considered "the crisis in Venezuela and what actions we can take individually, together and in cooperation with the Lima group... to address the deteriorating political, economic and humanitarian situation there."



Canada hosted foreign ministers of 12 countries of the Americas in October to try to find ways to cool the fierce power struggle that had been raging for months between President Nicolas Maduro's left-wing nationalist government and the center-right opposition.

Later yesterday, Tillerson was to meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau before heading back to Washington.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Biju Janata Dal today accused the NDA government of compromising its neutrality in Odisha's dispute with Chhattisgarh over Mahanadi river water-sharing and sought an urgent debate in the Lok Sabha over setting up of a tribunal to resolve differences between the two states.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour, BJD leader Bhartruhari Mahtab alleged that the BJP-led government has gone back on its word on establishing a tribunal as it had promised over a year ago.

Mahtab said the central government has conveyed to the Supreme Court that no tribunal would be set up to resolve the Mahanadi water dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

"Neutrality of the (central) government is compromised. Not only in the government, but neutrality is compromised in the Supreme Court also. It is a fit case for taking up as an adjournment motion," he said after Speaker Sumitra Mahajan rejected an adjournment motion on the issue.

While Odisha is ruled by the BJD, Chhattisgarh is governed by the BJP.

When Mahtab repeatedly asked the Speaker to reconsider her decision, Mahajan said she realised it was an important issue but would consider other applications if submitted by the BJD like a "calling attention motion" to discuss the matter.

MPs belonging to the Trinamoool Congress stood on their seats lending support to the BJD, with TMC leader Sudip Bandopadhyay telling the Speaker that his party fully supported Odisha's cause.

Mahtab said the Centre had promised to set up a tribunal to resolve issues relating to the sharing of the Mahanadi river water between Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

He said if the House discusses the issue, BJD members could ventilate their grievances and the MPs from Chhattisgarh could also take part in the discussion.

He also said that in reply to a parliament question, the Union Water Resources Ministry had said a draft cabinet note was ready and the tribunal would be set up.

But now, the central government has gone back on its words, he alleged.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had taken up the issue of construction of barrages upstream by Chhattisgarh at a trilateral meeting convened by then Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti on September 17 last year.

The Odisha government has also demanded that Chhattisgarh should stop construction of seven weirs (small dams) on the river.

Under the Inter State Water Dispute Act 1956 which provides legal framework to address such issues, a tribunal can be formed after a state government approaches the union government with such a request and the Centre is convinced of the need to set it up.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Southern Railway has announced changes in the operation of some express and passenger trains for a month from February one, due to engineering and related works at Mettupalayam railway station.

Chennai Central-Mettupalayam Blue Mountain Express is partially cancelled between Coimbatore and Mettupalayam and it will terminate at Coimbatore and start from there itself, an official release said today.

Coimbatore-Mettupalayam-Coimbatore Passenger trains will also be partially cancelled between Karamadai and Mettupalayam, it said.

These trains will be operated up to Karamadai and will return to Coimbatore, and remain in effect till March 3, 2018.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Chinese tiremaker is moving more aggressively into the US market, announcing plans for a North Carolina factory that is to eventually employ 800 and produce six million tires a year.

A state committee that administers large corporate tax breaks approved plans to coax Triangle Tire to rural Edgecombe County, about 100 kilometres east of the state capital of Raleigh.

The USD 580 million plant is the first in the United States for the Weihai, China-based maker of tires for passenger vehicles, trucks and buses and heavy equipment.

"We expect that this will provide a huge boost in brand awareness and interest in our products as we continue to expand our presence in the US," Manny Cicero, CEO of the company's Triangle Tire USA subsidiary, said in a statement.

Triangle Tire could get up to USD 152 million in state and local tax breaks, worker training and other incentives if it meets hiring targets. The jobs are projected to pay an average wage of USD 56,450 a year, well above a county average of USD 32,642.

The company said in a disclosure to the Shanghai Stock Market last month that construction would start next year on a two-phase plan to first build a factory producing 5 million passenger cars a year. That would be followed by production lines churning out 1 million commercial vehicle tires a year. The company added that construction is expected to take two to three years for each project.

The Triangle factory marks at least the third Chinese tiremaker to build production plants in the US Wanli Tire Corporation said in June it plans to build a factory employing at least 400 people and later rising to 1,200 in South Carolina, America's tire-producing capital. Sentury Tire announced plans in 2016 to develop a USD 530 million factory in LaGrange, Georgia.

Triangle was the third-largest tire Chinese manufacturer based on 2015 global sales, according to Tire Business, an Akron, Ohio-based trade newspaper. Triangle ranked 17th among tire companies in worldwide sales, the newspaper estimated.

The plant is to be located on a nearly 600-hectare site between Rocky Mount and Tarboro, which was offered as a location to potential manufacturers needing lots of space by the economic development groups that assembled it.

The site is near the major Interstate 95 road corridor and borders a CSX Transportation rail line. Triangle's operation would use about 160 hectares of that site, state Commerce Department spokesman David Rhodes said.

Triangle Tire has exported to the US market for more than two decades and established its US subsidiary in Franklin, Tennessee, nearly two years ago, the company's web site said.

Its parent company, Triangle Tyre Co. Ltd., manufactures more than 25 million tires a year that are sold in more than 180 countries. The company's manufacturing systems are highly automated and the company is working on tires with built-in chips that monitor and collect information about road conditions, temperature and tire wear and damage.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today expressed anguish over the killing of a woman during an encounter and said that civil society and government should work together to end violence in the state.

During the exchange of fire between security forces and militants in Shopian district yesterday, a woman--Ruby--was injured. She was rushed to a hospital where she succumbed to injuries.

"Anguished over the killing of young girl during a gunfight in Batmurran village of Shopian district", Mufti said in a tweet.

"It is unfortunate that a web of violence has been cast in which the local and innocent civilians of the state have been caught," she said.

In a statement, she further said that both civil society and the government should work together to end violence in the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Two days after the Gujarat assembly poll results, the Congress today began an exercise to analyse the electoral outcome at a three-day conclave that will be attended by party president Rahul Gandhi on Friday.

During the 'chintan shivir' (introspection camp), the Congress leaders and workers will analyse the election results district-wise and discuss the road-map ahead in view of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, state party president Bharatsinh Solanki said here.

In the elections, the results for which were declared on Monday, the Congress could not wrest power from the BJP even though its tally increased to 77 seats from 61 last time.

The Congress ally Bharatiya Tribal Party won two seats, and along with an independent backed by it winning his seat, the tally of the Congress-led alliance stood at 80, 12 short of the simple majority in the 182-member assembly.

The BJP retained power for the sixth time, though with a reduced score of 99 seats against 115 in 2012.

The Congress performed well in rural areas of Gujarat but failed to make a significant mark in the urban pockets.

The venue of the conclave today and tomorrow is a resort in Mehsana district and on the third and final day, the venue will shift to Ahmedabad where Gandhi will be present, Solanki said.

Gandhi, who campaigned extensively in the state for the assembly elections, will address the Congress workers on Friday.

"The Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee has organised the 'chintan shivir' with the aim of discussing the Assembly poll results and to provide a road-map to strengthen the organisation and increase its connect with the people, keeping in mind the 2019 Lok Sabha elections," Solanki told reporters.

"For two days, we will meet here in Mehsana, and on third day, we will meet in Ahmedabad where Congress president Rahul Gandhi will visit to address party workers," he said.

Congress general secretary and election in-charge for Gujarat, Ashok Gehlot, expressed satisfaction over the party's performance in the polls, while accusing the BJP of "misusing government machinery" and raising questions over the approach of the Election Commission.

"Both in terms of seats and campaigning, the Congress performed wonderfully well. Although we could not form the government, a message has been sent across that the BJP can have a tough time fighting the Congress even in the home state of (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi and (BJP president) Amit Shah," said Gehlot, who is also attending the camp.

"The way the BJP campaigned involving cabinet ministers with the prime minister himself making emotional appeals, the way they misused government machinery for polls, and the manner the Election Commission took decisions, we believe we have done exceedingly well," he said.

Senior Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil, who lost from Mandvi in Kutch district, said the party could have formed government had it won 16 seats on which it got defeated by narrow margins.

However, he took solace in the fact that the BJP was reduced to "double-digits" despite an aggressive campaigning.

"At one point after forming the government in 1985, the Congress was reduced to a mere 32 seats. This time people have supported Congress in large numbers and we have increased our seat tally," he said.

"And after 1990, for the first time the BJP has been reduced to double-digits. We were defeated by small margins on as many as 16 seats. Had we won those seats, we could have formed the government," Gohil said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The intense face-off between the BJP and Congress over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remark against his predecessor Manmohan Singh about colluding with Pakistan to influence the Gujarat polls continued for the third day today with no apparent resolution in sight.

The warring rivals dug in their heels, with the Congress insisting on an apology, or at least a clarification from Modi, and the BJP rejecting the demand outright, asserting he did no wrong.

Sources in the Congress said it is likely to stall Parliament proceedings tomorrow to press for an apology from the prime minister.

The Congress today created uproar in both Houses of Parliament and disrupted proceedings. While the day's work in the Rajya Sabha was washed out, Congress members boycotted the Lok Sabha's post-lunch sitting.

Attempts at ending the continuing showdown have failed despite meetings between the two sides.

Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu prodded them to sit together and find a solution across the table. Congress leaders including Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to thrash out a solution but confabulations were of little help as none was ready for a climb down.

Though the opposition rallied behind the Congress in the Rajya Sabha on the issue, it was isolated in the Lok Sabha with no other party joining it in boycotting the proceedings.

"The ball is in the prime minister's court," said Anand Sharma, deputy leader of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha.

"This unprecedented situation arises from his statement and involves the present prime minister and the former prime minister. It will be in the interest of parliamentary democracy that the prime minster shows grace (apologises)," he told PTI.

The BJP, however, stuck to its guns with its spokesman Sambit Patra saying Modi had not uttered a single word for which he should apologise.

He accused the Congress of giving vent to it frustration over its defeat in the recent Assembly polls by stalling Parliament.

Patra told reporters that the Congress should instead come clean on the dinner meeting Manmohan Singh had with Pakistanis as Sharma had initially denied it took place before accepting it had.

Congress leaders, including its former chief Sonia Gandhi, her daughter Priyanka and many others, "humiliated" Modi many times but the opposition party never tendered an apology to him.

"Our prime minister has not uttered a single word or done any wrong for which he should apologise," he said.

Even Naidu told the Rajya Sabha there was no question of an apology by anyone as nothing had been stated inside the House. He said there was no precedent of tendering apology in Parliament for statements made outside.

The Congress, in snide remarks against Modi, said he violated the Constitution and the dignity of his office by not acting against those behind "conspiracy with Pakistan", a charge he made against Manmohan Singh during the Gujarat poll campaign.

It said Modi should at least clarify his remark which he used to "win" the Gujarat poll.

"The prime minister is trying to break the country and tarnish the image of good peple," senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge told reporters outside Parliament.

Kharge said if the prime minister had information about the "secret" meeting Congress leaders, including Singh, had with the Pakistan High Commissioner and that country's former foreign minister which was "anti-national", why did he not act against them.

"If you had proof, you should have lodged an FIR against former prime minister Manmohan Singh and arrested him. You are tarnishing his image and questioning his nationalism," he said.

Kharge said if the prime minister had proof that any anti-national activity happened at the meeting, he could have acted against those present. Modi going public about it "violated the Constitution and lowered the 'maryada' (dignity) of his office as he is bound by the oath of secrecy", he said.

Azad said if Modi had a problem about tendering an apology, he should say it was a ploy to win the Gujarat election. "We will accept it," he said.

He also said had Atal Bihari Vajpayee been the prime minister "he would have apologised 10 times. It depends on who is the prime minister".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Congress President Rahul Gandhi today approved different party panels for assembly elections in Tripura and Meghalaya which go to poll early next year.

While Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma leads the manifesto committee of the state Congress, Home Minister HDC Lyngdoh chairs the party's campaign panel.

The campaign committee has 14 other members while the manifesto committee has seven other members besides the chairman.

For Tripura, which also goes to polls early next year, Gandhi approved different panels. Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee President Birajit Sinha will chair the party's election committee with CLP leader Gopal Chandra Roy as co- chairman.

The campaign committee will be chaired by Pijus Kanti Biswas and the manifesto committee by Amar Ranjan Gupta.

The Congress President also approved the names of other office-bearers of the All India Fishermen Congress.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Opposition Congress members today disrupted proceedings in the Rajya Sabha over the insinuations made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi against his predecessor Manmohan Singh.

Congress members rushed into the Well of the House demanding an apology from Modi for his remarks made at an election rally that Singh had allegedly colluded with Pakistan to defeat BJP in Gujarat.

Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu repeatedly reminded members of their conduct and asked them to returned to their seats. However, his pleas went unheeded, forcing him to adjourn the proceedings till 1200 hours.

No sooner had the listed papers been tabled, Congress members were up on their feet demanding an explanation from the Prime Minister on his remarks against Singh.

Naidu disallowed them.

At this point, Congress members rushed to the Well of the House shouting slogans.

Naidu asked them not to create obstruction and allow other members to raise important issues.

"This is not the way," he said. "This is Parliament. This is Rajya Sabha. Wrong message is going."



Stating that he did not appreciate their behaviour, Naidu said, "Please dont exceed limit. Please go to your seat."



With his pleas going unheeded, Naidu adjourned the proceedings till noon.
The BJP today said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had not uttered a single word for which he should apologise and accused the Congress of venting frustration of its defeat in the recent assembly polls by stalling Parliament.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra hit back at the Congress after its leaders demanded that Modi apologise for the allegation that his predecessor Manmohan Singh had colluded with Pakistan to influence Gujarat polls.

He told reporters that the opposition party should rather come clean on the dinner meeting as its leader Anand Sharma had first denied any such event before accepting it.

Patra alleged that Congress leaders, including its former chief Sonia Gandhi, her daughter Priyanka and many others, had humiliated Modi multiple number of times and the opposition party never tendered an apology to him.

It was appalling, he claimed, that the Congress had stooped down to stalling Parliament.

If anyone ever humiliated Manmohan Singh, then it was Congress president Rahul Gandhi who had torn up an ordinance proposed by the UPA government and called it nonsense, he claimed.

"Our prime minister has not uttered a single word or done any wrong for which he should apologise," he said.

The Congress ran out of issues after people showed their support to demonetisation and the GST by voting for the BJP as it used them to stall Parliament, he said.

'Vikas purush' (man of development) had defeated the 'Gabbar Singh' and anti-reform politics, he said, a reference to Gandhi's moniker of 'Gabbar Singh Tax' for the GST.

'Vikas Purush' is a reference to Modi.

When the Monsoon Session was delayed, then the Congress accused the government of not letting Parliament work and now when the session has started, it is not letting it work, Patra claimed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Chartered accountants' apex body ICAI today said certain provisions in the proposed amendments to the companies law are "very important" for the accountancy profession.

On Tuesday, Parliament passed a bill to amend the Companies Act to strengthen corporate governance standards, initiate strict action against defaulting companies and help improve ease of doing business.

The Rajya Sabha passed the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2017 by voice vote. It was cleared by the Lok Sabha in July this year.

"We are happy that some of the provisions that have been brought through this amendment are very important for the accountancy profession," the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) said in a statement.

These include provisions that auditors are now required to report on Internal Financial Control with reference to financial statements only and rationalisation of penalties such as fines for auditor default linked with audit fees.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The National Green Tribunal today directed the Ministry of Agriculture to file an affidavit stating details of the minutes of a meeting held to frame a national policy to prevent the "rapid decline" in population of indigenous breeds of cattle across the country.

A bench headed by Acting Chairperson Justice U D Salvi also asked the other stakeholders in the case to place on record their views along with all the material concerned within two weeks.

During the hearing, advocate Sumeer Sodhi, the counsel for petitioner Ashwini Kumar, said that applicant, who was allowed by the tribunal to attend the meeting, did not participate in it and, therefore, he would like to submit his response on the livestock policy.

The matter will now be heard on February 1.

The NGT had earlier directed the governments of West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Goa, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura to participate in the meeting to frame a national policy.

The green panel had earlier directed the ministry and the Department of Animal Husbandry, which falls under the agriculture ministry, to hold a meeting with all the states and Union territories and come out with a common policy on the issue.

It had noted that there was a nearly 80 per cent decline in the animal population in Kerala from 2003 to 2012 and claimed such a situation might lead to the extinction of the species in the state.

The tribunal was hearing a plea against the "looming threat of extinction of indigenous breeds of cattle" in the country.

It had issued a notice to the agriculture ministry on the petition which has also sought a nationwide ban on slaughter of cattle belonging to the indigenous breeds.

It has said that Indian varities of cattle were being replaced by exotic and cross-bred cows imported from Europe, Australia and the United States.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) today demanded the Jammu and Kashmir government to regularise the contractual MGNREGA employees in the state.

The employees under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) have been demanding the government to enhance their basic salary and frame job policy for them.

"We urge the government to resolve the demands of contractual employees working under MGNREGA, CPI(M) MLA Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami said.

We want them to be regularised at the earliest, he said.

Tarigami said that these employees were recruited as per merit still they were working on meager salary.

"Govt has no clear cut job policy for these employees due to which future of hundreds of qualified youths is at stake," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has signed an agreement with the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) to extend technical support for the Rooppur Nuclear Power Project (RNPP) in the neighbouring country, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

Minister of State Jitrendra Singh said in a written reply that he DAE has signed the agreement with the BAEC through its Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership (GCNEP) to extend technical/consultancy and capacity building support for the RNPP being set up with Russian collaboration.

To a separate question, he said the government had formulated a scheme aimed at detection, interception, interdiction, prevention, preparedness and response to mitigate consequences for unauthorised entry of radioactive material.

Singh added that the government had set up an institutional mechanism under the DAE at the national-level named as Counter Nuclear Smuggling Team (CNST).

"The DAE has also developed Emergency Response Centers (DAE-ERCs) for technical expertise and advice on using radiation detection, usage of instruments and systems, analysis of results of radiological survey, formulating detection and response to nuclear/radiological, including emergencies in public domain," he said.

He said a total of 23 DAE-ERCs are operational at various sites of the DAE across India.

The minister also said radiation monitoring gadgets were installed at entry points which would be useful in detection, interception, interdiction, prevention of smuggling of nuclear and other radioactive material across land crossings, borders, airport, seaport and all entry points.

"The Ministry of Home Affairs /National Disaster Management Authority have selected 56 major cities/vulnerable locations and 900 police stations for installation of these equipment," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
It was a short trip but "Suicide Squad" director David Ayer found time to roam the streets of Mumbai and discover his love for 'cutting chai' in the Chor Bazaar, which he quaintly referred to as the 'thieves market'.

The director, who arrived here for the India premiere of his Netflix sci-fi crime thriller "Bright" with lead stars Will Smith, Joel Edgerton and Noomi Rapace, loves cities and Mumbai bewitched him with its "energy".

"I just went to the thieves market and everyone was drinking it (the tea). I already had two," Ayer said as he sat for an interview over a glass of 'cutting chai', which translates into half portion of tea and is sold on streetside stalls in Mumbai.

"I really want to shoot a movie here. It is an amazing city. I love it. The energy, the people, it is incredible. In a lot of ways, India is the future. It has evolved so much so fast," he told PTI.

When pointed out that it would be difficult to shoot in the crowded streets of the Maximum City, Ayer said, "It is hard to shoot anywhere. Use the crowd."



Ayer's affection for Los Angeles, the city he grew up in, is visible in most of his movies be it "Training Day", which he wrote, or films such as "End of Watch" or "Street Kings".

He returns to the streets of Los Angeles in "Bright" but this time, he has introduced fantasy elements to tell the story. In this alternate modern-day Los Angeles, elves, humans and orcs live side-by-side.

"It is the city I grew up in. It shaped and created me in a lot of ways," Ayer said, when asked why Los Angeles and its police department fascinated him so much.

"The story of Los Angeles is also the story of the police department, if you follow the history of the city. The department has evolved and is in a good place today."



The director said with any other producer, it would have been hard to shoot on real locations as they often recreate the sets in places that offer tax rebate.

"It is hard to find places to shoot in the city. But Netflix lets you shoot where you want to. I wanted to be able to choose where I wanted to shoot the movie and it happened to be LA."



In the film, out on Netflix on December 22, Smith plays a racist cop who has to cope with his orc partner under the department's diversity drive. They eventually overcome the distrust to become friends and save the world from ruin.

"It is about Joel's character. He simply wants to follow his dream but he is blocked because of the way he looks. The message of the film is that 'everybody should be allowed to be who they want to be'. The fantastic elements make it easy to watch," the director said.

Two cops sitting in a car is one of the most popular images in cinema and Ayer said he used the familiar element as a doorway to tell a different story.

"Familiar is to make people comfortable. This film goes to a lot of crazy places but ultimately it is about the relationship, humour and the love these two characters have. Humour enables deeper drama, it makes it funnier to watch a film without exhausting the audience."



Asked whether he has thought about a sequel for the movie as Hollywood is all about cinematic universes now, the director said he would love to take the story forward.

"It is a big enough world and there is a lot to explore. Let us see how the movie does and if the audience wants more."



Having already collaborated with Smith on "Suicide Squad", Ayer knew the Hollywood star would be perfect to play a tough cop in "Bright".

"He is tough and he is funny. You believe that he is a cop and there is a light to him. He is a lot of fun to work with. Also, he has been making movies for a long time and has an instinct for acting and films. He gave me ideas on the sets."



Edgerton, who is also a successful writer and director, was someone Ayer wanted to collaborate with for a long time.

"I wanted to work with him and he was crazy enough to say 'yes'. It was a difficult role for him as he would be the first on the sets for the make-up, which took three hours, and he would be the last one to leave as removing it was another exercise."



"Suicide Squad" may have been panned by the US critics but fans loved the movie and made it a success at the box office. Ayer is now developing a spin-off with "Gotham City Sirens" with Margot Robbie's character Harley Quinn.

"They were really mean," Ayer said talking about the reviews.

"But it did very well. It (the spin-off) is in development and let us see what happens," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Delhi court today awarded life imprisonment to former television serial producer for killing his wife Anju 17 years ago.

Additional Sessions Judge S K Malhotra also imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on Ilyasi, who was convicted on December 16 for stabbing to death his wife.

The court also directed that Rs 10 lakh would be paid as compensation to the parents of Anju.

Earlier, Ilyasi was only charged with milder sections including 304 B (dowry death) of the IPC.

However, Anju's mother Rukma Singh and sister Rashmi Singh moved the Delhi High Court which in August 2014 ruled that Ilyasi would be tried under Section 302 for the offence of murder.

Anju was rushed to a hospital on January 11, 2000 with stab wounds she received at her East Delhi residence.

Ilyasi, who had shot into limelight after hosting TV crime show - 'India's Most Wanted', was arrested on March 28, 2000 and later charges were framed against him in the case after his sister-in-law and mother-in-law alleged that he used to torture his wife for dowry.
Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal today held a meeting with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Cabinet ministers and discussed various infrastructural projects in the national capital.

The better coordination between various agencies were also discussed at the meeting.

"Had a meeting with CM @ArvindKejriwal and other Ministers. Discussed steps for better coordination b/w various authorities for maintenance of roads, electrification, purchase and utilisation of equipments, restoring dug up roads and utilisation of land to meet infra needs (sic)," Baijal tweeted.

Minutes after Baijal's tweet, Kejriwal thanked him for the initiative and highlighted the need to work jointly for the development of the city.

"Thank u sir (Baijal). We all need to work together to improve Delhi," Kejriwal tweeted.

In the past, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government has had regular differences with the L-G office over various issues ranging from bypassing the ministers over important decisions to appointment of officers and movement of files related with several development projects.

Earlier in November, Kejriwal had accused Baijal of "disrupting an elected government by encouraging officers not to show files to ministers".

His remarks against Baijal had come after files related to teachers were allegedly not shown to education minister Manish Sisodia.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Haryana remained in news, mostly for wrong reasons, in 2017 - be it the Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh episode, the lynching of a 17-year-old boy on a train or the killing of a seven-year-old in his school.

However, there was jubilation when Manushi Chhillar was crowned Miss World and 29-year-old police sub-inspector Anita Kundu became the first Indian woman to scale Mount Everest from the China side.

Improvement in gender ratio also brought cheers to the state, which celebrated its golden jubilee year. The gender ratio reached 937 compared to 830 in 2011.

Congress and principal opposition INLD kept up the attack on the Manohar Lal Khattar government over its alleged failure on issues related to law and order, power, farmers, employees, and governance.

The year saw a re-run of the trail of death and destruction which Haryana witnessed in 2016 in the violence that followed the Jat quota stir, but this time there was mayhem after Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Ram Rahim was convicted in August for raping two woman disciples.

The widespread violence and arson, mainly in Panchkula and Sirsa, left 41 people dead and scores injured.

The Dera chief is now lodged in a jail in Rohtak, serving a 20-year sentence.

A three-day long mammoth sanitisation of the Dera premises in Sirsa was conducted in September overseen by a court commissioner. Most of the jailed sect chief's aides including Honeypreet Insaan, who remained on the run after his conviction, were arrested as Haryana Police registered 173 FIRs with nearly 1,000 Dera followers named as accused and booked on various charges.

The lynching of Junaid Khan in June shocked the entire nation. Junaid, who boarded the Mathura-bound train from Delhi, was allegedly stabbed to death when he, along with his brothers and cousins, was returning home to Khandawali village after shopping for Eid.

His body was later dumped near Asaoti village in Faridabad district.

The matter reached the Punjab and Haryana High Court which has stayed a trial court's proceedings in the case. A division bench of the court also issued notice to the Haryana government and the CBI on a plea of Junaid's family seeking a probe by the central agency into the matter.

In a shocking incident, class II student Pradhuman Thaukur was found with his throat slit in his school's washroom in Gurgaon on September 8.

School bus conductor Ashok Kumar was arrested by the Haryana Police but got bail recently after the case was transferred to the CBI. The agency apprehended a class 11 student in connection with the killing.

In December, another incident rocked the state and made national headlines. A seven-year-old girl died of dengue at Fortis Hospital in Gurgaon which billed the victim's family Rs 16 lakh for the treatment. A Haryana government panel indicted the hospital in the case saying there were "several irregularities".

State Health Minister Anil Vij termed it as "not a death, but a murder".

May and December saw two brutal cases of rape and murder involving a 23-year-old woman from Sonipat and a six-year-old girl from Uklana in Hisar.

The Opposition was up in arms against the government on the law and order front and other issues with former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and leaders like Randeep Singh Surjewala, Kiran Chowdhury, Ashok Tanwar and Abhay Singh Chautala leading the charge.

Hooda and Surjewala also addressed series of rallies raising issues of various sections including farmers. The INLD vociferously raised the Sutlej Yamuna Link canal issue and blamed the Khattar government for failing to safeguard the interests of the state.

The opposition parties also targeted the Khattar government for scrapping the Dadupur Nalvi canal project.

Hooda often maintained that the Khattar government was only doing "event management without any concrete work on ground".

Amid raging concern over rising pollution levels, apparently caused by stubble burning, Delhi and Haryana held discussions on a range of issues and dwelt on possible measures to prevent the re-occurrence of smog next winter.

During February-March, the Jats remained on warpath and sat on dharnas over their main demand of quota though their stir remained peaceful this year. In the spiral of violence which broke out last year, over 30 people had died, several were were injured and large-scale damage was caused to both public and private property at many places.

In August, Haryana BJP president Subhash Barala's son Vikas was accused of stalking daughter of a senior IAS officer from the state and this incident too remained in for days.

On the positive side, Haryana became a kerosene-free state, rural Haryana was declared Open Defecation Free in June and the BJP government also made the Public Distribution System online, which helped in keeping a tab on corruption and leakage of food-grains.

Sixty-three-year-old Khattar maintained he wanted to provide a corruption-free, transparent and accountable government and to put in his own words also to "fill many potholes" left by the previous government and ensure equitable development.

In May, BJP president Amit Shah paid a visit to Chandigarh and ruled out the possibility of change of guard in Haryana putting all speculation to rest which suggested that Khattar, a former RSS pracharak, would be replaced after there were reports on "dissident" activities by at least 16 MLAs.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Catalans were anxiously preparing today for a decisive regional vote, hoping it will help settle the bitter dispute over independence from Spain that has divided their region and rattled Europe.

The election pits leaders of the wealthy northeastern region's separatist movement against candidates who want to stay part of Spain.

Record turnout is expected but with pro- and anti- independence candidates neck-and-neck in opinion polls, neither side is likely to win a clear majority.

The regional election is being closely watched across a European Union still reeling from Britain's shock decision to leave the bloc, and wary about any breakup of the eurozone's fourth-largest economy.

The separatist drive has inflamed passions not just in Catalonia but across Spain, with the government in Madrid taking the unprecedented step of stripping the region of its autonomy after its parliament declared independence on October 27.

"I think many positions have become very extreme," said Assumpta Corell, a 21-year-old university student from the seaside city of Castelldefels who says she will vote for Ciudadanos, the centrist, anti-independence party that is scoring high in opinion polls.

"People who have one opinion will maintain it, people who have a different opinion will continue thinking differently, which is great, but the problem comes when play at dividing people even more," she said.

The election campaign has been tense and often surreal, with axed regional president Carles Puigdemont holding rallies via videolink from exile in Belgium, and his former deputy Oriol Junqueras sending out messages and even poems to supporters from behind bars.

"This is not a normal election," Puigdemont told supporters Tuesday evening in a final, virtual rally from Belgium.

"What is at stake is not who gets the most votes, but whether the country (Catalonia) or (Spanish Prime Minister Mariano) Rajoy wins" the standoff, he added.

While opinion polls suggest a narrow lead for Junqueras's leftist, pro-independence ERC, voters could ultimately hand victory to Ciudadanos, whose charismatic candidate Ines Arrimadas has campaigned on a fierce anti-nationalist ticket.

She is fighting to replace Puigdemont, who is wanted by the Spanish courts on charges of sedition, rebellion and misuse of public funds for his role in the independence drive.

"We are very close to making our dream come true," Arrimadas told supporters at a rally Tuesday in a working- class district of Barcelona.

"We are going to wake up from this nightmare on Thursday," she added.

But ordinary Catalans on all sides of the divide appeared unsure the election would bring the independence crisis to an end, regardless of who wins.

"I'm anticipating problems, whoever wins," said Marc Botey, a 47-year-old musician, as he prepared to teach guitar to a student in Poblenou, a former industrial district of Barcelona that has since become hip.

He says he will be voting for the ERC, and hopes that the vote -- at the very least -- will clarify once and for all how many independence supporters there are in Catalonia.

"We want to know how many we are to be able to decide if it's worth it," he said.

With the separatist camp in disarray, secessionists will probably put their independence drive on hold even if they win the vote.

"Even if a pro-independence government is formed it will be very cautious how it acts because it won't want to lose the restored authority the Catalan government has," Andrew Dowling, contemporary historian in Hispanic studies at Cardiff University, told AFP.

"It won't want to see that suspended again," he said.

The deposed government's independence declaration prompted more than 3,000 companies to move their headquarters out of the region, and no country has recognised the new "republic".

The Catalan crisis kicked off in earnest on October 1, when the regional government held a referendum on independence despite a ban by Spain's Constitutional Court.

The vote was marred by a brutal police crackdown and triggered Spain's worst political crisis in decades.

Neither separatist nor pro-unity parties are predicted to win a decisive majority in the 135-seat regional parliament, which could lead to lengthy negotiations to form a government.

If parties cannot agree a governing coalition, Catalonia could face elections again next year, prolonging the political uncertainty.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Record refining margins and around USD 25 million forex gains helped Essar Oil UK, which owns and operates the 9-million tonne Stanlow Refinery, report its highest ever half-yearly net income at USD 169 million.

Post-tax profit of USD 169 million or Rs 1,082.61 crore in the first half of the current fiscal is a 231 per cent growth over USD 51 million in the year-ago period, the company said.

The company said the massive jump in net income was driven by record refining margin which soared to USD 11 a barrel from USD 7.6 per cent a year ago and forex gains of around USD 25 million.

The management however said such high level of margins are not sustainable in the long-run but exuded confidence that the ongoing USD 250 million reconfiguration of the plant will help it net better margins.

The Ruias-owned the company, which is focusing on its retail expansion, will have 400 petrol pumps by the turn of 2022, and the first company-owned outlet will come up in Stanlow mid 2018, chief executive S Thangapandian told reporters in a concall from London today.

Currently the company that meets over 16 per cent of the transportation fuel demand of the British market, runs 46 petrol pumps. The upcoming Stanlow fuel pump will have two- three charging points for electric vehicles as well, he said.

"We had a record half-year net profit as the market has been good and units have been run very efficiently," he said, adding pre-tax profit more than doubled to USD 264 million.

He said innovations are made to increase high-value transport fuel throughput. Jet fuel production has increased to 135-140 kilo tonne a month from 120 kilo tone a month previously.

On the USD 250-million expansion, which will increase the throughput to 75 million barrels from 68 million barrels, will be completed by March, Thangapandian said, adding this will help it cut down on crude processing cost, improve product slate and lead to marginal increase in capacity.

Going forward, he said the company will focus on jet fuel supplies and has accordingly tied up with major airlines like Emirates, Etihad, Jet2.com and Oman Air for direct supply of the fuel.

He said the company leased a storage in Rotterdam, together with blending and jetty infrastructure, in order to cater to gasoline export markets directly. Essar has invested over USD 800 million since acquiring Stanlow in July 2011 including USD250 million for the ongoing expansion.

It can be noted that the Ruias had sold its cashcow Essar Oil India that operates a 20 million tone refinery in Vadinar to Russian government run Rosneft for USD 12.9 billion in August.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Essar Oil (UK) Ltd, which owns and operates UK's Stanlow Refinery, today reported its highest ever half-year net profit at USD 169 million on the back of record margins and operational efficiencies.

Net profit of USD 169 million (Rs 1,082.61 crore) in April-September was 231 per cent higher than USD 51 million in the same period a year ago, CEO S Thangapandian said from London.

"We had a record half-year EBITDA and net profit as the market has been good and units have been run very very efficiently," he said.

EBITDA or pre-tax profit more than doubled to USD 264 million.

"A strong operational performance, supported by product cracks has enabled us to post record figures for a half year period and again improve our delta over the benchmark margin," he said.

The company earned a record USD 11 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel as compared to a current price gross refining margin of USD 7.6 per barrel in H1 FY2017.

He said innovations were made to increase high-value transport fuel throughput. Jet fuel production has been increased to 135-140 kilo tonnes per month from 120 KT a month previously.

Essar, he said, will complete the USD 250 million investment in the expansion of the refining capacity by the first quarter of next year.

The investment in the revamping of certain units of the refinery would help cut down on crude oil processing cost, improve product slate and lead to marginal increase in capacity.

Refinery capacity would increase from 68 million barrels to 75 million barrels by March 2018, he said.

The firm, controlled by Ruia-family of Mumbai that sold Essar Oil to Russia's Rosneft for USD 12.9 billion, has 46 petrol pumps in the UK currently and is targeting 400 in five years, he said.

The company has also entered into the direct aviation fuel supply market, selling the fuel produced at Stanlow to major airlines such as Emirates, Etihad, Jet2.com and Oman Air.

He said the company leased a storage in Rotterdam, together with blending and jetty infrastructure, in order to cater to gasoline export markets directly.

Essar has invested over USD 800 million since acquiring Stanlow in July 2011.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Ethanol supply to oil marketing companies for blending with petrol will jump over two-fold in 2017-18 season at record 140 crore litre, helping sugar mills to earn Rs 5,700 crore revenue, according to ISMA.

Around 66 crore litre of ethanol was lifted by OMCs (oil marketing companies) for the ethanol blending programme in 2016-17 season (DecemberNovember). The previous record was 111 crore litre in 2015-16.

Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) attributed the jump in ethanol supply to improvement in ethanol procurement price by almost 5 per cent over last year and increase in sugarcane availability giving more molasses production.

"After two rounds of offers, counter-offers and negotiations between sugar factories/ethanol manufacturers and OMCs, against the first tender invited in November 2017, 140 crore litres of ethanol supplies have been finalised for the supply period 2017-18," ISMA said.

Maharashtra will supply 50 crore litres in 2017-18 as against only 7.5 crore litres supplied in 2016-17 season. This is because of higher availability of sugarcane and molasses, as well as better price for ethanol approved by the Centre.

Uttar Pradesh will supply maximum 55 crore litres to the oil depots within the state as well as the neighbouring States of Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, West Bengal etc. Last year, UP supplied 41 crore litres ethanol.

The third largest state supplying ethanol is Karnataka, where over 18 crore litres of ethanol supplies have been finalised by the OMCs.

It is expected that 10 per cent ethanol blending would be achieved in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra during 2017-18 sugar year," the statement said.

In Delhi, Telangana and Uttarakhand, blending level would be 8.9 per cent, 8.1 per cent and 8.7 per cent respectively.

"At an ex-distillery rate of Rs 40.85 per litre of ethanol being offered by the OMCs and as approved by the Government of India, the sugar mills and ethanol manufacturers would get around Rs 5,700 crore this year from sale of ethanol," the statement said.

This will be a big help to the sugar mills in paying the cane price to the farmers in their region.

"The requirement for 10 per cent blending, shown by OMCs, was 313 crore litres and, therefore, the 140 crore litres of ethanol supplies finalised should allow the country to reach 4.5 per cent ethanol blending with petrol consumption in 2017 -18," ISMA said, adding that 5 per cent can be achieved as some more quantities could be supplied.

Sugar production of India, the world's second largest producer, is estimated to rise at 25.1 million tonne in the 2017-18 marketing year as against 20.3 million tonne in the previous marketing year ended September.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A Delhi court today awarded life imprisonment to former television serial producer Suhaib Ilyasi for killing his wife Anju 17 years ago.

The court ruled out the demand for death sentence saying the case did not fall in the rarest of the rare category.

Additional Sessions Judge S K Malhotra imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on Ilyasi, who was convicted on December 16 for stabbing to death his wife.

The court also directed that Rs 10 lakh would be paid as compensation to parents of Anju which would be borne by Ilyasi.

Ilyasi, who was brought from Tihar jail, shouted that he was innocent and the award of life sentence is an "injustice".

During the arguments on sentence, the prosecution sought capital punishment for the former TV producer contending that he gave "a painful death to his wife".

Further, the prosecutor said that Ilyasi who was supposed to be a protector became a killer and the case fell within the realms of rarest of rare.

Ilyasi's counsel sought leniency saying he has faced around 18-year-long trial and three months in custody.

The counsel also said that he (Ilyasi) never violated the bail conditions, successfully run magazines covering bureaucrats and has no criminal antecedents.

The conviction under section 302 of IPC for murder entails punishment either life imprisonment or death.

Earlier, Ilyasi was only charged with milder sections including 304 B (dowry death) of the IPC.

However, Anju's mother Rukma Singh and sister Rashmi Singh moved the Delhi High Court which in August 2014 ruled that the TV producer would be tried under Section 302 for the offence of murder.

Anju was rushed to a hospital on January 11, 2000 with stab wounds she received at her East Delhi residence.

Suhaib, who had shot into limelight after hosting TV crime show - 'India's Most Wanted', was arrested on March 28, 2000 and later charges were framed against him in the case after his sister-in-law and mother-in-law alleged that he used to torture his wife for dowry.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
An FIR was registered today against Patidar quota agitation spearhead Hardik Patel and around 50 of his supporters for holding a roadshow on the city outskirts on December 11 without permission, police said.

The Ahmedabad Police registered the case in connection with the roadshow held in Bopal area.

"Hardik, who heads the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), and his supporters were booked under IPC section 188 for disobeying the police order," Bopal Police Inspector I H Gohil said.

Hardik and his supporters, who were on their bikes, had organised a roadshow on December 11, despite being denied permission by the district authorities, he said.

"Today, we have lodged an FIR against him and 50 other bikers for disobeying the police notification," Gohil said.

This is the first FIR against Hardik after the state Assembly elections.

Three days before the second phase of Gujarat Assembly polls, the rally-cum-roadshow on motorcycles and cars was organised, which started from Bopal and culminated at Nikol area on the other end of the city, covering a distance of around 15 km.

While Bopal area falls under the jurisdiction of rural police, Nikol area is under the city police limits.

After the roadshow, Police Commissioner A K Singh had expressed displeasure over Patel's move and said that legal action would be taken for holding the event without permission.

Singh had denied permission to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi to hold roadshows in the city during the campaign which the leaders of the two parties had obeyed.
Five members of a family, including a woman were attacked and injured with sharp weapons at a kangaroo court in West Bengal's Malda district, police said today.

Police said the kangaroo court, called 'salisisabha' in the state, was held at Jainpur village in the district yesterday evening.

The attack on the family took place as they refused to part with their land measuring 13 katha for road building purpose.

Of the five, two were critically injured and have been admitted to the Malda Medical College and Hospital. The rest are being treated at the local public health centre.

Police said 15 neighbours have been accused for attacking the family while the kangaroo court was in progress and are absconding since the incident.

A complaint has been filed against the 15 with the police.

The injured are aged between 34 and 48 years and hail from Jainpur, the police said.

The kangaroo court was called when a member of the family complained to the village leaders that they were being co-erced to give up their land.

Investigation into the incident is on, the police added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Goa Congress chief Shantaram Naik termed today the proposed Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance (FRDI) Bill, 2017 as a "virtual dacoity" on the bank accounts of common man.

"The BJP government is going to commit a virtual dacoity on the bank accounts of common people through a legislation called Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance Bill (FRDI) Bill 2017," Naik alleged.

He was speaking to reporters here to register his protest against the bill.

"If the bill becomes a law, the government can take a standdishonouring your cheques even if you have fundsin your account and deny you your right to withdraw money from your hard-earned savings," Naik claimed.

"Your own fate and the fate of your children will be at riskif the banks treat you as a pauper," he said.

He alleged that through this legislation, the BJP government seeks to financially help those banks and industrialists, who are under heavy debts.

"The government wants to rescue the financial institutions, banks and other such bodies andfraudulently transfer the hard-earned money of farmers, labourers, small traders and salaried class to salvage these financial institutions," he alleged.

The FRDI Bill proposes to create a framework for overseeing financial institutions such as banks, insurance companies, non-banking financial services companies and stock exchanges in case of insolvency.

The Resolution Corporation, proposed in the draft bill, would look after the process and prevent the banks from going bankrupt. It would do this by "writing down of the liabilities", a phrase some have interpreted as a "bail-in".

The draft bill empowers Resolution Corporation to cancel the liability of a failing bank or convert the nature of the liability.

The so-called "bail-in" clause in the draft legislation has been commented upon by experts as of bringing potential harm to deposits, in the form of savings accounts.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
After a successful month of implementing the campaign in London, the World Baloch Organisation today kicked-off human rights advertisement on taxis in New York city.

Rooftops of more than 100 yellow taxis have been placed with colourful "#Free Balochistan from human rights abuses by Pakistan," slogan in New York city, the organisation said in a statement today.

"Balochistan was annexed by Pakistan against the peoples will in 1948 and has been under military occupation ever since, with mass kidnappings, torture and executions by the Pakistan army. Pakistan wants to keep this hidden. We are doing this campaign to expose these abuses," said Bhawal Mengal, spokesperson for the World Baloch Organisation (WBO), which has organised the advertisements.

He said the campaign's "goal is to raise awareness among the American public about the ethnic persecution and gross human rights violations in Pakistan-occupied Balochistan and support the Baloch peoples quest for peace and freedom."



Alleging that thousands of Baloch people have been murdered or disappeared by Pakistani security forces, he said, "we want the US to cut off all military aid to Pakistan and hold it accountable for its crimes in Balochistan."



A similar advertisement campaign was launched in London.

Mengal said the World Baloch Organisation is a peaceful, lawful lobby against Pakistan's "war crimes and human rights abuses" in Balochistan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Greece's parliament has approved the 2018 budget, described by the government as the last under the country's multi-billion bailout, which nominally ends in August.

"After eight years...this is the final bailout budget parliament is called to approve. We leave behind a period nobody will want to remember," Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told the chamber.

"We have regained credibility in managing public funds," Tsipras said.

The Greek finance ministry is maintaining high taxation with the aim of collecting a budget surplus equivalent to 3.8 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), excluding debt payments in 2018.

And the economy is expected to grow by 2.5 per cent, compared to 1.6 per cent this year.

"This is the first budget of normality in the past seven years," said defence minister and government coalition partner Panos Kammenos.

"There will be no more bargaining for (bailout) loan tranches," he said.

The ministry last month said that enough "fiscal room" was achieved to permit tax cuts after 2018, when the country is scheduled to exit its third multi-billion EU-backed bailout.

The government has already legislated pension and tax break cuts that will take effect even after Greece exits the bailout, in 2019 and 2020.

EU economic affairs chief Pierre Moscovici has also said that Greece will remain under fiscal supervision until it repays 75 per cent of its EU loans.

"There are tight restrictions until at least 2022," said main opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis. "Greeks hope this will be the last budget by your government."



Greece is now keen to take advantage of a growing appetite for Greek debt, with its 10-year bond yields lately hovering at pre-crisis levels.

Last week, 10-year bond yields fell below 4.0 percent for the first time since 2006, and five-year bonds are around 3.5 percent.

"This means that independently accessing the markets and regaining the country's economic and political sovereignty is not just fantasy, it's a goal fully within our reach," said government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos.

According to reports, Greece plans at least two bond offerings in the first half of 2018.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Madhya Pradesh High Court today dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the appointment of law officers made by the state government.

The Indore bench of the high court, comprising justices P K Jaiswal Virender Singh, dismissed the PIL filed by activist Mahesh Garg.

The plea alleged that the appointment of law officers for representing the state government in the high court has been made as per the "whims and fancies" of the ruling BJP and the minimum eligibility criteria for the post has been ignored.

However, while dismissing the PIL, the high court cited a Supreme Court observation.

"The apex court has observed that the states should do well to reform their system of selection and appointment (of law officers) to make the same more transparent, fair and objective and if necessary, may amend the manuals/rules and regulations on the subject," the court said.

"Therefore, it is (for) the state government to consider the directions issued by apex court," it added.

The high court also dismissed the petitioner's plea seeking direction for the state government to introduce a change in the process of law officers' appointments.

"The issue of any direction as prayed for by the petitioner will be an inroad in the functions of the state government," the court observed.

Terming the allegations in the petition "baseless", the state government said guidelines had been issued on February 27, 2013 for the appointment of law officers and the appointment of government lawyers has been made as per the criteria.

On behalf of the state government, the high court was also informed that the performance of government lawyers in the court cases is being constantly monitored and reviewed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Bombay High Court today dismissed a petition filed by Tehelka's former editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal seeking quashing of rape and other charges levelled against him by a former woman colleague.

Justice Nutan Sardesai of the Goa bench of the high court dismissed the petition by Tejpal, who has been accused of raping the woman during an event in Goa in 2013.

The detailed order is expected to be pronounced later in the day.

The district court in Mapusa town had earlier framed charges against Tejpal under IPC sections 354-A (sexual harassment), 376 (rape) and 376(2)(k) (rape of a woman by a person being in the position of control or dominance over the woman), and began the trial last month.

The crime branch later added to the case IPC sections 341 (wrongful restraint) and 342 (wrongful confinement), 376 (2)(f) (person in the position of trust or authority over women, committing rape of such women), 376 C (sexual intercourse by person in authority) and 354 (assault or criminal force to a woman with intent to outrage her modesty).

"The detailed copy of the order, by which our petition has been dismissed, is not with us. So, we are not able to know on which ground it was rejected," lawyer Pramodkumar Dubey, who represented Tejpal in the high court, told PTI.

Senior lawyer Aman Lekhi, who argued on behalf of Tejpal in the HC on December 12, had then presented before it CCTV footage of the area outside the lift of a five-star hotel, where he is alleged to have sexually assaulted the woman.

Public prosecutor Saresh Lotlikar contended that the charges against Tejpal should not be dismissed without trial.

Tejpal's plea for anticipatory bail was rejected on November 30, 2013 following which he was arrested.

Tejpalwas lodged in the Sada sub-jail at Vasco and the crime branch charge-sheeted him on February 17, 2014 for rape, sexual harassment and outraging the modesty of the victim.

On May 19, 2014 the Supreme Court granted Tejpal interim bail for three weeks to attend the final rites of his mother. The interim bail was later extended to six weeks.

On July 1, 2014 the apex court granted him bail.

Earlier, on June 16, 2017 the trial court at Mapusa heard the arguments in-camera before framing the charges.

On September 7, the district court in Mapusa refused to drop the charges against Tejpal, following which he moved the high court bench here.

Tejpal had sought a stay on the framing of charges against him till the time the high court decided his plea on dropping the charges.

On September 26, the high court refused to stay the framing of charges against him, and issued a notice to the Goa government seeking its response to his plea.

On December 12, the high court had reserved its order on his petition seeking the quashing of rape and other charges against him, without specifying the date.

At the last hearing, Lekhi argued that the charges were without considering the material evidence on record, which he claimed, "shows that the prosecutrix was not restrained, confined or her modesty was outraged by the applicant (Tejpal)".

He said after the alleged incident, she was with Tejpal in the same lift for the second time the next day without showing any sign of distress.

The lawyer also claimed that the investigating officer had failed to examine several crucial witnesses named by the prosecutrix in her statement.

The investigating officer had also withheld the CCTV footage from the applicant, who got it following a Supreme Court order, Lekhi said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Delhi High Court today ordered the CBI to probe how the famous 108-foot Hanuman statue and a private two-wheeler dealership encroached upon public land in the busy Karol Bagh area here and the officials who allowed it to happen by "abusing their position".

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar directed that the inquiry be held expeditiously and the officials of multiple agencies--DDA, North MCD, Land and Development Office, Public Works Department and Mandir Marg Police Station--should join the investigation and cooperate with the CBI.

It said that the trustees running the temple should not be permitted to enjoy the benefit of money derived from the public land and directed the UCO Bank branch at Model Basti area here to freeze the account of the trust and the fixed deposits. The court said the bank should only allow deposits and not withdrawals from the account.

An anguished bench observed that the authorities and their officials were required under the statute to protect the land and prevent such activities but it was a case of "abuse of power" by them and it was "completely reprehensible".

"The fact that you (officials) have done nothing shows your culpability. It is high time that all public officers are held accountable," the bench said.

"You (DDA and North MCD) start doing your job. There is rampant trampling of city's rights," it said.

Observing that the authorities permitted the illegal constructions to come up for "obvious pecuniary advantages", the court directed the CBI to probe whether there was any "quid pro quo for permitting illegal construction" and its further development and asked the agency to file its status report on February 6.

The bench said as per the police, the monthly income of the temple from offerings is Rs four lakh but the actual figures may be more than what they were able to ascertain.

The court also asked the Delhi Police to handover to the CBI the details and documents of the inquiry conducted so far.

"Time has come to fix responsibility. Violating the Supreme Court's direction and statutory provisions cannot be countenanced. None of the authorities have taken a single step to protect the land or prevent encroachment. There is total non-compliance of statutory provisions by the authorities," it said.

The court had ordered a police probe after a committee appointed by it in May to look into illegal constructions all over Delhi had pointed to encroachments of up to 1,170 square yards on DDA land which forms part of the Southern Ridge.

It had also said that apart from the Hanuman statue, there was unauthorised construction of multiple small and big buildings of up to four floors including a residential complex there.

The bench had then directed the authorities to take action against the unauthorised construction on public land and ensure that all encroachments on the Southern Ridge are removed immediately and the Ridge is secured in terms of the orders of the Supreme Court.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Delhi High Court today upheld the decision of airport operator DIAL to partially shift the operations of Indigo, GoAir and Spicejet from Terminal 1 to T2 at the IGI Airport here.

A bench of Justice A K Chawla, however, extended till February 15 next year the January 4 deadline for the airlines to shift their operations.

The high court had on December 4 reserved its verdict on low-cost carrier IndiGo's plea against the decision of the Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) to partially shift its operations along with that of two other airlines, SpiceJet and GoAir, from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2.

In its plea, the airline had challenged DIAL's communication of October 21, asking the three air carriers to shift their flights to and from Delhi to Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru, to T2 from January 4, 2018.

All other flights of the airlines shall continue to operate from T1, the airport operator had said.

IndiGo had challenged DIAL's decision on the ground that partial shifting of its operations would inconvenience passengers, especially those on hopping flights emanating or ending at those sectors, as T1 and T2 are not connected.

Defending its decision, the DIAL had said that T1 has already exceeded its capacity and if airline operations were not shifted partially, it would lead to overcrowding of the airport.

It also contended that in case of a fire or a terror threat, an overcrowded airport would have serious consequences for which the DIAL alone would be answerable.

The airport operator said its decision was not unreasonable as it had given the airlines enough time to arrive at a consensus.

IndiGo was opposed to the shifting of its operations, saying if the decision of the DIAL was allowed, the airline would be spread across T1, T2 and T3.

The central government had supported DIAL's move and contended that IndiGo's plea was not maintainable.
India is in the process of developing a range of bulk drugs to reduce import dependence, especially from China, a top government official said today.

Although a large quantity of bulk drugs is imported from China, India has enough capacity for producing active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) G N Singh told PTI on the sidelines of a CII event here.

"We are exporting to most of the developed markets including EU, US and Japan so there is capacity, barring some of the molecules, where we are working, so that (import) dependency may also be curtailed. So, in due course of time that threat would not be there," he said.

India's bulk drug imports from top five countries stood at Rs 18,372.54 crore in 2016-17 with China accounting for 66 per cent.

The country's import of APIs from China stood at Rs 12,254.97 crore in 2016-17, while that from the US was at Rs 820.18 crore.

Singh said India has both capacity and capability to produce APIs although production of some of the bulk drugs was curtailed, driven by market dynamics.

"If need arises, the industry, the regulator, the scientific fraternity and the government are ready to meet the challenges," Singh said.

The regulator is constantly engaged with the industry on ways to address the issue, he added.

"It is an issue but not something, which cannot be solved," Singh said.

On the challenges being faced by Indian pharmaceutical industry in terms of scrutiny by regulators from across the world, Singh said: "It is good. When you are growing, you should be ready for scrutiny and when other regulators are coming it gives opportunity to address our weakness and convert it into strength."



The industry should should take it as an opportunity, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India has completed the DNA testing of the families of 39 Indians missing from Iraq's Mosul city since 2014 and forwarded the samples to Iraqi authorities for matching with the mortal remains in the graves there, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

The government has been making all possible efforts to trace the 39 Indian workers missing in Iraq and currently it is trying to obtain proof of their being alive or dead, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said in a written reply to a question.

Asked if the government has initiated and completed the DNA testing of the families of 39 Indian workers who were kidnapped from Mosul, Swaraj said, "Yes, the government has initiated the process... DNA samples, as received from our respective state governments, have been forwarded to the Iraqi authorities."



Urgent steps were taken to arrange for DNA samples of the family members of the missing Indians to assist the Iraqi authorities in their investigations, she said.

The process was initiated after Iraqi authorities informed India about the mass graves found in and around Mosul and Badush areas following the liberation of that region from the control of the terrorist organisation ISIS.

"The Iraqi Martyr's Foundation asked for DNA samples of the close relatives of the missing Indians for matching with the mortal remains...," the minister said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India and Kyrgyzstan today discussed issues of mutual interest, including the common concerns over terrorism, extremism and drug-trafficking.

The deliberations took place during the foreign office consultation here, the external affairs ministry said.

"They discussed issues of mutual interest, including common concerns on terrorism, extremism and drug-trafficking," MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.

Secretary West in the ministry Ruchi Ghanshyam led the Indian delegation while Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyz Republic Nurlan Abdrahmanov headed his team during the meeting.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India's ties with the America and Israel are prospering because there is a commonality in the belief of human values and a desire for peace around the world, Indian Ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna has said.

Indian Jewish diaspora is an important part of the Indian-American diaspora, Sarna said on the occasion of Hanukkah celebrations at the Indian Embassy here.

"Both (India-US and India-Israel) relationships, which in many ways draw strength from the other are today prospering like they have never done before," Sarna said.

"They (the two relationships) are prospering because there is a commonality in the belief of human values, in democracy in the rule of law and in the desire for peace around the world," said the Indian Ambassador at the celebrations attended by members of the Indian American Jewish community, members of the diplomatic corps and eminent Jews.

"I think that the Indian Jewish diaspora in the United States is an important part of the overall Indian diaspora, which is going to be three million strong," he said, adding that Jewishness has been playing an important role in American industry or American politics or American media.

At the same time, there is the Indian Jewish diaspora in Israel which is about 80,000-strong.

"It is this people-to-people underpinning which is a very very crucial aspect of India-US relations and India-Israel relations," Sarna said.

"This year we have a lot to celebrate. We have to celebrate the 25 years of diplomatic relations between Israel and India. We have to celebrate a very successful visit of the prime minister of India to the United States and the first ever visit by the prime minister of India to Israel.

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to visit India next month.

Addressing the gathering, Congressman Brad Schneider, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the bond of the communities in the three nations is really extraordinary.

The Deputy Israeli Ambassador to the US Reuven Azar also spoke on the occasion.

"We never had any record of anti-Semitism in India. This is another sign, another reason why there is admiration in Israel for the Indian people in general and for this relationship in particular," he said.

Hanukkah is the Jewish eight-day, wintertime "festival of lights," celebrated with a nightly menorah lighting, special prayers and fried foods.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India has been selected as the Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on Review & Reforms to look into various issues pertaining to the the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme.

The Kimberley Process is a joint initiative of governments, industry and civil societies to stem flow of 'conflict diamonds', the rough diamonds used by rebel groups to finance wars against legitimate governments.

A delegation comprising of Government officials and Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) representatives led by Joint Secretary, Department of Commerce attended the KP Plenary Session at Brisbane, Australia from December 9-14.

"At the Brisbane Plenary, India was selected as Chair for the Ad Hoc Committee on Review & Reforms (AHCRR) to reform the process for the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme," an official statement said.

Angola will be the Vice Chair of this Adhoc Committee and will work with India and other members of the Committee on the reform issues related to changes in core document, expansion of scope of the KP, permanent secretariat office, multi donor fund issues etc.

According to the statement, the Indian representation at the Brisbane meet emphasised on the guidelines for reconciliation in the working group on statistics and framework for information sharing in KPCS to eradicate the scourge of forged certificates of KPCS and to make it more secured.

"India proposed a system of procedure to make the peer review visits more professional and administratively efficient," the Commerce Ministry statement said.

Moreover, members were encouraged for introduction of measures of enforcement like My KYC Bank to enhance responsible sourcing in terms of ensuring financial transparency and giving technological solutions for differentiation between natural and lab grown diamonds by introducing affordable machines for detection to the industry.

India was appointed as the Kimberly Process (KP) Vice Chair for 2018 & Chair for 2019 in the last plenary held in Dubai in November, 2016. The EU will be KP Chair for 2018.

The Kimberley Process is also described in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions. The KPCS came into effect from 1 January, 2003 and evolved into an effective mechanism for stopping the trade in conflict diamonds.

India is the founding member of KPCS. At present, KPCS has 54 members representing 81 countries including the EU with 28 members. India is one of the founding members of the KPCS and was Chair of the KPCS for the year 2008.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Two Indian motel managers, including a woman, have pleaded guilty to conspiracy and enslaving a compatriot for well over a year, forcing him to work without pay and isolating and abusing him, according to federal authorities.

Vishnubhai Chaudhari, 50, and Leelabahen Chaudhari, 44, pleaded guilty on Monday in federal court in Omaha, Nebraska to one count of conspiracy and one count of alien harbouring for financial gain, a US Department of Justice press release said.

The two, living in the US illegally, were the managers of a Super 8 Motel in Kimball in the Nebraska Panhandle. They forced the man, an Indian national they knew to be in the US illegally, to work seven days a week, cleaning rooms, shovelling snow, doing laundry and other chores.

"Human trafficking is the modern world's version of enslaving another person for profit," said special agent in charge Alex Khu of US Homeland Security Investigations. "That is what these individuals have done to this victim."



The man was identified only as "MC" in court documents.

"This case is a reminder that forced labour occurs in the US, not just overseas," said acting US Attorney Robert C Stuart of the District of Nebraska, in the release.

MC entered the US unlawfully in 2011 and was taken into immigration custody in Texas. The Chaudharis are expected to be removed from the US once their sentence is complete, according to the indictment.

On October 13 of that year, the Chaudharis arranged for an intermediary to pay his bond and he was released from custody, the indictment says.

They then arranged for his transportation from Texas to Kimball.

The Chaudharis told MC not to communicate with guests at the motel, and concealed him when police officers were around.

The release says Leelabahen "regularly assaulted" the victim, including once where she slapped him several times for failing to clean a bathtub to her liking.

Vishnubhai threatened to find the man if he left the hotel.

The man eventually escaped with the help of a motel guest and local law enforcement, the release said.

The Chaudharis will be sentenced on March 19. They have paid the man USD 40,000 in restitution, it said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Indian Navy deployed a submarine and the P8I long-range maritime aircraft for the first time for a bilateral naval exercise with the Omani navy, according to an official statement here today.

The 11th edition of the exercise, 'Naseem Al Bahr' or 'Sea Breeze', was held on December 17 off the coast of Oman.

The exercise is a biennial feature since 1993.

The Indian Navy also deployed two naval ships - INS Trikand and INS Teg - for the exercise. The Indian ships entered Muscat on December 16 for the harbour phase.

"Delegations from the Royal Navy of Oman embarked on the Indian Naval Ship Teg on December 18 for a briefing on basic anti-submarine warfare procedures," the Indian Navy said in the statement.

The Indian Navy ships and four Royal Navy of Oman ships - Al Rasikh, Khassab, Al Mubashir and Al Bushra - sailed for the sea phase of the exercise, in which an Indian Navy submarine and the versatile P8I long-range maritime aircraft participated for the first time, according to the statement.

India has an ancient maritime tradition and maritime interaction with Oman dating back to more than 4,000 years.

Bilateral relations between Indian and Oman were formally established with the signing of the 1953 Indo-Oman Treaty of Friendship, Navigation and Commerce, a first between India and an Arab country.

Since then, naval exercises have contributed to strengthening bilateral ties between India and Oman.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hassan Rouhani has expressed his interest to travel to India and the two countries are preparing grounds for the visit, said Mohammed Haghbin Ghomi, the Consul General of Iran in Hyderabad.

"A great deal of progress has been made between the leaders of both the countries. The visit of the President of Iran is in response to Prime Minister of India Narendra Modis visit to Iran recently," the Iranian envoy said in a press conference.

"In the west Asia region, India and Iran are two decisive powers that can cooperate in various fields complementarily," he added.

As part of strengthening of bilateral relations, focus would be on economic and business relations besides cultural affairs, he said.

The CG also said that the Iranian Government is presently working on a proposal from a private airline to connect Hyderabad and Iran by a direct flight.

He condemned the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and termed it as "imprudent and provocative".

The CG called on the international community, Islamic states in particular, to intervene and "stop the implementation of the US decision because it only serves the Zionist regimes interests".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he would avoid corruption charges after he was questioned in two graft probes.

At a rally near Tel Aviv, he implied police would recommend he be indicted but that there would be no follow-up.

"There will be recommendations from the police to charge me, and then what?" the premier told a crowd of supporters from his Likud party.

Fraud squad detectives questioned Netanyahu at his Jerusalem residence on Friday, for the seventh time in a nearly year-long corruption probe.

In one investigation, the prime minister is suspected of illegally receiving gifts from wealthy personalities including Australian billionaire James Packer and Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan.

In a second case, Netanyahu allegedly sought a secret pact for favourable coverage with the publisher of the top- selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper.

The purported scheme, not believed to have been finalised, would have seen him receive favourable coverage in return for helping curb Yediot's competitor, the pro-Netanyahu freesheet Israel Hayom.

The 68-year-old premier has consistently denied any wrongdoing, and says he is the target of a smear campaign by political opponents.

Thousands of Israelis have protested in recent weeks to demand legal action against "corrupt" people in the government and their resignation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Israel is intensively lobbying countries around the world to oppose a UN resolution criticising President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital, Israeli officials said.

Thursday's vote in the UN General Assembly will indicate whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has succeeded in his efforts to drum up new pockets of support in the developing world, as well as the extent to which Israel and the US are or are not alone on the question of Jerusalem.

The Palestinians have turned to the General Assembly after the US vetoed a resolution this week in the Security Council calling on Trump to rescind his decision. While General Assembly votes, unlike Security Council resolutions, are not legally binding, they serve as a barometer of international sentiment on key issues.

The US and Israel are both placing great weight on Thursday's vote. US Ambassador Nikki Haley threatened UN member states with possible retaliation if they support the resolution, saying Trump takes the vote "personally" and the US "will be taking names." Critics accused the US of intimidation.

Israel's deputy foreign minister, Tzipi Hotovely, said that the US and Israel were making "immense efforts" to block the resolution.

"We have a very, very simple message: Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish people for 3,000 years and the capital of Israel for almost 70 years," she told Channel 10.

An Israeli Foreign Ministry official confirmed the government was making a "very vast" lobbying campaign to minimise the resolution's impact.

He said Israel is trying to persuade allies to abstain or even vote against it. He also said that Israel has asked Jewish organisations in certain countries to lobby their governments on Israel's behalf.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was discussing sensitive diplomatic contacts, refused to identify which countries Israel has approached or say how he expects them to vote. But he said he thinks the campaign will be "successful to a certain extent."



In some ways, the vote is a test of Netanyahu's foreign policy. In recent years, the Israeli leader has invested great efforts to look beyond Israel's traditional allies in Washington and Western Europe and cultivate ties with developing nations that have traditionally been supportive of the Palestinians.

He has portrayed these efforts as both a savvy strategy aimed at opening new markets for Israeli technology exports, as well as countering what Israel says is a deep-seated bias against it at the United Nations.

This year alone, Netanyahu has visited China and hosted India's prime minister, Narendra Modi. He also has attended two summits in Africa, meeting with a host of leaders from across the continent, and in September, became the first sitting Israeli prime minister to visit Latin America with stops in Argentina, Mexico and Colombia.

The votes cast by these countries will provide an indication about whether the diplomatic outreach is paying off.

Votes by other key allies with traditionally close ties to Israel, including Germany, Britain, Australia, Canada and smaller European countries like the Netherlands, Poland and Hungary, could also provide valuable indicators about support for the US-Israeli approach.

Many of these countries either abstained or opposed a landmark 2012 vote in the General Assembly that recognised Palestine with upgraded status as a nonmember state.

The Israeli official said a single vote at the UN on Thursday would not determine the success of Israel's diplomatic outreach. But he said "this is certainly part of it."



A draft of the UN resolution obtained by The Associated Press calls for affirming that any actions that "have altered the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem" have no legal effect and must be rescinded.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A court in Rajasthan today sent Shambhulal Regar, accused of hacking a Muslim migrant labourer to death, burning his body and filming the barbaric act in Rajsamand on December 6, to police custody for two days.

Regar was produced in the court today.

The court sent him to police custody till December 22, IG (Udaipur Range), Anand Shrivastav, said.

Regar, 36, had hacked Mohammed Afrazul to death and burnt the body on December 6.

Afrazul had migrated to Rajsamand from West Bengal for work.

Regar had roped in his 14-year-old nephew to film the killing. Regar posted videos of the killing with inflammatory and communal comments to defend the act.

Meanwhile, three persons were arrested and additional police forces were rushed to Rajsamand last evening as tension simmered after the district administration razed an illegal temple structure at Tarsingda village the night before.

Angry residents torced a car and a shop, police said.

Shrivastava said the situation was under control and no violence was reported today.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bangladesh Opposition leader Khaleda Zia has sent a legal notice to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, demanding an unconditional apology for her remarks on the BNP chairperson's alleged assets abroad, a party official said today.

The legal notice was sent yesterday by 72-year-old Zia's lawyer Mahbubuddin Khokon, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told reporters.

The notice demands an unconditional apology that can be issued to the media within 30 days. Compensation will be sought through legal means if no apology is issued, according to the notice, bdnews24.com reported.

Some media outlets had published a report claiming that an anti-graft investigation in Saudi Arabia has revealed that Zia and members of her family had assets in the kingdom.

On December 7, Hasina, 70, spoke on the matter, claiming that Zia had several assets in the Middle East.

She had also hit out at the media for the limited coverage of the matter.

"I haven't noticed any eagerness to publish this news," she had said.

She speculated that the media may have covered up the story due to financial interests, the report said.

Mirza Fakhrul responded to Hasina's comments the next day, saying that the Prime Minister would have to apologise for the "baseless defamation".

Zia is accused in several graft cases, including one under which she allegedly misappropriated funds of an orphanage trust named after her husband and slain president Ziaur Rahman.

She is also being tried in another case for inducting in her Cabinet during the 2001-2006 tenure people who were opposed to the country's 1971 independence and subsequently convicted and hanged for committing war crimes.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Konkan Railway has signed an MoU with the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) to make its George Fernandes Institute of Tunnel Technology in Goa a world-class centre of knowledge in tunnel and underground structure technologies.

Konkan Railway Corporation Limited (KRCL) Chairman and Managing Director Sanjay Gupta and IIT-B Director Prof D V Khakhar signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the premier engineering institution here yesterday.

Under the MoU, IIT-B will offer technical support to the Konkan Railway to strengthen the George Fernandes Institute of Tunnel Technology (GFITT) at Madgaon in Goa, a release issued by KRCL said.

Underlining the objectives of the collaboration with IIT-B, a spokesperson of KRCL said they want to develop GFITT into a world-class premier centre of knowledge in tunnel and underground structure technologies.

"We also want to provide an opportunity to under- graduate and post-graduate scholars of IIT-Bombay to gain a practical experience and participate in the research and development programmes in tunnelling and underground spaces," he said.

The institute has been named after former railway minister George Fernandes, who is said to be the driving force behind the Konkan Railway, the release said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Madras Engineer Group (MEG), also known as the Madras Sappers, will commemorate their 237th anniversary during a three-day event beginning here tomorrow.

The men of Madras Sappers, affectionately called 'Thambis' (Younger Brother) across all ranks, ages, both serving and retired, along with their families,will congregate at their sprawling alma mater, located near Ulsoor Lake to commemorate the event.

The event will commence by paying homage to the martyred soldiers at the War Memorial built by the 'Thambis' themselves, and wreaths will be laid to honor the sacrifices of the fallen heroes, an official release said.

It said subsequently, the 'Thambis' during the elaborate Mono Drill and ceremonial parade would showcase their clock-work precision, coordination and the team work.

Veer Naris (war widows) will be felicitated during the occasion, which will be followed by a conference of the Regimental Commanders to take a stock of the issues pertainingto training, career management and welfare of the Thambis andto find ways to refine and realign the training methodologies.

Madras Sappers (a regiment of the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army) draws its origin from the erstwhile Madras Presidency army of the British Raj.

It was raised at St Thomas Mount, Madras on September 30, 1780, as two companies ofPioneers.

The Corps, whose headquarters was moved to Bengaluruin March 1865, is the oldest among the three groups of the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Maharashtra Assembly on Wednesday passed a bill to amend the Maharashtra Self-Financed Schools Act, 2012, which proposes to allow private companies to open schools, amid opposition by the Congress and the NCP.

The bill will be discussed in the Legislative Council before being finalised.

So far, only private trusts, registered societies and government bodies were entitled to run self-financed schools in the state.

The amendment bill was introduced by Education Minister Vinod Tawde.

It allows companies registered under section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013, to set up schools.

It essentially means that corporates who are registered as non-profit firms can only open schools across the state.

"These schools will have to comply will all other rules and regulations like any other school in the state," Tawde said.

During the discussion on the bill, Opposition Congress and NCP raised objections over allowing private .

"Primary Education is not a business model, but it is a responsibility of the government. While we promote privatisation, this kind of privatisation in the field of primary education will destroy the education system of the state," senior Congress leader and former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said.

Former deputy chief minister and NCP MLA Ajit Pawar too raised questions on allowing private companies in the field of education.

"What we can say from our experience in the past government that such move will create enormous number of fake schools throughout the state for the sake of profit. This may further lead to demand of seeking a government bail-out package," Pawar said.

The proposed amendment to section 3 of the Act also reduces the space required to open a school in Mumbai to 500 square metres, and in other areas to one acre from two.

"In Mumbai, the space required earlier was 2,000 square metres," Tawde said.

"In such cases, we have asked the schools to tie up with local governing bodies to make arrangement for playgrounds. We will not allow any private company to set up a school without such tie-ups," he said.

Replying to the discussion, Tawde said all rules and regulations required for opening schools currently will remain the same.

"We are only introducing one additional entity, which can open the self-financed schools. These companies will strictly be registered as non-profit companies and therefore cannot be opened just to make money," he said.

The BJP is the single largest party in the 288-member Assembly.
The Maharashtra government today told the Legislative Council it will everything possible to facilitate the clearance of dues and absorption of 1,400 employees of troubled private ground handler Cambata Aviation.

Minister for Labour and Skill Development Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar gave the assurance when members raised the issue in the Upper House during the Question Hour.

MLCs Kiran Pawaskar, Hemant Takle, Jayant Patil, Bhai Jagtap and others raised the issue of 2,100 distressed employees of Cambata Aviation.

They sought to know the status of pending dues and the issue of absorption of 1,400 of the company's staffers into its principal employer, GVK.

Replying to the queries, Patil Nilangekar said the issue falls under the Centre's purview but the the state government had initiated meetings with all stakeholders to facilitate clearance of dues of these employees.

"The government has also attached the properties of Cambata Aviation in Mumbai to facilitate the clearance of dues. Similarly, we have told the Central government that injustice has been done to the distressed employees."



Besides, the responsibility of these employees has fixed on the principal employer, GVK, the minister said.

"The government will do everything possible to facilitate the clearance of dues and absorption of 1,400 employees of Cambata Aviation," he said.

The private ground handler ceased operations in Mumbai and Delhi several months ago, leaving scores of employees in the lurch. Salaries of Cambata Aviation employees have been pending since February last year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today remembered Bengali writer, painter, violin player and composer Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury on his 102nd death anniversary.

"Solemnly remembering the creator of immortal stories for children, Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury on his death anniversary," Banerjee wrote on her Twitter handle this morning.

Born in 1863 in Kishoreganj, now in Bangladesh, Upendrakishore had made significant contributions in children's literature.

His prominent works include "Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne", children verses in "?un?unir Boi" and translation of epics - "Chheleder Ramayon" and "Chheleder Mohabharat".

Most of the illustrations in his books were done by Ray Chowdhury himself.

Ray Chowdhury, the father of the eminent writer Sukumar Ray and the grandfather of renowned filmmaker Satyajit Ray, was also a leading member of the Brahmo Movement in Bengal.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Armed Maoists today abducted an assistant station master (ASM) and a porter from a railway station in Munger district and set on fire the signalling panel, disrupting railway traffic early this morning.

Around 15 Maoists including women attacked Masudan railway station at around 2 AM, said Kripasagar, SHO of GRP police station at Jamalpur.

They caught hold of ASM Mukesh Kumar and porter Nirendra Mandal and took them away.

The left wing extremists also set ablaze the signalling panel and threw official papers into the fire, the SHO said.

He said railway traffic was disrupted on Jamalpur-Kiul section for about an hour due to torching of the signalling panel. Movement of trains was restored after the fire was extinguished.

Efforts were on to trace the abducted railway personnel and secure their release, the SHO said.

The attack comes on a day when Maoists had called for a 24-hour bandh across Bihar and neighbouring Jharkhand in protest against operations against them.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Maoist rebels abducted an Assistant Station Manager and a porter, and set ablaze a signal panel at Masudam station in Bihar's Munger district in a midnight attack, disrupting movement of trains on Kiul- Jamalpur section through the day, police said today.

The abducted ASM and railway porter were released in a forest after spending several hours in captivity, SP (Railway), Jamalpur, Shankar Jha told PTI over phone.

The naxalite group--CPI (Maoist)-- is observing a bandh in Bihar and Jharkhand today to protest police action against its cadre.

Chief Public Relations Officer of Eastern Railways, Ravi Mohapatra, however, said the railways had no official confirmation about the release of ASM Mukesh Kumar and porter Nirendra Mandal.

An armed squad of around 15 underground rebels that also had some women set ablaze the signalling panel before abducting the two.

The SP said the Maoists set free Kumar and Mandal in a nearby forest after they learnt about a "huge" contingent of security personnel combing the area and fled.

Kripasagar, the station house officer of Government Railway Police Station, Jamalpur, said the extremists threw some official documents they had snatched in the fire that engulfed the signalling panel.

Masudam railway station is under the Malda division of Eastern Railways.

The movement of trains was restored after the fire was doused around 5:30 a.m. but had to be suspended again at 6:40 a.m. following a phone call, apparently from Maoists, to the control room in Malda threatening to kill the captives if traffic was not stopped, Mohapatra said.

"The Maoists said they would kill the railway personnel they had abducted if trains are allowed to ply on the Kiul- Jamalpur section," Mohapatra said, adding it forced the authorities to divert or short terminate some trains.

Some trains were run through alternative routes via Jhajha and Barauni, while a few others short terminated, East Central Railway CPRO Rajesh Kumar said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Max Healthcare claimed its hospital in Shalimar Bagh in the city has resumed operations from today after an "appropriate" authority "stayed" its licence cancellation, though the appellate body did not confirm it.

A week ago, the hospital group had filed an appeal in the the Court of the Financial Commissioner against the cancellation of the licence of its hospital in north-west Delhi by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) of the city government.

Max Healthcare in a statement issued today claimed, "Max Hospital, Shalimar Bagh has resumed its operations from today, following a stay order issued by the appropriate appellate authority to whom an appeal was made."



However, an official from the Court of the Financial Commissioner, when contacted, did not share the copy of the stay order, saying, it can only be issued to the parties concerned.

Max Healthcare authorities, when contacted also declined to share a copy of the stay order.

"We are fully focused on providing quality care to all our patients and honouring our commitment of ensuring free treatment to the economically weaker sections of the society," the private hospital group further said in its statement.

The Financial Commissioner is a statutory post and the incumbent exercises the powers of the Lt Governor or Chief Commissioner, delegated under various statutes, according to details on the website of the Financial Commissioner.

The DGHS of the Delhi government's health department had cancelled licence of the hospital for multiple instances of alleged medical negligence, including a case in which one of the twins was found alive after being declared dead by the facility.

The licence cancellation case pertains to the premature twins, one of whom was wrongly declared dead on November 30 at the hospital where he was born, and who died during treatment at a nursing home in Pitampura a week later.

Both the babies were declared stillborn by the hospital and handed over to the family allegedly in a polythene bag. But to their utter horror, they found that the boy was still alive, while they were on way to do their final rites.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prince Harry and his bride-to-be Meghan Markle arrived at Buckingham Palace today for a traditional pre-Christmas lunch hosted by his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II.

The 36-year-old American actress, who got engaged to the fifth in line to the British throne last month, was extended the invitation as a break from royal tradition, with such an honour usually accorded only to married partners of the Queen's family.

The British monarch traditionally hosts a festive lunch for the 91-year-old monarch's family before leaving for her private Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, where she spends the rest of the Christmas period.

Markle, who is set to marry Prince Harry in Windsor on May 19 next year, has also been invited to join the festivities at Sandringham this year.

The 33-year-old Prince was pictured driving his fiancee through the palace gates in a Tata Motors-owned Land Rover Discovery.

Dozens of members of the extended royal family most of whom do not get an invitation to Sandringham gather each year for the family get-together at the London home of the Queen.

It is believed that it would be the first time for Markle to meet many of Prince Harry's extended family members.

Harry's older brother Prince William also drove his family to the palace in a Range Rover with wife Kate Middleton in the passenger and their childrenPrince George and Princess Charlotte at the back on either side of their Spanish nanny Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are expecting their third child in April.

Prince Harry had earlier officially taken over his grandfather's position as Capitan General of the Royal Marines,after the appointment was approved by the Queen.

Harry accompanied Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, on his final duty as general yesterday as they hosted the incoming and outgoing Commandants General at Buckingham Palace.

The 96-year-old Duke, who had retired from royal duties earlier this year, has been associated with the Royal Marines since 1953, when he was appointed in succession to the Queen's father King George VI.

"The Queen has been pleased to give her formal approval to the appointment of His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales as Captain General Royal Marines," a Buckingham Palace statement said.

Prince Harry started his military career at Sandhurst in 2005 before he was commissioned as second lieutenant in the Household Cavalry, Blues and Royals.

The Corps of the Royal Marines is at the heart of the Royal Navy's amphibious capability and is considered one of the world's elite commando forces.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday called for strengthening the BJP at its roots for a win in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and also pitched for promoting young faces inside and outside the party.

Addressing the BJP parliamentary party here, Modi pushed for promoting the new generation for a "New India", a vision for 2022 promoted by his government.

He also urged party leaders not to be affected by the opposition's "disinformation" campaign against the BJP, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar told reporters.

Booth level work, which is the root of a poll campaign, is the mother of an election victory, Kumar quoted Modi as saying.

"He called for strengthening the party at its roots across the country," Kumar said.

Party sources said Modi turned emotional a few times as he recalled how the party organisation was built in Gujarat and young leaders were groomed by their seniors, including former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

With the Congress claiming a "moral victory" for scoring its highest tally and pushing the BJP's to its lowest score in the last many elections, Modi asserted that it was a big win for his party in his home state.

No party in power at the Centre had done this well in elections across the country in over three years of tenure as the BJP had done, he said, referring to its winning streak in Assembly elections.

Modi fondly recalled how Vajpayee congratulated him in person when the party fared well in a Lok Sabha election from Gujarat, noting that he, then a relatively new entrant to the BJP from the RSS and a general secretary in charge of the state, was not widely known in the party, sources said.

Seeking the promotion of young leaders at every level in the organisation, Modi referred to his association with party president Amit Shah, who was present at the meeting, and spoke about how he groomed Shah, 14 years younger to the prime minister, they said.

"Modi called for strengthening the party at its roots across the country. He said the work at the booth level is most important, beside people's blessings to the party, for creating a wave in its favour," Kumar told reporters after the meeting.

Modi wanted younger generations to be connected with party work, social work and for building the nation. He noted that the "millennial generation" would be eligible to vote from 2018.

In his address, Shah attacked the Congress over its claim of a moral victory in the Gujarat polls, saying it was a "laughable exercise" for the opposition party to see victory in defeat.

By getting more than 49 per cent of the votes, the BJP had received its highest share in the last many elections, including in 2012, when it won 116 seats against the 99 this time.
Bangladesh minister Obaidul Quader today lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his role in strengthening the Indo-Bangla bilateral relations and said his country wanted a "logical, practical and acceptable solution" to the Teesta water-sharing issue.

The emotive issue features prominently in the bilateral relations of the two countries.

"India is our time-tested friend. It stood beside us at the time of crisis. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has played a crucial role in further strengthening the bilateral relations by speeding up the process of signing the Land Boundary Agreement in 2015. The bilateral relations have achieved new heights. It is a constructive partnership," the Bangladesh transport minister and general secretary of the Awami League, the ruling party of that country, said.

About the status of the Teesta issue, he said, "Discussions are on. Modi, during his visit to Dhaka (in 2015), had assured our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and our people are hopeful because of his assurance. We are hopeful about a logical, practical and acceptable solution to the Teesta water-sharing issue."



India and Bangladesh were set to ink a deal on Teesta water sharing during the then prime minister Manmohan Singh's Dhaka visit in 2011, but West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had declined to endorse it, citing a scarcity of water in her state.

Banerjee, who is still opposed to the Teesta Treaty, had earlier this year offered an alternative proposal of sharing the waters of the Torsa and Manshai rivers with Bangladesh.

Asked to comment on Banerjee's proposal, Quader said, "It is her personal opinion, we cannot comment on it. It is for the central and state governments to discuss among themselves. We are discussing the matter with the government of India."



Quader said both India and Bangladesh should fight together against the menace of terrorism as it was a common enemy of both the countries.

On military cooperation between the two countries, he said Bangladesh was ready to provide all the help for the sake of its interests.

India and Bangladesh had recently held a field-training exercise -- 'SAMPRITI 2017' -- at the Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School at Vairengte in Mizoram to strengthen the interoperability and cooperation between the armies of the two countries.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Shares of Morepen Laboratories today surged nearly 18 per cent after the company said the US health regulator has given approval to Montelukast Sodium, used in managing asthma symptoms and seasonal allergies, for sale in the US market.

The stock soared 17.42 per cent to Rs 29.65 - its 52- week high - on BSE.

At NSE, shares of the company zoomed 17.89 per cent to touch a one-year high of Rs 29.65.

"The US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has cleared Montelukast Sodium, a bulk drug/API manufactured by Morepen Laboratories, for sale in the US market," the company said in a regulatory filing.

"This gives Morepen an entry into the Rs 2,000 crore (approximately USD 300 million) US market for Montelukast. The first commercial orders for the bulk drug are expected in the second quarter of the next financial year," it added.

Morepen is the market leader for Montelukast in India with over 50 per cent market share, supplying to almost all major finished dosage manufacturers in India, it said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The finance ministry today said it has not provided the entire amount towards capital infusion in as most of them failed to meet the performance target.

As part of Indradhanush Plan to revitalise state-owned lenders, the government had proposed to infuse Rs 70,000 crore out of Budgetary Allocations in them.

The plan envisaged Rs 25,000 crore each in 2015-16 and 2016-17 and Rs 10,000 crore each in 2017-18 and 2018-19.

So far, it has infused Rs 51,858 crore in (PSBs).

The government allocated Rs 22,915 crore in 13 PSBs during 2016-17 under the first tranche of capital infusion out of which Rs 16,414 crore or 75 per cent was given upfront.

"The remaining amount was to be infused based on the performance of the respective PSBs.

"However, none of the banks could achieve the set targets and therefore, the remaining 25 per cent of the allocated capital has not been released so far," the ministry said.

The PSBs in which capital infusion was made in 2016-17, include State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank and Bank of India.

Earlier this year, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced a Rs 2.11 lakh crore capital infusion in PSBs, including Rs 1.35 lakh crore worth recapitalisation bonds.

As per sources, the government is working on the modalities for issuing the recapitalisation bonds as it aims to front-load the infusion with an aim to strengthen the state-owned banking sector.

The 21 PSBs together account for about 70 per cent of the market share.

The Nifty PSU index was down 1.15 per cent on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).
Muslim organisations were not consulted before the government framed a draft bill to criminalise the practice of instant triple talaq, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

Law Minister Ravi Shankar said the government believed that the proposed bill would help ensure gender justice, gender equality and dignity of women.

The government has maintained that since the practice of instant triple talaq or 'talaq-e-biddat' continues despite the Supreme Court striking it down, there is a need to bring a law.

To a written question on whether the government consulted Muslim organisatons before framing the draft law, Minster of State for Law P P Chaudhary replied in the negative.

In a separate written reply, Prasad said, "The government is of the view that the issue arises from the humanitarian concept of gender justice, gender equality and dignity of women and not arising from faith and religion."



He said that since the Supreme Court struck down the practice of instant triple talaq, nearly 66 cases of husbands divorcing their spouses through this method were reported.

On December 15, the union cabinet cleared the Muslim Women Protection of Rights on Marriage Bill, which seeks to make the practice of instant triple talaq "illegal and void" and provides for a jail term for the husband.

The husband could also be fined and the quantum of fine would be decided by the magistrate hearing the case.

The proposed law would only be applicable on instant triple talaq or 'talaq-e-biddat' and it would give power to the victim to approach a magistrate seeking "subsistence allowance" for herself and minor children.

The woman can also seek the custody of her minor children from the magistrate who will take a final call on the issue.

Under the draft law, instant triple talaq in any form -- spoken, in writing or by electronic means such as email, SMS and WhatsApp -- would be bad or illegal and void.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Four Muslim students secured top positions in various competitions on the Hindu scripture Gita in Rajasthan.

The competitions were held at a 'Gita Fest' organised by Akshaya Patra Foundation here.

Rajasthan School Minister Vasudev Devnani felicitated the winners of various categories at a function today.

Nadeem Khan, a Class 10 student, won the first prize in a essay competition on the Gita, while Mazid Khan, Jaheen Naqvi and Zorabia Naqvi of junior classes secured various positions in recitation of the Gita in Sanskrit, according to the foundation.

"My son has keen interest in Sanskrit and keeps on reading the subject. He is my youngest and only child among four who goes to school because he is interested in studies and want to become a scientist," said Nadeem Khan's father Asfaq Khan, a labourer.

Sixteen-year old Nadeeem Khan is a student of a government school and lives in a slum near Kanota area.

Zaheen Naqvi is a student of Class II and her cousin sister Zorabia Naqvi is Class IV student.

They were the participants in the contest on recitation of Gita verses in Sanskrit and secured 3rd positions in the junior group.

Mazid Khan, a Class 8 student, secured the third position in another group of the same competition of recitation of Gita verses.

The competitions were held last month and were participated by close to 80,000 school students in Jaipur district.

Addressing the award ceremony, the minister said that the Gita provides perfect solutions to modern-day problems.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
NCP leader Dhananjay Munde today blamed the Congress for his party going solo in the just-concluded Gujarat polls, but did not rule out an alliance with it for the general elections in 2019.

He said the NCP had demanded six seats in Gujarat, but the Congress did not agree to it.

"The NCP had demanded six seats in Gujarat. As per my information, (NCP chief) Sharad Pawar and (then Congress president) Sonia Gandhi had agreed on seat-sharing. But on the next day, the Congress announced its list of the seats, which we were going to contest," Munde told reporters here ahead of the state's Legislature's sitting for the day.

"This is how the Congress treated us and the NCP decided to go ahead. Now they should not blame us," he said.

The Leader of Opposition in the state Legislative Council was responding to a question about the NCP playing 'spoiler' in the Gujarat elections.

In the 182-member Gujarat assembly, the BJP retained power by bagging 99 seats, while the Congress got 77 seats. The NCP emerged victorious on one seat.

Asked if the NCP and the Congress will join hands for the next general and Maharashtra assembly polls, Munde said, "My hunch is that the BJP will hold the assembly elections along with general elections, which will be held in the summer of 2019."



"The workers of both the parties (Congress and NCP) are talking about the possibility of alliance before the elections. Top leaders of both the parties are aware of such expectations. It will take some time to decide on the alliance," he said.

Commenting on the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, Munde said it is clear that the two parties are not very comfortable with each other.

"The way the BJP is treating the Sena, I don't think they will contest together. Whereas both the Congress and the NCP are likely to contest general and assembly elections together," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A US expert has sought reorganisation in the NSG to maintain its effectiveness and credibility amidst the evolving global nuclear trade and a stalemate among the grouping's members over the entry of new participants like India and Pakistan.

"A redesign of the regime may also be desirable or necessary should increasingly more states become suppliers and seek to participate in the NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group)," Mark Hibbs a senior fellow on Nuclear Policy Programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said in a research paper.

Ultimately in the longer term, "a thorough going reorganisation of the NSG and the nuclear trade regime may have to be considered, especially if global nuclear trade continues to evolve away from simple point-to-point commercial actions and instead toward transactions that involve multiple participants and transit destinations, and involve complex partnerships, the research paper said.

Today's nuclear trade regime is very different from that which prevailed before the 1990s, Hibbs said.

The NSG remains bound by informal and consensus rule- making but it now has 48 members and is beset with the challenge of including future participants that have advanced and complex industrial nuclear fuel cycle industries and nuclear weapons but no legacy of commitment to non proliferation or to effective nuclear export controls, he wrote.

Two such potential candidates, India and Pakistan, are adversaries and have strategic relationships with powerful NSG members: India is rapidly developing close ties with the US and its allies in the Asia-Pacific region; Pakistan has an increasingly firm "all-weather" alliance with China, he noted.

While China has been opposing India's NSG membership, separately, both Russia and China have forged bilateral nuclear cooperation agreements with scores of countries with the aim of advancing the exports of nuclear equipment by Russian and Chinese nuclear state-owned enterprises to these destinations.

Meanwhile, nuclear industry firms in North America, Europe, and Japan suffered life-threatening political and financial crisis.

"These developments raise the question of whether in the coming years the effectiveness and credibility of the NSG and the nuclear trade regime will, to an unprecedented degree, be increasingly challenged by the high national security politics and strategic ambitions of its participating governments," Hibbs wrote.

According to Hibbs, in the view of some NSG participants and senior Indian diplomats, China's opposition to Indian membership was founded upon its geostrategic rivalry with India.

Whatever the benefits of Indian membership would be to the NSGled off by including a country with sensitive fuel cycle nuclear activities and nuclear weaponsto China the downsides included consideration that.

As one participant explained, "membership in the NSG would be put at the top of India's curriculum vita" to advance New Delhi's quest for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, a step that Beijing thus far opposes.

"China's calculus on Indian NSG membership may also include India's designs to become a serious competitor to China as an exporter of nuclear power plant systems and equipment, since India's reasons for wanting NSG membership include the expectation that participation would facilitate India's involvement in the global nuclear power industry supply chain," Hibbs said.

He said that during the last two decades, the NSG's consideration of its future relationship with India served most often as the immediate catalyst for major supplier states geostrategic behaviour and decision-making.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Delhi High Court today ruled that there was no illegality in the decision of airport operator DIAL to partially shift the operations of private carriers Indigo, GoAir and Spicejet from Terminal-1 (T-1) to Terminal-2 (T-2) at the IGI Airport here.

Justice A K Chawla dismissed the petition of the airlines, saying the facts by no means indicated that DIAL acted unfairly or unreasonably.

"The impugned decision of DIAL cannot be said to be unilateral for the simple reason that it took this decision, on account of any of the airlines, including IndiGo, failing to respond to its repeated requests and the proposals, inasmuch as, the operations of the airport is the prime responsibility of DIAL, which, it seeks to discharge," the court said.

However, it also extended till February 15 the deadline provided to IndiGo and Spicejet to shift their part operations. The deadline was going to expire on January 4, 2018.

The court further said if IndiGo and Spicejet make a request for shifting of operations of their flights other than the sectors Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru, at par with the traffic of such sectors within seven days from today, it shall be open for DIAL to consider it and dispose of within a week.

The high court had on December 4 reserved its verdict on low-cost carrier IndiGo's plea against the decision of the Delhi International Airport Ltd. (DIAL) to partially shift its operations along with that of two other airlines, SpiceJet and GoAir, from Terminal-1 to Terminal-2.

In its plea, the airline challenged DIAL's communication of October 21, asking the three carriers to shift their flights to and from Delhi to Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru, to T-2 from January 4, 2018.

All other flights of the airlines shall continue to operate from T-1, the airport operator had said.

The court noted that DIAL, in January this year, had given an opportunity to all the three airlines operating from Terminal-1 to reach a consensus for operations of their flights or even propose the flights that may be relocated from Terminal-1 to Terminal-2, as a temporary measure.

It said that the airlines failed either way, while, DIAL continued to pursue, so that the process of renovations and expansion of Terminal-1 could be undertaken, at the earliest.

The court said it was a matter of record that in the absence of any progress, the Ministry of Civil Aviation took serious note of the situation and by June 14 order, it expressed its anguish for the severe capacity constraints at Terminal-1 on account of the increased demand of the three low cost carriers.

It said that none of the issues sought to be agitated by IndiGo can be said to be in the larger public interest.

IndiGo had challenged DIAL's decision on the ground that partial shifting of its operations would inconvenience passengers, especially those on hopping flights emanating or ending at those sectors, as T-1 and T-2 are not connected.

Defending its decision, the DIAL said that T-1 had already exceeded its capacity and if airline operations were not shifted partially, it would lead to overcrowding of the airport.

It also contended that in case of a fire or a terror threat, an overcrowded airport would have serious consequences for which the DIAL alone would be answerable.

IndiGo was opposed to the shifting of its operations, saying if the decision of the DIAL was allowed, the airline would be spread across T-1, T-2 and T-3.

The central government had supported DIAL's move and contended that IndiGo's plea was not maintainable.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Uttar Pradesh government today said no NOC was given to any mechanical abattoir in the state after the formation of the Yogi Adityanath government.

The government said an order regarding this was issued to the UP Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) by the state urban development department based on directives of the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal.

"The UPPCB has not issued no-objection certificate (NOC) to any mechanical abattoir after formation of the new government," Environment Minister Dara Singh Chauhan said in a written reply to a question raised in the state assembly by Ujjwal Raman Singh of the Samajwadi Party.

After the formation of the Adityanath government, the government issued stern directives to check functioning of illegal abattoirs.

A letter was sent to all district magistrates and police chiefs by then UP Chief Secretary Rahul Bhatnagar to check illegal slaughtering and transportation of cattle.

In the letter, Bhatnagar said slaughter houses in all 75 districts should be inspected and strict action taken wherever needed.

The top bureaucrat cited various laws pertaining to slaughter and prevention of cruelty to animals as he directed officials to go full steam against illegal abattoirs.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
India has not deported any Rohingya immigrant in the past three years, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.

"As per available information, approximately 330 Pakistani and approximately 1,770 Bangladeshi nationals have been deported during the last three years. No Rohingya immigrant has been deported during the last three years," Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju said in a written reply.

The Rohingyas, who fled to India after violence in the western Rakhine State of Myanmar, have settled in Jammu, Hyderabad, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi-NCR and Rajasthan.

Illegal migrants enter into the country without valid travel documents in clandestine and surreptitious manner. Therefore, it is not possible to have a correct estimate of such illegal migrants, including Bangladeshi nationals, residing in the country, he said.

Some instances of violation of the law and involvement in illegal activities by foreign nationals have been reported, the minister said.

"Registration of cases and action thereon comes within the purview of the police stations and state governments/ Union territory administrations concerned. Statistical data of this nature is not centrally maintained," Rijiju said.

Central government is vested with powers to deport a foreign national under section 3(2)(c) of the Foreigners Act, 1946.

These powers to identify and deport illegally staying foreign nationals have also been delegated to the state governments/Union territory administrations and the Bureau of Immigration under the Foreigners Act, 1946.

"Detection and deportation of such illegal immigrants is a continuous process," he said.

Rijiju said the procedure includes sending back then and there the illegal immigrants who are intercepted at the border while entering India unauthorisedly.

The central government is also implementing a mission mode project on Immigration, Visa and Foreigners Registration and Tracking which will facilitate improved tracking of foreigners by integrating and sharing information captured during visa issuance at missions, during immigration check at the immigration check posts and during registration at the offices of the Foreigners Regional Registration Officers, the minister said.

"Law enforcement agencies also maintain a strict vigil on the activities of foreigners in the country and take appropriate action in cases of any illegal activities," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A non-representative Security Council is simply not equipped to handle the current challenges of the world, India has told the world body, reiterating the need to reform and expand the 15-member powerful unit of the UN.

Addressing a special meeting of the UN Security Council during an open debate on "Addressing complex contemporary challenges to International Peace and Security," Akbaruddin said the reasons for the lack of success of international structures designed seven decades ago in dealing with the complex challenges of today are self evident.

"A non-representative Council, designed many long years ago to maintain the balance of power among competing rivals, is simply not equipped to handle the challenges that have changed beyond recognition in the intervening decades," India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Syed Akbaruddin said.

"An instrument that is no longer considered legitimate and has lost its credibility cannot be our hope for salvation," Akbaruddin said.

India, a country of 1.25 billion people remains out of the permanent membership of the UN Security Council.

Four of its five members US, Britain, France and Russia



have supported its membership. China has been opposed to this so far. And the move to reform and expand the Security Council is itself moving at a snail's pace, resulting in frustration in the international community.

New realities cannot be addressed by using old paradigms, Akbaruddin told the Security Council.

"To tackle contemporary challenges, we need to move beyond old molds," he said.

"Until then, 'Speech Acts' like today's debate will remain just that having little impact on the billions of "we the people", who are striving to live peacefully in a safe and secure manner," he said criticicising those opposed to the Security Council reform.

Various other countries also echoed for the reforms of the Security Council.

"A reformed Security Council, with a more democratic composition, a wider membership among developing countries and more transparent working methods, would increase its effectiveness in facing the complex challenges to international peace and security," said Alex Giacomelli, Charge d'Affairs of Brazil's Permanent Mission to the UN.

"By more accurately reflecting the realities of the 21st century and including more diverse perspectives on present problems, it would preserve the legitimacy and credibility of the UN and the multilateral system as a whole, allowing us to address the true root causes of contemporary conflicts," he said.

"The world has changed, yet we are stuck with anachronistic structures, which, it is no surprise, are found wanting and ineffective in dealing with complex contemporary challenges to international peace and security," said Stephen Ntsoane, first secretary of the South African mission to the UN.

"We need greater representation and a stronger voice for those closest to and most able to assist in an effective response to these crises," he said.

"We need a Council that is adapted to proper multilateral solutions to the threats posed by the world of today, marked by consistent and non-discriminatory decision-making and the pursuance of collective, rather than narrow national security interests," Ntsoane said.

Pakistani Ambassador to the UN Maleeha Lodhi said proliferation of conflicts today is a clear sign of the need for urgent action.

"The proposed reform of the peace and security architecture is necessary but not sufficient to make a real difference," she said.

"Fundamental change in the way we deal with conflicts is required. Only then will we be able to succeed in our collective quest for sustainable and enduring peace and security," Lodhi said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
More than two lakh Chinese tourists visited India in 2017, according to data provided by the tourism ministry in Parliament today.

The figures provided by Union Tourism Minister K J Alphons in the Rajya Sabha assume significance in the backdrop of India's recent standoff with China over the Dokalam issue.

The number of Chinese tourists visiting India in 2015 was 2,06,322. While the figure rose to 2,51,313 in 2016, it saw a marginal dip in 2017 with 2,25,482 Chinese tourists arriving in the country, the minister said.

From 2015 to 2017, there was a 9.28-per cent increase in the number of Chinese tourists arriving in India, he added.

The Chinese occupied the third position as far as foreign tourist arrivals in India from the neighbouring countries were concerned, Alphons said.

Bangladesh, with over 19 lakh tourists, is on top of the list, followed by Sri Lanka with nearly three lakh tourists, China, Nepal (1,51,352), Pakistan (76,197), Myanmar (48,731) and Bhutan (22,695).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Pakistani government has formed an inquiry committee to probe reports of Sikhs being forced to convert to Islam in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, the country's High Commissioner to India told a Shiromani Akali Dal delegation led by its chief Sukhbir Singh Badal.

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief and former deputy chief minister of Punjab Badal today met Pakistani High Commissioner Sohail Mahmood here along with members of the Sikh Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee (SGPC) over the issue of reports of forced conversions of Sikhs to Islam in the neighbouring country.

The delegation impressed upon the High Commissioner that instead of forcing the Sikhs to convert to Islam, Pakistan should give credit to these brave Sikh families who have preferred to stay in Pakistan and not migrate to India in 1947, the SAD said in a statement.

Pakistan's High Commissioner to India informed the delegation that an inquiry committee has been formed to probe the issue which will submit its report at the earliest, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, an SAD spokesperson, said.

"He also told the delegation that it can assure Sikhs residing in different nations that Sikhs of Pakistan are very much part of the country and they will never face any problem in this regard," the party said quoting the Pakistani envoy.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had yesterday said that India will take up at the highest level in the Pakistan government reports of Sikhs being forced to convert to Islam by a government official in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).

Meanwhile, Badal also suggested that the Pakistan government should take on board SGPC to resolve issues related to Sikh affairs in that country.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Bangladesh minister Obaidul Quader today accused Pakistan of hatching a conspiracy with Rohingya terror groups and criticised it for supporting the war criminals of his country's Liberation War.

Pakistan did not leave any opportunity to "pin-prick" Bangladesh and Pakistani ministers spoke against the Bangladeshi government whenever there was an attempt to punish the 1971 Liberation War criminals, he said.

"They (Pakistan) cannot tolerate anything good happening in our country. They are also hatching a conspiracy with the Rohingya terror elements," the Bangladesh transport minister told reporters here.

Quizzed about Pakistan's "conspiracy" with Rohingya terror elements, he said, "We have reports that Pakistan's ISI is hatching a conspiracy with the terror groups among the Rohingya people."



The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) is a terror group of the Rohingya people.

Bangladesh, which had to deal with a huge influx of Rohingya migrants this year, following a crackdown by the army of Myanmar in the northern Rakhine province of that country, has called on the international community to intervene and put pressure on Myanmar to address the exodus.

Over 6,55,000 Rohingya people fled to Bangladesh since the crackdown began in August.

On the rights of the minorities in Bangladesh, Quader said the government had a zero-tolerance policy towards any atrocities on them and that it had asked the minorities to put up a resistance against any such attack.

"I tell my minority brothers that they are in no way inferior than our Muslim brothers. They should not suffer from an inferiority complex. I tell them that they are citizens of Bangladesh and have been part of the Liberation War," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A loan agreement for providing additional funding of euro 20 million was signed today for the project 'Pare Hydroelectric Plant' under Indo-German Bilateral Development Cooperation, an official statement said.

The broad objective of the project is generation of hydroelectric power for socio-economic development of the North Eastern region, the statement said, adding, "The purpose of the project is efficient and ecological friendly generation of electric power."



According to the statement, the project will contribute to the economic efficient generation of power and growth in the North East region and protection of global climate.

In 2008, the statement said Germany had signed a loan agreement with North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Limited (NEEPCO) for providing Euro 80 million with government of India's Guarantee for the project 'Pare Hydroelectric Plant' under Indo-German Bilateral Development Cooperation.

In a separate statement, the finance ministry said that Japanese Grant Aid signed for Bengaluru Project for Advanced Traffic Information and Management.

"The government of Japan has committed Grant Aid of an amount of JPY 1.276 billion (around Rs 72.86 crore) for the project," it said.

The statement further said project will install an Advanced Traffic Information and Management System, including signaling system and traffic congestion length measurement sensor Bengaluru.

It is expected that this project will contribute to strengthening connectivity and industrial competitiveness of local economy by improving traffic congestion and urban environment, the statement added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Philippine president has declared a Christmas truce with communist guerrillas and urges them to reciprocate the goodwill gesture after recently scrapping peace talks with the insurgents and declaring them as terrorists.

President Rodrigo Duterte's decision, which was made public by his spokesman Harry Roque Jr. today, reflects the contrasting moves the volatile leader has taken to deal with the 48-year communist insurgency, one of Asia's longest.

Defense officials have asked Duterte not to make such a cease-fire declaration.

Roque says the Dec. 24-Jan. 2 cease fire aims to lessen public apprehension during the holidays.

Duterte has formally halted talks with the Maoist guerrillas due to continuing rebel attacks on government forces and declared them as terrorists in the first step of a legal process to proscribe their group.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Congress protests over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "conspiracy with Pakistan" remark against his predecessor Manmohan Singh today led to a virtual washout of the Rajya Sabha proceedings, even as Chairman Venkaiah Naidu said there was no question of an apology.

Noisy protests by the members of the Congress and other opposition parties seeking an apology from the prime minister continued unabated throughout the day since the proceedings began.

The Upper House saw two adjournments during the pre-lunch period, till the Chair finally called it a day a little after 2 PM.

The prime minster's remarks also had its toll on proceeding in the Lok Sabha, where Congress members staged a walkout and boycotted the proceedings in the afternoon.

In the Upper House, Congress members raised slogans and created uproar soon after the House met for the day. As the protesting members entered the Well raising slogans, Naidu adjourned the House first during Zero Hour till noon and then during Question Hour till 2 PM.

Earlier, Chairman Venkaiah Naidu said there was no question of giving an apology on the issue as nothing has been stated inside the House.

"Nobody is going to give apology. Nothing happened in the House. No statement is made in the House. There is no practice of suspension of Question Hour. Don't make a mockery of the House. Already wrong message is going," a visibly agitated Naidu told the protesting members when the House reassembled at noon after the first adjournment.

However, Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said a little before the House was adjourned for the day, "We are not demanding an apology...But PM should come to the House and say that he has made such statements to win the elections..."



Raising the issue, Azad said the prime minister should clarify that he had made "such serious allegations" against a former Prime Minister, a former Vice President and an ex-Army Chief for winning elections and it was an election stunt.

"Not even an ordinary MP or a worker can think of joining hands with Pakistan...For the last few days, we have been demanding that the PM should clarify on it...Tomorrow it is his Question Hour... he should clarify," Azad said.

Pointing at former Army Chief V K Singh who was present in the House, Azad said serious allegations have been levelled against a former Army Chief and others.

Amidst the din, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien asked Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to move the Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy Bill, 2017 for consideration and passage.

However, as the members trooped into the well and started raising slogans like "Pradhan Mantri Sharam Karo" (PM have shame) and "Jhoothe Aarop Wapas Lo" (withdraw false allegations), Kurien asked the House to maintain order and let him take up the Bill.

As the uproar continued, Kurien said "the Leader of the Opposition has raised the point. Even without knowing whether government has a reaction to it, how do you come to conclusion? The Chair can do nothing about it. I will be forced to adjourn the House."



When repeated appeals failed to bring the House to order, Kurien said "You don't want to work... Can we discuss with Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Leader of the House, Leader of the Opposition and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, the subject you are raising?"



However, as the ruckus continued he adjourned the House for the day.

Earlier in the day, the Chairman had disallowed the protesting Congress members from raising the issue and warned them not to create obstruction and allow other members to raise important issues.

"This is not the way," he said. "This is Parliament. This is Rajya Sabha. Wrong message is going."



Stating that he did not appreciate their behaviour, Naidu said "please don't exceed the limit. Please go to your seat". Thereafter, he adjourned the House till noon.

Later when the House met again for Question Hour, Naidu's pleas to allow the House to function did not find favour with an unrelenting opposition.

"Don't attempt to snatch the rights of others. Let the members have the opportunity to ask their questions. Questions have been listed and much money has been spent...This is not the way," he said.

However, as the unrelenting members continued their uproar, the Chair adjourned the House till 2 PM.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Congress today accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of violating the Constitution and the dignity of his office by not acting against those behind "conspiracy with Pakistan", a charge he made against his predecessor Manmohan Singh during the Gujarat poll campaign.

It said Modi should at least clarify his remark which he allegedly used to "win" the Gujarat election, saying had it been Atal Behari Vajpayee as prime minister, he could have apologised 10 times.

The party also alleged that Modi was trying to break the country and blemish the image of his predecessor. It earlier demanded an apology from the prime minister.

The Congress earlier created an uproar in both the Houses of Parliament and disrupted proceedings. While the day's work in the Rajya Sabha was washed out, its members in the Lok Sabha staged a walkout and boycotted the lower house post- lunch.

"The prime minister is trying to break the country and blemish the image of good peple," senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge told reporters outside Parliament.

He said if the prime minister had information about a "secret meeting" between senior Congress leaders and the Pakistan envoy and its ex- foreign minister which was "anti- national", then why did he not use the Intelligence Bureau and other agencies at his disposal.

"If you had proof, you should have lodged an FIR against former prime minister Manmohan Singh and arrested him. You are tarnishing his image and questioning his nationalism.

"If the prime minister had proof, why did he not take the services of intelligence agencies if there was something anti-national. He has thereby violated the oath of secrecy he has taken...If it was not in the nation's interest and was anti-national, then you have violated the Constitution and the 'maryada' (dignity) of office," he alleged.

The Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said opposition parties have demanded that the prime minister clarifies the serious allegation he made during the Gujarat election about a "secret" meeting between the Pakistan envoy and an ex-foreign minister and Manmohan Singh, former vice president Hamid Ansari and an ex-Indian Army chief.

"When the countrys prime minister publicly accuses Manmohan Singh of conspiring with Pakistan then it is a very serious allegation and he should clarify.

"If he has a problem in seeking an apology, then the prime minister should say that to win the Gujarat election he threw a stunt, a "gola" (ball). It is acceptable to us," he said.

Azad said had Vajpayee been there (as prime minister), "he would have apologised 10 times. It depends on who is the prime minister".

"If the prime minister is taking his words back, we will accept that too. Then he need not apologise. He should only say that he said it to win the Gujarat election," he said.

Azad said Modi should state in Parliament that the BJP was losing in Gujarat and it had no other option but to "concoct" the story of "conspiracy with Pakistan", seek public sympathy and portray Congress leaders as anti-national.

"Let the prime minister say and admit that his job is done and now the BJP has won the election, hence I take back my words. We will accept that. The one who has levelled allegations, should explain. If there is truth in his allegations, the people concerned be punished. We are ready for it," he said.

"It is the culture of the BJP to abuse, call people anti-national, beat them, fire bullets at them. This has become an order of the day," he alleged.

"There is only one way in a democracy and that is Parliament. The prime minister and the former prime minister, who is facing the allegation, both are members of Parliament," he said, adding that Modi should clarify in Parliament.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Police today "ruled out rape" of the blind girl who was attacked by unidentified persons in Odisha's Ganjam district.

There was an attempt to murder the 16-year-old visually challenged girl by slitting her throat at Puhundi village under Jarada police station limit yesterday.

The doctors who examined the victim at MKCG Medical College and Hospital here categorically said there was "no signs of rape", said additional superintendent of police (Berhampur) Trinath Patel.

He along with some senior police officers was in the village for the second day today for investigation of the incident.

"We are still clueless about the miscreants" he said.

Police, however, said "some clue might be come out about the offenders, after grilling the mother of the victim. We are not questioning her as the condition of the victim is critical," Patel said.

The victim, a 16-year old student of Class VII in the Blind School here was found on the backside of her house in a pool of blood by her mother on early morning of Tuesday and rushed to the community health centre (CHC) Patrapur from where she was referred to MKCG Medical College and Hospital here.

The victim was not able to speak as her vocal cord was affected in the attack, he said.

Sources said the victim along with her brother, who is also a visually impaired and mother were sleeping in a room.

In the early morning, when her mother could not locate her, she rushed to search for her and found her on the backside of the home lying in a pool of blood.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The following are PTI's top/ expected stories at 5 pm:



STORIES IN THE PIPELINE:



New Delhi_Cabinet meeting scheduled for later in the day



New Delhi_Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu to give away the 12th Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards



STORIES ON WIRE:



CAL3 WB-KARNAN-RELEASE Former Calcutta HC judge Karnan released from jail



Kolkata: Former Calcutta High Court judge C S Karnan was released from jail today after serving a six-month sentence for contempt of court.

CAL4 BH-MAOISTS-LD ABDUCT Maoists kidnap railway workers, force suspension of service



Munger (Bihar): Armed Maoists abducted two railway workers from a station here in a midnight attack and threatened to kill them if trains moved during a bandh they had called, forcing the suspension of service in the Kiul- Jamalpur section.

MDS4 TN-VIDEO-AIADMK Jaya video released with eye on RK Nagar bypoll: AIADMK



Chennai: The ruling AIADMK today hit out at the VK Sasikala family over the release of a purported hospital video of late J Jayalalithaa, saying it was a "conspiracy" and a "demeaning" act with an eye on tomorrow's RK Nagar bypoll.

MDS5 KL-SUSPENSION Anti-govt remarks: Ex-Vigilance chief faces suspension in Ker



Thiruvananthapuram: The CPI(M)-led LDF government in Kerala today suspended DGP Jacob Thomas, the senior-most IPS officer in the state cadre, for anti-government remarks.

BOM9 GJ-POLLS-CONG-INTROSPECTION Cong begins analyses of Guj results, Rahul to join on Friday



Ahmedabad: Two days after the Gujarat assembly poll results, the Congress today began an exercise to analyse the electoral outcome at a three-day conclave that will be attended by party president Rahul Gandhi on Friday.

BOM6 GJ-HARDIK-ROADSHOW-FIR FIR against Hardik Patel for holding roadshow sans permission



Ahmedabad: An FIR was registered today against Patidar quota agitation spearhead Hardik Patel and around 50 of his supporters for holding a roadshow on the city outskirts on December 11 without permission, police said.

DEL19 SINOINDIA-BORDER-TALKS Sino-India border talks on Friday in shadow of Dokalam episode



New Delhi: India and China will hold the next round of border talks here on Friday, the first after the 73-day-long military standoff between the two countries in Dokalam this summer.

DEL16 BIZ-TAX-CROREPATI Number of 'crorepatis' in assessment year 2015-16 grew 23.5%



New Delhi: Individuals with over Rs 1 crore of declared income rose 23.5 per cent to 59,830 in tax assessment year 2015-16, but the higher number of 'crorepatis' had Rs 50,889 crore less income than that of the previous year.

DEL18 BIZ-BANKOFINDIA RBI puts BoI under watch; initiates 'corrective action'



New Delhi: The RBI has initiated 'prompt corrective action' against Bank of India for mounting bad loans, placing various restrictions on it including issuing of fresh loans and dividend distribution, BoI said today.

DEL8 KRISHNARAJ-LD ILL Union Min Krishna Raj stable: Doctor



New Delhi: The condition of Union Minister Krishna Raj, who was admitted to a hospital today after she fell ill during the BJP parliamentary party meeting here, is stable.

DEL10 POL MODI MEET Modi for strengthening BJP at roots, promoting young leaders



New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today called for strengthening the BJP at its roots for a win in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and also pitched for promoting young faces inside and outside the party.

DEL17 RYAN LD ACCUSED ADULT Accused in Ryan case to be tried as adult: Juvenile board



Gurgaon: A 16-year-old student accused of killing a seven-year-old boy at the Ryan International School here will be tried as an adult, the Juvenile Justice Board said today.

DEL21 LSQ-TRIPLE TALAQ Muslim bodies not consulted on triple talaq bill: Govt



New Delhi: Muslim organisations were not consulted before the government framed a draft bill to criminalise the practice of instant triple talaq, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

PAR8 RS-LD ADJOURN RS proceedings disrupted over PM's remarks against Manmohan



New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks against his predecessor Manmohan Singh during the Gujarat poll campaign today washed out pre-lunch proceedings in the Rajya Sabha after Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said there was no question of giving an apology.

PAR9 LS-LD ADJOURN LS adjourned till 2 PM; Cong MPs protest PM's remarks



New Delhi: The Congress today forced the adjournment of the Lok Sabha's pre-lunch proceedings demanding an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his comments against former premier Manmohan Singh.

LGB2 GA-HC-TEJPAL HC dismisses Tejpal plea seeking quashing of rape, other charges



Panaji: The High Court of Bombay in Goa today dismissed a petition filed by Tehelka's former editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal seeking the quashing of rape and other charges levelled against him by a former woman colleague.

LGD8 DL-HC-GIRLS CONFINEMENT HC orders CBI probe into ashram accused of confining minors



New Delhi: The Delhi High Court today ordered a CBI probe into an ashram in north Delhi where girls and women were allegedly kept in illegal confinement.

FGN6 US-LD SAEED US says concerned about Saeed running for office in Pak



Washington: The US has said it is concerned about JuD chief and Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed running for office in Pakistan despite the "guy" carrying a USD-10 million bounty on his head for terror activities. By Lalit K Jha



FGN4 US-LD TAX Senate passes Trump's landmark tax reform bill



Washington: Senate Republicans today passed a sweeping overhaul of the US tax code in more than 30 years, bringing President Donald Trump closer to scoring his first major legislative victory amid criticism that the package disproportionately benefit the wealthy and corporations. By Lalit K Jha



FGN7 US-NKOREA-2NDLD SUMMIT India to be part of summit on North Korea's nuclear crisis



Washington: India will be a part of an international meeting hosted by the US and Canada next month to discuss North Korea's nuclear threat and ways to improve the effectiveness of the current pressure campaign against the reclusive nation. By Lalit K Jha.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The defence ministry today announced that it has allowed private sector to manufacture eight selected ammunition for the Indian Army in a major reform initiative.

The ministry said the aim of the decision is to facilitate development of indigenous capacity, reduce import dependence and develop a robust supply of ammunition within the country.

"With the long-term objective of building capacity within the industry as a robust alternative source of ammunition, the government has approved manufacturing of eight selected ammunition for Indian Army by Indian Industry," the defence ministry said.

The Army has been reeling under severe shortage of ammunition and it has been pressing the government to address the issue in view of the security challenges the country is facing.

At present, various ordnance factories supply ammunition to the armed forces.

The move comes around six months after the government unveiled the ambitious strategic partnership model under which Indian private sector companies will be allowed to form joint ventures with foreign defence majors to build fighter aircraft, helicopters, submarines and main battle tanks in India.

The prospective manufacturer will be free to select their technology partners, negotiate and obtain transfer of technology (ToT). The technology partners could be indigenous or foreign manufacturers.

The defence ministry said the indigenous manufacturer will be required to set up a new establishment to produce the ammunition.

It said Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has approved a long term contract of 10 years with the selected ammunition manufacturer, to facilitate a viable commercial model.

"The selection of manufacturer will be through an Open Tender Enquiry under two bid system. Companies are allowed to bid for any number of ammunition types. However, a company will be awarded not more than three contracts," the ministry said.

It said Individual Indian companies, as per Indian Companies Act 2013, with foreign equity not exceeding 49 per cent, owned and controlled by resident Indian citizens, and consortium consisting of only Indian companies and wholly owned subsidiary company, were eligible to participate.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Qatar's emir was to tour six West African nations starting today in search of new markets, six months after Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries cut ties with the wealthy emirate.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Lulwa al-Khater told a press conference that Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani's mission would begin in Mali, and include stops in Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea and Senegal.

The visit is part of Doha's drive to open up new markets and diversify its economy amid an ongoing blockade by its neighbours, Khater said.

She said the six countries on the emir's itinerary had "strong economic potential and opportunities despite some security challenges in some of them".

The emir is to sign cooperation agreements in health, education, mining, energy and food security.

Khater said Qatar will also be providing USD 13.8 million dollars to fund a cancer hospital in Burkina Faso.

Qatar has sought to establish new global trade links in an attempt to alleviate its regional isolation by powerful Saudi Arabia with which it shares its only land border.

On June 5, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic and economic ties with gas-rich Qatar, accusing it of links to extremist groups and being too close to Shiite Iran, Riyadh's arch-rival.

Doha denies the charges.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Regulatory changes are critical to raising labour force participation in the formal sector and a few key reforms can raise the share of formal employment to nearly 40 per cent while creating 1 crore jobs, says TeamLease Services.

According to the staffing firm, a revamp of the regulatory ecosystem is extremely important to further improve the ease of doing business and raise the labour force participation in formal sector.

"A few key but impactful regulatory reforms can raise the share of formal employment from the current 10 per cent to nearly 40 per cent and create 1 crore jobs," TeamLease Services Vice President Sonal Arora said.

The top 10 regulatory changes that can bring about a shift in labour participation include consolidation of 44 central labour laws into 4 labour codes and a unique Enterprise Number (UEN) - creating a unique identifier at the company/legal entity level is a crucial infrastructure for digital economy and ease-of-doing business, it said.

Other reforms include salary choice for employees. Under this, employees should have a choice of whether or not to contribute the 12 per cent employee contribution to Provident Fund, and should have an option between ESIC or Private Insurance.

It further noted that the Shram Suvidha Portal must adopt the PPC - Paperless-Presenceless-Cashless framework in the interactions between employers and government, and employees and government.

Other reforms include the Factories Amendment Bill 2016; Small Factories Act; Amendments in Contract Labour and Regulation Act 1970; Amendments in Industrial Disputes Act 1947; Amendments in Trade Union Act 1926 and Adoption of the Model Shops and Establishment Act.

According to TeamLease, nearly 100 per cent of net job creation in India in the last two decades has happened in small and low-productivity enterprises. About 90 per cent of our labour force works informally and is deprived of social security benefits and a wage premium that can only be paid by formal sector employers.
Term lender IFCI today said that Reliance Marine and Offshore owes it Rs 159 crore and the case for recovery of the amount is pending before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Ahmedabad.

Reliance Marine and Offshore Ltd is a subsidiary of the Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Naval and Engineering Ltd.

"At the hearing held on December 19, 2017, the Tribunal has rejected the application filed by Reliance Naval and Engineering Ltd seeking a stay of the NCLT proceedings on the ground that the Constitutional validity of Section 7 IBC is under challenge before the Gujarat High Court," IFCI said in a statement.

NCLT, Ahmedabad has given a time of seven days to the respondent to file an appeal against the above dismissal of the application.

The matter is currently sub-judice and the case is posted for hearing on January 11, 2018, it added.

The statement further said that none of the lenders of Reliance Marine and Offshore Ltd or Reliance Naval and Engineering Ltd have approached IFCI after the filing of the NCLT petition, suggesting that the matter be resolved outside the tribunal.

IFCI's claim on the amount of debt owed on account of Reliance Marine and Offshore Ltd is Rs 159 crore, as per the petition filed by it before NCLT, Ahmedabad, it said.

The loan is duly secured by the corporate guarantee of Reliance Naval and Engineering Ltd, it added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Retired Air Marshal J S Gujral was today granted bail by a Delhi court in the VVIP chopper scam case filed against him, former IAF Chief S P Tyagi and others.

Special CBI Judge Arvind Kumar granted the relief to Gujral on a personal bond of Rs 2 lakh and a surety of the same amount when he appeared before the court after a summons was issued to him.

Tyagi, who was earlier granted bail in the case along with others, also appeared before the court following summons issued in September.

The court directed the probe agencies to hand over the chargesheet and other documents filed along with it to the accused and posted the matter for a hearing on May 30.

The court had issued summons to Gujral, Tyagi, his cousin Sanjeev alias Julie and advocate Gautam Khaitan on September 19.

Advocate P K Dubey moved an application on behalf of Khaitan seeking permission to go abroad next month.

The court will consider the application on December 22.

The CBI had on September 1 chargesheeted former IAF Chief S P Tyagi in a Delhi Court along with Gujral and eight others in connection with a bribery case in the Rs 3,500 crore- AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal.

The agency alleged there was an estimated loss of Euros 398.21 million (approximately Rs 2,666 crore) to the exchequer in the deal that was signed on February 8, 2010, for the supply of VVIP choppers worth Euros 556.262 million.

They have been chargesheeted for offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act and the IPC in the case relating to alleged bribery of Rs 450 crore.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Filmmaker Ridley Scott "immediately" decided to fire Kevin Spacey from his film "All the Money in the World" when he heard about the sexual allegations levelled against the actor.

The 80-year-old director then chose veteran actor Christopher Plummer to replace the "House of Cards" star in the movie.

Talking about his decision, Scott told New York Daily News, "Immediately. I knew it was a problem... This kind of film is a more challenging sell. It's not crashing cars, and drug addicts and monsters... This was a kind of really epic, intelligent view of a family in the '60s and the '70s, which was fascinating.

"Honestly, within about 22 hours I was on the phone with my partners and was saying, 'We gotta replace this, and I know who can do this. Is he available? Let's get into it.'"



The filmmaker said he is glad to have Plummer on board the project, who will portray J Paul Getty in the story about the infamous 1973 kidnapping of his grandson, 16-year-old John Paul Getty III.

"Christopher essentially is a man with a smile and twinkle. At the same time, he's a man of great elegance. You put that into the role of Getty, and Getty is saying such down-to-earth, practical and therefore sometimes cruel words, with the combination of the physicality of Plummer, it makes it, I think, even more powerful," he said.

Scott further said he has "no real plans to talk to Kevin Spacey".

"I wouldn't know what I'd say to him. I'd be speechless for the first time in my life," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The RSS, known as the ideological mentor of the BJP, today organised a special workshop for the party legislators at its office in Reshimbaug here, which was attended by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and his Cabinet colleagues.

The workshop has been held every year for BJP legislators during winter session of the state legislature.

Interestingly, BJP leaders Eknath Khadse and Ashish Deshmukh didn't attend the workshop, organised at Smriti Mandir office of the Sangh.

RSS Vidarbha region Karyavah Deepak Tamshettiwar addressed the saffron legislators.

The winter session of the state legislature is currently underway in Nagpur, the second capital of Maharashtra.

While Khadse did not turn up in the Assembly today, Deshmukh chose to spend the entire day in the Lower House though he didn't participate in any discussion.

Khadse has been sulking since he had to quit as Revenue Minister in 2015 following allegations of corruption and a conflict of interest in connection with a land deal.

The senior BJP leader was not available for comment.

Deshmukh, a strong proponent of separate Vidarbha state, declined comment when asked about skipping the workshop.

On the eve of the beginning of the winter session of the state legislature on December 10, Deshmukh had written a letter appealing to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to take steps to carve out a separate Vidarbha state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Auto components maker Sandhar Technologies today said it has inked a joint venture with South Korea's Daeshin Machinery for the manufacturing of parking brake lever and gear shifters.

The 50:50 joint venture will initially receive products or sub-parts from Daeshin for production and supply to OEMs in India and abroad, the company said in a statement.

Later on, the JV will localise the parts, which are agreed by both parties, and produce to supply to OEMs in India, it added.

Commenting on the partnership, Sandhar Technologies Co- Chairman & Managing Director Jayant Davar said it will enable the company to further strengthen its presence in the auto ancillary industry in India.

"By expanding our product portfolio, the joint venture will enable us to support a bigger market. We are sure this will mean technological advancements in the auto component industry, supporting the market with latest technology and innovation," he added.

Daeshin Machinery Ind. Co Ltd President Jae Hyunn Lee said, "The auto industry (in India) is on a growth trajectory with the entire sector, along with the auto components segment, expected to see positive advancements in the coming years. We look forward to being a part of this growth story with our partner Sandhar Technologies."



The partners will jointly carry out a techno-market feasibility study to make a detailed plan of production and supply of products, factory set-up and marketing, the statement said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Anju Singh's mother today expressed satisfaction over the life term awarded to Suhaib Ilyasi for killing her daughter after a 17-year-long battle.

The former TV anchor and producer was awarded the sentence by a Delhi court which said that he "committed murder and gave it a colour of suicide".

Rukma Singh, who arrived from Patna to attend today's proceedings, said, "I'm satisfied with the verdict. As long as he is convicted I'm fine."



She told the reporters that she had spoken to her granddaughter, who was three-year-old at the time of the incident, and had seen her.

"She resembles Anju a lot," she said.

Her lawyer Satender Sharma said that Rukma had met her granddaughter, currently in Ilyasi's custody, in 2008 on her birthday, adding that she had visiting rights and used to meet her on special occasions like birthdays.

Rukma had earlier alleged that Ilyasi used to torture his wife for dowry and later moved the Delhi High Court for adding the charge of murder against him.

The high court had allowed her plea and in August 2014 it ruled that the TV producer would be tried under Section 302 of the IPC for the offence of murder.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has asked theatre owners in Maharashtra to give equal space to Marathi film "Deva Ek Atrangee", the release of which is coinciding with superstar Salman Khan's "Tiger Zinda Hai".

The Raj Thackeray-led party said the producers of the Marathi film is not getting theatres to screen their movie as "Tiger Zinda Hai" is releasing on the same date -- December 22.

In a letter to the theatre owners, Amey Khopkar, the president of Chitrapat Sena, yesterday warned them of using "special language" if they fail to comply.

"If you don't understand this language then we will have to use our special language to make you understand," he wrote.

"Tiger Zinda Hai" is produced by Yash Raj Films and stars Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif in the lead roles.

"Deva Ek Atrangee" is directed by Murali Nallappa and features Ankush Chaudhari, Tejaswini Pandit and Spruha Joshi.

"You have probably forgotten that you are running a cinema theatre in the land of Maharashtra. We are compelled to write to you to remind that our sentiments have been hurt," Kopkar said.

He also said that the producers of "Deva..." are trying to exhibit the film but they are being repeatedly told that no theatres are available as "Tiger Zinda Hai" is releasing on the same date.

"Using their name and influence, the producers have captured all the theatres. What will the other filmmakers do? Where will they go? If the Hindi filmmakers do such monopoly, what will the Marathi filmmakers do? Will other states tolerate such 'dadagiri'(hooliganism)?" he asked in the letter.

"It is our duty to give rights to Marathi films and for that, we shall do whatever it takes. Just because we are patient and understanding, doesn't mean we are weak. Believe in 'live and let live'," Khopkar further said.
The Tripura High Court today ordered the state government to submit the chargesheet and other documents relevant to the investigation into the killing of television journalist Santanu Bhowmik.

Bhowmik was hacked to death on September 20 at Mandai in West Tripura district, 28 km from the state capital. He had gone there to cover a demonstration of the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), a political party representing the tribals.

The father of the slain journalist, Sadhan Bhowmik, had filed a petition in the high court, seeking a CBI probe into his son's killing.

Public Prosecutor Subrata Sarkar said the court had ordered for the submission of chargesheet and other relevant documents on or before January 24.

The Tripura government had formed a special investigation team (SIT), headed by an inspector general of the state police, to look into the incident. The SIT had submitted the chargesheet before the chief judicial magistrate's court on December 12.

The petitioner's lawyer, Samrat Kar Bhowmik, said the submission of the chargesheet would not be an impediment for the court to order re-opening of the case by another investigation agency, if it was prima facie found that the SIT probe was tainted.

"A tainted investigation can only lead to a tainted judgment," he submitted before a bench of Chief Justice T Vaiphei and Justice Subhashish Talapatra.

The court had earlier issued notice to the state government, Government of India and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), asking for their opinions on a CBI probe into the killing of Bhowmik, who was a reporter of a local TV channel, "Din Raat".

Assistant Solicitor General of India Himangshu Deb pleaded for more time for the Centre to submit its reply in the case. The CBI counsel sought two weeks' time from the court to study the relevant documents and affidavits.

The IPFT had accused the ruling CPI(M) in the state of hatching a conspiracy to implicate it in the journalist's killing and tarnish its image ahead of the state Assembly polls, due early next year.

It had also claimed that the Left party was nervous after over 5,000 tribals deserted it to join the IPFT.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Automobile industry body SIAM has proposed all new vehicle sales in India to be pure electric by 2047 while the same for intra-city public transport fleet can be achieved by 2030.

In a white paper submitted to the government, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) said it is aiming at 40 per cent of new vehicle sales in the country to be pure electric by 2030.

The paper has been brought out in line with the government's vision of 100 per cent electric for public mobility and 40 per cent electric for personal mobility by 2030, it said in a statement.

However, former power minister Piyush Goyal had in April this year said: "The idea is that by 2030, not a single petrol or diesel car should be sold in the country."



Proposing 100 per cent pure electric vehicles -- battery electric and fuel cell -- by the 100th anniversary of India's Independence in 2047, SIAM outlined a road map that includes 60 per cent of new vehicle sales in the country to employ greener technologies like hybrids and other alternative fuels by 2030.

To make sure this vision is realised, the industry, the government and various stakeholders need to collaborate and invest with 100 per cent commitment, SIAM President Abhay Firodia said.

"To ensure smooth phasing in of pure electric vehicles and to sustain the transition to cleaner fossil fuel vehicles, the IC (internal combustion) engine upgradation must continue over the next decade or so," the paper added.

Progressively, cleaner fossil fuel vehicles will be an essential stepping stone in this journey towards 100 per cent pure electric, it added.

The proposed policy measures in the White Paper will be needed for creating a robust market and manufacturing ecosystem for electric vehicles in India and such a policy must be sustained over time to remain stable to enable the industry commit to investments with full confidence, Firodia added.

He also emphasised that policy should be necessarily adaptive in view of the nature of the fast-evolving technology.

"At the same time, there must not be sudden changes so as to allow outcomes in a planned manner and to ensure that the necessary transformation takes place with the minimum of disruption which may have socio-economic impact in terms of industrial growth, employment and livelihood of people in the auto industry," Firodia said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Political circles were rife with speculation about Gujarat's next chief minister after the BJP narrowly won the just-concluded Assembly polls, with incumbent Vijay Rupani emerging as the front-runner for the post.

State BJP leadership maintained the party's central leadership will take a call on the matter.

However, Chief Minister Rupani seems to be a front-runner to retain the job.

Sources in the BJP here said the party was likely to stick with Rupani.

BJP president Amit Shah had said during the campaign that the party was fighting the election under Rupani and Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel.

But due to the BJP's narrow win, the central leadership may think of changing the CM, they said, adding everything is in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's hands.

The saffron outfit won 99 seats in the 182-member Assembly, seven more than the simple majority mark of 92. The Congress party and its allies won 80 seats.

Besides Rupani, the other names doing the rounds for the top job are those of Patel and Mansukh Mandavia, a Rayja Sabha MP from Gujarat who is a member of the Narendra Modi government, the sources said.

Mandavia hails from the Patidar community.

Asked who will be the next chief minister, Gujarat BJP president Jitu Vaghani evaded a direct response, saying the name will be known soon.

"Talks are underway about the date on which our legislators would meet to select their leader (the next CM). We will inform you soon.

"Since Parliament is in session, we have to check the availability of Finance Minister Arun Jaitleyji and (general secretary) Saroj Pandey, who were appointed observers (for selection of the CM," Vaghani told reporters.

Earlier, Rupani had said the party's parliamentary board will take the final decision.

Asked who will be the next chief minister, Rupani had told reporters, "The BJP fought this election with my face. But the final decision will be taken by the party's parliamentary board."



December 25 is the likely date for the swearing-in of the new ministry as it is the birthday of former prime minister and BJP stalwart Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the sources said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A 12th standard student, who was suspended by his school for hugging a girl, is planning to appeal against a high court order upholding the suspension as he hopes to appear for his board exams next year.

The incident took place during a cultural programme organised by the St Thomas Central School in Makkolakkal near here on July 21. The girl had performed in an event following which the boy had hugged her.

According to the boy's father, the congratulatory hug was "blown out of proportion" by the school authorities and it completely "demoralised" his son.

The school suspended the boy after the incident. The girl also was not attending classes, with the school maintaining that she had not submitted the requisite documents for admission.

Soon after his suspension, the family had moved the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights challenging the decision. The panel then directed the school authorities to permit him to attend classes.

Opposing it, the church-run school management, however, moved the Kerala High court which upheld the institution's decision.

The school authorities maintained that the boy was suspended in order to discipline him and it was upto the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to take a call on the matter.

"We have no problem if the CBSE allows him to take the exam," School Principal Sebastian Joseph said.

He, however, said that the student did not have the requisite attendance.

"Our intention is to reform the child, not to break him, but to make him," the principal told PTI.

Joseph said the girl was not a regular student and had not taken formal admission in the school. She had also not submitted the requisite documents for admission and had attended classes for only 20 days, he said.

While the boy claimed that he had written at least three letters to the school authorities apologising for his behaviour, the principal said it was only a "lip service" and "the apology was not from his heart".

Joseph claimed that the student was allowed to appear for an examination in September even after an inquiry panel of teachers had found that the "five minute-long hug" was "intentional" and "with bad intentions".

Meanwhile, the father said that they were planning to appeal against the single bench's order and alleged that his child was subjected to humiliation.

"The trauma and mental agony suffered by him is still lingering," he told PTI.

The alumuni of the school have launched an online petition demanding that the management reconsider the student's suspension.
Karnataka BJP leaders today termed as "satisfactory" their meeting with neighbouring Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikkar on sharing inter-state Mahadayi river water for drinking needs of northern districts in the southern state.

A BJP team led by state chief B S Yeddyurappa, which met Parrikar in the presence of party President Amit Shah in Delhi, said he will make an announcement on the outcome of the deliberations at a party convention in Hubballi tomorrow.

Today's meeting to resolve the dispute, mediated by Shah, comes at a time when Karnataka is gearing for assembly polls early next year.

Attended by party election in-charge to Karnataka Union Ministers Piyush Goyal and Prakash Javadekar, the meeting is seen as an attempt to protect BJP's interest during the assembly polls early next year.

Congress and JDS have been cornering BJP, accusing party government in Goa and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of not being sympathetic to drinking water needs of the state.

Emerging out of the meeting, Yeddyurappa said the detailed discussions on Mahadayi and Kalasa-Banduri issue with Parrikar took place in a "good environment".

"He has heard our suggestions positively, tomorrow in Hubballi there is a big convention where over a lakh of people are gathering, by then they (Goa) are expected come out with their clear stand on the 7.56 tmcft water that we are seeking for drinking purpose and how it can be done," he said.

Yeddyurappa added that they would announce in the Hubballi public meeting whatever information the Goa government shared with them. "We are satisfied with the discussion," he added.

Karnataka which has locked horns with Goa on the larger issue of sharing Mahadayi River water, is seeking release of 7.56 tmcft water for the Kalasa-Banduri Nala project, being undertaken to improve drinking water supply to the twin cities of Hubballi-Dharwad and districts of Belagavi and Gadag.

The Karnataka government had earlier petitioned the Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal which on July 27 last year in its interim order had rejected the state's plea citing various grounds, including ecological damage that the project may cause.

Challenging this, the state government has filed a Special Leave Petition before the Supreme Court.

Following the interim order, violent protests were witnessed in most parts of northern Karnataka, during which government offices were attacked and public properties were damaged. Also, a state-wide bandh was observed.

Karnataka has for long been advocating out of court settlement of the issue and had sought Modi's intervention.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had led an all party delegation demanding demanding for the same.

In September last year the tribunal had asked Chief Ministers of all the three riparian states of Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra to resolve the dispute amicably by holding discussions, following which Siddaramaiah also wrote to the two Chief Ministers for amicable solution.

Goa which had earlier expressed its opposition to the out of court settlement of the dispute, did not respond positively for the proposed meeting of Chief Ministers.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Cabinet today approved the extension of term of a five-member commission headed by Justice (retd) G Rohini, which was examining the sub- categorisation of Other Backward Classes (OBCs), till April 2 next year.

The extension will enable the commission to submit a comprehensive report on the sub-categorisation of OBCs after consultation with stakeholders, a government statement said.

The commission was constituted with the approval of President Ram Nath Kovind on October 2 and it was stipulated to submit its report within 10 weeks from the assumption of charge by the chairperson, the statement said.

It commenced functioning on October 11 and has since interacted with all the states and Union Territories having reservation for OBCs, and the state backward classes commissions.

The commission has requisitioned data from 197 higher education institutions regarding admission of OBCs to higher education courses during the last three years.

It has also sought data regarding recruitment of OBC persons in government jobs during the last three years in government departments, public sector banks and financial institutions to determine inequitable distribution of benefits of reservation among the castes or communities included in the central list of OBCs.

Keeping in view the voluminous data involved and the time required for its analysis to prepare a comprehensive report, the commission had sought extension of its term by 12 weeks, the statement 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 there is no substitute to hard work and asked children to strive to achieve their goals in life.

Addressing students at a programme organised by a government school at Raj Bhavan premises, he said children must set themselves goals and strive hard to achieve them.

"There is no substitute to hard work and only through hard work they can rise in life. Children have to set themselves goals and strive hard to achieve them," an official release quoted Kovind as saying at the event.

Children should be satisfied with whatever they have and always think positive. They should aspire to reach the top and there is no shortcut to reach there, he said.

The president said no goal is difficult to reach if there is a will to achieve it, Kovind said.

Kovind advised children to learn Hindi and said he knew of several leaders who found it difficult to communicate with the people of other states because of lack of knowledge of the language.

Telangana Governor E S L Narasimhan and Deputy Chief Ministers Mohammed Ali and K Srihari later accompanied the president during his visit to the school located in the Raj Bhavan premises.

Later, he paid rich tributes to Lord Buddha at a statue erected in his memory here and left for New Delhi, ending his two-day visit to the city.

Kovind visited the imposing Lord Buddha statue located in the middle of the Hussain Sagar lake and paid floral tributes to the revered ancient sage and philosopher.

Elaborate security arrangements were made at the venue for the president's visit. The Telangana Tourism department had arranged a special boat to take Kovind and other dignitaries to the spot.

Yesterday, Kovind participated in the closing ceremony of the World Telugu Conference-2017 --- a five-day event of Telugu cultural and literary extravaganza -- at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium.

The president left for the national capital in a special aircraft. Narasimhan and Telangana Chief Minister K Chndrasekhar Rao and some of his Cabinet colleagues saw him off at the Begumpet airport.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The residents of Indore will find themselves fined and shamed by the local municipal body if found spitting in public places.

The commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh was adjudged the cleanest city in the country in the "Clean Survey 2017".

Mayor Malini Laxman Singh Gaud today told PTI that if a person is caught spitting paan or gutkha in public places, he will be fined Rs 500.

Also, names of such people will be made public through newspapers and announced on radio so they feel embarrassed for their act and don't repeat it, she said.

Gaud said spitting is mostly visible at traffic signals and road dividers. Municipal employees would monitor these spots and fine the offenders on the spot.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US President Donald Trump's chief negotiator Jason Greenblatt met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today as part of the administration's efforts to advance peace, the American official said.

The meeting took place as tensions with the international community and the Palestinians remained high in the wake of Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The Palestinians said the move disqualified the United States from its historic role as peace broker with the Israelis.

Greenblatt was accompanied by US ambassador to Israel David Friedman in what the peace negotiator called in a Tweet "a check-in as the Administration continues with its peace efforts which will benefit both Israelis and Palestinians."



Officials from Netanyahu's office offered no further information on the meeting.

Yesterday, Greenblatt met with the European Union's special representative for the Middle East, Fernando Gentilini, as well as with Israeli Major General Yoav Mordechai, head of the COGAT defence ministry unit responsible for activities in the Palestinian territories, the US envoy said on Twitter.

Greenblatt is a key member of a small team appointed by Trump who have been holding meetings in the region for months as part of the efforts to relaunch the moribund diplomatic process between Israel and the Palestinians.

Greenblatt's visit to Israel was meant to precede that of Vice President Mike Pence, who was due to arrive on Wednesday but postponed the trip to January, citing a need to attend a crucial Senate vote in Washington.

Trump's December 6 announcement was a break with decades of American policy and sparked almost universal diplomatic condemnation and deadly protests in the Palestinian territories, with Israel praising the "historic" move.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said Palestinian officials would not meet US political officials, and called on China and Russia to take a greater role in creating a peace process instead.

Abbas himself was meanwhile received in Saudi Arabia by King Salman today, where the monarch pledged his country's support for east Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US President Donald Trump has been tough on Russia, the White House has said amid criticism from his rivals of not been tough on Kremlin.

Trump's opponents have alleged that the president in his remarks was not as tough as the National Security Strategy (NSS) which has identified Russia and China as a rival power.

"President has weighed in on Russia and his feelings on that a number of times. The policy and the strategy put forth in that very detailed paper was that of the President and it reflects his views," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters.

In his address, a day earlier, Sanders said Trump didn't read every single page of it word-for-word.

"The President has been clear what his position is," said.

"We've been tough on Russia, we've put sanctions on Russia, we've imported energy, and impacted them in a big way. The President has not been soft in this process. He chose to focus on different things in this speech, but those things were included in the NSS because they're important, and they're part of the administration's viewpoints," Sanders said.

Meanwhile, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert replied lightly to the reaction of China on the NSS.

Nauert said the US has a broad relationship with China and the two countries have differences.

"China will never seek development at the price of sacrificing other countries' interests," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters at a conference in Beijing.

"We urge the US to stop deliberately distorting China's strategic intentions and discard outdated Cold War zero-sum mentalities, or risk harming others and itself," she said.

Responding to the Chinese comments, Nauert said, "It is not what they called it out to be. We have a broad relationship with China, as we do with many nations around the world, where we have areas where we have mutual cooperation and get along great. The president has a very warm relationship with (Chinese) President Xi (Jinping)".

"But we also have areas of disagreement. And some of the areas of disagreement include human rights, some trade issues and all that. So we can have that kind of broad-based relationship," Nauert said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May spoke over phone in which they discussed next steps in forging peace in the Middle East, the White House has said.

"The President and Prime Minister discussed next steps in forging peace in the Middle East. Both leaders also emphasised the urgency of addressing the humanitarian crisis in Yemen," the White House said.

Trump congratulated May on the decision by European Union leaders to move to the second phase of the Brexit negotiations.

During the call, the two leaders exchanged holiday greetings and warm wishes for Christmas and the New Year.

"The Prime Minister (May) offered her condolences for the tragic train accident in Washington State," the White House said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
President today praised his Indian-American UN envoy Nikki Haley for taking a tough position on Jerusalem at the world body and warned the countries who voted against the US that America will not be "taken advantage" of anymore.

"All these nations take our money and then vote against us at the Security Council," Trump told his Cabinet members at a meeting at the White House.

He was referring to the isolation of the US in the UN Security Council when all 14 members of the apex body joined hands against Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel.

Haley as American representative vetoed against the draft resolution.

A similar resolution is being moved in the UN General Assembly too, where there is no veto provision.

Praising Haley for her stand in support of his policy, Trump said the countries would "potentially" vote against the US at the General Assembly.

"They take hundreds and millions of dollars and even billions of dollars and then vote against us. We are watching those votes. Let them vote against us. We will save a lot of money," said the US President in his possibly last Cabinet meeting of the year.

Trump said people were tired of the US being taken advantage of.

"We are not going to be taken advantage anymore," he said.

Holding the Cabinet meeting in the backdrop of his major legislative victory on the Congressional passage of his sweeping tax reform bill, Trump said this meeting would be one of celebration.

He said this is a historic victory for the American people.

"It will be an incredible Christmas gift for hardworking Americans," he said adding that the tax reforms "brings overseas corporate profits back" to the US.

Trump said the US had unleashed its military might on ISIS and today the coalition to defeat the terror group has captured nearly 100 per cent of the territory held by the outfit in Iraq and Syria.

"We are making it very difficult for them," he said.

In his remarks, Trump reiterated that he was ending chain migration and diversity visa lottery.

He also spoke briefly about the Bangladeshi immigrant Akayed Ullah responsible for the latest New York terrorist attack.

"We will get rid of chain migration and the visa lottery programme," he said.

People coming from the lottery programme bring in "some very bad" people.

"We do not want this group of people anymore," he said.

People who met him in the neighbourhood said he was horrible, nasty, mean, would not talk to people, he said.

"They could see it coming," he said.

Trump said the entire world can see America is coming back, rapidly and strongly.

"One of the great things, we are bringing back perhaps four trillion dollars into our country," he said in an apparent reference in the changes in the tax codes that would help companies bring back their money stacked abroad.
The UN humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan has said that six aid workers who went missing four days ago in the northwest of the country had made a "safe return".

The employees of two foreign and one national organisation disappeared during clashes between government and rebel forces in the Bahr el-Ghazal region, with both sides accusing the other of having attacked the aid workers.

Government officials said rebels aligned with former vice-president Riek Machar had kidnapped the workers during clashes, while the rebels said they had "rescued" the workers from government forces.

One of the NGOs, France-based Solidarites International, said its three workers had been "retrieved Wednesday" and were "out of danger", but did not give further details on what had transpired.

Alain Noudehou, the UN coordinator, in a statement "welcomed of the safe return of the six aid workers who went missing four days ago", thanking in particular the efforts of the World Food Programme (WFP).

The NGOs were working on issues of food security in the country which is faced with a severe humanitarian crisis after four years of war.

The region in which the aid workers went missing has been the centre of fierce fighting between the government and rebel forces since 2016.

In April three people delivering food aid were brutally killed in the second largest city of Wau, a sign of the difficulties for humanitarian workers in dealing with the fallout from a conflict which has killed tens of thousands and driven nearly four million from their homes.

In eastern Jonglei, 60 humanitarian workers had to flee fighting in April.

South Sudan's leaders fought for decades for independence, but once they got it in 2011, a power struggle between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar led to all out civil war in 2013.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Union Minister was rushed to a hospital today after she fell ill during the BJP parliamentary party meeting here.

She was rushed to Ram Manohar Lohia hospital where doctors attended her.

"She has just been brought in and is being examined by a team of doctors," said a senior doctor at the hospital.

The minister fell ill during the meeting of the parliamentary party, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP Chief Amit Shah were also present, in the parliament complex.

Raj is the Minister of State in Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
The US cannot tolerate a nuclear armed North Korea, America's national security advisor has said, asserting that such a development would pose a grave security threat to the countries in the region and the world.

President Donald Trump last month declared North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism, a move that allows the US administration to impose additional sanctions on Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programmes.

North Korea had launched an intercontinental ballistic missile which travelled about 1,000 km before splashing down in the Sea of Japan, within Japan's exclusive economic zone.

"I don't think we can tolerate that risk. The world can't tolerate that risk. I mean, if North Korea has a nuclear weapon, I mean, who are you going to try to prevent getting one? Look at the behaviour of this regime, the hostility of this regime to the whole world," US National Security Advisor Lieutenant General H R McMaster told CBS yesterday.

The United States, he said, is applying maximum pressure to North Korea to convince Kim Jong-Un that this is a dead end, this pursuit of nuclear weapons and an intercontinental ballistic missile -- long range ballistic missile which of course poses a grave danger to the whole world.

"So what you've seen is an effort led by the President worldwide really though to isolate that regime, to cut off not just what is restricted by the current national -- the current UN Security Council resolutions but to do more," he said.

Trump has asked all nations to cut off all trade with this rogue regime which has never met a weapon it didn't use or proliferate or sell to somebody else, the NSA said.

"You saw that with the cyber attacks you just discussed and you saw it with the murder of Kim Jong Un's brother in a public airport with a banned nerve agent. So this is a regime that can't get this - this destructive capability," he said.

McMaster said Trump wants all nations to do more. It just doesn't make sense that Russia would increase trade and alleviate any pressure on the North Korean regime.

"Of course, North Korea poses a grave direct threat to all nations including China and Russia, but what happens when North Korea gets this capability?



"What if other nations in the region arm in this way and that's going to be even more destabilising and of course, as I mentioned, North Korea has never met a weapon it didn't try to sell to somebody else," McMaster said.

Responding to a question, McMaster said this is not the time to hold talks with the North Koreans.

"What he means is, there can't be negotiations under these current conditions. The north has to show initial steps toward denuclearisation and the reason for this is previous approaches to negotiating with North Korea have failed miserably," he said.

"What the regime does is they enter into negotiations, all the while they continue these very destructive programmes, these talks often times end in a weak agreement and then North Korea immediately violates that agreement.

"The problem is now that their programmes have advanced so far we don't have time to do that again and so we can't repeat the failed pattern of the past," the top official said.

McMaster said Russia and the US should cooperate on North Korea.

"There's no way that a nuclear armed North Korea is in Russia's interest and the President made that clear to President (Vladimir) Putin on the phone call," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The US has said it is concerned about JuD chief and Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed running for office in Pakistan despite the "guy" carrying a USD 10 million bounty on his head for terror activities.

Saeed, also the founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, had earlier confirmed that the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) will contest the 2018 general elections in Pakistan under the banner of the Milli Muslim League, which is yet to be registered with the Election Commission.

"Saeed, who was released by Pakistan from house arrest last November resulting in angry reaction from the US, was the mastermind of the Mumbai terrorist attacks and is leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba," State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said.

"It's a group that the US government considers to be a terror organisation. We have many conversations with the government of Pakistan. One of the things that happened recently was that this guy was held on house arrest. Pakistan released him from house arrest, and now there's word that he may be running for some sort of office," she said reporters here.

Saeed, who has a USD 10 million American bounty on his head for terror activities, was freed by Pakistan on November 24.

The UN has also designated him as a global terrorist.

"I want to remind folks, we have a USD 10 million Reward for Justice programme that would reward for information that would bring him to justice. So I want to make that clear, so that everybody knows -- USD 10 million, out for this guy. And we would certainly have concerns about him running for office," Nauert said.

The US had also strongly condemned the release of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) leader from house arrest and had called for his immediate re-arrest and prosecution.

However, top Pakistani diplomats based in the US have said that there is no evidence against Saeed.

"I can tell you his organisation that was responsible for those attacks is considered a foreign terror organisation. It's considered a foreign terror organisation by the US government for a reason, and for a good reason," Nauert said.

"I would imagine that, if we had any intelligence, and that's not an area that I can discuss anyway, but we would certainly share it with the Pakistanis on that front. I hope they'll do the right thing," Nauert said.

She expressed hope that the Pakistan government would do the right thing and remind the people across the country that he was carrying a US bounty on his head.

The banned JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the LeT which carried out the 2008 Mumbai terror attack in which 166 people, including six Americans, were killed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The US has appealed for dignified and voluntary return of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh to Myanmar, while it said that conditions are not conducive enough for such a move.

Some 625,000 Rohingya refugees have fled the Rakhine state of Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh in the last six months.

"In terms of the repatriation plan, we'd like to see the plan. We've heard about it in concept, but one of the things that would be important to be in that plan is the voluntary, safe and dignified return," State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters here.

"It (repatriation) has to be voluntary. People have to feel like it's safe to go home. If they don't feel like it's safe to go home, it's probably not going to be safe to go home. They have to have a dignified return. That means treating the people well as they decide to return home," she said.

Insisting that repatriation needs to be voluntary, she said the refugees can't be forced to leave one country to go to another country.

"They have to feel safe and ready to go home," she said.

"We hope that the refugees will eventually be able to go home, to go home to Burma. More than 600,000 of them have been forced across the border since August alone, and now it's December," she said.

Nauert also said that Bangladesh has been so generous in accepting hundreds of thousands of refugees and the US government has provided significant financial assistance to help.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The United States today imposed sanctions on five Russians, including the leader of Chechnya, under a US human rights law that has been a major irritant between Washington and Moscow.

The five Russians were targeted under the Magnitsky Act, passed by Congress in 2012 in response to the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.

He died in prison after exposing a tax fraud scheme involving Russian officials, and the law named after him allows the US to target violators of human rights. All told, the US has targeted 49 Russians under that law.

The latest additions include Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Chechnya, a predominantly Muslim republic in southern Russia.

The Treasury Department said Kadyrov oversaw "disappearances and extrajudicial killings" and that he's believed to have ordered the killing of one of his political rivals. The rival had accused Kadyrov of personally carrying out torture.

The Treasury Department also said it was targeting a Chechen law enforcement official, Ayub Kataev, for alleged involvement in abuses this year against gay men.

The United Nations and human rights groups have decried reports that men suspected of homosexuality have been rounded up in Chechnya and in some instances killed.

"We will continue to use the Magnitsky Act to aggressively target gross violators of human rights in Russia, including individuals responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture and other despicable acts," said John Smith, a top sanctions official at the Treasury Department.

The other three Russians being targeted are accused of being involved in the criminal conspiracy in Russia that Magnitsky exposed.

Magnitsky was a Russian lawyer hired by Hermitage Capital, a hedge fund owned by British citizen William Browder.

After accusing Russian officials of carrying out a USD 230 million tax fraud, he was charged with tax evasion and put in prison, where he died in 2009 at 37. An official Russian probe blamed a heart attack, but Russia's presidential council on human rights concluded he'd been beaten and denied medical treatment.

The sanctions law became a sore point between the US and Russia after it was signed into law by former President Barack Obama. Shortly after, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law banning American citizens from adopting Russian children, in a move widely viewed as retaliation.

Donald Trump Jr, son of President Donald Trump, has said he discussed the Magnitsky Act and the adoption law with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya last year during an unusual campaign-season meeting that has been examined as part of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and potential collusion with Trump's campaign.

The sanctions freeze any assets the individuals may have in the United States, and also bar Americans from doing any business with them.

In 2016, the Magnitsky Act was expanded to allow the US to target human rights abusers anywhere, not just in Russia. The Trump administration is expected to target additional individuals under that law in the coming days.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The US has strongly condemned a ballistic missile attack over Riyadh which Saudi Arabia claimed was launched from Yemen by Iran-backed Huthi rebels, saying such actions threaten regional security.

Saudi Arabia, which has been leading a military campaign against the Huthis for the last three years, shot down the ballistic missile over Riyadh yesterday.

Huthi rebels seized the Yemeni capital Sana'a from the globally-recognised government in 2014.

"We remain deeply disturbed by aggressive Houthi actions supported by Iran's provision of advanced weapons, which threaten regional security and prolong the Yemen conflict," State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said.

The US calls on Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to stop arming and enabling the Houthis' violent actions against Yemen's neighbours, including Saudi Arabia, she said.

Asserting that a political solution is the only way to advance a long-term stability in Yemen and end the suffering of the Yemeni people, the US urged all the parties to immediately cease hostilities, avoid retaliatory measures and return to political negotiations under the auspices of the UN.

The United States also remains deeply concerned by the dire humanitarian conditions in Yemen, Nauert said.

"We continue to urge all parties to facilitate the free and unfettered flow of humanitarian aid and commercial goods, including fuel, into and throughout Yemen, including through all of Yemen's ports, including Hudaydah port and Sana'a airport," Nauert added.

Saudi Arabia said the missile was fired from Yemen by Iran-backed Huthi rebels, who announced that the target was the official residence of King Salman.

Thousands of people have lost their lives since Saudi Arabia and its allies joined the fight launched by Yemeni government against the Huthi rebels in 2015, triggering what the UN has termed as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A group of students of the Banaras Hindu University today set a school bus on fire and damaged half a dozen vehicles and an ATM cubicle inside the campus to protest the arrest of their leader.

Ashutosh Singh -- a member of Samajwadi Party's student wing -- was arrested for allegedly creating ruckus during a cultural event of IIT-BHU a few months ago, police said.

The protesters broke the windows of nearly half a dozen vehicles and smashed the glass door of an ATM, police said.

"They locked the main gate of the campus and cut the wires of the CCTV cameras installed near the gate," an official said.

In September this year, a number of students, including women, and two journalists were injured in a lathicharge by the police in the BHU campus after a protest against an alleged eve-teasing incident turned violent.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
BSP chief Mayawati has demanded the withdrawal of the UPCOCA bill, which was introduced in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly today, saying the ruling government might misuse it to suppress dalits and religious minorities.

The state government introduced the bill to enact a stringent law on the lines of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) to combat land mafia, mining mafia and organised crimes in the state.

Mayawati said the Adityanath government is already miusing various laws for communal and political reasons, and the UPCOCA bill, if passed, will only worsen the situation.

"Laws are grossly misused in the state to the extent that any BJP worker walks up to a police station and the police registers false cases against people," Mayawati said in a statement here.

"The UPCOCA will be used for suppression of poor, dalits, backwards and the religious minorities," she said, adding that the she wanted the bill be withdrawan in public interest.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A 23-year-old woman was allegedly abducted and gang-raped by three men here at Basdhara village in the district, police said today.

The incident took place yesterday when three men abducted the woman while she was out to collect water from the nearby hand pump, Station House Officer (SHO) BV Singh said.

He said the accused allegedly threatened to kill her if she told about the incident to anyone.

"The accused were there in the village to attend a marriage. As of now, all three of them are absconding. However, efforts are on to nab them at the earliest," the officer said.

A case has been registered on the basis of the complaint lodged by the woman's parents, while she has been sent for- medical examination, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
World Bank has committed USD 125 million (around Rs 800 crore) loan to India for the STRIVE project for skill development.

The objective of the operation ('Skills Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancement) is to improve access to quality and market-driven vocational training as well as apprenticeships, the finance ministry said in a statement issued today.

The financing agreement was signed between the World Bank and the finance ministry yesterday, it said.

"The result areas for the project include improved performance of industrial training institutes; increased capacities of state governments to support industrial training institutes and apprenticeship training; improved teaching and learning; and improved and broadened apprenticeship training," it added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
President Xi Jinping stamped his authority over China's economy at a major meeting ending today, which called for "reasonable" credit expansion, increased imports and more open markets and efforts to curb noxious pollution.

The pledges were made under a new banner, "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialist Economy with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era", at the end of the annual Central Economic Work Conference, during which leaders review past policy and plan for the upcoming year.

Xi is already seen as China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. The clear expansion of his portfolio into economics -- once seen as the purview of the country's premier -- is the latest sign of his ever-growing power.

The outcome of the three-day closed-door meeting was published by the state agency Xinhua.

The report outlined China's new economic direction under Xi, building on his declaration at a party congress in October that the country must shift from an era of high-growth to high-quality development.

The economy is rebalancing away from the investment-heavy and export-dependent model that brought four decades of breakneck economic growth but left the country heavily in debt.

Though many analysts believe China's debt-dependent growth has reached a breaking point, Xinhua's report on the meeting noted no new projects to tackle the problem.

Instead the meeting called for continued credit expansion.

"The floodgates of monetary supply should be controlled, and credit and social financing should see reasonable growth," Xinhua reported.

The report did call for measures to tackle financial risk, but the apparently permissive credit policy flies in the face of increasingly dire warnings from foreign economists.

In October the International Monetary Fund warned that China's dependence on debt was growing at a "dangerous pace" and it must act to avert a brewing crisis.

Xinhua's report on this week's meeting made no mention of an official growth target for the year.

But earlier on Wednesday a state think-tank forecast growth slowing to 6.7 percent in 2018, from 6.8 percent this year.

The drive to boost imports and open China's market further could damp down a brewing trade conflict with the United States.

"China vows to increase imports and cut import tariffs for some products to promote balanced trade," Xinhua reported.

The meeting also stressed the need to "expand opening up to the outside world" and "substantially expand market access", it said.

Economic relations have been a particularly thorny issue under US President Donald Trump.

His administration has launched a record number of trade investigations of Chinese goods and added new tariffs to Chinese-made imports like aluminium foil and plywood.

The import drive is also a nod to the need to get China's consumer class to start spending at home. The meeting noted that the country boasts the world's largest middle class.

Xi has indicated he is willing to accept lower growth as China tackles financial risk and heavy pollution, with analysts saying he emphasised the point by leaving growth targets out of his speech to party delegates in October.

"The key points are to win the battle for a blue sky, adjust the industrial structure and eliminate lagging production capacity," Xinhua said.

This winter China took the first steps in that direction, requiring steel factories and smelters to cut production -- with some running at half capacity -- in a drive to clean up the notoriously severe winter smog.

The measure, among others, has dented industrial output but given the capital a string of blue-sky days.

Along with pollution and imports, the government aims to control financial risk, encourage renting in the housing market, reduce poverty and protect private enterprise.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) today told the Bombay High Court that it was yet to recover over 13,000 square metres of constructed area from the redevelopers of 50 cessed buildings in the city.

Cess buildings are old buildings which pay a cess or fee to the state towards their repair and redevelopment.

A bench of justices N H Patil and N W Sambre had last week pulled up the MHADA for not being concerned about the fact that private developers, who redeveloped the old and dilapidated cess buildings, often failed to hand over parts of the buildings back to the authority as per the initial agreement between them.

The court had asked the MHADA to come up with a procedure to prevent such a practice in the future.

MHADA's lawyer told the court today that criminal complaints had been filed against 29 developers for failing to hand over the surplus area to the housing body.

Show cause notices had been issued to four other developers for default, the lawyer said.

The bench was also informed that in case of 153 completed projects, involving redevelopment of cessed buildings, the MHADA had received a total surplus area of 31,326 square metres and also a sum of Rs 38 crore by way of premium towards a lesser surrendered area.

The lawyer said the MHADA was expecting 90,258 square metres of constructed area from 150 ongoing redevelopment projects and 46,481 square metres from 106 projects, which were yet to start.

The lawyer said over 13,000 square metres of constructed area from the redevelopers of 50 cessed buildings in the city were yet to be recovered by the MHADA.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation petition, filed by city resident Kamlakar Shenoy, claiming that the MHADA had failed to take possession of about two lakh square metres of constructed area which, as per the petition, was valued at Rs 14,000 crore.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Henning Gloystein and Gavin Maguire

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Surveying the ocean floor for oil and natural gas reserves is gradually emerging from a multi-year slump, everywhere apart from Asia.

That's despite Asia being the world's biggest consumer of oil, having by far the strongest demand growth while seeing its production fall faster than anywhere else.

The reasons for Asia's dearth in offshore exploration and production (E&P) include high costs in Australia's promising waters, declining reserves in production hotspots Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as territorial disputes in the oil- and gas-rich waters of the South China Sea.

"We only have two 3D vessels in Asia-Pacific, since there are fewer opportunities and less activity in that region," said Bard Stenberg, vice president at Norwegian offshore survey company PGS, adding that most of his company's vessels were in the Atlantic.

MISSING OUT

A 2017 and 2018 activity map by geophysical surveillance firm TGS shows the most activity in the North Atlantic.

A similar map by Bernstein Research showed the Asia-Pacific basin to have only four minor offshore developments of under 50,000 barrels per day (bpd). That compares to five major developments (above 50,000 bpd) and 11 minor ones in the Atlantic.

Asia's dearth comes despite the region's huge oil deficit, resulting from booming demand and declining output.

In one of the most promising regions, Australia, the main problem is cost, in part due to a requirement for rigs to pay for Australian crew once in Australian waters.

"Once any foreign-flagged vessel is in Australian waters, the ship operator has to pick up Australian workers... They work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for 4 weeks, then get 4 weeks off," said Christy Cain of the Maritime Union of Australia.

When oil prices were high, this was not a big problem, drillers said. But in times of cheaper oil and low profit margins, the added cost deters explorers, several said.

In another promising area, the South China Sea, conflicting territorial claims, especially between China and Vietnam, have hindered E&P activity.

Meanwhile, in Asia's most established offshore oil and gas production basins of Malaysia and Indonesia, recoverable reserves are depleting.

Malaysia's state-owned Petronas, Southeast Asia's biggest oil producer, is increasingly focusing on downstream projects like the Pengerang Integrated Complex (PIC) in the southern state of Johor.

From 2019, PIC will refine crude oil into fuel and petrochemical products. Significant amounts of its crude will come from Saudi Arabia.

With little E&P activity, Asia's oil import bill - which has already more than doubled since 2000 to over $420 billion a year - will rise further, likely above $500 billion in 2017, leaving other regions to cash in on Asia's oil thirst.

COUNTING HELICOPTERS

Gauging the health of the secretive offshore industry is difficult. But dozens of mothballed rigs and support vessels sit idle in southern Malaysia's Johor river delta, waiting to be used or scrapped.

Yet cautious optimism is emerging.

"Activity to support new development projects may increase slightly (between 2018 and 2020), but is unlikely to approach historical high levels (2013/14)," Petronas said in an outlook this month.

Douglas Westwood, which monitors helicopter activity to and from offshore vessels, has a similar view.

"The offshore helicopter market has finally started to recover following three years of decline," Westwood said, although it added that average annual growth between 2018 and 2022 will still only be 1 percent.

"Global utilisation will average 59 percent over the forecast," it said, up from a paltry 54 percent in 2017.

At the root of the industry malaise lies rampant overproduction in the years running up to 2014, which crashed crude prices from over $100 per barrel in 2014 to below $30 in 2016.

E&P companies were among the first to feel the bite of aggressive industry cost slashing.

Firms in the seismic oil surveillance sector, including Polarcus, PGS, and Electromagnetic Geoservices have seen their share prices crash since 2015, in some cases by over 90 percent.

Only a production cut led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has stabilized Brent above $50 a barrel since mid-2017.

With oil demand healthy, the offshore industry hopes companies will start spending on future output again.

"We're hoping that it's going to pick up next year," said Cain of the Maritime Union of Australia.

In a sign that even in Asia-Pacific there may be some more activity, the geothermal surveillance ship Polarcus Naila left Singapore in early December for a seismic mission in the Bonaparte Basin, off Australia's northwest coast.

Speaking to during a visit to Singapore by the ship, one of the Naila's senior crew members said he hoped things would go from "worst to bad."

(Reporting by Henning Gloystein and Gavin Maguire; Additional reporting by Keith Wallis in SINGAPORE, and Sonali Paul in MELBOURNE; Writing by Henning Gloystein; Editing by Lincoln Feast)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By William Schomberg and Huw Jones

LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England will allow European banks to continue operating without creating expensive subsidiaries after Brexit, the BBC reported, the opening gambit in a tussle with the EU over London's position as a top global financial hub.

The BoE's decision, if confirmed, would mean European banks offering wholesale services would not face new hurdles to operating in London after Britain leaves the European Union in March 2019.

A BoE spokesman declined to comment on the report ahead of the publication at 1300 GMT of the central bank's approach to future supervision of foreign banks, insurers and clearing houses.

By allowing EU banks to function as normal, the BoE's announcement represents the first salvo in an expected struggle with the EU over banking rules that will decide the fate of London's lucrative financial centre for decades to come.

The central bank's proposal indicates a much softer British position than that of the EU, which insists London-based banks will lose access to EU banking markets after Brexit and wants to pull some key banking business back.

London vies with New York for the title of the world's financial capital, dominates the $5.1-trillion-a-day global foreign exchange market and is home to more banks than any other centre.

But many other EU capitals see London's Brexit tumult as an opportunity to grab new business.

Countries such as France, Germany and Ireland are wooing banks based in London to move operations to them after Brexit.

Earlier this year, BoE Governor Mark Carney called for Britain and the EU to recognise each others' bank rules after Brexit, or risk a potentially damaging hit to financial services across Europe where many companies depend on London for funding.

BREXIT BANKING

The EU's top Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier this week reiterated his stance that London stands to lose access to the EU banking market if it sticks to its plan to impose new controls on migration, one of the conditions for membership of the single market.

The EU has already proposed that clearing of euro-denominated derivatives, which are done mainly in London, could move to the euro zone after Brexit, if there is no comprehensive Brexit deal between EU and UK regulators.

The tough EU line on banking is extremely sensitive for the United Kingdom which collects over 70 billion pounds ($94 billion) a year in tax from the financial services sector.

So far, British Prime Minister Theresa May has largely conceded to the EU on the structure, timetable and substance of the negotiations.

A later version of the BBC story removed a reference to the BoE proposing that EU banks would be allowed to operate as usual even if no divorce deal was struck between London and Brussels.

The BoE's proposal indicates both Britain's concern to preserve London as by far the biggest global banking centre in its time zone but also worry about the potential regulation that the EU could impose on banks after Brexit.

CITY OF LONDON HAPPY

May has said Britain will leave the EU's single market, raising questions about how companies in Britain will do business in the bloc after Brexit, and how European companies can operate in Britain.

The City of London welcomed the BoE's move.

"Allowing European wholesale banks to operate as normal in the UK after March 2019 is a welcome bit of to end the year for the City," said Catherine McGuinness, the head of the City of London Corporation.

The BoE move could also be a gesture of goodwill aimed at softening European Commission plans, due to be published on Wednesday, to stiffen the rules for non-EU investment banks which operate inside the bloc.

Many of those banks, like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have their main European operations in London at present, though they are making plans to move some operations to EU centres.

The BoE has said around 10,000 financial services jobs are likely to move out of the U.K. immediately after Brexit in March 2019. Bankers say more may follow in the years ahead.

More than 100 banks operating in London are branches of lenders headquartered elsewhere in the EU. Currently, they operate in Britain under EU "passporting" rules which are due to expire when Britain leaves the bloc in March 2019.

The BoE had previously said it would let banks know before the end of the year whether these branches must reapply for branch licences to operate after Brexit, or would need to be turned into subsidiaries, an option Boston Consulting Group has said could cost banks up to 40 billion euros.

Switching from being a branch to a subsidiary means having to build up buffers of capital and cash locally, and come under the direct supervision of the Bank of England.

EU retail banks that hold UK customer deposits above a certain threshold would have to become subsidiaries, the BoE has already said.

($1 = 0.7458 pounds)

(Reporting by William Schomberg and Huw Jones, editing by Guy Faulconbridge/Jeremy Gaunt)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By David Gaffen

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Crude prices rose on Wednesday, supported by a larger-than-expected drop in U.S. inventories and the continued outage of the North Sea Forties pipeline system.

U.S. crude stocks fell by 6.5 million barrels, more than expected, in the week to Dec. 15, while gasoline stocks rose 1.2 million barrels, less than anticipated, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday, even though refining activity rose.

West Texas Intermediate crude futures settled up 53 cents at $58.09 a barrel, while Brent crude ended up 76 cents at $64.56 a barrel.

Crude stocks, excluding the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, are at 436.5 million barrels, the lowest since October 2015.

Inventories have been steadily declining in the United States due to strong export demand and efforts by major oil producers to restrict supply.

Refiners in the United States continue to run at above-average rates than is typical for this time of year, which is offsetting strong U.S. production, and resulting in product that is ready for export or domestic use.

For the most recent week, refiner capacity utilization rose to 94.1 percent, the highest since the summer, and above average for December, notes Richard Hastings, macro strategist at Seaport Global Securities in Charlotte.

"Crude oil stocks are getting gobbled up and that is preventing a buildup from U.S. oil production," he said. "It's a stable story where the floor for crude prices is looking very firm."

OPEC and 10 other producers led by Russia last month extended an agreement to cut oil production by 1.8 million bpd until the end of next year to eliminate an oil glut.

Some producers, including Russia, had raised concerns over whether the deal should continue through the end of 2018. On Wednesday, Saudi Arabian energy minister Khalid al-Falih said it would be premature to discuss changes to OPEC's policy. He said the drawdown of inventories would likely take through the second half of 2018.

On Wednesday, Kuwait's oil minister Bakhit al-Rashidi said compliance among both OPEC and non-OPEC members currently stands at 122 percent, highest since the deal was implemented in January.

Rising U.S. crude production , which has soared by 16 percent since mid-2016 to 9.8 million bpd, was capping prices. The all-time U.S. production record of more than 10 million bpd was set in the early 1970s and is based on monthly EIA figures.

Most analysts expect U.S. output to break that record soon, and take it to levels on a par with top exporter Saudi Arabia and close to top producer Russia, which pumps around 11 million bpd.

Prices have been supported by the continuing outage of Britain's Forties pipeline in the North Sea, which delivers crude underpinning Brent futures.

Operator Ineos said repairs were under way on Wednesday after a crack was found that closed the pipeline on Dec. 11. Repairs are expected to take two to four weeks.

(Additional reporting by Scott DiSavino in New York, Ahmad Ghaddar in London and Henning Gloystein in Singapore, Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Susan Thomas)

(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.)
TOKYO (Reuters) - Cash-strapped Japan Display Inc <6740.T> is discussing an investment of more than 200 billion yen ($1.8 billion) from three Chinese panel makers including BOE Technology Group Co <000725.SZ>, Kyodo reported.

Japan Display is aiming to agree a deal by the end of March, Kyodo said, without citing its source. The other two firms are Tianma Microelectronics Co <000050.SZ> and Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co (CSOT), Kyodo said.

Japan Display, which has been losing money for the past three years, is seeking capital from new investors to catch up in organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology, recently adopted by Apple Inc for the iPhone X. OLED panels are only mass-produced for smartphones by Samsung Electronics Co Ltd <005930.KS>.

The company said it was not the source of the report and declined to disclose details of its ongoing negotiations with potential investors. It has previously said it was open to partnerships with rivals, including panel makers from China.

Japan Display has been earning half its revenue selling liquid crystal displays (LCDs) to Apple, and said last month its revenue for the business year to March would likely fall 15 to 25 percent due to a shift to OLED displays by "major customers".

Shares of Japan Display jumped as much as 10.1 percent and were up 7 percent at 0119 GMT, while the Tokyo market was roughly flat.

($1 = 112.9800 yen)

(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim and Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Stephen Coates)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Keith Wallis

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - More than 300 large dry cargo ships are having to wait outside Chinese and Australian ports in a maritime traffic jam that spotlights bottlenecks in China's huge and global commodity supply chain as demand peaks this winter.

With some vessels waiting to load coal and iron ore outside Australian ports for over a month, key charter rates have jumped to their highest in more than three years. Placed end-to-end, the total delayed fleet would stretch more than 40 miles, enough to span the English Channel from Dover to Calais and back.

As well as choking supplies to the world's second-biggest economy, the clog is costing extra in a shipping sector operating on tight margins, just as it recovers from its worst downturn in more than three decades. Charterers of capesize ships - the largest bulk dry cargo carriers - face paying an extra $1 million per vessel, assuming a 45-day wait, according to fixture data on the Eikon terminal.

"There are some ports in east Australia that have 80 vessels anchored, which translate into 20-25 days of delay and congestion," said Ziad Nakhleh, managing director of Greek ship owner Teo Shipping.

Shippers and brokers said the delays were typical, especially during the peak demand winter season, as bad weather including fog and strong winds in China and infrastructure issues in Australia exacerbate increased demand for vessels to satisfy China's soaring minerals appetite.

Australian ports affected include Queensland export terminals at Hay Point and Dalrymple Bay, where there are 76 capesize and panamax vessels - named for being the largest size than can navigate the Panama Canal - waiting to load, according shipping data in Thomson Eikon.

At Dalrymple Bay, the 93,296 deadweight tonne (DWT) panamax ship Piavia arrived to load coal on Nov. 4. But loading only started on Dec. 17.

"It must be congestion. I don't think it's normal to wait six weeks," said Nicolaus Bunnemann, joint managing director of the ship's German owner, Atlantic Lloyd.

Delays at Hay Point and Dalrymple Bay were caused by a combination of port maintenance and the ongoing impact and disruption caused by Cyclone Debbie in March, said Ian Macfarlane, chief executive of the Queensland Resources Council.

"It's business as usual off Hay Point but we're still seeing queues for Dalrymple, however it's declining steadily and we're expecting a return to normal sometime in January," Macfarlane told .

PORTS CLOSED

Once finally loaded, most ships will head to China, where some vessels have already waited over two weeks to unload, according to shipping data.

"There have been several incidents where ports in China have been closed for two or three days at a time," one Singapore-based capesize ship broker told Reuters. "Changjiangkou (or CJK, the anchorage outside Zhoushan-Ningbo) and Bayuquan were all closed at one stage, although CJK was the worst affected."

Ship owners with ships stuck in the maritime traffic jam miss out twice around: they are unable to hire out their vessels at the higher rates the congestion has caused.

Charter rates for a 180,000 DWT capesize ship from Western Australia to China hit $10 a tonne - equivalent to about $28,000 a day - on Dec. 12, the highest since April 2014.

Adding to the congestion is a coal and iron ore buying spree that kicked in after the National Congress of China's communist party in October.

"There has been an abundance of cargo in the market since November after import controls were imposed during the 19th National Congress Meeting," said Ong Choo-Kiat, president of Taiwan's dry cargo shipper U-Ming Marine Transport.

"Bad weather, substitution of domestic ore with better quality imported ore caused by the anti-pollution policy, and strong steel prices...have all helped to push freight rates up," Ong said.

SHIPPERS FRAGILE

China's December coal imports are set to hit 28 million tonnes, the highest since December 2013, according to Ralph Leszczynski, head of research at ship broker Banchero Costa in Singapore.

For all of 2017, China is on course to import 220.2 million tonnes of coal, up 10 percent year-on-year, according to shipping services firm Clarkson.

Iron ore imports are set to hit 1.07 billion tonnes, up 6 percent compared with 2016, Clarkson said.

The strong demand for iron ore and coal adds to already soaring Chinese consumption of oil and natural gas, most of which is also imported. That's a boon for a shipping industry that is struggling to recover from on of its worst-ever downturns.

Still, shippers say any recovery is fragile, due to an ongoing oversupply in ships.

"The return to permanent profitable freight rates is still way off," said Peter Sand, chief shipping analyst at shipping industry lobby group, Bimco.

(Reporting by Keith Wallis; Editing by Henning Gloystein and Kenneth Maxwell)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Huw Jones and Maiya Keidan

LONDON (Reuters) - A push by activist hedge fund TCI to oust the chairman of the London Stock Exchange was heavily defeated on Tuesday, but that may not bring an end to the row.

LSE shareholders voted by 79.07 to 20.93 percent at an extraordinary general meeting, defeating a resolution that aimed to ditch Donald Brydon over the way he handled the departure of former chief executive Xavier Rolet in November.

TCI, which has a 5 percent stake in the exchange, was founded by Christopher Hohn, who called for the vote after accusing the board of forcing Rolet out.

A source close to TCI said the firm would keep up efforts to ditch Brydon, saying 20 percent backing for its resolution showed significant support among shareholders.

"Many of the large shareholders who voted against the resolution have informed us that they had asked the board to commence work on the chairman's succession plan immediately," Hohn said in a letter to the LSE after the vote.

The LSE said no large shareholder has expressed such a view.

"Today's vote should now lead to an orderly process of succession of the CEO and then the chair of the LSE as set out by the board," said the Financial Conduct Authority, the watchdog overseeing the stock exchange.

The spat has shone a spotlight on the 300-year-old exchange.

"This is a very sorry affair, which has brought considerable opprobrium on the company," Aubrey Franklin, a small shareholder for more than 20 years who backed the bid to remove the chairman, said during the meeting.

"This should have been an orderly succession process...however it has ended in a less than satisfactory situation for all concerned," said one top-30 shareholder who opposed the resolution but declined to be named, adding that the resolution had been "an attempt for a symbolic rejection of the whole board".

A string of institutional shareholders, such as BlackRock and Aviva, had said they would vote against TCI's resolution, making its defeat all but certain.

"It seems to me the old boys' network has got together and the establishment is winning out," Franklin said.

Paul Heiden, a senior LSE non-executive director, told the meeting the board unanimously backed Brydon to remain in his post until the annual meeting in 2019, adding that suddenly losing the chairman would destabilise the exchange.

David Warren, interim chief executive, said the exchange was positioned to grow under the strategy put in place by Rolet. "The group continues to perform well across all main businesses," Warren said.

Asked why Rolet quit early rather than stay until the end of 2018 as originally planned, Heiden said the former CEO was asked to step down after relations between him and senior management "became fairly strained."

TCI founder Hohn did not attend the shareholder meeting.

Brydon told the meeting that board members reached their decision collectively regarding Rolet's succession. "United, your board will proceed to complete the identification and recruitment of the next chief executive," he said.

Brydon has already interviewed six candidates, with another six in the pipeline, a source close to the exchange said.

Rolet is widely credited with turning a lacklustre company into a larger and more diversified firm, but the Frenchman's attempt to merge with the German exchange Deutsche Boerse collapsed in the face of regulatory opposition.

Britain's planned departure from the European Union in 2019 raises questions about the LSE's strategy at the heart of Europe's biggest financial centre.

Deutsche Boerse is trying to take market share in clearing euro denominated derivatives from LSE, with tacit backing from euro zone policymakers.

Without a permanent CEO, the LSE may be more vulnerable to a takeover bid, although Brexit uncertainties may protect it for now.

(Reporting by Maiya Keidan and Huw Jones; additional reporting by Carolyn Cohn in London and Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru; Editing by Edmund Blair and Adrian Croft)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's largest lender PrivatBank, which was nationalised in late 2016, said on Wednesday a London court where it launched legal action had frozen the worldwide assets of former owners Ihor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Bogolyubov.

The case adds to a slew of lawsuits initiated since PrivatBank was nationalised last December as a result of risky lending practices that left the lender with a capital shortfall of over $5.5 billion, according to the central bank.

"On 19 December 2017, the English High Court granted a worldwide freezing order against Messrs Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov, as well as against six companies they are believed to own or control," the bank said in a statement.

Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov were not immediately available for comment.

PrivatBank said the court order was granted on the basis of detailed evidence put to the court that Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov, Ukraine's second- and third-richest man respectively, had extracted almost $2 billion from PrivatBank through dishonest transactions.

"PrivatBank is confident that the English court will determine its claims fairly and objectively and that it will succeed in recovering funds that have been misappropriated from it," it said.

Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov have challenged the justification for the nationalisation and accused the central bank of misrepresenting the state of PrivatBank's finances.

Kolomoisky has launched a number of lawsuits to challenge the nationalisation, including a move to prevent the Ukrainian authorities cooperating with external companies to investigate the reasons for PrivatBank's insolvency.

(Reporting by Natalia Zinets; writing by Alessandra Prentice; editing by Mark Heinrich)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
1 What is the term used to describe the trail of clicks that internet users leave behind from which value can be extracted?



Data exhaust



2 This American brand started in a Michigan farm by two brothers in 1892 is now British owned. Mark Twain, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Edison and Mahatma Gandhi were its users. It was one of the first to bring out a Mickey Mouse branded edition during the 1930s. Name it.
Buoyed by changes such as the goods and services tax (GST) and the growing e-commerce space, global investors such as Morgan Stanley and German investor Allianz, are looking at getting into the Indian logistics sector, with new ventures, say sources.
In a major relief to hard-pressed taxi drivers across Europe, including Britain, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that ride sharing aggregator Uber was not a computer service company but a transport company. The court said that to operate in Europe, Uber would have to comply with the regulations applicable of the taxi operators across the continent. The ruling is a major setback for Uber, which has been in news for all the wrong reasons in the past two years such as covering up the hacking of 57 millions customer account details, sexual harassment cases, and labour law disputes in several EU and North American countries. The court ruling will also hurt the company's expansion plans across Europe as it'll now have to function under the stricter regulations for taxi associations that have to pay heavy licencing fee and other staff-related benefits.

The company will no longer be able to treat their drivers as independent individuals or freelancers who don't get company related benefits such as medical or accidental insurance as they are hired under the short-term contracts. In the longer run, the ruling would surely have an impact on the least-regulated sharing economy, and apart from other ride-hailing firms, the companies working on the sharing business model could also get affected.

The petition was submitted in the ECJ by taxi operators in Barcelona. Uber had defended itself saying it was a computer-based platform that connected people with taxi drivers through a mobile application, and that it should be regulated under the laws governing e-commerce companies, and laws that protect such companies from harsh restrictions.

In its ruling, as reported in the Guardian, the ECJ said as Uber was an "intermediation service", "the purpose of which is to connect, by means of a smartphone application and for remuneration, non-professional drivers using their own vehicle with persons who wish to make urban journeys, must be regarded as being inherently linked to a transport service and, accordingly, must be classified as 'a service in the field of transport' within the meaning of EU law".

However, the company said in a statement that the latest court ruling would have little affect on its functioning as it was already operating under the transportation laws applicable in most of the European countries where Uber was operational.

The company has been mired in several controversies, leading to resignation of former CEO and Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick and sacking of its executives. In 2014, the Indian woman was allegedly raped by an Uber driver in New Delhi. She had filed a lawsuit earlier but later "voluntarily" withdrew it. In June this year, she filed another case against the company and its former CEO Travis Kalanick for "unlawfully" obtaining her medical records and engaging in offensive conspiracy theories about the brutal incident. On December 9, it was reported that Uber and the complainant had agreed to settle the civil US lawsuit.

In November, it was reported that Uber paid hackers around $100,000 for not disclosing the details about 57 million accounts after a massive data breach last year. Though the incident reportedly happened last year when Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick was at the helm of affairs, new chief executive officer (CEO) Dara Khosrowshahi, who joined the company in August, fired two employees of the company responsible for its response to the hack, and apologised to investors and customers saying "none of this should have happened".
HDFC Bank on Wednesday said its board had given nod to raise Rs 24,000 crore through a preferential issue of shares to its promoter HDFC Ltd and by issuing shares and depository receipts to fund the bank's growth plans. In a statement to stock exchanges, the company said the decision was taken under Regulation 30 and provisions of the Securities and Exchange Board of India listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015.

HDFC Bank is the second biggest lender in India in terms of asset-value, and has the lowest bad-loan ratio among India's top banks. Having a market capitalization of over $76 billion, the bank has been consistent in terms of growth at a time when public sector institutions in India are reeling under huge bad-loan ratio. As a favourite financial institution for investors, the bank has been described by the Reserve Bank of India as "too big to fail".

The bank statement said it would hold a general meeting on February 19 to seek approval of its shareholders. "For this purpose, the board has authorized a special committee to decide terms and conditions," said the statement. According to the bank's fundraising plan, around Rs 8,500 crore worth of shares of the face value of Rs 2 each will be issued to mortgage lender and promoter HDFC Ltd, while the rest of the amount will be raised via issuance of equity shares, convertible securities, American Depositary Receipts and Global Depository Receipt (GDR) programme.

Being one of the healthiest banks in India, HDFC Bank was also listed on New York State Exchange after it raised Rs 97.66 billion in equity capital in 2015. As per Reuters, HDFC Bank had a capital adequacy ratio of 15.1 per cent against a regulatory requirement of 10.25 per cent as of September end. The stock of HDFC Bank was up 0.53 per cent at Rs 1,895.15 on the BSE on Wednesday. Overall, the stock has risen around 56 per cent on BSE and 28 per cent on Nifty this year.
June this year was the hottest one in four years in North India, but it wasn't the soaring temperatures that caused frayed tempers. Instead India was reeling under the news of a petrol pump chip scam-fuel dispensing units at petrol pumps across the country had been fitted with a special remote-controlled chip that would release 20-50 ml less for every litre of petrol/diesel that a customer purchased.

But since the electronic display would show the correct measure of fuel, customers had no way of knowing that they were being short-changed by 7-10% of fuel. As of December 1, over 100 retail outlets across India have been shut down on account of electronic chip manipulation in dispensing units.

Lesson learnt the hard way, all the government-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) are reportedly focussing on complete automation and real-time monitoring of all their outlets. Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) are now planning to introduce an "e-key" facility for tankers carrying fuel from depots to retail outlets.

According to the Business Standard, tankers carrying fuel from terminals to dealer outlets would not just have global positioning system (GPS) tracking but also an electronic key (e-key). The tanker can then only be opened through a one-time password (OTP) at retail outlets. "Even if we have centralized GPS tracking, people can manipulate it and divert routes. In this case, if a particular tanker takes more time to reach the particular destination from a terminal, the dealer will need special permission from the companies other than the OTP," said an official close to the development to the daily. He added that the end-to-end automation involves tracking of fuel gone through nozzles and tanks and will also transfer data to the central system. The ministry of petroleum and natural gas is hopeful that this strategy will reduce adulteration and diversion of fuel.

The e-key facility is already in place in 40-odd BPCL retail outlets in Delhi, and a tender to extend the facility to another 500 BPCL outlets will reportedly be floated early next year. The aim is to ensure real-time monitoring of all the retail outlets of government-owned OMCs-numbering 55,325 as of October-by December 2018. The OMCs will reportedly have to spend about Rs 4-5 lakh on automating each outlet, which will attract an overall investment of about Rs 2,000 crore in the marketing infrastructure. Currently, only around 20,000 retail outlets are automated.

According to a written answer by petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan in the Lok Sabha on Monday, a total of 5,732 cases of short delivery of fuel had been registered in the last three financial years and the current year till September-end. Given that each retail outlet sells an average 170 kilolitres of fuel a month, this drive towards automation and real-time monitoring will save the OMCs a pretty penny.
The long-running cat-and-mouse game between the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India and private telecom players has brought some new names under the scanner. CAG's latest report, tabled in Parliament, claims that five leading private telcos have understated their adjusted gross revenue (AGR) by over Rs 14,800 crore, resulting in a shortfall of Rs 1,526.70 crore to the exchequer. When you add the interest due on the short payment, calculated to be Rs 1,052.13 crore till March 2016, the amount owed to the government shoots up to Rs 2,578.83 crore.

According to the Compliance Audit Report on Sharing of Revenue by Private Telecom Service Providers up to 2014-2015, the five errant telecom players are Tata Teleservices, Telenor, Videocon Telecom, Quadrant Televentures and Reliance Jio Infocomm. Tata is reportedly the biggest defaulter among them-the government collection from it is short by Rs 1,893.6 crore for the period 2010-11 to 2014-15. Telenor comes next on the list with a shortfall of Rs 603.75 between 2009-10 and 2014-15, followed by Videocon Telecom at Rs 48.08 crore (audit period 2009-10 to 2014-15), Quadrant Televentures at Rs 26.62 crore (2006-07 to 2014-15) and Reliance Jio at Rs 6.78 crore (2012-13 to 2014-15).

Sharing details of the five companies, the CAG said the government was paid Rs 1,015.17 crore less in licence fees and Rs 511.53 crore less in spectrum usage charges (SUC). As per rules, mobile service operators have to pay 8% of their AGR to the government as licence fee along with SUC for using air waves allotted to them. The auditor added that telcos also understated revenue collections through accounting adjustments for commissions or discounts paid to distributors, promotional schemes like free talk time and discounts to postpaid subscribers, netting of discounts from revenue pertaining to roaming services, non-inclusion of forex gains and interest income, and netting of revenue from infrastructure sharing.

Reacting to the CAG report, a Reliance Jio spokesperson said, "The charge against Reliance Jio is related to 'revenue share on realised forex gain'. This is an industry issue and was referred to the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), which ruled in favour of telecom operators. However, the TDSAT decision was appealed against by the Department of Telecommunications and this matter is sub judice in the Supreme Court."

This is not the first time that the CAG has hauled up private telcos for underreporting revenues. In June this year, it had tabled a report on six other private players-Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Aircel, Sistema Shyam Teleservices and Reliance Communications-shortchanging the exchequer by nearly Rs 7,700 crore, not including interest dues amounting to Rs 4,531.62 crore. Previously, in March 2016, the CAG had indicated a loss of Rs 12,489 crore to the exchequer for the period from 2006-07 to 2009-10.

The reason for this repeated difference in the telcos revenue calculation and the CAG's calculations is a difference in opinion in the very definition of AGR. The telcos in the country have been involved in protracted litigation challenging the government's stand on AGR. In May this year, the Tripura High Court had ruled that revenue earned by telecom operators from activities unrelated to their licence could not be included in the AGR. The court had also ruled that the Department of Telecommunications change the definition of AGR for working out the revenue share of telecom operators. But this is one battle that's unlikely to end anytime soon.
Ryan Bundy, left, walks out of federal court with his wife Angela Bundy, Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2017, in Las Vegas. Ryan Bundy, along with his father Cliven Bundy, brother Ammon Bundy, and co-defendant Ryan Payne, are accused of leading an armed standoff in 2014 against government agents in a cattle grazing dispute. (AP Photo/John Locher)

LAS VEGAS (AP)  A U.S. judge in Nevada declared a mistrial Wednesday in the case against a states rights figure, his two sons and another man accused of leading a 2014 armed standoff with federal agents during a cattle grazing dispute.

Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro in Las Vegas dismissed a jury seated last month for the long-awaited trial of Cliven Bundy, his sons Ryan and Ammon Bundy and self-styled Montana militia leader Ryan Payne.

It is the latest in a string of failed prosecutions in Nevada and Oregon against those who have opposed federal control of vast swaths of land in the American West.

Jurors in Portland, Oregon, acquitted the two Bundy sons of taking over a U.S. wildlife refuge in Oregon for more than a month in early 2016 amid calls for the U.S. government to turn over public land to local control.

In the Nevada case, Navarro faulted federal prosecutors for failing to turn over all evidence to defense attorneys, including records about the conduct of FBI and Bureau of Land Management agents during the standoff.

The government is obligated to disclose all evidence that might be favorable to the defense, the judge said.

The case stemmed from an armed confrontation that capped a decadeslong dispute over Cliven Bundys refusal to pay grazing fees. The 71-year-old rancher says his family has grazed cattle for more than a century in the area and insists public land belongs to states, not the U.S. government.

Government agents began rounding up his animals. The four on trial were accused of enlisting armed gunmen to force government agents to abandon the effort.

A mistrial is a very bad result for the government, said Ian Bartrum, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas, law professor who has followed the case closely.

Bartrum had cast the trial as a test of whether U.S. authorities could enforce their own land policy in Western states where the government owns or controls vast expanses.

It looks even worse because it isnt the sort of jury nullification weve seen before, but actual incompetence (or worse) by the prosecution, Bartrum said in an email. It certainly erodes a lot of confidence in the federal governments motives.

Acting U.S. Attorney Steven Myhre had no immediate answer about whether prosecutors would retry the case. If so, the Bundys and Payne still would face 15 felony charges including assault and threats against federal officers, firearms counts, obstruction and extortion.

Prosecutors also failed to win full convictions against others at the tense confrontation near Bunkerville, about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

Six men who acknowledged carrying assault-style weapons faced a trial and a retrial. Two were acquitted, two were convicted of some charges and two are free after pleading guilty to misdemeanors to avoid a third trial. None was found guilty of a conspiracy charge.

In the case against the Bundys, the judge hinted last week that trouble was afoot. She sent the jury home to review sealed documents following closed-door hearings over complaints about the conduct of FBI and Bureau of Land Management agents during the standoff.

Jurors got a glimpse of the claims when Ryan Bundy, who represented himself, spoke at opening statements about seeing government snipers and surveillance cameras positioned on hilltops surrounding his family home in the days before armed supporters answered his familys calls for help.

A whistleblower memo by a lead U.S. Bureau of Land Management investigator that was released last week alleges widespread bad judgment, bias and misconduct, as well as likely policy, ethical and legal violations among senior and supervisory staff in the days leading up to the standoff.

The memo said agents who planned and oversaw the cattle roundup mocked and displayed clear prejudice against the Bundys, their supporters and Mormons.

The investigator, Larry Wooten, said he was removed from the investigation last February after he complained to the U.S. attorneys office in Nevada.

The judge freed the Bundy sons and Payne to house arrest during the trial after nearly two years in jail. Cliven Bundy refused the judges offer, with his lawyer saying the patriarch was holding out for acquittal.
Colter Peterson leaves the courtroom after pleading guilty to attempted aggravated murder and aggravated robbery, on Tuesday in Logan. Peterson shot Deserae Turner in February 2017, and left her for dead in a dry irrigation canal in Smithfield, Utah.

LOGAN  A judge has scheduled sentencing for Colter Peterson, hours after the co-defendant in the case accepted a plea deal. The 17-year-old Smithfield teenager who already admitted to shooting Deserae Turner in the back of the head and leaving her to die in a dry canal bed, could receive up to life in prison.

Peterson appeared in 1st District Court Tuesday afternoon for a status hearing. His public defender, Mike McGinnis asked for a sentencing date and requested that his client be moved back to the detention center in Cache County. He explained that since the co-defendant, 17-year-old Jayzon Decker, had pleaded guilty Tuesday morning, there wasnt any reason for Peterson to still be housed at the Millcreek Detention Center.

Peterson and Decker concocted a plan to kill Turner while playing video games and discussing their desire to get rid of her. She was found with a gunshot wound to the head, early in the morning of February 17. She had reportedly been left to die in a dry canal east of Sky View High School.

Peterson was the gunman, shooting Turner in the back of the head with a .22 caliber revolver. Decker acted as lookout, letting Peterson know when it was clear to shoot Turner.

On October 10, Peterson accepted a plea deal, pleaded guilty to attempted aggravated murder, a first-degree felony, and robbery, a second-degree felony. As part of the plea agreement, state attorneys dropped four other charges against him of obstructing justice.

During Tuesdays hearing, state attorney Spencer Walsh objected to Peterson being moved, telling the court the detention center in Cache County isnt big enough to keep the two defendants separated. He also clarified that prosecutors would have subpoenaed Peterson to testify in Deckers trial but it was not part of the plea deal arrangement.

Judge Kevin Allen explained that he moved Peterson because he worried the two defendants would collude with each other. He said, since both teenagers had pleaded guilty, that was no longer a concern. He scheduled the full day sentencing for February 9.

Earlier in a different courtroom, Decker appeared before 1st District Court Judge Brian Cannell. He pleaded guilty to attempted aggravated murder, a first-degree felony, and obstructing justice, a second-degree felony. His sentencing was scheduled for February 7.

<hr /><p style=text-align: center;>will@cvradio.com
Douglas Birkinbine appears in 1st District Court for a pretrial conference, Tuesday in Logan, Utah. Birkinbine is being charged with aggravated robbery and burglary as well as other charges after he led police on a high speed chase.

LOGAN  A 55-year-old man, in prison for breaking into multiple homes two years ago, has been told by a judge to pay back his victims. Douglas L. Birkinbine was ordered to pay more than $80,000 to those who he and Victoria Asta, also serving a prison sentence, robbed in 2015.

Birkinbine appeared in 1st District Court Wednesday morning for a restitution hearing. He is serving nine-years-to-life in prison, after pleading guilty to one count of aggravated robbery, a first-degree felony, three counts of residential burglary and one count of possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person, all second-degree felonies.

Behind Birkinbine in the court gallery, sat more than ten of the victims. They had come to court to tell prosecutors the overall value of the items they had taken from them. Many reported pieces of jewelry stolen that has never been returned.

Outside the courtroom, state attorney Barbara Lachmar expressed sorrow for the victims loses. She said the judges order hopefully brings some closure to them.

Im grateful that the perpetrator is behind bars and will be for a very long time, Lachmar said. We know that the community is safer now and I thank the victims for their cooperation, and certainly I want to give a shout out to law enforcement. They did a fantastic job in this case, such a good job in obtaining the evidence, and providing it to the state, so that we were able to effectively prosecute Mr. Birkinbine.

On evening of November 17, 2015, Birkinbine and Asta robbed a home in Paradise at gun point and later led deputies on a high speed chase that ended in Logan. The two broke into more than eight residences before their arrests.

During the hearing, Judge Brian Cannell said he hoped Birkinbine would seek to pay back the victims, even though he is incarcerated.

Outside the courtroom, Lachmar said even though Birkinbine is in prison, it is still important that he be held accountable.

Restitution is part and parcel of that process but on a practical level, if the defendant is confined in prison, it makes restitution payments extremely difficult because they are not employed, or if they are employed it is for 35 cents an hour. So if hes in there for a very long time, it is going to be a very long time before they see any of that restitution come their way.

Birkinebine has reportedly never shown any remorse or tried to apologize to any of the victims.

<hr /><p style=text-align: center;>will@cvradio.com
The feeling was expressed by the Littoral Governor during a visit to the construction site recently reports the CT journal.

ADS



The Governor of the Littoral Region, Ivaha Diboua, who also happens to be the President of the Regional steering committee for 2019 AFCON projects, has expressed satisfaction with the level of work at the Japoma sport complex scheduled to host the tourney.



He said he was pessimistic on his first visit to construction site but is now reassured the construction company will deliver the work on time. He was also happy with the fact that the construction company was using quality material for the project and recruiting more Cameroonians to work with them to the tune of 800 Cameroonians to about 400 Turks. According to the Project Director, Zeki Bozkurt, 10 per cent of the work has been done generally and 17 per cent on the stadium proper.



He disclosed that the concrete work will be complete by March and that the main stadium and the two training stadiums will be completed by October 28th, 2018. In order to meet up with the delay for the delivery of the project, he said they are going to increase man power and machinery as well as work round the clock without observing weekends and public holidays.



Commenting on the other structures in Douala to host the tournament, the Governor said the contract has been awarded to a Canadian company and that the company will begin work in January 2018 on the Omnisport, Bonamoussadi and Mbappe Lepe stadiums which will serve as training grounds for the Douala-based teams.



Members of the steering committee expressed concerns about the access ways to the stadium and why 75 per cent of the material for roofing is being done in Turkey and only 25 per cent in Cameroon. The Project Director said the reason for making the pre cast roof and tribunes in Turkey is because it is made from special material which cannot be produced in Cameroon within the three months



Fred VUBEM TOH

ADS
| BY Lynchy |

PHD Thailand has strengthened its strategy offering by appointing Chaivut Eiamvuthikorn in the newly created role of Senior Director  Strategy & Planning.

Eiamvuthikorn (pictured left) joins PHD Thailand from fellow Omnicom Media Group agency, OMD, where he led on the strategic planning and digital operations for a blue-chip telecom account for three years. Prior to joining the group, Chaivut brought over 12 years of intensive experience managing major FMCG and various businesses, such as Unilever, P&G, MFG, Citi, and many more. His strategic planning and digital expertise has resulted in award-winning work, including a silver Tangrams Effectiveness award for E-commerce and Data, and the Mumbrella Asia awards for Best Use of Programmatic for dtacs Dynamic Profiling campaign this year.

With PHDs strong business growth both in the region and Thailand, I believe Chaivuts experience and capability will strengthen our product offering as well as take PHD Thailand to the next level, said Nuvee Pongsathidporn, Managing Director PHD Thailand.

Finding the right talent is always a challenge for an agency, especially now when the business is changing exponentially, thanks to digital technologies. Chaivut brings exactly the right skillset and experience to cope with these changes and adapt PHDs unique thought leadership for this market, -added Sunee Paripunna, CEO, OMG Thailand.
| BY Lynchy |

The Midas Awards for the Worlds Best Financial Advertising has announced the shortlist for the 2017 competition. Worldwide since 2001, the Midas Awards is the only awards show to recognise excellence in financial advertising and marketing on a global scale.

Asia has scored a total of 10 finalists, 3 shortlists for TBWA\Singapore for Standard Chartered Banks Unlimited Joy Machine, 3 shortlists for Havas Riverorchid Myanmar for Wave Money for Pwint Campaign TVC, 2 shortlists for McCann Worldgroup Singapore for Mastercard for Travel Transforms and one each for J. Walter Thompson Mumbai for Association of Mutual Funds in Indias Mutual Funds Sahi Hai and McCann Worldgroup Japan for Mastercards Choose Priceless.

The 2017 Midas Awards grand jury, comprised of international executives from financial and creative marketing disciplines, shortlisted 242 entries showcasing creative excellence submitted from 21 countries around the globe. The competition expanded its global footprint with entries from Myanmar moving on to the Medal round.

The spotlight was on global agencies competing for the number one spot on the Midas Report. The following agencies are top forerunners for the 2017 annual ranking: McCann New York with 31 entries achieving shortlist status; Cullinan, South Africa with 23 entries shortlisted; OneTeam with 19, McCann London with 12 entries moving on the medal round; and R/GA Sao Paulo and MRM // McCann New York each with 10 entries; Havas Dusseldorf and Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney each advanced with 8; and MullenLowe Boston, Fp7/MENA, and McCann Canada moved ahead with 7 entries shortlisted.

Strategic sponsorships provided opportunities for brands to target specific demographics while increasing awareness and consumer engagement. Entries shortlisted from the Sponsorship category include: Playmaker South Africa with The ReadytoWork Absa Premiership campaign for Absa; Quicken Loans Detroit moved forward with Rickie Fowler campaign for Quicken Loans; MRM // McCann New York advanced with A Focus on Optimism  Forbes Womens Summit for OppenheimerFunds; and OneTeam moved to the trophy round with Citi | Proud Global Partner of the Presidents Cup, Proud Sponsor of Progress for Citi. In addition, FCB Africa (Pty) Ltd South Africa advanced withAbsa Premiership Rivalry for Absa; Cullinan South Africa moved to the trophy round with Conquer as One Absa and Give Art Life for Absa/Barclays; McCann Worldgroup London BRIT Awards 2017 and UEFA Champions League Womens Final were shortlisted for client Mastercard; McCann New York advanced with #ArnieWould and Sound of Priceless for Mastercard; and McCann Worldgroup EMEA London moved ahead with Buffon Priceless Surprise Mastercard.

International agencies from around the world utilized high-profile event marketing to gain market share on behalf of prominent brands. Entries advancing submitted into the Events category include: Zulu Alpha Kilo Canadas Flash Box for client Interac Association; Havas Dusseldorf Evil Zero for DWS Investments; Etiket South Africa Harmonograph for FNB  First National Bank; McCann New York for Fearless Girl Eclipse 2017: Through the Eyes of a Child and My First Purchase Exhibit all for MasterCard; McCann Canada Priceless Tables for MasterCard; and Factory Detroit, Inc. Pop Up Dinner for Invite for First Citizens Bank.

Mastercard saw a staggering 57 entries achieve shortlist status from global agencies in 8 countries. McCann New York advanced with an impressive 22 entries shortlisted for client Mastercard. McCann Worldgroup London advanced with 14; McCann Canada saw 7 entries advance; McCann Worldgroup EMEA UK moved forward with 4; McCann Brazil with 3; McCann Worldgroup Australia and McCann Worldgroup Singapore each advanced with 2; Publicis Turkey moved forward with 2 entries; and McCann Worldgroup Japan saw 1 entry advance.

McCann New York moved forward with 9 shortlisted entries for Fearless Girl for their campaign designed to promote State Street Global Advisors SHE fund: an investment fund for companies with more women in leadership. The statue of a young girl standing up to Wall Streets iconic Charging Bull became a powerful piece of city art and a social media phenomenon. In just 12 weeks the campaign achieved 4.6 billion Twitter impressions in 12 weeks, 745 billion Instagram impressions, a 379% increase in State Street share of voice, and a 384% increase in SHE funds traded daily.

Cullinan South Africas Give Art Life had 22 entries advance for client Absa/Barclays. The campaign was launched to inspire young artists in Africa and to create awareness for the Annual LAtelier Art Competition. Cullinan created art pieces employed art and human canvasses to give art life. The resultsawareness of the LAtelier was raised substantially with an earned media valued at R13.5 million and young artists were given the power to change the world. Conquer as One for Absa also moved forward.

OneTeam had an impressive 19 entries shortlisted for campaigns created for client Citi including: 2 entries for The Citi Double Cash Card: Holiday Cards That Say What They Mean, 2 for The Citi Double Cash Card: Means What It Says, and The Citi Double Cash Card: Means What It Says Campaign  Neighborhood :30, The Citi Double Cash Card: Means What It Says Mets Campaign, The Citi Double Cash Card: Means What It Says Snapchat Campaign, and The Citi Double Cash Card: Holiday Cards That each advanced. Additional entries shortlisted: 2 for Citi Emotion Campaign  Integrated Campaign, 2 for Citi Emotion Campaign  TV Campaign and 1 for Emotion Campaign  Progressive Blue Wave. In addition, ThankYou Rewards Points-illism saw 2 entries advance and Citi | Proud Global Partner of the Presidents Cup, Proud Sponsor of Progress, Citi / AAdvantage 30 Years Of Wow, Dine & Do Good, and Taste of The Nation were each shortlisted.

Global agencies employed a variety of strategic initiatives to engage consumers on behalf of the brand. R/GA Sao Paulo saw 10 entries shortlisted for Next Bank, their campaign for client Bradesco Bank. The campaign promoted the brands entirely new mobile-only bank that empowers digital-savvy millennials while seamlessly integrating into their lifestyle. Fp7/MENAs saw 7 entries advance for their emotional campaign for Byblos Bank, Theres No Home Like Home. The campaign tackled the decline in home loans in Lebanon by targeting Lebanese ex-pats abroad to introduce The Expat Housing Loans. Havas Dusseldorfs saw 8 entries shortlisted for Evil Zero for DWS Investments, the campaign utilized, TV and print, online, promotions, an augmented reality app, giveaways, interactive installations, and guerrilla marketing to attract the attention of potential investors.

In this years Midas Awards competition, the United States took the lead with 103 entries shortlisted. South Africa saw 40 entries shortlisted, the United Kingdom advanced with 24, followed by Australia with 14, Brazil with 13, Canada with 12, Germany with 10, and Lebanon with 7. Agencies from Singapore and Turkey each saw 5 entries shortlisted, Myanmar and the Netherlands advanced with 3, and India and Japan each had 1 entry shortlisted.

Shortlisted entries will move on to the secondary trophy round and will be judged by the executive jury who will award Gold and Silver Ingots to the highest scoring entries and determine the winner for the Midas Award for Innovation and the Grand Midas Award. The results of the juries are parsed in an annual rankings brief, The Midas Report, a veritable whos-who in the world of financial services advertising that includes the 3 individual reports: Agency, Brand and Network.

Prominent international brands in position to be included in the Midas Brand Report, an annual ranking report based on points earned within the Midas Awards competition and celebrates advertisers performance in elevating the financial advertising industry include: Mastercard, Citi, Absa / Barclays, Bradesco Bank,

DWS Investments, Byblos Bank, OppenheimerFunds, E*Trade, and State Street Global Advisors.
"Carol has an incredible eye and it's easy to see why this wonderful photo was one of the most popular images we published on Instagram this year," Victoria said.
"The important vaccination will be offered to students next year and is based on the fact that older teenagers and young adults are at increased risk of meningococcal disease and are most likely to spread the disease to others," she said.
The ACT Government has admitted it did not consult with Braddon traders before deciding to close Lonsdale Street to traffic on the Friday and Saturday nights of Summernats, putting an end to the informal tradition of cars cruising the suburb and a festive atmosphere being created in the centre of the city during an otherwise quiet time of year.
A new mural at the Museum of Colorado Prisons represents the meaning of incarceration through the eyes of the offenders who created it.

Seven offenders from the minimum-security Federal Prison Camp in Florence spent part of the week completing the project that depicts their journey from darkness to light.

The mural is a community service project created by staff and offenders from the camp. It was painted as a project of the prison camps Creative Arts Platform in collaboration with Pueblo artist Mat Taylor and the museum.

The first panel depicts a dark, heavy cloud bearing down on a chain gang, representing the early days of an offenders incarceration. The next section represents education, religion and the art program, followed by a depiction of an offender breaking free and being reunited with his children and family. The final panel features flowers, butterflies and sprigs of new life, representing freedom.

The offenders, who were prohibited from being photographed and being named in this article, when asked which section of the mural spoke most strongly to them, unanimously said the panel with a child running into the fathers arms. For one of the offenders, the scene brings back memories and gives him hope for the future.

Ive been gone since 2008; Ive been down a long time, he said. I see that vision almost every day  every single day I see that vision right there  to see that is almost a dream come true.

One of the men who helped with the project said he will be leaving prison in a matter of months, and the scene reminds him of how ready he is to see his sons.

I am breaking free, getting out of these walls, and running toward my kids, he said. Thats the first thing I want to do is run to my kids.

Another offender said he hopes visitors to the museum will enjoy the mural.

Its for them, he said. My gift is the happiness of the people who come to see it.

One other offender said he hadnt painted in quite a while, so working on the mural reminded him of something he used to enjoy.

This was probably the highlight from the whole time I was incarcerated, he said. Normally, people dont get to leave the prison and go out and do a community project like this. I am fortunate to have stumbled upon the class, its a real blessing.  I strayed away from my artistic side, but this class helped recapture the passion to do art again.

Mat Taylor, who also is known as Matte Refic, assisted the offenders in the project and was instrumental in its completion. He is an artist, illustrator, muralist and street artist from Pueblo.

Taylors 60-page coloring/self-assessment book, Meet Your Monsters, has been brought in to offenders at the federal prison as art therapy, which led to the partnership with the mural program.

The premise of this mural is about leaving your mark, and what better way than use giant murals to do that, he said. I leave a mark everywhere I go, now these guys all get to  now they have a whole museum done, and to me, that is as far as you can go as an artist, getting a museum gig.

He said working with the offenders this week has been one of the most fulling experiences of his life.

They are so stoked about it  it feels amazing  they are all untrained artists and were able to accomplish this in a matter of four, four-hour shifts, he said. They did a great job considering theyve never done a mural, and in less than 16 hours, they had to paint it.

The museum donated the interior wall near the exit on the first floor of the museum for the mural, and Sherwin Williams donated the paint. Stacy Cline, the director of the museum, first learned of the institutions CAP while attending the CAP Exhibit at the prison complex in December 2016 and pursued the idea with prison staff.

We are honored that we were chosen for the first mural, they are hoping to do four in total (in other communities), Cline said. This is going to be an exhibit here at the museum by itself.

Maureen Sheridan, the president of the board of directors for the museum, said she was pleased with the mural, as well.

This is awesome, she said. They did an amazing job, and its very cool to get inmates involved in doing something for the community.

Florence Federal Correctional Institution Warden C.R. Goetz said the mural project is the outgrowth of the Bureaus CAP and their positive community partnership with the Museum of Colorado Prisons.

Florence Federal Prison Camp staff and inmates had the unique and rewarding opportunity to explore the arts while serving the community with this project, she said in a statement to the Daily Record.

The Museum of Colorado Prisons is located at 201 N. First St. Winter hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. For more information, call 719-269-3015 or visit https://prisonmuseum.org.

Carie Canterbury: 719-276-7643, canterburyc@canoncitydailyrecord.com
Colorado may use state money to extend the life of a health insurance program for children, as Congress continues to delay reauthorizing the federal funds that normally pay for it.

Gov. John Hickenlooper on Tuesday sent an emergency request to lawmakers to dip into state coffers and extend the life of the program for one month  until the end of February. The program, which in Colorado is known as the Childrens Health Plan Plus, is currently set to end on Jan. 31 unless Congress reauthorizes the money for it.

Vulnerable children and pregnant women are being used as bargaining chips, Hickenlooper said in a statement. This request is not a cure. Its a one-time only bandaid as we wait for Congress to do whats right.

Without money to extend it, state officials expect to begin sending out letters next week to families covered by the program, notifying them of the programs end.

CHP+, which is part of the national Childrens Health Insurance Program, serves about 75,000 children and pregnant women. To qualify, families must be low-income but make just enough to be above the cutoff for Medicaid.

While the program has bipartisan support in Washington, D.C., Congress let funding for it expire this fall. Since then, Hickenlooper has repeatedly called for it to be renewed.

Hickenloopers request asks lawmakers on the legislatures Joint Budget Committee to approve spending about $9.6 million to fund CHP+ for the extra month. The money would come from state cash funds  which are dollars from fees, fines and taxes that are normally earmarked for specific purposes  and not from the general fund.

Colorados legislature wont convene for its new session until next month. But, in an emergency, the JBC can approve new spending without the vote of the full legislature.

The entire budget for CHP+ this fiscal year is about $183 million, nearly 90 percent of which would ordinarily be paid with federal money. Hickenloopers request says the extra month would buy time for Congress to reauthorize the program or for state officials to figure out if any of it can be salvaged without federal funds.

If the Joint Budget Committee does not act immediately, Hickenloopers request states, the Department will continue to prepare to end the CHP+ on January 31, 2018.
When the Toyota Raize came into the picture early this year , it commanded the kind of attention that made you think of it as possibly just ...
The head of Jeep has revealed some new details about the companys future lineup.



Speaking to The Detroit Free Press, Mike Manley confirmed the company will launch an all-new model in China next year that was designed specifically for the local market. Manley declined to discuss the model but theres little doubt hes talking about the Grand Commander which was previewed by the Yuntu concept earlier this year.

While the concept had a bold design, renderings from the European Union Intellectual Property Office revealed the production model will have a tamer styling. Notable changes include a less aggressive front bumper and more traditional headlights.

The model is expected to debut at the Beijing Auto Show and it could be powered by a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine. The company could also offer an eco-friendly variant sometime in the future.

Speaking the latter, Manley hinted the plug-in hybrid Wrangler could be just the tip of the iceberg. As he explained, Our approach is always to bring that technology to bear on the markets when we see the markets develop and demand begins to grow, and that clearly is beginning to happen so in the Jeep lineup you will see electrification in the coming years.

Photo Gallery
Bugattis are expensive. Theres just no way around that. But among Bugattis, some are more expensive than others.



Take for example this 1993 Bugatti EB110 GT. Its heading for the auction block in Arizona next month, where RM Sothebys anticipates it will sell in the high six-figure range: between $750k and $950k, to be specific.

Now dont get us wrong, thats a big chunk of change to spend on a single automobile. But its a far cry from the millions youd have to dish out for a new Chiron, or even for a second-hand Veyron. Which makes this a rather enticing opportunity to buy a (relatively) modern Bugatti supercar for under a million.

The EB110, for those unfamiliar, was the supercar that came before Volkswagen acquired the marque to produce the Veyron and Chiron. It was made in Italy, not in France, but was still very much an authentic Bugatti  right down to the quad turbochargers.

Those were bolted not to an eight-liter sixteen-cylinder engine, but to a 3.5-liter V12. The GT version (like the one pictured here by Brian Buchard for RM Sothebys) produced 550 horsepower, which was positively gargantuan by early-90s standards, and was followed by an SS model with 604 hp.

Between 1991 and 1995, Bugatti Automobili produced just 139 examples, leaving the EB110 considerably rarer than the VW-developed hypercars that followed. Its not every day that one comes up for sale, so if youve had trouble turning one million into three to buy a new Bugatti, this could be your chance.

Photo Gallery
The pitches are designed to showcase new ideas and creators from around the globe. In 2015, an additional category  Animation du Monde  was added to highlight projects from emerging animation countries in Africa, South America, and Asia.

In addition to the opportunity of presenting a project to the international community, numerous prizes are awarded including distribution deals, residencies, and individual production grants of up to 35,000 euros ($41,500 USD). Last year, over 170,000 euros in production funding was distributed among the prizewinners.

Submitted projects must be in the first phase of development (script, storyboard, statement of intent, graphic research). Students can submit projects too, though the projects must be developed independently of any animation course. A faq with further details can be found on the Annecy website.

The MIFA organizers tell Cartoon Brew that they would particularly welcome an increase in submissions from the United States. Only around 6% of the 342 projects submitted last year came from the States.

To submit a project, go here. The deadline to enter a project is February 5, 2018.

(Photo: Photo : D. Bouchet/CITIA.)
Photo: Contributed

In todays ever shrinking world, travellers may find themselves outside the box during the Holiday Season.

What can you expect from Christmas in Asia?

Christians form a minor part of the demographic in Asia, particularly in South and Southeast Asia, however the vast population still means many people embrace the Christmas spirit.

For example, while only five per cent of the Chinese population identify as Christian, that is still more than 65 million people. Similarly, in India, less than three per cent of the population is Christian and that still amounts to over 26 million people.

Obviously, it wont be a white Christmas, but youll be surprised by the shared values and traditions.

China

Dec. 25 is just an ordinary working day in Mainland China.

The large East Coast cities of Beijing and Shanghai have embraced the Christmas season for its commercial value and the decorations and lights displayed on their streets and shopping malls rival those of New York and Los Angeles.

There is no traditional dinner or gift giving per se, but they do have their version of Santa called Sheng dan lao ren, which translates to Old Christmas Man.

Gift giving is limited to cellophane wrapped apples between loved ones. The reason being that Christmas Eve in Mandarin (pronounced Ping-An-Ye) is like the word for apple (Ping Guo).

The irony behind the limited celebration of Christmas in China is that over 60 per cent of the worlds Christmas decorations are manufactured in Chinese factories by workers who likely have no understanding of what the goods are used for.

Japan

Although fewer than two per cent of the population identify Christianity as their religion, Japan adopted their own facsimile of Christmas celebrations.

Gift giving is limited to children only so that the legend of Santa as the gift giver is kept intact. Christmas Eve is celebrated as Couples Day in the same fashion as we North Americans keep the Valentines Day tradition.

One tradition is the KFC Christmas dinner trend. Thousands flock to the food chain as their provider of Christmas dinner every year.

Vietnam

Again, not recognized as a day off work, nonetheless the Vietnamese decorate their squares and buildings with lights and finery. Christmas Eve is celebrated as a chance to eat out, watch light shows, throw confetti and enjoy the spirit of sharing.

Philippines

Christmas is big in the Philippines. Most of the population is Christian due to the Spanish colonial influence. The Philippines is known for having one of the most lavish and long-running Christmas celebrations in the world.

Christmas carols are heard as early as September and masses and festivals last well into January.

Unique traditions such as Simbang Gabi (the nine evening masses leading up to Christmas Day), the parols, which are the bamboo and paper lanterns equivalent to our Christmas trees, and the practice of the little ones who polish their shoes and leave them by open windows with the hopes that the Three Kings will leave presents in them as they walk by.

In truth, Christmas is an opportunity to share good thoughts, good food and fun with your fellow man. It can be celebrated in every corner of the Earth with good intentions and a giving nature.

Merry Christmas wherever you may be.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Colonial rule strikes again. Its no wonder Gordon Marshall is confused about getting that ticket, but there is a very simple explanation for his dilemma.

Its important to be reminded that we are still a colonial society, with the Queen as our Head of State and British common law, a system where laws randomly are being subjected to interpretation on a mere whim.

In democratic societies where they have civil law, the people write the laws, and the judges are obliged to enforce them. Judges who are harbouring doubts about their interpretation of any law, are obliged to consult the people who wrote those laws, to determine what the laws were intended to accomplish.

In Canada politicians are writing the laws on behalf of the people like they should, and there is also where it falls apart. Instead of enforcing those laws the Canadian judiciary has completely disconnected from the real world, and have arbitrarily decided to exercise their colonial prerogatives, and are busily engaged in interpreting and rewriting our laws.

Andy Thomsen
Madison Erhardt

Kelowna International Airport is braced for the busiest travel days of the year.

Airport director Sam Samaddar has a few tips to help travellers take off as quickly as possible.

"I think the most important thing is to give yourself lots of time. We are recommending people be here at least two hours in advance. Certainly, we have the peak days coming up on Dec. 23, 24, and again on Dec.26 and 27," he said Tuesday.

Extreme weather can also play a significant role, he added.

"I think for the passengers, they should have a contingency plan. We know that during winter operation there is extra time required for flights to get off the ground, such as de-icing."

"We also know that as we deal with the increased traffic, all the aircraft are full. It will take extra time to process people."

The airport expects more than 100,000 passengers through its doors during the next three weeks.

YLW offers the following tips:
Alanna Kelly

UPDATE 4:56 P.M.

Power is out to 380 residents in McKinley Landing after a vehicle crashed into a power pole.

Fortis has advised they had to shut down power to the homes to make the necessary repairs and customers will be back online as soon as possible.

We recognize the inconvenience to our customers and appreciate their patience and understanding. We have five crew members working on repairs and expect to have service restored by 7:30 p.m. For the safety of our crews and so that work can be completed as quickly as possible, we are asking drivers to slow down, watch for our crews and follow all traffic controls. For updates, visit outages.fortisbc.com or call 1-866-436-7847, said Nicole Bogdanovic, with Fortis.

Given the winter road conditions, this is a good reminder to stay safe in the event you come into contact with a power pole. If you're involved in an accident where poles or wires are involved, it's important to remain calm, stay in your vehicle, and wait until help arrives. Call 911 and wait until FortisBC can turn off and isolate the power. Make sure to stay at least 30 feet away from a downed power line  or the length of a school bus.

Wintery weather is creating difficult driving conditions in the Central Okanagan.

First responders had a busy afternoon attending multiple crashes in Kelowna, Tuesday.

A vehicle smashed into a fence after sliding off the road at Springfield and Hollywood roads about 1:30 p.m.

Another vehicle was spotted stuck in a ditch in the Black Mountain area, and a City of Kelowna snow plow reportedly ran into a telephone pole in McKinley Landing.

Crews responded to the intersection of Clement Avenue and Ellis Street about 1:30 p.m. after a car and taxi collided.

Winter storm warnings are in effect for the Coquihalla Highway from Hope to Merritt and Merritt to Kamloops, Highway 3 from Hope to Princeton via Allison Pass and Paulson Summit to Kootenay Pass and Okanagan Connector.

Snowfall is expected to continue overnight. Flurries expected to end Wednesday morning, but will return on Thursday.

For updated driving conditions, visit this link.
Students at Rutland Senior Secondary shared some holiday cheer with those less fortunate Tuesday night.

Dozens of students gave out food, clothing and other necessities to Kelowna's homeless between 4-5:30 p.m. by the Sails on Bernard Avenue.

The event was greatly appreciated.

Can you see the tears coming out of my eyes, that's also the gratefulness coming out of my heart, said Shawn Oldford, a homeless man who has lived in Kelowna for 25 years. I came here and my hands were cold, look at this, I've got gloves, I've got gloves now.

We are the marginalized people, we're the people with no hope and sometimes there's people like this that come and give us hope.

The event was organized by Grade 12 students Courtney Wright and Maddie Somerville.

It's kind of our way of giving back to the community this Christmas season, to spread a little bit of cheer around Christmas, Somerville said Tuesday.

Their faces light up and they're pretty excited to just even stand close to the stove and warm up their hands and grab some gloves and a jacket.

Oldford said the gesture gave him a bit of hope for humanity, and made him feel cared for.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Federal investigators probing a deadly Amtrak derailment are trying to determine why the train was travelling at more than double the posted speed limit as it entered the curve where it left the tracks and plunged off an overpass and partly onto a busy freeway, killing three people and injuring dozens.

Early details from the probe indicate a conductor-in-training was in the cab with the engineer at the time of the derailment and the brake that eventually stopped the train was automatically activated instead of being applied by the engineer, National Transportation Safety Board member Bella Dinh-Zarr said Tuesday.

A federal official told The Associated Press that investigators are looking into whether the engineer was distracted by the presence of an employee-in-training next to him in the locomotive. The official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said investigators want to know whether the engineer lost "situational awareness."

Investigators also confirmed that technology that can automatically slow or stop a speeding train  known as positive train control  was not in use on that stretch of track. Track sensors and other PTC components have been installed, but the system is not expected to be completed until the spring, Dinh-Zarr said. Regulators have been pressing railroads for years to install such technology, and some have done so, but the deadline has been extended repeatedly at the industry's request and is now set for the end of 2018.

Dinh-Zarr said it was too early in the investigation to say whether positive train control would have prevented Monday's tragedy but noted that a "mandate" to install the system on tracks nationwide by 2015 had been pushed back by Congress.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, speaking on the floor of the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, said failing to enforce the new deadline to install positive train control would be a "moral failure."

"If we do nothing else in this Congress, let us insist that that deadline without additional delay," said Blumenthal, D-Connecticut.

The train was hurtling at 80 mph (129 kph) in a 30 mph (48 kph) zone Monday morning when it ran off the rails along a curve south of Seattle, sending some of its cars plummeting onto an interstate highway below, Dinh-Zarr said, citing data from the locomotive's event recorder.

Skid marks  so-called "witness marks"  from the train's wheels show where it left the track, she added.

Federal investigators will remain on scene past Christmas to complete a wide-ranging investigation that involves at least eight local, state and federal agencies, rail lines and train car manufacturers.

The train, with 85 passengers and crew members, was making the inaugural run along a fast new bypass route that was created by refurbishing freight tracks alongside Interstate 5. The 15-mile (24-kilometre), $180.7 million project was aimed at speeding up service by bypassing a route with a number of curves, single-track tunnels and freight traffic.

Investigators will talk to the engineer and other crew members and review the event data record from the lead locomotive as well as an identical device from the rear engine, which has already been studied. Investigators are also trying to extract data from inward- and outward-facing on-board cameras that were damaged in the crash, Dinh-Zarr said.

Investigators were also looking into what training was required of the engineer and other crew members to operate on the new route, said Ted Turpin, the lead NTSB investigator of the crash. That includes assessing the training process and how much time the workers were required to spend on the trains before they shuttled passengers, he said.

"Under Amtrak policy he couldn't run this train without being qualified and running this train previously," Turpin said of the engineer.

At least some of the crew had been doing runs on the route for two weeks prior to the crash, including a Friday ride-along for local dignitaries, Dinh-Zarr added.

The bypass underwent testing by Sound Transit and Amtrak beginning in January and lasting at least until July, according to documents on the Washington Department of Transportation website.

The conductor training in the cab was familiarizing himself with the new route, which is expected of conductors before they start work on a new itinerary, she said. A second conductor was in the passenger section of the train at the time of the crash, which is also part of the job responsibility, she said.
Photo: Contributed

Good news the snowfall has ended but now that snow has turned to slush and is getting packed and icy. Take care when driving as local roads are snow covered and icy and DriveBC is reporting a mixed bag on the highways.

As of Wednesday morning, they are still advising caution on highway's 5 and 97 but conditions are expected to improve as the day goes on.

Fortis is on the scene of several power outages caused by wet snow.

As of 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, power is out in the Clifton Road area impacting 161 customers, 56 customers in East Kelowna were also impacted, Southeast Kelowna and Okanagan Mission were also hit by power outages.

Several other locations are being investigated by Fortis crews. So far no reports of issues in West Kelowna or on the other side of the lake.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Actress Meghan Markle has joined her fiance Prince Harry to attend the royal family's pre-Christmas luncheon at Buckingham Palace.

Queen Elizabeth II traditionally hosts a festive lunch for the family before leaving for her private Sandringham Estate in the Norfolk countryside, about 110 miles (175 kilometres) north of London, where she spends her holidays.

Press photos show Harry's car arriving at the palace Wednesday afternoon for the event. Harry, 33, was driving, with 36-year-old Markle in the passenger seat by his side.

The couple announced their engagement last month, saying they had met through a mutual friend in 2016. They will be married on May 19 at Windsor Castle's St. George's Chapel in a highly-anticipated royal wedding.
Photo: The Canadian Press

BlackBerry Ltd. (TSX:BB) lost US$275 million in its third quarter, although its revenue and adjusted earnings were better than analysts were expecting.

The Waterloo, Ont.-based technology company, which reports in U.S. dollars, says the net loss included $149 million in expenses after BlackBerry lost an arbitration of a dispute with Nokia.

But BlackBerry says its adjusted profit, excluding the Nokia payments and other items, was $16 million or three cents per share.

Analysts on average had expected a break-even quarter on an adjusted-per-share basis, according to Thomson Reuters.

BlackBerry's revenue was also higher than expected at $226 million, but down from $289 million a year ago.

Analysts on average had expected $214.6 million in revenue.

BlackBerry's shrinking revenue is mostly due to its exit from the hardware portion of its legacy smartphone business, which has been only partially offset by increased revenue from software, services and licensing revenue.

Revenue from handheld devices dropped to $9 million, from $62 million, and revenue from system access fees dropped to $27 million from $67 million.

Revenue from software, services and licensing was $190 million, a record for the company, and up from $160 million last year.

BlackBerry's shares surged during early trading Wednesday morning, climbing C$1.38, or 9.8 per cent, to $15.35.
Photo: Tavish Campbell A screenshot from Blood Water: B.C.s Dirty Salmon Farming Secret.

New research released by the federal government saying there are minimal risks of farmed Atlantic salmon from British Columbia's Discovery Islands transferring a deadly viral disease to wild sockeye making their way to the Fraser River.

This despite evidence collected by filmmaker, Tavish Campbell, which indicates otherwise.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans says the findings are the first in a series of investigations to assess the risk of pathogen transfer associated with aquaculture activities to wild fish in the islands, which are near Campbell River on Vancouver Island.

The department says management practices on fish health at the B.C. farms, including a vaccine that is 95 per cent effective, minimizes the risk.

The research was released as part of a science advisory report today on Infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus, a disease that affects fish and trout raised in fresh and salt water.

A viral video that's been viewed more than 163,000 times led to the review.

The video, showing raw fish farm effluent spewing into the ocean off B.C.'s coast, gained traction in November.

The filmmaker, Tavish Campbell, had the effluent tested, and found it was infected with piscine reovirus, a highly infectious virus that causes heart and skeletal muscle inflammation, a deadly disease for wild salmon.

The purpose of the review is to ensure provincial regulations and permits governing waste discharge from fish processing are informed by the best available science and best practices in other jurisdictions, and fish processing discharge is free of contaminants and pathogens, the province said in a press release.

The review also included an assessment of current sea lice treatments.

"Serious and widespread concerns about effluent from fish processing operations and finfish aquaculture practices have been raised, and the government is taking action," said George Heyman, minister of environment and climate change strategy. "British Columbians expect us to keep our water safe. We'll do this by developing a comprehensive set of measures that will apply to the finfish aquaculture and fish processing industry along our coast.

Following the release of the 'Blood Water' video, an online petition urging the government to change regulations around effluent discharge garnered more than 26,000 signatures.


UPDATE: 4:25 p.m.

RCMP serious crime unit, forensic identification specialists and the coroner are investigating the suspicious death of three people.

Police have released few details about the investigation, including any information about the three people found dead.

UPDATE: 11:50 a.m.

Neighbours say the residents of a home where three people were found dead Tuesday night were church-going "good people."

A neighbour tells Castanet the family comprised a husband and wife and two daughters, about six and seven years of age.

The neighbour says they were friendly people who had lived at 600 Bolotzky Court for about a year and a half.

The neighbour also said he is turning over security camera footage to police after suspicious activity around vehicles on the street.

The home remains behind police tape, and two police cruisers are on scene, along with an officer on foot patrolling the neighbourhood.

ORIGINAL: 11 a.m.

Three people are dead and one man is in custody after an incident in Rutland Tuesday night.

Police were called to Bolotzky Court at 5 p.m. and found three dead people in a home.

A man was taken into custody.

"This investigation is in its infancy stages, says Const. Lesley Smith. RCMP continue to secure the property as our serious crimes and specially trained forensic investigators examine the inside of the residence.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
Photo: Contributed MacIntyre and the logo of his company, Big Bear Software

Penticton city council was enthusiastically onboard with Keith MacIntyres pitch to get involved with the federal government's Smart Cities challenge.

MacIntyre, a local software developer, was in front of council asking for support in creating an application for the program which could see millions of dollars funnelled in the community if successful.

Having a champion to take an idea and try to run with it, see where it goes, thats usually whats needed and sometimes thats missing, Mayor Andrew Jakubeit said, pointing to other local success stories like attracting Westjet or the hospital expansion.

If nothing else, it helps to build community pride, he added.

MacIntyre said he would donate his companys time to developing a website for the idea, which he would spearhead the idea with the support of the community.

The program starts by asking communities to define their challenge statement  a single sentence that defines an outcome the city is trying to achieve with their Smart Cities proposal.

MacIntyre mulled about things like city-wide wifi, or public transit to the PIB, but noted the city as a whole would set the agenda.

I think you will put us on the world stage with the application alone, said Coun. Judy Sentes.

The winning community can win a prize of up to $50M.

More information on the project will be released in the coming weeks. But for now, anyone that wants to get involved can contact [email protected]
Photo: Contributed Jeff Anderson

Pharmacies across British Columbia will distribute take-home doses of the overdose reversing drug naloxone to help combat the ongoing opioid crisis.

About 220 pharmacies have been stocked with about 1,900 naloxone kits, which will be provided free-of-charge to anyone who is using drugs or is likely to come into contact with someone who might overdose.

Mental Health and Addictions Minister Judy Darcy says pharmacists will also provide training in recognizing and responding to overdoses.

A team from St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver has also developed an app that teaches people how to administer the drug.

Naloxone kits are already available at hospitals, health centres and safe consumption sites.

The province says nearly 30,000 have been handed out so far this year.

The BC Coroners Service says more than 1,200 people died of illicit drug overdoses between January and October of this year.
Photo: Abbotsford Police Department

The Abbotsford Police Department has created its annual Christmas card after a challenging year that included the fatal shooting of Const. John Davidson.

Cards in previous years have offered tongue-in-cheek messages to "naughty" criminals or gang members, urging them to make changes for the better, but this year's card relays gratitude.

The 2017 card depicts first responders from across the Lower Mainland around a Christmas tree with their hands on the shoulders of fellow officers, including Chief Bob Rich, who is dressed as Santa and on one knee to honour Davidson.

The department says in a news release that the card is also meant to thank the community and police departments across the globe for their support following Davidson's death.

As a show of solidarity, the card also includes the insignias of B.C.'s other municipal police forces, the RCMP and other first responders.

The release from the department says this year's card reflects the tragic circumstances its members still grapple with, as well as the "enormous gratitude" for the support offered following the Nov. 6 shooting.
Photo: Alanna Kelly The Foundry opened earlier this year.

Christmas came early for the Kelowna and District branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association.

The association learned this morning they will receive a $242,400 Community Gaming Grant from the province.

The money, says association executive director Shelagh Turner, will fund the purchase of a mobile health and mental health clinic.

Turner says an application for funding was put out in September. "We are over the moon," says Turner.

The money will be used to retrofit a van for their purposes.

Once the vehicle is in place, it will be used as a mobile extension of The Foundry.

The Foundry is a mental health, substance use and primary care clinic for people age 12 to 24.

It opened earlier this year.

Turner says they have many clients from around the Central Okanagan who want to use their service, but are not able to easily access it.

She says the mobile unit will bring the service to them, and their community.

With funding in place to purchase the vehicle, Turner says the next step is to raise funds for day-to-day operation.
Photo: CTV

UPDATE: 6 p.m.

Police are investigating claims that a 13-year-old boy accidentally started a fire that gutted a section of an East Vancouver apartment.

The fire broke out at about 11 a.m. at the apartment building located near Frances Street and Commercial Drive.

A woman named Cheryl and her three children live in the unit where the fire started.

Cheryl told CTV News that her son started the fire.

"He lit a match and it accidentally fell on a big bag of laundryso it all caught up in flames and that's how it started," she told CTV.

According the Cheryl, she was in the lobby when the fire started and her boyfriend tried to put the fire out.

 with files from CTV Vancouver

ORIGINAL: 12:30 p.m.

CTV Vancouver is reporting fire crews are battling a three-alarm fire at an apartment building in East Vancouver.

The blaze broke out before 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday on the third floor of a building on Frances Street near Commercial Drive.

Pictures show thick smoke coming from the windows of the building.

The cause of the fire is unclear.

- with files from CTV Vancouver
Photo: Colin Dacre A vehicle plunged into Skaha Lake off of Eastside Road near Okanagan Falls on Wednesday.

A vehicle drove into Skaha Lake near Okanagan Falls, just after noon on Wednesday.

The incident happened on Eastside Road, near the intersection of Highland Drive.

The lone occupant of the vehicle was able to get out of the vehicle safely. The red four-door car was partially submerged.

The Penticton Fire Department's water rescue team was also dispatched.

Sections of Eastside Road are still very slippery.
Photo: Contributed

A deceased man with a rifle across his lap was discovered in the driver's seat of a vehicle early Wednesday in Burnaby.

RCMP discovered the body after responding to an unrelated call in the area. The Lower Mainland Emergency Response Team was called in when the gun was spotted, but it was then realized the man was deceased.

The Independent Investigations Office of British Columbia is now involved, to investigate whether police action contributed to the man's death.

Witnesses or those with information are asked to contact the IIO at 1-855-446-8477.
So recently Kelowna Gospel Mission had their Christmas dinner and I always take my friend Dodie to it every year and she goes there almost everyday so staff all knows her.

We sat down to get our meals and usually we would be allowed to take a second meal in a to go container to take home. She would take home a meal for here dad and I take one to my husband. We were eating our meal and I asked our server if we could get our second meal in a to go container. The server said we would have to ask another gentleman by the name of Terry. Terry then came over to our table, I asked and he said no and walked away.

Meanwhile the lady across from us was saying how she had been on her 4th meal and that she had taken a couple home with no problem. So as we are sitting eating I see Terry bring a gentleman 3 to go containers and watched a bunch of people put their meals in a their tupperware. After we ate and I asked another staff member why we couldn't have a to go container. There were 3 staff members who said we could but may need our own container (which i had one but Didio didn't). So we went outside for like 15-20 minutes and came back in.

We sat down at different table and asked for a meal, we ate a few bites and I took out my container to put our meal in when all of sudden Terry comes behind me and said we had to leave. I asked why and he said because we were putting our meal in our container. I asked him why he was he doing this to us after I seen him passing out to go containers and talking to people while they put their meal in their own container. He told us to leave again, so I told Dodie to give me her meal and I would put her meal in my container. As Dodie went to pass me her plate Terry ripped the plate our of her hand and threw it in the garbage. I was shocked! All of a sudden Dodie let out a scream and started to cry and I don't blame her.

The whole room looked our way, I asked again why he was doing this especially at this time of year and I thought that the Gospel Mission was suppose to give to the needy yet he was throwing away a perfectly good meal. The whole room was in shock by his actions and a few people were saying "boo".

Dodie was still crying as we got our coats on and as we walked pasted the kitchen 4 staff members gather around us and passed Dodie a to go container to say that they were sorry for Terry's actions. I don't know why these staff members have to apologize for Terry's actions, he shouldn't have taken Dodie's meal and threw it away in the garbage first place.

The Kelowna Gospel Mission is for people in need of food and is a place for the homeless to sleep at night. It's a shame that The Gospel Mission is represented by someone who can act like this. Terry acted like he paid for this meal but he didn't, this meal was all from donations that the lovely people of Kelowna had given. It Christamas time and like most people that have a low income we are struggling to put on a great Christmas for our loved ones while trying to pay off bills and get by.

Jessie Brosseau
404

Try searching for the content you're looking for, or take a look at our recently published stories
Washington 

Students who were defrauded by the for-profit Corinthian Colleges may not get their loans forgiven entirely, the Education Department announced Wednesday, in a reversal of the Obama administration policy of wiping out the debt.

Under President Barack Obama, tens of thousands of students deceived by the now-defunct schools had more than $550 million in federal student loans canceled in full.

But Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced Wednesday she is putting a new process in place that she says is more efficient and fair. The department will now look at average income for specific programs to determine if the loans should be forgiven fully or partially.

For instance, if a student who attended a nursing program at Corinthian is earning less than 50 percent of what the average income is for graduates of similar programs, he or she will get the entire loan wiped out. But a student earning more than 70 percent of average earnings would get only 30 percent of the loan canceled.

"No fraud is acceptable, and students deserve relief if the school they attended acted dishonestly," DeVos said in a statement. "This improved process will allow claims to be adjudicated quickly and harmed students to be treated fairly. It also protects taxpayers from being forced to shoulder massive costs that may be unjustified."

Corinthian students who had their claims approved in full under the Obama administration, even if the money hasn't been disbursed, will see the payments in full. The change will affect students whose claims had not been decided by Jan. 20, the date of President Donald Trump's inauguration. The decision will affect more than 20,000 pending claims.

Student advocates criticized the decision.

"It's unfair and it's unlawful and arbitrary," said Eileen Connor, a litigator at Harvard University's Project on Predatory Student Lending, which has represented hundreds of defrauded Corinthian students. Connor said these students wasted not only money, but time.

"With respect to the clients that I've seen, the idea that any of them should get partial relief is really contrary to the facts and the law. It would be like somebody showing that their car has been stolen and the department giving them back a door."

Connor said her organization will challenge the decision with lawsuits.

Critics say the Trump administration has deep ties to the for-profit sector and is looking out for industry interests at the expense of students. Earlier this year, Trump paid $25 million to settle charges that his Trump University misled students. DeVos has filled several senior positions at the Education Department with for-profit officials.

But DeVos insists that Obama-era procedures left room for borrowers to abuse the system at the expense of taxpayers.

DeVos also said the department has resumed approving loan forgiveness claims, after sitting on tens of thousands of applications for many months. The agency said it has approved 12,900 pending claims from Corinthian students, some in part and some in full, and that 8,600 claims were denied. The agency said those claims were unsubstantiated and that some of the denials were carried over from the previous administration.

A lot of questions remained.

It was unclear what earnings data the government would use to make the decisions. Advocates said the figures must be fairly recent in order for the process to be fair.

It was also unclear what would happen if the nursing student, unable to find work in his or her field, ended up taking a job in a different sector. A department official said only that the agency would look into this issue if complaints arise.

"Some harmed borrowers may now get partial relief solely because they hold a minimum wage job, even though it's not in the field they prepared for and provides no long-term path to solid employment," said Ben Miller, a higher education expert with the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank. Miller added that anybody working a part-time minimum-wage job would be prevented from getting full relief.

"The massive drop in the percentage of relief granted punishes borrowers who succeeded in spite of their unacceptable training."
Boebert continues to lead Frisch on final day of counting

The election is hovering within the threshold for an automatic recount. Here's the latest in the Colorado race between Adam Frisch and Lauren Boebert.
The Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) signed between Armenia and the European Union comes to show that Armenia, a EEU member, takes a completely new step establishing new relations with the EU, Sajjad Karim, the Co-Chair of the EU-Armenia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee (PCC), said today addressing the 17th session of the EU-Armenia PCC.

December 20, 2017, 15:35 Armenia shows that it is able to make its own decisions, European official says

STEPANAKERT, DECEMBER 20, ARTSAKHPRESS:With this [step] Armenia snows that it is able to make its own decision as a sovereign state with a clearly dawn up principles of its future ambitions, the official noted.

According to Mr. Karim, there is some disinformation among the Armenian society over the EUs role.

It does not help to better understand and perceive the EU among the Armenian citizens. We will do our best to explain our role. We hope the Armenian authorities will do the same, he added.

Reflecting on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement process, the European official gave his strong assurances the European Parliament (EP) is ready to do everything possible to reach a proper settlement of the conflict.

In regard to Azerbaijan blacklisting individuals who visit Artsakh, Sajjad Karim stated the MEPs are free to carry out their parliamentary activities in any country.

When MEPs pay a visit to Artsakh, they should clarify their status. If they say that they visit on behalf of the EP rather than as an individual lawmaker it can cause unhealthy confusion, he said.
Young entrepreneurs from China and Sweden had an opportunity to show their talent for technological innovation at the first Nobel Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition this month.







The competition, which ran from Dec 6 to 8, was intended to promote the international exchange of academic and technological innovation between Swedish and Chinese university students in the fields of new energy, new materials, artificial intelligence, big data and other areas of cutting-edge technology.





The winner of the grand prize went to a project team from Beijing Sunlectric Technological Company established by graduates from Tsinghua University.





The group was awarded a summer study trip to Sweden at the renowned Lund University, and an English-language course with Education First in Shanghai in 2018.





The project focused on producing an efficient and affordable solar photovoltaic power-generation terminal through the use of flexible crystalline silicon technology.





"We were motivated by the appreciation from the judges of the competition to keep up our endeavors on advocating the concept of low-carbon and environmental protection," says Liu Jie, one of the four copartners of the company.





Liu says the technology and strategies from other teams inspired her group to further improve their product's quality.





"More factories will be established to lower the production costs and to help promote the utilization of clean energy, like solar energy, in daily life," says Liu.





A team from Xi'an Jiaotong University won first prize for their design of a lower-limb rehabilitation robot based on a human-computer interface. The robot was created to help patients suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a progressive nervous system disease, to maintain good communication with the outside world through an interactive system assisted with electroencephalography, or an electrophysiological monitoring method to record electrical activity of the brain.





The second prize was won by a team from Fudan University who developed a cloud platform for an adjuvant therapy system using AI and computer vision technology to reduce the misdiagnosis rate.





The third prize was awarded to a team from Nanjing University for their project offering innovative video solutions through the use of AI algorithms to ultimately enhance the human visual experience.





The Nobel Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition was jointly organized by the Consulate General of Sweden, Shanghai Jiaotong University and Shanghai Yangpu district government.





Among the 12 teams competing in the final, nine were from Chinese universities, including Shanghai Jiaotong University, Fudan University, Tsinghua University, Peking University, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Nanjing University and Zhejiang University, and three Swedish teams from the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.





"We hope to stimulate more innovation and entrepreneurship in the spirit of Nobel, or rather, the Nobel Prize," says Lisette Lindahl, consul-general of the Consulate General of the Kingdom of Sweden in Shanghai.





"Any technological innovation is popularized by commercialization and industrialization to profit the society. It is in the same sense that Nobel left his fortune to establish the Nobel Prize, which is to reward those who have made the greatest contribution to mankind."





Lindahl says the exchange between Sweden and China could help to find creative solutions to many common problems affecting society, whether they be environment challenges, elderly care, health problems or energy issues.





China has taken a stride forward in encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship.





At a State Council executive meeting in August, Premier Li Keqiang said that the country must give full play to the role of innovation in spurring entrepreneurship and employment, and speed up the transformation of innovation into real productivity.





A guideline on encouraging entrepreneurship, the first of its kind, was released by the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council in September.





The document acknowledges an appreciation of the significant role entrepreneurship plays in national economic progress, and promises to establish a supportive environment for it to prosper.





It also advocates the promotion of the entrepreneurial spirit, which includes hard work, the pursuit of excellence, craftsmanship, innovation and social responsibility.




Silk Road Landscape, a Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) painting, was just returned to China's Palace Museum after being kept over 70 years in a private Japanese museum. It maps 211 coordinates on the Silk Road and won high praise from US President Donald Trump during his recent visit to the Palace Museum.







The 30.12 meter-long silk scroll painted with special blue and green mineral colors is from the Jiajing reign (1522-1566) of the Ming Dynasty. It was returned to China with the help of a Chinese-Australian billionaire, Xu Rongmao.





"When I knew the Palace Museum was held up by a lack of money, I felt I had the responsibility to help the painting return home," Xu said, after purchasing the painting for $20 million and donating it to the Palace Museum in late November.





In recent years, more and more overseas Chinese are helping to return antiques to China, according to media reports.





There are over 1.64 million Chinese antiques in about 200 museums spread across 47 countries around the world, according to a report issued by UNESCO. After the First Opium War in 1840, over 10 million Chinese antiques were stolen and illegally sold abroad, including over 1 million first- and second-tier national antiques, according to statistics from the China Cultural Relics Academy.





"The returning national treasures are supported by worldwide overseas Chinese sponsorship and negotiation," said Shan Jixiang, the curator of the Palace Museum.





The Chinese-Belgian porcelain collector Wu Pei transported over 1,000 pieces from collections back to China and held the Ming and Qing Dynasty Exported China Exhibition in 2014. Collecting is not only Wu's interest, but also part of a dream to realize the return of antiques.





"These porcelain antiques can be only seen by me at home, but they will be appreciated by more people if they are transported back to China," Wu said.





He hopes more people can share his love for exported porcelain, and also hopes to improve academic research through his donations.





In addition, Chinese-Hungarian Li Zhen is the negotiator to help local residents of Yangchun village in Southeast China's Fujian province fight for the return of their Buddha statue, which was stolen in 2015.





He went several times to the Hungarian display where the statue was found to check the details, and also visited the Netherlands embassy in Hungry seeking help.





Chinese-American Zhao Sihong has restored over 5,000 antiques to China with his team since 2004.





To cut down on the procedures and taxes involved in returning antiques, the first return antique trading market was set up at the Beijing National Base for International Cultural Trade.




A Chinese business jet landed safely at the Wolfs Fang Airport in Antarctica on Saturday night, the first time a Chinese private jet operator has operated a flight to the southernmost continent.

The aircraft, with 22 Chinese passengers onboard, flew from Hong Kong to Cape Town International Airport, and then flew to Antarctica. Next, the team will fly around five to six hours to the South Pole, and it will become the first self-organized Chinese scientific research team.

The plane, operated by Hainan Airlines, was a Deer Jet Gulfstream G650 aircraft. Deer Jet said it had planned the flight for a year, and conducted hundreds of risk tests, flight routes, flight support and emergency plans to ensure the flight could be performed safely.

Beijing-based Deer Jet, a subsidiary of Hainan Airlines, said the successful landing of the jet in Antarctica signals that the business jet sector in China has entered the market in Antarctica, and it will provide opportunities for business and leisure travelers who would like to travel to the continent.

Wang Wen, a professor from Renmin University of China, who was on the flight, said the launching of a Chinese commercial flight to Antarctica will arouse the interest of Chinese tourists.

"It will also encourage more Chinese consumers to pay attention to Antarctica, in addition to the responsibilities that China should take in the continent," he said.

Ctrip.com, China's largest online travel agency, said it had received an unusually large number of inquiries for its Antarctica tours this year and estimated that more than 1,000 Chinese tourists would be staying in Antarctica during the upcoming Spring Festival holiday in February.

Most trips to Antarctica cost more than 100,000 yuan (US$15,152). The best season to visit the continent is usually between December and February, as it is the summer time there.

To cater to this demand, Beijing Caissa International Travel Service Co, a company in which HNA Group holds around half of the shares, said it plans to officially launch travel products to the South Pole next year.




You are here: Business

Abu Dhabi International Airport (AUH) said it signed a deal with China's Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) on Tuesday to strengthen all-round cooperation between the two international aviation hubs.

China's Beijing Capital International Airport. [File photo/Xinhua]

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by Abdul Majeed Al Khoori, acting chief executive officer of Abu Dhabi Airports, and Liu Xuesong, chairman of BCIA, at BCIA's headquarters in Beijing.

The agreement sets the stage for mutually beneficial collaboration between the two airports through knowledge and experience sharing, AUH said in an e-mailed statement.

They will look to collaborate in areas such as staff training and management including terminal operations, airside management, route development and commercial management, it added.

The MoU also allows for cooperation on joint projects that will have positive returns on both entities such as hub development, airport planning, and service quality evaluation.

"This MoU will be the base for an ongoing strategic partnership and future collaboration between AUH and BCIA," said Al Khoori.

AUH is the base hub for the UAE's national carrier Etihad Airways, which offered the first direct flights from the UAE to Beijing in April 2008.
China started the world's largest carbon trading system on Tuesday, sending strong signals that it plans to use the market as a key policy tool to curb emissions and also is keeping its Paris Agreement commitments.





The nationwide carbon market, which is built upon seven pilot programs implemented since 2013, will be open only to the power generation sector during its early phase, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.





Still, it is expected to exceed the European Union's market, with more than 1,700 power generation enterprises producing 3.3 billion metric tons of carbon expected to be involved, according to the commission.





The power sector accounts for about one-third of China's carbon dioxide emissions.





Zhang Yong, vice-minister of the commission, said the introduction of the nationwide market shows China is delivering on its Paris Agreement promises.





China pledged to peak carbon emissions by the end of 2030 in the Paris pact sealed in 2015.





Putting a price on carbon will propel market players to further cut carbon emissions, as they have to consider those costs in making future investment and production decisions, according to Jiang Zhaoli, deputy director of the commission's Department of Climate Change.





China will not introduce financial products such as carbon futures in the early stage as some other countries did because speculative behavior will do more harm than good in encouraging actual carbon reduction, according to Jiang.





The initial benchmark for market inclusion is set at 26,000 metric tons of carbon or above a year.





Firms involved that plan to emit more carbon should reduce emissions or buy spare credits from other companies, and those with extra allowances can sell or keep them for future use.





While creating the market is a milestone, much needs to be done to make it a success in coming years, experts said.





Transparency and public participation will be crucial for it to be an important incentive for carbon reduction, according to Femke de Jong, policy director of Carbon Market Watch.





Liu Shuang, director of the Low Carbon Economic Growth Program with the Energy Foundation China, said improvements will be needed for a stronger legal basis, a more stringent cap and better allocation.





"For immediate next steps, it is essential for regulators to set up a reviewing mechanism to carefully monitor operational progress and collect data in a timely way to inform the design and decision-making for the next phases," she said.





The government has set a three-year road map for gradually improving the framework before allowing real transactions. Real transactions are expected to take place in 2020.




Before each mission, Yan Qun takes a picture of himself, and then deletes it when the bomb is defused. To date, he has taken 278 of these "just in case" pictures.

Yan Qun practices defusing a bomb in Beijing. [Photo provided to China Daily]





Yan, 41, is deputy head of the bomb-disposal squad of the fifth detachment of the Beijing Public Security Bureau's counterterrorism department. He has disassembled 27 explosive devices by hand in his 23-year career.

"It's like an exciting scene from a thrilling movie, but without a script. The work is fraught with uncertainty and you can never rehearse," he said.

Yan was once three minutes from death. In 2004, a suspect threatened to blow up a public baths in Beijing after a dispute with its owner. Days later, a bomb was found in a changing room locker. Detonation had been set for 5 pm, but the timer had stopped at 4:53 pm.

"Homemade devices are usually unstable, and cutting the outside wiring can trigger an immediate explosion. The only way was to defuse it," Yan said.

But when he removed the bomb from the locker for more working space, the timer restarted.

"Normally the safest course would be to evacuate all team members and let it explode," he said.

In this case, however, the damage would have been great, and the evidence would also have been destroyed. So Yan volunteered to stay with just seven minutes to spare.

"You work to only the sound of your own breathing in the helmet. Alone in the area, you have no one to talk to at the critical moment," he said.

At 4:57 pm, Yan made it, although inside his 35-kilogram protective suit his hair was as wet as if he had just washed it. "A small explosion might leave you with your body intact, although without hands," he said, with black humor.

Yan is now a key figure among his squad's 35 members. Three to five years of training is required before a recruit can deal with a real device.

To practice under pressure, candidates run in their heavy work suits before using chopsticks to pick out ball-bearings from a bowl of green beans. It takes the fine skills of an embroiderer, combined with a mind that can race against death.

"This profession has a high dropout rate. Some perform well in the training but cannot cope in a real situation," Yan said.

"My biggest wish is that by the time I'm old and looking through the family photo album of our squad, no one will have been killed or injured."
You are here: China

This winter marks the second anniversary of the launch of China's reform of its armed forces.

Here's a list of facts and figures on the historic breakthroughs.

-- Four general departments at military headquarters were reorganized into 15 agencies within the Central Military Commission (CMC). One-third of the personnel were cut.

-- Five theater commands were established to replace the previous seven military area commands.

-- A new military structure has been established with the CMC exercising overall leadership, while the theater commands are responsible for military operations and the services focus on developing capabilities.

-- After remarkable downsizing of the ground forces, the army now accounts for less than 50 percent of the armed forces.

-- Over 1,000 units at the regiment level or above and 30 percent of commissioned officers were cut during the reform.

-- Seventy-seven military education institutions were regrouped to 43, including a strengthened National University of Defense Technology.

-- New laws and regulations on military issues have been introduced or amended, including a revised regulation on civilian personnel in the military released on Nov. 10, 2017.
The rapid development of industries related to big data, smart cities and artificial intelligence in Hengqin, located in the city of Zhuhai in southern China's Guangdong province, makes the 106-square-kilometer coastal island a magnet for high-end talent.

Deng Lianbing, the head of the postdoctoral office of Hengqin, receives an interview by China.org.cn. [Photo by Huang Shan/China.org.cn]





At least, this is the hope of Deng Lianbing. Deng is the head of the postdoctoral office of Hengqin, which recently hosted an academic forum themed on artificial intelligence for doctoral graduates in the island district.







Deng, who is also the executive director and general-manager of Zhuhai Da Hengqin Technology Development Co. Ltd, kept busy during the event, but felt more excited than tired.

Hengqin will witness explosive growth in the artificial intelligence sector in three to five years, Deng believed, as Hengqin emphasizes big data integration and lays a solid foundation for the rise of AI technologies

The Chinese central government decided to support the development of Hengqin in 2009. It has been earmarked as a national "new development zone" and is part of the pilot free-trade zone in Guangdong.

Deng is one of the pioneers firmly believing in Hengqin's future and taking part in the construction on the islet, which enjoys the support of state policies as well as the unique strengths of its geographic position -- in the center of the Pearl River mouth with Hong Kong and Macao on either side.

He thought that Hengqin, like a blank sheet of paper, is better positioned for the development of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence and smart cities than more established urban centers, where the integration with old infrastructure is not easy work.

In the foreseeable future, Deng believed Hengqin will marshal large numbers of high-end enterprises and professionals, who will be the main consumers of AI products. He also believed the implementation of AI technologies will see significant potential in areas like city management, public services and consumption.

To make that happen, Deng emphasized that the Hengqin government will spare no effort in breaking data barriers to form a unified big-data platform, or a "data lake," so as to provide high-quality and unified-standard information resources for the implementation of AI.

The government will provide the necessary funding and encourage people to utilize AI technologies.

Deng predicted that AI will be as common in 10 years as WeChat payment is today. The implementation of AI will inevitably incur some pain among certain groups and industries, he admitted, but actively responding to change is a way to advance social progress.

The company Deng works for is engaged in the businesses of information, telecommunication, security and protection, and smart building, among other areas. Since its founding in 2014, the company has obtained more than 30 patents in big data, intelligent robots, wearable equipment and more.

"We will move on to integrate big data with AI, and promote the application of AI in Hengqin. It will strengthen our connection and cooperation with relevant enterprises and talents. We can solve the problems together in the lab," Deng said.

"It is impossible for AI to solve all problems. We need to solve the problems in the process of using it, and make the innovation, research and development of technologies more demand-oriented."

Deng thought that the integration of AI with the real economy will happen step by step. As AI is first expected to show its strengths in the agriculture, manufacturing and service sectors in the near future, these will be prospective markets.

The company is the only one of its kind affiliated with the Hengqin government. As the executor of the plan for building Hengqin into a "smart city," and as required by China's State Council, the company has hosted the National Postdoctoral Academic Forum for two consecutive years, themed on big data and artificial intelligence respectively.

"We had the future in mind when choosing the forum themes. Relevant technologies develop extremely fast. China has come to a virtuous cycle in its technology development," Deng said.

However, he admitted that the lack of skilled workers is the biggest obstacle preventing Hengqin from making breakthroughs in AI.

According to Deng, Hengqin will pay special attention next year to attracting talent not only from China but also around the world through preferential policies, postdoctoral platforms and cooperation with partners in Hong Kong and Macao.

Deng hoped the postdoctoral forum can enhance Hengqin's brand and popularity in circles of scholars and researchers as an opportunity to exchange ideas, work together and help them materialize their dreams.

"I hope that the forum can serve as a bridge connecting Hengqin with the world in the long run, and the forum can be recognized as an effective communication channel by researchers and scholars from overseas," said Deng.

Deng regarded the postdoctoral research programs as a pivot to Hengqin to help it make breakthroughs in pursuing innovation-driven development. He believed Hengqin has the potential to become a pilot zone of national talent management reform, demonstrating talent cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao.

He welcomed skilled professionals from around the world to visit Hengqin, "an island of opportunities and a promising future," offering platforms for them to realize their aspirations.




On Tuesday, controversial Republican nominee Roy Moore lost the Alabama senate election to Democrat Doug Jones. While the loss is sure to send shockwaves to the far corners of America's political spectrum, Moore's chance for victory should have been slim to begin with, as he faced multiple allegations of sexual assault during his campaign.



However, as late as Wednesday night, Moore continued to refuse to concede defeat.

Still waiting for the final vote count before accepting the result, Moore released an impassioned video statement proclaiming, "The battle rages on the heart and soul of (America) is at stake."

Given the nature of Moore's alleged actions, many Americans on both sides of the isle were satisfied to see him fail to secure a Senate seat, but what does Jones' victory mean for the American political landscape moving forward?

In the National Review, Jim Geraghty, a conservative blogger and frequent contributor, wrote, "As frustrating as it is to lose a Senate seat in a ruby-red state, it would be worse to spend the next three years having every inane, offensive, and Constitutionally illiterate utterance from Roy Moore's mouth hung around the necks of rest of the party."

Geraghty went on to write, "the Republican party dodged a bullet yesterday," insisting that Moore's departure is worth the "short term pain" of losing an election.

Jim Newell, a staff writer for Slate, commented on perhaps the most critical aspect of Moore's defeat, writing, "Jones is just one vote. But one vote in the Senate changes everything Not only is the Republicans' partisan agenda dealt a near-fatal blow by Jones' arrival, but the G.O.P. now has its work cut out trying to retain a Senate majority in next year's elections."

This defeat brought more terrible news for the Republican Party and Donald Trump who chose to support Moore's campaign. At this point in his presidency, Trump should be settling in to his stride, no longer a stranger to the insanity that often defines Washington. Instead, every presidential decree continues to generate national outcry and every piece of proposed legislation still heralds another dogfight in the nation's political arenas.

And with Moore's loss, the president now has to stomach a reduced republican majority in the Senate. With Jones' victory, there are 51 Republicans and 49 Democrats, which means there is very little political maneuverability for the acting administration. In order for Trump to be successful in implementing his agenda, he needs every single member of his party to toe the line. Otherwise, the Republican majority could count for nothing.

Having backed Moore, Trump has engendered even more distance between his administration and many Republican members of government who continue to openly disassociate with the president.

Bloomberg View columnist Jonathan Bernstein discussed the growing possibility of dissent in the Republican ranks in the aftermath of Moore's loss, writing, "I've argued all year that the risks of opposing Trump are minimal for Republicans. After Alabama, more and more Republicans are going to believe that."

As a result, Moore's loss could represent a fundamental turning point for both the president and his party. However important to the Republican Party's intended strategy, Moore would have only been a senator. In that sense, it was easy for Republicans to stomach his loss. However, despite the fact that Donald Trump is easily as controversial and "Constitutionally illiterate" as Moore, he is the president. And when it comes to politics, a win is a win.

However, there is a growing sense that more and more Republicans are starting to understand the unforgiving societal divide in America that party politics have exacerbated. It is fair to say that with Trump at the wheel, it is becoming difficult for a growing number of Republicans to recognize their own party.

On the other hand, many Democrats are doing more than celebrating. They've become so excited by Moore's loss, they're starting to believe it's safe to predict the political future, something that should still seem impossible in light of the 2016 presidential election. Responding to the election results, Tom Perez, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said, "Alabama's not an outlier, it's a trend," believing that the 2018 midterm elections could bear similar results.

Eric Levitz at New York Magazine believes as much, writing, "Democrats had no reason to believe that they could win Jeff Sessions' old Senate seat. But they prepared for that possibility anyway. Now, they've got to do the same in every state in the country."

Given the last year of political tumult in America, it might be a little early to pop the cork. Jones' victory is definitely worth celebrating, but it is not indicative of anything that may or may not happen in 2018.

Let us not forget that, despite the horrid nature of the allegations against Roy Moore, it was not enough to completely derail his election campaign.

While we are at it, let us also remember that Donald Trump, a man accused of similar actions as Moore and a self-confessed assaulter of women, was elected President of the United States.

Whatever happens in the coming year, one thing is certain. Americans well and truly have a fight on their hands.

What do Moore's loss and any subsequent political trends mean for America? Perhaps Moore himself said it best, "the battle rages on the heart and soul of (America) is at stake."

Having previously lived in Beijing working as a journalist and editor, Kyle Calandra is currently based in America reporting on Sino-U.S. Relations as a contributor for China.org.cn.

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
 Flash

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Tuesday that he wanted to raise the Sino-Japanese relationship to a "new stage," local media reported.

According to Japan's Kyodo News, Abe said during a speech in Tokyo that as 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of the signing of the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship, he wanted to take this opportunity to deepen high-level exchanges with China and elevate bilateral relations to a "new stage."

The Japanese premier has signaled his willingness to improve the Sino-Japanese relationship on a number of occasions recently.

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Abe on Nov. 11 on the sidelines of the 25th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Leaders' Meeting in Vietnam's central city of Da Nang.

During the meeting, Xi said that China and Japan should, while bearing in mind the fundamental interests of the two peoples, correctly grasp the general direction of peace, friendship and cooperation, and work to enable the bilateral relations to keep improving and developing for the better through unremitting efforts and accumulating positive factors.

Abe, for his part, said the Japanese side is willing to work with China to push for the development of the strategic mutually-beneficial relationship between the two countries by marking the 40th anniversary of the signing of the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship next year.

Japan hopes to increase high-level exchanges with China, carry out reciprocal economic and trade cooperation, and explore cooperation in connectivity and under the Belt and Road Initiative, Abe said.

Abe mentioned the Belt and Road Initiative once again at a press conference in Nov. 14 in Manila, the Philippines, on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit, saying he hoped the China-proposed initiative will make contribution to world peace and prosperity, and Japan is willing to cooperate with China in this aspect.
 Flash

China on Tuesday urged the United States to stop deliberately distorting its strategic intentions and to abandon the Cold War mentality and the outdated concept of zero-sum game.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying speaks at a press briefing in Beijing on Dec. 19, 2017. [Photo/www.fmprc.gov.cn]



Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying made the remarks at a daily press briefing in response to the newly released U.S. national security strategy report.

The report, released by U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday, referred to China and Russia as "revisionist powers," and listed them as "competitors" seeking to alter the status quo that favors the United States.

According to the report, both China and Russia are regarded as rival powers that are eroding U.S. security and prosperity, and will eventually overthrow the Washington-defined global order.

"China remains committed to the path of peaceful development and will firmly adhere to the opening-up strategy of mutual benefit and win-win results," said Hua, stressing that China has always been a builder of world peace, contributor to global development, and maintainer of international order.

Hua said China is confident in its development path, and China's achievements have been acknowledged by the international community. She emphasized that attempts by anyone or any country to twist the truth will be in vain.

"China will never seek development at the expense of other countries' interests, nor will it ever give up its own legitimate rights and interests," Hua said.

China and the United States are the world's largest developing country and developed country respectively, said Hua, adding that as the two largest economies, both countries have important responsibilities in maintaining world peace and development and share broad common interests.

"As to China-U.S. relations, cooperation is the only correct choice for both countries," said Hua, adding that differences between the two countries are not surprising as both are major powers.

According to Hua, China and the United States should properly handle their differences on the basis of respecting each other's core interests and major concerns.

"We hope the U.S. side will take China-U.S. relations objectively and rationally, and abide by its commitments," said Hua, emphasizing that maintaining a healthy and stable bilateral ties is the correct choice for the welfare of the two peoples and the international community.
 Flash

Yemen's Houthi movement on Tuesday announced firing a ballistic missile towards a Kingdom's royal palace in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, Houthi-controlled state Saba news agency reported.





A senior military official at Houthi-controlled Defence Ministry told Xinhua that "the Rocket's Force fired the ballistic missile, Burkan H2, towards the kingdom's royal palace of Yamamah at the center of the Saudi capital of Riyadh at the same time there was an important meeting for the Saudi royal family."

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua that "today's move came as a new military escalation in the war against the U.S.-backed Saudi-led military coalition."

"It is also an escalation to press the coalition to lift the all-out blockade imposed by the coalition forces on all Yemen's land, air and sea ports that pushed millions of Yemenis to the brink of famine," he said.

"The leader of dominant Houthi movement, Abdul Malik al-Houthi is expected to appear in the television within hours to announce a new phase of the military escalation in the war after nearly one thousand day since the Saudi-led coalition launched the war against Yemen," the official added.

This is the fourth long-range ballistic missile attack on neighboring Gulf states in a month.

On Dec. 3, the Houthi rebels said they fired a long-range winged cruise missile towards Barraka nuclear reactor in Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates, in a statement carried by Saba news agency.

UAE dismissed the Houthi attempt and said its anti-missile defence system did not record any attack on the country.

On Nov. 30, Saudi Arabia intercepted a ballistic missile fired from Yemen over the border Saudi city of Khamis Mushait.

On Nov. 4, Saudi air defences shot down a ballistic missile fired by Houthis in Yemen over the King Khaled International Airport north of Saudi capital Riyadh.

The Nov. 4 missile attack triggered an all-out blockade imposed by Saudi-led military coalition over all Yemeni air, sea and land ports, cutting off all aid, fuel and food imports.

The coalition earlier last month eased the siege, allowing only some aid access through northern Houthi-controlled ports, though the United Nations aid agencies warned that was not enough and pleaded for the coalition to allow food imports.

Last week, the United States revealed evidence that accused Iran of supplying ballistic missile technology to its ally Yemeni Houthi movement. Both Iran and Houthi movement denied the U.S. allegations.

Saudi Arabia led a military coalition of Arab forces backed by the United States that intervened in Yemen's conflict in March 2015 to back the government of exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The coalition has launched thousands of airstrikes on the rebels, in attempts to roll back the rebel gains and reinstate Hadi to the capital Sanaa.

The war has killed over 10,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, and pushed the country to the brink of mass famine.
 Flash

A woman and a four-year-old child were killed and 11 others injured after an antiquated airplane crashed in north Russia's Nenets Autonomous Region Tuesday, the regional administration confirmed.

An Antonov An-2 plane with two crew members and 11 passengers on board made a hard landing after takeoff at an airport in Naryan-Mar City, capital of Nenets, said a statement by the regional administration.

Pictures from the Russian Investigative Committee showed that the small plane plunged into thick snow on the ground with broken wings.

Currently, eight people are in an intensive care unit of a local hospital, another two are undergoing surgery there, while one person is able to move independently, the regional administration said.

An investigation is working out three possible causes of the incident: unfavorable weather, pilot error or technical malfunctions, the Russian Investigative Committee said.

Russian media said earlier in the day that four people died in the crash, quoting preliminary data from a statement by the Nenets regional division of the investigative committee, which was later deleted.

The An-2 is a single-engine utility-agricultural aircraft manufactured between 1947 and 2001. It remains in service with military and civilian operators around the world.
Anne Messenger considers it one of U.S. Rep. John Katko's worst votes. Dana Balter called it a "con job."

The two Democrats who are seeking the party's nomination to challenge Katko, R-Camillus, in 2018 offered sharp criticism of the two-term congressman's support for the $1.5 trillion GOP tax plan. The House passed the final legislation Tuesday.

Katko said he supported the bill because it will benefit a vast majority of his constituents and it will allow businesses to create more jobs. He touted his work to reach a compromise on the retention of the state and local tax deduction and the preservation of three provisions that would have been eliminated or altered in previous proposals.

He released a statement highlighting the "significant wins" he secured in the bill. He also seemed to acknowledge critics of the tax plan and his vote for the measure.

"Despite the heated rhetoric surrounding passage of this legislation, the fact is that the status quo is simply not working for central New York," Katko said.

He added, "I have always fought in the best interest of my constituents. I soundly believe this bill will deliver tax relief for central New York families and allow local businesses to invest in our workforce. With the passage of this bill today, I'm excited to see our local economy grow and thrive."

Balter, D-Syracuse, and Messenger, D-Manlius, don't share that view.

Messenger criticized the "secretive" process in which the legislation was drafted. GOP leaders weren't shy about their desire to pass tax reform, especially now that a Republican, President Donald Trump, is in the White House. But the House and Senate proposals were released not long before committee hearings were held to review the bills and votes were held to advance the plans.

There was a theme in the House and Senate plans that Messenger didn't like, and that was the apparent anti-education sentiment. She referred to initial proposals that would have eliminated the student loan interest deduction, ended the $250 deduction for teachers who buy their own classroom supplies and the plan to consider tuition waivers for graduate students as taxable income.

The three proposals weren't included in the final bill, but Messenger questioned the motives of those who pushed for the changes.

"I don't know what's going on there, but people who wrote those kinds of provisions are not paying attention to education's impact on the economy," she said.

Like Messenger, Balter was bothered by many aspects of the bill. She noted that there are provisions in the bill that could allow U.S. companies to send more jobs overseas.

Despite the potential tax benefits for companies that send jobs overseas, Republicans contend that the bill will do the opposite.

"That, I think, is the worst kind of con job," Balter said.

She is also concerned about the impact of the individual mandate repeal. The tax bill included the elimination of the Affordable Care Act's requirement that people buy health insurance or face a penalty.

Repealing the individual mandate could have a major impact on the health insurance market. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that 13 million more people will be uninsured and with fewer people in the marketplace, it could drive up the cost of premiums.

Balter said thousands of people in Katko's district could lose health insurance as a result of the individual mandate's repeal.

Katko questioned the constitutionality of the individual mandate, but reiterated his support for boosting the individual health insurance markets. Balter said by repealing the individual mandate, it will undermine the health insurance system.

"As a constituent, I'm incredibly disappointed he is voting for this," she said.

Democrats are already mobilizing in the aftermath of Tuesday's vote. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the House Democrats' campaign arm, launched digital ads criticizing Katko's stance. House Majority PAC, a Democratic super PAC, paid for a billboard that will be displayed for four weeks slamming Katko's decision to support the House tax plan.

Balter and Messenger agree that the vote will hurt Katko as he seeks a third term in 2018. Democrats won several races in New Jersey and Virginia in November. The party also pulled off an upset win in the Alabama Senate race last week.

The incumbent lawmakers who supported the tax bill, Balter said, will "pay the price" at the polls in 2018.

"John Katko is right at the top of that list," she added.
 Flash

An officer was killed and two others wounded in a terrorist attack on an airport in Arish city of North Sinai province bordering Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip, an Egyptian military spokesman said on Tuesday.

"A shelling attack targeted Arish airport, leaving an officer dead and two others wounded and causing partial damage of one of the helicopters," said the military spokesman Tamer al-Refaay in a statement.

The attack came during the visit of the defense and interior ministers to check on the security conditions in Arish city, according to the statement.

Terror attacks in Egypt killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers as well as dozens of the Coptic minority since the military toppled former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 due to mass protests against his one-year rule and his currently outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.

Most of the attacks were claimed by a Sinai-based terrorist group loyal to the Islamic State (IS) regional group.

On Nov. 24, a terrorist attack against a mosque in a town of Arish city killed at least 310 Muslim worshippers and wounded over 120 others, marking the deadliest terror operation and the first against a Muslim mosque in Egypt's modern history. But no group has yet claimed responsibility for this one.

Following the mosque attack, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi ordered the army's chief of staff to restore security and stability in the restive part of the Sinai Peninsula within three months.

Over the past few years, the Egyptian security forces have killed hundreds of terrorists and arrested a similar number of suspects during the country's anti-terror war declared by President Sisi, the army chief then, following Morsi's ouster.
 Flash

British Prime Minister Theresa May spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump in a telephone call on Tuesday afternoon for the first time since a dispute over Trump's tweets at the end of last month.

A Downing Street spokesperson said May called Trump earlier in the afternoon and began by offering her condolences over the loss of life in the terrible train derailment in Washington state.

The spokesperson said May and Trump discussed the different positions the two countries took on the recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, and agreed on the importance of the United States bringing forward new proposals for peace and the international community supporting these efforts.

May also raised Yemen, highlighting Britain's ongoing deep concerns at the humanitarian situation. The two leaders agreed on the vital importance of reopening humanitarian and commercial access to prevent famine and alleviate the suffering of innocent Yemenis.

"The Prime Minister updated the President on the recent good progress of the Brexit negotiations, and the President set out the progress he had made on his economic agenda. They agreed on the importance of a swift post-Brexit bilateral trade deal," said the spokesperson.

The "special relationship" between Trump and May has suffered in recent weeks following the U.S. president's decision to retweet a series of videos posted by Jayda Fransen, deputy leader of far-right group Britain First.

But during this afternoon's phone conversation, the two leaders did not discuss the Britain First controversy. The spokesperson said "they wished each other a very Merry Christmas and looked forward to keeping in close touch."
 Flash

Ethiopian President Mulatu Teshome on Tuesday called for strengthened relations with China and four other European and African countries.

Teshome made the call when he received copies of credentials of newly appointed ambassadors of China, Guinea-Bissau, Israel, Italy and The Gambia to Ethiopia, according to the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"Ethiopia wants to open a new chapter in relations with your respective countries," the ministry indicated in a statement issued on Tuesday quoting Teshome as saying.

"Ethiopia is desirous the relations to center more on business and economy, on top of political diplomacy," Teshome told the five incoming ambassadors.

According to the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the ambassadors for their part also vowed to cement the ties their respective countries established with Ethiopia, particularly in the areas of trade, agriculture, tourism and investment.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, the newly appointed Chinese Ambassador to Ethiopia, Tan Jian, had also hailed the relationship between Ethiopia and China as a role model for the South-South cooperation.

"The relationship between Ethiopia and China is based on comprehensive, strategic and cooperative partnership in all areas and at all levels," he said.

Describing the economic cooperation as the basis, Tan also stressed cooperation in the human resource development sector and the science and technology field.

"The bond between the two peoples is very important and it should be the foundation for the relationship between China and Ethiopia," Tan said.

In the past two decades, Chinese companies have invested close to 4 billion U.S. dollars in Ethiopia. The bilateral trade volume reached 6.37 billion dollars in 2015.

Ethiopian Foreign Affairs Minister, Workneh Gebeyehu, in his recent meeting with Tan also called for strengthening the socioeconomic partnership between the two countries.




 Flash

The tension between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis continued to escalate on Tuesday, with a ballistic missile fired towards Saudi capital Riyadh by the Houthis.

The missile was successfully intercepted with no immediate reports of injuries or damages, said Col. Turki al-Maliki, the Saudi-led military coalition spokesperson, in a statement.

According to Al-Masirah TV, a Houthi-run television station, the Burkan-2 missile targeted a meeting of royal leaders at the al-Yamama Palace in Riyadh.

Witnesses in the area reported an explosion heard in Saudi Arabia's capital, and it was the second Houthi missile attack on Riyadh in the past two months.

"I was cleaning the bathroom when I heard a big explosion outside and I saw people coming out. We saw a smoke up here on the rooftop," said Edward Hernardes, a Riyadh resident.

Operations will continue into the evening, while the Saudi-led coalition carries out air strikes on Houthi positions in Yemen's southern Sanaa, reported Al Arabiya, the Saudi-owned television.

Yemen has been torn by a war between the internationally-recognized government of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi and the Houthi rebel movement, with the Saudi-led military coalition siding with President Hadi since 2015.

At least 136 civilians have been killed in over 10 days of Saudi-led air strikes on Yemen this month, the United Nations said Tuesday.

"We are deeply concerned by the recent surge in civilian casualties in Yemen as a result of intensified air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition," said Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) to reporters in Geneva.

Controversy over Tehran-made missile

The ballistic missile intercepted was "Iranian-Houthi," said Saudi Arabia, days after Washington accused Tehran of manufacturing a missile fired by the Yemeni rebels at the Saudi capital last month.

"Coalition forces confirm intercepting an Iranian-Houthi missile targeting south of Riyadh," the government-run Center for International Communication wrote on its Twitter account.

US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley claimed there was "undeniable" evidence that last month's missile was "made in Iran" during a press conference at a military base in Washington on December 14.

Haley's comments contradict the findings from a UN investigation which found no firm conclusion on whether the missile came from an Iranian supplier, saying only that it had a "common origin" to some Iranian designs.

The charge was strongly denied by Tehran.

"This purportedly evidence, put on public display today, is as much fabricated as the one presented on some other occasions earlier," said Alireza Miryousefi, spokesperson for Iran's mission to the United Nations.

UNHCR spokesperson Colville called on all sides in the conflict to "take all feasible precautions to avoid, and in any event to minimize, the impact of violence on civilians."
 Flash

China's top political advisor Yu Zhengsheng held talks with Hakim Benchamach, speaker of Morocco's House of Advisors, the upper house of the Moroccan parliament, on Tuesday.

Noting Morocco was among the first African and Arab countries to establish diplomatic relations with China, Yu said the two countries have been trustworthy friends and partners, respected and treated each other on an equal footing.

The two heads of state agreed to upgrade bilateral relations to strategic partnership last year, heralding a new phase for bilateral ties, said Yu, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

To implement the consensus reached between the two heads of state, Yu proposed both countries deepen political mutual trust, tap the potential for practical cooperation, enrich cultural exchanges and work to protect world peace and stability.

Yu said the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China will bring new opportunities not only to China's future development but also to the growth of bilateral strategic partnership.

"The CPPCC National Committee looks forward to strengthening exchanges with Morocco's House of Advisors to share experiences in national governance and political participation," said Yu.

Congratulating the success of the 19th CPC National Congress, Benchamach said Morocco prioritizes its relations with China and is satisfied with bilateral cooperation in various areas.

Morocco's House of Advisors will continue to increase exchanges with the CPPCC National Committee to contribute to the development of bilateral relations, Benchamach said.




 Flash

Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi said Tuesday that China stands ready to work with France to inject new impetus into bilateral ties.

Yang made the remarks in a new round of the China-France Strategic Dialogue with Philippe Etienne, diplomatic advisor to French President Emmanuel Macron.

Yang said China-France relations had maintained healthy and stable development in recent years, noting that Chinese President Xi Jinping held two telephone conversations and a meeting in Hamburg, Germany with President Macron, which charted the course for the development of bilateral ties in the new era.

The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) provided new historic opportunities for expanding cooperation and exchanges in various fields between the two countries, Yang said.

China stands ready to work with France to plan for high-level exchanges between the two countries in the next phase, he said.

Noting that China regards France as an important partner on the path of development in the new era, he said China is willing to consolidate political mutual trust with France, respect each other's core interests and major concerns, deepen cooperation in areas such as nuclear energy, aerospace, industrial manufacturing, trade and investment, as well as enhance coordination and cooperation in international affairs.

China hopes France continues to play a constructive role in promoting relations between China and the European Union, he added.

For his part, Etienne said the 19th National Congress of the CPC had charted the course for China's future development, which would also have a profound impact on Europe and the world.

France attaches great importance to China's rising status and influence in the world, he said, adding that France will always regard relations with China as a diplomatic priority.

France stands ready to work with China to maintain close high-level exchanges, deepen practical cooperation, enhance people-to-people exchanges, strengthen coordination on international and regional issues and safeguard multilateralism so as to push bilateral ties to a new high, Etienne said.




By Bo Leung, China Daily | Dec. 20, 2017

British Airways' chief executive has called on the government of the United Kingdom to relax visa requirements for Chinese business and tourist travelers.

Alex Cruz made the call as the airline announced a new codeshare agreement with China Southern Airlines that means BA's customers can use BA's website to book seats on China Southern Airline flights to four destinations in China - Shenyang, Harbin, Changchun, and Dalian.

BA travelers will be able to connect to Shengyang and Harbin via Shanghai while those flying to Dalian will transfer in Beijing and customers headed to Changchun can connect via either Shanghai or Beijing.

British Airways operates 10 flights a week to Shanghai and seven to the Chinese capital, all departing from London Heathrow.

Cruz said the deal will help "drive tourism, and economic and cultural exchange between the UK and China by facilitating reciprocal leisure and business travel".

The UK carrier describes the four new destinations as important business hubs in China and said the routes will make trade between British and Chinese businesses more convenient.

"Now, we need the British government to take urgent action on its visa policy by making it easier for Chinese businesses and tourists to come to the UK," Cruz said. "China is the world's second-largest economy and we need to do all we can to encourage these trade links. This is even more critical post-Brexit."

As part of the agreement, China Southern Airlines' customers will be able to book seats on British Airways flights to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle, and Belfast, connecting to each of these cities via Heathrow.

"We want to achieve our vision of becoming the most popular European airline among Chinese customers," Cruz said. "It is great news for us to be able to offer all our customers the chance to travel to new destinations."

In a statement, China Southern Airlines welcomed the new partnership, calling it a "significant milestone" in its network development strategy.

"The United Kingdom is one of the most competitive markets, and by partnering with British Airways, each airline can use its strength to benefit the other and offer more choice and enhanced connectivity to all guests, while experiencing the world-class services and products offered by both airlines," the Chinese mainland carrier said.

British Airways said it also offers services that cater to Chinese customers, including members of its cabin crew and customer relations team who speak Mandarin and Cantonese.
By Rejoice Xu, China Aviation Daily | Dec. 20, 2017

An oxygen-enriched B738 of China Southern Airlines landed successfully in Islamabad International Airport, Pakistan on December 16, which is the first time that China Southern has deployed B738 for Urumqi = Islamabad air route and also the first oxygen-enriched B738 flied over Karakorum Mountain.

The Urumqi = Islamabad air route has been operated by B757 since it opened in July, 1994. In order to respond to "One Belt One Road" strategy this year, China Southern introduced B787, B738 and B737Max to replace B757 to facilitate the development of Urumqi as an International transport hub. Islamabad Airport lies in South Asia, so the route from Urumqi to Islamabad flies over the 5.5 kilometers high Karakorum Mountain, which is demanding in terms of aircraft performance especially oxygen delivery capability.

In addition, as Pilot Zhang Xiaoyu explained, the route's highest safe flight altitude exceeds 8.7 kilometers where lower temperature, atmospheric pressure and lack of oxygen challenge flight safety. Thus, ordinary B738 is not qualified to meet air safety requirement, due to which China Southern introduced the customized oxygen-enriched B738 on December 2 to operate the flight.

Besides, since the strict restriction of diversion and the underdeveloped facilities of Islamabad Airport increase the difficulties to fly, China Southern selected experienced and skillful staff to work for the route. With a series of theory trainings and instructional flights, the number of qualified personnel to operate the flight grows bit by bit.

With the support of China Southern's strength in transport capacity and airline network, Karakorum Mountain is no longer standing in the way between China and Pakistan and with "One belt One Road" strategy, the communication of trade, logistics and education between China and Pakistan becomes convenient day by day.
With U.S. Rep. John Katko's support, the House of Representatives passed a $1.5 trillion tax plan Tuesday that will largely benefit corporations and wealthy individuals  the first major legislative victory for congressional Republicans since President Donald Trump took office in January.

The House passed the bill by a 227-203 vote. The Senate approved the measure by a 51-48 vote early Wednesday.

Katko, R-Camillus, said in an interview with The Citizen that the final bill is better than the House proposal he supported in November.

"It provides tax relief for the vast majority of my constituents, especially the working poor and the middle class in particular," he said. "But it also provides everyone with more job opportunities in central New York."

The tax plan will add $1.5 trillion to the deficit, but Republicans believe the gap will be erased by increased economic growth. The legislation revamps the tax brackets and lowers income tax rates for most Americans until 2026. The standard deduction will be doubled for single filers and married couples. But the personal exemption and several credits and deductions will be eliminated. Analysts say this could minimize the benefits of the tax plan for most individuals and families.

Some credits have been preserved. The child tax credit will increase from $1,000 to $2,000 and a new credit of $500 will provide $500 for each non-child dependent in a household.

A notable deduction has been retained. The state and local tax deduction was slashed in earlier proposals, but Republicans kept it in the final bill. There will be a $10,000 cap for those who deduct state and local income, property and sales taxes.

For businesses, the bill cuts the corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent  a top priority for Republicans. Katko said this could spur job growth in central New York.

The legislation also includes a 20 percent deduction for owners of pass-through businesses who report the income on their individual tax returns.

Katko said he urged House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady to preserve three provisions in the final bill that were either eliminated or modified in the House tax proposal.

The House plan called for ending the tax-exempt status for private activity bonds, eliminating the historic preservation tax credit and calculating tuition waivers for graduate students as taxable income. Katko said local officials, including Syracuse Mayor-elect Ben Walsh, expressed concern about these provisions.

The final bill maintains the tax-exempt status for private activity bonds and tuition waivers for graduate students won't be considered taxable income, which could have increased taxes for students by thousands of dollars. The historic preservation tax credit will be preserved, but the benefits will be paid out over a five-year period instead of one year.

To ensure the provisions were in the final bill, Katko said the corporate tax rate was increased to 21 percent. Initial proposals called for it to be lowered to 20 percent.

"I think it was a fair compromise," he said.

Katko's vote  he was one of four New York Republicans who supported the bill  drew a rebuke from Democrats and activists in central New York.

Dana Balter and Anne Messenger, two Democrats who are seeking their party's nomination to challenge Katko in 2018, criticized Katko for supporting the GOP tax plan.

Balter, D-Syracuse, called the tax bill "a giveaway to corporations and to millionaires and billionaires."

"It is terrible for central New York in particular, but it's terrible for working families all over the country," she said.

Messenger, D-Manlius, added, "I don't know who he's representing, but it's not the people I'm talking with."

There are numerous provisions that concern Democrats. Outside of the purported tax benefits, the bill eliminates the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate penalty. The mandate was included in the 2010 health care law.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 13 million more people will be uninsured once the mandate is eliminated in 2019. The projection also suggests that health insurance premiums will rise because there will be fewer individuals in the market.

Katko said the year until the mandate is eliminated will give Congress time to develop a legislative fix for propping up the individual marketplace. He has supported repealing the individual mandate in the past and has questioned the constitutionality of the requirement.

"I don't think there's a time or a place where we should impose mandates on people where basically if they don't do something that is strictly a voluntary thing like get insurance, they're going to get penalized for it," he said. "I just don't think we should do that."

Tuesday's vote will likely not be Katko's last on the tax bill.

Due to Senate rules, a few provisions in the tax agreement needed to be removed in order for it to be considered by the chamber. Even though the changes are small, it will require another vote in the House.

The House is scheduled to vote again on the tax bill Wednesday morning.
Tax reform has long been a legislative priority for U.S. Rep. John Katko. And he believes that's exactly what Congress achieved with passage of a $1.5 trillion plan that reduces income tax rates for most Americans and slashes the corporate tax rate.

Katko, R-Camillus, was one of 227 House Republicans who voted for the bill Tuesday. The House needed to vote again after some provisions were stripped from the legislation to allow for the Senate to pass it early Wednesday.

Katko's position on the bill didn't change from when the House passed its own tax proposal. He voted for that measure, too, because he believed it would benefit his constituents.

The same is true for the final tax agreement passed this week. He thinks the conference committee report, which was negotiated after the House and Senate approved separate bills, is "even a little bit better" than the House bill he voted for in mid-November.

"It provides tax relief for the vast majority of my constituents, especially the working poor and the middle class in particular," Katko said in a phone interview Tuesday. "But it also provides everyone more job opportunities in central New York and lord knows after 20 years of the out-migration of jobs this may be something we can try to turn that around. I think it has a good chance to do so."

Katko said he played an active role in encouraging congressional leaders to restore certain credits or deductions that others want to eliminate in the GOP plans. Before a final agreement was reached, the House and Senate bills called for the elimination of most credits, deductions and exemptions. They justified their proposals by doubling the standard deduction for single filers and married couples.

One provision on the chopping block was the state and local tax deduction. While most taxpayers accept the standard deduction, those who itemize take advantage of the ability to deduct state and local taxes, especially residents in New York and other high-tax states.

New York Republicans, including Katko, advocated for a compromise in the House bill: Keep the state and local tax deduction, but for up to $10,000 of state and local property taxes. Income and sales taxes would be excluded.

The provision was added to the Senate bill, too. When House and Senate negotiators reached an agreement on the final tax bill, they opted to keep the deduction for state and local income, property and sales taxes, but cap it at $10,000.

Nearly 30 percent of residents in Katko's district, which includes all of Cayuga and Onondaga counties, deduct state and local taxes.

"It's a good deal for my district," he said. "A lot of my colleagues in New York state who voted against it are downstaters where they have ridiculous property values and ridiculous property taxes. So it's a different ballgame for them and I understand where they're coming from. For my constituents, we don't have that issue for the vast majority of them. I am pleased with how this worked out for my constituents."

Katko also took credit for lobbying to restore the historic preservation tax credit and tax-exempt status for private activity bonds, which the House GOP wanted to eliminate. The final bill kept tax-exempt status for the bonds, which help fund infrastructure projects, and modified the historic tax credit so that the benefits will be paid out over a five-year period instead of in one year.

Another provision in the House bill that would have a significant impact on central New Yorkers was a plan to calculate tuition waivers for graduate students as taxable income. Graduate students who receive free or reduced tuition for their research or teaching work would have been forced to pay thousands of dollars more in taxes.

The plan was criticized by graduate students at Syracuse University and other central New York institutions. Katko heard from university presidents about the issue. Other central New Yorkers contacted him about other provisions. For example, Syracuse Mayor-elect Ben Walsh urged Katko to restore the historic preservation tax credit.

"They said it was a high priority, so I made it a high priority for me," he said. "I went in and I just argued every day for it. I literally every single day was talking to them about it and they finally aw the light and got those back in and it worked out great."

Katko views the tax bill as good for business. The legislation will lower the corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent beginning in 2018.

When he met with central New York business leaders last month, lowering the corporate tax was one of the ideas they wanted to see in the final tax plan. He thinks lowering the corporate tax rate will "level the playing field" for American companies.

"We just went from having one of the highest tax rates for businesses in the industrialized world to one of the best," he said.

The final tax bill includes a controversial provision to eliminate the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate. The House bill Katko supported in November didn't include the proposal, but the Senate pushed for the repeal.

The individual mandate requires people to buy health insurance or pay a financial penalty. Under the tax bill, the mandate will not be repealed until 2019.

Katko, who wants to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, supported the elimination of the individual mandate.

"I don't think there is a time or a place where we should impose mandates on people where basically, if they don't do something that is strictly a voluntary thing like get insurance, they are going to be penalized for it," he said. "I just don't think we should do that. I've voted that way in the past and my vote on this bill is consistent with that."

Since taxes became the top priority for Congress, Katko has heard the critics of the proposal. On Tuesday, two of his potential Democratic opponents, Dana Balter and Anne Messenger, slammed his decision to support the tax plan.

Balter, D-Syracuse, singled out several provisions in the bill, including the elimination of the individual mandate. She said ending the requirement will hurt the health insurance market and raise premiums.

"As a constituent, I'm incredibly disappointed he is voting for this," she said.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has repeatedly railed against the GOP tax plan. He believes the changes to the state and local tax deduction will be a blow to the state's finances.

Cuomo, a Democrat, has targeted Republicans who support the bill. He has referred to Katko and his colleagues as traitors.

Katko has seen the comments, but declined to engage in a back-and-forth with the governor.

"I don't think it's productive and I'm not going to now," he said. "I just want to engage in what's best for my constituents."

There are some parts of the tax bill Katko doesn't like. One example he mentioned is the state and local tax deduction. He wishes they could have preserved the deduction in its current form.

But he believes the compromise on that issue and the whole bill will benefit taxpayers.

"It's simplified, it's fair and it's going to help my constituents," he said.
U.S. Rep. John Katko joined most House Republicans in supporting the final $1.5 trillion tax plan Tuesday.

Before the House voted on the measure, Katko, R-Camillus, touted "significant wins" for central New York in the tax plan.

He highlighted the elimination of a provision that would have considered tuition waivers for graduate students as taxable income. An earlier version of the tax bill that Katko supported included the change, but it was removed when House and Senate leaders negotiated the final agreement released Friday.

Katko signed a letter urging congressional leaders to remove the provision. He said it would harm the region's economy, which benefits from the presence of Syracuse University and other higher education institutions.

Dr. Linda LeMura, president of Le Moyne College, praised Katko for advocating on behalf of colleges and universities in his district.

"Many members of the Le Moyne community, as well as our students, contacted him about certain aspects of the bill and he listened to what those concerns were," LeMura said. "His support will help institutions of higher education maintain their competitive edge."

Katko also pushed for the restoration of the historic preservation tax credit and keeping tax-exempt status for private activity bonds.

The House tax proposal called for the elimination of the historic tax credit, while Senate Republicans wanted to alter the credit by providing support over a five-year period. The final agreement includes the Senate's language to modify the historic tax credit.

The credit has been an important tool for rehabilitation projects, including Hotel Syracuse (now Marriott Syracuse Downtown) in Katko's district. Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner was one of the local leaders concerned about the possible elimination of the credit.

Maintaining tax-exempt status for private activity bonds is key for infrastructure projects, Katko said. The bonds can be used for housing projects, school district capital projects and hospital upgrades.

"Auburn Hospital is grateful for the efforts of Rep. Katko to ensure private activity bonds remain tax-exempt," said Scott Berlucchi, president and CEO of Auburn Community Hospital. "These are critical financing tools for investment in our hospital and its infrastructure."

Katko also claimed credit for helping negotiate a compromise on the state and local tax deduction. This has been an issue for New York Republicans as they consider whether to support the tax bill.

Five New York Republicans, including U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, oppose the final tax agreement. One of the main reasons for their opposition is the change to state and local tax deductability.

The final tax bill allows filers to deduct up to $10,000 of state and local income, property or sales taxes. An earlier version of the House bill called for the elimination of the deduction. The measure voted on by the House in mid-November contained a compromise: allowing a deduction of up to $10,000 for property taxes only.

That has been altered in the final bill to include income and sales taxes. But it still wasn't enough for a handful of New Yorkers to get on board.

For Katko, it's a win. He supported the compromise in the House bill and the addition of income and sales taxes to the modified deduction in the conference committee report.

"The final tax legislation that the House will consider today contains significant wins for our community," he said in a statement. "It safeguards the historic preservation tax credit, the income exclusion for graduate tuition waivers and tax-exempt status for private activity bonds. I was proud to fight for our community's best interests and truly believe that with passage of this bill, we can help grow our local economy to its fullest potential."
2022-11-15

Tianjin's Hexi district launched an industrial coordination event with three districts and counties in Gansu province on Nov 12 as part of efforts between Chinas eastern areas and inner rural parts to push for rural vitalization.
The 2017 China Smart Display Innovation Conference is held in Optics Valley of China, Wuhan, Hubei province, on Dec 14. [Photo/wehdz.gov.cn]

The 2017 China Smart Display Innovation Conference was held at Wuhan East Lake High-tech Development Zone (Optics Valley of China), central Chinas Hubei province, on Dec 14.

Jointly hosted by the zone and China Video Industry Association (CVIA), the conference focused on reform and upgrading of Chinas display industry.

More than 400 senior executives, representatives and experts from the countrys display industry attended the event.

At the conference, agreements for eight key projects worth 13 billion yuan ($1.97 billion) were signed, including a Chinas video industry development fund, an intellectual property alliance of intelligent terminals, and a big data service center for the display industry.

The big data service center for the display industry will focus on monitoring the key nodes in industrial development, providing data analysis and visualization services for the industry.

The intellectual property alliance of intelligent terminals will work to improve the conversion rate of patents in China's flat panel display industry, and protect the results of independent research and development.

In addition, a white paper for the development of Chinas display industry was issued at the conference. A summit forum on smart display innovation was also held.

An intellectual property alliance of intelligent terminals is inaugurated in Optics Valley of China, Wuhan, Hubei province, on Dec 14. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Yuan Feng, vice-president of BOE Technology Group, an internet of things company providing intelligent interface products and services, delivers a speech at the conference on Dec 14. [Photo provided to China Daily]




Congress is set to pass a $1.5 trillion tax plan this week. The House passed the bill Tuesday, but another vote is necessary because some provisions needed to be removed in order to be considered in the Senate.

The Senate will pass the bill early Wednesday. The House will vote again Wednesday morning.

Here is what they are saying about the tax plan:

House Speaker Paul Ryan

I want to start off by thanking the American people, our constituents, for sending us here to do this work for them. This is one of the most important pieces of legislation that Congress has passed in decades to help the American worker, to help grow the American economy. This is profound change, and this is change that is going to put our country on the right path.

For all those millions men and women in America who are living paycheck-to-paycheck, who are struggling to get aheadhelp is on the way. For all those businesses that are tied with one hand behind their back in this global economy, having a hard time competinghelp is on the way.

I want to thank Chairman Kevin Brady. I want to thank all the men and women who made this possible. This has been a long work in progress. And what this achievement marks is a promise that this majority made, and a promise this majority is keeping. We said in 2016 that it would take real tax reform for families and businesses to get the American economy growing, and we were serious. The American people placed their trust in us to do this work for them. And today were making good on that promise. Were fulfilling that promise. And this promise being kept today is one of the most important things we could do to get the U.S. economy growing faster, to help get people bigger paychecks, to have a fairer tax system, and to simplify the system so we can have more peace of mind.

So Kevin said it the right way: On January 1, Americans are going to wake up with a new tax code. In February, theyre going to see withholdings go down so they see bigger paychecks. And April 15 will be the last day they have to comply with the old, bad system.

This is a good day for America. This is a good day for workers. This is a great day for growth. And were very excited about this moment.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Gentleman [Richard Neal] for yielding and salute him for his extraordinary leadership in being a champion for Americas working families. I commend him and the Democratic Members of the House Ways and Means Committee for putting forth the facts on what is in this bill.

Mr. Speaker, today, we choose what kind of country America will be. One that champions the ladders of opportunity for all, or one that reinforces the power of the wealthiest and well-connected.

Outside the Congress, the American people have already made their decision. Polling shows that Americans oppose the GOP tax scam by a margin of two to one. Hard-working families see right through the brazen con-job Republicans are trying to sell them.

So why arent our Republican colleagues standing with their constituents? Why arent they joining us insisting on a Better Deal for American families? Why arent they joining us on demanding that we write real bipartisan tax reform that puts the middle class first? Because helping the middle class has never been their goal.

From day one, the donors, lobbyists and the wealthy and well-connected came first. The Frankensteins monster of giveaways and special interest loopholes were voting on today proves it  and this monster will come back to haunt them, as Frankenstein did. Republicans claim that their bill is a middle class tax cut. The fact is, according to the Tax Policy Center, their bill raises taxes on 86 million middle class households. When the Washington Post asked Edward Kleinbard, former Chief of Staff for the Joint Committee on Taxation, if the tax package in aggregate would mean a middle class tax cut, he said, Thats delusional or dishonest to say. It is factually untrue The only group you can point to that wins year after year and wins in very large magnitude is the very highest income. Joint Committee on Taxation, former Chief of Staff.

The only greater delusion in this bill is the ludicrous Republican insistence  their claim  that these giveaways to the wealthiest will pay for themselves. As Bruce Bartlett has testified in our hearing and in public  Bruce Bartlett is the architect of Jack Kemps supply-side economics. He said, when it comes to tax breaks for the wealthy paying for themselves, Its not true, its nonsense, its B.S. He said the whole words.

In a few minutes, Republicans will vote to blow  catastrophically  our national debt  at minimum, 1.5 trillion, likely 2.2 trillion dollars or more. Where are the vaunted Republican deficit hawks? Are they endangered? Are they extinct? Do they care about the deficit when we pass give-aways for the rich and big corporations  they dont care about deficits then  tax breaks for the rich, corporate tax rates, We dont care about the deficit? Or do Republicans only care about the deficit when the issue is helping children, seniors, our veterans who are a large part of hard-working Americans.

My colleagues, my fellow Americans: remember this vote. Remember the vote when they will cheer  after this vote, they will stand up and cheer adding trillions to national debt in order to give tax breaks to wealthiest one percent and to big corporations. Theyll cheer that. And theyll cheer when we they say we cant afford to protect the care of our innocent children  theyll cheer that. They cheer when they say we cant afford  the next step  we cant afford Medicaid, Medicare and a dignified retirement our seniors spent a life-time earning. Thats an applause line for them.

And remember this day, when Republicans cheer for a bill that hands a $4,000 child tax credit to families of four earning $400,000 a year. You earn $400,000 a year, you get $4,000 in childrens tax credit. But if youre poor, a mother of two earning only 14,500  guess how much she gets? 75 dollars. 75 dollars.

Today, we gather on this floor in the midst of a holy season. In this season, we celebrate the miraculous blessings of God. We reflect on the wondrous joy of children and our responsibility to them. We remember our duty to live justly, and for those of us who are blessed to serve in this Congress, we must remember our special responsibility to govern fairly, to meet the needs of all of Gods children. In this time, the moral obscenity and unrepentant greed of the GOP tax scam stands out more clearly.

As the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said, early on, here it is: This proposal appears to be the first federal income tax modification in American history that will raise income taxes on the working poor while simultaneously providing a large tax cut to the wealthy. The bishops go on to say, This is simply unconscionable.

This is in sharp contrast to the words of Senator Hatch  remember what the bishops said. Now, here, lets get back to the Republicans. This is in sharp contrast to the words of Senator Hatch. He said  hes the Chairman of the Finance Committee in the United States Senate and the author of this bill and he said, I have a rough time wanting to spend billions and trillions of dollars to help people who wont help themselves, wont lift a finger and expect the federal government to do everything. How about that? Tell that to the moms we just saw speaking out with their children  children with difficulties who wonder, How could this be so cruel? This is an act of misery. Not according to Senator Hatch.

Thats in terms of getting in back to our bishops. In his encyclical God is Love and Ive said this to you before, my colleagues, with, obviously, no effect on the Republican side  Pope Benedict quoted the urgent moral wisdom of Saint Augustine seventeen centuries ago, my colleagues. Seventeen centuries ago, Saint Augustine said, A state that does not govern according to justice is just a bunch of thieves. Pope Benedict went on to say, The state must inevitably face the question about how justice can be achieved here and now. And he cautioned against, in his words, the danger of a certain ethical blindness caused by the dazzling effects of power and special interests.

My colleagues, is there justice in a bill that rewards corporations for shipping jobs overseas  jobs that could be for hard-working American men and women and veterans  shipping those jobs overseas  is there justice in that? No. Is there justice in a bill that spikes health care premiums and adds 13 million Americans to the ranks of the uninsured? No justice there. Is there justice in a bill that raises taxes on 86 million middle-class families  raises taxes on 86 million middle-class families and they try to present the delusion that its a middle-class tax cut. Is there justice in a bill that hands a breathtaking 83 percent of its benefits to the wealthiest one percent of Americans? No. Eighty-three percent of its benefits to the top one percent. Is there justice in a bill that explodes the national debt to give to the wealthy and well-connected a break, and sticks the debt with our children? I didnt think you thought so. I wish our Republican colleagues would join us.

The GOP tax scam is simply theft. Monumental, brazen theft  from the American middle-class and from every person who aspires to reach it. The GOP tax scam is not a vote as an investment in growth or jobs. It is a vote to instill a permanent plutocracy in our nation. Theyll be cheering that later.

It does violence to the vision of our founders, it disrespects the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform who are a large part of our middle-class and to whom we owe a future worthy of their sacrifice, and it betrays the future and betrays the aspirations of our children.

It demands  it morally demands  a no vote from every Member of this House of the people. With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli

The Republican tax bill moving forward in Congress remains a bad deal for New York.

The cap on state and local tax deductions would nullify billions of dollars worth of deductions claimed by an estimated one million New Yorkers.

Without further action, the bill would force significant cuts to Medicare and would eliminate numerous other programs, including the Social Services Block Grant, federal highway aid for emergencies and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Based on Congressional Budget Office estimates, the bill is also expected to result in higher health insurance premiums or loss of coverage for many New Yorkers.

The legislation will drive up the cost of borrowing for state and local governments capital investments by eliminating the option for advance refunding of outstanding debt. In the past four years alone, this option has generated approximately $1.1 billion in total long-term savings for the state. Local governments, school districts and public authorities in New York have achieved similar savings.

This bill will also add to New Yorks heightened uncertainty surrounding state tax revenues and federal aid.

I urge members of New Yorks Congressional delegation to oppose this deeply troubling legislation. It has far-reaching and negative implications both for our states economy and for individual New Yorkers all across the state.

Environmental New York Director Heather Leibowitz

"With all the back and forth on who this tax bill benefits, the environment is the clear loser, with calamitous consequences for all Americans. The Congress is voting on handing over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling. And this bill keeps massive subsidies for fossil fuel production in place. After months of global warming-fueled extreme weather and wildfires, and decades of air and water pollution from burning coal, oil and gas, it has never been more important to shift our country -- wholesale and quickly -- toward renewable energy. This bill takes us in the wrong direction.

The bill opens up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, one of the last truly wild places on earth, to irreversible damage from oil and gas drilling. The Refuge supports caribou, polar bears, black and grizzly bears, arctic foxes, moose, muskoxen and more than 200 species of migratory birds. Opening this rugged wilderness to oil and gas drilling would not only blight a pristine landscape, it would threaten these creatures and the ecosystem with spills and pollution.

The bill also continues massive incentives for fossil fuel production amounting to tens of billions of dollars over the next decade. With no public debate or time for Americans to respond, this bill threatens the keys to a livable future for our children and grandchildren.

Its time for decision makers to reject this bill to help ensure a cleaner, healthier future for our state, and to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, one of the places that makes all of the United States great.

NYS AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento

The lines have been drawn with the House vote on the job-killing tax bill and we now know which side our Representatives in Washington DC are on.

Representatives Tom Reed, Chris Collins, Claudia Tenney, and John Katko are on the wrong side. They have turned their backs on working people by voting for the tax bill, siding with the rich and powerful instead of middle-income taxpayers. They should be ashamed of themselves for completely disregarding the needs and concerns of working men and women, stepping over them in order to cut taxes for the wealthiest 1 percent. The very people who entrusted them to do what is right, will not forget their betrayal.

Middle-Class Growth Initiative spokesman Michael Steel

"With today's vote, the House of Representatives delivered on their promise to get comprehensive, pro-growth tax reform to the President's desk before Christmas. After a productive week of work in conference, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that passed the House this afternoon is an even stronger piece of legislation than before, returning more money to the pockets of middle-class families. Congress has placed the middle class at the heart of this tax reform push, and workers will begin seeing larger paychecks as soon as this February. We anticipate the Senate following the House's lead, and look forward to the President signing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act into law before Christmas, creating jobs and raising wages in the New Year."

New York State United Teachers President Andrew Pallotta

As income inequality worsens, there is no rational justification for massive tax cuts that flow almost entirely to the super-wealthy and big corporations. The Tax Policy Center has concluded that, by 2027, 83 percent of the benefits from this disastrous tax bill will flow to the richest 1 percent of Americans and big corporations. Rubbing salt in the wound is the targeting of blue states like New York that invest heavily in public education and public services that help the middle class. The elimination of the so-called SALT deduction will have a crippling effect on teachers, firefighters, nurses and other middle-class New Yorkers who are likely to see their taxes go up over the next few years, while at the same time triggering unacceptable federal cuts to Medicaid, Social Security and education. I promise you, those Republican members of New Yorks House delegation who voted yes will be haunted by their decision come November.

Public Citizen President Robert Weissman

Repeal and replace. Thats the mantra that will haunt the Republicans ramming through the monstrous tax bill plundering regular Americans and our commonwealth in order to give aid and comfort to multinational corporations and the superrich. This tax scam is an offense against democratic values, human decency, transparent and orderly process, justice, honest economics, the poor, solidarity and common sense.

Corporations crave certainty and stability. Well, heres fair warning that they should not make investment decisions based on this tax scam, which will be repealed in response to overwhelming demand from the American people.

And not just repealed. America needs tax justice in which corporations making record profits and the new robber barons accumulating such abundant wealth are forced to pay what they owe, and are made to pay a larger share of the nations overall taxes. The public reaction to todays heinous tax bill will speed the day when that tax justice is realized.

Citizen Action of New York Executive Director Karen Scharff

"Today our GOP House Members threw their lot in with a donor class determined to bleed our health care and education systems dry. At a time of towering inequality, Republicans in the House voted to further enrich the very wealthy at the expense of working people. Tenney, Katko, Collins, and Reed will have to answer to voters for their vote today. The Republicans who voted "no" must also be held accountable: Faso, Stefanik, Donovan, King, and Zeldin did not do enough to stop their party from passing this devastating bill."

NY-24 Democratic candidate Dana Balter

We should be writing tax policy that places the interests of hardworking families at its center. This bill does the opposite. It is a massive giveaway to large corporations and the wealthiest among us, paid for by a tax hike on working families. 

While some working families will see benefit initially, most of those benefits will phase out over the next ten years, ultimately turning their tax cut into a tax hike on 53% of taxpayers. Benefits to the wealthy and large corporations, on the other hand, will increase over time and become permanent. The estate tax exemption is doubled to $11 million, benefiting fewer than 5,500 families per year throughout the entire country, while the State and Local Tax deduction, which 29% of the households in NY-24 claim, is capped at just $10,000.

In addition, by repealing the ACA individual mandate, the bill jeopardizes health insurance coverage for 13 million people nationwide and increases premiums across the board. In our district alone, more than 18,000 people will lose coverage, 13,700 of whom are on Medicaid. According to Balter, John Katko promised that he wouldnt vote to repeal the ACA without a good replacement but that is essentially what this bill does by eliminating the mandate. It is yet another promise to his constituents broken.

Perhaps the most insulting part of this boondoggle is that John Katko and the GOP insist this tax scam will create jobs for Americans who desperately need them. In fact, this bill incentivizes the offshoring of jobs by decreasing taxes and adding new tax loopholes on profits and operations overseas. That means more American corporations will send jobs overseas, said Balter.

Moreover, the cost of giving such massive gifts to the wealthy and corporations is an addition of more than a trillion dollars to our national debt. Not only is that fiscally irresponsible, but John Katkos GOP will use it as an excuse to cut programs like Medicare and Social Security. In fact, Paul Ryan told us that was the plan before the House passed this travesty of a tax bill.

It is clear that John Katkos allegiance is to his corporate donors and his party, not to the people of central New York, said Balter. He told us it was an easy decision to vote for this bill, which is downright insulting to the hundreds of thousands of his constituents who will be harmed by it. This is why John Katko needs to be replaced next November.

NY-24 Democratic candidate Anne Messenger

As I talk to my friends and neighbors about this tax bill, one question keeps being raised over and over: who besides the Republicans in Washington want this hastily slapped-together, historically unpopular mess of a bill to become law? And just who does John Katko represent? Today, hes made our tax code less fair and more complicated. Central New Yorkers will suffer. Its no wonder hes ashamed to face his constituents. We all deserve better than this.
Years ago I had a conversation with a TV host on the topic of faith. He is not a Christian. In fact, he makes a point of emphasizing that he is not religious.

I explained my vocation as a Christian evangelist and apologist and asked this journalist for his advice. He took a few steps back and looked at me. You have a tough job. You try to convince people who dont believe to believe, he said. Heres what I would say to you: Dont try to convince people who do not believe to believe. People who do not believe are not going to believe, and you just have to be fine with that!

These words seemed to sound the death knell to my entire project, and I couldn't hide my discouragement as I left the studio that day. My friends attitude toward belief describes how many people, both believers and unbelievers, view Christian evangelism.

Even within the church, even among evangelicals, we have begun to diminish the work of evangelism. We emphasize good things like relationships and charity outreach but question the work of traditional apologetics, of speaking the gospel in hopes of convincing another that it is true. (Think of the commonly quoted line: Preach the gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.)

But when we diminish the work of evangelism and apologeticsas ineffective or as a secondary concernwe cheapen the gospel itself. If we believe the gospel is good news, true for all people, we cannot give up on making the case for our beliefs.

With the rise of secularism, sure, the church faces new challenges. But Im convinced that what we need is not innovative methods or answers. We need fresh confidence in the gospel.

Preaching to an Individualistic Culture

The philosopher Charles Taylor uses the term expressive individualism to describe the cultural milieu of the secular age. As James K. A. Smith writes, the term denotes an understanding that each one of us has his/her own way of realizing our humanity, and that we are called to live that out (express it) rather than conform to models imposed by others (especially institutions).

The offshoot of this attitude is the desire to seek out what speaks to us personally: How am I going to be happy?How am I going to be fulfilled? Journalist David Brooks writes that we have moved away from a culture of humility to the culture of what you might call the Big Me, from a culture that encouraged people to think humbly of themselves to a culture that encouraged people to see themselves as the center of the universe.

My family and I moved to the Seattle area two years ago, where I constantly notice this expressive individualism worked out in what many have deemed a post-Christian context. Still, creative ministries and artsy churches arent the only vehicles God can use to reach this region; evangelism continues to play a role in engaging secular worldviews and pointing to Christ.

A friend of mine works as a senior leader at a tech company. He likes his job but also admits that he is consumed by work; his job is his life. He told me that he looks forward to retiring in ten years, if all goes to plan, and doing what he really loves: going on long vacations with his partner, spending time with family, and taking up different hobbies. As an evangelist, I hear his story and think of how many people strive for a life they alone control. Their vision of the good life and their pursuit of meaning and purpose point to a day when they get to call the shots.

In her book Religion & Public Life in the Pacific Northwest, Patricia OConnell Killen writes:

Individual religiousness tends to be private and episodically intense. Many pursue a spiritual quest on their own, drawing from multiple traditions and practices on a journey of religious experimentation.

Article continues below

The philosopher Charles Taylors term cross pressure describes the individualistic mood among my neighbors in the Northwest, people who feel caught between a closed world without God and a haunting of the transcendent.

After speaking to a group of students on their university campus, one told me she disagreed with most of what I presented that afternoon but had come with a Christian friend. She was baffled at why Christians make such a big deal about truth, specifically around moral issues. She recently experienced her own sort of freedom, without God or religion.

Last year, I took control of my life, she told me. I cut my hair, which used to be really long. I got a tattoo, I got piercings, and I got my heart broken for the first time. Then she brought up her struggle with anxiety. When shes out, shes worried that shes annoying at parties, and when she is at home by herself, she has this gnawing feeling that her friends hate her.

Even here, she was keen to express how she has taken control of her dilemma. Still, no felt need for God. She told me, When I wake up in the morning, I write in my journal, Anxiety is not telling the truth. I listened along with her friend as this student told me her story, and afterward, I assured her that even if she believes her friends dont value her, the Christian faith tells her that she is loved.

This is only one example of what individualism looks like when it comes face-to-face with the Christian faith. All the time, people convince themselves that God and the Christian truth claims are unnecessary, leaving Christians to think there is nothing to say. Yet, there is no escaping the longing for the transcendent.

Despite taking control of her life, this student discovered she still needs help. She began the conversation by expressing no need for God, yet in the end, she revealed the desire for love and acceptance we find profoundly met in the Christian faith.

Raising the Right Questions

When Christians think of evangelism, they often think of the issue of credibility, the need to prove that our faith is actually true. But plenty of our friends arent asking the credibility questions. They have settled well into their unbelief. They are not interested in whether Christianity is true, if Jesus Christ was who he said he was, or if the resurrection of Christ happened. Credibility is no longer a conversational starting point for much of evangelism in the modern world.

Because so few people directly ask for proof of our faith, many have lost confidence in sharing it with others or fail to see the need for evangelism altogether. Christians assume that apologetics is something practiced by the really keen or earnest believers and no longer relevant in the conversations of our day-to-day lives.

Its as though the culturally insensitive or simply out-of-touch Christians are the ones willing to share their faiththose who have yet to be enlightened by the myriad cultural barriers to the gospel. I wonder if this view could change if we could find another starting point in evangelism other than stating Christianitys credibility.

In his book Humble Apologetics, John Stackhouse points out that a more meaningful entry point for evangelism focuses on plausibility. Plausibility instead asks the question, Might this be true? The credibility questions do not go awaythe answers are fundamental to the Christian faithbut instead of waiting for others to ask, we can prompt them to consider new possibilities. This shift in approaches bridges personal curiosity and helps bring out the foundational truth claims of Christianity.

Article continues below

Another way in which Christians can respond to the fierce individualism of our time is by inviting spiritual seekers into our community. Many who are reading this already embody this. But if we are not already doing so, we need to convey to our friends that they can belong in our community without believing.

Evangelism is still alive and as important as ever. The best way to gain confidence in the work of evangelism, of speaking the gospel to convince others of its truth, is to engage in it yourself. Here are my top four simple tips for practicing evangelism in conversation:

1. Ask questions.

I was in a coffee shop in Oregon recently, waiting for my drink to be made, when a person came in, slapped two books on a table, and then stood in line to order. I noticed he was reading new spirituality titles, so I asked what the books were all about. Without hesitating, he looked at me and said, This book is about the untethered soul. I have found it really helpful. We continued talking, and even with a stranger in a coffee shop, I learned something about what he finds meaningful in life.

In evangelism, questions are always better than statements. Questions invite a conversation, whereas statements have great potential for closing a conversation down. As an evangelist, asking questions helps me get a person to bring up signals of transcendence in their life that might have otherwise gone unnoticed.

2. Listen well.

Eugene Peterson said, Many people talk about urgency for action, but what we really need is urgency for listening. The tendency in conversational evangelism is to make sure we get our word in. Good evangelism begins with good listening. I am keen to listen to what excites people and how they spend their spare time. I listen for statements that tend to be veiled questions. With the college student I mentioned earlier, who struggles with anxiety and wonders whether some of her friends hate her, the question emerged of whether she was loved and accepted. By listening, I was able to express something of the truth within Christianitythat she is loved by God.

3. Patience is key.

Leading a person to Christ is exhilarating. But its a process. Just by observing conversations Christ had with his friends, we get a glimpse of how patient Christ was. Even when his close friends did not understand him, he remained patient with them. This ought to be instructive for Christians who desire to see friends commit their lives to Christ. Christs disciples had heard Christs teaching firsthand, they had witnessed Jesus cleansing a leper, and they had observed the authority with which he spoke. Now, in Matthew 8:2327, in a boat caught in a violent storm, they see his power dynamically and unimaginably demonstrated. Yet, after all of this, they look at each other and say, What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him? Surely, they saw something of the living God in these acts, yet they seemingly bumbled their way alongside Christ not really understanding the fullness of who he was. Remarkably so, Christ never gave up on them. He stuck with them every step of the way, despite their lack of understanding.

4. Give focused attention.

In our smartphone, 24/7, always-on culture, we have become too comfortable with interruptions and distractions. Still one of our greatest desires in friendships and conversations is attention. Listening well, cultivating a disposition of patience, and giving focused attention might be the most subtle, yet the brightest way in which we shine the light of Christ and thus lead our friends, family members, and colleagues to take what we are saying seriously enough to ask the Might this be true? question.

Article continues below

I believe these actions can provide powerful ways in which the beauty and attractiveness of Christs love can be seen and heard. The French mathematician Blaise Pascal wrote, Make it attractive, make good men wish it were true, and then show that it is.

The challenges to the gospel in our culture are real and daunting. But I have hope because the gospel is real and strong as it has always been. It is good news.

Being an evangelist in a post-Christian world starts with recovering confidence in the gospel. This is a gospel that tells of a God who is wonderfully involved in our world and in our lives. In Acts 17, Paul speaks to a group of people who felt as though their search for God was like reaching for someone in a dark room. Paul tells them that the God who made them is the one in whom we live and move and have our being (v. 28). Far from an impersonal force, to be sought after in a dark room, the Christian God is one who has pursued us, knows us, and who gives us the very reason for our existence. This same God invites us out of our extreme individualism and into a life that is far richer than something we could ever create or imagine.

Nathan Betts is an apologist with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). He speaks frequently across the US and Canada. His focus areas include the interface of faith and culture, digital technology and belief, and youth apologetics.


I had the privilege or reading a pre-release version of "God Shines Forth: How the Nature of God Shapes and Drives the Mission of the Church." Here are 20 quotes from the book, which you should pick up.
Projections indicate that the majority of married couples with zero, one, or two kids using the standard deduction under the new GOP tax plan will end up owing less each April. But what if you have three, five, or seven kids?

Big families, including pro-life religious conservatives with plenty of offspring, may be less likely to see a tax cut under the new plan, which the House of Representatives passed on Tuesday. The Senate also passed the bill early Wednesday morning, and the House will re-vote on changes later today before sending it to President Donald Trump for approval before Christmas.

Republicans have championed the plan as offering more cuts for middle-class families by doubling the standard deduction and increasing the child tax credit. They also wanted to simply the tax code and eliminated the personal exemptiona $4,050 deduction for each dependent in a household.

For most average-sized families, the perks of the new plan outweigh what they would have saved through the personal exemptions. However, large families have enjoyed bigger reductions to their tax burden under the current code, because they had more dependents.

Under the new plan, which goes into effect for 2018, they miss out on tens of thousands of dollars in deductionsmore than $28,000 for families with five kids, for exampleleaving them with a higher adjusted gross income to be taxed.

The plan does nothing for big families, Anthony Illos, who has been preparing taxes for 50 years in the state of New York, told Buffalo News. According to the paper, some tax experts including Illos projected that any family with more than three kids could end up owing more under the new plan due to the elimination of the personal exemption.

Certain religious families are slightly more likely to fall into this demographic. For example, 17 percent of evangelicals and 18 percent of Catholics have four or more kids, compared to 15 percent of Americans overall, according to Pew Research Center data. Nearly half of Mormons (46%) have four or more.

The Washington Post has covered the mixed reception of the GOPs tax reform in heavily Mormon Utah, explaining, The benefit of swapping child tax credits for exemptions fades with the number of children, because of the complex math underpinning the plan.

But evangelicals see other signs of hope for American families in the final version of the tax bill. More than half of self-identified evangelicals (56%) and Protestants (57%) said they supported the tax plan in a recent poll conducted by Politico/Morning Consult. Overall, 43 percent of voters endorse the plan (though that finding is on the high end of recent survey results).

Christians were particularly glad to see a few controversial changes taken out of the tax plan in recent weeks. After facing pushback from pro-life and pro-family groups concerned about removing tax incentives for adoption, that credit of up to $13,570 remains in the final bill.

Its welcome news anytime the government can bring tax relief to families, said Focus on the Family president Jim Daly in a statement to CT. Daly praised the increase in the child tax credit and the retention of the adoption tax credit.

Helping families provide more financial stability for their children, as well as adopt children waiting for a permanent home, are both important steps toward helping families thrive, he said.

According to a rundown of the final bill published this week by The Atlantic, the plan boosts the child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000 per kid. For low-income parents, a push by Senator Marco Rubio of Florida has made $1,400 of the credit refundablemeaning taxpayers who owe less can receive a portion as a tax refund.

Rachel Hope Anderson, resident fellow at the Center for Public Justice and lead of the Families Valued initiative, also praised the increase in the child tax credit as an acknowledgment of how parenting benefits society as a whole.



This is a premise with strong grounding in the Christian tradition and our understanding of the family as a socially foundational institution, she said. Parents who raise children while working in minimum-wage jobs contribute to our societys flourishing, as do parents in higher-paying jobs. As the bill is currently written, parents earning below $15,000 wouldnt receive the full benefit of the child tax credit policy.

Anderson also voiced concerns about the long-term impact on government revenue and social services. If there is a decline in revenue, will lawmakers choose to cut programs that help the same families who received the child tax credit? Who will pick up the slack?

In other areas of the GOP tax reform, the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) had lobbied against an earlier proposal to tax tuition waivers for graduate students and families of school employees, a move that ultimately did not appear in the final version.

In earlier attempts to reconcile the House and Senate bills, lawmakers ended up removing a provision that allowed unborn babies to be beneficiaries of 529 college savings plans. They also removed the repeal of the Johnson Amendment, which restricts political speech by nonprofits.

One of the biggest concerns for evangelicals has been the new policys projected impact on religious and nonprofit giving, since a higher standard deduction reduces the incentive for itemized charitable write-offs.

As CT previously reported, both the National Association of Evangelicals and Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) critiqued how the changes dampened the benefits of a charitable deduction. However, ECFA president Dan Busby still sees reason to believe the bill could be good news for churches and organizations.

"While the doubling of the standard deduction does not incentivize giving, the lowering of corporate tax should spur business growth, he said Tuesday. The combination of business growth and lower individual income tax rates should increase disposable income for many Americans. These developments could generate more gifts for churches and nonprofits."
Hip-hop artist Lecraes decision this fall to leave white evangelicalism stirred up introspection among American Christians about raceand whether evangelicalism is reserved only for whites.

While many evangelicals of color may feel tired of begging to be noticed, considered, and invited, they are having an impact, recent research shows.

In the United States today, 1 in 3 self-identified evangelicals is nonwhite, according to a September study from PRRI. This rises to 4 in 10 evangelicals when measured by theological belief, according to a December study from LifeWay Research.

Of those that are white, 1 in 3 attends a multiracial church, reported another study, published in June in the Review of Religious Research.

Researchers Joseph Yi and Christopher Graziul dug into the more than 3,000 responses to the 2006 Faith Matters Survey, and found that more than a quarter of white evangelicals reported having a close Hispanic friend. Even moreabout 2 out of 5said they have a close friend that is African American.

An early study (analyzing 1978 and 1980 General Social Surveys) found that white members of (mostly) conservative denominations (Baptists) were less likely to attend service with blacks than were white members of mostly liberal denominations (Presbyterian, Episcopalian), Yi and Graziul wrote. (Other) recent studies, however, show steady growth in interracial worship, and this trend is more pronounced among conservative than liberal denominations.

In other words, evangelicals are now more likely than mainline Protestants to attend multiracial congregations and to report African American and Hispanic friends.

But Yi and Graziul dug down even further, splitting the more historical and influential evangelical church families (such as Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists) away from the less prominent and more recent ones (such as Pentecostals, Seventh-day Adventists, and nondenominational churches). The researchers found that American evangelicals divide roughly in half between the major and other categories of their study.

Their conclusion: the difference in racial diversity is enormous. While 35 percent of major evangelical groups are diverse (defined as 25% or more minority), the share jumps to 58 percent for other evangelical groups.

In fact, major evangelical denominations look a lot like mainline Protestant denominations, 32 percent of which are racially diverse. And other evangelical churches look a lot like Catholic churches, 58 percent of which are racially diverse.

In the US, six Protestant families (Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran, Baptist, United Church of Christ/congregational) largely defined religious practice in the 19th and early 20th [centuries], including the pattern of racially separate worship, Yi and Graziul wrote. African Americans committed to Protestant theology formed their own denominations. Richard Allen founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church after leadership at his Methodist congregation removed him from praying in the "white" section of his church. Seeking to remove themselves from laws requiring white ministers and supervision over their congregations, black Baptist Christians in the south helped form the National Baptist Convention.

Based on this study, which uniquely separated denominations historically, denominations formed during and after the Civil Rights movement tend, then, to look a lot more racially diverse.

In the same way, congregations who distance themselves a little from the traditional denominationssuch as Mosaic and Saddleback Church, both of which downplay their affiliation with the Southern Baptist Conventiontend to be more multiracial, the report said.

Switching affiliation from Baptist to nondenominational, as did [Joel Osteens] Lakewood Church, symbolizes a break with a historically segregated, denominational family and the start of a new church open to new practices and persons, the authors wrote.

Moreover, formal affiliation with historically major families may be tied to institutional practices that (inadvertently) reinforce homogeneity, they added. By cutting the affiliation, the nondenominational church reduces such practices.

Therefore, whether old (Adventists) or new (Lakewood), Christian organizations that distance themselves from major, denominational brand-names are among the most racially diverse.

So a major evangelical denomination seeking multiethnicity is disadvantaged by its history. But it also has an advantage: community.

Theologically conservative congregations generate more embedded social ties (measured by friendships) than do liberal congregations, and more congregation friends increase the likelihood of cross-racial ties, Yi and Graziul posited.

Their results bore this out: Major (25%) and other (23%) evangelicals were more likely than mainline Protestants (17%) to have 10 or more close friends at church. They were also more likely to have close black friends (43% major, 45% other, 31% mainline) and close Hispanic friends (26% major, 33% other, 19% mainline).

The finding is somewhat counterintuitive, because social science also knows that organizations with high levels of embedded trust and ties among members, or bonding social capital, tend to be socially homogeneous.

That perspective would expect to see theologically conservative evangelical churches with less multiethnicity, the report said.

Social science isnt wrong, but evangelicals are pushing against it by intentionally chasing multiethnicity, Yi and Graziul wrote. To counter such homogeneity, some congregations, especially evangelical ones, promote a pan-racial, religiously-based identity  and actively recruit members of different races.

Once recruited, members of different ethnic groups bond over their shared beliefs and develop strong friendships, the researchers said.

This trend is likely to continue, especially among younger Christians, Yi said.

As a young immigrant who was neither racially black nor white, I saw the evangelical tradition from an outsider third perspective, and recognized how young persons of diverse races were transforming evangelical institutions: by adhering to strict biblical interpretations and engaging the modern world, he said.  I predict that evangelical persons and institutions shall engage more actively and in nuanced, constructive ways with our diversifying society.
Jesus Film Project Premieres 1,500th Translation of 'JESUS' Contact: Heidi McDow, 972-267-1111, Heidi@alarryross.com



ORLANDO, Fla., Dec. 20, 2017 /Christian Newswire/ -- Representatives from Jesus Film Project recently traveled to one of the most remote places in Ethiopia to premiere the 1500th language translation of "JESUS" in Daasanach, which belongs to an ethnic group inhabiting parts of Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Sudan.



November 11th, in a dusty field set between two villages, a crowd of 300 people, which by the end of the film had almost doubled in size, witnessed the gospel of Jesus in their own language for the first time. At the end of the presentation, close to 90 percent of the Daasanach in attendance indicated they would like to begin a relationship with Jesus. Among them 79 gave their names to begin immediate follow up and discipleship.



"After giving for three years to a people group we had never heard of, it was surreal and humbling to sit among them in the dirt as they watched the life of Jesus for the very first time," said Gospel Patrons Founder John Rinehart, who with his wife Renee funded the translation and attended the premiere. "Seeing the Daasanach witness the story of Jesus for the first time in history is one of the highlights of our lives."



Prior to the premiere, 200 local Ethiopian leaders and believers gathered for a sneak-peek of the Daasanach version of the "JESUS" film. At the end of which a chief demanded to speak on behalf of his tribe and said, "Today, our prayers are answered. God's word is coming alive for our people."



The Daasanach are a people group with 70,000 in number and most of them have never heard the gospel. With the lack of available, affordable education, many are illiterate. Rinehart believes that without a visual representation of the gospel such as in "JESUS," they likely would never hear it.



"We wanted to see the Daasanach people get the film in their language because 'JESUS' has proven to be the most effective evangelistic tool in history," stated Rinehart. "Our hope is that going forward the Jesus Film Project staff and local church-planters will continue to use the translation to make disciples, plant churches, and reach people among the Daasanch who otherwise would never have the chance to hear the gospel."



Since the initial release of "JESUS" in 1979, Jesus Film Project's resources and strategies have been utilized in 7.5 billion gospel presentations in more than 230 countries and for many individuals in remote areas around the world. In fact, according to "The Guinness Book of World Records," "JESUS" is the most watched film in history.



"When you show the 'JESUS' film, it becomes an instant tool for church planters," said Josh Newell, Director of Marketing and Communications for Jesus Film Project. "Watching the story of Christ unfold from the Gospel of Luke puts viewers right into the Bible. After two hours, you have the raw ingredients for a fellowship."



The powerful impact of seeing the story of Jesus' life, death and resurrection in their heart language has resulted in more than 490 million indicated decisions for Christ following a film showing.



"As we watched the people glued to the screen, seeing the story of Jesus, it was awesome to think that God was speaking to them in their own language like never before," said Rinehart. "We know that Revelation 7:9 says that in heaven there will be a great multitude of people around Jesus' throne from every tribe and language, and we believe some of the Daasanch will be there, in part, because they were able to see the story of Jesus through the film."



"JESUS" is available on Blu-ray, DVD and digitally through Jesus Film Project app, available on IOS or Android. In addition to "JESUS," Jesus Film Project offers additional tools such as "Magdalena," a film that specifically addresses Jesus ministry toward women, and "The Story of JESUS for Children." For more information, visit www.jesusfilm.org/.



The "JESUS" film was envisioned by Bill Bright, co-founder of Cru, and was produced in cooperation with The Genesis Project. Jesus Film Project continues to carry out Bright's vision of showing this film to people in every country of the world. For more information on Jesus Film Project, go to www.jesusfilm.org/.



Note to Editors: To arrange an interview with a Jesus Film Project Spokesperson; please contact Heidi McDow at 972.267.1111 or via e-mail at Heidi@alarryross.com.

Share Tweet
Senator Betancourt Right to Warn Against Illegal Behavior by School Districts Against School Choice The Justice Foundation will Assist Parents and Citizens in Preventing School Districts from Illegally Opposing School Choice Efforts in the Next Session of the Texas Legislature and in this Current Texas Primary Season



Contact: Allan E. Parker, Jr., J.D., The Justice Foundation, 210-614-7157, info@txjf.org



SAN ANTONIO, Texas, Dec. 20, 2017 /Christian Newswire/ -- Senator Paul Bettencourt recently warned school districts about and asked the Attorney General for a legal opinion on illegal efforts to get school district teachers and students to vote for measures or candidates supported by the government. Click here: centralmirror.com/texas-lawmaker-questions-education-groups-tactics-for-getting-out-the-vote/. It is against state law for districts to use state funds to lobby the legislature or to advocate for specific legislation, ballot measures, or candidates. Tex. Gov. Code  556.055(a).



Allan Parker, President of The Justice Foundation, Attorney, said "It is extremely important for school districts which compel attendance by law to avoid violating Texas laws by publicly advocating in a one-sided manner against school choice. School districts usually support funding only for certain students who attend public schools, and against education funding for all students in Texas, both public and private."



"School district officers and employees are prohibited from knowingly spending, or authorizing spending, of public funds on political advertising." Texas Elec. Code  255.003.



Also, school district trustees "may not use state or local funds or other resources of the district to electioneer for or against any candidate, measure or political party." Tex. Ed. Code  11.169.



Resources would include employee time, facilities, funds obviously, equipment and technology to support a candidate.



The Justice Foundation stands ready to assist citizens in filing complaints with the Texas Ethics Commission against school districts and public employees who do so, and we have done so in the past. Fines and penalties are available under the law against those who violate this law.



Share Tweet
"This funding will allow Cayuga Centers to continue developing career paths and important trainings for our direct support professionals. As one of the largest employers in Cayuga County, we strive to provide industry leading pay, benefits and training to our staff. This, in turn, provides the knowledge and proficiency to best support the youth and families served by Cayuga Centers," CEO and President Edward Myers Hayes said in a news release.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

SEATTLE - E-commerce delivers, then someone steals.

Two weeks ago, the sheriff's department in Washington County, Ore., ran a sting operation to catch porch pirates, thieves who swipe packages from Amazon and other companies from doorsteps. Detectives from the department's property crimes unit put several electronics items worth more than $500 in a box, dropped in a tracking device and "baited" a volunteer's front porch in the town of Aloha.

Sure enough, a pirate struck just after 2 a.m., and deputies traced him to a home two blocks away. In an apparent effort to cover up his deed, the 27-year-old suspect microwaved the tracking device, so he was charged with evidence tampering in addition to theft.

Porch pirates have darkened peoples' doorsteps for years. Law enforcement agencies say they think the crime is on the rise, along with the growth of online shopping. "There's more packages for them to grab," said Angela Sands, a spokeswoman for the Lincoln, Neb., police department.

And the rewards are especially attractive during the holiday season. UPS plans to deliver 750 million packages this season, up from 500 million five years ago.

"One of the outcomes is you've got one of the easiest ways to steal something ever," said Nirav Tolia, chief executive of Nextdoor, a social network for neighborhoods.

The more efficient thieves follow UPS and other delivery trucks, scooping up packages as they are dropped off.

Nextdoor said that during the holiday months, it usually sees a 500 percent increase in posts on its network about missing packages. Research commissioned by businesses that make packaging products like boxes and surveillance cameras suggests that from one-fifth to one-third of respondents have had deliveries stolen from their porches.

It is yet another sign that the endless capacity of technology to improve lives has led to endless criminal innovation as well.

Mike Armstrong, a general contractor in Memphis, Tenn., has earned a reputation on his neighborhood's Nextdoor forums as something of a vigilante. By his own estimate, Armstrong has confronted suspected package thieves more than a dozen times over the last four years, once on his own porch with the aid of his surveillance system.

He said his neighbors call him the "strong arm of the law," a play on his last name.

Technology also is amplifying awareness of the problem, while serving as a deterrent. Internet surveillance cameras from Google's Nest and Ring have made it easier for residents to capture video of package thieves in the act. Ring makes internet-connected doorbell cameras that start at $179.

Homeowners can speak through the device to visitors - or bad guys - at their front doors using a smartphone app, even if they are not home.

YouTube, Facebook, Nextdoor and other social media are popular places for frustrated residents to share the footage. Camera companies like Ring have used the videos as marketing.

Law enforcement agencies are stepping up their efforts to deter package thieves. On Cyber Monday, postal inspectors and police officers in the Portland, Ore., area put out 21 bait packages. They made four arrests and recovered a stolen vehicle, according to Sgt. Christopher Burley, a spokesman for the Portland police department.

Steve Gaut, a UPS spokesman, said public perception of the problem is rising, "driven by the greater use and affordability of home surveillance technology and the pervasiveness of social media and related user-generated social content." He said the company does not think there has been a significant increase in the per capita incidence of package theft, but he said that many victims never report their problems to the company.

Amazon, by far the nation's largest online retailer, said the vast majority of packages make it to customers without being stolen, but declined to provide specifics. The company typically replaces deliveries that are reported stolen.

In November, the company began rolling out the Amazon Key service, which includes an internet-connected door lock and camera, installed with the customer's permission, and allows couriers to enter homes and drop off orders. The camera records the couriers.

Walmart, the nation's second-largest online retailer, did not respond to requests for comment.

Steven Kenworthy, a graduate student at Ohio State University in Columbus, in June expected a large box from Amazon with a $400 electric skateboard to arrive at his home. Amazon told him its carrier had delivered the item, but there was no trace of it.

"Some rascal snagged my package," Kenworthy said. He went on his neighborhood's Nextdoor discussion forums and found reports of missing packages and suspected thieves tailing FedEx trucks through the area.

"Everybody's problems start feeling like your problems," he said. "People were talking about how it was every single day packages would go missing."

Amazon sent him a replacement skateboard at no charge within two days, he said.

Kenworthy said he had no intention of installing a camera outside his home because he thought it would make him feel more violated.

"It's going to make me mad," he said. "I don't want to see it."
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

A Florida high school teacher is facing felony charges after detectives found Sunday that she was having a months-long sexually explicit conversation with, and sending nude photos of herself to, a 15-year-old boy in Texas.

Robin Dunlap, 27, told the Winter Haven Police Department that the boy initially told her he was 19 years old when the two started communicating on Xbox One in September. According to a press release from police, Dunlap and the unidentified teen shifted communication from the video game system to the messaging app Kik and video chat on their phones.

Police say the conversation "slowly progressed to extremely vulgar with sexually explicit language."

SCANDAL: Teacher accused of sex with two students seeks insanity plea

On Sept. 18, the Haines City High School teacher turned herself in to the police after the boy's mother discovered their communications and allegedly contacted Dunlap to tell her that her son is 15 years old, not 19. However, the explicit communications allegedly continued.

On Oct. 29, police said the teen's father reported to Winter Haven detectives that Dunlap was still communicating with the 15 year old through Google Hangouts. Winter Haven detectives worked with investigators in Texas to confirm that Dunlap continued the explicit communications despite being made aware of his true age.

Now Playing: Kim Gersonde blamed her actions on loneliness. Video: WISN

Detectives met with Dunlap at her home on Dec. 17 to question her about her continued conversations with the Texas teen. Dunlap allegedly gave investigators consent to look at her phones that day and police discovered a conversation between her and the teen that lasted from Nov. 26 to Dec. 11.

"Dunlap didn't deny and in fact told investigators that she continued to speak to the victim because he is the only person that she can talk to and the only one who understands her," according to the release.

BAD TEACHER: Cy-Springs High School teacher accused of having sex, smoking pot with 15-year-old student

Dunlap was taken into custody and booked into the Polk County Jail on charges of transmitting material harmful to a minor and using a two-way communication device to commit a felony.

"There is absolutely no excuse for an adult - especially a high school teacher - to continue sexually explicit conversations with a 15 year old long after his real age is revealed," Winter Haven Police Chief Charlie Bird. "The vulnerable age of this victim and the fact that this woman took advantage of him for her own personal needs is inexcusable."

Fox News reports Dunlap was a science teacher at Haines City High School. Dunlap's name has been removed from the Haines City school district's website.

Will Axford is a digital reporter for Chron.com. Read more of his stories here and follow him on Twitter.
Police said six fraternity members in Maryland hosted a disruptive party with so much booze the air inside the home tested positive for alcohol, local media reports.

The American Universty fraternity party took place in mid-November and ended with all six students being charged with 126 counts each for allowing underage possession of alcohol and furnishing alcohol to a minor, according to ABC 7.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

A fiery overnight crash has caused a mess of problems in Dickinson, including power outages, a ruptured gas line and even an evacuation early Wednesday.

A Dodge pickup truck traveling on Dickinson Avenue apparently swerved off the road, hitting a pole around 1:30 a.m., Dickinson Police said. It then flipped over and caught fire due to a ruptured gas line.

Officers haven't been able to get inside of that truck due to the fire, and first responders aren't sure whether the truck was occupied at the time it started blazing.

READ ALSO: Pileup wreck on Southwest Freeway leads to blazing vehicle

The crash knocked out power for residents in the surrounding area, and officials asked the residents of one home right next to the fire to evacuate.

As of 6 a.m., crews from Centerpoint Energy and the Texas New-Mexico Power Company were still working to restore power.

At about 7:45 Dickinson PD said in an update that Centerpoint had the gas leak under control, that TNMP was working to fix the damaged electrical pole and that power was expected to be back on within the hour.

Roads in the immediate surrounding area are expected to remain closed until at least noon.
The more time and money Jaireme Barrow spent to keep people from swiping packages off his front porch, the angrier he got.

He'd show police in Tacoma, Wash., crystal-clear surveillance video of porch pirates strolling onto his front yard and then making off with what he could only assume were the Jeep parts and electronics he'd paid for. But there were never any arrests.

As he grew more incensed, he realized he wanted more than identities or charges or even the stuff in the boxes.

He wanted revenge.

Then, the 34-year-old had an explosive idea.

Epidemic: Porch pirates steal holiday packages as they pile up at doorways

"I was thinking, how could I scare them and make them drop my package and then never come to my front porch again," Barrow said. "And I thought, 'Getting shot at is scary. That'll make them think twice.' "

With that, TheBlankBox was born.

Barrow's concept for alleviating delivery anxiety is simple and devious. The nondescript dummy box is placed in plain sight. When a thief lifts it, a 12-gauge shotgun blank goes off.

A video surveillance system like Barrow's - installed to shame thieves and capture their startled reactions for YouTube - is not included.

It's very loud but technically harmless, Barrow said.

But a police spokeswoman in Tacoma, where Barrow lives, said the device as described to her by a reporter appears to be illegal. There are, however, no open cases against Barrow.

Barrow is trying to patent TheBlankBox and has built a website, cashing in his savings and going "all in." The cheapest version costs $60. He says he has sold about 50 dummy boxes and had 477 preorders as of Monday.

Barrow says he's shipping them as fast as he can make them, capitalizing on an untapped market as more people rely on having boxes delivered to their door.

Although gun blanks can hurt people, Barrow insists his contraption is "completely safe" - as long as the blanks are inside the box: They make a loud noise and nothing more.

Police in Tacoma say Washington state law forbids people from assembling or shipping explosive devices without a valid license.

"The way the device is made is actually illegal," said Loretta Cool, a police spokeswoman.

Barrow could also be held liable if someone gets hurt on his property during or after an explosion, she said.

She said police are not investigating Barrow because "nobody has reported this. We have to have a victim."

Barrow says he has caught 20 would-be thieves in the act.

He concedes that his not-quite-exploding box is an imperfect solution on a crowded porch of imperfect solutions.

But he says his device offers something others don't: the warm, fuzzy feeling you get when you've made a terrified thief sprint off your lawn.

On those rare instances when Barrow is at home during the day, he will hear a muffled explosion from his front porch - and smile.

"One girl, she screamed so loud - it was instant karma," he said. "Someone is trying to commit a crime, and you're able to get back at them instantly. It's a satisfaction I can't describe."
Nearly two months after announcing major layoffs, Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare says it is expanding its cost-saving initiative and will cut an additional $100 million by the end of 2018.

In addition to the now $250 million cost reduction effort, Tenet said it is exploring the sale of one of its profitable business segments, Conifer Health Solutions, a Frisco-based debt collection firm that had more than 15,000 people on staff at the end of last year.

With $15 billion in long-term debt logged as of June 30, the company said Tuesday that it is continuing to take "aggressive actions" to improve its financial performance, accelerate growth and eliminate unnecessary costs.

'Open to all options'

"We remain open to all options that can enhance shareholder value," said the interim chairman and chief executive, Ronald Rittenmeyer, who took over the organization in September.

Some analysts, in notes to investors, said the possible shedding of Conifer is not a total shock, given the company's goal to cut costs and the new leadership's aim to improve overall operations.

The sale of Conifer "makes a lot of sense" because it would help the company significantly de-lever and refocus on the businesses that make up nearly 90 percent of earnings, including hospital operations, said a note from Nephron Research.

Conifer is seen as one of the more profitable business segments for Tenet, but the company has indicated that profit gains may be slowing.

Series of blows

The Conifer announcement follows a series of blows over the past few years for the embattled hospital chain, including financial losses, legal payouts, the exit of its longtime CEO and job cuts.

The organization has also faced mounting pressure from shareholders. The largest such group, Glenview Capital Management, abruptly pulled two of its members off the national hospital operator's board of directors in August citing "irreconcilable differences."

Tenet share were up 1.97 percent Tuesday to close at $15.03. The company said adjusted earnings from continuing operations will range between $1.07 and $1.36 per share next year.

FactSet says analysts forecast, on average, earnings of $1.40 per share.

Tenet reported a quarterly loss of $367 million in October.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Drilling for crude in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge may be just the start as President Donald Trump seeks to revive Alaska's beleaguered oil industry.

Republicans in Congress handed the industry a long-sought victory on Tuesday, approving exploration in the vast Arctic preserve as part of their tax overhaul. The legislation, which Trump is expected to sign into law, would lift an almost 40-year old ban on prospecting for oil and natural gas in the refuge's coastal plain, where endangered polar bears, caribou and other species roam.

It's the capstone of a year in which legislators and the Trump administration pushed on multiple fronts to unwind regulatory restrictions in what was once America's busiest oilfield. That won't solve the challenge of declining wells, or global crude prices too low to support many Alaskan projects. But it's a long way from a year ago, when then-President Barack Obama put millions of acres off-limits, citing the risks of oil spills and concerns about climate change.

Now Playing: The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has been the subject of political debates for the past 40 years. Here are the facts about ANWR. Video: FortuneTime

"It's a recognition that the era of oil is not over in Alaska," said Kara Moriarty, president of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, a trade group. "Clearly we have an administration that believes that America can be energy dominant, and that is a complete 180-degree shift from the previous administration."

Republicans included the refuge in their bill as a revenue source, saying the drilling will generate $1 billion to offset tax cuts over the next decade. Trump's expected to sign the legislation as soon as Wednesday. The administration has promised to fast-track lease offerings in the area, which could draw interest from operators including Exxon Mobil Corp. and ConocoPhillips.

It's just one of many moves intended to rekindle Alaskan exploration:

As soon as this week, the Interior Department may unveil a draft of its new five-year plan for offshore U.S. drilling, including Arctic waters. The plan would build on Trump's April executive order undoing Obama's decision to ban new operations in most of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. In November, the administration issued a permit to Italian oil giant Eni SpA for what would be the first exploratory well in U.S. Arctic waters since Royal Dutch Shell Plc abandoned a project in 2015. In August, Trump instructed regulators to allow seismic testing for oil and gas deposits in the wildlife refuge, reversing another Obama stance. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke also ordered a rewrite of a 2013 plan that limited drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska in the state's northwestern corner.

Environmentalists have gone to court or threatened to sue over the moves, and Democratic takeovers of the White House or Congress in coming years could stall many of them.

"We view the Trump approach as really a wholesale assault on America's Arctic," said Nicole Whittington-Evans, Alaska Regional Director for The Wilderness Society. The tax bill "will certainly be a setback for us, but it will only heighten our resolve to defend America's last great wilderness."

Frontier Exploration

Still, 2017 brought a burst of momentum for drillers who've seen Alaskan production fall from 2 million barrels a day in the late 1980s to less than 500,000 in recent years. Once-mighty North Slope reserves have been depleted and producers have turned their attention to cheaper options like U.S. shale fields in Texas and Oklahoma.

In early December, the administration conducted the largest-ever auction of drilling leases in the National Petroleum Reserve, putting access to almost half of the area's 23 million acres up for bid. It received only seven bids for 80,000 acres, a reminder of the difficulties attracting interest in a remote, frigid landscape where wells can cost three times as much as in the Lower 48 states.

Arctic National Wildlife drilling may face similar reluctance, said Pavel Molchanov, a Raymond James Financial Inc. analyst.

"Our sense is that there is little to no current interest in the industry to invest in ANWR," Molchanov said in a Dec. 4 research note. "This is high-risk 'frontier exploration' with a very distant roadmap to cash flow."

Among Alaskan oil companies, there's a growing confidence, said Kevin Durling, whose Anchorage-based Petroleum Equipment & Services Inc. provides drill bits, cement well casings and other products to North Slope explorers. The company has 20 employees and expects to add at least two more early next year as a result of expansion by Conoco, Repsol SA and others.

"It's improving slowly, but the leading indicators are out there," Durling said in a telephone interview. "I am much more optimistic that we can develop our resources and have a viable industry in Alaska; a year ago, I was not sure."
When prominent New York chef David Chang famously wrote last year that Houston might be the next food capital of America, many took notice.

But the Bayou City's potential claim to this culinary title didn't happen overnight.

It started in the early 19th century - a time plagued by discrimination, slavery and disadvantaged communities - when family-run farms, grocery stores and restaurants took root as immigrants fought to make a living as cooks, bakers, waiters and farmers.

These stories chronicling Houston's rich and remarkable history of cuisine are featured in the exhibit "Food & Family: A Houston Journey" at The Heritage Society at Sam Houston Park. The Heritage Society's mission is to tell stories of the diverse history of Houston and Texas, and that is exactly what Pat Jasper and Angel Quesada, program managers at the Houston Arts Alliance, sought to do with this exhibit, which began Sept. 28 and runs through Jan. 28.

More Information What: "Food & Family: A Houston Journey"at The Heritage Society Where: Sam Houston Park, 1100 Bagby When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays -Saturdays, through Jan. 27 Cost: free See More Collapse

Visitors to the Heritage Society's Museum Gallery can walk the 1,000-square-foot space to take in six different displays: the home kitchen, the family-based farm, the multigenerational restaurant, the entrepreneur, the grocer and the distributor.

"This exhibition departs from what the Heritage Society generally does, which is to look at a strictly historical aspect of Houston," Jasper said. "They've given us an opportunity to share with audiences the way history is made and the way heritage is constructed. Family and food are both such important ways in which that is done. We delve into the synergistic role that each of these plays in enhancing the cultural significance of the other."

The exhibit touches on holiday traditions found throughout various cultures in Houston - from the Czech tradition of S'tedra, where you eat a meal, sing carols and attend Mass with family, to Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, where families light candles in the evenings and eat festive meals with sweet delicacies. Visitors get an insightful perspective into the homes that commemorate these traditions and the interdependence family and food share.

"Inside, there's a lot of visual information to take in," Quesada said. "I've compacted everything - image-wise - so you're getting the whole feeling, and you come away with an understanding of and appreciation for the different traditions."

Today, we can see this tradition carry on through multigenerational businesses such as Lucy Ethiopian Restaurant, Huynh's Vietnamese, Ojarasca Bakery and Three Brothers Bakery. Jasper and Quesada visited the businesses to take viewers behind the scenes and tell their stories. Two- to three-minute videos, along with photographs, displays and audio clips, guide the viewer on the journey through the exhibit.

"We focus on family a lot," Jasper said. "The family is an important unit of production in tradition and culture. The thing about family restaurants in Houston is that they've been so successful and so significant to the food landscape here that, comparatively speaking, Houston has very few chain restaurants. El Tiempo and Carrabba's and Mandola's Deli alike have really filled the void in a way that it doesn't exist."

Jasper and Quesada found it important to focus on the source and paths of Houston's diversity instead of high-end establishments and the "cult" of the new.

"We wanted to explore the roots and routes of the region's diversity as it has developed in grass-roots settings - as it is shared by a shop owner who works from open to close, as it is experienced by a farmer who rises to work in his greenhouses at 5 a.m., as it is relayed by a baker with five generations of knowledge and hardship mixed into his recipes," Jasper said.
A Galveston man is facing five different felony charges this week following his arrest Saturday by a police SWAT team, who had a warrant for car theft.

Galveston police wanted Javier Garcia Jr. for the unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. But when a tactical team tracked him down Saturday, they arrested him on a total of five charges, including drug possession and child endangerment.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Callie Saitowitz's five decades in the fashion retail business have been a whirlwind.

It seems only yesterday, Saitowitz says, she was a young girl growing up in South Africa, the daughter of a South African woman and a man from Lithuania.

Sitting in her Houston home, with her favorite white roses on the kitchen table, Saitowitz, the owner of BB1 Classic boutique in Uptown Park, reflected on her journey, which began in South Africa, where her father owned a department store that sold everything from clothes to groceries to tractors.

"I was always in my dad's business, but I never thought to have my own store," she said. "I wanted to travel and decided to go into legal secretary work."

More Information Home: River Oaks/Upper Kirby area

Style heroes: Daniela Dallavalle and Isabel de Pedro

Pairs of shoes: "More than 100 pairs, most of which I never wear."

Favorite accessory: A scarf. "I have two limited-edition scarves, made exclusively for the Gaudi and Dali museums in Barcelona, gifted to me by the designer."

Should toss but can't: A long gold crochet Lurex dress from London in the late 1960s.

Recent purchase for your wardrobe: Elisa Cavaletti sneakers and Yoshi Yoshi pull-on, slim-legging pants

Most regrettable purchase: Designer suits purchased at age 21 that I only wore once. Must-have beauty product: Pure Hyaluronic Acid Serum from Houston Wellness Clinic First car: An Austin

Most hated household chore: Drying out my shower every morning

Favorite word: Love

Favorite food: Old-fashioned South African barbecue

Favorite cocktail: Dry martini, straight up with olives

Hidden talent: Flower arranging

Best advice ever received: Stay credible

Backup career: "A long time ago, I wanted to charter luxury yachts."

Theme song: "My Way" by Shirley Bassey

Trend you'll never wear: Baby-doll style See More Collapse

That career move didn't last. With her father's help, Saitowitz acquired a fashion boutique, called Dominique, in her hometown. It was during the reign of British fashion model Twiggy, and London was the center of trends. Saitowitz flew to London and scoured the city to find unique things for the store. She later opened another location in Johannesburg, South Africa, where "everything was cutting edge."

"When you are 21, you want to be immersed in the fashion. Johannesburg was the center of fashion in South Africa," she said.

Saitowitz learned early that to survive in retail she had to be ahead of the trends. She struck gold when she discovered Votre Nom stirrup pants, a favorite of Parisian women. She returned from Paris with a suitcase stuffed full of the pants. They sold out within a week.

"We were always trying to find a winner. I learned never to stay the same because trends constantly change."

In 1973, her father died at age 65, just two years before she married Julian Saitowitz. The couple has a son, Joshua, 31. In 1991, they moved to Houston. Saitowitz took over the BB1 store in the Galleria and later moved the store to a location on Shepherd, then to River Oaks on West Gray. She opened a second location in Post Oak Center but closed after four years because of building maintenance issues. A third location, in the Town and Country area, was opened for a few years, too.

But in 2003, Saitowitz consolidated into one massive two-story retail space in Uptown Park. Her younger sister, Moira Morris, helps run the boutique.

"It's been such a fun challenge to be in this industry, but it's not about a store, it's about the people," said Saitowitz, decked out in her favorite Elisa Cavaletti sneakers and vintage Chanel eye frames from Vision Optique, of which she has two pair.

She's known as the "quiet lady of fashion" with a style that's chic and effortless.

"I love being comfortable."
AUBURN  An Auburn man will remain in jail without bail for allegedly stabbing a man in the head in the town of Victory.

Nathan Fillingham, 29, of 88 Capital St., was arrested in August in connection with a stabbing at 458 Victory Road. At the time, the Cayuga County Sheriff's Office said Fillingham had stabbed 35-year-old Joshua Hoeffner several times in the head, hand and torso.

Hoeffner was transported to Upstate University Hospital and subsequently transferred to Crouse Hospital with serious injuries. Cayuga County District Attorney Jon Budelmann said Hoeffner ended up losing sight in one eye as a result of the incident.

Fillingham was initially charged with first-degree assault, a felony, and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, a misdemeanor. However, last week, a grand jury indicted Fillingham on an additional charge: second-degree attempted murder.

On Tuesday, Fillingham pleaded not guilty to all three counts in Cayuga County Court. He was remanded to Cayuga County Jail without bail pending his next court appearance Feb. 20.

Also in court:

 An Auburn woman who was arrested in a drug bust last week has been indicted in a separate case in Cayuga County.

Sitting in a wheelchair Tuesday morning in Cayuga County Court, 44-year-old Patricia Lafler pleaded not guilty to possessing narcotics earlier this year. She was charged with two felonies and nine misdemeanors, including third-, fourth- and seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, second-degree criminal use of drug paraphernalia and endangering the welfare of a child.

In court, the district attorney said Lafler had been arrested for possessing narcotics in March but was later released on bail. Then, late last week, the Auburn Police Department said officers executed a search warrant at Lafler's residence at 52 Osborne St. and recovered an additional 8.8 grams of crack cocaine and over $220 in cash.

Lafler appeared in court Tuesday for an arraignment on the case from March. She is facing five additional drug-related charges for her arrest last week.

Lafler was remanded to Cayuga County Jail without bail. She is scheduled to return to court Feb. 20.

 An Auburn man was resentenced to one year in prison Tuesday for violating the terms and conditions of his probation.

Dequan Wilson, 25, of 18 Baker Ave. Apt. 3, was convicted in March 2016 of third-degree criminal sale of marijuana, a felony, and endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor, and sentenced to five years probation and six months in jail. However, in August, New York State Police said he was arrested for driving while intoxicated.

On Aug. 16, state police said Wilson was stopped on Clark Street Road in the town of Aurelius for failing to dim his lights. He was later arrested after failing multiple standard field sobriety tests and registering a blood alcohol content of .15 percent.

Wilson previously admitted to the charges, and on Tuesday, he was sentenced to one year in prison and one year post-release supervision. In addition, Wilson was ordered to pay the remaining $483 in restitution from his case in 2016.

 A Montezuma man will spend the next four months of weekends in jail for his third drunk driving conviction.

In August, 34-year-old David Decker, of 8526 Wilsey Road, was pulled over for a lane violation on State Street. Upon further investigation, police said Decker's blood alcohol content was .13 percent.

Decker ultimately pleaded guilty to two felonies  felony driving while intoxicated and first-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle. Police said it was his third DWI since 2008.

In court Tuesday, Judge Thomas Leone sentenced Decker to five years probation with the first four months of weekends served in Cayuga County Jail. He also ordered Decker to successfully complete felony drug treatment court and have his driver license revoked for at least one year.

Decker will begin serving his weekends in jail Friday, Dec. 29. He will also have to wear a SCRAM bracelet to monitor his alcohol use, pay $3,000 in fines and have an ignition interlock device placed on any vehicle he has access to.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

UTSA's John Peace Library nearly became the setting for a San Antonio version of Cheaters.

Instead, it's just the backdrop of a viral tweet that's garnering national attention.

It all started during the Finals Week frenzy, when Rebekah Pendley spotted a couple being "touchy" in the library. She noticed the young gentleman looked like the boyfriend of Jasmine Rios, a girl she followed on Twitter. The only problem was, the sweetheart he was smitten by was not her online friend.

RELATED: Texas Tech accidentally sends out 'good luck on finals' meme containing marijuana leaves

After sneaking a photo, Pendley relayed her intel to her Twitter friend, who she had never met before, via a direct message.

"I really don't know if I should message you/how to tell you but I have been full on cheated on before and girl to girl I'd want to know," Pendley told Rios.

Luckily for all involved, it was just a case of a mistaken identity. Rios' boyfriend, Isiah Williamson, has an identical twin brother named Aaron Williamson, who was the one Pendley spotted. The young woman he was doting over in the photo was his girlfriend, Macie Morales.

"I automatically knew it wasn't (Isiah), because my boyfriend was with me when I got the direct message and I looked at the picture before I read the message and wondered why she sent me a picture of his brother and his girlfriend," she told mySA.com.

Rios quickly replied back to her newfound spy, letting her know the deal. And it's good she did because Pendley was ready to come to her defense.

RELATED: San Antonio college graduates are picture-perfect on social media

"I feel really bad but I just thought it'd be wrong to witness it and not say anything, you know," Pendley told her. "Tell me if you want me to fight him I'll be here a while."

Rios tweeted the exchange and it took off. It has amassed 250,000 likes and 50,000 retweets so far. Eventually, the story got national attention and Buzzfeed got in touch with the UTSA students.

"I didn't think this would happen at all honestly, I don't know how I feel. I still think it's funny," Rios said, adding that her boyfriend also thinks the entire ordeal is "hilarious."

The two women haven't met yet, but it's clear Pendley has Rios' back. They've been chatting since the tweet went viral and plan on hanging out for the first time after the holidays, Rios said.

Madalyn Mendoza is a digital reporter for MySA.com. Read more of her stories here.| mmendoza@mysa.com | Twitter: @MaddySkye
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Dogs are offering a special type of medicine to patients at Memorial Hermann Cypress Hospital as the facility joins a roster of surrounding area centers that includes a pet therapy program on site.

The four-legged friends visit the hospital's patient rooms, nursing units, and waiting areas. Hospital staff hopes the therapy dogs help to normalize the environment of the facility and play a part in making patients feel comfortable.

"Hospitals are scary places, no matter who you are or why you are there. It's amazing to hear some of the stories where pets have really impacted the patients," said Heather Rojas, Memorial Hermann Cypress Hospital director of volunteer services. "There have been stroke patients that have no movement on one side of their body who will lift their hand to pet a dog because they have that emotional pull towards the dog."

Various scientific reports show that pet therapy can be recognized as therapeutic and recreational. Some benefits of pet therapy include lessening depression, developing social skills, increasing verbal communication, and reducing anxiety because of its calming effects.

Rojas even recalls learning about a comatose patient that woke up when the therapy pet entered the hospital room. She also remembered there was a non-verbal patient that started talking to the dog when the dog came in to visit.

"It's a social aspect, but really a medical and health aspect too," Rojas said.

Tender Loving K9's is a volunteer nonprofit organization founded to provide purpose for lives while providing acceptance, warmth, and smiles to in the community who are in hospitals and assisted living centers. The organization also visits nursing homes, public libraries, rehabilitation facilities, and educational facilities in Katy, Richmond, Sugar Land, and Houston.

Tender Loving K9's was founded in 2007 by Sharon Evans and Shannon Smith as a local therapy dog organization that aiming to provide joy and comfort to the community.

"Back when we started this, I was training dogs. My grandmother was in an assisted living facility in Ohio at the time, and she loved when the therapy dogs came to visit. It was one of her favorite things in the world," Smith said. "Although, I knew we would never reach Ohio, I kind of knew if we paid it forward, then what goes around comes around. I was hoping if we did big things here, then maybe someone would do things there. So, that was my reason for starting it here."

Memorial Hermann Katy Hospital was the first facility the organization began to serve. Now, Tender Loving K9's serves Memorial Hermann Memorial City Hospital, Katy Rehabilitation, and the Cypress location.

Smith also has her pet, Bonny, a 12-year-old German Shepherd, serving as therapy dog.

There are approximately 40 active dogs in organization which include breeds such as Australian Shepherds, tiny toy Yorkies, Golden Retrievers, Great Danes, German Shepherds, and mixed breeds. All dogs are welcome, and interested pet-owners with friendly dogs are encouraged to apply.

"In organizations like this we can go out and brighten the day for people that might not have a chance to have that happen," Smith said. "For some people that we visit, we may be the only person they see outside of the facility in a long period."

All of Tender Loving K9's members are registered with Alliance of Therapy Dogs, a national therapy dog organization that sets the standards for testing and training to become a therapy dog team.

Organization leaders notice that the therapy dogs get excited about bringing joy to others.

"The dogs love it. You get out their vests and they get excited and dance around," Smith said. "I think it's a win-win for everyone."

Another organization that shares joy and comfort through pet therapy is The Woodlands/Houston Chapter of Therapy Pet Pals of Texas. The group serves The Woodlands, Tomball, Spring, Conroe, and Montgomery County areas. Therapy Pet Pals visits various health care centers in the community.

Therapy Dogs provide therapeutic support to people other than its handler. According to the American Humane Association, animal-assisted therapy is a goal-directed intervention in which an animal is incorporated as an integral part of the clinical health-care treatment process. Animal Assisted Therapy is delivered or directed by a professional health or human service provider who demonstrates skill and expertise regarding the clinical applications of human-animal interactions.

Memorial Hermann Cypress Hospital and Tender Loving K9's are hoping in the near future to add more days during the week for the dogs to visit the facility. As of now, Tender Loving K9's visits the hospital in Cypress from 2 to 3 p.m. on Mondays.

"The dog does something for people that a person can't do. They connect on a different level," Smith said. "It brightens the mood in the entire place, and the dogs walk through and work their magic. It's an amazing thing. Those dogs just have something special about them."

Want to know more?

Tender Loving K9's

http://www.tlk9.org
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

The day after a power surge in Richmond damaged six homes, scaring residents and destroying thousands of dollars worth of appliances, Center Point Energy said it was working with its customers to address the problem.

It had all begun on Tuesday afternoon.

Patrick Morrissey was on his way home from work when his wife, Claudia, called.

The Internet wasn't working, she said. The lights weren't either. And the smell of smoke filled the air.

Morrissey, a 29-year-old Houston police officer, rushed to his Richmond-area home, where he and his wife and neighbors found themselves in a Kafka-esque hell Tuesday as a power surge filled their homes with smoke and destroyed tens of thousands of dollars worth of appliances.

Upstairs, they found one of their surge protectors.

Now Playing: Latest Local And State News Video: Houston Chronicle

"It was burnt to a crisp," Morrissey said.

They called CenterPoint, he said. An operator there said they'd send out an electrician, but it would cost them $50 if it was their fault.

His wife checked the kitchen.

The refrigerator was melting, she yelled. Sure enough, the plastic inside was starting to melt.

"Send the electrician," he said.

Then a neighbor came over. His appliances were all destroyed, he said. And his circuit breaker had tripped.

They called a third neighbor, who gave them a gate code to check on his home. It too, was full of smoke, and his appliances were trashed.

"His washer caught on fire," Morrissey said. "You can see where the washer melted inside."

A fire crew from the Community Volunteer Fire Department told him a CenterPoint transformer appeared to have blown.

Finally, about 5 p.m., a CenterPoint crew showed up, he said. They had been working on a faulty transmission box nearby, and disconnected three houses.

"What about our homes??" a baffled Morrissey said he asked. "How come no one came and told us anything?"

The crew wouldn't provide their names, and told him he needed file a claim, he said.

He called CenterPoint seeking more information, and got nowhere, he said.

"They left us high and dry five days before Christmas," said Ryan Grantham, the neighbor whose clothes-washer caught on fire.

Grantham said his dog had to be rescued by neighbors from his smoke-filled home.

"No one has a supervisor we can call," he said. "CenterPoint has left six families homeless due to their equipment failure."

Ali Vijdan, 32, who lives two doors down, was home sick from his job as a software engineer when the lights went off. Like Morrissey, he smelled smoke.

"It was unbearable," said Vijdan, who lives in the house with his two siblings, mother and father. On Tuesday, he was trying to figure out where to take his family -- particularly his father, who had a heart condition and couldn't stay in the smoky home.

He'd called CenterPoint, only to be transferred repeatedly, and no one seemed to be able to tell him anything, he said.

"My spirits were high for Christmas but it's going to be rough this year," he said.

On Wednesday afternoon, a spokeswoman from CenterPoint Energy issued this statement:

"On December 19, CenterPoint Energy crews responded to a call in the Richmond area at 4 p.m. Crews determined that a transformer had failed and was causing voltage fluctuations," wrote Alejandra Diaz, the spokeswoman. "Consequently, six houses were affected. The transformer was replaced and power was restored at 7:32 p.m. the same day."

The company's claims department is "working closely" with Morrissey and his neighbors to assess their damages, she wrote.

Morrissey said he was glad the process was "moving along," but said he was worried about the damage the surge had caused, and wondering how long it would take before he and his neighbors would be back in their homes with safe power.

"Everyone's having to put up money out of pocket just to get things up and running," Morrissey said. "We're on our own trying to figure out if our homes are going to burn down."

St. John Barned-Smith covers public safety and major breaking news for the Houston Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Send tips to st.john.smith@chron.com.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Santa Claus has a lot of stops to make, but this year he'll take time to land his sleigh at the Harris County jail.

For the fifth year in a row, a group of dedicated activists will show up on Christmas Eve outside the the jail to hand out toys to tots done visiting parents behind bars.

"The kids, it means something to them after they see their loved ones, to come out and see people that are not judging them, they're welcoming them," said Rebecca Lavergne. "It's just like a sigh of relief."

Lavergne, who volunteers with the Positive Black Male Association, helped put together this year's event along with long-time organizer Michael Allen of End Mass Incarceration Houston.

Although they've gotten dozens of donations, they're still looking to beef up their toy supply.

"The more donations we get, the more we give to these kids," Allen said. "We're trying to turn their heads around. We lavish them with love and affection and gifts and Santa Claus."

The giveaway will start at 4 p.m. on Dec. 24, during the jail's visitation hours. Two Santas - one played by Houston Heroes award recipient Keith Downey - will be on scene to hand out toys.

In years past, volunteers have doled out toys to more than 100 children, and from past experience they've learned not to deal with the messy logistics of unwrapping presents along the sidewalk.

"We tell people not to wrap because we can't tell if the gift is appropriate for the child," Allen said. Now, they just let kids pick their own present. This year's options include goody bags, teddy bears, socks, and slightly larger gifts in the $15 to $20 range.

"We'll blow their minds this year," Allen said.

Anyone looking to donate can show up Sunday outside the 1200 Baker Street complex with unwrapped gifts appropriate for children.
Houston police have made the first arrest in their investigation into a string of five ATM thefts at area hotels.

Houston Police Department officers said they arrested Keltrin Stephens, 20, of Houston, on Monday for his role in the heists, during which a group of as many as eight masked men stole unsecured ATMs from five hotels starting on Dec. 9, including hitting three Marriott Hotels in as many nights.

Stephens, police said, was already wanted for multiple warrants, including one related to a string of as many as 25 thefts from Montrose-area Apple stores in September.

"He's not a stranger to the criminal justice system," Capt. Matt May, of HPD's robbery division, said at a press conference Tuesday.

May said he expects "multiple, additional" arrests to follow once investigators can determine which suspects were involved with each theft.

May also indicated that there could be further charges related to the planning of the crimes, which may rise to the level of a conspiracy.

"They're getting together and working out a modus operandi for their crime," May said of the group.

"If you're involved," he said, "you better get ready to go to jail."

May said there has been "no indication" that any of the men have attacked witnesses to their crime. Stephens surrendered peacefully to police Monday, but is not cooperating with investigators, May said.

Last week, during a robbery of one Marriott, a witness told police that one of the suspects showed them a machete. Thus far, the suspects have only used verbal threats, including telling one witness, "don't do anything and you'll get home tonight," police said last week.

Police said at the time that it's also been difficult to determine what type of car the men have been using to flee the hotels.

"What's unique about this group right here is that there are numerous (members) of them," Lt. Cathy Richards, of the Houston Police Department's robbery division, said last week. "So I think with more of them, they feel a little bolder."

"These guys go straight in the front door and out the front door," she said. "They target these hotels in the middle of the night when there is low visibility."

Police said Tuesday that it is still unclear how much cash was loaded in each ATM, which are owned by private companies. It does not appear any of the machines have tracking devices in them, police said.
The Fort Bend County Fair is giving back through its scholarship program and now is the time to apply.

The opportunity to earn a fair scholarship is open to a range of qualifying students. The fair will provide $4,000 scholarships to 45 Fort Bend County students. Since 1979, the Fort Bend County Fair has given 823 scholarships to county youth. The deadline to submit a scholarship application is Friday, Jan. 26, 2018.

Texas A&M freshman, Courtney Ramirez, is enjoying her first year away at college. She was a recipient just last year of a fair scholarship. The new Aggie is thrilled with the financial boost and said, "things at Texas A&M have been great and very busy especially with finals. I have made many new friends. I joined a Christian sorority on campus and was recently voted in as sorority president for the year of 2018. I think the most challenging thing about college at first was finding my classes on the huge campus and also creating a structured environment for myself. I can't wait to see what next semester has to offer for me!"

The proceeds from the 2017 Fort Bend County Fair and the Fort Bend County Fair Life Membership Fund provide the necessary monies to allocate the scholarships. The scholarships are divided into different divisions depending on the applicants' fair involvement and their field of study.

Applicants, parents, and school counselors are urged to review the guidelines and rules carefully. Students wanting to apply for a fair scholarship must meet certain requirements: They must be a U.S. citizen and a resident of Fort Bend County or zoned to a school in Fort Bend County; be a high school senior and graduate by the spring semester of 2018.

"Get your applications in; this is an extraordinary opportunity for all high school seniors. Last year we had recipients who were lifelong fair participants while others had very limited time; if any at the fair," said Cindy Schmidt, Fort Bend County fair manager.

Selection of the recipient will be based on several qualifications including: scholastic standing, leadership, citizenship, need and fair participation. During the application process, candidates will declare what type of scholarship that they will be applying. Restrictive, Non-Restrictive, Open, Vocational, or Art Scholarships are some of the classifications options that candidates will have to choose.

For more information on the 2018 scholarship rules and application, visit the fair's website: fortbendcountyfair.com or call the fair office at 281-342-6171.
The Fluor Corporation has a tradition of community service and philanthropic support.

Fluor Cares, the Foundation of the Corporation, engages and empowers employees to make a difference in their communities. Not only do employees give back, the Foundation magnifies and extends Fluor's philanthropic impact by supporting nonprofit organizations.

This holiday season, Hope For Three, a local nonprofit and autism advocacy group, was given the greatest gift of all, a gift of hope. Barbara Jones, Fluor Senior Manager, Community and Public Affairs, presented Elizabeth Munoa and Darla Farmer a $5,000 check to provide direct support to families and children living with autism.

"Gifts like this ensure children with autism have access to vital therapies and services they might otherwise go without," said Elizabeth Munoa. "We're honored to receive such a tremendous gift this holiday season; it truly is a gift of hope."

Hope For Three provides resources and support, in the form of financial aid, exclusively to qualified residents in Fort Bend County living with autism. If you know a family in need this holiday season, call 281-245-0640 or visit hopeforthree.org.
Rotary Club of Richmond

The Rotary Club of Richmond has several priority organizations it supports every year, and Access Health has been one of those top priorities for the last several years.

Access Health is a community health services organization providing primary healthcare services to low-income and uninsured residents in Fort Bend and Waller counties.
The Sugar Land Cultural Arts Foundation will present the 2018 Founders' Review on Saturday, Jan. 20, from 6:30 to 10 p.m. at Safari Texas Ranch in Richmond.

The theme of this year's Founders' Review - Heart and Soul - was inspired by the dedication of the Sugar Land community to supporting the arts in Fort Bend County.

Attendees of the 2018 Heart and Soul Founders' Review can enjoy the performances of Samuel (Eddie) Cromwell and his Gospel Choir and a live auction, with items including, a one year pre-paid, 10,000-mile lease on a 2018 BMW 430i Gran Coupe, courtesy of Momentum BMW, available for bidding. In addition to the evening's festivities, SLCAF will also be honoring a couple who have poured their own heart and soul into giving back to a community they've called home for nearly 40 years - Bob and Carole Brown.

"We're fortunate to have a community that is as enthusiastic about the arts as we are at the Sugar Land Cultural Arts Foundation," said Tim Stubenrouch, Sugar Land Cultural Arts Foundation Board president. "Bob and Carole Brown have become a cornerstone in the Sugar Land community, with Bob serving as a board member of the Sugar Land Heritage Foundation, Sugar Land Legacy Foundation, among many other organizations, and Carole giving back to the community through the Republican Women's Club, American Heart Association and Operation Rainbow - we are delighted to name them the 2018 Founder's Review honorees."

All proceeds of the Review will benefit the mission and goals of SLCAF, including continued improvements to the Sugar Land Auditorium and promotion of cultural, performing and visual arts. To date, SCLAF has reinvested more than $1.2 million in the community. The Sugar Land Cultural Arts Foundation would also like to thank this year's Title Sponsor, Momentum BMW.

To learn more, become a sponsor, or purchase a ticket, or table to this year's Founder's Review, please visit www.slcaf.org/2018-founders-review/ or contact Cathy Stubbs, Review Chair.

Sugar Land Cultural Arts Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization, founded in 1999, to promote the cultural, performing and visual arts in Sugar Land and preserve, renovate and restore the historic Sugar Land Auditorium. SLCAF advocates, supports and promotes the cultural arts through programs, initiatives and partnerships including the City of Sugar Land, Fort Bend Independent School District, Houston Endowment, Inc., the George Foundation and the Sugar Land Heritage Society. Visit www.slcaf.org for information.
Courtesy photo

Last week Lamar Consolidated Independent School District officially dedicated Kathleen Joerger Lindsey Elementary at a ceremony highlighted by a keynote speech made by Darrell McNutt, nephew of the school's namesake, and enthusiastic "roars" offered up in unison by the young Lindsey Lions students.

Lindsey Elementary, located at 2431 Joan Collier Trace Road in Firethorne, is the district's first school with a Katy address and its 24th elementary school district-wide.
Generations Bank announced some changes to its board of directors last week as the current board chairman plans to retire at the end of 2017.

Robert Kernan will retire after nearly 30 years with the bank, according to a press release. He will be replaced by current board Vice Chairman Bradford Jones. Vincent Sinicropi will assume the position of vice chairman.

Kernan began working at Generations Bank in 1988 as the vice president, treasurer and CFO. He served as president, CEO and board chairman from 1991 until 2008, when he retired as president and CEO but continued his position on the board.

Jones joined Generation's board of directors in 1996, assuming the role of vice chair 10 years later. He previously worked for 32 years at ITT Goulds Pumps. He retired as plant manager of Auburn operations in 2007. He also served as the mayor of Seneca Falls from 1996 to 2000.

Its an honor to assume the role of Chairman of the Board, Jones said in the press release. I pledge to uphold the fiduciary responsibility of this position as it encompasses our shareholders, depositors, and employees. I wish to truly thank Bob Kernan for his dedication and service to our banking institution, as well as to his community.

Sinicropi is a certified public accountant who has his own practice in Seneca Falls. For over 20 years he was a partner, with Scott Healy, in the CPA firm Sinicropi and Healy, LLP. He joined the Generations Bank board of directors in 1999 and has served as the audit committee chair since 2006.

Generations Bank is headquartered in Seneca Falls and serves customers from nine retail locations in Seneca Falls, Auburn, Waterloo, Geneva, Union Springs, Phelps and Farmington.
Wharton County Junior College's is expanding its Emergency Medical Services Program to Bay City in January of 2018.

Renovations recently completed at the college's Bay City campus will allow the program to offer entry-level Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) classes for the Spring 2018 semester. Classes begin on Wednesday, Jan. 17.

"We have received several inquiries over the past three years from the Bay City area to conduct the class," said EMS Program Director Gary Bonewald. "Several students attended our program over the past few years from this area and we are trying to make it more convenient and closer to home and work for them."

The initial classes will include EMSP 1501 (a lecture and lab) and EMSP 1160, an EMT clinical. The classes will be available from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings. Students who complete the courses will qualify to sit for the National Registry of EMT's examination and be eligible for state certification.

Bonewald anticipates 15 to 20 students the first semester.

"We plan on offering the classes at least twice a year with start dates in January and August," he said. "We will also work with providers that are in need of EMS services to offer courses that meet their specific needs."

In addition to classroom and lab work, students will obtain critical hands-on skills during field rotations at Matagorda Regional Medical Center and with Matagorda County EMS.

Program graduates who pass state certification find employment with EMS agencies, transport companies and industrial locations.

"EMS is one of the fastest growing professions," Bonewald said. "There are many employment opportunities for graduates."

Bonewald stressed that the program requires a high level of dedication and self-discipline.

"We hold our students to a very high standard," he said. "When they complete the program they will be able to provide care to me and my family."

Registration for the Spring 2018 semester runs through Monday, Jan. 15, 2018. For more information on the EMS program and registration, visit www.wcjc.edu.
Across the greater Houston region, more than 58 percent of 60,360 high school graduates go onto college, according to Texas Education Agency data.

But which districts are sending the largest share of its students to post-secondary institutions?
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Earlier this year, Chron.com told you about the sprawling Flat Creek Estate, an award-winning winery in the Texas Hill Country that was for sale.

Back in March 2017 there was a sale pending on the property, but now according to real estate agents handling it, it's back on the market.

RELATED: The bars and restaurants in Houston with the oldest TABC liquor licenses

Barbara Van Dyke, with Kuper Sotheby's International Realty, said Tuesday that the company went through a long process with two different potential buyers, but Flat Creek winery in Marble Falls is now back on the market.

With a $3 million discount to sweeten the deal, down from $10 million earlier this year.

"We have adjusted the price for Flat Creek and it is now $6.95 million plus the cost of inventory," Van Dyke says. "Since inventory fluctuates, it will depend on when a buyer would close as to how much inventory there is."

Van Dyke sees the winery as a project for someone looking to go on an adventure of sorts.

"I think Flat Creek is ideal for someone who dreams of owning a winery, but I also think the opportunity is ripe for someone who wants to operate an event venue, or potentially add lodging, such as a boutique hotel. There is plenty of room for expansion on this property."

Van Dyke has said previously that the former owners were looking to retire and hand the vines and reins over to younger hands.

Now Playing: Rebel Coast Winery will soon be rolling out an alcohol free, marijuana infused wine. Tony Spitz has the details. Video: Buzz 60

In addition to 20 acres of vineyards, the property includes a wine-production facility, tasting room, restaurant and events building, covered outdoor pavilion, office building, workout space and guest house. Flat Creek Estate is about 50 miles northwest of Austin on the north side of Lake Travis.

RELATED: Ring in 2018 with Texas sparkling wines

Each year, the winery produces more than 10,000 cases of wine.

Craig Hlavaty is a reporter for Chron.com and HoustonChronicle.com. He's an intolerable native Texan with too much ink in his skin and too much brisket stuck in his teeth.
Officials representing one of Texas' most Harvey-devastated regions did not mince words about their thoughts on government and state hurricane relief, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reports.

"It's been a disaster with very little relief," said Brent Chesney, the commissioner for Nueces County, according to the paper. Nueces County includes Corpus Christi and Port Aransas, two cities which faced some of Harvey's worst Category 4 winds and rainfall.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

DUPONT, Wash. - Investigators are looking into whether the Amtrak engineer whose speeding train plunged off an overpass, killing at least three people, was distracted by the presence of an employee-in-training next to him in the locomotive, a federal official said Tuesday.

The official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said investigators want to know whether the engineer lost "situational awareness" because of the second person in the cab.

The train was hurtling at 80 mph in a 30-mph zone Monday morning when it ran off the rails along a curve south of Seattle, sending some of its cars plummeting onto an interstate highway below, National Transportation Safety Board member Bella Dinh-Zarr said late Monday, citing data from the locomotive's event recorder.

Dinh-Zarr said it is not yet known what caused the train to derail and too early to say why it was going so fast. She said investigators will talk to the engineer and other crew members.

In previous wrecks, investigators looked at whether the engineer was distracted or incapacitated. It is standard procedure in a crash investigation to test the engineer for alcohol or drugs and check to see whether he or she was using a cellphone, something that is prohibited while the train is running.

Eyes swollen shut

The engineer, whose name was not released, was bleeding from the head after the crash, and his eyes were swollen shut, according to radio transmissions from a crew member. The transmissions mentioned a second person in the front of the train who also was hurt.

The train, with 85 passengers and crew members, was making the inaugural run along a fast new bypass route that was created by refurbishing freight tracks alongside Interstate 5. The 15-mile, $180.7 million project was aimed at speeding up service by bypassing a route with a number of curves, single-track tunnels and freight traffic.

Positive train control - technology that can automatically slow or stop a speeding train - wasn't in use on that stretch of track. Track sensors and other PTC components have been installed, but the system isn't expected to be completed until the spring, transit officials said.

Regulators have been pressing railroads for years to install such technology, and some have done so, but the deadline has been extended repeatedly at the industry's request and is now the end of 2018.

Dinh-Zarr said it is too soon to say whether positive train control would have prevented Monday's tragedy.

The 7:34 a.m. accident left mangled train cars on top of each other, with one hanging precariously over the freeway. The screech and clang of metal were followed by silence, then screams, as the injured cried out to rescuers and motorists pulled over and rushed to help.

In addition to those killed, more than 70 people were injured, 10 of them seriously.

Train buffs among dead

Two of the dead were identified as train buffs who belonged to the rail advocacy group All Aboard Washington and were excited to be on board for the inaugural run: Jim Hamre, a retired civil engineer with the state Transportation Department, and Zack Willhoite, a customer service employee at a local transit agency.

"It's pretty devastating. We're having a tough time," said All Aboard Washington executive director Lloyd Flem.

In 2015, an Amtrak train traveling at twice the 50-mph speed limit derailed along a sharp curve in Philadelphia, killing eight people. Investigators concluded the engineer was distracted by reports over the radio of another train getting hit by a rock.

In September, a judge threw out charges of involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment against the engineer, saying the crash did not appear to rise to a crime. Prosecutors are trying to get the case reinstated.

Amtrak agreed to pay $265 million to settle claims filed by the victims and their families. It also has installed positive train control on all its track between Boston and Washington.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemen's Shiite rebels said it intercepted a missile fired over southern Riyadh on Tuesday, which the rebels said was targeting a "top leadership" meeting at the royal palace in the kingdom's capital.

It was the second time in as many months that a rebel projectile had reached as far inside the kingdom as Riyadh.

The Yemeni rebels, known as the Houthis, said they launched a ballistic missile to target Yamama Palace in Riyadh, where King Salman chairs weekly government meetings and receives dignitaries and heads of state from around the world.

'Flashing red siren'

The statement from the U.S.-backed coalition, carried by Saudi state TV, said the missile was fired by the Houthis. State TV said no damage was caused by the intercepted missile.

The coalition later said the missile launch proved the "continued involvement" of Iran in supporting the Houthis." It also repeated its claim that the rebels use "relief work outlets" to smuggle such missiles inside Yemen to target the kingdom.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said that "the very fact of this attack is a flashing red siren" for the Security Council.

While not all evidence is in, "it bears all the hallmarks of previous attacks using Iranian-provided weapons," Haley told a council meeting on implementation of a U.N. resolution that endorsed the July 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran.

Last week, Haley displayed what she said was "undeniable" evidence that Iran was supplying the Houthis with missiles.

Iran rejected the allegations and has repeatedly denied arming the rebels. The Houthis say their missiles are produced in Yemen, which is awash with weapons.

Residents of Riyadh posted videos on social media Tuesday showing a small cloud of smoke in the sky after hearing a loud explosion.

Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Salam tweeted that a ballistic "Volcano H-2" missile was used in the attack. The rebels' military media said the missile targeted "an expanded meeting of the Saudi top leadership at Yamama palace in Riyadh."

Dozens of attacks

In a televised address, rebel leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said the range of missiles in the Houthi arsenal was being extended. "Our long hand will reach other places, God willing," he said.

"As long as you continue to target Sanaa we will strike Riyadh and Abu Dhabi," he said, referring to the seat of government of the United Arab Emirates, a key member of the coalition. Earlier this month, the Houthis claimed they fired a missile at a nuclear plant being built in the Emirates. The UAE denied the claim.

On Nov. 4, the Houthis targeted Saudi Arabia's international airport in Riyadh, and Saudi Air Defense said it was intercepted. However, a New York Times analysis of photos and videos from the attack suggested air defenses may have missed the projectile and that the warhead struck near its intended target.

Saudi Arabia has the U.S.-made Patriot surface-to-air anti-missile system, which President Donald Trump credited for bringing the Nov. 4 missile down.

In the almost three years that the Saudi-led coalition has waged war with Yemen's rebels, dozens of other missiles have been fired by the Houthis across the border into Saudi Arabia, reaching as far as some border towns. There have been casualties among local residents in those attacks. Yemen's war has killed more than 10,000 civilians.
Two foundations, one with a historical connection to Auburn, have contributed $55,000 to a fund that helps Cayuga Community College students, the college announced in a press release Monday.

The Heckscher Foundation for Children and the Gerstner Family Foundation each gave funds to CCC's Student Emergency Grant program. The funds are meant to help students deal with unexpected complications in their lives to help them complete their degrees.

Howard G. "Peter" Sloane, CEO and chairman of the Heckscher Foundation, said both groups contributed $27,500 to the grant.

The Heckscher Foundation's founder was Charles August Heckscher. His grandson, Charles August Heckscher II, had worked in Auburn as the editor of The Citizen in the late 1940s, before becoming the special consultant on the arts under President John F. Kennedy in 1962 and the New York City Parks commissioner in 1967.

Heckscher II said in a 1970 interview with The Smithsonian that he had a brother who had planned to live in Auburn before dying in World War II, and that after the previous editor died, Heckscher II was asked to take the job. He said Auburn was an "amazing small city" that he regretted leaving.

"I remember very consciously when I left Auburn and came back to New York (City), where of course I had always lived, I left there with a great deal of regret and many heartrendings and all that," Heckscher II said in the interview.

Sloane said he was unaware of the Auburn connection. He said program officers for the Heckscher and Gerstner foundations screened several SUNY colleges  including CCC  for the grant program and then invited the colleges they were impressed with. After going through the applications, the officers did phone interviews with the colleges' leadership groups. Sloane said the officers were impressed with the professionalism of the CCC group.

Each student's application will be examined by a Student Emergency Fund Committee. A student's qualified expenses, according to the press release, will be covered by the fund. Emergency aid will be granted to those dealing with unforeseen issues such as theft, medical emergencies, homelessness and threat of eviction. Eligible expenses include rent, clothing, back-up transportation and back-up childcare. The program is a part of a program with seven SUNY campuses. The two foundations have given more than $600,000 to the program including all the campuses.

Many of Cayugas students are balancing multiple life priorities while enrolled in college. These emergency grants will be vital to keeping our students enrolled during a time of crisis," CCC President Brian Durant said in a press release.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Scientists will study the mysteries of Saturn's largest moon or sample a moving comet for the next mission in NASA's highly competitive New Frontiers program that already has launched missions to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, Jupiter and an asteroid for sampling.

The two proposals were announced as finalists Wednesday from a list 12. The one that's tapped to fly will become the fourth mission in the New Frontiers portfolio.

One proposal, Dragonfly, would send a drone-like craft to Saturn's moon Titan to examine the habitability of dozens of sites there. The other finalist proposed traveling to a comet to take a sample that could help determine how material from ancient stars, for example, contributed to the origins of the Earth's oceans,.

The Titan and comet missions were selected as finalists "based on the outstanding and visionary science" they exhibited, said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, during a teleconference Wednesday.

Funding for the selected mission will be capped at $850 million.

Dragonfly would build upon observations of Titan made by the Cassini-Huygens mission, which launched in 1997 as a collaborative effort by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. It arrived at Saturn in 2004, and began making flybys of Saturn's moons, including Titan, according to NASA.

In 2005, the European Space Agency-built Huygens probe landed on Titan. The mission concluded in September, NASA's website states.

Dragonfly would land on Titan by 2034, and the mission would last several years.

"Titan is a unique ocean world ... with lakes and seas of liquid methane," said Elizabeth Turtle, the proposal's lead investigator from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland. "We're excited to continue with the mission concept."

The other proposal, Comet Astrobiology Exploration Sample Return, dubbed CAESAR, would bring back a sample from a comet previously explored by the European Space Agency, said Steve Squyres the proposal's lead investigator from Cornell University in New York.

"Comets are among the most scientifically important but among the most poorly understood," Squyres said. "They're the primitive building blocks of planets ... the source of water for the earth's oceans."

Squyres chose the so-called Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko because so much data already has been gathered by an ESA mission known as Rosetta that flew alongside the comet before concluding last year.

CAESAR's sample, totaling about 100 grams, would return to Earth by 2038, at which point scientists around the world could study it, Squyres said.

Turtle and Squyres now will begin another year of study on their proposals, Zurbuchen said, ending with a final proposal submission in January 2019.

The proposal selected to fly will be picked in July 2019 and launched in 2025.

The three New Frontiers already underway are:

New Horizons: Launched in 2006, the mission is the first of its kind to get a close look at Pluto and its five moons, about 3 billion miles from earth. It is expected to reach the Kuiper Belt in 2019.

Juno: Launched in 2011, the mission set out to study Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. The mission will end next year.

OSIRIS-REx: Launched in 2016, Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer is the first U.S. mission set to bring asteroid samples back to Earth. It will return to earth in 2023.

Alex Stuckey covers NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey.
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.
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.
Press issues delay delivery of todays Chronicle Times Due to press issues, print subscribers will not receive the Nov. 16 issue of the Cherokee Chronicle Times in the...

Galva man charged with his brothers murder A Galva man with an extensive criminal history in Storm Lake was arrested on Sunday night for allegedly killing his...

Cherokee enrollment up 10% over 7 years Enrollment at most of Buena Vista and Cherokee Countys school districts increased across-the-board, according to estimates submitted to the Iowa...

Book Basket Project underway at library The 23rd-annual Book Basket Project is up and running at Cherokee Public Library. This silent auction launched on Monday and...
AKRON, Ohio - Interim Akron Police Chief Kenneth Ball will be named the department's permanent leader. The announcement will be made by Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 20, at a press conference at the Stubbs Justice Center in downtown Akron, according to a press release issued by the city.

Ball replaced former Chief James Nice, who resigned in August amid allegations of conduct unbecoming of an officer, inappropriate contact with a city employee and potential criminal misconduct for accusations he made while discussing a criminal case involving his nephew. A Cuyahoga County judge, acting on prosecutors' request, dismissed the nephew's criminal case earlier in September.

Nice's attorney has said his client was not involved in any criminal wrongdoing.

Ball has been an Akron police officer for 26 years, joining the department in 1991. An Akron resident, he was promoted to sergeant in 1997, made lieutenant in 2000, captain in 2006 and major in March of 2015. He is also a 2001 graduate of the Police Executive Leadership College and a 2013 graduate of the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia.

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 Mayor Dan Horrigan, left, appoints Kenneth Ball as Akron's 16th police chief.

AKRON, Ohio -- Interim Akron Police Chief Kenneth Ball officially became the 16th police chief for the Akron Police Department after serving for more than two years as deputy chief.

Ball, whose been with the department since 1991, was officially appointed to the role during a press conference Wednesday at Stubbs Justice Center in downtown Akron. He has served as interim chief since August and will earn an annual salary of $130,852.

Ball replaces former Police Chief James Nice who resigned in August after allegations surfaced of inappropriate contact with a city employee, conduct unbecoming of an officer and potential criminal misconduct in connection to accusations he made when he discussed a criminal case involving his nephew.

A Cuyahoga County judge dismissed the charges against Nice's nephew in September.

Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan said he was looking for someone with integrity and someone who can help improve the department's relationship with the Akron community.

"I have been impressed with Ken's deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing the Akron Police Department and our city," he said. "I believe Ken will implement policies and practices that will advance community-police relations, deepen trust in our neighborhoods and improve our service to the Akron public."

Ball's law enforcement career includes 26 years of service, joining the Akron Police Department in 1991. He was promoted to sergeant in 1997, moved to lieutenant in 2000, captain in 2006 and major in 2015.

He is a 2001 graduate of the Police Executive Leadership College and a 2013 graduate of the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Virginia.

Horrigan believes the passage of Issue 4 will allow Ball to make investments in equipment and technology which will improve policing in neighborhoods and prevent crime.

"I felt very strongly that the next police chief would come from within the department," Horrigan said. "He has devoted his entire career to serving the city. I watch Ken interact with the community and my staff and I'm confident now more than ever that he has the appropriate skills, temperament to run our department."

If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Wednesday's crime and courts comments section.
AKRON, Ohio -- One man was arrested and two others are at large after carjacking a 24-year-old man in Akron's North Hill neighborhood, police say.

Marcus Kidd, 18, faces charges of aggravated robbery, receiving stolen property and other charges in the incident that happened about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night on Cranz Place near Dayton Street, Akron police Capt. Rick Edwards said.

Police are trying to identify the two men who got away.

The man told police he was sitting in a driveway in his 2014 Dodge Charger when three men approached.

One of the men pulled him out of his car and punched him in the face, police said. Another man fired several shots before they took his car and drove west towards Dayton Street, police said.

An officer spotted the car several minutes later at East Cuyahoga Falls Avenue and Dayton Street.

The men led police on a chase before they bailed from the car at Fouse Avenue and Ranney Street, police said.

Police took Kidd into custody after they found him hiding behind a garage on Floyd Street near Dan Street, according to the police report.

The incident is under investigation.

If you'd like to comment on this story, visit Wednesday's crime and courts comments section.
CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio - Detectives are trying to identify several men who took a Cleveland Heights man's car at gunpoint outside an apartment building.

No arrests have been made in the Saturday carjacking on Overlook Road near Kenilworth Road, according to a police report.

The 29-year-old man who owns the car was not harmed, the report says.

The man was walking to his 2016 Ford Focus just after 6:15 p.m. when several men approached him. One carjacker pulled out a handgun, pointed it at the man and demanded his car keys, the report says.

The carjackers also took the man's wallet, which contained his driver's license and several credit cards, before they got into the car and drove away, the report says.

The Focus struck another car Monday evening outside an apartment building on Scovill Avenue near East 55th Street in Cleveland, the report says. A Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority police officer learned several occupants ran from the Focus after the crash.

The Focus was turned over to the Cleveland Heights Police Department as part of the investigation into the carjacking. Investigators collected DNA swabs and fingerprints from the car and notified the owner that it had been found, the report says.

If you'd like to comment on this post, visit Tuesday's crime and courts comments section.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The FBI's Ten Most Wanted List hangs in post offices. President Trump's Ten Most Wanted List, with the FBI topping it, hangs in Congress and at the Trump state news agency, Fox News.

Bad Santa Trump and his elves in Congress and the media, have stepped up their smear campaign against the FBI, Robert Mueller, Christopher Wray, and Rod Rosenstein, fueled by the FBI agent's texts and Mueller obtaining Trump transition team emails.

In the beginning of December, Trump said the FBI's reputation was "in Tatters" after it was reported FBI agent Peter Strzok had been removed from the Mueller investigation over disparaging text messages he had sent about Trump in 2015 and 2016.

"After years of Comey, with the phony and dishonest Clinton investigation (and more), running the FBI, its reputation is in Tatters -worst in History! But fear not, we will bring it back to greatness."

-Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump - Dec 3



Trump commented on the texts again recently before speaking at the FBI'S National Academy graduation ceremony.

"It's a shame what's happened with the FBI, but we're gonna rebuild the FBI. It'll be bigger and better than ever. But it is very sad when you look at those documents, and how they've done that is really, really disgraceful. And you have a lot of very angry people that are seeing it. It's a very sad thing to watch. I will tell you that," Trump told reporters.

Tillerson and McMaster echoed Strzok texts.



In 2015 and 2016 exchanges of 375 text messages, FBI agent Peter Strzock and FBI lawyer Lisa Page made numerous disparaging remarks about Donald Trump, calling him an "idiot" and a "Loathsome human" among other remarks.

The pair also made disparaging comments about Democrats, including Bernie Sanders.

"I just saw my first Bernie Sanders bumper sticker. Made me want to key the car," Page texted. Strzok replied, "He's an idiot like Trump, Figure they canceled each other out."

The texts were uncovered during an investigation by the Justice Department Inspector Generals' office.

Mueller immediately removed Strzok from his investigation team upon learning of the texts in late July. Page had already left the investigation because her assignment had ended.

The law does not prevent federal agents from holding political opinions and expressing them. They of course are not supposed to allow those opinions to interfere with their work. I've had conversations in the past with federal agents who are Republicans and clearly didn't support President Obama, but they still did their job. Robert Mueller himself is a registered Republican.

In 2017 it was reported that both Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and National Security Adviser Robert McMaster had called Trump a "Moron" in separate meetings, echoing the derogatory sentiments of Strzok and Page. Both Tillerson and McMaster have kept their jobs.

Trump email hypocrisy.

Trump pointed to Mueller obtaining thousands of Trump transition emails as improper and another example of a biased investigation.

"Not looking good. It's not looking good. It's quite sad to see that. My people are very upset about it. I can't imagine there's anything on 'em, frankly, because as we said, there's no collusion. There's no collusion whatsoever. A lot of lawyers thought that was pretty sad," Trump said about the emails.

The emails, were U.S. government property and lawfully obtained as part of the Special Counsel's investigation.

Mueller had "secured either the account owner's consent or appropriate criminal process" said Peter Carr, spokesperson for the special counsel.

During the campaign, Trump justifiably complained about any attempts by Hillary Clinton to hide her emails. But he thinks his transition team emails, on clearly marked government held accounts, should be kept hidden from a government investigation?

Setting the stage to fire Mueller?

Some see the smear campaign against the FBI and Mueller as the Trump team setting the stage to justify firing Mueller.

When asked, Trump has denied, more than once, that he intends to fire Mueller. That doesn't necessarily mean much, because he also said he didn't intend to fire Comey, then did so, which led directly to Mueller being named special counsel.

At the very least, Trump and his defenders are making a concerted effort to try and discredit the Justice Dept. and Mueller in the public's eye in advance of more damaging developments coming from the Mueller investigation as it moves closer and closer to Trump and his family.

While the attacks on the Justice Dept. may serve Trump's defense strategy, they don't serve the general public. As he has already done with the intelligence agencies and the free press, Trump's attacks on the FBI and Justice Dept. degrade and undermine U.S. institutions filled with dedicated people who work hard, putting their lives on the line, to protect the best interests of the public and the country.

The allegations of bias against Mueller, Rosentein and Wray have zero credibility.

Mueller is a registered Republican who Trump once considered naming director of the FBI. He took immediate action and removed FBI agent Strzok from the investigation. The same Justice Department Trump and his minions are smearing uncovered the Strzok/Page texts. The system worked.

Rosenstein is also a Republican. He and Wray are both Trump administration appointees.

There is a direct correlation between the toxicity of Trump's tweets, the intensity of the smear campaign and the gravity of the news coming out of the investigation.

When Trump said of the emails, "Not looking good. It's not looking good," he might as well have been talking about what the investigation has so far uncovered about his administration,campaign, son and son-in-law.

In his 2016 text exchange, FBI agent Peter Strzok said, "I'm scared for our organization" that Trump might win. Trump is proving that fear was well founded.
On July 25, James Womble stabbed his Flagstaff landlord Peter Gillespie, killing him. Womble wasnt charged with second-degree murder until three months later.

On Oct. 13, the body of Glendale kindergarten teacher Cathryn Gorospe was found in Mayer, a week after she bailed Charlie Malzahn of Williams out of jail. Malzahn is currently in the custody of the Phoenix Police Department, but he has not been charged in Gorospes death.

And on Nov. 2, Flagstaff resident Ethan Watson, 25, was stabbed to death in the parking lot of Killip Elementary School. The suspect in that case is currently in Coconino County Detention Facility for an outstanding warrant, but he has not been charged.

In each case, charges were delayed or have not been filed despite all three men being the only suspects in their case. Womble admitted to stabbing his landlord in self-defense and Malzahn was arrested by police while driving Gorospes Toyota Rav4 and told police where the teachers body was located. The suspect in the Watson death was identified by bystanders and taken into custody but not formally charged.

With these charges being delayed or non-existent, its natural to ask why a murder charge can sometimes take months to materialize.

Beyond a reasonable doubt

Coconino County Attorney William Ring said he understands the concerns that people may have when a prime suspect is not immediately charged for a violent crime such as murder. However, his office is not willing to charge someone unless they have proof beyond a reasonable doubt, meaning that no other logical explanation can be derived from the facts except that the defendant committed the crime.

There is so much work that goes into prosecuting a case and we are not going to bring charges unless there is a substantial amount of evidence against a person, Ring said.

He went on to say that his office will always take their time on filing a criminal complaint because of what a prosecution entails for an individual.

We have due process of law and a right to liberty, Ring said. What we are talking about when we prosecute someone is an interruption of their liberty and we respect the liberty of those being accused.

Ring would not comment on specific cases, but was willing to talk about the public perception of delayed murder charges.

I understand the publics concern about a suspect not being charged, Ring said. But when you hear the public you are hearing personal opinion, and we are not motivated by personal opinion.

Coconino County Attorney Chief Deputy Jane Nicoletti-Jones said that the reality for building a prosecutable case is sometimes not what the public or the victims and their families want, but that the attorneys office will not charge someone until they are sure they can win at trial.

The police and the public have a public safety concern because people are bleeding and people are crying when we are dealing with a murder, Nicoletti-Jones said. We have to look at it from a different perspective because the only authority we have is to prove a case in court.

Labs

Representatives for the county attorneys office and the Flagstaff Police Department have said that one of the biggest factors that delays a case or an investigation is waiting on forensic testing from the Arizona Department of Public Safety crime lab or county medical examiners office.

These labs take time and they are key pieces of evidence we need in our investigations, Flagstaff Police Spokesman Sgt. Cory Runge said.

Lab analysis can amount to anything from blood work to DNA testing and can take up to three months to complete, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

Runge said that testing from the DPS was one of the factors that prolonged Wombles murder investigation and the reason why a suspect in the Nov. 2 Killip Elementary School stabbing death has not been charged or identified.

Nicoletti-Jones said that police have a timeline of 48 hours to hold a suspect in jail without charging a crime. The attorneys office can press charges for crimes any time before the statute of limitations runs out  there is no limit for murder charges.

We can charge a person at any time we think there is enough evidence to go to trial, Nicoletti-Jones said. Police need time to analyze a crime scene and wait for a medical examiner's report or labs. All of that has to come together before we can bring a case to trial.

Ring said that he thought it was a good thing that it was difficult to prosecute a case since it shows that the legal system is working.

We really value freedom and liberty in our country and we dont allow governments to deprive it from us without reaching a high-standard of proof, and because of that high standard we are going to take our investigations seriously," he said.
Congress is set this week to pass a horrendous tax bill that will give the rich and corporations hefty tax cuts, will increase the deficit by $1 trillion over 10 years, will leave 13 million people uninsured by eliminating the Affordable Care Acts individual mandate and will force cuts in federal programs as revenues dry up. In terms of unfairness and reckless economic policy, it will rank among the worst legislation ever passed.

But this bill is a travesty not only for whats in it, but for what happened around it on its way to becoming law. It is deeply unpopular legislation  American voters disapproved of the tax plan 53 to 29 in a recent Quinnipiac poll. Nonetheless it is being rammed through Congress on straight party line votes without public hearings and deliberation. Polarization has been eating away at the democratic process like an acid in recent years, but what is expected to happen this week in Washington, D.C., signals that the process is burned all the way through.

Respecting and following the democratic process isnt a mere matter of civility. Its crucial to the integrity and quality of legislation. Public hearings and legislative debate reveal flaws in a bill and build consensus for change. A lack of hearings and debate means acting without considering consequences and creates cynicism about the motivations behind the legislation.

The United States prides itself on being a nation of laws, but if it passes bad laws  laws without popular support or open deliberation and prone to unintended effects  what kind of nation is it? If the democratic process breaks down, is a democracy still functioning?

Apparently not. Democrats have rightly questioned why there needs to be such a rush to pass a massive tax bill. Certainly the economy is not in need of stimulation. The reason is that the bill lacks support and the more its scrutinized the more the public will oppose it. So the process has been ignored in a headlong race to get the bill to President Trumps desk before opposition builds.

Fast track bill

Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, a Democratic member of the Senate Budget Committee, said after the bill whipped through his committee on a party line vote with limited debate, no testimony from experts and no public hearings, I thought, Mr. Chairman and colleagues, I had seen just about everything. But this committee has just completed a key discussion on the budget foundations for 10 trillion dollars of tax-policy changes in less time than it takes to wash a car.

Frederick W. Mayer, a professor at Duke Universitys Sanford School of Public Policy, says this flouting of legislative conventions to expedite the tax bill represents a new low. Mayer, a former aide to U.S. Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.) and a foreign policy adviser to former Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.), said short-circuiting the process raises the risks of passing laws that contain errors and cause unintended effects.

The reason why it often takes longer (to pass legislation) than people would like is that our system was designed to force compromise and to be deliberative, he said. When you cut corners on that, which is whats happening now, you definitely make mistakes. He added, Its pretty horrifying to witness what is going on.

What makes the hijacking of democracy on Capitol Hill even more troubling is that its not confined to Congress. Republicans are using the same tactics in state legislatures where they have full control. Theyre not only skipping legislative traditions and conventions, but by undermining the right to vote with voter ID laws and other election law changes and frustrating the popular will through gerrymandering.

North Carolina ignores process

North Carolina, of course, is one of the nations extreme cases. Republicans enjoy a super majority and have taken an imperial approach to lawmaking. Democratic legislators are ignored and the public is often shut out. Significant changes in law and policy are hidden in massive budget bills. Bills are gutted and filled with unrelated legislation late in the session. Special sessions are called without clarifying or limiting the agenda. Public comment on controversial legislation is sharply limited. More than 1,000 Moral Monday protesters were arrested inside the Legislative Building.

The reduction of democracy only has one cure  more democracy. People who want to be heard need to vote. That message is starting to get through as seen in the election results in Virginia and the special Senate election in Alabama.

Mayer notes voters are pushing back against gerrymandering and eventually will reclaim a true democratic process. He said, The optimist in me thinks that having identified the problem to some extent we will find a way out of this.

We can only hope. And vote.
A Surplus of Surprising Facts About Cape Kiwanda, N. Oregon Coast

Published 12/16/2017 at 4:55 PM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff





(Pacific City, Oregon)  There's lots you don't know about the sweeping, dramatic icon of Pacific City: the massive Cape Kiwanda. There is much that will surprise. As you meander up and down the slopes and angular shapes carved from millions of years of wind and sea, you won't believe what's really going on around you.

There is simply a lot happening all at once here. Different surfaces of the cape create different sights and interactions with the waves and sands. It can even make different, unusual sounds. This beloved cape is crumbling at a somewhat striking rate, yet there's something hypnotically eternal about it.

The cape's relationship to Haystack Rock will surprise you as well.

Continue on below and hit the links for the full articles, showing you a variety of wild and eye-popping facts that will cause you to look at the place a little differently  and more intently  next time. (See the Cape Kiwanda Complete Guide for further hiking, geology, and surprise facts).

Oregon Coast Surprises: Sights and Sounds of Cape Kiwanda. How many millions of years old is the charismatic Kiwanda? It's true the famed north Oregon coast formation is showing its age. Weathered and sculpted in a myriad of ways, it's now covered in massive grooves, slithering lines and wiggly cracks all over its surface. It's crumbling, too, in various spots  sometimes drastically.

Still, nothing beats exploring this intricate place, examining its nooks and crannies. But there's more than just looking around here: there's also what you hear. ....More....





Haystack Rock Up Close - Pacific City. The monolith that visually best sums up Cape Kiwanda and Pacific City. But it shouldnt be confused with the Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach to the north. Often, as you approach Pacific City on 101 just before the junction to town, you can see this rock in the distance, appearing as if it floats in the air. ....More....

Oregon Coast Virtual Tour: Up Against Cape Kiwanda, Tide Pools, Rocky Crevices. A variety of unusual features up against Pacific City's Cape Kiwanda are well known among the legions of devotees to Pacific City and this wild and strangely shaped chunk of land.

In winter, during really heavy storms, you can actually see giant waves smash on the other side of the cape  no small feat considering it is around 50 feet or higher in some spots near its western-most end. This means those are unbelievably enormous waves. ....More....

Lodging in Pacific City in this area - Where to eat - Maps and Virtual Tours

Geology of an Oregon Coast Icon: Sweeping Cape Kiwanda. Sometime around 18 million years ago or so, a massive area along what would eventually become the northwest United States had already been carved out by various erosional processes. About then, it started filling back up with other rock debris, primarily sandstone and similar materials. Primarily underwater or around the tide line, it formed a layer of sandstone and mudstone that was eventually named the Astoria Formation, running from the central Oregon coast up to the north coast.

This was the very beginning of the headland now known as Cape Kiwanda  the iconic headland at Pacific City that's been known for decades as one of the most photogenic places in North America. ....More....

- More on the area below:

















More About Oregon Coast hotels, lodging.....

More About Oregon Coast Restaurants, Dining.....

Coastal Spotlight



LATEST Related Oregon Coast Articles

Back to Oregon Coast

Contact Advertise on BeachConnection.net

All Content, unless otherwise attributed, copyright BeachConnection.net Unauthorized use or publication is not permitted
Snow Possible for Oregon Coast Range, Portland Heads for Deep Freeze

Published 12/19/2017 at 5:05 PM PDT

By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff





(Manzanita, Oregon)  Snow may be headed for the higher elevations of the Oregon Coast Range overnight on Tuesday and maybe again on Friday, while the inland valley areas are headed for a deep freeze through the latter part of the week. Temps will drop into the lower 30's and upper 20s for Portland and other cities, while the Oregon coast will remain markedly warmer than the rest of the state.

Oregon coast towns are also looking at some gloriously sunny weather.

There is a winter weather advisory in effect for the Oregon Coast Range from 4 p.m. Tuesday through 7 a.m. on Wednesday morning, with snow levels dropping to as low as 1500 feet. The National Weather Service (NWS) in Portland said this is expected to bring some snow to parts of the Oregon Coast Range, at least along Highway 26 between Portland and Cannon Beach.

Plan on slippery road conditions, the NWS said. Total snow accumulations of 2 to 4 inches, with localized amounts up to 6 inches, are expected.

The NWS said limited visibility may also be a problem at times, if you're headed over the passes in the late hours.

However, since the majority of the coast range is below 1500 feet, driving conditions should remain optimal and without issue most  if not all  of the way eastbound or westbound. In most areas, snow levels are not expected to drop below 2000 feet.

Chance for precipitation along the routes to and from the coast is 90 percent, which will translate to heavy rains for the majority of the way overnight. By Wednesday morning, it will only be rain and some heavy winds.

On Friday afternoon, the chance for snow returns again, with a high of 38 and a low around 28.

For the beach towns, look for plenty of rain and a chance of thunderstorms on Tuesday night. By Wednesday, however, things start to brighten up  literally  as the forecast calls for sunny to partly sunny days from Wednesday to Saturday. Sunday sees a return to rain. Temps will remain higher than Portland as it heads into the deep freeze, with overnight lows on the beaches reaching only around 32 while inland dips into the 20s.

Waves will get rather dramatic on the Oregon coast, starting Tuesday night (tonight), remaining around 17 feet through Wednesday before dipping down to around 10 feet over the weekend. Oregon Coast Lodgings for this - Where to eat - Maps - Virtual Tours

Portland, Salem and other valley towns could get freezing fog in the early hours of Wednesday, and overnight lows sink to the upper 20's through the weekend into Christmas. It's expected to remain largely dry and sunny, however. See more Oregon Coast Weather.























More About Oregon Coast hotels, lodging.....

More About Oregon Coast Restaurants, Dining.....

Coastal Spotlight



LATEST Related Oregon Coast Articles

Back to Oregon Coast

Contact Advertise on BeachConnection.net

All Content, unless otherwise attributed, copyright BeachConnection.net Unauthorized use or publication is not permitted
Aiden Manchester had his shopping list ready to go Tuesday afternoon.

The 8-year-old student at Lincoln Elementary set out looking for Barbie dolls and a teddy bear for his sisters, art supplies for his brother, jewelry for his mom, a foot massager for his dad and  if there was money left over  maybe something for himself, even.

Aiden was one of eight students treated to a $100 shopping spree at Walmart during the annual Shop With a Cop program.

Deputies from Gage County volunteered their time to take the students on a shopping trip for anything their hearts desired, valued at up to $100 each.

Sergeant Brandon Schley has been leading the program for around six years, and said Shop With a Cop was implemented to help kids have a happy holiday season, as well as positive interaction with law enforcement.

The main thing is making the kids happy and giving them a Christmas that they deserve, he said. A lot of kids dont have good Christmases. Its about seeing the kids smile when we pick them up and showing them a better part of law enforcement.

Sheriff Millard Gustafson said that 2017 marks the 10th year for the program in Gage County.

It was implemented the year he began as sheriff, after he heard about the program being held in another state.

The eight students from the area who participated this year were selected after an application process through the schools. Gustafson said there arent strict requirements to be selected. When selecting students for Shop with a Cop, program leaders were looking for children who needed a little extra holiday cheer this season.

It is a good time and there are some kids we know the situation on, he said. A lot of them are not from troubled families. A lot of times, its just falling on bad times. We have one that, because of health concerns, there hasnt been income coming in because (the parents) cant go to work right now. They thought it would be something they could enjoy. Those are the ones Im kind of after, the kids we want to take out and have a positive experience with the guys.

But running the program comes at a cost. Depending on the number of students selected for Shop with a Cop, the total cost is around $1,000. In the past, Shop with a Cop has been split into a two-day event.

The program is funded entirely from donations, and the deputies volunteer their time to take the kids to the store. Deputies picked the kids up from school in patrol vehicles and took them to Wal-Mart to do some holiday shopping.

Sonic Drive-In provided free food for the event, and deputies and the students had a gift wrapping party at Sonic after the last presents were made.

Gustafson said that over the years, the program has largely been funded by one anonymous donor whose granddaughter participated in Shop with a Cop several years ago. The granddaughter still mentions the program and the impact it had on her, prompting her grandfather to ensure it keeps going.

The department also hosts a fundraising raffle each year to fund the program.

Anyone wishing to contribute to Shop with a Cop can learn more by contacting the sheriffs office at 402-223-5221.

Donations can be sent to the Gage County Sheriff's Office at 612 Lincoln St., Ste. 1, Beatrice, NE 68310, or they can be dropped off at the office.

The sheriffs office asks that checks be made payable to Gage County Foundation with a Shop With a Cop notation in the memo section.
As Nebraska's Republican delegation in Congress hailed the passage of a massive tax cut bill as good news for families and businesses, Democratic candidates seized on the issue Wednesday and party activists prepared to take to the streets.

Democratic rallies were scheduled Wednesday evening at Senate and House offices in Lincoln, Omaha and Grand Island, following a final vote in the House on Wednesday.

Sen. Deb Fischer said the bill represents "a once-in-a-generation opportunity" to deliver tax relief to families across the country.

"Because of this legislation, many Americans will have bigger paychecks, our businesses will have more opportunities to invest and grow, and our country will regain our competitive edge in the global marketplace," Fischer said.

Sen. Ben Sasse hailed the legislation's repeal of the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate that everybody have health care insurance.

"In practice," he said, "it meant that families were presented with a terrible decision: either pay a federal fine or pay an unaffordable price for one of the crummy choices still available on the (health care insurance) exchanges."

Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Lincoln said the legislation "moves money back into the pockets of hardworking Americans, seeks to reignite Main Street entrepreneurial momentum and revives the Made in America label."

Fortenberry pointed to doubling of the child tax credit and enhancement of the deductibility of medical expenses while preserving tuition waiver benefits for students.

Rep. Don Bacon, who represents the metropolitan Omaha congressional district, said the bill will give the typical family of four earning the median income of $73,000 a tax cut of $2,059.

Meanwhile, he said, Nebraska businesses will also benefit from the measure through the delivery of "significant tax relief to Main Street job-creators."

Rep. Adrian Smith of Gering, who sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, where the bill first took shape, said the measure is "designed to improve the lives of people across the country."

The bill doubles the standard income tax deduction, increases the child tax credit and encourages businesses to "invest, create jobs and raise wages," Smith said.

"I fought hard to enable producers to continue to deduct their full property taxes on agricultural land," the congressman said.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced it will target Bacon in his competitive Omaha district with a digital holiday ad campaign attacking his vote as a Christmas gift to millionaires, billionaires and large corporations.

In a campaign news release, former Democratic Rep. Brad Ashford, who will seek to unseat Bacon in 2018, described the legislation as "a bad deal for Nebraskans."

Repeal of the individual mandate in Obamacare will cause large health insurance premium increases and leave millions of people without health insurance, Ashford said.

Dennis Crawford of Lincoln, a Democratic candidate for Fortenberry's House seat, said the congressman "betrayed his constituents" in voting for the legislation.

It will "blow up the deficit" and raise taxes on many middle-class Americans while delivering a tax cut to special interests and "the top 1 percent" of wealthiest Americans, Crawford said.

Democratic Senate candidate Jane Raybould described the bill as "perilous" and said Nebraskans are just learning about its contents.

"It is in fact a vote that only comes once in a generation because its record-breaking cost will pass at least $1.5 trillion in debt to our children and grandchildren," Raybould said.

Nebraska Democrats planned rallies to target Bacon's office in Omaha, Smith's office in Grand Island and the Lincoln office of Fischer, who will be seeking re-election next year.

"Republicans in the House of Representatives just passed a bill that gives 80 percent of the tax breaks to the wealthy while raising taxes on 80 million middle-class families," Democratic State Chairwoman Jane Kleeb said.
Data center News

CRN Exclusive: Scale Computing Forms Partnership With APC Giving Partners A 'Powerful' Micro Data Center 'In-A-Box' Solution

Mark Haranas

Share this

Scale Computing has formed a new partnership with APC by Schneider Electric to create a turnkey hyper-converged solution that executives say will lead to higher margins for channel partners and enable solution providers to scale capacity and computing power at the edge quickly.

"This is pretty powerful," said Bill Barnier, sales manager at Bloomfield Hills, Mich.- based solution provider Data Partner, who partners with Scale. "They can do power back up, the compute and the storage, all in one box. That's powerful to be able to put all of that in one appliance at the remote edge. That will definitely be something that customers would have interest in, especially those who have a lot of remote sites."

Hyper-converged specialist Scale Computing has been chosen as an Alliance Partner by APC by Schneider Electric to support its hyper-converged Micro Data Center Xpress solution, which combines a purpose-built infrastructure with a physical management wrapper for hyper-converged architectures. Xpress is a complete and energy-efficient IT solution that is pre-tested, optimized, and able to be rapidly deployed. APC said it creates a reliable and robust environment to leverage the best of on-premises and multi-cloud infrastructures.

[Related: Nutanix CEO On Cisco's Hardware Problem, Dell's Dual Hyper-Converged Strategy And Why He Doesn't View HPE-SimpliVity 'As A Competitor']

On the Scale Computing side, the company touts its HC3 hyper-converged platform as a data center in a box with server, storage and virtualization integrated into a single appliance. With no virtualization software to license and no external storage to buy, HC3 products reduce out-of-pocket costs and simplify the infrastructure needed to keep applications running.

"If you order a Scale system, we can have you deploying virtual machines within 30 minutes after you unbox it. What we want to do is reduce that even further now with APC," said Jason Collier, co-founder of Scale, in an interview with CRN. "Going in and being able to put in this system very rapidly gives the partner additional services and additional products that they can offer at higher margins."

"We want to give channel partners something where it is exceptionally easy to deploy this micro-data center or edge data center component, and we have several methods in which we're going to take that to market," said Collier.

In one customer use case, Scale is looking to deploy its own hyper-converged solution with Xpress inside a grocery store chain in Europe with 9,000 locations.

"If we can just drop one of these things in at each one of those locations and it takes no time to set up and can even be preconfigured to the point where you can drop it in and turn it on, then basically that store is up  that's where in these larger distributed deployments it's going to make the channel partners way more efficient in being able to deliver those services to the end customers," said Collier.

Data Partner's Barnier said the packaged solution would open up the doors to new customers.

"A lot of companies are looking to have the local feel and touch," said Barnier. "We're doing software-defined WAN and we're trying to build out and put things at the edge  even the firewalls are going that way  security at the edge. So this is a really good offer."

A recent report by research firm MarketsandMarkets said the edge computing market is expected to surge from $1.47 billion in 2017 to $6.72 billion in 2022, at a CAGR of 35 percent.

According to IT research firm 451 Research, micro data centers on the edge are growing in popularity with a compound annual growth rate of 42 percent over the last three years. Sales of micro data centers are expected to hit $30 million in 2018, up from $18 million this year.

More customers realize the benefits of embedding compute and storage capacity closer to where the data is being generated, according to Carrier. By deploying Xpress, partners can give customers the flexibility to quickly scale capacity and computing power at the edge, saving businesses time, money and resources.

Collier said partners would be able to offer services to help deploy technology like active directory or ERP systems. "What we wanted to do in hyper-convergence is to get the channel partner out of being the auto mechanic trying to keep the car running, and just put them in the driver seat so that they can drive the car from point A to point B  help start making the company make business decisions," he said.

Sacha Wingers, business director at Netherlands-based solution provider Copaco, who partners with Scale, said the solution was a "micro data-center-in-a-box solution."

"Collaborating with these market leaders will make sure this hyper-converged solution has an optimized configuration and performance," said Wingers, in an email to CRN. "We believe this turnkey solution will have a great impact on the SMB-sector and that it will be very successful."

In November, Scale launched was it called the industry's first hyper-converged system purpose-built for edge computing environments, HC3 Edge, which gives customers the benefits of the company's HC3 on-premises appliance-based solution on small form factors that meet edge requirements.

Indianapolis-based Scale has over 2,700 customers deploying its solutions. Collier said Scale expects to become profitable by mid-2019.

"We will be the first profitable hyper-converged company out there in the marketplace. We are exceptionally excited about that. That puts us in a unique position that's going to give us quite a bit of staying power within the industry," said Collier. "2018 is going to be a break-out year for us."
New Zealand is a democratic constitutional monarchy, one of Queen Elizabeth IIs sixteen realms. This Realm of New Zealand provides a comprehensive account of how the Queen, the Governor-General and the Crown interact with our democratically elected leaders under New Zealands unwritten constitution. The authors explain how these islands in the South Pacific were first brought within Queen Victorias dominions, the arrangements then made for their future government, and how those arrangements developed over time with the pressure for democracy and responsible government to become New Zealands current constitution. In an afterword, the authors examine some of the key issues to be considered should New Zealand become a republic.
Opening the iCow website shows, at a glance, some simple but brilliant thinking. Africas 1.1 billion population  including 700 million farmers and 200 million youth  60% have access to mobile phones making mobile applications (apps) and SMS-based information services both a gateway to new types of clientele and a tool for spreading useful knowledge. This was Su Kahumbu Stephanous thinking behind the conceptualisation of iCow, a high performing mobile app that puts farmers and their information needs at the centre of its business strategy.

In Kenya, iCow has served over 580,000 users since it was launched in 2011, and in 2016 the app was also launched in Ethiopia and Tanzania. iCows demand-based services include a practical calendar to determine the oestrous cycle of cows, as well as advice on optimal animal nutrition and updated costs of milk or crop production. All in several local languages. Designed for compatibility with the most basic mobile phones, iCow also helps to connect farmers to important industry players, such as input providers, agricultural financial service providers, veterinary experts and agricultural extension service providers.

CTAs Plug & Play Day is a platform designed to allow innovators such as iCow to demonstrate the potential of their apps in the field and meet interested investors. In addition to maintaining an online platform, CTA periodically organises Plug & Play  Tech Dating for Agriculture events in collaboration with international conferences and workshops to showcase a range of ICTs and mobile apps that are being developed and implemented in the field. This is in line with one of CTAs key objectives which is to energise rural development in Africa and attract more young people to work in agribusiness by supporting innovations in ICT.

iCows first opportunity to interact with this platform was in Kigali, Rwanda at the CTA International Conference on ICT4Ag in 2013. Already a year later and building on lessons from the previous year, iCow became the winner of the CTAs AgriHack side event at International Conference of Fin4Ag in Nairobi, Kenya also organised by CTA.

A CTA hackathon winner

The success of the application as iCows own research data has proven lies primarily in the applications impact on the livelihood of the farmers who use it. The users are improving their yields, milk productivity, soil fertility, egg and poultry productivity, and incomes within 3 months. Sharing her experience at another CTA Plug & Play event in Bonn, Germany Su Kahumbu Stephanou, CEO and founder of iCow, describes how enthusiasm, persistence and her ability to learn from failures were key. Several other important lessons from iCow were also shared with participants during the event, including the need to be thorough in the design of apps to ensure they are scalable and can adapt to remain relevant into the future.

These Plug & Play events provide participants and innovators the opportunity to discuss key challenges to implementing app services in the field and share new ideas that are working well. Su Kahumbu Stephanou emphasised the value of such opportunities provided by CTA, saying, Winning the CTA hackathon in Nairobi, Kenya greatly helped the launching of this application. CTA is very supportive in the development of apps. It brings the different stakeholders together and creates visibility for what is out there. It also shows, in a balanced way, the importance of apps for agricultural development to donors and policymakers.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

BRIDGEPORT  Community group Black Wall Street Bridgeport is giving holiday shoppers an alternative to standing in lines at the commercial malls with a shopping oasis of its own on the east end.

To bolster support for small and minority business owners and entrepreneurs in the Park City, group organizers launched a nine-day Holiday Mall on Saturday inside the Cathedral of the Holy Spirt at 729 Union Ave.

It gives people another option than to go to the mall, to Target, or to Walmart and a chance to say: You know what, I want to support local businesses, said organizer Eldorado Anderson.

For the last two years, Anderson and his team have hosted pop-up market events in Bridgeport to give local entrepreneurs a chance to showcase and sell their goods and services within the community, while encouraging residents to support and buy locally.

The Bridgeport resident said the theme of the events and the groups overall message is in the spirit of the historic neighborhood that inspired the groups name.

Anderson set up the community organization back in 2009, naming it after the Greenwood neighborhood in Tulsa, Okla., which came to be known as Black Wall Street.

Before it was destroyed by racist mobs in the early 1900s, Greenwood was  and still is  regarded as one of the most affluent African American neighborhoods in U.S. history because of its high concentration of black-owned businesses.

I wanted to kind of give that history lesson in a festival kind of atmosphere, he said.

Black Wall Street Bridgeport began hosting single-day markets in 2015, featuring 30 to 40 vendors in its first pop-up event at the Bridgeport Public Library.

The number of vendors has grown since then, according to Anderson. He said the group has featured hundreds of small business owners and entrepreneurs of all demographics at its events.

This year, Black Wall Street Bridgeport partnered with Pastor Kenneth Moales Jr. to operate the Holiday Mall inside the east end church.

According to Moales, the theme of the bazaar-styled market aligned with the message of financial and fiscal empowerment, he imparts on church and community members.

Im trying to keep in the tradition of the history of the black church through support of not just the social or rather the spiritual aspect, but also the economic. For this situation its more empowering for entrepreneurship to build and spark businesses to do well, Moales said.

The Holiday Mall has already featured a mix of new and seasoned vendors, including New Haven native Jermaine Maine Do Mayo, who owns Georgia-based apparel business Made in Clothing Co. and sells clothing with a customizable Made in  logo for any state.

The Georgia resident said he jumped at the chance to sell Made in Connecticut products in his home state.

To have an actual location and to have an actual event to be able to vend and patron and meet other customers and potential customers is awesome, Mayo said.

Lashonda Fluitt, owner of custom jewelry business Embellish By Lanise, echoed the same, and said events like the pop-up markets allow vendors to connect with the community and turn their passions into a business others will enjoy.

The experience of the bazaar goes beyond selling merchandise, however.

Vendor Cecalie Cooper, who runs motor scooter dealer Ultimate Automotive Services, said she registered for the pop-up mall to network with other business owners.

When youre trying to become an entrepreneur and be successful its important to have a networking base, she said. If you dont have a networking base you really cant sell your product.

The Holiday Mall initially opened with 16 vendors and is currently featuring eight in the Lobby of the Cathedral.

The event will be running until Christmas Eve, and will be open from 6 to 8 p.m. on weekdays and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the weekend.

Interested vendors can still register to participate over the weekend by calling 203-520-8229.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

BRIDGEPORT  Police Chief Armando A.J. Perez has had a tough sophomore year in charge of Bridgeports Finest.

A spike in homicides. The fatal shooting of 15-year-old Jayson Negron by a rookie officer. The suicide this month of another officer whom the chief placed on leave in October for alleged use of excessive force.

Then there are the recent allegations that Perez, at the request of the Democratic Party chairman, meddled in a hotly contested City Council primary.

And of course the demands by activists to implement police reforms.

Despite it all, Perez hopes 2018 will see him made the citys permanent top cop, with a contract to show for it.

In March, Perez celebrates his two-year anniversary running the police department of Connecticuts largest city. As previously reported, allies and critics are wondering if and when Mayor Joe Ganim will move to give his longtime friend some job security.

Asked Tuesday ahead of the police commission meeting if he wants a contract, Perez told Hearst Connecticut Media: Yes.

He acknowledged that would first require Ganim initiating a search for a police chief and Perez competing in that process. Ganim in early November said the matter was under consideration and sources this week said that remains the case.

Im gonna try my very best to apply, Perez, a 35 year veteran of the force, said, adding: Theres no guarantees.

There is no doubt that Ganim has a soft spot for Perez. Their relationship dates back to the 1990s, when Ganim first ran the city and Perez was the cop assigned to be the mayors driver.

They remained close even after Ganims conviction in 2003 for running a pay-to-play operation out of City Hall. And when the fallen politician asked voters for a second chance in 2015, Perez, then a captain, was often by Ganims side on the campaign trail.

Perez made no mention of a contract to the police commission Tuesday. But his last briefing of the year to that mayoral appointed group was a message of progress  a stark contrast to some of the negative headlines that have dogged the chief in 2017.

Homicides, for example, more than doubled over last year, from 10 to 22. And the commissions meeting began with a moment of silence for Officer Thomas Lattanzio, who took his life at Seaside Park early Dec. 4.

Perez acknowledged he was supposed to deliver a detailed year-in-review to the police commission, but it had been a tough couple weeks.

He offered new statistics, however, showing overall crime citywide  murders, rapes, robberies, assaults, burglaries, larcenies and motor vehicle thefts  was down 3.34 percent from the same time last year.

Perez told commissioners his department is being very proactive.

In the last three weeks we have taken 15 guns off of the streets, he said.

On May 9 a rookie officer shot and killed Negron, a teenager. The case, which remains in the hands of the state police, resulted in calls for uniform cameras and for improved training of officers in de-escalation techniques.

Perez last month came under fire for being too slow to respond to those demands after Officer Christina Arroya was filmed by a mobile phone repeatedly punching the head of a teenager held down by other cops.

The chief told police commissioners Tuesday that he is, with state funding, moving to not only equip an initial 30 of his men and women with uniform cameras, but dashboard cameras for their cruisers. He said the department has met with five unidentified vendors and, eventually, the technology will be rolled out for everybody  around 400 officers  on the force.

Perez did not want to commit to a timeline, noting when his past promises failed to materialize, I get spanked.

He also reported as of today theres 122 officers trained in de-escalation with another class of 32 occurring this week. Perez did not elaborate on the substance of that training and was not asked about it by police commissioners.

Your departments doing a hell of a job out there, Perez said, adding later that the majority of the force is made up of good officers, good people, family people who want to be here and serve and protect this community.

Perez invited commissioners to a holiday party at his office next week, then exited the City Hall conference room where Tuesdays meeting was held.

Soon afterward some activists voiced concerns about the acting chiefs leadership. They cited the Negron shooting, the Arroya video and Perezs dispatching an officer at the request of Democratic Town Committee Chairman Mario Testa to retrieve absentee ballots in a recent City Council primary.

Perezs involvement in that race was cited by Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis in her decision to order a primary redo. The city appealed and the case is scheduled to be heard by the state Supreme Court on Thursday.

We should have a search for a new chief, said one of Tuesdays speakers, Gemeem Davis of civic group Bridgeport Generation Now. She questioned whether Perezs closeness to Democratic leaders like Ganim and Testa has compromised his leadership.

We need an independent police chief, Davis said.

But Councilwoman Eneida Martinez, that legislative bodys liaison with the police commission, said Perez absolutely deserves a contract: Despite the negativity that comes from others, hes doing a great job.

Police Commissioner Hector Diaz agreed:  I couldnt see anyone in the situation thats hes in right now do a better job than the job hes doing. I would love to see him get a contract.
BRIDGEPORT - A woman convicted of stabbing her boyfriend in the back with a steak knife tearfully begged the judge Wednesday not to send her back to her native Jamaica.

I am afraid that immigration will deport me from the U.S., cried Terene Clark, the mother of two young children. I am terrified by Jamaica because it was where I was badly hurt when I was young. I fear it more than I fear prison.

But Superior Court Judge Robin Pavia said she was not going to consider the immigration ramifications in the case and sentenced the 32-year-old Clark to seven years, suspended after she serves one year in prison and followed by five years probation for the conviction of second-degree assault.

I understand that what may happen is far worse than any sentence I can give you but I am only here to adhere to the criminal statutes and any aspect of immigration is to be handled separately, the judge added.

Clarks lawyer, Glenn Formica, said later that it is likely that his client will be deported.

Clark was found guilty of stabbing her boyfriend, 37-year-old Jason Edwards, in the back following a fight in their Grand Street apartment on June 18, 2015.

Edwards, who was left a paraplegic as a result of the wound, testified on Clarks behalf claiming that she had stabbed him while he was choking her.

But Senior Assistant States Attorney Michael DeJoseph argued the jury should disregard Edwardss testimony.

During Wednesdays sentencing hearing DeJoseph told the judge she should disregard any affect the case could have on Clarks immigration status and instead focus on the serious injury she caused to Edwards.

Clark, a certified nursing assistant, told the judge she doesnt remember stabbing Edwards.

I dont remember much but I remember being scared and I remember him coming at me, Clark said.
Once upon a time, Sen. Richard Blumenthal was Connecticuts U.S. attorney, appointed by then-President Jimmy Carter way back in 1977.

Did that mean Blumenthal took his party loyalty with him into his new office, targeting Republicans in addition to the usual Mafiosi, drug traffickers and the like?

As U.S. attorney, I attended no political functions, I met with virtually no political figures unless it was as part of their official duties, Blumenthal said. I drew a very, very strict line. I often joke that those were some of the best years of my life, because I attended no political functions.

So how did he negotiate the balance between the political roots of his appointment and the role of non-partisan law enforcement official? There was no balance, he said. The job was totally apolitical.

I asked these questions of Blumenthal in the wake of concerted right-wing savaging of special counsel Robert Mueller over seemingly anti-Trump emails involving a senior FBI agent who subsequently was on his staff. Commentators also trotted out Democratic campaign donations of Muellers staff members.

Fox News Channels Sean Hannity called Mueller a disgrace to the American justice system.

Wow, pretty harsh.

Full disclosure: I knew Mueller back in the day when I covered DOJ and he was the top criminal adviser-prosecutor on the staff of then Attorney General Dick Thornburgh. (Yes, a Republican, appointed by President George H.W. Bush.)

He was totally focused on rooting out criminals, whether they be Mexican cartel types or the terrorists who brought down Pan Am Flight 103. And one thing I learned: With only one exception (U.S. attorney in San Francisco, appointed under President Clinton), Mueller was a Republican appointee through and through.

President George W. Bush named him to head the FBI, and he reported for duty just days before the 9/11 attacks.

So its a bit of a stretch to paint Mueller as a Democratic partisan hack.

I have total confidence that Mueller is going to make decisions without fear or favor to any political institution, said Blumenthal, who also was Connecticuts state attorney general for 20 years before being elected to the Senate. Hell rise above the political noise.

===========

And speaking of Blumenthal, a picture of him meeting now-Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch back in February graced the front page of the Washington Post on Tuesday. The accompanying story related how President Donald Trump went ballistic when he heard that Gorsuch considered the presidents repeated attacks on the judiciary disheartening and demoralizing.

The president worried that Gorsuch would not be loyal, the Post reported, citing several people with knowledge of the discussions.

Trump told aides he was tempted to withdraw Gorsuchs nomination, the Post said. Trump later tweeted the story was FAKE NEWS.

Not mentioned is how part of Trumps liftoff involved blaming Blumenthal for misconstruing Gorsuchs words and hauling out the old Vietnam bagatelle  in which Blumenthal indicated he was in the Marine Corps in Vietnam when he actually served in the Vietnam-era stateside.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who never fought in Vietnam when he said for years he had (major lie), now misrepresents what Judge Gorsuch told him? Trump tweeted.

For Blumenthal, sensitive to this day about the Vietnam imbroglio, the irony is that Trump evidently considered yanking Gorsuch while accusing Blumenthal of lying about what transpired in his pre-confirmation meet-and-greet with the nominee.

I was somewhat perplexed because at the time, he denied that Gorsuch said such a thing even though it was confirmed by everyone at the meeting. Blumenthal said.

===============

Alabamas newest senator, Doug Jones, is a Democrat. But will he hew to the party line or blaze his own trail as a representative of a deep-Red Dixie state?

One of the issues Connecticut Democrats will be watching is guns. Will Jones be another vote for Fix NICS, expanded background checks, and even the assault weapons ban?

Sen. Chris Murphy, the virtual conscience of Senate Democrats on the gun issue, sees Jones as a vote for Fix NICS, which gives states and federal agencies carrot-and-stick options for submitting more gun-disqualification records to the FBIs National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

He might even go for Murphys expanded background check bill, which would require checks in most private sales of guns including those at gun shows. But supporting an assault-weapons ban might be a bridge too far.

Jones considers himself a Second Amendment guy and, no surprise, owns a case full of guns. Weve got limitations on all constitutional amendments in one form or another, Jones said in an MSNBC interview. I want to enforce the laws that we have right now.

Since the law establishing and funding NICS is already on the books, Jones will have no problem supporting improvements. Beyond that is anyones guess. But hes bound to be less pro-gun than his defeated GOP opponent, Roy Moore, who showed up at a rally in a cowboy hat waving a snub-nose revolver.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

BRIDGEPORT - Corruption and fraud in city politics.

Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis found it raised its ugly head and tainted the results of the Democratic primary for the citys North End council seat - in favor of party boss Mario Testa.

Citizens can expect and are entitled to integrity in the process and a fundamentally fair and honest election, and this, I regret to say, they did not get, the judge stated in overturning the results of the primary and ordering a new one - the citys third.

But on Thursday, in a rare expedited hearing, the state Supreme Court is being asked to find that Bellis overstepped her judicial reach.

In ordering yet another new election the trial court (Bellis) went too far and erred in four principal ways, argue the lawyers for the city, John Bohannon Jr. and James Healy in their legal brief filed with the high court.

In this election, a political party boss coordinated with his endorsed candidate to utilize an on-duty Bridgeport police officer to pick up absentee ballots at the specific request of these partisan political actors, counters opposition lawyer Peter Finch. This is tantamount to the party boss going into the voting booth with the voters.

Robert Keeley, who lost the special primary Nov. 14 by 18 votes for the seat in the 133rd district against Democratic Party-endorsed candidate, Jeannette Herron, had asked Bellis to overturn the election results contending fraud by election officials.

Testas bartender, Michael DeFilippo, was the top vote getter and automatically got in and was elected during the general election.

Herron came in second in the primary followed by Keeley. The two top vote getters in the primary become the Democratic candidates for the seat.

Bellis had previously thrown out the results of a first primary between Herron and Keeley which Herron won by one absentee ballot vote that mysteriously showed up during a recount.

During a hearing after the second primary, police officer Paul Nikola testified he was ordered by Police Chief Perez to report to Testa at Testas pizza restaurant the day before the primary. Nikola said Testa introduced him to DeFilippo who then provided Nikola with addresses to go to pick up absentee ballots.

Nikola said he then drove around the citys North End in his police car picking up absentee ballots from those addresses, including from a mailbox.

Local lawyer Maximino Medina Jr., who had been appointed to monitor the primary by the judge, testified at the hearing that on the morning of the Nov. 14 primary, he went to the mail room at city hall where some absentee ballots had been delivered. He said the supervisor of the mail room, Jack McDowell, told him he had brought the bundle of 15 ballots over from the post officer but 12 did not have post marks.

Medina also testified at the hearing that he went to Northbridge Health Care on Main Street where a mandated supervised absentee balloting was to take place and did not see any signs specifically about the primary vote. He said two members of the registrars office were in a community room at the center but were not approached by any residents.

Democratic Registrar of Voters Santa Ayala testified that voters at Northbridge refused to cast ballots.

Bellis stated that she did not believe the 12 ballots without postmarks came through the post office and she found that the registrar failed to take reasonable steps to deliver absentee ballot applications to the health care residents.

The city contends that state election law does not prohibit a police officer, no matter who instructs him to do it, from picking up absentee ballots from voters.

Also, it claims there is nothing in state law that requires absentee ballot envelopes to bear canceled postmarks. And finally the city argues that Bellis wrongly concluded that notice had to be given of the vote to the residents of Northbridge.

In truth, the law requires no such thing, the citys lawyers state.
STAMFORD  A Stamford woman was involved in a serious crash in Bedford, New York, on Monday, police officials said.

Mimi Rand, 55, of Stamford, collided with a bus in her 2008 Jeep around 3:45 p.m. Monday on Route 172 in Bedford.

Lt. Matthew Hawley said video footage of the accident obtained by Bedford police showed Rand crossed the double yellow line before colliding with the bus.

The bus involved attempted to drive to the right to avoid the collision, but was unable, Hawley said Tuesday. There were no fatalities in this accident.

A news release from the Bedford Police Department said responding officers said there was a passenger vehicle that had crashed into a privately owned bus transporting adults with special needs.

Police immediately shut down the roadway to traffic and requested multiple ambulances. The Bedford Police Department Accident Investigation Unit and the Bedford Fire Department also responded to the scene.

A total of 10 ambulances responded and transported patients, the news release said.

Rand was transported to the Westchester County Medical Center with serious injuries, the news release said.

The driver of the bus was transported to Northern Westchester Hospital with minor injuries.

The 11 passengers on the bus were transported to Westchester Medical Center, Northern Westchester Hospital and White Plains Hospital  all with what appeared to be non-life-threatening injuries.

An attendant on the bus was not listed as having been transported via ambulance for any medical treatment.
Tom Cat Bakery in Queens, N.Y., used to supply bread to some of the most expensive restaurants in Manhattan. Now the bakery has a much less desirable notoriety after the company fired 21 immigrant employees, some of whom had worked there for 15 years, with very little warning.

"They threw them out like stale bread," says Daniel Gross, founder and executive director of Brandworkers, a nonprofit group that advocates for food workers.

It started last January when Tom Cat was audited by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), as part of the Trump administration's aggressive crackdown on undocumented workers. Three months later, management called several dozen of their employees into private meetings and told them that they would be terminated if they couldn't provide proper documentation within 10 days.

Related: 10 Books Every Leader Should Read to Be Successful

While the employees asked for more time to seek legal counsel and get their affairs in order, the bakery refused and terminated them after the deadline. The result was a local and national outcry that led to daily protests, bad press, lawsuits and now boycotts of Tom Cat Bakery bread from famous restaurants such as La Bernadin and the Jean Georges Restaurant Group.

The most tragic part is that this fiasco, which has ruined families and lives, may have been avoided if Tom Cat Bakery had followed some basic protocol and rules. Here's what you need to do to protect your workers and your business from a similar fate.

Be I-9 audit ready.

Legally, immigration agents may come to your workplace to check if you followed the rules for Form I-9, which confirms a worker's identity and authorization to work in the U.S. So it's important that you keep I-9 forms on file for three years after hiring or one year after the worker's last day of work, whichever is later, according to Laura Huizar, a staff attorney for the National Employment Law Project. But, Huizar also advises that you only ask a worker to fill out the I-9 once unless their work permit is about to expire or you have another valid, legal reason. "Employers cannot just re-verify employees at any time. There has to be a reason," she says.

Related: 50 Rules for Being a Great Leader

Protect your privacy.

While ICE can audit your company, they are not permitted to raid your offices unless they have a warrant signed by a judge. According to Gross, one of Tom Cat's mistakes was giving ICE access to private documents without proper legal authority.

To prevent this from happening to your business, be sure to designate which areas are public and which are private in your workplace. Huizar says that ICE can enter public spaces of a business without a warrant (such as the dining area of a restaurant), but other private areas such as the back office, kitchen or factory are off limits. She advises posting signs in the private areas and making sure that only employees and employers are allowed to enter those areas at all times.

Teach your staff their rights.

If ICE tries to enter a private area of your business without a warrant, your employees are legally permitted to deny them entry. Huizar advises saying, "I can't give you permission to enter. You must speak with my employer." She also suggests training your staff not to interact with ICE agents. If the agents have questions or requests, "workers should say nothing, or say, 'You are not allowed to enter. Talk to my employer.'" You should give your employees a list of lawyers or organizations, such as NELP or the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), that can provide high-quality, free or low cost legal advice, she says.

Related: Inspirational Quotes From 100 Famous Business Leaders (Infographic)

Make a written response plan.

"Sit down and think through what you want to happen," Huizar says. "Then write down a plan that works for you and practice what to say and what to do with your workers like a fire drill." There's no one template for how to do this. Huizar recommends connecting with immigration response networks in your area for suggestions. "They provide support with family, legal, financial and media concerns if immigration agents come to your business," she says.

Be transparent.

Tom Cat Bakery allegedly did not tell their employees for the three months that the company was being audited. "So workers had no opportunity at that time to seek council to see what could be done about the lawfulness of the audit," Gross says.

If your company is under ICE audit, he urges businesses to let their employees know immediately to give them proper time to prepare. "We recommend in any situation where there is audit that employees are notified immediately," Huizar says. "Immigration laws are are so complicated. It's crucial to give them a chance to figure out what is going on and speak to their own attorneys about how to rectify the situation."

Related: 15 Ways to Lead With Effective Communication

Negotiate a fair severance.

"Are you going to consider your workers an adversary or advocate for them?" Gross asks. In the instance of Tom Cat Bakery, information was allegedly withheld, promises were broken, and minimal severance was offered to the employees who were fired, setting the company up for protests and lawsuits. But, not all companies take this approach. Huizar says that her office is often asked by employers facing similar circumstances, "What can we do to help?"

In the event that you have to let an undocumented worker go, she offers the following suggestions: Pay workers any owed wages and any accrued benefits as soon as possible when employment ends. Provide separation pay to workers who cannot return to work and need to support themselves and their families. "Understand that they are going through a very stressful and complicated situation," she says.

Related:

ICE Audit: Are You and Your Employees at Risk?

Be Prepared: Seven Legal Considerations UAE SMEs Should Keep In Mind For 2018

The Masterpiece Cakeshop Supreme Court Case Has Huge Implications for Businesses: Here is What You Need to Know



Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


Harper House Is Cat Friendly

Harper House Apartments in Boulder has everything you need. Residents enjoy direct access to the best that Boulder has to...
The magical part of Christmas films is believing that the Prime Minister can fall in love with his tea lady, an eight-year-old is able to fend off two determined intruders, and that a snowman can come to life.

And another rather unbelievable element is the whopping cost of some of the properties featured in some of your festive favourites.

Hybrid estate agent eMoov.co.uk has analysed how much the homes featured in Christmas classics such as Love Actually and Home Alone would now cost compared with the year the films were released, revealing increases of up to 1,000 per cent.

John McClane's luxury LA penthouse in Nakatomi Plaza is now the most expensive, worth almost 4 million (more than $5 million), but at least a home in Coventry where The Nativity was set is a more affordable 170,879 ($229,140) - even though the price has soared by almost 50 percent.

A detached house in West Sussex where the classic animation The Snowman was set has seen the biggest increase, soaring from 76,681 ($102, 825) in 1982 to 858,500 ($1,151,205) today, an increase of 1,020 per cent.

Hybrid estate agent eMoov.co.uk has analysed how much the homes featured in Christmas classics now cost, with the Home Alone mansion in Chicago coming in at 1.5 million ($2 million)

Upset about the fall in value? The home is the only one on the list worth less today

HOME ALONE

Location: Chicago mansion

Price in 1990: 1,562,148 ($2,094,762)

Current price: 1,505,674 ($2,019,033)

Decrease : Four per cent

It's not exactly a bargain price, but the Home Alone mansion in Chicago is the only famous Christmas film home that would probably cost you less today than it did at the time of filming.

In 2011, the real life colonial-style mansion on Chicago's North Shore was put up for sale with an asking price of $2.4 million ($3.2million)

It finally sold 10 months later for $1.585 million ($2,125million) - far below what the owners once hoped to get for it.

The property has a four-room master suite, a stunning forest-inspired dining area and the notorious attic bedroom where Kevin had to spend the night with his bed-wetting cousin in the film.



The Home Alone house today: The property was sold for $1.585 million ($2,125million) in 2012, despite an asking price of $2.4 million

Die Hard

Location: LA Penthouse

Price in 1989: 847K ($1,135million)

Current price: 3,924,103 ($5, 262,025)

Increase: 363 per cent

John McClane, played by Bruce Willis, visits his estranged wife on Christmas Eve at Nakatomi Plaza, the HQ of the Japanese-owned business where she works.

The building is in fact the Fox Plaza, Twentieth Century Fox's official headquarters but if you were to purchase a similar luxury penthouse in LA you'd need serious cash.

Los Angeles experienced a surge in property values in November, meaning it would cost you 31 per cent more than last year.

And the value has increased from 847,284 ($1,136,165) in the late '80s to around 3,924,103 ($5,262,025) today.

The Fox Plaza in LA was used to represent the Nakatomi Plaza in Die Hard in 1989 (left). A luxury LA penthouse apartment would now cost John McClain (right) almost 4 million

Bridget Jones Diary

Location: Borough, London

Price in 2001: 230,675 ($309,323)

Current price: 724,683 ($971,763)

Increase: 214 per cent

It's unlikely hapless singleton Bridget would be able to afford a flat in Borough market on her 23K ($31k) publishing salary these days.

In keeping with the rest of the London property market, prices have soared 214 per cent in the past 16 years.

The real-life property is above The Globe pub and its proximity to the bustling market makes it an extremely sought-after location.

Bridget Jones resided in a flat above The Globe pub in Borough Market, which would have cost her around 230,000 ($300,000)

How much? Bridget would face paying more than 724,000 ($971,000) for her apartment today

The Holiday

Location: Detached Cottage in Shere, Surrey

Price in 2006: 472,697 ($633,863)

Current price: 768,500 ($1,030,520)

Increase: 63 per cent

The sort of chocolate box Surrey cottage that Kate Winslet lent to Cameron Diaz in The Holiday was still expensive a decade ago, costing more than 474K.

Prices in Shere have risen six per cent since last year alone and are up 63 per cent since the film was first released.

The Surrey cottage that Kate Winslet lent to Cameron Diaz in The Holiday would now set a buyer back more than 768,000 ($1.020,520)

Prices in Shere, where The Holiday - starring Jude Law and Cameron Diaz - was set have risen six per cent since last year alone

NATIVITY!

The price of a terraced house in Coventry where Nativity! was set has gone up to more than 170,000

Location: Semi-detached house in Coventry

Price in 2009: 115,456 ($154,820)

Current price: 170,879 ($229,140)

Increase: 48 per cent

Set in Coventry, the characters in Nativity enjoy somewhat more affordable properties than areas such as London.

However prices are on the march. A semi-detached house in Coventry has increased by five per cent since last year from to 170,879 ($229,140).

Love Actually

Location: Terraced house in Wandsworth, London

Price in 2003: 432,026 ($579,325)

Current Price: 1,122,000 ($1,504,000)

Increase: 160 per cent

Assistant Natalie tells the prime minister she lives in the 'dodgy end of Wandsworth', but even in 2003 the average house price in the area was above 400K ($536k).

Prices in Wandsworth have enjoyed a 160 per cent increase since 2003, so Natalie would have to serve up a lot of tea and biscuits to afford a home for more than 1.1 million ($1.48m).

Despite claiming she lived in the 'dodgy end of Wandsworth' Natalie's Love Actually home was actually worth more than 400,000 ($536k)
Fidget spinners are undoubtedly one of 2017's runaway successes for kids toys, but that doesn't mean that they can't be enjoyed by people of all ages.

It's a fact that is all but proven by a recent viral post featuring an 85-year-old grandmother looking utterly ecstatic to be receiving one of the tiny gadgets for her birthday.

Joan Szilagyi of Lethbridge, Alberta, recently welcomed a visit from her granddaughter, 20-year-old Fiona Szilagyi, who lives in Calgary, in honor of the special day.

A birthday treat: Joan Szilagyi of Lethbridge, Alberta, has gone viral after receiving a fidget spinner for her 85th birthday

Last-minute purchase: Joan's granddaughter Fiona and her mother Maria spotted the toy while in the checkout line to buy Joan's other presents

Before the visit, Fiona had accompanied her mother Maria Szilagyi in shopping for gifts. While waiting in the checkout line, the pair of women spotted the fidget spinners.

The ladies decided that the popular toy would make a perfect gag gift for their older relative and picked one up.

Joan had no idea what fidget spinners were, so when she opened the gift, she examined it with curiosity before figuring out just how it worked.

Sharing the tale: Fiona, 20, who lives in Calgary, snapped pictures of her grandmother as she opened her gift

Figuring it out: Joan had never heard of a fidget spinner before, so looked over the toy with curiosity

But once it did, it was clear that the grandmother simply couldn't get enough. She broke into a big grin and laughter, which was captured in a series of pictures.

The images, which show the process of Joan opening her present, were then posted to Fiona's Twitter account.

'My grandma got a fidget spinner for her 85th birthday and look how happy she is,' Fiona wrote in the caption.

In just two days, the tweet has racked up more than 15,000 likes as well as being retweeted 2,000 times.

Pure joy: Once she got it working, Joan seemingly couldn't get enough of the tiny gadget

For all to see: Fiona shared the images on Twitter, where they were 'liked' by thousands

It also received dozens of responses, many of which praises Joan's reaction as 'so cute', 'precious', and 'pure'.

'She's so adorable god bless her!' wrote one user in response to the tweet, while another said: 'This made my night - Happy Birthday, Fiona's Grandma.'

One user even shared her own experience of giving her mother a fidget spinner, writing: 'This was my grandmas reaction...she genuinely despised it.'
Ten models have bravely opened up about the sexual harassment and assaults they have suffered while on various jobs.

The group of ten models recounted being asked to take their clothes off during photo shoots as well as being physically abused by industry professionals in a clip shot by Harper's Bazaar in partnership with the Model Alliance, an organization that campaigns to protect models' rights in the workplace.

One of the women, Elliott Sailors, a model based in New York City, detailed how a photographer once asked her to do several demeaning things she didn't want to do, and kept taking pictures of her even after she broke down.

Sharing: Tonya Pittman is one of 10 models who have bravely opened up about the sexual harassment and abuse they have faced while on the job

Shocking: Kalae Hassel explained how she was abused even with her mother at a short distance, leaving her 'paralyzed in fear and astonishment'

Abuse: Elliott Sailors, also based in New York City, detailed how a photographer once asked her to do several demeaning things and kept taking pictures of her after she broke down

'I wanted to feel sexy and I wanted to feel intriguing and I wanted to do the things that would make me look that way, but I didn't want to do them then,' Sailors said.

'He told me to spit on my breasts and to do other things that I really didn't want to do. I started to do what he wanted, and then I was mortified and I started to cry. He kept taking photos even when I was crying.'

Tonya Pittman, another New York City model, recounted being physically assaulted by an industry insider.

'One of the models had introduced me and the whole group to a manager of a very well-known lingerie company and he brought us back to the store,' she said.

'Next thing you know, he's trying to get me to try lingerie on for him, he's taking my shirt off, throwing me up against the wall and pinning me every time I try to fight back. I got away. I got away.'

Testimonies: The group of ten models recounted being asked to take their clothes off during photo shoots as well as being physically abused by industry professionals

Suffering: Among the group, Audra Callo detailed the isolated feelings she wrestled with after facing abuse, explaining she felt an 'immense amount of shame'

Acting: Sara Ziff in 2012 created the Model Alliance, an organization that advocates for models' rights in the workplace and is currently pushing for a bill offering them more protection

Kalae Hassel explained how she was abused even with her mother at a short distance.

'The photographer's assistant takes me several feet to the back of the studio, and I'm changing into my next outfit when he decides he's just going to completely molest me within several feet of my mother,' she said.

'I felt so paralyzed in fear and just astonishment that someone would have such an easy feeling of ownership over my body.'

One of the models, Lauren Switzer, also shared her story, recounting: 'The client comes in and she just says very softly, "Strip." I mean, it was so demeaning and so dehumanizing. I felt like I was in a dream or something.'

Yaris Cedano, a Dominican model in New York City, couldn't go into details while on camera and told Harper's Bazaar: 'It's too hard to say.'

Difficult: Yaris Cedano, a Dominican model in New York City, couldn't go into details while on camera and told Harper's Bazaar: 'It's too hard to say'

Opening up: One of the models, Lauren Switzer, also shared her story, recounting: 'The client comes in and she just says very softly, "Strip"'

Among the group, Audra Callo detailed the isolated feelings she wrestled with after facing abuse.

'I felt this immense amount of shame,' she said. 'I didn't want my agency to know about this. I didn't even want to tell my boyfriend at the time. I didn't want to disappoint anyone.'

Sara Ziff, who created the Model Alliance in 2012, is working with the New York State Assemblywoman Nily Rozic to push for a new bill that would protect models against all forms of harassment at work.

She also appeared in the video and emphasized how hard it can be for models to advocate for themselves when they experience harassment and assault at the hands of those in power.

'It's funny because some people might say, "Why didn't you just say no?"' Ziff Ziff said. 'But when you're put on the spot in that moment and you're with someone who is in a position of power and influence, that's much easier said than done.'

Hassel pointed out that some might feel a sense of ownership on model's bodies because of their job, and promptly shot down the idea, telling the camera: 'Even if you think that because we're in this industry, and I'm, like, a commodity, that doesn't mean that you get to use and abuse.'
A nine-year-old boy cemented his spot on the nice list this Christmas after he gave up his chance at getting an Xbox from Santa in favor of buying blankets for the homeless.

This Christmas, all Mikah Frye wanted to find in his stocking was the Microsoft gaming system - however, after sharing with his grandmother that he was worried about the homeless people being stuck out in the cold, he changed his mind.

Terry Young, Mikah's grandma, said to ABC, 'He told me he was worried about homeless people in the cold, so I said why don't you get some blankets.'

Surprise: Nine-year-old boy who wanted an Xbox for Christmas, decided to buy blankets for the homeless instead, and he was rewarded by Microsoft, with a free gaming system

She then told the boy that he could give up a Christmas gift this year and use that money to buy blankets for the homeless instead. So that's exactly what he did.

When Mikah realized in the beginning of November that he wanted to give up his present to help people in need instead, he started doing the math.

Terry shared, 'the $300 dollars for an Xbox could equal 30 blankets if they were priced at $10 each.'

So, the young boy bought blankets for the people being sheltered at Access, a homeless shelter and program in his community of Ashland County, Ohio.

Selfless: Mikah Frye wanted an Xbox but was worrying about the homeless people being stuck in the cold so he used the money to buy them blankets instead

Upon hearing what this selfless little boy was doing for the community, the local Microsoft store invited Mikah into the store on December 16 to gift him a surprise Xbox for free.

'They went all out for him. They had controllers and games. It was really nice.' said Young.

Ever since Mikah starting collecting blankets to deliver to the homeless at the Access center, he has continued to donate them through the Ashland Church Community Emergency Shelter Services, and has donated more than 55 blankets with the help of his neighbors.

One of the main reasons Mikah chose to donate blankets to the homeless and the specific shelter in particular, is because it has a personal link to him.

Helper: Thanks to Mikah, Access, the homeless shelter in his community of Ashland County, Ohio is able to give everyone that comes to the shelter in the new year, a blanket to keep

Sara Brown, Mikah's mother, shared, 'A few years ago, we lost our home and we ended up needing help from Access. He told me that he remembered not being able to keep the blanket they let him use.'

Due to the fact that he couldn't keep the blanket, Mikah's mission was to make sure the families could keep and take the blankets with them when they moved into new homes.

His mother continued, 'Mikah has always been kind of different. He always thinks about other people. Even at school.

'My mom said that she was wondering why his lunch funds were going away and found out he was buying lunches for kids that couldn't get any.'

It's not just Mikah's mom that's so impressed with him. Cathy Thiemens, the executive director of the Access program, shared, 'The first person I gave one of his blankets to started crying, and she said, "Oh my gosh, this is such an instrument of hope.''' She added, 'he's an amazing kid.'

Thanks to the bravery of this noble little boy, Access will be able to give everyone in need that comes to the shelter in the new year, a blanket to keep.
For most mothers, taking a trip and leaving their young children behind simply isn't considered a possibility.

But world traveller Alana Tagliabue, 34, says it's important for mothers to not hold back and lose their sense of identity.

The mother-of-three has been exploring parts of Asia for the past year with her sons aged between 21 months and nine-years-old, posting her experiences to her travel blog Family Bites Travel.

But she has occasionally parted with the youngsters, realising she 'needed a break' after being with them 24/7 while working from home.

Australian world traveller Alana Tagliabue (pictured), 34, has encouraged mothers to take solo trips away from their children, saying it's important for mothers to not hold back and lose their sense of identity

The mother-of-three has been exploring parts of Asia for the past year with her sons aged between 21 months and nine-years-old (pictured with father Matthew), but she has occasionally parted with the youngsters

Speaking to FEMAIL, Alana said she took a one-night 'glamping' trip with husband Matthew in Yala National Park, Sri Lanka, and a three-night trip at the Shangri-La Resort in the Maldives.

'Being with them 24 hours, seven days a week - I need a break,' Alana said.

'For both trips, I made a conscious choice to give myself permission to ''be selfish''. The kids are doing home-schooling so we are literally together all the time.'

Although Alana took her eldest son on the 'glamping' trip, and her youngest to the Maldives, she said she experienced an overwhelming sense of 'mummy guilt' for leaving her other children behind.

The kids were left with a Sri Lankan family who Alana began to admire while searching for her 'global village'.

'Each time I leave my kids I feel guilty and question if I should. Often, I will be in tears when I leave,' she said,

Alana said she has previously experienced an overwhelming sense of 'mummy guilt' for leaving her other children behind

'Each time I leave my kids I feel guilty and question if I should. Often, I will be in tears when I leave,' Alana told FEMAIL

'When I return every time, they have had the best time and are not fussed about it.

'I have only left my eldest for an extended time when he was four-years-old, whereas my youngest two have only been left for a maximum one to three nights.'

Alana said she felt like she lost her passion for travel after having her first child, and became stuck in a mundane schedule at her Perth home.

But she said she eventually realised it was fear which was holding her back from continuing to live her dreams.

'I think it is very important to still be an individual. When you became a parent, you often lose your own identity and become a so-and-so parent,' Alana said.

Alana added that it's important for kids to see their parents continuing to live their lives

Alana's partner Matthew (pictured) remains in Australia where he is studying for two crucial exams in February and April

Matthew continues to fly in and out of Asia every two months to see his loved ones, before they are reunited permanently in April

She added: 'I realised it is actually very important for children to see their parents as individuals and see them living their own lives too.'

Alana also encouraged parents to take one or two trips a year together to reconnect as partners.

Meanwhile, her own partner Matthew remains in Australia where he is studying for two crucial exams in February and April.

He continues to fly in and out of Asia every two months to see his loved ones, before they are reunited permanently in April.

'When my husband's exam is over, we are planning on having five nights just the two of us,' Alana said.

'I am getting my mum to come over to look after the kids.'
The Rockettes are just as well known for their immaculate identical looks as they are for their amazing moves onstage.

Ever since the dancing group was first founded back in 1932, every member has been brought into the fold with a spot in the high-kicking line, a glittering uniform and a perfect bright red lipstick.

As the years have gone by, and with fast-moving advances in cosmetics, the ladies' favorite lippy has changed multiple times. But in a recent interview with Allure, the dancers dished on their current pick, which they buy in bulk for the group.

The big moment: The Radio City Rockettes have dished on their favorite red lipstick

Hitting the mark: The dancers are just as known for their matching appearances as they are for their high-kicks

The winner! The troupe's current favorite is the Sephora Collection Cream Lip Stain Liquid Lipstick in 01 Always Red, which retails at $14 a tube

The latest lipstick of choice for the Rockettes is the Sephora Collection Cream Lip Stain Liquid Lipstick in 01 Always Red, which retails at Sephora for $14 a bottle.

'I think we discovered the shade about two years ago,' Sagan Rose told the publication.

'One of the girls bought it and then we all slowly started trying it until everyone got hooked and now I think we all use it.'

Another dancer, Sam, revealed that each dancer will 'usually go through about a tube a season.'

Each of the dancers' make-up stations are home to at least two tubes of the super-red lippy.

Between 80 Rockettes, with 36 being on stage at any one time, that means that the show goes through $1,120 worth of lipstick every holiday season.

One (or two) for all: Each of the dancers' make-up stations contains at least two of the Sephora lipsticks

Touching up: The lipsticks used by the group have changed over the years

An old favorite: The group used to stick to a mix of M.A.C.'s Cherry Lip Liner topped with Russian Red Lipstick

The group frequently performs six shows per day, with each of the separate 40-person casts splitting the shifts.

The shade is perfect for holding a true red pigment, not veering too heavily into the blueish or orange hues, and therefore perfectly matches the holiday-friendly costumes the women wear.

It also is resistance against sweat and smudging - a necessity in a show with multiple costume changes.

'There is nothing worse that going on stage and looking good, feeling good, and then you come off and theres a red streak on your face an thats what everyone was looking at,' Sagan told Allure.

Before swapping over to the Sephora liquid brand, the group previously stuck to a mix of M.A.C. products: the Cherry Lip Liner topped with Russian Red Lipstick.
Massive queues at fish markets this year will have many of us scratching our heads, asking if it's really worth picking up a seafood platter for Christmas.

But one teenage entrepreneur may have the answer many Sydneysiders are looking for, as he prepares home seafood deliveries this weekend.

Antonio Muollo, 18, launched his own seafood delivery business GetFish last month after noticing a gap in the market when he was just 15.

Now the company is promising the delivery of fresh, premium seafood to homes within a 35km radius of the Sydney Fish Market in Pyrmont.

Antonio Muollo (pictured), 18, has launched his own seafood delivery business GetFish before Christmas, promising to bring fresh produce to the doors of Sydneysiders as late as Christmas Eve

Antonio launched his own seafood delivery business GetFish last month after noticing a gap in the market when he was just 15

Customers have until Thursday to lodge their orders for deliveries on December 23 and Christmas Eve.

Antonio said the company has already received an overwhelming response, and has quadrupled its workforce since opening two months ago.

'In this Christmas period it has been absolutely crazy, you couldn't even predict it,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'I've got 850 orders and there is still a day and a half to go. We are expecting maybe 1000 Christmas orders by the end.'

Customers have until Thursday to lodge their orders for deliveries on December 23 and Christmas Eve

Among the produce ready to be delivered are crustaceans, caviar and sashimi

GetFish has struck a partnership with De Costi Seafood to deliver produce from their shop front to people's doors.

Orders over $100 will receive complimentary delivery, while a $10 flat rate will be applied to smaller orders.

Among the produce ready to be delivered are crustaceans, caviar and sashimi.

Although it's the Christmas staple, seafood platters which are flying off the shelves, Antonio said.

'All the produce is looking really good, but the seafood platters (pictured) are going off with the customers,' Antonio said

Meanwhile, Antonio (pictured) plans to continue to grow the business and has just completed his first year of a Bachelor of Business at University of Technology Sydney

He added: 'All the produce is looking really good, but the seafood platters are going off with the customers.'

Meanwhile, Antonio plans to continue to grow the business and has just completed his first year of a Bachelor of Business at University of Technology Sydney.

The business - which already employs up to 40 people - plans to deliver to Canberra, the Central Coast, and greater western Sydney by early 2018, and deliver nationally within the next five years.
Christmas can be a costly time of year - especially if your loved ones have a taste for the finer things in life.

But if you are among those who have left it to the last minute, we can reveal you may be better off.

High street chains have cannily produced their own versions of designer favourites; from the sought-after Jimmy Choo glittered clutch to the KitchenAid mixer.

And as the big day draws closer, some shops are slashing their prices even further to cash in on eleventh hour buyers.

For the savvy shopper, there are big savings to be had for making the switch from big brand to high street.

A Jo Malone Pomegranate diffuser will set you back 62 but Aldi's own take on the scent retails at 3.99.

And anyone after an iPad could have an additional 219.01 by opting for Huaewi's tablet (199.99) over Apple's iconic device (339).

On the left, the present they want. On the right, the one you can actually afford...

Mix it up: KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer in Empire Red 449.99 and Ambiano Red Premium Stand Mixer 149.99 Aldi

They want: KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer in Empire Red, 449.99, Currys

Get them: Ambiano Red Premium Stand Mixer, 149.99, Aldi

Save: 300

KitchenAids sought-after retro mixer comes with an armada of gadgets. Aldis may not have the same cult following, but it looks the part and is pretty nifty.

Zip it: Smythson Panama Large Zip Purse in Red (left, 295) and Aspinal Continental Clutch Zip Wallet in Berry Lizard (right, 160)

They want: Smythson Panama Large Zip Purse 295, smythson.com

Get them: Aspinal Continental Clutch Zip Wallet in Berry Lizard, 160 aspinaloflondon.com

Save: 135

Its three figures for a wallet, but if you buy the Aspinal one, youll have money left to put in it.

Sweet: Jo Malone Pomegranate Noir Scent Surround Diffuser (left, 62) and Aldi Luxury Reed Diffuser in Pomegranate (right, 3.99)

They want: Jo Malone Pomegranate Noir Scent Surround Diffuser, 62, jomalone.co.uk

Get them: Aldi Luxury Reed Diffuser in Pomegranate, 3.99, Aldi

Save: 58.01

Aldis home fragrance is an excellent cut-price alternative to Jo Malone.

Big savings: Mauviel M'Eritage copper and stainless steel pan 24cm (left, 215) and Wilko Copper 24cm Frying Pan (right, 22)

They want: Mauviel Mheritage copper and steel 24cm saute pan, 215, selfridges.com

Get them: Wilko Copper 24cm Frying Pan, 22, wilko.com

Save: 193

Assuming your recipient just likes the look of a copper bottomed pan, Wilkos version will do the job very stylishly.

Scrubs up well: Clarisonic Aria Sonic Cleansing Brush (left, 155) and Magnitone BareFaced VibraSonic Facial Cleansing Brush (right, 59.99)

They want: Clarisonic Aria Sonic Cleansing Brush, 155, Boots

Get them: Magnitone BareFaced VibraSonic Facial Cleansing Brush, 59.99, Argos

Save: 95.01

Although the Magnitone vibrates half as fast as the Clarisonic, itll still exfoliate and help skin absorb your beauty products.

In the pink: Balenciaga Knife Booties (left, 889) and TopShop Mojito Sock Boots (right, 49)

They want: Balenciaga Knife Booties, 889, matchesfashion.com

Get them: TopShop Mojito Sock Boots, 49, Topshop

Save: 840

Sock boots will look hopelessly dated in about three months, so the Topshop version, with a lower heel than the Balenciagas, are clearly the sensible choice.

Starry-eyed: Wyse Maddy Large Star Slouchy jumper in Black/Gold (left, 210) and Red Herring Navy metallic star print jumper (right, 35)

They want: Wyse Maddy Large Star Slouchy jumper in Black/Gold, 210, wyselondon.co.uk

Get them: Red Herring Navy metallic star print jumper, 35, Debenhams

Save: 175

Think how much more practical it is to have a machine washable jumper!

Bronzed beauty: Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick Compact in Bronze (left, 35.50) and Revolution Vivid Shimmer Brick in Bronze Kiss (right, 3)

They want: Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick Compact in Bronze, 35.50, bobbibrown.co.uk

Get them: Revolution Vivid Shimmer Brick in Bronze Kiss, 3, Superdrug

Save: 32.50

Revolutions shimmer brick doesnt boast the fancy packaging of Bobbi Brown, but itll work a treat if you dont mind about the label.

Lady in red: Giambattista Valli Ruffled Silk Chiffon Dress (left, 2,370) and M&S Collection Long Sleeve Midi Dress (right, 25)

They want: Giambattista Valli Ruffled Silk Chiffon Dress, 2,370, net-a-porter.com

Get them: M&S Collection Long Sleeve Midi Dress, 25, Marks & Spencer

Save: 2,345

M&S has swapped silk for polyester and cast off a few ruffles from its homage to Giambattista, but its machine washable and with the money you save you could travel to Barbados to show it off.

Swap: Apple iPad (left, 339) and Huawei MediaPad T3 10in Tablet (right, 119.99)

They want: Apple iPad, 339, apple.com

Get them: Huawei MediaPad T3 10in Tablet, 119.99, amazon.co.uk

Save: 219.01

Each of these tablets will let you stream video, play games and take pictures, and the Huawei actually boasts a longer battery life than the iPad.

Hats off: J Crew Ribbed beanie with faux-fur pom-pom, 39.50 and River Island Black faux fur bobble beanie hat, 14

They want: J Crew Ribbed beanie with faux-fur pom-pom, 39.50

Get them: River Island Black faux fur bobble beanie hat, 14

Save: 25.50

At the end of the day theyll both keep your ears warm.

Sock it to them: Paul Smith Mens Navy And Red Two Stripe Socks, 17 and Thought Jorden Stripey Bamboo Socks in Crimson, 5.95

They want: Paul Smith Mens Navy And Red Two Stripe Socks, 17, paulsmith.com

Get them: Thought Jorden Stripey Bamboo Socks in Crimson, 5.95, wearethought.com

Save: 11.05

The Thought socks are a third of the price, and are partly recycled.

Throwing shade: Tom Dixon Round Copper Pendant Shade, 280 and Frandsen Copper Ball Pendant, 105

They want: Tom Dixon Round Copper Pendant Shade, 280, tomdixon.net

Get them: Frandsen Copper Ball Pendant, 105, madeindesign.co.uk

Save: 175

With the money you save, you could throw in a few light bulbs.

Shave off pounds: Edwin Jagger Chatsworth Barley Shaving Kit, 261 and Nicholas Winter 4 Piece Stainless Steel Shaving Set, 21.99

They want: Edwin Jagger Chatsworth Barley Shaving Kit, 261, edwinjagger.co.uk

Get them: Nicholas Winter 4 Piece Stainless Steel Shaving Set, 21.99, tesco.com

Save: 239.01

Tescos wet shave kit has a similar look and feel  and it will give you a decent shave.

All that glitters: Jimmy Choo Celeste glittered canvas clutch, 675 and Accessorize Sophie Glitter Hard Case Clutch, 22.40 (right)

They want: Jimmy Choo Celeste glittered canvas clutch, 675, net-a-porter.com

Get them: Accessorize Sophie Glitter Hard Case Clutch, 22.40, accessorize.com

Save: 652.60

Theyre rectangular and glittery with a metal clasp and a chain: whats in a name?

Light reading: Lumio Book Lamp Classic Leather, 245 (left) and Book Light, 19.99 (right)

They want: Lumio Book Lamp Classic Leather, 245, conranshop.co.uk

Get them: Book Light, 19.99, firebox.com

Save: 225.01

Only a discerning eye could tell which is the Conran design.

Discount diamonds: Maria Tash Diamond Eternity Earrings, 656 and 9ct Yellow Gold Diamond Huggie Earrings, 295 (right)

They want: Maria Tash Diamond Eternity Earrings, 656, Liberty

Get them: 9ct Yellow Gold Diamond Huggie Earrings, 295, thefinejewellery company.com

Save: 361

One less diamond on each ear for less than half the price!

They want: Ray-Ban Aviator Flash Lenses in Silver Flash, 145, ray-ban.com

Get them: ASVP Shop Silver Mirror Aviator Sunglasses, 2.49, amazon.co.uk

Save: 142.51

Amazons Aviators offer the same UV protection as the Ray-Bans with similar reflective lenses.

And the money you save could go towards flying somewhere sunny.

High stakes: Save 677 by swapping a pair of Christian Louboutin Moulamax Paillettes Caresse, 695 (left) for New Look's Wide Fit Silver Glitter Cone Heel Ankle Boots, 17.49 (right)

They want: Christian Louboutin Moulamax Paillettes Caresse, 695

Get them: New Look Wide Fit Silver Glitter Cone Heel Ankle Boots, 17.49

Save: 677.51

For the loss of the fabulous red soles, the New Look boots are festive fun at a fraction of the price of the Louboutins.
Advertisement

The best thing about having children in the family is that you get to play with their new toys at Christmas...but one couple have taken their obsession with Lego a little further.

Mike Addis, 59, and Catherine Weightman, 54, from Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, have built a different festive creation out the popular bricks every Christmas for the last 25 years.

What began as a way of entertaining their three children, Thomas, Christopher and Holly, has seen Christmas-themed Daleks, a polar bear, Olympic 2012 mascots, angels and a cathedral all temporarily erected in the family home - costing them around 45,000.

A Lego-obsessed family have built an 8ft-tall Victorian dollhouse made of 450,000 bricks in their living room. The immaculately detailed five-storey house has 15 rooms with Christmas trees and period furnishing.

It's beginning to look a lot like brick-mas! A festive Lego scene created by Mike Addis, 59, and Catherine Weightman, 54, from Huntingdon, Cambridge - who estimate they've spent around 45,000 creating festive builds over the last quarter of a century

Two ladies! The 8ft, five-storey house comes with dining quarters for the rich and servant quarters for the employees

Mike and Catherine first began building festive-themed creations when their three children were small. However, their fixation with the popular children's toy has continued to grow - and, without any help from their grown-up kids - they've created a 350,000-brick Christmas house this year

There's even a Christmas scene! Lego characters created by Catherine and Mike dine at a table laid with plastic delights including a turkey. Right: The very spacious bathroom in the 350,000 brick house

Here's looking at you! Mike Addis peers through a window of the 8ft house, which took two months to build

Catherine Weightman holds up one of the more glamorous characters from the five-storey house, which even includes the servant quarters you might find in a Victorian home

The couple estimate their Christmas creations have cost them around 45,000 over the years - with an additional 600 being spent on this year's elaborate design

The husband-and-wife have continued their annual Christmas tradition after their three now grown-up children became 'too embarrassed' to join in.

Their doll-house comes complete with servants' quarters, library, scullery, paintings, wreathes, took them two months to build.

This year they spent around 600 on new pieces - including specialist pieces to attach wall paintings in their dollhouse. The couple have also for the first time this year raised 4,000 for environmental charities by running Lego competitions and making a giant 3D Lego map of the Great Fen nature reserve project.

Catherine, an ecologist for Natural England, said: 'They have generally got bigger and more time consuming now we have got more time now the children have grown up. 'We treat it like a Xmas decoration and we take it down like one too and we usually have a Lego-breakdown party.

'Lego is dominating the living room at the moment. We've been doing it for probably three hours just in the evenings me and Mike but he's semi retired so he spends a bit more time on it.

How it all began: The couple's three children, (from left Christopher, Thomas an Hollyt) pictured with earlier creations, loved helping to build - and even Catherine's father has been involved with the latest yuletide project

Getting bigger: The Addis children - Thomas, then aged 14 , Christopher, then aged 8 and Holly, then 11 stand in front of a Lego nutcracker

'We've just had electricity in Victorian times so we've put some Christmas lights in the rooms. 'The candelabras are made of Lego Star Wars lightsabers.'

She added: 'We like Lego but we have other hobbies too. 'I suppose it's a bit like a jigsaw but on a bigger scale.

'I don't think it is just for children, I think now lots of adults play with Lego, it's very creative and it's just like different hobbies. 'We are both quite patient but you just do what you can.

'When the children were little it was fun doing it as a family and now my parents - my father came in and spent a week and he enjoyed doing it.

Still bigger than us! An early incarnation of a Lego house, which has been bettered by this year's efforts - which even includes Christmas lights

The kids got bored but the adults kept building! Mike says the hobby began in earnest when a visiting child to the house wanted to play with Lego

What goes up, must come down: On Twelfth Night, the family gather with wine and food and begin the lengthy task of taking down the Lego creation

'Good King Wenceslas castle is currently on the table for next year but the chances are it'll change.' Mike, an economist teacher, said they were beginning to 'run out of ideas' for new creations so this year's model was based on their 'far more modest' five-bed end-of-terrace Victorian home.

Mike and Catherine decided to start building models 25 years ago when a family friend brought their child round and the only age-appropriate toys was the couple's Lego from their own childhood.

He said: 'Ironically the child got bored but the adults kept building.'

While the adults played with the Lego, Catherine revealed she had constructed smaller models with her father when she was younger.

However, family tradition is not all lost because the three children still participate in the annual destruction of their artistic model. Mike said: 'On Twelfth Night we invite different friends round and we have some wine, eat and watch a film and take down the model.'

While the whole family will help out in the laborious process, it actually takes several days for the model to be totally dismantled.

Despite their stunning 25 sculptures, the Danish company Lego has never reached out to the enthusiastic Lego fanatics. 'They sent us a standard reply letter and a key ring back in 2006 when I sent in some pictures of our models,' Mike said.
With just days to go until the big day Michaella McCollum appeared to have headed out for a spot of last minute Christmas shopping on Wednesday.

Joined by the same mystery man she was spotted with on Monday, the former convict appeared to be in the market for a very special Christmas gift.

McCollum, who was jailed in 2013 for attempting to internationally smuggle drugs, could be seen eyeing up the ring selection in a jewellers while shopping in Belfast.

Peru Two's Michaella McCollum could be seen eyeing up the rings in a jewellers in Belfast while accompanied by a mystery man

The former model, from County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, could be seen admiring a selection of engagement bands alongside her unknown companion.

The pair were spotted out on Monday evening where they enjoyed dinner in a local restaurant in Belfast's Cathedral Quarter.

The duo seemed to be getting along famously as they headed to the city's Christmas market on Wednesday.

McCollum looked stylish in a pair of leather leggings which she paired with a matching jacket and a chic faux fur stole.

The pair paused to admire the engagement rings for sale at Margaret Forbes in the city centre

The duo, who were last seen enjoying dinner together on Monday, later visited the Christmas market in Belfast

The 24-year-old slipped into a pair of black suede boots with a quirky perspex heel and could be seen carrying a Chanel tote.

Her mysterious companion, meanwhile, opted for a pair of distressed denim jeans and added a pair of sunglasses to his trendy look.

After admiring the ring display in Margaret Forbes, where it is not clear whether they made a purchase, the pair took a stroll to the local Christmas market.

The ex-convict could be seen sampling the fake snow on sale and is believed to have made a purchase

The pair seemed to be getting along famously as they sampled the goods at the local stalls

The pair could be seen admiring the products and several local stalls and McCollum even purchased a packet of fake snow.

Shortly after McCollum could be seen dropping a coin into a buskers guitar case as she made her way home from the market.

It seems that McCollum is well settled back into her Belfast home following her summer of jet-setting and has even returned to college.

Shortly after McCollum could be seen dropping a coin into a buskers guitar case as she made her way home from the market

It is unclear who the McCollum's mystery man is but he appears to be an ever growing presence in her life

On Thursday she was spotted arriving at Millfield College in the city where she is studying Humanities & Social Science.

Over the last few months, Michaella has been spotted living it up in party centres Ibiza and Marbella enjoying sun, sea and cocktails.

How the former drugs smuggler has funded her holidays is unclear, but she has been linked to a number of potentially lucrative opportunities and was recently spotted outside HMP Liverpool where her agent said she was filming a prison documentary.

She was also spotted heading to a morning of meetings at the BBC back in September. Representatives for McCollum told the MailOnline that McCollum had visited the studios today for 'meetings about upcoming projects'.

The jet-setter, who was jailed in Peru alongside Melissa Reid (right) in 2013 for trying to smuggle 1.5million's worth of cocaine into Europe, has since enjoyed a string of holidays R

It has been reported that she has been offered a 250,000 tell all book deal detailing her criminal exploits and time behind bars in Lima.

Her jet-setting lifestyle is a stark contrast to former accomplice Melissa Reid, who has landed a charity job at Citizens Advice.

Reid applied for a job at the charity after she was released from the South American jail last June.

McCollum, by contrast, has been accused of capitalising on her notoriety, and in May it emerged she has signed with a talent agency.

The two were sentenced to spend six years and eight months inside a grim jail in Lima, after they were caught trying to smuggle the huge quantity of cocaine.

The ex-convict was released on parole last March after serving less than half of her sentence but initially had to stay in Peru, where she carried out voluntary work until August when she flew back to Belfast.
Advertisement

Meghan Markle passed her first major test as a member of the Royal Family yesterday  by pulling a cracker with future father-in-law, Prince Charles, donning a paper hat and reading out a corny joke.

Prince Harrys fiance was a guest at the Queens annual Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace, where she was introduced to almost every member of the monarchs extended family.

According to an insider, she appeared slightly nervous initially but soon began to dazzle, with relatives queuing up to meet the princes glamorous bride-to-be for the first time.

Fortunately for the US-born actress  who will no doubt attend her inaugural state banquet next year - these lunches are designed to be fun, not formal.

Everyone wanted to meet Meghan and welcome her to the family and she didnt disappoint, they told the Mail.

She was obviously a bit nervous at first but she soon relaxed with Prince Harrys help as he introduced her to everyone and then she really enjoyed it.

Harry was clearly very happy and very proud of her and everyone thought she was delightful. It was your typical Christmas lunch in spite of who was there  turkey, crackersthe lot. 

The actress has followed in the footsteps of the Duchess of Cambridge - who made the guest list for the first time in 2010, as Prince William's then fiancee - in securing an invitation to the event ahead of her marriage to Prince Harry next May.

However, unlike Kate, Meghan will also join her husband-to-be at the Queen's Sandringham Estate on December 25th - an unprecedented step for someone who is yet to become an official member of the royal family.

Bride-to-be Meghan flashed her dazzling engagement ring from the front seat of Prince Harry's Land Rover as she left the Queen's annual Christmas lunch

Today was the first time that Meghan will have met much of Harry's family, and the invitation is a further sign that she is well and truly part of the royal establishment

Following shortly behind were the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with a sleepy looking Princess Charlotte in the back

Cheerful Kate gave a wave to crowds who had lined the streets outside Buckingham Palace in a hope to catch a glimpse of the royals on their departure

Prince William also appeared to be in a festive mood, smiling to the crowds as he made his way back to Kensington Palace

Charlotte looked adorable in a festive red cardigan and she had her hair tied in a crimson ribbon in honour of the occasion

Prince George did away with his coat for the journey back showcasing a sweet Christmas jumper underneath

The four-year-old could be seen pulling funny faces in the back of his car under the watchful eye of his nanny Maria Borrallo

The Duchess of Cambridge did not spend Christmas at Sandringham until she and William were man and wife.

Although Harry's immediate family has already had the chance to get to know his bride-to-be, Meghan met much of the extended clan for the first time today at the Queen's Christmas get-together.

A cherished royal tradition, the lunch at the palace provides the monarch with the opportunity to spend time with those relatives who don't join her at the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk on the 25th, as well as close members of the family.

And it seems that Meghan's debut, which comes after she wowed crowds when she joined Prince Harry on a public walkabout in Nottingham following their engagement announcement, was a success - with the 36-year-old unable to wipe the smile from her face as she left the palace at around 3.30pm.

The actress was pictured smiling and flashing her dazzling engagement ring as her fiance drove her back to their home at Kensington Palace following the festive lunch.

Also at the lunch today were the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children, who will travel to Norfolk for further celebrations, as were Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall.

Meghan Markle is joining Prince Harry and members of the royal family for the Queen's annual Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace today

The event provides the actress with the opportunity to meet with some of Harry's more distant relatives before their wedding

Meghan is wearing a 300 dress from Self-Portrait, a brand which the Duchess of Cambridge is known to be fan

For the likes of the Queen's cousin Prince Michael of Kent, or his son Lord Frederick Windsor, today's lunch could well have been their first meeting with their new - and already most famous - family member.

Today marked the start of the whirlwind of events that will make up Meghan's first royal Christmas, which will also see her join her soon-to-be in-laws as they walk to the Christmas Day church service on the Sandringham Estate, and being hosted by the monarch for a turkey lunch.

On Wednesday Meghan was whisked to the palace by her Prince, who drove them to the event in a Land Rover Discovery.

The bride-to-be opted for a 300 high necked lace dress from Self-Portrait for the festive lunch, accessorised with a pair of diamond drop earrings.

Among the first to arrive at the Palace were the Cambridges, with Prince William driving, pregnant Kate in the passenger seat, and George and Charlotte in the back with their nanny, Maria Borrallo.

A roaring success? Meghan looked at ease as she departed from her first Christmas lunch with the Queen

The former Suits star was all smiles, having clearly enjoyed her afternoon at Buckingham Palace

Loved up couple! Meghan was seen chatting to her royal beau as they drove away from the palace

Meghan's dark hair was looking even more rich and glossy than ever before

Meghan opted for a glamorous beauty look today, showcasing a smokey eye and a layer of shiny lipgloss in preparation to meet new members of the royal family

Meghan appeared to be full of excitement as she headed to the palace, this being the second time she has been seen since the couple announced their engagement

Among the first to arrive today were the Cambridges, with Prince William taking the wheel while Kate took the passenger seat

Meanwhile Princess Charlotte and Prince George sat in the back with nanny Maria Borrallo

Prince George looked adorable in a navy blue wool coat as he sat patiently while travelling to his great-grandmother's home

As always, Kate's hair was coiffed to perfection, and the Duchess appeared to be wearing a faux-fur trimmed coat

Eagle eyed royal fans may be able to spot Princess Charlotte, who is wearing a red ribbon, behind the Duchess of Cambridge

And the nanny is invited too! Kate and William arrive at the Palace with trusted aide Maria Borrallo - as she takes care of George and Charlotte in the back seat The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's faithful nanny, Spanish-born Maria Borrallo, 46, was spotted next to Prince George in the rear of Prince William's royal car as they family arrived at Buckingham Palace this afternoon Ms Borrallo first began working in the royal household in 2014, when she was employed to take care of Prince George. She trained at the prestigious Norland College Maria Borrallo has been employed in the royal household since 2014 when the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge first recruited her to look after Prince George. Three years on, the Spanish nanny sat in the back of Prince William and Kate's royal car as they arrived at the Palace this afternoon for their seasonal lunch. With Prince George, 4, clearly seen sitting on his booster seat, it's assumed Princess Charlotte, 2, was just out of view in the vehicle's rear. Ms Borrallo has been a regular fixture at major royal events and has also travelled abroad with the couple. With the Cambridge brood set to expand in April when Kate gives birth to a third child, the 46-year-old's childcare remit is set to get even bigger. Ms Borrallo trained at the prestigious Norland College which has been producing childminders for the rich and famous since 1892. The institution's students are known for their distinctive uniforms and are schooled in all aspects of looking after youngsters during their three-year degree course. Advertisement

Prince Charles looked dapper in a suit as he was joined by Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall in the passenger seat

Both Charles and Camilla are expected at Sandringham for Christmas but today also gives them the opportunity to see some of their more distant family

Camilla looked elegant in a forest green coat and could be seen smiling to the cameras upon her arrival at the palace

The Duchess of Cornwall was driven to Buckingham Palace for the traditional family lunch with her husband, Prince Charles

Lady Amelia Windsor, granddaughter of the Duke of Kent, was dubbed Britain's most beautiful royal by Tatler and proved herself worthy of the title this afternoon

George Windsor, Earl of St Andrews, drove his elegant daughter to the event accompanied by his wife Sylvana Tomaselli

Stylish couple: Prince and Princess Michael of Kent arrive in style for the Queen's Christmas lunch

Prince Charles was also in attendance on Wednesday, accompanied by his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, who looked chic in a forest green jacket.

Not far behind was Princess Eugenie, who was snapped in the passenger seat of a car as she made her way to her grandmother's house.

The 27-year-old had opted for a festive red dress, which could be seen poking from beneath a navy blue coat.

A FAMILY AFFAIR! THE GUESTLIST AT THE QUEEN'S CHRISTMAS LUNCH The Queen's annual pre-Christmas lunch is a royal tradition, and gives the monarch an opportunity to catch up with those relatives who don't join her at Sandringham over the festive period. Closer relatives join the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at her Norfolk estate from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day to enjoy traditional celebrations, including a bracing walk to church on December 25th and a turkey lunch. For those spending the big day with their own immediate families, the annual lunch at Buckingham Palace is the perfect opportunity, and often the only opportunity in the calendar, to spend time with all of their relatives at once. The family enjoy a three course lunch in the Buckingham Palace dining rooms before heading home in the late afternoon. This year's guest list included.... The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with Princess Charlotte and Prince George

Prince Harry and fiance Meghan Markle

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall

The Princesses of York, Beatrice and Eugenie

Sophie, The Countess of Wessex and Lady Louise Windsor

George Windsor, Earl of St Andrews, Sylvana Tomaselli and daughters Lady Amelia and Marina Windsor

The Duke and Duchess of Kent

Princess Anne and Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence

Peter and Autumn Phillips with daughters Savannah and Isla

Lord Frederick Windsor, Freddie and Maud Windsor

Prince and Princess Michael of Kent with Lady Gabriella Windsor

The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester with grandson Rufus Gilman

Princess Alexandra

Lord Nicholas Windsor, Lady Paola, Albert and Louis Windsor

Viscountess Serena Linley, Charles and Margarita Armstrong-Jones

Lady Sarah and Daniel Chatto

Lady Helen Taylor, Timothy, Estella, Cassius, Eloise and Columbus Taylor Advertisement

Princess Eugenie was among the first to arrive at the Queen's annual Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday

The Queen's granddaughter appeared to be in good spirits as she arrived at the palace

Following behind was her elder sister Princess Beatrice who gave a wave to the cameras as she made her way through palace gates

Princess Beatrice is another to regularly attend Christmas celebrations at Sandringham but looked delighted to be catching up with other relatives

For the drive back the two sisters swapped seats so that Eugenie was able to sit up front well Beatrice sat in the back

Sophie, the Countess of Wessex cut an unusually informal figure as she drove her daughter Lady Louise Windsor to the palace

Sophie could be seen wearing a denim jacket as well as a rarely seen pair of spectacles while her daughter looked festive in a red cardigan

Autumn Phillips, the wife of Peter Phillips seen at the wheel of the vehicle as one of today's earliest arrivals.

Eagle eyed royal fans may have been able to spot her daughter Isla Phillips, who appeared to be in an excitable mood ahead of Christmas.

Unusually Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, husband of Princess Anne, chose to walk to the event doing away with cars like his fellow royals.

Members of the extended family in attendance included the Queen's cousin Prince Michael of Kent who arrived with his daughter Lady Gabriella Windsor and his wife Princess Michael, who looked typically glamorous.

It seems there were plenty of youngsters to keep Charlotte and George company on Wednesday with Lord Frederick Windsor arriving with his two children Freddie, and Maud - who attends the same Battersea school as George.

It seems that Meghan is being well and truly welcomed into the royal family after it was confirmed that she will join them for celebrations in Sandringham over Christmas.

Princess Anne's husband Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence did away with a car and chose to arrive at the event on foot

Smartly dressed in a sharp suit with a crisp white shirt and a red tie, Sir Laurence, 62, clearly left some of the crowds a tad confused, with many unsure as to whether a royal would actually walk in the rain to the gates of Buckingham Palace

Princess Anne arrived separately to her husband, travel by car rather than join Laurence on the walk

The Queen's daughter was wrapped up warm in a beige coat and a blue silk scarf as she made her way to the palace

He just strolled right in! Princess Anne's husband Sir Timothy Laurence greets well-wishers as he WALKS into Buckingham Palace (and he's done it before) Easier on foot! Princess Anne's husband retired British naval officer Mr Laurence, 62, surprised many of the tourists gathered outside Buckingham Palace this afternoon by eschewing a royal car in favour of attending on foot Princess Anne's husband Timothy Laurence opted for the low-key approach as he arrived for the Queen's Christmas lunch this afternoon. Eschewing a royal car, the 62-year-old Vice Admiral opted to use his own two feet to attend the lavish festive affair. Dressed for the inclement weather in a green tweed overcoat, Laurence also donned a sharp suit with crisp white shirt and an eye-catching pillar-box red tie. As he strode past hundreds of tourists, only a few seemed to realise there was a royal in the midst and reached for their smartphones to capture a picture. Obviously not a fan of London traffic, the retired British naval officer Mr Laurence has taken the 'on foot' option before when attending the Queen's annual Christmas event. Advertisement

The Queen's granddaughter-in-law Autumn Phillips could be seen at the wheel of the car, with eagle eyed royal fans being able to spot Isla Phillips in the back

For their return journey Peter Phillips took the wheel to drive his wife and daughter home from the lunch

Among the young arrivals was Maud Windsor, who attends the same school as distant cousin Prince George

Freddie Windsor (seen far left) Maud's younger brother appeared to have dozed off on the journey over

Lord Frederick Windsor drove his wife and daughter to the palace from their home in London on Wednesday

Lord Frederick, who is the son of the Queen's cousin, Prince Michael of Kent, appeared to be in good spirits as he made the drive home

The star, 36, will spend the festive period at Her Majesty's private estate in Norfolk even though Kate Middleton was only asked after she walked down the aisle with Prince William in 2011.

The Queen's invitation to the US-born actress is further evidence of the royal family's warm welcome for her ahead of the couple's May wedding at Windsor Castle.

Meghan, who will take British citizenship and get baptised by the Church of England before the wedding, will also attend the Christmas Day service at St Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham.

She and Harry, 33, who are now living together in a two-bed cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace, will also take part in the traditional walk to mass by the entire royal family.

Confirming the news today a Kensington Palace spokesman said: 'You can expect to see The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Harry and Ms Markle at Sandringham on Christmas Day.'

The Queen's cousin Prince Michael of Kent arrived with his wife Princess Michael of Kent who looked typically glamorous

Lady Gabriella Windsor, daughter of Prince Michael of Kent, looked stylish in a red coat as she was driven to the palace by her parents

The Duchess of Gloucester whose husband is the Queen's cousin is a regular at the palace lunch

Another of the Queen's cousins Princess Alexandra appeared to be in a good mood as she made her way to the lunch

Lord Nicholas Windsor, the son of the Duke of Kent, was unusual in taking a taxi to the event on Wednesday accompanied by his son Albert

The wife of Lord Nicholas, Lady Paola, (left) was pictured holding their youngest son Louis in the back of the taxi

Albert Windsor, 10, the eighth grandchild of the Duke and Duchess of Kent arriving with his family

Viscountess Serena Linley was behind the wheel driving her teenage son Charles Armstrong-Jones to the festive lunch

Margarita Armstrong-Jones sat in the back who at 15, has appeared to have already inherited her mother, Viscountess Serena Linley's, elegance

The Duke and Duchess of Kent were joined by granddaughter Marina Windsor for their journey to Buckingham Palace

Daniel Chatto wrapped up warm as he drove the Queen's niece Lady Sarah Chatto to the much anticipated event

The Duke of Kent's daughter, Lady Helen Taylor, was accompanied by her whole family including husband Timothy Taylor, and two children Estella, Cassius, Eloise and Columbus Taylor

The Duke of Gloucester sat with his grandson Rufus who paid tribute to the Queen by clutching a corgi stuffed toy

Meghan's attendance today comes just a few days before she heads to Sandringham in Norfolk where she will spend Christmas with the royal family

Meghan looked preened to perfection for her visit to the palace while Harry looked dapper in a suit and tie

Maria Borrallo has been working for the Cambridges for three years and is often on hand to provide assistance at family events
A couple who run a newsagents have melted hearts by revealing they are opening specially on Christmas day, just so lonely people can come in 'for a hug and a mince pie'.

Shashi and Pallu Patel, who own Meet and Deep Newsagents in Twickenham, London, shared a heartwarming post on Facebook, with a photo of them holding a sign that read: 'If you are alone, pop in for a hug and a mince pie! You dont have to buy anything, we are family.'

The photo was shared more than 11,000 times, leaving the Patel's inundated with well-wishers praising them for their kind gesture and some even said that the shop owners' selfless action had brought them to tears.

On Christmas Day, the couple will be dressing up in festive costumes, playing carols and handing out cakes and sweets to anyone who wants to stop by when they open the shop for two hours.

But this isn't the first year they have welcomed strangers into their shop to share a bit of Christmas cheer, according to their son Deepen Patel, 36, who revealed they have been doing it for nearly 10 years.

Despite it being the couple's only day off every year, they still choose to open the shop to the community because they feel it's important to give back.

Shashi and Pallu Patel from Twickenham, London run a newsagents and will be opening their doors on Christmas day to members of the community who are in need of cheering up

The shop owners first became inspired when an elderly woman named Dot came into the shop just before Christmas and told them how she'd been burgled by a man masquerading as a boiler fitter.

As a warning to the local elderly community, their eldest son took to Facebook to warn others to be extra cautious.

To their surprise, people started to turn up to the shop with gifts for Dot, which the family collected and put it in a Christmas sack.

He said: 'We asked her to come to the shop on Christmas day and gave her the bag. She questioned what it was all about so we explained that it was a present from the community to her.

The photo of the couple became flooded with positive responses on Facebook from people saying how kind it was that they were doing this

Every year the Hindu family dress up, play Christmas carols and offer sweets and cakes to people who come in to the shop. From left to right: Shashi, Pallu, Mitz and Deepan

'She was so happy and she was in tears and she said it was one of the best Christmases she had ever had.'

Pallu explained that Dot, who was in her 80s, had spent her life doing voluntary work and that inspired them to do their own service to the community every Christmas.

'At first we just put a sign up outside that said if people were alone on Christmas that they were welcome to come in. We didn't think anybody would, but we had a really good response to people coming in and that was about eight years ago now.'

'One man came in who said that it was his first Christmas without his wife and children following a divorce and that spending time with us made his day.'

The family who originally came to the UK from India have run the store for 35 years

Shashi and Pallu Patel with their sons Deepen and Mitz from a previous Christmas celebration in their shop

Deepen added: 'We are Hindus, so sometimes people ask us why we bother because it's not our festival.

'But we still believe that Christmas is about spreading the message of love that's and no one should be alone.'

'We have a mental health centre down the road and we invited everyone from there last year because there are lots of people who feel isolated or especially struggle around Christmas.'

Its not just at Christmas that the family try to spread the joy, they often write quotes to cheer up passers by

Despite it being the couple's only day off in a year, they still choose to open the shop to the community because they feel that it is important to give back

'Theres one lady who walks 45 minutes just to come to the shop because shes on her own.

'She asked for a mince pie without nuts because shes allergic so we ordered in mince pies without nuts especially for her.

Deepan said: 'We want to contribute to our community, yes we are Hindu but we are British people and we believe in celebrating God in many forms. Our parents have always bought us up to help others - no matter what day it is.'
Ivanka Trump donned one of her most beloved prints this morning as she headed out to work in a plaid coat.

The senior White House adviser, 36, was seen heading out of her house in Washington, D.C. around 7:45 this morning, getting an early start to her work day.

She paired her gray coat, which had large, white buttons and plaid shoulder flaps, with black pants tucked into leather boots.

Trademark: Ivanka Trump donned one of her most beloved prints this morning as she headed out to work in a plaid coat

Ready: The senior White House adviser, 36, was seen heading out of her house in Washington, D.C. around 7:45 this morning, getting an early start to her work day

Details: Her gray coat featured large, white buttons, a large collar and plaid shoulder flaps

The boots, with a thick high heel, featured laces going up the bottom half of the shoes.

With her plaid coat, the former model returned to a pattern she has often favored, and has worn on tops, dresses and skirts over the past few months.

Ivanka was ready to face the cool D.C. temperatures and buttoned her coat all the way up in addition to carrying a pair of black gloves in her left hand.

She kept her eyes trained in front of her for most of the short walk between her house in the upscale neighborhood of Kalorama to the parked Secret Service vehicle waiting for her at the end of her driveway.

Outfit: Ivanka paired the coat with black pants tucked into leather boots with laces on the bottom half of the shoes

Chill: She was ready to face the cool D.C. temperatures and buttoned her coat all the way up in addition to carrying a pair of black gloves in her left hand

One of her faves: With her plaid coat, the former model returned to a pattern she has often favored, and has worn on tops, dresses and skirts over the past few months

Focus: She kept her eyes trained in front of her for most of the short walk between her house in the upscale neighborhood of Kalorama to the parked Secret Service vehicle waiting for her

Departure: Jared Kushner, 36, Ivanka's husband and her fellow White House adviser, grinned widely at the camera as he left the family house about 20 minutes before his wife this morning

Duties: Jared and Ivanka both attended a Cabinet meeting at the White House later in the morning

Meeting: They sat next to each other and could be seen bowing their heads along with the rest of the attendees during a prayer

Her husband and fellow White House adviser, Jared Kushner, 36, left about 20 minutes before his wife this morning.

He stuck to his classics by wearing a dark suit and tie, and grinned widely at the camera as he went down the stairs.

Jared and Ivanka both attended a Cabinet meeting at the White House later in the morning. They sat next to each other and could be seen bowing their heads along with the rest of the attendees during a prayer.

Yesterday, Ivanka cut a festive silhouette as she left for work this morning in a scarlet pantsuit.

She paired the suit with a simple black turtleneck and her trademark five-inch black stilettos, and carried her matching coat on her arm as she walked towards the Secret Service SUV waiting for her outside of her house.

Ivanka wore her hair down on her shoulders in a classic blowout, and finished her outfit with a tiny black purse.

She smiled as she departed her house in the upscale neighborhood of Kalorama and glanced at the camera before stepping inside the SUV.

Seasonal: Ivanka cut a festive silhouette as she left for work yesterday in a scarlet pantsuit

Reunited: On Monday night, Ivanka took to Instagram to share this photo of herself celebrating the seventh night of Hanukkah with her husband Jared Kushner, 36, and their children

Previously: Ivanka shared a similar photo of herself along with Jared, Arabella, six, Joseph, four, and Theodore, one, as the family celebrated Hanukkah last week

The mother of three is currently back in D.C. after traveling to her hometown of New York City on Monday for a Fox & Friends interview.

She returned to Washington on Monday evening, in time to celebrate the seventh night of Hanukkah with her family yesterday evening.

Ivanka took to Instagram to share a photo of herself with her husband and fellow senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, 36, posing in front of their lit menorahs with their children Arabella, six, Joseph, four, and Theodore, one.

The first daughter held her youngest son in her arms while Jared picked up Joseph and a joyful Arabella posed with her arms spread out.

Since her move to Washington in the early days of the Trump administration, Ivanka has spoken very little about her conversion to Judaism before she married Jared.

Despite this, she has been very active on Instagram with regards to her faith, and has shared several festive pictures over the past week.

Earlier on Monday, Ivanka was pictured leaving Fox & Friends, smiling at the few passersby who had gathered to witness her exit.

The senior White House adviser wore a form-fitting blue dress and kept her hair down in a slick blow-dry during the interview, which focused on the GOP's proposed tax plan.

By the time she left Fox's studios in New York City's Midtown, Ivanka appeared to have completely changed her clothes, and cut an all-black silhouette, save for a few details.

On her way out: Ivanka left Fox & Friends on Monday morning in an all-black outfit, and smiled at the few passersby who had gathered to witness her exit

Previously: Earlier on Monday, Ivanka wore a form-fitting blue dress and kept her hair down in a slick blow-dry during the interview, which focused on the GOP's proposed tax plan

She donned a pair of quirky black shoes with kitten heels and straps made out of rows of white pearls, and had a white Peter Pan collar peeking out at the top of her outfit.

Ivanka wore her hair in a low ponytail tied with a long, flowy black ribbon.

She waved as she exited the studios and walked towards her parked car, and acknowledged the handful of children and adults who were taking her photo nearby.

Ivanka appeared to be in a sunny disposition, perhaps excited to be back in New York City, which she left for D.C. after her father became president and she and Jared both took on senior roles in his administration.

Fox's headquarters in New York City are located just a 13-minute walk away from Trump Tower, where Ivanka's brand opened a new store just last week.

During her interview on Fox & Friends yesterday morning, Ivanka said Republicans are on track to approve tax cuts before the end of the month.

'In business, until it's done it's not done, but we feel very, very confident, so the momentum is there. We're very excited,' she said. 'When the vote is done, we'll be done, but we're going to deliver historic tax reforms, and it's going to happen before Christmas.'

The Senate passed the tax plan early on Wednesday morning, and the House is poised to back it later today.

Republicans in Congress have argued that the reform is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fix a tax code that stifles business investment, keeps trillions in corporate profits languishing overseas and slows the American economy.

Democrats and most nonpartisan analysts see things rather differentlyand they point to history to argue their case. They see the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as an ill-conceived bill that will further enrich the wealthy and swell the government's debts by at least $1 trillion in the next decade. Previous tax cuts, they note, have done little to boost hiring, raise wages or accelerate economic growth.

The president's daughter has had a heavy hand in framing the GOP's tax reform plan as beneficial to the middle class and pushing through a large increase in the child tax credit. She traveled across the country, appearing at public events, and made several trips to Capitol Hill.
After a family lunch at Buckingham Palace hosted by the Queen herself, it's no wonder Princess Charlotte was feeling a little sleepy today.

The two-year-old royal looked all partied out as she left her great-grandmother's festive get-together at Buckingham Palace this afternoon.

The adorable youngster joined her parents, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and brother Prince George in leading the departures.

George, four, also looked visibly overwhelmed as the family drove away from the Christmas party.

Scroll down for video

Adorable Princess Charlotte, two, looked all partied out as she peeked out from the back seat of her parents' car today following the Queen's annual Christmas lunch

The toddlers were joined in the back seat by 'super nanny' Maria Borrallo who is also believed to have been on hand during the meal to keep them entertained.

Charlotte was dressed in an adorable burgundy cardigan over a floral frock, while her older brother donned an 85 knit from Amaia.

The tot hasn't been seen in public since July, when she and George accompanied their parents on a royal tour of Germany and Poland.

Today's lunch offered a chance for Meghan Markle to meet some of her future in-laws for the first time as she rubbed shoulders with the likes of Prince Edward, Sophie Wessex, and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.

But George and Charlotte weren't the only youngsters invited today, with Isla Phillips, five, and Maud Windsor - who goes to the same school as George - also spotted arriving at the palace.

Best behaviour: The toddlers were joined in the back seat by 'super nanny' Maria Borrallo (second right) who is also believed to have been on hand during the meal to keep them entertained

Fit for a princess! Charlotte was dressed in an adorable burgundy cardigan over a floral frock, while her older brother donned an 85 knit from Amaia

Family affair: Today's lunch offered a chance for Meghan Markle to meet some of her future in-laws for the first time as she rubbed shoulders with the likes of Edward and Sophie Wessex

It's set to be a big year for the little princess, after it was announced this week that Charlotte will begin attending an exclusive London nursery from next month

A royally good guest list! George and Charlotte weren't the only youngsters invited today, with Isla Phillips, five, and Maud Windsor - who goes to the same school as George - also spotted arriving at the palace

It was announced this week that Charlotte will begin attending an exclusive London nursery from next month.

William and Kate, who is pregnant with the couple's third child, will send the two-year-old to Willcocks Nursery School, located close to their Kensington Palace home.

Charlotte will enjoy pottery and poetry classes at the sought-after nursery, which is rated 'outstanding' by Ofsted and located next to the Royal Albert Hall.

Fees are 9,150 a year for morning sessions and 5,400 for afternoons.
To kick off that festive feeling many of us love nothing more than getting together with our families to decorate the tree, and it seems the royals are just like us.

Norway's royal family, including a festive-looking Princess Mette-Marit, 80, gathered this afternoon to deck the halls at the Royal Palace in Oslo.

The mother-of-three was picture perfect for the occasion in a festive red dress alongside her dapper husband Crown Prince Haakon

The couple and their two children Princess Ingrid Alexandra and Prince Sverre Magnus of Norway joined King Harald and Queen Sonja, both 80, gathering around the tree for a touching family portrait.

The Norwegian royal family posed together for a festive photograph in front of the Christmas tree. Left to right: Prince Prince Sverre Magnus, King Harald, Crown Princess Mette-Marit, Queen Sonja, Crown Prince Haakon and Princess Ingrid Alexandra at the Royal Palace

Prince Sverre Magnus and his sister Princess Ingrid Alexandra decorated the tree while their grandparents and King Harald and Queen Sonja looked on

In heartwarming group shots, the King and Queen sat down with the family posing around them.

Princess Ingrid, 13, perched on the arm of her grandmother's chair, while her brother stood close to his grandmother on the other side of the image.

The royal children also decorated the palace Christmas tree while their grandparents kept a watchful eye.

Queen Sonja looked glamorous in a red dress that she accessorised with a statement gold necklace, co-ordinating with her daughter-in-law Mette-Marit.

The royal children seemed to be getting into the spirit of the season as they decorated

Princess Ingrid Alexandra, who is second in line to the throne, looked happy as she hung baubles

The young royal appeared to be sharing a joke with her grandfather while they decorated

Proving style runs in the family, teenage Prrincess Ingrid looked pretty in an all black outfit, consisting of a black dress and matching shoes.

Her mother Mette-Marit, a former waitress, met her future husband at a music festival in the 1990s when she was a single mother and married into the royal family in 2001.

Noticeably missing from the photographs was Mette Marit's first son Marius, now 20.

Prince Haakon and his wife Princess Mette-Marit joined in for a family photo

The festive photographs were taken in the lavish Royal Palace in Oslo, Norway

Earlier this year it was announced that he would formally step away from public life to pursue a degree in business studies at a university in California.

Over the years, his mother has become widely respected for her charity work and has been a special representative for UNAIDS, a branch of the UN that focuses on dealing with HIV and AIDS.

She also joined the Norwegian aid agency NORAD as an intern, and is a patron of several Norwegian charities, including the Oslo International Church Music Festival and the Norwegian Scouting Association.

Princess Mette-Marit and Queen Sonja appeared to be coordinating as both women wore chic red dresses
There's surely nothing more festive than having a traditional Christmas concert in the comfort of your own home.

And this evening Belgian's royal family enjoyed that very treat as they hosted guests at the opulent Palais Royal in Brussels for the annual festive performance.

Queen Mathilde, 44, showed she's well and truly in the Christmas spirit donning a glittering gold lace dress.

She was accompanied by her four children Princess Elisabeth, 16, Prince Gabriel, 14, Prince Emmanuel, 12, and Princess Eleonore, nine, and husband King Philippe for the family occasion.

The mother-of-four looked striking in a gold lace dress teamed with towering heels in a matching metallic shade.

Queen Mathilde of Belgium, 44, was a picture of festive perfection in gold lace as she joined her husband and children for the annual Christmas concert at the opulent Palais Royal in Brussels

A family affair! Left to right: Prince Gabriel, Prince Aymeric, Queen Mathilde, Princess Eleonore, King Philippe, Princess Elisabeth , Prince Emmanuel, Prince Nicolas attend the traditional Christmas concert

Princess Elisabeth, 16, looked every inch the young lady in a black lace top and smart beige trousers as she held hands with her little sister Eleonore who looked festive in a bright red dress.

Meanwhile the boys and their gather looked dapper in dark suits and colourful ties.

They all made sure to stop and pose for a family photo in front of the Christmas tree before the annual concert, held annually to thank everyone who has assisted the royal family with their duties throughout the year.

Prince Nicolas and Prince Aymeric, the sons of King Philippe's brother Prince Laurent also joined the family for the occasion.

His sister Princess Astrid matched her sister-in-law by wearing a gold jacket, attending the festivities with her husband Prince Lorenz and daughter Princess Luisa Maria.

Family gathering! Left to right: Princess Claire, Prince Gabriel, Prince Aymeric, Queen Mathilde, Princess Eleonore, King Philippe, Princess Elisabeth , Prince Emmanuel, Prince Nicolas, Princess Astrid, Prince Lorenz and Princess Luisa Maria

Princess Astrid (right) joined the festivities with her husband Prince Lorenz and daughter Luisa

Impeccably co-ordinated as always, Mathilde looked elegant in a gold lace dress

The family take their seats in the front row ahead of the musical performance

The family made sure to pause for a festive photo in front of the opulent Christmas tree
Velvet dresses are a party season staple, and naturally Europe's most stylish royals are embracing the festive trend.

Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, 40, attended a formal event at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm, which awards the Nobel Prize for literature, looking sensational in a purple velvet number.

She was accompanied by her husband Prince Daniel, 44, who looked dapper in a black tailcoat.

The affectionate couple smiled for the waiting cameras as the heir to the throne held on to her husband's arm for support.

Her pregnant sister Princess Madeleine also kept things high in the glamour stakes, dressing her baby bump in a floor-length navy blue gown - the same shade sported by new mother Princess Sofia, who showed off a new longer, curled hairstyle.

Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, 40, attended a formal event in the Swedish Academy in Stockholm on Wednesday night with her husband Prince Daniel

Also at the formal event was Prince Carl Philip and his wife Princess Sofia, who wore a stylish blue gown, while pregnant Princess Madeleine also opted for a similar shade

Victoria looked glamorous in her floor length velvet dress, which she wore under a black fur coat.

She wore a matching pair of velvet heels and a discreet pair of black tights for added warmth.

She accessorised with a shimmering silver clutch bag and a dainty pair of diamond earrings.

Princess Sofia and Prince Carl Philip took a night off from parenting duties, having welcomed their second son Prince Gabriel in August.

Victoria kept warm in the winter weather in a stylish black fur coat over a dazzling purple velvet dress

The royal affectionately held onto the arm of Prince Daniel as they entered the event

The couple seemed to be in high spirits and smiled to the waiting cameras outside the venue

Prince Daniel looked dapper in a black tailcoat as he accompanied his wife to the event

The former model looked radiant, showcasing a new longer hairdo which she wore in curls swept back from her face with a glittering headband.

She wisely covered up against the winter chill with a jaunty black coat embellished with applique polka dots, while Prince Carl Philip looked dapper in a formal suit.

Much like the Queen's Christmas Day speech, the Swedish royal family release a Christmas message a few days ahead of the big day where they reflect on the year that's gone and the one ahead.

On 23rd the family celebrate the birthday of Queen Silvia, who will turn 74 on Saturday, with a German fruit cake served in a nod towards her heritage.

Victoria and Daniel warmed the hearts of royal watchers when they released their annual Christmas card earlier this week.

They shared portraits and even a video of the foursome enjoying activities such as sledging and snowball fights at Haga Castle.

Victoria showed she's a good sport as she came off badly in a snowball attack by her husband and daughter Estelle.
A young woman's dream trip to Paris ended with her fighting for her life after a heat rash on her thigh became infected with a flesh-eating bug.

Sydney Shipley, 21, from Williamstown, New Jersey, was hours away from losing her leg when she underwent emergency surgery to remove a hunk of diseased tissue on her thigh.

The bank cashier's nightmare unfurled in August during her trip to the French capital with her then-boyfriend and his mom, which was her first time leaving the Unites States.

Nightmare: Sydney Shipley developed a heat rash on her inner thigh that developed into a flesh-eating bug while touring Paris with her then-boyfriend and his mom in August

Painful: Sydney assumed the rash was nothing out of the ordinary, but over the course of three days it started burn and spread until she could no longer walk

As the tourists traipsed around the city sightseeing in the summer heat, Sydney said her legs were chafing and she developed a red rash on her inner thighs.

She assumed it was nothing out of the ordinary and that night, she rubbed and picked at a pimple that had formed on it before going to sleep and thinking nothing else of it.

But over the next three days the red patch began to burn, became puffy, and started to spread until it covered most of her inner thigh and she could not walk - only waddle.

By the end of her summer holiday Sydney was vomiting, had a fever, and was unable to put any weight on her leg, which had swollen to twice its regular size.

Recovery: When she arrived back in the US, she was rushed to the hospital and underwent emergency surgery

Result: By the time she got in the operating room the tissue had died, and doctors ended up removing a huge, teardrop-shaped chunk of flesh

She was wheeled onto the plane home and the moment she landed back in the US, rushed to hospital where she was diagnosed with 'flesh-eating bug' necrotizing fasciitis.

'I was in agony. It was a sharp, stabbing, burning pain and I literally felt it to my bones,' she said.

'All the doctors and nurses that came into the room were in shock and covered their mouths. They kept saying, 'We are running out of time.'

'It was very scary but all I knew was that I needed it to be over. If they had to cut my leg off I was ready for that to be done,' she explained.

Close call: Sydney's thigh is pictured one week after her emergency surgery. Doctors told her she would have lost her leg if she waited a few hours longer

Keeping covered: Syndey admits didn't look at her thigh until almost two months after the surgery. Her leg is pictured one month after the surgery

Hard to believe: 'I had heard of the flesh-eating disease and seen it on the TV but I never thought I would get it,' she said. Her thigh is pictured one month after her emergency surgery

'By the time I got in the operating room the tissue had died, and they ended up removing a huge, teardrop-shaped chunk of flesh.

'The doctors said if I had waited a few hours longer I would have lost my leg and if I'd waited another day I probably would have died.'

Sydney spent four days in intensive care at Virtua Hospital in New Jersey before being moved to the pulmonary unit for three days as she was suffering respiratory failure.

She was discharged after a week of being pumped with fluid and antibiotics and spent the following month on bed-rest, with nurses visiting every other day to re-dress the gaping wound.

Next step: In October she had a skin graft using bio-engineered skin which left her with a permanent scar

Unsightly: Her wound is pictured one week after she had her skin graft surgery

Theory: Although no one knows for sure, Doctors believe the necrotizing fasciitis got into her rash after she touched something with her hands and then touched her thigh

She admits she didn't look at her thigh until almost two months after the surgery for fear of being grossed out and said: 'I couldn't believe it was my leg.'

In October she had a skin graft using bio-engineered skin which left her with a permanent scar, but she credits the ordeal with changing her outlook on life.

Now Sydney, who is no longer with the boyfriend she went to Paris with, wants to spread the word about necrotizing fasciitis and shared a warning not to pick rashes.

'When the trip was coming up I was so excited but really nervous because of all the terrorist attacks. Then this happened,' she said.

Finally healing: Sydney's thigh is pictured one month after she had her skin graft

New outlook on life: 'I wouldn't wish the pain on my worst enemy, but I feel so lucky to have survived,' she said. Sydney's thigh is pictured now

'I had heard of the flesh-eating disease and seen it on the TV but I never thought I would get it.

'Doctors think the necrotizing fasciitis got into my rash after I touched something with my hands and then touched my thigh, but no one knows for sure.

'We're months down the line now and I'm still dealing with it,' she added. 'I wouldn't wish the pain on my worst enemy, but I feel so lucky to have survived.

'I want to tell people not to pick their rashes and if you have any sign of an infection, go to a doctor or urgent care if you feel it might be more serious.

'If you don't, you could end up losing a limb or your life. It's not worth the wait.'
Last month, harrowing footage of migrants being sold as slaves for as little as $400 was uncovered by CNN.

The footage sent ripples of outrage across the world and led to Libya's internationally recognized government announcing it would probe the allegations, but then the news appeared to fade from the front pages.

Now one artist is trying to keep the issue's awareness alive by dedicating a project to the plight of migrants being auctioned off as slaves.

Scroll down for video

Making a statement: A powerful photo series raising awareness for the Libyan slave crisis sees models in the forest marked 'not for sale'

Kofi Dua, a 23-year-old photographer based in New York City, recently had some models pose as father and daughter for what he describes as 'a PSA editorial for the The Libyan Slave Trade,' entitled Not For Sale.

'I got my inspiration from the news feed and social media. I felt like to create better awareness of the problem, I had to do a PSA [public service announcement] editorial to start up the conversation,' Kofi told Yahoo.

The shoot, conducted in a forest, sees the models dressed in dark, brown and black clothing and walking barefoot.

Looped around the ankle of the little girl, Mylah Shyv, four, is a large light blue price tag, reading: 'NOT FOR SALE.'

Stepping up: The models are shown wearing dark clothes and walking barefoot

Driving the message: Kofi Dua, a 23-year-old photographer based in New York City, shared the images on Instagram, where they went viral

In another image, the 'father', Kwasi Opoku, 24, sits on a rock with a price tag slapped over his mouth.

Ghana-born Kofi shared the images on Instagram, writing in the caption: 'WE ARE NOT FOR SALE! All lives must be cherished and valued.

'It is our duty to stand for injustice and hold people responsible for their actions. We are not for sale. We shall not go backwards but forward.'

The post has gained more than 6,000 likes since first being posted as well as becoming widely shared on other pages.

Lots to say: Thousands of African migrants have traveled through Libya trying to get to Europe

African migrants from nations including Guinea and Senegal but also Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Gambia make the dangerous crossing through the Sahara to Libya with hopes of making it over the Mediterranean Sea to Italy.

But testimony collected by AFP has revealed a litany of rights abuses at the hands of gangsters, human traffickers and the Libyan security forces, while many end up stuck in the unstable North African nation for years.

More than 8,800 stranded migrants have been returned home this year, according to the International Organization for Migration, which is also compiling evidence of slavery.

In a meeting of Nigeria's Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters on Wednesday, it was revealed that up to 25,000 Nigerians have been held in slave prisons and sex camps in Libya while trying to get to Europe.
She's taken on burritos, Big Macs, and entire jars of Nutella, but competitive eater Nela Zisser decided to give next her challenge a little more heat.

The former Miss Earth New Zealand took on the Korean Fire Noodle Challenge, which has been completed thousands of times on YouTube.

Nela, 25, took on two bowls of the Korean Fire Noodles made by Samyang Ramen, trying both the original and 2x spicy packets.

And the model showed she could handle the heat in the kitchen, finishing both bowls in just under five minutes.

This week competitive eater and former Miss Earth New Zealand Nela Zisser, 25, took on the Korean Fire Noodle Challenge, which has been completed thousands of times on YouTube

'I hope you guys enjoy this video, because I really don't like spicy food, so this is going to be interesting,' Nela told her viewers at the start of the clip.

Nela then cooks the noodles on the stove, distributing them in two bowls and adding a packet of thick sauce on top of each.

'I can actually smell from up here how hot it is,' she says as she prepares each bowl. 'I can definitely feel it in my eyes.'

'All right, I'm not ready for this,' Nela says as she glances down at the two bowls. 'I can already tell this is going to be really, really hot.'

'The fumes are like, coming up into my eyes, oh Jesus.'

Nela takes a sip from a full glass of grape Fanta, and then begins.

Nela revealed to her followers that she really didn't like spicy food and was already feeling the heat from the noodles before she had even begun

Ever the competitive eater, Nela grabbed the bowl to help shovel the noodles into her mouth quicker and finished her first serving in one minute and 54 seconds

'Yup, that's really hot, oh Jesus' she exclaims after swallowing the first forkful of noodles.

'This is really, really hot,' she continues to say, taking another sip of her Fanta.

Ever the competitive eater, Nela then grabs the bowl to help shovel the noodles into her mouth quicker, finishing it in one minute and 54 seconds.

'I'm really dreading this one,' she says as she picks up the second bowl, made from the 2x spicy packet.

'Oh wow,' she says, taking more deep breaths and downing half her soda after the first forkfuls, her eyes tearing up and her face turning red.

'These ones take awhile to hit you actually, oh god,' she exclaimed. 'Well this is a good way to clear out your sinuses.'

Nela's eyes began to water and her face turned red as she took on the second bowl, made with the 2x spicy packet

'Oh wow,' she said, taking more deep breaths and downing half her Fanta after the first forkfuls

After a few more forkfuls and sips of Fanta, Nela officially finishes both bowls after four minutes and 59 seconds.

'It like hits you after, my mouth is just on fire, and outside of my mouth too,' she concludes at the end of the video.

'Imagine holding a lighter up to your lips, that is what it feels like for me. I hope you guys enjoyed this video, and I hope the pain is worth it!'

It was an impressive showing from Nela, who has also devoured six burritos in 12 minutes, 22 Big Macs in under an hour, and a 10,000 calorie English breakfast in one sitting.

It was an impressive showing from Nela, who has taken on a number of competitive eating challenges through the years

In one of her past challenges, Nela managed to finish 22 Big Mac burgers in under an hour

The former pageant queen has just finished university, and is now hoping to attend medical school.

And while her competitive eating activities might cause many to believe Nela isn't 'health focused', the model maintains that she approaches the challenges carefully.

'It's not bad for your body as long as you're careful and know when to stop,' she said recently.

'And I think I know that place of myself. I think I know when I have had too much.'
A range of cut-price liqueurs by Aldi have won awards that establish them as some of the best in the world.

The discount supermarket picked up the top prize, the Spirits Master award, for its 6.99 Creme de Cassis at the Spirits Business Global Liqueur Masters.

The bottle of blackcurrant liqueur beat rival Joseph Cartron Double Creme de Cassis, which costs nearly double the price at 13.45.

Aldi has won a Spirits Master award - the highest possible accolade - for its 6.99 Creme de Cassis blackcurrent liqueur. The discount supermarket recommends shoppers pair the liqueur with its 10.99 Veuve Monsigny Champagne

Aldi also won gold medals for its 6.99 Specially Selected Irish Cream - similar to Bailey's in taste - and for its 4.69 Bellucci Amaretto.

It picked up the same medals for its 12.99 Clarke's Devil's Own Hot Cinnamon Liqueur - similar to Fireball Whisky - and for its 6.99 Specially Selected Pumpkin Spice Irish Cream Liqueur.

Aldi won a gold medal for its 6.99 Specially Selected Irish Cream Liqueur, which is similar to 12 Bailey's

Julie Ashfield, joint managing director of corporate buying at Aldi UK, said: 'It's great to see our liqueurs getting such high praise from the experts.

'To have won a Spirits Master accolade is a real achievement.

'Our Creme de Cassis is the perfect accompaniment to our great-value Veuve Monsigny Champagne Brut and we are expecting lots of shoppers to stock up on these award-winning products for Christmas and New Year's Eve.'

Aldi's alcoholic beverage range has picked up more than 200 medals in 2017 to date.

This year, the store has won five drinks retailer titles including 'Retailer of the Year' at the Drinks Business Awards and 'Own Brand Spirits Range' at the International Spirits Challenge.

Among some of its most triumphant bottles is its 10 Oliver Cromwell London Dry Gin, which was also crowned one of the best gins in the world at the International Spirits Challenge earlier this year.

Its 8.99 Sumptuously Rich Pudding Wine also won the highest possible award, a gold medal, at the International Wine and Spirits Competition (IWSC).
Stocks of two major types of blood are running low because of the bad weather, concerned health officials have warned.

The NHS fears there won't be enough B negative and O negative blood to last this Christmas.

Bosses are now urging people to donate their blood - despite thousands having already been put off due to the cold temperatures.

The start of the flu season, which has seen a 39 per cent jump in cases in the past week, is also to blame for the lack of blood.

Jon Latham, of the NHS Blood and Transplant, revealed anyone with either blood type will be able to walk in and donate at any centre.

The NHS fears there won't be enough B negative and O negative blood to last this Christmas

He said: 'The recent poor weather has resulted in us having less O negative and B negative blood than is required for patients going into Christmas.'

Urgent appeals for blood

The new plea by the NHSBT's is the latest in a long-line of urgent appeals for more blood, including in the aftermath of the Manchester suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in May, which killed 22 people and left around 500 injured.

Bosses asked for more black people to volunteer to give their blood in June due to a growing shortage of a special subtype of blood.

It claimed 40,000 more black donors were needed to meet growing demand for Ro blood - with demand spiking by 75 per cent in three years.

What are blood types?

Blood groups are differentiated by the combination of sugars and proteins that coat someone's red blood cells.

Based on this, someone can be classified into one of four main groups: A, B, AB and O - which is the most common type in Britain.

THE DANGERS OF YOUR BLOOD TYPE People with A, B or AB blood types are slightly more likely to have a heart attack, Dutch scientists warned in May. They are believed to have higher levels of a clotting protein - which can stop blood from reaching the vital organ. The findings were deemed worrying, considering people are unable to do anything about their blood group as it is based purely on genetics. But University Medical Center in Groningen experts said giving up smoking and eating healthier are still the best ways to reduce the risk of a deadly heart attack. Advertisement

Around 44 per cent of Britons are type O, 42 per cent are type A, 10 per cent type B and 4 per cent AB, figures show.

Blood donations: The facts

About 400,000 people receive a transfusion of red blood cells in Britain each year from an anonymous donor.

Anyone between the ages of 17 and 66 can give blood, as long as they are fit and healthy, according to the NHSBT.

Men, who reproduce red blood cells quicker, can donate every 12 weeks. However, women have to wait four weeks longer.

The health service requires a constant supply of all types of blood as red blood cells have an average lifespan of just 35 days.

The gender of who donated the blood is never revealed - despite some evidence suggesting that men can suffer severe effects from women's blood.

Scientists warned earlier this year that men who receive transfusions from mothers are at risk of an early death.

However, the Dutch study of 31,000 people, published in the JAMA, was deemed 'provocative' and denied by some experts.
A mother has become a breast-milk donor to dozens of families across the UK after producing enough supplies to fill three freezers.

Mother-of-one Harriet Tutton, 28, from Barry, Wales, started expressing her milk when her 23-month-old daughter Luna struggled to latch on as a newborn, but soon produced enough to fill three freezers.

After becoming a breast-milk donor on the Facebook site 'Human Milk 4 Human Babies', Ms Tutton has donated to around 20 families across the UK with some driving for five hours to collect her supplies.

She has even made a lifelong friend in breast-milk recipient Kay Elliot, 32, from Cardiff Bay, who suffered 'horrendous' pain while trying to breastfeed her son Ollie.

This comes after the The Department of Health is coming under increasing pressure to issue more guidance to these mothers, as milk sharing is not recommended by the NHS.

Experts warn donating milk is unregulated and has a significant risk of passing on life-threatening infections such as hepatitis B and even HIV. Even legitimate hospital milk banks reject several donations a month for safety reasons, they add.

Wales has no milk banks with hospitals being forced to rely on specialist couriers to deliver breast milk from centres in Chester and Birmingham.

Up to five per cent of women in the UK struggle to breastfeed as they do not produce enough milk.

Harriet Tutton started expressing her milk via the Facebook group 'Human Milk 4 Human Babies' when her 23-month-old daughter Luna (both pictured) struggled to latch on

She has since become a breast-milk donor to dozens of families across the UK after producing enough milk to fill three freezers, with some driving five hours to collect her donations

Ms Tutton says some people criticise her for donating her milk but others really appreciate it

'It's a feeling you can't beat'

Ms Tutton said: 'One mother had a premature baby and she used my milk as a fortifier. There's so much you can do with it.'

'It's just a feeling you can't beat and people really appreciate it.

'I've had boxes of chocolate and thank you cards. You get pictures of the children growing up and it's nice knowing you contributed to their life.'

Donating her breast milk has also made Ms Tutton a lifelong friend in Ms Elliot, with the pair regularly meeting up for play dates with their children.

Ms Elliot said: 'My supply plummeted and Harriet had this amazing oversupply to feed all the babies in the Vale of Glamorgan so she asked if I wanted some to take the pressure off.

'I had breastfed my other sons so not to breastfeed wasn't an option for me.

'Anyone who knows me will tell you it's one thing I'm passionate about and fits in with my parenting ethos.'

'Obviously we know the majority of woman are screened throughout pregnancy so breast milk sharing wasn't an issue for me.

'It's lovely knowing Harriet has provided sustenance for my son and he adores her and Luna.'

Yet, despite the friends Ms Tutton has made, she receives mixed reactions to her decision to donate her breast milk.

She said: 'There is quite a lot of negative words about informal breast milk sharing. Some people don't agree with it but the people I've spoken to can't believe their eyes and they are so grateful.

'If any mothers want to feed their baby through breast milk they should be allowed.'

Sarah McHugh had excess breast milk after expressing for her daughter Harriet (both pictured). She donates her milk online, saying 'there's an unwritten trust' between mothers

New mother Bex Poole struggled to breastfeed her son Theo (pictured) and appealed for help on Human Milk 4 Human Babies after a friend recommended it

Ms Poole (pictured) now has a freezer full of Ms McHugh's donated breast milk

'Significant risk of passing on infection'

Unlike online 'milk banks', hospitals carefully inspect donations according to NICE guidelines with the milk first being screened for infections and mothers also having their blood tested to ensure they do not carry infections that could be passed to babies.

The milk is then pasteurised and frozen before it is ready to be used.

Dr Gemma Holder, a consultant neonatologist at Birmingham Women's Hospital told the BBC: 'Fresh donor milk has significant risk of potentially passing on infection, particularly if you don't know how it was handled.

'We still get a couple of donors a month, for example, whose milk we aren't able to accept.'

The Food Standards Agency does not recommend mothers share breast milk and urges those wishing to donate or struggling to breastfeed contact their local hospital for advice.

Yet Dr Sally Dowling, from University of the West of England, argues mothers have always shared milk, with the World Health Organization even supporting the practice as an alternative for those who cannot breastfeed.

She adds mothers are typically thorough at ensuring the women they receive milk from are healthy and hygienic.

SNP politician Alison Thewliss, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group for infant feeding, believes the rest of the UK should follow One Milk Bank for Scotland, which is part of the health service and ensures breast milk can be collected, processed and distributed safely.

'There's an unwritten trust among breastfeeding mums'

Despite concerns over safety, breast-milk donor Sarah McHugh, from Kidderminster, insists 'there's an unwritten trust among breastfeeding mums,' the BBC reported.

Ms McHugh, who also uses the Human Milk 4 Human Babies group, donated supplies to new mother Bex Poole, from Wolverhampton, after she struggled to breastfeed her son Theo and was reluctant to give him formula.

Ms McHugh wrote on the social media page that she was healthy, a non-smoker and donated to hospitals' milk banks to reassure other mothers.

The pair were only available to meet late at night, which they said gave the transaction an illicit feel.

They have since become close, with Ms Poole's freezer being full of Ms McHugh's breast milk.
A Canary Islands hotspot popular with holidaymakers may face a deadly outbreak of dengue and yellow fever in the coming days.

Concerned health officials in Fuerteventura, off the coast of Africa, have discovered the mosquito responsible for the two killer infections.

Scores of homes on the island, some owned by expats, are now being fumigated in a desperate attempt to contain any potential outbreaks.

The mosquitos were discovered on a residential estate, prompting widespread fears the insects could be living in the homes of unaware locals.

And locals have also been asked to send in 'suspicious' pictures of any mosquitos so the spread of the lethal insects can be managed.

It comes as sun-seeking holidaymakers are getting ready to pack their bags to head to the island, which averages 20C in December.

Thousands are expected to embark on the four-long plane journey to escape the gloomy weather and soak up the winter sun.

Concerned health officials in Fuerteventura, off the coast of Africa, have discovered the mosquito responsible for the two killer infections

Regional health officials revealed last week the Aedes type mosquitos behind the spread of the painful diseases had been discovered on the island.

The insect - the Aedes aegypti - can also spread other viruses common in tropical and sub-tropical areas including Zika fever, Mayaro and Chikungunya.

The latter has no cure and, like the other viruses associated with the mosquito, can cause fever and severe joint pain before leading to death.

A small pocket of the mosquitoes were detected on a residential estate called Las Granadas near to Fuenteventura Hospital in the island capital Puerto del Rosario.

Residents there, who are thought to include some expats, were told to leave their homes today for at least 12 hours so they could be fumigated.

Regional health officials, who told homeowners of their decision at a meeting, have hired a private firm to do the work.

The same meeting was attended by local politicians including Puerto del Rosario's mayor Nicolas Gutierrez and tropical disease experts.

The fumigation of more than 30 houses in the Las Granadas area, due to take place in stages, is expected to last two days.

Scores of homes on the island, some owned by expats, are now being fumigated in a desperate attempt to contain any potential outbreaks

THE AEDES AEGYPTI MOSQUITO The Aedes aegypti has white markings on its legs and a marking in the form of a lyre on the upper surface of its thorax. The mosquito originated in Africa but is now found in tropical and subtropical regions throughout the world. Only the female bites for blood which she needs to mature her eggs. What is Dengue? Dengue causes high fever, severe headaches and joint pain. The illness can progress to a hemorrhagic fever during which patients experience more bleeding and persistent vomiting. If not treated it can progress to shock and death. What is Zika? Zika consists of a mild fever, rash, joint pain and red eyes. Some babies with Microcephaly, a condition where a baby's head is much smaller than expected, have been reported among mothers infected with Zika virus while pregnant. Advertisement

Basilio Valladares, director of the Canary Islands' Institute of Tropical Diseases and Public Health, revealed no-one has fallen victim as of yet.

He told Spanish daily El Pais the possibility of virus transmission was non-existent at the moment because no cases have been recorded so far.

But he added: 'If they settle the moment might arrive when they could transmit viruses like dengue fever as happened in Cape Verde and Madeira.'

The mosquitoes are thought to have reached Fuerteventura on freight ships when they were still eggs, although tests are ongoing to confirm how they arrived.

The Canary Islands regional health authority have sought to play down the fears of locals and holidaymakers.

They insist the presence of the insects does not mean visitors will go down with any of the viruses linked to them.

Officials claim that apart from sporadic imported cases, yellow and dengue fever are not present in the Canary Islands.

The Canary Islands regional health authority confirmed the discovery of the Aedes aegypti mosquito in a statement.

It announced traps have been set and surveys taken place to determine how far they have spread. Searches for their breeding grounds are also underway.

A spokesman revealed the public have been asked to notify them of any 'suspicious' mosquitos by telling them the exact location or if they have any bites.

The Aedes aegypti mosquitos were blamed for the 30 cases of dengue fever on Cristiano Ronaldo's native island of Madeira in 2015.

They were also linked to a 2010 outbreak of dengue in Cape Verde. The destination which has become increasingly popular with British tourists in recent years.
Alzheimer's disease is caused by immune cells in the brain triggered by inflammation, according to a breakthrough discovery.

The new research could lead to the development of a drug that treats or even prevents the condition within five years, say scientists.

Experiments found destroying specific cells - known as microglia - reduced the formation of clumps of amyloid beta that form in Alzheimer's and destroy memory.

These are the rogue proteins believed to lie at the root of the devastating neurological illness.

Human trials of all therapies have failed in the past. Most have targeted the amyloid plaques that build up in the brains of patients.

The German team say the breakthrough is exciting as it sheds fresh light on a classic hallmark of Alzheimer's.

Experts have hailed the discovery by scientists at the University of Bonn, in Germany, as a major step in the fight against the crippling neurodegenerative disease (file image)

It also offers hope of an effective medication aimed at the 'microglia' cells - instead of amyloid-beta itself.

Prof Michael Heneka and colleagues say the amyloid beta plaques are fuelled by inflammation.

In Alzheimer's patients these proteins collect together - leading to cell damage and confusion.

For years inflammation has been suspected of having a role but the exact nature of its involvement has been hard to pin down - until now.

The researchers found the microglia release specks of a protein called ASC in response to it. They stick to the amyloid beta protein - boosting its production.

Prof Heneka, of the University of Bonn, Germany, said this may even occur in the very early stages of Alzheimer's.

In tests an antibody that blocked ASC from binding to amyloid beta stopped it from forming into damaging clumps.

The study published in Nature found this worked in live mice as well as cells grown in the laboratory.

ASC reside in a vital inflammatory pathway called the NLRP3 inflammasome which damages brain cells.

Prof Heneka said: 'In patients with Alzheimer's disease, deposition of amyloid-beta is accompanied by activation of the innate immune system and involves formation of ASC specks in microglia.'

These bind rapidly to amyloid-beta and increase the formation of clumps. He said ASC specks have been visualised in the brains of patients who died from Alzheimer's.

He said: 'The patho-physiological link between inflammasome responses and amyloid-beta plaque spreading suggests pharmacological targeting of inflammasomes could represent a novel treatment for Alzheimer's disease.'

Mice genetically engineered to lack the NLRP3 gene that produces ASC showed much less amyloid-beta in the brain - and performed better on spatial memory tasks.

Antibodies to ASC - which prevent the specks from binding to other proteins - also suppressed the formation of amyloid-beta clumps.

Speaking from Germany, Prof Heneka said: 'The hope would be to interfere with disease progression and spreading of pathology by counteracting or interfering with the NLRP3 inflammasome or ASC specks.

'I would hope - given it is possible to develop a safe and brain penetrant NLRP3 inhibitor - this could be tested in the next five to 10 years from now.'

His lab had previously shown mice lacking the protein NLRP3 are less likely to develop clumps of amyloid-beta - suspected of lying at the heart of Alzheimer's.

Prof Heneka said: 'Spreading and disease progression is absent in the state of the art model of disease spreading.

'If animals carry a genetic knockout for ASC one would hope blocking ASC speck formation holds therapeutic potential.'

Professor Richard Ransohoff, a cell biologist at Harvard Medical School, Boston,

reviewed the study for the journal and said the identification of specific chemicals in plaque formation is 'extremely welcome.'

They 'could accelerate the development of better therapies' but if these are to be effective it will be important to discover which part to target.

He described suppressing formation of ASC specks as a specific 'downstream aspect' but this might not sufficiently inhibit all the problems implicated in Alzheimer's.

Prof Ransohoff said: 'Despite this difficulty, which bedevils all pathway directed therapeutics, it is heartening and invigorating to have a newly discovered mechanism to consider in the quest to treat Alzheimer's disease.'

Last year University of Southampton researchers found increased numbers of microglia in the post mortem brains of people with Alzheimer's.

A drug used to block their production in the brains of mice had fewer memory and behavioural problems.

The compound also prevented the loss of communication points between nerve cells in the brain - which usually happens in people with Alzheimer's. Experts said the results were 'exciting'.

About 850,000 people in Britain have dementia, with Alzheimer's by far the most common form, with the figure set to reach a million by 2025 because of the ageing population. There is no cure.
LSE chairman Donald Brydon has narrowly survived a shareholder revolt

The chairman of the London Stock Exchange was given a bloody nose by the City as he survived a vote which could have seen him sacked.

Shareholders controlling nearly 40 per cent of the stock refused to back Donald Brydon following a bitter battle with a top investor over the running of the company.

Of those that voted in the ballot over his future yesterday, 20.9 per cent wanted him to go.

But 79.1 per cent of voting shareholders backed the 72-year-old to stay on  meaning Brydon can remain as chairman of the LSE until 2019 when he has agreed to leave.

Despite surviving yesterday's revolt, Brydon faced further questions over his stewardship of the LSE last night.

Hedge fund boss Sir Chris Hohn, who has led the campaign against Brydon following the ousting of chief executive Xavier Rolet, said the vote represented a 'serious rebuke'.

The 51-year-old billionaire, who owns 5 per cent of the LSE through The Children's Investment Fund, said: 'A chairman of a major FTSE 100 company is expected to command the overwhelming support of shareholders.

Ousted London Stock Exchange boss Xavier Rolet, left, and fund boss Chris Hohn, right

'This is no longer the case. It is therefore imperative that a search begins immediately for a new chairman as there is no justification for waiting until 2019.'

ROLET STAYS SILENT The ousted London Stock Exchange boss refused to tell his board if he backed a plot to reinstate him, colleagues said. Xavier Rolet, 58, was forced to quit due to concerns over his autocratic management style. The LSE's senior independent director Paul Heiden said: 'The board asked Mr Rolet to make his position clear and he declined to do so for a number of days.' Relationships during that period 'became fairly strained'. Rolet had originally planned to leave next year after a successor was found.

He added 'the chairman must take responsibility' for a 'major corporate governance failure at the London Stock Exchange'.

The vote was arranged by Hohn after the LSE board ousted Rolet  triggering a backlash among supporters who wanted the Frenchman to stay.

The row at the LSE started in October when Rolet unexpectedly announced plans to quit and refused to say where he was going.

It enraged Hohn who suspected a secret plot to get rid of Rolet demanded shareholders sack Brydon instead.

Speaking during the meeting, Brydon attacked Hohn for ruining a carefully laid plan to replace Rolet.

He said: 'A carefully calibrated succession process was put in place, however difficult, but sadly the actions of a few shareholders have disrupted that process creating a major distraction for the company.'

In a blow for the LSE, which is meant to be a bastion of good governance, the revolt against Brydon will have to be entered into an official register of rebellions because more than a fifth of votes cast were against the board's recommendation.
Poundland has distanced itself from owner Steinhoff as an accounting scandal threatens to derail the South African investment firm.

Steinhoff has lost two chief executives this month amid a fraud scandal which has seen shares crash more than 87 per cent, wiping 7.5billion off its value.

Yesterday, the Stellenbosch-headquartered company warned investors it is losing support from its banks because of the crisis.

Poundland owner Steinhoff has lost two chief executives this month amid a fraud scandal which has seen shares crash more than 87%, wiping 7.5bn off its value.

Steinhoff bought the High Street budget retailer for 597million in 2016, and the crisis engulfing it has led to questions about the bargain chains 802 UK stores and 18,000 staff.

But in a letter to workers, bosses Sean Cardinaal and Barry Williams insisted Poundland remains a successful business  regardless of problems with its parent firm.

SWEDISH RESCUE FOR FEATHER & BLACK Struggling British bedroom furniture chain Feather & Black has been rescued by a Swedish multinational. Hilding Anders, a manufacturer of beds, yesterday bought the business  saving 104 of 123 jobs and 17 of its 20 stores. It collapsed last month, with Duff & Phelps appointed administrators but the firm continuing to trade. Its demise was blamed partly on the squeeze on spending with shoppers not buying more expensive items such as furniture. Pepyn Dinandt, chairman and chief executive of Hilding Anders, said the firm would still trade under the name Feather & Black.

They said: Were confident once insurers fully understand our position  trading strongly and independent of Steinhoff  they will be able to offer additional reassurance to our suppliers.

They added they are still excited about Poundlands future. Nothing thats happening thousands of miles away in South Africa will change that, they said.

Steinhoff has 15billion of debt, with private investors and a string of global banks including Goldman Sachs and HSBC braced for heavy losses.

It has promoted chief operating officer Danie van der Merwe to chief executive.

He replaces Christo Wiese, the largest shareholder, who has quit as the scandal grew.

Wiese replaced Markus Jooste who stood down when news of the accounting irregularities first surfaced.

German prosecutors launched a fraud investigation into the business at the start of the month.
I have written twice to Yorkshire-General Life Assurance about an old pension, but both times, the letter has been returned with a note saying: 'Not known at this address'.

The sum is hardly a fortune  but the firm appears determined not to pay out.

E. W., Dorset.

Lost: Yorkshire Building society appears unwilling to help one reader track down an old pension from the 1980s

Your pension with a former employer dates back to 1983 and was run by Yorkshire General.

Since then, the insurance industry has gone through many mergers and much consolidation. So now, it's a question of working out who currently owns it.

In fact, Yorkshire-General Life Assurance is now under the Aviva umbrella, along with General Accident, Norwich Union, Provident Mutual, Friends Life, Hibernian, London & Edinburgh and Commercial Union.

Once we knew where the pension was, it was fairly simple to track it down. And the news is good. While not massive in pension terms, you could walk away with a lump sum of just over 2,000 after tax.

Aviva has made several attempts to contact you by phone. Around June 2012, when the pension should have started, a retirement pack was sent to your former employer. It, too, has been trying to contact you.

Aviva apologises for the problems you have had and adds: 'We are sorry we didn't reply to the letter we received in October; on this occasion, we have fallen short of the high standards we set for ourselves.'

Aviva has now arranged for the appropriate documents to be sent to you. Your pension will be paid once you have completed and returned these.

Your letter highlights the importance of keeping in touch with former pension schemes to notify them if you move home or change your phone number.

Go to policydetective.co.uk to find out who now owns your insurance company.

YOU HAVE YOUR SAY Every week, Money Mail receives hundreds of your letters and emails about our stories. Here are some from our report about how a 78-year-old man was told to pay 1,145 for car cover after his vehicle was written off... What a rip-off. The law needs to be changed to stop this from happening. Insurers have drivers over a barrel and it seems no one is there to protect us. L. W., Bournemouth. Having worked in insurance for 32 years, I can tell you there is an easy solution to this man's case: he could have withdrawn his claim and cancelled the policy mid-term. Claiming on a car worth so little is a waste. The insurer should have made him aware of this. SEARCH FOR CHEAPER CAR INSURANCE IN MINUTES D. D., Leicester. The insurer should have been up-front and told him claiming wouldn't be worth it. That way, he could have probably cancelled the policy and wouldn't have had to pay out 1,145 for the rest of the year. T. N., Preston, Lancs. Car insurance is the biggest rip-off of them all. Even if you're in an accident and it isn't your fault, your premiums go up. It's about time the Government did something about this. A. D., Somerset. The real scandal here is the ludicrously low payouts you are offered when your car is written off. Insurers never seem to give you a fair price. O. R., Newport, Wales. I can't believe he was paying 109 a month for a 20-year-old car. How on earth do insurance firms arrive at these figures? One month's premium is probably worth more than the car itself. F. A., Godalming, Surrey. I don't see what the insurer has done wrong. This man paid in monthly instalments  how can he expect a payout if he hasn't paid his annual premium in full? D. T., Exeter.

I have been a British Gas customer for 48 years and, for the past 30, I have paid in the first week of every month using a swipe card.

Since I had started to build up a credit, I was told my payments would decrease from 100 to 54.78 from September 5.

I paid 100 on September 4 and another 100 on October 2, thinking that this would start to build up credit again.

But then I got a letter saying my September payment hadn't been received.

Then another letter said my payments must be made on the fifth of every month, or my plan would be cancelled. This has never been a problem before.

W. M., Uxbridge.

There has been some misunderstanding here, but the good news is that your card payment has been reinstated.

British Gas says payments can be made a few days before or after the fifth of each month, so you can continue to make payments on varying dates, as you have been doing.

The firm believes that the confusion arose when it wrote to you in July, explaining your payments needed to decrease from September. You appear to have mistaken this for not having to make any payment in August.

A reminder was sent, but as no payment was received, your plan was cancelled and British Gas refunded any credit you had built up.

British Gas has now explained what happened and reset the payment plan for 100 a month.

The complaints team has been in touch with you and, in recognition of the confusion, has offered a goodwill gesture of 30.

STRAIGHT TO THE POINT I read that there is a compensation fund for people who were tricked into transferring money to fraudsters via Western Union. I lost money in a scam five years ago. Can you tell me how to apply? M. P., Spilsby, Lincs. I've put a form in the post for you. You can print a form here or call a U.S. number (001 844 319 2124, international charges apply) and ask for one to be posted. To be eligible, you must have lost money between January 1, 2004, and January 19, 2017. The deadline is February 12, 2018. *** NatWest is closing 197 branches next year and RBS a further 62. Where can I find a full list of the closures? J. T., Appledore, North Devon. There's a list of closures, as well as where to find your next nearest branches and cash machines, online. For NatWest, click here. And for RBS,click here. *** The seat cushion on the sofa I bought 13 months ago has already gone flat. I complained to the shop and the Furniture Ombudsman, but both say this is the result of wear and tear. I paid 1,500 for it. R. S., Ipswich. The shop's managing director confirmed the firm's position that there is no manufacturing fault with the sofa. The only solution is to pay 45 to have a new cushion fitted. *** Last year, fraudsters took 16,860 from me and 1,950 from my wife's Yorkshire BS account. My bank refunded the money  but Yorkshire BS refused. It said I shouldn't have had access to my wife's account, as it is against its terms. G. B., Essex. Yorkshire BS says it is vital for security reasons that only the person named on the account manages their money, even following a criminal attack. However, it has now agreed to refund the cash. A spokeswoman says: 'We appreciate it has been a difficult time for Mr and Mrs B. We have reviewed our initial investigation and are refunding the full amount.'

My 81-year-old husband received a call from Vodafone in early July, offering a contract at 18 per month. He was told he was currently paying 24 per month for pay-as-you-go.

But after the swap, he had problems with his phone.

On August 4, he took it to a Vodafone shop and was told it would be working by August 7.

However, it still did not work and, on September 1, he went back to the shop.

It was established that somewhere along the line, he had got caught up in a scam involving a weekly charge of 4.50.

His niece contacted Vodafone and asked it to terminate the contract, so he could return to pay-as-you-go. She was assured this had happened.

But on October 5, he got an email to say his account had been suspended because he had an overdue balance of 36.

On October 30, he received a letter from a debt collector, asking for 59.

E. W., by email.

Vodafone has been trying to get in touch with you to apologise and offer a solution, but so far, it has not found you at home.

It has, however, left a number for you to call back.

I have also tried to make contact without success.

Vodafone wants to credit your husband's account with the outstanding balance, to wipe out the supposed debt.

It is also offering to waive any fees for terminating the contract, which runs until the end of July.

This will allow your husband to return to pay-as-you-go if he feels that is the best option.
From a faded red armchair at a secret address with a sea view, 60-year-old Jack Buster impatiently refreshes the emails on his laptop, hoping the next click will bring the news he's waiting for.

Jack flits back and forth between car listings on eBay and his inbox, his eyes darting across the screen and his brow so furrowed in concentration that even the tabby cat clawing the carpet cannot divert his gaze.

Beside him is a whiteboard with a long list of names scrawled in green pen, each with a sum of money next to it  Lisa 4,500, Phil 5,000, Mike 6,000 . . .

Finally, a message pops up on his screen and Jack leans forward, tightening his grip on the mouse.

'I've got another one for you,' writes Steve, who is one of Jack's newest recruits.

The chase is on.

To the rescue: A team of vigilantes is fighting a war against online fraudster, by posing as potential buyers before reporting their bank details to the police

The 'another one' that Steve's found is a suspected fraudster trying to entrap victims on the eBay shopping website.

Jack, a former financial adviser, runs a 40-strong network of fraud-fighting vigilantes  and Steve has found a hot lead on a fake listing.

Jack Buster, as he's known to his crew, has agreed to let Money Mail behind the scenes to see how he and his part-time volunteers catch the crooks.

Money Mail has previously exposed how people who have lost their savings in this type of scam often find that the banks refuse to compensate them.

Then, when victims turn to the police, they are told officers don't have time to investigate. More than 100 people a day are being duped out of their life savings, and the authorities cannot keep up.

Jack, who is married, with two teenage daughters and a son in his 20s, began tracking down fraudsters four years ago while he was trying to buy a second-hand Volvo online.

He found a car from a reputable dealer on eBay with a price-tag of 2,750, which looked too good to be true. Jack later discovered that the firm's eBay account had been hacked by crooks who were posting fake listings in its name.

Fortunately, Jack wasn't out of pocket, but others have lost thousands on such types of scam.

Jack started scouring vehicle sales websites for fake listings of cars, caravans, tractors and boats and reporting them to the site's investigation teams.

As he amassed a following on social media, other volunteers signed up to help.

Last year, they took their work a step further: now Jack and his volunteers feign an interest in fake vehicles for sale to get the crooks to hand over their bank details.

Jack then contacts the bank in question to get the account frozen. He logs the time and date of the report. If the bank fails to act on his request, this information can be used to force it to compensate any future victims of the fraudster.

The names on Jack's whiteboard are just a few of the victims who have turned to him for help.

Some of them may eventually join his network  it's how most of his 40 volunteers got involved.

'A lot of victims find it therapeutic to get their own back and also to help others,' says Jack.

Devoted: Jack Buster, 60, began hunting fraudsters four years ago while he was trying to buy a second-hand Volvo online

Steve, 49, is a plumber and has just joined the group, but Jack says he's on track to win 'bank buster of the month'  an accolade he gives out for successfully baiting the most scammers. Steve fits in fraud-busting between fixing leaky pipes and boilers.

Other volunteers include a nurse, a mechanic, a bouncer and the son of one of the Dam Busters from World War II. Some are in their 20s; others are retired.

When Jack helps victims get their money back, he asks for 10 per cent of this as payment and gives a cut to the volunteers who help.

Another message pings in to Jack's inbox. Steve has sent an image of the suspicious eBay advert he's spotted. It's a 2009 Audi Q5, on sale for 5,250.

Unlike eBay's U.S. website, where there is a specific protection scheme for vehicle purchases, UK customers who fall victim to car listing scams are not covered.

CROOKS WHO'LL SABOTAGE YOUR CHRISTMAS Christmas shoppers are being targeted by devious email scams, banks warn. Bank trade body UK Finance says that criminals are sending online shoppers fake emails that appear to come from legitimate delivery companies to trick them into handing over personal details. It reveals that fraudsters are scouring shopping websites and social media to find out what presents people plan to buy. The crooks then send carefully targeted scam emails. These appear to come from popular retailers and ask you to click on a bogus website link to claim a voucher  possibly for something you'd been eying up. Crooks are also sending emails that direct people to fraudulent charity websites to make Christmas donations. Under banking rules, people who unwittingly hand over their details to crooks rarely get get their money back. Dave Clark, City of London Police Commander and national co-ordinator for economic crime, said that fraudsters are preying on people's generosity at this time of year. 'It is more important than ever that people do everything they can to protect themselves from fraudsters,' he adds. v.bischoff@dailymail.co.uk

'The price is the first big giveaway that it's a scam,' explains Jack. 'It's far too cheap  about half what you'd expect to pay for a car like that. But people just think they've got lucky and found a bargain.'

He searches for Audis from that year on second-hand car websites  and other sellers are asking for up to 13,000.

Next, Jack types the registration number from the suspicious advert into a website called Carnapper. For a 9.99 fee, it shows the car's MoT history and the previous occasions it's been listed for sale.

It shows that the same car was advertised on eBay just six months ago, for 7,150.

'That's another red flag,' says Jack. 'Why would a genuine owner be selling their car so soon after buying it?' He then copies some of the text from the advert into the Google search page.

'Often, the scammers just copy and paste the same wording every time they post fake listings,' explains Jack. The suspect eBay advert says: 'Never been involved on [sic] any accidents. Pure genuine car. Drives really well and smooth with no faults at all.'

Mistakes and grammatical errors make it more likely to show matches with other fake listings, he adds. Up pops a listing for the same car on Gumtree, the classified ads site. It was posted eight months ago, using exactly the same photo and description  but for 13,500, which is more than double the new price on eBay.

Jack believes this Gumtree advert at 13,500 was a genuine original listing and the crooks copied the details and images for the two subsequent listings, which are fakes.

He types the number plate into another website called Cazana, which shows the car's registered owner last changed seven months ago, adding weight to his theory.

Meanwhile, Steve has had more news from the Audi seller, Amanda, as she calls herself.

She has been an eBay member for only a month and her account has no feedback from previous buyers.

This rings alarm bells, but Jack explains that even sellers with great ratings can be scammers in disguise. He says some fraudsters buy access to existing eBay users' accounts to give their listings a stamp of credibility.

'They pay someone with positive ratings to post lots of car listings in their name,' he explains.

'One guy told me he was being paid 300 a week to do this and didn't even realise it was a sham.'

Amanda has told Steve she's moved to Sweden for work and the car is being held by a shipping company called Auto Express in Cowes, on the Isle of Wight.

'The scammers will always come up with a reason why they need to use a third party, or concoct an elaborate story to explain why they are not around to show you the car themselves,' says Jack.

Amanda says Auto Express is an 'objective third party' and that if Steve pays the money, it will keep the cash in an 'escrow' holding account until the transaction goes through.

Once the car is delivered, Steve will have five days to inspect the vehicle and decide if he wants to keep it.

'If you will find the smallest problem with the car, you will ship it back on my expense and Auto Express will send you your full amount back,' says Amanda.

That's if Auto Express actually exists. The link Amanda has sent for the company website says Auto Express has been going since 1995 and is governed by various industry codes and regulations, such as the 'London Financial and Business Code' and 'Uniform Electronic Transactions' Act.

Jack says the first one doesn't exist, and the second applies only in the U.S.

The area code for the company phone number is 0151 for Liverpool. Yet the Cowes code is 01983. Another bad sign. On Companies House, the Government website with details of all UK firms, there's no business by that name at the Cowes address supplied.

There are a number of other companies called Auto Express elsewhere, but none is connected in any way to the firm that Amanda has recommended.

According to Google search, a storage company is based at the Isle of Wight address for Auto Express. Jack calls the storage firm and a woman who answers says she's heard from a number of other car buyers.

'It's nothing to do with us,' she says. 'Fortunately, none of the people we've spoken to have handed over money. One guy even showed up at the site. We've reported the website to Action Fraud [the official fraud body], but it's still up and running.'

Contributions: When Jack helps victims get their money back, he asks for 10 per cent of this as payment and gives a cut to the volunteers who help

Meanwhile, Amanda has sent Steve another email, saying she has other interested buyers. She clearly wants to close the deal.

Steve replies, saying he's keen to take the car. Amanda tells him he'll receive an invoice from Auto Express with details of how to pay. Jack says that the scammers have started getting wise to his bank busters and ask for proof of identity.

There's a tense wait while we see whether Amanda will demand a passport or driving licence. But she doesn't  and finally, Steve's hard work yields the result Jack wants: a sort code and account number are on the invoice.

Typically, Jack will take these details and email a contact at the banks in question, asking for the account to be frozen over suspected fraud. The sooner he acts, the more chance he will have to prevent people falling victim.

But when Jack puts the bank details into a website called Sortcodes.co.uk, it says the account is with Permanent TSB, an Irish bank, and the branch is in Killarney, Co. Kerry.

'I don't have the contacts there,' admits Jack. 'Without internal contacts, it's hard to make sure that an email gets through to the right person.'

Hoping to obtain more details, Steve writes back to Amanda and says his bank won't process the transfer because there's something wrong with the account information she's given.

Jack says: 'We often find that by telling them the payment's failed, they keep sending us new details  and we can bust several different accounts.'

Amanda says she'll contact the shipping company to find out what's going on. Soon, Steve gets another email from Auto Express 'customer support'.

It says: 'Our Financial Department made a little mistake and gave you our international bank account for Euro and USD. We will send you another invoice with the correct information.'

Reward: A thank you card from one of the fraud victims Jack was able to help

The details on the new invoice are for a NatWest account in Chatham. Within minutes, Jack has sent a report of the scam to his contact at NatWest. He has contacts in the financial crime intelligence units of most of the major banks.

'Some act faster than others,' he says. 'With Barclays, they will often block an account within about 15 minutes, but others don't even acknowledge the information I send.' He says NatWest is reasonably quick to take action.

Jack's report is headed: 'VERY URGENT. IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED. IMMINENT BANK TRANSFER FRAUD.'

It explains that the account in question is being used for an eBay vehicle fraud and includes a copy of the invoice from Auto Express, as well as screenshots of the advert to show that it's a scam.

It goes on to say that if Jack hears of any financial losses relating to this account after today's date, he will issue proceedings against the bank on behalf of the victims.

He logs the account details along with the date and time of the report in his database.

'I've got nearly 1,200 accounts logged,' he says. 'If any fraud victim comes to me after paying money into an account that I've already reported to the bank, there's a good chance I'll be able to help them get a refund.

'We used to win nearly every case, but it is getting harder, as the banks are fighting tooth and nail to avoid paying victims back.'

Meanwhile, Steve tries to squeeze more details out of Amanda.

He writes that the second set of account details isn't working, either. Amanda says the shipping company will send a new invoice.

This time, it's an HSBC account. Once again, Jack files a report.

Steve gets details of one more account before Amanda goes quiet. It's another Irish bank.

'We are seeing the fraudsters starting to use more overseas accounts  we've had quite a few from Italy and Greece,' says Jack. 'It's frustrating because there's not much we can do without international contacts, which I don't have.'

Since Jack started his bank- busting operation in 2016, he says that the team has had nearly 1,200 accounts blocked, with around 5,000 frozen each time on average. That means he may have helped victims get back up to 5 million.

Jack adds that the police have confirmed a number of arrests following intelligence he's passed on.

A spokesman for eBay says: 'As with all online marketplaces selling vehicles, we are working to stamp down on people who attempt to defraud customers.'

It says customers should ignore offers that seem too good to be true, be cautious about emails requesting your details and always complete purchases on the eBay website.

Katy Worobec, of banking trade body UK Finance, says: 'Banks work extremely hard to protect their customers and will always make every effort to help a customer recover any stolen funds. Investment in new detection tools stopped more than 750 million worth of fraud in the first half of this year.'

l.milner@dailymail.co.uk
Barrister Lloyd Rayney has been awarded more than $2.6 million in damages against the Western Australian government in one of the largest defamation payouts in the nation's history.

Mr Rayney took legal action in the WA Supreme Court after he was acquitted of murder over the fact he was publicly named by police in 2007 as the prime and only suspect in his wife Corryn Rayney's killing.

The damages include nearly $1.8 million in loss of income and $846,000 in damage to his reputation and distress, according to PerthNow.

Barrister Lloyd Rayney has been awarded more than $2.6 million in damages in one of the largest defamation payouts in the nation's history (pictured with wife Corryn)

Mr Rayney took legal action in the WA Supreme Court after he was acquitted of murder over the fact he was publicly named by police in 2007 as the prime and only suspect in his wife Corryn Rayney's killing

The damages include nearly $1.8 million in loss of income and $846,000 in damage to his reputation and distress

The award for damages comes after an infamous press conference carried out by Detective Sergeant Jack Lee during the investigation of Corryn Rayney.

It is the largest defamation payout awarded in Western Australia.

The losses were calculated based on 'billable hours' Mr Rayney missed out on charging clients in the three years between the press conference and the police charge.

Justice John Chaney said Mr Rayney could have benefitted from 2000 billable hours per year, ranging from $375 to $450 per hour.

The missed opportunities for billable hours came to a total of $1.777million including six per cent interest.

Mr Rayney's lawyer Martin Bennett said the cost to taxpayers from the state defence of the action for ten years would likely be greater than the $2.63million award.

The award for damages comes after an infamous press conference carried out by Detective Sergeant Jack Lee during the investigation of Corryn Rayney

The payout is the largest defamation award ever handed out in Western Australia

The losses were calculated based on 'billable hours' Mr Rayney missed out on charging clients in the three years between the press conference and the police charge

Mr Bennett believes Mr Rayney will still be harrassed by people on the street who believe he is guilty of his wife's murder.

'It had a continuing effect up until last week, there was an incident of somebody accosting Mr Rayney,' he said.

'Someone just called him a murderer - have a look at your own Facebook pages - the comments after the judgment on Friday were just obscene.'

The defamation trial centred on comments made by Mr Lee at a press conference on September 20, 2007.

'He is our prime suspect because our evidence at this time leads us to believe the offence occurred in that house and he is the occupant of the house,' Mr Lee said.

Mr Rayney's lawyer said he will still be harrassed by people on the street who believe he is guilty of his wife's murder

'He is our only suspect at this time.'

That allegation was never proven by Western Australia Police.

Three years after the press conference Mr Rayney was charged with murder, and two years after that he was acquitted.

He won an appeal and had charges of phone tapping thrown out of court.
A holidaymaker returned from a week-long holiday in Spain to find his Peugeot had been 'smashed' into an Audi and 'written off' by an airport valet parker.

John Price, 60, from North Devon, claimed his car was damaged by a member of the parking staff at Bristol Airport while he was hundreds of miles away in Majorca.

He claimed he'd been offered 400 in compensation and been given a rental car for a week.

A spokesman for the airport blamed the crash on 'adverse weather conditions'.

John Price, 60, from North Devon, claimed his car was damaged by a member of the parking staff at Bristol Airport while he was on holiday

Mr Price had left his car in the Silver Zone area of Bristol Airport before setting off for a week-long holiday on December 10.

When he returned he was informed his car had been involved 'in a smash'.

The 60-year-old said: 'Apparently they were moving my car and his foot slipped.

'He accelerated and it smashed into an Audi car. He must have been doing some speed because it's a write-off.

'On Sunday I returned home and I went to pick my car up from Silver Zone.

'The chap came and said the manager would like to see you. He said "your car's been in a smash".

'All they offered me is 400 for me to get rid of it.'

He added: 'I have come back and my car has been smashed up. They said take the money or sort it yourselves.

'What am I going to do with 400? How can I buy a car? I want them to fix it. I've not got a car.

'I didn't expect something like this to happen.'

The 60-year-old who returned to find his car damaged said he 'didn't expect something like this to happen'

A spokesman for Bristol Airport said: 'We are sorry for the adverse impression the passenger has gained of the Silver Zone car park and apologise for the inconvenience experienced.

'We are fully investigating the incident regarding the customer's car and we have remained in direct, frequent contact with the passenger since their initial complaint was received.

'We can confirm the car was involved in an incident during adverse weather conditions at Bristol Airport, which resulted in the car being in contact with another vehicle on site and while being driven by one of the valet parkers.

'We informed the passenger immediately on their return and provided free car hire.

'We take our responsibilities with passengers cars seriously. After receiving professional advice, particularly when dealing with an older car, we have been informed of the value of the car and offered compensation to the passenger which is above the insurance value.

'We are still in discussions with the passenger and hope to resolve this matter as soon as possible.'
President Donald Trump threatened on Wednesday to cut funding to countries that vote against the United States on a motion at the United Nations condemning Washington's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The UN General Assembly will hold an emergency session Thursday to vote on a draft resolution that the United States vetoed at the Security Council after all other 14 countries backed the measure.

'They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars and then they vote against us,' Trump said at the White House.

'Well, we're watching those votes. Let them vote against us. We'll save a lot. We don't care.'

'They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars and then they vote against us,' Trump said at the White House.

The draft resolution mirrors the vetoed mesure, reaffirming that any decision on the status of Jerusalem has no legal effect and must be rescinded.

It does not mention Trump's decision but expresses 'deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem.'

Diplomats expect strong support for the resolution, which is non-binding, despite the US pressure to either abstain or vote against it.

A council diplomat said Canada, Hungary and the Czech Republic might bow to US pressure and not support the draft resolution.

He spoke after US Ambassador Nikki Haley on Tuesday warned countries who vote to pressure the US to withdraw its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital at the UN that the President will take it 'personally.'

The UN General Assembly will hold an emergency session Thursday to vote on the proposed measure that the United States vetoed at the Security Council.

'The president will be watching this vote carefully and has requested I report back on those countries who voted against us,' Haley wrote to a number of countries in a letter seen by AFP.

Nikki Haley, Trump's United Nations ambassador went on offense before a General Assembly special session on the U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital

Ahead of the hearing Nikki Haley, Trump's ambassador to the U.N. wrote to other ambassadors saying he 'will be watching this vote carefully'

'We will take note of each and every vote on this issue,' she wrote to several UN ambassadors. 'As you consider your vote, I want you to know that the President and U.S. take this vote personally,' she added.

On Twitter, Haley posted that 'the US will be taking names' during the vote on Thursday at the 193-nation assembly.

Turkey and Yemen requested the urgent meeting on behalf of the Arab group of countries and the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

The two countries circulated a draft resolution on Tuesday that mirrors the vetoed measure, reaffirming that any decision on the status of Jerusalem has no legal effect and must be rescinded.

Egypt had put forward the draft at the council which was backed by all 14 other Security Council members in the vote on Monday.

Like the Egyptian draft, the text before the assembly does not mention Trump's decision but expresses 'deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem.'

Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour said he expected 'overwhelming support' for the measure stating that Jerusalem is an issue 'to be resolved through negotiations' between Israel and the Palestinians.

'The General Assembly will say, without the fear of the veto, that the international community is refusing to accept the unilateral position of the United States,' Mansour told reporters.

Haley also posted that 'the US will be taking names' during the vote on Thursday at the 193-nation assembly

Key allies including Britain and France are against the U.S. move on Israel, which Trump made on December 6 (Pictured: French President Macron (L) and British PM Theresa May

No country has veto powers in the General Assembly, contrary to the council where the United States, along with Britain, China, France and Russia, can block any resolution.

Trump's December 6 decision to recognize Jerusalem broke with international consensus, triggering protests across the Muslim world and drawing strong condemnation.

Key US allies Britain, France, Italy, Japan and Ukraine were among the 14 countries in the 15-member council that voted in favor of the measure.

After that vote, Haley described the 14-1 vote 'an insult' and warned 'it won't be forgotten.'

The Muslim world has seen widespread protests and in Gaza City, they were continuing Wednesday ahead of the United Nations special session

Haley's letter explains that 'the U.S. Congress declared that Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of Israel, and that the U.S. Embassy should be located in Jerusalem. President Trump affirmed that declaration by officially recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.'

'The President's announcement did not prejudge final status negotiations in any way, including the specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem. The President also made sure to support the status quo at Jerusalem's holy sites, and did not advocate changes to the arrangements at the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif,' she added.

She went further on Tuesday, warning in her Twitter post: 'At the UN we're always asked to do more & give more. So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl, abt where to locate OUR embassy, we don't expect those we've helped to target us.

'On Thurs there'll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names.'

After the clash at the top UN body, the White House announced that US Vice President Mike Pence was delaying a trip to the Middle East planned for this week.

Israel seized control of the eastern part of the city in the 1967 Middle East war and sees all of Jerusalem as its undivided capital. The Palestinians view the east as the capital of their future state.

Several UN resolutions call on Israel to withdraw from territory seized during the 1967 war.
A tiny marsupial has been found in the Australian outback more than a century after it was thought to have gone extinct.

The crest-tailed mulgara, a Guinea pig-sized relative of the Tasmanian devil, was found by researchers in Sturt National Park in north-west New South Wales.

The pocket-sized predator was discovered by researchers from the University of New South Wales while they were monitoring local wildlife.

Scroll down for video

A tiny marsupial has been found in the Australian outback more than a century after it was thought to have gone extinct

'Our survey trips always uncover something surprising. Recently we observed the crest-tailed mulgara, or ampurta, which was very exciting,' NSW University researchers said.

The marsupial has blonde fur, a thick brown tail, and weighs less than five-and-a-half ounces.

Ecologist Rebecca West said it was the first time the mulgara was found in NSW.

She said fossilised bone fragments were previously found in NSW, but the species was better known to have lived in the South Australian desert.

The crest-tailed mulgara, a Guinea pig-size relative of the Tasmanian devil, was found by researchers in Sturt National Park in north-west New South Wales

The pocket-sized predator was discovered by researchers from the University of New South Wales while they were monitoring local wildlife

'Our survey trips always uncover something surprising. Recently we observed the crest-tailed mulgara, or ampurta, which was very exciting,' NSW University researchers said

'The crest-tailed mulgara was once widely distributed across sandy desert environments in inland Australia, but declined due to the effects of rabbits, cats and foxes,' Ms West told the Telegraph.

The university researchers said they planned to restore species, including the mulgara, in the national park.

'Reintroduced native mammal species will include greater bilby, burrowing bettong, western quoll and western barred bandicoot,' National Parks and Wildlife Service' Jaymie Norris said.

'The crest-tailed mulgara was once widely distributed across sandy desert environments in inland Australia, but declined due to the effects of rabbits, cats and foxes,' Ms West said

The crest-tailed mulgara, known for its ability to survive in deserts, is one of about 30 native mammals to become extinct in Australia

The crest-tailed mulgara, known for its ability to survive in deserts, preserves water by producing very concentrated urine and dry excrement.

Ms West said researchers were optimistic they would see more of the mammals in time.

'They look like they might be making a comeback on their own, she told National Geographic.

'We'll just have to see.'
Amtrak didn't wait for critical speed-control technology that could have prevented deaths on the inaugural trip of its new faster train, as it emerges driver didn't manually hit the emergency brake before the crash.

The Amtrak Cascades train 501 plummeted off the rails at 80mph along a curve south of Seattle on Monday, sending some of its crashing onto an interstate highway below, killing three and injuring dozens.

Now National Transportation Safety Board member Bella Dinh-Zarr has revealed that not only was the train going 50mph above the speed limit, but its emergency brakes only deployed automatically as the fatal derailment occurred. The driver never braked during as he sped round the curve.

'When there is an accident, the emergency brake system goes to place,' she told Buzzfeed. 'It was not something the engineer actually initiated himself.'

One factor that could have potentially slowed down, or even avoided the crash altogether would have been critical speed-control technology. But instead of waiting until the safety system was installed and certified, Amtrak decided to open the new route without the positive train control.

Scroll down for video

Officials have revealed that a second person was in the cab during the deadly Amtrak crash- as investigators look into whether they may have distracted the driver. Pictured: the derailed train dangles over the edge

A positive train control system could have detected the speeding and automatically applied the brakes to stop the train, said Najmedin Meshkati, a University of Southern California professor who has studied the technology for three decades.

'It is another layer of safety,' he said.

Dinh-Zarr said it is too soon to say whether positive train control would have prevented Monday's tragedy.

Work to install the sophisticated, GPS-based technology isn't expected to be completed until next spring on the newly opened 15-mile span where the train derailed, according to Sound Transit, the public agency that owns the tracks.

Amtrak and the Washington Department of Transportation started publicizing the switch to the new route in October. Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson said that 'no one wants PTC more than me' but would not directly answer questions about why it is taking so long to get the speed-control technology up and running across the board.

A damaged train car sits on a flatbed trailer as work continues to remove other cars at the scene of an Amtrak train crash on Interstate 5

Frst responders work at the scene of an Amtrak train that derailed in DuPont, south of Seattle on Monday

'I'm a huge believer in positive train control,' he said at a news conference Tuesday evening. 'It just makes so much scientific sense.'

Anderson said the company's safety culture can continue to improve and said the crash should be seen as a 'wake-up call.' 'It's not acceptable that we're involved in these types of accidents,' he said.

Railroads are under government orders to install positive train control by the end of 2018 after the industry lobbied Congress to extend earlier deadlines, citing complexity and cost.

Union Pacific, the nation's largest freight carrier, said it was spending about $2.9 billion on the technology. Industry groups estimate railroads will spend a total of about $10 billion to install and implement the systems.

Monday's wreck is just the latest example of a deadly crash that experts say could have been prevented if the technology were in place to slow down the train when engineers go too fast, get distracted or fall ill.

U.S. investigators have listed a lack of such a system as a contributing factor in at least 25 crashes over the last 20 years, including two in the last four years where a train approached sharp curves at more than double the speed limit.

Charlie Heebner, 79, who was traveling aboard the train with his wife, Beverly, (pictured with her post-crash injuries) described the moment of impact as 'like being inside an exploding bomb'

A Metro-North train crashed in New York City in 2013, killing four people, when an engineer with sleep apnea dozed off. An Amtrak train crashed in Philadelphia in 2015, killing eight people, when investigators say the engineer was distracted by radio traffic and lost his bearings.

On the new route, where the crash occurred Monday, sensors have been installed, but the system needs to be synchronized, tested and certified before it goes online, Sound Transit spokeswoman Rachelle Cunningham said.

The safety system could have potentially saved lives on Monday, as officials are investigating whether the presence of a second person in the driver's cab could have distracted him.

Investigators want to know whether the engineer lost 'situational awareness' because of the employee-in-training sitting next to him, a federal official said Tuesday.

Passengers described the crash as 'like being in an exploded bomb' after the train ran off the rails at 80mph along a curve south of Seattle - sending some of its cars plummeting onto an interstate highway below.

National Transportation Safety Board member Bella Dinh-Zarr said it is not yet known what caused the train to derail and too early to say why it was going so fast.

An investigation is still underway and investigators are speaking to the engineer and other crew members, but it is standard procedure to look at whether the engineer was distracted or incapacitated.

The first victims of the crash have since been identified as local transit employee Zack Willhoite (left in an undated photo) and his friend Jim Hamre (right)

The engineer, whose name was not released, was bleeding from the head after the crash, and his eyes were swollen shut, according to radio transmissions from a crew member. The transmissions mentioned a second person in the front of the train who was also hurt.

The train, with 85 passengers and crew members, was making the inaugural run along a fast new bypass route that was created by refurbishing freight tracks alongside Interstate 5. The 15-mile, $180.7 million project was aimed at speeding up service by bypassing a route with a number of curves, single-track tunnels and freight traffic.

Mangled train cars ended up on top of each other - and one hung precariously over the freeway. When the clanging of metal and screeching stopped at first it was quiet. Then came the screams.

THE EMERGENCY CALL FROM THE AMTRAK DRIVER TO 911 Amtrak 501: Amtrak 501, emergency, emergency, emergency. We are on the ground! We are on the bridge (unintelligible) on the freeway. We need EMS, ASAP. It looks like they're already starting to show up. Dispatcher: 501, come in. ... Hey guys, what happened? Amtrak 501: Uh, we were coming around the corner to take the bridge over I-5 there, right north into Nisqually and we went on the ground. Dispatcher: ... Is everybody OK? Amtrak 501: I'm still figuring that out. We got cars everywhere and down onto the highway. Advertisement

Charlie Heebner, 79, who was traveling aboard the train with his wife, Beverly, described the moment of impact as 'like being inside an exploding bomb.'

'All of a sudden it was just, crash ... the train went like this,' Beverly Heebner, 78, told CNN affiliate KOMO, showing the slant of the train with her arms as the train derailed off an overpass near the city of DuPont, across the busy Interstate 5.

The couple, who were left with facial bruising and other minor injuries, managed to escape out of a window of the train.

Chris Karnes, another passenger, boarded the train between Seattle and Tacoma and was sat in the third or fourth car when the train derailed.

'We felt a little bit of a jolt and then at a certain point we could hear crumpling of the train car, and we were catapulted into the seats in front of us,' said Karnes, who also is the chairman of the Pierce Transit Community Transportation Advisory Group.

Two of the dead were identified as train buffs who belonged to the rail advocacy group All Aboard Washington and were excited to be on board for the inaugural run: Jim Hamre, a retired civil engineer with the state Transportation Department, and Zack Willhoite, a customer service employee at a local transit agency.

'It's pretty devastating. We're having a tough time,' said All Aboard Washington executive director Lloyd Flem.

Willhoite, 35, and friend Hamre were both killed when the train careened off an overpass south of Seattle, spilling cars onto the highway below on Monday. The third victim has not yet been identified.

Local officials had voiced their concerns about the train speeding through bends at a meeting earlier this month

A few motorists were injured when some of the cars came falling down onto the road, but none were killed

Investigators with the NTSB arrived on the scene of the derailment late Monday night

Friends of the two identified victims say they had just wanted to be among the first on the train's maiden journey.

Willhoite had worked at the Washington-based Pierce Transit since 2008. Hamre previously worked for the Washington State Department of Transportation and was involved in the Washington Association of Railroad Passengers.

'It's heartbreaking to hear that @PierceTransit employee and rail aficionado Zack Willhoite did not survive the derailment,' chair of the transit company's advisory board Chris Karnes tweeted on Tuesday.

'He helped our advisory committee with IT issues, and behind the scenes he was a writer and advocate for better transit for all. He will be missed.'

A friend paid tribute to both men on Hamre's Facebook page, saying: 'As we all knew they would be, Jim and his great friend Zach Wilhoite were on Amtrak Train 501 on the first run over the new route and they were, unbelievably, two of the three killed in the horrible derailment of that train.'

Motorist, Army 2nd Lt. Robert McCoy, was driving his truck down the I-5 when he saw the train cars barreling down towards him.

The railway tracks had been updated for the new service between Seattle and Portland

Train car wheels are seen on the freeway below the track after the Monday derailment

Two semi trucks were damaged in the early Monday morning derailment, in addition to five cars

'It hit three vehicles that were in front of me,' he told CNN affiliate KCPQ, adding that he had jumped out of his truck, grabbed a tourniquet and a CPR mask, and headed toward the wreck.

'There were people yelling. There were people looking for each other, loved ones,' he said. He found one woman dangling out of the train and helped her out.

Fellow motorist, Daniel Konzelman, an Eagle Scout, also ran to give first aid to the injured passengers.

'I climbed into the train car that was positioned sideways on the bridge and made sure that everybody in there was stable, and if they could get out, helped them out,' he told CNN. 'And if they had an injury, (I) made sure that there was people there to tend to them and stay with them.

'And (I) just kind of systematically worked my way through the cars until the first responders got there, and probably was able to help, I would say, 15 people get out before the firefighters or police officers arrived.'

After the crash, the injured called out as rescuers - including people who had been in cars on their morning freeway commute - rushed to help. One of the train passengers was Emma Shafer, who found herself at a 45-degree angle staring at the seats in front of her that had dislodged and swung around.

An Amtrak train car that careened off an overpass south of Seattle is hauled away on Interstate 5 Tuesday

Two damaged train cars are removed atop flatbed trailers from the scene of an Amtrak train crash onto Interstate 5

The Amtrak train making the first-ever run along a faster new route hurtled off an overpass south of Seattle and spilled some of its cars onto the highway below

'It felt oddly silent after the actual crashing,' Shafer said. 'Then there was people screaming because their leg was messed up... I don't know if I actually heard the sirens, but they were there. A guy was like, 'Hey, I'm Robert. We'll get you out of here.''

The National Transportation Safety Board first recommended the use of 'automatic train control' in 1970, a year after two Penn Central commuter trains collided, killing four and injuring 43.

The railroad industry was opposed for decades until a Metrolink commuter train collided head-on with a freight train near Los Angeles in 2008. Investigators said the train's engineer was texting and ran a stop signal, killing 25 people.

'It's a good fail-safe for human error,' said Fran Kelly, assistant general manager for SEPTA, the Philadelphia-area commuter railroad that was an early adopter of positive train control. 'It's using the best technologies available to complement what the human engineer is doing - the human element of it.'

The new $180.7 million route was designed to speed up service by removing passenger trains from a route along Puget Sound that's bogged down by curves, single-track tunnels and freight traffic.

Positive train control - the technology that can slow or stop a speeding train - wasn't in use on this stretch of track, according to Amtrak President Richard Anderson.

Positive train control was installed on 23 percent of the nation's passenger route miles and 37 percent of freight route miles as of July, the last time the Federal Railroad Administration updated its online tracker for the technology.

It is activated on the tracks Amtrak owns along the Northeast Corridor, from Boston to Washington, D.C., and on Amtrak's Michigan line. Many of its locomotives are equipped for positive train control.

Throughout the rest of the country, Amtrak operates on track owned by freight carriers and other entities that have made varying progress on installing the technology.

It's a work in progress on the route where the train derailed Monday.

Regulators have been pressing railroads for years to install such technology, and some have done so, but the deadline has been extended repeatedly at the industry's request and is now the end of 2018.

Seats are jammed together with other debris on an upside-down Amtrak train car taken from the scene of Monday's deadly crash onto Interstate 5

Federal investigators say they don't yet know why the Amtrak train was traveling 50 mph over the speed limit

A track chart prepared by the Washington State Department of Transportation shows the maximum speed drops from 79 mph to 30 mph for passenger trains just before the tracks curve to cross Interstate 5, which is where the train went off the tracks.

In 2015, an Amtrak train traveling at twice the 50 mph speed limit derailed along a sharp curve in Philadelphia, killing eight people. Investigators concluded the engineer was distracted by reports over the radio of another train getting hit by a rock.

In September, a judge threw out charges of involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment against the engineer, saying the crash did not appear to rise to a crime. Prosecutors are trying to get the case reinstated.

Amtrak agreed to pay $265 million to settle claims filed by the victims and their families. It has also installed positive train control on all its track between Boston and Washington.
A petition demanding tough new laws on charity collectors has been started by a man sick of being harassed during his lunch break.

Ryan Donohue is calling on Brisbane City Council to limit the number of 'chuggers' on the streets, and regulate their behaviour.

Chuggers - short for charity muggers - have upset Mr Donohue to the point where he has posted a petition on the council's website.

A petition demanding tough new laws on charity collectors has been started by a man sick of being harassed during his lunch break (pictured are guidelines for face to face fundraisers)

Ryan Donohue is calling on Brisbane City Council to limit the number of 'chuggers' on the streets, and regulate their behaviour (pictured is a stock image)

'I should be able to walk from my work and come back without being accosted every day on every single corner,' Mr Donohue told Brisbane Times.

'Residents draw to the attention of Brisbane Council the surge in charity collectors, or 'chuggers' in the Central Brisbane District,' he states in the petition.

'Residents also draw attention to the safety concerns regarding the impact to pedestrian flow on busy footways such as Adelaide, Queen and Edward streets by these charity collectors.'

'We ask that Council make a legislative change to limit the concentration of charity collectors and adopt guidelines around specific behaviour of individual charity collectors.'

Chuggers - short for charity muggers - have upset Mr Donohue to the point where he has posted a petition on the council's website (pictured is a stock image)

Mr Donohue said the last interaction he had with a charity collector left him feeling upset.

'I was pretty much told by the girl that she was on commission and that if I wanted to cancel, do it in a couple of days' time so she would get commission out of it,' he said.

Poll Do you think tougher new rules on chuggers are needed? Yes No I don't know Do you think tougher new rules on chuggers are needed? Yes 965 votes

No 33 votes

I don't know 16 votes Now share your opinion





Charities with face to face fundraisers in Brisbane need to be registered and apply for permits from the council to collect money on specific footpaths.

The Public Fundraising Regulatory Association has a set of rules for public fundraisers, and said the activity is highly regulated.

Face to face fundraisers may not initiate physical contact, follow you down the street, obstruct you, or stand too close to the curb.

They must be professional fundraisers, be polite and respectful and be wearing a charity uniform or be smartly dressed.

They must carry a photo ID badge, carry a copy of a council permit (if required) and stay in the location assigned by the permit.

'I should be able to walk from my work and come back without being accosted every day on every single corner,' Mr Donohue said (pictured is a stock image)

In a statement to Daily Mail Australia Brisbane City Council said:

'Council only regulates charity collections in Queen Street Mall, the Valley Mall or King George Square, and they must first be approved by the State Government's Office of Fair Trading.

'Council does not permit the solicitation of subscriptions for a charitable organisation, and only allows the collection of coins or selling of merchandise from a static position.'
Exploding pressure cookers that caused serious burns to six people's eyes, faces and upper bodies have resulted in consumer group Choice pushing for a new product recall system.

All six people injured by the since-recalled Crofton Chef's Collection pressure cooker, bought exclusively at Aldi stores, received second or third-degree burns, with one woman standing one metre away from the cooker when it exploded.

Four of the injuries happened after the recall started in August, while fewer than a quarter of the 8405 pressure cookers have since been returned.

The Crofton Chef's Collection pressure cooker (pictured) caused serious burns to six people's upper bodies

The details of the injuries and the recall rates were uncovered after Choice obtained private incident reports under Freedom of Information laws.

It has prompted the consumer group to push for more transparency from businesses recalling products.

'It's staggering that businesses don't currently have to release this information,' Head of Campaigns Sarah Agar said in a statement on Wednesday.

'When a product is so faulty that it puts people at risk, the public deserve to know how many products are affected, how many have been returned or repaired, and how quickly and effectively the business is running the recall.'

The responsibility is currently on consumers to remain aware of product recalls.

In a statement provided to Daily Mail Australia, an ALDI spokesperson said the chain were 'absolutely committed' to providing customers with safe products of the highest quality.

Consumer group Choice is pushing for a new product recall system after less than one quarter of cookers (pictured) were returned since August

'All of ALDIs products undergo rigorous testing prior to being sold in our stores and we work closely with our suppliers to meet specifications.

'As soon as we became aware of the fault with the CROFTON Chefs Collection Pressure Cooker (Product Code 50073), ALDI and our supplier, H&H Asia, conducted a voluntary public recall.

'To raise awareness of the fault among our customers, ALDI and H&H Asia agreed on an advertising plan with the ACCC. The recall notice was posted and still remains on our website, Facebook page and in all ALDI Australia stores.'

He said customers should immediately stop use and return the product to your nearest ALDI store for a full refund.
It's been an eventful year for women, which is why Trevor Noah's hour-long Yearly Show special included a music video titled a 'Song for Women 2017', featuring a surprise cameo appearance from Hillary Clinton.

The former First Lady joined The Daily Show's correspondents Dulce Sloan and Desi Lydic in a music video that discussed everything from Donald Trump to Wonder Woman, Beyonce's twins and the Women's March.

Sloan and Lydic sung about the positive outcomes from this year, including the impeachment of a South Korean female politician, while also addressing the negative aspects, such as the bevy of sexual harassment stories that have come to light in recent months.

The Daily Show's correspondents Dulce Sloan and Desi Lydic starred in the music video

Clinton's appearance in the song was very brief, however she did not disappoint.

Sloan yells out 'Yo Hillary Clinton take us home,' to which Clinton can be seen belting her heart out, although she is believed to be lip-syncing.

Some of the other lyrics in the song include 'Keeping it feminine, this mess we've been in. Our lady d**** are swinging, sick of all this winning.'

The former First Lady belted her heart out while Dulce Sloan and Desi Lydic in sang about everything from Wonder Woman to Beyonce's twins and the Women's March

Some of the other lyrics in the song include 'Keeping it feminine, this mess we've been in. Our lady d**** are swinging, sick of all this winning'

In the special show Noah discussed the epic roller-coaster women have endured throughout 2017.

'If there's one group of people who have defined this year, it's been women,' he said before the comedic musical number began.

The six-minute music video for the song also featured DJ Mansplain.

The six-minute music video for the song also featured DJ Mansplain (pictured here)
A former assistant to Harvey Weinstein has told how her career ended after she accused the media mogul of sexual assault because it ruined her reputation.

Zelda Perkins said she was viewed as 'suspect' by potential new employers after a long and exhausting legal fight with Miramax which ended with her signing an nondisclosure agreement in return for 125,000.

Finding that she could no longer work in London, where she was based before she made her allegations, Ms Perkins ended up in Central America training horses.

Zelda Perkins has recalled how accusing Harvey Weinstein of sexual abuse effectively ruined her career as an assistant, and left her 'broken and disillusioned'

Perkins went after Weinstein in 1998 following the Venice Film Festival (pictured, the mogul at the event) after she says a colleague confessed that the media mogul had tried to rape her

She told BBC Newsnight: 'When you've spent a month of your life fighting with every ounce of your strength to stop a predator, to have to face that kind of environment afterwards was hard.

'I couldn't stay in the industry at that point.'

Ms Perkins has previously told how Weinstein appeared in his underwear in front of her and offered her a nude massage while the two were alone in his hotel room, which she referred to as 'his office'.

He would also parade around naked and force her to sit beside the tub as he bathed, she said.

While she did not initially feel the need to complain, it was after a colleague claimed that Weinstein had tried to rape her during the 1998 Venice Film Festival that she acted.

She said her first move was to confront Weinstein personally, who swore 'on the lives of his wife and children' that it had never happened, but failed to convince her.

Perkins said her own legal team advised her that going after Weinstein would 'destroy' her, and that signing a nondisclosure agreement was the best way forward

After that she quit alongside her colleague and the pair acquired a legal team to go after him. It was then, she says, that the real trauma started.

'I could deal with Harvey - he was unpleasant, difficult man, but I had ways of dealing with him,' she told the BBC.

'What I couldn't deal with, what I had no equipment for, was the legal system.

'There was no recourse, it seemed, and that was really shocking and very frightening, to discover that the law couldn't help me.'

She recalls how her lawyers told her she would be 'destroyed' taking Weinstein to court, and presented a damages settlement as the only reasonable outcome.

At first she was insistent that no money would change hands, but after being told that a financial threat was the only way to bring Miramax to the table, she agreed.

She then resolved to force Weinstein to reform using the agreement, insisting that he attend therapy with her present for the first session, that he be fired if another complaint was made, and that Miramax put a proper sex complaints policy in place.

It was only after dozens of women and prominent Hollywood figures came forward to accuse Weinstein that Ms Perkins said she felt able to breach that agreement and speak out

On her end the agreement prohibited her from talking to anybody about her time at Miramax. She was even forbidden from speaking to a therapist without them obtaining an agreement of their own.

She was also barred from keeping a copy of the agreement, which she eventually signed after being left 'broken and disillusioned' with the legal process.

In reality she has no idea whether Weinstein kept up his end of the deal, she said.

It was only after dozens of other women, including prominent Hollywood figures, came forward with allegations against Weinstein that she decided to break that agreement and speak out.

Asked whether she believes that will make a difference, she said 2017 has been a 'watershed year' which she believes will bring lasting change.

'If I can make one good thing happen out of something as horrific as all the damage that Harvey has caused, that makes this year a fantastic year for me,' she added.

Weinstein categorically denies any allegations of non-consensual sex.
Proposals to modify driving rules to enable remote control parking have been outlined by the Government.

Drivers will be able to use a mobile phone to park their car under measures included in a public consultation.

There is 'uncertainty' as to whether motorists could be prosecuted under existing laws for using a hand-held device to control a vehicle, the Department for Transport said.

The government are looking at changing driving rules to allow drivers to park their cars with their mobile phones

Remote control parking is included in a number of high-end models and the Government believes the technology can help people with small garages or mobility issues.

The consultation document cited a 2013 study by the British Parking Association which suggested the average driver spends 106 days of their life searching for a parking space.

Rule changes to allow the use of systems which can control speed and positioning on motorways are also included in the proposals.

Currently, reports say that drivers are uncertain as to whether they can use their phones to park their cars

Transport minister Jesse Norman said: 'The Government is determined that Britain should lead the way in embracing the safe deployment of new vehicle technology.

'Features such as remote control parking and motorway assist have the potential to transform car travel, adding greater convenience and accessibility to drivers so that they can park and drive with more confidence.'

Steve Gooding, director of motoring research charity the RAC Foundation, added: 'Even the best drivers can get sweaty palms when confronted with a tight parking space, but as with so many aspects of motoring, the technology to assist exists.

'These proposals show that ministers are determined to make sure the regulations keep up with the tech so we all benefit from advances that make our lives both simpler and safer.'
Watchdogs must be prepared to step in and prevent swathes of cash machines from being shut under a shake-up demanded by big banks, MPs have said.

The banks are calling for a cut to the fees they pay when their customers withdraw money from an ATM owned by an independent operator.

It is feared the change could make thousands of machines unprofitable and force them to shut down, with up to 5,000 towns and villages losing access to a free ATM.

Big banks are calling for a cut to the fees they have to pay when customers withdraw money from an ATM

Tory MP Nicky Morgan, chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, said that the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) must intervene if necessary to prevent this from happening.

And the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said that it is essential nothing is done to harm companies and their customers access to cash.

Mrs Morgan said: Reports on the future of free-to-use ATMs have left many consumers understandably concerned about their ability to access cash in the future.

The relevant parties must engage constructively. If they dont, or if consumer access to cash is at risk, the regulator should not hesitate to take appropriate action.

As bank closures increase, so too does the reliance on free-to-use ATMs. The ability of consumers to access cash must not suffer.

Tory MP Nicky Morgan has asked the Payment Systems Regulator to intervene to prevent the loss of ATMs

The planned 20 per cent cut to fees has been prosed by Link, which manages Britains 70,000 free ATMs.

It claims that costs are currently too high and that cash usage is falling  even though the Bank of England has said that notes are not in decline.

The proposals come after heavy lobbying from High Street banks  chiefly Lloyds and bailed-out Natwest owner Royal Bank of Scotland  as they seek to maximise their profits.

Big lenders are dramatically scaling back their branch networks, with 1,000 shutting this year alone.

Cash machines are seen as an extra expense which could also be reduced as they seek to prod their customers into signing up for cheaper internet banking.

Link attempted to head off a backlash last week by saying that isolated cash machines more than 1km apart  around 0.6 miles  will be exempt from the changes.

But MPs fear this will not be enough to prevent closures.

The change could make thousands of machines unprofitable and force them to shut down, with up to 5,000 towns and villages losing access to a free ATM

Mrs Morgan wrote to Links chairman Sir Mark Boleat urging him to ensure an acceptable outcome is reached and that the plans arent rushed.

She threatened to haul Link chiefs, bank bosses and independent ATM operators up in front of the committee unless a sensible solution is found.

She also wrote to PSR boss Hannah Nixon, asking her to pay close attention.

Mrs Morgan said: It would be hard to argue that a significant reduction in free access to cash would be consistent with the PSRs statutory objective.

The PSR should not hesitate to take the appropriate steps if it feels that any party is not engaging appropriately.

The wave of branch closures means that many rural families rely on a nearby cash machine as their last source of basic financial services.

It is feared that widespread disappearances could hit vulnerable people who cannot travel far, and independent shops which depend on customers using cash.

FSB chairman Mike Cherry said: Access to cash is crucial for communities across the UK and the small businesses within them.

The intervention of the Treasury Select Committee on this is very welcome.

With significant cuts to the number of bank branches in recent years, the cash machine network has become even more vital.

LINKs proposals may actually result in parts of the cash machine network becoming less viable, and could leave some high streets and villages without access to a cash machine.

Sir Mark said: The Link boards intention is set the level of interchange at a level that will retain an extensive network of free ATMs for consumers, particularly in rural and deprived areas, whilst avoiding the growth in ATM numbers that has occurred over recent years.

The board is now carefully considering all representations.

He said a decision is expected by the end of January.
Human remains have been discovered inside a submerged 4WD in a Queensland lake, 11 months after vehicle's owner went missing.

Police were called to the Moondarra Dam in Mount Isa, in the Gulf Country region, about 6.20pm Tuesday, after a man in a boat reported the vehicle.

The green 1999 Toyota Landcruiser belonged to missing woman Rosemary McLean, 51, who hasn't been seen since January.

Human remains were discovered inside a submerged 4WD in a Queensland lake Tuesday night - 11 months after vehicle's owner went missing

Rosemary McLean (pictured), 51, hasn't been seen since January when she disappeared in the green 1999 Toyota Landcruiser with her two dogs

Authorities were unable to confirm whether the remains belonged to her or not.

Ms McLean was last seen with her two dogs at the Lake Moondarra Junction January 14 about 9am.

Officers investigated the scene overnight, with divers and forensic teams brought in from Townsville Wednesday to continue searches, ABC reports.

'(We) believe that the water level has dropped at the lake and obviously its the (vehicle's) roof has appeared,' Detective Inspector Anne Vogler said.

'It is fully submerged with only the roof appearing and we will be doing a full search of the area.'
A council has ditched controversial plans to ban residents from swearing in a town.

Authorities in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, wanted to slap locals with a 100 fine if they were caught turning the air blue as part of a crackdown on anti-social behaviour.

The 'Public Space Protection Order' (PSPO) also proposed to ban begging, playing loud music, loud revving car engines, unauthorised charity collectors, street drinking and skateboarding.

But the local authority has now dropped the swearing ban following a huge outcry when it was announced in March.

Critics said it would breach human rights and Greater Manchester Police (GMP) raised concerns about enforcing the ban.

Rochdale Council in Greater Manchester have reversed plans to ban swearing in the city centre after a huge public outcry (pictured, tower blocks in the town centre)

A report into the plans reads: 'GMP supported the PSPO but advised to drop the swearing ban given the issues with enforcement and that there is already legislation in place to deal with people using foul and abusive language in a manner that causes or is likely to cause harassment alarm or distress.'

Locals were also hugely critical of the proposal online. Resident Becky Aspinall said: 'Another fine example of a council spending other people's hard earned money on something ridiculous. Bravo Rochdale town hall, bravo!'

Another internet user questioned which words would be classed as 'foul' and how residents and visitors would be made aware of the banned words.

David Heath said: 'What designates a swear word and how is it a civil or criminal offence? Plus where will they put a list of the words in full and where will the signs be placed?'

Another resident, Kathy Evans also questioned how the police were meant to implement and enforce the ban.

Plans from March were part of a Public Space Protection Order that also wanted to ban begging and playing loud music (pictured: Rochdale town hall)

She said: 'There's no way they could implement that unless they went around filming and recording sound at the same time, And I'm sure that would be an infringement on our human rights.'

Human rights group Liberty also criticised the proposed ban. Lara ten Caten, Liberty's legal officer, said: 'These proposals are a staggering misuse of power.

'The council is seeking to limit the rights and freedoms of Rochdale residents without providing any evidence of a need to do so  or even bothering to consult them in the first place.

'This PSPO would make criminals of the homeless and vulnerable, the young, the politically-engaged and businessmen and women alike.

'Criminalising those most in need is no answer to rising homelessness, while the swearing ban is so vague no one could possibly know whether they risk breaking the law or not. Rochdale deserves better.'
Chinese professional shoppers have found a loophole enabling them to send large amounts of baby formula overseas, by buying it in bulk from wholesale supermarket Costco.

Supermarket shelves have been regularly raided in recent years by shoppers sending the higher-quality milk products back to China in an effort to meet demand.

With shelves being left empty and suppliers struggling to keep up, Woolworths and Coles were forced to limit their customers to a maximum of just two tins at a time.

But a photo provided to Daily Mail Australia by a shocked Costco shopper shows it is still possible to buy in bulk, with one woman checking out a large pallet of more than 100 tins.

Scroll down for video

Chinese professional shoppers have found a loophole on supermarket limits to send huge amounts of baby formula to their homeland, by buying it in bulk from Costco (pictured)

A spokesperson for Costco supermarkets said there was currently no limit on the amount able to be bought by customers, but there had been previously at times of limited supply

So enormous was the woman's load of 50 boxes of baby formula that it needed to be carefully wheeled out of the warehouse by a Costco employee.

The customer said the sight of professional shoppers, known as 'daigous', checking out of the mega supermarket with large amounts of the formula was not unusual.

A spokesperson for Costco said there was currently no limit on the amount able to be bought by customers, but there had been previously at times of limited supply.

It comes just a week after the full extent of China's insatiable thirst for baby formula, and large shipments heading overseas daily, were revealed by Daily Mail Australia.

Tonnes of 'white gold'  from leading brands Aptamil and A2  were among hundreds of pallets found by Daily Mail Australia inside a Sydney warehouse in early December.

From there, thousands of tins are packaged and indirectly shipped to China, as well as being distributed locally, despite limits imposed by supermarkets on how much customers can buy off their shelves in Australia.

Top Warehouse, the business behind the warehouse, said it did not 'directly sell baby formula overseas', claiming it was just a 'middle-man' and didn't ask customers about where its products ended up.

But a former worker at the factory claimed huge shipments are sent to China 'daily'.

It comes just a week after the full extent of China's insatiable thirst for baby formula, and large shipments heading overseas from warehouses (pictured) were revealed by Daily Mail Australia

Tonnes of 'white gold'  from leading brands Aptamil and A2  were among hundreds of pallets found by Daily Mail Australia inside a Sydney warehouse (pictured) in early December

So high is overseas demand for baby formula that Coles and Woolworths have had to bring in a limit on how much can be bought per customer

While observing their operation, Daily Mail Australia witnessed dozens of vehicles arrive at the warehouse to be loaded up with baby formula.

It's understood many of those collecting baby formula were owners of Asian grocers and duty free stores across the city.

These stores then sell the products to Chinese tourists to take on the plane home with them.

Mike Chen, manager at Top Warehouse, said that where the formula ended up once it left the warehouse really wasn't the company's concern.

'Basically what we do is we take the order off the customers and we give them what we get in from Aptamil,' Mr Chen said.

Mike Chen, manager at the Sydney distribution centre Top Warehouse, said where the formula ended up once it left the warehouse really wasn't the company's concern

In one afternoon dozens of vehicles arrived at the warehouse to be loaded up with cans of the baby formula

While some individuals loaded several boxes into their cars, large trucks also arrived to take the formula to online shopping distribution centres

'Mainly, we are selling to local businesses... I believe (but) we're not going to ask and they are not going to tell us about where their product is going.'

While buying and sending baby formula overseas is legal, it has left many Australian parents outraged at their now reduced access to the once freely accessible product.

So enormous is the demand from China that Aptamil has increased its production of its formula by 50 per cent in the past three months.

Earlier this year Woolworths announced it would be sending its homebrand products to China, feeding the endless appetite of the nation.

Some international shoppers are happy to pay prices marked up to 1000 per cent, so sought after is the high quality milk powder.
A factory that processes chicken for major supermarkets mixed up organic and non-organic poultry, a leaked report has revealed.

It also found that staff at the 2 Sisters plant in Coupar Angus, in Perth and Kinross, could not show what had happened to 250 crates of chicken earmarked for disposal.

The plant was handed a red warning by Tesco auditors after an emergency inspection found five key failings at the factory.

Similar food hygiene issues emerged at another 2 Sisters plant, in West Bromwich, in September.

Earlier this year, workers were filmed changing date labels, which meant customers could be eating meat after a safe use-by date

In the latest report, inspectors found any member of staff could have accessed a computer that changes use-by dates on meat, as it was not password protected.

Concerns were also raised about meat labelling, which is the way staff can check use-by dates.

The report said that some chicken was double-labelled, while others didnt have any labelling at all. Even though no food safety regulations were broken, the Coupar Angus plant was handed the worst score for its major issues.

The report, produced in October, came the same weekend as the firms West Bromwich plant was shut after an inquiry found staff were changing slaughter dates to prolong the shelf-life of older chicken.

2 Sisters said none of the mixed-up chicken marked as waste was bought by customers and no staff members had used the computer to change use-by dates, according to The Guardian and ITV, which reported the leak.

Earlier this year, workers were filmed changing date labels, which meant customers could be eating meat after a safe use-by date

The company, which produces chicken for supermarkets such as Sainsburys, Marks & Spencer and Tesco, also said the computer in question had been moved.

Earlier this year, workers were filmed changing date labels, which meant customers could be eating meat after a safe use-by date.

Chicken was put on the production line after it had fallen on the floor and older chicken pieces were mixed with fresh ones.

A Tesco spokesman said: When we became aware of the issues at 2 Sisters West Bromwich site, we immediately conducted an additional 46 visits and inspections across other 2 Sisters poultry sites.

2 Sisters said: ITV and The Guardian are referring to standard inspection audits and appear to be trying to damage the reputation of our factories and potentially the livelihoods of 23,000 colleagues by misrepresenting them'

None of the specific food safety risks highlighted at West Bromwich were replicated at any other site. Tescos inspections did not identify regulatory breaches at any of 2 Sisters sites.

Our inspection highlighted a number of inadequate processes at this site, including labelling, segregation, traceability and recording. We insisted these were addressed immediately.

Tesco said it had shared the report with the Food Standards Agency, which is currently investigating the original findings.

2 Sisters said: ITV and The Guardian are referring to standard inspection audits and appear to be trying to damage the reputation of our factories and potentially the livelihoods of 23,000 colleagues by misrepresenting them.

There is and never was any risk to food safety at Coupar Angus. This is using old news to highlight issues which were resolved with our customer two months ago.
Sydneysiders rushing to their nearest beach to cool down during yet another scorching day may be out of luck after two eastern beaches were closed due to 'dangerous conditions.'

Tamamara and Bronte beaches were closed on Wednesday morning as temperatures began to soar well into the 30s by 7.30am.

The rough waves didn't seem to phase some swimmers after a video uploaded to Instagram showed several people taking plunging themselves in the blue water.

Scroll down for video

Sydneysiders rushing to their nearest beach to cool down during yet another scorching day may be out of luck after two eastern beaches were closed due to 'dangerous conditions'

Tamamara and Bronte (pictured) beaches were closed on Wednesday morning as temperatures began to soar well into the 30s by 7.30am

The rough waves didn't seem to phase some swimmers after a video uploaded to Instagram showed several people taking plunging themselves in the blue water (pictured)

All other patrolled beaches remain open, according to Beachwatch NSW.

'With temperatures soaring today in Sydney, why not head to the beach and beat the heat! Water temperature is a refreshing 21-22C, not too much swell around and almost all swimming sites unlikely to be impacted by stormwater today, it's definitely the day for it!'

Swimmers were left concerned after a shark alarm went off at Manly Beach, north of the city, on Tuesday, but the beach remains open on Wednesday.

The city has reached 36C while Penrith and Richmond sizzle at 42C, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

The eastern suburbs were sitting at 34C by 11am but temperatures are tipped to exceed 40C in the city's west.

After a very sticky morning, a southerly cool change moving along the state's south coast is predicted to bring relief during the day as it tracks north.

The southerly change is heading north and should hit Sydney's coast between 1pm and 2pm before heading to the city's south.

Swimmers were left concerned after a shark alarm went off at Manly Beach, north of the city, on Tuesday, but the beach remains open on Wednesday

The city has reached 36C while Penrith and Richmond sizzle at 42C, according to the Bureau of Meteorology

The eastern suburbs were sitting at 34C by 11am but temperatures are tipped to exceed 40C in the city's west

Temperatures will drop at least 10 degrees, a forecaster from the BOM said.

Australia's killer beaches have claimed five young lives already this month in a horror start to the school summer holidays - and the warning from lifesavers is that 'nowhere is safe'.

More than 30 Australians have already drowned in coastal waters since July, as temperatures soar and life savers plead with beachgoers to take more care.

Five children aged 11 to 15 have lost their lives since December 6, with a total of 10 coastal drowning deaths for the month.

Two children, an 11-year-old boy and Bronson Rhodes, 14, have died at Port Macquarie beaches on the New South Wales mid north coast within a fortnight. Neither of their bodies has been found.

Two teenagers, both 15, have also drowned at Glenelg Beach in Adelaide within eight days. The first, Nitisha Negi, fell from rocks on December 10.

Glenelg Beach in South Australia where two teenagers have drowned in just eight days

Nitisha Negi, 15, was found on December 11 after she fell from rocks at Glenelg beach, SA

Flynns Beach at Port Macquarie where Bronson Rhodes, 14, drowned last Saturday afternoon

Bronson Rhodes disappeared off Flynns Beach at Port Macquarie on the NSW mid north coast

In Tasmania, 14-year-old Georgia Lewtas died on Sunday, six days after being pulled from the water at Devonport's Mersey Bluff Beach on the island's north coast.

A woman, 49, drowned at unpatrolled Diggers Beach in Coffs Harbour, on the north coast of NSW, while trying to save a boy from a rip on Sunday afternoon.

And a man aged in his 60s remains in a critical condition after being pulled from water at Sydney's Bondi Beach after he was spotted in distress on Monday afternoon.

Melbourne father-of three Shaun Oliver, 32, died while trying to save 12-year-old boy Yazan Hammad at Wollongong's City Beach, south of Sydney, on September 11. City Beach had been closed at the time due to rough conditions.

Shane Daw, National Coastal Risk and Safety Manager for Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA), said there had been at least 33 coastal drowning deaths in Australia since July 1.

'The loss of any life is tragic, let alone that of a child or young person,' Mr Daw said.

'Coming into the Christmas period we are imploring all beachgoers and other aquatic users to stop and think water safety.'

Georgia Lewtas, 14, died six days after being pulled from water at Devonport's Mersey Bluff

Bronson Rhodes, 14, pictured left, disappeared in rough surf at Flynns Beach in Port Macquarie, NSW; Shuan Oliver, 32, pictured right, drowned at Wollongong's City Beach
This is the strange moment two fast-food promotional mascots battle it out to see who comes out on top - but it quickly turns nasty when one is set a blaze.

The pair fought over pavement space in which to hand out their flyers, next to a McDonald's in Novosibirsk, Russia.

At first it is innocent shoves but the dispute soon escalated with the coin mascot delivering kicks to the chef's body.

The chef drops and yet the coin's onslaught continues as he delivers blow after blow to the fallen chef.

Then there is a lull in the action and the fighting seems to stop - only for passersby to quickly realise that the coin mascot is on fire.

This is the strange moment two fast-food promotional mascots battle it out to see who comes out on top - but it quickly turns nasty when one is set a blaze

The two fought over pavement space in which to hand out their flyers, next to a McDonald's in Novosibirsk, Russia

The costumed promoter drops and rolls on the pavement in a struggle to stop the flames.

Help swiftly arrives with a security guard dousing the burning costume with a fire extinguisher.

But the incident proved to be so random that online commentators suspected the entire incident was staged to attract publicity for the Hello Mama fast food restaurant.

Police are reported to be investigating the incident.
Two women, aged 44 and 29, were victims of a massive phone scam.

The pair handed over $740,000 and $100,000 respectively to fraudsters claiming to be members of the Shanghai Police.

In a statement published on Wednesday, Victoria Police warned the community to be on alert as the scammers might strike again.

Two women, aged 44 and 29, were victims of a massive phone scam (stock image)

Detectives from the Stonnington Crime Investigation Unit confirmed they received two reports from residents who have received the threatening phone calls

A 44-year-old Glen Iris woman and a 29-year-old South Yarra woman handed over $740,000 and $100,000 respectively after being targeted

Detectives from the Stonnington Crime Investigation Unit confirmed they have received two reports from the targeted residents who have received the threatening phone calls.

In order to get more money out of their victim's pockets, the fraudsters used fear to intimidate and control them.

Using an overseas phone number, the callers claim an important investigation into money laundering.

They then scare their victims, pretending that their name is linked to a parcel that has been intercepted by Shanghai Customs.

The scammer demands that money be transferred by the victim into Chinese bank accounts, in order to proceed with the investigation.

Anyone with any information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential crime report to www.crimestoppersvic.com.au

Police urge anyone that is targeted by this scam to report it to police immediately.

Anyone with any information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential crime report to www.crimestoppersvic.com.au

Alternatively, reports can be made to the Scam Watch www.scamwatch.gov.au
At the witness table in committee room six sat three suave suits from Facebook, Twitter and Google.

They had been summoned by MPs to answer claims that they spread terrorism and hatred.

Above them, at ceiling level, a large piece of antique wallpaper had peeled away from the wall and sagged loose at a sorry angle.

The Palace of Westminster  symbol of our parliamentary politics  has crumbled in recent years.

Executives from Twitter, Facebook and Google (pictured) were hauled before the Home Affairs Select Committee today to explain how they were tackling the problem. Pictured from left are Google vice president Dr Nicklas Berild Lundblad, Twitter's vice president for public policy and communications in Europe, the Middle East and Africa Sinead McSweeney, and Facebook's director for public policy Simon Milner

The rise of alternative debating forums should not be altogether surprising. People with trenchant feelings take to the ether because they seldom hear their views represented at a politically-correct parliament.

The three were suited and smarmy. Internet executives are no longer sockless California dudes with laid-back, libertarian ideals.

These companies have become profit-chasing multinationals which plug into the lobbying world and employ all its deceits.

They purred fluently in corporate blether about how their reporting streams and their actioning were now better and how they would take away criticisms and work on some of the horrors described by the Home Affairs Committee.

Facebook's public policy director Simon Milner said the platform was helping authorities to understand radicalisation online

Their algorithms were casually suggesting racist and violent websites to innocent users, suggested the committees chairman, Yvette Cooper. Well ask our experts to look into that, the MPs were assured.

How many of those experts might there be? Oooh, lots. A waft of the hands. A nod of resolute chins. But they could not give numbers or say what sort of money they were being paid.

Google had sent along vice president, public policy, Europe, Middle East and Africa Dr Nicklas Berild Lundblad, who murmured in the sympathetic tones of a Swiss clap doctor.

Twitter was represented by VP public policy and communications Sinead McSweeney, as windy as Porcupine Bank. In an earlier life she was an Irish government special adviser.

Chairwoman Yvette Cooper (pictured during today's committee) demanded to know why action had not already been taken following earlier investigations into abusive posts.

Facebooks spinner (sorry  its director of public policy) was Simon Milner, the most mellifluous burbler I have heard. Magnificent (if your taste runs to that sort of thing).

We could send him to the Empathy Games and he would return with the gold medal every time. He had all the non-judgmental language, all the vocal riffs  uplift, soft consonants, a hint of Northern vowels, and opening replies with so  required of modern damage-limitations.

Chum Milner used to be a senior bureaucrat at the BBC. Whatever Facebook is paying him is not enough, hes so good at presenting a saintly front for such a rapacious outfit.

The MPs seemed more concerned about online rudeness to politicians than they were about the horrid promotion of child pornography or terrorist ideology.

Miss Cooper showed them examples of such insults and wanted to know how they evaded much-trumpeted filter systems.

Twitter's Sinead McSweeney admitted she did not know why the tweets remained despite being reported as abusive

Er, the internet trio couldnt quite say but they promised that agents would look into it. It was stressed that elected officials were given free escalation packs to help them complain about online scuttlebutt.

Tim Loughton (Con, E Worthing & Shoreham), after hearing of the firms much-vaunted machinery for stopping abuse, noted that Twitter gaily allowed a kill a Tory hashtag to run on its platform.

Yet a similar kill a Socialist hashtag had been censored. (Similarly, Ms Cooper made much of far-Right hate speech but I did not hear her complain much about far-Left bile of the sort spread by some Momentum activists.)

Twitters Ms McSweeney replied that there were 500 million tweets a day and it was a significant task to check them for nastiness. You are profiting from people furthering the ills of society, Mr Loughton told her. He doubted the firms were trying terribly hard to stop the poison.

Ms McSweeney countered with the view that the world is becoming an increasingly challenging place.

Now why might that be? Because the internet has given voice to raw anger that was always there? Because social media is encouraging extremism? Or because the political class has so often ignored the voters? A parliament that tries to block the democratic will, as on Brexit, is regrettably bound to make millions boil with anger.
Yobs who shine lasers at planes could face five years in jail under a government crackdown.

Offenders could be locked up for using the dazzling beams to blind pilots, bus and trains drivers, hauliers and ships - putting lives at risk.

Aircraft were attacked with laser pens at least 1,258 times last year  an average of three times a day, according to figures from the Civil Aviation Authority.

The British Transport Police also recorded 578 laser incidents on the railways since 2011.

Laser pens, which can be bought for as little as 12, have been used to blind pilots, train drivers and ships. People who use them this way could now face up to five years in prison (file photo)

Experts have warned that the commonly available laser pointers can cause eye damage and in some cases render people temporarily blind.

Laser pens can be bought for as little as 12 and can momentarily dazzle or distract a pilot at crucial moments during take-off and landing.

Under existing legislation shining a laser at an aircraft in flight is a specific criminal offence that carries a fine of up to 2,500.

But the Laser Misuse (Vehicles) Bill, unveiled by the Department for Transport today WED, will expand the list of vehicles it is an offence to target to include trains, buses, boats, hovercraft, cars and lorries.

Offenders also face unlimited fines as of the proposed measures to boost safety.

The Bill will make it easier to prosecute offenders by removing the need for police and prosecutors to prove an intention to endanger a vehicle.

It will become an offence to dazzle or distract the operator of a vehicle either deliberately or if reasonable precautions to avoid doing so are not taken.

Aviation Minister Baroness Sugg said: Lasers can dazzle, distract or blind those in control of a vehicle, with serious and potentially even fatal consequences.

The Government is determined to protect pilots, captains, drivers and their passengers and take action against those who threaten their safety.

Commander Simon Bray, the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) lead for lasers, said: Recklessly shining a laser at an aircraft or another moving vehicle is deeply irresponsible and dangerous.

By causing a distraction or, in some cases, short or long-term eye damage, laser attacks can lead to catastrophic incidents.

Aircraft were attacked with laser pens at least 1,258 times last year according to figures from the Civil Aviation Authority

These new and robust measures send a clear message to perpetrators: laser attacks are a crime and serious consequences will follow from committing this offence.

Laser pens have been a growing concern in the aviation sector in recent years as pilots have been targeted by the beams.

The first laser attack on an aircraft was reported in 2004 and since 2011 there have been around 1,500 incidents in the UK each year.

Brian Strutton, general secretary of pilots' union Balpa, said: Balpa pilots and other transport workers have raised the growing threat of laser attacks for some time.

Under existing laws shining a laser at an aircraft in flight carries a fine of up to 2,500. The British Transport Police recorded 578 laser incidents on the railways since 2011.

A Bill to tackle the misuse of lasers is therefore very welcome and we will work with DfT to ensure its effective and speedy implementation.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is consulting on whether powerful laser pens should require a licence following concerns about attacks.

The Government said it will consider a range of ideas to boost safety, such as licensing for retailers and shoppers, and restrictions on advertising. Licensing schemes already exist in countries such as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Primary school children are likely to be given mandatory lessons on civil partnerships as part of a new relationships curriculum, government documents state.

Children would be taught about it alongside marriage under government proposals aimed at preparing youngsters for life in modern Britain.

Civil partnership is currently only available for gay couples, but campaigners are calling it to be made universal as a secular and non-patriarchal alternative to marriage.

In documents released yesterday by the Department for Education (DfE), the topic is listed as a theme which will likely be focused on in the new curriculum.

Children would be taught about it alongside marriage under government proposals aimed at preparing youngsters for life in modern Britain

It said pupils should be learning about different types of relationships including friendships and family relationships.

Parents, teachers and pupils are being asked to send in their views on the themes as part of a call to evidence launched by education secretary Justine Greening.

No definite decisions have been made on course content, and more detailed proposals will be drawn up next year using the feedback.

The document states the new curriculum will be age-appropriate and will prepare pupils for issues they will soon face.

It states marriage and civil partnerships may be explored as part of a discussion of commitment within relationships.

It also specifies the new lessons need to reflect changes in the law relating to same-sex marriage and civil partnerships and the Equality Act.

It said pupils should be learning about different types of relationships including friendships and family relationships

Other likely topics may include friendships, dealing with strangers, bullying, managing conflict, mental health, safety online and social media.

Ministers hope the lessons will encourage children to be tolerant of lifestyles which might differ from the mainstream.

But Thomas Pascoe, campaign director of the Coalition for Marriage, criticised the plan and said: Marriage needs to be taught as a gold-standard, not one option amongst a bewildering multitude.

Following a change in legislation, from September 2019, all primary schools must have lessons on relationships, while all secondary schools must teach both sex and relationships.

Ministers hope the lessons will encourage children to be tolerant of lifestyles which might differ from the mainstream

The classes for primary school children will focus primarily on building respectful friendships and tolerating others.

Parents will not have the right to withdraw their children from these classes, which will be mandatory.

Yesterday, gay rights campaigners revealed they have been assured by the DfE that new relationships lessons for primaries will be inclusive of all sexualities and identities.

Education Secretary Justine Greening said: Young people must have an education that teaches them the importance of healthy and stable relationships'

Topics might include families with two mothers or fathers, or children in their peer group who do not fit stereotypical gender norms.

In secondary schools, pupils will learn about the dangers of sexting and online grooming as well as traditional sex education.

Parents will still be able to withdraw their children from the sex education element, as is the case now.

Miss Greening said: It is unacceptable that Relationships and Sex Education guidance has not been updated for almost 20 years especially given the online risks, such as sexting and cyber bullying, our children and young people face.

Young people must have an education that teaches them the importance of healthy and stable relationships.

This call for evidence is about giving teachers, parents and especially young people a chance to help shape that new approach and Id urge them to take part.

Civil partnerships came into effect in 2005 for gay couples, allowing them to obtain the same legal rights as married heterosexual couples.

Then legislation was changed to allow gay couples to get married in 2014.

In addition, a number of heterosexual couples have campaigned for a change in the law to allow them to have a civil partnership.

They say the institution of marriage is sexist and patriarchal and has unwanted associations with religion
A Florida man who was allegedly high on ecstasy got stuck in a fountain after stealing a swan boat and paddling it out to the middle of an Orlando lake.

Keith Thurston, 36, of Orlando, Florida, was rescued from the middle of Lake Eola at about 4am on Friday, when he was heard shouting for help while sitting in the middle of the lake's decorative fountain.

Thurston told authorities that he had taken the swan-shaped paddle boat onto the lake to commune with the swans 'because they didn't judge him,' according to the police report obtained by Orlando Weekly.

Scroll down for video

Keith Thurston, 36, was rescued from a fountain in Orlando, Florida's Lake Eola after he was heard shouting for help at about 4am on Friday

Thurston was stranded after the swan boat he'd taken out to the fountain floated away while he was walking on the fountain. The Orlando Fire Department came to his rescue

Authorities said that Thurston (pictured) had told them that he had 'ingested a large quantity of Molly (MDMA)' prior to taking the swan boat out onto the lake

The police report also stated that Thurston said that he had 'ingested a large quantity of Molly (MDMA)' prior to his swan lake escapade.

Authorities said that Thurston had gotten stranded in the lake when the swan boat he was using floated away while he was walking on the fountain.

Thurston denied having tried to hurt himself during the incident, revealing instead that he had made use of a life preserver that he had found inside the swan boat.

Thurston, clad only in the life vest and shorts, was then rescued by the Orlando Fire Department, which used a boat of its own to drive out to the fountain, reports WFTV.

The visibly shivering Thurston was then taken to the hospital for treatment.

The Orlando Police Department is waiting to determine whether the rental boat company will file charges against Thurston and is investigating how he managed to take the swan boat out of a fenced and locked area.

Feeding live swans is among the suggested activities at Lake Eola Park.
The controversial new Bishop of London refused yesterday to say where she stands on the the Church of Englands most damaging division.

The Right Reverend Sarah Mullally left tens of thousands of worshippers in her new diocese guessing about her views on gay rights after giving a high-profile broadcast interview.

Arguments over the status of same-sex relationships and gay clergy have left the CofE and Anglican churches around the world hopelessly split, with breakaway movements threatening schism in England and elsewhere.

The Church of Englands parliament, the General Synod, has rejected compromise between liberals and conservatives who reject gay relationships.

The Right Reverend Sarah Mullally left tens of thousands of worshippers in her new diocese guessing about her views on gay rights

The rifts caused by an argument that has been running for 30 years now go so deep that Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has written that only a miracle, the work of the Holy Spirit, can reconcile the warring sides.

Bishop Mullally, whose new diocese includes some of the most determined campaigners on both sides of the gay rights debate, withheld her own thinking in an interview for BBC Radio 4s Today Programme in which she was repeatedly pressed for her opinion.

Asked how she would vote when the Synod next considers whether churches should offer blessing for same-sex couples, Bishop Mullally said: What we have to remember is that this is about people and the Church seeks to demonstrate love to all.

She added: This issue isnt just an issue for London, not just the Church of England, but also the Anglican community.

Bishop Mullally said the CofE has a real diversity and is entering a period of reflection.

Bishop Mullally withheld her own thinking in an interview for BBC Radio 4s Today Programme in which she was repeatedly pressed for her opinion

There is work going on and I am involved in that. It is important that we take a timely reflection while standing on the tradition of the Church of England, she said.

If we are going to take seriously the work of the two archbishops (Canterbury and York) to take a period of reflection we need to allow that process to go ahead.

The voice of the new bishop, who will be number three in the Churchs hierarchy, is likely to count heavily in future gay rights debates both because of the status of her post and the importance of her diocese.

She also made it clear that the traditional place of her diocese as a bastion for opponents of women priests at an end

Bishop Mullally, 55, a former Chief Nursing Officer for the Health Department, is now the most senior woman in the Church and has become a favourite to succeed Archbishop Welby at Lambeth Palace some time in the next decade.

On the day of her appointment she described her new diocese as a city of inequality and deprivation, its people as marginalised, voiceless and angry, and made one of her first actions a visit to a food bank.

She also made it clear that the traditional place of her diocese as a bastion for opponents of women priests  its previous bishops have all refused to ordain women - is at an end.

Bishop Mullally declared: If our churches are going to be more relevant to our communities, that means increasing churches that are led by priests that are women, who come from black, Asian and minority ethnic groups.

The new bishop dropped a hint that the CofE may plunge into its next row over same-sex blessings early in the New Year.

On the day of her appointment she described her new diocese as a city of inequality and deprivation, its people as marginalised, voiceless and angry, and made one of her first actions a visit to a food bank

A call for same-sex blessing services to be produced has been put to the Synod by the diocese of Hereford and is waiting to be scheduled for a full debate likely to generate another corrosive CofE row. The timing of the debate is as yet unannounced.

However Bishop Mullally said yesterday when asked how she will vote: At that point I wont be on the Synod so I wont have a vote.

Bishop Mullally, who is currently the junior Bishop of Crediton in the Exeter diocese, does not have a place on the Synod.

However she will have an automatic Synod seat, alongside a place in the House of Lords, when she is installed as Bishop of London some time over the next few months.

The timing suggests that the vote on same-sex blessings may be scheduled for the next Synod sessions in early February.
A young man is in critical care after breaking his neck in a swimming pool and nearly drowning.

Friends of Mason Ainsworth pulled the 21-year-old from the water and performed CPR which 'probably saved his life', according to family friend Michelle Flavel.

Earlier in the week Mason's mother Lee Ainsworth was woken in the middle of the night and 'received the news no mother ever wants to receive'.

Mason Ainsworth (picture) is fighting for his life after breaking his neck in a swimming pool

Mason's mother Lee Ainsworth (pictured right) received the news no mother ever wants to hear

Her cherished son had been found at the bottom of a swimming pool with a broken neck and damaged spinal cord.

Mason was living in Australia with his father however had planned to return to New Zealand to spend Christmas with his mother and two siblings in Hawkes Bay for Christmas.

He is now in the critical care unit at Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital and it is yet to be known whether he will suffer long-term damage on his brain.

'It's hour by hour at the moment,' Flavel said.

On Tuesday hospital staff tried to take him off sedation but were unsuccessful as he had a collapsed lung.

To help his mother, who is a single parent, fly to be by her son's side a Give A Little page has been started which has raised already more than $8,500 thanks to 140 generous donors.

Mason is now in the critical care unit at Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital

'We can't do anything, we can't make him better, we can't be there to give her a hug and support her, but what we can do is support her by offering some financial support,' Flavel said.

The money will also be used towards Mason's recuperation and the costs associated with his recovery and rehabilitation, as well as the airfares, accommodation and costs.

Flavel said in the meantime it is all a waiting game as his loved ones anticipate an update of the severity of his injuries.

'Anyone at this time of year, it's just devastating to hear news like that. It's really struck a chord with people because it's the last thing you would ever want to hear as a parent.'

Lee Ainsworth and her daughter have already travelled to Brisbane and it is understood her son will also head over to be by his brother's side.
Matt Damon (shown during his guest appearance on Good Morning America last Tuesday) was a no-show for the premiere for upcoming movie, Downsizing Monday night

Matt Damon was a no-show Monday evening at the premiere for his upcoming movie, Downsizing.

Prior to the Los Angeles screening, the actor, 47, once again waded into the debate over sexual harassment and complained that men in Hollywood who aren't predators don't get enough credit.

'We're in this watershed moment, and it's great, but I think one thing that's not being talked about is there are a whole s**tload of guys - the preponderance of men I've worked with - who don't do this kind of thing and whose lives aren't going to be affected,' Damon told Business Insider while promoting the science-fiction film set to release this week.

'I don't do that, and most of the people I know don't do that,' he said.

Damon added that he would have second thoughts about working on a project with someone under the cloud of allegations, saying: 'I mean, I wouldn't want to work with somebody who  life's too short for that.'

'But the question of if somebody had allegations against them, you know, it would be a case-by-case basis. You go, 'What's the story here?''

Damon's sense of nuance on the question of the sexual misconduct scandals has already drawn fierce backlash in recent days.

In an interview last week, he said: 'I do believe that there's a spectrum of behavior, right? And we're going to have to figure - you know, there's a difference between, you know, patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation.'

In this image released by Paramount Pictures, Hong Chau, left, and Matt Damon appear in a scene from Downsizing

Damon is shown in the film playing the role of Paul Safranek. Right before the premiere, he made controversial remarks about Hollywood's sexual harassment scandal

Kristen Wiig, center left, and Damon, center right, appear in a scene from Downsizing. The film will show in theaters Friday

'Both of those behaviors need to be confronted and eradicated without question, but they shouldn't be conflated, right?' he told ABC News' Popcorn With Peter Travers.

Those remarks drew scathing rebukes from his ex-girlfriend Minnie Driver and actress Alyssa Milano.

'Good God, seriously?' Driver tweeted in response to his claim.

The mother-of-one said: 'You don't get to be hierarchical with abuse. And you don't get to tell women that because some guy only showed them their penis their pain isn't as great as a woman who was raped.'

Driver's career took off following the 1997 movie Good Will Hunting, written by Damon and Ben Affleck and produced by Harvey Weinstein, whose accusers launched the current wave of scandals sweeping Hollywood.

Alyssa Milano (shown at an event in 2016) rebuked Damon's remarks on social media Monday

Milano piled on on Twitter, writing: 'Dear Matt Damon, It's the micro that makes the macro.'

'We are in a 'culture of outrage' because the magnitude of rage is, in fact, overtly outrageous. And it is righteous.'

'We are not outraged because someone grabbed our asses in a picture. We are outraged because we were made to feel this was normal. We are outraged because we have been gaslighted. We are outraged because we were silenced for so long.'

Alyssa went on to compare the 'spectrum' to stages of cancer, in that some are more treatable than others but it's still the same disease.

Leading ladies: Downsizing co-stars Laura Dern and Kristen Wiig led the stars on the red carpet at the movie's Los Angeles premiere on Monday

When speaking of Damon's absence, a representative for Paramount Pictures told the Hollywood Reporter he was out of town tending to a 'family matter' related to his ill father.

Downsizing costar Kristen Wiig told the Hollywood Reporter: 'It's a delicate thing for everyone to talk about, and I feel like we're all learning.

'I have friends who have just told me stories of things that happened to them that I had no idea about it. It's just been a heartbreaking thing for everybody.'

Wig and fellow actress in the film, Laura Dern, led the stars on the red carpet at the movie's premiere.

The two actresses showcased their individual styles as they posed together for the cameras.

Made a statement: Wiig, 44, opted for a dramatic off-the-shoulder black and white patterned full-length frock with a small train

Feminine: Dern, 50, chose a pretty black dress that had long sleeves and a sheer panel at the bodice and a sheer overlay of the skirt

Dern, 50, chose a black dress paired with knee-high black boots with silver studs while Wiig, 44, opted for an off-the-shoulder black and white patterned full-length frock.

Wig flashed some leg in the asymmetrical number that had a thigh-high slit at the front.

The opening allowed a glimpse of her sparkly sandal heels.

She wore her cropped dark blonde hair with a side parting and feathery bangs and accessorized with a pair of statement chandelier earrings.

Shiny style: Actress Hong Chau, who is also in the film, shone in a calf-length silver metallic dress with long sleeves and a pair of silver pumps

Suave: James Van Der Beek, 40, was dapper in a dark gray suit with a black vest and black tie, while Christoph Waltz, 61, looked sharp in a black suit with black patterned tie

Dern, who just received a Golden Globe nomination for Big Little Lies, looked pretty in her choice of outfit.

The dress had long sleeves and a sheer panel at the bodice and a sheer overlay of the skirt.

Her honey blonde locks were styled in large curls and she rocked scarlet red lip color.

The satirical Downsizing stars Damon as an occupational therapist who undergoes a new procedure to be shrunken to four inches tall.

He takes the move so that he and his wife (Wiig) can help save the planet and afford a nice lifestyle at the same time.

Headturner: Niecy Nash, 47, who has a small role in the movie, showed off her curves in a figure-hugging dress

Niecy Nash, who has a small role in the movie, showed off her curves in a figure-hugging dress.

The sleeveless black number had a silver glittery collar and perfectly complemented her hourglass shape.

She added towering black stiletto heels and accessorized with diamond earrings.

Virginia Madsen looked fabulous in a black mini dress with a v-neckline that she paired with stylish over-the-knee black suede boots.

Downsizing opens in theatres on Friday.

Leggy look: Virginia Madsen, 56, looked fabulous in a black mini dress with a v-neckline that she paired with stylish over-the-knee black suede boots

Eye-catching: Norwegian actress Ingjerd Egeberg, 50, put on a colorful display in a full-length vibrant floral gown
Nicholas Preece, 18, had been drinking alcohol and snorting cocaine since just after midday when he ran into a young family about 11.45pm last Friday in Sydney's CBD

A former private schoolboy who kicked a sleeping toddler in the face and then ran off has been slammed by a magistrate as 'shameful', 'disgraceful' and as a 'coward'.

Nicholas Preece, 18, had been drinking alcohol since just after midday and snorting cocaine when he ran into a young family about 11.30pm last Friday in the middle of Sydney's CBD.

The Shore school ex-student repeatedly asked the three-year-old's boy's father 'hey, can I look in your pocket?', a court heard.

The family said 'no' and kept walking - trying to ignore him - before Preece claimed 'my address is in your pocket', the police statement of facts said.

The carpenter then stepped in front of the father and 'kicked across him with his right leg, his right foot connecting with (the child's) head as he sat in the pram'.

The toddler woke up, started crying, with a bleeding and swollen top lip, the court facts said, and was taken to the Sydney Eye Hospital for treatment.

His girlfriend sobbed as the magistrate handed him a two year good behaviour bond - with the special condition he not consume alcohol or illicit substances whatsoever in that time

A mother and father were walking along King Street (pictured) with their son in a pram and their other child when they were approached by Nicholas Preece

Preece ran away, the father giving chase, while the boy's mother rang the police, the police facts said.

Preece was spotted by a security guard near Martin Place who called police because he was 'acting strange' and screaming loudly.

When police arrested him, he claimed he had come into the city from Manly Vale to attend a work function with his mates.

He said he then went to a hotel room where he 'only consumed a maximum of three alcoholic beverages over the entire time and consumed no illicit drugs'.

He also denied he actually kicked the kid in the face, despite holding a black, smashed iPhone and with his arm in a cast, as the family had described him.

Mr Preece's lawyer, Daniel Wilson, told Central Local Court on Wednesday that his client had admitted to him that he had 'consumed some substances, some cocaine'.

Police prosecutors described it as a 'serious' and 'unprovoked attack' on a small child. Preece is pictured above on right with Santa

Preece (not pictured) was spotted near Martin Place and arrested

Police prosecutors described it as a 'serious' and 'unprovoked attack' on a small child, with Mr Wilson describing it as a reckless assault.

Preece pleaded guilty and wrote a letter of apology to the court.

But Magistrate Megan Greenwood said she was not totally convinced he was 'reformed'.

'This is shameful behaviour on your part,' she said, after describing the crime. She said he then did 'what any coward does, sir, you ran away'.

The magistrate said she had seriously considered a prison sentence and criticised Preece for telling the court he would not 'abuse' alcohol or drugs again.

'I would have thought  the shame, the horror at what you've done would be such that you would never touch them again'.

'You can say it's drugs and alcohol and you have no memory.

He pleaded guilty at the Central Local Court on Monday and was sentenced to a good behaviour bond on the spot

'Who consumed the alcohol?

'Did anyone force you?

'Did anyone hold you down and force you to take these substances?

'No. You took them, and you're old enough to know better.

'It is disgraceful behaviour on your part.'

His girlfriend sobbed as the magistrate handed him a two year good behaviour bond - with the special condition he not consume a drop of alcohol or illicit substances of any kind for the period of the bond.

The police facts said he is currently under bail restrictions for a previous incident of alleged grievous bodily harm which is before the courts.

Preece spent had been refused bail on Saturday and spent three days in custody.
Sydney's scorching temperatures are expected to plunge by 10C after a cool change moves along the NSW south coast, bringing some relief.

The city sweltered through another scorching day on Wednesday, with some northern suburbs already soaring to 32C by 7.30am.

Temperatures have exceeded 40C in the city's west, prompting total fire bans declared for three regions, including Sydney, which reached 36C.

Penrith and Richmond sizzled at 42C while the eastern suburbs sat around 34C, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

Sydney's scorching temperatures are expected to plunge by 10C after a cool change moves along the NSW south coast, bringing some relief

After a very sticky morning, thunderstorms are expected to hit Sydney's coast between 1pm and 2pm will cause temperatures to drop at least 10 degrees, a forecaster from the BOM said

After a very sticky morning, thunderstorms are expected to hit Sydney's coast between 1pm and 2pm will cause temperatures to drop at least 10 degrees, a forecaster from the BOM said.

'The trough will cross most of NSW today, leaving a cool change in its wake. As it moves over northeastern NSW, the trough will stall and increase instability, with severe thunderstorms a risk,' according to Weatherzone.

'Alongside the threat of damaging winds and large hail, bursts of heavy rain with the thunderstorms are a hazard.'

'From now until the weekend, parts of the North Coast and Northern Tablelands will likely receive widespread falls of over 30mm, possibly over 60mm in some parts, with flash flooding a risk in areas without sufficient runoff capabilities.'

Sydney is bracing for yet another scorching day, with some northern suburbs already soaring to 32C by 7.30am

Temperatures are tipped to exceed 40C in the city's west, prompting total fire bans declared for three regions, including Sydney (pictured is a French bulldog beating the heat with an ice cream)

Two ducks were relegated to the bathroom to wait out the scorching heat in Penrith

Despite cooler temperatures, residents are expected to flock to surrounding beaches but have been warned to stay clear of Tamamara and Bronte, which are closed due of dangerous conditions.

NSW paramedics are bracing for a busy day after responding to 70 heat-related incidents on Tuesday alone.

Authorities have warned residents, particularly those aged 60 and over, to stay out of direct sunlight, drink plenty of water and never leave children or pets in cars.

The NSW RFS has issued total fire bans for the Greater Sydney Region, The Hunter Region and North Western NSW, with the three areas facing severe fire danger ratings.

The city will reach 36C while Penrith and Richmond sizzle at 42C, according to the Bureau of Meteorology

The eastern suburbs, including Bondi Beach, will reach around 34C

Temperatures soared well into the 30s early on Wednesday morning

After a very sticky morning, a southerly cool change moving along the state's south coast is predicted to bring relief during the day as it tracks north

'It's pretty hot and dry right around different parts of the state, but that's where the concentration of the worst weather is today,' RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told the Nine Network on Wednesday.

'We have got 30 fires that we still haven't got contained; we are dealing with more than 80 fires around NSW at the moment.'

The heat has also prompted electricity provider Ausgrid to cancel planned maintenance outages on the Central Coast and Hunter region for Wednesday.

The state's chief scientist has warned NSW could be plunged into chaos in the event of a large-scale 'black system' power outage, similar to the one that debilitated South Australia last year.

Praying for rain? One man was photographed standing on Bondi Beach with a guitar early in the morning

The southerly change is heading north and should hit Sydney's coast between 1pm and 2pm before heading to the city's south

Temperatures will drop at least 10 degrees, a forecaster from the BOM said

While finding it was highly unlikely NSW would fall victim to a blackout of that scale, a report released by the Energy Security Taskforce has found NSW was nevertheless ill-prepared.

Taskforce chair and chief scientist Mary O'Kane says the state government needs to adopt a more proactive approach to managing short- and medium-term risks, including during prolonged periods of extreme heat.

'The government must be alive to risks over coming years so that it can manage emerging risks proactively when needed,' Prof O'Kane said in a statement.

For Sydneysiders, the report found up to 10,000 people on underground trains would need to be evacuated in the event the state fell victim to an outage.

The state's chief scientist has warned NSW could be plunged into chaos in the event of a large-scale 'black system' power outage, similar to the one that debilitated South Australia last year

Meanwhile, public hospitals only have six hours worth of fuel in their back-up diesel generators, the report released on Tuesday, found.

'As we saw in the South Australian event, sometimes these can go on for a while and there is reason to think it would be quite some time in a black event like that for Sydney to come back up,' Ms O'Kane told ABC Radio on Wednesday.

The report found the system was vulnerable in times of extreme weather events and made nine recommendations to shore it up.

'The next decade will be a period of transition and disruption for the National Energy Market, and with that comes opportunities for innovation to increase the future reliability and security of the state's electricity system,' Prof O'Kane said.
The identity of a 15-year-old boy who drowned at a Glenelg beach on Monday has been revealed.

Eliase Nimbona, from Goodwood, drowned while 'jetty jumping' in Glenelg, Adelaide, at a friend's birthday party on Monday.

Eliase, who moved to Australia from African nation Burundi 10 years ago, was found face-down in the water about 4.30pm on Monday.

Eliase Nimbona, from Goodwood, drowned while 'jetty jumping' in Glenelg, Adelaide, at a friend's birthday party on Monday

Beachgoers pulled him from the water, where paramedics performed CPR but were unable to save him.

He was the second teenager to die at the notorious stretch of beach in just eight days.

Student Nitisha Negi, 15, from Delhi in India, drowned at Glenelg on December 10 while she was on holiday in South Australia for the Pacific School Games.

The deaths prompted water safety programs for migrants and tourists.

The South Australian state government said it would act to prevent more tragedies at its beaches.

Emergency Services Minister Chris Picton said the government would work alongside surf life saving groups to discuss options.

Beachgoers pulled him from the water, where paramedics performed CPR but were unable to save him

Police, Ambulance and Surf Life Saving crew attend the scene of a suspected drowning next to Glenelg Jetty

Student Nitisha Negi, 15, from Delhi in India, drowned at Glenelg on December 10 while she was on holiday in South Australia for the Pacific School Games

'We need to make sure that as many migrant communities as possible are involved in surf education, programs like Vacswim  to make sure that people do understand the risk and also receive training,' he said.

Surf Life Saving SA chief executive officer Clare Harris said more funding injected into water safety programs for migrants could save lives.

'We know that 19 per cent of coastal deaths in Australia are visitors from overseas and that a further 12 per cent of South Australia fatalities involved a person who was a migrant to South Australia  that equates to a third of all drownings over the last 10 years,' she said.

'Clearly what we are doing to prevent this over-representation is inadequate.'

She called for $500,000 in state government funing.

Surf Life Saving SA chief executive officer Clare Harris said more funding injected into water safety programs for migrants could save lives (student Nitisha Negi pictured)

Mr Picton also said the government would consider revising legislation to prevent people from jumping off jetties.

He said physically modifying jetties to deter people from climbing back up easily, was an option.

'We'll consider all the options that might be available in terms of improving safety on our beaches,' Mr Picton said.
Handcuffed and forced to wear an orange jumpsuit with a balaclava over his head, Isaac Emmanuel Roberts was paraded before the waiting media scrum.

The Australian man is accused of carrying 19.97 grams of meth and ecstasy in his luggage when he was arrested in Bali on December 4.

Despite him not yet even entering a plea, anyone watching the televised press conference would assume the 35-year-old was guilty and soon face to a firing squad.

Scroll down for video

Handcuffed and forced to wear an orange jumpsuit with a balaclava over his head, Isaac Emmanuel Roberts was paraded before the waiting media scrum

The former high-flying accountant was clearly bothered by the chaotic public shaming he was dragged through along with three other drug accused.

'Parading small-time users in front of media for tiny amounts when there are kilos coming through this airport. It's ridiculous,' he shouted to the media pack.

But bizarre spectacle is increasing common in Indonesia's escalating war on drugs and calculated for maximum deterrent of other offenders.

Melbourne Law School's Professor Tim Lindsey said drug trafficking was treated as a form of murder there and the process was designed to humiliate offenders.

'From our law enforcement perspective it would be seen by many as outrageous to make the person appear in a context that seems to predetermine their guilt,' he told News Corp.

'It seeks to shame the offender, it seeks to show the law enforcement authorities are doing their jobs, and it's a way of attracting press interests in arrests,'

Roberts is accused of carrying 19.97 grams of meth and ecstasy in his luggage when he was arrested in Bali on December 4

Anti-Narcotics Agency officials showed off an Australian man (second from left), an American man (centre), and a Malaysian man (second from right) accused of drug crimes

Despite him not yet even entering a plea, anyone watching the televised press conference would assume the 35-year-old was guilty and soon face to a firing squad

Even though the balaclava made Roberts look more like a guilty criminal, it was meant as a token effort to conceal their identity, Professor Lindsey said.

Drug traffickers are were put alongside terrorists, murderers, and those accused of corruption as the country's worst criminals, which he said Australians didn't understand.

'Many of the problems that arise when Australians are arrested in Indonesia and a lot of the things that make people think they're being treated particularly badly are not actually aimed at the individuals or aimed specifically at Australia,' he said.

Roberts will likely present himself as merely a drug addict, not a dealer, in the hope that judges would take it comparatively easy on him.

'I'm just a f*****g addict. They want to waste resources on addicts, they want to punish addicts? This is ridiculous,' he yelled angrily.

'What about the f..g importers? I wasn't going to sell it to anyone here, no one was going to use it here. This is ridiculous. This is an embarrassment.'

But bizarre spectacle is increasing common in Indonesia's escalating war on drugs and calculated for maximum deterrent of other offenders

A Malaysian man, initials given as CHJ (left) and a US man, initials given as KSL (right) were also arrested after allegedly caught with a small amount of drugs in their possession

But being caught with just 5g of drugs is enough to warrant capital punishment and jail sentences many times those given in Australia were common.

Professor Lindsey said leniency was less likely right now because Indonesian President Joko Widodo was publicly committed to cracking down on drugs.

'It's probably at its least tolerant and harshest point perhaps in decades,' he warned.

The shock of the humiliating ordeal and serious punishment left Roberts in so much shock he was rushed to hospital and considered suicidal.

'He got sick. He was shocked after the press conference today,' his lawyer Deni Sedana said.

'He has a big tendency to do suicide because he often feels depression. He has a mental disorder.'

Drug traffickers are were put alongside terrorists, murderers, and those accused of corruption as the country's worst criminals

The men arrested were allegedly caught with the drugs including methamphetamine, in their possession

Mr Sedana said Roberts had planned to fly from Bangkok, Thailand to Australia, but was convinced by a friend to go to Bali instead.

Roberts was allegedly found with 6.22 grams of ecstasy, 14.32 grams of methamphetamine and 22 mils of a psychotropic substance when he arrived.

Pictures on his Instagram show his frequent travels to Asian destinations such as Sukhumvit in Bangkok, Thailand.

Indonesian police alleged Roberts admitted to being a drug user, but denied he was a dealer. He is being held in jail at police headquarters in Denpasar.

When the police investigation is finished, he will reportedly be transferred to Kerobokan prison - where he will await trial.

Roberts describes himself as a Chartered Accountant and Registered Tax Agent on his personal website.

'I specialise in personal income tax returns, however years of experience in corporate tax have given me the confidence to service many business clients,' he said.
A former business partner of an Australian man facing the death penalty in Indonesia claims he quit their tax firm three years ago and suddenly moved to Thailand.

Isaac Emmanuel Roberts was allegedly caught with crystal meth and ecstasy pills in his suitcase at Denpasar International Airport, in Bali, on December 4.

The 35-year-old, who was once a high-flying chartered accountant in Queensland, is facing a maximum of 20 years in jail or even the death penalty if he is found guilty.

Despite claims he has long battled drug addiction, an ex-business partner of Roberts said he was shocked to see him paraded on TV in an orange jumpsuit and balaclava.

Scroll down for video

The ex-business partner of Australian man Isaac Roberts (pictured), who is facing the death penalty in Indonesia, says he suddenly quit their tax firm three years ago and moved overseas

Isaac Roberts is escorted by armed police officers from the media conference on Tuesday

Hayden Oh, who was a partner of Roberts at their firm M Tax accountants, said it had been three years since he last saw the alleged drug smuggler.

He said Roberts had battled mental illness and that back in 2014 he ended their work partnership abruptly and moved to Thailand.

'We were tax agents and we prepared the returns for clients, but physically we didn't share an office - he was a sole practitioner,' Mr Oh said.

'His office was in Fortitude Valley and mine was in Brisbane, and then one day he said he was going to go overseas and he's not going to work anymore.

'He said he had a new business idea and he moved to Thailand. Maybe it was really a holiday, I'm not sure, but I tried to contact him a few times and couldn't reach him.'

Mr Oh said he hadn't spoken or seen Roberts since their partnership ended in 2014.

In fact the first he heard of him since their separation was when he was called by his mother last week and asked to provide a reference for her son.

'She just called me and wanted me to help with a reference so she could try and get him out on bail,' Mr Oh said.

The 35-year-old (right) confessed to being a prolific drug user and told waiting media he was a 'f***ing addict', but alleges he is not a dealer. (There is no suggestion any of those seen with Roberts are using or dealing drugs)

Roberts (right) works as a professional accountant and was last registered as an employee of Tax Accountants in Queensland.

'I said personally I haven't seen him since we were co-workers three years ago but he was a good person.'

Just hours after being paraded to the media for the first time, Roberts was reportedly rushed to hospital on Tuesday night suffering from shock.

His lawyer Deni Sedana said Roberts suffered from depression and was considered a suicide risk, and had been treated by doctors overnight.

'He got sick. He was shocked after the press conference today,' Mr Sedana said.

'He has a big tendency to do suicide because he often feels depression. He has a mental disorder.'

Mr Sedana said Roberts had planned to fly from Bangkok, Thailand to Australia, but was convinced by a friend to go to Bali instead.

Roberts was allegedly caught with the drugs hidden in his suitcase on December 4, but his arrest was kept hidden from the public until now.

Roberts (pictured) reportedly arrived in Bali on a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok on December 4

Roberts (pictured) was allegedly found with 6.22 grams of ecstasy, 14.32 grams of methamphetamine and 22 mils of a psychotropic substance

Roberts (pictured) reportedly arrived in Bali on a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok on December 4

The accountant confessed to being a prolific drug user and told waiting media in the courtroom was a 'f***ing addict', but alleges he is not a dealer.

Roberts ran as a Liberal Democrat candidate in the seat of Higgins in Melbourne in 2009. He was unsuccessful, finishing eighth out of 10 candidates.

His social media accounts reveal the alleged drug user to be a dedicated gym junkie who regularly visits the Indonesian island and Thailand.

Pictures on his Instagram show his frequent travels to Asian destinations such as Sukhumvit in Bangkok, Thailand.

Roberts was allegedly found with 6.22 grams of ecstasy, 14.32 grams of methamphetamine and 22 mils of a psychotropic substance.

Details of his arrest were kept secret until Tuesday, when the drug bust was announced by Indonesian officials.

'We have arrested an Australian, IER, for bringing drugs into Bali,' Customs and Excise Officer Husni Syaiful said.

Isaac Roberts is escorted by officers, followed by media, at the customs office in Kuta, Bali

A Malaysian man, initials given as CHJ (left) and a US man, initials given as KSL (right) were also arrested after allegedly being caught with a small amount of drugs in their possession

Speaking to media after the conference, Roberts reportedly said he was invited to Indonesia by a customs officer.

'I was working with a customs officer and they knew I was going to bring something,' he told reporters in Bali.

'I'm just a f*****g addict. They want to waste resources on addicts, they want to punish addicts? This is ridiculous. What about the f..g importers? I wasn't going to sell it to anyone here, no one was going to use it here. This is ridiculous. This is an embarrassment.'

Indonesian police alleged Roberts admitted to being a drug user, but denied he was a dealer.

Roberts is being held in jail at police headquarters in Denpasar, Indonesia.

When the police investigation is finished, he will reportedly be transferred to Kerobokan prison - where he will await trial.
A group of 13 people became trapped in a lift at a north-west Sydney railway station on Wednesday.

The group, which includes two babies, are believed to have become stuck in Hornsby around 2pm on Wednesday, according to 7News.

The temperature in Hornsby is 39C.

Firefighters were able to rescue the group by 2.30pm.

A group of 11 people are trapped in a lift at a north-west Sydney railway station

The group, which includes two babies, are believed to have become stuck in Hornsby around 2pm on Wednesday
A man who was already banned from driving until 2086 has been caught driving while disqualified for the 27th time.

Jason Blackley was caught driving his white Holden Commodore while he looked for petrol in Haywards Bay, south of Wollongong, NSW.

At the time of his arrest he had served less than 30 days of a previous eight-month suspended prison sentence for driving while disqualified.

A police statement reported that Mr Blackley pulled into the Coles Express service station just after midnight and filled his vehicle with $17.20 worth of premium fuel.

Jason Blackley, who is already banned from driving until 2086, was caught illegally behind the wheel for an unbelievable 27th time on December 3

The case will return to court for finalisation on February 6. Jason Blackley remains behind bars

He left his declined debit card with the operator in lieu of payment. As CCTV revealed, Mr Blackley was wearing a high visibility orange shirt at the time and was clearly visible on the footage.

He was arrested at his home in Koonawarra two days later.

Documents tendered to Wollongong Local Court on Tuesday reveal Mr Blakley was handed an eight-month suspended prison sentence for his 26th charge of driving while disqualified.

This previous offence occurred in February this year, when police spotted Blackleys red Holden Commodore speeding between 90 and 100km/h on Calderwood Road in Galston.

At the time, arresting officers said in court papers that Blackley 'has total disregard for the traffic laws of NSW and continues to commit traffic offences'.

After the latest offence early this month, Mr Blackley was charged with driving while disqualified and refused police bail.

Already banned from applying for a licence until 2086, Mr Blakley is expected to have more years added to his time off the road when he is sentenced early next year.

When he was arrested at home in Koonawarra two days after, the driver had served less than 30 days of his previous sentence handed to him in November

After the latest offence early this month, Mr Blackley was charged with drive while disqualified and refused police bail

During an initial court appearance, the serial law breaker announced he would fight the allegations against him.

He denied he was the driver that night, but pleaded guilty to the charge in court on Tuesday.

Legal Aid lawyer Tim McKenzie told Magistrate Susan McGowan he would seek to have a psychiatrist prepare a report ahead of Mr Blackley's sentencing.

Magistrate McGown also ordered a pre-sentence report from Community Corrections.

The case will return to court for finalisation on February 6. Blackley remains behind bars after his bail was refused.
Residents are outraged after the Victorian state government approved a plan to demolish a building in the city's award-winning Federation Square - and build an Apple store in its place.

The Federation Square group announced on Wednesday they were tearing down the Yarra building and replacing it with a Global Flagship Store for the tech giants, the only of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Yarra building includes the Koori Heritage Trust, a group that promotes Aboriginal rights and celebrates their culture.

'We're thrilled that Apple has chosen Melbourne and Federation Square for their new Global Flagship Store. We look forward to welcoming them as we continue to grow Federation Square as an innovative and exciting place for our community,' they said in a statement.

The decision, however, has stunned and angered residents who labelled it 'disgraceful' and accused the group of 'selling out'.

'I will do anything and everything to stop this activity of Apple ripping apart Federation Square for their commercial benefit,' one incensed caller said to 3AW.

'I think it's the most appalling and disgraceful thing I have heard of in respect to a major public site. I will go to jail to stop this.'

Residents are outraged after the Victorian state government approved a plan to demolish a building in the city's award-winning Federation Square - and build an Apple store in its place

The group unveiled the design of the Flagship Store, a large hut-like building fitted with big glass windows

The group unveiled the design of the Flagship Store, a large hut-like building fitted with big glass windows.

'This isn't just any regular Apple shop  as a Global Flagship Store and Apple's most significant store in the Southern Hemisphere, the space will host workshops, classes, and live music events,' they said.

'The project will create nearly 500 square metres of new public space in Federation Square and connect Federation Square with the Yarra River and Birrarung Marr through the construction of a building which takes up less space than the current Yarra building it will replace.'

The Federation Square group announced on Wednesday they were tearing down the Yarra building and replacing it with a Global Flagship Store for the tech giants, the only of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere

The Yarra building includes the Koorie Heritage Trust, a group that promotes Aboriginal rights and celebrates their culture

Melburnians were much less receptive of the plans, nicknaming the site 'Apple Square'.

'Fed square is an escape within the city, don't put big commercial shops in it,' one person said.

'Seriously? You're getting rid of the Koorie Heritage building to replace it with a commercial retail building? That's just disgraceful,' another Twitter user replied.

'Corporate sellout of one of the city's few icons. Looks pretty ugly too if that's the real drawings. Very disappointing,' a person said commenting on the design of the building.

The decision, however, has stunned and angered residents who labelled it 'disgraceful' and accused the group of 'selling out'

'Seriously? You're getting rid of the Koorie Heritage building to replace it with a commercial retail building? That's just disgraceful,' another Twitter user replied

Melburnians were much less receptive of the plans, nicknaming the site 'Apple Square'

The decision, however, has stunned and angered residents who labelled it 'disgraceful'

The Federation Square site was opened in 2002, becoming Melbourne's first public square. It is opposite Flinders Street Station and St Paul's Cathedral in the heart of the CBD.

It's unique design has won awards and is home to cultural landmarks including the National Gallery of Victoria.

In a statement to Daily Mail Australia, Federation Square said they were 'pleased' to be welcoming Apple to the area and said the Aboriginal awareness group

'Agreement has been reached to relocate the Koorie Heritage Trust to the Alfred Deakin Building where they will have 50 percent more floor space and their existing lease terms will be maintained,' the statement reads.

'This is particularly important given that the Trust have said they are outgrowing their current location.'
A financially ruined father who plotted to kill himself and his family has been sentenced to life in prison for his young daughter's murder.

Stephen Phillip Playford stockpiled nitrogen gas tanks in the family's Kedron home as part of a plan to painlessly end their lives.

The former chief operating officer of a mining company had maintained a front of being rich and successful when in fact he was debt-stricken and unemployed.

Sidney Playford (pictured) was found dead in her Brisbane home by her mother in 2015

Her father Stephen Phillip Playford (pictured) pleaded guilty to her murder in November

He was understood to be too proud to approach Centrelink for assistance, as reported by the Courier Mail, and under severe financial stress, hatched the plan to kill himself and his family.

The Brisbane Supreme Court heard Playford took his six-year-old daughter Sidney from her bed on the night of September 7, 2015 while she was still asleep.

He put a mask over her face and tried to gas her to death but she began to fidget so he turned it off, Crown prosecutor Michael Lehane told his sentencing hearing.

When that did not work, he smothered her with a pillow then returned her lifeless body to bed.

He smothered her with a pillow then returned her lifeless body to her bed

Playford was sentenced to life in prison with a non-parole period of 20 years, his wife Maria (right) attended his sentencing on Wednesday

The financially ruined father plotted to kill himself, his wife (right) and his daughter

'He apologised and said he loved her and not to worry and he would be with her soon.

'Once he was certain she was no longer alive, he removed the mask and returned Sidney to her bed and tucked her in, remembering he did not want her to be cold,' Mr Lehane said.

Playford left the house after the commotion woke his wife, whom he had also planned to kill.

He headed out to the Gold Coast hinterland and tried to kill himself however was found by a passer-by before later confessing to police.

Justice David Boddice said Playford had committed the 'most unimaginable criminal conduct', for which there was no defence.

'Your conduct truly involved despicable acts,' Justice Boddice said on Monday.

Playford was sentenced to life in prison with a non-parole period of 20 years.
Michael Frank Amante was charged with one count of sexual intercourse without consent and has been freed on bail

A former Kings Cross strip club baron and childhood friend of John Ibrahim has been charged with the alleged rape of a woman.

Michael Frank Amante owned Dreamgirls on Sydney's most notorious party strip - but a raid by authorities in late 2015 led to him being banned for life from running licensed venues.

The 45-year-old was charged with one count of sexual intercourse without consent and was bailed by the Central Local Court on Wednesday.

During a hearing, Magistrate Megan Greenwood said the alleged victim had spoken of 'rubbing her body', which she agreed was 'naked... against the accused person'.

The court heard the case would involve DNA evidence and the magistrate noted there were 'gaps' in CCTV evidence.

The magistrate said in her view, the case could be described as 'one person's word against the other'.

'It's not the weakest case but it's not the strongest case either,' Magistrate Greenwood said.

Michael Frank Amante ran Dreamgirls strip club in Sydney's Kings Cross until a raid by authorities led to him being slapped with a life ban on running licensed premises

The club's former business owner was charged with one count of sexual intercourse without consent

She said she had 'real concerns' about Amante but granted him bail as bail conditions would address prosecutors' concerns.

Bail conditions included not contacting, going near or trying to go near the victim or any prosecution witness except through his lawyer.

Frank Amante appeared at the back of the courtroom

He is also barred from alcohol or drugs unless he has a prescription.

Amante will be released on bail will face the Downing Centre Local Court on February 20.

Amante's father, the famous Kings Cross identity Frank 'Ashtray' Amante, watched the case from the public gallery.

The Amante father-and-son have previously been described as close friends of 'King of the Cross' John Ibrahim.
The son of billionaire Bill Koch is suing his ex-fiancee to get back the $250,000 engagement ring her gave her, following their break up.

Wyatt Koch, 31, is demanding that Ivie Gabrielle Slocumb, 29, return the 8.24-carat diamond ring after she called off their engagement in May.

According to court documents, Koch bought the ring is an Oscar Heyman cushion cut diamond with two tapered baguette diamonds for $180,000 in March, Page Six reports.

The son of billionaire Bill Koch, Wyatt, is suing ex-fiancee Ivie Gabrielle Slocumb to get back the $250,000 engagement ring her gave her

His lawyers now argue the jewelry is worth $250,000, while Koch is also demanding $15,000 in damages.

Koch, the CEO of his own Palm Beach fashion line, Wyatt Ingraham, 'demanded the return of the ring... on multiple occasions' arguing in court papers that Slocumb 'received the ring as a conditional gift.

'She refuses to return it despite proper demand and the condition not being fulfilled.'

The suit also refers to a $7,750 'platinum diamond pendant' with 56 round diamonds, although does not demand its return.

According to court documents, Koch bought the ring is an Oscar Heyman cushion cut diamond with two tapered baguette diamonds for $180,000 in March (a stock image of an Oscar Heyman cut)

Koch, the CEO of his own Palm Beach fashion line, Wyatt Ingraham, 'demanded the return of the ring... on multiple occasions'

Wyatt is the son of industrialist Bill Koch (pictured together in 1992) the forgotten Koch brother of Charles and David's twin

Slocumb has until January 2 to respond to the suit.

Wyatt Koch is known as a bit of a character in Florida where the red haired entrepreneur has set up his clothing line specializing in 'out there' styles.

He is the son of industrialist Bill Koch, the forgotten Koch brother of Charles and David's twin.

Bill Koch, 77, whose net worth is about 1.7 billion, according to Forbes, worked with his brothers at Koch Industries in the 1970s but argued with the pair and, following an unsuccessful coup, was fired.

In 1983, Bill Koch and his oldest brother, Freddie, sold their interests for $470 million and $320 million, respectively.

Koch Industries has since gone onto become America's second biggest private company with a $100billion revenue - propelling Charles and David into joint 8th and 9th places on the Forbes' richest billionaires.
E! News' Catt Sadler is leaving the station after a decade at the popular network due to a significant pay disparity between her and her co-host Jason Kennedy.

The 43-year-old news anchor confirmed she was leaving in a tweet that read, 'It's true. Today will be my last day on #DailyPop and @enews. I hope you'll tune in so I can thank you for the memories. I love you guys SO much it hurts.'

The TV personality also revealed in a statement on her website that she was leaving the network due to a 'massive disparity in pay' between her and Kennedy.

Scroll down for video

E! News' Catt Sadler is leaving the station after a decade at the popular network due to a significant pay disparity between her and her co-host Jason Kennedy

'An executive from E! brought something alarming to my attention  namely, that there was a massive disparity in pay between my similarly situated male co-host and myself,' she began.

'More recently, when E! reached out to renew and extend my deal, I learned that he wasnt just making a little more than I was. In fact, he was making close to double my salary for the past several years,' she continued.

The single mother-of-two revealed she owed it to her fans and the people who watch her every day to explain exactly why she decided to leave.

She posted the message a few hours after US Weekly broke the story of her departure from the network of contract issues.

The TV personality revealed in a statement on her website that she was leaving the network due to a 'massive disparity in pay' between her and her male co-host, Jason Kennedy (the two are pictured here at NBC Universal's Press Junket in November in LA)

'It was important for me to explain my departure. I did not want to disappear from your television screens and have you wonder why. Thank you for your precious time all these years. Thank you for the support. Thank you for the constant exchange of ideas on social media as well. This chapter is over and a new one begins,' she explained.

The famous broadcaster was clearly overwhelmed by all the support from her fans as she wrote another tweet that said 'You've all got me crying like a baby.'

'I'm reading every single message. I will respond to them all after I make it through this difficult day. I love you so much and your words are providing me so much comfort. xx See you on @enews later this eve with my friend @JasonKennedy1.'

The news anchor also revealed in a several tweets to her fans that she was leaving the network

The single mother-of-two thanked her fans for all their support and asked them to tune in one last time

A second message to her fans wasn't enough, so the brunette host decided to write a third. 'My gratitude runs so deep. My thank you to you the viewers on @enews tonight. I hope you'll watch my farewell at 7 and 10:30p with @JasonKennedy1 xx'

Kennedy has publicly acknowledged his sadness at Sadler's departure. He shared a video with her on Twitter on Tuesday and wrote 'Sending @IAmCattSadler off with lots of love and memories tonight at 7 & 10:30 @enews.'

E! released the following statement to US Weekly on Tuesday: 'E! compensates employees fairly and appropriately based on their roles, regardless of gender. We appreciate Catt Sadler's many contributions at E! News and wish her all the best following her decision to leave the network.'

Sadler was very emotional when she tweeted about her departure on social media

She thanked the viewers of E! for their unwavering support and admitted it was a difficult day
Ho Chi Minh City is the fastest-growing destination for increasingly cash-conscious Australian travellers looking to save big on holidays.

Bookings to the southern Vietnamese city jumped 23 per cent in 2017, vaulting eight places to become the 13th most popular destination.

Bali stayed at the top of the charts and saw four per cent more Australian visitors despite the draw-out eruption of the Mount Agung volcano.

Ho Chi Minh City is the fastest-growing destination for increasingly cash-conscious Australian travellers looking to save big on holidays

Its emergence was propelled by Jetstar offering flights there for the first time in five years and was one of the most affordable holidays

Destinations closer to home saw the biggest surges in popularity with Singapore rising 17 per cent to fifth spot, and Tokyo in seventh up 16 per cent.

Christchurch in New Zealand saw a welcome post-earthquake bounce as it rose six spots to 14th with 15 per cent more bookings.

Farther flung, and more expensive, cities like London, Los Angeles, and Dublin recorded big falls of more than 20 per cent while Paris decline 17 per cent.

The British capital held its second-place ranking despite getting 24 per cent fewer bookings, faring better than Dublin which tumbled seven places, down 29 per cent.

Bali stayed at the top of the charts and saw four per cent more Australian visitors despite the draw-out eruption of the Mount Agung volcano

London held its second-place ranking despite getting 24 per cent fewer bookings

Auckland was in third place, getting a four per cent bump compared with 2016

Twelve Asian cities made the top 20 list, based on travel site Skyscanner's data, with their popularity based on value for money.

'Aussies are seeking richer experiences for less, which is why weve seen a rise in travel to various destinations in Asia,' senior growth manager Robyn Lee said.

'In 2018, we expect to see Aussies continue to explore destinations closer to home so as to reduce travel time and make the most out of their annual holidays and time abroad.'

Ho Chi Minh's emergence was propelled by Jetstar offering flights there for the first time in five years and was one of the most affordable holidays.

Destinations closer to home saw the biggest surges in popularity including cities like Tokyo in seventh which rose 16 per cent

Singapore rose 17 per cent to fifth spot, being a close-by destination with plenty of cheap flights

Christchurch in New Zealand saw a welcome post-earthquake bounce as it rose six spots to 14th with 15 per cent more bookings

Flight fares were also cheaper than most other Asian destinations, averaging just $715 on Skyscanner's system.

Domestic bookings were also up 14 per cent, backing the trend of Australians taking their holidays closer to home.

The website identified some off-beat locations that could emerge in 2018 based on how often people searched for them in preparation.

Interest in the ancient Chinese city of Xian more than doubled and the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar surged 83 per cent as travellers search for exotic adventure.
Alyssa Pettibone, 26, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder following the fatal shooting of her two-year-old son. She was found next to his dead body, after having repeatedly stabbing herself in the neck (her wounds are visible in this mugshot)

An Arizona mom shot her two-year-old son dead before repeatedly stabbing herself in the neck in a bid to kill herself, according to police.

Alyssa Pettibone, 26, of Buckeye, Arizona, was arrested and booked into jail on Monday, charged with second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of her two-year-old son, Hudson Pettibone.

She was arrested after being treated at the hospital for apparent self-inflicted stab wounds to her neck.

The charge stems from an incident which took place on Friday. Police were called to Alyssa's house at about 4pm, when a family member reported that Alyssa had shot Hudson and then tried to kill herself, according to ABC 15.

Upon their arrival, officers said they found Alyssa, lying on the bathroom floor, with bleeding stab wounds in the neck. Hudson was also in the bathroom, dead from a gunshot wound, according to police documents obtained by AZ Central.

Police were called to Alyssa's home after a report that she had killed her son and tried to kill herself. They found Alyssa, her son and a jammed 9mm gun in the bathroom

According to court documents, Alyssa's mother said that before police arrived, Alyssa had stabbed herself in the neck multiple times and held the gun to her own head

A handgun was found in the bathroom and it's believed that the gun was used in Hudson's shooting. Alyssa allegedly told a police officer that she had shot Hudson and tried to kill herself.

Upon examining the gun, officers discovered that one of the bullets in the magazine had been loaded backwards, jamming the gun before it could be fired again, according to court documents, which also revealed that Alyssa's mom had told police that Alyssa stabbed herself in the neck several times and held the gun to her own head.

Police do not believe that a third party was involved in Hudson's death, nor do they think the shooting was accidental, FOX10 reported.

Police who interviewed Alyssa said in their report that there were indications that she was mentally disturbed and noted that she displayed signs of 'control/ownership/jealousy issues.'

During her police interview, Alyssa reportedly said that she was sorry and admitted that she was in 'deep, deep, deep,' but that 'No one would understand.'

Alyssa's bond was set at $750,000. She is scheduled to appear in court on December 22.
Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, died at the age of 86 in Rome on Tuesday.

Law, whose failures to stop child molesters in the priesthood sparked what would become the worst crisis in American Catholicism, had been sick and was recently hospitalized in Rome.

The official who confirmed the death was not authorized to make the announcement and asked to remain anonymous. The Vatican is expected to make a statement on Wednesday.

Law, who moved to Rome two years after resigning from his position in Boston due to the scandal, was once widely recognized as one of the most important leaders in the U.S. church.

Cardinal Bernard Law, pictured here on August 5, 2004 at the ceremony for Our Lady of the Snows, in Rome, died at the age of 86 on Tuesday

He broadly influenced Vatican appointments to American dioceses, helped set priorities for the nation's bishops and was favored by Pope John Paul II.

However, in January 2002, The Boston Globe began a series of reports that used church records to reveal that Law had transferred abusive clergy among parish assignments for years without alerting parents or police.

In 2003 the attorney general's office said the scandal was 'the greatest tragedy to befall children  ever.'

They added 'as archbishop, and therefore chief executive of the archdiocese, Cardinal Bernard Law bears ultimate responsibility for the tragic treatment of children that occurred during his tenure. But by no means does he bear sole responsibility.'

Law pictured here during the mass celebrated by Pope Francis with the rite of the bishop's ordination in Vatican City on March 19 2016

Pope John Paul II blesses pilgrims from his apartment's window at the Vatican, March 30 2005, he died very shortly after this on April 2

Apparently the abuse extended over six decades harming 789 children and involving at least 237 priests.

Moreover 48 of those priests were said to have abused children while Law was leader of the Boston archdiocese.

Despite the very serious allegations in 2004, once Law had resigned, Pope John Paul II appointed him archpriest of the Patriarchal Basilica of St. Mary Major, which is when he moved to Rome.

'It is my fervent prayer that this action may help the archdiocese of Boston to experience the healing, reconciliation and unity which are so desperately needed,' Law said when he stepped down as head of the Boston archdiocese in December of that year.

Law blesses the congregation at the conclusion of a mass he celebrated at the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Mission Church in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, 10 May, 2002

'To all those who have suffered from my shortcomings and mistakes, I both apologize and from them beg forgiveness.'

It was a stunning fall from grace for Law and a rare step for the church, which deeply resists public pressure but could no longer do so given the scope of the crisis.

Since 1950, more than 6,500 U.S. priests have been accused of molesting children, and the American church has paid more than $3 billion in settlements to victims, according to studies and media reports.

Law pictured here at Logan Airport in Boston, as he addresses the media before he leaves for Cuba to join the Pope on January 23, 1998
North Korea is conducting biological weapons experiments to test the possibility of loading anthrax-laden warheads on its intercontinental ballistic missiles, it has been reported.

Japan's Asahi newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing an unidentified person connected to South Korean intelligence, that North Korea was conducting biological weapons experiments to test the possibility of loading anthrax-laden warheads on its intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The Asahi report said the U.S. government was aware of the tests, which were meant to ascertain whether the anthrax bacteria could survive the high temperatures that occur during warheads re-entry from space.

Pyongyang has tested a missile that could hit the eastern seaboard of the United States

North Korea vehemently denied the allegation and said it will 'take revenge' on the US for saying it is developing biological weapons.

In a statement issued via the state Korean Central News Agency, the regime said it is party to the Biological Weapons Convention and as such 'maintains its consistent stand to oppose development, manufacture, stockpiling and possession of biological weapons'.

It went on that the more the US 'clings' it its anti North Korea stance 'the more hardened the determination of our entire military personnel and people to take revenge will be'.

The news that North Korea may have been testing anthrax-laden warheads comes as South Korean President Moon Jae-in is seeking to soothe relations with China and the North before the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February.

He suggested on Tuesday he was prepared to postpone military drills with the United States.

Pyongyang sees the joint exercises as preparation for war, while Beijing is still angry about the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system, commonly known as THAAD, by South Korea.

China believes the system's powerful radar can see far into its territory, but Seoul argues it needs it to guard against the threat posed by North Korea's missile and nuclear programmes.

Seoul has proposed the potential delay in drills to Washington, which was also discussed during a summit last week between Moon and Chinese President Xi Jinping, an official from the presidential Blue House in Seoul said on Wednesday.

China has in the past proposed a 'freeze for freeze' arrangement under which North Korea would stop its nuclear and missile tests in exchange for a halt to the exercises. However, Washington has rejected the idea and Pyongyang has shown little interest in negotiations.

It was reported Kim Jong-un's regime was testing an anthrax tipped warhead

The United States and South Korea have been conducting military drills

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in Ottawa on Tuesday he was unaware of any plans to 'alter longstanding and scheduled and regular military exercises'.

North Korea has stepped up its missile and nuclear tests to an unprecedented rate this year, and any new provocation from the North would 'inevitably have an impact' on the exercises, the Blue House official said.

'It is a display of the president's strong message that North Korea must not conduct any provocation (during the Olympics),' the official told reporters.

What is anthrax and how can it be used as a weapon? Anthrax is a disease caused by the organism bacillus anthracis. It is possible to use anthrax as a military weapon by placing it in missiles, rockets or bombs. Anthrax spores could also be released by planes which could spray it over large areas and once present the spores can remain dormant for decades. Anthrax is caused by the organism bacillus anthracis (pictured) The deadliness of an anthrax attack depends on the quantity of spores and the effectiveness of a delivery system. An initial phase of flu-like symptoms can usually last for one to three days, before the patient enters a second phase of high fever, chest pains, severe breathing problems and shock. Death usually follows within two days. A wave of attacks occurred in the US in late 2001 with the spores placed in envelopes which killed five people. The first mass use of anthrax spores as a weapon in war is said to have taken place during the Japanese occupation of China from 1932 to 1945. The Japanese allegedly experimented with the use of anthrax and other biological weapons in Manchuria, and some 10,000 deliberately infected prisoners are thought to have died as a result. Britain experimented with anthrax as a weapon in the 1940s and the US made some for military use in the 1950s and 1960s. The Soviet Union also weaponised anthrax and Iraq admitted to doing so in 1995. The World Health Organisation estimated that, should 50kg of anthrax be released from an aircraft over an urban population of five million, there would be 250,000 cases of the disease. Advertisement

North Korea has also been hit with increased international sanctions over its missile and nuclear tests this year.

The United States has given China a draft resolution for tougher U.N. sanctions on North Korea and is hoping for a quick vote on it by the U.N. Security Council, a Western diplomat said on Tuesday, however Beijing has yet to sign on.

Details of the draft given to China last week were not immediately available, but the United States is keen to step up global sanctions to pressure North Korea to give up a weapons programme aimed at developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the United States.

China resumed some restrictions on group tours into the South, South Korea's inbound travel agency said on Wednesday.




The Senate passed the GOP's $1.5 trillion tax cut early Wednesday morning, leaving just one technical hurdle and President Trump's signature as the final steps before the president's top legislative priority becomes reality.

There was little last-minute drama in the Senate where the final tally was 51-48  hardly different from the original version that cleared the Senate earlier this month.

Not a single Democrat voted for it, just as none in the House voted for a similar bill earlier on Tuesday.

Moments after the measure passed, Trump was quick to voice his approval and said if the House succeeds in a final re-vote Wednesday morning, there will be a White House news conference at 1:00 p.m.

'The United States Senate just passed the biggest in history Tax Cut and Reform Bill,' he tweeted just after 1:00 in the morning. 'Terrible Individual Mandate (ObamaCare)Repealed. Goes to the House tomorrow morning for final vote.'

During an afternoon cabinet meeting, Trump said that the bill will provide 'a tremendous amount of relief for the middle class, including a doubling of the child tax credit and a nearly doubling of the standard deduction.'

'That's going to be tremendous for people. They're going to start seeing the results in February. This bill means more take home pay,' he said.

Scroll down for video

The final vote was 51 to 48, with all Democrats opposed and Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain absent while recovering from cancer treatment in his home state

Vice President Mike Pence presided over the historic vote. He later described it as a 'historic win for the American people'

The outcome of the vote was known in advance after wavering senators made their views known

Trump also blasted Democratic lawmakers for voting in lockstep against the measure in both houses of Congress.

'Democrats don't like to see tax cutting. They like to see tax increases and they like to complain. But they don't get it done,' he fumed.

With a final House vote not expected until around lunchtime, the White House announced that Trump would hold a 'bill passage event.' The president will have to sign the bill later.

House Speaker Paul Ryan tweeted: 'Great news. The Senate just passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. After years of work, we are going to enact the most sweeping, pro-growth overhaul of our tax code in a generation.'

A wave of protesters provided one of the biggest bursts of emotion. One small group yelled out 'Kill the bill, don't kill us!' as the final vote was being taken.

'The Sergeant at Arms will restore order in the gallery,' said Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding over the chamber.

Pence's appearance was a flourish that put him in the spotlight  though party leaders knew in advance his potential tie-breaking vote was not needed.

One protester yelled at GOP Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, 'Have you no shame?'

Flake voted for the bill, weeks after warning colleagues against complicity with Trump.

If we can't sell this to the American people I think we ought to go into another line of work Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

Moments after the decision, Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders tweeted: 'Senate Republicans just passed their tax reform bill. What an utter disgrace.'

Before the vote, as the debate stretched toward midnight, Pence tweeted out a photo of himself huddling with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Trump economic advisor Gary Cohn.

The House still had to sort through one legislative hiccup  after Democrats raised a procedural objection to minor provisions in the bill that the Senate parliamentarian ruled were not allowable.

The parliamentary ruling, which was sustained after Republicans failed to strike it down, requires the House to re-vote Wednesday morning so that the House and Senate versions are identical and President Trump can sign it.

'After eight straight years of slow growth and under-performance, America is ready to take off,' said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky at a press conference after passage.

Asked about a need to 'sell' the bill, McConnell said: 'If we can't sell this to the American people I think we ought to go into another line of work.'

House Speaker Paul Ryan backed the tax plan Wednesday morning, telling a CBS audience that Americans will 'see their paychecks getting bigger in February'

Ryan made the rounds on Wednesday morning's TV shows, saying on CBS that Democratic detractors predicting tax increases for the middle class are dead wrong.

'When people see their paychecks getting bigger in February because withholding tables have adjusted to reflect their tax cuts, when businesses are keeping more of what they earn, when they can write off their expensing and investment in their businesses, and hire more people, that's going to change its popularity. I am convinced,' he said.

'So I think there's just tons of confusion out there as to what this does or doesn't do. A lot of people think it's going to raise their taxes, when every income tax group on average gets a tax cut. So the proof is in the pudding, and I think the results will speak for themselves.'

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, the top Democrat in the upper chamber of Congress, ripped the measure as as 'sloppy' and 'as partisan as the process used to draft it.'

Republican Senator from Utah and Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee Orrin Hatch (center) speaks beside Senate Majority Leader Republican Mitch McConnell (center right) and other Republican Senators during a news conference after Republicans pass Trump's $1.5 trillion tax cut bill

President Donald Trump (pictured on Monday) is expected to sign the tax cut as soon as Wednesday once it clears the House for a second time

He warned his colleagues: 'Vote no. Otherwise, I believe the entire Republican Party, and each of you, will come to rue this day.'

Schumer called for order during his floor speech and barked at colleagues who were talking rather than listening.

'This is serious stuff. We believe you're messing up America. You could pay attention for a couple of minutes,' the New York Democrat grumbled.

Another Democrat, Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio, said Wednesday morning on CNN that while 'a few people are going to get some crumbs' in the form of tax relief, 'the wealthiest people in the country are going to get all of the benefits here.'

'It is going to be a great Christmas for the big corporations who are sitting on more cash than they've ever had in their lives,' he groused.

Wavering senators removed most of the drama Tuesday night by announcing their support in advance. Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, who Trump mocked as 'little Bob' during an earlier feud, flipped from opposing the earlier version to supporting the final conference report that cleared the Senate Tuesday night.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine also tipped her hand hours before the vote, saying she would back the bill.

Sen. John McCain, who provided a dramatic thumbs-down to the GOP's Obamacare repeal bill months ago, is recovering at home from his treatment for brain cancer and didn't vote Tuesday night.

He had announced his backing for an earlier version of the tax cut.

The hours-long debate Tuesday was mostly kabuki theater.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch bemoaned the lack of Democratic support  although leaders decided to move the bill through procedures that allowed them to circumvent Democrats and pass it by a simple majority vote.

'Where is this bipartisanship that this country desperately needs?' asked Hatch. 'Our tax policy is for the birds,' he added.

Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon called the final bill an 'abomination' as well as 'the biggest bank heist  not just in American history but in the history of the world.'

As the hours drew on, senators continued to inveigh one way or the other to a mostly empty chamber but with an eye toward C-Span and cable audiences.

'Not a single Democrat would break from party discipline,' complained Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. 'Why? Because they are so united in their rage at President Trump,' the president's former primary rival said.

He said families would see benefits in their pay stubs within weeks.

Democrats saw their hopes dashed of scoring another dramatic defeat of a GOP initiative, after seeing the Obamacare repeal tank earlier this year.

With passage all but assured, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the leading Democrat on the Finance Committee, turned his focus to future battles, warning Americans that Republicans would be 'coming for your Social Security and Medicare before you take you Christmas tree down.'

Now, all that is left for the House to do is vote again following an earlier technical parliamentary error.

Protesters are taken into custody as the Senate votes on tax reform legislation on Capitol Hill

Protesters who yelled 'Kill the Bill' are removed by Capital Police during the senate vote

Speaker Ryan, who earlier said 'this is a day I've been looking forward to for a long time', will get to relive his dream Wednesday, because a few minor provisions in the House bill were out of order.

That would require another procedural motion to ensure both chambers are passing identical measures.

In that case, the House would meet at 9am Wednesday and then vote.

The rule prevents certain types of legislating in what is nominally a revenue bill  crammed into a special procedure that only requires a simple majority to pass to avoid having to negotiate with Democrats.

There are a 'couple little glitches,' Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Fox News Tuesday night, but they are only 'minor adjustments.'

One of the out-of-order provisions lets people save in tax-deferred 529 plans to home school their kids, Politico reported. Another may deal with a college's exemption from an endowment tax.

It is up to Democrats or any senator to raise an objection to force a ruling.

A Senate leadership aide downplayed the hiccup in the final stretch.

'No one's fault. They're tiny provisions that don't affect the overall bill. These small provisions were all that Dems could find. The House will pass again,' the aide said.

Not a single Democrat voted for the GOP-crafted conference report, and in the end Republicans lost only 12 of their own members

LETS DO THIS (AGAIN)! House GOP leaders hailed the bill minutes after the House passed it. Speaker Ryan hailed it as 'profound change.' Now the House may have to do a re-vote on a slightly-modified bill

President Trump tweeted congratulations for those 'who voted in favor of cutting your taxes!'

An amendment by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz made it into the final conference report, allowing parents to withdraw up to $10,000 from tax-deferred 529 college savings plans for home schooling their kids at a younger age.

The plans could now be used for K-12 elementary and secondary tuition, including for home-schooling.

Aides were still scrambling to figure out how the technical ruling would affect the legislation.

Cruz touted the amendment on his Senate and campaign web site.

'By expanding choice for parents and opportunities for children, we have prioritized the education of the next generation of Americans,' Cruz said on the Senate floor when the amendment passed on a tie vote with an assist from Vice President Mike Pence.

A Senate GOP aide told DailyMail.com the only portion likely to be knocked out involved home schooling  not the bulk of the amendment for the first time making 529s eligible for K-12 schools including private or parochial schools.

In states that define home-schooling as a type of private school, it is possible that funding could still be eligible.

In another blow, of the PR variety, Senate Democrats objected to the pleasing name Republicans attached to the bill, the so-called short title, the 'The Tax Cuts And Jobs Act.'

WHAT'S IN THE FINAL TAX BILL? Top income tax bracket has dropped to 37 per cent from 39.6 per cent

Other brackets are zero, 12, 22, 24, 32 and 35 per cent

'Standard' deduction for non-itemizers nearly doubles

Interest is deductible only on the first $750,000 of new home mortgages

Only individuals making more than $500,000 and couples earning $600,000 are in the top bracket

Corporate tax rates drop from 35 per cent to 21 per cent

Deduction for medical expenses and student loan interest and an exemption for graduate school tuition waivers

Ends Obamacare tax penalty for failing to buy health insurance

Doubles child tax credit to $2,000 for families earning up to $400,000

$1,400 of child credit is refundable even for families that don't pay any income tax

Doubles estate tax exemption to the first $11.2 million of inheritances

Opens a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling

'Pass-through' corporations can deduct 20 per cent of income

Elimination of corporate Alternative Minimum Tax

No repeal of Johnson Amendment barring churches and religious organizations from election activity Advertisement

The bill's remaining long title is: 'An Act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to titles II and V of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018.'

Just 12 Republicans voted against the final conference report in the House. Among them were Reps. Rodney Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, the House Appropriations Committee chairman, Rep. Darrel Issa of California, and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California.

All three of them represent high-tax states where some constituents could get slammed by a provision that caps the deduction for state and local taxes.

There was just one GOP opponent outside of the Democratic-leaning states of New Jersey, New York, and California  Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina.

President Trump lauded House Republican supporters on Twitter. 'Congratulations to Paul Ryan, Kevin McCarthy, Kevin Brady, Steve Scalise, Cathy McMorris Rodgers and all great House Republicans who voted in favor of cutting your taxes!' he wrote.

THE TRUMP TAX BRACKETS Single filers $0 to $9,525  10% $9,525 to $38,700  12% $38,700 to $82,500  22% $82,500 to $157,500  24% $157,500 to $200,000  32% $200,000 to $500,000  35% $500,000 and up  37% Married couples who file jointly $0 to $19,050  10% $19,050 to $77,400  12% $77,400 to $165,000  22% $165,000 to $315,000  24% $315,000 to $400,000  32% $400,000 to $600,000  35% $600,000 and up  37% Advertisement

Not a single Democrat voted for the GOP-crafted conference report  a steep partisan split that is already leading to questions about whether the cuts will be able to endure for the long term.

The White House maintained that the president could be facing a tax increase, even as it said his business would fare well.

'We expect that it likely will, certainly on the personal side, could cost the president a lot of money. Again, the president's focus hasn't necessarily been at all on himself,' said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Pressed on whether the billionaire president would have to pay more, despite the doubling of the estate tax exemption, changes for 'pass through' corporations, and the top rate reduction, Sanders responded: 'I said that in some ways, particularly on the personal side, the president will likely take a big hit, but on the business side he could benefit. But the biggest focus for this White House has been to make sure all Americans are better off today, after this tax package passes, then they were beforehand.'

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin sat in the House chamber for a portion of the final debate.

In another signal of the low-drama move to final passage, Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine each announced their support for the final bill Monday.

That left the GOP within sight of victory even as Sen. John McCain of Arizona recuperated at home from complications of his brain cancer.

The Senate passed its first version of the tax cut by a vote of just 51-49.

'This is profound change, and this is change that's going to put our country on the right path,' Ryan said immediately after the vote.

'We said in 2016 that it would take real tax reform for families and businesses to get the American economy going. And we were serious,' he said.

And he indicated that more tax cuts were on the way in the future. Individual rate cuts are set to expire in a decade under required procedural rules.

'We have every intent of making those permanent... it's obviously our intent to make all those permanent,' he said

The initial tax legislation was introduced barely six weeks ago on November 2, and the final House-Senate compromise text wasn't released until Friday evening.

'This is a day I've been looking forward to for a long time,' said House Speaker Paul Ryan

Speaker Paul Ryan was able to help hold his caucus together and get a bill passed just days after final text was released

The race for immediate passage was driven by several factors.

Republican leaders were determined not to let the 1,100 page final bill linger so it might get picked apart by critics. On Saturday, just in the initial hours after it was announced, it was revealed that a change to the language for 'pass-through' corporations would benefit income-earning real estate holders like President Donald Trump and opponent-turned-supported Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee.

In a show of Republican unity despite polls showing public opposition to the plan, the House GOP easily turned back a Democratic motion to recommit the bill to committee with instructions to change it.

Protesters in the House visitors' gallery shouted 'Shame! Shame!' as the final tally was taken.

Ryan cast the bill in kitchen table terms, saying it would benefit families 'living paycheck to paycheck'  even as Democrats pointed out the bill crafted by Republican negotiators slashed the top income tax rate, lowered corporate taxes, and doubled the size of the exemption for estates that come under the federal estate tax.

Under the bill, estates worth $11.2 million would be subject to the estate tax, up from $5.6 million.

The bill slashes income tax rates, including lowering the top bracket of 39.6 per cent down to 37 per cent.

Corporate tax rates would plummet from 35 per cent to a new 21 per cent bracket.

The outcome of the House vote wasn't in doubt Tuesday, as Democrats took their last opportunity to bash the proposal as it moved forward.

'Today we choose what kind of country America will be: one that champions the ladders of opportunity for all, or one that reinforces the power of the wealthiest and well-connected,' said House minority leader Nancy Pelosi of California.

'Why aren't they joining us on insisting for a better deal for American families?' she said of Republicans. 'Why aren't they joining us in demanding that we write real bipartisan tax reform that puts the middle class first? Because helping the middle class has never been their goal,' she said.

'Republicans will vote to catastrophically explode our national debt ... where are the vaunted Republican deficit hawks? Are they endangered? Are they extinct?' she said.

The presidnet fired off a pair of gloating tweets Tuesday morning before the vote took place

Republicans pushed back against Democratic claims that the bill was structured to reward the donor class.

'Opponents to this tax bill, they don't really worry about tax cuts for the rich. They worry about tax cuts for you,' said Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Kevin Brady.

'Given the choice between the federal government and you, we choose you, hard-working American taxpayers. We choose you, the only special interest that truly matters,' he said.

Republicans will vote to catastrophically explode our national debt ... where are the vaunted Republican deficit hawks? Are they endangered? Are they extinct? Nancy Pelosi, House minority leader

Republicans insist that the sweeping package of tax cuts for corporations, small businesses and individuals will boost economic and job growth. They also see the measure as key to having any hope of retaining their majorities in the House and Senate when voters go to the polls next November.

The end-of-year sprint toward passage represents a remarkable recovery of Republican fortunes since the middle of this year, when the party's drive to dismantle former Democratic President Barack Obama's Obamacare healthcare law crumbled in the Senate and prospects for a tax overhaul seemed doomed by party infighting.
Sydneysiders went to incredible lengths to keep cool in sweltering 40C temperatures on Wednesday.

One woman was spotted pouring water over herself on Bondi Beach - in an attempt to either keep cool or clear sand from her body.

Pictures of the young woman, dressed in an orange and black two-piece bikini, show her pouring water from a bottle over her chest.

One woman was spotted using a bizarre technique at Bondi Beach as she poured a bottle of water over her body

Sydneysiders went to incredible lengths to keep cool in sweltering 40C temperatures on Wednesday

Pictures of the young woman, dressed in an orange and black two-piece bikini, show her pouring water from a bottle over her chest and groin

But it wouldnt have made much of a difference as deluge of rain poured down on Sydney on Wednesday afternoon

But it wouldnt have made much of a difference as deluge of rain poured down on Sydney on Wednesday afternoon.

The city sweltered through another scorching day on Wednesday, with some northern suburbs already soaring to 32C by 7.30am.

Temperatures have exceeded 40C in the city's west, prompting total fire bans declared for three regions, including Sydney, which reached 36C.

Penrith and Richmond sizzled at 42C while the eastern suburbs sat around 34C, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

After a very sticky morning, thunderstorms are expected to hit Sydney's coast between 1pm and 2pm will cause temperatures to drop at least 10 degrees, a forecaster from the BOM said.

'The trough will cross most of NSW today, leaving a cool change in its wake. As it moves over northeastern NSW, the trough will stall and increase instability, with severe thunderstorms a risk,' according to Weatherzone.

The city sweltered through another scorching day on Wednesday, with some northern suburbs already soaring to 32C by 7.30am

After a very sticky morning, thunderstorms are expected to hit Sydney's coast between 1pm and 2pm will cause temperatures to drop at least 10 degrees, a forecaster from the BOM said

Sydney's scorching temperatures are expected to plunge by 10C after a cool change moves along the NSW south coast, bringing some relief

Sydney is bracing for yet another scorching day, with some northern suburbs already soaring to 32C by 7.30am

Temperatures are tipped to exceed 40C in the city's west, prompting total fire bans declared for three regions, including Sydney (pictured is a French bulldog beating the heat with an ice cream)

Two ducks were relegated to the bathroom to wait out the scorching heat in Penrith

'Alongside the threat of damaging winds and large hail, bursts of heavy rain with the thunderstorms are a hazard.'

'From now until the weekend, parts of the North Coast and Northern Tablelands will likely receive widespread falls of over 30mm, possibly over 60mm in some parts, with flash flooding a risk in areas without sufficient runoff capabilities.'

Despite cooler temperatures, residents are expected to flock to surrounding beaches but have been warned to stay clear of Tamamara and Bronte, which are closed due of dangerous conditions.

NSW paramedics are bracing for a busy day after responding to 70 heat-related incidents on Tuesday alone.

Authorities have warned residents, particularly those aged 60 and over, to stay out of direct sunlight, drink plenty of water and never leave children or pets in cars.

The NSW RFS has issued total fire bans for the Greater Sydney Region, The Hunter Region and North Western NSW, with the three areas facing severe fire danger ratings.

The city will reach 36C while Penrith and Richmond sizzle at 42C, according to the Bureau of Meteorology

The eastern suburbs, including Bondi Beach, will reach around 34C

Temperatures soared well into the 30s early on Wednesday morning

After a very sticky morning, a southerly cool change moving along the state's south coast is predicted to bring relief during the day as it tracks north

'It's pretty hot and dry right around different parts of the state, but that's where the concentration of the worst weather is today,' RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told the Nine Network on Wednesday.

'We have got 30 fires that we still haven't got contained; we are dealing with more than 80 fires around NSW at the moment.'

The heat has also prompted electricity provider Ausgrid to cancel planned maintenance outages on the Central Coast and Hunter region for Wednesday.

The state's chief scientist has warned NSW could be plunged into chaos in the event of a large-scale 'black system' power outage, similar to the one that debilitated South Australia last year.

Praying for rain? One man was photographed standing on Bondi Beach with a guitar early in the morning

The southerly change is heading north and should hit Sydney's coast between 1pm and 2pm before heading to the city's south

Temperatures will drop at least 10 degrees, a forecaster from the BOM said

While finding it was highly unlikely NSW would fall victim to a blackout of that scale, a report released by the Energy Security Taskforce has found NSW was nevertheless ill-prepared.

Taskforce chair and chief scientist Mary O'Kane says the state government needs to adopt a more proactive approach to managing short- and medium-term risks, including during prolonged periods of extreme heat.

'The government must be alive to risks over coming years so that it can manage emerging risks proactively when needed,' Prof O'Kane said in a statement.

For Sydneysiders, the report found up to 10,000 people on underground trains would need to be evacuated in the event the state fell victim to an outage.

The state's chief scientist has warned NSW could be plunged into chaos in the event of a large-scale 'black system' power outage, similar to the one that debilitated South Australia last year

Meanwhile, public hospitals only have six hours worth of fuel in their back-up diesel generators, the report released on Tuesday, found.

'As we saw in the South Australian event, sometimes these can go on for a while and there is reason to think it would be quite some time in a black event like that for Sydney to come back up,' Ms O'Kane told ABC Radio on Wednesday.

The report found the system was vulnerable in times of extreme weather events and made nine recommendations to shore it up.

'The next decade will be a period of transition and disruption for the National Energy Market, and with that comes opportunities for innovation to increase the future reliability and security of the state's electricity system,' Prof O'Kane said.
A Tasmanian woman has claimed she has been ordered to repay nearly $7000 because Centerlink decided to 'retroactively recognise' her overseas same-sex marriage.

The un-named woman wed her female partner in 2016 in a country where same-sex marriage is legal, but says since notifying the Australian agency, she's been billed $6,600, Gay Star News reports.

She has claimed the organisation said she wasn't entitled to receive family payments for the past year because she was married.

A Tasmanian woman claims she was ordered to repay nearly $7000 because Centerlink decided to 'retroactively recognise' her overseas same-sex marriage (stock image)

The un-named woman wed her female partner in 2016 in a country where same-sex marriage is legal, but says since notifying the Australian agency, she's been billed $6,600 (stock image)

The couple were allegedly living separately and didn't have shared finances, therefore claiming they weren't a 'de facto' couple under Centerlink rules.

The publication reports Centrelink decided to retrospectively recognise the woman's marriage since last year, despite same-sex marriage only becoming legal in Australia earlier this month.

Tasmanians United for Marriage Equality spokesman Rodney Croome told the publication the woman had done 'nothing wrong' and was being 'penalised'.

Department of Human Services told Daily Mail Australia they could not comment on individual cases.

'We can confirm we are working with the individual to address their concerns,' a Department of Human Services spokesperson said.

'As such, we are not taking any action to review same-sex relationships (either married or de facto) since the passage of the Marriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Bill 2017.'

Gay Star News reports Centrelink decided to retrospectively recognise the woman's marriage since last year, despite same-sex marriage only becoming legal in Australia earlier this month

Department of Human Services told Daily Mail Australia they could not comment on individual cases but did say they first acknowledged same-sex relationships in 2009 (stock image)

Centrelink first acknowledged same-sex de facto relationships in 2009.

This required people to disclose their homosexuality to the government agency in order to get more, or in some cases less, payments for being in gay and lesbian relationships.

State politician Ella Haddad told ABC Radio Hobart on Tuesday that 'countless couples' may be affected by this.
Hundreds of passengers have been left stranded after Jetstar cancelled flights out of Sydney Airport as severe thunderstorms batter the city.

Angry holidaymakers said they had been forced to book flights with other airlines after the last-minute cancellations on Wednesday afternoon.

'It's just ridiculous, I'm about to hop in a cab to the airport and I get this text from Jetstar saying my flight was cancelled,' one told Daily Mail Australia.

'Now I've had to pay an extra $250 to book a flight on Virgin. How can Virgin and Qantas be flying and Jetstar not?'

Hundreds of passengers have been left stranded after Jetstar cancelled flights out of Sydney Airport

Severe thunderstorms swept over the Harbour City on Wednesday afternoon after a scorching day

Jetstar said three of its flights had been cancelled and all affected passengers would be on the next available departure.

But the irate traveller said he was told he couldn't fly to his destination with the airline for nearly 20 hours.

'They gave me a voucher because the next flight I could have got wasn't until 1.30pm tomorrow,' he said.

A Jetstar spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia: 'We've had three cancellations on flights to Brisbane, Melbourne and Hobart.

'It's just ridiculous, I'm about to hop in a cab to the airport and I get this text from Jetstar saying my flight was cancelled,' one passenger told Daily Mail Australia

The airline said three of its flights had been cancelled due to severe thunderstorms sweeping over the city

'But we're still flying, we'll just have see what the storm does and whether it's going to impact flights any further.'

The temperature dropped in Sydney by 10C in just a few minutes on Wednesday afternoon as the storm swept across the city following a scorching 40C day.

Footage showed massive lightening strikes over the Harbour Bridge, though the city saw limited rainfall.

The storm is expected to clear on Wednesday evening and showers are forecast for Thursday.
Head teacher of Windsor Clive Primary School, in Cardiff, Vicky Meadows

A primary school embroiled in a Christmas concert row cancelled a second performance over safety fears after parents tried to confront the head teacher and demanded she was sacked.

Families stormed Windsor Clive Primary School in the Ely area of Cardiff, after devastated pupils were allegedly rebuked for their poor theatrical performances.

Such was the uproar at the school, that headteacher Vicky Meadows cancelled yesterday's second showing of the play.

Police were called after furious parents protested over claims children were told they were 'absolutely rubbish' in their Christmas play.

Some parents took to Facebook to express their anger towards Mrs Meadows.

Kelly Jones wrote: 'My boy got shouted at by her because he was smiling at me when he was singing in his concert.'

And Laura Thole added: 'My daughter was in tears because of her and she didn't go in today either because she thought she had let me down she was so upset!'

Hayley Price said: 'I was more p****d off my daughter left school scared because of the police and upset because her concert was cancelled.

'Different ways to be dealing with a situation than scaring loads of kids in school.'

One mother said her daughter was told she was a 'disappointment' and came home in tears.

She said: 'All of the kids came home saying the same thing so the headteacher must have said it.

It's hard enough getting children to take part in the plays when they are shy but then this takes away their confidence because they feel rubbish

'My girl came home crying and didn't want to perform again because she thought she would be a disappointment.

'The headteacher only comes out at Christmas and none of the kids even know who she is.

'It's hard enough getting children to take part in the plays when they are shy but then this takes away their confidence because they feel rubbish.

'I know a lot of parents are really angry about this.'

Another mother said: 'I was furious when I heard what happened and I came down to the school to speak to the deputy head.

'He explained that the children had been drawing on wood in the church and defacing it. That's why they were told off.

'All that the headteacher did was say to them that they were doing better in rehearsals.

'Apparently she said to them they should be doing themselves proud.'

Mothers and fathers also claim that their youngsters were warned they would be given only bread and water for their Christmas party if they did not behave.

Police were called to Windsor Clive Primary School (pictured) after furious parents protested over claims children were told they were 'absolutely rubbish' in their Christmas play

One angry mother urged others to write to school governors.

She said: 'We want the best for our children and they don't deserve to be mistreated.

'She [Mrs Meadows] told all juniors there [sic] concert was rubbish and she was so disappointed that if it happened today then all there parties would be cancelled.

'But they did brightly and she said they did, in front of parents, but soon as they got back to school she told them that ''disgusting'' is beyond the word for it.'

Another woman wrote: 'Having enjoyed two brilliant performances in my grandchildren's school, I cried when I read this. How can it ever be the children's fault? '

Another angry mother wrote: 'From what I've been told by friends that watched the play the children were brilliant and even if they weren't they still don't deserve to be spoken to the way the head teacher did.'

One mother said: 'It's the fact that in front of us parents she said they done [sic] amazing and she was proud of them and then when she took the kids back to school, she was saying they were rubbish and that they put a bad name to the school and disappointed their parents.

'These kids are only young and it's not fair on them coming out of school in tears and scared to go back the next day in case she has a go at them again.'

However, not all parents are upset with Mrs Meadows, others claimed families were overreacting.

One mother wrote: 'No! She told the children after, the concert was brilliant in the church.

'But then spoke to the class teachers who informed her that the rehearsals were much better and that they could have done better! Which was what she said to the children in the hall!

'She also told them about there messing around and talking.'

Another woman said: 'It's a pity parents didn't spend the same energy and time supporting the school and teachers more. There's a whole generation who think the world owes them something and gets offended over the littlest thing.'

Cardiff city council said the school refutes that any child was spoken to harshly or inappropriately after the Christmas play.

A spokesman said: 'Some parents have alleged that, following the Christmas concert on Monday, pupils were spoken to in an inappropriate manner. The school refutes this.

'If any parent has a complaint, we would expect them to use the appropriate channels to raise their concerns through the school's complaints procedure.'

Mrs Meadows was unavailable to comment on the school concert row - with a receptionist saying all queries had to be directed to Cardiff Council.

But another school worker said police were called to the school gates because of parents' anger over perceived criticism of their children.

The worker said: 'The parents were demanding to speak to the head teacher and were very irate.

'Police were called over fears for her safety - it was the only way to deal with it.'

South Wales Police confirmed officers had been called to the school over 'concerns' raised by headteacher Mrs Meadows.

When asked what the specific concerns were by MailOnline, a spokeswoman refused to comment and hung up.
A massive saltwater crocodile has been caught on camera devouring a cow as a shocked family watches on.

The incredible scene was captured on a property in Kununurra, Western Australia on Friday.

Julia Durack said her 'worst nightmare unfurled' as the graphic event occurred near her property near the Lower Ord River in the remote Kimberley region, according to Storyful.

A massive saltwater crocodile has been caught on camera devouring a cow as a shocked family watches on

'That's why we don't go down to the river, because of the crocodiles,' Julia Durack told the ABC.

'We watched it death-roll and munch on the cow for a little while.

'One of the horses that was living here died as well due to a crocodile in February, so you definitely have to be very aware.'

Her husband Brad Durack posted a video of the crocodile eating the cow to Facebook on Monday.

The incredible scene was captured on a property in Kununurra, Western Australia on Friday

Ms Durack commented on the video saying the cow was there for two days before she woke up on Friday morning to see 'a salty on the bank'.

She said the incident was a good lesson for their children.

In the video the crocodile can be seen tucking into the cow while several birds watch on.

The crocodile manages to rip a large chunk of the cow away with its huge jaws as the Durack family watches on.
A father in southern California over-reacted to his wife suggesting they get an artificial tree for Christmas - and his daughter caught the melodramatic scene on camera.

Madison Napoli, 21, filmed the moment her father, Joe, acted shocked and appalled when his wife, Marie, brought up the idea that they wouldn't get a real tree, as they do every year.

The Napolis take Christmas very seriously, Madison said, adding that her mother suggested an artificial tree to troll Joe.

Madison Napoli, 21, of California, filmed the moment her father, Joe, acted appalled when his wife, Marie, brought up the idea that they would get an artificial Christmas tree this year. The Napolis take Christmas very seriously, Madison said, adding that her mother suggested an artificial tree to troll Joe

Madison knew her mother was joking around and decided to film Joe's hilarious reaction. Joe then walks into the room and heaves a heavy sigh after his wife suggested getting a 'Glade candle that smells like the tree'

Madison knew her mother was joking around and decided to film Joe's hilarious reaction.

'Do you know they're bad for the environment?' she overheard him say before she pulled out the camera. 'The whole thing is freaking plastic!'

Joe then walks into the room and heaves a heavy sigh after his wife suggested getting a 'Glade candle that smells like the tree'.

He then picks up his shoes and looks at Marie to say: 'I don't know what's happened to you and I know I can't solve it, so I'm just going to let it go.'

Marie, who said she was being 'playful' and was 'teasing' her husband laughs as he walks away at the end of the clip.

In the end, the family did get a real Christmas tree.

Madison, who noted the small tree in the background of the video is a decorative tree and not the family's official tree, said her dad's reaction was completely genuine. Pictured above is the Napoli family

Madison said that her parents' (pictured) 'silly' nature stems from a 25-year marriage and that they were high school sweethearts

Madison, who noted the small tree in the background of the video is a decorative tree and not the family's official tree, told Buzzfeed News that her dad's reaction was completely genuine.

'He was genuinely passionate about getting a real Christmas tree,' she said. '[My mom] knew it would get under his skin a little bit.'

She added that her parents' 'silly' nature stems from a 25-year marriage and that they were high school sweethearts.

'I got a lot of comments saying my mom was 'messed up' for laughing at the end, but I guess I would like people to understand that my parents have the healthiest marriage I've seen,' she told Buzzfeed News.

Joe said he's fully aware that Madison shared video of his melodramatic reaction, which has since gone viral.

'If this little glimpse into my world can keep one home from getting a fake tree, my pain will have been worth it,' he told BuzzFeed News.
Sydney was sweltering through a day of deadly heat before it quickly turned into a thunder and lightning spectacle.

While parts of the city reached into the 40s on Wednesday, there was a rapid cool change when a number of fierce thunderstorms hit the region.

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Gabrielle Woodhouse told Daily Mail Australia the rife temperatures dropped 'pretty quickly' on the coast.

The powerful thunderstorm which hit Sydney Wednesday afternoon was captured piercing from the grey sky right towards to Sydney Opera House (pictured)

While parts of the city reached into the 40s, there was a rapid cool change when a number of fierce thunderstorms (pictured) hit the region

One photo shows an electric purple bolt of lightning light up the grey sky right above the Sydney Harbour Bridge (pictured)

'Near the airport it dropped about 10 degrees in a few minutes,' Ms Woodhouse said.

'Further west it took maybe one to two hours [to drop].'

As many Sydneysiders would have left the house this morning dressed in skirts and shorts, they would have needed a brolly at hand later in the afternoon to cater for the wild storms.

The intense flashes of lightning were captured by keen onlookers, with some impressive photos showing bright bolts lighting up the harbour city.

One photo shows an electric purple bolt of lightning light up the grey sky right above the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Another photo captures the moment a powerful purple bolt pierces down from the dull sky right towards to Sydney Opera House, resembling a scene from a Hollywood movie.

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Gabrielle Woodhouse told Daily Mail Australia the rife temperatures dropped 'pretty quickly' on the coast

'Near the airport it dropped about 10 degrees in a few minutes,' Ms Woodhouse said

While tomorrow will offer some cool respite for many exhausted by the summer heat, it won't hang around for long

Ms Woodhouse said the thunderstorms began to come through the city just after lunch, forcing temperatures to drop to low to mid 20s.

The forecaster told Daily Mail Australia the thunderstorms lasted about four hours, bringing with them winds of up to 40km/h in some parts of the region and 19ml of rain.

'The last few nights have been fairly humid nights, minimum temperatures remained quite warm and extremely sticky and the humidity combined with the system generated a fair amount of thunderstorms across the state,' Ms Woodhouse said.

While tomorrow will offer some cool respite for many exhausted by the summer heat, it won't hang around for long.

There is a 'slight risk' of thunderstorms Thursday morning in the Hunter Region before the hot weather comes back in time for Christmas.

'Over the coming days the heat will start to creep in again, it's the story of summer,' Ms Woodhouse said.

'We have a heat wave, then a few days break then start to see temperatures climb again.'
Britain has no major warships deployed on operations beyond home waters for the first time in living memory after defence cutbacks.

It has been described as an 'unprecedented' absence of the vessels on the world stage with concerns raised the fleet is 'too small' and that it is a 'strategic embarrassment' for Britain with the nation losing its way as a naval power.

All six of the Royal Navy's Type 45 destroyers - which cost around 1billion each - are docked in Portsmouth, while 12 of 13 Type 23 frigates are either at Portsmouth or Devonport.

This is due to a combination of mechanical problems, routine checks and to give sailors leave for Christmas.

It comes at the end of 2017, which was supposed to be 'The Year of the Navy' according to former defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon who said this year was 'the start of a new era of maritime power' for Britain in January.

All six Royal Navy Type 45 destroyers are currently moored in Portsmouth due to a combination of mechanical problems, maintenance and giving sailors leave for Christmas. Pictured is destroyer HMS Diamond, centre, below aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth and above frigate HMS Westminster

The six destroyers are pictured here moored in Portsmouth at the same time

HMS Dragon, left, and HMS Diamond, right, pictured in Portsmouth, are among the type 45s held up in port, with Diamond currently experiencing problems with its propellers

HMS Daring, pictured in Portsmouth in 2010, is another of the Destroyers currently not on operations due to maintenance and shore leave

Meanwhile a fault was found on board new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth causing 43 gallons of water to leak in every hour and forcing the Navy to deploy divers to fix the problem.

Former First Sea Lord Admiral Lord West said Britain was now 'on a precipice' due to the 'critical size' of the Navy'

He told the Mirror: 'This is a message that shows the year of the Navy is not really the "year of the Navy".'

Lord West added: 'Defence is being screwed, effectively.'

HMS St Albans is the only Type 23 on duty as the fleet ready escort, which protects home waters.

A dearth of major naval warships overseas has been attributed to cuts to the defence budget, raising concerns over Britain's ability to project power internationally.

Vice-Admiral John McAnally, national president of the Royal Naval Association, told The Times that the scarcity of frigates and destroyers overseas was unprecedented and indicates the fleet is too small.

'I am distressed and alarmed. I do not see that it is easily remedied,' he said.

HMS Dauntless, pictured in Portsmouth, is another destroyer currently on the sidelines

The crew of the HMS Duncan, pictured, are currently working up the vessel to be deployed next year

Former senior naval officers have expressed concerns that Britain is losing its way as a naval power amid recent problems. Pictured is HMS Defender

'The only answer is an increase in the defence budget. It is too small to meet what government want the armed forces to do.'

A spokeswoman said the Royal Navy is 'deployed globally on operations and will be protecting our national interests throughout Christmas and New Year'.

'There will be 13 ships and submarines deployed away and in home waters, as well as the at sea nuclear deterrent,' she added.

The frigates and destroyers are said to have returned to port for a combination of maintenance and crew needs.

TYPE 45 DESTROYERS: AT A GLANCE Launched: 2006-2010 Cost: Around 1billion each Length: 500ft Width: 69ft Draught: 24ft Weight: 8,500tons Crew: 191 Engines: 2 Rolls-Royce WR-21 gas turbines, 2Wartsila 12V200 diesel generators Top speed: 35mph Weapons: Anti-air missiles: 15 medium range Aster missiles, 30 long range Aster missiles, 2 anti-ship Harpoon launchers, 1 BAE 4.5 inch Mk 8 naval gun, 2 Oerlikon 30 mm guns, 2 Phalanxanti-missile guns, 2 Miniguns, 6 General purpose machine guns Advertisement

A problem was discovered with the propellers on HMS Diamond, meaning it had to return to Portsmouth rather than being deployed to the Gulf where the Navy usually has at least one frigate or destroyer.

Meanwhile a fault with the engines of the Type 45s has been discovered, with a contract to fix the problem not likely to be awarded until next year.

It could be the only time Britain has been without a major warship at sea in the Navy's 500 year history, with sources claiming they could not remember this ever happening before.

The UK's only aircraft carrier, the HMS Queen Elizabeth, is not due to enter active service until 2020.

It emerged on Tuesday that the vessel, the largest and most expensive in the Royal Navy's history, has a leak.

Helicopter carrier HMS Ocean, the fleet's flagship, is due to arrive back in Devonport after its final deployment before being decommissioned in 2018.

HMS Protector, a Royal Navy ice patrol ship joined the search for the missing Argentinian submarine, the ARA San Jan Juan, in November.

In early 2018 HMS Sutherland, a Type 23, is due to depart for the Far East and HMS Duncan, a Type 45, will also be deployed.

The lifespan of the Type 23s is to be extended after plans for a new fleet of frigates were delayed.

Around 13 Royal Navy vessels are currently on operations overseas including auxiliary ships but none are classed as major warships.
Michel Barnier today insisted the Brexit transition should last less than two years as he unveiled negotiating guidelines today.

The EU's chief negotiator said the period should be slightly shorter than Theresa May has suggested, finishing on December 31, 2020 - and Britain will have to abide by all the bloc's rules.

The announcement came as he fights to quell a backlash in Brussels over his attempt to force a tough stance in Brexit talks.

Mr Barnier has been accused of overstepping his powers by laying down a series of red lines before they have been signed off by the bloc's leaders.

In spite of his sabre-rattling, the EU is seemingly preparing to back down on demands for the UK to obey fishing quota rules during the transition.

The EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier (pictured in Brussels today) has warned there will be no special Brexit deal for the City of London

Mr Barnier's timetable means the UK will be fully out of the EU by January 1, 2021 - when the bloc's next seven-year Budget comes into force

Theresa May, pictured at PMQs in the Commons today, has said she expects the transition period to last for 'around' two years

Mr Barnier's timetable means the UK will be fully out of the EU by January 1, 2021 - when the bloc's next seven-year Budget comes into force.

Ending the transition then would avoid potentially complicated discussions about UK financial contributions during the few months up to March 2021.

But it shaves a few months off the implementation schedule Mrs May has laid out of 'around' two years.

Downing Street described the statement on timing as a 'negotiating position'.

'The commission is setting out their negotiating position. Those negotiations will get underway shortly,' the PM's spokesman said.

'We are currently looking at around two years, 24 months. The commission have said just over 21 months, but its a negotiation.'

Mr Barnier also said he wanted a framework agreement on future trade arrangements by October next year.

'We will be working on a new very important document that needs to be finalised by October 2018, parallel to the Article 50 treaty - a political document which will accompany the withdrawal agreement and which should clearly stipulate and outline the shape of our future relationship,' he said.

Asked whether Britain will have to obey rules on fishing quotas, Mr Barnier said 'community policies will continue to apply'.

But he admitted there was an issue because after 2019 the UK will not be part of 'discussions establishing the fish quotas'.

Hinting at concessions, Mr Barnier said: 'We'll have to find a mechanism, a way of consulting with the UK specifically on this questions.'

The guidelines for the transition talks spells out that the EU will not allow any 'cherry picking' of terms.

The UK will have to accept all the bloc's rules, including freedom of movement, and any new regulations that are passed during the implementation period.

HAMMOND URGES TRANSITION DEAL AS IMF CUTS GROWTH IMF chief Christine Lagarde today Philip Hammond urged a transition deal to avoid 'cliff edge' Brexit today as the IMF cut its outlooks for the UK economy. In its annual review of the UK economy, the IMF said UK gross domestic product (GDP) looked set to expand by 1.6 per cent this year, knocking back its prediction of 1.7 per cent growth from October. The international organisation kept the forecast for next year unchanged at 1.5 per cent, saying Brexit uncertainty and the inflationary squeeze on household spending power would put the brakes on the UK economy. The report said: 'Despite a strong recovery in global growth and supportive macroeconomic policies, the impact of the decision to exit the European Union has weighed on private domestic demand. 'The employment rate has remained around record highs, but the sharp depreciation of sterling following the referendum pushed up consumer price inflation, squeezing household real income and consumption. 'Business investment growth has been lower than would be expected in the context of strong global growth and high levels of capacity utilisation, owing to heightened uncertainty about economic prospects.' IMF chief Christine Lagarde told a press conference this morning that its gloomy predictions were being borne out. 'We feared that if Britain decided to leave, it would most likely entail a depreciation of sterling, higher inflation leading to a squeeze on disposable income and a reduction in investment,' she said. 'People said 'Oh those experts', but we are seeing the narrative we identified as a potential risk being rolled out as we speak.' Mr Hammond said the report underlined the need to avoid a 'cliff edge' Brexit. 'One of the biggest boosts we can provide to the economy - the economy of the UK and the economy of the EU27- is making early progress on delivering certainty and clarity about our future relationship with a time-limited implementation period agreed at the earliest opportunity,' he said. Advertisement

'The union acquis should continue to apply in full to and in the United Kingdom as if it were a member state,' the document states.

'Any changes made to the acquis during this time should automatically apply to the United Kingdom.

'All existing union regulatory, budgetary, supervisory, judiciary and enforcement instruments and structures will apply, including the competence of the court of justice of the European Union.'

From March 30, 2019 Britain will become a 'third country' and will 'no longer be represented in union institutions, agencies, bodies and offices'.

'The transition period needs to be clearly defined and precisely limited in time. The commission recommends that it should not last beyond 31 December 2020,' the guidelines state.

Meanwhile, Chancellor Philip Hammond has stressed the importance of striking a transition deal to avoid a 'cliff edge'.

In its annual review of the UK economy, the IMF said UK gross domestic product (GDP) looked set to expand by 1.6 per cent this year, knocking back its prediction of 1.7 per cent growth from October.

The international organisation kept the forecast for next year unchanged at 1.5 per cent, saying Brexit uncertainty and the inflationary squeeze on household spending power would put the brakes on the UK economy.

The report said: 'Despite a strong recovery in global growth and supportive macroeconomic policies, the impact of the decision to exit the European Union has weighed on private domestic demand.

'The employment rate has remained around record highs, but the sharp depreciation of sterling following the referendum pushed up consumer price inflation, squeezing household real income and consumption.

'Business investment growth has been lower than would be expected in the context of strong global growth and high levels of capacity utilisation, owing to heightened uncertainty about economic prospects.'

Mr Hammond said the report underlined the need to avoid a 'cliff edge' Brexit.

'One of the biggest boosts we can provide to the economy - the economy of the UK and the economy of the EU27- is making early progress on delivering certainty and clarity about our future relationship with a time-limited implementation period agreed at the earliest opportunity,' he said.

Mr Barnier used an interview yesterday to dismiss the prospects of a 'bespoke' Brexit deal, warning that the UK's vision of arrangements that include the City of London 'doesn't exist'.

He said there was no chance of keeping single market 'passporting' rights, which allow UK financial firms to trade across the continent without facing bureaucratic restrictions.

The best Britain can hope for is a more limited Canada-style agreement, Mr Barnier indicated.

However, Mrs May waved the comments aside yesterday, saying the package should be 'bespoke' and 'significantly more ambitious' than that between theEU and Canada.

In the trade talks Ministers are expected to deploy one of Brussels' favourite phrases, by warning that the EU cannot hope to 'cherry pick' parts of the UK economy to trade with.

Mr Barnier is due to publish guidelines on the transition talks, which the EU is insisting must be settled before the trade phase can get under way for real.

He has said that the UK will have to accept all EU regulations during the two-year period, and abide by rulings of the European Court of Justice - drawing complaints from Tory Eurosceptics that Britain is being made a 'vassal state'.

Brexiteer Michael Gove (pictured arriving for a Cabinet meeting yesterday) has been pushing for the UK to be freed from the EU fisheries policy

EU commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker is said to be among those frustrated with Mr Barnier (pictured together in Brussels in October)

But despite the public insistence that Britain will be subject to the 'complete architecture' of the EU, there are reports that European leaders are privately preparing a climbdown.

Britain might be able to 'opt out' of the EU's Common Fisheries Policy during the transition - which would be a key victory for Environment Secretary Michael Gove.

A senior EU official told The Times it was not sustainable to ask the UK to follow quotas when it did not have any say in setting them.

'We are thinking about a fair play kind of solution. The important thing is that people don't need to feel discriminated on the UK side,' the official said.

Meanwhile, UK sources said Mr Barnier's fiery rhetoric was ruffling feathers in the EU - where many countries are nervous about the impact of losing trade with Britain.

Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker - whose job Mr Barnier is said to covet - and his powerful chief of staff Martin Selmayr are said to be among those irritated by his behaviour.

'Nobody pays any attention to what Barnier says in Brussels,' a source told The Sun.

'They are not happy with Barnier. Juncker has fallen out with him because of his colossal ego, and even Selmayr is having second thoughts.'

In contrast with Mr Barnier, Belgian PM Charles Michel recently urged a 'CETA plus plus' deal with the UK, and Italian PM Paolo Gentiloni called for a 'tailor-made' agreement.
The deputy headteacher who murdered his wife and three children before killing himself said he was sorry in a note found at the scene.

Alan Hawe, 40, slaughtered his three sons Liam, 13, Niall, 11, and Ryan, 6, in the family home by cutting their throats, an inquest found.

He also murdered his wife Clodagh, 39, with an axe before he killed himself in August last year.

Alan Hawe, a deputy principal, his schoolteacher wife Clodagh and their three children Liam, 13, Niall, 11, and Ryan, six, were found dead in their home near Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan, Ireland on the morning of Monday August 29, 2016

Clodagh Hawe is pictured with sons Niall, 11, Ryan, six, and Liam, 13, in Venice. All four were killed by Alan Hawe before he killed himself

But in a note found at the home in Ballyjamesduff in Co Cavan, Ireland and published by the Irish Daily Star, Hawe wrote: 'I am sorry for how I murdered them all but I simply had no other way.'

The note, which was addressed to his parents and siblings as well as his wife's mother and sister, also explained: 'I am sorry for my brutality but I had no other way.'

Hawe also reportedly requested that he not be forgiven for his actions.

Details from the five-page letter had previously been given to members of the jury but were not read out at the inquest.

Mary Coll (right) told the inquest how she had coffee and biscuits with daughter Clodagh Hawe and her husband Alan hours before he killed her, butchered their three children, then killed himself

Dr Michael Curtis (pictured) said he believed Hawe cut Clodagh's and two of her sons' throats in such a way that they wouldn't be able to utter cries for help. And all except for youngest son Ryan, aged six, suffered 'defensive injuries', meaning they most likely put up a struggle

It was found at the scene of the murders on August 29, alongside another note that was taped on the back door of the house which read: 'Please do not come in. Please call the gardai.'

Hawe also explained in the note that it was easier for his sons to be killed than for them to be subjected to the trauma of his own suicide.

He even left instructions that he be cremated, with his ashes thrown out to sea, and he specifically requested he not be buried as a Catholic.

Hawe also spoke of his career worries, referring at one point in the note to how his students perceived him.

Professor Kennedy (pictured) told the hearing that he believed that at the time Mr Hawe carried out the murder-suicide he had progressed from long-term depression to a severe depressive episode with psychotic symptoms

Professor Harry Kennedy, clinical director at the Central Mental Hospital, was asked by Coroner Dr Mary Flanagan to review Mr Hawe's suicide note and reports from his therapist and GP.

He said: 'The counselling notes from March to June last year indicate that Alan Hawe was troubled.'

Professor Kennedy told the hearing that he believed that at the time Mr Hawe carried out the murder-suicide he had progressed from long-term depression to a severe depressive episode with psychotic symptoms.

'When people act in the course of severe mental illness, such as very severe psychotic mental illness, their judgment is severely impaired,' Professor Kennedy said.

The inquest concluded yesterday, with Hawe's death being officially recorded as suicide. The three children and Clodagh were unlawfully killed by Hawe.

After it was closed, a solicitor for Mary Coll and Jacqueline Connolly, Clodagh's mother and sister, said Hawe targeted his wife and eldest son first for fear they may fight back.

On the steps of the courthouse, lawyer Liam Keane said the killings were premeditated and calculated.

Flanked by the grief-stricken Mrs Coll and her surviving daughter Jacqueline, he said: 'It is clear from the evidence presented at the inquest that Clodagh and her boys were killed in a sequence that ensured that the eldest and most likely to provide effective resistance were killed first, and they were executed in a manner that rendered them unable to cry out for help.'

The hearse carrying the coffin of murdered Clodagh Hawe arrives at St Mary's Church Castlerahan, Co Caven, Ireland last year. An inquest has heard harrowing details of the scene after police arrived at the house

Mr Keane said the two-day hearing, which included harrowing evidence examining how the school teacher mother and her sons died, does not address why Alan Hawe 'committed this savagery'.

The solicitor referred to the psychotherapist David McConnell who held counselling sessions with Mr Hawe from March 15 to June 21 2016.

'His counsellor has said that he was concerned about his position as a pillar of the community,' Mr Keane said.

'We are aware that he was concerned at his imminent fall from that position and the breakdown of his marriage.'

The bodies of the Hawe family were discovered after Mrs Coll called to their home in Oakdene Downs, Barconey, near Ballyjmesduff, and saw an envelope on the back door warning for gardai to be called.

Garda Aisling Walsh and Garda Alan Radcliff leaving Cavan Court House during the two-day inquest

The jury of six women and one man returned verdicts of unlawful killing of Mrs Hawe and her three boys and suicide in the death of Mr Hawe.

The inquest was told the vice-principal last visited the psychotherapist and his GP on June 21 2016.

Mr McConnell said Mr Hawe gave no indication that he would harm himself or others. Dr Paula McKevitt said Mr Hawe attended her surgery complaining about a sore toenail.

He also told her he had washed his feet in bleach.

The GP said he was a little stressed about work and had not been sleeping.

Professor Harry Kennedy, clinical director at the Central Mental Hospital, was asked by Coroner Dr Mary Flanagan to review Mr Hawe's suicide note and reports from his therapist and GP.

He said: 'The counselling notes from March to June last year indicate that Alan Hawe was troubled.'

Professor Kennedy told the hearing that he believed that at the time Mr Hawe carried out the murder-suicide he had progressed from long-term depression to a severe depressive episode with psychotic symptoms.

'When people act in the course of severe mental illness, such as very severe psychotic mental illness, their judgment is severely impaired,' Professor Kennedy said.

Referring to his review of the suicide note and the GP's and therapist's reports, Prof Kennedy said: 'Hindsight is always a very unfair advantage.'
Advertisement

A charming collection of Father Christmas letters written by Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien to his children over more than two decades will go on display in a major exhibition.

The legendary author enchanted Christopher, Michael, John and Priscilla with tales of goblins, elves and polar bears, often illustrated with dreamlike sketches from the snowy North Pole.

'Father Christmas' continued delivering letters to the young Tolkiens at their homes in Leeds then Oxford every Christmas Eve for 23 years until Priscilla, the youngest, was 14.

The legendary author enchanted Christopher, Michael, John and Priscilla with tales of goblins, elves and polar bears, often illustrated with dreamlike sketches from the snowy North Pole. 'Father Christmas' continued delivering letters to the young Tolkiens at their homes in Leeds then Oxford every Christmas Eve for 23 years until Priscilla, the youngest, was 14. Pictured are the first letters from 'Father Christmas', which were sent in 1920

Many were hidden among ordinary letters and embossed with a homemade stamp that listed the cost of postage at two kisses.

The tradition started in 1920 when Tolkiens three-year old son, John, asked who Father Christmas was, and where he lived.

Tolkien wrote a reply from Father Christmas, starting a tradition that would continue until 1943, giving a fascinating insight into the author's family life.

The letters, which are now among the treasures of the Bodleian Library in Oxford, are full of colourful characters that would not look out of place in Middle Earth.

Chief among them is North Polar Bear, Father Christmas' bungling assistant, whose antics regularly appear in the dispatches.

In 1925, Father Christmas has to move house after North Polar Bear knocks the North Pole into the old one, soaking all the presents with melted snow.

One year later, he switches on all the Northern Lights by mistake, leading Father Christmas to write, alongside an image of the colourful night sky: 'You have never heard or seen anything like it.

'I have tried to draw a picture of it: but I am too shaky to do it properly and you cant paint fizzing light can you?'

The letters, which are now among the treasures of the Bodleian Library in Oxford, are full of colourful characters that would not look out of place in Middle Earth. Chief among them is North Polar Bear, Father Christmas' bungling assistant, whose antics regularly appear in the dispatches. In this 1926, he turned on all the Northern Lights by mistake

Catherine McIlwaine, curator of the Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth exhibition, said: The Father Christmas letters are some of my favourite items in the exhibition. 'The letters were delivered by the postman, whod been persuaded by Tolkien to deliver them with the rest of the post, or arrived on the hearth with specially made stamps from the North Pole, marked with the cost of postage "two kisses".' Pictured is a card from 1932 showing cave drawings discovered by Polar Bear in a cave

Catherine McIlwaine, curator of the Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth exhibition, said: The Father Christmas letters are some of my favourite items in the exhibition.

'The letters were delivered by the postman, whod been persuaded by Tolkien to deliver them with the rest of the post, or arrived on the hearth with specially made stamps from the North Pole, marked with the cost of postage "two kisses".

'They contained news from the North Pole where Father Christmas lived with his helper the North Polar Bear, who often got into trouble and caused twice as much work for Father Christmas.

'As the Tolkien children grew older, the letters from Father Christmas grew longer and the tales became darker and more thrilling.'

In one letter from 1932 goblins make an appearance, living in the caves underneath the North Pole and stealing the children's presents from Father Christmas cellars.

Some of the Father Christmas letters were written when Tolkien was engaged in writing one of his most famous works, The Hobbit.

In one letter from 1932 goblins make an appearance, living in the caves underneath the North Pole and stealing the children's presents from Father Christmas cellars. Some of the Father Christmas letters were written when Tolkien was engaged in writing one of his most famous works, The Hobbit

The legendary beasts in that story began to spill over into Father Christmass letters.

Elves, called Red Gnomes, appear, coming to Father Christmass aid in his battles with the goblins.

The Father Christmas letters will be on display alongside the largest array of original Tolkien materials from the UK and the USA to go on show since the 1950s.

The exhibition will examine the scholarly, literary, creative and domestic worlds that influenced Tolkien as an author and artist.

Tolkien may be best known today as the author of The Lord of the Rings but during his lifetime he was chiefly known as a scholar of Old and Middle English.

Tolkien, Maker of Middle-earth, can be seen at the Bodleian library, Oxford, from June 1 to October 28, 2018.

The Father Christmas letters will be on display alongside the largest array of original Tolkien materials from the UK and the USA to go on show since the 1950s. The exhibition will examine the scholarly, literary, creative and domestic worlds that influenced Tolkien as an author and artist. Pictured: The letter about goblins from 1932
Hundreds took to the streets of Malmo in southern Sweden to protest after three teenage girls were brutally gang raped - and police told women to stay indoors.

The most recent incident involved a 17-year-old girl who was raped by an unknown number of assailants in a children's playground in the early hours of Saturday.

The following day, Malmo police issued a warning to local women not to go outside alone at night, and to walk in pairs or use taxis.

Anger: Hundreds marched through Malmo in southern Sweden on Tuesday to protest against the police response to three violent gang rapes of teenage girls

The first rape took place on November 4, and saw a young woman raped by several assailants after a party in Segevang, north Malmo.

Just over a week later, a woman was attacked and raped by a number of men at a bus stop in Sodervarn, central Malmo.

Saturday's rape took place just a few streets away in Sofielund, and saw the 17-year-old attacked by a group of men in a playground.

'This is a horrible, particularly severe crime with exceedingly brutal violence,' Andy Roberts, head of area police in North Malmo told Helsinborg's Dagblad.

He would not give the newspaper details of the violence the victim was subjected to, but added: 'There are limits, even for me, as an old experienced police officer.'

Fighting back: Protesters demanded that the government take action against rapists and that police do more to protect women in Sweden

Anger: A protester holds up a placard during the demonstration in central Malmo yesterday

Wave: Three young women have been gang raped in Malmo in less than three weeks by 'young men unknown to them'

A local newspaper reports that the victims in all three cases were teenagers.

Police say that while there is no obvious connection between the rapes, it cannot be ruled out as investigations are still ongoing.

All three incidents took place between midnight and 3am and assailants were all young men unknown to the victims, Sydsvenskan reports.

Yesterday's protest, filmed by a participant, saw demonstrators demand police protection, tougher punishment and that the government step in and push through proposed legislation on consent.

Bearing placards with messages such as 'no rapists on our streets' and 'Stefan Lofven, take your responsibility', directed at the country's Prime Minister, hundreds of protesters gathered in Malmo on Tuesday evening.

'I never thought I would be scared to walk around in my hometown,' one of the speakers Sara Wettergren said according to Kvallsposten.

Upset: A local newspaper reports that the victims in all three cases were teenagers

Referring to the famous gang rape of a young student in Delhi in 2012, she added; 'In India the perpetrators were convicted. In Sweden they walk free.'

In the wake of the #MeToo debate and the recent gang rapes, the issue of sexual violence against women is going to be a key issue ahead of next year's general election in Sweden.

The protesters in Malmo outlined a series of demands on the Swedish government: tougher punishment for rapes, a Minster of Justice with competence in sexual violence issues and a National Police Commissioner 'who cares about women'.

The demonstrators were also protesting police advice that women stay indoors, which was issued on Sunday.

'It's about common sense. We are not warning people not to be outside, but to think twice and maybe not walk alone late at night and instead go with others or take a taxi,' said Anders Nilsson of Malmo police who is leading the preliminary investigation.

After a national backlash, Malmo police retracted their statement come Monday, with Mr Nilsson saying he had been 'clumsy' choosing his words. .
A national nonprofit organization has paid off around $2,000 in layaway balances for 12 military families at a Fort Bragg retailer in North Carolina.

The families were called to the South Post Exchange under the guise of a customer appreciation exchange Tuesday to learn the balances for their layaway items had been fully paid.

Volunteers pushed wrapped shopping carts around clothing racks to give them to the families.

Scroll down for video

A national nonprofit organization has paid off around $2,000 in layaway balances for twelve military families at a Fort Bragg retailer in North Carolina

'Merry Christmas!' they yelled as they surprised the families.

The funds were donated by New York-based Pay Away the Layaway, which plans to pay off $10,000 in layaway balances for military families nationwide.

Exchange general manager Bill Shofner says the families were selected based on the balance and items, with a focus on families that had put clothing and toys on layaway.

Sandra Oliver, top left, and her grandchildren, Brock and Arielle Shuler, listen as employees announce that their laways were paid off by Pay Away the Layaway

South Post Exchange employees wheel out carts with paid for layaway items

Each year for Christmas hundreds of families put items on layaway.

The organization was founded in 2011 after Lee Karchawer was inspired by someone who anonymously donated $25,000 to pay off layaway balances at a department store.

Mother Sandra Oliver couldn't believe that her balance had been paid. She had planned to pay the final $250 this week.

'It's a blessing,' she said to The Fayetteville Observer.

'Our core value is families serving families,' Shoffner said. 'I'm glad we were able to touch some families' lives and give back to military families.'
The sickening moment young girls were attacked by a group of thugs while out Christmas shopping for their parents has been caught on camera.

Sasha, 15, and Jaz Ingall, 13 were with two friends when they were attacked near Pacific Fair shopping centre on the Gold Coast on Thursday.

The shocking footage shows a friend of the two girls being kicked and punched by three others as she struggles to escape. A girl can be heard laughing at the attack off camera.

Sasha and Jaz are the daughters of V8 Supercars racing champion Russell Ingall.

'I've done some pretty dangerous things in a race car over my time I've never been so scared [when] I got a phone call from my daughter who was being attacked by a group of thugs,' Russell Ingall told A Current Affair.

Sasha, 15, and Jaz Ingall, 13 were with two friends when they were attacked near Pacific Fair shopping centre on the Gold Coast on Thursday

Sasha and Jaz are the daughters of V8 Supercars racing champion Russell Ingall

The girls have said they'll never catch public transport again.

Ingall said being told about the attack by one of his daughters was 'the most harrowing call I've ever got in my life'.

'The girls were absolutely traumatised,' he said.

He said more needs to be done to stop similar attacks happening again, and he still feared for his daughters' safety.

Video of the attack was uploaded to an Instagram page that shares fight videos, according to the Gold Coast Bulletin.

Ingall said being told about the attack by one of his daughters was 'the most harrowing call I've ever got in my life'

Gold Coast Acting Chief Superintendent Craig Hanlon said operations were being prepared to keep passengers safe on the tram line.

Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate played down concerns of violence on public transport in the city.

Police are investigating the incident.
A woman claims she has been charged $350 for leaving a negative review of a hotel in Indiana.

Katrina Arthur, from Greene County, Indiana, booked a stay for herself and her husband at the Abbey Inn at Brown County.

She says that the experience was not a pleasant one. 'The room was unkempt, and it looked like it hadn't been cleaned since the last people stayed there. We checked the sheets and I found hairs and dirt,' reports Fox News.

'There's nothing wrong with being truthful.'

'I was honest': Katrina Arthur wrote a negative review about her stay at the Abbey Inn, but says she was slammed with a $350 charge for what she wrote

The Abbey Inn, Brown County, Indiana. The hotel is now facing a lawsuit of its own, from the Attorney General's office, who allege it has violated Indiana's Deceptive Consumer Sales Act

She added that there was a smell of sewage in the room, poor water pressure and the air conditioning did not work.

After Katrina struggled to find a member of staff to clean the room and report her complaints to, she decided to scrub the room herself.

When the Abbey Inn asked Katrina to give them an online review, she she wrote her account of the stay.



'I was honest. I wanted people to know not to waste their money because I know people save their money for special occasions,' she told RTV6.

Smell of sewage: Katrina, from Green County, Indiana, says the room did not seem to have been cleaned since the last guest's stay

After searching for a member of staff to report the unfit state of the room to, Katrina says she decided to scrub the room herself

Shockingly, Katrina found an additional $350 had been charged to her card after the posted the review online.

Katrina was also contacted by a lawyer, who warned that there could be legal proceedings - so she chose to delete her review.

However, the ordeal drove her to contact the Attorney General's office, and the hotel is now facing a lawsuit of its own.

The Abbey Inn has been accused of breaching Indiana's Deceptive Consumer Sales Act.

The state alleges that the police, which is claimed to have been in place between September 2015 and November 2016, is 'unfair, abusive and deceptive.'

The lawsuit against the hotel says the policy on negative reviews is 'unfair, abusive and deceptive'

Legal action: Katrina says that she was contacted by an attorney after leaving the negative review against the hotel

It alleges that the policy read: 'Guests agree that if guests find any problems with our accommodations, and fail to provide us the opportunity to address those problems while the guest is with us, and/or refuses our exclusive remedy, but then disparages us in any public manner, we will be entitled to charge their credit card an additional $350 damage.

'Should the guest refuse to retract any such public statements legal action may be pursued.' reports RTV6.

Katrina says she never received paperwork from the inn.
Connor McNally has been jailed for three years after threatening corner shop staff with a potato peeler

A son who held corner shop staff with a potato peeler in a doomed attempt to steal 180 for a new dog has been jailed for three years.

Connor McNally, 20, from Withington, Manchester, intended to buy his mother Maxine a new dog after she was left heartbroken when her bull terrier-type dog, Kenny, was put to sleep two weeks earlier.

McNally burst into a corner shop wearing a face mask, hooded jumper and gloves and threatened the 'terrified' staff with a potato peeler in October.

After they handed him 180 from the till, the jobless youngster was caught by brave locals who kept him in a nearby butcher's shop until police arrived.

He admitted to committing the robbery and told his captors to kick him as punishment for his actions but they waited for police to arrive.

Inquiries revealed it was the second time in two years the Paradise Mini Market in Rusholme, Manchester had been robbed.

The owner, Marym Hassan, was thankfully uninjured in the latest attack but had been left absolutely terrified'.

The court heard that Miss Hassan was still recovering from an earlier raid by a different attacker in 2015 when she terrorised at gunpoint.

McNally (left) wanted to buy his mother Maxine (right) a new dog for Christmas after her old dog was put down two weeks earlier

The owner was thankfully uninjured in the latest attack but was left 'absolutely terrified.'

At Manchester Crown Court McNally, from the city's Withington district admitted robbery.

McNally said that when he failed to get a job with the online retailer Amazon to buy her a new dog in the run up to the festive season he decided to carry out the robbery.

In statements on Facebook in the days before he was locked up McNally said, 'Made a stupid mistake.

Kenny (pictured) the bull terrier-type was given to McNally's mother for 'comfort' after her husband was murdered in January 2010

'I'm not a bad person I just wasn't thinking right.

'I'm gonna prove to my family and friends that I'm gonna be someone one day not gonna be bum the rest of my life.

'Thinking of you mum love you loads will be okay. See you in a couple of years.'

After Kenny was put down, McNally failed to get a job with online retailer Amazon to pay for a new puppy so decided to commit the the robbery to get the funds

His mum has been left devastated at the death of Kenny, who she had got as a source of 'comfort' after her husband, McNally's stepfather, Christopher Lynch, 36, was killed after being stabbed four times in January 2010.

McNally would have been 12-years-old when his stepfather was murdered in their home during a party.

Christopher Lynch was stabbed in the heart and lungs during a petty row about name calling following a party.

Kevin Flynn, 34, of Altrincham, was later found guilty of Christopher's murder and jailed for life with a minimum term of 13 years.

McNally said in a post on Facebook, 'Made a stupid mistake. I'm not a bad person I just wasn't thinking right. Thinking of you mum love you loads will be okay. See you in a couple of years.'

McNally's lawyer Toby Wilbraham told the hearing, 'Mr McNally's actions were completely unjustified but the background to this case is quite tragic.

'Prior to this offence he lived at home with his mother who has a long standing history of depression because of the murder of her husband.

'He witnessed the lead up to this attack which was very disturbing for him and his mother.

'The two moved addresses and the family bought his mother a dog which was of some comfort to her.

Christopher Lynch (pictured), McNally's stepfather was stabbed in the heart and lungs in January 2010 after a petty row following a name calling at a party. McNally would have been 12 when Mr Lynch was murdered

'But two weeks prior to this offence, the dog passed away. This was perhaps more significant to this family because of the background and she lapsed back into depression.

'Mr McNally was upset by the effect this was having on his mother. He wasn't working at the time and had tried to gain employment with Amazon but he did not get that job.

'He was discussing the situation with a friend of his and it seems that this was suggested and they committed this offence to get money for him to pay for a dog for his mother.

'The fact that a potato peeler was used sums it up - this would be slightly farcical if it wasn't so serious.

'He is clearly a naive young man and he is genuinely remorseful. It clearly must have been a disturbing incident to watch someone be murdered in your own home.'

Passing sentence Judge Michael Leeming told McNally, 'You took it upon yourself to raise cash to buy your mother a new dog and rob this shop.

'But you did not give this a great deal of thought and foolishly and stupidly you decided to commit this offence.

'You had faced a disturbing incident as a child but you should think of the impact you had on your victim when you threatened her.

'It would have been much like the impact that murder had on your mother.'
An air passenger who claimed she was possessed by 'evil spirits' caused an Air China plane to turn around today.

The woman, in her 50s, had reportedly passed out shortly after the plane took off from Beijing.

The captain decided to return to the departing airport so the crew could arrange medical assistance for the passenger.

However after the passenger came to, she told flight attendants 'there are things possessing my body' and caused a scene on the plane, according to reports.

An air passenger in China claimed she was possessed by demon on a flight today. The plane was forced to turn around so the middle-aged woman could seek medical assistance

Footage filmed by another air passenger shows about six people, including medical staff, trying to calm the woman. They suggested her see a doctor.

The incident reportedly took place on Air China's flight no. CA 4102, scheduled to fly from Beijing Capital International Airport to Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport in Sichuan, southwest China on December 20.

One on-board passenger noticed the woman fainted around 20 minutes into the two-hour flight and alerted the cabin crew.

The woman woke up shortly afterwards, and appeared to be emotionally unstable.

'No! Don't touch me! Don't pull me!' She shouted as cabin crew tried to brought her under control.

The passenger appeared to be emotionally unstable as flight crew tried to calm her down

She refused to take any health checks and scratched one of the air security officers

A flight track record shows Air China's CA 4102 flying back to Beijing shortly after take off

Mr Gao, another passenger on the plane, told Pear Video that the flight attendants that the woman fainted after the plane took off.

The flight attendants tried to wake her up, but she didn't have any response.

'Her pulse was also very weak, so they gave her an oxygen mask. Then she woke up shortly,' Mr Gao said.

The flight's captain decided to fly the plane back to Beijing, their port of departure, so the ill passenger could seek medical assistance..

However, the woman refused to see the doctor, according to The Paper. She also requested to see the captain.

'I have to be in Chengdu. There are things possessing my body and you cannot find it by health checks,' she yelled.

According to The Paper, the passenger refused to cooperate and attacked one air security officer after the plane landed.

A customer service officer from Air China told the reporter that the flight returned to the Beijing airport at 12:27pm, about 40 minutes after the take off.

The customer service officer didn't comment on the passenger's claim of being possessed by demon. The officer said the passenger 'experienced sudden illness'.

The incident caused a five-hour delay to the flight. It took off again at around 3:30pm and arrived in Chengdu at 6pm.
Women who tried to sue an airline when a mid-air brawl erupted over a boom box have lost their lawsuit after their credibility was called into question.

Three passengers who claimed they were assaulted when a brawl erupted over a boom box speaker on a Spirit Airlines flight last March tried to blame the airline for continuing to serve alcohol to rowdy passengers and failing to defuse the fracas.

A jury in Los Angeles sat for 12 days for the trial, which ended badly for the women - Lisa Zampella, Tykisha Diodato and Danielle Fonda-Thomas - whose versions of events were picked apart by Spirit's lawyers.

Video footage of the fight went viral, showing the women slapping and pulling hair in the cabin.

The brawl that erupted on the Spirit Airlines flight from Baltimore to Los Angeles over the playing of loud music

Passengers Lisa Zampella, Tykisha Diodato and Danielle Fonda-Thomas with their lawyer Gloria Allred, who say they are to sue Spirit Airlines

Richard Lazenby, the airline's lawyer, told the New York Daily News: 'The credibility of plaintiffs' account of the events was repeatedly challenged through the testimony of numerous witnesses, including plaintiffs, the flight attendants, and other passengers.

'The court applied California law, which prohibits liability based solely on serving alcohol.

'Plaintiffs needed to prove that their version of their attackers' behavior in conjunction with the flight attendants' failure to monitor or curb such behavior rendered an attack foreseeable, which the jury rejected by their verdict.'

The fight erupted on Flight 141 from Baltimore to LA, after reports two drunk women had been playing loud music out of the speaker during the trip.

Several passengers asked the pair to turn the music down, but instead they put the boom box in the air and started waving it around.

A group of women then approached the two when the plane pulled up at the gate, starting an all-out brawl, which was captured on video.

Three passengers who were caught up in the brawl immediately said they were to sue Spirit Airlines claiming they failed to protect them from injury and continued to serve alcohol despite the aggressive atmosphere.

Passenger and plaintiff Tykisha Diodato told the New York Daily News at the time: 'I am upset that the Spirit Airlines failed to protect us, disregarded our safety, and instead continued to serve the women in front of us alcoholic beverages even though they were clearly intoxicated and behaving aggressively.'

Ms Diodato added that she and fellow plaintiffs Lisa Zampella and Danielle Fonda-Thomas were flying from Baltimore to Los Angeles for a long-awaited vacation.

Several passengers asked the pair of females to turn the music down, but instead they put the boom box in the air and started waving it around

But they claimed three other passengers began drinking alcohol and playing loud music from a bluetooth speaker.

They said that after they were asked to stop swearing and keep the noise down, one of the women attacked Ms Fonda Thomas, with the other two women also suffering injuries when they jumped to her defense.

Their lawyer Gloria Allred said: 'It was not a mutual combat situation as some have described in prior reports.'

However, a spokesman for Spirit Airlines denied the claims saying the flight attendants were in their jump seats as required by law and it is their policy not to over-serve alcohol.

The brawl on the flight. Now three women who claimed they were injured during the fight are suing Spirit Airlines

The women claim that Spirit Airlines did not do enough to protect them and that the carrier were serving too much alcohol

After the incident footage of the brawl emerged online and the female passengers appear to be throwing punches, pulling at each other's hair and screaming as other passengers look on.

Some passengers move out of the way of the scuffle, while many others can be seen filming it on their cellphones.

The crew notified LAX police and officers were waiting for the women when the flight landed.

Speaking at the time, LAX Police spokesman Rob Pedregon described the incident to The Washington Post as a 'mutual combat situation'.

A spokesman for Spirit Airlines denied the claims saying the flight attendants were in their jump seats as required by law and it is their policy not to over-serve alcohol

'It's just one of those things,' Pedregon said.

'People in the air, stuck in a small confined space for a number of hours.

'It isn't uncommon. People lose their tempers and just refuse to get along.'
Abdul Sattar, 49, pictured, has been jailed for life after masterminding a plot to kill his wife Mumtaz in Pakistan

A shopkeeper has been jailed for life after masterminding an elaborate plot to kill his wife.

Abdul Sattar, 49, travelled from Scotland to Pakistan in 2013 for a holiday with his spouse Mumtaz.

But, within hours of arriving, the 38-year-old had been killed and dumped at the roadside.

Sattar claimed they had both been given drug-laced tea during the taxi ride from the airport before being attacked and robbed by the driver.

But his 'wildly concocted' story quickly unravelled and he and three other men were charged with murder.

Now, two years after charges were brought, Sattar  who owned a newsagents in Port Glasgow, Renfrewshire  and his accomplices have been jailed for life.

They were found guilty at the High Court in Lahore, Pakistan, of doping, robbing and murdering Mrs Sattar.

The couple were married for 14 years and had two daughters, but their marriage is said to have been marred by 'sustained domestic violence'.

On Saturday, the court also fined the men around 5,000 each and ordered that the imprisonment should be accompanied by hard labour.

A statement issued on behalf of Mrs Sattar's family by their lawyer, Glasgow-based Aamer Anwar, said: 'Mumtaz Sattar's family have struggled long and hard for justice following her murder in September 2013.

'This was a coldly calculated and evil murder perpetrated by Abdul Sattar and three other men. The sole motive appears to have been his greed for money and wish to remarry.

'He took her to Pakistan with a plan hatched to murder her within hours of their arrival. He hoped by burying her within 12 hours and a wildly concocted story he would cover his tracks and escape to the UK.'

Sattar, left, a shopkeeper in Scotland, went on holiday to Pakistan with his wife in 2013, but she was found dead at the roadside hours after they arrived

The father-of-two, pictured in chains in Lahore, claimed the couple were drugged and robbed with his wife killed, but the High Court in Pakistan found him and three accomplices guilty

Sattar had claimed the taxi driver who picked them up at Lahore airport had taken the back roads through 'bandit country' instead of the secure motorway.

He said that after a couple of hours, the man stopped near Sattar's home town of Shahkot to get the couple tea.

After drinking this, Sattar claimed they both lost consciousness and they were thrown from the moving car.

A post-mortem examination found that Mrs Sattar suffered injuries consistent with 'forceful squeezing of the neck  ie throttling'.

Sattar's story quickly came under suspicion when he refused to have his injuries photographed by police at the hospital, saying it could cause 'a problem' if his picture appeared in the media.

He then insisted on having his wife buried within 14 hours. A suspicious family member took photographs of 'scratches' on Sattar's neck at the funeral.

Sattar, left, came under suspicion after he refused to allow his 'injuries' to be pictured while Mrs Sattar, right, was found to have suffered 'throttling'

Mrs Sattar's family said his conviction was the end of a long fight for justice

Mrs Sattar's family in Scotland then contacted Mr Anwar and approaches were made to the Pakistan government, Police Scotland, Punjab police, the First Minister and the Lord Advocate to seek assistance.

Evidence of domestic violence was provided to Police Scotland by family members.

In October 2013, lawyers in Pakistan lodged papers with the High Court in Lahore naming Abdul Sattar as a murder suspect. He was detained and eventually formally charged in 2015.

Mr Anwar's statement added: 'Sattar regularly subjected Mumtaz to beatings and emotional abuse when married to her and tragically she leaves behind two young daughters who will always cherish their mother's love.'

The lawyer added that he had travelled to the Punjab in December 2013 and watched 'the swagger of a smiling killer Abdul Sattar as he was brought to court in chains'.

The statement went on: 'Mumtaz's family believe that she will now be in peace and that they can finally grieve for her loss as they have justice.'
A policeman in China has been hailed as a hero after using his own clothes to keep an abandoned baby warm.

The newborn, a boy, had been left abandoned in a park in Chuxiong, Yunnan, Province, on a freezing winter night.

After finding the infant, policeman Wu Yu immediately took off his uniform and jumper before wrapping them around the baby.

Wu then took the baby to the hospital - despite the fact that he was topless while walking in the cold weather.

The baby was found by passersby in Chuxiong's Futa Park last night, and police were immediately informed, according to local news site Yunnan.cn, citing Yunnan Police.

The temperature was as low as zero degrees Celsius in the city yesterday.

Wu and his colleagues were dispatched to the scene. The boy was said to be lying in the bush crying when the officers arrived.

He was said to be so cold that his lips had turned purple and his body couldn't stop shivering. The report also said the baby had kicked off a piece of clothing wrapped around him.

Policeman Wu Yu took off his uniform and jumper before wrapping them around the baby boy (left). The newborn (right) had been found abandoned in a park in China in cold weather

Upon seeing the scene, Wu took off his uniform and jumper without hesitation before wrapping them around the newborn. He tried to warm up the boy by hugging him in his arms.

A topless Wu then carried the baby to the police car which took the pair to the hospital.

After initial assessment, the police believed that the child had been abandoned by his parents.

The baby is being treated in the hospital as of writing.

The Chuxiong Public Security Bureau is looking for the baby's parents.
Advertisement

This remarkable collection of pictures shows some of the most fascinating people on the planet.

The spectacularly different individuals - including twin girls with Down's syndrome, an 11-year-old boy with one of the rarest forms of dwarfism in the world and a four-year-old motorbike star beating older rivals - were all featured in the series by Barcroft TV.

Among the other truly unique people featured in the collection are Dru Presta, a 3ft 4in model who moved to Los Angeles to break into the fashion industry and Martina Big, a busty German glamour model who shocked her fans with a new tan that turned her skin dark brown.

The stories of extraordinary children were also told - including that of six-year-old Zoe Lush, whose rare condition means her bones could 'break in the wind'.

The 'Hooked on the Look' series, meanwhile, featured 47-year-old Allegra Cole, a proud mother who gave herself 54-inch breasts to achieve what she calls the 'extreme Jessica Rabbit look'.

And the collection also includes the man whose story went around the world when it was revealed earlier in the year - Mexican Roberto Esquivel Cabrera, 54, and his half-metre-long penis.

Among the spectacular individuals pictured this year was Chahat Kumar, who can be seen above playing with a toy at her house in Punjab, India, back in March. The enormous baby - weighing in at a whopping 38lbs - has baffled doctors. The eight-month-old tot was born an ordinary weight but started ballooning in size at the age of four months. Now the bouncing bundle weighs 2.7 stones - about the same as an average four-year-old

Left: Allegra Cole, who enlarged her breasts (they are 54 inches) so much that she struggles to do up her own shoes. Allegra was raised as a strict Mormon but swapped her career as a suburban piano teacher for the glitz of glamour modelling, with her initial operations funded by strangers online. Allegra, 47, styles herself on what she calls the 'extreme Jessica Rabbit look' and openly talks about her 'boob greed' and her desire to go even bigger. She now earns up to $100,000 a year posing for sexy pictures, with her 34MM cups in high demand. Right: Sara Geurts, 26, from Minneapolis is determined to carve out a successful modelling career despite battling with Dermatosparaxis Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) - a genetic condition that causes excessively saggy skin

Economics graduate Courtney Barnes decided to turn her back on her training and make money by flaunting her 59in booty to her avid online followers. Courtney, from Miami, underwent three rounds of illegal 'butt shots' six years ago at one of the thousands of 'pumping parties' that take place across the US. The end product was much bigger than she expected - but now the 32-year-old camgirl and model is using her super-sized rear to her financial benefit

German glamour model Martina Big has shocked her fans with a new 'extreme tan' that has turned her once-fair skin to 'dark crispy brown' after just three tanning injections. The model - who claims her size 32S breasts are the biggest in Europe - has had tanning injections to turn her skin a deep shade of mahogany. But she has no plans of curbing her tanning addiction. Martina said she wants even more of the melanin-increasing shots and admits that she is still using a 50-tube sunbed in her home in Trier

This family in the Indian city of Hyderabad always stands out in a crowd - because nine of the 11 members have dwarfism. Fifty-two-year-old Ram Raj Chauhan is the head of the family. Each member is affected by a genetic condition called Achondroplasia, which causes short-limbed dwarfism. Incredibly, Ram Raj's family once consisted of 21 people - 18 of whom had the condition

Roberto Esquivel Cabrera, 54, from Saltillo in Mexico, has a penis measuring a colossal 18.9 inches. He made headlines worldwide in 2015 after a video went viral showing him weighing his colossal member to prove its authenticity. His half-metre penis smashed the record previously believed to have belonged to American actor Jonah Falcon, whose penis was 9.5 inches flaccid, and 13.5 inches when erect

Standing at 3ft 4in tall, Dru Presta hopes the world will agree with her that sexy has no height restrictions. Two years ago, Dru moved from her smalltown life, to shiny Los Angeles so she could pursue her dream of breaking the fashion industry. While studying for a degree in fashion marketing, she has also been breaking barriers with her modelling career. The 21-year-old oozes confidence and sass, but it has taken her a long time to get there. Born with achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism, she was made to feel an outcast in her hometown of Reno, Nevada and says she was bullied for 15 years because of her size

Lindsay Hilton is a CrossFit specialist and a full-contact rugby player - she also happens to have been born without limbs. The 31-year-old, from Halifax in Nova Scotia, has never let a lack of arms and legs hold her back from achieving her sporting dreams. As a child she learnt to ski, swim and play rugby. But a few years ago Lindsay started training at her local gym, discovered CrossFit and set her heart on a new sport to test her limits with

Deb Roach was born with one arm but has defied the odds to become a two-time pole dancing world champion. The Australian decided to take up the sport after being inspired by two dancers she saw performing in a club. Deb took to it so well that she now teaches the skill and has won two international championships

Jamie Lopez opened a salon for plus-sized women after a chair collapsed underneath her weight while she was getting her hair cut. She was inspired to open the Babydoll Beauty Couture in Las Vegas following her humiliating experience. The 31-year-old's salon features styling chairs that hold weights of up to 800 pounds and provides a welcoming environment for pampering plus-sized women

Levi Krystosek, 11, has a rare form of dwarfism called Jansen metaphysical chondrodysplasia, which affects the growth of bones and causes considerable pain, meaning he is only 38 inches tall. There are only about 30 known cases of JMC in the world, and five genetically confirmed cases in the US

This beauty queen has had cutting-edge surgery to allow her to use her ankle as her knee after having part of her leg amputated. Jillian Williams, 20, from Odem in Texas, was a contestant in the glamorous world of Miss Teen USA beauty pageants and a talented college volleyball player. But her world came crashing down in February last year when she was diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma - a rare type of bone cancer. To minimise the possibility of relapse, she opted for a 'rotationplasty', a procedure which required surgeons to remove the middle portion of her leg. The foot, ankle and shin were then rotated 180 degrees and reattached to her upper leg to act as her knee joint - which slips into a prosthetic lower leg. Jillian is now hopeful for the future and dreams of being the first amputee Miss Texas and representing the American national team in Paralympic volleyball

Left: Former basketball Olympic medalist Ekaterina Lisina has a new target in her sights - being named the world's tallest model. Standing at 6ft 9in in bare feet, Ekaterina, from Penza in Russia, has already been named the tallest woman in Russia. After retiring from basketball, the leggy beauty launched a career in modeling and now believes she is the world's tallest model. Right: At the age of 17, Isaiah Griffin, now 23, from Wichita in Kansas, noticed his first keloid on his leg - a benign growth caused when the body over heals itself. The condition gave Isaiah extremely low self-esteem, to the point where he couldn't bear to look at his own reflection in the mirror, but bodybuilding helped him regain his confidence. He won third place in his very first competition and has his sights set on becoming a bodybuilding champion

Pixee Fox and Rodrigo Alves recently joined forces to spend over 20,000 of cosmetic procedures each in a five-day body blitz. The pals met up in Istanbul, Turkey, where real-life Barbie doll Pixee was enjoying an extended stay. Her matching Ken doll, Rodrigo, flew out to join her for a self-styled beauty MOT at the Zorlu and Estetik International clinics headed up by the highly-regarded Dr Bulent Cihentimur

Professional dancer Thaina Silva, from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, may not fit the stereotypically slim, long-legged stature of a ballerina, but that hasn't stopped her from wowing crowds with her elegance and showing that anyone can dance, whatever their size. The size 18 student says she learnt to dance before she could walk and has dreamt of becoming a professional ballet dancer since she was a young girl

Chandler King spends 30 hours a week practising and studying the sport she loves at the World Championship Centre in Texas. Chandler, who specialises in the bars event, was undefeated last year and nearly achieved the perfect 10 score in a recent competition. Currently on level nine of a possible 10, Chandler is on the invite list for the United States National Development Team and is already making significant progress towards the USA Olympic squad

When Cristina and Benno exchanged wedding vows, they never expected another woman would end their marriage. But 12 years later, the parents of three are getting divorced - so that their girlfriend won't get jealous. Now either Cristina or Benno Kaiser will marry their 21-year-old lover, Sierra Kuntz, so that all three will have legal rights to their children

Born and raised in the world of motocross, Jaydin Smart is already outstripping older competitors and his parents believe he is on his way to a sparkling professional career. Jaydin's parents - Jocelyn and Patrick Smart - are also motocross-lovers and the family live on a stretch of land in California, which has its very own race tracks

Identical Abigail and Isobel, 5, are not only impossible to tell apart - they're also one in a million twins. Because while the chances of giving birth in the UK to a baby with Down's syndrome is approximately one in 1,000, the odds of giving birth to identical twins with the condition is one in a million. Mum and dad Jodi and Matt Parry couldn't be prouder of their daughters and say even if their adorable girls could be born again without Down's syndrome, they wouldn't wish for Abigail and Isobel to be any different

Katie Meade is the first to admit that people with Down's syndrome are largely absent from the beauty and fashion industries - and she's determined to change it. The 33-year-old made history last year when she became the first-ever model with Down's syndrome to be the face of a beauty brand and her career - both as a model and as an ambassador for people with learning disabilities - continues to grow
Anti-Semitic attacks and protests have been taking place across Sweden since Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, but Jews in the Scandinavian country say they have been under attack for years.

Last week saw an arson attack on a synagogue in Gothenburg and an attempted arson attack at a Jewish cemetery in Malmo, Sweden's second and third-largest cities respectively.

Demonstrations involving hundreds of people in Malmo and the capital Stockholm saw protesters shouting anti-Semitic slurs and threatening terror attacks on Israel.

Two days after the United States recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital, around 200 people attended a demonstration in Malmo at which some participants chanted anti-Jewish slogans.

Participants shouted: 'We have declared an intifada from Malmo. We want our freedom back and we will shoot the Jews'.

A demonstration in the capital Stockholm this week saw hundreds carrying Palestine and Turkish flags chanting 'we march on Jerusalem, millions of martyrs' and 'Oh Jews, the Army of Muhammad will return.'

The crowd gathered for a speech in Arabic, during which the speaker branded the Jewish people 'the descendants of cows and pigs', after which participants burned the Israeli flag with the Star of David.

Anger: This anti-Israel protest in Stockholm which saw demonstrators shout anti-Semitic slurs this week is the latest incident involving hatred or attacks against Jews in Sweden

Vile: The demonstration saw protesters carrying Palestine and Turkish flags chanting 'Oh Jews, the Army of Muhammad will return'

In recent weeks, Jews in Sweden have spoken to local media of being subjected to hate speech, attacks and insults against them - and say that it did not start on December 6.

The Jewish congregation in Malmo only has 450 members, but as of last year, they have a person employed full-time to deal with security issues.

Svante Lundgren, senior fellow in Jewish Studies at Lund University links antisemitism in Malmo to the rising numbers of immigrants from the Middle-East.

'There is strong antisemitism in many countries in the Middle-East and as a result there are people who are brought up with it, not just hatred of Israel but of all Jews,' he told Kvallsposten.

'There is a lot of research in this field and what you see is that some people from the Middle-East bring strong anti-semitic views form their home country.

Slurs: A speaker branded the Jewish people 'the descendants of cows and pigs', after which participants burned the Israeli flag with the Star of David

He adds that this is not true of all people with this background, and says that there are serious issues with anti-Muslim views in Malmo as well.

'There's a big proportion of people who are foreign and in many areas there are social issues. When there are people who does not get integrated into society it can be easier for them to turn it into hatred against a single group.'

'This has been going on for many years, often it's verbal abuse: people shouting abusive words and swearing both in Arabic and Swedish,' the rabbi in Malmo, Shneur Kesselman, told Kvallsposten.

'They honk their horns and give the finger and I have been a victim physically with people throwing things from passing cars in the street.'

Speaking anonymously for fear of reprisals, a female teacher reveals that anti-semitic attacks and hatred against Jews have forced her to keep her religion a secret.

Attack: Emergency services at the synagogue in central Gothenburg, which came under attack from molotov cocktails last week

'I have heard pupils shouting about killing Jews in the corridors. The antisemitism is there constantly,' she told Dagens Nyheter.

'There is such a hateful mood among the students. Hate against Israel and hate against Jews. I am scared, as simple as that.'

Others living in the major cities in Sweden speak of being too scared to wear the Star of David around their neck or being subjected to verbal abuse because of their Jewish faith in schools, the workplace or in public.

The recent incidents have been condemned by Swedish prime minister Stefan Lofven and other top politicians, and authorities increased security around the synagogue and at Jewish centres in Stockholm and Malmo.

The European Jewish Congress said it was 'unconscionable that Jews are under attack on the streets of Europe' and urged Swedish and other European governments to take 'strong punitive action' against perpetrators.

Mr Lofven said: 'I'm terribly upset over the attack on a synagogue in Gothenburg yesterday and calls for violence against Jews at a demonstration in Malmo.'

'There is no place for anti-Semitism in our Swedish society. The perpetrators will be held accountable.'

He urged 'all democratic forces' in Sweden to work together to create 'a tolerant and open society where everyone feels safe'.
Theresa May vowed to protect Gibraltar today after Spain dragged the Rock into a Brexit row.

The Prime Minister said Gibraltar would be covered by the transition agreement and Brexit deal in defiance of Spanish demands.

Spain has warned it could veto including the territory without a special arrangement.

In a re-opening of an incendiary row that has the potential to explode the entire negotiation, Madrid has insisted it wants concessions.

Excluding Gibraltar from the transition deal could close the border and cause chaos for the thousands of people who cross it every day.

Spain and the UK have wrestled over the Rock for decades. A British territory since 1713 and home to a vital Royal Navy base, Spain has long demanded its return.

Theresa May (pictured today at PMQs) vowed to protect Gibraltar today after Spain dragged the Rock into a Brexit row

Spain has warned Britain it will veto Gibraltar (pictured) being included in the Brexit transition deal without a special arrangement

At PMQs today, Mrs May said: 'We and the EU have been clear that Gibraltar is covered by the withdrawal agreement and the Article 50 negotiations.

'We're not going to exclude Gibraltar from our negotiations for either the implementation period or the future agreement.'

Gibraltar's deputy chief minister Joseph Garcia said: 'Spain has absolutely nothing to gain by this. Current and future Spanish workers have nothing to gain by this and the uncertainty created by their government as a result.

'Indeed, the European Union itself have nothing to gain by this. All that they have done is slap in the face a small community that voted by 96% to remain in the European Union.'

A Spanish government source triggered the new row in comments to the Guardian.

They said: 'I think the situation with Gibraltar is crystal clear.

'This is what we are telling the Gibraltarians. If you want to have your existing status, you will have to talk with us.'

In Brussels last week, Spain's PM Mario Rajoy said: 'Whatever future agreement between the EU and the UK, there has to be an agreement between Spain and the UK for that to apply to Gibraltar.

'We also asked that this applies to the transition period.'

Britain's position throughout the negotiation has always been Gibraltar is part of the UK and must be covered by any Brexit deal.

Gibraltar's chief minister Fabian Picardo (pictured in Downing Street in August) has been strongly supported by London against Spanish claims on his territory

There was a major row in May when the first Article 50 negotiating guidelines from handed Spain a veto over the talks in relation to Gibraltar.

It prompted an extraordinary from former Tory leader Michael Howard that Theresa May could go to war to protect the Rock.

Government sources told the Guardian today that any attempt to exclude Gibraltar would be a 'total contradiction' of the EU position.

They said: 'The April guidelines made clear that the article 50 negotiations applied to our overseas territories, and that transition is part of that process.

'They are also explicit a transition period should use current terms, structures and the acquis [common rights and obligations that binds EU states]  consistency and clarity must flow both ways.'
Suleyman Kilincarslan (pictured leaving Manchester Magistrates' Court) was given a three month jail sentence suspended for a year after bullets were found in his coat pocket

A grandfather triggered a security alert when he was caught with ten bullets in his coat pocket.

Suleyman Kilincarslan was due to board a flight back to his native Istanbul from Manchester Airport on October 15 after attending his granddaughter's wedding in Stoke-On-Trent.

But security staff stopped the 69-year-old retired chef when they discovered the ammunition in his clothing.

Test showed the 7.65 Browning calibre rounds were in working order, with one having markings consistent with having been loaded into a pistol.

At Manchester Magistrates' Court the father-of-three was given a three month jail sentence suspended for a year after he argued it was tradition in his home country for revellers to fire bullets in the air at christenings and weddings.

He said the ammunition may have been left in his pocket following one such celebration, although no guns were fired at his granddaughter's wedding.

Mr Kilincarslan, who lived in the UK for some 24 years before retiring back to his native Istanbul, had faced up to five years in jail over the seizure.

The court heard he was stopped last October some three weeks after he arrived back in the UK with his wife of to attend the family wedding.

Prosecutor Carl Miles told the court a security guard at the airport searched Mr Kilincarslan after he triggered alarms on the x-ray machine.

He added: 'He searched the clothing and found a cluster of bullets. The defendant was asked what was in the jacket and replied 'coins, some coins'.

'But ten bullets were found in the outside pocket of the coat. He shook his head and said 'no, no' when they showed them to him at which point the police were contacted. The bullets were sent for forensic analysis.'

Tests showed the bullets were capable of being used, though no firearm was found.

Mr Kilincarslan told officers he had no idea the bullets were in his coat pocket and would have 'thrown them away' had he realised.

Mr Kilincarslan was due to board a flight back to his native Istanbul from Manchester Airport on October 15 after attending his granddaughter's wedding in Stoke-On-Trent

He was detained in the UK ahead of his appearance at court this week.

Mr Kilincarslan's defence lawyer Paolo Passerini said: 'He is a man aged almost 70 and the biggest loss for him today is the loss of his good name.

'The defendant doesn't possess a firearm himself but at celebrations [in Turkey] people have given him ammunition to put in his pocket and hold for them whilst they go and fire hand guns into the air.

'That's how these bullets came to his possession. It's not an offence in Turkey and they have probably been there for some time.

'He was totally unaware of the items, he's not tried to smuggle bullets in or out, he's had them quite legitimately in his possession in Turkey - and he simply forgot about them.

'His lack of knowledge is irrelevant, it may seem harsh but that's the reality, it shows how tight we are in this country on security. This was not an intentional offence.

'Both he and his wife have had their passports taken and been in the country for an elderly gentleman suffering from anxiety he wants to know what's happening.

'He has had four heart operations and just wants to go home.'

Mr Kilincarslan was detained in the UK ahead of his appearance at court this week, where he was given a suspended sentence and ordered to pay 200 in costs

An employee from the probation service said Mr Kilincarslan has several ailments which require him to take medication, leading to memory lapses.

The spokesman said police had his boarding pass and passport ready so he could return to Turkey.

Mr Kilincarslan was also ordered to pay 200 in costs.

Magistrate Michelle Haffner told him: 'We have listened to your solicitor and we have taken everything into account. For the next 12 months - and the future really - no more crimes.'
While many of us shy away from creepy crawlies, one 22-year-old Sydney woman has bravely captured a huge funnel web spider on camera.

The terrifying footage shows a fierce looking arachnid with little bugs crawling over its body, just metres away from one of Nicole Wedlock's bedrooms.

Placing a Tupperware container over the funnel web spider, Ms Wedlock told Daily Mail Australia she shared the video of the spider to a Facebook group to see if anyone knew what the little bugs were.

While many of us shy away from creepy crawlies, Nicole Wedlock has bravely captured a huge funnel web spider up close (pictured) on camera

The Sydney woman found the terrifying funnel web spider metres from a bedroom (pictured)

Ms Wedlock told Daily Mail Australia she had never seen a spider with little bugs crawling over it before (pictured) so shared the video online to see what people thought they were

Ms Wedlock got right up close to the venomous spider (pictured), but says she wasn't scared

SYMPTOMS OF A FUNNEL-WEB BITE - When the funnel web bites it often clings on and bites repeatedly until it is brushed off. -Symptoms occur between 10 and 30 minutes after the bite. These include: Possible death within 2 hours - in one case a small child was dead within 15 minutes Copious secretion of saliva Sharp pain at bite site Muscular twitching Nausea/ vomiting Hairs stand on end Mouth numbness Fast pulse Disorientation Confusion Increased blood pressure Advertisement

'When I was filming it I was concerned that it might climb out of the Tupperware container and either run away or climb over me,' she said.

'I also had to make sure I stayed as quiet as possible so my dog wouldn't come and investigate it.'

The Sydney Wildlife volunteer said she believed it came into the house with some foliage she brought in for the orphaned possums she is caring for.

'When I first saw it from a distance I thought it was a huntsman due to its large size,' Ms Wedlock told Daily Mail Australia.

'I realised it was actually a funnel web and when it raised up into its defensive pose.'

No stranger to the deadly spider, Ms Wedlock said she had found a few in her house before, but never one as large or with bugs, which are thought to be mites, on it.

At about seven centimetres long, the 22-year-old said she wasn't scared but had a rush of adrenaline.

'When I was filming it I was concerned that it might climb out of the Tupperware container and either run away or climb over me,' she said

No stranger to the deadly spider, Ms Wedlock said she had found a few in her house before, but never one as large or with bugs, which are thought to be mites (pictured), on it

While many people took to Facebook saying they couldn't even watch the video, the brave wildlife volunteer said she was concerned about the funnel web spider.

'I was also concerned about the poor spider and the importance of it at the reptile park,' Ms Wedlock said.

'I took the spider to Mona Vale Vet where it will be picked up by the reptile park for milking.'

Expecting people online to tell the young Sydney woman to 'kill it with fire', Ms Wedlock said she was surprised by how fascinated people were by the incredible video.

While many people took to Facebook (pictured) saying they couldn't even watch the video, the brave wildlife volunteer said she was concerned about the funnel web spider

Ms Wedlock said she took the spider (pictured) to Mona Vale Vet to be picked up by the reptile park for milking

'I would have like to have been able to tell you however you did have a massive spider in the video so there was no way possible I could watch it to help you out, sorry,' one person wrote online.

'I tried to watch I really did, but I can't! Even if I hold my phone away as far as I can, I still can't watch it,' another wrote.

'You are so brave videoing that!!!' someone else shared.

And while many of us would run at first sight of a big black spider, Ms Wedlock said it was important to catch venomous spiders like the funnel web.

'It is important to safely catch and take funnel web spiders to spider drop off points where they can be used to make anti venom,' she said.

'Killing it would be a waste but saving it and taking it to a pick up point could potentially save someone's life.'
A teen who was kidnapped as a newborn and brought up by her abductor for 18 years has revealed her struggles in a new interview almost a year after her story made national news.

Alexis Mangio says she still can't get a social security number, driver's licence or ID thanks to a bureaucratic nightmare after the woman she thought was her mother was arrested.

The 19-year-old also told the Post and Courier how how she keeps in contact with her real mother, her father and stepmother - and her abductor who is now in jail.

Mangio still can't visit Gloria Williams, the woman who abducted her and raised her into adulthood, in jail because she doesn't have ID - but the pair still talk every few days by phone.

The 19-year-old, from Walterboro, South Carolina, was kidnapped by Williams from a Florida hospital as a newborn and was listed as a missing person since 1998.

Gloria Williams was arrested in January 2017, and was charged with kidnapping after a DNA test proved Manigo the biological daughter of Craig Aiken and Shanara Mobley, who had been searching for her for years.

Authorities had been tipped off after Williams confessed to Alexis, and the rumors spread though her community.

Alexis Manigo, from Walterboro, South Carolina, was kidnapped from a Florida hospital as a newborn and was listed as a missing person from 1998 until January of this year. The girl's real name was Kamiyah Mobley and she is the biological child of Craig Aiken (left) and Shanara Mobley, who had been searching for her for years

Since her kidnapper, Gloria Williams, went to jail in January, Manigo has been reunited with her biological parents. She visits her dad Aiken (pictured) and her 'superhero' stepmom in Jacksonville, Florida, and also sees Mobley and her family during trips to the Sunshine State

Manigo (center) calls Aiken (right) 'daddy', Mobley (left) 'mom, and Williams will always be 'mama'. Aiken and Mobley call Manigo 'Kamiyah, while Williams still calls her 'Alexis'

Since Williams's arrest, Manigo has grown close with her biological parents, who have separated since her birth.

Manigo calls Aiken 'daddy', Mobley 'mom, and Williams will always be 'mama'. Aiken and Mobley call Manigo 'Kamiyah, while Williams still calls her 'Alexis'.

She visits her Aiken and her 'superhero' stepmom in Jacksonville, Florida, and stays longer than expected each time. She also visits Mobley and her family during trips to the Sunshine State.

Williams calls Manigo from the jail every few days, and they talk for the alloted 15 minutes and 34 seconds about every day things.

But Manigo can't visit Williams at the Duval County jail, where she's being held without bail because she has no ID to prove who she is.

Her attorney, Justin Bamberg, said that the process is 'basically creating a new person from scratch'.

Gloria Williams (pictured) was arrested in January 2017, and was charged with kidnapping. Manigo still can't visit Gloria Williams, the woman who abducted her and raised her into adulthood, in jail because she doesn't have ID

It was revealed in January that Williams had suffered a miscarriage the week before taking Alexis from her parents at the University Medical Center in Jacksonville

He told the Post and Courier that he has gotten a copy of Manigo's birth certificate, which calls her Kamiyah Mobley.

Next, she needs a social security number before she can get an ID.

But Manigo can't go into the federal building to do so without ID , so Bamberg had to make a special appointment.

At the special appointment earlier this month, however, Manigo was told she needed two verifying documents in order to apply.

Manigo has nothing other than her birth certificate that says Kamiyah Mobley - she's been Alexis Manigo for 19 years.

Without a social security number, Manigo hasn't been able to get a job or go to college - a dream of hers.

Aiken told her that the state of Florida has offered to help pay costs of college if she is able to attend.

According to court documents, the abducted teen girl knew the truth for more than a year but chose not to alert authorities

Manigo has nothing other than her birth certificate that says Kamiyah Mobley - she's been Alexis Manigo for 19 years. Without a social security number, Manigo hasn't been able to get a job or go to college - a dream of hers

Aiken told her that the state of Florida has offered to help pay costs of college if she is able to attend. Manigo is a celebrity in the state, where people know her as Kamiyah, as people everywhere were gripped by the kidnapping story for 18 years

As Williams was taken into custody in January, Manigo went to the jail with her grandparents to say goodbye

Manigo is a celebrity in the state, where people know her as Kamiyah, as people everywhere were gripped by the kidnapping story for 18 years.

Williams pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and interference with custody last January, and Manigo made an emotional appeal to authorities not to put her in jail.

It was revealed in January that Williams had suffered a miscarriage the week before taking Alexis from her parents at the University Medical Center in Jacksonville.

Investigators say she posed as a nurse and befriended Alexis's birth mother, Mobley, who was just 16 at the time.

She took the baby away from her teenage mother under the pretense that she had a fever and vanished without a trace, police say.

It sparked a nationwide manhunt and prompted hundreds of anonymous tips she was never found as a child.

According to court documents, the abducted teen girl knew the truth for more than a year but chose not to alert authorities.

Her mother reportedly told her she was kidnapped nearly two years before her arrest when she tried to get a job but was unable to take it because she didn't have a social security number.

Williams pleaded not guilty to kidpaning and interference with custody last January, and Manigo made an emotional appeal to authorities not to put her in jail. They're pictured right in earlier years with Williams's sons

Investigators say Williams (left with Manigo) posed as a nurse and befriended Alexis's birth mother, Mobley, who was just 16 at the time

The pair didn't speak to each other about the kidnapping again until about two years later, when Williams was arrested.

Police discovered that Manigo's birth certificate and the social security card she used in high school were both fraudulent, as was her social security number taken from a Virginia man who died in 1983.

Just hours after police revealed that Kamiyah Mobley had been found, Manigo took to Facebook to defend her abductor.

'My mother raised me with everything I needed and most of all everything I wanted,' she wrote. 'My mother is no felon.'

When Williams had her first court hearing in January, Manigo went to the Colleton County Detention Center with Williams's parents, who she's always been close with.

Behind a screen, Williams blew Manigo a kiss.

'I love you, ma!' Manigo said. Williams responded: 'I love you too.'

Williams, who was employed as a social worker and attended church every Sunday, where she also led the youth program, could face up to life in prison if convicted.
The Australian Federal Police has embraced the Christmas spirit with a hilarious parody of 'Twelve Days of Christmas'.

The force released its own version of the Christmas classic, showcasing some of its more bizarre drug busts of 2016.

'What a year! We have been working hard on behalf of Santa tracking down and placing people on the naughty list,' the AFP captioned the video it posted online.

The Australian Federal Police has embraced the Christmas spirit with a hilarious parody of 'Twelve days of Christmas'

The force released its own version of the Christmas classic, showcasing some of its most bizarre drug busts of 2016

'Drug couriers, organised criminals and human traffickers were no match for our crack team of elves. Here is a little of what we replaced with coal.'

The seizures included narcotics disguised as washing powder, stuffed inside someone's bowels and mixed with protein powder.

Others drugs were found hidden inside door hinges in concealed in cocoa powder.

'What a year! We have been working hard on behalf of Santa tracking down and placing people on the naughty list,' the AFP captioned the video

'Drug couriers, organised criminals and human traffickers were no match for our crack team of elves. Here is a little of what we replaced with coal.'

The seizures included narcotics disguised in liquid ice water, stuffed inside someone's bowels and mixed with protein powder

The post has since gone viral, with thousands on social media praising the AFP's work.

'That was gold! Have a good Chrissy AFP and keep up the good work,' one wrote, while another said: 'Wow and yuk - what a job. Thanks for catching them.'

'Great video and great choir. AFP have a sense of humour as well. Excellent,' yet another said.

Others drugs were found hidden inside door hinges in concealed in protein powder

The post has since gone viral, with thousands on social media praising the AFP's work
Francesca Camica was convicted of using threatening and abusive behaviour at Heathrow Airport when she remonstrated with a security guard and his supervisor

A transgender model, who mistakenly believed Muslim Heathrow security staff called her 'Man' got in the face of one officer and shouted: 'This guy hates transgenders and wishes me dead.'

Frequent flyer Francesca Camicia, 23, who was travelling to Italy for breast augmentation shouted: 'You're the terrorist,' during a two-hour meltdown.

Camicia, from Hammersmith, who is identified as female on both her British and Italian passports, told Ealing Magistrates Court: 'When someone calls me "man" I feel so desolated.'

She was convicted of using threatening behaviour towards Mustafa Abbas and supervisor Fahad Arshad on September 17 and was conditionally discharged for two years.

Camicia, who was the subject of an extensive shoot in photography magazine Lens, was also ordered to pay each victim 50 compensation and 750 costs.

Mr. Abbas insisted he addressed Camicia as 'ma'am' during secondary security checks in busy Terminal 4. 'That's when the abuse began,' he told the trial.

'She said: "Don't talk to me like a dog, you need to learn some education, you f***ing idiot."

'She said it with disgust and was looking down at me and made me feel worthless, like I am nothing as if I am a peasant.

'She said: "You earn six pounds an hour and you think you are God."

'She had a bit of an attitude on her. Stroppy.'

He reported the incident to supervisor Mr. Arshad, who told the court: 'She refused to stop and completely lost control. Just mad, I couldn't speak to her.

'She completely lost the plot, saying that she was transgender and that I wished death on all transgenders. She was in a blind rage.

'She pointed at my beard and said: "I should be afraid of you. You are the terrorist"

'She said I was homosexual and made an oral sex gesture with her hand.

Supervisor Fahad Arshad, pictured outside Ealing Magistrates Court was abused by Ms Camicia along with security guard Mustafa Abbas on September 17

'I have never come across anyone that angry or unpredictable in seven years at Heathrow. I felt intimidated when she came close to my face and poked my shoulder with her fingers.

'She said: "You're peasants. I'll buy this f***ing airport, this f***ing plane."'

'To be called a terrorist because of how I look is disgusting and she lost control with the police as well.'

The court heard Camicia also shouted: 'I've been a woman for twenty years. To call me "Sir" is a crime. I've got a diplomatic passport, you can't do anything to me, I know my rights.'

Camicia, who has a PhD in law, was upset there was no Jewish Torah on which to swear an oath. 'It's okay. My rights are breached everyday,' she told the court.

'Since I was born I felt like a woman and it has been a real struggle, it has been hell, but I've been so strong.

'I am here today, but I shouldn't be. I'm proud to be a woman, proud to be a transexual woman.'

The court heard Camicia has undergone fifteen gender reassignment surgical procedures and she claims to be insulted by Heathrow staff whenever she passes through.

'Every time I walk past they insult me. I have been travelling ten years through the same airport with the same people, I know them.

'They laugh at me, they hate me, you can feel it.

'I did not insult anybody. I felt so harassed and threatened. I'm not dangerous, I'm not a threat.'
Advertisement

A converted four-bedroom home that started life as a Dutch shipping barge has gone on the market for 2.5million.

The 108ft boat is moored on the Thames at the entrance to Cheyne Walk, known as London's billionaire's row.

The street, in the heart of Chelsea, is home to a string of high-profile current, including billionaire ex-mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg.

Former celebrities to have graced the street on the Chelsea Embankment include George Eliot, JMW Turner, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Sylvia Pankhurst, Laurence Olivier and Mick Jagger to name but a few.

Flagship, a former Dutch barge, has been converted into a stylish four-bedroom home and is on the market for 2.5million

On the main deck is an open plan kitchen, dining area and drawing room and the master bedroom suite which has a bathroom and dressing room, as well as access to its own terrace (pictured)

This is the inside of the luxury houseboat that comes with a 50-year mooring licence and is on sale for 2.5million

The 100ft vessel is moored on the Thames at the entrance to Cheyne Walk, known as London's billionaire's row

Flagship has been turned into a stylish four-bedroom home with all the latest mod cons and comes with a 50-year mooring licence at Cadogan Pier.

The former Dutch barge was built in 1915 by the Van der Windt shipyard in Holland and spent the next 25 years on the rivers and canals of Europe carrying general dry cargo until it was commandeered by German occupying forces.

It continued to be a working barge until 1988 when it was refitted to become a restaurant and has recently undergone a complete redesign bringing it up to living standards.

The living room inside the former barge that comes with four bedrooms, as well as 3,400 sq ft of living space

This is the open plan kitchen inside the former Dutch barge that offers potential buyers the chance to live in Chelsea

It has been kitted out with underfloor heating in the bathrooms, climate control and central heating in the bedrooms and living areas.

Flagship also has a Sonos audio system with ceiling speakers in all the main rooms and a fully-fitted kitchen with an electric range oven and hob, dishwasher, two fridges and a freezer.

The converted barge has 3,400 sqft of living space and a top deck with sky lounge and a study area.

It has three double bedrooms that are all en-suite on the ground floor, as well as a utility room with washing machine and tumble dryer.

The 108ft boat, moored in affluent Chelsea, has four bedrooms and comes with 3,400 sq ft of living space

On the main deck is an open plan kitchen, dining area and drawing room, as well as the master bedroom which has a bathroom and dressing room with access to its own terrace.

The top deck has a sky lounge with a study area and a huge part-covered terrace with a dining area, seating area and a sun deck.

The living areas boasts spectacular views of Albert Bridge, Battersea Park and the River Thames.

Ian Tichener from Riverhomes said: 'Flagship has had a very interesting history. It was bought in Holland and spent its first years on the canals of Europe before it was commandeered for the war in 1940.

'It's one of the most attractive, stylish and well maintained boats on the Thames.

'Cheyne Walk is a very desirable area of London, the pounds per square foot is considerably higher there.

'A five-bedroom house there with slightly less square footage than Flagship is on the market for 7million, so you get a lot more for your money with this.

'You do still have to pay mooring and maintenance fees, which is 27,900 a year. It sounds a lot but it's all relative, one of the big savings you have got is you don't have to pay stamp duty, which would be 213,750.

A bathroom inside the luxurious former barge that's been converted into a stylish four-bedroom home

'If you divide that up it would pay almost eight years of your mooring fees.

'I can't imagine it would be someone's principal residence, I would expect it to be a second home.

'The buyer will be somebody who wants something a little bit unusual.

'You can't get a mortgage on it so it will be a cash buyer - you can either afford it or you can't.

'People love to buy apartments close to the water and you can't get much closer than this.

'It's a nice, quirky way of living and there's a good sense of community on them as well.'

A spacious bathroom inside the former Dutch barge that comes with a 50 year mooring licence at Cadogan Pier

This is the master bedroom inside the luxury converted houseboat that is available to buy for 2.5million

The boat has been kitted out with underfloor heating in the bathrooms, climate control and central heating in the bedrooms

One of the bedrooms inside the former barge that has gone on the market in affluent Chelsea for 2.5million
An unknown gas at an airport has left six Jetstar crew members in hospital after they inhaled fumes.

The mysterious leak happened about 1.40pm on Wednesday on board a Jetstar plane at Gold Coast Airport in Coolangatta, according to the Gold Coast Bulletin.

A Queensland Ambulance Service spokeswoman said the two pilots and four cabin crew staff who had inhaled the fumes were rushed to Tweed Heads Hospital.

An unknown gas at an airport has left six Jetstar crew members in hospital after they inhaled fumes

They were all suffering from similar symptoms including dizziness, light-headedness and nausea.

They are all in a stable condition but the fume was unknown, the ambulance spokeswoman said.

The flight came in to the Gold Coast from Cairns according to Nine News.

It is understood the plane landed at Coolangatta with no issues, and there were no passengers on the plane at the time the fumes were inhaled.

The mysterious leak happened about 1.40pm on Wednesday on board a Jetstar plane at Gold Coast Airport in Coolangatta

The crew members made it inside the hospital where they were attended to by paramedics before being taken to hospital.

They were taken to Tweed Heads Hospital as a precaution.

Queensland Ambulance Service spokesman Harry Beyne said the crew members were all walking and talking.

Its just a bit abnormal that all the crew were starting to experience some nausea.
ISIS fanatics are being urged to attack ordinary families in their homes at Christmas, burn churches and derail trains.

The terror group's propaganda chiefs have issued a chilling 17-point plan to help lone wolves mount raids over the festive period.

The guide  featuring the image of wolf and an ISIS fighter on horseback  is written in Arabic and English and reveals how to derail trains and suggests burning churches and targeting markets and important factories, according to the SITE terrorism monitoring group.

A series of posters show Santa about to be beheaded and two Jihadists lurking in the snow outside the home of a family celebrating indoors with the warning: 'Soon at Christmas.'

ISIS fanatics are being urged to attack ordinary families in their homes at Christmas, burn churches and derail trains

Militants have also been sharing an incredibly detailed pipe bomb making manual that uses Christmas lights to trigger explosions on encrypted internet channels as they call for the lone wolf attacks in the West.

The document boasts the device cannot be detected by sniffer dogs and in just two days the device could be ready to kill at least 10 people.

And it adds, chillingly: 'In a month you may make a bigger and more lethal bomb that could kill tens of people.'

It has several pages of full colour instructions including photographs of how to prepare the materials, build fuses, detonators and timers from household products.

The terror group's propaganda chiefs have issued a chilling 17-point plan (pictured) to help lone wolves mount raids over the festive period

It gives bomb-makers a shopping list of items they will need, adding: '1. Inflammable substance 2. Decoration lamp (what is normally used for Christmas trees) 3. Iron pipe.'

Bangladeshi Akayed Ullah, 27, is said to have used fairy lights to detonate his home-made device close to Times Square.

An ISIS propaganda poster released late last month specifically called for an attack in that very location.

Zealots are also passing on details of an Al Qaeda terror tutorial that shows would-be Jihadis the know how to make a devastating device from items available in the high street.

The document  called Make a bomb in the kitchen of your Mom  the AQ chef  says: 'Can I make an effective bomb that causes damage to the enemy from ingredients available in any kitchen in the world? The answer is yes.

'And it is also because every Muslim is required to defend his religion and nation. The Jews and Christians have dishonoured the Muslims, desecrated our holy places, and cursed the beloved Prophet.

'Today they are holding contests for the best blasphemy of Muhammad.

'If you are sincere in your intentions to serve the religion of Allah, then all what you have to do is enter your kitchen and make an explosive device that would damage the enemy if you put your trust in Allah and then use this explosive device properly. Here are the main qualities of this bomb.'

A series of posters show Father Christmas with his hands tied about to be beheaded in Regent's Street, London

The manual adds: 'Its ingredients are readily available. Buying these ingredients does not raise suspicion. It is easily disposed of if the enemy searches your home.

'Sniffing dogs are not trained to recognize them as bomb making ingredients.'

The online work also gives tips on how to communicate with fellow hardliners via encrypted messaging services.
Millionaire entrepreneur Dick Smith has slammed Australia's politicians for allowing the immigration rate to soar by 27 per cent.

The electronics chain founder is stepping up his attack on both sides of politics after new official figures revealed Australia's population expanding at the fastest pace in the developed world.

With Australia's population set to hit 25 million within months, Mr Smith said a more crowded nation 'will destroy Australia as we know it today'.

Scroll down for video

Entrepreneur Dick Smith says a high population 'will destroy Australia as we know it today'

Australia's population growth pace is the fastest in the developed world, with Sydney choking with new residents

'We're going to end up like the US where you have something like 50 million people on the dole who will never have a job,' he told The Daily Telegraph.

'It's just complete madness. With automation and robotics there will be fewer meaningful jobs, we'll end up just being a nation selling coffee to each other.'

Australia's net immigration soared by a record 27 per cent in the year to June 30, 2017, compared with the previous year, as 245,400 new foreigners arrived.

Australia's annual population growth pace of 1.6 per cent is also the fastest pace of any developed nation in the Organisation for for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Like Sydney, Melbourne was also home to a large influx of immigrants in the year to late June

Australia's population is tipped to reach 25 million in 2018, possibly making Sydney's Bondi Beach an even more crowded place

That is more than double the annual population growth pace of the United States (0.7 per cent) and the U.K. (0.6 per cent), and above the expansion rate of The Philippines and Singapore (1.5 per cent).

'There's no doubt, it's not accidental,' Mr Smith said.

'We're in complete control of our immigration rate.'

The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates the nation adds a new person every one minute and 26 seconds, making Australia the world's fastest growing developed nation.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics says Australia's population growth pace of 1.6 per cent is the highest in the developed world

Australia's population growth pace of 1.6 per cent is more than double that of the United States and the U.K. (Sydney's busy Pitt Street Mall pictured)

Mr Smith said policy makers were addicted to propping up 'an economic system that requires perpetual growth'.

Sydney and Melbourne are choking with new residents, with the ABS's director of demography Beidar Cho pointing out overseas migration grew by 31 per cent in New South Wales and 23 per cent in Victoria.

Both states recorded their highest ever net immigration pace surpassing a growth level last experienced in 2008, the ABS said.

In the year to the end of June, NSW added 98,600 new migrants while Victoria absorbed 86,900 new overseas residents.

Only Papua New Guinea, a poor nation to Australia's north, posted a faster population growth pace, expanding by 2.1 per cent.

In 1998, the ABS forecast Australia's population wouldn't reach between 23.5 and 26.4 million until 2051.
The European Court of Justice has ruled that if a sorbet really tastes like Champagne, that is what it can be called.

Just in time for the festive season, the court ruled on the case involving France's respected and protective CIPV committee of Champagne producers, which sought a ban on German Aldi chain selling Champagne Sorbet in its supermarkets.

Even though the court left the ultimate decision to a German court, it did say that the name could be used if the icy treat 'has, as one of its essential characteristics, a taste attributable primarily to Champagne'.

The court said the dessert could keep it's name if it has 'as one of its essential characteristics, a taste attributable primarily to Champagne'

Aldi's Champagne Sorbet contains 12% Champagne.

The court said that the quantity of the bubbly itself 'is a significant but not, in itself, sufficient factor'.

In 2014, a lawyer for Galana, who manufacture the sparkling sorbet, said: 'Aldi and Galana invoked the right to use a correct and non-misleading trade denomination,' reports The Washington Post.

'According to the defendants, the use of 'Champagne' for a sorbet containing Champagne was justified.'

Just in time for Christmas: The CIPV committee of Champagne producers sought a ban on the German Aldi chain selling Champagne Sorbet

Aldi's Champagne Sorbet contains 12% Champagne

In this case, it was argued that Aldi's use of the word Champagne in their product title would damage the reputation of the sparkling drink.

Champagne can only be made in the region of Champagne, in Eastern France.

Other products that have similar power include Stilton cheese, which can only be made Derbyshire, Leicestershire or Nottinghamshire. Likewise, Port can only come from the Douro Valley in Portugal.
Babs Lee, 47, from Armadale, West Lothian, was called into the kitchen by her husband Jay, 42, after he cracked two double-yolkers in a row

A couple were left shell-shocked after they cracked open two boxes of eggs to find all 12 had two yolks.

Babs Lee, 47, from Armadale, West Lothian, was called into the kitchen by her husband Jay, 42, after he cracked two double-yolkers in a row.

The pair and their son Ryan, 20, then watched as the four other eggs from the same box hit the frying pan to reveal they were also doubles.

But they really hit the jackpot when they reached for a second box of eggs the following day to make omelettes for tea and discovered all six also had two yolks.

One in every 1,000 eggs produced in this country is double-yolked, so the chances against getting six in a row are 1,000 to the power of six - or one quintillion.

The chances of getting 12 in a row are therefore 1,000 to the power of 12.

This makes an undecillion - a number that you cannot reach on most calculators as it represents one followed by 66 zeros.

The GP receptionist said: 'I couldn't believe it, I'd never had a double-yolk in my life and then boom, 12 came along at once.

The couple really hit the jackpot when they reached for a second box of eggs the following day to make omelettes for tea and discovered all six also had two yolks

'The eggs in the first box looked quite big, but the ones in the second box seemed a normal size.

'One by one, each came out the shell with two yolks. I thought: "Something isn't right". I was physically shaking.

'I called it a stroke of good luck and the rest of the family were all jealous when they heard about it.'

Mrs Lee said her omelette was so large Jay had to fold it in half just to squeeze it onto the plate.

The eggs are delivered twice a week to her house by Thomson Dairies of Wishaw, Lanarkshire, by milkman Scott Kyle and come from a free-range farm in Nith Valley, Dumfriesshire.

What makes a double-yolker? Double-yolk eggs are a by-product of rapid ovulation which means two yolks are released in quick succession into a hen's reproductive system and end up in the same shell. Normally fertilised eggs - known as ova - are released about an hour apart, but hormonal changes or a hyperactive ovary will cause double releases. Advertisement

The dairy company could not explain her extraordinary bit of good fortune when she phoned the company to tell them what had happened but did give her a free box of eggs and a luxury hamper.

William Thomson, director of the firm, joked: 'After we learned about the first batch, we sent her a message saying we were eggstatic.

'But after hearing about the second box, we were over the moon. She said she was shaking when she called in. It's unbelievable.'

The family only moved to Scotland last year from West Yorkshire after Jay left the Army after 24 years of service with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.

Double-yolk eggs are a by-product of rapid ovulation which means two yolks are released in quick succession into a hen's reproductive system and end up in the same shell. Pictured: Six of the double-yolkers

Mrs Lee now plans to buy a lottery ticket in case her lucky streak continues over the festive period.

The odds One double-yolked egg: 1,000 (thousand) Six eggs: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 (quintillion) 10 eggs: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (nonillion) 12 eggs: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (undecillion) Advertisement

'We have had a rubbish year trying to find jobs, a house and do it up, so winning anything would be really nice,' she said.

Nith Valley keeps its birds in flocks of 2500 unlike some supermarkets whose free range eggs come from flocks of up to 32,000.

The odds of getting a double-yolker are about one in every thousand eggs.

Double-yolk eggs are a by-product of rapid ovulation which means two yolks are released in quick succession into a hen's reproductive system and end up in the same shell.

Normally yolks are released about an hour apart, but hormonal changes or a hyperactive ovary will cause double releases.
Husnain Rashid is accused of encouraging attacks on the royal family

An alleged ISIS supporter accused of sharing details of Prince Georges school on social media will go on trial in the spring.

Husnain Rashid, 31, made the post about the four-year-old prince on messaging app Telegram, it is alleged.

The British national, of Nelson, Lancashire, also allegedly planned to travel to Syria to join ISIS.

He was arrested on November 22 and charged with preparing acts of terrorism and assisting others to prepare acts of terrorism.

He appeared at the Old Bailey via video link from Wandsworth prison and spoke only to confirm his date of birth and British nationality.

Mr Justice Haddon-Cave set a four-week trial at Woolwich Crown Court to be heard before Judge Andrew Lees from April 30.

A plea hearing was also set for April 13. The defendant was remanded into custody.

Prince George, pictured with his father and member of staff Helen Haslem, started at Thomas's school in Battersea in September

The alleged jihadi is alleged to have posted a picture of Prince George's school on Telegram

The case was brought following separate concerns over the young prince's security.

Just four days before George started school, a woman filmed herself walking through the corridors unchallenged, calling the lack of security 'astonishing'.

Then in September, a woman was arrested at the school after trying to get into the property twice within 24 hours.

Both of the those incidents were completely unconnected to today's court case.

Neighbours of Rashid expressed shock following the arrests in Nelson, Lancashire last month.

The woman, who did not wish to be named, said: 'It's usually so quiet. I have not seen or heard anything suspicious myself.'
An extremist accused of a suicide plot to assassinate the Prime Minister outside Downing Street made a 'sponsorship video' to be sent to ISIS so he could join the terror group, a court heard today.

Naa'imur Zakariyah Rahman, 20, was allegedly planning to blow up the front gates and then rush in with knives, pepper spray and an explosive suicide vest to kill the Prime Minister.

He was charged with preparing acts of terrorism following his arrest in Kensington where police say he allegedly was carrying homemade inert bombs on November 28.

He faces a six-week trial in June along with alleged accomplice Mohammad Aqib Imran, 21, who is said to have been trying to join ISIS and downloaded 'How to survive in the West - a Mujahid's guide'.

Naa'imur Zakariyah Rahman, 20, was allegedly planning to blow up the front gates of Downing Street before rushing in to kill Theresa May. Alleged accomplice Mohammad Aqib Imran, 21, is said to have been trying to join ISIS

According to charges Rahman recorded a pledge of allegiance to Isis and went on a reconnaissance mission in Whitehall before 'delivering a rucksack and bag to be fitted with improvised explosive devices'.

The indictment states he then collected the rucksack and bag 'with a view to committing attacks'.

On 28 November counter terror cops arrested Rahman and Mohammed Imran, 21, who allegedly saved up 3,600 to get a fake Libyan passport so he could sneak abroad for terrorist purposes.

Imran is also accused of keeping a Isis sponsorship video filmed by Rahman.

The pair appeared at the Old Bailey today via video link from HMP Belmarsh and spoke only to identify themselves.

Downing Street is guarded by armed police and two sets of metal gates that the terror suspect is said to have wanted to blow up

Judge Charles Haddon-Cave said: 'After discussing this matter with counsel I have fixed your trial for the 18 June next year for four-five weeks in the Old Bailey before me, and there will be a preparatory hearing on the 4 May again in the Old Bailey.

'Meanwhile you are both remanded in custody.'

Rahman, of Finchley, North London, faces to counts of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist attacks.

Imran, of Sparkhill, Birmingham, faces one count of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist attacks.
A Canadian couple have been left heartbroken after being forced to spend Christmas apart for the first time in 70 years.

Herbert Goodine, 91, was ordered to leave the care home where he sleeps in the same bed as his wife Audrey, 89, just one week before Christmas.

The home said his health had declined too far for staff to look after him and that he had to be moved to comply with legal requirements.

Mr Goodine's daughter Dianne Phillips asked the home in Perth-Andover, New Brunswick if they could delay moving him until after Christmas but staff refused.

She shared her story on Facebook alongside a heartbreaking picture of the couple's final Christmas kiss before they were split up.

The saddest Christmas kiss: Herbert Goodine, 91, says goodbye to his wife Audrey, 89, as they are ordered apart because he health had deteriorated

This photo shows Mr and Mrs Goodine when they were younger. They have been married for an incredible 73 years

Herbert Goodine, 91, was ordered to leave the care home where he sleeps in the same bed as his wife Audrey, 89, just one week before Christmas. Pictured: The couple say goodbye

Ms Phillips wrote on Sunday: 'This is one sad Christmas story for Herbert and Audrey Goodine who reside at Victoria Villa Special Care Home in Perth Andover, NB.

'I wanted to share with the FB community the planned separation of my parents one week prior to Christmas.

'I was notified Friday morning (Dec 15) via email and followed a couple hours later by a phone call that my father (91) was going to be removed from the special care home that he is residing at with my mother (89) this weekend.

'I read this message over several times in disbelief of how can anyone be so cold and cruel to do this a week prior to Christmas.

'My request during the day Friday was to simply extend my father's residency until the end of this week.

'However, my repeated request was ignored. Because I was unwilling to make a decision on his new location within a few hours a representative from Social Development and a representative from the Victoria Villa approached my parents and forced them to make the decision on their own.

'My parents have been together for a total of 73 years and still sleep in the same bed. I feel people need to know what a flawed system we have in place. Two words describe it "unethical and cruel". This transfer is schedule to occur tomorrow, as POA, I have NOT yet to be notified of final arrangements

'When talking to my parents yesterday I listened to my mother weep and I could hear my father in the background. My mother said "Christmas is over for us now and this is the worst Christmas that we will ever have. Why could they not have waited till after the holidays." I assured her that I tried everything to keep them together a few more days.'

Mr Goodine's daughter Dianne Phillips phoned the home in Perth-Andover, New Brunswick, to ask if they could delay moving him until after Christmas but staff refused. Pictured: The couple before splitting up

Mr Goodine's daughter shared this photo of him in his new home alone and wrote: 'The attached picture looks more like punishment than a Merry Christmas'

Ms Phillips told CBC News: 'At this time of year, the way things took place, I feel that is abuse to seniors. It's emotional abuse. It might not be physical, but I do believe it is emotional.'

In his new home 30 minutes from his wife which he moved into on Monday, Mr Goodine said: 'Well, we had a beautiful room, two rooms, really.'

But he kept a brave face, adding: 'Well, if nothing happens to her, it'll be good, because she'll be rid of me for a little while.'

Mr Goodine is due to stay in the new home for a month before he can be reunited with his wife under new living arrangements.

The story has caused outrage in Canada as Ms Phillips' post has been shared more than 17,000 times and attracted a raft of comments from well-wishers.

Ms Philips responded to them with another post on Monday which read: 'First of all I want to say thank you for this overwhelming show of support.

'The plan was carried through and my father was transfer to Plaster Rock Tobique Valley Manor to a Relief Care bed. There were tears saying goodbye to my mother and lonely faces tonight.

'To respond to a few comments, My dad was reassessed a week ago and requires Level 3 care, and my mother remains Level 2. The Victoria Villa is a Level 2 care home, and I understand my father needs to be moved.

The home said Mr Goodine's health had declined too much for them to look after him and that he had to be moved to comply with legal requirements. Pictured: His daughter Dianne and wife Audrey

Herbert Goodine, 91, was told he must leave the long-term care facility where he lives with his wife Audrey Goodine, 89. He is pictured with his daughter Dianne

'It was brought to my attention there may have been resources to facilitate my father's needs for a few more days to allow them to remain together until Christmas, but none were offered to us and time ran out to put things in place before our unrealistic deadline.

'We too are waiting for answers to clarify how something like this could happen. My father may have needs, however, like any other citizen he has the right to enjoy his life and spending this season with his wife was part of that. The attached picture looks more like punishment than a Merry Christmas.

'Please continue to support and share this post. This should never take place to another human again.'

Mr Goodine's move followed an assessment by the Department of Social Development.

Jennifer Eagan, the owner and operator of his former home said the move was for Mr Goodine's safety

She said: 'I know that when someone is reassessed at a higher level, legally I have to comply with the rules and regulations of Social Development and the government of New Brunswick.

'It doesn't matter what time of year it is. It's the way it happened this time, which I agree is unfortunate. It's right before Christmas.'

She explained why moving residents is a quick process, adding: 'It normally doesn't take very long because once a resident is beyond our care we're not equipped to look after them so it becomes a big safety concern for that resident.'

A spokesperson said the Department of Social Development said: 'If it's determined that a senior needs additional care or that their safety is potentially in jeopardy, the department works with the resident and family members to facilitate a move to an appropriate home.

'Individuals who require a higher level of care than what can be provided in special care homes are moved to where their needs can be more appropriately met, such as in a nursing home or a memory care home.'
Japan is building missile bases on islands off the coast of China in a bid to counter the rising threat from its communist neighbour.

The country's military - which has long been restricted by its post-Second World War pacifist constitution - has been constructing anti-aircraft and anti-ship weapons on Ishigaki, 200 miles from eastern China and just off the coast of Taiwan.

It is one of many islands in the Yaeyama archipelago to be garrisoned by the Japanese, with soldiers bringing new weapons and radar technology to the area.

The country's military - which has long been restricted by its post-Second World War pacifist constitution - has been constructing anti-aircraft and anti-ship weapons Ishigaki (pictured), 200 miles from eastern China and just off the coast of Taiwan

Ishigaki is one of many islands off the coast of China that belongs to Japan. Nearby are the contested Senkaku islands

China, whose international standing has grown immensely in recent years, has sent out a series of coastguard ships to sail around the contested islands near Japan and China. Pictured: A Japanese plane on patrol around the Senkaku islands

China, whose international standing has grown immensely in recent years, has sent out a series of coastguard ships to sail around the contested islands as its military grows. Pictured: Troops from the People's Liberation Army on parade

It comes after the country announced its intention to buy offensive air-to-surface missiles to counter North Korea's rising military threat. Pictured: North Korean missiles launched earlier this year

The Japanese army - or Ground Self-Defense Force - told the Wall Street Journal it plans to deploy between 500 and 600 soldiers to Ishigaki to operate a missile system there.

It comes after the country announced its intention to buy offensive air-to-surface missiles to counter North Korea's rising military threat.

Defence secretary Itsunori Onodera said the ministry intends to request a special budget for the fiscal year starting April 2018 to purchase long-range cruise missiles to be deployed on fighter jets.

The ministry reportedly plans to buy 560mile-range air-to-ground missiles from US firms, as well as Joint Strike Missiles with a range of some 310miles from Norway.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet, meanwhile, is set to approve a 2.5 per cent boost to military spending - which will include more cash for bases on its southern islands.

Japan has been pushed by the US - which has taken upon itself defence responsibilities for the country since the Second World War - to improve its own military and rely less on American strength.

Prime Minister Abe, too, has stressed the need for Japan to be independent of the US - explaining that the country's pacifist constitution should be changed.

But the islands around Ishigaki are known by the Chinese as the 'first island chain' around the country's east.

The nearby Senkaku islands are claimed by Taiwan as well as China. Pictured: A Japanese coastguard vessel sprays a Taiwanese ship during a dispute near the islands

Meanwhile the mayor of Ishigaki, Yoshitaka Nakayama, said: 'Until China becomes a country with a normal political system, we need to protect ourselves.' Pictured: Ishigaki's beautiful beaches

They claim - along with Taiwain - the nearby Senkaku islands, which are administered by Japan.

China, whose international standing has grown immensely in recent years, has sent out a series of coastguard ships to sail around the contested islands.

They frequently encounter Japanese ships attempting to protect their sovereignty.

Rear Admiral Atsushi Tohyama, commander of a base on Ishigaki, told the Journal: 'The Chinese ships are getting bigger and more modern. In that sense, they are escalating the situation.'

But China said it hoped 'Japan will adhere to the path of peaceful development', adding that its military policies were of high concern to Asian powers 'due to historical reasons'.

Meanwhile the mayor of Ishigaki, Yoshitaka Nakayama, said: 'Until China becomes a country with a normal political system, we need to protect ourselves.'
An American drug user who escaped Bali's notorious Kerobokan jail before being recaptured claimed Wednesday he broke out of the facility because he faced extortion threats.

Christian Beasley, who is awaiting sentencing after being caught in August with five grams of hashish, made a break from the Indonesian resort island's main prison with a fellow inmate after cutting a hole in the roof with a hacksaw.

He was found Saturday hiding on the neighbouring island of Lombok after five days on the run.

At a press conference Wednesday, the handcuffed American was paraded in front of media with chains around his ankles and wearing an orange prison uniform and balaclava.

US prisoner Christian Beasley was paraded in front of media with chains around his ankles and wearing an orange prison uniform and balaclava

The 32-year-old told journalists he escaped because he was being extorted -- although he did not say by whom.

'In jail they threatened me for protection money, that's why I left,' he said.

Beasley said he had permission from US authorities to use marijuana for an undisclosed medical condition.

'I need rehab not four years or more in jail, please help me, in my country (it) is not a crime to use ganja - I have (a) licence,' he shouted as he was escorted away by armed officers.

But Kerobokan's chief warden, Tonny Nainggolan, rejected Beasleys extortion claims as 'total nonsense'.

He added: 'There is no such thing, he made it up, we protect and guarantee the safety of the inmates and detainees in Kerobokan.'

Beasley escaped last Monday along with Paul Anthony Hoffman, 57.

American Christian Beasley was recaptured on Lombok island on Saturday, after escaping a Bali prison five days ago

Hoffman was immediately recaptured but Beasley managed to cross to Lombok where he evaded police for five days.

Chief detective Made Pramestia said: 'He tried to change his appearance by cutting off his hair but we finally caught him on Saturday.

'We knew he would not go far because he did not have proper documents and enough money on him.'

Hoffman, who is serving a 20-month sentence for robbing a number of convenience stores at knifepoint, was immediately recaptured, while Beasley managed to catch a ferry to Lombok before hiding out for a few days.

Beasley's attempt to flee may result in a harsher prison sentence, police said.

It was not immediately clear how much jail time he was facing, but Indonesia has some of the world's toughest drugs laws, with the death penalty available in some trafficking cases.

Bali police chief Petrus Reinhard Golose said he was investigating how Beasley, whose name was previously reported as Chrishan Beasley, managed to escape.

'We will question the relevant officials why there are so many incidents like this, maybe there are some procedures they have ignored,' Golose told reporters Monday.

Beasley's attempt to flee may result in a harsher sentence, police said, seen here with hair

A motorcyclist passes by Kerobokan prison where American citizen Christian Beasley was detained for hashish drug offense, in Bali, Indonesi

Kerobokan houses some of the country's most notorious and high-profile inmates, including members of the so-called Bali Nine which plotted to bring heroin into Australia via Bali

Jailbreaks are common in Indonesia, where inmates are often held in unsanitary conditions at overcrowded and poorly guarded prisons.

In May, more than 200 inmates staged a mass breakout from an overcrowded prison on Sumatra island.
The CEO of Delta Air Lines says the company will seek compensation for its losses after a power outage knocked out the Atlanta airport's power supply and also its backup electricity for about 11 hours Sunday.

The blackout stranded thousands of passengers and led to the cancellation of more than 1,500 flights just ahead of the frenzied holiday travel period.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian tells The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he found it 'shocking' that it took so long to get power restored.

Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian (pictured in May 2016) says the company will seek compensation for its losses after a power outage knocked out the Atlanta airport's power supply and also its backup electricity for about 11 hours on Sunday

Delta had to cancel about 1,400 flights. It's the largest airline in the U.S. and its hub is Atlanta so the blackout caused travel chaos across the country. Above, passengers in Atlanta on Monday after power had been restored

Bastian said he doesn't know whether Georgia Power or Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport was responsible, but said Delta will have conversations with both.

'We will certainly be seeking the opportunity to have a conversation, and then seek reimbursement,' Bastian said during an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution at a Delta 747 farewell event Tuesday evening. 'I don't know whose responsibility it is between the airport and Georgia Power, but we're going to have conversations with both of them.'

Bastian told the newspaper the airline may have lost $25million to $50million of revenue as a result of the blackout.

The airline canceled 1,400 flights and paid to put up many of the stranded passengers in hotels.

The blackout was blamed on a fire that broke out Sunday afternoon next to equipment for a backup system, which caused that to fail too. Power wasnt fully restored until about midnight.

Georgia Power teams are seen above working to replace the damage power cables on Sunday

'We have a lot of people at the start of the business week that didnt take their trips' because of the outage, Bastian said.

Delta is the largest airline in the U.S. and its main hub is Atlanta, so the fire caused travel chaos throughout the country - not just in the southeast.

The blackout was blamed on a fire that broke out Sunday afternoon next to equipment for a backup system, which caused that to fail too. Power wasnt fully restored until about midnight.

The control tower did not lose power because it has a separate electrical feed, and planes that were in the air and close to Atlanta when the blackout hit were allowed to land. Other incoming flights were diverted, and outgoing flights were halted.

Above, a woman rests as she and others wait in the terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport Monday

Above, a passenger looks at the departure board for the status of flights at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Monday

Passengers rest behind the ticket counter after the lights went out at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017, in Atlanta. A sudden power outage at the airport on Sunday grounded scores of flights and passengers during one of the busiest travel times of the year. (AP Photo/Branden Camp)

Georgia Power CEO Paul Bowers issued an apology and blamed the fire on a failure in a switch gear. He said the utility is considering a change in the setup of the main and backup systems to prevent a similar blackout.

Delta canceled about 1,000 flights Sunday and 400 more on Monday, in many cases because the pilots and airplanes were in the wrong places. To help clear the backlog, it added flights and found seats for some of its customers on other airlines.

Last spring, Delta was crippled by a storm in the South, and it took the airline five days  and about 4,000 canceled flights  before it fully recovered.

Thomas, the Delta spokesman, said that since then, the airline has put more flight crews on reserve and installed computer technology to quickly assemble properly rested crews.

Hartsfield-Jackson serves an average of 275,000 passengers a day. Nearly 2,500 planes arrive and depart each day.
The European Commission has taken an unprecedented step to suspend Poland's voting rights in the EU after two years of dispute over judicial reforms that Brussels says undermine Polish courts' independence.

The new laws give the Polish government greater control of a top court and a key judicial body, and has led to protests in Poland and tension between Warsaw and Brussels.

The Commission reportedly triggered what is formally known as Article 7, a procedure that could eventually lead to Poland losing its voting rights in the EU.

Anger: Protesters in Warsaw demonstrate against the laws which would give the Polish government greater control over the country's top court

Sometimes called the 'nuclear option', Article 7 has never been triggered against a member state before.

Poland could have its voting rights in the EU suspended, and may also see cuts in billions of euros of EU aid.

The European Commission, the guardian of EU law, will now ask the other EU governments to declare that Poland's changes to the judiciary constitute 'a clear risk of a serious breach' of EU values -- especially the rule of law.

However, it gave Warsaw, where a new prime minister took office only this month, three months to remedy the situation and said it could rescind its decision if it did so.

'The Commission has today concluded that there is a clear risk of a serious breach of the rule of law in Poland,' the Commission said in a statement.

Some thousands of protesters across Poland have been demonstrating against the new legislation, which has seen the European Commission trigger Article 7

'Judicial reforms in Poland mean that the country's judiciary is now under the political control of the ruling majority. In the absence of judicial independence, serious questions are raised about the effective application of EU law.'

Polish justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro seemed to confirm the move on Wednesday, saying he had received the decision with 'calm' and insisting that Poland is a law-abiding country.

The Commission says Poland's judicial reforms limit judges' independence, but the government rejects accusations of undemocratic behaviour.

Statement on the Rule of Law in Poland by First Vice-President @TimmermansEU: https://t.co/81wH59WqGu  European Commission  (@EU_Commission) December 20, 2017

It says its reforms, which is due to be signed into law by President Andrzej Duda in the next few weeks, are needed because courts are slow, inefficient and steeped in a communist era-mentality.

The measures affecting appointments, terms in office, and other aspects of the Supreme Court and the National Council of the Judiciary are part of a string of policy changes pursued by Poland's ruling Law and Justice party.

The laws were passed last Friday despite warnings by the EU that they go against the bloc's fundamental values.

The opposition in Poland says they violate the constitution.

Opposition Civic Platform lawmaker Bogdan Klich said the ruling party's main aim is to place loyalists at top justice bodies, to control them.
Russia simulated going to war against NATO, bombing Germany and invading Baltic states during Vladimir Putin's 'West 2017' military exercises, analysts have revealed.

A massive programme of war games featuring tens of thousands of troops and code named 'Zapad' took place near the Belarus capital Minsk in September.

At the time there were fears Moscow was using the training as a cover to station soldiers and equipment in the country.

Analysts from two Western intelligence agencies have now claimed that the exercises, which included artillery, tanks, rocket launches and simulated air and navy raids, were a dry-run for a 'shock campaign' against Western European NATO members - including Germany and the Netherlands.

Russia simulated going to war against NATO, bombing Germany and invading Baltic states during its 'West 2017' military exercises, analysts have revealed. Troops are pictured during the drills

Explosive: Shells explode during the Zapad (West) 2017 Russia-Belarus military exercises at the Borisovsky range in Borisov, Belarus in September

Russia's 'Zapad' war games simulated the occupation of adjacent nations, analysts say. This graphic shows where the rehearsals were carried out and what military forces took part

The drills also rehearsed the capture of the Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania- as well as Poland, Norway and the non-aligned states of Sweden and Finland, the analysts told German newspaper Bild.

Russia's neighbours claimed at the time that the Kremlin was using the exercises as a rehearsal for an occupation of a number of adjacent nations that were under Moscow's rule before the Communist Soviet Union broke up in 1991.

Moscow has repeatedly said the exercises, which began on September 14, were purely defensive in nature and were not aimed at targeting a third country or group of countries.

However, the analysts told Bild the drills were essentially a practice run of a 'full-scale conventional war against NATO in Europe'.

The unnamed experts said the drills imagined the invasion of the Sulwalki Gap, a small area of NATO land that links Belarus with the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.

A mock state on a similar stretch of land was created during Zapad and named 'Veyshnoria' before it was 'invaded' as part of the war games.

The experts also claimed Russia practised 'neutralising or taking under control air fields and harbours (in eastern Europe), so there are no reinforcements arriving from other NATO states there'.

Military power: Tanks could be seen rumbling across open land in Belarus - which borders Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine. Analysts say the drills were a dry-run for a 'shock campaign' against Western European NATO members

Analysts also claimed Russia practised 'neutralising or taking under control air fields and harbours (in eastern Europe), so there are no reinforcements arriving from other NATO states there'

The analysts also said that the country's air force flew through the North Sea and past Germany and the Netherlands for two days to rehearse taking out the likes of airports, power reactors and naval bases.

'They exercised bombings of Western European targets, approaching the German and Dutch coast from the North Sea as well as Swedish, Finish and Polish mainland from the Baltic Sea,' the sources said.

'The drill included waves of Tu-95 strategic bombers as well as support aircraft like fighter jets and refuelling planes.'

Targets in a real-life situation would include 'critical infrastructure, that is, air fields, harbours, energy supplies and so on, in order to shock the countries and make the populations demand from their governments that "we shouldnt be involved here, we should go for peace instead"'.

The analysts also said that the country's air force flew through the North Sea and past Germany and the Netherlands for two days to rehearse taking out the likes of airports, power reactors and naval bases

At the time, the Kremlin said it had provided exhaustive information on the exercises before they were held to the military attaches of all interested countries and allowed their observers to attend the event to allay any concerns

Training manoeuvres over the North Sea may have been designed to show Russia has plans for 'show of force attacks' deep in Western air space, the sources said.

They also suggested missile defence systems were better prepared in Eastern European NATO states compared to the likes of Britain, Germany and Denmark.

The once-in-four-year war games also involved anti-submarine warfare and air defence drills throughout the Baltic Sea, it is claimed. This was to practise weakening NATO in the event of an invasion of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.

There were also anti-aircraft, anti-ship and even anti-combat diver drills in the area, the sources said.

Attacks on Sweden and Finland were also rehearsed in September because Russia 'would not expect them to remain neutral' in the event of a real war, the experts suggested.

Show of force: A Russian jet takes part in the Zapad war games in September. Analysts said the exercises rehearsed invasions and bombing raids on Western targets

Up to 12,700 troops took part in the drills in Belarus while a further 12,000 were involved in training in Leningrad and Pskov regions - close to the border with Estonia, - and 10,000 more were sent to the Kola peninsula, the sources said

Some of the thousands of troops deployed during the exercise are said to have been sent to the Kola peninsula, which borders Norway and Finland. One of the sources said Russia may have plans in place to 'neutralise assets' in the region.

Another exercise reportedly saw two waves of Tu-95 and Tu-22m3 bombers as well as 50 war ships practising raids on Norway's Svalbard archipelago between Russia and the Arctic Ocean.

The once-in-four-year war games also involved anti-submarine warfare and air defence drills throughout the Baltic Sea, it is claimed, to practise weakening NATO in the event of an invasion of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.

There were also anti-aircraft, anti-ship and even anti-combat diver drills in the area.

Attacks on Sweden and Finland were also rehearsed in September because Russia 'would not expect them to remain neutral' in the event of a real war, the experts suggested.

Some of the thousands of troops deployed during the exercise were sent to the Kola peninsula, which borders Norway and Finland. One of the sources said Russia may have plans in place to 'neutralise assets' in the region.

At the time of the drills, the Kremlin said it had provided exhaustive information on the exercises before they were held to the military attaches of all interested countries and allowed their observers to attend the event to allay any concerns. Soldiers are pictured on parade during the drills

Another exercise reportedly saw two waves of Tu-95 and Tu-22m3 bombers as well as 50 war ships practising raids on Norway's Svalbard archipelago between Russia and the Arctic Ocean. Pictured: a helicopter during exercises in Belarus

Another exercise reportedly saw two waves of Tu-95 and Tu-22m3 bombers as well as 50 war ships practising raids on Norway's Svalbard archipelago between Russia and the Arctic Ocean.

Up to 12,700 troops took part in the drills in Belarus while a further 12,000 were involved in training in Leningrad and Pskov regions - close to the border with Estonia, - and 10,000 more were sent to the Kola peninsula, the sources said.

But taking into account navy and airforce personnel and National Guard troops, more than 120,000 were involved, they added.

At the time of the drills, the Kremlin said it had provided exhaustive information on the exercises before they were held to the military attaches of all interested countries and allowed their observers to attend the event to allay any concerns.

But the analysts refuted this claim, saying that there was 'not a single observer' - just 'invited guests' from NATO members who were allowed to watch some of the exercises. They were not given access to all of the units that took part, they said.

Speaking as the drills were taking place, Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo said Warsaw opposed any lifting of Western sanctions imposed on Russia over its annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region and role in its separatist conflict.

'We are very concerned by what is happening in Belarus, from the exercises there,' Szydlo said during a visit to Bulgaria.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite made the exercises the centrepiece of her annual speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

'Even as we speak, around 100,000 Russian troops are engaged in offensive military exercise "Zapad 2017" on the borders of the Baltic States, Poland and even in the Arctic,' she said at the time.

'The Kremlin is rehearsing aggressive scenarios against its neighbours, training its army to attack the West. The exercise is also part of information warfare aimed at spreading uncertainty and fear.'
The defiant owner of a fishery who put up a sign saying 'No Polish or Eastern Bloc fishermen' has insisted he is only stopping thieves entering his property.

Billy Evans, 80, who owns Field Farm Fisheries, near Bicester, Oxfordshire, has become embroiled in a discrimination row over the controversial sign.

Rado Papiewski, 35, a Polish angler from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, said he was dismayed when other anglers pointed it out to him earlier this year.

Field Farm Fisheries, near Bicester, Oxfordshire, has become embroiled in a discrimination row over the controversial sign, which says: 'No Polish or Eastern Bloc fishermen allowed'

He has now launched a crowdfunding appeal to raise money for a discrimination case after the fishery ignored letters requesting that the sign is removed.

Former Conservative councillor Mr Evans, who has had similar signs on the site for the past eight years, told BBC News: 'I shall still stand up for what I believe in.

'If they want to call me a racist for stopping thieves from coming on my private property that's what they'll do. I know I'm right and I'm doing the right thing.'

It comes after Mr Papiewski approached human rights watchdog the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which also failed to have the sign taken down.

He said: 'When I first saw it I thought of my ten-year-old son who loves angling. How could I say to him, 'You can't fish here because your dad was born in Poland?'

'This disturbing sign should have never been displayed as it clearly discriminates against people from Poland and other eastern European countries.'

Billy Evans, 80, who has had similar signs on the site for the past eight years, said he would 'stand up for what I believe in'

Speaking to The Guardian, he added: 'It made many fellow law-abiding migrant anglers and me very upset and angry.

'Quite simply  we want the sign removed and to show that discriminatory signs like this one have no place in the angling community of Great Britain.'

Rado Papiewski, 35, a Polish angler from Doncaster, said he was dismayed when other anglers pointed the sign out to him this year

In 2013 a great-grandfather who blamed carp-eating migrants for the loss of stock from his fishery in the village of Napton-on-Hill, in Warwickshire, erected signs reading 'No Eastern Europeans' - but was ordered to take them down by police.

Field Farm, whose website boasts of a four-acre lake containing carp weighing more than 30lb, rudd, tench, golden orfe and bream, is currently closed for the winter.

It charges anglers 10 per person to fish in the lake and describes itself as 'picturesque, tranquil and an idyllic setting'.

British freshwater rod fishing byelaws are strict about fish being returned to the waters they come from to avoid stocks being depleted.

Mr Evans has previously claimed that he has caught some Polish anglers catching fish, bagging them up and dangling them under the water.

But Mr Papiewski argued the ban on an entire race of people was wholly disproportionate, and only a small number of people prosecuted for breaking angling rules come from Eastern Europe.

Field Farm near Bicester, whose website boasts of a four-acre lake containing carp weighing more than 30lb, rudd, tench, golden orfe and bream, is currently closed for the winter

His solicitor Alex Peebles claimed the sign was in breach of the Equalities Act.

He told The Guardian: 'The sign displayed by the business demonstrates clearly that they are refusing to provide their services to certain people, purely on the basis of their race and/or nationality.'

I shall still stand up for what I believe in Billy Evans, Field Farm Fisheries

If the legal action is successful, the fishery will be forced to remove the sign and could be ordered to pay compensation.

A spokesman for the EHRC said the watchdog's legal team are taking a further look at the situation.

He added: 'This type of sign should be a thing of the past. Banning people from services based on their race or nationality is discrimination and unlawful.

'It's right to challenge such out-of-date practices and any business that believes this is acceptable.'
The two pit bulls that mauled their 22-year-old owner to death last week in Virginia had been neglected recently, police said on Tuesday.

Tonka and Pac-Man were treated like princes by their owner Bethany Stephens. But a couple of months ago, Stephens went through a divorce and had to move the dogs to her dad's house, where they became increasingly isolated.

Sergeant Mike Blackwood said that the dogs were a 'little bit neglected towards the end' because Bethany's father, John, didn't think it was his responsibility to take care of the dogs.

The dogs went from living inside to living in a cage outside 'in the cold'. The only time that they were fed or were able to interact with a human was when Bethany visited, about five times a week on average.

Scroll down for video

Sergeant Mike Blackwood says the two dogs that killed their owner, Bethany Stephens (pictured), were 'a little bit neglected'

Friends said the 22-year-old (pictured with one of the killer dogs) treated her dogs like children, but they had been living with her father for the past couple of months due to her divorce

'She left the dogs with her father, her father was not taking care of the dogs,' Sgt. Mike Blackwood with the Goochland County Sheriff's Office explained. ' It wasn't his responsibility, and she would come home maybe five times to the father's house a week on average and take the dogs out.'

Certified master dog trainer Valerie Paul told WTVR that this was a 'huge lifestyle change for the two dogs, and certainly something that could have caused a 'negative scenario'.

'The breed in and of itself is a high energy breed, they like to have a lot of structure and a lot of exercise, so by keeping them in a pin, alone, under socialized, away from people, that energy is just building up and building up and building up and that's when you start to see dogs fighting more regularly, that's when you start to see more negative scenarios,' Paul said.

The dogs went from being indoor dogs to living in an outdoor kennel 24/7 at her father John's house

Bethany's body was found in the woods Thursday evening, a day after leaving the house to take the dogs for a walk.

On Monday, Goochland County Sheriff James Agnew ruled out foul play, describing the horrific scene he and his officers found.

'Let me cut right to the chase, the most important detail that we did not release because we were worried about the well-being of the family is that in the course of trying to capture the dogs early Friday morning, we turned and looked I observed, as well as four other deputy sheriffs, the dogs eating the ribcage on the body,' Agnew told Pix 11. 'The injuries were very severe.

Agnew, who said that Stephens had already been dead when they found her, also described the blood covered scene, but said investigators had ruled out widespread suggestions that she could have been killed by a bear or coyote.

'There was no evidence of any larger animal there,' Agnew said. 'The medical examiner made it pretty clear that it was not a large animal because the bite wounds didn't puncture her skull.

'There were also scratch marks consistent with a smaller animal than something like a bear.'

Agnew said that they also didn't believe she'd been killed by a person.

The medical examiner ruled out with 'complete certainty' sexual assault, adding that they were no strangulation marks on her body.

Investigators had also spoken to witnesses and people known to Stephens, and 'people's movements... don't fit with that particular narrative.'

However, police are still investigating and are carrying out forensic tests.

Stephens' friend doesn't think the dogs would have attacked her, noting they slept in the bed with her at night. The friend said it looked like the dogs had escaped their kennels to help her

Stephens was 5-feet-1 and 125 pounds, weighing roughly the same amount as her dogs. The brindle-colored pit bulls were said to have been bred for fighting

But Stephens' friend, Barbara Norris (above), does not believe the dogs would kill Stephens and thinks she was murdered. She said: 'Those dogs would not attack her. They'd kill you with kisses.'

Cops captured the dogs at the scene but the animals have since been euthanized, with the family's consent on Saturday.

'What I observed personally, it was in the community's best interest,' Agnew said. 'Once a dog tastes human flesh it is not safe to have that dog around humans.'

The police said they had decided to share more details on the case because of the rampant rumors and theories spreading through their community in the wake of Stephens' death.

Stephens' friend, Barbara Norris, told NBC12 that she didn't believe the dogs would kill Stephens and that they slept in her bed at night.

'Those dogs would not attack her,' she said. 'They'd kill you with kisses.'

Norris said that the dogs' kennels appeared to have been broken open, as if the dogs had escaped to help Stephens.

But the dogs  described as being 'very large, brindle-colored pit bull dogs'  were said to be aggressively guarding her body when Stephens' father came across them, according to Goochland County Sheriff James L. Agnew, the Richmond-Times Dispatch reported.

Initial medical examiner's reports indicated that Stephens, who stood 5-foot-1 and weighted 125 pounds, had defensive wounds on her hands and arms.

Her wounds, which also included puncture wounds in her skull, were consistent with having been mauled.

'The first traumatic injury to her was to her throat and face,' Agnew said, adding that, 'It appears she was taken to the ground, lost consciousness, and the dogs then mauled her to death.'
An Oxford University college is to erect a plaque to remember the slaves who toiled for one of its benefactors.

All Souls College will place a plaque as a memorial outside a library paid for by Christopher Codrington, who died in 1710.

Codrington owned sugar plantations in Barbados where more than 300 African slaves worked, and left some 10,000 to All Souls in his will.

While All Souls say the plaque will 'serve as a reminder of where Mr Codrington's wealth came from', some students have expressed anger over the college's links to a 'slave trader'.

Oxford University's All Souls College will place a plaque as a memorial outside a library paid for by Christopher Codrington

A statue of Christopher Codrington dressed as a Roman stands in the library, above a plaque in Latin

Christopher Codrington was born in Barbados in 1668 and went on to become a British soldier, plantation and slave owner, bibliophile and colonial governor.

The college sent this mock-up of how the plaque would look in its planning application

Codrington Library was founded in 1751 with money left by Christopher Codrington, a fellow of the college who amassed a considerable fortune through plantation slavery.

All Souls is not the only Oxford college that has had to grapple with uncomfortable elements of its past.

In recent years Oriel College has come under pressure to remove a statue of Cecil Rhodes because of his links to oppression in Africa.

In a planning application to Oxford City Council, All Souls said the idea for the plaque came from a 2016 conference addressing the history of slavery.

All Souls says the college remains grateful to Christopher Codrington for his donation, but the warden and fellows concluded it should provide a public statement about the origins of his wealth.

Codrington Library was founded in 1751 with money left by Christopher Codrington, a fellow of the college who amassed a considerable fortune through plantation slavery

Students protesting outside All Souls College in 2009 calling for statues of colonial era figures including Cecil Rhodes and Queen Victoria to be removed from university campuses

In July 2016 Oluwafemi Nylander, a prominent member of the Rhodes Must Fall Oxford and campaigner against colonial commemoration at Oxford, stood bare-chested outside All Souls College in protest against the Codrington Library

In a blog post for the online magazine Consented, Oluwafemi Nylander (left) attacked the soulless and moral relativism of University Vice Chancellor Louise Richardson (right) in defending the Codrington Library

CHRISTOPHER CODRINGTON Christopher Codrington was born in Barbados in 1668 and went on to become a British soldier, plantation and slave owner, bibliophile and colonial governor. As a young man, he was sent to England to be educated in Enfield and from 1685 he attended Christ Church, Oxford, as a gentleman commoner. He was elected to All Souls as a probationer fellow in 1690. On the death of his father, Colonel Christopher Codrington, he succeeded him as captain-general of the Leeward Islands. As a governor his rule does not seem to have been wholly popular, and in 1702 an appeal was made against his behaviour by the inhabitants of Antigua. This document, which is still to be seen in the Codrington Library at All Souls with his comments attached, was ultimately laid before the House of Commons, by whom it was summarily dismissed. Some time after 1703 he resigned his governorship and retired to his estates in Barbados, passing the remainder of his life in seclusion and study, chiefly of church history and metaphysics. By his will dated 1702 he left 10,000, and 6,000 worth of books to All Souls College, enough to build, furnish, and endow a magnificent library in the middle of which stands his statue by Sir Henry Cheere. Advertisement

The tablet will be placed on a wall outside the library, where it would be visible from the street.

In July 2016 Oluwafemi Nylander, a prominent member of the Rhodes Must Fall Oxford and campaigner against colonial commemoration at Oxford, stood bare-chested outside All Souls College in protest against the Codrington Library.

He stood with a chain around his neck and 'All Slaves College' daubed on his chest in red paint, intended to resemble blood.

He declared: 'When we complained about the statue and the plaque to the college, their response was that the statue was a fact of history which like the history of slavery itself cannot be changed.

'I thought I would remind them what the history of slavery was.'

In a blog post for the online magazine Consented, Nylander attacked the soulless and moral relativism of University Vice Chancellor Louise Richardson in defending the Codrington Library.

He lambasted All Souls for its 'failure to show humility, regret and sensitivity to this flagrant dismissal of the histories and experiences of black students'.

He claimed that in a statement to Rhodes Must Fall Oxford campaigners, college fellow Sir John Vickers said: 'The Library exists for students and researchers.

'Its name and statues reflect facts of history which, like the history of slavery itself, cannot be changed'.

Codrington's 10,000 currency donation in the eighteenth century is worth approximately 1.2m in modern terms.

A statue of him dressed as a Roman stands in the library, above a plaque in Latin saying 'Christopher Codrington, who built this library and enriched the books out of his will'.
This is the tense moment a venomous black snake lingers at the top of a Christmas tree in a lounge room full of children.

For a heart-stopping half hour, 20 children keep watch over the poisonous reptile at a house in Melbourne's north, after dog chases it up a Christmas tree.

Snake catcher Raymond Hoser was called to the children's birthday party at Craigieburn after the venomous red-bellied black snake had slithered through an open front door and into the lounge room.

Snake catcher Raymond Hoser grabs the red-bellied black snake from the Christmas tree

While the adults were scared, the kids in the lounge room were calm as the snake wrapped itself around the top of the Christmas tree.

'There were people everywhere,' he told Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday night.

'It's not uncommon for adults to be more scared than kids.'

Mr Hoser, 55, received a phone call shortly after 4pm on Wednesday.

A group of 20 children calmly look on as the snake is grabbed from the Christmas tree

Snake catcher Raymond Hoser managed to grab the snake and take it away all in 18 seconds

When he arrived about 30 minutes later, the adults at the party were in hysterics.

'The next thing you you know, they're all jumping and screaming,' he said.

'I just grabbed it. The kids didn't seem scared.'

The group of young people calmly looked on in the lounge room as the reptile handler walked through the front door and grabbed the snake by the tail, all in 13 seconds.

Mr Hoser, who has been catching snakes since he was five, said one bite from a black snake would be enough to kill a child.

The group of 20 children in the lounge room were much calmer than the worried adults

He added the children had done the right thing by keeping away from the venomous reptile, which can inflict kidney damage with one bite if it doesn't kill someone.

'The risk is if they try to pick it up,' he said. 'They kill dogs all the time. They can kill.'

The snake had ended up in the house after a small Jack Russell dog had chased it from the front lawn through the open front door, causing the snake to slither along a wall, under a couch up the Christmas tree.

Anyone who sees a venomous snake in their home is advised to call a snake catcher rather than trying to catch or kill it.

Red-bellied black snakes inflict the most painful bite and are among the most commonly sighted venomous reptiles in Australia, alongside tiger snakes and king browns.
This is the heart-rending moment a Chinese prisoner who had been given a death sentence bid a final farewell to his young daughter.

The little girl was apparently too young to understand the significance of the meeting.

She happily waved to her crying father and said 'bye bye dad' - without realising what the separation would mean to the rest of her life.

Li Shiyuan, from China, meets his wife, mother and daughter on the day of his execution. The man tells his family he wants to hug his daughter (right) before breaking down in tears (left)

The prisoner's wife and mother were also present and had broken down in tears.

The man knelt down and kowtowed thrice to his elderly mother to show his respect. The devastated mother hugged his son and cried hard.

Afterwards, the man was escorted by the policemen to be executed.

The incident recently took place in a prison in Daqing, north-east China's Heilongjiang Province, according to China.com.

Li's daughter (pictured left) was apparently too young to understand the meaning of the meeting and waved to her father happily. Li is pictured hugging his wife and daughter (right)

Footage of the farewell scene began circulating on various Chinese websites, such as Sina.com, on December 15.

The prisoner has been named 30-year-old Li Shiyuan, who was a driver before being jailed.

The video shows Li's family members visiting him on the day of his execution.

When Li saw his wife and mother inside the prison, he kept saying: 'Let me hold my daughter.'

The man was then given the chance to hug his young child near the police car.

Daqing police escort Li Shiyuan to the Daqing Funeral House after the man met his family (left and right). The 30-year-old died after being given a lethal injection at the funeral house

Eastday.com reported that Li caused the deaths of three people in May, 2015.

The report said Li had an argument with one of the three people at a karaoke parlour. Li then drove a car and chased the trio to seek revenge.

The speedy car chase is said to have caused the trio's car to crash into a ditch. Their car burst into flames leaving the three to be burnt to death. Two other people in the wrecked car were reportedly injured.

Reports said Li was detained by the police the next day and given the death penalty by the court.

However, the Chinese media did not reveal what crime Li had been convicted of.

Li was taken to the Daqing Funeral House and given a lethal injection after meeting his daughter, his mother and his wife, Chinese reports said.
An Oklahoma man beat his girlfriend's five-year-old son with a belt to 'teach him a lesson' because he opened one of his Christmas gifts early, it has been alleged.

Wesley McCollum, 22, was arrested on Saturday night in Okmulgee after his girlfriend Bridgette Payne called police.

She claims she returned home from running errands to find her five-year-old son Ayrian lying in his bed covered in cuts and bruises.

Payne said McCollum told her he had sent the child to bed as punishment for opening the wrapped present.

Bridgette Payne shared these photographs of her son Ayrian's injuries in a lengthy Facebook post on Monday where she told how her boyfriend beat the boy for opening his Christmas gift early

When she asked the boy how he had been hurt, she says he told her: 'Wesley hurt me bad mama'.

Payne shared photographs of her son's injuries on Facebook on Monday.

She said she was shocked by McCollum's alleged violent outburst and that he had never hit Ayrian or her other son in the 10 months that they had been together.

The couple live together with two other young boys who they care for.

McCollum remains in county jail on child abuse and child neglect charges.

In her Facebook post, Payne described how she had been out all day when she returned home to find Ayrian in bed and the other children in the home still up.

'Wesley said that Ayrian got into trouble because he stole a present from under the tree and opened it.

'He said it happened right before I got home and his punishment was to stand in the corner and then sent him to bed.

Wesley McCollum, 22, was arrested on child abuse and child neglect charges and remains in county jail in Okmulgee

Ayrian's mother Bridgette (above) said she left him and his siblings alone with McCollum while she ran errands on Saturday

When she returned home she said she found the five-year-old in his bed. When she asked him about his injuries, which included a cut on the head, he said: 'Wesley hurt me bad mama'

Payne said her boyfriend told her Ayrian was sent to bed early as punishment for unwrapping the gift early. The child is pictured in his bed on Saturday after she found him

Ayrian also had bruises and cuts on his back. His mother said he was beaten with a belt and punched

'Nothing seemed wrong until I got Ayrian up to eat... words cannot explain seeing your baby like this and having no clue what happened.

Payne and McCollum have been together for 10 months

'I ran to him like any mother would do crying, hugging him, beggin what happened.

'"Wesley hurt me bad mama," is all he kept saying.'

'I cannot sleep because I imagine my innocent child going thru (sic) this and I wasn't there to protect him.

'For a grown man to punch a child over and over and slap him and beat him with a belt ALL over is no man at all.

'He is the lowest scum on earth,' she said.

McCollum remains in Okmulgee County Jail on two charges; child neglect and child abuse.

It is not known when his next court appearance is.

Payne said she filed a request for a restraining order to stop him from coming close to her or her sons again.
Jennifer Winkler, 36, was sentenced to just five years probation on Monday for the shaking death of 13-month-old Lily Annabella Rieger at her home in Eureka, Missouri in 2011

A Missouri babysitter has been sentenced to just five years probation for the shaking death of a 13-month-old girl in 2011.

Jennifer Winkler, 36, had originally been charged with second-degree murder and child abuse after police said she shook Lily Annabella Rieger to death at her home day care in Eureka.

Winkler had pleaded no contest to manslaughter in 2014 but denied shaking the toddler and said the girl was injured hours before she began watching her.

The Missouri Attorney General's Office had asked for a seven-year prison sentence but Winkler's lawyer asked the judge to honor the since-disputed plea agreement, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

The judge, Nellie Ribaudo, sentenced Winkler on Monday to seven years but suspended the sentence for five years probation.

Winkler was also banned from looking after any children not her own and must carry out 500 hours of community service.

Winkler (left in an earlier mugshot) denied shaking Lily (right) and said she was injured hours before she began watching her. Lily had a fractured skull and brain trauma when she died

The babysitter, who was arrested six years ago, had been watching the little girl in the 10 months before she died.

Lily's father had dropped her off at the home day care in the morning and told police she had not shown any signs of injury when he last saw her.

Police said Winkler called the father several hours later to say that Lily was lethargic and was having difficulty breathing.

Winkler then called 911 and an ambulance took Lily to a nearby hospital.

The girl, who had a fractured skull and brain trauma when she died, had emergency surgery to stop bleeding on her brain.

She was taken off life support two days later.

Police started investigating after the hospital reported the suspected child abuse.
A boy in China who was knocked down by a car has been saved after passersby teamed up to lift the vehicle off him.

The 10-year-old child was hit when he jaywalked between traffic on a busy road in east China.

He was freed by over 30 pedestrians. He suffered bone fractures but has recovered.

A boy (circled) walks between traffic after getting off his mother's car to go to school in China

According to Shandong Business Post, the incident happened in Tianqiao district of Jinan city, Shandong Province on November 7 when parents were sending their children to school in the morning.

The primary-five student got off his black 4x4, dashing to the front and passing a yellow car as a shortcut to go to his school.

But he was hit by the yellow car and trapped under the wheel the moment the traffic lights turned green.

The hit had shocked the boy's parent and dozens of onlookers nearby.

The 10-year-old is hit by a green car which started accelerating when the traffic lights turned green (left). The passersby team up to lift up the vehicle to free the trapped child (right)

Over 30 people rushed over and joined forces to free the boy, he was sent to hospital after

Surveillance camera footage captures the moment pedestrians, drivers and parents rushed towards the green car and lifting it up.

The 10-year-old was pulled out and shortly afterwards and sent to the hospital.

Zhang Jingwu, police officer of Tianqiao district police bureau told The Paper that the boy asked his mother if he could get off at the junction like the child in the green car had done.

The primary school was 200 metres away from the junction.

He then ran between the cars and unfortunately mowed down by the green car.

Doctors confirmed that the boy had fractures on his left arm.

He fully recovered half a month ago and has returned to school.

Officer Zhang said both drivers were responsible for the accident.
Florida police have revealed the text that a 19-year-old woman sent to her boyfriend just moments before she distractedly drove into a tree.

'I can't wait to see you this weekend!' Angelina Holloway text her boyfriend at 2.11pm on April 18, 2016, when she veered off the road in Floral City and crashed her car into a tree.

Angelina died on impact. At 2.15pm, a deputy found her wrecked car.

Scroll down for video

Florida police have revealed the last words of a text that 19-year-old Angelina Holloway sent to her boyfriend just moments before she distractedly drove into a tree in 2016

'I can't wait to see you this weekend!' Angelina text her boyfriend at 2.11pm on April 18, 2016, when she veered off the road in Floral City and crashed her car into a tree. Now, more than a year later, her death is the focus of an anti-texting and driving campaign in Florida

Deputy Michele Tewell (right) helped launch the campaign that she says usually would focus on DUI awareness. But with traffic crashes up by 17 per cent in Citrus County, she wanted to include texting and driving awareness. Also pictured is Angelina's mother, Marvalene Corlett

'When I found her phone the next day, it was in the rubble in her car under everything,' Holloway's mother, Marvalene Corlett, told Fox News.

Now, more than a year later, her death is the focus of an anti-texting and driving campaign in Florida.

'It was devastating because she knew better,' Corlett said.

Angelina had big plans for her future and planned to study psychology at Southeastern University.

The Citrus High School graduate had just gotten approved to study abroad right before her tragic death.

According to her mother, the teen would have traveled to 'Uganda for missionary'.

'She was excited for that, and three days later is when life turned for all of us,' said Corlett.

Angelina's mother is now helping raise awareness about the dangers of texting and driving through a campaign launched by the Citrus County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday called #JustDriveCitrus, according to Fox.

Angelina had big plans for her future and planned to study psychology at Southeastern University

Angelina had just gotten approved to study abroad right before her tragic death. According to her mother, the teen would have traveled to 'Uganda for missionary'

From through January, Angelina's and the text message that took her life, is what drivers will see while traveling down Highway 41 in Inverness. Angelina's mother Marvalene Corlett is seen standing next to the campaign signage

From through January, Angelina's and the text message that took her life, is what drivers will see while traveling down Highway 41 in Inverness.

Deputy Michele Tewell helped launch the campaign that she says usually would focus on DUI awareness.

But with traffic crashes up by 17 per cent in Citrus County, she wanted to include texting and driving awareness.

'I want it to hit the heart. I want them to see that it's a reality, that it does happen,' Tewell told Fox.

Tewell said Angelina's death affected the teen's family and friends, adding that texting and driving is 'not worth it'.
Eight Americans are among the 12 dead in Tuesday's Mexican bus crash, including three generations of a family.

The family were identified as a Mexican prosecutor spoke out on Wednesday to blame the crash on excessive speed and a negligent driver.

Fanya Shamis, 78, was on vacation with her daughter Anna, Anna's husband Moises, and their sons David and Daniel when a bus they were taking to some Mayan ruins in southeastern Mexico crashed on Tuesday.

Shamis, her daughter and her youngest grandson Daniel, 11, died in the crash, while Moises and the elder boy David, 15, were injured.

Shamis' death comes tragically less than a year after the passing of her husband Arkady, who died last February at the age of 83.

The Behars live in Lorton, Virginia, while Shamis lived in Coconut Creek, Florida.

Scroll down for video

Three generations of a family were among the eight Americans killed in a Tuesday bus crash in Mexico. Anna Behar, 46 (center), her 11-year-old son Daniel, and her 78-year-old mother Fanya Shamis (not pictured) were killed. Anna's husband Moises (left) and their 15-year-old son David (right, muzzed) were injured

The family appeared to be frequent travelers, according to their Facebook profiles. Above, Anna Behar and her husband

Family say they are traveling to Florida to meet Moises and David when they return to the U.S.

Also among the dead is Canadian Stephanie Horwood, 42

Relative Israel Franco told WUSA that the family is heartbroken over the three deaths, and is planning to fly down to Florida to meet with Moises and his son when they return from Mexico.

It was previously reported that Moises was hospitalized after the crash.

Earlier in the day, one of Shamis' other grandchildren, Benjamin Shabobo said that Mrs Behar and one of her sons were missing.

'We don't have really concrete information,' Shababo said. 'We're all scared. It's just really scary to process this in my head that possibly something really bad happened to them.'

Anna Behar's mother Berta also spoke to the Sun-Sentinel, saying: 'I don't know what to do. We are going crazy trying to find out. We haven't received any calls from Royal Caribbean to inform us of what happened.'

An online obituary shows that Shamis' husband Arkady passed away in February at the age of 83.

The U.S. State Department said in a statement: 'We express our heartfelt condolences to all those affected by this tragedy. We are in contact with local authorities, and will continue to monitor the situation. We have staff on the scene and at local hospitals to assist victims and loved ones.'

The nationalities of the others who were killed include two Swedes, a Canadian and a Mexican - who was the tour guide

The injured include seven Americans, two Swedes and three Canadians. Five of the injured were taken to the hospital and have since been released

Photos from the crime scene show bodies on the road

Also among the dead was Stephanie Horwood, 42, of Quebec, Canada. She is survived by her husband and two daughters who sustained minor injuries.

It's unclear if the driver will face charges or not.

Twelve people on the bus died on Tuesday. Eight, including Shamis, were American. Two were Swedish, one was Canadian and one was Mexican, who was the tour guide. The injured include seven Americans, two Swedes and three Canadians. Five of the injured were taken to the hospital and have since been released.

The bus was carrying tourists from cruise ships docked in the port of Mahahual to Mayan ruins in Cacchoben when it ran off the road for an unknown reason.

The U.S. State Department said in a statement: 'We express our heartfelt condolences to all those affected by this tragedy. We are in contact with local authorities, and will continue to monitor the situation. We have staff on the scene and at local hospitals to assist victims and loved ones.'

The bus was carrying tourists from cruise ships docked in the port of Mahahual to Mayan ruins in Cacchoben when it ran off the road for an unknown reason

The bus was carrying 31 passengers on a straight stretch of road with little traffic. The cause of the accident was not immediately known

The crash, which left another 18 injured, happened on a highway in the state of Quintana Roo, located on the eastern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula and well known as home to the Caribbean resort city of Cancun.

The bus was carrying 31 passengers on a straight stretch of road with little traffic. The cause of the accident was not immediately known.

Twenty-three of the passengers had arrived on the ships Celebrity Equinox and Serenade of the Seas, cruise owner Royal Caribbean Cruises told AFP.

'We are doing all we can to care for our guests, including assisting with medical care and transportation,' the cruise line tweeted.

Both ships docked in Mahahual on Tuesday and left later that afternoon.

Celebrity Equinox was on a seven-night Caribbean cruise and departed from Miami on Saturday. Serenade of the Seas left from Fort Lauderdale on Friday for a seven-night Caribbean cruise as well.

Eight Americans are believed to be among the dead in the Tuesday crash

In video images from the scene, shown by CTV News, the vehicle is resting on its side in vegetation off the two-lane highway, with some survivors lying on the pavement and others walking around.

American cruise ship passenger Chris Brawleym of Haslet, Texas, says he didn't see the accident, but his bus of tourists came upon the scene minutes after the crash.

He says they had been driving about 35 to 40 minutes before the accident.

Brawley says the sky was clear and the road was dry, and he did not see any other vehicles involved.

People receive medical attention after a bus crash at the Chetumal-Mahahual highway

Royal Caribbean Cruises says 27 passengers from the Celebrity Equinox (left) and Serenade of the Seas (right) were on the overturned bus

Landmark: The bus was on its way to the ruins at Chacchoben, about 110 miles south of the popular resort town of Tulum

He did not see the crash, but says that 'the bus clearly lost control somehow as there were swerve marks all over the road surface.'

Costa Maya Mahahual, the bus company involved, said in a statement that the bus was carrying tourists who had arrived to the coastal town of Mahahual aboard a cruise ship.

In addition to the tourists, a guide and driver were aboard the bus, the company said.

Quintana Roo is the Mexican state that receives the greatest number of international visitors, with many headed for Cancun's beaches and legendary Maya ruins.
Britons worried the cost of foreign cheddar will soar after Brexit should be more patriotic in their cheese buying habits, Michael Gove today suggested.

The Environment Secretary was quizzed by MPs about what the impact of foodies will be if Britain left the bloc without a deal and resorted to World Trade Organisation tariffs.

Labour MP Angela Smith, who sits on the environment select committee, warned that much of the cheddar on UK supermarket shelves comes from the Republic of Ireland.

And she said that if the UK crashed out of Brussels without a deal then tariffs of 40 per cent will be slapped on these cheese blocks.

Michael Gove, pictured today in front of the environment select committee, said UK cheese producers boast some of the finest brands and flavours in the world

Ms Smith confronted Mr Gove about whether this will cause cheddar prices to rocket by a similar amount or 'are we are all going to be forced to eat Wensleydale rather than cheddar?'

But the Environment Secretary said UK cheese producers boast some of the finest brands and flavours in the world.

MAY RESISTS CALLS TO NAME HER XMAS GOOSE BORIS Theresa May has resisted calls at Prime Minister's Questions to name her Christmas goose 'Michael or Boris'. Mrs May was teased by Labour MP Clive Efford to name the goose to 'extract the maximum pleasure' from stuffing it. He said: 'Last year the Prime Minister told the Radio Times on Christmas Day she likes to prepare and cook her own goose. 'In the spirit of Christmas can I suggest to her that in order to extract the maximum pleasure from the messy job of stuffing her goose that she names it either Michael or Boris.' Speaker John Bercow had to call order as MPs whooped and cheered at the suggestion. Mrs May said: 'Can I say to him I think I'll be having to resist the temptation to call the goose Jeremy.' Advertisement

He told the select committee: 'I was going to say Angela, I am deeply concerned about your unpatriotic attitude towards cheddar! Because whether it's Montgomery or Lincolnshire poacher there are very many

'At Defra we are very pro UK cheddar  whether it's Orkney or west country cheddar.'

And he said the UK producers will be swift to satiate the country's appetite for cheddar if the prices of foreign brands rise.

He told MPs: 'If it is the case that we end up on WTO terms then I'm sure that British farmers and British food producers will find the opportunity to meet demand in this and other areas.'

He added: 'One of the striking things about British farmers and British food producers is that they are capable of responding with rapidity and skill to fluctuations in the market.'

And Mr Gove - a leading Brexiteer - was backed up by his number two in the ministry George Eustice who declared: 'We are the best manufacturer of cheese anywhere in the world.'

Mr Gove also waded back into the row about US chlorinated chicken, hinting that he would block a trade deal with America if it meant the import of the birds.

He said the issue was one of animal welfare rather than food safety, and Britain would need to be 'assertive' in such trade talks.

He said: 'The Cabinet is agreed that there should be no compromise on high animal welfare and environmental standards.

Labour MP Angela Smith (pictured left) and environment select committee chairman Neil Parish (pictured right)quizzed Michael Gove about whether cheddar prices will soar by 40 per cent if the UK eaves the European Union on WTO rules

'In America they cannot guarantee the same high standards in terms of how chickens are reared that we insist on here.

'Unless there is a change in the American side we would say that those animal welfare rules are things on which we will not compromise.

'The whole point about trade deals is that you have got to be assertive in defence of your own interests.'

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox has previously said the issue of chlorine-washed chickens would only be 'a detail of the very end stage of one sector of a potential free trade agreement'.
Donald Trump Jr. claimed on Tuesday that a deep-state conspiracy to undermine his father is stopping him from making his agenda a reality.

'There is, and there are, people at the highest levels of government that don't want to let America be America,' he told a group of young conservatives in West Palm Beach, Florida.

'My father talked about a rigged system throughout the campaign, and people were like, "Oh, what are you talking about?", he recalled.

'But it is. And you're seeing it.'

Donald Trump Jr. claimed on Tuesday that a deep-state conspiracy to undermine his father is stopping him from making his agenda a reality.

Trump Jr. was addressing the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit.

He also blasted special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged election-year collusion with Russian actors.

The president's son was referring to a blockbuster development this month that saw Mueller remove FBI agent Peter Strzok from his team.

Strzok exchanged anti-Trump text messages with his lover, suggesting that the Mueller probe was an 'insurance policy' against a Trump election victory.

Trump Jr. blasted special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged election-year collusion with Russian actors

'Imagine what would happen if we rolled back the clock to 2008,' Trump Jr. said, and politically biased FBI officials tried to undermine a potential Barack Obama presidency.

'What do you think would happen?' he asked. 'Do you think the media would cover that? Yeah. Do you think it would be brushed under the rug like, "Oh, it's nothing. It doesn't mean anything"?'

'There would be revolution in the streets. So I'm glad that this is coming out now, because it is good, because real people have to see this,' he said.

Trump Jr. said Strzok's 'insurance policy' was the discredited 'dossier' of salacious accusations against his father.

Strzok and senior FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who were having an affair, shared more than 10,000 texts in 2016 discussing the future president.

During their exchanges, they described Trump as an 'idiot' and a 'loathsome human' and shared their hopes that Hillary Clinton should win the election.
MI5 has raised alarm about a huge surge in the number of 'high risk' terror suspects after the threat to Britain moved up a gear.

A report has given a stark insight into the challenge facing the security services, revealing that they are devoting more resources to monitoring individuals who have received terrorist training or are plotting attacks.

It also highlighted fears about extremists driven out of Iraq and Syria and delivered a chilling assessment of ISIS's murderous ambitions - with an arm of the group said to be plotting terrorism in the West 'pretty much all day every day'.

The disclosures are contained in the annual report published by parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee.

Police patrol the streets of Manchester following the deadly attack on the Arena in May

The committee's report highlighted fears about extremists driven out of Iraq and Syria. Pictured are jihadis parading in Raqqa last year

Members are given access to highly classified material and take evidence from cabinet ministers and senior intelligence officials.

Committee chairman Dominic Grieve said: 'The scale of the terrorist threat facing the UK is unprecedented in terms of the number of current investigations and the overall number of 'individuals of interest'.

'MI5 have told us that it represents a pace which they have not experienced before.'

MI5 described how 'the most striking shift in the composition of CT (counter-terrorism) casework in the last five years was the proportion of what we refer to as high-risk casework'.

Typically, 'high-risk casework' refers to individuals who have received terrorist training or are attempting to procure the means to carry out an attack, but who may not yet have a current attack plan.

Previously, this sort of work represented a smaller share of MI5's activity, with a greater proportion of work being 'slower burn' in character and requiring less resource-intensive monitoring, such as radicalisation or fundraising cases.

MI5 has about 3,000 'subjects of interest' on its radar, on top of a larger pool of 20,000 individuals looked at as part of previous investigations.

The report said: 'Keeping track of, assessing and applying proportionate investigative resources to such a large number of individuals is an extremely challenging task for the intelligence and security community.'

UK POLITICAL SYSTEM 'COULD BE TARGET FOR CYBER ATTACKS' Britain's political system could be targeted in cyber attacks by foreign states and terror groups, the parliamentary report warned. It raised the prospect of parliamentary networks being hacked or fake information planted on legitimate websites. The Intelligence and Security Committee said: "The UK's political system is a potential target for cyber attacks by hostile foreign states and terrorist groups. "Such attacks could include hacking into parliamentary or private computer networks and obtaining communications and data belonging to political figures, or obtaining the sensitive data on the electorate which is held by political parties. "It could also potentially include planting fake information on legitimate political and current affairs websites, or otherwise interfering with the online presence of political parties and institutions." Attacks could be carried out with the aim of undermining the integrity of the UK's political processes, subverting a specific election or referendum, or poisoning public discourse about a sensitive issue in a manner that suits a hostile state's foreign policy aims, according to the report. Advertisement

Efforts to contain the threat have come under close scrutiny this year following a flurry of attacks.

In addition to five terrorist incidents in London and Manchester this year, security agencies have foiled nine plots since the Westminster atrocity in March.

The committee also assessed the threat from so-called 'foreign fighters' who left Britain and other countries to take part in fighting alongside IS, which is also known as Daesh.

Since the start of the conflict in Syria, more than 850 UK-based individuals 'of national security concern' are thought to have travelled to the region.

It is thought about half of those have returned, more than 300 are believed to still be in Syria, and about 100 have been killed.

The report said: 'As the territory of Daesh is squeezed by military action in Syria and Iraq, the dispersal of this group of foreign fighters becomes a serious concern, raising questions about when and where they will resurface, and what their intentions will be.'

MI5 said it was 'very concerned', adding: 'A year from now most of them will not be in Syria and Iraq, probably. Who can say how this will unfold?'

The number of British children growing up inside the so-called Caliphate, educated and indoctrinated by IS, was identified as a further complication by the committee.

MI5 told members it was working with partner agencies to develop intelligence collection on the intent of the people driving terrorist planning from Syria and Iraq.

'There is part of Daesh which is functionally best described as an external operations department which has a whole bunch of people which pretty much all day every day are plotting terrorism in the West in various countries in various ways,' the agency said.
A North Korean soldier who made a daring escape to South Korea across the two countries heavily fortified border has been given a life time supply of Choco Pies, a snack popular in both nations.

Oh Chong Song, 24, was shot in his knee, arm, back, chest and through his shoulder and surgeons also found that his body was riddled with parasites and Hepatitis B.

But despite his serious injuries, surgeons saved his life and when he woke up at the Ajou University Hospital in South Korea, he told doctors he was craving a Choco Pie.

Oh Chong Song made his daring dash over the border at the Panmunjom truce village on November 13

Choco Pies are a chocolate-coated biscuit and marshmallow snack that has found huge popularity on both sides of the Korean border.

After being smuggled into the North, they became so-popular that a thriving black-market has emerged for them in the secretive regime with people there paying up to 3.60 per cake, despite them costing just 17p in the south.

Former North Korean defectors living in South Korea prepare balloons containing 'Choco Pie' and anti-Pyongyang leaflets before releasing them towards the North (file photo)

Furious at his country's love of a product made by his fiercest rivals, leader Kim Jong-un has now ordered that Pyongyang starts producing its own brand of Choco Pie, potentially bringing an end to an issue that sparked an unusual level of dissent among North Korea's brutally oppressed populace.

When Choco-Pie maker, South Korean snack firm Orion, heard about the defector's craving for the popular snack and decided to send him 100 boxes to welcome him to South Korea.

He will now receive a life-time supply of the snacks after his dash over the border at the Panmunjom truce village on November 13.

An Orion spokesman told the Korea Herald: 'We sent the Choco Pies as a welcoming present to Oh, who came to Korea after going through hardship. It was not an act for publicity.'

Oh is believed to be an army staff sergeant who was stationed in the Joint Security Area in the United Nations truce village of Panmunjom, according to Kim Byung-kee, a lawmaker of South Korea's ruling party, briefed by the National Intelligence Service.

Footage from his brave dash across the border shows his former comrades opening fire at him as he races on foot over the painted line that divides the two countries.

He was shot at least four times in his daring bid, and was found by South Korean troops slumped in a pile of leaves just south of the border.

After being dragged to safety, he was airlifted to hospital, where he underwent two rounds of emergency surgery.
Jason Nolan, 38, was acquitted on Tuesday of charges that he had sexual contact with two young male runaways in his apartment in Omaha, Nebraska in 2016

A US Coast Guard veteran and engineer has been acquitted of charges that he had sexual contact with two young male runaways in his apartment after he says they scammed him.

Jason Nolan, 38, had been accused of luring the two boys, aged 11 and 17, to his apartment in Omaha, Nebraska in November 2016 following the Chicago Cubs' world series win.

Nolan, who has a doctorate in geology, was charged with first degree sexual assault for the 11-year-old and pandering and procuring alcohol for a minor for the 17-year-old.

He was acquitted of all the charges on Tuesday after a jury deliberated for more than two days, the Omaha World-Herald reports.

Police started investigating Nolan after the two boys claimed he approached them near the slides at Gene Leahy Mall and asked if they wanted to celebrate the Cubs' win with him at his apartment.

The boys, who had run away from a Children's Square home, told police that Nolan had provided them with alcohol and forced them to perform sex acts on each other and him.

They said Nolan had promised to give them money.

Police started investigating Nolan after the two boys claimed he approached them near the slides (above) at Gene Leahy Mall and asked if they wanted to celebrate the Chicago Cubs' world series win with him at his apartment

Nolan, however, told authorities that the boys had scammed him and tricked him into letting them into his apartment.

He said the boys approached him as he walked home and asked if they could use his bathroom. Nolan said he let the boys into his building to use the toilet in the lobby.

When one of the boys told him the bathroom was locked, Nolan said they asked if they could go to his apartment and he 'stupidly' agreed.

He told police they then demanded he pay them $500 or they would tell police he molested them.

'I got scammed and conned,' Nolan testified during his court hearing. 'And I'm embarrassed out of my mind.'

His attorneys had argued that he was a victim of a scam known as the 'Las Vegas hotel con', which is often used by women preying on drunk men in a bid to get into their room.

They also argued that police did not seize anything from Nolan's apartment for DNA testing and only took photos in the 19 minutes they were inside his home.
A Michigan man is fighting for his life after police in Ohio say four teenager hurled a sandbag from an interstate overpass on Tuesday night.

Marquise Byrd, 22, of Warren, Michigan, was a front-seat passenger in a southbound vehicle on Interstate 75 that was struck by the sandbag near the Indiana Street overpass in Toledo at around 10pm.

According to police, the sandbag crashed through the vehicle's windshield, striking Byrd. He was treated at the scene and transported to Mercy Health St. Vincent Medical Center in critical condition with a head injury.

Scroll down for video

Marquise Byrd, 22, was a front-seat passenger in a southbound vehicle on Interstate 75 in Toledo, Ohio (right) when he was struck by a sandbag

The driver of the targeted vehicle did not appear to have been injured.

The four arrested suspects include a 13-year-old and three 14-year-olds. Each boy was charged with felonious assault and taken to the Lucas County Juvenile Detention Center.

Juvenile deputy prosecutor Lori Olender says she was told by police Byrd could die from his injuries.

Olender tells The Toledo Blade that in the event of the victim's passing, the state will upgrade the charges against the four teens to homicide.

In neighboring Michigan, where Marquise Byrd is from, five teenagers were charged with second-degree murder in October for allegedly throwing a 6-pound rock from an overpass, which ended up killing 32-year-old Kenneth White.
North Korea has developed a sophisticated army of hackers that could cause enormous damage to foreign militaries, steal huge amounts of cash from banks or cripple essential infrastructure.

Technology experts have also warned that the Stalinist autocracy's cyber army is doubly lethal because there is little chance to hit back against it given its lack of connectivity.

While the dictatorship's high-profile missile and nuclear programmes grab the headlines, North Korea watchers have warned its legion of 6,000 hackers could be far more dangerous to global security.

More than a third of hospital trusts had their systems crippled while nearly 7,000 NHS appointments were cancelled in the WannaCry ransomware attack in May (stock photo)

It is also suspected the state is using cryptocurrency to bypass biting economic sanctions

Bryce Boland, chief technology officer for Asia Pacific at cybersecurity company FireEye, told The Telegraph: 'They are quite capable of conducting operations that could cause significant disruption to many organisations.'

He also said the state will probably increase its digital espionage to prepare for a possible war, adding: 'We've already seen attempts by North Korea to gain access to some of the critical infrastructure in North America in recent months.'

It comes as both the British and American governments publicly named a shadowy North Korea cyber crime group for the WannaCry ransomware attack which crippled parts of the NHS.

The Foreign Office said the National Cyber Security Centre had assessed that it was 'highly likely' the attack in May was the work of cyber criminals known as the Lazarus Group.

Security minister Ben Wallace has previously said the Government believed 'quite strongly' that a foreign state was behind the attack, naming North Korea as the main suspects.

In the latest statement, Foreign Office minister Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon said: 'The UK's National Cyber Security Centre assesses it is highly likely that North Korean actors known as the Lazarus Group were behind the WannaCry ransomware campaign - one of the most significant to hit the UK in terms of scale and disruption.

'We condemn these actions and commit ourselves to working with all responsible states to combat destructive criminal use of cyber space.

While the dictatorship's high-profile missile and nuclear programmes grab the headlines, North Korea watchers have warned its legion of 6,000 hackers could be far more dangerous to global security. Pictured: A missile launch from July

North Korean cyber warriors are also blamed for the theft of 60million from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and of top secret military documents from South Korea earlier in the year. Pictured: Kim Jong-un watches a missile test

'The indiscriminate use of the WannaCry ransomware demonstrates North Korean actors using their cyber programme to circumvent sanctions.'

About 230,000 computer systems in 150 countries around the world  including dozens of NHS trusts in the UK  were caught up in the attack, which saw screens frozen with a warning that they would not be unlocked unless a ransom was paid.

It also follows an attack on South Korean cryptocurrency exchange firm Youbit, which fell into bankruptcy after it had over 5million stolen by suspected North Korean hackers.

North Korean cyber warriors are also blamed for the theft of 60million from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and of top secret military documents from South Korea earlier in the year.

There are also worries Kim Jong-un's state could attempt to undermine the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Foreign Office minister Lord Ahmad (pictured left) confirmed the attack was carried out by the notorious North Korean cyber espionage group Lazarus. the cyber gang have strong links with the regime of Kim Jong-Un (pictured right) and have targeted enemies of Pyongyang

About 230,000 computer systems in 150 countries around the world  including dozens of NHS trusts in the UK  were caught up in the WannaCry attack, which saw screens frozen with a warning that they would not be unlocked unless a ransom was paid

Patrick Cronin, senior director at the Center for a New American Security, said North Korea could do something relatively minor like flashing its flag on a scoreboard - or something far worse, like crippling infrastructure.

He explained: 'If we are maximising economic strangulation still going into and through the Olympics, this is one means for them to punch back at the South Korean economy which needs a successful Olympic event.'

It is also suspected the state is using cryptocurrency to bypass biting economic sanctions.

But other Mr Boland also warned that North Korea is not working alone - with potential support coming from Russia.

It is a 'win-win for Russia', he added, explaining: 'It gives them a bit of leverage over North Korea, it gives them a bit of leverage over the US.'

Simon Choi, director of Seoul cybersecurity firm Hauri, has accumulated vast troves of data on Pyongyang's hacking activities and has been warning about potential ransomware attacks by the North since 2016.

The United States has reportedly stepped up cyberattacks of its own against Pyongyang.

But Choi told AFP: 'The North's hacking operations are upgrading from attacks on "enemy states" to a shady, lucrative moneymaking machine in the face of more sanctions.'
Now that the $1.5 trillion tax cut is ready to be signed into law, accountants, lawyers, taxpayers  and even some of the people who voted for it  are trying to figure out exactly how it will work in practice.

The need for a re-vote in the House Wednesday points to the likelihood that Congress will have to enact 'technical corrections' to the legislation in the not-too-distant future.

Merely interpreting what has been passed has sent the bureaucracy into a flurry of action, while private accountants and corporate lawyers are still parsing the legislation to see how it will affect taxpayers  and how to best game the new rules.

The law is set to take effect in just 12 days, while the White House hasn't said precisely when the president will sign it.

President Donald Trump, flanked by Republican lawmakers, celebrates Congress passing tax cut legislation

Bill text for the final conference report neared 1,100 pages.

'There will always be bumps in implementation with the IRS, and probably technical corrections to follow, said Republican Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, Politico reported.

The same thing happened with Obamacare, only in that case, Democrats lost control of Congress and were unable to make technical fixes to the complex new system.

The publication reported it could take years for Treasury and IRS officials to develop regulations to codify language dealing with 'pass-through' corporations.

Even as professionals dig into the bill to see what is in it  the final conference report got released just Friday evening, with provisions struck down in the Senate Tuesday night  the Treasury Department and other agencies must put out rules to interpret provisions.

One immediate crunch for tax advisors is how to help people grappling with a new $10,000 cap on deductibility for state and local income taxes.

President Trump was joined by Republican members of Congress who helped and supported the bill

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) speaks about newly passed tax reform legislation during an event at the White House December 20, 2017 in Washington, DC

The New York Times reported that bill authors did not prohibit Americans from pre-paying their property taxes for 2018 in order to avoid a the cap and get the deduction. But not all communities allow for prepayment.

The bill does, however, prohibit people from prepaying their 2018 local income taxes.

President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump greets guests during an event to celebrate Congress passing the tax cut with Republican members of the House and Senate on the South Lawn of the White House

President Trump touted the tax bill as a form of simplification, promising in November: 'The only people that arent going to like this is H&R Block. Theyre not going to be very happy. Thats probably one of the only companies in the country thats not going to be thrilled.'

Although the standard deduction is doubling, it is unclear how many filers will forego professional assistance, leaving the 'postcard' tax return a dream deferred for many.

Despite condensing income tax brackets, the rewrite did not notably simplify the tax code, and tax professionals will spend hours interpreting the changes for their clients.

HOLIDAY READING: The conference report came in at 1,100 pages

Even the name of the law changed at the last minute. It used to carry a short title, the 'Tax Cuts and Job Act.'

But the Senate parliamentarian ruled the title had no budget impact as required under the rules, so Democrats were able to knock it out. Now it is called by its longer name: 'An Act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to titles II and V of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018.'

'The bill has taken shape at breakneck pace over the past two months, making it difficult for even seasoned tax practitioners to know exactly where things stand. The bill itself is massive and contains many tax law changes, some of which are extremely complex, and many of which go into effect in a matter of weeks,' according to a Thompson/Reuters summary of the bill.
Larissa Rodriguez has a long history with Job and Family Services, who removed her two oldest children from her custody several years ago

The caller said the boy had been buried by the boy's mother after discovering him unresponsive two moths earlier

Larissa Rodriguez, 34, has been arrested on suspicion of murder but has not been formally charged with a crime

Police began their search after receiving a tip from Pakistan that five-year-old Jordan Rodriguez was buried in the backyard

Police say that they have arrested the mother of a five-year-old disabled boy after discovering his remains in the backyard of her Cleveland home.

Police spokeswoman Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia said searchers found the remains Tuesday while digging at a home on the 1300 block of W. 80th after cadaver dogs on Monday turned up nothing.

According to Cleveland.com, police began their search after receiving a tip that five-year-old Jordan Rodriguez, who is developmentally disabled and unable to speak, was buried in the yard.

Police began their search after receiving a tip from Pakistan that five-year-old Jordan Rodriguez (pictured) was buried in the backyard

Larissa Rodriguez (pictured), 34, has been arrested on suspicion of murder but has not been formally charged with a crime

When police interviewed the boy's mother, Larissa Rodriguez, she claimed that her son was with his biological father in Houston.

She said the boy was picked up on December 2 by his aunt, but was unable to provide contact information or an address for either relative.

Police said that Larissa Rodriguez was arrested on suspicion of murder but has not been formally charged with a crime.

The search for the small child began after Christopher Rodriguez's brother, who lives in Pakistan, tipped off the police two days earlier (pictured: Man thought to be Christopher Rodriguez along with Larissa Rodriguez)

Her boyfriend, Christopher Rodriguez, is currently serving serving a six-month sentence in in the Medina County Jail for failing to pay child support.

The search for the small child began after Christopher Rodriguez's brother, who lives in Pakistan, tipped off the police two days earlier, Cleveland.com reported.

The caller said that his brother informed him that he and Larissa Rodriguez had buried her son in the backyard after finding him unresponsive two months ago.

County spokeswoman Mary Louise Madigan told Cleveland.com that Larissa Rodriguez, 34, has a long history with Job and Family Services, who removed her two oldest children from her custody several years ago.

Anna Rodriguez, Larissa's sister, described her nephew as a 'sweet kid,' discovering him once tied up with a sock in his mouth at her sister's home.

'I'm just so hurt and angry,' Ana Rodriguez said after the remains were found. 'I don't know why they would do this to him.'

Police say human remains consistent with those of a young child have been found in the yard of a Cleveland home

Police spokeswoman Sgt. Jennifer Ciaccia said searchers found the remains Tuesday while digging at a home on the 1300 block of W. 80th




Chinese students in Australia are being warned to be on guard for their safety because of 'insulting incidents'.

The Chinese embassy in Canberra has issued a public announcement on its website, less than two weeks after Sam Dastyari resigned as a Labor senator over his dealings with a Chinese businessman.

The Communist power appears particularly sensitive after the Turnbull Government focused its attacks on Mr Dastyari's links with Chinese billionaire and political donor Huang Xiangmo.

Chinese students in Australia are being warned to be on guard about their safety (international students at Canberra's Australian National University pictured)

It posted a notification on Sunday reminding Chinese nationals of an increase in 'insulting incidents' and assaults against Chinese students, urging them to report such attacks to the Chinese embassy.

More than 170,000 Chinese students are enrolled at Chinese schools, universities and private colleges.

In late October, three Chinese students from Canberra College were allegedly assaulted at the Woden bus interchange in Canberra.

China's ambassador to Australia Cheng Jingye raised the issue with officials from the Australian Capital Territory.

The Chinese embassy in Canberra has issued a warning to students and nationals in Australia

More than 170,000 Chinese students are enrolled in Australia at universities and private colleges

Earlier this month, the Chinese government accused Australia of failing to help Chinese students integrate.

An editorial in the Global Times - a pro-Chinese Communist Party newspaper - also says universities have done little to help students integrate into Australian culture.

'I sincerely advise Australian universities to pay more attention to their quality of education and stop treating Chinese students as a cash machine,' Beijing-based journalist Lilly Wang wrote on Wednesday.

'I rarely hear professors or lecturers helping them to understand Australian culture or purposely mix them with local students in a class.'
An Adelaide mother is planning her son's funeral instead of planning Christmas celebrations.

And the man accused of her son's death was handed home detention so he could spend Christmas with his own family.

Jack Hanley, 22, was killed after a fatal blow to the head following an incident between two groups of people on December 10, according to Ten Eyewitness News.

An Adelaide mother (pictured) is planning her son's funeral instead of planning Christmas

Reece Andrew Watherston, 20, (pictured left) was charged with Jack Hanley's manslaughter

Mr Hanley, 22, (pictured) was killed after a fatal blow to the head following an incident between two groups of people on December 10

Reece Andrew Watherston, 20, was charged with Mr Hanley's manslaughter and was granted bail given he is under strict electronic monitoring and does not leave the house.

'The accused is going home. Jack is never going home. We have to bury Jack now,' Mr Hanley's sister Moana Ward told reporters outside court Wednesday.

'Jack is the only victim here. He paid the ultimate price with his life. There is no reward for him or us.

'My family was destroyed the morning Jack was killed.'

Watherston's lawyer told court the incident was between 15 people and was not a one-punch attack, according to Seven News.

Watherston is expected to face Adelaide Magistrates Court in the new year.

'The accused is going home. Jack is never going home. We have to bury Jack now,' Mr Hanley's sister Moana Ward told reporters outside court Wednesday (Mr Hanley's mother pictured)
Two police officers who went to a petrol station to get coffee to avoid confronting a group of men hunting hares have been sacked for gross misconduct.

Constables Robert Ashcroft and Ataul Ahmad, from Slough, Berkshire, were dismissed by Thames Valley Police following a misconduct hearing which found they breached standards of professional behaviour.

A spokesman for the force said the case was brought following three separate incidents between January and March this year.

Constables Constables Robert Ashcroft and Ataul Ahmad, from Slough, Berkshire, were sacked by Thames Valley Police for gross misconduct. The pair had chosen to visit a petrol station to get coffee to avoid a group pf men hunting hares

On one occasion they had deliberately gone to a different location when they were called to a man armed with a knife in Langley.

Despite the incident needing an immediate police response both PC Ahmad and PC Ashcroft who were on duty in a marked police car failed to show up to the potentially deadly situation in January.

The following day the pair were called to attend reports of a group of men hare coursing in the area around Langley.

Hare coursing is a former competitive sport using greyhounds and other dogs to hunt hares using their sight rather than their smell and has been illegal in the UK since 2005.

Once again they were both in a marked police car but instead of attending the scene and confronting the men, they decided to stop at a petrol station in order to get coffee.

On the third occasion, which took place in March, the bungling pair should have attended a report of an assault of a man but both failed to show up.

Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Ward, head of professional standards, said: 'For the public to have confidence in the police, we expect the highest of standards from all of our officers and their commitment to serving the public.

'Thames Valley Police is committed to investigating any behaviour which does not adhere to the values and standards set within the force.

'PC Ashcroft and PC Ahmad failed to adhere to these standards of behaviour and there is no place in our force for those who behave in the manner they did.
Britain has been crowned the worlds best country in which to do business in a major vote of confidence ahead of Brexit.

It is the first time this country has taken the top spot in the Forbes annual survey after rising from fifth last year.

The UK scored well on technology plus the size and education of the workforce although political risk was seen as the weakest point.

The UK came in the top 25 in each of areas apart from political risk - where it placed 28th. Pictured is the City of London

The US was ranked 12th, Germany 13th and France 22nd in the table of Best Countries for Business.

Coming days after the pro-Brussels CBI said manufacturing order books were at a 30-year high, the report was seen as further proof Britain can prosper outside the EU.

Brexit supporter John Longworth, former head of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: This week the CBI reported manufacturing order books at a 30-year high and now Forbes are saying we are the best country in which to do business. This confounds the naysayers at the IMF, Bank of England and Treasury and shows the future is bright for Brexit Britain.

The Forbes report ranking 153 countries said Britain had brushed off siren warnings of economic collapse in the wake of the Brexit vote with unemployment falling to a 42-year low and has an attractive business climate.

It added: After the UK narrowly voted last year to leave the EU, predictions swirled that the British economy would collapse.

Yes, the pound plummeted 9 per cent versus the dollar the day after the surprise result and remains down, but the economy as a whole has held up relatively well.

Gross domestic product grew 1.8 per cent in 2016, a tick behind only Germanys 1.9 per cent in the Group of Seven industrialized nations.

Economic growth has continued in 2017, home prices are up and unemployment has sunk to a 42-year low at 4.3 per cent.

The 12th annual survey went on: Much uncertainty remains with the official exit from the EU scheduled for March 2019. Some UK companies are holding off on investments to see how Brexit affects trade relations and growth is forecasted to slow in 2018 but Britains business climate remains attractive.

TOP 10 PLACES TO DO BUSINESS 1. Britain 2. New Zealand 3. Netherlands 4. Sweden 5. Canada 6. Hong Kong 7. Denmark 8. Ireland 9. Singapore 10. Switzerland Advertisement

Brexit supporter and former Labour MP Gisela Stuart, chairman of the Change Britain campaign, said: This is a clear vote of confidence in the UK economy, defying Project Fear and those who continue to talk this country down.

Companies large and small invest in Britain because we are an open and innovative economy, able to raise capital, supported by a strong legal system. These are all qualities which we will be able to harness even more after we have left the EU.

The findings will be a boost for Theresa May (pictured in the Commons today) as she pushes for a Brexit deal

Rankings were based on 15 measures, including property rights, innovation, tax rates, technology, corruption, freedom, red tape and investor protection.

Forbes noted that major companies such as Apple and US bank Wells Fargo have ramped up investment in Britain since the Brexit vote.

Wells Fargo spent 300million buying a new European headquarters in London while Apple plans to open a new campus in the capital in 2021.

Facebook is also in the market for a site for 9,000 staff, Forbes noted.

Jeff Lessard, a property consultant at Cushman & Wakefield, said: These commitments signal a belief across industries in the long-term strength of the UK economy.

The best thing going for the UK is that London is one of three global hubs for financial services. A few European cities have the opportunity to challenge London but each has deficiencies.
Theresa May will personally raise concerns about anti-democratic reforms in Poland when she meets the country's new prime minister tomorrow.

Mrs May is flying to Warsaw for crucial talks on Brexit with Mateusz Morawiecki, who took over at the head of the government last week.

The stakes for her visit rose dramatically today as the European Union launched unprecedented disciplinary action against Poland over controversial reforms.

New laws give the Polish government greater control of a top court and a key judicial body. The reforms have triggered protests in Poland and international outrage.

The EU today launched what has been dubbed the 'nuclear option' by invoking Article 7 of the its treaties, a process that could see Poland's voting rights in Europe suspended.

Brussels warned today 'the rule of law is under threat' in Poland and accused the government of a 'naked abuse of political power.

Theresa May (pictured at PMQs today) will personally raise concerns about anti-democratic reforms in Poland when she meets the country's new prime minister tomorrow

Mrs May is flying to Warsaw for crucial talks on Brexit with Mateusz Morawiecki, who took over at the head of the government last week

Downing Street said today Mrs May would raise the issue in Warsaw tomorrow, while also trying to secure Polish support in the coming Brexit trade talks.

Mrs May's spokesman said: 'We place great importance on respect for the rule of law and expect all our partners to abide by international norms and standards.

'The Prime Minister will raise her concerns with Mr Morawiecki when they meet tomorrow.

'We hope Poland and the Commission can resolve this through discussion.'

Asked if Mrs May's visit should be seen as an 'endorsement' of the Polish government, the spokesman added: 'We have a strong bilateral relationship with Poland. We have shared interests going forward in areas such as security, in particular.

'They are an important partner and we will continue to work with them.'

The triggering of Article 7 was widely expected and EU Commissioner Frans Timmermans said that 'we are doing this for Poland, for Polish citizens' so they can rely on a fully independent judiciary in their nation, which is a key underpinning of EU principles.

Mr Timmermans said that despite the measure indicating that 'the rule of law is under threat' he remained open to dialogue with Warsaw to remedy this abuse 'of naked political power.'

EU Commissioner Frans Timmermans (pictured in Brussels today) announced the action against Poland today, insisting it was being done to protect Polish citizens

Polish justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro, however, insisted that despite the EU measure, Poland will continue to 'reform' its justice system.

Poland's justice minister says the European Union member will continue its overhaul of the justice system despite an unprecedented censure from EU leaders.

Zbigniew Ziobro, who co-authored the controversial reorganization of the justice system and whose powers are strengthened by it, said he received news that the EU had launched the procedure with 'calm.'

He said Poland needs to continue with it, and that Poland 'will only be a significant EU member when it has a well-functioning justice system.'

Protesters in Warsaw demonstrate against the laws which would give the Polish government greater control over the country's top court

Thousands of protesters across Poland have been demonstrating against the new legislation, which has seen the European Commission trigger Article 7

He insisted its provisions were drawn from justice systems of western EU members.

In a signal of the division the decision will cause across Europe, Hungary's deputy prime minister says the EU decision to launch proceedings against Poland is 'unprecedented and astounding.'

Zsolt Semjen, also head of Hungary's Christian Democrat party, said the EU's decision Wednesday 'seriously damages Poland's sovereignty.'

Semjen said Hungary would oppose the EU Commission's move 'at every forum' and defend Poland from the 'unjust political procedure.'
Lynn Lewis(seen outside London Appeal Court) tried to stop the house in Tewkesbury, from being transferred to wealthy 91-year-old Thomas Warner, who had lived there for 19 years

A woman has lost a legal bid to have her late mother's frail and elderly partner removed from the home they shared for two decades.

Lynn Lewis tried to stop the house in Tewkesbury from being transferred to wealthy 91-year-old Thomas Warner, who had lived there for 19 years with Audrey Blackwell before her death in 2014.

Mrs Lewis went to the Court of Appeal in London in the hope of reversing an earlier ruling which allowed Mr Warner, who has lived in the Gloucestershire village all of his life, to stay in the house and buy it for 385,000.

But, in a ruling delivered on Wednesday, Sir Geoffrey Vos dismissed her case and said the decision to hand the property to Mr Warner, given his age and poor health, was a 'sensible pragmatic solution'.

The court heard Mr Warner started living with Mrs Blackwell in 1995 and they remained together until her death, with him contributing to the running costs of their home.

Mr Warner, who suffers from a range of health problems, had a 'friendly' relationship with Mrs Lewis and her husband before Mrs Blackwell's death, but this deteriorated as a result of the legal action.

He told a previous hearing he would be 'very unhappy and stressed' if he had to move from the house where he had spent the 'happiest 20 years of his life'.

Mrs Lewis had said she wanted to put the house on the market and was willing to sell to the 'highest bidder', including Mr Warner, if he was that person.

Mrs Lewis went to the Court of Appeal in London in the hope of reversing an earlier ruling which allowed Mr Warner, who has lived in the Gloucestershire village all of his life, to stay in the house(pictured) and buy it for 385,000

Describing him as 'a trespasser', she said he had no 'need' to live in the house paid for by her hard-working parents.

Her lawyers argued at the appeal hearing earlier this month that Mr Warner was not entitled to have the property transferred to him because he was not in need of any financial provision from Mrs Blackwell's will.

But Sir Geoffrey ruled the transfer was 'entirely permissible and indeed appropriate'.

Sitting with Lord Justice McCombe and Lady Justice Asplin, he added: 'No doubt, had Mr Warner been younger and less infirm when the deceased died, he would indeed have been required to move out of the property and buy himself another one, as he could well have afforded to do.

'But here, the judge plainly thought that requiring him to do so, in all the actual circumstances pertaining at the time of the hearing, should be avoided.'

Even if Mrs Blackwell had made a 'conscious decision' to leave him nothing, she may not have been aware of how old and infirm he would be when she died.

'This is not a matter of what might have been sensible or desirable. It is a matter of Mr Warner's objectively assessed needs.' the judge said.

'The absence of a moral obligation was outweighed by what was required to preserve the status quo for a very old and infirm person.'

The house is at the heart of the village where Mr Blackwell grew up and he lives next door to a doctor who looks out for him

Dismissing Mrs Lewis's appeal against an earlier ruling, Sir Geoffrey concluded: 'Mrs Blackwell's will did not make reasonable financial provision for Mr Warner's maintenance.'

Although fully in control of his mental faculties, Mr Warner suffers from disabilities and said he was 'not very happy' at the prospect of leaving the house.

The house is at the heart of the village where he grew up and he lives next door to a doctor who looks out for him.

The court's decision means that, if Mr Warner offers Mrs Lewis 385,000 for the property, she will have no choice but to sell it to him.
Former Ukip councillor Stephanie Todd, pictured, was found guilty of stealing more than 46,000 from pensioner Philip Wall

A former UKIP councillor fleeced a vulnerable widower in his 90s of 46,000 after she found him wandering confused in the street.

Stephanie Todd, 57, who was also her town's mayor and worked for an MEP, said she took Philip Wall, now 98, 'under her wing' and looked after him because he had no one else.

But as she played the Good Samaritan she was systematically emptying his bank account and is now facing jail after being convicted of theft by a jury at Teesside Crown Court.

She defected from the Conservatives in 2013 saying she wanted to 'stand up for Middle England and our traditional way of life'.

Her decision was lauded by Godfrey Bloom, MEP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire, who said at the time: 'This is fantastic news and shows what I have always known - that we are the way forward for our country.'

In the 10 days leading up to Christmas last year, Todd withdrew 1,000 from Mr Wall's account and also went on a spending spree in Marks and Spencer on his debit card.

The WWII veteran who served in Egypt, was described as 'frugal' refusing to pay for a taxi even when he needed to go to an urgent hospital appointment.

But Todd told the jury it was him who went on the three-year spending spree after she befriended him in August 2013.

Prosecutor Paul Newcombe said Todd, from Catterick, North Yorkshire, persuaded him to change solicitors and write a new will  leaving his home and contents to her rather than a cat charity as he'd intended.

Todd, pictured outside Teesside Crown Court, managed to convince the WWII veteran who served in Egypt to change his will leaving his estate to her rather than a cats' home

She also tried to gain Power of Attorney over his financial affairs, but the move never took place when the paperwork was not completed.

Lisa Potts, a solicitor from Hunton and Garget in the market town, had a Lasting Power of Attorney and all his bank statements were sent to the firm. Five months after meeting staff at the practice, Ms Todd took the pensioner to a different solicitors office, where a friend worked, and said he wanted to swap.

A new will was drawn up later in 2014, leaving Todd, who said to have been in 'dire financial straits', as chief beneficiary. 'On November 5, Mr Wall signed the will in the presence of witnesses at the new solicitors office, and the defendant now stood, effectively, to inherit everything,' said Mr Newcombe. 'She had known him a little less than a year and a half.'

Ms Potts, who returned from maternity leave, became suspicious over the change and noticed her office had stopped receiving Mr Wall's bank statements. Along with colleague Claire Richardson, she visited the then 95-year-old as there were fears he was being 'manipulated', said Mr Newcombe.

Todd will be sentenced for stealing from Mr Todd at Teesside Crown early next year

After Todd's arrest last June, the solicitors visited the pensioner's home again, and Ms Richardson asked him about his will. In a recording played to the court he said 'I put a large part of my estate over to her'. Ms Richardson asks: 'Do you still want that to happen, or shall I change it back?' The man replies: 'Not bloody likely.'

The solicitor asks: 'You don't want it to happen?' He says: 'No.' 'Would you like me to do a new will for you to sign in which you give everything you have to the Cats Protection (League) like you did the first time? Would you like me to change it back so this lady doesn't get anything?' He replies: 'That's right.'

During one of their visits, he appeared to get upset when asked: 'Do you remember what you have given Stephanie in the will you have at present?' He replied: 'I'm not trying to be awkward, but I just can't think.'

Ms Richardson told him he would get help replenishing his cupboards with food, and said: 'I just want to put things right regarding your money. How do you feel about that?' He said: 'My mind isn't clear enough to feel anything.' The pensioner  now aged 98 and said to be profoundly deaf and often confused  was too frail to give evidence or be cross-examined.

Todd denied any wrongdoing, telling her trial: 'There were no big wads of cash in my house, I have not paid off my credit card bills, I have not been on any holidays.'

Mr Newcombe accused her of being 'thoroughly dishonest' in her dealings with the former serviceman and his finances by not keeping a record of them. He also said she had failed to draw a line between the use of his money for himself and for her and used the cash card with reckless abandon to benefit herself.

Jonny Walker, for Todd, of Shute Road, Catterick Garrison, said medical evidence was needed in the case and this would take time to gather. It is expected the defendant will be sentenced sometime during the New Year.

A customer at her florist's shop asked Todd in 2009 if she would stand for the Conservatives - she did, and was elected.

'I quite enjoyed it, because I am a people person, and like to help people in the community,' she said. 'I am interested in homeless people, and old people.

'The only thing I didn't like was people never really work together, and we didn't really get a lot done in a positive way.'

In 2013, she joined UKIP and remained a councillor until she lost her seat two years later.

'I felt the Conservative Party were not really listening to people,' she said.

She said she had been Mayor for a couple of years and had taken Mr Wall to events, such as a Remeberance Day service in Romanby, Northallerton.

She said she had been working from home for an MEP, and 'it was quite well-paid for not a lot of work', which allowed her to spend time with the pensioner.

Councillor Todd said in evidence she had been a Lady Mayoress.

She acted as consort for Councillor Clive World - who is a widower and had no partner - during his spell as the Mayor of Richmond (Town Council).

Todd acted as his Lady Mayoress in May 2015 when the Queen visited Richmond Castle.

She also accompanied Councillor World on other civic duties during his term as mayor between 2014 and 2016.
Tory MP Richard Benyon has been banned from the road for using his mobile phone at the wheel

Britain's 'wealthiest MP' has been banned from the road for six months after he was caught texting while driving through north London in his BMW.

Tory MP and property developer Richard Benyon, 57, was seen by a police officer in Islington using his phone while sitting in stationary traffic.

Magistrates' heard the MP for Newbury, Berkshire, continued to use the phone after the light turned green and he moved 'five to seven metres' forward.

Beata Murphy, prosecuting, said of Benyon: 'He appeared to be texting and manipulating the glass screen using his thumb.'

He was pulled over and admitted to using the phone, saying: 'I thought I was allowed to use it when I'm not moving'.

Benyon, of Reading, admitted one count of using a handheld mobile phone while driving.

Magistrates' heard Benyon already has six points on his licence, three from a speeding offence in October 2014, and three for another speeding offence from September 2015.

Changes in law over the number of points that can be issued for using a mobile phone while driving was increased from three points to six points in March this year.

The former junior minister admitted the offence and was handed a a six-month road ban

Magistrates' ordered Benyon be issued six points, which puts him over the maximum number of twelve points allowed before a driver is disqualified.

In a statement issued from his House of Commons office after learning of his court-imposed driving ban, MP Richard Benyon said: 'I deeply regret my actions and entirely accept the verdict of the court.

'There is absolutely no excuse for texting whilst driving - even in stationary and very heavy, slow traffic as was the situation in my case.'

The former Environment under secretary stated he earns 3,987 a month in a means form submitted to the court. He was fined 421 including costs.

Benyon lives on a sprawling 14,000 acre estate in a Grade II listed mansion in Reading and is said to be worth over 100million. He is said to be the wealthiest MP in the UK.

The property magnate has previously come under fire over allegations of increasing rents at an affordable housing estate in Hackney, purchased by his family firm in 2014.

Benyon was stopped by a policeman on a bicycle as he drove down Upper Street, Islington

Thomas Daniel, defending, said the road was 'completely gridlocked'.

He added: 'This is the lowest end of this type of offence. He moved only five to seven meters. And that is at about walking pace.'

Mr Daniel pleaded with the bench to use its discretionary powers to hand Benyon a shorter disqualification period.

Mr Daniel said that if the offence had taken place six weeks prior, Benyon would have been automatically issued three points and would not be over the point limit under the 'totting up' system.
David Wright (pictured), from Everett, just north of Boston, was jailed for his terror plot

A man convicted of leading an Islamic State-inspired plot to behead a conservative blogger who upset Muslims when she organized a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest has been sentenced to 28 years in prison.

The court heard how David Wright, from Everett, just north of Boston, was the ringleader of the conspiracy to kill Pamela Geller, who has spearheaded scores of events across the nation to decry Islamic extremism.

A cartoon contest Geller organized in Garland, Texas, in 2015 ended in gunfire, with two Muslim gunmen shot to death by police.

The plot to behead Geller, of New York, was never carried out, but Wright's uncle Ussamah Rahim told Wright on a recorded phone call that he decided to go after 'those boys in blue', referring to police.

Wright, who weighs more than 500 pounds, told his uncle that was 'beautiful' and encouraged him to delete all the data from his computer before carrying out his attack.

Hours later, Rahim was fatally shot by authorities after he lunged at them with a knife when they approached him in Boston.

Wright sobbed as he apologized to blogger Pamela Geller, law enforcement and his family and denounced the terror group, whose horrific acts he used to celebrate online.

'Nothing I can say can fix the hurt I caused,' the 28-year-old Wright said.

'I sincerely hope that I can be given the opportunity to help others avoid the mistakes I made.'

Wright sobbed as he apologized to blogger Pamela Geller, law enforcement and his family and denounced the terror group, whose horrific acts he used to celebrate online

Wright (pictured) was the ringleader of the conspiracy to kill Pamela Geller, who has spearheaded scores of events across the nation to decry Islamic extremism. Wright, who weighs more than 500 pounds, told his uncle that his plan to kill police officers was 'beautiful'

Wright was convicted in October of conspiracy to provide material support to the Islamic State group, conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries and other crimes.

Prosecutors had sought a life sentence for Wright, arguing it would send a strong message to others considering terror attacks in the US But Judge William G Young said he was uncomfortable with sending Wright away for life, telling him: 'You are not a monster, yet you embraced a monstrous evil.'

Geller (pictured), who spoke at Wright's sentencing, urged the judge to sentence him to life and said it was 'impossible to overstate the devastation' he had brought to her life

Geller, who spoke at Wright's sentencing, urged the judge to sentence him to life and said it was 'impossible to overstate the devastation' he had brought to her life.

The blogger said she had been forced to live in fear and spend tens of thousands of dollars on security.

'There is no assurance that anyone can give me that he would not resume his quest to kill me and my relatives,' she said.

Wright's attorneys had asked for a 16-year sentence, saying he should be given the chance to redeem himself after serving his time.

Wright insisted he never really wanted to hurt anyone but pretended to support the Islamic State group to get attention online.

Prosecutors said Wright collected dozens of gruesome Islamic State videos and documents that encouraged violence against Americans, including a manifesto that said America's days are 'numbered'.

In court documents, they accused him of trying to 'deceive' the court into believing that he never meant any harm.

'His actions gravely threatened the lives of innocent Americans,' Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Siegmann said.

Wright insisted he never really wanted to hurt anyone but pretended to support the Islamic State group to get attention online

Wright (left) said the plan to kill Geller (right) was just 'trash talk' and claimed he never believed his uncle was serious about attacking police

Wright testified during the trial that he started sharing Islamic State propaganda because he was desperate for attention and an escape.

But he said the plan to kill Geller was just 'trash talk' and claimed he never believed his uncle was serious about attacking police.

The third man charged, Nicholas Rovinski, of Warwick, Rhode Island, pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy, testified against Wright and is scheduled to be sentenced on Wednesday.

Prosecutors and Rovinski's defense attorney have asked the judge to sentence him to 15 years in prison.
Mohammed Awan, 24, was found guilty of preparing an 'undefined' terror attack and jailed for 10 years

A dentistry student who was 'radicalised' by his brother who became an ISIS suicide bomber has been jailed for 10 years for plotting a terror attack.

Dentistry student Mohammed Awan, 24, was convicted of preparing for an undefined attack after a three week trial at Sheffield Crown Court.

Awan, who was in the fourth year of his course at Sheffield University, was arrested by police in June after purchasing 500 ball bearings online.

The court heard he 'adopted an outwardly innocent and respectable persona with the clear intention' to 'perpetrate a terrorist act without being detected.'

He also 'rejoiced in the ritual executions and mutilation of other human beings being perpetrated by ISIS in the name of Islamic extremism', the court heard.

Awan was found to possess a 'significant volume' of extremist material, including advice on how to be a 'sleeper cell' in the West.

His brother Rizwan Awan, 27, killed 30 people in a bomb blast in Iraq in 2016.

During a trial he told the court he found out his brother had died after seeing it on BBC News.

Awan 'retained documents' from his brother 'which celebrated brutal and depraved acts of terror such as beheadings, burning of people alive and the Charlie Hebdo murders in Paris in 2015.'

Police seized 11 mobile phones, 16 USB memory sticks and seven computers in raids at addresses in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, were he was studying and Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, where he was raised.

One memory stick contained a 36-minute video of a senior al Qaida leader calling on young Muslims to join ISIS and featured graphic footage of how to kill and kidnap victims.

Awan denied the charges and told police that he was a keen fisherman and was researching hunting with a catapult.

He was found guilty of two counts of possession of a document or record containing information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.

Awan, a dentistry student, was arrested after he was caught buying 500 ball bearings, pictured, over the internet

The court heard Awan was radicalised by his brother Rizwan, pictured, who joined ISIS and carried out a suicide bombing in Iraq in 2016, killing 30 people

Awan was also found guilty of one charge of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts or assisting others to commit such acts.

In mitigation, Imran Khan told the court Awan 'wanted to be a dentist since the age of 12'.

He added: 'That career is now doomed forever. His father and grandfather were in the British army.

BROTHER OF ISIS SUICIDE BOMBER Awan's brother Rizwan, 27, killed 30 people in a suicide bombing in Iraq in 2016. The former Honley High School and Bradford College student was one of five ISIS suicide bombers who rammed explosives-laden vehicles into the military checkpoint near the town of Al-Baghdadi in Anbar province. After the incident ISIS posted a picture of Awan smiling while holding an AK47. They called him Abu Musa al-Britani - a name he adopted when he joined the group. And his father Mohammed Idrees, who thought he had left for Saudi Arabia, insisted he was confused by his son's involvement. He said: 'We knew him as a caring loving person, well educated, happily married, living independently with his wife and in a secure employment.' He added: 'Throughout, we have been peaceful, hardworking and contributing citizens of Huddersfield. Our family is well known and respected in the area, as evident by the level of support that has come our way. 'As a hard-working family, we have encouraged and supported our children into further education and employment.' Awan and his wife left his family in early 2015, informing them that he was moving to Saudi Arabia. Awan's family said that he showed no signs of radicalisation before he disappeared in May 2015 and that he was a 'bright, educated young man.' Police have told them he made his way to Turkey and is then thought to have entered Syria. Whilst in the UK, Awan worked as a call handler for British Gas in Leeds and was once brutally attacked as an innocent bystander in a gang war when he was 18. Advertisement

'There was no doubt he was groomed by his older brother. He was vulnerable to that.

'His family want to make it known despite the guilty verdict they condemn all forms of terrorism.'

Sentencing, Judge Paul Watson QC said Awan was no 'Walter Mitty fantasist' and was radicalised by his brother Rizwan.

Judge Watson QC said: 'At the time of your arrest, you were a student at Sheffield University while you were in the fourth year of your studies in dentistry.

'In May 2015 your older brother Rizwan and his wife left this country for Syria in order to join with and fight for so-called IS.

'Before he left either he, or you, or you and he together, downloaded a great deal of extremist material, mostly videos, with titles such as 'How the west abolished the previous Khalifa' and 'Islamic State reporting of civilian life'.

'Once he was in Syria he was in contact with you and it is clear to me that by that time you were already well on the way to becoming radicalised yourself.

'You were creating notes on your own electronic devices which showed that you had been fantasising about taking part in fighting on behalf of the caliphate and that you weRe intent on engaging in activity on behalf of IS, whether here or abroad.

'You seem to have rejoiced in the ritual executions and mutilation of other human beings being perpetrated by ISIS in the name of Islamic extremism.

'After your brother left for Syria, the content of the video material on the USB became increasingly extreme.

'I do not for one minute think that the terrorist act would have involved the use of a mere catapult.

'The purchase of the catapult, I am sure, was no more than part of a cover story to explain your purchase of over 500 ball bearings if the police should ever enquire.

'What you would have done if you had remained undetected will never, thankfully, be known.

'You had all the advantages of a young man growing up in this country in a family of respectable, caring and dedicated parents.

'The devastation for them is barely imaginable.

'They know, as you do, that they will be now losing their youngest son for a very long time.

Armed police raided his house in Sheffield, pictured, when he was arrested in June

'You are, in my view, someone who is even now in the grip of idealistic extremism.'

Awan was sentenced to 10 years in custody for the three offences, with a further three years to be spent on licence.

He was told by the judge he must spend at least two thirds of the sentence behind bars before he will be considered for release.

Awan, dressed in a black suit, sat motionless throughout the sentencing, while his father cried in the public gallery as the verdict was read to the court.
A homeless man who damaged a 24million painting by one of Britain's most celebrated artists while in the throes of a psychotic illness has been cleared of criminal damage by reason of insanity.

Keith Gregory, 63, left two deep slash marks in an X shape - measuring 100cm by 65cm - on The Morning Walk by Thomas Gainsborough when he attacked it with a drill bit in front of horrified art lovers browsing a collection of old masters on the afternoon of March 18 at London's National Gallery.

Mr Gregory, of Kettering in Northamptonshire, caused more than 10,000 of damage before he was dragged away by security guards, shouting that he had just been released from prison and was going to trigger a bomb.

Homeless man Keith Gregory (above), 63, who damaged a 24m painting by Thomas Gainsborough - one of Britain's most celebrated artists - while in the throes of a psychotic illness, has been cleared of criminal damage by reason of insanity

He told the arresting officer and members of staff that he could cover the cost of the damage as his father was Jimmy Gregory and once owned Queens Park Rangers.

The canvas was so robust that it did not tear, but the damage to the 232-year-old painting took 80 hours to repair.

Married Gregory, a father of five, had absconded from psychiatric care last November and was travelling around the country.

Larry Keith, from the National Gallery, said the slash marks could never be completely hidden and the painting had fallen in value.

Gregory, of Kettering, Northamptonshire, left two deep slash marks in an X shape - measuring 100cm by 65cm - on The Morning Walk (above) when he attacked it with a drill bit in front of horrified art lovers browsing a collection of old masters on the afternoon of March 18 at London's National Gallery

Gregory pleaded not guilty to criminal damage by reason of insanity.

A jury at Southwark Crown Court took just over two hours to unanimously clear him of criminal damage.

Recorder Timothy Fancourt made a hospital order for Mr Gregory to return to a low security unit at Berrywood psychiatric hospital in Northampton where he has been receiving care since March 31.

The court heard from three psychologists on Tuesday who 'unanimously agreed' he had been suffering 'severe symptoms' of paranoid schizophrenia when he slashed the painting.

Mr Fancourt added: 'The defendant has significantly improved in his mental health since that time but it is necessary for him to remain as a patient in hospital and to have continuing treatment.'

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Fancourt advised the jury to consider whether 'as a result of that disease it is more likely than not that he either did not know what he was doing when he slashed the painting or that he did not know that what he was doing was wrong'.

'If he did not know what he was doing or he did not know what he was doing was wrong then you must find him not guilty by reason of insanity,' he added.

The defendant, wearing a green polo neck T-shirt, stood at the back of courtroom as the panel cleared him.

The court heard he felt that people were 'closing in' on him when he went to the National Gallery, before damaging the artwork with a drill bit he had been using to remove tape from the cardboard boxes he was using to sleep in.

The court heard Gregory felt that people were 'closing in' on him when he went to the National Gallery (above), before damaging the artwork with a drill bit he had been using to remove tape from the cardboard boxes he was using to sleep in

Mr Gregory, who had spent four months travelling the UK and sleeping rough after absconding from a mental health unit, slashed the painting after hearing a voice which said 'put a mark on the painting and your family will find you'.'

He was suffering paranoid delusions and auditory hallucinations, according to Steffan Davies, a psychologist who has been treating Mr Gregory since March 31.

The doctor said Mr Gregory thought he was being monitored by people with laptops and backpacks and that a chip had been implanted in him.

He also believed police were after him for the rape of 30 women, the court heard.

These ideas, Mr Davies said, he 'absolutely believed', adding that he was a man 'with a perfectly good house, and wife, but because of his illness was homeless and travelling around the country for four months'.

Gregory denied and was cleared of one count of damaging property.
A family slammed prosecutors over their decision to charge a 'suicide pact' grandfather with the murder of his wife - after the coroner ruled she killed herself.

Brendon Constant, 87, was arrested after emergency services found him 'close to cardiac arrest' when his wife Jean Constant, 86, suffocated, an inquest heard.

The retired chemist was charged with her murder - but died a week before he was due to enter a plea in court.

Brendon Constant, 87, was arrested after emergency services found him 'close to cardiac arrest' after his wife Jean Constant, 86, suffocated, an inquest heard

An inquest into Mrs Constant's death on Wednesday concluded Mrs Constant died of asphyxiation with no evidence of any other injuries.

Assistant coroner Sean Horstead rejected a conclusion of 'unlawful killing', instead ruling she committed suicide and was a 'willing participant'.

The couple's sons, Simon, 55, a retired detective chief inspector with Cambridgeshire Police, and John, 57, said in a statement after the inquest: 'We remain baffled by the decision of the Crown Prosecution Service to charge our father with murder on the same evidence that the coroner has been able unhesitatingly to reach an independent conclusion of suicide.

'At the time when our father was charged with murder, the CPS were in possession of material which, in our view, significantly undermined the allegation of murder.

'It is our view that the CPS failed to properly review all of the evidence in this case and that they chose not to disclose material which significantly undermined their case.

'It is the CPS who owe us an explanation as to why they say evidentially this was murder - we don't accept that and if we are right about that why was it in the public interest to prosecute him for any other offence?'

Mr Constant become depressed following a stroke and 'assisted' his wife to take her own life at Poppyfields nursing home in St Neots, Cambridgeshire, on August 22 2016, an inquest heard

Mr Constant become depressed following a stroke and 'assisted' his wife to take her own life at Poppyfields nursing home in St Neots, Cambridgeshire, on August 22 2016, the inquest heard.

A previous hearing was told carers at their sheltered accommodation found a note on their door saying: 'Do not enter, call the police'.

Paramedics were called and Mr Constant was found given oxygen but medics failed to revive his wife, it was said.

He was charged with murder by Cambridgeshire Police, but died from a head injury following a fall in April - a week before he was due in court.

An earlier inquest heard Mr Constant feared he may die first and leave Jean alone and he researched suicide after talking to his wife.

In police interview he said she knew about and agreed with his research, and the decision was mutual, it was heard.

In a statement he prepared for detectives, he wrote: 'I've been married to my wife Jean for over 60 years.'

Paramedics and police(including this officer pictured) were called and Mr Constant was found given oxygen but medics failed to revive his wife, it was said

'About a month ago Jean's health deteriorated and she was in hospital for a month. It was five years ago, possibly longer, that we looked at the possibility of suicide.'

'Her view reinforced mine, I was distressed at her deterioration and her distress. She made it clear over the weekend that she didn't want to go on.'

'It was on Monday afternoon we agreed to put our plan into operation. When I was sure she had passed I went about trying to take my own life.'

'I just wanted to die, I did not want to live without Jean.'

Assistant coroner Mr Horstead told the inquest criminal law states 'the survivor of a suicide pact' should be charged with manslaughter - but there had been no convictions for ten years.

He said today the couple enjoyed an 'unbridled relationship of affection' for six decades and had a 'settled intention' to enter a suicide pact.

He said the couple had a 'partnership in a relationship of unbridled affection and dedication and sensitive to the needs of one and the other'.

Mr Horstead told the inquest in Huntingdon: '[She was a] willing participant with assistance of her husband Brendon on the process which led to her death.'

He added: '[The couple had a] partnership in a relationship of unbridled affection and dedication and sensitive to the needs of one and the other.'

Referring to computer searches for suicide made by Mr Constant in the years before the suicide pact, the family's lawyer, Sally Hobson, told the inquest: 'The Crown, having had possession of that information, which supported there having been a suicide pact in this case, the Crown took the decision to charge with murder but not to disclose information that we say undermined their case and certainly assisted Mr Constant's case that there had been a suicide pact.'

A previous hearing was told carers at their sheltered accommodation found a note on their door saying: 'Do not enter, call the police'. Pictured: Officers arrive after the Mrs Constant was found dead

A spokesperson for CPS East of England said: 'The family of Mr Constant complained to the CPS earlier this year about the way the case against their father was handled and queried why he was prosecuted.

'The Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS East of England, Jenny Hopkins, wrote to the family in July 2017 responding to the points they raised and apologising that the offer in writing of a meeting with them was not made earlier.

'This case was properly reviewed according to the Code for Crown Prosecutors which sets the standard by which all cases are reviewed and we were satisfied there was sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction.

'We considered the public interest in this case very carefully given Mr Constant's age and the alleged motive for his actions. This included asking the police to contact his family so that we were aware of their views.

'However, we were satisfied there was sufficient evidence to show that Mr Constant had killed his wife unlawfully, with the intention required for murder. In these circumstances it would be highly unusual not to pursue a criminal prosecution.

'The fact that Mr Constant had made searches about suicide pacts did not undermine the prosecution case.

'We would have used this material to support the prosecution and served the download reports on the defence as evidence in the course of our case.

'The function of the CPS is not to decide whether a person is guilty of a criminal offence, but to make fair, independent and objective assessments about whether it is appropriate to present charges for a jury to consider.

'This is a different function from that of a coroner's inquest.'

For confidential support call the Samaritans in the UK on 08457 90 90 90, visit a local Samaritans branch or click here for details.
Rosie O'Donnell sent out a flurry of tweets late Tuesday night - offering Republican senators $2million in cash in exchange for a 'no' vote on Trump's tax reform bill.

'So how about this, I promise to give 2 million dollars to senator susan collins and 2 million to senator jeff flake if they vote NO' the comedian desperately wrote on Twitter.

'NO I WILL NOT KILL AMERICANS FOR THE SUOER [super] RICH. No s*** 2 million cash each' she wrote, telling the lawmakers to send her a direct message on Twitter if they were interested in negotiating.

The bribery didn't work, though, as Senate Republicans managed to push through the new tax bill by a narrow and last minute margin of 51-48.

It's also a felony to offer money to a politician to influence acts such as voting on a bill -though O'Donnell may not know that, or may have meant the offer as a joke.

Rosie O'Donnell sent out a flurry of tweets late Tuesday night - offering Republican Senators Susan Collins and Jeff Flake $2million in cash in exchange for a 'no' vote on Trump's tax reform bill

O'Donnell said she'd give the senators $2million in cash each if they voted no and decided not to 'kill Americans for the super rich,' telling Collins and Flake to send her a twitter direct message

About 10 minutes after the first tweet, O'Donnell wrote out another plea to Senator Collins in an attempt to appeal to Collins' feminine side.

'Do u (sic) think your family is proud of u (sic) @sennatorcollins,' she tweeted, again renewing the offer for $2million to the Maine Republican in exchange for a no vote.

'woman - mother - grandmother - sister - daughter u have betrayed us all,' she wrote.

'Dear god, ask for forgiveness, redeem ur (sic) soul tomorrow #NOTSEXIST.'

O'Donnell also attached a photo of Senator Collins spending time with her family and celebrating her father's 90th birthday.

Collins seems not to have listened to Rosie's pleas - though that could be because the former co-host of The View used a misspelled twitter handle.

About 10 minutes after the first tweet, O'Donnell wrote out another plea to Senator Collins in an attempt to appeal to Collins' feminine side

Collins seems not to have listened to Rosie's pleas - though that could be because the former co-host of The View used a misspelled twitter handle. The Maine Republican is pictured speaking to reporters as she arrived for Tuesday's vote

Both Collins and Flake voted for the bill - which has been roundly criticized as a major cut for the wealthy but an increase for the middle class.

The bill was also passed by the House - but representatives have to vote again Wednesday because of two provisions Senate said didn't comply with budget rules.

'The United States Senate just passed the biggest in history Tax Cut and Reform Bill,' Trump tweeted just after 1:00 in the morning. 'Terrible Individual Mandate (ObamaCare)Repealed. Goes to the House tomorrow morning for final vote.'

With a final House vote not expected until around lunchtime, the White House announced that Trump would hold a 'bill passage event.' The president will have to sign the bill later.

The bribery didn't work, though, as Senate Republicans managed to push through the new tax bill by a narrow and last minute margin of 51-48

'The United States Senate just passed the biggest in history Tax Cut and Reform Bill,' Trump tweeted just after 1:00 in the morning. 'Terrible Individual Mandate (ObamaCare)Repealed. Goes to the House tomorrow morning for final vote'

House Speaker Paul Ryan tweeted: 'Great news. The Senate just passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. After years of work, we are going to enact the most sweeping, pro-growth overhaul of our tax code in a generation.'

A wave of protesters provided one of the biggest bursts of emotion. One small group yelled out Kill the bill, don't kill us! as the final vote was being taken.

The Sergeant at Arms will restore order in the gallery, said Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding over the chamber.

Pence's appearance was a flourish that put him in the spotlight  though party leaders knew in advance his potential tie-breaking vote was not needed.

One protester yelled at GOP Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, 'Have you no shame?'

Flake voted for the bill, weeks after warning colleagues against complicity with Trump.

Zero Senate democrats voted for the bill.
With tax reform nearly out of the way, the White House is turning its attention to an immigration reform package that bulks up border security and saves illegal residents who came to the U.S. as children from deportation.

Chief of Staff John Kelly reportedly told lawmakers Tuesday that the administration would soon present a list of must-haves to be worked into comprehensive legislation. A deal could be ready by January.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the administration was reviewing six types of border structures, and he might be going to see them himself soon.

'We are calling on Congress to fund the border wall, which we're getting very close to,' Trump said. 'And we'll be building the wall and we'll be doing lots of other things.'

Chief of Staff John Kelly reportedly told lawmakers Tuesday that the administration would soon present a list of must-haves to be worked into comprehensive legislation. A deal could be ready by January

Trump has given Congress until March to pass legislation that allows illegal immigrant youth to remain in the country indefinitely. After that, they'll be subject to deportation.

The president is also demanding that a bill include approval for his border wall and a restructuring of the immigration system that does away with the visa lottery and chain migration.

Those demands are hurdles to Democratic support for an immigration revamp.

Sources told Politico that Kelly attempted to win over their support Tuesday with a detailed briefing on existing border security amid a discussion on what the White House could stomach in immigration legislation.

'We couldnt finish this product, this bill, until we knew where the administration was,' Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona told Politico after the gathering. 'And thats why this meeting was so important.'

Legislators have been trying to pass comprehensive immigration reform for years with no success, inspiring Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, to take matters into his own hands.

An Obama-era program known as DACA, short for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, that protected illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children was unconstitutional, the current administration determined, because it originated with the executive branch.

Trump has said he's sympathetic to the plight of the illegal immigrants, commonly referred to as Dreamers, and wants Congress to come up with legislation addressing their situation. He's using the measure as leverage, though, to get a broader deal that fulfills his campaign promise to build a border wall.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the administration was reviewing six types of border structures, and he might be going to see them himself soon. Trump's DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielson is seen at the border last week

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi asserted last month that her caucus would not leave town for the holidays without a permanent DACA fix.

'We're not kicking the can down to March,' she insisted.

A Democratic plan to force a government closure unless an end-of-year spending bill is coupled with a version of the DREAM Act has since lost steam. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are seeking to wrap up their business in Washington before Christmas.

A shutdown when the current spending resolution runs out on Dec. 22 is a risky one for Democrats, who Trump has promised to assail to no end if they ruin the time-honored holiday.

Previewing his assault, the president told his Cabinet earlier this month 'the Democrats maybe will want to shutdown the country cause they want people flowing into our country.

'I want people coming into our country, but I want to vet those people, and I want to vet them very carefully,' he said of his extreme vetting measures, 'because we don't want to have radical Islamic terrorism in this country, and we don't want to have crime in this country.'

Trump said Wednesday as he met with his Cabinet that he would build a 'great wall' and an end to the lottery system that picks applicants at random and heavily vets them

Trump revisited the topic on Wednesday as he met with his Cabinet again, promising a 'great wall' and an end to the lottery system that picks applicants at random and heavily vets them.

'They're not putting their best people in the lottery. It's common sense,' Trump claimed on Wednesday. 'They put their worst people into the lottery,and that's what we get in many cases. So that's not going to be happening anymore. We're going to end it. So we're ending the lottery.'

Countries don't put forward people to immigrate to the U.S. Residents of those countries apply for visas and wait to see if they are selected. The State Department uses strict vetting criteria to determine if those chosen should be let in and the process can take up to two years.

Trump has said he wants to move to a merit-based system, regardless, that places an emphasis on skilled workers and cuts off pathways for extended family members to follow the awardee in, a process that is known as chain migration.
The sister of a Connecticut woman fatally shot in a Fitbit murder case has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the victim's husband claiming he shot her in the head and then made a claim on her life insurance policy.

Richard Dabate, 40, pleaded not guilty in April after he was charged with murdering his wife Connie at their Ellington home two days before Christmas in 2015.

Dabate told police that a masked intruder who sounded like Vin Diesel broke into their home, tied him up and then fatally shot his wife.

But police said evidence contradicted Dabate's timeline of events, including information from the mother-of-two's Fitbit that showed she was still moving around the house an hour after she was supposedly shot.

Richard Dabate, 40, pleaded not guilty in April after he was charged with murdering his wife Connie at their Ellington home two days before Christmas in 2015

The victim's sister, Marliese Shaw, has now filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Dabate that is seeking unspecified monetary damages, the Hartford Courant reports.

Dabate, who was named as executor of Connie's estate in her will, made a claim on her $495,000 life insurance policy two weeks after her death.

Protective Life Insurance denied the claim after detectives notified them that Dabate was a suspect in Connie's murder.

Connie's sister was named executor of the estate in May after concerns were raised about Dabate removing his dead wife's assets.

Shaw is demanding that Dabate return the more than $70,000 he took from Connie's estate following her death.

Dabate (above at an earlier court appearance) told police that a masked intruder who sounded like Vin Diesel broke into their home, tied him up and then fatally shot his wife

Police said evidence contradicted Dabate's timeline of events, including information from the mother-of-two's Fitbit that showed she was still moving around the house an hour after she was supposedly shot

Records show he paid $17,000 in funeral expenses and state and local taxes from Connie's estate. He also withdrew about $70,000 from the estate prior to being arrested.

The wrongful death suit is yet to be heard in court.

Dabate, who is currently out on a $1 million bond, was arrested and charged back in April over Connie's death.

During the police investigation in Connie's death, it was discovered that Richard had been having an affair with a woman he knew since childhood who became pregnant and wanted him to leave his wife.

Connie was found dead at the couple's home by police on December 23, 2015 while their two young sons were in school.

Authorities had responded to a burglary alarm at the home and found Dabate with superficial knife wounds, with one arm and one leg zip-tied to a folding chair..

Dabate told police his wife had been murdered by an intruder.

The case drew national attention after police used Connie's Fitbit data to question Dabate's version of events.
Sylvester Stallone is being investigated by police for a rape he's accused of committing in 1990.

According to TMZ, a woman recently filed a report with Santa Monica police about the incident which she says occurred during a 1990 meeting at Stallone's office.

Although the 10-year statute of limitations has expired, authorities are said to be investigating her claim and that the district attorney's office will decided whether or not to prosecute.

TMZ also reported that Stallone has accused the woman of filing a false report against him and that the actor's attorney, Marty Singer, says the 71-year-old intends to file a complaint requesting that police investigate his accuser.

Sylvester Stallone (left, in April 2017, and right, in April 1990) is being investigated by police for a rape he's accused of committing in 1990. According to TMZ, a woman recently filed a report with Santa Monica police about the incident which she says occurred during a 1990 meeting at Stallone's office

Stallone admitted that he spent three days with the woman in 1987 in Israel (where he filmed part of Rambo III in the same year, above) but says he never sexually assaulted her

TMZ also reported that Stallone, 71, (pictured with his wife Jennifer Flavin in April) has accused the woman of filing a false report against him and that the actor's attorney, Marty Singer, says Stallone intends to file a complaint requesting that police investigate his accuser

On Wednesday, Stallone admitted he knew the unnamed woman and said they spent three days together in Israel while working on a movie in 1987, three years before the alleged rape.

The film he referred to was likely Rambo III which was filmed in part in Jaffa, near Tel Aviv.

He denied raping her but did not indicate what the nature of their relationship was.

No record matching the woman's alleged claims - namely that she met with Stallone at his office in 1990 - has yet been found.

In November, DailyMail.com revealed a 1986 police report that was made by a separate woman against Stallone.

She claimed Stallone raped her when she was 16 in a room at Las Vegas's Hilton hotel and that the star's bodyguard, Michael 'Mike' De Luca, forced her into performing oral sex on him.

The girl told police in Las Vegas about it at the time but ultimately declined to press charges.

De Luca died in 2013 after being shot by California police during a traffic stop.

At the time of the alleged rape, he was 27 and Stallone was 40. The teenage girl said she met the pair while staying in Las Vegas with friends.

Stallone was there filming the movie Over The Top.

The unnamed woman alleges that Stallone raped her in Santa Monica in 1990. He is pictured in the same year in Beverly Hills

At the time, Stallone's marriage to Brigitte Nielsen had crumbled and he was single. He is pictured with Nielsen in 1987

TIMELINE OF CLAIMS 1985: Stallone marries Brigitte Nielsen, his second wife 1986: Teenager says Stallone raped her with his bodyguard in Las Vegas, she reports her claims to police 1987: Stallone films Rambo III. He says he spent three days with his second accuser in Israel In the same year, his marriage to Nielsen falls apart and he is sued by his half-sister Toni-Ann Filiti who he pays $2million over allegations he abused her 1988: Rambo III is released 1990: Second accuser claims Stallone rapes her in Santa Monica 2013: Toni-Ann dies, details of settlement she received emerge November 2017: 1986 rape claim is unearthed December 2017: Second accuser threatens to go to the police and Stallone fights back Advertisement

She claimed that she willingly had sex with Stallone in his hotel room while De Luca was in the bathroom but that it ended briefly and without either of them climaxing.

After allegedly remarking that she was 'tight', she said Stallone told her to perform oral sex on De Luca and that he forced her head onto his penis.

After the alleged assault, she claims the star told her they 'would have to beat her head in' if she told anyone about it because they were both married men.

The girl chose not to pursue charges because she was 'ashamed', she said.

Stallone's representative vehemently denied her accusations on his behalf.

'This is a ridiculous, categorically false story. No one was ever aware of this story until it was published today, including Mr. Stallone.

'At no time was Mr. Stallone ever contacted by any authorities or anyone else regarding this matter,' she said.

In 1987, Stallone's two-year marriage to fellow star Brigitte Nielsen was coming to an end.

He was at the height of his fame having starred in two Rocky films and two Rambo installments.

It was also the year in which he was sued by his half-sister Toni-Ann Filiti who claimed he abused her when they were children.

Another woman claims Stallone raped her when she was a teenager in 1986. She said his bodyguard Michael 'Mike' De Luca (above together in 1987) was there and that they both forced her into performing oral sex then threatened to beat her if she spoke about it. Stallone denied her claims in November

The teenager was 16 at the time of the alleged attack at Las Vegas's Hilton hotel

Stallone settled her claims with a $2million lump sum and a promise to give her monthly installments of thousands of dollars.

Filiti's claims were made public in 2013 shortly after her death.

They were undermined by her and Stallone's mother Jackie who amounted them to a 'shakedown'.

Jackie, now 96, said Toni-Ann was a drug addict who had lied to extort her famous half-brother.

She was Jackie's only child with her husband Anthony Filiti.

Stallone has been married to his current wife Jennifer Flavin since 1997. The pair have three daughters together.

He has two sons from his first marriage to Sasha Czack. He and Nielsen do not have any children together.

Until this year, the Statute of Limitations in California gave sexual assault accusers 10 years to report their claims to police from the date of the offense.

Governor Jerry Brown did away with it in 2016 as a growing number of women came forward to allege they had been assaulted by Bill Cosby.

It went into effect in January but only applies to crimes committed after that date.
A woman has been convicted of accessing her husbands email account and discovering he was having several affairs.

The Swiss woman became suspicious after her husband set up a second email account on their home computer, according to the Aargauer Zeitung.

The unnamed couple had always known each others passwords and had even written them down, according to the paper.

Her husband used one of these passwords for his new account, so the woman was able to access it and read his emails.

The woman became suspicious when her husband set up a second email account

When she did, she discovered that he had been having affairs with several other women for some time.

She confronted her husband, who moved out of their apartment and later filed a criminal complaint against his wife for reading his emails.

In February this year prosecutors gave the woman a suspended fine of 9,900 Swiss Francs plus a 4,300 Swiss Franc fine for her unauthorized intrusion into her husbands data.

The prosecutor said she deliberately and repeatedly invaded his email account and downloaded material that was not her own.

Her husband made a complaint and she was fined though the court acknowledged it wasn't hard for her to access the emails

During her appeal at district court in Bremgarten, the womans lawyer insisted she didnt hack into her husbands email but instead accessed it through his password.

It emerged the woman had Googled to see if she would be prosecuted prior to reading her husbands emails.

The court maintained the woman knew she was aware she could be breaking the law even though her search did not reveal a definitive answer on the subject.

The court upheld the conviction, saying unauthorized intrusion into someone elses email account is illegal.

But her fine was reduced and the court acknowledged the woman had only shown minimal criminal energy since all she had to do to access the email account was to exploit her husbands carelessness in using the password they both knew.

Swiss lawyer Martin Burgi said it makes no difference whether the people involved are married, living together or dont know each other at all, permission must be granted to read another persons messages.

Reading data protected by a password or code without the account owners permission is illegal under article 143 of the Swiss criminal code, he said.

According to the code, such an act is punishable with a fine or up to three years in prison.
This is the FBI agent whose anti-Trump texts to his lover have plunged the Robert Mueller investigation into crisis - leaving home with the wife he cheated on.

Peter Strzok, the FBI's deputy head of counter intelligence, was photographed exclusively by DailyMailTV leaving his Fairfax, Virginia, home with his wife Melissa Hodgman.

It is the first time Strzok has been seen since the revelation that he and Lisa Page, a senior FBI lawyer, exchanged 10,000 texts in which they called Trump an 'idiot' whose election was 'f***ing terrifying'.

The disclosure has led to hearings in Congress, with the deputy FBI director quizzed this week for eight hours on apparent anti-Trump bias in his agency.

Strzok, 47, was dismissed in August from the Mueller probe, but the reason why only emerged months later.

Scroll down for video

Center of a storm: Peter Strzok, 47, made his first public appearance on Wednesday as he was seen leaving his Fiarfax, VA, home with his cuckolded wife. His texts to his lover Lisa Page, 38, have created a mounting scandal over claims of FBI bias against Trump and in favor of Clinton

Still married: Melissa Hodgman, 49, left the home she shares with husband Peter Strzok still wearing her wedding ring despite the revelation he had an affair with Lisa Page, 38

Could be questioned: Two House committees are to make formal requests to interview Lisa Page, Strzok's FBI lawyer lover, after their exchange of anti-Trump texts was revealed

Also still married: Peter Burrow, 40, Lisa Page's husband, was seen earlier this month in exclusive DailyMailTV photographs which showed that the couple were still sharing their marital home

And last week the Department of Justice released scores of their texts, revealing that the lovers discussed an 'insurance policy' if Trump won the election.

Page,38, and Strzok have made no public comment on their affair and its aftermath. Both remain employed by the FBI and Department of Justice.

Both also appear to remain married to their respective spouses.

Strzok left home at the same time as Hodgman, 49, who is associate director of the Securities and Exchange Commission's enforcement division, while Page was seen earlier this month at the home where she lives with husband Joseph Burrow, 40, and their children.

Strzok was sharply dressed in a black suit with pinstripe tie and carrying a Nordstrom Christmas bag and a coffee cup while his wife wore a black dress and camel overcoat. He drove off in a silver minivan with his wife sitting in the back seat.

But the political storm the lovers have created is huge.

On Tuesday Strzo's boss Andrew McCabe, the deputy FBI Director, was questioned for hours by the House Intelligence Committee behind closed doors.

McCabe is also facing demands from two other House committees that he answer questions on the Clinton probe in the wake of the texts being revealed.

The chairmen of the House Judiciary Committee, Bob Goodlatte, and the Oversight Committee, Trey Gowdy, have requested transcribed interviews with him, CNBC reported.

They have also asked for a formal interview with Page, a registered Democrat who texted Strzok: 'God Trump is a loathsome human.'

Crisis-struck: Robert Mueller's special counsel probe in to Russia was rocked by the revelation that the FBI agent and the FBI lawyer seconded to work for him were exchanging anti-Trump texts

Crisis for the bureau: The FBI's deputy director Andrew McCabe (right) wads questioned for eight hours in secret on Tuesday by the House Intelligence Committee, while deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who oversees Mueller's probe, was also questioned at length last week by the House Judiciary Committee in the wake of the anti-Trump texts

The explosive content of the texts riled President Donald Trump last week ahead of a visit to the FBI's academy in Quantico, Virginia.

As he boarded Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House last Friday, he was asked about the texts.

'Well, it's a shame what's happened with the FBI. But we're going to rebuild the FBI,' Trump said.

'It will be bigger and better than ever. But it is very sad when you look at those documents. And how they've done that is really, really disgraceful, and you have a lot of very angry people that are seeing it. It's a very sad thing to watch, I will tell you that.'

He also slammed the FBI's Hillary Clinton probe, calling it a 'rigged system', a phrase he used to apply to the presidential election system in advance of his win.

'When you look at the Hillary Clinton investigation, it was -- I've been saying for a long time -- that was a rigged system, folks. That was a rigged system,' Trump said.

'When you look at what they did with respect to the Hillary Clinton investigation, it was rigged. And there's never been anything like it in this country that we've ever found before. It's very, very sad. Very, very sad.'

The two lovers' texts had detailed their contempt for Trump and backing for Clinton, who Strzok had played a key role in clearing.

Strzok is reported to have been the official who changed a draft of then FBI Director James Comey's statement describing Clinton's conduct.

He is said to have removed the term 'grossly negligent'  language that mirrors the criminal code  to the softer words 'extremely careless', which does not rise to the level at which a criminal charge can be brought.

He also played a part in clearing her two closest associates, Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills, of lying to the FBI despite their evidence in a formal interview being at odds with emails they had sent.

The email probe included interviews with several senior Clinton aides including lawyer Mills and chief of staff Abedin.

Mills and Abedin both denied knowing of Clinton's unorthodox email server setup, according to summaries of their interviews that the Bureau released last year.

'Mills did not learn Clinton was using a private server until after Clinton's [State Department] tenure. Mills stated she was not even sure she knew what a server was at the time,' one agent's interview notes read.

And Abedin told agents, they wrote, that she 'did not know that Clinton had a private server until about a year and a half ago when it became public knowledge.'

But in emails released by the State Department, Mills and Abedin both referred to Clinton's server specifically. Lying to the FBI is a federal felony, but charges were not brought against either woman.

Off together: Strzok and his wife Melissa Hodgman left in the same minivan. He had texted his lover Lisa Page 'God Hillary should win. 100,000,000-0.'

President Trump latched on to the revelation of the texts and went on to call the FBI's performance 'disgusting' and evidence that 'the system is rigged'

Strzok and Page were both seconded to the Mueller probe earlier this year from their FBI roles.

Strzok had already carried out one critical interview in his role as deputy head of counterintelligence, when he interviewed Mike Flynn, Trump's then national security advisor, in January.

Flynn pleaded guilty last month to lying to the FBI in that interview in a plea deal with Mueller in which he agreed to become a co-operating witness and even to wear a wire if necessary.

Strzok was removed from the Mueller team in August because of the texts, while Page had already left before they emerged.

God Hillary should win. 100,000,000-0 Strzok to Page

But their existence was never disclosed and the affair was revealed early in December by the Washington Post.

It remains unclear exactly how the texts came to light but the two used their official FBI cell phones to carry on the affair.

Last week, the evening before deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein was questioned by the House Judiciary Committee on his oversight of the probe, the Department of Justice released scores of the 10,000 texts the lovers exchanged.

They revealed months of the two exchanging political views, which became increasingly virulently anti Trump.

The texts included a lengthy exchange in early March in which Page - a registered Democrat - told her lover: 'God Trump is loathsome human.'

Page replied 'Omg hes an idiot' and Page said: 'Hes awful', prompting Strzok to say: 'America will get what the voting public deserves.'

F TRUMP Strzok to Page

In the same exchange Strzok said: 'God Hillary should win. 100,000,000-0.'

At the time the Clinton email probe was in full swing and Strzok was a key figure in it, under the direct supervision of Comey.

Strzok also appears to have updated Page on the state of the Clinton investigation.

In June he texted her: 'Now were talking about Clinton, and how a lot of people are holding their breath, hoping.'

And in July, after Comey announced that Clinton would bot be prosecuted he texted her: 'F TRUMP.'

That prompted her to reply: 'And maybe youre meant to stay where you are because youre meant to protect the country from that menace.'

He texted her: 'Thanks. Its absolutely true that were both very fortunate. And of course Ill try and approach it that way. I just know it will be tough at times. I can protect our country at many levels, not sure if that helps'.

But the text which has caused the most concern in Trump circles is one Strzok sent about an 'insurance policy' discussed at a meeting which Page and Strzok attended with McCabe, then Comey's deputy.

Its like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before youre 40 Strzok to Page

'I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andys office - that theres no way he gets elected - but Im afraid we cant take that risk. Its like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before youre 40' he texted her in August 2016.

Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has demanded that the deputy attorney general hand over any other messages, emails or documents which would explain what Strzok meant.

He also asked for details of what Strzok meant when he said: 'we text on that phone when we talk about hillary because it cant be traced, you were just venting bc you feel bad that youre gone so much but it cant be helped right now.'

The Wall Street Journal reported that the two were discussing how to keep their spouses from being suspicious about their huge volume of correspondence.

It also reported that the 'insurance policy' was intended to mean that the FBI had to move aggressively on allegations of Russian collusion by elements of the Trump campaign in the election.
Donald Trump confronted Theresa May over his decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel after Britain voted against the US at the United Nations.

Mrs May and the President discussed the issue in a long-awaited showdown call yesterday afternoon, with Downing Street admitting the leaders took 'different positions'.

On Monday, Britain's UN ambassador joined allies in voting for a motion condemning the change, which flouts international doctrine on the Middle East.

The US vetoed the resolution in New York, and ahead of another vote on Thursday US ambassador Nikki Haley has warned 'the President and US take this vote personally'.

Another vote on a similar motion is due tomorrow and Ms Haley said the US was 'taking names' of its opponents.

Several nations have received letters from the US slamming their support for the resolution.

Donald Trump (pictured today at the White House) confronted Theresa May over his decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel after Britain voted against the US at the United Nations

The President (pictured with his Cabinet today) has been left internationally isolated by his decision to recognise Jerusalem as the Israeli capital

Mrs May and the President discussed the issue in a long-awaited call yesterday afternoon, with Downing Street admitting the leaders took 'different positions' (they are pictured together in May)

On Monday night (pictured), US ambassador Nikki Haley raised her hand to vote alone to a veto a resolution while the UK ambassador (seated left) Matthew Rycroft sat with his hands folded

MailOnline has asked the Foreign Office if Britain has received a letter. CBS has confirmed at least three nations have been sent it.

Downing Street's report of the call said Mrs May and Mr Trump exchanged Christmas wishes and committed to staying in 'close touch'.

But a spokesman admitted: 'They discussed the different positions we took on the recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, and agreed on the importance of the US bringing forward new proposals for peace and the international community supporting these efforts.'

HOW THE MAY-TRUMP RELATIONSHIP HIT THE BRAKES November 29 - Trump retweets a series of Britain First videos. May condemns him as 'wrong' December 4 - Expectations rise Trump will announce the US will recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. December 6 - May warns the US not to make the change tells MPs she will speak to Trump about Jerusalem December 7 - Trump officially makes his move and recognises Jerusalem as the capital of Israel December 18 - No 10 admits May and Trump have still not spoken but denies a snub December 19 - Call finally takes place Advertisement

A White House statement made no direct reference to Jerusalem, noting only that the call touched on the 'next steps in forging peace in the Middle East'.

Ahead of tomorrow's vote, Ms Haley tweeted: 'At the UN we're always asked to do more and give more.

'So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American people, about where to locate our embassy, we don't expect those we've helped to target us.

'On Thursday there'll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names.'

Although Mrs May did raise the Israel issue, no reference was apparently made to their extraordinary public spat over his retweets of anti-Muslim posts by the Britain First group.

The delay in the call happening had sparked speculation that Mr Trump was snubbing Mrs May's attempts to make contact.

Downing Street insisted the conversation between the two leaders was warm and constructive.

After Monday's vote, Ms Haley said the US was 'taking names' of its opponents. Several nations have received letters from the US slamming their support for the resolution

During the call Mr Trump is said to have told the PM he will be coming to open the new US embassy in London, probably in February.

He is also expected to hold talks with the Prime Minister in Downing Street.

But a planned meeting with the Queen will not take place until he makes a full state visit  plans for which are on ice.

The decision comes after months of questions over a state visit, which Mrs May offered the president when they met at the White House after his inauguration.

There have been fears that a red-carpet occasion would be overshadowed by huge protests on the streets.

Mrs May has sent Mr Trump a Christmas card - but No10 has refused to say whether she has received one in reply.

Mr Trump is said to have told Mrs May he will visit the UK for the first time as President in February to officially open the new American embassy

The premier took the unusual step of revealing plans to call Mr Trump during Prime Minister's Questions on December 6, at the height of criticism of the President's decision on Israel.

Her announcement came just days after Mr Trump sparked huge diplomatic row by re-tweeting anti-Muslim videos from the far right Britain First Group.

At the time, the PM said Mr Trump was 'wrong' to retweet the videos, and the US president hit back at Mrs May on Twitter by telling her to focus on 'destructive radical Islamic terrorism' in the UK, rather than on him.

A spokesman for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: 'It has taken Theresa May two weeks to contact Trump over his dangerous decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital, yet she seems to have failed to use the opportunity to call him out for retweeting abhorrent Islamophobic material.

'As Prime Minister, May has a responsibility to stand up against hate and for all communities in our country.'

Her spokesman was challenged on when the call would take place at a Westminster briefing earlier this week.

Asked if the failure to schedule a call was a snub, the spokesman said: 'I would not see it like that at all.

'We will let you know when they have spoken.'
Theresa May today angrily denied that the botched election campaign forced her to beg the EU for a Brexit transition deal.

A clearly furious Prime Minister repeatedly stared down MPs during bad-tempered clashes at a committee hearing.

She had a particularly tense exchange with Yvette Cooper as the pair went toe to toe over Brexit and the Irish border.

The Labour MP branded her plans for technological solutions to the issue 'baffling' prompting the PM to glower at her over her spectacles and scathingly shake her head.

Mrs May also angrily rejected criticism of the way she has been handling negotiations with Brussels.

And she dismissed concerns about concessions made in the Brexit divorce deal that rules will stay sufficiently aligned to preserve the soft Irish border.

It came as she was quizzed by senior MPs in her first liaison committee appearance since the Tory election disaster and the first phase of Brexit talks were signed off.

The scenes came as Mrs May gave evidence to the powerful Liaison Committee, which is made up of senior MPs from across parties

Mrs May dismissed concerns about concessions made in the Brexit divorce deal that rules will stay sufficiently aligned to preserve the soft Irish border

A clearly furious Prime Minister repeatedly stared down MPs during bad-tempered clashes at a committee hearing

Mrs May was asked about EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier's demand that the transition period should finish on December 31, 2020 - shorter than mooted by the UK.

How the clash between May and Cooper played out in full Yvette Cooper: 'Can you confirm you wont look at cameras I the Northern Ireland border? PM: We have said there will be no physical infrastructure in relations to Northern Ireland, we have put forward a number of options as to how we think that border issue can be addressed, and in fact those are options which could be applicable more widely in terms of our future relationship with the UK and European Union. As I have said form the very beginning of this process, we are not going to give a running commentary on every detail of our negotiations. YC: Of course but will there be physical infrastructure? PM: We are not going to give a running commentary on every aspect. YC: But are cameras physical infrastructure? PM: We will be discussing how we address these issues. We have said there will be no physical infrastructure at the border no hard border with Northern Ireland. So people will be able to move across that border as they o currently. YC: They are not virtual they have to be physical, are you ruling out cameras at the Northern Ireland border? PM: What I am saying is as part of our negotiations we will be ensuring there is no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. That can be achieved in a number of ways. I am not going to say precisely how we are going to achieve that because we are going into a negotiation. YC: OK thats also baffling. PM: Shakes her head. YC: Now that Amendment 7 has been passed by Parliament, can you confirm that means there will now be a vote on a statute on the withdrawal agreement before the withdrawal agreement is ratified? PM: It slightly depends what you're talking about. 'We have to have a withdrawal agreement before we can bring a Withdrawal Agreement Bill into Parliament for Parliament to agree that Withdrawal Agreement Bill. There will be an opportunity for Parliament to vote on that withdrawal agreement before that legislation is brought into place. Advertisement

She repeated that she was seeking a implementation period lasting 'around two years'.

'We are going into a negotiation,' Mrs May said. 'What I would say is that the City of London is obviously important to us here in the UK, but actually it is of significant importance to the rest of the EU as well.

'I think as we come into discussions, there will be a greater recognition of the role the City plays in financial provisions for Europe as a whole, not just the UK.'

But Energy Select Committee chairman Angus MacNeil accused her of 'begging' the EU for as long as possible because she had wasted time calling an election in which she ended up losing her Commons majority.

'I have not begged the EU for two more years,' Mrs May insisted.

The PM, who was giving her spectacles a rare public outing, said the transition had been under consideration long before the election was called, and was about giving business certainty.

'This is not two more years to negotiate with the EU. This is two years when practically both businesses and governments will be able to put in place the changes necessary to move from the current relationship to the future partnership we will have,' she said.

Although she did not formally propose an 'implementation period' until her speech in Florence in September, she claimed her reference to the need for a 'smooth and orderly' Brexit in an earlier speech at Lancaster House in January made clear that was what she had in mind.

Mrs Cooper asked Mrs May to confirm that the government would not rely on cameras at the Northern Ireland border.

Mrs May replied: We have said there will be no physical infrastructure in relations to Northern Ireland, we have put forward a number of options as to how we think that border issue can be addressed, and in fact those are options which could be applicable more widely in terms of our future relationship with the UK and European Union.'

Ms Cooper pushed her to confirm whether there would be 'physical infrastructure - which could potentially violate the Good Friday Agreement.

The PM retorted: We are not going to give a running commentary on every aspect...

What I am saying is as part of our negotiations we will be ensuring there is no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

That can be achieved in a number of ways. I am not going to say precisely how we are going to achieve that because we are going into a negotiation.

In one highly charged exchange, Mrs May scathingly shook her head in frustration after Labour MP Yvette Cooper said her plans for technological solutions to the Irish border issue were 'baffling'

Energy Select Committee chairman Angus MacNeil accused her of 'begging' the EU for as long as possible because she had wasted time calling an election in which she ended up losing her Commons majority

Glaring over the top of her spectacles, Mrs May rejected criticism of the way she has been handling negotiations with Brussels

Mrs Cooper said: OK thats also baffling.

At that point Mrs May angrily shook her head.

PM is rarely spotted in the glasses she used to great effect today Theresa May was spotted with her red glasses while prepping for PMQs on the way back from the Paris One Planet summit Theresa May is not often seen with her reading glasses on in public - even though she used them to great aplomb in today's committee hearing. The PM has never worn them to the House of Commons despatch box. But she has been spotted with them recently while she has had to pore over paperwork. She was photographed with her red frames in her hand on the plane back from the One Planet summit in Paris last week as she prepped for PMQs with members of her team. The photograph - posted by No10's official Flickr account - was the first time she had been publicly snapped with her specs. Advertisement

Mrs May also rejected the idea that leaving the EU would necessarily mean increased trade barriers with 94 countries which are either members of the bloc or have trade agreements with it. She suggested that some of the trade agreements with outside countries could simply be 'rolled over' to the UK on withdrawal.

Mrs May said she believed negotiations on a free trade agreement could be completed before Brexit day.

'That is what we are working to and that is what I believe we can do,' she said.

'I and others have made the point in the past that of course we start off at a different point from other third countries... because we're already a member and already trading with them on a particular basis.

'As you will know full well, we can't legally sign the new trade agreement with the European Union until we're a third country, until we're out of the European Union - March 29 2019 - but I believe we can negotiate that arrangement in that time.'

She added: 'The reason I'm confident that we can do this within the time concerned is because we start off from a different point.

'So we haven't got a situation where country A is coming to negotiate with the EU not having had any arrangements with the EU before.

'We come form the point where we're actually a member of the European Union, we're operating on the same basis at the moment, and therefore I think that starts us off from a different position in terms of our negotiations on trade in the future.'
AbleStock.com/Thinkstock(CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.) -- The driver in a 2016 school bus crash that left six children dead was allegedly on the phone at the time of the incident, prosecutors with the Hamilton County District Attorneys office said Tuesday.



Johnthony Walker, 25, was driving a school bus with 37 children on board when he crashed in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Authorities said at the time speed was strongly considered as a factor in the November 2016 crash.



During a court appearance on Tuesday, prosecutors said Walker received a phone call at 3:17 p.m., three minutes prior to when the first 911 call came in about the crash. The call to Walkers phone lasted about four minutes, according to the district attorneys office.



The district attorney's office also said there is video of Walker on the bus with the children prior to the wreck; however, the video does not show Walker taking the call.



Its clear that he was on the phone when the crash happened. Melydia Clewell of the Hamilton County District Attorneys Office said. He did answer the call and the phone line was open.



Walker faces 34 charges, including six counts of vehicular homicide. He was released on bond earlier this year. His trial is scheduled for Feb. 27. Walker has pleaded not guilty.



The National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating the incident.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Iftikhar Ali, pictured, was found guilty of 12 counts of disseminating a terrorist document and one count of possessing a document likely to be useful to a terrorist

A young Sainsbury's shop assistant is facing jail for sharing ISIS propaganda on WhatsApp.

Iftikhar Ali was aged 18, and living at home with his parents, at the time he sent extremist material on his mobile phone.

He denied 12 counts of disseminating a terrorist document and one of possessing a document likely to be useful to a person committing an act of terrorism.

But following a trial at the Old Bailey, Ali, now 19, from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, was found guilty of all the charges.

It can now be reported Ali was friends with convicted terrorist Taha Hussain, who was filmed driving past Windsor Castle shouting 'Allahu akbar' and 'burn in hell'.

Hussain, 21, from Berkshire, knew London Bridge attacker Khuram Butt and was jailed for four and a half years in September, for disseminating terrorist documents on social media.

In December 2015, Ali had been identified by the Prevent team but he failed to engage with them.

He was arrested on March 10 last year over a payment of 140 via Western Union to a man in Turkey, which he claimed in police interviews was for 'charitable purposes'.

Examination of his mobile phone revealed Ali had an avid interest in ISIS with material including audio files of radical preacher Anwar al Awlaki, and images of executions as well as Hussain's Windsor video.

Prosecutor Mark Paltenghi said Ali's offences spanned six months between September 8 2015 and his arrest.

He said: 'It is the Crown's case that although he was young, he had already become a radicalised proponent and supporter of extreme Islamism.'

The Old Bailey heard Ali had saved audio files and terror manuals on his mobile phone

Ali sent a string of audio files on WhatsApp containing Nasheeds (songs), with titles such as For the Sake of Allah and Give Our Regards to Abu Bakr and Oh Islamic State You Light the World.

Following his arrest, police also recovered an alleged terrorist document entitled Advice for those doing Hijrah (migration), jurors were told.

In a police interview, Ali said: 'I have no links to any terrorist network. I was interested for research and curiosity purposes only as to what was going on in the Middle East. I'm not part of Islamic State or any other organisation.'

Ali downloaded a 148-page document called 'Advice for those doing Hijrah' which contains advice about how to sneak abroad to join ISIS on his Sony Xperia.

After his arrest on March 10, last year counter terror officers discovered he had typed 'Kuffar', 'Jihad' and 'Sharia4UK' into his phone so much the terms were stored in the device's user dictionary.

Ali, pictured, had a guide on how to runaway and join ISIS on his mobile phone

Ali did not react as the jury delivered its unanimous verdicts.

His 'distraught' mother, grandmother and siblings looked on in the public gallery.

Judge Mark Dennis QC thanked jurors for their 'public service' saying: 'Much of what you have had to look at has been very distressing and I'm sorry for that.'

He rejected a request for Ali to have bail while a pre-sentence report was being compiled.

Adjourning sentencing until January 26, the judge told him a lengthy custodial sentence was 'inevitable'.

Detective Chief Superintendent Kath Barnes, head of Counter Terrorism Policing South East, said: 'It is clear from the evidence that has been presented that Ali had displayed support for Islamist ideology and used WhatsApp to spread propaganda which clearly encourages others to commit terrorist acts.

'Today's conviction sends out a strong message that actions such as those carried out by Ali will not be tolerated and Counter Terrorism Policing, including officers and staff in the South East, will continue to identify those responsible for sharing this kind of content, gather evidence and bring them before the courts, so that they may face justice.

'We will be relentless in our efforts to keep people safe.'
Two officers at Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre have been cleared of sex offences against a woman detainee.

The 23-year-old Roma woman was at Yarl's Wood in Bedfordshire, as she challenged plans to deport her back to Eastern Europe, a court heard.

Syed Hussain, 34, and Bodrul Islam, 30, both from Bedford, were cleared of a series of sexual offences.

Syed Hussain, 34,(left) and Bodrul Islam, 30,(right) both from Bedford, were cleared of a series of sexual offences

Hussain denied sexually assaulting the woman on September 25, 2012, orally raping her on November 29, 2012 and misconduct in a public office between September 9 and December 4, 2012 by kissing and sexually touching her.

Islam, 30, denied misconduct in a public office between 15 November and 4 December 2012 by kissing and sexually touching the same woman.

Both men were cleared of all charges by a jury at Luton crown court on Tuesday.

The woman, who is now 28 and who cannot be named, had come to the UK as a child and had been born to a Roma family.

Her family arrived in the country in 2000 and in 2006 they were given leave to remain in the UK.

The women detainee was sent to Yarl's Wood(pictured) after spending time in prison for an offence

But in 2010 the woman, who by then was 21, was convicted of an offence for which she was sent to prison.

While behind bars, the court was told the woman was served with a notice that she was to be deported.

At the end of her sentence, was transferred from the prison to Yarl's Wood in the summer of 2012 'to await removal from the UK.'
A group of 10 suspected illegal immigrants have been pulled from the back of a lorry in Berkshire.

Police were called to a dual carriageway in Bracknell last week after noises were heard coming from the back of the truck.

Seven men believed to be aged between 18 and 30, two 16 year olds and a 17 year old, who said they were from Iraq, were arrested by police.

The incident happened on the same stretch of Bagshot Road where nine migrants - eight men and a boy - were detained three months ago.

Footage posted on Facebook shows the moment then men were hauled from the lorry

Commenting on the latest incident, a spokesman for Thames Valley Police said: 'We were called on December 14 to reports of noises coming from inside a lorry on Bagshot Road, Bracknell.

'Ten males aged 16, 16, 17, 18, 22, 25, 26, 29 and a duo of 30 year old were subsequently arrested on suspicion of entering the country illegally.

'They were remanded and are in the process of being transferred to the Home Office custody suite.'

The group are now being processed by Border Agency officials.

The incident happened near this petrol station on the Bagshot Road in Bracknell, Berkshire

It happened very near the place where nine Afghan men were pulled from a tanker this year

A spokesman for the Home Office said: 'Immigration enforcement was contacted by Thames Valley Police after police officers attended an incident on Bagshot Road, Bracknell.

'Ten people, all males, who presented themselves as being from Iraq, were referred to the Home Office and their cases will now be progressed according to the immigration rules.

'Among the 10 were three who claimed to be minors and have been referred to social services to be independently age assessed.

'Where someone has no right to remain in the UK we will take action to remove them.'
Ellie Perkins was crushed by her mother's Jeep after her brother jumped into the car

A little girl was crushed by her family car a day before her second birthday when the handbrake failed, an inquest heard today.

Ellie Perkins was running from her nursery in the British Virgin Islands to her mother's Jeep when her excited three-year-old brother got to the vehicle before her and clambered in.

The Jeep rolled down a hill towards Ellie and flipped over and hit her, as her mother Caroline Perkins watched in horror.

Basingstoke Coroners' Court heard her brother Freddie survived the horrifying crash, but Ellie died later in hospital.

Mrs Perkins had been collecting her daughter from nursery in the British Virgin Islands when the tragedy happened in March 2016.

The inquest heard how Freddie had been thrilled because his mother had bought cupcakes for his sister's birthday.

A sergeant with the British Virgin Islands police said Mrs Perkins 'broke down in tears' when she was interviewed after the crash.

The Jeep rolled down a hill towards Ellie and flipped over and hit her, as her mother Caroline Perkins watched in horror

In a statement read out to the court, Sergeant Tranquil of the BVI police said: 'When I arrived at the scene in Great Mountain, Tortola, I saw a blue Renegade Jeep turned over, resting on its left side.

'The vehicle was in second gear and there was a small pool of blood next to the jeep.

'Nisha Shahid, who worked at the daycare centre Mrs Perkins was picking her daughter up from, said the motor vehicle had rolled down the hill and flipped. It hit Ellie, causing injuries to her head.'

Sgt Tranquil said Mrs Perkins told him: 'I parked the car and my little boy was so excited because I had bought four cupcakes.

'It was Ellie's birthday the next day and he insisted he came with me to get her from nursery.

'We went to get her and he ran back to the car to get a cupcake; my door was open and he climbed in.

'Ellie ran off to catch up with him, while I was talking to Nisha Shahid at the day care centre.

'Next thing I knew, the car had flipped on top of Ellie. Freddie climbed out the window, he was unhurt. There was blood everywhere.'

Mrs Perkins and her husband Daniel, a her private equity lawyer, had moved to the British Virgin Islands in 2014 when he joined legal firm Maples and Calder.

After the horrifying accident the family had Ellie's body flown back to the village of Dummer near Basingstoke, Hampshire, where her funeral took place.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, coroner Andrew Bradley said it gave him 'great sadness' to conduct the inquest.

Mrs Perkins had been collecting her daughter from nursery in the British Virgin Islands when the tragedy happened in March 2016

He said the court had struggled to get documents from the British Virgin Islands coroners department, because hearings there are held in private.

Mr Bradley said a post mortem had revealed Ellie had cuts and bruises to her face, arms and hands, and had suffered a 'massive fracture' to her skull.

He said: 'A post mortem found a number of abrasions and contusions over her body and she had suffered a massive fracture to her skull.

'On the basis of the evidence, I record a verdict of accidental death.

'Ellie Perkins was killed by the family car - it is with great sadness that I have to carry out this inquest.'
Three Romanian men have been cleared of a gang rape attack having previously said they were guilty.

The alleged victim, who is in her 30s, told police she was lured away from a city centre and taken to an address in North Tyneside where she was attacked by three male strangers.

The woman had been on a night out in Newcastle prior to the incident which had allegedly taken place in the early hours of July 2.

Dumitru Manea, 29, and Daniel Lungu, 19, initially admitted their parts in the sex attack but have now walked free from court

Catalin Stan, 19, Dumitru Manea, 29, and Daniel Lungu, 19, all initially admitted their parts in the sex attack when they appeared at Newcastle Crown Court in August.

The trio, who required the assistance of a Romanian interpreter, had been warned they faced prison terms after pleading guilty to a single charge of rape.

However prior to their sentencing their legal teams made a successful application to a judge for their guilty pleas to be withdrawn.

As a result the pleas were changed to not guilty and the case was listed for trial in March next year.

But when the case was back in court today the prosecutors dropped the case entirely and the three men walked free.

Prosecutor Lee Fish told the court: 'The position is, the complainant in this case has withdrawn all support for this prosecution.

'She has made a retraction statement.

'She does not wish for this case to continue or give evidence in March.

'Matters have been discussed with her in some detail to ensure that this is a properly informed decision and the prosecution and the police are confident that it is.

'This is not a case where the prosecution consider it appropriate to compel this lady to come to court and give evidence.

'For those reasons, we formally offer no evidence in relation to all three defendants.'

Mr Fish said the complainant 'maintains she was raped' but does not want the case to continue.

Brian Mark, defending, said the defendant's case is the allegation against them are 'entirely baseless'.

He added: 'They say the allegation is untrue.'

Paul Cross, also defending, said there was evidence which 'contradicted' the account given by the woman.

Mr Cross added: 'To say she just changed her mind is potentially quite misleading.'

Judge Stephen Earl entered not guilty verdicts in respect of all three men, who have been held in custody since their arrest.

The judge told them: 'The prosecution have offered no evidence in relation to the count on the indictment.

'Each of you, therefore, is formally found not guilty and are entitled to leave the court.'
Samantha Ciotta, 32, was charged on Monday in Beaumont, California over the alleged sexual relationship with her student that took place back in June

A married teacher has been charged with having sex with an underage student after the teenager broke his silence and told police he would no longer lie to protect her.

Samantha Ciotta, 32, was charged on Monday in Beaumont, California over the alleged sexual relationship with her student that took place back in June.

The Beaumont High English teacher was arrested in September after she was allegedly spotted in the boy's drunken Snapchat video wearing 'a shirt and panties' with two shirtless teen boys.

The teenager initially told police he was 'not f***ing talking' about the allegations but spoke up when he learned Ciotta had said he had 'ruined her life', according to court documents obtained by Patch.

He allegedly told police that he had 'tried cover for Ciotta so she would not get in trouble' but then 'decided to no longer lie for her.'

The boy allegedly admitted to having sex with the teacher at least five times over several months and that he couldn't remember how many times she had performed oral sex on him because he was often drunk.

Ciotta has been charged with one count of oral copulation with a minor and two counts of sexual intercourse.

The 32-year-old mother-of-two, pictured with one of her sons, was charged with one count of oral copulation with a minor and two counts of sexual intercourse

The pair met when Ciotta taught the boy at Beaumont High School in California (pictured)

Police started investigating after another student was watching the teen's Snapchat story when he saw Ciotta allegedly come into view.

Court documents stated that she was scantily clad in the footage.

The other student allegedly asked the boy if the woman in the video was 'Mrs Ciotta'.

He allegedly replied: 'Yes  Bro, I'm gettin' in deep  been f***ing (Ciotta) and getting threesomes for the past couple weeks (at her house).'

It is not clear if the alleged threesomes involved other students or adults. Only one underage male is referred to in the court documents.

After watching the Snapchat video, the other student informed an adult about the boy's response and Child Protective Services were notified.

Ciotta was arrested and police obtained a search warrant for her home.

The Beaumont High English teacher was arrested in September after she was allegedly spotted in a drunken Snapchat video wearing 'a shirt and panties' with two shirtless teen boys

Inside, they found a torn-up note addressed to her husband which detailed her relationship with the boy.

According to their investigation, Ciotta took a special interest in the boy in 2015.

A relative who cares for him said she went as far as to describe herself as his 'advocate'. His mother is dead and his father is in prison.

Ciotta sent emails to his relative describing his improving behavior and, at first, the relative said she trusted her as his teacher.

Soon, he began arriving home in expensive clothes and with new technology which his relatives say she and her husband bought him.

Ciotta's husband filed for divorce and now has sole custody of their two children.

It is not clear who the boy is being cared for.

The relative who was looking after him has been investigated for child neglect after he spent months living away from home after running away.

Ciotta, who is on paid administrative leave from the school, will appear in court on December 27.
A gang of 10 moped raiders behind a 1 million crime spree across London laughed in the dock today as lawyers took almost an hour to outline the 99 previous convictions they have amassed for 172 offences.

Prosecutors say the judge should pass severe deterrent sentences on the thugs after an exponential rise of moped robbery on the streets of London.

The bandits stole phones, tablet computers and caused damage worth more than 1 million using hammers, knives, a gun and even a fencing post as a battering ram.

They hit different Three Mobile outlets several times in the early hours to grab the latest handsets and were in and out in a matter of minutes.

This is the gang of 10 moped riders who caused chaos across London in a series of violent raids that saw them use an array of deadly weapons to cause damage worth more than 1million

The gang was caught on CCTV during one terrifying raid. They used what appeared to be a battering ram to smash the bottom of the window through before climbing inside

They were then recorded breaking their way into a secure room using what appears to be a concrete slab. They were looking for Apple and Samsung devices

The gang sat in the dock chatting, looking bored and giggling loudly as prosecutor Michael Shaw spent nearly an hour reading out their prior convictions.

Ringleader Courtney White, 22, his righthand man Mominur Rahman, 22, along with Mohammed Hussain, 24, and Chang Mabiala, 22, were convicted of conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary after a four-week trial at Blackfriars Crown Court in November.

Bobby Kennedy, 22, and Chris Costi, 19, were found guilty after a trial in August of conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary stores across London.

Three other members of the gang Alfie Kennedy, 20, brother of Bobby, Dylan Castano-Lopez, 19, and Adam Atallah, 21, all previously pleaded guilty to their part in the conspiracy.

Father-of-two White, 22, spent his teenage years preying on elderly people, committing violent robberies.

The thug attacked three elderly people from behind ripping off their watches and necklaces.

One was a 76 year-old women who he dragged to the floor and tried to pull off her necklace, leaving her with cuts and bruising on the neck.

He received a year in a young offenders institute in 2013 for that offence.

The robber punched another male pensioner in the back off the head, running off with his watch.

The gang then used a stepladder to try and force their way inside. Eventually the door gives way and the thieves ransack the room

The cameras then recorded the gang fleeing from the scene with bags full of phones

The bandits stole phones, tablet computers and caused damage worth more than 1 million using hammers, knives, a gun and even a fencing post as a battering ram

The gang hit targets across London. Prosecutors called for severe deterrent sentences on the thugs after an exponential rise of moped robberies across the capital

White was also handed a suspended jail sentence in November 2015 for handling jewellery stolen during the vicious mugging of a 61-year-old woman in north London.

He was also convicted at Wood Green Crown Court for firearm possession after Police found a loaded 9mm handgun with his DNA in the back of a Peugeot 206 on December 2 last year, three days after the gangs final raid.

A South African Vektor SP1 9mm parabellum calibre self loading pistol was found in the passenger side footwell along with 40 bullets in Craven Park Road, Harlesden.

White has escaped justice twice by bizarrely claiming he has eczema which is why his DNA has been found at crime scenes

One of the hooded thugs was filmed wielding a hammer during one of the raids at a phone shop

The gang used mopeds to carry out their audacious robberies

His accomplice, Mominur Rahman was locked up for 12 months in 2015 after targeting elderly people in a 265,000 fraud by posing as police.

He rang his victims and told them their bank account had been defrauded, then attended their address pretending to be a courier to pick up their bank card.

Mr Shaw said that a deterrent sentences must be passed to discourage others.

This type of offending is having a massive community impact, he said.

The crime figures demonstrate an exponential rise. There are few factors that decrease the seriousness.

The only person without previous convictions is Mr Costi.

There is, as far as I can see, no sign of remorse.

If ever a case in which a deterrent sentence needs to be passed, in order to prevent an exponential in these types of offending, this is it.

The hearing continues.
Bill O'Reilly may soon be facing off in court against a number of women who alleged that the disgraced host sexually harassed them during his time at Fox News.

Andrea Mackris, a former producer on O'Reilly's show, and former Fox Business Network host Rebecca Gomez Diamond have joined the defamation suit filed by fellow O'Reilly accuser Rachel Witlieb Bernstein.

The three women are suing O'Reilly for defamation after he made comments over the past few months suggesting that they were political operatives hell bent on taking him down as well as liars whose only goal was extortion.

He made those claims despite the fact that he settled with Mackris for $9 million after she accused him of sexual harassment in 2004, and paid Diamond an undisclosed amount in 2011 after she too accused him of sexual harassment.

Bernstein complained about O'Reilly's harassing behavior to human resources back in 2002 and received a small payout that was far less than the other five known women whom O'Reilly settled with over the years.

In total, O'Reilly paid over $45 million to six women, including one who was awarded $32 million just this year.

O'Reilly has stated in the past he only settled so the allegations would not play out in public and bring unneeded stress to his teenage son and daughter.

His lawyer responded to the initial defamation filing by pointing out that O'|Reilly had never named one of his accusers when speaking about individuals who were out to bring him down.

Go their own way: Andrea Mackris (right) and Rebecca Gomez Diamond have joined a defamation lawsuit filed by Rachel Witlieb Bernstein against Bill O'Reilly (left)

'They are tired of being smeared with lies by a bully who thinks that his victims are afraid to answer to them,' said the lawyer for the women, Nancy Erika Smith.

'They are standing up for the truth, joining the many voices of brave women who are no longer tolerating abuse or being silenced.'

Smith previously represented Gretchen Carlson in her successful lawsuit against Fox News, landing the host a $20 million payout.

Fox News is also named as a defendant in the defamation suit.

It was Mackris' lawsuit that made headlines when it was settled back in 2004 by the network for a formerly undisclosed sum which in April was revealed to be $9million by The New York Times.

In her complaint, Mackris claimed she had been sexually harassed by O'Reilly and detailed their phone sex conversations in which he allegedly listed off his female conquests.

O'Reilly also allegedly detailed a sex fantasy he had about Mackris using 'that little loofah thing' in the shower, but towards the end accidentally called it a 'falafel thing'.

According to the complaint, O'Reilly called Mackris one night to inform her he was watching pornography and then began to engage in phone sex fantasy about having her come to the Caribbean with him.

'So anyway Id be rubbing your big boobs and getting your nipples really hard, kinda' kissing your neck from behind ... and then I would take the other hand with the falafel thing and Id put it on your p***y, but youd have to do it really light, just kind of a tease business,' said O'Reilly according to court papers filed by Mackris.

Her complaint went on to say that during his monologue O'Reilly also suggested Mackris perform oral sex on his 'big c***' and that 'it became clear that he was using a vibrator upon, himself and had ejaculated.'

When the two reached a settlement a statement was released from both parties that said 'no wrongdoing whatsoever' occurred while Mackris worked with O'Reilly.

She was also not allowed to speak about the suit in public before or after the settlement, while O'Reilly was able to say that Mackris' complaint was 'the single most evil thing I have ever experienced' to his millions of viewers.

Mackris was also written about negatively in a number of articles at the time.

O'REILLY'S CALL TO MACKRIS 'Well if I took you down there I'd want to take a shower with you right away, that would be the first think [six] I'd do ... yeah, we'd check into the room, and we would order up some room service and uh and you'd definitely get two wines into you as quickly as I could get into you I wouldn't get 'em into you ... maybe intravenously, get those glasses of wine into you... 'You would basically be in the shower and then I would come in and I'd join you and you would gave your back to me and I would take the little loofa thing and kinda soap your back and rub it all over you, get you to relax, hot water ... and um ... You know, youd feel the tension drain out of you and um you still would be with your back to me then I would kinda put my arms  its one of those mitts, those loofa mitts you know, so I got my hands in it ... and I would put it around front, kinda rub your tummy a little bit with it, and then with my other hand I would start to massage your boobs, get your nipples really hard ... cuz I like that and you have really spectacular boobs. 'So anyway Id be rubbing your big boobs and getting your nipples really hard, kinda' kissing your neck from behind ... and then I would take the other hand with the falafel thing and Id put it on your p***y, but youd have to do it really light, just kind of a tease business.' Advertisement

It was seven years until the next woman received a settlement, with Diamond being handed an unknown amount from O'Reilly himself according to multiple sources after confronting him with a recording of comments he had made to and about her while she worked as a host on the Fox Business Network show 'Happy Hour.'

The payout was so secretive that 21st Century Fox was not even aware of the what had transpired between the two parties until last year, when it was revealed during an internal investigation into sexual harassment claims being brought against Ailes.

Laurie Dhue, who worked as a reporter on the television show Geraldo at Large and was the host of Fox Report Weekend for eight years between 2000 and 2008 also received a payout after accusing Ailes and O'Reilly of sexual harassment.

She received $1million over the summer from the network, shortly after she announced her plan to write a tell-all book.

Fox News also settled with Huddy for $1.6million back in September of last year after she claimed that O'Reilly had tried to pursue a sexual relationship with her while she appeared on the network as a guest on his show.

Huddy stated that O'Reilly would repeatedly call her at home in Long Island and once tried to kiss her, which caused her to fall over as she pulled away from the host.

Soon after she stopped being asked to appear on O'Reilly's program.

Both Dhue and Huddy's stories had been reported before, but it was not known Dhue had complained about O'Reilly's behavior in addition to Ailes.

Bernstein was the fifth woman to speak out in that story.
This is the moment a hero cyclist recovers a stolen bike after following a thief and confronting him in a train station.

The video, from Dun Laoghaire, Ireland, shows cyclist Jozef Dobias ride past a thief breaking off a lock before pedalling away.

The 30-year-old decided to follow the man for around 15 minutes before he stopped to enter the Salthill and Monkstown train station, where he told him to get off the bike and he obeyed.

In the clip Jozef Dobias cycles past the man cutting the lock off a bike in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland

The 30-year-old decides to pursue the thief for around 15 minutes, covering 1km of road

During the confrontation the thief brazenly denied stealing the bike, saying 'You didn't see f***ing nothing,' to which Mr Dobias triumphantly replied with 'I saw everything, and everything is on a GoPro as well - you've been recorded.'

At one point during the chase, the thief decides to obey the law by stopping the newly-stolen wheels to turn on the back light.

Mr Dobias, who owns dlb cycles in Dun Laoghaire, said that he always records his trips on his bike.

After the clip cuts off, he took the bike back to his shop before Gardai picked it up a few days later.

At one point in the clip which quickly racked up views online the thief decides to obey the law and stop the bike to turn on the back light

When the clip was featured on the Irish Independent the owner of the bike saw the footage and got her bike back from the station the next day.

Mr Dobias told the MailOnline she was 'very much delighted' to be reunited with her bike.

Commenters have praised the GoPro-wielding hero for following the man and catching him.

One said: 'Brilliant. Absolute kudos to you for doing this, really brave considering he could've taken out whatever he used to steal the bike with.'

Another said: 'Hero of the day. I hope they got that f***er? Owner of the bike must have been so thankful. Best probably to call the guards right away, if possible.'

As he stops in the Salthill and Monkstown train station, Mr Dobias tells the man to 'get off the bike' and instructs a witness to call Gardai

After being confronted he said: 'You didn't see nothing'
Theresa May today insisted she would always be prepared to take out British terrorists with drone strikes if necessary for national security.

The Prime Minister launched a staunch defence of the tactic after her Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson was slammed for saying British jihadis should be 'eliminated'.

In a statement to MPs today, Mrs May said it was a 'last resort' but said if there was no other option she would give the order.

Mrs May was responding to a report by MPs on David Cameron's August 2015 decision to kill Reyaad Khan, a UK national, in the Raqqah area of Syria.

Theresa May (pictured today at the Liason Committee) insisted she would always be prepared to take out British terrorists with drone strikes if necessary for national security

In a statement to MPs today, Mrs May said the use of RAF Reaper drones (pictured) was a 'last resort' but said if there was no other option she would give the order

The Intelligence and Security Committee, chaired by former Attorney General Dominic Grieve concluded that there was 'no doubt that Reyaad Khan posed a very serious threat to the UK'.

The committee commended the intelligence agencies for identifying Khan's activities before he could launch his plots in Britain.

In her response, Mrs May said: 'A precision airstrike against a British citizen is one of the most difficult decisions a Government can take.

'It is the last resort in a host of counter-terrorism measures to prevent and disrupt plots against the UK at every stage in their planning.

Mrs May was responding to a report by MPs on David Cameron's August 2015 decision to kill Reyaad Khan (pictured) in the Raqqah area of Syria.

However, if there is a direct threat to UK citizens like that posed by Reyaad Khan, I, like my predecessor, will always be prepared to take action.

'In August 2015, there was no alternative to a precision airstrike in Syria.'

Mrs May said there was no assistance from a local government and no cooperative military forces on the ground.

She said the Government continued to work with internet firms on extremist content and with international partners.

The Premier said: 'But sadly this year has shown that the threat from terrorism cannot always be contained.

'Too many innocent families lives have been ruined across the UK from international terrorist attacks.

'The Government will continue to do what is necessary to keep citizens safe.'

Mr Williamson told the Daily Mail Britons who have fought for terror group should never be allowed to come back to this country.

The Prime Minister launched a staunch defence of the tactic after her Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson (pictured in Farnborough) was slammed for saying British jihadis should be 'eliminated'

And he said those who were intent on bringing 'destruction, death and bloodshed' onto the streets of the UK were being 'hunted down' and that threat 'eliminated'.

He said: 'Quite simply, my view is a dead terrorist can't cause any harm to Britain.'

The Defence Secretary added: 'I do not believe that any terrorist, whether they come from this country or any other, should ever be allowed back into this country.

'We should do everything we can do to destroy and eliminate that threat.'

But his comments sparked a row after the former director of public prosecutions Lord MacDonald branded the remarks 'juvenile'.
A man accused of detonating the bomb that killed a Maltese anti-corruption blogger listened to the explosion live on the phone of a spotter nearby, a court has heard.

Police say George Degiorgio triggered the bomb hidden in Daphne Caruana Galizia's car on October 16 last year by sending a text message as he sat on a boat in Valletta harbour, around 10 miles from her house.

The powerful explosion killed Galizia, who had implicated government officials and senior politicians in scandal, as she drove near her hometown of Bidnija.

George Digiorgio is accused of triggering the bomb which killed a Maltese anti-corruption blogger (left) and listening as the blast took place. He is accused alongside brother Alfred, who visited the scene of the blast several days before it happened

Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed when her car exploded near her hometown of Bidnija in the north of the tiny island nation of Malta

Mobile phone data also showed that Degiorgio's brother, Alfred, and another suspect, Vince Muscat, had repeatedly visited Bidnija in the days before the blast, police told a preliminary hearing.

Forensic experts also found Alfred's DNA on a discarded cigarette at a vantage point overlooking the village.

All three deny the murder, which shocked the European Union and raised questions about the rule of law on Malta, the EU's smallest member.

Shortly before the blast, George Degiorgio received a call from his brother, said Inspector Keith Arnaud as he laid out evidence for a magistrate who will decide whether to put the three suspects on trial.

Galizia was a well-known blogger who had implicated senior politicians and government officials in corruption scandals

'The phone call between the two brothers lasted 107 seconds, which was approximately the time it took to drive from the Caruana Galizia family home to the site where the car exploded, just down the hill,' Arnaud told the court.

Shortly after the deadly blast George Degiorgio sent a text to his partner: 'Buy me wine, my love'.

Caruana Galizia dedicated much of her time to rooting out allegations of corruption on Malta.

She had never written about the three suspects and her family believes that even if they carried out the attack, they were only acting on someone else's orders.

'We believe the murder was a political one,' Caruana Galizia's husband, Peter, told a separate Malta court.

That hearing is looking into a request by the family to have Deputy Police Commissioner Silvio Valletta removed from the investigation, since he is married to a government minister.

They argue that he has a conflict of interest because the blogger was a fierce critic of the government.

Valletta has rejected the suggestion and said on Wednesday the case was 'definitely not over'.

He added: 'It is the intention of the police to ensure that investigations are brought to their full end.'

Laying out initial evidence against the three, an investigator said the bomb used to kill Caruana Galizia was probably triggered by a call from a boat off Malta.

The Digiorgio brothers are accused alongside a third man, Vince Muscat. Pictured is one of the men arriving in court, though it is not clear which one

Police are currently outlining their case against the three men before a magistrate, who will then decide whether they should face trial

All three men have denied involvement in the killing. They had not been personally targeted by Galizia, though her family say they execution was almost certainly ordered by someone else

One of the chief investigators, Keith Arnaud, described how a team from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, brought in by the Malta government to help solve the crime, had focused on a phone number which received a text message at the time of the explosion in Bidnija.

Police say the number was not attached to a mobile phone but to a circuit board used in remote-control devices. The appliance was switched on at 2 a.m. local time in Bidnija on the day of the explosion and went off the grid at the time of the blast.

Part of the circuit board was later found in the wreckage of the car.

Cell phone data suggested the device was triggered by a call from off the coast. CCTV video showed a boat owned by the Degiorgio brothers putting to sea at around 8 a.m. on the day of the killing.

It was later seen still at sea at 2.50 p.m. and was idling at the time of the explosion before returning to harbour.

Arnaud revealed that police had already been tapping the phone of George Degiorgio at the time of the murder and had heard him asking two separate people to top up the credit of a mobile phone number on the morning of the blast.
A 37-year-old woman convicted of causing her fiance's drowning death by tampering with his kayak during an outing on the Hudson River is being released from prison.

Angelika Graswald, of Poughkeepsie, pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide over the summer for the death of 46-year-old Vincent Viafore and was sentenced on November 8 to 16 months to four years in prison.

She has been in jail since her April 2015 arrest, which counted toward her time served.

The victim's family members previously slammed Graswald's sentence as an injustice.

Scroll down for video

Almost a free woman: Angelika Graswald, pictured in court in November, will be released from prison on Thursday, six weeks after her sentencing

Killer bride: Graswald pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide over the summer for the kayaking death of her fiance, 46-year-old Vincent Viafore (left)

Graswald and Viafore went kayaking on a choppy Hudson River near Bannerman Island on April 19, 2015.

Prosecutors said Viafore's kayak started sinking after Graswald secretly removed a drain plug.

The bride-to-be admitted to hastening her fiance's demise by pushing a floating paddle away from him.

Graswald was originally charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter, but took a plea deal in July, just weeks before her murder trial was set to start.

State corrections spokesman Thomas Mailey says Graswald is being conditionally released from Bedford Hills Correctional Facility on Thursday. She will be supervised by Community Supervision staff in Dutchess County.

In a statement through her lawyer after the sentencing, Graswald said: 'I loved Vince very much and miss him terribly.'

Viafore's kayak (pictured) started sinking after Graswald secretly removed a drain plug

Graswald has been at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility (pictured) since November 20

'I don't believe I was treated fairly. This entire process was incredibly one-sided and unjust.'

But the victim's mother, Mary Ann Viafore, said she doesn't believe a word Graswald says.

'Four years for taking someone's life? No way,' she told CBS. 'My son was a good man and everybody loved him and we miss him very much. I don't ever want to see her again if I don't have to.'

Prior to her sentencing, the victim's sister read a statement to the court saying Viafore didn't deserve to die the way he did.

'When I think of my brother's last moments alive, I think of the pain he must have endured,' Laura Rice said, according to the Poughkeepsie Journal.

'I visualize him trying to survive hypothermia in the freezing cold river, confused and not understanding why the woman who said she loved him and wanted to marry him did nothing to help him.'

Graswald has been at Bedrford Hills since November 20. Prior to that, she was held at the Orange County Jail.

Prosecutors have said Graswald, who is a US permanent resident, could face deportation to her native Latvia after her 16-month parole.
A U.S. judge declared a mistrial Wednesday in the Nevada case against a states' rights figure, his two sons and another man accused of leading a 2014 armed standoff with federal agents during a cattle grazing dispute.

Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro in Las Vegas dismissed a jury seated last month for the long-awaited trial of Cliven Bundy, his sons Ryan and Ammon Bundy and self-styled Montana militia leader Ryan Payne.

It is the latest in a string of failed prosecutions in Nevada and Oregon against those who have opposed federal control of vast swaths of land in the American West.

Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro in Las Vegas dismissed a jury seated last month for the long-awaited trial of Cliven Bundy (pictured left) with Montana militia leader Ryan Payne (right)

Bundy's sons Ryan (R) and Ammon Bundy (L) and self-styled Montana militia leader Ryan Payne (Top Right) were also involved in the case

Jurors acquitted the two Bundy sons of taking over a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon for more than a month in early 2016 and amid calls for the U.S. government to turn over public land to local control.

In the Nevada case, Navarro faulted federal prosecutors for failing to turn over all evidence to defense attorneys, including records about the conduct of FBI and Bureau of Land Management agents during the standoff.

'The government is obligated to disclose all evidence that might be favorable' to the defense, the judge said.

Judge Navarro faulted federal prosecutors for failing to turn over all evidence to defense attorneys

The case stemmed from an armed confrontation that capped a decades long dispute over Cliven Bundy's refusal to pay grazing fees.

The 71-year-old rancher says his family has grazed cattle for more than a century in the area and insists public land belongs to states, not the U.S. government.

Government agents began rounding up his cattle. The four on trial were accused of enlisting armed gunmen to force government agents to abandon the effort.

'A mistrial is a very bad result for the government,' said Ian Bartrum, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas, law professor who has followed the case closely.

Bartrum had cast the trial as a test of whether the federal government could enforce its own land policy in Western states where it owns or controls vast expanses.

'It looks even worse because it isn't the sort of jury nullification we've seen before, but actual incompetence (or worse) by the prosecution,' Bartrum said in an email. 'It certainly erodes a lot of confidence in the federal government's motives.'

Acting U.S. Attorney Steven Myhre had no immediate answer about whether prosecutors would retry the case.

If so, the Bundys and Payne still would face 15 felony charges including assault and threats against federal officers, firearms counts, obstruction and extortion.

One of the men involved in a 2014 armed confrontation, Gregory Burleson (pictured), 53, of Phoenix, was found guilty in April and given 68 years

Prosecutors also failed to win full convictions against others at the Nevada standoff the tense confrontation near Bunkerville, about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

Six men who acknowledged carrying assault-style weapons faced a trial and a retrial.

Two were acquitted, two were convicted of some charges and two are free after pleading guilty to misdemeanors to avoid a third trial. None was found guilty of conspiracy.

Payne had pleaded guilty in July 2016 to a felony conspiracy charge before trial in the armed takeover of the Oregon wildlife refuge.

He's now fighting to withdraw his plea and his expected sentence of more than three years in prison.

One of the men involved in a 2014 armed confrontation, Gregory Burleson, 53, of Phoenix, was found guilty in April for his role in the standoff and was sentenced to a whopping 68 years in prison earlier this year.

The Arizona militia group member was convicted on eight felony counts, including charges of threatening and assaulting federal officers, obstruction of justice, interstate travel in aid of extortion and firearms offenses related to a crime of violence.
Donald Trump took credit on Wednesday for repealing the Affordable Care Act as part of the Republican tax cut bill, even though the Obamacare law is still on the books.

The tax package does cancel the tax penalty imposed under Obamacare on Americans who violate the 'individual mandate' by choosing not to buy medical insurance.

That, the president said during a cabinet meeting, is just as good as scrapping the law entirely.

'The individual mandate is being repealed. When the individual mandate is being repealed, that means Obamacare is being repealed because they get their money from the individual mandate,' Trump said.

Donald Trump took credit on Wednesday for repealing the Affordable Care Act as part of the Republican tax cut bill, even though Obamacare is still the law

Democrats were upset at a feature of the bill that axed the Obamacare 'individual mandate' penalty, a tax paid by Americans who don't buy medical insurance

'Not only do we have massive tax cuts and tax reform, we have essentially repealed Obamacare. And we will come up with something that will be much better, whether it's block grants or whether it's taking what we have and doing something terrific,' he added.

'But Obamacare has been repealed in this bill.'

Technically the individual mandate won't disappear when Trump signs the new tax measure into law, but the IRS won't be able to collect the fines beginning with the 2019 tax year.

It remains in effect for 2018, complete with a penalty that starts at $695 per adult and goes up for high-income earners.

The U.S. Senate's attempt to push an Obamacare repeal-and-replace bill across the finish line in July because of Sen. John McCain's surprising thumbs-down at the last minute.

Trump promised later that a new Obamacare-killing bill would pass early in 2018.

'Long before the November election, we're going to have a vote,' he said during an Indiana rally in September.

'We will do the block grants, we will do the health care,' Trump pledged then.

Speaking Wednesday with reporters present and shutters clicking, the president said he had tried to keep the Obamacare tweak a hush-hush affair so the press wouldn't turn it into front-page news.

Barack Obama's signature legislative achievement is still on the books but the Republican tax package will weaken it

'We didn't want to bring it up. I told people specifically, "Be quiet  with the fake news media  because I don't want them talking too much about it",' he told his cabinet.

'I didn't know how people would [react], but now that it's approved, I can say the individual mandate on healthcare, where you had to pay not to have insurance, okay? Think of that one: You pay not to have insurance. The individual mandate has been repealed,' he proclaimed.

Tax analysts predict that without the threat of a fine, about 13 million fewer Americans will opt to buy insurance.

A senior administration official said Wednesday afternoon that the president supports passage of a bipartisan Affordable Care Act stabilization bill in January.
Chris Christie, the outgoing Republican governor of New Jersey and one-time chairman of Donald Trump's transition team, has said that the president's son-in-law Jared Kushner - his rumored nemesis - 'deserves the scrutiny' he has been getting from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

'I'm telling you that he deserves the scrutiny,' Christie said during a wide-ranging, at times adversarial, interview with MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Tuesday. 'You know why? Because he was involved in the transition and involved in meetings that call into question his role.'

Christie went on to say of Kushner: 'if he's innocent of that, then that will come out as '[Robert] Mueller examines all the facts, and if he's not, that will come out, too.'

Christie's pronouncement came a month after the pugnacious governor hinted in an interview withPolitico that Kushner possibly played a role in his ouster from the transition team.

Scroll down for video

No love lost: Republican New Jersey governor and one-time chair of Donald Trump's transition team Chris Christie said on Tuesday he thinks Jared Kushner 'deserves the scrutiny' in the Russia collusion probe

Face-off: Christie made the comments during a wide-ranging, at times adversarial, interview with MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace

Speaking to the news site in November, Christie said he asked then-White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon point-blank whether Kushner was behind it.

'He didnt answer. But [based on] subsequent conversations Ive had with the president, I just dont believe this was the presidents decision,' Christie told Politico.

Christie has a fraught history with the Kushner family: as a US attorney in 2004, Christie successfully prosecuted Jared's father, real estate developer Charles Kushner, on charges of tax evasion, lying to the Federal Election Commission about illegal campaign contributions and tampering with a federal witness by hiring a prostitute to seduce him.

The elder Kushner eventually took a plea deal and ended up serving two years in prison.

During an interview in 2014, Jared Kushner decried his father's plight, arguing that he was unjustly pursued by the authorities, though he did not mention Christie by name, reported Business Insider.

Christie was among the first Republicans to endorse Trump's candidacy and spent six months at the helm of his transition team leading up to the November 2016 election.

Trump speaks as Governor Christie (C) and Jared Kushner (L) look on during a meeting about opioid and drug abuse in the Cabinet Room at the White House on March 29, 2017

Ousted: Christie was removed as Trump's transition team chairman three days after the Republican candidate's election win

Painful history: As a US attorney in 2004, Christie successfully prosecuted Jared's father, real estate developer Charles Kushner (pictured left in 2004) and sent him to prison for two years. Pictured right: Jared and Charles Kushner

Just three days after Trump defeated Hillary Clinton for the presidency, Christie was replaced as transition chair by Vice President-elect Mike Pence.

Earlier this month, Christie speculated that it was his opposition to naming controversial retired Army General Michael Flynn to the national security adviser post that prompted his swift dismissal.

On December 1, Flynn admitted to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia, becoming the first member of the Trump administration to plead guilty to a crime uncovered by Mueller's expanding investigation into Kremlin's attempts to meddle in the presidential election and possible collusion by Trump aides.

Prosecutors said that Flynn was told by a 'very senior member' of Trump's transition team to contact Russia and other foreign governments to try to influence them ahead of a United Nations vote seen as damaging to Israel.

Sources told Reuters earlier this month the 'very senior' transition official in question was Kushner.

Christie said on Tuesday that special counsel Robert Mueller (right) was a 'good man' but 'not perfect'

During his sit-down on MSNBC, Christie lavished praise on the recently appointed FBI Director Chris Wray, who replaced James Comey after the latter was fired by Trump, and spoke up for Robert Mueller, saying that he has great confidence in him.

Bob Mueller is a good man who, I think, will try to do the right thing by this investigation, but it doesnt mean he's perfect, said Christie.

The governor argued that the special counsel made some mistakes by failing to thoroughly vet some of the agents involved in the high-profile Russia probe to uncover possible biases, thereby opening himself and his team to censure.

Christie was referring to senior counterintelligence agent Peter Strozk, who was ousted from Muellers team in August after his anti-Trump text message exchanges with his mistress were uncovered, and top Russia investigator Andrew Weissmann, who was found to have sent an email to former acting Attorney General Sally Yates praising her for refusing to defend Trumps travel ban.

'It's an indication of a failure of the vetting system for the people that were being brought on, Christie concluded.
A series of text messages prove a 15-year-old alleged rape victim repeatedly lied and said she was 19 in the second case which has collapsed after officers sat on evidence.

Isaac Itiary, 25, was released from prison yesterday after it emerged the alleged victim posed as a 19-year-old woman and lied about her age.

Police officers had texts which showed the girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was lying about her age but only released them last week.

Mr Itiary, from south east London, spent the last four months in custody awaiting his trial but was celebrating with his parents after his release.

Isaac Itiary, 25, was remanded in jail for four months after being charged with raping a child under 16 - but has been freed after texts showing his evidence were not released by Met DC Mark Azariah (right) who is no longer working on active cases

His lawyers tonight released a statement which said he has always 'strenuously denied' the allegations.

It comes just days after a rape trial involving defendant Liam Allan collapsed after police failed to disclose damning text messages.

The texts showed his lover fantasised about being raped and asked him for casual sex after she claimed she was attacked.

Mr Allan faced two years on bail before his case collapsed last Thursday and has called for anonymity for rape suspects unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Both cases were led by Met Detective Constable Mark Azariah, who has not been suspended but is reportedly off active investigations while Scotland Yard reviews 30 cases approaching trial.

Mr Itiary was originally charged with raping a child under 16 but had insisted that the girl told him repeatedly she was 19.

He was a month away from trial after being charged with six counts of sexual activity with a child, two counts of rape and one count of making indecent photographs.

His defence team demanded the police hand over her texts in September but only got them last week and found that the alleged victim had constantly lied.

Their statement said: 'Isaac Itiary is a 25-year-old man and father that has spent the last four months in custody in respect of these allegations which he has always strenuously denied.

Liam Allan, pictured with his mother Lorraine, poses outside Croydon Crown Court after all rape charges against him were dropped

'Contrary to statements by the Crown Prosecution Service and the Metropolitan Police Service the issues in the case have always been well known: they were set out at the initial hearing at the Magistrates' Court in August 2017 and thereafter his appearance in the Crown Court at the Plea and Trial Preparation hearing in September 2017 as the Defence are obliged to do.

'The issue of the service of mobile phone material as well disclosure generally was repeatedly raised both in Court and in correspondence throughout the currency of these periods.

'It is also worthy of clarification that the Defence Statement in this case was served on the Court and the Crown Police Service in accordance with the Court's direction on 30 November 2017 and not on 15 December 2017 as has been suggested in some of the reports.

'Disclosure in this case has been dis-jointed, piecemeal and in contravention of repeated Court Orders.

'Some of the evidence which we understand led to the case being reviewed and eventually discontinued has always been in the hands of the Police.

'It has become apparent that there may be additional evidence as yet undisclosed to the Defence which informed the Crown Prosecution Service's decision.

'The delay in reviewing this case and serving evidence that should have been served some time ago is therefore not only gravely concerning but also unconscionable and in contravention of the ongoing duty of disclosure particularly of a defendant remanded into custody on the Crown's application.

'Despite being in possession of that material, the grant of bail to Mr Itiary was objected to repeatedly.

Mr Allan, a psychology student at Greenwich University, is planning to sue the police and the CPS for their bungled handling of the case

'Mr Itiary may be seeking legal recourse for the failings by both the Crown Prosecution Service and the Metropolitan Police Service and therefore it would be inappropriate to comment any further at this stage.

'We understand that there is with good reason, keen media interest in this case but we ask that the media respect Mr Itiary's privacy at this time and we can confirm that he is not willing to have any interviews with any media outlets at present.

'We echo that which has already been said by the Chair of the Criminal Bar Association, Angela Rafferty QC about cases of this nature.

The CPS said Mr Itiary's prosecution had passed the 'threshold test' until the extra evidence arrived.

A spokesman said: 'On December 17, 2017, the police provided new material to the CPS, which had previously been requested, and this was reviewed'.

'Prosecutors decided that there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction'.

Last night, amid mounting calls for an independent inquiry, the Metropolitan Police announced that every live case being investigated by its Child Abuse and Sexual Offences squad was now being reviewed to ensure that all digital evidence has been properly examined, documented and shared.

Attorney General Jeremy Wright, who is carrying out a review into disclosure, discussed the two collapsed cases on BBC Radio 4's PM programme.

He said they were both 'obviously appalling failures of the criminal justice system' and added: 'We need to understand and understand urgently what went wrong in those cases.'
Free internet pornography could be no more due to the Federal Communication Commission's decision on Thursday to kill net neutrality rules that provide equal access to online content.

The vote will likely reshape the multi-billion pornography industry in the coming years - as providers will have to pay more to allow viewers to keep watching for free, with little to no financial gain.

This will impact consumers - a lot, as pornography is currently the number one online industry in the world.

In 2016 Pornhub viewers alone watched more than 91 billion videos, and the website got an average of 44,000 visits per hour.

Free internet pornography could be no more due to the Federal Communication Commission's decision Thursday to kill net neutrality rules that provide equal access to online content (STOCK IMAGE)

The vote will likely reshape the multi-billion pornography industry in the coming years - as providers will have to pay more to allow viewers to keep watching for free. Pictured are demonstrators chanting and holding up signs during a net neutrality protest on Thursday, December 7

Thursday's vote means that internet service providers will be able to control what users can access based on the amount they are paying.

Providers will be able to charge a range of prices based on the type of content a website puts out.

This means that internet porn that was once free, or cheap, could get much more expensive. It would impact both people who want to watch porn and the groups uploading the pornographic content.

Trump's appointed FCC chairman Ajit Pai supported the repeal, and said it will keep the government from 'micromanaging the internet.

'We are helping consumers and promoting competition. Broadband providers will have more incentive to build networks, especially to underserved areas.

Pornhub has been one of the many websites to speak out against the FCC's repeal of net neutrality.

Trump's appointed FCC chairman Ajit Pai (pictured) supported the repeal, and said it will keep the government from 'micromanaging the internet

The company joined a protest organized by Fight for the Future, freepress, and Demand Progress in July - calling the FCC's actions a 'threat to a free and open internet.'

'Without [net neutrality], the cable and wireless companies that control internet access will have unfair power to pick winners and losers in the market,' Pornhub's vice president Corey Price told Motherboard.

'No one in the porn industry ever yells 'slower, slower, slower." We're much more accustomed to "faster, faster, faster." Here at Pornhub we want to keep it that way.'

And Alex Hawkins, a spokesperson for the porn website xHamster, told Life Site News that ending net neutrality will align the US market with more conservative viewpoints on pornography and sexuality.

He thinks the repeal will favor a more 'heteronormative version of sexuality.'

It is unlikely that the repeal will cause porn to disappear entirely, but it will probably cost more.

But that could be good for some lawmakers - as several states, such as South Dakota, Virginia and Utah, have declared porn a public health crisis.

Additionally, many republican lawmakers think 'net neutrality' is improperly named, and say it's unnecessary government regulation.
A Colorado couple is behind bars after they unknowingly tried to purchase a used car from a police officer with black-market marijuana.

'You want to know the truth? I saw that text, and I started giggling,' Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell told The Gazette on Tuesday.

Mikesell said he was contacted by 39-year-old Shawn Langley via text message on November 27 shortly after placing an advertisement on Craigslist looking to sell his SUV.

When Shawn Langley (R), 39, arrived along with 41-year-old Jane Cravens (L) on November 28, they were met by undercover detectives

Court records show that Langely and Cravens were charged with possession of a large quantity of marijuana with intent to sell

But to Mikesell's surprise, Langley offered to buy the car with marijuana instead of cash.

Langley even sent the Mikesell a photo, boasting of the contraband's quality.

'I was really surprised and I thought at first, "Maybe this is a joke,''' Mikesell said.

Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell was suprised about the offer and thought it was a joke and showed it to department detectives

Mikesell said he showed the texts to detectives the next morning, who quickly setup a sting for Langley at nearby Woodland Park.

When Langley arrived along with 41-year-old Jane Cravens on November 28, they were met by undercover detectives, who placed them under arrest after completing the transaction.

Upon searching the duo's vehicle, they recovered at least four pounds of homegrown pot, according to the Teller County Sheriff's Office.

Mikesell said that the bust is indicative of a larger problem in the area, with illicit drug sales transpiring under the nose of local law enforcement everyday.

'It just highlights (that) it's here, it's in our local communities,' Mikesell said. 'There was a very sobering side of that, as law enforcement,' he added.

Court records show that Langely and Cravens were charged with possession with intent to sell - one misdemeanor count for a small quantity, and a felony count for a larger amount, the Gazette reported.

Recreational marijuana is legal to poses in Colorado, which limits individuals 'one ounce of marijuana' for anyone over the age of 21. There are 16 ounces to every one pound of marijuana.
Paedophile ring leader Michael Emerton, who went by the name Ginger Beak on dating app Grindr, has been jailed for abusing children

The head of a paedophile ring whose members live-streamed each other while subjecting young children to sickening abuse has been handed nine life sentences.

Michael Emerton, who went by the name Ginger Beak on dating app Grindr, also used Skype and TruNude to establish the depraved network with five other men, who would then transmit the sexual images to each other by videolink.

On several occasions 33-year-old Emerton arranged to meet his accomplices to take part in sex acts in front of children.

He was arrested in November 2016 after Hertfordshire Police had been tipped-off by another force.

He admitted 20 offences earlier this year, including four counts of rape of a child and three of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and was given seven life sentences as a result.

Emerton, of Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, later admitted further offences including conspiring with the other defendants in order to rape, commit sexual activity with a child or engage in sexual activity in the presence of a child.

He was given a further two life sentences.

Robert Lindsay (left) and Matthew Webby (right) have been jailed for their role in a depraved paedophile ring whose members filmed themselves abusing young children

The judge said he had caused psychological trauma to the children who will face a 'lifetime of difficulties'.

Other members of the gang included Matthew Webby, 30, from Hemel Hempstead, Robert Lindsay, 39, from Markyate, Paul Stevens, 54, from Northchurch, Simon Wintle, 44, from Hemel Hempstead and Thomas Perry, 28, from Northchurch.

Stevens was sentenced to 10 years with a five year licence extension, Webby was sentenced to nine years with a five year licence extension, Lindsay was sentenced to five years three months with a three year licence extension, Wintle was sentenced to two years six months.

Perry will be sentenced on January 24.

Judge Michael Kay QC told the perverts their crimes were so shocking they undermined his faith in humanity.

He said: 'It is a sad feature of life as a judge in the criminal court, and for other involved in the criminal justice system such as the police, the lawyers and the probation officers, that one has time and again to read about and sift through the evidence and detail of sexual depravity, very often involving children.

'Even within this field of appalling and sickening abuse, there is from time to time a case which is so shocking that it undermines one's faith in humanity. This is one such case.

'Never before have I read a police summary of a case which begins with a warning that the reader should be very wary of the content due to the abhorrent nature of the offending.'

Thomas Perry (left) and Simon Wintle (right) were told by a judge their sickening crimes were so shocking that they undermined his faith in humanity

The police investigation, codenamed Operation Pendent, was the largest ever conducted by the Hertfordshire Child Online Safeguarding Team (COST).

Chief Inspector Dee Perkins said after the sentencing: 'This was an extensive inquiry which resulted in the sharing of intelligence with more than 50 other law enforcement agencies.

'Emerton, the paedophile at the centre of this investigation, mercilessly exploited children for his own sexual gratification and for those other men who he met online.

'The nine life sentences he has received reflect the disturbing nature of his actions. Work is ongoing to support the victims and make sure they have the best possible chance of a normal life ahead.

'Not only was this a large and complex investigation but also one that involved working through a large amount of video evidence in which this group had documented their own horrific crimes.

Paul Stevens was also part of the depraved ring and was sentenced to 10 years in prison with a five year licence extension

'Our reward is to see these men behind bars today and for many years ahead.'

Helena Burman, Senior Crown Prosecutor for Thames and Chiltern Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said: 'This case involved the serious and sustained sexual abuse of vulnerable young children by a ring of active paedophiles.

'The young age of the victims greatly increases the seriousness of the offences. As a result of the hard work and diligence of the prosecution team, and the strength of the evidence, four of the defendants pleaded guilty and the fifth was found guilty after trial.

'It is only due to the great courage of the victims that this abuse was brought to light, and the full extent of the despicable and lawless behaviour of these people revealed.

'I know that nothing can undo what happened to the victims, but I hope that the convictions and today's sentences will give them, with the passage of time and appropriate support, at least a small sense that justice has been done. My thoughts are very much with them at this time.'

James R. Mancuso, attache for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in London said: 'Protecting children from exploitation is one of the most important missions we have, and as this case demonstrates, it takes the collaboration of law enforcement agencies around the world to tackle this crime.'

A spokesman for Hertfordshire Police said: 'In one instance, intelligence was shared via the National Crime Agency with the Department of Homeland Securities about a potential offender in the USA.

'The intelligence suggested there was an immediate risk of harm to a potential victim. The suspect was detained in custody by American authorities within 48 hours of the evidence of offending being discovered in the UK.'
The leader of France's main opposition party, Laurent Wauquiez, has warned that Europe must not punish Britain over Brexit. The newly elected head of The Republicans, said he wanted a 'tailor-made regime' for the UK

The leader of France's main opposition party has warned that Europe must not punish Britain over Brexit.

Controversial right-winger Laurent Wauquiez, the newly elected head of The Republicans, said he wanted a 'tailor-made regime' for the UK.

The 42-year-old, a former minister in Nicolas Sarkozy's administration, made clear his views on Europe - in stark contrast to those of President Emmanuel Macron.

'We must be able to create a tailor-made regime for the UK. Brexit must lead us to a rethink on how the EU works,' Mr Wauquiez told The Daily Telegraph.

'We must invent a model linking [the UK] to the common market, a partnership model that cannot be the same type as the one we have with countries outside the EU,' he added.

'I don't like the way some speak of the UK today, where one gets the impression that the evil British people should be punished for daring to vote against the European Union,' he said at his headquarters in western Paris.

There are few policy parallels between Mr Macron and Mr Wauquiez, who is a relentless critic of the 39-year-old president - whom he slated in the Telegraph interview for his 'headlong rush into federalism'.

He has previously dismissed Mr Macron as being out of touch with rural France, weak on security and too much in favour of closer European integration.

And in his recent campaign to lead the party, Mr Wauquiez charted a rightward path to attack Mr Macron's social and economic reforms.

Scroll down for video

'I don't like the way some speak of the UK today, where one gets the impression that the evil British people should be punished for daring to vote against the European Union,' said controversial right-winger Mr Wauquiez

Meanwhile, the European Commission said today that it wants a post-Brexit transition period, during which Britain must continue to obey EU rules, to finish at the end of 2020.

Chief EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said that 'all EU policies will still apply' during the transition to a new relationship between London and Brussels after Britain leaves the bloc in March 2019.

Prime Minister Theresa May, who headed off a new parliamentary rebellion over Brexit as Barnier spoke, faces a fresh row over the proposed EU timeline as she has called for a transition period that is three months longer.

The development comes after EU leaders signed off last week on the first stage of Brexit negotiations, ending more than a year of stalemate over Britain's bill for leaving the bloc, as well as the fate of the Irish border and EU expatriates.

There are few policy parallels between France's president, Emmanuel Macron (above), and Mr Wauquiez, who is a relentless critic of the 39-year-old

'From our point of view, the logical end should be December 31, 2020,' Barnier said at a press conference in Brussels as he presented the new Brexit negotiating guidelines produced by the commission, the EU's executive arm.

This would coincide with the end of the EU's seven-year budget for 2014 to 2020, he said, avoiding potentially thorny negotiations on how much Britain should pay for the extra few months in 2021 that would be necessary under May's proposal.

Talks on the post-Brexit transition period are to start in January, while negotiations on the future relationship between Britain and the EU, including steps towards an eventual trade deal, are due to begin in March.

The EU has said it wants to have a free trade deal with Britain ready to go at the start of 2021, as soon as the transition ends.

'The transition period is useful and will enable Britain to get prepared for the kind of challenges that they will have to face, and to prepare also for the complications of the new relationship,' Barnier said.

But the veteran French politician warned that Britain would have to stick to EU laws throughout the transition period, even new ones passed after it had left the bloc, and obey rules on free movement.

'This cannot be an a la carte transition period - all EU policies will still apply,' Barnier said. 'The UK will keep all of the benefits, but also all of the obligations and duties of the single market, the customs union and our common policies.'

Eurosceptic hardliners in May's Conservative party have insisted that Britain should take back control of its borders and no longer be subject to the European Court of Justice from March 2019 onwards.
As Montana Rescue Mission prepares to serve up to 600 meals on Christmas Day, the agency says its in desperate need of additional hams and a lot more pies.

Free Christmas dinner for poor and homeless residents will be served from 1 to 3 p.m. on Dec. 25 in MRMs mens shelter, 2822 Minnesota Ave. A chapel service begins at noon.

In addition to sit-down meals served in the community dining room, take-out Christmas meals will be prepared and delivered to shut-ins, people unable to travel to MRM and to Meals on Wheels recipients.

Billings residents who arent part of the Meals on Wheels program and are in need of a meal delivered to their residence are encouraged to call 406-259-3800 by 5 p.m. Friday.

We have just about everything we need to provide this service to the community, said Denise Smith, the agencys public relations manager, but we are worried that we wont have enough ham and pie for everyone.
An investigation has been launched into the conduct of four police officers after an aspiring lawyer died in their custody.

Student Nuno Cardoso, 25, collapsed after being restrained in Oxford during the early hours of November 24 while in the back of a police van.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said four Thames Valley Police officers involved in the incident were under investigation.

Officers were in the process of transporting Mr Cardoso, originally from London, to a police station when he became unwell.

Nuno Cardoso, 25, collapsed after being restrained in Oxford during the early hours of November 24 while in the back of a police van

The vehicle was stopped so that CPR could be administered, with additional officers arriving at the scene with a defibrillator, the IPCC said.

He was taken by ambulance to John Radcliffe Hospital where he died later that day.

The IPCC said body worn video footage of his arrest and the subsequent medical assistance he received, has been downloaded for analysis.

Four Thames Valley Police officers have also been served with notices confirming that their conduct is under investigation, in particular whether the decision to transport Mr Cardoso to custody rather than seek medical assistance at that point, was appropriate, the police watchdog said.

Mr Cardoso's mother, Doroteia dos Santos, said the number of deaths in police custody, particular of young black men, makes her 'worried that something is wrong'.

'I have so many questions about how this could have happened to my son,' she said in a statement issued through the charity inquest.

'Police officers are meant to be trained to notice if people are unwell and to ensure that they can keep people in their custody safe.

'I trust that there will be a thorough investigation, and I believe that any failures can be found out and the people responsible held to account.

'I just want justice for my son.'

The IPCC said they were informed of the incident by Thames Valley Police, that investigators were sent to the scene and an independent investigation was launched.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said four Thames Valley Police officers involved in the incident were under investigation. Above, Thames Valley Police Station in Oxford

Investigators have met with Mr Cardoso's family to explain their role and regular updates will be provided to them and to HM Coroner throughout the investigation, the IPCC said.

Following Mr Cardoso's death, a post mortem was carried out on December 5, which the IPCC said proved inconclusive. Further tests will be carried out.

Associate Commissioner at the IPCC, Guido Liguori, said: 'My thoughts are with the family and friends of Mr Cardoso and all those affected by his death.

'The investigation, which is in its very early stages, will look at the full circumstances surrounding this incident.

'Anyone who witnessed the events surrounding Mr Cardoso's arrest or the medical treatment he received should contact the IPCC on 0800 029 4690.'
The bodies of six men were found hanging from three different bridges near the Mexican tourist resort of Los Cabos on the Baja California peninsula on Wednesday.

The authorities did not offer details on what happened to the victims, but drug cartels are known to string up the corpses of their murdered victims in public to intimidate rivals. Drug gang violence is set to make 2017 Mexico's deadliest year in modern history.

Two bodies were found on a bridge in Las Veredas, near Los Cabos International Airport, and two on a different bridge on the highway between Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo, local prosecutors said in a statement.

Rescuers remove two bodies hanging on the freeway to La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico, on December 20, 2017

Two bodies were found on a bridge in Las Veredas, near Los Cabos International Airport

In a separate statement, the prosecutors said two further bodies were found on a third bridge near the airport.

An official from the prosecutor's office, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the bodies of the men had been suspended from the overpasses.

Mexico News Daily reported that 'narcomantas,' or signs associated with drug gangs, were recovered from the crime scenes, proclaiming that the killings were the handiwork of the Guzmanes and Tegoripenos gang.

Translated from Spanish, the text of the note read: 'You a**holes didnt believe it. This is what will happen to anyone who does not fall into line with us. It has been made more than clear that we hold all the power and that Baja north and south are ours. Hahahaha.'

Violent crime has spiked in Baja California, particularly around the once peaceful resort of Los Cabos visited by million of foreign tourists every year. Los Cabos police chief Juan Manuel Mayorga was shot dead last week.

Mexico is on track for its most violent year since records began, with the rise of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, now one of the country's most powerful, and disputes between other criminal groups fueling murder rates.

On Tuesday, authorities in the northern state of Chihuahua said 12 people were killed in clashes between armed groups.

Two more bodies of unidentified men were removed from a bridge on the highway between Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo

The Guzmanes and Tegoripenos gang has reportedly claimed responsibility for the carnage

The governor of the state of Baja California Sur, Carlos Mendoza Davis, said that authorities were investigating the incidents near Los Cabos.

'I condemn these acts and any expression of violence. Today more than ever in #BCS we should be united,' he said via Twitter, using the hashtag for the state's initials.

Homicides have more than doubled in Baja California Sur this year, with 409 people killed through October, from 192 in all of 2016. In June authorities said they had found a mass grave with the bodies of 11 men and three women near Los Cabos.

More than 4.4 million passengers, mostly international, have passed through Los Cabos Airport so far this year, according to operator Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico.
Police body camera footage shows the moment a Florida officer is dragged for more than half a mile after trying to stop a driver he suspected was under the influence of drugs.

Officer Jon Cusack responded to a retirement community in Pembroke Pines on Tuesday when residents reported that a couple were unconscious in their car on the property.

The video shows Cusack approach the black Honda to find a man and woman lying unconscious and unresponsive.

Police said that there was a baggie of what appeared to be drugs visible in the car, though it's not visible in the video.

The video shows Officer Jon Cusack approach the black Honda to find a man (identified as Thomas Cabrera, right) and woman lying unconscious and unresponsive

Cusack can then be seen trying to wake the couple up.

As he's knocking on the window, the male, Thomas Cabrera, quickly puts the car in drive. The female passenger wasn't identified.

Cusack then reaches into the car to attempt to stop Cabrera from getting away - but the man speeds off anyway, pulling the officer along with them.

The car then takes off and Cusack holds onto the car's door frame and is dragged alongside it.

At this point the footage switches between views of the road, views of the back of Cabrera, and views of the sky as Cusack tries desperately to hold on.

The car's speedometer flashes into view for a moment in the footage - and shows the car reaching more than 60mph.

As he's knocking on the window, the male, Thomas Cabrera, quickly puts the car in drive

Cusack then reaches into the car to attempt to stop Cabrera from getting away - but the man speeds off anyway, pulling the officer along with them

The car then takes off and Cusack holds onto the car's door frame and is dragged alongside it

At this point the footage switches between views of the road, views of the back of Cabrera, and views of the sky as Cusack tries desperately to hold on

A few seconds later Cusack is forced to let go of the door frame and falls to the ground.

His shoes and uniform were 'shredded from being dragged along the roadway,' according to a police report obtained by NBC New York.

A few seconds later Cusack is forced to let go of the door frame and falls to the ground. His shoes and uniform were 'shredded from being dragged along the roadway,' according to a police report. He suffered serious injuries, but nothing life-threatening

Once Cusack let go Cabrera sped away - leading police on a chase through Broward county and reaching speeds of more than 100mph.

Commuter traffic on I-595 eventually forced Cabrera to slow down, at which point he was boxed in by several police cars, according to NBC.

Police approached the car with their guns drawn and arrested Cabrera and the female passenger.

Cabrera told police that he and his fiancee were doing cocaine and heroin before Cusack found them unconscious in their car, according to the police report.

He has been charged with attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, reckless driving and driving with a suspended license. It's not clear if the woman faces any charges, or if either of them will face drug-related charges.

The 19-year police veteran's injuries caused by being dragged more than half a mile down the roadway were serious but not critical.

He was taken to Memorial Regional Hospital and will undergo surgery for 'significant road rash injury to his arms and legs,' police told NBC.
Tom Hanks issued a critique of President Trump on Wednesday - saying he wouldn't screen his new film at the White House if he was ever invited.

Hanks stars in the new film The Post, which is about the Washington Post's publishing of the Pentagon Papers in 1971, documents that revealed years of government cover-ups about America's military action in Vietnam.

Hanks plays the newspaper's then-editor, Ben Bradlee, who pushed publisher Katherine Graham to release the documents when the New York Times, which first started publishing the documents, was hit with an injunction.

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday, Hanks said that while the film is set in the 70s, it echoes a lot of what's going on in the current political climate.

Tom Hanks said he wouldn't screen his new movie The Post (Hanks pictured in the film, left) at the White House if he was asked. President Trump pictured on the right

'Human behavior never changes. It's always the same. Vanity of vanity, nothing new under the sun.

'The Nixon administration tried to stop the story from being published. They took on the First Amendment by saying: "You can't tell that story, and if you do, we're going to threaten you." That is going on, of course, right now,' Hanks said.

A known critic of President Trump, Hanks went on to say that he would stage a protest if the Commander in Chief ever asked him to film the new movie at the White House.

'I don't think I would. Because I think that at some point - look, I didn't think things were going to be this way last November. I would not have been able to imagine that we would be living in a country where neo-Nazis are doing torchlight parades in Charlottesville [Va.] and jokes about Pocahontas are being made in front of the Navajo code talkers.

'And individually we have to decide when we take to the ramparts. You don't take to the ramparts necessarily right away, but you do have to start weighing things. You may think: "You know what? I think now is the time." This is the moment where, in some ways, our personal choices are going to have to reflect our opinions.

'We have to start voting, actually, before the election. So, I would probably vote not to go,' he said.

This isn't the first time that the star has spoken out against President Trump.

While in Washington, DC to accept an award in October, Hanks called the president 'one of the biggest cock-ups on the planet Earth'.

'This is a tragedy of the utmost consequence, and it goes much longer beyond whos going to come out on top of the news story. I think its very sad,' he said.

And in an interview earlier this month with David Axelrod on CNN, he said he's concerned with the president's attacks on the media - which he regulary tries to discredit.

'As an American it concerns me, because it's monkeying around with our Constitution,' he said.

'They're throwing dirt and oil into a bucket of water, so that it all becomes undrinkable after a while,' he said.
A woman accused of fatally stabbing her husband at their Brisbane home on Wednesday night has been charged with murder.

The 35-year-old man was stabbed in the chest during an argument at a Chapel Hill home about 9pm, police said.

He was rushed to Royal Brisbane Hospital in serious condition but later died.

Scroll down for video

A 36-year-old woman accused of fatally stabbing her husband at their Brisbane on Wednesday night has been charged with murder

The 36-year-old woman was arrested at the home and charged with one count of murder after being interviewed by officers overnight.

The couple's four-year-old son was at home at the time of the stabbing, according to 9News.

The woman is due to appear in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Thursday.
Two young children have been miraculously found and re-united with their father over three years after they vanished.

Harry Speath was meant to pick up his two beloved kids - bubbly Serena, aged five, and softly-spoken Thomas, aged four - after school in 2014.

But as he waited at the school gates in Carindale, Brisbane, on a Friday afternoon two weeks before Christmas, the kids never arrived.

What followed was a heartbreaking three years as Mr Speath and police desperately tried to locate his missing children and their mother, his estranged partner.

On Wednesday morning, heartache turned into elation when Australian Federal Police officers showed up with two early Christmas presents - his missing children.

Christmas came early for Brisbane father Harry Speath - who was re-united with his two children Selena (left) and Thomas (right) three years after they vanished

The adorable children were allegedly taken by their mother Jane Adare on December 5, 2014 (pictured above in age-progressed images)

Serena and Thomas, now aged nine and eight, were found in the Sunshine Coast hinterland with their mother - some 150 kilometres from where they vanished.

Ms Adare appeared before the Federal Circuit Court of Australia in Brisbane as Mr Speath caught up on three years of missed birthdays, holidays and milestones.

The search was hampered by a string of puzzling setbacks and false sightings.

Mr Speath initially held fears the trio could have been whisked off to Europe with their mother, who holds dual-citizenship in the United Kingdom.

To make matters worse, the children were not enrolled in any school across the state and their Medicare cards had not been used.

But Mr Speath, 61, refused to give up hope and set up a Facebook page dedicated to finding the pair - gathering the support of thousands of parents across the country.

In May, experts from the United States created a photo manipulation to show what Serena and Thomas would look like in 2017.

The images were circulated nationally and efforts to find the missing siblings were intensified.

Ms Adare (pictured) appeared before the Federal Circuit Court of Australia in Brisbane on Wednesday as Mr Speath caught up on three years of missed milestones

Mr Speath (centre) never gave up hope, desperately searching for his two children (pictured in front of photo manipulations of the pair of what they would look like in May this year)

Just two weeks ago, Mr Speath took to Facebook with a heart-wrenching post dedicated to his beloved children on the anniversary of their disappearance.

'Today I am reflecting on a monumental milestone in the time line since the abduction of my children by their mother,' he wrote.

'It is three years exactly since the last time I saw my children. It is three years exactly since the last time I have spoken to my children.

'It is three years exactly since I've obtained any news as to their education, health, wellbeing and so many other things that any concerned parent takes for granted.

'It's been three sets of birthdays (both theirs and mine), Christmases, Easters, Father's Days, three years worth of holidays, countless visits to their paternal grandmum, aunt and indeed their half brother's visits from his overseas work assignments. In that time, none of us has had the normal family pleasures taken for granted by normal folks.

'So what can I say to my children on this horrid anniversary? I guess all I can say is that I don't know when I'll see you guys. I hope it's soon. I know you guys don't know what all the above stuff is about, and I don't expect you to  until you are much, much older.

'In the meantime. I love you both very, very much. I'm sending you guys many, many, many hugs & kisses across the miles between us, no matter how far.'

The Australian Federal Police allege the siblings were 'parentally abducted'.

A lot to catch up on: When Mr Speath last saw his kids they were aged five and four (pictured). Serena (left) is now nine years old and Thomas (right) is eight years old
Chelsea Clinton penned an impassioned letter to her children about the 2016 election and the future of politics.

And as Hillary is currently serving as the December guest editor for Teen Vogue, the 37-year-old decided the magazine would be the perfect place to publish the letter - which went live Tuesday.

The activist addressed her children, Charlotte, three, and Aidan, one, and wrote about her relationship with her mother - and particularly how the presidential election shaped that.

Chelsea Clinton penned an impassioned letter to her children about the 2016 election and the future of politics

And as Hillary is currently serving as the December guest editor for Teen Vogue, the 37-year-old decided the magazine would be the perfect place to publish the letter - which went live Tuesday

'For me, the 2016 Election was most of all about and the world I wanted for you and your generation to grow up in,' Clinton wrote.

'While your grandmother's name was on the ballot, for me, it was an election fundamentally about our country's future, about your future.'

And Clinton wasted no time in calling out some of Trump's less-than-honorable character traits.

'She spoke about all she hoped and planned to do to lift up everyone's lives and opportunities,' Clinton wrote about her mother's campaign.

'Then she talked about how people with racist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic views that then-candidate Trump emboldened and validated.

She then goes on to say that her mother fought for 'the people who agreed with her and those who didn't - but she wasn't afraid to call out bigoted views for what they were.'

Clinton said her mother 'repeatedly called out then-candidate Trump and others for their hate speech,' on the campaign trail.

The emboldened mother then really went for Trump, listing off all of the differences between the now-president and her mother, and why she felt he isn't fit to be president.

The activist wrote about her relationship with her mother - and particularly how the presidential election shaped that

Clinton, who si pictured in during the 1992 election with her parents, said that now, she's more inspired than ever to fight for what she thinks is right

And Clinton wasted no time in calling out some of Trump's less-than-honorable character traits. She also listed off all of the differences between the now-president and her mother, and why she felt he isn't fit to be president

'We have a president who excuses neo-Nazis, who wants to ban members of our military because of who they are and keep out immigrants because of who they worship,' she wrote.

'We have a president who denies science, whether it's vaccines or climate change or evidence that, yes, health insurance helps save lives; that's personal too, because it's about protecting our public health today and in the future.

'The marked rise in bullying in our schools, with some kids citing President Trump's words to taunt others? That's personal too.'

But despite the tough 2016 election and dealing with her mother's loss - Clinton ended the letter to her children on a positive note.

She said that now, she's more inspired than ever to fight for what she thinks is right.

'Everything that motivated me to work so hard for your futures throughout 2016 is still true today,' she said.

'Arguably more so.'
Tony Abbott has accused the prime minister of being worried about losing 30 Newspolls after he was left out of the new cabinet.

Malcolm Turnbull used Mr Abbott's 30 consecutive Newspoll losses to oust him in 2015, but has now lost 25 two party preferred polls in a row himself.

Mr Abbott said the decision may come back to haunt his successor, and admitted he was the 'last person' Mr Turnbull wanted on his frontbench.

Tony Abbott (pictured) has accused the prime minister of being worried about losing 30 Newspolls after being left out of the new cabinet

Malcolm Turnbull (pictured) used Mr Abbott's loss of 30 Newspolls in a row to oust him in 2015, but has now lost 25 consecutive two party preferred polls himself

Mr Abbott said the prime minister may regret using the 30 Newspoll streak to justify a leadership challenge, speaking to Michael McLaren on 2GB.

'I suppose what he [Mr Turnbull] was worried about was that he might fail the test that he himself set,' said the former prime minister.

'He now wishes that he'd never said anything about 30 Newspolls. Honestly I can sympathise with him there.'

Mr Abbott said the decision may come back to haunt his successor, and admitted he was the 'last person' Mr Turnbull (pictured) wanted on his frontbench

When asked about Tuesday's cabinet reshuffle, Mr Abbott said he was not surprised he was passed over for a ministry position.

'It's not whether I would like to be in the cabinet, it's whether the Prime Minister would like me to be in the cabinet and he's made it pretty obvious ever since the election that I'm the last person he wants to see there,' he said.

Poll Is Malcolm Turnbull in danger if he loses 30 consecutive Newspolls? Yes No I don't know Is Malcolm Turnbull in danger if he loses 30 consecutive Newspolls? Yes 211 votes

No 59 votes

I don't know 7 votes Now share your opinion





Mr Abbott said the new cabinet was stronger than the last one, however, and said the prime minister has had a 'pretty good finish to the year'.

When asked earlier why Mr Abbott was passed over during the reshuffle, Mr Turnbull defended his decision.

'There's a lot of talent in the party room and not all of it can be in the Ministry. Everybody's got people they think should be in the Ministry,' he said.

'It's about the government getting the right team that will work together and I'm not going to get into a debate about a particular individual.'

The prime minister refused to be drawn on the 30 Newspoll mark, saying he wanted to focus on policy not personality.

Mr Turnbull announced his new cabinet earlier in the week, opting to promote a number of relatively unknown backbenchers.

The prime minister added several fresh faces to his ministry in what is expected to be the last cabinet shake-up before the 2019 election.
A controversial noise clampdown in the Brit-popular Ibizan party resort of San Antonio has been approved by councillors.

Plans to slash two hours off the closing times of bars and nightclubs in the town's brash West End area were passed at a full council meeting today.

They now face having to close at 3am next summer instead of 5am, with terraces that opened till 2am facing closure at 11pm.

Opposition right-wing Popular Party councillors abstained in the vote to make it an Area of Special Acoustic Protection, with PP leader Jose Sala warning it would ruin British tourism and spell the end for many local firms and their workers.

Councillors have approved a controversial noise clampdown in the popular tourist area in Ibiza (pictured)

But the left-wing coalition holding power in San Antonio made sure it won initial consent.

The result is due to be rubber-stamped at a follow-up full council meeting in February.

Mayor Josep Tur said when he unveiled the plans earlier this month they were designed to improve San Antonio's image.

Council chiefs have openly admitted they feel the West End has devalued the town's standing.

The noise crackdown - part of a wider Balearic Islands campaign against drunken tourism - follows a study this summer which revealed the noise level was up to 85.9 decibels, more than 20 decibels above the legal limit.

As part of the strategy to bring the West End into line, nightspot owners will also be ordered to soundproof venues and install noise limiters.

A moratorium will also be introduced on the opening of new bars and clubs until noise levels are reduced to acceptable levels.

San Antonio's councillor for the environment Pablo Valdes has called the noise levels in the West End in summer 'monstrous.'

He said at this morning's meeting the council was bringing in the new measures to 'make the healthy business of tourism compatible with the healthy right to live in peace.'

Music bars and nightclubs (pictured) now face having to close at 3am next summer instead of 5am

The 85 decibels recorded in the West End in high season have been compared to the noise emitted by a Boeing 737 one mile from landing.

Popular Party leader Mr Sala, a critic of the noise crackdown plan, has said forcing late-night bars to close at 3am is 'not the most adequate solution.'

Speaking ahead of the vote, he said: 'We have to realise that we rely on tourism.

'If these changes are applied only to San Antonio and not to other places, people will just go elsewhere after three in the morning.'

Business leaders have also voiced their dissent, claiming they have not been properly consulted and insisting nightspots that leave their doors open deliberately are the problem, not cafe and bar terraces per say.

Measures to tackle excess noise were introduced in Majorca's Brit-popular resort of Magaluf this summer, with new regulations to limit music noise in establishments.

Councillors there are also trying to clean up its Punta Ballena party strip, branded '500 metres of shame' by a former mayor, after they realised drunken tourism was affecting the image of the whole resort.
A teenage girl who was knifed 19 times by her friends in what became known as the Slenderman stabbing slept with a pair of scissors for months after the 2014 attack and still does not feel safe more than three years later.

Payton Leutner was attacked by her friends Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser in Waukesha, Wisconsin, in 2014. They were all 12 at the time.

They told authorities they were trying to save themselves from the fictional internet character Slenderman who they said would kill them unless they hurt Payton.

Both girls were found not guilty of attempted murder by way of insanity and have been ordered to serve out their sentences in mental hospitals.

Payton Leutner was stabbed by her friends 19 times in 2014. She is pictured in a recent photo released by her family

On Tuesday, Payton's mother Stacie submitted a lengthy victim impact statement which described for the first time how affected she had been by the attack.

She told of Payton's 25 scars - 19 from the attack and six from subsequent, life-saving surgeries, which 'tingle and ache' to this day.

'Shopping for homecoming dresses leaves only a few options because far too many dresses will show off her scars.

'Beach vacations are harsh reminders that swimsuits aren't made for young girls with 25 scars,' she wrote.

Stacie and her husband Joe decided not to object to her attackers' sentences because if they had, their daughter may have had to take the stand and relive the grisly attack.

'Traumatizing her further didn't seem worth it. She has never talked about her attack so asking her to testify and relive her experience in front of a courtroom of strangers felt cruel and unnecessary,' she said.

Anissa Weier, pictured in court in September, will have to spend a minimum of three years in a mental hospital

Morgan Geyser, one of the two girls involved in the attack, is seen in September in court

She said her daughter still keeps the curtains in her bedroom closed and that she was 'different' after was released from hospital.

Payton miraculously survived by flagging down a passing cyclist who called an ambulance.

While her family commended her for going back to school, making new friends and travelling, they said the attack still haunted her.

'She was more reserved and more cautious. She held everyone at arms length and never let anyone get too close.

'She immersed herself in school in an attempt to distract herself from the uncertainty of her life; everything she knew about her home and her family was different.

'And she didnt know how to cope with that,' they said.

Payton's family said she slept with scissors for months after the attack and still does not feel safe. She is pictured aged 12, around the time of the attack

Payton only survived because she flagged down a passing cyclist. The girls had left her for dead in the woods and run away on foot

Anissa and Morgan were obsessed with the fictional internet character at the time and told police they believed they would be killed unless they hurt their friend. They are pictured in their mugshots aged 12

Her brother has also suffered, she said, because the trauma of his sister's situation meant the family focused all of their attention on her.

'He still struggles with ... the belief that he is somehow less important than his sister,' she said.

The mother also said it was her daughter's compassion which led her into the woods on the day of the attack.

'Payton knew that if she wasn't Morgan's friend, then Morgan wouldn't have any friends, and believed everyone deserved at least one friend,' she said.

Both Weier and Geyser will be sentenced this week but they have been told to expect a minimum of three years in their mental hospitals.
St. Vincent Healthcare Foundation has received a $1 million gift from retired Billings neurosurgeon Dr. John Moseley and his wife Cheryl, a retired registered nurse.

The estate gift was announced during a news conference Tuesday afternoon at the Mansfield Health Education Center.

The money will support the hospital's spiritual care program. It comes not long after the hospital's annual fundraiser, the SAINTS ball, which collected nearly $1 million to benefit the Healing Beyond Medicine Campaign that will endow the spiritual care program at St. Vincent.

Foundation President Dennis Sulser reminded his audience that St. Vincent Healthcare, a ministry of the Sisters of Charity Leavenworth, was founded on a mission of serving the underprivileged and God.

"Today that legacy lives on through our ministry and our spiritual care program," he said.

Over the past year, the foundation embarked on an effort to raise $3 million to endow the program, Sulser said. The idea is "to enhance, engage and ensure that spiritual care is available for generations to come."

Part of that involves the accredited Clinical Pastoral Education program at the hospital, which trains chaplains to work with patients, their families and the staff.

"We recognize that true healing is not only clinical but dependent upon our spiritual well-being," Sulser said.

After he announced the Moseleys' gift, Sulser said, "It kind of takes your breath away."

Steve Loveless, St. Vincent president and CEO, said that deep spirituality has always been at the forefront of the Moseleys' practice of life.

"Today, the Moseleys are making a $1 million contribution to St. Vincent Healthcare's spiritual care program, continuing their legacy," Loveless said. "We are blessed to know them, and we'll be forever grateful for their generosity."

In an emotional speech, Cheryl Moseley talked about how philanthropy affected her own life. She recounted the many years the couple worked together, John Moseley performing surgery and Cheryl assisting him in the operating room.

Throughout the years, John was involved in volunteer care, both in California and Montana, where he donated his time and surgical talents to children and adults who couldnt afford either.

So I know firsthand all the charitable work that my husband, John, has done, Chery said.

She also spoke about how much spirituality contributed to their life together and the effect they saw in the patients they served.

"True healing is dependent on the relationship between clinical care and spiritual care  we know that," she said. "John and I were able to provide excellent care in our careers and are now able to provide spiritual care through this gift."

Cheryl traced her spiritual journey back decades, and her time with Mother Teresa working with the destitute and dying in India.

I had the blessing of working with her nine times over 20 years, she told her audience.

Wanting to heal people goes back even further for her and for her husband.

In the big picture of our lives, since John and I were each 11 and 10 years old, we wanted to heal people, she said.

Their combined work with the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth added up to 86 years.

Mine began in 1969 when I became an RN and John in 1979 when he finished his residency at UCLA, Cheryl said. We met doing brain surgery at St. Johns (Medical Center in Santa Monica, California).

They worked together for 14 years before marrying in 1993. That same year, the couple moved to Billings where John began his neurosurgery practice at St. Vincent.

She and John have worked with the foundation for 17 years, she said and the trust that has been built has been incredible. The couple is pleased, knowing that 100 percent of their gift will be used in the spiritual care program.

It is a legacy that means much to both of them.

None of us knows how much time we have left, Cheryl said. What is left is our actions and the memories we leave behind.

Afterward, John, who spent his career helping people with their physical healing, explained that he never neglected his patients spiritual side.

Both were equally important, he said. And there were sometimes limitations to what he could accomplish in the operating room.

You can only do physically so much, John said. You can fix parts of them but you cant necessarily fix all of them, and thats where the spiritual side of life comes in, he said.
A 15-year-old boy is in hospital with life-threatening injuries after being struck in the head with a metal pole in Melbourne's southeast.

A group of males arrived outside a Cranbourne North home about 12.25am on Thursday.

Two boys, aged 15, went outside to confront the group as they tried to enter the property, police said.

A 15-year-old boy is in hospital with life-threatening injuries after an assault by a group of males who arrived outside a Cranbourne North home about 12.25am

Two boys went to confront the alleged offenders as they tried to enter the home

During the confrontation, one of the boys was struck in the head with a pole before the group fled the scene.

Police are hunting the males who ran from the scene and are now investigating the assault.

SES volunteers were called to the scene just before 3am to provide tarpaulins to prevent bad weather harming any evidence.

Anyone with any information is urged to call Crime Stoppers.
A sweltering hot day followed by rolling clouds over Sydney set the perfect conditions for a lighting storm.

And Mother Nature delivered with a spectacular heatwave-busting lightning strike that illuminated the Opera House on Wednesday afternoon.

These stunning pictures show lighting striking near the Harbour Bridge, Opera House, Sydney Tower and Anzac Bridge.

The powerful thunderstorm which hit Sydney on Wednesday afternoon was captured as it sent a bolt of lightning to earth right next to the Sydney Opera House (pictured)

Parts of the city reached into the 40s, but there was a rapid cool change when a number of fierce thunderstorms (pictured) hit the region

One photo shows an electric purple bolt of lightning light up the grey sky right next to the Sydney Harbour Bridge (pictured)

While parts of the city reached into the 40s on Wednesday, there was a rapid cool change when a number of fierce thunderstorms hit the region.

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Gabrielle Woodhouse told Daily Mail Australia the high temperatures dropped 'pretty quickly' on the coast.

'Near the airport it dropped about 10 degrees in a few minutes,' Ms Woodhouse said.

'Further west it took maybe one to two hours [to drop].'

As many Sydneysiders would have left the house yesterday morning dressed in skirts and shorts, they would have needed a brolly at hand later in the afternoon to cater for the wild storms.

The intense flashes of lightning were captured by keen onlookers, with some impressive photos showing bright bolts lighting up the harbour city.

A sweltering hot day followed by rolling clouds over Sydney set the perfect conditions for a lighting storm

Mother Nature delivered with a series of spectacular heatwave heatwave-busting lightning strikes illuminating the city on Wednesday afternoon

One photo shows an electric purple bolt of lightning light up the grey sky right next to the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Another photo captures the moment a powerful purple bolt pierces down from the dull sky very close to the Sydney Opera House, resembling a scene from a Hollywood movie.

Ms Woodhouse said the thunderstorms began to come through the city just after lunch, forcing temperatures to drop to low to mid 20s.

The forecaster told Daily Mail Australia the thunderstorms lasted about four hours, bringing with them winds of up to 40km/h in some parts of the region and 19mm of rain.

While today offers some cool respite for many exhausted by the summer heat, the cooler conditions won't hang around for long

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Gabrielle Woodhouse told Daily Mail Australia the rife temperatures dropped 'pretty quickly' on the coast

'Near the airport it dropped about 10 degrees in a few minutes,' Ms Woodhouse said

'The last few nights have been fairly humid nights, minimum temperatures remained quite warm and extremely sticky and the humidity combined with the system generated a fair amount of thunderstorms across the state,' Ms Woodhouse said.

While tomorrow will offer some cool respite for many exhausted by the summer heat, it won't hang around for long.

There is a 'slight risk' of thunderstorms Thursday morning in the Hunter Region before the hot weather comes back in time for Christmas.

'Over the coming days the heat will start to creep in again, it's the story of summer,' Ms Woodhouse said.

'We have a heatwave, then a few days break then start to see temperatures climb again.'
Venice could be 200 years older than previously thought, according to archaeologists who discovered peach stones under the mosaic floor of Saint Mark's Basilica.

The 1,300-year-old stones could add 180 years to the age of the city according to an archaeologist who described the discovery as like 'hitting the jackpot'.

Peach stones grow in just one year which makes them perfect for carbon dating and experts believe they could prove there was a city in Venice before the construction of the first Basilica in the 9th century.

Scroll down for video

Venice could be 200 years older than previously thought, according to archaeologists who discovered peach stones under the mosaic floor of Saint Mark's Basilica (stock image)

THE PEACH STONES The peach stones date to between AD 650 and 770 and were found under the modern Basilica, first built in the 11th century. Albert Ammerman at Colgate University in Hamilton believes these stones were tossed into one of the canals running through the lagoon before the city was built. The peach stones were surrounded by fragments of ceramics and metal - sediment that was clearly also man-made. He believes is evidence people at the time were trying to fill the waterways in order to create enough dry land to build their city on. Advertisement

The peach stones were found nearly 14 feet (4.3 metres) below the current surface in Saint Mark's Basicilia built in the 11th century.

They date to between AD 650 and 770, Albert Ammerman at Colgate University in Hamilton told New Scientist.

By looking at data on sea levels throughout history, researchers worked out the layer of earth where the stones were found would have been at least a metre below sea level at this time.

Unlike most great cities in Italy, there are no Roman remains in Venice.

The Romans did reach Torcello island which would have been around six miles (10km) north of the site of where Venice is today.

Legend has it the bones of Saint Mark were brought to Venice in AD 828 from Alexandria in Egypt.

Just a few years later the founding basilica was built and named in Saint Mark's honour, who became the patron saint of the city.

Researchers tool core samples from various parts of the city (pictured left). Pictured (right) is an expert taking a core sample by digging under a perimeter wall of Saint Mark's Basilica

The peach stones were found nearly 14 feet (4.3 metres) below the current surface in Saint Mark's Basicilia, built in the 11th century. Pictured is a cross-section of the core samples (artist's impression) taken under the building

FOUNDING OF VENICE Unlike most great cities in Italy, there are no Roman remains in Venice. Legend has it the bones of Saint Mark were brought to Venice in AD 828 from Alexandria in Egypt. Just a few years later the founding basilica was built and named in Saint Mark's honour, who became the patron saint of the city. However, this research suggests there was an earlier chapter in Venice's history before this all happened. Advertisement

However, this research suggests there was an earlier chapter in Venice's history before this all happened.

'This was like hitting the jackpot', said Dr Ammerman.

'And with two peach pits there's the opportunity for replication,' he said.

Dr Ammerman believes these stones were tossed into one of the canals running through the lagoon before the city was built.

The peach stones were surrounded by fragments of ceramics and metal - sediment that was clearly also man-made.

He believes this is evidence people at the time were trying to fill the waterways in order to create enough dry land to build their city on.

Pictured is an architect's reconstruction of the north side of Torcello in the 6th century AD. At the time it was a refuge for people escaping barbarian invasions. Torcello island was inhabited by the Romans although there are no Roman remains in Venice

'Dating to between AD 650 and 770, this activity included canal in-filling and ground consolidation intended to create an area that was to become the city's civic centre in the early ninth century', researchers, led by Dr Ammerman, wrote in their paper, published in Antiquity.

This research also corroborates a 1995 study by Dr Ammerman which found fragments of glass and mortar in sediment cores taken from near the Basilica. They also dated to the 7th and 8th century.

Other researchers believe it is likely the peach stones made it into the lagoon through human activity.

'It is certainly plausible that humans were infilling some of Venice's natural canals to make them dry land', said Nick Marriner at the University of Franche-Comte in Besancon, France.
Advertisement

A giant chunk of central Idaho with a dazzling night sky has become the nation's first International Dark Sky Reserve.

The International Dark-Sky Association late Monday designated the 1,400-square-mile Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve.

The sparsely populated area's night skies are so pristine that interstellar dust clouds are visible in the Milky Way.

Scroll down for video

A giant chunk of central Idaho with a dazzling night sky has become the nation's first International Dark Sky Reserve. This photo shows the Milky Way over the Smoky Mountains in central Idaho

The International Dark-Sky Association late Monday designated the 1,400-square-mile Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve. The sparsely populated area's night skies are so pristine that interstellar dust clouds are visible in the Milky Way. Pictured is a night sky near Stanley, Idaho

The central Idaho reserve covers some of the most remote and rugged areas in the state and is mostly land managed by the US Forest Service. It contains wilderness areas and the Sawtooth National Recreation Area (pictured)

INTERNATIONAL DARK SKY RESERVES 1. Aoraki Mackenzie (New Zealand) 2. Brecon Beacons National Park (Wales) 3. Central Idaho (US) 4. Exmoor National Park (England) 5. Kerry (Ireland) 6. Mont-Megantic (Quebec) 7. Moore's Reserve (South Downs, England) 8. NamibRand Nature Reserve (Namibia) 9. Pic du Midi (France) 10. Rhon (Germany) 11. Snowdonia National Park (Wales) 12. Westhavelland (Germany) Advertisement

'That such truly dark nighttime environments still exist in the United States is remarkable,' said J. Scott Feierabend, executive director of the Tucson, Arizona,-based association, calling the designation a milestone for the group.

Researchers say 80 per cent of North Americans live in areas where light pollution blots out the night sky.

The central Idaho reserve covers some of the most remote and rugged areas in the state and is mostly land managed by the US Forest Service.

It contains wilderness areas and the Sawtooth National Recreation Area.

'The Reserve's chief draw is its wilderness quality, with its lack of development and significant visitor services,' the association said on its website.

The Forest Service has supported the designation as part of its mandate to preserve natural and scenic qualities. It has reduced light pollution from its buildings, but said mitigation by others in the recreation area would be voluntary.

Opposition to dark sky measures elsewhere in the US has come from the outdoor advertising industry and those against additional government regulations.

The US Forest Service has supported the designation as part of its mandate to preserve natural and scenic qualities. It has reduced light pollution from its buildings, but said mitigation by others in the recreation area would be voluntary. Pictured is a night sky taken in Stanley, Idaho

Opposition to dark sky measures elsewhere in the US has come from the outdoor advertising industry and those against additional government regulations. Supporters say excess artificial light causes sleeping problems for people and disrupts nocturnal wildlife. Pictured is another night sky in Idaho

In November, the International Dark-Sky Association named Ketchum an International Dark Sky Community, only the 16th in the world. Pictured is a map of the Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve that includes, Ketchum, Sun Valley, Stanley and others

Supporters say excess artificial light causes sleeping problems for people and disrupts nocturnal wildlife and that a dark sky can solve those problems, boost home values and draw tourists.

'Sun Valley is excited about this prestigious designation and I believe this is something that will benefit residents and visitors alike,' said Sun Valley Mayor Peter Hendricks.

Sun Valley, a resort destination that also has some of Idaho's highest home values, is within the reserve as is neighboring Ketchum. Both towns have worked to limit nighttime lighting.

In November, the International Dark-Sky Association named Ketchum an International Dark Sky Community, only the 16th in the world.

Earlier this year, the association named Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve in south-central Idaho an International Dark Sky Park, one of about 40 in the US.

But getting the rarest prize of all with the reserve, officials said, took several decades of work and included efforts from communities on the edges of the reserve to reduce nighttime lighting.

The association looks at what surrounding communities are doing to protect the dark core area of a proposed reserve.

Volunteers also fanned out across the region to take light readings at night, and the Idaho Conservation League, an environmental group, supported the designation aiming to limit light pollution.

Stanley, a tiny mountain town in the Sawtooth recreation area on the northern side of the reserve, runs mostly on tourism money and has supported the reserve with voluntary measures to limit outdoor lighting.

'Visitors can come here and experience the primeval wonder of the starry night sky,' Mayor Steve Botti said.
Every spring, hundreds of thousands of corvina fish amass in the Colorado River Delta in the northernmost part of Mexico's Gulf of California to take part in reproductive orgies.

Each corvina produces a sound which resembles 'a really loud machine gun.'

Together, these orgies create a deafening sound, which researchers compare to 'a crowd cheering at a stadium.'

Sscientists have warned that the noise could be loud enough to deafen other sea animals, including dolphins.

Scroll down for video

Each spring, hundreds of thousands of corvina fish amass in the Colorado River Delta in the northernmost part of Mexico's Gulf of California to take part in reproductive orgies

THE ANNUAL ORGY Each spring, adult corvinas meet at the same spot  the Colorado River Delta in the northernmost part of Mexico's Gulf of California for 'spawning aggregation.' During this time, male corvinas produce sounds that reverberate through the hulls of fishing boats, and can be heard even above water. Each corvina produces a call during mating, which resembles 'a really loud machine gun' with rapid sound pulses, according to the researchers. So when hundreds of thousands of fish get together each spring, 'the collective chorus sounds like a crowd cheering at a stadium or perhaps a really loud beehive,' study co-author Mr Timothy Rowell said. Advertisement

Researchers from the University of San Diego have studied the mating call of corvina, and are calling for preservation of the annual spectacle.

Each corvina produces a call during mating with rapid sound pulses, according to the researchers.

When hundreds of thousands of fish get together each spring, 'the collective chorus sounds like a crowd cheering at a stadium or perhaps a really loud beehive,' study co-author Mr Timothy Rowell said.

Mr Rowell added: 'The sound levels generated by chorusing is loud enough to cause at least temporary if not permanent hearing loss in marine mammals that were observed preying on the fish.'

In the study, the researchers used underwater sound technology to listen to the corvinas.

Each spring, adult corvinas meet at the same spot  the Colorado River Delta in the northernmost part of Mexico's Gulf of California for 'spawning aggregation.'

During this time, male corvinas produce sounds that reverberate through the hulls of fishing boats, and can be heard even above water.

The frequencies of sound produced even fall within the range that could harm the hearing of seals, sea lions and dolphins, and could even deafen them

WHY THE ORGIES LEAVE THE FISH VULNERABLE Each spring, adult corvinas meet at the same spot  the Colorado River Delta in the northernmost part of Mexico's Gulf of California for 'spawning aggregation.' During this time, male corvinas produce sounds that reverberate through the hulls of fishing boats, and can be heard even above water. This leaves the fish very vulnerable to fishing, with around 500 boats heading to the Colorado River Delta each year to capture as many as two million fish. Because of this, corvinas are now listed as 'vulnerable' to extinction on the IUCN Red List. Advertisement

This leaves the fish very vulnerable to fishing, with around 500 boats heading to the Colorado River Delta each year to capture as many as two million fish.

Because of this, corvinas are now listed as 'vulnerable' to extinction on the IUCN Red List.

The researchers believe that listening to the sex sounds could help scientists to track their numbers for conservation purposes.

Mr Rowell said: 'These spawning events are among the loudest wildlife events found on planet Earth.'

He went so far as to say that it is 'the loudest sound ever recorded for a fish species.'

The frequencies of sound produced even fall within the range that could harm the hearing of seals, sea lions and dolphins, and could even deafen them.

The researchers hope their findings will encourage fisheries to stop fishing for corvinas.

Mr Rowell added: 'A precautionary approach should be adopted by fisheries managers to ensure that this wildlife spectacle does not disappear.'
An ingenious teenager has built an amazing Lego extension to his deformed arm - and it is so strong he can use it to pick up and put down objects.

Eighteen-year-old David Aguilar's right arm never developed properly, meaning he only has the use of one hand.

But he was able to use the popular children's toy to create a false limb, which he operates using his malformed arm.

LEGO ARM EXTENSION David Aguilar made a video of himself using the DIY prosthesis at his home in Andorra, a tiny, independent principality situated between France and Spain. The incredible video shows him using the arm to pick up a can of deodorant with the the pincer like grip at the end. The 18-year-old's right arm never developed properly, meaning he only has the use of one hand. But he was able to use the popular children's toy to create a false limb, which he operates using his malformed arm. Advertisement

Mr Aguilar made a video of himself using the DIY prosthesis at his home in Andorra, a tiny, independent principality situated between France and Spain.

The incredible video shows him using the arm to pick up a can of deodorant with the the pincer like grip at the end.

Mr Aguilar said: 'When I move the arm, the hand opens and closes, which allows me to get things.

'With what was a toy I have managed to get my dream done.'

His father Ferran explained that Mr Aguilar, who had used Lego since he was a child, surprised his family with the arm.

Mr Aguilar is currently studying technology at high school.

An ingenious teenager has built an amazing Lego extension to his deformed arm - and it is so strong he can use it to pick up and put down objects

The 18-year-old's right arm never developed properly, meaning he only has the use of one hand

However, Mr Aguilar was able to use the popular children's toy to create a false limb, which he operates using his malformed arm

He has a particular flair for IT and robotics and hopes to become an aeronautical engineer.

His father Ferran shared the incredible creation with the Danish company, which wrote a Facebook message praising Mr Aguilar's inventiveness.

'Ferran, you have left us without words', a Lego spokesperson wrote.

'The strength, tenacity of David are the things making us proud.

Mr Aguilar made a video of himself using the DIY prosthesis at his home in Andorra, a tiny, independent principality situated between France and Spain

His father Ferran explained that Mr Aguilar, who had used Lego since he was a child (pictured), surprised his family with the arm

Mr Aguilar (pictured with his sister, right) is currently studying technology at high school. He has a particular flair for IT and robotics and hopes to become an aeronautical engineer

Mr Aguilar's father (top left) shared the video showing his son's impressive creation. Mr Aguilar (bottom right, as a child) has always loved playing with Lego

'We want to keep giving chances to all children in the world to have access to our bricks.'

In October the company unveiled a set of figures celebrating the women of Nasa.

The 231-piece set features Sally Ride, the first American female astronaut, and Mae Jemison, the first black woman to travel in space.

Also included in the set are figures of astronomer and educator Nancy Grace Roman and computer scientist Margaret Hamilton.

Lego versions of the Space Shuttle Challenger, the Hubble Space telescope can be put together with the set.

A miniature version of Hamilton's workspace at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as she was programming software for the moon landing is also featured.

The incredible video shows him using the arm to pick up a can of deodorant with the the pincer like grip at the end

Mr Aguilar's father Ferran shared the incredible creation with the Lego, who wrote a Facebook message praising Mr Aguilar's inventiveness
Advertisement

Incredible images of an Air Force jet passing in front of the sun has revealed how NASA will visualize shockwaves of a future supersonic X-plane it hopes will pave the way for future passenger jets.

NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in California captured the images of its Test Pilot School T-38 as it transitions from subsonic speed to supersonic using a technique called schlieren photography.

The agency said it brings them one step closer to being able to visually capture the shockwaves of its future supersonic X-plane, also know as a Low Boom Flight Demonstration aircraft (LBFD).

Scroll down for video

Incredible images of an Air Force jet (pictured) passing in front of the sun has revealed how NASA will visualize shockwaves of supersonic planes. The agency said it brings them one step closer to being able to visually capture the shockwaves of its future supersonic X-plane, also know as a Low Boom Flight Demonstration aircraft (LBFD).

NASA on Monday released the images that show the Test Pilot School T-38 (pictured) as it transitions from subsonic speed to supersonic using a technique called schlieren photography

HOW IT WORKS The schlieren photography technique was used in a series of flights in 2016 called Background Oriented Schlieren using Celestial Objects (BOSCO). BOSCO used a special hydrogen alpha filter, and positioned cameras to use the sun as a background, to visualize shockwaves from supersonic aircraft eclipsing the sun 40,000 feet from the camera. Placing the cameras on the ground enabled the use of full-sized telescopes, which were used to maximize the size of the sun image on the camera, according to NASA. Advertisement

The Quiet Supersonic Transport (QueSST), or X-plane, aims to produce a much lower 'boom' than other supersonic aircraft at speeds beyond Mach 1.

NASA is hoping to see the first flight tests take place around 2021, and when this happens, imagery to confirm that the future X-plane's shockwaves match NASA's predictions will need to be captured.

The schlieren photography technique was used in a series of flights in 2016 called Background Oriented Schlieren using Celestial Objects (BOSCO).

BOSCO used a special hydrogen alpha filter, and positioned cameras to use the sun as a background, to visualize shockwaves from supersonic aircraft eclipsing the sun 40,000 feet from the camera.

Placing the cameras on the ground enabled the use of full-sized telescopes, which were used to maximize the size of the sun image on the camera, according to NASA.

But the LBFD will be flying at altitudes around 60,000 feet, and in order for shockwave data to be captured at a high quality, images will need to be taken at closer range, by equipment onboard a chase aircraft.

In other words, the photography equipment will need to be small enough to fit in a wing pod, but still have the ability to take high-quality images of shockwaves.

QUIET SUPERSONIC TRANSPORT QueSST is designed to fly at Mach 1.4, 55,000 feet above the ground. The aircraft is shaped to separate the shocks and expansions associated with supersonic flight to reduce the volume of the shaped signature, and was developed by Lockheed's Skunk Works over 20 years. Recent research has shown it is possible for a supersonic airplane to be shaped in such a way that the shock waves it forms when flying faster than the speed of sound can generate a sound at ground level so quiet it will hardly will be noticed by the public, if at all. The space agency is hoping to achieve a sonic boom 60 dBA lower than other supersonic aircraft, such as the Anglo-French Concorde. Advertisement

And recents tests completed by BOSCO flights, or BOSCO II, accomplished just that.

In addition to validating the quality of smaller equipment, BOSCO II successfully applied this photography method from a range of 10,000 feet, similar to the range needed for an air-to-air system when LBFD flies, according to BOSCO II Principal Investigator Mike Hill.

'The main objective here was to see what the image looks like at close range, including what kind of shockwave structure we can make out,' Hill stated.

'We needed to use our new compact camera system in order to get an idea of the quality of the images of those shockwaves using a smaller system.'

The BOSCO II flights were flown using the T-38 aircraft and a NASA F-15. In order for accurate images to be captured, pilots had to be in a precise location at a low altitude of 10,000 feet, directly between the cameras on the ground and the sun, and all while flying faster than Mach 1.

'This wasn't an easy task for our pilots, but they hit the mark,' Commercial Supersonic Technology Sub-project Manager Brett Pauer noted.

Recent flight tests have confirmed the quality of the images taken on a smaller photography system, and provided insight into how to optimally operate these imaging systems at close range

Now, flightworthy hardware can be developed and integrated into a high-speed NASA chase aircraft to be able to capture similar images when LBFD takes flight.

In June NASA announced that it plans to begin work on the supersonic X-plane as early as next year.

Lockheed Martin has been working on the preliminary design, with hopes to move on to build the demonstrator, but NASA also opened the door for other companies to submit their own designs as well.

The space agency is hoping to achieve a sonic boom 60 dBA lower than other supersonic aircraft, such as the Concorde, which was a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger jet that was operated until 2003.

The Quiet Supersonic Transport (QueSST) low-boom flight demonstrator (pictured) aims to produce a much lower 'boom' than other supersonic aircraft, and NASA is hoping to see the first flight tests take place in 2021

NASA is looking for plans to develop, build, and flight test an X-plane, and will award a contract in 2018.

It's been decades since NASA has worked on a manned supersonic X-plane, and after the contract is awarded in 2018, the winning team will undergo critical design review in 2019 to bring the plan closer to life.

Then, the agency plans to see the first flight tests in the first quarter of 2021.

THE PLANE THAT FLEW PASSENGERS FROM LONDON TO NEW YORK IN THREE-AND-A-HALF HOURS Concorde entered service in 1976 and continued flying for 27 years Concorde was a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger jet that was operated until 2003. It had a maximum speed over twice the speed of sound at Mach 2.04 (1,354mph or 2,180k per hour at cruise altitude) and could seat 92 to 128 passengers. It was first flown in 1969, but needed further tests to establish it as viable as a commercial aircraft. Concorde entered service in 1976 and continued flying for the next 27 years. It is one of only two supersonic transports to have been operated commercially. The other is the Soviet-built Tupolev Tu-144, which ran for a much shorter period of time before it was grounded and retired due to safety and budget issues. Concorde was jointly developed and manufactured by Aerospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) under an Anglo-French treaty. Concorde's name, meaning harmony or union, reflects the cooperation on the project between the United Kingdom and France. In the UK, any or all of the type are known simply as 'Concorde', without an article. Twenty aircraft were built including six prototypes and development aircraft. Air France (AF) and British Airways (BA) each received seven aircraft. The research and development failed to make a profit and the two airlines bought the aircraft at a huge discount. Concorde was retired in 2003 due to a general downturn in the commercial aviation industry after the type's only crash in 2000, the September 11 attacks in 2001, and a decision by Airbus, the successor to Aerospatiale and BAC, to discontinue maintenance support. Advertisement

For the most part, the demonstrator tests will take place across two phases at the Armstrong Flight Research Center in California, and culminating at the base housing at Edwards AFB.

The first will focus on aircraft build, checkout, and supersonic flight envelope expansion set for late 2021, followed by efforts focusing on low-boom acoustic validation, according to Aviation Week.

NASA hopes the low-boom X-plane (pictured) will support changes in FAA regulations, to allow supersonic flight over land. Whenever an aircraft flies supersonic, or faster than the speed of sound, it produces shockwaves that is eventually heard on the ground as a loud sonic boom. This is the driving factor behind the FAA's restriction on supersonic flight over land

BOSCO Chief Engineer Brian Strovers and research engineer Paul Dees calibrate one of three cameras positioned to capture images of supersonic research aircraft

Then, in 2022, researchers will assess the ground signature of the demonstrator, and the effects on atmospheric and flight conditions from the boom.

NASA is hoping the low-boom X-plane will support changes in Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations, to allow supersonic flight over land.

Whenever an aircraft flies supersonic, or faster than the speed of sound, it produces shockwaves that is eventually heard on the ground as a loud sonic boom.

This is the driving factor behind the FAA restriction on supersonic flight over land.

NASA intends to demonstrate quieter supersonic flight through the LBFD, and should the quiet thump of the shockwaves prove to be within acceptable limits to the FAA and communities on the ground.

According to predicted sound levels, it may open the future to supersonic flight over land on a commercial level, potentially cutting flight times in half.
Advertisement

A radical new type of helicopter that could replace the Black Hawk and Apache aircraft used around the world by US military has taken its first flight.

Bell released video of its V-280 Valor during take-off at the military base in Amarillo, Texas, on Monday.

The V-280 Valor is a next-generation tiltrotor that is designed to provide unmatched agility, speed, range and payload capabilities at an affordable cost, according to the company.

Scroll down for video

The new Bell Helicopter successfully achieved its first flight on Monday as it moves closer to replacing the famous Black Hawk. Bell released video of its V-280 Valor during take-off at the litary base in Amarillo, Texas

V-280 SPECS The Valor carries a crew of two and can manage 14 troops or a payload topping 12,000 lb (5,400 kg) Cruising speed of 280 knots (320 mph, 520 km/h) Combat range of up to 800 nm (920 mi, 1,481 km) Advertisement

This milestone brings Bell Helicopter one step closer to creating the next generation of vertical lift aircraft for the US military.

'This is an exciting time for Bell Helicopter, and I could not be more proud of the progress we have made with first flight of the Bell V-280,' Mitch Snyder, President & CEO for Bell Helicopter said in a press statement.

'First flight demonstrates our commitment to supporting Department of Defense leadership's modernization priorities and acquisition reform initiatives,' Snyder said.

According to Snyder, the Valor is designed to revolutionize vertical lift for the US Army and 'represents a transformational aircraft for all the challenging missions our armed forces are asked to undertake'.

The Bell V-280 is twice the speed and range of conventional helicopters.

It's designed to offer operational agility to self-deploy and perform vertical lift missions currently unachievable in one aircraft.

The Bell V-280 is part of a project called the Joint Multi Role Technology Demonstrator Air Vehicle (JMR-TD), which will then inform the Army's Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program to replace the long-serving Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk (left) and Boeing AH-64E Apache (right)

The Bell V-280 is part of a project called the Joint Multi Role Technology Demonstrator Air Vehicle (JMR-TD), which will then inform the Army's Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program to replace the long-serving Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk and Boeing AH-64E Apache.

The FVL program will also inform the US Navy's MH-XX program to replace the MH-60 Seahawk.

Bell's 'supercopter' is a smaller, faster, more advanced model designed for the lift program.

'We are thrilled to share in this success of the V-280 first flight with Team Valor,' added Snyder.

The Bell V-280 is part of a project called the Joint Multi Role Technology Demonstrator Air Vehicle (JMR-TD), which will then inform the Army's Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program to replace the long-serving Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk and Boeing AH-64E Apache

The V-280 Valor (pictured on Monday) is a next-generation tiltrotor that is designed to provide unmatched agility, speed, range and payload capabilities at an affordable cost, according to the company

'The V-280 intends to completely transform what is possible for the military when it comes to battle planning and forward operations.'

But Bell is not the only company vying to replace the Black Hawk helicopter.

Sikorsky and Boeing are rivaling Bell with their SB-1 Defiant to secure the contract for the Black Hawk's replacement.

The SB-1 Defiant is a compound helicopter design with co-axial rotors and a pusher-propeller.

THE BELL V-280 VALOR: THE NEW BLACK HAWK? The Bell V-280 design supports ground maneuver and is purpose built for the squad plus enablers The Bell V-280 Valor provides warfighters strategic options, operational reach, tactical agility and overmatch at the point of decision. The aircraft design supports ground maneuver and is purpose built for the squad plus enablers. Safe and survivable, the design features integrated cabin armor, fly-by-wire component redundancy, state of the art countermeasures and performance. Advanced tiltrotor speed and range provides commanders access not currently available. The Bell V-280 Valor provides access to get to the objective while providing superior agility at the objective with more than twice the speed (280 knots) and range of current helicopter platforms. AirBorne battle boards bring fused data and mission updates to the cabin for real-time tracking. The aircraft can carry four crew members and 14 troops and has a userful load of more than 12,000 pounds. Advertisement

So far, the Sikorsky and Boeing team have not released anything from the SB-1 Defiant.

Four different sizes of aircraft are to be developed, and they will share common hardware such as sensors, avionics, engines, and weapons.

It will eventually lead to replacements for the Army's CH-47 Chinook and OH-58 Kiowa helicopters.

The US Army-led JMR-TD program is the science and technology precursor to the FVL program expected to replace 2,000 to 4,000 medium-class utility and attack helicopters.

The US Army and Department of Defense are seeking leap-ahead capabilities and have identified a speed of more than 230 knots as a key discriminating capability.

According to the Army, their current helicopter fleet cruises at 140 knots.

But Bell is not the only company vying to replace the Black Hawk helicopter. Sikorsky and Boeing are rivaling Bell with their SB-1 Defiant (pictured) to secure the contract for the Black Hawk's replacement
TripAdvisor has revealed eye-popping facts and figures from 2017 that reveal the most and least reviewed tourist attractions, cities and countries around the globe.

And it has divulged that one country only got nine write-ups, while a small bakery in Portugal has received more than 10,000 reviews.

Some trends from 2017 are unsurprising, with London named as the most reviewed city. It gained over one million reviews on the site.

The Pateis de Belem in the Portuguese capital Lisbon, which is the most reviewed eatery globally on TripAdvisor in 2017

But this was in complete contrast to the African country of Eritrea, which was the least popular country on the review website, with only nine travellers contributing 17 write-ups.

Meanwhile, other astonishing statistics included the fact that a specialist bakery in Lisbon called Pateis de Belem received over 10,000 comments from hungry travellers - more than any other eatery in the world.

Turning to hotels, TripAdvisor, which now hosts more than half-a-billion reviews, revealed that the Hard Rock Hotel in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic gained more reviews than any other in the world this year.

The most reviewed hotel on the travel website globally was the Hard Rock Hotel in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

The Boston Park Plaza Hotel in Massachusetts was the most booked hotel on TripAdvisor

In terms of tourist attractions, the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, left, was the most reviewed and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, right, was the most booked

TRIPADVISOR'S TOP 10 GLOBAL STATS FOR 2017 1. Over 820,000 properties worldwide received their first TripAdvisor review in 2017 2. London received just over 1 million reviews  more than any other city in the world 3. The Hard Rock Hotel in Punta Cana received more reviews than any other hotel in the world 4. Japanese travellers wrote, on average, more reviews than any other nationality 5. Pasteis de Belem, a specialist bakery in Lisbon, received over 10,000 reviews from hungry travellers this year  more than any other eatery in the world 6. The country with the fewest number of reviewers this year was Eritrea with just 9 TripAdvisor reviewers  contributing a total of 17 reviews 7. Burj Khalifa in Dubai was the worlds most booked attraction on TripAdvisor 8. However, the most reviewed attraction was the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona  with nearly 30,000 reviews 9. The Boston Park Plaza in Massachusetts received more room bookings on TripAdvisor than any other hotel in the world 10. UK reviewers submitted 65,725 reviews to TripAdvisor in one day  14th February - more than any other day of the year Advertisement

And the hotel that got the most reservations out of all of the others - using the TripAdvisor booking feature - was the Boston Park Plaza in Massachusetts.

The most reviewed tourist attraction was the famous Basilicia of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, with nearly 30,000 new posts.

While the most booked attraction on the site was the world's tallest building - the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

Meanwhile it appears that Japanese travellers are the most eager to share their experiences, as they on average wrote more reviews than any other nationality.

The Premier Inn Gatwick Airport, pictured, was the most-reviewed UK hotel on the site

The most booked hotel in the UK through TripAdvisor was the Ibis London Whitechapel, left, while the most reviewed restaurant was Shaka Zulu in Camden, London, right

UK TRIPADVISOR STATS 2017 Most reviewed hotel: Premier Inn London Gatwick Airport Most reviewed attraction: London Eye Most reviewed eatery: Shaka Zulu Most reviewed destination: London Most booked hotel: Hotel ibis budget London Whitechapel - Brick Lane Most booked attraction: Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter Number of different locations worldwide that received a review from UK travellers: 956,012 Number of businesses in the UK that received their first review this year: 39,280 Average number of reviews submitted per reviewer in the UK: 3 Advertisement

TripAdvisor also compiled stats from UK tourist spots, which again threw up some surprises.

The most reviewed hotel was the Premier Inn at Gatwick Airport, while the most booked hotel was the budget Ibis London Whitechapel on Brick Lane.

Meanwhile the eatery that gained the most reviews was African and vegetarian restaurant Shaka Zulu in the Camden area of London.

However, it's no surprise that the most reviewed attraction was the London Eye and the most booked was the Warner Bros Studio Tour: The Making of Harry Potter.

The most reviewed attraction in the UK was the London Eye and London was the most reviewed city globally
In December 2018 life in London is going to become a lot zippier  thanks to the opening of the Elizabeth line.

New trains will cross the capital, from Heathrow Airport in the west to Abbey Wood and Shenfield in the east, with Tube journey times slashed by up to 80 per cent in some cases.

For example the fastest journey from Paddington to Tottenham Court Road - using the Circle Line to Euston Square then walking - currently takes 20 minutes, but on the Elizabeth line this will take just four. And to Bond Street just three, compared to the current quickest, which is 15.

And from the same station to Stratford the journey time comes down from 31 minutes to 18, while it will take just 10 minutes to reach Liverpool Street from the mainline station hub and 17 to get to Canary Wharf.

Another huge reduction will be from Canary Wharf to Liverpool Street. At the moment it takes 21 minutes, but the swish new Elizabeth line trains will get there in six.

Passengers jumping on a train at Abbeywood, which is at the end of the south-eastern section, will be able to get to Heathrow Airport 42 minutes quicker than they can at the moment.

It currently takes 93 minutes.

Passengers there will also see a 20-minute reduction in journey times to Canary Wharf and a 19-minute reduction for trips to Bond Street, which is currently 44 minutes.

Workers at Canary Wharf jetting off from Heathrow will get an extra 16 minutes in duty free, because journey times to the airport will drop from 55 minutes to 39.

And when the line is operational it will only take eight minutes as opposed to the current 25 to get from Farringdon to Canary Wharf, while Farringdon to Bond Street will only take four minutes as opposed to the current 18 minutes.

Its not all positive though.

If you live in Shenfield the Elizabeth line doesnt offer any reductions in journey times to Paddington, Bond Street or Canary Wharf  though you will be able to reach Heathrow 60 seconds faster.
Zimmerman Trail will be closed Wednesday and Thursday this week due to gas line work by the Montana Department of Transportation.

Billings Public Works Director David Mumford said he was informed Tuesday of the need to close the road.

On Wednesday Mumford said MDT was "verifying the location and depth of the gas main that is in Zimmerman Trail."

Mumford said by email that the road was scheduled to remain closed Wednesday and "under worse case in the morning on Thursday."

An electronic road sign was placed at the intersection of Rimrock Road and Zimmerman Trail sometime Tuesday advising drivers of the closure and directing them to use an alternate route.
Advertisement

It's time for some pillow talk.

British Airways has just begun a brand new partnership with The White Company for its business class experience (called Club World in BA Land) and I'm putting it to the test.

The luxury high-street brand now provides all the bedding, plus a few other treats, for those who've splashed out for a flight in the posh end of the plane. The result? Perhaps the closest thing you'll ever get to your own bed at 38,000 feet.

And relax: British Airways has teamed up with The White Company to create the best-possible in-flight sleep experience

Quality: Passengers are presented with a super-comfy, woven day blanket with satin trim and a luxurious duck-feather duvet

Granted, BA's Club World was hardly uncomfortable to begin with thanks to its lie-flat beds, but the addition of The White Company's capsule collection noticeably cranks it up a notch.

The magic happens from the moment you turn left, where neatly-arranged parcels await, ready to unpack like Christmas gifts.

These include an elegant day cushion, which doubles-up as a fantastic lumbar support, plus a luxuriously soft, large pillow in a pristine, cotton pillowcase.

There's also a super-comfy, woven day blanket with satin trim and a luxurious duck-feather duvet, which easily matches the exact quality of my own at home. How did they pack these sizeable sheets and throws onto the plane so neatly? And how much would all this retail for? Easily several hundred pounds.

As if this wasn't enough, there's even a mattress topper to provide an extra layer of comfort.

Looking good: To help combat the visible signs of jet-lag, The White Company also provides Club World amenity kits, which come in handsome leather bags and are packed with goodies from its Restore & Relax Spa Collection

Perhaps the closest thing you'll get to your own bed at 30,000 feet? Peter Lloyd says the new collaboration is truly sumptuous

Then, to help combat the visible signs of jet-lag, The White Company - which has just opened a flagship store on 155 Fifth Avenue - also provides Club World amenity kits, which come in handsome leather bags packed with products from its Restore & Relax Spa Collection.

But that's not all. BA has also introduced a number of considerate, common-sense measures that further maximise shut-eye in Club World.

On night flights, crew bring passengers their meal by hand (rather than using a clunky trolley) and breakfast cards are given out early, allowing people to specify if they wish to be woken up for breakfast - or left in peace.

Together, these all work to help the friendly skies create heavy eyes, which is wonderful news - especially if, like me, you struggle to sleep in the air. However, it's not all about slumber.

Food for thought: BA's new restaurant-style food service, which gives passengers the freedom to select dishes from a choice of freshly-prepared starters and desserts

Delicious: A number of dishes are readily presented to guests, who can select whatever takes their fancy

There's also plenty of good reasons to stay awake, too.

In particular, BA's new restaurant-style food service, which gives passengers the freedom to select dishes from a choice of freshly-prepared starters and desserts, all served on beautiful table settings.

Forget plastic trays and peel-back lids - this is all proper crockery and cutlery, with high thread-count napkins, too.

To match this standard, BA has worked with top chefs, suppliers and nutritionists to create Height Cuisine - the finest food and drinks available that provide full flavours at altitude.

For starters, I treat myself to a fresh pea panna cotta with herbed creme fraiche and pumpernickel crumbs, which easily matches some of the high-profile restaurant equivalents I've tried.

Posh nosh: Forget plastic trays and peel-back lids - this is all proper crockery and cutlery, with high thread-count napkins, too

Class act: A British Airways air steward delivers the new, improved food service on a flight from London to New York

Sweet truth: A number of tempting treats are also freshly-prepared, then presented for their visual power

Then, wanting to test them slightly, I opted for slowbraised Herefordshire beef cheek and mature Cheddar cheese potato au gratin, served with baby shallots and gingered carrots. Not easy to cook and serve well at the best of times, but still improbably delicious.

Never wanting to be rude, I then capped it all with a specially-made hot chocolate dessert, which was the perfect precursor to a post-dinner snooze.

Sleepy, I recline my chair and make my bed for the evening. As I slip off my shoes and pull down the eye-mask I suddenly appreciate the irony of my situation.

Here I am about to sleep, but this flight has already been an absolute dream.
She had appeared on Good Morning Britain to take part in a debate over Twitter's freedom of speech restrictions, but caused a stir by using the N-word on more than one occasion live on air.

But putting on a defiant display, transgender model Munroe Bergdorf made sure to shrug off her controversial TV appearance, as she stepped out at the Notion Magazine party held in London to celebreate its 78th issue.

The fashion star, 29, looked nothing but glamorous in a teal bardot gown that framed her enviable physique, as she joined a slew of stars at the bash including Love Island's Montana Brown and Sarah-Jane Crawford.

Scroll down for video

Glamorous: Transgender model Munroe Bergdorf made sure to shrug off her controversial TV appearance, as she stepped out at the Notion Magazine party held in London to celebreate its 78th issue

Munroe ensured all eyes were on her as she slipped into her structured gown that made for a skin-tight fit. Baring her decolletage as it sat off the shoulders, her frock then sheathed her figure before billowing out into a fishtail skirt.

The beauty wore her lightened locks in braids that fell past her shoulders and added height to her ensemble with a pair of metallic gold strappy sandals.

Munroe, who had starred alongside Cheryl and Katie Piper in L'Oreal's recent '#allworthit' campaign, finished off her red carpet ready look with glamorous make-up that boasted her flawless complexion and came complete with a dark berry lip.

She had joined a slew of stars at the bash, including Love Island star Montana Brown, who shot to fame on the ITV2 dating show's third series this summer. The starlet stunned in a daring black bandeau dress that boasted cut-out detailing at the sides and appeared to reveal she had gone braless underneath.

Stepping out: The fashion star, 29, looked nothing but stunning in a teal bardot gown that framed her enviable physique, as she headed to the bash hours after appearing on GMB

Commanding attention: Munroe ensured all eyes were on her as she slipped into her structured gown that made for a skin-tight fit

Sarah-Jane Crawford was also in attendance, dazzling in a glittering mini skirt and knee-high boots while X Factor winners Rak-Su made sure to stop by, following their success on the show that saw them beat Grace Davies to the title.

Posing on her arrival, Munroe didn't appear fazed by her earlier TV appearance, where she was repeatedly told by Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid to refrain from using the N-word within the debate.

She had been discussing the Twitter account suspensions of Britain First leaders Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen and while she agreed with the ban, she was told off by the GMB hosts for her use of the N-word live on air.

At the first mention, Munroe had said: 'Absolutely this is about abuse. This is about racism and trying to stem the amount of racism, especially with young white men in modern Britain today.

Rubbing shoulders: She had joined a slew of stars at the bash, including Love Island star Montana Brown, who shot to fame on the ITV2 dating show's third series this summer

Risque: The starlet stunned in a daring black bandeau dress that boasted cut-out detailing at the sides and appeared to reveal she had gone braless underneath

Beauty: Montana's locks were perfectly styled and she sported an immaculate make-up look

Covering up: The star was caught flashing a smile on her exit as she threw a smart coat, complete with a faux fur collar, atop her ensemble

'These are the groups that are upholding it. I think it's very different with institutions when you've got businesses and agencies targeting individual people with abuse. I was called a "n*****", I was called a "black b***h", I was called a "tranny" constantly by these people.

'Twitter allowing these comments to go out there people to be targeted. White people aren't oppressed. These groups are assembled to feed into a narrative of alt right.'

Later in the debate, she said: 'These people are abusing their freedom of speech. You can't just go round calling black women in the media...'

Susanna had interrupted Munroe, saying: 'I just need to interrupt just because you've already used words you can't use at this time in the morning.'

Gorgeous: Sarah-Jane Crawford was also in attendance, dazzling in a glittering mini skirt and knee-high boots

Leggy: The beauty paired her mini skirt with a plain black jumper and glossy locks

Winning smile: X Factor champs Rak-Su were also in attendance at the party

Happy: The boys couldn't hide their delight, no doubt still on a high from their win

Cosying up: Montana made sure to grab a snap alongside Rak-Su star Ashley

Stand-out: Game of Thrones star Laura Pradelska shimmered in a metallic dress that caught the eye

Olivia Cox looked ravishing in red as Britain's Next Top Model star Victoria Clay favoured a stylish pair of culottes and a plunging off-the-shoulder top for the bash

While Munroe insisted she wouldn't repeat the term, she did go on to say it once more, prompting Piers to step in. He told her: 'We would like you to stop just using the word. My opinion is that the more that people use it, any colour, the worse it is.'

Munroe, meanwhile, has defended her use of the word and said in response: 'This reaction of me using the N word is seen as more violent than the fact that we are actually called this. Yet we are allowed to show blackface. It's highly racist.'

Ms Bergdorf, who was born a boy named Ian, works as a DJ and trans activist in addition to her modelling. She began living as a woman at the age of 18 but was prescribed hormones by a doctor only four years ago.

In a lengthy Facebook rant earlier this year, she wrote: 'Honestly I don't have energy to talk about the racial violence of white people any more. Yes ALL white people.

Drama: Munroe didn't appear fazed by her earlier TV appearance, where she was repeatedly told by Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid to refrain from using the N-word within the debate

'Because most of ya'll don't even realise or refuse to acknowledge that your existence, privilege and success as a race is built on the backs, blood and death of people of colour. Your entire existence is drenched in racism. From micro-aggressions to terrorism, you guys built the blueprint for this s***.

'Come see me when you realise that racism isn't learned, it's inherited and consciously or unconsciously passed down through privilege.

'Once white people begin to admit that their race is the most violent and oppressive force of nature on Earth then we can talk.

'Until then stay acting shocked about how the world continues to stay f***** at the hands of your ancestors and your heads that remain buried in the sand with hands over your ears.'

Controversial: She had been discussing the Twitter account suspensions of Britain First leaders Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen and while she agreed with the ban, she was told off by the GMB hosts for her use of the N-word live on air

Live on air: While Munroe insisted she wouldn't repeat the term after being warned by Susanna, she did go on to say it once more, prompting Piers to say: 'We would like you to stop just using the word. My opinion is that the more that people use it, any colour, the worse it is'

As a result, she was dropped by L'Oreal who released a statement that read: 'We support diversity and tolerance towards all people irrespective of their race, background, gender and religion.

'The LOreal Paris True Match campaign is a representation of these values and we are proud of the diversity of the Ambassadors who represent this campaign.

'We believe that the recent comments by Munroe Bergdorf are at odds with those values, and as such we have taken the decision to end the partnership with her.

'LOreal remains committed to celebrating diversity and breaking down barriers in beauty.'
She is just weeks away from welcoming her first child with Braith Anasta.

And Rachael Lee proved that she is every inch the yummy mummy as she hit the beach in a skimpy black bikini on Monday.

Joined by her beau and son Addison, Rachael stunned in a triangle two-piece as she strolled across the white-hot sand with a bundle of discarded clothing and sandals in hand.

Hot mumma alert! Braith Anasta's pregnant girlfriend Rachael Lee proved that she is every inch the yummy mummy as she hit the beach in a skimpy black bikini on Monday

The brunette beauty completed her look with a floral kaftan that revealed her trim pins and bronzed decolletage, as well as a pair of elegant hoop earrings.

She also appeared to go makeup-free for the occasion, revealing her glowing visage by sweeping her locks into a no-fuss bun.

Meanwhile, muscle-bound Braith went shirtless for the occasion, wearing nothing but a pair of snug-fitting swimming trunks and a sporty backpack.

Scorching hot: Joined by her beau and son Addison, Rachael stunned in a triangle two-piece as she strolled across the white-hot sand with a bundle of discarded clothing and sandals in hand

She's not shy! The brunette beauty completed her look with a floral kaftan that revealed her trim pins and bronzed decolletage, as well as a pair of elegant hoop earrings

Her two boys! The doting mother was joined by her son Addison and beau Braith, who were spotted strolling down the iconic beach together

Unlike his stunning girlfriend, the sportsman chose to obscure his famous face from onlookers by donning a pair of sassy sunglasses.

Braith, who parted ways with ex-wife Jodi in 2015, has been dating the Bondi-based beauty for the past year.

The pair moved in together to Braith's Eastern Suburbs home in Sydney earlier this year, and announced they were expecting their first child together in August.

Shirtless wonder! Meanwhile, muscle-bound Braith went shirtless for the occasion, wearing nothing but a pair of snug-fitting swimming trunks and a sporty backpack

Not long now! Rachael is due to welcome her second child in January next year

Hunky Braith recently revealed his low-key Christmas plans with Rachael ahead of her due date, telling The Sunday Telegraph: 'The kids will be with the other halves in the morning, then we'll get them both in the afternoon'.

'There will be a bit of driving around, but the less the better because Rachael's going to be only a few weeks off (giving birth the following month).'

He added: 'Aleeia is looking forward to having a little sister and Addison is looking forward to having a little sister, even though he wanted a little brother.'

Moving on: Braith, who parted ways with ex-wife Jodi in 2015, has been dating the Bondi-based beauty for the past year

Starting a new family: The pair moved in together to Braith's Eastern Suburbs home in Sydney earlier this year, and announced they were expecting their first child together in August
With an unflattering comb-over and oversized specs, youd be forgiven for thinking this is a man in his seventies.

But this is actually Jennifer Saunders in costume for her upcoming role in a BBC One childrens film.

In the hour-long television adaptation of David Walliamss 2015 novel Grandpas Great Escape, the actress, 59, plays money-hungry villain Miss Dandy  who poses as a vicar to gain the trust of families.

Dressed in glasses, false teeth and black robes, she convinces them to put their elderly relatives in her old peoples home Twilight Towers.

With an unflattering comb-over and oversized specs, youd be forgiven for thinking this is a man in his seventies

But this is actually Jennifer Saunders in costume for her upcoming role in a BBC One childrens film

As well as Walliams himself (right, as Barry), Sir Tom Courtenay also stars in the Grandpa's Great Escape as a grandfather with Alzheimers disease

Here, she feeds them sleeping pills, forges their wills so she is the sole beneficiary and waits for them to die.

She has a room in her spooky mansion where she hoards all the valuable jewellery and antiques collected from former residents.

Speaking of her part in the fifth TV adaptation of Walliamss books, which airs on New Years Day, Miss Saunders said: I love playing villains  theyre so much more interesting than nice people. Its so easy, it comes naturally.

Miss Dandy is the sort of person youd hope would never be in charge of an old peoples home, but great fun because of that.

Shes a self-serving psychopath with very few redeeming features ... I think the fact that her tool of choice is a cattle-prod says a lot about her mentality.

The plot focuses on Grandpa's relationship with his 13-year-old grandson called Jack Bunting, who helps him to break out of the abusive home and fly a spitfire once again

The role will contrast with her other key Christmas TV appearance, reliving her hit comedy sketch series with Dawn French in their 30th anniversary clip spectacular, 300 Years Of French And Saunders.

As well as Walliams himself, Sir Tom Courtenay also stars in the programme as a grandfather with Alzheimers disease.

Once a spitfire pilot in World War Two, he is still convinced he is in the 1940s and does not realise his wife Peggy has passed away.

Jennifer Saunders, David Walliams and Tom Courtenay attend a preview screening of 'Grandpa's Great Escape'

The plot focuses on his relationship with his 13-year-old grandson called Jack Bunting, who helps him to break out of the abusive home and fly a spitfire once again.

Grandpas Great Escape will air on New Years Day at 6:55pm on BBC1  and Walliams plays Jacks father Barry.

Meanwhile the comedian turned author, 46, has topped the Christmas bestsellers list  beating Blue Planet II, Guinness World Records and even Jamie Oliver.

His tenth book Bad Dad shifted more than 60,000 copies last week, making it the official seasonal bestseller.

It follows a boy called Frank whose father is in prison for aiding a bank robbery, with the two hatching a daring escape to give the stolen money back.

Cookbook king Jamie Oliver lost out to the childrens book by just 1,608 sales, but has raked in nearly double the revenue from sales of his latest cookbook, Jamie Oliver: 5 Ingredients because of its higher price.

Guinness World Records 2018 was third on the list with Blue Planet II, accompanying David Attenboroughs hit BBC series, in at Number Five.

Walliams  estimated to be worth 19million  enjoyed sales totalling 376,000 last week, while Olivers topped 704,000. The Britains Got Talent judge is on course to make 17million just this year alone thanks to his hugely popular books.

This year there has been an 18 per cent rise in the value of book sales compared to five years ago, according to figures released by sales analysts Nielsen BookScan.
These boots were not meant for walking.

Sofia Richie was spotted pumping fuel in a pair of white, patent leather boots on Tuesday that looked worthy of a disco star.

Richie's boyfriend Scott Disick, 34, was not there to assist the petite model, ahead of her trip to Malibu.

The blonde, 19, looked casual in a pair of jeans and long-sleeved white t-shirt.

Hippy chick: Sofia Richie pumped gas in a pair of high heeled boots on Tuesday

She finished her look with a pair of dark sunglasses and a fanny pack, worn crossbody style.

Even though Sofia comes from music royalty--- her father is Lionel Richie--- it doesn't keep her from doing normal, everyday things like fueling up her Range Rover.

Even if it means doing so in a pair of expensive footwear.

Go girl: The 19-year-old doesn't mind getting a little dirty

Sky high: She kept her look casual, wearing dark denim jeans and a long-sleeve white top

Richie was recently spotted Christmas shopping at the Tom Ford boutique in Beverly Hills.

She could have been buying her beau something for him to unwrap during their first holiday together.

Even if she did, don't expect to see it play out on Keeping Up With the Kardashians anytime soon.

OOTD: Sofia shared a closer look at her ensemble via Instagram story on Tuesday

Hungry: Richie stopped for sushi while in Malibu

According to TMZ, there are no plans for Nicole Richie's sister to make an appearance.

'There's absolutely zero plans for 'KUWTK' to cast Sofia, contrary to reports,' a producer told the site.

While she and Scott do spend a lot of time together, she will not be around his kids when the hit reality series is shooting.

Vacation time: The couple spent a week in Miami where they visited celebrity hotspot Sugar Factory

SWAK: The PDA-filled vacation took them to many Art Basel events as well as the beach

The couple recently traveled together to Miami where they spent time at the beach as well as attended events during Art Basel.

Scott and Sofia enjoyed sweet treats, including a King Kong Sundae, at Miami Beach hotspot Sugar Factory.

Although the restaurant is famous for its colorful cocktails, the pair indulged in the famous goblets sans alcohol.
EastEnders fans thought that they'd seen the last of her when she appeared to be killed off in a special spin-off.

But in another shock soap opera twist, it seems that Kat Moon will be returning to Albert Square in the New Year.

Hoping to increase the show's ratings, EastEnders boss John Yorke has reportedly decided to bring back fan favourite Jessie Wallace.

Scroll down for video

Plot twist! Jessie Wallace set to return to EastEnders as Kat Moon in early 2018 despite apparent onscreen death in a bid to get viewers back on board

The 46-year-old actress left the long-running show alongside co-star Shane Richie, who plays her onscreen partner Alfie Moon, to star in the spin-off Kat & Alfie: Redwater.

With her romance with Alfie being a focal storyline for Kat throughout the soap, it was believed that things would go well.

But while viewership started strongly, by the second episode the ratings for Redwater had dropped by two million so it was quietly cancelled soon after.

Fan favourite: Hoping to increase the show's ratings, EastEnders boss John Yorke has decided to bring back fan favourites, and Jessie Wallace is one of the first to return.

Legendary! The star helped boost ratings alongside her family when they arrived on Albert Square in 2000 - and starred in one of the show's most memorable storylines, when she told her 'sister' Zoe (played by Michelle Ryan, above) that she was actually her mother

The series saw the couple head to Ireland to attempt to find a child Kat never knew she had - a far-fetched tale that had left viewers and critics divided.

The twist in the pilot episode was that Kat's son's identity was revealed - which fans said they considered to be one of the draws of the show in the first place.

Kat was last seen on the show unconscious and, apparently, not breathing after being cut by a propeller and dragged back to a beach.

Alfie, meanwhile, was on the operating table for a brain tumour and was in need of resuscitation after his heart had stopped beating.

New storylines: The 46-year-old actor left the long-running show with her co-star Shane Richie, who plays her onscreen partner Alfie Moon, to star in the spin-off Kat & Alfie: Redwater.

A show source told The Mirror: 'Kat Slater was a huge and popular character in EastEnders and John was in charge when the Slaters first came into the soap.

'Her marriage to Alfie Moon was one of the biggest relationships in the soap.

'Now John is back in charge again he has managed to persuade Jessie to come back to with a host of new storylines. He knows millions will be excited to see what he has in store for the character.'

Jessie shot to huge fame playing Kat, a member of the popular Slater family, in 2000 and has appeared on the soap on and off ever since.

When asked if she would return to the soap on the Today Show earlier this year, Jessie responded by saying: 'Never say never,' before jokingly adding that it was a 'standard answer'.

Tamzin Outhwaite is also returning to the show to reprise her role as Melanie Owen.
He's the Australian male supermodel often referred to as the 'bad boy of fashion'.

But on Tuesday, Jordan Barrett cut a relaxed figure as he took a stroll around New York with his rumoured flame, artist Alana O'Herlihy.

The 21-year-old wrapped up against the winter temperatures by wearing a hoodie with a boiler suit over it.

Scroll down for video

Beating the cold! Male supermodel Jordan Barrett strikes a pose in a boiler suit and hoodie as he strolls around New York with rumoured flame Alana O'Herlihy

Low-key: Alana meanwhile, looked chic and casual in baggy high-waisted jeans and a beige cropped jumper, with a black and white jacket on top

His short blonde locks were slicked back off his face, revealing his prominent cheekbones that have helped make him famous.

Alana meanwhile, looked chic and casual in baggy high-waisted jeans and a beige cropped jumper, with a black and white jacket on top.

She had her blonde locks tied up into a messy bun and wore vintage-styled glasses.

Famous face: His short blonde locks were slicked back off his face, revealing his prominent cheekbones that have helped make him famous

Off the market? The pair walked along the streets, after recently sparking romance rumours

The pair were seen walking along the streets in the Big Apple after recently sparking romance rumours.

They've previously been seen hugging each other while Alana has made a number of appearances on Jordan's Instagram.

In September, the pair made headlines when they were photographed together on an NYC fire escape.

Speculation: They've previously been spotted walking in New York and hugging each other, while Alana has made a number of appearances on Jordan's Instagram

As Jordan smoked, Alana leaned forward and exposed her breasts to onlookers.

Since breaking into the international modelling scene ladies' man Jordan has been linked to a string of beautiful women, including Lara Stone, Bella Hadid, Paris Hilton and Cheyenne Tozzi.

Jordan has had huge success, and the Byron Bay native has modelled for the likes of Versace, Tom Ford and Balmain.
They're believed to be dating after meeting and falling for each other during filming for Bachelor in Paradise.

And it seems things are going very well for The Bachelor's Keira Maguire and The Bachelorette's 'stage-five clinger' Jarrod Woodgate.

Busty blonde Keira was seen visiting the vineyard manager at his Melbourne home this month, after filming for the reality show concluded.

Scroll down for video

PICTURED: Keira Maguire goes braless in a bodysuit as she is busted meeting up with 'boyfriend' Jarrod Woodgate at his Melbourne home after pair 'fell in love' on Bachelor in Paradise

Keira was seen pulling up to Jarrod's house in a rented Maserati before heading to lunch with a female pal.

After lunch the pair returned to Jarrod's house, but Keira stayed inside her car.

Jarrod, who was unceremoniously dumped by Sophie Monk just weeks ago on The Bachelorette, was seen crouching down and talking to the two girls through the window.

Dressing to impress her man, Keira went braless in a flimsy navy bodysuit teamed with denim cut-off shorts for the outing.

Hey there: Keira was seen pulling up to Jarrod's house in a rented Maserati before heading to lunch with a female pal

Back again: After lunch the pair returned to Jarrod's house, but Keira stayed inside her car

Dressing up for her man: Dressing to impress her man, Keira went braless in a flimsy navy bodysuit teamed with cut-off shorts for the outing

She teamed the ensemble with trendy accessories, including a pair of black and white Vans and a Gucci handbag.

The busty blonde had her short locks out and over her shoulders, neatly straightened, and wore makeup including a nude lip and layers of bronzer.

Jarrod meanwhile, kept things casual in a white T-shirt and blue shorts, teamed with a LA baseball cap.

Catching up: Jarrod, who was unceremoniously dumped by Sophie Monk just weeks ago on The Bachelorette, was seen crouching down and talking to the two girls through the car window

Happy: At lunch Keira was animated as she enjoyed a glass of red wine, laughing and giggling with her pal

Talking to Jarrod? At one point, she was distracted by her phone, taking a call and laughing

Keira and Jarrod are back in Australia after filming Bachelor in Paradise in Fiji.

While on the island, the pair were seen on numerous dates and caught kissing during romantic embraces.

On one occasion they were also seen checking into a hotel together.

According to Woman's Day, Jarrod and Keira are the real deal.

Back to reality: Keira and Jarrod are back in Australia after filming Bachelor in Paradise, in Fiji

The real deal: 'Jarrod is completely smitten and thinks Keira is The One,' an insider reportedly told Woman's Day

'Jarrod is completely smitten and thinks Keira is The One,' an insider reportedly told the publication.

A source also told the publication that the blonde beauty is considering a move to Melbourne to be closer to her new beau.

Meanwhile, NW recently went as far as reporting that the pair may tie the knot.

New city? The blonde beauty is reportedly considering a move to Melbourne to be closer to her new beau

Wedding bells? Meanwhile, NW recently went as far as reporting that the pair may tie the knot

Wanting to settle down? 'Keira's always wanted a husband and kids... That's the whole reason she signed up for the show,' an 'insider' explained to the magazine

'Keira's always wanted a husband and kids... That's the whole reason she signed up for the show,' an insider explained the publication.

Jarrod - who failed to win Sophie's heart on The Bachelorette this year - is apparently head over heels in love with Keira.

'Jarrod truly believed he was in love with Sophie, but after meeting Keira, his whole life has turned upside down,' the source added.

New girl: Jarrod - who failed to win Sophie Monk's heart on The Bachelorette this year - is said to be head over heels in love with Keira
He's known for going all out with his characters.

And Tom Hardy, 40, was seen getting into the zone for his role as Eddie Brock in his new film Venom on Friday.

The actor showed off his buff body as he shot a scene for the upcoming comic book movie, taking on his new role of a character struggling with his dual identity.

Scroll down for video

Poison strike: Tom Hardy looked fighting fit in a tight grey shirt and jeans as he takes on a new role and starts filming his new comic book movie Venom

Stepping out into the Atlanta sun, Tom was decked out in a comfy outfit of a grey top and washed denim jeans which fit snugly around his muscular body.

The outfit was completed with a pair of grey and white trainers.

Tom looked like he was completely absorbed in the moment as he filmed the scene in which his character fights the other side of his personality, Venom, over whether he should go to the doctor.

But once the scene had finished he seemed cheerful and quickly broke out of character to give a smile as he stood by a car.

On top form: Stepping out into the Atlanta sun, Tom was decked out in a comfy outfit of a grey top and washed denim jeans which fit snugly around his muscular body

The R-Rated film is a spin-off in the Spider-Man franchise, and is said to be set in the same universe as the much-loved film Spider-Man: Homecoming.

A direct adversary of Spider-Man, Venom becomes the alter-ego of Eddie Brock after he is attacked by symbiotic alien costume which is quickly consumed by Eddie's hatred of the webbed-hero.

It's unclear how Venom's origin story will be presented in this standalone film, but with Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer behind the lens it should be interesting to see how he and Tom approach the character.

On the ball: Tom looked like he was in the zone as he filmed the scene in which his character, Eddie, fights the other side of his personality, Venom, over whether he should go to the doctor.

Earlier this week Tom was seen shooting a fight scene with his co-star Scott Haze who is said to be playing the villain, though his actual character has been kept under wraps.

The pair fought viciously in the roles, and by the end Tom was sprawled on the floor bloody and bruised.

Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Woody Harrelson, Jenny Slate and Reid Scott will also be joining the two actors in the film.

Venom is being released as part of Sony's set of Marvel films, and will be unleashed in cinemas on October 5, 2018.

Fighting fit: Earlier this week Tom was seen shooting a fight scene with his co-star Scott Haze who is said to be playing the villain, though his character has been kept under wraps.

Tom can currently be seen on TV reprising his role as the Jewish gang leader Alfie Solomons in the popular BBC series Peaky Blinders.

Following the exploits of a Birmingham-based criminal organisation in the years after World War I, the show has won rave reviews following its launch in 2014.

But fans have singled out Hardys performance during a confrontation with tattooed Italian nemesis Luca Changretta  played by Adrien Brody  and his particularly colourful choice of language.

Back on TV: Tom can currently be seen on TV reprising his role as the Jewish gang leader Alfie Solomons in the popular BBC series Peaky Blinders.

Appearing to threaten Changretta, the imposing Solomons surprised viewers with his blithe use of the C word while telling the gangster: Right, well, you will have to add another ton onto your bill, for being a c*** mate, alright?

Leading the charge on Twitter, one viewer raved: 'Once again, Tom Hardy stole the show on #PeakyBlinders. Alfie Solomons is one of the best t.v characters ever. Has me laughing every time he opens his mouth.'

A second wrote: 'Tom Hardy is unreal like. Bloke steals every single scene he is in.'
She found fame in 2005 when she placed runner-up to Kate DeAraugo in the third series of Australian Idol.

And Emily Williams, 33, has broken her silence on the controversy surrounding long-term pal Kate, who pleaded guilty to ice possession and drug driving last week.

Holding back tears in an interview with The Morning Show this Wednesday, Emily said: 'Every time it gets to Kate, I'm like, 'Girl, I love you. Why?! I just, I feel like crying.'

Scroll down for video

'I just, I feel like crying': Emily Williams, 33, has broken her silence on the controversy surrounding long-term pal Kate DeAraugo, who pleaded guilty to ice possession and drug driving last week

'I love her so much, but I wish the best for her and I hope everything goes well for her. Our lives changed at the same time. For me to see her in this distress, it upsets me,' she explained.

When quizzed on whether she had shed tears over Kate's predicament, Emily admitted: 'Not to the full extent, but my heart does break for her because of how close we are and how close we were.'

Wrapping up the topic on a more optimistic note, she added: 'I hope she gets her stuff together. She is such a beautiful girl. Her heart is always in the right place, so I am not sure where all this started and went downhill for her.

'Not to the full extent, but my heart does break for her because of how close we are and how close we were' When quizzed on whether she had cried over Kate's predicament, Emily admitted she was heartbroken

No hard feelings! Emily and Kate remained friends after facing off for the title of Australian Idol in 2005

Girl band: Kate and Emily belonged to the short-lived Australian pop-group Young Divas (L-R: Kate DeAraugo, Emily Williams, Paulini and Ricki-Lee Coulter)

Kate DeAruago was fined $500 and spared a conviction last Friday after pleading guilty to ice possession and drug driving.

The 32-year-old, who won Channel Ten's top-rated reality show back in 2005, did not appear for the case at Castlemaine Magistrates Court in Victoria.

The star tested positive to ice after being pulled over in Castlemaine on September 26.

According to The Herald Sun, during proceedings Magistrate Patrick Southey slammed Kate's celebrity status, describing her as 'a minor celebrity from ten years ago'.

Controversy: Kate DeAruago was fined $500 and spared a conviction last Friday after pleading guilty to ice possession and drug driving

He added: 'What show was she on, how many years ago? Eleven years ago, Australian Idol?'

In addition to testing positive to ice, an antique knife and a small amount of the drug was found in the vehicle.

Despite the $500 fine, Kate avoided conviction for a second time.

Court case: In addition to testing positive to ice, an antique knife and a small amount of the drug was found in the vehicle

Last month, she faced court for a separate drug-driving offence.

On June 15 she was caught drug driving in Shepparton, regional Victoria, and appeared for sentencing at Bendigo Magistrates' Court on November 10.

She received a 12-month community correction order after being found with a small amount of ice and a tomahawk axe inside her car.
I learned how to make this winner of a stew from our Hungarian friends Robert Pal and his wife, Judit Nyulasi. Pal is an assistant professor and director of restoration at Montana Tech in Butte, and Nyulasi works with Pal and also is a language instructor. Both are terrific, instinctive cooks, and the best way Ive found to get a recipe from them is to cook together.

This stews Hungarian name is Vorosboros Gombas Marhaporkolt. Easy for them to say. The name translates literally as red wine mushroom beef stew. Typical of Hungarian stews theres a lot of paprika, onions, garlic and various other yummy seasonings. The word goulash kind of encompasses what this stew is all about.

My main take away from cooking with them was the proper time to add paprika to the pot. They said it really was important to add the spice when the pot is warm, not hot. Too much heat will make the paprika bitter. And from me they learned how convenient it is to cook the stew in the oven instead of having to mother it on the stovetop.

When it comes right down to it, stews really are informal. You brown some meat, cook some onions, add spices, vegetables, wine and seasonings, and cook awhile until the meat is tender. For freshness, you toss in more fresh veggies, garlic and mushrooms near the end of cooking. And thats it.

If youre a hunter, substitute game for the beef. To shorten a stews cooking time, cut whatever meat you use into smallish pieces, say 1-inch or so.

Serve this stew with spaetzle (see recipe) or egg noodles.

Hungarian Beef Stew (Vorosboros Gombas Marhaporkolt)

The recipe says to use cremini mushrooms. These small brown-capped fungi are baby Portobello mushrooms. If you cant find them, use the common white button mushroom. This stew is most often served with spaetzle, a homemade egg noodle common in Germany, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland and some other areas in Europe. Its name translates as little sparrows (Swabian diminutive plural of Spatz). That recipe follows.

Makes 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients:

2 pounds fully trimmed rump roast

Vegetable oil, such as peanut, safflower or grapeseed oil

2 medium onions, chopped (about 12 ounces prepared)

3 tablespoons Hungarian sweet paprika

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 cups chopped fresh peppers (green bell, sweet red, jalapeno), divided

6 garlic cloves, put through a garlic press or very finely chopped, divided

3 bay leaves

1 cup dry red wine

3 cups water

8 ounces cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced

Garnish ingredients: Sliced fresh sweet peppers, parsley sprigs, sour cream (1 or more cups in all)

Directions:

Cut the meat into 1-inch cubes and pat dry on paper towels. Heat 4 tablespoons oil in a 4-quart heavy pot over medium to medium-high heat. When hot, add about half the meat, spacing the pieces so theyre not touching. Wait a minute or two before stirring so the meat develops a crust. With a wooden spatula, stir the meat and cook until all sides are browned, about 5 minutes. Remove the meat with a slotted spoon and set the pieces on a plate. If needed, add more oil to the pot. Cook the remaining meat in the same way and add to the first batch. Discard the cooking fat. When the pan is cool, wipe it clean with paper towels.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees with an oven rack in the lower third position.

Add 4 tablespoons fresh oil to the pot and set it over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent and tender, 8 to 10 minutes. Its OK if the onions brown lightly.

Take the pan off heat and let it cool a minute or two until the onions are warm. Add the paprika and stir well. If you add the paprika to a hot pan it may turn bitter. Still off heat, stir in the browned meat, salt, black pepper, half the fresh peppers, half the garlic, all the bay leaves, wine and water.

Set the pot back on medium heat and bring the contents to a low boil, stirring occasionally. Put on the lid and transfer the pot to the oven. Cook about 1 1/2 hours, until the meat is completely tender when pierced with the tip of a sharp paring knife.

Remove the stew from the oven and set the pot onto a hot pad. Add the mushrooms, remaining garlic and remaining fresh peppers. Stir well and taste the liquid. Adjust seasoning with salt and black pepper. Cover the pot and return to the oven for another 20 minutes or so. Make the spaetzle or cook egg noodles during this time.

Serve the stew with noodles or spaetzle and garnish portions with fresh sliced peppers, parsley and sour cream. Pass more sour cream at the table to stir into the stew.

Spaetzle

Youll need a spaetzle hobel, a device that delivers the spaetzle to a pot of simmering water, or a large-holed colander. Ive had excellent results using a plastic colander with rectangular openings. Hobels are available online and they are not expensive.

Makes 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients:

250 grams all-purpose flour (1 3/4 cups flour, 8.8 ounces). Measure by scooping a 1-cup dry measure into your flour container, filling it to overflowing, and sweeping off the excess with a straight edge. For 3/4 cup flour, use a 1/4-cup dry measure three times to measure flour the same way as you did the 1 cup flour.

1/2 teaspoon table salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

4 large eggs, warmed in their shells in a small bowl with hot water

1/2 cup milk

4 tablespoons butter

Directions:

Whisk the flour, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Crack the eggs in another bowl and whisk them for about 30 seconds to combine well. Whisk in the milk. Make a well in the dry ingredients (push them to the side of the bowl to make a space for the liquid) and pour in the liquid. Gradually whisk in the flour from the sides to make thick batter. Whisk vigorously until you get a nice rope when you lift the whisk up about a foot and let the batter fall back into the bowl.

Bring 3 to 4 quarts salted water to a boil in a large pot. Reduce the heat so that the water barely simmers. Make the spaetzle with a Hobel (spaetzle maker) or press the batter with a spatula through a large-holed colander held over the simmering water. Cook just a minute or two until spaetzle is tender. Drain well in a colander.

Melt the butter in large skillet over medium heat until lightly browned. Add the drained spaetzle and stir well. Cook just a few more seconds and serve with the stew.
She's been spending the past few weeks in her native England, after jetting over from her sun-soaked adopted hometown of Los Angeles.

And Cat Deeley dedicated her time to a good cause on Tuesday evening, when she attended the St. Paul's Christmas Carol Concert in London, held in aid of Unicef UK's Syria Winter Appeal.

The 41-year-old TV personality, herself a Unicef UK ambassador, stood out for the occasion, wrapping up warm in a scarlet woollen coat with over-the-knee black leather boots, as she joined fellow host Emma Willis at St. Paul's Cathedral.

Scroll down for video

Festive outing: Cat Deeley, left, and Emma Willis, right, attended the St. Paul's Christmas Carol Concert, held at London's St. Paul's Cathedral, on Tuesday evening

Big Brother host Emma, 41, looked typically chic in a black faux fur-lined coat over a patterned semi-sheer top, teamed with skinny jeans and suede boots.

At the charity event, they were joined by a host of familiar faces, including Unicef UK president Kirsty Young and Unicef UK ambassador Jessie Ware, who performed.

Cat took to the altar to recite A Family Christmas, a poem by Ernestine Northover, for the audience.

Lady in red: West Midlands native Cat stood out for the occasion, wrapping up warm in a scarlet woollen coat with over-the-knee black leather boots

Taking to the altar: The Unicef UK ambassador recited A Family Christmas, a poem by Ernestine Northover, for the audience

Typically chic: Big Brother host Emma, 41, looked typically chic in a black faux fur-lined coat over a patterned semi-sheer top, teamed with skinny jeans and suede boots

So You Think You Can Dance host Cat appeared to leave her husband Patrick Kielty and their one-year-old son Milo at home for the occasion.

She has recently returned to UK screens on Sky 1 show Sing: Ultimate A Cappella.

Earlier this year, Patrick opened up about family life in the couple's Los Angeles home, telling talk show host Lorraine Kelly: 'Milo basically runs the house... We call him the Fresh Prince Of Bel Air because he gets whatever he wants.

'You suddenly realise when you get married, you're number one. Then a kid [comes along] and you're number two, then a dog you're number three, and you spend your life going down the pecking order.'

Hitting the right notes: Singer Jessie Ware was also among the attendees on the night

Focus: The star has been supporting Unicef UK since 2014 and is a dedicated advocate for the organisation's work, with a particular focus on the global refugee and migrant crisis

The voice: She took part in the show by singing Yuletide favourites Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas and Silent Night

She and Patrick were friends for 10 years before they married, although Patrick recently insisted there was 'always a spark' between them before their relationship became romantic.

'There was always a little bit of a spark between us but either she was with someone or I was with someone and by the time we were both single she was in America', he explained. 'It was always one of those things that never worked out.'

The pair met when they presented Fame Academy together in 2002 and remained friends for almost a decade before making their debut as a couple in March 2012 and they married six months later.

Doing his part: Eddie Izzard was also in attendance for the event, held to raise money for the children of Syria whose childhoods have been shaped by fear and conflict

Special reading: During the show, comedian Eddie recited an excerpt from A Christmas Carol

Involved: He first became involved with Unicef UK in 2011 when he travelled to Kenya to film a documentary about the children's emergency in East Africa

The blonde beauty hit the big time in the US in 2006 when she began to host the US dance show SYTYCD, while Paddy's work remained in the UK.

Despite their transatlantic romance, the pair say they never spend more than two weeks apart.

The couple tied the knot in a traditional Catholic ceremony in Rome, Italy, in September 2012, which was an intimate affair with just six family and friends each.

Attendee: Goodwill Ambassador Muzoon Almellehan was among the attendees at the event

Powerful message: Syrian efugee and youth activist Muzoon, who is Unicef's youngest Goodwill Ambassador, delivered a powerful reading as part of the service
DJ Annie Goh and Pink Floyd's Roger Waters have joined the 'Boycott Divestment Sanctions Movement', which has seen many artists making 'a stand against Israel's oppression of Palestinians'.

And now fans have criticised Lorde for scheduling a concert in Tel Aviv, Israel, in June.

After announcing she will be performing in Tel AviV as well as St. Petersburg and Moscow in Russia via Twitter on Monday, one social media user directed at the 21-year-old: 'Very disappointed in you!'

'Very disappointed in you!' Fans criticise Lorde for scheduling a concert in Tel Aviv amidst movement that sees artists take a 'stand against Israel's oppression of Palestinians'

Vocal: A fan criticised Lorde for scheduling the concert, writing to Twitter: 'Don't play in Tel Aviv while they have the Palestinians under a brutal occupation! Very disappointed in you! Boycott Israel!'

Another wrote: 'Don't play in Tel Aviv while they have the Palestinians under a brutal occupation! Very disappointed in you! Boycott Israel!'

Announcement: Lorde, real name Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor, shared to Twitter on Monday that she will be taking her world tour next year to Moscow, St. Petersburg and Tel Aviv

One social media user criticised Lorde, writing: 'Ah yeah let's leave people suffering to just exist out of this while we throw money at the oppressor who's the cause of their suffer'

Support: However some offered their support for Lorde, with one sharing: 'This is music, this is art. Boycotting art in Israel will not solve the situation, it will just make it a lot more sad and miserable'

One followed suit with: 'Ah yea let's leave people suffering to just exist out of this while we throw money at the oppressor who's the cause of their suffer.'

However, many offered their support for Lorde, with one sharing: 'This is music, this is art. Boycotting art in Israel will not solve the situation, it will just make it a lot more sad and miserable.'

And another with: 'She's doing this for the fans, please leave politics out of this thank you.'

Political stance: Lorde's concert scheduling comes as select artists join the Boycott Divestment Sanctions Movement

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Lorde's management for comment.

Lorde's concert scheduling comes as select artists joined the Boycott Divestment Sanctions Movement.

The Palestinian-led movement is aiming to take a stand amid claims of Israel's 'oppression of Palestinians'.
Actress Hiep Thi Le, who starred in Oliver Stone's third movie in his Vietnam war trilogy, has died.

The Vietnamese-born star was handpicked by Stone to play opposite Tommy Lee Jones in 1993's Heaven & Earth, the story of a woman living through the war who marries an American G.I. and moves back with him to the US.

Le was 46 and died due to complications from stomach cancer, Variety reported Tuesday.

R.I.P. Actress Hiep Thi Le, who starred in Heaven & Earth, Oliver Stone's third movie in his Vietnam war trilogy, has died. She was 46

Speaking about his decision to go with the unknown young woman for the movie that completed his trilogy along with Platoon and Born On The Fourth Of July, Stone told film critic Roger Ebert that Le had captivated everyone on the production.

'We searched in six or seven American cities, and in Hong Kong and Bangkok. More than 16,000 Vietnamese came in to read for 30 different roles,' the director explained in an article published in the LA Times in 1993.

'Our people saw her, put her on video, thought she was electric, and flew her down to Los Angeles. I thought she was charismatic. We worked with her, put her on video with other actors, introduced her to Tommy Lee Jones and Joan Chen and Haing Ngor, and then we put her on film,' he went on.

'We tested her out for about five months, continuously, and she won the role. I didn't send her to any acting school. I didn't feel that it was necessary; she was a natural.'

A natural: Stone handpicked Le, who was born in Vietnam and arrived in the US as a child, from thousands of hopefuls to star in the movie. The two are seen on set of the film released in 1993

Female perspective: She starred opposite Tommy Lee Jones in Heaven & Earth, the story of a woman living through the war who marries an American and moves back with him to the States

Following Heaven & Earth, for which she received critical acclaim, Le went on to have roles in the movies Cruel Intentions and Green Dragon as well as parts in television shows.

In 2016, she reprised her role as Mai-Lee in the pilot for a television version of Cruel Intentions, but the series was not picked up.

She also made a career as a chef, working at the China Beach Bistor in Venice, California, before moving on to become chef and owner of Le Cellier, a French-Vitenamese restaurant in Marina Del Rey, just south of Venice.

Smaller roles: Le also appeared in the movie Cruel Intentions and reprised the role of Mai-Lee for a television pilot based on the film in 2016. She's pictured with the show's creators

Le was born in Da Nang in 1971 and at the age of eight was put on a fishing boat with her sister to travel to Hong Kong where she would be reunited with her father, Variety reported.

The family eventually moved to the United States where they settled in Oakland, outside San Francisco.

While a student at University of California at Davis, she auditioned for a role in Stone's film and was chosen form among thousands of hopefuls.

Le is survived by her husband, two children and six siblings.
She's the straight-talking reality star who dropped her fair share of truth-bombs on The Bachelor this year.

And Jen Hawke unleashed her sassy side once again this week by accusing her ex-boyfriend Jake Ellis of photoshopping his Instagram photos.

Giving an interview to Blue Chip, the brunette beauty took a stab at women and men who doctor their social media snaps before she named and shamed her Bachelorette star ex.

We live in a world where there's so much fakeness': The Bachelor's Jen Hawke unleashed her sassy side once again this week by accusing her ex-boyfriend Jake Ellis of photoshopping his Instagram photos

'We live in a world where there's so much fakeness,' she told interviewer Ryan Chipperfield.

'I mean, you go on Instagram and everyone's filtering their photos and dragging themselves in to make them thinner and some of the guys are even dragging their shoulders out to make them bigger,' Jen went on.

'Jake Ellis from The Bachelorette season two, I'm talking to you right now!' she giggled.

'I'm talking to you right now!' Appearing in an interview with Blue Chip this week, the brunette beauty took a stab at women and men who doctor their social media snaps before naming and shaming her Bachelorette star ex

Photoshop fail? Earlier this year, Jake made headlines after he uploaded a photo in which his bicep appeared to have been artificially expanded

A closer look: Fans noticed that the door in the background of Jake's image mysteriously defied physics

Indeed, Jen isn't the only person to have accused the Queensland-based hunk of editing his images.

Earlier this year, Jake made headlines after he uploaded a photo in which his bicep appeared to have been artificially expanded to the point that it effected the appearance of a a door in the background of the shot.

However, Jake denied retouching the shirtless snap and told Daily Mail Australia: 'Honestly only know how to edit a photo with an Instagram filter or a depth effect photo using an iPhone. Thats the extent of it.'

Do wood planks usually bend that way? More recently, he shared another suspicious-looking shirtless snap of himself lying on a beach towel in the sun

More recently, he shared another suspicious-looking shirtless snap of himself lying on a beach towel in the sun.

Eagle-eyed viewers noticed the wooden slabs sitting directly behind his flexed bicep appeared bent.

Jake rose to fame as a contestant on The Bachelorette in 2016, making it to the final three selection in Georgia Love's season.

Jen and Jake briefly dated earlier this year, just months prior to Jen's debut on The Bachelor.

Reality stardom: Jake rose to fame as a contestant on The Bachelorette in 2016, making it to the final three selection in Georgia Love's season
She's created a global brand worth millions thanks to her stunning age-defying looks and incredible body.

And so it seems fitting that Elle 'The Body' MacPherson, 53, would aspire to own a painting as iconic as her famous physique, with the supermodel admitting her desire to receive David Hockney's painting A Bigger Splash for Christmas this year.

Taking to Instagram on Wednesday, the Australian beauty shared a photo of the 1967 artwork along with the caption: 'Christmas wish list #Hockney.'

She has expensive taste! Elle Macpherson has revealed that iconic David Hockney painting A Bigger Splash is on her Christmas wish list... but she'll have to fight the Tate for it!

Iconic work: Taking to Instagram on Wednesday, the Australian beauty shared a photo of the 1967 artwork along with the caption: 'Christmas wish list #Hockney'

Fans immediately showered Elle with comments complimenting her aesthetic tastes, with one writing: 'Yes, on mine too!'

However, it seems unlikely that artwork's current owner- the Tate gallery in London- would be keen to part with the piece any time soon.

While the sale price of Elle's favorite painting is unknown, a similar Hockney painting named The Splash sold for 2.9 million at Sotheby's in 2006.

Secrets to her success: Elle's Christmas wish confession comes days after she revealed her secrets to saying fit and healthy throughout the festive season

Elle's Christmas wish confession comes days after she revealed her secrets to saying fit and healthy throughout the festive season.

Writing in her monthly Get The Gloss column, the glamazon said she finds herself 'irritable and uncomfortable' when she's dehydrated so she 'actively prevents' it/

'I used to wake up with a double espresso, but now I sip a hot water first thing, to gently boost my metabolism,' she explained.

'I used to wake up with a double espresso, but now I sip a hot water': Writing in her monthly Get The Gloss column, the glamazon said she finds herself 'irritable and uncomfortable' when she's dehydrated so she 'actively prevents' it

Elle follows this with a 'daily dose' of her wellness powder, The Super Elixir powder - which contains 45 bio-live nutrients to 'support all eleven systems of the body' - before she works out.

Throughout the day, the model said she's a fan of filtered water, herbal teas and her own homemade turmeric tea.

'[This] is a concoction of turmeric powder and hot water with a large coriander sprig on top,' she explained.

Elle added that she has also managed to swap her double espresso habit for a 'big green vegetable juice'.
She's taking an eight-week break from exercise as she recovers from surgery on her feet.

But Fiona Falkiner has got plenty of support to lean on, the model enlisting the help of her girlfriend Lara Creber on Wednesday.

The former Biggest Loser host appeared to limp as she crossed the street wearing moon boots on bandaged feet as the couple paid a visit to Dan Murphys liquor store.

Lean on me! Fiona Falkiner holds hands with girlfriend Lara Creber while crossing a Sydney street after undergoing foot surgery

Fiona held Lara's hand as she crossed a street, also appearing to lean on her lady love for support.

The model looked every bit the boho babe in a breezy patterned maxi dress, wearing her hair back from her face in a ponytail.

Meanwhile, Fiona's girlfriend Lara looked equally summer-ready, wearing a pair of linen shorts with a tank top.

Close: Fiona held Lara's hand as she crossed a street, also appearing to lean on her lady love for support

Helping hand: Fiona could be seen leaning on Lara as they made their way across a street

Helping Fiona across the street, Lara raised a hand in thanks to a car who had stopped and let them cross the road.

Fiona could also be seen walking solo through a car park, holding her car key in one hand.

Earlier this month, Fiona revealed on Instagram she would be undergoing surgery on her feet and would not be able to exercise for eight weeks while recovering.

Cheers! Helping Fiona across the street, Lara raised a hand in thanks to a car who had stopped and let them cross the road

Loved up: In October, Fiona confirmed she was dating personal trainer Lara after meeting on holiday in South America earlier that year

Heading home? Fiona could also be seen walking solo through a car park, holding her car key in one hand

While posting photos of her bandaged feet and a wheelchair after undergoing surgery, Fiona is yet to specify what the operation was for. Daily Mail Australia has contacted her representatives for comment.

Meanwhile in October, Fiona confirmed she was dating personal trainer Lara after meeting on holiday in South America earlier that year.

'Theres nothing scandalous about it. Lara and I met on a trip to South America and Im all about falling in a love with a person and yes, Ive fallen in love with Lara,' she told Cosmopolitan.

Taking a break: Earlier this month, Fiona revealed she would be undergoing surgery on her feet and would not be able to exercise for eight weeks while recovering
Turns out a lot of work goes into being The Greatest Showman.

Hollywood A-Lister Hugh Jackman, 49, shared a candid shot of himself before the film's red carpet premiere at The Star in Sydney on Wednesday night.

The actor looked to be in a deep state of relaxation as he received a head massage from his hairdresser while a make-up artist blended foundation near his eye.

Perks of the job: Hollywood actor Hugh Jackman, 49, posted a candid shot of himself in the make-up chair before the Sydney premiere of his new flick, The Greatest Showman

The Tony award-winner was joked about the preparations, referring to his face as 'bricks and mortar' in the caption after getting the touch-up by the pair.

'The high level of brick and mortar work on me is no challenge for the amazing duo of @lizkelshmakeup and @valonzhaircutters ... Let's do this Sydney!' he wrote.

Star power: The Hollywood actor is on home soil with The Greatest Showman co-stars Zac Efron and Zendaya for the film's premiere

Taking cues from the actor's humorous post, fans chimed in on Instagram, offering their own take on the work by the musical actor's glam squad.

'They say car body filler works better,' one user wrote, others adding, 'Hugh, you look good all the time no need for make up.'

It comes after the Hollywood actor was told by a gushing fan on Channel Seven's Sunrise program that he is 'the most perfect man on God's earth.'

Time to shine: Actor Hugh Jackman walked the red carpet with wife Deborra-Lee Furness at the Sydney premiere of The Greatest Showman on Wednesday night

Sunrise co-host Samantha Armytage introduced Hugh to his 'number one fan' Mary.

She was clearly pleased to be close to her hero, asking the father-of-two: 'It is wonderful to meet you. Can I touch you?'

Hugh, who took an obvious liking to Mary, smiled before responding: 'You can touch me. Absolutely.'

Sweet moment: The actor appeared on morning show Sunrise where he met gushing fan Mary, who told him he was, 'most perfect man on God's earth.'

The encounter took on a very sweet nature, with Mary later gushing: 'I'm in a nursing home. The nurses and everybody agree with me that you are the most perfect man on God's earth!'

The actor jetted into the country on Tuesday with his family, wife Deborra-Lee Furness and their two children Oscar, 17, and Ava, 12.

The Greatest Showman details the life of American P.T. Barnum, played by Hugh, who founded the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

A passion project for Hugh, the Tony Award-winning performer had been working on getting the musical made for more than seven years.

The Greatest Showman co-stars Zac Efron and Zendaya Coleman are also in the country to promote the film.

The event is well-timed, with the Los Angeles based actor spending Christmas on home soil.
She's Hugh Jackman's number one fan, who seems to have managed a star turn of her own after flirting with her hero on Channel 7's Sunrise program.

And on Wednesday night elderly pensioner 'Nanna Mary', 89, was still starstruck after meeting her handsome Hollywood crush, who gifted her with two tickets to the red-carpet premiere of The Greatest Showman at The Star.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia on the red carpet, Mary said she was 'completely numb' after coming face to face with Hugh.

Number one fan: elderly pensioner 'Nanna Mary', 89, was gifted two tickets to the premiere of The Greatest Showman by Hollywood star Hugh Jackson, who she called the most perfect man on God's earth on breakfast show Sunrise

Mary added she even got a 'kiss and a cuddle,' from the handsome star.

'I'm completely numb ... completely,' Mary, who appeared on the Channel Seven program because her dad joined a circus in 1905, said.

'He was so charming, a wonderful person, he really is,' she continued, 'it just shines through.'

Mary then added, 'He was very nice ... A very nice person.'

One in a lifetime: Northern Beaches pensioner Nanna Mary, 89, was still starstruck after she was given tickets by the handsome star to the premiere of The Greatest Showman on Wednesday night

Starstruck: The elderly pensioner gushed over the Tony award-winning actor on the breakfast show

The elderly pensioner gushed over the actor during the breakfast show segment, telling him she lives in a nursing home, and has pictures of him plastered all over her walls, before adding,'and the nurses and everyone agrees with me, you're the most perfect man on God's earth.'

The quick-witted actor gushed at the endearing compliment, before replying, 'I'm actually going to have that recorded and that will be my alarm clock every morning.'

The segment saw a slew of reaction from other news organisations including a follow-up by Channel Seven and a guest spot on Channel Ten.

Showbiz: The actor walked the red carpet with wife Deborra-Lee Furness at the premiere of the film at The Star on Wednesday

Social media also exploded with commentary on Nana Mary, especially on Channel Seven's Instagram account.

'Bless!!!! Made me get tears...love Hugh and Nana [sic] Mary! Hope she has the best time. Love your heart, Hugh!' one user wrote, while another added, 'This is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, what a gentleman he is.'

The film The Greatest Showman premiered in Sydney at The Star on Wednesday, with co-stars Zendaya and hunky Zac Efron in attendance.

The Greatest Showman details the life of American P.T. Barnum, played by Hugh, who founded the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

While speaking to Channel Ten news, Hugh Jackman didn't shy away from comparisons his latest character, 'He liked showbiz, I like showbiz,' he said, before adding, 'He was a disrupter ... on another level.'
He was greeted by hordes of fans who braved an afternoon thunderstorm for the chance to shake hands with him.

But while Zac Efron's fans were keen to get up and close personal with the star on Wednesday, it appears the feeling may not have been mutual.

The 30-year-old actor was busted applying hand sanitiser after shaking hands with fans at the Sydney premiere of The Greatest Showman.

Busted! Zac Efron caught using hand sanitiser after meeting rain-soaked fans at the Sydney premiere of The Greatest Showman

Zac greeted hordes of fans who had staked out the entrance to The Star and battled rain to meet him.

But after doing the rounds of the enthusiastic crowd, the Bad Neighbours star was seen heading over to a female staff member, who gave him some hand sanitiser.

After using the antibacterial product, Zac headed inside with his A list co-stars Hugh Jackman and Zendaya to watch the movie.

Cleaning up: But after doing the rounds of the enthusiastic crowd, the Bad Neighbours star was seen heading over to a female staff member, who gave him some hand sanitiser

Pit stop: After using the antibacterial product, Zac headed inside with his A list co-stars Hugh Jackman and Zendaya to watch the movie

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Zac's representatives for comment.

Zac has been in Sydney this week alongside Hugh and Zendaya to promote their new film in a slew of public appearances.

He got candid about his past during an interview with The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday, admitting he had made mistakes.

'I have messed up in the past. Ive done a lot of things that I look back on and go ''sheesh, are you kidding, what were you thinking?''' He said.

Making the rounds: Zac has been in Sydney this week alongside Hugh and Zendaya to promote their new film in a slew of public appearances

'I have messed up in the past': He got candid about his past during an interview with The Daily Telegraph, admitting he had made mistakes

'It is weird to say because I am also happy that I did all of those things because I am here before you today able to proclaim that this is me and I am very proud of who I am.'

The High School Musical drew parallels between his outlook on life and his role in The Greatest Showman, arguing the movie was about being your true self.

'Every day I wake up and I have to start with again the man in the mirror and it is like starting from square one all over again. You are never perfect, you wake up every day and theres a new set of challenges,' he said.
She's one of the biggest names in Australian showbusiness, with a career spanning more than five decades.

So it was apt perhaps that Kerri-Anne Kennerley was among the guests attending the Australian premiere of The Greatest Showman on Wednesday night.

The 64-year-old pulled out all the stops in a boho halterneck dress at The Star in Sydney.

What a showstopper! Age-defying Kerri-Anne Kennerley wows the crowd in a boho dress at the Sydney premiere of The Greatest Showman

The floaty frock's short hem at the front showed off her trim pins and perfect golden tan.

Kerri-Anne acessorised her outfit with a metallic clutch, adding some height with a pair of red bejewelled stilettos.

Keeping her makeup to a minimum, the TV star wore her blonde locks out in styled waves.

Boho babe: The floaty frock's short hem at the front showed off her trim pins and perfect golden tan

Glittering: Kerri-Anne acessorised her outfit with a metallic clutch, adding some height with a pair of red bejewelled stilettos

Kerri-Anne rubbed shoulders with The Greatest Showman stars Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron and Zendaya, who also walked the red carpet.

Her night out at the A list premiere comes after Kerri-Anne revealed how the local fire brigade came to the assistance of her and her husband John Kennerley.

Kerri-Anne's husband was left an incomplete quadriplegic after suffering a horrific fall in 2016.

Helping hand: Kerri-Anne revealed how the local fire brigade came to the assistance of her and her husband John Kennerley

Tragic accident: Kerri-Anne's husband was left an incomplete quadriplegic after suffering a horrific fall in 2016

The TV personality recalled how her local fire brigade had pledged to help her transport John to a Christmas party near their house.

'Then I thought, we have Woollahra fire station literally behind us so yesterday I went to visit them, and they could not have been more fabulous,' Kerri-Anne told Nine Honey.

'I said, I need a fireman to lift John's wheelchair up four stairs a block a way on Christmas Eve at about 7pm, and then help carrying him down the stairs at approximately 10.30.

'He said, ''Absolutely, we do these things for the community. Any time 24/7 you need help with John we're always here.'''
A Miles City woman who admitted meth conspiracy charges will spend four years on federal probation.

In U.S. District Court in Billings on Wednesday, District Judge Susan Watters followed probationary recommendations from both the prosecution and defense attorneys in sentencing Elizabeth Jean Myers, 32.

Watters noted that the probationary sentence was a significant break from the guideline range of about nine to 11 years but also said the case had unique aspects that warranted probation.

When Myers got indicted on federal drug charges, she was already serving a state sentence on separate but related conduct and was in a treatment program, Watters said.

Myers also had a dismal childhood, the judge said, in which Myers suffered substance, mental, physical and sexual abuse.

Myers pleaded guilty in August to conspiracy to possess meth with intent to distribute.

Myers apologized for her conduct and said she was committed to staying sober and contributing to her community.

Prosecutors accused Myers, and her co-defendant, James Toms of Miles City, of conspiring to distribute meth in the community from about January 2014 until about May 2015.

Myers got arrested for traffic violations in May 2015 in which officers found meth and drugs in her vehicle and was ultimately convicted on state criminal endangerment charges involving her child.

Myers admitted to agents after her arrest that she received meth from California for distribution in Montana and that she sold meth she had received from Toms and wired money to their supplier, the prosecution said.

Toms has pleaded guilty to charges and is awaiting sentencing.
Dressed in a red short-sleeved jumper and sporting long and sleek black hair, Amal Alamuddin shows off the elegance and class that made her the perfect school scholar - and future wife of Hollywood's former most eligible bachelor, George Clooney.

The successful human rights lawyer, 37, stands out in the first ever pictures from her school days at Dr. Challoners High School in Amersham, Buckinghamshire.

The photo was taken in 1996, when Amal was 17 and about to take a place at Oxford University, studying Law.

Scroll down for video

Striking: Amal Clooney stands out in the first ever pictures from her school days at Dr. Challoners High School in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, taken when she was 17 in 1996

While the Lebanese-born beauty looked fresh-faced, her husband-to-be George was melting hearts as Dr Doug Ross in the hospital drama ER.

By coincidence he was dating another law student, Celine Balitran, after divorcing his first wife, Talia Balsam, in 1993.

Most of those who studied with Amal at Oxfords St Hughs College remember her as a hard worker, who would snub nights out on the town to debate human rights or study in her room.

Standing out: The picture was taken when Amal was about to graduate from the all girls grammar school and take a place at Oxford University, studying Law

Natural beauty: Amal reveals the naturally pretty features that would win Hollywood star George Clooney's heart in newly published photos from her final school year

Group photo: The lawyer, now 37, is joined by her fellow year 13 students for an official end of year shot

Her nickname at Oxford was Just Cause, because her favourite topic of conversation was her various political interests,' a college friend once said.

And her due diligence paid off as she won a place at the NYU School of Law, and is now one of the worlds most prominent human rights lawyers.

Dr. Challoners High School, where it all started, have never forgotten her achievements, giving her a special mention in the school prospectus, praising her among a list of other famous alumnae.

They wrote: Amal Alamuddin, the successful human rights barrister and activist, who was appointed to a number of United Nations commissions including as adviser on Syria, is another famous Challoners girl.

Happy couple: Amal and George married in Venice in 2014. Their two children, twins Alexander and Ella, were born in 2017

Amal would go on to marry Hollywood star George in 2014, with Clooney's close friend Walter Veltroni officiating the ceremony at Venice City Hall.

The Gravity star, 56, who was a reconfirmed bachelor until he met the raven-haired barrister, previously described Amal as the 'love of my life.'

'I've never been happier in a relationship by any stretch of the imagination,' Clooney told Esquire of his wedded life with the lawyer.'At 52 I found the love of my life and I'm really happy.'

The couple welcomed their first children, twins Ella and Alexander, at the exclusive Kensington Wing of London's Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in June.
She has been reunited with her beau Matt Smith after spending the past few months filming Mamma Mia! in Croatia.

And Lily James looked absolutely smitten as she enjoyed a romantic trip to the theatre with The Crown actor.

The 28-year-old Baby Driver actress looked effortlessly chic in a tailored black coat as she cosied up to her 35-year-old boyfriend at the Matthew Bourne's Cinderella Gala Night.

Scroll down for video

Loved up: Lily James, 28, looked absolutely smitten as she enjoyed a romantic trip to the theatre with Matt Smith, 35

Clad in sheer tights and chunky black boots, the Downton Abbey star showed off her tremendous pins as she chatted to her handsome beau on a plush red sofa.

Lily, who complemented her new bangs with a gorgeous wavy hairstyle, looked deep in discussion with the former Doctor Who actor.

Matt cut a dapper figure in a matching black coat, checked shirt and skinny trousers as he sipped on a beer ahead of the performance.

Following the show, the golden-haired beauty wrapped up warm in a stylish patterned scarf and added a pop of colour to her ensemble with a red clutch bag.

Cute: The Baby Driver actress looked effortlessly chic in a tailored black coat as she cosied up to her boyfriend at the Matthew Bourne's Cinderella Gala Night

Chatting away: Lily, who complemented her new bangs with a gorgeous wavy hairstyle, looked deep in discussion with the former Doctor Who actor

The stars mixed with the likes of Ashley Shaw and Louise Redknapp at the fundraising event.

The happy couple's outing comes after the pair have spent the past couple of months apart, with Lily working on the sequel to Mamma! Mia in Croatia.

Lily will play Meryl Streep's character Donna, way before she became Mamma Mia! heroine Sophie's mother or the owner of the Villa Donna from the first film.

Date night: Lily posed with her handsome beau for the Matthew Bourne's Cinderella Gala Night in London on Sunday

Chic: The talented star - who has been busy filming the prequel to Mamma Mia! in Croatia over the past few months - posed with Ashley Shaw

Meanwhile Matt has been busy on the promotional tour for series two of his Emmy and Golden Globe winning show, The Crown.

The Netflix hit which premiered last Friday, is the last series where Claire and Matt will play Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.

Series three of The Crown will see Olivia Colman take on the role of the monarch during the 1950s and '60s. It has not yet been announced who will play Prince Philip.

Speaking to Andy Cohen as he promoted series two of The Crown alongside co-star Claire Foy on Watch What Happens Live in New York City, Matt appeared to reveal a spoiler for series four.

Spoiler? As an intrigued Andy asked the pair when Princess Diana would appear in the hit show it led to some confusion between the pair. Matt replied 'the one after' as Claire hushed him

As an intrigued Andy asked the pair when Princess Diana would appear in the hit show it led to some confusion between the pair.

He asked: 'Does Diana appear in the next season or the one after,' to which Matt replied: 'The one after.'

A shocked Claire then said: 'Shhhhh, as a quizzical Matt said 'What?!', she then responded 'I don't know!'

Matt then hurriedly said: 'I don't know, maybe it's next season.'

When asked who they would like to play Meghan Markle and Prince Harry in The Crown, Matt was quick to suggest Selena Gomez for the plum role.

'You love Selena Gomez!' Claire said. 'We love that theyre getting married. Its amazing. Shes an actress so thats great.'
Michael Douglas has revealed the name of his newborn granddaughter.

The 73-year-old actor became a grandfather for the first time on Monday when his eldest son Cameron - who he shares with ex-wife Diandra - and his partner Viviane Thibes welcomed a daughter into the world - naming her Lua. Michael said: '[We are] all ecstatic about baby Lua.'

Michael has children Dylan, 17, and Carys, 14, with wife Catherine Zeta-Jones, and he revealed he and his significant other will be known as Bubba and Zeze to little Lua.

Scroll down for video

New grandparents: Michael Douglas, 73, reveals his granddaughter's name is Lua and that she'll call him and Catherine Zeta Jones, 47, 'Bubba and Zeze'... as the family celebrate with an Indian safari

New addition: Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Cameron Douglas, Michael's son, who has welcomed daughter Lua

He added to PEOPLE magazine: 'Dylan and Carys love being an aunt and uncle and we're so happy to be her Bubba and Zeze.'

The family are currently enjoying a visit to India, which Catherine has been gushing over in recent Instagram snaps.

The family have been to the Taj Mahal and on a tiger safari.

Cameron, the eldest son of the Hollywood actor, announced the arrival of a daughter on Monday night, one year after completing a seven-year prison sentence.

The 39-year-old praised his 'beautiful Amazon warrior' girlfriend Viviane Thibes, 40, for the miracle in an Instagram post.

He wrote: 'Today my appreciation for Mothers all over the world has reached new heights...

On vacation: Michael has children Dylan, 17, and Carys, 14, with wife Catherine Zeta-Jones, and he revealed he and his significant other will be known as Bubba and Zeze to little Lua

On their travels: The family are currently enjoying a visit to India, which Catherine has been gushing over in recent Instagram snaps

Stunning: The family have been to the Taj Mahal and on a tiger safari

'Today I took part in a miracle as my baby girl was introduced to the world through a beautiful Amazon warrior... Im so proud of you.'

Alongside the sentimental announcement, Cameron shared a picture of the Brazilian yoga-instructor during her pregnancy as she showed off her bare bump in a meditation pose.

News of Cameron's first baby joy broke in August, with a source telling People: 'Everyone is thrilled for him. Michael is looking forward to being a grandfather.'

Welcome to the world: Cameron shared a picture of his pregnant girlfriend Viviane Thibes, 40, after witnessing the 'miracle' of childbirth

'I love you': The proud new dad shared a gushing post about his 'Amazon warrior' on Monday night

Close: The 38-year-old Hollywood native welcomed a baby girl on Monday with his yoga-instructor girlfriend Viviane Thibes, 39 (here in November)

Family man: The Wall Street actor, 73, has son Dylan, 17, and daughter Carys, 14, with Oscar-winning actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, 47, his wife of 17 years (here in February 2016)

Cameron was last seen with his famous father just three weeks ago, at the movie premiere for Cocaine Godmother: The Griselda Blanco Story.

He also brought along his pregnant girlfriend, just ahead of the arrival of their first child.

Wall Street actor Michael, 73, also has son Dylan, 17, and daughter Carys, 14, with Oscar-winning actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, 47, his wife of 17 years.

The arrival comes one year after Cameron was released from prison after serving seven years for drug possession.

He received a five-year sentence for possession of heroin and selling methamphetamine.

His sentence was extended when he admitted to smuggling drugs into prison.

The star - who appeared in 2003's It Runs In The Family with his dad Michael as well as grandfather Kirk Douglas, 101 - has been sober ever since.

Thibes was first seen with Cameron just after he was released from prison in August 2016.

A kiss on the lips: Thibes was first seen with Cameron just after he was released from prison in August 2016

His lady love: She hails from Sao Paulo, Brazil and has a bachelor's degree in film at Hunter College in NYC. She has also acted in films like 2008's La rina

They were spotted holding hands in New York City.

She hails from Sao Paulo, Brazil and has a bachelor's degree in film at Hunter College in NYC.

She has also acted in films like 2008's La rina.

After getting out of prison Cameron told The Huffington Post: 'I feel thoroughly blessed. I have a beautiful and loving family who has faithfully supported me every step of the way, believing in me and refusing to give up in the face of one bleak adversity after the next.'

He added: 'I feel in the deepest recesses of my heart that there is a beautiful purpose hidden along this painful journey.'

On the mend: Cameron, seen in June in NYC, has stayed sober

His kids: The Black Rain star is pictured with son Dylan and daughter Carys in 2016

In 2013 Michael - who is best known for TV's The Streets Of San Francisco and the movie Basic Instinct - told Vanity Fair he was 'very disappointed in the system' when his son was not released from prison.

'My son is in federal prison,' he told reporters. 'Hes been a drug addict for a large part of his life. Part of the punishmentsif you happen to have a slip, and this is for a prisoner who is non-violent, as about a half-million of our drug-addicted prisoners arehes spent almost two years in solitary confinement. Right now Ive been told that I cant see him for two years. Its been over a year now. And Im questioning the system.'

He went on: 'Obviously at first, I was certainly disappointed in my son. But Ive reached a point now where Im very disappointed with the system. And as you can see from what Attorney General Eric Holder has been doing regarding our prison system, I think things are going to be revived, regarding nonviolent drug addicts. My last comment on that is the United States represents 5 percent of the worlds population and we have 25 percent of the worlds prisoners.'
She debuted her new blonde bob just three weeks ago.

But it appears that Jesinta Franklin (nee Campbell) might be already looking to change up her current hairstyle, the 26-year-old paying a visit to a Sydney hair salon on Wednesday.

In videos shared to her Instagram story Jesinta went for the chop again as she appeared to go even shorter than her current style.

Didn't make the cut? Jesinta Campbell gets a makeover at the hair salon just three weeks after debuting her blonde bob

The black and white videos posted to Jesinta's social media showed the former Miss Universe Australia getting her hair tended to at Koda Cutters, located in Sydney's Bondi Beach.

A hair stylist could be seen primping and cutting the former David Jones ambassador ends and styling a fringe.

'With my hair angel,' Jesinta captioned one of the videos to her 412,000 Instagram followers.

Celebrity stylists: The black and white videos posted to Jesinta's social media showed the former Miss Universe Australia getting her hair tended to at Koda Cutters

Happy with the end result! A hair stylist could be seen primping and cutting the former David Jones ambassador ends and styling a fringe

Jesinta's latest hair style comes after she debuted her drastically different locks at an event in late November.

Trading in her trademark chestnut flowing tresses, the supermodel debuted a blunt platinum blonde bob.

The look was reminiscent of Lara Bingle's famous bob, but Jesinta later revealed she had been inspired by 1990s Cameron Diaz.

That's different! Trading in her trademark chestnut flowing tresses, the supermodel debuted a blunt platinum blonde bob

Jesinta's latest hair style comes after reports she has 'quietly parted ways' with David Jones.

News Corp reported on Sunday the department store had severed ties with the model just under two years into Jesinta's ambassador role.

An insider told the publication: 'Every time she appeared on the runway she made headlines with that incredible body and smile and stage presence.

'It's a crazy business decision to be making at a time when department stores need to be relevant.'
She rose to prominence on Britain's Next Top Model 2017.

And Victoria Clay showed off her star factor as she attended the Notion magazine party in London on Tuesday.

The Liverpudlian, 23, put on a very busty display in a plunging black jumpsuit as she posed up a storm for pictures.

Scroll down for video

Model behaviour! Victoria Clay showed off her star factor as she attended the Notion magazine party in London on Tuesday

Making the most of her 5"10 statuesque physique, Victoria slipped into button-embellished piece which featured a low cut bardot neckline.

The model, who boasts a first-class honours degree in Print Design, teased a glimpse of her shapely pins, leaving an array of the buttons on her legs open.

Victoria, who describes herself as a huge David Bowie fan, added height to her model physique in a pair of killer heels, keeping the rest of her look simple.

A natural! The Liverpudlian, 23, put on a very busty display in a plunging black jumpsuit as she posed up a storm for pictures

Accentuating her porcelain complexion with dusting of blusher and leaving her trademark fiery hair loose, Victoria joined the festivities.

She was one of 13 contestants who competed for a contract with Models 1 on Britian's Next Top Model in March.

The show is judged by Abbey Clancy, a former contestant herself, alongside judges supermodel Paul Sculfor, fashion guru Hilary Alexander OBE and photographer to the stars Nicky Johnston.

Turning heads! Making the most of her 5"10 statuesque physique, Victoria slipped into button-embellished piece which featured a low cut bardot neckline

Leggy! The model, who boasts a first-class honours degree in Print Design, teased a glimpse of her shapely pins, leaving an array of the buttons on her legs open

Abbey, 31, who is expecting her third child with husband Peter Crouch, is busy preparing for her next installment of the show.

And along with her busy schedule, Abbey, who already has two daughters with Peter - Sophia, six, and Liberty, two, recently revealed she had an awful first trimester of pregnancy.

'I need some tips off you Holly!' she told Holly Willoughby on This Morning. 'You get no sympathy with your third pregnancy. Head down the toilet, throwing up. It's been a terrible five months.'
They couldn't contain their delight when they visited Disneyland Paris - the 'happiest place on earth'.

But for Michelle Keegan and Mark Wright, it was back to reality as they were seen touching back down in Heathrow Airport, London on Wednesday.

The 30-year-old actress went make-up free and firmly had her wedding ring on as she headed back to her humble abode with the former TOWIE star, 30.

Scroll down for video

Back home: Michelle Keegan and Mark Wright, both 30, were both seen cutting a casual figure as they touched down at Heathrow Airport, London on Wednesday

Despite being make-up free, Michelle ensured to keep up appearances as she checked her teeth in a mirror.

With her faux-fur hood up on her head, she followed Mark in her comfortable Ugg boots as they exited the building.

Mark was also dressed to combat the bitter London chill in a khaki jacket, chunky scarf and mustard coloured beanie hat.

Low-key: Despite being make-up free, Michelle ensured to keep up appearances as she checked her teeth in a mirror

While they cut a more relaxed figure, it was a different story on Tuesday when they looked ecstatic to be enjoying a day at Disneyland Paris where they were on hand to meet families affected by the Manchester Arena bombing.

Michelle was all-smiles on the outing, as she donned a pair of glittering gold Minnie ears as she posed in front of the fairy tale castle.

Layering up, the former Coronation Street star donned a padded black coat over a pair of leggings and brown woolen boots.

Cosy couple: Mark and Michelle looked in great spirits as they cosied up to one another while visiting the 'happiest place on earth' - Disneyland Paris on Tuesday

Meanwhile, Mark also got into the spirit of things with a grey Mickey Mouse beanie that he teamed with a khaki overcoat and skinny jeans.

Michelle and Mark joined the likes of John Bishop and the cast of Hollyoaks to meet with youngsters who were affected at the fateful Ariane Grande concert in May where a suicide bomber killed 23 people including himself, while more than 500 were injured.

The pair were no doubt glad they were able to lend their support to the victims as a couple after they had been separated for eight months.

Caring couple: The married couple were on hand to meet with the families affected by the Manchester Arena bombing - as the group were treated to a festive day out

Monkeying around! Michelle was seen posing up a storm with King Louie from The Jungle Book whilst she kept things casual in a padded black boat and cosy brown boots

Happy to help: Michelle met with youngsters who were affected at the fateful Ariane Grande concert in May - where a suicide bomber killed 23 people including himself

Michelle recently wrapped up filming the latest series of Our Girl in South Africa, whilst Mark has been in Los Angeles for his new presenting gig on Extra.

Tweeting a tribute to his wife last week, Mark said how excited he was to reunite with Michelle so they could spend Christmas together.

He said: 'Done. 8 months away from home, away from loved ones, working ridiculous hours in ridiculous conditions @michkeegan you amaze me more & more every day. Im so proud of you, words cant even explain.

Snap happy: Hollyoaks cast members Sarah Jayne Dunn and Ellis Hollins posed for a selfie before boarding a Charity Disney flight to Disneyland Paris

Flying in style: Sarah Jayne Dunn and Daisy Wood Davis joined the youngsters on the plane

Helping hands: Sarah Jayne Dunn and Daisy Wood Davis from Hollyoaks helped serve breakfast to comedian John Bishop and the young people on the plane

Taking to the skies: Hollyoaks cast members Ross Adams, Daisy Wood Davis, Kirsty Lee Porter and Lauren Mcqueen were seen boarding the plane to Disneyland

'Its going to be the best Christmas ever !! I love you so much my little trooper.'

Michelle recently revealed that she had no idea she would be away for so long filming Our Girl, as she signed a contract for the third season before it was even commissioned.

Speaking to Radio 1 host Nick Grimshaw she said: 'I wasn't 100% there would be another series but I signed the option for there to be another.

Beaming: The married couple were seen with huge smiles on their faces as they soaked up the festivities

Getting involved: They were front row to witness the park's famous Disneyland parade

'Obviously the first time it was for five episodes but this time it was for 12 so it's overly doubled.

'I didn't know that at the time either. It's been a long, long filming schedule. I was away for three months last time and this time I was in South Africa for three months and then I had three weeks off then I was in Malaysia for three months.

'So over all I was away for seven months. It was a long time being away from home. I had to do it, the contract was signed. Book me a flight!'
She shot to fame after appearing on ITV2's Love Island earlier this year where she was notoriously unlucky in love.

However it appears as though 22-year-old Montana Brown is very much enjoying the single life, as she was spotted cosying up to one fourth of this year's X Factor winners, Ashley Fongho in London this Tuesday.

The pals happily posed together at the Notion magazine party in London where they were joined by a host of other stars, including Ashley's fellow bandmates, Jamaal Shurland, Mustafa Rahimtulla and Myles Stephenson.

Scroll down for video

Double trouble: Love Island star Montana Brown cosied up to Rak-Su star Ashley Fongho at the Notion magazine party in London on Tuesday night

Working her magic: The stunner looked incredible wearing a very sexy black cut-out LBD, going braless for the occasion

The Hertfordshire-born model and presenter looked effortlessly stylish as she went braless under a simple black spaghetti dress which highlighted her enviably lean figure.

She teamed the sexy number with a pair of tall black sandals and a tousled down-do, opting for a simple shimmery eye and nude lip.

Ashley meanwhile seemingly dressed for the cold British weather, opting for a white polo neck jumper which he coordinated with an oversized ski jacket and heavy boots.

Dressed to impress: The brunette beauty opted for a shimmery golden eyeshadow and lashings of mascara to complete her party look

Also making an appearance at the event was Britain's Next Top Model 2017 star, Victoria Clay.

The Liverpudlian, 23, put on a very busty display in a plunging black jumpsuit as she posed up a storm for pictures.

Making the most of her 5"10 statuesque physique, Victoria slipped into button-embellished piece which featured a low cut bardot neckline.

Model behaviour! Victoria Clay showed off her star factor as she attended the same event

The model, who boasts a first-class honours degree in Print Design, teased a glimpse of her shapely pins, leaving an array of the buttons on her legs open.

Victoria, who describes herself as a huge David Bowie fan, added height to her model physique in a pair of killer heels, keeping the rest of her look simple.

Accentuating her porcelain complexion with dusting of blusher and leaving her trademark fiery hair loose, Victoria joined the festivities.

She was one of 13 contestants who competed for a contract with Models 1 on Britain's Next Top Model in March.

A natural! The Liverpudlian, 23, put on a very busty display in a plunging black jumpsuit as she posed up a storm for pictures

Turning heads! Making the most of her 5"10 statuesque physique, Victoria slipped into button-embellished piece which featured a low cut bardot neckline

The show is judged by Abbey Clancy, a former contestant herself, alongside judges supermodel Paul Sculfor, fashion guru Hilary Alexander OBE and photographer to the stars Nicky Johnston.

Abbey, 31, who is expecting her third child with husband Peter Crouch, is busy preparing for her next installment of the show.

And along with her busy schedule, Abbey, who already has two daughters with Peter - Sophia, six, and Liberty, two, recently revealed she had an awful first trimester of pregnancy.

'I need some tips off you Holly!' she told Holly Willoughby on This Morning. 'You get no sympathy with your third pregnancy. Head down the toilet, throwing up. It's been a terrible five months.'

Leggy! The model, who boasts a first-class honours degree in Print Design, teased a glimpse of her shapely pins, leaving an array of the buttons on her legs open
Jules Sebastian might have just gave the Christmas game away with a sneak peek into her shopping.

The high-end stylist and wife of Australian Idol winner Guy Sebastian shared a picture of her Christmas shopping to her Instagram, and it turns out the crooner is probably getting skincare products.

Turns out the musical family will be enjoying strawberries, double smoked leg ham, oven-roasted turkey breast for their festive feast.

Cheeky look: Jules Sebastian has given fans a sneak peak into her Christmas basket and it looks like husband Guy is getting skincare products

Also in the trolley were bon-bons and a vast array of facial moisturising products.

'Christmas lunch and skin care all wrapped up in one shop,' the Tea with Jules founder wrote of her supermarket haul.

The couple are thought to be spending Christmas in Adelaide with their two children.

Gifts: Jules Sebastian offered a sneak peak into her Christmas shopping basket and it looks like crooner Guy is getting skin care products

Earlier this month, the mother-of-two showed off the results of the new exercise regime she's been following, when she attended Carols in the City last Sunday.

The couple amazed Australia when they transformed their physical appearances earlier this year.

And Jules Sebastian seems to be keeping good on her word to lead a healthier lifestyle, with the 37-year-old sharing videos of herself doing gruelling workouts.

Festive: The couple are thought to be spending Christmas in Adelaide this year with Guy's family

More recently, the stylist was hosting Carols in the City with her husband Guy in aid of their charity The Sebastian Foundation.

Held at Sydney's Luna Park, guests included Chynna Taylor, Harrison Craig and Sam Moran.

The charity assists projects in Australia and abroad and its website states: 'We support communities and groups, children, empowering women and taking a stand against domestic violence.'

Sharing is caring: The lifestyle blogger regularly posts insights into the pair's personal life




He has been working hard promoting the Gothic romance Mary Shelley, alongside Elle Fanning and Bel Powely in recent months.

And Douglas Booth seemed to be relishing his time off as he treated himself to a theatre trip with a female friend in London on Sunday.

The Great Expectations actor, 25, seemed to be in great spirits as he left the evening performance of Matthew Bourne's Cinderella at Sadler's Wells Theatre with his pal.

Scroll down for video

Off-duty: Romeo And Juliet actor Douglas Booth stepped out with a female friend in London on Sunday night to watch a ballet performance

The Bullingdon boy, as portrayed in the British university drama The Riot Club, looked relaxed as he was spotted chatting to his friend.

The Pride And Prejudice And Zombies actor looked dapper in a black turtle neck, garnished with a nude blazer with symmetrical black buttons on both sides.

Meanwhile his female friend wrapped up in an oversized leopard print coat, injecting a dose of colour with a bright navy beret.

The pair seemed to be in great spirits, chatting away happily as they left the theatre before heading to their car.

Romeo: The actor, 24, was seen getting into a car with the woman who he spent the evening with as they watched Cinderella at Sadler's Wells theatre in Angel, London

Dapper: The Noah actor dazzled in a simple get up, sporting a light beard and ruffled hair

Douglas has been linked with co-star Bel Powley since 2016, after the pair were spotted kissing last summer.

They met on the set of period romance Mary Shelley, which looks at the romance between writer Mary Shelley, played by Elle Fanning Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Although Douglas and Bel were spotted together last month attending London's Playhouse Theatre, it is unclear whether the couple remain together or have broken up.

On set romance? Bel and Douglas are thought to have met on the set of period romance A Storm In The Stars, which was filmed in Dublin and in Luxembourg last year

Theatre pals: Matt Smith also attended the evening performance of Matthew Bourne's Cinderella which is set in London during the Second World War

The actor has been linked with several woman including Prince Harry's ex girlfriend Cressida Bonas when the pair arrived at Centre Court at Wimbledon together last year.

He was also said to be dating his former co-stars Ellie Bamber and Vanessa Kirby.

Another potential famous beau includes Miley Cyrus who he worked alongside in teenage drama LOL.
She's producing and appearing in the forthcoming third movie in the hugely-popular Pitch Perfect franchise.

And Elizabeth Banks looked like she meant business as she arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday ahead of the film hitting screens on December 22.

The actress and director, 43, appeared to be taking an important call as she strolled through the terminal, marking her return to California after a busy few weeks of promoting Pitch Perfect 3.

Scroll down for video

Hold, please: Elizabeth Banks looked like she meant business as she arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday ahead of Pitch Perfect 3 hitting screens on December 22

The star looked comfortable in a pair of skinny jeans, black leather boots, and a padded Patagonia jacket.

Elizabeth kept a low profile in leopard print sunglasses as she lugged around a camouflage backpack and a small Prada side purse.

The mother-of-two looked distracted as she took a phone call on her way to baggage claim.

The star is taking the industry by storm as her production company Brownstone, which she built from the ground up with husband, Max Handelman, lands deal after deal with every major studio in Los Angeles.

Business mogul: The actress and director, 43, appeared to be taking an important call as she strolled through the terminal

Jet-setter: The star looked comfortable in a pair of skinny jeans, black leather boots, and a padded Patagonia jacket

Her company produced both Pitch Perfect 2 and 3, and has recently secured a deal with Sony for a new Charlie's Angels feature.

In an interview with The New York Times, Melissa McCarthy said: 'Theres such an assertive quality to her, and I mean that in the greatest possible way.

'Shes like some old studio exec from 1942 - her in a suit and cigar would make perfect sense. Ben [Falcone] always calls her the Mogul.'

The name of her company derives from a childhood fantasy of living among the wealthier folks in her hometown of Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

Power couple: Elizabeth and her husband Max Handelman recently secured a deal with Sony to produce a new Charlie's Angels feature through their production company (pictured in 2015)

'The big homes always had five-number addresses, and they didnt have a dirty color as the name of the street, she told The New York Times.

'In our fantasy, you didnt live at 101 Brown Street. You lived at 10-100 Brownstone Drive.'

The actress partner in life and business, came into her life on the first day of college at the University of Pennsylvania.

Ten years later, the couple were married on July 5, 2003 at Greystone Mansion in Los Angeles.

Elizabeth explained toVanity Fair why she decided to go into business with her husband.

We have always made decisions that kept us together as a couple, she said. We like working together. Were good at working together.

Max and Elizabeth have two sons together, Felix, six, and Magnus, five.
I'm an Affordable Care Act Navigator, which means it's my job to help anyone who needs it find access to health insurance. I wasn't very aware of the challenges faced by transgender Montanans before doing this job. But now I believe that our transgender neighbors should have the same rights and access to public facilities as all other Montanans.

I-183 threatens those rights and intrudes on personal freedoms all while asking local governments to foot the bill for unreasonable and unethical regulations. The proposed initiative would force Montanans to anyone demanding to see paperwork before allowing access to facilities in public spaces, such as libraries, parks and schools.

And all of this will cost Montana real money. North Carolina lost $5 billion in federal funding, $40 million in business investment and 1,250 jobs after enacting a similar bathroom bill. I hope you'll join me in supporting transgender Montanans and opposing I-183.

Marguerite Jodry

Billings
Michelle Williams has revealed that she and Mark Wahlberg reshot all All the Money in the World scenes for free after Kevin Spacey was axed from the film.

The pair had been due to appear alongside the House of Cards actor in the John Paul Getty biopic, but after their co-star was accused of sexual misconduct by a number of men, director Sir Ridley Scott dropped him from the project and brought in Christopher Plummer to play Getty Oil Company magnate J. Paul Getty instead.

Speaking to USA Today, the 37-year-old actress revealed that the pair willingly donated their time to film scenes again as they didn't want their experience to go to waste.

Scroll down for video

Reshot: Michelle Williams has revealed that she and Mark Wahlberg reshot all All the Money in the World scenes for free after Kevin Spacey was axed from the film

Michelle - who received a Golden Globe nomination for her part explained: 'I just thought that this experience that we had all treasured was going to be essentially flushed down the toilet.'

Praising director Ridley, she added: 'I hated that this man's time and expertise and gentlemanly-ness was going to be kind of for naught, so when I got the phone call about the change of plans I was thrilled.

'They could have my salary, they could have my holiday, whatever they wanted. Because I appreciated so much that they were making this massive effort.'

Axed: The pair had been due to appear alongside Kevin Spacey in the John Paul Getty biopic, but after their co-star was accused of sexual misconduct by a number of men

Cast and crew: (L-R) Mark Wahlberg, Charlie Plummer and Michelle Williams reshot their scenes under the eye of director Ridley Scott (right) so that Kevin Spacey wouldn't feature

The film follows the kidnapping of 16-year-old John Paul Getty III (Charlie Plummer) and the desperate attempt by his devoted mother Gail (Williams) to convince his billionaire grandfather (Plummer) to pay the ransom.

Mark Wahlberg stars as advisor and CIA operative Fletcher Chase.

Ridley spent $10 million reshooting 22 scenes in the kidnapping drama with his new-look cast, and was grateful to the film's stars that they didn't ask for more money to be added on to their salaries.

He told USA Today newspaper: 'Everyone did it for nothing. They all came in for free.'

The 80-year-old director confirmed Christopher and the crew were paid for their parts.

Hard worker: Michelle - who received a Golden Globe nomination for her part explained: 'I just thought that this experience that we had all treasured was going to be essentially flushed down the toilet'

All the Money in the World was completed in October when Spacey was accused of making unwanted sexual advances towards Anthony Rapp when the actor was just 14 years old in 1986.

Ridley was determined to make the release date of December 22 for the movie and quickly got the cast back together in November to re-shoot scenes that had featured disgraced Spacey.

The film has since had its release date pushed back, but only by three days, now being released on Christmas Day.
She lashed out at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association after Tiffany Haddish was excluded from the Golden Globes nominations.

But on Tuesday night, Jada Pinkett Smith was all smiles as she left the Roxy in West Hollywood after son, Jaden Smith, performed.

The 46-year-old cut a stylish figure in her ripped jeans and leather bottoms with a sequined jacket and large diamond earrings.

Jada Pinkett Smith was all smiles as she left the Roxy in Hollywood after son, Jaden Smith, performed on Tuesday night

The actress, who is the wife of movie star Will Smith, chose trendy light wash denim bottoms; the unique piece had leather fabric in place of the large holes.

The screen star wore a yellow, purple and black graphic shirt, adding a shimmering sequined bomber.

Jada sported large diamond earrings with pointed black boots to round our her ensemble.

She kept her makeup to a minimum, with just a touch of shadow on her lids, pink blush and clear glossed lips.

Low key: The 46-year-old cut a stylish figure in her ripped jeans and leather bottoms with a sequined jacket and large diamond earrings

Earlier this month, Jada took to Twitter to talk about her frustrations with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

She accused the organization of snubbing Tiffany Haddish - her costar for Girls Trip - as well as not even watching the film in the first place.

Jada first brought attention to her 1.16 million Twitter followers by writing: 'I have so much to say on why @TiffanyHaddish was not nominated for a Globe... but I wont.'

However, hours later she changed her mind and decided to speak up.

She accused the organization of snubbing Tiffany Haddish - her costar for Girls Trip - as well as not even watching the film in the first place; (from l to r) Regina Hall, Jada, Queen Latifah and Tiffany Haddish

She wrote: 'Girls Trip was one of the most successful films this summer & Tiff was hands down the funniest person on screen in 2017.'

Jada continued: 'And we couldn't get eyes on the film or a press conference. How could a nom happen & how much more critical acclaim must a move have to simply get a screening?'

Soon after, the HFPA reached out to Jada to remind her of the official screening they hosted in Beverly Hills on July 18.

She called for the need of a discussion of the HFPA's 'antiquated system' and hinted that racism could have played a part.

Tiffany Haddish later took to Twitter to thank Jada for support but also give her opinion on the subject.

Tiffany wrote: 'Thank all of y'all for your love and support, I don't know or care much about snubs because I'm not nasty like that!! But I love my girl Jada and I love all of you! @jadapsmith @VanityFair #SHEREADY.'

She has been married to Will Smith since 1997; they have two children together: Jaden, 19, and Willow, 17.

Jada is stepmom to Will's son Trey, 25, from his previous marriage.

She doesn't hold back: Earlier this month, Jada took to Twitter to talk about her frustrations with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association
She has transformed into a whole range of characters over the years, including Virginia Woolf, Grace Kelly and courtesan Satine in Moulin Rouge.

And Nicole Kidman was unrecognisable once again on Wednesday, as she continued to film new crime drama Destroyer in Los Angeles.

The 50-year-old looked worlds away from her glamorous self in a cropped brunette wig and retro leather jacket, as she returned to set to shoot more scenes as detective Erin Bell.

Scroll down for video

Who's that girl? Nicole Kidman was unrecognisable on Wednesday, as she continued to film new crime drama Destroyer in Los Angeles

Transformed: The 50-year-old looked worlds away from her glamorous self (pictured in November) as she took on her role of Erin Bell on set

The actress sported a cropped brunette wig, laced with streaks of grey, atop of her famous golden tresses - making her look far older than her years.

She slipped into casual navy flares and a pale blue shirt, layered beneath a retro leather jacket of dark green, as she shot a number of scenes as the less-than-glamorous detective.

Only adding to the mature look, the Australian beauty also sported dark shadows under her eyes and additional wrinkles, to transform her into the ageing investigator.

Older than her years: The actress sported a cropped brunette wig, laced with streaks of grey, atop of her famous golden tresses - making her look far older than her years

Workwear: She slipped into casual navy flares and a pale blue shirt, layered beneath a retro leather jacket of dark green, as she filmed as the less-than-glamorous detective

Happily chatting to her fellow cast and crew as she emerged from her trailer, Nicole looked in good spirits as she embarked on another day of filming for the crime drama.

Destroyer follows Nicole's police detective character Erin Bell, who reconnects with people from an undercover assignment from her past that concerned a cult-like gang, and ended in tragedy.

According to Deadline, the leader of that same gang re-emerges years later - forcing Bell to re-address the gang's remaining members in order to 'reckon with the demons that destroyed her past'.

Filming for the flick wraps up a hugely successful year for Nicole, who has also received critical acclaim for her roles in The Beguiled, The Killing of a Sacred Deer and HBO series Big Little Lies.

Unrecognisable: Only adding to the ageing look, the Australian beauty also sported dark shadows under her eyes and additional wrinkles, to transform her into the drab investigator

Looking back: Destroyer sees Nicole star as detective Erin Bell, who reconnects with people from a past undercover assignment that concerned a cult-like gang, and ended in tragedy

Leading lady: Filming for the flick wraps up a hugely successful year for Nicole, who has also received critical acclaim for her role as Celeste in Big Little Lies (above)

The latter has been one of the most talked-about series of the year, bagging eight Emmys and Nicole a nomination in the Best Actress in a Miniseries category at the 2018 Golden Globes.

The actress, who played Celeste Wright on the show, has since confirmed she has signed up for a second season, alongside co-star Reese Witherspoon.

Nicole told Variety of the project: 'This is inspired by the overwhelming response by audiences around the world, conceived once again by Liane Moriarty, realized by David Kelley and now in the hands of visionary filmmaker Andrea Arnold.

'What a journey this has been. Im so grateful to have this opportunity to keep exploring these female characters and make this series with my friends.'
She's enjoying a romantic Christmas getaway in Marrakesh with boyfriend James Lock as the loved-up couple prepare to celebrate their first anniversary.

And Yazmin Oukhellou ensured she updated her fans on her holiday action, taking to Instagram to share a sizzling bikini snap on Wednesday.

The 24-year-old The Only Way in Essex star looked phenomenal as she flaunted her enviably toned physique in a skimpy pink and orange bikini.

Scroll down for video

Beach babe: Yazmin Oukhellou looked positively glowing as she flaunted her enviably toned figure in a striking orange and pink bikini during her sun-soaked trip to Marrakesh

Yazmin looked positively glowing as she rocked a deep tan and gold jewelry, whilst her luscious locks hung effortlessly over her shoulders.

Posing on a balcony overlooking an idyllic pool, the brunette beauty proved she had already packed in some tanning time as she showed off an impressive bronze glow.

Yazmin and James are no doubt relishing their time away at her family villa in the former imperial city, having previously found themselves locking horns with James' ex, Danielle Armstrong.

James and Danielle dated for four years but decided to call it quits in 2016, before he went on to find love with Yazmin.

Loved-up: She's enjoying a romantic Christmas getaway in Marrakesh with boyfriend James Lock as the loved-up couple prepare to celebrate their first anniversary

Sweet: Morocco holds fond memories for the striking brunette, whose romance with the strapping TOWIE hunk, who she met through her brother, began when they 'started talking' during a month long visit in 2016

However the two women have had a fragile relationship, often taking to social media to publicly feud and insult one another on many occasions after Danni insisted James still had feelings for her.

Although it looks like the trio have now buried the hatchet after Danielle made a surprise return to the TOWIE show this Halloween where they appeared to make up.

Ahead of the holiday with her handsome beau, the reality TV star revealed she would also be joined by both hers and James' family, which she likened to the hit comedy film Meet the Fockers.

Speaking to the Daily Star she said, 'My dad has got a villa in Marrakech so James and his family are coming out with my family for Christmas.

Family affair: Ahead of the holiday with her handsome beau, the reality TV star revealed she would also be joined by both hers and James' family, which she likened to the hit comedy film Meet the Fockers

'It's going to be a bit like Meet The Fockers! Last year my family and I went out there for a month and that's when I started speaking to James.

'I'd known him a long time as he was close to my brother but we'd always been off-limits out of respect to my brother and because he had a girlfriend.

'We spoke everyday for a month. And look at us now!'

Morocco holds fond memories for the striking brunette, whose romance with the strapping TOWIE hunk, who she met through her brother, began when they 'started talking' during a month long visit in 2016.

But while they ready themselves for their first anniversary, Yazmin dismisses any notion of a Christmas proposal, admitting it may well be 'a couple of years' before he gets down on one knee - and only after he seeks her father's permission.

Change of scenery! The brunette beauty rocked a sizzling Santa-inspired costume for the festive TOWIE special just weeks earlier

The pair appear to be going from strength to strength, with Yazmin recently sharing a gushing tribute to James for his birthday on Instagram.

Sharing a string of loved-up snaps with the entrepreneur, she wrote: 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my best-friend, boyfriend & soulmate.

'Im so grateful that you came into my life and showed me what a true relationship is! I know Im difficult to deal with at times and love the fact you still stand by me. Weve shared so many amazing memories already and I cant wait to share even more. Ive gone right back to our very first ever pic.

' Happy Birthday my love, I hope this is your best one yet. Love you always.'
Neither of them were lucky in love when it came to appearing on Channel Ten's Bachelor and Bachelorette series.

But it looks as though Keira Maguire and Jarrod Woodgate struck gold while filming the upcoming Bachelor In Paradise together.

On Wednesday, Keira seemed to confirm that the two are together with a picture of herself from her recent trip to see him in Melbourne and wrote 'When BAE isn't answering'.

Calling your boyfriend? Keira Maguire drops MASSIVE hint that she did find love on Bachelor In Paradise... just days after she visited rumoured beau Jarrod Woodgate in Melbourne

Keira, who appeared as the Bachelor 'villain' vying for Richie Strahan's heart, seems to have been jetting back and forth to Melbourne since filming on Bachelor in Paradise wrapped.

In recent months, Keira She stayed in a Melbourne hotel said she was headed on a 'date night.'

Sharing a picture of herself sat on the hotel bed to Instagram she captioned it: 'Oh hey Melbourne... Wheres the best Peking <duck emoji>???? #datenight'.

Lovers or friends? Rumours abound that Jarrod Woodgate and Keira Maguire fella in love while filming the upcoming Bachelor In Paradise

This week, Keira was seen pulling up outside Jarrod's house in a rented Maserati before heading to lunch with a female pal.

After lunch the pair returned to Jarrod's house, but Keira stayed inside her car.

Jarrod, who was unceremoniously dumped by Sophie Monk just weeks ago on The Bachelorette, was seen crouching down and talking to the two girls through the window.

Keira, who appeared as the Bachelor 'villain' vying for Richie Strahan's heart, seems to have been jetting back and forth to Melbourne since filming on Bachelor in Paradise wrapped

Keira and Jarrod are back in Australia after filming Bachelor in Paradise in Fiji.

While on the island, the pair were seen on numerous dates and caught kissing during romantic embraces.

On one occasion they were also seen checking into a hotel together.

'Jarrod is completely smitten and thinks Keira is The One' Insiders have told several publications that the pair are a couple

According to Woman's Day, Jarrod and Keira are the real deal.

'Jarrod is completely smitten and thinks Keira is The One,' an insider reportedly told the publication.

A source also told the publication that the blonde beauty is considering a move to Melbourne to be closer to her new beau.

Meanwhile, NW recently went as far as reporting that the pair may tie the knot.

Is he smitten? Jarrod - who failed to win Sophie's heart on The Bachelorette this year - is apparently head over heels in love with Keira

'Keira's always wanted a husband and kids... That's the whole reason she signed up for the show,' an insider explained the publication.

Jarrod - who failed to win Sophie's heart on The Bachelorette this year - is apparently head over heels in love with Keira.

'Jarrod truly believed he was in love with Sophie, but after meeting Keira, his whole life has turned upside down,' the source added.
She is a stunning model who is no stranger to putting her pedigree behind a cause that's important.

And Wednesday was no exception as Daisy Lowe got behind the Free the Period movement by attending a march to 10 Downing Street in London, making a statement in an all-red ensemble.

The 28-year-old model showed off her incredible figure in the sassy look, joining Suki Waterhouse and a slew of other stars in support of the campaign to end period poverty.

Scroll down for video

Backing the cause: Model Daisy Lowe, 28, donned an all-red ensemble as she supported the Free The Period march in London on Wednesday with model Suki Waterhouse, 25

Daisy rocked the stunning pillar-box red structured jumpsuit, accessorising with black leather shoes, finished the look with matching nail polish and lipstick.

The brunette beauty kept her looks poker straight as she posed with attendees of the protest, who were campaigning for the government to offer free sanitary products to school girls.

Daisy got fans involved in the movement by posting a flyer from the march on Instagram with the caption: 'Please come and support this incredible cause @freeperiods wear red! Dress warm & stick around for our speeches - let's end period poverty!'

Flawless: The lingerie model joined the march's request to wear all-red by rocking a stunning structured jumpsuit

Advocate: Daisy joined the campaigns founder, Amika George, who was also sported an all-red ensemble in support of the campaign to end period poverty

Amazing: Daisy showed off her pert posterior in the fitted jumpsuit, which the stat teamed with chunky black leather shoes

Campaign face: The star was also a speaker at the march which saw supporters protest their case in London's Parliament Square

We are united: Daisy rocked matching red lipstick and nail polish with the look, as she joined stars in speaking out in support of Amika's cause

Open: Daisy spoke openly in support of the cause, which campaigns for schoolgirls who receive free school meals to receive free sanitary products

Well said! As one of the celebrity guests attending the protest Daisy was keen to express her support for the cause

Also in attendance at the march was Suki Waterhouse, who was all bundled up in a sheepskin coat over her red ensemble.

Rocking a leather style overcoat over a matching dress, the gorgeous fashion star finished her look with red creeper shoes as she arrived at the march.

The model tied her blonde locks into a chic ponytail as she rocked statement brows with her look, joining a slew of stars who came out in support of the cause.

Backing it: Suki Waterhouse also sported an all-red ensemble along with a cream sheepskin coat as she arrived at the protest in London

Stylish: Suki rocked a red dress and leather overcoat along with creeper boots as she arrived at the march with a female companion

Advocate: Suki kept her blonde tresses out of the way in a high ponytail as she led the march into the capital

Fabulous: Despite the chilly weather, the star appeared unfazed as she put on a leggy display in the ensemble

A-Level student Amika George, who was behind the Free Periods campaign, recently told The Evening Standard: 'These children would face enormous anxiety while sitting in lessons, fearful that they'd bled onto their uniform, so the easiest solution was often simply to miss school.

'It was clear to me that missing lessons means falling further behind in academic progress, and these children find they are such a long way off from attaining their goals and ambitions, all because they bleed.'

Daisy joined a slew of attendees who spoke at the protest, including MP Jess Phillips, who said: 'Toilet paper is free in schools, so why not sanitary products?'

She added: 'I want to open my speech by saying I'm on my period.'

Star guest: Alastair Campbell was keeping warm in a brown leather jacket as he joined the army of attendees at the protest

Standing out: Speaking to the Evening Standard, campaign founder Amika said: 'These children are a long way off from attaining their goals and ambitions, all because they bleed'

Creative: Attendees found quirky ways to rock the red as they arrived at the march, with even some furry friends getting in on the action

Model Adwoa Aboah joined a female companion on the march as well, though the star went for a more directional colour in a blue fur coat.

Covering up her buzz cut in a rainbow hat, the Vogue covergirl kept the rest of her ensemble all-black as the protestors heading into Parliament Square.

Also in attendance at the march was actress Tanya Burr, along with comedian Ayesha Hazarika and MP Paula Sheriff.

Where's the red? Also attending the march was model Adwoa Aboah, who chose a more dynamic ensemble with a bright blue fur coat

Keeping cosy: The Vogue model allowed her cover-up to make a statement by wearing all black underneath

Cosied up: Actress and Youtube star Tanya Burr was all cosied up in a red coat and checked scarf as she also spoke at the protest
She gave birth to her second child, daughter Rosie May Dee, three months ago.

And Megan Gale, 42, enjoyed a moment of nostalgia this Thursday as she shared a throwback snap of herself from when she was in labour.

Taking to Instagram, the doting mother shared a selfie taken from her hospital bed a short time before welcoming her daughter.

'Mere hours before my Rosie girl was born': Megan Gale, 42, enjoyed a moment of nostalgia this Thursday as she shared a throwback snap of herself from when she was in labour three months ago

Fresh-faced Megan pulled a blissful smile for the precious photo, while her AFL star fiance Shaun Hampson, 29, could be seen grinning in the background.

'1 2 w e e k s a g o. This was taken in the hospital mere hours before my Rosie girl was born,' she wrote in the caption.

'And no, @shampson_ over my left shoulder kickin back isnt the worlds most unsupportive birthing partner. Mama Bear had her epi and she was fiiiiiiiiine,' she quipped.

Bundle of joy: Since the birth of Rosie, Megan and AFL star Shaun have taken to Instagram, sharing sentimental postsLast month, Megan paid a heartfelt tribute to her newborn daughter.

'Easily one of the best days of my life,' she added.

The high-profile couple are already proud parents to three-year-old son River Alan Thomas.

Since the birth of Rosie, Megan and AFL star Shaun have taken to Instagram, sharing sentimental posts.

'Baby girl you are such a special little soul already teaching us so much and providing so much joy': Last month, Megan paid a heartfelt tribute to her newborn daughter

Last month, Megan paid a heartfelt tribute to her newborn daughter.

She wrote: 'Baby girl you are such a special little soul already teaching us so much and providing so much joy. We're getting our first smiles from you too and they are just SO precious!

'It's been an action packed 6 weeks and boy life has become a helluva lot busier but life has also become so much better and fulfilling since you arrived.

'Loving you more and more with every passing day my girl,' Megan went on to say.
They've been inseparable since going public with their romance in September.

But on Wednesday, Sofia Richie and Scott Disick were on opposite sides of Los Angeles.

Sofia, 19, headed to her hair salon in Westwood while Scott, 34, stepped out with his son Mason, 8, in Calabasas to buy a motorcycle.

Chic: Sofia Richie and Scott Disick were on opposite sides of Los Angeles on Wednesday

Sofia looked chic in her all-black ensemble while on her way inside the West side salon.

The teenager flaunted her svelte figure in her spandex leggings, adding a coordinating loose turtleneck top.

The model, who is five-feet-six-inches, hit the pavement in trendy ankle boots while carrying black handbag over one shoulder.

Sofia sported small gold framed sunglasses with her short blonde locks pulled back into a low bun.

Father son outing: Sofia, 19, headed to her hair salon in Westwood while Scott, 34, stepped out with his son Mason in Calabasas to go buy a motorcycle

The daughter of Lionel Richie kept her makeup to a minimum, opting for just a touch of lipstick and defined brows.

Meanwhile, her boyfriend Scott Disick took his son Mason on an extravagant shopping spree in Calabasas.

The 34-year-old reality star was seen picking up his son and taking him to go buy a motorcycle.

Scott, who has three kids with ex Kourtney Kardashian, also bought a motocross helmet as well as shoulder pads and boots.

Teen queen: Sofia looked chic in her all-black ensemble while on her way inside the salon

Living the dream: The teenager flaunted her svelte figure in her spandex leggings, adding a coordinating loose turtleneck top

Dad of the year: The 34-year-old father of three was seen picking up his son and taking him to go buy a motorcycle

Sofia and Scott made their relationship public in September while enjoying a romantic holiday in Miami, Florida.

They were linked as far back as May.

Since going public, the lovebirds have enjoyed trips to Venice and Milan, Los Cabos, Mexico and Puerto Vallarta.

According to People, Sofia and Scott are 'very serious.'

Inseparable: The model and Scott made their relationship public in September while enjoying a romantic holiday in Miami, Florida; seen on December 13 in LA
She's the model-turned beauty entrepreneur, known for her stunning good looks.

And Lara Worthington (nee Bingle) revealed the secret behind her plump pout on Thursday, in a candid Instagram Story post.

The makeup-free 30-year-old was seen applying a collagen-filled mask to her lips in a short video clip.

Scroll down for video

So THAT'S her secret! Lara Worthington (nee Bingle) revealed the secret behind her plump pout on Thursday, in a candid Instagram Story post

Taking to her Instagram Story, Lara gave the camera a close-up look at her blemish-free complexion.

The wife of actor Sam Worthington then drew attention to a collagen-filled mask by KNC Beauty, which hydrates and simultaneously 'plumps up' lips.

Lara captioned the clip: 'Can't move mouth for 15 mins'.

Up-close: In the video, the wife of actor Sam Worthington drew attention to a collagen-filled mask by KNC Beauty, which hydrates and simultaneously 'plumps up' lips

Beauty treatment: Lara captioned the post, 'Can't move mouth for 15 minutes'

This is not the first time Lara has shared her beauty secrets.

The mother-of-two told Elle Australia in September that salt water is essential for keeping her pores clean and skin feeling refreshed.

'I can honestly say I have never taken much skin care advice from anyone, except from the women in my family, who swear by such old fashioned tips, such as swimming in the salty sea,' she said.

Advice: This is not the first time Lara has shared her beauty secrets, as she told Elle Australia in September that salt water helps keep her pores clean and skin feeling refreshed

Family first! Lara said, 'The women in my family... swear by such old fashioned tips, such as swimming in the salty sea'. Pictured: Lara and her mother, Sharon Bingle

The Cronulla native is also a fan of a good quality red lipstick to dress up any outfit.

'A strong lip colour always elevates your face and your look. It easily takes you from a day in meetings to a fancy dinner out with friends,' Lara said.

The Dior ambassador's youthful complexion is the result of regular exfoliation, and she even uses her own mix of crushed aspirin and lemon juice.

'It is really a great exfoliator and leaves skin so bright,' she explained.
The Hedren-Griffith-Johnsons reunited to discuss their unorthodox family history for THR's Hollywood Legacies issue with a spread shot by lensman Joe Pugliese.

Melanie Griffith suited up in black to pose beside her mother Tippi Hedren, her ex-husband Don Johnson, and their daughter Dakota Johnson for the mag, which hit newsstands Monday.

The silver-haired matriarch - turning 88 next month - recalled the 'sheer panic' she felt after her 23-year-old co-star in The Harrad Experiment started romancing her then 14-year-old child.

Scroll down for video

All actors! The Hedren-Griffith-Johnsons reunited to discuss their unorthodox family history for THR's Hollywood Legacies issue with a spread shot by lensman Joe Pugliese

In the genes: Melanie Griffith (R) suited up in black to pose beside her mother Tippi Hedren (2-R), her ex-husband Don Johnson (L), and their daughter Dakota Johnson (2-L) for the mag

'They were two beautiful, wonderful people, and here, my daughter was showing signs that I had never seen before in her, with an older man, and there was just sheer panic,' the Golden Globe winner shrugged.

'How do you handle that? There was a very strong attachment between the two of them.'

By the time the 60-year-old Oscar nominee turned 15, she was sharing a rented Laurel Canyon home with the 68-year-old Golden Globe winner whom she called 'the most beautiful person I'd ever seen.'

The on/off couple went on to wed twice, in 1976 and 1989, before finally divorcing for good in 1996.

'How do you handle that?' The silver-haired matriarch (L) - turning 88 next month - recalled the 'sheer panic' she felt after her 23-year-old co-star (R) in The Harrad Experiment started romancing her then 14-year-old child

The Golden Globe winner shrugged: 'They were two beautiful, wonderful people, and here, my daughter was showing signs that I had never seen before in her, with an older man, and there was just sheer panic' (pictured in 1972)

'He was the most beautiful person I'd ever seen': By the time the 60-year-old Oscar nominee turned 15, she was sharing a rented Laurel Canyon home with the 68-year-old Golden Globe winner

'There was a very strong attachment between the two of them': The on/off couple went on to wed twice, in 1976 and 1989 (pictured), before finally divorcing for good in 1996

At all of this, 28-year-old Dakota cracked: 'I keep my therapist on speed dial.'

Both Melanie and Dakota learned big lessons from Tippi (born Nathalie), who refused to fulfill her seven-year contract with her Birds director Alfred Hitchcock after he sexually harassed her.

The Disaster Artist actress remembers 'not being allowed' to visit her mother on the Birds set and she received a very creepy present from the British filmmaker - a figurine of Tippi in a 'coffin.'

'[Hedren] became an example of what to never let happen in my life,' Griffith said. 'Hopefully, I've passed that on to Dakota - to be strong in your work and in yourself.'

'I was taught self-respect and grace and strength': Both Melanie and Dakota learned big lessons from Tippi (born Nathalie), who refused to fulfill her seven-year contract with her Birds director Alfred Hitchcock after he sexually harassed her

Way before the Me Too movement: The Disaster Artist actress remembers 'not being allowed' to visit her mother on the Birds set and she received a very creepy present from the British filmmaker - a figurine of Tippi in a 'coffin'

Griffith said: '[Hedren] became an example of what to never let happen in my life. Hopefully, I've passed that on to Dakota - to be strong in your work and in yourself'

'She's the one that gets the scripts': Dakota will resume her role as Anastasia Steele a third time opposite Jamie Dornan (R) in Fifty Shades Freed, which hits UK/US theaters February 9

The Fifty Shades Darker stunner chimed in: 'I was taught self-respect and grace and strength.'

Dakota will resume her role as bride-to-be Anastasia Steele a third time opposite Jamie Dornan in Fifty Shades Freed, which hits UK/US theaters February 9.

Also profiled in THR's celebration of show business nepotism were the late, great actor-director John Huston's children - Anjelica, Danny, as well as grandson Jack photographed by Austin Hargrave.

The elusive Val Kilmer discussed his two-year battle with throat cancer while posing with his 22-year-old son Jack and 26-year-old daughter Mercedes from his marriage to Willow co-star Joanne Whalley.

Generations: Also profiled in THR's celebration of show business nepotism were the late, great actor-director John Huston's children - Anjelica (L), Danny (M), as well as grandson Jack (R)

On the mend: The elusive Val Kilmer discussed his two-year battle with throat cancer while posing with his 22-year-old son Jack (M) and 26-year-old daughter Mercedes (R)

THR opted for a picnic set-up for 84-year-old music mogul Quincy Jones and his seven kids with five women, including Angie Tribeca funnywoman Rashida Jones.

Penning and producing hits shows runs deep in the veins of The Carol Burnett Show's Buz Kohan and his children - Orange Is the New Black's Jenji Kohan and Will & Grace co-creator David Kohan.

Meanwhile, former 20th Century Fox President Alan Ladd Jr. posed with his big brood including documentarian Amanda and An Unfinished Life producer Kelliann.

Grass is greener: THR opted for a picnic set-up for 84-year-old music mogul Quincy Jones (2-R) and his seven kids with five women, including Angie Tribeca funnywoman Rashida Jones (3-L)

Showrunning trio: Producing and penning hits shows runs deep in the veins of The Carol Burnett Show's Buz Kohan (L) and his children - Orange Is the New Black's Jenji Kohan (M) and Will & Grace's David Kohan (R)
Appearing solemn and hesitant at her sentencing hearing Wednesday, Rhonda Krein Fool Bear said she did all she could in reporting child sexual abuse.

"The only thing I have to say is I thought I did the right thing by reporting it the next morning to other professionals I worked with," she told District of North Dakota Chief Judge Daniel Hovland. "I thought they would do the right thing by going through the right process because I had to go through the order of command."

Hovland sentenced the former Solen High School teacher to one year of supervised probation for one federal Class B misdemeanor count of failure to report child sexual abuse. Her indictment said she didn't disclose the abuse to law enforcement or child protective services.

Under a plea agreement she signed last summer, Hovland dismissed a count of material false statements related to Krein Fool Bear's testimony at her husband's trial last spring.

Former Cannon Ball district chairman Robert Fool Bear Sr. is serving a 30-year federal sentence for various child sex crimes. He was convicted in April and sentenced in October.

For Krein Fool Bear's sentence, Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Delorme recommended three months of home confinement and one year of supervised release to "send a message of value to the community."

"The mandatory reporter failed to do her job," Delorme said.

Defense attorney Jackie Stebbins said no punishment is greater than the ostracism and isolation Krein Fool Bear has felt since her indictment and resignation.

"She is missed among children who probably need her," Stebbins said. "I don't know what message punishing Ms. Fool Bear can send to the community."

Hovland asked Krein Fool Bear if she has looked for work as a teacher's aide in Bismarck-Mandan.

"I have the feeling I wouldn't be allowed to do that sort of work," the Cannon Ball woman said, adding she has lost her teacher's certificate.

"But you don't know that until you ask," the judge said.

Hovland remarked on the facts of the case, relating to yearslong sexual abuse of a child.

"This was a tragic case on a multitude of levels for all parties involved," he said.

Two or three family members attended Krein Fool Bear's sentencing, including her brother-in-law, Archie Fool Bear.

Robert Fool Bear Sr. is incarcerated at Pekin Federal Correctional Institution in Illinois with a release date in 2043. He is appealing his convictions to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, with oral arguments to be scheduled.
Australian actor Hugh Jackman was advised by his surgeon not to sing in big-budget movie musical The Greatest Showman, as it could have split the stitches he had received in his nose after he underwent surgery to remove skin cancers.

And Australian director Michael Gracey claimed he was aware of the risk Hugh was taking and praised the star for giving '150 per cent' throughout the production.

The first-time director spoke to Daily Mail Australia at the Sydney premiere: 'He told me about it, but I just didn't want him telling anyone else.'

'He told me about it, but I just didn't want him telling anyone else': The Greatest Showman director Michael Gracey praises Hugh Jackman's stellar performance after defying advice from his surgeon to sing in musical

Just last year, the 49-year-old underwent his sixth treatment for skin cancer surgery, removing cancerous cells on his nose.

'I kept an eye on it. I just wanted him to go all out, which ultimately he did, but for a lot of it he waited,' Michael said of his dedication to the lead singing-and-dancing role of P.T Barnum.

'It's disgusting what an amazing person he is. He sets the tone on set when it's 40 takes in and he's still going.

'No one else is complaining, because Hugh's out there giving it 150 per cent ever single time,' he praised the hardworking acting legend.

In recovery: Just last year Hugh underwent his sixth treatment for skin cancer surgery, removing cancerous cells on his nose. His surgeon advised him not to do the movie musical as singing could split his stitches open

'I kept an eye on it. I just wanted him to go all out, which ultimately he did': Director Michael claimed he kept an eye on Hugh's condition and for a lot of the production Hugh 'waited'

'Hugh's out there giving it 150 per cent ever single time': Michael praised Hugh's dedication and hardwork, with the acting legend's persistence and dedication during the blockbuster earning him a Golden Globe nomination

And his persistence and dedication making the blockbuster has earnt Hugh a Golden Globe nomination under the category 'Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy'.

Speaking to The Sun, the ex Wolverine star said: 'My doctor had said, 'Do not sing, you've just had 80 stitches in your nose. They really could split apart, you could get an infection', which I'd had before in a similar operation'.

'So I was like, 'Don't worry I'm not going to risk that, I'm just going to speak it and someone else will sing it'' Hugh said, before conceding he got swept up in the moment and belted out the musical's tunes himself.

'My doctor had said, 'Do not sing, you've just had 80 stitches in your nose. They really could split apart.'': In a chat with The Sun, Hugh said he told his doctor he wouldn't sing in the musical, but later defied the medical advice because he got swept up in the production

'Did it anyway. And after ... I ran back to get restitched. Worth it!!!' Ahead of the last premiere for the film, Hugh, appeared to confirm that his doctor's worst fears eventuated via an Instagram video

Ahead of the last premiere for the film, Hugh, appeared to confirm that his doctor's worst fears eventuated via an Instagram video.

He shared a clip singing From Now On, captioning it: 'Sorry (not sorry) to my surgeon. He told me not to sing. Did it anyway. And after ... I ran back to get restitched. Worth it!!!'

In an interview with Variety, director Michael Gracey revealed he got the gig because they assumed he knew fellow-Australian Hugh.

'Since I'm Australian, they just assumed I knew him, and I didn't correct them. On the first day of rehearsals, Hugh walks in, he sees me, puts his arms out and shouts, 'Michael!' As we're hugging he whispers in my ear, 'Yeah, mate, they think I know you, so just go along with it.' So we pretended like we were best friends the whole shoot, and we had so much fun,' he said.
She's the glamorous WAG who has previously credited her Maltese heritage as the secret behind her age-defying complexion.

And Kyly Clarke, 36, has dished out some sage advice for fans hoping to emulate her youthful glow by penning an essay about how sleep deprivation can affect a woman's beauty.

Taking to her blog Lyfestyled this Tuesday, the beloved socialite wrote: 'There's a good reason the phrase 'beauty sleep' exists and any person who cares about their appearance needs to pay attention to their sleeping pattern.'

'There's a good reason the phrase 'beauty sleep' exists!' Kyly Clarke, 36, has dished out some sage advice for fans hoping to emulate her youthful glow by penning an essay about how sleep deprivation can affect a woman's beauty

'That dull, grey cast, inflamed spots, and dry patches can very much be the consequence of lack of sleep and this all leads to you losing your vitality and youthfulness,' she explained.

Kyly went on reveal that under-eye bags can be reduced by applying refrigerated tea bags and fresh cucumber slices to the area.

She also spoke about the dangers of sleeping on low-quality sheets, warning fans: 'Sleep deprivation also leads to more wrinkles, but did you know this can be controlled by upgrading your sheets?'

So that's how she does it! Taking to her blog Lyfestyled, Kyly revealed that under-eye bags can be reduced by applying refrigerated tea bags and fresh cucumber slices to the area

'Pick silk instead of cotton to have your face press against something smooth and soft that won't tug at the skin and cause fine lines to appear,' she wrote.

The mother-of-one also advised her devotees do purchase brightening creams, drink 'power juices' and paint their bedrooms with 'soothing colours'.

Last year, Kyly hit back at plastic surgery rumours, telling Daily Mail Australia that she hadn't considered going under the knife thanks to her good genes.

Sage advice: The mother-of-one also advised her devotees do purchase brightening creams, drink 'power juices' and paint their bedrooms with 'soothing colours'

'Personally, I don't know. I haven't really thought about it to that extent,' she explained.

'I think at the end of the day, each to their own. I don't knock anyone for doing whatever they choose to do. If that's what you want to do with your life that's okay,' she said.

She went on: 'I am lucky with my skin. My mum is Maltese and she has really really good skin.'

'I do get a few compliments on my skin which is really lovely but I have to give all of the credit to my mum because it's the Maltese skin.'
She announced her second pregnancy with fiance Hermann Nicolli last week.

And Candice Swanepoel was positively glowing as she headed to the Fernando de Noronha Airport in Brazil on Wednesday afternoon after wrapping up the family's sunshine break.

The Victoria's Secret model, 29, showed off her baby bump in a pair of high-waisted white linen pants, before boarding a plane to leave the tropical island, which is situated off the coast of Brazil.

Bumping along: Pregnant Candice Swanepoel was positively glowing as she showed off her baby bump while heading to the Fernando de Noronha Airport in Brazil on Wednesday

The South African catwalk queen's tanned and toned arms peeked through the sleeves of her tight grey T-shirt as she walked to a waiting vehicle.

Candice kept comfortable in white Vans 'Sk8-Hi Slim Zip' sneakers as she boarded her flight, carrying a light blue leather backpack across one shoulder and holding a water bottle and her sunglasses in one hand.

The model's long blonde hair was worn straight past her shoulders and partially hidden underneath a tan wide-brimmed fedora.

The mother-of-one seemed to be nearly makeup-free as she walked through the concourse with a friend by her side.

Keeping casual: The Victoria's Secret model, 29, wore high-waisted white linen pants and white Vans 'Sk8-Hi Slim Zip' sneakers before boarding a plane to leave the tropical island

Airport chic: The South African catwalk queen's tanned and toned arms peeked through the sleeves of her tight grey T-shirt as she walked to a waiting vehicle with a friend

Candice enjoyed a few days away in the idyllic beach town with her adorable son Anaca, 14 months, after confirming her second pregnancy on Instagram last Friday.

Wearing a forest green off-the-shoulder dress made by Jen's Pirate Booty, she captioned the sweet image, 'Christmas came early.#2.'

In October 2016, the model welcomed son Anaca with long-time partner and now fiance, Hermann Nicoli.

During a previous interview with People, the beauty recalled her 'natural, no drugs' birthing process.

Green with envy: Candice enjoyed a few days away in the idyllic beach town with her adorable son Anaca, 14 months, after confirming her second pregnancy on Instagram last week

Love: In October 2016, the model welcomed son Anaca with long-time partner and now fiance, Hermann Nicoli (pictured in New York in May)

'I don't wanna put anyone off of having kids,' she said. 'I think society has made women afraid of giving [birth naturally], but it's totally doable if you prepare yourself in the right way.'

Candice later discussed what her favorite part of motherhood had been so far.

She explained: 'Everything. He's been so sweet and been so good. Everybody is like, "You're so blessed with a good baby."

But while her first child has been a breeze, the beauty predicted her second child could be the opposite, joking: 'I feel like the next one will be a terror just to remind me.'
She's know for her impeccable sense of style.

But Jessica Hart has shocked fans with her latest outfit.

The 31-year-old Aussie model raised eyebrows when she wore a VERY rude T-shirt during dinner at upscale Los Angeles eatery Madeo on Wednesday night.

How charming! Jessica Hart shocks fellow diners with her VERY rude T-shirt as she enjoys dinner at upscale LA eatery

She teamed the top with a pair of leather trousers and a black parka jacket.

The blonde beauty rounded out the Gothic-style ensemble with a cross necklace, peep-toe booties and black nail polish.

Jessica was recently in Australia with her sister Ashley Hart to celebrate the relaunch of her Luma cosmetics line.

The Australian model took two years of research and development before she launched her cosmetic brand in late 2014.

Three years later Jessica claims she took a 'huge risk' to completely reinvent and relaunch her makeup line, because she wasn't proud of what it had become.

Going hell for leather: The Aussie model teamed her controversial top with a pair of leather trousers

Jessica recently told The Daily Telegraph: 'I worked so hard to get it where it was, but I wasn't as proud of it as I knew I could be... it was a bit of a risk and it (the relaunch and rebrand) was expensive, but it was something I had to do.'

She decided to relaunch the cosmetics brand with completely new packaging and different products.

Among her A-list supporters at the Sydney relaunch was sister Ashley and actress Jodi Gordon.
He turned down playing the role of James Bond.

But Hugh Jackman certainly gave Bond star Daniel Craig a run for his money, when he was spotted taking a shirtless dip at Sydney's Bondi Beach, on Thursday.

The 49-year-old hunk showcased his rippling muscles and six-pack abs, as he beat the summer heat.

Scroll down for video

Daniel Craig eat your heart out! Hugh Jackman, 49, shows off his rippling muscles and six-pack abs as he takes a dip at Bondi...after revealing he turned down playing James Bond

Fresh from the Australian premiere of The Greatest Showman on Thursday night, Hugh looked refreshed as he swam in the ocean, wearing black board shorts.

The Wolverine star immersed himself in the water, before sprinting up on the dry sand.

On the day, he was accompanied by wife Deborra-Lee Furness, 62, who wore black tights, runners and a top as she took a walk around the promenade.

Fighting fit: Fresh from the Australian premiere of The Greatest Showman on Thursday night, Hugh looked refreshed as he swam in the ocean, wearing black board shorts

Loving it: The Wolverine star immersed himself in the water, before sprinting up on the dry sand

Downtime: On the day, he was accompanied by wife Deborra-lee Furness, 62, who wore black tights, runners and a top as she took a walk around the promenade

Hugh appeared in high spirits, pulling faces and laughing as he frolicked on the sand.

He's in town promoting The Greatest Showman, which also stars Zac Efron and Zendaya.

Hugh plays the role of P.T Barnum, an American showman who founded the circus.

On home soil: He's in town promoting The Greatest Showman, which also stars Zac Efron and Zendaya

Muscle-off! Seen is Daniel Craig (L) as Bond

Iconic role: The Australian star revealed he turned down the role of James Bond, and went against the advice of his doctor, to get the new movie made

The Australian star revealed he turned down the role of James Bond, and went against the advice of his doctor, to get the new movie made.

Speaking with The Sun, Hugh revealed his medic advised him not to sing in the musical, as it might split the stitches he had received in his nose after he underwent surgery to remove skin cancers.

'My doctor had said, "Do not sing, you've just had 80 stitches in your nose. They really could split apart, you could get an infection", which I'd had before in a similar operation', Hugh told the tabloid.

Health woes: Speaking with The Sun, Hugh revealed his medic advised him not to sing in the musical, as it might split the stitches he had received in his nose after he underwent surgery to remove skin cancers

Struggles: 'My doctor had said, "Do not sing, you've just had 80 stitches in your nose. They really could split apart, you could get an infection"

Pictured: Hugh is seen recently after having his skin cancer removed

'So I was like, "Don't worry I'm not going to risk that, I'm just going to speak it and someone else will sing it"'.

However, Hugh conceded he got swept up in the moment, belting out the musical's tunes and defying doctor's orders.

'The emotion of the song and the moment took over me,' he confessed.

All for the craft! However, Hugh conceded he got swept up in the moment, belting out the musical's tunes and defying doctor's orders

Career decisions: According to The Sun, Hugh was offered the chance to take on the role of James Bond, but turned it down in order to make The Greatest Showman

According to The Sun, Hugh was offered the chance to take on the role of James Bond, but turned it down in order to make The Greatest Showman.

Clarifying that he hadn't secured the role of the iconic British spy, the star explained: 'I wasn't handed it. I think it was, "Are you interested?"'.

Hugh even revealed in the intimate interview that he was voted most likely to to play Bond by his drama school peers before he became a famous star.
The Northern Territory government expects an answer from Canberra "early next year" about whether it will stump up cash for the juvenile justice royal commission's recommendations.

NT Labor last month accepted a recommendation from the jointly-funded inquiry to close Darwin's notorious Don Dale Detention Centre, but it's still unclear if the commonwealth will help pay for its replacement.

A stoush continues between the two governments following an unmatched $50 million pledge to build new Don Dale and Alice Springs detention facilities.

By late February the Gunner government will deliver proposed plans for new "state of the art" infrastructure, Territory Families says.

Work is set to begin within 18 months, but there was no federal funding allocated in the Coalition's budget update released this week.

"They've said they'll have a fulsome response early next year," Deputy Chief Executive Officer Operations Jeanette Kerr told AAP.

"The Territory government's response to the royal commission will be initially in February with a final one in March."

Footage of teenagers being tear-gassed, spithooded and shackled to restraint chairs in NT youth prisons sparked the $54 million probe last year and prompted Labor to inject millions of dollars to overhaul the broken system.

Royal commissioners Margaret White and Mick Gooda on Tuesday revealed to the ABC they privately recommended "a number" of criminal prosecutions be made to police following their investigations.

Ms White and Mr Gooda also slammed former chief minister Adam Giles, who called the probe alongside prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, for his lack of cooperation while giving evidence.

Ms White said she was astonished by the stupidity of people in power to ignore the lessons from past failings and called for an immediate end to the use of solitary confinement.

But Ms Kerr insists all children have been moved out of Don Dale's isolation block, which is being renovated and will eventually house young female offenders.

"There's been separation for medical reasons - for mumps," she said.

"But we haven't used isolation or intensive management plans for quite a number of months."

Ms Kerr says there's urgency to shut down the inadequate Don Dale, which was previously an adult jail, and expects the first sod to turn for new construction around mid 2019.
Dialling a loved one can mean the difference between a happy Christmas and a festive season marked by loneliness, the Salvation Army says.

The charity has thrown its support behind Telstra's second year of free calls between December 24 and 26 from its home phones and more than 16,000 payphones nationwide, in a bid to connect Australians during the festive season.

"Go to a pay phone, pick it up and just have the courage to call," Salvation Army Major Brendan Nottle told reporters in Melbourne on Wednesday.
The Northern Territory chief minister in charge when teenage inmates were tear gassed has attacked the "pathetic" child detention royal commission as being too consumed with "gotcha moments" to achieve meaningful change.

This week, commissioners Margaret White and Mick Gooda slammed Adam Giles, who established the $54 million inquiry alongside prime minister Malcolm Turnbull last year, for his lack of cooperation while giving testimony.

"He completely abrogated his responsibilities as chief minister, and had the gall to sit there and say he was coming in to give evidence to make things better for Aboriginal kids in the NT," Mr Gooda told the ABC.

Ms White said she was astonished by the stupidity of people in power who ignored lessons from past failings and "seem disinterested in evidence-based solutions".

Mr Giles has hit back at the co-chairs, dismissing their comments as "left-wing hyperbole" and saying their "wishy washy" final report's recommendation to shift from detention to rehabilitation would allow young criminals to terrorise communities.

"That was the most pathetic, bureaucratic process I have ever seen. I can already foresee that the royal commission will not improve lives," he told The Australian on Wednesday.

"You ran a second-rate bulls**t process."

The ex-Country Liberals leader said the reason he said "I don't recall" so many times in the witness box was because he was denied access to the calendars, emails and diaries he used while in office from 2013 to 2016.

He said the "disgraceful and unprofessional" probe targeted individuals in the same way that the ABC's "biased" Four Corners program did when it sparked the inquiry by airing 2014 footage of boys being spit-hooded and tear gassed at the Don Dale juvenile centre which is due to close.
The family of a missing woman Kathleen Lidden may have to wait until after Christmas for post-mortem results on skeletal remains found in NSW Southern Highlands.

The remains were located by a member of the public in bushland north of Lake Alexandra at Mittagong on Saturday.

A post-mortem is underway to determine the cause of death and formally identify the body, but it could take weeks depending on the condition of the remains, NSW Police told AAP on Wednesday.

Earlier this week, police said they expect the remains to belong to Ms Lidden, an art teacher and 52-year-old mother who disappeared after leaving her Bowral home on June 13.

Later that day she was captured on CCTV outside a shop in nearby Mittagong.

Friends and family of Ms Lidden responded to the discovery of the remains with an outpouring of grief.

"Heartbroken for Kathy's loved ones," one person wrote on Facebook.

"We are honoured to have known Kathy and cherish the love of art, baking and foraging she inspired in our son. My heart aches. RIP beautiful soul xox".

Extensive searches of the area in June and September failed to locate Ms Lidden.

NSW Police would not confirm if the disappearance was being treated as a homicide when asked on Wednesday.
NRL star Jarryd Hayne has been accused of raping a woman in the United States in late 2015 when he was playing with the San Francisco 49ers in the NFL.

In a civil suit, the woman claims Hayne took her back to his San Jose home and raped her when she was drunk.

She met some of Hayne's friends when working at a local restaurant and they all caught up after a 49ers game, documents lodged in a County of Santa Clara court state.

The documents say the woman, who isn't named, took Hayne's "undergarment" following the alleged rape in case she needed proof of the incident.

The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office reviewed the criminal case after the woman went to the police in May 2016, California's The Mercury News reports.

The case was rejected in October 2016, however, due to insufficient evidence.

Comment was being sought from Hayne's NRL club Parramatta.
Burleigh County States Attorney Richard Riha will not seek re-election in 2018.

The 20-year incumbent said Wednesday he gradually arrived at the decision to retire and made the final decision on Saturday. When he leaves office in January 2019, he will have spent 36 years with the Burleigh County States Attorneys Office.

Riha said hes seen much growth as states attorney, such as the office going from four to 13 attorneys, as well as increasing caseloads since western North Dakota's Bakken oil boom in recent years.

In his role, he said hes conducted more administrative duties than when he first entered office, including staff increases, legal advice to other county departments and reviewing contracts, such as for the new Burleigh-Morton County Detention Center.

Ive taken over a lot of that because theres just been so much to do, Riha said. With growth, theres more business for us.

The Burleigh County States Attorneys Office expanded under his administration and is set to expand again, utilizing space from the former Burleigh County Detention Center at the courthouse in downtown Bismarck.

Riha, 61, said he plans to enjoy retirement as most retirees do, adding he has not considered future public service.

I really dont have any goal in that area, he said.

The Bismarck native completed his undergraduate coursework at the University of North Dakota in 1979, followed by law school there in 1982. He joined the Burleigh County States Attorneys Office in January 1983.

Ive been in here long enough and time for someone else to take over, Riha said.

He added he hasn't yet heard of any interested candidates for his elected position.
Queensland opposition leader Deb Frecklington has deflected questions about whether it was appropriate for the Liberal National Party to warn former Premier Campbell Newman about his public criticism of the party.

The LNP reportedly recently wrote to Mr Newman and retired Nationals Senate leader Ron Boswell cautioning them against further derogatory comments about the party following last month's state election defeat, The Australian reports.

The letters were part of a crackdown on public commentary, with former Townsville-based federal Liberal MP Peter Lindsay and long-term regional mayor John Wharton copping suspensions over their discussion about the party's campaign in central and north Queensland.

Ms Frecklington on Wednesday told reporters on the Sunshine Coast that she would not be drawn on membership issues.

"My door is always open, I think anyone is always welcome to come to me with their issues and concerns, particularly in relation to my parliamentary team or our parliamentary performance, but those matters really are a matter for the LNP themselves," she said.
Melbourne Renegades skipper Aaron Finch believes his team have historically under-performed in the Big Bash League but feels this season could be a different outcome.

Ahead of their opening clash with the Hurricanes on Thursday night in Hobart, Finch admitted the Renegades' results hadn't been up to scratch.

"We've most definitely under-achieved," Finch said on Wednesday.

"Making the finals once in six years has been very disappointing but I think we've got a very good side this year and have filled a few holes we've had and, hopefully, that experience will help us get over the line."

Those signings include three former Adelaide Strikers in veteran batsman Brad Hodge, finger spinner Jon Holland and classy bowler Kane Richardson.

Hodge, 42, joins 46-year-old Brad Hogg at the Renegades with Melbourne Stars captain John Hastings labelling their cross-town rivals as "Dad's Army".

Finch said age wasn't a factor.

"Good players are good players regardless of their age," he said.

"They've both been in fantastic form in the lead-up games and they're great to lean on for advice."

While Finch said the Hurricanes were a dangerous side with skipper George Bailey and D'Arcy Short, he turned up the heat on their opening bowlers Tymal Mills and import Jofra Archer.

"They're going to be under a lot of pressure coming into the Big Bash for the first time," Finch said.

"Especially Mills who's got a long injury history and is expected to run in and bowl extremely fast."

Finch said he was expecting big things from their own import star, Afghanistan allrounder Mohammad Nabi.

"He's a very crafty offspin bowler and can give it a real crack with the bat," he said.

"Not many guys would have played against him which will be an advantage for the first couple of games and we're hoping for big things from him."
A financially ruined father, who plotted to kill himself and his family, has been sentenced to life in prison for his young daughter's murder.

Stephen Phillip Playford stockpiled nitrogen gas tanks in the family's Kedron home as part of a plan to painlessly end their lives.

The former chief operating officer of a mining company had maintained the front of being rich and successful while in fact he was debt stricken and unemployed.

The Brisbane Supreme Court heard Playford took his six-year-old daughter Sidney from her bed on the night of September 7, 2015 while she was still asleep.

He put a mask over her face and tried to gas her to death.

When that did not work, he smothered her with a pillow then returned her lifeless body to bed.

Playford left the house after the commotion woke his wife, whom he had also planned to kill.

Justice David Boddice said Playford had committed the "most unimaginable criminal conduct", for which there was no defence.

"Your conduct truly involved despicable acts," Justice Boddice said on Monday.

Playford was sentenced to life in prison with a non-parole period of 20 years.
A young Sydney father accused of travelling to a Middle Eastern war zone to take up arms has appeared in court and is expected to apply for bail on Thursday.

Belal Betka, 25, was arrested on Tuesday morning at Mount Lewis, in Sydney's southwest, after being under police investigation since he allegedly travelled to Syria for at least five months during 2015.

It's understood he was fighting for a terror organisation in al-Raqqa province.

In December 2014, the Minister for Foreign Affairs declared the Syrian province as an area where a listed terrorist organisation was engaging in hostile activity.

The declaration was revoked last month, according to the federal government.

Police say Betka is the first Australian-based person to be charged with incursion into foreign countries with the intention of engaging in hostile activities. The crime carries the maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

He's also been charged with entering and remaining in a "declared area", an offence which carries a maximum of 10 years in prison.

When Betka's matter came before magistrate Elaine Truscott in Bankstown Local Court on Wednesday, there was a delay as he was assessed by paramedics at the local police station.

However, no details of his condition were revealed.

Betka eventually appeared wearing a white shirt, and his lawyer, Ivan Sayed, requested the matter be adjourned to Parramatta Local Court on Thursday for a release application.

Mr Sayed said he was waiting for a response from a government agency following "a request for information that may assist our case".

Outside court, he declined to elaborate on whether his client had a medical issue.

"Any of these questions will be answered tomorrow during the release application," Mr Sayed told reporters.

Court documents reveal Betka lives with his mother and is the father of an infant who lives with an ex-partner.

A document outlining police reasons for denying bail reveals he also has a domestic-related offence before the courts.

There is "significant evidence" supporting Betka's active involvement in the terrorism offence, according to the file.

"There is an unacceptable risk that the accused person, if released from custody, will endanger the victim, individual or the community," it said.

Betka is also accused of dealing in the proceeds of crime, relating to property worth $1 million or more.

His arrest was part of an ongoing investigation into money laundering which had already led to three arrests earlier in the year, including 26-year-old Fouad Moussa.

Moussa was on Tuesday further charged with drug offences, possession of a tablet press as well as possession of tampered identifications and stolen property.

He also appeared briefly in Bankstown Local Court on Wednesday on those fresh charges and it was revealed his proceeds of crime charge has been upgraded to include property worth $1 million, up from $100,000.

Ms Truscott adjourned the matter to the same court on Thursday.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says Betka is the 81st Australian since 2014 to be charged with a terror offence.

"We face a very real risk - as people do in the United Kingdom, or the United States or Canada or any other western democracy," he told ABC Radio on Wednesday.

Members of the NSW Joint Counter Terrorism Team, which includes ASIO, state and federal police, were involved in the operation.
A building in Melbourne's Federation Square will be demolished, with global technology giant Apple announcing plans to move in with a flagship store.

The Yarra Building, currently home to the Koorie Heritage Trust, will be knocked down to make way for a new Apple store - a move the state government says will attract an extra two million people to Federation Square each year.

The trust will relocated within the Alfred Deakin Building, with construction for the Apple store set to begin early 2019.
South Australia's giant battery is already showing its worth, state Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis says.

The world's largest lithium-ion battery, built by tech billionaire Elon Musk, responded quickly last week when the coal-fired Loy Yang power plant tripped and went offline.

The battery delivered 100 megawatts into the national electricity grid in 140 milliseconds.

"That's a record and the national operators were shocked at how quickly and efficiently the battery was able to deliver this type of energy into the market," Mr Koutsantonis told 5AA radio on Wednesday.
Fiona Nash hasn't given up on taking back the Nationals' deputy leadership as she eyes a return to parliament through a casual vacancy.

Ms Nash was back in Canberra on Wednesday, flanking "bestie" Barnaby Joyce for the swearing in of a new-look ministry which has sparked fresh tensions within the Nationals.

The former NSW senator was booted out of her job in October when the High Court ruled she was ineligible to sit in parliament because she held UK citizenship.

The court's decision sent shock waves through the minor party which lost Mr Joyce and deputy leader Ms Nash on the same day.

While Mr Joyce returned after a thumping by-election victory earlier in the month, Ms Nash's path back to the upper house has been complicated with Liberal Jim Molan expected to take her Senate spot.

But she's not giving up on getting the band back together.

"If an opportunity did arise I would be very keen to come back and serve as a National Party member of the coalition," Ms Nash told Sky News on Wednesday.

Veteran NSW senator John Williams has already announced his plan to retire at the next election, but Ms Nash is hoping for a vacancy to emerge sooner.

"If there is a short-term option clearly that is something I would look at," Ms Nash said.

Since Ms Nash left parliament in October, Victorian senator Bridget McKenzie has taken over as the Nationals' deputy leader after winning a party room ballot.

Asked if she would look to be reinstated as the party's second-in-charge on her return to parliament, Ms Nash said: "It's certainly an option but that's way down the track."

Senator McKenzie's automatic ascension to cabinet has been one of the factors at play in the Nationals' current round of ructions.

Mr Joyce cited her promotion as the reason for dumping Victorian former infrastructure minister Darren Chester from the front bench and elevating little-known Queenslanders David Littleproud and John McVeigh.

Ms Nash backed that call, saying it was "untenable" for two of the party's five cabinet spots to be filled by Victorians.

Queensland MP Keith Pitt was also dumped from the ministry, prompting reports he is set to leave the party and move to the crossbench.

"The best thing he can do for the people he represents is stay with the National Party," Ms Nash said.
A former Victorian Scouts leader who preyed on teenage boys and plied them with alcohol, lollies and pornography, has been jailed for more than 12 years.

Kim Richard Harvey, 63, sexually abused 15 teenage boys between 1974 and 1989.

County Court Judge John Smallwood said his depraved acts were pre-planned, predatory and carried out for his own gratification.

"The offending is extremely concerning," he told Harvey on Thursday.

Harvey pleaded guilty to 33 charges including multiple counts of sexual penetration of minors, buggery and indecent assault.

The court heard he often plied his victims with alcohol, lollies and pornography and engaged in sexual talk.

He walked in on the boys in the bath or shower and made them perform indecent acts with him.

He also assaulted his victims on camping trips, with one boy waking to find Harvey penetrating him.

He offered one victim cash to prevent him disclosing the abuse.

Two of the victims told their parents what happened but were not believed.

Judge Smallwood said Harvey wrought havoc on his young victims, causing them to question their sexuality.

The offending fuelled their self-doubt and many suffer ongoing depression and difficulty with relationships.

Harvey has a history of similar offending involving the Scouts movement in the 1970s.

The judge said it was clear Harvey knew what he was doing wrong, but continued his sex crimes for another 15 years.

His latest offending will see him placed on the sex offender's register for life.

His jail time is also likely to be lonely, as he has no support and his children and friends have disowned him, the judge said.

Harvey was jailed for 12 years and four months and will serve a non-parole term of eight-and a-half-years.
Zac Efron got very close, very quickly, with his love interest in his new movie The Greatest Showman.

The actor and his co-star, Disney actress Zendaya, play star-crossed lovers in the new musical and perform a romantic duet called Rewrite the Stars while performing on the trapeze.

"It was definitely a great friendship builder, trust exercise," Zendaya told AAP in Sydney.

"It's like a trust fall... another level of trust fall. It's called swinging into one another at 30 miles an hour," Efron added.

The pair are in Sydney alongside the film's star Hugh Jackman for the Australian premiere of the massive new musical on Wednesday.

Zendaya, who plays trapeze artist Anne Wheeler, has a lot in common with her co-star Efron, having both got their start in Disney productions. The 21-year-old stars in the show K.C. Cooper: Undercover while Efron famously got his break in the Disney film franchise High School Musical.

Since then the 30-year-old has carved out a legitimate acting career with roles in movies such as The Paperboy (alongside Nicole Kidman) and comedies such as Neighbors and the Baywatch movie.

But Efron describes working on The Greatest Showman alongside Jackman as a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and said he respected the Australian actor "more than anyone else in the world".

Jackman leads the cast playing P.T. Barnum, the man who created the famous Barnum & Bailey circus in the 1800s, bringing together some of society's outcasts and putting on an incredible travelling circus show.

Efron plays his protege, and business partner, Phillip Carlyle, in the all-new musical with original music written by La La Land's Oscar-winning lyricists, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.

It was a passion project for Jackman who brought Australian Michael Gracey on board to direct his first feature film.

Efron says everyone working on the film gave a little bit more of themselves, realising this was a special movie to be a part of.

"We worked overtime, we improvised where we could, we had to fit things in that weren't in the budget and make it work and we were on a time crunch," he said.

"This is Hugh Jackman and Michael Gracey's dream come true; a revolutionary, ground-breaking, all original musical that encompasses so many issues going on in the world right now and we got to play star-crossed lovers in the midst of it and that's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I don't think we'll ever forget.

"It's one-of-a-kind, I don't know if there's anything quite like it yet."

*The Greatest Showman opens in Australian cinemas on December 26
A manhunt is underway for a Northern Territory prisoner who escaped a work camp near Tennant Creek, the second time he has fled custody in 15 months.

Police are calling for information on the whereabouts of 28-year-old Hamish Ross, who escaped the Barkly Work Camp about 11.20pm on Tuesday.

Ross, who was wearing a green shirt when he escaped, is 180cm and of medium build, with brown hair and brown eyes.

He is serving time for violence offences but is not considered a risk to the public.

Ross escaped custody in September last year while being taken to Ti Tree police station after failing a roadside breath test.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Jubilant Republican lawmakers laid plans to join President Donald Trump at the White House for a victory celebration Wednesday as Congress moved approved the GOPs paramount priority, the most thorough reshaping of the countrys tax system since the 1980s.

Workers benefit. Wages go up. More jobs occur, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Wednesday on NBCs Today, describing what Republicans say will flow from a $1.5 trillion measure that affects everyones taxes but is dominated by breaks for business and higher earners. Democrats call the legislation a boon to the rich that leaves middle-class and working Americans behind.

"This bill gives huge, permanent tax cuts to corporations and millionaires while middle income families will see relatively modest cuts in the short-term and their costs go up in the long run," said Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D. "We were promised a simpler tax code so we could file taxes on a postcard. But this bill makes the tax code even more confusing and more difficult for families to understand their tax liability. We were promised no loopholes. But this bill is full of loopholes for real estate moguls, private jet companies, and others, enabling large corporations and the wealthy to pay lower taxes."

The Senate used a post-midnight vote to approve the measure on a party-line 51-48 tally. Protesters interrupted with chants of, Kill the bill, dont kill us and Vice President Mike Pence repeatedly called for order. Upon passage, Republicans cheered, with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin among them.

We worked hard to provide North Dakotans with tax relief that enables them to keep more of their hard-earned paychecks, said Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D. This tax relief plan, coupled with regulatory relief, will unleash economic growth to grow wages and income, as well as government revenues. This tax relief bill is good for America and good for North Dakota.

Trump planned a White House news conference and a ceremony with GOP lawmakers Wednesday after final congressional approval.

Senate Republicans celebrated early Wednesday after passing the Republican tax plan, 51-48. Republicans said the tax bill will put more money in peoples wallets and spur job growth.

In an eleventh-hour hiccup Tuesday, the Senate parliamentarian found that three minor provisions violated Senate rules, forcing lawmakers to strip them out.

Republicans had rammed the bill through the House 227-203 on Tuesday with all voting Democrats in opposition. Because of the language the Senate removed, the House had to revisit the measure Wednesday because each chamber must approve identical legislation before it can be signed into law.

House Speaker Ryan, who has worked years toward the goal of revamping the tax code, gleefully pounded the gavel on Tuesdays House vote. GOP House members roared and applauded as they passed a package that will touch every American taxpayer and every corner of the U.S. economy, providing steep tax cuts for businesses and the wealthy, and more modest help for middle- and low-income families.

Despite Republican talk of spending discipline, the bill is projected to push the huge national debt ever higher.

Ryan said Wednesday the GOP is willing to risk running up deficits with the aim of getting a higher annual economic growth rate.

Trump is aching for a big political victory after 11 months of legislative failures and nonstarters. The president tweeted his congratulations to GOP leaders and to all great House Republicans who voted in favor of cutting your taxes!

Congressional Republicans, who faltered badly in trying to dismantle Barack Obamas Affordable Care Act, see passage of the tax bill as crucial to proving to Americans they can govern  and imperative for holding onto House and Senate majorities in next years midterm elections.

The proof will be in the paychecks, Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said during the Senates nighttime debate. This is real tax relief, and its needed.

Not so, said the top Senate Democrat as the long, late hours led to testy moments Tuesday night.

We believe you are messing up America, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer told Republicans, chiding them for not listening to his remarks.

The GOP has repeatedly argued the bill will spur economic growth as corporations, flush with cash, increase wages and hire more workers. But many voters in surveys see the legislation as a boost to the wealthy, such as Trump and his family, and a minor gain at best for the middle class.

Democrats mocked the Republicans contention that the bill will make taxes so simple that millions can file their returns on a postcard  an idea repeated often by the president.

What happened to the postcard? Were going to have to carry around a billboard for tax simplification, declared Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee.

Tax cuts for corporations would be permanent while the cuts for individuals would expire in 2026 to comply with Senate budget rules. The tax cuts would take effect in January, and workers would start to see changes in the amount of taxes withheld from their paychecks in February.

The bill would slash the corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. The top tax rate for well-off individuals would be lowered from 39.6 percent to 37 percent.

The legislation repeals an important part of the 2010 health care law  the requirement that all Americans carry health insurance or face a penalty  as the GOP looks to unravel the law it failed to repeal and replace this past summer. It also allows oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The $1,000-per-child tax credit doubles to $2,000, with up to $1,400 available in IRS refunds for families that owe little or no taxes.

Disgruntled Republican lawmakers from high-tax New York, New Jersey and California receded into the background as the tax train rolled. They oppose a new $10,000 limit on the deduction for state and local taxes.

The bill is projected to add $1.46 trillion to the nations debt over a decade. GOP lawmakers say they expect a future Congress to continue the tax cuts so they wont expire. That would drive up deficits even further.

Associated Press writers Matthew Daly, Kevin Freking and Alan Fram as well as The Bismarck Tribune contributed to this report.
The Northern Territory government has ruled out long-term remote boot camps for young offenders and has no plans to establish a Darwin-based youth residential rehabilitation program.

Territory Families says it's unlikely to replace detention alternative BushMob's program at Loves Creek, 90km east of Alice Springs, which announced it would shut down in July blaming security and safety issues leading to breakouts.

"The evidence across the board is long-term isolated wilderness type camps (are) not effective," Deputy Chief Executive Officer Operations Jeanette Kerr told AAP.

"You're isolating young people from their networks and their connections in the outside world."

Ms Kerr said there may be future scope for facilities that are "not too distanced from urban centres, where there's services and schools and sport, or in fact detention centres that have an education and vocational training focus".

"What has been shown to be a lot more successful is things like Operation Flinders," she said.

The youth justice boss says there are "promising" results from this eight-day early intervention bush camp for at-risk children, which began in October in tandem with youth outreach worker case management.

BushMob's 20-bed rehab centre in Alice Springs is the NT's only government-funded urban residential facility, and helps 12 to 25-year-olds recovering from drug or alcohol abuse from as far afield as Arnhem Land in the Top End.

But Ms Kerr said a Darwin version wasn't needed as bail support accommodation could "step into that space".

Labor has invested $18 million in diversion programs this year as the child detention royal commission recommends a shift from a punitive to therapeutic justice model.

BushMob chief executive Will MacGregor said the government is responding too slowly to the inquiry's recommendations, adding the Territory needs more residential rehabilitation facilities.

"We're happy to work with anyone, anytime, anywhere, because the deal is to try to make life better for young people and stop some of the stuff that the royal commission was about," he said.
Ian Botham was among Australia's most-vocal critics last month, but now admits England have been "outmuscled and pushed around the park by a very good" side during the Ashes.

Botham offered a frank assessment of Steve Smith's XI ahead of the first Test, describing their batting order as the nation's worst since the Kerry Packer split 40 years ago.

The assessment left the legendary English allrounder with egg on his face; Australia reclaimed the urn in Perth by posting their highest total in a home Ashes Test.

"They've beaten us and beaten us comprehensively," Botham told AAP at the 39th annual Jack Newton Celebrity Classic in the Hunter Valley.

"We have to face up to the fact we were outmuscled and pushed around the park by a very good Australian side.

"Australia is playing for five-nil but we have to show some heart and spirit and pride and go home with a win or two."

Botham, who was part of England's triumphant Test tours of Australia in 1978-79 and 1986-87, has been impressed with Australia's pace attack.

"They're excellent. They can make life difficult for sides for some years, as long as they stay fit," he said.

But the 62-year-old added it was important "not to get too carried away - they're not as quick or as fearsome as (Dennis) Lillee and (Jeff) Thomson."

"Australia's bowlers just hit England and cleaned up their tail-order batsmen and got stuck right into them and didn't let them settle," he said.

"There's been some great deliveries bowled in this series and a few poor shots by England, particularly by the lower order."

Under-performing captain Joe Root has copped plenty of criticism after heavy defeats at the Gabba, Adelaide Oval and WACA but Botham feels it is unwarranted.

"He did nothing wrong," Botham said.

"Joe Root is only as good as the team he has got. They didn't perform to their best.

"They're a better side than how they performed ... it's the same old, same old. If you're at home, you win.

"If you're away, you lose.

"Every side is the same. Australia, India, England, they all have this problem."
Dad's the skipper, the kids are in the crew, but it's mum who should get the credit in the Cooney clan if supermaxi LDV Comanche takes line honours in this year's Sydney Hobart.

Jim Cooney recently purchased the 2015 line honours winner from American Jim Clark and will sail to Hobart with his daughter Julia and son James and a star-studded crew.

In previous Hobart campaigns, Cooney had sailed former line honours winning maxi Brindabella and the Volvo 70 Maserati.

"The funny thing is it was actually my mum who was the driving force behind getting this boat," Julia Cooney told AAP.

"My dad was sort of thinking 'we don't need another one' and my mum was there saying 'c'mon it will be nice to win it wouldn't it?'

"We're all really glad that she did push us because it's been fantastic.

"Yesterday, going out for the first time, just the power of the boat and the size of the sails is just phenomenal.

"I've never seen anything like it and it was really incredible to be a part of."

Medical student Julia, 20, is the only female on the four supermaxis contesting this year's race.

She is just a few months older than the youngest female to sail on a Sydney Hobart supermaxi, Jessica Watson back in 2013.

"I've always been one of the younger members of the crew, last year on the Volvo and on Brindabella before that, so it's something I've got used to," Cooney said.

"But I didn't really think about the fact that I might be one of the youngest females to ever go on one of these 100-footers, that's a pretty exciting concept."

Only around a dozen women have done the Hobart race on a supermaxi over the past decade.

The most successful was celebrated navigator Adrienne Cahalan, who was part of six line honours winning Wild Oats crews in her seven Sydney Hobart appearances on that boat.

Despite their youth Julia and her 19-year old law student brother James have accumulated plenty of sailing experience.

"They are very capable sailors," Jim Cooney said.

"They've done this race before, they've done races in Europe with me, so I've got absolute confidence in them to keep themselves safe and do their job."
Employment Minister Michaelia Cash has to hand over emails, text messages and documents linked to raids on the Australian Workers Union after she lost a legal bid in the Federal Court.

Justice Mordecai Bromberg on Wednesday found the AWU had a legitimate reason to see the documents from Senator Cash's office to determine if there was political motivation for the October 24 raids in Melbourne and Sydney.

He found the AWU "has a legitimate forensic purpose" in seeing the communications between Senator Cash and the Registered Organisations Commission.

But Senator Cash will not have to hand over all the documents the union sought, with Justice Bromberg limiting access only to relevant ones.

Josh Bornstein, lawyer for the AWU, said Senator Cash and lawyers for the government agencies had tried to stop the union getting access to the information it needs.

"If the minister, her former adviser and the ROC have nothing to hide in this matter, then why seek to take every avenue possible to block access to documents?" Mr Bornstein asked in a statement issued after Wednesday's court ruling.

The union will also get documents from the Fair Work Ombudsman and its media adviser Mark Lee.

"I am satisfied that in seeking each of categories one to five, the AWU has a legitimate forensic purpose of demonstrating that the decision to initiate the investigation was motivated by the political purpose alleged or was directed by the minister," Justice Bromberg said in his ruling.

Mr Bornstein said Senator Cash will have to provide documents, including emails, text messages and records of phone conversations, between her, her staff and the ROC to the union.

The raids drew scrutiny in parliament after the media arrived at the AWU's offices before police, thanks to a tip off from her now-former media adviser David de Garis.

Senator Cash needs to hand over her documents by January 5. Mr de Garis and Mr Lee have until January 11, while the FWO has until January 16.
The Northern Territory police union has condemned a "cowardly" attack by teenagers after officers were allegedly pelted with rocks in Alice Springs.

Officers were responding to an unrelated matter on the Stuart Highway in the central Australian town at about 7am on Wednesday when a group of youths aged 17 and 18 allegedly assaulted them.

Police say an orange Holden Commodore stopped at the scene and three male youths began pelting projectiles at the officers.

"While police attempted to secure the vehicle, one of the offenders drove it with the officer still partially in the passenger seat," Detective Senior Constable Deanne Ward said.

"The keys were eventually removed from the ignition and the vehicle stopped. While the members were arresting the offenders, other occupants of the car have hindered police and thrown rocks."

Five people were eventually arrested but no one sustained any major injuries.

NT Police Association President Paul McCue said the "cowardly and unprovoked attack" highlighted the dangers police faced almost daily.

"Police officers put their lives on the line every day to keep the rest of the community safe," he said.

"It is appalling that we continue to have people who think it is OK to assault a police officer."

The union is calling on NT Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw and Chief Minister Michael Gunner to publicly condemn the "unacceptable behaviour on our hard-working members".
A NSW government minister has defended sitting on a report which exposed the harm caused by poker machines and gambling.

Gaming Minister Paul Toole released the Gambling Harm Minimisation report in October, almost two years after it was completed by the University of Sydney's gambling treatment and research clinic.

The report found pokie players were over-represented when it came to gamblers seeking treatment and were also more likely to have experienced a mental health issue.

"(Pokie) players have elevated Problem Gambling Severity Index scores compared to other products, and report higher frequencies of health-related harms," the report says.

Mr Toole, in a statement released with the study in October, said the information would "provide an up-to-date understanding of gambling participation and behaviour including the type and level of gambling harm occurring in different areas of the community".

But emails and briefing notes obtained via freedom of information laws show the report's author was "frustrated" by the extensive delay, Fairfax Media reported on Wednesday.

A Liquor and Gaming NSW official, in May 2016, reportedly emailed then gaming minister and deputy premier Troy Grant to recommend the release of the report but had not heard back by October that year.

But Mr Toole defended the timing of the release.

"The report made a number of legislative, regulatory and policy recommendations which needed be to clarified and further considered by Liquor & Gaming NSW," he said in a statement to AAP on Wednesday.

"It was important the government gave due regard to these issues as part of an extensive process of evaluation."

Mr Toole said the government needed to draft a formal response and have the report and response considered by cabinet before its release.

"Once this had all occurred, the report was released without delay," he said.

Among the report's recommendations was the banning of the "losses disguised as wins" feature in which a pokie machine issues positive noises and visuals even if a user has only won back a portion of their bet while losing money overall.

Shonica Guy, a 14-year gambling addict, took on Crown Casino and poker machine maker Aristocrat Technologies in a landmark trial centred around the losses disguised as wins issue earlier this year.

A ruling is yet to be handed down.
Flo Bjelke-Petersen was a canny politician hidden behind a persona of homespun bush virtues, exemplified by her famous pumpkin scones.

As wife of Sir Joh, Queensland's longest-serving and most divisive premier, she was the perfect partner, domestically and politically.

And as a capable and occasionally maverick senator for 12 years, she helped shore up the National Party vote in Queensland.

Lady Florence Isabel Bjelke-Petersen, who died an aged care facility in Kingaroy on Wednesday aged 97, was born in Brisbane on August 11 1920.

The young Florence (she didn't like Flo, but couldn't beat the headline writers) Gilmour was private secretary to the Queensland Commissioner for Main Roads when she met Joh, a state Country Party MP, at a conference.

It was hardly a romantic courtship.

In his memoir, Joh said that though 40 he'd never been out with a girl and while attracted by her cheerily efficient manner, took a year to summon the courage to ask her out. And when he did, he took her to parliament.

She, nine years younger, was assumed to be on the shelf. A colleague advised her: "If he asks you out, Florence, you go. Because he's not married and has lots of money."

She went, and in May 1952 they married and went to his Kingaroy farm, Bethany. She seamlessly changed from Presbyterean to Lutheran and from Liberal to Country Party.

From the start, and between having three daughters and a son, she ran the home, the properties' books and the electorate, played the organ in the Kingaroy Lutheran church and, after he became premier in 1968, stumped the state.

It was the Joh and Flo show.

He said he'd sooner have her than the full array of Country Party MPs beside hiim.

"Wherever she went, she always had an ability to attract warmth from people," he wrote.

"It did not matter whether she was speaking to a handful of farmers' wives at a country hall or to thousands of people at a big party meeting, she somehow seemed to be able to strike a chord with them."

The Gold Coast Bulletin once said she was "as homely as a sponge cake with passionfruit icing, as comforting as a squatter's chair on a shady verandah, as straightforward and practical as a yabby pump, as wholesome as a ripe mango."

Others saw her differently.

To one former Queensland MP she was "a thug dressed as a granny".

Allen Callaghan, Joh's long serving press secretary, said she was "a very, very intelligent woman with a lot of political acumen".

In 1980 Flo, urged by her husband, stood for the senate.

It was a tough preselection fight, with her candidature opposed by the party organisation's strong man Sir Robert Sparkes.

But after a speech to preselectors in which she "belted the feds", Flo won top spot on the ticket by two votes. At the age of 59, she was guaranteed a senate seat, which she actually took up early because of a casual vacancy.

She said it was God's will.

There'd been speculation, that she denied, that Joh wanted her to warm a seat for him. However, she was his eyes and ears in Canberra at a time when Joh's relations with the Fraser government were frosty.

He also, after Bob Hawke brought Labor back to power in 1983, told National Party leader Doug Anthony that his wife shouldn't be considered for a front bench position because she prefered to "keep working with the people of Queensland and serving Queensland". Flo said she agreed with him.

She never made a big impact in the senate, though she became deputy National Party leader in the upper house and an acting chair of committees.

John Button, who became the Hawke government's senate leader, said he liked her. She was a "a mixture of old-world frankness, innocence and political astuteness" who became something of a star.

While Fraser was prime minister she twice crossed the floor - over a tax on essential commodities and a cut in sugar tariffs.

She was much in demand as an effective vote-gatherer in Queensland.

But while she blossomed, Joh's star declined, particularly after the Fitzgerald inquiry started unearthing evidence of widespread corruption in his government and the police.

Some commentators thought his political touch started to desert him when she was in Canberra.

In 1987 he launched his ill-starred Canberra campaign, which succeeded only in ensuring Labor's return to office. Late in the year, his party deposed him.

Flo felt he'd been betrayed and flirted with the idea of quitting the party.

However she stayed on until, aged 72, she decided to retire in 1993. Even then, although less than enthusiastic about Liberal leader John Hewson's proposed GST, she campaigned for the Queensland Nationals.

By then the family was seriously in debt, partly because of a charge of perjury arising from the Fitzgerald inquiry against Joh. That ended inconclusively, with a hung jury and the crown deciding against a retrial.

In her later years, she spent most of her time at Bethany with her tribe of grandchildren. Joh died in 2005.

She wrote a cook book, which included her pumpkin scone recipe.

But she was clear that there was more to her than the scones.

"I like to feel I'll be remembered as someone who made pumpkin scones just as a sideline to the work she's done as a senator," she once said.

"I believe it's a homely image. It's one that relates to the women who make the scones and the men who eat them. And that's most of the people in Queensland."
A South Korean-born man who allegedly acted as an economic agent for North Korea by brokering sales and discussing the supply of software for weapons of mass destruction will remain behind bars for at least two months.

Chan Han Choi, 59, was arrested in suburban Eastwood on Saturday and faces six charges related to brokering the sale of missile componentry and expertise from North Korea to other international entities; and attempting to transfer coal from North Korea to entities in Indonesia and Vietnam.

Federal police allege he was generating tens of millions of dollars for the rogue nation, contrary to Australian and United Nations sanctions.

Choi appeared via audiovisual-link at Central Local Court on Wednesday when his matter was briefly heard and adjourned to February 28.

Outside court his barrister, Alex Radojev, said he was on his way to meet Choi for the first time.

He declined to comment on whether Choi understands the extent of the "very serious" charges, or how long it will take to prepare his case.

Choi, who has lived in Australia for three decades, is the first person in Australia to be charged with providing services for a weapons of mass destruction program and breaching UN sanctions against North Korea.

The maximum penalty for the offences is 10 years' imprisonment.

Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Gaughan on Sunday said there had been no risk to the Australian public and that no weapons, or missile componentry - which he said was software - had been imported into Australia.

He stressed Choi was trying to raise revenue for the North Korean government.

The AFP started investigating Choi after a tip-off from another international agency on another matter.

It's also launched an internal review after accidentally broadcasting on social media a meeting about Saturday's planned arrest three days before it happened.

An AFP officer in the video reportedly says they are not planning on "going in all guns blazing, it's only half-a-dozen people and a forensic van".

The post was quickly deleted but an AFP spokesman has now confirmed the erroneous broadcast did take place.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE LIFE OF LADY FLO

EARLY LIFE

* Born Florence Isabel Gilmour in Brisbane on August 11, 1920, she was affectionately known by the public as "Lady Flo" following her husband's knighthood in 1986.

* She first met Joh Bjelke-Petersen MP in 1950 while working as private secretary to the Queensland Commissioner for Main Roads. The couple went to parliament for their first date and married less than two years later.

KINGAROY

* A member of the Liberal Party in Brisbane, Ms Bjelke-Petersen not only converted to her husband's Country Party but changed from Presbyterianism to adopt his Lutheran faith.

* After their wedding, she moved with Bjelke-Petersen to his Kingaroy farm, Bethany.

* The couple had three daughters and a son between 1952 and 1960.

* Flo was a prominent member of the community and played the organ at the Kingaroy Lutheran church while running the farm's books.

POLITICS

* Flo was a politician in her own right, winning her place as a federal senator for the National Party of Queensland in 1980 aged 59. She retired in 1993 aged 72.

* Flo stood by her husband throughout his record breaking term as Queensland's premier between 1968 and 1987 and his subsequent fall from grace.

RETIREMENT

* In 1999, Flo published her cookbook "Classic Country Collection", which included her famous pumpkin scones.

* The former senator remained married to Sir Joh until his death in 2005. She spent the final years of her life at the Lutheran Services Orana Aged Care Service.

* After a short illness she passed away, aged 97, surrounded by loved ones on December 20, 2017.

FLO'S PUMPKIN SCONES

* Ingredients: One tablespoon butter, half a cup of sugar, a quarter teaspoon salt, one egg, one cup cold mashed pumpkin, two cups self raising flour.

* Beat together butter, sugar and salt with electric mixer. Add egg, then pumpkin and stir in the flour. Turn on to floured board and cut.

* Place in tray on top shelf of very hot oven 225C to 250C for 15 to 20 minutes.

REACTIONS TO DEATH

* LNP Qld leader Deb Frecklington: "You were a rock of our community and will be sadly missed & lovingly remembered. I will always cherish your support and guidance."

* LNP Senator for Qld Matthew Canavan: "A link to the past has been lost. She will continue to be remembered as a champion for the development of Qld to be the economic powerhouse that it is today."

* LNP Qld member for Broadwater David Crisafulli: "The way Lady Flo made every person she spoke with feel valued on this day is something we will never forget. A state funeral would be fitting."

* Qld Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk: "They were a loving couple and a formidable political pairing."
A man has been charged with a suspected targeted drive-by shooting at the NSW Hunter Valley home of a mum and her three children.

In the early hours of October 15, the woman and her three children were woken in their Kurri Kurri home by the sound of a motorcycle and other loud noises.

She discovered holes in windows and the lounge room wall, and called police.

On Wednesday, police arrested a 21-year-old man who they say is a nominee for bikie gang the Finks and charged him with firing a gun at a dwelling.

He was refused bail to appear at Wyong Local Court on Thursday.
Lady Flo Bjelke-Petersen has been remembered not only as a premier's wife, but a trailblazer who tirelessly served her community, Queensland and Australia.

The former National party senator and wife of Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen died at an aged care facility in Kingaroy on Wednesday afternoon at the age of 97.

The home's operator, Lutheran Services, said she was surrounded by family and loved ones, including her sister Margaret.

Federal Maranoa MP David Littleproud, whose electorate encompasses Kingaroy, said he wouldn't be where he was today were it not for the Bjelke-Petersens.

"My family and I joined the Nationals because of Sir Joh and Lady Flo's dedication to Queensland," he said in a statement.

"Their values, belief in reward for effort and commitment to community personified what being a Queenslander truly means."

Mr Littleproud said the state had lost a trailblazer, but Lady Bjelke-Petersen was a strong force who would never be forgotten.

Queensland Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington, whose seat of Nanango was previously held by Sir Bjelke-Petersen, also paid tribute, describing her as an "outstanding and much-loved Queenslander".

"She led a very full and successful life and was so-loved for her kindness, her genuine concern and care for others, her common sense and down-to-earth approach to life," she said in a statement.

"Rest-in-peace Lady Flo. You were a rock of our community and will be sadly missed and lovingly remembered.

"I will always cherish your support and guidance."

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull also paid tribute.

"Joh and Flo devoted their lives to Queensland and its success and dynamism owes so much to their vision and leadership," he tweeted.

But his tribute revived the divisive side of the Bjelke Petersens with many twitter users reminding the prime minister of the Fitzgerald inquiry and the corruption that clouded Sir Joh's government.

Deputy Prime Minister and Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce said Lady Flo was a pioneer of women in politics "especially as she did it in her own style".

"She was certainly a softer edge to the cut-through of Sir Joh," Mr Joyce said.

Funeral arrangements are yet to be announced but LNP MP David Crisafulli tweeted that a "state funeral would be fitting".
An Australian accountant arrested after he allegedly brought drugs into Indonesia may need to rely on diplomatic negotiations to avoid a possible death penalty, an international law expert believes.

Isaac Emmanuel Roberts, 35, was arrested following his arrival in Bali from Bangkok on December 4.

He is accused of carrying 19 grams of amphetamine and ecstasy pills in his luggage.

The University of Queensland's Melanie O'Brien said the punishment imposed upon Roberts could come down to negotiations between the Indonesian and Australian governments.

"Indonesia takes a very strong stance on drug offences so they don't like being told what to do by countries such as Australia but on the other hand Australia is an important country for Indonesia to have a good relationship with," she told AAP on Wednesday.

"They can't afford entirely to say: 'No, we're not going to engage in any kind of diplomacy over this issue'."

On Tuesday, Bali police paraded Roberts, dressed in orange prison garb and a balaclava, to journalists.

He was later taken to hospital, reportedly suffering shock after all the media attention.

Dr O'Brien said the addition of a balaclava over Roberts' face was a new technique for Indonesian police but the parading of foreigners accused of drug offences was a deliberate statement.
NRL star Jarryd Hayne is vehemently denying allegations he raped a drunk woman in the United States during his time as a professional gridiron player for the San Francisco 49ers.

A woman has filed a civil complaint in California which alleges Hayne took her back to his San Jose home after a 49ers game and raped her when she was drunk in 2015.

Documents lodged in a County of Santa Clara court state the woman had previously met some of Hayne's friends when working at a restaurant and a group went out drinking after the December 20 game.

According to court documents Hayne admitted he "hooked up" with the woman.

But Hayne's Sydney lawyer Ramy Qutami said in a statement his client "unequivocally and vehemently" denies the allegations of rape.

The victim says she was a virgin at the time of the alleged attack.

Her lawyer, John Clune, said that at the time his client was so intoxicated she was "unable to consent to sexual intercourse".

The woman is seeking monetary compensation for "emotional pain, anguish and severe distress".

A month after the alleged incident the woman reported the matter to police but, after an investigation, the Santa Clara County district attorney's office told her "there was not enough evidence to prove the crime of rape beyond a reasonable doubt".

Hayne's NRL club, Parramatta, said they were unaware of the allegations until Wednesday.

"As with any legal matter it is important we follow due process and ensure we review all relevant information available, including giving Jarryd the opportunity to respond," the club said in a statement.

The NRL said the organisation's integrity unit would monitor Hayne's case.

"We note the police in the United States did not proceed with any criminal proceedings but we will review the information available and continue to monitor the civil case," a spokesman said.
The South Australian government is expected to deliver a bigger surplus when it releases its mid-year budget review.

Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis will deliver the financial update on Thursday with the surplus for 2016/17 to come in at $443 million, $204 million more than originally forecast.

The better result comes on the back of increasing revenues, including a surge in payroll taxes, the Adelaide Advertiser has reported.

Mr Koutsantonis said he was confident the state was now emerging strongly from tough economic times and was well positioned for strong growth.

The mid-year budget review comes just three months out from the state election in March and clears the way for some significant spending promises.
Two men and a woman have been charged with various offences as part of an ongoing joint-agency investigation into alleged identity crime offences across Sydney.

The Identity Security Strike Team, involving NSW Police and Australian Federal Police, began Operation Loa in June to target mail theft, mobile telephone porting, and identity takeovers enabling large-scale fraud.

The ISST has previously charged seven alleged members of the syndicate who remain before the courts, and early this week charged a 33-year-old Horsley Park man, a 26-year-old man in West Ryde and a 26-year-old woman in Guildford. Police say further charges are expected.
Four patients at a Sydney children's hospital have been handed incorrect test results, with a medical error watchdog calling for improved laboratory monitoring systems.

The mistake at the Children's Hospital in Westmead has been described by NSW Health as an "isolated incident" due to "a human error in processing".

"We are nevertheless conducting an audit of other patients' samples as part of the comprehensive, independent review underway," chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said in a statement on Wednesday.

However, the Medical Error Action Group has questioned how certain the government is that the mix up is an isolated incident.

"By saying it is isolated, how do they know that?" founder Lorraine Long told ABC Radio on Thursday.

"Commenting on this is the first error reported, that worries me because errors go on all the time and most of them aren't reported."
A woman has multiple fractures after being hit twice by a car in a road rage incident in Sydney's innerwest.

The 49-year-old woman was standing on a road in Waterloo early on Thursday when she was run down by a female driver who she knew, NSW Police say.

The woman has undergone surgery at St Vincent's Hospital for multiple fractures and facial injuries and is in a stable condition.

The 50-year-old driver of the car fled but was later arrested at a home in Beverley Park, police said.

She is facing a string of charges including dangerous driving and failing to stop and will appear at the Downing Centre Local Court on January 15.
President of South Africa and of the African National Congress, Jacob Zuma speaks during a presidential Gala dinner at the NASREC Expo Centre in Johannesburg

The African National Congress (ANC), which elected Cyril Ramaphosa as its new leader Monday, has ruled South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994.

Ramaphosa is set become the country's president in case of electoral victory or if President Jacob Zuma steps down.

- Early days -

On January 8, 1912, influential blacks establish the South African Native National Congress (SANNC), two years after Britain and the descendants of Dutch settlers form the Union of South Africa in which only the rights of whites are protected.

In 1923, the SANNC changes its name to the African National Congress (ANC) but remains fairly inactive.

Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu start the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) in 1943.

- Apartheid -

In 1948, the National Party wins elections and introduces apartheid. The ANCYL advocates strikes, boycotts and civil disobedience.

The ANC organises its first large "Defiance Campaign" in 1952, and tens of thousands of blacks break curfews, burn internal passports, and enter whites-only areas, risking jail.

- Armed struggle -

On March 21, 1960, police kill 69 people during the Sharpeville Massacre. The ANC and an offshoot are banned amid a state of emergency.

The ANC goes underground in 1961 and abandons non-violent protest. Mandela starts the military wing Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) and launches attacks.

- Mandela imprisoned -

In 1962-63, Mandela, Sisulu and other ANC leaders are arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment.

The movement continues the struggle in exile from London, Dar es Salaam and Lusaka and allies itself with the Soviet bloc.

- Secret talks -

In the late 1980s, heavily criticised by the international community, the government begins secret talks with the ANC, which is now recognised by most countries as the legitimate representative of the black majority.

- Mandela freed -

In 1990, new South African president F.W. de Klerk legalises the ANC and other groups. He also frees political prisoners, including Mandela, who becomes the ANC president the next year.

Negotiations for the transition to democracy start and parliament scraps the remaining apartheid laws.

- Multi-racial elections -

On April 27, 1994, the ANC wins 62.6 percent of the vote in the first multi-racial elections. Mandela becomes South Africa's first black president.

- The Mbeki years -

Thabo Mbeki succeeds Mandela as president in 1999 but his two terms are tarnished by allegations of abuse of power and denialist policies over AIDS.

- Zuma replaces Mbeki -

Zuma becomes the country's first Zulu president in 2009 after the ANC wins 65.9 percent of the vote in the fourth general elections since the demise of apartheid.

Zuma had become ANC leader in late 2007, ousting Mbeki, who had fired him as vice-president two years earlier following corruption accusations.

- Fall from grace -

The ANC suffers a setback during municipal elections in 2016, taking less than 54 percent of the vote and losing an absolute majority in five of the six biggest metropolitan areas.

South Africa

On March 30, 2017, Zuma sacks finance minister Pravin Gordhan in a cabinet purge and stirs animosity among senior ANC leaders.

In June the ANC welcomes an investigation by South Africa's anti-corruption watchdog into several allies of Zuma allegedly linked to corruption at three state-owned companies. Zuma acknowledges that the ANC could lose the 2019 election.

In December, the party narrowly elects Cyril Ramaphosa to replace Zuma as leader ahead of the 2019 election.
An estimated 655,000 Rohingya refugees have poured across the border into Bangladesh since August, fleeing what the US and United Nations have described as ethnic cleansing

Bangladesh and Myanmar on Tuesday reaffirmed their commitment to begin repatriating Rohingya refugees from January, despite growing concern that their safety is still not assured should they return.

The foreign secretaries of Bangladesh and Myanmar met in Dhaka to finalise the agreement signed on November 23 for the voluntary return of nearly three-quarters of a million stateless Rohingya living in refugee camps along the border.

A new working group would "ensure commencement of repatriation within two months" by developing a timetable for the verification of refugee identities and logistics of their return, Bangladesh's foreign ministry said in a statement.

"Now, we will start the next step of our work," Bangladesh foreign minister A.H. Mahmood Ali told reporters after the meeting.

But there is growing doubt that the persecuted minority will be safe if returned to Rakhine state, where Doctors Without Borders said nearly 7,000 Rohingya were killed in a month of violence.

An estimated 655,000 refugees from the stateless group have poured across the border into Bangladesh since August, fleeing what the US and United Nations have described as ethnic cleansing.

UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said he had received no assurances that international observers would be allowed into northern Rakhine to monitor the return of the Rohingya.

"We have seen no interest or desire to invite my office in. So we are sceptical of that," he told AFP in an interview Monday.

Human Rights Watch on Monday, citing analysis of satellite imagery, said Myanmar's army burned down dozens of Rohingya homes within days of the signing of the repatriation deal.

The watchdog said the repatriation deal was "a public relations stunt" and warned the Rohingya would not be safe in Rakhine without guarantees of equal rights and protections.

The Rohingya have been the target of past pogroms in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, which does not recognise the group as a genuine ethnicity and has stripped them of citizenship.

- 'We want justice' -

Testimonies gathered by AFP from displaced Rohingya in Bangladesh suggest few refugees wish to return to Myanmar, where many saw their villages burned to ashes and loved ones killed.

"We will not go back to our country until our rights are afforded," said Rohingya refugee Roushan Ali from a camp in Bangladesh's southeast.

"We want full citizenship and the return of our land and property. We also want justice for our people who were slaughtered, tortured and raped."

British charity Oxfam said in a new report Tuesday that many Rohingya were terrified of returning and unwilling to consider it without guarantees of safety.

Conditions remain bleak in Bangladesh's displacement camps, with an outbreak of diphtheria having killed 19 refugees so far, the International Organization for Migration said Tuesday.

Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said major security operations against Rohingya militants stopped in early September.

Responding to international pressure, Suu Kyi's civilian government signed an agreement with Bangladesh to start the repatriation of the stateless Muslim refugees within two months.

The agreement promises the "safe and voluntary return" of displaced Rohingya in Bangladesh -- not just the latest 655,000 new arrivals but more than 70,000 from a separate influx in October 2016.

In a joint statement Tuesday after a meeting in Colombo, the leaders of Sri Lanka and Malaysia -- the latter home to a sizeable Rohingya diaspora -- called for the repatriation process to be "undertaken expeditiously".

Aid groups have warned Myanmar they would boycott any new camps for Rohingya returnees, saying refugees must be allowed to settle in their own homes and not forced into ghetto-like conditions.

burs/np/mtp
Philippine Navy Chief Vice-Admiral Ronald Joseph Mercado (R) salutes as he reviews sailors on a visiting Russian warship in January: now he has been abruptly sacked

The commander of the Philippine Navy was abruptly sacked Tuesday in a surprise move which a legislator and news reports linked to a dispute about a contract for warships.

Vice Admiral Ronald Joseph Mercado was replaced by Rear Admiral Robert Empedrad in compliance with "the instructions from higher authorities", said military spokesman Colonel Edgard Arevalo.

"The reason for this change of command will be explained in due time," Arevalo said in a statement.

The navy spokesman, Captain Lued Lincuna, likewise referred queries about Mercado's sudden dismissal to "higher authorities".

Mercado was reassigned to a subordinate post.

The head of the Philippine military, as well as the army, navy and air force chiefs, are appointed by the president.

President Rodrigo Duterte, who was scheduled to speak at the military's 82nd anniversary Wednesday, has not commented publicly on Mercado's dismissal.

House of Representatives member Gary Alejano, spokesman for a political party made up of former military rebels, called on Congress to launch a public inquiry into the navy chief's dismissal, which he described as "highly unusual and unceremonious".

"I suspect that this has something to do with the lingering issue of the Navy's frigate acquisition project," Alejano said in a statement.

The government last year signed a contract with South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries to build two frigates for the Philippine Navy.

Alejano said his party is aware Mercado had opposed the Hyundai deal, though the legislator gave no other details.

"This is an important issue considering that this involves around 18 billion pesos ($358 million) of the (military) modernisation fund," he added.

Media reports said Mercado had been critical of the "combat management system" that was to be installed in the warships.

The Philippine Navy has become run down in recent decades and even featured US craft from World War II until Duterte's predecessor Benigno Aquino begun a modest modernisation programme in 2010.

The project, which included acquiring two former US coast guard cutters and three landing craft from Australia, was prompted by a dispute with China over waters and islands in the South China Sea.

But Duterte has since backed away from asserting his country's maritime claims and focused on repairing ties with Beijing.
FARGO  A Cass County District Court judge on Tuesday, Dec. 19, set the bail amount for a former Fargo priest who faces child sexual abuse charges at $5 million cash only  a stratospheric amount nearly unheard of in area courtrooms.

Prosecutors had asked for the amount, arguing that Fernando Laude Sayasaya posed a flight risk, given that he fled to the Philippines about 15 years ago and never returned of his own volition, even though he told investigators at the time that he would return.

Sayasaya is now being held in the Cass County Jail after federal law enforcement officials worked with Filipino authorities to extradite him to the U.S.

Sayasaya said little during a video court hearing Tuesday, Dec. 19, politely answering questions from Judge Susan Bailey. Sayasayas next court hearing is scheduled for Jan. 18.

In 2002, Sayasaya was charged in Cass County District Court with two felony counts of gross sexual imposition.

The charges allege Sayasaya sexually touched two boys under the age of 15 on more than one occasion. In interviews with police, the victims said Sayasaya would touch or attempt to touch their penises and other private parts during times they visited Sayasaya at his apartment. One boy told police Sayasaya would show pornographic movies and serve him alcohol.

Sayasaya was an associate pastor at St. Marys Cathedral in Fargo and at Blessed Sacrament in West Fargo. He was removed from his priestly duties in the Fargo Diocese in August 1998 after two brothers accused him of sexually assaulting them.

Officials in the Philippines had been trying to extradite Sayasaya since a court there ordered him to be extradited in December 2010. Sayasaya appealed the order, but it was upheld in 2012 when a warrant for Sayasaya was issued.

A federal indictment was returned on Sayasaya in January 2003 when he failed to return to the U.S. following a visit to the Philippines around Christmas 1998.

The Philippine government arrested Sayasaya about a month ago, and he was returned to Fargo over the weekend.
"We believe a diplomatic solution to the crisis is essential and possible," Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland (left) told a joint press conference with visiting US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (right)

Canada and the United States announced Tuesday they will host a summit of foreign ministers in Vancouver on January 16, including envoys from Japan and South Korea, to seek progress on the North Korean nuclear crisis.

"We believe a diplomatic solution to the crisis is essential and possible," Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told a joint press conference with visiting US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Tillerson said the meeting would seek to further increase pressure on North Korea to come to the table to negotiate an end to its nuclear program.

This could include "other steps that could be taken to put additional pressure on the regime in North Korea," as well as preparing for the prospects of talks, he said.

"We (will) continue to find ways to advance the pressure campaign against North Korea," Tillerson said, "to send North Korea a unified message from the international community that we will not accept you as... a nuclear weapons nation, and that all of us share one policy and one goal -- the full complete verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula."

"It's all intended to lead to talks. Otherwise we wouldn't need to do this. We would just go straight to the military option," he said.

"The White House supports diplomatic talks," Tillerson added, dismissing suggestions of a rift between US President Donald Trump and his chief diplomatic.

Freeland said Canada and the United States "are aligned with the rest of the world in our position that these provocative and illegal acts cannot be tolerated. We fully support regional and international efforts to address the North Korean threat and the work of the UN Security Council."

The so-called Vancouver Group will also include Australia, Belgium, Britain, Colombia, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Turkey.

Throughout the afternoon, Tillerson and Freeland also discussed Canada-US border security, North American defense, energy and environmental cooperation, and the ongoing renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which binds the two countries with Mexico to form the world's second-largest trading bloc after the EU.

They also discussed the plight of the Rohingya in Myanmar and "the potential for a peacekeeping mission" in Ukraine.

Freeland will travel to Ukraine to meet with government officials on Wednesday.

As well, said Freeland, she and Tillerson considered "the crisis in Venezuela and what actions we can take individually, together and in cooperation with the Lima group... to address the deteriorating political, economic and humanitarian situation there."

Canada hosted foreign ministers of 12 countries of the Americas in October to try to find ways to cool the fierce power struggle that had been raging for months between President Nicolas Maduro's left-wing nationalist government and the center-right opposition.

Later Tuesday, Tillerson was to meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau before heading back to Washington.
Turkey's Iyi ("Good") Party chairman Meral Aksener, the country's first female interior minister between 1996 and 1997, says she is likely to stand against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2019 elections

A dissident Turkish nationalist who founded a new political party and is now viewed as a possible rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to scrap her opponent's vision of a super-presidency if elected.

Meral Aksener, 61, Turkey's first female interior minister between 1996 and 1997, told AFP in an interview that she was likely to stand against Erdogan in the next presidential polls.

Aksener broke away from Turkey's traditional nationalist party, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), to establish her Iyi ("Good") Party in October.

Analysts rate Aksener's break with the MHP as a significant development in Turkish politics which could lure conservative votes away from Erdogan.

In an April 2017 referendum, Turkey narrowly approved constitutional changes backed by Erdogan to create an executive presidency that opponents fear will lead the way to one-man rule.

The changes should come into force after November 2019, when Turkey will hold simultaneous parliamentary and presidential elections for the first time.

"We have put the promise to bring it (a parliamentary system) back in our programme because this ... presidency, which has arisen in Turkey, is a strange outcome," Aksener said.

She said her colleagues "want" her to run as the Good Party's presidential candidate in the 2019 polls.

"Today it seems like I will be (the candidate) and I am willing," she added.

But she said her party was also planning for possible snap general and presidential elections, as speculation mounts that Erdogan and his team may attempt to preempt any downturn in the economy.

One election date rumoured in the press is July 15, 2018, the second anniversary of the attempted overthrow of Erdogan in the failed coup.

- First female president -

One of the challenges Aksener faces is the 10-percent threshold a party needs to enter parliament but she insisted the group would have no "problem" meeting that benchmark.

Pollster Gezici, whose pre-referendum poll was near accurate, said last month that the party could get 19.5 percent of the vote while Aksener said party surveys show it could get as much as 20.5 percent.

Pollster Gezici, whose pre-referendum poll was near accurate, said last month that Aksener's party could get 19.5 percent of the vote

Another pollster, Metropoll, put the party's vote share at 8.5 percent, but said it had the potential to pass the threshold.

If Aksener wins, she would become Turkey's first female president. Turkey has had one female prime minister in its 94-year history: the conservative Tansu Ciller, who served between 1993 and 1996.

Aksener was a close aide to Ciller in the 1990s as they were both members of the conservative True Path Party.

But Aksener dismissed comparisons with far-right EU politicians like Marine Le Pen of France's National Front, describing herself as a nationalist and conservative with regards to Islam.

"There is a big difference between European nationalism and the understanding of nationalism existing in Turkey," she said, sitting in front of an image of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk who founded the republic in 1923 from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire.

Aksener stressed that racism could not be found in the rhetoric of Turkish nationalists, who, according to her, "have never adopted such an approach".

One of Aksener's symbols during the campaign was a henna tattoo of the Turkish flag on the inside of her hand.

- Turkey's 'Iron Lady' -

Aksener, who has also been dubbed Turkey's 'Iron Lady' in a nod to the late former British premier Margaret Thatcher, suggested any government led by her party would mend ties with the West.

If she wins, Aksener would become Turkey's first female president, but she said she would scrap Erdogan's vision of a super-presidency

This year, Turkey has had a series of diplomatic rows with its Western and NATO allies, in particular Germany and the United States.

"We think the issues with the West can be resolved," she said, pointing to Ataturk's famous slogan for Turkish foreign policy: "Peace at home, peace in the world."

Aksener said she supported negotiations to join the European Union, telling AFP that talks should continue. But she urged the bloc to open chapters, or policy areas, regarding security and judicial issues in long-stalled accession talks that began in 2005.

Only 16 chapters have been opened out of a total of 35 since 2005, even though Ankara's bid to be a part of the bloc dates back to the 1960s.
Reza Zarrab, 34, was arrested by US authorities in March 2016 after jetting to Florida with his pop-star wife and child on a family holiday to Disney World

A US jury will begin deliberations Wednesday on whether to convict a Turkish banker of violating sanctions on Iran in a trial straining relations between Ankara and Washington and hinging on testimony from a flamboyant gold trader.

US government prosecutors and defense lawyers delivered closing arguments in a Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, as the more than three-week trial captivating Turkey judders toward a close in New York.

Deputy chief executive of Turkish lender Halkbank, Mehmet Hakan Atilla, is in the dock accused of violating sanctions against Iran, bribery and money laundering.

But the most explosive aspect of the trial has been testimony from fellow accused, turned cooperating witness Reza Zarrab, who admitted being involved in the multi-billion-dollar gold-for-oil scheme to subvert US economic sanctions against Iran.

His testimony implicated former Turkish ministers and even President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the scheme, and identified 47-year-old Atilla as a key organizer.

"If you believe it then Mr Atilla is guilty," defense lawyer Victor Rocco told jurors on Tuesday. "But should you believe Mr Zarrab?"

That is the question jurors will now have to decide.

Zarrab, 34, was arrested by US authorities in March 2016 after jetting to Florida with his pop-star wife and child on a family holiday to Disney World. Shortly before the trial got underway, he cut an apparent plea bargain.

- 'Liar' -

But in the words of Rocco, Zarrab is a "liar and a briber" who threw the book at Atilla only in the hope of himself avoiding a US prison sentence.

His client, he insisted, was an "honest, hard working man," who was "not corrupt" and "has never been bribed."

Atilla took the stand for two and a half days, denying that he had ever been in "any meeting where violating the sanctions were discussed."

But US prosecutor Michael Lockard called him "a man of big and little lies" who lied about everything from his grasp of English to what he knew about sanctions.

Atilla was Halkbank's "sanctions fixer," said fellow assistant US attorney Sidhardha Kamaraju, who alleged he took the risk of travelling to the United States in March 2017, after Zarrab's arrest, so certain was he of Turkish protection.

"He thought he was too big to jail," Kamaraju said.

Any conviction risks further straining relations between Erdogan and President Donald Trump, already damaged by rows over the Syria conflict and US prosecution of Turkish presidential bodyguards.

It could also lead to US sanctions on the Turkish banking sector, beginning with Halkbank. The Turkish lender denies any suggestion that it violated US sanctions, saying it had "not been a party" to any "illegal" transaction.
Meryl Streep stars as The Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham in "The Post"

At a time when the media is being accused of peddling "fake news," Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks are bringing Hollywood star power to a movie celebrating journalism and the virtues of a free press.

"The Post," which comes out in theaters in the United States on Friday, recounts the nail-biting behind-the-scenes story of the 1971 publication by The Washington Post of the Pentagon Papers, which exposed the lies behind US involvement in the Vietnam War.

Directed by Spielberg, whose long list of credits includes "Saving Private Ryan," "Schindler's List," "Jaws" and "E.T.," "The Post" stars Streep as aristocratic Post publisher Katharine Graham and Hanks as the newspaper's scrappy executive editor Ben Bradlee.

The drama at the heart of the film revolves around Graham's decision to go ahead and publish the Pentagon Papers, a move which could have had potentially fatal consequences for the family newspaper she took over eight years earlier upon the suicide of her husband.

The Pentagon Papers, leaked by whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, were a 7,000-page classified report which determined -- contrary to the public assertions of US government officials -- that the Vietnam conflict was unwinnable.

Director Steven Spielberg arrives for the premiere of "The Post" in Washington DC

The New York Times published excerpts until the administration of president Richard Nixon obtained a court injunction barring the newspaper from continuing to do so on national security grounds.

That's where the Post stepped in, braving legal and financial peril to take up the torch.

Spielberg, Streep and Hanks attended a screening of "The Post" at the shrine to journalism, the Newseum, in Washington last week, located just a few blocks from the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Not present but looming over the event was President Donald Trump, who has waged a vitriolic campaign against media outlets he believes are unfair to him.

Trump has been particularly scathing about CNN and The New York Times but he has also repeatedly attacked the Post, calling it "dishonest," "phony" and -- his favorite -- "fake news."

He refers to the newspaper in his tweets as the "Amazon Washington Post," a reference to Jeff Bezos, the owner of online retail giant Amazon who purchased the Post from the Graham family in 2013.

- 'A movie about patriotism' -

Speaking to reporters on the red carpet at the Newseum screening, Spielberg, Hanks and Streep -- once dismissed by Trump as "overrated" -- were reluctant to call out the president by name and downplayed suggestions the movie was a shot across the bow of his White House.

Tom Hanks, his wife, Rita Wilson, and Marty Baron, executive editor of The Washington Post, at the premiere of "The Post" in Washington DC

"I think it's very, very important that our movie is seen not as a political, partisan play on the part of what they call the liberal media or Hollywood," Spielberg said.

"I see it not as a partisan movie," he said, "but a movie about patriotism and a movie about the courageous media, the Fourth Estate, and what they did to be able to get the Pentagon Papers published, which then led to Watergate."

Watergate, of course, was the subject of a 1976 Hollywood blockbuster in which The Washington Post also played a starring role -- "All the President's Men" featuring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

Despite Spielberg's protestations, reviewers are finding parallels inescapable between "The Post" and its championing of the media and the non-stop vilification of the press by Trump.

"('The Post') takes you back to a time when the outcome was precarious, and the freedoms we thought we took for granted hung in the balance," said Variety. "Just as they do today."

For The New Yorker, "The Post" is "not a period movie."

"Instead, it is squarely addressed to the present day, striving for the urgency of a headline," it said. "The film is here to warn us of fresh threats to press freedom."
President Donald Trump thanked congressional leaders for driving through what he called "the largest tax cut in the history of our country"

Donald Trump celebrated a "historic" victory Wednesday as the US Congress passed a massive Republican tax cut plan, handing the president his first major legislative achievement since taking office nearly a year ago.

The House of Representatives voted along party lines to greenlight a $1.5 trillion overhaul that will impact every corner of the US economy through dramatic tax cuts for corporations and temporary reductions for individuals.

Opposition Democrats have branded the tax plan a giveaway to the wealthiest that risks blowing a hole in the national debt, but the revamp fulfills a core Trump campaign pledge to redirect money from government coffers into the pockets of working Americans.

"We broke every record," a jubilant Trump told scores of elated Republicans gathered at the White House for a victory lap, thanking them for driving through "the largest tax cut in the history of our country."

"We are making America great again," he declared, in a melee of smiles and handshakes with lawmakers -- who took turns to sing the president's praises.

"Something this big, something this generational, something this profound could not have been done without exquisite presidential leadership," gushed House Speaker Paul Ryan, as fellow lawmakers applauded.

The most sweeping rewrite of the US tax code in decades, the bill represents Trump's most important legislative victory in the 11 months since his inauguration, until now marked by the stinging failure to repeal his predecessor's health care law.

Billing it as a "Christmas gift" and a "history victory" for the American people, Trump and his Republicans hope their success in passing tax cuts plays to the party's advantage in next year's mid-term elections.

President Donald Trump bows his head in prayer during an address from the Cabinet Room to celebrate the imminent adoption of the Republican tax cut plan

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act also takes a major step toward crippling Obamacare, by scrapping the individual mandate that requires nearly all Americans to have health insurance or pay a fine.

"With this bill... we have essentially repealed Obamacare and we will come up with something that's much better," Trump declared.

Trump earlier gathered his cabinet members for a meeting where he discussed the tax accomplishment, and that gave way to an extraordinary scene as the president invited those present to join in prayer.

Housing Secretary Ben Carson, a fervent member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, proceeded to say grace, thanking God for giving America Trump and his tax cut plan.

"We're thankful for the unity in Congress that has presented an opportunity for our economy to expand so that we can fight corrosive debt that has been destroying our future," Carson intoned.

- Changing minds -

Having taken months to get across the finish line, the bill was delayed at the last moment Tuesday after a technical glitch required the Senate to strip three minor provisions from the bill before approving it overnight.

Since the House had already voted -- and the versions approved by both chambers must be identical -- it was forced to vote again on the changes. The bill passed the House 224 to 201, with 12 Republicans siding with all Democrats in voting no.

US President Donald Trump has called his tax plan the largest tax cut in the country's history

The measure tests conservatives' fidelity to the principle of fiscal discipline, as it is projected to add nearly $1.5 trillion to the national debt over the coming decade, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.

That figure drops to about $1 trillion when economic growth is accounted for.

Trump had leaned heavily on Republicans to push the contentious package through Congress. The party had been deeply fractured after the Obamacare repeal failure, and the prospects of success on tax reform in 2017 appeared remote.

The reform remains unpopular: a CNN poll shows that 55 percent of Americans oppose the tax plan, widely criticized as favoring wealthy people over the middle class, while just 33 percent support it.

But Republicans have pushed back at that notion, with Ryan predicting that Americans would be won over once they start to reap the benefits next year.

"I think people are going to change their view on this," he said.

The tax bill slashes the federal corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, and the maximum individual income tax rate, for the nation's wealthiest, would drop from 39.6 percent to 37 percent.

It also doubles the standard deduction for families, and doubles the child tax credit, while eliminating or limiting several deductions currently claimed by millions of middle-class families.

- Economic 'rocket fuel' -

Comparative corporate tax rates

Ryan stated that a median-income family of four earning $73,000 annually would save $2,059 in taxes next year.

But he could not say whether the tax cuts would generate enough economic growth to pay for themselves.

Trump however was bullish. "By cutting taxes and reforming the broken system, we are now pouring rocket fuel into the engine of our economy," he said.

Democrats meanwhile trashed the plan's implications for ordinary citizens.

"It is a victory for billionaires like Donald Trump... but this is a disaster for the American people," independent Senator Bernie Sanders told CNN.

Under the law, the corporate tax cuts are permanent, while those for individuals phase out beginning in 2026. By 2027, the Tax Policy Center warns, 53 percent of households will see their taxes rise.
Vandals have taken a hammer to a 115 million year-old dinosaur footprint at a world renowned site in Australia, with officials Wednesday slamming the 'sad and callous' act.

The footprint of the medium-sized theropod was found by palaeontologists in 2006 at Flat Rocks in Victoria state - one of only a handful of polar, or ice-age, dinosaur sites in the world.

Last week officials discovered it had been deliberately damaged as they took a school group to see it.

Vandals have taken a hammer to a 115 million year-old Australian dinosaur footprint (pictured)

The footprint of the meat-eating theropod dinosaur (pictured before it was vandalised)

'It is sad to think a person or persons who knew the location of the footprint would deliberately damage an important local icon that is recognised as being of international scientific significance,' said Parks Victoria ranger Brian Martin.

Soon after its 2006 discovery palaeontologists made a silicon rubber mould of the find.

But rather than remove and store it at a museum, they decided to leave it in the rock, so visitors could have the thrill of seeing it in its natural state.

It is located at an area known as the Dinosaur Dreaming site within the rocky Bunurong Marine Park, discovered in 1991 and which has yielded thousands of bones and teeth.

Parks Victoria said the footprint was significant as it represented a moment frozen in time when a meat-eating dinosaur stood on that spot.

This differs from the recovery of bones from fossil layers in the area that have been deposited there by ancient fast-flowing rivers.

The footprint was significant as it represented a moment frozen in time when a meat-eating dinosaur (pictured) stood on that spot

Dinosaur footprint was found at Flat Rocks in Victoria (pictured) by palaeontologists in 2006

Mike Cleeland, from the Bunurong Environment Centre, said he hoped the footprint could be repaired.

'The thrill of seeing a real dinosaur footprint has been diminished with the callous act of vandalism,' he said.

'Fortunately, I was able to retrieve some of the broken pieces of the footprint and hopefully the technicians at Museum Victoria may be able to restore the footprint to some degree.'
Traditional keshmesh khanas, Dari for raisin houses, have long been used by Afghans to desiccate bunches of grapes by hanging them on sticks roughly threaded across the room

Afghan farmer Abdul Jalil Gulzar sits by a pile of raisins in the squat mud brick shed where generations of his family have dried their grape harvest.

Such traditional huts have long been used to hang and desiccate the fruit, but now the keshmesh khanas -- the Dari term for raisin houses -- are getting a facelift as Afghanistan looks to improve its yield.

The country once accounted for 10 percent of the global raisin market, but nearly four decades of conflict have driven its share of the world market down to just 2-3 percent.

In a bid to boost productivity and earnings, the agriculture ministry and aid groups are financing new modern khanas.

Afghanistan once accounted for 10 percent of the global raisin market, but nearly four decades of conflict have driven its share of the world market down to just 2-3 percent

"The new raisin house has much more capacity and they have a single purpose (to dry the grapes)," Gulzar told AFP inside the rustic khana built by his father in Dhi Sabz district near Kabul.

The Afghan agricultural sector, is the main driver of the economy and biggest employer.

Hajji Malek Zabet shows off his new brick raisin house near the Afghan capital. Inside the cement-floored room are neat rows of metal hanging racks where grapes drape down like vines in a jungle.

Afghanistan boasts nearly 100 varieties of grapes which are grown across the country and celebrated in popular poetry, nursery rhymes and proverbs.

In the absence of a winemaking industry, which is prohibited in the Islamic country, many farmers turn their grapes into raisins which are easier to conserve and bring a higher price.

Fresh grapes sell for an average of 300 afghanis (about $4.50) for seven kilogrammes, while just one kilogramme of raisins fetches more than 1,000 afghanis

Fresh grapes sell for an average of 300 afghanis (about $4.50) for seven kilogrammes, while just one kilogramme of raisins fetches more than 1,000 afghanis.

Though the profits are nothing compared to the amount farmers can reap from what is now Afghanistan's biggest export: opium, the lifeblood of the Taliban insurgency and an economic lynchpin for many Afghans.

A recent UN report showed that the area under poppy cultivation has hit a record high, underscoring the importance of providing farmers with successful alternatives.

- Holding to the old ways -

Afghanistan produced nearly 900,000 tonnes of grapes last year. However it only exported a fraction -- 111,000 tonnes of fresh grapes and 15,000 tonnes of raisins, according to government data.

Afghanistan produced nearly 900,000 tonnes of grapes last year. However it only exported a fraction -- 111,000 tonnes of fresh grapes and 15,000 tonnes of raisins, according to government data

A lack of cold storage facilities and strict import requirements in many overseas markets means the bulk of Afghanistan's grape crop ends up being sold in local bazaars at harvest time, causing a glut and driving down prices.

"Basically these new keshmesh khanas have three effects: they remove fresh grapes from the market and improve the quality of the process and product, and support prices," said Abdul Samad Kamawi, national horticulture coordinator at the agriculture ministry.

But even with the improvements, Afghanistan's rudimentary growing and processing methods means accessing export markets beyond Pakistan, India, the UAE and Russia is difficult.

New modern brick raisin houses are replacing the traditional mud huts used in Afghanistan. Inside the cement-floored room are neat rows of metal hanging racks where grapes drape down like vines in a jungle

"Despite their know-how Afghans are still struggling to meet European criteria which are increasingly stringent," a Western importer told AFP.

Some companies are going hi-tech to lift the quality of their raisins.

Tabasom, a major exporter, has two production lines in Kabul equipped with X-ray machines and metal detectors to ensure only the best raisins are packed and sent abroad.

Afghanistan boasts nearly 100 varieties of grapes which are grown across the country and celebrated in popular poetry, nursery rhymes and proverbs

The drying process in the new brick and cement khanas is quicker and cleaner, but Gulzar is stubbornly keeping his earthen raisin house where his family often seeks shelter during the hot summer months.

"They are cooler," he said, sitting happily on the dirt floor surrounded by hay and bunches of garlic.
Firefighters lighting backfires as they try to contain the Thomas wildfire in Ojai, California

Fierce hurricanes, heat waves, floods and wildfires ravaged the planet in 2017, as scientists said the role of climate change in causing or worsening certain natural disasters has grown increasingly clear.

It was also the year the world's second largest polluter, the United States, turned its back on the 196-nation Paris climate deal meant to limit global warming to under two degrees Celsius (1.5 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels.

President Donald Trump, who has dismissed global warming as a Chinese hoax, vowed to quit the 2015 Paris accord and tapped fossil fuel allies to key environmental posts.

His administration also dropped climate change from the list of national security threats, announced plans to auction off vast swaths of the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling, and signed a proposal to eliminate the Clean Power Plan, aimed at limiting the release of polluting greenhouse gases.

Trump says the goal is to make America a dominant source of energy for the world, and to create jobs.

"Together, we are going to start a new energy revolution -- one that celebrates American production on American soil," Trump said in June.

In October, Trump signed a proclamation to make America a net energy exporter by 2026, reviving the coal industry and seeking to access the estimated $50 trillion in untapped shale, oil, and natural gas reserves, particularly on federal lands.

While the fossil fuel industry has applauded the moves, scientists have expressed alarm.

"The Trump administration, in less than a year, has done more to undermine climate policy than even the worst previous administration on climate (i.e. George W Bush) had done over the course of two full terms," said Michael Mann, a climatologist and geophysicist at Pennsylvania State University, in an email to AFP.

Mann blamed the conservative billionaire Koch brothers and fossil fuel lobbyists for essentially running US environmental policy under the Trump administration.

"They must be stopped," he added, because their actions "pose an existential threat to us and our children and grandchildren."

- 'New normal' -

People walking through the flooded waters of Telephone Rd. in Houston battled with tropical storm Harvey and resulting floods

The more fossil fuels we burn, the hotter the planet becomes due to the accumulation of heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

The world is currently on track for its third warmest year in modern times.

Experts say global warming can make certain events, like floods, drought and hurricanes, more frequent and sometimes worse.

Among the fiercest storms seen this year were severe monsoon rains in Bangladesh, India and Nepal that killed more than 1,200 people and affected 40 million people, destroying homes, livestock and crops, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Spain and Portugal have grappled with a deadly drought that dried up rivers, killed crops and fueled wildfires.

Meanwhile, an unusually active hurricane season roiled the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean with 17 big storms, the most since 2005.

Major, deadly hurricanes included Harvey, which flooded Texas with 50 inches (125 centimeters) of rain in some places. The massively powerful Irma devastated the Caribbean and Florida, while Maria flattened much of Puerto Rico.

California Governor Jerry Brown, whose state is currently battling its third largest wildfire since 1932, spoke this month of how such devastation could be the "new normal."

"This could be something that happens every year or every few years," Brown told reporters.

That phrase was echoed in the 2017 Arctic Report Card, an international peer-reviewed report on the fragile Arctic, which is warming at twice the pace of the rest of the world.

"The Arctic environmental system has reached a 'new normal,'" that will raise sea levels, alter weather patterns and unleash more extreme weather across the globe, it said.

- US 'doubling down' -

Solar panel debris scattered in a solar panel field in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Humacao, Puerto Rico

Just as extreme are the differing actions around the world to address climate change.

China, the world's biggest polluter, just unveiled plans for a national carbon market likely to become the world's largest exchange for emissions credits -- earning praise from environmentalists.

At a Paris summit this month, banks and companies pledged to move billions of dollars out of coal, oil and natural gas.

The United States, however, is "doubling down on fossil fuels to power the nation and the world," said Julia Olson of the Children's Trust, which along with dozens of US children is suing the US government for failing to protect the nation's air, land and water.

Peter Gleick, a president-emeritus of the Pacific Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, said Trump's actions will reverberate for decades.

"Just as human-caused climate change is accelerating and having an increasingly clear impact on disasters and extreme weather events, the US administration is turning its back on climate science and policies that are needed to protect the American people, property, and the environment," he told AFP.

"The anti-science agenda of the Trump administration will, without doubt, lead to preventable deaths and disasters, and is inexcusable."
Some 655,000 Rohingya have fled over the border to Bangladesh

Myanmar's army said it found 10 corpses in a mass grave in a largely Rohingya village in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state, the epicentre of a violent military crackdown that triggered a mass exodus of the Muslim minority.

Northern Rakhine has been gutted by violence that erupted on August 25, when the military launched a sweeping operation against Rohingya rebels who attacked police posts.

Since then hundreds of villages have been torched and some 655,000 Rohingya have fled over the border to Bangladesh.

Doctors Without Borders says at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed in the first month of violence, while the UN has accused the army of waging an ethnic cleansing campaign with possible "elements of genocide".

Myanmar, a mainly Buddhist country, has aggressively denied the charges and largely blocked off access to the conflict zone.

Late Tuesday the army said it had exhumed 10 bodies in a grave discovered earlier in the week in Inn Dinn, a village in Rakhine's Maungdaw township.

"An investigation is being carried out to uncover the truth behind the grave," said a statement published on the army chief's Facebook page, alongside blurred photos of skeletal bodies being dug out of a pit.

"Action will be taken according to the law if security members are found to be involved in the case," the statement added.

One member of the team that unearthed the corpses told AFP, on condition of anonymity, that the bodies' state of decay suggested they had not been killed recently.

"We cannot differentiate who the dead bodies were because we only saw their skeletons and bones," he said.

The discovery of the mass grave comes one week after the arrest of two Reuters journalists who have closely covered the crisis in Rakhine.

The area has been out of bounds to the media since the military crackdown began with the exception of closely-monitored press trips organised by authorities.

Myanmar has also blocked a UN fact-finding team from accessing the area to probe allegations of rights abuses.

Myanmar reporters Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, who have not been seen since December 12, have been charged for allegedly possessing documents relating to security forces in Rakhine.

Their families, lawyers and colleagues have not been told where the two are, nor been allowed any contact with them.

Reuters did not immediately confirm what the journalists were working on or if their investigation was linked to the mass grave in Inn Din.

The arrests have deepened concerns about fragile press freedoms in the emerging democracy.

Human Rights Watch on Wednesday demanded the pair's immediate release, echoing similar calls from the EU, US and UN.

"Their secret, incommunicado detention lays bare government efforts to silence media reporting on critical issues," said Human Rights Watch Asia Director Brad Adams.

The reporters face a maximum sentence of 14 years in jail under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act.
Panda faeces and food debris are being recycled into toilet paper and napkins for a 'panda poo' product line

When life gave one Chinese company giant panda poop, it decided to make paper -- and profits.

The Qianwei Fengsheng Paper Company in southwest Sichuan province has teamed up with the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda to recycle the animal's faeces and food debris into toilet paper, napkins and other household products, state media reported Wednesday.

The goods, soon to be released on the Chinese market, will be marketed as part of a "panda poo" product line decorated with a picture of the bamboo-eating, black-and-white bear.

"They're taking care of our garbage for us," Huang Yan, a researcher at the giant panda centre, told the Chengdu Business Daily.

Huang told Xinhua state news agency that the 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of bamboo poo that adult pandas unleash daily are rich in fibre after absorbing the fructose from the shoots.

Adult pandas produce about 10 kilos of fibre-rich poo a day, and 50 kilos of food waste from the bamboo husks they spit out

In addition to their valuable dung, pandas also produce 50 kilograms of food waste every day from the bamboo husks they spit out after chewing.

While the process of turning bamboo into paper generally involves the breaking down of fructose to extract fibre, this step naturally occurs in the pandas' digestive tract, the paper company's president, Yang Chaolin, told Xinhua.

Fengsheng will collect the faeces from three panda bases in Sichuan a couple of times a week. After it is boiled, pasteurised and turned into paper, it will be tested for bacteria before going on sale.

Boxes of "panda poo" tissues will be sold at 43 yuan ($6.5) a pop.

"Pandas get what they want and we do too," Yang said. "It's a win-win."
The Public Service Commission strongly urged developers of a refinery proposed near Theodore Roosevelt National Park to apply for a siting permit Wednesday, cautioning that proceeding without one could delay construction if someone files a legal challenge.

Commissioners pressed representatives of Meridian Energy about why theyre not applying for a siting permit, which state law requires for refineries that process 50,000 barrels of oil per day.

Meridian initially promoted the Davis Refinery as expanding up to 55,000 barrels per day, but recently changed the figure on its website to 49,500 barrels.

It puts you within the boundaries of the law, but it doesnt sit well with folks, Commissioner Julie Fedorchak said during a two-hour discussion with the company. It looks like youre just barely skirting the siting requirements.

Meridian CEO Bill Prentice said the company plans to construct a refinery capable of refining 27,500 barrels per day, and its possible the refinery could expand in the future.

We want to be clear. Our current plan is 27,500. Whatever we do after that will depend on the markets, particularly the capital markets, Prentice said.

Commissioners said inconsistencies provided by the company about the capacity and cost of the facility have created confusion with the public, which is why they invited Meridian to discuss the project.

Fedorchak said some companies are proactive and go through the siting process for smaller facilities on the front end if they anticipate expanding.

Other state agencies are reviewing air and water permits for the refinery, but those reviews are more narrowly focused. The PSC permitting process is more comprehensive, with the goal of ensuring orderly energy development with minimal impacts on the environment.

I know you dont have to do it, but I think theres a lot of compelling reasons why you should, Fedorchak said.

Prentice said he wants to defer applying to the PSC until the refinery is in operation and officials decide whether to expand.

In the private sector, we very seldom look for excuses to have another regulatory layer on what were trying to do, he said.

Prentice emphasized that the Billings County Commission did a thorough review when it granted a conditional use permit.

Commission Chairman Randy Christmann said he fully expects that, if the company breaks ground on the refinery, someone from the public will file a complaint to the PSC alleging the project is in violation of the siting act.

Then the commission would have to take sworn testimony and evaluate evidence, potentially delaying construction and leading to possible court challenges, Christmann said.

Prentice said company executives considered other sites in North Dakota and chose the location near Belfield because of the proximity to Interstate 94, U.S. Highway 85, a rail facility and gathering pipelines.

The refinery is 3.5 miles from the eastern boundary of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, which is the main concern cited by opponents.

Fedorchak questioned why Meridian didnt choose a different location to the south or east that would be farther away from the national park but have some of the same transportation options.

Several questions remain unanswered about how much solid and liquid waste Meridian expects to generate and how it will be disposed. The company plans to treat water from a brine formation deep underground for use in the refinery, but has not finalized those plans.

Prentice referenced the availability of gathering pipelines and a nearby rail facility, but did not provide specifics about whether the company has commitments with those facilities.

Fedorchak said one of the concerns shes heard is about truck traffic and pointed out there is no refined gasoline pipeline in that area.

Prentice said the companys goal is limit the amount of truck transportation as much as possible, but said trucks will be needed to get refined products  gasoline and diesel  to local markets.

Greg Kessel, owner of the land where the refinery would be built, advocated for the economic benefits the refinery would bring to Billings County through tax revenue and jobs.

These are the kind of projects we need in our state, said Kessel, a member of the Meridian advisory board.

Linda Weiss, who lives about 3 miles away from the proposed refinery in Stark County, said in an interview she is concerned about the location and its potential impact on neighboring residents.

What hidden costs will it have to the county next door, all those residents? said Weiss, a member of the Dakota Resource Council.

The North Dakota Department of Health is reviewing an air quality permit, with a public hearing set for Jan. 17 in Dickinson. State Water Commission staff had recommended approval of a water permit, but the permit is being contested and assigned to an administrative law judge. A hearing is anticipated early next year.

If the health department approves the permit to construct, Prentice said the facility could be under construction this winter and operational in the first quarter of 2019.
Duterte cancelled peace talks last month and formally designated the Communist Party of the Philippines and its 3,800-member armed wing the New People's Army as "terrorist organisations"

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the military to suspend operations against communist rebels over Christmas, the government said Wednesday, despite ending peace talks and branding the insurgents "terrorists".

"This unilateral ceasefire would lessen the apprehension of the public this Christmas season," Duterte's spokesman Harry Roque said in a statement, adding the government expects the rebels to make "a similar gesture of goodwill".

The "suspension of offensive military operations", which will be in effect from December 24 to January 2, has been a customary move by both sides since the launch of formal talks in the late 1980s.

The 48-year-old conflict in the largely Catholic nation is one of Asia's longest-running insurgencies and has claimed 30,000 lives by the government's count.

However, Duterte cancelled peace talks last month and formally designated the Communist Party of the Philippines and its 3,800-member armed wing the New People's Army as "terrorist organisations".

He has also used the communists' guerrilla activities as a justification for prolonging martial law over the southern third of the country until December 31 next year.

Martial rule, which he proclaimed in May to combat Islamic militants who seized the southern city of Marawi, was initially set to end on December 31 after the defeat of the militants.

Duterte did not declare a Christmas truce with other armed groups, including self-proclaimed armed supporters of the Islamic State group still operating in the south.

Duterte's election last year revived hopes for successful negotiations as the president is a self-declared socialist who has said it is his "dream" to forge peace in the country.

But he cancelled peace talks in November after a rebel ambush in the southern Philippines killed a police officer and a four-month-old baby.

Duterte has also accused the communists of plotting with his political rivals to destabilise his rule.

He has since ordered the arrest of more than a dozen rebel leaders freed last year, and has threatened to shut down mining companies that yield to insurgents' demands for money.
Tehran strongly denies it has supplied weapons to Yemeni rebels for use in attacks on its archfoe Saudi Arabia as alleged by both Riyadh and Washington

Tehran strongly denied on Wednesday that it had supplied weapons to Yemeni rebels which they used in attacks on its archfoe Saudi Arabia as alleged by both Riyadh and Washington.

"We have no arms link with Yemen," foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi told the ISNA news agency, after Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted a rebel missile over Riyadh on Tuesday that it suggested was "Iranian-manufactured".

"The accusation that Iran gives weapons to various groups is rejected and we strongly deny it," he said.

"Yemen is in a blockade and such possibility does not exist anyway."

The audacious attack aimed at the heart of Saudi power follows the downing of another missile last month near Riyadh airport that triggered the tightening of a Saudi-led blockade on hunger-stricken Yemen.

Weapons used by the rebels "to defend against violation and non-stop attacks" are leftovers of previous governments, Ghasemi said.

"There isn't even the possibility of sending humanitarian aid."

A Saudi-led coalition has been battling Shiite rebels in Yemen since March 2015 and has repeatedly accused Shiite Iran of backing its co-religionists.

"The possession of Iranian-manufactured ballistic weapons by terrorist organisations, including the Iran-backed Huthi militia, is a threat to regional and international security," coalition spokesman said on Tuesday.

US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley described the strike as bearing "all the hallmarks of previous attacks using Iranian-provided weapons".

She said Washington would be discussing options for Security Council action against Tehran, although that immediately drew strong reservations from Moscow.

More than 8,750 people have been killed since Saudi Arabia and its allies joined the beleaguered government's fight against the rebels, triggering what the UN has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Vice Admiral Ronald Joseph Mercado, right, was sacked for "insubordination" after he jeopardised a 15.5 billion-peso ($308 million) project for two new warships

The commander of the Philippine Navy was sacked for "insubordination" after he jeopardised a 15.5 billion-peso ($308 million) project for two new warships, the defence minister said Wednesday.

Vice Admiral Ronald Joseph Mercado was abruptly removed from office on Tuesday with military officials saying only the surprise move followed "instructions from higher authorities".

Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told reporters Wednesday he obtained permission from President Rodrigo Duterte to remove Mercado owing to the frigate project, which has been awarded to a South Korean shipbuilder.

"I had to do it because he (Mercado) was jeopardising the project," said Lorenzana, who sworn in a temporary navy flag commander in Mercado's place on Tuesday.

The government signed a contract last year with Hyundai Heavy Industries to build two frigates to be delivered to the Philippine navy in 2020 and 2021.

Lorenzana said the project was already several months behind schedule because the navy had failed to complete on time a "critical design review" on the vessels before the contractor could start work.

He alleged the navy chief was delaying the project in order to force the government and Hyundai to award a separate contract for the warships' "combat management system" to another foreign company.

"To me that is tantamount to insubordination," Lorenzana added.

Mercado made it known he preferred a system offered by another company for operational reasons, Lorenzana said, while adding that the admiral is not under investigation for corruption.

Mercado, who has been reassigned to a subordinate navy post, has not responded to Lorenzana's allegations in public.

The Philippine Navy has become run down in recent decades and even featured US craft from World War II until Duterte's predecessor, Benigno Aquino, begun a modest modernisation programme in 2010.

Manila has since acquired two former US Coast Guard cutters and three landing craft from Australia as the country became embroiled in a dispute with China over waters and islands in the South China Sea.

But Duterte has since backed away from asserting his country's maritime claims and focused on repairing ties with Beijing.
Singapore's media is tightly controlled

A Singapore civil servant was Wednesday fined but escaped jail for leaking confidential information to a journalist, a prosecution that a rights group described as an attempt to spread a "culture of fear".

Government housing agency employee Ng Han Yuan, who could have been jailed for up to two years under the Official Secrets Act, was fined Sg$2,000 ($1,500) for passing details about a still confidential public housing resale portal to Janice Tai of the Straits Times daily.

Such leaks rarely happen in the city-state, where the media is tightly controlled and the civil service is highly regarded.

Public housing policies are seen as sensitive in rich but land-starved Singapore because more than 80 percent of the population lives in government-subsidised housing.

According to court documents, 25-year-old Ng met Tai, 29, on a mobile dating app and they had gone out several times.

They discussed an upcoming government portal through which people will be able to resell government-subsidised flats.

The portal, which will go live next month, is meant to speed up the resale process but there had reportedly been concerns it could threaten jobs in the property industry.

After getting information from Ng, Tai sought comment from Ng's employer the Housing and Development Board, which reported the leak to police.

State prosecutors called for a stiff sentence to send a message that unauthorised disclosure of information by public servants would be punished.

Speaking to reporters after being fined, Ng said he made an "honest mistake" by letting his guard down with someone he considered a personal friend.

Tai has been let off with a warning and her newspaper said it was standing by her.

Phil Robertson, Human Rights Watch's deputy Asia director, told AFP after the charges were first filed that the prosecution was aimed at spreading "a culture of fear that will squelch any inclination among civil servants to speak without prior authorisation".

The prosecution could also increase "journalists' inclination to self-censor so as to not jeopardise themselves or their sources", Robertson added.

In 1993 three economists, a newspaper editor and a reporter were fined under the Official Secrets Act for revealing Singapore's economic growth rate for the second quarter of 1992 before it was officially published.
India's new weapon against smog is put through its paces

India on Wednesday unveiled a new weapon against air pollution -- an "anti-smog gun" which authorities hope will clear the skies above New Delhi but which environmentalists say amounts to a band-aid solution.

The cannon's Indian manufacturers say the fine droplets of water it ejects at high speed can flush out deadly airborne pollutants in one of the world's smoggiest capitals.

The giant mister -- shaped like a hair dryer and mounted on a flatbed truck -- was tested in Anand Vihar, an area of Delhi's east bordering an industrial zone that often boasts the dirtiest air.

The US embassy website on Wednesday showed concentrations of the smallest and most harmful particles known as PM2.5 at Anand Vihar hit 380 -- more than 15 times the World Health Organization's safe maximum.

The cannon -- designed to combat dust on mining and construction sites -- costs roughly $31,000 but government officials appear ready to open the cheque book.

"If it proves to be successful, then we will roll these out on Delhi's streets as soon as possible," Imran Hussain, Delhi's environment minister, told AFP in Anand Vihar as the cannon spurted mist under hazy skies.

Manufacturer Cloud Tech said it can blast up to 100 litres of water per minute into the skies and clear 95 percent of airborne pollutants.

Greenpeace was less than impressed, saying the cannon was a distraction from the root causes of Delhi's winter pollution, a phenomenon so bad the city's own chief minister described it as a "gas chamber".

Delhi chokes every winter as cool air traps a toxic blend of pollutants from crop burning, car exhausts, open fires, construction dust and industrial emissions close to the ground.

"This is definitely not the solution. You can use it occasionally at sensitive locations but the solution to pollution lies in controlling it at the source rather than spraying water on it," Greenpeace's Sunil Dahiya told AFP.

"The Delhi government should look at more sustainable solutions rather than creating business for a few companies."

Delhi has struggled to curb the annual scourge, with drastic short-term measures -- such as shutting factories and brick kilns and restricting car use -- failing to lower hazardous pollution levels.

The crisis was so serious in November that doctors declared a public health emergency as schools were shut across the capital.

Cloud Tech admitted one or two cannons would do little to combat the city's notorious air, suggesting instead 30 to 40 would be required.

"This is a solution for when you're helpless," the company's Vimal Saini told AFP.

Beijing experimented with a mist cannon in 2014 but critics slammed officials for wasting money on a machine that scientists agreed did little to lower pollutants.
Residents search for survivors after an air strike on the rebel-held town of Armanaz in northwestern Syria on September 30, 2017

Overnight air strikes killed 19 civilians, seven of them children, in a residential district of a town in northwestern Syria, a monitor said on Wednesday.

"Suspected Russian air strikes targeted several houses in Maarshurin," a rebel-held town in Idlib province, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

He said 13 members of a single family were among the dead.

Residents of Maarshurin were still working on Wednesday morning to clear rubble from buildings hit in the bombardment, an AFP photographer reported.

One had been completely flattened and blood stained the rubble.

"These are all civilian homes," said resident Zahed Abu Abdo.

The Observatory said more than 25 people were wounded in the strikes, some of whom were in critical condition.

The Britain-based war monitor relies on a network of sources inside Syria and says it determines whose planes carry out raids according to type, location, flight patterns and munitions used.

Russia, which has been carrying out air strikes in support of President Bashar al-Assad's government since 2015, denied responsiblity on Wednesday.

"Russian warplanes did not carry out sorties in this zone," its defence ministry said, according to the Interfax news agency.

Idlib province is one of four regions of Syria which are supposed to be safe areas under a deal agreed by Russia, fellow regime ally Iran, and rebel backer Turkey in May.

Maarshurin is jointly controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a rebel alliance dominated by Al-Qaeda's former Syria affiliate, which is not covered by the deal.

More than 340,000 people have been killed since Syria's conflict erupted with anti-government protests in 2011.

More than half the population have been forced out of their homes, including tens of thousands who have sought refuge in Idlib province.
Security forces and an army-backed militia planned massacres in an opposition stronghold in the Democratic Republic of Congo, human rights activists charged, calling the killings "crimes against humanity"

Security forces and an army-backed militia planned massacres in an opposition stronghold in the Democratic Republic of Congo, human rights activists charged Wednesday, calling the killings "crimes against humanity".

The southern Kasai region suffered "one of the worst human rights crises in the world" between March and July, the Paris-based International Human Rights Federation (FIDH) said in a report compiled with partner rights groups in the country.

It includes heart-rending testimony such as that of a 27-year-old woman who described soldiers attacking her village and burning down houses. As she fled, she "saw a lot of corpses... of children, of villagers."

The FIDH said the atrocities "were perpetrated mainly by elements of the Bana Mura militia at the instigation and with the support of security forces... against civilians of the Luba ethnic group."

The Luba are seen as supporting the anti-government Kamwina Nsapu militia, while other ethnic groups make up the Bana Mura militia active in Kasai.

In one of the worst attacks blamed on Bana Mura, the remote village of Cinq was "totally destroyed" and several female survivors said they were raped or sexually mutilated.

Several of their children were killed by militiamen with machetes, the 100-page report said.

- Kabila anniversary -

The Catholic Church has said the violence claimed more than 3,300 lives. The United Nations for its part has counted 87 mass graves and documented some 1.4 million displaced people.

The conflict erupted in September 2016 after government forces killed a tribal chieftain, known as the Kamwina Nsapu, who rebelled against President Joseph Kabila's regime in Kinshasa and its local representatives.

The release of the report comes a year to the day since Kabila refused to step down at the end of his second term, sparking a political crisis in the vast former Belgian colony.

The Catholic Church brokered a deal on New Year's Eve 2016 enabling Kabila to stay in office pending elections to be held in 2017. Those elections, in turn, were postponed to December 23, 2018.

The opposition has insisted that Kabila leave by the end of this year.

The FIDH said Lubas were "massacred in several dozen villages... because of their ethnicity, their supposed political affiliation with the opposition and their supposed support or membership" of Kamwina Nsapu.

"The crimes perpetrated... were planned, ordered and led by agents of the Congolese state" and the Bana Mura militia, it said, adding that the atrocities should be considered crimes against humanity.

The FIDH compiled witness testimony in July at a refugee camp in neighbouring Angola, speaking to 64 people, most of them Lubas, some with amputated limbs, permanent disfigurations or severe burns.

- Atrocities on both sides -

The report said anti-government Kamwina Nsapu militiamen earlier carried out "summary executions, often in the form of decapitations", after which they displayed the severed heads in the villages.

Two United Nations experts were killed in March while investigating the violence, of whom one was decapitated.

The atrocities led Congolese "defence and security forces to carry out disproportionate acts of reprisal" including against civilians, the FIDH said.

The UN, in a report released in August, also blamed state agents for more than 250 "extrajudicial or targeted killings" of civilians in the Kasai region from mid-March to mid-June.

Like the FIDH, UN investigators interviewed refugees in Angola who described atrocities at the hands of government troops and the Bana Mura as well as the anti-government Kamwina Nsapu militia.

The Congolese government questioned the "impartiality" of the probe, saying it was based "on testimony lacking in credibility".

The FIDH said it has the names of "at least 50" suspected perpetrators of atrocities which it could hand over to the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague if Kinshasa fails to mount a serious investigation.
Security forces stand guard during a protest in Iraqi Kurdistan's second city Sulaimaniyah on December 19, 2017

Heavily armed troops and anti-riot police locked down Iraqi Kurdistan's second city Sulaimaniyah on Wednesday after two days of protests killed five people and wounded nearly 200 across the region.

Armoured personnel carriers, water cannon and trucks mounted with machine guns were stationed at all of the city's main crossroads, an AFP correspondent reported.

There was virtually no traffic and most shops were closed, particularly around the central Saray Square, the epicentre of the protests against the disastrous fallout from an independence referendum.

The September vote delivered a resounding "yes" for independence, but drew sweeping reprisals from Baghdad which dealt a heavy blow to Kurdistan's already flagging economy.

Protesters have vented their anger against all five of the autonomous Kurdish region's main political parties, not just the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of former regional president Massud Barzani, who organised the fateful referendum.

In the town of Rania, 130 kilometres (80 miles) north of Sulaimaniyah, where the five protesters were killed on Tuesday, demonstrators defied a heavy security presence to take to the streets for a third straight day.

The crowd turned its anger on the offices of the Goran party, which control the governor's office in Sulaimaniyah province, pelting it with stones, witnesses said.

Demonstrators had already torched the offices of the KDP, its historical rival the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Islamic Union on Tuesday. They also seized the mayor's office.

Prime minister Nechirvan Barzani, the ex-president's nephew, issued an appeal for calm from Germany where he was on a visit on Tuesday.

"The region is going through a difficult period. Your frustrations are understandable and I hear them," he said.

"But violence is unacceptable. I ask you to hold peaceful demonstrations."
Smog blankets Tehran on December 19, 2017

Schools were closed for a fourth straight day in Tehran on Wednesday as dangerous air pollution covered the Iranian capital and traffic restrictions failed to clear the thick smog.

Average airborne concentration of the finest and most hazardous particles (PM2.5) was "unhealthy" at 160 microgrammes per cubic metre, slightly worse than Tuesday, authorities said.

That is more than six times higher than the World Health Organization recommended maximum of 25 microgrammes per m3 over a 24-hour period.

Authorities extended traffic restrictions so that only one in two cars could go on the street, depending on their number plates.

Wednesday is the last day of the week for schools in Tehran and authorities have not yet said whether they will reopen on Saturday.

Pollution was also blanketing at least four other major cities: Esfahan in the centre, Orumiyeh in the northwest, Mashhad in the northeast and Tabriz in the northwest.

Schools were closed on Wednesday in all of those cities except in Mashhad, the state broadcaster's website reported.

Ambulances were also deployed in the streets for possible medical emergencies, it added.

Citizens, especially those with respiratory problems, children and the elderly, were advised to stay at home.

Mines and factories emitting pollution around Tehran have been closed temporarily by the authorities.

Mojtaba Khaledi, a spokesman for the country's emergency services, told the Fars news agency that calls to the emergency wards had increased by 20 percent compared with last week.

"Heart attacks in hospital emergency departments have doubled since last week," Khaledi said.

Air pollution has blighted Tehran for more than two decades and worsens each winter.

Local and government authorities blame each other for failing to tackle the problem.

The city of nine million already has two permanent layers of traffic restriction zones in place which are extended to the entire city when pollution spikes.

Officials say the five million cars -- 90 percent of them Iranian-made gas guzzlers -- flooding the Tehran streets pose a challenge that is not easy to overcome.
The 16-year-old was suspended in August for hugging a female friend and posting images of the pair on his social media account

An Indian school principal Wednesday defended suspending a male student for embracing a female classmate in "a long hug", vowing to uphold "decorum" even as his decision is challenged in court.

A furore has engulfed the school in southern Kerala state after the 16-year-old was suspended in August for hugging a female friend and posting images of the pair on social media.

The teenager appealed the decision and state authorities ordered he be allowed to finish his final year of high school.

But last week St Thomas Central School successfully blocked that ruling in court -- prompting a counter-challenge from the boy's parents who have accused school leaders of overstepping boundaries.

"Why can't my son go out with his girlfriend? The girl or her parents don't have any complaint," the boy's father told the Indian Express newspaper.

But school principal Sebastian T Joseph defended his decision, saying the pair's behaviour was "the tip of the iceberg".

"It was not only a hug. They posted compromising pictures (of themselves) on Instagram which had 800-900 likes from the school students," Joseph told AFP.

"They should follow decorum. We don't appreciate bodily contact or hugs for a long time. The hug of appreciation is something different."

The student accused the school of interfering in his "personal issues" and stripping his right to education and privacy.

His father said the controversy should have ended when the pair apologised.

In May, rights groups accused a court in Kerala of infantilising an adult woman by annulling her marriage to a Muslim and ordering her to return to her parents home.

The marriage was nullified at her Hindu father's request, despite her pleas that the union was consensual.
North Dakotas attorney general will defend Gov. Doug Burgum from a legislative legal challenge, the governors spokesman said Tuesday, Dec. 19, sending one-time political rivals to the same side of the courtroom.

State law requires Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem to appear and defend all actions and proceedings against any state officer in the attorney generals official capacity. If both parties are state officers, the attorney general may decide which one to represent.

The Republican-controlled Legislature, which is already represented by two Bismarck attorneys, petitioned the state Supreme Court this month in a challenge to several vetoes Burgum issued after the Legislature adjourned the 2017 session.

The state constitution allows the governor to strike items in a spending bill but leave the other portions to become law. The Legislatures petition asks whether Burgum exceeded his authority in making select partial vetoes.

Stenehjem, at the request of legislative leaders, issued an opinion in June arguing Burgum overstepped his authority on some vetoes. In several instances, he said Burgum tried to strike conditions or restrictions on spending without vetoing the appropriation itself. Stenehjem sided with Burgum in other cases, however.

Burgum spokesman Mike Nowatzki said the governors office sought an opinion from independent counsel to determine whether the attorney generals opinion creates any conflict of interest that would preclude him from representing Burgum. Attorney Bruce Quick determined that no conflict exists under North Dakota Rules of Professional Conduct, Nowatzki said.

The governor could hire outside counsel  but the attorney general is the consummate expert on constitutional issues with regard to North Dakota law, he said.

Nowatzki said he was unsure if Stenehjem himself will present arguments to the state Supreme Court.

Still, House Majority Leader Al Carlson, R-Fargo, said it seems odd that Stenehjem would represent Burgum after already issuing an opinion on the matter. Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner, R-Dickinson, wasnt surprised by the news, however.

Lawmakers filed their petition to the state Supreme Court Dec. 8. Justices asked for a response from the governor by Jan. 16.

Burgum bested Stenehjem last year for the Republican nomination for governor, but Nowatzki said their previous political battle doesnt have any bearing on the current legal process. Stenehjems spokeswoman Liz Brocker said they dont comment on ongoing litigation.
Nigeria is Africa's largest crude producer, exporting around two million barrels per day

Nigeria's opposition has rejected a plan to spend a billion dollars of oil money to fight the Boko Haram insurgency in the country's volatile northeast.

Last week, the governor of the southern state of Edo, Godwin Obaseki, told reporters the federal government had been given the nod to withdraw the cash from the country's Excess Crude Account (ECA).

The account is a buffer drawn from crude oil revenues, jointly owned by the federal government, 36 states and local governments.

Nigeria, Africa's largest crude producer, exports around two million barrels per day and depends on the sector for 70 percent of government revenue and 90 percent of foreign exchange earnings.

"We are pleased with the federal government achievements in the insurgency war and in that vein, state governors have approved that the sum of $1 billion be taken from the excess crude account by the federal government to fight the insurgency war to its conclusion," Obaseki said.

Such a sum would nearly halve the $2.3 billion currently in the account.

But the decision has sparked a row.

The opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the ruling party of planning to use the money to fund President Muhammadu Buhari's re-election in 2019.

- Opposition legal action -

Nigeria's move to prosecute Boko Haram suspects has been welcomed as a small but positive step

Ekiti state governor Ayodele Fayose of the PDP, a critic of Buhari's All Progressives Congress (APC), said he was launching legal action.

"All accruals to the federation must be shared by the three tiers of government and for me to get justice, I have to go to court," he said on Tuesday.

Local media quoted Vice President Yemi Osinbajo as saying the money was not only meant to fight Boko Haram but to tackle other security challenges such as kidnappings, trafficking, cattle rustling and clashes between herdsmen and farmers.

"The $1 billion is meant to assist the security architecture of the country. It is to cater to all of the issues in the states, including policing in the states, community policing, and all of the different security challenges that we have," he said.

Although both the Nigerian military and government have repeatedly said Boko Haram is a spent force, the Islamists have continued to carry out bomb and gun attacks in the restive northeast.

Earlier this month, the military commander leading the fight against Boko Haram was replaced as part of measures to end the eight-year jihadist rebellion.

Since the Boko Haram insurgency began in 2009, more than 20,000 people have been killed and at least 2.6 million people displaced, triggering a dire humanitarian crisis in the region.
Oil giants Eni and Shell will stand trial in Italy over allegations of bribery and corruption in the 2011 purchase of an offshore oil block in Nigeria.

Italian giant Eni and fellow petroleum company Shell will stand trial in Italy over allegations of bribery and corruption in the 2011 purchase of an offshore oil block in Nigeria.

A judge in Milan ordered Eni, Shell and key figures such as Eni chief Claudio Descalzi and his predecessor Paolo Scaroni to stand trial in proceedings to begin March 5.

The companies are accused of corruption in the 2011 purchase of OPL245, an offshore oil block estimated to hold 9 billion barrels of crude, for $1.3 billion.

"Eni's Board of Directors has reaffirmed its confidence that the company was not involved in alleged corrupt activities in relation to the transaction," the Italian firm said in a statement Wednesday.

"Eni expresses its full confidence in the judicial process and that the trial will ascertain and confirm the correctness and integrity of its conduct," it said.

It insisted in particular that "chief executive Claudio Descalzi was not involved in the alleged illegal conduct".

Both companies are charged with corruption in Nigeria over the accord, which allegedly saw Nigeria's former president Goodluck Jonathan and his oil minister pocket bribes.

The deal saw the Nigerian government act as an intermediary between the oil majors and Malabu Oil and Gas, a Nigerian company allegedly controlled by former petroleum minister Dan Etete.

Allegations of corruption and bribery have mounted in the years since, forcing Shell and Eni to repeatedly maintain that they acquired the rights to the lucrative block in line with Nigerian law.

But email exchanges between Shell management cited in a report by corruption watchdog Global Witness, and seen by AFP, suggest that Shell was aware the money was likely to be funnelled to individuals, including Etete and Jonathan.

Etete was also ordered to stand trial by the Milan court.

Nigeria's anti-graft agency filed corruption charges against Shell and Eni in March, accusing 11 defendants, including Etete, of "official corruption" in connection with the oil block deal.

Jonathan has denied receiving kickbacks, saying in January that he has not been "accused, indicted or charged for corruptly collecting monies" linked to the deal.

The OPL245 oil block has been a source of contention for almost two decades.

In 1998, the block was awarded by then-petroleum minister Dan Etete to Malabu Oil and Gas.

Years of legal wrangling between Malabu, the Nigerian government and Shell ensued, with Shell ultimately winning rights to the block in a partnership with Eni.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who has promised to fight corruption in Nigeria's oil sector, has said "mind-boggling" sums have been stolen from the public purse.
Yanghee Lee says she fears something "awful" may be happening in Rakhine

The UN's rights envoy for Myanmar said Wednesday the government had banned her from the country, adding her exclusion suggests something "awful" is happening in Rakhine state.

UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee had been due to visit Myanmar in January to assess the state of human rights across the country including in Rakhine, which was plunged into crisis by a military crackdown on the Rohingya minority Muslim community in late August.

Some 655,000 of them have fled for Bangladesh since then, with accounts of arson, murder and rape at the hands of soldiers and vigilante mobs in the mainly Buddhist country.

The UN has accused troops of ethnic cleansing and possible "elements of genocide" against the Rohingya -- charges the government vigorously denies as it faces intense global outrage.

"I am puzzled and disappointed by this decision by the Myanmar government," said Lee, who is required to go to the country twice a year in order to report to the Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly.

"This declaration of non-cooperation with my mandate can only be viewed as a strong indication that there must be something terribly awful happening in Rakhine, as well as in the rest of the country," she added.

The South Korean academic said she was told the decision was based on a statement she made after her last visit to Myanmar in July, in which she sharply criticised the government's rights record and its treatment of the Rohingya.

At the time the government criticised the statement as "biased and unfair".

The UN confirmed Myanmar had withdrawn all cooperation for the duration of Lee's tenure.

Myanmar's government spokesman Zaw Htay said Lee had been barred because she was not unbiased.

"She is not impartial and objective while conducting her work. There is no trust on her," the spokesman said.

But Amnesty International described the ban as "outrageous".

"It is a further indication that authorities will do anything they can to avoid international scrutiny of their human rights record," said James Gomez, the rights group's director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

"The Myanmar military claim they have done nothing wrong during the past months. If so, the authorities should have nothing to hide -- why are they denying access for independent and impartial investigators?" he said in a statement.

Lee, who has visited Myanmar six times since 2014, has consistently sounded the alarm over the persecution of the Rohingya.

The stateless group has been targeted by bouts of violence and systematically stripped of legal rights in recent decades.

But the latest crisis is the worst to rip through Rakhine state in years.

Myanmar has blocked journalists and investigators -- including a UN fact-finding team -- from independently accessing the conflict zone.

Last week two Reuters reporters were arrested for allegedly possessing documents relating to the security forces in Rakhine, raising fears that fragile press freedoms are being further eroded.

The journalists' families, lawyers and colleagues have not been told where the two are, and have not been allowed any contact with them.

The pair could face a maximum sentence of 14 years in jail under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act.
Soldiers from the Indian Army and People's Liberation Army (PLA) sit together after participating in an anti-terror drill during the Sixth India-China Joint Training exercise "Hand in Hand 2016" in Aundh in Pune district on November 25, 2016

India announced Wednesday it would host China for another round of talks on long-running border disputes, the first since they defused one of their worst deadlocks in decades.

The foreign ministry said China's special representative on borders would meet his counterpart in New Delhi on Friday for the 20th meeting on the unresolved "boundary question".

The regional giants have been arguing over their border since the 1960s when they went to war over the Himalayan territory of Arunachal Pradesh.

Special representatives from both sides have been holding regular talks since 2003, but disputes remain.

This week's meeting on borders is the first since India and China resolved a summer standoff in a different Himalayan region.

The area known as the Doklam plateau, or Donglang in Chinese, is claimed by both China and by Bhutan, which is an ally of India.

The dispute began in mid-June after Chinese troops started building a road on the plateau, and India deployed troops to stop the project.

The confrontation escalated until August when the two nuclear-armed nations pulled back their troops, averting a full-blown crisis.

India and China have a long history of mistrust as they jostle for regional supremacy.

China has fostered closer ties with India's arch-rival Pakistan in recent years. India meanwhile is revamping its military and bolstering its partnership with the United States.

Both nations say they are committed to solving longstanding border disagreements through dialogue, but progress has been glacial.

India and China went to war in 1962 over Arunachal Pradesh, with Chinese troops temporarily capturing part of the Himalayan territory.

The dispute remains unresolved, with India considering Arunachal Pradesh one of its northeastern states while China stakes claims to about 90,000 square kilometres of the state.
Members of the self-styled Libyan National Army, loyal to eastern strongman Khalifa Haftar, ride a tank in the eastern city of Benghazi on July 5, 2017

Two years after a deal to form a unity government aimed at ending deep divisions between Libya's opposing sides, the country remains mired in crisis with no solution in sight.

The UN-brokered agreement signed in Morocco in December 2015 establishing a Government of National Accord (GNA) brought hopes of an easing of chaos that followed the 2011 revolution.

But Libya has remained riven by divisions between the GNA in Tripoli led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj and a rival administration backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar in the east.

The GNA's position risks being further undermined by the expiry of its mandate -- which under the 2015 accord was for one year and renewable only once -- on December 17.

Instead of healing rifts, experts say the deal actually deepened tensions in the North African country.

"I think it has never been the real solution for the country," said Federica Saini Fasanotti, an analyst with the Washington-based Brookings Institution.

The agreement "has never been recognised by the Libyan people," she added.

Years of political turmoil have followed the overthrow and killing of Libya's long-time dictator Moamer Kadhafi in the 2011 revolution.

People-smugglers took advantage of the chaos to turn the country into a major gateway for migrants heading to Europe, while Islamic State group jihadists also established a foothold.

Underscoring the insecurity plaguing the country, the mayor of Libya's third-largest city Misrata was killed by unidentified assailants who abducted him on Sunday as he returned from an official trip overseas.

- 'Dangerous turning point' -

Since its arrival in Tripoli in March 2016, the GNA has failed to stamp its authority across large parts of the country, controlled by dozens of militias of shifting allegiances.

Its legitimacy was questioned from the very start by its rivals and it was unable to secure a confidence vote by Libya's elected parliament based in the east of the country.

Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar (L) and Libya's UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj (R)

Haftar, who has never recognised the GNA's authority, said on Sunday that the "expiry of the Libyan political accord" on December 17 marked a "historic and dangerous turning point".

"All bodies resulting from this agreement automatically lose their legitimacy, which has been contested from the first day they took office," he said.

Saini Fasanotti, however, does not see major repercussions from the end of the GNA's mandate.

"The GNA in my opinion has never been a real political actor in Libya, so I do not think that the situation will change a lot at the moment in the Libya arena," she said.

Haftar is accused by his opponents of wanting to take power and establish a military dictatorship.

Haftar wanted to take advantage of the end of the mandate of the unity government to stage "a coup", a GNA official who did not want to be named told AFP.

"But threats that were directly addressed to him by the international community dissuaded him," the official added.

Haftar acknowledged as much on Sunday, saying he was "threatened with firm international measures" if he dared to take initiatives outside the framework set up by the international community and the United Nations.

The UN Security Council last week insisted the 2015 deal remains the "only viable framework to end the Libyan political crisis" and prepare for elections.

- 'Double edge weapon' -

According to Issandr El Amrani at the International Crisis Group (ICG) think-tank, Haftar does not have "sufficient strength or support" to take power in Libya.

"He faces particularly strong opposition from (rivals in) the west, he said, especially in Misrata," 200 kilometres east of Tripoli and home to Libya's most powerful armed groups.

UN envoy Ghassan Salame presented a plan to the UN Security Council in September to hold legislative and presidential elections next year.

Analysts are however sceptical the elections will be successful.

"Elections can be a double edge weapon, because they can increase the frictions among the competitors and their followers. I am not sure that in this very moment they are the best solution," Saini Fasanotti said.

The ICG's Amrani believes that "without an improvement in the relationship between Haftar and (groups in) the west, especially Misrata, it will be difficult to hold credible elections."
A Huthi rebel fighter is seen in the Yemeni capital on December 4, 2017

The Saudi-led coalition conducted multiple air raids in Yemen on Wednesday, a day after Huthi rebels fired a ballistic missile at Riyadh in an attack Washington said was enabled by Iran.

The Saudi-led strikes killed 11 civilians in the Huthi stronghold of Saada, a tribal chief and witnesses said, while unidentified assailants attacked Huthis guarding the Sanaa residence of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was killed by the Shiite rebels earlier this month.

US President Donald Trump spoke Wednesday with Saudi King Salman following the ballistic missile attack that targeted Salman's residence.

"Trump expressed solidarity with Saudi Arabia following the ballistic missile attack against King Salman's official residence... an attack enabled by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps," the White House said.

The US and Saudi Arabia have accused Iran of supplying the Huthi rebels with the missile involved in another attack over Riyadh last month, with US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley presenting what she called "undeniable" evidence that the missile was "made in Iran."

Tehran has denied supplying ballistic missiles to the Huthis.

During Wednesday's ground operations against the Sanaa residence of Saleh, an unspecified number of Huthi guards were killed, residents said.

A tribal chief told AFP that 11 civilians were killed and eight others wounded in an air strike on the Huthi rebel stronghold of Saada in northern Yemen.

The pro-Huthi television channel Al-Masirah gave the same death toll and added that women and children were among those killed, while 19 people were wounded.

Witnesses and a security source said other coalition air raids targeted a rebel camp south of Sanaa and a second camp to the west.

The rebel-run Saba press agency said 38 people, including women and children, were killed or wounded in raids targeting different parts of Yemen.

- 1,000th day -

The Huthis said the target of Tuesday's ballistic missile was a "large gathering of Saudi regime leaders in Yamamah Palace", where Salman later unveiled the country's 2018 budget.

An Arab national living in Saudi Arabia was arrested Wednesday for expressing support for the missile attack in a tweet, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

Yemen is in the midst of a bloody war between the Huthis and pro-government forces, who were expelled from Sanaa in September 2014.

Rebel chief Abdelmalik al-Huthi said Tuesday's attack was timed to coincide with the 1,000th day of the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen's conflict.

On November 4, a missile launch from Yemen targeted Riyadh's airport, triggering a sharp Saudi response -- the full closure of Yemen's ports and borders that were already under an extensive blockade.

At the time, the UN aid chief warned that the siege -- namely on the key rebel-held port of Hodeida -- could trigger the worst famine the world has seen in decades.

The blockade was partially lifted three weeks later amid massive international pressure.

The coalition issued a statement Wednesday saying it would not resort to closing Hodeida port.

"The coalition leadership announces the port of Hodeida will remain open for humanitarian and relief supplies and the entry of commercial vessels, including fuel and food vessels, for a period of 30 days," said the statement, carried on the state-run Saudi Press Agency.

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May spoke to Salman and welcomed the decision to reopen the port.

"The Prime Minister strongly condemned yesterday's attempted missile attack on the Yamama Palace in Riyadh, and welcomed the restraint shown by Saudi Arabia in the face of unacceptable Huthi aggression," Downing Street said in a statement.

Coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki, speaking at a news conference in Riyadh, described the continuing missile fire as a "serious escalation".

Maliki said that since the coalition intervened in Yemen in March 2015 over 80 ballistic missiles had been fired at Saudi Arabia and that the alliance had killed more than 11,000 Huthi rebels.

- Hadi terms for dialogue -

Saudi Arabia and America have accused Iran of being behind the missile attacks on Riyadh.

A Yemeni woman sits next to a malnourished child receiving treatment at a hospital in the port city of Hodeida

Tehran again denied the charge Wednesday, saying it has "no arms link with Yemen".

Yemen's President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi on Tuesday raised the bar for dialogue with the Huthis, saying they must surrender their weapons before the start of any peace talks.

"We do not have a partner with whom we can reach peace," the exiled president said at a meeting with a number of ambassadors.

Hadi issued stern conditions for dialogue: the restoration of his government to power; the surrender of Huthi arms; and the handover of state institutions.

More than 8,750 people have been killed since Saudi Arabia and its allies joined the government's fight against the rebels, triggering what the UN has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Security forces stand guard during a protest in Iraqi Kurdistan's second city Sulaimaniyah on December 19, 2017

Protests raged for a third day in Iraqi Kurdistan on Wednesday despite a clampdown by security forces after five people were killed as ire exploded at the calamitous fallout from an independence vote.

Demonstrators in the town of Rania, where five protesters were shot dead and dozens wounded Tuesday, torched the offices of several political parties as people vented their anger at the authorities over a worsening economic crisis and corruption.

People also took to the streets in the towns of Qalat Diza, Chamchamal and Halabja, where police shot in the air and fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.

A disputed Kurdish referendum in September delivered a resounding "yes" for independence, but drew sweeping reprisals from Baghdad which dealt a heavy blow to the region's already flagging economy.

Protesters have unleashed their fury at all five of the autonomous Kurdish region's main political parties, not just the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of former regional president Massud Barzani who initiated the fateful poll.

Since Monday, around 200 people have been injured and at least 15 party offices and a town hall set ablaze in a string of locations.

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq said Wednesday it was "deeply concerned about the violence" and "called for restraint and calm on all sides".

Faced by the unprecedented popular fury, the Goran party and Kurdistan Islamic Group announced they were withdrawing their ministers from the regional government.

- Show of 'despair' -

"We are burning the offices of the political parties that are part of the government and are responsible for our economic suffering," an activist told AFP, asking not to be identified for security reasons.

"Citizens want to show that they are in despair over the actions of all the parties that have led Kurdistan to bankruptcy."

In a bid to quell the unrest, heavily armed troops and anti-riot police locked down Iraqi Kurdistan's second city Sulaimaniyah.

Armoured personnel carriers, water cannon and trucks mounted with machineguns were stationed at all of the city's main crossroads, an AFP correspondent reported.

The burnt-out premises of the Kurdistan Islamic Union party, in the city of Raniya in the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region, as protests against political corruption raged for a third day

There was virtually no traffic and most shops were closed, particularly around the central Saray Square, the focal point of the protests against the fallout from the independence referendum.

Those moves came after security forces on Tuesday stormed the offices of NRT, a Kurdish television channel that was reporting on the protests, and ordered it to suspend its broadcasts.

- 'Violence is unacceptable' -

The independence vote has already caused a political shake-up in Kurdistan, with veteran leader Barzani stepping down in October.

That decision came after Baghdad seized back swathes of disputed oil-rich territory, gutting the region's coffers.

Prime minister Nechirvan Barzani, the ex-president's nephew, issued an appeal for calm from Germany where he was on a visit on Tuesday.

"The region is going through a difficult period. Your frustrations are understandable and I hear them," he said.

"But violence is unacceptable. I ask you to hold peaceful demonstrations."

Anger, however, is running deep in the region as economic problems -- triggered by the slump in oil prices since 2014 -- have worsened dramatically.

Residents in the capital Arbil have told AFP that salaries have been shorn in half in the past few months and are paid only erratically.

As temperatures drop, the spiralling price of heating fuel looks set to bite, while mains power has been cut to only four hours each day.

Cyril Roussel, a French specialist on the Kurds, said that there is a "feeling of betrayal, defeat and humiliation among the people" in Iraqi Kurdistan.

"People feel betrayed and region's coffers are empty," he said.

The central government in Baghdad has given short shrift to the economic problems roiling Kurdistan, with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi refusing to cover the salaries of Kurdish civil servants.

"Baghdad is waiting for the region to go bankrupt to then negotiate from a position of force," Roussel said.
Ahmadreza Djalali, seen here on a handout flyer, was accused of passing information to Israel's intelligence service during the nuclear talks.

Four UN rights experts on Wednesday called on Iran to "immediately" annul the death sentence against an academic accused of espionage during nuclear talks with world powers, warning his trial had been marred by violations.

Ahmadreza Djalali, an Iranian emergency medicine specialist resident in Sweden, was sentenced to death in the Islamic republic in October for spying for Israel.

The academic was a visiting professor at Belgium's Vrije Universiteit Brussel when he was arrested during a trip to Iran in April 2016.

He was accused of passing information to Israel's Mossad intelligence service during the negotiations that led to Iran's nuclear deal with world powers in 2015.

Djalali has said he is being punished for refusing to spy for Iran while working in Europe.

In a statement, the four independent experts working with the United Nations warned that "the procedure against him was marred by numerous reports of due process and fair trial violations".

The UN expert on the human rights situation in Iran, alongside the experts on arbitrary detention, torture and summary executions, pointed to reports that Djalali had been held incommunicado, denied access to a lawyer, and forced to confess.

"The execution of Dr Djalali must be immediately halted and he must be released and accorded an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations," the experts said.

"No formal charges were brought against him for nearly 10 months and he was effectively prevented from exercising his right to challenge the legality of detention," they said.

They also maintained that "Djalali's rights to a fair trial before an independent and impartial tribunal and to an effective defence have been violated".

- Forced confession -

During his detention, Djalali was reportedly threatened with torture and with being sentenced to death through an expedited process, according to the statement.

"Following this he was allegedly forced to confess to certain crimes, and forced to repeat dictated statements before video cameras," it said.

Djalali was sentenced to death on October 21, and the experts lamented that, according to information they had received, "he was not given a meaningful opportunity to appeal against his conviction and no defence submission was made".

Tehran's prosecutor general Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi said at the time that he had divulged information that had led to the assassination of two Iranian nuclear scientists in 2010, at the height of tensions over the country's atomic programme.

But Djalali's lawyers have said the evidence in his initial trial was gathered under duress and produced no evidence to substantiate the allegations.

According to Amnesty International, Iran's Supreme Court upheld his sentence earlier this month, prompting the organisation to accuse Tehran of running "roughshod over the rule of law".

The UN experts voiced particular concern over a video prepared by Iran's intelligence ministry that aired late Sunday, in which Djalali confessed to working with a foreign intelligence agency while studying in Europe.

"The timing of the video release, as well the allegations of coercion beg serious questions about its legitimacy," they said.
Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) and his ex-deputy Hamid Baghaie hold hands during a press conference in the capital Tehran on April 5, 2017

A former deputy of Iran's hardline ex-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad revealed Wednesday that he had been sentenced to 15 years in prison on financial charges.

Hamid Baghaie, who appeared in court in September and October and is free on bail, made the announcement on the Telegram messaging app without giving details.

Baghaie initially announced that he had been sentenced to 63 years in prison but later published a list of eight counts of convictions, the longest of which was 15 years.

Tehran's judiciary chief Gholamhossein Esmaili who had perviously confirmed a verdict, later told reporters that Baghaie "either doesn't know the law or is trying to be naughty... because according to law, one only serves the highest sentence".

Among his charges was "insulting judiciary officials" for which he was sentenced to two years and six months in prison, according to his Telegram channel.

The official said he could not elaborate until the verdict was final.

Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei had earlier said that Baghaie was charged with misappropriation, embezzlement and collusion in governmental transactions.

Baghaie, 48, was vice-president for executive affairs and headed the tourism board under Ahmadinejad's second term.

He was imprisoned for seven months in 2015 for reasons that were never made public, though he was previously investigated for irregularities during his time in office.

Both Ahmadinejad and Baghaie were barred from running in the presidential election in May by the Guardian Council, a powerful vetting body that oversees all elections.

Ahmadinejad has fallen out with the establishment, especially since he stood for the presidency this year despite the advice of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei not to do so.

A number of Ahmadinejad's senior aides have been arrested on financial and corruption charges.

Ahmadinejad has deep hostility toward the powerful Larijani brothers, two of whom lead the country's parliament and judiciary.

In 2013, when Speaker Ali Larijani was overseeing a minister's impeachment, Ahmadinejad accused the brothers of nepotism.

A heated exchange followed of accusations of threats and bribery between the two.

Recently Ahmadinejad, who is still popular among the poor, has stepped up his attacks on the judiciary for putting Baghaie on trial.

This week, he challenged Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani in a video message to explain what he said were accusations levelled against him and his allies.

On Tuesday he called the top judge incompetent and the courts under his management "unjust".

Baghaie himself has been scathing about his trial by what he called a "kangaroo court".
Violence has wracked Cameroon's English-speaking west since last year, fueled by a demand for autonomy or a separate state -- to which the government responded with a crackdown, including curfews and raids

The Commonwealth secretary-general has urged Cameroon to resolve "through peaceful dialogue" a crisis that has shaken the country's English-speaking regions since last year.

Patricia Scotland, who is on a four-day official visit to the country, expressed "great sadness" with the violence in the Northwest and Southwest regions of the central African country, where Cameroon's anglophone minority is concentrated.

"Cameroon is renowned for its tradition of peaceful and harmonious interactions. It is with great sadness that we see it in challenging times," she said in a speech on Tuesday evening.

"I encourage Cameroonians from all walks of life to embrace peace, unity and resolve any differences through peaceful dialogue."

English-speakers account for some 20 percent of the nation's population of 23 million. The minority dates to the emergence of Cameroon in 1960-61 as France and Britain wound down their colonies in west Africa.

Anglophones have long protested against what they perceive to be a bias in favour of the French-speaking majority.

According to local media, Scotland met with President Paul Biya, and is also expected to meet other political leaders, including from the various parties, as well as civic groups and economic leaders.

Since November 2016, resentment has fed demands for autonomy or a separate state to which the government has responded with a crackdown, including curfews, raids and restrictions on travel.

In turn, separatists have begun an armed campaign, targeting police and soldiers. Four were killed this week alone and 10 last month, authorities say.

Last week, the country's main opposition accused the government of having "militarised" the western anglophone regions, saying "abuse has been committed" against local people.

International monitors say between 20 and 40 people have been killed since late September.

For his part, 84-year-old Biya -- who has rejected the anglophone regions' demands -- reaffirmed his commitment to "bilingualism and multiculturalism".

During a speech, he denounced attacks against security forces by "extremists" working "on behalf of a terrorist organisation with clear secessionist objectives".

But he said he wanted "to continue to look for solutions that would strengthen national unity".
MINOT -- The Ward County Jail no longer is subject to special state monitoring.

Sheriff Bob Barnard informed the Ward County Commission Tuesday of a letter from the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation that states the jail will be subject in the future only to routine, annual inspections.

The jail had been under full-time compliance monitoring from January 2015 through July of this year. The state placed Robert Werlinger as monitor following an investigation into the October 2014 death of Dustin Irwin, who died in Bismarck after being transferred from Ward County Jail. The investigation revealed a pattern of jail compliance violations.

The DOCR indicated in July that the jail had made great strides, warranting the end of full-time monitoring. Barnard said a monitor has visited the jail about three times since, typically spending less than a day to conduct spot reviews on certain areas of operation.

Previously cited for failure to train staff, the Ward County Jail has developed an in-house program for training its correctional officers. That program is expanding to offer training to other agencies, including employees of DOCR.

Previously cited for over-crowding, the jail's recent count was 103 inmates, which is capacity for the moment. Nearly all inmates have been moved from the older jail to a floor in the newly constructed portion that opened to inmates last week.

Capacity on each of the two floors of the new jail is 100. However, Barnard said upper floor of the jail expansion is not housing inmates because the monitoring station for correctional officers is being used as the jail's main control center while remodeling occurs in the older jail. It is expected the control center will move back to the remodeled jail in June, opening the upper floor for use in housing inmates.

Brian Kunz with Adolphson & Peterson Construction said the transition to the new jail and sheriff's office largely went smoothly. He said attention now will shift to demolition inside the older jail so that renovation can occur. A section of the older jail serves as temporary intake for processing of new inmates.
Blue helmet members of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, MONUSCO, have been in the country since 1999

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday announced the closure of four military bases in the restive north east of the country.

The bases, which will be closed next week, are in Bukiringi, Geti, Mambasa and Bogoro, all in Ituri province.

Bogoro was the scene of a high-profile massacre in 2003 that left some 200 villagers dead and led to a war crimes trial at The Hague which resulted in militia leader Germain Katanga being sentenced to 12 years in prison.

"We have been forced to make a big budget cut while the work expected from us is enormous on the ground. That's why we are obliged to reduce the number of bases without reducing our operational capacity," said Julius Fondong, a spokesman for the UN mission, known by its acronym MONUSCO.

Many local people in Bogoro have publicly opposed the closure of the base due to continuing concerns over security.

Some have even considered leaving the village and following the peacekeepers.

"Our troops will be stationed at three operational bases: Komanda, Aveba and Bunia," Fondong said.

The decision follows a number of other UN military base closures in the DRC. In July, the UN announced the closure of five bases in neighbouring North Kivu province despite the presence of several militia groups.

The announcement comes after UN peacekeepers suffered their worst attack in nearly a quarter of a century.

On December 7, 14 peacekeepers were killed and 53 wounded in an ambush by several hundred militiamen, whose weaponry included rocket-propelled grenades.

The United Nations has some 19,000 soldiers, police and military observers deployed in DR Congo, its biggest and costliest peacekeeping mission, with an annual budget of more than $1 billion.
President Donald Trump bows his head in prayer during an address from the Cabinet Room to celebrate the imminent adoption of the Republican tax cut plan

President Donald Trump on Wednesday hailed the imminent adoption of a sweeping Republican tax cut plan as a "historic victory" for the American people.

The US leader stood Wednesday on the brink of his first major legislative win, with lawmakers poised to give final approval to the most sweeping tax cuts in a generation.

"We had a historic victory for the American people," Trump told reporters in a celebratory address from the White House Cabinet Room.

"We got it done," he added, thanking the Republican leaders in Congress, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, by name. "We have a tremendous amount of talent."

After concluding his remarks, Trump invited his Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson to say a prayer for the assembled reporters and cabinet members -- during which Carson notably cited concerns about the national debt.

Eyeing the most important legislative victory in the 11 months since his inauguration -- after the stinging failure to repeal his predecessor's health care law -- Trump has demanded the bill reach his desk by Christmas.

The Senate passed the Republican bill in the wee hours and the House -- which already approved it on Tuesday -- was scheduled for a technical re-vote on the $1.5 trillion due to a procedural snag.

The deepest rewrite of the US tax code in three decades provides dramatic tax breaks to corporations, and families at all income levels will see their tax drop -- in what Republicans hope will play to their advantage in next year's mid-term elections.

The tax plan also takes a key step towards dismantling Barack Obama's health reforms, by scrapping the individual mandate that requires nearly all Americans to have health insurance or pay a fine.

"We have essentially repealed Obamacare and we will come up with something much better," Trump declared.

Earlier Trump had tweeted out his praise for Senate Majority leader McConnell, congratulating him on a "fantastic job both strategically & politically on the passing in the Senate of the MASSIVE TAX CUT & Reform Bill."

"I could have not asked for a better or more talented partner. Our team will go onto many more VICTORIES!"
A politician known for his fierce loyalty to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resigned as coalition chairman Wednesday as police investigated allegations against him of corruption and mob ties.

"The current situation is making it difficult for me to operate," David Bitan wrote in a Facebook post, while stressing he would remain a member of parliament on behalf of Netanyahu's ruling Likud party.

A picture taken on August 9, 2017 shows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and Knesset Member David Bitan (R) attending a gathering for Likud party members and activists at the Tel Aviv Convention Centre

Bitan has been grilled at length over separate allegations of bribery and links with organised crime during his time as deputy mayor of Rishon Lezion, near Tel Aviv.

Replacing Bitan as coalition chairman will be David Amsalem, another vocal Netanyahu supporter from Likud advancing a bill that would limit the police's ability to make recommendations to the attorney general on whether or not to charge suspects.

Bitan's resignation comes as the Israeli legal and political establishment awaits the conclusion of police investigations in suspected corruption by Netanyahu himself.

Speaking to supporters on Tuesday, the premier implied police would recommend to prosecutors he be indicted.

Fraud squad detectives questioned Netanyahu at his Jerusalem residence on Friday, for the seventh time in a nearly year-long corruption probe.

In one investigation, the prime minister is suspected of illegally receiving gifts from wealthy personalities including Australian billionaire James Packer and Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan.

In a second case, Netanyahu allegedly sought a secret pact for favourable coverage with the publisher of the top-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper.

The purported scheme, not believed to have been finalised, would have seen him receive favourable coverage in return for helping curb Yediot's competitor, the pro-Netanyahu freesheet Israel Hayom.

Thousands of Israelis have protested in recent weeks to demand legal action against "corrupt" people in the government and their resignation.
Monalisa Perez pleaded guilty last week to second-degree manslaughter for fatalling shooting her boyfriend during a botched YouTube stunt

A YouTube prankster from the US state of Minnesota has admitted fatally shooting her boyfriend in a botched video stunt she hoped would go viral.

Monalisa Perez, a 20-year-old mother-of-two, believed her husband Pedro Ruiz would be shielded by a thick book as she took aim from close range in front of onlookers.

She pleaded guilty Friday to second-degree manslaughter and agreed to serve a six-month sentence. She will face a sentencing hearing in February.

Perez and Ruiz, 22, were recording the stunt in June for their YouTube channel, where they published videos of their daily lives and pranks they performed.

Ruiz convinced Perez to shoot him with a pistol as he held the tome in front of his chest.

He presented her another book with a bullet hole on one side and no exit hole as proof his plan would work, police said.

"Me and Pedro are probably going to shoot one of the most dangerous videos ever," Perez wrote on Twitter prior to performing the stunt. "HIS idea not MINE."

With video cameras recording, Perez, who was pregnant with the couple's second child, pulled the trigger from about a foot away, according to authorities.

The bullet pierced the book and fatally wounded Ruiz. He died at the scene of a single gunshot wound to the chest.

Family and friends said at the time that the death was an accident and that Ruiz had been talking about performing the stunt for some time.

"I said, 'Don't do it, don't do it,'" Claudia Ruiz, the young man's aunt, told local TV station KVLY in June, adding that his response was, "We want more viewers."

In a deal with prosecutors, Perez agreed to serve three months in jail in one-month increments over three years, and then serve the other three months under house arrest.

She will also be subject to 10 years of probation and a lifetime ban from possessing firearms.

Although Perez has already agreed to the sentence with prosecutors, a judge can ignore the deal and impose a longer sentence. In such cases, defendants usually have the right to rescind their guilty plea and go on trial.

Ruiz was a railroad worker, who had lived with foster parents before graduating high school, according to a published obituary. He met Perez in 2012 and they had their first child two years later.

"Everyone that knew him, knew that he never hesitated to try something new, always pushing things to their limits," the obituary said.

The couple's YouTube channel was still active and its 18 videos have generated 4.7 million views.

As part of her plea deal, Perez agreed to not seek financial gain from her case.
The US and China are said to be in talks over new UN sanctions on North Korea, whose leader Kim Jong-Un is seen here in an image televised late last month in Tokyo after another Pyongyang missile launch

The United States is in talks with China on slapping new UN sanctions on North Korea and could put forward a draft Security Council resolution soon, UN diplomats said Wednesday.

The new measure is expected to target supplies of oil products to North Korea that are vital for military programs aimed at developing Pyongyang's nuclear strike capacity with advanced missile technology.

The new sanctions would be in response to the November 28 test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that flew 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) before splashing down in Japan's maritime economic exclusion zone.

Asked about the US-China negotiations, a council diplomat confirmed "there is definitely stuff going on" but said it was unclear whether China would agree to new sanctions targeting its Pyongyang ally.

"It's a big ask to get the Chinese to agree to a further resolution," he said.

A diplomat said the draft resolution could be circulated to the council this week, but others were skeptical that a deal could be reached so quickly.

In negotiations on previous sanctions, the United States has first agreed with China on provisions of each resolution before presenting the text to the full 15-member council, which has then quickly voted.

Since last year, North Korea has carried out a nuclear test -- its sixth -- and a series of advanced missile launches.

- Targeting oil -

After the latest ICBM test, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called for "additional measures" against North Korea. And last week he told the council that the "pressure campaign must and will continue until denuclearization is achieved."

President Donald Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping last month to cut off oil supplies to North Korea, a move that would deal a crippling blow to its desperately struggling economy.

So far, the Security Council has imposed a full ban on supplies of condensates and natural gas liquids to North Korea, capped deliveries of refined oil products to two million barrels a year, and capped crude oil exports at current levels.

China supplies most of North Korea's crude.

The council has also banned exports of North Korean coal, iron, lead, textiles and seafood, restricted joint ventures and ended the hiring of North Korean workers abroad.

The sanctions are aimed at choking off revenue to Pyongyang's military programs and piling pressure on leader Kim Jong-Un to come to the negotiating table.

The United States has also asked the council to blacklist 10 ships, including two Hong Kong-flagged vessels, for carrying banned cargo from North Korea.

The UN sanctions committee has set a deadline of 3:00 pm (2000 GMT) Thursday for council members to raise any objections to a request to ban all 10 ships from ports worldwide.

Under UN resolutions, North Korea is barred from developing missiles and a nuclear weapons capability, but Pyongyang has argued that the arsenal is needed for self-defense against the "hostile" United States.
Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani who is starting a six-nation West Africa tour in search of new markets and to counter his country's isolation by its neighbours

Qatar's emir landed in Senegal on Wednesday at the start of a six-nation tour of West Africa as Doha seeks out new markets after Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries cut ties with the wealthy emirate.

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani's is expected to visit Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea, Mali and Senegal, according to foreign ministry spokeswoman Lulwa al-Khater.

The visit is part of Doha's drive to open up new markets and diversify its economy amid an ongoing blockade by its neighbours, Khater said.

The emir landed in Senegal on Wednesday evening, while the Guinean presidency said in a statement he would arrive in Conakry on Thursday.

Karim Wade, the son of former Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade, lives in exile in Doha as part of a deal brokered with the emir to free the former minister from a prison sentence handed down for corruption.

A source close to the Malian presidency told AFP that President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was also expecting Al-Thani on Thursday.

Khater said the six countries on the emir's itinerary had "strong economic potential and opportunities despite some security challenges in some of them".

The emir is to sign cooperation agreements in health, education, mining, energy and food security.

Khater said Qatar will also be providing $13.8 million to fund a cancer hospital in Burkina Faso.

Qatar has sought to establish new global trade links in an attempt to alleviate its regional isolation by powerful Saudi Arabia with which it shares its only land border.

On June 5, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic and economic ties with gas-rich Qatar, accusing it of links to extremist groups and being too close to Shiite Iran, Riyadh's arch-rival.

Doha denies the charges.
US President Donald Trump holds a Cabinet Meeting in the Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington, DC, December 20, 2017

President Donald Trump threatened to cut funding Wednesday to countries that vote against the United States on a motion at the United Nations condemning Washington's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

"All these nations that take our money and then vote against us at the Security Council and they vote against us potentially at the Assembly," Trump said at the White House.

"They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars and then they vote against us. Well, we're watching those votes," he continued.

"Let them vote against us. We'll save a lot. We don't care."

Nikki Haley, Washington's UN envoy, had warned countries Tuesday that she would report back to Trump with the names of those who supported a draft resolution rejecting the US recognition.

"Nikki, that was the right message," Trump said.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki accused Washington of "threatening" member countries of the UN General Assembly ahead of Thursday's vote.
Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, addresses the General Assembly prior to the vote on Jerusalem

Defying President Donald Trump's threat to cut off funding, the United Nations approved by a resounding vote on Thursday a motion rejecting the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The 193-member General Assembly adopted the resolution by 128 to nine with 35 abstentions, in what Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour called a "massive setback" for the United States.

An additional 21 countries did not turn up for the vote including Ukraine, which had supported the same resolution in the Security Council, indicating the US threats did have a chilling effect on some governments.

Guatemala, Honduras, Israel, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Togo joined the United States in opposing the measure.

Among the countries that abstained were Argentina, Australia, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland, Romania and Rwanda.

Speaking at the emergency session, US Ambassador Nikki Haley warned the United States "will remember this day."

"America will put our embassy in Jerusalem," Haley said in defense of the US move, which broke with international consensus and unleashed protests across the Muslim world.

US President Donald Trump had warned ahead of the General Assembly vote that "we're watching" and threatened reprisals against countries that back the measure

"No vote in the United Nations will make any difference on that," Haley said. "But this vote will make a difference on how Americans look at the UN and on how we look at countries who disrespect us in the UN."

"When we make generous contributions to the UN we also have a legitimate expectation that our goodwill is recognized and respected," she said.

The resolution reaffirms that the status of Jerusalem must be resolved through negotiations, and that any decision reached outside of that framework must be rescinded.

Without explicitly referencing the US move, it "affirms that any decisions and actions which purport to have altered the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded in compliance with relevant resolutions of the Security Council."

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the vote showed the "illegality" of Trump's decision, urging the United States to withdraw it.

- 'Unprecedented test' -

The motion was sent to the General Assembly after it was vetoed by the United States at the Security Council on Monday, although all other 14 council members voted in favor.

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, addresses the UN General Assembly prior to a vote on Jerusalem

While resolutions by the General Assembly are non-binding, a strong vote in support carries political weight.

Ahead of the vote, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted the UN as a "house of lies," saying Israel "rejects outright this vote, even before it passes."

"No General Assembly resolution will ever drive us from Jerusalem," vowed Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon.

Palestinian foreign minister Riad al-Malki called the vote an "unprecedented test" for the UN, and referenced the US warning that it was "taking names."

"History records names, it remembers names -- the names of those who stand by what is right and the names of those who speak falsehood," al-Malki said.

Trump's decision on December 6 to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital prompted a flurry of appeals to the United Nations.

Jerusalem: the Holy City whose status is one of the most thorny issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

The status of the Holy City is one of the thorniest issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Trump warned that Washington would closely watch how nations voted, suggesting there could be reprisals for those that back the motion put forward by Yemen and Turkey on behalf of Arab and Muslim countries.

"They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars and then they vote against us," Trump said.

"Well, we're watching those votes. Let them vote against us. We'll save a lot. We don't care."

- 'House of lies' -

The resolution mirrored the text that was vetoed at the Security Council on Monday, and although it does not mention Trump's decision, it expresses "deep regret at recent decisions" concerning the city's status.

President Donald Trump will be "watching closely" to see how people vote on the Jerusalem issue

No country has veto powers in the General Assembly, unlike in the 15-member Security Council where the United States, along with Britain, China, France and Russia, can block any resolution.

UN diplomats privately said the United States had succeeded in making some countries think twice.

Haley tweeted that 65 countries had "refused to condemn the United States" over its decision on Jerusalem - a tally of "no" votes, abstentions and no-shows.

"While the resolution passed, the vote breakdown tells a different story," said a spokesperson for the US mission.

"It's clear that many countries prioritized their relationship with the United States over an unproductive attempt to isolate us for a decision that was our sovereign right to make."

The Palestinian ambassador insisted the vote was more about Trump's foreign policy approach than the status of Jerusalem.

"They made it about them," said Mansour. "They did not make it about Jerusalem, so when you make it about them and to only be able to get nine votes to say 'no' to it, I think it was a complete failure for their campaign."

Israel seized the largely-Arab eastern sector of Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it, claiming both sides of the city as its "eternal and undivided capital."

But the Palestinians want the eastern sector as the capital of their future state and fiercely oppose any Israeli attempt to extend sovereignty there.
The US blacklisted Chechnya's leader Ramzan Kadyrov for human rights violations including killings and torture of people seeking to expose government wrongdoing, and also sanctioned a prison warden who allegedly oversaw torture of gay men this year

The United States slapped sanctions on Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov on Wednesday, accusing Russian leader Vladimir Putin's key regional ally of personal involvement in repression, torture and murder.

Kadyrov was added to the US Treasury's blacklist along with Chechen security official Ayub Kataev and three Russians linked to the corruption case uncovered by deceased whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky.

The sanctions were authorized under the 2012 Magnitsky Act, but came just weeks ahead of what may be broader US action against the "oligarch" class of super-wealthy Russians accused of profiting from and shoring up Putin's authoritarian rule.

Russian fury over the ever-tightening vice of US and international sanctions has undermined US President Donald Trump's stated hopes for warmer ties with Putin's Kremlin, and Wednesday's sanctions are expected to trigger another round of anger from Moscow's power players.

But these actions were taken under existing US legislation.

Kadyrov, sanctioned on Wednesday, is a key ally of Russia's President Vladimir Putin who is now braced for more US financial measures against his inner circle in the New Year

Next month, Trump and the US Congress will have to decide how to implement the far broader "Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act" of 2017 -- potentially striking a severe blow against Putin's inner circle.

US lawmakers, angered by Russia's alleged meddling in the US presidential election and invasion of Ukraine, passed CAATSA over objections from the White House to oblige a reluctant Trump to cast a wider sanctions net and prevent him from scaling back existing measures.

In January, US officials are expected to provide Congress with a list of wealthy Russians seen as members of Putin's political and financial support network, potentially exposing swathes of the Moscow business class to sweeping new limits on international transactions.

Trump may yet slow pedal any measures that would rock Putin's rule and permanently sink his hopes for closer US-Russia cooperation, but Wednesday's measures underline the determination with which some officials in the US administration are pursuing the cause.

- Gross violators -

The new names bring to 49 the number of people now subject to US economic sanctions under laws adopted following Magnitsky's death while in prison, according to the Treasury.

"We will continue to use the Magnitsky Act to aggressively target gross violators of human rights in Russia, including individuals responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture, and other despicable acts," said John Smith, who oversees the sanctions program.

The sanctions effectively lock their targets out of much of the international banking system and freeze any assets they may have in US jurisdiction.

Under legislation adopted in 2012, the United States targets individuals believed to be tied to a $230 million alleged tax fraud exposed by Magnitsky, to his subsequent death in custody or to attempts to cover this up.

The law also targets those accused of gross human violations committed in retaliation against people seeking to expose government wrongdoing.

Kataev, a prison warden, allegedly oversaw the detention and torture of gay men in Chechnya "in the first half of 2017," among other abuses, Treasury said.

Washington also sanctioned three Russians: Alexei Sheshenya, whose company the Treasury believes benefited from the tax scam uncovered by Magnitsky, as well as Yulia Mayorova and Andrei Pavlov, lawyers who represented companies which benefited from the scheme.

But it is the measure against Kadyrov that will garner the most attention.

- Personal torture -

Putin appointed the warlord and wrestler president of the autonomous Russian republic of Chechnya in 2007 and he has ruled the formerly rebellious region with great loyalty to his sponsor and great brutality to his people.

The US Treasury's designation of Kadyrov not only lists his alleged involvement in repression and the violent persecution of his and Putin's opponents, but accuses him personally.

"As the head of the Chechen Republic, Kadyrov oversees an administration involved in disappearances and extra-judicial killings," Treasury said.

"One of Kadyrov's political opponents was believed to have been murdered at Kadyrov's direction, after making allegations of torture and ill-treatment taking place in Chechnya, including alleged torture carried out by Kadyrov personally."

Kadyrov, in a message on his popular Instagram account accompanying footage of him lifting weights in a hooded camouflage fleecy onesie, laughed off the measures.

"So I was banned from entering America," he shrugged. "And am I going to apply for a visa. Do I have assets in US banks?

"I have said before, but I will repeat again for the especially forgetful that I would not have gone to the USA even if all the currency reserves in the country were promised to me as prizes."
UN Swedish-Chilean employee Zaida Catalan, seen here in 2009, was found dead in the Democratic Republic of Congo with American Michael Sharp in March this year

State employees of the Democratic Republic of Congo helped organise the mission trip of two UN experts to the central Kasai region where they were killed, according to a Reuters and Radio France Internationale (RFI) report.

The revelation that "four state agents and associates" may have been involved in the murders appears to contradict the official account by Congolese government officials, who have maintained that no state employees were involved.

Officials have also said they did not know the pair were in the area.

Zaida Catalan, a Swedish-Chilean national and American Michael Sharp were killed in March while investigating reports of more than 40 mass graves in the war-torn Kasai region.

Kasai has been in turmoil since tribal chieftain Jean-Prince Mpandi -- known as the Kamwina Nsapu -- was killed in August last year after rebelling against President Joseph Kabila's regime in Kinshasa.

More than 3,000 people have died and 1.4 million have been displaced, according to the Catholic Church.

The pair were "meeting members of the Kamwina Nsapu, a local clan, on the sidelines of peace talks with the government in the city of Kananga," Reuters's Aaron Ross and RFI's Sonia Rolley reported on Tuesday.

According to their report, Catalan and Sharp left the city of Kananga on March 12. Their bodies were found 15 days later. Catalan had been decapitated.

A UN report released in June described their murder as a "premeditated setup" in which state security may have been involved.

Congolese authorities have said the experts, along with four Congolese nationals accompanying them, were killed by militia members of Kamwina Nsapu.

DR Congo has charged 26 suspected members of the militia for the double murders. They are currently on trial in a military court in Kananga.

According to the media report, the prosecutor's case file included elements on a militia chief, two opposition lawmakers, and four Congolese state agents and associates.

"Three of the state agents and associates were directly involved in the mission that cost the lives of the two experts," the report said.

- 'Proven, nor excluded' -

The journalists highlighted one person who helped organise the trip, Jose Tshibuabua, who they said worked for DR Congo's intelligence services, Agence Nationale de Renseignements (ANR), at the time.

RFI had previously reported that Bruno Tshibuabua and an interpreter had not correctly translated into French a warning by a Kamwina Nsapu healer that the two UN experts were not safe to travel to Bunkonde, where they were supposed to continue their investigation.

"It is again Jose Tshibuabua who provided the motorcycle taxis and the drivers, still reported missing, who drove the experts to Bunkonde," they reported.

Top ANR official in Congo, Kalev Mutond, told Reuters and RFI that "Tshibuabua was working as a 'volunteer informant' for the agency at the time of the meeting, but did not inform ANR officials about his contacts with the two experts".

The ANR chief also denied knowing anything about the experts' planned trip to Bunkonde.

If the investigators "had contact with informants, it was not reported to the government," government spokesman Lambert Mende told the journalists.

"If there is a state agent who was involved, he will be pursued and judged," he added.

But according to Reuters and RFI, Tshibuabua and his ties to the ANR were not included in a UN board of inquiry's confidential report to the UN Security Council or in the trial.

Meanwhile, the United Nations said Wednesday that its own investigation shows that authorities' involvement "has been neither proven, nor excluded".
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein has told staff that he won't tone down his criticism of member states in order to seek a new term in his post next year

The United Nations' top human rights official, a sharp critic of US President Donald Trump, declared Wednesday that he will not tone down his message to seek re-election in his post.

Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, told staff in an email he would not bargain away his agency's integrity when his job comes up for renewal in August.

Earlier this week, in an interview with AFP, the Jordanian prince had rejected the idea of "wheeling and dealing" with political players to secure a second four-year term in Geneva.

And in an email to staff, seen by AFP, he wrote: "After reflection, I have decided not to seek a second four-year term" adding that "in the current geo-political context," to stay "might involve bending a knee in supplication; muting a statement of advocacy."

Hussein did not mention Trump by name, but he has reportedly been under pressure from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to tone down his human rights criticism of Washington.

Even as Hussein's email became public, Trump was threatening to cut off US funding to countries that vote against his Israel policy at a UN General Assembly emergency session on Thursday.

During Trump's election campaign, Hussein had blasted the political newcomer's populist promise to ban Muslims from visiting or migrating to the United States as "grossly irresponsible."

In August, Hussein took a swipe at Trump over his depiction of media reports as "fake news," saying it could amount to incitement against journalists.

He compared the US president to a bus driver "careening down a mountain path."

From a human rights perspective, he said, "it seems to be reckless driving."

The United States remains the single biggest donor to UN coffers and Guterres has been keen to develop ties with the US administration to sustain the broader UN agenda.

- Stellar exception -

In his interview with AFP, Hussein voiced concern over the far-right tilt of Austria's new coalition government and took aim at politicians willing to turn to "the peddling of fear as a means of getting to political office."

Trump's comments have "seemed to find an echo in other countries where leaders who were inclined to shut down civil society or the media were resorting to the same language," he said.

"I think we all recognize how dangerous that is."

Human rights groups have praised Hussein as a strong voice at the United Nations who spoke with credibility on rights violations in Syria, Myanmar among many conflicts.

He was the first UN official to describe the Myanmar army's campaign against Muslim Rohingya as ethnic cleansing.

Hussein is a "stellar exception in a world where populists and enemies of human rights have gotten a lot of air play," said Louis Charbonneau, UN director for Human Rights Watch.

"It's a sorry indictment of the regard for which human rights are held when the high commissioner feels like he would have to compromise with his message and his actions in order to get a second term," said Charbonneau.

"I hope the UN will find a replacement who can continue in this style in an extremely challenging time for human rights defenders."

The 53-year-old career diplomat was appointed as UN rights chief in 2014 under former UN chief Ban Ki-moon, replacing Navi Pillay of South Africa.

He was Jordan's UN ambassador from 2000 to 2007 and served as a UN political affairs officer in the UN peace mission in former Yugoslavia, during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
President Donald Trump thanked congressional leaders for driving through what he called "the largest tax cut in the history of our country"

A jubilant Donald Trump hosted Republican lawmakers at the White House for a victory lap after the US Congress passed a sweeping tax cut plan, declaring: "We are making America great again."

"We broke every record," the president told the scores of lawmakers assembled on the South Lawn of the White House, thanking congressional leaders for driving through what he called "the largest tax cut in the history of our country."

Trump went on to shower compliments on the Republicans present, in a melee of smiles and handshakes, singling out Congressman Steve Scalise who was seriously injured in a shooting earlier this year.

"He had a rougher year than most of us," Trump quipped. "But it's a hell of a way to lose weight, Steve. Not a good way. We love you, Steve."

Trump then handed the floor to a succession of Republicans, who took turns singing his praises.

Setting the tone, House Speaker Paul Ryan credited Trump's "exquisite presidential leadership" for the success of the contentious plan, assailed by Democrats as a giveaway to the wealthiest that risks blowing a hole in the national debt.

And Vice President Mike Pence doubled down with a superlative description of the president's accomplishments -- including a tax cut he described as "a middle class miracle."

"President Donald Trump is a man of his word. He's a man of action," Pence said. "With the strong support of these members of congress, President Donald Trump delivered, a great victory for the American people."
An earthquake was felt in the Iranian capital Tehran on Wednesday, sending hundreds of people running out onto the streets, AFP journalists reported.

The quake measuring 5.2 magnitude struck shortly before 11:30 pm (2000 GMT), according to the seismological centre of the University of Tehran.

The epicentre of the tremor was located about 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of the capital.

Authorities have not yet identified any damage or casualties from the quake, the latest in a series to have rattled the Islamic republic.

"We are asking people to stay calm as the traffic itself could create problems," the Iranian Red Crescent's Mortza Redmare said on television.

Shortly before midnight, the situation in parts of the capital seemed to have returned to calm.

Iran sits atop several fault lines, and Wednesday's quake is the latest in a series to have hit the country in little more than a week.

A 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck the southeastern province of Kerman on December 13, leaving at least 18 people injured but causing only minimal damage.

Located around 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of the provincial capital of Kerman, the quake was measured as magnitude 5.9 by the US Geological Survey.

On November 12, Kermanshah was hit by a major 7.3-magnitude quake that killed 620 people according to the latest toll provided Monday by Tasnim news agency.

Iran's worst quake in recent years was a 6.6-magnitude tremor that struck near Bam in 2003, decimating the ancient city and killing at least 31,000 people.

In 1990, a 7.4-magnitude quake in northern Iran killed 40,000 people, injured 300,000 and left half a million homeless, reducing dozens of towns and nearly 2,000 villages to rubble.
CHICAGO (AP) - Former Wisconsin regulator Cathy Stepp was named Tuesday as head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's regional office in Chicago, drawing praise from business groups and criticism from environmental activists fearful she will weaken enforcement of rules protecting the Great Lakes and air quality in the Upper Midwest's industrial centers.

The assignment came four months after Stepp was named a deputy administrator for another EPA regional office near Kansas City. Previously, she served six years as director of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and was a Republican state senator from 2003-07. As head of EPA's Region 5, she will oversee operations in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.

"Cathy Stepp's experience working as a statewide cabinet official, elected official and small business owner will bring a fresh perspective to EPA as we look to implement President Trump's agenda," EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said.

FILE - In this Jan. 13, 2017 file photo, Cathy Stepp, secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, speaks during an interview in her office in Madison, Wis. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, that Stepp will be in charge of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Region 5, which oversees the EPA's operations in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. She previously led Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources. (M.P. King/Wisconsin State Journal via AP File)

Henry Henderson, the Natural Resources Defense Council's Midwest director, said Stepp's record "fits nicely with the lax mode of enforcement favored by the Trump administration," adding that environmental groups will be "very, very busy" under her tenure.

A former homebuilder with no scientific background, Stepp was chosen by Gov. Scott Walker to lead the Wisconsin natural resources department, where she oversaw a reorganization that included staffing cuts in its science and research bureau.

The number of enforcement cases fell sharply during her tenure. The department replaced some passages on its website describing humans as partly responsible for climate change, saying instead that scientists were still debating the matter.

When she accepted the earlier EPA posting in August, Stepp told staffers with the Wisconsin department she was leaving behind an agency that ensured businesses were not "delayed by bureaucracy."

The head of the EPA's national employee union said Stepp, 54, is unqualified and has a history of favoring business interests over environmental protection.

"I see her cutting back on enforcement and fines and doing things that certain aspects of industry will appreciate," said John O'Grady, president of AFGE Council 238, which represents about 9,000 EPA staffers.

Howard Learner, executive director the Chicago-based Environmental Law & Policy Center, said the Wisconsin natural resources department under Stepp "turned back the clock on basic safeguards" of water and air.

"Heading up Region 5 means protecting the Great Lakes, the world's largest freshwater resource that supplies safe, clean drinking water to tens of millions of people," Learner said. "We hope Ms. Stepp will bring a different perspective ... than her track record in Wisconsin would suggest."

The region includes most of the Great Lakes and manufacturing cities such as Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland, plus rural areas challenged by rapid accumulation of industry-scale farms. The EPA Chicago office criticized Michigan for failing to prevent lead pollution of drinking water in Flint, but some members of Congress said the federal agency also should have done more.

With her Wisconsin roots, Stepp is well-acquainted with the lakes' pollution problems such as algae blooms, invasive species and harbors coated with toxic chemicals, said Cameron Davis, a former EPA senior adviser who oversaw an ambitious restoration initiative during the Obama administration.

"Her key challenges - and where the public will be watching - are to ensure compliance," Davis said. "Because of the Midwest's history, EPA can't just clean up past problems. It has to work with states to make sure the region's sustainable businesses aren't disadvantaged."

Walker said Stepp was "a strong, trusted reformer," while Kurt Bauer, president of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, said she had "routinely balanced the needs of a growing economy with the importance of protecting our natural resources."

___

Flesher reported from Traverse City, Michigan.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - An investigation into a Florida state senator accused of groping a single woman uncovered another witness who said he routinely touched her in a sexual manner and offered to support legislation in exchange for sexual favors.

Former Judge Ronald Swanson conducted the investigation into Republican Sen. Jack Latvala and found in a report issued Tuesday that the woman who filed the complaint against him was likely telling the truth, but details from other witnesses described even more extreme behavior.

"If any of this is true, he needs to resign immediately for the victims, for the people of Florida and for his family," Republican Sen. Dana Young said. "With this report showing extreme circumstances, his continued presence in the Senate through session would be a tremendous distraction from the important work we need to accomplish."

Ronald Swanson recommended the Senate sanction Latvala, who is also running for governor. The Senate will begin its annual session Jan. 9 and the Senate Rules Committee will meet Jan. 11 to consider the report.

Swanson said some of Latvala's actions may have violated public corruption laws and recommended that allegations be referred to law enforcement.

One former lobbyist said that Latvala would touch her inappropriately, including touching the outside of her bra and panties, every time they were alone in the office. She said he "intimated to her on multiple occasions, that if she engaged in sexual acts or allowed him to touch her body in a sexual manner he would support legislative items for which she was lobbying," Swanson wrote. That included explicit text messages sent to the woman.

The woman said she tolerated the unwanted touching for two years. "I felt it was something he felt entitled to," she said in the report.

The investigation began after a complaint filed by Rachel Perrin Rogers, a top aide to Senate Majority Leader Wilton Simpson. Perrin Rogers accused Latvala of inappropriate touching in a Capitol elevator, at a private club and other occasions.

She said on many occasions, Latvala would comment on her appearance by saying she looked "hot" and would stare at her chest as she tried to talk about legislative issues with him.

Other witnesses said Latvala is known to make grunting or growling sounds aimed at woman, and a lobbyist said she was touched her in an unwelcome manner three or four times.

Perrin Rogers' attorney said in a press release that the report confirms that Latvala created a hostile work environment for Perrin Rogers, and she criticized him for trying to undermine Perrin Rogers during the investigation.

"Jack Latvala and his legal team have made a mockery of a process that is legally obligated to protect accusers and the accused equally. They victimized Rachel by violating her confidentiality and threatening her and her family, all in an attempt to intimidate witnesses and other victims from coming forward," Tiffany Cruz said.

Latvala didn't answer his cellphone Tuesday evening. He has admitting to occasionally telling women he's friendly with that they're "looking hot," but that he's never touched anyone against their will, the report said.

His son, state Rep. Chris Latvala, tweeted late Tuesday, "I am as proud today to be the son of @JackLatvala as I was yesterday or last month."
JAYESS, Miss. (AP) - The Latest on a shooting and a search for a suspect in Mississippi (all times local):

7:30 p.m.

Officials are expanding a search for a Mississippi man they believe shot and killed another man, wounded a woman and set two houses on fire.

Mississippi Highway Patrol spokesman Warren Strain said Tuesday evening that officers are searching wooded areas near Jayess in Lawrence County.

That comes after officers surrounded two mobile homes and a house looking for Tony Wilson, who Lawrence County Sheriff Lessie Butler says shot and killed a neighbor in a land dispute.

Butler says Wilson and Henry Peavey have disputed ownership of a parcel to which Peavey was granted title.

Officials say Wilson set fire to two houses and wounded Peavey's wife, although the nature of her injuries is unclear. She was hospitalized in Jackson.

Robert Langille, Wilson's brother-in-law, says Wilson is an experienced woodsman who could elude police for a long time.

___

2:15 p.m.

Officials say they've surrounded a man in a mobile home in rural south Mississippi after he shot and killed another man and wounded a woman.

Mississippi Highway Patrol spokesman Warren Strain says officers are on the scene near Jayess in Lawrence County.

Strain says the incident began before noon Tuesday, and that the man set two structures on fire in addition to the shootings. Strain says the man does not appear to have fired at officers.

Strain says investigators are still gathering information on what caused the incident.
MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) - Work to restore grizzly bears to the North Cascades Ecosystem has been stopped by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's office, a national parks official told a Montana newspaper.

But Zinke spokeswoman Heather Swift told The Associated Press Tuesday that Zinke did not direct a stop work order on the environmental review. Swift didn't provide further details.

North Cascades National Park Superintendent Karen Taylor-Goodrich told the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee last week that her staff had been asked to halt work on its environmental review, the Missoulian reported .

She said the order also stalls discussions with Canadian wildlife managers who oversee a similar grizzly recovery process in British Columbia.

"We were in the process of evaluating public comment," Taylor-Goodrich said of the stop order. "We're in year three of the process and all the public scoping has been done. The draft EIS went out for public review in spring and we've received about 127,000 comments."

A park spokeswoman in Washington state on Tuesday referred all questions to the Interior Department.

The National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have been considering four options to restore the grizzly population, including taking no action.

Three alternatives seek to restore a population of about 200 bears, by relocating animals to 9,800 square miles of mostly public land in and around North Cascades National Park and letting them breed. The options differ in the number of bruins initially released and the time expected to get to that goal, ranging from 25 years for the expedited option to 60 to 100 years for the other two alternatives.

Supporters of the proposals to bring back the population say the population won't recover without help and their return would increase the biodiversity of the ecosystem.

Others say the animals should recover naturally, while some worry about potential increased dangers to recreationists and livestock and opposed the move over potential impacts to communities, ranchers, farmers and others.

Federal officials have noted that grizzly bears would be relocated in remote areas. They would likely come from areas in northwestern Montana or south-central British Columbia.

They were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1975. In the North Cascades, the population is estimated to be fewer than 20 animals, according to Fish and Wildlife Service.

A federal 1997 plan designated the North Cascades as one of five grizzly bear recovery zones. The others are in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.

___

Information from: Missoulian, http://www.missoulian.com
GOLD COAST, Australia (AP) - The Gold Coast tourist strip which will host the Commonwealth Games in April has dozens of kilometers of fine, sandy beaches.

Just a bit too fine for the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) inspectors.

Commonwealth Games organizers said Wednesday that the FIVB has ruled that the sand at Coolangatta Beach on the southern end of the coast was "too fine" for the beach volleyball competition.

So approximately 1,700 tons of coarser sand will have to be imported from the state capital of Brisbane, 100 kilometers (62 miles) north, to cover the main and practice courts.

Organizers said the sand at Copacabana Beach at Rio de Janeiro forced Olympic officials to import coarser sand for the 2016 Games after the FIVB made a similar ruling.

It is the first time beach volleyball has featured at the Commonwealth Games, and tickets at the 4,000-seat temporary stadium have already sold out.

The Commonwealth Games are from April 4-15, with the beach volleyball competition scheduled from April 6-12.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - A grand jury said Tuesday that it saw enough evidence for criminal charges to be filed in the death of a Florida State University fraternity pledge but that the investigation is incomplete.

The Leon County grand jury issued a 17-page presentment order that left the decision about charges up to the state attorney's office or a future grand jury. It also said evidence still needs to be reviewed in the investigation into Andrew Coffey's death.

"They've gone to great extent trying to articulate their findings. This is still a criminal investigation, and I don't want to do anything to compromise that," State Attorney Jack Campbell said.

Investigations by the state attorney and local and university police are ongoing.

The presentment establishes a timeline and how Coffey died. County Medical Examiner Dr. Lisa Flannagan said in testimony that the 20-year old Coffey, who was a junior and a pledge at Pi Kappa Phi, died of alcohol poisoning and had a blood alcohol level of .447 at the time of the autopsy.

Coffey died Nov. 3 after he was found unresponsive after a party the night before. The "Big Brother Night" party was held at an off-campus home.

The party introduced pledges to their big brothers and included drinking large amounts of liquor straight from the bottle. The presentment says Coffey consumed a bottle of bourbon he was given. He passed out and was described as "snoring loudly" on a couch in the living room while others played pool.

A fellow pledge tried to awaken Coffey the next morning and found he didn't have a pulse. Phone records show the pledge called and texted five fraternity members before calling 911.

Lack of cooperation by fraternity members was cited as a reason for convening the grand jury. Tallahassee Police Investigator Dan Copelin said that 19 of 41 pledges, 22 of 38 fraternity brothers and seven of nine members of the fraternity's executive council refused to be interviewed.

"The fraternity members were very careful about how they characterized their behavior on the night in question," the grand jury says in its report. "Many of the witnesses' testimony appeared rehearsed as if they were speaking off a 'script.' They presented many of the same answers as each other and volunteered much self-serving information without being asked."

Four members of Phi Kappa Phi and 38 pledges appeared before the grand jury. It also heard testimony from University President John Thrasher, Vice President of Student Affairs Amy Hecht and Coffey's mother, Sandy.

"Even as we are heartbroken, we are also troubled. Troubled that our son died alone in a room full of people," Sandy Coffey said in a statement that was part of the report. "Accountability is a tough word, but perhaps it is time for accountability."

Thrasher in a statement Tuesday expressed his frustration with the lack of information and cooperation by those who were at the party.

The grand jury did find that although Coffey's alcohol consumption was not physically forced, an environment of hazing existed that culminated in his death.

Three days after Coffey's death, Florida State quickly responded by indefinitely suspending its fraternities and sororities. Thrasher reiterated that the suspension will remain in place when classes resume Jan. 8 and "until all students demonstrate a sincere understanding of the serious obligation they have to exercise responsible and safe conduct."

Florida State University is committed to continuing to combat unsafe and dangerous practices and behaviors on and off our campus. We appreciate the efforts of the grand jury, and we welcome, and will strongly consider, its recommendations as we seek to change the fraternity culture for the benefit, safety and well-being of all our students and the community.

Thrasher said in an interview with The Associated Press last week that there is no timetable on lifting the suspension and that the grand jury's report would help guide him on how to proceed.

The grand jury has recommended refresher training courses on hazing and binge drinking, amending the Student Code of Conduct to require that students cooperate during an investigation and a "Community Scorecard" to measure the performance of fraternities, including grade point averages, service hours, and on- or off-campus incidents.

"Working together with our students and other stakeholders, we have made much progress toward our goals during the past six weeks. However, today's grand jury report confirms we still have much work to do," Thrasher said in his statement.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - The Latest on the shooting of a man by Minneapolis police officers at City Hall (all times local):

9:30 p.m.

Authorities have identified a man who was shot by Minneapolis police at City Hall.

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said in a news release Tuesday night that 18-year-old Marcus Fischer of Minneapolis is at a hospital being treated for his injuries. The BCA says it is interviewing the officers who were involved in the shooting or witnessed it.

The BCA says it will release additional information, including the names of the officers who fired their weapons, once the interviews are complete.

The shooting happened Monday inside a Minneapolis Police Department interview room. The head of the Minneapolis police union, Bob Kroll, says the man who was shot was cutting his throat with a knife and the officers intervened. He says the officers were "heroic."

___

11:20 a.m.

The head of the Minneapolis police union says officers were "heroic" in shooting a man who was slitting his own throat at City Hall.

The incident happened Monday in an interview room at the Minneapolis Police Department. Union president Bob Kroll says video of the incident will show the officers tried to deescalate the situation, then had to intervene as the man was intent on taking his life.

The shooting is being investigated by the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. While Kroll declined to talk about the shooting itself, he says the man had just confessed to a shooting and the investigator went to get him water. The investigator returned to find the man harming himself. Kroll says he was cutting his throat with a knife.

The man was taken to a hospital. His condition wasn't immediately available.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told a crowd Tuesday in Iowa that Democrats must embrace a progressive agenda to win elections in 2018, emphasizing that it means clearly addressing such issues as income inequality.

"We have to be uncompromising," de Blasio told the group at the gathering in downtown Des Moines, where he stressed his work in New York City to expand early childhood education and improve mental health care access. "We have to be strong. We're the party of working people. We believe in the labor movement."

De Blasio made similar points in a blog post last month, but his actual appearance in Iowa marked a more formal effort to seek a prominent role on the national stage. It also led to speculation about the mayor's 2020 plans given Iowa's status for first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks during an event hosted by Progress Iowa, Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

De Blasio was blunt with reporters ahead of his speech, saying that he's not running for president and will serve all four years of his second and final term in office.

"I can walk and chew gum at the same time," he told reporters. "I can do my job as mayor of the city and still work on my core beliefs."

He emphasized the point by taking out a piece of gum at the end of his roughly 15-minute press conference and walking away while he chewed.

Organizers for Progress Iowa, a self-described progressive advocacy organization, estimated about 200 people showed up to hear the mayor speak at their annual fundraiser.

Monica McCarthy, a Democratic activist in Des Moines, said she appreciated de Blasio's speech and the points he made.

"I liked his demeanor," she said afterward. "He had very good things to say but he didn't have to scream and shout like a lot of politicians."

Still, it's unclear how de Blasio's message will resonate in Iowa. The mayor previously attempted to raise his profile in the state by launching a nonprofit group that tried to host a presidential forum in 2015. The event fell apart because there wasn't enough interest from candidates at the time.

De Blasio acknowledged those previous efforts and expressed wanting to form another group to support progressive candidates. But he offered limited details. He also didn't specify his future travels.

The visit for de Blasio also included some controversy from back home. Unions representing New York City employees have been critical of de Blasio's labor policies and used his latest Iowa appearance to highlight those views. The Transport Workers Union, which represents bus and subway employees, paid for a full page ad against de Blasio in the state's largest newspaper, The Des Moines Register, and called him a "phony progressive" on social media. The Correction Officers' Benevolent Association also released a statement.

The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, New York's largest police union, sent representatives to Des Moines to protest ahead of the mayor's speech. The group confronted de Blasio with signs outside the performing arts center before the speech. John Puglissi, PBA first vice president, said union members wanted to highlight the ongoing disputes over contract negotiations between de Blasio's office and law enforcement.

"Wherever he goes, we're going to go," Puglissi said.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks at a "holiday party" fundraiser hosted by Progress Iowa, a self-described progressive advocacy organization, Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, center, talks with local residents during a "holiday party" fundraiser hosted by Progress Iowa, a self-described progressive advocacy organization, Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

New York Police Department officers protest outside the Progress Iowa's "holiday party" fundraiser after the arrival of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio talks with Iowa Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate Andy McGuire, right, during a "holiday party" fundraiser hosted by Progress Iowa, a self-described progressive advocacy organization, Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio waits to speak at a "holiday party" fundraiser hosted by Progress Iowa, a self-described progressive advocacy organization, Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks during a news conference before the Progress Iowa's fifth annual Holiday Party, Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - Vietnamese police have officially started investigating a former chief executive of state-owned energy giant PetroVietnam amid a widened crackdown on corruption.

The Ministry of Public Security said in a statement Wednesday that police also placed Phung Dinh Thuc under house arrest. Thuc is suspected of "deliberately violating state economic regulations causing serious consequences" in his role at a thermo power plant, the statement said.

Thuc was general director of PetroVietnam from 2008 to 2010 and chairman of the board from 2011 until his retirement in 2014.

On Tuesday, police ordered the prosecution and house arrest of Phan Dinh Duc, a board member of PetroVietnam, on the same charge.

Scandal-hit PetroVietnam has been in the center of a sweeping high-level anti-corruption crackdown over the past two years with more than 20 of its current or former senior executives on trial or under investigation.

Earlier this month, police arrested Dinh La Thang, a former member of the all-powerful Politburo of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam, for allegedly violating economic regulations while he was chairman of the board of PetroVietnam.

Thang was the first Politburo member to face prosecution in decades. Hoang Van Hoan, a former Politburo member and a former vice chairman of the National Assembly, was sentenced to death in absentia in 1979 for treason after he had fled the country.

PetroVietnam made international headlines in August when Germany accused Vietnam of kidnapping Trinh Xuan Thanh, a former chairman of PetroVietnam's subsidiary PetroVietnam Construction Corp., near a park in central Berlin. Vietnam's Ministry of Public Security said in a statement at that time that Thanh had turned himself in to police.

The incident has strained relations between the two countries. Germany expelled two Vietnamese diplomats in retaliation.

The government has announced that Thanh will stand trial for embezzlement and mismanagement in January.
BOSTON (AP) - The Latest on the death of Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston who was a central figure in the clergy sex abuse scandal. (all times local):

3:10 p.m.

A Catholic bishop from Vermont who worked closely with Bernard Law at the Archdiocese of Boston says the embattled cardinal's life was marked by "light and shadows" like everyone else.

Alexa MacPherson, a victim of clergy sex abuse, holds a photograph of herself as a child as she reacts, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017, in Boston, to the death of Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced Boston archbishop who epitomized the Catholic Church's failure to protect children from sexually abusive priests. Law died Wednesday in Rome at age 86. (AP Photo/Bill Sikes)

Bishop Christopher Coyne said in a statement Wednesday that while he knew Law to be a man of faith, a kind man and a good friend, he respects that some will feel otherwise. Coyne asked that they join him in prayer "and work for the healing and renewal of our church."

Coyne became bishop in 2014. He was director of the Office of Worship for the Archdiocese of Boston from 2000 to 2002. He also was secretary for communications and principal spokesman for the Archdiocese from 2002-2005.

Law died Wednesday in Rome. He was reviled by many Catholics for shielding priests he knew had engaged in sexual abuse.

___

Noon

A Boston lawyer who has represented dozens of people who say they were abused by priests calls the late Cardinal Bernard Law "an example of the immorality of the Catholic Church" for shielding clergy.

Mitchell Garabedian says Law was "an enabler of clergy sexual abuse."

Garabedian was flanked by two people who said they were abused by priests as children.

Robert Costello said there's not a day that goes by that he doesn't think about what happened to him. He called Law "a cruel, selfish bastard" for moving accused priests to other assignments and failing to protect victims.

Alexa MacPherson broke into tears as she recounted suffering abuse at the hands of a priest. She said she hopes Law "gets what he deserves in hell."

Law died Wednesday.

___

11:25 a.m.

The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops says he's praying for victims of clergy sex abuse following the death of Cardinal Bernard Law.

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo laments that Law's death could be a moment of more pain for victims. Law resigned in disgrace as archbishop of Boston in 2002 amid revelations that he and bishops across the country had kept child molesters in parishes for decades.

Law died Wednesday in Rome.

DiNardo said the victims' willingness to speak out bravely about what they had suffered had compelled American church leaders to confront their failures to protect young people.

DiNardo said he was also praying for Law and his family. A funeral is scheduled for Thursday at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

___

9:05 a.m.

Pope Francis is sending his condolences for the death of Cardinal Bernard Law and says he is praying for his soul.

Francis sent a telegram of condolences Wednesday to the dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Angelo Sodano. The letter makes no mention of Law's role as the former archbishop of Boston, where he was responsible for covering up for sexually abusive priests in a scandal that erupted across the nation and eventually cost the American church some $3 billion in legal fees.

Rather, Francis' telegram refers to Law's final position as archpriest of the St. Mary Major basilica in Rome.

In it Francis said: "I raise prayers for the repose of his soul, that the Lord, God who is rich in mercy, may welcome him in His eternal peace, and I send my apostolic blessing to those who share in mourning the passing of the cardinal."

___

8:55 a.m.

Pope Francis will preside over funeral rites for former Boston archbishop Cardinal Bernard Law at 9:30 a.m. EST (1430GMT) Thursday in St. Peter's Basilica.

The dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, will be the lead celebrant at the funeral Mass, with other cardinals and bishops concelebrating.

Francis will then perform the final funeral rite, an honor accorded to all Rome-based cardinals.

Francis on Wednesday sent a telegram of condolences to Sodano that made no mention of Law's tenure in Boston, where he covered up for sexually abusive priests in a scandal that erupted nationwide.

___

8:10 a.m.

An advocacy group for survivors of sex abuse is calling for Pope Francis to keep survivors in mind when he celebrates Cardinal Bernard Law's funeral Mass.

SNAP, which gained prominence as the U.S. abuse scandal erupted in Law's Boston in 2002, said no victim of sexual abuse will ever receive the same attention and pomp that Law received in life and is due to receive in death.

In a statement, SNAP's Joelle Casteix said Catholics should ask the Vatican why Law was promoted to a prominent position at a Vatican basilica after he resigned in disgrace as Boston's archbishop.

She said: "This celebratory focus on abuse enablers like Law must end. It is time for the Vatican to refocus on change: protecting children and those who have been hurt."

Law died Wednesday in Rome. Francis is expected to celebrate his funeral Mass in St. Peter's Basilica later this week.

___

5:20 a.m.

Pope Francis has made no immediate comment about the passing of disgraced Cardinal Bernard Law during his weekly general audience.

Francis though is expected to send an official telegram of condolence later Wednesday and celebrate Law's funeral Mass, an honor accorded to all Rome-based cardinals.

Francis met briefly with Law the day after he was elected pope, when he went to pray at St. Mary Major. Law had been appointed archpriest of the important Vatican basilica in 2004, after he resigned under pressure as archbishop of Boston for having failed to protect children from pedophile priests. He retired as archpriest in 2011, when he turned 80, but was on hand at the basilica to greet the new pope in 2013.

Law died early Wednesday in Rome after a long illness.

___

3:30 a.m.

A woman who says she was a victim of clergy sex abuse as a small child says she won't be mourning Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston.

Alexa MacPherson tells The Associated Press she hopes "the gates of hell are swinging wide to allow him entrance."

Law, who died early Wednesday in Rome, was the Boston archbishop in 2002 when court documents revealed he had failed to stop priests who molested children.

Law and other church leaders had moved guilty clergy from parish to parish in Massachusetts without alerting parents or police. He resigned amid a public uproar over his actions.

Barbara Sidorowicz, the mother of three abuse victims, also had no good words for Law. She says she can't find it in my heart to forgive Law and that she thinks he should have been in jail.

___

12:30 a.m.

A Boston attorney who has represented dozens of people who say they were sexually abused by priests says Cardinal Bernard Law's death has reopened old wounds.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian said that "many victims are reminded of the pain."

Law, who died early Wednesday in Rome, was the Boston archbishop in 2002 when court documents revealed he had failed to stop priests who molested children.

Law and other church leaders had moved guilty clergy from parish to parish in Massachusetts without alerting parents or police. He resigned amid a public uproar over his actions.

Garabedian says Law "turned his back on innocent children and allowed them to be sexually abused."

Vatican officials later appointed Law to run a major basilica in Rome. Critics condemned the appointment.

___

12:25 a.m.

The Vatican says Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, has died at 86.

Law had recently been hospitalized in Rome. The Holy See said in a statement that Law died early Wednesday following a long illness.

Law was the Boston archbishop in 2002 when court documents revealed he had failed to stop priests who molested children.

Law and other church leaders had moved guilty clergy from parish to parish in Massachusetts without alerting parents or police. He resigned amid a public uproar over his actions.

Vatican officials later appointed him to run a major basilica in Rome. Critics condemned the appointment as a reward for the cardinal.

Pope Francis delivers his speech during the weekly general audience in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

FILE - In this Aug. 2, 2002 file photo, Cardinal Bernard Law, of the Boston archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church, testifies in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston. Law was answering questions about his knowledge and handling of the Father John Geoghan child sex abuse case. An official with the Catholic Church said Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, that Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, has died at 86. Law recently had been hospitalized in Rome. (George Martell/Boston Herald via AP, Pool, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 2, 2002 file photo, Cardinal Bernard Law, of the Boston archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church, pauses during testimony in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston. Law was answering questions about his knowledge and handling of the Father John Geoghan child sex abuse case. An official with the Catholic Church said Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, that Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, has died at 86. Law recently had been hospitalized in Rome. Law stepped down under pressure in 2002 over his handling of clergy sex abuse cases. (George Martell/Boston Herald via AP, Pool, File)

FILE - In this Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014 file photo, Cardinal Bernard Law leaves the first session of an extraordinary consistory in the Synod Hall in Vatican City. An official with the Catholic Church said Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, that Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, has died at 86. Law recently had been hospitalized in Rome. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)

FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 5, 2004 file photo, Cardinal Bernard Law has his skull cap adjusted during the ceremony for Our Lady of the Snows, in St. Mary Major's Basilica in Rome, Italy. An official with the Catholic Church said Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, that Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, has died at 86. Law recently had been hospitalized in Rome. Law stepped down under pressure in 2002 over his handling of clergy sex abuse cases. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis, File)

FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 5, 2004 file photo, Cardinal Bernard Law has his skull cap adjusted during the ceremony for Our Lady of the Snows, in St. Mary Major's Basilica in Rome, Italy. An official with the Catholic Church said Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, that Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, has died at 86. Law recently had been hospitalized in Rome. Law stepped down under pressure in 2002 over his handling of clergy sex abuse cases. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis, File)

FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 5, 2004 file photo, Cardinal Bernard Law celebrates Mass during the ceremony for Our Lady of the Snows, in St. Mary Major's Basilica, in Rome, Italy. An official with the Catholic Church said Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, that Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, has died at 86. Law recently had been hospitalized in Rome. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis, File)

FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 5, 2004 file photo, Cardinal Bernard Law celebrates Mass during the ceremony for Our Lady of the Snows, in St. Mary Major's Basilica, in Rome, Italy. An official with the Catholic Church said Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, that Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, has died at 86. Law stepped down under pressure in 2002 over his handling of clergy sex abuse cases. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis, File)

FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 5, 2010 file photo, US Cardinal Bernard Law celebrates Mass during a ceremony for Our Lady of the Snows in St. Mary Major's Basilica, in Rome, Italy. An official with the Catholic Church said Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, that Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, has died at 86. Law stepped down under pressure in 2002 over his handling of clergy sex abuse cases. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)

FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 5, 2004 file photo, Cardinal Bernard Law celebrates Mass during the ceremony for Our Lady of the Snows, in St. Mary Major's Basilica, in Rome, Italy. An official with the Catholic Church said Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, that Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, has died at 86. Law stepped down under pressure in 2002 over his handling of clergy sex abuse cases. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis, File)

FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 5, 2004 file photo, Cardinal Bernard Law blesses a child during the ceremony for Our Lady of the Snows, in St. Mary Major's Basilica, in Rome, Italy. An official with the Catholic Church said Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, that Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, has died at 86. Law stepped down under pressure in 2002 over his handling of clergy sex abuse cases. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis, File)

FILE - In this Friday, Aug. 5, 2011 file photo, Cardinal Bernard Law celebrates Mass during the ceremony for Our Lady of the Snows, in St. Mary Major's Basilica, in Rome, Italy. An official with the Catholic Church said Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, that Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, has died at 86. Law stepped down under pressure in 2002 over his handling of clergy sex abuse cases. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)

FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 5, 2010 file photo, Cardinal Bernard Law celebrates Mass during the ceremony for Our Lady of the Snows, in St. Mary Major's Basilica, in Rome, Italy. An official with the Catholic Church said Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, that Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, has died at 86. Law recently had been hospitalized in Rome. Law stepped down under pressure in 2002 over his handling of clergy sex abuse cases. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)

FILE - In this Tuesday, March 12, 2013 file photo, Cardinal Bernard Law attends a Mass for the election of a new pope celebrated by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, not pictured, inside St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican. An official with the Catholic Church said Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, that Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, has died at 86. Law recently had been hospitalized in Rome. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)

FILE - In this Wednesday June 7, 2006 file photo, Cardinal Bernard Law, right, kisses Pope Benedict XVI's hand at the end of the weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. An official with the Catholic Church said Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, that Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, has died at 86. Law recently had been hospitalized in Rome and died early Wednesday. (AP Photo/Plinio Lepri, File)

FILE - In this Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2002 file photo, Cardinal Bernard Law, right, departs a news conference during the second day of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops annual meeting in Washington. An official with the Catholic Church said Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, that Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, has died at 86. Law, who recently had been hospitalized in Rome, died early Wednesday. Law stepped down under pressure in 2002 over his handling of clergy sex abuse cases. (AP Photo/Ken Lambert, File)

Robert Costello, a victim of clergy sex abuse, reacts, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017, in Boston, to the death of Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced Boston archbishop who epitomized the Catholic Church's failure to protect children from sexually abusive priests. Law died Wednesday in Rome at age 86. (AP Photo/Bill Sikes)

Alexa MacPherson, a victim of clergy sex abuse, reacts beside attorney Mitchell Garabedian, right, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017, in Boston, to the death of Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced Boston archbishop who epitomized the Catholic Church's failure to protect children from sexually abusive priests. Law died Wednesday in Rome at age 86. (AP Photo/Bill Sikes)

Alexa MacPherson, a victim of clergy sex abuse, reacts, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017, in Boston, to the death of Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced Boston archbishop who epitomized the Catholic Church's failure to protect children from sexually abusive priests. Law died Wednesday in Rome at age 86. (AP Photo/Bill Sikes)

Phil Saviano, a victim of clergy sex abuse, reacts, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017, in Boston, to the death of Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced Boston archbishop who epitomized the Catholic Church's failure to protect children from sexually abusive priests. Law died Wednesday in Rome at age 86. (AP Photo/Bill Sikes)
BANGKOK (AP) - Myanmar's military said a forensic investigation has begun after the discovery of 10 bodies in a mass grave in a village in troubled Rakhine state, where the country's security forces have carried out a brutal crackdown against the Rohingya Muslim minority.

Local officials said Tuesday that they were investigating the 10 unidentified bodies found Monday near a cemetery in Inn Din village.

Meanwhile, the United Nations' human rights agency said that Myanmar's government is denying a U.N. special rapporteur access to the country.

More than 630,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since security forces in neighboring Myanmar launched a violent crackdown against them on Aug. 25, turning it into Asia's worst refugee crisis in decades.

The United Nations and the U.S. accuse Myanmar's military of human rights violations against Rohingya in Rakhine, including killings, rapes and the burning of homes. The U.N. has condemned the violence as ethnic cleansing.

International aid group Doctors Without Borders said last week that it conducted a field survey that found at least 6,700 Rohingya Muslims were killed between August and September in the crackdown.

International rights groups blame the government and military for being unwilling to investigate possible wrongdoing by government officials and have urged the government to accept the assistance of international investigators.

"It's critical they (the government) accept the assistance of impartial, independent investigators and allow them to immediately travel to Inn Din to probe what happened and make a full report," said Phil Robertson, Deputy Director of Human Rights Watch's Asia Division.

The military said in a statement Monday that legal actions would be taken against the perpetrators.

Meanwhile, Myanmar's government has informed U.N. Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee that it is denying her all access to the country for the rest of her tenure, the U.N.'s human rights agency said Wednesday.

Lee had been due to visit Myanmar in January to look into alleged human rights abuses against Rohingya in Rakhine.

"This declaration of non-cooperation with my mandate can only be viewed as a strong indication that there must be something terribly awful happening in Rakhine, as well as in the rest of the country," Lee said in a statement, adding that she hopes the government will reconsider.
DETROIT (AP) - Lindsey Hamama has one gift on her Christmas list: to have her father home.

A federal judge in Detroit is mulling whether to release her father, Usama "Sam" Hamama, who was apprehended by immigration officials as part of a roundup in June, and hundreds of others whose deportations to Iraq were suspended but remain in custody.

U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith, who heard arguments Wednesday, blocked the deportation of 1,400 people in July to allow time to challenge their removal in immigration court. Roughly 300 people are jailed or in detention centers in roughly two dozen states.

FILE - In this June 16, 2017 file photo, Lindsey Hamama, 11, right, cries as her mother Nahrain speaks to the crowd in Detroit, about her father Usama "Sam" Hamama, who was detained during Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids of primarily Chaldean immigrants, in which 114 Iraqi nationals in Metro Detroit were detained and are facing deportation. A federal judge in Detroit is mulling whether to release her father, Hamama, who was apprehended by immigration officials as part of a roundup in June, and hundreds of others whose deportations to Iraq were suspended but remain in custody. U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith, who will hear arguments on Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017, blocked the deportation of 1,400 people in July to allow time to challenge their removal in immigration court. (Tanya Moutzalias/The Ann Arbor News-MLive.com Detroit via AP)

Goldsmith said at the end of Wednesday's hearing that he'll issue a written ruling, but he didn't say when. He's also considering a government request to dismiss a lawsuit filed on the detainees' behalf and the detainees' motion to certify the lawsuit as a class-action.

Government officials say the detainees - whose arrests came amid broader, aggressive immigration policies by the Trump administration - have committed crimes in the U.S. and must be deported now that Iraq will accept them. Advocates say the detainees - many of whom are Christians who fear being tortured or killed if deported - paid their debt to society and deserve to be with their families as their immigration cases wend through the system.

Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security said Iraq had agreed to start allowing the return of immigrants who have been ordered out of the United States. They were allowed to stay in the country under previous administrations.

Government attorneys said of those rounded up by immigration agents, two have been sent to Iraq. Three more are expected to be deported next month, though attorneys representing the detainees say their removals likely will take longer.

"Basically, people have been in (custody) since early June, said Miriam Aukerman, a senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, which represents the Iraqi nationals. "It's been six months. For many of these individuals, they face many more months or years of incarceration for absolutely no reason: They were living in the community. They were reporting (to immigration officials) regularly."

Sam Hamama was among them. The Detroit-area man who became a supermarket manager was convicted in the late 1980s for felonious assault, possessing a firearm during a felony and carrying a pistol in a vehicle. Relatives and attorneys say it stemmed from a road rage incident and the gun was unloaded. Nevertheless, he was sentenced to two years in prison and was released after one.

Supporters say Hamama, who came to the United States as a child in the early 1970s, embraced his second chance: He got married, had four children, rose in business and became active in church and other community endeavors.

Lindsey Hamama, 12, was one of several relatives and friends to send letters on the elder Hamama's behalf to Goldsmith or immigration officials. Her Nov. 26 letter says she and her family were getting ready for church June 11, when agents came to the door and took her father away in handcuffs. She wrote that she recalled hearing her father would only be away for a day, "but then I saw my dad crying and I knew that when (your) dad cries you know there's something wrong." Lindsey kissed him, she wrote, "not knowing that would be the last time ... for 164 days."

"All I want for Christmas is my dad home and nothing else," her letter concluded.

Aukerman said there are two matters before the court: The first existing issue is whether the court is exceeding its authority in immigration matters and has the power to prevent deportations, and the second new issue is whether it's illegal to detain people indefinitely without an opportunity to go before a judge.

The ACLU credits Goldsmith's block on deportations with successes: Every one of the 10 people whose cases have been reopened and decided by a judge has secured some kind of immigration or protection from deportation.

The government argues the case belongs in the immigration courts, not federal courts, as laid out by law. Also, it says that U.S. law allows for detention after a final removal order "unless or until there is not significant likelihood of removal in the reasonably foreseeable future, which is not the case here."

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has said the vast majority of detainees are criminals who have been convicted of homicide, rape, aggravated assault, drug trafficking, sex assault and other offenses. They pose, immigration officials say, a "clearly public safety threat."

Advocates contend that the people faced justice, and now face threats to their lives and livelihoods.

"These cases really highlight how broken our immigration system is," Aukerman said.

She said the letters of support show that "you can make mistakes ... and go on and be a wonderful person."

"Lindsey Hamama is right: Her dad belongs home," Aukerman said. "We certainly hope the court will recognize that and use its power to protect the constitutional rights of these families."

___

Karoub is a member of AP's Race and Ethnicity Team. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jeffkaroub and find more of his work at https://apnews.com/search/jeff%20karoub .

___

Sign up for the AP's weekly newsletter showcasing our best reporting from the Midwest and Texas: http://apne.ws/2u1RMfv
VATICAN CITY (AP) - Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston whose failure to stop child molesters in the priesthood triggered the worst crisis in American Catholicism, died Wednesday in Rome at age 86.

Law, who spent the final years of his career leading an important basilica in Rome and continued to wield considerable influence inside the Vatican, had been sick and was recently hospitalized.

Law was once one of the most important figures in the U.S. church, serving in one of its most visible and storied posts. From 1984 until he resigned under pressure 18 years later, he was spiritual leader in Boston, the nation's fourth-largest archdiocese, with 1.8 million Catholics.

FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 5, 2004 file photo, Cardinal Bernard Law has his skull cap adjusted during the ceremony for Our Lady of the Snows, in St. Mary Major's Basilica in Rome, Italy. An official with the Catholic Church said Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, that Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, has died at 86. Law recently had been hospitalized in Rome. Law stepped down under pressure in 2002 over his handling of clergy sex abuse cases. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis, File)

In 2002, though, The Boston Globe began a series of stories that revealed that Law and his predecessors had transferred child-molesting priests from parish to parish without alerting parents or police - a scandal later chronicled in the Oscar-winning film "Spotlight."

Within months, Catholics around the country demanded to know whether their bishops had done the same. And the scandal quickly spread overseas, to Ireland, Belgium, Chile, Australia and beyond.

In Boston, Law's death was met with anger and bitterness among some.

"I hope the gates of hell are swinging wide to allow him entrance," said Alexa MacPherson, who says she was abused for six years as a child. "I won't shed a tear for him. I might shed a tear for everyone who's been a victim under him."

Robert Costello called Law "a cruel, selfish bastard," while fellow abuse victim Phil Saviano wondered: "How is he going to explain this when he comes face to face with his maker?"

Law's successor as archbishop, Cardinal Sean O'Malley, said it was a "sad reality" that Law's legacy will forever be tied to the abuse scandal, when the church "seriously failed" to care for its flock and protect children.

Pope Francis, who is being watched closely by the faithful over his handling of bishops who shield pedophiles, is set to preside over Law's funeral rites at a Mass on Thursday at St. Peter's Basilica, an honor accorded to all Rome-based cardinals.

The pope said nothing about Law's death during his weekly general audience Wednesday, and in a condolence letter he made no direct mention of the cardinal's tenure in Boston.

"I raise prayers for the repose of his soul, that the Lord God, who is rich in mercy, may welcome him in His eternal peace, and I send my apostolic blessing to those who share in mourning the passing of the cardinal," Francis wrote.

Since 1950, more than 6,500 of the nation's priests, or about 6 percent, have been accused of molesting children, and the American church has paid over $3 billion in settlements, according to news reports and studies commissioned by the U.S. bishops.

As the leader of the archdiocese at the epicenter of the scandal, Law became a powerful symbol of the crisis. His fall from grace was swift.

Law tried to manage the scandal at first by refusing to comment, then by apologizing and promising reform. But the release of thousands more church records exposed additional cases in which Law and others expressed more concern for accused priests than for victims.

Amid a groundswell against him, including rare public rebukes from some of his own priests, Law asked to resign and the pope said yes.

"To all those who have suffered from my shortcomings and mistakes, I both apologize and from them beg forgiveness," Law said in stepping down in 2002.

Still, Law retained some support in the Vatican. In 2004, he was appointed archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major, one of four principal basilicas in Rome. When Pope John Paul II died the next year, Law was among the bishops who presided at a Mass for the pontiff in St. Peter's.

Law also continued to serve on Vatican policy-making committees, including one that recommends bishops' appointments to the pope, before retiring in 2011 from his church assignments.

Victims' advocates saw his continued influence in Rome as a slap in the face from an unrepentant church.

"Cardinal Law's soft landing in Rome, after his Boston disgrace, reminds us that prelate privilege remains the rule in Catholicism," said Terence McKiernan of BishopAccountability.org, a database of the global scandal in the church.

Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston lawyer who has represented dozens of people who say they were abused by priests, said Law "turned his back on innocent children and allowed them to be sexually abused and then received a promotion in Rome."

Fifteen years after the scandal broke, holding bishops accountable remains a fraught issue for the church. Francis had promised to go after bishops but backed off a proposed Vatican tribunal to prosecute them and opted instead to use existing measures.

SNAP, the main U.S. advocacy group for those who were abused, urged Francis to keep the victims in mind during the funeral and said Law doesn't deserve the pomp.

"This celebratory focus on abuse enablers like Law must end," said SNAP's Joelle Casteix.

Law is expected to be buried in Rome, O'Malley said. The location hasn't been disclosed, but Law would be entitled to burial at St. Mary Major.

Born Nov. 4, 1931, in Torreon, Mexico, Law was the only child of a U.S. Air Force colonel and a mother who was a Presbyterian convert to Catholicism. He graduated from Harvard University in 1953. He was ordained in 1961 and campaigned for civil rights in Mississippi, sometimes traveling in the trunks of cars for safety.

He was named bishop of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau in Missouri, then archbishop of Boston, one of the most prominent and important posts in the U.S.

He broadly influenced Vatican appointments to American dioceses, served as a representative of the church to presidents and was favored by Pope John Paul.

Law publicly challenged public officials over their support for abortion rights and joined other bishops in criticizing Geraldine Ferraro, the 1984 Democratic vice-presidential candidate and a Catholic, over the issue. He was a regular visitor to the White House under President George W. Bush.

He was devoted to building Catholic-Jewish relations, leading a delegation on a 1986 visit to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland. He worked closely with church leaders in Latin America, acting as an unofficial envoy of the pope to Fidel Castro's Cuba.

The scandal in Boston broke when the Globe reported that Law and two predecessors as archbishop had transferred former priest John Geoghan to various assignments despite knowing he molested children.

More than 130 people eventually came forward to say Geoghan abused them. The archdiocese paid $10 million in settlements with 86 of his victims and their relatives as Law clung to his job.

___

Rachel Zoll reported from New York. Rodrique Ngowi in Holbrook, Massachusetts, contributed to this report.

Alexa MacPherson, a victim of clergy sex abuse, reacts beside attorney Mitchell Garabedian, right, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017, in Boston, to the death of Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced Boston archbishop who epitomized the Catholic Church's failure to protect children from sexually abusive priests. Law died Wednesday in Rome at age 86. (AP Photo/Bill Sikes)

FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 5, 2010 file photo, Cardinal Bernard Law celebrates Mass during the ceremony for Our Lady of the Snows, in St. Mary Major's Basilica, in Rome, Italy. An official with the Catholic Church said Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, that Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, has died at 86. Law recently had been hospitalized in Rome. Law stepped down under pressure in 2002 over his handling of clergy sex abuse cases. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)

Alexa MacPherson, a victim of clergy sex abuse, holds a photograph of herself as a child as she reacts, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017, in Boston, to the death of Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced Boston archbishop who epitomized the Catholic Church's failure to protect children from sexually abusive priests. Law died Wednesday in Rome at age 86. (AP Photo/Bill Sikes)

Boston Roman Catholic Archdiocese Cardinal Sean O'Malley pauses while speaking to the media, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017, in Braintree, Mass., on the death of Cardinal Bernard Law. The disgraced former Boston archbishop, who epitomized the Catholic Church's failure to protect children from sexually abusive priests, died Wednesday in Rome. He was 86. (AP Photo/Bill Sikes)

Robert Costello, a victim of clergy sex abuse, reacts, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017, in Boston, to the death of Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced Boston archbishop who epitomized the Catholic Church's failure to protect children from sexually abusive priests. Law died Wednesday in Rome at age 86. (AP Photo/Bill Sikes)

FILE - In this Tuesday, March 12, 2013 file photo, Cardinal Bernard Law attends a Mass for the election of a new pope celebrated by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, not pictured, inside St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican. An official with the Catholic Church said Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, that Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, has died at 86. Law recently had been hospitalized in Rome. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)

Boston Roman Catholic Archdiocese Cardinal Sean O'Malley speaks to the media, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017, in Braintree, Mass., on the death of Cardinal Bernard Law. The disgraced former Boston archbishop, who epitomized the Catholic Church's failure to protect children from sexually abusive priests, died Wednesday in Rome. He was 86. (AP Photo/Bill Sikes)

Phil Saviano, a victim of clergy sex abuse, reacts, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017, in Boston, to the death of Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced Boston archbishop who epitomized the Catholic Church's failure to protect children from sexually abusive priests. Law died Wednesday in Rome at age 86. (AP Photo/Bill Sikes)

FILE - In this Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014 file photo, Cardinal Bernard Law leaves the first session of an extraordinary consistory in the Synod Hall in Vatican City. An official with the Catholic Church said Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, that Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, has died at 86. Law recently had been hospitalized in Rome. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)

FILE - In this Wednesday June 7, 2006 file photo, Cardinal Bernard Law, right, kisses Pope Benedict XVI's hand at the end of the weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. An official with the Catholic Church said Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, that Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, has died at 86. Law recently had been hospitalized in Rome and died early Wednesday. (AP Photo/Plinio Lepri, File)

FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 5, 2004 file photo, Cardinal Bernard Law celebrates Mass during the ceremony for Our Lady of the Snows, in St. Mary Major's Basilica, in Rome, Italy. An official with the Catholic Church said Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, that Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, has died at 86. Law recently had been hospitalized in Rome. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 2, 2002 file photo, Cardinal Bernard Law, of the Boston archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church, pauses during testimony in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston. Law was answering questions about his knowledge and handling of the Father John Geoghan child sex abuse case. An official with the Catholic Church said Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, that Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, has died at 86. Law recently had been hospitalized in Rome. Law stepped down under pressure in 2002 over his handling of clergy sex abuse cases. (George Martell/Boston Herald via AP, Pool, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 2, 2002 file photo, Cardinal Bernard Law, of the Boston archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church, testifies in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston. Law was answering questions about his knowledge and handling of the Father John Geoghan child sex abuse case. An official with the Catholic Church said Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, that Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, has died at 86. Law recently had been hospitalized in Rome. (George Martell/Boston Herald via AP, Pool, File)

FILE - In this Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2002 file photo, Cardinal Bernard Law, right, departs a news conference during the second day of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops annual meeting in Washington. An official with the Catholic Church said Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, that Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, has died at 86. Law, who recently had been hospitalized in Rome, died early Wednesday. Law stepped down under pressure in 2002 over his handling of clergy sex abuse cases. (AP Photo/Ken Lambert, File)

FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 5, 2004 file photo, Cardinal Bernard Law blesses a child during the ceremony for Our Lady of the Snows, in St. Mary Major's Basilica, in Rome, Italy. An official with the Catholic Church said Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, that Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, has died at 86. Law stepped down under pressure in 2002 over his handling of clergy sex abuse cases. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis, File)

FILE - In this Thursday, Aug. 5, 2004 file photo, Cardinal Bernard Law celebrates Mass during the ceremony for Our Lady of the Snows, in St. Mary Major's Basilica, in Rome, Italy. An official with the Catholic Church said Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, that Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, has died at 86. Law stepped down under pressure in 2002 over his handling of clergy sex abuse cases. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis, File)
LONDON (AP) - The British arm of Amazon has dropped sale of a circumcision training kit from its website after concerns were raised.

The kit had been offered by a third party seller and offered instructions and instruments that could be used to practice circumcision on a model of male genitals.

Circumcision consists of removing part of the foreskin of the penis and is typically done for religious or medical purposes on very young boys.

The National Secular Society in Britain complained to Amazon that the training kit violated Amazon's standard's policy.

The group said it feared the sale of the kit would encourage unqualified practitioners to carry out unneeded surgery in non-clinical conditions.
BEIRUT (AP) - Airstrikes on a Syrian village in the rebel-held northwestern province of Idlib killed at least 17 people, including women and children, activists and rescue workers said Wednesday.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the overnight strikes killed at least four children and two women, and wiped out an entire family of displaced.

The monitoring group, which tracks the Syrian civil war through a network of activists on the ground, said the number of casualties is likely to climb because more than 30 people were wounded in the strikes and some of them were in serious condition.

The Syrian Civil Defense, first responders also known as the White Helmets, said the airstrikes late on Tuesday hit a residential compound in the village of Maar Shurin in southern Idlib, destroying an entire bloc. It put the death toll at 19.

The group posted pictures of its volunteers struggling to pull bodies from the rubble and described the airstrikes as highly explosive. Images posted by a local activist-operated media platform, The Idlib Media Center, showed a twisted car next to rubble of squashed buildings.

Idlib is a rebel and insurgent stronghold where President Bashar Assad's forces have recently launched an offensive to try and retake the province after losing it nearly three years ago. Intense fighting in recent days has brought government troops into Idlib's southern edges for the first time in years and airstrikes have intensified amid the offensive.
JERUSALEM (AP) - The top Roman Catholic cleric in the Holy Land says the status of Jerusalem should not be altered by "unilateral decisions," amid protests over the U.S. recognition of the contested city as Israel's capital.

Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa said in a statement Wednesday that "unilateral decisions will not bring peace, but rather will distance it. Jerusalem is a treasure of all humanity. Any exclusive claim - be it political or religious - is contrary to the city's own logic."

President Donald Trump's declaration earlier this month departed from decades of U.S. policy that the fate of Jerusalem should be decided through negotiations.

The Palestinians claim east Jerusalem, which includes sites holy to Muslims, Christians and Jews, as the capital of their future state. Israel claims the whole city as its capital.
DILI, East Timor (AP) - A political crisis is looming in East Timor after a coalition of opposition parties rejected the new government's policy program for a second time.

A two-day parliamentary debate over the government's amended budget, which was increased to $1.61 billion from the 2017 budget of $1.39 billion, ended with most members of the ruling coalition walking out late Tuesday.

The Parliamentary Majority Alliance, or AMP, the country's opposition with 35 seats in the 65-member parliament, then voted to reject the budget just before midnight.

It was the second defeat suffered by the government after its policy program was rejected on Oct. 19.

Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said Wednesday that he will keep fighting, as his party officials accused the opposition of trying to overthrow the government.

"Once again the opposition with their own boat will lead them to a defeat. Let's fight to win!" Alkatiri said. "If they dance in the House, we shall dance in the streets."

Alkatiri's Fretilin party formed a minority government after parliamentary elections in July failed to give any party a majority of seats. But his opponents argued that the minority government was unconstitutional and that his policy program didn't address the young country's problems.

New elections are a possibility if Alkatiri's coalition is unable to pass a budget.

Previously, Fretilin was part of a national unity government with the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction party of independence hero Xanana Gusmao, or CNRT. In the July election, CNRT lost support and Fretilin narrowly became the largest party, but failed to agree on a new grand coalition.

AMP consists of three opposition parties - CNRT, the People's Liberation Party and Kmanek Habiras National Unity Timor Oan or KHUNTO.

CNRT party spokesman Arao Noe de Jesus said the government's amended budget is unlawful.

"Priorities for the people and the nation were not reflected in the 2018 state budget," he said.

East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, was occupied by Indonesia for a quarter century. It gained independence after a U.N.-sponsored referendum in 1999. Indonesia's military responded to the referendum with scorched-earth attacks that devastated the East Timorese half of the island of Timor.

Today, the country of 1.3 million people still faces desperate poverty. Leaders have focused on big-ticket infrastructure projects to develop the economy, funding them from a dwindling supply of former oil riches, but progress is slow.

The July vote was East Timor's first parliamentary election without U.N. supervision since peacekeepers left in 2012.
Sgt. Zachary Sheely (100th Missile Defense Brigade)

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado -- The Ground-based Midcourse Defense element of the Ballistic Missile Defense System is the United States anti-ballistic missile safeguard, designed to intercept incoming enemy warheads in space and has been operational since 2004.

In May 2017 it achieved perhaps its greatest success to date in its toughest test yet.

Flight Test Ground-based Interceptor-15, or FTG-15, showcased the system's capabilities, as it was the first successful interception of a simulated intercontinental ballistic missile target by a ground-based interceptor launched by the GMD system.

The test, which took place May 30, was the culmination of complex integrated planning by a number of military agencies and materiel developers. At its heart were the Warfighters -- five 100th Missile Defense Brigade Soldiers operating the system inside a secure "node" at Schriever Air Force Base.

The 100th Missile Defense Brigade, which is a multi-component brigade consisting of active-component U.S. Army and U.S. Army National Guard Soldiers in Colorado, California and Alaska, is the only military unit with a 24/7/365 mission of defending the homeland from ICBM attacks with ground-based interceptors.

Ground-based interceptors -- solid-fuel, three-stage rockets tipped with a kinetic Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle -- are emplaced at Fort Greely, Alaska, and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

Once a GBI is launched, it boosts the kill vehicle outside of the earth's atmosphere to hit and destroy an enemy ICBM it the midcourse of its flight. This highly-technical and precise process has often been compared to hitting a bullet with another bullet.

Redundant crews of five Soldiers with the 100th Missile Defense Brigade at Schriever and the 49th Missile Defense Battalion at Fort Greely, Alaska, control the system and the unofficial motto of the 100th Missile Defense Brigade is "The 300 (Soldiers) protecting 300 million (Americans)."

In no particular order, this is the story of FTG-15 from the perspective of the five crew members who executed the launch.

(Their last names have been withheld for security purposes.)

Staff Sgt. Daniel, readiness officer

"We got it!"

Staff Sgt. Daniel said that while his initial reaction was that of excitement once the crew realized that they had authored the successful intercept, their overall response was subdued.

"For us, it was just another day at the office," said Daniel, who has served in multiple roles within the air defense artillery enterprise. "Being in a Patriot unit, you get live fire opportunities. Being a Joint Tactical Ground Station operator, you're constantly seeing missiles launched and intercepts from other countries.

"This is what I'm trained to do, this is my job. My job is to defend the homeland. I've had 100 percent confidence in the (GMD) system since even before coming out here."

Skeptics have knocked the "lack of realism" of FTG-15. However, Daniel said while the crew was aware there would be a test launch, they were not privy to the exact nature of what they would face and when.

"For us it was completely realistic because while we knew the day it was going to happen, we didn't know anything else," he said.

The missile defense crew Soldiers are the products of a rigorous training course led by instructors from the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Forces Strategic Command's Directorate of Training and Doctrine. They must achieve 90 percent just to be qualified to join a missile crew. Once assigned to a crew, they are immersed in an environment where daily training runs and no-notice evaluations to maintain gunnery-table certification from higher headquarters are the norm.

Daniel said that the crew on FTG-15 relied on their training and tactics, techniques and procedures. He said his crew performed flawlessly and any of the other missile defense crews would have achieved a similar result.

"The system that we have to ensure that we're proficient works because I was able to do it, so I know that anybody else here would be able to do it," Daniel asserted. "I've got 100 percent confidence in the system and all of our operators."

Daniel said the achievement does not belong exclusively to the crewmembers on shift that day.

"This was a great success for this unit on so many levels," he said. "You've got the fact that it was active duty and National Guard Soldiers together. You've got the achievement of the first ICBM target successfully engaged. You've got Warfighters on the console actually performing their wartime mission.

"We at the brigade can do this in our multiple training runs every single shift, but also when the homeland is affected."

1st Lt. Alberto, current operations officer

1st Lt. Alberto has spent the entirety of his post-West Point Army career with the 100th Missile Defense Brigade and named his role in FTG-15 as the highlight of his career, thus far.

"I feel extremely fortunate to be part of this unit, to be part of that crew," said Alberto. "It was a quiet confirmation of what we already knew to be true. The system works, our operators are trained and proficient. It was exciting. We were proud of ourselves, the crew, the system, and the developers.

"The reason that it's exciting is not because we doubted it would work," Alberto added. "The reason it's exciting is because it's not something that happens every day. It was a unique opportunity to test the system in a real way that validated what we knew it was going to do."

Alberto described ground-based midcourse defense as a "system of systems," which comprises a global network of space-, ground- and sea-based sensors. His role as the current operations officer is to communicate with and monitor the various GMD system sensors.

"Those sensors are feeding information to us," said Alberto. "As (the threat) reaches each new sensor, we're gathering more refined data, so we're tracking where the threat missile is travelling and where it's predicted impact location is. On test-launch day, I actually spoke with (Sea-based X-band Radar) and had (the crew) initiate their procedures for the launch."

Alberto said there was never any doubt that the system would work.

"We don't want to overemphasize it because this is the expectation," Alberto said. "This is a no-fail mission. The unit was supposed to do this, and we did it. We look forward to doing more tests with more complex scenarios.

"This test put the 100th Missile Defense Brigade on the map," he added. "We were more under the radar before, but this reassures the rest of the military community, the nation, and world that we have this ability and this ability works. The American people can count on us."

Staff Sgt. John, future operations officer

Staff Sgt. John served as a combat engineer for five years, including multiple deployments, and also served on the Patriot system. He said when he was assigned to the 100th Missile Defense Brigade, neither he nor his air defense artillery brethren had heard of the unit.

"When I got orders to this unit, nobody knew what it was," said John. "I got here and in-processed at Fort Carson. I had to ask around for about a week before I found out where this unit was and what it did."

John echoed the sentiments of Alberto, and said that the test -- coupled with increased ICBM testing by North Korea -- has helped to boost awareness of the GMD mission and the 100th Missile Defense Brigade.

John described a large group of people in the room for the flight test May 30, including materiel developers and Missile Defense Agency personnel, but the crew remained solely focused.

"For the crew, we saw it and we engaged the threat," said John. "We got to watch the intercept and see it was successful. It was pretty cool.

"I guess I had never really thought about what an actual intercept would look like," he said. "It was really cool to see just a huge ball of infrared fire. I expected it to work. I guess I never really questioned if it would work or not. I just expected it to work and it worked. The technology is constantly improving."

Maj. Jeremy, deputy director

"This is the best version of the system ever in place to meet the current threats," said Jeremy. "We're always upgrading not only the software and hardware, but also the tactics."

Jeremy, a former Paladin cannon crewmember, first joined the 100th Missile Defense Brigade in 2006 at Fort Greely, Alaska, as part of the 49th Missile Defense Battalion.

"It's been very rewarding to see how the system and the organization has changed," said Jeremy.

The total number of emplaced ground-based interceptors increased to 44 in 2017, due in part to the success of FTG-15, Jeremy said.

"We've gone from a limited number of GBIs at the onset of the program to now having 44," said Jeremy. "That was a big thing about FTG-15 -- to validate that the interceptors could destroy a target. Because of the success of that intercept, we went from 36 to 44 this year."

Jeremy said that May 30 was special because of the rarity of the opportunity for the GMD system to launch a GBI.

"It was an exciting day," said Jeremy. "Just like any other Soldier, you train, train, train, and some Soldiers never get the chance to actually do their job. For us it was a chance to actually engage and destroy an ICBM. It was very rewarding and we felt honored to be able to do that. Because we train so much, we weren't worried. It wasn't a stressful situation. It was second nature."

Although the 100th Missile Defense Brigade is a National Guard unit, Jeremy was the only Guardsman on the crew during FTG-15.

"We are standing watch 24/7 to protect the homeland," said Jeremy. "It doesn't get any more 'National Guard' than that."

Lt. Col. Jeffrey, director

Lt. Col. Jeffrey, executive officer of the 100th Missile Defense Brigade, is a U.S. Army veteran of 24 years, most of which he has spent as an air defense artillery officer.

On May 30 he was the director of the crew during the launch.

The Missile Defense Element conducts the operational piece of the GMD mission for U.S. Northern Command. The MDE crew director has direct communication with higher headquarters and is entirely responsible for the actions of the crew.

While that may seem like a heavy responsibility, Jeffrey said it's a part of the job.

"It's expected," said Jeffrey. "It's something I can handle. It's something I feel comfortable with. With the amount of training and preparation that we do, we build that faith and confidence in each other and build that relationship with (higher headquarters).

"We know how to do it. Based on the crew and our training, I have a lot of faith in the system."

Jeffrey said that the overall test record of the GMD is not a fair judgment of the system's current capabilities, and FTG-15 proved that.

"Look at the most recent test," he said. "Look at the threat that we put this last one up against. Now we have a more advanced GBI and EKV. The basic construct is the same. The concept is the same, but the equipment and details are much more advanced.

"Testing is important, I'm glad we do test," Jeffrey continued. "It helps build faith and confidence. It's only going to help improve the system. As we see more complex threats, we need to create more complex tests. It would be a mistake to not continue testing, developing, and refining our system."
BONN, Germany (AP) - The International Paralympic Committee says it will decide next month whether to ban Russia from the upcoming Paralympics in Pyeongchang.

IPC president Andrew Parsons says "much to our growing disappointment and frustration, there is a lack of progress" from Russian authorities on the IPC's demand that they either accept or disprove evidence they ran a doping program.

The IPC says a final decision will be made "in late January."

Russia was barred from the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro because of doping.

Then-IPC president Philip Craven said at the time that the Russian government's "medals over morals mentality disgusts me."
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - Sri Lanka's plantation minister on Wednesday denied that the country's agricultural products, including its famous Ceylon tea, are dangerous, days after Russia imposed a temporary ban on such goods.

Russian agriculture safety watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor banned all imports of agricultural products from Sri Lanka starting Dec. 18, saying it found an insect known as the Khapra beetle in the packaging of a consignment of Sri Lankan tea.

The beetle is one of the world's most destructive pests for grain and seed products.

Plantation Minister Navin Dissanayake told reporters that the insect is not common in Sri Lanka and there is less than a 5 percent chance that it came from the island nation.

He said the insect could have entered the container when the ship stopped in other ports on its way to Russia. In addition, "this was in the packaging, not inside," he said.

The Ceylon Tea Board, the government agency that monitors the tea industry, has said the insect may have remained in the shipping container after it was earlier used to transport grain, not necessarily of Sri Lankan origin.

Tea production is one of the main sources of foreign exchange for Sri Lanka. In 2015, Russia was the top buyer of Ceylon tea, purchasing a total of $156.6 million.

Dissanayake said a team of top officials and scientists from Sri Lanka may visit Russia next week to urge a lifting of the ban.
JERUSALEM (AP) - The Latest on developments related to the U.S. recognition of the contested city of Jerusalem as Israel's capital (all times local):

5:35 p.m.

The Turkish and Palestinian foreign ministers are accusing the United States of intimidation after its ambassador to the United Nations warned countries that the U.S. "will be taking names" during a U.N. General Assembly vote.

In this photo released by Al-Ekhbariya, Saudi King Salman, right, receives Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after he arrives in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017. (Al-Ekhbariya via AP)

The vote Thursday will be on a resolution rejecting President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki and Turkey's Mevlut Cavusoglu said they believed U.N. member countries would ignore "pressure" from ambassador Nikki Haley and vote with their consciences on the non-binding resolution.

Al-Maliki said: "Tomorrow we will see how many countries will opt to vote (with) their consciousness, they will vote for justice and they will vote in favor of that resolution."

Cavusoglu said: "The world has changed. The belief that 'I am strong therefore I am right' has changed. The world today is revolting against injustices."

"No honorable state would bow to such pressure," he added.

The two ministers are traveling to New York together to attend Thursday's vote.

___

3 p.m.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has arrived in Saudi Arabia for talks with King Salman and his heir, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, following a U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

His visit to Riyadh on Wednesday comes one week after heads of state from Muslim countries met in Turkey to reject and denounce President Donald Trump's decision. Saudi Arabia and some of its allies were notably absent from that summit amid reports that the kingdom is privately pressuring Abbas to relinquish Palestinian claims over east Jerusalem in exchange for continued U.S. pressure against Saudi rival, Iran.

Also, the U.N. General Assembly is expected to vote after the U.S. vetoed a Security Council resolution that would have required the Trump administration to rescind its Jerusalem decision.

___

11:45 a.m.

The top Roman Catholic cleric in the Holy Land says the status of Jerusalem should not be altered by "unilateral decisions," amid protests over the U.S. recognition of the contested city as Israel's capital.

Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa said in a statement Wednesday that "unilateral decisions will not bring peace, but rather will distance it. Jerusalem is a treasure of all humanity. Any exclusive claim - be it political or religious - is contrary to the city's own logic."

President Donald Trump's declaration earlier this month departed from decades of U.S. policy that the fate of Jerusalem should be decided through negotiations.

The Palestinians claim east Jerusalem, which includes sites holy to Muslims, Christians and Jews, as the capital of their future state. Israel claims the whole city as its capital.
MANCHESTER, England (AP) - A man with a history of soccer-related violence was handed a 16-week prison sentence on Wednesday for assaulting and racially abusing Manchester City winger Raheem Sterling outside the Premier League club's training ground.

Karl Anderson pleaded guilty at a court in Manchester to racially aggravated common assault. He smiled as he was sentenced.

The incident took place on Saturday as Sterling arrived at City's Etihad Campus in his car ahead of a Premier League match against Tottenham.

FILE - In this file photo dated Saturday, Dec. 16, 2017, Manchester City's Raheem Sterling during the English Premier League soccer match against Tottenham Hotspur at Etihad stadium, in Manchester, England. A man, named Karl Anderson, on Wednesday Dec. 20, 2017, has been given a 16-week prison sentence for racially assaulting Manchester City winger Raheem Sterling outside the club's training ground. (AP Photo/Rui Vieira, FILE)

The 29-year-old Anderson drove his van alongside Sterling's vehicle, and both men got out. Anderson shouted racial abuse at Sterling, including telling the player: "I hope your mother and child wake up dead in the morning." He then used a racist slur.

Anderson kicked the legs of Sterling on four occasions, leaving the City player with a sore left hamstring but without serious injury. Sterling started the match against Tottenham hours later and scored two goals in a 4-1 win.

"I didn't think this type of behavior still happened in this country in this day and age," Sterling said in a victim statement that was read to the court.

Anderson had 25 previous convictions for 37 offenses, including throwing a flare at a police officer during a soccer match. He was already subject to a soccer-related violence banning order that prevented him from attending certain matches.

"He apologizes through me to Mr. Sterling for his actions," said John Black, who was defending Anderson in court.

Black said Anderson had lost his temper after his girlfriend asked him to ask Sterling for an autograph.
BERLIN (AP) - The German government says it is concerned about the departure of Russian officers from a joint Russian-Ukrainian group monitoring the truce in eastern Ukraine.

The Russian officers withdrew Tuesday, saying their Ukrainian counterparts were creating a "tense psychological environment" for them.

A spokesman for Germany's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday the move could have "significant consequences for the civilian population in conflict areas of eastern Ukraine."

Rainer Breul told reporters in Berlin that the Joint Center on Control and Coordination plays an important role in facilitating and monitoring local cease-fires, allowing for mine clearance and maintenance on vital infrastructure.

Berlin is urging both sides to find a solution to ensure the monitoring group can operate. It's also calling on all sides to strengthen the fragile cease-fire and "reduce human suffering."
BOSTON (AP) - More than 60 musicians are calling for the Boston Symphony Orchestra to include more female composers and composers of color in its programming.

The Boston Globe reports the Boston-area musicians met with orchestra leadership Monday to discuss changes after sending a letter in October criticizing the lack of diversity.

In their letter, the musicians noted only one of the 73 pieces scheduled for the 2017-18 season was composed by a woman. The rest are from white male composers.

The group is asking the orchestra to add five more works by women and minorities to the current season and have at least 20 percent of the works in the next season come from those two groups.

A spokeswoman for the orchestra says the meeting was productive but released no details.
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) - Ninety-two people were killed during Kenya's months of election turmoil and dozens of others were sexually assaulted, a human rights watchdog said Wednesday.

Most victims "were felled by the bullet" and authorities must account for "how the officers under their command used the live ammunition that had been assigned to them," according to the report of the independent Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.

The group reported 86 cases of sexual or gender-based violence, saying it was "extremely worried" by the emergence of sexual violence "as a weapon of subjugation" during political contests.

FILE - In this Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017 file photo, a man brandishing a "panga" machete challenges police near a burning barricade during clashes between police and protesters in the Mathare slum of Nairobi, Kenya. A human rights watchdog said Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017 that 92 people were killed during Kenya's months of election turmoil and dozens of others were sexually assaulted. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

Opposition leader Raila Odinga has accused Kenyan security forces of killing scores of his supporters. Police have denied it. They also called a recent Human Rights Watch report alleging gang-rapes by men in uniform in opposition strongholds "utter falsehoods."

Odinga lost the August presidential election but successfully challenged the results while alleging irregularities, leading the Supreme Court to nullify the vote in a first in Africa.

Odinga boycotted the court-ordered repeat vote in October, saying electoral reforms had not been made. President Uhuru Kenyatta won that election with 98 percent of the votes.

The new allegations add to pressure on the government to investigate allegations of violence targeting opposition supporters.

The Human Rights Watch report earlier this month described rapes of men and women and cited victims and witnesses in the slums of the capital, Nairobi, and the opposition strongholds of Kisumu and Bungoma.

"Some were raped in the presence of family members, including young children," that report said. "Most women said they were raped by policemen or men in uniform, many of whom carried guns, batons, tear gas canisters, whips, and wore helmets and other anti-riot gear."

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT. FILE - In this Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2017 file photo, residents hold their hands up in the air towards police, as a man genuflects, right, next to the body of a man who had been shot in the head and who the crowd claimed had been shot by police, in the Mathare area of Nairobi, Kenya. A human rights watchdog said Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017 that 92 people were killed during Kenya's months of election turmoil and dozens of others were sexually assaulted. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)
CANCUN, Mexico (AP) - Driver negligence and speed caused a bus crash in southern Mexico that killed eight Americans, two Swedes, one Canadian and a Mexican tour guide as they traveled from cruise ships to visit nearby Mayan ruins, officials said Wednesday.

Quintana Roo state prosecutors said a preliminary manslaughter investigation indicated the driver lost control of the bus and when he tried to get back on the narrow highway, the bus flipped, struck a tree and landed in vegetation along the roadside.

"Due to a lack of care the driver lost control of the bus' steering to the right, leaving the asphalt," state prosecutor Miguel Angel Pech Cen said at a news conference. He said evidence found at the scene indicated the driver was going too fast.

The lifeless body of a passenger lies next to an overturned bus in Mahahual, Quintana Roo state, Mexico, Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017. The bus carrying cruise ship passengers to the Mayan ruins at Chacchoben in eastern Mexico flipped over on the highway early Tuesday. (Novedades de Quintana Roo via AP)

The state government said that in addition to the 12 people killed, three Canadians, four Brazilians, four Americans and two Swedes had to be hospitalized for treatment of injuries. The two Swedes were transported to the United States for treatment. Seven other people were slightly injured in Tuesday's accident and returned to their cruise ship.

By Wednesday afternoon, only four tourists - one Brazilian and three Americans - remained in local hospitals, the state prosecutor's office said.

A state government statement early Wednesday said the bus driver was injured and taken into custody. But Pech Cen later said the driver was not in custody. He said the driver was transported from the scene for medical treatment. They knew the driver's identity and would get a statement from him, but were not sure if he was in a hospital or still at home, the prosecutor said. He did not elaborate on the conflicting government statements.

The Swedish and Canadian governments confirmed the deaths of their citizens, but the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City confirmed only that there were "multiple" American deaths and several injuries. A statement said the embassy had staff on the ground assisting victims and loved ones.

"We express our heartfelt condolences to all those affected by this tragedy," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in Washington.

Haim Shababo of Fort Lauderdale said Wednesday that his mother-in-law, Fanya Shamis, was among the bus passengers killed in the crash. "We are waiting for the bodies to come home," he said. He said the family had no additional information to provide at this time.

Chris Brawley, of Haslet, Texas, was on one of the two cruise ships that had passengers on the crashed bus, and he was en route to the ruins as well. He said his bus passed by the accident just minutes after it occurred, and he observed skid marks on the dry pavement.

Brawley said the ship he was sailing on, the Serenade of the Seas, sailed out of Mahahual on Tuesday around 5:30 p.m., a couple hours after its scheduled departure. It was docked Wednesday up the coast in Cozumel.

"Captain informed us this morning one of our passengers passed overnight," Brawley said.

___

Associated Press writers Christopher Sherman in Mexico City and Jennifer Kay in Miami contributed to this report.

The lifeless body of a passenger lies next to an overturned bus, as ambulances, firefighters and police stand by in Mahahual, Quintana Roo state, Mexico, Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017. The bus carrying cruise ship passengers to the Mayan ruins at Chacchoben in eastern Mexico flipped over on the highway early Tuesday. (Novedades de Quintana Roo via AP)
FLORENCE, Ala. (AP) - An Alabama inmate who escaped for the second time this year while awaiting trial in the attempted killing of a police officer has been captured in Tennessee.

News outlets report 43-year-old Christopher Kilpatrick was taken into custody in Macon County on Monday morning following a high-speed chase. Authorities say it ended with his stolen truck crashing into another car, sending two people to the hospital.

Macon County Sheriff Mark Gammons says Kilpatrick suffered minor injuries. He told authorities he was on his way to Gatlinburg.

Kilpatrick escaped the Lauderdale County Detention Center on Saturday night. He had previously escaped April 8, and was taken into custody April 15 following a standoff.

Lauderdale County Chief Deputy Richard Richey says Kilpatrick has waived extradition.

He may face charges in Tennessee as well.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on five Russians, including the leader of Chechnya, under a U.S. human rights law that has been a major irritant between Washington and Moscow.

The five Russians were targeted under the Magnitsky Act, passed by Congress in 2012 in response to the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. He died in prison after exposing a tax fraud scheme involving Russian officials, and the law named after him allows the U.S. to target violators of human rights. All told, the U.S. has targeted 49 Russians under that law.

The latest additions include Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Chechnya, a predominantly Muslim republic in southern Russia. The Treasury Department said Kadyrov oversaw "disappearances and extrajudicial killings" and that he's believed to have ordered the killing of one of his political rivals. The rival had accused Kadyrov of personally carrying out torture.

Kadyrov, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, had been widely believed to have already been on a classified list of U.S. sanctions targets. Until Wednesday, the U.S. had not publicly disclosed his presence on any sanctions list.

The Treasury Department also said it was targeting a Chechen law enforcement official, Ayub Kataev, for alleged involvement in abuses this year against gay men. The United Nations and human rights groups have decried reports that men suspected of homosexuality have been rounded up and tortured in Chechnya and in some instances killed.

The newspaper Novaya Gazeta, which first reported the abuses, said the men were held in a secret prison in the town of Argun, where Kataev was the head of the police force. A spokesman for Kadyrov denied the reports and insisted there were no gay people in Chechnya.

The other three Russians being targeted are accused of being involved in the criminal conspiracy in Russia that Magnitsky exposed.

Magnitsky was a Russian lawyer hired by Hermitage Capital, a hedge fund owned by British citizen William Browder. After accusing Russian officials of carrying out a $230 million tax fraud, he was charged with tax evasion and put in prison, where he died in 2009 at 37. An official Russian probe blamed a heart attack, but Russia's presidential council on human rights concluded he'd been beaten and denied medical treatment.

"We will continue to use the Magnitsky Act to aggressively target gross violators of human rights in Russia, including individuals responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture and other despicable acts," said John Smith, a top sanctions official at the Treasury Department.

The announcement drew rare praise for the Trump administration from the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland. Cardin and Republican Sen. John McCain co-wrote the Magnitsky Act, and Cardin said Wednesday he was pleased Treasury had acted to punish those accused of torturing gays and other rights abuses.

"Today marks a victory for the citizens of the Russian Federation, many of whom strive for a future governed by the rule of law," Cardin said.

The sanctions law became a sore point between the U.S. and Russia after it was signed into law by former President Barack Obama. Shortly after, Putin signed a law banning American citizens from adopting Russian children, in a move widely viewed as retaliation.

Donald Trump Jr., son of President Donald Trump, has said he discussed the Magnitsky Act and the adoption law with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya last year during an unusual campaign-season meeting that has been examined as part of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and potential collusion with Trump's campaign.

The sanctions freeze any assets the individuals may have in the United States, and also bar Americans from doing any business with them.

In 2016, the Magnitsky Act was expanded to allow the U.S. to target human rights abusers anywhere, not just in Russia. The Trump administration is expected to target additional individuals under that law in the coming days.

___

Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP
SAO PAULO (AP) - A former mayor and governor of Sao Paulo state turned himself in to Brazilian police Wednesday to begin serving a nearly eight-year sentence for money laundering.

Paulo Maluf surrendered a day after Supreme Court Judge Edson Fachin turned down an appeal of his 93-month sentence and ruled he had to report to prison. Fachin also ruled that the 86-year-old should be stripped of his current congressional seat.

Maluf was sentenced to jail for taking more than $15 million in bribes and kickbacks when commissioning the construction of a highway and other projects as mayor of Sao Paulo between 1993 and 1996.

FILE - In this Sept. 29, 2000 file photo, Sao Paulo mayoral candidate Paulo Maluf speaks during a televised debate in Sao Paulo. Maluf surrendered Wednesday, Dec. 20 2017, to Brazilian police to begin serving a nearly eight year sentence for money laundering. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, File)

Maluf also served as governor of the state of Sao Paulo from 1979 to 1982, and was first elected to congress in 2006 under the center-right Progressive Party banner.

He has long been dogged by corruption allegations.

Prosecutors have said that some of the alleged kickback money he was found guilty of receiving helped finance his unsuccessful 1998 re-election campaign for the Sao Paulo state governorship.

His lawyer said he would appeal Fachin's ruling.
OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) - Burkina Faso's government says it has suspended trade relations with North Korea to conform to United Nations Security Council sanctions over its nuclear weapons program.

African nations are under growing pressure to cut military and trade ties with Pyongyang. Uganda this year expelled North Korean military experts and representatives of North Korean companies.

Burkina Faso's Foreign Affairs Minister Alpha Barry says the United States reminded the West African nation earlier this year to abide by the U.N. sanctions resolutions.

Government investigations then discovered that the private sector in Burkina Faso had imported petroleum products, medical equipment and other goods valued at up to $38 million in 2015.

Barry says goods exported from North Korea to Burkina Faso between June and August this year amounted to nearly $7.2 million.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Environmental Protection Agency says an internal task force appointed to revamp how the nation's most polluted sites are cleaned up generated no record of its deliberations.

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt in May announced the creation of a Superfund Task Force that he said would reprioritize and streamline procedures for remediating more than 1,300 sites. Pruitt, the former attorney general of Oklahoma, appointed a political supporter from his home state with no experience in pollution cleanups to lead the group.

The task force in June issued a nearly three dozen-page report containing 42 detailed recommendations, all of which Pruitt immediately adopted. The advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, known as PEER, quickly filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking a long list of documents related to the development of Pruitt's plan.

FILE - This Sept. 21, 2017 file photo shows The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Building in Washington. The EPA says an internal task force appointed to revamp how the nation's most polluted sites are cleaned up generated no record of its deliberations. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

After EPA didn't immediately release any records, PEER sued in federal court in Washington.

Now, nearly six months after the task force released its report, a lawyer for EPA has written PEER to say that the task force had no agenda for its meetings, kept no minutes and used no reference materials other than Pruitt's memo appointing them.

Further, there were no written standards for choosing the 107 EPA employees the agency says served on the task force.

"Task force members were all volunteers from EPA staff with no selection criteria," Johnny Walker, a Justice Department lawyer representing EPA, wrote to PEER last month. "Meeting minutes were not kept and materials (other than the May 22, 2017 memorandum) were not presented to the Superfund Task Force."

According to EPA's lawyer, the task force also retained no work product other than its final report.

Jeff Ruch, the executive director of PEER, said that seems unlikely.

"Pruitt's plan for cleaning up toxic sites was apparently immaculately conceived, without the usual trappings of human parentage," Ruch said. "It stretches credulity that 107 EPA staff members with no agenda or reference materials somehow wrote an intricate plan in 30 days."

In a statement issued Wednesday after The Associated Press first reported on Walker's response in the FOIA lawsuit, EPA's press office sought to distinguish between the environmental agency and its legal representation.

"The communication at issue was sent by the Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney's Office of D.C., as part of an ongoing effort to resolve litigation," said Jahan Wilcox, an EPA spokesman.

The Justice Department routinely represents executive agencies in legal disputes over FOIA requests. In his notice of appearance before the court in the PEER lawsuit, Walker described himself as "counsel for Defendant the United States Environmental Protection Agency."

Wilcox did not respond to follow-up questions about whether the lawyer's representations were inaccurate or if EPA possessed additional records it has yet to disclose.

The recommendations adopted by Pruitt include prioritizing cleanup sites that can be redeveloped for new construction or where nearby residents are under threat from spreading pollution. EPA held no public hearings about the plan.

Pruitt has pledged to make mitigating decades-old pollution EPA's core mission, even as he has moved to block or delay Obama-era regulations aimed at curbing ongoing contamination from coal-fired power plants and fossil-fuel production.

President Donald Trump's proposed 2018 budget seeks to cut the program by 30 percent. Congress has not yet approved a budget for the current fiscal year, which began in October.

The task force was led by Albert "Kell" Kelly, whom Pruitt hired at EPA as a senior adviser at an annual salary of $172,100. Kelly was previously the chairman of Tulsa-based SpiritBank, where he worked as an executive for 34 years.

The Associated Press reported in August that Kelly was barred by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation from working for any U.S. financial institution after officials determined he violated laws or regulations, leading to a financial loss for his bank. The FDIC's order didn't detail what Kelly is alleged to have done. Without admitting wrongdoing, he agreed to pay a $125,000 penalty.

___

Follow Associated Press environmental reporter Michael Biesecker at http://twitter.com/mbieseck
GENEVA (AP) - Switzerland's executive council says it opposes a referendum to ban face coverings such as the veils worn by some Muslim women but plans a "counter-project" that would prohibit requiring anyone to cover his or her face.

The Federal Council said in a statement on Wednesday that it thinks the question of banning concealing garments such as costume masks and burqas is better left to regions to decide.

The council says its project is "clearly indicating that it doesn't accept constraints placed on women."

The Italian-speaking Ticino region of Switzerland already bans face wear, while five other Swiss regions rejected similar proposals.

The government says regions "must themselves decide the approach to have toward veiled tourists from the Arab world."

Far-right groups have successfully petitioned for a nationwide referendum on the issue.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says conflicts today are longer - more than 20 years on average - and often involve multiple armed groups competing for control of government institutions, natural resources and territory.

He told a Security Council meeting Wednesday on the growing complexity of challenges to international peace and security that "we are seeing not only a quantitative but also a qualitative change."

Guterres said "the perils of nuclear weapons are again front and center, with tensions higher than they have been since the end of the Cold War."

He said cybersecurity dangers are escalating and called climate change "a threat multiplier" and water scarcity "a growing concern."

Guterres also warned that inequality and exclusion are feeding "frustration and marginalization" and said "conflicts are becoming more intractable."
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - A subsidiary of European steel giant ArcelorMittal has agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle a lawsuit over allegations that its western Pennsylvania coke plant had violated emissions requirements over soot and other pollutants almost daily, according to a proposed agreement filed Wednesday in Pittsburgh's federal court.

The environmental advocacy group that sued, Philadelphia-based PennEnvironment, said it believes the penalty is the largest secured by a citizen lawsuit in Pennsylvania history under the federal Clean Air Act.

Federal and state officials, as well as representatives of ArcelorMittal and PennEnvironment, signed the 108-page proposed agreement.

As part of the agreement, ArcelorMittal also agreed to implement air pollution controls that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimated would cost $2 million. The proposed agreement is subject to a 30-day public comment period and must receive a judge's approval.

PennEnvironment sued in 2015, saying the plant in Monessen, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Pittsburgh on the banks of the Monongahela River, had committed a variety of environmental violations since reopening in 2014 after more than four years of being idle.

Those include operating the plant for extended periods while a key air pollution control device wasn't functioning and more than 200 violations of pollution limits for hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide and soot. Coke is a form of baked coal that steelmakers use in blast furnaces to turn molten iron into steel.

According to the lawsuit, slightly more than 6,000 people live within a mile (nearly 2 kilometers) of the plant and more than 31,000 within three miles (about 5 kilometers) of it.

ArcelorMittal last year spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to settle a separate lawsuit filed by area residents complaining of arsenic and coal dust falling on their properties and a pervasive rotten egg-smell that prevented them from being outdoors and that even seeped into their homes.

In a statement, the company said restarting the coke plant was challenging and its environmental performance during that period was "unacceptable." It said it has been working to improve the facility's performance and is committed to achieving full compliance with its environmental requirements.
More than 25 years after being locked away for a killing their lawyers say they didn't commit, three former soldiers are preparing to go home to spend the holidays with their families.

Mark Jason Jones, Kenneth Eric Gardiner and Dominic Brian Lucci were in their early 20s when they were convicted of murder in the January 31, 1992, slaying of Stanley Jackson in Savannah, Georgia.

Prosecutors said the crime was racially motivated. The three former soldiers are white, and Jackson was black.

The Georgia Supreme Court last month ruled that state prosecutors improperly withheld evidence that would have helped their defense, and the men were entitled to a new trial.

Prosecutors haven't said yet whether they'll retry the case, but a judge in Savannah on Wednesday set bail at $30,000 apiece.

Their lawyers expected the men to be released later in the day.

'I have so many emotions going on right now I'm not sure which one to pick first,' Deborah McGill, Jones' mother, said by phone after the bond hearing. 'Obviously, I am thrilled.'

This updated photo provided by the Chatham County Sheriff's Office shows Mark Jones, one of the three men convicted in the murder of a black man in January 1992

Kenneth Gardiner (left) and Dominic Lucci (right) are two of the three men convicted more than two decades ago in the slaying of Stanley Jackson in Savannah, Georgia

Once the three are released, their families and friends plan to take them out to dinner to celebrate, McGill said.

Then they plan to head home, likely on Thursday  Jones to Port Aransas, Texas; Gardiner to Henderson, Texas; and Lucci to Euclid, Ohio.

Jones was 20, Gardiner was 21 and Lucci was 22 when they were arrested. Now in their mid- to late 40s, they have spent more than half their lives in jail.

Soldiers at Fort Stewart at the time of the killing, they had spent the evening of Jan. 31, 1992, at the rehearsal dinner in Hinesville for Jones and his fiancee, who were set to marry the next day.

Around 9.30pm, they headed into Savannah for an impromptu bachelor party.

Dawn Barnett, Jones' then-fiancee, told The Associated Press she remembers giving him a half-joking warning as they headed off: 'Don't you dare call me and tell me you're in jail at 3 in the morning because of drunkenness.'

Around 10 that night, Jackson was gunned down while standing on a street corner in a high-crime part of Savannah. The three soldiers were arrested a short time later.

Barnett said that 3am call she had joked about turned out much worse than she could have imagined: Her fiance and his friends were in jail charged with murder.

The three were convicted in November 1992 of malice murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and sentenced to life in prison plus five years.

These undated photos (L to R) show Mark Jones, Kenneth Gardiner and Dominic Brian Lucci. The ex-soldiers are preparing to go home to spend the holidays with their families are receiving bail

The three men were soldiers at Fort Stewart at the time of the killing. New evidence in the case has been revealed decades later

The Georgia Supreme Court upheld their convictions in June 1994.

Centurion Ministries, which works to free innocent people, took up their case in 2009.

Peter Camiel, one of the men's lawyers, said the evidence against them was extremely weak.

There's no way, based on when they left the rehearsal dinner, that they could have made it to the shooting site in time and no physical evidence tied them to the killing.

Eyewitness James White, who testified at trial, later admitted that he hadn't gotten a good look at the shooters and was pressured to identify the soldiers at trial.

A female Army officer testified at trial that Jones had told her on base earlier in the day that he was going to Savannah that night to shoot someone, saying, 'I got a black guy up there I got to get.'

But she changed her story several times, and Jones hadn't even been on base that day because he was on leave for his wedding, Camiel said.

The Georgia Supreme Court found last month that prosecutors failed to give the defense a police report describing an incident several hours after the men were arrested.

A witness said white men with military style haircuts and semi-automatic weapons drove through a public housing project threatening 'to shoot blacks who hung out on street corners.'

'It's just absurd to think that they were even charged, let alone convicted,' Camiel said.

Barnett said she was always convinced that Jones and his friends weren't guilty.

She and Jones stayed together for a while after he was convicted, but he eventually broke up with her to let her get on with her life.

She has since married, divorced and is in love and engaged again.

She cried over the phone Wednesday as she talked about the past, saying it's never far from her heart.

She still has fond feelings for Jones and wouldn't mind being in touch, she said.

Upon learning that bail had been granted for the three men, she began crying again: 'These are tears of joy that they get to go to their families.'
NEW YORK (AP) - Health officials are investigating a Chipotle restaurant in Los Angeles after the burrito chain reported that some of its workers were ill with nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. The company has struggled to win back customers after previous food safety issues.

Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold confirmed Wednesday that the company had reported the illnesses to local health officials and said the employees are being held out of work. The restaurant was inspected Tuesday and remains open for business, Arnold said.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said it did not receive any reports from other Chipotle locations and it is working to determine the cause of illness. Chipotle said it is aware of only a few reports of customer illnesses from "user-generated reporting sites."

Chipotle saw its sales plunge after an E. coli outbreak in 2015. Last summer, a Chipotle in Virginia had to close temporarily after diners fell ill. The company said afterward it believed an employee was working while sick with what health officials think was norovirus, a leading cause of illnesses from contaminated food.

Shares in Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. fell nearly 5 percent to close at $298.67 on Wednesday. That's less than half of what they were at their 2015 peak, before the E. coli outbreak.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress is dealing two blows to President Barack Obama's health law.

Here's the first: Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee say they've abandoned their effort to force a year-end budget bill to restore federal payments to insurers that have helped contain premium costs.

The lawmakers say they'll continue the push next year.

The decision marks a retreat for Collins. She wanted enactment this year as a condition for backing the GOP's tax bill.

In the other, the tax legislation ends the tax penalty the health law imposes on people who don't purchase coverage.

That requirement prods many people to buy insurance.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates ending those penalties will lead to 13 million additional people being uninsured and premiums growing by about 10 percent.
PASCAGOULA, Miss. -- On Tuesday evening, the Pascagoula Chevron Refinery responded to being made aware of a noose found within refinery.

"On Monday, we were notified of a noose hanging in an operating unit at the Pascagoula Refinery. The item was removed and the incident was immediately reported to refinery leadership. Chevron's Refinery Security Team immediately launched an investigation, which is ongoing.

A diverse and inclusive work environment is a core value of the Chevron Pascagoula Refinery. Chevron will not tolerate discriminatory or harassing actions that seek to undermine our core values.

Diversity is one of Chevron's core values, which are defined by The Chevron Way. The Chevron Way holds everyone accountable in advancing diversity at all levels of the company. We're a proud proponent of diversity in the workforce, and we support an inclusive workplace that values the diversity of ideas and talents."

Chevron has been a staple in the community, specifically the Pascagoula-Gautier School District as it hosts numerous children for Super Saturdays' and donated technology to Kreole Elementary school and others through the 'Fuel Your School' initiative.

The company will be under new leadership at the top of the year after current manager Bruce Chinn will be leading Chevron Oronite Co., LLC, as president beginning Jan. 1, 2018.

According to the Human Rights Campaign, Chevron was named one of the best companies to work for, based on 2017 Corporate Equality Index.

The HRC gauges the work environment and how it "provides an in-depth analysis and rating of large U.S. employers and their policies and practices pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer employees."
NEW YORK (AP) - A former journalist from St. Louis who terrorized his ex-girlfriend and then made bomb threats in her name to Jewish groups was sentenced on Wednesday to five years in prison after the ex-girlfriend told the court the case shows "domestic terrorism is rooted in violence against women."

U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel said Juan Thompson, 32, committed domestic terrorism with threats in the name of New York social worker Francesca Rossi on a dozen occasions against Jewish community centers, schools or other facilities nationwide.

The threats came early this year, when more than 150 bomb threats were reported against Jewish community centers and day schools in 37 states and two Canadian provinces. Authorities blamed most on an 18-year-old Israeli-American Jewish hacker arrested in Israel in March.

FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Warren County Sheriff's Department in Warrenton, Mo., shows Juan Thompson. Thompson, a former journalist who admitted cyber stalking an ex-girlfriend and terrorizing Jewish groups with bomb threats, has been sentenced in New York to five years in prison. Thompson was sentenced Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017, in Manhattan federal court. (Warren County Sheriff's Department via AP, File)

The judge said Thompson created a sustained campaign against Rossi "to terrorize her and cause pain" to others.

Thompson, who pleaded guilty in June to cyber stalking and making fake bomb threats to a dozen Jewish facilities, apologized at the sentencing, conceding, "There are wounds ... that will probably never heal."

Thompson's sentence was a year longer than prosecutors had requested, but the judge said it was warranted for a man who overcame an abusive childhood to graduate from Vassar College in 2013 and then turn his intelligence, social media expertise and creativity into "weapons against others."

"His intelligence and creativity made him such a horror," the judge said.

Rossi, wearing a shirt that said "Believe Women," said she was grateful to be alive but was "not convinced that he still won't try to kill me."

"The abuse and victimization that I was subjected to is not unusual," Rossi said. "We are here because domestic terrorism is rooted in violence against women. ... Intimate-partner violence needs more legal attention, given that 93 percent of female homicides are committed by a man the victim knows."

She also said digital technology should be recognized as "a powerful weapon to inflict violence."

"Countless people are subjected to the same type and degree of stalking and abuse that Juan inflicted on me," she said. "And worse."

She said when she met Thompson he seemed to be the "perfect man," charming and intelligent, a passionate journalist who spoke of social justice.

Once living together, the "real Juan emerged," as he began to "isolate, shame and abuse me," Rossi said.

She said he convinced her that ex-boyfriends were stalking and threatening her. She said he made it seem an ex-boyfriend had posted a nude picture of her as his Facebook profile picture and an ex-boyfriend's wife had sued, alleging she had given a sexually transmitted disease to her husband.

Rossi said the abuse worsened in the nine months after she ended the relationship, with Thompson trying to get her fired the next day by posing as multiple journalists claiming to her bosses that she was being investigated for professional and ethical wrongdoing.

"Juan devoted over an entire year to destroying my life," she said. "He painted me as an anti-Semite, a racist, a drunk, a slut, a drug dealer, a child pornographer and a gun runner. He did everything that he could to instill terror in my life."

Rossi, who was composed during her lengthy statement but cried at least once, said Thompson used every digital platform imaginable to harass her and went after at least 47 people in her life, including her 92-year-old grandmother. She said she asked law enforcement for help more than 20 times but was told: "It will get worse, and then we can try to help."

Rossi said Thompson notified a Brooklyn police station five months before his arrest that Rossi was going to "shoot up" the precinct, causing the New York Police Department to interview her. Another time, she said, the NYPD firearms division showed up to investigate if she was selling guns.

Finally, the FBI investigated after Thompson posed as Rossi to report a threat to a San Diego Jewish community center, she recalled. Four days later, Thompson was arrested.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam on Wednesday said he has exonerated a man whose convictions for rape and burglary were set aside by a court in 2009 and who was released after more than three decades in prison.

The exoneration makes 61-year-old Lawrence McKinney eligible for compensation of up to $1 million. The only other repayment for his time behind bars was $75 he received when he left prison, his lawyer said.

In a news release, Haslam said that he respects determinations by the court and prosecutor that 61-year-old Lawrence McKinney was not guilty of crimes he was convicted for in 1978 and wouldn't have been prosecuted if DNA testing results were available during his trial.

FILE - In this June 16, 2016 file photo, Lawrence McKinney appears at a news conference at the Legislative Plaza in Nashville, Tenn. Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam says he has exonerated McKinney, whose convictions for rape and robbery were set aside by a court in 2009 and who was released after more than three decades in prison. His exoneration makes him eligible for compensation of up to $1 million. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

Last year, a Tennessee parole board voted against recommending McKinney for exoneration, saying the absence of his DNA following a rape was not conclusive evidence of innocence.

The board had also turned down McKinney's request for exoneration in 2010, and then-Gov. Phil Bredesen followed the recommendation, an attorney for McKinney, David Raybin, has said.

"In the eyes of the judicial system, Mr. McKinney is innocent," Haslam said. "While I appreciate the hard work and recommendations of the Board of Parole, in this case I defer to the finding of the court charged with determining Mr. McKinney's guilt or innocence."

McKinney had been sentenced to 100 years on the rape conviction and 10 to 15 years on the burglary conviction. He has said there was a time in prison when he was angry, but that he found peace when he embraced religion behind bars.

At a news conference Wednesday, the soft-spoken African-American man said he never doubted the outcome, because "God put the right people in my way to help me through this," including his wife, the governor, his lawyers, his church and others.

Still, he noted that he "missed out on a whole lot" during 31 years locked up. He got his first driver's license at 58 years old. He married a year after he got out of prison.

"Some people got family, kids, home, everything. I lost all of that," he said. "They took it away. And then I didn't get to see my mom grow old."

Raybin said the entire case against McKinney when he was on trial was based on eyewitness identification.

Raybin said he believes the state Board of Claims will approve the maximum compensation for his client within six months. He said other states have higher compensation caps, and Tennessee should consider changing the law to offer more.

"We're pleased that the governor made an independent decision based on the right thing to do, based on the court order in Memphis," Raybin said. "I mean, how can you go against DNA?"
SANDERSVILLE, Ga. (AP) - A grand jury in Georgia has indicted three white former sheriff's deputies on murder charges for their alleged roles in the stun gun death of a 58-year-old black man who they said acted "suspiciously" after asking a stranger for water.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports Tuesday's indictment charges the Washington County ex-deputies - Michael Howell, Henry Copeland and Rhett Scott - with felony murder, false imprisonment and aggravated assault in the death of Euree Lee Martin.

District Attorney Hayward Altman says there was no evidence that Martin had broken any laws at the time he encountered police on July 7.

Mawuli Davis, attorney for Martin's family, says bench warrants have been issued and arrests are expected soon.

Howell, Copeland and Scott were fired in October in connection with the case.

___

Information from: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, http://www.ajc.com
LONDON (AP) - A key ally of British Prime Minister Theresa May was forced to resign Wednesday after an investigation concluded he made misleading statements about pornographic images found on a Parliament computer in his office in 2008.

Damian Green, who was ousted as first secretary of state, maintains he did not use pornography on his office computers, but he agreed he had not been forthcoming in statements made about the matter in November.

A report by May's Cabinet secretary concluded Green had made misleading statements regarding his knowledge about the indecent images found by police.

FILE - An Aug. 10, 2017 file photo of First Secretary of State, Damian Green, speaking in London. Damian Green has been asked to resign from the Government by Prime Minister, Theresa May, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017, and admitted he made "misleading" statements about allegations pornography was found on his Commons computer in 2008. (David Cheskin/PA via AP, File)

"I accept that I should have been clear in my press statements that police lawyers talked to my lawyers in 2008 about the pornography on the computers, and that the police raised it with me in a subsequent phone call in 2013," Green said in his resignation letter, which was made public Wednesday night.

May said she asked Green for his resignation after the investigation concluded he had not been open about the matter.

"I have also carefully considered the report's conclusions in relation to two statements you made on 4 and 11 November which you now accept were inaccurate and misleading," the prime minister wrote in a letter requesting Green to step aside. She said he had fallen short of the standards expected of him.

"It is therefore with deep regret, and enduring gratitude for the contribution you have made over many years, that I asked you to resign from the Government and have accepted your resignation," May wrote.

Green was a vital political ally who acted as a de facto deputy prime minister and supported May in her difficult Brexit negotiations. His removal will cost her an important supporter as she tries to balance competing visions of Brexit within her Cabinet.

Green had claimed earlier he was the victim of a smear campaign. The pornography was found on his office computer during a police investigation of government leaks.

The Cabinet investigation did not yield a conclusion about sexual misconduct allegations writer Kate Maltby made against Green.

Maltby said Green had "fleetingly" touched her knee during a meeting in a pub and later sent a suggestive text after a picture of her wearing a corset appeared in a newspaper.

The cabinet secretary investigation said it was "not possible to reach a definitive conclusion" on whether Green's behavior with Maltby was appropriate wily, but added that her account was "plausible."

Green is among a number of British politicians who have stepped down or been forced out in recent weeks as a wave of allegations of sexual harassment has surfaced.
MIAMI (AP) - The Florida-based rapper XXXTentacion will be released from a Miami jail on house arrest while awaiting trial on charges that he beat up his pregnant girlfriend and then tried to bribe her.

The rapper's attorney, David Bogenschutz, said Wednesday that a judge ordered the 19-year-old rapper to be released for 60 days. That will likely happen Thursday.

Police say the rapper, whose real name is Jahseh Onfroy, beat up his then-girlfriend last year and then called her from jail, offering money if she would drop the charges. Bogenschutz declined comment on the charges.

XXXTentacion has had nine songs appear on Billboard's Hot 100 chart this year, including "Jocelyn Flores" which peaked at No. 31.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Control of the country's oldest legislative body could come down to which old film canister an election official pulls out of a glass bowl - or maybe an old fashioned tri-corner hat or a silver cup.

A three-judge panel in Virginia certified the 94th District in Newport News as tied Wednesday, one day after a dramatic recount appeared to give Democrat Shelly Simonds a victory over Republican Del. David Yancey by a single vote. At stake could be control of the Virginia House.

Here are some key questions and answers on the election:

___

HOW IS A WINNER PICKED?

Virginia law says in a tied race, the state elections board publicly determines the winner "by lot." The law doesn't specify the actual method or when that takes place.

Virginia Board of Elections Chairman James Alcorn said barring some kind of legal challenge, the board will likely try to meet as soon as possible. He said the board would probably pick the winner the same way it picks ballot order. He said each candidate's name is placed into a separate film canister. The canisters are placed into a glass bowl and shaken up. The canister containing the winner's name is pulled out at random by a board member.

If the board feels festive, it may use an old-fashioned tri-corner hat to put names in, which Alcorn said he thinks has been used to settle local election ties in the past.

___

HAS THIS HAPPENED BEFORE?

In Virginia, where the state House has been around since the 1619 founding of the House of Burgesses at Jamestown, something similar has happened at least once. In 1971, Republican candidate William H. Moss Sr. appeared to have lost the election for a Fairfax seat. He demanded a recount, which ended in a tie, and then won when his name was drawn at random, according to news reports from the time.

"The bowl used, in somewhat typical Virginian style, is a silver loving cup," reported The Washington Post.

Outside Virginia, various methods of settling ties have been used.

Two years ago in Mississippi, two House candidates broke a tie by reaching into a red canvas bag and pulling out a silver-plated business card boxes engraved with the state's name. The winner drew the box with a longer straw in it.

In Alaska in 2006, a coin flip broke the tie in a Democratic primary for a state House seat. The incumbent called "heads" and lost.

___

WHAT ARE THE STAKES?

At stake in the race could be control of the state House.

If Yancey wins, Republicans would have a 51-49 majority as long as no other seats switched. Democrats could force a 50-50 power-sharing agreement if Simonds wins.

However, two other state House races have not been finalized and could also affect the House's partisan balance. One of those contests could be decided by a federal judge.

Powered by unhappiness with GOP President Donald Trump, Virginia Democrats rode a tidal wave in November, erasing Republicans' 66-34 advantage. Democrats nationwide hope it's a preview of the 2018 elections.

But the possible 50-50 split could also foreshadow political chaos in the Old Dominion, as Republicans and Democrats will have to hammer out some kind of power-sharing agreement in order for the House to function. If they can't, the House won't operate. Electing a speaker is one of the first things delegates do once they are sworn in, right after a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance. If no one is elected to the role, there's not much else the body can do except adjourn.
ACAYUCAN, Mexico (AP) - International condemnation rolled in Wednesday over the murder of a journalist in Mexico's Veracruz state, the latest in a wave of such killings seen as an assault on free speech in the country.

The United Nations' human rights agency said in a statement through its Mexico office that the slaying of Gumaro Perez "confirms a terrible year for freedom of expression in Mexico."

The Inter-American Press Society expressed its "consternation over the toll of journalists killed this year in the country, most of them with impunity."

A picture of slain journalist Gumaro Perez stands on his open casket during a wake inside his mother's home in Acayucan, Veracruz state, Mexico, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017. The 34-year-old Perez was shot to death Tuesday while at a Christmas party at his son's school in Acayucan. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

The 34-year-old Perez was shot to death Tuesday while at a Christmas party at his son's school in Acayucan, in the Gulf state of Veracruz. He was at least the 10th journalist slain in the country this year and the third in Veracruz.

The state prosecutor's office sought to cast doubt on Perez's journalistic credentials, issuing a statement Wednesday saying it had not been able to find any media outlet that he was actively working for and that a website under his authorship went inactive a few months ago.

That was disputed by an official with a regional program for journalist protection who said Perez had been working for the local government but continued to publish on a web portal and his Facebook page.

"For all legal purposes he was a journalist," said Jorge Morales of the Veracruz State Commission for Attention and Protection of Journalists. "We could say he was independent."

Morales added that several people reported Morales' role with the municipal government had been as either a communications worker or an assistant to the mayor, though it was apparently in an informal capacity and he was not on the payroll.

Veracruz prosecutors also said in a statement it was "probable" that Perez was linked to an organized crime gang and was killed by a rival group. The office cited information pulled from his cellphone and visits made to an imprisoned gang member, but did not provide evidence.

Perez's family denied he had any links to the narco underworld.

"My brother is a very decent person who walks with his head held high and was admired by many," said Maribel Perez, the victim's sister. "It's not right that when we family members are here (at the wake) and we have yet to properly lay him to rest, they go around saying those things."

Morales said a pronouncement "criminalizing" Perez violates his presumption of innocence and "does not lead anywhere, does not resolve the case."

Local governments in Veracruz and elsewhere in Mexico have often sought to discredit slain journalists in order to suggest their killings were not related to their work.

In the case of Candido Rios, who was killed in August near Acayucan, within 24 hours the deputy secretary for human rights said state investigators had ruled out that he was the target of the attack, which also left two other dead.

Journalist advocates and Rios' family denounced what they called a rush to judgment, saying authorities were too quick to rule out his work as motive in a state where so many journalists have been slain.

Details of the attack that killed Perez were still emerging.

Morales said unspecified authorities told him there were surveillance cameras and witnesses. The assailants apparently killed Perez while he was alone in a room.

Perez's widow, Adelina Mendoza, who was at the school when the shooting happened, said she thought the gunshots were fireworks for the holiday celebration until everyone began to panic.

"I don't know where the blow came from. ... I don't understand what happened - if there was something that someone didn't like and they eliminated him just like that," she said.

Mendoza doubts justice will be done in the case, saying she does not trust authorities. "We live in fear, with panic," she said.

Fidel Perez, a local reporter in Acayucan, said he had known Gumaro Perez - no relation - for eight years and he had earned the nickname "the red man" due to his work covering crime.

Recently Gumaro Perez had been a "direct collaborator of the mayor" who went around with the official and took photos of him, Fidel Perez said. He added that Gumaro Perez was "not an employee on the payroll and was paid directly out of (the mayor's) pocket."

Gumaro Perez was part of a state program offering guidance in self-protection strategies to journalists carrying out certain "high-risk" coverage. It is separate from a federal government program known as "the mechanism" that offers reporters measures like panic buttons on their cellphones and home security.

Mexico is one of the world's deadliest countries for journalists, and Veracruz, plagued by drug gang violence and corruption, is seen as the worst state, with several killed there this year.

Besides Perez and Rios, newspaper columnist Ricardo Monlui was slain in the Veracruz town of Yanga, near the city of Cordoba, on March 19 as he left a restaurant with his wife and son. The attacker appeared to have been lying in wait.

According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, 95 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 1992. In 43 of those cases, the CPJ says the motive has been confirmed as being directly related to the victims' work - including six in 2017, higher than any other year in that period.

___

Associated Press writer Maria Verza reported this story in Acayucan and AP writer Peter Orsi reported from Mexico City.

A man buys a newspaper carrying the Spanish headline "They killed Gumaro!" on the sidewalk in Acayucan, Veracruz state, Mexico, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017. The 34-year-old journalist Perez Gumaro was shot to death Tuesday while at a Christmas party at his son's school in Acayucan. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

People pray next to the coffin of slain journalist Gumaro Perez during his wake inside his mother's home in Acayucan, Veracruz state, Mexico, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017. The 34-year-old Perez was shot to death Tuesday while at a Christmas party at his son's school in Acayucan. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Police tape corners off the school where journalist Gumaro Perez was killed in Acayucan, Veracruz state, Mexico, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017. The 34-year-old Perez was shot to death Tuesday while at a Christmas party at this school, where his son was a student. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)
The number of new council houses being started in England has hit its highest level for nearly four years, figures suggest.

Local authorities began building 830 new permanent homes between July and September  more than any quarter since January-March 2014.

(PA Graphics)

It is the second highest figure for any three-month period in the past 25 years.

But building remains a long way below the levels of the late 1970s, when an average of 16,000 new council houses were started in England every quarter.

(PA Graphics)

The provisional figures, published by the Department for Communities and Local Government, also suggest work on 5,460 new homes was started by housing associations between July and September, up 1% from 5,410 in April-June.

A further 33,780 new properties were started by private firms, down 6% from 35,920 in the previous quarter.

By contrast, the 830 new council houses started between July and September is nearly double the number for April-June (440).

(PA Graphics)

The Government has pledged to raise the new housing supply in England to an average of 300,000 per year by the mid-2020s.

A total of 217,350 new dwellings were added to the housing stock in 2016/17, up 15% on 2015/16.

In his Budget speech in November, Chancellor Philip Hammond announced an extra 15.3 billion of new financial support for housebuilding in England over the next five years, including 1 billion for local authorities.

Housing policy in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is devolved to the respective parliaments and assemblies.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has pledged to improve the way authorities respond to terror attacks as survivors and dignitaries marked the anniversary of last years truck rampage at a Berlin Christmas market.

Mrs Merkel was fiercely criticised by relatives in an open letter earlier this month, for the way security services failed to stop the attack and the authorities handling of the aftermath.

In a brief statement following an inter-religious memorial service at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the heart of west Berlin, she said she met relatives and some of the dozens of injured on Monday to hear their views.

It was a very open and, on the part of the people affected, very blunt conversation which showed the weaknesses our state displayed in this situation, she said.

We will do whats humanly possible not just to ensure security but to help give those whose life was destroyed or affected the opportunity to return to their life. Today is a day of grief, but also a day of willingness to do better.

People attend the opening of a memorial site in Berlin to honour the victims of the Christmas market attack one year ago. (Michael Sohn/AP)

Justice minister Heiko Maas went further in acknowledging that painful errors had been made.

We werent properly prepared for the consequences that such a terrorist attack would have for those who were affected, Mr Maas wrote in Berlin daily Tagesspiegel.

For this we can only apologise to the victims and the survivors, he said, adding that the government owed it to the relatives to learn from its mistakes.

The attack, carried out by a Tunisian asylum-seeker and petty criminal who had been on authorities radar for months, was the deadliest in decades on German soil.

Anis Amri managed to flee the country but was shot dead by Italian police days after the attack, which was later claimed by the Islamic State group.

White roses sit beside a new memorial - a crack in the ground filled with gold - on the first anniversary of the Berlin Chrismas Market attack (Michael Sohn/AP/PA)

Italian authorities are still investigating whether Amri had contacts in Rome or Sicily who helped him.

Following the service, Berlins mayor Michael Mueller unveiled a memorial on the Breitscheidplatz featuring the names of those killed on December 19 last year.

The memorial includes an almost 17-metre rift in the ground that was filled with a gold-coloured metal, symbolising the lives torn apart in the attack.

Relatives and dignitaries, including Mrs Merkel, placed candles and laid white roses beside the memorial.

Church bells will ring later tonight for 12 minutes - one for each of the dead.
Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe has warned he will not rush into the transfer market next month despite his sides precarious position in the Premier League.

The Cherries, who travel to Stamford Bridge for their Carabao Cup quarter-final tie against Chelsea on Wednesday evening, have slipped to 16th in the table, just one point above the relegation zone, following a six-match winless streak.

Howes side were dealt a crushing 4-0 home defeat by Liverpool last weekend, but the Bournemouth boss is confident his squad can provide a swift turnaround in fortunes without the need for reinforcements in January.



Bournemouth were swept aside by Liverpool (Andrew Matthews/PA)

At the moment we are not looking at anything in January, Howe said at a press conference. If we can keep the squad together, and pick up results than everything changes.

In January, it is a very difficult window to make too many changes in terms of incomings. It is an incredibly expensive market with not too many players to choose from. Ideally we would not be doing too much in that market.

Of course, injuries force your hand to a degree, but we are hopeful injuries suffered by the players are not serious. We need to be adaptable so it is not impossible.



Josh King suffered an injury on Sunday (Andrew Matthews/PA)

Howe will be without defender Charlie Daniels and forward Joshua King for Bournemouths visit to Chelsea after the duo sustained injuries in the defeat against Liverpool.

Howe is hopeful both Daniels, who lasted less than an hour against the Reds following a groin injury, and King, replaced after 31 minutes with a hamstring issue, will be fit to face Manchester City on Saturday.

But the Cherries manager suggested he will rotate his squad for their last-eight clash against Antonio Contes side and ahead of the trip to the runaway Premier League leaders this weekend.

There will be a certain number of changes as I dont want us to suffer any more injuries, Howe added. We need to make sure we leave Stamford Bridge feeling good about ourselves again and having given a good account.

This year, the top teams have been absolutely ruthless. Of course there are going to be upsets, but more consistently they have put their dominance together against the lesser sides.

In our first and second years in the Premier League there were more upsets and unpredictable results, but the top teams have stamped themselves on the division this year. That leaves the rest of us fighting for survival.
Top 100 Scholarships and Other Programs For Women...

Books for $0.99 and up
The Metropolitan Police has removed from active duty the detective in charge of two collapsed rape trials that prompted Scotland Yard to urgently review about 30 sex cases due to go to trial.

Further cases at an earlier stage in the justice process will also be examined as the force looks at every one of its sex crime investigations where a suspect has been charged.

The trial of Liam Allan, 22, was halted at Croydon Crown Court last week while on Tuesday another prosecution collapsed against Isaac Itiary, who was facing trial at Inner London Crown Court accused of raping a child.

Met Police

The Met will review all live cases investigated by the Child Abuse and Sexual Offences command where we are in discussion with the CPS https://t.co/jo0PZXJ1BZ pic.twitter.com/nZzA27e2VY  Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) December 19, 2017

A spokesman for the Met said: It has been identified that the same officer was involved in the R v Allan and R v Itiary investigations.

However, no investigation is carried out by one officer alone and all investigations are supervised by line managers. While the Mets review is ongoing, as a precaution a decision has been taken at this time to remove the detective from active investigations.

The force is reviewing with the CPS all cases where someone has been charged and those cases are progressing towards trial.

Around 30 cases already set for trial are being prioritised but it is not yet known how many other cases will be affected.

The Met announced a major review of its live sex crime investigations after the CPS offered no evidence against Mr Itiary.

The importance of disclosure in the criminal justice system cannot be underestimated.  opening words of chief inspectors report in July https://t.co/ywZ5MWpAaR Er, yes it can. It cannot be overestimated and should not be underestimated. But thats exactly what has happened.  Joshua Rozenberg (@JoshuaRozenberg) December 20, 2017

He was charged in July this year but police only disclosed further relevant material in response to his defence case statement, submitted on December 15.

A CPS spokesman said: On December 17 2017, the police provided new material to the CPS, which had previously been requested, and this was reviewed.

Prosecutors decided that there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction.

Commander Richard Smith, who oversees Met rape investigations, said: I completely understand that this case may raise concerns about our compliance with disclosure legislation given the backdrop of the case of R v Allan last week.

The Met is completely committed to understanding what went wrong in the case of Mr Allan and is carrying out a joint review with the CPS, the findings of which will be published.

This is one of the most important Monday Messages written by any chair of the @TheCriminalBar - powerful & troubling message from Angela Rafferty QC on disclosure after #LiamAllan case https://t.co/qZK5YnAQ1F  Mary Aspinall-Miles (@MAMBarLife) December 18, 2017

Justice minister Dominic Raab told BBC Radio 5 Lives Emma Barnett it was absolutely right for the Met to carry out a review, adding: The basic principle of British justice is at stake.

Prime Minister Theresa Mays official spokesman said the attorney general last week ordered a review to look at disclosure processes  including codes of practice, guidelines and legislation relating to sexual offences and other types of crime  which is expected to report back in 2018.

Concerns have previously been raised at the most senior level of the criminal bar that disclosure failures and lack of resources will lead to miscarriages of justice.

Angela Rafferty QC, the chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, suggested unconscious bias stops the police and the CPS impartially and thoroughly investigating and scrutinising complaints in sexual offence cases.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick told the BBC that the use of evidence in other cases was being looked into to reassure the public.

She said: We wont be re-investigating all of those, but we we will be reviewing them to make sure that we have discharged our obligations in relation to disclosure  i.e. that everything that should have happened has indeed happened in relation to disclosure.

Attorney General Jeremy Wright, who is carrying out a review into disclosure, told BBC Radio 4s PM programme: We cant look at this solely as a resource issue.

What I think we need to do is understand that the type of evidence that is being used in criminal trials is changing.

Referring to the two collapsed cases, he added they were obviously appalling failures of the criminal justice system.
Britain and Europe face a major security threat from Africa within the next decade without international aid support, a minister has warned.

Rory Stewart, minister for Africa, said there was a possibility that terror groups on the continent could link up with wider groups such as al Qaida, whose Islamist ideology and jihad aims can be supercharged worldwide.

His comments came as the Government announced 30 million of aid to tackle an acute humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Mr Stewart said the crisis was on top of extreme underlying poverty in the central African country, where earlier this month rebels attacked a United Nations peacekeeping base.

Outraged by last nights heinous attack on UN peacekeepers in the DRC. Deliberate attacks on peacekeepers are a war crime; there must be no impunity.  Antonio Guterres (@antonioguterres) December 8, 2017

He told the Press Association: The attack in Beni in which 14 peacekeepers were killed and 45 injured was an Islamist group, so at the moment that is an Islamist group which is pretty poorly understood, which tends to seem to focus on terrorism on the DRC/Ugandan border.

But we know for sure that in the past many apparently indigenous groups like the Taliban have begun to connect themselves with external facing groups like al Qaida because their Islamist ideology and their vision of jihad can easily be supercharged into an international basis.

Mr Stewart warned that while that had not yet happened in Africa, there was a chance it could in the medium term.

By which I mean if you look at ADF in DRC, if you look at al-Shabab in Somalia, if you look at Boko Haram in north-east Nigeria, if you look at the Islamic State in Malia  at the moment these are not seen by the US or the UK as much as a fundamental threat as foreign fighters coming out of Syria or Iraq.

UN peacekeepers stand behind the coffins of Tanzanian peacekeepers killed by rebels during a memorial ceremony in Beni (Al-Hadji Kudra Maliro/AP)

But if you look forward five, 10 years, unless we create the preconditions for some basic security, some development, some employment, Africa is more and more likely to become one of the major security threats to Europe.

And even before you worry about terrorism, there will be a significant risk of migration because 18 million Africans enter the job market every year, and at the moment unemployment rates in many parts of Africa are at about 85% so most of those people dont get jobs.

The international development and Foreign Office minister said ensuring overdue elections take place in the DRC, parts of which were recently declared a level three emergency  the highest  by the UN, is absolutely vital to tackling the crisis.

He said: The reason why there are people displaced from their homes and being killed and starving is because partly there have not been elections, partly because the government of DRC doesnt control the country.

The Governments new package of support for the DRC  on top of 175 million of humanitarian funding already announced for the next five years  aims to address the urgent humanitarian needs.

UK provides urgent lifesaving aid to victims of escalating conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congohttps://t.co/NmuEBCAImi pic.twitter.com/TF3amN7vO8  DFID (@DFID_UK) October 20, 2017

The country has the highest number of internally displaced people in Africa, and in the first six months of this year it saw the greatest number of newly displaced people in the world.

Dfid (Department for International Development) hopes the 30 million, which will be distributed over the next three months, will reach an additional 300,000 victims of the DRC conflict, providing food, healthcare and clean water.
A 13-year-old girl who suffered life-changing injuries in an airstrike on Yemen has called for help to stop the war.

The youngster was left wheelchair-bound after a blast wave knocked her down and seriously damaged her spine.

Noran, which is not her real name, is calling for help from the international community 1,000 days after a Saudi-led coalition began its bombing campaign against rebels in Yemen.

I USED TO LOVE WRITING BUT NOW I CANT EVEN HOLD A PEN

13-year-old suffered life-changing injury. #Yemen #SavetheChildren pic.twitter.com/SH5U8eBefi  Save the Children International (@save_children) December 20, 2017

I call on all the free people around the world to stop the war in Yemen for me and for all the other children in Yemen, she said.

Its our right to learn, its our right to build a bright future. I dont want more children to be injured like me, it is not fair. I dont want them to be like me.

Yemens civil war has killed 10,000 people, displaced three million and pushed the country to the brink of famine.

Thousands of civilians have been left with life-changing injuries, like Noran, who said: I used to go to school on foot, my life was beautiful because I could walk and write.

Now, I cant walk to school. I can only go with the wheelchair. I used to be able to sit in a chair at my desk and write but now when I try to write, my hand hurts because of the injury in my back.

I used to love writing, but now I cant even hold a pen.

Noran called on free countries to 'stop the war' in Yemen

This week the UK Government announced a 50 million emergency aid package to help feed millions of Yemeni people.

But George Graham, from charity Save the Children, is calling on ministers to do more to help end the conflict.

He said: Norans articulate and poignant message must be heard by world leaders who have the power to enforce a ceasefire and negotiate a peace deal in Yemen.

This week, the British Government made a very welcome pledge for more aid funding for Yemen and to open access into the country, but humanitarian and commercial supplies are still being impeded, atrocities are continuing and the UK hasnt stopped selling weapons that fuel the fighting.

After 1,000 bitter days, now more than ever, the children of Yemen deserve concerted international action to end the violence and give them hope for a better future.

Yemen has been embroiled in a bloody civil war since 2014, while the Saudi-led coalition has been fighting the Iran-backed Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, since March 2015.

PRESS RELEASE: Children in Yemen bear the brunt of an endless war. https://t.co/M5A5rW3l7j #Yemen #Savethechildren  Save the Children International (@save_children) December 20, 2017

Despite a fierce air campaign against the Houthis, the rebels still largely control Yemeni capital Sanaa and much of the countrys north along the border with Saudi Arabia.

Tamer Kirolos, Save the Childrens Yemen country director, is urging the UN Security Council to act towards securing a ceasefire and a peace deal, as well as ending restrictions stopping aid and supplies.

In the face of all this suffering, the international communitys inaction or inability to end the suffering of Yemens children is shameful, he said.

We cannot allow the war in Yemen to continue for even one more day. If those in power, or those with the influence to end this war, do not bring about a peaceful solution to the conflict they will be complicit in condemning the children of Yemen to even more death and misery.
Ryanair is to be investigated by two powerful parliamentary committees following damning allegations over employee working conditions at the budget airline.

MPs Frank Field and Rachel Reeves, chairs of the Work and Pensions and Business select committees, have written to the airlines boss, Michael OLeary, to demand answers amid claims of staff being underpaid, having to fork out for their own uniforms and incurring fees when they leave.

Ms Reeves even accused the company of trying to wiggle out of paying the National Minimum Wage.

Ryanair is in the spotlight (PA)

Labour veteran Mr Field added: Sadly, it will not surprise me if the sorry picture painted here is true: a company that turned in 1.15 billion profit last year squeezing its workers.

People who work long, hard hours and have an important role in passenger safety, and yet apparently cannot count on receiving the National Minimum Wage  or even close to it.

Ryanair once tried to make its passengers pay to use the loo  now they even make their workers pay to quit. As well as foisting a host of other miserly  and potentially unlawful  requirements on them.

He said that the two committees will be investigating these allegations further.

The letter to Mr OLeary sets out in detail the allegations, which include staff having to pay 25 per month for their uniform in the first year of employment and stomaching a 175 administration cost, taken from their salaries, if they leave in the first 15 months.

Ms Reeves said: These allegations of hours of unpaid work, of charges for uniforms, of fees being incurred to leave, suggest a company falling well short of its duty to the staff who help their planes get off the ground and who spend the flight attending to and serving its paying customers.

Ryanair now need to provide answers on the fees and charges faced by cabin staff and set out how they ensure these staff are receiving the National Minimum Wage.

For its part, Ryanair earlier this week said it is to recognise cabin crew unions for the first time as part of a major shake-up in employee relations.

The decision, after years of trenchant opposition, follows threatened pre-Christmas strike action by Irish-based pilots, which was later called off.
By Elisabeth O'Leary

EDINBURGH, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Scottish businesses said on Monday that Britain's impending exit from the European Union was already making it hard to fill gaps in their workforces, citing a skills shortage, visa problems and a negative, uncertain image of the United Kingdom abroad.

In evidence given to a UK parliamentary committee, representatives of the food and drink, tourism, health and social care sectors pointed to difficulties recruiting and training staff to cope with demand for their services, particularly in Scotland's many rural communities.

They also expressed worries about the bureaucracy of a future migration system, which they said would hamper both small businesses and applicants. The decline in the pound against the euro was another factor as it diminished the value of earnings workers could send back to their families abroad.

"Our profound fear is that now we are already in the process of that (workforce) tap being turned off, where is that workforce going to come from?" said Dr Donald Macaskill, the chief executive of Scottish Care, which represents a sector supporting around 100,000 care-home care-at-home jobs.

He said six to eight percent of his nurses at care homes were from the European Economic Area.

As Britain approaches the second phase of Brexit negotiations, centring on trade, many companies have asked for clarity on what status EU workers living in the UK will have during an expected transition phase of two years.

Many Britons who voted for Brexit did so because they were unhappy about the flow of migrants into Britain, and one of the key issues for them is stopping the unlimited flow of EU citizens into Britain as a full EU member.

For business, however, recruiting staff is becoming more difficult.

"For us, Brexit isn't something that we are waiting to happen, it's something that is already starting ... we are hearing anecdotally in the last year that more and more individuals are working out that it is more profitable for them to work back in their own country," Macaskill said.

Most of those asked seemed not to agree, however, that Scotland's needs were unique, as the pro-independence Scottish government has argued. Instead, they said industries needed bespoke arrangements and a simple and flexible immigration system.

Shirley Rogers, direct of health workforce at the Scottish health service, said 5 to 6 percent of doctors, 4 percent of nurses in training and 2 percent of dentists in Scotland were from the EU.

She pointed out a 96 percent drop in the number of EU citizens recruited by the UK Royal College of Nursing this year, adding that where nurses train strongly influences where they then decide to work.

"It's about how welcome and attractive we are in a world where (professionals) can go to America, Canada, Australia or anywhere else," she said. "My anxiety is around the messaging that we are sending to people."

Data last month showed net migration to Britain fell by the largest amount on record in the 12 months after the Brexit vote .

"It is about flexibility and ... the ability to grow, and food and drink in Scotland has the ambition to grow turnover to 30 billion pounds by 2030 and we need people to do the work. Without people to fill 27,000 jobs in next 10 years, then we are going to struggle to meet that ambitious target," David Thomson, the chief executive of Food and Drink Federation Scotland, told the committee.

The food and drink sector employs 45,000 people in Scotland and is targetting turnover of 16.5 billion pounds this year. (Reporting by Elisabeth O'Leary, editing by Larry King)
By Maggie Fick

DADAAB REFUGEE CAMP, Kenya, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Somali refugees in Kenya are free to choose whether to go home, a top U.N. official said on Tuesday, despite many families saying debts accumulated to feed their children after cuts in rations are forcing them to return to a war zone.

In October, a funding crisis forced the U.N. World Food Programme to cut basic food rations and cash in Dadaab camp in northern Kenya, housing nearly 240,000 refugees, by 50 percent.

The United Nations said Dadaab suffered because it has been receiving Somalis for more than 25 years. Donors are focused on new conflicts like Syria and South Sudan that are fuelling the world's worst refugee crisis since World War Two.

"All the attention goes to new crises," U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi said as he visited visiting Dadaab on Tuesday. He told refugees that repatriation is their decision.

"At any stage in the process they can change their mind," he said. "We check and check and check."

But two families interviewed by Reuters on Tuesday said the food cuts forced them into debt to feed their children. To clear those debts, they volunteered to go back to Somalia in return for $150 per person - cash meant to help them begin a new life.

CUTS CREATE DEBTS

Mother-of-six Kahtra Nour Hassan has lived in Dadaab since fleeing her hometown of Kismayo in 2010 after being widowed twice by Somali gunmen. The 40-year-old will use part of the money from the U.N. Voluntary Repatriation Programme to pay debts of 40,000 Kenyan shillings ($400) to shopkeepers.

"There was not enough food," she said, her toddler Maksoud clinging to the bottom of her flowing yellow robe. "Many families (going back) have debts."

Another man chimed in, saying debts were also forcing him back to Somalia, about 90 km (50 miles) away from Dadaab.

On Sunday, the Washington Post published extensive interviews with families who said debts were driving them home.

Kodeck Makori, a senior Kenyan official dealing with refugees, disagrees. "Somalia is now fairly peaceful... We dont think its a war zone. If it was, why would they be going?"

Parts of Somalia, like Kismayo, have become more stable since regional administrations emerged in the last five years and African Union peacekeepers clawed back territory from Islamist al Shabaab insurgents.

But parts of southern and central Somalia remain under the sway of insurgents, who are also mounting larger and more deadly bomb attacks in the Somali capital. One bomb killed more than 500 people in Mogadishu in October.

The United Nations says more than 2,000 civilians have been killed in Somalia since 2016, mostly by al Shabaab. Drought has also ravaged the Horn of Africa nation, leaving more than half of the 12 million population dependent on aid.

KENYAN PRESSURE

The United Nations launched the repatriation programme in December 2014 under pressure from Kenyan authorities, who threatened to close the camp in 2016. Since the programme began, nearly 75,000 Somalis have left Dadaab, including 32,000 this year.

British charity Save the Children, which works in Dadaab, says it is difficult to track the number of returnees because they are not registered, so they cannot access food aid.

Yvonne Ndege, UNHCR's Kenya spokeswoman, said around 5,000 unregistered Somalis live in the camp, although Save the Children says the number is double that. The United Nations said 400 people repatriated through its programme returned this year.

More may come soon, London-based Amnesty International said in a report released Monday.

"Refugees who fled drought, conflict and hunger and Somalia were coerced into returning in the midst of a severe humanitarian crisis," the report said. "Many now find themselves back in the same hopeless situation they fled."

Many Dadaab residents are determined to stay.

Abdullah, a U.N. contractor, fears militants would target him because of his work. "Theyll slit my throat." ($1 = 103.0500 Kenyan shillings) (Editing by Katharine Houreld and Mark Heinrich)
By Harriet McLeod

Dec 19 (Reuters) - South Carolina's capital on Tuesday passed the first U.S. city-specific measure banning bump stocks, joining a movement to halt the use of the gun accessory that drew national scrutiny after it was found to part of a Las Vegas shooting rampage in October.

The Columbia City Council voted to approve a measure that bans the attachment of the devices to weapons in city limits. The measure does not ban possession of bump stocks, which can make semiautomatic rifles fire hundreds of rounds a minute like fully automatic machine guns.

Last month, Massachusetts became the first state to pass a law that explicitly bans bump stocks.

Steve Benjamin, the mayor of Columbia, said at the council meeting he hoped the measure would provide a framework for other cities looking to enact similar legislation.

"One of the common refrains that you hear, whether it was in Texas or Vegas or Sandy Hook, is that a good guy with a gun could have stopped the carnage," Benjamin, a Democrat, said in a phone interview on Monday. "It's time for the good guys with guns to begin to pass some really good policy."

Authorities said Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock had 12 rifles outfitted with bump stocks in the hotel room where he launched his attack on an outdoor concert, killing 58 people and wounding hundreds in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Since then several states and cities have proposed measures outlawing or restricting the attachments, and the U.S. Justice Department said earlier this month it was considering a ban on certain bump stocks.

California and New York do not prohibit bump stocks outright, but the devices fall under the definition of an automatic weapon, which are illegal in those states, according to Anne Teigen, who covers firearm legislation for the National Conference of State Legislatures. Some other states and the District of Columbia have assault weapons bans that could include bump stocks.

"We are not aware of any cities that have passed ordinances banning bump stocks," said Tom Martin, a spokesman for the National League of Cities.

The Columbia measure also would ban the use of other gun attachments that allow rifles to fire faster. Using such devices would be a misdemeanor, and owners would be required to keep them stored separately from any weapon.

Trigger-enhancing devices are not gun parts, gun components, weapons or ammunition, which state law prohibits cities from regulating, Benjamin said. (Reporting by Harriet McLeod in Charleston, South Carolina; Additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas; Editing by Leslie Adler and Cynthia Osterman)
By Leah Schnurr

OTTAWA, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Canada may ask the World Trade Organization to intervene in the dispute over a proposed 300 percent duty on U.S. sales of Bombardier's CSeries jets, but any resolution of the trade spat could still take years, experts said on Tuesday.

The U.S. Commerce Department is due this week to announce a final determination in the dispute between Boeing Co and Bombardier Inc, which faces the massive duty on sales of the fuel efficient, narrowbody CSeries on the U.S. market.

Boeing says the Canadian company benefited from government subsidies and dumped the planes at below cost. The proposed duties would not take effect unless affirmed by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) in February.

The case has heightened trade tensions between Canada and the United States at a time when the two countries, together with Mexico, have been struggling to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

U.S. President Donald Trump, known for his so-called America First strategy to boost U.S. manufacturing, has threatened to withdraw from NAFTA unless he can rework it in favor of the United States.

A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland did not immediately respond to questions about what Canada would do next in the Boeing dispute. But it scrapped plans to buy 18 Boeing fighter jets just last week, in a sign of escalating tensions.

Experts said a trade challenge under the WTO or NAFTA's arbitration system known as Chapter 19 are both good options for Canada, even as the United States seeks to eliminate the latter.

U.S. trade envoy Robert Lighthizer has also called the WTO dispute settlement "deficient."

"I would recommend Canada use all its options," said international trade strategist Peter Clark.

Canada's ambassador to the United States, David MacNaughton, made a compelling argument before the ITC on Monday when he said a finding of material harm to Boeing by Bombardier could represent a possible violation of WTO agreements, the experts said.

VARIOUS TOOLS

The WTO already opened a separate dispute settlement panel in September to rule on Brazil's complaint that Canada has hurt its commercial jet industry by subsidizing Bombardier's CSeries jets.

"If (the ITC) were to find injury, I think it would be hard at a WTO level to sustain that, because it doesn't look like the CSeries is really a competitor" to Boeing's aircraft, said Canadian and U.S. trade lawyer Mark Warner.

Given how quickly the Canadian government filed challenges in a separate trade dispute with the United States over softwood lumber, it would likely take the Bombardier case to the WTO shortly after any adverse ruling by the ITC, said Warner.

"My judgment of the Canadian government is they seem to have a very aggressive approach to both trade negotiations and trade dispute settlements," said Warner.

Canada opened challenges under both the WTO and NAFTA last month over a recent U.S. Commerce Department decision to impose duties on Canadian lumber exports.

The real purpose of a challenge at the WTO would likely be to gain some leverage in order to come to a negotiated settlement with the United States, said Ian Lee, professor of business at Carleton University.

"If we do go to the WTO, it's not to get finality and resolution, it's only to push the Americans back to the negotiating table," Lee said. "You use whatever tools are in your tool kit."

But trade challenges can drag on for years, which could pose a problem for Bombardier as it tries to find U.S. buyers for the CSeries.

"The real threat to Bombardier is are they going to be able to sign new contracts with people," said Warner. "That's the chilling effect the decision has on Bombardier." (Reporting by Leah Schnurr; Editing by Tom Brown)
LONDON, Dec 20 (Reuters) - British lawmakers who inflicted defeat on Prime Minister Theresa May last week in parliament over Brexit have signalled a possible compromise to avoid another row on Wednesday when legislation taking Britain out of the EU is debated.

The European Union (Withdrawal) Bill, which will repeal the 1972 legislation binding Britain to the EU and copy existing EU law into domestic law, has tested May's authority to deliver on her Brexit plan during several days of line-by-line debate.

Last week, 11 lawmakers from her Conservative Party rebelled against their leader, joining forces with the opposition to force through changes giving parliament greater guarantees of a meaningful vote on the final Brexit deal.

However, another row - this time over the government's desire to fix the planned date of Britain's departure into law - could be averted on Wednesday after rebels said they were prepared to agree to it if another proviso were inserted in the bill allowing that date to be changed if necessary.

Pro-EU Conservative Nicky Morgan, who voted against the government last week, said on Twitter she would back the plan when it comes to a vote. Some of the other rebels also publicly indicated their support.

DIVIDED PARLIAMENT

Last week's defeat underscored just one of the serious difficulties May faces in taking the country out of the EU.

As well as navigating a divided parliament without an overall majority, she has to please ministers who are deeply split over the country's long term relationship with Brussels and negotiate a deal from an EU which is keen to send a discouraging message to other potentially wayward states.

The initial move to define March 29 2019 in law as "exit day" was designed to ease pressure on the government from Brexiteers who fear slow negotiations and opposition to the divorce could cause delays.

The government has not confirmed it will accept the compromise plan - which represents a watering-down of its original intention - but has said it will consider its response and remains open to changes that will improve the legislation.

However, ministers have limited room to manoeuvre with over 40 Conservative lawmakers signed up to the proposal - more than enough to defeat May if opposition parties also back it.

"It would be foolhardy to make assumptions either about the votes of colleagues or about the decisions of government. But I am cautiously optimistic that the government will accept my amendments and that they will carry," said Oliver Letwin, the former minister responsible for brokering the compromise.

Wednesday's debate is the last in the current stage of the legislating process but the bill will receive further scrutiny in both chambers of parliament over the coming months before it is finally approved. (Reporting by William James; editing by Stephen Addison)
Dec 20 (Reuters) - Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Romanian financial markets on Wednesday.

JUDICIARY * Romanian lawmakers voted on Tuesday to enact judicial changes that critics say will undermine graft investigations by weakening the president's oversight.

The move brings the country, ranked as one of the bloc's most corrupt, in line with eastern European Union peers Hungary and Poland in defying EU concerns over the independence of judiciaries and the rule of law.

* The upper house of parliament, the Senate, is expected to hold session to discuss and approve remaining judicial overhaul bills.

BUDGET

Romania's parliament debates the 2018 budget bill.

CEE MARKETS

Hungary's 10-year government bond yield dropped to record lows on Tuesday on expectations the National Bank of Hungary (NBH) will announce more details of its new monetary stimulus schemes after its policy meeting.

For the long-term Romanian diary, click on

For emerging markets economic events, click on

For an index of all diaries, click on

For other related news, double click on: --------------------------------------------------------------- Romanian equities RO-E E.Europe equities .CEE Romanian money RO-M Romanian debt RO-D Eastern Europe EEU All emerging markets EMRG Hot stocks HOT Stock markets STX Market debt news DBT Forex news FRX For real-time index quotes, double click on: Bucharest BETI Warsaw WIG20 Budapest BUX Prague PX --------------------------------------------------------------- ($1 = 3.9297 lei)


For anyone planning to travel to this part of the world, here is a list of 10 places to visit in Southeast Asia, catered for all types of travellers.



This part of the world has been one of the must-visit destinations for many years, and this list highlights some of the best places for travellers.





The countries in Southeast Asia consist of Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar. These places are seeing a huge increase in tourism in recent years.



Am a Malaysianlly have travelled to many of these countries for work and leisure and have found each of these places to offer their own uniqueness and identity.



Therefore, I have decided to share some of these amazing places for anyone wanting to explore Southeast Asia.





10 Places to Visit in Southeast Asia



One of the Tri-Color Lakes at Mount Kelimutu, Flores.



1. Indonesia - Flores, East Nusa Tenggara.





Forget Bali and Lombok as Flores is one of the new Indonesian destinations that is raw and amazingly beautiful.



Imagine an island just developing for tourism; that is what travellers seek nowadays, versus over-commercialized destinations. Even getting to Flores is an exciting journey, imagine what else is there for you.









More information can be seen in Indonesia Tourism or read my previous article on Things To Do in Flores , highlighting some of the best places here.



The incredible Sky Walk at Ulu Temburong in Brunei.



2. Brunei - Ulu Temburong National Park Most people who have visited Floresaded to Komodo Island to see the majestic Komodo Dragons. But exploring further in Flores is a whole new world altogether.More information can be seen in Indonesia Tourism or read my previous article onsome of the best places here.









Located some two hours from Bandar Seri Begawan or BSB as the locals call it, the national park's journey is a unique adventure where you need to travel by boat, van, longboat, etc. trek. The Kingdom of Brunei offers Eco lovers one of the best national parks to explore, the Ulu Temburong National Park Located some two hours from Bandar Seri Begawan or BSB as the locals call it, the national park's journey is a unique adventure where you need to travel by boat, van, longboat, etc. trek.









Nature lovers, jungle trekkers, and bird watchers are the main clientele here. Explore the pristine rainforest, jungle treks, boat rides and an escape from modernization here.



View of the Bario Highlands in Sarawak.



3. Malaysia - Bario Highlands, Sarawak There is only one nature resort called Ulu Ulu Resort (www.uluuluresort.com) in the park and the main highlight is no other than the Ulu Temburong Canopy Walk, which stands at 50 meters tall and about 350 meters long.Nature lovers, jungle trekkers, and bird watchers are the main clientele here. Explore the pristine rainforest, jungle treks, boat rides and an escape from modernization here.





Forget Penang Island, Kuala Lumpur or any other commercial destination in Malaysia if you want to experience something truly original and different in Malaysia.



The Bario Highlands in Sarawak is my recommendation for places to visit in Malaysia and anytime you like.



The main reason is that this remote highland village located some 1000 meters high is home to the ethnic highland people of Sarawak Borneo.









The journey here is also another adventure where you have to fly a small turbo propeller plane to get here, and once here, you are back to basics.



Explore traditional highland longhouses, do jungle trekking, visit paddy fields, take long picturesque walks and mingle with the local highland people are your main itineraries here.



Bario is most definitely off Malaysia's beaten path and is highly recommended for pure travellers. You can also read about my



The vibrant colours of Haji Lane in Singapore. Photo by www.clxreese.wordpress.com.



4. Singapore - Haji Lane There are no modern developments like convenience stores, banks, hotels, pharmacies or anything seen in most places. Everything here is as it was from back in the day.The journey here is also another adventure where you have to fly a small turbo propeller plane to get here, and once here, you are back to basics.Explore traditional highland longhouses, do jungle trekking, visit paddy fields, take long picturesque walks and mingle with the local highland people are your main itineraries here.Bario is most definitely off Malaysia's beaten path and is highly recommended for pure travellers. You can also read about my journey to the Bario Highlands



This is probably the most interesting lifestyle and hipster place in Singapore. Younger generation travellers visit this place than any other popular tourist destination on the island, mainly to take photographs and chill out here.



This place is also one of the most Instagrammable places due to the vivid colours found along Haji Lane.



There are numerous hipster and lifestyle cafes, trendy boutique, and many opportunities to just chill out and relax while you are in Singapore.



Haji Lane is also located in Kampung Glam, which caters to a lot of younger generation social media travellers.



Ombak Sunset Sea Swings in Gili Trawangan.



5. Indonesia - Gili Trawangan Island This is probably the most interesting lifestyle and hipster place in Singapore. Younger generation travellers visit this place than any other popular tourist destination on the island, mainly to take photographs and chill out here.This place is also one of the most Instagrammable places due to the vivid colours found along Haji Lane.There are numerous hipster and lifestyle cafes, trendy boutique, and many opportunities to just chill out and relax while you are in Singapore.Haji Lane is also located in Kampung Glam, which caters to a lot of younger generation social media travellers.



If there is one island you should visit besides Bali, Gili Trawangan is the place to go. Known as a backpacker paradise once, the chain of islands east of Lombok is now a Millennial traveller's favourite place.









Yes, the Ombak Sunset sea swings are the original, with many other beach resorts following and creating their own sea swings.



Gili Trawangan is part of the Gili Islands with Gili Air and Gili Meno also being popular choices. On all three islands, there are no vehicles or motorbikes except for horse carriages and bicycle rentals.



You can now imagine how beautiful this island and to get here, you need to travel from Lombok via boat or ferry only. Find out



Koh Lipe's pristine beaches.



6. Thailand - Koh Lipe Island Social media is to blame as Gili Trawangan was one of the popular places where visitors came here to line up and take photos of the famous sea swings of Ombak Sunset.Yes, the Ombak Sunset sea swings are the original, with many other beach resorts following and creating their own sea swings.Gili Trawangan is part of the Gili Islands with Gili Air and Gili Meno also being popular choices. On all three islands, there are no vehicles or motorbikes except for horse carriages and bicycle rentals.You can now imagine how beautiful this island and to get here, you need to travel from Lombok via boat or ferry only. Find out what else you can do in Gili Trawangan from my earlier article.









The main reason behind this is because there are no vehicles allowed on the island, and everyone simply walks all around.



The island is part of the Tarutao National Park and is one of the perfect beach escapes. Other smaller island provides trekking, hiking, snorkelling and just exploring.



Ko Lipe is the main island where everyone stays, and Lipe Walking street is the island's star.



Koh Lipe is only accessible via boats from either Pak Barra town or Langkawi Island. There are many basic accommodations to luxury boutique resorts found all over the island.



In general, you can walk from one end to the other end in just 30 minutes. Learn



The incredible Bayon Temple in Siem Reap, Cambodia.



7. Cambodia - Bayon, Siem Reap With so many interesting places found all over Thailand, I am recommending Koh Lipe Island is a must-visit destination in Southern Thailand.The main reason behind this is because there are no vehicles allowed on the island, and everyone simply walks all around.The island is part of the Tarutao National Park and is one of the perfect beach escapes. Other smaller island provides trekking, hiking, snorkelling and just exploring.Ko Lipe is the main island where everyone stays, and Lipe Walking street is the island's star.Koh Lipe is only accessible via boats from either Pak Barra town or Langkawi Island. There are many basic accommodations to luxury boutique resorts found all over the island.In general, you can walk from one end to the other end in just 30 minutes. Learn how to go to Koh Lipe from my previous article.









Many who visit the majestic Angkor Wat, located just outside the city of Siem Reap, will know that this world-class tourist attraction is the epitome of temples.



But beyond Angkor lies the unique Bayon, the ultra-rich Khmer temple where extra-large heads of smiling faces dominate the temple grounds.



For those into temples, Buddhism and historical cultures, Bayon and its surroundings are definitely a must-visit.



And if you are a first-time traveller, Siem Reap is hands down one of the Southeast Asia places to visit in 2018.



The trick to visiting Siem Reap is by doing it on a weekday and try to avoid weekends as it can really get overcrowded with all kinds of tourist.



One of the beautiful temples in Luang Prabang, Laos. Photo by https://www.zicasso.com/.



8. Laos - Luang Prabang Well, Cambodia has always been on the radar of every traveller, it is Siem Reap that attracts the bulk of visitors.Many who visit the majestic Angkor Wat, located just outside the city of Siem Reap, will know that this world-class tourist attraction is the epitome of temples.But beyond Angkor lies the unique Bayon, the ultra-rich Khmer temple where extra-large heads of smiling faces dominate the temple grounds.For those into temples, Buddhism and historical cultures, Bayon and its surroundings are definitely a must-visit.And if you are a first-time traveller, Siem Reap is hands down one of the Southeast Asia places to visit in 2018.The trick to visiting Siem Reap is by doing it on a weekday and try to avoid weekends as it can really get overcrowded with all kinds of tourist.









Until this very day, things are still as they were with no modern development and if you love all things monks, almsgiving and traditional Lao culture, this is the place to visit in Laos for 2018. There is no doubt that Luang Prabang is the best place to visit in Laos as this UNESCO World Heritage Site has amazed the world since 2008.Until this very day, things are still as they were with no modern development and if you love all things monks, almsgiving and traditional Lao culture, this is the place to visit in Laos for 2018.









Just being around the main town area, you will have an amazing time exploring the many Buddhist temples and stupas.



A must-visit is the Luang Prabang Night Market where local Hmong people gather on a nightly basis selling unique traditional craft, fabrics, art, and silverware.



For culture hunters, Luang Prabang is one of those must-visit places, especially if you love non-commercialized tourism destinations.



Hanoi's amazing Old Quarter. Photo by http://www.vietnam-guide.com.



9. Vietnam - Hanoi Tourism in Luang Prabang caters to all walks of life and some of the tours are quite Eco-friendly where you visit traditional Lao villages, caves, river trips, and even elephant riding.Just being around the main town area, you will have an amazing time exploring the many Buddhist temples and stupas.A must-visit is the Luang Prabang Night Market where local Hmong people gather on a nightly basis selling unique traditional craft, fabrics, art, and silverware.For culture hunters, Luang Prabang is one of those must-visit places, especially if you love non-commercialized tourism destinations.





Most travellers would recommend Sa Pa, Hoi An, Danang, and Da Lat as places to visit, but this time around for 2018, I am recommending first-timers to Vietnam to visit Hanoi.



Over-rated? Perhaps, but for a first-timer, Hanoi, which is 1007 years old, holds a vibrant historical, traditional and culinary experience that will impress any traveller.



Explore off-the-beaten-path places, streets, lanes around Hanoi and savour some of the unique Vietnamese foods from local hawkers and restaurants.



Plus, the Hanoi Coffee is something that coffee aficionados or coffee travellers would love, especially tasting that world-famous Weasel Coffee in Hanoi.









A must-do for any traveller is to experience the Hanoi Beer Corner where you sit outside a corner shop on six-inch stools and drink beer.



Hanoi is pretty diverse with fashion and bags where they are sold mostly around the main city areas for shoppers.



And for something world-class, take an overnight trip to the world-famous Halong Bay.



Magnificent Bagan in Myanmar. Photo by https://asiatourist.co.



10. Myanmar - Bagan The Hanoi Old Quarter should not be missed as it is here that you can explore freely to see the traditional businesses and also experience Hanoi's old town area.A must-do for any traveller is to experience the Hanoi Beer Corner where you sit outside a corner shop on six-inch stools and drink beer.Hanoi is pretty diverse with fashion and bags where they are sold mostly around the main city areas for shoppers.And for something world-class, take an overnight trip to the world-famous Halong Bay.





Since opening up to tourism not too long ago, Myanmar has been on many travellers' wishlist and apart from the capital, Bagan is the place to visit in Myanmar due to the amazing scenic beauty that will mesmerize anyone who loves traditional cultures and landscapes.



When you see Myanmar's photos, most of the time, it is pictures of Bagan featured;; hence this is the best place to explore when you visit this part of Indochina.



This is one place that I am yet to visit, but I have put it down based on travellers' recommendations and also a schoolmate of mine who is currently working in Myanmar.



Hopefully, in 2018, I will find the opportunity to explore Myanmar or Burma.





The unique Manggarai people of Flores.



Conclusion



The above list of 10 places to visit in Southeast Asia was compiled purely by me. The opinions and recommendations are my own and not endorsed by anyone or any tourism board.



I have personally been to most of these places in my field of travel work and have experienced these places therefore, they are written based on a general approach towards all kinds of travellers.



To see more photos of my travels, you can also follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter under the name Malaysia Asia.



With social travel growing tremendously, more people are embracing these platforms to learn and share travel information. The above list of 10 places to visit in Southeast Asia was compiled purely by me. The opinions and recommendations are my own and not endorsed by anyone or any tourism board.I have personally been to most of these places in my field of travel work and have experienced these places therefore, they are written based on a general approach towards all kinds of travellers.To see more photos of my travels, you can also follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter under the name Malaysia Asia.With social travel growing tremendously, more people are embracing these platforms to learn and share travel information.





If you have any questions, feedback or comments, please leave them below, and I will get back to you.



Of all the places listed above, I have one last bucket list to visit Bagan in Myanmar to complete my 10 Places to Visit in Southeast Asia.
SOFIA, Dec 20 (Reuters) - These are some of the main stories in Bulgarian newspapers on Wednesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

-- About 55 percent of the Bulgarians expectd 2018 to be a better year and only 9 percent think it will be worse, a new survey by independent pollster Alpha research showed. (Capital Daily, 24 Chasa, Trud)

CAPITAL DAILY - Sofia Municipality will decide on Thursday whether to approve the offer of Lichtenstein-based fund Novito Opportunities to take over the majority stake of Municipal Bank for 46 million levs ($27.85 million).

24 CHASA - A Bulgarian court opened the trial for the bomb attack on a bus in the Black Sea city of Burgas that killed five Israeli tourists in 2012. ($1 = 1.6518 leva)
PARIS, Dec 20 (Reuters) - French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on Wednesday defended the cost of a recent overseas trip to New Caledonia and Japan, following criticism in the country's media of the expenses incurred and the use of a private plane.

The criticism followed similar rebukes this month of President Emmanuel Macron's 40th birthday celebrations in the grounds of a royal palace, which Macron's office sought to play down, saying the event had been paid for by Macron and his wife.

Philippe and the French delegation took a private plane to fly from Tokyo to Paris on their way back from an official trip to New Caledonia earlier this month at a cost of 350,000 euros ($414,225.00).

"I totally understand the surprise and the questions of the French people," Philippe told RTL radio.

"We knew there was no commercial flight (from Tokyo) at the time we needed to return, and we knew we had to return because the President was leaving on the Wednesday morning of our return for Algeria," he said.

"The rule is that, whenever possible, the Prime Minister or the President must be on the national territory... I take full responsibility for this decision," added Philippe.

President Emmanuel Macron put financial and ethical probity in public life at the heart of his presidential campaign and his new government passed a law earlier this year to tighten up on ethical standards in French politics.

However, some of Macron's political opponents have branded the former investment banker as a "president of the rich" due to policies such as the scrapping of a wealth tax and cutting housing benefit - moves which the president has framed as reforms to boost investment and social mobility.

($1 = 0.8450 euros) (Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
DUBLIN, Dec 20 (Reuters) - French telecoms group Iliad and its founder, tycoon Xavier Niel, are to buy a majority stake in Ireland's largest telecoms company, eir, the Irish firm said on Wednesday.

Under the deal Niel will own 32.9 percent of eir through his NJJ investment vehicle. Iliad, which is 52 percent owned by Niel, will own 31.6 percent of the Irish firm, the statement said.

Existing eir shareholders Anchorage Capital Group and Davidson Kepner will retain a combined 35.5 pct of eir.

The deal, which is due to complete in first half of 2018, implies an enterprise value of approximately 3.5 billion euros ($4.14 billion), the statement said.

Richard Moat, eir's chief executive, has announced his intention to step down upon completion of the transaction. ($1 = 0.8445 euros) (Reporting by Conor Humphries, editing by Louise Heavens)
BELGRADE, Dec 20 (Reuters) - In a joint sting, Serbian and Croatian police have detained 17 people suspected of smuggling dozens of migrants into the European Union, Serbia's Interior Ministry said on Wednesday.

Serbia was at the centre of the migrant crisis in 2015 and 2016 when hundreds of thousands of people fleeing wars and poverty in the Middle East and Asia journeyed up through the Balkans to reach the European Union.

That route was effectively closed last year, but a steady trickle of migrants, arriving mainly from Turkey via neighbouring Bulgaria, has continued. Many migrants use smugglers to reach the EU.

In a statement, the Interior Ministry said the group detained in Belgrade and four northern towns comprised 12 Serbians and one Afghan man. The police in neighbouring Croatia have detained four more suspects, it said.

"It is suspected that this criminal group facilitated the illegal crossing of the border and transit ... to a total of 82 migrants from Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq, from whom they took 1,500 euros ($1,800) per person," it said.

Official data show there are up to 4,500 migrants stranded in government-operated camps in Serbia. Rights activists say hundreds more are scattered in the capital Belgrade and towns along the Croatian border. ($1 = 0.8442 euros) (Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
By Jan Strupczewski and Robin Emmott

BRUSSELS, Dec 20 (Reuters) - The EU executive launched an unprecedented process on Wednesday to suspend Poland's voting rights in the European Union after two years of dispute over judicial reforms that Brussels says undermine Polish courts' independence.

The European Commission, the guardian of EU law, will now ask the other EU governments to declare that Poland's changes to the judiciary constitute "a clear risk of a serious breach" of EU values -- especially the rule of law.

However, it gave Warsaw, where a new prime minister took office only this month, three months to remedy the situation and said it could rescind its decision if it did so. Often referred to as the EU's "nuclear option", the move carries the ultimate threat of sanctions but is in fact unlikely to result in that.

"The Commission has today concluded that there is a clear risk of a serious breach of the rule of law in Poland," the Commission said in a statement.

"Judicial reforms in Poland mean that the country's judiciary is now under the political control of the ruling majority. In the absence of judicial independence, serious questions are raised about the effective application of EU law."

The Commission's deputy head, First Vice President Frans Timmermans, who has conducted talks with the Polish government dominated by Law and Justice Party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski for the past two years, said he was acting "with a heavy heart" but was obliged to take action to protect the Union as a whole.

"We are open for dialogue 24/7," Timmermans said, saying that if Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who took office just this month, were to change tack, he would be ready to respond.

But Timmermans insisted: "As guardians of the treaty, the Commission is under a strict responsibility to act ... If the application of the rule of law is left completely to the individual member states, then the whole of the EU will suffer."

"This decision has no merit. It is in our opinion a purely political decision," Beata Mazurek, a spokeswoman for Poland's ruling party, was quoted as saying by state news agency PAP.

Stung by Britain's vote last year to leave the Union, the EU institutions are battling a rise in eurosceptic nationalism across the continent and particularly in the former Communist east, where Poland's ally Hungary has also prompted previously the Commission to threaten sanctions over the rule of law.

"EXISTENTIAL IMPORTANCE"

Seeking to counter Warsaw's accusations of an anti-Polish bias in Brussels and in his own behaviour, Timmermans, who once worked in the Soviet bloc as a Dutch diplomat, praised Poland's historic contribution to overcoming the Cold War divide of Europe but said Warsaw now bore a special responsibility to prevent new rifts opening up over democratic principles.

"I want to stand by the Polish people in this time which is very difficult for them, and for us," he said, adding that the defending a separation of powers was of "existential importance not just for the Polish nation but for the EU as a whole".

The next step in the process is that EU governments, meeting in the Council of the European Union, will hear Poland out and ask it to address their concerns.

But if 22 out of the EU's 28 countries and the European Parliament are not satisfied in the end, the process will move on to the next stages, which may mean sanctions.

The sanctions can involve the suspension of "the rights deriving from the application of the Treaties to the Member State in question, including the voting rights".

This formulation leaves open the possibility also of suspending EU financial transfers to Poland, now the biggest beneficiary of European funds aimed at boosting living standards in the former communist country.

Sanctions can be imposed with the backing of a majority of countries representing a majority of the EU's citizens. But to get to that stage, EU governments have first to unanimously agree that what was initially just a risk of a serious breach of the rule of law has now become a reality.

This is unlikely to happen, because Hungary has already declared that it would not support such a motion against Poland.

But the mere threat of it underlines the sharp deterioration in ties between Warsaw and Brussels since the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party won power in late 2015.

The Commission and Council of Europe legal experts, known as the Venice Commission, say Poland's judicial reforms undermine judges' independence because they give the ruling party control over the sacking and the appointments of judges, as well as the option to end the terms of some Supreme Court judges early.

The Council of Europe, Europe's human rights watchdog, has compared such measures to those of the Soviet system.

The PiS government rejects these accusations, saying the changes are needed because courts are slow, inefficient and steeped in a communist era-mentality. Polish President Andrzej Duda has until Jan. 5 to sign them into law. (Additional reporting by Marcin Goclowski in Warsaw and Alastair Macdonald in Brussels; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)
BUDAPEST, Dec 20 (Reuters) - The launch of the European Commission's action against Poland over judicial reforms violates Poland's sovereignty and Hungary will veto it, Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen said on Wednesday.

Semjen told national news agency MTI that it was unacceptable that Brussels was exerting pressure on a sovereign member state.

"The Polish-Hungarian friendship and the Hungarian government's commitment to treaties obliges us to step up against the Commission's step in all forums," Semjen was quoted as saying. When asked if this could mean that Hungary would veto the proposed action against Poland, he said yes, MTI reported. (Reporting by Krisztina Than and Gergely Szakacs)
By Ahmed Aboulenein and Raya Jalabi

BAGHDAD/ERBIL, Iraq, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Opposition groups quit the government of Iraq's Kurdish region on Wednesday in protest at violent unrest in which at least three people were killed, with one group saying authorities had shown a flagrant disregard for life.

In another test for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, the United States meanwhile called on authorities in the semi-autonomous region to respect press freedoms after it shut down a local broadcaster.

The United Nations called for restraint on all sides.

Tension has been high in the region since the central government in Baghdad imposed tough measures in response to an independence referendum on Sept. 25 called by the KRG in which Kurds voted overwhelmingly to secede.

The move, in defiance of Baghdad, also alarmed neighbouring Turkey and Iran who have their own Kurdish minorities.

Strains spilled onto the streets on Monday and Tuesday when Kurds joined protests against years of austerity and unpaid public sector salaries, with some burning down offices belonging to political parties.

At least three people were killed and more than 80 wounded on Tuesday in clashes with Kurdish security forces in Sulaimaniya, local officials said. Some were injured when the crowd was shot at with rubber bullets and sprayed with tear gas.

On Wednesday leading opposition movement Gorran withdrew its ministers from the KRG and Kurdistan Parliament Speaker Yousif Mohamed, a party member, resigned in response to the violence.

Some have demanded the regional government's ousting.

"We urge the international community to confront the flagrant disregard for life, liberty and democracy shown by the authorities in #Kurdistan Region," Gorran said in a tweet.

The Kurdistan Islamic Group (Komal), another opposition party with a smaller presence in parliament, also withdrew from the government.

The U.S. embassy in Baghdad said on Wednesday it was worried about the closure of a local Kurdish broadcaster at the hands of Iraqi Kurdish security forces a day earlier.

"We are concerned by recent actions to curb the operations of some media outlets through force or intimidation, specifically yesterday's raid by Kurdistan Regional Government security forces of the NRT offices in Sulaimaniya," an embassy statement said.

TEAR GAS, BURNINGS, CURFEWS

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) also said Kurdish authorities should respect media freedoms and that it was "deeply concerned" about violence and clashes during the protests. It called for restraint on all sides.

"The people have the right to partake in peaceful demonstrations, and the authorities have the responsibility of protecting their citizens, including peaceful protesters," UNAMI said in a statement.

Kurdish Asayish security forces on Tuesday raided the offices of Kurdish private broadcaster NRT in Sulaimaniya province, and took the channel off the air.

NRT's founder and opposition figure Shaswar Abdulwahid was also arrested at the Sulaimaniya airport on Tuesday. His family have asked for his release, amid local media reports that another NRT journalist was arrested in Sulaimaniya on Wednesday.

In a statement on Tuesday, Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, who is on an official visit to Germany, told protesters that although he understood their frustrations, the burning of political party offices is "not helpful".

There were no major protests in the city on Wednesday.

Security forces from the region's capital Erbil have been deployed to help quell the unrest in Sulaimaniya, security sources told Reuters.

After Tuesday's unrest, curfews were imposed in several towns across the wider Sulaimaniya province, some have lasted through Wednesday. Local media reported smaller protests in towns across the province, including Ranya and Kifri. (Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein in Baghdad and Raya Jalabi in Erbil; Editing by William Maclean)
By Rodrigo Viga Gaier and Leonardo Goy

RIO DE JANEIRO/BRASILIA, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Brazilian telecoms company Oi SA is up for sale after it emerged from Latin America's largest-ever bankruptcy protection process, Chief Executive Eurico Teles said on Wednesday.

Teles said the company was ready to receive international investors and had received an offer of support from China Development Bank.

Many international investors, such as China Telecom Corp Ltd and China Mobile Ltd, offered a capital injection as the company struggled for a year and a half to restructure some 65.4 billion reais ($20 billion) in debt.

While rivals from Telefonica Brasil SA to America Movil SAB have cried foul at the prospect of competing with a Chinese state firm, fresh capital is seen as crucial to making Brazil's largest fixed-line carrier competitive.

"The company is ready for anyone that wants to buy it," Teles said in Rio de Janeiro.

"At the moment, there are no negotiations in progress. We received some international investors without reaching a conclusion. The China Development Bank is willing to provide resources to the company. We already received China Telecom, but there's been no firm proposal."

At around 3 a.m. local time, after a 15-hour meeting, creditors in Oi agreed to a final restructuring plan for the company, that will inject some 4 billion reais of new capital and put its current bondholders in the driver's seat.

Under the plan, creditors such as distressed asset specialists Aurelius Capital Management and Goldentree Asset Management can swap debt for up to 75 percent of the carrier's stock.

According to court documents, new capital will be used to expand high-speed broadband and fourth-generation cell networks, among other technologies in which Oi has fallen behind recently.

While the plan has broad support among creditors, Brazilian telecoms regulator Anatel, which holds 14 billion reais in Oi debt through regulatory fines, voted against the deal, and will challenge the debt restructuring plan in court. It will not, however, use its regulatory power to block new ownership, the head of the agency, Juarez Quadros, said on Wednesday.

Also hanging over the company are a slew of lawsuits and formal complaints by investment fund Societe Mondiale, a shareholder that controlled Oi's board through alliances.

Representatives of Societe Mondiale, owned by distressed debt tycoon Nelson Tanure, have peppered courts with motions in recent days, alleging illegal decisions by the bankruptcy judge overseeing the process.

($1 = 3.29 reais) (Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier in Rio de Janeiro and Leonardo Goy in Brasilia; Writing and additional reporting by Gram Slattery in Sao Paulo; Editing by Brad Haynes and Susan Thomas)
By Fiston Mahamba

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Congo and Uganda are planning a joint military operation against a Congo-based Ugandan rebel group blamed for an attack that killed 15 United Nations peacekeepers, army officials from the two countries said on Wednesday.

Fighters from the Allied Democratic Forces are suspected of being behind the Dec. 8 assault on a base manned by Tanzanian U.N. troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo's troubled eastern borderlands.

The attack, which also killed five Congolese soldiers and wounded another 53 peacekeepers, and came amid a rising wave of violence in the mineral-rich area.

"The commanders of the ADF are Ugandan citizens. A mechanism will be outlined so the two armies can share intelligence and carry out a coordinated operation," said General Marcel Mbangu Mashita, a senior Congolese army commander in the east.

Representatives from the two armies met in the Congolese border town of Kasindi last week.

Under the plan, Ugandan troops will not cross over into Congolese territory but instead be concentrated along the border.

"(The Ugandan army) is reinforcing security on the common border with Congo in order to dissuade any attempt by the ADF to cross over and attack targets of interest in Uganda," Ugandan army spokesman Brigadier Richard Karemire said.

Congo's U.N. peacekeeping mission, MONUSCO, has pledged to track down those responsible for the attack on its base. But it was not involved in the bilateral talks between the Congolese and Ugandan officials.

Rival militia groups control parts of eastern Congo, long after the official end of a 1998-2003 war in which millions of people died, mostly from hunger and disease.

Congo and Uganda were enemies during that conflict and, in the years since, relations between the two countries have at times been strained.

Increased militia violence this year in the centre and east comes as Congo faces a political crisis linked to President Joseph Kabila's refusal to step down when his mandate expired last December.

The ADF is an Islamist group that has long been active along the border and has been blamed for a wave of massacres there over the past two years.

Since its leader Jamil Mukulu was arrested in 2015, it has been headed by Musa Baluku.

General Mashita said previous Congolese operations had succeeded in eliminating around a third of the ADF's top commanders, but added that its ranks had been bolstered by escaped prisoners after a major prison break in June. (Writing by Joe Bavier; editing by Andrew Roche)
BRASILIA, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Brazil's third-biggest airline, Azul Linhas Aereas, signed an agreement on Wednesday to create a private integrated logistics company to transport cargo in a joint venture with the state-owned Brazilian postal service Correios.

Azul said in a securities filing that it will have a controlling 50.01 percent ownership stake. The new company is expected to start operating in the first half of 2018 and will handle 100,000 tonnes of cargo per year, Azul said.

The president of Correios, Guilherme Campos, said the venture could cut the cost of postal transport by between 35 and 40 percent from 560 million reais a year ($170 million) at present.

Campos said the company could eventually expand abroad.

($1 = 3.2972 reais) (Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Tom Brown)
Ten more statesFlorida, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia have some work to do on their plans to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act , according to the U.S. Department of Education.

The most noteworthy letter is probably Floridas . The Sunshine State was initially going to request a waiver from the Every Student Succeeds Acts requirements to identify schools with significant achievement gaps between student subgroups; include English-language learners proficiency scores in the states accountability system; and provide some students the state assessment in their native language. Instead, the state wound up incorporating what would have been in its waiver request in its ESSA plan, to the chagrin of civil rights advocates .

And, judging from the feedback letter, it looks like the department thinks a lot of what Florida wants to do runs afoul of ESSA. Florida needs to include English-language proficiency in its accountability determinations, as ESSA requires, the feds say. The department also told Florida in bureaucratic-speak that it doesnt have a choice, it must come up with a defintion of at least the second most-common language in the state, other than English. That could be a precursor to asking Florida to make every effort to create assessments in that language, as required by ESSAs assessment regulations . And it said Florida cant combine different groups of students for accountability purposes. (This paragraph has been clarified from an earlier version, see below.)

In a nutshell, the feedback letter demands changes to Floridas accountability plan that the state has been clear it doesnt want to make. And that could put DeVos in a potentially tough spot. As secretary, shes visited Florida more than any other state, which would seem to suggest her high regard for the states education stance, particularly on issues like school choice and accountability. And shes hired a number of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bushs staffers, or people associated with him.

So what problems did the department find in the rest of this latest round of states? Heres a quick look at several states.

Click on the states name for a link to the feds letter.

Iowa : The Hawkeye State got hit for its use of so-called scale scores, which convert student grades to a comparable scale, say of 1 to 100. Other states, including Connecticut, got similar feedback in the first round, but ended up being able to use scale scores with minimal changes to their plans. Iowa is also allowing low-performing schools that make significant progress to no longer be considered in need of serious supports, even if those schools are still in the bottom 5 percent of performers in the state. Iowa also needs to spell out how it makes sure disadvantaged students have access to their fair share of effective teachers.

Minnesota : The department wants the North Star State to better explain how it will decide when a school has made enough progress to move from the lowest rung of the accountability ladder, called comprehensive support, to the next lowest, called targeted support. And Minnesota needs to spell out how it will make sure that disadvantaged students have access to their fair of effective teachers, the letter says.

Mississippi : Mississippi needs to explain exactly how much English-language proficiency figures into a schools overall grade under its accountability system, the department said. And the state needs to spell out what it means for a school to have subgroups of students that are consistently underperforming compared to their peers. It is also unclear how Mississippi plans to come up with more rigorous interventions for schools that fail to improve after several years of a turnaround plan.

Missouri : ESSA requires states to set goals for improvement in graduation rates that narrow the gap between students in special education, English-language learners, and their more advantaged peers. But Missouris graduation rate goal for students in special education doesnt actually close gaps, the department found. And Missouri needs to make some changes to the way it identifies low-performing schools and those with big achievement gaps. The state also needs to spell out how it will make sure disadvantaged students have access to their fair share of effective teachers.

New York : The Empire State is planning to adjust its student achievement, graduation, and English-language proficiency goals every five years. This is OK with the feds, but they remind New York that it will have to officially submit an amendment to its plan each time it wants to rethink its goals. The department also has concerns about how New Yorks plan to set an n-size of 40 for test participation could impact identification of low-performing schools. The state also needs to be more specific about how English-language proficiency will factor into school ratings. The state also must make changes to its methodology and timelines for identifying low-performing schools.

Ohio : The department flagged a number of issues in Ohios accountability system and its process for identifying low-performing schools. For instance, it is unclear that the state is considering English-language proficiency as a separate indicator as ESSA requires, since Ohio has incorporated it into a broader measure on closing achievement gaps. The state also needs to better explain how the gap-closing indicator fits into its overall system. And it needs to ensure that its timelines for flagging struggling schools comply with the law

Virginia : The department gave Virginia a long list of things to work on in: its n-size, its school quality indicators, its goals, its academic achievement indicator, and its plans for deciding when a school is no longer struggling and in need of extra supports. Virginia also needs to explain how much weight it is giving to each indicator in its accountability system, the letter says. And Virginia wants to exempt low-performing schools that reduce failure rates on academic achievement by at least 10 percent from being considered low-performing. (Thats similar to safe harbor under the No Child Left Behind Act.) But that doesnt comply with ESSA, according to the feds. And Virginia needs to spell out how it will make sure that disadvantaged students have access to their fair of effective teachers.

Washington : The state needs to do a better job of explaining how it will calculate dual credit, which is part of its indicator of school quality and student success. And it needs to provide more details of how English-language proficiency will figure into its system. The state also needs to make sure it is flagging schools where a single subgroups poor performance is so bad that the school needs to come up with a plan to fix it.

West Virginia: West Virginia needs to better explain how much weight it is giving to different indicators in its accountability system, the feds say. Its also unclear that the state is holding its schools accountable for English-language proficiency, an ESSA requirement. West Virginia also wants to use local tests as its second academic indicator for elementary and middle schools, which the department argues isnt kosher under ESSA.

Do states need to take the departments suggestions in order to win approval for their ESSA plans? Thats unclear. Some states in the first round of plan submissioins States didnt make major changes the department asked for and still got the federal stamp of approval. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., an ESSA architect has accused DeVos of approving plans that go outside the bounds of the law.

For those keeping score at home: So far, 10 other states that turned in plans this fall--Alabama , Alaska , Georgia , Kansas , Maryland , Montana , North Carolina , South Dakota , Utah , and Wyoming have received feedback from the feds. Puerto Rico has also gotten a response on its plan. (Check out our summaries of their feedback here and here .)

Plus, 15 states and the District of Columbia, all of which submitted plans in the spring, have gotten the all-clear from U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. Colorado, which asked for extra time on its application, is the only spring state still waiting for approval.

Want more analysis of ESSA plans? Edweek has you covered here .

Clarification: This post has been updated to better reflect the departments comments to Florida on tests in languages other than English.

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .
By Anastasia Moloney

BOGOTA, Dec 20 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - More than 100 human rights defenders were killed, many gunned down by hit men, in Colombia this year, the United Nations said on Wednesday, urging more accountability and better protections.

Activists have been particularly at risk in regions that were vacated by rebel fighters under a peace agreement signed last year, leaving a vacuum of power, the U.N.'s human rights office in Colombia said in a statement.

The peace accord signed by the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) ended a civil war that had lasted a half century.

More than half of the 105 rights activists and community leaders killed this year were gunned down by hit men, the U.N. said.

By comparison, in 2016, 127 rights defenders and community leaders were killed, up from 59 in 2015 and 45 in 2014, according to U.N. figures.

"The Office notes with deep concern the persistence of cases of killings of human rights defenders in the country," the U.N. human rights office said.

"Cases of killings of male and female leaders and (rights) defenders have occurred in areas from which the FARC has left, and which has created a vacuum of power by the state."

One victim was community leader Luz Jenny Montano, 48, who last month was shot by men riding on motorbikes near her home in the town of Tumaco along Colombia's Pacific coast.

Local groups say community leaders who speak out against rights abuses and activists campaigning for land rights are targeted by organised crime groups who see the activism as a threat to their economic interests.

"The Office has reiterated that the prevention of attacks and aggressions against human rights defenders involves investigation, prosecution and punishment of those responsible," the U.N. human rights office said.

The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) has also sounded an alarm about the dangers faced by Colombia's rights defenders.

Last month the UNHCR said it was "more and more worried" about the rise in killings and threats against rights activists along Colombia's Pacific coast.

Most victims belong to Afro-Colombian and indigenous groups, it said.

Earlier this week, Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas said authorities are working to bring those responsible to justice.

Across the Americas, rights activists are being increasingly targeted, the U.N. has said.

Last year, three out of four recorded murders of human rights defenders worldwide took place in the Americas, it said.

(Reporting by Anastasia Moloney @anastasiabogota, Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst. 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)
A 12-member delegation was scheduled to visit Russia on December 24 to discuss the quality of asbestos imported to Sri Lanka from Russia, Sri Lankan Ambassador to Russia Dr. Saman Weerasinghe said today.

The asbestos imported to Sri Lanka is used by the Russians as well. Their opinion is that there was no health issues associated with their products, he said.

The ambassador said the team would visit the asbestos factories in Russia and test the quality of the asbestos produced there.

The Russian authorities are ready to give documentary proof to the Sri Lankan experts on the quality of their asbestos products, he said.
DPA, 19th DECEMBER, 2017 - Bangladesh and Myanmar have formed a panel of officials to jointly oversee the repatriation of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who fled to Bangladesh in recent months, officials said on Tuesday.



The formation of the Joint Working Group marks a step towards ensuring the return of the Rohingya to their homes, Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali told reporters in Dhaka.

We hope the repatriation process will begin soon, he added.



An estimated 655,000 Rohingya refugees crossed into the neighbouring country from Buddhist-majority Myanmar after the army launched an offensive against suspected Muslim insurgents.
Malaysian Prime Minister Dato Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak ceremoniously launching the Dialog Axiata Digital Innovation Fund while (R-L) Dato Sri Mustapa Mohamad, Minister of International Trade and Industry of Malaysia, Tan Sri Jamaludin Ibrahim, President and Group CEO of Axiata, Supun Weerasinghe, Group Chief Executive, Dialog Axiata PLC, Harin Fernando MP, Minister of Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure, Rajan Anandan, General Partner, BOV Capital and Prajeeth Balasubramaniam, General Partner, BOV Capital look on

Dialog Axiata PLC, Sri Lankas premier connectivity provider, announced the launch of the Digital Innovation Fund (DIF), in the presence of Malaysian Prime Minister Dato Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak to signify the Malaysian investment in setting up the countrys first digital venture capital fund to exclusively focus on financially supporting Sri Lankan digital startups.

The launch was witnessed by Malaysias International Trade and Industry Minister Dato Sri Mustapa Mohamad, Sri Lankas Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure Minister Harin Fernando, Axiata Group President and CEO Tan Sri Jamaludin Ibrahim and Dialog Axiata PLC Group CEO Supun Weerasinghe.



The Digital Innovation Fund, initiated and anchored by Dialog, will be managed by BOV Capital a fund management firm that specializes in investing in technology companies.



The Digital Innovation Fund will invest in startups that have strong business models, have proven product market fit, demonstrated some ability to expand in Sri Lanka and have the potential to become market shaping digital businesses in the country and beyond.



The fund aims to deploy a corpus of Rs.2.3 billion into high potential Sri Lankan startups, and will invest most of the fund into early stage companies with each investment ranging between Rs.50 million to Rs.200 million per company.



The fund will also set aside 20 percent of its total amount to invest in startups in their seed stage, especially those which are looking for investments below Rs.40 million per company.



In addition to financing, the fund will provide support for start-ups and businesses through mentoring, knowledge sharing and business development.



Potential investees will also gain insight to marketing, and other critical business processes leveraging strengths of the Smart Axiata Digital Innovation Fund, a similar venture capital fund that was set up to support incubation programmes in Cambodia. This will further help create and realize value that remains untapped.



Commenting on the occasion, Dialog Axiata PLC Group CEO Supun Weerasinghe said, As an organization that has been in the forefront of innovation in the countrys telecommunications industry, we are very happy to initiate this venture capital fund to support companies currently established or emerging in the field of digital-based services. Small, medium and large scale digital based service providers will be the focus of the Digital Innovation Fund, and we will be selecting potential candidates through a systematic evaluation process. Our ultimate goal is to develop the digital service ecosystem in Sri Lanka, and further enrich the lifestyle of people through digital services. The fund will be managed by BOV Capital, a fund management firm that has extensive experience in investing and building technology focused companies. The founders of BOV Capital have been instrumental in developing the Sri Lankan entrepreneurial ecosystem over the past seven years.



Commenting on the occasion, general partners of Dialog Axiata Digital Innovation Fund, Rajan Anandan and Prajeeth Balasubramaniam said, The Digital Innovation Fund will provide the much needed risk capital and business building support to Sri Lankas digital startups. Our first fund BOV Capital 1 focused on B2B tech startups keen on expanding regionally, and DADIF will now look at digital ventures that are focusing on the domestic market. We are very excited about the partnership with Dialog Axiata.



The Dialog Axiata Digital Innovation Fund is one of the many avenues created by Dialog Axiata to enable aspiring entrepreneurs and promising businesses to grow. Other initiatives include Ideamart and IdeaBiz platforms which supports over 8000 entrepreneurs, and I Say You Do, a service creation environment where services can be constructed across three domains, namely, telecommunication, internet and connected devices.



Dialogs partnerships with incubator hubs and awareness programmes will collectively contribute towards the holistic vision to accelerate digital start-ups and innovation opportunities for Sri Lankan tech entrepreneurs.
REUTERS, 19th DECEMBER, 2017- France and the United States are determined to vigorously raise pressure on Iran over its ballistic missile programme, including possibly through sanctions, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said during a visit to Washington.



Le Drian was in the American capital on Monday to meet U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster and U.S. President Donald Trumps special adviser Jared Kushner.



Tensions between Iran and France have risen in recent months with both sides repeatedly trading barbs in public, including le Drian accusing Iran of hegemonic temptations in the region.
The unity government is attempting to suppress its political opponents at the upcoming Local Government elections by creating a Police State, MP Namal Rajapaksa said today.

He said this after arriving at the Organised Crimes Prevention Division to record a statement over an alleged incident of insulting an FCID officer.

The FCID officer had reportedly lodged a complaint against MP Rajapaksa on the charges of being fat-shamed by him.

However, Mr. Rajapaksa said according to Minister John Amaratunga, the government beefed up its security with arms and police protection in preparation for the upcoming election.

I was informed by the media that the driver of Minister Sajith Premadasa was arrested for possessing arms. However, he had been released on bail. I would like to know on what condition the suspect was bailed as possessing arms is a grave offence, he said.

On a different note, Mr. Rajapaksa said the governments foreign policy depended on an insect.

The government has messed up its foreign policy. President Maithripala Sirisena boasted about banning Asbestos as they were cancerous. Recently, a beetle was found in a consignment of tea shipped to Russia and it resulted in Russia banning Ceylon tea. Against this backdrop, the President is attempting to lift the ban on Asbestos, he said. (Thilanka Kanakarathna)

Video by RM
An electorate level Bala Mandala meeting of the Green party was held at the partys Maha Gedara the other day. The meeting had been summoned by the doctor looking after the electorate where the Maha Gedara too was situated.



A number of party bigwigs had attended this meeting which saw a large gathering of party activists as well.



The meeting was already underway when a party high-up who recently lost his seat at the top table walked in. The late comer gave a bit of a jolt to the doctor who organized the meeting as he had come uninvited. The doctor got further disconcerted when he learnt that that the man had come prepared to deliver a talk as well. So he decided to nip it in the bud.



Walking up to the lectern, the doctor addressed the gathering, Now you are to listen to the last but the most important speaker for the day, Our much respected leader



The message conveyed went truly home for the disappointment was clearly writ on the faces of several bigwigs including that of the latecomer.



Later referring to the former purohitas disappointment the doctor had told a colleague: The man got the same treatment at Kolonnawa too, but he is yet to learn a lesson!
REUTERS: China is lavishing vast amounts of aid on a small Pakistani fishing town to win over locals and build a commercial deep-water port that the United States and India suspect may also one day serve the Chinese navy.



Beijing has built a school, sent doctors and pledged about US $ 500 million in grants for an airport, hospital, college and badly-needed water infrastructure for Gwadar, a dusty town whose harbour juts out into the Arabian Sea, overlooking some of the worlds busiest oil and gas shipping lanes.



The grants include US $ 230 million for a new international airport, one of the largest such disbursements China has made abroad, according to researchers and Pakistani officials.



The handouts for the Gwadar project are a departure from Beijings usual approach in other countries. China has traditionally derided Western-style aid in favour of infrastructure projects for which it normally provides loans through Chinese state-owned commercial and development banks.



The concentration of grants is quite striking, said Andrew Small, an author of a book on China-Pakistan relations and a Washington-based researcher at the German Marshall Fund think tank.

China largely doesnt do aid or grants, and when it has done them, they have tended to be modest.

Pakistan has welcomed the aid with open hands. However, Beijings unusual largesse has also fuelled suspicions in the United States and India that Gwadar is part of Chinas future geostrategic plans to challenge U.S. naval dominance.



It all suggests that Gwadar, for a lot of people in China, is not just a commercial proposition over the longer term, Small said.



The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.



Beijing and Islamabad see Gwadar as the future jewel in the crown of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship of Beijings Belt and Road initiative to build a new Silk Road of land and maritime trade routes across more than 60 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa.



The plan is to turn Gwadar into a trans-shipment hub and megaport to be built alongside special economic zones from which export-focused industries will ship goods worldwide. A web of energy pipelines, roads and rail links will connect Gwadar to Chinas western regions.



Port trade is expected to grow from 1.2 million tonnes in 2018 to about 13 million tonnes by 2022, Pakistani officials say. At the harbour, three new cranes have been installed and dredging will next year deepen the port depth to 20 metres at five berths.



But the challenges are stark. Gwadar has no access to drinking water, power blackouts are common and separatist insurgents threaten attacks against Chinese projects in Gwadar and the rest of Baluchistan, a mineral-rich province that is still Pakistans poorest region.



Security is tight, with Chinese and other foreign visitors driven around in convoys of soldiers and armed police.



Beijing is also trying to overcome the distrust of outsiders evident in Baluchistan, where indigenous Baloch fear an influx of other ethnic groups and foreigners. Many residents say the pace of change is too slow.



Local people are not completely satisfied, said Essar Nori, a lawmaker for Gwadar, adding that the separatists were tapping into that dissatisfaction.



Pakistani officials are urging Gwadar residents to be patient, vowing to urgently build desalination plants and power stations.



Cautionary tale

Chinas Gwadar project contrasts with similar efforts in Sri Lanka, where the village of Hambantota was transformed into a port complex - but was saddled with Chinese debt.



Last week, Sri Lanka formally handed over operations to China on a 99-year lease in exchange for lighter debt repayments, a move that sparked street protests over what many Sri Lankans view as an erosion of sovereignty.



The Hambantota port, like Gwadar, is part of a network of harbours Beijing is developing in Asia and Africa that have spooked India, which fears being encircled by Chinas growing naval power.

But Pakistani officials say comparisons to Hambantota are unfair because the Gwadar project has much less debt.



On top of the airport, Chinese handouts in Gwadar include US $ 100 million to expand a hospital by 250 beds, US $ 130 million towards upgrading water infrastructure, and US $ 10 million for a technical and vocational college, according to Pakistani government documents and officials.



We welcome this assistance as its changing the quality of life of the people of Gwadar for the better, said Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee that oversees CPEC, including Gwadar.



China and Pakistan jointly choose which projects will be developed under the CPEC mechanism, Sayed added.



When China suggested a 7,000 metre runway for the new airport, Pakistan pushed for a 12,000 metre one that could accommodate planes as large as the Airbus 380 and be used for military purposes, according to Sajjad Baloch, a Director of the Gwadar Development Authority.



The scale of Chinese grants is extraordinary, according to Brad Parks, Executive Director of AidData, a research lab at the US-based William and Mary University that collected data on Chinese aid across 140 countries from 2000-2014.



Since 2014, Beijing has pledged over US $ 800 million in grants and concessional loans for Gwadar, which has less than 100,000 people. In the 15 years before that, China gave about US $ 2.4 billion in concessional loans and grants during this period across the whole of Pakistan, a nation of 207 million people.



Gwadar is exceptional even by the standards of Chinas past activities in Pakistan itself, Parks said.



Hearts and minds

There are early signs Chinas efforts to win hearts and minds are beginning to bear fruit in Gwadar.

Baluchistan is backward and underdeveloped, but we are seeing development after Chinas arrival, said Salam Dashti, 45, a grocer whose two children attend the new Chinese-built primary school.

But there are major pitfalls ahead.



Tens of thousands of people living by the port will have to be relocated.



For now, they live in cramped single-story concrete houses corroded by sea water on a narrow peninsula, where barefoot fishermen offload their catch on newly-paved roads strewn with rubbish. Many of the fishermen say they fear theyll lose their livelihoods once the port starts operating.



Indigenous residents fear of becoming a minority is inevitable with Gwadars population expected to jump more than 15-fold in coming decades. On the edge of town, mansions erected by land speculators are popping up alongside the sand dunes.



Analysts say China is aware that previous efforts to develop Gwadar port failed partly due to the security threat posed by Baloch separatists, so Beijing is trying to counter the insurgents narrative that China wants to exploit Baluchistan.



That weighs heavily on the minds of the Chinese, Parks added. Its almost certainly true that they are trying to safeguard their investments by getting more local buy-in.



Chinese officials, meanwhile, are promoting the infrastructure development they are funding.



Every day you can see new changes. It shows the sincerity of Chinese for development of Gwadar, Fijian Zhao, the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Chinese embassy in Islamabad, tweeted last month.



Naval f.acility

For its investment in Gwadar, China will receive 91 percent of revenues until the port is returned to Pakistan in four decades time. The operator, China Overseas Ports Holding Company, will also be exempt from major taxes for more than 20 years.



Pakistans Maritime Affairs Minister, Hasil Bizenjo, said the arrival of the Chinese in the region contrasted with the experience of the past two centuries, when Russia and Britain, and later the United States and the Soviet Union, vied for control of the warm water ports of the Persian Gulf.

The Chinese have come very smoothly, they have reached the warm waters, Bizenjo told Reuters. What they are investing is less than a peanut for access to warm waters.



When a US Pentagon report in June suggested Gwadar could become a military base for China, a concern that India has also expressed, Beijing dismissed the idea.



Talk that China is building a military base in Pakistan is pure guesswork, said a Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman, Wu Sian.



Bizenjo and other Pakistani officials say Beijing has not asked to use Gwadar for naval purposes.

This port, they will use it mostly for their commercial interests, but it depends on the next 20 years where the world goes, Bizenjo said.
The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.

~Nicco Machiavelli

There was no Machiavellian nuanced statecraft. There was no Dudley Senanayakian transparency and honesty. There was no Jayewardenesque stoicism. There was not even lofty but empty rhetoric of the likes of SWRD Bandaranaike. There was no veiled brilliance of a shrewd leader; only undisguised greed for power and unremarkable exercise of it was visible and this unkind spectacle was being witnessed by a wretched citizenry of a nation tired of waiting for the manifestation of a messiah.

The withering values of a community loosely bonded by the harsh and hostile powers of the British Raj and controlled by the alien Administrative and Financial Regulations (AR and FR) of Westminster rules guarded by the Establishment Code of the same civil service, could not withstand the onslaught of an expanding culture that descended upon the unsophisticated majority. It is intellectually dishonest to classify this culture as novel or fresh; it has been there encompassing the collective body of Sri Lankans ever since Independence, yet its development as a dynamic social force was not all that visible and noticeable. Its accelerated alacrity, its concealed state of decay, its eager sense of being identified and categorized as the norm and not an exception and its eventual capture of the collective psyche of the general masses were all conducive to a society that is maddeningly oblivious of and insistent on self-mortification.

With each passing year since the dawn of the 21st Century, Rajapaksaism that was the culture and ideology of the day kept brainwashing the trusting masses on their ideology, strangely estranged from the broadcast Bandaranaike policies of serving the interests of the common man. Bandaranaikes SLFP was a unique political concoction, drawing its strength as well as weakness from the five pillars (Pancha Maha Balavegaya) upon which it was founded.

Its core-best was essentially made up of the Sinhalese-Buddhist elite in the backward areas of the country and the enormous appeal it had was translated by this Sinhalese elite as a political party determined to right the wrongs done by the successive colonial rulers, Portuguese, Dutch and the British, unto the majority Sinhalese-Buddhists in the country. This approach adopted by the rank and file of the SLFP paved the way for a new positive awakening amongst the majority on the one hand and an irreversible radicalization of the response by the Sinhalese-Buddhists in the rural regions to the English-speaking Sinhalese in Colombo and other big cities such as Jaffna, Kandy, Galle and Kurunegala.

Consequently, ugly and unquestionable signs of polarization of a nation were showing their obnoxious countenances everywhere. An immeasurable dynamic of national divisions along ethnic streaks began taking over the average mindset of man who, a century ago knew no such visible partisanships whatsoever. The division between the Northern Tamils and Southern Sinhalese remained a subject of discussion, especially among the foreign-educated; various solutions and resolutions proposed and rejected among which were federalism, Tamil homeland, district councils, 50-50 demands and devolution of political and administrative powers were discussed and intense debates performed in English language by these very same Pukka Sahibs whose knowledge and empathetic feel were next to nothing.

Into such a vacuum of political thought and action entered a Sinhalese-Buddhist nationalistic streak that was more based on ethnic hatred and social envy. Introduction of Sinhala-stream education is indeed a highly commendable feat. Yet the negligence and oversight of its long-term ill-effects, its drastic measures of disregard of English as a tool of the upper-class of the land coupled with the haste with which the whole policy was put into action deprived the children of the 56 revolution of opportunities that were available to their preceding generations. Unavailability of facilities in the distant schools in Ceylon for English education contributed heavily towards the gulf between the city and rural students in the country to be further widened.



The Sri Lanka Freedom Party which began this revolution was not ready to handle this worsening situation and the eventual demise of its founding leader at the hands of a Buddhist monk personified the cruel irony of his Swabhasha policy. Yet, SWRD could never be blamed for financial corruption or nepotism. In the three short years when he ruled the country, there was no identifiable relative of his occupying the seats of power; neither his wife, children, though they were relatively young, or any blood relative of Bandaranaike was dictating to government officials what or what not to do. But his departure spelled another kind of departure from the party, SLFP. When Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the leader of the party, the political dynamic changed, never to go back to a non-nepotism political entity.

Various cliques were found to be forming among the relatives of Sirimavo Bandaranaike. There was the Anura-clique, Sunethra-clique, Chandrika-clique, Felix-clique, Mackie Ratwatte-clique etc. Each of these cliques had its loyalties to its specific leader, yet when taken as a whole the collective loyalty was to the Party. Formation and development of a modern political party into one that is essentially and fundamentally a family-oriented political body began in earnest. What MR inherited was this political party.

The rank and file of the SLFP was so fed and nourished ever since the departure of its founder SWRD Bandaranaike in 1959 right up to 2005, on a regular dose of family-bandyism, they never saw a world without family rule. Its party hierarchy may have been reflecting a structure that was manned and womanned by non-family members, yet when in power, that power always revolved around the family and as a result the leadership was never ever available to the so-called common man under whose name it came to power. The cliques were different but their collective subservience was to the family-collective. MR fitted into this convoluted mindset of the party and its rigid physical structure like a well-greased palm into a surgeons glove.

The same parade of family members of the ruling leader continued in a more blatant and brazen fashion. Cliques began their gradual formation: Basil-clique, Shiranthi-clique, Gotabhaya-clique, Namal-clique, Chamal-clique, Yoshitha-clique and Rohitha-clique ruled the day. And the rank and file unashamedly accepted this tragi-comic spectacle. The same principle applied and the same principle was enthusiastically propagated. One after another, the loyal clique members paid their puja to their respective masters. But there was a marked difference between this exhibition of loyalty and one displayed before the Rajapaksas stumbled upon the treasures of the SLFP leadership. The Bandaranaikes played the same game with some finesse. The Rajapaksas, in the slang of the common man, were yakkos.

Maithripala Sirisena is an anomaly. The political party that seemed to have lost its way among the members of this family or that family all of a sudden had to be loyal to its new leader who could boast of no family hegemony. But the Rajapaksas who were expelled from power at the elections could not come to terms with this non-family-dominance of their party. A significant part of the rank and file too seems to have found the new leader unworthy of their veneration. The current conflict in the SLFP is essentially that, the absence of room for cliques to be formed and developed so that several, instead of one, route to the leader are available.

Expulsion of the Rajapaksas at the elections in 2015 did not seem enough for the Rajapaksas

SLFP paved the way for a new positive awakening amongst the majority

The UNP on the other hand, with all its other weaknesses, could stand aloof of this self-destructive mechanism called nepotism. The one and only instance was when DS Senanayake, the founder of the UNP, had the intention of handing the party leadership to his son Dudley. But to the credit of Dudley Senanayake, he in turn did not seek any indulgences in nepotism and nor could any fair-mended person question his qualifications or credentials for the job. Corruption and nepotism were far from Dudleys mind.

The expulsion of the Rajapaksas at the elections in 2015 did not seem enough for the Rajapaksas. A misplaced and strong sense of ownership, not of the party, but of the country, seems to be their overpowering sentiment; an uncommon sense of avariciousness, accumulation of wealth and other comforts at the expense of the common good of the common man totally consumed them and the unjust and utterly ruthless manner in which they treated the then Commander of the Army and Chief Justice stand out as mindless exercise of power when they held that power.

But the tragedy lies elsewhere. It resides in the fact that there are a sizeable number of gullible morons who still hang on to these brokers of greed and power hunger. Their support for these politicos who are a vile example of power-seekers has buttressed them to form a new party. The challenge before the SLFP leader whom also happens to be the President of the country, the man who had the daring to oust MR from power is to cleanse the party he seems to love so much. Or perhaps, it might be too late now.

The writer can be contacted at vishwamithra1984@gmail.com
Today, there is a lot of frustration among the youth due to many students passing the GCE A/L exam and become eligible to enter universities but are unable to gain admission to universities due to the limited number of places in universities. Out of the approximately 150,000 eligible A/L students, 25,000 will enter universities. There will be another 125,000 left behind. This would mean, out of those pass, only 17 percent enter universities, while 83 percent get left behind.



We need to maximize the opportunities for higher education in Sri Lanka; it should be the prime objective of any government. There is also an absolute necessity to provide degree programmes that are in demand, creating new skills and additional numbers required for the IT, engineering, science and technology, business, management and services sectors for the development of the economy.



Today, India is a destination for world outsourcing industry, earning valuable foreign exchange for the country and providing employment and good salaries to its graduates due mainly to the availability of the IT and engineering graduates in large numbers with the ability to converse fluently in the English language. This is due to its ability to produce graduates with the required skills, qualifications and numbers.



We are at a very important stage of our history and the people need solutions to this pressing problem of sending thousands of our youth overseas using valuable foreign exchange, seeking to obtain a degree they are deprived in their motherland.



It should be a priority of the government to find a solution with the assistance of the university academia, professionals and business community in this country and provide a university education to the youth. They are the future of our country and will be able to contribute to the economic growth of Sri Lanka.



What options are available?



If we are to make Sri Lanka a knowledge hub, then we need to look at alternative methods to provide higher education to a larger number, especially the qualified youth and increase the percentage of university-going students to over 50 percent from the current 16 percent to 20 percent. We need to develop the skills, knowledge, language fluency and of course English, research capability and opportunities for the youth to be trained in disciplines, which will provide a future to them in their motherland rather than look for opportunities overseas.



At present, many foreign universities conduct degree programmes through private institutes without any control from any governmental educational authority. These degree programmes are also offered at a very high cost and not regulated locally. Also, many students go overseas pledging their parents house and property to obtain a bank loan and enter foreign universities. It has been noticed that many of them after qualifying do not return to Sri Lanka.



Therefore, we need to provide a solution to conduct a quality university education at an affordable cost to the many deprived of a university education in their motherland and to consider solutions provided by other countries.



Alternate model for Sri Lanka



One of the best opportunities available for Sri Lanka is to consider the Indian model of having affiliated colleges to universities; it has been very successful and has produced a large number of university graduates in India in different fields of specialization.



This system would immediately increase the intake to university degree courses via the college system with the entry regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC). All syllabi are provided by the universities and the exams are also conducted by the universities, while the education will be provided by the colleges at an affordable cost to all students.



For students in need of funding, scholarships can be provided by the state or the Mahapola Trust Fund or loan facilities from banks as done in the last budget.

The affiliated college system is a well-tried and tested system of our closest neighbour India and has benefitted the large number of students seeking entry to obtain higher education and has contributed immensely to the development of the national economy.



Indian system of affiliated colleges



India has universities established under the UGC Act; they have territorial jurisdiction over a particular area.



According to the latest data from the UGC, the first five universities with the largest number of colleges are as follows:



1. Hyderabad Osmania University with 901 affiliated colleges

2. Pune University with 735 affiliated colleges

3. Nagpur University with 800 colleges

4. Rajasthan University with 735 colleges

5. Mumbai University with 711 colleges



For example, in Pune is the University of Pune, which has jurisdiction over three districts  Pune, Ahmednagar and Nasik. Similarly, there is the University of Mumbai, having the Aurangabad, Kolhapur, Amravati, Nanded and Solapur Districts in the State of Maharashtra. These are all state universities established by the state government but recognized all over India and the world.



All these universities have affiliated colleges in their jurisdiction. Five years ago, the Pune University had 474 affiliated colleges with the total student population of 550,000 and the Mumbai University had 531 affiliated colleges with 650,000 students.



The syllabus and examinations are decided by the university and the examinations are also conducted by the university. The final degree is awarded by the university.



The affiliated colleges are the mainstay in the countrys higher education system and they enrol 89.3 percent of the undergraduate students and about 72.2 percent of postgraduate students.



The Delhi University has grown into one of the largest universities in India. At present, there are 16 faculties, 86 academic departments, 77 colleges and five other recognised institutes spread all over the city, with 132,435 regular students, including 114,494 undergraduates and 17,941 postgraduates. There are also 261,169 students in the non-formal education programme, of which the undergraduate students make up 258,831, whereas the postgraduate students are 2,338 in number.

There are three types of colleges under the Delhi University. Some are fully funded by the government. There are also the private colleges.



Depending on the funding and management, they are classified as follows:

University-maintained colleges

Trust colleges

Delhi government colleges



The University of Madras has 115 affiliated colleges. They also conduct evening classes to cater to the demands of the working adults. About 150,000 students are on roll in the affiliated colleges.



The responsibility of conducting classes regularly is on the colleges. The colleges conduct graduation and post-graduation classes and have teaching and other staff as per the norms of the UGC. Universities are responsible for the administrative and academic responsibilities.



For getting an affiliation to a college, there are norms prescribed by the university and after fulfilling them, the affiliation is granted.



There are two types of colleges, grantable and non- grantable. Grantable means they are given grants by the government and hence the fees for these colleges are quite low. There is also a fee committee established by the government to regulate the fees for these colleges.



Examinations are conducted by the university and as colleges are affiliated to the university, students in the colleges appear for these examinations.



Affiliation norms are there for university colleges about the land, building, teaching and non-teaching staff, library, laboratory and so on.



It has also been noted that many of the colleges and private universities in India have been set up under the Trusts Ordinance and are not-for-profit organisations and self-funding. This would be a very good concept to be used in Sri Lanka for the educational sector similar to the public universities under the UGC and professional bodies set up by acts of parliament such as the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka and Institute of Certified Management Accountants of Sri Lanka, which are self-funding and set up under the Trade and Commerce Ministry in early years and now under Industry and Commerce.



Way forward for Sri Lanka

The Universities Act should be changed to provide for the university colleges to be set up and relevant regulations made.

All universities should be given authority to approve university colleges with the older and reputed universities playing a major role in making this scheme a success.

(a) Private educational institutes currently in operation encouraged to set up affiliated colleges and banks should treat these as priority projects for purpose of funding. The government could link the loan scheme provided for the students who are eligible but unable to enter universities as currently done for certain private universities and those with foreign affiliations.

All affiliated colleges should be not-for-profit organisations and preferable be set up under the Trusts Ordinance or as Companies Limited by Guarantee. These organisations will also be self-funding and use any surpluses for the development of the institution.

Government buildings and school premises be made available in the afternoon session for the university colleges where required in the initial stages in the rural and other districts.

A scholarship fund to be set up by the government to fund needy students.

The intake to the colleges to be done by the UGC based on the A/L results similar to the selection to other universities.

The degree certificate will be issued by the universities with the name of the affiliated college. The syllabus will be provided by the universities and exams also conducted by the universities.



Benefits to country and economy

Make Sri Lanka a knowledge hub by increasing the number going into higher education and providing opportunities for qualifying students at A/L to pursue their higher studies.

More students would be able to obtain a degree qualification and the number of educated youth and more skilled persons will be produced in the country. Increase the percentage of students going into higher education immediately to 50 percent and thereafter to be increased annually.

The courses will be provided at an affordable cost to local students and valuable foreign exchange going out of the country will be saved.

Local professors, lecturers in universities that undertake lectures will be amply rewarded for their hard work and this will result in stopping the brain drain, which is a serious problem for the country.

Those in overseas universities will be encouraged to come back to Sri Lanka and start their own colleges and this will attract overseas Sri Lankans back to their home country.

Will attract more foreign direct investment to Sri Lanka to start knowledge-based projects for the export market due to the availability of skilled youth in sufficient numbers, which is currently in short supply.

Government could be a facilitator and control the quality and fees of these colleges through the universities and UGC.

More colleges could be set up for skills and technology that are in demand and will advance economic development and development of industry, commerce and services sector, plantation and agriculture.

The youth of this country will see a future in their mother country to earn a degree and this will also ease the problems of parents who have to mortgage whatever assets they have to send their children overseas for higher education.

Employers will be happy that they will be in a position to find sufficient skilled persons for employment in their businesses.

The money invested in primary and secondary education will be amply rewarded by enabling students to go for higher education and to university affiliated colleges and increasing the percentage of students entering universities.

A close link will be established with the private and public sectors to conduct courses in demand with science and technology taking a prominent place in addition to the others.

Also to consider setting up of Sri Lankan Institutes of Technology and Institutes of Management similar to Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIM), which should be pursued vigorously, as these institutes have a direct bearing on the development of the knowledge economy.

Conclusion



Although we are celebrating 40 years of open economy, the national higher education system has not been opened to meet the needs of our youth. During the last 40 years, we have sacrificed a minimum of two million to four million of our youth losing the opportunity to proceed to higher education due to the closed national higher education system, which needs a radical change if the country is to face the new challenges in a globalized economy and advance to a knowledge economy.



We are unfortunately falling behind many of the other countries that are progressing at a very rapid level especially in science and technology and skill development, where we do not have sufficient numbers.



At a time advanced level students who qualify to enter university is approximately 150,000, only approximately 25,000 gain admission. The balance is deprived of an opportunity to pursue their higher education and students and parents are frustrated that despite them qualifying, their future is going to be bleak for no fault of theirs. Those who have the money go overseas using our valuable foreign exchange and many do not return to Sri Lanka after qualifying; it is another big loss to the country as well as to parents.



It would be possible to overcome this barrier by implementing the university affiliated college system, which will provide additional places for those who otherwise are shut out of local universities. By implementing these new proposals tried and tested in neighbouring India and other countries will benefit the large number of educated and qualified youth after A/L to see a future in Sri Lanka through higher education.



We should also keep in mind that cost is also an important element and only local degrees and professional qualifications can provide an answer to this question. Let us also save our valuable foreign exchange that is going out of this country and build a knowledge economy for the prosperity of the nation.



(Prof. Lakshman R. Watawala (FCA, FCMA FCMA (UK), CGMA, FCPM) is President  Institute of Certified Management Accountants (CMA) Sri Lanka, Past President  Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka), South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA) and Organisation of Professional Associations of Sri Lanka (OPA), Founder President  AAT Sri Lanka, Immediate Past President  Association of Management Development Institutions in South Asia (AMDISA), former Chairman and Director General  GCEC and BOI, Chairman  Peoples Bank, Peoples Merchant Bank, National Insurance Trust Fund, State Mining and Mineral Development Corporation and Ceylon Leather Products Corporation, former Council Member  University of Kelaniya, Open University of Sri Lanka and Institute of Computer Technology University of Colombo)
The Washington State Supreme Court will hear a challenge to the states charter school law for the second time in less than four years.

The states high court ruled the charter law unconstitutional in fall 2015, but it was resurrected six months later by the state legislature.

Washingtons charter school legal saga matters beyond the state for a few reasons.

It was the first time in the country that a state supreme court ruled wholesale against a charter law.

Washington state was also a late adopter of charter schools and many charter advocates (although certainly not all) see the states law as among the most evolved in the countryone that avoids many of the issues that have arisen from too little regulation seen in states that legalized charter schools early on.

And the legal fight over the constitutionality of charter funding in the state could provide a roadmap for charter opponents in other states . The Southern Poverty Law Center announced a similarly-styled challenge to Mississippis charter schools in 2016.

The Washington Charter School Saga

Its been quite the political odyssey for the states charter law which first passed by voter referendum in 2012. The law was challenged by a statewide teachers union as well as the Washington League of Women Voters, among others.

The state supreme court sided with the plaintiffs in fall 2015, ruling that charter schools were unconstitutional.

The justices determined that charters did not qualify as common schoolsbasically, public schoolsbecause they are not overseen by locally elected school boards and, therefore, were not eligible to draw money from the general fund.

Charter school supporters quickly rallied and muscled a bill through the state legislature in spring 2016 that changed the funding source and imposed more regulations on charter schools, among other things.

During that period in limbo, the states eight charter schools remained open as specialized district programs and home-schooling centers. They converted back to charter status the following school year.

But it wasnt long before the revamped law was challenged.

The move didnt come as a surprise. The Washington Education Association, which was a plaintiff in the first lawsuit, signaled soon after the legislature resurrected the charter law that there would be another lawsuit.

The union and other plaintiffs argue that the charter law still diverts crucial public dollars away from traditional district schools. Although that argument is often used against charter schools in other states, its important to put the Washington case in context. The same year voters passed the ballot initiative to create charters, the states supreme court ruled in a case called McCleary v. Washington that lawmakers were failing to adequately fund public education.

The legislatures slow pace in acting on the McCleary ruling has led to the high court to levy a daily $100,000 fine on the state.

Related Stories:

Photo: Students and other charter school advocates rally in 2015 at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash. The rally was held by Act Now for Washington Students, with the goal of halting the closure of any charter schools that have already opened. Rachel La Corte/AP
MBD, one of Indias largest education companies and the most prolific book publisher in the country, has donated one thousand copies of Learnwell Science books for Sri Lankan students.



The books were recently handed over to Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam by MBD Sri Lanka Country Manager Jayampathy Arambepola.



The internationally recognised brand of educational books, which has gained a reputation for its wealth of information, has been specifically translated into Sinhala for the benefit of the local student body.



Speaking on behalf of this philanthropic venture, MBD Managing Director Monica Malhotra Kandhari said, We, at MBD, have made it our mission to provide children with the best in terms of educational material. The reputed Learnwell books, which are available in 40 countries for students from grade one to 10, have superseded the rest. We are pleased to introduce the innovative concepts to the Sri Lankan students who will have the privilege to learn science from a text book, which is on par with international standards.



Last year, MBD donated science books worth Rs.1 million to the Colombo Municipal Council on the latters celebration of 150 years of service. Parallely four of MBDs authors sponsored a science symposium, which was conducted in Colombo.



MBD also donated two e-learning classrooms to Nakkawatta Central College in Kuliyapitiya and Gannethena Maha Vidyalaya in Hingula Mawanella as part of the groups objective is to encourage Sri Lankan students to venture into e-learning.



The Learnwell brand is owned by the MBD group, which is an ISO 9001:2008 certified company and one of Indias largest education companies with more than six decades of experience in the domain. Having established itself in 40 countries including Sri Lanka, it continues to gain momentum throughout the world due to a growing demand from teachers and parents who have realized its potential as a captivating text book, which teaches the subject matter with ease and interest. Moreover, the book carries an internationally accepted new structure in teaching and learning for the teachers and students alike.



At present, all the Learnwell branded books in science, mathematics and IT have been accepted as additional reading books for our students by the Secretary, Publication and Advisory Board of the Sri Lanka Education Ministry. Subsequently, this would enable students to gain access to these valuable books and 90 more additional books for reading and knowledge gathering through the school libraries authorised to purchase them.



The specific approval was granted after a thorough research by the erudite scholars and educationists of Sri Lanka. The most significant fact is the availability of this international publication to the Sri Lankan students who have the privilege of reading it in the vernacular. The Sri Lankan students are bound to benefit from this endeavour, which incorporates a vast amount of additional knowledge, which is on par with international standards.



The MBD group is a leading education company with its presence across the globe and publishes 50 million books a year and around 30 million notebooks. Today, the group has diversified into various industries including e-learning, m-learning, skill development, eco-friendly notebooks, capacity building, paper manufacturing, ICT infrastructure, hospitality, real estate, mall development and management.



The MBD group has been continuously working for the cause of providing education to all with its vision to create an MBD product for every literate person. The group has ventured into the Sri Lankan market with its bouquet of education services.
It is all very simple really. This election is about you. If you vote for the UNP, you think that the country is better off under Ranil, is doing better and will do better under him as PM than it did when Mahinda Rajapaksa was in charge. If you voted for regime change in 2015 it is because you thought that a government with Ranil and Chandrika driving it would or could do better than one under MR.

If you vote for Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghes UNP this time, you are saying the Central Bank Bond Scam was OK, and are then morally responsible as a citizen for more such scams being pulled until 2020.

I regard his battle at the upcoming polls as crucial for him

If you vote for UNP this time, you are saying the CB Bond Scam was OK

Economy in a downward spiral, with just over 3% growth this quarter

If you think Ranils government - Bond Scam, a lousy 3.3% growth rate, Geneva resolution, quasi-federal constitutional draft and all - are better than MRs performance; if you feel you, your family, your neighbourhood, your community and your nation are doing/ did better under Ranils government than MRs; if you feel you have progressed since MRs departure in 2015; you should vote for this government.

If you feel otherwise, if you feel the opposite, if you feel cheated by this government, then you should give the government a signal by voting for the Opposition. If you dont, the government will keep on keeping on, doing what it is doing, heading along the same path.

It took Russia a decade (the 1990s) and Putin to escape the madness of economic neo-liberalism and genuflection to the West. The USSR was bad but all opinion polls prove that the Russian people think the West-centric Boris Yeltsin was far worse, and therefore they keep voting for Putin because they never want to go back to another pro-Western liberal. We, Sri Lankans have a choice. Either we can go through this cycle of neo-liberal politics, crash the economy and burn in the fires of ultra-nationalist blowback, and then come to our collective senses, rebuilding from the ashes -- or we can short-circuit the cycle and start exiting the matrix with the forthcoming local government elections.

Indignez Vous! Time for Outrage!

 Stephane Hessel

Im as mad as hell and Im not going to take it anymore!

- Peter Finch in Network

The economy is contracting or in a downward spiral, with just over 3% growth this quarter. If PM Wickremesinghes UNP wins the upcoming local authorities elections, they will reshape Sri Lanka in such a manner that the ownership and control of our island home, and therefore our destiny, is irrevocably out of our hands and placed in the hands of the US and India which sees our island as strategic real estate in their attempt to prevent China from changing the global and regional power balance and reforming the world order in a more equitable manner.

The PM will give the Trincomalee oil tank farm and a chunk of the Trincomalee harbour, the Mannar-Trincomalee highway as well as an airport in the deep South to India; confer quasi-federal powers over land to the provinces of Sri Lanka, most crucially the North and East; dismantle the state sector of the economy; dismember existing labour and land reform legislation, and allow foreign corporations to own large tracts of arable land on this small island.

Far from the claim of restoring democracy, only an ignorant, moronic administration would do what no government anywhere in the world has dared to: risk destabilizing democracy by humiliating, affronting and enraging through war crimes probes agreed upon in Geneva, a huge, patriotic military of which 40,000 regular infantrymen received Special Forces training (be they currently in service or not).

If on the other hand, the UNP loses the local authorities election, there will be much rethinking all round and the chance for a new political and economic equilibrium, in which we have to adjust to external realities but regain, retain and exercise our national autonomy.

The collective consciousness of the Sri Lankan political class has long been divided, and remains divided in accordance with attitudes to 1956. The basic divide is between those who hold that 1956 was good, positive, progressive, and those who think the opposite.

I was literally one of the Children of 1956 (to use my fathers metaphorical phrase of 1972). 1956 produced two types of children: nativism and internationalism; parochialism and progressivism; Sinhala Only and Bandung / Third Worldism / Maoism / Fidelism-Guevarism. I see things through the prism of the national and global trends of 1956SWRD, Fidel and Ches Granma landing in Cuba, the Sino-Soviet schism.

The upcoming local government elections will mark the death or the rebirth of 1956, the disintegration and end, or reassertion and new arc, of the progressive 1956 project. It is also a battle of values -- between the progressive values of 1956 and 1970, and those of appeasement, capitulation and neo-liberalism of 2001 (Ranils CFA) and 2015.

It is when I understand the stakes involved in the upcoming elections that I understand my choices and myself, and moreI understand those of my father. I never had a problem in understanding his admiration for and loyalty to the sophisticated intellectual and Afro-Asianist SWRD. However I could not comprehend my fathers loyalty, more elastic though it was, to the robustly non-intellectual Sirimavo especially after she had dismissed him from the post of Editor of a reputed news paper, in a reverse gesture of SWRDs recruitment of him.

Today I understand it, in the light of my response to the upcoming election and given my own attitude to MR, who appointed and then fired me after a crucial and difficult international task successfully accomplished.

In the 1950s, SWRD incarnated the Spirit of Bandung, of Afro-Asianism, in contrast to the UNP which incarnated identification with and loyalty to Anglo-Americanism. The SLFP government recognized Fidels Revolution before Maos China did. Che Guevara visited Ceylon in the Cuban Revolutions first year which was to be SWRDs last.

In the decades that followed (right up to 1989 and the Premadasa pivot), Sirimavo was the strong symbol of those Non-aligned values and identity, and more essentially, of national resistance against the alignment of Sri Lanka with the West during what scholars defined as the New Cold War.

If I may lapse into the language of the latest Star Wars movie, I see the PM and his UNP as the loyal local puppets of the First Order, a successor Empire which strives to maintain over-lordship against all comers and all those who seem to challenge or resist it. The sleazy satraps of the US-dominated First Order, the UNP, for whom Sri Lanka is only a location to sell or rent, not an ontological identity, will constitutionally carve up, sell off and convert this island into a colony, a link in the chain of the First Orders Indo-Pacific grand strategy against our consistent friends and allies in Eurasia (China and Russia).

In this scenario, MR and the Joint Opposition [SLPP] represent the Resistance, the Rebellion. I see MR as The Last Jedi. If I may switch to an earlier movie (with Tom Cruise) depicting heroic nationalist resistance to a modernizing Western puppet PM in Asia under a patriotic but vacillating Emperor, MR is The Last Samurai.

MR is the closest Lankan approximation of two qualities that Princetons Emeritus Professor of International Law, Richard Falk, testifies were shared by the Vietnamese and the Palestinians: desired national narrative [which] collided with the geopolitical ambitions and commitments of the United Statesand empowering and charismatic resilience is the core identity.(https://richardfalk.wordpress.com/2017/11/26/parallel-universes-vietnam-and-palestine/)

That is why I regard his battle at the upcoming local election as crucial in deciding the identity of our nation. That is why I wish him luck and sympathize with him, and am still on his side, all things considered.
Miracles occur in every religion and they certainly take various forms. From a Catholic perspective, a miracle is defined as an extraordinary welcoming effect wrought by God that surpasses the power and order of nature. Such an incident was recently reported from St. Annes Church in Wattala, where droplets of sweat were seen running down the forehead of a picture of Jesus Christ.

In an interview with Daily Mirror, the Parish Priest of St. Annes Church, Rev. Fr. Sanjeewa Mendis said the incident that took place in the church was a miracle.

The Parish Priest said the droplets of sweat had been flowing from the picture since October this year.

Rev. Fr. Mendis said the picture of the Saviour, which was kept in the house of a woman named Niromi Amarasinghe, was brought to the church after the supernatural occurrence continued.

Rev. Fr. Mendis said the picture of the Saviour, which was kept in the house of a woman named Niromi Amarasinghe, was brought to the church after the supernatural occurrence continued

The picture was brought to Sri Lanka by a group of priests who came here 12 years ago from Chalakkudi, India. The priests had distributed several pictures to the Catholics of the area who attended prayer sessions. However, the tear-like droplets had been flowing in the picture that was kept in Niromis house, the Parish Priest said.

Meanwhile, Niromi said she witnessed the droplets of sweat rolling down the forehead of the picture of Christ from time to time.

The miraculous incident has further deepened the faith of all Christians. It has motivated them to believe that the Lord is truly present amongst us. I notice that more and more people throng and pray before the miraculous

picture Rev. Fr. Mendis

Fr. Mendis also said a similar incident had taken place in the parish of His Holiness Pope Francis, where droplets of blood was found from a statue of Jesus Christ.

Following the said incident, the blood had been tested to check whether it was similar to the blood group of Jesus Christ. Subsequently, it was proved that the blood shed from the statue was of the same blood group as Jesus Christ (AB+), Rev. Fr. Mendis said.

Some prominent miraculous incidents that have occurred in Sri Lanka;

nHoly Cross Church at Marawila - The holy face of Jesus Christ appeared on the crucifix placed inside the church

St. Marys Church at Payagala - Appearance of Mother Mary

The holy face of Jesus appeared on a wall at Kandana

St. Marys Church at Nayakakanda - Mother Mary appeared inside the church Opinion of laymen Ushantha Rajapaksha, a layman who flocked to witness the miracle at St. Annes Church in Wattala, said the droplets of sweat that shed from the forehead of the image were actual tears of Jesus who was crucified and resurrected.

I presume this will be a significant message from the Lord to renew the life of the people. At the same time, Jesus invites us to avoid what is bad and to embrace what is good, so that we will be able to experience the presence and love of God, he said

Another layman, Shirani Nirmala, said it was a symbol to signify that Jesus Christ was dwelling among us.

I noticed the changes and showed it to my mother. We then decided to inform the Parish Priest about it. We were advised to bring the picture to the church. We had many family problems and they all gradually settled when the miracle started to occur. Ever since this miracle occurred, I have experienced some strange feelings which are hard to explain. This has strengthened our faith



Niromi Amarasinghe, who first witnessed the miracle

I could not believe my eyes when I was praying before the image. It was miraculous. My faith in the Lord deepened, she said.

If we understand the reality that Jesus is asking us to change our lives, we will be able to experience a genuine transformation within us and through the grace of God, said Mrs. Pinto, another layman.
Renowned Pakistani diplomat Zamir Akram, in an email interview with the Daily Mirror spoke about Sri Lanka-Pakistan relations, the UNHRC process and the selective application of the international humanitarian law. Akram was the one time Pakistan Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva. During his tenure, he campaigned in favour of Sri Lanka against the UNHRC resolutions during the period after the war.

Akram joined the Foreign Service of Pakistan in July 1978 and has held various diplomatic assignments in Pakistan Missions abroad, including in Moscow, Geneva, New Delhi and Washington and served as Pakistans Ambassador to Nepal from August 2002 to March 2005. Akram has also served in a variety of positions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad. He holds a Masters Degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Following are excerpts of the interview done with Akram.

In my view, it didnt help Sri Lanka ultimately

However, in view of our friendship and unstinted support for Sri Lanka, we went along with this decision

Pakistan is always against country specific resolutions

There is a selective and preferential approach of the international laws by the UNHRC

We thought Sri Lanka was unfairly targeted after ending terrorism

Some countries were indulging in double-standards since they themselves have been guilty of human rights violations while combating terrorism

Its for naming and shaming some countries while overlooking human rights violations committed by themselves, their friends and allies

Just as Sri Lanka, Pakistan is combating terrorism sponsored by our neighbour

Q How do you view Pakistan-Sri Lanka relations in the current context?

Pakistan and Sri Lanka have always maintained very close and friendly relations. We fully support the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka. We welcome the victory that Sri Lanka has achieved against terrorism and wish the Sri Lankan people and Government every success in their efforts to ensure national integrity and progress in the future. In the current challenging times, our two countries must continue to work together to safeguard our national interests and promote mutually beneficial relations in all fields, including economic and trade relations in particular.

Sri Lanka is among the few countries in the world that have successfully defeated terrorism

Q What are the new areas that the two countries should consider for the expansion of relations?

During this present time where there is a need for our countries to address economic difficulties and development. Pakistan and Sri Lanka have a shared interest in cooperating with each other in economic and trade areas. At the same time, we have a shared interest in ensuring our national security for which there remains considerable room for cooperation, both internationally and at the regional levels.

Q At the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Pakistan played a role in obtaining the support of like-minded countries against a resolution on Sri Lanka, moved by the United States in pursuant to the end of war. You, as the then Pakistani Permanent Secretary to the UN in Geneva, took the lead regarding this issue. How do you describe your role?

My role as the Permanent Representative of Pakistan was consistent with our traditional and principled policy of supporting Sri Lanka, which we thought was being unfairly targeted. After successfully defeating terrorism, the international community should have come fully to Sri Lankas assistance instead of some countries using human rights as a tool to create difficulties for Sri Lanka. Moreover, we felt that these countries were indulging in double-standards since they themselves have been guilty of human rights violations while combating terrorism.

Q How do you view the moving of country-specific resolutions by the UNHRC?

Pakistan has always opposed country-specific UNHRC resolutions as we believe that such resolutions are counter-productive and dont achieve the desired objectives. Also such an approach is used against selected countries, but not across the board against all those who are guilty of human rights resolutions. As such these double standards and selectivity do not advance the goal of protecting and promoting universal human rights standards.

Q There is criticism that there is selective application of the International Humanitarian Law and the International Human Rights Law by the UNHRC. How fair is this criticism?

This is fair and justified criticism. The countries that pursue this selective and preferential approach at naming and shaming some countries while overlooking the human rights violations by themselves or by their friends and allies, are really undermining the very principles of the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. Clear examples are the way in which these countries have ignored human rights of the Palestinian and Kashmiri people, while targeting other countries only because they arent allies. In the final analysis such an approach only serves to undermine international law.

My role as the Permanent Representative of Pakistan was consistent with our traditional and principled policy of supporting Sri Lanka

Q Sri Lanka co-sponsored the UNHRC resolution in 2015 under the new Government, a departure from the practice of the previous rule. What is your opinion on this?

At that time, Pakistan along with certain other friends of Sri Lanka advised against this approach. However, in view of our friendship and unstinted support for Sri Lanka, we went along with this decision. Ultimately, in my view, this didnt help Sri Lanka.

Q With the change of Government in the United States, do you see any change in the approach of the UNHRC to human rights issues?

The new Trump administration doesnt seem to place much importance on the UN generally and UNHRC in particular. As per my information it hasnt even appointed an American PR/Ambassador to the UNHRC as yet. This demonstrates the approach of the new US administration towards the UNHRC. That said, I dont see any change in the US policy of double-standards on human rights issues.

Both our countries must continue standing together against such terrorism and learn from each other.

Q Pakistan is confronted with the threat of international terrorism. What is the best mechanism to counter it globally in cooperation with other countries?

Pakistan condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, whether it is pursued by States or non-State actors. We also believe that terrorism cant be ascribed to any religion or ethnic group. Terrorism should also not be equated with the legitimate struggle of peoples for self-determination who are under foreign occupation or alien domination  a right that is recognized by the UN Charter and UN decisions. Just as Sri Lanka, Pakistan is combating terrorism sponsored by our neighbour. But we have achieved major successes against such State sponsored terrorists with a 70 percent reduction in their terrorist activities. Both our countries must continue standing together against such terrorism and learn from each other. The eventual successes against terrorism will emerge from resolving the root causes of terrorism.

Double standards and selectivity do not advance the goal of protecting and promoting universal human rights standards.

Q How can Sri Lanka contribute to fighting global terrorism with its success story of ending a 30-year-old war against the LTTE?

Sri Lanka is among the few countries in the world that have successfully defeated terrorism. This was due to determined political and security efforts. Some of the major powers have been fighting a war on terror for decades without any real successes because they have only relied on the use of force. They also need to find political solutions to the root causes of terrorism. Sri Lanka can play a positive role by sharing its experience in dealing with this scourge. The world has much to learn from Sri Lanka.

Q SAARC appears to be the least integrated regional group. How do you view the challenges it faces in the journey of realizing its goals?

The continuing problem for SAARC is that its largest member is not willing to accommodate its smaller partners. This isnt a recipe for regional integration and cooperation. SAARC will only succeed if all its member States are willing to respect each others national interests and seek to pursue a common goal on an equitable basis.
The entire country should urge the government to hand over the SriLankan Airlines to the AirAsia which is a low-cost Airline as the national carrier is a financial burden to the country, Minister Champika Ranawaka said yesterday.

Responding to a question raised at a press conference Minister Ranawaka said SriLankan Airline is continuously making heavy losses.

He said it lost millions in several operations including when purchasing aircraft and it incurred a loss of Rs. 28 billion last year as well.

Minister said that only Rs. 15 billion was spent to construct the Aruwakkaru sanitary land fill to address city's grabage issue and the SriLankan Airline's loss was even greater than the garbage project.

Minister said the present governments first move was to remove three aircraft purchased during previous government and later approved to remove another four aircraft.

Therefore Minister Ranawaka said that he doesnt believe that it could be profitable to maintain the SriLankan Airlines further as such a strategic move is required to make a viable business venture.

Both the SriLankan Airlines and Mihin Lanka became a burden to the country and the previous government should be held the responsible for it, minister added. (Thilanka Kanakarathna)
The Centre for Global and Strategic Studies (CGSS) organised an Interactive Session on Strategic Environment of South Asia/Indian Ocean Region: Sri Lankan Perspective. Pathfinder Foundation Centre for Indo-Lanka Relations Director Admiral Dr. Jayanath Colombage represented the session and following is the full text of his presentation.



Centre for Global and Strategic Studies President General Khalid Amir Jaffery and distinguished gentlemen. At the outset, I would like to thank you for inviting me to speak at this distinguished forum. I am honoured and glad to represent the Pathfinder Foundation here. The Pathfinder Foundation is one of the leading think tanks and a research centre in Sri Lanka.



Today, I will focus on the strategic environment of South Asia and the Indian Ocean region from a Sri Lankan perspective. The strategic environment in South Asia can be described or explained in six words: as strategic competition, strategic alliances and strategic dilemma. Let me elucidate on the above.



When considering strategic competition, it is a bygone conclusion that the Indian Ocean is geo-strategically, geo-politically and geo-economically important in the current global security landscape, with a contest for power and influence among major powers in the region and beyond. In this situation, there are strategic convergences of some major powers against others. This has resulted in a strategic dilemma for smaller, less powerful countries as they are often forced to choose between major powers.



The most important occurrence in the Indian Ocean region at present is the rise of China as a major power. It is significant that China is the second strongest economy in the world in terms of gross domestic product (GDP).



For 2040, the International Monetary Fund predicts Chinas GDP to reach US $ 45 trillion, while the USAs US $ 39 trillion, Indias US $ 16 trillion, South Korea, Germany, Japan and the UKs GDP between US $ 4-7 trillion

and Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia to be within top 20.



Historically, in the 19th and 20th centuries, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans were the key oceans, as the World Wars, Industrial Revolution and Cold War took place in their waters. The Indian Ocean then played a background role. However, in the 21st century, it is fast becoming the key ocean together with the Pacific Ocean.



The unipolar world led by the USA is changing and it is changing fast. We can see China rising as a major power as is India and these two will dominate the Indian Ocean. As their wealth and power expand, they increasingly come into contact with each other and this is happening in the Indian Ocean, more specifically in and around South Asia. Here we can draw reference to the Thucydides Trap, the possibility of war and conflict between an existing super power and an emerging one.



There have been several instances where strategic competition between China and India has been evident. The Sino-Indian war in 1962, the two border disputes to-date and the Doklam standoff between the Indian armed forces and PLA army, are a few occasions this strategic competition came closer to a physical battle.



The entry of Chinas Navy into the Indian Ocean occurred around 2009, mainly to counter piracy. Piracy in the Horn of Africa, which took the world merchant marine fleet to ransom, is near zero at present but the navies are still present and so is Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). China has two all-weather friends in South Asia for different reasons. They are Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The Chinese involvement in Sri Lanka during the long drawn out violent conflict is noteworthy. Although India, Pakistan, the USA, Israel, Russia and Ukraine supported the government of Sri Lanka to battle the most ruthless terrorist organisation  the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the major contribution came from China.



Chinas role

China provided weapons when many other nations shied away citing human right considerations. China even established a bonded warehouse for arms and ammunition that was required to fight the war in Sri Lanka. The post-conflict period also witnessed the west and other powers staying away from Sri Lankas development programmes. China became the number one development partner and biggest foreign direct investor in Sri Lanka, mainly focusing on the much-needed infrastructure projects such as highways, ports, airports and power generation sectors.



China maintains that they do not have any strategic and military objectives in investing in these projects but that they are purely of an economic nature. Indias contribution, mainly due to the pressure from Tamil Nadu, was of a non-lethal nature and the post-conflict rebuilding assistance was also centred around Tamil majority areas.



The Chinese influence in Pakistan can be seen in the construction of the contested China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which controversially runs through the conflict-ridden region of Kashmir making it a concern of India.



Consequently, India, the USA and Japan realized that the Chinese involvement and influence was seen everywhere in the Indian Ocean region and especially in South Asia. Chinese maritime infrastructure projects were taking place not only in Sri Lanka but also in Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan and the Maldives. Thus, the major powers that are strategic partners of India preferred to see Sri Lanka move away from Chinese influence. When that did not occur, they considered the next option and supported a regime change in 2015.



However, this resulted in a predicament as for nearly two years no nation came forward to help Sri Lankas economic development after the 2015 presidential and general elections. Following this, Sri Lanka had to reconnect with China in a position of weakness. During this period, our economy suffered and now it has fallen to the sixth place among the SAARC countries. This is a result of major strategic competition in the Indian Ocean.



It is important to note that this region is heavily militarized and nuclearized. An example of this militarization is evident from the number of warships that belong to different countries visiting Sri Lankan ports. From 2009-2017, a total of 398 war ships have visited Sri Lankan ports. A breakdown of this is as follows: India  82, Pakistan  24, Japan  67, Bangladesh  23, China  31, USA  18 and Russia  26.



Now we move to Strategic Alliances in the Indian Ocean region. Here, I like to mention three key events/speeches which took place this October. Chinese President Xi Jinpings speech at the Chinese Communist Partys 19th congress, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe winning a landslide election and US Secretary of State Rex Tillersons speech in Washington D.C.



The Chinese president clearly stated that China aspires to be a great power with a modernized military by 2035. However, President Xi stated that China does not have any hegemonic intentions. Prime Minister Abe in Japan has won a two-third majority in recent elections. This can be seen as strengthening Japans focus on a Free and Open Indo-Pacific Oceans policy and a more effective role for Japanese Maritime Self Defence Forces in the Indian Ocean.



Tillersons speech clearly stated that China is now seen as the common adversary of the USA and India. He argued that both India and the USA are two great democracies and thus should have two great militaries. Tillerson also spoke of developing a hundred-year strategic partnership between India and the USA. India also has its neighbourhood first and look east policy, which is favouring the India Japan nexus.



Least integrated region

India has also embarked on the ambitious multi-million-dollar Sagar Mala development project to develop its ports along the eastern and western coasts consistent with the name of the project, which is Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR). India and Japan together have commenced the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor (AAGC), an economic cooperation agreement between the governments of India and Japan to connect Asia with Africa by using Japanese technology and Indian influence in that region.



The USA is also rebalancing its strategy in the Indo-AsiaPacific and envisions that soon it will be called the Indo-Pacific. These strategies could be seen as mainly to counter Chinas Belt and Road Initiative and the China Pakistan Economic Corridor. Then there is the Afghanistan, India and Iran nexus as Pakistans uneasy relations with India, Iran and Afghanistan hold back military and economic cooperation, which has led to obstacles in development of the region.



Meanwhile, India is building two advanced off-shore patrol vessels (AOPV) to strengthen the Sri Lanka Navy and gifted an additional OPV. Japan has indicated that they too will gift two 30-meter patrol craft to Sri Lanka coast guard and would build three 85-meter OPVs in collaboration with Colombo Dockyard Private Limited in Colombo.



Meanwhile, the US also announced that it will gift another Coast Guard cutter to boost naval capabilities in Sri Lanka. Thus, all this attention on Sri Lanka is mainly due to Chinese influence in the country.



It is evident that regional cooperation in the form of SAARC is not moving forward as anticipated, mainly due to the rivalry between India and Pakistan. Even the 19th SAARC Summit planned in Islamabad could not be held. A more recent development is the contest of SAARC vs. BIMSTEC as regional organisations. South Asia can be called the least integrated region due to rivalries among its nations.



However, BIMSTEC has now been given a new lease of life. Its primary focus is on connectivity, economic development and even maritime security. It is significant that India and Japan are keen that BIMSTEC moves forward, focusing more on the Bay of Bengal region as it is relatively peaceful and also as a connector between the Indian and Western Pacific Oceans.



Meanwhile, the Western Indian Ocean is a flash point region with many conflict-prone regions such as Afghanistan, India-Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Iran and even Iraq and Syria.



Lastly, the above dynamics have resulted in a strategic dilemma in the region. Major power rivalry has led to an Undeclared Maritime Cold War in the Indian Ocean, which is heavily militarized and nuclearized. The smaller, less powerful states are compelled to choose between major players and some states try to benefit from both sides or all players in the equation. Some even hedge one against the other, which ends up by hampering economic progress and development in the region. As a result, the South Asian region rates low in Human Indexes. It is important to note that smaller, less-powerful states cannot make decisions based on economics and need to take into account strategic considerations of major powers.



In planning the way forward there have to be certain measures that need to be taken in order to create stability and security in the Indian Ocean region. Thus, there is a need to create trust between states and overcome the trust deficiency. In recent times, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has spoken of a New Indian Ocean Order where there is no hegemony but all are equal partners. In this all-inclusive approach, there may be a code of conduct for a rule-based maritime order.



There is also the question as to whether Indian Ocean Rim Association or Indian Ocean Naval Symposium can be the engine to foster cooperation and collaboration in the Indian Ocean. As to what rules should be followed, the most prudent would be to follow international rules that are established and work towards the common good of the region and its people.



(Admiral Dr. Jayanath Colombage is Director of the Centre for Indo-Lanka Relations of the Pathfinder Foundation)
Not too long ago when economic, social, political circumstances were not too different to what we have now in Sri Lanka there were some individuals who shouted themselves hoarse insisting that Sri Lanka was a failed state. Maybe theyve quite lost their throats now. Maybe selective blindness has deteriorated to complete myopia. At any rate they are silent now, even though theres enough to whine about and indeed they would probably have tried to whine about had it been a different set of crooks, brigands, liars and other miscreants in power.

Sri Lanka was not a failed state then and neither is it now. It was, for reasons of terrorism in the main, a failing state. It was still a failing state post-May 2009 for reasons that had little to do with a war or the purported communal anxiety that engendered the conflict. It was failing because of glaring flaws in the institutional arrangement, beginning from the constitution and including the main branches of the state, namely the legislature, judiciary and the executive. These were not entirely separate as per the ideal, but were flawed in and of themselves.

And yet, for reasons that have little to do with weak words and faulty systems, Sri Lanka has remained a resilient nation and Sri Lankans have proved they are a resilient people. How else can one explain the fact that the country has not gone down to tube despite a thirty-year long war, two insurrections brutally put down, a devastating tsumani, serious calamities both human-made and natural, and the democracy-crippling constitution we have been saddled with for forty years?

We are resilient but we are failing. We are resilient and we arent quite out of the woods; we are lost deep inside, it seems. We have had heroes and Im not talking about only those who were state-agents who made unthinkable sacrifices but all fighting forces who laid down life and took risk to further a cause they believed in. I am talking also of the everyday hero who took and take hits and still refuses to fall, and if fall he/she does nevertheless strives to get up and face the next long day of struggle.

We are heroic in that way, in our daily lives, but theres heroism that goes unnoticed and unsung; heroism that is not about the moment or a this days have-to-do-thing but stuff that is done for the betterment of all, for the correction of systemic flaw. Heroism thats all about recovering sovereignty for each and every citizen.

This is a note, then, about a hero. Nagananda Kodituwakku. Hes a lawyer who is devoted to public interest litigation. He is a man who is vilified in certain circles for reasons that have nothing heroic about them. He has talked of contesting the next presidential election and has frequently stated what kind of constitution he would help enact. And he fights in court almost on a daily basis.

Hes taken the high and might on. The high and mighty in all three branches of the state, let us add. Interestingly, when he took on the judges, three colleagues in the legal profession stood up against him, claiming that lawyers cannot institute legal action against judges.

Now these individuals were not retained by the defendants in the case. One might think that they were upright individuals concerned about the integrity of the entire judicial system. On the other hand, one might suspect that they were in fact buying determination-insurance or offering a maanasika allasa (an emotional bribe). They found, later, a client, the Bar Association; not exactly the paragons of virtue, one should note.

In any event, as Kodituwakku has pointed out, the Latimer House Principles which are often cited in our courts clearly states that no contempt procedures shall be used to restrict legitimate criticism of the performance of judicial function, which is exactly what Kodituwakkus crusade has been all about.

Steps are underway to de-bar Kodituwakku. What the court eventually determines and what the Bar Association does is of course not our business at this point. What concerns us is the allegation of judicial corruption. We live, after all, in a country where judges of the Appeals Court are handpicked and offered the Attorney Generals post and where AGs are made Chief Justices. This is why we mentioned earlier of the lines supposedly separating the branches of the state being blurry and suspiciously so since no action has been taken to obtain clarity.

Kodituwakku has referred to Rule 16 of the United Nations Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers: All Governments shall ensure that lawyers are able to perform all of their professional functions without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference. The man has been subjected to these things.

This is a note, then, about a hero. Nagananda Kodituwakku. Hes a lawyer who is devoted to public interest litigation. He is a man who is vilified in certain circles for reasons that have nothing heroic about them

He also quotes the following from the Latimer House Principles:

Judges are accountable to the Constitution and to the law, which they must apply honestly, independently and with honestly. The principles of judicial accountability and INDEPENDENCE underpins the public confidence in the judicial system and the importance of the judiciary as one of the three pillars upon which a responsible government relies. [Emphasis his]

Will Kodituwakku prevail? When the entire system is challenged and along with it all those who have by omission and commission nurtured wrongdoing, the entire institutional arrangement and its beneficiaries can only be expected to close ranks and fight to retain bread-butter yielding processes.

The system has loopholes. It has devices that can disrupt and demoralize the challenger(s), for example multiple mechanisms for postponement.

Kodituwakku, to his credit, has shown no sign of being stopped by such things. He believes that one of the factors that can help eradicate corruption is a firebrand judiciary committed to protect, vindicate and enforce the judicial power of the people (which) it exercises purely on trust (Article 105), strictly in accordance with the Constitution and the law.

Quoting Lord Justice Denning, Kodituwakku impores, 

Judges cannot afford to be timorous souls. They cannot remain impotent, incapable and sterile in the face of injustice

One individual is not a front, but when that individual is determined, honest, brave and is empowered by the logic of argument and the righteousness of cause, his/hers is not a lone voice in a wilderness. It echoes, it persuades others to take up the cause.

Such an individual is a standard bearer for that which is wholesome, a champion of the citizen and a builder of a better tomorrow.

We cannot let him fight the good fight alone. We let him down and we let ourselves down. We abandon him in the battlefield and we dig a grave for sovereignty, citizenry and nation. Then would we have failed ourselves. Then would we have nudged the nation from failing to failed.

Do we want to be a sovereign nation, or do we want our crippled sovereignty to be felled and then buried? Kodituwakku says no. What do we have to say?

Malinda Seneviratne is a freelance writer. www.malindawords.blogspot.com
Three Sinha Group of Companies, an organisation that strives to break barriers in the roller door industry won the Gold award in Extra Large Category - National Level and the Gold award in Extra Large Category - Western Province at the Sri Lankan Entrepreneur of the year 2017 Awards Ceremony.



The event was organised by the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL). The award was received by Three Sinha Group of Companies Managing Director Manjula Ariyakumara.



Three Sinha has introduced a range of roller door products to the market, namely roller doors, roller shutters, sectional overhead doors, window shutters, fire resistant doors, aluminium fabrications, sensor doors, stainless steel railings, stairways, poly-carbonated canopies, stainless steel pantry cupboards, rack systems, steel buildings, automatic barriers and motor operated sliding gates and swing gates. Three Sinha also has the distinction of being an ISO 9001:2008 certified organisations. Solar power systems and hot water systems are the latest introductions of Three Sinha Group of Companies. Having commenced operations as a small scale industry, Three Sinha has risen to the esteemed ranks of having won several awards at the national and provincial levels. In 2016 Three Sinha Group of Companies was honored with the distinction of being awarded the Manufacturing Excellence title from Sri Lankan Institute of Architects. In 2015 Three Sinha received the Gold medal for Industrial Excellence from The Ceylon National Chamber of Industries (CNCI). They also received the Silver and Bronze awards for Entrepreneur of the Year by the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL).
Sri Lanka to install Smart Condom Vending Machines

Sexuality is part of what makes us human. In addition to its fundamental function of procreation, sex is also about sensual pleasure.

According to psychology, many people long for this physical connection when trying to overcome their sense of alienation, isolation and loneliness.

Although Asians end up with one partner in their life, the drive for sex would be different in people.

In seeking sensual pleasure, people would often opt for unsafe sex methods which would lead to Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) and other complications.

As a means of putting a halt to this phenomenon, various programmes were initiated in Sri Lanka as well.

One such successful venture was the establishment of the Family Planning Association (FPA). While addressing various concerns in relation to sexual life and other matters the FPA has come a long way since its inception. Recently, the FPA introduced a Smart Condom Vending Machine in order to break stereotypes when purchasing the products and to promote the concept of safe sex in a broader perspective.

The Daily Mirror caught up with Thushara Agus, Executive Director of FPA, who shared her views regarding this bold initiative. She also spoke about the stigma associated with sexual matters and their future projects.

Colombo has a night life and one of our main objectives is to prevent the spread of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDS)

Theres a range of condoms and a lubricant available in the machine. We have identified 10 locations within the Colombo city limits where these machines will be installed

The Smart Condom Vending Machine (ingeniously named Vendom) will serve the purpose of purchasing your needs without having to go through the embarrassment

FPA and its services

The FPA was initiated back in 1953 as a volunteer-led organization to address issues pertaining to family planning, as the name suggests. There was a high maternal mortality rate at the time and families used to have more than five children, recalled Thushara. Therefore the FPA responded to this growing concern and by the 1960s the Government took over the activities. The association conducted free family planning services through its maternal and child health programmes and these services are still available to date, she explained.

At present the FPA is an expansive and well-known NGO in the country that has extended its services to Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (SRH) and welfare as well. The FPA believes that reproductive health is a fundamental right of every woman and man in the human life cycle. As such some of the key areas it focuses on includes providing adequate information and services, training and interventions, seeking to improve the acceptability, accessibility and the quality of SRH and to integrate human rights based and gender sensitive approaches.

Although the programme was introduced as a fully-fledged approach, we identified pockets of people who were underserved, says Thushara further elaborating on the need for these services. A vulnerable group included young people who didnt want to have safe sex and sexually active elderly people. Therefore we introduced a programme introducing contraceptive methods such as Prithi and Mithuri which did well in the market. Still theres a stigma revolving around the purchase of condoms. People are unwilling to articulate the name and instead would gesture the sign on the Prithi packet. After repeated results we decided to install the vending machine. One of these machines was installed back in 1980s, but we failed because the machine was vandalised, she reminisced.

Vendom

By the 1980s Sri Lanka wasnt a tech savvy nation to get used to automatic methods of purchasing items. Having a conventional mind-set it wasnt easy to buy a condom over the counter. But times have changed and the vending machine is a timely piece of technology. The Smart Condom Vending Machine (ingeniously named Vendom) will serve the purpose of purchasing your needs without having to go through the embarrassment.

Colombo has a night life and one of our main objectives is to prevent the spread of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDS), stressed Thushara. Consumer markets are getting automated and a local manufacturer came forward to help us in this vending machine venture. Its a cashless transfer and we dont have to worry about another vandalized machine. The customers will be charged a nominal price for their purchases and since its a telephone transaction it will be quite confidential too. Another advantage is that the bill produced will not indicate a description of the purchase.

Theres a range of condoms and a lubricant available in the machine. We have identified 10 locations within the Colombo city limits where these machines will be installed. The next location will be near the National STD Control Programme premises. So far we have been receiving a positive response especially through social media. Once the machine got installed there was a hype created and we are positive about this initiative in our forward march to end AIDS by 2025, she stressed.

With a few simple steps people can now purchase a condom through the machine. To make things easier, the steps are included in all three languages. For the time being, only Dialog customers can make use of this service, but in time to come, other telecommunication services will be introduced. Unprotected sexual activity is the reason behind many STDs and once acquired, patients experience a disturbed social and family life. The machines will also be installed in coastal areas and in places that attracts a vibrant tourist market. As such Galle and Hikkaduwa will be two other locations out of Colombo where these machines will be available in future.

FPA will celebrate 65 years of service next year and we are planning to extend our services in various other areas and make life easy for everyone

Stigma

The topic of sex is never discussed, at least in the Asian context. People prefer to have their intimacies behind closed doors and in an event that any complications arise; they still prefer to remain tightlipped. Inheriting a colonial mind-set, Sri Lankans too are part of this section. As mentioned by Thushara herself, people prefer to gesture a sign rather than ask for a condom when at the counter. When asked about this backwardness in discussing about sex-related matters Thushara said that her view is two-pronged.

The culture prevents us from being open about sexual matters. I see a positive side in this mindset because if we were a sexually liberated society, people would end up having multiple partners and the spread of STDs would have been quite high. In that aspect, the cultural barrier should be given its due credits. Another aspect we need to focus on is that theres an adventurous section of people in our society. They could be women or men. If not protected they will end up having STDs and will also be carriers of these diseases which would be an added risk to the already existing problem, she affirmed.

Speaking further she said that if men have impotence or other sexual dysfunction, they can speak to a doctor. We also have a service called Happy Life where a doctor could be consulted over the phone if you have any problems relating to your sexual life. Callers can be anonymous and their confidentiality is ensured. Therefore I believe that cultural protection is good especially with this increasing urban population, said Thushara.

Comprehensive sexuality education

Speaking about the Comprehensive Sexuality Education programme introduced to the school curriculum Thushara said that the Education Ministry should be given credit for this initiative. I believe that this is quite an effective step towards progress. But theres also a concern about this topic not being delivered to 60% of the students.

This is because sexual education is a component of the health science subject which 60% of students consider as an alternative subject. Therefore only about 40% of students will actually learn it in school.

Hence a lot of improvements need to be done in advocating sexuality education to students. This is one of the main mechanisms which we could use in reducing sexual violence, she added.

The Sectoral Oversight Committee on Women and Gender of the Parliament of Sri Lanka launched a curriculum on Comprehensive Sexuality Education in May this year. The curriculum was piloted to Advanced Level students studying at schools in the Western province with an aim to expand it to other provinces in the future. Through this programme, young people will be able to protect their health, well-being and dignity. Some of its fundamental topics include gender, sexual and reproductive health, HIV and STIs, sexual and reproductive rights, prevention of violence and diversity and relationships.





Counselling services and the way forward

Airing her views about the prevalence of HIV, Thushara said that Sri Lanka had had a low prevalence rate with HIV for the past 30 years. We didnt have a so-called explosion of HIV patients. It was as low as 0.01% of the population. After we came across the first HIV infected patient we took the initiative to promote the concept of contraceptive methods and safe sex approaches. There were various targeted interventions focused on people who were at risk. Through awareness people now know that they can lead a positive life even with HIV. But we always try to prevent people acquiring STDs. As mentioned before, we are working towards ending HIV in 2025 and as such the FPA has taken an active role in this task, she said.

The FPA also conducts counselling services. Through their Alokaya Counselling Centre, the Association provides family counselling which is a crucial area of interest. Others include counselling on sexual matters taken in the form of individual or group sessions along with awareness programmes for the public and even Voluntary Counselling and testing for HIV. The Centre is equipped with counsellors qualified in mental health services.

In her concluding remarks, Thushara said that families need to be together. We see that children and parents are distracted by electronic gadgets, which is not a good sign. The family should maintain its harmony in order to contribute to the overall well-being of its members. Hence, the FPA thrives to be your choice of place to go to in case of an issue concerning your family life. We are geared to provide a holistic approach in countering issues related to SRH services. FPA will celebrate 65 years of service next year and we are planning to extend our services in various other areas and make life easy for everyone, said Thushara.


The Tamil media has recently quoted Deputy Elections Commissioner M.M. Mohamed as saying that the voters who do not use their franchise should be fined as in some other countries. Justifying his suggestion Mr. Mohamed has stated that the State spends through the Election Commission a huge amount of money at elections on the premise that all eligible voters would vote and that a part of it is wasted as many voters do not vote.

No doubt, it would be an utter waste if less people tend to vote at an election as the Elections Commission cannot make arrangements for a less number of voters to vote. They have to assign polling booths, returning officers and other election officials for all voting centres where the election is being held. Ballot boxes have to be provided to them, vehicles have to be arranged to transport them and the personnel while the police have to be deployed to protect the polling centres, ballot boxes and the personnel. And there are so many other requirements that would need a colossal amount of money.

The expenses may vary when the elections are held at the national level and local level or whether when they are being held on the same day or on a staggered basis. But the Election Commission cannot make arrangements with an inference that a less number of voters would vote at a certain election.

But why do people resort to ignore elections is the question that naturally arises. We have witnessed some elections in this country where 80 per cent of voters of certain districts had used their franchise. Sri Lanka is a country full of political enthusiasts, despite the fact that they invariably or repeatedly elect rogues, robbers, rapists, etc. in many areas. If there is a plummeting trend of voting at elections that had prompted Mr. Mohamed to suggest imposing a fine on the voters, it has to be looked into in the light of the recent experience of the people.

If the voters are frustrated about politics that shows they have not achieved what they expected from politics or in other words, they had been taken for a ride by the very politicians they had elected to power at the national and local level. It is a well-known fact that the politics in many countries, including Sri Lanka is a money making business for a section of the society, especially those who are well to do in their localities. People, except for a few leftists enter politics with slogans of public interests but also with personal goals.

There are billionaire politicians who had first came to the Parliament on motorbikes. Drivers of other politicians have become elephant owners after themselves becoming politicians. Refugees who entered politics spend millions at subsequent elections. Sons of politicians who have never done a job suddenly invest billions in business ventures. Revolutionaries who lived on the donations of the party cadre suddenly turn tables and build palaces. Politicians who vowed to eradicate corruption turn to be defenders of multi-billion high profile corruption. Therefore the frustration of any right-thinking voter is comprehensible.

We had Mervyn Silvas who tied public officers to trees with impunity. Even Prince Charles had to intervene to get a politician who had publicly killed a British national and his Russian fiancee gang raped, arrested. We still have politicians who challenge the law of the land by claiming that the government and the police are on their side. The list of events that had frustrated the masses would go into volumes.

People occasionally have cast away the politicians who had robbed them, but replace them with another set of the same breed. They replace Greek bond scammers with Sri Lankan bond scammers. The frustration is justifiable. But people have to blame themselves for the situation as it was they who always elect the rogues as their representatives. Yes, it is they who have to be fined for their own frustration.
This week we are hearing from the Madison Education Partnership (MEP). This post is by Jonathan Mills, Communications Assistant, and Dominique Bradley, Project Manager at MEP.

MEP previously blogged about initial research on kindergarten for 4-year-olds and its potential to close equity gaps , the benefits of research-practice partnership work , and the development and implementation of a no surprises policy.

Todays post is written from the researcher perspective. Stay tuned: Thursday we will share the practitioners perspective.

Since the 2008 Wisconsin state budget offered start up grants to promote four-year-old kindergarten (4K) opportunities, more Wisconsin children are enrolled in 4K than ever before. This statewide increase is also evident in the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD). A collective dedication to serving these students drives the Madison Education Partnership (MEP), a research-practice partnership between the University of Wisconsin-Madisons Center for Education Research (WCER) and MMSD.

Previously, we blogged about MEPs inaugural research brief  a descriptive assessment of enrollment patterns in MMSD four-year-old kindergarten  and the development and enactment of a robust no surprises policy. In this post, we discuss main findings from our subsequent report , just released this week, on the association between enrollment in MMSD 4K and preparation for attendance in kindergarten and how some of these findings tested our no surprises policy.

Our research brief addresses the following research questions:



Is MMSD 4K enrollment associated with higher literacy and socioemotional skills in kindergarten? Do the associations between MMSD 4K enrollment and kindergarten readiness vary across racial/ethnic groups, free/reduced lunch program participation, or parental education? Is 4K site type (school-based or community partner) associated with varying levels of MMSD kindergarten readiness? How does the association between 4K enrollment and kindergarten readiness in MMSD compare to Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), a peer urban district in Wisconsin?

To better understand how to improve the quality of 4K, with a focus on students transition into kindergarten, we conducted a descriptive analysis of school readiness as measured by literacy and socioemotional learning skills. We measured literacy using the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening (PALS) tool and socioemotional skills using teacher evaluations on student report cards.

In internal district reports, MMSD researchers typically focus on whether or not children meet a specific benchmark on PALS. Recognizing that benchmark analysis could mask the substantial variation in students phonological skills, we instead examined the full range of PALS scores across student cohorts from 2013 to 2016. We characterize findings by referring to the percentage of otherwise similar children a child with a particular characteristic would be expected to outscore on PALS. As a point of reference, the typical child outscores half of other similar children.

Overall, we find that children who attend MMSD 4K outscore 54% of otherwise similar students in literacy skills upon entering kindergarten. We find evidence of a very modest association (about 3 percentage points increase) between enrollment in 4K and the probability of engaging in consistently positive prosocial classroom behavior most of the time. We also find that among students enrolled in 4K, students of color, students from low-income households, and those whose parents have no post-secondary education enter kindergarten with appreciably stronger literacy skills than similar students who did not attend 4K. This finding suggests that the MMSD 4K program serves as an important equity-enhancing program for the district.

As with our previous report on enrollment in MMSD 4K, we sought to provide context for the district through an analytic comparison to other similar districts. As a condition of our use of the PALS data, and unlike our previous report on 4K enrollment , we were required to have consent from comparison districts to conduct the analysis. Given those constraints, our comparison district for this report was Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS). Though there are differences in the composition and context of MPS and MMSD, they are the two largest urban districts in Wisconsin and serve a more racially and economically diverse population of students than most other districts in the state. Based on our comparative analysis of students PALS scores, we find that 4K students in MPS were experiencing a sizable advantage in literacy skills upon entry to kindergarten over MMSD 4K students entering kindergarten, net of student or family characteristics.

Clearly these results were a mixed bag for our partnering district. Though we found that enrollment in MMSDs 4K program was indeed associated with gains in literacy and socioemotional skills, the comparative analysis highlighted the potential of 4K programming and the fact that the district still has work to do to fully realize that potential. In the weeks leading up to the public release, we relied heavily on our internal research brief process map and the conditions of our no surprises policy, both of which had been strengthened during the release of our previous enrollment report. In the spirit of the partnership, prior to public release of our report, we met with district leadership and key program personnel. These meetings gave the district the opportunity to digest the report findings, ask clarifying questions, and develop an internal strategy for reacting to the public release.

In Thursdays blog post, we will hear from the district about the importance and implications of these findings.

For more detailed findings on all of the research questions, find the full report here .

Photo courtesy of Madison Metropolitan School District.
69th commemoration of the International Human Rights Day

The National Action Plan for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights 2017 - 2021 (NHRAP) was launched last month at the Parliamentary complex. The five-year plan focuses on the key areas namely; civil, social, cultural, labour, environment, economic and political rights, prevention of torture and the rights of women, children, internally displaced persons, returning refugees, migrant workers and persons with disabilities.

A Cabinet appointed Inter-Ministerial Committee spearheaded the National Action Plan. Government, civil society organizations, the National Human Rights Commission, United Nations agencies, INGOs and academics have been consulted in the formulation of the National Action Plan. While this Plan is commended for the inclusion of progressive activities in relation to promoting human rights it remains a question as to whether the Plan would be translated into reality.

At the 69th commemoration of the International Human Rights Day held at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute and organized by Right to Life- Human Rights Center, civil society groups and independent commissions expressed their views on the NHRAP and the status of human rights in the country at present.

A special unit within NPC for complaints on torture

-Prabath Lakshman Wijetunga

Director Public Complaint Investigation Department of the National Police Commission

To the surprise of the audience Director Public Complaint Investigation Department of the National Police Commission Prabath Lakshman Wijetunga, said that it was the invitation from Right to Life to attend the commemoration that presented an opportunity to inform the NPC of the National Action Plan. According to him some Government institutions were still not aware of the NHRAP.

Meanwhile the NHRAP states that a special unit will be established within the NPC to record, investigate, take disciplinary action and refer for prosecution complaints on torture. Wijetunga said that work on this has already commenced.

Under Article 155, as amended by the 19th Amendment, the NPC can establish procedures to entertain and investigate public complaints made against a police officer or the police service and provide redress as provided by law. If we find a police officer guilty we take disciplinary action against that individual, he said.

When investigating into complaints on torture we have found that most victims had been involved in the illegal drug trade. Sometimes the complainant does not cooperate

Since the establishment of the NPC on 14 October, 2015 it has received 467 complaints in 2015, 1879 in 2016 and around 1400 so far in 2017. We have taken disciplinary action against 76 police officers. Preliminary investigations have been initiated against 25 police officers, said Wijetunga.

He assured that as soon as they received a complaint on torture they had acted promptly. We go to the police station where it is alleged that the torture took place and inspect the place. We inquire into how the person was arrested, he said.

Under the Torture Act, torture can be either physical or psychological, he said. A person who has been subjected to torture will be removed immediately and hospitalized. We have the power to extract statements and investigate into such allegations.

When investigating into complaints on torture we have found that most victims had been involved in the illegal drug trade. Sometimes the complainant does not cooperate.

This is because they want to continue with the trade and they believe that an investigation would impede their opportunity of reassuming the trade. Then we are helpless because we cant proceed with investigations, he said.

Chapter on economic, social and cultural rights is weak

-Dr. Deepika Udagama

Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission(HRC)

Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission(HRC), Dr. Deepika Udagama stressed that many activities in the National Action Plan were progressive. However, she admitted that the chapter on economic, social and cultural rights was weak. But plans about womens rights, torture, civil and political rights are very strong, she said.

Most of these areas in the NHRAP will fall under the eight thematic sub committees under the HRC. For instance, there are committees for womens rights, ESC rights, torture etc. Every committee comprises Human Rights Commissioners and civil societies, she explained.

We dont know what happened to the previous National Action Plan. We hope that the 2017-2021 Action Plan will not share the same fate as that of its predecessor. It is the responsibility of the citizens to ensure this, she said.

Dr.Udagama said that there was a great improvement in the state of human rights in the country. However, she highlighted the inexplicable delays in certain matters such as ending impunity.

She further observed that the silence of the wise and just was detrimental to a democracy.

You cant just vote and stay aside. No democracy has been strengthened in this manner, she observed.

NHRAP must be more accessible to people at large

-Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu

Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA)

Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu said that the NHRAP was a reflection of the change that has taken place in the area of human rights in the country since 2015. But he queried as to whether the change has been used to strengthen human rights.

Have we done our (civil society) bit? Or are we assuming that it is adequate to make plans and pass laws and all we have to do is watch and criticize? he further quizzed.

From 2012 onwards weve had successive resolutions on this country. These resolutions began almost as appeals to the Government. The very first resolution on Sri Lankan asked to implement the LLRC recommendations. We all contributed towards making that change. Now citizens cant take a break. They cant go on holiday. Citizens have to be eternally vigilant. They have to always express their rights, fight for their rights and protect their rights, he said.

My appeal is that we have to make this Human Rights Action Plan more accessible to people at large. People need to know what is inside this, he said.

He said that the Right to Information legislation should be used to ensure that the Government departments, the various ministries and commissions were performing their duties as expected. At a recently held UNESCO conference on Regional Cooperation to Promote Freedom of Expression and the Rule of Law in Asia through Ending Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, the issue on the numerous attacks against the Uthayan newspaper was raised. The Minister of Law and Order in response said that he didnt know about them and asked for a list, and it was given to him. These are the ridiculous things that are happening, pointed out Dr. Saravanamuttu.

He further explained that transitional justice and constitutional reform go hand in hand. He pointed out that though four mechanism were promised in relation to transitional justice only one mechanism is to be operationalised. We are just about to get one (Office on Missing Persons). The others probably not. I think constitutional reform is stuck at the moment, he said.

I was secretary to a Task Force on public consultation with regard to reconciliation. We were appointed by the Government. We were asked to find out from the citizens of the country what they thought about the four mechanisms the Government promised in Geneva. How can we go and ask people about the four mechanisms when they dont know anything about them?, he asked

He said that at a private meeting with the President they were told that if transitional justice became the focus, constitutional reform will not take place due to the fear that war heroes will be penalized.

There are lots of changes that can be made which dont require a two thirds majority in Parliament or a referendum, he pointed out.

He stressed that human rights should be upheld for democracy to be preserved. We need to establish a culture of human rights, he said.



(Pix by Nisal Baduge (11.12.2017)
Most teachers can recall specific moments in the classroom that stand outones that provoke reflection or teach lessons or are a prominent reminder of their works importance.

In a new podcast series released last week , the 2017 State Teachers of the Year share their education epiphanies. Leading from the Classroom is a storytelling effort coordinated by the nonprofit organization NWEA in collaboration with the Council of Chief State School Officers, which runs the National Teacher of the Year program.

The teachers hail from states across the country, including the District of Columbia, or work for the Department of Defense schools overseas. Each state has its own annual selection process for choosing a teacher to receive recognition for excellence in teaching. The program then brings the teachers together for a year of professional-learning opportunities. From that group, a committee also chooses a National Teacher of the Year.

Now, 45 episodes will broadcast these teachers insights and stories with the aim to inspire other educators. The series is rolling out new episodes on a weekly basis through the end of January. Each story captures one teacher sharing his or her challenges, joys, and the moments that have crystallized the importance of teaching for him or her. Some focus on the larger policy implications of their work; others discuss more personal moments with students or share childhood stories.

For the podcasting process, many of the teachers drafted their stories together and got feedback from one another before recording. In one episode, Derek Voiles, Tennessees Teacher of the Year, discusses how the student-teacher relationship is at the core of a successful classroomespecially for students who experience difficulties outside of school. His experience mentoring one student in particular, he says, highlights the need to do the extra thing that goes beyond work in the classroom.

By choosing to mentor a student through lunches and check-ins, he was able to guide him to a place where school wasnt just one more thing he had to do on the checklist, says Voiles, who is a language arts teacher at Lincoln Heights Middle School in Morristown, Tenn. Now Im getting to see classrooms from east Tennessee to west Tennessee. That perspective of how big and vast our education system is and how diverse it looks from school to school really is something that continues to grow your mindset and spark your curiosity.

In another segment, Indiana Teacher of the Year Jitka Nelson draws on her personal background to explain why she decided to go into teaching. Nelson was a former English-language learner herself before becoming an EL/ELA teacher and developmental reading instructor at Logansport High School in Logansport, Ind. In her year of service for the state, she is taking a sabbatical from the classroom to share expertise on teaching English-language learners with colleges of education and preparing a leadership summit, among other responsibilities. Her podcast explains how teachers can better teach their own ELL students.

I experienced firsthand the journey one travels when taking the first baby steps in an unknown environment, trying to fit in, not knowing how, and speaking without being heard, Nelson wrote in an email to Education Week Teacher. There is an unlimited potential and talent these students bring to our classrooms, but they need guidance until they develop their own voice.

Sydney Chaffee, a Boston public charter school educator who is the 2017 National Teacher of the Year, is visiting classrooms around the country and abroad as part of her role. She chose to share about her work with schools in Ethiopia and hopes the stories will remind teachers that they have support and connection in the broader education community.

Theres such value in sharing our stories as teachers, said Chaffee. Theres this way in which teaching can feel isolating and lonely because its just us in that classroom. We can forget that were part of this incredible community of people from all over the country. To be reminded of all the challenging and beautiful moments we have in common keeps us going when the work gets hard.

Listen to the full series , and let us know your defining moments. For more stories, check out insights from last years Teachers of the Year .

Image: Toni Poling, West Virginias 2017 Teacher of the Year, records her story. Courtesy of NWEA.

(Correction: A previous version of this story misidentified the teacher and her home state in the photo.)
This blog is looking for wisdom, to have and to share. It is also looking for other rare character traits like good humor, courage, and honor. It is not an easy road, because all of us fall short. But God is love, forgiveness and grace. Those who believe in Him and repent of their sins have the promise of His Holy Spirit to guide us and show us the Way.
Conservationist Makes a Great Gift

Conservationist subscriptions are only $12 for 7 issues or $21 for 14 issues! As an added bonus, Conservationist for Kids is included up to three times per year, and your gift recipient(s) will also receive the enhanced Digital Edition of Conservationist if you provide their email address. Subscribe for yourself, or give the Conservationist as a gift.

Please note - We are currently unable to process credit card payments. We apologize for the inconvenience. We will bill you and can only accept checks or money orders at this time.

Conservationist magazine is a New York State-focused publication that will take your breath away. Astonishingly beautiful photography and rock-solid educational articles are staples of the magazine. Articles cover a broad range of environmental and natural history related topics. If it's happening in New York's environment, we've got it covered. Published six times a year, Conservationist is truly New York State's own. Conservationist is a favorite of grandparents, students, teachers, and anyone who takes an interest in New York's great outdoors.

So be sure to purchase a Conservationist Gift Subscription now. (leaves DEC website)

Click on either of the images below to download a gift card (PDF) for you to print and give to your recipient(s). The first image opens a generic gift card and the second opens a holiday-themed gift card.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) said on Tuesday that five telecom firms including Tata Teleservices, Telenor and Videocon among others have understated revenues by over Rs 14,800 crore.

New Delhi: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) said on Tuesday that five telecom firms including Tata Teleservices, Telenor and Videocon among others have understated revenues by over Rs 14,800 crore, resulting in a short fall of nearly Rs 2,578 crore to the exchequer. The CAG said that the Centre was paid Rs 1,015.17 crore less in licence fee, Rs 511.53 crore in spectrum usage charge, and Rs 1,052.13 crore as interest applicable on delay in payment. The operators audited are Tata Teleservices, Telenor, Videocon Telecom, Qaudrant (a Videocon group firm) and Jio.

To sum up the verification of records of five PSPs (private sector players) by audit indicated total understatement of AGR of Rs 14,813.97 crore for the period up to 2014-15 and consequent short payment of revenue share on Government of India to the tune of Rs 1,526 crore. The interest due on the short paid revenue share, for the period up to March 2016 was Rs 1,052.13 crore, said CAG in a report tabled in Parliament.

The New Telecom Policy (NTP-99) introduced the revenue sharing model in the telecom sector. Under this system, telecom licencees were required to share a percentage of their adjusted gross revenue with the government as annual license fee (LF). In addition, operators were also required to pay spectrum usage charges for the use of spectrum allotted to them. The CAG said the Centres collection from Tata Teleservices is short of Rs 1,893.6 crore, Telenor - Rs 603.75 crore, Videocon - Rs 48.08 crore, Quadrant - Rs 26.62 crore and Jio - Rs 6.78 crore for LF, SUC and applicable charges.

The CAG findings are based on the audit of Tata Teleservices and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd from FY11 to FY15; Quadrant Televentures (FY07 to FY15); Videocon Telecom (FY10 to FY15); Telenor (FY10 to FY15) and Jio Infocomm from FY13 to FY15.
Mumbai: After Padmavati release got indefinitely postponed due to protests from fringe groups, another December release could also face opposition.

Raj Thackerays Maharashtra Navnirman Sena has threatened to stall the release of Salman Khan-Katrina Kaif starrer Tiger Zinda Hai if prime time threatre slots for Marathi film Deva are not made available, according to a report in The Times of India.

Ameya Khopkar, chief of the partys film cell, has written a letter to film exhibitors warning them that the party workers would take to the streets and corner theatres if the Marathi film is not accommodated.

Another Marathi film 'Gachchi' is also on the look-out for screens, according to reports.

We are here to serve the cause of Marathi...We urge you to co-exist peacefully with Marathi filmmakers. If you fail to understand this language of reconciliation, then we will have to talk to you in our special language, Khopkar warned.

We want the state government to end the misery of Marathi filmmakers. We will start our stir if the government fails to take action against the makers of Tiger Zinda Hai, senior MNS functionary said.

Khopkar has also written to the minister for cultural affairs Vinod Tawde, who was quoted as saying, The government has already set rules and norms for prime time slot for Marathi cinema. If there is violation, the government will step in and take stern action.

However, film exhibitors are reportedly keen to go ahead with their earlier decision. The daily quoted a suburban theatre manager saying, It is impossible to pull out a Salman Khan film, which has come like a ray of sunshine at the end of the year. He has the largest fan following among any star in India, so the first three days are always housefull. Moreover, we have had bleak collections in the past two months with not a single picture doing good business. Padmavati was due to release on December 1, but it has been deferred as well. At this rate, we will have to close down.

He also hoped that the police and state government take steps to protect them, in case a violent situation breaks out.

The MNS had have a long history of disrupting films. Karan Johars films Wake Up Sid and Ae Dil Hai Mushkil both had run-ins with the party, the former for using Bombay instead of Mumbai in a dialogue and latter for featuring Pakistani actor Fawad Khan after crumbling of Indo-Pak ties following attacks in Uri last year.

Their opposition against Pakistani actors continued when Mahira Khan starred in Raees. The matter, however, cooled down after Shah Rukh Khan called on Raj Thackeray.
Mumbai: Arjun Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra are currently undergoing the most challenging shooting schedule of their career. Dibakar Banerjee has taken the lead actors of his directorial, Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar, to shoot at the international border of India and Nepal that is constantly under radar for illegal immigration.

Dibakar is filming extremely intense and gritty portions of the film at the Indo-Nepal border. The portions will show the tension between Arjun and Parineetis character. These are crucial and defining moments of the film. The area where the two are shooting is exactly at the border and is constantly under alert for illegal immigration and smuggling. People use an inflated rubber tube as a flotation device on the Kali river at the border and make this risky crossing in the thick of a wintry night. So, shooting has been quite difficult. Local authorities have been of tremendous help providing the crew with assistance and necessary security, informs a source.

This new information builds more intrigue for this thriller! What are Arjun and Parineeti exactly shooting at this risky area? What does it have to do with this films plot? Knowing Dibakar, is he exploring smuggling with the two lead characters of the film? Guess we wont know these details anytime soon.

Meanwhile, the shooting schedules of Yash Raj Films Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar have been an adventure in many ways. The films crew was previously shooting in an Uttarakhand village, Jhulaghat, which will soon be immersed underwater because of the construction of a dam. Dibakars film will end up being the only film to have a visual record of this quaint town that will be first evacuated and then submerged under water.

The entertaining thriller, Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar, is set to release on August 3, 2018.
CHENNAI: Their mentor and Mozart of Madras, A.R.Rahman had won two Oscars in 2009 for the film Slumdog Millionaire for Best Original Score and Best Original Song. Now, an ensemble of student musicians from AR Rahmans music academy KM Music Conservatory - A.H. Kaashif, Jerry Silvester Vincent and N. D Santhosh of Qutub-E-Kirpaa -have been shortlisted for the Best Original Song at the 2018 Academy Awards.

The three numbers shortlisted from the Hollywood film Lake of Fire directed by Raj Thiru Selvan include I ll be Gone, Have you Ever Wondered and Well Party All Night.

Qutub-E-Kirpaa, who had been co-credited with A. R. Rahman for the background scores of O Kadhal Kanmani and 24, have now been working in 2017 Shankars high budget venture starring Rajinikanth, Akshay Kumar 2.0.

An excited Fathima Rafiq, Director of KM Conservatory and sister of ARR said, Being the beginning of the 10th year of KM Academy, I feel so happy and blessed to know that our students compositions have been short listed for 90th Oscars . We sent 3 songs and the background score of the movie. We were surprised to know that all are short-listed. The director Raj Thiruselvan was very encouraging and he was mentioning that we would go to Oscars and Grammy all the time during the recording. His positive words have brought us to this level.

She adds, My brother and principal DR A. R. Rahman is the man behind this success he wanted to give a platform to the younger generation and also made it through the production company Qutub E Kirpaa . This is the beginning and we are hoping we will get more opportunities and success by the grace of God.

Apparently A.H Kaashif is Rahmans nephew and Fathimas son. Talking about his effort she said, Kaashif did the number Ill be gone which is a love song and the melody was very smooth. Riangali Bowmick has sung the song. Kaashif always comes and asks me to hear the tune once he composes. I give him the feedbacks. This opportunity was director Rajs choice. He heard the Po Po single of him and he insisted Kaashif does one song in this movie.

Rahmans yet another sister and composer Isshrathquadhre who has also composed the motivational song Kanavugal Palithidum in Lake of Fire says, I feel extremely happy that my team members have been short-listed at the Oscars. All the 6 composers have done hard work and now you are seeing its results. The director of the movie was very confident that our compositions would make it at Oscars. It has come to the first level. All credits goes to my anna Rahmanji as they are all products of his school.
A CCTV grab of Ramakrishnappa assaulting the headmistress in her office.

BENGALURU: A former JD(S) worker assaulted a school head mistress by barging into her chamber in a private school allegedly for not paying the interest for the money she had borrowed last year.

The incident has taken place in Rajanakunte police station limits in Doddaballapur on Monday afternoon.

The accused, Ramakrishnappa, used to be a JD(S) worker and is now a realtor.

The CCTV footage shows Ramakrishnappa barging inside the room and abusing her, after which she requests and promises him to repay the money by next week.

He starts slapping her repeatedly and then removes a rope from his pocket and continues beating her. He also snatches her phone, when she tries to make a call.

Asha, a resident of Rajanakunte, and the head mistress of a private school said that she had borrowed Rs 70,000 at 10 per cent interest from Ramakrishnappa, to meet school expenses. She had paid the interest for eight months and returned Rs 50,000.

She was, however, finding it difficult managing the school as it was facing funds crunch. She couldnt pay him the interest from past four months and had sought time.

For the past two weeks Ramakrishnappa had been calling and abusing her. He also threatened her that he would kidnap her if she failed to repay.

On Monday afternoon, he entered her chamber and physically assaulted her. She immediately filed a complaint in Rajanakunte police station.

Ramakrishnappa went absconding and the police summoned Janaradhan, a youth president for BJP Yuva morcha and Ramakrishnappas son to question about his whereabouts.

Many BJP workers from Yelahanka mistook that their leader was being arrested and gathered near the police station.

The Rajanakunte police have registered a case and are on lookout for the accused.
Chennai: Police on Tuesday recovered the body of a man with slit injuries on his throat off Canal road in Korattur. Police suspect the man to be in his early 30s and a victim of murder. The identity of the deceased is yet to be ascertained.

Locals who passed by the road found the body with injuries near the Tasmac outlet and informed the police.

Korattur police rushed to the scene on information and secured the body. It was sent to the Rajiv Gandhi government general hospital for autopsy.

CCTV footages in the neighbourhood are being perused to find leads, police said. Police suspect the man to have been assaulted as a result of a drunk brawl and left to die. However, other police stations in the city have been informed to check for missing person complaints in their jurisdiction over the past week.

Police said that it was also possible that the man might have been murdered elsewhere and his body dumped in Korattur. Further investigations are on.
SALEM: In yet another sensational chase-and-nab-episode that lasted for nearly two hours, special police teams from Salem and Namakkal districts apprehended six members of a killer-gang near Paramathi Velur in Namakkal district. The assailants, all said to be hired killers from Thoothukudi district down south, had while fleeing after brutally attacking two others near Mettur in Salem district earlier this afternoon, attacked the police party pursuing them. But the special police teams, led by Namakkal district SP, A. Arlarasu, determinedly gave a hot chase and nabbed all six of them.

The gang members had earlier mercilessly hacked one 43-year-old Amrithraj and his friend Murali, who were waiting at a roadside hotel in Cauvery cross area near Mettur after ordering food. Suddenly, the six-member masked gang encircled them, attacked the duo with deadly weapons .

While Amrithraj has five cases pending against him, the motive for the killer gang's strike today was not immediately known, police said.

However, Omalaur DSP, Mr. Bhaskaran, rushed to the incident spot and immediately launched a hunt for the fleeing gang by alerting all near check-posts. After an hour's effort, the cops were able to first intercept the gang at Oonchampalayam village, leading to the subsequent hot chase by the special police teams.
The Delhi High Court has also ordered inspection of the ashram's building, housing male staff, to check whether any minor boy was kept confined there.

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday ordered CBI probe into an ashram in north Delhi where girls and women were allegedly kept in illegal confinement.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar asked the CBI Director to set up a special investigation team forthwith and seize all records pertaining to FIRs lodged in connection with alleged rape and suicides of the girls there.

On Tuesday, the high court had asked the police to conduct an inspection of the ashram, 'Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya' in Rohini in the capital saying it was "extremely dangerous" that girls and women have been allegedly kept in illegal confinement in the name of preaching about God.

The high court-appointed panel has told the court that they were assaulted and confined for nearly an hour by some ashram inmates when it went to inspect the premises on Tuesday.

It also informed the court that over 100 girls kept there in confinement and most of them are minors.

The high court also ordered inspection of the ashram's building, housing male staff, to check whether any minor boy was kept confined there.

The panel alleged that the girls in the 'Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya' were in animal-like condition behind iron grills and surrounded by barbed-wire topped walls.

It also tells the court that the girls have no privacy even while bathing.

The court had on Tuesday ordered that the inspection should be video-graphed and Delhi Commission for Women's chief Swati Maliwal should also accompany the police.

The bench had further directed Virender Dev Dixit, referred to as the founder and spiritual head of the Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya at A-1/351-352, Vijay Vihar, in North Delhi's Rohini to cooperate with the police during the inspection drive.

Dixit has been arrayed as a party in the petition filed by an NGO, Foundation for Social Empowerment, which informed the court that several minors and women were allegedly being illegally confined at the "spiritual university" at Rohini in New Delhi and are not allowed to meet their parents.

It informed the court that a couple had lodged a rape complaint with the police, but no FIR had been registered till date.

The NGO has alleged that girls were in confinement at the "university" for 14 years and more.

While producing one girl in the court, who, the NGO claimed, had managed to get out of the premises, it alleged that she was raped during her stay there, which she has not even disclosed to her parents.

The NGO also alleged that girls confined at the ashram have committed suicide in the past, but police never registered a case in this regard.
The colleges have since approached the court demanding that INC restore their recognition, but with the verdict still pending students are getting restive. (Photo: DC)

BENGALURU: While the tussle between the state government and the Indian Nursing Council (INC) continues, nursing students are worried their future could be at stake as they could have a hard time finding placements. outside the state or abroad.

It all started in December 2016 when the state government ordered that INC approval was not mandatory for nursing colleges in Karnataka and they needed recognition only from the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) and the Karnataka State Nursing Council (KNC).

Seeing the Karnataka nursing institutions taking their own decisions and paying no attention to its norms, the INC removed them from the list of its recognised colleges on its portal in May this year and did the same when it updated its website on November 15. In the absence of INC recognition students are afraid they may get no jobs outside Karnataka or abroad. The colleges have since approached the court demanding that INC restore their recognition, but with the verdict still pending students are getting restive. Some are even considering quitting their courses in Karnataka and applying to colleges in other states.

"Our parents have been asking us to discontinue our course here and apply to other colleges outside the state. But some of us are planning to stay on at least till the end of the academic year," said Ms Anju, a first year student.

Added a final year student, Ms Reena from Kerala, "The colleges had promised us that the issue would be resolved in court and we would graduate as INC recognised nurses. But forget about going abroad, the current situation stops us from even getting placed in hospitals in our hometowns."

Besides placements, nursing students are having a tough time getting loans from banks for their courses in the absence of INC recognition for their colleges. "This is causing us tremendous agony as it a matter of money which we need for our education," said a few students.

Dr A.T.S. Giri, prinicipal of Goutham College of Nursing said the colleges had advised students to request the bank authorities to approach the INC directly to certify them as bonafide nursing students. "As the matter is still in court, we are advising the students to wait a while before taking a final call. As educators and workers in this social sector, we are hopeful of a student-friendly decision from the court," he added.
Karnan had earned the dubious distinction of becoming the first sitting high court judge to have been sentenced to jail. (Photo: ANI/Twitter)

Kolkata: Former Calcutta High Court judge C S Karnan was on Wednesday released from jail after serving six-month term awarded by SC for contempt

of Court.

Karnan was arrested from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu on June 20 after he evaded the police for over a month.

Karnan had earned the dubious distinction of becoming the first sitting high court judge to have been sentenced to jail.

The apex court had sentenced him to six months in jail for contempt of court on May 9. Karnan was a serving judge of the Calcutta High Court at that time.

A seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice of India J S Khehar, had asked the West Bengal director general of police (DGP) to take Karnan, who was on a warpath with the apex court for months, into custody.

The Supreme Court had earlier issued a bailable warrant against the judge to secure his presence before it in connection with the contempt case.

Karnan had appeared before the apex court on March 31, a first in the country's judicial history, and asked for restoration of his powers as a pre-condition for his re- appearance, but the plea was rejected.

Karnan, who had enrolled as an advocate with the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu in 1983, was appointed a judge of the Madras High Court in 2009. He was transferred to the Calcutta High Court on March 11, 2016.

He was transferred from the Madras High Court for his repeated allegations against and run-ins with the then chief justice and fellow judges of the court.
The Congress chief, who vigorously campaigned in Gujarat, said in three months the state and its people taught him one thing that one can defeat opponents only with love and brotherhood, and not anger, money or force. (Photo: PTI/File)

New Delhi/Mumbai: The Gujarat poll outcome sparked a political war of words on Tuesday with Congress president Rahul Gandhi calling it a "massive jolt" to the BJP, drawing ridicule from the ruling party that he was "enjoying defeat as

victory" under an illusion.

The BJP win by a reduced margin on Monday also led its key ally Shiv Sena to launch a stinging attack on its senior partner, saying it was a "warning bell" to those who believed in an autocratic rule and that "the much-touted Gujarat model

has shaken."

Gandhi also hit out at Modi's Gujarat model of development, calling it "good propaganda and able marketing", but which is "hollow from within."

The BJP fought off a strong challenge from Congress to win the Gujarat assembly polls for the sixth straight time since 1995.

The BJP won 99 seats in the 182-member assembly, down from 115 it won in 2012, and far lower than the 150-plus seats it had hoped for. It is also for the first time that the BJP's tally slipped below the 100 mark since the party formed its

maiden government on its own in 1995. The Congress, spearheaded by Gandhi, won 77 seats, up by 16 seats.

Gandhi also raised questions about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's credibility after he led his party to a narrow victory in his home state. He claimed the Gujarat results indicated that the country was not listening to Modi any more and took a dig at his Gujarat model of development.

"I came to know there (in Gujarat) that people actually do not accept Modiji's model. It was thought that the Congress will not be able to fight the BJP in Gujarat...You saw the results and it has dealt a 'zabardast jhatka' (a massive jolt) to the BJP in Gujarat," Gandhi told reporters in Delhi.

The new Congress president called the poll outcome a "very good result" and a moral victory for his party. "We lost, but we could have won...but fell short by a small margin.

"A big question has been raised on Modiji's credibility. Frankly, Modiji has a credibility problem and he will find it very difficult... Because what he is saying, his forces and his organisation are repeating that. But the country is not listening to that. This, the Gujarat election has shown. In the coming times, you will see

this clearly," he said.

Talking of credibility, he said while Modi spoke "non-stop" about corruption, he never uttered a word about Jay Shah (BJP chief Amit Shah's son) or Rafale fighter jet deal, which the Congress claims was against the country's interest

and encouraged crony capitalism.

"The country wants to know that you talked non-stop of corruption. Jay Shah, son of Amit Shah, turned Rs 50,000 into 80 crore in three months, there has been a scam in Rafale deal, why don't you talk of this. This is the credibility issue," he said.

Gandhi said Gujarat sent out a message to the BJP and Modi that the "anger" within them would not work.

The Congress chief, who vigorously campaigned in Gujarat, said in three months the state and its people taught him one thing that one can defeat opponents only with love and brotherhood, and not anger, money or force.

Mahatma Gandhi told this to the country and this feeling is embedded deeply in Gujarat.

"Gujarat has given a message to Modi ji and the BJP that the anger within you will not help you and love will defeat it," he said.

To a question about Modi's assertion that the BJP's win was an endorsement of his development agenda and economic reforms like the GST, the Congress president said, "It is strange as in his poll speeches he did not talk about development, nor about GST and note ban."

Responding to Gandhi's attack, senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar claimed the poll outcome had actually jolted the Congress.

"We (the BJP) won both state Assembly elections and in Gujarat for the sixth time. Actually this is a jolt for the Congress," Javadekar told reporters shortly after Gandhi's attack on Modi and the BJP.

The Union minister also alleged that the Congress tried to adopt divisive politics in Gujarat. However, people put their faith in Modi and in his development agenda, he said.

Javadekar said he was amused to hear that the Congress president had described the results as a big jolt to the BJP.

"It seems Rahul is under the illusion and enjoying defeat as victory. This shows his dynastic arrogance and is an insult to the people's mandate," he said.

Reacting sharply to Gandhi's remark raising questions on Modi's credibility, Javadekar said it was the Congress which was losing its credibility among the people in the country, because of which, he added, the party was losing election

after election.

The Sena attack on the BJP came in an editorial in its mouthpiece 'Saamana'. The Sena said the BJP had "barely managed to pass" the electoral exam but was pretending to have passed with distinction.

The BJP won Gujarat and Himachal, but the Congress also did not lose, the editorial said.

This election result in Gujarat is a "warning bell for those who believe in an autocratic rule," the Sena said.
The plea contends that kids and adolescents must also know about safe sex and must be given sex education. (File photo)

Jaipur: The Rajasthan High Court issued a notice to the central government on Wednesday seeking to know the reasons behind its decision to bar airing of condom advertisements on TV channels between 6 am and 10 pm.

A bench of Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice DC Somani issued the notice while hearing a petition filed by an NGO against the Government's order.

In an advisory to all television channels on December 11, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry asked them to not air condom advertisements between 6 am and 10 pm, as these "could be indecent/inappropriate for viewing by children".

The NGO claimed that the action of the ministry was against the interest of public. It also claimed the move showed the "hypocritical approach" of the government.

The Government is on the one hand promoting family planning and awareness about AIDS and STD, but on the other, it is obstructing dissemination of condom advertisements that are crucial for family planning, reducing abortion deaths and awareness about HIV-AIDS and STD (sexually transmitted diseases), petition said.

The plea contends that kids and adolescents must also know about safe sex and they be given sex education. "There is not an iota of reason as to how an advertisement for condom is an unhealthy practice," it noted.

Earlier, the ministry said that it was brought to its notice that some channels repeatedly carried advertisements of condoms, which were allegedly indecent, especially for children.

It referred to Rule 7(7) of the Cable Television Networks Rules 1994, which says, "No advertisement which endangers the safety of children or create in them any interest in unhealthy practices or shows them begging or in an undignified or indecent manner shall not be carried in the cable service".

It also cited Rule 7(8) that states, "indecent, vulgar, suggestive, repulsive or offensive themes or treatment shall be avoided in all advertisements". The ministry asked TV channels to broadcast the advertisement only between 10 pm and 6 am.
New Delhi: India will take up at the highest level in the Pakistan government reports of Sikhs being forced to convert to Islam by a government official in Khyber- Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said on Tuesday.

Her reaction came after a Pakistan daily, The Express Tribune, published a story about the Sikh community raising serious concerns after being forced to convert to Islam by the government official in Hangu district of K-P.

We will take this up at the highest level with the Government of Pakistan, Swaraj tweeted.

According to the report, the community has lodged a complaint with the deputy commissioner, claiming assistant commissioner Tehsil Tall Yaqoob Khan was allegedly forcing Sikhs to convert to Islam. Replying to another tweet about a man in Punjab trying to get body of his son, who was shot dead in Manila, Swaraj said the government was seized of the case.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The parents of the plus-two student who was dismissed from St Thomas Central School, Thiruvananthapuram, for a prolonged hug of a junior girl have decided to challenge the single bench order of the High Court which upheld the decision of school authorities. The court had also quashed the interim order of the child rights commission which held the schools decision to expel the two students illegal. We have decided to challenge the order before the division bench, the students father, who has quit his job to provide emotional support to his son, told DC. We will fight for my sons right to education and right to privacy as the school authorities hacked his Instagram account despite privacy settings. The boy is now preparing for his board exams.

The row over the expulsion erupted last week when reports of the high court judgment upholding the decision of the school based on a complaint by a teacher who reportedly witnessed the boy hugging the girl after she performed in a western music competition on July 21 appeared in the media last week. The school authorities had summoned the parents despite the students giving written apologies. The father of the boy recalled the abusive way Rajan Verghese, secretary of the Mar Thoma Educational Society addressed his child as vithukala (bull in heat).

He even asked me to kill my son, told DC. How can he talk to a father like that?He said he is yet to collect the transfer certificate from the school. The boys mother, an LLM student, told DC that her son is an only child and has always been an above average student. The girl and her family are yet to talk to the media and have not lodged a complaint against the school. It is understood that two younger silings of the girl are studying in the same school. Meanwhile, Mr Verghese said the boy can write the board examination in March in the school if the CBSE Board and the court granted him permission to do so.
Bengaluru: State JD(S) chief H D Kumaraswamy lashed out at CM Siddaramaiah on Tuesday for re-opening the 2011 Karnataka Housing Board (KHB) scam and filing a FIR against his party MLA, G T Deve Gowd and 45 others.

Accusing him of misusing the the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to threaten his political opponents in the run-up to the 2018 Assembly polls, he recalled that the principal secretary, Department of Commerce and Industries had given a clean chit to the KHB in the case.

Compensation has already been given to farmers, who lost their land near Ilwal and surrounding areas. But not satisfied with this, Mr Siddaramaiah referred the matter to the Lokayukta on January 7, 2014 and now it has been referred to the ACB only to fix our party MLA, he charged, speaking to reporters here.

The Congress that criticised the BJP at the Centre for misusing the CBI and Income Tax department to targets its political rivals was doing the same in Karnataka, he claimed. The CM and the advisor to Home Minister, Kempaiah held a meeting with the top brass of the ACB and permitted the filing of the FIR against our legislator. Mr Siddaramaiah is resorting to such dirty tricks to humiliate the opposition parties, " he charged, alleging that Mr G T Deve Gowda was being targeted as he had refused to join the Congress.

You are scared of losing the electoral battle against Mr Deve Gowda but even if you fix and send him to jail, we can get him elected from there too, he declared, adding that both Mr Siddaramaiah and his son, Dr Yatindra would lose in Chamundeshwari and Varuna constituencies respectively.

Claiming that he had documents on Mr Siddaramaiahs acts of ommissions and commissions he said they would send him to jail after the Assembly polls.
WhatsApp, bought by Facebook in 2014, said it would begin sharing some user data with the social media group in 2016, drawing warnings from European privacy watchdogs about getting the appropriate consent.

Frances data privacy watchdog may fine messaging app WhatsApp if it does not comply with an order to bring its sharing of user data with parent company Facebook into line with French privacy law.

The French data protection authority - CNIL - said on December 18 it had told WhatsApp to comply with the order within one month and pay particular attention to obtaining users consent. If WhatsApp does not comply it could sanction the company, it said.

The CNIL said WhatsApp did not have the legal basis to share user data with Facebook and had violated its obligation to cooperate with the French authority.

WhatsApp, bought by Facebook in 2014, said it would begin sharing some user data with the social media group in 2016, drawing warnings from European privacy watchdogs about getting the appropriate consent.

In October, European Union privacy regulators criticised WhatsApp for not resolving their concerns over the messaging services sharing of user data with Facebook a year after they first issued a warning. The French regulator said WhatsApp had not properly obtained users consent to begin sharing their phone numbers with Facebook for business intelligence purposes.

The only way to refuse the data transfer for business intelligence purpose is to uninstall the application, the CNIL said in a statement.

The regulator accepted the transfer of user data for security purposes seemed to be essential to the functioning of the application. But the watchdog also said the same did not apply for business intelligence purposes which aim to improve the apps performance.

Privacy is incredibly important to WhatsApp. Its why we collect very little data and encrypt every message, a spokeswoman for WhatsApp said.

We will continue to work with the CNIL to ensure users understand what information we collect, as well as how its used. And were committed to resolving the different, and at times conflicting, concerns weve heard from European Data Protection Authorities with a common EU approach before the General Data Protection Regulation comes into force in May 2018.

European data protection authorities can only impose small fines at the moment, but a new EU privacy law entering into force next year will increase fines to up to 4 percent of a companys global turnover.

The CNIL said it had repeatedly asked WhatsApp to provide a sample of French users data transferred to Facebook but the company had explained it could not do so as it is located in the United States and it considers that it is only subject to the legislation of this country.

Separately, Germanys cartel office said on December 19 it had found Facebook had abused its dominant market position, in a ruling that questioned the companys model of monetising the personal data of its users through targeted advertising.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.
Nauert also said that Bangladesh has been so generous in accepting hundreds of thousands of refugees and the US government has provided significant financial assistance to help. (Photo: File)

Washington: The US has appealed for dignified and voluntary return of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh to Myanmar, while it said that conditions are not conducive enough for such a move.

Some 625,000 Rohingya refugees have fled the Rakhine state of Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh in the last six months.

"In terms of the repatriation plan, we'd like to see the plan. We've heard about it in concept, but one of the things that would be important to be in that plan is the voluntary, safe and dignified return," State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters.

"It (repatriation) has to be voluntary. People have to feel like it's safe to go home. If they don't feel like it's safe to go home, it's probably not going to be safe to go home. They have to have a dignified return. That means treating the people well as they decide to return home," she said.

Insisting that repatriation needs to be voluntary, she said the refugees can't be forced to leave one country to go to another country.

"They have to feel safe and ready to go home," she said.

"We hope that the refugees will eventually be able to go home, to go home to Burma. More than 600,000 of them have been forced across the border since August alone, and now it's December," she said.

Nauert also said that Bangladesh has been so generous in accepting hundreds of thousands of refugees and the US government has provided significant financial assistance to help.
The US had also strongly condemned the release of the Lashkar-e-Taiba leader from house arrest and had called for his immediate re-arrest and prosecution. (Photo: AFP/File)

Washington: The US has concerns about JuD chief Hafiz Saeed running for office in Pakistan in 2018, a senior Trump Administration official has said.

The Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) head and LeT founder had earlier confirmed that his organisation Jammat-ud-Dawah will contest the 2018 general elections in Pakistan under the banner of the Milli Muslim League, which is yet to be registered with the Election Commission.

Saeed, who was released by Pakistan from house arrest in November resulting in angry reaction from the US, was the mastermind of the Mumbai terrorist attacks and is leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba, State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said.

Its a group that the US government considers to be a terror organisation. We have many conversations with the government of Pakistan. One of the things that happened recently was that this guy was held on house arrest. Pakistan released him from house arrest, and now theres word that he may be running for some sort of office, she told reporters.

Saeed, who has a USD 10 million American bounty on his head for terror activities, was freed by Pakistan on November 24.

Read: After claiming interest in an alliance, Musharraf now calls LeT, JuD patriotic

He is a UN and US designated terrorist.

I want to remind folks, we have a USD 10 million Reward for Justice programme that would reward for information that would bring him to justice. So I want to make that clear, so that everybody knows -- USD 10 million, out for this guy. And we would certainly have concerns about him running for office, Nauert said.

The US had also strongly condemned the release of the Lashkar-e-Taiba leader from house arrest and had called for his immediate re-arrest and prosecution.

However, top Pakistani diplomats based in the US have said that there is no evidence against Saeed.

I can tell you his organisation that was responsible for those attacks is considered a foreign terror organisation. Its considered a foreign terror organisation by the US government for a reason, and for a good reason, Nauert said.

I would imagine that, if we had any intelligence, and thats not an area that I can discuss anyway, but we would certainly share it with the Pakistanis on that front. I hope theyll do the right thing, Nauert said.

I hope that they will do the right thing and remind folks across Pakistan, we have a USD 10 million reward for this guy, the spokesperson said.

The banned JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Taiba which carried out the 2008 Mumbai terror attack in which 166 people were killed.
The US calls on Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to stop arming and enabling the Houthis violent actions against Yemens neighbours, including Saudi Arabia. (Photo: AFP/ Representational)

Washington: The US has strongly condemned a ballistic missile attack over Riyadh which Saudi Arabia claimed was launched from Yemen by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, saying such actions threaten regional security.

Saudi Arabia, which has been leading a military campaign against the Houthis for the last three years, shot down the ballistic missile over Riyadh Tuesday.

Houthi rebels seized the Yemeni capital Sanaa from the globally-recognised government in 2014.

We remain deeply disturbed by aggressive Houthi actions supported by Irans provision of advanced weapons, which threaten regional security and prolong the Yemen conflict, State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said.

The US calls on Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to stop arming and enabling the Houthis violent actions against Yemens neighbours, including Saudi Arabia, she said.

Asserting that a political solution is the only way to advance a long-term stability in Yemen and end the suffering of the Yemeni people, the US urged all the parties to immediately cease hostilities, avoid retaliatory measures and return to political negotiations under the auspices of the UN.

The United States also remains deeply concerned by the dire humanitarian conditions in Yemen, Nauert said.

We continue to urge all parties to facilitate the free and unfettered flow of humanitarian aid and commercial goods, including fuel, into and throughout Yemen, including through all of Yemens ports, including Hudaydah port and Sanaa airport, Nauert added.

Saudi Arabia said the missile was fired from Yemen by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who announced that the target was the official residence of King Salman.

Thousands of people have lost their lives since Saudi Arabia and its allies joined the fight launched by Yemeni government against the Houthi rebels in 2015, triggering what the UN has termed as the worlds worst humanitarian crisis.
Bajwa's statement has come close on the heels of former Pakistan president General Parvez Musharraf declaring support for the terror outfits - Lashkar-e-Taiba and JuD. (Photo: AP/File)

Islamabad: United Nations-designated terrorist Hafiz Saeed has found a new supporter in Pakistan Chief of the Army Staff, Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, who has hailed the Mumbai attack mastermind as 'active' to resolve the Kashmir issue, as every other citizen of Pakistan.

This statement is being viewed as Bajwa comparing every Pakistani citizen with the chief of banned terror outfit - Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD).

Bajwa, speaking at an 'in-camera session' of the Senate Committee of the Whole in Islamabad, deliberated on a wide range of topics from politics to counter-terrorism operations and foreign policy.

When asked about Hafiz Saeed's role in fighting for the country, especially the Kashmir issue, Bajwa said, "Like every other Pakistani, Saeed can also take up the Kashmir cause."

Bajwa's statement has come close on the heels of former Pakistan president General Parvez Musharraf declaring support for the terror outfits - Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and JuD.

At the event, Bajwa further said if the Army's role was proven in the recent Faizabad sit-in, he would resign from his post.

About 2,000 activists of Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah and its allied groups staged protests and sit-ins on highway and railway lines in several cities of Pakistan for nearly three weeks in November. The protests paralysed the life in Islamabad by occupying the Faizabad interchange, linking the Pakistani capital with Rawalpindi.

Bajwa was responding to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Senator Mushahidullah Khan's question.
Janjua said that Pakistan wants peace in Afghanistan but the same is under stress due to involvement of India which wants to create a two front situation for Pakistan. (Photo: File)

Islamabad: National Security Advisor Nasser Khan Janjua Wednesday accused India of creating a "two-front situation" for Pakistan, saying such a policy would be detrimental for regional peace and stability.

His statement came during his talks with visiting Special Representative of Germany for Afghanistan and Pakistan Markus Potzel who was accompanied by German Ambassador Martin Kobler.

According to a statement by the NSA office, the two sides discussed the regional security situation and the prevailing situation in Afghanistan.

Janjua said that Pakistan wants peace in Afghanistan but the same is under stress due to involvement of India which wants to create a "two front situation" for Pakistan.

"India is self-seeking a two front situation which does not auger well for the region. All major powers of the world need to play their role in keeping the region stable and balanced," he said.

He meant to say that Pakistan was being stretched to fight militants on the western front with Afghanistan and face Indian army on the eastern border with India.

The NSA also said that for "regional peace and stability, it is imperative for both the countries to engage with each and resolve their disputes."

He said Pakistan and India should resolve their disputes for the sake of better future.

Janjua also said Pakistan wanted peace in Afghanistan and urged for political settlement of the Afghan issue.

"To end miseries of Afghanistan and its people, warring sides should seek a political solution to the conflict as the perpetual war of last 16 years has given us nothing but human miseries and sufferings," Janjua added.
A dance teacher has approached the Supreme Court seeking bail in a case pertaining to repeated sexual assaults on a 15-year-old student at Bengaluru's 'Attitude Counts Talent Dance Academy' in December 2016.



A bench of Justices N V Ramana and S Abdul Nazeer issued a notice to the Karnataka police to the limited extent of calling for medical report depicting the health conditions of Christopher Jaswanthraj (35), who sought bail on medical grounds. He has challenged the high court's orders of October 31, 2017, that declined to release him on bail, after noting that there were prima facie allegations of sexual acts done by him on the girl. Being a teacher, he had abused his dominating position, it had noted.

The high court also refused to brush aside the allegations made by the girl in her statement made before a judicial magistrate.

The petitioner, for his part, submitted he had been falsely implicated in the case as similar false allegations were made against earlier, too.

The FIR was lodged against Jaswanthraj at Banaswadi police station under various provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and under Section 376 (rape) of the IPC.

The girl, in her complaint, stated that within months of joining dance classes at Attitude Counts Talent Dance Academy, she faced inappropriate behaviour from the accused. After trying to influence her personal and academic life, Jaswanthraj, on December 17, 2016, forced himself upon her by committing a sexual act. He repeated the similar assaults. The girl decided to lodge the complaint on the advice by another girl.

Jaswanthraj contended the allegations were intended to tarnish his image as nothing as such had happened. Police have already filed the charge sheet in the case. The high court had asked the trial court to complete the trial as early as possible, preferably within six months.
Union Minister Krishna Raj was rushed to a hospital today after she fell ill during the BJP parliamentary party meeting here.



She was rushed to Ram Manohar Lohia hospital where doctors attended her.

"She has just been brought in and is being examined by a team of doctors," said a senior doctor at the hospital.

The minister fell ill during the meeting of the parliamentary party, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP Chief Amit Shah were also present, in the parliament complex.

Raj is the Minister of State in Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
Armed Maoists today abducted an assistant station master (ASM) and a porter from a railway station in Munger district and set on fire the signalling panel, disrupting railway traffic early this morning.



Around 15 Maoists including women attacked Masudan railway station at around 2 AM, said Kripasagar, SHO of GRP police station at Jamalpur.

They caught hold of ASM Mukesh Kumar and porter Nirendra Mandal and took them away.

The left wing extremists also set ablaze the signalling panel and threw official papers into the fire, the SHO said.

He said railway traffic was disrupted on Jamalpur-Kiul section for about an hour due to torching of the signalling panel. Movement of trains was restored after the fire was extinguished.

Efforts were on to trace the abducted railway personnel and secure their release, the SHO said.

The attack comes on a day when Maoists had called for a 24-hour bandh across Bihar and neighbouring Jharkhand in protest against operations against them.
The Congress today forced the adjournment of the Lok Sabha's pre-lunch proceedings demanding an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his comments against former premier Manmohan Singh.



The House was first adjourned till noon minutes after it had assembled for the day, the second adjournment till 2 PM came soon after the listed papers were laid. The Prime Minister was present in the House when it was adjourned for the first time.



As soon as the House met at noon after the first adjournment to take up the Zero Hour, Congress members stormed the Well raising slogans and asking Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to allow their leader Mallikarjun Kharge to speak.



Unmoved by the pleas, the Speaker asked BJD leader Bhartruhari Mahtab to speak on the issue of formation of a tribunal to settle the Mahanadi water sharing dispute.



As Mahtab started speaking, the Congress protests continued, though on a low key. But as soon as BJP MP Poonam Mahajan started speaking, the slogan-shouting by the Congress members intensified.



"What is happening? Why I am not being allowed to speak," Kharge was heard asking.



Kharge's colleague K C Venugopal said Kharge should be allowed to speak "that is his right". Another Congress MP Sushmita Dev shouted "We want Zero Hour".



When Poonam Mahajan tried to raise the statement of a former MP who had allegedly said in a talk show in Pakistan that Modi should be removed as the Prime Minister and another statement of an opposition leader that PoK belongs to Pakistan, the Congress MPs protested strongly and raised vociferous slogans.



As the turmoil continued, the Speaker adjourned the House for about 40 minutes till 2 PM.



Earlier as soon as the Speaker took up the Question Hour, Congress leaders raised the issue of the remarks made by Modi against Singh during the Gujarat election campaign.



Modi was present in the House at that time as questions related to the Prime Minister's Office are listed on Wednesdays.



The Congress has been raising the issue since Monday and demanding an apology from the Prime Minister for his remarks during the poll campaign.
Opposition Congress members today disrupted proceedings in the Rajya Sabha over the insinuations made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi against his predecessor Manmohan Singh.



Congress members rushed into the Well of the House demanding an apology from Modi for his remarks made at an election rally that Singh had allegedly colluded with Pakistan to defeat BJP in Gujarat.

Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu repeatedly reminded members of their conduct and asked them to returned to their seats. However, his pleas went unheeded, forcing him to adjourn the proceedings till 1200 hours.

No sooner had the listed papers been tabled, Congress members were up on their feet demanding an explanation from the Prime Minister on his remarks against Singh.

Naidu disallowed them.

At this point, Congress members rushed to the Well of the House shouting slogans.

Naidu asked them not to create obstruction and allow other members to raise important issues.

"This is not the way," he said. "This is Parliament. This is Rajya Sabha. Wrong message is going."

Stating that he did not appreciate their behaviour, Naidu said, "Please dont exceed limit. Please go to your seat."

With his pleas going unheeded, Naidu adjourned the proceedings till noon.
United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. NORRIS WILLIAMS, Defendant-Appellant. No. 16-16822 Decided: December 19, 2017

Before WILSON, MARTIN, and JILL PRYOR, Circuit Judges.

Norris Williams appeals his convictions and sentences for distributing heroin and possessing heroin with intent to distribute, in violation of 21 U.S.C.  841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(C), and for attempting to possess a kilogram or more of heroin with intent to distribute, in violation of 21 U.S.C.  841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(A)(i), and 21 U.S.C.  846. On appeal, Williams argues that the district court erred in denying his motion for a judgment of acquittal, abused its discretion in permitting the government to introduce testimony at trial, erred in relying on the jury's determination of the amount of heroin at sentencing, and erred in applying the career offender enhancement pursuant to U.S.S.G.  4B1.1. Further, he argues that his total 360-month sentence of imprisonment was substantively unreasonable. After careful review of the record and the parties' briefs, we affirm.

I.

We review de novo a district court's denial of a motion for judgment of acquittal. United States v. Seher, 562 F.3d 1344, 1364 (11th Cir. 2009). When the motion challenges the sufficiency of the evidence, we review de novo the sufficiency of the evidence, drawing all reasonable inferences in favor of the government. Id. We will affirm the denial if we conclude that a reasonable factfinder could find that the evidence established guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Id. Additionally, credibility questions are answered by the jury, and we will assume that the jury resolved all such questions in a manner supporting its verdict. United States v. Lebowitz, 676 F.3d 1000, 1013-14 (11th Cir. 2012) (per curiam).

To support a conviction for attempted possession with intent to distribute heroin, the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant (1) acted with the kind of culpability required to commit the underlying offense, that is to knowingly and willfully possess heroin with the intent to distribute; and (2) took a substantial step toward committing the crime under circumstances strongly corroborating criminal intent. See United States v. Bernal-Benitez, 594 F.3d 1303, 1310 (11th Cir. 2010). To support a conviction for possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant knowingly possessed the controlled substance and intended to distribute it. United States v. Albury, 782 F.3d 1285, 1293 (11th Cir. 2015).

Here, the district court did not err in denying Williams's motion for a judgment of acquittal because there was sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Williams attempted to purchase a kilogram of heroin with the intent to distribute. The government presented ample evidence through Detective Victor Chica's testimony and through the video and audio recordings of Williams's negotiations with Detective Chica that Williams intended to purchase a whole kilogram of heroin from Detective Chica for the purpose of reselling it, and that Williams took a substantial step toward purchasing the kilogram of heroin.

First, the evidence shows that during their negotiations, Detective Chica agreed to sell a half kilogram of heroin to Williams at $40,000 or a full kilogram of heroin at $75,000. Although Williams initially told Detective Chica that he could buy a half kilogram but not a whole kilogram of heroin right now, once Detective Chica offered to front or advance Williams the full kilogram for a down payment of $50,000, Williams unequivocally agreed to that arrangement and demonstrated that agreement on multiple occasions. For instance, during a recorded conversation between Williams and Detective Chica, Detective Chica stated, Like I said  we got to come up with at least a down payment which will be 50 and then go from there, and Williams responded, Okay, okay, okay, that's a number, okay, that's a number I'm looking for. Detective Chica also testified that Williams wanted to purchase a kilogram of heroin and agreed to pay $50,000 as a down payment.

Second, Williams took a substantial step toward committing the underlying offense under circumstances strongly corroborating his criminal intent. Williams arranged a meeting with Detective Chica to exchange a full kilogram of heroin for the $50,000 down payment, and Williams brought approximately $50,000 in a shoebox to that meeting. Williams then gave Detective Chica the shoebox. This belies the argument that Williams had not intended to buy a full kilogram of heroin because the price agreed to for the half kilogram was $40,000. Williams also conceded during his trial that he believed Detective Chica would give him a kilogram of heroin at this meeting. A reasonable jury could therefore infer that when Williams showed up to the meeting with approximately $50,000the price Detective Chica required to front Williams the entire kilogram of herointhat Williams intended to purchase the entire kilogram of heroin.

II.

We review a district court's evidentiary rulings under an abuse of discretion standard. United States v. House, 684 F.3d 1173, 1197 (11th Cir. 2012). A district court abuses its discretion if it applies an incorrect legal standard or makes clearly erroneous findings of fact. Id. However, even when the district court abused its discretion, we will only reverse when there is a reasonable likelihood that a non-constitutional evidentiary error affected the defendant's substantial rights. Id. We will not reverse when the non-constitutional error had no substantial influence and there is enough evidence to support the verdict without the error. Id. When a defendant claims cumulative error, we consider all preserved errors on appeal, as well as all plain errors, within the context of the entire trial to determine whether the defendant had a fundamentally fair trial. Id. When there is no error or there is only one error, there is no cumulative error. Id. at 1210. The district court can allow the prosecution to redirect a witness as to testimony elicited on cross-examination. United States v. Willner, 795 F.3d 1297, 1320 (11th Cir. 2015).

The district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the challenged testimony about the slang Williams used and the evidentiary shipping and handling procedures, because the testimony was relevant to the charges against Williams and because Williams invited the additional testimony through his cross-examination of a witness. First, although Williams objected to Sergeant Samuel Gonzalez's testimony about what Williams meant when he said, If you make money, I make money as speculative and calling for a conclusion, Williams did not object that the testimony constituted an improper expert opinion or that Sergeant Gonzalez did not qualify as an expert or had not been properly qualified as an expert.

The district court did not err because Sergeant Gonzalez's testimony was relevant to Williams's intent to distribute heroin, a controlled substance, see Bernal-Benitez, 594 F.3d at 1310, and Williams made the statement in a recorded video of a drug transaction, see Fed. R. Evid. 401. Additionally, as a police officer, Sergeant Gonzalez could testify as a lay witness as to his understanding of the slang Williams used in the video in order to help the jury understand his testimony about the conversation that occurred during the first heroin transaction. See Fed. R. Evid. 701; United States v. Jayyousi, 657 F.3d 1085, 110204 (11th Cir. 2011).

Second, to the extent that Williams argues that Agent Mark Strang's testimony about the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) shipping procedures and duties of handling evidence was admitted in error, it was error that Williams invited. See United States v. Carpenter, 803 F.3d 1224, 1236 (11th Cir. 2015) (explaining that this court will not review an issue challenged as error on appeal when a party induced or invited the district court into making that error). On cross-examination, Williams invited the challenged testimony by questioning Agent Strang extensively about the DEA's procedures for shipping and handling evidence. The district court therefore did not abuse its discretion in allowing the government to question Agent Strang briefly about the shipping procedures and duties Agent Strang testified about on cross-examination. See Willner, 795 F.3d at 1320. Additionally, Agent Strang's testimony was related to establishing the chain of custody for the seized evidence, which Williams argued was relevant at trial.

Third, the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting Detective Chica's testimony because the challenged testimony was relevant. As discussed above, Williams was charged with attempting to obtain a kilogram of heroin in order to sell it. Detective Chica's testimony about the importance of high-quality heroin to the distribution chain was relevant to the question of Williams's intent in obtaining the heroin to sell it because the testimony helped establish that Williams wanted to obtain a higher quality of heroin in order to make more money when selling the heroin. See Fed. R. Evid. 401; Bernal-Benitez, 594 F.3d at 1310. Further, as a police officer, Detective Chica could testify as to his understanding of the slang Williams used, including what it meant to have money somewhere, in order to help the jury understand his testimony about their recorded conversations. See Fed. R. Evid. 701; Jayyousi, 657 F.3d at 1102-04.

Finally, relevant evidence should only be excluded if unfair prejudice substantially outweighs the evidence's probative value. United States v. Spoerke, 568 F.3d 1236, 1251 (11th Cir. 2009). Here, none of the challenged testimony was unfairly prejudicial, as it went to either helping the jury understand Detective Chica and Sergeant Gonzalez's testimony about their conversations with Williams or to redirecting a witness as to questions Williams asked on cross-examination. The recorded conversations were played for the jury and we assume that the jury resolved any credibility questions in a manner consistent with their guilty verdict. Lebowitz, 676 F.3d at 1014.

Thus, the district court did not err in admitting the challenged testimony. Because the district court did not err in admitting this testimony, there was also no cumulative error. House, 684 F.3d 1173 at 1210.

III.

When the drug quantity used at sentencing was found by the jury, we review the jury's findings de novo, asking whether, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. United States v. Curbelo, 726 F.3d 1260, 1267 (11th Cir. 2013) (internal quotation marks omitted). Quantities of drugs not specified in the count of conviction can be used as relevant conduct at sentencing to determine the offense level. U.S.S.G.  2D1.1, cmt. n.5. When an offense involved the arranged sale of drugs in a government sting operation, the district court uses the quantity the defendant agreed upon, unless the defendant can show that he did not intend to provide or purchase, or was not reasonably capable of providing or purchasing, the agreed-upon quantity of the controlled substance. Id. In that case, the court should exclude the amount the defendant establishes that he did not intend to purchase or was not reasonably capable of purchasing. Id.

The jury found Williams guilty of attempting to possess one kilogram or more of heroin with the intent to distribute it. As discussed earlier, the government presented the jury with sufficient evidence to determine that Williams intended to purchase the entire kilogram of heroin and not just half a kilogram. Because the jury determination of the quantity of heroin was supported by sufficient evidence, the district court did not err in relying on it at sentencing. Curbelo, 726 F.3d at 1267.

IV.

We review de novo a district court's application and interpretation of the Sentencing Guidelines, including whether the defendant qualifies as a career offender. United States v. Gibson, 434 F.3d 1234, 1243 (11th Cir. 2006). Factual findings in support of a guideline enhancement are reviewed for clear error. United States v. Creel, 783 F.3d 1357, 1359 (11th Cir. 2015). We will conclude that a factual finding is clearly erroneous only if we are left with a definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted).

As an initial matter, although Williams objected to the application of the career offender enhancement in district court, he did not object that his prior offenses under Florida Statute  893.13 and under  841(a) and  846 did not qualify as controlled substance offenses. Because Williams failed to object below, we review for plain error. Perez, 661 F.3d at 583. For an error to be plain it must obviously conflict with current law. Id. at 585.

The district court did not plainly err in applying the career offender enhancement. First, the government was not required to prove Williams's prior convictions to the jury beyond a reasonable doubt in order for the district court to consider them at sentencing. United States v. Smith, 775 F.3d 1262, 1266 (11th Cir. 2014). Second, Williams met the three requirements to be considered a career offender. Williams was 44 years old at the time of the offense conduct and was therefore over 18 years old at the time. The instant offense involved a conviction for a felony controlled substance offense under  841(a), 841(b), and 846. Williams had at least two prior felony convictions involving controlled substance offenses, including a Florida state conviction for purchasing cocaine base, in violation of Florida Statute  893.13, see United States v. Pridgeon, 853 F.3d 1192, 1198 (11th Cir. 2017), cert. denied, 583 U.S. ___, No. 17-5135 (Oct. 2, 2017), and a federal conviction for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 5 kilograms or more of cocaine and 50 kilograms or more of cocaine base, in violation of  841(a) and 846, see United States v. Evans, 358 F.3d 1311, 1312 (11th Cir. 2004). Therefore, the district court appropriately applied the career offender enhancement.

V.

We review a sentence's substantive reasonableness by taking into account the totality of the circumstances and the 18 U.S.C.  3553(a) factors. Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 51 (2007). A district court imposes a substantively unreasonable sentence when it (1) fails to consider relevant 18 U.S.C.  3553 factors that were due significant weight, (2) gives an improper or irrelevant factor significant weight, or (3) commits a clear error in judgment by balancing proper factors unreasonably. United States v. Irey, 612 F.3d 1160, 1189 (11th Cir. 2010) (en banc). We ordinarily expect a sentence imposed within the guideline range to be reasonable. United States v. Alvarado, 808 F.3d 474, 496 (11th Cir. 2015). Additionally, an indicator of reasonableness is a sentence imposed well below the statutory maximum penalty. United States v. Croteau, 819 F.3d 1293, 1310 (11th Cir. 2016).

Williams fails to demonstrate that his total sentence is substantively unreasonable. See Alvarado, 808 F.3d at 496 (explaining that the party challenging the reasonableness of the sentence has the burden to show that it is unreasonable). The 360-month total sentence met the goals encompassed within  3553(a). In particular, the district court expressed concern over Williams's criminal history. The district court noted that in contrast to Williams's argument that he had no criminal history for approximately 15 years before the instant offense, his criminal history demonstrated that Williams was incarcerated in federal prison for much of that time and committed another drug offense shortly after he was released. The district court's concern over Williams's criminal history was supported by the record, which includes multiple offenses involving intent to sell drugs. It was well within the district court's discretion to conclude that Williams's criminal history and his status as a career offender weighed in favor of a guideline sentence. See United States v. Mateos, 623 F.3d 1350, 1368 (11th Cir. 2010).

Further, Williams's sentence was at the very low end of his guideline range, which is 360 months to life, which suggests that the sentence was reasonable. Alvarado, 808 F.3d at 496. In determining his 360-month sentence, the district court explicitly considered Williams's mitigating history and characteristics, including his military service, and was well within its discretion to conclude that, while these mitigating factors warranted a sentence at the low end of the guideline range, they did not warrant a variance below it. The total 360-month sentence was sufficient, but not greater than necessary, to account for the purposes of the  3553(a) factors. See 18 U.S.C.  3553(a). Therefore, the district court did not abuse its discretion in balancing the  3553 factors, and the sentence accordingly was substantively reasonable in light of the totality of the circumstances.

VI.

Williams's multiple arguments fail. The district court did not err in denying Williams's motion for a judgment of acquittal because there was sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Williams attempted to purchase a kilogram of heroin with the intent to distribute. The district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting testimony about the slang Williams used and the DEA's evidentiary shipping and handling procedures because this testimony was relevant to the charges and clarified questions Williams asked on cross-examination. Because the district court did not err in admitting this testimony, there was no cumulative error. The district court did not err in relying on the jury's determination of the drug quantity, because the government introduced sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Williams attempted to purchase a kilogram of heroin with the intent to distribute. The district court did not plainly err in applying the career offender enhancement because Williams's prior convictions both qualified as controlled substance offenses and the government did not need to prove Williams's prior convictions to the jury beyond a reasonable doubt in order for the district court to consider the convictions at sentencing. Finally, Williams's total sentence of 360 months, at the low end of his guideline range, was substantively reasonable because the district court took into account the totality of the circumstances and the purposes of 18 U.S.C.  3553(a) in determining Williams's sentence.

AFFIRMED.

FOOTNOTES

. 21 U.S.C.  846 makes it a crime to attempt to commit an offense defined in Title 21, including  841. 21 U.S.C.  841(a)(1) makes it unlawful to knowingly or intentionally distribute a controlled substance or possess a controlled substance with the intent to distribute it. Section 841(b)(1)(A)(i) increases the penalties when the offense involves one kilogram or more of heroin. 21 U.S.C.  841(b)(1)(A)(i).

. The important factor in proving attempt is the defendant's intent to commit the underlying crime, not whether the underlying crime was actually possible. See United States v. Bernal-Benitez, 594 F.3d 1303, 1310 (11th Cir. 2010) (stating that the government did not have to prove the substance in question was actually cocaine, just that the defendant was intending to obtain cocaine).

. Williams does not appeal his convictions for Counts 1 through 3, which involve lower quantities of heroin.

. The audio and video of this transaction was captured by the government and shown to the jury.

. Because Williams failed to object before the district court as to this testimony constituting an improper expert opinion, Williams's argument is reviewed for plain error. United States v.Perez, 661 F.3d 568, 583 (11th Cir. 2011) (per curiam). For an error to be plain it must obviously conflict with current law. Id. at 585.

. The record does not specify the applicable statutes for the predicate state conviction and federal conviction at issue. The parties, however, agree that the state conviction was under Florida Statute  893.13 and do not dispute that the charges for the federal conviction were under 21 U.S.C.  841(a) and  846. Williams also does not object to the accuracy of the convictions as stated in the Presentence Investigation Report; thus, he is deemed to have admitted to those facts. United States v. Bennett, 472 F.3d 825, 83334 (11th Cir. 2006) (per curiam).

. A defendant is considered a career offender if (1) the defendant was at least eighteen years old at the time the defendant committed the instant offense of conviction; (2) the instant offense of conviction is a felony that is either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense; and (3) the defendant has at least two prior felony convictions of either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense. U.S.S.G.  4B1.1(a). A controlled substance offense is an offense under federal or state law, punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year, that prohibits the manufacture, import, export, distribution, or dispensing of a controlled substance (or a counterfeit substance) or the possession of a controlled substance (or a counterfeit substance) with intent to manufacture, import, export, distribute, or dispense. U.S.S.G.  4B1.2(b). A prior felony conviction is a prior adult federal or state conviction punishable by death or imprisonment for more than one year, regardless of whether the offense is specifically designated a felony or what sentence was actually imposed. U.S.S.G.  4B1.2(b), cmt. n.1.

. The district court must impose a sentence sufficient, but not greater than necessary, to comply with the purposes listed in  3553(a)(2), including the needs to reflect the seriousness of the offense, to promote respect for the law, to provide just punishment for the offense, to deter criminal conduct, and to protect the public from the defendant's future criminal conduct. 18 U.S.C.  3553(a)(2). In imposing a particular sentence, the district court must also consider the nature and circumstances of the offense, the history and characteristics of the defendant, the kinds of sentences available, the applicable guideline range, any pertinent policy statements of the Sentencing Commission, and the need to avoid unwarranted sentence disparities. 18 U.S.C.  3553(a)(1), (3)(6).

PER CURIAM:
Despite having three CNG fuel stations in its bus depots, the BMTC has told the southern bench of the National Green Tribunal that the fuel stations are not available.



"The Gas Authority of India (GAIL) has not made CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) available for vehicles in the city," the BMTC told the tribunal in its November 13 affidavit, a copy of which is available with DH.

"Even in the three places allotted by the BMTC in its bus depots to install CNG filling facilities, the said facility has not been made operational by GAIL," the transport corporation has said.

Contrary to the claims, GAIL had, in 2016, made CNG fuel stations operational in three BMTC depots - Sumanahalli, Peenya and Hennur. The fourth station is functioning at Beggars' Colony, off Magadi Road.

The three CNG stations also have dispensers for buses. A senior GAIL official said the PSU had permission from the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation to operate the stations.

When DH visited the fuel station at the Peenya BMTC depot, an employee said it was ready for use. "The BMTC must invest in CNG buses," the official said, adding the pump there can cater to 200 buses a day.

GAIL is also working on plans to make 10 more fuel stations operational in the city, contrary to claims by the BMTC at the green tribunal.

The BMTC further mentioned in the affidavit: "The ecosystem required to run buses on CNG is humongous, and under the circumstances, the question of operating CNG vehicles in Bengaluru will not arise at all."

BMTC managing director V Ponnuraj defended the affidavit, saying the fuel stations in question were not operational. He also revealed that the use of CNG would add an additional travel cost of Rs 12 per kilometre. "Most of the spare parts for CNG vehicles need to be imported since they are not available locally," he said.

He continued: "CNG may be eco-friendly and is good for the vehicle engine, but CNG buses are expensive. The Government Of India has announced the early implementation of the BS VI standard, for which diesel will be as good as CNG."

Delhi, Pune, Mumbai, Thane, Ahmedabad, Gwalior, Lucknow, Hyderabad and Indore are some of the cities where CNG buses are in use.
A Dalit woman was stripped and beaten by the henchmen of politicians in Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday, for opposing encroachment in the name of housing under the NTR Griha Kalpa scheme.



The incident occurred in survey number 77, Jerripotulapalem, under Pendurthi police station limits.

The incident, which took place on Tuesday evening, came to light on Wednesday morning, with local Dalit organisations and Left party leaders lodging a complaint with the Pendurthi police and staging a demonstration demanding action against the accused.

The Pendurthi police have taken six people into custody. All the accused, including two women, are said to be from the ruling Telugu Desam Party. The victim has been shifted to the King George Hospital.

According to locals, the land was initially allocated to a few Dalit families, who had been cultivating the land and where some of them had houses.

However, in later years, the local revenue officers reallocated a part of the land to AP Beverages Bottling plant, leaving only 88 cents of land for 14 Dalit families.

These 88 cents were then allegedly allocated to workers of the local Telugu Desam Party. The Dalits have filed a case in the high court, which is pending.

On Tuesday, TDP leaders Madaka Parvathi, Madaka Appalaraju, Vadisela Srinivas, Salapu Jogarao, Raparthi Gangamma and Madaka Ramu Naidu reportedly embarked on dismantling the structures with the help of bulldozers.

When the Dalit woman objected to this, they verbally abused her, stripped and punched her, even as she cried for help.

Former Congress MP and Dalit leader Harsha Kumar, who visited the area on Wednesday, said ruling party MLA Bandaru Satyanarayana is behind the attempt to encroach upon land assigned for the Dalits.

"This is the methodology of the ruling party. Intimidating Dalits has become a regular practice for the Chandrababu Naidu government," Harsha Kumar said.

On Wednesday, the land-grabbers made yet another attempt to drive away the Dalit families, leading to clashes between the two groups.
United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Alfredo CASTANEDAPOZO, Spanish interpreter required, Defendant-Appellant. No. 16-16031 Decided: December 19, 2017

Before TJOFLAT and MARTIN, Circuit Judges, and MURPHY,* District Judge Linda Julin McNamara, Yvette Rhodes, Arthur Lee Bentley, III, James A. Muench, Amanda Lynn Riedel, Michelle Thresher Taylor, U.S. Attorney's Office, Tampa, FL, for PlaintiffAppellee. Rupak Ramesh Shah, Richard Escobar, Escobar & Associates, PA, Tampa, FL, for DefendantAppellant.

Alfredo CastanedaPozo appeals from his sentence of 63 months' imprisonment, followed by 5 years of supervised release, along with $429,044.96 in restitution, after he was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C.  1349, and ten counts of bank fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C.  1344. On appeal, CastanedaPozo argued that the district court erred by finding that he was responsible for the scheme's entire intended loss amount for purposes of calculating his offense level. He also contended that the district court erred by finding that five or more victims of the scheme suffered substantial financial hardship.

I.

The district court's factual findings are reviewed for clear error, and its application of those facts to justify a sentencing enhancement is reviewed de novo. United States v. Matchett, 802 F.3d 1185, 1191 (11th Cir. 2015) (citation omitted), cert. denied,  U.S. , 137 S.Ct. 1344, 197 L.Ed.2d 532 (2017). We will not reverse a district court's factual finding unless we are left with a definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed. Id. Where the factfinding resolves a swearing match of witnesses, the resolution will almost never be clear error. United States v. Rodriguez, 398 F.3d 1291, 1296 (11th Cir. 2005).

In determining the base offense level under the Guidelines, courts must consider all of a defendant's relevant conduct. See U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual  1B1.3 (U.S. Sentencing Comm'n 2004) (U.S.S.G.). When an offense involves jointly undertaken criminal activity, relevant conduct includes all reasonably foreseeable acts and omissions of others in furtherance of the jointly undertaken criminal activity. United States v. Bradley, 644 F.3d 1213, 1296 (11th Cir. 2011) (quotation omitted). Section 2B1.1 of the Guidelines provides for a 12level increase for a fraud offense involving between $250,000 and $550,000 in losses. U.S.S.G.  2B1.1(b)(1)(G). The application notes clarify that the loss is the greater of actual loss or intended loss. Id.  2B1.1, cmt. 3(A). Actual loss is defined as the reasonably foreseeable pecuniary harm that resulted from the offense. Id., cmt. 3(A)(i). Intended loss, on the other hand, means the pecuniary harm that defendant purposely sought to inflict including pecuniary harm that would have been impossible or unlikely to occur. Id., cmt. 3(A)(ii).

The district court did not clearly err by finding that CastanedaPozo was accountable for the scheme's entire intended loss amount. The district court found the scheme's relevant conduct included renting cars, stealing money orders from drop boxes, and depositing the money orders into co-conspirators' accountsall during the time when rent payments were normally due. The record shows that two co-conspirators, MirandaNoda and PuenteLopez, told investigators that CastanedaPozo was a ringleader of the scheme along with MirandaNoda; that CastanedaPozo was paid to rent cars on multiple occasions over periods of time when rent payments were due; that CastanedaPozo was observed riding in a car with MirandaNoda in an area near apartment complexes from which the schemers stole checks; and that CastanedaPozo was paid to deposit between 5055 money orders. CastanedaPozo refuted the evidence with his own testimony that he was not a ringleader and that he did not know what MirandaNoda did with the rental cars or that the money orders he deposited were stolen. He contends on appeal his testimony is more credible because both MirandaNoda and PuenteLopez had twice previously lied to investigators about their roles in the scheme.

In sum, the district court was left with a credibility determination: it had to decide whether it believed the testimony of CastanedaPozo or the testimony of MirandaNoda and PuenteLopez about the extent of CastanedaPozo's involvement. The court found CastanedaPozo's story that he was unaware of the scheme's relevant conduct implausible, as the pattern would be obvious to him or anyone with reasonable cognitive ability. The district court did not clearly err in its finding because the evidence essentially amounted to a swearing match regarding CastanedaPozo's knowledge. Rodriguez, 398 F.3d at 1296. Although CastanedaPozo argues that MirandaNoda's and PuenteLopez's previous lies to investigators cast doubt about their honesty, the district court had discretion to find their testimony more credible. Id. at 1297.

II.

Amendment 792 to the Sentencing Guidelines provides for a four-level enhancement to a defendant's offense level if a fraud offense resulted in substantial financial hardship to five or more victims. See U.S.S.G. Suppl. App. C, Amend. 792; U.S.S.G.  2B1.1(b)(2)(B). Substantial financial hardship is not defined, but Application note 4(F) to subsection (b)(2) provides that courts shall consider, among other factors, whether the offense resulted in the victim: (i) becoming insolvent; (ii) filing for bankruptcy under the Bankruptcy Code; (iii) suffering substantial loss of a retirement, education, or other savings or investment fund; (iv) making substantial changes to his or her employment, such as postponing his or her retirement plans; (v) making substantial changes to his or her living arrangements, such as relocating to a less expensive home; and (vi) suffering substantial harm to his or her ability to obtain credit. U.S.S.G.  2B1.1, cmt. 4(F).

Although we have yet to interpret the provision, opinions from other circuits provide guidance. See United States v. Minhas, 850 F.3d 873 (7th Cir. 2017); United States v. Brandriet, 840 F.3d 558 (8th Cir. 2016). In Minhas, the Seventh Circuit held that a district court did not clearly err when it found that victims of a travel agency's fraud suffered substantial financial hardship when the victims were of the working class and suffered more than $2,000 in losses that would take years to recover. 850 F.3d at 87677, 879. The court emphasized that the inquiry is specific to each victim, as [t]he same dollar harm to one victim may result in a substantial financial hardship, while for another it may be only a minor hiccup. Id. at 877. In Brandriet, the Eighth Circuit held that a district court did not clearly err when it found that a victim who lost savings, postponed her retirement, and was forced to move suffered substantial financial hardship. 840 F.3d at 56162.

Likewise, we find here that the district court did not clearly err by finding that victims suffered substantial financial hardship when they were made insecure in life's basic necessities. The parties agree that one victim suffered substantial financial hardship, so the question is whether at least four of the remaining victims suffered hardship as well. The record shows that the other five victims were each required to repay $400$800. Because the stolen checks were rent payments submitted near the rent deadline, the repayments were due on short notice to comply with the terms of the victims' leases. Consequently, three victims had to borrow money from friends and family, one had to take out a loan at 29% interest, two fell behind on other bills, one had to take on an extra part-time job, and one had to work extra shifts. And despite all of those arrangements, two were still threatened with eviction. CastanedaPozo contends that these circumstances amount to hardships, but not substantial hardships. We respectfully disagree. Although each victim's pecuniary loss may not seem great, CastanedaPozo's actions made his victims insecure in life's basic necessitieshousing, electricity, water, and food. Certainly that insecurity is sufficient to raise a substantial hardship, and the district court therefore did not clearly err.

III.

For these reasons, the district court's sentence is AFFIRMED.

FOOTNOTES

. Our analysis is limited to the district court's application of the relevant sentencing guidelines to the facts of the case. Although CastanedaPozo may have raised additional arguments about the adequacy of the district court's factual findings in his reply on appeal, those issues should have been raised in the initial brief. See United States v. Ardley, 273 F.3d 991, 991 (11th Cir. 2001). Rather than challenge the adequacy of the findings in his initial brief, CastanedaPozo relied on the district court's findings of fact when he challenged the application of Application Note (4)(F) to the facts. Initial Brief of Appellant, pp. 2022.

PER CURIAM:
In a shocking incident, a man set his two wives on fire reportedly for not keeping his mother happy, police said on Wednesday.



The accused, Deepa Ram, on Tuesday took his two wives Daria Devi (25) and Mali Devi (27) in his car on the pretext of buying them jewellery, the police said.

Ram claimed that he was unhappy with them due to some family matters and as they did not keep his mother happy, Additional SP Jalore Binja Ram said.

"In the moving car, he quarrelled with them. As the car lost balance, he stopped," Binja Ram said.

Meanwhile, one of his wives got out of the car seeking help but he managed to push her inside and drove away again, the police said.

After some distance, he came out of the car, locked it and set the vehicle on fire, the police said, adding both his wives were charred to death.

The accused works as a labourer in Gujarat and is a father of three.

He has confessed the crime and was arrested, the police said.
India on Wednesday inked an agreement with Myanmar pledging to support development projects in the neighbouring country's Rakhine State the scene of a fierce ethnic conflict, which forced over 6,30,000 Rohingyas to escape to Bangladesh since August 25.



Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and Myanmar's Deputy Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, U Soe Aung, signed the bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on New Delhi's support to Rakhine State Development Programme.

The projects India planned to support in the conflict-hit province include one to build pre-fabricated houses for the Rohingyas, who might return from refugee camps in Bangladesh.

Nay Pyi Daw and Dhaka on November 23 last inked an agreement for the return of the Rohingyas from the refugee camps in Bangladesh. The two nations formed a joint working group on Tuesday to coordinate and oversee the repatriation of the Rohingyas.

Jaishankar is currently on a visit to Nay Pyi Daw. He called on Myanmar's State Counsellor and de facto ruler Aung San Suu Kyi and had a meeting with the minister in charge of her office, U Kyaw Tint Swe.

He also had a meeting with the commander-in-chief of the Myanmar Armed Forces, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, and discussed issues related to bilateral security cooperation as well as the situation in Rakhine State.

Suu Kyi's Government in Nay Pyi Daw, as well as the armed forces of Myanmar, drew flak from around the world for the latest wave of violence against the Rohingyas in Rakhine State of the country.

The MoU signed by Jaishankar and Soe Aung is the first inter-governmental agreement inked by the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement of Myanmar Government with a cooperation partner for socio-economic development and livelihood initiatives in Rakhine State, Raveesh Kumar, official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said in New Delhi.

The minority Rohingyas have since been victims of persecution in the Rakhine State, where Buddhists constitute the majority. They have been denied citizenship and most of them have been stateless, despite living for generations in Myanmar.

Myanmar's armed forces launched the latest military crackdown against the Rohingyas on August 25 after a militant outfit killed 12 security personnel in Rakhine. With hundreds of them killed and villages burnt down, over 630,000 Rohingyas, including children had to flee Myanmar and take refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh over the past few months. Not only the US Government, but the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees too termed the violence against Rohingyas as "ethnic cleansing".

New Delhi, however, stood by Suu Kyi's Government and refrained from criticizing her. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in fact, visited Nay Pyi Daw just a week after the violence against the Rohingyas started in Rakhine. He had a meeting with Suu Kyi and the two leaders agreed to bring about overall socio-economic development in the Rakhine State by "undertaking both infrastructure and socio-economic projects, particularly in the spheres of education, health, agriculture and allied activities, agro-processing, community development, construction of small bridges, upgrading roads, small power projects, livelihood activity, setting up of training centres, promotion of household crafts, conservation of environment and cultural heritage".

Suu Kyi welcomed New Delhi's offer of assistance under the Rakhine State Development Programme and the two sides finalized the MoU detailing the implementation modalities over the past few months.

Jaishankar on Wednesday also reviewed the progress of other India-funded projects in Myanmar, including the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transport Transit Project, which too would commence in the Rakhine State.

The Kaladan Multi-Modal Transport Transit Project is aimed at linking Mizoram state in northeast India to the Bay of Bengal through Chin and Rakhine State of Myanmar.

The project consists of a new jetty in Sittwe Port in Rakhine State, an inland water transport corridor to Paletwa in southern Chin State and a highway from Paletwa to India-Myanmar border.

"If completed, the project could significantly improve connectivity in the area, and possibly improve Rakhine's access to markets in India," a panel led by former UN Secretary-General General Kofi Annan observed. Annan-led Advisory Commission on Rakhine State was appointed by Suu Kyi's Government to recommend measures for finding lasting solutions to the complex and delicate issues in the province.
In a continuing legal battle, the Karnataka State Association of the Managements of Nursing and Allied Health Science Institutions plans to file an affidavit before the High Court in January, seeking directions to the Indian Nursing Council to remove lists of colleges of all states from its website.

On November 15, the INC had published a list of schools/colleges of nursing under Sections 13 and 14 of the Indian Nursing Council Act, 1947, offering various courses such as Auxiliary Nurse and Midwifery (ANM) and General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM). The list excluded the names of colleges in Karnataka.

The exclusion was made because of the verdict by a single bench of the Karnataka High Court on July 24 in a case between the Association and the INC. The judge had ruled that the Council did not have the authority to grant recognition to nursing institutes and had restrained it from publishing any material implying that recognition was to be obtained.

The Council challenged the judgement before a division bench, which ruled that though it was not authorised to recognise institutions, they could publish information. The Association then approached the Supreme Court, which upheld the single judge order in September.

Complying with the order, the Council removed the names of Karnataka colleges from the lists published on its website.

"For example, if a student in Manipur checks the website and sees that the names of Karnataka colleges are not in the list, there will be doubt in his or her mind. It will affect the reputation of institutions here. The Council should remove the names of colleges from all states," said S Shivakumar, president of the Association.

T Dileep Kumar, president of the INC, said they had removed the names of Karnataka institutions to avoid contempt of court. He said they had not used the word 'recognition' in the list. Sections 13 and 14 of the INC Act give the Council the power to inspect the institutions. If they are not found to be up to the Council standards, the Council can decide that students of such institutes cannot work outside the state.

"The list we have put up is of those colleges which we have inspected and found suitable as per the Act. Karnataka has been excluded because of the court order. But our appeal in this case is pending before the two-judge bench of the Karnataka High Court," Kumar said.

After the vacation, in January, the Council intends to expedite the appeal.

BOX

'Students won't be affected'

Dileep Kumar, president of the INC, said the exclusion of Karnataka colleges will not affect the career prospects of students. The idea of putting up the list is only to ensure transparency, he said, adding that the case was still pending and would not affect students.

Director of Medical Education Dr Sachidananda also said the recognition of state colleges and prospects of students who wish to work outside the state would not be affected.
After hard lessons in Gujarat, the prime minister on Wednesday strongly warned his colleagues against complacency in the run-up to a series of state elections - including the one in Karnataka - and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.



In his first address to party MPs after the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh poll results, Narendra Modi asked them to keep up with his pace of work and work harder for results.

He asked them to work at the booth-level in their respective constituencies.

He favoured promoting young faces inside and outside the party.

His strong pitch for a greater role for the youth was seen as a counter to Rahul Gandhi assuming the leadership of the Congress party.

PM breaks down

An emotional Modi broke down at least thrice as he recounted his journey from his home state to the prime minister's office.

None of his predecessors had managed to secure victory in so many states within three years of assuming office, Modi was quoted as saying by some MPs.

"This is a big victory. We are now ruling in 19 states. Even when Indira Gandhi was in power, the Congress was in power in only 18 states," Modi said, tracing the journey of the party from two seats in the Lok Sabha in 1984 to what it is today.

Modi said the Gujarat victory had not come easily. "No one should be under the illusion that it was an easy win," he said. The prime minister also referred to Amit Shah's role in the victory.

He recalled how former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee patted him on the back when he was the in-charge for the state, after the BJP won a majority in Gujarat in the 1990s.

"Even the tallest leader feels the joy of victory if secured with hard work... Vajpayee patted me on my back and praised me for the number we secured," he said.

Modi said though the party had lost two strong leaders - Keshubhai Patel and Shankersinh Vaghela - "we managed to win in Gujarat through the years. This proves that people will support you if you work with dedication".

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar told reporters that Modi urged party leaders not to be affected by the Opposition's "disinformation" campaign against the BJP.

In his address, Shah attacked the Congress over its claim of a moral victory in the Gujarat polls, saying it was a "laughable exercise" for the party to see victory in defeat.

Krishna hospitalised

Union Minister Krishna Raj fell ill during the meeting. She was rushed to Ram Manohar Lohia hospital, where doctors attended on her.
A 16-year old student of the Ryan International School in Gurugram, detained by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the murder of seven-year-old Pradhuman Thakur, will face trial in the case as an adult.



The Juvenile Justice Board on Wednesday transferred the murder case to a Sessions Court for trial, rejecting the argument of the boy's counsel that he could not be treated as adult for his trial in the case under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as he was still a juvenile.

In a 13-page order, the Board noted that Section 302 of the IPC has been "rightly invoked" against the class XI boy of the Ryan school.

While the offence, reportedly committed by the boy, was "heinous," the circumstances show the he was "mature enough" to understand the consequences of his act, the Board also observed.

The boy, charged with murdering Pardhuman, will be lodged at an observation home in Faridabad till he turns 21, the Board said in its order.

The class XI student of the School has been charged with killing Pradhuman in the school's toilet on September 8 by slitting his throat. His involvement in the killing came to light after the CBI began investigation into the case.

The Section 2(33) of the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act provides for trial of juveniles, aged between 16 and 18 years, under the laws meant for adults in case of their involvement in "heinous crimes" like rape, murder and armed robbery. The Act empowers Juvenile Justice Boards to decide as to whether a Juvenile in this age group should be tried as adults or not.

The Juvenile Justice Board examined the physical and mental condition of the boy. It also took note of a report of a clinical psychologist which concluded that the boy in no manner lacked the mental and physical capacity to commit the offence.

Before the Haryana Government handed over the case to the CBI acceeding to the demand of Praduman's father, the Gurugram police had arrested a conductor of the school bus, identified as Ashok Kumar, in connection with the murder, claiming that the accused had confessed to the crime during interrogation.

Police later also arrested two top officials of the school- Francis Thomas and Jeyus Thomas-in connection with murder, charging the duo with tampering with the evidence at the crime spot.
Lawmakers have cautioned the government against introduction of more genetically modified crops because of an unreliable regulatory system that is "susceptible to manipulations."



The track record of Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee - India's highest regulatory body on GM technology - is not encouraging either because of the masochism associated with the constitution and functioning of the GEAC, they said in a report.

Bt cotton is the only commercially available GM crop in India. A proposal to allow GM mustard that cleared all technical and regulatory hurdles, is under the Union Environment and Forest Ministry's consideration.

However, critics question the efficacy of the existing regulatory system. Currently, there are 14 laws and regulations under five different ministries and six regulatory bodies to supervise the entry and growth of GM crops and other technologies involving genetically modified organisms.

"Despite having so many levels of scrutiny in place, none of these levels of scrutiny is directly involved in the process of environmental impact assessment and the regulators are predominantly relying upon the data made available by the applicant himself. The committee is of the view that inspite of claiming to have the most stringent assessment process, we are lacking on the very basis of the same," the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology said in its report tabled in the House this week.

Formation of GEAC is not through a legally robust mechanism, leaving enough scope for bureaucratic control and masochism to continue.

There is no mention of GEAC in the Rules 1989 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 that oversee the manufacture, import, use, research and release of genetically modified organisms. Two of the top three positions in the GEAC are occupied by bureaucrats, while these positions should be held by technical experts with no conflict of interest.

The GEAC was last re-constituted in March, 2013 for three years and subsequently its tenure was extended till the reconstitution of a new committee. This, the committee argued, was one of the examples of the masochism associated with the GEAC.

Bizarre, opaque

In yet another example of bizarre and opaque GEAC functioning, the regulator released the protocols of commercialising a GM crop only in 2011 a almost a decade after permitting sale of genetically modified Bt cotton seeds.

"The presence of district level committee that is one of the most important committees to regulate GM crop at the ground level, is hardly felt in any of the states and union territories. The functioning of these committees also create suspicion in the minds of the stakeholders," the House panel said.
United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit. UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Marcus L. HARRIS, Defendant-Appellant. No. 16-4546 Decided: December 19, 2017

Before SHEDD, AGEE, and FLOYD, Circuit Judges. ARGUED: Laura Jill Koenig, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER, Richmond, Virginia, for Appellant. Brian R. Hood, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Richmond, Virginia, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Geremy C. Kamens, Federal Public Defender, Patrick L. Bryant, Appellate Attorney, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER, Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellant. Dana J. Boente, United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellee.

Appellant Marcus L. Harris appeals the revocation of his supervised release. The district court revoked his original term of supervised release for a technical violation, and imposed a second term of supervised release. Soon after, the court revoked Harris's second term of supervised release for a substantive violation. Harris argues that the district court lacked jurisdiction to revoke his second term of supervised release. Assuming the court had jurisdiction, Harris further argues that the revocation sentence exceeded the statutory maximum. Because the district court retained jurisdiction to revoke Harris's supervised release a second time, and properly prescribed the maximum sentence permitted under 18 U.S.C.  3583(e)(3), we affirm.

I.

In 2009, Harris pled guilty to Possession with Intent to Distribute 5 Grams or More of Cocaine Base, a Class B felony under 21 U.S.C.  841. The district court sentenced Harris to a term of imprisonment and 48 months of supervised release (original term). Harris began his original term of supervised release on September 8, 2014. The conditions of the release specified that Harris shall not commit another federal, state or local crime, and shall notify the probation officer within seventy-two hours of being arrested or questioned by a law enforcement officer J.A. 20.

In July 2015, Harris was involved in a traffic stop by the Petersburg Bureau of Police (PBP), which led to the discovery of firearms and substances suspected to be drugs, and the execution of two search warrants at his home. Harris failed to report the PBP officers' questioning in connection with the search warrants to his probation officer, but the probation officer eventually learned of the encounter. As a result, on September 3, 2015, the government filed a petition (original petition) in federal court seeking to revoke Harris's original term of supervised release for two alleged violations: (1) commission of a crimePossession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon and (2) commission of a crimePossession of Controlled Substance.

While the original petition was pending, on September 24, 2015, Harris was separately arrested by the PBP and charged in state court with murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. The government subsequently filed three addenda to the original petition, indicating that the state investigation of the murder charge was connected to the July traffic stop involving the drugs and firearms. The first addendum alleged that Harris failed to notify his probation officer within 72 hours of questioning by law enforcement, referencing the PBP's execution of the search warrants. The second addendum alleged Harris's two new state criminal charges as the basis for revocation. The third addendum requested that the district court issue an arrest warrant based on the second addendum's allegations. The district court approved the government's request to amend the original petition through these addenda and issued an arrest warrant.

The district court held a revocation hearing on October 6, 2015. The court revoked Harris's original term of supervised release for his failure to report, as alleged in the first addendum, and imposed the first revocation sentence. This sentence consisted of one month of imprisonment (from October 6, 2015, to November 5, 2015) and 40 months of supervised release. Given the pending state court proceedings, the district court neither dismissed nor ruled on the allegations regarding the violations based on the state criminal charges.

While Harris was serving his one month imprisonment, a federal grand jury indicted Harris for Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon for the firearms discovered during the July 2015 traffic stop. Based on this federal indictment, the government filed a fourth addendum to the original petition, alleging the commission of this crime as a new basis for revoking Harris's supervised release. On October 23, 2015, the district court approved the fourth addendum and issued an arrest warrant on the basis of these allegations. The district court also granted the government's motion to dismiss the original petition and other addenda, allowing the fourth addendum to supersede other allegations. Harris remained in pre-trial detention pending his federal criminal trial, even after he completed his one-month, post-revocation imprisonment.

On April 6, 2016, Harris was convicted of Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon. Based on this conviction, on August 18, 2016, the district court revoked Harris's supervised release again and imposed a second revocation sentence, consisting of 36 months of imprisonment and 24 months of supervised release. Harris appeals this second revocation of his supervised release. Harris claims that the district court lacked jurisdiction to revoke his supervised release, and that even if it had jurisdiction, the court exceeded the statutory maximum for a revocation sentence under 18 U.S.C.  3583.

II.

We first consider whether the district court had jurisdiction to revoke Harris's supervised release a second time. This Court reviews de novo whether the district court had jurisdiction to rule upon alleged violations of supervised release. United States v. Barton, 26 F.3d 490, 491 (4th Cir. 1994). We hold that the district court had jurisdiction to revoke Harris's supervised release a second time.

A.

It is well-established that a revocation does not end a term of supervised release. 18 U.S.C.  3583 governs the district court's authority to revoke, extend, modify, or terminate a defendant's term of supervised release. Under 18 U.S.C.  3583(e), the court may

(1) terminate a term of supervised release and discharge the defendant released ;

(2) extend a term of supervised release  at any time prior to the expiration or termination of the term of supervised release ;

(3) revoke a term of supervised release, and require the defendant to serve in prison all or part of the term of supervised release authorized by statute for the offense that resulted in such term of supervised release without credit for time previously served on postrelease supervision, if the court, pursuant to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure applicable to revocation of probation or supervised release, finds by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant violated a condition of supervised release

18 U.S.C.  3583(e)(1)(3). When the district court terminates a term of supervised release, the defendant is discharged from the court's supervision. Termination end[s] the term of supervised release without the possibility of its reimposition or continuation at a later time. Johnson v. United States, 529 U.S. 694, 704 (2000). Thus, if the district court later discovered that the defendant had earlier violated some condition of his supervised release, the court would lack authority to send him back to prison for that violation qua violation. United States v. Cross, 846 F.3d 188, 190 (6th Cir. 2017).

By contrast, when the court revokes a term of supervised release, the defendant is not discharged from the court's supervision. The court may require the defendant to serve in prison all or part of the term of supervised release 18 U.S.C.  3583(e)(3); see also 18 U.S.C.  3583(h) (allowing the court to include a post-revocation term of supervised release to follow the post-revocation imprisonment as part of a revocation sentence). After revocation, the defendant continues to serve his term of supervised release, but does so in prison. Revocation merely  recall[s], call[s] or summon[s] back the release. United States v. Winfield, 665 F.3d 107, 110 (4th Cir. 2012) (quoting Johnson, 529 U.S. at 706) (alterations in original); see also Cross, 846 F.3d at 190 (Revocation therefore revokes only the release part of supervised release). Unlike termination, revocation does not end the term of supervised release; instead, the term of supervised release continues on past revocation. Johnson 529 U.S. at 705 ([I]f the term of supervised release is being served, in whole or part, in prison, then something about the term of supervised release survives the preceding order of revocation.).

Based on Johnson's holding that a term of supervised release survives past a revocation, we similarly held in Winfield that the district court's jurisdiction over the supervised release continues past revocation. 665 F.3d at 112. In Winfield, the district court revoked Winfield's release based on technical violations and sentenced Winfield to 12 months of imprisonment. Id. at 109. The court, however, postponed adjudicating the substantive violations pending a state criminal trial. Id. When the court held a second revocation hearing, Winfield argued that the first revocation had deprived the district court of its jurisdiction. Id. at 110. We looked to the Supreme Court's reasoning in Johnson, and the Third Circuit's determination in a similar case that the first revocation did not deprive the court of its jurisdiction to hold a second violation hearing and impose additional prison time for violations committed prior to the revocation of the release. Id. at 111 (citing United States v. Johnson, 243 Fed.Appx. 666, 668 (3d Cir. 2007)). In upholding Winfield's second revocation sentence, we applied the Third Circuit's reasoning that if a revoked term of supervised release continues to have some effect post-revocation, then the district court's supervisory authority continues as well. Id. Our holding in Winfield informs our decision today.

B.

The main thrust of Harris's argument is based on the timing of the government's petitions. In Harris's view, Winfield controls only when the government files all operative petitions before the first revocation. Based on this reading of Winfield, Harris argues that Winfield does not control this case because the government filed the fourth addendum-which served as the basis for his second revocation sentence-after the first revocation. We reject this argument for three reasons.

First, Harris's argument is premised on a definition of revoke that the Supreme Court and this Court have rejected. Relying on a pre-Johnson case from a sister circuit, Harris asserts that [o]nce a term of supervised release has been revoked under  3583(e)(3), there is nothing left to extend, modify, reduce, or enlarge under  3583(e)(2). The term of release no longer exists. United States v. Holmes, 954 F.2d 270, 272 (5th Cir. 1992), abrogated by Johnson, 529 U.S. 694. In Harris's view, because the supervised release term ceases to exist after revocation, the government brings its additional charges too late if it brings them after revocation. This definition of revoke directly contradicts the Supreme Court's explanation in Johnson that a supervised release term continues to exist after revocation, and our application of that definition in Winfield. We decline to return to a pre-Johnson definition of revoke.

Second, our decision in Winfield did not rest on the fact that the government filed all of its petitions before the first revocation. Here, as Harris points out, the government filed the fourth addendum after the first revocation, whereas in Winfield, the government filed all petitions before the first revocation. Harris's reliance on the timing of the petition relative to the first revocation is misplaced. Our holding in Winfield did not turn on the fact that the government filed its petitions before the first revocation. Instead, we held that the court maintained jurisdiction because the government filed the petition before Winfield's supervised release expired. 665 F.3d at 112. It is the timing of the petition relative to the expiration of supervised release that matters. See id. ([A] district court is within its authority to hold bifurcated violation hearings based on a petition filed before the supervised release's expiration); see also Cross, 846 F.3d at 190 ([T]he district court's supervisory authority continues until the defendant's supervised release terminates or expires.).

Here, the government filed the fourth addendum during Harris's one-month, post-revocation prison term. Based on our holding in Winfield, the first revocation did not end Harris's supervised release. Moreover, the government filed the fourth addendum during Harris's post-revocation prison term, requiring us to find that the government filed the fourth addendum while Harris's supervised release remained in effect. Therefore, the government satisfied the timing requirement of filing the petition before the expiration of Harris's supervised release, and the district court retained jurisdiction to adjudicate the violations alleged in the fourth addendum.

Lastly, limiting the district court's supervisory authority, as Harris suggests, would eviscerate Congress's purpose in designing the current supervisory release scheme. Congress entrusted the district court with the discretion and authority to supervise defendants. See generally 18 U.S.C.  3583. We have observed that this unique method of post-confinement supervision  fulfills rehabilitative ends, and [t]he congressional policy  to improve the odds of a successful transition from the prison to liberty United States v. Buchanan, 638 F.3d 448, 450 (4th Cir. 2011) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). The key to this scheme is the district court's broad authority to protect the public, United States v. Wing, 682 F.3d 861, 878 (9th Cir. 2012) (Tallman, J., dissenting) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted), and its ability to police violations of the release's conditions, Cross, 846 F.3d at 190. Under Harris's theory, the court would be powerless to act upon a newly discovered or alleged violation if the government does not file a petition before the court revokes the defendant's supervised release. This creates a powerful incentive for defendants to readily admit to lesser violations to obtain more lenient sentencings while hiding a more serious violation from the court. United States v. Vazquez-A lvarez, No. 12-286 (GAG), 2015 WL 5090113, at *4 (D.P.R. Aug. 24, 2015). We decline to eliminate[ ] the court's ability to punish defendants for more serious violations that it was not aware of at the time of revocation Id.

The first revocation ended neither Harris's supervised release nor the district court's jurisdiction, and the government filed the fourth addendum while Harris was serving his post-revocation imprisonment. Therefore, we hold that the district court had jurisdiction to revoke Harris's second term of supervised release.

III.

We now consider whether the district court properly imposed a sentence within the maximum permitted under 18 U.S.C.  3583(e). We hold that it did.

A.

Under 18 U.S.C.  3583(b)(1), the statutory maximum for a term of supervised release for a Class B felony is 60 months. If the district court revokes the term of supervised release, it may require the defendant to serve in prison all or part of the term of supervised release  without credit for time previously served on postrelease supervision 18 U.S.C.  3583(e)(3). Of those 60 months, however, a defendant may not be required to serve on any such revocation  more than 3 years in prison Id. 18 U.S.C.  3583(h) provides that the court may include a requirement that the defendant be placed on a term of supervised release after imprisonment, but that term of supervised release shall not exceed the term of supervised release authorized by statute for the offense that resulted in the original term of supervised release, less any term of imprisonment that was imposed upon revocation of supervised release.

Harris's original term of supervised release was for 48 months. After the first revocation, the district court imposed the first revocation sentence, consisting of one month of imprisonment and 40 months of supervised release. The first revocation sentence, then, was well within the maximum of 36 months for the total period of imprisonment, and the maximum of 60 months for the total period of supervised release for a Class B Felony. See 18 U.S.C.  3583(b)(1), (e)(3). After the second revocation, the district court imposed the second revocation sentence, consisting of 36 months of imprisonment and 24 months of supervised release. Standing alone, the second revocation sentence reached the maximum sentence of 60 total months, including the maximum of 36 months of imprisonment. 18 U.S.C.  3583(b)(1), (e)(3).

In arguing that the district court exceeded the statutory maximum for a Class B Felony, Harris erroneously aggregates the first and second revocation sentences. Harris contends, the district court imposed 37 months of imprisonment and 64 months of supervised release upon revoking a single supervised release term. Appellant Br. 23. 18 U.S.C.  3583(e)(3) does not require the district court to credit time previously served on post-release supervision. The district court could sentence Harris up to 60 months of supervised release upon his second revocation without giving credit for any of the time that he had already served.

Similarly, 18 U.S.C.  3583(e)(3) establishes that on any such revocation the district court may order the defendant to serve up to 36 months in prison for a Class B felony. Before 2003, the relevant portion of 18 U.S.C.  3583(e)(3) did not include the phrase on any such revocation, and courts generally aggregated all post-revocation imprisonment. See Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to end the Exploitation of Children Today Act of 2003, Pub. L. No. 108-21,  101(1), 117 Stat. 650, 651 (2003); United States v. Perry, 743 F.3d 238, 24142 (7th Cir. 2014). Post-amendment, however, we agree with the government that the phrase on any such revocation permits the district court to start anew with the statutory maximum without aggregating any post-revocation imprisonment.

Every sister circuit that has examined this amendment has concluded the same. See, e.g., United States v. Cunningham, 800 F.3d 1290, 129293 (11th Cir. 2015) (recognizing the amendment abrogated the cases that called for aggregation of sentences); Perry, 743 F.3d at 242 (holding that prior time served for violations of supervised release is not credited towards and so does not limit the statutory maximum that a court may impose for subsequent violations of supervised release ); United States v. Spencer, 720 F.3d 363, 368 (D.C. Cir. 2013) (concluding that the amendment results in the felony class imprisonment terms at the end of  3583(e)(3) being per-revocation limits, and not aggregate limits); United States v. Williams, 675 F.3d 275, 28081 (3d Cir. 2012) (noting that Congress did not intend to set an aggregate cap on successive revocation imprisonment); United States v. Shabazz, 633 F.3d 342, 346 (5th Cir. 2011) (If Congress had intended for courts to continue reading the language at the end of  3583(e)(3) as an aggregate limit on revocation imprisonment it would have left   3583(e)(3) unaltered.); United States v. Epstein, 620 F.3d 76, 80 (2d Cir. 2010) (holding that  3583(e)(3) applies to each discrete revocation, irrespective of any time served for previous violations); United States v. Knight, 580 F.3d 933, 937 (9th Cir. 2009) (stating that courts are not required to aggregate revocation sentences under the 2003 amendment); United States v. Lewis, 519 F.3d 822, 82425 (8th Cir. 2008) (same); United States v. Tapia-Escalera, 356 F.3d 181, 188 (1st Cir. 2004) (noting that, through the 2003 amendment, Congress has altered the statute to adopt the government's position that the terms of imprisonment do not aggregate (emphasis omitted)).

In unpublished opinions, we have also concurred with our sister circuits. United States v. Ware, 639 Fed.Appx. 919, 920 (4th Cir. 2016); United States v. Rucker, 578 Fed.Appx. 291, 292 (4th Cir. 2014) (Mem.). We see no reason to now hold otherwise.

B.

Harris recognizes that the plain language of the statutory provisions stands against him. However, he argues that if the district court retained jurisdiction over the second revocation because the original term continued to remain in effect, then the court effectively revoked the same term of supervised release twice, requiring the court to consider the first and second revocation sentences in the aggregate. Harris's argument that the district court imposed additional punishment for his already-revoked, original term is contrary to the record. At the second revocation, the district court expressly stated that it was revoking the period of supervised release on which the defendant is currently servingHarris's second term of supervised release. J.A. 311.

Moreover, although it is true that one term of supervised release continues past revocation, see Johnson, 529 U.S. at 70506, the language of 18 U.S.C.  3583(e)(3) assumes that supervised release can be revoked multiple times as long as the defendant continues to violate the release conditions. Harris's theory would convert per-revocation maximums into per-term of supervised release maximums. This is contrary to Congress's intent to create a per-revocation maximum.

Because 18 U.S.C.  3583(e)(3) does not require the district court to aggregate the revocation sentences, but allows the court to start anew with the maximum on any such revocation, the district court properly imposed a sentence within the statutory maximum. Therefore, we see no error.

IV.

We hold that the district court retained jurisdiction over Harris's supervised release and properly sentenced Harris within the statutory maximum. Accordingly, the judgment of the district court is

AFFIRMED.

FOOTNOTES

. Harris believes that Winfield was wrongly decided and should be reconsidered. Appellant Br. 20. We disagree.

. Harris finds support in the Ninth Circuit's decision in United States v. Wing, 682 F.3d 861, 868 (9th Cir. 2012). In Wing, the court concluded that the Supreme Court's application of the unconventional definition of revoke [in Johnson] was based on the language of subsection (e)(3) before the 1994 amendments. The Ninth Circuit insisted that the Supreme Court's interpretation of revoke in Johnson did not apply to the newly amended statute. Instead, the court adopted an ordinary meaning of revoketo void or annul by recalling, withdrawing, or reversing. Id. (citation omitted). Accordingly, the court held that a term of supervised release could not be revoked based on a violation of a condition of a previously revoked term of supervised release. Id. at 863.Because Winfield remains binding precedent of this Court, we cannot adopt a contrary definition of revoke. In our view, even considering the post-Johnson amendments to  3583(e)(3), Johnson and Winfield are still good law. See Wing, 682 F.3d at 877 (Tallman, J., dissenting) (Congress has amended  3583 seven different times without altering any of the relevant terms interpreted in [Johnson].). Section 3583(e)(3) says now, just as it did then, that revocation means the defendant must serve in prison all or part of the term of supervised release.  Cross, 846 F.3d at 190.

. Harris raises an alternative argument that he was not on supervised release while he was imprisoned for 30 days from October 6, 2015, to November 5, 2015. Under 18 U.S.C.  3624(e), [a] term of supervised release does not run during any period in which the person is imprisoned in connection with a conviction for a Federal, State, or local crime unless the imprisonment is for a period of less than 30 consecutive days. We reject his argument because, as explained above, the post-revocation prison term was itself a part of Harris's supervised release, see, e.g., 18 U.S.C.  3583(e)(3); Johnson 529 U.S. at 70506, and therefore Harris's post-revocation prison term was not in connection with a conviction for a Federal, State, or local crime, 18 U.S.C.  3624(e).

FLOYD, Circuit Judge:

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge Floyd wrote the opinion in which Judge Shedd and Judge Agee joined.
A teenage girl on the way to school was kidnapped on a motorcycle, gang-raped and murdered here on Tuesday.

The news spread like wildfire after the police got a postmortem done and handed over the body to her family.

Outraged Dalit groups carried her body to Ambedkar Circle, in the heart of this northern Karnataka city, and sat in protest.

The city was on the boil all night, with protesters burning tyres and shouting slogans.

Minister's arrival

M B Patil, minister in charge of the district, arrived on Wednesday morning, met the bereaved family, and announced a government compensation of Rs 8.5 lakh. He promised an additional personal contribution of Rs 5 lakh.

Patil directed Kuldeep Jain, superintendent of police, to undertake a thorough investigation and nab the guilty.

The protesters were not satisfied, and demanded the girl's family be allowed to meet Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, scheduled to visit the city on Wednesday. They said they would continue their agitation otherwise.

They relented only after Patil acceded to their demand. The family took the girl's body to Dargah extension for the last rites.

Gang of six

Deepak Mulasavalagi of Manjunathnagar is the main accused in the case. He and five others took the girl to a house, where they gang-raped and murdered her, according to an FIR filed by the Adarshanagar police.

A special investigating team, led by deputy superintendent of police Ashok, has been constituted to crack the case, Jain said.

Where are the brutes?

The police are tracking the phone of the main accused, and it suggests he is shuttling between Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Dalit organisations are contemplating a Vijayapura bandh on Thursday.

CM's promise

The government will bring the perpetrators of the Vijayapura rape and murder to book, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Wednesday.

A statement from his office announced the victim's family would receive Rs 8.5 lakh as compensation "although the girl's life is priceless". Siddaramaiah denounced the crime as "extremely inhuman".
Kalisu Foundation, which has so far set up 14 libraries in government schools in Mysuru and Mandya districts, plans to establish at least 100 such libraries in the region in the year 2018.



Recently, the foundation opened its 14th library, funded by Plansee India High Performance, at the Government Higher Primary School in Jayanagar in the city. However, chief executive officer of the foundation M M Nikilesh is confident of hitting a century during the next year, following the overwhelming response he is receiving for his initiative.

"So far, we have been supported by Mysuru-based NR Group, Plansee India High Performance, Global Buzz and Automotive Axels, Bengaluru-based Fanuc, a robotics company, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries - VST Diesel Engines, and also Srirangapatna-based Sunpure. But many more corporate companies are approaching us with offers to help students of government schools," he said.

K V Mohana Kumari, in-charge headmistress of the Government Higher Primary School in Jayanagar, said that there are 55 students from first to seventh standard in the school and most of them are from economically backward families. "Most of our students come from Chinnagiri Koppalu, a slum, even though our school is situated in a posh area. Their parents are not well read. So, the library will help them develop the reading habit," she said.

"Earlier, we had around 1,000 books and an almirah to store them. Once in a week, students of each class were allowed to read them. We would also lend the books to the students for a week. However, we did not have an exclusive library. When Kalisu Foundation people approached us, we spared a classroom for the purpose. There was some seepage in the roof during rains. The donors repaired the roof and walls. The room was renovated and painted, complete with art work. It is a pleasant experience for the students to sit and read here now. The children are happy," she said.

Nikilesh said, he co-founded the foundation along with his brother M M Vignesh in 2013 and has been setting up libraries since then. "Each library is a learning experience. There has been a lot of improvisation over the years. A lot of research has gone into the selection of books to suit the children. Squatting on the ground has many benefits, so, we encourage mats for sitting on the ground. Besides, our art works and charts on the walls are also learning tools for the children," he said.

"Scion of the erstwhile royal family Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar is our brand ambassador and he interacts with the children of various government schools periodically. State Cooperation Minister M C Mohana Kumari, who inaugurated the library in Jayanagar also interacted with the children. She read out her poem on straw mat, which is being used in our libraries for children to sit, and explained how the poem took shape out of her experience. She also donated a few books authored by herself to the library," he said.
The Mahadayi river water dispute between Karnataka and Goa is likely to be resolved soon with Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said to have softened his stand on the issue. Parrikar on Wednesday is learnt to have promised to consider Karnataka's request to allow it to draw a certain quantity of water from the river to feed parched areas of the North Karnataka region.

At a meeting hosted by BJP national president Amit Shah at his residence in Delhi, Parrikar and Karnataka BJP leaders, including state unit president B S Yeddyurappa, discussed the issue in detail.

At the meeting, Parrikar, who is heading the BJP-ruled state, reportedly promised to consider the state BJP leaders' request not to oppose the project on humanitarian grounds.

The project involved drawing of 7.5 tmc ft of water from Mahadayi to supply drinking water to the twin cities of Hubballi-Dharwad and surrounding areas and irrigate parts of Belagavi and Gadag districts.

Emerging out of the more than two-hour-long meeting, Yeddyurappa told reporters that Parrikar promised to consider the state's plea and will reveal his decision after discussing it with his Cabinet colleagues at Panaji on Thursday.

Yeddyurappa also said that after Parrikar announces his decision, he would make public the details of the talks at a proposed party workers' rally in Hubballi on Thursday.

At the meeting, Union Fertilisers Minister Ananth Kumar, BJP Karnataka in-charge Piyush Goyal, Human Resources Development Minister Prakash Javadekar, Hubballi-Dharwad MP Prahalad Joshi, BJP Karnataka in-charge general secretary Muralidhar Rao and Karnataka Assembly Opposition leader Jagadish Shettar were present.

Parrikar's assurance of softening his stand on the issue is termed as a big boost to the BJP ahead of the Karnataka Assembly polls. The saffron party has been facing criticism from its political opponents and public of north Karnataka region for not helping resolve the long-pending dispute though the party is at helm both in Goa and the Centre.

Mahadayi or the Kalasa-Banduri project involves building barrages across Kalasa and Banduri, tributaries of the Mahadayi in the Western Ghats region of Belagavi district, to divert 7.56 tmc ft of water to the Malaprabha river.

Though the Centre cleared the project in 2002, it was stalled after Goa raised objections saying it would dry up its lifeline, the Mandovi River, called Mahadayi in Karnataka.

To share the river water among basin states - Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra - the Union Ministry of Water Resources had constituted the Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal. The tribunal, in its interim order, rejected Karnataka's plea to utilise 7 tmc feet of water and suggested resolving the issue amicably.

People in north Karnataka have been holding protests seeking Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mediation to resolve the issue while the Karnataka government has been demanding that the PM call a meeting of the states invovled.
United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. LESTER PINEX III, AKA Lester Johnson, Defendant-Appellant. No. 16-30050 Decided: December 19, 2017

Before: PAEZ and BEA, Circuit Judges, and LAMBERTH,** District Judge.

MEMORANDUM*

Lester Pinex appeals the district court's denial of his motion to suppress evidence and the district court's application of the four-level sentencing enhancement under U.S.S.G  2K2.1(b)(6). We affirm in part and reverse in part.

1. Pinex moved to suppress the seizure of heroin, alleging that the traffic stop was prolonged without reasonable suspicion of criminal activity in violation of the Fourth Amendment. We review de novo a district court's legal conclusions regarding the denial of a motion to suppress. United States v. I.E.V., 705 F.3d 430, 434 (9th Cir. 2012).

In Rodriguez v. United States, 135 S. Ct. 1609 (2015), the Supreme Court held that a police stop exceeding the time needed to handle the matter for which the stop was made violates the Constitution's shield against unreasonable seizures. Id. at 1612. A prolonged stop is unconstitutional if it both exceeds the time needed for the initial purpose of the stop and there is no independent reasonable suspicion to allow the police to extend the length of the stop. Id. In other words, [a]uthority for the seizure  ends  when tasks tied to the traffic infraction areor reasonably should have beencompleted. United States v. Evans, 786 F.3d 779, 786 (9th Cir. 2015). If during a traffic stop, new grounds for suspicion of criminal activity continue [ ] to unfold, the period of the detention can be constitutionally extended. United States v. Mayo, 394 F.3d 1271, 1275 (9th Cir. 2005) (internal quotation marks omitted). In this case, given the totality of the circumstances, as events unfolded the police officers had reasonable suspicion to believe that criminal activity was afoot.

Pinex was pulled over for speeding, which the parties do not dispute was a valid traffic stop. The question is whether that stopwhich lasted nearly two hourswas prolonged without reasonable suspicion that Pinex was involved in criminal activity. See id. At the beginning of the stop, Pinex provided the officers with a rental car agreement, that showed the car he was driving had been rented to a third party, who was not present. The stop took place on I-94, which law enforcement officers consider a drug corridor.

Additionally, Pinex gave the officers a false name, social security number, and date of birth, none of which returned a positive identification of Pinex when one of the officers tried to run the information through available databases. The fact that Pinex's identity could not be confirmed and that the rental car had been rented to another person prompted the officers to question separately Pinex and his passenger Deangelo Tyler. After speaking with Pinex and Tyler, the officers noticed inconsistencies in the information they provided. In subsequent conversations with the rental car company the officers learned that Pinex had lied about the whereabouts of the third party named in the rental agreement, and the company authorized a search of the car and requested that it be impounded. Although the officers called for a tow truck, given its location there was delay in its arrival at the scene. As these facts evolved, the officers reasonably suspected that Pinex was involved in drug trafficking. This independent basis for reasonable suspicion amply supported the officers decision to prolong the stop and call for a drug dog. Given the totality of the circumstances, the prolonged traffic stop was supported by reasonable suspicion that criminal activity was afoot. We therefore affirm the district court's denial of Pinex's motion to suppress evidence.

2. Pinex also challenges the application of the four-level sentencing enhancement under U.S.S.C.  2K2.1(b)(6). We review the district court's interpretation of the Sentencing Guidelines de novo, the district court's application of the Sentencing Guidelines to the facts of [a] case for abuse of discretion, and the district court's factual findings for clear error. United States v. Cantrell, 433 F.3d 1269, 1279 (9th Cir. 2006) (quoting United States v. Kimbrew, 406 F.3d 1149, 1151 (9th Cir. 2005)).

In relevant part, the four-level enhancement applies when the defendant used or possessed any firearm or ammunition in connection with another felony offense. U.S. SENTENCING GUIDELINES MANUAL  2K2.1(b)(6)(B) (2016). Application Note 14(A) explains that [s]ubsection[ ] (b)(6)(B)  [applies] if the firearm or ammunition facilitated, or had the potential of facilitating, another felony offense or another offense, respectively. This contrasts with the directive in Application Note 14(B) that subsection (b)(6)(B) applies in the case of a drug trafficking offense in which a firearm is found in close proximity to drugs, drug-manufacturing materials, or drug paraphernalia. As the note explains, [i]n these cases, application of subsections (b)(6)(B)  is warranted because the presence of the firearm has the potential of facilitating another felony offense or another offense, respectively.

The district court concluded that the gun played an emboldening role in [Pinex's] criminal possession of those drugs, and therefore applied the enhancement. In doing so, the district court noted that although the gun and drugs were in separate containers, they were in close proximity and that Pinex spoke of the drugs and gun at the same time, thereby suggesting that in his mind they were related. Because the other felony offense here was not a drug trafficking crime, we look to Application Note 14(A) for guidance.

When the other felony offense is not a drug trafficking crime, we have held that accessibility is a central factor in determining whether the section 2K2.1(b)(6) enhancement should apply. United States v. Routon, 25 F.3d 815, 819 (9th Cir. 1994). In United States v. Routon, which involved a felony possession of a stolen vehicle, we acknowledged that the enhancement may apply if possession of the firearm had some potential emboldening role in[ ] a defendant's felonious conduct. Id. This emboldening role was in turn sufficient to permit a finding of facilitation, whereas mere possession was not. Key to the determination that the gun emboldened Routon's conduct was the fact that it was easily accessible. Routon's apparent efforts to maintain the accessibility of his gun whenever he used his car permit the inference that the gun emboldened him to continue his illegal conduct. Id. (emphasis added). Although the other criminal offense in Routon was possession of a stolen vehicle rather than possession of drugs, the same principles apply, as Application Note 14(A) provides guidance for each.

Here, the gun was not accessible to Pinex. Indeed, it was in a locked suitcase in the trunk of his car. He could not gain access to the gun without significant effort given its location in the trunk. This lack of accessibility contrasts with Routon, where the gun was in the front of the car between the driver and passenger seats. The fact that the gun and the drugs were both in the trunk does not support the district court's finding that the gun emboldened Pinex's possession of the drugs. The district court erred by focusing on proximity rather than accessibility.

For the above reasons the district court's denial of Pinex's motion to suppress evidence is affirmed. And the district court's application of U.S.S.G.  2K2.1(b)(6) four- level sentencing enhancement is reversed and the case is remanded for resentencing.

AFFIRMED in part; REVERSED in part and REMANDED for resentencing.
The Del Mar Union School District was recently honored by the 38th Annual Golden Bell Awards Program of the California School Boards Association (CSBA), according to a press release.

The award was won in the Professional Development and Teacher Recruitment/Retention category for Improving Student Mathematical Understanding through Sustained Professional Learning under the direction of Shelley Petersen, assistant superintendent of Instructional Services, Dinah Brown, coordinator of Curriculum and Instruction, and Rachel Matteson, 2nd grade teacher at Del Mar Hills Academy.

The highly respected Golden Bell Awards were presented in a special ceremony during CSBAs Awards Reception and Ceremony at the Marriott Marquis San Diego on Nov. 30.

The event is held every year in conjunction with the California School Boards Associations Annual Education Conference.CSBA recognized Del Mar USDs Improving Student Mathematical Understanding program has been markedly transformed by a highly effective, strategic approach to professional development  the districts Professional Development Model for Conceptually Based Mathematics. Del Mar USDs model has been recognized by universities throughout the nation for its job-embedded, multiyear approach to developing teachers knowledge and skill in mathematics. For the last six years, all teachers and principals have engaged in extensive learning about childrens thinking, aligned to the implementation of the California Common Core State Standards and Mathematical Practices.

The CSBA Golden Bell Awards program promotes excellence in education by recognizing outstanding programs in school districts and county offices of education throughout California. The Golden Bell Awards reflect the depth and breadth of the education programs necessary to address students changing needs. The goal of this awards program is to contribute to the development and evaluation of curriculum, instruction and support services, the press release stated.

(In photo above, l-r) Rachel Matteson, 2nd grade teacher, Del Mar Hills Academy; Steve Cochrane, Ph.D., governing board of trustees member; Cathy Birks, assistant superintendent of Business Services; Shelley Petersen, assistant superintendent of Instructional Services; Holly McClurg, Ph.D., superintendent; Erica Halpern, governing board of trustees member; Doug Rafner, Esq., governing board of trustees president; Kristin Gibson, governing board of trustees clerk.
A current and former member of the Solana Beach City Council have filed a lawsuit against an unsuccessful candidate in the 2016 City Council election, alleging that he and others published defamatory information about them in a letter to another local newspaper, emails and social media posts.

The lawsuit filed in May (and amended in October) by Councilman Mike Nichols and former Councilwoman Lesa Heebner alleges defamation by council candidate Ed Siegel, a well-known figure in Solana Beach who leads weekly sing-along events, and four other defendants. The lawsuit also alleges invasion of privacy by all five defendants. Siegel came in last in a field of six candidates in the November 2016 election.

The lawsuit, filed in San Diego Superior Court by attorney Keith Rutman on behalf of Nichols and Heebner, seeks a minimum of $15 million in damages. If the case goes to trial and the plaintiffs prevail, a jury would determine the amount of damages, if any, are awarded.

Named in the lawsuit along with Siegel as defendants were Andrew P. Jones, Mary Jane Boyd, Sandy Parrish and Brian Hall. The lawsuit alleges Boyd and Parrish re-published some of the defamatory information listed in the legal action.

Both Heebner and Nichols declined to comment, referring questions to their attorney, Rutman, who said the alleged defamation by the defendants went beyond typical political mud-slinging.

When specific allegations are made they need to be addressed and this is the way to do it, Rutman said.

The lawsuit alleges Siegel spread untrue, defamatory information about Nichols and Heebner in an Oct. 28, 2016 letter to the editor of The Coast News. The letter was titled, Shady business on the Solana Beach train tracks, and accused Nichols and Heebner of potentially profiting through contracts related to the redevelopment of the Solana Beach train station, according to the lawsuit.

The letter was sent under Siegels name and also alleged that the selection of a proposed developer for the project was made through a back-door deal.

Similar allegations and additional charges regarding Nichols and Heebner were made in a series of emails sent to elected officials and members of the media, and in social media posts, according to the lawsuit. The emails and posts were sent by Andrew Jones, who wrote in an email to the city clerk that he was Siegels campaign manager, said the lawsuit.

However, both Siegel and Hall, when contacted, said Hall was Siegels campaign manager. Rutman said his staff has not been able to locate Jones.

Regarding the lawsuit, Siegel said, Its totally without merit. Siegel, a psychiatrist and co-author of the official Solana Beach song Solana Beach, Our City Proud, made his first run for elective office in 2016.

Hall, who runs a Solana Beach real estate company, said of the lawsuit, Theyre trying to shut us up.

Boyd declined to comment on the lawsuit and Parrish did not respond by presstime to a request for comment.

One of the emails sent by Andrew Jones contained allegations about the train station project similar to those in the letter to the editor. Another email by Jones alleged improprieties by Joseph Balla, who was part of a bid for the train station project that received the highest ranking of four proposals submitted to the North County Transit District, which owns the train station property. Balla has also filed a defamation lawsuit against the same defendants named in Heebner and Nichols lawsuit.

Rutman said that once served, those named in his clients defamation lawsuit have 30 days to respond to the legal action.
Community service officers could provide a middle option for Del Mar, which has been trying for years to decide whether to continue its contract with the San Diego County Sheriffs Department or create its own police department.

Del Mar has been studying the possibility of creating its own police force as a way to improve response times, cut costs and have more control over law enforcement and crime prevention.

The newest possibility is that the Sheriffs Department could assign community service officers to the city, Mayor Dwight Worden said Monday, Dec. 18. The non-sworn officers could do low-level investigations, assist with traffic control, and work on crime prevention in the community, leaving sworn deputies to more important tasks.

Weve had two options until now, Worden said at a council meeting Dec. 18. The solution might be in the middle.

The council directed members Terry Sinnott and Ellie Haviland to meet with the Sheriffs Department to discuss whether community service officers could be assigned to Del Mar and what that might cost, along with other ways to improve service.

Del Mar is the smallest city in San Diego County, with a little more than 4,200 residents. It is one of nine cities in the county that contract with the Sheriffs Department for law enforcement services.

Residents say that under the citys current contract, deputies must split their time between Del Mar and the county and other cities, and that deputies spend too little time in Del Mar before they are transferred to work full-time elsewhere.

We always need officers on the beach, said resident Antony Viscardi. We need officers who can respond quickly to whats going on.

Response times for deputies range from an average of nine minutes for high-priority calls to more than 47 minutes for low-priority calls, according to a city report completed in March and based on information from 2014.

Some people have suggested the city try to get the high-priority responses lowered to between five and eight minutes. Councilman Terry Sinnott said thats not reasonable.

I wouldnt focus on the numbers, Sinnott said. I just want to improve public safety.

The citys Finance Committee recently evaluated the Sheriffs Department contract, which costs the city about $2.1 million annually, and concluded, We werent really getting what we were paying for, said committee member Glenn Sherman. The committee members voted unanimously to recommend the city form its own police department.

Other residents advised caution, saying a police department would expose the city to new liabilities that are now handled by the Sheriffs Department, such as lawsuits for police brutality or officer-involved shootings.

Other concerns include where the department would be housed, and capital costs for vehicles, communications systems and other initial expenses.

-- Phil Diehl is a writer for The San Diego Union-Tribune
Christopher Plummer Replaces Kevin Spacey In All The Money In The World
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.
Subscriber content preview

By JOYCE M. ROSENBERG

AP Business Writer

NEW YORK  As small business owners learn what their 2018 health insurance costs will be, some are considering providing different types of coverage for their employees.

Companies are receiving notices of premium and coverage changes for 2018. The changes vary, depending on factors including the state where a company is located, how many employees it has and how comprehensive its insurance is. But many owners are seeing rate increases of double-digit percentages, finding dramatically reduced coverage, or both. Health insurance consultants expect more owners to rethink their strategies beyond 2018 and choose alternatives like paying for claims themselves or adding health services that can lower costs.





. . .
Subscriber content preview

WASHINGTON (AP)  A Senate panel has rejected President Donald Trump's nominee to run the Export-Import Bank.

Two Banking Committee Republicans, Tim Scott of South Carolina and Mike Rounds of South Dakota, joined with Democrats to shelve the nomination of former GOP Rep. Scott Garrett of New Jersey to head up the bank, which provides loans, credit insurance and loan guarantees to help foreign buyers purchase U.S. exports.





. . .
It was fun for a three- or four-year-old boy to ride with his parents down the steep slope of Forest Avenue in the family's Model A Ford. This would have been in the late 1930's, and we would be heading for downtown from our home high up on Elinor Street in North Chattanooga. To cross Frazier Avenue was no problem - probably just a required stop for Forest Avenue traffic, and then straight across to the Walnut Street Bridge. We used that bridge quite regularly back in the '30's until we moved to Brainerd in 1937 - always getting some nice and impressive views of the Tennessee River, the bluffs beneath Bluff View, where the Hunter Museum of American Art stands today.

After moving to Brainerd in 1937 we still had cause to be in North Chattanooga, but, since we were no longer living there, there was less need to use the Walnut Street Bridge. Dad was familiar with the many businesses on Frazier Avenue - the hardware stores, drug stores, etc., so to access these most easily he would use the Market Street Bridge with its two ponderous counterweights, needed to assist its opening for very tall amphibious craft - which preseumably might include an occasional Navy vessel, or a river-craft with tall stacks such as the Delta Queen. At any rate, the Market Street Bridge was lower built than the Walnut Street, hence requiring a "draw". The extremely heavy counterweights at either end of that bridge's superstructure provided ready-made space for signage, and so Southern Ad Company's team of sign painters was kept busy with the designing and painting of advertisements for both ends of the bridge. The one company that advertised most on the bridge was the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga. It was not uncommon to find sign-painters working high above the traffic below on their fragile-looking scaffolds - which had no safety-backs! Ropes, block and tackle, suspended from "sky-hooks"held the scaffolds aloft while the painters worked away, seeming not to notice the traffic below. In this way they rendered the EPB's latest message to the public - which always ended with the slogan, "Electricity is Cheap in Chattanooga".

The above two bridges were all we had for years. When I left for the Air Force in early 1956 the Olgiati Bridge was just about to be opened. I can remember that approximate date because my parents wrote me at Lackland AFB that they had driven across it for the first time. It did not really connect with any "through" roads yet, as the wonderful new "Golden Gateway" (the western end of MLK Blvd., then known as 9th Street) would link up with the new re-routing of U.S. Hwy. 27. Finding the approaches to it and actually driving across it made for a a pleasant Sunday afternoon joy-ride at the time causing new excitement through town. No one had ever heard of an I-24, or an I-75, and, except for Department of Transportation employees, few people had any idea of what was about to happen to our city's street and traffic patterns. The new Olgiati Bridge would feed masses of inbound traffic from the north and deposit it on 9th Street. (Martin Luther King - the man - had not yet made his impact in the Civil Rights movement, so that street remained "9th Street" for several years to come). But 9th street was one of the oldest city streets, no wider than 6th, 7th, or 8th, so had to be widened to handle all the anticipated new traffic. That widening presented a veritable trauma for nearly everyone who used the downtown area. All traffic had to be re-routed - not just once, but several times throughout the entire lengthy undertaking - bus routes, truck routes, et al, were constantly being changed. I think the old streetcar lines were gone by this time, or the mess could have been much worse.

Now, my memory totally fails me as to when exactly the bridge over Chickamauga Dam was built. My father-in-law, John Parnell moved his family to Chattanooga in 1952 to work at the new DuPont plant, and that was before the bridge opened. A neighbor of ours in Brainerd, Mr. William F. Jackson, a recent WWII veteran - and steamfitter by trade - was already home from the war and was also working for DuPont at that time. He was forced to drive through town - across the Walnut Street Bridge - and continue his long commute out Hixson Pike to "Uncle Dupy's" (DuPont) new plant. I am guessing then, that the Chickamauga Dam bridge may have opened by around 1954 or '55 - barely ahead of the Olgiati. I still remember Mr. Jackson's cries of jubilation when that bridge actually opened! So the new bridge across Chickamauga Dam opened up a new connection both to DuPont and to Hixson, also making possible the future Northgate Mall. The only negative comments I have for that bridge is purely cosmetic as it detracted from the once-beautiful - even dramatic - approach to Chickamauga dam's Visitors Center. Practicality won out, and I applaud the end results!

The Veterans Bridge was the "Johnny come lately" of all our bridges. It made travel to and from the Hixson area a lot easier which resulted in mass-migrations of Chattanoogans into the Hixson area during the 1960's and '70's. This new bridge worked with the Chickamauga Dam bridge to open the Hixson area up as a part of the Chattanooga metropolitan area. Til now, Hixson had been just a tiny country town relatively cut off from Chattanooga. One effect of the Olgiati Bridge had been to make the Soddy-Daisy and Rhea County areas more accessible to and from Chattanooga, and so the Veterans and Chickamauga Dam bridges now did the same for Hixson and DuPont in a slightly different direction. Only negative comment I can make about the Veterans bridge is that its construction ruined forever the view I will describe later.

I have admired all our bridges, both the new and the old, having walked across both the older ones more than once simply to enjoy the walk - and the amazing panoramas you never see while rushing by in a car. I think it is great that some wise people at City Hall decided to "save" the Walnut Street Bridge, converting it into a pedestrian bridge. Its future actually hung in the balance for a long time, as there was a strong faction demanding it be torn down. WOW, had it ever become a hazard to anyone brave enough to drive across it in their modern cars! Designed for horse-drawn and early Model-T's and Model-A's it was long past its usefulness to the much heavier and larger modern automobiles. It is wonderful, I think, that the supporting pylons of the bridge now provide an excellent place for rock-climbers to gain some supervised practical experience before going scaling at Sunset Rock! We are lucky it is so near Coolidge Park, adding so much to the atmosphere of that good place! Also, I have told my own story in this "Memories" column of how I was among the last people on earth to drive a car across the old bridge: I had gone to paint on my Chattem mural (at George Little's Art Supply store) one morning, and while working I noticed out the upstairs window that the bridge had been sealed off to all vehicular traffic and marked "Closed". Perfect now for pedestrian traffic of all ages let's forever be glad the Preservationist faction won out!

Then, while I was an art student at the former Kirkman Vocation High School, teacher Stephen A. Harding would allow us to take our sketchbooks to nearby sites to make pencil sketches of anything of interest. Once or twice we went as far as the Market Street Bridge, walking the entire length before deciding on the best spot for sketching. Yes, it was fun, and we probably did not do that much sketching (being Seniors at the time), but I do remember the strong winds blowing from the west and the strange rumble of car tires hitting that steel grid in the middle. It's an entirely different experience when you're on foot and not in your car!.

Only special comments I can make about the Olgiati Bridge are that it was named for Mayor P.R. (Rudy) Olgiati of our city. Mayor Olgiati enjoyed a lot of popularity, I think, and we would hear him on interview programs - both on radio and very early TV. He would always find a way to inform his audience that the "L" in "Olgiati" was never pronounced. He was from Gruetli-Lager, Tennessee, a Swiss community - but part of Switzerland is Italian - and he was one of those. I never knew that the Italians did not pronounce the letter "L", but I will take his word for it, and pronounce the name as "O-giati". (just wanted to forward Mr. Olgiati's message to future generations!) When that bridge was new and people were still raving about it I felt very proud of myself to have met (socially) Mr. Hedman who designed it. He was the father of Chattanooga artist, Joan Hedman, whose work influenced many, including my own!

It was publicized in all Chattanooga media that the new Veterans Bridge would soon ruin what many people considered to be one of Chattanooga's most lovely vistas...from the Hunter Museum of American Art up-river, with a graceful bend beyond. It was indeed a fantastic view - one that a French Impressionist painter would have immediately responded to. One could say that the view was "almost" pristine with very few man-made structures, and when I have visited the Hunter in more recent times I never fail to lament the loss - though I realize that sometimes Practicality must win out.
An appeals court has rejected the argument of a former Dothan commissioner who claims his 2016 conviction for third-degree assault is invalid because the special judge assigned to hear the case was improperly appointed.

The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals denied Amos Newsomes appeal. The case is expected to return to Dothan Municipal Court for further proceedings.

Newsome was convicted of third-degree assault in 2016 after striking WTVY television reporter Ken Curtis in 2015 outside the Dothan Civic Center while Curtis questioned Newsome about absentee ballot fraud convictions related to his campaign.

The decision was rendered by Judge Carl Chamblee, specially appointed to hear the case after local judges recused themselves. According to state law, the mayor is the only local official authorized to appoint judges in local cases. Chamblee was appointed by the city manager.

After initially appealing the conviction, attorneys for Newsome sought to dismiss the appeal and toss the case altogether based on the improper appointment of Chamblee. Circuit Judge Michael Conaway declined to dismiss the appeal and ruled that while Chamblee was appointed by someone other than the mayor, no miscarriage of justice occurred. Conaway stated there was no evidence raised to claim that Chamblee was incompetent or biased, or that Newsome had been denied due process.

The appeals court agreed, stating that Chamblee had de facto authority on the bench.

The ruling means the case survives and will likely return to municipal court.

Newsome struck Curtis in a clawing fashion on Oct. 6, 2015, following a commission meeting. Video shot by WTVY shows Curtis approaching Newsome at the base of the steps near the north entrance of the Dothan Civic Center. Newsome brushed off Curtis twice before approaching his vehicle in the parking lot of the Dothan Police Department. Newsome then can be heard saying Get back!, then struck Curtis and caused him to bleed from his right cheek.

It looks like you lost it, Chamblee said when he addressed Newsome and pronounced him guilty last year. You blew a gasket. I think you intended to strike him. I think you intended to hurt him. I dont think he did you any harm.

Newsome was defeated earlier this year in his re-election bid.
The Dothan City Schools system named its elementary and secondary teachers of the year Wednesday, surprising the two teachers with presentations at their schools.

Jessica Freeman, a seventh grade science teacher at Carver Magnet School, was named the secondary teacher of the year. Alana Gray, a second grade teacher at Highlands Elementary School, was named primary teacher of the year. The two teachers are now eligible to win Alabama District 2 teacher of the year awards. Should they win there, theyll be eligible to be named Alabama Teacher of the Year.

Freeman and Gray were selected by a committee that included last years Dothan City Schools primary and secondary teachers of the year.

Freeman said Wednesday she was thrilled to receive the designation. When asked about her strengths as a teacher, Freeman said she worked hard to make science relevant for her students.

We do a lot of hands on things to challenge them, she said. We try to bring in a lot of real-life content.

Highlands Principal Vicki Davis said Gray was an exceptional teacher because of her unconventional approach to teaching. Davis said Gray has a non-traditional classroom, with comfortable seating spaces for students, including sofas and ball chairs. Davis said Gray also does a great job in incorporating learning center activities into her classes.

She does an outstanding job, Davis said.

Dothan has had quite a bit of success in Alabamas Teacher of the Year awards in recent years, with several Dothan teachers being among finalists for the award. In 2014, Chris Payne, a Dothan High teacher, won the Alabama Alternate Teacher of the Year designation.
EIGHT Jack & Jill families in Co Louth have been helped by Bank of Ireland staff who raised 3,400 for charitable causes in Louth in 2017.

Bank of Ireland staff raised the proceeds through the banks flagship charity and community initiative, Give Together.

The charity programme gives Bank of Ireland staff throughout Ireland the chance to lend support to their chosen charities or causes through fundraising and volunteering.

In total, just over 1.55 million was raised by bank staff across the country and over 900 days were volunteered this year.

Bank of Ireland also supported three flagship charities in 2017  Age Action, the Irish Heart Foundation and the Jack & Jill Childrens Foundation. Some of this activity included:

Age Actions Positive Ageing Week, which saw 46 events such as coffee mornings and digital skills workshops take place throughout the country including two in Louth.

The Irish Heart Foundations CRP 4 Schools programme, bringing lifesaving CPR training to 400 schools over the next two years including one school to date in Louth.

Bank of Ireland is deeply connected across the whole county of Louth through its customers, branch networks, staff and community engagement programmes," said Head of Bank of Ireland County Louth Ingrid Halpin.

"It is significant that through the combined efforts of our colleagues and Give Together support over 3,000 has been raised for charitable organisations and that many community groups and initiatives in Louth have been supported.
THE number of businesses in Ireland is growing faster than most major economies in the last year, according to a new study published by UHY, the 15th largest accounting and consultancy network in the world.

Ireland ranks within the top ten of UHYs global business creation table out of 21 countries studied. According to UHY, there has been a 3% increase in Irelands business numbers in the last year.

There were 205,000 Irish businesses in total in 2016 compared to 198,000 in 2015. In comparison, the other major Western economies studied (UK, US, France, Germany, Italy, Japan) saw their number of businesses increase by just 2% last year compared to the previous year.

This is a wonderful endorsement of the growing confidence in Irelands economy as it leaves the shadow of the financial crisis behind.

The fact that Ireland is a full percentage point above the other Western economies indicates an appetite for entrepreneurship is returning.

Moves to make it easier to incorporate via e-filing have assisted in streamlining the process of getting entrepreneurs up and running.

Every little helps in this regard, as obstructions to entrepreneurship are damaging to the growth of the economy. Challenges remain - notably the Companies Act increasing companies obligations in Ireland, including an increase in the content of financial statements that some companies must file.

It is imperative that the Government builds on this positive growth. Moving forward, it must increase its efforts to simplify and speed up new business creation. We need to see more business friendly initiatives.

With Brexit on the horizon, its sure to create huge opportunities for Ireland and its new businesses, fostering an excellent environment in which to generate future growth.

The top five rankings in the UHY table for growth in business numbers are dominated by emerging economies. China topped the table, with a 19% increase in business numbers in the last year.

There were over 26 million Chinese businesses in total in 2016 compared to almost 22 million in 2015. India is in fifth position with an annual increase of 7% to 1.1million businesses in 2016.

The USA increased its stock of businesses by 2.1% to 11 million companies, while Japan saw an increase of just 1.7% in 2016, to make a total of 5.4 million businesses.

Many developed economies often do not have the same scope to grow new businesses at such rapid rates found in China and developing countries, making Irelands appearance in the top ten all the more impressive.

Policymakers in other developed countries will want to learn from Irelands success, but whats most important is that Ireland itself builds upon these solid foundations.

UHY FDW is on hand to help current and prospective entrepreneurs build their businesses, offering a wide range of services designed to make the process as smooth as possible. For more information visit www.fdw.ie or call 042 933 9955.
The Hamilton County Criminal Court Clerk Office held their annual Tacky Sweater and Christmas Cubicle Decorating Contest on Thursday.

The winners, who were selected by a non-partisan panel of three celebrity county official judges, received their coveted trophies at the office Christmas dinner.

The winner of the Tacky Sweater Contest was Courtney Giffe, and the winner of the Christmas Cubicle Decorating Contest was Julia Kinser.




THE Archbishops of Armagh are encouraging people to "be ready to share our safety and our reasons for hoping with others" in a joint Christmas message.

The following is the full Christmas message issued by Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh, The Most Revd Eamon Martin and Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh, The Most Revd Richard Clarke:

"A couple of weeks ago, we both travelled to Rome to meet with members of the SantEgidio Community and to experience at first hand  however briefly  some of the wonderful work that these remarkable Christian disciples are carrying out.

"Not only are members of the community working for reconciliation in many countries of the world, but they are also to be found among the dispossessed of Rome giving practical and material help.

"In more recent times they have been at the forefront of caring for  and taking responsibility for  refugees who have found their way (sometimes in the most difficult of circumstances) to Italy.

"It was in this context that we had the opportunity, one evening, to meet a number of these refugees  some from Syria and some from Eritrea.

"Three Eritrean girls, possibly still teenagers, had arrived in Rome only a few hours earlier, having been rescued from danger in Ethiopia by members of the SantEgidio Community.

"In conversation, we asked the girls how they were now feeling. One of them, with a sudden huge smile on her face, replied in just one word  safe.

"In the Old Testament Gods people were promised that if they trust in the Lord, they will find a place of rest, safety, security, a refuge and a reason for hope and confidence.

"The Christmas promise went deeper and further. To those who would put their trust in Him, Jesus came to offer spiritual safety  the reward of eternal salvation.

"Part of the challenge of Christmas is to seek to bring safety, in its widest sense, into the lives of those around us. There are people in our midst who are without the security of food or even of a roof over their heads.

"There are those who are newcomers to our country, perhaps of a different religious faith and culture, who feel that they are objects of suspicion and dislike.

"And there are also those whose need for security in their lives is less evident  those who are alone and afraid, those who are without friends and without people who will look out for them, and some who feel that their lives have become aimless or useless, almost empty of hope and confidence.

"In the 25th chapter of Matthews Gospel, Our Lord assures us that we meet him when we care for those who need us, whoever they may be.

"Christmas is a time when many of us are happy to have the emotional security and safety of our family and friends around us, and the comfort and assurance of strong faith in the birth of the Saviour. Let us be ready to share our safety and our reasons for hoping with others."
A man who was found with a gun on a Dublin to Belfast train will be sentenced next month at the Special Criminal Court.

Ciaran Ryan (24), from Summerhill, Dublin 1 pleaded guilty last month to the unlawful possession of a CZ model 70 semi-automatic pistol.

Yesterday (Wednesday, December 20) he also admitted the possession of two rounds of 7.65 Browning calibre ammunition. The items were recovered by gardai at Connolly Station on July 19 last.

During yesterday's sentence hearing, Detective Garda Gary Dunne summarised the facts of the case. He told prosecuting counsel Gareth Baker SC that on the day in question a surveillance operation had been put in place around Connolly station.

The court heard that at 3:05pm Ryan entered the station and bought a ticket before going to the waiting area for the Belfast train, which was due to depart at 3:30pm.

Ryan met a woman who handed him a white bag, the court heard. She was pushing a buggy with a child in it. The woman left and Ryan boarded the train.

Gardai then followed him onboard and he was arrested. The white bag was under his feet. He attempted to kick the white bag away.

Gardai opened the bag. There was a shoebox inside. Within the shoebox there was a pistol and ammunition. The gun was "loaded and ready for use", the court heard.

The defendant has 35 previous convictions, most for traffic violations and a number for drugs offences. He is currently serving a two year sentence for a drugs offence and was found with the firearm while on bail for that offence.

The detective told Michael Bowman SC, for the defendant, that the gun was to be moved out of Dublin by Ryan and transported north of the border and given to another person.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt, presiding, sitting with Judge Patricia Ryan and Judge James Faughnan, said that the defendant will be sentenced on January 29, 2018.
Leading entrepreneurial minds, including Sir Richard Branson and Steve Wozniak, have deemed a South Australian startups use of artificial intelligence to improve the success rate IVF the best idea at the 2017 Talent Unleashed Awards.

In winning Best Idea  One to Watch (Global/APAC) category at the global technology awards program, the South Life Whisperer out-pitched two other finalists. The global judging panel was headlined by Steve Wozniak and Sir Richard Branson, along with Igniting Change founder Jane Tewson. They were supported by APAC judges Yat Siu (Outblaze) Frances Valintine (The Mind Lab), Chris Gilbert (Equitise) Dan Radcliffe (International Volunteer HQ), and Matt Tindale (LinkedIn).

In addition to receiving one-on-one entrepreneurial advice from Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, the Life Whisperer team will be flown to Silicon Valley to visit leading technology companies and entrepreneurs. Co-founder and Managing Director, Michelle Perugini spoke to Dynamic Business about the progress her startup had made since launching this year and the significance of their win at the Talent Unleashed Awards.

DB: Whats the elevator pitch for Life Whisperer?

Perugini: Life Whisperer uses artificial intelligence to select healthy embryos for IVF, and to ultimately improve outcomes for couples wanting to have children. IVF success rates are very low, and selection of a healthy embryo is critical to a successful IVF outcome. The process is currently manual and subjective. Life Whisperer uses computer vision and deep learning to better determine the best embryo to implant for the highest likelihood of success.

DB: What success has the startup enjoyed to date?

Perugini: Weve made significant progress over a short period of time having only officially launched in February, this year. In June, we secured our first local commercial partner, Monash IVF, whove provided us with images to build our AI models. We then completed our initial validation in October  this was a retrospective study that showed a high level of accuracy in identifying viable embryos.

We are now conducting a clinical trial to quantify how much better our algorithms do when directly compared with world-leading embryologists, and we will be launching our product globally in the first half of next year. Within our first year we have received significant grant funding from the South Australian Government, we have won multiple innovation awards, and have now won the Talent Unleashed Global Award for Best Idea One to Watch.

DB: How was the Talent unleashed pitching experience?

Perugini: My co-founder, Dr Jonathan Hall, pitched at the event and was joined by Andrew Murphy, who is our Senior Product and Technical Lead. At the time, my other co-founder Don [Perugini] and I were in the US presenting and exhibiting at two prestigious AI conferences in New York and Boston. Jonathan was extremely confident going into the pitch. He is an amazing technical mind and believes whole heartedly in the technology, which makes it easy to pitch. Don and I were anxiously awaiting the announcement of the winners in the middle of the night in New York.

DB: How meaningful is it to have your idea deemed the best?

Perugini: The credibility of winning this global award is invaluable for a start-up company such as ours. It provides us with incredible exposure and recognition of the value of our product. We are very proud of Life Whisperer and have a vision to make our product accessible and affordable for all patients and to improve the success for patients undergoing IVF.

DB: What benefits will the Talent Unleashed prize yield?

Perugini: Our team has spent a significant amount of time in the US market this year in preparation for Life Whisperers market entry next year. The trip to Silicon Valley will allow us to strengthen our connections within the US market. The opportunity to meet with Steve Wozniak and tour all of the large global technology companies like Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tesla and more, will be an amazing opportunity to garner new relationships within these organisations. Having a one on one experience with Steve is a once in a lifetime opportunity. He has such a wealth of knowledge and experience, and we cannot wait to absorb any advice he has to offer us.

About Talent Unleashed

Launched in 2013, the Talent Unleashed Awards program is an initiative of Australian technology and IT services recruitment business Talent that recognises tech startups and innovators from across the APAC and EMEA regions and the United States.
A cabinet reshuffle has been announced by Prime Minister, with Michaelia Cash named Minister for Jobs and Innovation, and Craig Laundy promoted to Minister for Small and Family Business, Workplaces and Deregulation.

Cash, formerly the Minister for Employment and Women, assumes responsibility for a new portfolio focused on jobs creation as part of her reassignment. Malcolm Turnbull said Cash is charged with harnessing all of the policies of Government to create more jobs and job opportunities for Australians. He added, She will be a key part of our economic team, working to deliver on our commitment of more jobs, more investment, stronger economic growth.

Meanwhile, Laundy replaces Michael McCormack as Minister for Small Business, with his predecessor becoming the Minister for Veterans Affairs and Defence Personnel, Deputy Leader of the House and the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Centenary of ANZAC.

Turnbull said Laundy brings to his new role unique insights into the challenges faced by small, medium and family-run businesses as well as an understanding of enterprise and entrepreneurship few can equal, having spent 20 years spent in private business prior to Parliament.

Turnbull said Laundy will take direct responsibility for workplace relations and work closely with Senator Cash to instil companies with the confidence they need to invest and create jobs and ensure Australians can access skills and opportunities they need to find a job or land a better paying one.

He said that Cash, Laundy and Zed Seselja  as the new Assistant Minister for Science, Jobs and Innovation  will work together to make sure we harness the jobs of the future through new industries and small business so Australians can adapt and thrive in this era of innovation and technological change.

He added, Thats our priority for 2018; more investment, more jobs, better jobs, more money in the pockets of hardworking Australian families and businesses.
In a case involving the custody of two minor children, the Tennessee Supreme Court determined that father had established that a material change of circumstances had occurred and that it was in the childrens best interests for father to be designated as the primary residential parent. The Court also reviewed the Court of Appeals immediate issuance of the mandate and its order for custody to be transferred from father to mother within 20 days.

Father, C.W.H., and mother, L.A.S., began a dating relationship in 2008 but never married. They had two children together before their relationship deteriorated in 2010. In 2011, mother decided to relocate to Ohio to pursue an advanced degree; thus, the parties entered into an agreed parenting plan to accommodate the distance. The parenting plan designated mother as primary residential parent and provided father with visitation.

After having difficulties exercising his parenting time, father filed a petition in 2012 to modify the 2011 parenting plan. The parties reached a new agreement in February 2013.

Shortly thereafter, mothers sister contacted father and informed him that mother actually resided in Nevada with the minor children and that she was employed at the Moonlight Bunny Ranch. Father had believed that ,other resided in Ohio and worked as an independent contractor. Father researched the internet and confirmed these assertions when he found sexually explicit photographs and videos of mother advertising her services in Nevada. He filed a motion for an emergency temporary custody order and temporary restraining order on March 12, 2013. The magistrate found that a material change in circumstances had occurred and that it was in the childrens best interests for father to be designated as the primary residential parent. Mother requested a hearing before the juvenile court.

In the juvenile court hearing, the court heard testimony concerning ,others employment at the Moonlight Bunny Ranch and testimony relative to the issue of each parents hostility toward the other. The juvenile court relied upon mothers employment as well as her hostility toward father in finding a material change in circumstances. The juvenile court ordered that father be designated as the primary residential parent.

Mother appealed the decision to the Court of Appeals. The court remanded the case for the juvenile court to conduct a best interest analysis, which it had not done. After conducting this analysis, the juvenile court concluded that it was in the childrens best interests for father to be the primary residential parent.

Mother again appealed. The Court of Appeals reversed the juvenile courts finding of a material change in circumstances based upon mothers employment at the Moonlight Bunny Ranch, but because mother had not preserved the finding of her hostility toward father as a material change, the Court of Appeals affirmed that finding. The Court of Appeals reversed the juvenile courts conclusion that the best interests of the children favored father as the primary residential parent. In doing so, it ordered immediate issuance of the mandate and transfer of custody of the children from father to mother within 20 days.

The Supreme Court reiterated its prior holdings that appellate courts should exercise limited review of a trial courts factual determinations in matters involving child custody and parenting plan developments. The Court concluded that the Court of Appeals usurped the role of the juvenile court by declining to extend deference to the juvenile courts findings. Applying the appropriate limited scope of review, the Supreme Court held that the juvenile court properly considered the appropriate statutory factors governing the best interest analysis and that the evidence did not preponderate against the juvenile courts findings in this regard.

The Supreme Court also expressed disagreement with the Court of Appeals issuing the mandate immediately, rather than allowing the 64 days to pass according to Tennessee Rule of Appellate Procedure 42. Although such issuance is expressly allowed by the rule, the Court cautioned against this exercise of authority in child custody cases absent a reasonable belief that a child would be in danger if the parent awarded custody by the trial court retained custody in the interim because such a chain of events would likely be harmful to the welfare of the child. In this case, there were no allegations of either potential or immediate danger to the children if they had remained in fathers custody.

To read the unanimous opinion in C.W.H. v. L.A.S. authored by Justice Roger A. Page, go to the opinions section of TNCourts.gov.
MEDIC SOLO Disaster+Wilderness Medical School has set its 2018 course calendar, and it will once again come to Chattanooga multiple times in the upcoming year.

The classes will take place on January 27-28 and April 7-8 at UTC. Fall courses will be announced over the summer.

A blend of classroom instruction and hands-on rescue practice, the Disaster+Travel+Wilderness First Aid Course allows students to dive into the basic first aid curriculum, as well as acquire essential do-it-yourself care-giving skills that can be used in all situations.

MEDIC SOLO believes that to feel and actually be prepared for an emergency scenario, hands-on experience is essential. During the course, students will be challenged to use their judgement and learn how to lead a group in crisis. They will leave with a new-found confidence, a Wilderness First Aid certification, and access to a network and community of wilderness medicine enthusiasts, said officials.

There are no prerequisites. Medical professionals can use this course for continuing education

credits.

The instructor, Matt Rosefsky, is a Charlottesville, VA resident and a Geo Medic, Wilderness EMT and a SOLO instructor trainer. He has had over a decade of experience practicing and teaching wilderness medicine. As a Geo Medic, he has been trained to improvise with extremely limited equipment, to set up a field medical clinic, organize triage, and deliver treatment in areas where hospital care is limited or unavailable.

Able to answer questions from current or former students, Mr. Rosefsky helps those he teaches feel capable and prepared of becoming the good Samaritan in an emergency.

For more information and to register for this or other courses, go to: solowfa.com
This is the blog of China defense, where professional analysts and serious defense enthusiasts share findings on a rising military power.
As a company, Epson has always supported the youth and education through various projects and advocacies, one of which is the Gift of Brightness program, started in 2013.

The Gift of Brightness program aims to equip deserving, less privileged schools in the country with Epson technologies to help the students in their studies and school projects through the donation of complete technology packages for each recipient that consist of Epson printers, projectors, scanners, label printers, document cameras and a years supply of inks and cartridges.

Since we started the program, there have been 45 beneficiary-schools, 27 of which were coursed through the Department of Education for the selection process under our partnership for the past two years. We believe that by offering detailed innovation, which is at the heart of all Epson products, we can contribute to uplifting the learning experience for the students. We hope that through the Epson Gift of Brightness, we can help bring brightness and inspiration, explains Donna V. Ferro, Head of Marketing Communications and PR, Epson Philippines.

Secretary Briones compared the partners efforts to the help extended by the stakeholders and concluded her speech by urging private companies to find the true meaning of Christmas among the children whom you are serving.

The partnership between the Department of Education (DepEd) and Epson Philippines on the digital imaging companys Gift of Brightness program for youth and education was formalized during the Memorandum of Agreement ceremonial signing for DepEd partners held recently at the L.B. Soriano Hall, SEAMEO Innotech in Quezon City.

***

About Epson

Epson is a global technology leader dedicated to connecting people, things and information with its original efficient, compact and precision technologies. With a lineup that ranges from inkjet printers and digital printing systems to 3LCD projectors, smart glasses, sensing systems and industrial robots, the company is focused on driving innovations and exceeding customer expectations in inkjet, visual communications, wearables and robotics.

Led by the Japan-based Seiko Epson Corporation, the Epson Group comprises more than 80,000 employees in 86companies around the world, and is proud of its contributions to the communities in which it operates and its ongoing efforts to reduce environmental impacts.

http://global.epson.com/

About Epson Singapore

Since 1982, Epson has developed a strong presence across major markets in Southeast Asia and South Asia. Led by the regional headquarters Epson Singapore, Epsons business in Southeast Asia spans an extensive network of 11 countries with a comprehensive infrastructure of close to 500 service outlets, 7 Epson solution centers and 7 manufacturing facilities. http://www.epson.com.sg

About Epson Philippines

Epsons corporate presence in the Philippines commenced in 1998. It grew rapidly into a billion peso company in a span of a few years from its establishment due to its client-oriented approach in its business management style by its dedicated and innovative staff members and officers. Epson Philippines has an extensive network of 77 Authorized Service Centers nationwide with more than 200 dealers and more than 800 shops across the Country. For more details, please visit our website (www.epson.com.ph) or our Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/EpsonPhilippines).
EBRD fosters competition and resilience in Mongolia

The EBRD is providing a US$ 40 million syndicated loan to Mongolias XacBank for financing private micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) around the country. The operation will enable XacBank to continue to provide much-needed funding to MSMEs.

The project focuses on maintaining XacBank's regional penetration and on attracting new MSME clients, which will ultimately promote the competitiveness and resilience of the local economy, said Nick Tesseyman, EBRD Managing Director for Financial Institutions, who signed the project with XacBanks CEO, Bold Magvan.

Bold Magvan added: We are pleased to express our gratitude to our long-standing partner, the EBRD, for their professionalism and goodwill in leading yet another successful syndication for XacBank. The loan proceeds will be deployed to fund MSMEs, which are the heart of job creation and economic growth in Mongolia. Ultimately, XacBank will be able to contribute to improving the well-being of the Mongolian people.

In her speech at the signing ceremony, Natasha Khanjenkova, EBRD Managing Director for Central Asia, Russia and Mongolia, said: We are proud to be supporting the micro, small and medium-sized businesses in Mongolia and contributing to the recovery and sustainable development of the countrys economy together with such worthy and longstanding partners as XacBank..

Xacbank is the fourth largest bank in Mongolia (measured by total assets and loan portfolio). An EBRD client since 2006, it has historically been focused on MSMEs. This loan follows up on similar loans previously extended by the EBRD to Xacbank, including the first syndicated loan to a Mongolian FI which will be repaid by the end of 2017.

The loan is split between US$ 10 million A loan provided by the EBRD from its own account and US$ 30 million B loan provided by a syndicate of lenders consisting of TRANSKAPITALBANK, IIV-Mikrofinanzfonds, BANK IM BISTUM ESSEN EG, and responsAbility SICAV (Lux) (acting for its sub-funds responsAbility SICAV (Lux) Mikro- und KMU-Finanz-Fonds, responsAbility Sicav (Lux) Micro and SME Finance Leaders, and responsAbility SICAV (Lux) Financial Inclusion Fund).

This will also be the first syndicated loan to a Mongolian FI since the countrys recent economic difficulties and the first syndicated loan since a new IMF programme was put into place.

The EBRD is a leading institutional investor in Mongolia, with over 1.4 billion invested in 92 projects in the country to date. The Banks investments aim to make the local economy more competitive, integrated and resilient.
After the sugar buzz of last weeks election in Alabama, all of us got a bitter dose of reality with the FCC ending Net Neutrality and then last nights this mornings passage of an historic tax scam bill by Republicans in the Senate. Because House Speaker Paul Ryan is such a novice, the version House Republicans passed violated Senate rules and had to re-vote (happening now as I type this) (it passed, 224-201.) Thanks to this, Americans will get a Christmas gift this year like no other: a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class and poor citizens to the wealthiest among us. They also threw in a little Affordable Care Act sabotage by repealing he individual mandate which will mean millions of Americans will go without affordable health insurance.

The GOP talking points on this overlook their decades-long crusade against deficits that fly in the face of the fact that the #TrumpTaxScam will increase our federal deficit to the tune of a trillion and a half dollars. Few members of Congress have banged the Lower Deficits drum louder and with greater frequency than Michigan Republican Tim Walberg from the 7th Congressional District. Lets take a stroll down memory lane to see what Mr. Walberg has said and is currently saying about the federal deficit:

In 2003, Walberg signed Grover Norquists Taxpayer Protection Pledge which binds candidates and incumbents to oppose any and all tax increases.

In 2007, Walberg said he had to vote against the final version of an appropriations bill in 2007 because it increased the deficit by $4.5 billion. (Thats only 3% of the amount the current tax bill raises the deficit, by the way.) A short time later, he took credit for an earmark he put in the appropriations bill he voted against that provided a grant to expand a runway at the W.K. Kellogg Airport in Battle Creek. After being called out for it, Walberg wrote an op-ed defending his no vote saying Simply because I support Calhoun receiving its fair share of federal tax dollars back from Washington, D.C., does not mean I will vote for excessive government spending that increases the deficit.

In 2008, in his Walberg Weekly Wrap-Up, Walberg wrote, I said Congress must not take action just to take action, and that I could not support putting future generations of Americans in debt to pay for this expensive band-aid that will not solve our long-term economic problems.

In 2011, Walberg co-sponsored a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution that would require a three-fifths of the House to approve debt ceiling increases and deficit spending. The House vote on this bill yesterday got only 52.8% of the vote and not one vote from Democrats.

In a 2011 article in the Jackson Citizen Patriot , Rep Tim Walberg said, We have responded to the peoples call to action and passed significant deficit reduction plans through the House, and we remain willing to make the tough decisions needed to put our fiscal house in order.

, Rep Tim Walberg said, We have responded to the peoples call to action and passed significant deficit reduction plans through the House, and we remain willing to make the tough decisions needed to put our fiscal house in order. In 2012, Walberg said he would consider eliminating federal departments such as Education, Commerce and Energy to reduce the deficit.

In 2012, Walberg voted against a payroll tax cut and said the key factors in his decision were the bottom-line cost and the ultimate impact on the deficit and the debt.

In 2012, Walberg said, The last thing I want to do is leave my kids and grandkids with a tab theyre unable to pay off later. And that means putting the federal government on a diet now.

In 2013, Walberg had this to say during the so-called fiscal cliff debate: I believe the federal government needs to live within its means, because trillion-dollar deficits threaten our economy and opportunities for future generations. I will continue to support immediate spending reductions, reforming our tax code and a Balanced Budget Amendment to hold Congress accountable and require fiscal responsibility.

On his campaign website, Walberg has this to say about fiscal responsibility: Tim Walberg understands the $19 trillion and climbing national debt threatens the future of our country and causes a significant portion of our federal budget to be used for simply paying interest on this debt. Tim voted for a Balanced Budget Amendment to force the federal government to live within its means, and he voted for fiscally responsible budgets that dramatically reduce the deficit and place our government on a path to long-term balance. That is under this banner:

On his Congressional website, Walberg has this to say about the federal deficit: The federal government must solve its debt crisis by bringing spending in line with taxes  not taxes in line with spending.

All of this rhetoric is empty and hollow promises that were shown to be lies by his multiple votes in support of the #TrumpTaxScam that will add $1,500,000,000,000 to our national deficit.

In the 7th Congressional District, people are already mobilizing to defeat Walberg in 2017. From Democratic Party organizations to the vast array of Indivisible groups in Ann Arbor, Saline, Chelsea, Jackson, Dexter, Lansing, and Eaton County (to name just a few), the people represented by Tim Walberg are sick and tired of his lies and hypocrisy that are all simply smokescreens for his subservience to corporate America. Its no accident that Walberg gets support from the Koch brothers front groups like Americans for Prosperity and Club for Growth year after year. Hes their useful idiot in Congress who can be counted on without fail to support corporate interests over the interests of his constituents.

I join these groups in pledging to do everything in my power from organizing and publicizing Walbergs hideous positions & votes to calling & knocking doors for the Democrat hell face in the 2018 General Election. Its time to  in my wifes words  Reveal and Replace Tim Walberg. I hope youll join me.

That gavel right there? The one that falls off the podium because it wasnt set down with care? That is the most perfect metaphor for what the GOP is about to face in 2018 after voting for this wildly unpopular legislation that you could ever conceive of. https://t.co/dBSq1aWQ45  Chris Savage (@Eclectablog) December 20, 2017
What is net neutrality? The internet is simply a set of pathways for transmitting packages of 1s and 0sthe basic language of computersfrom one computer to another. When content (such as email, music, or video) is transmitted, the content is broken down into small packages of information, each of which, is sent separately over the internet to a destination computer, which then reassembles the information packages back into the content. Network neutrality requires that all the different packages of information be treated and priced alike by internet network providers regardless of who sent them or what information they contain.

While net neutrality sounds appealing, the actual internet experience that we have come to enjoy and expect actually requires

non-neutrality. In the early days of the internet, packets of information were basically treated alike. This was back when the internet was a government-funded communications system that allowed university researchers to communicate with each other.

However, when the internet started to allow private internet service providers (ISPs) to connect to the government system in the 1990s, the structure of the internet became more complex. Private backbones supplemented the original government network, connecting through four backbone network access points. The four access points almost immediately became congested with traffic, which gave the backbone operators market power over regional ISP providers. To reduce congestion and limit backbone market power, ISPs quickly developed new pathways and connections.

Thus since the early days of the private internet there have been multiple paths for packets of information to travel. Similar packets have traveled over different pathways at different speeds and have long paid differing amounts to do so. These arrangements were not anti-consumer or anti-competitive. They were simply what was required to create redundancy and overcome market power.

In fact, they allowed content providerswebsites, media streamers, and othersto reduce costs and increase quality of service because not all uses of the internet are alike in their technical demands on the network. For instance, email packets dont have to arrive simultaneously for email to work but Skype packets do.

The management of those multiple paths and internet uses has been governed by contract, not government regulation. In fact, during the development of the internet from its early days to the present, regulation, including net neutrality regulation, has actually had very little effect.

The net neutrality regulations that exist today arose out of the rivalry between the different regulatory treatment of traditional telephone service and cable television. Telephone service had been subject to comprehensive regulation including pricing under Title II of the Federal Communications Act (FCA). But except for a brief period in the mid-1990s, cable television prices and service had not been subject to such regulation. When cable and telephone companies both started to provide internet service, the legal question was whether the internet would be subject to traditional Title II telephone regulation?

The FCC said no in 2002 and the Supreme Court agreed in 2005. But then the FCC began to change its mind. First, it tried to enact neutrality regulations using other parts of the FCA than Title II, but federal courts struck down those efforts in decisions in 2010 and 2014. So early 2015 the FCC adopted net neutrality rules using traditional Title II public utility provisions. In a pair of rulings in June 2016 and May 2017, the D.C. Circuit Appeals upheld that effort, and the rules finally went into effect. So the legal net neutrality regime that the FCC is set to rescind actually has not existed for very long and thus has had practically nothing to do with the internets flourishing up till now.

Net neutrality has captured the imagination of pundits and the public, but its effects on the actual technical and legal evolution of the internet have been rhetorical rather than real. Repeal of the net neutrality rules will not be the death of the internet. It will simply return us to the hands-off regulatory framework that has nurtured the past two-plus decades of the internet revolution.
The government of Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China holds a grand flag raising ceremony on Wednesday to celebrate the 18th anniversary of its return to the motherland at Golden Lotus Square. [Photo: China Plus/ Liu Libin]

The government of Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China held a grand flag raising ceremony Wednesday to celebrate the 18th anniversary of its return to the motherland at Golden Lotus Square.

The government of Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China holds a grand flag raising ceremony on Wednesday to celebrate the 18th anniversary of its return to the motherland at Golden Lotus Square. [Photo: China Plus/ Liu Libin]

Macao SAR Chief Executive Chui Sai On, head of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in Macao SAR Zheng Xiaosong and other major officials attended the ceremony.

The government of Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China holds a grand flag raising ceremony on Wednesday to celebrate the 18th anniversary of its return to the motherland at Golden Lotus Square. [Photo: China Plus/ Liu Libin]

The Chinese government resumed the exercise of sovereignty over Macao in 1999 as special administrative region after over 400 years of Portuguese colonial rule.
A report released by New Zealands Auditor-General has found that 84 schools breached spending rules last year.The report, released on Monday, revealed that some schools splashed out on overseas travel, a $7,000 staff party and gifts for principals including a ride-on mower and well-being payments.According to the audit, 31 of those schools committed similar breaches the year prior.New Zealands Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, called the spending hugely surprising.I would find that hugely surprising given the environment our schools are operating in. And particularly parents who are paying donations I think would also be surprised by that kind of spending, Ardern said.Unless that ride-on lawnmower was given to him so he could chop the fields of that school, I would be very surprised by that. It's not something I have been briefed on.The Ministry said any action it takes will depend on what it finds after speaking to the board.New Zealand Principals Federation (NZPF) national president, Whetu Cormick, said that while the findings were unfortunate, the report identified a very small number of the countrys 2,400 schools.We need to keep this in perspective. I would expect that every school in New Zealand would have a financial management policy that would clearly outline how the finances are managed, Cormick told The Educator.Within that policy would be a gifts policy that all schools would have. Through the audit process these issues were identified, and that reflects the robust nature of the New Zealand education system and the audit process.Cormick said now that the report has been released, he hopes the Board of Trustees will take note of what the auditors are saying about how schools finances are being managed.A report released in January found that New Zealands principals have been pushed to the brink as they try to manage huge workloads with minimal resources.The Principal's Health and Well-being Survey 2016, commissioned by primary sector union, the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI), spoke to 398 principals (20%) across the country, and 14 deputy and assistant principals.According to the data, 72% of school leaders work more than 51 hours per week, and 25% work more than 61 hours during term time.Cormick said many New Zealand schools are not funded to a sufficient level to enable them to function as well as they could and are running on the smell of an oily rag.We have seen an increase in special needs, severe behaviour and mental health issues, and schools have been stretched to spend over their budgets to ensure that these young people have their needs met, he said.However, the previous government denies this, and we argue that there hasnt been an overall increase in the operations grant for some time. Principals and boards of trustees are trying to manage already over-stretched budgets.




Nutriad releases Spain mycotoxin survey results

The survey covered 121 corn samples from across Spain.

All samples were collected almost immediately after the harvest from farms or animal feed production sites. More than 480 analyses were conducted to test for the occurrence of the four mycotoxins most frequently found in agricultural commodities intended for animal production: aflatoxin B1 (AfB1), zearalenone (ZEN), deoxynivalenol (DON) and fumonisins (FUM) (sum of fumonisin B1 and fumonisin B2).

The Nutriad 2017 mycotoxin survey concluded that the year's harvest of corn in Spain was of medium quality (>LOQ but below EU recommendation levels) in terms of mycotoxin contamination (DON, ZEN, FUM). The exceptions were the very high average and the maximum concentrations of aflatoxin B1 which clearly exceeded the concentration of aflatoxin B1 permitted in the EU in feed materials. Due to the unexpected very high average and maximum concentrations of aflatoxin B1, the 2017 corn crop in Spain should not be considered safe for inclusion into finished feed rations for dairy milk producers and a degree of vigilance is prudent.

A common last possible line of defence is the detoxification of mycotoxins in vivo. The addition of proven mycotoxin deactivators to animal feeds is a very common method to prevent mycotoxicosis and is an effective strategy to keep mycotoxin risk low under any and all conditions.
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
Japans Batterydriving force behindthe industry!

BATTERY JAPAN 20189thIntl Rechargeable Battery Expo

Dates February 28[Wed] - March 2[Fri], 2018 Venue Tokyo Big Sight, Japan

BATTERY JAPAN 20189th Intl Rechargeable Battery Expo will be held from February 28 - March 2, 2018, organised by Reed Exhibitions Japan. In addition to rechargeable battery, a total of 300 exhibitors including parts, manufacturing equipment, inspection, testing, and other maintenance services will be exhibited at the show.

A number of exhibitors who are eager to sell their products to overseas buyers have been increasing year after year, and the electric vehicle industry has played a big part in this increase.

According to Fuji Keizai Marketing Research Consulting Group, the number of electric vehicles (EV) sold in 2016 have increased 4 times from the previous year, with the total of 47 million units.

European carmakers have introduced many EV cars since then. To name a few, all cars launched by Swedish carmaker, Volvo will be battery-powered by 2019.

United Kingdoms Jaguar and Land Rover plan to make all cars into electric vehicles to be introduced after 2020. Major European carmaker, VW (Volkswagen) has also announced that they plan to make 300 types of EV or hybrid vehicles by 2025.

As a result, many Japanese companies have started to focus more on developing and selling products to overseas.

[Keynote Session]

Latest Examples of the Accelerating Development of Next-gen Batteries

Dates: March 2 (Fri.), 2018

Time: 10:30 - 12:30

with simultaneous interpretation

Maxell's Only One Battery Technologies to Innovate the Next

Generation Society

Yoshihiro Senzai, CEO, Chairman and Representative Director,

Maxell Holdings, Ltd.

The Way of Sustainable Growth for Battery

Tom Zhao, Managing Director, BYD Solar, BYD Company LTD.

Technical Conference

Forefront of the Development of All-solid-state Battery Technology Raising Expectations for

In-vehicle Use

Feb. 28Wed. Trends of Materials Research for Sulfide-based All-solid-state Lithium Ion Batteries

Mar. 1Thurs. Current R&D Status of All-solid-state Batteries at Samsung

Mar. 2Fri. R&D toward Large-sized Oxide-based All-solid-state Rechargeable Lithium Batteries

Evolution and Future Outlook of Electric Vehicles by the Latest Electric Technology

Feb. 28Wed. EV SocietyToyota's Vision

Mar. 1Thurs. BMW's Electrification PathPotential and Challenges

Mar. 2Fri. Who Needs EV by 2025?

Increasing Importance of Safety Evaluation for Lithium Ion Batteries

Feb. 28Wed. Safety Test of Lithium-ion Battery for Electric Vehicle

Mar. 1Thurs. Current Status and Issues in Safety Standards for Battery Energy Storage

Mar. 2Fri. Direct Observation of Thermal Runaway of Lithium Ion Battery during Internal

Short-circuit Test

For more info >> www.batteryjapan.jp/en/seminar/

For Free Visitor Tickets:

//www.batteryjapan.jp/en/inv/

[Contact Info]

Organiser: Reed Exhibitions Japan Ltd.

World Smart Energy Week Show Management

Press Info: Chifeng Wang (Mr.), Mika Ohno (Ms.)

E-mail: pr-eng.wsew@reedexpo.co.jp

Exhibiting Info: Mitsuru Takazawa (Mr.), Seungjoon Baek (Mr.), Chifeng Wang (Mr.)

E-mail: bj@reedexpo.co.jp

Visitor Info: Manami Ogawa (Ms.)

E-mail: visitor-eng.bj@reedexpo.co.jp

TEL: 81-3 3349 8576
In the midst of the sexual assault allegations, Harvey Weinstein lost his company, his reputation, and also his wife. Georgina Chapman left Weinstein after he was accused of sexually assaulting, raping, and harassing over 80 women.

Chapman has not spoken since she left her husband, however; multiple sources have reported that she is doing well and focused on raising her the couple's two children. Chapman has yet to officially file for divorce from Weinstein, however; new court documents show that Chapman would be well off if she decided to.

Weinstein's Prenup

The couple has been married for almost ten years, their anniversary is this Friday. According to the prenup which was obtained by TMZ, if Chapman should officially divorce Weinstein, she could get $400,000 annually in spousal support.

In addition to the spousal support, Chapman would receive $250,000 in marital assets for the first five years of their marriage and $700,000 per year for the next five years. The agreement also states that Chapman would get $25,000 for each month she was married to Weinstein. In total, Chapman stands to make $12 million dollars if she decides to move forward with the divorce.

The agreement also states, that neither party is allowed to speak publicly about the details of their divorce nor are they allowed to expose their personal matters in any way or form, which includes interviews, books, etc.

Will Chapman Leave?

Chapman has not officially confirmed if she would be filing for divorce from Weinstein, however, sources have stated that she plans to divorce him soon. Chapman and Weinstein began dating in 2004 after he left his first wife, Eve Chilton. The couple's daughter, India, was born in August 2010 and their son, Dashiell, was born in April 2013.

Chapman officially separated from Weinstein on Oct. 10, 2017.

"My heart breaks for all the women who have suffered tremendous pain because of these unforgivable actions. I have chosen to leave my husband. Caring for my young children is my first priority, and I ask the media for privacy at this time," the designer stated.

Weinstein stated that he was working on getting his wife back and had entered rehab in Arizona, acknowledging that he needed help for his sex addiction. No word has been given yet if the producer has finished his program, however; he still denies all the allegations against him.
A Chippewa Falls school district referendum is heading to the April 3, 2018, ballot.

That referendum wont cost more than $65 million, according to school district documents. The school board discussed the referendums wording Tuesday. Included in the referendum are funds for:

Constructing and equipping a new Stillson Elementary

Constructing and equipping a classroom addition, repairs, technology infrastructure, remodeling and site improvements at the Chippewa Falls Middle School

Constructing and equipping a science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) lab addition, improvements, repairs and technology infrastructure upgrades at the Chippewa Falls Senior High School.

In October, the school board discovered 54 percent of the survey's 2,566 takers, not including employees of the school district and parents of district students, supported a referendum, but the survey data suggested that $65 million was the most taxpayers would support.

A $65 million referendum would raise taxpayers property taxes approximately $125 per year.

Board member Pete Lehmann expressed concern that the board had not yet decided on a location for the new Stillson Elementary. When you ask for the resolution, you have the plan concrete. Were asking for a significant amount of money. We need to show we did our due diligence  otherwise were rushing it, Lehmann said.

Survey data showed that 41 percent of voters approved of moving Stillson Elementary to a 19-acre site three miles northwest of its current location at 17250 County Highway J. The site has city water and city utilities, and has already been purchased by the district. Another 19 percent voted to move Stillson to a second site, which is closer to Stillsons current location, but is situated on land the district does not yet own.

Board member Dave Czech agreed that taxpayers in Lafayette are concerned that if Stillson moves, their children will be uprooted, but said the board intends to workshop the Stillson problem.

We all agree that we need the answer before we go to the public with seminars, Czech said. Lafayette, as we suspected, voted that they wanted the school at the location right across from where it is right now, overwhelmingly  the perception is, we already own this land and its going to cost us money to buy new land.

The board will vote on the final wording of the referendum at its January board meeting.

Photo identification will be needed to vote in the election. Information about polling places can be found at the District Office at 1130 Miles St., Chippewa Falls.

The school board seats of Pat Allen and Staish Buchner will also be up for re-election in the April election.

This story was updated Thursday, Dec. 21 to include the total number of people who completed the referendum survey.
Selena Gomez's mom, Mandy Teefy, reportedly had an extremely bad reaction to news of her rekindled romance with Justin Bieber.

According to a new report, Teefy actually had to be taken to a hospital in Los Angeles last week after learning just how serious things have gotten between her 25-year-old daughter and the sometimes troubled pop star, 23.

On Dec. 19, TMZ revealed that police did a welfare check on Teefy at her L.A. hotel after receiving a phone call from a family member. They then took Teefy to a nearby hotel where she was voluntarily checked out.

The report went on to reveal that Teefy had engaged in a heated conversation with her daughter earlier that day about her decision to get back together with Bieber. They also spoke about Gomez and Bieber's couples therapy sessions, which reportedly resulted in Teefy flipping out completely.

According to the publication, Gomez's family has been on the outs with Bieber for the past few years and many have said that they will never forgive him for what he's done to Gomez in the past, nor will they accept him back into their family.

Teefy was released from treatment on the same day she was taken in and is now giving Gomez space.

While Teefy reportedly hasn't been handling news of Gomez's reconciled relationship with Bieber very well, Bieber's mother, Pattie Mallette, sounded quite happy when she discussed the romance earlier this month. As fans may recall, Mallette was the keynote speaker at People magazines Holiday Benefit Luncheon in Los Angeles on Saturday, Dec. 9. During the event, she addressed Gomez and Bieber's recent reconciliation.

I dont know so much about their personal relationship because he doesnt share a whole lot, but I love her, she said, according to a report by Hollywood Life. I support anything [he does], if he loves her I love her, and Ive met her and we have a special bond so I think shes precious. I cant really speak on their relationship, thats between them.

Mallette also spoke about her son's new and healthier lifestyle.

I think hes just keeping his focus on God, and really trying to figure out what counts and what matters, Mallette explained. I think hes trying to be somehow normal in such an abnormal world, trying to find that balance. I feel like hes growing up and Im really proud of him.
Actor and comedian T.J. Miller has been accused of sexually assaulting and physically violating a woman. Miller has been accused of choking and punching the woman numerous times during their sexual encounters in the past.

The Victim

The accuser, who has chosen to remain anonymous, recounted the incident in a detailed article that was published by the Daily Beast. The woman stated that the incidents occurred while the two attended George Washington University. The two were members of the university's comedy troupe and were involved in a relationship. The woman claims a few months into their relationship, Miler violently shook her and punched her in the mouth during sex.

The woman claims in another incident, Miller became increasingly violent towards her while the two has sex. Miller allegedly, choked her and penetrated her anally without her consent.

"He just tried a lot of things without asking me, and at no point asked me if I was all right. He choked me, and I kept staring at his face hoping he would see that I was afraid and [that he] would stop... I couldn't say anything," the woman stated.

One of the victim's roommate confirmed her story, by adding she remembers the cuts and bruises on her face and recalled that several other roommates offered to take her to the hospital.

The woman elaborated that she choose to come forward with her story now because of the current allegations making headlines, where many men in Hollywood have been called out for their intolerable sexual behavior.

Miller Speaks Out

Miller has given his response to the woman's accusations, denying her story and claiming he was falsely accused. Miller and his wife, Kate Gorney, have jointly stated that the woman attempted to break the pair up in college and is now using the current situation plaguing Hollywood to her advantage.

"We met this woman over a decade ago while studying together in college, she attempted to break us up back then by plotting for over a year before making contradictory claims and accusations. She was asked to leave our university comedy group because of worrisome and disturbing behavior, which angered her immensely, she then became fixated on our relationship, and began telling people around campus 'I'm going to destroy them' and 'I'm going to ruin him,'" the Millers wrote in a statement.

Miller starred in the HBO sitcom, Silicon Valley, and the film, Office Christmas Party. He will also be featured in the upcoming Steven Spielberg film, Ready Set One, that hits theaters in 2018.
Bride Nic Pen responded on Instagram after she received lots of negative attention for her reaction during a sentimental moment at her wedding.

A video of Pen and her now-husband, Chris McFadden, Jr. went viral earlier this week.

A Bridal Clapback

In the clip, McFadden read his vows to Pen. He could barely get through his romantic words before he buckled down in tears.

The bridesmaids who Pen later said were McFaddens sisters rushed to embrace him and help him finish. Meanwhile, Pen stood still and didnt react at all as far as the viewers could see.

It didnt take long for the short clip to make its way to social media and users didnt hesitate to give their opinions on Pens response, or lack thereof. Pen made her own message comments and blasted the other African-American women who came for her on social media.

It might be safe to say Pen was unbothered by the comments as she added several crying laughing emojis while she told her followers to take a look at other BLACK WOMEN who called her out of her name.

She pointed out many of the women spoke negatively about her marriage as they suggested that McFadden was cheating, which caused Pen to be upset as he read his vows. Still, others claimed that McFadden would regret his decision to marry Pen as some said he shouldnt be married to her in the first place.

Interestingly enough, she received mixed reactions to her post on the big moment. One fan called her out for not using the post to explain why she didnt feel moved enough to actually move as Pen poured out his heart.

Others offered up their own explanations of why Pen stood still and suggested she simply didnt want to mess up her makeup, or that she was an emotional wreck herself. Instagram users even started going back-and-forth with one another over whether they were hating on the union or just stating the facts.

Unbothered Newlyweds

As for McFadden, he hasnt clapped back at his wifes haters head-on just yet. Still, after the moment he made it clear the two were happy and in newlywed bliss together. He explained that he broke down because he was in awe looking at Pen, who he referred to as a Black goddess.

Check out both of their posts below and be sure to keep up with Enstars for the latest on your favorite celebrities and trending news.
Celebrity chef Mario Batali continued to stir controversy when he released an apology statement regarding the latest sexual misconduct allegations against him.

A Botched Apology

Batali sent a private apology note to his e-mail subscribers that they received on Friday, Dec. 15. The former Iron Chef acknowledged his past behavior and made several pleas for forgiveness.

"I have made many mistakes, and I am so very sorry that I have disappointed my friends, my family, my fans, and my team. My behavior was wrong, and there are no excuses. I take full responsibility," wrote Batali.

While Batali's words and promises to rebuild his character felt heartfelt, fans were a bit disappointed with what followed. The former co-host of The Chew attached a recipe of one of Batali's favorite holiday-inspired dishes: Pizza Dough Cinnamon Rolls.

Twitter Throws Eggs

Batali received immediate social media backlash from his former fans on Twitter.

"Karen, these Pizza Dough Cinnamon Rolls are delicious! Where did you get the recipe? 'Oh, just from Mario Batali's sexual misconduct apology e-mail.'" Wrote one Twitter user.

"If there's anything worse than a sexual harassment apology from Mario Batali, which includes a recipe for cinnamon rolls; it's sexually harassed by a man who resembles a pot-bellied pig," wrote another Twitter user.

Comedian Whitney Cummings had strong words for Batali that was liked by many Twitter users.

Mario Batali apologized for sexually harassing women then provided a cinnamon roll recipe. Women, sorry I degraded you, now get back in the kitchen and cook bitch.  Whitney Cummings (@WhitneyCummings) December 16, 2017

A Sticky Situation

December has not been a good month for the Food Network personality. In addition to the Pizza Dough Cinnamon Rolls e-mail controversy, Batali has faced multiple sexual misconduct allegations from many women. Several of the women stated that Batali either groped them or made crude remarks to them.

Actress Siobhan Thompson tweeted on Dec. 11 that "...Not only was Mario Batali very handsy, they often serve us pasta with cut up hot dogs as family meal." Co-workers of The Spotted Pig, a New York City restaurant, had a "rape room" where Batali and The Spotted Pig's co-owner and New York City restaurateur Kevin Friedman allegedly groped and raped women. The restaurant's waiting staff gave Batali the nickname: "The Red Menace," due to their terrible encounters with the Food Network star.

Due to those allegations, the ABC Television Network cut ties with Batali after multiple sexual misconduct allegations surfaced. Batali was one of the founding co-hosts of the ABC Daytime culinary show, The Chew, and before he was terminated from the network, they asked him to momentary step away from the program.

Batali has also temporary stepped away from the day-to-day operations at his culinary company, Batali and Bastianich Hospitality Group, which he shares with Joe Bastianich and his mother, Lydia Bastianich.
The European audit of Moroccan fisheries has concluded that the mutual agreement had worked well and that about three fourths of its socio-economic impacts had contributed to the development of Moroccan southern regions. The EU Commission thus recommended prolonging the Morocco-EU fisheries accord, which is to expire in mid-2018. The instrument is an important element of the cooperation between both sides. The European Union appreciated the conclusions of the report, which stress the overall socio-economic benefits of the fisheries deal with Morocco.

The EU commented that in this retrospective and prospective evaluation report of the protocol to the partnership agreement in the field of sustainable fisheries between the European Union and the Kingdom of Morocco, which has just been handed in to the European Council and the European Parliament, the EU appreciates that the accord has proved effective in achieving its sustainable exploitation objective. The report was prepared by the maritime affairs and fisheries department of the European Commission and it says that the EU welcomes the scientific cooperation between the two parties, reflected in the joint annual meetings, which allowed the exchange of available data and led to shared diagnoses. The report concludes that the fisheries accord has also achieved its objective of supporting the industrys sustainable development.

This objective has been achieved thanks to the contribution of sectoral support to Moroccos strategy of boarding 200 of its sailors aboard European vessels. The report also highlights that the implementation of the sectoral support to the fisheries accord is moving steadily at a very satisfactory pace, recalling that the Saharan regions of Dakhla-Oued Eddahab and Laayoune-Boujdour-Sakia Hamra account for the most of the total amount of almost 37 million designated for sectoral support.

The first estimates of the impact of this support already point out to the creation of 180 direct jobs and the improvement of the working conditions of about 59,000 people employed in the industry and its related activities. When it comes to the benefits derived by the EU, its investments generate a good return as every Euro invested generates 2.78 euros of total value added  directly and indirectly. Only 7 years ago, the return was 0.65 euro in total value added.

The assessment report also notes that the Morocco-EU fisheries accord is key to EU needs since it complements a number of agreements covering the range of small pelagic species in Western Africa and the existing tuna-related agreements. At the same time, the agreement is meeting the fishing needs of the operators.

The EUs involvement in the region is a contentious point due to the international status of Western Sahara. The Commission is, however, convinced that that inclusion of the waters off the coast of Western Sahara into the EU-Morocco Fisheries Agreement is in line with relevant provisions of international law. As Karmenu Vella, European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, points out, the Protocol contains provisions ensuring that it fully complies with international law and serves the interests of all the populations concerned. In particular, Morocco should regularly report on the economic and social impact of the sectoral support provided for by the Protocol, including its geographical distribution.

In a written reply to an MEPs question, Mr. Vella further explains that with a view to foster activities in the sector, the Protocol provides for compulsory landing in Moroccan ports of part of the catches made by EU vessels. In the light of the difficulties faced by the ship owners in respecting this obligation, an increase in both the incentives and the penalties in case of non-compliance has been decided during the 2016 Joint Committee. These amendments are fully consistent with relevant provisions of international law.

The first fisheries agreement concluded between both sides in 1995 was hailed as by far the most important deal between the EU and a third country. However, as the parties did not manage to reach an agreement to renew the protocol in 1999, there was no agreement in place until the current Fisheries Partnership Agreement came into force in February 2007 for a period of four years. Having been tacitly renewed twice, the first Protocol to current Fisheries Partnership Agreement that was in place until February 2011 provided for a financial contribution of 36.1 million euros out of which 13.5 million euros was dedicated to the support of the fisheries policy of Morocco. Vessels from 11 EU Member States could obtain fishing authorizations from Morocco under the Agreement and this Protocol.

A second Protocol, extending its predecessor by one year under essentially the same terms, was negotiated in February 2011 and provisionally applied until December 2011, when the European Parliament decided not to consent to its conclusion. The current Protocol to this Agreement was signed in November 2013, endorsed by the Council and the European Parliament and it entered into force in July 2014 following the completion of the internal ratification procedures by Morocco.
Hi.

I am now applying to spouse visa with FLR(M) form (switching from tier 5 YMS after marrying a british husband) and this forum has been a great help so far!

There are still some questions that I couldnt find any relevant thread...

It would be great if someone could advise me.



So after submitting the application online, I downloaded the supporting documents checklist yesterday and realised that there were few changes from the list that came up before declarations, payments, and submitting the application.



1) few items are not on the checklist - namely:

-"The language test certificate to prove the level of language required" for me and

-"Evidence of the amount of tax payable, paid, and unpaid for last full financial year" for my husband (he is self-employed)



2) On the checklist it requests my "payslip covering any period of salaried employment in the period of 12 months prior to the date of application" where it was "Payslips covering a period of 6 months prior to the date of application" before.



I called the visa & immigration contact centre and the lady answered "what you need to provide is what is on the checklist" but i find it bizarre because those are things that are mentioned in the list of the docs other people have handed in as well... Maybe there has been change in requirements this week?

Would you recommend us to provide them anyway, just in case?



If we do, should I write and add these items in the checklist or just mention it in the table of contents?

There also are some of the required/optional documents that we can't provide (e.g. my birth certificate as a parent of our child, as birth certificate doesn't exist in Japan) and I am wondering if we should write the explanation on the checklist or just leave them unchecked?

I am applying in person at Croydon but I guess I will not be able to explain that in person to the case worker.





Lastly, any rules for the order of presenting the support documents?

Should it be in the order of the checklist or is it better to reorganise by category (like, my financial documents, my husband's financial documents)?







thank you in advance for your help!
PSV (Primary Source Verification) -- haven't heard of that before. Maybe that's what they're up to? I was just looking at one of my transcripts and the only number on it is my social security number with the first few digits X'ed out for privacy. So, I don't know if a transcript will give them what they're after. The university of Texas actually makes looking up grads fairly easy hereyou just pop in anyone's name and it will tell you year first enrolled/last enrolled and degrees earned. I assume a lot of US universities use the same service.There's some company the bank is using for this process but they don't actually answer any questions it seems, so I'm left to try and decode things. Hopefully it will work out\_()_/
miky348 said: Hi,



My car insurance is up for renewal in Feb-2018. If I renew and pay the premium before Dec31/2017, would I have to pay VAT?



I asked my insurance company but they didn't have an answer.



Thanks

Miky Click to expand...

Hi,I doubt that will work!On one of our cars - that was insured and paid in August - we recently had an email from the insurance company stating that we may need to pay VAT proportionally on the remainder of the insurance period from Jan to next Augusts renewal date!I dont agree with this - but there is little you can do, if they enforce it.CheersSteve
We have a freezone legal entity and an office in the DAFZA zone and its rarely used except for people to work out of when they want to be near the airport, before travel. I'm thinking of ditching it as there is no longer a need for a freezone entity in our business, so naturally I thought of Regus.



Anyone used any decent alternatives to the Regus type setup - small offices, less than 10 people, manned 24/7 somewhere near the DXB airport ?
Hi all



I've just got a bit of an issue. My sister lives in Egypt and has done for 3 years. Myself, my brother,sister and mum have been to visit several times, but every time we've flown my brother's passport shows up red when scanned at Cairo airport, and he's pulled aside and asked questions. He's eventually let in after a while. He has no criminal record, or been involved with anything he shouldn't be. The Egyptians don't want to give any reason as to why this is happening so we have no explanation from that end. And when my brothers called the passport office here in UK, they've told him there's no issue with his passport, so seems to be connected to the Egyptian system? He's considering changing his last name and getting a new passport, but before considering it, will his old name and passport be linked to the new one, and show up his old details when scanned?

He doesn't want to do this and jeopardise being able to come back to and see our sister.





Thank You in advance
Try one of the remittance services. I have used worldremit.com with success and liked it but there are lots of companies out there.



You can establish accounts with an international bank that allows transfer between country accounts. I use HSBC and can easily transfer money between my Philippine accounts and my Canadian accounts.



Bank wire transfers is another option to transfer between banks of different companies.



You can leave a Philippine credit or debit card there and when you top up the account here they can withdraw from an ATM there.



If you are working here can you have part of your pay wired to your home account?



As already mentioned Western Union transfers money internationally.



You will have to look at these and any other options and determine which is the most cost effective for you considering all the circumstances. (how much, how often, pay out options back home etc.)



Fees is not the only consideration, the remittance game. A lot of these companies make money on exchange rates as well. Take a good look at the total cost of the transfer.



I found that in transferring money from Canada to the Philippines that the global transfer options of HSBC was the most economical once I established accounts in both countries but for one of kind or small transfers a cash withdrawal from an ATM against my Canadian accounts was not too bad either. Western Union was the most expensive option.



Wire transfer was OK for large transfers but the fixed fee was a lot for smaller transfers.
Hi everyone



I need some urgent help with something please.



I initially came to South Africa from the Czech Republic as a customer service host in March 2013. I got a 5 year visa under a corporate permit as a temporary residence permit.

During this 5 year period, I changed roles within my organisation I was working for. I was previously employed under a different company within the same group of companies for which I worked as a customer service host and got the opportunity to work as a banking analyst in another company within the same group of companies and I have held this position for 4 years.

I would like to apply for an extension of my visa, but I understand that my category of temporary residence has been discontinued and that my language is no longer on the critical skills list.

Also because I changed positions within this period, I would like to apply for the critical skills visa under the Business Process Outsourcing category as an analyst and was considering getting the accreditation from CCMG. My company was in the process of helping me with this, but then some information came to light the other day.

I was told by the company HR that because the company I am currently working for is not a BPO (business process outsourcing) company, I may struggle to get a visa.

I just really need help in terms of determining what my options are for staying in this country.

I have built a life here, have an awesome girlfriend that I have been dating for over 4 years and I love this country. Can anybody please let me know what my options are in terms of staying in the country? Can I apply for permanent residence. I am very confused about whether I can apply for permanent residence because I came here under a corporate permit.





PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE can someone help me, I am desperate! :help::help:


A pilot scheme that streamlines the process for international students studying for a Masters degree at British universities to get a visa is being extended.Some 23 universities have been added to the scheme which started out two years ago with the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Bath and Imperial College London. It means that international students looking to study on a Masters course of 13 months or less in the UK submit fewer documents than required in the current process alongside their visa applications.However, applicants that do not meet immigration rules will be refused and all students will continue to require Home Office security and identity checks.The additional 23 universities to benefit from the pilot include two in Scotland, two in Wales and one in Northern Ireland as well as universities from across England.I am delighted to announce the expansion of this pilot which is part of our ongoing activity to ensure that our world leading institutions remain highly competitive, said Immigration Minister Brandon LewisThe UK continues to be the second most popular destination for international students and the number coming to study at our universities has increased by 24% since 2010. This is a clear indication that genuine students are welcome and there is no limit on the number who can come to study in the UK, he added.The most recent Home Office statistics show that the number of students applying for visas increased by 8% over the past year and there has been a 9% increase in the number of students applying to Russell Group universities.The 23 additional universities will be able to apply the pilot to their 2018/2019 intake of students. The universities were selected as their visa refusal rates are consistently the lowest in their area or region.The 23 universities to be added to the pilot are Cardiff University, Goldsmiths University of London, Harper Adams University, Newcastle University, Queens University Belfast, the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, the University of Bristol, Durham University, the University of East Anglia, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Essex, the University of Exeter, the University of Glasgow, the University of Leicester, the University of Liverpool, the University of Manchester, the University of Nottingham, the University of Reading, the University of Sheffield, the University of Southampton, the University of Wales Trinity St. David, the University of Warwick and the University of York.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

San Antonio-based Mission Solar Energy has returned ownership of its land to the Brooks Development Authority in an agreement that will allow it to rent back the property for its plant while saving up to $1.6 million in annual property taxes.

The site houses the headquarters and manufacturing facility for solar manufacturer Mission Solar and the headquarters of its parent company, OCI Solar Power.

Mission Solar took ownership of the land in Sept. 2016, according to the Bexar County Appraisal District. The property has been appraised at $56 million.

OCI Solar spokeswoman Leslie Garza said Mission Solar reinstated its original lease on Dec. 8.

As part of the reinstatement of lease agreement, Mission Solar Energy will resume annual rental payments and make a good faith effort to employ a total of 200 full-time employees by January 1, 2023, she said in an email.

The company currently has 150 employees and plans to hire 50 more, Garza said.

Until Sept. 2016 Brooks owned the property under a 10-year property tax abatement that was signed with Nexolon America, a subsidiary of South Korean-base Nexolon Co. Ltd., in 2013. The agreement expires in 2023.

South Korean-based OCI Co. Ltd. bought Nexolon America in 2013 and turned it into Mission Solar.

Brooks President and CEO Leo Gomez said that Mission Solar had the right to assume ownership of the land at any time during the 10-year agreement and that Brooks re-assuming ownership of the property will help Mission Solar to recover and get them to a point where theyre succeeding.

Gomez said the property tax abatement agreement with Mission Solar will still expire in 2023.

Mission Solar laid off 257 employees between November 2016 and March 2017 as it struggled to compete with foreign solar producers. The company has said it is focusing its efforts on residential and commercial rooftop solar after fulfilling utility-scale contracts for multiple solar projects built to provide power to San Antonios city-owned utility CPS Energy.

The solar manufacturer was forced to repay all of its tax savings to San Antonio after failing to meet employment requirements set under the agreement. Mission Solar will pay back $601,000 over two years.

The solar industry across the U.S. and the world has taken a hit, Gomez said, adding that its fortunate that Mission Solar survived the downturn.

Rye Druzin is a San Antonio Express-News energy reporter. Read more of his stories here. | rdruzin@express-news.net | @druz_journo
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Authorities are searching for David Lee Gabler, a former spokesman for the University of Texas at San Antonio who was charged five years ago in a sexual assault case involving a 15-year-old boy.

Gabler, a registered sex offender, failed to provide his current address to the San Antonio Police Department and a warrant was issued for his arrest in February 2016  nearly two years ago. Hes still missing.

Local law enforcement agencies didnt offer specifics on what steps theyve taken to try capturing Gabler since 2016.

SAPD spokesman Doug Greene said the investigator assigned to Gablers case was out of the office Wednesday. Typically what is done if an offender fails to register is the investigator will make attempts to contact or locate the individual at their residence or by phone, Greene said by email.

If those attempts fail, Greene said, a warrant is issued and agencies such as the Bexar County Sheriffs Office and the U.S. Marshals Service are notified.

Sgt. David Barrera, a spokesman for the sheriffs office, said he didnt know specifics about efforts since 2016 to find Gabler. In general, he said, they research the associates of fugitives and their frequent whereabouts to figure out the safest and most tactically sound practices to execute the warrant.

The U.S. Marshals Services Lone Star Fugitive Task Force took the case a few days ago, said Deputy U.S. Marshal Chris Bozeman. The task force is now encouraging witnesses who might have seen Gabler, 52, to contact them at 210-657-8500.

We do believe that hes still here in the San Antonio area but has just failed to register his change of address, said Bozeman, who stressed that tips from witnesses are extremely helpful.

The key thing is, someone out there in the community may have seen him, they may live next door to him, they may even shop in the same grocery store, Bozeman said. Any information that we can receive from the community is going to be helpful.

UTSA fired Gabler, an associate vice president for university communications, in April 2012 after Alamo Heights police found Gabler and a teenage boy parked in a vehicle at Olmos Basin Park at 2:15 a.m.

The Texas Department of Public Safetys sex offender registry says Gabler is serving 10 years probation for online solicitation and theres no current listing for his address.

Gabler has blue eyes and brown hair. Hes about 160 pounds and is 5 feet, 10 inches tall.

John Tedesco is a San Antonio Express-News investigative reporter. Read more of his stories here. | jtedesco@express-news.net | @John_Tedesco
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

BANDERA  Converting two local frontier-era buildings into Bandera Countys tourism headquarters with exhibits on local history and area attractions would cost about $1.25 million, under a proposal being considered by Bandera County commissioners.

Architexas recommended constructing a new visitor center building between the countys former courthouse on 12th Street, which opened in 1877, and the former county jail beside it, which housed its first inmate in 1881.

Lobbies, staff offices and a public bathroom are part of the envisioned one-story center, whose large rear window would provide a great view of the nearby Medina River from a huge deck planned by the designers.

Architects Stanley O. Graves and Larry Irsik told county commissioners Thursday that the new center also would usher tourists to galleries created in the restored structures through connecting passages.

Displays on county history, local lore and insights about frontier life would rotate through the former jail, where special care will be taken to preserve scratches and scrawls made by prisoners held there during bygone times.

Theyre fantastic buildings, especially the jail, said Graves, noting it was designed by Alfred Giles, a British architect who moved to San Antonio in 1875 and rose to prominence designing courthouses and other public and commercial buildings in the region.

Unused for at least six years, the buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and were jointly designated by the Texas Historical Commission as a state antiquities landmark.

County Judge Richard Evans was pleased to hear the aging landmarks havent deteriorated too badly, saying, Im very relieved that we have buildings that we dont have to demolish.

The Bandera County Convention and Visitors Bureau currently operates out of rented offices at 126 Texas 16, roughly a block from the historic structures.

Besides minor structural repairs and some cosmetic work, several structural attachments inconsistent with their original design must be removed, the design firm said, and the buildings mechanical systems must be replaced.

Interior walls and other modifications made over the past century would be demolished, as would modern-era exterior features such as a handicapped ramp and a restroom.

The proposal by the architects hired last spring will now be reviewed by a local advisory panel before being brought back to commissioners early in 2018 with a recommendation, Evans said.

Breaking down the costs, Graves estimated $50,000 would be spent on demolition, $202,320 on the new building, $356,400 on the courthouse, $331,380 on the jail, $135,585 on site work and $31,200 on the deck planned on the south face of the new visitors center.

The architectural and engineering fee is forecast at $166,033, said Graves, who proposed a contingency fee of $110,000 to cover any unforeseen costs.

However, he said an expenditure of only $490,000 would be needed  if the county opted to fund the work in phases  to construct the new visitors center and do preliminary work that allows the courthouse to be used by guests.

Evans expressed hope of securing private donations and grants to supplement hotel-motel tax proceeds to fund the project that commissioners voted to pursue in September 2016. His preference is not to use county property tax revenues to fund the project.

The original 2016 plan included space in the old buildings for satellite exhibits by the Frontier Times Museum. Its director, Rebecca Norton, said Thursday, Thats not being pursued at this point.

Patricia Moore, executive director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, declined comment after Thursdays meeting, saying she needed to study the proposal.

Zeke MacCormack is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here. | zeke@express-news.net | @zekemac
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Bexar County Commissioners Court on Tuesday approved $19.8 million for the next segment of the San Pedro Creek Improvements Project, a three-block stretch through the heart of downtown that will mark the 2.2-mile projects most complex construction effort.

The funding, approved unanimously by the court, will pay for a mix of design, demolition and construction activities along the creek from Houston Street to Nueva Street. All construction on the segment is expected to be underway by the end of the summer.

The court also asked the San Antonio River Foundation on Tuesday to coordinate with the San Antonio River Authority, which is managing the creek project, to potentially raise additional funds for the $735,000 sculpture that will serve as the centerpiece of San Pedro Creek plaza. County Manager David Smith recommended the move, citing uncertainty over the final budget.

The sculpture, titled Plethora and originally planned to be a six-story aluminum structure, will form a womans face that can be seen from Interstate 35. River Authority General Manager Suzanne Scott confirmed the sculpture would not be completed by the original deadline of May 5, the date of the all-day county tricentennial celebration.

This is a very complicated structure, and we want to make sure that the Commissioners Court is happy with the result they ultimately get from that, Scott said. We don't want to build something that doesn't meet their expectations or the community's expectations.

Now Playing: Credit: San Antonio River Authority Video: San Antonio River Authority

Carrie Brown, the projects public art curator, said some details of the sculptures fabrication and installation process have yet to be finalized, but weve been able to work through a number of issues and challenges.

County Judge Nelson Wolff said the court had yet to see a final iteration of the sculpture.

I don't know what (David) Smith's inside knowledge on that is, and whether it is going over budget, Wolff said. But he just wanted to make it clear he wasn't bringing it back to the court (for more funding) if it does go over budget.

The bulk of the funding approved Tuesday, about $12.9 million, will go toward civil and utility work along the next creek segment, including wall stabilization and building underpinnings. A smaller chunk, totaling about $4.2 million, will pay for the demolition of an already-closed Dollar General store on Commerce Street and various electric and gas utilities.

The remaining $2.7 million will fund further design of the segment, rounding out that phase. A final design is due by May to Sundt-Davila, the joint construction venture for the project. A final price proposal for the segment is due to the construction team by July.

The commissioners also approved several design changes to the next segment, projected to save $7.3 million. They scrapped plans for an amphitheather that would have gone next to the Alameda Theater, where the segment begins, putting a performance plaza in its place.

The more we looked at a full-blown amphitheater, we realized that it probably isnt the best use of that space, said SARAs Kerry Averyt, the project manager. There were concerns that it would be underutilized and wouldnt get the full benefit of the space.

Designers also modified the scope of the segment to allow for more green space along the creek and dropped plans for a foot bridge at the Spanish Governors Palace.

Scott said she sees a parallel between the creek project and the Museum Reach extension of the River Walk, completed in May 2009. The Museum Reach design team coordinated with the Pearl, which was then undergoing construction, leading the Pearl to kick in funding for part of the extension.

That same thing will happen now as developers are going to come along San Pedro Creek, Scott said. There could be some public-private partnerships that will allow for those connections.

The first segment of the creek project starts at the flood tunnel inlet beyond North Santa Rosa Street, near Fox Tech High School, and extends south to the Alameda Theater at Houston Street. That stretch of the project remains on track for completion by May 5.

Though the creek project is a joint venture between Bexar County and the City of San Antonio, the county is providing $132.8 million of the $158.9 million committed funding, with the city tacking on $19.5 million in bonds. The remaining $6.6 million will come from utility reimbursements.

Jasper Scherer is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here. | jscherer@express-news.net | @jaspscherer
Chandler Estate, a not-for-profit, senior-living facility partly located in a historic home in Monte Vista since the early 1970s, told its residents Tuesday it is closing in late February, due primarily to yearly shortfalls from poor Medicaid reimbursement rates in Texas.

Chandler Estate is operated by Morningside Ministries, which also owns The Manor and The Meadows in Northwest San Antonio, and Menger Springs in Boerne.

Morningside CEO Pat Crump said Chandler Estates 102 remaining residents have been offered rooms in the other facilities at no additional charge, and that about 50 of 130 Chandler staff members will be retained.

He said the majority of current residents will go to other Morningside facilities, but that about 30 clients in the nursing home might need to find other residences. Counselors were made available to help those in the nursing home. A job fair has been organized for the displaced staff members.

This is a problem all over Texas, Crump said, referring to more than a dozen not-for-profit facilities like his that he believes have closed for similar reasons. Our average daily costs per resident have been about $200 for several years, and the average Medicaid reimbursement from the state is $145. Our board said we simply cant keep doing this.

Texas has one of the lowest reimbursement rates of any state, which, coupled with the age of the facility and expense of upkeep, forced the decision, he said.

While acknowledging the host of interests that compete for state funding, Crump said state legislators keep pushing seniors down the list.

He said his industry is regulated as strictly as nuclear power plants and airlines, but that it was increasingly difficult to pay for unfunded mandates and still maintain the care families require of them.

Selling the Chandler home, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, will be an option in the future, Crump said, but only after the residents and staff can be relocated.

Weve been having this financial conversation for years, said Crump, who assumed his position last February. But within the last few months, the board realized it was threatening the whole organization.

Other than finding more charitable donations or trying to partner with unspecified nongovernmental groups through a state program, Crump said there were few alternatives to closing.

This is why so few not-for-profits do Medicaid, Crump said. We want to do as much as we can for as long as we can, but still protect the organization.

Morningside Ministries was founded in 1961 by the Southwest Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church and joined five years later by First Presbyterian Church of San Antonio and the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas.

bselcraig@express-news.net
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Early in November, Michael Shackelford began to suffer a fever, chills, congestion and a persistent cough. His temperature reached 103 degrees. Tests confirmed he had the flu, which later developed into pneumonia.

The 41-year-old San Antonio man sequestered himself in his bedroom so his girlfriend and their infant daughter, then 2 months old and too young to get a flu shot, would not become infected. He wore a mask covering his nose and mouth to prevent the spread of germs. He ended up missing two weeks of work.

It was awful, Shackelford recalled. I did not fully get rid of that cough for a month and a half.  It was kind of scary because Ive never had pneumonia.

The flu virus is on the rise in the Lone Star State. Texas is one of four states that experienced high activity of flu-like symptoms during the first full week of December, according to the most recent report released Friday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Already, one Texas child has died in what is reported to be a flu-related case. State health officials said the 3-year-old victim tested positive for Type A flu and died in mid-November in a 28-county region spanning South-Central Texas, but they wouldnt disclose the specific county, citing privacy reasons.

That death did not occur in Bexar County, San Antonio Metropolitan Health District officials said.

State health officials declined to release the childs exact cause of death. The toddler had no underlying health conditions and did not receive a flu shot for the current influenza season that began Oct. 1, a state health department report shows.

The flu likely will get worse in Texas in the weeks or months to come, predicted Dr. Jennifer Shuford, Texas Department of State Health Services infectious disease medical officer.

It is highly unlikely that were at the peak of flu season, Shuford said. Our activity is still increasing. We usually see our peak activity occurring some time between December and February  or December and March.

People still can protect themselves by getting a flu shot, Shuford said. Once the vaccine is given, it takes two weeks to become fully effective in the body.

The flu shot is recommended for everyone who is at least 6 months old. For those who live with or care for babies younger than 6 months, its especially important to get vaccinated to help protect those infants from the contagious virus, Shuford said.

The shot does not guarantee that you wont get the flu, however. In typical years, the vaccine has only been 40 to 60 percent effective at preventing someone from becoming infected, she said.

What we know is that people who get the vaccine are less likely to be hospitalized because of influenza and less likely to die from influenza, Shuford said. Thats true for pediatrics as well  kids who get vaccinated are less likely to die if they do contract influenza.

The flu typically is spread by droplets in the air from respiratory secretions dispersed by an infected person coughing or sneezing. Anyone within a 3- to 5-foot radius of the infectious droplets is at risk of getting the illness.

Flu symptoms hit suddenly and include fever, muscle aches, chills, coughing and sore throat. It typically takes five to seven days to recover.

Those sick with the flu are infectious about 24 hours before they start experiencing symptoms and remain infectious until about 24 hours after their fever is gone, Shuford said.

Public health officials say they cant predict how this flu season will compare with those of years past. They dont track every case of the flu or keep count of the number of adults who die from the illness  so they cant provide a complete picture of how many people may have the virus in a specific geographic area at a given time.

But there are some indications flu is on the rise in Texas. In late October, for instance, only 2 percent of specimens in hospital laboratories across the state tested positive for the flu. By the first week of December, that number had jumped to more than 16 percent, Shuford said.

At the peak of flu season, that number typically soars to 30 to 35 percent, she noted.

More patients have shown flu-like symptoms in Texas doctors offices and clinics in recent weeks. Health care providers voluntarily participating in a state health department surveillance program reported 7 percent of patients seen in the first week of December  more than 1,800 people  were suffering from flu-like symptoms, a report shows. Thats up from the last week of October, when only 2.4 percent of patients  nearly 600 people  showed such symptoms, reports show.

Metro Health reported more people also tested positive for the flu here in recent weeks. Its flu surveillance program found 18 percent of specimens tested positive for flu during the first week of December, up significantly from 1.5 percent in the first week of October, a spokeswoman said.

The level is what we expect for this time of the year, said Anita Kurian, assistant director of Metro Health.

Adult deaths from the flu are not tallied by public health agencies, but childrens deaths are given special attention. The Texas toddler who died in mid-November is one of eight children nationwide to suffer flu-related deaths since Oct. 1, Shuford said.

Flu-related deaths for children have declined in Texas in recent years. During the previous flu season, eight children died statewide. That is down from 19 pediatric deaths recorded during the 2014-2015 flu season and 20 pediatric deaths in each of the 2013-2014 and 2012-2013 flu seasons.

The last such death of a child in Bexar County occurred earlier this year, during the previous flu season that ended Sept. 30, Metro Health officials said. That was the first flu-related pediatric death recorded here since 2014.

Flu can be deadly for children under 5 (years old) and older adults 65 and older, Kurian said. So it is highly recommended that this vulnerable segment of the population get the flu shots.

Shackelford said he got vaccinated last fall. As soon as he recovered from his November illness, he went to the doctor and got another flu shot, as did his girlfriend.

I recommend the flu shot 100 percent, he said.

They continue to worry about their infant daughter being exposed to the virus since shes not old enough to get the vaccine.

We dont take our daughter to the grocery store because shes so young, Shackelford said. Last night was one of the first times weve taken her to a restaurant. But we dont allow her to touch anything, and she stays in her baby seat.  Were trying to take extra precautions because, at a young age, theyre vulnerable.

Peggy O'Hare is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of her stories here. | pohare@express-news.net | @Peggy_OHare
Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald called Tuesday for the state Department of Justice to expand its investigation of leaked documents from a now-shuttered investigation into Gov. Scott Walkers recall campaign to include the activities of the former Government Accountability Board.

In a letter to Attorney General Brad Schimel, Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, wrote there is enough evidence that GAB staff were acting incompetently at best, and criminally at worst, in the years surrounding the recall elections of 2011 and 2012.

It is of the utmost importance that we ascertain exactly what the GAB board, leadership, and staff were doing, and when, and what their motivations were, Fitzgerald said. The victims of the John Doe as well as the voting public need clarity and finality with this issue before confidence in our elections and ethics oversight processes can be fully restored.

Fitzgeralds request must first be approved by the Legislatures Committee on Senate Organization. Schimel spokesman Johnny Koremenos said if the committee authorizes DOJ to investigate the GAB, we will do so with the utmost integrity and professionalism.

Assembly Democratic Leader Gordon Hintz of Oshkosh dismissed Fitzgeralds call to expand the investigation as an attempt at revisionist history, maybe political payback.

Hintz said his biggest concern stemming from Schimels recent report on the leak investigation is Fitzgerald and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, citing it to seek the resignations of the administrators of the states Elections and Ethics commissions, Michael Haas and Brian Bell.

Ousting those officials 10 months before a major election, Hintz said, could compromise the elections integrity.

Vos and Fitzgerald are going to try to undermine the unanimously selected (administrators) and probably try to replace them with partisan hacks more interested in shaping the outcome of the 2018 election than they are effectively carrying out the law, Hintz said.

Meanwhile Tuesday, a state senator running for U.S. Senate said someone should go to jail for an ethics investigation by the GAB that involved the review of her private emails and resulted in no charges.

Sen. Leah Vukmir, R-Brookfield, said many people should be held accountable for her emails being obtained by Milwaukee County investigators and passed on to the GABs ethics investigators, including former GAB executive director Kevin Kennedy and Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, a Democrat.

I believe some of the things that were done, people should go to jail for this, Vukmir said Tuesday at a Wispolitics.com luncheon.

But Vukmir demurred about whether retired Judge Neal Nettesheim, who oversaw and approved warrants in the Milwaukee County investigation, or Schimel, who first revealed two weeks ago that Vukmir had been investigated, should be held accountable. Regarding those two, she told reporters shes looking at all of her legal options and was really not at liberty to talk about it.

Vukmir said her anger has been directed primarily at the GAB because her private emails with her daughter, some containing medical information, were found in the locked basement storage area of the Ethics Commission office building in an electronic folder marked opposition research, a term that refers to dirt collected on political opponents.

Thats not careless, thats showing intent, Vukmir said. Personal emails between my daughter and me. Thats just beyond the pale. Its wrong.

Kennedy declined to comment. Chisholm did not respond to a request for comment. John Doe and ethics investigators are prohibited by state law from discussing their investigations.

Vukmir also backed the call to oust Haas and Bell, and she agreed that nine individuals recommended by Schimel for contempt-of-court proceedings should be held accountable. She didnt rule out a civil lawsuit could be filed.

Im not going to leave any stone left unturned, Vukmir said. Government should not be overreaching into our lives.

The Wisconsin State Journal reported Sunday that Schimel was the first to reveal that Vukmir had been investigated by the states former ethics agency as part of a previously unknown ethics investigation into whether Republican state employees were campaigning on taxpayer-funded time.

A judge who authorized the release of Schimels report said Monday that he shouldnt have done so because state law requires that subjects of state investigations that dont result in charges should have their confidentiality maintained. He said Schimel never raised that issue in asking for the report to be released.

The ethics investigation was authorized by the GABs six-member panel of retired judges in December 2011 and closed in March 2013 with no charges recommended. The emails were obtained by warrant as part of the John Doe I investigation into Gov. Scott Walkers Milwaukee County office  which investigators sought to expand 18 times based on evidence collected.

Schimel issued a report two weeks ago that identified Vukmir as one of 35 people who had their private emails obtained as part of that investigation and a follow-up John Doe II investigation into Walkers campaign coordinating with an independent group during the 2011 and 2012 recall campaigns. The Milwaukee County District Attorneys Office forwarded those emails to the GAB.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

State legislators recall that even waning health couldnt stop Ruth Jones McClendon from working on behalf of those whose voices arent often heard.

During her final legislative session in the Texas House, the East Side representative navigated the Capitol halls on an electric scooter, battling stage 4 nonsmokers lung cancer as she pushed through a bill to curb wrongful convictions.

Friends, colleagues and mentees of McClendon, who died Tuesday at age 74, said the tenacity she showed at the end of her two-decade tenure was a typical display for the longtime San Antonio state representative.

She was shrewd and she was accomplished, said Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert, who announced her death during a Tuesday court meeting. She made my path a little easier.

McClendon was a faithful public servant and tireless fighter for justice, said Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio.

She was a person of principle and decency who spoke for those whose voice is too often not heard, Straus said in a statement. Every one of us who served with Ruth was inspired by her integrity and tenacity, especially in the difficult final days of her service.

On Tuesday, her family was focused on making arrangements for her funeral. In a previous interview, her husband, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Denver McClendon, talked about how his wife would back bills she strongly supported, even though she knew they wouldnt pass.

To me, what separates a politician from a statesman is the ability to stand by your convictions, he said.

McClendon grew up in the Fifth Ward of Houston, where in the 1960s she campaigned for former U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan and became drawn to politics.

McClendon moved to San Antonio in 1967, working as a juvenile probation officer before being elected to the City Council. She represented District 2 from 1993 until 1996.

Following her stint on the council, McClendon was elected to the Texas House in a November 1996 special election. She would serve District 120 for the next two decades.

During her career, she was heralded for helping seniors, the young and the homeless. Other hallmarks during her tenure include serving as San Antonios dean of the legislative delegation and her commitment to her East Side constituents.

McClendon regularly walked the neighborhoods in her district, talking to the residents and finding out their concerns.

McClendon also served two terms as chairwoman of the House Committee on Rules and Resolutions and served on the House Appropriations and Transportation committees.

Before the end of her last term, McClendon said a high point in her career was the approval of the Timothy Cole exoneration review commission, which investigates wrongful convictions. She resigned in January 2016, shortly after Gov. Greg Abbott signed her bill creating the commission.

Abbott offered his condolences Tuesday through a tweet that read, Rest in Peace Representative Ruth Jones McClendon. We thank her for her years of service.

As a college intern in McClendons office in 1999, Calvert watched her work the system as she began to climb the committee ladder during her early years in Austin.

He was unsurprised when she later became chairwoman of the Rules Committee and a member of the sought-after Appropriations Committee.

You dont get on those types of committees (without) putting in hard work and being respected, Calvert said. Those are the committees where youve learned the rules of the game and the mechanics of parliamentary procedure.

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, who served as mayor for part of McClendons tenure on the council, remembered her as a friend and the go-to person once she left for the Legislature. Wolff recalled that McClendon campaigned with him on the East Side during his 2014 primary run, a challenging election for the longtime judge.

She was one of those unique ones that had an impact and understood how to work across party lines, Wolff said. She stuck to her beliefs, but when it came to patching some votes together, she was effective.

Mayor Ron Nirenberg echoed Wolffs comments, calling McClendon a consensus builder, who used her considerable political skills to help the needy.

As a Democrat in a Republican-controlled Legislature, McClendon managed to land on the House Appropriations Committee under two Republican speakers, Nirenberg said in a statement. She was a strong voice for San Antonio and her district. She wielded power gently but effectively.

U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, who began his congressional career a year before the start of McClendons tenure in Austin, said she was a powerful voice on City Council and in the Legislature.

Her legacy of public service continues to inspire us to work for causes she championed, including access to health care and helping all students fulfill their God-given potential, Doggett said. Whether it was visiting with her at her annual Western Roundup or through her efforts to expand educational opportunities for young people at the state Capitol, she worked tirelessly on behalf of others and her constituents on San Antonios East and Northeast sides.

We have lost a champion of the people, state Sen. Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, said in a statement. When I first came into the Texas Legislature as a freshman member, Ruth always offered advice and guidance that later became invaluable to my tenure as a public servant.

He added that McClendon was an effective role model who devoted her life to empowering the needy, and she set the bar high for those of us who followed in her footsteps serving in San Antonios City Council.

Rep. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, D-San Antonio, who won the District 120 seat in 2016, said shes proud to serve the community on the foundation that McClendon built.

During my first session, I dont think a week went by that colleagues didnt come to me to tell me how they felt about her and the work that she has done, she said. Shes highly respected in Austin and San Antonio.

Former state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, a close friend of McClendon, said Tuesday she felt like shes lost a member of her family.

Van de Putte said McClendon, who she called sister, believed her duty was to help those who often didnt have options.

Ruth was a very powerful voice for this community, Van de Putte said, and her heart was big, especially for those whose voices are never heard.

The pair became friends during McClendons early days in politics and bonded during long hours in the legislative chamber. They shared time away from the capital and on family outings and supported each other through personal triumphs and tragedies.

She said shell remember her friend for her humor, fierce dedication and ability to galvanize lawmakers together.

In an age where there is so much tribalism, Ruth was a lady, and she treated everybody with respect, Van de Putte said. She could disagree with someones opinion and still uphold their dignity as a person. Thats a rarity in todays political climate.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

WASHINGTON - In an 11th-hour drive to rescue a nationwide childrens health program, 11-year-old Harmonie Flores-Brown of San Antonio gazed up at a microphone in an ornate Senate hearing room and described what might happen if Congress fails her.

Me and other kids depend on CHIP, and if it is taken away, I wont be able to see, she said, describing her serious vision disorders. We need the insurance, I need the insurance. So please dont take it away.

The future of the Childrens Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, which expired Sept. 30, remains uncertain in the final scheduled week of Congress, in which completion of a Republican tax plan and preventing a government shutdown are priorities in the GOP-run Congress.

CHIP money has continued to flow due to an extension of governmentwide funding that expires Friday. But states have begun issuing warnings about an imminent cutoff of benefits.

Alabama officials said this week that 7,000 children would lose coverage on New Years Day, with benefits for the remaining 77,000 in the program ending Feb. 1. Connecticut declared Tuesday that it would shutter its program Jan. 31.

In Texas, the Health and Human Services Commission said last week that the program would continue at least through February for some 450,000 uninsured children as a result of the recent promise of $135 million in federal money by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The government reallocates unspent money.

The childrens program has bipartisan backing in Congress. But, like other key initiatives, languishes during a tense and confusing conclusion to the first year in Congress since Republicans gained full control of the governing apparatus in Washington.

The fate of efforts to protect 800,000 young undocumented immigrants and the level of military funding in 2018 also hang in the balance, with Congress scheduled to leave for the holidays on Friday.

The 20-year-old CHIP, which serves 9 million children, was designed to provide funding to states to reduce the number of uninsured children.

The program focuses on low-income, working families who dont have health insurance through their jobs and earn too much to qualify for Medicaid. It cost $14.5 billion last fiscal year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Advocates point to measurable success: Since CHIP began, the rate of uninsured children 18 and under has plunged from 14.9 percent to 4.8 percent, according to First Focus, an advocacy group in Washington.

On Tuesday, Dakota Flores of San Antonio, accompanied by Harmonie Flores-Brown and her three other children, were among eight families First Focus brought to Washington in a forum to press for action in Congress.

Flores, 46, a single mother, said that if Congress fails to reauthorize CHIP, she likely would need to quit her job at a pawnshop and subscribe to Medicaid to take care of her children.

Daughter Harmonie needs special glasses again after getting a new pair just in September. Her son, Tyler, requires various medications for ADHD and serious sleep disorders. Both excel in school, and Harmonies fledgling singing career has taken off with recent performances, one with the San Antonio Symphony, she said.

CHIP is not for us parents, its for the kids. With it, even when the world around them tells them they cant succeed, they do, she said, her voice quavering at the microphone.

Added Harmonie: If CHIP is taken away, millions of kids like me will struggle.

blambrecht@express-news.net
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

AUSTIN  A proposed $81 billion disaster aid package that the U.S. House is moving forward to approve will fund all federally authorized flood-control projects in Harris County and other Texas areas hammered by Hurricane Harvey, state and federal officials confirmed Tuesday.

And while the measure falls short of what Texas sought for the next phase of its disaster-recovery needs, the officials said they plan to push ahead for additional money next year.

This bill fully funds all federally authorized flood control projects in Harris County and in all other Texas disaster area counties, said U.S. Rep. John Culberson, a Houston Republican who is a member of the House Appropriations Committee that hammered out the bill.

Culberson said that under the bill, we can finish Brays Bayou with front-loaded funding. I also won passage of language prioritizing Army Corps funding to counties like Harris that have suffered repeated floods in recent years, which will help us get that third reservoir built to keep water out of Addicks and Barker.

In addition, he said Tuesday that funding included in the bill will help compensate property owners who were flooded when the Corps opened the gates on Addicks and Barker reservoirs.

In Washington, House leaders late Monday made public the details of their bill, the latest installment in more than $130 billion federal aid to Texas and other states in the wake of hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria and Nate, along with wildfires that have blackened large areas in California.

In all, the storms and wildfires are widely reported to have cost well over $200 billion in damages  with more than $100 billion of that in Texas alone, according to initial estimates.

While the bill is almost double the $44 billion that the Trump administration proposed, it falls far short of the $61 billion that Texas officials had sought weeks ago for just Texas.

Gov. Greg Abbott, who went ballistic in October after House leaders sidetracked an $18.7 billion allocation specifically for Texas and complained after the Trump administration recommended only $44 million instead of the $61 million that Texas requested, said Tuesday the measure still needs work.

The top line number is significant, but the overall bill is still a work in progress, said Ciara Matthews, Abbotts press secretary. The governor will continue to work with the Texas delegation to identify strategies and address the needs of Texans.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and House members from Texas said Abbott remains directly involved in the ongoing negotiations over additional funding for Texas, most recently in a conference call Monday night.

GOP leaders in Washington promised a vote on the bill by the end of this week.

The House bill contains $26.12 billion for federal Community Development Block Grants, $12.1 billion for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects, $3.8 billion for the Department of Agriculture, $2.9 billion for hurricane education recovery, $1.5 billion to recoup military costs and $1.4 billion to repair damaged highway infrastructure.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghausen, R-N.J., has characterized the measure as a key to the federal governments continuing response to the record losses from natural disasters in 2017.

As details of the measure emerged Tuesday, members of Texas congressional delegation said additional funding for the states recovery will be needed in 2018.

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, stressed that Texas officials  Republicans and Democrats  are working to get Texas the funding it needs to recover from the historic storm.

There are people all over in the Houston area and other places that were flooded in Texas who cant get to the next level, who cant get their homes repaired, because of a lack of resources, she said. We should capture what we can before the holiday and then push for additional disaster-relief next year.

This is not the finish, Jackson Lee said.

In September, as Texas was still reeling from Harvey and the resulting flooding, Congress approved $15 billion for relief efforts in Texas. The following month, the House approved $36.5 billion for the Lone Star State along with hurricane relief to Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Wildfires in California and other Western states also were covered.

Much of the funding for Texas would have gone for recovery programs in the Houston area, officials said.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

A Tomball 9-year-old has turned the disaster of Hurricane Harvey into an opportunity to start his own literary career.

After Harvey brought record flooding that damaged businesses and homes, Landon Hayek was inspired to put pencil to paper and write a book about his experience along with his mother, Jennifer Hayek.

A fourth-grader at Creekview Elementary School in Tomball ISD, Landon said what he remembered the most during the storm was the wind and rain.

My neighborhood just looked a little torn up because of the wind, he said.

When he and his parents had to leave their residence due to the rising waters, they returned to find a flooded home  one that is still undergoing repairs and having damaged items replaced.

The fourth-grader said he remembered the way neighbors banded together after the waters receded and began helping each other by sharing food.

Things are only things, and you still have each other, he said. Not that theyre not important, but your friends and family are always more important.

While schools were closed, he and his mother began writing and drawing what would eventually become the book They Called Him Harvey: A Hurricane Harvey Story.

The project took nearly two months to complete before finding a publisher and listing the book on Amazon for $9.99.

Since the book has gone on sale, Landon has read it to classmates and done book signings. Part of the book sales will go to families who are affected by Harvey, he said.

It feels good to be able to read to the other students that have been affected because it helps me feel better and I try to make them feel better about what happened, Landon said.

While he enjoys writing, in the future Landon said he hopes to be a meteorologist to be able to predict the weather, like The Weather Channels Jim Cantore or NBCs Al Roker.

If I can, Ill do both  author and meteorologist, he said.

In the meantime, he and his mom are brainstorming new ideas.

Me and my mom are thinking about the next story that we want to write, he said.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Yolanda Uresti fully intended to run in the Democratic primary for justice of the peace.

After the Bexar County Commissioners Court decided in 2015 to eliminate three part-time JP positions (including Urestis Precinct 4 Place 2 bench), Uresti made it clear that she would challenge her courthouse nemesis, Rogelio Lopez, for his full-time Precinct 4 Place 1 seat.

But the Dec. 11 filing deadline came and went, and Uresti did not file.

JoAnn Ramon, Urestis campaign consultant, said that Uresti, the ex-wife of state Sen. Carlos Uresti, simply failed to gather up enough petition signatures to qualify for a place on the ballot. State law requires JP candidates to submit 250 signatures plus a $1,000 filing fee.

She was moving from her house to another house and time got away from her, and she didnt get her signatures done, Ramon said.

Uresti, however, has a different, more nefarious, explanation. She said Lopez has conspired with constables, court managers and others to create a hostile climate for her at the Precinct 4 court. Uresti said she decided to protect herself and stay out of the race.

Im being harassed and threatened and so are the plaintiffs and the defendants in my courtroom, Uresti said. This harassment and discrimination has gone way too far and with the holidays I didnt want anybody getting hurt.

She added, Im on high blood pressure meds. I never have been in my life. But Im scared.

Lopez, 49, said Urestis allegations are baseless.

I welcomed her to this court (in 2015), Lopez said. I gave her support. I trained her on how to use the system. I wanted to help her to be successful, but she chose not to take me up on that.

Uresti said the final straw for her came on Friday, Dec. 8, when a local landlord, who has been a plaintiff in her court, warned her that Lopez and his Precinct 4 loyalists planned to do something to hurt her.

Nonetheless, on the weekend before the Dec. 11 filing deadline, Uresti was still making efforts to gather petition signatures, according to sources. Also, on the afternoon of Dec. 11, less than four hours before the primary filing deadline expired, Uresti continued to act like a candidate, filing a treasurer-appointment report with the county election office.

The timing of the treasurer-appointment report is relevant because Uresti campaign signs recently have been on display on the South Side. The Texas Election Code prohibits candidates from knowingly making a campaign expenditure (and that includes the purchase of campaign signs) before filing a treasurer-appointment report. A violation of that law is a Class A misdemeanor.

Urestis campaign signs proclaim her, The Peoples Choice for the Peoples Court.

Her first three years on the court, however, have been stormy, to say the least. Within a few weeks of her January 2015 swearing-in, local attorneys began privately grumbling about her temperament and judgment in the courtroom.

Mike Litofsky, a local property owner, sent a letter of complaint about Uresti to county commissioners in March 2015, and Precinct 4 Commissioner Tommy Calvert forwarded the letter to the State Commission on Judicial Conduct.

In October 2016, the state commission sanctioned Uresti for failure to comply with the law, incompetence and engaging in willful and persistent conduct that was clearly inconsistent with the proper performance of her judicial duties. The commission ordered her to repeat the 80 hours of training required for new judges in Texas.

The commission zeroed in on Urestis sloppy handling of two eviction cases, but it also addressed her allegations against Lopez and others at the Precinct 4 court. For example, Uresti contacted the Bexar County Constables Office in 2015 and told them to arrest her court manager, Eusebia Rodriguez Price, for insubordination (because Price called a defendant without Urestis permission). The Constables Office refused to comply with Urestis order.

In her response to the state commissions inquiry, Uresti also requested that Lopez and Price be found in contempt of court. This request appeared to baffle state commissioners, who noted that Uresti was unable to provide any reasonable explanation for providing the information, nor was she able to articulate an understanding of the courts authority, or the procedures, for contempt.

Lopez now has a clear path to re-election, while Uresti has one more year on the Precinct 4 court. Maybe the only thing Lopez and Uresti have in common is that for both of them, that year cant end soon enough.

Gilbert Garcia is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here. | ggarcia@express-news.net | @gilgamesh470
Shawn Galbraith is in the process of purchasing 98 acres of farmland

By Diego Flammini

News Reporter

Farms.com

If a Saanich, B.C. businessmans next venture is successful, he could own one of the countrys largest marijuana operations.

Shawn Galbraith, founder and CEO of Evergreen Medicinal Supply, hopes to purchase 98 acres of farmland from Stanhope Dairy Farm for about $12 million. His long-term plans include building 21 greenhouses on the site to grow marijuana.

Hes already received approval from Health Canada to build a 150,000-square-foot greenhouse that comes with a price tag of $25 million.

Central Saanich council needs to approve the application before construction can begin.

The land falls under the Agricultural Land Reserve, but the Agricultural Land Commission does not have authority to regulate how the land is used. And Christy Clarks provincial Liberal government approved the growth of medical cannabis on ALR land.

The total project could cost upwards of $500 million, but Galbraith is confident the benefits outweigh the production costs.

I think (the marijuana facility) is an excellent use of this valley, he told CTV News on Monday. I think that to be able to generate billions (of dollars) in revenue and literally thousands of jobs.

And Galbraith doesnt seem to be exaggerating with his billion-dollar assessment.

Canadas marijuana industry could be worth about $22.6 billion annually, according to a report by accounting firm Deloitte.

Despite the potential within the marijuana industry, however, other B.C. producers would rather see young farmers on the land.

It should be farmland, period (and) it should be used for farmers, Frans Winkel, a pig farmer who owns land near Galbraiths proposed site, told CTV News. Even if they cut it up into smaller pieces for young farmers who want to experience farming. Thats what its all about.

Some residents also worry about increased traffic, odours and pollution.

Those are big concerns for people in the area because weve been through it once before (with a compost facility at Stanhope Dairy Farm that saw its owners bring in food scraps and construction debris), resident Doug Fulton told The Times Colonist yesterday. Once the project starts, (residents) have no leverage.
Canada's new crop missions have wrapped up for another year.

Cereals Canada President Cam Dahl says they visited 18 countries this year, touring parts of Asia, Latin America, North America, Europe, The Middle East and Africa.

He adds they didn't have any trouble promoting this year's crop.

"It makes it a lot easier to talk to customers about the quality of the crop when it is in fact that good," commented Dahl. "Contrast that to last year, of course, when we had the fusarium issues. We had 95 per cent of the CWRS as number one or number two, over 90 per cent of the durum is number one and number two."

Dahl notes the news coming out of Italy wasn't great, as that country has yet to import any of Canada's 2017 wheat crop. He said this is due to issues surrounding country of origin labelling and an Italian public relations campaign negatively targeting Canadian durum.

Source : Steinbachonline
Corruption control is difficult enough without falling back on magical thinking. By that I mean assuming that A will cause B, without specifying any causal connections between the two. A closely-related fallacy is the notion that naming an idea creates something real. A bit of reflection on these problems may help us understand why checking corruption continues to be so difficult.

A prime example of magical thinking is the notion of political will  a hardy perennial that crops up in just about every discussion of corruption control. On its face the idea is sensible enough: reforms are unlikely to succeed without strong support. But will of any sort is a matter of intentions and dispositions and, as such, is fundamentally unknowable in anyone other than ourselves.

Despite proclamations of civic virtue and zero tolerance  the latter usually indicating that the speaker hasnt thought about corruption very deeply  how can we know whether political will does, or does not, exist? How can we distinguish between political will and the consequences we assume, or hope, it will produce? How do we know bold reform statements do not conceal a sinister agenda?

After some time has passed, we might examine the results of reforms and conclude that political support from various sources, or its absence, influenced success or failure. But even then, outcomes are shaped by many forces and circumstances; what look like results of political will may reflect other causes. Reform scenarios dependent upon political will amount to claiming these ideas will work if someone makes them work  wishful, and circular, thinking at best. Should they fail, the political will argument comes perilously close to blaming the victims: we gave Country X good ideas, but they didnt follow through. The latter part of that statement may be true, yet hardly be the sole cause of failure  and, maybe our recommendations werent so great to begin with ?

A final problem is that political will is usually thought of as originating at the top of the system. But even if an anti-corruption champion produces positive results, what happens when she or he leaves the building? In many societies  even those falling short of full democracy  sustained political demand from citizens may well be the best lasting source of support for corruption control. Without it, even high-profile proclamations of political will often turn out to mean political wont.

Another example of magical thinking has to do with capacity or capacity-building. In some settings the idea makes sense: we might add staff and data-processing power to an agency and increase its theoretical capacity to process invoices, for example. But will such added capacity actually yield better performance? Whats more, the capacity idea is often used in much broader ways, as for example in efforts to improve the overall performance of legislatures, law enforcement, or courts. There, the argument is often that higher capacity will produce better representation and legislation, more effective and fairer law enforcement, and better access to justice.

But how many shortcomings in the performance of such institutions reduce to shortages of capacity  as opposed, say, to willful mismanagement, favoritism, and the like? Are we even sure that those broader forms of capacity exist? Can we measure them and be confident about their consequences? How will broader benefits come to pass  or, who will have a sustained stake in making them happen? Like political will, many capacity-building scenarios reduce the full complexity of improving the quality of government to a single factor  one that, on closer examination, may well be an empty slogan.

A final sort of magical thinking applies to civil society. Again, we have good reason to think that where civil society is solidly behind reform results are likely to improve. But the term is often invoked as a singularity  get civil society involved  when it can actually be unclear what is meant by civil society and what it ought to do. Instead of looking at the full range of networks, social activities, and sources of mutual trust that can enable citizens to demand better government, we usually reduce the term to formally-organized, dedicated anti-corruption NGOs.

Working with civil society too often boils down to aiding a handful of externally-funded NGOs in and around the national capital. Do those organizations reach outward and downward into society, and do they engage the lasting needs and wishes of citizens? How much grassroots support have they really got, and can they mobilize it for specific purposes? Too often we assume that a group must have a formal structure and an overt anti-corruption agenda, ant that people who resent corruption will more or less inevitably become active supporters. Overlooked, as a result, are many low-level networks and social processes that may have no overt political purpose, but still help build trust, organizational skills, and local leadership. Even in unpromising circumstances, citizens use those sorts of connections all the time for purposes of social interaction and mutual aid.

Formal organizations, by contrast, suffer from classic free-rider problems surrounding the pursuit of public goods. Overtly challenging corrupt interests can be difficult and risky; moreover, some citizens may have a stake in the status quo  receiving a few crumbs from the table  or believe they stand to do so eventually. And when it comes to promises of reform, chances are theyve heard it all before.

What would be better? Start by seeing corrupt actions as symptoms of deeper imbalances in power, weaknesses in institutions, and gaps in accountability. While it will often be necessary to address those actions directly via laws, penalties, incentives, and process-oriented improvements, such remedies will require lasting demand that they be enforced  demand from all segments of society. Such demand will be more effective if we can show citizens anti-corruption efforts are paying off in better services and fewer official abuses  and, if we can show officials that dealing with citizens real problems is a way to build support for themselves. That agenda does not depend upon anti-corruption toolkits or short-term projects.

It is, instead, a matter of building an open, effective, and accountable state within which citizens can safely express and defend their interests. It does not necessarily require full-blown democracy; indeed, democracy brings its own corruption challenges. It does, however, require addressing corruption as a systemic problem requiring systemic political change. Such a process is long, difficult, and often contentious, and it requires a clear long-term vision  not magical thinking.

___

Michael Johnston, pictured above, is a Distinguished Professor at the International Anti-Corruption Academy in Laxenburg, Austria and the Charles A. Dana Professor of Political Science Emeritus at Colgate University. He has served as a senior consultant to organizations such as the World Bank, United Nations, the Organization of American States, and the U.S. Agency for International Development on questions of corruption, democratization, and reform. His book Syndromes of Corruption: Wealth, Power, and Democracy (Cambridge University Press) won the 2009 Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order, presented by the University of Louisville. He holds a PhD from Yale University.
The following editorial was published Dec. 16 in the Green Bay Press-Gazette.

A move by big-chain retailers to drive down their property bills in municipalities around the state simply doesnt make sense.

Many of these retailers are using whats being called a dark store theory. It works like this: They say their taxes assessments should be based on comparable stores, even if those stores are vacant, or dark.

Eau Claire-based Menards used the dark store theory this year when it sued the village of Howard over its 2017 assessment. The retailer opened its Howard store in 2012 on 18.6 acres, spending $10.6 million on land and buildings. The village assessed the store and property at $12.45 million; Menard Inc. said the assessment should be $5.8 million.

The retailer based this in part by comparing the Howard site, which is open and operational, to a closed Home Depot in Beaver Dam, a closed Sears in Sheboygan, and to the former Cub Foods on Green Bays east side, which had been closed since 2009. (Two stores have since moved into the Cub Foods building, but it was vacant at the time of the lawsuit being filed.)

The closed Cub Foods building was assessed about $40,000 a year in taxes; the tax bill for the Menards in Howard was about $209,000 for 2017.

Menards eventually dropped its lawsuit against Howard.

Yet the claim that an open big-chain retailer should be assessed the same as a store that has been closed for eight years doesnt make any sense. Those vacant stores arent earning any income for retailers, but the open stores are. The vacant stores require very little police and fire protection; operational stores are a big user of those services. Infrastructure is added in communities to get customers, employees and goods to those stores, as well as heat and electricity.

This isnt an isolated case. A USA Today Network-Wisconsin investigation found 130 dark store cases filed by big-box stores since 2014 against municipalities statewide. Of those cases, 67 are open. If each of those is settled, local governments would lose about $774 million in taxable property value, our analysis determined.

In Brown County, there are two open cases  a Walmart suit against Bellevue and a Woodmans case against Howard. A Menards case in Bellevue was settled in 2016.

If the Menards suit in Howard had gone against the village, about $111,000 in school, village and county tax payments would have been refunded, including $55,000 from Howard-Suamico schools.

The tax burden would have fallen on the very people and communities that support the store.

Two bills  Senate bills 291 and 292  would end the dark property comparison and clarify that lease agreements cannot be factored into property valuations.

The bills have bipartisan support in the Legislature, however, neither has been brought to the floor.

Its time for the Legislature to protect taxpayers and homeowners.

Yes, businesses should be taxed fairly, but dont base the tax assessment of a working store on that of a vacant, closed operation. It makes no sense.
Eva McGauley was born in Wellington, New Zealand. Raised in a strongly feminist environment, McGauley became a member of the Wellington Rape Crisis centre at the age of thirteen. In 2015, at age fifteen, she was diagnosed with nasopharyngeal carcinoma, which was subsequently confirmed to be terminal, and has undergone several treatments of chemotherapy and radiation. McGauley is dedicated to supporting young victims of sexual violence, having several friends who are survivors of sexual assault. She is also an intern for New Zealands Green Party.

Eva McGauley (Photograph: Kieran E Scott)

Q. What really matters to you?

My family. I know that everyone really values their family, but I would not be the person I am today without them. I was brought up a feminist by my mum and my grandmother, so Ive always had this inherent sense of equality and a desire to fight for it. I have a very politically divided family, but thats made for a lot of good conversations. My family are my support system. They keep me together, and I, them  which is why whats happening to me is so scary.

When I was fifteen I was diagnosed with nasopharyngeal carcinoma, which is a rare kind of cancer that affects one in 7 million people. Id initially been misdiagnosed with glandular fever by my paediatrician, but when we finally found out that I had cancer I spent five months in hospital undergoing a course of really intense chemotherapy and radiation. The chemo kills every fast-reproducing cell, so the treatment affected my hair, my stomach lining and my mouth; I couldnt eat or drink because of the radiation. After the course of chemotherapy and radiation, I was told I was in remission, but three weeks later the doctors said theyd got it wrong and that I was terminal.

People think that youre going to break down when youre told something like that, then instantly have an answer when they ask you what you want to do as a result of the news. But I still dont know  it still hasnt sunk in. I dont think its really going to until it really has to. I didnt let out any emotion for a few days  my mum may have, but not around me. It was tough because we were both just trying to look after each other and protect each other. Then we all suddenly started realising that my family is just going to have to cope without me in their lives. All of the people I rely on  and who rely on me  just took a big, deep breath in, then held it as we realised the impact this is going to have. Im still not sure when to let that breath out.

In answer to the question, What do you want to do before you die? I decided that I wanted to do what Ive always planned to do with my life, but do it really fast. So, what matters to me are womens rights and combating sexual violence, because I want to give more in life than Ive taken.

Growing up, I was always aware that different genders were treated differently. And Ive always wanted to help people. When I was thirteen, my friends and I tottered into a feminist-club meeting at school, and came out feeling so amazing and empowered  we realised that we wanted more of it.

Before I became sick, I got involved with Wellington Rape Crisis, an organisation that provides support for survivors of rape and their families. That experience showed me that I wanted to work in the sexual-violence sector, with an emphasis on prevention rather than support  I think Im more of a politician than a counsellor. I developed a business plan for an online-messaging service that would allow survivors to message trained professionals, around the clock, who can link them up with support services in their area. I had the opportunity to speak with Jan Logie  a New Zealand member of parliament for the Green Party  about my idea, and she offered me an internship with the Green Party.

Ive carried out and read a lot of research on international messaging platforms like the one I am proposing, which have proved incredibly successful, so I really think New Zealand needs one. Here, one in five women will experience a serious sexual assault in her lifetime, one in three girls will be abused before they turn sixteen and one in seven boys will be sexually abused by adulthood. This is a huge problem. Jan helped me get my business plan out there, and an agency called Help Auckland responded; they are New Zealands biggest provider for sexual abuse survivors. We developed a fundraising page with the aim of raising NZ$50,000; after getting the message out, we reached our goal in under five months.

Q. What brings you happiness?

I really love soap operas; they are my guilty pleasure.

I very much admire Helen Kelly  the New Zealand union leader  who passed away in 2016. She was an amazing woman. The people she helped all talk about how she became like a member of their families. Id like to emulate her and give my time, affection and love to those who need it. Because, when helping someone really pays off, thats the biggest reward.

Q. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Thats tricky, because theres so much misery in the world. Im very close to my mum, and Ive always really wanted children, which I wont have, so the thing that I find hardest is seeing scenes of mothers and children being ripped away from each other in Syria. The idea of losing a child is scary  which is why what Im going through is so hard  but, at the same time, I know that I dont have it as bad as what you see happening in Syria.

Q. What would you change if you could?

There are so many things, but can I just say world peace? That fixes them all: poverty, anger, hate.

Q. Which single word do you most identify with?

Love. For me, love is a very, very deep, meaningful and sacred thing. I make sure I say, I love you, to the people I love all the time. I call my grandma, my godfather and my aunt every day before I go to bed to tell them I love them. Love is the thing that keeps me ticking.

200 Women Who Will Change The Way You See The World, edited by Ruth Hobday, Geoff Blackwell, Marianne Lassandro and Sharon Gelman (Chronicle Books, 31 October 2017, 35.)
Advice taken from The Excellence Book: 50 ways to be your best by Kevin Duncan

Kevin Duncan

DISENTHRALL YOURSELF

On December 1st 1862, President Abraham Lincoln delivered his annual message to Congress. The country was in the middle of a civil war. He concluded:

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.

Disenthrall. Its an interesting word.

To enthrall means to capture someones attention.

This could be good or bad, depending on what exactly is attracting your undivided attention.

To disenthrall means to discharge, free, emancipate, liberate, loosen, release, unbind, uncage, unchain, or unfetter.

So if you are obsessed with perpetually doing or seeing things in a certain way, you may first need to disenthrall yourself to stand any chance of changing your attitude.

Only then will you have a chance of seeing other possibilities.

YOU ARE WHAT YOU DO

There is no point in claiming to have a certain attitude, when your actions either fail to prove it, or worse, contradict it.

As Aristotle said: We are what we repeatedly do.

Thinking is one thing. Doing is quite another.

Gina Miller, the businesswoman who initiated a court case against the British government challenging its authority to implement Brexit, said:

Whats the point in having a conscience if you never use it?

The popular blogger and author Mark Manson points this out in his unsubtly named book The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck:

Who you are is defined by what youre willing to struggle for.

You can rarely think your way into a new way of acting.

You need to act your way into a new way of thinking.

In other words, the action proves the thought.

Without action, it merely remains a concept, and as such doesnt technically exist.

CULTIVATE A FEISTY SPIRIT

Resilience in the face of adversity is a vital trait.

Life is not a smooth road. In fact, if it were, most of us would be bored.

As noted by Max McKeown in his book #Now, those confronted by extremely tricky obstacles (such as cancer) are said to have a feisty spirit of survivorship.

Its a laughing-is-winning approach, and is something that can be adopted by anyone, including those facing life-threatening circumstances.

This transformative ability to make good things happen through a positive attitude is a quality you can discover in yourself.

As the famous mountaineer Edmund Hillary pointed out:

It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.

Its all about taking control of your attitude to life: one persons adversity is anothers inspiration.

FEAR = WISDOM IN THE FACE OF DANGER

Fear is wisdom in the face of danger. Its nothing to be ashamed of.

So said Sherlock Holmes in The Abominable Bride.

Its okay to be afraid. In fact, its often beneficial.

Animals have a clearly demarcated sense of flight or fight.

And its driven by fright. Which is a sudden intense feeling of fear.

So being scared can be extremely beneficial for survival or progress.

Not so that you are petrified into non-action.

But so that you fully appreciate the possibilities that may follow from your actions.

Harness the fear to anticipate what to do next.

Flight could allow you to fight another day.

A fight should only be considered if you are convinced you can win.

Confront the initial fear and turn it into a wise attitude.

CLIMB, CONFESS, COMPLY

Student pilots are taught early in their training what to do if they get into trouble:

- Climb: get yourself out of danger immediately by increasing altitude.

- Confess: talk to the control tower and explain what the problem is.

Comply: do exactly what you are told by the air traffic controller.

Climb, confess, comply is a useful attitude when dealing with awkward circumstances.

So next time you are out of your depth, admit it immediately, ask for help quickly, and then do exactly what it takes to resolve the situation.

Dont dig a deeper hole or paint yourself into a corner.

Climb, confess, comply.

Kevin Duncan is a business adviser, marketing expert, motivational speaker and author. After 20 years in advertising and direct marketing, he has spent the last eighteen years as an independent troubleshooter, advising companies on how to change their businesses for better.

Twitter @kevinduncan

www.expertadviceonline.com

www.theexcellencebook.com
Christian Bale admits his expanded waistline limits his fashion choices.

Christian Bale

The acclaimed actor has deliberately piled on the pounds for his role in new movie 'Backseat', in which he stars as the former US Vice President Dick Cheney, and Bale has joked about his current figure.

Speaking during the AOL Build web series, Bale quipped: "I like rolling around. It limits my pants choices, though. It's either elasticated or [camouflage trousers]."

Meanwhile, Bale previously revealed Heath Ledger wanted the British star to actually hit him while filming 'The Dark Knight'.

The late actor starred as The Joker in Christopher Nolan's 'Batman' movie alongside Bale as The Caped Crusader and in one particular scene, Ledger spurred on Bale to physically assault him.

The scene follows an interrogation between Batman and his arch nemesis at Gotham City Police Department.

In the book '100 Things Batman Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die' by Joseph McCabe, Bale recalled: "As you see in the movie, Batman starts beating the Joker and realizes that this is no your ordinary foe.

"Because the more I beat him the more he enjoys it. The more I'm giving him satisfaction. Heath was behaving in a very similar fashion. He was kinda egging me on. I was saying, 'You know what, I really don't need to actually hit you. It's going to look just as good if I don't.'

"And he's going, 'Go on. Go on. Go on...' He was slamming himself around, and there were tiled walls inside of that set which were cracked and dented from him hurling himself into them. His commitment was total."

by Charlotte Hough for www.femalefirst.co.uk


Zac Efron doesn't have any regrets about his mistakes.

Zac Efron

The Hollywood star has confessed to making numerous errors earlier in his career, but Zac thinks his mistakes have all been part of a maturation process.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph newspaper in Australia, he explained: "I've done a lot of things that I look back on and go 'sheesh, are you kidding, what were you thinking?'

"It is weird to say because I am also happy that I did all of those things because I am here before you today able to proclaim that this is me and I am very proud of who I am."

And although Zac is much more settled and happy now than was previously the case, the 30-year-old actor acknowledges making mistakes on a daily basis.

But the 'Baywatch' star believes he's also learning some important life lessons at the same time.

He shared: "We want to achieve that ability to say this is me and feel that. But it is a fleeting moment. It is one that I know I am going to have to face tomorrow.

"Every day I wake up and I have to start with again the man in the mirror and it is like starting from square one all over again. You are never perfect, you wake up every day and there's a new set of challenges."

Meanwhile, Zac recently revealed that his kiss with Zendaya is his favourite on-screen smooch "ever".

The duo star as circus acrobats in the new romantic musical 'The Greatest Showman', and Zac has admitted he's retained fond memories of one particular scene in the movie.

He said: "This might be my favourite kiss, I think ever."

by Charlotte Hough for www.femalefirst.co.uk


Rebel Wilson designed her 'Pitch Perfect 3' wardrobe before she released her clothing line Rebel Wilson x Angels.

Rebel Wilson

The 37-year-old actress has reprised her role as Fat Amy in the third instalment of the comedy musical, but the star has revealed she had created the outfits she wore in the movie a while before her label was released earlier this year.

Speaking to PEOPLE, the funny woman said: "Fat Amy is a girl, like myself, who is very comfortable in her own skin. She doesn't need super expensive clothes or anything fancy. She wears pretty much 'every day' clothes but wears them boldly.

"Without knowing when and if the brand might be released, I designed pieces specifically to wear in 'Pitch Perfect 3' with the hope that I'd be able to sell these when the movie came out."

And Rebel wanted to make her costumes available to the public because she is aware her character has a huge fan base.

She said: "I know there's a lot of plus size girls and women out there who love my character, and I wanted them to have the opportunity to look like her."

Rebel - who launched her new plus-sized clothing range earlier this year - is still "learning" about the fashion business.

She said: "It's definitely a learning process. I'm constantly learning about lead times and manufacture and fabrics and fit. I'm learning what different stores like to stock. I'm learning from our fabulous customers, some of whom I've been lucky enough to meet in person this year at Seattle and Dallas meet and greets.

"There is still so little choice out there online and in stores for the plus size customer. So my goal is that Rebel Wilson x Angels fills this gap and encourages more designers to create plus ranges."
Prince Charles feels "heartbroken beyond words" at the "pain and suffering" being endured by Christians who are persecuted.

Prince Charles

The 69-year-old royal admitted Christians in Syria, Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries face "troubled times" and cannot believe such hatred goes on "in this day and age".

Speaking at a service of prayers for persecuted Christians around the world at St Barnabas Church, Pimlico, central London on Tuesday (19.12.17), he said: "Such barbaric persecution is even more perverse and dreadful when as many Christians seem unaware.

"As someone who, throughout my life, has tried, in whatever small way I can, to foster understanding between people of faith, and to build bridges between the great religions of the world, it is heart-breaking beyond words to see just how much pain and suffering is being endured by Christians, in this day and age, simply because of their faith."

The Prince of Wales also called on Christians "who enjoy the rights of freedom of worship" not to take such rights for granted.

According to Christian Today, he added: "As Christians we remember, of course, how our Lord called upon us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute. But for those confronted with such hatred and oppression, I can only begin to imagine how incredibly hard it must be to follow Christ's example.

"It is so vitally important, in this season of Advent and throughout the year, that Christians in this country and elsewhere, who enjoy the rights of freedom of worship and freedom of expression, do not take those rights for granted; and that we remember, and do what we can to support, our fellow Christians for whom the denial of such rights has had such profound and painful consequences."

Last year, Charles called for an end to the "appalling suffering" of Christians in Syria.

He said: "It is surely deeply encouraging, at a time when the members of the Syriac Orthodox Church in their homelands of Syria and Iraq are undergoing such desperate trials and such appalling suffering, that in Britain the Syriac Church is able to expand and gain in strength."
Prince Harry has called on world leaders to "redouble" their efforts to enable the world to be landmine free by 2025.

Prince Harry

The 33-year-old royal is following in his late mother Princess Diana's footsteps in campaigning for the eradication of the explosive devices, but he insists governments, foundations and individuals must "stiffen [their] resolve" to achieve such a goal.

Speaking in a recorded video message posted on The HALO Trust's YouTube page for the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Mine Ban Treaty, he said: "Millions of people are still affected by mines, and there is much more which still needs to be done.

"The Mine Ban Treaty includes a commitment from the international community to clear the world of landmines by 2025.

"With just eight years to go, we must stiffen our resolve and redouble our efforts if we are to stand any chance of achieving this goal.

"I am delighted that the British government has taken the lead by increasing its funding to clear these terrible legacies of war.

"But without similar commitments across the world, the 2025 goal will not be achieved.

"Let us not meet again in another 10 years and hear that a new generation of children face being killed or maimed through innocent play."

Harry also admitted it was a "tremendous achievement" that 29 states are now considered "mine-free" and a testament to the Mine Ban Treaty's "ambition and vision".

He added: "Together, the states, donors and non-government groups gathered here in Vienna, have made huge progress towards achieving a world free of mines.

"To date, 29 states have been declared mine-free - a tremendous achievement, and a testament to the Treaty's ambition and vision."

The Mine Ban Treaty, also known as the Ottawa Treaty, was signed in December 1997, just a few months after Diana's death.

She had championed the final stages of the Treaty and in January of that year famously walked through a cleared minefield in Angola.
Forging Soul Cap Co., A Scripture-inspired Hat Company, Launches on Kickstarter



FORT MILL, S.C., Dec. 20, 2017 /



Forging Soul hats are designed to insert the power of scripture into any setting. Each hat features an unobtrusive, scripture-based design associated with a different biblical verse.



The company is inspired by the life and tragic passing of Dylan Pape  who survived cancer, lived with serious medical issues, and who was tragically shot and killed by police in March 2016. The company aims to empower people to overcome adversity through scripture.



"What I admired most about my brother was his faithful and fearless attitude. It wasn't about how many times he got knocked down, but that each time he got back up and kept moving forward. That's the spirit of Forging Soul," said Ryan Pape, Founder & President of Forging Soul. "The word forge in our company name has a double meaning at the core of our message. First, it's that you continue to forge ahead no matter what life throws your way. Second, it's that you recognize life's trials are forging you into the strongest version of yourself."



In addition to its empowering message, Forging Soul is dedicated to making an impact. The company donates 10% of all purchases to support charities that promote mental health in adolescents. It hopes to help eradicate the stigma surrounding mental health in America's youth.



The Forging Soul snapback hat collection is offered for both men and women. The hats are one-size fits most and available in multiple designs and colorways.



Forging Soul hats are available for pre-order via Kickstarter until January 8th. The hats will retail for $31.99 plus shipping, but can be pre-ordered for $25-30 including shipping.



For more information visit Forging Soul on Kickstarter:



www.kickstarter.com/projects/373589209/forging-soul-hats-scripture-inspired-caps-with-a-c/description



Share Tweet Contact: Ryan Pape, Founder & President, Forging Soul Cap Co., 203-561-2606FORT MILL, S.C., Dec. 20, 2017 / Christian Newswire / -- Forging Soul Cap Co., a designer and manufacturer of scripture-inspired hats, officially launched its crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter.Forging Soul hats are designed to insert the power of scripture into any setting. Each hat features an unobtrusive, scripture-based design associated with a different biblical verse.The company is inspired by the life and tragic passing of Dylan Pape  who survived cancer, lived with serious medical issues, and who was tragically shot and killed by police in March 2016. The company aims to empower people to overcome adversity through scripture."What I admired most about my brother was his faithful and fearless attitude. It wasn't about how many times he got knocked down, but that each time he got back up and kept moving forward. That's the spirit of Forging Soul," said Ryan Pape, Founder & President of Forging Soul. "The word forge in our company name has a double meaning at the core of our message. First, it's that you continue to forge ahead no matter what life throws your way. Second, it's that you recognize life's trials are forging you into the strongest version of yourself."In addition to its empowering message, Forging Soul is dedicated to making an impact. The company donates 10% of all purchases to support charities that promote mental health in adolescents. It hopes to help eradicate the stigma surrounding mental health in America's youth.The Forging Soul snapback hat collection is offered for both men and women. The hats are one-size fits most and available in multiple designs and colorways.Forging Soul hats are available for pre-order via Kickstarter until January 8th. The hats will retail for $31.99 plus shipping, but can be pre-ordered for $25-30 including shipping.For more information visit Forging Soul on Kickstarter:
Kerala-based Kitex Garments Ltd will set up its fourth fully export-oriented infant wear production unit either in Andhra Pradesh or Karnataka, according to its chairman and managing director Sabu M Jacob. A part of the companys Rs 500 crore expansion plan will come up in Kochi and the rest will be set up in either of the above two states, he said.Though Kitex was to reportedly locate its new manufacturing unit in Hassan in Karnataka, Jacob said with Andhra Pradesh offering tax benefits, free land and cheaper power, the company is yet to decide.

Kerala-based Kitex Garments Ltd will set up its fourth fully export-oriented infant wear production unit either in Andhra Pradesh or Karnataka, according to its chairman and managing director Sabu M Jacob. A part of the company's Rs 500 crore expansion plan will come up in Kochi and the rest will be set up in either of the above two states, he said.#

The target is Rs 2,000 crore revenue and a million garment pieces by 2020, he said. Kitex Garments is part of the Anna-Kitex group of companies.KPMG will conduct a feasibility study for the goals and the timelines. The expansion costs will be met partly through internal resources and borrowings. Civil work will begin next year and the commercial run by April 2019, Jacob told a top Indian business daily.Kitex produces 6.5 lakh pieces of finished garments per day, targeted at just-borns to babies up to the age of 24 months. It exports about 95 per cent of infant wear to the United States and the rest to Europe. The company also engages in contract manufacturing for private labels such as Jockey, Carter, Babies R Us, Gerber and Mothercare. (DS)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Rajiv Suri, 54, currently the chief executive officer (CEO) of Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) fashion business, which operates nearly 140 stores in the Middle East, will be the new CEO of Shoppers Stop with effect from January 9, 2018. The company also announced the resignation of its CFO Sanjay Chakravarti w.e.f the close of business hours on December 22.

The board of directors... approved the appointment of Rajiv Suri as CEO of the company with effect from January 9, 2018, Shoppers Stop said in a regulatory filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Suri leads the strategic development, growth and transformation, innovation and digitalisation at MAF, which includes brands like A&F, Hollister, Crate & Barrel, Allsaints, Lululemon, etc. As a part of his role, he also served on the board of directors of the MAF JVs with Abercrombie & Fitch and Monsoon & Accessorize.

Rajiv Suri, 54, currently the chief executive officer (CEO) of Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) fashion business, which operates nearly 140 stores in the Middle East, will be the new CEO of Shoppers Stop with effect from January 9, 2018. The company also announced the resignation of its CFO Sanjay Chakravarti w.e.f the close of business hours on December 22.#

Before joining MAF in 2014, Suri was associated with Jashanmal Group as CEO-Retail from 2007 till 2014. As a part of his role, he also served on the board of directors of Burberry Middle East and was instrumental in launching Burberry in India.

Prior to his association with Jashanmal Group, Suri worked with Mexx Europe Holding from 1998 to 2007 at various positions.

A graduate from Delhi University, Suri studied Strategic Retail Management at Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts, which he completed in 1996. (RKS)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Turkeys Suteks Group, which acquired the Dutch Braez brand two years ago, plans to bring the clothing retailer to the country, according to group founder Nur Ger. Braez has 250 stores abroad, together with other Turkish brands. Established in 1986 in Istanbul, Suteks produces and exports high-end fashion apparel to Europe and the United States.Suteks had produced stock for the Dutch retailer for 15 years before the acquisition, Ger told a Turkish daily.

Turkey's Suteks Group, which acquired the Dutch Braez brand two years ago, plans to bring the clothing retailer to the country, according to group founder Nur Ger. Braez has 250 stores abroad, together with other Turkish brands. Established in 1986 in Istanbul, Suteks produces and exports high-end fashion apparel to Europe and the United States.#

The company has managed to prevent any reduction of brand value despite an increasingly negative perception of Turkey abroad in recent years, he added. (DS)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
HON PM BAINIMARAMA AT THE FIJI POLICE PASSING OUT PARADE





Excellencies,The Commissioner of Police,Senior Police Officers;Ladies and Gentlemen.Bula vinaka and a very good afternoon to you all.Im very glad to be here as we acknowledge the hard work and achievement of our new policemen and policewomen  all of whom have taken up the sacred oath to serve this nation and the Fijian people.Let me begin by saying congratulations to all of our new members of the Fiji Police Force for successfully completing your training and for committing yourselves to such an important institution. I know this is the end of a long journey  a journey of great dedication and sacrifice that has led all of you to this Passing-Out Parade ceremony; here among so many of your friends and family celebrating your successes.You are now taking up a calling that few have the honour to answer. You are giving yourselves, your time and your energy to the service of the men, women and children who call Fiji home. They will look to you in their hours of need, they will look to you to keep them safe, and they will look to you as role models and standard bearers for respect and adherence to the rule of law.As members of the Fiji Police Force, your jobs will not be easy. As any veteran of this Force can tell you, you will face many long days and nights throughout your careers serving this nation.You will face danger. You will find yourselves between innocent Fijians and great threats to their safety. And in those moments you must put aside concern for your own well-being and protect those who cannot protect themselves  as that is what you have been called to do.But your careers will not be defined only by moments of great courage. They will be defined by your day-to-day commitment to being upstanding members of Fijian society and they will be defined by your own adherence to our rule of law and standards of common decency. And in that regard, you must never fail.I was greatly dismayed by the crime statistics last month  where we had five police officers charged with non-sexual offences and another three with sexual offences. That is completely unacceptable. The Fijian people deserve far better from those entrusted with their safety. And I am here today to tell you, we expect and demand better from all of you.The sad truth is that it is ordinary people that are made victims by dirty behaviour from bad officers. And it is the faith of the Fijian people that takes the biggest hit when those cops escape unpunished.That is why Im glad those officers last month were brought to justice. That is progress. That means greater transparency has been brought to this Force, and we will continue to strip away any layers of corruption that remain. As new officers, it is your duty to be part of that effort. Your commitment to justice must extend beyond combatting crime on the streets, you must also root out any within the Force who abuse their positions for their own gain. In Fiji today, no title and no office can be used as a shield from the rule of law. So if you see bad behaviour, report it, and let our justice system handle the rest.I want to be clear; I know many of our officers do the right thing, and as a result this Force has achieved tremendous good over the recent past in combatting crime in Fiji. I know there are men and women who have given their all in making Fiji a safer place, they deserve to be commended. But we have to be even better. Because when it comes to our peoples safety, we can never content ourselves with the status quo. You need to be a present force of good in the lives of our citizens. You need to be in the communities that you serve, walking the streets, helping where you can and making our people feel safe.No member of this Force can ever forget that being an officer does not place you above any in our society. As I serve the people as Prime Minister, you also serve them as officers of the law. Under my Government, we are setting new expectations for all Government employees to achieve new standards of excellence. That applies to our Police Officers as well. And we expect the best from all of you in your work to make Fiji a safe and inclusive nation.This will ensure further confidence in our economy, lead to more investment, encourage more tourists to come to Fiji, create and sustain jobs and lead to greater prosperity.In the year ahead, you will also be entrusted with helping carry out our national elections under the Fijian Constitution. That duty is also sacred, and you must be unbiased, take no sides and offer no favours. It is your task to make sure the Fijian people feel safe  at all times  while doing so.Ladies and Gentlemen,I want to acknowledge the graduating officers here today from Tuvalu and Nauru. We are always grateful for the strong bonds of friendship we enjoy with our fellow Pacific Island countries, and our co-operation in security and police training has made our entire region a safer place for all of our citizens to call home.As Pacific Island nations, we face many transnational security threats that we are required to stand together to address, and Fiji remains fully committed to the frameworks for regional security that have already made great progress in taking down criminal elements throughout our region and beyond.Im very pleased that weve begun preparatory works on our Regional Police Academy. Working alongside INTERPOL, the FBI, Australian Federal Police and New Zealand Police, we are laying a foundation for an Academy that will one day bring regional and international expertise to policing institutions throughout the Pacific  taking our partnerships in policing to even greater heights.In closing, I ask that you all be more than servants of Fiji. I ask that you be patriots. I ask that you always put this nation and our people first.When the children of Fiji look to each of you, they should see the very best of Fiji. They should know, that under your watchful eye, they can live their lives without fear. And every Fijian should have nothing but confidence in your abilities. They must know and feel confident that you will apply the law equally to everyone. That you will serve every Fijian equally without being prejudiced by your and their ethnicity, religion, gender or social status. They must know that you are professional.Congratulations again on your graduation. Youve been endowed with great purpose as officers of the law, and we are all rooting for your success. My Government will always be there to support you with the tools and resources you need to keep our people safe and keep our future secure  but it is up to each of you to rise to that challenge.Vinaka vakalevu. Thank you.
HON PM BAINIMARAMA AT THE LAUNCHING OF THE IVOLAVOSA APP AT THE GCC COMPLEX IN SUVA





Members of the iTaukei Trust Fund Board,Distinguished Guests,Ladies and Gentlemen.Bula vinaka, and a very good morning to you all.Today marks a milestone for the preservation of the iTaukei culture as we witness the launch of the iVolavosa App, putting the iTaukei dictionary at the fingertips of every mobile phone user.The iVolavosa Vakaviti, or the iTaukei Dictionary, was launched by the former President, Ratu Josefa Iloilovatu, on Friday 29th June, 2007. While the iTaukei language has a long and rich history, spread generation to generation through oral tradition, capturing it with ink-on-paper greatly enhanced the way we teach and learn. Now, with its translation into a mobile application with the iVolavosa App, we will see that enhanced even further, bringing the iTaukei language into the 21st century.My Government is committed to strengthening Fiji as a multiracial society. We strive to pay homage to the cultures and backgrounds that make Fiji a truly inclusive and welcome society, where we can all call ourselves Fijians. It is what makes our nation great. In that vein of inclusivity, is important to note that the iVolavosa App will not only benefit iTaukei language speakers.It will allow fellow Fijians that speak other languages to better understand the complexities of the iTaukei language, thereby fostering relationships among all Fijians and encouraging social inclusivity.Ladies and Gentlemen, I am passionate about building a better and smarter Fiji. Today, I am proud to be launching this App, because it is a product of our vigorous pursuit of revolutionising education in Fiji. My Government is constantly looking for new ways to adapt and transform itself to the modern economy with new systems and processes. The iVolavosa App is certainly a big step in that direction for Fiji as a whole.This App is also testament of my Governments commitment to technological advancement, and our mission of bridging the digital divide by providing all Fijians with the necessary tools to succeed in a dynamic 21st century economy.The iVolavosa App will assist in the education of our children from pre-school leading up to tertiary studies. The iVolavosa App will enable the proper teaching of the iTaukei language and culture and the maintenance of the iTaukei mode of expression.The iVolavosa App will also make it easy for those that would like to learn the iTaukei language, including visitors to our shores and our overseas diaspora, making the iTaukei language known to other parts of the world. During COP23 in Bonn, we had a number of common iTaukei greetings and words of welcome drawn up on the walls, and many Bulas were exchanged by world Leaders as their negotiations were guided by our Talanoa Dialogue. With over 40,000 attendees from all around the globe, awareness of the iTaukei language was spread far and wide by COP. The iVolvavosa App will continue to spread that awareness, as anyone around the world can now have easy access to learning the iTaukei language.I urge everyone to continue learning, preserving, and spreading the iTaukei language.In closing, I warmly acknowledge and commend the hard work of the Ministry of iTaukei Affairs and the iTaukei Trust Fund Board. Your efforts and innovative thinking drove this change, and I congratulate you for such a noteworthy achievement.So it gives me great pleasure, Ladies and Gentlemen, to officially launch the iVolavosa App.Vinaka Vakalevu. Thank you.
BEIJING, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Hawtai Motor, a independently-owned automobile brand that is representative of similar automakers in China, recently took its strategy for international growth a step further, in a move to support the implementation of The Belt and Road ("B&R") initiative.

Hawtai Motor, an SUV pioneer in China, is a large industrial conglomerate mainly engaged in automobile manufacturing, owning core power technologies and having strong financial backing. With total assets exceeding 48 billion yuan (approx. US$7.8 billion), the group has built businesses covering four key segments, traditional and electric vehicles, R&D and technology, finance and smart mobility.

Hawtai Motor is one of the earliest independently owned Chinese automobile brands to establish a presence outside of the home market. In terms of R&D and innovation, the company has established technology centers in Munich, Germany, in Russia and in Silicon Valley, USA.

In terms of design research for vehicle interiors and exteriors, Hawtai Motor has partnered with top global companies including UK-based HORIBA MIRA and France-based Faurecia.

For the engine and powertrain, Hawtai Motor has adopted the world's most advanced full-range passenger car diesel engine from Italy-based VM Motori S.p.A. and matched with an automatic transmission from Germany-based ZF Friedrichshafen AG, becoming the only large Chinese automobile power assembly production firm that can claim ownership of these two core technologies.



In 2018, Hawtai Motor will celebrate its 18th anniversary. Company chairman Zhang Hongliang has put forward its development plan for the next three years. The company plans to achieve sales of 200,000 units during 2018, then raise the bar with both production and sales of 500,000 units by 2020, with its complete vehicles, automotive products, engines and gearboxes widely exported to more than 30 countries and regions.

The Chinese automaker has established a manufacturing portfolio across the countries targeted by B&R. The portfolio includes Completely Knocked Down (CKD) assembly plants in Russia and Semi-Knocked Down (SKD) assembly facilities in Angola as well as Knocked Down (KD) arrangements in Brazil, India, Mexico, Thailand, Iran, Vietnam, the Philippines, Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Columbia. Complete vehicles are currently being shipped to Australia, Peru, Chile, North Korea and Ethiopia.

Notably, Hawtai Motor took part in the fourth CICA Summit held in Shanghai in 2014 as the only Chinese homegrown automaker to be invited to the event. In the presence of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Chinese automaker signed a US$1.1 billion cooperation agreement with Russia's Derways to supply KD parts for 80,000 complete vehicles to the Russian company.

The measures that had been taken by Hawtai Motor in response to the B&R initiative have further promoted the automaker's new strategy as we enter the new era in terms of technological developments. The automaker also plans to further expand into world markets with the aim of building a Chinese car brand with international competitiveness.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. Joseph Hood, PR Manager Email: mhi-pr@mhi.co.jp Tel: +81-(0)3-6716-2168 Fax: +81-(0)3-6716-5860

TOKYO, Dec 20, 2017 - (JCN Newswire) - Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Thermal Systems Co., Ltd. (MHI Thermal Systems) has become the first partner in a new scheme by Gifu University to initiate joint research in partnership with the industrial sector. The university concluded an agreement with MHI which will focus on joint-research into smart grid power control engineering.Background to the New Program The latest program was established in April 2017. It has been developed to ensure that research and instruction is maintained on an ongoing basis, and that courses for specific areas of engineering and manufacturing are established. Under the new scheme, research topics are selected that match the businesses providing course funding, and ownership of any resulting intellectual property is made available to the sources of the endowment.Future Smart Grid Research With the increased adoption of solar and other natural energy sources in the years ahead, there is concern about the difficulty of maintaining an instantaneous supply/demand balance in power networks. In addition to solutions such as the use of storage batteries, new technologies are expected to help maintain the balance in the smart grids of the future by means of power control systems that cover users spread across a wide area.One promising candidate, from the perspective of power consumption volume and operating flexibility, is air-conditioning in large office buildings. The key futureoriented technology here is precision control of the power consumption of an enormous number of airconditioning units installed across a wide area, while ensuring constant comfort.Objectives of the Joint Research Study Course MHI Thermal Systems has a long history in multi-system air-conditioning technologies for office buildings, while Gifu University's Next-Generation Energy Research Center has a strong track record in researching smart grids and air-conditioning power demand. In preparation for the coming era of smart grids, the two partners will collaborate in developing technologies for achieving air-conditioning power control optimal for both networks and users.By integrating the open ideas fostered within the university and the practical experience of a leading manufacturer, the two partners will aim for a collaborative system capable of bridging the gap between research and application. A further objective of the new course program will be to educate graduate students--including doctoral candidates and foreign students in doctoral programs--to ensure that tomorrow's engineers are thoroughly well versed in airconditioning systems and smart grids.About Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI), headquartered in Tokyo, is one of the world's leading industrial firms with 80,000 group employees and annual consolidated revenues of around 38 billion U.S. dollars. For more than 130 years, the company has channeled big thinking into innovative and integrated solutions that move the world forward. MHI owns a unique business portfolio covering land, sea, sky and even space. MHI delivers innovative and integrated solutions across a wide range of industries from commercial aviation and transportation to power plants and gas turbines, and from machinery and infrastructure to integrated defense and space systems.For more information, please visit the MHI Group website: http://www.mhi-global.com.For Technology, Trends and Tangents, visit MHI's new online media SPECTRA: http://spectra.mhi.com.Source: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.Contact:Copyright 2017 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.
Public Relations Office Phone: 81-3-5470-3235

TOKYO, Dec 20, 2017 - (JCN Newswire) - Showa Denko ("SDK"; TSE:4004) has started this month shipment of 3.5-inch hard disk (HD) media for storage capacity of 1.5-1.8 terabyte (TB) per platter, which feature the world's highest storage capacity for this size available on the market today.SDK's 3.5-inch 1.5-1.8 TB HD media have been adopted into Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation's hard disk drive (HDD) for near-line storage, "MG07ACA Series," which is the world's first HDD to achieve total storage capacity of 14 TB with Conventional Magnetic Recording (CMR). SDK has started supplying its 3.5-inch HD media for this application, using the ninth-generation perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology. In 2005, SDK became the world's first to manufacture and sell PMR-technology-based HD media.HDDs are widely used for recording digital data, and their shipment volumes for use in data centers have been increasing in recent years, reflecting exponential growth in generated data in line with the progress of cloud computing. HD media are key components of HDDs, significantly influencing their storage capacity, and SDK has been speedily launching highest-level-capacity HD media. As the world's largest independent HD media supplier, SDK will continue to contribute to the expansion of storage capacities of HDDs in accordance with the company's motto of "Best in Class."Press release: http://www.sdk.co.jp/english/news/2017/26894.htmlAbout Showa Denko K.K.Showa Denko K.K. ("SDK"; TSE:4004, US:SHWDF) is a major manufacturer and marketer of chemical products serving a wide range of fields ranging from heavy industry to the electronic and computer industries. The Petrochemicals Sector provides cracker products such as ethylene and propylene, the Chemicals Sector provides industrial and high-performance gases and chemicals and high-purity gases and chemicals for the semiconductor industry, and the Inorganics Sector provides ceramics products such as alumina, abrasive, refractory and graphite electrodes and fine carbon products. Today, the Aluminum Sector provides aluminum materials and high-value-added fabricated aluminum, the Electronics Sector provides HD media, compound semiconductors such as ultra high-bright LEDs and rare earth magnetic alloys, and the Advanced Battery Materials Department (ABM) provides lithium-ion battery components. For more information, please visit www.sdk.co.jp/english/.Source: Showa Denko K.K.Contact:Copyright 2017 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Huntsman Corp. (HUN), a manufacturer of differentiated and specialty chemicals, announced Tuesday that President and Chief Executive Officer Peter Huntsman will take an additional role of Chairman of the Board of Directors, effective January 1, 2018. He succeeds the company's founder, Jon Huntsman, who will be stepping down as Executive Chairman on December 31. The company noted that the role of Executive Chairman will be eliminated. After serving as Executive Chairman of the company he founded 48 years ago, Huntsman will continue to serve on the Board of Directors as a Director and Chairman Emeritus. New Chairman of the Board and CEO Peter Huntsman said, 'I am honored to be taking on this responsibility at a time when the Company has never been stronger and had more opportunities before it. This will be a smooth transition as our founder, my father, will continue in a valuable capacity as a Board member, maintaining vital relations with customers, suppliers, and policy makers as well as sharing his total 56 years of industry experience.' Jon Huntsman, Sr. further said, 'It's a high honor to turn the chairmanship role over to Peter Huntsman, who I consider to be one of the world's outstanding CEO's. Huntsman Corporation will continue to experience its sound growth and strong financial controls under Peter's experienced oversight.' 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.
LONDON, December 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Youngsters 'Say NO to Knives' and 'NObesity' as part of City Pitch, a dragon's den style leadership programme which encourages children to step up and deliver social action ideas in their community. City Pitch is an initiative led by social mobility charity, the Mayor's Fund for London, in partnership with the BE OPEN Foundation.

Armed with business plans and budgets, the final top six schools were invited to attend City Hall and present their entrepreneurial projects to a panel of judges for a chance to win up to 1,500 of funding.

Proposals included creating 'Homeless Survival Packs' for the winter period, and 'Go Girls', a campaign on gender equality and female empowerment. Other ideas focused on providing gift packages for terminally-ill children and pairing up the elderly community with local animal shelters to combat loneliness.

Each group presented to the judging panel that included a cross-section of industry leaders: Mark Whelan, CCO, Havas UK; Lawson Muncaster, Joint Founder & Managing Director, City A.M.; Temitope Moses, Education & Youth Team GLA; Matthew Patten, Chief Executive, Mayor's Fund for London and Elena Baturina, Founder of BE OPEN and Trustee, Mayor's Fund for London.

Each school received 1500 to deliver their project, with Sheringham Primary School, Newham receiving an extra 1500 from BE OPEN for their continuing work on female empowerment.

Matthew Patten, Chief Executive, Mayor's Fund for London said: "Young Londoners are often seen, but rarely heard despite having some of the best ideas and clearest insights. Thanks to the support of the BE OPEN Foundation, the young people today have been given the opportunity to voice and build on their aspirations, and develop their leadership and entrepreneurial skills to help them craft lasting contributions to their communities."

Elena Baturina, Founder of BE OPEN and Trustee, Mayor's Fund for London said: "We are very excited to be supporting this amazing initiative that helps young people make real differences to their communities and the city in general in meaningful and material ways. The whole ethos of BE OPEN is about inspiring and encouraging people to find creative ways of improving their environments, helping them to make a real change to our lives. We are incredibly impressed by the ideas and the commitment of all the participants, and are proud to be helping them bring those ideas to life."


An affiliate of Sun European Partners, LLP ("Sun European Partners"), today announces that it has entered into an agreement with KKR to acquire a majority stake in Afriflora ("the Company"), the world's largest grower of roses, alongside the Barnhoorn family. The proposed transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals.

Afriflora is the leading supplier of quality roses at fair trade standards to Europe. Established in 2005 by the Barnhoorn family, Afriflora has over 11,000 employees. The Company is headquartered in Aalsmeer, Holland and operates three farms in Ethiopia covering 500 hectares. It cultivates, produces and sells over 1.1 billion stem roses annually with the majority of these to the European market.

The Barnhoorn family, who are the founders and significant shareholders of the Company, are to remain as shareholders and directors in the Afriflora group. With the support of Sun European Partners, they will continue to run the business with a focus on customer service and implementing best environmental and social practices, and with a sense of responsibility for local communities in Ethiopia.

Peter Barnhoorn, CEO of Afriflora said; "Our new shareholder will help Afriflora to achieve its growth aims and expedite its continued development. Our company has for many years been committed to investing in the local marketplace and building a future not only for the business but also for the workforce who have supported us through our growth and development, and this will not change. We would like to thank KKR for the support they have provided us to date and look forward to an exciting future working alongside Sun European Partners to take this company to the next level."

Paul Daccus, Managing Director at Sun European Partners, said; "Afriflora is a world leader in an attractive sector that we know very well. We look forward to working with the Barnhoorn family and the management team over the coming years, to support the continued development and success of the business."

Nicolas Gheysens, Managing Director at KKR, said; "We have been pleased with our partnership with Afriflora and the Barnhoorn family. Over the past years Afriflora has further strengthened its leadership position in its key markets but we are also proud to have contributed together with the Barnhoorn family to the development of the region. We wish Afriflora, Sun and the Barnhoorn family continued success."

Sun European Partners has significant experience making acquisitions in the horticulture sector. Its affiliated portfolio companies include Flamingo Horticulture, a vertically integrated horticulture business.

For further information on Afriflora, please visit www.afriflora.nl/en/.

Sun European Partners was advised by Rabobank, Kirkland Ellis, Houlihan Lokey, and Ernst Young. The Barnhoorn family and KKR were advised by William Blair, Clifford Chance, Van Benthem Keulen, Deloitte, and Londen Van Holland.

-ENDS-

About Sun European Partners, LLP

Sun European Partners, LLP is a leading private investment advisory firm, focused on identifying companies' untapped potential and leveraging its deep operational and financial resources to transform results. Sun European is a trusted partner that is recognised for its investment and operational experience, including particular expertise in the consumer products and services, food and beverage, industrial, packaging, chemicals, building products, automotive, restaurant and retail sectors. Since 1995, affiliates of Sun European have invested in more than 345 companies worldwide across a broad range of industries and transaction structures with turnover in excess of 43 billion. Further information on Sun European Partners, LLP is available at www.SunEuropeanPartners.com.

About KKR

KKR is a leading global investment firm that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit and, through its strategic manager partnerships, hedge funds. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and driving growth and value creation with KKR portfolio companies. KKR invests its own capital alongside its partners' capital and provides financing solutions and investment opportunities through its capital markets business. References to KKR's investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds. For additional information about KKR Co. L.P. (NYSE: KKR), please visit KKR's website at www.kkr.com and on Twitter @KKR_Co.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171220005400/en/

Contacts:

For Sun European Partners

FTI Consulting

Fergus Wheeler / Alex Le May

+44 20 3727 1522 1308

suneuropean.sc@fticonsulting.com

or

For KKR

Finsbury

Alastair Elwen

+44 207 251 3801

alastair.elwen@finsbury.com
Vilnius, Lithuania, 2017-12-20 12:11 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On the 20th of December 2017 the Annual General Shareholders Meeting of VILNIAUS BALDAI AB adopted the following resolutions: Agenda item #1: Consolidated annual report. The Company's consolidated annual report for the FY 2017 ended 31 August 2017. Agenda item #2: Company's auditor's report. The report of auditor KPMG Baltics UAB for the FY 2017 ended 31 August 2017 was presented. Agenda item #3: Approval of the Consolidated and Company's financial statements for the FY 2017 ended 31 August 2017. Resolution: to approve Consolidated and Company's financial statements for the FY 2017 ended 31 August 2017. Agenda item #4: Approval of the Company's profit distribution. Resolution: to approve Company's profit distribution. Undistributed retained earnings, brought forward 5 233 266 EUR -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Net result for the current year 4 422 779 EUR -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Profit (loss) not recognized in the income statement of the (21 479) reporting financial year EUR -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Distributable result 9 634 566 EUR -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Transfers to the obligatory reserves - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Transfers to other reserves - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To be paid as dividends* 1 049 292 EUR -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To be paid as annual payments (bonus) to the Board members - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Undistributed retained earnings, carried forward 8 585 274 EUR -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * 0.27 EUR dividends per one ordinary share. Agenda item #5: Approval of the new wording of the provisions of the Audit Committee. Resolution: to approve the regulations of the Audit Committee of VILNIAUS BALDAI AB (enclosed). Agenda item #6: Approval of the new wording of the provisions of the Audit Committee. Resolution: to approve composition of the Audit Committee of 3 (three) members elected for a term of 4 (four) years: independent members Tomas Bubinas and Danute Kadanaite, Audit Committee members Vaidas Savukynas. To elect Tomas Bubinas, Chairman of the Audit Committee. Agenda item #7: Approval of the new wording of the provisions of the Audit Committee. Resolution: to approve To set a rate not higher than EUR 100 per hour for a work in the Audit Committee of VILNIAUS BALDAI AB. To delegate to the Board of the Company to determine the remuneration payment procedure for the Audit Committee members. Additional information: Head of Finance Jonas Krutinis Phone No.: +370 (5) 252 57 00 Attachment: https://cns.omxgroup.com/cds/DisclosureAttachmentServlet?messageAttachmentId=657747
MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 12/20/17 -- Critical Elements Corporation (the "Company" or "Critical Elements") (TSX VENTURE: CRE)(OTCQX: CRECF)(FRANKFURT: F12) is providing an update on strategic partner discussions, retention of a financial advisor and operations.

Update on Strategic Partner Discussions

As disclosed in the September 9, 2015 press release, in connection with their collaboration agreement (the "Agreement"), Critical Elements and Helm AG ("Helm") had a maximum delay of 60 days from the completion of the Company's feasibility study, filed October 20, 2017, to use their commercially reasonable efforts to finalize and execute a Take or Pay Off-take Agreement. As this Take or Pay Off-take Agreement has not been agreed between the parties within this specified timeframe, Critical Elements has elected not to grant any extension in this regard and has notified Helm of its decision to terminate the Agreement.

Retention of Financial Advisor

Global demand for lithium products has recently intensified with the aggressive launch of OEM Electric Vehicle platforms and government mandates for vehicle electrification. This has been accompanied by significant equity and project financings as well as strategic investment and merger and acquisition activities in the lithium sector.

Critical Elements' strong feasibility study results, published in September 2017, increased the Company's visibility and profile within a robust lithium market. The Rose Lithium-Tantalum project (the "Rose Project" or the "Project") is a significant lithium deposit in the stable jurisdiction of Quebec, Canada.

The Company has engaged Canaccord Genuity Corp. as its strategic financial advisor to pursue, engage and evaluate global strategic partners and investors to advance the Rose Project to production.

Operational Update

Since the filing of the feasibility study, the Company has put considerable effort into the next steps for the development for the Rose Project including:

-- Progressing on several fronts, including expanding the Company's operations team to prepare for the permitting and construction phase of the Rose Project. The team is preparing to commence the definitive feasibility study for the carbonate plant in Q1 2018 -- Critical Elements is working very closely with the Eastmain community to finalize the Impact and Benefit Agreement in the coming quarter. Also, multiple meetings and discussions have been completed between Eastmain representatives and the Critical Elements team with the objective of implementing a plan and raising awareness within the Eastmain community on employment opportunities, training programs available, and service contract opportunities that will be generated by the Project -- Meetings have been concluded with Hydro-Quebec to advance the hydro power line displacement study. Discussions with Hydro-Quebec are progressing well, and we expect to have the new power line in place for our planned start-up in 2020 -- Tendered proposals for the detailed engineering phase of the project and expect to award this contract in the first quarter of 2018

About Critical Elements Corporation

The Company recently released a financial analysis for Critical Elements' wholly-owned Rose Lithium-Tantalum project (Rose Lithium-Tantalum project feasibility study, WSP, October 20, 2017), which is based on price forecasts of US $750/tonne for chemical-grade lithium concentrate (5% Li2O), US $1,500/tonne for technical-grade lithium concentrate (6% Li2O) and US $130/kg for Ta2O5 in tantalite concentrate, and an exchange rate of US $0.75/CA $. The internal rate of return ("IRR") for the Rose Lithium-Tantalum project is estimated at 34.9% after tax, and net present value ("NPV") is estimated at CA $726 million at an 8% discount rate. The estimated payback period is 2.8 years. The pre-tax IRR for the Rose Lithium-Tantalum Project is estimated at 48.2% and the pre-tax NPV at CA $1,257 million at an 8% discount rate (see press release dated September 6, 2017). The financial analysis is based on the Indicated mineral resource. An Indicated mineral resource is that part of a mineral resource for which quantity, grade or quality, densities, shape and physical characteristics can be estimated with a level of confidence sufficient to allow the appropriate application of technical and economic parameters, to support mine planning and evaluation of the economic viability of the deposit.

The life-of-mine (LOM) plan provides for the extraction of 26.8 million tonnes of ore, 182.4 million tonnes of waste, and 11.0 million tonnes of overburden for a total of 220.2 million tonnes of material. The average stripping ratio is 7.2 tonnes per tonne of ore. The nominal production rate is estimated at 4,600 tonnes per day, with 350 operating days per year. The open pit mining schedule allows for a 17-year mine life.

The mine will produce a total of 26.8 million tonnes of ore grading an average of 0.85% Li2O and 133 ppm Ta2O5, including dilution. The mill will process 1.61 million tonnes of ore per year to produce an annual average of 236,532 tonnes of technical- and chemical-grade spodumene concentrate and 429 tonnes of tantalite concentrate.

Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian Securities legislation. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "scheduled", "anticipates", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "scheduled", "targeted", 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 contained herein include, without limitation, statements relating to mineral reserve estimates, mineral resource estimates, realization of mineral reserve and resource estimates, capital and operating costs estimates, the timing and amount of future production, costs of production, success of mining operations, the ranking of the project in terms of cash cost and production, permitting, economic return estimates, power and storage facilities, life of mine, social, community and environmental impacts, lithium and tantalum markets and sales prices, off-take agreements and purchasers for the Company's products, environmental assessment and permitting, securing sufficient financing on acceptable terms, opportunities for short and long term optimization of the Project, and continued positive discussions and relationships with local communities and stakeholders. Forward-looking information is based on assumptions management believes to be reasonable at the time such statements are made. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information.

Although Critical Elements 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. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from expected results described in forward-looking information include, but are not limited to: Critical Elements' ability to secure sufficient financing to advance and complete the Project, uncertainties associated with the Company's resource and reserve estimates, uncertainties regarding global supply and demand for lithium and tantalum and market and sales prices, uncertainties associated with securing off-take agreements and customer contracts, uncertainties with respect to social, community and environmental impacts, uncertainties with respect to optimization opportunities for the Project, as well as those risk factors set out in the Company's year-end Management Discussion and Analysis dated August 31, 2017 and other disclosure documents available under the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking information contained herein is made as of the date of this news release and Critical Elements disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is described in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:

Investor relations:

Jean-Sebastien Lavallee, P. Geo.

Chairman and CEO

819-354-5146

jslavallee@cecorp.ca

www.cecorp.ca



Paradox Public Relations

514-341-0408




NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / December 20, 2017 / USA Real Estate Holding Co (OTC PINK: USTC) is pleased to announce today that the Company has finalized a Joint Venture Agreement with AppSwarm, Inc. (SWRM), a technology company specializing in the accelerated development and publishing of mobile apps, to develop a Global P2P Bitcoin Mobile Wallet. Both Companies will own 50/50 interest in the technology.

An overview of some of the services and capabilities provided by SWRM will include the following: Registration, login/logout, forgot password, receipts, Payment gateway credential, Fully Integrated Analytics, KYC & AML protocols, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Funds and Bitcoin/Cryptocurrency transfer, Merchant Payments, QR code and QR pay.

Bilal Shafi, CEO of USTC, stated, "We are excited to work with SWRM to launch our global P2P Bitcoin Mobile Wallet. SWRM has more than 30 years of experience of publishing mobile apps. We believe this partnership will allow both Companies to aggressively pursue opportunities in the rapidly growing FinTech and Bitcoin sector."

Ron Brewer, CEO of SWRM, stated, "This is an exciting partnership for both Companies while Bitcoin continued to rise in value this week as it reached ever-greater highs. And there is now growing interest from institutional investors as it continues to break its own records. The ETA for the launch of the application is mid of Q1 2018. Most of the technology we need is already in-house."

About APPSWARM:

We develop and publish mobile gaming and business apps, with a focus on accelerating the development of free to play mobile games and fast-track them to market. We partner with game and business developers through joint ventures, royalty agreements, marketing partnerships, and outright purchases through our publicly-traded company on the OTC Markets, ticker SWRM.

For more information, visit us at www.app-swarm.com, or follow us on facebook.com/AppSwarm or Twitter twitter.com/AppSwarm

ABOUT USA REAL ESTATE HOLDING:

USA Real Estate Holding Company (OTC PINK: USTC) is a public holding company that targets acquisitions of undervalued, niche companies with high growth potential, including real estate properties, Fintech companies and other emerging digital technologies. For more details visit us at www.usarealestateholding.com.

Forward-Looking Statements:

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain as they are based on current expectations and assumptions concerning future events of future performance of the company. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are only predictions and speak only as of the date hereof. In evaluation such statements, prospective investors should review carefully various risks and uncertainties identified in this release and matters set in the company's SEC filings. These risks and uncertainties could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements.

Bilal Shafi, CEO | info@usarealestateholding.com | Tel: 866-557-5745

SOURCE: USA Real Estate Holding Company
- Aims to accelerate manufacturing of new treatments for broad range of serious diseases

- Underscores the Life Science business of Merck as a leading contract manufacturing organization and commercial provider of viral vectors for gene therapy

DARMSTADT, Germany, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --Merck, a leading science and technology company, today announced that it has signed a commercial supply agreement to manufacture viral vectors for bluebird bio, Inc., of Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, for its use in potentially transformative gene therapies.

Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/620926/Merck_bluebird.jpg

"We look forward to collaborating with bluebird bio to bring breakthrough therapies to fight diseases for which there are limited or no options," said Udit Batra, Member of the Executive Board and CEO, Life Science. "With 30 years' experience in viral vector manufacturing, we remain committed to innovating with academia, hospitals and cell therapy manufacturers to accelerate access to personalized cell therapy for the patients who need it most."

Under the multi-year agreement, the Life Science business sector of Merck will manufacture lentiviral vectors for bluebird bio's drug products developed to treat a variety of rare genetic diseases. bluebird bio is a clinical-stage company that develops potentially transformative gene and cell therapies for severe genetic diseases and T cell-based immunotherapies for cancer.

Gene therapy involves the delivery of genetic material into patient cells to produce a therapeutic effect such as correction of a mutated gene or retargeting of an immune cell to fight cancer. To create personalized therapy products, genes are delivered into immune cells using viral vectors like the ones manufactured by Merck.

This contract builds upon Merck's deep experience in producing viral vectors for gene therapy from clinical to commercial scale. The company has been involved in gene and cell therapy manufacturing tools and services for close to three decades.

Merck's Carlsbad, California, USA-based manufacturing facility, which provides BioReliance viral and gene therapy manufacturing services, has been involved in the gene therapy area since 1997, near the time clinical trials for gene therapy began. In October 2017, this facility completed both a U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) Pre-License inspection and a European Medicines Agency (EMA) Marketing Authorization inspection.

Merck's investment in the gene therapy space includes a recent expansion at Carlsbad to nearly double its former production capacity - from 44,000 square feet to 65,000 square feet. The site includes 16 modular viral bulk manufacturing cleanroom suites with single-use equipment and two fill/finish suites for gene therapy, viral vaccine and immunotherapy products.

The company also has viral and gene therapy manufacturing capacity and has cell-banking services in Glasgow, Scotland. It has cell-banking services in Rockville, Maryland as well, and offers BioReliance biosafety testing globally for both clinical and commercial stage gene therapy products.

All Merck news releases are distributed by email at the same time they become available on the Merck website. Please go to www.merckgroup.com/subscribe to register online, change your selection or discontinue this service.

About Merck

Merck is a leading science and technology company in healthcare, life science and performance materials. Around 50,000 employees work to further develop technologies that improve and enhance life - from biopharmaceutical therapies to treat cancer or multiple sclerosis, cutting-edge systems for scientific research and production, to liquid crystals for smartphones and LCD televisions. In 2016, Merck generated sales of 15 billion in 66 countries.

Founded in 1668, Merck is the world's oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company. The founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed corporate group. Merck holds the global rights to the "Merck" name and brand. The only exceptions are the United States and Canada, where the company operates as EMD Serono, MilliporeSigma and EMD Performance Materials.
AUBURN HILLS, Michigan, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --Henniges Automotive, a leading global supplier of highly engineered sealing and anti-vibration systems for the automotive market, announced it has opened a new, scalable 79,500 square-foot (7,391 square-meter) facility in Suzhou, China. The plant is located in the Taicang Port Economic and Technological Development Zone that gives Henniges the ability to grow the facility to double its size to support future business growth. Customers, Chinese government officials and Henniges executives recently joined together in Suzhou for a grand opening ceremony to officially commemorate the milestone.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/621570/Henniges_Automotive_China_Facility_Ribbon_Cutting.jpg

"As the automotive industry evolves at an unprecedented pace, having flexibility in our facilities, operations and capabilities is an advantage that makes us more agile and responsive to our customers," said Larry Williams, president of Henniges Automotive. "In addition to changing industry demands, we've seen significant business growth in the Asia-Pacific region, which is why we have strategically designed a facility that meets our customers' current needs and can grow with them and us."

This plant will feature both TPV (thermoplastic) and EPDM (traditional) rubber sealing and will have state-of-the-art equipment that meets Henniges' global standards. A quality management system, which uses an electronic display system integrated with the company's enterprise resource planning systems to provide instantaneous feedback, will be a key asset at the new plant.

The opening of the facility has created approximately 70 new jobs to-date and is now one of seven manufacturing plants in China, and the company's first in the Shanghai region. With this addition, Henniges now has 23 facilities worldwide, including five research and development centers and 18 world-class production sites.

"This is an exciting expansion of our global footprint and one that will help us further establish our best practices in global engineering and strengthen our automotive sealing systems capabilities everywhere we do business," said Williams. "As a company that has provided sealing and anti-vibration technologies for more than 100 years, we pride ourselves on efficiently delivering solutions to our customers and tailoring our products to meet local standards; southern China will be no different."

In addition to the new facility in Suzhou, Henniges has plans for further expansions in 2018, including a new manufacturing plant in South America and expanding an engineering facility in Europe.
Acticor Biotech, a clinical stage biotechnology company involved in the acute phase of thrombotic diseases, including stroke and other thrombosis disorders like pulmonary embolism, announces today the appointment of Dr Yannick Pletan as Chief Medical Officer. He will report to Gilles Avenard, CEO of Acticor Biotech and be responsible for leading all clinical development and medical affairs at Acticor Biotech. Acticor Biotech is strengthening its organisation in the perspective of the preparation of the clinical phase II for its lead candidate ACT017.

Dr Pletan is an expert in clinical development within the pharmaceutical industry, having previously held leadership positions at Roche, Pfizer, Sanofi and Pierre Fabre. Before joining Acticor Biotech, Dr Pletan served as Head of Medical Division and Member of the Board of the Foundation at Roche France and Member of the Global Medical Affairs Committee at Hoffman La Roche Ltd (Switzerland). Previously, he was Vice-President, Head of Medical and Scientific Division and Member of the Board of the Foundation at Pfizer. Dr Pletan is also Board member of Deinove SAS.

Dr Gilles Avenard, CEO of Acticor Biotech, commented: "We are pleased to welcome Yannick Pletan, who is bringing us his 30-year experience in the management team of international pharmaceutical companies. He will help the company achieve its ambitious goals. His experience in clinical development and regulatory affairs will be instrumental as we move forward our lead compound ACT017 into the preparation of several clinical phase II."

About Acticor Biotech: https://acticor-biotech.com/

About ACT017, the Therapeutic Candidate

Acticor is developing ACT017, a humanized Antibody Fragment (Fab). The therapeutic candidate is directed against a novel target of major interest, platelet glycoprotein VI (GPVI), and inhibits its action. Evidence of antithrombotic efficacy of ACT017 and safety of inhibition of GPVI have been established both ex vivo and in vivo. The target is involved in the growth of the thrombus, but not in physiological haemostasis. This limits the bleeding risk associated with its inhibition.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171220005499/en/

Contacts:

Acticor Biotech:

Gilles Avenard

Chief Executive Officer

gilles.avenard@acticor-biotech.com

or

Media - NewCap:

Annie-Florence Loyer

afloyer@newcap.fr

+33(0) 1 44 71 00 12 +33(0) 6 88 20 35 59
MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 12/20/17 -- Transcontinental Inc., (TSX: TCL.A)(TSX: TCL.B) announces the sale of its 50% stake in CEDROM-SNi Inc., a Montreal-based firm specializing in digital media monitoring, to CNW Group Ltd., a Cision company delivering Canadian media intelligence and news distribution services. As part of this agreement, the founders of CEDROM-SNi are also selling their stake to CNW Group Ltd., which now becomes the sole owner. CEDROM-SNi's employees, totalling approximately 110 people, remain employed in Montreal and in the satellite offices of Quebec City, Ottawa, Toronto and Paris.

Nicole Guillot, Cision's President of Canada and Corporate Director of CNW Group Ltd., noted, "We are very proud to acquire CEDROM-SNi, a company whose product and service offering is among the best-performing in the industry and is complementary to ours. By joining forces, we will be able to offer our customers an enhanced and diversified offering that is perfectly aligned with Cision's global vision to be a leading provider of earned media software and services at the crossroads of public relations, digital and social marketing. We are pleased to welcome the talented employees of CEDROM-SNi who bring leading-edge expertise to Cision, in order to pursue our growth together."

"We are delighted to sell to Cision as this is based on an informed and propitious decision that ensures the sustainability of a Quebec company created almost 30 years ago," said Francois Aird, President of CEDROM-SNi Inc. "Cision is a key player in the market, recognized for its commitment to innovation and whose values are very similar to ours. Right from our initial discussions, we understood the importance given to the exceptional skills of our teams. CEDROM-SNi has always distinguished itself by the quality of its employees. We are very grateful for their work and professionalism over the years. We would also like to thank all our customers, publishers and business partners for their trust and loyalty."

Pierre Marcoux, Senior Vice President, Business and Education, TC Media, and a member of the Board of Directors of CEDROM-SNi, added, "We are proud to have contributed to the growth of CEDROM-SNi for two decades. This partnership has been beneficial for both of our organizations, which experienced many phases of their growth together. I would like to sincerely thank Francois Aird and his management team for their invaluable collaboration. Furthermore, TC Media's brands will continue to do business with CEDROM-SNi as a content provider and for their various media monitoring requirements."

CEDROM-SNi offers media monitoring and analytical services through its digital solution, Eureka.cc in Canada, and its European counterpart, Europresse.com in France. It serves a varied clientele consisting of large companies, government agencies, media companies, and advertising and public relations agencies, among others.

About TC Transcontinental

TC Transcontinental is Canada's largest printer and a key supplier of flexible packaging in North America. The Corporation is also a leader in its specialty media segments. TC Transcontinental's mission is to create products and services that allow businesses to attract, reach and retain their target customers.

Respect, teamwork, performance and innovation are strong values held by the Corporation and its employees. The Corporation's commitment to its stakeholders is to pursue its business activities in a responsible manner.

Transcontinental Inc. (TSX: TCL.A)(TSX: TCL.B), known as TC Transcontinental, has over 6,500 employees in Canada and the United States, and revenues of C$2.0 billion in 2017. Website www.tc.tc

About CEDROM-SNi

CEDROM-SNi has been operating in the information technology industry since 1989. This Quebec company most notably acts as a manager of digital reproduction rights for hundreds of Quebec and foreign media outlets. CEDROM-SNi also produces Eureka.cc, a digital solution which provides thousands of customers in Quebec, in Canada and in France with the ability to search, analyze and conduct media monitoring in an evolving media environment.

About Cision

Cision, Ltd. (NYSE: CISN) is a leading global provider of earned media software and services to public relations and marketing communications professionals. Cision's software allows users to identify key influencers, craft and distribute strategic content, and measure meaningful impact. Cision has over 3,000 employees with offices in 15 countries throughout the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. Cision operates in Canada under legal entities CNW Group Ltd., and Cision Canada Inc. For more information about its award-winning products and services, including the Cision Communications Cloud, visit www.cision.ca and follow Cision on Twitter @Cision and in Canada @CNWGroup.

Contacts:

Media: Nathalie St-Jean

Senior Advisor, Corporate Communications

TC Transcontinental

514-954-3581

nathalie.st-jean@tc.tc

www.tc.tc



Media

Laurie Smith

VP Customer Marketing

Cision

416-388-0711

Laurie.Smith@cision.com



Financial Community: Shirley Chenny

Advisor, Investor Relations

TC Transcontinental

514-954-4166

shirley.chenny@tc.tc

www.tc.tc




This domain was recently registered at Namecheap.com. Please check back later!
MIAMI, FL / ACCESSWIRE / December 20, 2017 / The Board of Governors of the Florida Bar last week accepted the recommendation of The Florida Bar's Standing Committee on the Unlawful Practice of Law that traffic ticket website TIKD.com is violating Florida law by practicing law without a license or providing false or misleading information to unsuspecting customers. The matter now will be forwarded to the Florida Supreme Court for a final decision. If the Supreme Court agrees, it likely will issue an injunction against the company.

TIKD, a technology start-up, had sued industry pioneer The Ticket Clinic and the Florida Bar, claiming the two were conspiring to drive it out of business. The Florida Bar committees found that instead of simply allowing Florida drivers to contest traffic tickets from their smartphones, TIKD likely was breaking Florida law and putting consumers at risk.

The website "is replete with legal advice, which not only constitutes the unauthorized practice of law, but is false and misleading," wrote Founder Mark S. Gold in his complaint regarding the Florida Bar's Unlicensed Practice of Law investigation against TIKD.com and principal Christopher Riley. The Ticket Clinic has 43 offices in Florida and California and 40 full-time attorneys who successfully have handled some five million cases.

"This is a Pandora's box. A slippery slope," Gold wrote. "If allowed, TIKD is the first of many non-lawyers attempting to cash in on the legal profession, without the supervision required by the Florida Bar."

TIKD had filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida in November seeking millions in damages, injunctions against anti-competitive practices, and a jury trial.

TIKD bills itself as an app/technology company, much like Uber or Lyft. But if a ride-sharing service makes a mistake, customers don't risk suspension of their license or arrest, Gold said. Among the website's promises, it boasts it can "GET RID OF YOUR TICKET" or help clients avoid "multiple trips to the courthouse."

"There's no 'app.' It's just a website replete with false statements. You're not hiring a lawyer, they are. And they promise to pay your fine if they lose. Bar rules do not allow an attorney to pay a client's fine," Gold said. "Of course, these guys don't play by the rules, because they are not bound by them. We believe the Florida Supreme Court will shut them down."

SOURCE: The Ticket Clinic
GOTEBORG, Sweden, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

As the first healthcare provider in Norway, Capio Volvat is now performing hip and knee replacements in day surgery, implying that the patient is admitted to and discharged from hospital on the same day. This is a medical breakthrough for Capio in Norway, enabled by process development and knowledge sharing within the Capio Group.

During November 2017, Capio Volvat performed three hip replacements and one knee replacement in day surgery at Volvat medisinske senter in Fredrikstad. The interventions were the first ever hip and knee replacements provided in daycare in Norway. The changes made are based on a less invasive surgical method, allowing the patient to leave the hospital already on the day of surgery and do rehabilitation outside of the hospital facilities. This shortens the stay in hospital significantly and allows the patient to return to normal life sooner. See the patients describe their experiences. The method is already in practice within the Capio Group with good medical outcomes and high patient satisfaction.

"By collaborating with our colleagues in France and Sweden we have gained new knowledge about these methods within Capio Volvat. High quality standards and a structured medical process before, during, and after surgery has enabled this development. The changes we have implemented show that the total knowledge of the Capio Group and its strategy to share and implement new, modern medical treatments benefit also our Norwegian patients", says Per Helge Fagermoen, Country President Capio in Norway.

Since several years, Capio's focus on Modern Medicine and a more rapid recovery for patients (Rapid Recovery) is successful in Capio's French operations, where an orthopedic team already in 2011 performed Capio's and France's first knee replacement in day surgery. The method has since then been further developed for both hip and knee prosthesis surgery, especially at Capio's day surgery center in Domont outside Paris. Since 2011, Capio France has shortened the average length of stay for hip and knee replacements from 8.2 days to 4.2 days. Out of the total number of such surgeries, about 8% are currently being performed in day surgery. The concept of Modern Medicine and Rapid Recovery has also been transferred to other medical areas such as cardiology and colorectal surgery, resulting in several day surgical breakthroughs during the past couple of years.

Modern Medicine and Rapid Recovery contributes to higher quality and shorter lengths of stay and drives the shift from in to outpatient care. These are important steps in the aim to achieve higher quality, productivity, and availability of healthcare. Hence, improved healthcare can be provided to more patients.

Patient story - Modern Medicine and Rapid Recovery by Capio Volvat

For information, please contact:



Per Helge Fagermoen, Country President Capio in Norway

Telephone: +47-996-90-309

Francois Demesmay, Chief Medical Officer Capio Group

Telephone: +33-674-89-62-44

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/capio-ab/r/capio-first-in-norway-to-provide-hip-and-knee-replacements-in-day-surgery,c2419322

The following files are available for download:
HEIDELBERG, Germany, December 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The Royal Pretzels,shaped by Prince William and Duccess Kate during their visit to Heidelberg in summer of 2017 can now be admired at the BODY WORLDS Museum in Heidelberg.To preserve these unique specimens permanently, theroyal pretzelswere plastinated by Gunther von Hagens' team of experts.

BODY WORLDS curator Dr.Angelina Whalley celebrated the introduction of the pretzels to the BODY WORLDS museum yesterday: "We are proud and very happy that we not only were able to plastinate the pretzels, but also to win the charity auction," says Whalley. The auction amount of  2,355.67 now will go to children and families in need.

Plastinating food items is not part of Gunther von Hagens' (72) every day routine. "However, the individual steps of plastinating a pretzel are similar to those we employ when plastinating human specimens," says plastinator von Hagens, adding: "Water and fat contained in the specimen are replaced by polymer under vacuum conditions. In order to be sure that we would be using the perfect polymer mixture, we ran a number of trial plastinations before actually working on the royal pretzels."

Press office of the BODY WORLDS Museum in Heidelberg

Jana Engelhardt

Tel: 06221-33-11-26

E-mail: j.engelhardt@plastination.com
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.
LONDON, 2017-12-20 16:28 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Customisation is the new frontier for luxury goods online, and is now going even further as e-commerce makes bespoke products more accessible. With consumers desiring products configured exactly to their needs and tastes, mass customisation is forecast for extreme growth. The benefit of this model is that purchase is made before production - a major advantage for businesses that operate in trend-driven sectors like fashion, where consumer demand can be unpredictable. At the heart of the mass customisation e-commerce trend comes Undandy, the handcrafted, fully customisable dress shoe brand for men. Without a middle man or bricks and mortar presence, Undandy is the latest disruptive e-commerce footwear brand, with a direct-to-consumer business model offering made-to-order shoes for men that are handcrafted in Portugal and sold at an honest price. Guided by an online 3D platform, men can customise dress shoes, designing their unique creations in the comfort of their own home or on-the-go, and have them delivered to their door within two weeks. With the best production time in the market and a unique price/quality ratio, Undandy offers men virtually limitless customisation possibilities, with the freedom to choose every detail imaginable; from the style, model, choice of leather, stitching, laces - even down to engraving on the soles. Proving just how exponential the growth can be in this sector - in shy of one just year, Undandy has gone from selling 100 shoes a month to over 1,500 in over 100 countries. Production capabilities withstanding, Undandy has vast potential when it comes to scalability, largely in thanks to its direct-to-consumer approach and global front door. Each pair of Undandy shoes is handcrafted by third generation cobblers in Portugal's footwear capital Sao Joao da Madeira, using the finest French and Italian leather. Rafic Daud, co-founder and CEO at Undandy believes this to be the bedrock of the brand: "We are proud to be supporting a community in Portugal that has hundreds of years of expertise and a somewhat overlooked heritage of world class craftsmanship." By bringing centuries of old craftsmanship to the forefront of the e-commerce, customisation boom, Undandy leverages the best of both worlds - reviving traditional values and appreciation of fine craftsmanship through modern technology. For more about Undandy and its disruptive entry into the luxury footwear market, read more in the latest edition of European CEO, available in print, on tablet and online now: www.europeanceo.com World News Media is a leading publisher of quality financial and business magazines, which enjoys a global distribution network that includes subscriber lists of prominent decision-makers around the world. CONTACT INFORMATION World News Media Elizabeth Matsangou Editorial Department +44 (0)20 7553 4162 elizabeth.matsangou@wnmedia.com
FAIRFIELD, CT / ACCESSWIRE / December 20, 2017 / Calmare Therapeutics Incorporated (OTC PINK: CTTC) ("CTI"), the pain mitigation company (" Calmare "), today confirmed that a definitive consent solicitation statement has been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (" SEC ") by a minority complaining group of stockholders (the " Minority Complaining Group ").

In their statement, the Minority Complaining Group have stated their intent to: (a) solicit consents to, among other things, remove the 80% of directors on Calmare's Board of Directors who are not members of the Minority Complaining Group (this does not include the one member of the Board who is a party to the Minority Complaining Group); and (b) replace those four directors with the Minority Complaining Group's own hand-picked nominees.

The Minority Complaining Group, which calls itself the "Calmare Committee to Restore Stockholder Value," also stated that its handpicked board nominees intend to remove and replace the existing officers of Calmare. In its consent solicitation statement, the Minority Complaining Group asserts that it collectively owns approximately 20% of Calmare's outstanding shares.

Calmare issued the following statement :

Eighty percent of Calmare's Board and its entire management team are committed to executing the Company's strategic five-year plan to drive enhanced stockholder value. Calmare continues to pursue its strategy to grow revenue and will maintain its focus on current strategic initiatives by gaining FDA approval for more of the Company's devices and selling the devices to a large customer base following FDA approval.

Calmare noted that stockholders should be aware and concerned that the Minority Complaining Group is attempting to take control of Calmare's Board and the Company without providing a detailed and credible plan as to how they would create long-term stockholder value when considering the various regulations Calmare is subject to in selling its devices.

Calmare urges all Calmare stockholders to refrain from taking any action, including not returning any consent card sent by the Minority Complaining Group at this time. Calmare's Board has formed a Special Board Committee (the " Board Majority "), which consists of the 80% of the Board that is not affiliated with the Minority Complaining Group. The Board Majority, in consultation with its legal advisor, is carefully evaluating the Minority Complaining Group's proposals. The Board Majority will advise Calmare stockholders of its recommendation regarding the Minority Complaining Group's solicitation in due course as soon as it has filed and cleared its documents with the SEC.

About Calmare Therapeutics, Inc.

Calmare Therapeutics, Inc. researches, develops, and commercializes chronic, neuropathic pain and wound affliction devices. Our flagship medical device - the Calmare Pain Therapy Device (the " Calmare Device ") - is the world's only non-invasive and non-addictive modality that can successfully treat chronic, neuropathic pain. The Company holds a U.S. Food & Drug Administration 510k clearance designation on its flagship device, which grants it the exclusive right to sell, market, research, and develop the medical device in the United States. The Calmare Devices are commercially sold to medical practices throughout the world. They are also found in U.S. military hospitals, clinics and on installations.

Important Additional Information and Where to Find It

Calmare Therapeutics, Inc., 80% of its directors, and its executive officers are deemed to be participants in a solicitation of consent revocations from Calmare's stockholders in connection with a pending consent solicitation by a group of minority stockholders seeking consents to, among other things, remove and replace 80% of Calmare's current directors (the " Minority Consent Solicitation "). Information regarding the names of Calmare's directors and executive officers and their respective interests in Calmare by security holdings or otherwise can be found in Calmare's proxy statement for its 2016 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on October 25, 2016. To the extent their holdings of Calmare's securities have changed since the amounts set forth in Calmare's proxy statement for its 2016 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, such changes have been reflected on Initial Statements of Beneficial Ownership on Form 3 or Statements of Change in Ownership on Form 4 filed with the SEC. These documents are available free of charge at the SEC's website: http://www.sec.gov.

Calmare intends to file a majority consent revocation statement (the " Majority Consent Revocation Statement ") and accompanying majority consent revocation card with the SEC in connection with the Minority Consent Solicitation. Additional information regarding the identity of participants, and their direct or indirect interests, by security holdings or otherwise, will be set forth in the Majority Consent Revocation Statement, including the schedules and appendices thereto.

INVESTORS AND STOCKHOLDERS ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO CAREFULLY READ THE MAJORITY CONSENT REVOCATION STATEMENT AND THE ACCOMPANYING MAJORITY CONSENT REVOCATION CARD AND OTHER DOCUMENTS FILED BY CALMARE WITH THE SEC IN THEIR ENTIRETY WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE, AS THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION.

Stockholders will be able to obtain the Majority Consent Revocation Statement, any amendments or supplements to the Majority Consent Revocation Statement, the accompanying Majority Consent Revocation Card, and other documents filed by Calmare with the SEC for no charge at the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov. Copies also will be available at no charge at the Investor Relations section of Calmare's corporate website at http://www.calmaretherapeutics.com, by writing to Calmare's Chief Executive Officer at Calmare Therapeutics Incorporated, 1375 Kings Highway, Suite 400, Fairfield, CT 06824, or by calling Calmare at (203) 368-6044.

Forward-Looking Statement

Certain statements contained in this press release are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. The statements contained herein that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements deal with the Company's current plans, intentions, beliefs and expectations and statements of future economic performance. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause the Company's actual results in future periods to differ materially from what is currently anticipated. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include those discussed from time to time in reports filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company cannot guarantee its future results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements.

Contacts:

Calmare Therapeutics Incorporated

Conrad Mir

President and CEO

cmir@calmaretherapeutics.com

203.368.6044

www.calmaretherapeutics.com

SOURCE: Calmare Therapeutics Incorporated
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 12/20/17 -- Orca Gold Inc. (TSX VENTURE: ORG) ("Orca" or the "Company") is pleased to report the extension of the Catch Advisory Group Inc. ("Catch") investor relations agreement dated September 1, 2016 (the "Agreement") and originally announced October 19, 2016. Specific duties include initiating and maintaining contact with the investment community, including brokers, existing shareholders, prospective investors, analyst and media contacts. Catch will also continue to coordinate the Company's IR initiatives, including its participation in investment conferences, planning and organization of project site visits and dissemination of news and information of the Company to the public and to the shareholders of Orca.

The renewed Agreement has a 12-month term at an anticipated cost of $108,000 payable at the rate of $9,000 per month. Catch's principal, Elina Chow, is the primary contact for and principle service provider to Orca under the agreement. Elina Chow owns 20,000 shares of the Company. Neither Catch nor Elina Chow has any other direct or indirect interest in the Company.

Catch is an investor relations and marketing consulting firm based in Toronto, Canada. Established in 2011, Catch provides investor relations, corporate communications and creative design services to private and publicly-traded companies in a number of industries including metals and mining, financial services, technology, and cannabis.

About Orca Gold Inc.

Orca Gold Inc. (TSX VENTURE: ORG) is a Canadian resource company focused on exploration opportunities in Africa. The Company is focused on its flagship 70%-owned Block 14 Gold Project in the Republic of the Sudan and exploration portfolio in Cote d'Ivoire. Block 14 is situated on a 2,170 km2 concession. The Company is currently conducting a Feasibility Study on the project, which is scheduled for completion in early Q2 2018.

Additionally, Orca is actively conducting gold exploration in its 2,890km2 land package in Cote d'Ivoire.

On behalf of the Board of Directors:

Richard P. Clark, CEO and Director

604.689.7842

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws, including statements regarding Orca's (the "Company", the "Corporation", "we" or "our") plans and expectations relating to the Block 14 project ("Block 14") in northern Sudan and the revised Preliminary Economic Assessment (the "Revised PEA") and Feasibility Study ("FS") currently being completed and/or conducted by the Corporation. These statements relate to analyses and other information that are based on forecasts of future results, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions of management. Statements concerning mineral resource estimates may also be deemed to constitute "forward-looking statements" to the extent that they involve estimates of the mineralization that will be encountered if the property is developed. The assumptions, risk and uncertainties outlined below are non-exhaustive. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results, performance or achievements of the Corporation, or industry results, may vary materially from those described in this press release.

Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, identified by words or phrases such as "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "plans", "projects", "estimates", "assumes", "intends", "strategy", "goals", "objectives", "potential", "possible" or variations thereof or stating that certain actions, events, conditions or results "may", "could", "would", "should", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved, or the negative of any of these terms and similar expressions) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements and forward-looking information are not guarantees of future performance and are based upon a number of estimates and assumptions of management at the date the statements are made including without limitation, assumptions about the following (the "Forward-Looking Factors"): future prices of gold and other metals; successful exploration, development, and production of Block 14; the timing and completion of the DFS; the timing and likelihood of a production decision; performance of contractual obligations by counterparties; operating conditions; political stability; obtaining governmental approvals and financing on time; financial projections and budgets; obtaining licenses and permits; government regulation of the Corporation's mining activities; environmental risks and expenses; market conditions; the securities market; price volatility of the Corporation's securities; currency exchange rates; foreign mining tax regimes; insurance and uninsured risks; financial projections and results; competition; availability of sufficient capital, infrastructure, equipment and labour; dependence on key personnel; dependence on outside parties; conflicts of interest; litigation; land title issues; local community issues; estimation of mineral resources; realization of mineral resources; timing and amount of estimated future production; the life of Block 14; reclamation obligations; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be evaluated; and anticipated costs and expenditures and our ability to achieve the Corporation's goals. While we consider these assumptions to be reasonable, the assumptions are inherently subject to significant business, social, economic, political, regulatory, competitive and other risks and uncertainties, and contingencies, many of which are based on factors and events that are not within the control of the Corporation and there is no assurance they will prove to be correct.

Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors relating to the Forward-Looking Factors above, and those factors disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Corporation's documents filed from time to time with the securities regulators in the provinces of Canada.

In addition, a number of other factors could cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Corporation to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information, and there is no assurance that the actual results, performance or achievements of the Corporation will be consistent with them. For further details, reference is made to the risk factors discussed or referred to in the Corporation's annual and interim management's discussion and analyses on file with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities and available electronically on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. Although the Corporation has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events, results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements and forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events, results, performance or achievements not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements or information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Such forward-looking statements and information are made or given as at the date of this press release and the Corporation disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable securities law. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or forward-looking information.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:

Elina Chow

Catch Advisory Group Inc.

Investor Relations Consultant

416.645.0935 x 226




Maximizing Europe's Competitive Advantage in the Global Supply Chain

DUBLIN, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --Electronics manufacturing executives will sharpen their competitive edge in Dublin, Ireland, on 4-6 March at Europe's SEMI Industry Strategy Symposium (ISS Europe). The three-day flagship business event brings together analysts, researchers, economists, technologists and industry leaders for critical insights into the forces shaping the electronics manufacturing supply chain. With Europe a key engine of global innovation and the supply chain, ISS Europe 2018 takes aim at helping European organisations find new ways to maximise competitive advantage.

Photo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/617076/ISS_EUROPE.jpg

"Organisations operating in Europe need to find the most effective way to innovate, manufacture and profit by leveraging their strengths in the global supply chain," said Laith Altimime, president, SEMI Europe. "During ISS Europe 2018, hosted by SEMI Europe, top European companies, research institutes and public institutions will convene to discuss how to compete and win globally in the context of Europe's strategic, economic and social needs."

ISS Europe 2018 discussions will focus on successful manufacturing in Europe and mechanisms to support innovation. The speaker lineup includes:

David Bloss , VP, Technology Manufacturing Group, Intel

, VP, Technology Manufacturing Group, Holger Blume , professor, University of Hanover

, professor, Jean-Frederic Clerc , deputy CEO and CTO, CEA Tech

, deputy CEO and CTO, Kevin Cooney , senior VP and managing director, Global CIO, Xilinx EMEA

, senior VP and managing director, Global CIO, Jean-Christophe Eloy , CEO, Yole Developpement

, CEO, Ann-Charlotte Johannesson , CEO, CEI-Europe AB

, CEO, Cheryl Miller , founder/executive director, Digital Leadership Institute

, founder/executive director, Michael Morris , director AMBER Research Centre, professor, Trinity College Dublin

, director AMBER Research Centre, professor, Alain Mutricy, senior VP product management, GLOBALFOUNDRIES

James O'Riordan , CTO, S3 Group

, CTO, David Sneddon , director of large customer sales for Central Europe , Google

, director of large customer sales for , Florien van der Windt , Cluster Manager Smart Mobility, Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure & Environment

, Cluster Manager Smart Mobility, Hanns Windele, vice president, Europe and India , Mentor Graphics, a Siemens Business

The Panel Discussion "Critical Strategies to Grow Europe in the Global Supply Chain" will highlight ISS Europe 2018 as participants take advantage of great networking opportunities such as an opening reception and a gala dinner announcing the 2017 European Award winner.

Join Europe's strategic thinkers and business drivers at ISS Europe 2018 in Dublin, Ireland from March 4-6, 2018!

For further information about our programs, please visit www.semi.org/eu/iss-europe-2018 or contact Christina Fritsch, Senior Manager, Program and Events. To sponsor the event please contact: SEMI Europe, Denada Hodaj, Manager Sales Europe (email: dhodaj@semi.org). Register before January 31 for a discount. Fee includes conference and presentations access, reception, lunches and dinner. To register online, please visit: https://iss2018.besl-eventservice.de/front/index.php

About SEMI

SEMIconnectsover 2,000member companies and1.3 millionprofessionals worldwidetoadvance the technology and business of electronics manufacturing. SEMI members are responsible for the innovations in materials, design, equipment, software,devices,andservices that enable smarter, faster, morepowerful, and more affordable electronic products.FlexTechand theMEMS& Sensors Industry Group (MSIG) are SEMI Strategic Association Partners,defined communities withinSEMIfocused on specific technologies.Since1970, SEMI has built connections that have helped its members prosper, create new markets, and address common industry challenges together. SEMI maintains offices in Bangalore,Berlin, Brussels, Grenoble, Hsinchu, Seoul, Shanghai, Silicon Valley (Milpitas, Calif.), Singapore, Tokyo, and Washington, D.C. For moreinformation, visitwww.semi.organd follow SEMI onLinkedInandTwitter.

Logo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/469944/Semi_Logo.jpg
RIMOUSKI, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 12/20/17 -- Puma Exploration Inc. (the "Company" or "Puma") (TSX VENTURE: PUM)(SSE: PUMA) has completed the second phase of a trenching program in the Murray Brook area. 29 trenches for a total of 1,900 meters were excavated at close proximity of the Murray Brook Deposit. Two (2) new showings found at respectively 100 meters west and 300 meters east from the Murray Brook Deposit (see figure 1) and will be the first priority targets. The results of the trenching program are pending.

The mineralized zones will be the sites of the first holes to be drilled in the Murray Brook area. The technical team is on site in order to get the drill sites and access road ready for the current drilling program. 5,000 meters of drilling is planned to begin at close proximity of the Deposit and will move next to the Murray Brook East Property contiguous to the Caribou Mining Lease held by Trevali Mining Corp.

Puma completed 34 trenches for a total of 3800 meters at Murray Brook East Property in the first phase of the program conducted during the fall for a total of 69 trenches in 2017. Several discoveries and observations made during the program have been helpful in the planning of the current drilling campaign. These observations include the lithologic contact between sediments (VMS host rock) and the felsic volcanics as well as mafic dikes and structures. The objective of this major trenching program was to verify the nature of the first priority targets at surface defined by Puma geologists and to locate precisely the current drilling targets. These first priority targets are based on major gravity, chargeability and Megatem (Em) anomalies identified.

Puma is proceeding with a geochemical drillcore sampling program within the footwall and hangwall zones of the Murray Brook Deposit to determine the alteration model along the favorable horizon. This alteration survey will also help defining more precisely the drilling targets.

About the Murray Brook Project

The Murray Brook Project consists of three (3) distinct contiguous areas that cover more than 18 kilometers of the favorable rocks that host the operating Caribou Mine (Trevali Mining Corp.), the Murray Brook Deposit and the past operating Restigouche Mine (Trevali Mining Corp.). From east to west, the project comprises the Murray Brook East Property (4925), the Murray Brook Mining Lease (# 252) and the Murray Brook West Property (7846) (refer to website).

The Murray Brook East and Murray Brook West Properties have been subject to various degrees of exploration and share the same potential of increasing the mineral resources defined at the Murray Brook Deposit. The Company has defined several future priority targets on these properties.

The Murray Brook deposit has a currently defined measured and indicated mineral resources of 5.28 million tonnes averaging 5.24% zinc, 1.80% lead, 0.46% copper, 68.9 g/t silver and 0.65 g/t gold. The core of the mineral resource occurs in the West Zone which is 200 meters wide, extending from surface to 300 meters vertical and the true thickness of the massive sulphide body varies from 75 meters to 100 meters. The East Zone (Copper-Gold) is 100 meters wide, also extending from surface to 300 vertical meters and is mainly mineralized with gold and copper. On February 20th 2017, a NI 43-101 report was accepted and filed on SEDAR.

About Puma Exploration Inc.

Puma Exploration is a Canadian mineral exploration company with advanced precious and base metals projects in Canada. The Company's major assets consist of an option to acquire 100% beneficial interest in the Murray Brook Property, the Turgeon Zinc-Copper Project and the Nicholas-Denys Project located in New Brunswick as well as an equity interest in BWR Resources, Manitoba. Puma's objective for the coming year is to focus its exploration efforts in New Brunswick.

Qualified Persons and QC/AC

The content of this press release was prepared by Marcel Robillard, P.Geo., President and Dominique Gagne, P.Geo., Vice President Exploration of Puma Exploration, qualified persons as defined by NI 43-101, who supervised the preparation and technical information that forms the basis for this news release. 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. Mr. Robillard and Mr. Gagne are not independent of the Company, as both are officers and shareholders thereof. The samples were prepared, sent, processed at ALS Val D'Or, Quebec and ALS Sudbury, Ontario. All samples were assayed by ME-ICP41 method and gold was assayed by AU-AA26 method. QA/QC are monitored by the analysis of blanks, reference material and replicate samples at a frequency of one (1) of each per 30 samples.

You can visit us on Facebook and Twitter.

Learn more by consulting www.pumaexploration.com for further information on Puma Exploration Inc.

Forward-Looking Statements: This press release may contain forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements involve a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Puma Exploration Inc. to be materially different from actual future results and achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements which speak only as of the date the statements were made, except as required by law. Puma Exploration undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are described in the quarterly and annual reports and in the documents submitted to the securities administration.

To view the figure associated with this press release, please visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/171220_PUM_Figure1.jpg

Contacts:

Puma Exploration Inc.

Marcel Robillard

President

(418) 724-0901

president@explorationpuma.com

www.pumaexploration.com




Funds available for programs focusing on women's equality now total $2m

NEW YORK, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Genesis Prize Foundation announced today that Israeli philanthropist and humanitarian Morris Kahn has made a $1 million gift to the Genesis Prize Foundation in honor of 2018 Laureate Natalie Portman.

Morris Kahn's gift doubles the 2018 Genesis Prize Award Fund to $2 million.

World-renowned actress, director and social activist Natalie Portman became the 5th Genesis Prize Laureate in November 2017. In keeping with tradition established by the previous Laureates who have "re-gifted" their awards, Natalie Portman announced that award funds would be granted to programs focusing on advancing women's equality in all aspects of human endeavor. A significant portion of the funds will go to support NGOs working in the field of women's rights in Israel.

"I would like to express my gratitude and admiration to Morris Kahn for his incredible support of the 2018 Genesis Prize theme," said Portman. "Morris' generosity once again reinforces how relevant and important the issue of women's equality is today - in Israel, in the US and beyond."

Morris Kahn is a South African-bornbusinessman and philanthropist whomoved to Israelin 1956. Heis the founder of companies such as Amdocs, the Coral World Underwater Observatory inEilat and others. An active humanitarian, in recent years he has increasingly focused his attention on philanthropy and venture philanthropy.

Mr. Kahn supports a wide range of initiatives that are close to his heart, including the promotion of successful, ethical and challenge-seeking youth leadership; making cataract and trachomasurgery accessible to Ethiopian villagers; running a summer camp for children with terminal diseases; operating a therapeutic riding center for the disabled.

He funds Save a Child's Heart, a non-profit that provides life-saving cardiac surgery for children from developing countries. To date it has saved more than 4,000 lives. He supports cutting-edge cancer stem cell research and fertility preservation among women cancer patients. Mr. Kahn's latest initiative involves the founding of the Morris Kahn & Maccabi Health Data Institution. The organization will provide a technological platform to support medical breakthroughs in the fields of predictive analysis and precision medicine.

For his contribution to Israel and the Jewish people,Morris Kahn has been named honorary president of theMaccabiahGames (also known as "Jewish Olympics")in 2016.

"It is a privilege to join forces with Morris Kahn, who is widely admired for his thoughtful and innovative philanthropy," said Co-founder and Chairman of the Genesis Prize Foundation Stan Polovets. "This gift doubles the 2018 Genesis Prize Award to $2 million, which will significantly enhance the reach and impact of Genesis Prize programs focused on advancing women's equality."

Earlier this year, Kahn made a gift in support of the 2017 Genesis Prize Laureate Anish Kapoor, whose Genesis Prize theme focused on alleviating the plight of refugees, and raising awareness in the Jewish community of the urgent need to support refugees. Morris Kahn's gift financed treatment of hearing loss among Syrian children from conflict areas that were brought to the Ziv Medical Center in Israel for diagnostic examination, clinical treatment, surgery and rehabilitation.

"I am pleased to have this opportunity to support the 2018 Genesis Prize Laureate Natalie Portman in her noble undertaking," said Morris Kahn. "The Genesis Prize is known for focusing its philanthropy on issues that are both relevant and timely; the issue of women's equality and empowerment is, without a doubt, one of them. I believe that the outstanding Jewish role model Ms. Portman and the Genesis Prize Foundation together are well positioned to make a difference and drive meaningful change. It is an honor to be a part of this effort."

Ms. Portman's award money will be used for grants to organizations involved in promoting women's educational opportunities, economic advancement, health and safety, and full participation in policy formulation and political activity. Details of how organizations may apply for funding will be announced in early 2018.

Natalie Portman will be honored at the Genesis Prize Ceremony in Jerusalem on June 28, 2018.

BACKGROUND

About the Genesis Prize

The Genesis Prize honors extraordinary individuals who serve as an inspiration to the next generation of Jews through their outstanding professional achievement, commitment to Jewish values and the Jewish people.

The Genesis Prizeis a global award created to celebrate Jewish achievement and contribution to humanity. Launched in 2013, the Prize is financed through a permanent endowment of $100 million established by theGenesis Prize Foundation (GPF). The Prize operates as a partnership among The Genesis Prize Foundation, thePrime Minister's Office of the State of Israel, and The Office of the Chairman of the Executive of theJewish Agency for Israel(JAFI).

Previous Laureates of the Award, dubbed "the Jewish Nobel" by Time Magazine, are former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (2014), actor and peace activist Michael Douglas (2015), virtuoso violinist and advocate for people with disabilities Itzhak Perlman (2016) and prominent sculptor and activist for the rights of refugees Sir Anish Kapoor (2017).

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/621829/Genesis_Prize_Foundation_Morris_Kahn_Natalie_Portman_Stan_Polovets.jpg
HSINCHU, Taiwan and WUHAN, China, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --JHL Biotech (Stock Code: 6540.TWO) announced today that it has submitted a Phase 1 Clinical Trial Application to the Dutch Healthcare Authority for its proposed dornase alfa biosimilar, JHL1922, to improve pulmonary function in cystic fibrosis patients.

JHL1922 would provide an affordable alternative to dornase alfa, which is indicated for daily administration to improve pulmonary function in cystic fibrosis patients in conjunction with other standard therapies. The clinical trial will be conducted in the Netherlands beginning March 2018.

JHL Biotech is developing JHL1922 as a proposed similar biological product to dornase alfa. Dornase alfa is a recombinant human deoxyribonuclease I (rhDNase I), an enzyme which selectively cleaves deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Dornase alfa is sold under the brand name Pulmozymein the United States and the European Union and was first approved for treatment of cystic fibrosis in the U.S. in 1993 and in Europe in 1994.

Cystic fibrosis affects over 100,000 people worldwide, and dornase alfa is an important part of the treatment regimen. Estimates show the cost of dornase alfa treatment is US$12,000 -$40,000 per patient per year, with only about 30,000 patients receiving this treatment.

"JHL1922 would increase affordable access to an important therapeutic for cystic fibrosis patients, and we look forward to conducting the Phase I trial in Europe," said Racho Jordanov, CEO, JHL Biotech.

Media Contact:

Jill Liu

jliu@jhlbiotech.com

Amber Chen

achen@jhlbiotech.com

Phone: +886 3-658-3899

About JHL Biotech

JHL Biotech Inc. (Stock Code: 6540.TWO) is a biopharmaceutical startup founded by a group of industry veterans with deep experience in pharmaceutical development and operations. JHL is backed by premier financial firms, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sequoia Capital, Biomark Capital, Milestone Capital, Fidelity, and the China Development Industrial Bank. JHL Biotech's mission is to provide the world with low-cost medicines of exceptional quality. JHL is focused on research and development of new protein-based therapies and biosimilars. JHL Biotech has two world-class facilities built in accordance with United States, European Union, and ICH cGMP regulations and standards. For more information, please visit www.jhlbiotech.com .

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, which are generally statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the words "expects," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "plans," "will," "outlook" and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are based on management's current plans, estimates, assumptions and projections, and speak only as of the date they are made. JHL undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement in light of new information or future events, except as otherwise required by law. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, most of which are difficult to predict and are generally beyond the control of either company. Actual results or outcomes may differ materially from those implied by the forward-looking statements.

Logo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/333015/jhl_Logo.jpg


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - House Republicans voted once again on Wednesday to approve sweeping tax reform legislation, sending the bill to President Donald Trump's desk.



The House voted 224 to 201 in favor of the bill known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, with the vote coming down largely along party lines.



The bill reduces the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent, gives tax breaks to pass-through businesses and includes provisions intended to encourage domestic business investment.



The legislation also reduces tax rate for most individuals, although the tax cuts for individuals are set to expire.



The House voted in favor of a similar bill on Tuesday but needed to re-vote due to procedural issues related to the reconciliation process.



The Senate voted 51 to 48 in favor of the $1.5 trillion tax reform bill early this morning, with the vote coming down strictly along party lines.



While GOP lawmakers argue reductions in the tax rates for businesses and individuals will boost economic growth, Democrats claim the legislation will give tax cuts to the wealthy at the expense of the middle class.



The bill also includes a repeal of Obamacare's requirement that everyone has health insurance as well as a provision allowing energy development in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.



In remarks at a cabinet meeting ahead of the vote, Trump described the tax reform bill as an 'historic victory for the American people.'



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
SEATTLE (dpa-AFX) - It seems that e-commerce giant Amazon is getting ready to take the fight directly to its rival Google by planning to launch a YouTube like video-sharing platform. According to reports, Amazon is mulling about its own video platform and has filed two trademarks requests with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for names 'Amazontube,' and another called 'Opentube. It was first spotted by TV Answer Man. In its filings, Amazon describes Amazontube or Opentube as providers of 'non-downloadable pre-recorded audio, visual and audiovisual works via wireless networks.' The service will also allow users 'to share content, photos videos, text, data, images and other electronic works,' and goes on to list topics, ranging from gaming to dance, fashion and tech. Meanwhile, DomainNameWire points out that Amazon has been registering a bunch of domain names, including AlexaOpenTube.com, AmazonAlexaTube.com, and AmazonOpenTube.com. This news comes amidst ongoing battle among Amazon and Google about YouTube's blockade on Amazon devices. Google had announced that it was removing its app from the Echo and from Fire TV. 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.
CALGARY, AB / ACCESSWIRE / December 20, 2017 / Emerald Bay Energy Inc. (TSX-V: EBY) (the 'Corporation' or 'Emerald Bay') today reported that the Corporation has closed the first tranche of its previously announced private placement. Pursuant to this first closing, an aggregate 16,666,667 units ('Units') were issued to two (2) subscribers at a price of $0.015 per Unit, for aggregate consideration of $250,000. Each Unit consisted of one (1) Common Share of the Corporation and one (1) share purchase warrant (the 'Warrant') (each full Warrant shall entitle the holder thereof to purchase one (1) additional Common Share of the Corporation for a period of 12 months from the issuance of the Units at a price of $0.05) (the 'Offering'). The Warrants are subject to an acceleration clause whereby if after four months and one day following the date the Warrants are issued, the closing price of the Common Shares of the Corporation on the principal market on which such shares trade is equal to or exceeds $0.10 for 30 consecutive trading days (with the 30th such trading date hereafter referred to as the 'Eligible Acceleration Date'), the Warrant expiry date shall accelerate to the date which is 30 calendar days following the date a press release is issued by the Corporation announcing the reduced warrant term, provided, no more than five business days following the Eligible Acceleration Date: (i) the press release is issued; and (ii) notices are sent to all warrant holders.

Emerald Bay further reported that it has increased the total private placement/Offering from an aggregate $300,000 (see press release dated November 21, 2017) to an aggregate $400,000. No other terms of the private placement have been altered.

The net proceeds will be used in respect existing drilling commitments on the Corporation's assets in Texas, specifically in relation to the following:

at the Corporation's Wooden Horse property, the Corporation: (i) will add lifting equipment to begin production operations on the recently drilled Kuhn 4 well, at an approximate cost of $22,500; (ii) is evaluating locations for two new wells (Kuhn 5 and Kuhn 6) to be drilled as Buda formation targets at an estimated cost of $65,000 each; and (iii) will renew leased acreage and lease acreage adjacent to the Wooden Horse property at an approximate cost of $35,000; and

at the Corporation's Nash Creek property, the Corporation plans to drill short radius horizontal legs to the fault detected by the 3D seismic in the BeauMar 1 well at an approximate cost of $68,000.

All of the Common Shares and Warrants issued pursuant to the private placement are subject to a 4-month hold period. The terms of the private placement are according to the TSX Venture Exchange Discretionary Waivers of $0.05 Minimum Pricing Requirement Bulletin, dated April 7, 2014, and completion of the private placement is subject to the final approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

About Emerald Bay

Emerald Bay Energy Inc. (EBY) is an energy company with oil producing properties in southwest Texas as well as non operated oil, natural gas, and electricity generation interests in Central Alberta, Canada. EBY is the operator of the Wooden Horse and Nash Creek Projects in Guadeloupe, Texas, where the Company currently now owns a 50.00% working interest in those projects. The Company also owns 75% of Production Resources Inc., a South Texas oil company.

To stay informed on Emerald Bay Energy, please join our Investor Group at https://www.8020connect.com/groups/emerald-bay-energy-inc for all upcoming news releases, articles, comments and questions.

For further information, please contact:

Emerald Bay President, Shelby D. Beattie, by telephone at (403) 262-6000

Email: info@ebyinc.com

www.ebyinc.com

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes statements that may constitute 'forward-looking' statements, usually containing the words 'believe,' 'estimate,' 'project,' 'expect,' 'plan,' 'intend,' 'anticipates,' 'projects,' 'potential' or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts.

Information inferred from the interpretation of drilling results may also be deemed to be forward-looking statements, as it constitutes a prediction of what might be found to be present when and if a well is actually developed. BOE's may be misleading, particularly if used in isolation. A BOE conversion ratio of 6 Mcf: 1 Bbl is based on energy equivalency conversion method primarily applicable at the burner tip and does not represent a value equivalency at the wellhead. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of such information, which are considered reasonable by Emerald Bay at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect. Actual results achieved will vary from the information provided and the variations may be material. There is no representation by Emerald Bay that actual results achieved will be the same in whole or part as those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this document include statements regarding the Company's exploration, drilling and development plans, the Company's expectations regarding the timing and success of such programs. In particular, forward-looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to: pipeline acquisitions and leasing; pipeline permits, pipeline construction, production estimates, drilling operations, completion operations, funding and development goals. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. We cannot guarantee future results, level of activity, performance or achievements. Consequently, there is no representation that the actual results achieved will be the same, in whole or in part, as those set out in the forward-looking information. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, fluctuations in the prices of oil and gas, uncertainties inherent in estimating quantities of oil and gas reserves and projecting future rates of production and timing of development activities, competition, operating risks, acquisition risks, liquidity and capital requirements, the effects of governmental regulation, adverse changes in the market for the Company's oil and gas production, dependence upon third-party vendors, and other risks detailed in the Company's periodic report filings with the applicable securities regulators.

SOURCE: Emerald Bay Energy Inc.
Gary S. Laben Will Lead Combined Organization

PLANO, Texas andSHELTON, Connecticut, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Research Now and Survey Sampling International (SSI) announce that their merger agreement has received all necessary global regulatory approvals and has closed. Gary S. Laben, CEO of Research Now, will lead the joint organization as CEO.

The combined company is privately held, with Court Square Capital Partners and HGGC, the current majority owners of Research Now and SSI, respectively, remaining as majority owners of the combined business. Financial terms of the deal are not being publicly released.

The company will be known as Research Now SSI. With the merger, it becomes the market research industry's largest provider of online panel data and technology-based research solutions based on opted-in data.

"Together, we are exceptionally well-positioned for growth in our established market research customer base as well as in new, strategic areas that span the entire marketing continuum of data-driven consumer engagement," says Laben. "With our core asset of verified, opted-in data, and an innovative approach to marketing services based on actual voice of the consumer, we can offer existing and new customers new ways to achieve optimized marketing performance."

About Research Now SSI

Research Now SSI is the global leader in digital research data for better insights and business decisions. The company provides world-class research data solutions that enable better results for more than 3,500 market research, consulting, media, healthcare and corporate clients. Research Now SSI operates globally with locations in the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, and is recognized as the quality, scale, and customer satisfaction leader in the market research industry. For more information, please go to www.researchnow.com and www.surveysampling.com.

Editors, for more information, contact:

Barbara Palmer

Research Now SSI

+1 214 918 9933



Andrew Jolls

Research Now SSI

+1 818 827 3440

Logo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/621661/RN_SSI_Dual_Logo.jpg
Weekly net asset value ("NAV") is calculated as of the close of business on each Tuesday and posted on the following business day. In the event that Tuesday is not a business day, the Company will calculate the close-of-business NAV as of the business day immediately preceding that Tuesday. The end-of-month NAV is calculated as of the close of business on the last day of the month and posted on the following business day. For weeks that include a month-end NAV report, PSH will provide only the month-end NAV and not report the Tuesday NAV. Monthly NAVs are published in accordance with the Decree on Conduct of Business Supervision of Financial Undertakings under the Wft (Besluit Gedragstoezicht financiele ondernemingen Wft).

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - December 20, 2017) - Exro Technologies Inc. (CSE: XRO) ("Exro" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has agreed to integrate its proprietary Direct Power Management (DPM) technology into a motor used for a fixed wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The integration will be for a Fortune 50 company working on UAV technologies for its customers and will be tested and calibrated over a 3-4 month period. The purpose of this project is to determine whether Exro's technology can extend flight service and range.

The companies anticipate that incorporating Exro's DPM technology may also provide an assist in managing torque issues as the motor gets to its operating RPM, helping to extend operating life. The companies will also explore whether Exro's technology, which isolates coils and reconfigures them in real time, can prevent catastrophic failure in the event of an electrical fault.

Exro CEO Mark Godsy stated: "We are delighted to have an opportunity to validate our technology for a commercial motor application. Assuming we are successful, working with a company of this magnitude will help to accelerate Exro's path toward commercialization."

About Exro:

Exro Technologies offers the potential to accelerate the transition to clean energy by improving the efficiency and reliability of fuel-powered electric motors and generators, which make up about half the worldwide market for electric power. Exro's patented Dynamic Power Management technology works on both input and output in electric motors and generators, dynamically sensing and adapting variable inputs and optimally matching them to desired outputs, resulting in specific, measurable (approximately 2-7% in benchmark testing to date) performance gains. The applications of the technology are enormous, applying both to energy capture from wind and tides, to optimizing the performance of electric cars, UAVs, pumps, ship drives, industrial motors, vacuums and anything else powered by an electric motor or generator. By isolating individual coils, Exro's DPM technology also offers electrical system redundancy, which can prevent catastrophic failures for mission critical applications such as flight. Please visit our website at www.exro.com.

Certain statements contained in this News Release constitute forward-looking statements. When used in this document, the words "may", "would", "could", "will" and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company or its management are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the Company's current views with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Many factors could cause the Company's actual performance or achievements to vary from those described herein. Should one or more of these factors or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. The Company does not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

The Canadian Securities Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Mark Godsy, Director & CEO

INVESTOR CONTACT INFORMATION

Lyle McLennan: 604 808 9221
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / December 20, 2017 / Juan Monteverde, founder and managing partner at Monteverde & Associates PC, a boutique securities firm headquartered at the Empire State Building in New York City, is investigating Bonanza Creek Energy, Inc ("Bonanza" or the "Company") (NYSE: BCEI) relating to the merger of the Company to SandRidge Energy, Inc. ("SandRidge"). As a result of the merger, Bonanza shareholders are only anticipated to receive $19.20 in cash and $16.80 shares of SandRidge stock in exchange for each share of Bonanza.

Click here for more information: http://monteverdelaw.com/investigations/m-a/. It is free and there is no cost or obligation to you.

The investigation focuses on whether Bonanza and its Board of Directors violated securities laws and/or breached their fiduciary duties to the Company's stockholders by 1) failing to conduct a fair process, 2) whether and by how much this proposed transaction undervalues the Company by and 3) failing to disclose all material financial information in connection with the upcoming shareholder meeting.

Monteverde & Associates PC is a boutique class action securities and consumer litigation law firm that has recovered millions of dollars and is committed to protecting shareholders and consumers from corporate wrongdoing. Monteverde & Associates lawyers have significant experience litigating Mergers & Acquisitions and Securities Class Actions, whereby they protect investors by recovering money and remedying corporate misconduct. Mr. Monteverde, who leads the legal team at the firm, has been recognized by Super Lawyers as a Rising Star in Securities Litigation in 2013 and 2017, an award given to less than 2.5% of attorneys in a particular field. He has also been selected by Martindale-Hubbell as a 2017 Top Rated Lawyer.

If you own common stock in Bonanza and wish to obtain additional information and protect your investments free of charge, please visit our website or contact Juan E. Monteverde, Esq. either via e-mail at jmonteverde@monteverdelaw.com or by telephone at (212) 971-1341.

Contact:

Juan E. Monteverde, Esq.

MONTEVERDE & ASSOCIATES PC

The Empire State Building

350 Fifth Ave. Suite 4405

New York, NY 10118

United States of America

jmonteverde@monteverdelaw.com

Tel: (212) 971-1341

Attorney Advertising. (C) 2017 Monteverde & Associates PC. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Monteverde & Associates PC (www.monteverdelaw.com). Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome with respect to any future matter.

SOURCE: Monteverde & Associates PC
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / December 20, 2017 / Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against RYB Education, Inc. ('RYB' or the 'Company') (NYSE: RYB) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court, for the Southern District of New York, and docketed under 17-cv-09261, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons other than defendants who purchased or otherwise acquired RYB's American Depositary Receipts ('ADRs'): (1) pursuant and/or traceable to RYB's false and misleading Registration Statement and Prospectus, issued in connection with the Company's initial public offering on or about September 27, 2017 (the 'IPO' or the 'Offering'); and/or (2) on the open market between September 27, 2017 and November 22, 2017, both dates inclusive (the 'Class Period'), seeking to recover damages caused by defendants' violations of the Securities Act of 1933 (the 'Securities Act') and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the 'Exchange Act').

If you are a shareholder who purchased RYB securities between September 27, 2017, and November 22, 2017, both dates inclusive, you have until January 26, 2018, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com. To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and amount of shares purchased.

[Click here to join this class action]

RYB Education, Inc. offers educational services. The Company operates kindergarten and pre-schools. RYB Education provides training in a variety of subjects and languages, teacher recruitment, guidance, innovative learning, development of children, rating systems, parents consulting, and other services.

The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operational and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) RYB failed to establish safety policies to prevent sexual abuse from occurring at its schools; (ii) RYB's failure to remedy problems within its system exposed children to harm and unreasonable risk of harm while in the Company's care; and (iii) as a result of the foregoing, RYB securities traded at artificially inflated prices during the Class Period, and class members suffered significant losses and damages.

On November 24, 2017, various news outlets reported that police have opened an investigation into RYB after numerous parents accused a RYB nursery of drugging and molesting their children. Beijing's education authority confirmed the police investigation in a statement. According to China's leading newspaper Xinhua News Agency, RYB has suspended multiple teachers at RYB Education New World after kindergarten students were 'reportedly sexually molested, pierced by needles, given unidentified pills,' and forced to undress and locked in a dark room. Parents reported that at least eight children have been abused at the school and that the children had given similar accounts with respect to their abuse.

On this news, RYB's ADR price fell $10.28 per share, or over 38% from its previous closing price, to close at $16.45 per share on November 24, 2017.

On the following day, several news outlets reported that Chinese police had detained teachers in connection with its RYB's child abuse inquiry. According to police reports, one of the teachers was arrested after needle wounds were found on at least eight children aged 2 to 6 years at the kindergarten. In a statement issued later that day, RYB announced it had fired the detained teachers, as well as the head of one of its kindergartens.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com.

SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP
CLEVELAND, OH / ACCESSWIRE / December 20, 2017 / AmeriMark Holdings LLC, a leading catalog and e-commerce direct marketer of apparel, home, healthcare and personal care products for the 65+ aged baby boomer and senior market, announced today that it has acquired Illinois-based LTD Commodities LLC.

'The combination of AmeriMark Direct and Dr. Leonard's Healthcare Corp. has proven to be a successful partnership with leveraging the size and strengths of both businesses. Adding LTD Commodities to our portfolio gives us increased scale to further strengthen our marketplace positioning,' said AmeriMark Holdings CEO, Mark Ethier.

AmeriMark Holdings will operate as 3 business units - Edison, NJ-based Dr. Leonard's Healthcare Corp., Cleveland, OH-based AmeriMark Direct and the Bannockburn, IL-based LTD Commodities. Combined, AmeriMark Holdings will generate $800 million in sales with over 6.2 million active customers over 55 years of age. This is one of the largest databases of this market segment in the industry.

Mark Ethier will remain as CEO of AmeriMark Holdings. Joe Albanese will remain as Executive Vice President and CFO of AmeriMark Holdings and President of Dr. Leonard's Healthcare Corp. Michael Hara will serve in an advisory capacity to assist with the LTD transition.

'We are looking forward to joining the AmeriMark family of brands, continuing our past 50 years of success and offering our customers a wider breadth of products and services. The combined strength in management, talent, product and services will offer a best-in-class print and e-commerce organization,' said Michael Hara.

Prudential Capital Group, which first invested in AmeriMark in 2007, led the acquisition. PNC Bank provided financing for the acquisition. Blank Rome LLP served as legal counsel for AmeriMark Holdings. Lazard Middle Market LLC acted as financial advisor to LTD Commodities LLC. Greenberg Traurig, LLP served as legal counsel for LTD Commodities LLC.

About AmeriMark Holdings LLC

AmeriMark Holdings is a leading catalog and e-commerce direct marketer of healthcare, apparel, home and personal care products for the 65+ aged plus baby boomer and senior market. The Cleveland, Ohio-based business, AmeriMark Direct, has 8 distinctive catalog titles and e-commerce sites: Anthony Richards, Time for Me, Healthy LivingTM, Feel Good Store, Beauty Boutique, Complements, Essentials, and Windsor Collection. The Edison, New Jersey-based Dr. Leonard's Healthcare Corp. supports 2 catalog titles and e-commerce sites for Dr. Leonard's Healthcare and Carol Wright Gifts. AmeriMark Holdings has combined sales of $450 million.

About LTD Commodities, LLC

LTD Commodities is one of the country's premier catalog and online merchandisers, featuring home, personal care and apparel, products for 55+ aged consumer. Based in Illinois and in business for over 50 years, the company has been committed to selling top quality merchandise at tremendous value prices. Current sales exceed $350 million.

About Prudential Capital Group

Prudential Capital Group is an institutional investment business of PGIM, Inc., the asset management business of Prudential Financial, Inc., and is one of the largest managers of private corporate investments globally, with nearly $82 billion of private placements, mezzanine and structured equity investments in more than 1,000 companies (as of September 30, 2017).

SOURCE: AmeriMark Holdings LLC
Airwallex, a Melbourne, Victoria, Australia-based international payments company, secured $6m in funding.

Melbourne-headquartered Square Peg Capital made the investment.

The company, which had raised $13m in a Series A funding round from Tencent Holdings, Sequoia Capital China, and Mastercard, intends to use the funds to further accelerate its international expansion.

Led by Co-Founder and CEO Jack Zhang, Airwallex provides a suite of APIs which allow businesses to process international payments at scale, supporting a combination of payment collection, foreign exchange and local payment distribution.

The companys platform, powered by an FX and payment engine and a transparent pricing model to avoid inflated margins and minimize market risk, is able to support thousands of transactions per second.

Airwallex was the first Australian startup to join the Mastercard Start Path accelerator program in September 2016.

FinSMEs

20/12/2017
Simba, a London, UK-based sleep tech company, raised 45M in Series B funding.

The round was led by Atami Capital, with participation from Lombard Odier, Wharton Asset Management, and Nigel Wray.

The company, which has raised more than 66m in total funding, intends to use the capital to accelerate the brands global expansion.

Launched by James Cox, Steve Reid, and the McClements family in February 2016, Simba leverage innovative materials and technology to make beds, mattresses, pillows, and other products. Already present in fourteen countries, the company said it has sold approx. 100,000 mattresses in France, Spain, Germany, Turkey and Romania, Africa, Asia, Middle East and Australia.

Simba has a team of 80 people.

FinSMEs

20/12/2017
New Delhi: The amendments to the companies law provide for stringent penalties in case of non-filing of annual returns which would act as a deterrent against shell entities, according to an expert.

Parliament on Tuesday passed a bill to amend the Companies Act to strengthen corporate governance standards, initiate strict action against defaulting companies and help improve ease of doing business.

The Rajya Sabha passed the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2017 by a voice vote. It was cleared by the Lok Sabha in July this year.

"The bill while rationalising and simplifying certain provisions, also provides for stringent penalties in case of non-filing of balance sheet and annual return every year, which will act as deterrent to shell companies.

"The changes will facilitate ease of doing business, result in harmonisation with Sebi and RBI and rectify certain omissions and inconsistencies in the existing Act," Ankit Singhi, Partner at advisory firm Corporate Professionals said in a statement.

The bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha in March 2016 and then referred to the Standing Committee on Finance. After taking into consideration the recommendations of the panel, the Cabinet cleared a revised bill in March this year.

Already, the Act has been amended once by the present government.

Simplification of the private placement process, rationalisation of provisions related to loans to directors and doing away with the requirement of central government approval for managerial remuneration above prescribed limits are among the changes that would be made through the bill.
Mumbai: Mortgage lender HDFC has received a board approval to raise up to Rs 13,000 crore through preferential issue of shares.

"The issue will be through a preferential issue or qualified institutions placement basis or through any other permissible mode or combination," HDFC vice chairman and CEO, Keki Mistry, told reporters on Tuesday.

The capital raised will be used to participate in the preferential issue of HDFC Bank. The bank has proposed to raise capital to fund its growth.

HDFC, along with its wholly-owned subsidiaries, currently holds 21.01 percent in HDFC Bank.

"In order for the Corporation to more or less maintain its current shareholding in HDFC Bank (post dilution), it will need to participate in the banks preferential offer up to Rs 8,500 crore," Mistry said.

HDFC did not participate in the last equity issue of HDFC Bank in February 2015.
Ride-hailing app Ola (owned by ANI Technologies) has decided to get into the food delivery space again, this time around by acquiring German-firm Delivery Heros Foodpanda India. Delivery Hero is an online food ordering and delivery marketplace.

Foodpanda is headed into the kitchen again after Ola Cafe, its first first foray into the food delivery business, launched in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad shut shop.

What does this acquisition bode for Ola, which will now have a platform to compete with UberEATS, rival Ubers meal order and delivery platform launched in India in May?

However, a section of the industry watchers feel Ola's Foodpanda acquisition should not be seen solely as an attempt to copy Uber's strategy. They say that to survive in the increasingly competitive market, every business has to look at expansion and so food is just one arm of Ola, whose core is cab aggregation.

Olas acquisition of Foodpanda is a necessary evil which is needed as it is a natural evolution in the e-commerce ecosystem, says Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief analyst, founder and CEO of Greyhound Knowledge Group, a global strategy and transformation research, advisory and consulting group. He says that though it may look like Ola is copying Uber by venturing into the food space, it is actually about hypergrowth. It is a great decision from that perspective, he said.

Year 2017 started off with both aggregators and internet kitchens present in prominent cities improving their unit economics lead by reduction in delivery costs and increasing penetration in existing markets, according to Redseer. The industry is now looking for rapid growth signalled by increasing marketing campaigns and rise in frequency of offers and discounts on the platforms. Continuing on this momentum, the sector is on course to hit $1.5 billion by the end of 2018 and $2.5- 3.5 billion by 2021 in GMV terms.

Most investors often complain that there not enough mergers or exits. I feel that with this acquisition, Ola has given its investors something to cheer about. The acquisition is good for the ecosystem and also for its market share and consumers, says Paula Mariwala, Partner, Seedfund and Co-Founder, Stanford Angels.

The food delivery business is seen as a desirable fit for cab aggregators as it adds value to the service. Given that Foodpanda has been struggling for a while, the acquisition was waiting to happen. Foodpandas revenue stood at Rs 62.16 crore in 2016-17 compared to Rs 37.81 crore in the previous fiscal, on the back of strong growth in orders in key markets, according to a PTI report. Its losses narrowed to Rs 44.81 crore in 2016-17, from Rs 142.64 crore in 2015-16. The company had said it aims to be profitable by 2019.

The deal is a good shot at diversification for Ola, reiterates Arvind Singhal, Chairman and Managing Director of Technopak Advisors, a management consulting firm. Under the deal with Deliveryhero, Softbank-backed Ola is committed to investing $200 million in Foodpandas India business. Thats a huge investment on Olas part. For Ola, Foodpanda is the equivalent of UberEATS. They have to expand and have multiple business activities like Amazon has in other domains, he said.

Ola has, however, not spelt out its strategy for Foodpanda except as reported that its founding partner Pranay Jivrajka has taken over as interim CEO of Foodpanda India, supported by the existing leadership team at the online delivery business.How well will Ola be able to leverage Foodpanda is yet to be seen though, cautions Harish HV, Partner, India Leadership Team, Grant Thornton India LLP. Ola and Uber are looking at all avenues to explore and diversfy their portfolio. At some point Amazon may also get into this space. It may say that if you are a Prime customer, I can give you a food delivery at a cheaper rate than Ola or Uber, for instance, he says.

The online food delivery market in India is expected to grow more than six-fold to $750 million this year from about $120 million in 2015, according to a report by consultant RedSeer.

Ola with Foodpanda will be able to give competition to Zomato and Swiggy, believes Singhal of Teknopak. Zomato's reported loss of Rs 389 crore and Swiggy Rs 205 crore, according to a Business Today report.
Twenty years ago, in 1997, Eminem  a 25-year-old rapper with nothing to lose  released The Slim Shady EP. It was The Slim Shady EP that introduced us to Slim Shady  Eminems uncaring and unspeakably foul-mouthed alter-ego. Come 2017, Eminem tries to undo much of what he has said and done as Slim Shady. On the opening track Walk on Water  a piano ballad with Beyonce belting out a gospel-tinged chorus about the shortcomings of us mortals  Eminem raps about self-doubt and accepting the possibility of the end of his dominance. On the following track Believe, Eminem is as cocky as ever and shows us why he is so often considered the greatest rapper to ever grab the mic. Revival, an album over 77 minutes in length, hurls at us multiple shades of Eminem: the rap-God himself, the man Marshall Mathers, and  if you listen carefully  rare glimpses of Slim Shady.

With Revival, Eminem gives his fans more than they can handle. On Believe, Eminem reasserts his position in rap-music. On Chloraseptic, he shows distain for the mumble-rap trend. And  after his takedown of Donald Trump with the freestyle The Storm at the BET Hip-Hop Awards  Em dishes out more leftist political punditry on Untouchable and Like Home. Eminem backs the African-American cause and schools the rightwing about privilege and racism on Untouchable. Alicia Keys soaring hook on Like Home holds the track together as Eminem launches a scathing attack on President Trump. Eminem even comes forward in support of transgenders as he raps, This chump barely even sleeps/All he does is watch Fox News like a parrot and repeats/While he looks like a canary with a beak/Why you think he banned transgenders from the military with a tweet? This is the same rapper who was labeled homophobic by the political left for lyrics such as, Make fun of gay clubs, men who wear make-up. So, who is the real Eminem?

Eminems lyrics have had political leanings ever since 2002s White America where he says f**k you to Tipper Gore and Lynne Cheney, and calls the United States of America the Divided States of Embarrassment. The difference between Eminem on Revival and the one on White America is that earlier, Eminem never chose sides. He despised the left as much as the right. There was no adoration  not for the government, the country, the institution of family, nor God  on any of his tracks. Like Home is soaked in a cheery sense of patriotism that seems out of place on an Eminem record.

Eminem has rapped about his turbulent relationship with ex-wife Kim on every album. Revival is no different. On Bad Husband, Eminem expresses regret for the things he has said and done to Kim. The grievous and subdued hook by rock-outfit X Ambassadors gives the song a shaky feel of indelible remorse. Remind Me  which samples I Love Rock N Roll by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts  is about the first time Eminem met Kim. A rap-rock track, 'Remind Me' stands out for its funky guitar sounds and groovy beats. Eminem dedicates the album's second-last track, 'Castle', to his daughter Hailie. Eminem apologises for pushing her into the public eye right from the time she was a toddler; something she never asked for. Castle is followed by Arose; a track about Eminems methadone overdose in 2007 and how he couldve lost out on the most important moments in his life.

Hip-hop has gone through multiple changes over the past two decades, but Eminem has remained the same. You see this on the tracks Framed, Heat and Offended. Eminems storytelling skills are intact on Framed, where he informs us about how to get away with murdering females. A horror-core track with a devious beat, Eminem raps about finding Ivanka Trump in the trunk of his car and feeling responsible for the dumb little blond. Framed, along with Heat and Offended, is one of the best track on Revival. On Offended, Eminem reveals his desire to stiff-arm Ivanka as hes hitting on Melania. Here, Eminem slips into his untamed and wicked side. Other tracks  like The River featuring Ed Sheeran, Need Me featuring Pink, and Tragic Endings featuring Skylar Grey  try to recreate Eminem and Rihannas explosive hit Love the Way You Lie with themes of an abusive relationship and toxic behaviour. Revival would've been just a good an album even if these three tracks were omitted from the tracklist. Tedious hooks, dry subject matter, and Rick Rubin's stale, recycled production drag Revival down. The track 'In Your Head'  which samples another classic 'Zombies' by The Cranberries  is salvaged only by Eminem's words, again.

Like Eminem says on 'Believe', he has achieved everything there is to achieve. He has been trying to top The Marshall Mathers LP ever since 2004's Encore. He hasn't achieved this yet. He keeps trying with every new record to outdo his sophomore release, but he doesn't quite get there. Eminem says that the rage he had in him back then has extinguished. Today, he's a sober 45-year-old millionaire who's a father, and also the highest selling rapper in history. In the end, Revival is Eminems best album since 2009s Relapse. It is not an easy album to digest as Eminem carefully demarcates his serious verses from the frivolous, twisted rants. On 'Walk on Water', underneath the melodious tune of the piano, you can hear the sound of pages being ripped apart. For Eminem, writing is a draining experience, and he prides himself on excelling at it with every album. Revival is an example of that. As for Eminem surpassing his earlier self, he's still only halfway there.
In a recent directors roundtable interview with Rajeev Masand, which had SS Rajamouli, Ashwini Iyer Tiwari, RS Prasanna, Konkana Sen Sharma, and Alankrita Shrivasata on board, there came a point where the directors debated on whether filmmaking, as a profession, was as important as that of a doctor who saves lives.

On the periphery, the answer was a clear no, but SS Rajamouli shared an interesting perspective about why films, or for that matter storytelling, matter.

Sabu Cyril, the production designer of Baahubali, once told me that the storytelling began several millennia ago when men were primarily hunters. Their lives were at stake all the time and it was a tough environment to survive in. So, by the end of the day, all of them would gather around a fire camp and share their stories, which could be real or fictional. For that brief moment of time, they would forget everything else and feel energised to move forward the next day. Cinema too serves the same purpose. It helps you switch off from reality for couple of hours and take you on a ride to a different world.

As I kept thinking about my own tryst with watching movies, I narrowed down my choices to four films which helped me tide over tough times in my adolescence.

The first three of them are - Gladiator, The Matrix, and Mahesh Babu starrer Okkadu. The heroic deeds of the protagonists in these films filled me with determination to aim higher and never give up. So, every time Star Movies would play Gladiator or The Matrix just before I had to take an exam the following day, it saw it as a good sign. Back in 2003, I could heave a sigh of relief that I got admission in BITS-Pilani, the university that I had been dreaming of. But nothing prepared me to make sense of how challenging and different my college life was going to be.

The thing which no one tells you in college is how to cope with failure. And once you realise that youre in the bottom 10% of the sack, only a miracle can save you from tumbling further down the rabbit hole. It didnt take me too long to realise that Im going to be stuck at the bottom, so instead of fighting back, I embraced my reality of being a five point someone, and looked for a way to help me cope up from depression.

And since then, my life has been intertwined with Manmadhudu, a romantic comedy starring Nagarjuna and Sonali Bendre, which had released on December 20, 2002. Back when it had released, although I loved it, I was too busy with my studies to really understand how much it was going to have an influence on me. And 15 years later, it all makes sense now.

My routine in college was simple. The moment I was given a question paper, I knew I was going to fail again. So, an hour later, I would submit my answer sheet, walk back to my hostel room, play Manmadhudu on a computer. Couple of hours later, I would sip chai, eat cut mirchi bajji along with it, and then, meet my friends over lunch where they would be bickering over what the right answer to a certain question was. I had the audacity to smile, despite knowing that I was going to fail. Why? I dont know. Maybe deep down I knew that I had a secret formula to tide over depressing days. And that was a film about a guy who cant stand women. This went on for two years and I lost count of how many times I revisited Manmadhudu in those days.

After all these years, theres hardly a day where I dont think about the escalator scene from the film when I go to a mall, and I have to resist my urge to say - They paid, no? - every time Im handed a bill at a coffee shop or a restaurant.

For the uninitiated, Manmadhudu, directed by K Vijaya Bhaskar, tells the story of Abhiram (Nagarjuna), whos the manager at an ad agency owned by his uncle (Thanikella Bharani). He hates women and the film begins with a monologue saying, Ithanu magadu. Ithanaki serve chese vaadu magadu. Ithaniki vandi pette vaadu kuda magade. Ithani lawn lo perige mokkalu kuda magave, andhuke vetiki poolu undavu (Hes a man. The one who serves him and cooks for him are all men. Even the plants in his lawn are all male, which is why there are no flowers).

And thus, we are introduced to Abhirams idiosyncrasies, where he would greet men in his office but ignore women, reprimand his colleague for even thinking about falling in love or getting married. Transformer-laki ammayilaki entha dooranga unte antha manchidhi. Current theegalu ekki adukuntanu antav enti vayya. Kaki la madipothav (You should stay away from transformers and women. Why do you want to play with electric cables? Youll get electrocuted and become as black as a crow), Abhiram tells his employee, whos in love with a colleague.

One fine day, Abhirams uncle appoints Harika (Sonali Bendre), as an assistant manager. Few days later, Harika gets so upset with Abhirams attitude towards her that she resigns from her job. This in turn prompts Abhirams uncle to reveal a flashback where we are told that Abhiram had fallen in love with Maheshwari (Anshu), but when hes told that she got married to someone else, he makes up his mind to never fall in love ever again. And to everyones surprise, he begins to hate women. Soon, Harika is promoted as a manager and Abhiram gets suspended. The rest of the story is about how Abhiram learns to fall in love again, after he goes on a business trip to Paris with Harika and S Lavangam (Brahmanandam).

The film, written by Trivikram Srinivas, was clearly inspired from Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt starrer What Women Want, but its charm lied in its ability to make us laugh almost till the climax sequence. One of the prominent things that stands out in the film is its usage of satire and quirky characters to convey a point across. When Bunk Seenu (Sunil), the younger brother of Harikas fiance, visits her house, all of them are shocked to know how short-tempered he is. In one particular scene, Bunk Seenu even yells at Harikas mother for serving way too much food! Then, theres Brahmanandam himself, in one of his funniest roles, whose camaraderie and conversations with Nagarjuna bring the house down.

The film made me even dream about visiting Paris and reliving all those scenes in the exact same locations where it was shot, particularly the bridge which Nagarjuna refuses to walk on because hes scared of water.

15 years ago, everything about the film - the dialogues, the onscreen chemistry between Nagarjuna and Sonali Bendre, Nagarjunas styling, Devi Sri Prasads music - had become a sensation. But in all these years, neither its comedy nor its characters seem dated. Every dialogue has become a pop culture phenomena and today, the film inspires several memes. The film also made the concept of of counters more mainstream than ever before.

For instance, when Sunil quips, Antharvedi lo Pelli aithe, Hyderabad lo pandhiri vesaaru. Ento! (The wedding is in Antharvedi, but theyve decorated the house in Hyderabad), an old man retorts, Penam meedha dosalu vesthe, manam plate lo pettukune thintam kadha (We make dosas on a tawa, but we cant eat it on that. We have to use a plate for that). The film is filled with more such puns, which are more like words of wisdom coated with dollops of satire.

In the end, Manmadhudu is a story about love and finding love when you least expect it. That it brought together some of the finest talents in the industry back then and delivered an experience that continues to be funny to this day is nothing short of an achievement.

The title Manmadhudu became some sort of a prefix to Nagarjunas name, and the film showed us why Trivikram became Guruji of Tollywood. But hey, I know, - Meetho satire esthe, nenu retire aipotha ani. Some lines are best left without translation. 15 years later, the film still feels like sunshine on a cold day and this might very well be true a decade from now as well.
The popular crime drama Narcos will return for a fourth season next year as Netflix released a 40-second teaser of the hit show.

The teaser features a mariachi band, a shower of powder and the easily recognisable theme song, Tuyo, by Rodrigo Amarante.

It also made some interesting revelations about the cast shake-up as Diego Luna and Michael Pena take over from Pedro Pascal, who played DEA agent Javier Pena in the first three seasons.

Showrunner Eric Newman told The Hollywood Reporter: The continuing character on the show was always intended to be cocaine and the futile war against it. Our characters are important, and there are a lot of similarities where, as we like to say, there are bad guys and very bad guys, but they are secondary to the cocaine. Its about the ongoing war against drugs and against cocaine and the inherent, unwinnable nature of that conflict.

While the first two seasons chronicled the notorious Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar and Season 3 focused on the Cali Cartel, the upcoming season will explore another Colombian drug empire  the Guadalajara cartel.

The dark crime show, which first aired in 2015, follows the cartels' cocaine smuggling to the United States.

Production for the fourth season is currently in progress and it is set to premiere sometime next year.

Watch the teaser below:
It was just yesterday (19 December) when Yash Raj Films released the trailer of Rani Mukerji's Hichki that features the multiple-award winning actress in the silver screen after a gap of three years. Like most of the films in recent times, Hichki too got embroiled in a controversy.

A writer named Nishant Kaushik took to Twitter and claimed that Yash Raj Films made him write the first draft of the film and was then shown the door on an unpleasant note.

Kaushik said the director of the film Siddharth P Malhotra approached him to write the script of a film. In his Twitter rant, Kaushik has provided evidences to his claims with screenshots of emails, messages between him and Malhotra. He also added that once he submitted the draft, there was no response from the film's team.

Landing in India this morning, I watched the trailer of #Hichki which served as a rude reminder of how easy it is to treat writers like trash. I will rant in this short thread after I have collected my composure.  Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) December 20, 2017

In March 2015, director Siddharth Malhotra spoke to me about a story that needs to be written. I was excited, and thankful for being considered to take a stab at the opportunity. I mentioned I had a day job. I was told time is not a constraint.  Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) December 20, 2017

Siddharth gave me a one-liner brief. I began working. Over a month, I developed characters, motives, plotlines, and a story synopsis. Despite being in Australia, opened all channels of comms to keep him abreast with updates. pic.twitter.com/sTNfHryRqq  Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) December 20, 2017

After submitting the material over email, I waited. Dropped emails and texts. No response. This could have meant 2 things: 1) The project was not taking off. Or, 2) My work was not fit for purpose. I conceded with whichever of the two was true.  Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) December 20, 2017

After submitting the material over email, I waited. Dropped emails and texts. No response. This could have meant 2 things: 1) The project was not taking off. Or, 2) My work was not fit for purpose. I conceded with whichever of the two was true.  Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) December 20, 2017

More than 2.5 years later, I watch the #Hichki trailer and notice a rather similar storyline, a protagonist with the same speech disorder I had described, and other nuances that I MAY NOT own all by myself, but are undoubtedly similar to the ones I portrayed.  Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) December 20, 2017

Does this mean Hichki is my story? NO.

Does it mean I worked on it and was owed the courtesy of a response or acknowledgement of the effort I invested? HELL YES.  Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) December 20, 2017

The fact that you abruptly cut off from the writer who put in months of hard work to deliver a story to you without a word of feedback, gratitude, or even a "regret to inform" message rankles me.  Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) December 20, 2017

My written material, which has been nonchalantly consumed (and possibly forgotten), and all my communication with Siddharth Malhotra is saved on record. Happy to present evidence. But the question is what am I to expect of it?  Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) December 20, 2017

For what should I expect of the person/s who did not so much as show courtesy to provide a line of correspondence to indicate what course my months of effort was going to take thereon?  Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) December 20, 2017

In my mind, this episode just validates all the stories I have read of anon/little known writers making claims in media reports that their stories were shamelessly flicked into major motion pictures without giving them due credit.  Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) December 20, 2017

#Hichki team, good luck to you. I am sure you will earn millions. I hope all the money you make is good enough to numb you, because if I were you, my conscience would be pricking me sharp. RANT ENDS.  Nishant Kaushik (@nofreecopies) December 20, 2017

As per the trailer of Hichki, the credit for the film's story and screenplay has been given to Malhotra, Anckur Chaudhry, Ambar Hadap and Ganesh Pandit.

It was also reported that Mukerji's film Hichki bears resemblance to 2008 American drama Front of the Class, which is based on the book by Brad Cohen, Front of the Class: How Tourette Syndrome Made Me the Teacher I Never Had.

However, soon after the news regarding its similarity to the American film made the rounds, Yash Raj Films quickly issued a statement.

Deccan Chronicle quotes YRF spokesperson saying: "YRF has acquired the rights of Brads book and has changed the plot substantially. It is a brand new film now. Brad Cohens life and journey is the inspiration for the film and Ranis character. Everything else has been completely changed by the makers and Hichki narrates a completely new and uplifting story of a girl who is chasing her dreams despite limitations."

Hichki has been produced by Maneesh Sharma under the banner of Yash Raj Films. The film is slated to release on 23 February, 2018.
Dibakar Banerjee's upcoming film Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar starring Arjun Kapoor, Parineeti Chopra in the main lead, is a much-awaited film for both the actors as well as their fans. The actor duo will be seen together after five years; they starred in the 2012 romantic-drama Ishaqzaade whic h won numerous accolades and awards upon release.

The shoot for Banerjee's upcoming film has been underway for quite some time now; the production has been going on at a steady rate. Now, it is reportedly in its most challenging schedule, as the team is currently shooting in the treacherous terrains of India-Nepal border.

According to a report by The Hindustan Times, a source from the film's team said that Banerjee is busy shooting the "intense and gritty" portions of the film at the border.

The team of Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar was previously shooting in a remote village in Uttarakhand, which will get submerged under water as soon as the construction of a nearby dam gets completed. Banerjee's film might be able to document the last visual record of the village, reports The Hindustan Times.

Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar is slated to release on 3 August next year.
It looks like Sicario is making a transition from 2015's sleeper hit to a Hollywood blockbuster franchise. The first trailer for Sicario 2: Soldado, the follow-up to Denis Villeneuve's action thriller, was dropped on Wednesday.

As the drug war escalates, cartels start trafficking terrorists across the US-Mexico border. So, Federal agent Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) and the mysterious hitman Alejandro Gillick (Benicio Del Toro) join forces and step in to limit the threat. And this time around, they are without any supervision and don't have any rules to adhere to. Without Emily Blunt's Kate Macy, there are no moral ambiguities whatsoever!

With director Denis Villeneuve and Blunt opting out of the sequel, it is natural to feel a bit concerned. The reason we all enjoyed the first film was due to Villeneuve's calculated direction, Blunt's conflicting journey and Roger Deakins' visual aesthetic (especially that nocturnal raid in the tunnel). It also provided social commentary of US foreign policy. Taylor Sheridan, who wrote the screenplay for the first film, is again behind the sequel. But with Italian director Stefano Sollima  making his English language debut  helming the project, we have our doubts too. Of course, Sollima is a master of the neo-noir mafia thrillers with critically acclaimed shows like Romanzo criminale and Gomorrah. Even his 2015 film Suburra made for a compelling watch. But one can't help but feel that the trailer for the film looks more like a summer action blockbuster, moving away from Villeneuve's original vision.

Sicario 2: Soldado is set to hit theatres in June 2018.

Watch the trailer below


New Delhi: A Delhi court today (20 December) awarded life imprisonment to former television serial producer Suhaib Ilyasi for killing his wife Anju 17 years ago.

Additional Sessions Judge S K Malhotra also imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on Ilyasi, who was convicted on 16 December for stabbing to death his wife.

The court also directed that Rs 10 lakh would be paid as compensation to the parents of Anju. Earlier, Ilyasi was only charged with milder sections including 304 B (dowry death) of the IPC.

However, Anju's mother Rukma Singh and sister Rashmi Singh moved the Delhi High Court which in August 2014 ruled that Ilyasi would be tried under Section 302 for the offence of murder.

Anju was rushed to a hospital on 11 January, 2000 with stab wounds she received at her East Delhi residence.

Ilyasi, who had shot into limelight after hosting TV crime show  India's Most Wanted, was arrested on 28 March, 2000 and later charges were framed against him in the case after his sister-in-law and mother-in-law alleged that he used to torture his wife for dowry.

Following is the chronology of events in the case:

10 January, 2000: Anju Ilyasi found dead at their East Delhi residence with multiple stab wounds.

18 January, 2000: A panel of doctors at AIIMS says that the injuries on the victim appear self-inflicted and suicidal.

28 March, 2000: Ilyasi arrested on charges of dowry harassment and murder levelled by sister-in-law and mother-in-law.

October, 2002: Charge sheet filed against Ilyasi for dowry death.

29 March, 2003: Trial court frames charges under Section 498A and 304B of the IPC against Ilyasi.

17 July: Prosecutor filed application in trial court for adding murder charge.

3 February, 2004: Trial court dismisses the application.

12 July, 2005: Victim's mother moves application for fresh investigation.

4 August: Application dismissed.

19 August, 2010: Plea to add murder charge filed again.

19 February, 2011: Trial court rejects the plea. Ilyasi's mother-in-law moves Delhi HC seeking framing of additional charge of murder.

May, 2012: A new medical board set up to look into injuries suffered by Ilyasi's wife.

5 January, 2013: Ilyasi moves HC objecting to constitution of a new medical board.

7 January, 2013: HC stays order for a fresh medical board after Ilyasi challenges the order.

12 August, 2014: HC dismisses Ilyasi's objection to the fresh medical board and allows adding of murder charge. Ilyasi moves SC against the order.

21 August: SC dismisses Ilyasi's challenging HC order asking him to face murder charges for his wife's death.

16 December, 2017: Delhi court convicts Ilyasi of stabbing his wife to death.

20 December: Court sentences Ilyasi to life imprisonment.
Bengaluru: With the Karnataka government refusing permission to Bollywood actress Sunny Leone's New Year eve show in Bengaluru, the organisers have moved the high court, seeking a direction to the authorities to allow the event.

The government on 15 December disallowed the show here and elsewhere in the state after protests by Kannada outfits, which said it would be an "assault" on the city's culture.

Event management firm TimeCreations said that pending police permission, they were unable to forward requests and submit necessary clearances to various authorities, including city civic body Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike and the fire department.

The firm's proprietress H S Bhavya said in her petition filed on 18 December that she had submitted a letter to the police to permit the show.

Karnataka Rakshana Vedike and other groups had staged protests in the city on 15 December, taking out rallies and burning effigies of Leone.

In her petition, Bhavya alleged that on 16 December, police orally refused permission, but did not give it in writing.

Due to this, every other arrangement and sanction ran into a disaster, resulting in lenders asking the organisers to return their money, fearing the uncertainty, she submitted.

Bhavya also alleged that the protestors are seemingly and by records supposed to be anti-social elements engaged in acts of vandalism and creating of unrest.

"Their unfair threats and pressure should not be the driving force for the state police to take such unmindful decisions," she pleaded.
What's more fun than passing off stalking celebrities on social media as work?

Very little, right?

And so, we scanned the Instagram and Twitter accounts of celebs from India and abroad, to bring to you weekly updates from the interwebz. Who tweeted to whom? Who re-posted last night's party pics? Who went on a rant about what. Whatever it is, don't worry, we've got you covered.

We stalk, you read. Deal?

Taimur Ali Khan turns one

Everyone's little bundle of joy, Taimur Ali Khan is bringing in his birthday at the Pataudi Palace today. Aunt Karisma Kapoor, took to Instagram to share this adorable photo of him. Twinkle Khanna, Smriti Irani, Maneka Gandhi unite for a cause

Discussing spreading awareness about Menstrual hygiene and after meeting @Manekagandhibjp and @smritiirani -two empathetic,fierce and decisive ministers,I'm convinced that the world would be better if just women were running the show pic.twitter.com/v617ER2HfM  Twinkle Khanna (@mrsfunnybones) December 20, 2017

In the run up to Padman, Twinkle Khanna is leaving no stone unturned to spread awareness about menstrual hygiene.

Alia Bhatt's furry companion

MOTHER OF CAT  A post shared by Alia  (@aliaabhatt) on Dec 19, 2017 at 10:36am PST

It's no secret that Alia Bhatt has the cutest cat. Look at the furry one clinging on to her "mother". Anupam Kher's look from The Indian Detective

Anupam Kher and Russell Peters' comedy series The Indian Detective looks like a lot of fun. The actor's first look has been revealed on Twitter.
The Crown is a beautiful show. With a rumoured budget of $130 million, its production values are only rivalled by the HBO pop culture phenomenon Game of Thrones. The acting is top notch; characters are complex and well drawn. The cast isn't as sprawling as Game of Thrones, but the universe is just as intricate. Both shows see the elite of society vying with each other for power.

It seemed like Netflix had done it again. The reviews were overwhelmingly positive. Almost everyone liked it. And yet, Season 1, for all its acclaim, gleam and glitter left me (and some critics) a bit cold.

In hindsight, much of it was down to the performance of Claire Foy as The Queen. Which isn't to say that the fabulous, ethereal Foywho also essayed the impish and scheming Anne Boleyn in BBC's Wolf Halwas to blame.

Foy was, for a lack of a better word, constrained by the demands of the script. Season 1 focused on a young Elizabeth subsuming both her identity as an individual filled with hopes and dreams and as a woman with that of Elizabeth Regina. Or to borrow a line from Game of Thrones: Kill the boy, Jon Snow and let the man be born. Elizabeth (and by extension Foy) faced the same choice. For Queen Elizabeth to be born, the young woman, had, if not to die, then be suppressed.

It was a lesson she had to learn again and again from dealing with the legendary Winston Churchill (nothing you do is private), her unhappy husband Philip whose idea of what their marriage would be has been turned upside down (I will not kneel before my wife!), her dying father King George (it is a lonely job) and her grandmother Mary, who issued this dire warning: I have seen three great monarchies brought down brought down from their failure to separate personal indulgences from duty. The Crown must win. Must. Always. Win.

Foy's performance had to be one of non-performance. The entire season was spent with Elizabeth learning never to betray her intentions, thoughts or feelings. Never thinking, never feeling. Sometimes, not even breathing. Ceasing to exist as a person. Breaking her promise to her sister and denying her the marriage of her choice simply because she was head of the Church of England, which still forbade divorce.

And at the end of Season 1, as Elizabeth Regina stared at herself in a full-length mirror in her beautiful gown, a mixture of satisfaction and resignation washed over her face. And spoiler alert: The Crown won. Which left me wondering: What path would the writers pursue in Season 2?

The answer: The salacious rumours surrounding the marriage between the royal couple. Rumours of Philip's infidelity, which he has always strenously denied and the Palace have refused to dignify with comment. Season 2 kicks off with Philip (Matt Smith) and Elizabeth aboard HMY Britannia off the coast of Lisbon at a critical moment in their marriage.

Elizabeth takes issue with Philip's 'incessant whining and complaining'. Philip, despite his own royal background, feels nothing but disdain from the mustaches (Elizabeth's extended family and those that run the palace) who think he's an upjumped nobody and a social climber. Elizabeth says she's been humiliated over the past few weeks and things can't go on the way they are. Philip agrees. She asks him what it would take for him to be in. What he needs. Philip asks if she means his price. She insists otherwise.

Marriage is very much the focus of Elizabeth's free-spirited sister Margaret (Vanessa Kirby). After the break up of her marriage to Peter Townsend, Margaret is deeply unhappy. She might even be on the verge of an emotional breakdown.

She thinks no-one wants to marry her. She's drowning her sorrows in booze and The Flamingos' songs. As much as the hates the gilded birdcage she's in, she's not about to give it up. She enjoys the perks far too much. She sets her sights on the only thing she can do: Outshining her dearest sister. She sets her eyes on a new man, mysterious photographer Anthony Armstrong-Jones (Matthew Goode), who seems to not only match her bohemian ways, but outdo her.

Outside the doors of Bucking Palace, historic events are unfolding. In Egypt, Colonel Nasser overthrows the monarchy, takes over as president and captures the Suez Canal, throwing out the British engineers. Prime Minister Eden Anthony (Jeremy Northam) is outraged. He seems to have something of a personal vendetta against Nasser, and cooks up a plan to rebalance the scales of power.

It's an unmitigated disaster. England is humiliated. Anthony is forced to resign by his Cabinet and Elizabeth consents to Harold McMillan (Anton Lesser aka Qyburn from Game of Thrones) takes over.

As England ponders its new and diminished place in the world, America is well on its way to becoming the Shining City on the Hill. The world's real power couple, John F Kennedy (Dexter star Michael C Hall, whose casting jolts you out of your suspension of disbelief ) and Jackie Kennedy (Jodi Balfour) are coming to the palace (they're like royalty, Philip jokes) and everyone is entranced.

Elizabeth is feeling her age, especially when she compares herself with Jackie, who speaks fluent French, charmed Paris by debating philosophers and is the object of every man's desire (including Philip).

Meanwhile, revolts are brewing in the Colonies. Ghana's King Kwame Nkrumah seems to disdain British imperialism and is quickly moving into the arms of the Soviets. Spurred on by rumours of unkind things said by Jackie during her visit, Elizabeth makes a spur-of-the-moment decision and pays a visit to Ghana, which culminates in a dance between the Queen and the Ghanian King and a victory for The Crown.

The show also touches on the Marburg Files, which contains evidence of the former King Edward's unseemly relationship (and seemingly support) for the Nazi High Command and Hitler, the troubled childhood of Prince Philip and its subsequent impact on Prince Charles.

However, the relationship between Philip and Elizabeth, and the bond that is forged between them in these troubled times, remains the heart of the show and its driving force. The Crown is captivating and may just be the best drama on television (come at me, fans of The Americans and Better Call Saul).

While Seasons 3 and 4 have not yet been officially greenlit by Netflix, the series is all set for a time jump. Olivia Coleman, who caught the eye recently in The Night Manager and Fleabag, has been confirmed to succeed Claire Foy as Elizabeth II. And I, for one, cannot wait. The Queen is dead. All hail the Queen!

The Crown Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix:
Writer and stand-up comedian TJ Miller, famous for portraying Erlich Bachman on the HBO comedy series Silicon Valley, has been accused of sexually assaulting a classmate while he was a student at George Washington University. The incident allegedly occurred back in 2001 when Sarah (name changed), the victim who prefers to remain anonymous, was involved in a consensual relationship with the future star. The two were together in the same George Washington comedy troupe called receSs. I felt relatively safe with T.J. at the time, Sarah said in a report published by The Daily Beast.

Sarah came forward with gruesome and disturbing details about the alleged deeds by TJ Miller. According to Sarah, Miller shook her violently and punched her in the mouth during sex, causing a fractured tooth and a bloody lip. She was drunk that night and claimed to not remember the incident in its entirety, but says that the memory of the violence is clear. When she confronted Miller the next morning, he said that she had fallen down while drunk.

Despite this, Sarah continued to see Miller. She claims to be in denial about the incident back then and says, I couldnt bring myself to believe this had happened... It was me not wanting it to be true. In a separate alleged incident at a college party, Miller choked Sarah so tightly that her housemates had to knock on her door to ask if she was all right. After her friends left, she says Miller continued to sexually assault her by anally penetrating her without her consent, both with his penis and a beer bottle. "He just tried a lot of things without asking me, and at no point asked me if I was all right, said Sarah.
New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday slammed Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal for a stay order on the Delhi government's decision to cancel the licence of Max Hospital in Delhi for declaring a live newborn baby dead.

On 8 December, the Delhi government had cancelled the Shalimar Bagh-based 250-bedded hospital's licence after its doctors on 30 November declared the baby dead.

On Wednesday, the hospital said operations were resumed after the Court of Finance Commissioner on Tuesday put on hold the 8 December order.

AAP leader Dilip Pandey said the court has given the Lieutenant Governor all administrative powers of Delhi and he should be accountable.

The leader also said that the party doubted whether the appellate authority who stayed their government's decision "worked for the people or for crony capitalists".

Meanwhile an official statement from Baijal's office distanced itself from the decision.

"The matter with respect to Max Hospital licence is not before the LG. It is before the Court of Financial Commissioner. It is also clarified that no Max officials have met the LG or any officer of Raj Niwas", it said.
The Maharashtra government has issued a notification allowing shops and retail establishments in the state to remain open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. However, liquor shops, bars and restaurants serving alcohol are still exempt from doing so, media reports said on Wednesday.

The act will apply to shops, residential hotels, restaurants, theatres and amusement places, places to which the Factories Act does not apply, said The Indian Express. It also applies to banks, stockbroking firms, medical practices, architecture firms, accountancy firms, tax consultants and professional consultants.

The amendment to the law was initiated in accordance with the Centre's Model Shops and Establishment Act, 2016, and was passed by the state legislature in August, according to Hindustan Times. The notification was issued after the Act received the Governor's assent.

The bill divides shops and establishments in the state into two categories based on their employee strength. The changed provision of keeping establishments open 24x7 is available for both categories. Establishments and shops having fewer than 10 employees will have to submit their details as self-declaration to the local authority and will face minimum scrutiny. On the other hand, establishments with more than 10 employees will be scrutinised for their licences and services. "But the government would ensure that they would not be harassed," Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had said in the Assembly in August, during a discussion on the bill.

Out of the 35 lakh shops/establishments in the state, 22 lakh do not have any employee while 12 lakh shops have less than 10 employees, reported DNA. The amendments would mean that these 34 lakh outlets will not have to avail of this licence.

The act allows the government to exclude certain segments or businesses, especially outlets serving alcohol, from its purview, reported Hindustan Times. These exclusions can also be requested by civic bodies and the police. A senior official said, "The police has time and again flagged issues about liquor being sold 24x7. The BJP had also opposed this in the civic body. That is the reason the state government has kept liquor serving establishments out of the purview."

The report also said that the shops will not immediately be able to stay open 24x7, but would have to wait till the formalities are completed by the civic authorities. Some people have also raised concerns over the safety of women employees working late hours as well as the extra burden that will now be imposed on the police due to the decision.

The Act does have some provisions to safeguard workers' interest, said the Hindustan Times report. Employers will have to ensure that the safety and dignity of women employees is assured and they will have to provide transportation for women working after 9.30 pm. The employees will also be entitled for overtime pay, paid leave, first aid, canteen facilities and a creche.

Maharashtra labour minister Sambhaji Nilangekar-Patil was quoted by The Times of India as saying all employees need to be given one day off in a week. "Now, all shops can remain open in three shifts 24x7. The move will generate more employment as establishments would need workers in three shifts."

With inputs from PTI
New Delhi: Arab nations have sought India's support ahead of a rare emergency UN General Assembly session on Thursday that will vote over Jerusalem being recognised by the US as the capital of Israel.

Diplomatic sources in New Delhi told IANS that representatives of the Arab diplomatic community have met senior officials of the External Affairs Ministry seeking New Delhi's support in Thursday's crucial vote.

The latest development followed 18 Arab Ambassadors' meeting with Minister of State for External Affairs MJ Akbar last week to seek India's support in this regard.

The emergency meeting of the UN General Assembly on Thursday will take up Trump's decision on Jerusalem after the US vetoed a Security Council resolution criticising it.

General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak is convening the special session at the request of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Arab Group at the UN, his spokesperson Brenden Varma told reporters at the UN headquarters on Tuesday.

On Monday, US Permanent Representative Nikki Haley vetoed the Security Council resolution introduced by Egypt seeking to express "deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem" and asking other countries to not follow Washington and move their embassies to the city considered holy by Jews, Christians and Muslims.

All the other 14 members of the Council voted for the resolution.

Unlike in the Council, there is no veto in the Assembly and a resolution criticising the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital and move its embassy there is expected to pass easily because even Washington's allies broke ranks with it and supported the Egyptian resolution.

Technically, Thursday's meeting is a continuation of the emergency special session that last met in 2009, Varma said. Its theme is "Illegal Israeli Actions in Occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory", and it first convened in 1997, he added.

Unlike the regular annual sessions of the Assembly which end after a year, an emergency special session can continue indefinitely and be reconvened periodically even after a gap of several years.

Following US President Donald Trump's statement recognising Jerusalem as Israel's capital, the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement: "India's position on Palestine is independent and consistent. It is shaped by our views and interests, and not determined by any third country."

Trump's announcement came ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's expected visit to India early next year.
Silchar: Charvak Mukhopadhyay, an associate professor with the mass communication department of Assam University (AU) in Silchar has lived the last 30 days in utter confusion. He was first removed, and then reinstated by the university, within a period of few days, following his appeal at the Gauhati High Court.

It was just another working day on 28 November, 2017, for Charvak, 47, who has been a permanent employee with Assam University since 2008 when a letter from the varsity authorities informed him that he had been terminated from his services with immediate effect. Charvak has previously worked with the UNDP and as an Indian Information Service official with the All India Radio, Itanagar.

The letter, a copy of which is available with Firstpost, said the university had taken the decision in conformity with the direction of the vigilance cell of the UGC and found the appointment illegal, without mentioning a reason for the illegality.

Firstpost is also in possession of a university notification dated 24 November which establishes that a committee was formed to review the cases of employment of three professors, including Charvak, on the basis of a complaint of illegal recruitment raised by Sreehari Borikar, the national general secretary of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), addressed to the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) on 16 May, 2015.

This sudden decision to terminate a university teacher without serving him a three-month notice to explain his position, as provided under The Central Universities Act 2009, led to strong resentment among the teachers and students. When the administration failed to respond to concerns raised by the Assam University Teachers Association (AUTA) over his sudden removal, Charvak moved the Gauhati High Court seeking its intervention. The high court asked the university to furnish all documents related to this case.

On 16 December, after hearing both the sides, the high court observed: "Without going into the aspect as to the justifiability and validity of such order of cancellation of the appointment, it has been brought to the notice of this court that by a subsequent order dated 13.12.2017, the earlier cancellation dated 28.11.2017 has been withdrawn with immediate effect." The university order withdrawing the cancellation of appointment of Charvak, a copy of which is with Firstpost, also requested Charvak to resume duty immediately.

Between 28 November and 16 December, the AUTA pressed on the university to withdraw the order since they felt it was political witch hunting. This opinion was fortified by Federation of Central Universities Teachers Association (FEDCUTA) in a press release issued on 15 December.

"This kind of interference in the day-to-day functioning of Central universities by the MHRD at the behest of the student wing of the ruling party has led to much turbulence and turmoil in universities such as Hyderabad Central University, Central University of Haryana etc.," FEDCUTA said.

"It is certainly the handiwork of AVBP and Charvak's case is nothing other than political victimisation of professors, which is an unprecedented act. The sad part is nobody wants to speak about it in public because of the rising dominance of AVBP and ruling party in Barak Valley," says Joydeep Biswas, a Silchar-based teacher and columnist.

Not an open and shut case

Sabyasachi Chatterjee, legal counsel for Charvak, said that while disposing of the case the high court observed that this is a case of gross violence of natural justice. "It is an exceptional case as for the first time the Central university has questioned the legality of an appointment, which it had itself executed, after so many years. As Assam University couldnt provide any substantial evidence in support of the order it issued, they instead withdrew the entire order," Chatterjee said.

A large section of students, both former and presently studying, see this as an attempt to target academicians popular for their political ideologies being averse to the right-wing discourse. "Charvak is a rationalist, so trying to eject him is an attempt to subdue the opposing ideology. They want students and scholars to concur with their ideology, but ABVP has found it hard to survive in Assam University, in spite of the tremendous Modi wave in the media," said Kushal Deb, a former student of Assam University.

The case leaves several questions unanswered on part of the university administration. The administration did not test the legitimacy of the appointment while hiring Charvak in 2008 and raised this question after the teacher had served for nine years. Assam University vice-chancellor Dilip Chandra Nath refrained from commenting on this case when Firstpost contacted him.

New political designs

This termination bid might indicate new political designs in Assam where BJP won 60 out of 126 seats in the last Assembly elections. Silchar is also been seen as the epicentre of hardline Bengali Hindu politics in the state, which gathered more storm after Centres push to amend the citizenship bill to allow citizenship to Hindu refugees from Bangladesh; an idea that is being opposed by indigenous communities.

Watchers believe that Charvak was becoming a dominant voice against the right-wing politics in the social and cultural sphere of the region. While there have been several instances in mainland India since the Modi regime took over of universities taking decisions based on political compulsions, this was the first time that a university in the North East was mired in a similar situation. Assam University has students not only from Assam but from across the region. Tapping these students is important for ABVP. While BJP is aiming to form government in all eight N-E states, university students are not only a vote bank but are also a huge support base on social media. The road to this goal seems uphill with their student wing, ABVP, performing dismally at Assam University. ABVP holds only two seats out of 14 in the present student council of Assam University.

When Charvak rejoined the university on 18 December, the welcome by students and teachers matched that of an election victory, signifying how universities are turning into the avenues for political slugfest where room for others opinion is rapidly shrinking.

The author is a Guwahati based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.
Violence broke out between Uttar Pradesh Police and protestors on Wednesday after Banaras Hindu University (BHU) student leader Ashutosh Singh was arrested on the charges of obstructing an IIT-BHU programme, reported ANI.

Varanasi: Clashes between Police and protesters after BHU student leader Ashutosh Singh was arrested on charges of obstructing an IIT-BHU program pic.twitter.com/pIWomG2ToN  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) December 20, 2017

According to NDTV, Singh, a student leader affiliated to the Samajwadi Party's youth wing was arrested for allegedly creating ruckus at several events in recent days, including an IIT-BHU proggramme. A non-bailable warrant was issued on his name, reported Times Now. The news channel further reported that after Singh's arrest several supporters of the youth leader staged protest leading to a violent clash between the police and student demonstrators.

Following Singh's arrest, his supporters vandalised several cars on the university campus. Zee News reported that his supporters also torched a school bus during the clash with the police. The report further added that the school bus belonging to Delhi Public School, Varanasi, had few kids on board while the students started pelting stones. However, no injuries were reported as the protesters torched the bus after the school kids managed to rush away from the spot.

The situation is tense on the university campus but under control, reported DNA.

This comes months after the students' protest against the increasing incidents of eve-teasing inside BHU campus turned violent. A group of protesting students trying to enter the vice-chancellor's residence had clashed with the police at the time.
Naxals in Bihar attacked the Masudan Railway Station late on Tuesday and burned down station property, according to media reports.

ANI also reported that one of the abducted officials called up the Malda DRM and told him that the Naxals have threatened to kill them if they continue to ply trains on the Masudan track.

Five railway employees have also been abducted by the suspects, reports say.

#BREAKING - Naxals attacked the Masudan Railway station in Bihar, burnt down the communication room and abducted 5 railways employees. pic.twitter.com/TVdJwKbxi3  News18 (@CNNnews18) December 20, 2017

In a latest update, ANI reported that the assistant station master abducted by Naxals from Masudan Railway Station called up the Maldah DRM saying naxals have threatened to kill them if trains continued plying on Masudan track. "All passengers requested to take other alternatives as a precautionary measure," ANI tweeted. CPRO of Eastern Railway was quoted as saying by ANI, that they detained three trains in Kiul-Jamalpur-Bhagalpur section of Malda Division in the light of naxal attack at Masudan and services have once again been stopped at Kiul point.

The assistant station master is among the abducted employees, ANI reported.

More details are awaited.
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked a 15-year-old pregnant girl to "unambiguously" state whether she consents to terminate her foetus as she has changed her stand on the matter several times. The court said, before passing any order, it wanted to be sure that the girl, who on Tuesday told the judges she wanted to abort her pregnancy, will not change her mind again.

A bench of Justices S Muralidhar and IS Mehta noted that the girl, who had left her house and married a man on her free will, changed her mind thrice between 8 December, when she appeared before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), and 13 December, when she had gone for her medical examination to AIIMS, and again today while appearing before the court.

"Therefore, the court directs that the girl, through her parents, should file an affidavit before this court tomorrow clearly stating the circumstances under which she changed her mind... She should unambiguously state in the affidavit whether she consents to the termination of her pregnancy," it said, adding it appeared that the girl was "prevaricating".

The police had on 27 November taken into custody, the man to whom the girl was married under the provisions of the Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences Act and the IPC.

Initially the girl did not wish to return to her parents and was sent to Prayas Juvenile Aid Centre, and later she returned to her parents.

She appeared before the CWC on 8 December and stated that she wished to terminate her pregnancy, after which an AIIMS doctor was directed to examine her to ascertain if terminating her pregnancy was safe and medically advisable.

The doctor noted that she was not willing to abort her pregnancy as she had married consensually.

The doctor noted that her pregnancy was a result of rape, as she was aged less than 18 years. He also said termination of her pregnancy was not advisable.

The bench noted that the girl, through her father, has now approached the court stating that she wishes to terminate her foetus.

Section 3(2)(b) of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act prohibits abortion of a foetus after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Advocate Kamlesh Kumar Mishra, appearing for the girl, urged that, as has been done in many similar cases by the Supreme Court, a medical board should be constituted to evaluate her status and submit a report if it is safe for her to undergo an abortion at this stage.

During the day's hearing, both the judges spoke to the girl in chamber and she reiterated that she wishes to terminate her prenancy and also said that she had told the doctor that she did not wish to do so.

"...but she has since re-thought the matter and now wishes to terminate her pregnancy as she wishes to pursue her studies," it noted.
Delhi: In a major relief to agitating parents, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday stayed the order passed by the state Education Department, which enabled private schools to increase fees by 15 percent.

The government circular was issued, apparently, to enable schools to pay the teachers salary as per the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission.

The Delhi High Court order was issued while hearing a petition filed by around 100 students of ASN senior secondary school Mayur Vihar.

Khagesh Jha, the advocate who argued on behalf of the petitioner told Firstpost, We submitted to the court that the order approving the increase in fees was passed by the Delhi government in collusion with the private schools. The schools have enough funds to pay the teachers salary as per the recommendation of the Seventh Pay Commission and hence need not increase fees to do the same.

The petitioner also cited the Justice Anil Dev Singh report which said that during implementation of Sixth Pay Commission, many schools in Delhi increased fees arbitrarily even when they had enough funds to meet the expenses.

Interpreting the Justice Anil Dev Singh report, Aatishi Marlena, Advisor to the Government of Delhi wrote in an article published in Firstpost, When the Sixth Pay Commission was implemented in 2008, private schools also had to increase their teachers' salary. Many of them claimed that they did not have any reserve funds and, therefore, needed to hike the fees for increasing the salaries.

She further maintained that in a landmark judgment in 2011, in Dilli Abhibhavak Sangh vs Govt of NCT of Delhi, the Delhi High Court constituted the Justice Anil Dev Singh Committee, to look into the accounts of private schools to see whether the fee hikes were justified.

The Justice Anil Dev Singh Committee found that 544 of the 1,000+ schools had hiked their fees in an unjustified manner, adding that they had reserve funds to pay the increased salaries but still chose to hike their fees.

The petitioner further argued that the government should have audited the accounts of the schools before passing the order to increase fees. The government cannot pass blanket order to increase fees without checking their accounts, Jha said.

Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government issued a circular on 17 October permitting privately funded schools to increase fees up to 15 percent, so as to pay salary to their teachers and other staff as per requirements of the Seventh Central Pay Commission.

Though the government order had set a few procedure to be followed by the schools while increasing fees, it was seen as giving free hand to schools to increase the fees as they wish. As per the order the schools are neither bound to seek permission from the parents nor the government to increase fees.

Soon after the order was issued by the education department many schools issued notices declaring increase of fees much to the woes of the parents. Many schools even saw face-off between school authorities and parents.

Jyoti Vasisht whose children study in Bal Bharti Public School said that more than 50 parents had made representation to the school authorities on Tuesday along with two AAP MLAs urging them not to increase the fees.

We went to the school authorities but were told that the school is running in losses as a result of which increase of fees was inevitable to pay for the increased teachers salary, she said.

Vashisht also pointed out that there was a mismatch between what the government was claiming and as the situation was on ground.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal earlier said, "Parents from all over Delhi have met me in last few days with complaints that schools are demanding very high fees including arrears to implement 7th Pay Commission. This must stop. I have directed Education Department to review the whole situation and to take immediate steps to stop this."

The school authorities told us that they have not received any communication from the government barring them from fee hike and hence cannot roll back decision, Vashisht said.

She further asked that if the government honestly feels that the schools should not resort to increase in fees than it should issue written order to them conveying it to them.

Rekha Jha, whose children study in Delhi Jain Public School, Palam said that the schools have been anyway increasing fees by more than 10 percent every year.

How come they have no money to pay salary as per seventh pay commission? she asked.

The stay order issued by the Delhi High Court has come as a relief to agitating parents. But Ashok Agarwal, president of All India Parents Association says that even in absence of the circular to increase fees, some schools may still resort to a fee hike, as they are there is no law against the increase of fees.

The law provides for increase of fees by the unaided private schools if they really need money. Since this law still exists, some schools may increase fees even in the absence of the government circular, he said.
Thiruvananthapuram: The CPM-led LDF government in Kerala on Wednesday suspended DGP Jacob Thomas, the senior-most IPS officer in the state cadre, from service for his anti-government remarks. Thomas, who was serving as the director of the Institute of Management in Government (IMG), for the last seven months was earlier removed from the position of the chief of vigilance and anti-corruption bureau by the ruling party.

According to official sources, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had directed suspension of the officer under the relevant sections of All India Service Rules as some of his recent remarks had shown the state government in poor light.

Recently during a seminar on International Anti-Corruption Day, Thomas had lashed out at the state government alleging that there was total breakdown of law and order situation in the state. He also accused the government of not "properly handling" the cyclone Ockhi situation.

Stating that all "corrupt forces" were united in the state and were in positions of power, the official said that there was a conscious attempt to silence those who stood against corruption. However, reacting on his suspension order, Thomas said he had only talked about corruption on the Anti-Corruption Day and that he cannot be silenced with this action.

"There has been a general trend worldwide to silence people when they talk about corruption. But, I am not prepared to remain silent," he told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram.

"I am still swimming with big sharks. In this context, it is normal to face such action. But I will continue to swim," he added. Jacob Thomas was already facing disciplinary action for penning his bare-all autobiography "Sravukalkkoppam Neenthumpol" (Swimming Along With Sharks), which he wrote without seeking any permission from the prior government.

Though a three-member panel had recommended to initiate criminal proceedings against the officer, the government had later decided to limit it to disciplinary action only for penning the book.

Known for his strong stand against corruption, the IPS officer had earned the ruling CPM's ire after he registered a vigilance case against the then industries minister EP Jayarajan over charges of nepotism following which he had to resign from the cabinet.

Chief secretary, KM Abraham and Additional chief secretary, Tom Jose had lodged a complaint with the Chief Minister against Thomas after the vigilance department conducted raids on their residences over alleged disproportionate assets.
New Delhi: Amid the raging Rohingya refugee crisis, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar arrived in Myanmar to discuss security cooperation starting with a meeting with Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar Security Forces Min Aung Hlaing on Wednesday.

Indian Ambassador to Myanmar Vikram Misri said after his meet with Hlaing, Jaishankar will hold talks with State Counsellor and de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Jaishankar's visit is of strategic importance after more than 6,50,000 Rohingyas fled to neighbouring Bangladesh since violence erupted in Myanmar's Rakhine state late August.

The minority Rohingya community does not enjoy citizenship in Myanmar and is sparingly given refugee status in Bangladesh.

Human rights monitors have accused Myanmar's military of atrocities against the minority population during its clearance operations following Rohingya militants' 25 August attacks on multiple government posts.

Earlier in December, global humanitarian NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said that at least 6,700 Rohingyas were killed in the violence.

India has maintained that the issue should be handled in a humane manner, development activities should be initiated in Rakhine and conditions should be created for the safe and secure return of the refugees to their homes.

New Delhi has also sent relief material for the refugees in both Rakhine and Bangladesh.

Jaishnakar's visit also assumes significance given the presence of camps of Indian insurgent groups on the Myanmar side of the international border.
New Delhi: India and China will hold the annual meeting of their Special Representatives on their border row in New Delhi on Friday, it was announced on Wednesday.

The External Affairs Ministry said that while National Security Advisor Ajit Doval will be India's Special Representative at the 20th Meeting of the Special Representatives, China will be represented by Yang Jiechi, State Councillor and a Communist Party Politburo member.

Indian and Chinese troops were locked in a face-off earlier this year in Doka La region near the India-China-Bhutan tri-junction.

Earlier this month, the Doka La issue came up for discussion during a meeting between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in New Delhi.

The last Special Representatives' meeting was held in Beijing in April 2016. India and China dispute their winding border and went to war over it in 1962.
Kolkata: Former Calcutta High Court judge Justice CS Karnan would be released from prison on Wednesday after serving six months of imprisonment for contempt of Supreme Court, his counsel Mathew J Nedumpara said.

"It is a matter of great pleasure, nay, relief, that Justice Karnan will be released from Presidency Jail, Kolkata, on Wednesday, on the completion of six months of imprisonment," Nedumpara said in a media release.

The 62-year-old judge was on 9 May handed out the prison term by the Supreme Court.

After remaining untraceable for over a month, he was arrested on 20 June by West Bengal CID officials from Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore on Tuesday, and brought to Kolkata the next evening. He has been lodged in Presidency jail since then.
Batmaran-Wanpora: The killing of Rubeena Jan, a 25-year-old woman who left behind an 11-month-old toddler, in Shopian on Tuesday, has sparked fresh tension and calls for protests by the separatist groups in Kashmir.

As the forces have gone after militants in the Valley as part of their 'Operation All Out', the number of civilians killed during counter-insurgency operations have also shot up manifold in 2017, as compared to the last many years  the highest since last four years.

Family members told Firstpost that Rubeena, also known as Beauty, had come to her maternal home in Batmaran-Wanpora village of south Kashmir's Shopian district, three days ago, after a gap of almost six months. She had been married three years ago in the nearby Rajpora village of district Pulwama to a daily wage labourer. A few days ago, her father, Abdul Rashed Bhat, called her home to take care of her uncle, who is bedridden since the last two weeks.

On Tuesday morning, at around 10:50 am, as the government forces encircled a cluster of houses, nearly five hundred metres from Bhat's house, two militants (one of them a local) were killed during the 16-hour-long encounter that began on Monday night. When Rubeena's bedridden uncle asked her to bring him a glass of water, she went into the kitchen.

"She came back holding her 11-month-old girl, Azra, in one hand and the glass of water in the other. Out of curiosity, she pushed open a window to look at what was happening outside," Bhat said, Suddenly, she screamed and collapsed. She was shot in her chest."

The Jammu and Kashmir police claimed that the women died in "crossfire". Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Shopian, SA Dinkar, said that militants fired upon security forces from "protesters' side" and that she was "probably killed in the crossfire."

"We are ascertaining the facts regarding the killing of the lady," he said.

On Wednesday morning, when Firstpost visited Bhats house, the family members offered a completely different picture than what the police described in its daily press release.

The joint family lives in a single-storied house that faces an open ground. Almost two hundred metres from the house, forces were deployed to keep away the protesters. Mohammed Yakooq Bhat, Rubeena's younger brother, said that the moment she entered her uncle's room, she was hit, probably by fire from forces stationed at the ground during the encounter.

She had a glass of water in one hand and when she tried to open the window and look at what was happening, the police fired," Bhat told Firstpost.

Since the forces had encircled the

village, the protesters fought pitched battles with them to divert their attention and help the trapped militants in escaping. The family members of Tanveer Ahmad Bhat, the local militant killed in the encounter, were also summoned to try and motivate their son to lay down the arms but that did not work.

"They were shooting and blasting explosives as if the village was a firing range. They used strong explosives to blast four residential houses and three cowsheds during the gunfight which got reduced to rubble," said Abdul Hamid Kasker, 57, a resident of the village.

Two militants, Tanveer, and a Pakistani militant, Ali Bhai, were killed in the encounter. An army soldier and a policeman of the special operations group (SOG) also sustained bullet injuries. About three dozen civilians were injured in clashes with government forces near the encounter site with 11 of them sustaining pellet injuries.

Doctors in the Pulwama district hospital told Firstpost that at least two dozen protesters injured in the clashes in the village were brought for treatment. Among them, 11 were referred to Srinagar for specialised treatment. Amid the clashes, Rubeena's family was trying to take her to the hospital but she died on the way.

The Government of India on Tuesday said that the number of civilians killed in militant-related violence this year is the highest in the last four years. In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said that the number of civilians killed in militancy-related violence in the state stands at 37 till 10 December this year. However, the figure has crossed to more than 50.

Just last week, three civilians were killed in alleged firing by security forces, sparking fresh tension and calls for protests by the separatist groups. Earlier, Maisura Akhtar, the mother of an eight-month-old girl, died in alleged army firing in north Kashmir'' Unisoo village last week. The woman died when she was trying to flee during a gunfight in which three Lashkar-e-Taiba militants were killed.

A cab driver, Asif Iqbal Bhat, was killed in alleged army firing on Saturday night outside his home when he was about to start his vehicle and ferry a family stuck in the adjoining village to their home. The army initially said it was a case of mistaken identity but the police blamed "cross-firing" for the young driver's death.

Three civilian killings in eight days have brought Kashmir to the brink yet again. Separatist-sponsored shutdown calls are back, so are the government-backed restrictions and curfews. This doesn't bode well for the Mehbooba Mufti-led state government or the 'mission' of the Centres new point man on Kashmir, Dineshwar Sharma. Stoking anger during the winters translates into mass agitations during the summer in the Valley. But neither Mehbooba nor New Delhi seem to have learnt any lessons.
The Assembly election in Gujarat saw 126 women candidates win 12 seats. The scenario in 2017 is not much different than that in 1962, when 19 women fought elections and won 11 seats. The maximum seats held by women in the Gujarat have been 16, less than 8 percent in the Assembly of 182 members. This is not unique to Gujarat, but reflects women's representation across India, both in state Assemblies and in Parliament.

In its 2014 election manifesto, BJP identified the Women's Reservation Bill as a priority and assured its legislation in Parliament and all state Assemblies. In the past three years that the party has been in power, there has been no visible effort to see this Bill through. Former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi recently wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and requested him to get the Bill passed in the Lower House, thereby voicing a commitment that her party did not demonstrate when in power.

The Bill that seeks to reserve one third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and in the state Assemblies has had a long history of numerous half-hearted and unsuccessful initiatives. It was first introduced in September 1996 by the United Front government when it failed to get majority. It was reintroduced in 1998 by the NDA and lapsed. Repeatedly introduced in 1999, 2002,2003 and in 2008, it could not obtain the required majority in both the Houses. Recently leaders of major parties have spoken in its favour, yet it cannot be said with certainty that when re-introduced, the Womens Reservation Bill, will gain concurrence.

Considering that the Parliament is predominantly composed of male legislators, it is not surprising that the required political will to pass the Bill is missing. Most legislators perceive it as a threat that will force them to relinquish their seat.

One-third seats reserved for women will automatically replace an equal number of male legislators, as they would not be eligible to stand for elections from their constituencies. As the Bill threatens their ability to hold on to power, men have united both, obliquely and vocally, to thwart the bill politically. With the overwhelming political majority they have the ability to do so. The gender profile of the 16th Lok Sabha consists of 89 percent male members. It is even more skewed in the state Assemblies  of 4,128 legislative constituencies only 364 are represented by elected women legislators. In only nine state Assemblies the proportion of women exceeds 10 percent while in another nine it is less than 7 percent.

This is at variance from the political scenario that has evolved globally. Inter parliamentary Union (IPU), has compiled data from among 193 countries, where national parliaments exists. The average global representation of women in lower house is about 23 percent, which is almost double than the meager 12 percent that exists in India. Almost 40 percent, that is 78 countries, have more women elected to their national parliament than the world average.

India is proud of its very vibrant democracy and trying to find its place in the developed world, economically and socially. Yet fifty percent of its population is politically not represented by its kind in the highest decision making bodies. All the BRICS countries have a much higher representation than India  South Africa has 35 percent, China at 24 percent, Russian federation at 17 percent and Brazil has 15 percent. In this context it is ironical, that compared to the other four, India lags far behind and has even seen resistance to provide half its population equity and fair due.

It is not only the economically advanced Nordic countries that have a higher proportion of elected women in their elected bodies. Even countries economically much less developed, have elected a much higher number of women to their Lower House  Rwanda (61 percent), Bolivia (53 percent) Nicaragua (45 percent) Senegal (42 percent).

Interestingly, an analysis of the IPU data does not throw any definitive correlation between economic development and women representation in the elected governing and legislating bodies. Least developed countries and even low-income countries have similar, or even higher number of women legislators than the global average. Even fragile and conflict-affected countries, which inevitably are economically distressed, have a higher proportion of women in parliament then India. On the other side of the spectrum, Japan, the third largest economy in the world, has only 9 percent women in its lower house while USA, which has the highest GDP, has one third less women representation than the world average. Surprising though it be, there is no evidence of strong correlation between women representation and economic development of a country.

Often it is considered that lack of education among women in India impairs their ability to contest elections and find their voice. This argument fails to recognise that there has been a substantial increase in the number of highly educated women without any significant increase in their numbers in Parliament or state Assemblies. Even globally it is difficult to substantiate any definitive correlation between higher proportions of educated women in a country, and their higher representation in elected bodies.

Russia and Hungary have more than 99 percent literacy among women, and only 16 percent and 10 percent women in their Parliament. So is the case with Maldives and Sri Lanka. Though Rwanda and Senegal have the highest numbers of women legislatures, the literacy among women is much lower than in other countries. Closer home in Kerala, where literacy among women is above 92 percent, women represent less than 6 percent constituencies, much lower than the national average.

Inadequate representation in India is an inevitable consequence of past gender inequity and it is ironical that country, which is modernising in many other respects, continues with this embedded discrimination. Opinion is still widely prevalent that women have little reason to venture into public sphere, and that men dominating this sphere are their guardians and benefactors. General consensus, and it exists even among women is, that men essentially know what is best for women and should continue to legislate on their behalf.

There has been little change in our thought process in spite of the 73rd and 74th Amendment to the Constitution that was legislated in 1992. One third representatives in the local self-bodies today are women and they have increasingly redefined the development agenda at the grass root, while establishing fresh priorities not considered relevant earlier by men. It also does not take into account learning from our neighbours and the world at large.

Our neighbouring countries, many of who have shared with us a common heritage and similar attitude towards women, have ensured a much higher representation of women in their lower house  Bangladesh and Pakistan 20 percent, Nepal at 30 percent and ever strife torn Afghanistan has a representation of 28 percent. In the Arab world this number is 19 percent while in Saudi Arabia, which granted women equal voting rights, as late as in 2015, women legislators constitute 20 percent of the national parliament.

The one factor that seems to occur among the countries with highest number of women in their parliaments is the high participation rate of women in work force. It ranges from 86 percent to 60 percent in Rwanda, Bolivia, Iceland, Sweden, Angola, Norway, Mozambique, Ethiopia, and above 45 percent, in Mexico Finland, Cuba, South Africa, Senegal, Namibia, Spain, France, Argentina, Belgium and Ecuador. Compare this with India where the women participation in work force has been steadily decreasing. In 1990, it was 40 percent and steadily declined to 23.7 percent in 2013-14. While it would be an unsubstantiated statement that participation of women in work force ensures a higher political representation by women, it decidedly appears to be a more conducive factor than any other.

The other significant commonality where women have higher representation is that most of these countries have either legislated quotas or party quotas for women. The database of Quota Project undertaken by IPU and the University of Stockholm demonstrates that the use of electoral quota for women is much more widespread than is commonly held. Fifty-four countries globally have legislated candidates quotas, while 23 countries have reserved seats in lower or single house for women. Some type of gender quota has been used by a majority of European countries to ensure that women constitute at least a critical minority. Closer home, Pakistan reserves 17 percent of seats in the Lower House, Bangladesh has mandated 14 percent of seats accordingly. In 2004, Afghanistan has mandated that 27 percent of seats in the lower house are reserved for women. Nepal reserves 33 percent seats for women in all its state institutions, including its legislature.

Many countries have adopted the concept of mirror representation that advocates that the proportion of women in leadership should match the proportion of women in the population that they govern. India has seen this quantum increase of women representatives in the local bodies after 1992 Amendment. Quotas positively and substantially impact women representation in the elected bodies. Slovenia, Belgium, Indonesia and many other countries have shown that the introduction of quotas can expeditiously raise the quantum of women in a countrys legislature. Almost all countries that are at the top and also those that have crossed the 30 percent threshold mark have legislated some type of quota. In 1995, Rwanda ranked 24th in terms of female representation, jumped to 1st position in 2003 after quotas were introduced. Reservation of 30 percent seats in legislature enabled the country to take the next leap forward, and today Rwanda has 61 percent women representation, highest globally. Conversely with no mandated reservation, even after years of democracy, countries like India, Maldives and Sri Lanka, have not been successful in increasing the number of women in their Parliaments. USA is another classic example of inability of women to rise in the highest political bodies without reservation.

Acrimonious resistance witnessed in India to the Bill is unseen anywhere else. Result of centuries of practice and anecdotes, decadent and inequitable attitude regarding the Bill that is presently being displayed in India needs a strong political will to address it. It has been empirically established that participation by women in higher echelons of decision making is crucial to change the quality of public policy and debate. Time is appropriate today as women represent 30 percent seats in local self governments for the last 25 years. While reservation did not make male villagers more sympathetic to the idea of female leaders, it caused them to recognise that women can lead. To translate this experience on a national and state level is imperative and India policy makers now need to recognise this.

India does not have a history of grass-root activism. It has never seen classic protests like the one by Iceland women in 1995 that brought the entire country to a standstill. Political leaders are the gatekeepers as they control policy, legislation and nominations. In recent years women have increasingly reposed their faith in them and now look to them to take forward the women agenda. In almost all elections in the last decade, coming out in large numbers, women have out numbered men and exercised their political right highlighting their collective strength in the fragmented complexity of electoral numbers. Significance of this change in voting pattern cannot be underestimated.

This shows that Indian women have moved out of the political ghetto of caste and religion and are preparing themselves for the next leap of empowerment. It would be sagacious for all political parties, and especially the party in power, to recognize this legitimate expectation.

The 73rd and 74th Amendment with mandated women representation in local bodies has raised the position of India from 108 to 87 (among 142 countries) in the Global Gender Gap. This is mainly a consequence of improvement in women political empowerment, in which India today ranks among the top 10. If in this Winter Session of Parliament the Womens reservation Bill is adopted, India will soon have the glorious distinction of being at the top position among all nations in the index regarding political empowerment of women.

The author is a retired IAS officer and Chair CARE India.
Nagpur: Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday again blamed the banks for messing up the data in loan waiver scheme. Speaking in the Assembly, Fadnavis said, The banks had messed up the bank account numbers and names of account holders. It leads to confusion as names of Shiv Sena MLA and a former NCP MP was published as beneficiaries. Our parallel system of asking farmers to register themselves on aapale sarkar portal helped us to expose such errors.

In both the cases, none had applied for loan waiver but their names appeared as beneficiary, he said.

He was speaking on the floor after several Opposition leaders raised objections over several mistakes in the loan waiver scheme.

Fadnavis said, Shiv Sena MLA Prakash Abitkar did not apply for the loan waiver scheme but his name appeared instead of actual beneficiary Prakash Sutar. The list issued by the state government showed Abitkars name and his back account number.

This mess was revealed because Maharashtra government had a parallel list of beneficiary farmers and their bank account details. Each accounts details were accepted in 66 columns and a green list was prepared. We have also asked the banks to transfer the amount into the beneficiary bank accounts. Post-transfer the banks have to validate the account on their own. This provision is done to fix the responsibility over banks, Fadnavis said.

The primary verification of 47,87,995 bank accounts is completed. Out of it, 34 lakh accounts are from waiver and one-time settlement scheme while another 14 lakh accounts are eligible for incentive scheme, where regular payee gets a rebate up to RS 25,000, said the chief minister.

The cumulative figure of loan waiver is Rs 23,300 crore so far. We have transferred the amount into 26.50 lakh bank accounts as on 20 December. The state machinery has picked up momentum and we are speedily clearing the fresh accounts, he said.

Fadnavis also explained how a former MPs name from Jalgaon also appeared on the list of beneficiaries. Fadnavis said, Latabai Suresh Patil was actually the beneficiary of loan waiver scheme of Maharashtra government. But because of the banks mistake, name of Vasantrao More, former member of parliament from NCP appeared in the list of the beneficiary. More had not applied for this scheme.

He also announced that repayment deadline under one-time settlement scheme is extended till 31 March from December end.
Maoists attacked a railway station in Bihar, killing one person and abducting two officials to enforce a shutdown in the region, police said on Wednesday.

Armed Maoists attacked the Masudan Railway Station on Jamalpur-Kieul rail section late Tuesday night. According to an Eastern Railway official, the attack took place at about 11.25 pm.

They killed a deputy village organisation head, torched cabin panel and abducted two railway employees  station master Mukesh Kumar and porter Narendra Mandal  to enforce a shutdown they had called on Wednesday.

#Bihar : Naxals attacked Masudan Railway Station, late last night & torched station property. pic.twitter.com/bzMlRbOqwE  ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2017

Train services on that stretch were disrupted. CPRO of Eastern Railway was quoted by ANI as saying that they detained three trains in Kiul-Jamalpur-Bhagalpur section of Malda Division in the light of naxal attack at Masudan and services have once again been stopped at Kiul point.

#SpotVisuals: Naxals attacked Masudan Railway Station, late last night & torched station property. 2 officials, including Assistant Station Master, abducted. pic.twitter.com/PZ9oNsXPUh  ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2017

Eastern Railway spokesperson Ravi Mahapatra told IANS that after the attack, the Gaya-Jamalpur passenger train, which arrived at the Masudan station at 11.39 pm was halted there as the signalling system was damaged.

"Senior police officials then arrived at the station with engineers and the train was allowed to move at 5.45 am on Wednesday morning," he said.

"But soon after the services were resumed, an assistant operations manager at Malda received a threat call from the Maoists that if any movement continued, the abductees will be killed. It prompted the suspension of services on the section at 7 am," Mahapatra said.

A number of trains were halted at the Kiul-Jamalpur-Bhagalpur section of Malda Division including Farakka Express and Muzaffarpur Bhagalpur Jan Sewa Express at Kiul, Banka Express at Barahiya, and the Jaynagar Howrah Passenger at Dinkar Gram Samaria, the officer added.

Search operation for the abducted railway officials were going on.

With inputs from IANS
Delhi's Max Hospital has resumed operations days after its licences was cancelled by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), say media reports. The hospital in a statement said that a stay order has been issued by the appellate authority  the office of the Financial Commissioner SS Yadav  in the matter and that they were committed to providing quality healthcare to their patients.

#BREAKING - Delhi's Max Hospital gets stay on Delhi govt ban, resumes operations. pic.twitter.com/YyQBhq1KJR  News18 (@CNNnews18) December 20, 2017

Further, when the cancellation was criticised, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had defended the order, saying, "Delhi government is not against private hospitals and is fully aware of their importance. But Max Hospital left us with no option other than to take action. This is not happened first time. Such kind of erroneous act was done by the hospital on many occasions in the past too."

It had been reported last week that the hospital had moved a "government authority" against the cancellation of its licence. A spokesperson of the Max Healthcare, when asked to elaborate about the appropriate authority approached, had said, "It is not a court authority but a government authority. And, the appeal was filed today."

However, while the hospital had declined to share details on the appropriate government authority approached by them, Delhi High Court advocate Ashok Agarwal had claimed that in such cases, "the appellate authority is the Lieutenant Governor's office."

"As per the Delhi Nursing Homes Registration Act, 1953, in cases related to cancellation of licence, the appellate authority is the L-G office," Agarwal, also a member of the Delhi High Court-appointed EWS Monitoring Committee for hospitals, said.

The Max Hospital case pertains to one of the premature twins, wrongly declared dead on 30 November at the hospital where he was born, and who died during treatment at a nursing home in Pitampura a week later.

Both the babies were declared stillborn by the hospital and handed over to the family allegedly in a polythene bag. But to their utter horror, they found that the boy was still alive, while they were on way to do their final rites.

With inputs from agencies
Lucknow: BSP chief Mayawati has demanded the withdrawal of the UPCOCA bill, which was introduced in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on, saying the ruling government might misuse it to suppress dalits and religious minorities.

The state government introduced the bill to enact a stringent law on the lines of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) to combat land mafia, mining mafia and organised crimes in the state.

Mayawati said the Adityanath government is already miusing various laws for communal and political reasons, and the UPCOCA bill, if passed, will only worsen the situation.

"Laws are grossly misused in the state to the extent that any BJP worker walks up to a police station and the police registers false cases against people," Mayawati said in a statement in Lucknow.

"The UPCOCA will be used for suppression of poor, dalits, backwards and the religious minorities," she said, adding that the she wanted the bill be withdrawan in public interest.
After repeatedly denying consular access, Pakistan finally issued visas to alleged Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav's wife and mother on Wednesday who are now likely to meet him on 25 December. The visa comes after 21 months of Jadhav's arrest.

Islamabad had last week directed its High Commission in New Delhi to issue the visas. Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal had said on 11 December that the visa applications of Jadhav's family had been received and were being "processed".

A diplomat from the Indian High Commission in Pakistan will also be permitted to accompany them throughout their stay.

Islamabad had also agreed to provide maximum security to Jadhav's family during their visit to Pakistan

Jadhav, 46, was arrested by Pakistan from the restive Balochistan province in 2016 and was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and terrorism.

India had several times tried to arrange a meeting of Jadhav with his family members. Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj had even written a "personal letter" to the advisor to the prime minister of Pakistan on national security and foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz, asking for approval of Jadhav's mother visa application of so that she may travel to Pakistan.

Altough Pakistan had claimed that Jadhav was tasked by RAW to plan, coordinate and organise espionage, terrorist and sabotage activities aimed at destabilising and waging war against Pakistan, India has maintained that he was kidnapped from Iran, where he was running a business after retirement from the Indian Navy.

India had even approached the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in May seeking a provisional stay to the execution of Jadhav which was granted. The court then fixed 13 June, 13 September and 13 December as dates for India to file its documents and for Pakistan to file counter-documents.

With inputs from agencies
By Sharanya Gopinathan

Converting your religion and spiritual faith is a deeply personal decision that only you get to make, right? Wrong! The Rajasthan High Court has just turned religious conversion into a reality game show, where for the first time, the general public gets to call in and vote on your conversion. Okay not exactly, but really close.

On 15 December, the high court was hearing a case (which bears alarming likeness to that of Keralas Hadiya) about Arifa (nee Payal), who converted to Islam and married a Muslim man.

In hearing this case filed by Arifas brother, the high court took it upon itself to set some guidelines in order to change religions or have an interfaith marriage. Now, Rajasthanis who wish to convert need to put up their names on a government notice board, where it will remain for a week, and people will be allowed to file objections before permission is granted for the conversion.

The directive doesnt specify who these people are, so it looks like anyone, from your mother to your sworn enemy to your ex-lover to a member of a religious extremist group, can file an objection to your conversion.

How is this different from existing anti-conversion legislations?

This isnt the first barrier to free conversion weve seen in India, although its still pretty unique. Several states, such as Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Arunachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, have tried with varying degrees of success to enact legislation (many of them audaciously named Freedom of Religion Bills) that aimed to check forced conversion. Many of these required people to intimate a government official of their decision to convert, and in Gujarat, to obtain permission too.

These legislations have had tumultuous legal journeys, with many of them having sections struck down by high courts, as in Himachal Pradesh, or by the president, as in the case of Madhya Pradeshs first attempt, or repealed by the government itself, a la Tamil Nadu.

Significantly, while striking down sections of the concerned Bill, the Himachal Pradesh High Court opined, A person not only has a right of conscience, the right of belief, the right to change his belief, but also has the right to keep his beliefs secret. [emphasis ours]

So, the differences to note here are that even in previous instances of legislation dealing with forced conversion, the courts have been known to strike down legislation formed by the government requiring the prior intimation of a government official.

In Rajasthan, the high court has actually taken it upon itself to introduce a rule that goes beyond government officials, and brings the general public into your choice to convert, even in the absence of such a legislation by the government. (Rajasthans anti-conversion Bill is still awaiting the presidents approval).

How unconstitutional is this?

The immediate question upon seeing this rule isnt is this unconstitutional, but rather how unconstitutional is this? Short answer: 10/10.

Long answer: It does appear to violate several fundamental rights. The most obvious is Article 25, the right to freedom of religion and conscience (which guarantees your right to free thought too). It flies in the face of Article 21, the right to life and liberty, and Article 19, which gives you the right to free speech, expression and association.

It also seems to be violative of the spirit of the brand-new Right to Privacy law.

Picture this: Youre a resident of Rajasthan, and this rule has been in place for a month now. Members of religious extremist groups have parked themselves opposite this notice board, with the sole intention of beating up couples who have inter-faith marriages or people who choose to convert.

In this climate, would you be able to make the choice to convert, an extremely personal and intimate decision, without coercion or external influence? Isnt that, in essence, what a right to privacy actually means?

While India hasnt seen such a case yet to test the boundaries of its new right to privacy, the US Supreme Court did invoke this right in a strikingly similar situation in 1958.

In Alabama vs the NAACP, the court told Alabama that it couldnt actually require the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a civil rights group that helmed the massive social justice movement for African-Americans at that time, to make their membership lists public.

Pointing out that members were likely to be targeted by violence and other forms of societal retribution, the court ruled that such a stipulation would therefore discourage people from joining. This would in turn violate their right to privacy or to make private decisions freely.

While the NAACP wasnt religious group, this legal reasoning would apply perfectly to Rajasthan and the violent discrimination faced by religious minorities in India, especially given the recent rise in cases of religiously motivated violence, like the murder of Afrazul Khan by Shambhu Lal Regar in Rajasthan just this month on 6 December, which actually inspired people to collect Rs 3 lakh for Regar and his family.

As constitutional lawyer Akhila Ramalingam points out, this move puts an unfair burden on those who wish to convert. While issuing this directive, the court said that the person officiating the conversion must satisfy that the person is having full faith in the newly adopted religion.

This is an extremely weird reading of the idea of free and informed choice that facetiously brings to my mind pujaris conducting on-the-spot General Knowledge tests for converts. This is probably not how the directive will actually play out, but it still puts an unfair onus on converts to be more fully faithful than people who don't convert.

Dont you know utterly faithless people who are technically Hindus or Muslims or Christians? Is every person who chooses not to convert thoroughly well-versed in their familys religion?

Furthermore, as Ramalingam says, the existing legislation dealing with religious conversions have all dealt with forced conversions. In creating new barriers for all conversions, the court sends the message that conversion itself is inherently suspicious and needs to be regulated.

She points out dryly, The courts are meant to protect and enhance your existing freedoms, not create new barriers to freedom and social movement.

So how will this affect women?

While the original panic over conversion in India began due to hysteria around Christian proselytisation, its interesting that in the most contentious cases of religious conversion this year, Hadiya and now Arifa, both women converted to Islam.

Another thing to note here is the other instance in which the law requires you to put up a public notice: When you get married under the Special Marriage Act (which is mostly used for interfaith weddings). Its hard not to think that the requirement of public notices for interfaith marriages, and now, for religious conversions, comes from panic around losing women of our communities to others.

The verbiage of existing anti-conversion bills reflects this sentiment, given that many stipulate higher penalties for forcibly converting women, and include caveats that exempt reconversion to your natural religion (ie Hinduism). This new rule, of having the community object to religious conversion, feels like it will play more heavily on women, given that women have always been seen as historical keepers of the culture, and signifiers of cultural tradition and purity.

Given that women have less economic and social mobility and freedom than men, and face more pressure from the family and community, women also have more cause to worry about publicly declaring their religion and inviting objections, and fewer tools to deal with the repercussions.

So now what? Well, while the case does carry worrying echoes of Hadiya, its probably only a matter of time until its struck down. Until then, I guess we just keep the good folks of Rajasthan in our thoughts and prayers. Because they apparently arent allowed to think and pray for themselves.

Sharanya Gopinathan is a writer at The Ladies Finger (TLF), which is a leading online womens magazine delivering fresh and witty perspectives on politics, culture, health, sex, work and everything in between.
Two separate incidents of violence were reported against RSS activists in Kerala's Kannur district on Tuesday, leaving one person critically injured. The police suspects CPM workers were involved in the attacks, although nobody has been identified yet and no arrests have been made so far.

The victim, 30-year-old Pravin, has been admitted to the Kozhikode Medical College, said CNN-News18.

#Visuals from Kerala: An RSS worker critically injured after being attacked by a group of unidentified men in Kannur's Kathiroor earlier this evening. pic.twitter.com/EvILwO1KtE  ANI (@ANI) December 19, 2017

According to a report on the news agency PTI, the incident took place in Kathirur in Kannur's Thalassery town at around 7.15 pm on Tuesday evening. Praveen, who was travelling on his motorcycle, was returning home when he was waylaid and assaulted by some persons, the police said.

He suffered injuries on his left hand, right eye and to the back of his head, the police added.

Meanwhile, in what appears to be an unrelated incident, five BJP activists were attacked in Maloor town of Kannur district on Tuesday evening. The police suspect the CPM's involvement in this incident as well, CNN-News18 reported. Among the five activists, one was attacked with sharp weapons while the other four were beaten with sticks.

Kannur has been a hotbed of political violence in recent times, with workers and activists belonging to both CPM and RSS being lynched. Kannur, the home district of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, reported 301 incidents of political violence in the first four months of his tenure, that began in May last year.

As reported earlier by Firstpost, these clashes involve all major parties, but the unrelenting conflict between the CPM and RSS means killings and counter-killings have become the order of the day in Kannur since the Sangh Parivar started carving out a space in the communist bastions.

The violence involving the workers of the CPM, RSS and BJP combine has claimed more than 250 lives and left hundreds maimed in the district in the last five decades.

With inputs from PTI
New Delhi: Union Minister Krishna Raj was rushed to a hospital in New Delhi on Wednesday after she fell ill during a party meeting in Parliament.

Delhi: MoS Agriculture Krishna Raj fell ill during BJP parliamentary party meeting at Parliament's Library Building, rushed to RML hospital for treatment. pic.twitter.com/lnINcuJNJw  ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2017

Raj, the Minister of State for Agriculture, was rushed to the Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital after she complained of dizziness while attending the Bharatiya Janata Party meeting held in Parliament's Library Building.

The minister is stable now, the hospital said.
Editor's note: From May 2017, Firstpost is featuring a fortnightly column by Mridula Ramesh, titled 'Climate Conversations'. In this column, we take a look at pressing issues pertaining to climate change  in an accessible way.

Ever wondered if there is an industry that creates lakhs of jobs while banishing pollution, dengue and lowering greenhouse gas emissions?

Hint: Its hiding in plain sight.

What is the status-quo?

In most cities, under-staffed corporations with multiple mandates (of which managing solid waste is just one) are tasked with collecting and managing our waste. There are no incentives to adopt the more complicated segregated garbage system. There is often little or no training for the users. In fact, the current remuneration structure for contractors, which pays more for weight carried and distance, encourages dumping, not management.

There are, of course, heroes  commissioners or political leaders  who bring about change. But scalable solutions often rest on aligned incentives across all stakeholders.

In this context, let us talk about Bengaluru.

Bengaluru generates 3500-5000 tonnes of solid waste daily, of which it collects approximately 80 percent, average by Indian-city-standards.

A new beginning

However, something interesting happened a few years ago. The citizen movement in waste has always been strong in Bengaluru. This movement culminated in a PIL filed in the High Court asking for better waste management based on segregation (and management) at source. The High Court responded by ruling that bulk generators of waste (offices, apartment complexes, hospitals, restaurants etc.) had to segregate and manage their waste and allowed them to use private contractors directly.

This transformed the waste management industry.

Today, Bengaluru manages around 40 percent of its garbage. That is, 1500 tonnes of trash is now managed  made into biogas, compost, following different dry-waste pathways  rather than going to a landfill. Most Indian cities manage only 20 percent of their waste, much of it courtesy of waste pickers.

Speaking of waste pickers  is there a sorrier tale in India?

The unmentioned, invisible millions who manage our waste for us. Because they are exposed at point-blank range to the poisons in our waste, they have a shockingly short life expectancy. Someone told me this story: A grandfather was driving his foreign-born-and-raised grandson from the airport on the childs first visit to India. The car stopped at a signal and a young waste-picker approached the car begging. The grandfather, as many of us might have, ignored the child. But his grandson said Baba, there is a child asking for your help!. Where? asked the grandfather. There! said the grandson, pointing at the child outside.

The grandfather finally realised who his grandson was pointing at.

It took a child to point out the truth: we often dont see what see what is right before us. Ragpickers exist on the raw edges of humanity, rummaging for dry waste in the smouldering landfills and streets to sell to waste merchants. They do so because we choose not to segregate.

This is unacceptable.

But this tale can be spun another way.

Thangamma wears thick blue gloves, a mask and an apron. She works with precision  unerringly taking one component after the other and placing it in the appropriate bin. Her attitude, attire and approach would not be out of place in a high-tech factory working with printed circuit boards, but the truth is that Thangamma is working with soiled napkins, bits of waste paper and used plastic bottles. She takes a basket filled to the brim, and with a group of other middle-aged women, she puts the crumpled paper napkin into one bag, a used paper cup into a second, a Lays cover into a third. They keep working quietly, talking to each other while their hands move with surgical precision. Each piece they sort is one less piece into the landfill  quite a bit more than that since segregation of dry waste allows the wet waste generated to be made into biogas or compost. They work in dignity and safety  a far cry from their less-fortunate cousins working out in the open, in the landfill. She tells me that her daughter has finished her engineering degree. Is she working?, I ask. No, I got her married Thangamma replies. But she is continuing to study.

A ragpicker-turned-employee, sending her daughter to college, assured of a steady income, facing no unnecessary danger in her work, provided with security in the form of PF and ESI, while ensuring less of our waste goes to landfill. What a story! I was hooked, and this is why I invested in the start-up, Saahas.

The Start-up Solutions

The 2012-ruling facilitated the mating of Bengalurus innovation ecosystem with the citys waste problem. The children of this union are the numerous start-ups that do fantastic work in the city today  one of which is Saahas.

Wilma Rodriguez, who founded and runs Saahas, recently won the prestigious Global Citizen Award as a recognition of her achievements in this field. Wilma believes we can win this war against waste.

Another start-up/NGO is Hasiru Dala, that transforms waste pickers into entrepreneurs, and manages the waste of 27,000 apartments in Bengaluru.

How?

It helps to think of the waste management system in terms of a technology stack  front end, middle and backend. At the customer-facing top end, there are the segregated collection and allied services to help customers migrate to a segregated lifestyle. This is key. Without the awareness, the sensitisation, the training and the handholding, segregation wont work.

In the middle of the stack we have the QC checking, and further dry waste segregation. Many dry-waste centres are adopting machinery, which dramatically improves dignity and productivity of the workforce (and by extension, how much they can be paid).

At the bottom of the stack are the destinations for the different types of waste: biogas or compost for wet waste and various options for dry and hazardous waste. Lately, Wilma has partnered with yet another start-up, Carbon Masters, that generates biogas from waste.

A company like Carbon Masters could not have come about unless they had access to large quantities of segregated wet waste such as Saahas or Hasiru Dala can provide. Carbon Masters provides biogas in cylinder form  used to fuel carbon neutral cooking or vehicular fuel. Carbon Masters even runs its fleet of trucks on these cylinders  green transportation indeed!

About 40 percent of dry waste has ready destinations. PET bottles supply a flourishing textile industry. Paper finds a ready home in paper mills. The problem is with lower grades of plastic and waste cloth, which makes up 60 percent of dry waste today. The informal sector converts some plastic into granules, which are then made into pipes, switches etc. But melting the plastic to make the granules releases emissions and effluents that are problematic. Low-grade plastic can also be mixed into bitumen to lay roads, but is facing bottlenecks in adoption.

At the bottom, the very low-quality plastic, cloth waste and the hazardous waste are sent to the incinerators, the cement factories or more commonly, the landfills.

Developing the stack  from awareness, training, hand holding, to providing segregated transport, then secondary segregation and destination development  takes money.

Srikrishna Balachandran, who co-founded I Got Garbage, a technology-enabled waste solutions ecosystem, also believes the waste problem is solvable. But, he says, people need to pay for managing their waste.

Nalini Shekar, who co-founded Hasiru Dala, says the work of ragpickers mucking through 1,050 tonnes of garbage saved the city Rs 84 crores annually. They, who have nothing, subsidise the rest of us.

How ironic.

She says Rs 150-Rs 175 monthly fees per household should cover not only the management of residential waste, but also street waste.

Once we, the citizens, realise that there is a vast difference between dumping waste in landfills and managing it through to the last mile, we should be willing to pay for the privilege. Right?

But reality challenges that wisdom: people are unwilling to pay. Often, we talk of rights; But very few of us speak of her mute twin sister: responsibility. They are two sides of a coin  the right to clean streets and clean water comes with the responsibility to pay and segregate.

Worth bearing in mind.

Srikrishna says that most people do not want a landfill in their backyard. Fair enough  landfills are terrible things. They are modern hells  endless mounds of grey, smoking garbage on which all manner of beasts (and humans) roam. The real problem of a landfill lies under the ground. As water seeps through the mountains of waste, it gathers the toxins and enters the ground below, contaminating ground water. Incidence of many diseases  low birth weight in babies, respiratory diseases and cancer in adults  skyrocket near a landfill.

Naturally, citizens near landfills are beginning to protest. So, one by one, the landfills are closing down.

This closure could force the development of more destinations for segregated waste. The existing waste management centres are being overwhelmed, for which surely a large part of the blame lies with the incentive systems in place for contractors and municipal staff.

Private waste managers like Saahas, Hasiru Dala or Shudh Labh are different. If they dont do a good job of collecting, segregating and monetizing the different waste streams, they go extinct. Because their survival depends on it, they are innovating in collection and segregation techniques and spurring innovation in waste stream destinations.

They are also seeding the entrepreneurial space: The expertise of waste pickers should be leveraged as a valuable resource. They, especially the women, are terrific entrepreneurs, says Nalini, who has transformed multiple waste pickers into entrepreneurs.

But private waste managers manage only about 100-150 tonnes of waste per day  a tiny fraction of the overall Bengaluru waste generation. Their growth can be a very good thing. Why?

Let me provide an example: some of you may remember the early days of telephones in India. The state operator has a monopoly, and there were long waiting lines for getting a telephone connection. Charges were high, and cross-talk was not uncommon.

Today, India has 1.2 billion telephone subscribers. Do you think this could have happened without opening up the sector and allowing innovation to come in?

Why should politicians care?

Waste Management creates jobs  especially among the urban poor.

Let us dive deeper.

There are collectors, drivers to transport the segregated waste to collection centres and beyond. In the dry waste centres, there are workers manning the conveyor belt and the balers, who compress the different wastes into bales for easy transport. Then there are trainers, marketers and management.

In one wet waste destination, biogas, there are the feeders of waste into the biogas machines, the drivers who transport wet waste and the finished cylinders to the customers. Then there are the supporting staff  fitters, cleaners and watchman. And finally, there are the management staff, the marketing and engineering teams.

There are more jobs in various dry waste destinations.

These are dignified jobs with benefits  a far cry from the waste pickers rummaging in the open.

Not all these jobs are new. Some would simply be displacing workers already employed by the corporation, their contractors or the waste pickers  primarily in collection. But waste management creates entirely new sectors and new jobs.

How many jobs are we talking about?

Very conservative, expert estimates are that 4-5 new jobs can be created per tonne of managed waste. These estimates are far lower than what Saahas, Hasiru Dala and Carbon Masters are creating on the ground today and do not include jobs created in Dry Waste destinations. These estimates are also far higher than estimates in developed countries given the much higher levels of mechanisation there.

Managing urban Indias 1,50,000 tonnes of municipal waste could generate 6,00,000 to 7,50,000 jobs while creating a cleaner environment and ensuring dignity and safety for millions.

And all we need to do is unleash the animal spirits that lie hidden within our dustbins.

This column is part of a series on waste. Read more here.

The writer is the founder of the Sundaram Climate Institute, cleantech angel investor, teacher and author of a forthcoming book on Climate Change and India. Follow her work on her website; on Twitter; or write to her at cc@climaction.net
Amid delayed flights, frayed nerves, lack of clarity about the arrival of musical instruments and the news of a kidnapping, there was music, a lot of itsoul stirring, soothing, serenading almost other-worldly. For the three days (15-17 December), music lovers were not only exposed to the greatest classical guitarists at the Calcutta International Classical Guitar Festival (CICGF), but more than a hundred students also ensured that the future of this genre of music will evolve by taking lessons in classical guitar from the likes of Pavel Steidl and Marcin Dylla, the artistes who feature in the list of the top five classical guitarists of the world. The music lovers received a rare treat from Pavel, who also played the rare romantic guitar. Pavels instrument is based on a guitar that belonged to the 19th century guitarist Luigi Legnani. The romantic guitar is a slightly smaller instrument  like a parlour guitar  and can be dismantled. You can take the strings off, and then the neck is unscrewed.

The excitement was palpable on the very first day at the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) building, opposite the high security American Consulate. At 9 pm in the morning, all five rooms of the conference centre at the top floor were occupied by students who had come from all corners of the country to get lessons from the masters. Lessons went on in all the rooms simultaneously; those who opted for individual lessons from the maestros were handpicked by Aakash Saha, one of the founders of the Calcutta Classical Guitar Society, based on the music recordings they submitted.

The day before, on 14 December, after the Spanish Guitar Competition was held for the junior and senior categories, recitals were given by young winners. Anubhav Dasgupta, the winner of last years Junior Spanish Guitar Competition, performed a short recital for Kabir Dabholkar (winner of the Young Musician Of the Year award, 2017), who was there to get lessons from his favourite master Pavel Steidl. The integration of students in this manner helps prepare artistes of repute for future in the genre of classical guitar music, which remains limited to a niche group of people.

The evening concerts on 15 December began with the traditional lighting of the lamp. Once Marcin Dylla picked up his guitar to play music from the classical period and began with Mauro Guilianis sonata, the filled auditorium did not even hear any sound other than the music which was made of fantasy. The captivating 'Nocturnal' by Benjamin Britten moved freely, taking the audience along in its flight of imagination  a surrealistic dream journey that took the audience through the experience of a nightmare concluding with a peaceful dawn. It is regarded as one of the finest works ever written for the classical guitar. Marcin spoke about how 'Nocturnal', which was written for legendary guitarist Julian Bream, explores the concept of sleep and dreams.

Marcins concert was followed by the French trio, Le Maestrio, which played a unique mix of gypsy jazz, flamenco and Brazilian guitar. They treated the audience with many famous catchy tunes, including Mozarts 25th Symphony. The fusion of sounds created by the trio, even though each ones guitar had a distinct sound of its own, was a never-heard-before experience for the music lovers of Kolkata. The audience included 170 children, most of them children of sex workers from the red light areas of Kolkata. Their tickets were sponsored by a local NGO, which enabled them to experience this music.

During the day, on 16 December, performances were organised by the schools of music from Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Darjeeling. Each student was given 5 minutes to present their music. Three artistes were slated for the evening concert. Paco Renteria, the star guitarist from Mexico, who couldn't come to Jodhpur RIFF in October due to the floods in his country, was once again unable to leave the country due to stress, because his father had been kidnapped.

A professor at Madrid Conservatory, Miguel Trapaga, whose trip to India was sponsored by the Embassy of Spain, delighted the audience with written Spanish music from 17th to 20th century. True to the flavour of Spanish music, it was warm and melodious, presenting true Spanish classical guitar sounds. Johannes Moller is not new to CICGF; he has been performing in Kolkata since the first chapter of the festival and enjoys the kind of audience connect that only pop musicians have. He presented a mix of his own music as well as recognised classical guitar hits without sticking to the formal structure of a classical concert. About half way through the concert, there were people shouting out requests and Johannes responded by saying that he would be playing 'Night Flame', as well as new pieces from his new album China (based on Chinese traditional and folk music). Johannes continued playing for an extra half hour, on audience demand.

The concluding day was the day of Pavel Steidl, whose distinct musical sounds stand apart in the crowded aural experience of the times. During the day, an ensemble concert by the Nagaland Conservatory of Music presented pieces originally written for guitar quartet, as well as the orchestra score for the guitar. Steidl, the guitarist-performer, whose entire body sways with the music and whose face comes alive with expressions, moved the audience with the endearing sounds of his guitar. His concert was unique; it included a combination of classical guitar music. A suite of songs by Jan Antonin Losy Count of Losinthal, followed by Niccolo Paganini and Luigi Legnani. Legnani and Paganini were friends and both played the violin and the guitar. The way Pavel Steidl arranged the pieces  one short piece by Paganini followed by another one by Legnani  sounded as though the composers were in dialogue with one another. The last piece of music played was classical  Carlo Domeniconi's 'Steidleriana' but also had overtone singing, and tapping of the guitar and the performers body.

The festival concluded on a lighter note, when the trio of Mohan Veena exponent Pt Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, jazz guitarist Amyt Datta and Pt Subhen Chatterjee's Karma produced sounds of a different texture with jazz guitar, bass and drums. It was loud and lasted till 10 pm, much beyond the scheduled time. All concerts were sold out, despite the fact there were other concerts by the greats of Indian music in the city. The Calcutta International Classical Guitar Festival has grown solely because of word of mouth, and the music played here plays to the soul, not the gallery.
The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the introduction of Consumer Protection Bill, 2017, ANI reported.

Cabinet approves introduction of Consumer Protection Bill, 2017 and withdrawal of Consumer Protection Bill, 2015; to enlarge scope of the existing Consumer Protection Act and make it more effective and purposeful.

The bill is likely to be introduced during the Winter Session of Parliament, Zee News reported.

The new law, which is set to replace Consumer Protection Act, 1986, enforces consumer rights and provides a mechanism for redressal of complaints regarding defect in goods and deficiency in services. It will also incorporate the revised 2015 United Nations guidelines on consumer protection.

The Bill was originally drafted in 2015 and tabled in the Lok Sabha last year, was subsequently sent to the Standing Committee on Food and Consumer Affairs, Zee News reported.

According to a report in The Times of India, manufacturing, storing, sale or import of products containing adulterants which could cause injury or even death, will be a non-bailable offence attracting a fine of Rs 10 lakh, along with a jail term between one year and life.

The manufacture or service provider will face two to five years imprisonment, and a fine of Rs 10-50 lakh for making false or misleading advertisements, The Free Press Journal reported.

Also, the consumer can now lodge a complaint from anywhere in the country, unlike the existing law under which a consumer had to register the complaint at the same place from where the product was purchased, The Hindu reported.

Even airlines could face liability action in case the flight gets cancelled at last minute, the report further added.

Pitching for such a law, Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier said, "Stringent provisions are proposed against misleading advertisements. A Central Consumer Protection Authority with executive powers will be constituted for quick remedial action."

"Protection of consumer interests is a priority of the government. This is also reflected in our resolution of the New India. Moving beyond consumer protection, New India will have best consumer practices and consumer prosperity," Modi said.

With inputs from PTI
A day before by-elections are to be held in RK Nagar, the one-time constituency of late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa, a video has been released purportedly showing the former AIADMK chief spending her last days in Chennai's Apollo Hospital.

The video has been released by the TTV Dhinakaran-VK Sasikala camp of the AIADMK party, and comes at the end of what has been a very bitter electoral campaign battle for the prestigious Assembly constituency in north Chennai.

Network18 #EXCLUSIVE - First ever pictures of J Jayalalithaa inside Apollo hospital. pic.twitter.com/7b6wcUsHaF  News18 (@CNNnews18) December 20, 2017

Jayalalithaa died on 5 December, 2016, following a 75-day hospitalisation. However, details surrounding her illness and demise remain shrouded in mystery, and Opposition parties have blamed the AIADMK and Jayalalithaa's aide VK Sasikala of not releasing details.

DMK working president MK Stalin said on Tuesday that he would "unravel the mystery" behind Jayalalithaa's death and bring the guilty to task, since it was not currently happening under the AIADMK government.

The Dhinakaran-Sasikala camp has said the video would settle this debate, and conclusively prove that Jayalalithaa was cared for when she was in the hospital. Speaking to the media, AIADMK leader P Vetrivel said the visuals show the former chief minister watching TV and drinking juice in the hospital. "These prove that she was in good hands at the hospital. The accusations that she was already ailing when they brought her to the hospital are incorrect," he said.

Vetrivel, a Dhinakaran supporter and former AIADMK legislator, said they were "forced" to release this video because Opposition parties kept demanding proof. "OPS has been making accusations every day. Even yesterday, he was speaking about Amma's death. We hope these pictures will settle the debate. We didn't want to release this footage, but were forced to, because they keep going on," he said.

Responding to criticism that the timing of the video's release, just one day before the by-election, was "suspicious", Vetrivel said they aren't doing it for electoral gains. "The elections are a very small matter. Raising doubts over Amma's death is a much bigger issue. We are sharing this video to settle that argument alone. We want to make it clear that she was cared for. If it was only about the elections, we could have shared it in April (when polling was originally scheduled to be held, before the Election Commission deferred it)," he added.
Nagpur: Two days after the Gujarat election results were announced, giving the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) a sixth straight win in the western state, rival parties have already begun making their plans, in an attempt to ensure the saffron party doesn't repeat its victory in the Lok Sabha elections hardly 16 months from now.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which was once an ally of the Congress, had split after seat-sharing agreement didn't work out. However, leaders from both parties have underlined the importance for them to remain united ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections, in order to ensure they can take on the BJP.

A section of leaders from both parties said the two parties should put their differences aside and come together for the sake of the state's politics. At least four MLAs from the two parties have gone public in the days following announcement of results in Gujarat, underlining the need to forge an alliance ahead of the 2019 election.

Congress MLAs Sunil Kedar and Yashomati Thakur, and NCP's Jitendra Aawhad and Shashikant Shinde have all gone on record to say they would prefer an alliance ahead of Parliament and Maharashtra Assembly elections, both due for 2019.

"Formation of an alliance is an important decision and should be taken at the right time. There needs to be a change in New Delhi in 2019, and if Congress and NCP can come together, we will come back to power," Kedar said.

Awhad, an NCP MLA from Thane, is known to be close to party supremo Sharad Pawar, while Thakur, Congress MLA from Amravati, is close to party president Rahul Gandhi. "If we can form a strategy, it will help both parties. We will meet our respective leaders and share our views. We will try and convince them about our plans," Awhad said.

Earlier, senior NCP leader Praful Patel had said that both parties would have done a better had they joined hands in Gujarat. It was in 2014 that Congress and NCP broke off their decade-long alliance, following a bitter battle over seat sharing, thereby paving the way for a BJP win in the election.

In Maharashtra, Congress has 42 MLAs and NCP had 41. The Winter Session of state legislature is currently underway in Nagpur.

"We (Congress and NCP) will fight the 2019 elections as an alliance, and we will come to power. A change is already taking place in Gujarat and will soon spread to the rest of the country, said former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan.

Last week, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad had said, "We are separate now, but who knows, we could come together. We are anyway working together, and our ideology is the same. Gujarat results have shown that both parties coming together will give the BJP a run for its false promises."

Former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said a decision will be taken if an official request is received. "Let a demand for an alliance be made first. We will reply later."

With Rahul Gandhi taking over the Congress' reins in Gujarat, talks about the party's strategy for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections have also gained momentum. On an alliance with the Congress, NCP leader Praful Patel said that the two parties should stay united, and that he was confident they could together win in 2019.

"Congress can't fight the BJP alone.They will have to take other parties along if they have to defeat BJP and (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi," Maharashtra NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik told Firstpost.

"For Congress, there is no option but to cobble up alliances with other Opposition parties. They should take the lead in this. Being the largest Opposition party, it should be Congress' responsibility. Our (NCP's) desire is that the Opposition should be united when we to take on the BJP," said NCP state president Sunil Tatkare.

Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council, NCP's Dhananjay Munde agreed that there are talks taking place between NCP and Congress. "Party workers from both parties are talking about the possibility of an alliance before the election. Top leaders of both parties are aware of such expectations. But it will take some time to decide on an alliance," he said.

Moreover, he added, "It is clear that BJP and Shiv Sena are not very comfortable with each other. The way BJP is treating the Sena, I don't think they will contest together. But NCP and Congress are likely to contest both general and Assembly elections together," he added.
Two days after winning the Vadgam seat as an Independent candidate in the Gujarat Assembly election, Jignesh Mevani took a jibe at Narendra Modi and said that the prime minister should retire and "go to the Himalayas".

Speaking to CNN-News18, Mevani suggested Modi should take "sanyas". "Even at 70, Modi is calling himself youth," the Dalit was quoted as saying.

Mevani admitted that he had taken Rs 51,000 as donation from the Popular Front of India (PFI) for his campaign, and challenged the Centre to ban the organisation.

Mevani said that SDPI, a wing of the PFI, is a registered political party. "If PFI is a dubious group, then what is the man with a 56-inch chest doing? Why has there been no action from him?" Mevani said, further taunting Modi.

#BREAKING - Jignesh insults PM again -- PM should retire and go to the Himalayas: Jignesh Mevani, Independent MLA pic.twitter.com/dXPEcMh8fT  News18 (@CNNnews18) December 20, 2017

The newly-elected MLA had also taken potshots at the BJP on Twitter on Monday, after results were announced, saying the party had won "only 99 seats", and claimed the country is ready for change in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

Mevani also told CNN-News18 on Wednesday that he is not apologetic for criticising Modi. "That is because Modi promised that he would ensure two crore youth are given employment every year. It's been four years now, and eight crore youth should have been employed by now. Now, he doesn't even mention the youth," Mevani added.

When several exit polls had predicted a landslide victory for the BJP ahead of the counting of votes in Gujarat, Mevani had rejected them, saying that even the "high-voltage campaign" by the party's top leadership may not be able to save the party, since they could not have any solid achievements in the state in the last three years it was in power at the Centre.

"People of the state understand that the Gujarat model is a deception," Mewani had said.

He was among the key hopes for the Congress party, who had banked on him, along with Alpesh Thakor and Hardik Patel to overcome the BJP. Even though Mevani contested as an Independent candidate, Congress had given him tacit support and did not field any candidate from Vadgam. Mevani polled 95,497 votes on a reserved seat, defeating BJP's Vijay Chakravarti by a margin of 19,696 votes.

With inputs from PTI
In what was the closest fight Gujarat has witnessed in the past 22 years, the BJP barely managed to cross the halfway mark in the recently-concluded Assembly election.

While the BJP managed to win 99 seats, the Congress registered its best performance in 27 years to bag 77 seats.

However, amid the nerve-wracking contest between the BJP and the Rahul Gandhi-led Congress what may have been lost in the mix was the presence of the significant 'others' in Gujarats electoral arithmetic.

Gujarat has essentially been a two-party system since 1995, with the BJP and the Congress locking horns in most, if not all, of the 182 constituencies of the state. Nevertheless, the close contest between the two parties this time ate into the voteshare of the 'others'.

The combined voteshare of the BJP (49.1 percent) and Congress (41.4 percent) this election came to 90.5 percent. If one added the 0.7 percent voteshare polled by the Bharatiya Tribal Party  an ally of the Congress, then the total rose to 91.2 percent.

This squeezed the 'others' to just seven percent of the voteshare, the lowest the group has ever garnered in the past three elections. However, 'others' loss turned out to be BJP and Congress gain. While a resurgent Congress added 2.5 percent additional votes to its kitty, the BJP gained 1.2 percent of votes.

In the 2012 elections, the two parties had a combined voteshare of 86.8 percent. Along with Congress ally NCPs 0.95 percent voteshare, the total went up to 87.75 percent.

In 2007, when the NCP and the Congress joined hands for the first time, the combined voteshare of the Congress alliance and the BJP was 88.15 percent.

Nevertheless, in both the elections, the 'others' had managed to garner nearly 12 percent of the voteshare.

But who all constitute the 'others'?

Independent candidates have garnered nearly half the total voteshare in the 'others' category since the 2007 elections. That year, 480 Independents polled 6.6 percent of the total votes. Five years later, 641 candidates garnered 5.83 percent of the total votes.

A 24 percent rise in Independents between 2012 and 2017 saw a whopping 793 candidates bagging 4.3 percent of total votes.

Not just Independents, but even established 'national parties' have a marginal presence in the state.

Take the case of the Bahujan Samaj Party. The Dalit-centric party garnered 0.7 percent of the voteshare this election, which was a 78 percent decline from 2012, when it had captured 1.25 percent of the total votes.

The NCP, fighting the election alone this time, too saw a dip in its votershare dip by 58 percent  from 0.9 percent in 2012 to 0.6 percent in 2017.

The Samajwadi Party and the JD(U), both with less than one percent of the total voteshare, too faced a rout in the recently concluded election.

But the decline in the 'others' category could also be attributed to the lack of a strong anti-BJP 'third front' this election.

The Shankersinh Vaghela-backed AIHCP failed to place itself as a credible alternative to the two national parties. The party failed to open its account and could not poll more than 0.3 percent of the votes.

During the 2012 election, a group of disgruntled former BJP leaders formed the Gujarat Parivartan Party. Fighting the polls as an alternative to the BJP and Congress, GPP could win only two seats but managed to garner 3.63 percent of the total votes. Nevertheless, BJP's prospects were dented in as many as 23 seats across Kutch and Saurashtra.

However, one factor, completely absent in the 2012 elections, but had a significant impact in several seats was NOTA (None of the Above). NOTA garnered 1.8 percent of the total votes polled in the state. Such an impactful debut in the Gujarat elections relegated the 'others' to the point of irrelevance.

The NOTA effect on the recently concluded election could be gauged by the fact that there were 30 seats where NOTA votes were more than the margin of votes polled by the winner and the runner-up candidate.

According to The Hindu, BJP won 15 out of the 30 seats, while the Congress scrapped through in 13 constituencies.

Had there been no NOTA option this election, there could have been three scenarios in these 30 constituencies:

1) Votes would have been split between the BJP and the Congress

2) Votes would have gone to the Congress

3) Votes would have gone to the BJP

Any of the above three scenarios could have offered a different result for the two parties.

In the first scenario, it would be difficult to predict the seat tally. However, the second scenario would have helped the Congress cross the magic figure of 92. The final scenario would have helped the BJP win a comfortable majority in the Gujarat Assembly.

However, it is safe to say that NOTA played the saviour as well as the tormentor for both parties.
On the 13th day of the Mahabharata war, Dronacharya organised the Kaurava army into a "chakravyuh" (labyrinth) formation to challenge the Pandavas.

With the great warrior Arjuna away, there was none among the Pandavas who could counter this. Then came Abhimanyu, Arjuna's son who knew how to break the "chakravyuh" and sought permission from Yudhishthira to lead the battle.

Abhimanyu entered the chakravyuh by defeating seven great warriors on the Kaurava side, guarding the seven fronts of the formation. He killed several princes and kings, besides a large number of Kaurava soldiers, sending jitters down the enemy lines. Then flouting all rules of war, a number of great warriors, including Karna, Drona, Jayadrath, Ashwathama and Kripacharya, attacked Abhimanyu together.

Abhimanyu fell but not before upsetting the Kauravas' plans to wipe out the Pandava army.

Circa 2017: In the Gujarat Assembly elections, it was not a battle between the newly-elected Congress president Rahul Gandhi versus Prime Minister Narendra Modi  it was Rahul versus the entire government machinery and more.

The entire Modi cabinet camped in the state and Union ministers conducted door-to-door campaign.

The Congress could not boast of any star campaigner besides Rahul. After Shankarsinh Vaghela deserted the party, there was no leader of stature whom the party could project as its face. It was an unequal battle from the time the election schedule was announced.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), ruling in the state for 22 long years, can rightfully boast of a strong cadre on the ground and at the booth level, in a state that is called the "Hindutva lab". The Congress cannot match it.

Then, the Election Commission (EC) did what many called an "unprecedented" act of withholding announcing dates for Gujarat elections while declaring details of Himachal Pradesh's polls. Thus the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) did not come into force in the state as it did in Himachal.

Chief Election Commissioner AK Joti could not give a credible explanation and said that multiple factors such as unprecedented rain, flood relief work and festivities were responsible for the delay in announcing Gujarat poll dates. Joti claimed elections would divert attention of government workers from pending relief work in seven districts of Gujarat impacted by floods in July.

In 2014, however, when Jammu and Kashmir had not recovered, even partly, from the devastating floods, the same poll panel did not hold that relief work would be affected by elections.

The opposition's allegations and media's scepticism over the EC's neutrality gained currency as Modi announced sops for Gujarat worth hundreds of crores of rupees, including a Ro-Ro ferry service in the 15-odd day window the state got before the model code came into force.

However, some people also attributed Joti's concern for Gujarat to the fact that he had worked in the state for a long time in several key positions, including as the chief secretary, when Modi was chief minister. It cannot be discounted that Modi hails from Gujarat and hence the people of the state have an emotional connect with him. Besides, Rahul, comparably a political novice if not an amateur, who has held no position ever in a government, is no match for Modi's oratorical skills that can make huge crowds sway to his tune.

But during the election campaign, in rally after rally and speech after speech, Rahul emerged as an evolved politician  a far cry from the "Pappu", as his detractors repeatedly called him. Even BJP's ally Shiv Sena asked the party to stop calling Rahul by the disparaging moniker and to take him seriously.

Rahul studiedly avoided any contentious topic and personal jibes against Modi, such as "Maut ka saudagar" (merchant of death) and the like that his mother, Sonia Gandhi, had used in a previous election. He focused on issues and attacked Modi and his government on these alone.

Against all odds and in spite of the ruling BJP's full might  which did not fight shy of using religiously divisive language to the hilt  the Congress showed a marked improvement in both its tally and vote percentage, at the BJP's expense.

Of course, there was also a strategy in place on the ground from ticket distribution to synchronising with dynamic caste equations -- spearheaded by Congress' old fox, Ashok Gehlot. And, of course, there was anti-incumbency feeling against the BJP, with palpable disenchantment among the masses, especially in rural areas. But it was not easy to translate this into votes for the Congress.

Rahul, through his visibly mature demeanour and careful selection of words, successfully tapped this anger to a considerable extent. Despite repeated insinuations, he did not utter a single contentious word against Modi.

In one rally he declared: "No matter what they call me, I will not speak any derogatory language. This is Congress culture handed down to us by the likes of Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardal Patel... We will defeat Modiji with love."

In the Mahabharta, the Pandavas could not match the mighty Kauravas' onslaught on chakravyuh day and suffered heavily. Abhimanyu, despite knowing fully well that he would not be able to come out of the chakravyuh, fulfilled his dharma of fighting till he fell.

The Congress showed a remarkable improvement as compared to the 2012 election. Its seat count climbed to around 80 from 61 in 2012 and its vote share rose to around 42 percent from 39 percent, within striking distance of the Gujarat throne. Modi would do well to heed this rejuventated Abhimanyu of the Grand Old Party. The battle may have been lost, but the war is on.
Ever since he was declared BJP's chief ministerial candidate from Himachal Pradesh, former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal had little respite. Besides the other candidates in the fray who sought his presence at their election rallies, he was pursued during and after the campaign by senior bureaucrats and others seeking plum posts and other favours after the elections.

With virtually everyone calling the state Assembly elections in favour of the BJP, the writing on the wall was clear. Except that hardly anyone expected the two-time chief minister Dhumal to lose even as his party won hands down. He was undoubtedly the tallest leader of his party in the state. It was perhaps for the first time that the chief ministerial candidate of BJP as a winning party had lost his own election.

The party had initially decided to go for elections without a chief ministerial candidate. However midway during the election campaign, the BJP seeking to wrest power from Congress, developed cold feet and decided to go for naming Dhumal as its chief ministerial candidate. It evidently decided on course correction following reports that the confusion over a candidate was causing bad blood and uncertainty among its cadres in the state.

The party had been selective in the past about decision to name chief ministerial candidates. It named Kiran Bedi as its chief ministerial candidate from Delhi and faced a humiliating defeat. It did not name any in Bihar Assembly election and lost. It, then, named Sarbananda Sonowal as its chief ministerial candidate in Assam and won. However, it did not name anyone in the neighbouring Uttarakhand and still won.

The choice was among former chief minister Shanta Kumar, Dhumal and Union health minister JP Nadda. Shanta Kumar was ruled out because of his age as he qualified for the margdarshak mandal. Nadda, known to be close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, could afford to wait for his chance later because of his young age and the fact that he didnt have grassroots support. The party picked up 73-year-old Dhumal who was known to be popular among all sections of the party cadres.

Dhumal had swapped the seat of power with the incumbent chief minister Virbhadra Singh twice in the past and was considered the most suitable choice to take on the Congress. Another important factor for declaring him as the chief ministerial candidate was his influence across Hamirpur and adjoining districts. Besides, he had just two years before he would have attained the retirement age as per the policy decision taken by the party. That would have opened up chances for other aspirants who could have led the party to the next elections.

Ironically, while several BJP candidates owe their success to the influence and support extended by Dhumal, he himself lost to his protege and one-time man Friday, Rajinder Rana. A businessman, who also delved in real estate, Rana is a soft spoken and sincere person known for his humility and simplicity.

It was well known that Dhumal himself had given him the green signal to nurture the Sujanpur Assembly constituency and it was almost certain that he was to be nominated party candidate during the previous Assembly elections in 2012. However, he was denied the ticket by the party high command to accommodate the choice of another senior party leader.

Rana has assiduously cultivated the constituency. So much so, that he was in personal touch with almost all families in the constituencies. He organised mass weddings for the poor and ensured that the local women were given free vocational training. He also made it a point to visit each family which had lost a dear one and attended virtually all weddings in the constituency.

Given the popular support he enjoyed, Rana decided to rebel and won hands down as an independent candidate. He then joined hands with Virbhadra, who led the Congress government but didnt join the party to avoid attracting provisions of anti-defection law.

However, on the eve of the 2014 Assembly elections, he resigned from his seat and joined the Congress to contest as its Lok Sabha candidate against Dhumals son Anurag Thakur. He also made his wife contest the Assembly seat vacated by him. Both lost the elections.

Congress, again, nominated from the Sujanpur constituency this time and he had little inkling that his rival would be his mentor Dhumal. Apparently, even Dhumal was not prepared for it but went by the party high commands suggestion that his candidature from the constituency would help other party candidates in the adjoining areas.

There lies the unresolved question : A section of BJP leaders, particularly those close to Dhumal, say it was a deliberate ploy to make him contest from a tough constituency instead of the constituency from he had won several elections in the past. The finger of suspicion is being raised against Nadda who had a major say in selection of constituencies and candidates. However, all this is in realm of speculations. The fact is that a confident Dhumal went along the party high commands suggestions and never protested the decision to change his constituency.

In a twist of irony, Dhumal and Rana reached the district electoral officer almost at the same time to file their nominations. Rana promptly touched his feet and sought his blessings. Dhumal reciprocated by blessing him. On the counting day Dhumal remained confined to his residence as his fortune fluctuated with each round of counting. Finally he lost by about 1090 votes.

Although Dhumal declined to comment on the likely chief ministerial choice or even his own candidature, it is believed that among the two top contenders for the post now are Nadda and a former senior minister Jai Ram Thakur. Unless the party springs a surprise by nominating a dark horse like it did in case of Yogi Adityanath in Uttar Pradesh.
Till the counting of votes began in the recently concluded Assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, it all seemed like a smooth road ahead for the BJP with pollsters already predicting victory for the party in these two states. Everyone assumed that the already announced chief ministerial facesVijay Rupani and Prem Kumar Dhumal for Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh respectivelywould take the oath of office in a day or two in the respective state capitals -- Gandhinagar and Shimla.

BJP won both the states, but the nature of the verdict has now brought in other contenders for the top executive post in these states compelling Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah to review the mandate and accordingly name suitable individuals to lead these states.

Although designated party observersArun Jaitley and Saroj Pandey for Gujarat and Nirmala Sitharaman and Narendra Tomar for Himachal Pradeshwill land in Ahmedabad and Shimla on Thursday and Friday respectively, none in the party rank and file was quite sure who would be the next chief minister in these states. They too are speculating on probable names and finally conclude, "Only the top two (Modi and Shah) know the names of the chosen persons and the same would be passed off to the lead observer at an appropriate time during the process of consultation with the MLAs or after the consultation process is over."

First, let us consider the scenario in Gujarat.

Vijay Rupani, the incumbent Gujarat chief minister and the chief ministerial face of BJP won his own election handsomely with a margin of 55,000 votes. It should have thus been natural for the party to announce the date and time of his swearing-in, depending on the availability of the top leaders and favourable astrological alignments, but the BJP parliamentary board which met under the chairmanship of Modi and Shah has not given the nod so far. The parliamentary board is the highest decision making body of the BJP.

This has opened up up the race for the chief ministers post in Gujarat and Rupani is still in the reckoning. What goes in his favour is that his government was broadly on track while he was at the helm. He was non-controversial, caste-neutral and accessible to party workers and others. He not only won his seat comfortably but the BJP also won all the four seats in the Rajkot city area (increasing the tally from three to four) and winning six out of the eight seats in the district.

However, under the changed circumstances when Gujarat is back to a situation when caste factors have become important, new social coalitions and contradictions have emerged and have reflected on the results, Rupani in the eyes of Modi-Shah may not be the best choice to lead the state. Though the BJP won the election, six of its ministers and the Assembly Speaker lost their respective contests. With new caste equations coming to the fore, Modi and Shah will have to weigh their options before zeroing in on an individual. Party leaders also refer to Modi's thanksgiving speech at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi on Monday where he gave vent to his thoughts about the state and its leadership.

Two other names are being taken as an alternative to Rupani -- Purshottam Rupala and Mansukh L Mandaviya. Both are ministers of state in the Union government. So far they have been in the ranks of unsung ministers at the Centre. Both are Rajya Sabha members and their term expires in February next year. Rupala is Karva Patel and Mandaviya is Leuva Patel. State party leaders say Rupala has good organisational and administrative ability. Mandaviya too has risen from the ranks. The importance of Patel or Patidar factor has been discussed in detail during and after the conclusion of the election.

For various reasons elevation of outgoing deputy chief minister Nitin Patel to the post of the chief minister is ruled out, at least for now.

Now, let us turn our attention to Himachal Pradesh.

Prem Kumar Dhumal, the two-time chief minister of Himachal Pradesh will go down in history as one whose political career ended on a most bizarre note. The party won the state magnificently but Dhumal himself lost the election. Dhumal, his family and close associates would now turn into strong believers in destiny and fate. And so would the person who becomes the next chief minister.

Incidentally, some other senior leaders who could otherwise have been in the reckoning for the top post in the stateSatpal Satti Ravinder Ravi, Gulab Singh Thakur and Maheshwar Singhtoo lost their elections.

In this changed scenario former minister and five-time MLA from Seraj in Mandi district, Jai Ram Thakur has emerged as a frontrunner to be the new chief minister of the hill state. Thakur comes from a strong RSS background and has a non-controversial past. After the declaration of the results, he was summoned to New Delhi by the leadership, a move which made many believe that he could be the choice of Modi-Shah to lead the state.

Union Health Minister JP Nadda too is a strong contender. Politically he had been at loggerheads with Dhumal. Party leaders from the state say that it was Nadda who was instrumental in convincing Dhumal to shift to Sujanpur from his old Hamirpur constituency. This was a move which pulled the curtains on 73-year olds otherwise distinguished political career. The other question is whether Modi-Shah would like to spare Nadda from the Union government. Nadda is a Rajya Sabha MP and if chosen for the chief minister's post of Himachal Pradesh one of the MLAs will have to vacate the seat to make him contest for the Assembly.
New Delhi: The Biju Janata Dal on Wednesday accused the NDA government of compromising its neutrality in Odisha's dispute with Chhattisgarh over Mahanadi river water-sharing and sought an urgent debate in the Lok Sabha over setting up of a tribunal to resolve differences between the two states.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour, BJD leader Bhartruhari Mahtab alleged that the BJP-led government has gone back on its word on establishing a tribunal as it had promised over a year ago.

Mahtab said the central government has conveyed to the Supreme Court that no tribunal would be set up to resolve the Mahanadi water dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

"Neutrality of the (central) government is compromised. Not only in the government, but neutrality is compromised in the Supreme Court also. It is a fit case for taking up as an adjournment motion," he said after Speaker Sumitra Mahajan rejected an adjournment motion on the issue.

While Odisha is ruled by the BJD, Chhattisgarh is governed by the BJP.

When Mahtab repeatedly asked the Speaker to reconsider her decision, Mahajan said she realised it was an important issue but would consider other applications if submitted by the BJD like a "calling attention motion" to discuss the matter.

MPs belonging to the Trinamoool Congress stood on their seats lending support to the BJD, with TMC leader Sudip Bandopadhyay telling the Speaker that his party fully supported Odisha's cause.

Mahtab said the Centre had promised to set up a tribunal to resolve issues relating to the sharing of the Mahanadi river water between Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

He said if the House discusses the issue, BJD members could ventilate their grievances and the MPs from Chhattisgarh could also take part in the discussion.

He also said that in reply to a parliament question, the Union Water Resources Ministry had said a draft cabinet note was ready and the tribunal would be set up.

But now, the central government has gone back on its words, he alleged.

Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik had taken up the issue of construction of barrages upstream by Chhattisgarh at a trilateral meeting convened by then Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti on 17 September 2016.

The Odisha government has also demanded that Chhattisgarh should stop construction of seven weirs (small dams) on the river.

Under the Inter State Water Dispute Act 1956 which provides legal framework to address such issues, a tribunal can be formed after a state government approaches the union government with such a request and the Centre is convinced of the need to set it up.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks against his predecessor Manmohan Singh during the Gujarat poll campaign on Wednesday washed out the pre-lunch proceedings in the Rajya Sabha after Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said there was no question of giving an apology.

The proceedings were stalled after the Congress and other opposition members created uproar, demanding that the prime minister comes to the House and clarifies his remarks against Singh.

The Upper House was adjourned twice  first during the Zero Hour as opposition members disrupted proceedings by trooping into the Well and raising slogans and then again in the Question Hour when similar scenes continued.

"Nobody is going to give apology. Nothing happened in the House. No statement is made in the House. There is no practice of suspension of Question Hour. Don't make a mockery of the House. Already wrong message is going," a visibly agitated Naidu told the protesting members when the House reassembled at noon after the first adjournment. He adjourned the House till 2 pm thereafter.

When the House met for the day, Congress members rushed into the Well demanding an apology from Modi for his "conspiracy with Pakistan" remarks against Singh, alleging that he had colluded with Pakistan to defeat BJP in Gujarat.

Repeated pleas by Naidu to the members on their conduct and asking them to return to their seats went unheeded.

The Congress members were up on their feet as soon as the listed papers were tabled, demanding an explanation from the Prime Minister on his remarks. After Naidu disallowed them, they rushed to the Well of the House raising slogans.

The Chairman asked them not to create obstruction and allow other members to raise important issues. "This is not the way," he said. "This is Parliament. This is Rajya Sabha. Wrong message is going."

Stating that he did not appreciate their behaviour, Naidu said, "Please don't exceed the limit. Please go to your seat". Thereafter, he adjourned the House till noon.

Later when the House met again for Question Hour, Naidu's pleas to allow the House to function did not find favour with an unrelenting opposition. "Please sit. Don't attempt to snatch the rights of others. Let members have the opportunity to ask their questions. Questions have been listed and much money has been spent... This is not the way," he said.

However, the unrelenting members continued their uproar, forcing the Chair to adjourn the House till 2 pm.
In February, an inner voice reportedly spoke to O Panneerselvam at the J Jayalalithaa samadhi by the Marina in Chennai, resulting in a revolt and political upheaval in Tamil Nadu. On 21 December, when the inner voice of the voters of Jayalalithaa's constituency will speak to the OPS-led AIADMK through the EVMs, it could once again result in a political crisis.

In the past two weeks, OPS has done precious little apart from campaign for his party candidate E Madhusudanan. It is important for OPS to ensure Madhusudanan's victory in the RK Nagar constituency that goes to polls on Thursday. For this patch in north Chennai is not just any other constituency. It was represented by Jayalalithaa twice  in 2015 and in 2016  and what the subtext of the victory, should it happen, will mean for the AIADMK is not lost on OPS. It will elevate the stature of the deputy chief minister and an orchestrated chorus celebrating him as the inheritor of Jayalalithaa's political legacy can be expected.

The past four months since the merger of the OPS faction with the Edappadi Palaniswamy camp, have been anything but smooth. There has been much discomfort within the erstwhile OPS group over denial of political goodies. Many senior leaders feel shortchanged by the coming-together as barring OPS, who got the party coordinator and deputy chief minister's post, no one else was politically elevated. They were made to sweat even to get the RK Nagar ticket for fellow camper Madhusudanan, who was Panneerselvam's candidate when the bypoll was to be conducted in April. A victory is sure to give the OPS camp muscle and lung power to throw its weight around within the AIADMK. And an assertive rival group within the ruling party won't please EPS too much.

But the chief minister knows a defeat would mean even more bad news. Should the AIADMK be unable to retain the seat and worse, lose to Sasikala's nephew TTV Dhinakaran or if the margin of votes between the two is insignificant, it will mean the two leaves symbol achieved zilch for the party. That could set the cat among the pigeons with many wondering if staying invested with EPS will fetch handsome returns in 2019 and 2021.

Then, there is the caste angle to the tug of war within the AIADMK as well. Ever since the ascension of EPS to the top job, the Gounder community has come to dominate the politics of Tamil Nadu. That is not music to the ears of the Thevar community that has held sway since the time Sasikala came into Jayalalithaa's life. Both Sasikala and OPS are Thevars, because of which the AIADMK was spoken of as a Thevar party.

Should Madhusudanan not put up a credible performance, Dhinakaran could act as the rival Thevar magnet for the fence-sitters from his community. The community realises that it needs a strong leader at the moment to take on EPS and his Gounder support system and the jury is out on whether OPS has the calibre to be that person.

The DMK's role in the RK Nagar election is a curious one. It has not run the kind of spirited campaign it was expected to, choosing local Maruthu Ganesh once again to contest the polls. Arithmetically speaking, it would be expected to win the contest, gaining both from the split in the traditional AIADMK vote between Madhusudanan and Dhinakaran, and retaining its core vote base. With 45,000 bogus voters removed from the electoral rolls, the DMK will fancy its chances.

But politically, MK Stalin will also be able to ring the death knell for the AIADMK with Plan B: Helping Dhinakaran win the contest and watching the fun unfold. A victory for Dhinakaran, despite being chargesheeted in the bribery case, with no party apparatus backing him and contesting on a new symbol, will enhance his stature. Unlike April, he is also campaigning using Sasikala's name and photograph  a sign of confidence that a lot has changed since the summer.

The BJP is not seen as a serious player in the contest, but is the punching bag for both DMK and Dhinakaran.

Both point out that a vote for Madhusudanan is a vote for the BJP that is hoping to cash in on the resentment against the national party for meddling in the internal affairs of the AIADMK. But given the demographic profile of RK Nagar and the emphasis on cash-for-votes, it is anyone's guess as to how much this will be a factor for the voters.

The by-election is the first electoral test after the demise of former chief minister Jayalalithaa and in a situation where elections to local bodies have been postponed more than once, the result on Christmas Eve although tainted by money power, will be seen as a barometer of the popular mood in Tamil Nadu.

Follow LIVE updates on RK Nagar bypoll here
Puducherry: The bitter turf war between Chief Minister V Narayanasamy and Lt. Governor Kiran Bedi on a plethora of issues intensified in Puducherry in 2017.

Introduction of a direct daily flight to and from Hyderabad coinciding with the 56th Liberation Day of Puducherry and launching of a Smart City Development Limited in October to implement the Centre's Rs 1,800 crore Smart City Project for making the former French colony an international tourist destination were some of the positive developments during the year.

Principal secretary (PWD) of the Delhi government Ashwani Kumar was appointed as the chief secretary of Puducherry in November and incumbent Manoj Parida was shifted to the national capital.

Gurmeet Singh, a professor of chemistry in Delhi University, assumed the office of Vice Chancellor of Pondicherry University in November replacing acting VC Anisa Basheer Khan. However, the issue of differences between Bedi and Narayanasamy kept the state in news.

On 4 July, Bedi inducted three members of the BJP as nominated legislators on 4 July in her office Raj Nivas after Speaker V Vaithilingam allegedly declined to recognise their nomination on the ground that there was "no official communication to his office from a competent authority".

A strong protest erupted with the ruling Congress and its alliance partner, the DMK, and some other parties raising a banner of revolt against the Centre for "arbitrarily deciding the names of the three nominated members without any recommendation from the state government".

The Congress, DMK and a number of other parties organised a bandh on 7 July, which was followed by a day-long closedown on 8 July to protest against the nominations. The parties alleged that Bedi was functioning like "an agent of the BJP" and was interfering in the routine functioning of the elected government.

The issue of appointment of the nominated legislators is now pending for disposal before the Madras High Court following a petition filed by a ruling Congress MLA challenging it.

Apart from the strong objection raised by Narayanasamy and his colleagues over Bedi's "style of functioning", a resolution was brought in by the opposition AIADMK in the Assembly to urge the Centre to rein in the Lt Governor. It was converted into an official resolution and was adopted unanimously by the House.

There were also differences between Bedi and the government on several other issues. Bedi pointed an accusatory finger at the authorities charging them of finalising students for MBBS and PG courses in private medical colleges by violating rules. She also sought a probe by the CBI into the modalities adopted for admission to medical colleges and two IAS officers of Puducherry and a few other officials were booked by the CBI in connection with the alleged irregularities in the admission process.

Bedi also continued with her weekend visits to rural, urban and semi-urban areas to see for herself the "lack of amenities" and listen to the grievances of the locals. These visits also evoked strong protests by legislators of the ruling Congress and its alliance partners.

Unfazed, she asserted the purpose of the visits was to ensure that the funds earmarked for development are spent without any room for deficiency or shortcomings. The Opposition AIADMK spared no forum to point out that there were serious financial constraints and these should be overcome through judicious planning.

The Lt Governor came forward with a slew of austerity measures to ensure conservation of money. She banned business class flight travel by all officials as "a severe financial crisis is prevailing in Puducherry".

She said that this ban "is applicable for all without any exception".

The Lt Governor`s intervention to restore to the legally entitled owners residential plots and houses allegedly encroached upon by some anti-social elements in Thattanchavady block here was another important highlight of the year. Bedi also introduced the official website of her office besides open house sessions to receive complaints from the public and to address them without loss of time. Another year is about to end without the Union Territory witnessing panchayat polls.
Kolkata: Accusing the ruling TMC of trying to let loose a reign of terror in the Sabang Assembly constituency, the BJP and Congress have demanded adequate deployment of central forces by the Election Commission in order to ensure free and fair elections.

Bypoll in the seat will be held on 21 December.

"According to the norms of EC, we want Central forces to be deployed in all the booths of Sabang constituency. Democracy is under threat and TMC has let loose a reign of terror. It is the duty of the EC to ensure that free and fair voting takes place," BJP leader Jayprakash Majumdar said.

A BJP delegation has also met the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal and submitted a deputation in this regard.

The CEO of West Bengal had already sent eight companies of Central forces to Sabang. But the BJP wants 14 companies of Central forces to be deployed in Sabang.

The Congress also echoed the views of BJP and said there is need to send more forces.

"The CEO, West Bengal should ensure that election is free and fair. It should ensure that at least this eight companies of Central forces should be utilised properly," Leader of Opposition and senior Congress leader Abdul Mannan said.

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) leadership while reacting to BJP's demand said, "they can ask for as many force they want to. They had tried the same trick in 2016 but had failed. The people of West Bengal stands with Mamata Banerjee, we will win the seat with a much bigger margin".

Asked about the Opposition's demand for deployment of more paramilitary forces, an Election Commission official in Kolkata said, "The Commission is looking into their demands but nothing has been decided so far. Eight companies have already been deployed," he said.
The third day of the Winter Session of Parliament saw a stormy session along with some lively debate. Congress protests over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "conspiracy with Pakistan" remark against his predecessor Manmohan Singh led to a virtual washout of the Rajya Sabha proceedings, even as Chairman Venkaiah Naidu said there was no question of an apology.

Congress members also alleged that the treasury benches were directing the Chair and not allowing the Congress leaders to speak.

The lower House, which witnessed two adjournments in the pre-lunch sitting over the issue amid protests by the Congress MPs, was disrupted again as it met at 2 pm as they gathered near the Speaker's podium raising slogans.

While most of the Congress members were near the Speaker's podium, the party's leader in the House Mallikarjun Kharge requested permission to raise a point of order.

Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai, who was in the Chair at the time, said permission could only be granted if the issue was related to the bill which was being taken up: The Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Amendment Bill.

While the discussion on the bill went on, the Congress members continued to protest, and Thambidurai finally agreed to give Kharge a chance to raise his point of order.

The Congress leader urged the Chair to expunge the remarks made during Zero Hour by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Poonam Mahajan, who alleged that the Congress leaders were conspiring to remove Modi.

"One member used defamatory words against the former prime minister who is not a member of this House," Kharge said, adding that he had also requested Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to expunge the remark. The Congress MPs alleged that the government was "controlling the Chair" and staged a walkout.

The Lok Sabha also passed two Bills to repeal 245 obsolete and archaic laws, including the 158-year-old Calcutta Pilots Act of 1859 and the 1911 Prevention of Seditious Meeting Act.

Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the old and many irrelevant pre-Independence laws were the "unfortunate part of the colonial legacy" and repealing them was a progressive move that reflects the "pro-reform" approach of the government.

The Centre favoured including petroleum products in the ambit of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) but it would want a consensus with the states before taking such a step, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Tuesday. During the Question Hour in Rajya Sabha, Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram sought to know the Union government's position on bringing petrol and diesel under the GST.

He also sought to know why the prices of petrol and diesel did not decline with a fall in the global crude prices. Jaitley responded, saying that a person familiar with the issue had asked the question. He said the UPA in its draft GST bill had kept petrol out of its ambit as it knew that the issue would be a deal-breaker between the Centre and the states.

Meanwhile, MoS Agriculture Krishna Raj fell ill during BJP parliamentary party meeting at Parliament's Library Building, and was rushed to RML hospital for treatment.

Rajya Sabha passed a bill to give more autonomy to IIMs. The Indian Institutes of Management Bill, 2017  which was passed in the Lok Sabha in July this year  grants statutory powers to the IIMs in their running including the appointment of directors and faculty members.

The Upper House saw two adjournments during the pre-lunch period, till the Chair finally called it a day a little after 2 pm. The prime minister's remarks also took its toll on proceeding in the Lok Sabha, where Congress members staged a walkout and boycotted the proceedings in the afternoon.

The Rajya Sabha also passed the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2017 by a voice vote. It was adopted by the Lok Sabha in July this year during the Monsoon Session.

In the meantime, disgruntled Janata Dal-United leader MP Veerendra Kumar on Wednesday resigned from the Rajya Sabha just days after rebel JD(U) leaders Sharad Yadav and Ali Anwar were disqualified from the Upper House.

The 80-year-old, also a Kerala media baron, submitted his resignation to Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday morning, Arun Kumar Shrivastava, also a rebel JD-U leader, told IANS.

A bill to amend the regulations governing compensation payable for acquisition of immovable property by the Centre for defence and security purposes, was passed by the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

In Lok Sabha, the Immovable Property (Amendment) Bill, which was moved by Urban Development Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, was adopted by a voice vote. Replying to the debate on the Bill, Puri said the law has been amended eleven times earlier. "This is the 12th amendment and the amendment has been brought for limited and specific purpose," the minister said.

The Bill seeks to amend a provision to allow the Centre to re-issue the notice of acquisition in order to ensure that the property's owner gets an opportunity to be heard.

"State has the obligation that relates to compensation. The states want to pay compensation which is fair and just compensation," the minister said.

Against this backdrop, the bill seeks to amend a section of the Requisitioning and Acquisition of Immovable Property Act to "enable the central government to re-issue the notice of acquisition to the owner or such other person interested in the property, for the purpose of giving an opportunity of being heard".

Puri also clarified that the government had no intention to open up those cases where the compensation has already been provided.

Participating in the debate, CPM leader Mohammad Salim said the government was trying to bring in "piecemeal" legislation to acquire land at a time when the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015 was pending with the joint parliamentary committee. BJP MP Gopal Shetty was critical of the defence officials for acquiring civilian land unnecessarily.

"Sometimes the enemy does not trouble (the civilians) but these (defence) officials do. The Bill will help get justice to those whose land has been taken," he said.

AP Jithender Reddy (TRS) said the prime minister has often talked about cooperative federalism and if the land is taken by the Centre for national security, it should also take steps to take the state governments into confidence.

Asserting that the payment should be more generous for the marginalised people, Varaprasad Rao (YSRC) said the government "has a lot of land which was lying waste. Barren land should be put to use, rather than taking away the land of the poor people".

As the debate on forest amendment bill began, SDF leader Prem Das Rai raised the 'complications' in regularising bamboo. "People of North Sikkim were completely cut-off because of Mantam lake which was created because of the landslide. They then made a bamboo bridge and are now able to cross the lake on foot," Prem Das Rai said in Lok Sabha.

Rai demanded that the bamboo is unleashed from "all kinds of regulations". In 2014, He added that he had brought a similar bill on bamboo with a private members' bill in 2014.

The Lok Sabha adjourned its sessions after passing the two important bills of Indian Forest (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015 .

The Winter Session of the Parliament will have a total of 15 sittings, between 15 December, 2017, and 5 January, 2018, and will see the introduction of 14 fresh bills on social, labour, justice, health and consumer affairs. For example, the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016, aims to prevent discrimination against the third gender and prescribes penalties for certain offences.
The third day of the Winter Session of the Parliament saw some brief disruption at the start of the day before both Houses of Parliament went about smoothly with the legislative business of the day.

Among the several bills that were passed in both the Houses of Parliament were the Repealing and Amending (Second) Bill, 2017, Central Road Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2017.

Lok Sabha takes up land acquisition bill

The Requisitioning and Acquisition of Immovable Property (Amendment) Bill, 2017 for amending regulations governing compensation amount payable for acquisition of immovable property by the central government for defence and security purposes was moved in the Lok Sabha.

The bill was moved by newly appointed Urban Development Minister Hardeep Singh Puri. The bill seeks to amend a provision to allow the Centre to re-issue the notice of acquisition in order to ensure that the property's owner gets an opportunity to be heard.

Lower House passes bill to repeal old laws

The Lok Sabha also passed two Bills to repeal 245 obsolete and archaic laws, including the 158-year-old Calcutta Pilots Act of 1859 and the 1911 Prevention of Seditious Meeting Act.

Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the old and many irrelevant pre-Independence laws were the "unfortunate part of the colonial legacy" and repealing them was a progressive move that reflects the "pro-reform" approach of the government.

He was replying to a debate on the Repealing and Amending Bill and the Repealing and Amending (Second) Bill which would repeal these age-old laws.

Some of the old acts that have been repealed are the Hackney Carriage Act, 1879 which was legislated for the regulation and control of hackney carriages, Dramatic Performance Act, 1876 when theatre was being used a medium of protest against the British rule.

CRF (Amendment) Bill passed in Lok Sabha

The Central Road Fund (Amendment) Bill passed by the Lok Sabha seeks to allocate a share of this cess towards the development of inland waterways.

The Central Road Fund Act regulates the CRF, that is credited with the cess collected on diesel and petrol. The amount collected is then released to National Highways Authority of India, and to the state/union territory for the development of national and state highways.

Rajya Sabha passes bill to give more autonomy to IIMs

The Rajya Sabha passed a bill, extending greater autonomy to the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) by restricting the government's role in their functioning and granting them power to award degrees to their graduates.

The Indian Institutes of Management Bill, 2017  which was passed in the Lok Sabha in July this year  grants statutory powers to the IIMs in their running including the appointment of directors and faculty members.

The bill gives them powers to award degrees instead of postgraduate diplomas.

"The bill offers autonomy to these institutes. Through this bill we will remove all interference of the government, bureaucracy in the functioning of the IIMs. They will themselves decide how to manage and run these premier institutes," HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said while initiating a discussion.

Rajya Sabha passes amendment to the Companies Act, 2013

The Rajya Sabha passed the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2017 by a voice vote. It was adopted by the Lok Sabha in July this year during the Monsoon Session.

The bill amended the companies law to strengthen corporate governance standards, initiate strict action against defaulting companies and help improve ease of doing business in the country.

Replying to issues raised by the members during a discussion on the bill, Minister of State for Corporate Affairs PP Chaudhary said the amendment would ensure better corporate governance and improve the ease of doing business in the country.

The bill provides for more than 40 amendments to the Companies Act, 2013, which was passed during the previous UPA regime.

The bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha in March 2016 and then referred to the Standing Committee on Finance. After taking into consideration the recommendations of the panel, the Cabinet had cleared a revised bill in March this year.

With inputs from PTI
New Delhi: Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday expressed displeasure at ministers not making it to the House in time for laying the papers listed against their names.

The provocation was apparently caused by the absence of ministers like Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Tourism Minister KJ Alphons when their names were called by the Chair for laying of listed papers.

"I would like to advise the parliamentary affairs minister to see that ministers who are supposed to lay papers on the Table of the House are in the House on time," Naidu said.

If some ministers have other engagements, they should not list papers against their names, he said. "If they (ministers) have any problem, they should not give their names. It can be done subsequently. Please take note of it and convey it to the ministers," the chairman said.

Pradhan's name was on the top of the list of ministers who were to lay the papers relating to their ministries in the Upper House on Wednesday.

However, he was not present when his name was called to lay the papers such as copies of rules for payment of subsidies under Aadhaar Act and the annual reports of PSUs under his ministry including Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum, and Hindustan Petroleum.

Tourism Minister Alphons too was absent when his name was called to lay copies of annual reports of institutes under his ministry.

While Alphons came in a few minutes after his name was called, Pradhan was absent even when his name was called the second time to present a statement regarding the status of implementation of recommendations contained in a standing committee report on ethanol blended petrol and bio-diesel policy.

When Pradhan finally entered the House, Naidu called him to present the first set of papers, but he was not called to make his statement on a standing committee report relating to his ministry.
SD Shibulal

India has seen some success in the recent past in their space missions and has earned international acclaim for its ambitious space programme, which includes launch vehicles, communication satellites and one of the world's largest constellation of remote sensing satellites. Also, there has been a surge in the number of Indians who wish to pursue research closer to home, in India, rather than move abroad in spite of state of the art facilities there.

According to a survey by Springer Nature, India stands in the second position in the list of countries with the highest increase in their contribution to high-quality scientific research.

However, challenges remain. India has employed only 40 researchers per lakh labour force for the last decade as compared to USAs 790 per lakh of their labour force. Indias expenditure on research remains stagnant at a dismal 0.9 percent of its GDP since the last decade, which is much less than developed countries like the US and emerging economies like China.

In the United States, research-oriented universities encourage faculty to undertake research along with teaching. The faculty is assessed both on the quality of research they bring forth and their teaching skills.

While universities receive support from the government they also have symbiotic relationships with the private sector. The government provides grants and funds to encourage research for the larger good, the private companies fund projects for specific research that finds solutions to their clients problems.

Also, the universities have the right to license their innovations/findings which brings in financial rewards as well, in form of royalty. This ecosystem permits people from the universities and the corporate sector to move back and forth, and collaborate.

Collaboration is not only an important part of the research, it is a necessary catalyst that helps develop different ideas into groundbreaking scientific discoveries. A recent example of effective collaboration is the work of this years Nobel Prize laureates in Physics viz. Rainer Weiss, Kip S Thorne, and Barry C Barish. They pioneered LIGO, or the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, the scientific project that made gravitational wave detection possible. But the LIGO project involved thousands of scientists working across the world for many decades.

Unfortunately, in India, the ecosystem does not facilitate such efficient collaborations. There is a push, however, for Indian universities to become more research oriented. Recent developments suggest that though the red tape is all-pervasive in India, the challenges are not dampening the spirit of Indian scientists.

According to Nature 2016 Index, in terms of output indicators such as the number of scientific publications, India is among the top performers in the world. Brain drain seems to be slowing down too, as more scientists are returning home after work stints abroad. Recent investments in infrastructure have produced new institutions all over the country, and, the government is trying to bring back Indias bright expats living abroad with the promise of world-class research infrastructure and funding.

There is a double benefit here, as experienced and competent academicians have a positive influence on the next generation of students and a research-oriented faculty can make that contribution in India.

There is a need for a fundamental shift in thinking to create a conducive ecosystem with increased government participation. Faculty from the premier institutes of sciences could be freed from routine administrative duties to devote more time for research. One of the challenges for research in India is that many Indian students prefer to major in engineering rather than science, because of the promise of lucrative industrial career opportunities.

We need to find ways to make research a more lucrative career option so that more bright young minds are motivated to pursue research.

This also requires us to make systemic changes at the school level to ensure learning is more experience based, and less classroom oriented. Encouraging curiosity, and divergent thinking will foster scientific thinking.

In a developing country like ours, there are many areas where research is critical in finding cost-effective solutions. Affordable healthcare and medical devices that dont require external electrical sources of power for operation are one of them.

CeNSE, a high-priority project at the Indian Institute of Science is trying to do just that: they hope to use nanoelectronics to produce cheap wireless biosensors can help to monitor diabetes in underserved communities in rural India. This would be beneficial to a large section of the population with diabetesIndia probably the largest in the world.

We need all the help from the science and technology sector to supply the needed energy, food and jobs. The examples above further emphasize the fact that providing impetus to research is perhaps the best step forward.

The author is a trustee of Infosys Science Foundation and co-founder of Infosys & Axilor
Reuters

European aviation safety authorities have urged airlines to remind passengers about how best to transport electronic devices containing lithium-ion batteries over the busy Christmas travel period.

Lithium-ion batteries, found in devices such as laptops, mobile phones, tablets, and electronic cigarettes, are seen as a fire risk, and there are concerns that if a fire were to start in the hold of a plane, it could not easily be extinguished.

It is important that airlines inform their passengers that large personal electronic devices should be carried in the passenger cabin whenever possible, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said in a statement on Tuesday.

Many airlines in Europe already have their own procedures in place, such as telling passengers that laptops should not be carried in hold baggage. EASA said that where such items are too large to be carried in the cabin, then they must be completely switched off, protected from accidental activation, and packaged suitably to avoid damage. They should also not be carried in the same bag as flammable items such as perfume or aerosols.

EASA also said that if devices cannot be carried in the cabin, such as when passengers have to put carry-on bags in the hold due to a lack of space in the cabin, airlines should remember to ask passengers to remove any spare batteries or e-cigarettes.

Lithium-ion batteries are also used to power so-called smart bags, suitcases which offer GPS tracking and can charge devices, weigh themselves or be locked remotely using mobile phones.
Karan Kumar and Ankit Vengurlekar

Facebook has announced new tools to prevent harassment of women and journalists on its platform and in its chat app Messenger.

The new features allow Facebook users to proactively stop people from contacting them. These features have been developed based on feedback from users, most primarily women and journalists.

Two of the main features announced include: getting a friend request from a new account made by the user you had blocked earlier and to be able to ignore messages of a particular person on a single tap in Messenger.

The chat app users will be able to go out of a conversation by tapping on a message in the inbox. It will disable notifications from that user and move the conversion to Filtered Messages folder. The user will also be able to see the messages sent by the filtered person without the sender seeing it being read by the user. The feature is available for one-on-one conversations and will be rolled out for groups too.

Facebook is building on existing features to prevent fake and inauthentic accounts on its platform. The new automated feature allows them to quickly identify fake accounts and block them at the registration level. It is using signals like IP address to identify the blocked users and preventing them from sending messages to the user who has blocked them. Only the user who has blocked an account will be able to initiate the conversation with the offending person.

Users can also control what they want to share, with whom they want to share and who can communicate with them. It will also limit certain features like commenting for people who violate the Community Standards of Facebook.

According to Antigone Davis, the global head of safety for Facebook, the company is also working with experts in a variety of fields to provide safety resources to people. They have developed new resources for the survivors of domestic violence in partnership with a Colombia-based NGO National Network to End Domestic Violence. The company is also working with more than 150 safety experts in different countries including India, Ireland, Kenya, the Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, Sweden and the US to get feedback to improve the safety of the platform.

Davis said that Facebook is also running Facebook Journalism Project to learn more about the experiences of the journalist community on Facebook.
AFP

Singapore on Tuesday issued a warning about cryptocurrencies after a recent surge in prices sent investors flocking to bitcoin.

"The Monetary Authority of Singapore advises the public to act with extreme caution and understand the significant risks they take on if they choose to invest in cryptocurrencies," the city-state's central bank said in a statement.

"MAS is concerned that members of the public may be attracted to invest in cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, due to the recent escalation in their prices." It said the recent spike in bitcoin prices comes from speculation, and cautioned that the bubble may burst.

Singapore's central bank joins a number of regulators who have warned about cryptocurrency investments, including the US Federal Reserve, which said bitcoin could threaten financial stability.

Regulators in Seoul have banned South Korean financial institutions from dealing in virtual currencies. The MAS, which also acts as a financial regulator in the city-state, noted that cryptocurrencies are not backed by any central bank and are unregulated, which means those who lose money after investing in them have no room for redress under Singapore law.

"There is also a risk of loss should the cryptocurrency intermediary be hacked, as it may not have sufficiently robust security features," the regulator said. Earlier on Tuesday, a South Korean virtual currency exchange declared itself bankrupt after being hacked for the second time in a year.

The closure comes eight months after nearly 4,000 bitcoin  then valued at 5.5 billion won ($5 million), nearly 40 percent of the exchange's total assets  were stolen in a cyber-attack blamed on North Korea.

Global bitcoin prices have soared around 20-fold this year, with the cryptocurrency trading above $18,000 on Tuesday. Created in 2009 as a piece of encrypted software, bitcoin been used to buy everything from beer to pizza, and is increasingly accepted by major companies such as online travel giant Expedia.

Analysts have put the surge down to growing acceptance among traditional investors and a decision by US regulators to allow bitcoin futures to trade on major exchanges.

Previously only traded on specialist platforms, bitcoin started trading on the Cboe Futures Exchange earlier this month before hitting the major Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) on Monday.
IANS

There are nearly 650 million mobile phone users in India  and over 300 million of them have a smartphone. For these users, Chinese players became the first choice this year as they launched devices with compelling features, thus dominating the budget and mid-range price segment in the country.

Chinese vendors captured 49 percent of the Indian mobile phone handset market in the first quarter of 2017  with a 180 percent (year-on-year) revenue growth  threatening to wipe out domestic players from the overall handset segment.

Among the top Chinese brands, Xiaomi witnessed the biggest growth this year.

With a market share of 23.5 percent and having shipped 9.2 million smartphones in the third quarter this year, Xiaomi became the fastest-growing smartphone brand with a growth rate of nearly 300 percent (year-on-year) in the third quarter this year.

According to IDC, Samsung had 23.5 percent market share in India, similar to Xiaomi, the Lenovo-Motorola combine was at 9 percent, Vivo at 8.5 percent and OPPO at 7.9 percent.

For Xiaomi, its Redmi Note 4 device that was launched in January at Rs 9,999 for the base model (2 GB RAM and 32 GB onboard storage) proved to be a game-changer and its best-selling smartphone too. The company shipped approximately four million units of the device in this quarter, said IDC.

Chinese brands like Huawei (which sells its youth-centric sub-brand Honor in India), Vivo, Motorola (a Lenovo brand) and OPPO's performance remained strong and contributed to more than half of the total smartphone shipments in the country.

Aiming to push its position up in the highly competitive Indian market, Honor launched flagship products at "unbeatable prices", like the highly-successful Honor 8 Pro (Rs 29,999) and Honor 7X (starting at Rs 12,999).

Vivo and OPPO's aggressive marketing spends also paid them hefty dividends. With smartphone growth nearing saturation in metros, Chinese players were also busy building their base in the tier II and III cities.

When it comes to manufacturing in India, Xiaomi announced its third plant in the country based out of Noida and the first facility for power banks in partnership with Hipad Technology.

Spread across 230,000 square feet, the Noida unit is a dedicated facility for Xiaomi power banks where the Mi Power Bank 2i will be assembled. The company already has two smartphone manufacturing plants in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh, where more than 95 percent of its smartphones sold in India are assembled locally.

Meanwhile, South Korean giant Samsung also announced that it would invest Rs 4,915 crore in expanding its Noida manufacturing plant to double the production capacity of both mobile phones and consumer electronics.

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board approved OPPO's request to open single-brand retail stores in the country. With this decision, OPPO became the first smartphone company to get this opportunity in India.

The Chinese players also handled the post-demonetisation ripples well with high decibel marketing, increased credit line to distributors and efficient channel management.

Global vendors, led by Samsung, were able to withstand the aggressive Chinese players post-demonetisation owing to their good distributor coverage and penetration in the Indian market.

Aiming to gain a further foothold in the offline smartphone market, Xiaomi opened its first "Mi Home" store in Bengaluru in May and plans to add 100 such stores in the next two years.

Similarly, Lenovo-owned Motorola opened six "Moto Hubs" in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai and plans to open 50 more by the end of this year.

Huawei's sub-brand Honor announced opening four more exclusive service centres in Kolkata, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Guwahati. Its service centres are already operating in 17 cities.

India this year surpassed the US to become the second-largest smartphone market in the world after China. Yet, according to Counterpoint Research, only one fourth of India's population uses smartphones, thus making the country an attractive destination for Chinese players in the mobile ecosystem.

Highlights:

- Chinese vendors captured 49 percent of the Indian mobile phone handset market in the first quarter of 2017.

- Among the top Chinese brands, Xiaomi witnessed the biggest growth this year.

- South Korean giant Samsung announced it would invest Rs 4,915 crore in expanding its Noida manufacturing plant.

- The Foreign Investment Promotion Board approved OPPO's request to open single-brand retail stores in the country.

- Xiaomi announced its third manufacturing plant in the country based out of Noida and the first facility for power banks in partnership with Hipad Technology.
London: Legislation intended to smooth Britain's exit from the European Union moves a step closer to becoming law on Wednesday, as ministers begin working out what they want from Brexit.

The House of Commons will hold its eighth and final day of detailed scrutiny of the EU (Withdrawal) Bill, which would formally end Britain's membership of the bloc and transfer EU rules into British law.

May suffered a humiliating defeat by pro-European members of her own Conservative party last week, when MPs voted to amend the bill to ensure parliament has the final say on any divorce deal with Brussels.

But she looks set to avoid a second rebellion over plans to enshrine Brexit day in law, by offering some flexibility to move the date  29 March, 2019  if negotiations with the EU go down to the wire.

The bill still has two days of debate by MPs in January, when the rebel amendment could be reviewed, before it goes to the unelected House of Lords for debate. But the so-called "committee stage" of scrutiny was a test for May's minority government, which relies on a small Northern Irish party to push through legislation.

EU leaders last week agreed to open the second stage of Brexit talks, after approving an interim deal on Britain's financial settlement, expatriate rights and the Irish border. But they are still unclear on what Britain wants from the future relationship, including the shape of any trade deal.

Cabinet ministers held their first detailed discussion on the economic partnership at a meeting on Tuesday, although no negotiating position was finalised, with further talks expected in early January.

May's spokesman said she called for "a deal which secures the best possible trading terms with the EU, enables the UK to set rules that are right for our situation and facilitates ambitious third-country trade deals". He said the cabinet agreed on the goal. However, ministers are divided over how closely to stick to European regulations after Brexit, with some favouring convergence to secure the best possible trading ties, and others calling for a new approach.

Brussels meanwhile has repeatedly warned Britain that it cannot expect to leave the EU's single market and customs union, and maintain all its benefits. The EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier said that any deal struck would inevitably result in Britain's banks and financial companies losing rights to trade across the bloc. "There is no place" for giving Britain's financial services full access to the EU market, he told a number of newspapers, including Britain's The Guardian.

Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, said that as long as Britain's goals remained vague, competing forces in May's government could keep together. "But the real difficulties ahead lie when the British will ask for special system of regulatory alignment  they won't get it," he said.
Los Angeles: After a couple of days of respite heavy winds are expected to return on Wednesday to the California area plagued by a massive fire, potentially hindering the efforts of firefighters battling in an already dry climate.

The fire has already destroyed at least 2,72,000 acres (110,000 hectares)  nearly the size of the city of Los Angeles  and is just 55 percent contained since it began 4 December, according to the state's fire authority Cal Fire.

The so-called Thomas fire is considered the second largest fire to hit the state since 1932.

The National Weather Service issued a red alert from Wednesday evening into Thursday morning for "gusty winds and low relative humidity" in the affected area of Santa Barbara County.

Firefighters took advantage of weaker winds on Monday and Tuesday to battle the voracious blaze, which has already destroyed more than 1,300 structures.

Cal Fire pointed to the well-off city of Montecito as its area of greatest concern, after the fire on Saturday rained ash on the dry hills and million-dollar mansions of the area.

Mark Brown, the Cal Fire operations section chief, said Tuesday was "a very productive day" but emphasised "we are not dropping our vigilance."

"There's still risk out there," he said, noting the forecast winds.

Only one fire has burned more California land than Thomas: the Cedar Fire of 2003, which swallowed some 2,73,244 acres.
Cairo: An Egyptian military court sentenced an army colonel to six years in prison after he announced his intention to run against President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in next year's elections, his defence lawyer told the Associated Press.

The lawyer, Asaad Heikal, said Col. Ahmed Konsowa attended the sentencing hearing by a Cairo military court. He was convicted of violating military regulations banning political activism by active duty officers, he added. The verdict can be appealed.

Konsowa, 42, was detained following his 2 December announcement that he would run against el-Sissi, himself a general-turned-president who took office in 2014, a year after he led the military's ouster of a freely elected Islamist president whose one-year rule proved divisive.

Egypt's presidential elections are due early next year.

El-Sissi, who quit the army before his successful run for president in 2014, is virtually certain to run for and win a second four-year term, although he has yet to make a formal announcement.

A prominent rights activist, Khaled Ali, has said he would also run. Hanging over his bid, however, is a September conviction for allegedly making an obscene hand gesture the day he won a court case in January against the government's decision to transfer two strategic Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia. Ali also received a suspended three-month jail sentence. He has appealed the conviction. If his conviction of alleged indecency, widely seen to be politically motivated, is upheld, he could be disqualified from running.

Another potential candidate is Ahmed Shafiq, a retired air force general who served as the last prime minister under autocrat Hosni Mubarak, ousted in a popular uprising in 2011.

Shafiq narrowly lost to the Islamist Mohammed Morsi in 2012. Shortly after, he left for the United Arab Emirates where he lived in self-imposed exile until early this month, when he returned home.

He later said in a television interview that he wanted to take stock of conditions in Egypt before he makes a final decision in whether to run.
Washington: India will be a part of an international meeting hosted by the US and Canada next month to discuss North Korea's nuclear threat and ways to improve the effectiveness of the current pressure campaign against the reclusive nation.

US secretary of state Rex Tillerson and his Canadian counterpart Chrystia Freeland made the announcement during their meeting in Ottawa on ay. The meeting co-hosted b the US and Canada will take place on 16 January in Vancouver.

"With the convening of what we're calling the Vancouver Group in mid-January, this is a convening of foreign ministers from the original sending states that were involved in the original Korean conflict.

The Vancouver Group include Australia, Belgium, Britain, Colombia, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Turkey.

"But we also obviously are including other important parties  the Republic of Korea, Japan, India, Sweden, and others, who we think are important to have engaged in this meeting," Tillerson told reporters.

The participating countries at the level of foreign minister will be discussing how to improve the effectiveness of the current pressure campaign, Tillerson said.

"Are there other steps that could be taken to put additional pressure on the regime in North Korea, and how do we further take our diplomatic efforts forward? And then how do we prepare for the prospects of talk?" he said.

North Korea this year increased the pace of its missile programme. Since February, Pyongyang has fired off 23 missiles. On 29 November, the North Korean leader said that his country had achieved full nuclear statehood after what he said was the successful test of a new missile capable of striking anywhere in the United States.

Fears of a catastrophic conflict between the US and North Korea spiked as the leaders of the two nations taunted each other, with the US president Donald Trump calling North Korean leader Kim Jong-un 'Rocket Man'.

The pressure campaign is intended to lead to talks, Tillerson said, adding that the US led international community cannot talk unless North Korea is ready to talk.

"And I think as we've indicated, we're waiting for them to indicate a readiness to talk. But whats important for North Korea to know is that this pressure campaign will not abate. We will not be rolling any of it back. It will only be intensified as time goes by. It will remain in place until they agree to give up their," Tillerson said.

Freeland said the meeting would demonstrate international solidarity against North Korea's dangerous and illegal actions.

"We will use this gathering as an opportunity to advance our work on diplomatic efforts towards a more peaceful, prosperous, and nuclear-free future on the North Korean Peninsula and to demonstrate international solidarity in our condemnation of North Korea's actions," she said.

Freeland said the pressure on North Korea would increase until its behaviour changes.

"We're confident that this campaign of international pressure will lead to the best outcome for the whole world, I think the only outcome for the whole world, which is a diplomatic path to a resolution of this crisis, a diplomatic path to the outcome that I think we all believe in, which is a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula," she said in response to a question.
Xalapa: Attackers burst into an elementary school where a Christmas party was taking place and shot reporter Gumaro Perez to death on Tuesday, making him at least the 10th journalist slain in Mexico this year in what observers have called a crisis of freedom of expression.

The Veracruz state security coordinator said in a statement that dozens of parents and children were present when the unidentified attackers shot Perez, whose own child attends the school in the city of Acayucan.

Perez, 34, covered crime for a number of local outlets, had founded the online news site La Voz del Sur and also worked for the local government in some capacity.

He was part of a state program designed to protect journalists as they carry out certain "high-risk" coverage, separate from a federal government program known as "the mechanism" that offers reporters measures like panic buttons on their cellphones and home security.

"He belonged to the preventive program for safe coverage of this Commission since 2015, which refers to mechanisms for reporting that diminish danger in high-risk events," the Veracruz State Commission for Attention and Protection of Journalists said in a statement. "Nevertheless, regrettably, he had not made us aware of having received any threats that could have put him at risk."

Commission president Ana Laura Vazquez said the group would monitor the investigation and urged the government of the Gulf coast state to bring his killers to justice.

Adelina Mendoza, Perez's widow, said in an interview published by the local branch of the online news outlet E-Consulta that for the last year she had begged him to leave journalism and open a restaurant with her, but he refused.

She told E-Veracruz.mx that Perez arrived on time at the holiday party Tuesday and planned to keep their son company so she could leave early.

While Perez remained indoors, "I went outside and my son went out of the room with his little friends," Mendoza was quoted as saying. "I hugged him, I gave him a kiss because I was leaving, and right then I heard the gunshots. But I thought they were fireworks that some child had brought."

"God knows how to do things, because my son never saw his father die," she said.

Gov. Miguel Angel Yunes condemned the shooting and said he ordered state police to provide protection to the journalist's family.

US Ambassador to Mexico Roberta Jacobsen wrote on Twitter that she was offended by Perez's death at the hands of "cowardly killers."

"The truth cannot be killed by killing journalists," Jacobsen tweeted.

Mexico is one of the world's deadliest countries for journalists, and Veracruz, plagued by drug gang violence and corruption, is seen as the worst state, with several killed there this year

They include Candido Rios, a hard-nosed crime reporter for Diario de Acayucan, who was shot dead on 22 August at a highway gas station convenience store about 25 miles (40 kilometres) from Acayucan despite having been enrolled in the federal protection program.

Newspaper columnist Ricardo Monlui was killed in the Veracruz town of Yanga, near the city of Cordoba, on March 19 as he left a restaurant with his wife and son. The attacker appeared to have been lying in wait.

And Armando Arrieta Granados, news editor for the newspaper La Opinion de Poza Rica, Veracruz, was seriously wounded in late March in a shooting outside his home.

According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, 95 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 1992. In 43 of those cases the motive has been confirmed as being directly related to the victims' work  including six in 2017, higher than any other year in that period, the group says.
Omaha, Nebraska: Federal authorities say two motel managers enslaved an Indian immigrant for more than a year in western Nebraska, forcing him to work without pay and abusing him.

Vishnubhai Chaudhari, 50, and Leelabahen Chaudhari, 44, pleaded guilty in federal court on Monday to conspiracy and alien harbouring for financial gain, the Omaha World-Herald reported .

The two were managers of a Super 8 Motel in Kimball, a town near the Wyoming and Colorado borders.

The unidentified man was taken into immigration custody in Texas after entering the US illegally in 2011. The Chaudharis, who also were living in the US illegally, arranged to pay his bond in October, 2011 and then set up his transportation to Kimball, court documents and authorities said. The pair then forced the man to clean rooms, wash clothes and do other chores for them seven days a week, investigators said.

The Chaudharis isolated the man from guests at the motel and hid him from police officers in the area. Leelabahen Chaudhari assaulted the victim on a regular basis and Vishnubhai Chaudhari threatened to find the man if he were to escape, the US Justice Department said.

"Human trafficking is the modern world's version of enslaving another person for profit," said Alex Khu, special agent in charge with US Homeland Security Investigations. "That is what these individuals have done to this victim."

Acting US Attorney Robert C Stuart of the District of Nebraska said: "This case is a reminder that forced labour occurs in the United States, not just overseas."

A motel guest and local law enforcement helped the man escape, the US Justice Department said. The department declined to say what happened to the victim, citing privacy concerns.

The Chaudharis will be sentenced 19 March. They've paid the man $40,000 in restitution.
United Nations: US Ambassador Nikki Haley on Tuesday warned countries that she will report back to President Donald Trump with the names of those who support a draft resolution rejecting the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The UN General Assembly will hold an emergency session Thursday to vote on the proposed measure that the United States vetoed at the Security Council.

"The president will be watching this vote carefully and has requested I report back on those countries who voted against us," said the letter from Haley seen by AFP.

"We will take note of each and every vote on this issue," she wrote to several UN ambassadors.

On Twitter, Haley posted on Twitter that "the US will be taking names" during the vote on Thursday at the 193-nation assembly.

At the UN we're always asked to do more & give more. So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl, abt where to locate OUR embassy, we don't expect those we've helped to target us. On Thurs there'll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names. pic.twitter.com/ZsusB8Hqt4  Nikki Haley (@nikkihaley) December 19, 2017

Turkey and Yemen requested the urgent meeting on behalf of the Arab group of countries and the Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

The two countries circulated a draft resolution on Tuesday that mirrors the vetoed measure, reaffirming that any decision on the status of Jerusalem has no legal effect and must be rescinded.

Egypt had put forward the draft at the council which was backed by all 14 other Security Council members in the vote on Monday.

Like the Egyptian draft, the text before the assembly does not mention Trump's decision but expresses "deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem."

No fear

Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour said he expected "overwhelming support" for the measure stating that Jerusalem is an issue "to be resolved through negotiations" between Israel and the Palestinians.

"The General Assembly will say, without the fear of the veto, that the international community is refusing to accept the unilateral position of the United States," Mansour told reporters.

No country has veto powers in the General Assembly, contrary to the council where the United States, along with Britain, China, France and Russia, can block any resolution.

Trump's 6 December decision to recognise Jerusalem broke with international consensus, triggering protests across the Muslim world and drawing strong condemnation.

Key US allies Britain, France, Italy, Japan and Ukraine were among the 14 countries in the 15-member council that voted in favor of the measure.

After that vote, Haley described the 14-1 vote "an insult" and warned "it won't be forgotten."

After the clash at the top UN body, the White House announced that US Vice President Mike Pence was delaying a trip to the Middle East planned for this week.

Israel seized control of the eastern part of the city in the 1967 Middle East war and sees all of Jerusalem as its undivided capital. The Palestinians view the east as the capital of their future state.

Several UN resolutions call on Israel to withdraw from territory seized during the 1967 war.
Islamabad: Pakistan and Japan have agreed to jointly combat the threat of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, Foreign Office said on Tuesday.

The two countries have agreed to explore further avenues for promoting bilateral cooperation on countering terrorism during the 3rd round of Pakistan-Japan Counter Terrorism Consultations held in Islamabad.

Pakistan delegation was led by Tasnim Aslam, Special Secretary in Ministry of Foreign Affairs while the Japanese side was led by Eiji Yamamoto, Ambassador in charge of International Cooperation for Countering Terrorism and International Organised Crime of Japan.

"The two sides held in-depth discussions on various aspects of the threat posed by international terrorism and reiterated their resolve to jointly combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations," Foreign Office said in a statement.

Pakistan briefed the Japanese delegation on the improved security situation in the country as a result of the concerted actions by all segments of the society, it said. The major successes achieved in the fight against terrorism through military operations and implementation of comprehensive nation plan of action were also highlighted, it added.

The Japanese side, while reaffirming its solidarity with the victims of terrorist attacks and recognising the sacrifices and successes of Pakistan in the fight against terrorism, expressed support to Pakistan's continuing efforts in this regard, the statement said.

Both sides also exchanged views on the threat posed by the ISIS in West Asia and other parts of the world.
Islamabad: Pakistan on Tuesday strongly rejected America's concerns about the terror groups operating from its soil as outlined in the US National Security Strategy, terming them as "unfounded accusations" that belie facts on ground.

Mandated by the Congress, US president Donald Trump on Monday released his first National Security Strategy 2017, according to which the US has asked Pakistan to intensify its counter-terrorism efforts.

In a statement, the Foreign Office said the NSS 2017 has made certain unsubstantiated allegations against Pakistan.

"Pakistan rejects such unfounded accusations that belie facts on ground and trivialize Pakistans efforts for fighting terrorism and our unmatched sacrifices to promote peace and stability in the region," the statement said.

It said Pakistan has been at the forefront in the fight against regional and global terrorism and it is because of Pakistan's cooperation with the international community, acknowledged and appreciated by the US leadership, that the Al-Qaeda core was decimated from the region.

It said that in a troubled neighbourhood, Pakistan continues to suffer at the hands of state-sponsored terrorism, funded and abetted by our neighbours through proxies.

The self-proclaimed guarantors of peace and "phony regional powers" are pursuing this nefarious game of expansionism to the detriment of regional and global peace, the statement said, without naming a country.

"Destabilising policies and actions by some countries to maintain their hegemony in pursuit of absolute power are responsible for instability in several parts of the world, including ours," it said.

In an oblique reference to India, the statement said that countries emerge as regional or global powers on the basis of their constructive contributions and it does not fall upon one country to bestow such status on any state.

"Ironically, a country with a record of defiance of UNSC resolutions, introduction of nuclear weapons in South Asia and use of terrorism as a state policy is being projected as a regional leader," the Foreign Office said.

Pakistan also alleged that the hostile elements were using Afghan soil against it "despite substantial US presence" in Afghanistan.

The statement said Pakistan has consistently emphasised that a political settlement, owned and led by Afghans is the only viable option to end the conflict in Afghanistan.

The statement said that Pakistan's security forces have undertaken indiscriminate and effective counter-terrorism operations against terrorism and extremism, making Pakistan a more stable, peaceful and secure country.

Rejecting US concerns about its nuclear weapons, the statement said that Pakistan as a responsible nuclear state has put in place, a highly efficient, robust and centralised command and control mechanism to secure its nuclear assets.

"The safety and security standards of Pakistans nuclear arsenal are second to no other nuclear state," it said.

It said Pakistan was mindful that the war against terrorism was not over and was committed to continue its fight against the sympathisers, financers and abettors of terrorism to ensure that its soil is not used for committing violence anywhere.

"We expect the same commitment from our neighbours and other regional and global actors," it said.
London: British prime minister Theresa May spoke to Donald Trump about their countrys very different positions on Jerusalem, but it was left unclear whether the US president would visit London in February 2018 to open a new American embassy.

The call on Tuesday evening between the two leaders came 13 days after May had announced she would speak to Trump about his decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a position at odds with the policy pursued by London and almost all other UN member states, which argue that the fate of the city should be decided in comprehensive negotiations, reports The Guardian.

Asked if the two-week delay amounted to a snub by Trump, a spokesman for May said the pair had "a good relationship", which included being able to differ on some matters.

"The prime minister has always been clear on these matters that part of having a special relationship is that where there are times you don't agree, you can say so," the spokesman said.

However, there was still no agreement on a Trump visit to the UK, which had been postponed because of fears that it would trigger mass demonstrations.

The US ambassador to the UK, Woody Johnson had said last week that he expected the president to visit London in the new year, raising expectations that he would fly in to open a new $800 million embassy complex in Battersea on the south bank of the Thames.

However, neither the Downing Street nor the White House confirmed a presidential visit, The Guardian reported.

A later statement from Downing Street said that May had offered condolences for Monday's train derailment in Washington state and that they had "discussed the different positions we took on the recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, and agreed on the importance of the US bringing forward new proposals for peace and the international community supporting these efforts".

Downing Street said May reported on progress in Brexit talks and the president and prime minister "wished each other a very Merry Christmas and looked forward to keeping in close touch".

Earlier in December, Trump announced that the US would break with longstanding practice and recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Both Israelis and Palestinians claim the city, and the US and other countries have avoided taking a position on the matter.

The move has isolated Washington from almost all its allies, and forced a rare US veto of a UN Security Council resolution on Monday, when the 14 other council members, including the UK, voted to call for the US recognition of its status as Israeli capital be rescinded.

The White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, said discussions with London about the visit were continuing.

"We are working with them to finalise the details, which we expect to announce soon," Sanders said on Tuesday night.
Washington: The US has appealed for dignified and voluntary return of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh to Myanmar, while it said that conditions are not conducive enough for such a move.

Some 6,25,000 Rohingya refugees have fled the Rakhine state of Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh in the last six months.

"In terms of the repatriation plan, we'd like to see the plan. We've heard about it in concept, but one of the things that would be important to be in that plan is the voluntary, safe and dignified return," state department spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters in Washington.

"It (repatriation) has to be voluntary. People have to feel like it's safe to go home. If they don't feel like it's safe to go home, it's probably not going to be safe to go home. They have to have a dignified return. That means treating the people well as they decide to return home," she said.

Insisting that repatriation needs to be voluntary, she said the refugees cannot be forced to leave one country to go to another country.

"They have to feel safe and ready to go home," she said.

"We hope that the refugees will eventually be able to go home, to go home to Burma. More than 6 lakh of them have been forced across the border since August alone, and now it's December," she said.

Nauert also said that Bangladesh has been so generous in accepting hundreds of thousands of refugees and the US government has provided significant financial assistance to help.
Washington: The US has concerns about JuD chief Hafiz Saeed running for office in Pakistan in 2018, a senior Trump Administration official has said.

The Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) head and LeT founder had earlier confirmed that his organisation Jammat-ud-Dawah will contest the 2018 general elections in Pakistan under the banner of the Milli Muslim League, which is yet to be registered with the Election Commission.

"Saeed, who was released by Pakistan from house arrest last November resulting in angry reaction from the US, was the "mastermind" of the Mumbai terrorist attacks and is leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba," State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said.

"It's a group that the US government considers to be a terror organisation. We have many conversations with the government of Pakistan. One of the things that happened recently was that this guy was held on house arrest. Pakistan released him from house arrest, and now there's word that he may be running for some sort of office," she said reporters in Washington.

Saeed, who has a $10 million American bounty on his head for terror activities, was freed by Pakistan on 24 November. He is a UN and US designated terrorist.

"I want to remind folks, we have a $10 million Reward for Justice programme that would reward for information that would bring him to justice. So I want to make that clear, so that everybody knows  $10 million, out for this guy. And we would certainly have concerns about him running for office," Nauert said.

The US had also strongly condemned the release of the Lashkar-e-Taiba leader from house arrest and had called for his immediate re-arrest and prosecution.

However, top Pakistani diplomats based in the US have said that there is no evidence against Saeed.

"I can tell you his organisation that was responsible for those attacks is considered a foreign terror organisation. It's considered a foreign terror organisation by the US government for a reason, and for a good reason," Nauert said.

"I would imagine that, if we had any intelligence, and that's not an area that I can discuss anyway, but we would certainly share it with the Pakistani's on that front. I hope they'll do the right thing," Nauert said.

"I hope that they will do the right thing and remind folks across Pakistan, we have a $10 million reward for this guy," the spokesperson said.

The banned JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Taiba which carried out the 2008 Mumbai terror attack in which 166 people were killed.
Washington: The US has strongly condemned a ballistic missile attack over Riyadh which Saudi Arabia claimed was launched from Yemen by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, saying such actions threaten regional security.

Saudi Arabia, which has been leading a military campaign against the Huthis for the last three years, shot down the ballistic missile over Riyadh on Tuesday. Houthi rebels seized the Yemeni capital Sana'a from the globally-recognised government in 2014.

"We remain deeply disturbed by aggressive Houthi actions supported by Iran's provision of advanced weapons, which threaten regional security and prolong the Yemen conflict," state department spokesperson Heather Nauert said.

The US called on Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to stop arming and enabling the Houthis' violent actions against Yemen's neighbours, including Saudi Arabia, Nauert said.

Asserting that a political solution is the only way to advance a long-term stability in Yemen and end the suffering of the Yemeni people, the US urged all the parties to immediately cease hostilities, avoid retaliatory measures and return to political negotiations under the auspices of the UN.

The US also remains deeply concerned by the dire humanitarian conditions in Yemen, Nauert said. "We continue to urge all parties to facilitate the free and unfettered flow of humanitarian aid and commercial goods, including fuel, into and throughout Yemen, including through all of Yemen's ports, including Hudaydah port and Sana'a airport," Nauert added.

Saudi Arabia said the missile was fired from Yemen by Iran-backed Huthi rebels, who announced that the target was the official residence of King Salman.

Thousands of people have lost their lives since Saudi Arabia and its allies joined the fight launched by Yemeni government against the Huthi rebels in 2015, triggering what the UN has termed as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Frutaroms legacy health & nutrition business is being touted as a significant growth engine for the company, with no concerns that it may be offloaded amid... Read More
We must have missed the memo stipulating that only Republicans are capable of colluding with Russian officials to influence an election or of having financial ties with shady Russian deal-makers or of conversing with Russian spies.

And yet that point seems to be the attitude of Democrats who dismiss as meaningless the news that Hillary Clintons presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee financed the infamous Trump-Russia dossier that exploded into public view early this year.

Or by those who are nonplussed by reports uncovered by The Hill showing a top Russian spy came dangerously close to infiltrating the secretary of states inner circle in 2010, even as her husband was doing business with an American law firm that was also lobbying Hillary Clinton and other Cabinet members for approval of a huge uranium deal. Bill Clinton also accepted $500,000 in speaking fees from a Kremlin-based bank with financial ties to the deal.

Some have plausible excuses for all of this behavior; were less inclined to view these as mere coincidences.

Clinton and DNC officials claim they werent aware that their middlemen, the Perkins Coie law firm and GPS Fusion, contracted with a British intelligence officer who had been head of MI6s Russia desk to explore Trumps ties to Russia and dig up dirt  and that this ex-spy relied on Russian government sources for much of his trove.

No one knows the role Clinton played in ushering the Uranium One deal without any opposition through the secretive Committee on Foreign Investment, but now would be a good time for Congress to demand that this information be disclosed given the closeness of Clintons team to a Russian spy at the time and the financial ties between the Clintons and Russian businesses involved in the deal.

This isnt about doubting the word of an unimpeachable saint. Trump may be a world-class prevaricator, but Clinton has an impressive record of dissimulation herself that must be taken into account.

Clintons press release response to the Russian spy ring in 2010 was a blatant lie. Her office wrote there was no reason to think the Secretary was a target of this spy ring. In fact, Clinton and her family were a key target.

Even Clintons former press aide Brian Fallow doesnt seem to be buying the innocence story about the dossier saying he was sure knowledge of the work was kept to a select group.

In July we lambasted Donald Trump Jr., the presidents son-in-law Jared Kushner, and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort for meeting with Russians in 2016 after being told they might get damaging information on Clinton. Nothing apparently came of the meeting except confirmation of their atrocious judgment.

Trump and his campaign are hardly in the clear, of course  a fact underlined by the indictment of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller. And Trump himself seems to recognize the peril to his presidency from Muellers probe given the almost hysterical nature of several recent presidential tweets.

Still, hostility toward the Trump presidency shouldnt blind us to despicable behavior by his opponents, and especially when it mirrors the sort of activity everyone has anticipated with great indignation regarding Trump. Solving the problem of Russian interference in our nation depends on clear thinking.

So yes, it does matter that the Clinton campaign financed the Trump-Russia dossier, and that the Clintons had cozy relationships with Russians as a major uranium contract was being approved, and that Clinton lied about being the target of spy operations. And its time for all fair-minded people to say so.

 The Denver Post Editorial Board
It has been said that in America we do not have government by the majority, but rather government by the majority who participate.

A case in point would be municipal and school elections held this week. Were led to praise 34 percent of all Morgan County electors for turning out to decide races of important local government concern, except that 66 percent of electors stayed home.

Thats hard to understand. Fort Morgan asked voters to determine whether to add a 1 percent sales tax to help fund street repairs, and 1,916 electors made that decision. There were 716 electors who made the call on the Ward 1 seat for Fort Morgan City Council. And, there were 1,086 electors in Brush who decided to weigh in on the citys next mayor.

It is praiseworthy for those 4,820 electors who cast a ballot in Morgan County, but there were 9,352 who chose not to exercise their right to vote. Remember, there wasnt much effort involved. Ballots were distributed by mail and could have been filled out in your pajamas and returned by your friendly letter carrier.

So, if you took the little bit of effort required to cast a ballot in this election, good for you. A seat on Brush City Council was decided by 22 votes. The odd candidate out in a Weldon Valley School Trustee election lost by 11 votes. Wiggins ballot issues were decided by six and four votes, respectively. A Log Lane Village ballot issue was decided by three votes. Cant say your vote doesnt count in tight races like those.

We know how hard many candidates worked to drive out a small number of votes in this election. Some of them may have spent $1 or more per vote when you consider cost of yard signs, door hangers, time spent on the stump walking neighborhoods and other election activities.

Nows the time for those elected to consider the platforms on which they ran and opinions expressed which may have resonated with electors. Dont forget positions you took and promises made, which earned you the support necessary to take office. Stick with your guns. Do what you said youd do. That will earn you more than a vote; it will earn you respect.

Changing faces on city councils and school boards also present new opportunities to come together for the common good. Residents will benefit as these boards work together for the benefit of all, and that should include city councils stepping across city borders and school boards doing the same for the benefit of their stakeholders.

If you campaigned and lost, consider how you might support the entity to which you had desired to serve. You can make as great a difference in a capacity other than as an elected official.

Whether you cast a ballot or not, get involved with your elected officials. The most common complaint we hear from elected officials is the lack of participation in city government or with school boards. Fill up their chambers. Give all of these elected officials a chance to listen, and you never know you might have just the solution that was needed.
Eric Burkgren was only 9 when he found out that his Uncle Freddy, a Fort Morgan Police officer, had been killed in the line of duty.

It was a traumatic event for me, he recalled of hearing the news of the Dec. 18, 1982, incident that took Officer Fred Rehmers life. The meaning of life happens quickly when theres a death in the family. Its a turning point, and it certainly gave life meaning at a young age for me.

Now a mortgage lender on the Front Range, Burkgren has three boys of his own, ages 15, 12 and 9.

I give my all every day for my family and business, he said. I live every day to the fullest to honor his memory.

Burkgren returned to Fort Morgan Monday for Fort Morgan Police Departments dedication of its training room to the memory of Rehmer and another fallen Fort Morgan officer, Marshal Charles P. Eyser, in 1916.

This brings it all full circle, Burkgren said of the dedication ceremony. Its 35 years to the day. Its emotional and amazing.

Rehmers older sister, Phyllis Burkgren, and cousin Charles Frederick Rehmer also were at the dedication.

Its a tough job because Freddy was your friend, as well as your police officer, Charles said, and there was a fine line between trust and the job. Life is a millisecond away from ending. Be safe and have pride in all you do.

Only two years younger than his cousin, Charles grew up around Freddy and was pleased to see his memory being honored.

To me it means that his loss is complete, he said of the dedication ceremony. All we have are memories and this is just another special memory that we put in our memory banks of Freddy. It refreshes it.

Phyllis had shared one such memory that teared her up.

My daughter was 6 when I told her Freddy was gone, she said, and that we were really happy to have had him for as long as we did. She said, Yeah, but we didnt have him long enough.'

Officer Rehmer was responding to a call Dec. 18, 1982, where a deadly weapon was reportedly being used in an assault. He was driving his patrol car to race to the scene, when a vehicle to his left unexpectedly turned into him. The vehicles collided and Rehmer was forced off the roadway and into a tree. He died as a result of the crash.

Eysers death happened far longer ago: Sept. 30, 1916. He was killed while investigating illegal alcohol in Fort Morgan.

Responding to a tip, Eyser confronted two suspects and asked to search their hotel room. The marshal let them go after the suspects claimed not to have a key.

But later that day, Eyser confronted the men again, and a gun fight broke out. When it was over, Eyser had been fatally shot through the heart.

John Swan was later convicted of this murder, but he escaped from the county jail and disappeared.

Eysers grandson, 84-year-old Larry C. Fountaine, traveled to Fort Morgan from Colorado Springs for the dedication ceremony.

He was always famous to me, and I heard a lot about him from my mother and father, the marshals grandson said.

Fountaine also shared a rumor he heard that his grandfathers convicted killer, John Swan, had fled to South America following the escape and died there.

He heard this from a former Fort Morgan mayor while Fountaine was in town. That former and unspecified mayor told him, Ive got something to tell you. My wifes brother killed your grandfather, Fountaine recounted, with that being when he heard about the convict fleeing south. He killed the marshal, his friends broke him out, and he had gone all the way to South America.

Also speaking at the ceremony were Morgan County Sheriff Jim Crone, who worked with Officer Rehmer a little before his death, was woken up after working a night shift by a call from dispatch right after the officer died.

Fred worked undercover drugs, Crone recalled, point out that it was in the days when there was no fancy surveillance for such investigations. You just sat close enough to hear something.

Getting that call about Officer Rehmers death was one of the biggest shocks Ive ever had because Fred was a peach of a guy, the sheriff said. Fred was taken away too early. The person who called made mention of a weapon because they wanted to get the cops there faster. that was a direct reason for his death.

Fort Morgan Police Commander Jared Crone also shared a memory about Officer Rehmer, although it was from the other side of the law.

Things you experience in your life might make you a better cop, he said, detailing how in his youth he had a BB gun and thought it might be fun to shoot at a city Dumpster.

That ended a police visit, and it just happened to be Officer Rehmer at the door.

I was scared to death, Jared Crone recalled. But the way he acted, the way he spoke to me was very low key.

Two months after that, Officer Rehmer was dead.

But the visit with the officer after Jared Crones BB gun incident contributed to his going into law enforcement.

It was a pretty good experience, the police commander said.

There also were other area law enforcement officials, both current and retired, at the ceremony, as well as a handful of other relatives of the two fallen officers.

Schultz said he was pleased with how the dedication ceremony went. It was something he had wanted to see happen since he started with the city as its public safety chief almost a year ago.

He was pleasantly surprised to have no opposition to the idea from the police department.

Everyone who works here has said we should do this, Schultz said. It was a very fitting tribute to two local heroes who gave their all.

Kathy Thorsom, who was dating Officer Rehmer when he died, agreed with that sentiment.

She thinks he would have liked that the training name was being named for him and Eyser. Not long after, she went to work for the Morgan County Sheriffs Office as a jail division sergeant, staying there until 1990.

Training is the lifeline for these officers, Thorsom said, and Freds mantra was always firm, fair and consistent. So this training room is going to educate a whole lot of good cops.

Jenni Grubbs: jgrubbs@fmtimes.com or Twitter @JenniGrubbs
The results of the Nov. 7 Re-3 Board of Education election played out Monday night, as the school board formally reorganized.

Connie Weingarten started the meeting off as the school board president.

Tonights an exciting night, she said. We get to welcome our new member and two returning members.

Weingarten then swore in Teri Lapp, who was newly elected to the board, and re-elected board members Derek Gerken and Todd Schneider.

Re-3 Superintendent Ron Echols then thanked Dr. David Keller, who had completed his four-year term on the school board. Keller chose not to run for re-election. Echols also presented him with a plaque.

Its been a great four years, Keller said, pointing to how well the districts staff had done over that time even with the cutbacks in funding from the state that the school board had to implement. Weve been able to accomplish a lot.

Keller then left the board room, with Weingarten joking that he said his cars still running out there.

Next up, Weingarten presided over the election of a new school board president, with Gerken getting the sole nomination and being elected 6-0.

Gerken and Weingarten then changed seats, and he took over running the meeting, calling for nominations for school board vice president.

Weingarten nominated Loren Sharp, and there were no further nominations. Sharp was elected 6-0.

Then Gerken called for appointment of the board treasurer, and Sharp nominated Schneider. The roll-call vote on Schneiders appointment was 6-0, although Board Secretary Karen Temple got a bit mixed up at first, asking for Kellers vote instead of Lapps.

Oh, I need to change that, a slightly embarrassed Temple said, apologizing to Lapp.

The board also re-appointed Temple as its secretary, and then board members were appointed to various standing committee assignments.

Other action

With the re-organization concluded, Gerken proceeded with the rest of the meeting agenda.

The board approved spending about $48,068 on six Chromebook carts for the Fort Morgan High School Social Studies Department.

This is their curricular adoption, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Assessment Dr. Rena Frasco told the school board. In lieu of purchasing textbooks, they are buying Chromebooks and building digital materials.

James Wilson, FMHS social studies department chair, said that the digital materials they create then could be turned into PDFs or even printed out as paper books if needed, although he did not expect that to be necessary.

Very few kids wouldnt have access, he told the Fort Morgan Times, pointing to the near-ubiquity of having either smartphones or internet access  or both  at home for FMHS students.

Wilson teaches psychology and current issues at FMHS and said that digital textbooks and learning materials are the way the futures going to go. Well be able to provide much more interactive materials.

Fellow FMHS social studies teacher Greg Edson told the Times, The last time I used an actual textbook in my classroom was three years ago, since so much changes so quickly.

Both Wilson and Edson said that this way, they can keep up with those changes and have teaching materials that would be both relevant and interactive.

It sounds exciting, Gerken told Wilson and Edson. Come back and let us know how it works.

The board also approved:

 Three new policies on sixth reading, including ones on: staff conduct and responsibilities (GBEB and GBEB-R) and staff dress code (GBEAB). The staff conduct policy changes were recommended by the Colorado Association of School Boards and required by law, according to Temple.

 Making a change to the 2017-17 school calendar, with no school to be held on April 3 so that school district staff will be able to participate in a state-wide emergency preparedness drill withe Colorado National Guard and local agencies; this adds an extra day to spring break for the students, Echols said, adding that he couldnt imagine any of the students being upset about that.

 Disposal of a lengthy list of old school district computer and information technology equipment that was either damaged or obsolete. Since we are a large organization it is against EPA regulations for the district to dispose of this equipment in the county landfill, a school board memo stated. The obsolete equipment no longer meets our educational needs. This equipment contains lead, mercury, cadmium, chromium, brominated flame retardants and polychlorinated biphenyl, or PCBs. Almost all the items in this equipment processed by a qualified recycler could put these raw materials back into goods for consumers.

 An overnight trip Dec. 15 to 16 for the FMHS Forensics Team to compete in a multi-state tournament in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

 The 2018-19 FMHS Registration Guide.

 Granting a leave of absence to Head Start worker Sara Orozco Martinez, so that she could complete student teaching outside the district as part of getting a bachelors degree; Human Resources Director Michael Boyer said she intends to return to Re-3 School District after finishing her student teaching, which is why she sought the leave of absence from the school board.

Jenni Grubbs: jgrubbs@fmtimes.com or Twitter @JenniGrubbs
The Brush School Board on Wednesday night voted 4-0 to certify the school districts 2018 mill levy at 52.36 mills. Board member Brandy Hansen was absent and did not vote.

That was up from the 2017 45.285 mill levy, but the increased amount for next year fits right within what we promised to voters, Brush Superintendent Dr. Bill Wilson said.

The school board being able to raise the mill levy amount to match funding levels needed to meet bond requirements was something voters approved in the 2016 election.

In our promise to the voters back before the election of 16, there were a number of variables and things we had little control over, Wilson said.

He credited bond underwriter George K. Baum and Company of Denver with ensuring that after the successful election on selling school bonds and allowing a mill levy override, the level the school district could set the mill levy at would provide enough funding to meet bond covenant requirements.

G.K. Baum did an excellent job of projecting and making sure that what we forwarded to our constituents was as accurate as possible and we had an adequate amount of cushion in those numbers so we didnt over promise, Wilson said.

The election happened in November 2016, and the BEST grant was awarded in May. The bonds, both local and for BEST, wound up not being sold until December, the superintendent pointed out.

And when the state-level BEST bonds did get sold, the Brush School District had a number of constraints placed on the sale that werent the best case scenario for us, Wilson said.

But everything wound up working out quite well, he said, because of the conservative manner in which it was approached and with the expertise (G.K. Baum) was able to share with selling the school districts around $6 million in local bonds. It left the district in a spot where were able to make good on our promises to voters and the numbers that we talked about.

Wilson said the school district would be still below what was promised to voters in terms of what their tax increase will be.

However, he did say the school district would benefit from increases to the increased assessed property valuations.

Overall, the 52.36 mills for the 2018 mill levy would generate the amount thats needed for the school district, Wilson said.

To be clear, the mill number is exactly what we promised, he said.

But the school district also would look for ways in the future to be able to set that mill levy number lower and keep funding levels where voters intended, Wilson said.

Again, well take a look again next year and see where we are and go through this process again and make sure that were staying true to our word and making adjustments as necessary, the superintendent said. If we can lower it, thats certainly our goal.

Trujillo back on board

The Brush School Board also welcomed back a familiar face Tuesday night, as John Trujillo was appointed to a new term.

He had completed a full, four-year term on the school board in November, initially intending to leave the board.

But with two vacancies following the boards reorganization, Trujillo reconsidered his plan and applied to fill a seat again.

He was an excellent member and has a lot of knowledge of the workings of the school district, especially financial interests, School Board President Brad Mortensen said of the application.

The vote on his appointment was 4-0, with board member Brandy Hansen absent.

Mortensen then swore in Trujillo, and the rest of the board welcomed him.

The school board still has one open seat left to fill. There is at least one applicant for that seat, Reagan Buchanan, and she was interviewed by the board Wednesday night. No action was taken.

Jenni Grubbs: jgrubbs@fmtimes.com or Twitter @JenniGrubbs
Students at Brush High School have been hard at work practicing for the upcoming production of The Outsiders. The performance will be held at Brush High School on Dec.19 at 7 p.m. in the auditorium.

The Outsiders is based upon the 1967 book by S.E. Hinton and tells the story of rival teen gangs, The Greasers and The Socials.

Its the hand me downs versus the rich kids. Its about learning to get along despite social boundaries, said Rhenna Getchell, who plays the part of Cherry. Getchels character is a Social who learns to enjoy the company of the Greasers.

Assistant Director, Madison Calvert, is a sophomore this year, but she already has big dreams for after high school. Calvert plans to attend the University of California, where she will study film direction and hone in her acting skills.

I love to write screenplays, said Calvert.

In addition to her job as Assistant Director, Calvert has taken on the challenge of playing a lead role as a male character. Calvert plays the part of Johnny, a beaten down kid from the wrong side of the tracks.

Calvert co stars with Clayton Kauffman, who plays the part of Ponyboy, Johnnys best friend. The two are said to interact as great friends while in and out of character.

The students, who make up the Drama Club, beamed with excitement and enthusiasm Tuesday afternoon, while practicing for the show.
The old Fort Morgan Middle School building will become a new campus for Calvary University after the Re-3 Board of Education on Friday morning approved an agreement transferring the property to the school.

Its a Christmas miracle, Re-3 Superintendent Ron Echols proclaimed after the boards 6-0 vote for the agreement.

Cheers also could be heard from board member Connie Weingarten, who was the school board president during much of the uncertainty over what would happen with the old building moving forward.

We did it, she told the Fort Morgan Times, sounding excited and pleased.

The uncertainty over the future of the building had been weighing on her for a while. Thats what the community asked for. Its a great use for that building. It was a school before, and its going to be a school again.

Board Treasurer Todd Schneider was absent from the Friday morning meeting and did not vote.

Details of agreement

Under the agreement, school district actually will wind up paying Calvary University at least $200,000 and as much as $210,000 to take over responsibility for the building and property, according to Re-3 Chief Financial Officer Mike Lee.

The $200,000 would go toward Calvary installing a fire sprinkler system in the building, and the up to $10,000 would be for the school district to fix up any issues with broken windows or other minor property damage that has happened outside while the building has been vacant, the CFO explained.

Although, Lee added that the school district had maintained the old building while it has been empty, which was not cheap.

Also, the school district will not have to remove or demolish the two existing modular buildings on property as had previously been expected, Lee said.

The payments from the school district to Calvary would not be made until after a 60-day back-out period was over, according to Lee.

The school board was comfortable with the terms of the agreement, voting in favor of it.

Lee said he expects Calvary officials to not waste any time in also approving the agreement.

Theyre jazzed to be here, Lee told the Times. Theyre excited to be a part of Fort Morgan.

How it came about

Calvary University was not the first nonprofit that showed interest in the old middle school building.

The Denver-based Community Resources & Housing Development Corp. (CRHDC), which build the Sol Naciente housing development at East Beaver Avenue and Linda Street, previously was looking to re-purpose the property for housing, while agreeing to keep the propertys community amenities.

But that arrangement was dependent upon getting approval for state and federal low-income housing tax credits.

That failed to happen, leading to the collapse of the partnership between CRHDC and the school district.

After that, the school board had directed Echols to continue seeking a nonprofit willing to take over the old middle school building and property. A key goal was to find such a nonprofit that would fit in with the community and seek to use the old building, not tear it down.

That was no small task, and for a while outright sale of the property was even considered.

But a nonprofit that was interested in the old school building and property did wind up approaching the school district.

Calvary University, which has its main campus in Kansas City, Missouri, was interested in expanding to Colorado. Calvarys president, Dr. Christopher Cone, heard about the empty Fort Morgan Middle School building from a visiting alumnus and approached the school district.

That led to visits to Fort Morgan by Cone and Jeff Campa, the Calvary official who would be tapped to be the director of such a Colorado-based campus. During that time, all discussions and negotiations were kept confidential.

Going public

On Dec. 4, the Cone and Campa formally announced the schools intention to reach an agreement with the school district to take over the old building and property and set up Calvarys innovation campus in Fort Morgan.

But the details still of the agreement still had to be hammered out, the Calvary officials and Echols both said that night.

Still, Cone also told the school board to give him something to sign.

The school district and school board now has done that.

Calvary University officials did not respond by deadline Friday to the Times request for comment on the school boards approval of the agreement.

Jenni Grubbs: jgrubbs@fmtimes.com or Twitter @JenniGrubbs
The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives gave final approval on Wednesday to the biggest overhaul of the U.S. tax code in 30 years, sending a sweeping $1.5 trillion tax bill to President Donald Trump for his signature.

In sealing Trumps first major legislative victory, Republicans steamrolled opposition from Democrats to pass a bill that slashes taxes for corporations and the wealthy while giving mixed, temporary tax relief to middle-class Americans.

The House approved the measure, 224-201, passing it for the second time in two days after a procedural foul-up forced another vote on Wednesday. The Senate had passed it 51-48 in the early hours of Wednesday.

We are making America great again, Trump said, echoing his campaign slogan at a White House celebration with Republican lawmakers. Ultimately what does it mean? It means jobs, jobs, jobs.

Trump, who emphasized a tax cut for middle-class Americans during his 2016 campaign, said at an earlier Cabinet meeting that lowering the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent was probably the biggest factor in this plan.

It was uncertain when the bill would be signed. White House economic adviser Gary Cohn said the timing depended on whether automatic spending cuts triggered by the legislation could be waived. If so, the president will sign it before the end of the year, he said.

The administration expects the waiver to be included in a spending resolution Congress will pass later this week, a White House official told reporters.

BUSINESS FRIENDLY

In addition to cutting the U.S. corporate income tax rate to 21 percent, the debt-financed legislation gives other business owners a new 20 percent deduction on business income and reshapes how the government taxes multinational corporations along the lines the countrys largest businesses have recommended for years.

Millions of Americans would stop itemizing deductions under the bill, putting tax breaks that incentivize home ownership and charitable donations out of their reach, but also making tax returns somewhat simpler and shorter.

The bill keeps the present number of tax brackets but adjusts many of the rates and income levels for each one. The top tax rate for high earners is reduced. The estate tax on inheritances is changed so far fewer people will pay.

Once signed, taxpayers likely would see the first changes to their paycheck tax withholdings in February. Most households will not see the full effect of the tax plan on their income until they file their 2018 taxes in early 2019.

In two provisions added to secure needed Republican votes, the legislation also allows oil drilling in Alaskas Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and removes a tax penalty under the Obamacare health law for Americans who do not obtain health insurance.

We have essentially repealed Obamacare and well come up with something that will be much better, Trump said.

Democrats were united in opposition to the tax legislation, calling it a giveaway to the wealthy that will widen the income gap between rich and poor, while adding $1.5 trillion over the next decade to the $20 trillion national debt. Trump promised in 2016 he would eliminate the national debt as president.

PILLAGING

Today the Republicans take their victory lap for successfully pillaging the American middle class to benefit the powerful and the privileged, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said.

Opinion polls show the tax bill is unpopular with the public and Democrats promised to make Republicans pay for their vote during next years congressional elections, when all 435 House seats and 34 of the 100 Senate seats will be up for grabs.

Republicans will rue the day they passed this bill, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer told reporters. We are going to continue hammering away about why this bill is so unpopular.

U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan defended the bill, saying support would grow for after it passes and Americans felt relief. I think minds are going to change, Ryan said on ABCs Good Morning America television program.

A few Republicans, a party once defined by fiscal hawkishness, have protested the deficit-spending encompassed in the bill. But most voted for it anyway, saying it would help businesses and individuals while boosting an already expanding economy they see as not growing fast enough.

In the House, 12 Republicans voted against the tax bill. All but one, Walter Jones of North Carolina, were from the high-tax states of New York, New Jersey and California, which will be hit by the bills cap on deductions for state and local taxes.

Despite Trump administration promises that the tax overhaul would focus on the middle class and not cut taxes for the rich, the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, a think tank in Washington, estimated middle-income households would see an average tax cut of $900 next year under the bill, while the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans would see an average cut of $51,000.

The House was forced to vote again after the Senate parliamentarian ruled three minor provisions violated arcane Senate rules. To proceed, the Senate deleted the three provisions and then approved the bill.

Because the House and Senate must approve the same legislation before Trump can sign it into law, the Senates late Tuesday vote sent the bill back to the House.
Chipotle Mexican Grill shares fell more than 4% in trading Wednesday after a report that one of the companys Los Angeles restaurants is under investigation for a possible foodborne illness incident.

The Los Angeles Health Departments Acute Communicable Disease Control unit told Business Insider it is aware of the reports of illness and is investigating. Its unclear how many customers were sickened, or whether any potential illness or outbreak is directly tied to Chipotle.

We take any report of illness very seriously, Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold told FOX Business. We are aware of a few reports (two of which appear to be the same) on user generated reporting sites but there is no clinical validation associated with those reports, and we have not been contacted by customers directly to substantiate these claims.

Complaints about the possible foodborne illness outbreak appear to have originated on the website IWasPoisoned.com. Business Insider noted that at least five reports listed that at least seven customers who ate at a Los Angeles-area Chipotle on Pico Boulevard fell ill with nausea and vomiting.

Me, my mom, and my sister all ate from this place, we each got a burrito bowl consisting of Carnitas. Steak and chicken, one customer wrote on the website. We each simultaneously got sick 2, days later. We know for sure it was food poisoning because my dad, the only person that didn't eat the food, is perfectly fine.

While public health officials have not confirmed that the incidents constitute an outbreak, Chipotle has dealt with food safety concerns on several occasions in the past. The companys shares took a hit last July after customers in Virginia fell sick. Chipotles business also suffered after an E. coli outbreak at several restaurants in 2015 that required several locations to temporarily close.

Chipotle says it has not been made aware of any illness reports made to local health officials in the Los Angeles area.

As a precautionary measure, we have implemented heightened preventative procedures at this restaurant, which we do as a matter of policy if we ever receive reports of illness (even if they are not substantiated), the spokesman said.
The Germany army, rail firm Deutsche Bahn and about 40 other companies have filed a lawsuit against several truck makers, alleging they colluded illegally to fix prices.

German news agency dpa cited Deutsche Bahn saying the suit filed Wednesday in Munich is directed against Daimler, Iveco, Volvo/Renault, DAF and MAN.

The plaintiffs claim the collusion meant they were overcharged for 35,000 trucks between 1997 and 2011.

A spokesman for Germany's Defense Ministry, Holger Neumann, told reporters in Berlin that the army alone estimates 10,000 of its trucks were affected. He said the financial harm to the army wasn't yet known.

The European Commission imposed anti-trust fines of almost 3 billion euros ($3.6 billion) against the truck makers in 2016, but refrained from concluding the collusion had resulted in higher prices.
Cox Enterprises said Wednesday the majority of its employees will receive bonuses of up to $2,000 following the passage of tax reform.

The Atlanta-based company, which owns the Cox cable provider among other businesses, announced that bonuses of $1,000 to $2,000 will be distributed on Tax Day to employees who have worked at Cox Enterprises for at least a year and are not part of an executive incentive plan. The move impacts most of the companys nearly 60,000 employees.

The $1.5 trillion tax bill reduces the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% and changes the way the U.S. government taxes companies that also operate internationally.

FOX Business is keeping track of the tax benefits that have reached over 3 million Americans so far.

Updated 3/7/18

Anthem

Anthem Inc. (NYSE:ANTM) said it would contribute retirement savings for more than 58,000 current and former employees, joining other major corporations in rewarding workers after the passage of a GOP-backed tax reform package.

The Indianapolis-based health insurance company said its associates and recent retirees will receive $1,000 toward their 401(k) accounts, for a total investment of more than $58 million. Anthem said other tax reform-related savings would be used to reduce the cost of healthcare for customers.

Apple

The California-based tech giant gave employees below the senior level title of "director" bonuses worth $2,500. The awards were composed of restricted stock units, a source familiar with the situation told FOX Business.

AT&T

The telecom giant said in late December that more than 200,000 of its employees, including union-represented and non-management workers, will be eligible for a $1,000 bonus. The checks will be in the mail in time for the holidays if Trump finalizes the tax bill with his signature before Christmas. AT&T (NYSE:T) also said it will invest $1 billion more than expected in the U.S. in 2018, once the cuts are final.

Congress, working closely with the President, took a monumental step to bring taxes paid by U.S. businesses in line with the rest of the industrialized world, AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson said in a statement. This tax reform will drive economic growth and create good-paying jobs.

BNY Mellon

Starting on March 1, Bank of New York Mellon Corp. will raise minimum wage to $15 per hour for roughly 1,000 of its 52,500 employees, the Wall Street Journal reported.

BNY Mellon executives noted the new tax code will allow for savings of roughly $250 million per year, which will be used on technology upgrades.

Boeing

The aerospace and defense company immediately announced $300 million in investments after the bill passed, with $100 million toward corporate giving including employee gift-match programs, $100 million toward workforce development, training and education and $100 million toward enhancing Boeings workplaces.

"On behalf of all of our stakeholders, we applaud and thank Congress and the administration for their leadership in seizing this opportunity to unleash economic energy in the United States," Boeing (NYSE:BA) President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg said in a statement. "It's the single-most important thing we can do to drive innovation, support quality jobs and accelerate capital investment in our country."

Charter Communications

Charter, which owns the Spectrum cable brand, says all of its employees will be paid at least $15 per hour within the next year. The company cited tax reform and the repeal of net neutrality rules for its decision.

"Charter's workforce is key to the success of our company," Charter CEO Tom Rutledge said in a statement. "Our commitment to pay every employee at least a $15 per hour income will enhance our efforts to develop our highly-skilled, diverse and locally based workforce, improving their lives and the lives of the customers they serve."

Chipotle Mexican Grill

Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG) is rolling out benefits reaching all of its 71,000 employees, including special cash and stock bonuses and enhanced paid and parental leave.

Qualified hourly employees and salaried restaurant employees will receive a special one-time cash bonus of up to $1,000, and some staff employees will receive a one-time stock grant.

Other offerings will include accelerated training programs, and additional paid parental leave for everyone, from hourly managers to salaried employees.

The company also added life insurance and short-term disability insurance coverage for hourly restaurant managers.

According to the company, the tax cut and the jobs cut made the sweetened compensation and benefits possible. The company will invest more than one-third of its anticipated savings from tax law changes on behalf of its employees, and the remainder will be used to improve its restaurant facilities and operations.

The company said it has already started rolling out these new benefits.

Comcast

The Philadelphia-based telecom corporation said it would award $1,000 bonuses to more than 100,000 non-executive employees. In addition, Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) NBC Universal Chairman and CEO Brian L. Roberts said the company plans to spend more than $50 billion in the next five years on infrastructure investments that are expected to create "thousands of new direct and indirect jobs."

In a press release, Comcast said the initiatives were "based on the passage of tax reform and the FCC's action on broadband."

CVS

Hourly employees of CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) will see their wages increase to $11 per hour from $9, effective April 2018. The company also plans to adjust pay ranges and rates for many of its retail employees later in the year.

The company is creating a new paid parental leave program. Effective April 1, 2018, full-time employees who become parents can take up to four weeks away from work at 100% of their pay.

Fifth Third Bancorp

The Cincinnati-based banking corporation said it would raise the minimum hourly wage for all employees to $15 per hour and dispense $1,000 bonuses for more than 13,500 workers. The company says tax reform was directly responsible for the initiatives.

It is good for our communities, employees and Fifth Third Bank (NASDAQ:FITB), Fifth Third President and CEO Greg Carmichael said.

Home Depot

Home Depot (NYSE:HD) announced it will pay its U.S. hourly workers a one-time bonus of up to $1,000 tied to President Trumps tax reform.

"This incremental investment in our associates was made possible by the new tax reform bill," Craig Menear, chairman and CEO of the company, said in a statement.

The Home Depot bonus will be paid in addition to the retailers existing bonuses. It employs more than 400,000 associates.

JPMorgan Chase

The country's largest bank said it will raise wages for roughly 22,000 workers to between $15 and $18 per hour. JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) employees are also set to receive a $750 bonus this month.

JetBlue

The New York-based airline said on Jan. 4 that it would grant a $1,000 to each of its 21,000 crewmembers, with the exception of its CEO and other executives.

"We believe these tax changes will be positive for our company, and provide us the opportunity to do good things for our crewmembers, customers and shareholders," JetBlue President and CEO Robin Hayes said in a letter to company employees.

J.M. Smucker

J.M. Smucker Co. will offer one-time $1,000 bonuses to thousands of its employees, joining other major companies in rewarding employees due to savings tied to the recent passage of GOP-backed tax reform.

The Ohio-based company said last week that nearly 5,000 employees will receive bonuses. In addition, Smucker announced $1 million in charitable donations and $20 million in investments toward employee pension plans.

Lowe's

The retailer said it's giving more than 260,000 of its hourly employees bonuses of up to $1,000 as well as expanding its benefit plans to include adoption assistance and paid parental leave.

In addition, Lowe's said it plans to shorten its eligibility time for new employees who want to enroll in the company's health plans, giving them the option to sign up in the first 30 days of service.

McCormick

McCormick & Company (NYSE:MKC) will use a portion of its savings from tax reform to pay out $1,000 bonuses in May to eligible U.S. hourly employees and will accelerate wage increases, adding that the majority of hourly employees will benefit from the changes.

McCormick said in a statement that in addition to employee bonuses and wage increases, the company will use its tax benefits to make strategic investments to drive growth, return cash to shareholders and pay down debt.

MetLife

The New York-based insurance company (NYSE:MET) said it will increase its minimum wage to $15 per hour, enhance employee benefits and boost retirement plan contributions for all of its workers. MetLife also said it plans to create a new $10 million skills development fund to help its employees around the world upgrade their workplace skills.

Starbucks

Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) is giving all of its U.S.-based hourly and salaried workers an unspecified raise in April, in addition to a wage increase already dispersed earlier in the fiscal year, which began last October. Starbucks says it is investing roughly $120 million in the wage increases.

The company is also awarding workers stock grants worth a total of more than $100 million to those employed by the chain as of Jan. 1, 2018. Retail employees will receive at least a $500 grant, while store managers will receive grants of $2,000, the chain said.

Southwest Airlines

The Dallas-based airline is awarding a $1,000 cash bonus to all of its full-time and part-time employees. The bonuses will be distributed on Jan. 8. In addition, Southwest said it will donate $5 million toward charitable causes and partner with Boeing to modernize its fleet of planes.

We applaud Congress and the President for taking this action to pass legislation, which will result in meaningful corporate income tax reform for the transportation sector in general, and for Southwest Airlines, in particular, Southwest Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Gary Kelly said in a statement. We are excited about the savings and additional capital, which we intend to put to work in several formsto reward our hard-working employees, to reinvest in our business, to reward our shareholders, and to keep our costs and fares low for our Customers.

Tyson Foods

The Arkansas-based food company said it will award $1,000 bonuses to full-time employees and $500 to part-time employees who did not already receive an annual bonus. Tyson CEO Tom Hayes said in an email to employees that the companys total savings from tax reform will top $300 million, with leftover cash from the bonuses used to improve training and education, the Associated Press reported.

U-Haul

U-Haul said it will issue bonuses to its full-time and part-time employees, joining other corporations in rewarding employees after the passage of tax reform.

The Phoenix-based moving and storage company, which is a subsidiary of AMERCO, said full-time employees will receive a one-time bonus of $1,200 and part-time workers will receive a bonus of $500. The bonuses will be issued by the end of February and amount to more than $23 million in payments to nearly 29,000 team members, U-Haul said.

U.S. Bank

U.S. Bancorp, the parent company of U.S. Bank, is distributing $1,000 bonuses to roughly 60,000 of its employees and raising minimum wage for hourly workers to $15 per hour. The Minneapolis-based company is also donating $150 million to the U.S. Bank Foundation, upgrading health care packages for its employees and investing in better customer service capabilities.

"We believe that tax reform is positive for the U.S. economy because it provides an immediate opportunity to benefit our employees, our communities and our customers, said Andy Cecere, U.S. Bank's president and CEO. We are proud of our people and their commitment to our customers and communities. We felt it was important to reward their hard work and dedication with this special bonus, the minimum wage increase and the health care enhancements.

Verizon

The telecom giant will give nearly all of its employees 50 shares of restricted stock, worth roughly $53 each as of this week, a source with knowledge of the equity award confirmed to Fox News. The share prices will be set on Feb. 1.

Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT), the world's largest employer, boosted pay for U.S. hourly workers to $11 per hour. Additionally, the retailer is giving one-time $1,000 bonus payments to workers, depending on length of service. It is also extending maternity and parental benefits for workers. The changes take place in February.

The Walt Disney Co.

More than 125,000 Disney employees will receive $1,000 cash bonuses, the company announced on Jan. 23. The bonuses will be dispersed in two payments, one in March and another in September. In addition, Disney invested $50 million in an education program to cover tuition payments for hourly employees.

I am proud we are directing approximately $125 million to our cast members and employees across the country and making higher education more accessible with the launch of this new program, Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a statement. I have always believed that education is the key to opportunity; it opens doors and creates new possibilities. Matched with the $1,000 cash bonus, these initiatives will have both an immediate and long-term positive impact.

Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) said it would raise the minimum wage for its team members to $15 per hour and earmark $400 million for philanthropic initiatives in 2018. Some $100 million of that total will be committed to boosting small businesses, while $75 million will support neighborhood revitalization efforts.

We believe tax reform is good for our U.S. economy and are pleased to take these immediate steps to invest in our team members, communities, small businesses, and homeowners, said Wells Fargo President and CEO Tim Sloan. We look forward to identifying additional opportunities for Wells Fargo to invest, as we continue to execute our business strategies and provide long-term value to all our stakeholders.
The Latest on EU action against Poland (all times local):

10:00 p.m.

Poland's President Andrzej Duda has accused European Union leaders of "lying" by saying judicial changes in Poland threaten the rule of law and democratic standards.

Duda gave an interview to a private TV station on Wednesday, hours after the EU's executive commission launched a procedure to censure Poland.

Duda says there is a lot of "hypocrisy" in the EU's decision. He argued that the Polish government was inspired to overhaul the laws for appointing judges and other aspects of the judicial system by reviewing regulations in many EU countries and the United States.

The president insisted that the changes to the Supreme Court and a top judicial body that he signed into law Wednesday are constitutional and strengthen Poland's democracy.

With emotion in his voice, Duda said: "Many representative of European institutions are simply saying untruths about Poland. They are lying."

___

6:45 p.m.

Hungary's governing party says possible sanctions by the European Union against Poland are punishment for the anti-migration stand of Poland and other countries like Hungary.

Fidesz spokesman Balazs Hidveghi says that the party "rejects the unprecedented political pressure exercised by Brussels" and will defend Poland, which is facing EU censure because of its disputed judicial reforms.

Hungary and Poland are among the EU members in Eastern Europe facing legal challenges from the EU for refusing to temporarily take in asylum seekers as part of an EU relocation plan.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said that the large-scale influx of mainly Muslim migrants threatens European Christian culture and lifestyle.

Orban claims that Brussels is implementing a "plan" hatched by Hungarian-American billionaire and philanthropist George Soros to flood Europe with migrants, accusations strongly denied by Soros.

___

6:30 p.m.

Poland's president has made a passionate defense of two new laws on the judiciary that he says he has decided to sign despite the European Union's warning that they could lead to sanctions.

The European Commission, the guardian of EU law, said earlier Wednesday it was triggering the so-called Article 7 procedure against Poland because the two laws, combined with several others passed in the past two years, erode the separation of powers, a basic democratic principle.

The changes give the right-wing ruling party greater powers over the Supreme Court and a body that nominates judges.

President Andrzej Duda said the laws deepen democracy by making the courts and judges more accountable to regular citizens, calling them "unusually democratic."

He made no mention of the procedure that the EU triggered only hours earlier.

___

5:50 p.m.

Poland's president says he has decided to sign two laws that will put courts under more political control even though they are part of a review a concerned European Union is conducting.

President Andrzej Duda announced his approval for the laws on Wednesday, just hours after the EU's executive body triggered proceedings over Warsaw's overhaul of the justice system, of which the pending legislation was part.

The EU decision could lead to unprecedented sanctions on Poland as Brussels struggles to keep the recalcitrant member state on a democratic path.

Defying the warning, Duda says he thinks the bills that reached his desk are much improved from earlier drafts the EU had criticized.

___

5 p.m.

Poland's prime minister says the country is "devoted to the rule of law" after the European Union challenged that notion by triggering a procedure that could see Poland lose its EU voting rights.

Mateusz Morawiecki tweeted in reaction to the EU's move over Poland's overhaul of the justice system.

Morawiecki said in English: "Poland is as devoted to the rule of law as the rest of the EU. Current judiciary reform is deeply needed."

He added that "the dialogue between the (European) Commission and Warsaw needs to be both open and honest. I believe that Poland's sovereignty and the idea of United Europe can be reconciled."

Morawiecki will meet European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Jan. 9.

___

4:30 p.m.

Romania's president says the European Union, after triggering proceedings against Poland for its justice system overhaul, may do so against Romania as well due to its own legal system changes that have sparked widespread protests.

President Klaus Iohannis says Wednesday there was "an obvious risk" that the EU could activate article 7 against Romania," if current proposals become law.

He spoke after the EU's executive arm initiated proceedings against Poland over it contentious overhaul of its justice system, which could lead to unprecedented sanctions but will likely end as only a warning.

Romania's Parliament recently voted to ban public statements about investigations and trials and also to allow suspects to be present when witnesses are giving testimony. Critics say this could intimidate witnesses.

Lawmakers also voted to limit or ban video or audio recordings as evidence in trials. Iohannis can return the laws to Parliament.

Thousands of Romanians and judges have protested the proposals.

___

4:20 p.m.

A European Union official says the bloc's decision to trigger proceedings against Poland that could lead to unprecedented sanctions stems from what he says are the Polish government's policies that put "authorities above the law."

European Council President Donald Tusk says that the conservative government has "practically liquidated judicial independence in Poland."

For Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, the worst and "sad" thing for Poland has already taken place. He said it was the ruling Law and Justice party's policy that "in a conscious way placed Poland across and maybe even outside" the EU.

A spokeswoman for Poland's ruling party has called the EU's decision "political," and says it has nothing to do with the facts about the steps that Poland is taking.

___

3:05 p.m.

Hungary's deputy prime minister says the EU decision to launch proceedings against Poland is "unprecedented and astounding."

Zsolt Semjen, also head of Hungary's Christian Democrat party, said the EU's decision Wednesday "seriously damages Poland's sovereignty."

Semjen said Hungary would oppose the EU Commission's move "at every forum" and defend Poland from the "unjust political procedure."

Hungarian state news wire MTI reports that Semjen also reiterated Prime Minister Viktor Orban's vow to veto any EU efforts to sanction Poland because of its disputed reforms of the judiciary.

Semjen says it is "unacceptable that Brussels is putting pressure on sovereign member states and arbitrarily punishing democratically elected governments."

Over the past several years, Orban's government has also been a target of EU criticism because of a perceived weakening of democratic checks and balances.

___

2:40 p.m.

A spokeswoman for Poland's ruling party has called the European Union's decision to launch a censure procedure against Poland "political," and says it has nothing to do with the facts about the steps that Poland is taking.

Beata Mazurek of the ruling Law and Justice party insisted that the changes Poland is making to its justice system, and which EU leaders find undemocratic, are based on the situation in other EU member states.

She insisted that the EU Commission is deaf to such arguments and wants to sanction Poland for political reasons, including for its refusal to accept migrants.

Mazurek argued the procedure will hit Poles but will not affect the ruling party's policies of reorganizing the judiciary and other walks of life.

She also argued that no punitive sanctions can be triggered against Poland because they would need unanimity, which will not be achieved because of Hungary's opposition to them.

___

1:30 p.m.

Poland's justice minister says the European Union member will continue its overhaul of the justice system despite an unprecedented censure from EU leaders.

Zbigniew Ziobro, who co-authored the controversial reorganization of the justice system and whose powers are strengthened by it, said he received news that the EU had launched the procedure with "calm."

He said Poland needs to continue with it, and that Poland "will only be a significant EU member when it has a well-functioning justice system."

He insisted its provisions were drawn from justice systems of western EU members.

___

1:25 p.m.

The European Union's executive has triggered proceedings against Poland that could lead to sanctions over its recent decisions involving the judiciary.

The triggering of Article 7 was widely expected and EU Commissioner Frans Timmermans said that "we are doing this for Poland, for Polish citizens" so they can rely on a fully independent judiciary in their nation, which is a key underpinning of EU principles.

Timmermans said that despite the measure indicating that "the rule of law is under threat" he remained open to dialogue with Warsaw to remedy this abuse "of naked political power."

Polish justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro, however, insisted that despite the EU measure, Poland will continue to 'reform' its justice system.

___

1 p.m.

Poland's state news agency PAP says the European Commission, the guardian of European Union law, has taken an unprecedented step toward possibly imposing sanctions on Poland over judicial laws seen as violating Europe's basic democratic values.

Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro seemed to confirm the step on Wednesday, saying he received the decision with "calm" and insisting that Poland is a law-abiding country.

According to PAP, which did not identify its source, the Commission triggered what is formally known as Article 7, a procedure that could eventually lead to Poland losing its voting rights in the bloc.

Sometimes called the "nuclear option," Article 7 has never been triggered against a member state before. The step is seen as a sign of serious concern about the new judicial laws.
Congress is rushing to adjourn for Christmas, but it's looking increasingly likely they are going to leave plenty of unfinished work.

More than $80 billion in disaster aid, long-term funding for a widely popular, low-cost health insurance program for 9 million children, and protection against deportation for young immigrants in the country illegally are being kicked to next year.

Facing a midnight Friday deadline, a government shutdown appears likely to be averted. Temporary fixes are in the works for several issues, including a short-term solution for children's health care and a soon-to-expire surveillance program that gives the U.S. government authority to spy on the electronic communications of foreigners located outside the United States.

Here's a rundown on Washington's crunch of unfinished business:

___

HAPPENING NOW

Government funding. A shutdown at midnight Friday appears to be off the table, unless there is some genuine incompetence among congressional leaders. Instead, a temporary, government-wide funding bill would finance agencies through Jan. 19.

___

MOSTLY PUNTED

Private-sector VA care. A short-term fix for an expiring program that pays for veterans to seek care outside the Department of Veterans Affairs system appears likely. The VA Choice program arose from a 2014 scandal in which veterans were denied care.

Children's health. With chances for a long-term extension of the popular Children's Health Insurance Program fading, efforts were underway for a patch to ensure states facing shortfalls won't have to purge children from the program. It pays for health care for 9 million children from low-income families, and authorization for it expired on Oct. 1. States have been limping along on unused funds and a prior short-term fix, but the need for a long-term solution is becoming dire.

Foreign surveillance. A soon-to-expire foreign intelligence collection program appears likely to win a short-term extension. The surveillance program gives the U.S. government authority to spy on the electronic communications of foreigners located outside the United States, yielding intelligence that helps prevent terrorist plots, cyberattacks and other threats. Privacy advocates, including libertarian conservatives such as Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., say information from Americans communicating with these foreign targets is also being incidentally swept up and needs to be protected.

___

DELAYED UNTIL JANUARY

Budget deal. Both sides say they want a deal to scrap spending caps that limit money for both the military and domestic programs. Talks to increase these caps have proceeded behind the scenes, but no agreement has been reached. GOP defense hawks are becoming anxious, and negotiations will resume next year. A deal is a prerequisite for smooth completion of the more than $1.1 trillion budget for annual agency operations.

Immigration. A move by President Donald Trump to rescind an Obama-era executive order that protected immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children is threatening about 800,000. Many have known no other country except the U.S. Trump has given Congress until March to come up with a solution, but negotiations on the politically sensitive issue haven't produced results yet. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., says he's been promised a vote on it next month, and both sides want a solution, but the recent history of bipartisan efforts on immigrations isn't encouraging.

___

STILL UNCLEAR

Disaster aid. Lawmakers from hurricane-slammed states such as Texas and Florida and the territory of Puerto Rico are pressing for more than $80 billion for rebuilding efforts. But many Democrats consider that amount of funding insufficient for Puerto Rico, while conservatives in the House are blanching at the price tag. The disaster aid, which also includes money for states hard hit by wildfires, would advance separately from the stopgap spending bill, but it's not clear it can pass the House until Democrats are on board. And even if it passes the House, the package is likely to stall in the Senate.
In 10 to 15 years, robots will be able to write better computer code than even the most skilled coders today, according to former Pepsi president and Apple CEO John Sculley, a development that is representative of the growing role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workforce.

AI is foundational for almost everything that will be in the business world as we move further and further into the century, Sculley told FOX Business. The concept of work will look different in 10 or 20 years.

Artificial intelligence will have huge implications on the workforce, Sculley said, leading to an increased number of people working for themselves and the need for skilled workers to be able to retrain in order to take advantage of new job opportunities.

Experts surveyed by the Machine Intelligence Research Institute anticipate a 50% probability that all jobs will be able to be completed by robots in slightly more than 120 years. In the near-term, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) predicted that as many as 38% of U.S. jobs could be assumed by robots by 2030.

PwCs study suggested that it may not be a net negative for human laborers, however, as new forms of work would likely arise as a result. Consequently, some individuals incomes would grow, although those increases may not be evenly dispersed across the population, begging the need for some sort of government intervention, the researchers concluded.

Universal basic income (UBI), or a government stipend paid to individuals on an unconditional basis, has been floated as a potential remedy to counteract the consequences of AI. Sculley, however, thinks the U.S. will have to come up with something quite different than UBI, because trying to implement such a solution would likely be incredibly complex.

Instead of simply supplementing income, the business world is going to have to reimagine the way it conceptualilzes work, the former Apple CEO and co-founder of Zeta Interactive said.

There isnt going to be enough [work] to go around in [the] current construct, he said. What is work? Where does it get done? How does it get done? ... All these things are going to get challenged.

While 72% of Americans have expressed concern about robots stealing their jobs, with 25% describing themselves as extremely worried, Sculley believes the AI trend could actually present new growth opportunities for employees.

Theres been a lot of speculation  is AI something to be feared? I tend to be more optimistic having grown up in Silicon Valley during the era of the tool builders  Im a big believer that AI is actually going to enable people with better and better tools, he said.
Bitcoins recent success has put cryptocurrencies on the map, but they wouldnt exist without technology. Bitcoin is bought and sold because of Blockchain.

Blockchain CEO Peter Smith joined FOX Business to explain how it works.

Blockchain technology is just an underlying protocol that enables you to do high-value transfers in a low-trust environment, Smith told Stuart Varney on Varney & Co. And the way that it is used today in the market is for digital currencies like bitcoin and etherium predominantly.

Smith added even if bitcoin and etherium were to go away, Blockchain would still exist.

We support really every cryptocurrency and we really offer a platform for individuals and businesses to make use of digital currencies [As long as] people are finding value from, well be there and well be in the market, he said.

Blockchain is a privately held company backed by Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Lightspeed and Virgin. When asked about going public Smith replied: Someday I think. But I think right now the industry is pretty nascent. Weve got a lot of work to do and really a lot of customers to acquire before we go public.
Jubilant Republican lawmakers laid plans to join President Donald Trump at the White House for a victory celebration Wednesday as Congress moved one roll call away from approving the GOPs paramount priority, the most thorough reshaping of the countrys tax system since the 1980s.

Workers benefit. Wages go up. More jobs occur, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Wednesday on NBCs Today, describing what Republicans say will flow from a $1.5 trillion measure that affects everyones taxes but is dominated by breaks for business and higher earners. Democrats call the legislation a boon to the rich that leaves middle-class and working Americans behind.

If they think this bill is a good political argument for them, let them think that, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters.

The Senate used a post-midnight vote to approve the measure on a party-line 51-48 tally. Protesters interrupted with chants of, Kill the bill, dont kill us and Vice President Mike Pence repeatedly called for order. Upon passage, Republicans cheered, with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin among them.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., insisted Americans would respond positively to the tax bill.

If we cant sell this to the American people, we ought to go into another line of work, he said.

Trump planned a ceremony with GOP lawmakers Wednesday after final congressional approval.

In an eleventh-hour hiccup Tuesday, the Senate parliamentarian found that three minor provisions violated Senate rules, forcing lawmakers to strip them out.

Republicans had rammed the bill through the House 227-203 on Tuesday with all voting Democrats in opposition. Because of the language the Senate removed, the House had to revisit the measure Wednesday because each chamber must approve identical legislation before it can be signed into law.

Ryan, who has worked years toward the goal of revamping the tax code, gleefully pounded the gavel on Tuesdays House vote. GOP House members roared and applauded as they passed a package that will touch every American taxpayer and every corner of the U.S. economy, providing steep tax cuts for businesses and the wealthy, and more modest help for middle- and low-income families.

Despite Republican talk of spending discipline, the bill is projected to push the huge national debt ever higher.

Ryan said Wednesday the GOP is willing to risk running up deficits with the aim of getting a higher annual economic growth rate.

Trump is aching for a big political victory after 11 months of legislative failures and nonstarters. The president tweeted his congratulations to GOP leaders and to all great House Republicans who voted in favor of cutting your taxes!

Congressional Republicans, who faltered badly in trying to dismantle Barack Obamas Affordable Care Act, see passage of the tax bill as crucial to proving to Americans they can govern  and imperative for holding onto House and Senate majorities in next years midterm elections.

The proof will be in the paychecks, Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said during the Senates nighttime debate. This is real tax relief, and its needed.

Not so, said the top Senate Democrat as the long, late hours led to testy moments Tuesday night.

We believe you are messing up America, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer told Republicans, chiding them for not listening to his remarks.

The GOP has repeatedly argued the bill will spur economic growth as corporations, flush with cash, increase wages and hire more workers. But many voters in surveys see the legislation as a boost to the wealthy, such as Trump and his family, and a minor gain at best for the middle class.

Democrats mocked the Republicans contention that the bill will make taxes so simple that millions can file their returns on a postcard  an idea repeated often by the president.

What happened to the postcard? Were going to have to carry around a billboard for tax simplification, declared Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee.

Tax cuts for corporations would be permanent while the cuts for individuals would expire in 2026 to comply with Senate budget rules. The tax cuts would take effect in January, and workers would start to see changes in the amount of taxes withheld from their paychecks in February.

The bill would slash the corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. The top tax rate for well-off individuals would be lowered from 39.6 percent to 37 percent.

The legislation repeals an important part of the 2010 health care law  the requirement that all Americans carry health insurance or face a penalty  as the GOP looks to unravel the law it failed to repeal and replace this past summer. It also allows oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The $1,000-per-child tax credit doubles to $2,000, with up to $1,400 available in IRS refunds for families that owe little or no taxes.

Disgruntled Republican lawmakers from high-tax New York, New Jersey and California receded into the background as the tax train rolled. They oppose a new $10,000 limit on the deduction for state and local taxes.

The bill is projected to add $1.46 trillion to the nations debt over a decade. GOP lawmakers say they expect a future Congress to continue the tax cuts so they wont expire. That would drive up deficits even further.
A driver killed in a crash in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on July 10 was the victim of a faulty Takata airbag, Honda has confirmed.

It is the 20th known death caused by one of the defective devices globally, which can break apart and spray shrapnel at the occupants of a vehicle.

The vehicle was inspected on Tuesday by Honda and the National Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) after the incident came to their attention. The 2004 Civic was found to have had an airbag unit that was salvaged from a 2002 Civic.

Honda says the owners were sent several notices about the recall and urgent need to replace the older devices with new ones, but never did. The recall action covers 42 million vehicles across several brands in the United States. A NHTSA report issued in November found that approximately 65 percent of affected Hondas had been repaired, while the rates for other automakers was between 50 percent and 2 percent.

Honda said it was continuing to cooperate with the government on the investigation into the incident.

Messages were left Tuesday night seeking comment from a NHTSA spokeswoman and the Baton Rouge police.

The death comes about one month after a report on the Takata recalls shows that automakers have replaced only 43 percent of the faulty parts even though recalls have been under way for more than 15 years.

The report, issued by an independent monitor who is keeping tabs on the recalls, also shows that auto companies are only about halfway toward a Dec. 31 goal of 100 percent replacement of older and more dangerous inflators.

The slow completion rate comes even though NHTSA coordinated the recalls and phased them in two years ago. Before that, the automakers were obtaining parts and distributing them on their own. Normally automakers fix 75 percent of vehicles within 18 months after the recall is announced.

Completion rates vary wildly by automaker, according to NHTSA. Tesla was best at 78.6 percent, followed by Honda at 64.8 percent. Mercedes-Benz was the worst at 2.3 percent.

Honda, which was Takata's largest customer, has been going door-to-door trying to persuade owners to get their cars repaired. The company also is using Facebook in an effort to track down owners.

Frommer said the inflator from the 2002 Civic that was placed in the 2004 Civic in Baton Rouge likely was one of the most dangerous types made by Takata. Such inflators are in 2001-2003 Hondas. Tests have shown they have a 50 percent chance of blowing apart in a crash.

Owners can check to see if their cars have been recalled by going to https://www.nhtsa.gov/recalls and keying in their 17-digit vehicle identification number.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
The father of a Milwaukee teen who was severely injured when she was thrown from a stolen car she was riding in is sharing heartbreaking photos of her in a hospital bed to send a message to other parents and teens in the city, where joyriding in so-called stollies has become a huge problem in recent years.

"Laceration to her spleen, to her kidney. She has a fractured vertebrae in her neck, and she has three fractures in her pelvis area where they have to go in and do surgery," Howard Harris told Fox6 News.

The 15-year-old girl and two accomplices had reportedly carjacked the Lexus sedan outside a car wash on Sunday night, and were pursued by police who located the vehicle. The driver then lost control of the car and ran into a utility pole and two other vehicles, one with a mother and her two sons inside who were not injured.

Harris says the driver of the stolen car is in even worse shape than his daughter Qua'vana, however, and hes just thankful shes alive.

It could have been a whole lot worse. I could have been one of those parents that was coming to identify my daughter instead of sitting in the room and watching her recover, Harris said.

There are hundreds of carjackings reported in the city each year, and the average age of the perpetrators has dropped from 40 in 2003 to just 18 last year, TMJ4 News reported earlier this year, and the term stollies has become a common way to describe stolen cars.

Mark Mertens, an administrator with the Delinquency and Court Services Division of the Milwaukee County Health and Human Services Department, told the outlet that the young culprits are looking for status from their peers, looking for excitement, and so it seems to be a sort of a perfect storm for those youth.

Its a high-risk, high-intensity situation, so it reinforces the type of thrill seeking that is also a part of adolescence, Mertens added.

Harris said his daughter comes from a strong home and just made a foolish mistake.

"I'm not mad at the guy that was driving the car. I'm not mad at my daughter. I'm just mad at the situation," Harris said.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have reunited in London, and this time the couples public outing involved the queen.

On Wednesday, Prince Harry and Markle were snapped driving into Buckingham Palace for Queen Elizabeths annual pre-Christmas party, a traditional event for the royal family.

Joined at the event by Harrys immediate family  Prince William, Duchess Kate, Prince George and Princess Charlotte  this was the first time the American actress had the pleasure of dining with the entirety of the royal family.

More than 50 family members including Prince Charles, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Princess Eugenie (who was one of the first to arrive), Princess Beatrice and Zara, as well as Mike Tindall, were present for the traditional celebration.

William and Kate drove into Buckingham Palace with their children and the royal nanny, Maria Turin Borrallo, in the back seat, while Harry drove his fiancee to the event from their home at Kensington Palace in a Land Rover.

According to People, inside the palace, Meghan rubbed elbows with several members of the royal family, including the queens children. And although she had already met the queen on a few smaller occasions, this was said to be the first time Meghan was with the whole family for an event all at once.

Meghan is slowly starting to meet extended members of the royal family and has also been introduced to members of the royal household. People reported the queen recently took Meghan and her grandson to a private party for royal staffers at Windsor Castle.

In her BBC engagement interview with Harry, Meghan described meeting the queen as incredible."

To be able to meet her through [Harrys] lens, not just with his honor and respect for her as Monarch, but with the love he has for her as his grandmother. Shes an incredible woman, she said.

Harry even joked that not only did the queen approve of his fiancee, so did the queens beloved corgis.

The corgis took to [her] straight away . . . I spent the last 33 years being barked at; this one walks in, absolutely nothing!"

Following the queens annual Christmas lunch, Meghan is set to join the royal family at the queens estate in Sandringham on Christmas Day, an exclusive event that is only open to family and spouses.

Meghan broke tradition by being the first fiancee invited to attend the queens special Christmas Day event.
Nelly's rape accuser has filed a civil suit against the rapper claiming he sexually assaulted her and defamed her reputation.

Monique Greene accused Nelly of raping her on October 6, 2017 after his concert in a Seattle nightclub where she works.

Greene called 911 after the incident but the criminal case was dismissed after she allegedly did not cooperate with the investigation.

Greene claims that Nelly and his legal team set forth to discredit her and now she is suing.

Nelly's lawyer Scott Rosenblum said in a statement obtained by Fox News that in light of her lawsuit, "It comes as no surprise that Ms. Green [sic] filed a lawsuit against Nelly seeking money after we announced our intention to hold her accountable. We always believed her accusation was motivated by greed."

Rosenblum said Nelly intends to counter-sue.

Greene originally said the incident occurred after Nelly's show concluded. She claimed she was partying with Nelly and other members from his team.

According to TMZ, Nelly invited Greene to an after-party and she went into his SUV which brought them to his tour bus. Once on the tour bus, Greene sat on Nelly's bed when she alleges he began masturbating. Then, she claimed Nelly forced her to have intercourse. Greene said she said asked him to at least use a condom to try to stop him, she began crying and was thrown off the tour bus afterwards.
The influential Media Research Center, an independent press watchdog, is now calling on NBC News to hire an outside investigator to review its culture of sexual misconduct after NBC News Chairman Andy Lack has refused to do so despite a series of high-profile harassment controversies.

It is evident NBC has been breeding a culture of deviancy for decades and doing everything in its power to cover it up along the way. Two major on-air personalities and a top executive have already been fired from the network for sexual misconduct and now a fourth is being accused of the same, said MRC president Brent Bozell. NBCs history of covering for deviants creates suspicion.

Fox News has also learned that a group of anonymous women employed by NBC News who are frustrated with the network is reaching out to the only female director of NBC parent Comcast, asking her to intervene.

In recent weeks, the network has fired now-disgraced former Today star Matt Lauer, MSNBC admitted star Chris Matthews settled with a former producer who accused him of sexual harassment, fired Morning Joe regular Mark Halperin for sexual misconduct and suspended two contributors, Glenn Thrush and Harold Ford, Jr., after they were accused of harassment by women.

All this as Lack and his embattled deputy, Noah Oppenheim, have come under increasing fire for sitting on two explosive sex harassment stories: Ronan Farrows investigation of Harvey Weinstein this past fall, and the Access Hollywood tape of Donald Trump just over a year ago. Both stories were given to other premier news organizations after NBC refused to broadcast them.

Lack and Oppenheim have insisted on keeping what they call their review of the sex harassment scandals in house and under their thumb, despite their close personal ties to Lauer, who was fired amid salacious revelations about years of office misconduct with women. Oppenheim promised recently to punish anyone in the most severe way possible who knew about Lauers transgressions and didnt report them. But NBC has declined to comment on the investigations progress.

Now it turns out that Bozell may not be the only person who wants answers. A group of female NBC News employees has sent, or are sending, a letter to the lone woman on the Comcast Board of Directors demanding an independent investigation into who knew about Lauers sexual misconduct.

Communications behemoth Comcast, the parent company to NBC Universal, only has one woman on its 10-person board. Madeline S. Bell, the president and CEO of The Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, joined nine powerful men when she was added to the board in February 2016. Aside from Bell, the companys board is essentially packed with male bankers, lawyers and entrepreneurs.

We find it extremely suspect that two executives who are lifelong members of Matt Lauers very small boys club could possibly be objective in this matter  particularly as they are financially incentivized with millions of dollars in pay a year to maintain this status quo, says a draft of the letter, written by current employees who have asked to remain anonymous.

Bell declined multiple requests for confirmation if she has received the letter, saying through a representative that she did not want to speak to Fox News.

Lack and Oppenheim are clearly the two executives referenced in the letter and both men have been under intense pressure over how they have managed issues of sexual misconduct at NBC News. Lack is widely known to be personal friends with Lauer. According to Vanity Fair, the two men have vacationed together. It was Lack who promoted Lauer to Today co-host in 1997 and the two men remained close friends when Lack left NBC for several years. Oppenheim has spent most of his career at NBC, including a multi-year tour of duty as a senior producer on Today when he worked closely with Lauer. Prior to his promotion to NBC News president, he was the executive overseeing Today.

Lack, who oversees both NBC News and MSNBC, recently announced a series of internal steps, outlining his efforts to find out why this was able to happen, why it wasnt reported sooner, and what we can do to make employees feel more empowered to report unacceptable behavior. He also said he would share the results, but so far has revealed nothing.

NBC News did not respond to multiple requests for answers to the following questions: Has NBC started its internal investigation? Did any former or current employees cover for Lauer? Is NBC News aware that anonymous staffers are reaching out to the lone female on the Comcast board?

MSNBC also declined to comment when asked multiple times if more accusations have been made against Matthews since the incident in 1999 (which NBC has confirmed, saying Matthews was reprimanded for inappropriate comments to a female staffer when he worked for CNBC, which is also part of NBC Universal).

Several ethics and journalism experts have told Fox News in the last two weeks that NBC needs to bring in an independent, outside investigator to answer all these questions and to apply scrutiny to Lack and Oppenheim themselves.

Its hard to see how an internal investigation that reports to senior executives would be viewed as complete and transparent when the conduct, or lack of conduct, of senior executives, such as Andrew Lack, necessarily should be an issue, Cornell University law professor and Legal Insurrection founder William Jacobson said.

NBC and Comcast did not respond to numerous requests for comment. The Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Tom Hanks is the star of a new movie about the release of the top secret Pentagon Papers. Given the movies content and how it deals with the American media, Hanks says that hes not interested in screening the film at the Trump White House if asked.

When asked by The Hollywood Reporter if hed respond positively to a request to screen his new film, The Post, at the White House, Hanks cited the events in Charlottesville, the presidents recent meeting with Navajo veterans and the Trump administrations treatment of the media, which often calls most outlets fake news, as the reason for his reluctance.

I don't think I would. Because I think that at some point  look, I didn't think things were going to be this way last November. I would not have been able to imagine that we would be living in a country where neo-Nazis are doing torchlight parades in Charlottesville [Va.] and jokes about Pocahontas are being made in front of the Navajo code talkers. And individually we have to decide when we take to the ramparts, he said. You don't take to the ramparts necessarily right away, but you do have to start weighing things. You may think: You know what? I think now is the time. This is the moment where, in some ways, our personal choices are going to have to reflect our opinions. We have to start voting, actually, before the election. So, I would probably vote not to go.

The Post, directed by Steven Spielberg, depicts the story of the Washington Posts decision in the 1970s to publish the top secret Pentagon Papers, which held details about the United States involvement in the Vietnam War. The paper ultimately decided to publish the documents despite pressure from then-president Richard Nixon not to. Hanks plays the papers editor, Ben Bradlee.

While most may not have heard of a movie screening at the White House, its actually something that happens often for movies hoping to get a small boon to their publicity. The White House family theater is located in the East Wing of the address and is typically a place for the president and his or her family to watch films. Studios often provide the White House with screenings upon request.

Its worth noting that Donald Trump has not actually asked to screen The Post in the White House.
A new seafood restaurant in Humble, Texas, is trying to help those down on their luck.

Georgias Catfish Kitchen has been open less than a week, but the restaurant has already drummed up a lot of attention because of their hiring practices, which focuses on employing those impacted by Hurricane Harvey.

We need alternate cooks, alternate wait staff, alternate front desk staff. I really want to fill that niche. That's what I want to do," owner Anthony Scott said to KHOU of his specific hiring requirements.

FAMILIES AFFECTED BY MANCHESTER BOMBING TREATED TO DISNEYLAND PARIS TRIP

The southern restaurant, which dishes up all the essential down home southern treats, is hiring seven more employees for the new Humble location and three more for their Baytown, TX, location.

Scott has been part of the community for 17 years and wants to give back, especially after the devastating hurricane that inflicted catastrophic damage on the Houston-area.

I know the guy that cuts the yards, I know the police officers that patrol this area, the barbers that work here," he said to KHOU. Something about having a job gives you a sense of security, and I wanted to provide that.

A job is the foundation for rebuilding your life, and that's what I want to do," Scott continued.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

The community has expressed their support for Scott's decision.

I think it's a great idea, customer Robert Barker told KHOU, and helps each other in the community and the restaurant.
Ever the innovators, KFC Japan has introduced an all-new item that customers probably werent sure they even wanted in the first place.

KFC OPENS 'TINY KFC' RESTAURANT IN OREGON FOR ONE DAY ONLY

Following such inventions as chicken-flavored nail polish and finger sleeves to protect customers hands, KFC Japan has debuted a low-smell version of its signature fried chicken, according to Sora News 24.

The chains new Fried Chicken Home Type was reportedly created to cater specifically to Japanese train passengers who wish to enjoy KFCs chicken on their commute, but would rather refrain from disturbing their fellow riders with the smell of their deep-fried meal.

It will only be available through the end of the year, possibly to coincide with the Japanese trend of consuming KFC on Christmas Day  a practice that grew in popularity after a KFC Japan launched its successful Kentucky for Christmas marketing campaign in 1974.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

Taste-testers for Sora News 24 confirmed that the low-smell chicken has only a faint scent, which KFC Japan reportedly achieves through a special cooking process. However, the site claims it re-gains some of its signature scent when microwaved.

For now, the Fried Chicken Home Type is only available at one location in Tokyos Shinjuku Station, which is known as KFC Station. Two pieces of the chicken cost around 500 yen, or about $4.50.

MCDONALD'S, KFC, AND OREOS FROM UNOPENED PACKAGES: PRESIDENT TRUMP'S FAST FOOD HABITS REVEALED
It's a great time to be studying to be pilot. Just ask Madison Wolf who has only a year of training left at the Metro State University of Denver.

"I've seen even just in the few years that I've been at it they've been offering more and more money, Wolf said. They're just trying to get as many people as they can."

That's because a shortage of pilots is already hitting some sectors of the industry, mostly small regional airlines and ultra-low cost carriers.

Aviation analyst Mike Boyd says the major airlines are only just beginning to feel the pinch.

"There are restrictions, if you will, on how many pilots there are but it hasn't really hit home yet, Boyd said. The real hit's going to be in the next three to five years."

The Boeing Pilot Outlook predicts a need for 117,000 new pilots between 2017 and 2036 in North America alone. Worldwide, the demand for new pilots will be an astounding 637,000 during the same period.

"I see the pilot shortage myself," Wolf said. "We're so short on instructors sometimes. Every few months the regional airlines kind of come through and sweep out all the qualified instructors."

MSU's Kevin Kuhlmann, associate chair of the Aviation and Aerospace Science Department, said airlines are going to aviation schools for new hires because they have few other choices.

"The regional carriers have started to enter into agreements with Collegiate Aviation Programs and entice students to come on board during their academic career, Kuhlmann said. These kind of opportunities were not available five or more years ago."

Kuhlmann said the major airlines have plans to do the same  recruit directly from universities instead of hiring from regional airlines or the military, both of which are trying to keep their own pilots from leaving.

Scott Frank just graduated from MSU and has already been tapped for an opportunity with a major airline.

"I do have the United internship that's due to start in the spring. I can pretty much skip that regional area and just go straight to United," he said.

Many, like Boyd, blame Washington for the dearth of qualified pilots. They cite the 2009 crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407 near Buffalo, which the National Transportation Safety Board blamed, in part, on pilot error.

Congress then upped the flying hours pilots needed to qualify to fly commercially from 250 to 1,500.

"That sounds good," Boyd admits. "Politicians love it and they get all upset if you try to change it. But the fact is that wouldn't have prevented that crash because both the pilots (on the Colgan flight) had more than that."

The Air Line Pilots Association, International says the 1,500-hour rule must stay.

"We shouldn't be addressing a safety regulation to mitigate a commercial market problem," according to the associations president, Capt. Tim Canoll.

ALPA also denies there is a shortage of qualified pilots to begin with, citing Federal Aviation Administration statistics that show 9,520 new pilots received their Airline Transport Certificates in 2016, qualifying them to fly large aircrafts used by major airlines.

The union compares that number to another from Future & Active Pilot Advisors, which shows the major airlines hired only 4,113 new pilots in 2016.

"There are twice as many pilots as there are jobs," Canoll said. "Those having trouble attracting that pilot to the job are the ones who aren't providing a living wage, a good work-life balance, a career progression and a good balance in benefits."

Most agree that something needs to change.


A Florida Republican lawmaker told the Todd Starnes Radio Show that he stands by his fear that the nation could be at risk of a coup at the hands of special counsel Robert Mueller.

Whats most troubling (is) we see an action plan with Peter Strzok and his mistress to undermine the duly elected president, Rep. Matt Gaetz said. That is the definition of a coup and thats what we are fighting against.

Click here for a free subscription to Todds newsletter: a must-read for Conservatives!

He was referring to hundreds of scurrilous text messages between the demoted FBI agent and FBI lawyer Lisa Page. Of particular note was a text message that seemed to reference an insurance policy just in case Trump won the presidency.

I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andys office  that theres no way he gets elected  but Im afraid we cant take that risk. Its like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before youre 40, Strzok wrote.

Gaetz called on congressional Republicans to treat this sham of an investigation with the seriousness it deserves.

This is an organized effort to undermine the president of the United States for political purposes, he told the Todd Starnes Show.

Continue reading at ToddStarnes.com
Mrs. Claus is now a mister in a new gay-themed Christmas storybook for children that has CNN and the rest of the Mainstream Media all aflutter.

Santas Husband tells the story of a black Kris Kringle and his white husband living in holy matrimony at the North Pole.

Click here for a free subscription to Todds newsletter: a must-read for Conservatives!

I dont mean to curdle your egg nog, but the storybook was written for children as young as four-years-old.

Yes, good readers. Now you can tuck in your preschoolers on Christmas Eve and regale them with tales of Frosty and the Sugar Plum Fairy and a jolly old gay elf who slides down chimneys and stuffs holiday stockings.

As this charming book reminds us, Santa Claus can come in all shapes and colors and sizes  just like the children and families he visits all over the world each Christmas Eve, read a description of the book on Amazon.com.

Author Daniel Kibblesmith, a writer for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, told CNN he was inspired to write the book to by the annual tradition we have in this country of pretending that theres a giant war on Christmas, and that traditional Christmas is under attack.

Mr. Kibblesmith also took exception with the generally-held belief that Santa Claus is a white guy.

We were reading all of the news about Mall of America hiring a black Santa Claus last year and me and my now wife made a joke on Twitter that if we ever had a child they would only know about black Santa Claus and if they saw a white Santa Claus at the mall we would just explain Well, thats his husband,' he told CNN.

Mr. Kibblesmiths politically-correct version of Santa Claus is all the rage among Mainstream Media types  pretty much the same crowd that celebrates depictions of Jesus as a gay man.

The book is as true and humble a Christmas tale as any Santa enthusiast could want, declared Chicago Tribune writer Rex Huppke.

And that is the beauty of this holiday tale, he wrote. The fact that Santa Claus is black and gay has little bearing on the story. What its really about is accepting that every family sees Christmas in a different way.

Esquire.com heralded the book as war on Christmas trolling at its finest.

The all-ages book about a black, gay Santa takes on the Yuletide zealots with a warm smile, one headline screamed.

In a lot of ways, it was just a reaction to people who wanted to police Christmas and keep it all to themselves, without acknowledging the reality of how diverse the country is, and how diverse our traditions have becomenot just with people from different religions, but just with pop culture becoming one of the driving forces behind it, Mr. Kibblesmith told Esquire.

Mr. Kibblesmith does not offer any advice for parents on how to address questions that might arise from curious youngsters. Like, for example, why does Mrs. Claus have a beard?

Well, I suppose it couldve been worse. Santa couldve been married to a gender fluid, androgynous elf or a non-binary reindeer with a red nose.
As we approach the 71st anniversary of Frank Capras perennial Christmas classic Its A Wonderful Life, I think its time to reexamine the films heroes. The result might surprise you.

As a child, I assumed the hero was Jimmy Stewarts wholesome hometown character, George Bailey. The American Film Institute agreed, listing George as the ninth greatest screen hero of all time. After all, the whole point of the movie is to show us what life in Bedford Falls would be like without George.

We quickly discover it would be pretty grim  a dark and foreboding shantytown owned by an evil millionaire named Henry F. Potter, a miserly character played perfectly by Lionel Barrymore. The film revolves around George, the congenial and affable everyman who bravely stands up to Mr. Potters greed. The hero had to be George, or so I thought.

In my teens and twenties, when my faith became my own and I began studying more closely the mysterious and spiritual side of life, I thought the hero had to be Henry Travers character, Clarence Odbody, Angel Second Class.

When George, stressed over the missing $8,000 now owed to Mr. Potter, rages red-hot and hurls insults in every direction on Christmas Eve, its Mary who keeps her cool.

Its Clarence who saves George  so that George can continue to help save everybody else. Though theologically questionable, the thought of a guardian angel is comforting. Plus, its Christmas and angels play a significant part in the Yuletide story. For years, Clarence had my vote.

But now that Im in my forties, and as a husband and father, Ive come to realize that the biggest hero of the movie isnt George or Clarence.

The biggest hero is actually a heroine, Mary Hatch Bailey, played by Donna Reed. Shes Georges poised and unflappable wife and the mother of their four children, Janie, Pete, Tommy and Zuzu.

Heres why:

Mary is patient: George and Mary are about to head off on their honeymoon just as theres a run on the Bailey Building and Loan. George abruptly cancels the romantic trip to New York City and Bermuda, instead spending their savings to keep the business solvent. His bride doesnt complain. She pledged to be his wife for richer or poorer  and Mary quickly keeps her sacred vow.

Mary is long-suffering: The newlywed couple moves into a dilapidated and drafty old house. Does Mary want more? She never lets on but instead gets to work making the rickety house a home. Later, when George foregoes a big payout by declining an offer to sell the business to Mr. Potter, Mary doesnt criticize her husbands idealism. Instead, Mary throws herself into the care and nurturing of the children. Shes content.

Mary is responsible: With World War II raging and her husband deferred from military service due to his poor hearing, Mary eagerly volunteers to do her part for the country. Despite being a busy mother of four, we see Mary running a local branch of the USO.

Mary is a woman of prayer: When George, stressed over the missing $8,000 now owed to Mr. Potter, rages red-hot and hurls insults in every direction on Christmas Eve, its Mary who keeps her cool. After George storms out of the house, Mary urges the children to pray for their father. She prays, too, and she also gets to work.

Mary is a woman of quiet action: It would be easy to sulk and sour in the midst of the familys traumatic day, but after urging the children to pray, Mary immediately picks up the phone and rallies the help of their family and friends. When George returns with a new and improved outlook, Mary doesnt lace into him or even question where hes been. You have no idea what happened to me! George cries. To which a smiling Mary, about to welcome in an adoring and jubilant crowd of friends, responds, You have no idea whats happened.

At a time in history when popular culture is being reminded again about the importance of respecting women, the many positive attributes of Donna Reeds seven-decades-old character affirm anew what William Ross Wallace first wrote in 1865: The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.

Heroism manifests itself in many forms in the overlooked or understated people of this world, most especially spouses who sit outside the spotlight and mothers who sacrifice on a daily basis for their children.

Christmas is a wonderful time to remember that greatness often comes quietly, as it did in the form of a helpless baby to another quiet woman named Mary.
Editor's note: The following column first appeared in the Washington Times.

You know journalism is in a sorry state when a New York Times columnist makes news simply by admitting the truth that President Trumps leadership crushed ISIS.

Ross Douthat, a columnist at The New York Times, is being praised far and wide for noticing one of Mr. Trumps many victories. Defeating ISIS is not insignificant, but you would barely know it happened if you rely on the legacy media. An even more self-defeating liberal effort is to convince their base that major presidential accomplishments are meaningless.

As a conservative columnist at The Times, Mr. Douthats approach was similar to that of many previous Trumpskeptics  he peppered his commentary with a variety of reasons he thinks Mr. Trump is still an oafish boor. Sure, he defeated ISIS and the media ignored it, but its Mr. Trumps fault. Hes a scandalous, controversial president, and if he was just more normal, then the media wouldnt be so distracted.

Were told.

In his column, Mr. Douthat sets a tone at the start so no one should mistake his eventual admission as recognition of Mr. Trumps masterful foreign policy approach. He starts by blaming the president for media malpractice:

There is nothing more characteristic of the Trump era, with its fire hose of misinformation, scandal and hyperbole, than that America and its allies recently managed to win a war that just two years ago consumed headlines and dominated political debate and helped Donald Trump himself get elected president  and somehow nobody seemed to notice.

Mr. Douthat notes, [I]f you had told me in late 2016 that almost a year into the Trump era the caliphate would be all-but-beaten without something far worse happening in the Middle East, I would have been surprised and gratified.  So very provisionally, credit belongs where its due  to our soldiers and diplomats, yes, but to our president as well.

Provisionally. Sure.

Finally, halfway through a piece that blames the president and even suggests the success against ISIS was started by former president now political gadfly Barack Jayvee Team Obama, we get the admission about why media doesnt report on Mr. Trumps successes:

But this is also a press failure, a case where the media is not adequately reporting an important success because it does not fit into the narrative of Trumpian disaster in which our journalistic entities are all invested. I include myself in this indictment.

After admitting our journalistic entities are invested in the Trump disaster narrative, Mr. Douthat didnt notice the irony of his column, which tries to reinforce that very narrative in a remarkable display of cognitive dissonance.

On one hand he feels compelled to admit media reports only what it sees through its Hillary-colored glasses, and in the same breath begs the question by delivering the tired and usual media indictment of how the president is a bumbling court jester who stole the throne. Moreover, Mr. Trump is a scandal machine, forcing the media to miss all the real, important news.

Somehow missed is the fact that Trump Derangement Syndrome has driven many reporters and so-called journalists to see what they want to see; and if a story that makes the president look bad doesnt exist, they will make one up.

While Mr. Trump was crushing ISIS by allowing our military to do their job, the medias obsession with fake Trump narrative news prevailed. Viewers of legacy news were drowning in false stories such as former FBI Director James B. Comey preparing to tell Congress Mr. Trump was under investigation, and a CNN story that Anthony Scaramucci was under investigation for Russia ties. That little, contrived gem led to the resignation of three journalists.

Mr. Trump didnt create these, or so many other controversies  the media itself did.

Earlier this month, David Harsanyi at the Federalist provided a reminder of what else the medias Trump narrative created while the president was getting this nation back on her feet:

This week alone, four big scoops were run by major news organizations  written by top reporters and presumably churned through layers of scrupulous editing  that turned out to be completely wrong: Reuters, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, and others reported that the special counsels office had subpoenaed Donald Trumps records from Deutsche Bank. They werent, Mr. Harsanyi reported.

ABC reported that Trump had directed Michael Flynn to make contact with Russian officials before the election. He didnt (as far as we know). The New York Times ran a story that showed K.T. McFarland had acknowledged collusion. She didnt. Then CNN topped off the week by falsely reporting that the Trump campaign had been offered access to hacked Democratic National Committee emails before they were published, he noted.

What was actually happening? In addition to ISIS being crushed, a small sampling of the presidents accomplishment include the economy continuing to soar, 70 record stock market closes, 2.2 million new jobs since the election, the Hispanic unemployment rate dropping to a historic low 4.7 percent, tax cuts and the start of tax reform, and the slashing of job-killing and freedom suppressing regulations.

Mr. Trump doesnt cause controversies, the media does. Another Trump accomplishment? Exposing how far a corrupt media will go in an attempt to nullify an election. The good news is Mr. Trump, and his entire family, survived a year of media malpractice meant to destroy them. But that doesnt need to be reported, we already know.
President Donald Trump's initial request for a $44 billion disaster relief package for states affected by the likes of hurricanes and wildfires has ballooned into an $81 billion package introduced this week by House Republicans.

GOP leaders promised a vote this week on the measure, which would bring the total provided in response to this year's devastating round of hurricanes to more than $130 billion  exceeding the cost to taxpayers of 2005's Hurricane Katrina.

House Republicans increased the aid packages price tag after California lawmakers objected that areas damaged by wildfires had been overlooked and Democrats said Trumps previous aid total was inadequate, the Los Angeles Times reported.

After the Thomas fire sparked in early December, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., agreed to include more aid for California, the Times reported.

Two previous aid packages approved by Congress this year included a total of about $500 million for wildfire recovery, the newspaper noted.

This weeks emergency aid proposal would provide $26 billion for community development block grants, which would help Florida, Texas and the Caribbean rebuild, along with Western states recovering from wildfires.

There's funding for prevention of future flooding, highway repairs and help for small businesses. There's almost $28 billion for the government's chief disaster aid account, $4 billion of which could be used to help cash-strapped governments such as Puerto Rico's stay afloat.

"We have a commitment to our fellow citizens that are in the midst of major rebuilding efforts," said Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., who sponsored the measure. "They deserve our continued support, and we must provide the necessary resources for them to recover from these emergencies."

The package also would provide $2.6 billion for farm disasters. Florida lawmakers have said citrus crops in their state have been suffering.

"It's a big win for Florida's agriculture," said Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Fla.

Third emergency request

Last month, Trump requested $44 billion, his third emergency request since hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria slammed the Gulf Coast and Caribbean. The request sparked howls from lawmakers from hurricane-hit states.

"While it was not everything, it was further than the administration proposed," Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, said Monday.

The disaster measure is one of many items on Capitol Hill's unfinished agenda. It also promises to deliver votes for a plan by House GOP leaders to prevent a government shutdown at midnight Friday, but it's unclear whether the emergency relief would be paired with the stopgap spending bill or advance separately.

Earlier, the Senate's top Republican announced a lengthy wish list that he hopes to attach to a must-do stopgap spending bill this week, but there's no agreement with the chamber's Democrats and little time to waste.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is eyeing the measure as a shortcut to power several other items into law, including hurricane relief, a renewal of a children's health insurance program and funding to stabilize "Obamacare" insurance markets.

But top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer has other priorities, chiefly protection from deportation of immigrants commonly referred to as "Dreamers" and securing spending increases for domestic agencies to match huge budget increases sought by defense hawks for the Pentagon.

The spending bill would be the main item of congressional business remaining after Republicans wrap up action on their hard-fought tax bill. Lawmakers are eager to head home for the holidays.

Unfinished legislation

As Republicans controlling Congress hashed out their tax measure, however, a stack of unfinished legislation piled up. Negotiations have produced some progress, but many disagreements remain.

Perhaps most significantly, Democrats are demanding that Trump fulfill pledges to address the immigration issue, which involves protections for immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children and who have often known no other home than the U.S.

Republicans leaders don't want to take on the politically explosive issue of immigration this year but promise it will be taken care of next year. And GOP leaders have so far rejected Democratic demands that domestic agencies and foreign aid accounts receive spending increases at parity with the $60 billion to $70 billion or more increase that Republicans want to award the Department of Defense.

The complexity of the agenda  and Capitol Hill's spotty track record of bipartisan success in the Trump era  has spawned speculation that lawmakers will do the bare minimum to avert a shutdown and punt almost all the rest of the issues into the new year.

In the House, GOP leaders have announced a plan to pair a huge Pentagon funding bill with record spending increases with a stopgap spending measure called a continuing resolution that would keep the rest of the government running at current levels through Jan. 19. They have also added a GOP-drafted renewal of the popular Clinton-era Children's Health Insurance Program.

The House GOP plan has little chance of surviving in the Senate. Unlike the tax bill, which is advancing under special filibuster-proof procedures, Democratic votes are needed to pass the year-end measure.

"We need action on Dreamers, and we need our Republican colleagues to cooperate," Schumer said. "On these issues and more, there is a lot of work left to do."

And in the Senate, McConnell promised several additions of his own, including tens of billions of dollars in hurricane aid, renewal of a controversial overseas wiretapping program that's valuable in fighting terrorism, and a budget waiver that would make sure the tax bill doesn't trigger cuts to Medicare and other benefit programs under pay-as-you-go rules enacted when Democrats controlled Congress.

"Congress must do what is right for the American people and take action this week," McConnell said, urging his colleagues to "come together and help pass a funding agreement that fulfills our responsibilities to the nation."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Multiple politicians have been accused of sexual misconduct in 2017, leading to ethics investigations and resignations.

Here are the Republicans and Democrats who have been accused of sexual misconduct this year.

John Conyers

Nearly a half-dozen women who previously worked for Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., recently accused him of sexual misconduct. Many of the women claimed Conyers harassed or touched them inappropriately.

Conyers has denied the allegations. Still, many of his colleagues encouraged him to step down.

The representative, who was first elected in 1964, retired on Dec. 5. At the time of his retirement, Conyers endorsed his 27-year-old son, John Conyers III, to replace him. Its not yet clear if he plans on running for his fathers old seat.

Blake Farenthold

Republicans said Texas GOP Rep. Blake Farenthold won't seek re-election amid sexual harassment allegations.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told reporters on Dec. 14 that Farenthold was making the right decision to retire, citing the unacceptable behavior that has been alleged.



The news comes after the House Ethics Committee announced in early December that it was expanding an investigation into sexual harassment allegations against Farenthold.

The committee said it would investigate whether Farenthold sexually harassed a former member of his staff and retaliated against her for complaining. The committee also said the panel would review allegations that Farenthold made inappropriate statements to other members of his official staff.

Lauren Greene, a former communications director in the congressman's office, alleged in a 2014 federal lawsuit that she was sexually harassed and fired soon after complaining of a hostile work environment. Farenthold said when the case was settled in 2015 that he didn't engage in any wrongdoing.

Following the announcement, Farenthold said he was "relieved" that the Ethics Committee would look further into the case.

"Once all the facts are released, I'm confident this matter will once and for all be settled and resolved," Farenthold said. "I'm also pleased the Committee on Ethics recognizes, as per their statement, that I have cooperated fully with the committee's investigation and acknowledged a decision has been delayed because of difficulty obtaining live testimony from other witnesses.

"This investigation increases the transparency the public deserves and what I've wanted since the beginning."

Al Franken

At least eight different women have accused Democratic Minnesota Sen. Al Franken of sexual misconduct.

Many of the women allege that Franken forcibly kissed them, groped them and made unwanted sexual advances.

Franken, a comedian turned politician who has been in office since 2009, was first accused by Los Angeles radio anchor Leeann Tweeden, who claimed Franken forcibly kissed her during a 2006 USO tour.

After more women came forward, Franken faced a Senate Ethics Committee investigation, and many Democrats encouraged Franken to step down.

Franken, who has apologized for his actions, announced in early December that he will resign from the Senate "in the coming weeks." Fox News confirmed on Wednesday that the senator will resign on Jan. 2. He will be replaced by Minnesota Lt. Gov. Tina Smith the following day.

Trent Franks

Arizona Rep. Trent Franks stepped down in early December amid news reports that he allegedly pressed a former aide to carry his child. Franks reportedly offered her $5 million to act as a surrogate.

Franks first announced his resignation on Dec. 7, saying that he would formally step down in January. But after his wife was admitted to the hospital, his plans changed and his resignation was effective as of Dec. 8, 2017.

The representative was reportedly encouraged to step down by Speaker Paul Ryan, who learned of an House Ethics Committee investigation into his behavior.

Franks admitted that discussing surrogacy with two of his female staffers made certain individuals uncomfortable.

Ruben Kihuen

A former aide, identified only as Samantha, recently accused Nevada Rep. Ruben Kihuen, a first-term lawmaker, of repeatedly making sexual advances toward her during the 2016 congressional campaign.

On two occasions, she said, he touched her thighs without consent. She also claims that the representative propositioned her for dates and sex on multiple occasions despite her repeated rejections. Buzzfeed first reported the former aides allegations.

"I sincerely apologize for anything that I may have said or done that made her feel uncomfortable. I take this matter seriously as it is not indicative of who I am," Kihuen said in a statement following the report. "But I want to make it clear that I don't recall any of the circumstances she described."

A top House Democrat said Kihuen should resign amid the allegations. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she found Samanthas allegations to be convincing, the Associated Press reported. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico, who heads the Democrats campaign arm, has also called on Kihuen to resign.

On Dec. 14, a second woman came forward with allegations against Kihuen. The woman, who is currently unnamed, first told the Nevada Independent that the representative made inappropriate sexual advances toward her, like touching her thighs or buttocks, as well as sending her suggestive Facebook and text messages.

Shortly after the second woman came forward and one day after House Ethics Committee said it had opened an investigation into the harassment claims against him, Kihuen announced that he would not seek re-election.

"I want to state clearly again that I deny the allegations in question," Kihuen said in a statement.

"However, the allegations that have surfaced would be a distraction from a fair and thorough discussion of the issues in a reelection campaign. Therefore, it is in the best interests of my family and my constituents to complete my term in Congress and not seek re-election."

Roy Moore

Roy Moore, a former Alabama judge and the 2017 Republican candidate in the United States Senate Special election in Alabama, was accused of having inappropriate sexual relations with teenage girls while he was in his 30s, the Washington Post reported in a bombshell report about a month before the special election.

Since the report, additional women have come forward with sexual misconduct allegations.

Moore has vehemently denied the accusations, once calling them the definition of fake news.

After the allegations came to light, however, many Republicans called on him to step aside from the campaign. But others, like President Trump and Steve Bannon, continued to stand by Moore despite the accusations.

Moore lost the election to Doug Jones on Dec. 12.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Sen. Al Franken has finally set a date for his departure from Congress.

Fox News has learned that Frankens last day will be Jan. 2. Officials with his office say that Franken, D-Minn., plans to make official his resigation at that time. His appointed successor, Lt. Gov. Tina Smith, will be sworn in the next day.

The resignation is set to come nearly a month after Franken announced his plan to leave the Senate. Others in the Senate had called on him to bow out following a flurry of sexual misconduct allegations against him.

In his Dec. 7 resignation speech, Franken said only that he would be leaving in the coming weeks.

The two-term senator, first elected in 2008, initially intended to let a Senate ethics committee investigate the allegations against him. Then came a seventh claim against him, on Dec. 6, from a woman claiming that Franken tried to forcibly kiss her in 2006. And a chorus of female Democratic senators -- including New Yorks Kirsten Gillibrand and Californias Kamala Harris -- calling for his resignation, effectively forcing his departure.

"I'll be coming home."  Al Franken

Franken, in his speech, noted his original plan regarding an ethics investigation, which he thought would help. And he argued that some of the allegations against me are simply not true. Others, I remember very differently.

Franken also suggested there was something "ironic" about his leaving the Senate while President Donald Trump, "a man who has bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault," remains in office. The president has denied misconduct allegations.

Such statements by Franken fueled speculation that the senator, a former comedian, had been having second thoughts about his next steps, or that he was at least in no hurry to be run out of Washington, especially after members of both political parties have raised similar arguments.

When asked after his resignation speech what his post-resignation plans were, Frank simply replied, Ill be coming home.

Fox News Chad Pergram and Joseph Weber contributed to this report.
White House officials and top senators are preparing an immigration bill for January aimed at resolving the legal status of so-called "Dreamers."

The plan comes after President Donald Trump rescinded the Obama-era DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program in September. DACA offered a deportation reprieve to illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children.

"Dreamers" refers to participants in the DACA program. The name derives from the DREAM (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act, a federal proposal that offered protections similar to DACA but was not approved by Congress.

On Tuesday, White House chief of staff John Kelly met with nearly a dozen senators to discuss how much more of the U.S.-Mexico border Trump wants fenced in exchange for a deal on DACA, Politico reported.

Kelly reportedly said the administration will also present a list of border security and other policy measures as part of a broader immigration deal.

We couldnt finish this product, this bill, until we knew where the administration was, U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., told the Politico after Tuesday's meeting. And thats why this meeting was so important.

Both the administration and congressional Republicans insist that any deal on DACA would have to be paired with immigration measures. Democrats are broadly willing to compromise as long as the suggestions are not too hardline.

But the deal will likely have to wait until next year, despite pressure and even hunger strikes from progressive activists. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders former spokeswoman, Erika Andiola, and several other Dreamers were reportedly arrested after staging a sit-in at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumers office.

4 Dreamers arrested at NY @SenSchumer's office. ICE contacted. 5 days in jail on hunger strike at risk of deportation, demanding Schumer confirm votes to block CR w/out clean #DreamAct, Andiola tweeted.

"Our belief is that if this matter is not resolved this week  and it's not likely to be resolved  that come the omnibus and the caps, that we have another chance to finally come up with a bipartisan package of things to include" by mid-January, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told Politico. "The closer we get (to the March deadline), the more nervous I get, not to mention the way these young people feel. I'm sorry that it's taken this long."

Flake said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., will hold a vote by mid-January, just before the next possible deadline to fund the government.

Democrats suggested that they will not raise the immigration issue in December and risk a government shutdown, although several leading progressive voices in Congress, including U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., signaled they would withhold their votes for any funding measure that does not address the issue of DACA.
Andrew McCabe has long been under fire, specifically by Republicans who have voiced conflict-of-interest complaints over McCabe's ties to the Democratic Party. Now, a bombshell report released by the Justice Department, reveals the former FBI director misled investigators multiple times about his role in a news media leak, though McCabe denies the allegations.

"DOJ just issued the McCabe report - which is a total disaster," Trump said in an April 13 tweet. "He LIED! LIED! LIED! McCabe was totally controlled by Comey - McCabe is Comey!! No collusion, all made up by this den of thieves and lowlifes!"

McCabe says that when he believed his answers to the inspector general were misunderstood, he went back and tried to correct them. His lawyer says the inspector general unfairly tried to conclude its work before McCabe could retire with a full pension.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired McCabe on March 16 -- two days short of his retirement and receiving a full pension. The firing was followed by reports that McCabe kept personal memos detailing interactions with President Trump.

Spent very little time with Andrew McCabe, but he never took notes when he was with me, Trump tweeted on March 18. I dont believe he made memos except to help his own agenda, probably at a later date. Same with lying James Comey. Can we call them Fake Memos?

"[W]e concluded that McCabes decision to confirm the existence of the CF Investigation through an anonymously sourced quote, recounting the content of a phone call with a senior Department official in a manner designed to advance his personal interests at the expense of Department leadership, was clearly not within the public interest exception," the report says.

Here's what you need to know about McCabe's FBI career and the controversies -- including his wife's having received donations for a failed 2015 Senate run from a group tied to former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe -- that have followed.

What should I know about McCabes FBI career?

McCabe started at the FBI in 1996 as a special agent and has held leadership positions in the Counterterrorism Division, the National Security Branch and the Washington Field Office, the FBI said.

In July 2015, a press release announced that then-FBI Director James Comey had appointed McCabe associate deputy director. Comey named McCabe the bureaus deputy director in January 2016.

Andys 19 years of experience, combined with his vision, judgment and ability to communicate, make him a perfect fit for this job, Comey said in a statement at the time.

After Trump fired Comey, McCabe was acting director of the FBI from May 9, 2017, until Aug. 2, 2017. Trumps pick to replace Comey, Christopher Wray, was sworn in the same day.

What about his handling of the Clinton email probe?

The inspector general's office, which for more than a year investigated the FBI's handling of the Clinton email investigation, concluded that McCabe authorized FBI officials to speak with a journalist for an October 2016 story in The Wall Street Journal, according to The New York Times.

Though Trump has called McCabe biased, the story in question suggested that FBI officials wanted to more actively probe the Clinton Foundation but were discouraged from more aggressive steps by the Obama Justice Department.

The DOJ's April report found that McCabe authorized a leak to a Wall Street Journal reporter about the contents of a telephone call in August 2016.

"Among the purposes of the disclosure was to rebut a narrative that had been developing following a story in the WSJ on October 23, 2016, that questioned McCabes impartiality in overseeing FBI investigations involving [Clinton], and claimed that McCabe had ordered the termination of the [FBI's Clinton Foundation investigation] due to Department of Justice pressure," the report says.

In January, The Journal reported that McCabe knew of thousands of emails related to the Clinton investigation for at least a month before Comey told Congress about them.

The day he was fired, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement that "the FBI expects every employee to adhere to the highest standards of honesty, integrity, and accountability."

In response, McCabe said that his firing was a part of the Trump administration's "war on the FBI," adding that he was being singled out because of the "role I played, the actions I took, and the events I witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of James Comey."

What is the Andy text message?

FBI agent Peter Strzok was dismissed from Muellers Russia probe after being linked to a number of anti-Trump text messages, including those calling Trump a menace and a loathsome human.

An Aug. 15, 2016, text message Strzok sent to FBI lawyer Lisa Page apparently references an insurance policy against Trump winning the 2016 election.

I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andys office - that theres no way he gets elected - but Im afraid we cant take that risk, Strzok said in the text message. Its like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before youre 40.

The Andy mentioned in the text was possibly a reference to McCabe.

What about his wifes State Senate campaign?

McCabes wife, Dr. Jill McCabe, ran for a Virginia State Senate seat in 2015. The political action committee for then-Virginia Governor McAuliffe, a Democrat and Clinton ally, donated $467,500 to her campaign, while the Virginia Democratic party gave $207,788, The Journal reported. Andrew McCabe was associate deputy director of the FBI at the time.

McCabe played no role, attended no events, and did not participate in fundraising or support of any kind, the FBI told The Journal in a statement. Months after the completion of her campaign, then-Associate Deputy Director McCabe was promoted to Deputy, where, in that position, he assumed for the first time, an oversight role in the investigation into Secretary Clintons emails.

Trump has been critical of the donations.

Dr. McCabe later lost the race to her Republican opponent, incumbent Dick Black.

Fox News Jake Gibson, Barnini Chakraborty, Madeline Farber, Lukas Mikelionis, Joseph Weber and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe testified behind closed doors for nearly eight hours Tuesday on Capitol Hill, amid calls for his firing over allegations of conflicts of interest and anti-Trump political prejudice at the law enforcement bureau.

McCabe's testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, which had been rescheduled from last week, was the latest development in a controversy swirling around text messages exchanged between FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, who worked on Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.

McCabe was believed to be the "Andy" to whom Strzok and Page referred in their messages.

Ill be a little bit surprised if (McCabe is) still an employee of the FBI this time next week, U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., a member of the House panel, told Fox News several days ago.

Gowdy and other committee members were tight-lipped on the details of McCabes testimony on Tuesday, and most avoided speaking with reporters. But the committees ranking member,U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said McCabe has been a professional FBI agent and that he does not understand the calls of some to fire him.

Strzok was dismissed from Muellers Russia probe after being linked to a number of anti-Trump messages, including those calling Trump a menace and a loathsome human. But one particular text sent by the agent caused great concern and appeared to implicate McCabe.

I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andys office  that theres no way he gets elected  but Im afraid we cant take that risk, Strzok wrote Aug. 15, 2016. Its like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before youre 40.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said last week that the text was very troubling because it implied the agents had a plan to take action to make sure that Donald Trump does not get elected president of the United States at the highest levels of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Lawmakers may have also questioned McCabe on demoted DOJ official Bruce Ohr and his wife Nellie Ohr. The official had undisclosed meetings with Fusion GPS  the company that produced the infamous anti-Trump dossier containing salacious allegations about then-candidate Trump. Nellie Ohr worked at Fusion GPS on Trump-related issues.

Republican members of the committee were also expected to press McCabe on issues of conflict of interest and whether he should have recused himself from the Hillary Clinton email investigation. McCabes wife in 2015 ran for a state Senate seat in Virginia and received money from donors linked to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

McCabe was named the agencys deputy director in January 2016 by then-FBI Director James Comey. He briefly served as acting director of the FBI after Comey was fired by Trump in May.
Florida state Sen. Jack Latvala resigned Wednesday, one day after an investigation found credible evidence of sexual harassment as well as allegations that he offered to support legislation in exchange for sexual favors.

Latvala, a Republican who is also running for governor, denied wrongdoing even as he submitted his letter of resignation to Florida Senate President Joe Negron.

"I have never intentionally dishonored my family, my constituents or the Florida Senate," wrote Latvala, whose resignation takes effect Jan. 5.

Retired Judge Ronald Swanson, who carried out the investigation, recommended the Senate sanction Latvala when it began its annual session next month. Swanson added that some of Latvala's actions may have violated public corruption laws and the Florida Senate has referred those allegations to law enforcement.

Top Florida Republicans, including Gov. Rick Scott and Attorney General Pam Bondi, called on Latvala to resign after Swanson's report was made public.

Latvala's letter included parting shots at state GOP leaders.

"I have had enough," he wrote. "If this is the process our Party and Senate leadership desires, than I have no interest in continuing to serve with you."

The investigation into Latvala, 66, began after a complaint filed by Rachel Perrin Rogers, a top aide to Senate Majority Leader Wilton Simpson. Perrin Rogers accused Latvala of inappropriate touching in a Capitol elevator, at a private club and other occasions.

She said on many occasions, Latvala would comment on her appearance by saying she looked "hot" and would stare at her chest as she tried to talk about legislative issues with him.

Other witnesses said Latvala is known to make grunting or growling sounds aimed at woman, and a lobbyist said she was touched her in an unwelcome manner three or four times.

One former lobbyist said that Latvala would touch her inappropriately, including touching the outside of her bra and panties, every time they were alone in the office. She said he "intimated to her on multiple occasions, that if she engaged in sexual acts or allowed him to touch her body in a sexual manner he would support legislative items for which she was lobbying," Swanson wrote. That included explicit text messages sent to the woman.

The woman said she tolerated the unwanted touching for two years. "I felt it was something he felt entitled to," she said in the report.

A second independent report was released Wednesday detailing similar behavior. A law firm was hired to try to identify and interview six women who made anonymous accusations against Latvala in a Politico Florida article last month. The lawyers investigating the claims reported they didn't talk to the six women, one of whom was Perrin Rogers.

But the investigators said several people among the 54 detailed similar behavior outlined in Swanson's report, ranging from a habit of telling dirty jokes, inappropriate touching and sexual remarks to implications he would trade support for legislation in exchange for sexual favors.

"Senator Latvala made the right decision," Negron said in a statement released by his office. "At all times during this investigation the Senate has afforded all parties the full and fair opportunity to be heard. The Florida Senate has zero tolerance for sexual harassment or misconduct of any kind against any employee or visitor."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The House gave the final stamp of approval Wednesday to a sweeping tax reform package, handing President Trump his first major legislative victory and most Americans a tax cut starting next year.

With a 224-201 House vote, Congress sent the $1.5 trillion package to Trumps desk. The biggest rewrite of the federal tax code since the Reagan administration will usher in steep rate cuts for American companies, double the deduction millions of families claim on their annual returns and make a host of other changes taking effect in a matter of weeks.

During a celebration at the White House with lawmakers on Wednesday afternoon, Trump called it the largest tax cut in the history of our country and singled out House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for praise.

Paul Ryan and Mitch, it was a little team, Trump said. We just got together and we worked very hard, didn't we?

While the bill already earned House approval earlier Tuesday, the Senate had to ship it back for a final vote after stripping out three provisions that violated chamber rules, in a last-minute glitch. Twelve Republicans once again defected Wednesday to vote with Democrats in opposition.

Though Democrats uniformly opposed the package, the White House and GOP leaders were triumphant, vowing that the bills popularity would improve once taxpayers see the effect.

WHAT THE TAX BILL MEANS FOR YOU

"We made a promise to the American people that we would do this if they gave us the opportunity," Ryan, R-Wis., told "The Story with Martha MacCallum." "We made a promise that if elected, this is what we would do. Were keeping our promise."

The Tax Policy Center estimates that 80 percent of taxpayers will see a tax cut next year.

Democrats sustained their vocal opposition to the bill  theyve dubbed it a scam benefiting the wealthy  into the final moments. Protesters interrupted votes in both chambers. During the Senate vote overnight, they chanted "kill the bill, don't kill us," as Vice President Pence repeatedly called for order.

Pence did not have to serve as a tie-breaker, with the bill passing the Senate on a 51-48 vote; only Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who is recovering from brain cancer treatment, was not present for the vote.

Pence told Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle" he was surprised that no Democrats in either chamber of Congress voted for the bill.

"I watched President Trump bring Democrat members of the House and the Senate to the White House for meetings, for meals, to sit down, to say 'we want to work with you,'" said Pence. "When you have the majority of the Democrats in the Senate sign a letter last summer taking themselves completely out of the equation, that's a disappointment not just to our administration, but to the American people."

SENATE DEMS TO REPUBLICANS: NO TAX CUTS FOR THE WEALTHY

The passage of the bill, just before the end of the year and the looming congressional recess, gives Trump a long-sought Capitol Hill victory, after repeated attempts to overhaul ObamaCare failed in the face of internal Republican divisions and unified Democratic opposition. The tax bill does include one major rollback of the Affordable Care Act, repealing the individual mandate requiring Americans to buy health insurance.

The changes to the tax system are more sweeping.

The final bill  a combination of previously passed House and Senate legislation  would slash the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. It would double the standard deduction used by about two-thirds of U.S. households, to $24,000 for married couples. And the $1,000-per-child tax credit would double to $2,000, with up to $1,400 available in IRS refunds for families who owe little or no taxes.

The corporate tax cut would be permanent, while the tax cuts for individuals would expire in 2026.

The Trump administration presumes that doubling the standard deduction would lead to even more families claiming it.

But those who itemize would lose some deductions.

The bill would set a new $10,000 cap on the deduction that millions use in connection with state and local income, property and sales taxes. It also would limit the mortgage interest deduction to loans up to $750,000, down from $1 million.

And it imposes a low one-time tax on companies' overseas earnings, nudging them to return money they've stashed abroad.

At the same time, the bill would lower the top rate for individual and married filers from 39.6 percent to 37 percent. Further, it would set a deduction for pass-through business income at 20 percent. And it would curb the so-called estate tax.

These provisions and others fueled Democratic complaints that the legislation was skewed to favor corporations and the wealthy  while expanding the deficit.

On the House floor Tuesday, Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., mocked Republicans who say passage of the bill would be a Christmas gift to the American people.

I have never seen such intellectual dishonesty, Sewell said Tuesday afternoon. Its more like the Grinch that stole Christmas.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., spoke in front of a giant sign that read, #GOPTAXSCAM.

The bill would bring average initial tax cuts for Americans across all income lines, but by 2027, it would boost average levies for everyone earning up to $75,000, which includes most taxpayers, Congress' nonpartisan tax analysts estimated Monday.

A separate study by the Tax Policy Center, a private nonpartisan group, found that individual taxes would be reduced on average next year by $1,600. That ranged, on average, from $60 for people earning below $25,000 to $7,640 for those making above $149,000. Those in the top 1 percent, earning over $733,000, would see average tax cuts of $51,140.

Fox News Alex Pappas and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A surprise school visit by Ivanka Trump drew ire from some parents of a Connecticut academy, with one who yanked their child from class to protest the first daughter and White House advisers father, President Trump.

"This should have been brought to our attention, although I do understand security reasons. I think we should have had the choice to send our child to school or keep them home, Karey Fitzgerald, a Norwalk Early College Academy parent, told News 12 Connecticut Monday following Ivanka Trump's appearance.

Only one parent withdrew their student for the school day Monday after hearing of the visit, Brenda Williams, Norwalk Public Schools Chief Communications Officer told Fox News on Wednesday. With the exception of those who were directly participating, the visit was kept confidential for security reasons, and parents understood that.

Trump, however, seemed unaware or impervious to the complaints.

It was an honor to meet so many bright and talented students! the first daughter wrote on social media following the visit with students and faculty at Norwalk Early College Academy, as she continues her tour promoting STEM and computer science education in schools across the nation.

Ms. Trump was the guest of IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, who was at the school to talk with students at Norwalk Early College Academy, Williams said. Students discussed their experiences in taking college classes while in high school, the benefits of their IBM internships and workplace experiences, and their plans for the future.

Williams added that this was an opportunity for the school to showcase their innovative educational program.

IBM developed the academic model used in the NECA program, which allows students to simultaneously earn a high school diploma and associate degree in either software engineering or mobile programming, while developing technical skills.

PTECH schools equip high school students with skills training in #STEM and Computer Science, enabling them to thrive in our modern economy, Trump wrote.

Prior to the visit, Trump appeared on Fox & Friends touting the historic tax reform the White House hopes to sign before Christmas.
A bronze statue of former President Jimmy Carter in South Dakota was discovered vandalized on Tuesday, officials said.

The face of the statue, located in downtown Rapid City, SD, was spray-painted black, KOTA-TV reported.

JIMMY CARTER: MEDIA TOUGHER ON TRUMP THAN ANY OTHER PRESIDENT IN MEMORY

Dallerie Davis, the co-founder of the City of Presidents Foundation, told KOTA-TV she did not believe the graffiti was a hate crime. She said the statue would be easily fixed due to its durability.

"Actually, it's really quick and easy. Once we know, and the public is very good at letting us know right away when something is wrong, Davis said. We contact a gentleman, Grant Standard, who has worked with the foundry and is very used to working with bronze. And, so within the very few minutes he can have the paint removed.

KOTA-TV reported the statue had been fixed as of Tuesday.
EXCLUSIVE: Congressional investigators tell Fox News that Tuesdays seven-hour interrogation of Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe contained numerous conflicts with the testimony of previous witnesses, prompting the Republican majority staff of the House Intelligence Committee to decide to issue fresh subpoenas next week on Justice Department and FBI personnel.

While HPSCI staff would not confirm who will be summoned for testimony, all indications point to demoted DOJ official Bruce G. Ohr and FBI General Counsel James A. Baker, who accompanied McCabe, along with other lawyers, to Tuesdays HPSCI session.

The issuance of a subpoena against the Justice Departments top lawyer could provoke a new constitutional clash between the two branches, even worse than the months-long tug of war over documents and witnesses that has already led House Speaker Paul Ryan to accuse DOJ and FBI of stonewalling and HPSCI Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., to threaten contempt-of-Congress citations against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Its hard to know whos telling us the truth, said one House investigator after McCabes questioning.

Fox News is told that several lawmakers participated in the questioning of McCabe, led chiefly by Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C.

Sources close to the investigation say that McCabe was a friendly witness to the Democrats in the room, who are said to have pressed the deputy director, without success, to help them build a case against President Trump for obstruction of justice in the Russia-collusion probe. If he could have, he would have, said one participant in the questioning.

Investigators say McCabe recounted to the panel how hard the FBI had worked to verify the contents of the anti-Trump dossier and stood by its credibility. But when pressed to identify what in the salacious document the bureau had actually corroborated, the sources said, McCabe cited only the fact that Trump campaign adviser Carter Page had traveled to Moscow. Beyond that, investigators said, McCabe could not even say that the bureau had verified the dossiers allegations about the specific meetings Page supposedly held in Moscow.

The sources said that when asked when he learned that the dossier had been funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, McCabe claimed he could not recall  despite the reported existence of documents with McCabes own signature on them establishing his knowledge of the dossiers financing and provenance.

The decision by HPSCI staff to subpoena Ohr comes as he is set to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is conducting its own probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Until earlier this month, when Fox News began investigating him, Ohr held two titles at DOJ: associate deputy attorney general, a post that placed him four doors down from his boss, Rosenstein; and director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF), a program described by the department as the centerpiece of the attorney generals drug strategy.

Ohr will retain his OCDETF title but was stripped of his higher post and ousted from his office on the fourth floor of Main Justice. Department officials confirmed that Ohr had withheld from superiors his secret meetings in 2016 with Christopher Steele, the former British spy who authored the dossier with input from Russian sources; and with Glenn Simpson, the founder of Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm that hired Steele with funds supplied by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

Subsequently, Fox News disclosed that Ohrs wife Nellie, an academic expert on Russia, had worked for Fusion GPS through the summer and fall of 2016.

Former FBI Director James Comey, testifying before the House in March, described the dossier as a compendium of salacious and unverified allegations against then-candidate Donald Trump and his associates. The Nunes panel has spent much of this year investigating whether DOJ, under then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch, used the dossier to justify a foreign surveillance warrant against Page, a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign.

DOJ and FBI say they have cooperated extensively with Nunes and his team, including the provision of several hundred pages of classified documents relating to the dossier. The DOJ has also made McCabe available to the House Judiciary Committee for a closed-door interview on Thursday.

The Justice Department and FBI declined to comment for this report.
The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee delivered a dramatic speech Wednesday on the floor of the Senate to warn President Trump of immediate and significant consequences if he takes any action to remove Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

I believe it is up to every member of this institution, Republican or Democrat, to make a clear and unambiguous statement that any attempt by this president to remove Special Counsel Mueller from his position or to pardon key witnesses in any effort to shield them from accountability or shut down the investigation would be a gross abuse of power and a flagrant violation of executive branch responsibilities and authorities, Virginia Sen. Mark Warner said.

Both Trump and his lawyer have publicly said the president wont fire Mueller, who is leading an investigation into Russias alleged meddling in the 2016 campaign.

But Warner said hes still worried a pink slip could be on the way, citing troubling signs.

GOP SENATOR DEMANDS INFORMATION ABOUT HOW MUELLER OBTAINED TRUMP TRANSITION RECORDS

In recent days, the president said he is not considering removing Special Counsel Mueller. But the president's track record on this front is a source of concern. I'm certain that most of my colleagues believed that he wouldn't fire Jim Comey either, Warner said, referring to the former FBI director ousted by Trump.

Warner said if Trump shut down the Mueller investigation, it would have the potential to provoke a constitutional crisis.

Congress must make clear to the president that firing the special counsel or interfering with his investigation by issuing pardons of essential witnesses is unacceptable and would have immediate and significant consequences, he said.

Trump said Sunday he had no plans to fire Mueller, dispelling a "rumor" that he intended to get rid of the special counsel in an apparent attempt to end the Justice Departments investigation.

Mueller was appointed earlier this year as a Justice Department special counsel to determine whether Trump associates colluded with Moscow to influence the outcome of the 2016 White House race.

Mueller will not be fired, Trump's legal counsel Ty Cobb told Fox News on Saturday.

During his floor speech, Warner also defended the officials on Muellers team.

The charges that some have made that somehow Democratic political bias have crept into this investigation or baseless, given the makeup of the leadership team, Warner said.

One Mueller aide, Peter Strzok, a former FBI official, was removed from the investigation after a number of anti-Trump texts were discovered on his phone.

In recent weeks, much has been made of some political opinions expressed by an FBI agent during the election last year, Warner said. This line of argument conveniently ignores the fact that as soon as Mr. Mueller learned about these comments he immediately removed that agent in question from the investigation.

He added, If anything this incident only adds to Mr. Mueller's credibility as a fair and independent investigator.

Fox News Joseph Weber contributed to this report.
The U.S. Senate passed the most sweeping rewrite of the nation's tax laws in more than three decades early Wednesday, all but ensuring the bill will soon become law.

The vote also likely helped hand President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans a major year-end legislative triumph.

The final vote, shortly before 1 a.m. EST, was 51-48, with no Democrats voting in favor of the bill and all Republicans supporting it.

Only U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who had announced his support for the bill earlier this month, was not present for the vote. His office said he looks forward to returning to Washington in January" as he recovers from brain cancer treatment.

The Senate's vote meant that Vice President Mike Pence, who had postponed a trip to the Middle East to be at the Capitol if needed, was not required to break a tie vote.

During the vote, protesters interrupted with chants of "kill the bill, don't kill us," and Pence repeatedly called for order.

Before Trump can sign the tax overhaul into law, the House of Representatives must re-vote because of procedural flaws in the chamber's vote earlier Tuesday.

The office of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said House members would reconsider the Senate's bill Wednesday morning and send it to President Trump for his signature.

The House voted 227-203 in favor of the tax bill Tuesday afternoon, but the package ran into trouble in the Senate because of two provisions that Democrats said ran afoul of the Senate's strict budget reconciliation rules.

In order to avoid a filibuster according to Senate rules, the tax overhaul must directly address fiscal issues, not policy matters. Matters that are considered extraneous to budget are subject to potential filibustering, meaning they would require 60 votes for passage, instead of a 51-vote majority.

Senate Democrats, including Vermont independent Bernie Sanders and Oregon's Ron Wyden, specifically objected to two provisions in the House bill: one providing for the use of 529 savings accounts for home schooling expenses; and the other establishing criteria to determine whether endowments of private universities are subject to the legislations new excise tax.

Additionally, Democrats objected to the name of the House bill.

The Senate parliamentarian reportedly sided with Democrats, forcing the Senate to remove those provisions before the vote.

Top Democrats charged that the procedural snafu was a sign that Republicans were rushing the legislation through Congress.

The House revote is the latest evidence of just how shoddily written the GOP tax scam really is," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement.

The complex legislation, weeks in the making, scales back the popular deduction for state and local taxes, bad news for Americans in some of the wealthiest suburbs of New York, New Jersey and California.

The bill preserves the deduction for medical expenses, rebuffing an effort by House Republicans to eliminate it.

It also provides steep tax cuts for businesses and wealthy families, and more modest reductions for low- and middle-income families.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Nearly a month after he announced plans to leave Congress due to sexual misconduct allegations that began in November, Sen. Al Franken officially resigned on Jan. 2.

Aides to the senator told Fox News that Franken has provided his letter of resignation to Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton.

Franken will be replaced by Lt. Gov Tina Smith, who is expected to be sworn in on Wednesday morning.

Franken, who has been in office since 2009, was plagued by multiple accusations of sexual misconduct and faced a Senate Ethics Committee investigation. The allegations began after Los Angeles radio anchor Leeann Tweeden accused him of forcibly kissing her during a 2006 USO tour.

Dozens of his Democratic colleagues called for him to step aside after the allegations came to light.



Below is a timeline of key moments in the senators political career.

Prior to 2008

Before running for Senate, Franken was a comedy writer, actor, author and radio talk show host for 37 years, according to his Senate website. Frankens comedy career included time as a writer and performer for NBCs Saturday Night Live.

2008

After being tapped by the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in June of 2008, Franken was elected to represent Minnesota in the Senate later that year. After a protracted recount, his opponent, Republican Norm Coleman, finally conceded to Franken -- officially ending one of the longest Senate races in U.S. history, Politico reported at the time.

AL FRANKEN DRAGS OUT SENATE DEPARTURE, ONLY MENTIONS 'TRANSITION' AFTER REPLACEMENT NAMED

2013

Franken was the primary sponsor behind a bill that allows the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa in the State of Minnesota to lease or transfer certain land. The bill was enacted later that year.

2014

Franken was re-elected to his Senate seat in 2014, easily defeating his Republican challenger, Mike McFadden.

Later that year, Franken endorsed Democrat Hillary Clinton for president during an interview on MSNBC.

2015

Franken sponsored the Comprehensive Justice and Mental Health Act of 2015, which was enacted that same year. The law increases public safety by facilitating collaboration among the criminal justice, juvenile justice, veterans treatment services, mental health treatment, and substance abuse system, according to the bill.

2016

Franken visited nine different states in 2016 as part of an effort to help Clinton get elected to the White House. He traveled to New Hampshire, Wisconsin and California, where he campaigned and raised money for the Democratic presidential candidate.

Franken first met the Clintons in 1993. Hillary Clinton supported Franken in his 2008 run for Senate.

Also in 2016, Franken was the sponsor behind a bill called the Adding Zika Virus to the FDA Priority Review Voucher Program Act. The bill, which was later enacted into law, added the Zika virus to the list of tropical diseases under the priority review voucher program.

Jan. 2017

Franken questioned Betsy DeVos, President Trumps pick for secretary of education, on several issues during her confirmation hearing. Franken later said that DeVos failed to adequately answer even the most basic questions about education policy.

Oct. 2017

Franken and Attorney General Jeff Sessions got into a heated exchange during Sessions Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Franken pressed Sessions about his meetings with Russian officials during the 2016 presidential campaign.

AL FRANKEN ACCUSED OF KISSING, GROPING LA TV HOST WITHOUT CONSENT

Nov. 16, 2017

Radio personality Leeann Tweeden alleged in a post on the KABC website that Franken kissed and groped her without her consent during a USO tour in 2006. Tweeden said that Franken insisted on practicing a kiss for a skit.

We did the line leading up to the kiss and then he came at me, put his hand on the back of my head, mashed his lips against mine and aggressively stuck his tongue in my mouth, she said, adding that she pushed him away.

Tweeden said that in another incident, she fell asleep during a flight and later looked at a CD of photographs. Her post included an image of Franken with his hands over her chest.

I couldnt believe it, she wrote. He groped me, without my consent, while I was asleep.

"I certainly don't remember the rehearsal for the skit in the same way, but I send my sincerest apologies to Leeann," Franken said in an initial statement. "As to the photo, it was clearly intended to be funny but wasnt. I shouldnt have done it.

Franken apologized to Tweeden again in a longer, second statement. In it, he said that the photo was completely inappropriate and called for an ethics investigation.

Nov. 23, 2017

Franken apologized again, this time saying that he crossed the line.

Im a warm person; I hug people, Franken said in a statement at the time. Ive learned from recent stories that in some of these encounters, I crossed a line for some women -- and I know that any number is too many.

I feel terribly that I've made some women feel badly, he added, and for that I am so sorry, and I want to make sure that never happens again.

The statement came after he had been accused of groping by a total of four women.

Ultimately, eight women in all would accuse Franken of sexual misconduct.

Nov. 30, 2017

The Senate Ethics Committee said in a statement that it had "opened a preliminary inquiry into Senator Frankens alleged misconduct."

Dec. 6, 2017

Multiple Democratic senators call for Franken to step down.

Dec. 7, 2017

Franken said he would step down "in the coming weeks."

Dec. 13, 2017

Minnesota's Lt. Gov. Tina Smith was appointed by Gov. Mark Dayton to replace Franken.

Tina Smith will make an excellent United States Senator, the outgoing senator said in a statement. Franken also said that he is looking foward to working with her on ensuring a speedy and seamless transition.

Dec. 20, 2017

Fox News confirmed that Franken is going to resign Jan. 2.

Jan. 2, 2018

Franken formally hands in his letter of resignation to Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton.

Fox News' Chad Pergram and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Tina Smith was officially sworn into the U.S. Senate Wednesday afternoon by Vice President Mike Pence.

The former Minnesota lieutenant governor was selected to take over Al Frankens Senate seat in December after the lawmaker resigned over various allegations of sexual harassment.

When he appointed Smith, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton, said she is "extremely intelligent, quick to learn and always open to hearing other views."

Smith was escorted by former Vice President Walter Mondale, also a former Minnesota senator, on Wednesday.

What is Smiths political background?

Like Dayton and Franken, Smith, 59, is a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

Smith has been a longtime adviser to Dayton, serving as his chief of staff before becoming lieutenant governor.

She has also worked on multiple campaigns, including managing Walter Mondales unsuccessful 2002 Senate run as well as his son Ted Mondales 1998 gubernatorial campaign  which was also unsuccessful. She was the chief of staff for Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak before joining Dayton.

It was thought that she may have run for governor earlier this year to replace Dayton in 2018 but ultimately passed on the gubernatorial bid.

Lawrence Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, said that Smith doesnt come across like other kind of major politicians, citing such examples as Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

Shes soft-spoken. She would prefer to be in a room negotiating or talking with people than giving a political speech. Thats not really her style, Jacobs said. She can do it, but its something that shes had to learn.

During the presidential election, Smith campaigned for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Clinton won Minnesota by a little more than 1 percent.

What else has Smith done?

Originally from Albuquerque, N.M., Smith moved to Minnesota in 1984 for a marketing job with General Mills. She grew more politically active in the 1990s, founding her own marketing and consulting firm.

Smith served as the vice president of external affairs for Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota from 2003 to 2006.

She has excellent relationships in the business community, Jacobs said, adding that Minnesota business leaders speak fondly of Smith as someone who understands their issues and is pragmatic.

Smith received her bachelors degree from Stanford University and has an MBA from Dartmouth College. She is married with two children.

What will she bring to Washington?

Prior to Daytons announcement, Minnesota DFL Party Chair Ken Martin told Minnesota Public Radio that Smith would be a brilliant choice in a lot of ways.

Shes been a great lieutenant governor. I would argue probably the best lieutenant governor our state has ever seen, he said. Shes a true public servant whos served this state in many roles.

Jacobs described Smith as an almost throwback to another time, someone who is thoughtful, built strong personal relationships and is fact-based.

As for her voting record, Jacobs said Minnesotans can expect her to vote similarly to Minnesotas other Democratic senator, Amy Klobuchar: pragmatic and along party lines while still looking for ways to partner with Republicans.

Franken praised the appointment of Smith, who he called a "dedicated public servant."

"Her record of accomplishment as Lieutenant Governor demonstrates that she'll be an effective senator who knows how to work across party lines to get things done for Minnesota," he said in a statement.

But National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Michael McAdams slammed Smith as "another DFL insider handpicked by Mark Dayton."

"The last thing Minnesotans want is a political operative committed to raising taxes while representing them in the U.S. Senate," he said.

Due to Minnesota election laws, Smith would serve in Frankens seat until 2018 when a special election would be held, and the winner would serve for the remainder of Frankens term  until January 2021.

Smith would not be obligated to run in the 2018 special election, but she is expected to do so, Fox News has learned.

Fox News Chad Pergram and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The United States is calling for tougher sanctions against North Korea in a new draft resolution given to China.

The document, a call for pushing global sanctions against the rogue nation, was given to Beijing last week, in hopes of having a vote in the U.N. Security Council this week, Reuters reported, citing information from a Western diplomat.

China  the primary oil supplier to North Korea  is the rogue regime's largest trading partner. North Koreas refined petroleum is capped off by previous U.N. sanctions at 2 million barrels a year.

But although China has backed previous rounds of sanctions against North Korea, the U.S. has criticized China for not taking a harder stance.

At a joint press conference Tuesday in Canada, U.S. Secretary of State of State Rex Tillerson and Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland announced their countries intention to co-host a meeting of foreign ministers Jan. 16 as a demonstration of international solidarity against North Koreas dangerous and illegal actions.
The Trump administration announced last year its plan to phase out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA)  which provides a level of amnesty to certain undocumented immigrants, many of whom came to the U.S. as children  with a six-month delay for recipients. But a federal appeals court ruled against the proposal in early November, declaring the government couldn't immediately end the program.

The Executive wields awesome power in the enforcement of our nations immigration laws, the ruling said. Our decision today does not curb that power, but rather enables its exercise in a manner that is free from legal misconceptions and is democratically accountable to the public.

Trump had initially set a March 5 deadline for the program and called on Congress to pass legislation pertaining to the young immigrants. But the deadline came and went, with no congressional action but several lawsuits challenging the administration's decision to end the program.

FEDERAL APPEALS COURT RULES AGAINST TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ON DACA

Federal judges in New York and Washington also have ruled against President Trump on DACA.

President Trump has repeatedly blamed Democrats for inaction.

Heres a look at the DACA program and why the Trump administration wants to dismantle it.

What is the DACA program?

The DACA program was formed through executive action by former President Barack Obama in 2012 and allowed certain people who came to the U.S. illegally as minors to be protected from immediate deportation. Recipients, called Dreamers, were able to request consideration of deferred action for a period of two years, which was subject to renewal.

Deferred action is a use of prosecutorial discretion to defer removal action against an individual for a certain period of time, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services stated. Deferred action does not provide lawful status.

Individuals were able to request DACA status if they were under the age of 31 on June 15, 2012, came to the U.S. before turning 16 and continuously lived in the country since June 15, 2007.

Individuals also had to have a high school diploma, GED certification, been honorably discharged from the military or still be in school. Recipients could not have a criminal record.

It did not provide legal status.

How many people are affected by DACA?

Nearly 800,000 youth, called Dreamers, are under the program's umbrella.

Daniel Garza, president of the conservative immigration nonprofit Libre Initiative, told Fox News that DACA offers a reprieve from a life of uncertainty for innocent kids who didnt break the law.

Its rather disappointing to think they could return to a state of anxiety and fear, he said.

What did the Trump administration do?

The Trump administration announced in September 2017 that it planned to phase out DACA for current recipients, and no new requests would be granted. But a lower court order required the administration to continue accepting renewal applications for those under the DACA program, and the Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration's request to intervene.

Since the announcement, Trump had offered to work with lawmakers on a solution for the hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. who fell under DACAs umbrella of protections. But at the same time, he has repeatedly blamed Democrats on social media for lack of a solution.

Earlier this year, Trump released his four pillars of immigration reform, which included a provision for legal status for DACA recipients and others who would be eligible for DACA status. The White House estimated that total to be 1.8 million people. The Senate rejected the plan.

Republicans  and some Democrats  opposed Obamas directive establishing DACA from the start as a perceived overreach of executive power.

Obama spoke out on social media after the Trump administration announced a plan to dismantle the program, stating that it's "self-defeating ... and it is cruel" to end DACA and questioned the motive behind the decision.

Do any DACA recipients serve in the military?

Despite some rumors circulating online to the contrary, Dreamers were eligible to serve in the U.S. military since 2014 when the Pentagon adopted a policy to allow a certain amount of illegal immigrants to join.

In fiscal year 2016, 359 DACA recipients had enlisted in the Army  which is the only branch to accept immigrants of this category.

Fox News' John Roberts and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Teenage volunteers in Israel are helping archaeologists uncover the incredible remains of a Byzantine monastery and church.

Impressive mosaic floors have been found at the site in Beit Shemesh near Jerusalem. Over 1,000 teenagers are participating in the excavation, which is being conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority.

We were surprised by the wonderful state of preservation of the ancient remains, and the richness of the finds being uncovered, said Benyamin Storchan, director of the excavations for the Israel Antiquities Authority, in a statement. The artifacts found in the large building, which seems to be a monastic compound, may indicate that the site was important and perhaps a center for ancient pilgrims in the Judean Shephelah region.

ANCIENT TOMB DOOR WITH STUNNING MENORAH CARVING REVEALED IN ISRAEL

The excavation has already revealed a marble pillar base decorated with crosses and marble window screens. The marble artifacts were brought from the region of Turkey and further inland by wagon, explained Storchan.

In one of the rooms, researchers uncovered a beautiful mosaic floor decorated with birds, leafs and pomegranates.

The monastery was abandoned in the 7th century A.D. for unknown reasons.

INCREDIBLE 1500-YEAR-OLD CHRISTIAN MOSAIC UNCOVERED IN ISRAEL

Experts say that only a small part of the monastery has been uncovered.

The monastery and church are the latest in a series of fascinating archaeological finds in Israel. Archaeologists, for example, recently used a drone to locate a mysterious ancient structure in the heart of an Israeli military training area.

Last month, new evidence dated Christs tomb in Jerusalems Church of the Holy Sepulchre to the Roman era, matching historical records.

LOST ROMAN CITY THAT WAS HOME TO JESUS' APOSTLES FOUND, SAY ARCHAEOLOGISTS

Archaeologists also recently uncovered a stunning 1,500-year-old Christian mosaic in the ancient Mediterranean coastal city of Ashdod-Yam, now part of the modern city of Ashdod.

Other finds include the skeleton of a pregnant woman, dating back 3,200 years, in Israels Timna Valley, at a place once called King Solomons Mines.

In October, archaeologists in Jerusalem announced that they have uncovered a new section of the Western Wall that has been hidden for 1,700 years.

Some experts also believe they have found the lost Roman city of Julias, formerly the village of Bethsaida, which was the home of Jesus' apostles Peter, Andrew and Philip.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers
A species of Mexican fish makes such a loud noise when engaging in mass reproductive orgies that nearby marine mammals could be in jeopardy of losing their hearing, scientists have warned.

Scientists Brad E. Erisman and Timothy J. Rowell wrote in a report for Biology Letters that the Gulf corvina, a species of Mexican fish, releases a noise so loud during mating that it resembles a really loud machine gun with multiple rapid sound pulses.

Once a year, hundreds of thousands of Gulf corvinas get together and mate, making a noise that sounds like a crowd cheering at a stadium or perhaps a really loud beehive, Rowell, of the University of San Diego, wrote in the report.

SPATE OF SEA LION ATTACKS PROMPT OFFICIALS TO CLOSE PART OF SAN FRANCISCO BAY TO SWIMMERS

Rowell and Erisman, of the University of Texas, found the sounds could be damaging the hearing of nearby marine mammals that normally prey on the fish. Mammals such as dolphins, seals and sea lions were at risk.

The sound levels generated by chorusing is loud enough to cause at least temporary if not permanent hearing loss in marine mammals that were observed preying on the fish, Rowell wrote.

These spawning events are among the loudest wildlife events found on planet Earth, Rowell said, and the loudest sound ever recorded for a fish species.

The scientists investigated the sounds by using sound gear specifically for underwater purposes to hear the fish mate. Millions of the fish travel each year to the Colorado River Delta in Mexicos Gulf of California for the spawning aggregation.

ALASKA AIRPORT GETS SURPRISE VISITORS ON THE TARMAC

The gathering of the adult corvinas also draw fishermen, who can catch about two tons of the fish with one net, The Guardian reported. Fishermen were able to locate the fish due to their loud sounds, Newser reported.

However, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature reported the corvinas are vulnerable to extinction due to the overfishing.

Rowell and Erisman wrote in a report published earlier this year that the mating calls could help them determine how many corvinas were in the wild, and if they were at risk of being endangered. The scientists also said they have evidence the corvina population was shrinking.

A precautionary approach should be adopted by fisheries managers to ensure that this wildlife spectacle does not disappear, Rowell said.
More than 1,800 years ago, an artist in ancient Egypt painted the portrait of a large-eyed woman wearing a red tunic  a painting that was found on the woman's dead, mummified body.

The identity of the mysterious lady in red may never be known. But thanks to a new, noninvasive technique, scientists have uncovered the materials and methods the artist used to capture the woman's likeness in unprecedented detail. Even down to the special spoon used to paint her hair, and the order in which each type of paint was applied.

"Without even taking a minute sample from the painting, we mapped out detailed information that tells us exactly what materials were used, and how they were prepared," study senior author Ioanna Kakoulli, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), said in a statement. "We were also able to link their production technology to other ancient 'industries' and practices, such as mining, metallurgy, pottery, dyeing, pharmacopeia and alchemy." [11 Hidden Secrets in Famous Works of Art]

Called macroscale multimodal chemical imaging, this new method combines three advanced imaging techniques. The technique "will revolutionize the way important and irreplaceable archaeological materials are analyzed and interpreted," Kakoulli said.

The approach incorporates three known practices: hyperspectral diffuse reflectance (studying the reflection of light and other waves from a surface), luminescence (light emission) and X-ray fluorescence (identifying chemicals in a sample using the X-rays that reflect off an object), according to the study, published online Nov. 14 in the journal Scientific Reports.

The researchers used the technique to analyze this second-century woman's portrait, known as a Fayum mummy portrait  a painting on a wooden board affixed to a mummy that likely depicts the deceased person.

An analysis of the 13.7-inch by 4.7-inch portrait, housed in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., revealed the molecular composition of the paint, as well as the material used to bind the paint: a mixture of beeswax and pigment, the researchers found.

For instance, the woman's portrait was likely painted with three different tools: a fine painter's brush, or penicillus; a metal spoon or hollowed spatula known as a cauterium; and an engraver, known as a cestrum, the researchers wrote in the study.

They also discovered what might have been fashionable and artistically popular at the time the painting was created.

"The decoration of her garment is an excellent example of craftsmanship in real life being reflected within the painting," study co-author Roxanne Radpour, a doctoral candidate in the Materials Science and Engineering Department at UCLA, said in the statement. "Madder [red] dye extracted from roots was often used to color textiles and leather in ancient Egypt, and we see from the chemical mapping of the portrait that the artist chose to paint the noblewoman's dress with madder lake pigment, thus imitating contemporary practices."

The new technique may also have applications in environmental, geological, biological and forensic sciences, the researchers said.

Original article on Live Science.
A spate of a sea lion attacks prompted authorities to close part of San Francisco Bay to swimmers this week.

The Telegraph reports that three swimmers were attacked by sea lions in the space of a week around the same area in San Francisco Bay. The attacks prompted officials to close the Aquatic Park Cove, a popular spot for swimming near Fishermans Wharf, last week. The Cove re-opened on Wednesday.

Aquatic Park Cove is part of the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park, which is run by the National Park Service.

GIRL DRAGGED INTO WATER BY SEA LION BEING TREATED FOR 'SEAL FINGER'

The attacks prompted the closure of Aquatic Park Cove to swimmers on Dec. 15. The Cove was initially scheduled to re-open on Monday Dec. 18. However, on Monday, officials announced that the site would be closed to swimmers until Wednesday.

On Thursday Dec. 14, San Francisco Fire Department reported that a swimmer was bitten on the arm by a sea lion in the waters off Aquatic Park Cove.

The San Francisco Police Departments Marine Unit applied a tourniquet to the mans arm before he was taken to hospital, according to the Sacramento Bee.

A second swimmer was reportedly bitten in the groin by a sea lion on Friday morning.

HEARTBREAKING VIDEO OF STARVING POLAR BEAR STIRS CONTROVERSY AMONG CONSERVATIONISTS

The Telegraph reports that a third swimmer was bitten earlier in the week but sustained only minor injuries and did not require medical treatment.

At this stage, it's unclear what is causing the attacks.

A spokeswoman for the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park told Fox News that the Cove re-opened for swimming Wednesday. Over the past several days, she explained, "park rangers have not observed any unusual marine mammal activity, and the park has received no new reports of animal bites."

SHARK ATTACKS NEWLYWED ON HER HONEYMOON, VIDEO GOES VIRAL

While the park has re-opened for swimming, signage is being posted along the beach warning visitors of the recent incidents. "Although the immediate hazard seems to have passed, the park wishes to remind all visitors that marine mammals are wild animals, in their natural habitat, and that their behavior can be unpredictable," the spokeswoman said. "The frequency of recent sea mammal bites reported was abnormally high, but interactions between marine mammals and swimmers do occur."

Swimmers are being urged to take precautions such as keeping at least 50 feet away from sea lions and harbor seals. "Since the incidents seem to have occurred to solo swimmers, near the Cove entrance and/or in the central Cove area, the park also suggests staying close to the shore and swimming in groups, when possible," the spokeswoman said.

In a 2015 case study, experts explained that biting incidents involving sea lion and seals, although not unheard of, are rare in the waters of San Francisco Bay.

WHY ALLIGATOR ATTACKS ARE SPIKING IN FLORIDA

Reports of bites and contact abrasions from sea lions and harbor seals are relatively rare in open-water swimmers and typically involve the lower extremities, explained the authors. The majority of cases in our series occurred at low tide, and bumping of the swimmer by the animal before or after a bite was common, but no clear tide or attack pattern was identified.

However, in 2006, a rogue sea lion menaced swimmers in San Francisco Bay, biting at least 14 people, according to the San Franciscos Chronicles SFGATE website.

Earlier this year, a young girl was dragged into the water by a sea lion in Vancouver. She survived the dramatic attack, which was captured on video.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers
The highest mountains can drive those climbing them temporarily mad.

Now, researchers say, these psychotic episodes constitute a person's own medical condition and may be distinct from altitude sickness.

"Mountains are maddeningly beautiful, but we did not expect that they can drive us to madness," said study co-author Dr. Hermann Brugger, head of the Institute of Mountain Emergency Medicine at Eurac Research in Bolzano, Italy, told Live Science. The researchers detailed their findingsonline Dec. 5 in the journal Psychological Medicine.

Future research on this disorder could shed lights on other episodes of temporary psychosis, researchers say.

Mountain voices

At extreme altitudes, mountaineers often mention experiencing psychosis  that is, a mental disorder where a person becomes out of touch with reality. Symptoms of psychotic episodesinclude hallucinations and delusions.

For instance, when mountaineer and anesthetist Dr. Jeremy Windsor was climbing Mount Everestin 2008, he underwent a strange experience common in extreme mountaineering. Alone in the Himalayas at an altitude of more than 5.1 miles (8.2 kilometers), Windsor hallucinated a man called Jimmy, who accompanied him all day long, spoke encouraging words to him and then vanished without a trace.

Until now, doctors have generally thought such psychotic episodes were symptoms of altitude sickness, alongside severe headaches, dizziness and impaired balance. Altitude sickness results from the shortage of oxygen experienced at high altitudes, and can trigger a potentially lethal buildup of fluid in the lungs or brain.

But in the new analysis, Windsor and his colleagues found that "isolated high-altitude psychosis" may be its own medical condition, one distinct from altitude sickness.

To arrive at that conclusion, the researchersanalyzed data from 83 psychotic episodes at high altitudes collected from German mountain literature. They found a list of psychotic symptoms, such as hearing voices, that were linked to altitude but very clearly not always connected to any physical symptoms of altitude sickness or past mental illness.

"Those persons who suffer from these episodes at high altitude are otherwise completely healthy  they are not prone to psychosis," Brugger said.

Isolated high-altitude psychosis was most likely to occur at heights exceeding 22,965 feet (7,000 meters) above sea-level, the researchers found. They remain unsure of what may cause it  perhaps causes similar to ones behind altitude sickness, such as oxygen deficiency or early stages of swelling in certain areas of the brain.

It's also possible the cause isn't due to the altitude at all.

"It is also known that complete deprivation of social contact and loneliness for a long time can provoke hallucinations," Brugger said.

Instant recovery

The symptoms of this syndrome apparently disappeared completely as soon as mountaineers left the danger zone, the researchers wrote in the study. "They completely recovered," Brugger said.

Still, this syndrome was clearly linked to a significant risk of accidents, "and even a little mistake can be fatal at extreme altitudes," Brugger said. "It is important that climbers are aware of this risk, that they know these hallucinations are not real, that these effects are reversible, and to find some coping measures during their climbs."

Scientists could seek to simulate these cases of temporary psychosis by placing volunteers in chambers that simulate extreme altitudes using low oxygen and low air pressure.

"This could help shed light on temporary psychosis in general," Brugger said.

In March, the researchers plan to collaborate with Nepalese doctors at Mount Everest's base camp to find out how often isolated high-altitude psychosis might occur.

"They will use questionnaires to collect data from climbers who come down from Everest," Brugger said.

Originally published on Live Science.
Twitter users responded with defiance, praise and bafflement as the embattled tech company enforced new rules on hate speech and abuse, permanently suspending a relatively small number of prominent accounts linked to white nationalists and neo-Nazis.

The rules that took effect Monday broaden the tech firms hateful conduct policy to permanently suspend any account that displays violent threats, multiple slurs, epithets, racist or sexist tropes, incites fear or reduces someone to less than human. The policy also targets groups or individuals that promote violence on and off the platform.

Thus far, suspended accounts include white nationalists like Jared Taylor and his publication American Renaissance, Britain Firsts Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen, a European white supremacist group known as Generation Identity, the American Nazi Party and the New Black Panther Party.

TWITTER BEGINS PURGE OF FAR-RIGHT ACCOUNTS AS NEW HATE SPEECH RULES TAKE EFFECT

Civil rights groups such as Muslim Advocates, which have been calling for stronger measures to combat hate speech, applauded the enforcement actions.

As social media sites have become the central organizing hub for Americas hate groups, companies like Twitter and Facebook have a responsibility to ensure that their platforms are not used to sow violence and hate, the group said in a statement.

Twitter, which has billed itself as a space for free expression but also touted its new, more stringent safety policies, was slammed by the banned accounts and their supporters.

WHITE SUPREMACIST CONTROVERSY PROMPTS TWITTER TO FIX 'BROKEN' ACCOUNT VERIFICATION POLICY

American Renaissance, which was verified and had 32,800 followers when it was banned, filed an appeal to Twitter and was told by Twitter that it had been permanently banned because it violated rules against being affiliated with a violent extremist group.

We consider violent extremist groups to be organizations thatwhether by their own statements or activity both on and off the platformuse or promote violence against civilians to further their causes, Twitter said to American Renaissance in a statement.

Nevertheless, prominent neo-Nazis like David Duke and Richard Spencer, along with white nationalist Jason Kesslerwho called the activist who was killed in Charlottesville a fat, disgusting communistall still have active accounts on Twitter.

Spencer tweeted on Tuesday that a second round of purges was beginning.

Twitter user JM Berger noted what he sees as a bias toward offline organizations in the Twitter purge and posted a collage showing a range of white supremacist or neo-Nazi accounts that had not been purged.

Gab, a social network that calls itself a champion of free speech and has 345,000 members, remains a space where white nationalists won't be banned.

"The inclusion of Britain First to our platform has helped tremendously, in addition to Twitters restrictions," Utsav Sanduja, Gab's chief operating officer, told Fox News.
Facebook is getting a growing number of requests for data on the social networks users from U.S government entities, according to the companys latest transparency report.

The report, which was previously called the Government Request Report, covers the first half of 2017. The social network received 32,716 U.S. government requests for account data, up from 26,014 in the prior 6 months. Facebook said that it produced at least some data for 85 percent of requests from the U.S. government in the first 6 months of 2017, compared to 84 percent during the last 6 months of 2016.

In total, the social network received 78,890 requests for account data from governments worldwide, up from 64,279 in the second half of 2016.

FACEBOOK SAYS IT NEEDS YOUR EXPLICIT PHOTOS TO COMBAT REVENGE PORN

Examples of data requested (which the company said "the vast majority of these requests relate to criminal cases") include "basic subscriber information, such as name, registration date and length of service." Other data that can be requested include IP address logs or account content.

Some 57 percent of the data requests received from law enforcement in the U.S. contained a non-disclosure order that prohibited Facebook from notifying the user, up from 50 percent in the last report.

We continue to carefully scrutinize each request we receive for account data  whether from an authority in the U.S., Europe, or elsewhere  to make sure it is legally sufficient, explained Chris Sonderby, Facebooks deputy general counsel, in a statement. If a request appears to be deficient or overly broad, we push back, and will fight in court, if necessary.

Well also keep working with partners in industry and civil society to encourage governments around the world to reform surveillance in a way that protects their citizens safety and security while respecting their rights and freedoms, he added.

The requests include all of Facebook's products, including Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram.

EX-FACEBOOK EXEC BACKTRACKS 'DESTROYING HOW SOCIETY WORKS' COMMENTS AFTER BACKLASH

Facebook explained that the number of content restrictions for violating local law increased by 304 percent globally, compared to the second half of 2016. This increase was primarily driven by a request from Mexican law enforcement to remove instances of a video depicting a school shooting in Monterrey in January, explained Sonderby. We restricted access in Mexico to 20,506 instances of the video in the first half of 2017.

A legal restriction on access to content occurs when Facebook makes content available based on local law.

Other tech giants, such as Google, have also received a growing number of requests from governments in recent years.

FACEBOOK ASKS USERS TO UPLOAD FACE PHOTOS TO PROVE THEY'RE NOT BOTS

Facebook has been firmly in the political spotlight this year. In September, the social media giant announced that it uncovered $100,000 in fake ad spending tied to Russian operatives during the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, associated with around 3,000 ads, which were later turned over to Congress.

Russia has denied meddling in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers
Did Disney mess up its animatronic Trump?

Walt Disney World has been preparing to add Donald Trump to its Hall of Presidents since before he took office. Just over a year later, the park is finally unveiling the fruits of its long-awaited labor  and early reviews on Twitter are mixed.

More than one has even stated that the animatronic likeness looks more like Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight than Trump.

The park opened up its refurbished Hall of Presidents attraction for a sneak peek on Dec. 18 ahead of its official debut on Tuesday, giving park-goers a first look at its new audio-animatronic likeness of the 45th commander in chief. The new Trump is said to feature the latest advances in technology that enable smoother and more lifelike movements, according to the official Disney Parks Blog.

DISNEY DEBUNKS RUMORS ABOUT TRUMP'S HALL OF PRESIDENT LIKENESS

But while Disney may have captured the presidents animated hand movements very faithfully, the robots physical appearance isnt winning praise on Twitter. Commenters have already compared Disneys Trump-bot to Jon Voight, but also Angela Lansbury, the character of Biff Tannen from Back to the Future: Part 2 and even Hillary Clinton, his opponent in the 2016 presidential election.

FATHER AND DAUGHTER RIDE ALL 49 DISNEY WORLD RIDES IN ONE DAY

Others simply found the Trump likeness to be off-putting, or less-than-faithful to President Trump.

Regardless, theres no arguing that Disney got Trumps voice right. The park confirmed that President Trump had recorded his own dialogue to be spoken by his animatronic likeness, despite earlier reports to the contrary, which Disney was forced to debunk in June.

Following an introduction from the attractions animatronic George Washington, President Trumps likeness recites his oath of office before launching into a minute-long speech, per a YouTube clip shared by WDWMagic.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

From the beginning, America has been a nation defined by its people, says Disneys Trump, who is dressed in his signature tie and unbuttoned jacket. At our founding, it was the American people who rose up to defend our freedoms and win our independence.

Above all, to be American is to be an optimist  to believe that we can always do better  and that the best days of our great nation are still ahead of us, Trump concludes in a later snippet.

Its a privilege to serve as the President of the United States, to stand here among so many great leaders of our past, and to work on behalf of the American people.
A woman in Indiana said she was stunned after she posted a negative review about her bad experience at a hotel  and promptly got an extra $350 charge and a threat of legal action.

Katrina Arthur told WRTV she and her husband stayed at the Abbey Inn & Suites in Brown County  about an hour south of Indianapolis  in March 2016, but claimed that their stay at the hotel was a nightmare.

The room was unkempt, and it looked like it hadnt been cleaned since the last people stayed there. We checked the sheets and I found hairs and dirt, Arthur said. She added that it reeked of sewage and had weak water pressure and broken air conditioning.

When Arthur tried to find hotel employees, she said she came up short and had to clean the room myself.

8 OF THE WEIRDEST HOTELS AND MOTELS IN THE UNITED STATES

So, when the hotel asked Arthur to review her stay at the Abbey Inn, she made sure her experience was heard.

I was honest, Arthur told WRTV. I wanted people to know not to waste their money because I know people save their money for special occasions."

Once Arthur posted her review, she said the hotel charged her $350 and threatened her with legal action. So, she deleted her review.

Arthur said it felt like the hotel was punishing her for being truthful, and she contacted the Indiana attorney generals office.

That office filed a lawsuit on Dec. 15 against Abbey Management Inc.

Andrew Szakaly told Fox News in a statement that he is the president and sole shareholder of the corporation, which hasn't operated the Abbey Inn since Jan. 2017, when new owners assumed control.

The lawsuit reportedly states the Abbey Inn had a policy which allowed them to charge customers the fee for poor reviews, which the state of Indiana alleges violated the states Deceptive Consumer Sales Act, which aims to modify deceptive and unconscionable consumer sales practices.

The lawsuit claimed the policy read: Guests agree that if guests find any problems with our accommodations, and fail to provide us the opportunity to address those problems while the guest is with us, and/or refuses our exclusive remedy, but then disparages us in any public manner, we will be entitled to charge their credit card an additional $350 damage. Should the guest refuse to retract any such public statements legal action may be pursued.

Szakaly confirmed the hotel's policy, which he said was active between fall 2015 and summer 2016 in response to hotel guests checking out without making any complaints during their stay and then demanding a refund or posting negative comments and reviews on social media.

DAD'S INSTAGRAM ABOUT HOTEL CARPETS EARNS HALF A MILLION FOLLOWERS IN A WEEK

The policy could be found briefly on a document on the hotels website, but it wasnt provided to guests or posted anywhere at the inn, according to the lawsuit.

"Its a shame that the actions of a disgruntled guest, taken 22 months ago, will now damage the hard work & devotion of the new, young management couple who had nothing to do with that guest or that policy which has long since been cancelled," Szakaly told Fox News.

Arthur, who said theres nothing wrong with being truthful, said she wants her $350 back from the hotel.

Amanda Sweet, who currently owns the Abbey Inn with her husband, told The Associated Press they were taken "completely by surprise" by news of the lawsuit, and that they do not have a policy that charges guests for negative reviews.

"It's been a horrible 24 hours for us," Sweet said. "We've been pouring ourselves into making positive renovations, bringing this beautiful building back to life. This is our livelihood and we don't want it to go away."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Detention Center

The inmate count at the Platte County Detention Facility Tuesday was 68, with 44 from Platte County and 24 from out of county.

Police

Nov. 25

6:40 p.m.  At the intersection of 23rd Street and 33rd Avenue, traffic accident. Drivers were Carson Ahrens, 16, 1843 Road 4, Clarkson, and Jaime Valdez Medina, 50, 2672 18th Ave., Columbus.

Dec. 8

10:43 p.m.  At the intersection of 12th Street and 26th Avenue, Dave Wiemer, 54, Creston, was cited for failure to yield right of way.

Dec. 13

5:09 a.m.  At the intersection of 33rd Avenue and 23rd Street, Danyll Lincoln, 20, 23688 U.S. Highway 30, was cited for a traffic signal violation.

Dec. 14

4:40 a.m.  In the 2600 block of 23rd Street, Ruddy Estrada Blanco, 43, Denison, Iowa, was cited for speeding, 45 mph in a 35 mph zone.

Dec. 15

3:27 p.m.  At the intersection of Eighth Street and 12th Avenue, traffic accident. Drivers were Zachary Hollendieck, 21, 1720 First St., and Tammie Hogan, 47, 935 Lovers Lane.

Dec. 17

12:04 p.m.  In a parking lot at 818 E. 23rd St., traffic accident. Drivers were Donna Ritter, 88, 456 Third St., Creston, and Gabriela Garcia, 24, 114 E. Seventh St., Schuyler.

6:10 p.m.  At the intersection of 23rd Street and Third Avenue, traffic accident. Drivers were Gerardo Orozco Velasquez, 22, 1723 E St., Schuyler, and Gerald Mefford, 60, 3107 Eighth St., Columbus.

Dec. 18

10:34 a.m.  Criminal mischief at 2659 Sioux Drive, window damaged, $100 loss.

1:40 p.m.  Criminal mischief at Beard Warren Heating & Air, cement block thrown through vehicle windshield, $500 loss.

Sheriff

Dec. 11

5:29 p.m.  At the intersection of 23rd Street and 14th Avenue, traffic accident. Drivers were Diana Carrizales, 29, Carriage House Estates, No. 116, and Jakob Boeka, 18, 828 Becton St.

Dec. 12

5:45 p.m.  At the intersection of 18th Avenue and 83rd Street, traffic accident. Drivers were David Zoucha, 59, 13233 V Road, Shelby, and Makenna Frenzen, 15, 6476 Shadow Ridge Place, Columbus.

Dec. 13

6:59 a.m.  In the 800 block of 10th Avenue, a vehicle driven by Christian Belgum, 17, 905 12th St., Duncan, struck a parked vehicle owned by David Maneely, 922 Eighth St., Duncan.

Dec. 18

1:40 p.m.  Traffic violation at the intersection of Monestary Road and 53rd Street, Scott Nemitz of Fullerton cited for an expired registration.

Fire

Dec. 18

8:38 a.m.  In the 4500 block of 38th Street, medical.

10:32 a.m.  Small grass fire caused by discarded ashes at 1057 37th Ave.

3:05 p.m.  In the 2500 block of 18th Street, medical.

7 p.m.  In the 2600 block of 37th Avenue, medical.
Two Malaysian politicians have slammed the flight crew uniforms of local airlines Firefly, Malindo, and AirAsia, saying their revealing designs could arouse passengers.

Senator Abdullah Mat Yasim and Senator Megat Zulkarnain Omardin urged the nation's aviation commission to investigate the matter, while suggesting the airlines might consider redesigning the outfits, The Straits Times reported.

My wife is worried whenever I fly alone on Malindo or AirAsia, Megat said during a session of parliament. This is a real hassle for me.

Islam is the official religion of Malaysia, with around three-fifths of the population identifying as Muslim. Senator Abdullah said that the eye-catching outfits of the airlines did not reflect the Islamic values of the nation as a whole.

Flight attendants have long seen scrutiny over their uniforms and their appearances, often leading to accusations of sexism and objectification. Travel planning site Trippy faced backlash over a so-called study that ranked airlines by how attractive their flight attendants were. The site used composite images of women from their Linkedin profiles and ranked their attractiveness on a scale from 1 to 10.

Navigating cultural norms in Islamic countries has also become a recurring theme when it comes to discussions concerning air crew uniforms. Air France asked that flight attendants wear head coverings and loose fitting clothing on flights to Iran, in a memo that prompted outrage. The carrier's union decried the decision as an attack on freedom of conscience, and Air France eventually relented, saying the Islam-friendly uniforms would be optional.

Other airlines have brought on big name fashion designers to create unique, visually pleasing uniforms. Zac Posen designed a line of uniforms for Delta, and Chinese carrier Hainan Airlines debuted their haute couture creations at Paris Couture Week in July.
Tuesdays fatal bus crash in Mexico, which claimed the lives of 11 cruise ship passengers and a tour guide, is sparking concern for the safety of off-ship excursions.

The bus was reportedly carrying passengers from two Royal Caribbean cruise liners  the Celebrity Equinox and the Serenade of the Seas  when it flipped over on a two-lane highway, landing on its side.

In addition to the 12 fatalities, about 20 other passengers were injured.

The group was heading to Chacchoben, about 110 miles south of Tulum, to see the Mayan ruins as part of an off-ship excursion advertised by the cruise company.

SPIRIT NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR DRUNKEN BRAWL ON FLIGHT, JURY SAYS

According to John H. Hickey, a maritime lawyer who represented cruise lines like Royal Caribbean for 17 years and now represents passengers and crew members against those cruise lines, these excursions are heavily promoted by the cruise companies as safe and reliable tour options.

Cruise lines will advertise on websites and in literature to passengers to choose our excursion partners because we vet them and they adhere to the highest safety standards in the industry, Hickey told Fox News.

On the Celebrity Cruise website, for example, they market the outings as an exclusive part of their cruise experience. Ignite your sense of wonder, adventure, and excitement with Uniquely Celebrity Shore Excursions. We've partnered with local experts around the world to deliver intimate experiences that truly embody the spirit of modern luxury  each is meticulously designed and Uniquely Celebrity, the site reads.

The cruise lines make money off the trips in partnership with the various local tour operators, and passengers pay for these outings directly through the cruise line, either in advance or on board, according to Hickey. The whole process is coordinated by the cruise employees and passengers will often meet at a specific location on board with the local guide before heading out for the tour.

However, when it comes to the actual vetting process, Hickey says the people in charge of selecting the tours dont actually do much to verify that theyre safe. Someone without a safety or transportation background makes the selection and corresponds to set it up. Theres no real vetting even though they say that they will.

If the promise is that they adhere to the highest safety standards, they need to make sure that happens, Hickey said.

When incidents do happen, he said, the cruise lines claim they arent responsible because the tour operators are independent contractors.

While there are current cases being tried in court to determine if cruise lines are in fact liable for this type of accident, Hickey says its still up in the air, though he argues there is evidence the tours are agents of the cruise lines. The cruise line controls much of the activities and has the ability to control what goes on on these excursions, Hickey said.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

Hickey says that while these cruise line-endorsed excursions can be dangerous and have resulted in other deaths in the past, people are still better off choosing them over another option on their own.

If someone is out exploring independently and something happens, there likely wont be anyone to be held liable, he said. Its better to choose the ones sanctioned by the cruise line, but cruise lines need to take responsibility when something happens.

A representative for Royal Caribbean did not respond to our request for comment.
A group of women who engaged in a fight on a Spirit Airlines flight have no one to blame but themselves.

Last week, a jury in Los Angeles determined that Spirit was not responsible for an incident involving a group of passengers who engaged in a brawl in March 2016, the New York Daily News reported. Three Delaware women  Tykisha Diodato, Lisa Zampella and Danielle Fonda-Thomas  had originally brought the lawsuit against the carrier in April of 2016, claiming that Spirit had served two separate passengers copious amounts of alcohol and then failed to intervene when those passengers became violent.

7 OF THE MOST INSANE AIRLINE INCIDENTS CAUGHT ON CAMERA

According to Richard Lazenby, a lawyer representing Spirit Airlines, the womens accounts had been called into question following testimony from other witnesses and flight attendants. Further, he told the Daily News that the court applied California law, which prohibits liability based solely on serving alcohol."

Lazenby also claimed Spirit successfully proved that the brawl was not foreseeable on the part of the flight crew.

'AROUSING' FLIGHT ATTENDANT OUTFITS CAUSE OUTRAGE IN MALAYSIA

The incident, which originally occurred on a flight from Baltimore to Los Angeles, begun when two intoxicated women began blasting music from a boom box mid-flight  and when they were asked to keep it down by the Delaware women, they cranked their music louder. Upon landing, the drunk passengers allegedly shouted racist remarks at the women and then attacked, argued Nathan Goldberg, who represented the women.

Goldberg is a partner of high-profile attorney Gloria Allred, who had also announced she would be representing the women when the lawsuit was originally announced in 2016.

Following the 12-day trial, Goldberg maintained that the three plaintiffs were innocent victims, but claimed he was still proud of Diodato, Zampella and Fonda-Thomas for moving forward with the unprecedented case, the Daily News said.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

A representative for Spirit Airlines tells Fox News that the airline is pleased with how the trial concluded.

"We are very gratified that the jury, upon hearing the evidence, reached the right decision," said a spokesperson for the airline. "We thank our professional flight attendants on that flight for the way in which they handled this incident."
Authorities in Wisconsin chased nearly 800 leads before a fugitive they believed had a cache of stolen firearms was arrested while camping on a farmer's property.

Thirty-two-year-old Joseph Jakubowski was arrested Friday morning on the farmland near Readstown, Wisconsin, about 125 miles northwest of Janesville. That's where the manhunt began after authorities say Jakubowski broke into a gun store last week and sent a threatening manifesto to the White House.

Rock County Sheriff Robert Spoden says the suspect was disheveled and surrendered without incident.

Jakubowski made his first court appearance Friday afternoon in Madison. He faces local and federal weapons charges.

He will remain in custody. His next court appearance is scheduled for April 25.
A simple text message took the life of 19-year-old Angelina Holloway.

Her death is now the focus of a new anti-texting and driving campaign in Citrus County.

On April 18, 2016, while driving home, Angelina veered off of the road in Floral City and crashed her car into a tree. She died on impact.

"When I found her phone the next day, it was in the rubble in her car under everything," said Marvalene Corlett, Holloway's mother.

Her last text was sent at 2:11 p.m. that day to her boyfriend saying, "I can't wait to see you this weekend!"

At 2:15 p.m., a deputy found Holloway's wrecked car.

"It was devastating because she knew better," said Corlett.

Her daughter had a full life ahead of her. The Citrus High School graduate planned to study psychology at Southeastern University in Lakeland. She had just gotten approved to study abroad.

"She was going to go to Uganda for missionary. She was excited for that, and three days later is when life turned for all of us," said Corlett.

One year after Holloway's death, her mother is helping raise awareness about the dangers of texting and driving through a campaign launched by the Citrus County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday called #JustDriveCitrus.

Angelina Holloway's face - and the text message that took her life - is what drivers will see along the side of Highway 41 in Inverness through January.

"I want it to hit the heart. I want them to see that it's a reality, that it does happen," said Deputy Michele Tewell, who helped launch the campaign. "It took Angelina's life, but it also impacted her family and all her friends, so it's not worth it."

Deputy Tewell said the annual campaign typically focuses on DUI awareness, but with traffic crashes up by 17 percent this year in Citrus County, she felt it was necessary to incorporate texting and driving awareness as well.

"More people have cellphones than take a drink of alcohol," said Tewell.

Corlett says her daughter always had hopes of helping others as an adult, with plans to one day adopt children from other countries. She said she knows her daughter's death will have a big impact on the entire community.

"She's already changed lives with her friends. A lot of them don't text. They put the phone up and away," said Corlett.

Click here for more from FOX 13 News.
A supporter of the Islamic State who was convicted of plotting to behead conservative blogger Pamela Geller was sentenced Tuesday to 28 years behind bars.

David Wright, 28, cried in a Boston federal courthouse as he apologized to Gellar, law enforcement and his family. He also denounced ISIS, which Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Siegmann said during the trial Wright was committed to.

"Nothing I can say can fix the hurt I caused," Wright said in court Tuesday. "I sincerely hope that I can be given the opportunity to help others avoid the mistakes I made."

Prosecutors said Wright, his uncle and a third man conspired to kill Geller because they were upset she organized a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas in 2015.

During the contest, two other men opened fire outside and wounded a security guard before they were killed in a shootout with law enforcement assigned to guard the event.

Prosecutors sought a life sentence for Wright, arguing it would send a strong message to those considering terror attacks in the U.S., but Judge William G. Young said he was uncomfortable with sending Wright away for life, telling him: "You are not a monster, yet you embraced a monstrous evil."

Geller had urged the judge to sentence Wright to life in prison and said it was impossible to overstate the devastation he brought to her life, and said there is no assurance that anyone can give me that he would not resume his quest to kill me and my relatives.

Wright, whose attorneys requested a 16-year sentence, insisted he never really wanted to hurt anyone but pretended to support the Islamic State group to get attention online.

"I said a lot of fantastical things about what I intended, where I wanted to go and where I wanted to travel, and it was never real," Wright said in Boston federal court in October. "It was fantasy.

Siegmann said Wrights actions gravely threatened the lives of innocent Americans" and during the trial said Wright knew exactly what he was doing.

ISIS DEVOTEE WHO PLOTTED TO BEHEAD PAMELA GELLER FACES LIFE IN PRISON

Prosecutors said Wright was the leader of the conspiracy and recruited his uncle and others to help him wage war on the U.S. Wright's uncle received directions about the plan to kill Geller from Junaid Hussain, an ISIS terrorist and hacker who was later killed in an airstrike in Syria, prosecutors said.

The third man accused in the plot, Nicholas Rovinski, pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy charges and faces 15 to 22 years in prison. Rovinski, of Warwick, Rhode Island, testified against Wright, telling jurors that Wright said Geller "deserved to be beheaded" because she insulted Muhammad.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Mexico has sent one of the top alleged traffickers for the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel  a close associate to drug lord Joaquin El Chapo Guzman  to the U.S. to face charges.

Victor Manuel Felix-Felix appeared before a federal judge in San Diego on Tuesday, a day after he arrived in California.

Felix-Felix  also known as El Senor, is the father-in-law of one of Guzmans sons and also the godfather to one of his children, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. He was arrested in October in Mexico City.

He is accused of coordinating shipments of tons of cocaine and laundering millions of dollars for the cartel.

He is the lead defendant in the prosecution, according to The Union-Tribune, which alleges an operation that spanned five countries: the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Ecuador and Columbia.

An indictment says the case involves an undercover U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent who infiltrated the cartel that moved tons of drugs to the U.S. and hundreds of millions of dollars in bulk currency.

Some of the money was deposited into a San Diego bank account held secretly by the DEA.

The U.S. had requested the extradition of Felix-Felix.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Minnesota woman has pleaded guilty to shooting and killing her boyfriend and father of her children in a YouTube stunt gone very wrong.

Monalisa Perez, 20, pleaded guilty last week to second-degree manslaughter in the June 26 death of 22-year-old Pedro Ruiz III, the Star Tribune reported. Perez has two young children with Ruiz and the second child was born after the shooting, the newspaper added.

Perez told investigators that Ruiz wanted to make a video of her, then 19, shooting a bullet into a hardcover encyclopedia he was holding against his chest, according to court records.

The woman said she fired a .50-caliber Desert Eagle pistol from about a foot away. Two cameras recorded the incident, though investigators have withheld the footage.

Perez reportedly called 911 right after the shooting, but Ruiz was pronounced dead at the scene.

The couple had a YouTube channel, which has not yet been removed, where they posted videos of pranks and stunts. The last video on their account was titled "Doing Scary Stunts at the Fair."

At the time of the shooting, the man's aunt Claudia Ruiz told Valley News Live that the couple had been trying to get famous on YouTube, so they were escalating their pranks.

"I don't know why they thought the book was supposed to stop the bullet," she told the website.

Hours before the shooting, Perez tweeted: "Me and Pedro are probably going to shoot one of the most dangerous videos ever. HIS idea not MINE."

Another aunt of Ruiz, Lisa Primeau, said her nephew was a thrill seeker who was always "putting a dangerous twist on everything he did." She said that included jumping into a swimming pool without hesitation from the top of a house.

"We called him our little daredevil," Primeau told the Star Tribune in June.

Perez is expected to be sentenced in Norman County District Court in February. Her plea agreement calls for her to serve six months in jail and 10 years of supervised probation.

As part of the deal, the woman would serve her jail sentence for 30 days per year over the next three years, the Star Tribune reported. After three years, Perez would be eligible to finish her sentence using a monitoring device.

The woman would also be prohibited from profiting off the deadly video and would be barred for life from having a gun, according to court documents.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A transit employee, a man described as a rail advocate," and a 40-year-old Washington man were identified as the three people killed when an Amtrak train in Washington state derailed during its inaugural ride on a new route Monday, leaving more than 70 people injured as investigators search for clues on why the celebratory trip turned deadly.

Zack Willhoite, a Pierce Transit employee, and Jim Hamre, a member of the Rail Passengers Association, were killed Monday when Amtrak train 501, carrying 85 passengers and crew members, derailed off an overpass and onto Interstate 5 just around 7:40 a.m. after pulling out of the new Tacoma station, the organization announced.

Hamre and Willhoite were both part of the Rail Passengers Association and were described as advocates of transit and passenger rail for decades.

"Jim was among the country's most-respected and effective rail advocates and a good friend and mentor to me. I will miss his counsel, and our community is poorer for his loss," Rail Passengers Association President Jim Mathews said in a statement. Both Jim and Zack have been advocates of transit and passenger rail for decades, and we cant thank them enough for their work. Our thoughts are with their families at this time, as they work through this tragedy.

Chris Karnes, chair of Pierce Transits Advisory Board, called Willhoite a rail aficionado. The organization said Willhoite served as the director of information technology for All Aboard Washington.

It's heartbreaking to hear that @PierceTransit employee and rail aficionado Zack Willhoite did not survive the derailment, Karnes wrote. He helped our advisory committee with IT issues, and behind the scenes he was a writer and advocate for better transit for all. He will be missed.

Willhoite was an IT customer service support specialist and had been working with Pierce Transit since 2008, the agency said in a statement.

"The entire Pierce Transit team was deeply saddened to learn that one of our employees was a victim of the Dec. 18 Amtrak train accident," the statement read. "He has always been deeply appreciated and admired by his colleagues, and played an important role at our agency. He will be sincerely missed. Our thoughts are with Zacks family, as well as the families of the other victims, during this very difficult time.

Hamre also served as the vice president of All Aboard Washington. He worked at the Washington State Department of Transportation and had been involved with transportation advocacy in the early 1980s, according to Rail Passengers Association.

Benjamin Gran, of Auburn, was identified as the derailment's third victim Wednesday. Authorities said he died of multiple traumatic injuries in the accident.

The National Transportation Safety Board announced Monday night that the Amtrak train was going 80 mph in a 30 mph zone when it derailed along a curve, causing railcars to fall onto the highway and smash into vehicles below. A total of 13 train cars jumped the tracks. Authorities began removing the train cars Tuesday morning. They announced the removal can take days and advised commuters to plan ahead as Interstate 5 remains closed.

More than 70 people were taken to the hospital, 10 of them with serious injuries. The engineer, whose name was not released, was bleeding from the head after the wreck and both eyes were swollen shut, according to the dispatch audio.

LOCAL WASHINGTON MAYOR FEARED DEADLY ACCIDENTS WEEKS BEFORE AMTRAK DERAILMENT

Train passenger Emma Shafer found herself at a 45-degree angle, staring at the seats in front of her that had come loose and swung around.

"It felt oddly silent after the actual crashing," she said. "Then there was people screaming because their leg was messed up...I don't know if I actually heard the sirens, but they were there. A guy was like, 'Hey, I'm Robert. We'll get you out of here.'"

NTSB member Bella Dinh-Zarr said a team of investigators will be interviewing the engineer and any possible witnesses to find out what exactly happened during the ride.

We ask [people] to remember everything they can out thereHuman memory starts fading. We just want to know exactly what happened and what did, Dinh-Zarr said. We will also on our own will look at training records, ops manuals to see what policies are in place for this type of run.

TRUMP: AMTRAK DERAILMENT SHOWS NEED FOR INFRASTRUCTURE PLAN

Monday was the first day the train was operating on a new bypass route between Seattle and Portland that was created by refurbishing freight tracks along the major interstate. The $180.7 million project was aimed at speeding up service by bypassing an old route that had a number of curves, single-track tunnels and freight traffic.

But just two weeks before the crash, Lakewood Mayor Don Anderson voiced his concerns about the new route, saying pedestrians and cars were too close to the trains.

Its virtually inevitable that someone is going to get killed that wouldnt be killed otherwise," Anderson said. "This is unacceptable."

Fox News' Shira Bush and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A former California high school student has told police he will no longer lie to cover for an English teacher facing charges for alleged booze-filled sex romps with a minor after the woman reportedly said the teen ruined her life.

Beaumont High teacher Samantha Ciotta, 32, was charged by Riverside County prosecutors Monday with a count of oral copulation with a minor and two counts of sexual intercourse with the underage boy stemming from incidents in June, Patch reported, citing police documents.

"He decided to no longer lie for her," a police document said.

The student told police he at first "tried cover for Ciotta so she would not get in trouble," but changed his mind after she had sex with his 19-year-old friend and said the former student had ruined her life, the documents added.

I'm not f------ talking!" the boy told officers in the past, saying that he had moved on, according to the documents.

SOUTH CAROLINA TEACHER ADMITS TO HAVING SEX WITH 17-YEAR-OLD STUDENT

He later told police he had sexual intercourse with Ciotta five times and that he couldnt remember how many times Ciotta  a mother of two  performed oral sex on him because he was "intoxicated during most of the times," Patch reported, citing court papers.

Court documents reference only one victim but police sources told Patch they are trying to determine if Ciotta engaged in sex with other underage minors.

Police launched an investigation after receiving a tip that she had an affair with a student and a Snapchat video surfaced allegedly showing her in a shirt and panties and sipping alcohol with two shirtless teens, Patch reported, citing police records it obtained.

The news website reported in August that a student at Beaumont High School saw the risque video and asked the teen who posted it if it was Mrs. Ciotta.

YesBro, Im getting in deepbeen f-----g (Ciotta) and getting threesomes for the past couple weeks (at her house), the student allegedly responded.

Police were able to obtain a warrant for Ciottas cell phone and home where they discovered a hand-written note to her husband explaining the relationship with her underage student, as well as the alleged victims school records, Patch had reported.

MARRIED MOTHER-OF-TWO TEACHER, 29, PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO CHARGES OF 'CLASSROOM SEX' WITH HER TEEN BOY STUDENT

According to police documents, the former English teacher took an interest in the then 14-year-old victim described as disruptive while he was failing her freshman class in 2015.

The alleged victims guardian told Patch she first noticed a change in his behavior when he came home with expensive shoes and a new iPhone she now believes were gifts from Ciotta.

The guardian explained she knew something was going on between the student and teacher when Ciotta attacked her during a school meeting about her upbringing of the boy. I told her to stay away from him, the guardian said.

Ciotta's husband, Scott, filed for divorce October 4 and was granted temporary sole custody of their two young children, Patch reported.

Ciotta was arrested on Sept. 20 but is currently free on bond. She is on paid leave from the district and is set to appear in court on Dec. 27.
COLUMBUS  Columbus Public Schools board members took a step Monday evening toward easing the expected pinch on state education funding in the next couple of years by approving a temporary early retirement incentive program for 2017-18.

The board voted 5-0, with member Doug Molczyk absent, to offer certified staff who are contemplating early retirement the choice of shifting their plans to the end of the current school year.

Last week, the board discussed extending the temporary early retirement program for a third straight year. The board initially brought the program out of retirement for the 2015-16 and 2016-17 school years.

District and state officials have been worried that education funding is in jeopardy because of the shape of the states revenue forecast.

CPS put its previous early retirement program in mothballs after the 2012-13 school year when state lawmakers stopped allowing school districts to levy outside the spending lid to fund early retirements.

There are 22 staff members  17 teachers and five administrators  eligible to participate this school year in the retirement program. The oldest staffer would be 66 at the end of 2017-18 with two or three more in their early 60s and the rest in their upper 50s.

To participate in the program, retirees must be at least 55 years old and the sum of the participants age and years of service must total 85 or greater.

CPS will pay each approved employee a $27,000 sum in three installments from September 2018 to September 2020.

In the last two years, the district had six staffers accept early retirement incentives. Prior to this year, CPS had not allowed administrators to participate.

CPS officials said a continuation of the retirement program will allow the district to reduce costs by replacing maximum-salaried employees with staff members who earn less money and provide a better balance of employee experience.

Officials said the average savings per retiring staffer would be $40,000.
A California woman faced her husbands killer in court Tuesday and described how difficult its been to get through each day.

Erica Nelson of Monrovia, Calif., told the court how the death of her husband, Chris, greatly impacted her life and that of their four children, ABC 7 reported.

"The hardest thing for them to give up is their dad," she said during the hearing.

Eduardo Macias Santibanez, 25, of Pasadena, was driving under the influence and speeding when he rear-ended Nelsons car on an Orange Grove Freeway. The crash caused Nelsons car to slam into a center median and authorities believe he died when a second speeding vehicle struck his car.

CALIFORNIA COUPLE TRIED SELLING KIDS FOR MONEY AND DRUGS, POLICE SAY

As part of a plea deal, Santibanez pleaded guilty to driving under the influence and gross vehicular manslaughter.

The widow told Santibanez her four children still asked her where their father was, especially her youngest son, who was 18-month-old at the time of his death.

Nelson and her sister-in-law, Karen Cockrill, said the children did not look forward to the holidays.

"Every day gets worse. It's 667 days without him. Every day it's painful," Karen Cockrill said.

"I hope people will see the effects that someone's selfish decision has and think twice before they drink and drive,"  Erica Nelson said.

Santibanez listened to the widows statement through tears and told her he prayed for her family every day.

Nelson said she believed her husband would still be alive if someone had helped him when he was pinned inside the vehicle.

CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE VICTIMS HELPED BY SALVATION ARMY, RED CROSS

"I believe if someone was able to come to his rescue, officer or some kind of first responder, they could have saved my husband's life. That second accident wouldn't have happened and I wouldn't be standing here today," Nelson said.

The mother said following the crash she was financially and emotionally exhausted. She quit her job and moved to a different home because her old house reminded her too much of her deceased husband.

Outside the courthouse, Nelson told reporters she hoped others would think twice before they drive and drive.

"I hope people will see the effects that someone's selfish decision has, she said, and think twice before they drink and drive."
Erika Crooks remembers the day well. On Memorial Day weekend four years ago, she, her husband and their one-and-a-half-year-old daughter went to a local Target near their home in Elk Grove, Calif., to purchase barbecuing supplies. When they returned, their home was engulfed in flames.

It was like an out-of-body experience, Crooks, 33, told Fox News. You see fires on TV and are desensitized to them. But you never know when it's going to be your home.

It was a last-minute decision that saved Crooks and her family from the flames; she and her husband decided to make the trip to Target a family outing, opposed to one of them staying home with their young daughter, she said.

It was like an out-of-body experience."  Erika Crooks

Crooks family, who had only been living in the house for five months, watched their home burn for roughly seven hours before the fire was contained. The fire marshal on duty that day told Crooks that it was an exterior fire, most likely sparked by something flammable thrown into a trashcan near their home.

I was shocked, frightened and saddened, she said. I wanted to run in and grab pictures and my daughters favorite blanket -- material things that you take for granted.

Crooks family lost a lot that day. But thanks to a $100 gift card from the California Fire Foundations SAVE program, they were able to buy food and pajamas for their daughter that night.

The foundation works with local fire agencies to provide immediate, on-site assistance to families that have suffered a residential loss of at least 25 percent, according to its website.

It also provided assistance to those who were impacted by the wildfires in Southern California, which scorched hundreds of thousands of acres, destroyed more than 1,000 structures and forced more than 200,000 people to evacuate at the height of the fires.

The foundation gave roughly 500 gift cards to Southern Californians who were affected by the wildfires, Lou Paulson, chairman of the California Fire Foundation, told Fox News.



Here's how the wildfire victims have been helped so far.

President Trump approves California's disaster declaration

On Jan. 2, President Trump declared that a "major disaster exists in the state of California." He also ordered federal assistance to supplement state and local recovery efforts in the areas affected by wildfires, mainly in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties where the Thomas Fire has hit the hardest.

Certain non-profit organizations were also eligible to receive funds, according to a statement from the White House.

Trump previously declared a state of emergency in California on Dec. 8, which allowed federal assistance to supplement the state and local response to the fires. His declaration was in response to a letter from California Gov. Jerry Brown. Los Angeles, Ventura, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Riverside counties will receive federal assistance.

More specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency, the emergency management agency said in a statement. Emergency protective measures, including direct federal assistance, was also provided at 75 percent federal funding.

United Way of Ventura County

In a partnership with the American Red Cross of Ventura County and the Ventura County Sheriff's Office of Emergency Services, the United Way of Ventura County started the Thomas Fire Fund to assist community relief efforts in the county, which was primarily been impacted by the Thomas Fire. This wildfire -- which is now the largest in the state's history -- has scorched more than 281,000 acres and destroyed more than 1,000 structures.

Salvation Army

The Salvation Army Ventura Corps accepted food, water and money donations to help those who were impacted by the wildfires, especially those who were evacuated to the Ventura County Fairgrounds.

Up until Dec. 9, the organization served a combined total of 4,619 meals to evacuees at the fairgrounds and at Nordhoff High School in Ojai, Calif., which also served as a temporary evacuation center.

The Red Cross

Roughly 615 people who were forced to leave their homes due to the wildfires sought refuge at the 13 Red Cross community shelters in Southern California.

Go Fund Me

Many individuals started fundraising campaigns on Go Fund Me in light of the wildfires.

California Community Foundations Wildfire Relief Fund

The California Community Foundation's Wildfire Relief Fund provides immediate and long-term wildfire recovery efforts. Since 2003, the fund has raised $3.5 million to support relief and recovery efforts.

More specifically, the fund supports those who have suffered long-term mental or health issues as a result of wildfires, helps to rebuild homes and provides financial assistance to victims, among other things.

L.A. Kitchen

L.A. Kitchen provided meals to firefighters and displaced wildfire victims.

Humane Society of Ventura County

The Humane Society of Ventura County housed more than 100 animals due to the wildfires. At the time, they were in need of basic animal supplies such as: cat food, alfalfa, hay, water troughs, hoses, flashlights and rabbit food.
Two people were arrested after they unknowingly offered to trade four pounds of home grown black-market marijuana for a sheriffs car on Craigslist, police said.

Shawn Langley, 39, and Jane Cravens were arrested when undercover detectives nabbed them for attempting to trade the drugs for the vehicle, KDVR reported.

The incident began when Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell listed his car for sale on Craigslist.

He was pinged an offer, but didnt get a monetary amount he wanted. Instead, Langley, who didn't know he was talking to a sheriff, offered home grown black-market marijuana in exchange for the vehicle. The 39-year-old even texted photos of the drug to the sheriff.

Mikesell contacted the police department and had two undercover detectives meet Langley.
The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it has released a pregnant 19-year-old illegal immigrant from custody so that she may get an abortion on her own terms.

The woman, identified in court papers by the pseudonym Jane Roe, was released on her own her own recognizance so that the abortion she sought to have would not be funded with taxpayer money, the Washington Times reported.

The woman, identified in court papers by the pseudonym Jane Roe, was released on her own her own recognizance so that the abortion she sought to have would not be funded with taxpayer money.

According to the Times, when she was arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border, she falsely claimed to be 17 in order to be eligible for lenient treatment. She reportedly kept up the lie during the entire time she was in government custody.

When a government-provided doctor informed her last month that she was pregnant and in her second trimester, she demanded a facilitated abortion, the report said.

It is not clear how Ms. Roe was able to mislead Homeland Security about her age or if she will face penalties for lying under oath to the court.

Click here for more from the Washington Times.
A 5-year-old Chicago boy who was shot in the face last year while walking down a street has been hurt by gunfire again, this time accidentally shooting himself in the hand on Tuesday, police said.

Kavan Collins was handling a gun in the South Chicago neighborhood when it discharged. He was taken to a local childrens hospital, where he is in good condition, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

It was not immediately clear why he was holding a gun, and officers are questioning a man in connection with the incident, police told the newspaper.

Collins was walking down a block in Chicago's South Side last June 2016 with his mother, brother and family friend when he was hit in the face by a stray bullet.

"He was with his mother, and it wasn't like I was doing something wrong, having him out after hours," his mother D'Antignay Brashear told The Associated Press after that shooting. "I thought he was safe."

He was seriously wounded in that episode, but has since recovered.

Elsewhere in Chicago, police said Monday that they are looking for at least two suspects in the slaying of a 15-year-old boy who was shot in the head while delivering newspapers with his stepfather.

Anthony Riccio, chief of the bureau of organized crime, said police believe Brian Jasso's death Sunday morning may have been a case of mistaken identity and Jasso was shot as part of a gang war he had nothing to do with. Police say neither the teen nor his stepdad had any gang affiliations or arrests.

Riccio said witnesses told police that the boy's stepfather was at a stop sign when a white van appeared to accelerate and strike his car. He says the van flashed its bright lights in an apparent signal to pull over. But the stepfather sensed something wrong and when he drove away a passenger in the van opened fire with a handgun.

The boy's stepdad is an independent contractor who delivers the Tribune and other newspapers.

Chicago Tribune publisher and editor Bruce Dold says the newspaper is "saddened and stunned by the news."

Last week, the Department of Justice announced that Chicago's U.S. attorney's office is getting additional staff prosecutors so it can do more to reduce violent crime.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said a total of 40 new prosecutors will be distributed among 27 locations. Most will receive just one, including the southern district of Indiana and the western district of Michigan. The Chicago-based northern district of Illinois will get three, as will a district of Maryland, according to the DOJ.

President Donald Trump has criticized Chicago for high rates of gun violence, while city officials contest that Trump oversimplifies the problem.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A lawyer for an inmate who disappeared 20 years ago from a federal prison in Pennsylvania says his client intends to plead guilty to an escape charge.

Public defender Thomas Livingston tells The Erie Times-News about Ghassan Saleh's plans after the 66-year-old man was arraigned Tuesday. But he didn't say when the plea would be entered.

Saleh was arrested last month after flying into New York City from Lebanon, his native country. Federal officials have said Saleh knew he was wanted when he decided to return to the United States.

Saleh was working on a grounds crew when he escaped from the federal prison near Bradford in 1997. He had been serving a sentence of almost six years after being convicted of cocaine trafficking in Michigan.

___

Information from: Erie Times-News, http://www.goerie.com
A federal judge declared a mistrial Wednesday in the case of a Nevada rancher accused of leading an armed standoff against the government in 2014, blaming prosecutors for withholding key evidence from defense lawyers, including records about the conduct of FBI and Bureau of Land Management agents.

Chief U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro in Las Vegas dismissed a jury seated last month for the long-awaited trial of Cliven Bundy, his sons Ryan and Ammon Bundy and self-styled Montana militia leader Ryan Payne.

The decision is the latest in a string of failed prosecutions in Nevada and Oregon against those who have opposed federal control of vast swaths of land in Western states.

Jurors acquitted the two Bundy sons of taking over a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon for more than a month in early 2016 and amid calls for the U.S. government to turn over public land to local control.

In the Nevada case, Navarro faulted federal prosecutors for failing to turn over all evidence to defense attorneys.

"The government is obligated to disclose all evidence that might be favorable" to the defense, the judge said.

The case stemmed from an armed confrontation that capped a decades long dispute over Cliven Bundy's refusal to pay grazing fees. The 71-year-old rancher says his family has grazed cattle for more than a century in the area and insists public land belongs to states, not the U.S. government.

CLIVEN BUNDY REFUSES TO LEAVE JAIL AMID ONGOING TRIAL

Government agents began rounding up his cattle. The four on trial were accused of enlisting armed gunmen to force government agents to abandon the effort.

The judge had hinted last week that trouble was afoot. She sent the jury home to review sealed documents following closed-door hearings over complaints about the conduct of FBI and Bureau of Land Management agents during the standoff.

Jurors got a glimpse of the claims when Ryan Bundy, who represented himself, spoke at opening statements about seeing government snipers and surveillance cameras positioned on hilltops surrounding his family home in the days before armed supporters answered his family's calls for help.

A whistleblower memo by a lead U.S. Bureau of Land Management investigator that was released last week alleges widespread bad judgment, bias and misconduct, as well as "likely policy, ethical and legal violations among senior and supervisory staff" in the days leading up to the standoff.

The memo said agents who planned and oversaw the cattle roundup mocked and displayed clear prejudice against the Bundys, their supporters and Mormons.

The investigator, Larry Wooten, said he was removed from the investigation last February after he complained to the U.S. attorney's office in Nevada.

The judge freed the Bundy sons and Payne to house arrest during the trial after nearly two years in jail. Cliven Bundy refused the judge's offer, with his lawyer saying the patriarch was holding out for acquittal.

"A mistrial is a very bad result for the government," Ian Bartrum, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas, law professor who has followed the case closely told the Associated Press.

Bartrum had cast the trial as a test of whether the federal government could enforce its own land policy in Western states where it owns or controls vast expanses.

Acting U.S. Attorney Steven Myhre had no immediate answer when asked by the Associated Press about whether prosecutors would retry the case, but according to Reuters, a new trial date was set for Feb. 26, 2018.

In a new trial, the Bundys and Payne still would face 15 felony charges including assault and threats against federal officers, firearms counts, obstruction and extortion.

Prosecutors also failed to win full convictions against others at the tense confrontation near Bunkerville, about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

Six men who acknowledged carrying assault-style weapons faced a trial and a retrial. Two were acquitted, two were convicted of some charges and two are free after pleading guilty to misdemeanors to avoid a third trial. None was found guilty of conspiracy.

Payne had pleaded guilty in July 2016 to a felony conspiracy charge before trial in the armed takeover of the Oregon wildlife refuge. He's now fighting to withdraw his plea and his expected sentence of more than three years in prison.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More than 90 percent of top U.S. colleges have policies regulating campus free speech, with one-third applying severely restrictive policies, according to a recent study.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) reported Tuesday that more than half of the 461 schools included in its annual year-end study limit free speech in some way.

"Despite the critical importance of free speech on campus, too many universities  in policy and in practice  chill, censor and punish students and faculty members expressive activity," the study said. "One way that universities do this is through the use of speech codes: policies prohibiting speech that, outside the bounds of campus, would be protected by the First Amendment."

However, the study also found that for the 10th year in a row, the percentage of "red light" schools -- institutions FIRE says have severely restrictive policies -- has declined. And the group reported that an unprecedented number of schools have removed all of their speech codes, earning them a "green light" rating.

The majority of institutions surveyed -- 58.6 percent -- earned a "yellow light" rating, which means their policies "still chill or outright prohibit protected speech."

"We are happy to see that fewer schools are maintaining the most restrictive types of speech codes, but the fact that 90 percent of schools maintain a speech code of some kind is still a significant problem for free speech."  Samantha Harris, vice president of policy research at FIRE

In its analysis, FIRE noted a difference in free speech at public universities versus private ones. The First Amendment generally does not apply to students at private colleges because its regulates government  not private  conduct, according to FIRE.

The group claims that while "most private universities explicitly promise freedom of speech and academic freedom," their policies often contradict such statements.

FIRE cites a 2017 statement from Georgetown University in which the school declares its commitment to free speech.

"As an institution of higher education, one specifically committed to the Catholic and Jesuit tradition, Georgetown University is committed to free and open inquiry, deliberation and debate in all matters, and the untrammeled verbal and nonverbal expression of ideas," the university said in a June 2017 statement. "It is Georgetown Universitys policy to provide all members of the university community, including faculty, students and staff, the broadest possible latitude to speak, write, listen, challenge and learn."

However, Georgetown is labeled "red light" school by FIRE. The school has a ban on any language that disrespects individuals there: a "civility" requirement in the student code of conduct that FIRE deems restrictive to free speech. But all other policies at Georgetown are considered "yellow light" by FIRE.

Other schools deemed "red light" include American University, Boston College, the University of Notre Dame, Harvard, Wesleyan, the University of Texas at Austin, Rice University and Pennsylvania State University  University Park.

Schools listed as "yellow light" include Amherst College, Brown, Columbia and several state schools, like Colorado State University. "Green light" schools include University of Chicago, the University of Florida and Duke.

"We are happy to see that fewer schools are maintaining the most restrictive types of speech codes, but the fact that 90 percent of schools maintain a speech code of some kind is still a significant problem for free speech," Samantha Harris, vice president of policy research at FIRE, said Wednesday.

"In the coming year, we hope to work with more schools to eliminate their speech codes altogether," Harris said.
Salvation Army officials in Wisconsin are keeping dozens of donation kettles closed until police track down an agitated former employee who threatened two workers at knife point onTuesday.

The ex-employee confronted a red kettle worker and a Salvation Army representative outside a Walgreens store in Brown Deer, located just outside of Milwaukee, according to Steve Merritt, who supervises operations in the region.

"The man became quite agitated and pulled out a knife and waved it around," Merritt told Fox 6, after the man was asked to leave.

Salvation Army officials said in a news release that no money was taken, but the suspect also called The Salvation Army of Milwaukee County's Citadel Corps to threaten an officer working there.

"We care about this individual. We want to help him. Right now, the best thing that can happen for him is the police find him and get him the care he needs," Merritt told Fox 6.

Officials said 40 of 200 kettles in the Milwaukee area will remain closed until the man  who was not identified  is tracked down by police.

The kettles altogether pull in around $5,000 to $6,500 a day, the organization said.

"This is a crucial fundraising time for us, with only four bell ringing days to go," the organization said in a news release. "As of December 19, the Red Kettle Campaign has brought in $2.2 million. The Red Kettle Campaign goal for the 2017 Christmas season is $3.8 million. Although the bell ringers will stop collecting donations on December 23, the Red Kettle Campaign will continue on until January 31, 2018.

The decision to pull the bell ringers comes after other crimes in the Milwaukee area targeting the group's efforts. In late November, a group of thieves were caught on surveillance cameras walking away with a Salvation Army Red Kettle from outside a grocery store, according to FOX 6.
Police in Columbia, South Carolina, are thankful for some civilian assistance given to an officer who was trying to arrest a combative suspect on Thursday.

A video posted on Facebook shows a female Columbia officer trying to arrest an aggressive man at a convenience store. The officer can be heard telling the man to get on the ground as she pulls out her stun gun.

However, the man does not obey and receives a stun-gun jolt.

After that, the two tussle as the man continues to ignore the officers demands despite being hit with Mace.

A civilian assist helps tackle the man so the officer can apply cuffs.

A spokesperson from the Columbia Police Department told FOX 57 they are thankful for the good Samaritan helping hand.

The name of the suspect has not been released, but charges are reportedly forthcoming.
The massive fire burning in Southern California is now the second-largest blaze in the history of the state, as crews are braced for the return of potentially dangerous gusts on Wednesday that could revive the flames.

Officials estimate the Thomas Fire will grow to become the biggest in California history before full containment, which is expected by Jan. 7.

The devastating fire that began on Dec. 4 has killed at least two people including a firefighter. It's destroyed at least 750 homes and burned about 425 square miles in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

Over the past two weeks, the fire has burned hundreds of homes in coastal mountains northwest of Los Angeles and threatens 18,000 structures. As of Tuesday, 432 people were still staying at evacuation shelters run by the Red Cross, agency spokeswoman Georgia Duncan said.

The fire, which is only 55 percent contained as of Wednesday, is only about 1,200 acres smaller than the states largest fire. That blaze, the 2003 Cedar fire in San Diego, killed 15 people.

SANTA ANA WINDS: WHAT ARE THEY?

State fire officials said the Thomas Fire is slightly larger than the 2012 Rush fire in Lassen County.

Crews used calmer conditions over the past two days to build containment lines and set controlled fires to clear dry brush ahead of so-called sundowner winds expected to whip up Wednesday afternoon.

Firefighters have been working hard for the last 3 days to prep for tomorrow, Capt. Steve Concialdi of the Orange County Fire Authority told the Los Angeles Times. We are confident."

THOMAS FIRE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA JOINS LIST OF DESTRUCTIVE BLAZES IN THE STATE

The county of Ventura, city of Santa Paula, city of Ojai and city of Ventura have proclaimed local emergencies, FOX 11 reported.

There is still concern for areas above the coastal Santa Barbara County communities, including Santa Barbara, Montecito, and Summerland, according to FOX 11.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Armed with a new state law that gives them more enforcement teeth, school officials in Texas are stepping up their fight against online bullying.

In the past, their authority had a more concrete limit  the beginning and end of the school day. Now, school officials can discipline students for messages they send sitting in their own bedroom.

With the legislation, if anything occurs outside the school setting, but it interferes with the education environment of the student during the school day, even though it occurred outside school hours, it can be addressed, said Manuel Castruita, who runs counseling for the El Paso Independent School District.

Davids law, as the bill is called, was enacted this school year and EPISD has already used it to address bullying dozens of times. The bill cruised through both houses, passing 130 to 11 in the house and 31 to 0 in the Senate.

Castruita said the bill allows schools to take a big brother approach to bullying, but could ultimately improve a childs life and school experience. There is strong support for the bill  but its still unclear how effective it will be.

I dont want my child to be bullied when shes at home and have to miss school because theyre sending her messages through the Internet or social media, said Hugo Jaramillo, a parent of a middle school student.

However, Jaramillo doesnt want administrators overstepping his parental rights.

Many students also say they are in favor of the bill.

Luis Meraz, an eighth grade student, said bullying happens frequently but isnt reported so people think it happens less often than it actually does.

I think they should get involved, due to the fact that it could save somebodies life one day, Meraz said.

Davids law addresses many of those issues. The law requires districts to set up a policy for reporting bullying and makes counseling available for students. It also requires administrators to inform the parents of both the bully and the victim about incidents.

The law also changes how schools investigate bullying. In the past, counselors could only investigate and build a case against someone they are told is bullying. Now administrators investigate can scroll through public social media messages to see who is acting aggressively against others.

As students engage in behaviors, whether theyre appropriate or not, many times theyre not realizing the consequences that can come with that, said Castruita.

The bill also makes it a misdemeanor to tell students to harm or kill themselves.

Theres some kids out there that are at a breaking point and once somebody says to go kill themselves, thats what they do, said student Orlando Martinez.

Martinez admits hes been both the bully and the victim. Hes being raised by his grandmother, who said administrators need to get involved outside of school because sometimes, the parents are the problem.

The kids mimic what they see at home, said Sandra Negrette.
At least one real-life Scrooge has been wreaking havoc on Christmas preparations in the New York City suburbs by stealing Toys for Tots donations.

Police said toys intended for children in need have been swiped this week from a Toys R Us in White Plains and a Toys R Us and Modells store in Yonkers.

"I have no tolerance for someone that's going to steal from children," Stephen Topilnycky, the Westchester County coordinator for Toys for Tots, told Fox 5.

Toys for Tots has sent warnings to donation sites, alerting them to a scam in which callers claim they are from the organization and show up to collect the toys.

Some of the stolen toys have been recovered and Yonkers police are currently questioning two persons of interest, but no charges have been filed, according to Fox 5.
The University of Michigan became the latest public university to host a special workshop for white employees who feel uncomfortable confronting race relations on campus because of the color of their skin.

During a two-day professional development conference earlier this month, UM staff members were asked to attend a session titled The Conversations on Whiteness, the College Fix reported.

Do you feel uncomfortable as a white person engaging with students or colleagues about social justice issues? They were asked. Do you want to help students and staff as they work through the difficulty of campus climate issues related to race, but dont know how?

DARTMOUTH COLLEGE TO HOST WHATS UP WITH WHITE PEOPLE? EVENT

The university website says that the goal was to help attendees in unpacking whiteness to assist students and staff with issues related to identity and social justice.

During the universitys Student Life Professional Development Conference, participants used the Privileged Identity Exploration Model (PIE) to recognize the difficulties they face when talking about social justice issues related to their white identity, explore this discomfort, and devise ways to work through it.

The PIE model identifies eight defense modes associated with behaviors individuals display when engaged in difficult dialogues about social justice issues, wrote Sherry Watt, a University of Iowa professor who developed the model as a way to identify how much privilege people have.

Some of the defense modes include: denial, deflection, rationalization, and false envy.

According to the PIE model, privileged identities include not only racial (white), but also sexual (heterosexual), gender (male), and ability (able-bodied) identity.

Another session was titled I Dont Feel Safe Talking About Race, which focused on giving staff tools to create a safer climate to promote dialogue around racial issues.

It was an internal training for U-M Student Life staff, a spokesperson for the University of Michigan told Fox News when asked for comment.

U OF MICHIGAN PRESIDENT TRASH-TALKED TRUMP BEFORE, AFTER ELECTION, EMAILS REVEAL

UM President Mark Schlissel announced last month that the school is in open discussion with white supremacist Richard Spencer on his request to speak on campus, but no date has been set.
A Wisconsin man who sent an anti-government manifesto to President Trump and confessed to stealing a huge cache of firearms was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison Wednesday  but not before he cursed out the judge and threatened to commit even more crimes.

Joseph Jakubowski, 33, had asked U.S. District Judge William Conley either to free him or to give him a death sentence. In court Wednesday, he said in a profanity-laced back and forth with the judge that he rejected rules and the law. "I don't care about your damned laws. (Expletive) the laws, (expletive) the rules and (expletive) you too."

Jakubowski faced 20 years in federal prison after he was convicted in September of two weapons charges stemming from an April 4 theft at Armageddon Supplies in Janesville. Police said he then torched his car and disappeared, setting off a frantic 10-day manhunt.

Investigators argued during his trial that Jakubowski broke into the store, stole 18 guns, two silencers and ammunition, and mailed his manifesto to the White House on the same day.

WISCONSIN MAN WHO SENT MANIFESTO TO TRUMP, CLAIMS HE 'DOESN'T KNOW' WHERE STOLEN GUNS ARE

The 161-page manifesto allegedly made references to health insurance, taxes, and religion, WTMJ-TV reported in April.

"We the people should be out for these sick minded people belonging to the system! We need to spill their blood!" Jakubowski reportedly wrote.

He also allegedly said: "I have never been a thief! I hate thieves! However since this system has stolen my natural right to protect and defend life..this system has left me no choice but to commit crime to have the means to protect life!"

Rock County Sheriff Richard Spoden said Jakubowskis manifesto also included threats against public officials and schools.

Amid the manhunt for Jakubowski, law enforcement officials ordered a stronger security detail for House Speaker Paul Ryan  who hails from the city of Janesville, where the manhunt took place  and his family.

JOSEPH JAKUBOWSKI, WANTED IN WEAPONS THEFTS, THREATENING MANIFESTO, IS ARRESTED

The gun store owner told the judge Wednesday that he wanted the 14 firearms that are still missing to be returned, but Jakubowski said that wont happen.

In May, Jakubowski told WTMJ that the weapons are buried and he doesnt know where they are.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Fitbit murder suspect, who's been charged in the shooting of his wife at their Connecticut home in 2015, was slapped with a wrongful death lawsuit by the slain womans sister last month.

Marliese Shaw, the sister of Connie Dabate and executor of her estate, filed a claim against her brother-in-law Richard Dabate, The Associated Press reported, citing The Journal Inquirer. The suit, which was filed on Nov. 22, is seeking unspecified monetary damages. Shaw also asked a probate judge to order Dabate to return more than $70,000 allegedly taken from his wifes estate after she died.

Dabate became a prime suspect in his wifes murder amid discrepancies in his alibi. Police examined the womans Fitbit tracker and discovered that she had logged steps after the time Dabate claimed she was killed in December 2015.

MURDER CASE CRACKED BY FITBIT: CONNECTICUT SUSPECT ENTERS PLEA

Dabate had told authorities that an intruder entered their home in Ellington and shot his wife. The assailant then tried to overpower Dabate, he claimed, but he was able to fight back. He said he ultimately burned the intruder with a torch before alerting investigators as the man escaped.

But detectives found no signs of a struggle or forced entry, and police dogs didnt detect another persons scent. Additionally, an email Dabate said he sent from his car was actually sent from his home laptop, further causing investigators to question his story.

Cops said Dabate also had a pregnant girlfriend, and told her that he and his wife were divorcing.

FITBIT LOGS WIFES STEPS AFTER HUSBAND SAYS SHE DIED, POLICE SAY

The suspect was charged with murder, tampering with evidence and making a false statement regarding the death of his 39-year-old wife.

He pleaded not guilty and was released from custody on a $1 million bail.

According to the Hartford Courant, Shaws wrongful death claim can only be petitioned by the executor of someones estate. She was reportedly given control in May after the suspect allegedly demonstrated questionable behavior regarding his deceased wifes estate, including removing certain assets.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The first wrongful death civil lawsuit in connection to the murders of four young men whose bodies were found on a Pennsylvania farm earlier this year was filed on Wednesday.

The lawsuit filed on behalf of the family of 22-year-old Mark Sturgis names the cousins charged in the deaths, Cosmo DiNardo and Sean Kratz, in addition to DiNardo's parents, Sandra and Antonio DiNardo, who own the farm where the bodies were discovered in July.

With this lawsuit, the heartbroken parents of Mark Sturgis intend to hold accountable everyone responsible for the horrific death of their son, not just those who pulled the trigger, attorney Robert Ross said in a statement to FOX 29. This includes those who negligently and carelessly permitted either of the accused to gain access to firearms and equipment used in these heinous crimes.

The lawsuit alleges that DiNardo used a Smith and Wesson 357 owned by and registered to his mother to kill Sturgis, and that DiNardos parents failed to secure the handgun despite their sons history of mental illness.

COSMO DINARDO, COUSIN, PLEAD NOT GUILTY IN GRUESOME PENNSYLVANIA MURDERS

The suit also alleges that DiNardos parents created a dangerous environment on their family farm by allowing their son access to the property, as well as the equipment on it.

DiNardo and Kratz pleaded not guilty last Thursday to multiple charges of murder and corpse abuse in the July killings. DiNardo is charged in four of the deaths, and Kratz is charged in three.

Neither of the cousins, who are 20 years old, spoke about the case during their separate arraignments, which drew dozens of the victims' friends and family members.

The not guilty pleas at the arraignments came days after authorities filed court documents that would allow them to pursue the death penalty for both of the cousins.

PENNSYLVANIA MURDERS: MAN CHARGED IN DEATHS OF 4 MEN WAIVES PRELIMINARY HEARING

DiNardo's attorneys have said he admitted killing the men and told authorities where to find one of the bodies in exchange for prosecutors agreeing not to seek capital punishment.

Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said last week that prosecutors are still "on track" to reach a deal with DiNardo.

"We made an agreement with Cosmo DiNardo. We're the district attorney's office: We honor our agreements," he told reporters. "So should Mr. DiNardo decide to uphold his end of the bargain, we will not seek the death penalty against him."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A YouTube host in California was sentenced to no jail time on Monday for having sex with a 12-year-old girl he met online last year.

The host, Jeff Calica, 20, of Ventura County, pleaded guilty to one count of committing lewd acts with a minor in October as part of a plea deal and was sentenced to no jail time, but must register as a sex offender for his whole life, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Superior Court Judge Michael Washington warned Calica that if he violated his probation he would receive up to three years in prison. The man originally faced up to eight years in state prison, but was instead given three years' probation as part of the plea bargain, NBC San Diego reported.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIAS THOMAS FIRE, NOW 2ND-LARGEST IN STATE HISTORY, MAY FLARE UP WITH NEW WINDS

"You'll be in adult prison for child molestation," Washington told Calica in court. "And as you might be aware, that's not the type of charge that you're going to want to find yourself in prison for."

Calica was ordered to stay off sites that teenagers normally visit, including Google Hangouts.

The victim reportedly met Calica online through his YouTube channel. The girl messaged Calica and the two formed a relationship. The girl reportedly used computers at Earl Warren Middle School in Solana Beach to communicate with Calica.

The two met in December 2016 and January of this year and had sex in his car in the middle school parking lot.

CALIFORNIA TEEN SAYS HE HAD BOOZE-FILLED SEX ROMPS WITH MARRIED ENGLISH TEACHER, COPS SAY

The victims family filed a civil lawsuit against Calica following the decision. Her school district, the San Dieguito Union High School District, was also named in the suit. The victims mother wrote a letter for court and said that Calicas actions have turned our lives upside down and caused a happy little girls life to be ripped out from under her feet and put into a tailspin of depression, isolation and bitterness.

The victims mother called Calicas sentencing not punishment.

Its like giving a child a timeout with no severe consequences, she wrote.

The girl was not required to testify and Calica did not make a statement in court Monday.
Nikki Haley, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, said that based on a new report by the U.N. Secretary General, new pressure on Irans continued behavior could lead to a new resolution against the Tehran regime or the strengthening present ones.

Haley was speaking Tuesday at a briefing on the Security Council resolution 2231 that endorsed the Iran nuclear deal in 2015. Haley warned the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps could be included for its many violations.

Haley told the council that the report by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was the most damning to date on Resolution 2231. Based on the U.N. report, we have an opportunity to confront the Iranian regime for its actions that are clearly in violation of Security Council resolutions. The international community must demonstrate that we are committed to ensuring accountability for the full spectrum of Irans malign behavior. The Security Council must follow through on the violations listed in the Secretary-Generals report.

Haley called on members not to ignore violations when dealing with Iran. She noted that the report mentioned Irans illegal transfer of weapons, which was a violation of the resolution, and said for its part, the administration shared intelligence of the highest standards of evidence and methodology, with the reports authors.

Haley noted that the report pointed to evidence that missiles recently launched at Saudi Arabia by Houthis rebels in Yemen had the hallmarks of Iranian ones.

Haley said that while the report devoted a lot of space to Iranian compliance with the nuclear deal, there was a distinction between the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and Resolution 2231  the JCPOA she said doesnt directly address non-nuclear behavior while the resolution does. She said others must uphold its obligations to the deal. We must not allow ourselves to be held hostage to the nuclear agreement or treat Iran any different than we would any other country violating a resolution.

Russias representative at the meeting Vladimir Safronkov said his country supported the nuclear deal and objected to its being taken hostage to internal political processes.

Also at the meeting Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman said the International Atomic Energy Agency had said that for the ninth time since January 2016 that Iran is adhering to its nuclear-related commitments.

He said the U.N. was still analyzing the ballistic missiles launched against Saudi Arabia, but in its preliminary analysis the missiles had similar features to the Iranian Qiam-1 and, among other things, had castings similar to that of an Iranian entity on a 2231 sanctions list.

Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior Iran analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington D.C., said Iranian behavior has not been moderated and said by his estimations Iran had launched up to 23 ballistic missiles since the concluding of the JCPOA.

Ben Taleblu said, A close look at Irans behavior since that resolution was passed reveals a flagrant disregard by Tehran for both the letter and spirit of this U.N. resolution. This disregard should dampen the illusions harbored by those who hope the JCPOA nuclear deal can moderate Iranian behavior.

A national security advisor close to the White House told Fox News that this all ties in with the President Donald Trumps new National Security Strategy. There's a reason the Trump administration was set on creating its NSS in the first year, much earlier than previous administrations have managed, and that's because they wanted to make sure the president's vision and sensibility about the world was incorporated into the rest of the U.S.'s strategies. One of those places is with Iran, where there will be a comprehensive strategy addressing what Ambassador Haley is already working to sensitize people to.
The Nebraska Public Service Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to deny TransCanada's motion to amend its application to the alternative route through the state for its proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

The decision did little to settle the battle between those working to get the pipeline built and those seeking to block it.

Those against it hope an appeal, which could result in TransCanada needing to restart the application process, will cause the company to rethink and shelve the project altogether.

Omaha attorney David Domina, who represents landowners who oppose the pipeline, said in a lot of ways it was "the best possible outcome" of the proceedings.

"We got today exactly what we wanted," he said.

Commissioners approved the pipeline last month, but not the company's preferred route through Nebraska, the one for which it had applied.

"What that means is that TransCanda is stuck with a 3-2 vote that approved a route that the company never applied for," Domina said Tuesday.

At a hearing a week ago, TransCanada's attorney, James Powers of Omaha, told commissioners they could resolve any questions over whether they overstepped jurisdiction or deprived landowners and other groups due process by allowing TransCanada to amend its application to the alternative route.

Then, the commission could issue a new final order.

But, on Tuesday, the Public Service Commission voted against the move, setting up an all-but-certain legal fight before the Nebraska Supreme Court that will delay the project several months, possibly a year.

And, if an appeals court finds an issue with the PSC's decision to approve an alternative route, TransCanada could find itself back at square one.

Robynn Tysver, a spokeswoman for the company, said it is going to take some time to review Tuesday's decision and determine the appropriate next step.

"Keystone XL remains a viable project with strong commercial support and we remain committed to this project," she wrote in an email. "It is important to remember that this project enjoys widespread support within the U.S. and Canadian federal governments, as well as state officials in Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska. President Trump and his administration continue to actively support Keystone XL and we expect to secure final federal permits in early 2018."

Bold Nebraska founder Jane Kleeb said TransCanada knows it's on shaky ground with the route that was approved by the PSC, but never approved by the U.S. State Department, which puts the federal permit in question.

"So now the route that TransCanada did not want  which still crosses the Ogallala aquifer and fragile Sandhills  is the route that they're technically stuck with," she said in an email.

Kleeb said Bold Nebraska will continue to organize landowner resistance inside the new route.

Outside the hearing room, Ken Winston of Lincoln, attorney for the Sierra Club, said the fact that TransCanada didn't get its preferred route means now there are new landowners, environmental issues and legal issues that need to be addressed.

"It (the pipeline) never was a good idea, and it's getting to be a worse idea. We certainly hope that they would reach that conclusion, that this is not in their best interest," he said of TransCanada.

Winston said it's the Sierra Club's position that TransCanada's application should be denied on its face.

"We're moving toward much more efficient energy usage," he said. "Pipelines are no longer needed. It's a bad idea to continue to invest in fossil fuel infrastructure."

Winston said the Sierra Club has been fighting the Keystone XL from the beginning "and we will continue to fight it until it is finally stopped.

TransCanada's 275-mile preferred route was the focus of a court-style hearing in August, but on Nov. 20, the PSC opted for a slightly longer route known as the "mainline alternative."

That route would cut farther east, then run parallel with the existing Keystone pipeline for about 95 miles. It would cross 11 counties: Keya Paha, Boyd, Holt, Antelope, Madison, Stanton, Colfax, Butler, Seward, Saline and Jefferson.

The pipeline would move Canadian oil bound for the U.S. Gulf Coast from Hardisty, Alberta, to a terminus at Steele City, Nebraska.
The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemens Shiite rebels announced it intercepted a missile fired over southern Riyadh Tuesday, while the Yemeni rebels said they targeted the royal palace in the kingdoms capital.

U.S. officials at the Pentagon confirmed to Fox News Saudi Arabias report that the Houthi missile was shot down successfully.

While we dont yet have sufficient insight into this particular attack, it bears all the hallmarks of previous attacks using Iranian-provided weapons. It is only a matter of time before one of these missiles hits the target. If we dont do something, we will miss the opportunity to prevent further violence from Iran, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday. This is the secretary-generals fourth report on the Iranian regimes lack of full compliance with Resolution 2231. And it is the most damning report yet. This report makes the case that Iran is illegally transferring weapons.

Saudi state TV broadcast the announcement by the coalition as people who lived in the area posted videos on social media showing a small cloud of smoke in the sky. The Washington Post reported witnesses hearing a loud boom at the time.

The report said no damage was caused by the intercepted missile.

CIA CHIEF POMPEO MEETS WITH KING SALMAN IN SAUDI ARABIA

This is the second missile attack fired by the Houthis to target Saudis capital since Nov. 4. Last months attack targeted Riyadhs airport but was also intercepted.

Mohammed Abdul-Salam, the spokesman for the Shiite rebels also known as Houthis, said they fired a ballistic missile targeting the Yamama Palace. The palace is where the Saudi monarch, King Salman, received visiting foreign dignitaries and top Saudi officials.

Residents of Riyadh posted videos on social media showing a small cloud of smoke in the sky after hearing a loud explosion over their homes and while driving.

In Yemen, Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Salam said the group targeted the Yamama Palace. He tweeted that a ballistic Volcano H-2 missile was used in the attack.

In the episode last month, the Houthis targeted Saudi Arabias international airport in Riyadh, and Saudi Air Defense said it was intercepted. However, a New York Times analysis of photos and videos from the attack found that the missile may have actually come apart because of its speed and force.

Saudi Arabia has the U.S.-made Patriot surface-to-air anti-missile system, which President Donald Trump credited for bringing the Nov. 4 missile down.

In the almost three years that the Saudi-led coalition has waged war with Yemens rebels, dozens of other missiles have been fired by the Houthis across the border into Saudi Arabia, reaching as far as some border towns. There have been casualties among local residents in those attacks.

Earlier this month, the Houthis claimed they fired a missile at an under-construction nuclear plant in the United Arab Emirates, which is part of the Saudi coalition battling the militant group in Yemen. The UAE, however, denied that a missile had been fired.

IRANIAN MISSILES GOING TO REBELS IN YEMEN POSE A DANGER TO OUR ALLY SAUDI ARABIA

The Saudi-led coalition has been at war with the Houthis since March 2015. The Houthis, who are allied with Saudi Arabias rival, Iran, have forced into exile the Saudi-backed and internationally recognized government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

Despite a fierce air campaign against the Houthis, the rebels still largely control the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, and much of the countrys north along the border with Saudi Arabia.

Earlier this month, the Houthis killed Yemens former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, after he switched alliances and struck deals with the Saudi-led coalition.

Yemens war has killed more than 10,000 civilians and driven millions to the brink of famine.

Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The United Nations humanitarian agency says six aid workers who went missing after clashes broke out in South Sudan days ago have returned safely.

The U.N. statement on Wednesday says the workers are with two international groups, HealthNet and Solidarity International, and one local aid group.

Solidarity International's country director, Mainul Islam Opu from Bangladesh, is the only foreigner among them. The rest are South Sudanese nationals.

South Sudan's government had blamed the opposition for the abductions. The opposition had confirmed it was holding four of the aid workers after rescuing them from being used as "human shields" by the government.

The workers disappeared Sunday when fighting erupted near the northwestern town of Raga.

The fighting comes as peace talks on South Sudan's civil war have started in neighboring Ethiopia.
next Image 1 of 2

prev Image 2 of 2

In Barcelona, Catalonia's cosmopolitan capital, there is no sign of the independent country that the region's former leaders proclaimed with great fanfare nearly two months ago.

The Spanish flag still flies alongside the Catalan one above the regional government building. The square where a jubilant crowd celebrated what it thought was the birth of a new republic is adorned only with Christmas decorations.

The movement's leaders are in jail or have fled the country after staging a brazen Oct. 1 referendum on secession that was declared illegal by Spain's government and highest court.

But as voters return to the polls Thursday  this time to elect a new regional government in an election called by Spain as a way out of the crisis  Catalonia has been left deeply polarized by this fall's dramatic events.

Friendships have been broken, families split. Many Catalans who had mixed feelings about independence, or didn't care about the issue much, now feel compelled to take a position.

Gabriel Brau, a 50-year-old photographer with little interest in politics, said he will vote for the first time since the 1980s, and it will be for one of the parties that favors independence. Or rather, against those who don't, because he finds them complicit in Spain's crackdown.

During the October referendum, Spanish police using rubber bullets and truncheons against voters and formed human barriers to keep them out of polling stations.

"What happened on Oct. 1 affected me in a powerful way," Brau said. "I was thinking, 'What if they did that to my son?' That is not democracy. ... I don't want these people to govern my country."

The other side has also been galvanized.

Catalans who oppose independence previously kept a low profile. Coming out as a unionist, they say, would have resulted in scorn, insults and even accusations of treason from pro-independence friends and neighbors.

But in the aftermath of the referendum they for the first time gathered for mass rallies similar in size to those achieved by the independence movement.

Cristina Calaco, 51, said she was so appalled by the way the secessionist leaders unilaterally pushed through the referendum, "I wanted to pack my bags and leave Catalonia."

But after seeing unionists with Spanish flags on the streets, she was emboldened to publicly display her allegiance to Spain.

These days, when pro-independence neighbors bang pots and pans in noisy balcony protests, she said she opens her window and shouts "Viva Espana"  long live Spain.

Spain's heavy-handed response may have raised eyebrows in Europe, but it didn't lead to any significant support for Catalan secession. No European Union country has recognized the declaration of independence that Catalonia's parliament adopted on Oct. 27.

On the surface, independence now seems further away than before the referendum. The Spanish government applied never-before-used constitutional powers take direct control of the region. The plan is to restore autonomy after Thursday's election produces a new regional government.

Yet the Catalans supporting a total breakup with Spain now seem more committed than ever, saying the government's tough response showed the true nature of the Spanish state.

"They don't realize how many people they converted," said Ana Pousa, 38, who was born in the northwestern Galicia region but grew up in Catalonia and now hesitates to call herself Spanish.

The movement for secession to a large extent is driven by the notion that Catalonia's history, culture and language make it separate from Spain. It's also about economics: Wealthy Catalonia pays more taxes to Madrid than it gets back in government handouts, something that frustrated many Catalans during the deep recession that started in 2008.

But there is also a sense of victimhood that can be hard to grasp for outsiders. Independence activists, often middle-class intellectuals, say they are being repressed by the Spanish government, drawing parallels to the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, when Catalans were banned from speaking their language in public. On a square in Barcelona this week, some activists even made comparisons to the struggle against apartheid in South Africa.

"There are dynamics, aspects that you can compare: how the state abuses its power," said Heiko Voigts, a 46-year-old South African who married a Catalan. "But I wouldn't compare too much."

Some of the pro-independence leaders are in pre-trial detention for staging the referendum illegally. Others face preliminary charges of rebellion and sedition, among them Carles Puigdemont, the former Catalan regional president who fled to Belgium. He risks up to 30 years in prison if he returns to Spain.

Spain's conservative prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, has rejected questions over the separation of powers prompted by the crackdown, saying his government has no say over the country's independent courts.

His own ministers don't always help him making that case, though. Just this weekend his deputy, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, boasted that the governing party had effectively "beheaded" the independence movement's leadership. Party colleagues later said she meant that only in a political sense.

Thursday's election could see pro-independence parties return to power, or it could yield a new coalition led by parties who want Catalonia to remain in Spain.

Either way, the rift between the two sides is likely to remain deep.

"Now it seems you can't be in the middle and say, 'I don't know what I want,'" Pousa said.

She said while she respects everyone's views, some unionists say awful things like, "I wish (the police) had beaten more people."

She used to think of herself as Galician, Catalan and Spanish all in one, but the situation has made her reconsider her relationship with Spain.

"Hearing myself saying 'I'm Spanish' sounds strange," she said. "Because now it means something different."
Egyptian officials say security forces have clashed with Islamic militants near the airport of the northern Sinai city of el-Arish, killing five of them a day after a missile hit the facility during a visit by the defense and interior ministers.

The officials said an army captain was killed in Wednesday's fighting in olive orchards near the airport. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

The clashes came a day after a missile hit the airport during a previously unannounced visit to el-Arish by Defense Minister Sedki Sobhy and Interior Minister Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar, who is in charge of police.

Egyptian security forces have for years battled Islamic militants in the northern region of the Sinai Peninsula.
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe says he will "assume responsibility" for spending 350,000 euros ($414,000) on a private flight back from a French territory in the South Pacific.

Philippe said Wednesday on RTL Radio that "it's complicated and expensive to travel as prime minister."

Philippe took a commercial flight to New Caledonia earlier this month. For the return, he rented a roomy Airbus A340 for himself and his 60-member delegation instead of traveling on a French military plane that was available.

He said the private flight was his only option for arriving in Paris before President Emmanuel Macron's departed for Algeria the same day. Philippe cited an unwritten rule implying that one of them always must be in France.

The flight's cost has been questioned amid government spending cuts.
Police in Germany have arrested a 29-year-old German man on suspicion of being a member of the Islamic State group and planning an attack with a vehicle.

Federal prosecutors say a tactical response unit arrested the man, identified only as Dasbar W., on Wednesday in the southwest German city of Karlsruhe.

Prosecutors accuse the man of making contact with IS supporters online in April 2015, before he traveled to Iraq in June of that year. He is alleged to have received firearms training and scouted targets for an attack.

Prosecutors say W. returned to Germany in July and planned to use a vehicle to carry out an attack on a site in Karlsruhe. He applied for several jobs as a parcel courier, but was turned down.
Iran's semi-official ISNA news agency says a former vice president has been sentenced to 63 years in prison over misuse of public funds while in office.

The sentence against Hamid Baghaei is the longest for a former official in Iran in decades. Tehran's Justice Department says the verdict was reached on Tuesday.

Baghaei was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's vice president in charge of executive affairs. He was briefly detained in 2015, and his trial on corruption charges began later that year but he wasn't in custody.

In May, Baghaei applied to run for president but was rejected. He has 20 days to appeal.

The verdict comes against the backdrop of frequent criticism by Ahmadinejad and his allies against the judiciary.

Ahmadinejad on Tuesday called Iran's chief justice, Ayatollah Sadegh Amoli Larijani, "incompetent."
Britain's First Secretary of State Damian Green was forced to resign Wednesday after an investigation found that he had made "misleading" and "inaccurate" statements about pornographic images found on a Parliament computer in his office in 2008.

Green, a key ally to Prime Minister Theresa May, denied using pornography on his office computers but acknowledged that he had not been forthcoming in statements he made about the matter last month.

"I accept that I should have been clear in my press statements that police lawyers talked to my lawyers in 2008 about the pornography on the computers, and that the police raised it with me in a subsequent phone call in 2013," Green said in his resignation letter, which was made public Wednesday night.

In a letter to Green, May said a report by her cabinet secretary had cleared him of watching or downloading pornography. However, she added that Green had fallen short of the standards expected of him when he denied police had ever told him that they had found the material in a raid on his office.

"It is therefore with deep regret, and enduring gratitude for the contribution you have made over many years, that I asked you to resign from the Government and have accepted your resignation," May wrote.

Green was a vital political ally who acted as a de facto deputy prime minister and supported May in her difficult Brexit negotiations. His removal will cost her an important supporter as she tries to balance competing visions of Brexit within her Cabinet.

Green had claimed earlier he was the victim of a smear campaign. The pornography was found on his office computer during a police investigation of government leaks.

The Cabinet investigation did not yield a conclusion about sexual misconduct allegations writer Kate Maltby made against Green.

Maltby said Green had "fleetingly" touched her knee during a meeting in a pub and later sent a suggestive text after a picture of her wearing a corset appeared in a newspaper.

The cabinet secretary investigation said it was "not possible to reach a definitive conclusion" on whether Green's behavior with Maltby was appropriate wily, but added that her account was "plausible."

Green is among a number of British politicians who have stepped down or been forced out in recent weeks as a wave of allegations of sexual harassment has surfaced. Last month, Michael Fallon stepped down as defense secretary after a female journalist accused him of trying to kiss her after a lunch meeting in 2003.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Macedonia's main opposition party has announced it will hold daily blockades of border crossings this week to protest the recent arrests of more than two dozen people for their alleged involvement in the violent storming of parliament following the election of a new speaker.

Police said VMRO-DPMNE party supporters planned to the Macedonian border with neighboring Greece from 4-6 p.m. local time (1500-1700 GMT) on Wednesday. Blockades are also planned on the borders with Albania and Bulgaria.

The public prosecutor's office has charged 36 people with posing a "terrorist threat to the constitutional order and security" over the April parliament incursion, which injured more than 100 people. The charges carry a minimum 10-year prison sentence.

The VMRO_DPMNE party says the arrests are unjust and is demanding "freedom for patriots."
The U.N. Security Council is scheduled to vote Thursday on whether to blacklist 10 merchant ships accused of transporting banned items from North Korea -- in violation of sanctions imposed against the rogue nation in September.

If the council reaches a unanimous decision, countries would have to ban the vessels from entering their ports, Reuters reported.

The ships in question include one each from Hong Kong and Togo, plus three from Panama and four from North Korea. The origin of a 10th vessel was unknown, the report said.

The request to the U.N. body was made by the United States.The U.S. contended that the vessels conducted illegal ship-to-ship transfers of refined petroleum products to North Korean vessels or illegally [transported] North Korean coal to other countries for exports, the news agency reported.

In September, the U.N. Security Council barred North Korea from importing natural gas and capped its imports of crude oil in response to Kim Jong Uns nuclear missile program.

South Korean researchers at the Institute for National Security Strategy expect the Hermit Kingdom to feel the impact of the sanctions by March, which would leave many in the country struggling to survive, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported.

The researchers added Kim might use the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, scheduled for February, to strike a dialogue.

In an effort to ease tensions with North Korea ahead of the Olympics, South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday floated the idea of postponing his nation's joint-military exercises with the U.S., which Pyongyang has called a dangerous provocation that may lead to a nuclear war at any moment.

Officials in Seoul on Wednesday said delaying the military exercises would depend on North Koreas behavior during the Olympics, Reuters reported.

However, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Tuesday in Ottawa, Canada, that he had no knowledge of plans to alter longstanding and scheduled and regular military exercises," Reuters reported.

Last week, Tillerson said the U.S. would be open to talks with North Korea about anything. However, Tillerson changed his tune Friday, saying the country must earn its way back to the table, while underscoring Americas commitment to leading the campaign to keep pressure on the rogue nation.

"The pressure campaign must and will continue until denuclearization is achieved. We will in the meantime keep our channels of communication open," Tillerson said.

The United States and Canada said nations from around the world will meet Jan. 16 to show a unified front against North Korea.

Tillerson will meet with Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, as well as diplomats from Japan, South Korea and India, to discuss increasing pressure on North Korea to curb its nuclear ambitions.

Fox News Katherine Lam and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
An American grandmother, an 11-year-old boy, and a couple from Washington state were among 12 people killed in a bus crash in Quintana Roo, Mexico, on Tuesday.

Passengers from Royal Caribbean cruise ships were being transported to the Chacchoben Ruins in Costa Maya, along the eastern coast of Mexico, when the bus overturned.

Authorities have now determined that driver negligence and excessive speed caused the crash. A preliminary manslaughter investigation indicated the driver lost control of the bus and when he tried to get it back on the narrow highway, the bus flipped, struck a tree and landed in vegetation along the roadside, the Associated Press reported.

"We can confirm the death of multiple U.S. citizens in a bus accident in Quintana Roo, Mexico, on December 19, a State Department official said in a statement following the incident. "We are aware of several U.S. citizens injured in the accident."

We express our heartfelt condolences to all those affected by this tragedy. We are in contact with local authorities, and will continue to monitor the situation. We have staff on the scene and at local hospitals to assist victims and loved ones, the official added.

Overall, eight Americans, two Swedes, a Canadian and a Mexican tour guide died in the crash.

Below is what we know so far about the victims.

Fanya Shamis

Fanya Shamis, a 78-year-old grandmother from Coconut Creek, Fla., was among those killed, her grandson, Benjamin Shababo, 18, told the Sun-Sentinel.

He added that other family members were involved in the crash.

We dont have really concrete information, Shababo said. Were all scared. Its just really scary to process this in my head that possibly something really bad happened to them.

Daniel & Anna Behar

Daniel Behar, 11, and his mother, Anna, 46, were both killed in the crash Tuesday.

Anna's mother, and Daniel's grandmother, was Fanya Shamis, who also was killed in the crash.

A family uncle told WUSA that both Anna and Daniel, of Lorton, Va., died when the bus crashed.



Jody & Andy Fritz

Jody and Andy Fritz, both 51 and of South Sound, Wash., were both killed in the bus crash, The Olympian reported.

Jody, who reportedly began working as an assistant principal at an elementary school in September, "was just a down-to-earth person who was committed to the education of children," the school's superintendent, Dana Rosenbach, said.

Andy was an environmental science instructor at a technical college and was "well known in the South Sound running community," the News Tribune reported.

The couple met in Massachussetts and reportedly leave behind their two sons.



Stephanie Horwood

Stephanie Horwood of Gatineau, Canada, was among those killed in the crash. She was a week shy of celebrating her 42nd birthday, CTV Ottawa News reported.

Horwood's husband, Fred Reinthaler, and their two children, ages 9 and 11, reportedly suffered minor injuries in the accident.

Theres honestly so much I can say about her but words would never do her justice, longtime friend Michelle Earle told the Ottawa Citizen of Horwood. She was an incredible person, full of life and love.

Bob Bever

A church in Tennessee confirmed that one of its parishioners, Bob Bever, was killed in the bus crash.

Cecilia Aparicio-Rascon, a bookkeeper at Saint Mary Catholic Church in Athens, Tenn., told a local news station that Bever, 68, was killed. She added that his wife and two daughters were injured in the crash.

Manuel de Jesus Acosta

Manuel de Jesus Acosta, the guide who was leading the excursion to the ruins, also died in the crash, according to ABC News. Additional details about Acosta are not currently available.

Laura & Christopher Couallier

Laura Couallier, 52, and her husband, Christopher Couallier, 55, died in the bus crash. A family member confirmed the deaths to WCVB. Laura, who was originally from Gloucester, Mass., lived with her husband in Florida.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
North Korea is beginning tests on mounting anthrax onto intercontinental ballistic missiles that would strike the U.S., a report said on Wednesday just two days after the White Houses U.S. National Security Strategy stated Kim Jong Un is pursuing chemical and biological weapons.

The Hermit Kingdom is beginning experiments to test out if anthrax can endure immense heat and pressure it will have to endure when loaded into an ICBM and launched toward the earths atmosphere, Japans Asahi newspaper reported, citing an unidentified person connected to South Koreas intelligence services.

North Korea has started experiments such as heat and pressure equipment to prevent anthrax from dying even at a high temperature of over 7,000 degrees generated at the time of ICBM's re-entry into the atmosphere, the report stated. In part, there is unconfirmed information that it has already succeeded in such experiments.

NORTH KOREA, STOCKPILING WEAPONS, MOCKS 'LUNATIC' TRUMP WHO HAS 'WAR FEVER'

On Monday, the White House released its U.S. National Security Strategy that said North Korea is pursuing chemical and biological weapons which could also be delivered by missile.

North Koreaa country that starves its own peoplehas spent hundreds of millions of dollars on nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons that could threaten our homeland, the document said.

North Korea vehemently denied the report and accused the U.S. of cooking up untruths as truths and using biological weapons during the Korean War.

Properly speaking, it is the U.S. stereotyped method to cook up untruths as truths, stubbornly insisting that black is white and fabricating anything for satisfying their aggressive greed, the state-run Korean Central News Agency stated. And the U.S. itself is an empire of evils full of plots, fabrications, lies and deceptions.

It added, It is none other than the U.S., chattering on morality and civilization, the criminal state that massacred the Korean people by bacteriological weapons during the Korean War and inflict sufferings upon the innocent people by continuing even now to openly use the internationally prohibited weapons.

South Korea has long suspected North Korea was developing biological weapons. A report by Harvard Kennedy Schools Belfar Center for Science and International Affairs stated the dictatorship may have anthrax and smallpox pathogens that could be turned into weapons.

KIM JONG UN'S BIZARRE NORTH KOREA PROPAGANDA PHOTOS

North Korea is believed to have started its chemical and biological weapons program in the early 1960s and began possibly weaponizing biological agents in the 1980s, according to the report.

Kim Jong Uns scientists launched its greatest ICBM in late November that the regime claimed could carry a super-heavy nuclear warhead that could strike the whole mainland of the U.S. However, North Korea has set to perfect its re-entry technology. A U.S. official told Fox News the Hwasong-15 ICBM did not survive re-entry into the Earths atmosphere.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry will allow the mother and wife of an Indian naval officer facing the death penalty for espionage and sabotage to visit him in prison.

The ministry said in a statement that visas were issued to the women on Wednesday. They are expected to fly to Islamabad on Dec. 25, where they will meet with Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was arrested in 2016 and later sentenced to death by a military tribunal.

Pakistan and India are bitter rivals that have fought three wars since gaining independence in 1947.

Jadhav's wife, who has not been named publicly, has petitioned for him to be spared the death penalty. Authorities have not issued a final ruling on the sentence.
next Image 1 of 2

prev Image 2 of 2

President Donald Trump threatened Wednesday to cut off U.S. funding to countries that support a resolution criticizing his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

"We'll save a lot. We don't care," he said, alluding to U.S. aid.

The president strongly supported U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley who said Tuesday that the United States "will be taking names" of countries that vote in favor of a General Assembly resolution Thursday declaring that Jerusalem's status can be changed only by direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

"For all these nations, they take our money and then vote against us. They take hundreds of millions of dollars, even billions of dollars and then they vote against us," Trump told reporters at a Cabinet meeting in Washington with Haley sitting nearby. "We're watching those votes. Let them vote against us."

In a letter to over 180 of the 193 U.N. member states and an even tougher tweet Tuesday, Haley hinted at possible U.S. retaliation but Trump's comments made clear to recipients of U.S. assistance that billions of dollars could be at stake.

Haley's threat drew sharp criticism from the Palestinian and Turkish foreign ministers before they flew to New York for the General Assembly vote. They accused the U.S. of intimidation.

Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, tweeted after Trump's comments: "Our government should not use its leadership at the UN to bully/blackmail other nations that stand for religious liberty and justice in Jerusalem. Justice is a core value of Christianity, Judaism and Islam."

Ambassador Rhonda King of the tiny Caribbean nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines sent Haley a letter saying that her country treasures the United States "as an enduring ally" but will vote against Trump's action.

"Sometimes, friends differ; on Jerusalem, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines respectfully differs from the USA; and so, too, do many of the staunchest friends and allies of the USA," King wrote. "We gently urge yet again that the government of the USA rethink its position and approach on this entire matter."

Before Haley's letter and tweet, Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Riyad Mansour told The Associated Press he expected "massive support" for the resolution in the General Assembly.

What impact the threats from Trump and Haley will have remains to be seen.

Israel has also been conducting a global lobbying campaign against the resolution, government officials said Wednesday. The vote will show whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has succeeded in his efforts to drum up new pockets of support in the developing world.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport before flying to New York that they believe U.N. member countries will ignore "pressure" from Haley.

Al-Maliki said he believes that countries will vote their conscience Thursday, and "they will vote for justice, and they will vote in favor of that resolution."

"No honorable state would bow to such pressure," Cavusoglu said. "The world has changed. The belief that 'I am strong therefore I am right' has changed. The world today is revolting against injustices."

The Palestinians sought the General Assembly vote after the United States on Monday vetoed a resolution supported by the 14 other U.N. Security Council members that would have required Trump to rescind his declaration on Jerusalem as Israel's capital and not move the U.S. Embassy there.

Unlike the Security Council, assembly resolutions are not legally binding but they do reflect world opinion.

In Wednesday's letter, reportedly sent to over 180 countries, Haley said the Trump administration is "simply asking that you acknowledge the historical friendship, partnership, and support we have extended and respect our decision about our own embassy."

She said the U.S. Congress decided 22 years ago that Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of Israel and Trump followed through on that decision.

"The president will be watching this vote carefully and has requested I report back on those countries who voted against us," she wrote in the letter obtained by AP. "We will take note of each and every vote on this issue."

Her tweet was sharper: "At the UN we're always asked to do more & give more. So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl, abt where to locate OUR embassy, we don't expect those we've helped to target us. On Thurs there'll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names."

This was not the first time that Haley threatened to keep track of U.S. opponents.

On Jan. 27, the day she arrived at the United Nations as ambassador, Haley announced a new way the United States would be doing business. The Trump administration's goal is to show U.S. strength, speak out and defend its allies  and as for countries opposing America, "We're taking names," she said.

The letter on the Jerusalem vote was the first time since then that Haley vowed to compile a list.

Her action recalled to some veteran U.N. diplomats the run-up to the Iraq war in 2002 when then U.S. President George W. Bush launched a campaign against France and other opponents of military action who refused to support a Security Council resolution to authorize war. The resolution, which former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was pressing for and the U.S. backed, was withdrawn by Britain because it was certain to be defeated as a result of strong council opposition.

The resolution being voted on Thursday is co-sponsored by Turkey, chair of the summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and Yemen, chair of the Arab Group at the U.N.

It is very similar to the defeated Security Council resolution.

The draft resolution says Jerusalem "is a final status issue" and reaffirms 10 Security Council resolutions on Jerusalem, dating back to 1967, including requirements that the city's final status must be decided in direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

It "affirms that any decisions and actions which purport to have altered, the character, status or demographic composition of the holy city of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded."

The draft resolution "demands that all states comply with Security Council resolutions regarding the holy city of Jerusalem, and not to recognize any actions or measures contrary to those resolutions."

___

Associated Press writer Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.
A flagship medical facility that would serve the areas burgeoning military population on Stafford Hospitals east campus in as little as one year moved a step closer to reality Tuesday night.

The Stafford County Board of Supervisors gave the project a green light in a unanimous vote that followed a more than two-hour public hearing. The approval clears the way for federal contractor CRAssociates to begin work on the 110,000-square-foot health care center as soon as the Department of Defense awards the company a contract to build and operate it.

Representatives of CRAssociates, one of the largest providers of health care services to the Department of Veterans Affairs, told supervisors Tuesday night that it hopes to get news of the award any day.

Once that happens, it will have just 10 months to complete construction. The clinic would have to be operational within a year. For that reason, supervisors on Tuesday held a rare joint public hearing with Planning Commissioners to fast-track what is usually a much longer county approval process.

The outpatient facility would serve as many as 1,000 active duty and retired military and their families a day. It is not a Veterans Affairs hospital, according to a list of frequently asked questions provided by the county in advance of the meeting. There would be no overnight stays and no major surgeries performed at the facility. Any patient with an emergency would be immediately transferred to Stafford Hospital.

Patients would see primary care doctors at the facility. They could also access a womens health suite as well as mammography, orthopedic, dermatology, optometry and behavior health services. Other plans call for physical and occupational therapy, including an in-ground pool for wounded service members.

CRAssociates first eyed the Stafford Hospital campus in large part because of its location. Some 55,000 eligible patientsanyone using Tricarelive nearby. Two-thirds of them live within the county.

For now, most of those face long drives to Richmond, Fort Belvoir and beyond for even basic health needs. A Stafford facility would cut out the need for many of those trips.

Myra Guido, the wife of a retired Army veteran who lives in Stafford, told supervisors how she gets a hotel room near Walter Reed National Military Medical Center a day before her appointments just to make sure she arrives on time because traffic is so unreliable. She said shes also picked up people headed to the Pentagon in order to drive in the HOV lanes. Once at the Pentagon, she said, she takes the Metro to Bethesda, Md.

If youre 15 minutes late, you have to reschedule, Guido said.

Other military members told similar stories of having to take their children out of school for a day for something as routine as a dermatology appointment.

Guido, along with most speakers at Tuesdays public hearing, urged supervisors to sign off on the project.

Bridgette and Byron Crosby, who live near Stafford Hospital, both expressed concern about the impact of construction as well as the increased traffic after it opens. Both are veterans.

It takes me 20 minutes to get out of my driveway right now, Bridgette Crosby said. I would love a veterans facility in my area, but I would also like to be able to get out of my driveway.

But county staff, as well as supervisors, said the site where the facility will go if the contract is awarded was already approved for almost 160,000 square feet of medical office space and several thousand feet of retail space based on a 2006 traffic study.

In other words, something will eventually be built there, anyway. The health care clinic is likely to have less impact than retail space because there are no peak hoursappointments are scheduled throughout the day, county officials said.

If CRA wins the defense contract to build the center, it would lease the land and the facility from Mary Washington Healthcare for at least 30 years.
Corey Terry told a jury Tuesday that he was geared up for a fistfight when he approached Austen Agnors vehicle May 20, 2016, at a service station in Stafford County.

Terry said he was upset about being antagonized by Agnor and his wife that day and previously, and he was irritated that Austen Agnor had just referred to Terrys mother as a bumpy-face [expletive].

But before any punches were thrown, Austen Agnor sat dying in his car, the victim of seven gunshot wounds.

I just reacted, I didnt think, said Terry, who claims to have no memory of firing more than one shot. It just happened, and it all happened so fast.

Terry, 28, is charged with first-degree murder and using a firearm in the commission of a felony. Closing arguments and jury deliberations are expected Wednesday, the third day of the trial.

Agnor, 20, had come to Stafford that evening with his wife, Crystal Agnor. Crystal Agnor and Terry have a daughter in common and were meeting in Stafford that day for a court-ordered custody exchange. The exchange was to take place in the parking lot of the former Exxon station on Courthouse Road.

Terry has never denied shooting Agnor, but he and his attorney, Mark Murphy, are trying to convince the jury that his actions were not premeditated and that he should be found guilty of something less than first-degree murder.

Prosecutors Lori DiGiosia and Ryan Frank say otherwise. Among the prosecution evidence presented are taped phone calls in which Terry is heard telling Crystal Agnor that he was going to smoke her and her husband.

Crystal Agnor acknowledged that she didnt take Terrys threats seriously because hed made similar ones before. Witnesses saw Terry leave the Agnor vehicle with his daughter, who was 2 at the time, and put her in a car seat. He then returned to the other vehicle some 80 feet away and fired upon Agnor.

On Tuesday, Terry said he and Crystal Agnor had had a volatile relationship since the baby was born. He said things got worse after she met and married Agnor. Terry said he repeatedly told Crystal Agnor to keep her husband out of their custody business.

Over the months, Terry said, he and Austen Agnor exchanged racial slurs and threatening comments on social media. He said Agnor taunted him about such things as raising Terrys daughter and Terry not having a license or his own transportation.

On the day Agnor was killed, Terry said he was arguing with his own girlfriend in Richmond and receiving multiple phone calls from the Agnors at the same time. He admitted being extremely upset, but said he was not serious about his recorded threats to smoke the Agnors.

I was just speaking out of anger, he said. I always say things I dont mean.

But Terry said his anger got the best of him in Stafford after Austen Agnor belittled him and insulted his mother. He said he feared for his own safety and fired his gun after seeing Agnor reaching for something. Terry was the only witness to say Agnor reached for anything; he had no weapon.

As he ran from the scene after the shooting, Terry said he was devastated by what had happened and sorry hed let the Agnors get to me.

Oh, my God, what did I do? Terry said he asked himself after the shooting. I think I really [expletive] up.

Before resting their case, prosecutors put on an inmate from the Rappahannock Regional Jail who claimed that Terry told him he was upset that day about his daughters last name being changed to Agnor. The inmate quoted Terry as saying that if he ever got out of jail, he would kill his childs mother.

Terry said the inmate, Jacob Powell, made up most of his story and Murphy was relentless in attacking Powells credibility.

Pointing out that Powell was an admitted former member of the Aryan Brotherhood who had tattoos depicting the Ku Klux Klan and a swastika, Murphy suggested that Powell was lying to hurt Terry, an AfricanAmerican, and to receive leniency in his own upcoming criminal cases.

Powell said he was being truthful and all he hoped to get in return was drug treatment. He said he left the Aryan Brotherhood because he outgrew it, while Murphy suggested they kicked him out after finding out he was a snitch.

Judge Victoria Willis spent much of Tuesday refereeing legal skirmishes between the attorneys, including a request for a mistrial that took about two hours to resolve.

At one point, the judge said she was close to shutting everything down because Im really getting frustrated with this.
Im dead, C, Im dead, Alon Clipper told his brother as they sped along U.S. 1 to Mary Washington Hospital in the dark, early-morning hours of July 1.

Just minutes earlier, Alon Clipper, 23, of King George County, had been shot multiple times in a crowded Greenbrier Shopping Center parking lot after leaving a bar with three friends and his brother, Craig Clipper Jr.

Alon Clipper lost consciousness during the high-speed drive to the hospital and died later that morning, Craig Clipper Jr. testified Monday during a preliminary hearing in Fredericksburg General District Court.

A Fredericksburg police detective also testified Monday at a hearing that ended with the first-degree murder charge against Stevie Montrel Adams being forwarded to a Fredericksburg Circuit Court grand jury for a possible indictment next month.

Adams faces a dozen charges, which also include felony wounding, shooting into an occupied vehicle and gun possession.

Commonwealths Attorney LaBravia Jenkins did not present any evidence about a motive for the shooting in court Monday. No gun has been found, according to Detective Ben Johnson.

Craig Clipper Jr. said in court that neither he nor his brother knew Adams, who was in court shackled and wearing a tan jail jumpsuit, and that they had no contact with him that night or any other time.

Craig Clipper Jr. said he, his brother and three other friends were leaving Aladdins restaurant and bar in the Greenbrier Shopping Center around 2 a.m. along with a large crowd making its way through the parking lot.

When the group made it to Craig Clipper Jr.s Dodge Charger, behind M&T Bank, he got in and started it. Thats when he said he heard a man say, Yall good? His brother, standing at the open passenger door, said they were, but sounded like he wasnt sure why the man was asking.

Then Craig Clipper Jr. said he got out of the car to see what was happening. Thats when a man near the car shot his brother several times, he said.

Alton Clipper slumped into the car, and his brother pulled him in all the way and sped from the scene with their friends in the vehicle, according to Craig Clipper Jr.

Within days, police identified Adams as a suspect based on tips from informants, Johnson testified. He said they also were given a photo of Adams from a Facebook page.

Craig Clipper gave the image to police after his father showed it to him. Craig Clipper Jr. said he didnt know the man was Adams and didnt say how his father came across the image.

But he testified that he was 100 percent sure Adams was the shooter.

Defense attorney Price Koch peppered Craig Clipper Jr. with questions about whether he was certain he identified the right man.

Koch asked several times if he could have been mistaken in his identification of Adams and if police ever showed him a photo lineup with different men. The defense attorney also asked about the lighting around the car and noted that everything happened fast.

Craig Clipper Jr. said he was not shown a lineup and repeatedly said that Adams was the shooter.

I looked him right in the face when he shot my brother, he said.

Koch also asked Craig Clipper Jr. what the gunman was wearing that night and Clipper said a black hat and white shirt. Clippers answer was the same when the attorney asked what Adams was wearing in the Facebook image.

Adams, a 37-year-old homeless man and convicted drug dealer, remained at large until August, when he was arrested by federal agents in North Carolina.

Two others were charged with helping Adams after the shooting.

Tyree Yurell Whitfield, 37, of Franklin, faces a charge of being an accessory after the fact to homicide. A Spotsylvania woman had faced the same charge, but it has been dropped by the prosecution.

A trial date of Feb. 7 has been set for Whitfield, who remains free on bond.
Bill Howells name is in the history books. Thats to be expected when you serve three decades in the Virginia House of Delegates.

Now his name is also on the library.

The Stafford County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution Tuesday night renaming the England Run branch of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library after the retiring House speaker.

This is probably a surprise to him, said Supervisor Bob Thomas, who is set to replace Howell as the 28th District delegate representing parts of Stafford and Fredericksburg next month. Thomas went on to read the resolution that would change the branchs name to the William J. Howell Library.

Howell, a Republican who was first elected to the General Assembly in 1987, announced his retirement earlier this year.

Thirty years of service is an awfully long time, Thomas said during the presentation. Stafford County has benefited greatly by his service to the community.

Anytime there was an issue, Thomas said, we knew where to reach out, even after Howell became speaker of the House in 2003. He never forgot where he came from or who his constituents were, the supervisor said. He was always a servant of the people.

Howell called it a pretty neat honor, joking that he was glad it was Thomas headed to Richmond after the New Year rather than him.

I cant thank you all enough, Howell said. I really do appreciate it.
While one King George County company is working to provide high-speed internet via radio signals, another county resident is petitioning the Federal Communications Commission to tap into unused television channels in the white spaces spectrum for the same purpose.

KGI Communications Inc. is the newly formed company looking to bring air fiber, the fastest form of broadband technology, to the rural area via radio signals, according to Michele Wido, company president, and Juan Marte, chief executive officer.

Marte is from the Dominican Republic, and he met Wido and her husband, Steve, years ago when the couple visited the Central American island as missionaries. Marte recently came to King George, saw the desperate need for broadband connections and decided to make the needed investment.

Hes spent more than $200,000 on equipment, licenses and staff.

The company plans to put equipment, called stations, on three towers in King George. These stations will broadcast a signal, via a radio frequency, to homes within a 360-degree radius, Marte said last month.

While his company focuses on radio signals, Nikkia Carter hopes the FCC will allow the use of three channels of public airwaves for broadband connectivity. The unused channels, or white spaces, are between the active ones in the VHF and UHF spectrum.

Theyre already being used as part of a pilot project supported by Microsoft and the Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities Corp. The project provides high-speed internet to students in Charlotte and Halifax counties in southern Virginia at no cost to families, and Carter would like to see the same thing happen in King Georgeand throughout the country.

It could bring affordable internet to millions of Americans, she said.

Like other King George residents who have appealed to the countys Board of Supervisors about connectivity problems, Carter said the lack of affordable, reliable internet hurts the region.

It impacts our economy and holds back education, especially in rural communities, she said.

Shes certainly seen it in her own business. She is the CEO of CarterMcGowan Services, a Dahlgren-based business that offers Microsoft technology consulting, development and training.

Carter pays for three different wireless services to ensure she can stay connectedand in business. Because this kind of patchwork system is too expensive for many households and small businesses, Carter joined Voices for Innovation, a tech advocacy group. She and other members met with FCC commissioners recently and presented them a letter of support signed by 300 small tech business leaders.

Our message was straightforward, said Carter, whos lived in King George since 2001 and operated her business since 2012. TV white spaces broadband will help close the digital divide in America by getting more people online.

Carter said the proposal to use channels in the TV spectrum will not cost taxpayers anything. Wido and Marte made the same pitch to King George officials last month. They are negotiating with the county to rent space on one of its towers.

Wido said last week that everything is progressing. Looks like after the holidays, we will have the equipment placed and then we can solicit customers.

Carter said FCC officials expressed interested in the TV plan, but havent taken any action on it.

The use of TV white spaces is the latest possible solution to the issue of rural connectivity. King George is part of a Rural Broadband Task Force; a pilot project involving a survey of needs and solutions by the Center for Innovative Technology in Herndon; and a regional study that examines how the Pamunkey Indian tribe in King William County might set up a business model to provide internet service in some of Virginias most rural areas.

As part of the CIT project, county residents and businesses are encouraged to fill out a survey about internet issues. A link is available on the countys website, king-george.va.us, and the survey is open through December.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.  The city of Charlottesville formally designated a section of Fourth Street Northeast as Honorary Heather Heyer Way during a ceremony Wednesday morning.

Family and friends of Heyer, as well as several dozen residents and city officials, gathered at the site of her death.

Heyer, 32, was killed protesting the Unite the Right Rally on Aug. 12 when a car plowed through a crowd of people on the Downtown Mall, injuring dozens.

Her mother, Susan Bro, along with Alfred Wilson, who Heyer worked with at the Miller Law Group as a paralegal, spoke at the event. They are both co-founders of the Heather Heyer Foundation.

I thank the city for taking this step to name this street after Heather, Bro said, and shortly after thanked those who attended.

Your love and your support continue to give me hope for Charlottesville and for the world and for people in general, and I thank you so much for coming out today, she said.

Mark Heyer, Heather Heyers father, also spoke, saying its an honor for the city to honor his daughters memory in this way.

The City Council approved the decision to designate the street in honor of Heyer during an October meeting.

Mayor Mike Signer read the official proclamation at the start of the ceremony, as city councilors Wes Bellamy, Kathy Galvin and Bob Fenwick stood by.

James Alex Fields Jr. of Ohio, who was the driver of the car, has been charged with first-degree murder and other charges in this case.
YORK, Neb.  A couple in their 80s who were found with 60 pounds of marijuana in their pickup truck told York County sheriff's deputies that they were going to give the pot away for Christmas gifts.

The marijuana, discovered during a traffic stop Tuesday on Interstate 80 in Nebraska, was considered high grade, Sheriff's Office officials said. It had an estimated street value of $336,000.

Deputies stopped the couple's Toyota Tacoma after they saw the pickup truck driving over the center line and the driver failing to signal, Lt. Paul Vrbka said.

When they stopped the vehicle, he said, deputies could immediately smell the strong odor of raw marijuana.

Vrbka said the countys K-9 unit alerted to the presence of a controlled substance. Deputies then searched the pickup and found the pot in boxes stored inside the pickup topper.

An 80-year-old man and an 83-year-old woman said they were from Clearlake Oaks, California, and were headed for Vermont. They were arrested on suspicion of possession of marijuana with intent to deliver and no drug tax stamp.
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.
No more interim, Batchler named new Blacksburg football coach Once a Wildcat, always a Wildcat. Josh Batchler achieved one of his dreams when he was named the new Blacksburg High head football coach Monday evening. He had served as...

Indians hit growth spurt just in time Gaffney coach Dan Jones never wavered when the Indians were blown out by South Pointe in the season opener. He never wavered when the Indians struggled to beat Hammond. He...
On The Water: You might need a bigger boat for Transpac 2023
Five months ago we had the privilege of seeing Christopher Nolan's "Dunkirk," a magnificent work about the daring evacuation of the British Armed Forces that seemed to be hopelessly trapped by the Germans in the spring of 1940.

"Dunkirk" told the story from three points of view, which were essentially land, sea and air.

Although not officially affiliated with "Dunkirk," Joe Wright's "Darkest Hour" serves  and serves very well  as a prequel, told from a fourth point of view.

That of Winston Churchill.

Most of "Darkest Hour" takes place in the days and weeks just prior to the events of Dunkirk and focuses on the prime minister's desperate efforts to formulate a plan to save those British troops, even as his opponents are saying Hitler has already won and it would be expedient to enter into peace talks with Mussolini's Italy.

First, though, we meet Churchill just before he is to replace Neville Chamberlain as prime minister.

It's morning in the Churchill household. As Churchill rumbles and grumbles awake, like a giant bear shaking off a deep slumber, it's as if a piece of vintage newsreel footage has started rolling.

We know this is Gary Oldman beneath the Oscar-level makeup and the padding. And yet within the first minute or so, we forget it's Oldman and we marvel at one of the most authentic and memorable portrayals of Churchill in the long, the very long history of television series and movies about arguably England's most important 20th-century figure.

Oldman's Churchill is a commanding presence as a public speaker and an occasional charmer when he wants to be, but he's also a heavy smoker, an even heavier drinker, a short-tempered bully and someone almost incapable of the simplest of social graces.

Little wonder Lily James' Elizabeth Layton, the latest in a revolving door of personal secretaries, is so intimidated she goes flying down the stairs within hours of starting the job. (Circumstances bring her back, and this time she stays.)

Little wonder many of Churchill's enemies consider him reckless and dangerous and unfit to lead the country. Little wonder King George VI (Ben Mendelsohn) doesn't even try to hide his disdain for Churchill each time they meet.

The only one to stand up to Churchill on a regular basis, to calmly put him in his place even as she reminds him of his potential for greatness, is his wife, Clementine (Kristin Scott Thomas in a finely nuanced performance).

Director Wright and his creative team do a masterful job of taking us into the underground bunker/war room where Churchill and his military advisers are holed up, collecting top secret intelligence and keeping on top of the ever-more-bleak war effort and mapping out strategies. From time to time we're taken into the heart of the war itself, as when we see a regiment sent on a diversionary mission that is almost certain to result in their own deaths. Wright favors overhead shots that begin in close-up and rise up, up and up, painting a devastatingly effective picture of the sacrifice made by hundreds so that hundreds of thousands might live.

The more intimate set pieces are just as visually arresting, whether Churchill is meeting with the king at Buckingham Palace, in a cubbyhole and on the phone with FDR, or riding the train with an astonished group of citizens, asking their opinions on what he should do. "Darkest Hour" is filled with authentic touches, large and small.

Most authentic of all is Oldman's performance as a flawed but deeply passionate man who summoned all of his courage, all of his oratory skills and all of his love for Britain at just the right moment, because the very thought of even one red Nazi banner hanging from a building in London was something he could not, would not tolerate.

Oldman can go as big as any actor on the planet, and he certainly plays to the rafters at times, but so did Winston Churchill. There's a great physicality to the performance. Sometimes Churchill is so tired and defeated he can barely ascend a staircase; on other occasions he's so filled with fire he practically runs through the streets, and his aides struggle to keep up with him.

As played by Oldman, Churchill has perhaps never seemed greater.

Or more human.
Oregon State University has made vaccinations for meningococcal disease mandatory after a sixth student was diagnosed with the potentially deadly infection.

The university already required incoming students age 25 or younger to receive a quadrivalent vaccine that protects against four common strains of the disease and recently expanded that requirement to include a vaccine for strain B, the type that has sickened five students since November 2016 on OSUs main Corvallis campus.

Now all students 25 or younger must be vaccinated by Feb. 15 against meningococcus B.

Were raising the bar on vaccinations, OSU Vice President Steve Clark said Wednesday morning during a joint news conference in Portland with state and local public health officials.

A 21-year-old undergraduate fell ill while home on winter break and was hospitalized on Sunday for treatment, becoming the sixth OSU student infected with meningococcal disease since the outbreak began. Testing is underway to determine the particular strain of bacteria that caused the disease.

Dr. Paul Cieslak, medical director for communicable diseases and immunizations with the Oregon Health Authority, underscored the importance of vaccination in containing the OSU outbreak and urged all students to get shots over the holiday break. He said a statewide alert went out to health care providers on Tuesday urging them to vaccinate OSU students.

He called vaccination the best way to prevent the disease and noted that it can be fatal.

Fifteen percent of people who are struck by this disease will die, Cieslak said, adding that another 15 percent of survivors can expect serious health consequences, which can include deafness, blindness and amputation of the extremities.

Officials have declined to release the names of any of the infected students, citing federal privacy laws.

While not highly contagious, the disease can be transmitted be prolonged exposure to an infected person, especially in group living situations such as dormitories, fraternities and sororities.

OSU and public health officials have worked with infected students to identify and contact anyone who may have been infected and provide them with preventive antibiotics to stave off the disease.

All five of the students previously diagnosed with the disease have recovered or are recovering, noted Charlie Fautin, deputy director of the Benton County Health Department. But he echoed Cieslaks warning that meningococcal disease can have dire consequences.

In 2015, an outbreak at the University of Oregon resulted in the death of one student. And a Corvallis High School student lost both legs below the knee and parts of eight fingers after contracting the disease in 2014.

Fautin stressed the need to seek medical attention immediately if meningococcal disease is suspected.

While the effects of a meningococcus infection can mimic a cold or flu, it is usually accompanied by one or more telling symptoms such as unexplained high fever, headache, stiff neck or rash.

This is very important, Fautin said. This disease can progress from sort of feeling like you have the flu and feeling cruddy to catastrophic very quickly.

Immunization is important not only to protect individual students but also to keep the outbreak from spreading further, the officials pointed out.

This is a public health all hands on deck, Fautin said.
November 29, 1919  December 11, 2017

Vera Simpson of Corvallis died Monday, December 11, 2017. She was 98.

A third generation Oregonian, she was born November 29, 1919, in Molalla to John and Anna (Schwarzer) Palmer.

She graduated from Cottage Grove High School in 1937 and attended Eugene Business College.

In 1943, she and Dow Simpson were married in Hood River.

She was employed as a secretary at OSU for 20 years before retiring.

Surviving children are Kenneth Simpson of Orange, California; Elaine LaMour of Corvallis; and Joan Sly of Scio; five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Her husband; a son; and a daughter preceded her in death.

There will be a celebration of life at 2 p.m. on December 29. For location information, please visit www.mchenryfuneralhome.com.
The election to fill Anne Schusters seat on the Benton County Board of Commissioners is shaping up as a three-way race  at least in the primary.

Schuster, a Democrat who has held the Position 1 spot on the board since winning the 2014 election, announced on Dec. 5 that she plans to step down when her term expires at the end of 2018.

Since then, three people  all Democrats  have filed to run for the seat in the May 15 primary.

Pat Malone

Pat Malone, who lost to Schuster in the 2014 primary, is making his second run for the seat. Malone, 69, is a self-employed timberland owner and Christmas tree producer from Kings Valley. He has a masters degree in fine arts and a bachelors degree in history from the University of Oregon.

He has served on a number of county boards and committees, did a stint as chief of the Hoskins-Kings Valley Rural Fire Protection District and currently sits on the Linn-Benton Community College Budget Committee.

Malone said his top priority if elected would be transportation issues, including safety improvements to Highway 20 and upgrading or replacing the Van Buren Bridge, and helping the Health Department navigate changes in health care policy.

I think my background makes me well-qualified for the job, he said. I think I could do the county some good.

Mark Page

Mark Page, 46, is the Ward 8 representative on the Corvallis City Council, having first been elected in November 2016.

Page is the owner of Universal Satellite & Media LLC, a Corvallis-based company that provides satellite TV and internet service. He holds a bachelors degree in business administration and finance from Kansas State University and served in the U.S. Army from 1989-1992, when he was deployed to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm.

If elected, he said, his top priorities would be economic development and affordable housing.

Given the current makeup of the commission, I think someone with business acumen would be helpful, he said.

Vincent Adams

Vincent Adams, 49, was elected to the Corvallis School Board in 2013 and was re-elected this year. He has served as chair of the board since June. His current term expires in 2021, but he has said he will step down from the school board if elected as a county commissioner.

He is the director of the Oregon State University Extension Services Rural Communities Explorer program, which provides demographic, socioeconomic and other information about communities throughout the state. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1987-1993, working as a sonar technician and deploying to Somalia and the Persian Gulf.

Adams holds a masters degree in public policy and a bachelors degree in environmental science from OSU.

His top priority if elected would be to address population growth and the issues that arise from it, such as pressure on housing and natural resources.

He said his work with Rural Communities Explorer has been good training for the county commissioner job.

Community development, and particularly rural community development, I think is going to be helpful to Benton County, he said.

All three seats on the Benton County Board of Commissioners have been held by Democrats since 2000. So far, no Republicans have filed to run for Schusters seat, but that could change, according to Betsy Close, the partys county chair.

Several potential GOP candidates are considering a run, Close said, although no one has formally declared for the race yet.

Close, who has run for a Board of Commissioners seat in the past, ruled out making a bid for the post this time. Close ran for the board in 2012 but pulled out of the race when she was selected to fill out Frank Morses unexpired District 8 term in the Oregon Senate after Morse stepped down.

The deadline to file for the May primary is March 6. The last day to file for the general election is Aug. 28.

The three-member Board of Commissioners enacts ordinances and sets policy direction for Benton County government, an organization with about 450 employees and an annual budget of roughly $122 million.

The current starting salary for a first-term county commissioner is about $84,000 a year.
As Buddhists and fellow human beings we are appalled and shocked at the treatment of minority Rohingya Muslims at the hands of the military and government of Buddhist majority Myanmar. This crisis, as it has escalated over a number of months, has included well-documented acts of killing and brutality against men, women and children. As a result, more than 600,000 Rohingya have fled to neighboring Bangladesh in a desperate attempt to escape the violence.

These actions have been condemned by the Dalai Lama, the Buddhist Churches of America and many prominent Western Buddhist leaders and practitioners. The U.S. State Department recently categorized these actions as ethnic cleansing, which may lead to sanctions against Myanmars government.

These harmful actions are inconsistent with Buddhist teachings. We add our voices to those who have spoken out against these atrocities and we stand as witnesses to the cruelty that is taking place. We reaffirm our intention to reduce suffering for all beings, none excepted.

The U.S. must continue to hold the government of Myanmar accountable and to stand clearly against human rights abuses.

We call on the U.S. to exert its influence on the Myanmar government to respect the rights of the Rohingya community. We applaud Sen. Jeff Merkleys work on this issue, which includes provisions for a pathway to citizenship and for repatriation of Rohingya refugees.

Barry Reeves

Corvallis (Dec. 19)

The author writes on behalf of Buddhists Responding, a group of local Buddhists addressing issues of social justice.
Underground station partly evacuated : 140 firefighters called to Bonn Central Train Station

Bonn Firefighters were dispatched to the underground at Bonn Central Station on Tuesday evening and parts of the subway station were evacuated. This affected bus and rail traffic.

Teilen

Teilen Weiterleiten

Weiterleiten Tweeten

Tweeten Weiterleiten

Weiterleiten Drucken

On Tuesday evening, the Bonn Fire Department had to evacuate part of the underground system at Bonn Central Train Station. At around 7:50 pm, a fire alarm sounded at Thomas-Mann-Strae and smoke ensued. Because the scale of the incident was not known initially, the fire department arrived with a large contingency of around 140 firefighters - it was a city-wide alert for all departments.

In searching for the origin of the fire, authorities quickly became suspicious that expansion joints could be the source, and this was confirmed when they found the contraction grouting or joints on fire in a technical room at one end of the train station. Wearing respirators, the firefighters extinguished the fire and cleared away the smoke from the affected area.

Last Thursday, December 14, there has also been an alarm in the same vicinity of the so-called Bonner Loch - the area just across from the train station. Initial information from authorities said that incident involved paper that had been burning in the restroom area. GA was not able to get a response Tuesday evening from authorities on whether or not there was a connection between the two incidents.

The fire alarm had quite an impact on bus and rail transportation. Because of the increasing smoke, lines running on tracks 1 and 3 had to be moved to tracks 2 and 4. According to SWB spokesperson Werner Schui, both tracks were available for the rerouted traffic throughout the incident.

Above ground traffic was also significantly impacted. Tram Lines 61 and 62 could not run over Thomas-Mann-Strae. Buses also could not use that street and had to make an alternative stop at Rabinstrae. Lines 602/604/605 which were traveling in the direction of northern Bonn, were not able to use the stop at Friedensplatz. The restrictions were lifted late Tuesday evening.
Developing new surgical methods : Experts from London and Bonn together in OP

Hardtberg Lung surgery without general anesthesia and a quicker recovery. Medical teams from London and Bonn are working together on developing new surgery techniques.

Teilen

Teilen Weiterleiten

Weiterleiten Tweeten

Tweeten Weiterleiten

Weiterleiten Drucken

Visitors in the operating room are rather rare - but Dr. Joachim Schmidt, Chief Physician of Thoracic Surgery at the Bonn Malteser Hospital, is happy to make an exception for Dr. Marco Scarci. Dr. Schmidt and his colleague from London University College maintain an active exchange of information and work together with their teams on the development of innovative surgical methods in lung surgery.

Specifically, they focus on lung cancer surgeries utilizing only a single small surgical incision and lung operations without general anesthesia. Both methods are only used at a few specialized centers in Europe. London University College and the Bonn Malteser Hospital are among the pioneers. The collaboration between the two teams of experts ensures the further optimization of these new techniques and their scientific processing. Mutual hospital visits and working together in the operating room are part of the program.

The cooperation between the two countries is especially beneficial for the affected patients. Scarci and Schmidt and their medical teams perform operations on patients who have lung cancer, and ensure that they are treated with minimal invasion. "We can help many people get back on their feet faster after the operation," explains Dr. Schmidt. By using local anesthesia and sedation, as used for example in a gastroscopy, the patient feels no pain during the operation.

The two teams from the Rhine and the Thames also work closely together when it comes to the scientific preparation of new methods. We also want to work on further optimizing the methods, adds Dr. Schmidt.
Limited grocery shopping : What stores are open or closed on Christmas Eve

Bonn Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday this year and this means that most businesses will stay closed. But there are a few places where you can get essentials on December 24th.

Teilen

Teilen Weiterleiten

Weiterleiten Tweeten

Tweeten Weiterleiten

Weiterleiten Drucken

Anyone who was accustomed to buying their Christmas presents on Christmas Eve will have to rethink that strategy this year: Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday which means most stores are closed with the exception of some bakeries, pastry shops, butchers and supermarkets. Each state has different regulations about what stores are allowed to open on Christmas Eve and in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), the law allows for Christmas tree sellers and food retailers to be open from 10am to 2pm on December 24th.

Friday and Saturday will be extremely busy days at supermarkets in Bonn and the region. Not only are most stores closed on Sunday, but Monday and Tuesday, December 25 and 26 are also public holidays, meaning stores will be closed. The next regular shopping day will be Wednesday, December 27.

Only a few Bonn supermarkets will open

A regulation in NRW grants some of the businesses permission to open on the 24th, but it doesnt necessarily mean that all stores will choose to open for those hours. Each business owner may decide individually whether they want to open or not.

Discount grocers of the Aldi South chain and Lidl have decided not to open on Christmas Eve day. The supermarket Kaufland will also remain closed. Rewe and Penny stores have confirmed to GA that they will not open on December 24, but individual franchises of those companies may choose to open. Rewe Rahmati on Putzstrae in Bonn-Kessenich will not open on Christmas Eve.

The Rewe-Markt Eroglu on Romerstrae in Bonn will open from 10am to 2pm, allowing customers to make last minute purchases. The Rewe-To-Go shops at the Aral petrol stations on Godesberger Allee and at Potsdamer Platz will remain open, and the branch in Bonn's city center is open from 9 am to midnight.

The Edeka regional company does not have specific requirements for individual franchisers of the supermarket, according to spokesman Gerd Koslowski. But most in NRW will decide not to open at Christmas. Supermarkets which are not franchised, such as the one in Bonn-Dottendorf would remain closed. Many Edeka franchisers in Bonn are following the trend with the branches of Edeka Kipping and Edeka Fuchs closing their stores on Christmas Eve day. A staff member at Netto headquarters confirmed that all of their branches would remain closed that day as well.
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone, Dec. 19, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Solar Park Freetown project was inaugurated and commenced by His Excellency The President of Sierra Leone, Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma in presence of former Hon. Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Samura Kamara and Hon. Minister of Energy, Henry Macauley, who are leading the project. Together with the Project Manager and EPC Contractor, the project total costs have been reduced from the initial USD18 million allocation to only USD12.6 million for all project components, including certain critical infrastructure additions. The Government of Sierra Leone represented by the Ministry of Energy is pleased to announce that Sierra Leone has undergone a number of critical steps leading up to the historic landmark event on 12th of December 2017. The ratification of the ADFD Loan by the Sierra Leone Government, establishment of a working Project Implementation Unit (PIU) at the Ministry of Energy in Sierra Leone, and the re-appointment of the UAE based Advanced Science and Innovation Company (ASIC) LLC as the Project Manager and Lead for the Solar Park Freetown Project and the appointment of the EPC, SMRT Projects and Energy Solutions (SMRT P&ES).



Photos: http://APO.af/AP63uC

The landmark 6MW Solar Park Freetown Project won the first prestigious International Renewable Energy Agency and Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (IRENA/ADFD) financing facility. It was initiated and coordinated by late Ambassador Siray Alpha Timbo and Dr. Bahige Annan, the Consul General of Sierra Leone in Dubai, UAE, then developed with the Project Manager, Filip Matwin, CEO of ASIC. In close cooperation with the Minister of Energy and the PIU, the Project will in fact, leave an important legacy for Sierra Leones future development.

The Solar Park Project will provide a substantial access to clean renewable and sustainable electricity to both urban and western rural districts around the capital, Freetown, a first in the history of the country. This is a record to note, for Renewable Energy Projects across West Africa as a region, adding valuable and long-awaited clean electricity to the grid, not to dismiss the power and supporting infrastructure brought by critical international experts to Sierra Leone in the field of Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development.

Solar Park Freetown Project is specially designed to include a number of institutional and critical human resource arrangements for sustainable management and international best practices of the IRENA/ADFD project facility. The Project has been specifically structured by the Project Manager in coordination with the PIU, to ensure implementation of sustainable Renewable Energy combined with knowledge transfer specific to Sierra Leones geographic and socio-economic situation. This in line with His Excellency, the President of Sierra Leone and IRENA / ADFDs goal of sustainable electrification in Sierra Leone.

The total cost of the project, which budget has been considerably reduced over the year by the Project Consortium (PM & EPC), include assets such as an upgrade of road and grid-power infrastructure, with a necessary extension of the 161KV grid power line, a distribution substation, and a MV/HV substation as part of the total project. This combined with the 6MW Power Plant will significantly change the economic future of the country and the people of Sierra Leone.

The Project Manager ASIC and the EPC SMRT have already started works and are expected to make steadfast progress on the project. Monthly updates to the PIU, community and the press will be given by the Project Manager and the EPC. At each of the critical stages of the project, it will be shown and explained, the development of the Solar Park works and overall Project, to show good governance, full transparency and community inclusion.

Project Summary  Key Facts

Funding Agencies: Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) and the Government of Sierra Leone (GOSL)

Owner: Ministry of Energy of Sierra Leone

Project Manager: Advanced Science and Innovation Company (ASIC) LLC from the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

EPC Contractor: SMRT Projects and Energy Solutions from Sierra Leone

Type of Power Plant: Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Power Plant

Connection Type: Grid Connected with additional infrastructure

Capacity: 6MWp

Module Type Polycrystalline - 350Wp

Cumulative Energy Yield (25 Years): ~more than 190,000,000.00 kWh

Period of Execution: 12 Months

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Ministry of Energy, Republic of Sierra Leone.

For further information:

Ministry of Energy- Project Implementation Unit - Dr. Patrick Tarawalli - Tel: +232 88 28 25 60 - e-mail: ptarawalli@msn.com

Project Manager- Advanced Science and Innovation Company (ASIC LLC Mr. Filip Matwin (CEO/Project Manager) - e-mail: filipm@royalgroupuae.com

EPC Contractor - SMRT Projects and Energy Solutions - Nabil Bazzi (Managing Director/Head EPC) - Tel: +232 88 50 18 80 - e-mail: n.bazzi@smrtpes.com
SAN DIEGO, Dec. 19, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ziyen Inc.s procurement portal, Rebuilding Iraq has recently signed on as a Gold Media Partner for Iraq Petroleum 2018 in Berlin, Germany on February 27th-28th, 2018.



Iraq Petroleum 2018 is one of the key events organized by CWC Media and brings together Iraqs oil and gas industry to enhance international cooperation from the international energy community to support the countrys hydrocarbons sector and re-establish it on the world energy map as the next oil and gas cluster.

In its 12th edition working year on year with the Federal Government of Iraq and the Ministry of Oil, the conference is renowned for gathering the countries' senior Government representatives alongside key industry stakeholders to drive the strategy for the year ahead in one of the world's most important oil and gas markets. In 2017, the Iraq Petroleum Event drew over 200 speakers and sponsors include Shell, Chevron, LUKOIL, Petronas and Baker Hughes.

The partnership with CWC Media will provide further global exposure to Rebuilding Iraqs comprehensive tender, project and news notification services. This partnership also marks the launch of Rebuilding Iraqs new Business Development service offered in the websites Gold Membership Service in which a thorough marketing and sales plan is created for a clients specific business requirements.

Greg Simpson, Head of Business Development for Ziyens Intelligence Software Division, based out of the UK adds:

With 100 billion dollars being invested in Iraq in the coming years, we are excited to be a part of an event that promotes business in the country. As a Gold Media Partner, Rebuilding Iraq will continue to advance CWCs profile whilst showcasing our business development services at the upcoming Iraq Petroleum Event in Berlin. This is one of a number of key enhancements we have recently developed as part of our service relaunch, as we seek to provide additional value to our new and existing members, at an exciting time for business opportunities and expected growth throughout Iraq.

Rebuilding Iraq is a leading international source of tenders, contracts and news in Iraq. The portal currently has over 5000 users, published over 40,000 contracts and tenders and has over 350,000 followers across social media.

Head of Business Development, Greg Simpson and Business Development Manager, Cameron Murray will attend CWCs Iraq Petroleum Event in Berlin, Germany on February 27th-28th to represent Rebuilding Iraq.

About Ziyen Inc.

Founded in 2016, Ziyen Inc. is a Scottish-American company developing cutting edge procurement software to provide clients with industry specific government and private contracts via procurement portals. In 2017, Ziyen diversified, instating the Ziyen Energy Division, with intent to produce oil in the U.S. with advanced extraction methods and technology implemented and guided by career experts in the oil and gas industry. In June 2017, Ziyen acquired the mineral rights to its first oil field in Indiana, and now has two assets. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently qualified Ziyen Inc. in November 2017 for our second round of funding, with a pre-IPO share price of $1.50. More information may be found in its Offering Circular filed with the SEC, or on their website www.ziyen.com

About Granite PR

Founded in 2008, Aberdeen-based Granite PR offers the full spectrum of PR services with an emphasis on the energy, technology, hospitality, food and drink, professional services and healthcare sectors. The company has developed strong links in domestic and overseas markets, particularly the US and Scandinavia, and these have been enhanced by Granite PRs Gateway series of business events which encourage trade between key locations. For more information visit www.granitepr.co.uk

Forward Looking Statements:

Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to, statements related to anticipated commencement of commercial production, targeted pricing, performance goals, and statements that otherwise relate to future periods are forward-looking statements. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, which are described in more detail in the Company's periodic reports filed with the SEC- specifically the most recent reports which identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are made and based on information available to the company on the date of this press release. Ziyen Inc. assumes no obligation to update the information in this press release.
MARTINSVILLE  In just a little more than a month, Patrick Henry Community College has achieved roughly 45 percent of its goal toward attracting high school seniors graduating next spring into a new program enabling students to attend the college for free.

So far, 111 applications have been received for the SEED Fund. Applicants include 63 seniors at Magna Vista High School, 34 at Bassett High School and 13 at Martinsville High School, as well as one at Patrick County High School who lives in Bassett, according to Shelira Morrison, the colleges recruitment and marketing specialist.

The programs immediate goal is to attract at least 250 students for next years fall semester, PHCC President Angeline Godwin told the colleges board Monday afternoon.

Announced on Nov. 13, the SEED Fund is a $3.1 million initiative funded by The Harvest Foundation. Local high school graduates in 2018, 2019 and 2020 who are accepted at PHCC and meet the funds criteria will have all of their tuition, textbooks and fees paid by the foundation while they earn their associates degrees or other educational credentials.

Harvest donated the funds out of a desire to help every local student who graduates from high school be able to pursue higher education, regardless of their families economic situations.

PHCC is the only community college in Virginia to have a free tuition program with such an extensive reach to students, Godwin said.

Its like giving every family a $10,000 to $15,000 Christmas president, she said.

I just think its awesome, said board Chairwoman Becky Lovell. It takes a (financial) burden off families, and it takes a burden off students.

Providing free tuition to college-bound high school students could make more scholarships available to the general public, said Gary Collins, a representative of the PHCC Foundation, the colleges private fundraising arm.

Among the criteria, graduating high school seniors must have a cumulative grade-point average of at least 2.5, complete an application, file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) each year they are in college and do eight hours of community service yearly while they take part in the program. Full details of the program and the application are online at patrickhenry.edu/seed.

Students who have submitted applications have been mailed packages containing a pre-acceptance letter, college enrollment form and other pertinent information, Morrison said. They cannot officially be accepted until after they graduate to ensure they meet all of the criteria, she said.

Accepted students must enroll in 15 credit hours of courses, or the specified number of credit hours for certain academic programs, each semester in order to maintain eligibility to participate, she added.

Taking 15 hours per semester is considered being a full-time student. Research shows that full-time students have a higher success rate at achieving their academic goals, Godwin said.

PHCC plans to begin promoting the SEED Fund significantly early in 2018.

Asked whether college officials anticipate being able to achieve the goal of 250 students for next fall, Godwin said, We dont know. Its just a little too early to tell.

There are hundreds more seniors in local high schools. What if every one of them applies to the program and is accepted? Could PHCC educate all of them with the resources it has?

It would be the most wonderful challenge that we could have, Godwin said. Well do whatever it takes to accommodate them.
TORONTO, Dec. 19, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rupert Resources Ltd. (Rupert or the Company) (TSX-V:RUP) (FSE:R05) announces that further to the appointment of Mr. Jeffrey L. Karoly as Chief Financial Officer as per the Companys November 7, 2017 press release, and in order to streamline management, Mr. Karoly has been appointed Corporate Secretary of the Company. Mr. Gordon Chmilar who held the role previously will continue to act as an advisor to the Company.



Also, Max Hinchcliffe, who has acted as Vice President, Finance of the Company, has also stepped down from such position to take advantage of other opportunities that have come available to him. Mr. Max Hinchcliffe will also continue to act as an advisor to the Company.

James Withall, Chief Executive Officer, said, We are pleased to announce the appointment of Jeffrey Karoly as Company Secretary - Jeffrey is already Chief Financial Officer of the Company. I would also like to thank Max and Gordon for their efforts in establishing Rupert following the acquisition of the Pahtavaara Project, and are pleased that they will remain involved with the Company in their capacities as advisors.

About Rupert

Rupert is a Canadian based gold exploration and development company that is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol RUP. The Company owns the Pahtavaara gold mine, mill, and exploration permits and concessions located in the Central Lapland Greenstone Belt in Northern Finland (see the Companys November 9, 2016 press release). The Company also holds a 100% interest in the Gold Centre property, which consists of mineral claims located in the Balmer Township, Red Lake Mining Division of Ontario.

For further information, please contact:

James Withall

Chief Executive Officer

jwithall@rupertmining.com Thomas Credland

Head of Corporate Development & Investor Relations

tcredland@rupertmining.com

Rupert Resources Ltd.

82 Richmond Street East, Suite 203, Toronto, Ontario M5C 1P1

Tel: +1 416-304-9004



Web: http://rupertresources.com/

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains statements which constitute forward-looking statements, including the statements with respect to those that address potential quantity and/or grade of minerals, potential for minerals and statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs and current expectations of the Company with respect to the future drilling and geological activities, business activities and operating performance of the Company. The words may, would, could, will, intend, plan, anticipate, believe, estimate, expect and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company, are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are based on the opinions, assumptions and estimates of management considered reasonable at the date the statements are made, and are inherently subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other known and unknown factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. These factors include the general risks of the mining industry, as well as those risk factors discussed or referred to in the Company's annual Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended February 28, 2017 available at www.sedar.com. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements except as otherwise required by applicable law.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sabina Gold & Silver Corp (TSX:SBB) (Sabina or the Company) is pleased to announce that the Nunavut Impact Review Board (the NIRB) has issued the final Project Certificate for the Back River Project (the Project or Back River).



As announced on December 6, 2017, the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, on behalf of the five responsible federal Ministers, accepted the NIRBs recommendation for the Project to proceed to the regulatory and licensing phase. Following the completion of a Project Certificate workshop held on December 14, 2017 the NIRB has issued the final Project Certificate pursuant to Section 12.5.12 of Article 12 of the Nunavut Agreement.

The Project Certificate contains terms and conditions, the majority of which were agreed upon during the environmental assessment process. The Project Certificate allows Sabina to advance through the final licensing and permitting stage.

After a multi-year environmental assessment process, we are very pleased to end the year with the issuance of the final Project Certificate for Back River, said Bruce McLeod, President & CEO. As reported, we have recently submitted our Type B and Type A water license applications and will proceed with other necessary permit applications in due course. The Project Certificate is another milestone for Sabina shareholders. This has been an overall positive year, and we are looking forward to reporting on activities for 2018.

Sabina Gold & Silver Corp

Sabina Gold & Silver Corp. is a well-financed, emerging precious metals company with district scale, world class undeveloped assets in one of the worlds newest, politically stable mining jurisdictions: Nunavut, Canada.

In September 2015, Sabina released a Feasibility Study on its 100% owned Back River Gold Project which presents a project that has been designed on a fit-for purpose basis, with the potential to produce ~200,000 ounces a year for ~11 years with a rapid payback of 2.9 years. At a US$1,150 gold price and a 0.80 exchange rate, the Study delivers a potential after tax internal rate of return of approximately 24.2% with an initial CAPEX of $415 million.

The Project received its final Project Certificate on December 19, 2017. The Project is now in the final regulatory and licensing phase.

In addition to Back River, Sabina also owns a significant silver royalty on Glencores Hackett River Project. The silver royalty on Hackett Rivers silver production is comprised of 22.5% of the first 190 million ounces produced and 12.5% of all the silver produced thereafter.

The Company had cash and equivalents of C$38.5m at September 30, 2017. In addition the Company announced a strategic investment financing by Zhaojin International Mining Company of approximately C$66m. The financing is scheduled to close in the new year.

For further information please contact:

Nicole Hoeller, Vice-President, Communications: 1 888 648-4218

nhoeller@sabinagoldsilver.com

Forward Looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws (the forward-looking statements), including our belief as to the extent, results of permitting and environmental assessment outcomes, and access to project funding. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the future circumstances, outcomes or results anticipated in or implied by such forward-looking statements will occur or that plans, intentions or expectations upon which the forward-looking statements are based will occur. While we have based these forward-looking statements on our expectations about future events as at the date that such statements were prepared, the statements are not a guarantee that such future events will occur and are subject to risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors which could cause events or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors and assumptions include, among others, the effects of general economic conditions, commodity prices, changing foreign exchange rates and actions by government and regulatory authorities and misjudgments in the course of preparing forward-looking statements. In addition, there are known and unknown risk factors which could cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Known risk factors include risks associated with exploration and project development; the need for additional financing; the calculation of mineral resources and reserves; operational risks associated with mining and mineral processing; fluctuations in metal prices; title matters; government regulation; obtaining and renewing necessary licenses and permits; environmental liability and insurance; reliance on key personnel; the potential for conflicts of interest among certain of our officers or directors; the absence of dividends; currency fluctuations; labour disputes; competition; dilution; the volatility of the our common share price and volume; future sales of shares by existing shareholders; and other risks and uncertainties, including those relating to the Back River Project and general risks associated with the mineral exploration and development industry described in our Annual Information Form, financial statements and MD&A for the fiscal period ended December 31, 2016 filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators and available at www.sedar.com. Although we have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. We are under no obligation to update or alter any forward-looking statements except as required under applicable securities laws. This news release is authorized by the undersigned on behalf of Sabina Gold & Silver Corp.

Bruce McLeod, President & CEO

Suite 1800  Two Bentall Centre

555 Burrard Street

Vancouver, BC V7X 1M9

Tel 604 998-4175 Fax 604 998-1051

http://www.sabinagoldsilver.com
OTTAWA, Dec. 20, 2017 /CNW/ - Northern Shield Resources Inc. ("Northern Shield" or the "Company") (TSXV: NRN) is pleased to announce that, through a wholly owned subsidiary, it has signed an Option Agreement with a prospector ("Prospector") that gives the Company the right to acquire up to an 80% interest in the Shot Rock Gold Property ("Property") in Nova Scotia, which is being explored for conglomerate-hosted and epithermal-type gold mineralization.

Under the terms of the Option Agreement which is subject to TSX approval, Northern Shield can earn a 50% interest in the Property by incurring $500,000 in expenditures on the Property within two years. The Option Agreement also contains cash payments totaling $50,000 and share issuances totaling 650,000 Company shares to the Prospector over three installments during the initial two-year period.

Over an additional two-year period, Northern Shield can increase its interest to 80% by incurring $1.5M in expenditures, while making $50,000 in cash payments and issuing 500,000 Company shares to the Prospector.

The Prospector will retain a 1% NSR of which half (0.5%) can be bought back by Northern Shield for $1M.

The Shot Rock Gold Property consists of 200 claims covering a 25 kilometre strike-length of a previously unknown unconformable, quartz-pebble conglomerate (see image). While outcrop is generally poor in the area, the Prospector has consistently panned gold from streams that transect a certain area of the Property. Prospecting also resulted in the discovery of quartz-adularia-pyrite veins (see image) moderately anomalous in gold and epithermal pathfinder elements including mercury, arsenic and antimony.

Approximately 70 kilometres to the west of the Property, geologists from the Nova Scotian Department of Natural Resources have also identified epithermal-type mineralization and they have drawn similarities to the gold belts in Nevada, USA. The area in Nova Scotia has temporarily been withdrawn from staking as the DNR seeks proposals from interested mining companies. "We have all the indications that there could be something there," said a geologist for the Department of Natural Resources in a recent newspaper article, "Basically, it's the same sort of deposits as (are) down in Nevada." (The Herald Chronicle, November 23, 2017). Northern Shield believes that the rocks and mineralization discovered on the Shot Rock Gold property are part of the same system as those described by the DNR to the west.

"We felt that the 'out of the box thinking' by a local prospector provided an ideal opportunity for diversification and to become a first mover in a potentially new gold district," says Northern Shield President and CEO, Ian Bliss. "The prospector's interpretation is already being supported by similar discoveries by government geologists. As the project is held through a wholly owned subsidiary it allows Northern Shield to continue its Ni-Cu-PGE focus." Exploration work will begin immediately in the new year which will include community engagement, surficial sampling, prospecting as conditions allow, and likely an airborne geophysical survey.

The programs will be overseen by Christine Vaillancourt, P. Geo., the Company's Chief Geologist and a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101.

Northern Shield Resources Inc. is a Canadian-based company focused on exploring for platinum group element ("PGE") and nickel-copper-PGE deposits. It is known as a leader in grass roots exploration for Ni-Cu-PGEs and the understanding of magmatic systems as it applies to exploration.

Forward-Looking Statements Advisory

This news release contains statements concerning the exploration plans, results and potential and other mineralization at the Company's Highland Gold Property in Nova Scotia and geological, and analyses of the Highland Gold property and surrounding area and other expectations, plans, goals, objectives, assumptions, information or statements about future events, conditions, results of exploration or performance that may constitute forward-looking statements or information under applicable securities legislation. Such forward-looking statements or information are based on a number of assumptions, which may prove to be incorrect.

Although Northern Shield believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements or information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on forward?looking statements because Northern Shield can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements or information are based on current expectations, estimates and projections that involve a number of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by Northern Shield and described in the forward?looking statements or information. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, risks associated with geological, geometrical and geophysical interpretation and analysis, the ability of Northern Shield to obtain financing, equipment, supplies and qualified personnel necessary to carry on exploration and the general risks and uncertainties involved in mineral exploration and analysis.

The forward-looking statements or information contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and Northern Shield undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward?looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws.

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.

SOURCE Northern Shield Resources Inc.
Toronto, Ontario (FSCwire) - Mustang Minerals Corp. (TSX-V: MUM ) (" Mustang  or the "Company") announced that pursuant to its non-brokered private placement ( the Financing) announced November 27, 2017 it has closed a second tranche of $1,189,774 . The Financing will be used for general corporate purposes including activities at its highly prospective properties located in Manitoba. Mustang has now raised gross proceeds of $2,480,274 in conjunction with the current Financing



The second tranche consists of an additional 3,399,354 units at a price of $0.35 per unit for gross proceeds of $1,189,774. Each unit consists of one common share and one half common share purchase warrant exercisable at $0.45 for a period of three years from closing. Finders fees of $50,121 cash and a total of 143,202 finders warrants were paid in conjunction with the second closing. The finders warrants are exercisable for a period of three years at an exercise price of $0.45.

All securities issued in connection with the Financing subject to a statutory hold period of four (4) months and one day from the date of issuance. The Financing is subject to the final approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

Mustang has significant mineral resources and the largest mineral rights holding in the Bird River Sill area in southeastern Manitoba. The area is seeing substantially increased exploration activity in response to developing interest in the battery metals sector of which nickel will play a big part. The demand for nickel is anticipated to steadily improve over the coming years in response to the expected shift to EVs (electric vehicles)  said Robin Dunbar, President of Mustang.



About Mustang Minerals

Mustang owns the mineral rights to the Makwa Nickel Property and the Mayville Property both located in the Bird River Greenstone Belt in southeast Manitoba. The Company completed a PEA on the Makwa-Mayville Project in 2014. The Company also controls mineral rights at the East Bull Lake Property west of Sudbury prospective for PGM and the Bannockburn Nickel Property near Matachewan.

Carey Galeschuk P. Geo is the Qualified Person for Mustang Minerals Corp.

To find out more about Mustang Minerals Corp. (TSX-V: MUM)

visit our website at www.mustangminerals.com or:

Telephone: 416-955-4773 email: info@mustangminerals.com

We seek safe harbour.

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and forward-looking information within the meaning of the Securities Act (Ontario) (together, forward-looking statements). Such forward-looking statements may include the Companys plans for its mineral projects in Manitoba, the overall economic potential of its properties, the availability of adequate financing and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements to be materially different. Such factors include, among others, risks and uncertainties relating to potential political risk, uncertainty of production and capital costs estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses, physical risks inherent in mining operations, currency fluctuations, fluctuations in the price of nickel and other metals, completion of economic evaluations, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, the inability or failure to obtain adequate financing on a timely basis, and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in the Companys Management Discussion and Analysis for the most recent financial period and Material Change Reports filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators and available at www.sedar.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor it 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 press release.

To view this press release as a PDF file, click onto the following link:public://news_release_pdf/Mustang12202017.pdfSource: Mustang Minerals Corp. (TSX Venture:MUM)

To follow Mustang Minerals Corp. on your favorite social media platform or financial websites, please click on the icons below.

Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com

Copyright  2017 FSCwire
A Big Hit

New Mexicos Woes

MINERAL ROYALTY PAYMENTS TO STATES, 2016

As Congress speeds toward a vote on its massive tax overhaul, the lack of funding to cover the costs of the package means Western states are poised to lose nearly $1.3 billion in oil, gas and coal royalties.Neither the House nor Senate versions of the bill are completely funded  Republicans argued economic growth spurred by the cuts would offset their cost. That lack of funding could ignite a 2010 federal law that requires across-the-board budget cuts, including withholding from states their portion of the money that oil, gas and coal companies pay to operate on federal land, when Congress approves a deficit-increasing measure. One prominent Western GOP senator insists that its unlikely Congress would allow that to happen, but fears in state capitals remain.Western states rich in coal, oil and natural gas  among them Wyoming, New Mexico and Montana  already rely heavily on those industries and have had their budgets hit hard in recent years by falling energy prices. Several have been struggling to find millions needed to plug budget holes, and losing the 48 percent cut of the federal governments royalty payments would be devastating, said officials across several states. The states congressional delegations cast their votes along party lines, with Republicans voting for the bill and Democrats against.Furthermore, the cuts would hit schools and other social services particularly hard, as many resource-rich states use royalty payments to fund those systems. This comes as states fear the impacts of the tax overhauls other provisions, such as a cut in local and state income tax deductions.Triggering these cuts will put state budgets in the red and critical public services on the chopping block, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat, said in a statement. On the heels of a catastrophic wildfire season that burned a hole in Montanas budget, the last thing we need to be doing is handing out sweetheart deals to corporations that cost our state tens of millions of dollars.Governors offices did not respond to questions about how they would deal with the drop in revenue.Montana is poised to lose $24 million in royalty payments if the tax bill goes through. That comes on the heels of a November special session that was called just five months into the states two-year budget cycle to address a $227 million hole. The states revenue department projected that in all, the state would lose $122 million under the Senate version of the tax bill.Mike Kadas, the states revenue director, said the royalty payments go into the states general fund, about half of which goes toward education. Other large portions are directed to the university system, public health and human services, and the states correction system.Montana has been struggling to balance this budget for the last year or more, so $24 million is a big hit, he said. Were all in the process of reducing services right now, so it just means more of that.Kadas said there is already talk about raising state taxes, and resource-producing counties, which get 25 percent of the states payout, would have to choose whether to reduce services or raise property taxes.Chad Fenner, a county commissioner in coal-rich Big Horn County, Montana, which received $2 million in mineral royalties last year, said the predominantly Native American county already has had to raise taxes because of a lagging coal market. He said losing the payments would mean cuts to the ambulance service, senior center and fire protection, all of which were paid for with royalty money.I hate even thinking about it if that would happen, Fenner said. It wouldnt be good for our county.The law that would trigger the cuts, the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act, also known as PAYGO, requires across-the-board cuts to certain programs if legislation passed by Congress increases projected deficits. An analysis from the nonpartisan Office of Management and Budget determines the amount of the cuts. Congress can, however, vote to waive the effects of PAYGO, which is exactly what some Republicans are suggesting.Max DOnofrio, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Michael Enzi, a Wyoming Republican, said there has yet to be a sequester under PAYGO because lawmakers have voted 16 times to waive the required cuts.Senate Republicans will work to prevent cuts, he said. Congress made the PAYGO law and Congress can also waive its requirements, and they have done so before on a bipartisan basis.But not all are convinced it would be so simple.Weve been told, Dont worry, Congress will fix this part of the deal, but Ill believe it when I see it, Kadas said.Enzis home state of Wyoming would be perhaps the hardest-hit by withheld payments. The state got north of $664 million last year in royalty payments  the most of any state. It also faces a $770 million two-year deficit.Mark Gordon, the states treasurer and a Republican, said the education system would be hit hard by the loss of mineral royalties. The money funds education first before flowing to other priorities.Royalty payments arent just returned to the states to compensate for natural resources  the government has an obligation to offset the costs of development by funding schools, roads and other needs in impacted areas, Gordon said. There was a recognition that where development occurs, the proper goal for the government was to use those royalties to take care of some of those impacts.New Mexico expects to receive about $455 million for this fiscal year, according to Democratic U.S. Sen. Tom Udalls office, and like other Western states, it has had budget problems due to falling energy prices. The state went through nearly all of its reserves over the past two years and is working to rebuild them.Udall said the bill sets New Mexico on a collision course for a huge budget cut. Both U.S. senators from New Mexico sponsored an amendment to the Senate bill to exclude mineral payments from the cuts, but it did not pass.New Mexico cant afford a $450 million budget cut, especially one that would slash the budget for public schools, Udall said in a statement. And New Mexicos schoolchildren shouldnt have to pay for tax cuts for the top 1 percent.New Mexico state Sen. John Arthur Smith, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, recently penned a letter with his counterpart in the House to New Mexicos congressional delegation warning of the impact of losing the mineral royalty payments.The cuts would go right to the heart of education, he said. Republican Gov. Susana Martinezs pledge to not raise taxes leaves the state with few other options, but Smith said increasing taxes is what the state needs to do to untie itself from the volatility of the oil market.You get labeled politically that you just want tax increases, but I just want reliable revenues, Smith said. This roller coaster thing is not a lot of fun.The Western Governors Association, which represents the governors of 19 states, said in a policy resolution that the federal government has no discretion over this money and that payment to the states is the only authorized use for the revenue.Theres no question whenever you have to deal with giving something away and taking something back, whoever is on the short end of that stick is going to feel it, said Gordon in Wyoming. And PAYGO rules, if they apply to royalty payments to states, are going to be pretty devastating to us.Alaska $12,195,000Arizona $55,000California $35,317,000Colorado $83,887,000Idaho $5,485,000Montana $23,008,000Nevada $5,522,000New Mexico $368,604,000North Dakota $32,521,000Oregon $107,000South Dakota $307,000Utah $67,901,000Washington $4,000Wyoming $664,312,000
Citing Congress failure to restore federal funding of the Childrens Health Insurance Program, Alabama plans to drop 7,000 kids from coverage on New Years Day, the first step to shutting down coverage for everyone, state officials said Monday.Those children, who are up for their yearly renewal in January, will not be allowed to continue in the program, and the state also plans to freeze enrollment at the same time. Then, unless Congress acts, Alabama would close CHIP for all 84,000 children on Feb. 1.Alabama would become the first state to cut off childrens coverage since Congress failed to renew federal CHIP funding, which expired Oct. 1.This will be devastating for many families, said Cathy Caldwell, director of Alabamas CHIP program, which is marketed to families under the name All Kids.Colorado, Virginia and other states recently began sending letters to parents notifying them that officials may soon have to curtail their CHIP programs.Republicans and Democrats in Congress say they support the program, but they have not agreed on where to get the money to pay for it. A third of states anticipate exhausting CHIP funding by the end of January, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation report out earlier in December. (Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the foundation.)The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which oversees CHIP, has been redistributing billions in unspent funds during the past 2 months while lawmakers work on the issue to help states keep their programs running. CMS officials Monday did not respond to requests about when those dollars would run out.Caldwell said Alabama estimated it would have enough money to cover claims made only through February. She said it made no sense to continue renewing coverage and adding new enrollees in January if CHIP would be ending a month later. About 7,000 children have their coverage renewed each month, she said.Caldwell said she estimates most CHIP enrollees wont find affordable coverage without the program. Fewer than 10 percent would qualify for Medicaid, she said, and many families would find subsidized coverage for children in the Affordable Care Acts online marketplaces too costly because it often comes with higher premiums, copayments and deductibles.Nationwide, CHIP covers more than 9 million kids  children typically from families not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid, the state-federal program that covers low-income people.Income eligibility levels for CHIP vary widely among states, though most set thresholds at or below 200 percent of the poverty level, about $49,000 for a family of four. Alabama has one of the broadest eligibility levels  317 percent of the poverty level, or $78,000 for a family of four.Unlike Medicaid, CHIP is usually not free. Enrolled families pay an average premium of about $127 a year.Since CHIPs enactment, the share of uninsured children fell from 13.9 percent in 1997 to 4.5 percent in 2015, according to the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission.Alabamas rate fell from 20 percent to 2.5 percent, Caldwell said.The Republican-controlled House has voted to extend the 20-year-old program for five years and would fund it by charging richer Medicare enrollees higher premiums and taking money from a public health fund created under the ACA. The Senate has not voted, but Democrats there also refuse to tie any CHIP extension to higher Medicare premiums or siphoning money from the public health fund.Jim Carnes, policy director of ARISE Citizens Policy Project, an Alabama advocacy group, said CHIP is one of the few areas of health policy in which Alabama has led the country.Weve been called a shining star of the South, and this has really been a very efficient and effective program, he said. This will really be a huge blow.He said freezing enrollment and ending coverage would undo years of expanded coverage. This sends a terrible message to families  and I can only hope that this decision [by Alabama] adds to the pressure on Congress to act, he said.Caldwell said the last time Alabama froze enrollment in CHIP for several months, in 2004, it took several years to convince parents that the program had reopened.Once we deny kids and disenroll kids, we know so many of them wont be able to get back on, she said.
Former Bangor mayor Sean Faircloth filed papers Tuesday to run for governor.Faircloth, who served as mayor for a year during a three-year term on the City Council that ended last month, said he is "seriously contemplating" a gubernatorial bid as a Democratic candidate.If he decides to run, Faircloth, 57, will be the 12th Democrat in the race to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Paul LePage.Faircloth said he is considering seeking the governorship because "a governor has the greatest leverage to protect Maine's citizenry from encroaching oligarchy."A five-term legislator, Faircloth served in the Maine House from 1992 to 1994, the Maine Senate from 1994 to 1996 and again in the House from 2002 to 2008. He was House majority whip during his final two years in the House.Faircloth unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. House in 2002.He is the founder of the Maine Discovery Museum, a former executive director of the Secular Coalition for America and the current head of Maine Mental Health Connections Inc. in Bangor. Earlier this year, Faircloth spearheaded the Innovative Neighborhoods project, which encouraged Bangor residents to brainstorm ways to improve their city.The Democrats already in the gubernatorial race are Attorney General Janet Mills of Farmington, former House Speaker Mark Eves of North Berwick, Sanford attorney Adam Cote, Sen. Mark Dion of Portland, former Sen. James Boyle of Gorham, former Rep. Diane Russell of Portland, Hallowell lobbyist Betsy Sweet, Dominic Anthony Crocitto of Winterport, Steven Mark DeAngelis of Readfield, Patrick Eisenhart of Augusta and Martin Vachon of Mariaville.There are also five Republican candidates, five independents and two contenders from the Maine Green Independent Party.
(TNS)  Almost $5 million in funding for Georgia 911 services disappeared this year, and no one can say exactly why.The money had been collected from a 75-cent fee on prepaid phones but was never distributed by the state to local emergency 911 agencies. Every county in Georgia received 25 percent less than it did last year.The only reason provided by Georgia Revenue Commissioner Lynne Riley is that the state issued a refund, reducing the amount 911 agencies thought they were owed. A Georgia privacy law makes tax information a state secret.Id like an explanation, said Kenny Calhoun, the chairman of the Middle Flint Regional 911 Authority, which manages 911 services for eight Middle Georgia counties. How does an oversight that large, with that much money, how does that occur?The Middle Flint Regional 911 Authority received $46,688 less this year than in 2016, eliminating its ability to hire staff to improve 911 call answering times, Calhoun said.The decline in funding for 911 agencies statewide limits their ability to hire operators, reduce response times and upgrade technology.Across Georgia, fee payments for prepaid phones dropped from $19.8 million last year to $15 million this year, according to state Department of Revenue documents.Major cellphone carriers such as AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon offer prepaid plans, which charge customers upfront for phones and data without a contract.A company apparently overpaid its 911 fees to the state and then filed for a refund when it found the error. Information about the refund is confidential under state taxpayer protection laws, Riley wrote in an Oct. 25 letter to the states 911 director. The Department of Revenue declined to comment.We were shocked because these prepaid plans continue to grow, said Debra Nesbit, associate legislative director for the Association County Commissioners of Georgia, which represents the interests of county governments. Nobody ever imagined the amount would go down.The General Assembly will probably consider changes to state law during the upcoming session to increase accountability of 911 fees.Lawmakers passed a proposal last year, Senate Bill 222 , that would have created a state agency responsible for collecting, auditing and administering revenue from 911 fees for emergency calls. The measure would have allowed the Local Government 911 Authority to audit Department of Revenue records  providing an explanation for refund payments  but those records would still remain confidential from the public.Gov. Nathan Deal vetoed the legislation because he said the authority would have been too independent from the state with little oversight. Deal then signed an executive order in May to start a similar 911 authority within the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency, and he said hell support legislation in 2018 that codifies the authority and addresses his concerns.The authoritys chairwoman, Cheryl Greathouse, said local 911 agencies deserve to know whats happening to 911 fees paid by telephone users across the state. The revenue shortfall hurt their ability to provide services and plan for the future, she said.It created a hardship for a number of 911 centers, said Greathouse, who oversees instructional services at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth. The 911 community hasnt been given an answer, other than that it was some sort of refund.The legislation also would have doubled 911 fees from prepaid phone plans to make them the same as the $1.50 monthly fee paid by other wireless and landline phone customers.Money raised by the fees could be used to upgrade 911 technology across Georgia so emergency responders can quickly find wireless 911 callers, possibly by using GPS or other geolocation methods. Another potential improvement would enable text messaging or video calls to 911.State Sen. John Kennedy, R-Macon, said he hopes the General Assembly and the governor can work together on a comprehensive 911 bill that better accounts for customers fees and enhances 911 response.Im always in favor of transparency so citizens know where the money comes from and how its spent. Folks deserve that, said Kennedy, who sponsored SB 222. We need to modernize our 911 system so that counties can provide this critical service.
The precarious position of the Amtrak train cars that spilled onto Interstate 5 slowed first responders' search for bodies and injured passengers, as large pieces of debris posed safety risks to them and to victims inside.Eric Waters, a Pierce County spokesman for the incident-management team, said a complete search of the crash site near Mounts Road, outside DuPont in Pierce County, ended hours after the 7:38 a.m. crash Monday that killed three people and injured scores more. The process included thermal-imaging technology to sense body heat of victims.One of the train cars slanted at a 45-degree angle onto the highway. Others crashed into a wooded area nearby, aerial images show. Twelve cars total went off the tracks."Because of weather conditions and the conditions of the vehicles ... it took us a while to stabilize the incident," he said.County and state agencies spanning Western Washington rushed to the Amtrak train-crash site minutes after the derailment, while passengers hurriedly escaped by breaking windows and pushing through debris. Drivers on the freeway immediately halted, some of them injured by falling train cars. Witnesses raced to pull people from the wreckage and give first aid.Washington State Patrol troopers were among the first at the site, helping people out of train cars and checking for injuries until firefighters arrived, Trooper Brooke Bova said."Anybody and everybody that was available was on scene, fighting various different responses," she said. "We jumped into action."Fire crews immediately categorized the chaos as a massive, multi-casualty event and took steps accordingly, Waters said.Several firefighters walked the perimeter of the site to evaluate any potential hazards, such as dangerous materials or blockages, while others helped victims on the periphery, he said. That preliminary walk-around can take up to 10 minutes."For a large incident, we know we're going to be here awhile," Waters said.Then, fire crews started a complete evaluation of the site, a secondary search, aiming to survey "every nook and cranny" with tools including cameras that detect body heat with infrared technology, he said."Any source of heat -- that's a person," Waters said. "That's going to show quickly," especially in Monday's cool weather.But the tilted position of the Amtrak train cars delayed that search, as "big, heavy pieces of vehicles" hung precariously, threatening the safety of first responders and victims, Waters said. The effort in effect spanned hours.Dozens of people, both train passengers and drivers on the freeway, suffered injuries after the train -- going 50 mph faster than the posted speed limit -- went off the tracks. Those injures range in severity from minor scrapes to life-threatening wounds. Medics took them to hospitals spanning the region, and many remained hospitalized Tuesday.The State Patrol confirmed three deaths roughly nine hours after the crash, after both local and national media outlets reported a greater number of fatalities, citing The Associated Press."Everyone is wanting to get as much information as they can," Waters said. "And sometimes bystanders and sources that aren't (verified) sources of information release information."Authorities take special care before they publicly release information on deaths, a process that involves contacting relatives, Waters said.A fluctuating death total is common during emergency-response situations, sometimes because victims' injuries are not easily discernible. "We see someone laying on the ground when they look deceased when they're not," Bova said.Zack Willhoite and Jim Hamre, two longtime rail advocates, were among those killed. The identity of the third person has not been released. The Pierce County medical examiner will formally identify the deceased, as well as determine cause of death.Among those who helped victims were a half-dozen soldiers who rushed from vehicles into the fray just after the crash, asking motorists for first-aid equipment, witness Greg Mukai said.Detective Chris Bailey, of the Steilacoom Public Safety Department, was one of the first officials on the scene. He said he saw a soldier climb up a train car that was dangling from the bridge to help people get out, as well as nurses and doctors exit personal vehicles -- men and women in business attire appearing with latex gloves or stethoscopes."Our incident response went very smoothly given the scope, the number of agencies and just the type of incident this was," Waters said, citing elements of training for various situations -- train, transportation and mass-casualty -- that helped prepare first responders. "In this case, we applied all three."Material from The Seattle Times archives is included in this report.Jessica Lee: 206-464-2532 or jlee@seattletimes.com; on Twitter: @jessleeST.2017 The Seattle TimesVisit The Seattle Times at www.seattletimes.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
(TNS) - Local politicians and emergency responders have worked together for years to prepare for a train disaster if it were to hit Spokane.The railways through Spokane, Wash., have speed limits and both Union Pacific and BNSF officials confirmed that each has whats known as positive train control technology, which is designed to slow or stop a train even if the conductor fails to act.News reports indicated that the Amtrak train that crashed Monday, killing three passengers and closing Interstate 5 for days, did not have that safety measure working yet.Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday that the Amtrak train on its inaugural run was traveling 80 mph on a track posted for 30 mph. The engineer did not apply the brakes as the train coursed down a mild grade and toward a curve in the track to cross I-5.Emergency brakes were engaged only after the train began going off the tracks.The Associated Press reported that the new faster Amtrak route linking Seattle and Portland was pressed into service even though the control technology wasnt set to be completed on the 15-mile span where the derailment happened until next spring.The technology could have detected the trains speed and automatically applied the brakes to slow the train before it entered the curve, according to the AP.Railroads are required to install positive train control by the end of next year after several delays.Positive train control had been on the wish list of safety regulators for years. Congress acted in September 2008 following the collision of a Metrolink passenger train and a freight train operated by Union Pacific in California.The collision nine years ago killed 25 people and injured 135.Amtrak officials said Tuesday they have taken steps to implement positive train control systems on about two-thirds of its rail lines and about half of its locomotives. Its route in the Northeast has the technology fully installed.Richard Anderson, the CEO of Amtrak, said no one wants PTC more than me but would not directly answer questions Tuesday evening about why it is taking so long to get the speed-control technology up and running across the country, according to the AP.Im a huge believer in positive train control, he said at a news conference. It just makes so much scientific sense.Anderson said the companys safety culture can continue to improve and that the crash should be seen as a wake-up call, the AP reported.First responders in Spokane have focused less on passenger trains and more on the potential of oil spills or chemical releases from the dozens of trains that roll daily through downtown Spokane, said Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich.Weve conducted multiple table-top exercises  if we had an oil train derailment, Knezovich said. Weve talked extensively for years now. We continue to talk about it, and assess where we are at  and if our hazard materials teams have what they need to deal with those situations.Despite that planning, elected officials from City Councilman Breean Beggs to Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray have pushed for higher safety standards for the oil trains.I think the Amtrak crash shows that no matter how much money you spend on a line or how safe it is, there is always a risk of a catastrophic derailment, Beggs said.Cantwell and Murray both sponsored the Crude-By-Rail Safety Act of 2015, which would have required companies to reduce the gases in crude oil shipped by rail car and halted the use of older-model tankers. But the legislation failed to pass.While we dont know yet what caused Mondays tragic derailment in Dupont, what we do know is that we need to be doing more as a country to keep people safe no matter how they travel, Murray said in a prepared statement. Ive long supported improvements and updates to our transportation infrastructure, including our rails, and will continue to make the case in Congress on this matter.Cantwell, too, offered her support to the first responders to the Amtrak crash.We need to let the investigators on the ground do their job, and we should pay close attention to their recommendations to ensure that this type of tragedy will not be repeated, Cantwell said. Until then, I will work with Senator Murray and the congressional delegation to ensure federal resources are available as needed.Even if the rules dont change, local first responders will continue to practice for the worst-case scenario, said Chandra Fox, deputy director of the local emergency management office.The main crux is to bring all of the response partners together in one room at one time and talk through the issues, she said. The whole point is to get people together and talking about it so we have started down the road of relationship building and understanding roles and responsibilities beforehand.The Associated Press contributed to this report2017 The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Wash.)Visit The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Wash.) at www.spokesman.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
The Cape Girardeau man who was sentenced to 20 years for the 2011 murder of his estranged wife received a federal sentence of 35 years for interstate domestic violence, a charge he pleaded guilty to in October of this year.

According to court documents, James "Clay" Waller received the 420-month sentence in federal court Tuesday. The sentence is to run concurrent with the sentence he is already serving.

Waller pleaded guilty to the charge of interstate domestic violence in October as part of an agreement with federal prosecutors in connection with the June 2011 murder of his wife, Jacque Rawson Waller.

A stipulation of the agreement enforced in the sentencing is that Waller must forfeit any income gained by the publication or adaptation of a book manuscript authored by Waller and obtained by agents of the FBI called, If You Take My Kids, Ill Kill You!: The Public Confession of Missouris Most, Notorious Wife Killers.

Waller and Jacque Waller were in the middle of a divorce and were the parents of triplets. She disappeared the night of June 1, 2011, shortly after the two met with a divorce attorney.

At the time, she was planning to start a new life for herself and the couple's triplets with a new boyfriend in Farmington. Since then, the triplets have been adopted by Jacque Waller's sister and brother-in-law.

As federal, state and local investigators worked on the case, Waller was first charged with threatening her sister. A prosecutor said Waller had confessed to his father about the murder, but his father then died.

In April of 2012, Waller was charged with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence, even though his wife's body had not been found.

Waller was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the murder of Jacque Waller after pleading guilty to second degree murder in state court in 2013.

As part of that agreement, Waller led police to the location of his late wifes remains in Alexander County, in southern Illinois.

In the 182-page manuscript reviewed by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch before being sealed from public availability, Waller apparently described his motive for the crime being the fear of losing his children after Jacque Waller had discovered he had been having an affair.

The Post-Dispatch also reported that in the manuscript Waller detailed his year-long consideration of the murder, during which time he scouted for an area to dig a grave for his wife. The charge of interstate domestic violence stems from Wallers digging of the grave in Illinois, returning to Missouri to strangle and beat his wife to death and crossing back to Illinois to bury her.
Precisely when it will come knocking and how damaging it may be is not in any forecast. Yet Manatee County officials have on their radar screen a compounding concern about whether they will continue to have adequate shelter capacity for local evacuees -- as well as Floridians fleeing that future storm from other counties.On Tuesday, the County Commission talked with their department heads about how the community fared during Hurricane Irma in September  and about potential deficits in shelter space because of changing storm surge maps and statewide shelter plans.The county relies on 25 public schools as shelters with a total capacity for 35,000 evacuees. During Irma, 24 schools sheltered 25,000 evacuees, about 5 percent of whom came from other counties.In January, however, the state will update its shelter plan. For that purpose, state emergency planners divide Florida into 10 regions  each of which represents a multi-county regional planning council that weighs in on land use matters.Manatee is the southernmost county in the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council area, which extends north to Citrus County.Manatee officials are concerned that, because of the area's expanding population, the state is likely to find the six-county region and the county to have a shelter deficit.During Irma, the county ordered a mandatory evacuation for Zone A, which includes coastal areas and all mobile home parks. It later called for a voluntary evacuation for Zone B, which is more inland.If a more powerful storm than Irma hits and some or all of Zones C, D and E are under a mandatory evacuation order as well, Manatee  with a population of more than 375,000 that is predicted to grow to 535,200 by 2045  could experience a severe shelter shortage.Emergency officials continue to encourage residents who must evacuate to stay with friends or families on higher ground or try to find a hotel room. Public shelters are intended to be "a last resort ... a lifeboat," Public Safety Director Bob Smith said.Even so, the next storm could compel far more than 25,000 evacuees to show up at local shelters. And, if those shelters are at capacity, Manatee evacuees may discover that counties to the north are running out of protected public spaces to take cover as well.Compounding the challenge are Federal Emergency Management Agency flood maps that are updated every five years. Already areas of the county that were not in an evacuation zone several years ago are now included in Zone E on the latest maps, John Osborne, the county's infrastructure and strategic planning official, said.Because of climate change, "storm surge maps could become more colorful," Osborne warned. Coastal flood Zone A, designated in red on those maps, could appear to hemorrhage.Furthermore, as those maps are updated, some schools that have been used as shelters may be deemed vulnerable to storm surge. If so, those campuses could no longer qualify as shelters.Earlier this year, county commissioners became frustrated with the School Board when they learned that three campuses to be constructed in Parrish will not be "hardened" to be used as shelters.The commissioners intend to schedule a meeting with the School Board after the holidays to see if they can get the school district to make certain future campuses meet shelter criteria. They say they will appeal to the state Legislature if the school district needs assistance with the additional cost, which can be several million dollars for each school.Meanwhile, the commissioners are considering whether future county facilities, such as the proposed East Manatee Library, should be constructed as potential shelters. If so, they also would have to consider how to staff those locations during a storm.They also want to take a closer look at their own 1,700 employees, hundreds of whom must be on duty during a storm or ready to participate in the clean-up immediately afterward. During Irma, emergency and other officials stationed at the Public Safety Complex in Samoset were crowded but had ample provisions.Public Works employees endured the storm in tougher conditions. Department Director Ron Schulhofer said that 180 people  85 of his employees and their family members  plus their pet dogs, cats and ferrets sheltered at the Public Works complex in east Bradenton. They shared one refrigerator and one shower."We could not have made it work another 24 hours," Schulhofer said.Another consideration is the jail, which is in a storm surge zone near Port Manatee.During Irma, Sheriff Rick Wells chose not to evacuate the inmates - who probably would have been taken to an inland county. The complex lost power, however, and relied on generators to keep critical services, such as elevators, operating.Commissioners say they need to consider whether, in the long term, the county should relocate the jail to a location that is less vulnerable to a storm."All in all, we were lucky" during Irma, said Commissioner Robin DiSabatino, who helped supervise the county's storm response from the Public Safety Complex. "We dodged a bullet." Now, she noted, county officials need to be "thinking about the next one."2017 Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Fla.Visit Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Fla. at www.heraldtribune.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
(TNS)  SEATTLE  The corridor where an Amtrak train derailed Monday was years in the making. But in recent months, officials were confronting a mix of deadlines.State transportation leaders had long ago envisioned the corridor would be refurbished by 2019, according to state records, but to collect federal stimulus money, construction had to be completed by mid-2017. The state then vowed to open the line this fall.Officials kept that promise, launching the new Point Defiance Bypass route on Monday. But had they waited just a few more months, the service would have included a critical safety feature that automatically slows trains if they exceed speed limits.Investigators are still determining why the train went into a curve at 80 mph in a 30 mph zone before jumping the tracks, killing at least three people and injuring dozens more. But the accident raises questions about the decision to start the new passenger line before the safety technology, known as positive train control, was scheduled to be fully operational next spring. A spokeswoman for the state Department of Transporation did not have an immediate comment on why new higher-speed service began before the safety system was fully activated.Congress had once mandated that computerized train-control systems be in place by the end of 2015. Lawmakers later delayed that requirement until 2018, but one state official had said earlier this year he expected the system would be in place before we start service.If operator error was a factor, it would mark yet another fatal crash that could potentially have been prevented by positive train control, including Amtraks worst accident in recent years, when a train derailed at more than 100 mph in Philadelphia in 2015, killing eight people. Like Mondays accident, that train was going more than 50 miles over the speed limit when it derailed on a curve.Bob Chipkevich, a former director of railroad, pipeline and hazardous-materials investigations for the National Transportation Safety Board and now a consultant in the same field, said positive train control would have taken over the acceleration and braking, and stopped the train.Ive seen too many accidents that could have been prevented on overspeed derailments with positive train control, he said.Mondays derailment occurred on the first regular service along a rebuilt corridor touted to cut travel time and add more round trips between Seattle and Portland.It was a key project in a larger overhaul of the network. David Smelser, a program manager on the rail project, told officials at a Lakewood council meeting earlier this year that crews were pursuing 20 improvement projects along the rail line from the north part of the state to the south. Most were complete, but the bypass project  which would provide faster and more reliable service south of Tacoma  was still lingering.Sound Transit, the agency tasked with construction in some parts of that corridor project, wrote in documents in 2016 that the project is under a very aggressive schedule and that even a one-month delay would have impacts. It noted that the state was under a deadline with the federal government to be reimbursed for costs.Smelser said in his January presentation that the overall project was going very well, but he conceded that he had some ongoing concerns about the positive train control system, noting the complexities of implementation. But he said PTC will go in the forthcoming months, before we start service. He later said he believed it would be turned on by the end of the year.Smelser on Tuesday deferred questions about PTC to the state transportation department. Other documents from Sound Transit indicate the agency had been testing its positive train control system for at least two years. Geoff Patrick, a spokesman for Sound Transit, said its on schedule to complete activation of the technology in the second quarter of 2018. He also said that if officials had barred train service in the absence of that system in recent years, there would not have been a lot of service.Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson didnt answer reporters questions about positive train control on Tuesday night, except to say Amtrak is working with partners to meet the 2018 deadline.People ask if PTC would have prevented the accident, and we refer that question to the NTSB, he said. Asked why the system wasnt installed already, he said, I think that goes back to the NTSB  I am certain the NTSB is going to make that the center, or a good part of their investigation.State Rep. Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island, who chairs the House Transportation Committee, said that panel had been briefed repeatedly on the new route. But she said the issue of the automatic speed controls never came up and she was hesitant to draw any conclusions on the derailment before an NTSB investigation was complete.I am sure there will be a lot of second-guessing but definitely everybody thought they were doing their best, Clibborn said. This is a deadline they picked because they were ready.Most of the new corridor has a maximum speed of 79 mph. But signs along the tracks two miles before the curve and again going into the curve clearly mark the speed limit in that zone as 30 mph. A spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation said engineers are trained to slow their speeds according to the limits.NTSB officials said Monday night the train was going 80 mph before the derailment.One area that may get scrutiny is the extent of crew training that Amtrak employees received before taking passengers on the rerouted tracks. Railroad workers used to receive more training, and union officials have been in an ongoing struggle with railroads to invest in more practice runs for crews that are assigned to new routes, said John Risch, the national legislative director of the SMART Transportation Division, a large railroad union whose membership includes Amtrak conductors.All the railroads in the country, including Amtrak, do not require training like they should. Time and time again we have urged the railroads to allow more training trips before they go out and they will say one or two trips is enough, Risch said. Its a cost issue  Thats something that has been a problem.NTSB member Bella Dinh-Zarr said Tuesday that crew members were trained on the route in the past two weeks but that officials would be examining how training was conducted. She said investigators were still waiting to interview the engineer and a conductor who was with him in the cab, both injured in the crash, and other crew members.Another area of possible inquiry is the prospect of a mechanical problem. At roughly 6:40 a.m., as the train approached Tacoma, a dispatcher asked whether the train had problems there leaving Seattle, according to dispatch audio provided by Broadcastify. Someone from the train responded: Yeah, we had a few mechanical issues that had to be squared away.Risch said a braking failure was a remote possibility but that braking systems are generally very reliable, enabling a train to slow to 30 mph within about a mile.As it left Tacoma, according to a train schedule and data tracked by the site transitdocs.com, the train was about 30 minutes behind schedule on its first run of service that was to showcase new speed and reliability.Among the crashes over the years that led the NTSB to push for advanced train controls was one in 1993 near Kelso, where a head-on crash between freight trains killed five crewmen.Congress didnt act on the issue until September 2008, when a passenger train collided head-on with a freight train in California, killing 25 people and injuring dozens of others. Lawmakers mandated that the controls, which can also halt trains on a collision course, be put in place by the end of 2015.Railroad companies have cited a range of complexities that make implementation difficult, from developing the technology from scratch to the deployment of hundreds of thousands of technology pieces, including to tracks in remote areas.Allan Zarembski, an engineering professor at the University of Delaware who specializes in railroad research, said the mandate from Congress also largely came without funding. Implementation could cost more than $10 billion, Zarembski said, adding that since rail operators are stuck with the cost, there was a possibility they would skimp on other safety matters such as maintenance in order to cover the bill.But, Zarembski said, a series of crashes has only increased political pressure to implement the automated safety measures.On the morning of Dec. 1, 2013, a Metro-North passenger train in New York derailed while traveling 82 mph at a curve where the maximum authorized speed was 30 mph, according to the NTSB. Four people died and dozens were injured. The NTSB determined that the probable cause was the engineer falling asleep due to undiagnosed severe obstructive sleep apnea  and that the lack of train controls was a contributing factor.On the night of May 12, 2015, an Amtrak train in Philadelphia derailed while traveling 106 mph around a curve where the speed was restricted to 50 mph, according to the NTSB. Eight people were killed, and 185 others were transported to hospitals. The NTSB determined that the probable cause was an engineer accelerating due to a loss of situational awareness  and, again, that the lack of train controls was a contributing factor.And earlier this year near Steilacoom, Washington, a nonfatal Amtrak derailment led officials to blame speed and human error, saying the engineer approached a drawbridge above the 40 mph speed limit.Amtrak has continued to expand its positive train control system in recent years. Federal data from mid-2017 shows Amtrak had the technology on about half its locomotives.Congress has left open the possibility that the train-control requirements could be delayed until 2020. But Zarembski said he no longer believes there will be political support for that.
(TNS)  Boynton Beach police could soon be able to tell if a vehicle is stolen in a matter of seconds, under a newly proposed program.City commissioners will vote Tuesday whether to kick off a program that adds 23 automated license plate readers throughout the city in an effort to crack down on crime, including recovering stolen vehicles.Its the second time this year the city is turning to technology to bolster law enforcement  officials restarted a red-light camera program this year that has already netted about 3,000 violators in a matter of weeks.The same company behind Boyntons red-light cameras, American Traffic Solutions, is also setting up the license plate readers as part of an overarching deal Dubbed an Automatic License Plate Recognition system, the readers take a picture of license plates and run them against databases of vehicles of interest by law enforcement agencies in real-time. If a license plate matches a listed vehicle, officers are notified almost immediately, according to the city.Other South Florida cities such as Hollywood, Coral Springs, Delray Beach and Boca Raton also use the technology.But the readers arent entirely new to Boynton. The citys police department already has two.Arizona-based ATS said the additional readers wouldnt come with a cost to Boynton. But the city would have to pick up the tab for any utility poles that need to be installed to mount the readers as well as storage of the data.The deal also requires that the program last until May 14, 2021. Otherwise, it will cost taxpayers $10,000 to get out of the program, according to the deal.But Commissioner Christina Romelus opposes the readers, saying its too long of a contract to be locked into.These [readers] are in no way an act of goodwill on ATSs part, Romelus said Tuesday. Theyre a way to keep our city tightly clutched in their hands.Mayor Steven Grant and Vice Mayor Justin Katz have so far supported the proposal, previously saying it would help law enforcement catch people breaking the law.Florida law says data from license plate readers can be kept for up to three years even for motorists who not suspected of a crime.Personal identifying information is currently exempt from public records , but the data is shared among law enforcement agencies.Like red-light cameras, license plate readers have spurred concern from activist groups about drivers privacy.Dave Maass, an investigative researcher with the California-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, said readers collect too much information on innocent drivers. The EFF is a nonprofit that advocates for digital privacy and free speech.By and large theyre collecting information that they dont need, Maass said. That stuff can be very privacy-invsive.
(TNS)  WASHINGTON  The White House officially blamed North Korea on Tuesday for the cyberattack in May known as WannaCry that infected hundreds of thousands of computers in 150 countries, affecting health care, financial services and vital infrastructure.Thomas P. Bossert, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, noted in a briefing with reporters that the consequences were beyond economic. He warned that North Koreas malicious behavior is growing more egregious.Bossert did not specify what evidence American officials have to blame North Korea, citing security issues, but he cited the countrys prior attacks as revealing hallmarks of how Pyongyang and its network of hackers operate. He said other allied countries had joined the United States in making the determination.The administration did not announce any penalties on the regime, which is already subject to severe sanctions over its nuclear program.They want to hold the entire world at risk, Bossert said of North Koreas rulers, referring to the nations nuclear and missile provocations as well as its alleged cyberattack.Given its isolation and international sanctions, North Korea is desperate for funds. Bossert said the country did not appear to make much money on the ransom attack, as word spread that paying a ransom did not result in getting computers unlocked. Its primary goal, he said, was spreading chaos.Bossert and Jeanette Manfra, assistant secretary of homeland security for cybersecurity and communication, said the United States, through a combination of preparation and luck, escaped the worst of the attack, as a patch to the malware was found before U.S. companies and other interests were severely crippled.However, Manfra said, We cannot be complacent. Bossert added, Next time were not going to get so lucky.Manfra praised Microsoft and Facebook for their efforts to combat WannaCry and to block more recent attempts to hack U.S. systems. She and Bossert urged more cooperation and information-sharing from American and multinational companies, arguing a united front is vital to protecting against bad actors who do not differentiate between government and business.Bossert rejected criticism that the Trump administration has more aggressively called out North Korean cyberattacks than it has Russias meddling in the 2016 election. He said the administration has continued the national emergency initiated by President Barack Obama.
Sergio Marchionne has sustained his attack on F1 sporting boss Ross Brawn.

At Ferrari's Christmas lunch, the Ferrari president said he had threatened to pull the Italian marque out of F1 because Brawn is "looking at ways that are against the DNA" of the sport.

He is now quoted as saying by Speed Week: "I have a good relationship with Chase Carey. We saw each other 10 days ago and we had a very open dialogue.

"What I do not care for is when Ross Brawn comes along and announces that grid girls have to go. And how the engines and chassis should be.

"He behaves like Moses reading the Ten Commandments. And when I call Moses' boss, he tells me that it was just his personal opinion.

"So I don't want to participate in such a discourse. I want to sit down and talk to those involved. It's not helpful to involve the media," Marchionne added.

The Ferrari president revealed that engines are currently sold to customers for EUR 15 million.

"When I hear Ross Brawn say engines are too complicated, I ask 'What does he want for 15 million?'" said Marchionne.

"Liberty Media is right when they say we need to improve the show. I was not excited with what was offered at the last race, where virtually nothing happened for 50 laps.

"But that's not the fault of the engines.

"In an ideal world I would throw all the rules out of the window. Instead, we get suggestions that would lead to all the cars differing only in colour.

"If this is the formula one of the future, then Ferrari will only need three seconds to decide about leaving," Marchionne said.

(GMM)
The Assen circuit has emerged as a viable alternative host for a future return of the Dutch grand prix.

With Max Verstappen's popularity, speculation is rising that the Netherlands will soon return to the F1 calendar.

Zandvoort was named as a potential host, but now TT Circuit Assen chief Arjan Bos says the FIA has issued a "positive report" about the suitability of Assen.

"We are almost 100 per cent ready for formula one," he is quoted by De Telegraaf newspaper.

"Of course, I wish Zandvoort every success, and I think it's admirable how (Zandvoort owner) Bernhard van Oranje is sticking his neck out. But Assen is well beyond Zandvoort," Bos added.

(GMM)
Country

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 Bahamas, Commonwealth of the 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 Canada 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 Cuba, Republic of Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Dominican Republic 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 Haiti, 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 Jamaica 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 Mexico, United Mexican States 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 US Virgin Islands Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland United States Minor Outlying Islands United States of America 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
A pilot project, which is scheduled to start in the Spring of 2018, will offer an on-demand ridesharing service involving an initial fleet of 50 Mercedes-Benz vehicles in the eastern part of inner-city Berlin (the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg districts). Passengers will use an app to call a local public transport vehicle at short notice to an agreed point. A large proportion of BVGs existing stops, as well as additional virtual stopping points will be built into the virtual network of possible stops for the new on-demand shuttle service.

Berlins local transport operator Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) and ViaVan, a joint venture between Mercedes-Benz Vans and Via ( earlier post ), have entered a research and development collaboration to work on providing a supplementary local public transport service on-demand.





The aim is to expand the fleet over the course of the project to 300 vehicles.

This project in Berlin represents the first time that close integration of ridesharing and local public transport has been offered on such a wide scale, Daimler said. It will involve a range of different requested routes being packaged together.

Each journey starts and ends at a virtual stop and is shared with other passengers. The algorithms created by the software experts from Via allow the system to calculate in real time which journeys can practicably be packaged together without too many diversions. The concept is that the environment, local residents and passengers all benefit from the arrangement, as it means that there will be less traffic on Berlins streets and that attractive fares can be offeredamounting to a new form of local public transport.

The digital tariff that has been specially developed for this concept is made up of a basic rate plus a distance-based supplement, so pricing the service somewhere between the classic rate for local public transport and a taxi fare.

Booking the journey by app ensures that the price that will ultimately be charged is known when the booking is made and does not then change. If one person books a journey for several passengers together, a further discount becomes applicable.

The fleet is provided by the vehicle experts from Mercedes-Benz and will initially involve Vito and V-Class vans (Euro 6) with up to eight seats, plus all-electric Mercedes B-Class B250e cars with four seats. From next summer, the fleet will be enhanced by the arrival of the new, all-electric eVito Tourer, which will go into use in Berlin as the very first locally emission-free minibus operating anywhere in the world.

Over the course of the collaboration, which has initially been agreed for a period of around two years, the aim is to add the ability to request a vehicle with disabled access. What is currently being tested is not just how the concept copes with the capital citys challenging traffic conditions, but also how it is accepted by the residents of Berlin. Subsequent expansion of the system to further areas of Berlin might be possible.

The BVG has applied for approval of the new transport proposal with reference to the experimental clause of Germanys Passenger Transportation Act.

The BVG transport network currently comprises ten underground railway lines (U-Bahn), 22 tram lines and more than 150 bus lines, as well as six ferries, and provides mobility around the clock, 365 days a year. The 14,400 employees of the BVG corporation operate a fleet of around 3,000 vehicles, serving more than 3.5 million inhabitants across a catchment area that covers some 1,000 square kilometers. More than a billion passengers use the buses and rail-ways operated by the BVG every year.
Tens of thousands of dogs and cats were abandoned or left homeless by the devastation of Hurricanes Irma and Maria. With Puerto Rican shelters full, agencies like the Humane Society of the United States and the Sato Project transported some to the United States. But it hasnt been easy.

For animals lucky enough to touch U.S. soil, their fortune instantly changes. Eager American families line the streets outside adoption agencies.

Once they arrive, everybody wants one, said Ric Browde, the president and CEO of Wings of Rescue, an airline that flies rescued animals to new homes.

The Humane Society sent about 200 dogs from Puerto Rico to North Carolina this fall.

The SPCA of Wake County took in 39 of those dogs on Oct. 5. They were sent to shelters across North Carolina.

The Gards of Cary were keen to adopt a dog from Puerto Rico. They welcomed Otis at the beginning of October after seeing a Facebook post.

With no knowledge of Otiss former life or even his breed  the SPCA listed him as a hound mix  the family took a leap of faith.

I think the most interesting thing is we dont know what kind of life he had, Lance Gard said. It was hard to judge his personality because he had just lived through a Category 5 hurricane, which would scare the crap out of just about anyone.

Aliya Gard had reservations about adopting an older, relocated dog. But once she locked eyes with Otis, she melted.

He had those brown little eyes, and he was just staring up. And he looked kind of sad, she said. He was just licking the boys and tail wagging. I fell in love with him.

But any sudden movement or loud noise makes Otis jump or cower behind Aliya Gards legs.

Hes kind of like a scared cat sometimes, and he submits to our 17-pound dachshund mix, Aliya Gard said. I dont know if it was from the transportation or from what happened in his previous life. I think he was probably physically hurt because of how skittish he is.

But day by day, Otis relaxes a little more. He bolts through the house with Huck, the familys other dog.

The Gards also like to think they have played some small part to ease the hardships of Puerto Ricans following the hurricanes.

Since we took him, that opens the (Puerto Rican) shelters up for dogs that may have gotten out, Lance Gard said. The ripple effect of it is nice. When youve lost everything, if you can go get your dog, thats something.

The operations that landed Otis in the arms of the Gard family were no small feat. Spay and neuter laws dont exist in Puerto Rico, and stray animals outnumbered residents before Irma and Maria hit. An estimated 500,000 stray dogs roamed the island when Hurricane Maria struck, according to the Sato Project.

Rescuing animals after the storm is difficult on an island where 85 percent of the electricity was nonfunctional in October, and the infrastructure remains shattered.

The first step was identifying which animals were in greatest need for evacuation. Rescue agencies focused their efforts on shelter animals first to avoid inadvertently separating families from their pets.

The goal is to always reunite pets with their families, Browde said. You dont want to go Oh, you know your valued pet, we just sent him to Seattle. You lost your house. You lost everything. And then you discover you lost your pet. We dont want to export misery; we want to export happiness.

The Humane Society is instrumental in finding and coordinating with its 350 American partner shelters to take in displaced animals. Since Hurricane Maria, it has evacuated approximately 1,600 animals.

Rescue flights have cost $1.7 million so far, said Kim Alboum, the outreach and policy engagement director of the Humane Society. Its partner shelters also get grants for taking in rescues. Though the invoices arent complete, Alboum estimated these incentives total another $150,000-200,000.

But these numbers only reflect operations within the Humane Society. The Sato Project, a New York-based organization that works on the ground in Puerto Rico, declined to comment on its expenses.

The stray animals crisis is so severe that theres a place locals call Dead Dog Beach in Yabucoa, one of Puerto Ricos poorest municipalities. Unwanted dogs are dumped and left to die here, as there is no food or fresh water along the beach.

Hurricane Maria made landfall squarely on Dead Dog Beach.

Now, most of the stray pets are probably dead, Browde said.

The Humane Society is no stranger to Puerto Rican stray animals. It has assisted all 10 Puerto Rican animal shelters for years with spay-neuter issues and disease management.

Puerto Rico has been left behind, Alboum said. They are about 10 years behind us. They are a U.S. territory  they are part of us. We need to be accountable for the people and the animals of Puerto Rico.

Christina Beckles, founder of the Sato Project, was at a loss to coordinate recovery operations after Hurricane Maria  a sentiment she seldom feels.

As soon as the hurricane hit at Dead Dog Beach, I cried, I want to say, for the first time, she said. Ive been doing this for 11 years, and it was, in my mind, 11 years work that had just gone.

The demand for animal rescue on the island is enormous. Tensions are high, even devolving into violent brawls as pet owners try to leave their pets at inundated shelters.

We literally have a waiting list of several thousand people who want their pets to be on (these flights), Browde said. We are not even making a dent in the population. We are besieged. We dont have the resources, unfortunately.

Beckles said she receives 300 messages a day via phone, email and Facebook asking for assistance. But just 60 dogs from the Sato Project made it on the first rescue flight to America.

But the aim of these flights isnt solely to evacuate dogs and cats from the island.

Browde said that each airplane brings humanitarian supplies into Puerto Rico before rescuing pets. His cargo planes are capable of flying 2.5 tons of materials or 210 crated animals.

But these flights are not easy to coordinate. Browde faces logistical nightmares with flights to and from Puerto Rico because of power outages. Many airports were destroyed in the hurricanes, and scattered debris on runways prevents landings.

His first flight was intended to carry 200 dogs and cats to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He recalled arriving to a disaster scene where animals were lined in crates along the airports wall in the shade. The animals seemed thinner than usual and stressed. After trying to re-crate the animals into smaller and shared crates, there still wasnt enough room in his plane. Six animals were left behind.

Theres this dread that hits me after the plane closes, he said. OK, these are safe. But what about those six that I left behind? And 5,000 other ones that Im getting emails for? That keeps you up at night and haunts you.

In the midst of this chaos, rescuers in Puerto Rico deal with personal struggles too.

The Sato Project founder Beckles home was struck by a tree and flooded with five feet of sewage water for nearly two weeks after Hurricane Maria. She hasnt yet filed an insurance claim on her home because her focus has been on running her organization. Given the widespread turmoil, she understands why some people give up their pets.

People are struggling, and so if you have an animal, theyre coming right down to the end of the bottom of the food chain, she said. Im not judging in any way  I get it. It sucks.

But that reality intensifies the need for rescue efforts. Beckles plans for two more evacuation flights to transport 200 stray and abandoned dogs by the end of the year. She also hopes for two flights to reunite at least 50 pets with their owners who were forced to relocate to the mainland.

But Beckles recognizes she must shift strategies moving forward for long-term solutions.

We cannot sustain what were doing  nobody can, she said. Its helped the animals in the moment, but it doesnt help those that are left behind. I want to concentrate on them as well; thats always been our mission to make change on this island.

The rescue work is gratifying for those involved.

Its really fun when you start seeing (the animals) unloaded on the other side because you just see them relax, Browde said. They are just so grateful, and you can see it. The tails start wagging.

Christina Beckles, founder of the Sato Project, is especially proud of her work in reuniting families who left their dogs behind on the island.

Its one of the greatest things Ive done, she said. An animal doesnt have a voice. We have to be their voice, and we have to be their advocate.
Guilford County prosecutors sought the death penalty in one case this year. But, while the jury found Gary Gupton guilty Oct. 30 of first-degree murder in the death of Stephen White, it later recommended a sentence of life in prison.

The outcome was the same in the only three other death-penalty cases in North Carolina during 2017.

Only a single person has been sent to N.C. death row in the past three-and-a-half years, and most of the states district attorneys are no longer seeking the death penalty, the Center for Death Penalty Litigation observed last week.

Yet, also last week, legislative leaders Tim Moore and Phil Berger, both Republicans, wrote a letter to Gov. Roy Cooper and Attorney General Josh Stein, both Democrats, asking them to push for the reinstatement of executions.

No one has been put to death in North Carolina since 2006 because of a series of legal challenges.

Moore and Berger noted that Pasquotank County District Attorney Andrew Womble plans to seek the death penalty against four inmates charged with murdering four employees at the state prison there in October.

They did not repeat a contention they made a week earlier that Cooper and Stein were to blame for those horrendous murders.

No matter what they say, Coopers and Steins indifference and failure to fight the (execution) moratorium endangers the lives of prison employees in close proximity to hardened murderers with nothing left to lose, who see no possibility they will face execution for killing again, Moore and Berger said in a statement released Dec. 8.

That was a vulgar insinuation unsupported by facts.

In the state that executes the most murderers, Texas, eight correctional officers have been murdered since 2003. A man was put to death in October for the 1999 murder of a prison guard. He was not deterred by a serious threat of execution. Why would anyone suppose prisoners would be any different in North Carolina?

The greater problem in state prisons is that too many correctional officer positions are vacant, leaving employees dangerously vulnerable to attack. The governor and legislators of both parties should set politics aside and work together to fix that obviously unsafe situation. Prison security shouldnt be a partisan issue.

The death penalty has its own problems.

In other news last week, U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle in North Carolina allowed a $1 million settlement to proceed in the case of two half-brothers who were wrongfully convicted of murder and who spent 30 years in prison. The men, both intellectually challenged, had been coerced into confessions. One, Henry McCollum, was the longest-serving inmate on North Carolinas death row before his release in 2014, thanks to DNA evidence showing another man was the real killer.

If executions had not been blocked after 2006, McCollum likely would have been put to death.

That case was hardly unique. The public has become well aware in recent years of how many times innocent people, often minorities, are corralled into wrongful convictions  even in capital cases. Who wants to serve as a juror in a trial that produces a fatal error?

In regard to the prisoner uprising at Pasquotank Correctional Institute, prosecutors may well be able to present a very strong case. Well see. But even if the verdict is guilty and the death sentence is ordered, the backlog of death-row inmates in North Carolina is mind-boggling  140 men and three women. It is simply unrealistic to think that so many people will ever be put to death. At its present rate, even Texas would take 20 years to carry out 143 executions.

In most states, the death penalty is more of a political talking point than a policy. It should not set off partisan finger-pointing in North Carolina.
FORT WALTON BEACH, FL FLORENCE ADELAIDE (PEGRAM) PARKER PASSED AWAY late on December 7, 2017 at the Fort Walton Beach, FL Medical Center. She had celebrated her 94th birthday the previous week. Born November 29, 1923 in Winston-Salem, NC to James William and Lula Beatrice (Boone) Pegram, who predeceased her, her family soon moved to Reidsville, NC, where "Lade," as she is known there, spent her childhood and early adult years. Flo was also predeceased by her husband of 26 years, John L. Parker, Sr. in 1972, and her younger sister, Betsy Boone in 1960. She is survived by siblings Neal Pegram (Mary) and Leroy Pegram (Gloria) of Reidsville, NC, and Dorothy Comer of Jefferson, GA. She is also survived by her four sons, John L. Parker, Jr. of High Springs, FL and Bar Harbor, ME; James Marion Parker of Atlanta, GA; Jerry Allen Parker of Fort White, FL; and Jeffrey Lee Parker, of Atlanta, GA. Surviving also are granddaughter Danielle Nicole Parker of Fort Walton Beach, FL; grandson James Parker of Tampa, FL; great-granddaughter Kenlee Elizabeth Wise; step grandson Sam Oglesby of Fayetteville, NC; long time friend Fodie Dulin of Orlando, FL; very special friend and neighbor Joy Berger, and numerous Pegram cousins, nieces and nephews. Her loving and attentive caregivers, whom she cherished, also survive: Gertrude Fluker, Cora Coward, Ashonda Ousley, Pamela Gamble, and Patricia McMillion, all of Fort Walton Beach, FL. Flo graduated from Reidsville High School in 1941 and worked briefly as a switchboard operator before enlisting, much to her parents' dismay, in the US Coast Guard SPARS just as the second World War was commencing. While serving as a communications specialist in Charleston, SC, as she told the story recently to a reporter from the Northwest Florida Daily News, a fellow sailor caught her eye. "Who's that good-looking red-headed sailor?" she asked a friend. "Some day I'm going to marry him." Again to her parents' dismay, she did exactly that on May 11, 1946, as she left the Coast Guard to wed the love of her life, John L. Parker, a Coast Guard signalman who hailed from Cheraw, SC. Her husband soon exchanged his sailor's whites for a flight suit when he joined the US Air Force, where he made a career as a non-commissioned officer specializing in electronics. After a brief tour of duty in the Panama Canal Zone, John was assigned to the Orlando Air Force Base for most of his career, though after he retired into the civil service, the family also spent time in Clear, Alaska and Ogden, UT. Like many military wives, Flo often had to tend her household single-handedly as her husband was assigned to temporary duty in places like Greenland or Germany. She once had to drive from Orlando, FL to Fairbanks, AK with a teenager and two small children, as John had gone ahead to get the family's living quarters ready. She was a longtime member of her beloved Mary Esther United Methodist Church in Fort Walton Beach, where she sang in the choir and was active in the United Methodist Women. Flo maintained her independence until a year or so ago, and she stayed in touch with her sons and siblings, as well as with many friends and neighbors. She especially doted on her two feathered companions: a sassy cockatiel named Christopher and an African Gray parrot named Sweet Pea. Though in her later years she was beset by the myriad infirmities of old age, she maintained her typical upbeat manner and her durable sense of humor to the end. "That's one thing about Flo," said her son, Jeffrey, "You just can't get her down." A memorial service will be held at the Mary Esther United Methodist Church at 11 am on Thursday, December 14, 2017. The family will receive visitors afterwards at the home at 331 Parkway Pl SW in Fort Walton Beach. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions to the Mary Esther United Methodist Church, 703 East Miracle Strip Parkway, Mary Esther, FL 32579.
P.T. Barnum (1810-1891) was the biggest entrepreneur of his day, more popular than Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Elon Musk, combined. For starters, he vastly expanded the concept of the "circus" -- his three-ring Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, founded in 1871, folded just this year.

Related: 8 Great Entrepreneurial Success Stories

He opened the very successful Barnum's American Museum (1842 to 1865), featuring thousands of exhibits, including the world's first aquarium. He cleaned up and modernized the American theater -- previously avoided by polite society as a "den of evil." He invented beauty contests and baby contests.

Barnum also promoted this country's first rockstar tour (1850 to 1852), featuring "Swedish nightingale" Jenny Lind, who earned an unheard-of $1,000 a night. And, overall, Barnum could take credit for pioneering the big-event business, the reason contemporaries named him the "Shakespeare of Advertising."

What Phineas Taylor Barnum did not do, insofar as we know, was sing and dance. But that is the Phineas we meet in the big-budget, not particularly historically accurate, Hugh Jackman musical, The Greatest Showman, being released today. The movie's original songs, by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the composers behind Oscar winner La La Land and Broadway's Tony winner Dear Evan Hansen, are unabashedly contemporary, with uplifting pop lyrics and ebullient choreography, presented in a gorgeously colorful, eye-catching production by an A-list cast (Jackman, Zac Efron, Michelle Williams, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson).

Where else could we see a bearded lady (Broadway veteran Keala Settle) belting out an inspiring, foot-tapping number, "This Is Me?" Or an aspiring young Barnum (Jackman) who rose from impoverished beginnings, perched on a rooftop, selling his entrepreneurial vision to his beloved, Charity (Williams), with the melodic "A Million Dreams?"

Dreams are a big part of The Greatest Showman's message, if indeed it has one. "It's not exaggerating to say that Barnum ushered in modern-day America -- and especially that idea that your talent, your imagination and your ability to work hard should be the only things that determine your success," Jackman said, in publicity materials for the film.

"[Barnum] knew how to make something out of nothing, how to turn lemons into lemonade," Jackman continued. "I've always loved that quality. He followed his own path and turned any setback he had into a positive."

In the same context, Barnum himself reportedly said, "No one ever made a difference by being like everyone else" -- a line featured in the film.

Related: 11 Successful Kid Entrepreneurs Keeping Their Eyes on the Prize

But what The Greatest Showman doesn't do more than hint at is Barnum's darker side. He never actually said, "A sucker is born every minute," but his biographer Irving Wallace wrote that he did say, "The American people liked to be humbugged." (The film's Barnum comes close, telling a journalist, "People come to my show for the pleasure of being hoodwinked.")

Clearly, this 19th century entrepreneur was into making money, but not always in a good way, by today's standards: Hoaxes were a big part of his showmanship, an example being his 1842 "Feejee Mermaid," which was no mermaid at all but instead a monkey's head and torso gruesomely sewn onto the tail of a fish. Barnum didn't even create this nasty thing; he leased it.

And he wasn't the first: Such "mermaids" were an art form practiced by Japanese and East Indies fishermen, who stitched dead apes onto fishtails. So, there was nothing real about Barnum's claim and nothing original. Yet he wasn't deterred from promoting his hoax: He hired a fake naturalist to vouch for the "mermaid's" authenticity, then watched, gleefully, as "she" become a major hit for his museum and went on to tour the American South.

Another infamous Barnum hoax involved an elderly female slave named Joice Heth whom Barnum bought -- despite his roots in the free state of Connecticut -- and displayed widely around the Northeast, starting in 1835. Barnum claimed Heth was 161 years old and had been a childhood nurse maid to George Washington. He actually trained her to tell stories about baby George.

And he not only exploited this poor woman during her lifetime but sold tickets to her autopsy, taking place in a saloon in 1836, at which time a doctor declared that Heth was actually a not-so-unusual 80 or so years of age. Barnum wouldn't hear it; he stormed back with features he'd placed in the papers declaring that the body wasn't Heth's at all. But of course it was.

Indeed, this slave woman, the modern-day Dallas News points out, was "one of Barnum's more problematic attractions, most of whom Barnum displayed to capitalize on American fascination with the racial other." Another example of this predilection, The News said, was his exhibit of an impoverished and deformed black man named William Henry Johnson, whose head came to a point, likely due to his being born microencephalic (like today's tragic Zika babies).

Barnum titled the exhibit, not too sensitively, "What Is It?" and stage-named Johnson "Zip the Pinhead" or, alternately, "Monkey Man," for an act in which Johnson was put into a cage and made to screech like an animal -- apparently reflecting, in Barnum's mind, some sort of Darwinian payback.

Of course, there were other "oddities" that Barnum exhibited who did make it into the PG-rated Greatest Showman: the conjoined twins, Chang and Eng; a bearded lady; a dog-faced man; a three-legged man; and people afflicted with gigantism and dwarfism, especially "General Tom Thumb," a 25-inch-tall little person named Charles Sherwood Stratton.

Image Credit: Universal History Archive | Getty Images

Stratton was only 5 when Barnum found him and trained him to sing and impersonate historical figures, then displayed him to an international audience that included Queen Victoria. His popularity made Stratton a wealthy man -- ironically, he would later bail out the repeatedly bankrupt Barnum. And, beyond that, the exhibitions, thankfully, somewhat dissipated society's tendency to view people like him and Barnum's other "human curiosities" as a "freak show" exhibit.

Interestingly, in a scene that could have come straight out of Oprah, The Greatest Showman turns this troublesome "freak show" aspect into an anthem for self-acceptance and an admonition against bullying. There's even a positive black character in the film -- a trapeze artist (Zendaya), in love with Barnum's (fictional) white partner (Efron), though in the mid-1800s, the story acknowledges, theirs was a romance that could never fly.

Related: Stars Like Dr. Phil and Martellus Bennett Share Their Success Stories

The point is, Barnum was not a monster. He was an entrepreneur, a lecturer, a legislator and a fervent abolitionist. And he promoted and paid good wages to the people with physical anomalies that he displayed, bringing these poor souls out of the shadows, and out of dire poverty.

We may all hope that this segment of entrepreneurship is dead -- it's not; "freak shows" still exist -- but the depiction of P.T. Barnum that The Greatest Showman presents offers families seeing the film not just uplifting song and dance but a topic for meaningful dinnertime discussion.

Related:

Protect Your Business! The 7 Cybersecurity Tools You Need as an Entrepreneur.

We Took a Tour of This Shared Office Space That Looks More Like a Luxury Hotel

How to Publish a Book With Just 30 to 40 Hours of Work (and $25,000)



Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


On second thought, just torch that burrito. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Officials in Los Angeles say a foodborne-illness outbreak may have struck one of their Chipotles. Business Insider reported a few hours ago that the L.A. Health Departments Acute Communicable Disease Control unit is investigating reports of sick customers who ate at the chains location at 4550 West Pico Boulevard. The department hasnt said anything else about the scares validity or scope, but no doubt will be bringing everyone up to speed as soon as it can.

As always, spokesperson Chris Arnold says Chipotle takes such reports very seriously, but also cautions that no clinical validation is associated yet with these in particular, nor have they received direct complaints that would help substantiate these claims. He adds: As a precautionary measure, we have implemented heightened sanitization measures at this restaurant, which we do as a matter of policy if ever we receive reports of illness (even if they are not substantiated).

The complaints first appeared on food-safety watchdog site IWasPoisoned.com, where Business Insider counted up to five separate posts complaining of illness after eating that locations food. People who report having meals on or around December 13 say theyre getting nauseous, having diarrhea, and throwing up. One person complains that their whole family was hit by constant vomiting every two hours after consuming burrito bowls. Another says a co-worker is having the same symptoms, and this stores food is all they have in common.

While IWasPoisoned.com sounds like a personal-injury firms site for a mesothelioma class action, its actually proven legit before, like back in July when it helped flag a Virginia Chipotle where health officials later determined that norovirus had sickened at least 135 people.




Haiti - FLASH : Former PM Bellerive forbids leaving the territory





The investigating judge of the Court of First Instance of Port-au-Prince, Jean Wilner Morin, ordered on December 18 a departure ban against the former Prime Minister Jean Max Bellerive, "[...] saw the open and continuous information procedure against the named Wilner Valcin, charged with murder and corruption to the detriment of the Haitian State.



Whereas it is appropriate to the investigating judge to order the Director of the Immigration and Emigration Service to prohibit leaving the country by air, land and sea routes the aforementioned [Joseph Jean Max Bellerive].



For these reasons, order the Director of the Immigration and Emigration Service to take all necessary measures to prevent the interdiction by air, land and sea the named : Joseph Jean Max Bellerive to leave the national territory and that, until further notice; Let's say that this order is applicable from its reception



[...]"



This ban comes within the framework of the investigation of the magistrate, Jean Wilner Morin on the assassination, in 2012, of Alix Mary Junior Gassan following the disappearance of Joseph Robert Marcello of the National Commission of Public Contracts.



Also Tuesday Judge Jean Wilner Morin heard the unfortunate candidate in the last presidential elections, Jude Celestin.



To be continued...



HL/ HaitiLibre


















When its time to spend some quality time with your kids, there is only so much Cocomelon that one man can take. You have to get out of the house and get some fresh air or some socialization for your...
Australia Day Tasting returns with special guest

By Jo Gilbert

The annual Australia Day Tasting (ADT) returns to the UK in January in its usual slot  but this year will feature a special guest.

This year the events CEO Andreas Clark will be heading over from Australia to host a media briefing in London on 23 January before the first ADT.

He will be joined by a number of Aussie winemakers and winery owners including the likes of Andrew Hardy (Petaluma), Christian Dal Zotto (Dal Zotto), Damian North (Journey Wines) and Jeremy Dineen (Josef Chromy) who will be flying over to pour their wines.

The Australia Day Tasting - the largest trade tasting of Australian wine outside Australia  is back for a three-day roadshow in London (23 January), Edinburgh (25 January) and Dublin (29 January).

Once again, the trade is invited to discover new and established names spanning 1200 wines from 245 wineries, including 20 producers that are seeking first-time distribution in the UK.

With a geographical size similar to Europe, UK consumers have lapped up Australian wines over the past 15 years, during which time it has reigned as the number one country of origin in the off-trade with 23% market share.

Australia is third in the on-trade behind France and Italy.

In terms of exports, the UK is the biggest volume market for Australian wine.

In the 12 months to September 2017, 225 million litres were shipped to the UK placing it ahead of the USA (181 million litres) and mainland China (132 million litres).







Photo: Damian North winemaker Journey Wines





Australia Day Tasting 2018

Dates and venues:





London

When: Tuesday 23 January 10am  5pm

Where: B1, Southampton Row, London, WC1B 4DA

 Over 1000 wines on show

 Master classes on Margaret River Chardonnay and McLaren Vale

 Seminar on the 'pepper' compound rotundone in Shiraz by The Australian Wine Research Institute

 The Top 50 Aussie Wines as chosen by independent wine merchants

 Focus Table featuring classic and iconic Australian wines

 Producers in market and producers seeking distribution

 Brickwood Coffee & Bread will be running an Aussie pop-up cafe



Edinburgh

When: Thursday 25 January 1pm  6pm

Where: The Balmoral Hotel, Edinburgh, EH2 2EQ

 Over 400 wines on show

 Master class on Margaret River Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon

 Focus Table featuring classic and iconic Australian wines

 Producers in market and producers seeking distribution



Dublin

When: Monday 29 January 1pm  6pm

Where: The Round Room, The Mansion House, 2 Dawson Street, Dublin

 Over 300 wines on show

 Master class on Margaret River Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon

 Focus Table featuring classic and iconic Australian wines

 Producers in market and producers seeking distribution

Register at https://www.wineaustralia.com/whats-happening/events/australia-day-tastings-2018






At least four senators, including two Democrats, have reportedly said that Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) should reconsider his resignation.



Sen. Joe Machin (D-W.Va.) told Politico that the deluge of Democrats calling for Franken to resign was "the most hypocritical thing" he has "ever seen done to a human being."

"What they did to Al was atrocious, the Democrats," Manchin added. "The most hypocritical thing I've ever seen done to a human being - and then have enough guts to sit on the floor, watch him give his speech and go over and hug him? That's hypocrisy at the highest level I've ever seen in my life. Made me sick."



Politico also spoke with sources familiar with a private conversation between Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Franken in which Leahy told Franken that he regrets calling for the Minnesota Democrat to resign.

Two other senators said they were rushed to weigh in as pressure on Franken mounted, according to the news outlet, which added that they said did not put enough care and thought into their statements.

Franken announced earlier this month that he would resign after allegations of sexual misconduct emerged. One woman said he forcibly kissed her during a USO tour, and at least two others said he groped them while taking photos when he was in office.

Franken is one of three lawmakers to step down over sexual misconduct allegations as the "Me Too" movement draws attention to similar cases in Hollywood and the media.

Franken himself and several other senators originally called for an ethics investigation into his behavior, but after the eighth accuser came forward, his Democratic colleagues, including Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) suddenly called for his resignation.

"I know in my heart that nothing I have done as a senator, nothing, has brought dishonor on this institution, and I am confident that the Ethics Committee would agree," Franken said during his resignation speech.

Minn. Gov. Mark Dayton (D) announced that Lt. Gov. Tina Smith would replace Franken, and Smith said that she would run for re-election in 2018.
Trumps decision to withhold tax returns obscures how he'll fare under overhaul



President Donald Trump has a history of winning bets that the traditional political rules do not apply to him, and his precedent-breaking decision not to release his tax returns is again proving no exception.



As major tax cut legislation barrels toward the Oval Office, the White House on Tuesday again declined to release Trumps tax returns and defended  without providing any evidence  his assertion that the bill will cost me a fortune.



Now he is set to sign a major tax overhaul that could enrich him significantly, without giving the public the means to tell for sure.



Independent analyses have found that the bill, which passed the House on Tuesday afternoon and is expected to pass the Senate Tuesday evening  though procedural hurdles could delay it reaching the president's desk  will provide massive benefits to the ultra-rich, including Trump and his family.



Still, the White House maintains his personal taxes would go up, though press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders acknowledged Tuesday that "on the business side" Trump could benefit.



This actually could impact the president in a large way, Sanders said when pressed on the matter.

"...the bill will cost me a fortune.Sure it will, because you said so.
Hakkarainen, while intoxicated, reportedly grabbed Ruoho by the neck and tried to force his lips on hers in the canteen of the Finnish Parliament on Thursday, after attending the pikkujoulu party of the Finns Party.

Veera Ruoho (NCP) reveals that she has filed a criminal report against one of her fellow Members of the Finnish Parliament, Teuvo Hakkarainen (PS).

Ive forgiven [him]. Ill regardless bring sexual harassment charges against Hakkarainen. Im also considering other charges. This is the Parliament, after all, not your everyday workplace, Ruoho commented to YLE on Tuesday.

The incident took place during a plenary debate on the reform of the alcohol legislation of Finland.

Hakkarainen has admitted to the incident and relinquished his position as the second deputy chairperson of the Finns Party. He has also been issued a serious warning by the Finns Party Parliamentary Group and reprimanded publicly for his extremely rude behaviour by Speaker of the Parliament Maria Lohela (BR).

Ilta-Sanomat on Tuesday revealed that a similar incident took place during the pikkujoulu party of the Finns Party in 2016: Hakkarainen, who according to eyewitnesses was heavily intoxicated, grabbed Paivi Rasanen (Christian Democrats) by the hair and swung her around while slurring her name outside the Parliament Annex.

Rasanen confirmed the incident to Ilta-Sanomat. Hakkarainen, she said, was so intoxicated that he could not remember the incident afterwards but apologised sincerely after hearing about it.

I forgave him. Thats another reason why I havent been willing to talk about this, she said.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Jussi Nukari  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi Suomi
Finnish grocery shops, for example, will be allowed to retail beverages with an alcohol content of a maximum of 5.5 per cent, regardless of how the beverages have been produced, as of the beginning of next year.

Some of the newly approved changes to the alcohol act will enter into force as soon as on 1 January, 2018, according to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.

This means that grocery stores, kiosks and petrol stations would be able to begin selling stronger beers and ciders and long drinks produced by adding distilled alcohol, reads a press release from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.

The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health also reports that bars, pubs and restaurants will be allowed to advertise happy-hour discounts also outside the establishment  in newspapers or on the streets, for example  as of next January. The opening hours of such establishments will similarly be de-regulated, although the changes to the serving hours of alcohol will not come into effect until 1 March.

The producers and wholesalers of strong alcoholic beverages, as well as the establishments serving them, will be able to display the prices of their products on their websites. The right has thus far been reserved only to the state-owned alcohol retailer, Alko.

The Regional State Administrative Agencies, meanwhile, will begin accepting retail trade licence applications from microbreweries as of 1 January.

The Finnish Parliament expressed its support for the reform bill in a confirmation vote on Tuesday. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health says the reform will be discussed once more at a government session and presented for final confirmation to President Sauli Niinisto on 28 December.

The alcohol act reform will enter into force in full on 1 March, 2018.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Martti Kainulainen  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi Suomi
Kanerva told Uusi Suomi on Tuesday that he proposed the visit before the publication of an article shedding light on the operations of the secretive agency by Helsingin Sanomat on Saturday.

Ilkka Kanerva (NCP), the chairperson of the Parliaments Defence Committee, has revealed that the committee is planning on paying a visit to the Finnish Defence Intelligence Agency (VKoeL) in Tikkakoski, Central Finland.

I presented the committee with the idea of us making an on-site visit to familiarise ourselves with the operations during the spring term, he stated. Saturdays article hasnt changed any of that, on the contrary.

The Defence Committee backed the proposal but has yet to schedule the visit.

Kanerva estimated that the visit will offer members of the committee an opportunity to learn about the operations of the VKoeL. Were not talking about any secret information, but perfectly normal, general-level information, he clarified.

Helsingin Sanomats much-discussed article, he also estimated, is meaningful not only because of the information it contained but, primarily, because of the possible ramifications of the disclosure of classified information to the newspaper for the reputation of Finland.

A significant share of our defence information is such thats obtained through co-operation with others, he reminded. But if one party cant keep its secrets, that isnt a really attractive quality for a partner to have.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Markku Ulander  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi Suomi
US lifts ban on lethal virus experiments despite security risks

The US government has lifted a three-year ban on making lethal viruses in the lab, saying the potential benefits of disease preparedness outweigh the risks.Labs will now be able to manufacture strains of influenza, Sars and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers).The ban was imposed following safety breaches at federal institutions involving anthrax and avian flu.Now a scientific review panel will have to green-light each research proposal.It will only be allowed to go ahead if the panel determines there is no safer way to conduct the research and that the benefits it will provide justify the risk.Critics say such "gain-of-function" research still risks creating an accidental pandemic.
Iranian backed Houthis in Yemen targeted the Saudi capital Riyadh today, launching a Burkan 2 ballistic missile. This was the second failed attempt by the Houthis to hit the capital of Saudi Arabia. The first targeted the citys international airport. Todays attack was directed at the Royal Court at al-Yamama palace, where a meeting of Saudi leaders was underway. The Saudi air defense intercepted and destroyed the missile at a relatively close range above the city.

Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdussalam said that the Houthis fired a Burkan-2 ballistic missile at the Al-Yamama Palace in Riyadh. The Saudis started the war. Our response will continue and increase, whether its targeting deep inside Saudi Arabia, targeting military positions where Saudi jets fly from, or military bases inside Yemeni territory, Abdul Salam said.

Houthis claimed they have launched the first Burkan-2 at Riyadh on March 19, but provided no evidence of such attack. Burkan-2 is thought to be the Iranian Qiam-1 missile, a derivative of the Russian Scud-C, a ballistic missile with a range of 850 km. In its first launch at the Saudi port city of Yanboh on July 22, 2017, Burkan-2 achieved a longer distance than the range specified by the design  hitting a target at a distance of at least 920 km from the Saudi-Yemeni border.

In recent weeks several Houthi missiles were intercepted over Saudi Arabia, likely by Patriot air defense systems. On November 4 a Burkan-2 missile was intercepted not far from the Riyadh international airport, and on November 20 the military airbase at Khamis Mushayet was targeted by an unidentified missile that was also claimed to have been intercepted by the Saudi air defenses. In the past Houthis used SS-21 Tochka tactical short-range missiles, captured from the government forces. The Burkan-2 and Soumar were likely supplied by sea from Iran.

The Houthis also launched a single Sumar cruise missiles on December 3. The target claimed by the Houthis was a nuclear plant being constructed in Abu Dhabi. This was the first time the Houthis used such a weapon, likely to have been supplied by Iran. Considered a derivative of the Russian KH-55 cruise missile, Soumar has a theoretical range of 2,500 km, enabling it to reach the UAE from a launch site in Yemen. However, the missile developed a malfunction while in flight it crashed after flying about 140 km.

Using the conflicts in Syria and Yemen to demonstrate the capabilities of their weapons, particularly missiles and long-range weapons, Iran is projecting power and influence throughout and beyond the region.

Unlike the Syrian regime Iran is assisting in Syria, the Iranian backed Houthis in Yemen are under pressure, as Saudi-led coalition backing local forces are now closing on the city of Hudaydah, a strategic seaport on the Red Sea providing the Iranians a logistical link to support the Houthis in Yemen. The Houthis control the mountainous heartland of Yemen, including the capital city Sanaa. The areas bordering Saudi Arabia also provide favorable locations for missile launches at coalition partners they are fighting in Yemen.
Clyde Roberts already had killed two does in Bedford County during the 2017 deer season, now he was perched 20-feet high in a tree stand looking for a bear.

Did I mention that Roberts, who lives in Evington, celebrated his 104th birthday in October?

His son, Mike, believes his dad is the oldest active hunter in America. A Google search doesnt dispute that.

What is certain, Roberts has become the hero of hunting blogs this year, getting nearly 20,000 likes on one that described his hunting prowess.

He wasnt always a hunter. He took up the sport when he retired from Rubatex in Bedford at age 65. That may sound like a late start, but for Roberts it was nearly 40 years ago. Mike had bought him a gun to get him started.

I think Mike thought his father needed a hobby to help pass the time, and perhaps he was correct, Roberts said. Growing up poor in Bedford County, where he cut timber and cleared land, hadnt afforded him many luxuries or free time.

One of the best deals of his life was the $5 lifetime hunting license he purchased from the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries upon his retirement.

I suppose the state fish and game folks figured anyone retiring would not be around long enough for them to lose money. I have hunted and trapped on that $5 license for decades. Some years later that deal was discontinued.

Roberts has been around longer than the DGIF itself, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2016.

Last season, Roberts killed the largest buck of his life while on an Election Day hunt with his granddaughter, Christin Elliott. The two voted that morning and spent the afternoon in a tree stand. The big-bodied buck carried a wide-rack bearing 8 gleaming points. In a blog report, Christin called the hunt, Awe-inspiring. The hunt of my lifetime. The best part was when he knelt down and thanked the good Lord.

Elliott used her cellphone to text a blow-by-blow report of the hunt to her dad who was on an elk hunt in Montana.

When people ask me about the secret to my longevity, I tell them it was all about hard work and living for the Lord, Roberts said.

He has missed tagging a deer only one year, that was in the early 1990s when he was unable to climb a tree or shoot because of a dislocated shoulder and three broken ribs.

That was the result of an attack from a deranged, Angus bull, said Mike, the long-time director of Return to Nature, a program that introduces school kids to the outdoors.

Roberts early December bear hunt took place in Halifax County on land owned by conservationist and former NASCAR driver Ward Burton and son, Jeb.

Bear were forgotten when a couple does walked into the field that Roberts watched. He has killed 10 deer since he turned 100, all but four taken with a .50-caliber muzzleloader. On this hunt he cradled a .270.

Theres a buck, Roberts whispered to Mike, a bit too loudly, Mike thought. It was an 8-pointer. It crossed the field and began chasing the does. Mike stopped the movement momentarily with a grunt call. His dad squeezed the trigger. The buck cartwheeled. That made three deer for the 2017 season. Roberts had hunted 10 afternoons during the two-week firearms season in Bedford County.

According to DGIF statistics, only 6 percent of the states deer hunters kill three deer in a single season. Only one is 104.
The Brazilian Air Force Embraer KC-390 achieved Initial Operational Capability (IOC) today. As part of the IOC, Embraer obtained a KC-390 Provisional Type Certificate from the Brazilian National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC), According to the schedule, in 2018, the final Type Certificate will be issued.

To date, the tests campaign has accumulated more than 1,500 flight hours with 2 prototypes and more than 40,000 hours of laboratory testing of the aircrafts various systems. The structural tests campaign is nearing completion, with only the full-scale fatigue test remaining. In-flight tests of various military functionalities will be completed, including the remaining aerial refueling and cargo dropping tests, to fulfill the requirements to receive the final military certification of the aircraft with the achievement of the Final Operational Capability  FOC. Delivery of the first series aircraft to the FAB is also scheduled to take place in 2018.

We are pleased to announce the achievement of this important milestone for the KC-390 Program, said Jackson Schneider, President and CEO of Embraer Defense & Security. The certification campaign has progressed as planned and the tests performed have been very successful, proving the maturity of the aircraft and confirming the performance and the anticipated capacities. The achievement of the IOC ensures the necessary conditions have been met for the aircraft to start operations, in accordance with the scope agreed upon with the FAB.
One of the men charged in the beating death of a Washington County man in late November is believed to have been owed money by the victim, according to criminal complaints filed by the Washington County Sheriffs Office.

The body of Steven Jeremy Hafen, 39, was found on the morning of Nov. 30 at his apartment in the 4200 block of Reedy Creek Road.

On Monday, more than two weeks later, the arrests of Timothy Dale Carrick, 38, and Gary Lynn Murray, 19, both of Bristol, Tennessee, on first-degree murder and other charges were announced.

The arrests followed an extensive investigation by Washington County detectives, Sheriff Fred Newman said.

Criminal complaints filed in connection with the case detail some of the events surrounding the arrests. Detective Brandon Tweed obtained warrants on Dec. 15 after the investigation led him to a woman who said she had information about the case.

Tweed spoke with the woman, who was not identified in court records, on Dec. 15. She said she knew Hafen and corresponded with him via text messages, the complaint states.

The woman told the detective that Murray picked her up on the evening of Nov. 29 and they met with Carrick at Murrays home on 10th Street in Bristol, Tennessee.

During the travel to his house, Murray told her that Timothy Dale Carrick had killed Steven Hafen, Tweed wrote in the complaint. Murray told her that Hafen owed Carrick money. Murray stated that Carrick struck Hafen in the head several times with a hammer.

Once at Murrays home, Carrick also told the woman he killed Hafen with a hammer, Tweed wrote. Carrick then retrieved the hammer, which was wrapped in a purple towel, out of his truck and showed it to the woman, the detective added.

Tweed also wrote that $90 was taken from Hafen by Murray and it was used to purchase drugs for Murray and Carrick.

Murray, who is a cousin to one of Hafens neighbors, had also previously been to the apartment, the complaint adds.

After interviewing the woman, Tweed filed warrants for the arrests. Both were also charged with robbery, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit robbery.

The Sheriffs Office had been called to Hafens apartment on Nov. 30 after his family expressed concern that they hadnt heard from him for a few days. Family members went to the apartment to look for him and found the door was locked.

The 911 call came from a man who said he dismantled the lock for the family.

Im over here at a friend of mines apartment building. Theres a guy dead in here, said the caller, who said he didnt know the victim.

It looks like hes been shot, the man said.

The man told the dispatcher he did not see a weapon, but it was later determined that Hafen died from blunt force trauma, not a gunshot wound, according to authorities.

I just cut the lock off the door and hes laying right inside the door, the caller said.

This past Saturday morning, officers from the Bristol Tennessee Police Department and Washington County Sheriffs Office served Carrick with an arrest warrant at a home in the 200 block of Robin Road near King University.

Carricks Mazda pickup truck bearing a Tennessee registration was parked in the driveway.

This was the vehicle that was allegedly used in the murder, Bristol officer Michael Nygaard wrote in a criminal affidavit.

Officers then took positions around the house as two officers approached the front door. Nygaard knocked on the door and made contact with Carricks father, the affidavit states.

I asked him [if] Timothy was in the house and he pointed to a bedroom, Nygaard wrote.

The officers entered the bedroom and took Carrick into custody. He was taken to Bristols criminal investigation division for an interview with Washington County detectives.

Sunday night, Nygaard said he saw a white Honda CRV on Weaver Pike that was being driven by a woman who he knew did not have a valid driver license, according to a separate affidavit. He stopped the vehicle and recognized Murray, who was sitting in the back seat.

Nygaard said he knew Murray was wanted out of Washington County on murder charges.

I opened the rear door and held Mr. Murray at gunpoint until he exited the vehicle, Nygaard wrote in the affidavit.

Murray was also taken to the criminal investigations division to speak with Washington County detectives.

Both men were taken to the Sullivan County jail on fugitive from justice charges and have since waived extradition in Sullivan County General Sessions Court. They remained in the Sullivan County jail Tuesday evening, according to Sullivan County Sheriffs Office spokeswoman Kristen Quon.

Police in Bristol have had little interaction in the past with the two men.

I do not find that we have dealt with Timothy Carrick criminally, BTPD Lt. Debbie Richmond said. We received a complaint in November where several individuals were involved in a disturbance, one being Gary Murray. Other than that, both individuals have not been active in Bristol, Tennessee.
As the #MeToo movement gained momentum the past several weeks  and more than a dozen powerful men accused of sexual misconduct were suspended, fired or banished into the outer darkness, it was reasonable to wonder where it would all end.

On Wednesday afternoon, it ended for Kentucky state Rep. Dan Johnson on a remote bridge, where he shot himself with a .40-caliber handgun. In an apparent suicide note posted (briefly) on Facebook, he wrote: GOD knows the truth, nothing is the way they make it out to be . . . I cannot handle it any longer. . . BUT HEAVEN IS MY HOME.

Johnson was referring to accusations published two days earlier by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting that he had fondled a 17-year-old friend of his daughter during a New Years Eve sleepover in 2013. According to his accuser, now 21, a drunk Johnson slipped his hand under her top and down her pants as she was sleeping on a couch. She begged him to stop, which, ultimately, he did.

Assuming the womans story is true, Johnsons actions were reprehensible, made more so by the fact that the girl considered him a second dad. The betrayal of a trusted adult is a higher order of evil. The circumstances of the alleged event magnify the drama and invite condemnation seasoned with relish. The woman, whose identity is being protected, said the incident occurred at the Popes House, a fellowship hall next to the Heart of Fire Church where the well-known Republican was the self-anointed pope to his congregation.

Even with all of that, however, didnt Johnson have a right to some sort of dispassionate hearing? It is convenient to think he was too ashamed to withstand what would lie ahead for him. Or, one could believe, as Johnson hoped people would, that things didnt happen as described. Thats the trouble with weighing allegations of years-old behavior in the court of public opinion. Given that the statute of limitations precludes indictments in many of these recent cases, were left to decide for ourselves whether the accusers are telling the truth  or enough truth to be convincing.

An accusation isnt a conviction or even an indictment, of course. Yet, the Draconian actions weve witnessed as each case comes to light have provided cause for concern even in the most despicable of alleged offenses. Weve rather quickly moved away from a society that embraces the suspension of judgment pending a fair trial to one in which subjective opinion  or fear of financial repercussions  justifies harsh sentencing.

Why have a jury-trial system at all if were comfortable passing judgments derived primarily from common sense-based calculus. This we know about common sense: Everyone considers theirs to be of higher quality than mine or yours. During the past couple of months, weve all become rather expert in dispensing verdicts, which seem to go something like this:

When several women tell similar stories of sordid encounters with the same individual, then we deem the accusations true. This was the case with Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, who admitted to some of the charges. When only one accuser is involved, we tend to give the accused some benefit of the doubt. Its when only three or four victims come forward with similar tales that we begin to hear terms such as credible accusations or credibly accused.

Credible accusations brought down Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore after The Washington Post conducted an extensive investigation into allegations against him. Theres no proof of anything, of course, but there was enough corroboration from other people interviewed to suggest a strong likelihood that the women were truthful.

Even if one believes all the women who have come forward thus far, theres room for some self-doubt in our individual rushes to judgment, as well as our participation in social medias ruthless, often-anonymous dispensations. Were on new ground these days when everyone occupies a seat of infinite power. Thus, it may be impossible to mitigate the effects of a determined mob, especially given a zeitgeist poised to assume the worst of men and the best of women. This shift in the balance of power may feel justified at some level, but this, too, should give one pause.

Should every man who has ever made an unwelcome advance on a grown woman be ruined? In instances of poor judgment or reckless behavior, is there no punishment short of firing?

It is notable that shame, so long out of vogue, is in these most modern of times making a comeback, indeed, with a vengeance. Johnsons suicide reminds us that the best of causes conducted without the usual rules of law can lead to disastrous, even fatal, consequences.
SWEET HOME  It has been a long time coming, but Tuesday morning Commissioners Roger Nyquist, John Lindsey and Will Tucker approved transferring ownership of Upper Calapooia Drive from the Weyerhaeuser Company to Linn County.

The road  officially known as County Road 0759  is east of Holley, about four miles south of Sweet Home.

In October 2016, the commissioners directed County Roadmaster Darrin Lane to begin the conveyance process with Weyerhaeuser representatives. The action came as the Dec. 31, 2017, expiration of a 5-year-old user agreement with Weyerhaeuser neared. The county did not wish to continue the agreement.

This has been a long time coming, Tucker said. I wish we could have worked through this in a more timely fashion. Negotiations had continued until a few weeks ago. Its great to see this road come back into county ownership.

Upper Calapooia Drive starts off Highway 228 near Holley. It proceeds east through a mixture of private and public lands and borders the Calapooia River.

The original road was constructed in the 1930s by a private party for a group of area timberland owners, including Weyerhaeuser. In 1940, the road was conveyed to Linn County, but the timberland owners retained hauling rights on it.

In 1954, the county conveyed the road to the U.S. Forest Service, Champion Lumber and Weyerhaeuser. In 2007 the Forest Service relinquished control and maintenance of the road.

Weyerhaeuser asserted the road should revert to their ownership. But research by former Linn County counsel Tom Corr found that the 1954 document stated that if the Forest Service ever relinquished control of the road, ownership would revert to the county.

The process was complicated because over the years the road has been moved and adjoining properties have been sold.

Although primarily a logging road, it has also been used for decades by the general public to access the Calapooia River for picnicking, fishing, hiking and hunting.

Linn County and Weyerhaeuser officials began meeting in 2010, although in 2009 Weyerhaeuser had installed gates to at times block public access to more than 13 miles of the road.

Weyerhaeuser was concerned because over the years staff had to deal with a growing number of people dumping trash along the river, as well as leaving campfires unattended.

For several years a working group that included representatives from Weyerhaeuser, the Board of Commissioners, the County Road Department, Linn County Sheriffs Office, fishing and hunting groups, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and area residents met to try to develop a long-term working relationship that met the needs of landowners and the general public.

But at times, hunters became upset when the road gates were closed and people found behind them were cited by law enforcement officers for trespassing.

Linn County will work with Giustina Resources to seek conveyance of about six-tenths of a mile of road that is along its property lines.

Lane said the county is also amenable to closing the gates to reduce public access during periods of extreme fire danger.
LEBANON  While a chilly downpour took place outside, a dog, a mini-horse and a pony helped spread warm Christmas cheer inside the Edward C. Allworth Veterans Home on Tuesday afternoon.

The visit was part of the Linn County 4-H Club's service learning project. Members had sewed stockings, raised money for gifts to fill them, and then delivered them to all 146 residents at the home.

"After the kids all sewed the stockings, the kids all came together to help stuff the stockings and get the gifts ready," said Andrea Leao, Linn County 4-H outreach coordinator. "This is the last part, delivering the gifts, and actually seeing the veterans."

The Reigning Riders 4-H of Tangent brought some of their horses along with them as part of the stocking delivery visit.

Leao said making that trip was an important part of the project.

"Being part of 4-H is getting them closer to communities," she said.

This is the second the group has visit the veterans. With clearer weather last year, the group performed Christmas carols outside and on horseback.

"We had to change that a little bit this year, and go inside to say, 'Merry Christmas,'" Leao said.

While there wasn't any horseback caroling, several veterans home residents braved the wet weather outside to greet the full-size horses that couldn't make it inside.

Bess Broce, assistant recreation director of the veterans home, said she was contacted by the 4-H about bringing the animals over.

"The veterans love animal therapy of any kind," Broce said. So she quickly agreed.

Roy Larson, a veterans home resident, was quite surprised by the horse visiting his room.

"Oh, boy, isn't that something  that's a horse," he said.
HICKORY  The Catawba Valley Paralegal Association (CVPA) will hold its monthly meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 9, at Catawba Valley Community College, Room WW120, in Hickory.

Local attorney Scott A. Matthews, of Matthews Law Firm, will present Ethical Use of Paralegals and Ethical Responsibilities of the Paralegal. One hour of ethics CPE (Certified Paralegal Education) credit has been applied for with the North Carolina State Bar. There is no charge for CVPA members in good standing to attend. The general public is welcome to attend at no charge. Community college students are encouraged to attend.

CVPA is a nonprofit organization that encourages ethical and professional conduct within the paralegal profession, and promotes paralegal careers in Catawba, Burke, Caldwell, Lincoln, Alexander, Cleveland and surrounding counties. CVPA furthers education and quality fellowship among its members and guests through CPEs, regular meetings, networking and quarterly social events, and furthers the paralegal profession through its participation in community service projects. Membership in CVPA is open to paralegals, legal assistants, legal secretaries, students enrolled in paralegal programs, paralegal educators, employees of judicial entities, other recognized legal agencies, and anyone interested in the legal or paralegal profession.

For more information, visit: http://www.catawbavalleyparalegalassoc.org/ or find the group on Facebook.
The more time and money Jaireme Barrow spent to keep people from swiping packages off his front porch, the angrier he got.

Hed show police in Tacoma, Washington, crystal-clear surveillance video of porch pirates strolling onto his front yard and then making off with what he could only assume were the Jeep parts and electronics hed paid for. But there were never any arrests.

As he grew more incensed, he realized he wanted more than identities or charges or even the stuff in the boxes.

He wanted revenge.

Then, the 34-year-old had an explosive idea.

I was thinking, how could I scare them and make them drop my package and then never come to my front porch again, Barrow told The Washington Post. And I thought, Getting shot at is scary. Thatll make them think twice. 

With that, TheBlankBox was born.

Although Barrow has been tinkering with his device for nearly a year, interest has peaked this month, as Americans increasingly turn to the internet to buy presents for the people they love but face the added worry that their gifts somehow wont make it.

Americans are shopping online as often as they take out the trash. According to the National Retail Federation, about 58 million Americans shopped only online from Thanksgiving Day to Cyber Monday, while 51 million shopped only in stores. An additional 64 million did both.

And more than 750 retailers participated in Free Shipping Day earlier this month, which one CBS affiliate said was meant to give consumers peace of mind knowing their order is guaranteed to be delivered by Christmas Eve.

Unless, of course, those dreaded porch pirates interfere.

Barrows concept for alleviating that anxiety is both simple and devious  if that word can be used to describe getting back at someone trying to rip you off.

The nondescript dummy box is placed in plain sight. When an unsuspecting thief lifts it, a 12-gauge shotgun blank goes off.

A video surveillance system like Barrows  installed to shame thieves and capture their startled reactions for YouTube  is not included.

Cue the schadenfreude!

Its very loud but technically harmless, Barrow said.

But a police spokeswoman in Tacoma, where Barrow lives, said the device as described to her by a reporter appears to be illegal. There are, however, no open cases against Barrow.

The earliest version of TheBlankBox was a Wile E. Coyote-ish fever dream involving bricks, fishing line, a wooden box, an aluminum carrying vessel and a small plate.

It had to be attached to a doorknob and was impractical for anyone who wanted to make regular use of a door without setting off a minor explosion.

Still, it gave Barrow two things his home security system had never been able to provide: a chuckle and solid evidence about the identity of the person pilfering his package.

The very first guy I did it to, he was so scared he dropped his cellphone in my front yard, Barrow told The Post. I gave it to the cops. Turns out, he lived, like, three blocks away from me. The man wasnt charged, Barrow said.

Since then, the design has evolved. Now its a self-contained device, involves no external strings, and Barrow can use his front door without worrying about explosions. Hes trying to patent TheBlankBox and has built a website, cashing in his savings and going all in.

The cheapest version costs $60. He has also designed some slightly naughty T-shirts.

He says he has sold about 50 dummy boxes and had 477 preorders as of Monday. Barrow says hes shipping them as fast as he can make them, capitalizing on an untapped market as more and more people are becoming reliant on having boxes delivered to their door.

Droves of consumers are forgoing long lines, annoyingly cheery holiday music and the occasional Christmastime mall brawl in favor of online shopping.

But the changing consumer behavior has sparked a new anxiety, especially for people who optimistically choose to have packages left at their front door: Once there, the packages are vulnerable.

Thieves who roam neighborhoods looking for defenseless parcels have even earned a name and an Urban Dictionary entry: porch pirates.

According to USA Today, nearly half of Americans say they know someone who has had a package stolen; 30 percent say it has happened to them.

On the expensive end, smart-lock technology may allow people to grant delivery drivers access to their homes, although that opens up another can of anxieties. And people can always play delivery tag with drivers, but that can erode the convenience that led to the online purchase in the first place.

Barrow acknowledges that potential buyers have brought up some practical considerations with the explosive device he makes in his garage.

Although gun blanks can hurt people, Barrow insists his contraption is completely safe  as long as the blanks are inside the box: They make a loud noise and nothing more.

And what of litigious would-be criminals tempted to sue after taking a stumble down porch stairs?

Barrow suggests tacking up a no trespassing sign and taping a note to the box that warns people to not move packages on the porch. That can inoculate a homeowner from lawsuits. Notifying delivery drivers doesnt hurt, either.

Police in Tacoma say Washington state law forbids people from assembling or shipping explosive devices without a valid license.

Even though its a blank, the way the device is made is actually illegal, said Loretta Cool, a police spokeswoman. Barrow could also be held liable if someone gets hurt on his property during or after an explosion, she said.

Even more than him crossing the line, Im not sure if people realize that, even though this person is stealing something, he cant intentionally set them up to be hurt, Cool said.

She said police are not currently investigating Barrow because nobody has reported this. We have to have a victim.

Barrow, who says he has caught 20 would-be thieves in the act at his home, concedes that his not-quite-exploding box is an imperfect solution on a crowded porch of imperfect solutions.

But he says his device offers something others dont: the warm, fuzzy feeling you get when youve made a terrified thief sprint off your lawn.

On those rare instances when Barrow is at home during the day, he will hear a muffled explosion from his front porch  and smile.

One girl, she screamed so loud  it was instant karma, he said. Someone is trying to commit a crime, and youre able to get back at them instantly. Its a satisfaction I cant describe.
Gujarat has witnessed a keenly fought election that portends well for the revival of political contests at the national level. The Congress sought to reinforce its base by uniting three distinct electoral constituencies, though these efforts did not yield the expected electoral dividends. A fuller understanding of these results is invaluable for building socially diverse and politically salient electoral coalitions in national politics.

Despite the intense focus on three young leaders, Patidar leader Hardik Patel, OBC leader Alpesh Thakor, and Dalit leader Jignesh Mewani, few recall that these young Turks first came together on their own accord in August 2016. The motivation was to register their opposition to the provisions of the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Gujarat Amendment) Bill, 2016. This is a copy-cat law meant to bypass the 2013 land law enacted by the UPA; specifically, to do away with the provisions related to social impact assessment and the requirement of seeking the consent of the groups facing displacement. If the Congress had engaged these young leaders right-away, it would have given them nearly a year and a half to build an alliance founded on an issue that appeals to all three constituencies. In practice, the Congress was slow in responding to these developments.

Mewani and Patel positioned themselves against the BJP by design and pro-Congress by default. As a result, even though exit polls showed Congress winning a majority of SC votes, according to the CSDS surveys, in comparison to the 2012 assembly elections, Congress share of the SC votes went down by about 10 percentage points. Similarly, both the exit polls and the election results show the Congress further losing ground among the Adivasis, who constitute 15% of the votes in the state (as compared to the 12% Patels). These results are even more significant if one accounts for the fact that the incumbent state government failed the Adivasis on multiple grounds: a large number of Adivasi villages do not have access to safe drinking water, though they were asked to give up land for various dams and the vast network of canals that ferry its waters to Saurashtra and Kutch; the incumbent government also failed to settle the Adivasi land rights question per the Forest Rights Act of 2006.

The Congress and other Opposition parties will need to get their house in order if they are to challenge the dominance of the BJP, though the moment is ripe for the emergence of a broad-based social and political coalition. Journalists and researchers report agrarian distress and rural discontent vis-a-vis a range of economic issues. While it is obvious that Congress needs to focus on building its cadre and regional leadership, any viable strategy for the 2019 general elections must also include building numerous regional coalitions of the type the party attempted in Gujarat. Most important, instead of rehashing the discourses of reform with a human face, it must stitch together economic development strategies customised to Indian conditions.

The most-important factor that should shape its economic development strategy is to bolster the informal or unorganised sector, which accounts for 84.7% of jobs in the economy (NSSO, 2011-12). Even if one were to exclude crop production-related agriculture employment, this data shows that 75% of total employment in the rural areas and 69% of all employment in urban areas is informal. Informal employment is the bedrock of sectors as diverse as leather, textiles, manufacturing, and other small-scale production activities that are vital to the nations economy. Eighty-nine per cent of all manufacturing sector workers are employed informally. A meaningful programme meant to boost indigenous manufacture must be designed to improve working conditions in the sector.

Any efforts to push inclusive development will have to focus on the goals of ensuring better economic returns in the sectors that sustain hundreds of millions of lives and livelihoods, including agriculture, dairy, fisheries, and forests. These sectors are also the home of the cooperative sector that requires a massive infusion of energy. Equally important, the Opposition would do well to cater carefully to the youth constituency (18-25 yrs) that voted in favour of the Congress (45% against 44% support for the BJP; The India Today-Axis Exit Poll). Gujarat elections also brought to fore the discontent against rhetoric of development that has yet to benefit a majority of them. The Congress and other Opposition parties must offer meaningful opportunities to the millions of unemployed Indians. Shared prosperity has to be the central agenda of a vibrant democracy.

Prakash Kashwan teaches at the University of Connecticut, Storrs

The views expressed are personal
Himachal Pradesh has seen a change in government again. This follows a pattern in the state where an incumbent has not been voted back and power has alternated between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). A change in government could be seen as an example of an apathetic voter. Specifically, it could be argued that satisfactory levels of public services in the state have made the Himachali voter less interested in politics  she has become a passive voter. Indeed, Himachal a relatively young state, which was granted statehood in 1972, has quickly climbed to the top of the human development indices. Yet, there are reasons to believe that the Himachali voter is highly engaged and invested in its electoral democracy.

The turnout of 74.5% in this election was a ten-point increase from the 2014 Lok Sabha election (64.45%) and was a record high when compared with 73.51% turnout in 2012 and 71.61% turnout in 2007. There are no discernible conclusions that can be drawn from the high turnout except that high voting is correlated to higher interest in political engagements. There is also an immense information flow about local candidates in the state. This is analogous to my experience in the field from other states where information is not only available but is also central to the electors decision-making process. One of the distinguishing features of rural, agrarian community life is a conducive informal informational flow which Himachal with its large agrarian base and small habitation fully satisfies. Also, the salience of biradari (kith and kin) in voting preferences is hard to miss, yet, increased informational flows outside of this construct have made interactions between the voter and the candidates more direct, helping the voter make decision autonomous of their communities.

Debunking the passive voter myth, the next question to tackle would be why does Himachal only vote for two parties  the BJP and the Congress. It does seem reasonable to argue that the intuitive idea of being able to govern, whatever be the political strains, is of prime importance. The voters in Himachal have been offered choices between parties like the Sukh Ram-led Himachal Vikas Congress, Aam Aadmi Party and the Communist Party of India (CPI-M). However, good intentions or high motives seem dwarfed under the question of the ability to govern. This salience in two parties hence partly explains why the contest is, except for few peripheral constituencies, reduced to a fight between the BJP and the Congress.

So, is the BJPs win in Himachal a political necessity born out of lost possibility? For starters, it would be hard to argue that the BJP was able to craft a transformative agenda for this election. A combination of events in the last five years of the Congress rule and profound churning within Himachali society could offer better answers.

First, lowering incomes from agriculture in the apple growing region, out-migration of young people and immigration of low skilled labour, and crony capitalism in granting real estate/industrial projects have created deep social tensions. Besides, the political setup in the state has been built over the dense network of patronage and cronies; of which appointments and transfers in government jobs and public work awards are most salient. The rape and murder of a minor girl in Kotkhai village and a killing of a forest guard allegedly by the forest mafia is symptomatic of this societal tension and patronage politics. Botched up investigations under pressure from political elites in both cases, resulted in independent citizen-led forums making corruption and crime a political issue. The BJPs electoral campaign, therefore, focused much more on discussing anti-corruption measures, including the setting up of a 24-hour helpline within the chief ministers office and a task force of ex-servicemen to take on the drug mafia and crime.

Second, a comparison of electoral data of this election to previous four assembly elections suggests that the Congress this time performed much worse in its core constituencies of the hill districts. Scholars have divided Himachal for historical and societal reasons into two areas; the hill districts also called old Himachal and the plain districts which were merged from Punjab in 1966. Both hill and plain districts of Himachal have 34 constituencies each and have played a counterbalancing force in the politics of the state; the hills have traditionally voted for Congress and the plains for the BJP. Electoral data from 2003 to 2012 suggests that the Congress on an average won 17 of the 34 constituencies in the hill districts whereas BJP on an average won only 8 of the 34 constituencies. In this election, so far, the Congress had won just 20% (7 seats) whereas BJP won 74% (25 seats) of the constituencies in hill districts. This shift from the Congress to the BJP amongst the voters from the hill areas has to partly do with the political economy of the apple belt, where massive fluctuations in prices and slow pace of integration of the apple market to national market has caused deep misery amongst the growers.

The repercussions of the results are measured for both parties. A crisis of leadership is already visible  one of the truly mass leaders of the Congress party, Virbhadhra Singh faces corruption cases, and a change of guard in the party is imminent. While the mandate of the voter for the BJP is clear, the defeat of its chief ministerial candidate, Prem Kumar Dhumal in his constituency is a damning commentary on the leadership crisis of the BJP.

Dismantling mafias and patronage networks and balancing it with institutional reforms to making Himachal transition from an agrarian state to an industrial one - tasks for the new government are already cut out.

Bhanu Joshi is PhD student in political science at Brown University, USA

The views expressed are personal
The fate of nations often comes down to the choices made by a handful of individuals at a particular moment in history. Today, the United States is facing just such a moment. What a handful of individual Republicans decide will shape the future not just of the country, but of democracy itself.

Modern history is littered with similarly pivotal choices, for better or worse. A century ago, the Russian Revolution came down to a showdown between the iron will of Vladimir Lenin and the indecisiveness of Alexander Kerensky, who ended up sneaking out of Saint Petersburg to escape the Bolsheviks.

Another Russian revolution  on New Years Eve 1999, when President Vladimir Putin gained the government foothold that ultimately enabled him to rule the country to this day  also came down to a solitary selfish decision by the countrys then-leader. Choosing to prioritise his own safety and that of his family over the well-being of Russia, President Boris Yeltsin named Putin, a former KGB colonel, as his successor.

On a more positive note, where would France be today, if, in June 1940, the then-relatively unknown General Charles de Gaulle had not gone into exile and delivered his passionate call for his country to resist the Nazi invaders? Where would the West be had anyone other than Winston Churchill become British prime minister that year?

The US has also had its share of such pivotal moments, several of which were described by John F. Kennedy in his book Profiles in Courage, which he wrote before becoming president. For example, Secretary of State Daniel Webster supported the Compromise of 1850, despite his hatred of slavery, in order to save the union.

Similarly, Robert Taft denounced the Nuremberg Trials, despite his hatred of the Nazis, to defend the fundamental US legal principle that a person could not be criminally charged on the basis of a retroactive statute. Webster and Taft, like the six others that Kennedy examined, risked political and reputational ruin to take difficult decisions, because they believed themselves to be defending the best interests of their country.

Such political courage is not a thing of the past. Last week, 11 Conservative members of the British parliament balked at giving Prime Minister Theresa Mays government Henry VIII powers  the authority to create new laws or eliminate old ones, without parliamentary approval. Led by former Attorney General Dominic Grieve, the rebel Tory MPs refused to countenance such a step, regardless of the cost. And that cost turned out to be high: Grieve received death threats, and others were sacked by the Tory leadership.

The US today is one place where such bravery and selflessness cannot be glimpsed. Yet, as President Donald Trump and a majority of Congressional Republicans attempt to pass a tax bill that would benefit Americas wealthiest households at the expense of saddling the country with more than $1 trillion in additional debt, such courage could not be more necessary.

US Republicans have long decried any measure that increases the US budget deficit. Rob Portman of Ohio even served as Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget under President George W Bush. Yet now they support tax cuts that will cause the deficit to grow as much, if not more, than it did under President Barack Obama. (And Obama, it should be noted, was attempting to stave off another Great Depression, not to deliver big tax savings to wealthy donors.)

To be sure, seven Republican senators  Susan Collins of Maine, Robert Corker of Tennessee, Jeff Flake and John McCain of Arizona, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Marco Rubio of Florida  have voiced concerns about the bill. These concerns echo more fundamental fears, voiced by the same senators to varying degrees, that the Trump administration is doing serious harm to US institutions.

But even these senators now appear to have fallen into line, effectively promising to deliver Trump an important legislative victory that will help to buttress his floundering presidency, while deepening inequality in the longer term. In doing so, they are putting tribal partisan loyalty above concern for their country.

Of course, it is hard to ask for more heroism from McCain. His courage as a prisoner of war for five years in Vietnam seems to be doubted only by Trump, and the dignified way he is battling brain cancer today has only heightened the esteem in which most Americans hold him. But the fact is that McCain is now backing away from his call, made on his return to the Senate after brain surgery, for a return to the old way of legislating in the Senate, including thorough public committee hearings on bills.

McCains fellow senator from Arizona is similarly failing to back word with deed. Flake, whose memoir is called The Conscience of a Conservative, recently delivered a searing speech on the Senate floor denouncing Trump, whom Flake sees as threatening American principles, freedoms, and institutions, disregarding truth and decency, and engaging in petty and reckless provocations. Yet Flake will support Trumps tax bill without so much as a grimace.

Murkowski and Collins played a vital role in preventing the Trump-supported repeal of the 2010 Affordable Care Act and its replacement with a much crueler health-care bill. Corker, too, has presented himself as somehow apart from the Trumpian mire. Yet, when it comes to tax cuts for the rich, these figures are as willing as any firm Trump acolyte to trade their honor for the approval of their tribe.

Years from now, some young and ambitious politician will survey the Trump presidency and, in an effort to explain the events that are unfolding before us, pen a Kennedyesque Profiles in Cowardice focused on Republicans lack of personal integrity. The question is what will have become of American democracy by then.

Nina L Khrushcheva is Professor of International Affairs at The New School and a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute.

The views are personal
Shaad Alis directorial debut Saathiya is remembered for more reasons than one. From the appealing storyline, perfect pairing of Rani Mukerji and Vivek Oberoi, to the music, the film earned appreciation from both critics and the audience alike. Mention the film and the first thing that comes to our mind is the opening scene where Vivek is shown listening to music and enjoying his bike ride.

What happens at the next moment is something that does surprise everyone, and takes the audience back in time to find out more about the love story of Suhani (Rani) and Aditya (Vivek). This successful romantic drama, which is a remake of Mani Ratnams Tamil film Alai Payuthey (2000) completes 15 years today. To mark the occasion, we take a look at a few interesting facts around the film.

1. Shaad had actually wanted Abhishek Bachchan to play the character of Aditya, but he turned down the film.

2. In the title track, Aditya is seen riding his bike through sea waves, which is a reference to the Tamil film Alai Payuthey.

3. Shaad was very nervous making the film. He had shared how he would be as tensed as if giving an exam. He was quoted as saying, Making Saathiya is like an exam for me. Exam fever, you know? It seems like I have been writing an examination every day, from the day I started shooting for Saathiya. It is a challenge to make a film made by Mani Sir, again. I learnt filmmaking from him. Once I finished shooting, I started thinking about how Mani Sir would have done each shot, how he would react, etc.

4. The film starts with Vivek riding his bike while listening to music on headphones but in reality he was not listening to any music but merely acted it out.

5. In one of the train sequences in the film there is a reference to the song Chaiyya Chaiyya from Mani Ratnams film Dil Se (1998).

6. Talking about making Saathiya, Shaad, who was an assistant director to Mani Ratnam, also added that while making the film he could not forget his mentor had made Alai Payuthey. The initial script was at the back of my mind. I wanted to get the images of the film out of my mind. That is why I asked Gulzarsaab to write a new script. I knew he would have a different approach to the film. At the same time, we didnt want to lose the essence. I admit the original is like the Bible; I have followed it. But you will not see a remake in Saathiya. Saathiya is more extroverted, more robust and more energetic, he had said adding how Mani had complimented him. He said, It doesnt look like your first film. That comment was a big compliment for me. Mani Sir is a man of few words, added Shaad.

Rani Mukerji and Vivek Oberoi were cast as a pair for the first time in Saathiya.

7. This is the only film that actors Vivek Oberoi and Shah Rukh Khan had collaborated for, till date.

8. Vivek had to dress down and wore makeup to make his skin tone darker for Company (2002). So when the audience saw him in Saathiya they realised that he is actually fair. In one of his earlier interviews Vivek had revealed, I was playing a role opposite an established star like Ajay Devgan. I was playing a character that was supposed to dress down, look bad. I had to colour my skin a few shades darker. People are still confused about how I really look. When they see Saathiyas promos they say, Arre, yeh toh gora hai [He is fair].

9. Remembering his shooting experience, Vivek had said in a previous interview how the audience would only recognise Rani and not him till Company released. Saathiya was shot pretty much parallel to Company (his debut film). I hadnt had a release till then and nobody knew who I was A lot of Saathiya was shot at train stations and people wouldnt pay any attention to us. Only on the days Rani (Mukerji) was shooting, people would go Rani Mukerji! Rani Mukerji! Rani was a star, no one knew me. Then in April 2002, Company released and on that weekend, we had to shoot on the tracks close to Gaiety-Galaxy theatre (in Mumbai). Around midday, four-five people came and started calling me Chandu Bhai (his character in Company) In an hour, a few thousand people had gathered, the tracks were blocked we had to call for cops I walked out and the crowd let me go only when I said the Khallas dialogue a couple of times it was so surreal..., he had said.

10. Chalka Chalka, one of the songs from the film was used in the Uma Thurman, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Colin Firth starrer Hollywood movie The Accidental Husband (2008).

Follow @htshowbiz for more

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Bollywood actors Arjun Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra, who have teamed up after five years (Ishaqzaade, 2005) for Dibakar Banerjees Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar, are currently shooting for the film at the international border of India and Nepal that is constantly under radar for illegal immigration.

Dibakar is filming extremely intense and gritty portions of the film at the Indo-Nepal border. The portions will show the tension between Arjun and Parineetis character. These are crucial and defining moments of the film. The area where the two are shooting is exactly at the border and is constantly under alert for illegal immigration and smuggling. People use an inflated rubber tube as a floating device on the Kali river at the border and make this risky crossing in the thick of a wintry night. So, shooting has been quite difficult. Local authorities have been of tremendous help providing the crew with assistance and necessary security, a source told Hindustan Times.

The films crew was previously shooting in an Uttarakhand village, Jhulaghat, which will soon be immersed underwater because of the construction of a dam.

Dibakars film will end up being the only film to have a visual record of this quaint town that will be first evacuated and then submerged under water.

Arjun plays a 30-year-old cop from the Delhi Polices special unit in Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar. Arjuns character wants a promotion so he can play a more responsible role in law enforcement, and needs to undergo special training so that he can be assigned to high-profile cases.

Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar is set to release on August 3, 2018.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
March 4, 1942  December 16, 2017

Earnest Paskell Gregory, 75, passed away on Saturday, December 16, 2017, in Good Samaritan Hospital of Corvallis after a long battle with diabetes-related complications.

He leaves his wife of 46 years, Elaine (Carpenter) Gregory along with his three daughters and two sons-in-law, Letticia (Gregory) Neal and Kevin Neal, Kathleen (Gregory) Stuart and Jamie Stuart, Caroline Gregory; one granddaughter; and numerous nieces, nephews, cousins, and close friends.

Born in Toledo and raised in Logsden, the son of Paskell and Ardis Gregory, he graduated from Siletz High School in 1960 and was a lifelong resident of Oregon.

After serving with the Army, Earnest was a power-monkey in the Klickitat Mountain area and spent approximately ten years working for the city of Toledo.

After retirement, he was well known as the expert in lawn mower and small engine maintenance for his community.

Earnest was an avid hunter and fisherman his entire life. Along with yearly trips with his wife to Reno, he enjoyed traveling both in the United States and internationally with his family.

There will be a private funeral service through McHenry Funeral Home in Corvallis.

In lieu of flowers or cards, the family would prefer donations to the American Diabetes Association (www.diabetes.org) in Earnests name.
Kangana Ranaut has said she has been refused awards because she was struck in traffic and could not show up at the event on time! In a freewheeling chat with film critics Anupama Chopra and Rajeev Masand, the Simran star revealed her experiences with various award functions, before she decided to boycott all of them in 2014.

Initially you have this ideal notion of the system. It is about adding to your Wikipedia (page) so it is all a fairy tale image. I have had some very ugly experiences. Early on, I got dressed up for some award, I don't remember the award but I was supposed to receive the award for supporting cast for Life In A Metro. I got stuck in traffic. I started getting calls asking where are you. The hysteria and panic that I experienced, I didnt make it and Soha (Ali Khan) got it for Rang De Basanti, Kangana said.

Imagine a young woman, that whole notion that you are somebody who is getting an award, that entire thing was shattered. It is like everyone gets a little candy to play with. I was late by some 10-15 minutes and I didnt get the award, she added. Kangana also said she stayed for the event and understood that she couldnt reach and hence lost the award to Soha.

Later on, you understand that your award should belong to you, the artist. There was this entire discussion when Heath Ledger was to get an Oscar for The Dark Knight (2009). You are felicitating a performance, not the person, how does it matter whether the artist is alive or not? Later, I was part of this award function, I was asked to perform and when I refused, I was told you get paid and also get an award for your performance.

Sharing another anecdote, Kangana further said in the podcast, I was in the United States for my screenwriting course when I got a call from Filmfare in 2014. They told me I was going to get an award for Krrish 3 and they requested me to come back for just one day so I could attend the awards. I told them I am doing my course and going back and forth will cost me around 10 lakh. Because I would miss my classes, I told them its not possible. They decided to give the Best Supporting Actress award to Supriya Pathak for Ram Leela instead. It is not to take their credit away, but just that you guys want anecdotes.



The editor of Filmfare, in a series of tweets, refuted Kanganas claims and wrote, Is she hallucinating? Ive never had a conversation with her about Krrish.

Apparently Kangana Ranaut has given a radio interview where she says I told her she was winning for krrish . Is she hallucinating? Ive never had a conversation with her about krrish   J (@jiteshpillaai) December 19, 2017

During the course of the discussion, Rajeev Masand referred to an anecdote Sonam Kapoor allegedly told him. Though Rajeev did not name Filmfare, the editor and Sonam have refuted his claims that Sonam was given Critics award for Neerja as the editor wanted to give an award to Alia Bhatt.

I completely agree with you jits  of all the awards I have to agree that filmfare is the most legitimate! https://t.co/yIA2YjB0sC  Sonam Kapoor (@sonamakapoor) December 19, 2017

For another award function, Deepika Padukone got an award for Happy New Year. And they didnt give me an award for Queen as I didnt show up. The next year they made sure I didnt get the Best Actress award for Tanu Weds Manu Returns and later I got the National Award. Then they got trolled, she said.

Asked if it was a hard decision to stop going for award functions, Kangana said, Very hard decision, especially the gowns I have. The only thing I regret is the gowns and special editions I used to get for the red carpet appearances.

My stand is not to ridicule or make them feel insignificant, I have not been disappointed with the award season this year. Maybe not us, but at some point, our voice should make a difference. I had friends telling me this is your time, why protest instead of enjoying but that is the place where you protest. If you arent getting an award, what is a protest? she added.

First Krrish and after that Queen happened. The decision came with that, because then it made a difference. With Queen, it was a no argument zone and lot of people spoke about it, she further said, adding that she still respects National Awards as she has never been asked to perform in return or be present at a particular time.

The entire podcast, Take 2 episode 10, is available on Saavn.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Working with veteran actor Rishi Kapoor is nothing short of a dream come true for many actors and filmmakers. And director Leena Yadav is no different. Currently shooting with Kapoor in Delhis Chandni Chowk area for her next film titled Rajma Chawal, Yadav is all praise for him.

While the senior actor is much known to be straightforward  a trait that he has often shown through his tweets  Yadav shares thats he is equally fun to work with. He is quite unfiltered [in his opinions]. He reveals whatever he feels. And I think thats such a great quality to have. Working with him has been really, really nice and everyone in the crew is enjoying a lot, says Yadav.

Rishi Kapoor spotted shooting for his upcoming film Rajma Chawal in Old Delhi. (Raajessh Kashyap/HT Photo)

The filmmaker states that shooting in the capital with Kapoor has been a great learning experience for her. There is so much to learn from him [Rishi Kapoor]. When he talks about his past experiences, I love listening to him. He often talks about his journey whenever we are having lunch with him or in between shots. He would share anecdotes like, uss time par aise hua karta tha or about some particular actors that he has worked with, and its mostly about his experiences in films.

Its gratifying as a director when your actors suggest improvisations. I am a very collaborative director that way. Whether its with the cameramen or the actors, I completely surrender to that collaboration.

Ruling out the notion that Kapoor is tough to work with, Yadav calls him extremely professional. Describing Kapoor as interactive, the filmmaker adds, If he gets involved in the scene and if he wants to do it another way, we discuss it, and ultimately whatever I want, he does. But, I like the fact that he is involved and he thinks for the character, and suggests that maybe I would do this and not this. He offers inputs almost every time, and I like that. I like actors who discuss things.

Unlike many filmmakers who dont like actors interfering with their craft, Yadav says, Its gratifying as a director when your actors suggest improvisations. I am a very collaborative director that way. Whether its with the cameramen or the actors, I completely surrender to that collaboration. We can be in denial, but the reality is its a collaborative art and even if you think youre the dictator, its not possible. For me, inputs are welcome from everybody and if anyone shows me a newer way of doing something, Im always open to that.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
While the controversy around Sanjay Leela Bhansalis film Padmavati has died down, another Hindi film finds itself in a political controversy. The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) on Tuesday threatened to protest against cinema owners who give preference to Salman Khan-starrer Tiger Zinda Hai over Marathi film Deva.

Both the films are releasing on December 22. We have sent a letter to Yash Raj Films. If theyre ready to give screen space to Marathi Films, Deva in this case, then there is no need for us opposing it. However, if they dont, we wont allow it to shoot hereafter in Maharashtra, Amey Khopkar, MNS film division head told ANI on Wednesday.

Senior MNS leader Shalini Thackeray said regional films should not suffer because of Hindi films, whose producers block a chunk of the slots. The Marathi film has not got the required number of screens. We have written to all multiplexes to cooperate with the distributors and give them the required screens. The multiplexes have been granted permission on the condition that they have to show Marathi films, Thackeray told HT.

Thackeray, who is the general secretary of the Maharashtra Navnirman Chitrapat Karmachari Sena, said the party has given cinema owners a day to respond to the request. It is not a threat. We have written to them formally. We are not against Tiger Zinda Hai. We are against the basic policy of not making screens available for Marathi cinema in Maharashtra, Thackeray said.

To revive its prospects, the Raj Thackeray-led party recently launched an aggressive campaign against illegal hawkers in Mumbai reviving its old son -of -the -soil agenda.
Indias capital market regulator is talking with the government and central bank about how to regulate cryptocurrencies, its chairman said on Wednesday.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), plus officials from the ministry of finance, ministry of electronics and information technology and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), are on a panel tasked with determining the legal oversight for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, chairman Ajay Tyagi said.

There has to be a process or law, only then can you take action, Tyagi told reporters on the sidelines of a Confederation of Indian Industry conference in Mumbai.

India currently has no regulation for cryptocurrencies, and like other global policymakers, it is seeking to understand how to supervise a market that many feel is a speculative bubble.

Earlier this month, the RBI said it was concerned about bitcoin. Indias central tax authority is also surveying bitcoin exchanges to find out whether it can tax any transactions.
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the AIIMS to constitute a medical board and examine a 15-year-old pregnant girl seeking termination of her foetus.

Justices S Muralidhar and I S Mehta said that a report of the medical board be submitted to it on December 22 to know whether medical termination of the foetus was advisable as the pregnancy was of over 25 weeks.

Section 3(2)(b) of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act prohibits abortion of a foetus after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

In pursuance of the courts direction , the girl filed an affidavit stating that she wanted to get her pregnancy terminated.

Advocate Kamlesh Kumar Mishra, appearing for the girl, claimed that the minor had changed her mind earlier under police influence and now she was for a medical termination of the foetus as she wanted to pursue her studies.

The bench said, Given the urgency, no time be wasted and the medical board should be immediately constituted by the medical superintendent of the AIIMS and the girl be medically examined.

It said that the medical boards report be filed before the court on December 22, and the girl, along with her parents, should be present on that day.

The judge had yesterday asked the girl to unambiguously state whether she wanted an abortion as she had changed her stand on the matter several times.

It had said that before passing any order, it needed to be sure that the teenager, who yesterday told the judges she wanted an abortion, would not change her mind again.

The bench had noted that the girl, who had left her house and married a man on her free will, changed her mind thrice between December 8, when she appeared before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), and December 13, when she had gone for her medical examination to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, and again in the court.

The police had on November 27 taken into custody the man to whom the girl was married under the provisions of the Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences Act and the Indian Penal Code.

Initially, the teenager did not wish to return to her parents and was sent to Prayas Juvenile Aid Centre, and later she returned to them.

She appeared before the CWC on December 8 and stated that she wished to get her pregnancy terminated, after which an AIIMS doctor was directed to examine her to ascertain if abortion was safe and medically advisable.

The doctor noted that she was not willing to abort her pregnancy as she had married consensually.

The doctor has also said that her pregnancy was a result of rape as she was aged less than 18 years. He also said termination of her pregnancy was not advisable.

The bench had noted that the girl, through her father, has now approached the court stating that she wanted an abrotion.
The Juvenile Justice Board ruled on Wednesday that the 16-year-old student of Gurgaons Ryan International School accused of the murder of Class 2 student Pradhyumn Thakur will be tried as an adult, saying the offence allegedly committed by him was heinous.

The Class 11 student has been accused of slitting the throat of seven-year-old Pradhyumn Thakur in the schools toilet on September 8.

Here are the 10 things we know so far in the case:

1. Pradhyumn was found bleeding profusely in the schools toilet on September 8, less than an hour after his father dropped him off. His throat had been slit twice and the schools teachers rushed him to a private hospital from where he referred to another hospital in Gurgaon where the doctors declared him brought dead.

2. The Gurgaon Police arrested 42-year-old Ashok Kumar, a school bus conductor, in the evening and claimed he had confessed that he tried to sexually assault Pradhyumn and killed him when the boy resisted.

3. The incident sparked protests by parents, two of whom were arrested for vandalising school property and setting a liquor vend on fire. Several others held a sit-in protest at the police commissioners office.

4. The schools management was booked for cruelty against children under the juvenile justice act on September 10. Police arrested Francis Thomas, regional head of the Ryan Group of institutions, and Jayesh Thomas, head of the schools human resource department.

5. Haryana chief minister ML Khattar met Pradhyumns family on September 15 and recommended a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as demanded by them.

6. The CBI took over the probe from the Gurgaon Polices special investigation team on September 22. The agency took the accused bus conductor to the crime spot and recreated the scene of the crime. It asked a few teachers to identify four senior students spotted entering and exiting the toilet at the time of the incident on a CCTV camera.

7. The agency apprehended a Class 11 student on charges of killing Pradhyumn on November 7 and said he murdered the victim to get a parent-teacher meeting and a scheduled exam deferred. On November 10, it told the JJ Board that the boy confessed to killing Pradhyumn. The next day the boy was sent to an observation home in Faridabad. He later alleged the investigators beat him up and forced him to confess.

8. Pradhyumns father filed a petition with the board on November 15 seeking the trial of the 16-year-old as an adult, saying the crime he committed was chilling, horrific, monstrous and serious in nature. The board ordered a social investigation and psychological evaluation of the juvenile.

9. Bus conductor Kumar was granted bail after the CBI absolved him of the murder charges. He was released from jail late on November 22.

10. The board ruled on Wednesday that the juvenile will be tried as an adult and the matter will be transferred to the sessions court. The court ruled on the basis of two reports  social background and psychological evaluation of the juvenile.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
DEHRADUN: The Uttarakhand Congress  which suffered a humiliating defeat in the assembly polls  is still struggling to put up a united face ahead of the urban local body elections.

Many in the Congress camp are concerned as top party leaders, including the former chief minister and current and past state unit presidents, seem to be working on different lines, affecting the morale of the party workers ahead of the civic polls due in April 2018.

Top leaders working parallel to each other is sending an impression of differences in the party, which is the last thing we need ahead of the crucial polls. We can knock out the BJPs edge if all senior leaders, including the MLAs and organisational leaders come together, a key party functionary tells HT.

The Congress electoral fortunes received a blow due to internal factionalism during the assembly polls. The party won only 11 assembly seats as against 57 of the BJP. This came after it saw the exit of nine rebel leaders who joined the BJP.

Congress state president Pritam Singh denies that there are any differences in the party. We are like one family and will fight the local body polls as a single entity. Admitting that the senior leaders were raising issues of late, he says, They may be raising voice (individually) but theyre doing it on the partys behalf. Well put up a united fight against the BJP in the polls.

We have begun the ground work but will initiate more intense work once the reservation (of seats) situation becomes clear.

The party is also strongly registering its protest against the ongoing expansion of urban local bodies by merging nearby rural areas in them, he asserts.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Minute air-borne salt particles originating from large salt pans in Afghanistan are pushing up pollution levels in Delhi, mostly during the winter months when westerly and northwesterly winds flow, a study conducted by experts from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi has found.

Even though these salt particles dont harm humans directly when inhaled, experts say they are pushing up levels of PM2.5 in the city. PM2.5 particles are one of the primary and most dangerous pollutants as they can penetrate deep inside the lungs. These salts comprise at least 11% of PM2.5 concentrations in Delhis air, the CPCBs report said.

Initially, we thought that it could be sea salts, coming in from either the Bay of Bengal or the Arabian Sea. But then we realised that it was not possible as the study was done in the month of February, which falls in winter. In winter, Delhi doesnt receive any winds which originate in the sea, said a senior CPCB official.

During the months of winter, Delhi usually gets winds from the north and northwest. These winds come all the way from west Asia. The scientists then took the help of a trajectory model called Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) developed by US scientific agency National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The trajectory model revealed that the air mass was coming in from Afghanistan. As there are large salt pans in Afghanistan, the high-altitude winds could be carrying salt from these pans and transporting them to India. Delhi receives a portion of these trans-boundary pollutants, said D Saha, head of the air quality laboratory at CPCB.

Trans-boundary pollutants have earlier also been found to be pushing up pollution levels in Delhi.

In November, when pollution in Delhi breached emergency levels, scientists had blamed it on dust storms in west Asia. Strong high-altitude winds were bringing in pollutants from Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia where a dust storm had played havoc.

The team also found sudden spikes in the levels of chromium and copper in the citys air, when the westerly and northwesterly winds were blowing. Experts said that these metals in the air could be coming from the electroplating industries located in Haryana close to Delhis border.

As the metals or salts are usually not monitored and no standards have been developed for them anywhere in the world, we cant say they are above the permissible standards, said Saha.

CPCB has already urged the Indian Meteorological Department to develop an early warning smog-alert system so that such trans-boundary movements of pollutants could be detected beforehand. This would give the authorities some head space to take precautions.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
The Delhi government on Wednesday tested the anti-smog gun, a machine that sprays water into the air to bring down pollution level, in Anand Vihar area as the air quality in the Capital deteriorated over the past two days.

Pollution levels entered the very poor zone on Wednesday morning after a gap of more than a week and in east Delhis Anand Vihar the pollution level was in the severe zone with an AQI of 413.

The Air Quality Index  a measure of pollutants in the air  touched 332 in Delhi at around 8am on Wednesday. On a scale of 0-500, an AQI value of more than 301 is considered as very poor level. Tuesdays average AQI was 300, which falls in the poor category.

Anti-smog gun spraying water at Anand Vihar ISBT - one of Delhi's #pollution hotspots - to improve air quality. Its a trial run. @htdelhi @htTweets #airquality pic.twitter.com/T53N5ZWfXW  Joydeep Thakur (@joydeepthakur) December 20, 2017

Experts blamed the spike in pollution levels on rising humidity and low wind speed. SAFAR  Indias official pollution forecasting system  has claimed that pollution could spike further over the next three days.

Delhis AQI started improving since December 12 when it dropped to around 219 which falls under the poor category. On December 11 it was 361 in the very poor zone.

The wind speed dropped from around 15km/hour on Sunday to around 4 km/hour on Wednesday, said a senior official of the regional weather forecasting centre in New Delhi.

The humidity level was also high. On Wednesday morning the relative humidity level was above 80% which resulted in a misty morning.

While on one hand, the moisture in the air is trapping the pollutants that are being emitted locally, the low-velocity winds are unable to flush them out. As a result, pollutants are accumulating and pollution in rising gradually, said D Saha head of the air quality laboratory at the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

The CPCB data showed that levels of both PM10 and PM2.5  primary pollutants in Delhis air  have almost doubled since Sunday.

Experts said Delhi would need some strong winds from the north to flush out the pollutants. The northerly winds would also bring in the chill from snow-clad regions of north India.

Presently, the winds are coming in from the west, as a result of which the minimum temperature is more than the climatic normal. On Wednesday the minimum temperature was 9.6, which is two degrees above the normal, said a MeT official.

Lt Governor Anil Baijal on Monday had directed authorities during a meeting to ensure that municipal solid waste in the national capital is managed completely within 16 months.

The plan should cover a time-frame not exceeding 16 months and also indicate the exact requirement of funds. The chief secretary has been asked to coordinate and finalise it, the L-G office said in a statement.

Baijal also directed all three corporations to ensure that no methane fires occur at the three landfill sites and for this, they should take help of experts of the science and technology ministry, the statement said.

He asked all three municipal commissioners to procure requisite mechanical sweepers, litter pickers, water sprinklers within a stipulated time.

In the meeting, the Lt Governor was informed that Badarpur Thermal Power Station will be permanently closed by July 2018.

It was also informed that at present over 800 acres ash pond is in O Zone and NHAI is lifting 600 MT ash daily. The L-G stressed for optimal future utilisation of this huge land parcel. Apart from this, measures to provision full gas for Bawana plant were also discussed, it stated.

(With PTI inputs)

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday ordered a probe by the CBI into an ashram in north Delhi where girls and women were allegedly kept in illegal confinement.

A bench of acting chief justice Gita Mittal and justice C Hari Shankar asked the CBI director to set up a special investigation team and seize all records pertaining to FIRs lodged in connection with alleged rape and suicides of the girls there.

The high court also ordered inspection of the ashrams building, housing male staff, to check if any minor boy was confined there.

On Tuesday, the high court had asked the police to conduct an inspection of the ashram, Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya in Rohini, saying it was extremely dangerous that girls and women have been allegedly kept in illegal confinement in the name of preaching about God. It ordered that the inspection should be video-graphed and Delhi Commission for Womens chief Swati Maliwal should also accompany the police.

The high court-appointed panel told the court that they were assaulted and confined for nearly an hour by some ashram inmates when it went to inspect the premises on Tuesday. It also informed the court that more than 100 girls have been kept there in confinement and most of them are minors.

The panel alleged that the girls were kept in animal-like conditions behind iron grills and surrounded by barbed-wire topped walls. It also said that the girls have no privacy even while bathing.

The high court, on Tuesday, had further directed Virender Dev Dixit, referred to as the founder and spiritual head of the Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya at A-1/351-352, Vijay Vihar, in North Delhis Rohini to cooperate with the police during the inspection drive.

Dixit has been arrayed as a party in the petition filed by an NGO, Foundation for Social Empowerment, which informed the court that several minors and women were allegedly being illegally confined at the spiritual university here and are not allowed to meet their parents.

It informed the court that a couple had lodged a rape complaint with the police, but no FIR had been registered till date.

The NGO has alleged that girls were in confinement at the university for 14 years and more.

While producing one girl in the court, who, the NGO claimed, had managed to get out of the premises, it alleged that she was raped during her stay there, which she has not even disclosed to her parents.

The NGO also alleged that girls confined at the ashram have committed suicide in the past, but police never registered a case in this regard.
Women and men who posted "#MeToo" this year to demonstrate how many people in the nation have experienced sexual harassment and assault carry grim reminders of unwanted contact.

At South Albany High School, however, senior Savannah Partridge is forming a #MeToo campaign of her own  and someone doesn't have to have been a victim to join.

The 18-year-old says she belongs to the #MeToo list as well, although she is thankful she hasn't experienced the horrific ends of that spectrum. But her goal in creating a campaign at South isn't so much to bring members together as it is to highlight the problem and bring people together to find solutions.

"If we can open up that conversation, it can make victims feel better about the support they're getting from their community, as well as not feeling like it's their fault," Partridge said.

Partridge has been working to organize the campaign this month and plans a formal launch in January. Times, dates and locations haven't been established, but she envisions regular meetings after school  at least one a month, but possibly more  for people who want to share information, resources and support to end sexual harassment and assault.

She is lining up guest speakers from organizations such as Sarah's Place, a branch of Samaritan Health Services in Albany that provides healing and recovery services to survivors of sexual assault, domestic abuse, and sex trafficking; and the Center Against Rape and Domestic Violence in Corvallis.

No one in the group who has experienced harassment, assault or rape will be expected or pressured to share in any way, Partridge stressed. The idea is simply to share support and information, "just destigmatizing the whole topic in general."

Partridge said she began thinking about what she could do after learning about the online #MeToo campaign, which went viral in October after actress Alyssa Milano picked up the hashtag from social activist and community organizer Tarana Burke's 2006 effort.

"I was supposed to be falling asleep," she recalled. "I stayed up for, like, another hour brainstorming ideas."

South Albany has a long history of supportive clubs and campaigns, so Partridge said it was natural for her to think about launching one of her own. She wondered how well the suggestion would go over, thinking school officials might find the topic too sensitive or graphic for high school, but said she's received nothing but support.

"We are working closely with Sarah's Place and CARDV to ensure that this project is done in a way that honors the voices of victims of sexual assault while being aware that this is a topic that holds potential pain for students," Jill Baker, South Albany counselor, said in an email to the Democrat-Herald. "Savannah has made sure that we are offering services to support students throughout the campaign.

"We are so proud of Savannah's hard work on this project. This topic is not an easy one to address, and she is approaching it with compassion, bravery, and kindness. She is a rock star and wise beyond her years."

Partridge said the high school's health classes do talk about sexual assault, but that she feels more information is needed. She said she'd like to see the discussions be more wide-ranging and include topics such as dress codes, which she said sometimes feed into the cultural perception that women are responsible for the actions of men because of what they choose to wear.

She said she also wants people who participate in the group to come away with a better understanding of issues facing adolescents, which are often much harsher than simply facing down a bully or coping with too much homework.

Mostly, Partridge said, she just wants to make sure teenage #MeToo voices don't get drowned out.

"There are so many teenagers that end up experiencing sexual assault," she said. "They need to be able to be heard as well, not just adults."
The application forms for nursery admissions to around 1,500 private schools will begin from December 27 with the first list of selected candidates to be announced by schools on February 15 next year.

The directorate of education (DoE) on Tuesday announced the admission schedule for nursery admissions for the class of 2018 in unaided recognised private schools in the city.

This year the government is not bringing any changes in the admission criteria and schools get to decide their own criteria and allot points to various criterions such as distance, first child, girl child and alumnus.

all private unaided recognised schools shall develop and adopt criteria for admission which shall be fair, reasonable, well defined, equitable, non-discriminatory, unambiguous and transparent, the DoE said in a circular.

The DoE also said that all schools will have to abide by the governments order that had abolished 62 criteria considered unfair, unreasonable and non-transparent. These include oral tests, interviews, achievement of parents, non-smoking parents, and vegetarian parents.

The last date to submit application forms in schools is January 17 next year. A DoE official said that on February 2, 2018, schools will have to upload a list detailing marks given to each applicant based on the point system adopted by the school.

On February 15, 2018, schools will display the first list of selected students with points allocated to each student, the official said.

Schools have to keep 25% of their total seats reserved for the candidates from economically weaker section and admissions for this category are conducted by the department through computerised draw of lots.

The second list of selected candidates will be announced on February 28, 2018 and the subsequent admission lists, if any, will be announced on March 15, 2018.

The admission process will close on March 31, 2018, the DOE circular said.

Schools have been asked by the Delhi government to upload the admission criteria adopted by them on the DoEs website by December 26. the admission process will be kept in abeyance for those private unaided recognised schools that fail to upload the criterion by December 26, 2017, the circular said.

The government has asked schools to videograph the draw of lots in presence of parents, who should be informed in advance about it. The video recording has to be kept for at least three months.

The government has fixed the upper age limit for admission to entry level classes with the upper age for nursery being less than 4 years as of March 31 of the year in which admission is sought. For KG, the upper age limit is less than 5 years and for Class 1 the upper age limit is less than 6 years. But this will be implemented for 2019-2020 admission cycle to give parents enough time to plan the admissions.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
The Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution (Prevention & Control) Authority (EPCA) will meet on Thursday to find ways to clean the air of another polluted corner of the city  Delhi Technological University (DTU) in north Delhi.

According to EPCA chairman Bhure Lal, this corner of the city has been consistently showing high pollution levels.

A meeting has been called with all agencies concerned to find out the reasons behind the foul air quality here and ways to combat it. We will also review the action taken by various agencies at Anand Vihar in the meeting, Lal told Hindustan Times.

Earlier, in a meeting with Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal on December 7, Lal had raised the issues of industries running in Badli, Bawana, Narela and DTU areas which are causing air pollution.

These industrial areas are using non-approved fuels for running their machines and are burning garbage. There are approximately 10,000 rubber units operating and need to be checked, he had informed.

Lal had also told the L-G that traffic police should notify these areas as no parking-zone for the main roads, so that buses and three-wheelers do not remain parked there, which causes a traffic congestion and inconvenience.

The Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar near DTU is also in a bad condition as there are no pavements and thus increasing dust pollution. Baijal, in the meeting, had asked the North Delhi Municipal Corporation commissioner to visit the area and ensure that pavements and carpeting of roads is done at the earliest.

The DTU area witnesses high vehicular traffic, including trucks entering the city. Garbage burning is also rampant here. There is a need to focus on problematic areas in this manner. We tackle a small area first and then increase the radius steadily. This is how we can reduce local emissions. From micro to macro, from local to global, Central Pollution Control Board air laboratory chief Dipankar Saha said.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
A 77-year-old woman was found dead at her home in south Delhis Greater Kailash-II on Tuesday morning.

Police said the womans body was found in the bathroom with head injuries.

The woman, Santosh Suri, was registered with Delhi Polices senior citizen cell, which has to ensure the safety of registered members.

The main door of her first-floor flat was open but the police could not confirm if there had been any robbery. Police, though, have not ruled out the murder-robbery angle.

Suri lived alone for the past eight years after her husband died. The couple did not have any children.

Romil Baaniya, deputy commissioner of police (south), said the exact cause of death can be established after they receive the autopsy report.

The womans autopsy could not be conducted till Wednesday evening because the police were waiting for her brother, who lives in England. No case was registered till Wednesday evening.

Baaniya said that around 3 pm, Suris nephew Sanjeev Chauhan, who lives in Kailash Colony with his family, called the police control room and reported that his aunt was lying dead in her bathroom.

During enquiry, police found that the body was first discovered by Suris domestic help Shama, when she reached at 10 am. Police questioned Shama, a resident of Dakshinpuri. She said the main door was open.

Shama said she called out but her employer did answer. Suri was not in her bedroom when Shama went to check on her. She then went to the bathroom and found Suri lying face down on the floor. Blood was coming out of her mouth, said the officer.

Shama raised an alarm and alerted nearby families. One of them informed Chauhan.

Chauhan told police he last visited his aunt eight years ago during his uncles funeral. Neighbours told police Suris husband worked in Nairobi, Kenya.

We have not ruled out the robbery angle though no signs of ransacking were seen. We dont know if any cash, jewellery or valuables have gone missing, the officer said.
In a case of revenge killing, a businessman was shot dead and his brother injured in their car at a marketplace in west Delhis Dwarka on Tuesday night, police said.

The six accused also made away with a bag with 3.5 lakh cash, said Shibesh Singh, DCP (Dwarka).

The mastermind, a minor, was disgruntled with his employer for kicking him out of job. His employer allegedly scolded him and he was ill-paid. So, he roped in five persons including few Ghaziabad criminals to kill him in revenge, the DCP told Hindustan Times.

The six men suspected of being involved in the murder have been arrested and the bag containing the cash was recovered from them, the officer said.

The deceased was identified as 45-year-old Rajendra Garg, a resident of west Delhis Uttam Nagar. He was a wholesale dealer of a firm making chocolates. At around 10pm on Tuesday when Garg, his brother Ramesh, and an employee, were returning to Uttam Nagar in a car from Kakrola village in Dwarka when a motorcycle hit their car from behind.

When the car occupants came out, they were thrashed with iron rods at shot at.Rajendra was shot in his head and his brother in his arm. The two were rushed to a hospital, but Rajendra could not be saved, said the DCP.

After shooting, some of the accused came across a bag containing around Rs 3.5 lakh cash and decided to steal it, said the DCP.

The police began investigating the case by questioning Rajendras employees but cracked the case with the help of CCTV footage and local inquiry.
New Delhi

Former television producer Suhaib Ilyasi, host of the once popular 90s television serial Indias Most Wanted, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Wednesday for murdering his wife Anju Ilyasi 17 years ago.

While awarding the punishment, the court said that Suhaib had given the murder a colour of suicide.

As the judge pronounced the order, Suhaib shouted in the courtroom proclaiming his innocence and the life sentence handed out to him an injustice. He was brought from Tihar Jail where he was sent after his conviction on December 16.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on Ilyasi and ordered that Rs 10 lakh compensation be paid to Anjus parents.

During arguments on quantum of punishment, the prosecution had sought death penalty for Ilyasi, stating that he was supposed to act as a protector of his wife but he killed her. The defence counsel sought leniency saying that Ilyasi had never violated his bail conditions or indulged in any other illegal activity.

Anjus mother Rukma Singh, who was also present in the courtroom, welcomed the judgement. The verdict has finally come after 17 long years. I am satisfied with the court order, she said.

On January 10, 2000, Anju Ilyasi was rushed to AIIMS from Mayur Vihar-1 with multiple stab wounds. She was declared dead a day later. Ilyasi later claimed that Anju had committed suicide after an argument.

On March 16, 2000, Anjus sister Rashmi filed a complaint on her sisters behalf alleging murder for dowry.

Police had then registered a case of dowry and dowry death after which Suhaib was arrested on March 28.

Anjus mother Rukma Singh had then moved an application in the trial court seeking inclusion of murder charges but it was dismissed in 2011. She then moved the high court, which ordered framing of murder charges against Ilyasi in August 2014. He had approached the Supreme Court challenging the HC ruling but the Apex court dismissed his plea.

Last week, additional sessions judge(ASJ) Sanjeev Kumar Malhotra convicted Suhaib for murder but was acquitted of dowry death charges of which the court found no evidence. While convicting him of murder, the court noted that when Anju was seriously injured and in a critical condition on the day of the incident, Ilyasi had misled the doctor by providing false information suggesting suicide. The court also noted that Ilyasi couldnt give any plausible explanation as to why there were no cut marks on Anjus clothes.

Regarding presence of blood in the bathroom and on the bed of their house, Ilyasi had told police that it was Anjus menstrual blood. However, her autopsy report made it clear that during the post-mortem she was not menstruating on the day of the incident.

The court said that Ilyasi, who was at the pinnacle of his career during his Indias Most Wanted show, killed his wife fearing she may make public his fraudulent acts and forgeries. The court made the observation in its 125- page judgment, noting that Ilyasi possessed two passports, used fake degree for job and had committed credit card fraud.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
After the amendment of Juvenile Justice Act (JJ) last year, the Juvenile Justice Board in Gurgaon has so far declared 25 juveniles as adults. Trial in 20 cases is going on and five accused have been convicted so far.

In the last such case, a 16-year-old juvenile accused apprehended by the CBI on November 7 for murdering a Class 2 student of Ryan International School  was proclaimed to be tried as an adult and the case transferred to the Special Sessions Court on Wednesday.

The Juvenile Justice Act, which allows children aged 16 to 18 years and in conflict with law to be tried as adults in cases of heinous offences, came into force in January, last year. The law came after a outcry over the release of a minor convicted in the December 16 gang rape case. On January 4, the then President Pranab Mukherjee endorsed the law.

In some of the recent convictions in Gurgaon, a juvenile  who was later treated as an adult  was convicted by a sessions court to 10 years in jail for murder in July. Another 17-year-old juvenile, who was tried as an adult, was also convicted for ten years for rape and murder in August.

The five cases where juveniles were convicted include dacoity, murder, snatching, and rape.

After the December 16, 2012, gang rape in Delhi, which shook the nation, amendment were made to the Juvenile Justice Act and a provision of preliminary assessment was added so that a juvenile who committed a heinous offence was subjected to harsher punishment.

According to the Juvenile Justice Board members, Section 2(33) of JJ Act speaks about heinous offence and covers crimes punishable with not less than 7 years.

Also, Section 397 (snatching), 302(Murder) of IPC and section 4 and 6 of Pocso act are classified as heinous offences.

Past cases where juveniles declared adults:

June 09, 2017: A five-year-old girl was allegedly raped by her juvenile neighbour in Kanhai village near Sector 45 and a case was registered at Women police station in Sector 51. The victim was medically examined and is now stable, the police said. The 16-year-old accused was sent to the Observation Home, Faridabad.

May 2016: A 17-year-old juvenile was booked for unnatural sex with a 12-year-old boy. He served nine months in a juvenile home and was released in year 2016 but he was again apprehended by the police on May 12, 2016 for raping his 14-year-old sister who was later pregnant.

June 03, 2016: Gurgaon police arrested three juveniles who were involved in murder and robbery in Sector 5. They were sent to the Observation Home. Cops had recovered three pistols loaded with bullets from them and the accused were arrested under 25-54-59 Arms Act at Palam Vihar police.

November 06, 2016: Two juveniles were arrested in connection with murdering a 29-year-old man near the Guru Dronacharya Metro station.They had stabbed the man to death following a brawl.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
The Delhi high court on Wednesday upheld a decision by airport operator DIAL to partially shift flights operated by IndiGo, GoAir and Spicejet from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2 of the Delhi airport.

As per Delhi International Airport Ltds (DIAL) order, all Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata flights of the three airlines were to shift to T2 by October 28 because the congested Terminal 1 was operating beyond capacity.

GoAir shifted its flights to T2 on October 27 but SpiceJet and IndiGo refused to move. After several rounds of discussions, a January 4 deadline was set . IndiGo, however, approached the high court challenging DIALs order.

A single-judge bench of Justice AK Chawla on Wednesday rejected IndiGos plea but gave the airlines partial relief by extending the deadline to February 15 .

In its petition, IndiGo had argued that the shift would cause inconvenience to passengers, especially those on hopping flights emanating from or ending in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata, because there was no internal connection between T1 and T2.

Both IndiGo and DIAL declined to comment on the courts verdict, saying they had not received copies of the order yet.

Defending its decision, DIAL had earlier contended that in case of a fire or a terror threat, an overcrowded airport could lead to serious consequences, for which the DIAL alone would be answerable. The airport operator had also said that it had given the airlines enough time for the shift.

T1 has a capacity of around 20 million passengers a year, but it was handling about 24 million passengers before GoAir shifted flights to T2. DIAL needs to reduce the passenger movement to 15 million to start the terminals expansion work.

Terminal 2 was renovated to accommodate at least two of the three low-cost airlines operating from T1. It served as Delhis international terminal until the airports Terminal 3 opened in 2010. Since then, it was used only to handle Haj operations once a year.

T1 and T3 can together handle 62 million passengers per year. About 55.6 million passengers used the terminals in 2016 and the number is likely to cross full capacity in 2017.

(With PTI inputs)
The fight over shifting of terminals at the Delhi airport has delayed the launch of low-cost flights to Punjabs Adampur and Uttar Pradeshs Kanpur.

Spicejet was allocated these two routes under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS), which has already missed the deadline and operations are yet to start.

According to airport sources, Spicejet wants to operate these flights from terminal 1 of Delhis Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), from where they operate their domestic flights. But Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), which operates the Delhi airport, is insisting on no new flights from T1 as it is already congested.

As T1 is operating beyond its capacity, DIAL had asked GoAir, IndiGo and Spicejet to shift one-thirds of their operation to T2, which was renovated for this purpose. While GoAir shifted in October, IndiGo moved court , which ruled in favour of DIALs decision. Spicejet also refused to shift.

DIAL has to start the expansion of T1 and double its capacity as soon as other two airlines agree to shift.

Every airport that belongs to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for round one of RCS is ready and it is for the airline operator to fly. Spicejet has a problem as they want to operate from T1 while DIAL has said no, said Guruprasad Mohapatra, AAI chairperson.

AAI has developed the Chakeri airport in Kanpur and Adampur airport in Jalandhar, Punjab. The flight to these cities was supposed to start by September.

A Spicejet spokesperson refused to comment on the matter but an official of the airline, requesting anonymity, said, SpiceJet was allotted UDAN routes by the government in March 2017. There was no condition at the time of bidding or allotment of these routes that these flights have to be operated out of T2.

SpiceJet operates all its domestic flights from Terminal 1D and our winter schedule has been approved accordingly, including RCS flights. To operate only two flights from T2 is not only unfair and impractical, it doesnt make any operational sense. As such, these flights will become commercially unviable in addition to being a nightmare for the travelling public who may have connecting flights, the SpiceJet official added.

The official said the airline is ready to operate flights to Kanpur and Adampur from Terminal 1D immediately.

DIAL CEO I Prabhakara Rao told Hindustan Times that no new slots will be given to T1 and any new flights of SpiceJet and IndiGo has to operate from T2.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Six days before the first section of Delhi Metros new Magenta Line with new trains and a signalling system was to open, a freak accident has raised safety concerns of the mass transit network.

Metro users took to social media even as Delhi Metro urged people not to panic. Commuters questioned the safety of driverless technology as the train that met with the accident was to be a part of the first unattended train operation. But the Metro clarified the train was being operated by a driver.

Although these trains can run driverless, we plan to operate them through drivers for at least 2-3 years for successful transition, said a metro official.

I would prefer boarding a bus instead of driverless Metro, tweeted Kajol. Its a driverless metro or brain less metro! Machines cant replace humans! Kalindi Kunj, wrote Akhil.

Metro said the inauguration of the Magenta Line was on course and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to inaugurate the section. UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath is also expected to be present.

The depot where the accident happened is part of this section and is the first elevated depot on the Delhi network.

Metro chief Mangu Singh, in a statement after the accident, said, Operations on this line are absolutely safe, with a high level of automation and has been thoroughly checked and cleared by the commissioner of metro rail safety for passenger operations.

Delhi Metro released a video message, asking the passengers not to panic.

The line has full clearance from the commissioner of metro rail security and there is no need for the public to panic at all. This has nothing to do with signalling system we have.The operation inside the depot was completely manual. When the trains will run on the main line, they run on a completely automated mode and the signalling system ensures such incidents are not possible, Anuj Dayal. DMRCs spokesperson, said.

Todays incident was a manual error during maintenance and has nothing to do with the trials or passenger safety during future operations, Singh added.
The issue of corruption in the appointment of teachers by the vice-chancellor of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (BBAU), Lucknow, has now been raised in Parliament.

MP Anju Bala on Monday asked the ministry of human resource development (MHRD) if the government had received complaints of corruption in appointments made by the BBAU V-C. She sought details of the complaints, if any, and the action taken by the government.

Anju Bala, who is also a member of the BBAUs board of management (BoM), had walked out of a meeting in New Delhi to protest against universitys decision to go ahead with the appointment of teachers.

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court had on December 12 summoned BBAU vice-chancellor Prof Ranveer Chandra Sobti, registrar Prof RB Ram, representatives of MHRD and others in a contempt case as the university went ahead with the appointments despite the court order restraining the authorities from doing so.

The court issued notice to them to appear in person before it on January 11 for further proceedings under the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971.

Justice Rajan Roy passed the order on a contempt petition filed by one Venkatesh Singh who alleged that the authorities did not comply with the order.

In its order, the court had observed that it was shocking that people who had been vested with the obligation to manage a university, that too a Central university, had acted in such blatant defiance of the judgment of the writ court. Having taken such a step they now have to face the consequences, the court said.

Raising the issue in parliament, Anju Bala also inquired whether the government had directed the University Grants Commission (UGC) to conduct the audit of 10 central universities, including BBAU, following complaints about their functioning.

A government-backed audit report has said that the BBAU is in a state of complete and practically irreversible decline and collapse. The report also highlighted divisions on caste lines in the central institution that resulted in physical, academic and administrative rowdyism at all levels.

The teachers and the students are sub-standard, it said.

The audit team said they received complaints that several teachers were not taking classes regularly.

The final death knell of the university is the role of caste and the part it has played in completely polarising the institution into various groups, special interests, political groupings, the report said.

BBAU was set up in 1996 and was named after Dalit icon Dr BR Ambedkar.

The MP also inquired about the museum at the university and asked if it was completed. She also asked about the budget sanctioned and the expenditure incurred on it. She asked questions about alleged atrocities on SC/ST employees at BBAU, and if so, what action was taken by the government.

In his reply, HRD minister Prakash Javadekar said some complaints of irregularities in appointments and non-implementation of reservation policy for appointments under Scheduled Caste category at BBAU were brought to the ministrys notice by the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) along with certain recommendations of the Commission.

He said BBAU was an autonomous body established under the Act of Parliament and the ministry had no role in its day-to-day functioning. However, the recommendations of the Commission were brought to the notice of the university for consideration, he said.

The matter of irregularities in appointments and non-implementation of reservation policy for SCs in appointments is sub judice with the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court, the minister said.

He said as informed by BBAU, a state-of-the-art building, namely Ambedkar Bhawan, had been completed by the CPWD with the sanctioned estimated cost of Rs 38.88 crore wherein Ambedkar Museum, Ambedkar Library, seminar halls for conference/discussion on global thinkers, particularly on Ambedkar, and administrative offices, had been earmarked.

BBAU is an autonomous institution which is governed by its own Act and statutes and is competent to deal with the complaints, if any, regarding atrocities against any section of employees, he said, adding the UGC had informed that some complaints regarding atrocities on SC/ST employees of BBAU had been received and forwarded to the BBAU for appropriate action.
WASHINGTON  A senior U.N. envoy who visited Pyongyang this month carrying a pressing appeal for diplomacy was told by his North Korean hosts that it was "too early" for steps that might ease the confrontation over their nuclear program.

"There was no sense of urgency" among North Korean officials, said one source familiar with the Dec. 5-9 journey by Jeffrey Feltman, the U.N. undersecretary for political affairs and a former senior U.S. diplomat. His trip, which has received relatively little attention, was the first to Pyongyang by a high-level U.N. official in six years.

The North Korean reluctance to enter talks now puts it on a potential collision course with the United States. President Trump warned this week: "America and its allies will take all necessary steps to achieve a denuclearization and ensure that this regime cannot threaten the world; ... It will be taken care of."

The exit ramps from this crisis appear to be narrowing in both Washington and Pyongyang, creating new worry, frustration and resolve. North Korea's seeming disinterest in any early negotiations was "convincing diplomatic theater, if it was theater," said one analyst.

Feltman made three requests of the North Koreans during his 15 1/2 hours of talks, sources said. He proposed that they reopen military-to-military channels that were cut in 2009, so that the risk of accidental war might be reduced; he urged them to signal that they were ready to engage the U.S. in talks, following their Nov. 29 proclamation that North Korea had completed its "state nuclear force"; and he asked them to implement Security Council resolutions condemning their weapons programs.

To dramatize his message about the risk of unintended conflict, Feltman gave North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho a copy of historian Christopher Clark's study, "The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914." Ri was the most senior North Korean official Feltman met.

Feltman was carrying a letter from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un, arguing that Pyongyang's attempt to gain nuclear deterrence could produce the very conflict that it seeks to avoid. Feltman's message was reviewed before the trip by the U.S., China, Japan, South Korea and Russia, the nations that joined in the "Six-Party Talks" with North Korea in 2003-2009 that sought unsuccessfully to halt its nuclear program.

Analysts interpreted the North Korean response as an indication that Pyongyang plans more missile and nuclear tests to convincingly demonstrate its ability to strike the U.S. mainland with a nuclear-tipped missile. "They don't feel they are quite there yet," said one source. Such additional North Korean weapons tests might trigger a U.S. response.

The North Koreans engaged in spirited exchanges with Feltman, posing many questions about U.S. decision-making, the sources said. But they were elusive when asked to explain how they wanted the U.S. to change its "hostile" policy toward the regime, and what they meant in the Nov. 29 announcement that North Korea had completed its state nuclear force.

The North Koreans evidently want to bargain, but from a position of maximum strength. They agreed, for example, that a restoration of military-to-military contacts would at some point be necessary, but not yet. They also agreed that denuclearization is the ultimate long-term goal for Korea, but not yet. And they expressed interest in a follow-up meeting, though nothing specific is planned.

One perversely encouraging sign is that after Feltman urged the North Koreans to engage the Security Council more closely, U.N. ambassador Ja Song Nam attended a Council discussion Friday with Guterres and senior diplomats focusing on the danger of accidental war on the Korean peninsula.

In the 10 days since Feltman's mission, concern about the danger of conflict has increased in Washington. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reiterated last week that he wants talks with Pyongyang: "We're ready to have the first meeting without precondition; ... we can talk about the weather if you want." But the White House was displeased, and Tillerson backtracked, saying that Pyongyang would have to "earn its way" to the table, presumably by halting weapons tests. Tillerson's aides say he just wanted "talks," not negotiations.

A chilling warning came last week from National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, who said that U.N. sanctions against North Korea "might be our last, best chance to avoid military conflict." Asked Tuesday by CBS-TV about the North Korean nuclear threat, McMaster said: "I don't think we can tolerate that risk."

The sleepwalkers of 2017 should consider: On the brink of conflict, you never know just where the edge of the cliff may be.
Cases of ragging on university and college campuses registered an all-time high this year with institutions reporting 889 cases till Tuesday.

The number is an increase of 70% over last years figure of 515. Uttar Pradesh tops the list with 138 cases  up from 93 last year followed by Madhya Pradesh with 100, up from 55 last year.

These details were provided by the government in reply to a question in the Parliament.

The numbers have spiked despite the University Grants Commissions (UGC) directions to all institutions to put anti-ragging measures in place.

The Government Polytechnic, Kanpur, with 17 cases, topped the list of individual institutions which recorded cases this year.

When asked about the high number of cases, the principal of the college, Rajkumar Singh said, This year, the institute received six complaints and the anti-ragging committee looked into them... In two cases, the students were suspended for one month. They were allowed to resume classes following a comprehensive review along with undertakings. In most cases, students file the complaint to settle scores with other students over a feud.

In terms of the number of cases reported from individual institutions since 2012, Banaras Hindu University topped the list with 36 cases, followed by MPs Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology that registered 31 cases. West Bengal also registered an increase from 50 to 92.

Students and parents feel more confident in reporting such cases now as they feel action will be taken. This is one of the major reasons behind the increase in the number of cases reported, said Raj Kachroo, founder of Aman movement, a monitoring agency for UGC.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Answer keys for the Delhi Polices constable executive exam were released by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) on Tuesday. Check your answers here.

The computer based exam for male and female constables (executive) was held from December 5 to 8 this year at different centres all over the country.

The website ssc.nic.in has candidates response sheets with the tentative answer keys. Candidates who have any problems with the answer keys can submit their queries online up to December 22 by 5.30 pm on payment of Rs 100 per question challenged, says an SSC notification.

About 1,55,435 candidates registered for the examination, but just 1,44,814 gave the test, registering attendance levels of 93.17%, the Indian Express has said.

Steps to download the answer keys:

1. Check ssc.nic.in, the SSC official website

2.Click on Constables (Executive) - Male and Female in Delhi Police - 2016 Uploading of Tentative Answer Keys

3. Click this link at the end of the notification that appears: http://ssconline.nic.in/challengesystem/

4. In the new page, enter your city, registration number and date of birth

5. After you get the answer key, download and take printouts.
Puri, Odisha Give him sand and master artist Sudarshan Pattnaik can build you virtually anything.

And now, his dream of taking the art form to art enthusiasts with an online course will soon become a reality with the support of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and the HRD ministry.

Announced almost a year back, Pattnaiks ambitious project, scheduled for launch in March 2018, will be worlds first certificate course in sand art.

It has been decided that the course will begin before March 31, 2018. We have already started work on it and video lectures have been prepared.

It has to be fine-tuned as per MOOCS (massive open online courses) norms, Shrikant Mohapatra, senior regional director of IGNOUs Bhubaneswar centre, told PTI.

Pattnaik said he wanted India to become the first country across the globe to offer such training to sand artists, who, he noted, were growing in number.

I want to give a platform to upcoming sand artists. I have submitted the course design and syllabus and now will fine tune this. I had been waiting for their response for over a year and now they have given me assurance that the course will begin in March 2018, he told PTI.

As a step forward, Uma Kanjilal of IGNOU visited Bhubaneshwar recently and finalised the modalities with Pattnaik.

The artist, who already has an open air Golden Sand Art Institute at Puri beach imparting professional training in sand art, believes a digitised course will help students hone their skills by following instructional videos.

Sand art is essentially a practical art and the more you practice, the more you learn.

The videos will have all the details and step-by-step procedure of making sculptures in sand, he said.

According to him, several brilliant sand artists lag behind due to the absence of the required academic background.

This course will be very fruitful for them, the Padma Shri award-winning sculptor said.

However, the artist insists it is important that the initiative be taken by a government institute like IGNOU to have a larger impact.

I have many offers from private universities but I wanted to start with IGNOU, because it will have a wider reach, he said.

He added that many of his overseas friends were also keen on taking the initiative forward in their respective countries
Police are probing the antecedents of a woman they suspect to be an Afghan national but has an Aadhaar card, a unique identification card issued by the Indian government only to its citizens, in her name.

The woman was caught on Sunday night when the police bust a prostitution ring operating in Sector 39. Sixteen persons, including 12 women, one of whom is allegedly an Afghan national, were arrested in the raid at a guest house.

The woman produced an Aadhaar card when the police asked for an identity proof. Although the woman goes by an Indian name and claims to be married to an Indian, the police became suspicious of her nationality when she spoke with a strong foreign accent. When questioned about her nationality, the woman insisted she was an Indian, but the other arrested women said she was from Afghanistan.

The Aadhaar card of the arrested woman states her name as Jaspreet Kaur, wife of Parminder Singh, a resident of Mehrauli in South Delhi.

Police said they got suspicious by her mannerisms and facial features.

A case was registered at the Sadar police station in this regard. The matter is being investigated by the police. An inquiry has been sent to the Indian Unique Identification Authority of India to check the Aadhaar details of the woman, a police official said.

Talking to Hindustan Times on the condition of anonymity, a police official close to investigation, said, That an Afghan national is holding an Aadhaar card came to our notice during the investigation of the case related to prostitution. It is a well-knit operation being run by two persons. How she got an Aadhaar card and whether she is legally an Indian is being investigated. If she is not a bonafide resident then a case will be registered against her.

The police have sought all documents on the basis of which the Aadhaar card was made and issued to the woman.
Director Ridley Scott says he hasnt heard from Kevin Spacey since the decision was made to cut the actor from All the Money in the World.

I dont know where he is, Scott said in a recent interview. Hes gone down underground.

All the Money in the World is about the kidnapping of the teenage grandson of wealthy American industrialist J Paul Getty.

The film was completed in October, with Spacey cast as Getty. After sexual misconduct allegations were made against the actor, Spacey was cut from the movie. Christopher Plummer stepped into the role. Reshoots began almost immediately.

While promoting the movie over the weekend, Scott said it would have been nice to have some kind of call, even if it was from his (Spaceys) representative.

Now, he said, Its just too late.

Director Ridley Scott (R) and Christopher Plummer pose at the premiere for All the Money in the World in Beverly Hills, California. (REUTERS)

Plummer agreed - I was very anxious to work with Ridley anyway, he said. I took the script home. The next morning, I called, said, Yes. Absolutely. Lets go.

To get the movie ready for its December 25 release date, Scott had to raise additional funds and rearrange cast and crew members for reshoots.

After that, Scott recalls spending the next 36 hours on the phone figuring out the logistics needed to get the reshoots done. Scott said Michelle Williams and Mark Wahlberg, the other stars of the film, responded quickly.

They were all ready. Michelle said, Ill do it. She might have been in the middle of a film, Scott said. Mark was needed for a day and a half.

The entire reshoot took nine days.

Cast member Mark Wahlberg poses at the premiere for All the Money in the World in Beverly Hills, California. (REUTERS)

Obviously, the most important thing was respecting the victims in this case. You know, whether there are allegations or not - there were many - and its important to make sure that was dealt with the respect and sensitivity that it deserved. Many people have been replaced in films many times, including films that Ive been involved with on both sides of the spectrum. So those kind of things happen, but it was a decision that Ridley made and we all certainly supported him in that decision, said Wahlberg, who also attended the films premiere.

Part of the rush to finish the film was self-imposed: Danny Boyles FX series Trust, also about the Getty kidnapping, debuts next month, so Scott felt the original release date had to be met.

Plummer credits Scotts sense of humour with getting everyone through the mad dash.

He has a delicious sense of humour and thats what kept me - gave me such confidence and calmed everything down on the set. It was wonderful, Plummer said.

This image released by Sony Pictures shows Christopher Plummer in a scene from All the Money in the World. (AP)

Plummer also showed he could poke fun at the situation. During the promotional interviews for the movie, he brought a cake that depicted him playing all the roles behind the camera.

Plummers version of Getty will be the only one anyone ever sees. At the films premiere Monday night, Ridley told The Associated Press that he wouldnt release a directors cut with Spaceys work.

Over my dead body. No, Scott said. I dont think that would be very graceful. Theres a great word called grace, right? So I wouldnt do that, no.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
Joel Edgerton, star of the new Netflix film, Bright, says that the true sign of success is seeing people dressed as your character on Halloween. In Bright, Edgerton, known for juggling roles in huge tentpoles and small indies, plays an orc and spent three hours in the makeup chair every day.

Edgerton was in town to attend the films Mumbai premiere, and to interact with the press along with his co-stars, Will Smith, Noomi Rapace and director David Ayer.

Actors Joel Edgerton, Will Smith, Noomi Rapace and director David Ayer at the special screening of film Bright in Mumbai. (IANS)

The Australian actor spoke about the films themes of finding harmony in a divided world.

For somebody who grew up in my small town in Australia suddenly landed in Mumbai, to take them out of their normal experience and into another culture, thats what this movie is proposing, he said. How do we fit in together, how do all get along, and how do we do that by not judging each other and not being violent towards each other.

This image released by Netflix shows Will Smith, left, and Joel Edgerton in a scene from, Bright. (AP)

Edgertons character in Bright, the streaming giants biggest original film yet with a reported budget of close to $100 million, is an outsider  an orc subjected to bigotry and prejudice.

In the films alternate reality, orcs occupy the same space as minorities would in our world. The elves are at the top of the social pyramid  the one-percenters  while the humans are sandwiched in between.

Edgerton brought up Get Out, Jordan Peeles horror hit from earlier this year that explored what it is like to live as a black man in modern America. He said that while Bright tackles an important subject, it isnt pretending to be too serious in its delivery.

Bright has one foot in a land of fantasy, but Edgerton hopes the film inspires a conversation about some of the most pressing issues that plague modern America  police brutality, racism, and corruption.

By talking about it in a movie like this - its a buddy comedy - theres a chance to reach a wider audience and have a chance at resonating in a simple way, he said.

Follow @htshowbiz for more


Arunachal Pradesh governor BD Mishra on Wednesday briefed defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat on the security environment along the international border in the state.

Mishra, a retired Brigadier of the Indian Army, briefed Sitharaman on the border security environment and the high morale of the soldiers deployed in the border areas of the state.

Arunachal has a long international border with Bhutan in the west (160 Km), China in the north (1,080 Km) and Myanmar in the east (440 Km).

The governor also apprised the defence minister of the coordination interaction which he had with the GOC 3 Corps and GOC 4 Corps and the Formation Commanders, whose troops are deployed along the India-China border in Arunachal Pradesh.

On the initiative of the governor, the central government has decided that eight villages, which have been identified by the army in the forward most segment of the international border, will be developed into self-sustaining units with proper living amenities for the people living in those villages.

The governor suggested the defence minister for early start of work for the Sainik schools in the state. It was decided that the foundation stone of the Sainik schools would be laid as early as possible and construction work must commence latest by February 2018.

Sitharaman appreciated the Indian soldiers good work and welfare activities, which they are rendering to the civil population in border areas.

During the meeting, it was resolved that more welfare schemes will be introduced for the civilians by the Indian Army in coming months.

Earlier in the day, Mishra also met the Indian Army chief General Rawat at the Army Headquarters in Delhi and discussed the ensuing army recruitment drive in Arunachal Pradesh.
Furious over the Mahanadi barrage row, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government in Odisha has alleged that the NDA government was not being neutral in its dealings with states.

The BJD is angry about the Centre telling the Supreme Court that it will not constitute a tribunal  as demanded by the Odisha government  to settle a dispute over the construction of an artificial barrier on the Mahanadi river by the Chhattisgarh government.

The Union government is supposed to be neutral when a water-sharing dispute arises between two states, but the neutrality of this government has been compromised, said BJD floor leader Bhartruhari Mahtab in the Lok Sabha.

Even as the treasury bench protested against the allegation, the BJD maintained that the construction of the barrage was not a state but national issue. The BJD accused the government of promising the creation of a tribunal in Parliament but later telling the Supreme Court that there was no need for one.

The Trinamool Congress supported Mahtabs demand that a discussion be taken up under the adjournment motion.
A Dalit woman was allegedly beaten up and stripped by upper caste political leaders in public, following a dispute over land in Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh.

The incident, which happened on Tuesday evening at Jerripothulapalem village in Pendurthi block on the suburbs Visakhapatnam city, came to light on Wednesday, with the local Dalit organisations and Left party leaders lodging a complaint with the Pendurthi police and staging a demonstration demanding action against the accused.

The Pendurthi police have taken six persons in custody, and shifted the victim to the King George Hospital, Visakhapatnam.

All the accused, including two women, are said to be from the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP).

According to locals, as many as 14 Dalit families have been engaged in agriculture in a land in survey No. 77 in the village, assigned to them by the government more than a decade ago.

The adjacent land was later allotted to Andhra Pradesh Beverages Corporation for setting up a bottling company.

Since the village is on the fringes of Visakhapatnam city, the land value has gone up substantially recently and some land sharks, supported by the ruling party leaders, have been trying to grab the land with fabricated documents. This was resisted strongly by the Dalits who moved the high court and got orders in their favour, CPI, Greater Visakhapatnam secretary, M Pydiraju, who led the agitation at the police station, told HT.

On Wednesday, the land grabbers made yet another attempt to drive away the Dalit families, leading to clashes between the two groups. In the process, the local political leaders assaulted a Dalit woman who was at the forefront of the protest, beat her up and stripped her on the streets in full public view. They abused the other Dalits and chased them away.

The victim approached the Pendurthi police and lodged a complaint, naming six TDP leaders, including a local woman public representative.

The police initially did not register the complaint, but with the Dalits threatening to intensify the agitation, they took the accused into custody in the afternoon and booked a case against them, Pydiraju said.

Efforts to get comments from Pendurthi police inspector J Murali did not succeed as he did not respond to calls and text messages.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
On the eve of the RK Nagar bypoll in Tamil Nadu, the Delhi high court declined on Wednesday to pass any order directing the Election Commission to put on hold the election.

Justice Indermeet Kaur also declined to pass any order directing a CBI probe into complaints and allegations of widespread corrupt practices in connection with the bypoll.

With the court refusing to delve into the matter as the by-election is scheduled for December 21, the petitioner withdrew his plea which was dismissed as withdrawn.

The court, however, directed the commission to look into the representation given by the petitioner on December 7, alleging widespread corrupt practices in connection with the bypoll, and to dispose it of within four weeks.

The petitioner, J M Rafi, had sought directions to the EC to reconsider holding of the bypoll in RK Nagar on December 21 in view of the complaints of widespread corrupt practices in connection with the election.

In his plea filed through advocates Astha Tyagi and C Kannan, he had also asked for a CBI probe into the complaints.

Rafi, a member of some local religious group, had also sought directions to the poll panel to decide his representation of December 7.
Faced with depleting strength of its fighter squadron, the Indian Air Force on Wednesday issued the the request for proposal (RFP) to state-run aerospace behemoth Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for the procurement of 83 Tejas light combat aircraft at a cost of over Rs 50,000 crore.

The IAF had earlier placed an order with the HAL for 40 Tejas aircraft.

The RFP for 83 Tejas light combat aircraft has been issued on Wednesday, setting the ball rolling for finalising the contract for the mega deal, official sources said.

The Defence Acquisition Council, the defence ministrys highest decision making body on procurement, had in November last year approved purchase of 83 Tejas Mark 1 A by IAF at a cost of Rs 50,025 crore.

The sources said the final deal for the procurement is likely to be inked within the next five months.

They said out of the 83 LCA, 10 will be used for training purposes.

According to official figures, 14 squadrons of the MiG 21, MiG 27 and MiG 29 are due for retirement in the next 10 years which will bring down the fighter squadron strength to 19 by 2027 from the current 33.

The strength may be further reduced to 16 by 2032.

In an interview to PTI, HAL chairman and managing director T Suvarna Raju had said most of the 42 modifications in Tejas sought by the IAF, including weaponisation of the aircraft, had been carried out.

Tejas is a four-and-half generation world class fighter jet. There is no doubt about it. We can improve its various parameters. We are proud of Tejas. Every Indian will be proud of it. We will ensure enhancement in its quality and performance, Raju had said.

There have been views in the IAF that the Tejas aircraft was not enough to maintain its combat readiness and it needed to quickly procure a fleet of foreign single engine fighters to deal with any possible security challenges faced by the country in the backdrop of the dwindling size of its fighter fleet.

The IAF believes that it has to have a wide mix of aircraft to maintain an operational edge over its adversaries.

The HAL CMD had said that the four-and-half generation Tejas would be able to deliver what is expected of it.

The lifespan of the jet would be a minimum of 30 years just like any other frontline combat aircraft, he had said.

The combat jets are classified under various generations depending on their avionics, capability and weapons systems.

The current fleet of fighter jets with the IAF range from three-and-half generation to the fourth generation.
Money seemed to have played a big role in the campaigning for Tamil Nadus prestigious RK Nagar seat  a VIP assembly constituency in North Chennai that was held by late chief minister J Jayalalithaa, whose death necessitated the December 21 by-election.

If DMK working president MK Stalin is to be believed, a sum of Rs 100 crore is already said to have been spent by ruling AIADMK led by EPS-OPS combine. Stalin is eyeing the vacuum left by Jayas demise, as also the growing polarisation in the AIADMK with party rebel TTV Dinakaran expected to hurt chief minister E Palaniswami and former CM O Panneerselvam.

The DMK leader even alleged that local police officials were colluding with the ruling party and helping them distribute money to voters. The Election Commission of India, which viewed the developments in RK Nagar by-election, sent a senior IRS official, Vikram Batra, to study the issue in depth.

Incidentally, Batra was the ECs special officer in April too when the bypoll was countermanded for precisely the same reason  naked display of money power and its misuse in electioneering and bribery of voters.

He spent two days in the constituency, met officials and political party representatives and ground staff of the poll body and reviewed the situation on the ground.

He left for Delhi on Tuesday afternoon and is expected to brief the Election Commission. All eyes will be on the EC in Delhi as to what view it takes on the situation in the constituency where allegations and counter-allegations of money distribution have been made by the contesting political parties.

Unprecedented security measures were in place in the constituency. Usually, it costs Rs 75 lakh for the commission to conduct a by-election in one assembly constituency, but so far Rs 3 crore has been spent on RK Nagar by the poll body.

A DMK spokesperson, echoing the sentiments of his leader Stalin, alleged that a single vote in RK Nagar could fetch as much as Rs 6,000. A survey of voters in the constituency by a local daily claimed nearly 70% of the voters admitting that they would take money. Only 30% of the voters said they would not accept money.

On Tuesday, curtains came down on campaigning for the bypoll amid suspense over Batras report and the likely decision of the Election Commission.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Even as China continued to block the listing of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar in the UN-designated list of international terrorists, India and the US discussed procedures for pursuing designations against terrorist groups and individuals through domestic and international mechanisms.

The discussion came up at the inaugural India-US Designations Dialogue that was held in New Delhi on Monday and Tuesday.

An identical statement issued by both the governments said the dialogue was to discuss increasing bilateral cooperation on terrorism-related designations.

The establishment of this mechanism reflects shared Indian and US commitments to strengthen cooperation against terrorist threats, it said.

The Indian and US delegations exchanged information on procedures for pursuing designations against terrorist groups and individuals, through domestic and international mechanisms. They also discussed best practices for effective implementation of the designations.

The statement said Washington would host the second India-US Designations Dialogue next year.

The meeting assumes significance after China said last month that due to the lack of consensus at the UN Security Council committee, the application seeking a ban on Azhar has been rejected.

Beijing has for the second time vetoed the proposal which was first moved by India at the Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council in March last year.

It did the same to a US proposal backed by France and Britain, first blocking it in January and then put a technical hold for three months in August. A new resolution will have to be moved now.

The statement is also important in the context of the US designating Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi as the masterminds of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.

Saeed, who carries a $10 million US bounty for his role in terrorist activities, was let go last month by Pakistani authorities in Lahore after a court refused to extend his house arrest citing lack of evidence. He had been under house arrest since January 30.

Over 160 people were killed and over 300 injured when the LeT militants launched a series of attacks on Indias commercial capital in November 2008.

Tuesdays statement gave rise to speculation that the two countries could be looking at designating and issuing sanctions against more people involved in terror-related activities in the region.
In September 2008, when the worlds largest underground atom smasher  built to search for the Higgs boson or God Particle to understand the origin of the universe  was set in motion on the Swiss-France border, it was a moment of triumph for 71 scientists from five Indian institutes collaborating in the experiment.

A month later and 7,500 kilometres away, space scientists at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, cheered as Chandrayan 1, Indias first unmanned mission to the Moon, put the country in a select group to launch lunar missions.

In 2011, the Indian team co-authored a paper on the discovery of the Higgs boson in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which led to two physicists winning the Nobel Prize in Physics two years later. And within a year of its launch, Chandrayaan 1 reported the first evidence of water-ice molecules on the Moons surface. Over the last decade, India and its scientists have become a visible presence in astrophysical science through their involvement in global experiments, and home-grown missions to the Moon and Mars.

India is gradually becoming a mature economy, which means we are integrated into the world, can withstand all kinds of problems, and can expand. The same holds true of science and astronomy, where we are becoming mature and thinking confidently with young people participating in projects; exchange between countries, and exchange between science and industry, said Ajit Kembhavi, vice-president, International Astronomical Union.

Before Indias maiden Moon mission, there were rocket explorations and satellite missions that focused on the Earths atmosphere. Space missions before Chandrayaan 1 were looking at the Earth for weather or cloud information, and not necessarily at sciences from astrophysical objects, said professor Dibyendu Nandi of the Centre for Excellence in Space Sciences India at the Kolkata-based Indian Institute of Science Education and Research. But in terms of astrophysics missions, Chandrayaan 1 was the first to go beyond the Earth, followed by a Mars mission and Indias first dedicated astronomy satellite, Astrosat.

If the low-cost Mars Orbiter Mission  Mangalyaan 1  built by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) in 2014 became the first in the world to reach the red planet on its maiden attempt, Indian scientific institutions and universities were instrumental in developing novel algorithms that in 2015 helped discover gravitational waves predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago. At least 37 Indian authors made it to the paper on the discovery of gravitational waves.

India is developing very rapidly in the fundamental fields of physics and astronomy. The intellectual skills have been in India for a long time, but now India has emerging capability to make advanced technologies for the most fundamental research programs, professor Barry C Barish, among the trio to win the Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of gravitational waves in October, told HT in an email interview.

Unlike the Isro that launched the first sounding rocket in 1963 and the first Indian satellite Aryabhata in 1977, seeds for the 10-year-old success story in basic science experiments were sown in the 1990s with scientists such as PK Iyengar and Govind Swarup convincing the Indian government to work on front-ranking national and international experiments.

Swarup, who later became centre-director of the Pune-based National Centre for Radio Astrophysics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), approached the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) to fund the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) at Khodad, north Pune. Operational since 2000, the GMRT, the worlds largest low-frequency radio telescope, detected and tracked the landing of a European Space Agency spacecraft on a Mars mission last year.

Scientists said no one in the 1970s and 1980s sought government funding for science projects. Indian science was restricted to small groups working in their laboratories. The GMRT is the first international facility on Indian soil that people from all over the world came to use, said Somak Raychaudhary, director, Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune. During the same period, Iyengar, a former atomic energy commission chairperson, signed an umbrella agreement with the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) and India started participating in LHC experiments.

The LHC was the first mega international science project that became a blueprint because it was the first time that the Department of Science and Technology and DAE jointly funded a project.

By the mid-1990s, it became clear to people in power or were convinced by scientists that participation in front-ranking experiments is needed if India has to reach a regime of high technology, said professor Atul Gurtu, formerly with TIFR, and a co-author on the Higgs boson discovery paper.This outlook over the last 10 to 15 years paved the way for India to finance and build technology for multinational experiments, and scientific institutes and universities started collaborating on big projects.

Today, India, as an associate CERN member with an annual fee of Rs 85 crores, has a stronger voice in scientific and finance meetings. Indian industry can bid for tenders and procurements.

Next year will see a ground breaking ceremony for the third gravitational wave detector (LIGO-INDIA), most likely in Maharashtra, which, when built, will help determine the position of the gravitational wave source.

On space sciences, India will expand its inter-planetary research. In 2020, India will launch its maiden mission to the Sun  Aditya L1  that will study various aspects of the Sun and space-weather.

The Sun influences space environment through winds and solar storms which impacts our atmosphere and space-based technologies such as GPS navigation, telecommunication and earth orbiting satellites, said Nandi. If our mission helps us understand what creates space-weather, we will be able to protect our technologies that rely on space.

Perhaps the only biggest basic science experiment that is staring at a 10-year delay is the Rs 1,583-crore proposed underground India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) at Tamil Nadu that has got mired in environmental concerns and political controversies. The INO team is looking at Andhra Pradesh as an alternative site for the facility.

The project is behind schedule, and will affect the speed of getting results. That important science is getting delayed, is disheartening, said Vivek Datar, project director, INO, TIFR. Scientists said big-ticket science projects have made the field attractive to students.

Two generations ago, no child thought India could do any science and that one had to go abroad, said Raychaudhary. Today students know that its possible to sit in India and work on projects in Australia or Hawaii, and also build LIGO in India. Ive seen the change in my lifetime.

India wrests its space: A look at Indias scientific achievements and notable projects in the field

Astrosat

The countrys first astronomy satellite was launched in September 2015, and has five instruments on board. The aim of Astrosat is to observe all kinds of objects together in the sky, such as stars, galaxies and clusters in large wavelengths to understand what is happening around regions that are very hot, with strong gravitation and undergoing strong acceleration processes, which produce X-rays.

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory in India (LIGO-India) is most likely to be housed in Maharashtra. The estimated ?1,260-crore Indian detector has the geographical advantage of forming a triangulate with the existing two US detectors that will help locate the source of the event that caused the gravitational wave.

The Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT) in Hawaii

India is a 10% partner and will co-own and build components for the largest optical and infrared astronomical observatory. Construction of the US$1.4 billon TMT that is slated to begin mid-2018 will provide information about the early stages of evolution of the universe, finer details of undiscovered planets, objects in the solar system and planets around other stars.

Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR), Germany

With its contribution of ?270 crore, India is building high technology equipment for the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR), Germany, for which construction work has begun.

Chandrayaan 2

Isro will send second unmanned mission to the moon, Chandrayaan 2, in March 2018. Weighing 3,250kg, Chandrayaan 2 will investigate the moon for water-ice, water molecules, minerals and other elements, in addition to understanding the geology of lunar surface.

Mars Orbiter Mission 2 (MoM 2) or Mangalyaan 2

The Indian government approved the second mission to Mars (MoM 2) in its budget this year. Isro is likely to place the lander on the planet in 2021-2022.

Aditya L1

In 2020, Isro will launch its first mission to study various aspects of the sun and space-weather. Scientists said Aditya L1, at a cost of approximately ?400 crore, will be the only third full scale solar observatory after the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and Solar Dynamics Observatory.

Square Kilometre Array (SKA)

Construction on SKA is scheduled to begin in mid-2018. India as a full member of SKA organisation will be co-own the worlds largest and most sensitive radio telescope.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Chhota Shakeel (full name Mohammed Shakeel Babu Miyan Shaikh), the trusted lieutenant of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, may be dead, according to an informant who reached out to Hindustan Times amid buzz in crime circles.

Hindustan Times has in its possession an audio clip of a conversation between a member of Shakeels gang, Bilal, and a Mumbai-based relative of Shakeel to the same effect but could not authenticate it.

Top officials in the National Security Council Secretariat in New Delhi and Mumbai Police said they were not in a position to either confirm or deny this.

According to underworld sources, Karachi-based Shakeel, 57, died on January 6 in Islamabad, where he had gone for a meeting with members of the infamous Odessa. There are two versions of his death. According to one, he suffered a heart attack and was rushed by his bodyguards to the Combined Medical Hospital in Rawalpindi by air. He was declared brought dead.

Read | Dawoods brothers, Iqbal and Anees, Chhota Shakeel went to Dubai from Pak for Mumbai land deal

According to another, Pakistans Inter Services Intelligence or ISI used Odessa to kill Shakeel because it was becoming difficult to manage him.

His body was kept in a morgue for two days and then flown to Karachi in a C-130 transport aircraft. He was buried in Karachi in an unmarked grave in the Defence Housing Authority graveyard.

Soon after, his second wife Ayesha, and other members of his family, who lived with him at D-48, 15th Lane, Khayaban-Seher, DHA Colony, were asked to vacate the house, and moved to an ISI safe house in Lahore.

Shakeel is survived by two wives, a son, two daughters, and a granddaughter.

Read | How this Delhi milkmans son became gangster Chhota Shakeels aide

News of Shakeels death was broken to Dawood Ibrahim two days later. Only about 20-odd people know of the death, the informant and the underworld sources said. They claimed the ISI wants to keep Shakeels death secret and continue to use his virtual presence to broker deals.

According to the sources, Shakeel himself had facilitated this virtual presence, by training a Pakistani national called Rahim Merchant alias Doghla (two-faced) to impersonate him and mimic his voice. Merchant is the one who has been calling up businessmen and media houses for close to two decades  ever since Shakeels ISI-enabled entry into Pakistan from the United Arab Emirates.

Merchant will likely continue to do this, the sources said, especially because Shakeel is the ISIs front in many arms deals.

Read | Iqbal Kaskar called Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Shakeel 100 times in 2yrs: Police

News of Shakeels death pushed Dawood Ibrahim into depression, the sources said, and he had to be admitted to hospital in late January, and, again, in March. They claimed that having lost his trusted man, Dawood is contemplating ways to return to India. They further added that Shakeels aides Bilal, Mohammed Rashid, Iqbal Salim, Yusuf Raja, and Parvez Khawaja, all Pakistani nationals, have broken from Dawoods D-company.

In recent weeks, theres been a lot of buzz around Shakeel, with media reports claiming he has split from Dawood Ibrahim.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
A video said to be of late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa was released by a leader of the TTV Dinakaran camp on Wednesday, a day before a by-election to the citys RK Nagar assembly constituency that fell vacant after the AIADMK leaders death last December.

P Vetrivel released a 20-second video clip apparently taken by a mobile phone camera to the media purportedly showing Jayalalithaa sitting on a bed at Chennais Apollo Hospital and drinking something from a white plastic glass using a straw.

Dinakaran is the nephew of VK Sasikala, a close aide of the 68-year-old Jayalalithaa who took control of the AIADMK after the chief ministers death.

Its false that no one met Jayalalithaa in the hospital. Theres video proof. We waited for days before releasing it but released it now as we were left with no option. The inquiry commission hasnt summoned us yet. If it does, well submit evidence to them, news agency ANI quoted Vetrivel as saying.

Vetrivel, a disqualified MLA, dismissed suggestions that the video had anything to do with the bypolls.

Now I have done this. Let us see what happens, Vetrivel said when asked if his camp was apprehensive that the video was in violation of the model code of conduct.

The video, he said, was shot by Sasikala and that Dinakaran and he had its copies. Dinakaran had said in the past that he had a video clip and he would release it at an appropriate time.

Vetrivel also questioned the government for not releasing the video, a copy of which it had, and alleged that it did not submit it to the inquiry commission.

The Election Commission took note almost immediately and television news channels reported action might be taken against Vetrivel. Tamil Nadus chief electoral officer Rajesh Lakhoni told reporters that the television channels have been asked to immediately stop airing the clip.

The AIADMK too upped the ante against the Dinakaran faction for releasing the video.

The model code of conduct is instated now, therefore we expect the Election Commission to take immediate action against P Vetrivel, AIADMKs D Jayakumar was quoted as saying by ANI.

It is with the intention of influencing RK Nagar bypoll that the video has been purposefully released. Why it was not released earlier, why one day before polls? Jayakumar asked.

Jayalalithaas death, which is now being probed, left a power vacuum in the southern state and soon a controversy erupted over the secrecy surrounding her condition. Rival factions of Tamil Nadus ruling AIADMK sparred and political leaders made contradictory statements.

There were allegations of foul play and fingers were pointed at Sasikala, who is in jail in connection with a corruption case.

KS Gita, one of Jayalalithaas friends, told a private television channel that it seems like a fabricated video and was released with a view to garner votes in the by-election tomorrow.

Gita, who had filed a complaint that Jayalalithaa was murdered, questioned why was not the video released before to convince the people. The video could have been morphed and its date is missing, she said.

I have never seen Gita at all. Who is she? CR Saraswathi, the Dinakaran camps spokesperson, asked.

A leader of the EPS-OPS camp dismissed the video as a gimmick on the eve of elections and said the people will not accept it at all. VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan, on the other hand, alleged that it was quite possible for voters to get emotional while voting in the RK Nagar bypoll.

The Bharatiya Janata Partys Tamil Nadu unit chief Tamilisai Soundarrajan questioned the timing of the release of the video. She said it was an utter insult to the departed leader and added that by releasing the video, they have also violated the confidentiality clause and secrecy of a patient, which is sacrosanct.

I leave it for the people to judge whether it was a proper thing to do, she said.

Political analyst Sumanth C Raman said the video, in itself, does not say anything other than the fact that it was taken at the general ward after Jayalalithaa was shifted from the intensive care unit of the Apollo Hospital.

This does not say anything or answer the many questions that arose after the death of Jayalalithaa, he added.

However, this is the first time that any pictorial evidence of Amma, as she was popularly known, in the hospital has come out, even if deliberately released by Dinakaran camp.

DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi had questioned and asked for photographic evidence of Jayalalithaa when she was undergoing treatment at the hospital as well as a white paper on her health condition.

Dinakaran, who fell out of favour with chief minister K Palaniswami and lost the battle for the partys Two Leaves symbol, is fighting as an independent and has expressed confidence that he can spring a surprise against the AIADMKs E Madhusudhanan as well as the opposition DMK.

Palaniswami and his deputy O Pannerselvam have urged voters to elect AIADMK candidate Madhusudhnanan.

The RK Nagar bypoll was earlier scheduled on April 12 but was cancelled following allegations that large sums of money were distributed among voters.

The counting of votes will be held on December 24.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Suspected Maoists abducted five railway employees, including an assistant station master (ASM) and a porter, from Masudan railway station in Lakhisarai district of east Bihar and set on fire the signalling panel, disrupting railway traffic early Wednesday morning.

Around 25 Maoists, including women, attacked the Masudan railway station, 180 km from state capital Patna, in the wee hours, taking railway officials totally by surprise, said an officer of Government Railway Police (GRP), Jamalpur.

The Maoists freed three of them, the loco pilot, assistant loco pilot and the guard of Gaya-Jamalpur passenger train after one hour, but took away ASM Mukesh Kumar Paswan and porter Nirendra Mandal . Paswan and Mandal were freed after 16 hours, police said.

The attack comes on a day when Maoists had called for a 48-hour bandh, starting Tuesday midnight, across Bihar and neighbouring Jharkhand in protest against the Operation Greenhunt launched by security forces.

As the Maoists were taking them away, the panic-stricken ASM called up Maldah divisional railway manager (DRM), saying they would be killed if trains continued plying on the Kiul-Bhagalpur rail section.

The left wing extremists also set ablaze the signalling panel and threw official papers into the fire, the GRP officer said.

He said railway traffic was disrupted on Jamalpur-Kiul section for about an hour due to torching of the signalling panel. Farakka Express, Banka Express, Jainagar-Howrah passenger, Muzaffarpur-Bhagalpur Jansewa Express, Bhagalpur-Danapur Intercity Express, Howrah-Gaya Express were stranded at different stations as a result, the officer said. The movement of trains was restored after the fire was extinguished, he added.

Immediately after he was freed, Paswan left for his in-laws place at Dasrathpur , while Mandal was at Gangania, his native village, the police said, adding that both the villages were in the neighbouring Munger district.

Munger superintendent of police (SP) Ashish Bharti said Paswan had been detained for interrogation.

Additional director general of police (headquarters) Sanjiv Kumar Singhal said a joint team of the Central Reserve Police Force, Sashatra Seema Bal and the special task force of Bihar police had launched an operation in forest and hilly areas against the Maoists involved in the attack. The operation was being conducted under the supervision of inspector general (operations) Kundan Krishnan and IG (railway) Amit Kumar.

On August 3 also, heavily armed Maoist rebels had abducted three gatemen of railway level crossings in Lakhisarai district, disrupting train movement for nearly seven hours on the Patna-Howrah section.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
The government said on Wednesday there was no proposal as of now for abolition of articles 35A and 370 which give special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

The reply came in response to the question posed by Akali Dal MP Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa about the status of abolishing Article 35A and Article 370.

No proposal regarding abolition of Article 35A and Article 370 in respect of Jammu and Kashmir is at present under consideration of the government, Union minister of state for home Hansraj Ahir said replying to a written question.

Abrogation of Article 370, that gives autonomous status to Jammu and Kashmir, continues to be a part of the core ideology of the ruling BJP, but the party maintains that it does not have enough numbers in Parliament to do away with it.

In case of Section 35A, a writ petition was filed in the Supreme Court by an NGO seeking its abrogation.

The PIL said the Jammu and Kashmir government, under the guise of articles 35A and 370, were discriminating against non-residents who are debarred from buying properties, getting a government job or voting in the local elections.

Article 35A was added to the Constitution by a presidential order in 1954 and it empowers the state legislature to define the states permanent residents and their special rights and privileges.

While the Jammu and Kashmir government contested the petition saying the president had the power to incorporate a new provision in the Constitution by way of an order, the Centre had expressed its reservations.

It filed a reply and requested the apex court to refer the matter to a larger bench as constitutional issues were involved in the case.

The matter is currently sub-judice.
Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of Dwaraka-Sharda Peeth, said that there was no logic in the assertion that those born in India were Hindus as he claimed it would eliminate the basic structure of society.

He was reacting to the statement of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat that anybody living in India was a Hindu.

The theory that one who is born in India is Hindu has no logic behind it since it will eliminate the basic structure of society, the Shankaracharya told reporters in Vrindavan.

A real Hindu has faith in the Vedas and Shastras, while Muslims read the Quran and Hadith and Christians follow the Bible, he said.

Addressing a gathering in Tripura earlier this week, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief said, Muslims in India are also Hindus.

On the Ayodhya temple dispute, the Shankaracharya said that political parties did not have the right to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya. Only Shankaracharyas and Dharmacharyas have the right to construct a temple in Ayodhya, he added.

The government too cannot construct a temple as India is a secular (dharm nirpeksh) country, he said.

On a controversy surrounding the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in elections, the Hindu religious leader said that he was in favour of the use of ballot papers.

If most of the political parties do not want EVMs, the Election Commission should not stick to it, he said.

He said that pollution in the Ganga and Yamuna rivers has increased manifold and added that the government should shut dams or barrages on the two rivers to allow them to carry their natural flows of water.
Pakistan has issued visas to the wife and mother of Kulbhushan Jadhav to meet the Indian prisoner who is on death row in a Pakistani jail, the countrys foreign office said on Wednesday.

Jadhav, 47, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and terrorism in April, following which India moved the International Court of Justice in The Hague in May. The ICJ halted his execution on Indias appeal pending a final verdict.

Pakistan high commission in New Delhi issued the visas to the mother and wife of commander Jadhav to visit Islamabad to meet him, today, foreign office spokesman Mohammad Faisal tweeted.

Pakistan has said that it would take care of all the security arrangements for Jadhavs mother and sister during their visit.

Pakistan had agreed to facilitate a meeting of Jadhav with his mother and wife in Islamabad on December 25. It also agreed to Indias demand that they be accompanied by an official of the Indian high commission in Islamabad.

On last Thursday, Pakistan directed its high commission in New Delhi to issue visas to Jadhavs wife and mother.

Pakistan claims its security forces arrested Jadhav alias Hussein Mubarak Patel from its restive Balochistan province on March 3 last year after he reportedly entered from Iran.

India, however, maintains that Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the Indian Navy.

Pakistan has repeatedly denied India consular access to Jadhav on the ground that such facilities were not applicable in cases related to spies.

It had said that Jadhav is not an ordinary person as he had entered the country with the intent of spying and carrying out sabotage activities.

Jadhavs wife, who has not been named publicly, has petitioned for him to be spared the death penalty.

Pakistani authorities have not issued a final ruling on the sentence. (With inputs from agencies)
The Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day on Wednesday amid sloganeering by Congress members demanding an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his remarks against his predecessor Manmohan Singh.

The Opposition continued its protest against Modi s insinuations against Manmohan Singh that he colluded with Pakistan for the Gujarat polls.

Both houses had to be adjourned on Tuesday too after the Congress demanded an apology from Modi on the issue. The winter session began on December 15 and it will conclude on January 5 next year.

Here are the live updates:

7.31pm: Lok Sabha adjourned till Thursday morning.

7.30pm: Lok Sabha passes the Indian Forest (Amendment) Bill, 2017.

7.02pm: Defence expenditure as a percentage of GDP may appear to be decreasing due to increasing trend in the growth of GDP. However, defence expenditure is increasing every year in absolute terms, says Bhamre.

7.01pm: On whether military expenditure as a percentage of GDP has reduced over a period of time, Bhamre said the defence budget was 1.54% of the GDP.

6.59pm: Minister of state for defence Subhash Bhamre informs Lok Sabha that 103 defence personnel lost their lives in encounters with militants in Jammu and Kashmir from 2014-16.

6.57pm: The government is regularly reviewing the threat perception to secure the borders, says Sitharaman.

6.56pm: Appropriate measures are taken from time to time to maintain/ upgrade the countrys defence preparedness to safeguard the sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of India, says Sitharaman.

6.55pm: On whether the government foresees a two-front war at western and northern borders and dealing with a situation like Doklam and the proxy war by Pakistan, Sitharaman says the government is fully seized of the security threats and remains prepared to deal with all kinds of security challenges.

6.54pm: On surgical strikes by the army in the last three years, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman tells the Lok Sabha: Based on specific and credible inputs, Indian Army strikes at terrorists/ infiltrators at the borders from time to time, in order to preserve the unity, integrity and sovereignty of the nation.

6.51pm: Sitharaman informs the Lok Sabha that all the provisions of the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) have been followed and an inter-governmental agreement was signed on September 23, 2016 after the approval of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS).

6.50pm: Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman informs the Lok Sabha that the government has bought Rafale aircraft at better terms.

6.46pm: Rijiju says 5 IPS officers have been retired in public interest since 2014 by the government by invoking various provisions of the All India Services (Death-Cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules, 1958.

6.45pm: Kiren Rijiju says FIRs have been registered against 47 IPS officers and chargesheets or challans have been filed in 20 cases.

6.43pm: Union minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju informs Rajya Sabha that 75 IPS officers currently face disciplinary proceedings and 47 IPS officers face criminal investigations

6.41pm: Kiren Rijiju informs Rajya Sabha that the registrations of 18,868 NGOs under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act were cancelled by the home ministry between 2011 and 17 for violating laws.

6.40pm: Minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju informs Rajya Sabha that foreign funding to Indian NGOs has come down drastically from Rs 17,773 crore in 2015-16 to Rs 6,499 crore in 2016-17.

6.38pm: PM holds a constitutional position. He cant insult institutions. We will not stop till he gives explanation, says Kharge.

6.38pm: We want that this should have been disclosed in Parliament and he (Modi) should talk about it in Parliament. If he has evidence, he should lay it in Parliament, as he (Modi) had promised to expose anti-national activities, says Kharge.

6.37pm: If he (Modi) has evidence then he should have registered an FIR and arrested him. He has also raised questions on Manmohan Singhs patriotism, says Congress leader Kharge.

6.36pm: Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha, tells reporters: The Prime Minister had attempted to insult Manmohan Singh. We want that he should come to Parliament and apologise or give explanation what was the reason for making such an allegation.

6.34pm: When a member is not there in the Parliament, and Manmohan ji is a gentle person, it sets a wrong precedent. We dont want a privilege against PM. Thats why are adopting a soft way, says Congress leader Azad.

6.33pm: We respect the PM. We dont want to show disrespect to him. It is a not a personal fight. This is his responsibility that whatever he says in public, he should have the courage to come and say it in the Parliament, says Azad.

6.32pm: He (Modi) should come to Parliament and say that his work is done and he is withdrawing his comment. We will accept it. If it is true then they should punish us. We are ready for it. He should prove it, Azad tells reporters outside Parliament.

6.31pm: We have no personal fight with him (Modi). If the PM finds it difficult to apologise, then he should have come to the Parliament and say BJP was losing in Gujarat and therefore it was a political stunt. It was a conspiracy to prove Congress anti-national, says Azad.

6.30pm: Ghulam Nabi Azad, leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, tells reporters outside Parliament Manmohan Singh is a respected member of Rajya Sabha. If the PM is publicly saying that Manmohan ji is conspiring with Pakistan, then it is a serious allegation.

6.28pm: Forest minister Harsh Vardhan replies to the discussion in the Lok Sabha on exclusion of bamboo from the Indian Forest Amendment Bill, 2017.

6.26pm: The Prime Minister had levelled serious allegations against very senior leaders, senior officers, Manmohan Singh and former Vice President Hamid Ansari and former army chief Deepak Kapoor, says Azad.

6.25pm: Ghulam Nabi Azad, leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, tells reporters outside Parliament that PM Narendra Modi could acknowledge that the remarks against former PM Manmohan Singh were a political stunt and done to win the Gujarat elections

6.20pm: GAIL has held multiple discussions with the LNG suppliers. The most recent discussion was held in November, says oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The discussions have been held at the working level as well as management level.

6.15pm: GAIL has held a number of discussions with Cheniere Energy and Dominion Cove Point LNG LP for renegotiation of the contracts, says oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

6.14pm: Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan informs the Rajya Sabha that state-owned gas utility GAIL India Ltd has sought renegotiating the price of LNG contracted from the US.

6.10pm: China and India are both working towards utilising their bilateral dialogue mechanisms to promote mutually beneficial cooperation, and enhancing communication at all levels in order to build greater trust and understanding, says minister VK Singh.

6.08pm: The government has conveyed to the Chinese side, including at the highest level, its concerns about Chinas activities in PoK and asked them to cease these activities, says minister VK Singh.

6.06pm: VK Singh says the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is being projected as a flagship project of OBOR initiative, passes through parts of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir which has been in illegal occupation of Pakistan since 1947.

6.05pm: On Chinas One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative, minister VK Singh says the government has clearly articulated its firm belief that connectivity initiatives must be based on universally recognized international norms, good governance, rule of law... and must be pursued in a manner that respects sovereignty and territorial integrity.

6.04pm: Minister VK Singh says India has a clear and consistent position that these territories are illegally occupied by Pakistan and that any collaborative activity there is in violation of Indias sovereignty and territorial integrity.

6.03pm: Minister of state for external affairs VK Singh informs the Lok Sabha that India has issued demarches to both Pakistan and China conveying its position on construction of dams on the Indus river in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) by the Pakistani government with assistance committed to these projects by China

5.55pm: Bangladesh, with over 19 lakh tourists, is on top of the list of foreign visitors to India, followed by Sri Lanka with nearly 3 lakh tourists, China, Nepal (1,51,352), Pakistan (76,197), Myanmar (48,731) and Bhutan (22,695), says Alphons.

5.54pm: The Chinese occupied the third position as far as foreign tourist arrivals in India from the neighbouring countries were concerned, says minister Alphons.

5.52pm: From 2015 to 2017, there was a 9.28% increase in the number of Chinese tourists arriving in India, says minister Alphons

5.51pm: The number of Chinese tourists visiting India in 2015 was 2,06,322. While the figure rose to 2,51,313 in 2016, it saw a marginal dip in 2017 with 2,25,482 Chinese tourists arriving in the country, says minister Alphons.

5.50pm: Tourism minister KJ Alphons tells the Rajya Sabha more than two lakh Chinese tourists visited India in 2017.

5.43pm: The department of biotechnology also offers the Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship to attract Indian scientists back to the country, says YS Chowdary.

5.42pm: The department of science and technology, through the Ramanujan Fellowship Scheme and the Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) faculty scheme provide attractive avenues to Indian researchers of high calibre, who are residing in foreign countries, to work in Indian institutes/universities, says YS Chowdary.

5.40pm: Minister of state for science and technology and Earth sciences YS Chowdary tells Lok Sabha a total of 649 Indian scientists returned to the country to work in Indian institutes and universities over the last five years as against 243 during 2007-12.

5.37pm: India is making all possible efforts to trace the 39 Indian workers missing in Iraq and currently it is trying to obtain proof of their being alive or dead, says Sushma Swaraj

5.36pm: In the Lok Sabha, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj says India has completed DNA testing of the families of 39 Indians missing from Iraqs Mosul city since 2014 and forwarded the samples to Iraqi authorities for matching with the mortal remains in the graves there.

5.34pm: In the Lok Sabha, minister of state for electronics and IT Alphons Kannanthanam says electronic firms shortlisted for incentives by the government for manufacturing their products in India have invested Rs 3,585 crore in 72 projects till September this year.

5.30pm: In the Lok Sabha, K Vishweshwar Reddy, TRS member from Telangana, says the questions raised by other members on the exclusion of bamboo from the forest amendment bill are very much valid, and asks government to rethink the matter..

5.22pm: Kharge says it is wrong on the part of Modi to cast aspersions on the patriotism of a former PM.

5.21pm:If Modi believed Manmohan Singh was part of a conspiracy, he should have taken the help of intelligence agencies, filed an FIR and got Manmohan Singh arrested, Kharge tells reporters.

5.20pm: Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge asks why PM Narendra Modi did not approach security agencies if he felt that former PM Manmohan Singh was hatching a conspiracy against him with Pakistans support.

5.19pm: Jitendra Chaudhury, CPI(M) member from Tripura East, asks if thousands of people in China are employed in the bamboo processing industry, why cant India follow such a model?

5.15pm: M Srinivasa Rao, TDP member from Andhra Pradesh, asks forest minister to focus more on tree plantation in order to solve the issue of pollution in major cities, including Delhi.

5.11pm: Farmers do not need our daya (sympathy), they need to be left alone. They were there before we, the so-called elite: Tathagata Satpathy.

5.10pm: Tathagata Satpathy asks government to take back the forest amendment bill, work out the details and bring it back with improvements.

5.02pm: Tathagata Satpathy, BJD member from Dhenkanal in Odisha, says forest minister Harsh Vardhan has been misleaded by his officials, and the amendment to remove bamboo from the bill was not going to help the poor people.

4.55pm: Aparupa Poddar, Trinamool Congress member from Arambagh in West Bengal, says states have own rules and laws on forests, and the Indian Forest (Amendment) Bill, 2017 should not affect them.

4.50pm: G Hari, AIADMK member from Arakkonam in Tamil Nadu, says the forest amendment bill was needed as the country still followed The Indian Forest Act that was passed in 1927.

4.43pm: The Indian Forest (Amendment) Bill, 2017 will help Prime Minister Narendra Modis skill development programme, says the BJPs Gauhati MP Bijoya Chakravarty.

4.40pm: BJP Lok Sabha member Bijoya Chakravarty says The Indian Forest (Amendment) Bill, 2017 will greatly benefit the poor and down-trodden tribal people.

4.26pm: There is no question of middle path. The countrys prime minister has alleged that the former prime minister has taken steps against the country and that too with the enemy nation. Dont you think it is an issue that calls for an apology? says Chowdhury.

4.25pm: Congress leader Renuka Chowdhury says there is no question of a middle path till Prime Minister Narendra Modi apologises for his comments against Manmohan Singh.

4.22pm: Veerendra Kumar says what happened in the recent Gujarat elections was not a victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Gujarat election results were not a victory for Modi but, if anything, it suggests otherwise, he says.

4.21pm: Legally, Im in Rajya Sabha as a member of Nitish Kumars party. I dont agree with his stand dumping the Mahagathbandhan and alingning with the Sangh Parivar and the BJP, says Veerendra Kumar, a Rajya Sabha member from Kerala.

4.20pm: Janata Dal (United) leader MP Veerendra Kumar resigns from Rajya Sabha, saying he did not agree with party chief and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumars decision to join the NDA, reports PTI.

4.09pm: Discussion begins in Lok Sabha on The Indian Forest (Amendment) Bill, 2017.

4.07pm: Lok Sabha passes The Requisitioning and Acquisition of Immovable Property (Amendment) Bill, 2017.

4.05pm: No intention to open up cases where compensation has already been paid, says Hardeep Singh Puri.

4.00pm: Hardeep Singh Puri, minister of state for housing and urban affairs, replies to the discussion on the Requisitioning and Acquisition of Immovable Property (Amendment) Bill, 2017.

2.28pm: Congress MPs continue noisy protest in Lok Sabha as a BJP member stands to speak on the Requisitioning and Acquisition of Immovable Property (Amendment) Bill, 2017.

2.11pm: You dont want to work? Rajya Sabha deputy chairman asks opposition members who continue to protest in the Well of the House. The House stands adjourned till 11am on Thursday.

2.08pm: Minutes after Lok Sabha reconvenes, Congress MPs begin protest against Modi over Modis remark.

2.06pm: Rajya Sabha . Leader of Opposition in the House, Ghulam Nabi Azad, demands that Prime Minister Narendra Modi clear the air on his remark on Manmohan Singh during the Gujarat assembly election campaigning. He says neither his Congress party nor can Manmohan Singh think of conspiring with Pakistan. We are not demanding apology from the PM but he should clear the air and admit he had made the remark to win the assembly elections in Gujarat.

12.20pm: Speaker Sumitra Mahajan again adjourns the Lok Sabha till 2pm as opposition members continue sloganeering demanding PM Modis apology from Manmohan Singh.

12.18pm: BJP MP from Maharashtra, Poonam Mahajan, raises the issue of a youth being killed in Jammu and Kashmir.

12.14pm: Amid ruckus by opposition members, BJD MP Bhartruhari Mahtab demands adjournment motion on dispute regarding Mahanadi river water sharing issue between Odisha and Chhattishgarh. He accuses the Centre of going back on its promise and compromising its neutrality. But Speaker says the issue is important but can be discussed later.

12.10pm: The Rajya Sabha, which passed two bills on Tuesday despite the disruptions in the initial hours of the proceedings, has listed the long-pending bill to amend the NABARD act. The Bill allows the central government to increase NABARDs capital to Rs 30,000 crore. The NABARD provides fund for rural and agriculture sector.

12.05pm: Lok Sabha reconvens. The Lower House has three government bills on its agenda, including the contentious forest rights amendment bill.

12.01pm: Rajya Sabha chairman Naidu adjourns the House till 2pm as uproar continues over PM Modis remarks against his predecessor Manmohan Singh during the Gujarat election campaigning.

11.56am: Disgruntled Janata Dal (United) leader MP from Kerala, Veerendra Kumar, resigns from the Rajya Sabha, days after rebel JD-U leaders Sharad Yadav and Ali Anwar were disqualified from the Upper House.

11. 38 am: PM Modi said that work should be done to bring youth forward on every platform. PM spoke about new millennium voters, those born after 2012, who will be 18 next year. He said new generation should be involved in services for country, society and development, Ananth Kumar said while briefing media.

11.30 am: PM said our booth level workers, with support of people, must tread towards victory and should not be distracted by what Opposition is saying about credibility and the low-level comments they are making, said Ananth Kumar after BJP Parliamentary party meeting

11.16am: Union minister Ananth Kumar says PM Narendra Modi at the BJP parliamentary party meet called for promotion of youth in and outside party.

11.15am: I dont appreciate your behaviour. Please dont exceed your limit, Rajya Sabha chairman Venkaiah Naidu tells opposition members who have assembled on the Well of the House demanding apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The House stands adjourned till 12 noon.

11.10am: Amid sloganeering against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his alleged remark against Manmohan Singh, Rajya Sabha chairman Naidu asks opposition members to go back to their seats and take part in smooth discussion in the House.

11.02am: Minutes after the Lok Sabha resumed, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the House till 12 noon amid uproar.

10.10am: BJD leaders stage a protest demanding tribunal to resolve the Mahanadi river water dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh, in front of statue of Mahatma Gandhi outside the Parliament.

BJD leaders staged a protest demanding tribunal to resolve the Mahanadi river water dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh, in front of statue of Mahatma Gandhi outside the Parliament #Delhi pic.twitter.com/4lNlRNGuLf  ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2017

10.08am: Minister of state for agriculture Krishna Raj fell ill during the BJP parliamentary party meeting at Parliaments Library Building. She has been rushed to RML hospital for treatment.

10.02am: A meeting of BJPs parliamentary party begins at Parliament Library Building in Delhi.

#WATCH: Earlier Visuals from BJP's Parliamentary Party meeting underway at Parliament Library Building in Delhi. pic.twitter.com/TZAX6OBw8h  ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2017

(With agency inputs)
A parliamentary panel on Tuesday rapped the defence ministry for underutilisation of funds, terming it indicative of inefficient budgetary planning.

An action taken report on an older report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence, tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, said there has been underutilisation of Capital Budget in reference to the Budget Estimate, except the year 2016-17.

The Committee, headed by BJPs Maj Gen B.C. Khanduri (retd), said it had highlighted in its original report the negative effect of persistent trend of decreased allocation of funds, as compared to the projected amount meant for Capital Expenditure for the Services on several procurement proposals and contracts.

In 2017-18, against a projection of Rs 1,46,155 crore for Capital Budget, only Rs 86,528 crore has been allocated for the services - the army, navy, air force and others, it said, adding that capital allocation to the army in the budget estimate was Rs 25,254 crore against a projection of Rs 42,500 crore while the navy was given Rs 37,841 crore when the demand was Rs 51,065 crore.

Similarly, the air force was allocated Rs 59,672 crore against its projected requirement of Rs 92,496 crore for 2017-18.

According to the report, the Defence Ministry told the panel that each year, the funds allocated under the Budget Estimate have been reduced at Revised Estimate stage by the Finance Ministry.

While the committee has always urged for suitable allocation of funds to the Service, they also wish to point out that underutilisation of funds with reference to Budget Estimates allocated (except in 2016-17) in indicative of inefficient budgetary planning by the Ministry of Defence, the report said.

The Government should take concrete measures to exercise prudent and effective budgetary planning, it added.

The committee said fund crunch was impacting the three forces and it may even hit operational preparedness of the forces.

It also said that the Defence Ministry has passed the onus of underutilisation of funds to either cuts imposed by Finance Ministry, or delay in delivery of equipment, and there appears to be no self-introspection by the Ministry of Defence in regard to underutilisation of funds.

The committee would like to reiterate that underutilisation of funds highlights the loopholes in the planning and budgetary exercise undertaken by the Ministry of Defence. Also persistent failure to utilise the allocated funds has contributed to reduction in Ministrys budget allocations.
As the BJP general secretary in charge of Gujarat, Bhupender Yadav was closely involved with each element of the partys campaign in the state. Seen as one of party president Amit Shahs closest aides, Yadav spoke to HT about the final outcome, what worked and what did not, and BJPs larger challenges:

You set a mission of 150 seats. You won 99. Are you disappointed?

No. Prime Minister Narendra Modis popularity and performance and party chiefs Amit Shahs tremendous organisational work has given us a sixth consecutive victory in Gujarat. We have increased our vote share compared to last time. We got almost 50% votes. Converting votes to seats can have its peculiarities. In some seats, you are winning with a margin of 30-40,000 votes; in some seats, you lose by a margin of 35 to 1000 votes. The conversion is seat-by-seat. When there is a triangular fight, the results change. In some states, with a 50% vote share, you can win 80% of the seats. But what our increase in vote share does is create a strong popular base for the party for the future. This is an achievement.

Urban Gujarat is with you; rural Gujarat is where you suffered losses. Why?

If you analyse seats, this is not true. If you see the overall ratio, the urban-rural divide is 40:60. And we have got seats according to that.

But compared to 2012, your rural seats decreased.

But compared to 2012, our vote share increased. You cant see the results only from one framework.

Let me ask you this differently. Do you think there is rural distress or discontent and you are not being able to meet those expectations?

I will not call it rural distress, but if in some places, the party has got fewer seats, we will take our message of vikas and meet the expectations of people in whatever way we can.

What we heard during our travels was farmers complaining about prices. What will you do about it?

For the first time, we provided MSP (minimum support price) for both cotton and groundnut and bought produce. There could be procedural problems with it sometimes. But doubling farmer income is in our manifesto and we will keep working on it.

But current trends dont suggest you can meet this ambition.

We are trying to clear the deep gaps created by the past Congress regimes. When Congress was in power, there was no permission to open dairies in areas except central Gujarat. Under BJP, there was an increase in dairies in South Gujarat and Saurashtra. Fruit production, vegetable production increased under us. The Narmada dam, which the Congress had left incomplete, was completed by us. Along with irrigation, we provided basic rural facilities. We will increase all these efforts to meet our objective of doubling farmer income.

The other issue you confronted was Patidar disaffection. Do you think there was a loss in seats because of that?

We won from areas and districts which were once considered the epicentre of the agitation. People have understood that Hardik (Patel) worked as a frontal organisation, as a shadow of the Congress. My question is, if this movement was so big, why did Rahul Gandhi never shared the stage with Hardik Patel?

But they were on the same side.

If they were together, if they had promised reservations beyond 50%, why did Rahul Gandhi not announce it?

What will you do to bring back the section of Patidar youth which has moved away from you?

I refuse to accept that any section moved away from us. BJP believes in taking all sections of society together. We do not practice the politics of division and believe in sabka saath, sabka vikaas.

The larger trend we are seeing is of dominant agrarian communities  be it Patidars in Gujarat, or Marathas in Maharashtra, or Jats in Haryana  unhappy with BJP. Is this a worry?

This is not true. Even today, BJP has the maximum number of Patidar MLAs. BJP has the most MPs and MLAs from the communities you have just mentioned. Your perception is false.

But you are confronting a Maratha reservation movement, a similar Jat movement. Your political alliances in these states have rested on combination of other communities.

The anti-Patidar KHAM (Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi and Muslim) theory was a Congress invention. The non-Jat politics of Haryana was done by Bhajan Lal. BJP has never believed in this kind of divisive politics.

This perception has also grown because the party is involved in the sub-categorisation of OBCs. And this appears to be based on the premise that BJP can cultivate the lower OBCs as opposed to the more dominant communities.

BJP never does vote-bank politics. We take all communities together. And we work honestly to ensure that all communities get justice according to the Constitution.

Back to Gujarat, we saw that your performance in the second phase was better than the first phase.

We have got an almost equal number of seats in both states. In the first phase, we got 47 out of 89 seats, and in the second, we have got 52 out of 93 seats.

But compared to 2012, you lost more seats in the first phase and succeeded in retaining your share in the second.

This could be your analysis but the phases were also different last time. It is an issue for the internal analysis of the party and we will continue to work to expand the partys base.

Sure, but the question is this. There was a difference in the tone and tenor of the PMs campaigning as we moved to the second phase. He spoke more aggressively about Mani Shankar Aiyars neech comment; Kapil Sibals Ayodhya appearance; and made allegations about a dinner at Aiyars home. It was seen as negative. Do you think that made a difference?

BJP never raised these issues. These were issues raised by Congress. They deliberately got Mani Shankar Aiyar to say what he did. BJP only focused on development record. We never engaged in any negative campaign. Congress made false allegations, yet they were not successful.

But the PMs dinner allegation was not backed with evidence. Many who attended it have said that Gujarat was never discussed.

But Congress leaders first denied the dinner happened.

They said there was a dinner but Gujarat was not discussed.

First they denied there was a dinner at all. They should first explain why.

The other issue that came up starkly in this campaign was youth unemployment. Would you agree that one failure of the Gujarat model has been creating jobs?

You see the data. Nationally, employment opportunities have increased the most in Gujarat in the last 15 years. In fact, people from other states have also come to Gujarat for jobs.

But as you go forward, are the youth getting dissatisfied?

In Gujarat, our vote-share increased by almost two percentage points. And that reflects that young are with us. In our youth town-hall programmes, from 312 places, there were 1.8 lakh young people. Such a big programme has not happened in Gujarat.

So you are saying the increase in vote share is primarily of young voters?

Yes. And no group moved away from us compared to 2012. If youth was such a big factor, Rahul, Hardik, Alpesh (Thakor) would have spoken to students in universities and colleges. If you see the Senate elections that happened in some universities, be it in Baroda or Gandhinagar, during this period, ABVP won.

The Congress also saw an increase in its vote-share. What accounts for this in your opinion?

The votes that used to go to independents may have gone to them. Do remember that the difference in vote-share remains 8 percentage points.

But Congress sees this as a moment of resurgence and has exposed BJPs vulnerabilities. What do you think?

After 22 years, BJP formed the government in Gujarat again. After five years in power in Himachal, they lost power. If after losing elections in two states, they still consider it an achievement, then they have attained a degree of super-consciousness and have gone beyond worldly problems or are being delusional.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Former judge of Calcutta high court CS Karnan, the first serving judge in India to be sent to prison, was released from a jail in Kolkata on Wednesday after serving six months of imprisonment for contempt of the Supreme Court.

He is in good health and spirits but has lost almost 15 kgs, Peter Ramesh Kumar, a Chennai-based advocate and Karnans close associate, told the Hindustan Times.

The 62-year-old was sentenced to six months imprisonment in June for contempt of court, following a long judicial standoff with Supreme Court judges. In an unprecedented move, Karnan even sentenced the then chief justice of India, J S Khehar, and seven other Supreme Court judges to five years rigorous imprisonment.

A seven-judge bench of the top court sentenced him to six months imprisonment the very next day, following which Karnan went into hiding and stayed beyond the reach of the police for more than a month.

Karnans wife Saraswati and son Sugan received him outside the Presidency Correctional Home at 10am on Wednesday. The former judges close associate and advocate Mathew J Nedumpara was also present when he was released. They took Karnan straight to his residence in Kolkatas satellite township New Town.

Sources at the jail said Karnan spent his entire sentence inside its hospital. The jail authorities did not risk keeping him in a cell as he was suffering from anxiety and ailments related to blood sugar and blood pressure, they said.

Jail sources and his family members told HT that the authorities treated him as a special prisoner and offered him all help in getting the books that he wanted to read.

He spent his time in prison mostly in writing his autobiography, which is almost finished. He will start working on it after spending a few days with family and friends. We will start looking for a publisher after a few months, Karnans son told HT.

Well be in Kolkata for about 10 days to complete formalities related to his pension, said his wife.

The timing of his release was kept secret from the media.

Karnan had the most unceremonious exit from the Calcutta high court when he retired on June 12 as a fugitive. He was arrested from Coimbatore on June 19 and lodged at the Presidency jail on June 21.

He is ready to resume his battle for a corruption-free judiciary. We are eagerly waiting to see this man of impeccable honesty takes the forefront in the campaign, Nedumpara said.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
The Supreme Court has found no merit in a plea seeking a ban on liquor across the country claiming that it caused death, health problems, rise in crime graph and financial loss to the people.

The top court rejected the plea and also imposed Rs 1 lakh as costs on the petitioner NGO Chaitanya Sravanthi, a Vishakhapatnam-based organisation .

A bench of justices R F Nariman and Navin Sinha said that there was no merit in the plea and it was dismissed with the costs to be deposited with the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee within four weeks.

Advocate Sravan Kumar, appearing for the petitioner, said that the court should also direct an audit of the manufacture, distribution, supply, sale and consumption of various types of liquor in the country.

He said that the ill-effects of consumption alcoholic bevarages were contrary to the Right to Life enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution, besides being contrary to the fundamental principles of governance under Article 37 and 47 of the Directive Principles of State Policy.

The plea also sought an action plan with regard to creation of awareness on the ill-effects of consumption of liquor and stringent action against the suppliers of alchoholic bevarages by strengthening the investigative mechanism, besides seizure and confiscation of stocks.

The availability and access to liquor have deleterious effects on both physical and psychological well-being of individual, besides having serious societal implications, it said, adding that the free availability of liquor was correlated to crime, accidents and fatalities.

It also sought a direction for a review of the regulation policy for the manufacture, supply and sale of liquor in various states for the purpose of bringing about uniformity.

The plea also sought strict implementation of restrictions and regulations on sale of liquor to minor, setting up of liquor shops near schools and temples and conduct of awareness campaign regarding ill-affects of liquor at par with that for tobacco.
Two days after its victory in the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) still remains indecisive on who will be the chief minister.

A delegation of BJP leaders from the state, comprising Union health minister Jagat Parkash Nadda, Lok Sabha member from Mandi Ramswaroop Sharma, former chief minister Shanta Kumar, Shimla parliamentarian Virender Kashyap and Hamirpur Lok Sabha member Anurag Thakur on Wednesday called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah to felicitate the duo on the partys victory in both Himachal and Gujarat.

A group of party leaders also met Shah in New Delhi on Wednesday to discuss the further course of action.

In charge for state party affairs and Bihar health minister Mangal Pandey also met Shah in New Delhi on Wednesday. Pandey is set to fly down to Shimla to discuss the formation of the government and also gather feedback from legislators on their choice of chief minister.

In Shimla, Pandey will go into a huddle with state party chief Satpal Singh Satti and other senior leaders and deliberate on the selection of the new chief minister.

Five-time legislator from Seraj Jai Ram Thakur has emerged a dark horse in the race, next to Union health minister JP Nadda, after Dhumal lost to protege-turned-rival Rajender Rana from Sujanpur.

The two observers defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman and rural development minister Narendra Singh Tomarappointed by the partys parliamentary board who were scheduled to visit Shimla, postponed their visit by a day since the Parliament was in session.

Both leaders reportedly met Shah and Modi in Delhi to consult them on the partys next choice of chief minister. Sitharaman and Tomar are expected to reach Shimla by Thursday.

The task of picking a candidate has been made more difficult by more than 15 newly elected legislators who have offered their seat to Dhumal.

Meanwhile, another section of the party, which is backing Jai Ram Thakur , went into a huddle in Mandi on Wednesday. The party has won 14 assembly seats from the Mandi parliamentary segment.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
A Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker was waylaid and stabbed multiple times by unidentified men in Kannur districts Kathiroor on Tuesday night, fuelling tension in the region notorious for red-saffron clashes.

P Praveen, an RSS mandalam karyavah, was attacked by a gang wearing masks when he was returning from work, according to police.

Praveen suffered multiple stab wounds and was taken to the Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode, where his condition is said to be critical.

RSS-BJP leaders blamed the ruling CPI(M) for the attack.

Accusing the party of resorting to mindless violence to divert attention from the failure of governance, BJPs Kannur district president Sathyaprakash said at least six workers were injured in similar attacks in the past two months.

However, the CPI(M) district leadership denied any role in the attack.

Kannur is infamous for clashes between the Communists and RSS-BJP, known as red-saffron, and has claimed the lives of more than 200 people in the last three decades. The bloody violence has over time spread to other parts of the state.

Recently, BJP president Amit Shah had led a statewide protest to bring to national limelight the alleged attack on the partys cadres by Left activists.

In the bloody saga of gore and revenge, it is apparent that party leaders are fast losing their grip on marauding cadres who are intoxicated with their ideology.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Doctors strike continued for the fifth day in Rajasthan due to which health services remained badly affected on Wednesday.

After a meeting, the Rajasthan Medical College Teachers Association (RMCTA) said that they will be forced to join the agitation in case the deadlock continues. Looking at the interest of patients, the government and All Rajasthan In-Service Doctors Association (ARISDA) should begin talks, RMCTA secretary Dr Dhananjai Agrawal said.

He said that there is resentment among doctors over atrocities on medical officers and RMCTA is against such action. RMCTA is ready to extend cooperation to hold talks and if the deadlock continues the Rajasthan Medical College Teachers too would be forced to join the agitation, Dr Agrawal said.

Meanwhile, Jaipur Association of Resident Doctors (JARD) joint secretary Dr Mukesh Mahla said that the strike by resident and senior resident doctors will continue till demands of in-service and resident doctors are met.

A medical team from the Alwar military hospital, including four doctors, seven nursing staff and three ambulances, was sent to Rajiv Gandhi General Hospital on the request of the Alwar district collector. The team had attended to more than 300 patients, informed a press release from the defence ministry.

Health minister Kali Charan Saraf has once again appealed to resident and in-service doctors to join their duties. He said that doctors joining duty will not be arrested and required protection will be given.
The debacle in the Gujarat assembly elections in which all the 29 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidates lost their deposits has the party leaders in Rajasthan worried.

They are worried over the delay in the process of organization buildup in Rajasthan and say a similar fate awaits AAP here if the party does not get its act together.

The assembly elections are likely to be held in December 2018.

The Gujarat results notwithstanding, our main concern is that we are lagging behind in preparation for the 2018 Assembly elections in terms of building our organization in Rajasthan, and with only a year to go for the polls the time is running out. Kumar Vishwas not devoting time to the partys Rajasthan unit is a matter of concern, and we have raised this issue, AAP leader and partys Rajasthan spokesperson Devendra Shastri told HT.

Kumar Vishwas is AAP state in-charge for Rajasthan.

The party would be holding a meeting soon in which discussions will also be held on whether to take part in the upcoming by-elections to Lok Sabha seats in Alwar and Ajmer and assembly seat in Mandalgarh. While the elections are expected to be held in January, the party is still exploring the pros and cons of contesting the polls.

According to Gujarat assembly election data, not only were the AAP candidates routed but one candidate won only 282 votes while another got 299.

The problem with AAP is infighting among the senior leaders in Delhi. Unless the party gets its act together it is awaiting a similar fate as that of Gujarat in the next years Rajasthan elections, political analyst Rajiv Gupta told HT.

However, an AAP Rajasthan leader who did not wish to be named said, Our main intention in Gujarat was to defeat the BJP and Arvind Kejriwal had already made that intention known publically.

The Gujarat debacle for AAP comes after its equally dismal performance in Goa Assembly elections where 38 of its 39 candidates had their deposits forfeited. The partys performance in Punjab was nothing to write home about either.

The senior members of party unit are miffed with Kumar Vishwas for not devoting time and resources to the party. Kumar has visited the state only four times since he was entrusted with the job of overseeing the party affairs in the state. The state unit of the party is also facing a severe fund crunch.

Kumar Vishwas did not respond to calls and text messages.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
The Rajasthan high court on Wednesday directed the state government to remove deficiencies in the applications for long-term visas (LTVs) of Pakistani refugees, who are eligible for Indian citizenship.

The HC division bench, comprising justice Sangeet Lodha and justice Vinit Kumar Mathur, has given the government time till January 15 to accomplish the task.

The order was conveyed to the government through the states additional advocate general KL Thakur. The court, hearing a PIL on behalf of the Pakistani refugees, asked the government to issue LTV to the refugees, who are eligible for citizenship.

Refugees who have lived in India on a 7-year LTV are eligible for the Indian citizenship.

Amicus curiae Kamal Joshi told the court that LTV is a necessary document for Indian citizenship.

According to the state governments status report, currently 10,046 LTV applications of Pakistani refugees are pending, of which 2,716 are pending with the ministry of home affairs, 4,912 applications with the state government and 2,418 applications are pending with the foreigner registration offices.

Joshi said the HC had ordered the state government to grant the citizenship to Pakistani refugees belonging to minority category in Pakistan within 45 days, but in the absence of LTV, so far only nine people have got the citizenship.

The court ordered that the state government should organise camps to fulfil the deficiencies in LTV applications so that the problems of all applicants can be resolved in one place. The court also asked the organisations struggling for Pakistani refugees to cooperate.

The state government told the court that so far 2,644 Pakistani refugees have applied for citizenship in the state, out of which 2,288 applicants are living in Jodhpur district. There are currently 14,253 Pakistani refugees residing in Jodhpur district.
External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj has asked officials in Riyadh to help the family of the Jaipur youth who is reported missing in Saudi Arabia weeks after he landed there on a job.

Responding to a HT report filed on Friday about Vikramaditya Rathore (23), missing since October 18, Swaraj, in a tweet, asked the Indian ambassador in Saudi Arabia, Ahmad Javed, and the Indian Embassy to help the family.

Swaraj is known for her proactive and prompt response to all those seeking her assistance on Twitter.

In this case too, Swarajs directive had quick impact and the embassy staff got in touch with Rathores family in Jaipur.

Vikramadityas elder brother Harshvardhan said a person from the Indian embassy in Riyadh called them on Monday, asking for his contact number.

When he said they didnt have one, the person on the line said they would contact the travel agency in Mumbai, Al Husaini.

Vikramadityas family claims he went to Saudi Arabia with the help of an agent Mukesh Chauhan who works for Al-Husaini travels.

Chauhan took Rs 2.5 lakh from the family for Vikramadityas passport, visa and other documents, and had promised that Vikramaditya would be employed as a supervisor in a store in Riyadh and would earn around Rs50,000.

Vikramaditya left on October 4 but called on October 18 to say he had been taken to a location several hundred kilometres from Riyadh and was being made to do menial jobs, work long hours and not given proper food.

The family pursued the matter with Chauhan and Javed, the owner of Al Husaini Travels, who kept telling them that they will bring Vikramaditya back soon.

Harshvardhan finally filed a case of cheating against Chauhan on December 13.

Prabhu Singh, the investigation officer in the case said they will soon nab Chauhan.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
In the first move of its kind, in January Trinamool Congress leaders will organise a conference of Hindu priests in the south Bengal district of Birbhum, where BJP has made inroads into a few of the areas.

Bengal is supposed to go for the rural polls in the first half of 2018. The elections are crucial as these will be a rehearsal for the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.

Read: Durga puja politics: Mamata Banerjee sends out a clear message to BJP

We have taken up a programme for the next one month when a conference with the Hindu priests of the district will be held, Anubrata Mandal, district president of the ruling party, told HT. This will be the first conference of Hindu priests that Trinamool Congress leaders will organise in the state.

A section of the priests who attended a conference organised by Vishva Hindu Parishad in Kolkata in July 2017. (HT Photo)

The decision was taken on December 18, the day when the results of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly elections were declared.

For BJP Bengal is a focus state in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The party wants to win at least 22 of the 44 seats in Bengal. In 2014, it won only two.

Though Mandal did not elaborate why they are taking such a step, district leaders said it was supposed to send a signal both to the electorate as well as BJP that the ruling party is close to every section of the society.

In the conference, Trinamool leaders are supposed to interact with the priests and take their opinion on what the ruling party can do to improve their lot, and what are the gaps they want to be fulfilled.

Read: West Bengal: Sabang bypoll to test Mukul Roys grit

In different areas such as Mayureswar, Parui, Ilambazar, parts of Nalhati and Murarui, BJP has made inroads. Through the conference of the priests of the district, we will be able to send a message to the common people as well as the opposition that we dont appease any particular community, said a ruling party leader, who sought anonymity since he is not authorised to speak to the media.

On April 5, 2017 Hindutva outfits took out a rally with bikes and swords in Kolkata on the occasion of Ram Navami in Bhawanipore, which is the home turf of chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Kolkata did not witness anything like it earlier. (Samir Jana/HT PHOTO)

Though the BJP presence is not much in the district that has 19 blocks, 11 Assembly constituencies and more than 3,000 booths, the party leaders dont want to be complacent, said the Trinamool leader.

Significantly, over the past few weeks, chief minister Mamata Banerjee has said in public meetings that the allegations of minority appeasement against her cannot be substantiated. I also chant the shlokas, inaugurate a number of community Durga pujas and perform puja myself. So how can one allege minority appeasement, she remarked on more than one occasion.

Read: Bengal rural polls: Mamata to fight BJPs appeasement slogan with development

Ever since Mamata Banerjee announced honorariums for imams and muezzins and homestead land for the imams in 2011, BJP has criticised her for appeasing the Muslims for electoral gains. According to the 2011 census figures the community constitutes 27.01% of the states total population, while in the rural areas they form 30.79%.

Mandal put up an indifferent face. We not bothered about who has made inroads in any particular spot. We have announced about our activities for the next one month. The meeting with the priests is one of it. We will also hold meeting with women and the minority community, he said.

Mandal, who has courted controversy in the past by urging his supporters to hurl bombs at the police, is unfazed about the growing presence of BJP in the district and said that the opposition will not find suitable candidates in the rural polls.

It (conference of priests) are an indication that they are afraid of us. Trinamool Congress only backs the minorities and indulges in politics of appeasement, said Kalosona Mandal, secretary of BJP in Birbhum district.
The state government has decided to set up cow sanctuaries  home for stray cattle -- on the land freed from the clutches of land grabbers.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday said the state government had freed hundred of acres of land from the land sharks in Allahabad, Shahjahanpur, Pilibhit and other districts. To address the problem of the stray cattle, the state government was mulling to set up cow sanctuaries in 16 municipal corporations and 7 districts of Bundelkhand region. It had also decided to set up 14 dairies to promote animal husbandry, he said.

Initiating the debate on the supplementary demands of grant for Rs 11388.17 crore for 2017-18 in the legislative assembly that were passed, Yogi said 1625 villages in the state were deprived of the basic facilities since independence. The state government had started the process to declare these villages as revenue villages and launch development schemes as well, he added.

He said to create environment for investment in the state, his government had decided to hold Investors Summit in February. Before that, the government will celebrate UP Diwas from January 22 to 24. Products and foods of all the 75 districts would be on display during the three days celebration, he said.

To promote tourism, the state government has decided to start air service connecting all the divisional headquarters. State departments will be start e-office service from the new financial year. The government has already spent 50% of the budget while expediting development projects. The supplementary budget will be spent on poor, villages, youth, farmers and women, he said.

The loan waiver scheme has been launched successfully across the state and 86 lakh farmers have benefitted under the scheme. The state government has eliminated middlemen in the wheat and paddy purchase by announcing minimum support price and transferring the money directly into the account of the farmers, he said.

He said the state government had decided to set up 43 new soil testing laboratories. Along with providing free power connection to the farmers, it has also decided to provide houses to the poor under the PM Housing Scheme. The state government has set a target to declare villages ODF by October 2018, he said.

During the previous government, power was supplied to 5 VIP districts, but now power was being supplied to all the 75 districts. 65,000 hamlets that were not getting power supply will be given regular power supply soon. In its 9 months tenure, the state government had given 22 lakh power connections, he said.

The state government has released the logo of Kumbh and to promote the mela it has decided to display the logo in all the advertisements as well as official pads of the ministers and MLAs.

Condemning the aganbari workers for launching violent protest, the CM justified the police action and said they attacked ambulances, school buses and blocked the movement of traffic. A committee has been set up under the chairmanship of agriculture production commissioner (APC) to study the demand of the aganbari workers and submit report.

The state government has also launched scheme for weavers and launched scholarship scheme for the backward caste students. The drive has been launched to identify the illegal ration card holders. The state government has cancelled 99,000 antoyadaya cards and issued 37 lakh new cards after identification of the beneficiaries, he said.
The Allahabad high court on Tuesday directed UP chief secretary to give the names of those involved in the alleged irregularities in restoration of cancelled plots in Swarn Jayanti Puram housing scheme to the investigating officer within three weeks.

The court took serious note of the allegation that even after the lodging of an FIR in Ghaziabad, the state government was trying to shield senior officials and had only suspended two clerks of the Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA).The housing scheme was floated by the GDA.

The court also directed the chief secretary to submit an action taken report by January 23, 2018, the next date of hearing.

The bench comprising justice Arun Tandon and justice Rajeev Joshi passed this order on a public interest litigation petition filed by Rajendra Tyagi.

The petition filed in 2011 alleged that plots in Swarn Jayanti Puram housing scheme plots were restored in violation of norms and the petitioner raised suspicion about the involvement of authority staff.

According to the petitioner, the allotment was done contrary to the applicable provisions and stamp duty was paid at lower rates, which caused a financial loss to the authority and the state government.

According to an inquiry, these irregularities caused a loss of nearly Rs 3.69 crore and also led to stamp duty evasion of nearly Rs 30 lakh.

The court directed that the investigation may be done by a circle officer under the supervision of the senior superintendent of police, Ghaziabad.

Recently, the GDA officials also lodged an FIR of cheating at Sihani Gate police station in Ghaziabad. However, the FIR did not name any official and mentioned the period between 2005 and 2007 as the time when the plots were restored.

Apart from the FIR, the authority also filed 118 suits at the Ghaziabad court for cancellation of sale deeds of the plots in question. More suits will be filed, said officials.

The court said only two clerks of the GDA were suspended and senior officials were left untouched, though this crime could not have been committed without involvement of the senior officials.

On the courts order, a five-member committee chaired by the Moradabad divisional commissioner submitted a report in the alleged irregularities and recommended action against the officials involved.
The two main accused in the murder of Vaibhav Tewari, a village pradhan and son of former MLA Prem Prakash Tewaris, were arrested from a city court premises when they reached to surrender here on Tuesday afternoon.

The two accused, Vikram Singh and Suraj Shukla, were on run after Tewari was shot dead outside his residence, Kasmanda Apartments in Hazratganj area of Lucknow, on Saturday night.

The deceaseds father was a three-time MLA from the Domariyaganj constituency of Siddharthnagar district. The incident created sensation in the city as it took place barely 300 meters from the Vidhan Bhawan and the state BJP office.

Senior superintendent of police (SSP), Lucknow, Deepak Kumar said four teams of city police were deployed to nab Shukla and Singh but didnt get their clue for over 48 hours.

He said the police had an apprehension since beginning that the two accused would attempt to surrender to evade police custody. We had deployed our men in civvies to keep watch around court premises and eventually, it yielded us a result. The duo was arrested when they reached the court to surrender, he said.

The SSP told that the city police had applied for a seven-day police remand to interrogate the two accused and recover the firearm used in the crime.

A source said the two accused had planned to disguise police and reach the court hiding their face with scarf but the specific tip off by a group of lawyers helped the cops identify the duo.

Earlier, the SSP had announced the reward of 20,000 each for arrest of the two accused on Sunday.

One of the two accused, Vikram Singh is believed to have received patronage from local cops as he grew his nexus and got involved in extortion activities in Hazratganj and its vicinity. The role of some police officials is suspected in allowing Singh an easy escape after he opened fire on Vaibhav.

The initial probe revealed that monetary dispute between Vaibhav and Shukla related to property business was the reason behind the incident. To resolve the dispute, Shukla reportedly had taken the help of Singh, who is listed as a history-sheeter at the Hazratganj police station and have over 27 criminal cases registered against him in Lucknow. Allegedly, the duo approached Vaibhav for a conversation, but during an argument, Singh opened fire on him, killing him on the spot.
If you are a cardiac or a neurosurgery patient planning to undergo a surgery at the Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) in Lucknow, you could have to wait as long as the year 2021 for your turn.

According to SGPGIM doctors, there are at least nine patients in queue for every bed due to which providing immediate attention to critical patients is a difficult task.

In numbers Every year, SGPGIMS doctors examine 90,000 new patients and 2.84 lakh follow-up patients. At least 10,000 surgeries are performed every year besides 25,000 dialysis, 16,500 endoscopy and 115 renal transplants. On an average, doctors examine about 250 patients in 480 minutes (eight hours) in OPD which comes to 1.5 minutes per patient. Experts say a patient requires at least 7-10 minutes for detailed investigation. Around 7,000 CT scans and 22,000 ultrasound tests are done in a year. There are only nine operational beds at the critical care unit (CCU) which are always occupied by VVIPs. There is little scope of treatment for a common man at CCU. At least 40 beds are required at the CCU.

Addressing the institutes foundation day programme on December 14, SGPGIMS director Dr Rakesh Kapoor said cardiac and neurosurgery patients were being given dates in 2021 while patients requiring kidney transplant were being asked to wait till 2019.

This shows that the doctors at the institute are working under immense pressure. Insiders say there is a long waiting list of patients in every department.

Patients who require renal transplant have to wait for at least a year while the waiting period for common surgery in urology and gastroenterology departments is three and six months, respectively.

Patients have to wait for two months for ultrasonography (ultrasound) and at least 15 days for a CT scan.

Doctors cannot be blamed for the long waiting list. They have to examine hundreds of patients every day as there is no other centre of excellence around to support SGPGIMS, said Dr Kapoor.

If there is a rush of passengers, we run more trains and buses. Similarly, we have to increase the number of hospitals which can provide specialised treatment like SGPGIMS, he added.

Another option is to improve the existing infrastructure and increase the number of experts, operation theatres, nurses and other support staff, Dr Kapoor said.

Claiming that every doctor examines over 250 patients daily, he said: SGPGIMS has become the victim of its own success. Now, patients come to us with very common problems. Many a time doctors outside dont want to treat patients with general complications and refer them to us.

Instead of research-oriented work, doctors here are busy examining patients who can be treated at any other hospital, he rued.

Head of the department of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery (CVTS) Dr Nirmal Gupta said though patients were being given the dates of 2021 but if a case was critical they were flexible and ready to go the extra mile.

Today, a patient whose surgery was scheduled for 2021 approached me as he had some complications. We admitted him as immediate surgery was required. We have a humane approach as patients are not numbers but human beings, he said.

There are two more hospitals in Lucknow  KGMU and Lohia Hospital  where facilities similar to SGPGIMS are available. They have similar equipment and manpower but load is only on SGPGIMS. We need to distribute this load judiciously on these institutes too. This is a short-term solution. Authorities should set up new facilities to find a permanent solution to the problem, Dr Gupta said.

A 58-year-old cardiac patient BK Singh (name changed), who was given the date of 2021, said: I met the doctor as I had some complication. They gave me a revised date of 15 days. They were kind enough to understand my discomfort. I worry for those who are not given early date and are forced to live with a disease even though they can get rid of it early through surgery.

SGPGIMS was established as a referral hospital. It was not a general care hospital. One should appreciate that the doctors here are examining patients three times more than any other hospital, said medical superintendent Prof Amit Agarwal.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has threatened to protest over the alleged neglect of Ram Lalla (baby Ram) in the makeshift temple at Ayodhyas disputed Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid site during winter.

Although the head priest of the temple, Satyendra Das refuted the allegations, VHP leaders plan to meet Faizabad divisional commissioner Manoj Mishra, the court-appointed receiver of the temple, to register their protest.

Local media reports suggest neither enough woollens nor heaters have been provided for Ram Lalla. The priests of the temple and the district administration tasked with maintenance of the Lords abode have to ensure this (enough warmth). If they cant, then sants and the VHP are ready to take up the responsibility, VHPs Ayodhya-based leader Sharad Sharma said.

Das, who was caught by surprise by the VHPs charge, refuted the accusation.

I have been the priest of the temple from 1992 and we havent deviated from the set practice we have followed since then, both in serving food as well as in clothing Ram Lalla. I dont know why this is being raised now, Das told HT over phone from Ayodhya.

Sources said the VHPs call could be a ploy to keep the temple issue boiling, especially in December, the month when Babri Masjid was pulled down by a mob of kar sevaks on December 6, 1992, nearly 43 years after the idols were found inside mosque on December 22-23, 1949.

Mishra, the receiver of the makeshift temple, said anyone is free to meet me, but I doubt if the VHP charge has any basis.

Das said heaters arent provided inside the makeshift temple but thats for a reason. The idols inside the makeshift temple are currently covered by a cloth canopy.

Its to prevent any mishap, he said.

Every month, the head priest of the makeshift temple gets Rs 76,000 for maintenance of the temple from the receiver.

This includes Rs 51,000 for the salary of the five priests and four other employees. Only these nine persons are allowed inside the makeshift temple.

Besides, another Rs 24,100 is provided for the various meals for Ram Lalla, his three baby brothers Laxman, Bharat and Shatrughan, as well as Lord Hanuman.

The amount also goes in dressing them up. The dress changes with the weather  cotton in summer, woollens and blankets in winter.

Each day, the idols are dressed in a different colour  white, red, green, yellow, cream, blue and pink for each of the seven days.

The dresses were stitched since 1985 by Ayodhyas Babu Lal tailor till his death in 1994 after which his son Bhagwat Prasad Pahadi and Shanker Lal took up the task.

The amount that goes towards meeting the salaries, the dresses of the idols and food is met through the donations and offerings made by the devotees. The offerings are counted every 15 days.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Supporters of a Samajwadi Party student leader went on the rampage after police arrested him at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) on Wednesday.

Ashutosh Singh, head of the Samajwadi Chhatra Sabhas BHU unit, was held on a non-bailable warrant issued in connection with three criminal cases. Soon afterwards, his supporters vandalised a State Bank of India ATM, damaged over 40 vehicles and set a Delhi Public School (DPS) bus afire. While there were no students present in the bus at the time, the driver and helper managed to flee from the scene.

The rioters also kept two of the university gates, including the main entrance, closed for about an hour.

Police said Singh was booked in three cases of extortion under Section 395 (dacoity) of the Indian Penal Code. A group of BHU students, all supporters of Ashutosh Singh, later set a DPS bus on fire and damaged several vehicles belonging to attendants at the Sir Sundar Lal Hospital. The situation is now under control, said Bhelupur circle officer AP Singh.

BHU chief proctor Royana Singh inspected the scene of the violence. The students responsible for the violence will be identified, and strict action will be taken against them. The university administration will not tolerate such activities, she said.

The BHU last witnessed violence on September 23, after police allegedly cane-charged a group of students  mostly girls  who were protesting against the sexual harassment of a fellow student.
Twelve foreigners were arrested in drug related cases in the city in 2017. This number was three last year, said the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) data.

The foreigners arrested are mules or carriers who are lured into the trade with money, said S.K Sinha, zonal director, NCB. Most of the foreigners held travelled on tourist visas while few of them were found travelling on medical and business visas.

The new challenge faced by the enforcement agencies is the involvement of international drug syndicates. The NCB has arrested foreigners hailing from Kenya, Bolivia, Nigeria and South Africa.

The questioning of the accused foreign nationals has revealed that the carriers usually dont know who they are working for. They are, most of the time, communicating with a person, who himself is unaware of the real drug lord. Certain drugs are landed in a particular city after which they are circulated to other places through carriers. We have seized drugs from foreigners which were meant to be taken abroad, said Sinha. Such is the secrecy maintained that it is nearly impossible for the agencies to break the entire chain: from drug manufacturers and carriers, to sellers and peddlers.

Investigations revealed that foreigners are lured by the easy money in smuggling contraband. After their arrival in the city, handlers wait for three to four days. This is the cushion period to ascertain if the carrier is not under the agencies radar. The carrier then receives a message on WhatsApp to hand over the contraband to another person.

Metro cities are used as landing points owing to better air connectivity. Further, these crowded cities are perfect for carriers to escape the eye of the agencies. Sources said that the agency is keeping a watch on certain flights going through a specific route.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
The state governments decision to allow shops, malls, restaurants and theatres across Maharashtra to stay open 24x7 seems to largely have been received well, and top police and civic officials are not worried about the implementation of the order. However, the Congress has raised questions about the impact this would have on the over-burdened police force and the safety of women employees who work till late night.

The decision should be welcomed. It actually means that shops, malls and restaurants can be kept open for longer hours at night where there is business. It wont happen across the city. The decision will encourage night shopping, and eating-out zones will see development,said former labour minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik, who had initiated a similar move during his tenure but the then Congress-NCP government had put it on hold. But the government must ensure that owners of businesses observe labour laws.

State Congress spokesman Sachin Sawant is not sure this is a great idea because of the pressure it would put on the police force. As it is, Mumbai police face tremendous pressure, and this will add to their workload.

He also raised questions regarding womens safety. The government should also consider whether this will impact the number of crimes against women who work late, as small establishments will not take adequate safety measures, Sawant added.

There are also concerns about the inconvenience residents staying close to shopping zones and eateries would face, in terms of traffic, lights and noise levels.

The government on Tuesday announced in the state legislature that it has issued a notification to allow 35 lakh shops and commercial establishments across Maharashtra to run business round the clock. Under the current rules, shops can be stay open till 10pm and restaurants till 12.30am, while commercial establishments can function till 9.30pm.

This means that essentially restaurants, cinema halls, salons, clinics, professional consultants, banks and other shops and establishments can operate round the clock if they want. The move is expected to benefit seven lakh commercial establishments in Mumbai.

The state government has, however, retained the power to exclude certain segments, areas or types of business. So bars and liquor shops will not enjoy this privilege.

State labour minister Sambhaji Nilangekar Patil said that civic bodies and the police can approach the government if they want any segment excluded from round-the-clock work hours.

Nilangekar Patil also said that the state is thinking of handing over the enforcement of the Act in Mumbai to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta said: The BMC is waiting for the notification. Following this, it will work out the nitty-gritties of the order as applicable for Mumbai.

While the passage of the legislative bill implies that it has come into effect from Tuesday itself, it does not mean that shops will stay open 24x7 from today itself, a civic official, requesting anonymity, pointed out. There will be a window for civic bodies to complete the required formalities, if they have the responsibility of regulating shops.

The Mumbai police, too, did not express concerns. Deven Bharti, joint commissioner of police (law and order), said there would be no problem implementing the decision.
SPRING CREEK  Some Spring Creek water customers could receive an adjustment from Great Basin Water Co. on their next water bill.

Wendy Barnett, president of GBWC, said in a bill stuffer that repricing was complete for eligible customers and submitted to PUCN staff.

Customers should expect to see line item on the bill reflecting the credit paid to the account with the notation Docket No. 16-12006 Refund.

Barnett said those ineligible for refunds include those who did not receive service between January and October 2016; may not have had consumption in the second tiered rate; or if adjustments were previously made to customers bills and met the requirements of the order filed by the Public Utility Commission of Nevada on Sept. 21.

We are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and confusion this situation has created, Barnett said, adding that multiple new safeguards were placed within the system thanks to the company now having a full staff.

The safeguards include changing routes among field personnel, rereads performed by someone other than the original reader, and performing cluster analyses on the time between reads, Barnett said.

The adjustment comes after a months-long dispute between GBWC and Spring Creek water customers, many of whom complained of incorrect billing and meter reading problems.

Spring Creek residents attended two consumer sessions in 2017 conducted by the PUCN and attended by the Nevada Attorney Generals Bureau of Consumer Protection office and members of the GBWC administration.

At those meetings, some water customers brought bills to show the inexplicable rises in water consumption, while others described their interactions with GBWC customer service members that led to increased frustrations with the company.

On Sept. 19, the PUCN denied the GBWCs petition that stated the company resolved the meter reading issues consistent with their tariff. The PUCN ordered the company to reprice customers accounts at $3.47 per 1,000 gallons between January and October 2016, and improve customer service relations.

The repricing would exclude commercial customers, those with previous adjustments on their bills, and customers with smart water meters, the PUNC said.

GBWC appealed the decision in Oct. 5. It was rejected Nov. 8 by the PUCN.

Barnett further stated in her letter to customers that the water company is planning to seek judicial review of the matter.

The petition for judicial review does not seek to evade our responsibility for the meter reading issue the summer of 2016, Barnett said. Rather, it is primarily focused on how repricing is calculated.
Three people died and seven others were injured after two cars collided on Mumbai-Pune Expressway on Wednesday. The accident took place near Khalapur in Raigad district, around 35 km from Panvel.

The police said, nine students of a Thane school were going on a picnic in a theme park at Khalapur when the incident occurred.

As they were crossing Kumbivli village near Khalapur around 9.30 am, Shah lost control on the wheel. The car first rammed into a divider and then crashed into a car. While six of the students suffered injuries, two of them  Subham Borade, 19, and Amit Tawde, 19  died.

Three people were travelling in the other car. One of them  51-year-old Anand Parikh  died in the accident and the other two suffered injuries. The injured were rushed to MGM hospital in Kamothe. The condition of one students, Subham Palande, 19, deteriorated and he was shifted to the ICU. The other five suffered minor injuries and were discharged after a few hours, said SB Thakur, police sub-inspector from Khalapur police station.

The bodies of the deceased were sent to a government hospital in Khalapur for postmortem and were later delivered to their respective families. The postmortem reports are yet to come. Thakur said, The students who suffered injuries have told us that their car had suffered a tyre blast just a few seconds before the accident.

The police have booked Adil Shah, 18, one of the students who was driving the car.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
A five-year-old girl was killed in a road accident on Tuesday, after an unidentified vehicle hit her while she was playing near Balkun service road at Thane.

The deceased, Chetna Rathod is a resident of Thane.

According to police, Rathod was playing near the service road when the driver of the unidentified vehicle lost control and hit her from behind. She flung into air and hit the road suffering deep injuries.

While the driver fled from the spot, Rathods father with help from passersby, rushed her to the hospital, but she succumbed to her injuries, said a police officer from Kapurbawdi police station.

Passersby could not note down the number of the vehicle that hit Rathod since the accident happened in fraction of seconds, he added.

Police said that they are going through the CCTV cameras of all nearby areas to track the accused.

A case under relevant sections of the IPC and Motor Vehicle Act has been registered at the Kapurbawdi police station.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
The year 2017 saw drug lords take special interest in Mumbai: while nearly seven times more cocaine was seized in the city this year, the amount of Amphetamine confiscated grew 16 times, revealed statistics released by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).

From 2.6 kg last year, cocaine seized this year increased to 17.87 kg till December 18, seized amphetamine (commonly called speed) hiked from 1.98 kg to 31.16 kg, Ephedrine from no seizure to 29.3 kg, pseudoephedrine from 3 kg to 5 kg and cough syrup from 54 bottles to 281 bottles.

The quantity of other drugs like cannabis (charas) dropped from 120.16 kg to 60.5 kg. Drugs which had not been seized the previous year but saw seizures this year are marijuana (46.700 kg), mephedrone (1.214 kg) and methaqualone (1.05 kg). There were certain drugs which were not seized this year like heroin (1.720 kg seized last year), alprazolam tablets (19 strips) and spasmoxyvon (20 strips).

Cocaine which is sourced from Latin American countries is a costly drug, while amphetamine is a party drug which is one of the most dangerous, said SK Sinha, zonal director, NCB, told HT. The effort is to not run away from the drug problem but to find solutions.

Drugs like cannabis are also sourced locally from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

In total, cases of drug seizures jumped to 24 this year from 2016s 17. This indicates that drug abuse remains a serious issue. NCB said amphetamine is highly addictive and may lead to depression, suicidal tendencies and used in parties to enhance stamina. The health implications are far worse as extreme addiction can lead to death.

The bureau said social stigma attached to the drugs has to be wiped out. When we approach certain institutions for awareness campaigns, they are worried that putting up posters may hamper their image. Families tend to hide the reason behind hospitalisation of addicts and hence many things dont come out in the open for us to reach the root cause, said Sinha.

To find the root cause of the drug menace, the officer said the government is formulating a plan to study and track drug cartels and their circulation module. Unlike in movies where there is just one drug lord, the reality is that there are multiple players. A cancerous chain circulates drugs, said Sinha.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
The state Assembly on Wednesday cleared an amendment in the Maharashtra Slum Areas Act, 1971, to enable the government to provide houses to ineligible slumdwellers residing in hutments built until January 1, 2011. This means around 3.5 lakh hutments (18 lakh people) in Mumbai will get houses under the central governments ambitious Housing for All initiative. The catch: They will have to pay the construction cost before getting possession.

Under the current legal provisions, those living in slums built until January 1, 2000, get legal protection. And they cant be removed without a free rehabilitation tenement. The Bombay high court refused to allow the government to extend this deadline. The amendment passed by the Assembly, however, will give some legal protection to slumdwellers who have built shanties beyond the 2000 cut-off date.

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said the deadline of 2011 was set because the census was undertaken that year. It is true the cut-off date for the rehabilitation of slumdwellers in pukka houses is January 1, 2000. The government was committed to provide houses to all by 2022. The ineligible slumdwellers will be given houses either on an in-situ basis or relocated according to the availability of the space. The scheme will be applicable to all the slums in the state, he said.

The government will provide houses to these slumdwellers by charging construction cost with assistance from the Central Governments Prime Minister Awas Yojana. The Act also empowers the chief executive officer of the Slum Rehabilitation Authority to decide on transfer of land and rehabilitation of residents.

Although the state government has assured the courts it would not extend the cut-off date from January 1, 2000, officials from the housing department feel the amendment would not be a violation of this assurance because the slumdwellers are being charged for tenements. However, there are chances the dwellers would resist any action against them when they become eligible for a rehabilitation tenement.
The outcome of the Gujarat assembly elections has a lesson for the main Opposition parties in Maharashtra, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP): Mere dependence on caste mobilisation wont guarantee success. They will have to work on other issues if they want to defeat the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The result of the Gujarat assembly polls shows the Congress could damage the BJP because of the mobilisation of Patidar community and Other Backward Classes (OBC). It was a major reason why the Congress put up its best performance in Gujarat since 1985 and the BJP could not cross the 100-seat mark. Still, the BJP managed to retain power. The results also showed that all Patidar or OBC voters did not respond to the appeal by community leaders Hardik Patel and Alpesh Thakore respectively to vote for the Congress.

For instance, in the Saurashtra region, the impact of Patidar agitation could be felt, as the Congress won 28 out of 48 seats. The BJP could win 19. This area is dominated by the Patidar community, but the rural distress seems to have been an equally important factor for Congress scoring over BJP here. On the other hand, in the diamond-textile hub of Surat, where Patidar voters are in sizeable numbers, the Congress did not perform well.

The BJP retained all of its 12 seats in Surat city and neighbouring areas. In all, it won 15 seats in Surat district and Congress just one. Surat was the nerve centre of the Patidar community agitation for reservation in government jobs and education. Some other areas that have Patidars in significant numbers too elected BJP candidates. Insiders from both Congress and BJP say the OBC community was split in its support. The Thakore community did support the Congress, but the BJP succeeded in wooing other castes among the OBCs that were not happy with Congress-promoting Alpesh Thakore.

The Patidar agitation has parallels with the Marathas in Maharashtra. The community held massive rallies last year demanding reservation. Various Congress-NCP leaders were seen openly supporting Maratha community mobilisation in a bid to politically damage the BJP. However, the municipal and district council elections showed the BJP performed well, as OBC and Dalit communities reacted to the Maratha mobilisation.

The Congress and the NCP have been hoping that the discontent among Marathas would be a key factor in wresting power from the BJP in the 2019 assembly polls. There have been efforts to revive the Maratha agitation and some community outfits have already convened a meeting to work out the same.

If opposition parties become active in such a mobilisation, it would be counter-productive, say experts. First, the entire community may not support a particular party. Further, given the tussle for power between the Marathas and the OBCswho are about 40% in Maharashtrathe latter may tilt towards the BJP. This will turn into an advantage for the BJP.

We are analyzing the Gujarat results. It is clear we cant take up cudgels for one community. However, the Maratha community has been politically dominant in the state, and them going against the BJP will upset lot of calculations for the ruling party,said a key Congress leader who did not want to be named since the issue is politically sensitive.

There are limits to a social coalition like this. The Congress-NCP will have to work as an effective opposition, raise the issues that bother the people and also project strong local leadership to win the election,opined political analyst B Venkatesh Kumar.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) told the Bombay high court on Wednesday that it was yet to recover 13,126 square meters of constructed area from the redevelopers of 50 cessed buildings in the island city.

Mhadas lawyer told the court that criminal complaints had been filed against 29 developers, who had failed to hand over the surplus area. He said show cause notices were issued to four other developers who were at fault.

The lawyer told a division bench of justices Naresh Patil and Nitin Sambre that Mhada has received 31,326 sqm in connection wtih 153 projects involving the redevelopment of cessed buildings, and Rs38 crore by way of premium towards lesser surrendered areas.

He said the housing authority expects to receive 90,258 sqm from 150 redevelopment projects that are ongoing, and 46,481 sqm from 106 projects that are yet to start.

He was responding to a public interest litigation filed by a Mumbaiite Kamlakar Shenoy, who said Mhada officials had deliberately not taken possession of 2.70 lakh sqm constructed area, which according to him, is valued at Rs14,000 crore.

His lawyer, advocate Chaitanya Pendse, explained that for redevelopment of every cessed building  old tenanted buildings in Mumbai city  additional floor space index (FSI) is provided to the builder to make the redevelopment commercially viable. Against this, Mhada also gets prescribed share in terms of constructed area in these buildings. Pendse said Mhada officials deliberately did not take possession of the authoritys share in these redeveloped buildings. He said they did this purportedly to cause undue benefit to the developers, thereby causing wrongful loss to the authority.

According to an affidavit filed by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), so far 457 projects have been approved for redevelopment of cessed buildings under which Mhada was supposed to get 1,98,646 sqm of constructed area.

Out of these, 149 projects are complete and Mhada has already received 37,292 sqm of constructed area and compensation of Rs37.54 crores, the affidavit adds. It states that substantial portion of the Mhada share  1,41,803 square meters  is to come from 260 projects which are either on-going or stalled because of various reasons.
An 11-year-old girl was allegedly suffocated to death after her mother tried to cure her of a digestive disorder using black magic in Virar (East). The girls parents, Meenakshi Bhekre and Ambaji, and her aunt were arrested and remanded in police custody on Wednesday.

Jayant Bajbale, deputy superintendent of Virar police, said the incident took place at 2.30am on Monday when Saniya was sleeping in her house on the fourth floor of Jivdani Prasanna Apartments in Manvelpada.

According to the police, Saniya, a Class 6 student, could not pass stool or urinate for three days. Chanting mantras, Meenakshi and her sister Madhuri Shinde first sprinkled turmeric and red chilli powder on the girl. Her father was overlooking the act. While Shinde pinned the girl down, Meenakshi covered her mouth with one hand and inserted the fingers of the other hand in her rectum. After this, when Saniya stopped responding, the family panicked and took her to Sanjeevani Hospital in Virar, said an officer from Virar police.

Doctors declared her brought dead and issued an interim post-mortem report that stated that she had died of heart attack, said the officer. At the time, the police registered a case of accidental death, and her family took Saniyas body to Raigad and cremated her. However, in the evening, the final post-mortem was released, which stated that the girl had injury marks on her private parts, said Bajbale.

The police then registered a case under sections 302 (murder) and 202 (hiding information) of the Indian Penal Code. The victims parents and aunt were arrested on Tuesday. Her brother was briefly detained and questioned.

Bajbale said the police may add another charge under the Maharashtra Anti-black Magic Act.
A day after a major fire broke out at an illegal snack-making unit at Sakinaka in Andheri (East), which killed 12 workers and injured one, the Mumbai civic body decided to start inspecting shops that double up as small-scale industries. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will concentrate on units in slums and congested alleys, where norms for fire safety and basic ventilation are neglected.

In addition, to the crackdown, deputy municipal commissioner zone 5, Bharat Marathe, has asked the local ward office (Kurla) to survey the entire Khairani Road in Sakinaka where the incident took place for such units. There are many small-scale units which are thriving in congested alleys and on Khairani Road. I have asked ward officer to survey all such properties and submit a report at earliest.

Marathe has also asked for a report from the sanitary inspector, whose job included inspecting such units and penalizing them. Bhanu Farsan, the shop which caught fire and minutes later collapsed, stored large quantity of eatables, three large diesel stoves and LPG gas cylinders. This led to massive amounts of smoke, intense heat and spread of fire in the illegal loft where 12 workers were stuck. This shop which was functional for over one year had not taken any permission from the civic body.

Ajit Kumar Ambi, assistant municipal commissioner, had said, The civic body had not received an application requesting permission to operate a shop or small-scale factory here.

After the Kinara tragedy in 2015, which had killed eight youngsters, the civic body had found a leak and accumulation of LPG from defective main valve, which came in contact with unknown ignition source and led to a disastrous fire. After that, the BMC had undertaken massive drives across the city for seizure of illegal gas cylinders and made it mandatory for hotels to get a fire complaint certificate. However, in the drive, shops in slums, which also worked as manufacturing units were left out. BMC is now looking into the existing guidelines to empower officials to directly enter such snacks shop for inspection. Orders for that are expected today.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
While the online assessment for semester exams started at a slow pace, fuelling worries about a repeat of the last semesters results delay, officials of the University of Mumbai (MU) have said it will be completed soon.

Although less than 25% answer sheets have been assessed in the past six weeks, MU said everything was under control.

Teachers are all busy with supervision duty and lectures during the day, so the number of teachers registering for assessment duty is a little low at present. But with colleges ready to break for Christmas holidays, more teachers can focus on assessment, said Arjun Ghatule, acting director, Board of Examination and Evaluation, MU.

Out of 13,000 teachers eligible for assessment duty this semester, Ghatule said that almost 10,000 teachers have already registered for duty.

According to information shared by MU officials in October, 2017, assessment duty was supposed to take off within a week of the exams ending which did not happen. In a series of articles, HT has highlighted how the assessment of papers certain subjects did not begin till almost four weeks after the examination.

More than 10 lakh answer booklets have already been scanned and another three-and-a half lakh answer booklets will follow. We are sure this process will speed up ,said Ghatule.

However, colleges are not convinced. Most of my teachers have just finished assessment of first and second year examinations. After supervision and lectures, they hardly have time. It is also unfair to expect teachers to give up their holidays for work year after year, said Marie Fernandes, principal of St Andrews College, Bandra.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
The state government on Wednesday said new schools can tie up with public grounds in the vicinity.

The Assembly on Wednesday cleared a bill allowing corporate houses registered as non-profit companies to start primary and secondary schools. The amendment in the Maharashtra Self-Financed Schools Act reduced the land required to start a school from 2,000sqm to 500sqm in Mumbai, and from 2 acres to 1 acre in rural areas.

Legislators, including former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, raised objections to amendment, saying schools will be opened without playgrounds and sufficient open space.

Responding to the debate, education minister Vinod Tawde said, The schools will be allowed to tie up with the public grounds. They cannot charge exorbitant fee as they will be governed under the Fee Regulation Act. We will make consent of 75% members of PTA mandatory.

Tawde also announced plans to make Marathi-medium schools run by municipal corporations and district councils into international schools.

Meanwhile, members of the business advisory committee of the state legislature recommended holding monsoon session in Nagpur, instead of winter, parliamentary affairs minister Girish Bapat told the Assembly.
A special POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) court, on Wednesday, granted bail to businessman Vikas Sachdeva, arrested for allegedly molesting a 17-year-old national award-winning actor in a flight. The bail has been granted on a surety of Rs25,000.

Sachdeva, a resident of Chandivli, was arrested on December 10 by the Sahar police after the actor alleged that he had molested her on a flight. According to the complainant, she was travelling from Delhi to Mumbai on December 9 when the incident occurred. She claimed that he put his leg on her armrest and rubbed his foot against her shoulder and neck repeatedly.

After the plane landed, she posted a video on social media describing her ordeal. After the post went viral, the Sahar police approached the girl at a private hotel. An FIR was registered against him under section 354 of the IPC (Indian Penal Code) and section 8 of the POCSO Act on Sunday.

Sachdevas lawyer contended that the allegations were not realistic, owing to the distance between the seats in business class. The prosecutor opposed Sachdevs bail plea on the grounds that he may threaten the witness.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Former chief minister Narayan Rane is expected to be inducted into the state Cabinet soon, during its proposed reshuffle. It could happen within a week, indicated sources in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), after he met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at Nagpur on Tuesday evening.

Ranes induction had been delayed as the Shiv Sena is dead opposed to the plan, and the BJP was in no mood for a tussle close to the Gujarat Assembly elections. The party leadership had also put on hold the proposed Cabinet reshuffle for the same reason. Now that the results are out, the reshuffle is back on the agenda for the BJP leadership in the state.

Rane will surely be inducted into the state Cabinet. The experience of stalwart leaders like him and former revenue minister Eknath Khadse is valuable for us. The Cabinet reshuffle will happen soon, Fadnavis told reporters on Tuesday morning. There is no reason for the Shiv Sena to oppose Rane being part of the Cabinet as he will be inducted from the BJP quota.

Speaking to HT, Rane said: I called on the chief minister to congratulate him for his partys victory in Gujarat elections. We discussed the reshuffle, and he said it would take place before December 31. We did not discuss the portfolio.

Ranes induction has been on the cards ever since he quit the Congress and floated his own political outfit as part of an understanding between him and the BJP in October.

Sources in the state government said the reshuffle may take place early next week after a final go-ahead from the BJP leadership in Delhi.

Other than Rane, a few new faces are likely to be inducted, to replace those based on their performance over the past three years. Sources said Fadnavis had discussed the matter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi when they met in Mumbai on December 14.
The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) on Wednesday upped its ante against Yash Raj Films (YRF), the producer of Salman Khan-starrer Tiger Zinda Hai, threatening that it would not allow the production house to shoot any of its films in Maharashtra in the future, if it did not concede prime-time space to Marathi movie Deva.

Among the costliest films produced under the YRF banner, Tiger Zinda Hai is scheduled to release across India this Friday.

Ameya Khopkar, president of the MNS film workers union, alleged that YRF has been arm-twisting multiplexes to show their film on the maximum number of screens, thereby pushing Deva out of cinema halls. If Deva does not get prime-time space, we will not allow YRF to shoot anywhere in the state, warned Khopkar. YRF is dictating terms to multiplex owners and trying to deny a chance to Marathi films, and that too in Maharashtra. We will not allow this at any cost.

Khopkar said he has talked to the states cultural affairs and Marathi language minister Vinod Tawde, asking him to intervene and take action against multiplexes and single-screen theatres that do not screen the Marathi movie.

READ: MNS threatens protest against Salman Khans Tiger Zinda Hai, demands screen space for Marathi films

The state government should cancel the licences of theatre owners if they give Marathi films a stepmotherly treatment, the MNS leader said. As per the conditions laid down for issuing licences to multiplexes, it is mandatory for them to screen Marathi movies.

Actor Ankush Chaudhari, who plays the lead role in Deva, said that currently the Marathi film has very few options. There have been many instances when both Marathi and Hindi films have been screened simultaneously, and both have done well. But here, we are hardly getting any theatres because of the producers pressure tactics, he said.

Meanwhile, Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam has criticised Raj Thackerays party for its threats, calling it a classic example of MNS goondaism. These threats of violence against YRF and theatre owners are aimed at politicising the issue and are for ulterior gains, said Nirupam. If the MNS has a problem, it should take it to the state government instead of issuing threats.

As the police machinery has proved ineffective against the MNS in the past, Nirupam said, theatre owners should be allowed to deploy private security personnel.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has called the row a match-fixing exercise planned by Thackeray and Salman Khan. They are good friends, and this is just a promotional activity they have undertaken. It keeps both the film and the MNS in the news, said NCP leader Nawab Malik.

This is not the first time that the MNS has taken on Bollywood and its big-ticket producers. In September 2016, following the Uri attack in which 18 army jawans were killed, the MNS issued a 48-hour ultimatum to Pakistani artistes to leave India.

After the deadline, party workers launched an agitation outside filmmaker Karan Johars Andheri office as he had defended his casting of Fawad Khan, a Pakistani national, in his movie. However, later, the MNS allowed Johars Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and Shah Rukh Khans Raees, both of which featured Pakistani artists, to be screened after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis intervened.
Noisy scenes and pandemonium prevailed in the Maharashtra state Assembly on Tuesday when members from across the Opposition as well as Treasury benches trooped to the well of the House to protest and counter protest remarks against senior Congress member Asif Naseem Khan over trifurcation of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation for better supervision.

Khan drew the Houses attention to the fire incident and said there was a need to appoint three municipal commissioners. Soon members from treasury benches were on their toes accusing him of talking about trifurcation of Mumbai. The House was first adjourned for 10 minutes and later for 30 minutes.

Mentioning about the workload on the BMC, Khan proposed the division of Mumbai civic body into three parts  Mumbai city, Mumbai suburb (East) and Mumbai suburb (West) on the line of Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

Highlighting the fire incident in Mumbai on Monday, Khan said nowadays such incidents are frequent in Mumbai. The Mumbai civic body has proved to be totally incapable of handling such incidents. It is important that civic body takes precautionary measures so that such incidents can be avoided in future, and for that, it is necessary that the workload on Mumbai Municipal Corporation is lessened. Hence, I put forth this demand of Mumbais Trifurcation, he suggested.

The BJP and Shiv Sena MLAs expressed strong opposition to the trifurcation and asked to dismiss the topic.

BJPs Ashish Shelar, Raj Purohit and others accused Khan of trying to create a rift and trifurcate Mumbai which they said would not be allowed.

As noisy protests continued, BJP leader Subhash Sabne made a derogatory remark against Khan which worsened the situation and Opposition members, Yashomati Thakur, Virendra Jagtap, Sunil Kedar and others stormed in the well of the house. Soon treasury benches led by Shelar, Purohit and others also marched to the Podium and raised slogans against Khan castigating him.

The Speaker then adjourned the House for 10 minutes. When the House reassembled there was no respite from noisy scenes and finally Speaker adjourned the House for half an hour to end the stalemate.
For people travelling along SV Road in Santacruz, one bus is too many. The area is one of the busiest during peak hours owing to its proximity to the railway station.

Buses of a private school parked along SV Road are a regular sight. They are parked irregularly, obstructing traffic.

Some of the buses are parked at National College bus stop in old Khar and leave together, resembling a convoy. Bus drivers do not follow traffic rules and end up blocking the entire lane for several metres, said Surendra Khubchandani, a Santacruz resident. In several meeting with traffic officials, residents complained about the bus menace, but have received little cooperation from the department.

Inspector Jeevan Kharat, Santacruz traffic division, refused to comment on the issue.

If educational institute is allowed to behave in such a manner, what about the larger population? asked Khubchandani

Apart from residents, newly elected corporator Hetal Gala is also no stranger to the problem.

They used to park their buses on Saraswati Marg, but have also started doing so on SV Road. Buses are parked for as long as 30 minutes. We have asked the traffic department to deploy policemen to rein in bus drivers. But officials are yet to take action against them, said Gala.

The school is coming up with a parking area in its basement. It may help in solving the year-long problem, said Gala. In November, Gala volunteered and cleared traffic for half an hour. I have been a corporator only for eight months and suffered because of the parking menace, just like other residents, said Gala.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Patients may soon be able to buy medicines in smaller quantities rather than buying entire strips. In a recent letter, Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) asked Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to reduce the size of packets so that patients can buy dosage as prescribed by their physicians.

Chemists associations and doctors welcomed the move, saying it will prevent wastage and abuse of medicines. Experts said people with lifestyle diseases and psychological disorders will benefit because they are currently forced to buy packets of medicines.

Patients were forced to buy entire packets because pharmacists were unable to cut the entire strips. Cutting the strips often results in loss of name, batch number or expiry date. So we suggested that DGCI to introduce smaller packets bearing mandatory details, said Arjun Khadtare, FDA joint commissioner (Drugs).

Pallavi Darade, FDA commissioner, said they had received complaints from consumers across Mumbai and Thane about pharmacists selling entire packets instead of doses prescribed by physician.

We raised the issue during our workshops with pharmacists and they informed us that major problem was expiry date and name of the medicine, which were getting cut if they dispensed smaller quantities. We havent specified any particular type of medicine, but medication for lifestyle diseases and common ailments such as cough and cold can certainly be added to the category, said Darade.

FDA officials said as the enforcement agency under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, the DCGI can amend existing norms for medicine packages.

Schedule P1 - relating to package norms- can enforce smaller packaging guidelines. If our appeal is approved, DCGI can add more medicines under P1 category and issue a notification for pharmaceutical companies which in turn shall change the packaging of the drugs, said officials.

Members from chemist associations said for the past four years, pharmaceutical companies started increasing the size of packets to increase sale and profits.

Strips which had 10 pills, now have 60 pills. The information about the medicine such as its generic name, price, manufacturer details and expiry date is scattered all over the packet owing to which we couldnt dispense smaller quantities, said Prasad Danve, president, retail and dispensing, chemist association, Mumbai.

Experts said medicines for psychiatry treatment, mostly antidepressants and sleeping pills, which either come in pack of ten or fifteen, can be misused.

At times we prescribe medicines for acute anxiety or depression for only three or four days, but since the strip contains 10 to 15 pills, it can potentially be misused by patients. Its a good move, but the government shouldnt completely abolish bigger packets because that can be cumbersome for elderly patients who have been on this medication for too long, said Dr Parul Tank, consultant psychiatrist and therapist, Wockhardt Hospital.

However, some of the experts said it was better to counsel patients rather than change the size of packets to contain the issue of drug abuse or antibiotic resistance.

Patients are most likely to stop taking medication once their symptoms subside, which is one of the major reasons of antibiotic resistance. The issue of drug abuse can be curbed better by counselling patients to complete their dosage and use it effectively to treat their ailments and not symptoms, said Dr Om Srivastava, infectious disease expert.
Superstition has scared away successive UP chief ministers from visiting the states urban hub  Noida  as it is widely believed that whoever visits the area, loses power.

On Tuesday when chief minister Yogi Adityanath announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the Noida Metro on December 25, political circles were agog to know whether the monk-turned-politician would break the Noida jinx and visit it.

However, a senior state government officer confirmed that Yogi will be present at the flag-off function. The Noida administration immediately started preparation, on war footing, for the visit of the PM and CM.

The Noida Metro will cut the travel time between Noida and South Delhi, the officer, who did not want to be named, said.

Though Noida or Gautam Budh Nagar district had been developed from a cluster of small villages into the prime economic zone of the state, it has remained no-go-zone for the UP CMs.

After becoming CM in March, Yogi announced that he will visit all the 75 districts of the state to review law and order. In May he launched a whirlwind tour of the state but avoided Noida.

A BJP leader said since the review meetings were held at divisional headquarters, Yogi did not visit the urban hub.

Speaking in the legislative assembly on Tuesday, Yogi said the government will showcase Noida Metro as a development model and commitment of the state government to provide better transportation facilities. He said works on Kanpur and Agra Metros will also start soon.

In his five-year term, Yogis predecessor Akhilesh Yadav stayed away from Noida. He did not attend the Asian Development Bank Summit organized in May 2013 though Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was the chief guest.

He launched the Rs 3,300 crore development projects, including access to six-lane Yamuna Expressway, through video link from Lucknow. The family members of Dadri lynching victim Mohammad Ikhlaq were brought to Lucknow to meet Akhilesh.

Akhileshs predecessors, including his father Mulayam Singh Yadav, Kalyan Singh and Rajnath Singh too avoided Noida. Even their rallies were organized in neighbouring Ghaziabad, Meerut, Bulandshahar and Mathura but not in Noida.

The so-called Noida jinx took root after then chief minister Veer Bahadur Singh was asked to step down in June 1988 by the central leadership. Interestingly, he had returned from Noida, when asked to step down.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati braved the superstition during her term as CM (2007-12) and attended programmes organized by the state government in Noida. When BSP lost power in the 2012 assembly election, the Noida jinx was back in the news.

CM Warns builders of action

Yogi said his government was committed to provide respite to homebuyers waiting for their flats in Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority area.

Warning the builders, he said they are exploiting homebuyers and the government will not tolerate their wrong doing. Action will be taken against builders who have cheated the people, he said.

The government will divide builders into three categories -- builders who give possession to buyers on time, builders who take time to give possession of houses and defaulter and corrupt builders.

The government has decided to get audit done of the defaulters. The state government is committed to provide 50,000 houses to buyers, he said.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
There is a perception that the police is not for the common man. While it is wrong to generalise, the blame squarely lies on the police for cultivating such an image.

On September 20, Igor Polikha, the Ukraine ambassador in India, was obliging a youth with a selfie near the Red Fort when the youth snatched the ambassadors mobile phone and fled. Polikha lodged a complaint with the police, who immediately swung into action. On the basis of inputs given by the ambassador, a sketch of the criminal was made and it was circulated in the area; over a 100 men were questioned. Two days later, the mobile phone was recovered.

In November 2015, Peter, an alumni of Delhis St Stephens College, lost his mobile phone while travelling on the Delhi Metro. Efforts to lodge an FIR proved futile until one of his classmates, an IAS officer, spoke to a colleague in the Delhi Police. While registering the case, the SHO made it clear that the mobile would not be traced.

According to the ministry of home affairs, 36,217 cases of mobile thefts were reported in Delhi during 2016, and 10,497 cases were reported till February. Of these, the Delhi Police has claimed credit for recovering 72! It is estimated that seven mobile phones are stolen every hour in the national capital.

On February 7, Noble laureate Kailash Satyarthis house was burgled in the wee hours when Satyarthi was away. An FIR was lodged the same morning, the Delhi Police swung into action and in five days arrested the criminals and recovered the stolen items, which included a replica of the Nobel Prize.

On October 12, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwals car was stolen from outside the Delhi Secretariat. Two days later, the stolen car was recovered from Mohan Nagar in Ghaziabad.

Data shows that 38,644 vehicle thefts were reported in 2016. The figure till June this year is 17,949. However, the number of recoveries of stolen vehicles is dismal. On an average four of the 100 stolen vehicles are recovered.

There are many instances where the police have succeeded in apprehending criminals when top politicians or bureaucrats are the affected parties. Sadly this efficiency is missing when the aam aadmi, the common man, is the petitioner. The police reluctantly get active in such cases if the media highlights the case.

This lackadaisical attitude dents the image of the police and brands it as corrupt, especially because in many cases complaints are not taken seriously until palms are greased.

These are examples of how technology is not optimally used to track criminals and prevent crimes. While the police trace criminals through the mobiles they use, the same effort is not put in to trace mobile phones that are stolen. If the stolen mobile phone is kept on surveillance for some time, it can be recovered and the thief can be nabbed. Of course criminals these days devise means to evade such measures, but, a determined effort can solve such cases. The public perception is that the police is hand in glove with criminals and hence they do not act on such cases.

The crime rate is bound to dip when criminals are apprehended and put behind the bars. It is time that the police put an end to rattling off crime figures and data, and seriously get down to solving even petty crimes. When stolen items are recovered and restored to the victims, the goodwill it creates will go a long way in improving the image of the police among the public.

A crime, whether major or petty, is indeed a crime. It is the duty of the police to apprehend criminals and make society a safe place for everyonesafe for the khaas aadmi and the aam aadmi.

MP Nathanael is Inspector General of Police (Retd), CRPF

The views expressed are personal
Kerala has a problem. Many in fact. And the latest is the row over a hug between two students in a school in Thiruvananthapuram, Keralas capital.

A Class 12 boy hugs a Class 11 girl congratulating her for her recital of a Western song. A teacher takes objection to the long hug as it violates school discipline. The school management summons the parents of the two students and allegedly humiliates and threatens them. The Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights supports the students, but the Kerala High Court is convinced by the schools argument. Sadly, the high courts decision in this case is disappointing.

Kerala, the large urban village that it is, is struggling to co-exist with the modernity it aspires to achieve without letting go of the petty prudishness it prides itself on. The controversial hug reflects this struggle.

Not long ago, a police chief in Kerala suggested that a man staring at a woman for more than 14 seconds could land in jail. Now a long hug can be problematic.

Kerala, it would seem, has a multiple personality disorder, more like the three characters actor Vikram plays in the 2005 Tamil/Hindi film Anniyan. Kerala can be regressively puritanical, ambitiously progressive and mindlessly violent, all at the same time.

How else can one explain the following: Kerala has the highest alcohol consumption per capita in India, but, the state, its government and people alike, refuses to acknowledge that it has a drinking problem. At the height of the beef ban controversy across India, Kerala was one of the few places that held beef fests to stress the importance of the freedom of choice. Yet, a majority in the state didnt bat an eyelid at the cruel ways adopted to address the stray dog menace. The 2014 Kiss of Love protests, against moral policing, started in Kerala, but the state was quick to accept the love jihad bogey, the Hadiya case being an example. Kerala has the envious distinction of voting to power one of the earliest elected communist governments in the world  but it is also home to many ultra-orthodox religious groups.

This long hug controversy is also a manifestation of a fundamental flaw that runs through the fully literate state  fake morality. Kerala is the first state to unveil a transgender policy in 2015, yet, many of the transgenders employed by the Kochi Metro quit allegedly because they were unable to deal with the social stigma. A sex ratio of 1.084 is a matter of pride, but on womens safety it has a long way to go. A good indicator of this is to check how many women use public transport or even access public places on their own after sundown. The International Film Festival of Kerala showcases the best, even avant-garde, cinema from across the world, yet theres a regressive honour in many men deeming it their duty to protect women and restrict their world to the four walls of the house.

All these reflect a hypocrisy in society that Kerala is in denial about. Until the problem is acknowledged there can be little progress towards becoming a truly enlightened and empowered society.

The inflated egos and misplaced sense of morality must not come in the way of the academic goals of two students. Till then, let children be free to express their emotions without fake morality coming into the picture.

@VijuCherian

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
A number of TV commentators on Monday night accused the Congress of outsourcing its poll mobilisation in Gujarat and consequently failing to clinch a victory despite 22 years of BJP rule. Although outsourcing is an unhappy term, there is some substance in what they wanted to convey, namely, the national partys dependence on three young community leaders in the state. Implied in this was the reality that the Congress had no acceptable or popular face in Gujarat and hence could only hope that the troika of Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mevani would not only herd crowds to Rahul Gandhis rallies but also drive people to the booths on polling day. How far the Congresss hopes materialised is difficult to guess but the fact that the BJPs tally was significantly pushed down while the Congresss went up, suggests that the tie-up was not a disaster unlike say, the alliance with the Samajwadi Party in UP or the CPI(M) in West Bengal.

But it was probably a flawed idea to coalesce almost informally with three loosely organised caste groupings. None of the three leaders had a party tagged to their name and hence could not ensure that their supporters were herded to polling booths. Even Hardik Patel, the most popular face among the three, appealed to his Patidar followers merely to vote out the BJP. For the Congress, the strategy could have worked had they campaigned together, presenting a united political front and, therefore, provided a clear choice to the electorate. It appears that Hardik Patel did not risk antagonising those sections of his community which traditionally voted BJP and thus his appeal to them was, in effect, rather vague. Alpesh Thakor actually joined the Congress but it is doubtful how much he could deliver as OBCs are a fractured lot, scattered all over the state and Thakor is yet to emerge as their undisputed leader.

The Left-leaning Jignesh Mevani had an easier task, considering that scheduled castes have always voted mostly for the Congress. It is possible, however, that helped by the Una outrage, he successfully thwarted the Dalits drift towards the BJP which was most pronounced in the last UP assembly elections. This drift was a fall out of the BJPs, particularly, its president Amit Shahs aggressive drive to woo the scheduled castes all over the country which has yielded dividends for the party in varying degrees.

The absence of strategists of the calibre of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah in the Congress may mean that Rahul Gandhi wont be able to hold on to the limited gains he has made in this election. Clearly all the three community leaders are hesitant to fully embrace the Congress and may not go beyond a tentative hug. The extent to which Hardik Patel went to contradict reports that he had met Rahul Gandhi in a Ahmedabad hotel reinforces this assessment.

In a sense, this is not the fault of the Congress and its newly-elected president. The party lacks a credible local leadership, which was a major reason for its inability to pip the BJP to the post. As any keen observer of the way politics works in India would aver, it is important for leaders of different parties to establish a personal rapport as a prelude to any long-term understanding. The Congress in Gujarat lacks leaders of the necessary stature to take a relationship with other groups forward. But in case Rahul Gandhi can apply his mind to overcoming this deficiency and promote a credible local leadership, it would help both the partys own standing and also cement equations with such quasi-political groups. That could enable the Congress to pose a very serious challenge to the BJP in 2019.

But that alone will not help. As Amit Shah and Arun Jaitley were at pains to emphasise on Tuesday evening, the BJPs vote share actually went up this time although it won fewer seats than in 2012. A 7% gap in a two-party scenario is enough to spell a clear victory for one with the larger share even if quirks of the first-past-the-post system result in that partys failure to garner a corresponding number of seats. So the BJP cannot rest on its laurels if Prime Minister Modi is to hold on to his unbroken record of winning all assembly and a majority of Lok Sabha seats since 1995.

This time, the BJP made significant inroads into the Schedule Tribe votes, hitherto a virtual monopoly of the Congress. The combined effect of the BJPs outreach and the consistent work of the RSSs Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram finally delivered the ST votes that had always eluded the BJPs kitty. That explains the reason for the partys sixth triumph in a row despite farmer discontent and traders unrest over certain economic reforms of the central government.

While the BJP is certain to tweak its policies to win over disgruntled sections and also deploy its large cadre base for this task, a reinvigorated Congress will go all out sensing a chance to finally humble the BJPs in its so far impregnable fortress.

Chandan Mitra is editor of The Pioneer and has been two-time Rajya Sabha MP from the BJP

The views expressed are personal
The first high-power electric locomotive assembled at the Madhepura factory in Bihar is likely to roll out on February 28, 2018. If sources are to be believed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag-off the roll out in the presence of railway minister in New Delhi.

The 12,000HP (horsepower) locomotive will haul the speed of trains up to 150kmph.

The first electric locomotive, assembled at Madhepura, will be dedicated to the nation on February 28 .Thereafter, four more high-power electric locomotives would roll out from the factory in the fiscal 2018-19, chief spokesperson of East Central Railway (ECR) Rajesh Kumar told HT.

The locomotive factory spread over 250 acres of land at Madhepura, 284 km northeast of state capital Patna, is an Indian Railways joint venture with French giant Alstom and the first major foreign direct investment (FDI) project in the rail sector.

READ| One big ticket project and Bihars cow belt goes loco with a huge investment surge

A team of more than 35 engineers are working day night to assemble the electric engines at factory, set up at an estimated cost of over Rs 20,000 crore. The Indian Railways is looking to manufacture 800 electric train engines in the next 11 years to meet the requirement of locomotives after the electrification of almost all railway routes.

Five locomotives would be assembled at the factory by 2019 and the remaining 795 would be manufactured under the Make in India initiative, Kumar said. The factory would build 100 electric engines per year from the fiscal 2019-20, he added.

The foundation stone for the factory was laid in 2007 by then railway minister Lalu Prasad. The pace of the work at the factory got momentum when the railways awarded the electric locomotive project to Alstom in November 2015.
A 12-year-old differently-abled boy from Pakistan, who crossed over to the Indian territory without any travel documents in May this year, was acquitted by the Juvenile Justice Board at Ferozepur on Tuesday.

Confirming the development, authorities said they will soon start the process for repatriation of the boy, lodged in Faridkot children home.

The Pakistan high commission in New Delhi had earlier written to the ministry of external affairs (MEA) to ensure early release and repatriation of the boy. He was identified as Hasnain, son of Javed Iqbal, a resident of Lahore.

The high commission had also requested the MEA to convey the date of repatriation of Hasnain at the earliest so that necessary arrangements for issuance of his travel documents may be made.

Hasnain became a subject of cross-border speculation following a twitter exchange between Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj.

This happened after Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar tweeted a Geo News report that a Pakistani boy with hearing and speech disabilities was lodged in Amritsar jail, and asked Swaraj to look into the matter.

The Border Security Force (BSF) had detained Hasnain when he crossed over to the Indian side in the Ferozepur sector of Punjab on May 1. He could not speak or hear, and it was only from a currency note in his pocket that they found he was from Pakistan. Two days later, he was sent to childrens observation home.

The police had slapped a slew of charges against the juvenile. He was booked under Sections 3 (punishment of offences committed beyond, but which by law may be tried within India), 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), Section 20 of the Indian Passport Act and Section 14 of the Foreign Act at the police station (Sadar) in Ferozepur.
Air Indias Chandigarh-Bangkok flight will now operate four days a week. Started on December 11, the flight was scheduled for three days  Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It will now fly on Tuesday as well.

About the flight It will operate on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday Bangkok-Chandigarh Departure - 5:40am Arrival- 9:20am Chandigarh-Bangkok Departure - 2pm Arrival- 8:15pm *Respective local times. Thailand time zone is an hour and a half ahead of Indias

We have added Tuesday in our Bangkok schedule after getting good response from the passengers, said Air Indias manager RK Negi. He said booking is already open for the new flight.

Negi said the flight, which has 150 economy class seats and 12 business class seats, had 117 passengers on its first flight. All flights since then have flown with at least 150 customers, with the economy class almost fully occupied.

People of the region prefer to travel from Chandigarh if they are given the option, said Negi, who added that there is no decision yet on further connectivity of the flight to Australia or New Zealand.

Meanwhile, former president of the Mohali industrial association Sanjeev Vashisht said there is a need to have wider connectivity from the airport because of huge demand of people from Punjab and other states.

We should have flights to Europe and US once the runway length is made optimal by the next year, he said.
The Panchkula municipal corporation is heading for bifurcation seven years after it came into existence in March 2010.

A panel appointed by the state government under Ambalas divisional commissioner has recommended a separate corporation for Panchkula city and its surrounding 21 villages and a common civic body for Kalka and Pinjore.

A brief history March 2010: Municipal corporation formed by merging civic bodies of Panchkula, Pinjore and Kalka besides 42 villages October: Punjab and Haryana high court struck down the state governments notification 2011: State government moved Supreme Court June 2013: Maiden election of the corporation held after SCs interim stay July: Upinder Kaur became first mayor February 2015: SC upheld corporation status December 2017: State sets in motion process to rehash the corporation following the demand from partys local legislators

The report suggested that Panchkula city and its catchment fulfils the population criteria (at least 3 lakh) needed to form a corporation. Besides it has enough resources to sustain its expenditure and human resources. As far as Kalka and Pinjore are concerned, they fulfil the required norms for a common municipal council.

The report that was finalised on Tuesday will soon be submitted to the local bodies department before making its way to the state cabinet for the final decision.

Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who was in Panchkula on December 2, too announced that they would take the final decision on the issue keeping in view the ground situation and the cabinet consent.

In case the state finally issues notification on the lines of the committees recommendation, the wards will be carved out again. At present, the corporation has 20 wards, six of which fall in Pinjore and Kalka.

In tune with state norms

The panels recommendation, said sources, is in consonance with the norms of the local bodies department framed in 2010 for abolishing municipal corporation.

Moreover, the need for a separate corporation is emphasised for Panchkula due to its status as Haryanas de facto capital. Also, the city needs to have same synergy with Mohali and Chandigarh in order to strengthen common infrastructure in the tricity.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Partys local legislators were also demanding a similar arrangement.

The Panchkula corporation was formed in March 2010 by merging the then municipal council with municipal committees of Kalka and Pinjore along with 42 villages.

But the move proved unfruitful, forcing Kalka legislator Latika Sharma to formally move a demand before the chief minister last month to exclude her areas of Kalka and Pinjore from the corporation.

Sharma claimed that the areas did not see any development. Her party colleague and Panchkula MLA Gian Chand Gupta too came out in her support and said that the constitution of the corporation in 2010 by the then Congress chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was faulty as it was done just to benefit real estate players in Pinjore area. He said Pinjore and Kalka were unnecessarily merged with the Panchkula civic body to fulfil the population criteria.

In the last MC House meet on December 21, Sharma tabled signatures of people from her constituency in support of her demand, even as the mayor, who belongs to Congress, passed a resolution for status quo.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Three Pakistani nationals, who were held by BSF near the international border after they had inadvertently crossed over into Indian territory, were sent back to their country, an official said on Wednesday.

According to BSF officials, the three Pakistani boys had crossed over to India through BOP Saharan, around 25 km from Amritsar, on Wednesday afternoon. They were identified as Mohhammed Abbas Qaume and Rifaqat Ali of Lahore, and Nishad Ali of Narowal district in Pakistan. All are in their tweeties.

BSF said the trio were noticed at border village Ajnala by BSF patrolling party. On being asked, the Pakistan nationals told BSF they came to see fencing line of India-Pakistan border.

Immediately a flag meeting was arranged and BSF handed over the Pak nationals to Pak rangers, said a senior officer of BSF.

He said, The trio had come to see border but inadvertently crossed over into the Indian territory.

Sources said except three Pakistani phones and SIM cards, and four thousand Pakistani bills, the BSF found nothing suspicious from the trio.
Pawan Kalyan attended the audio launch of Agnyaathavaasi in Hyderabad and charmed fans with an emotional, no nonsense speech Tuesday evening.

He began by thanking everyone for giving him the love and affection he has earned through cinema over the years He also apologised to all those fans who couldnt be accommodated at the venue.

I know a lot of you are standing outside and are hoping to get in. I would like to apologise to each and every one of you. Due to space constraint, we could only accommodate certain number of people. To all my fans, please know that you have bigger place in my heart, Pawan Kalyan said, and added that he never thought hed earn so much love and affection from his fans. For the longest time, Ive wanted to do something good and give back to the society. I believe Im able to achieve that through cinema and politics. When I started my career, I told my family Id do 10-12 films and then quit. Post the success of Kushi, I thought Ill do five more films and bid adieu to cinema because I wanted to serve our nation. But the love of my fans made me do 25 films. Directed by Trivikram, Agnyaathavaasi is Kalyans 25th film.

Talking about his relationship with Trivikram, Kalyan said the former stood by him even during trying times. People stand by you in success but nobody wants to extend support in failure . Trivikram stood by me in return for nothing. Its our love and respect for cinema that brought us together.

Pawan Kalyan also clarified that he has taken the political plunge only to serve the country. My aim is to serve for this nation while Im physically fit and strong. As much as I have done for my fans through cinema, Id like do the same via politics for my nation, he said.

The film, gearing for January 10 release next year, has music by Anirudh Ravichander and marks his foray into Telugu filmdom. Ive danced to his hit number Kolaveri when Im alone. After Michael Jackson, I look up to Anirudhs music, Kalyan said.

Kalyan barely spoke about the film. I never ask my fans to support my films because I know theyll own a film if they love it. Trivikram has made the film in a way itll be loved by all.

Speaking on the occasion, director Trivikram said that audiences will get to see Pawan Kalyan in a different avatar in the film. I narrated the story to Pawan Kalyan in just two minutes over a call. He was in Italy and he immediately gave his nod. From that day till today, he hasnt asked me a single question. He did everything I asked him to do. I dont have to tell you how much I enjoy working with him or about our relationship because we dont have express how much we love our dear ones. Do we express how much we love our mothers or friends? he said.

The film also stars Keerthy Suresh and Anu Emmanuel as the leading ladies. Keerthy said she was honoured to be part of this project. Trivikram is one of the coolest directors Ive worked with. It was an honour to work with him. The Trivikram-Pawan Kalyan combo is just magical.

Checkout the jukebox here:

Anu, on the other hand, said it was a blessing to act alongside Pawan Kalyan.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktop
Bigger than Prague and some say more beautiful, Budapests belle epoque boulevards, cafes and locals playing chess in steaming outdoor thermal spas have long attracted tourists. But for some locals, the citys tourism sector is booming too literally.

My walls shake from music at night, its impossible to sleep, says Dora Garai, a weary resident of the Hungarian capitals inner seventh district, these days called the party quarter. In the morning I often have to clean vomit off my car, she says. The flat, where she has lived all her life, is a beer cans throw away from a raucous 2,000-capacity all-night bar complex.

The 32-year-old now fronts a residents group that has held marches in protest at the situation, mirroring unease in other European cities from Barcelona to Amsterdam. The main attraction for the revellers is that Budapest gives more bang for your buck, said Melanie Kay Smith, a Budapest-based academic at the Corvinus University.

:   ~ A post shared by sunday (@traveler_sunday) on Dec 20, 2017 at 2:02am PST

Hundreds of visitors interviewed for an upcoming report by Smiths students said they chose Budapest, within easy reach on dozens of budget flights daily, for the cheap alcohol and the party. We get so much here for so little, a group of young Danes told AFP, beaming, on a recent night out. Beer rarely costs more than 1.50 euros ($2.50), while a glut of Airbnb flats are on offer for under 30 euros a night.

Hedonistic thermal bath parties, and all-night opening hours add to the lure for thirsty youth, mostly hailing from expensive northern Europe, and often Brits on stag nights.Offers on the pissup.com website, for example, include the Killer Attila Warrior Weekend, or steaks and beers followed by a sensational lesbian show.

Moving out

Annual arrivals have almost doubled since 2009 to 3.5 million last year, with Athens, the only large city forecast to grow faster in 2017, according to Euromonitor. Even in winter, the neighbourhood is choked with taxis and rickshaws transporting revellers. The Corvinus study counted 800 bars and restaurants, double the number from just five years ago. Are you ready to party?! roared a young Hungarian through a megaphone at his foreign student pub-crawl group. People can always move out if it bothers them, he shrugged.

Some of the estimated 15,000 residents of the areas compact grid of 19th-century streets, traditionally called the Jewish district after its many synagogues, have done just that. No official data exist yet but one in five people of some 300 residents told Corvinus that they were considering moving out due to noise, litter and public urination.

People used to live here, reads an ominous bronze plaque put up near a party hostel in the heart of the zone. Despite soaring property prices, driven by investor demand for rental apartments, many live in council accommodation and cannot sell, said Dora Garai, or, like her, refuse to budge. Why should I move out just because people come here for a few days to behave how they like, she said.

Midnight closing?

Garais group, set up in April, now has over 1,000 members who share experiences on Facebook. Last night, a drunk Englishman looking for his Airbnb apartment rang every doorbell in our building, one said. Bars should shut by midnight, not by 6am, the group demands, while City Hall should create a party zone outside the downtown.

But midnight closing would put him out of business, said Abel Zsendovits, manager of the popular Szimpla Kert (a grungy ruin bar in a formerly derelict building), dubbed one of the worlds best pubs by Lonely Planet in 2014. Yes, the situation outside is unsustainable now, he admitted. So bring in fines for anti-social behaviour, more police, street cleaning and public toilets.

At weekends, his colleagues don green jackets and try to calm down street noise, part of a Night Mayor idea launched by an association of bars. The residents, though, are unconvinced that such a business-led initiative will end their woes. Nor would a proposed local referendum on midnight closing that would likely see low turnout given the outer part of the district is unaffected by the problems.

Ultimately, Budapest needs to upgrade from low-budget laissez-faire tourism, says Smith. Prices will have to go up somehow.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for more
The Spanish province of Catalonia is set to go to polls on Thursday, in the backdrop of the worst political turmoil that the country has seen in decades.

The trouble started in October, when the Catalan regional government held what Spain called an illegal referendum for independence. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy cracked down on the illegal vote, saying the referendum went against the Spanish constitution.

He sent in police to clamp down on the region, fired the top Catalan officials and dissolved the regional parliament, and transferred all authority over the area to the central government.

The Rajoy government also set December 21 as the date for elections to a new cabinet.

There are several political parties who will contest the elections, but they more or less fall into two categories  pro-independence and pro-unionist. And neither side gets along with the other.

There are two big political blocs  one wants independence from Spain, the other wants to remain part of the Spanish union. The race will be close, and everything will remain on a knifes edge, Bernat Torres, who is studying economics at the University of Barcelona, told Hindustan Times.

People are tired. Weve been going through this for a while. Theres a massive gap of comprehension between the two sides. Its like they have parallel dialogues. One will never concede the point of the other, Babette Pages Prange, who hails from Barcelona but is currently based in Madrid, told HT.

Experts predict no group will win a majority in the regional parliament.

At the same time, these elections are not a referendum. It will merely dictate who the Rajoy government will negotiate with.

On the eve of the election, an eerie calm seems to have descended on the streets of Barcelona  the regions biggest city.

The city is calm, and people are going about their business. There is hardly any tension on the streets the only way one would know that an election is on is because of the flags  either the Spanish one or the Catalonian one, Torres said.

I think the biggest factor is because most people have already decided who they want to vote for.

Independence from Spain has been a long-standing demand in Catalonia  its people have a language, culture and tradition that is distinct from the rest of Spain. And Rajoys actions may have inadvertently ensured that people who were undecided about the vote now know where they stand.

The police crackdown was an eye-opener for many people because I dont think European democracies had seen violence like that in recent years. That will be an important card that the pro-independence political parties have, said Torres.

I want to vote for independence because I dont believe in the Spanish political system anymore and I dont believe there is a future in it anymore. There is rampant corruption and it feels like they are stuck in the 1978 regime, said Prange.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Women in Gosh live by selling grasses (video)

Aromatic thyme and peppermint, handmade work, souvenirs, jewelry are on the counters with women waiting for tourists. This is Gosh village. Goshavank Monastery is the center of the village, thanks to which the village has become one of the tourist destinations in Armenia. "During the Soviet era, the Impulse factory in Dilijan had a branch, women were working in a sewing workshop, but now there is no work, and this is the main source of our income, as well as the harvest of the forest - mushrooms, wild pears, hawthorn, and muffs and homemade vodka," says Mrs. Serik. "Those who have a cow or a pig, they survive through them. And the ones who have construction work, they hire their acquaintances for that work." According to Liana Arzumanyan, the village has about 1200 inhabitants, a good secondary school, 120 students and good educators, but people leave their homes and go. "70 families have gone to Russia to work and are not going back," she adds, "many do not know whether to go or not."
The European Commission launched unprecedented disciplinary proceedings against Poland on Wednesday over its highly controversial judicial reforms which Brussels says threaten the rule of law.

The blocs executive arm triggered article seven of the EU treaty over what it sees as systemic threats to the independence of the Polish judiciary from the right-wing government.

Never before used, article seven proceedings are seen as a nuclear option against an EU member state as they can lead -- albeit at the end of a complex process -- to a suspension of voting rights at the European Council.

It is with a heavy heart that we have decided to initiate Article 7.1. But the facts leave us with no choice, Commission vice president Frans Timmermans told reporters in Brussels.

The Dutch commissioner said that 13 laws adopted by Poland in the space of two years had created a situation where the government can systematically politically interfere with the composition, powers, the adminstration and the functioning of judicial authorities.

But Timmermans gave Warsaw three months to remedy the situation, saying Brussels could withdraw the measures if it did.

Polands right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) government began making changes to the judiciary after coming to power in late 2015 and says the reforms are needed to combat corruption and overhaul the judicial system still haunted by the communist era.

Brussels has repeatedly warned Warsaw that it views the changes as a threat to the democratic principles and rule of law Poland signed up to when it joined the European Union.

The initial phase set in motion by the EUs commission, the blocs executive arm, allows member states to determine that there is a clear risk of a serious breach of the rule of law. Such a ruling would need the backing of 22 states.

Any possible sanctions would only come at a second stage and would need unanimous support of all EU members -- apart from Poland.

Hungary has already said it would veto such a move, making sanctions unlikely, but Brussels is hoping the start of proceedings will have significant symbolic power.
Gradual yet seemingly planned warming of ties between India and Taiwan, which China sees as a renegade region, could soon become a new talking point in the choppy Sino-India relations.

State-controlled media lashed out at New Delhi for signing an industrial collaboration MoU with Taipei this month, though China is yet to react officially.

What could particularly annoy Beijing is that the MoU  as per the official statement in Chinese released by Taiwan  was signed between two nations.

In the English version, it is referred to as one of the five bilateral agreements signed between two countries.

India and Taiwan island signed a MoU on December 14 to promote mutual industrial cooperation, an alarming move that could sabotage the recent smoothing of Sino-Indian relations, said Chinese experts, the nationalist tabloid Global Times, affiliated to the Communist Party of China, reported on Wednesday.

The MoU was the fifth bilateral agreement since President Tsai Ing-wen took over as Taiwans first woman leader in May 2016.

India has no formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan; the de facto Indian embassy in Taipei is the India-Taipei Association and the Taiwanese maintain the Taipei Economic Cultural Centre in New Delhi.

Beijing opposes any official contact between Taiwan and other countries and has warned India earlier this year to strictly follow the one-China policy.

The Chinese foreign ministry had then said it was against any upgrade in India-Taiwan ties.

Following the 19th Communist Party Congress in October, there is no doubt that China has at least in words strengthened its plans to unify Taiwan with the mainland. Therefore, Beijing is expected to be more sensitive to any effort by India to inch closer to the democratically-run island nation.

All activities of splitting the motherland will be resolutely opposed by all the Chinese people. We have firm will, full confidence, and sufficient capability to defeat any form of Taiwan independence secession plot, President Xi Jinping had said in his opening speech at the party congress.

India is using the Taiwan question as a bargaining chip in exchange for Chinas support and concession on its own territorial disputes, Wang Dehua, head of the Institute for South and Central Asian Studies at the Shanghai Municipal Center for International Studies, told Global Times.

To mainland experts, President Tsai is exploiting Indias strategic mistrust against China in an effort to expand trade ties with the South Asian giant.

Taiwan, of course, seems happy with the progress in ties with India.

Relations between India and Taiwan are close and cordial, especially as President Tsai Ing-wen initiated the New Southbound Policy to strengthen Taiwans exchanges with India, as well as ASEAN member countries, in May 2016, an official statement from Taiwan said.

It added that more than 100 Taiwanese companies have invested around US$1.5 billion in India, mostly in the IT, engineering, shipping, shoe manufacturing, finance, chemical, and service industries.

Bilateral trade reached $4.7 billion from January to September this year, an increase of over 40% compared to the same period last year. India is now Taiwans 18th-largest trade partner.
A 76-year-old Indian-origin South African businessman who was allegedly kidnapped has been released after 137 days in captivity, a media report has said.

Omar Carrim was kidnapped outside his store in Pretoria on August 3 and released after 137 days, TimesLive reported.

Carrim is now recovering at home.

I can confirm the release of Carrim. He was released in Olifantsfontein on Monday, said anti-crime activist Yusuf Abramjee.

The Carrim family has thanked relatives, friends and the community for all the support and assistance since he disappeared in early August.

We are most grateful to everyone and we thank the Almighty for returning our father and brother to us. Thank you for all the prayers and the moral support from the public, the family said in a statement.

At the time of his alleged kidnapping, pleas were made for his release on humanitarian grounds as Carrim was seriously ill and needed constant medication.

He was due to undergo heart surgery the day after he disappeared.

Carrim was allegedly hijacked in his car. The car was later found burnt out near a township north of the city.

Abramjee said that kidnapping syndicates had surfaced in South Africa which were targeting particularly wealthy South African Indian businessmen.

Often families refuse to get police involved and there are even reports of huge ransoms being paid in some instances to secure the release of loved ones in recent years, Abramjee said.

Foreign nationals running businesses in South Africa, including Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Chinese migrants, are also soft targets for these gangs because they deal largely in cash only, Abramjee said.
Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa appeared to defend Hafiz Saeed, saying the Mumbai terror attack mastermind had the right to raise the Kashmir issue like every other citizen of the country.

Like every other Pakistani, Saeed can also take up the Kashmir cause, Bajwa said on Tuesday during his first briefing to lawmakers since taking charge.

Bajwas statement came close on the heels of former president Gen Pervez Musharraf declaring support for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) terror groups founded by Saeed .

Bajwa, speaking at an in-camera session of the Senate Committee of the Whole in Islamabad, also said he would resign if the military was found involved in the recent widespread protests by hardline religious groups which had paralysed the capital for weeks.

We had no role in the sit-in, Panama leaks, or Dawn leaks. We did not cause any of these issues, a lawmaker quoted him as saying in reply to a question.

The army chief distanced the military from the countrys political developments while urging the parliamentarians to take a leading role in policy making and not leave a vacuum.

You are the policymakers. You should come up with policy guidelines. We will follow you, Pakistani media quoted Bajwa as telling the senators.

Bajwas close military aides and the head of the Interservices Intelligence were at the briefing.

He said the country suffered on the foreign policy front as it did not have a full-time foreign minister for more than four years under the incumbent government.

Most senators hailed the army chiefs appearance and said it had cleared many misunderstandings and debunked conspiracy theories that were making rounds. They also appreciated his candidness in responding to their critical questions.

The briefing came days after the National Assembly speaker expressed apprehensions that the assemblies might not complete their five-year term. Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, who heads the Senate defence committee, said he found the army chief a straightforward person who played with a straight bat.

When a senator asked the him about recent newspaper articles by some retired military officers suggesting a presidential form of government, he clarified that the army was bound to follow the Constitution and there was no room for a presidential system in it. He said it could be the individual point of view of any person, but the military had nothing to do with it.

The general also said We want good relations with our neighbours. We want them to add to our security, nobody should be using their territory against us. (With inputs from agencies)
US President Donald Trumps recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital will stoke violence in the region, former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal said, dismissing reports of prior consultations made with Riyadh over the move.

It is a very bad decision. The consequences will be more bloodshed, more conflict rather than peaceful resolution, Prince Turki, a senior royal family member and a former ambassador to Washington, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday in Riyadh.

Trump reversed decades of US policy and veered from international consensus this month by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Most countries say the citys status must be left to negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Saudi Arabia condemned the decision. Saudi King Salman told President Trump that any decision to move the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem before a permanent peace settlement is reached will inflame the feelings of Muslims, official media reported.

But Saudi Arabia stopped short of calling for any Arab action against the decision. Palestinian officials say Riyadh has been working for weeks behind the scenes to press them to support a nascent US peace plan.

The reaction here was total surprise, said Prince Turki, who now holds no government office but remains influential.

... If there has been prior consultation or anything like that, why would the King go through the process of telling him (Trump) this is a bad idea and make that known publicly?

I dont think there ever was any discussion of this before the decision was taken, he added.

Arab peace initiative

As regards possible Saudi and Arab action in response to Trumps decision, Prince Turki said: I am sure lots of people would prefer to have something just for the sake of appearance but I dont think thats how the Saudi government operates. If it is going to take action, it is going to be a serious action.

Four Palestinian officials, who spoke on condition they not be named, said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have discussed in detail a grand bargain that Trump and Jared Kushner, the presidents son-in-law and adviser, are expected to unveil in the first half of 2018. Arab officials say the plan is still in its early phases of development.

Prince Turki said he was unaware of details of any such plan.

Prince Turki is a son of King Faisal, who was assassinated in 1975. His brother, Saud al-Faisal, served as foreign minister for 40 years until 2015, and their branch of the family is seen as influential over Saudi foreign policy, even as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has solidified his authority.

Prince Saud championed a 2002 Arab peace initiative which called for normalizing relations between Arab countries and Israel in return for Israels withdrawal from lands occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.

In a letter to Trump published in a Saudi newspaper on Dec. 11, Prince Turki said that Trumps opportunistic Jerusalem move would threaten security in the region.

Kingdom quells promoters of militancy

The now much diminished terrorist international gets a rejuvenation boost from you and re-energizes its recruitment of volunteers to broaden their murderous attacks on innocent civilians, worldwide, he wrote in his letter.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has said he would encourage a more moderate and tolerant version of Islam in the ultra-conservative kingdom.

The ambitious young prince has already taken some steps to loosen Saudi Arabias ultra-strict social restrictions, scaling back the role of religious morality police, permitting public concerts and announcing plans to allow women to drive next year.

Prince Turki said that Saudis share in the blame for the spread of extremist ideology through funding of mosques abroad that may have fallen into the wrong hands, but that such funding stopped since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

The kingdom has been the victim of such people and such activity... Since Sept. 11 the kingdom has had a sustained and continuous programme opposing extremist ideology, not just in the kingdom but abroad, he told Reuters.

For a period of time, yes it is true there were some Saudis who promoted issues of extremism and so on. Now we are getting rid of all of those. I would say we have gotten rid of most of them, if not all of them.
President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Theresa May spoke for the first time since a row over his retweets of a British extremist group, addressing vexing questions about Brexit and Middle East peace Tuesday.

The call came nearly a month after the two clashed over Trumps tweets of Britain First anti-Muslim propaganda and hours after London took the unusual step of voting against Washington at the United Nations.

Britain was among 14 UN Security Council members who backed a resolution condemning Trumps decision to unilaterally recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital, leaving the United States alone to veto.

They discussed the different positions we took on the recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, and agreed on the importance of the US bringing forward new proposals for peace and the international community supporting these efforts, a Downing Street spokesman said.

The President and Prime Minister discussed next steps in forging peace in the Middle East, the White House said.

There was no mention of the Twitter feud from either side, a row that has put Trumps state visit to the United Kingdom in further jeopardy.

The two leaders exchanged holiday greetings and warm wishes for Christmas and the New Year, the White House said.

They also discussed Britains negotiations to withdraw from the European Union, with the British side claiming that they agreed on the importance of a swift post-Brexit bilateral trade deal.

There was no mention of such an agreement in Washingtons account of the call, although Trump has made similar pledges in the past.

The prime minister updated the president on the recent good progress of the Brexit negotiations, and the president set out the progress he had made on his economic agenda, the Downing Street spokesman said.

President Trump congratulated the Prime Minister on the decision by European Union leaders to move to the second phase of the Brexit negotiations, according to Washington.

Earlier Tuesday, May chaired the first detailed cabinet discussion on Britains future trade ties, after European Union leaders last week approved an interim agreement on the terms of their separation, and agreed to move talks on to trade next year.

London wants to secure the best possible trading terms with the EU that enable Britain to set rules that are right for our situation and facilitates ambitious third-country trade deals, Downing Street said after the meeting.

May and Trump also talked about Yemen, with May highlighting our ongoing deep concerns at the humanitarian situation, according to Downing Street.

They agreed on the vital importance of reopening humanitarian and commercial access to prevent famine and alleviate the suffering of innocent Yemenis, the spokesman said.

arb/ia
US President Donald Trump cant wait to put his signature on a bill said to be the most comprehensive overhaul of the countrys tax code in 30 years. Congressional Republicans were scheduled to send him the bill on Wednesday, which will mark his first major legislative victory.

The House of Representatives, which had passed the same bill earlier, will be re-voting on it because of a technical glitch. The bills passage is a mere formality now.

The United States Senate just passed the biggest in history Tax Cut and Reform Bill, Trump tweeted. (It) goes to the House tomorrow morning for final vote.

The tax-code overhaul, which is estimated to cost $1.5 trillion over 10 years, will cut corporate rate from 35% to 21%, and individual tax from 39.6% to 36%. An average American family of four earning $75,000 annually is expected to get a tax break of $2,000, but they could also see some tax reliefs disappear.

The Indian government and the private sector have kept a hawk-eye on the progress of the reforms, watching especially for direct or indirect impacts. A provision on taxing of offshore subsidiaries of US companies  under Base Erosion Anti-Abuse Tax clause  has been of special concern.

Indian students applying to US colleges and universities had also followed the progress of the bill keenly. Doctoral students had faced the prospect of having their tuition waiver  which they get in lieu of teaching undergraduate classes  added to their taxable income. However the proposal didnt go through.

Trump is scheduled to hold a press conference, where he will presumably do a victory lap and tout his administrations first big legislative victory.

The White House has announced it will host a bill passage event later with congressional Republicans. But the White House press secretary Sara Sanders said: This is not a signing event as the bill would still need to be enrolled and that will happen at a later date.

But celebrations were clearly underway, with a sense of triumph coursing through Republicans. They are just a few nominal steps away from a historical rewrite of the tax code, which they hope will stand them good stead during the mid-term elections next November.

My colleagues, this is a day I have looked forward to for a very long time, Speaker Paul Ryan said on Tuesday. We are about to achieve some big thingsthings that the cynics have scoffed at for years, decades even  Today, we give the people of this country their money back.

The bill cleared the House and the Senate in a vote along party lines, with no Republican defecting and no Democrat supporting its passage. Democrats hope to use the bill, seen as unpopular in multiple opinion polls, to hammer Republicans in the mid-term elections.

Nancy Pelosi, the leader of House Democrats, has called the bill simply theft, monumental, brazen theft from the American middle class and from every person who aspires to reach it and said it is not a vote for an investment in growth or jobs. It is a vote to install a permanent plutocracy in our nation.
Authorities in the US state of Virginia have said a 22-year-old woman was mauled to death by her two dogs while out on a walk last week amid rumours that someone else killed her, reports have said.

Goochland County sheriff Jim Agnew held a press conference on Monday, four days after Bethany Lynn Stephens body was found from the wooded area she frequented, to quell rumours and widespread misinformation of foul play on social media.

Agnew said he decided to disclose the gruesome details about Stephens death, which he had been reluctant to divulge out of concern for her family, to reassure people that there isnt a killer on the loose.

I observed, as well as four other deputy sheriffs observed, the dogs eating the rib cage on the body --- Jim Agnew, Goochland County sheriff

The sheriff said that when officials found the dogs on Friday they were guarding what police at first thought was an animal carcass. But the body was Stephens and police say the pit bulls were eating her, he said.

I observed, as well as four other deputy sheriffs observed, the dogs eating the rib cage on the body, Agnew was quoted as saying by the Washington Post.

The dogs, named Tonka and Pacman, were first found by Stephens father after he went looking for her in a wooded area on Friday, one day after she disappeared. They have since been put down with the familys permission.

Ms Stephens was terribly, terribly injured, but it was very apparent to us that she had been dead for quite some time, Agnew told reporters, adding later that the damage to her body was so extensive that there was nothing left to compare bite marks to.

Stephens friends have questioned the reason behind the pit bulls attacking their owner, who had raised them since they were puppies. One friend told local media that the dogs were gentle.

Theyd kill you with kisses, Barbara Norris told WWBT News.

The two dogs together weighed twice as much as Stephens, who authorities described as petite and weighing 45kg.

He told The Washington Post earlier that investigators dont suspect foul play and that evidence recovered from the scene, including defensive wounds on her hands and arms, showed that the dogs were responsible for her death.

Investigators have also looked into statements from other witnesses, including the possibility that Stephens was killed by someone or something else and that the dogs were trying to protect her. But investigators have ruled out those possibilities. Agnew said at least one of the dogs had a significant amount of blood on its collar and neck.

Now, having said that, we are still following up on those. Were still doing some forensic tests. Were still doing interviews, Agnew said. But . . . from the evidence that we observed, from the evidence that we collected, that narrative doesnt fit.

Authorities said the bite marks on Stephens, including the ones on her skull, were consistent with canine marks. Agnew said if she had been attacked by a bigger animal, such as a bear, the bites would have punctured her skull.

Nothing that said domestic violence. Nothing that said she was stabbed. Nothing that said she was shot. No bones, no injuries to the throat area . . . There was no particular bleeding inside the oesophagus, which wouldve been conducive with choking her out. None of that, an investigator with the sheriffs office, Shawn Whitlock, told reporters.

There is also no evidence that she had been sexually assaulted, authorities said.

Agnew said Stephens family is convinced with the findings of the investigators.

They are devastated. They are worn out. They are dealing with trying to piece everything together and filtering out the misinformation. They wish to remain private, and its been very difficult on them, Agnew said.
Laura Lopez is a Mexican immigrant living in Florida who has been racing against time to avoid deportation.

Lopez said she arrived at the post office just after the cutoff time and missed the deadline set by President Donald Trump to renew her paperwork for the Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals program that helps young immigrants brought into the country illegally.

Lopez, 30, blamed the chaos of Hurricane Irma while juggling a move from Miami to Daytona Beach as reasons why she missed the cutoff.

As a result, her status as a recipient of DACA ends Friday. Her drivers license, car insurance and housing lease are all in jeopardy once the program goes away for her.

Everywhere I go, everything and everyone reminds me I have an expiration date said Lopez, who is still trying to show proof that she attempted to send her renewal package the day before the Oct. 5 deadline. The government is playing with the lives of families.

Lopez is one of thousands of immigrants who are losing their protection from deportation under the program established by President Barack Obama in 2012, including many who missed the deadline or saw their applications lost in the mail. The immigrants also are being provided a glimpse of what will happen if Congress is unable to come up with a permanent replacement. Thousands more will start seeing their protections end in March.

Here are some questions and answers about the process:

Why the rush?

In theory, DACA recipients should be protected until March.

Under the program, immigrants get two-year permits that let them work and remain in the country. Trump rescinded the program earlier this year, but he let immigrants renew their papers if they were set to expire between September and March.

Immigrants had to reapply by October 5 and pay a $495 fee.

The government says 132,000 of the 154,000 eligible DACA renewals applied in time, leaving more than 20,000 without any protection from deportation.

There have been other problems.

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services said 900 requests were mistakenly rejected for being late, despite having arrived at the filing sites on time. Those applicants were told to reapply by December 2.

The agency said it is still working to determine how many requests were affected by US Postal Service delays, following reports of immigrants who shipped their documents well in advance and were delivered late. These applicants are now waiting for instructions on how to resubmit their renewal requests.

Can these immigrants be deported

Advocacy groups are highlighting the detention in Pennsylvania last week of a Guatemalan immigrant whose DACA renewal was reportedly among the ones delayed by the postal service. After Osman Aroche Enriquez, 26, was pulled over by police for what advocates said was an expired vehicle registration, he was transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and detained for three days.

The agency released him based on what ICE called an exercise of discretion.

His case calls into question how many Dreamers in similar situations are languishing in detention, and how many are living in fear of deportation due to expired status or post office delays, Church World Service said in a statement.

The government does not turn over information about DACA recipients to deportation agents unless they are targeted for a criminal investigation. That means immigrants with expiring paperwork wont be automatically deported, but they can if they get stopped by police or arrested on criminal charges.

Officials say there are no plans to change how it handles personal information of applicants.

However, Francis Cissna, director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said the guidance has always said that that policy could change. It has always said that; it still says that.

Where does Congress stand?

On Capitol Hill, the most promising avenue for legislation seems to be with a bipartisan group in the Senate, led by Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

They claim good progress on negotiations to give the so-called Dreamers protections through legislation that would be added to a sweeping spending package next month.

But the White House is adamant that other issues, including Trumps long-promised US-Mexico border wall and increased funding for immigration enforcement inside the country, be addressed in the package. The Trump administration is also planning to move to a merit-based immigration structure.

The path forward is assuredly tricky, but there is widespread bipartisan support for the young immigrants among lawmakers.

What could a solution look like?

Legislation would put the immigrants on a path to US citizenship by granting permanent legal status to more than 1 million people who arrived before they turned 18 and pass background checks, among other criteria.

The bill proposes legalizing the status of those who were admitted to the DACA program.

The head of the agency that runs the program rescinded by Trump says any legislative fix will require money and time to implement, depending on how many people end up benefiting from the solution.
After the release of their highly anticipated album Humanz back in April, they've announced another album release for next year.

Gorillaz band mate, Jamie Hewlett, revealed in a TASCHEN interview that fans can expect a new album in 2018. He said of the album:

Were going straight into the album with no break. Usually we have a good five-year break between each album but we decided: You know what? Lets keep going, because theres ideas for a few more albums so were going to go straight into that. So that will be all of next year and probably the year beyond that.

Listen to the interview below at the 10:20 mark.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Ciara Major comes to work these days knowing that at least one voice mail will be waiting for her. She also knows what it will say, too: Send more workers. Soon.

The daily message comes from local construction companies asking -- sometimes begging -- for people to put up drywall, install cabinets and paint as the renovation boom following Hurricane Harvey stretches an already stretched construction labor force. Major works for the nonprofit SER-Jobs for Progress, which offers classes on construction basics, such as operating hand tools and power tools, as well as advanced courses in mold removal and hanging drywall.

"They're calling us pretty much daily to see if we have any new people to give them," said Major, grants and communications manager. "They need people yesterday."

SER-Jobs for Progress, which provides a variety of employment services for low-income residents, is just one of several local training programs getting hounded by construction firms desperate for workers as Houston rebuilds after the devastating storm that dumped more than 50 inches of rain and damaged an estimated 150,000 homes. Many of these programs were created years ago to help ease a shortage of skilled construction workers as commercial, industrial and residential construction boomed.

Today, construction firms are snapping up people as soon as they graduate, and sometimes before, with basic skills and knowledge and a willingness to learn on the job, say training program directors. Tom Tynan, for example, runs a boot camp-like course at Houston Community College that teaches air conditioning repair, electrical, plumbing and welding.

The course is supposed to last 14-weeks, said Tynan, but some companies come calling when students are only a few weeks into their training. Tynan said he asks employers to hold off on hiring until the course is completed, but they don't always wait.

And the students aren't so eager to wait either, especially when they see how much they could be making, added Tynan, director of construction trades for the community college's school of continuing education. "When they start them on overtime, they're not students anymore," he said.

Richard Larson, director of construction trades for Lone Star College, said that before Harvey, weeks would go between calls from builders looking for hiring recommendations. But since Harvey, Larson gets three to four calls a week from construction companies searching for drywall installers, framers and demolition workers.

And he's seeing starting wages that range from $10 for demolition to $18 for framing increase about 10 percent, the result of aggressive recruiting by construction firms willing to boost pay to beat the competition and to get the workers they need. "Once the boom is over, we will see (wages) settle back down," Larson said.

More Information Several programs teach construction skills, from basic to complex. Here are some options: SER-Jobs for Progress Phone: (713) 773.6000; email: info@serhouston.org; web: serhouston.org Houston Gulf Coast Building and Construction Trades Council Phone: (713) 926-4433; web: hgcbctc.com Houston Community College hccs.edu/continuing-education Lone Star College: lonestar.edu/construction-trades See More Collapse

Harvey also accelerated plans at Lone Star for a custom training program for David Weekley Homes to train between 250 and 300 workers in six-week sessions on heating and air conditioning installation, framing, roofing, plumbing and other specialties, Larson said. The training effort is designed to combat construction delays as David Weekley Homes struggles to meet Harvey-related housing demand, yet finish other projects on time, said Larson.

The company would not comment.

Other companies also are ramping up recruiting efforts, with uncertain results. Maxx Builders, a commercial construction firm that builds shopping centers, gas stations and restaurants in the Houston area, is facing a shortage of drywall sub-contractors as many installers have moved from commercial to the residential side of the business, where post-Harvey demand is most intense, said Nikki Figueroa, business development representative for Maxx Builders.

"We're hiring all the time," said Figueroa. But it's not enough.

For about the past five years, Paul Puente, executive secretary of the Houston Gulf Coast Building and Construction Trades Council, has talked about a pre-apprenticeship training course to introduce residents to career opportunities in pipefitting, electrical work, plumbing and other skilled construction work. It fell on deaf ears, he said. Then Harvey hit.

The trades council has since developed a three-week course encompassing 120 hours of training in construction math, blueprint reading and on-the-job safety. The first class of 20 started last month and another will begin in January, with funding for the upcoming session coming from the city of Houston.

It's a long-term project for the building trades, said Puente, who hopes the students will join one of the five-year apprenticeship programs to expand the number of skilled construction workers and add more union members. But it's also a way to train more workers in the basics as contractors, staffing companies and residential remodelers look for short-term help to get them over the Harvey hump.

At last week's graduation ceremony, 19 out of the 20 students were immediately hired by contractors (one dropped out). All 19 started working on Monday for about $12 an hour, which will rise to as much as $17 an hour once they get accepted to apprenticeship training which begins in January. "We knew eventually they'd get hired but we didn't expect them to all get picked up immediately," said Puente. "It was just amazing."

Adrian Ancira, 25, said he was very excited and very surprised to get an immediate job as a pre-apprentice electrician assembling tool power strips and sorting wire.

"I thought I'd have to wait," said Ancira, who had been working as a night unloader and stocker at Home Depot.

As Houstonians receive insurance checks, as well as federal disaster aid and low-interest loans to start reconstruction work, more workers are finding themselves hot commodities.

Heating and air conditioning technician Eric Leiss graduated three years ago from Houston Community College's air conditioning and heating program and is fielding job offers lately from HVAC installers to keep up with the post-Harvey rebuilding demand. Some call, he said. Others mention their openings at trade events. He also gets a steady steam of alerts for HVAC openings from Indeed.com, the on-line job posting site.

"I could work at 10 to 15 companies," said Leiss, 42. But at the moment he is not planning to leave his job at Osborn HVAC in Sugar Land -- at least until he gets enough experience under his belt and obtains a master license so he can open his own air conditioning and heating business.
WASHINGTON - A Senate committee on Tuesday rejected President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Export-Import Bank, extending the chaos at the embattled agency whose job is to help U.S. companies sell their goods abroad.

Two Republicans joined all Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee in voting against former Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., to be the bank's president.

Garrett had been a vocal critic of the Ex-Im Bank and a leader of a conservative effort that shut the bank down for five months in 2015 by blocking its congressional authorization. He and other bank opponents branded the bank's aid as crony capitalism.

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., a supporter of the bank, said the vote "sends a clear message that Mr. Garrett lacks the qualifications and commitment" to the bank.

Opened during the Great Depression, the bank helps U.S. companies sell their products overseas by providing loan guarantees to foreign buyers and other assistance for sales of goods manufactured domestically.

Many other countries have similar export-credit agencies. The aid is crucial for projects in developing nations, which often require government-backed financing and scare private banks because of fears of default.

The Ex-Im Bank is backed by business groups and enjoys bipartisan support.

Some conservative lawmakers and groups such as Heritage Action for America strongly oppose the bank. They have said its assistance is corporate welfare that mostly helps large companies such as Boeing Co. and General Electric Co. that don't need the aid.

Supporters of the bank note that Boeing funnels billions of dollars in business to U.S. suppliers, including many in California.

During his campaign for president, Trump said he didn't think the bank was needed. But after taking office, Trump indicated he supported the bank as a way to boost U.S. exports. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross suggested the bank's mission should change to focus its aid on small businesses.

This spring, Trump surprisingly nominated Garrett - who lost his re-election bid last year - to fill the bank's vacant president position and lead a reform effort.

The National Association of Manufacturers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups that strongly support the bank publicly opposed Garrett's nomination, arguing that he was not suited for the job.

After a contentious nomination hearing last month, Sens. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., and Tim Scott, R-S.C., bucked Trump and Senate Republican leaders to join Democrats on Tuesday in opposing Garrett. The nomination was defeated in a 13-10 vote.

"I believe he's a principled man who simply believes in the abolishment of the bank," Rounds said after the vote.

Marc Short, White House director of legislative affairs, said after the vote that Trump administration officials were "disappointed that the Senate Banking Committee missed this opportunity to get the Export-Import Bank fully functioning again."

"We will continue to work with the committee on a path forward," Short said.

Trump also nominated four people, including former Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., to fill the other open seats on the bank's five-member board.

Those nominees were all easily approved by the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday, although three Republicans - Richard Shelby of Alabama, Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania and Ben Sasse of Nebraska - who supported Garrett as a bank reformer voted against those nominees in an apparent protest for his defeat.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

The chairman of the board of the embattled Montrose Management District plans to resign at the end of December, the latest development in what's been a yearslong battle between the district and commercial property owners who have paid millions of dollars for services and improvements they say have not helped the area.

"Montrose was doing just fine without them and will continue to do just fine," property owner Bob Rose said Tuesday.

Rose sued the district in 2012 because he felt blindsided when he found out he didn't have a say on its plan to levy assessments on commercial property owners to pay for its programs.

"They did it all behind our back and sprung it on us in a public hearing," said Rose, who at that time owned more than 230 apartments in Montrose.

Claude Wynn, a longtime board member who became chairman in 2011, said in a letter that his resignation would be effective Dec. 31, which he noted marks the end of the group's first "Service and Assessment Plan."

"It is time for me to step aside for others to carry on in the care and leadership of Montrose," Wynn wrote. He did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

Wynn's resignation follows a recent legal win for the property owners who have long opposed the district.

At the end of October, a district court judge ruled that the district improperly assessed nearly $6.6 million based on an assessment petition deemed void by the court. The judgment also ordered that the district refrain from spending any money collected and not yet spent.

Then last week in a separate case, a judge signed an emergency temporary restraining order prohibiting the district from issuing, collecting or spending assessments from commercial property owners.

The district said it was disappointed about the order, but that it was "not surprised based on the complexities involved in this case."

"The district's position has not changed ... that it is operating lawfully within the strict rules and governance requirements mandated by the state Legislature. The district looks forward to having an opportunity to argue its side," it said in an emailed statement.

The Montrose Management District is one of dozens in the Houston area created by the Legislature to promote economic development and make improvements to public areas in individual neighborhoods.

Commercial property owners pay for the improvements through assessments. In Montrose, they are assessed at a rate of 12.5 cents per each $100 of property value. Residential property owners are not assessed.

In recent years, however, commercial property owners have been critical of the district, saying they have not received any benefits from the group or its projects and that the assessments amount to double taxation.

They have also expressed outrage over the Montrose district's assessment powers.

The district was able to begin levying assessments after getting a petition signed by just 25 property owners.

"I thought it was just wrong that 25 people can decide the fate of 1,100 others," Rose said.

Matthew Festa, a professor of land use law at South Texas College of Law Houston, said management districts are typically found in downtowns or business and commercial districts and are essentially local governments with limited powers to make improvements as a way to supplement city services.

The Montrose Management District has cited projects including hiring off-duty police officers, maintaining the area's esplanades, as well as graffiti abatement and trash removal. It also helped pay for the colored lighting on the bridges over U.S. 59 and signs throughout the area branding it as the "Montrose District."

Delegating government functions to small local districts can have advantages, Festa said, but over time these entities tend to expand their efforts.

"The direction is always going to be in favor of more," he said.

Property and business owners have signed petitions seeking the dissolution of the district, and they claim their petition has met all legal requirements and that the district has a statutory duty to dissolve.

Wynn became chairman of the board in February 2011. Board members must be approved by the Houston City Council.

Wynn's resignation letter was addressed to David Hawes of Hawes Hill & Associates, a Houston consulting firm that administers the Montrose district and other management districts in the area. Hawes could not be reached Friday.

A spokesman for the district said Wynn's resignation is not effective until his replacement is appointed and sworn in. He also said the district's next board meeting is scheduled for the second half of January.

An injunction hearing is planned in early January.
For those who might still revere Harris County's lingering reputation as a law-and-order bastion  a place once considered the symbolic home of American capital punishment  the coming years are unlikely to offer much solace.

With a new boss in the corner suite and different priorities unfolding, the local district attorney's office no longer stands out as a tough domain where prosecutors earn their spurs by packing Houston's meanest killers off to death row. As far as District Attorney Kim Ogg is concerned, it's now about common sense and balancing resources.

"People's attitudes have changed, prosecuting attorneys' attitudes have changed and mine have changed," said Ogg, who once toiled as a felony prosecutor in the administration of Johnny Holmes, whose national renown was built on a hard-edged approach to the death penalty. "That was a different time."

To say the least. For many years any discussion of capital punishment in America had to include Houston. Reporters tackling the subject dutifully recounted the gaudy local statistics  the product of Holmes' insistence the law was on the books for a reason, and that it was not his role to undermine it by overly selective application.

The Chronicle regularly reported on the DA's approach to capital murder and embarked on a major project exploring the reasons for it  and consequences thereof  when Texas Gov. George W. Bush was running for president.

Not long after writing some of the articles in that series, I participated in a symposium on death penalty trends at a university in Tennessee. Other reporters on the panel worked for more prestigious newspapers  including The New York Times and Washington Post  but it was the writer from bloodthirsty Texas who drew more attention. Were Texans just crazy, they wondered. How could so many people be worth sending to death row?

I did my best to explain the different strains of prosecutorial discretion, but I felt my responses failed to satisfy. While the other reporters barely concealed their disdain for the death penalty, I remained agnostic on the subject, and still am. It was not my role to advocate for its abolition or skew stories to place the local DA in a bad light. Some who came for the discussion failed to grasp that.

"Is there anything that might change your district attorney or make the voters rethink this love for capital punishment?" one student asked during the Q&A session. He went on for another 30 seconds at least, and quite eloquently, about the dangers of such an approach and how it seemed at odds with many other places in the U.S. and the worldwide trend.

The questioner may have been hoping for a constructive outlet for his obvious indignation. But all I could think of was the most obvious answer.

"No," I said, leaving it at that.

As it turned out, I was wrong. There was one thing that could bring about change. Time. Over the years those states and counties that had aggressively pursued death sentences were undermined by highly publicized appellate reversals, wrongful convictions, a declining crime rate and the slow shift of public opinion.

The U.S. Supreme Court decided that juveniles would no longer be eligible for the death penalty  and also those with significant intellectual disability. One state after another adopted a new sentencing option for capital juries  life without parole and that changed everything, even in Houston.

I recall one afternoon when I sat in Holmes' office discussing all the national publicity he had received, and all the criticism. He was nonplussed and completely unapologetic. A rumor circulated that his prosecutors would joke about the newly condemned being granted membership into the "silver needle society." Holmes would not talk about that, emphasizing that he was simply doing the job he was elected to do. Voters could remove him if they disapproved.

They never did. A trusted lieutenant took over when Holmes retired in 2000, only to resign in disgrace in his second term.

Now, several DAs later, it's Kim Ogg's turn. She liked and respected Holmes, once prosecuting a death penalty trial for him. But she's cut from a rather different cloth.

JUST HOW different was made clear in her recent decision not to seek the death penalty again for Duane Buck, a double murderer who had spent two decades on death row before the U.S. Supreme Court granted him a new sentencing trial earlier this year.

Agreeing to allow Buck to live out his days in prison once would have been heresy for an office that defiantly rejected easy compromise. For Ogg, it was the most reasonable choice: His trial was based on old evidence and marred by impermissible testimony, so why go through it all again and potentially deal with another 10 years of appeals?

Giving up the fight for Buck's execution was perhaps the most obvious reminder that business as usual no longer applies at the local courthouse  and that Ogg is serious about pushing a reform agenda.

"I think she is definitely among the few in the nation who have been elected with a reform mentality and whose time has come," said University of Houston political scientist Brandon Rottinghaus. "She was elected by a sea of Democratic votes, but she got 20,000 more votes than other Democrats. There is a growing sense that criminal justice reform is needed, and there is bipartisan support to make that happen."

Michael Ciaglo/Houston Chronicle

Ogg has promised to make the death penalty a rarely sought punishment. At the same time she has focused on the other end of the criminal justice spectrum: the "trace" drug cases and nickel-and-dime marijuana arrests that clog dockets and accomplish little. Her office henceforth will have little use for either, she announced.

Former DA Pat Lykos pushed some of the same notions only to lose in the 2012 Republican primary to a traditionalist promising to turn back the clock. Now Ogg, a Democrat, has seized the office with a progressive agenda that may be in sync with other big-city district attorneys  what Governing Magazine referred to as a "fresh new wave" of top prosecutors  but it surely is at odds with Houston's fierce history.

Only five years ago, lock-'em-up Republican Mike Anderson was handed the prosecutorial reins behind the endorsement of none other than Holmes, whose two decades of uncompromising philosophy toward capital punishment had stocked death row with scores of inmates, so many in fact that many states could not equal Harris County's output. Anderson spoke openly in his campaign about his desire for resurrecting "the good old days."

For her part, Ogg is dead-set on keeping death penalty cases to a minimum.

"The changing attitudes of prosecutors are influenced by three things  the life without parole option, the immense cost in a time of limited resources and the human toll of waiting decades for final imposition of that sentence," Ogg said in a recent interview. "Those are the reasons for my approach."

Fair enough. But removing a murderer from death row is another matter, especially in cases prosecuted before life without parole was a sentencing option. In agreeing to reduce death sentences to life, Ogg may see the fulfillment of a campaign pledge. Yet each instance has potential as fodder for a "soft on crime" accusation in her next campaign.

Even if there's consensus that the death penalty is no longer a priority in an era of fewer murders, it's hard to imagine either Anderson, Mike or Devon doing likewise with Buck. The question is whether it matters anymore. For Ogg, it's an important one to answer correctly.

Death penalty cases from Texas, and Houston in particular, are getting more scrutiny than ever before from appellate courts. Buck won't be the last condemned inmate to have his sentence overturned. It's likely that most of the erstwhile condemned will end their lives in prison, not on a gurney with a needle in their arms.

Which means more future years will look like 2017, when for the first time in three decades no one from Harris County was executed.

"Are there (political) consequences? There could be  down the line," said Gary Polland, a criminal defense attorney and former county chairman of the Republican Party. "Someone would have to drive the message that what (she) did was hostile to the interests of law and order. But I think she's doing every politically astute thing she can do to make people think she's a reformer. There is no downside to that right now."

BUCK HARDLY presented an inviting case to make a point about overzealous application of the death penalty. His guilt was beyond doubt, and his actions on the night of the crime were cruel. There was no complaint of misconduct by prosecutors or evidence of intellectual disability.

Buck's lawyers had spent years asking only for a new sentencing hearing because of racially tinged testimony by psychologist Walter Quijano, who cited statistics that showed African Americans were found in the criminal justice system in numbers greater than their overall percentage of population.

When the request finally was granted earlier this year, Ogg's office didn't have to do anything other than make a reasonable argument based on his own actions about why he should be sent back to death row. That's what the relatives of his victims wanted.

She balked.

"We had a difficult case to prove with the evidence that was available," Ogg said. "We had a divided family  one victim did not want death. The children were the witnesses, and I felt they continue to be traumatized. Race had been injected into the case, and that did taint it. Future dangerousness was a question we had to answer, and there had been nothing since he'd been in prison, in contrast to some of those on death row. And it would be another 10 years of appeals."

Ogg's decison not to retry Buck was acceptable to his stepsister, who survived a gunshot wound in the chest during his rampage, but it infuriated relatives of his two deceased victims.

"I have concluded that 22 years after his conviction, a Harris County jury would likely not return another death penalty conviction," Ogg said in announcing her decision.

That she could be right is remarkable for a county that once had a worldwide reputation as the "capital of capital punishment," turning out death sentences with assembly-line efficiency. But that she did not even try says more.

Buck was not the first example of Ogg's revised attitude toward the death penalty. In April, Randolph Mansoor Greer also was removed from death row. He had been sent there for a crime spree in 1991 that left two women sexually assaulted and the owner of a Bellaire gun shop dead.

In early November, her office agreed to a life sentence for Bobby Moore, whose IQ scores raised the probability of intellectual disability. The U.S. Supreme Court threw out his sentence in March, and Ogg's office chose not to dispute his lawyers' claims that Moore was ineligible for the death penalty.

He had been on death row since 1980.

Murray Newman, a longtime prosecutor who lost his job when Lykos came in, said he expects the future to bring similar decisions more often than not.

"Kim has an agenda she wants to follow through on, and she's not going to be second-guessed on it," said Newman, who writes a blog about ongoing developments in the local courts and DA's office. "She is unabashedly taking that office in a different direction than it's gone in before."

Larry Reese/HC staff

Ogg said that the death penalty will still be sought in rare circumstances, including the murder of police officers.

"Some murderers are so bad that they have earned the death penalty," she said, mentioning mass murderers, serial murderers and cases where killers "torture and enjoy the suffering of their victims."

As some of the old death cases from Holmes' era float back from appellate courts, Ogg applies a different standard, knowing that any particular decision not to seek death again could come back to haunt her. She said she doesn't worry about it.

"I don't believe that I should be controlled by fear of political fallout," she said. "I'm a prosecutor for these times."

And these times could not be further from Houston's notorious past. Once synonymous with the death penalty, Harris County prosecutors haven't sent anyone to death row since August 2014, the longest hiatus of the modern era.

Sooner or later that will end, of course, but the era of Houston's singular commitment to the ultimate punishment is gone, with only the occasional execution to remind us of the status it once so defiantly held.

Bookmark Gray Matters. It's cut from a rather different cloth.
The two pit bulls suspected of mauling their owner to death during a walk in the woods have been euthanized, police confirmed Monday.

Bethany Lynn Stephens, 22, of Virginia was killed Thursday evening while walking her two dogs, Tonka and Pacman.

In a news conference, Goochland County Sheriff James Agnew described Stephens' chest, face and arm injuries as "extremely gruesome" and said the investigation was made difficult because "the damage was so extensive that there was nothing left to compare bite marks to."

The two dogs were put down Saturday evening with the permission of the family, but Agnew said authorities considered shooting the dogs at the scene.

JAIL TIME: Texas man sentenced after leaving dog to die in empty apartment

Now Playing: A pit bull that was shot in the face by alleged car-thieves in Dover last week is now on the road to recovery. Video: Fox 13 Tampa

"While we were talking about strategies to catch the dogs, we turned and looked, the dogs had gone back over to the body, and I observed, as well as four other deputy sheriffs, the dogs eating the ribcage on the body," Agnew said.

Eventually, authorities captured the dogs with the help of the victim's friend.

Police are still investigating Stephens' death, but Agnew noted the possibility of foul play was unlikely and that the body's damage indicated the 22-year-old was most likely killed by a smaller animal, and not a bear like some suggested.

Above: See the most shocking crimes of 2017.
For weeks, Fox News and far-right pundits have been working overtime to discredit the FBI and special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference in the U.S. 2016 presidential election. Fox contributors have suggested that a "coup" could be in the works against the administration.

On Tuesday, Fox News contributor Kevin Jackson suggested the FBI might have had plans to assassinate President Trump. Jackson's comments on assassination are a study of how fringe whispers can quickly slip into prime time cable.

Jackson was making an appearance Tuesday afternoon on Fox News' "Outnumbered." Flanked by four regular Fox guests, Jackson was talking about text messages sent by FBI agent Peter Strzok, who later joined Mueller's team, worrying about Trump's candidacy and mentioning an "insurance policy" against a Trump presidency. As the discussion kicked off, the panel chewed over the implications.

"Well, I think they're going to say, is it - what was his intent, right?," Jackson said with reference to Strzok, who was removed from Mueller's investigation. "Because that's exactly what FBI director, former FBI director Comey said when he was letting Hillary Clinton off the hook. And his intent, regardless of whether it was an assassination attempt or whatever, it was definitely something."

The reference to assassination stopped the other hosts in their tracks.

"Whoa," host Harris Faulkner interjected. "Whoa, whoa."

"Well, I'm just saying, we don't know what it was," Jackson said. "When you say, 'we've got to make sure that this guy doesn't get in at all cost,' what does that mean? So I'm saying there's a spectrum of what does it mean, but one thing that we know for sure, is that he was plotting in an election against a candidate, and there's FBI fingerprints all over this."

Faulkner jumped in: "Because I know how things get clipped on social media, I just want to make sure that we press on the fact that no one has floated any sort of an idea that it was-"

"Oh, it's been floated," Jackson cut in. "When I talk about this, I'm talking about social media stuff and, you know, that's out there, I'm not talking about media sources."

"Nothing credible," another guest interjected.

"Well," Jackson replied sheepishly. "I mean yeah."

Jeffrey Guterman tweeted "On @FoxNews, @KevinJacksonTBS suggests @FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe may have plotted an assassination attempt against #Trump".

Jackson describes himself as a "bestselling author, syndicated talk show host, nationally known speaker, former management consultant, and a rising star in political circles" who uses his "rapier wit and satirical writing style" to expose "the fleecing of America." He is "regarded by some as the valedictorian of the latest class of political pundits," says the website for "KevinJackson radio."

By his own admission, Jackson's fears of assassination came from "social media stuff." But the Fox News commentator was picking up on a frequency beamed out only a day before by InfoWars's Alex Jones. On his Monday radio show (a show Trump has appeared on), he took aim at "the Clintons and their operatives in the FBI" before issuing a dire prediction.

"I think they're going to go ahead and make their move to kill the president," Jones said. "I think in the next 30 days, I think they're going to make an assassination attempt. I just - my gut - I see all of them together, they're that desperate. They're either going to give up or they're going to activate their cells."

Jones continued: "I don't want the president to be killed, but if they are dumb enough to actually do it, boy, they have sealed their warrant of death. They have guaranteed that they are all gonna probably never even see court. They're playing chicken with people that are ready to mash down the accelerator, cause I know I'm mashing it down. I'm pointing my car right at the nose of theirs, so is Trump, that's the spirit."
As a proud American and someone quite fond of free speech, I'm generally not a big fan of banning words.

Reports that officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are either being prohibited from using certain words and phrases - such as "vulnerable," "entitlement," "diversity," "transgender," "fetus," "evidence-based" and "science-based" - or at least encouraged to avoid them in budget proposals, made my skin crawl.

Then it got me thinking.

If I were a powerful leader with grave insecurities and Orwellian proclivities, which pesky verbiage would I outlaw or at least discourage the use of? Which words, whether by design or overuse or by decades of willful misconstruing, have become utterly useless or even harmful to constructive discourse?

I could fill a banned book. But here's the short list.

Intent - Sure, this word still has plenty of important uses, especially in legal documents. But we might need a conditional ban for apology letters written by men accused of sexual harassment. Either you're sorry or you're not. Don't waste our time explaining how it was never your intent to cause harm when you put your hand where it doesn't belong or called a subordinate over to look at pornography. What you did or did not intend is irrelevant to the result: harm.

Fake news - There are news stories based on facts, first-person observations and attributable sources. There are opinion pieces based on a good-faith interpretation of facts, observations and sources. Then there are Russian news bots and 20-something losers who sit on couches weaving delusional tales intended to activate the salivary glands of people who don't believe in facts. Learn the difference. Either stop using the term or use it correctly.

Fake Christian - The lessons of Jesus Christ are beautiful and powerful and sacred. As such, uses of the word Christian that don't actually reference Christ or anything he stands for would be banned under my imaginary tyrannical rule. If you're talking about Christ - his teachings of peace and love or maybe his teachings against greed and judging others - by all means, use the word Christian. If you're standing outside an Alabama polling place, saying you're going to vote for an alleged pedophile for U.S. Senate because of his "Christian" values, you have lost your way, and thus, the right to this word.

Politically correct - The phrase was once reserved for over-the-top attempts to sanitize language to the point that it became devoid of meaning or truth. Now, it's a convenient rationalization for rudeness. People who can't be bothered to empathize with others, to try and understand how different life experiences shape our understanding of and our sensitivity to language, simply wash their hands with any obligation to politeness by condemning the forces of political correctness. It's not communist to be kind and considerate of our neighbors' feelings. It's what another generation called good home training.

Colorblind. No one is colorblind. And, contrary to some people's belief, Martin Luther King Jr. didn't ask us to be. When the iconic civil rights leader said we should judge people by the content of their character, he was right. But he didn't mean we should pretend not to see skin color at all. That approach would leave us blind to all the ways in which skin color affects our identity, our experience in this world, our privilege or lack of it, and how others perceive us. We need more understanding, more listening, more empathy - not more blindness.

Pro-life. If the word "fetus" is subject to censorship, then why not this misleading term? Who isn't pro-life? We're all pro-life. It's probably the only thing most humans can agree on. It's just that some of us believe that life doesn't end at birth. We know the grim statistics that follow unwanted pregnancy, whether it includes life in the foster care system or not. We trust women to decide when they are ready and able to welcome a child into this world. Some of us value life so much that we want every child to have the best shot at a happy, healthy, meaningful one. That starts with being wanted.

Freedom Caucus. This is the name of a small band of ultra-conservative members in the Texas House of Representatives who believe in giving all Texans the freedom to be just like them. If you look like them, worship like them, go to the restroom like them, you're golden. You're free. If you're a transgender adult trying to use a public restroom, no freedom for you. Maybe it's time to ban this group's name in news stories, or at least edit it for accuracy: Freedom For Some Caucus.

Sanctuary cities and voter fraud - These are oft-repeated phrases in Texas. But as a fiscal wordsmith, I would outlaw them. We shouldn't waste words on things that don't exist.

! - I know it's not a word, but can we ban the exclamation point, too? The president has worn it out. And he seems to think it can compensate for truth and rational thought. The shakier the assertion, the more baseless the personal attack on Twitter, the more exclamation points to accompany it.

So, what do you say? Let's ban these words, and this pathetic punctuation mark. All our problems will be solved. You don't need any evidence or science-based study. It will work.

Believe me!!!!
A Houston woman pleaded guilty Tuesday to shooting a gun from a moving vehicle captured in a now-viral Snapchat video.

Sierra Tarbutton, 27, pleaded guilty to felony criminal mischief and deadly conduct and two previous charges in exchange for a five-year prison sentence. The earlier charges were harassment of a public servant and retaliation.

"She would have faced at least five years on her old cases, so there was nothing to be gained by fighting the new cases," said her attorney, Clay Conrad. "It was all wrapped up into one plea deal, so the new charges were essentially irrelevant."

Tarbutton was arrested with a Houston rapper named Michael Anthony Cuellar. Conrad, and Cuellar's attorney, Paul Looney, said the 29-year-old rapper will fight his charges.

"It still leaves Michael free to challenge his indictment, which he will be doing," Conrad said.

According to court records, Cuellar is a local rapper who goes by the name "Money Mike."

The couple were arrested in September after police obtained a video of the two apparently shooting blindly into a neighborhood as they drove through in the early morning hours of Sept. 26.

Tarbutton was sentenced by state District Judge George Powell.

She will be able to turn herself in on Jan. 2, so she can spend the holidays with her family, Conrad said.

Looney has said the couple turned themselves in because they have been "villianized" by media reports about the viral video.

The defense attorney noted that the area in which the couple allegedly fired shots had been evacuated or was practically deserted because of Hurricane Harvey.

The video clips posted on the social media platform Snapchat apparently show the couple smiling as they fire more than a dozen shots into a neighborhood near the 15800 block of Memorial Drive.

The two were identified after police compared the videos to other social media accounts and law enforcement search engines, according to court records.

Tarbutton, who was on probation on a charge of retaliation against a public servant, admitted guilt to threatening the life of a police officer's daughters by stating, "Those are two cute little girls; those are going to be two cute little tombstones," according to court records.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 2 1 of 2 Show More Show Less 2 of 2 Show More Show Less



The mother of a 6-week-old infant was found dead Tuesday in her Greenspoint-area apartment, and her baby was missing. The Houston Police Department issued an Amber Alert Tuesday night for the child and a man identified by authorities as her father.

However, the father was located later in San Antonio and denied being involved in the killing, according to police. The whereabouts of the child remained a mystery late Tuesday as the investigation was continuing to unfold.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

WASHINGTON - In an 11th-hour drive to rescue a nationwide children's health program, 11-year-old Harmonie Flores-Brown of San Antonio gazed up at a microphone in an ornate Senate hearing room and described what might happen if Congress fails her.

"Me and other kids depend on CHIP, and if it is taken away, I won't be able to see," she said, describing her serious vision disorders. "We need the insurance, I need the insurance. So please don't take it away."

The future of the Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, which expired Sept. 30, remains uncertain in the final scheduled week of Congress, in which completion of a Republican tax plan and preventing a government shutdown are priorities in the GOP-run Congress.

Cutoff of benefits

CHIP money has continued to flow due to an extension of government-wide funding that expires Friday. But states have begun issuing warnings about an imminent cutoff of benefits.

Alabama officials said this week that 7,000 children would lose coverage on New Year's Day, with benefits for the remaining 77,000 in the program ending Feb. 1. Connecticut declared Tuesday that it would shutter its program Jan. 31.

In Texas, the Health and Human Services Commission said last week that the program would continue at least through February for some 450,000 uninsured children as a result of the recent promise of $135 million in federal money by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The government reallocates unspent money.

The children's program has bipartisan backing in Congress. But, like other key initiatives, languishes during a tense and confusing conclusion to the first year in Congress since Republicans gained full control of the governing apparatus in Washington.

The fate of efforts to protect 800,000 young undocumented immigrants and the level of military funding in 2018 also hang in the balance, with Congress scheduled to leave for the holidays on Friday.

The 20-year-old CHIP, which serves 9 million children, was designed to provide funding to states to reduce the number of uninsured children.

The program focuses on low-income, working families who don't have health insurance through their jobs and earn too much to qualify for Medicaid. It cost $14.5 billion last fiscal year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Pressing for action

Advocates point to measurable success: Since CHIP began, the rate of uninsured children 18 and under has plunged from 14.9 percent to 4.8 percent, according to First Focus, an advocacy group in Washington.

On Tuesday, Dakota Flores of San Antonio, accompanied by Harmonie Flores-Brown and her three other children, were among eight families First Focus brought to Washington in a forum to press for action in Congress.

Flores, 46, a single mother, said that if Congress fails to reauthorize CHIP, she likely would need to quit her job at a pawnshop and subscribe to Medicaid to take care of her children.

Daughter Harmonie needs special glasses again after getting a new pair just in September. Her son, Tyler, requires various medications for ADHD and serious sleep disorders. Both excel in school, and Harmonie's fledgling singing career has taken off with recent performances, one with the San Antonio Symphony, she said.

"CHIP is not for us parents, it's for the kids. With it, even when the world around them tells them they can't succeed, they do," she said, her voice quavering at the microphone.

Added Harmonie: "If CHIP is taken away, millions of kids like me will struggle."
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Harris County Commissioners Court voted unanimously Tuesday to move forward with designing the final $14 million stretch of a massive, decades-long project to widen and deepen Brays Bayou.

Since the late 1980s, the Harris County Flood Control District and the Army Corps of Engineers methodically have been working to increase the bayou's ability to handle floodwaters, through a combination of detention basins and widening and deepening of the channel, aimed at providing relief to oft-flooded neighborhoods like Meyerland and the Texas Medical Center.

On Tuesday, Commissioners Court voted in favor of paying CivilTech Engineering nearly $600,000 to design the final stretch of the project from South Rice to Fondren. Construction is expected to begin next summer and be completed in 2021 - the most expansive project the district ever has undertaken.

"We're actually finishing a multi-decade, $500 million-plus mega-project," said Matt Zeve, director of operations at the flood control district. "It's pretty significant. We've been working on Project Brays for a very long time."

The vote was one of several flood control initiatives advanced by county leaders Tuesday, nearly four months after Hurricane Harvey battered the Houston region, drenching it in more than 51 inches of rain in some areas, killing dozens and flooding hundreds of thousands of homes and other buildings.

$550 million price tag

The court also voted unanimously to design a massive stormwater detention basin on Greens Bayou, hire a firm to handle the county's efforts to get reimbursed by the federal government for tens of millions of dollars Harvey-related expenses and to buy out nine more properties flooded during the storm.

The roughly 700,000 people living in the Brays Bayou watershed have been hit repeatedly by severe floods in recent years, including during Memorial Day 2015 and Harvey.

The project - conducted in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - is expected to remove roughly 15,000 homes and businesses from the bayou's 100-year flood plain downstream of Beltway 8. The 100-year flood plain is determined by how much water is expected to spill out of the bayou's banks during a 100-year storm, or an amount of rainfall that has a 1 percent chance of occurring during any given year.

In addition to the widening and deepening of the bayou, the project's overall scope includes retrofitting or replacing more than 30 bridges along the bayou that could hamper the flow of stormwater. The project also includes the construction of four stormwater detention basins that could hold 3.5 billion gallons of water and keep it from flowing out of the bayou's banks.

The total price tag of the project, which began with an Army Corps study in 1988, is roughly $550 million.

"It's the largest mega-project the district has done," Zeve said.

Delayed federal reimbursements have slowed the project, which was supposed to be completed in 2014. The county and the Corps split the Project Brays costs 50-50, though the county typically pays up front and awaits reimbursement. The county originally expected to get $25 million in annual federal reimbursements, but actual funding has averaged less than half that.

In October, the Texas Water Development Board voted to lend the city of Houston $47 million for the Brays Bayou project to help speed up the oft-delayed work. An agreement for the city to give the money to the flood control district has not been finalized, Zeve said.

"If we don't get the money, then we would have to spread the construction out over more years," he said.

Approved Tuesday, the stormwater detention basin on Greens Bayou will be located near Aldine-Westfield Road and Beltway 8, complementing a slew of other projects aimed at improving the bayou and its tributaries' limited capacity to handle floodwaters. Greens Bayou ranks among the worst in the county in its ability to carry stormwater, flood control district Executive Director Russ Poppe said.

Several people died in Greens Bayou floodwaters during Hurricane Harvey, and neighborhoods along the bayou, including Greenspoint, were among the hardest hit during Harvey and the Tax Day floods.

Buying out properties

Zeve said the Army Corps also is widening and deepening the bayou between Veterans Memorial Drive and Cutten Road.

Also Tuesday, Commissioners Court voted in favor of paying PricewaterhouseCoopers Public Sector LLP $2 million to help secure reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for costs incurred during Harvey.

Harris County Engineer John Blount said the exact amount to be recouped could be upward of $100 million.

Blount said the requests could include money to flood-proof county buildings or reimburse mileage for emergency responders rescuing people during the storm. The reimbursements would be on top of $45 million in FEMA money received by the county for debris removal in September.

Blount said the reimbursement likely would be a years-long process.

"We haven't been reimbursed completely for Ike," he said.

Commissioners Court also voted to buy out nine properties that flooded during Harvey, part of a larger push to purchase and demolish homes that flood repeatedly.

Blount said the county has demolished nine homes and bought out 22 others along the San Jacinto River in Banana Bend, Highland Shores and Sandbar estates neighborhoods. Nearly 100 other homes have offers or appraisals pending.

Blount could not provide a dollar figure for the amount the county had paid for the homes, but Commissioners Court authorized spending roughly $20 million in September for the buyouts.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

AUSTIN -- A proposed $81 billion disaster aid package that the U.S. House is moving forward to approve will fund all federally authorized flood control projects in Harris County and other Texas areas hammered by Hurricane Harvey, officials confirmed Tuesday.

And while the measure falls short of what Texas sought to address the next phase of its disaster-recovery needs, those officials said they plan to push ahead for additional money next year.

"This bill fully funds all federally authorized flood control projects in Harris County and in all other Texas disaster area counties," said U.S. Rep. John Culberson, a Houston Republican who is a member of the House Appropriations Committee that hammered out the bill.

Culberson said under the bill "we can finish Brays Bayou with front loaded funding. I also won passage of language prioritizing Army Corps funding to counties like Harris that have suffered repeated floods in recent years, which will help us get that third reservoir built to keep water out of Addicks and Barker."

In addition, he said Tuesday that funding included in the bill will "help compensate property owners who were flooded when the Corps opened the gates on Addicks and Barker Reservoirs."

In Washington, House leaders late Monday made public the details of their bill, the latest installment in more than $130 billion federal aid to Texas and other states from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria and Nate, along with wildfires that have blackened large areas in California.

In all, the storms and wildfires are widely reported to have cost well over $200 billion in damages -- more than $100 billion in Texas alone, according to initial estimates.

While the bill is almost double the $44 billion that the Trump administration proposed, it falls far short of the $61 billion that Texas officials had sought weeks ago.

Gov. Greg Abbott, who went ballistic in October after House leaders sidetracked an $18.7 billion allocation specifically for Texas and complained after the Trump administration recommended only $44 million instead of the $61 million that Texas requested, said Tuesday the measure still needs work.

"The top line number is significant but the overall bill is still a work in progress," said Ciara Matthews, Abbott's press secretary. "The governor will continue to work with the Texas delegation to identify strategies and address the needs of Texans."

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and House members from Texas said Abbott remains directly involved in the ongoing negotiations over additional funding for Texas, most recently in a conference call Monday night. GOP leaders in Washington promised a vote on the bill by the end of this week.

The House bill contains $26.12 billion for federal Community Development Block Grants, $12.1 billion for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects, $3.8 billion for the Department of Agriculture, $2.9 billion for hurricane education recovery, $1.5 billion to recoup military costs and $1.4 billion to repair damaged highway infrastructure.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., has characterized the measure as a key to the federal government's continuing response to the record losses during 2017 from natural disasters.

As details of the measure emerged Tuesday, members of Texas' congressional delegation said additional funding for the state's recovery will be needed in 2018.

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who stressed that Texas officials -- "Republicans and Democrats" -- are working to get Texas the funding it needs to recover from the historic storm.

"There are people all over in the Houston area and other places that were flooded in Texas who can't get to the next level, who can't get their homes repaired, because of a lack of resources," she said. "We should capture what we can before the holiday" and then push for additional disaster-relief next year.

"This is not the finish," Jackson Lee said.

Mayor Sylvester Turner praised the announcement of the proposed allocation.

"Hopefully that will come through," Turner said Tuesday. "There seems to be some progress. We'll continue to need to make the case, because there are still way too many people, thousands of people who are in homes that need to be remediated in some form. That remains a major, major issue."

In September, after as Texas was still reeling from Harvey and the resulting flooding, Congress approved $15 billion for relief efforts in Texas. The following month, the House answered Texas' request for an additional $18.7 billion in Harvey aid to Texas, opting instead to approve $36.5 billion for the Lone Star State along with hurricane relief to Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Wildfires in California and other Western states also were covered.

Much of the funding for Texas would have gone for recovery programs in the Houston area, officials said.

Mike Morris contributed to this report.

Mike Ward is the Austin Bureau chief, covering Texas politics, the Executive Branch, criminal justice, ethics and other issues for the Houston Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Send him tips at mike.ward@chron.com
George Carlin, one of the most influential comedians of his time, wisecracked about "seven words you can never say on television."

Here's the funny thing. After a disc jockey played a recording of the routine on the radio in 1972, the FCC handed down a ruling that specifically banned those bawdy words from the country's airwaves. The seven words you can never say on television literally became just that.

Now Carlin's comedy bit has become prescient all over again. Senior officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reportedly have been advised to avoid using seven words and phrases in their next budget proposal. Among the apparently offending terms are "diversity," "entitlement," "fetus," "transgender," "vulnerable," "evidence-based" and "science-based."

CDC officials trying to dance around that delicate language reportedly were provided with some alternate language. Instead of saying a conclusion is "science-based" or "evidence-based," the suggested phrase is "CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes."

Unfortunately, unlike Carlin's list of banned words, this is no joke. Since the first stories about this silliness broke, questions have been raised about whether bureaucrats have been ordered to stop using certain terms or just advised they're better off avoiding language that might raise eyebrows on Capitol Hill. Nonetheless, when people who work at the federal agency responsible for protecting the public's health are told they shouldn't use the word "fetus," something's wrong.

When scientific knowledge is altered to conform to "community standards and wishes," it raises questions about the CDC's credibility. A community can wish that it doesn't have a problem with sexually transmitted diseases among high school students, but the CDC still needs to track it. A whole lot of misguided parents wrongly believe that vaccinations against childhood diseases cause autism, but the CDC shouldn't change its position on immunizations simply because some people disagree with it.

Scientific research essential to the public health cannot be constrained by "community standards." Sometimes what researchers discover and discuss is unpopular with large swaths of the public, but their discussions need to be unfettered. Scientists shouldn't have to grab a thesaurus to find politically inoffensive language before talking about the truth.

If the federal government discourages budget writers from addressing the needs of people who are "vulnerable" to certain diseases, those vulnerable populations and their illnesses won't go away. Neither will "trangender" Americans. And neither will the increasing "diversity" of cities like Houston. The fact that people within the federal government are trying to expunge those words from their employees' vocabulary sends a troubling message about the mindset within this administration.

A spokesperson said it was a "mischaracterization" to say the terms have been forbidden, but the nuance hasn't been clarified. The CDC's director, Brenda Fitzgerald, took to Twitter to issue an assurance that "there are no banned words at CDC." Whether the language is off limits or just discouraged doesn't matter. Advising budget writers to avoid the use of those terms suggests important public health issues are being politicized.

George Carlin's seven dirty words still don't turn up on broadcast television very often, but today they're all over cable television. No matter how hard the government tried to ban them, they've survived on TV. Whether the seven words you can't say at the CDC are banned or merely discouraged, the Trump administration needs to stop trying to press an ideological agenda by policing federal employees' language.
December 1, 2017, marked the 29th annual World AIDS Day. For many, this day came and went without much notice. For those who did notice, it probably served as a historical reminder of an epidemic that, in the United States at least, many of us think is over. Unfortunately, while HIV/AIDS receives less attention today, it is still infecting and killing Americans each year. In fact, Texas is among the top 10 states with the most new diagnoses each year - 4,493 people in 2016. In total, there are more than 86,000 Texans living with HIV. Our state government needs to take notice of its HIV problem and take action to eradicate it once and for all.

There are multiple ways to contract HIV. The most common transmission category in Texas is sexual contact (about 83 percent of female transmission and 93-96 percent of male transmission), followed by drug use (16 percent of female and 4-7 percent of male cases). Some may be surprised that drug use is not a more prevalent mode of contracting HIV. In fact, as a transmission category for new diagnoses statewide, drug use declined by nearly 50 percent between 2007 and 2016. Unfortunately, the only transmission category that increased in that time period is male-to-male sexual contact, with about 1,000 more diagnoses in 2016 than in 2007.

Indeed, there are enormous gender and racial disparities when it comes to who lives with HIV in Texas.

According to a state report, 79 percent of Texans living with HIV in 2016 were men. In the same year, 37 percent of HIV-positive Texans were black, 32 percent were Hispanic/Latino, and 26 percent were white. Representing 13 percent of the Texas population, African-Americans are disproportionately affected by HIV. The fact that people of color and the LGBTQ community are most at risk of contracting HIV may explain why the HIV problem in Texas has been underreported for so long.

Medical advancement has greatly improved HIV/AIDS treatment and outcomes for patients. Today, a person with HIV is expected to have the same life expectancy as someone without HIV, as long as they take their medication regularly. However, we cannot treat those with HIV unless they know they have the disease. About 13,000 HIV-positive Texans do not know they have HIV. Now that medicine can ensure that HIV patients live otherwise normal lives, policy makers need to step in to ensure that more people are tested and receive treatment.

San Antonio set a good example when, on this year's World AIDS Day, it joined the Fast Track Cities initiative to eliminate AIDS by 2030. The Texas Legislature would do well to follow San Antonio's lead. While one HIV-related bill, HB 1629, passed during the 2017 legislative session, it alone cannot halt Texas' HIV emergency. The Legislature should focus on increasing testing among all Texans when they go to the doctor - not only those who are high-risk - as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends. State Rep. Gene Wu authored a bill last session, HB 717, that would have done just that. Unfortunately, the House Insurance Committee never even voted on it.

The state also should increase awareness of HIV and other STIs and promote the use of barrier methods of contraception in schools and clinics. Given that Texas ranks 13th out of 50 states for chlamydial infections and 11th for gonorrheal infections - both of which can increase the spread of HIV - more contraception use would benefit many Texans. Of course, for more testing and treatment to take place, the state should ensure that all Texans can access and afford a visit to a health clinic.

With Texas having the highest uninsured rate in the country, we have a long way to go on this front. In the meantime, we can all do our part by supporting grass-roots-level organizations like the Afiya Center in Dallas, which advocates for better reproductive health outcomes for black women, an especially high-risk population.

If Texas does more to fund and coordinate efforts among its health agencies, care providers and health care advocates, we can make some progress on the HIV problem in Texas.

We would all do well to anticipate the 30th World AIDS Day in 2018 with a sense of purpose instead of with a mere nod to history.

Crockett is a student at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. This op-ed first appeared in the Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans - and engages with them - about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
The Houston Lions Club hosted its annual Texas County Shop with a Cop or Firefighter last Saturday (Dec. 16) at the Houston Walmart.

Participating in the event were 45 children and more than 30 officers and firefighters.

It was great to see the positive relationships being built between the children and law enforcement and firefighters, said co-event organizer Bennie Cook.

The children were able to spend up to $100 apiece. They also received goodie bags with items from Sonic, McDonalds, Hardees and Guy and Melissa Ceplina.

Donors to this years program included Houston Walmart, the Houston Police Department, the Licking Lions Club, the Cabool Police Department the Texas County Sheriffs Department and a local donor who wishes to remain anonymous.

Cook offered thanks to numerous companies, organizations and individuals involved in making the program possible. It took all of these people and agencies working together to make this event happen, he said.

This was definitely a countywide event and it took everyone to bring it together.
On Tuesday, organizer Pat Miller couldnt have been happier with the communitys response to the annual Share Your Christmas drive that assists deserving children in Texas County.

It never ceases to amaze me, Miller said of the response to meet the need of children whose cases were outlined weekly in the Houston Herald. This community is so generous. If you put it out there that theres a need, people around here will always meet it.

Donors also had the opportunity to take a case off an Angel Tree at several locations. In all, 195 angels dangled for easy availability.

Miller praised the generosity that will help 245 children in 92 families in the county. Distribution was under way this week at the campaigns headquarters in the basement of the Houston Lions Club Den on North U.S. 63.

Many clubs, individuals and businesses joined to make the drive successful.

Here are the latest contributors: Forbes Pharmacy, Sonic of Houston, Simply Posh Day Spa, Demi Grace Salon, Houston Walmart Supercenter, LendNation, Girl Scouts, Show Clover 4-H group, Rootin Tootin Fabric and Gifts, Blue Heaven Club, Eunice Baptist Church, The Bank of Houston employees, Landmark Bank of Houston employees, Church of Christ (Temple Lot) and Houston Lions Club members.
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.
LondonBritish consumers are being misled into buying real fur from fox, rabbit, chinchilla and mink, falsely advertised as fake fur, an investigation by Humane Society International UK and Sky News has revealed.

The investigation found trusted online retailers such as Boohoo, Amazon and Not On The High Street all selling items such as bobble hats, keychains, scarves, shoes and coats advertised as faux fur when laboratory tests revealed them to be real animal fur.

Many of these items have deceptively low price points; life is cheap on fur farms, with animals enduring appalling deprivation, and this means that real fur trim often costs the same or even less than faux fur.

Claire Bass, executive director of Humane Society International UK, said: The amount of fake faux fur online is truly shocking, with even trusted retailers mis-selling real animal fur as synthetic. It is appalling that British shoppers, who are actively choosing not to buy real fur because of the terrible animal suffering, are being misled into buying the very same fur products theyre trying to avoid. The combination of trusted brands, cheap prices, and items described as faux or 100% acrylic, means many people will be justifiably horrified to discover theyve inadvertently bought animal fur. Consumers rightly expect brands to sell what they say theyre selling, so urgent action is needed to stop this insidious creep of fur through the back door.

Contact Amazon: No more fake faux fur

Animal lover Jayne Webster got in touch with HSI to report concerns about the key chain that she bought from T.K. Maxx after being assured it was faux fur by T K Maxx staff. HSI sent the keychain off for testing and found it to be made of rabbit fur. Jayne said: As a company who proudly boasts that they have not sold fur or angora products since 2003, I would assume that TK Maxx takes a strong ethical stance on this issue. So when I found out that the fur pom-pom I bought was actually made of rabbit fur I was extremely disappointed and concerned. I am aware of the horrific suffering that animals on fur farms go through and would never want to buy real fur, I dont know how companies can get away with this.

Fake faux fur items include:

T.K. Maxx, fox fur coat

Boohoo, mink fur earrings

Boohoo, rabbit fur shoes

Miss Bardo, fox fur hat

Amazon, rabbit fur childrens shoes

Not On The High Street, rabbit fur keychain

Groupon, rabbit fur keychain

Etsy, mink fur earrings

Around the world in countries such as the U.S., France, Poland and China, animals on fur farms are subjected to terrible conditions. Beautiful wild animals are kept their entire lives in small, barren cages, physically and mentally deprived, before being killed and skinned for their fur. Wild animals such as coyotes fair no better, caught in agonising traps for hours or even days before being shot.

The vast majority of the British public are against wearing fur. A 2016 YouGov poll shows 9 out of 10 Brits believe that it is unacceptable to buy and sell real fur, averaged across nine species. Although fur farming was outlawed in the UK on moral grounds in 2000, and EU regulations ban fur from domestic cats, dogs or commercial seal hunts, the UK still imports and sells fur from a range of other species such as fox, rabbit, mink, coyote, raccoon dog, and chinchilla.

HSI is campaigning for the British Government to make the United Kingdom a fur-free zone by extending the cat, dog and seal fur bans to include all fur-bearing species. As a member of the EU single market, under rules relating to free movement of goods the UK is not currently at liberty to ban the import of animal fur, which is farmed in several European countries. But Brexit could give the government the freedom to reflect the publics distaste for all fur and close our borders fully to this cruel and outdated trade.

Bass continued: The government banned fur farming as unethical in the UK more than ten years ago, but perversely we have since been importing that same cruelty from fur farms overseas. The vast majority of British people believe that animal fur has no place in our high streets and wardrobes, and would support a UK ban. Mandatory, clear labelling of all fur is urgently needed to stop consumers being misled, but ultimately to properly protect both animals and consumers, the government must use the opportunity presented by Brexit to ban all UK fur imports.

Frequently Asked Questions:

There is no legal requirement to use the specific word fur on items containing real fur. EU regulations do require items defined as textile products to carry the confusing wording contains non-textile parts of animal origin but as well as not clearly telling consumers it means real animal fur, in practice this wording requirement is rarely adhered to at all.

Products sold online are exempt even from the above confusing wording requirement, and footwear or non-garment accessories such as handbags and keychains are also excluded.

Under consumer protection legislation, its technically illegal to mislead. However, the regulation  with respect to the sale of animal fur  is very poorly enforced, and an honest mistake is considered a legitimate defence and so retailers are rarely prosecuted.

HSI believes that all products containing real animal fur (including clothing, footwear, accessories etc) should be clearly labelled in plain English. Such labelling is already in place in the US and Switzerland, and should include the animal species (both common and scientific name); country of origin (where the animal was bred/trapped and killed); how the animal was reared and killed (trap caught or reared in a wire cage, for example).

Media contact: Harriet Barclay, HBarclay@hsi.org, +44 (0)7794354596

Notes:
This Indie Guitarist Is Paying Off His House Thanks To Streaming Revenue.

Here Chris Robley reveals the DIY success story that is Lance Allen, an artist who doesn't tour or sell merch, but is able to earn a full time living from music through the combined revenue of guitar lessons and money generated from streams on Pandora, Spotify, and YouTube.

___________________________

Guest post by Chris Robley of DIY Musician

The music career of Lance Allen is a true DIY success story. He doesnt tour. He doesnt rely on merch sales to pay the mortgage. He isnt a household name. And yet hes earning a full-time living in music by balancing guitar lessons with streaming revenue. That money hes generating from Pandora, Spotify, and YouTube is a pretty sizable portion of his overall earnings too. Its enough to buy a new guitar every month, but instead hes using it to pay off his house.

Hows streaming working so well for him? I asked.

An interview with Lance Allen, the Guitarlancer

CR: Your main focus is clear from the calls-to-action at the very top of your website homepage: drive action on Spotify and Pandora. Why those platforms? Why not touring? iTunes? YouTube? CD sales?

LA: Spotify and Pandora Radio have the largest audience, and thats the reason why theyre my main focus. Plus it has been a source of income for me.

In late 2015, I was lucky and one of my songs was chosen for the new playlist on Spotify called Acoustic Concentration. A Skype guitar student that I teach told me about this. I didnt know what to expect really, considering most people in the industry complain about Spotifys royalty rates. The first payment I received was somewhere in the tune of $700 and I was floored! I didnt know how long it would last, but I held out hope. It kept going and eventually the playlist switched up songs and I remained on there. This stayed constant, but I wasnt doing any research until earlier in 2017, when I accidentally stumbled on a short book called The Slotify Method by George Goodrich. This book and the CD Baby PDF on how to get added to playlists put a fire in my feet and I got started right away. Ive done most of the things suggested in each of the pamphlets, and it has worked greatly.

As far as touring, I dont need to do that. I have a successful guitar lesson business and a family at home. Its quite nice to be at home with the family. I do the occasional gig at coffee houses, weddings, or corporate events. Its at those type of things that I bring physical CDs. I have a box with a hole in the top and lay my CDs around the box and have a sign that says, Pay the box, take a CD. Any amount is ok. Enjoy! This seems to work great, because most people pay more for the CD than they would normally.

YouTube is strong for me. I started in 2006 posting videos of my arrangements on guitar. My camera got better, sound got better, and everything else fell into place. I do generate a little income from the AdSense. YouTube is very friendly with Google, so whenever I release a song Ill make a live performance of me playing it and link to my Spotify and Pandora artist pages, as well as where you can buy tablature or sign up for lessons. Sometimes Ill do multiple videos of the same song on various guitar brands to get more keyword juice going. Every little bit helps. You just have to keep the content going.

CR: What, if any, are the unique opportunities that Pandora and Spotify offer instrumental music?

LA: I have found that businesses all over the globe are using Spotify and Pandora to stream instrumental music in their shops and offices. Whether its a coffee shop, a boutique store, gift shops, or doctors offices, they use these platforms typically to play instrumental music. A lot of them use existing playlists, but some create their own. So there is a lot of opportunity for me in these areas. Still learning about them.

So, you currently have half a million monthly listeners on Spotify, but take us back to Day 1: How did you get those first 1000 listeners? The first 10,000 listeners? Can you walk me through the real foundational steps for driving interest in your music? And how much of your success was the result of engaging your existing audience vs. reaching out to playlist curators?

I cant remember really what my earliest numbers were like as I didnt pay much attention until I saw some income from being on Acoustic Concentration.

After reading up on how to get on playlists, here are some of the things I started doing:

Posting screenshots of my artist page to Instagram and using pre-loaded hashtags for reach. I did this daily!

Using Twitter to promote the playlist I was already on, as well as encouraging people to follow me on Spotify.

Finding playlist owners and asking them to add me to one of their playlists.

Becoming acquainted with Spotify editorial departments on LinkedIn.

Speaking of, how DID you reach out to playlisters? Whats the method in terms of research, pitching, promoting, and so forth?

I did a search on Spotify using keywords that pertained to my genre of music (Acoustic Guitar, fingerstyle guitar, instrumental guitar, study music and so on. There are a lot!) I set about an hour each morning while I enjoyed my single origin pour-over coffee to do this. I searched out the creators of the playlist on Facebook and Twitter. I matched up photos, and requested them to be a friend, along with sending them a message telling them about my music and how it would fit nicely into their playlist. Its very tedious work and some playlist curators dont even get onto social media. The key is to stay persistent with it and then the ones that matter end up connecting with you and help you out.

I know from when I met you in person at the DIY Musician Conference that you have a confident way of promoting your music, without it seeming cloying or arrogant. Is that just your natural demeanor, or did you have to work to acquire those skills of self-promotion? What part do you think that confidence plays in your career successes?

Confidence is one of my major strengths! If you have a dream or are very passionate about making a living doing something you love, you have to be willing to do what it takes to succeed. Ive learned this through growing my guitar lesson business and meeting people. You never know who is going to be the next person to help you out. They may recommend you, buy a CD, or support your fundraisers. Or put you on their playlist!

Ive read a lot of books on self selling, and making friends and influencing people. One that especially got me going was The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone. After listening to that book on audio, I found myself putting in ten times the effort! There are a lot of great books out there on making yourself sellable and influential.

What have been some of the letdowns or failures youve experienced along the way, and how did you pick yourself back up?

The letdown is not being able to reach someone with a user generated playlist I know will help me. Im focused on getting onto the playlist that users create because that in turn gets my name on the Spotify curators radar.

Something that I do to help with keeping persistent is having a goal sheet written in bold sharpie just above my computer. I try my best to keep at it, regardless of a failing outcome. I have seen results from my efforts, so I just keep with it. I find that I learn new things and techniques along the way. This hasnt happened yet, but getting pulled from a playlist would be a disappointment. Especially a Spotify playlist, as their independent curators are ghosts and difficult to have direct contact with. However I would keep pushing, because it is my goal to succeed with my music.

Taking a look at your discography, you put out albums every few years, with two related albums in 2017, but you also started dropping a bunch of singles over the past year. What effect did putting out music more frequently have on your musics streaming performance?

Releasing singles has been the best thing for me. It keeps listeners engaged with my artist profile. I started releasing covers too, because CD Baby makes it so easy to do. That has been a game changer! People love hearing cover songs. And because mine are all instrumental, they get put on big playlists, like Instrumental Pop Covers.

The two related albums are String Poet and String Poet Guitar Solos. One of the releases has the violins and cellos in the mix and the other is just solo guitar. I did this because of a playlister who only wanted solo guitar. It got me on the playlist, so it was worth releasing them that way.

In August 2017 one of my songs got placed on the Peaceful Guitar playlist, which is a Spotify playlist with half a million followers at the time. Im quite confident that this happened as a result of being prolific on the platform. The pay from Spotify streams is big for me. I could easily buy a new guitar each month if I wanted, but its paying my house off!

In October I decided to record a song just for the Peaceful Guitar playlist. I didnt know how it would go, but I did it anyway. I listened to the playlist and created a song that would fit. I took into consideration that most of the songs on there were nylon string and quite peaceful, so I got some new strings and went to work. I even gave it a title in the same manner as the other tracks in the playlist, Raining Slowly. It wasnt a lot of work really. I sat in my living room with my laptop, GarageBand, a single AKG microphone, and a Focusrite preamp and recorded one take of an idea that I had. I took an iPhone photo of my guitar and used Font Candy to make a title on the photo. This ended up being my cover for the release. I got the song uploaded on Spotify and on day one it was placed on the Peaceful Guitar playlist!

Took me about 1.5 hours to do this tune and now its a part of my income. Holy Cow that was awesome. Im doing what I can now to replicate that.

Whats the basic checklist of things you do to promote each single?

Make sure you are ready to post in every social media outlet, tagging people, messaging your friends who have created playlists (you know, the ones you met from doing the research).

Make a YouTube performance video, linking everything together. You can also make a video with the audio layed underneath your cover photo of the release. That seems to help as well. Dont forget to put links in every video.

Besides frequent releases and pitching to playlists, what else are you doing to drive Spotify engagement?

Creating and promoting my own playlists. Ive created a playlist that is growing quickly called Acoustic Guitar Cafe.

Its a lot of my friends who play guitar similar to me. I just recently asked every artist on there if they would be interested in chipping in $20 for a Spotify ad to promote the playlist. I was able to get a decent budget on a Spotify ad to promote the playlist. This will hopefully help find new followers and listeners of our music. Its also started a discussion with some of the artists where were sharing stats and techniques of what is working to get our music heard.

What are you doing to drive Pandora streams? Are you using AMP?

I use AMP every day or every other day. I try to post artist messages that are personal, sometimes funny. The key is to connect with people that are listening. Being that its instrumental, I can provide a short blurb about why I wrote the tune. Things like that generate thumbs up, which in turn brings your music up more often.

What role does data play in shaping your strategies? Do you make a habit of looking at analytics?

I look at the analytic all the time. In fact I cant wait until 11 CST to see the artist.spotify update. That tells me if Ive gotten on any new playlist. I also used the data when creating the Spotify ad to promote my playlist. Im eying the AMP data as well, to see if my artist messages are working and possibly making conversions or new listeners and fans.

So what are some of your big picture goals?



Id love to earn a complete living with streaming revenue, and in fact Id love to say that I paid my house off with streaming bucks. Im well on the way.

Also, Id like to see my music in the movies or TV eventually. I know in the music business its all about who you know. Im already in a library, so just hoping a music supervisor picks it up and hears it.

I didnt quite make it, but I tried to get nominated for a Grammy this year. Although I dont need a Grammy to succeed with this, it would be neat to get a nomination. So I will continue to submit every year I do album.

Who are your musical idols  and have your songs appeared alongside some of theirs in curated playlists?

Yes! One is Phil Keaggy, and it was a dream to have him on one of my songs, Blue Ireland. Tommy Emmanuel is another big influence, and I hope to one day record something with him.

Whats the next year look like for you?

Next year Pandora will have increased, as well as Spotify numbers. I will be releasing more Christmas music for the holidays as well as an album of cover songs. I may even do an original album of peaceful guitar music or possibly a Volume 2 to my String Poet album that everyone has loved. I may even look into doing an electric guitar album or something in the smooth jazz style of music. That elevator music pays too!

Chris Robley is the Editor of CD Baby's DIY Musician Blog. I write Beatlesque indie-pop songsthat've been praised by No Depression, KCRW, The LA Times, & others. My poems have appeared in Poetry Magazine, Prairie Schooner, The Poetry Review, & more. I live in Maine and like peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, a little too much.

Share on:
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a catchall term for many kinds of connected devicessuch as sensors, speakers, and camerasfound in cities, factories, and homes. These devices often dont need as much bandwidth as smartphones, but connecting them through existing LTE networks is expensive.

Telecom Italia , Italys largest telecommunications provider, is putting the finishing touches on a new wireless network for the Internet of Things that should be available nationwide by the end of January.

In order for the IoT to catch on, telecommunications companies believe those devices need their own dedicated wireless networks. Two new types of networkscalled Long Term Evolution for Machines (LTE-M) and NarrowbandInternet of Things (NB-IoT)are now being deployed for that purpose. Both are designed for low-power devices that send only a few bits of data at a time.

Unlike Wi-Fi, these networks operate in licensed cellular spectrum where there is minimal radio interference. They also provide coverage over tens of kilometers, much farther than local wireless access points or short-range technologies such as Bluetooth and Zigbee.

Specifications for LTE-M and NB-IoT were released in 2016 by the standards body called the 3rd Generation Partnership Project. Since then, carriers have rolled out 28 nationwide LTE-M and NB-IoT networks across 21 countries, including China, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Turkey, the United Statesand now, Italy.

Were getting launch announcements pretty much on a daily basis now, says Svetlana Grant, IoT program director for GSMA (Groupe Speciale Mobile Association), a mobile industry group that helped develop the specifications.

Upgrading an existing LTE network to support LTE-M and NB-IoT can be done through a software update. An algorithm tunes each base-station antenna to make it more sensitive to incoming signals broadcast from low-power devices. Its very quick to deploy in many cases nationwide, says Grant.

Italys network also supports a new sleep mode, called extended discontinuous reception, that can lengthen a devices battery life. It allows an IoT device, such as a water gauge in an agricultural field, to tell a base station how long it plans to remain offline. The base station could then let the device sleep for 10 minutes, for example, instead of pinging it every 1.28 seconds, which is a typical paging interval for LTE.

Of the two network types, LTE-M provides higher throughput and lower latencyfilling 1.4 megahertz of bandwidth at data rates of 150 kilobits per second with around 10 milliseconds of latency, compared with NB-IoT, which sends data at about 50 kb/s through 200-kilohertz channels with latency as high as 10 seconds. LTE-M also enables voice transmissions, whereas NB-IoT is best for devices that send infrequent updates. A building alarm, for example, may need to send only five messages of 50 bytes a day.

Many carriers are choosing to deploy both networks at once. In the future, there may be a way to automatically switch a device from one to the other, depending on the service it needs.

Now telecommunications companies must find customers willing to pay for access to these networks. Alessandro Bassi, who runs an IoT consultancy and is president of IoTItaly, has several clients in Italy with projects in pilot stages, but none beyond that. They are a bit afraid of being the first ones, he says.

To assuage that fear, Telecom Italia founded an IoT Open Lab in the city of Turin in November 2016. There, developers can conduct end-to-end tests to see how devices or services would function on its NB-IoT network. So far, more than 110 companies have cycled through, says Giovanni Ferigo, the companys chief technology officer. A dozen have completed validation tests required to operate equipment on the new network.

Telecom Italia expects smart meters for homes and utilities to be among the first devices to connect, says Ferigo. Last April, a local utility ran a pilot for one such water meter in Turin. Another manufacturer is testing a smart gas meter. Eventually, IoT services could become available to consumers through their wireless plans for home gadgets.

Source: https://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/wireless/italy-launches-a-new-wireless-network-for-the-internet-of-things
The Belgian city of Ghent plays host to a broad range of projects and initiatives around the commons. But it has yet to adopt a model which really places a commons-focused approach and logic at the core of its institutions and processes. Recent work undertaken by experts on the commons provides a roadmap for the city to re-imagine and reconfigure its structures around citizen participation, the sharing of resources, and translocal cooperation.

Michel Bauwens, one of the worlds experts on the commons and founder of the P2P Foundation, distinguishes at least three main reasons why cities would want to stimulate initiatives and projects related to the commons. First, these play an important role in the ecological transition, they allow for goods, workshops, and infrastructures to be shared. Second, they enable a faster transfer to a circular economy by sharing information about production chains, in addition to offering opportunities for local jobs and meaningful labour. And instead of outsourcing everything to private companies working with long supply chains, communal knowhow and coordination platforms allow the realisation of shorter supply and distribution chains. And finally, as the commons are based on open systems, they strengthen democracy and participation. What is still missing, however, in Ghent and elsewhere, is the maker city model of the commons, namely a production model based on open design.

A strong commons commitment

Ghent, a city of 260,000 residents in Belgium, has a remarkable history of citizen initiatives and other forms of self-governance. In the Middle Ages it was a big, wealthy city with over 50 guilds. During the industrial revolution it was the cradle of new labour movements and cooperatives. For some ten years now there has been a third wave of activity, now comprising over 500 citizen initiatives, ranging from an energy cooperative and a digital citizens platform for car-sharing, to numerous local food initiatives.

At the political level, Ghent has a tradition of progressive parties, with a relatively large Green Party that has been on the scene for the last few decades. In the 2012 local election, a red-green cartel list won the majority in the town council. It has been governing the city together with the Liberal Party on the basis of an innovative social-ecological city project. The progressive tradition translates into an open culture of policy-making, leaving Ghents 4,000 municipal workers quite some leeway to develop initiatives of their own and interact with citizens. All the same, Belgian cities scope for policy-making, as well as their fiscal autonomy, is limited compared to a country like Denmark.

It is therefore no coincidence that Ghent city council, witnessing the proliferation of citizen initiatives, is the first city in the world to ask Michel Bauwens to devise a Commons Transition Plan for Ghent. Bauwens and his colleague settled in Ghent in the spring of 2017, talked to 80 Ghent commoners (citizens leading or involved in projects around the commons), held a survey on the nature of the commons and the role of the city, and interviewed various municipal services and town councillors. This resulted in a wiki of some 500 documented citizen initiatives.

The aim however was not just to map projects, as the research question was twofold and of a political nature. It first looked at the potentially new facilitating and regulating relationship between the local Ghent government and citizens to enhance the development of commons initiatives. It then asked if cities can be actors in social, economic, and institutional change at a time when nation-states are no longer capable of regulating the transnational economy. Can networks of cities be part of a new transnational governance model?

On the basis of research into the commons in numerous cities, Bauwens, for the purpose of his Commons Transition Plan, starts from two premises. First, the town council, the commons citizen initiatives, and quite a number of Ghents residents are no longer purely local actors. They have become part of transnational and translocal networks, which together can exert influence on socio-economic changes worldwide. This is demonstrated notably in up-and-coming global design communities. Local projects such as fab labs1 are connected to global fab lab information flows, communities, and sometimes even coalitions. Second, cities can more consciously manage the way they cooperate. There are already examples in the field of climate policy or the regulation of Uber, but this can be taken much further. International coalitions of cities should be true institutions for translocal and global cooperation.

Will you be my partner (city)?

Appreciating commons initiatives is one thing, organising as a local government so as to offer structural support is quite another. This requires a fundamental shift in the culture and structure of government, for which Bauwens uses the concept of the Partner State, here transposed to the city as local government. The city is then no longer a territory which needs politicians behaving as managers; it is, first and foremost, a living community of creative citizens. This means that instead of privatising businesses or outsourcing to public-private partnerships, the aim is the development of public-civil partnerships.

In order to make Ghent a Partner City, Bauwens starts from what already exists in the city in terms of transition policy. In the context of its broader climate policy, Ghent for some years has known Gent en Garde (Ghent and whisk), a sustainable food system strategy for the city. The central organ within this transition strategy is the Voedselraad (Food Council), bringing together all food chain stakeholders, hence consolidating the many existing and new initiatives around local food and the so-called short supply chains and bringing producers and consumers into contact with each other.

The Food Council, as the representative organ, also seats people within vested structures, who cannot or do not want to negotiate on an equal footing with the new commons initiators. Thats why a second organ is needed, the contributive organ, which in this case is the existing working group on urban agriculture. This independent working group itself is a coalition of various urban agriculture projects, experts, and committed citizens. It allows for the mobilisation of expertise in civil society in a power-neutral way.

Based on this existing structure and to boost civil participation, the Commons Transition Plan can help found two new institutions. First, the States-General of the Commons, organised by sector and acting as an umbrella. This is a platform designed for citizens who care for the commons and are committed to them. The second organ is the Chamber of the Commons, analogous to the existing Chamber of Commerce. In this Chamber, citizens sit as entrepreneurs, committed to the resilience and future of the commons economy.

The difference in perspective makes both institutions indispensable. By striving in this twofold way for more voice and influence, the contributive organ gains strength in its dialogue with the representative organ and the city. They make sure that there is cocreation and they erect a barrier against any long term encapsulation caused by policy-making. The whole scheme can be rolled out for many other sectors, with the public authorities being fed constantly by commons initiatives and ideas.

In addition to this, Bauwens proposes to copy successful institutions from Italian cities such as Bologna. First, a Commons City Lab, to support fresh, experimental commons initiatives, to devise commons agreements, and to disseminate successful initiatives and models. Second, the commons regulations, which endorse the right to initiate commons orientated projects and regulate the supportive role of cities and other urban actors. The Right to Initiate is a positive right which is not aimed at the replacement of public services, but harbours the values of care and reform.

Where the currents meet

It is a striking fact that whether it is about stimulating the commons or regulating the hyper-capitalist Airbnbs of this world, cities are taking the lead. So its London rather than the British government that has the nerve to take action against Uber if it violates existing rules. Cities being in the vanguard is no coincidence. Even if there are more reasons at play, the fact that a local council is more easily approachable for citizens than a national government certainly has something to do with it; conversely, for a mayor it is easier to engage local actors in policy-making.

This pragmatic response, however, conceals an ideological aspect, which in my book Vrijheid & Zekerheid (Freedom and Certainty) I describe as the Land of Two Currents.2 In Europe there is both a dominant neoliberal main current and an alternative countercurrent. The main current is formed by most national governments, international institutions, and big corporations. National governments find themselves in the straitjacket of the Maastricht Treaty values (placing monetary objectives before social and ecological ones). Urban governments have more autonomy in that sense; it is simply impossible for lobbyists of large corporations to be present in every city. The city is the place where a multitude of sustainable citizen initiatives start and, like small streams feeding into a larger river, come together to strengthen each other. Its mostly the local governance level  which is closest to the citizens  which joins this undercurrent. Its also the place where local alternatives can successfully develop into a real political alternative. The election of Ada Colau as mayor of Barcelona, running on the citizen platform Barcelona en Comu, is an illustration of how this can take place.

Joining forces

If cities want to be an active part of a novel form of transnational governance, then they have to actively found multi-city commons coalitions. This is at the same time a pragmatic proposal: as commoners and entrepreneurs take initiatives and create local standards, the need increases to make them strong enough and allow them to operate in a classical profit-orientated environment, which shifts social and ecological cost (externalities) onto society. Cities and the commons initiatives can only attain real relevance when they succeed in pooling their knowhow and infrastructure. Jointly, cities might for example support the development of open source software platforms allowing the setting-up of working commons systems for, say, car-sharing and bicycle-sharing, minting complementary coins, or the management of food production in short-chain agriculture, from seeds to online sales.

Part of this will mean sharing knowhow about the commons approach in various towns and cities. Then we can see which regulations and new institutions work most effectively in supporting commons initiatives. As a useful example, Bauwens refers to the coalition of 16 large cities signing the Barcelona Pledge and its FabCity model, which aims at relocalising half of the production of food by 2054.

The new translocal horizon

The importance of the Commons Transition Plan that Michel Bauwens devised for Ghent clearly transcends its local character. The new institutional structures that Bauwens proposes, in particular, are of crucial importance. It is clear that after a ten-year increase in citizen initiatives, Ghent needs new structures to channel this energy so as to change society and its economy in the direction of a more honest, sustainable, and shared future. All the proposed innovations at the city level will absorb a lot of time and energy from local commoners, governments, and generative entrepreneurs. There is a big danger here of everyone recognising the importance of the expansion of translocal networks, but not getting round to making them a reality. In his plan, Bauwens mentions the need for the translocal networks in addition to what has to happen in the city itself. It would be important to anchor the translocal aspect in every new institution from the start.

However, more cooperation is necessary to develop the counter-current needed. Essential in this respect are networks of cities cooperating with university networks to develop and share the necessary knowledge and design. If tomorrow 20 towns and cities allocate funds to develop, say, a digital platform for an alternative Fairbnb, and then implement it in cooperation with the urban commons actors, then there is real political leverage by a countercurrent against the neoliberal actors. That is the real struggle we are facing and the lesson to be drawn from the 1970s. In those days there was also, from the energy of what today we refer to as May 68, a broad spectrum of civilian actions and initiatives, staking a claim to more space for citizen autonomy in relation to government and economy. If this space was won in the field of, say, new rights (gay marriage, flexible career options, euthanasia) in a number of countries, then in the field of the economy the reverse has happened  citizens have lost ground.

By organising globally, the power of the business sector has grown far above and beyond both that of the nation-state and of self-organising citizens. If the new wave of citizen movements is to acquire real power, then it will have to organise itself translocally from the beginning, whereby coalitions of cities with clear political and economic objectives take the lead. This will require an awareness and continuous attention on behalf of Green activists and politicians, which should underpin all of their actions.
To share the honor of being recognized as one of Taiwan's Top 20 Global Brands for over ten consecutive years, Transcend cooperates with Taiwan Excellences IEP to hold a Christmas raffle with BIG prizes for the fans. If you like the holidays and you like to travel, then you can not miss the chance to win a Transcend DrivePro 230 dashcam for that extra protection on a road trip, or a Taipei-Manila round-trip flight ticket to enjoy your vacation abroad. As Taiwan visa-free entry for Filipinos begins from November 1, 2017, now is the best time for you to visit Taiwan to discover its renowned hospitality, cultural heritage and natural treasures.

Want to stand a chance to win? All you have to do it to visit Transcend Philippines on Facebook, add Transcends custom frame to your profile picture to show your support, and leave your comments regarding the features you love most about DrivePro 230 dashcam.

The grate prizes include: a Taipei-Manila round-trip flight ticket, a Transcend DrivePro 230 dashcam and two Transcends shock-resistant portable hard disk (TS1TSJ25M3). Entries will close on December 20, 2017 and the winners will be announced on December 21, 2017.

Transcends DrivePro 230 is an advanced dashcam with comprehensive protection. It balances essential features with a multitude of topnotch add-ons, such as:



SONY Image Sensor, Lane Departure Warning System, Forward Collision Warning System, Parking Mode, GPS Conditions, Emergency Recording.

Transcend bundles every DrivePro dashcam with its High Endurance memory card built with top-tier MLC NAND flash chips, providing consistent long-life durability and endurance. You do not need to spend extra money and effort in seeking a compatible and reliable flash card to make your dashcam work. Whats more, the full range of DrivePro dashcams is backed by Transcends 2-year Limited Warranty, whereas most dashcams are covered for 1 year only. This reflects Transcends confidence in the high quality of production and product performance.
Imperial Valley News Center

CDFA veterinarian Dr. Kent Fowler wins prestigious national award

Sacramento, California - CDFA Animal Health branch chief Dr. Kent Fowler was honored this year by the United States Animal Health Association (USAHA) with its National Assembly Award, presented annually in recognition of outstanding, dedicated service and leadership in regulatory veterinary medicine.

Dr. Fowler was recognized for his work in preparation for potential future outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease; for his support and acceptance of an official treatment for Piroplasmosis in horses, including efforts to establish a communications infrastructure for equine diseases; and for working closely with public health and animal health officials on bovine tuberculosis issues.

Dr. Fowlers many years of distinguished service in California uniquely qualify him for this award, said California State Veterinarian Dr. Annette Jones. Besides advocating nationally for new, practical regulatory approaches to disease control, Dr. Fowlers experience in private practice solidified his understanding of the realities of animal production and the importance of practical solutions to challenging problems.

Before joining CDFA in 2004, Dr. Fowler practiced large-animal veterinary medicine on the central coast of California for nearly 30 years. He attended UC Davis, receiving both his B.S and Doctorate degrees there.

The USAHA works with state and federal governments, universities, veterinarians, livestock producers, national livestock and poultry organizations, research scientists, the extension service and several foreign countries to control livestock diseases in the United States. USAHA represents all 50 states, 4 foreign countries and 34 allied groups serving health, technical and consumer markets.
Condemning the Houthi Missile Strike Against Saudi Arabia

Washington, DC - The United States strongly condemns the reckless Houthi missile attack today on Riyadh. We remain deeply disturbed by aggressive Houthi actions supported by Irans provision of advanced weapons, which threaten regional security and prolong the Yemen conflict. The United States calls on Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to stop arming and enabling the Houthis violent actions against Yemens neighbors, including Saudi Arabia.

A political solution is the only way to advance long-term stability in Yemen and end the suffering of the Yemeni people. We urge all parties to immediately cease hostilities, avoid retaliatory measures and return to political negotiations under the auspices of the United Nations.



The United States also remains deeply concerned by the dire humanitarian conditions in Yemen. We continue to urge all parties to facilitate the free and unfettered flow of humanitarian aid and commercial goods, including fuel, into and throughout Yemen, including through all of Yemens ports, including Hudaydah port and Sanaa airport.
Joint Statement on the First U.S.-India Counterterrorism Designations Dialogue

Washington, DC - The inaugural U.S.-India Counterterrorism Designations Dialogue was held in New Delhi, India on December 18-19 to discuss increasing bilateral cooperation on terrorism-related designations. The establishment of this mechanism reflects shared U.S. and Indian commitments to strengthen cooperation against terrorist threats.

The U.S. and Indian delegations exchanged information on procedures for pursuing designations against terrorist groups and individuals through domestic and international mechanisms. They also discussed best practices for effective implementation of the designations. The United States will host the second U.S.-India Counterterrorism Designations Dialogue in 2018.




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 }}

The Devil Wears Prada is finally continuing its story: but this time it will focus on Miranda's other assistant, Emily Charlton (Emily Blunt in the film).

Chances are after you saw the movie or read the two books based on Andrea's life you wondered what happened to Emily.

While the first two books in the series focused the life of Miranda's assistant Andrea Sachs (played by Anne Hathaway in the movie), the latest work titled When Life Gives You Lululemons chronicles Emily's career as a celebrity image consultant who lands a huge opportunity in the suburbs.

In Weisberger's follow-up, Emily heads to Greenwich, Connecticut, to help spin the image of supermodel and senator's wife Karolina Hartwell who got a DUI.

Connected to her by a woman named Miriam who is transitioning to be a new stay-at-home mom, it sounds like we might not even recognise Emily anymore by the end of the book.

Hopefully some burning questions about the original "first assistant" to Miranda will be answered:

Does she become nicer?

Does she eventually get to experience Paris?

Do she and Andy ever meet again?

You'll have to wait until June 2018 for the next instalment, coming 15 years after the debut of The Devil Wears Prada.

However you can read an excerpt of the first chapter here, which opens with Emily at quite the New Year's Eve fete.

Since we pretty much are never getting a sequel to the on-screen version of Weisberger's novel, another book in the series is a big win.
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 }}

Wine and women... in moderation. That, according to the sprightly nearly 95-year-old filmmaker Jonas Mekas, is the secret of a long life. As he sips sparingly from a big glass of Merlot, Mekas, the high priest of underground film, reflects on some of the wondrously bizarre anecdotes contained in his new book, A Dance With Fred Astaire.

Everyone is in the book: artists, movie stars, politicians, writers and even a ghost or two. Youll find Andy Warhol in one chapter and Jackie Kennedy in the next. Yes, Mekas did dance with Astaire (it was when his friend Yoko Ono was shooting a scene from her film Imagine); yes, he did have the next door room to Janis Joplin in the Chelsea Hotel and could hear her (practicing her amazing voice but I could hear all the other sounds too); yes, in his hungry years, he and his brother did once eat up all the cookies at a party held at the house of Anais Nin at Washington Square.

Mekas (centre) with Hollis Frampton, Peter Kubelka, Florence Jacobs and Ken Jacobs at the opening of Anthology Film Archives in 1970 (Michael Chikiris)

Mekas, who was born in 1922, has been a fixture on the New York underground art scene for so long that the circumstances in which he first arrived in the US in the late 1940s are sometimes forgotten. He grew up in a remote village in Lithuania, loving poetry and nothing much else. The town didnt have a cinema and he didnt see any films at all until he was a teenager. He was ready with a camera, though, when Soviet tanks arrived in Lithuania in 1940, and went on to he work with the resistance press during the Nazi occupation. It was completely secret. Not even my brother knew about it, he says of his activities.

In 1944, with the Russians about to come back and the Germans on the verge of retreating, Mekas and his brother Adolfas tried to flee. They took a train to Vienna but were detained by the German military police en route and thrown into a labour camp near Hamburg alongside German and Italian war prisoners.

When I look back, very often I see that it was me not knowing real life and being naive about it that helped me to survive, he reflects. Mekas had to work 16 to 18 hours a day in the camp. The food was terrible (he remembers seeing giant worms in the soup.) The French wanted someone to complain but were reluctant to do it themselves. Mekas was therefore chosen for the task. He went, Oliver Twist-like, to the camp commandant and told him that the prisoners wanted better food. He (the commandant) looked at me as if he was looking at a child and said the soup was very good.

Instinct told Mekas not to press the point and he was allowed to leave unharmed. There were several other such situations that helped me to survive the wartime.

When peace came and Germany was divided into zones run by the allies, Mekas, still in his early 20s, ended up in a displaced persons camp in Wiesbaden. He was able to study philosophy at an open university in Mainz and to watch some old Hollywood movies which the Americans allowed to be shown in the camp. These were mainly very bad, cheap westerns and cheap melodramas. In French-controlled Mainz, though, the films shown were much better: Renoir movies, Cocteaus Beauty And The Beast, neo-realism and the like. There, I realised that cinema had some possibilities.

During this period, Mekas kept a diary and took photos. This is what he has been doing ever since. His life is his work. He is a hoarder. I dont throw out anything, he boasts. As a diarist and artist, everything that is in my house becomes part of my working material. I never know when I will need it.

After the war, Mekas came to America as a stranger, with no friends. He knew nothing and nobody.

Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up

OK, lets face it, I came from war-time and post-war Europe where many things were forbidden. We were not familiar with what was happening in the arts in the so-called west, the modern United States, the dapper nonagenarian remembers. We came like dry sponges. We wanted to see and hear absolutely everything there was. We were hungry for culture.

Mekas submerged himself in the art world. He went to poetry readings and screenings, very quickly made friends and became part of what he describes as a new family. He became a champion of non-narrative, experimental cinema.

Noticing that the French had Cahiers Du Cinema, the British had Sight and Sound and Sequence, but that the Americans didnt have a proper film journal of their own, Mekas and his brother started Film Culture. When he started making his own experimental films and realised that no mainstream distributors wanted to show them, he launched his own distribution operation, The Filmmakers Cooperative. It still survives today, as Anthology Film Archives. Mekas is currently busy raising $12m to build a library and cafe at the Anthology headquarters. I have $6m already. Its hard work to try to find another $6m in another year. He has been approaching foundations, corporations and wealthy individuals. It helps, of course, that his illustrious artist friends like Cindy Sherman, Richard Serra and Ed Ruscha have donated work to help raise money.

The author with photographer Robert Frank on the set of Pull My Daisy, 1959 (John Cohen)

From the start of his career, Mekas has been a fervent champion of free speech. In the early 1960s, he smuggled Jean Genets film Un Chant DAmour, notorious for its explicit homosexual imagery, into America in his raincoat and insisted on showing it. He screened Jack Smiths equally controversial Flaming Creatures, was arrested as a result and faced several years in prison but his friends hired a top lawyer, Emile Zola Berman, on his behalf. During the 1964 obscenity case, Susan Sontag and Alan Ginsberg were witnesses for the defence. He ended up with a six month suspended sentence.

The venerable filmmaker tells a wonderful story about Gerald Harris, the man who prosecuted him. About a year ago, I received an apology [from the prosecutor]. He changed his mind and he apologised, Mekas chuckles. Of course, I accepted the apology and we had a drink. He is now writing poetry. He moved to the countryside and he considers himself a poet.

Mekas has two new books coming out next year. He is as busy as ever and thinks that his childhood experiences of displacement and exile have helped him to maintain a youthful mentality. I am always on the move in every area  in thinking, writing and in life, I keep moving forward. I cant stay in just one spot. There is so much happening, he says.

Many of his closest fiends, the mad visionary artist, filmmaker and archivist Harry Smith and Alan Ginsberg among them, are long since dead. He tells a strange story in his book about Harry Smiths spirit haunting the Anthology basement. Steps would be heard. Film cans would suddenly fly off shelves. He arranged an exorcism to get rid of the spirit but cancelled the exorcism, deciding that he should let Harrys spirit should be allowed to stay put. At that point, the strange bumps in the basement stopped.

Does Mekas really believe in ghosts or was he writing tongue in cheek? These phenomenon of poltergeists, of some activity, some area between the physical body and the more spiritual levels of human beingsit has been recorded many times.

One reason Mekas doesnt much enjoy returning to Lithuania is because of the attitude in eastern Europe towards old people.

If you are 60 or 70, they already treat you as if you are an old person. When I go there, they treat me as if I am 200 years old. When I go there, I begin to feel like that. They drag you down! he protests. It is very difficult [in Lithuania]. They froze under the Soviet regime in one spot. Two generations were educated under the Soviets. Even when they became free, those generations were still in charge of everything and so the thinking was very backward, very conservativebut it is beginning to change. Now I can connect with them. I could not connect with the older generation.

Warming to his subject, Mekas returns to the theme of moderation. There are many things wrong with the current civilisation that dont permit you to age normally, he says. We eat too much. We do everything too much, we destroy our bodies, our minds. He complains about the cult of youth.

Just because he is nearly 95, that doesnt mean he is old. I ask him how old he feels. I feel more like I am 70, he says of his present frame of mind. I dont feel that I am 95I like all those things. I like women, I like wine but a certain moderation is needed in every area. I think that is one of the secrets, he confides as if this is one of the greatest nuggets of wisdom he has uncovered during his very long life.

A Dance With Fred Astaire by Jonas Mekas is published by Anthology Editions
Once we have settled our accounts, we will take back control of roughly 350m per week  Boris Johnson

The claim by the Leave campaign that the UK would take back control of roughly 350m a week was derided by the UK Statistics Authority as a clear misuse of official statistics. The problem with the notorious 350m figure is that it is a gross figure  it doesnt take into account the money the UK gets back from the EU. It also doesnt take into account Britains rebate on top of that.

When those are taken into account the figure is 250m, but debate over the money also had a bigger flaw  the effect on the UKs public finances from depressed economic growth caused by leaving the single market is expected to dwarf any saving made from ending the UKs subscription to the EU budget. The Office for Budget Responsibility says that even a 0.1 per cent fall in growth over the next 50 years would see tax receipts 36bn lower.

Thus, the impression that leaving the EU would somehow save money or lessen austerity is likely to be a false one.
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 group of women hosted a nurse in at Walmart in response to a mother who was asked to leave the store for breastfeeding her child in public.

However, at the event where multiple women were breastfeeding, an elderly woman told the mothers they should be more discrete and implied that they would offend other parents who were real Christians.

Ashley McCall had just finished doing her grocery shopping at the Twin Falls, Idaho branch when she sat in a secluded part of the shop to breastfeed her son Cillian, who would not stop screaming.

After five minutes, a member of staff approached the mother and asked her to leave, suggesting she take her son home.

McCall took to Facebook to share her frustrations, explaining how she subsequently sat in the back of her small car to nurse her child in the car park.

Do either of us look comfortable to you? Im literally stepping on my own foot and hes cramped between the door and his car seat, she wrote alongside four images of herself and Cillian squashed in the car.

This is ridiculous, she continued.

There is nothing inappropriate about breastfeeding, except the people who are sexualising it.

Recommended Mother hits back after she was shamed for breastfeeding at Disneyland

Days later, McCall joined forces with her friends to organise a nurse in, encouraging women to meet at their local Walmart and simply sit and nurse, as Walmarts policy supposedly permits.

However, during the event, the mothers were approached by a disgruntled elderly woman who said they should be more discrete.

"There are other parents that dont believe in that, there are people that are real Christians," she said in footage that attendee Sarah Ahrens shared on Facebook.

"Okay well I'm Christian," the woman said. "If I brought my grandson in here, kay.

"Its not about them, a protesting mother responded.

It's about a mother breastfeeding and how their body is most comfortable.

The video has been widely shared online, generating a flurry of supportive comments from fellow mothers who were outraged by the elderly womans comments.

I feel embarrassed for this woman's stupidity. My goodness what rock she been living under? I mean does she honestly think that nursing mothers was just recently invented? Smdh [shaking my damn head]. From one nursing mom to others, feed them babies ladies, one wrote.

Ignorant people, breastfeed away my dear. You go girl, another added.

However, others were less encouraging and some took offence to what the breastfeeding woman was wearing in the video.

"She has both her boobs hanging out just all over the place, Im for breastfeeding, but she could have covered up a lil," one person wrote.
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 }}

EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has said the UK is likely only to get a trade deal with the EU along the same lines of what the EU has concluded with Canada, South Korea and Japan.

He said that the UKs own red lines on Brexit (no freedom of movement, no jurisdiction for the European Court of Justice, the right to sign independent UK trade deals with third countries, etc) ruled out anything more extensive.

But what would this kind of deal entail? And what would the implications be for the UK economy?

What sort of deals do Canada, South Korea and Japan actually have?

The EU-South Korea free-trade deal was concluded in 2009 and came into force partially in 2011. It is essentially a tariff-reduction trade deal covering goods such as cars, textiles, electronics, chemicals and some agricultural products. It is described by the EU as the blocs most ambitious overseas trade deal so far.

The deal also relaxes Korean foreign ownership rules in telecoms, and liberalises rules on environmental and shipping services.

The EU reached a Japan free-trade deal in principle earlier this year. This agreement also liberalises the bilateral goods trade, primarily agricultural exports. For instance, tariffs on EU beef and pork will be reduced. For EU cheese, the tariffs are eliminated altogether.

Theres also some opening up of the Japanese market to EU services firms in the telecoms and transport sectors.

The Canada-EU deal, known as CETA, provisionally came into force in September. Again, its focus is on the reduction of goods tariffs. Agricultural exports also benefit greatly.

Tariffs on cars, clothing, chemicals and machinery are also slashed to zero. On services, there is some opening up in financial services, telecoms, transport and post.

What is not covered?

The difference between these free-trade deals and the EUs single market and customs union is immense. The goods tariffs under these various deals are reduced or sometimes eliminated, but in the customs union they disappear entirely as a matter of law.

Shipments to the EU from South Korea, Canada and Japan all have to be (and will continue to be) checked by EU customs authorities to ensure they are actually from those countries and that they conform to local safety rules, even if no tariffs are due.

Within the EU customs union, goods cross borders without any checks at all.

The single market in services also goes far beyond any liberalisation of cross-border service provision in these other trade deals. The single market specifically targets non-tariff barriers, such as local regulation rules.

The goal of the single market (although it is not yet achieved in services) is for it to be as easy for a firm to do business in any country in the entire bloc.

Single market membership also entails the rights for EU citizens from any country to work in any other country as a right. This freedom of movement does not exist (and will not exist) for EU citizens as regards access to the Canadian, Japanese and South Korean labour markets.

So what happens to our economy if Brexit means we end up with one of these deals?

Before the referendum, various teams of respected trade economists analysed the likely long-term economic impact of the UK getting a Canada-style free-trade deal versus staying in the single market and customs union.

Oxford Economics and the National Institute for Economic and Social Research estimated damage of 2 per cent of GDP, or around 1,300 per household.

However, the London School of Economics team was more pessimistic, estimating a 6.3 per cent hit to GDP by 2030  around 4,300 per household.

The consensus view of credible trade economists is that the more significant the trade barriers that are erected between the UK and the EU (including non-tariff barriers, which are particularly important for the services firms that account for around 80 per cent of our economy), the worse the economic damage will be.
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 }}

EE and Three have lost separate High Court cases over caps on the amount of mobile spectrum any network can control, a move which opens the door for long-awaited 4G and 5G auctions.

Both companies took issue with Ofcom's plans to cap the amount of mobile spectrum that any operator can own at 37 per cent - a move which BT's EE challenged for being too rigid, while Three was concerned that the allowance was too generous.

BT/EE holds 45 per cent of all usable mobile spectrum, while Three owns around 12 per cent.

Recommended UK customers to have legal right to demand high speed broadband

The High Court found that Ofcom had engaged in a "detailed predictive analysis of how the market would work in the future" and consulted economic models which struck a balance between protecting consumers and competition and "setting restrictive caps which were not disproportionate to BT/EE".

"The balance exercise was sound," the High Court found following a three-day hearing earlier this month.

Ofcom welcomed the ruling, which had delayed its auction of airwaves to support the expansion of 4G and 5G in the UK.

A spokesman for Ofcom said: "We welcome the High Court's judgment.

"Our priority has always been to release these airwaves as soon as possible so customers can get more reliable mobile phone reception.

"We'll now proceed with the auction as quickly as possible."

Ofcom's cap means BT/EE will not be able to bid for spectrum in the 2.3GHz band and Vodafone can bid for a maximum 160MHz of spectrum across both the 2.3GHz and 3.4GHz bands.

But EE will not be forced to divest any part of its mobile spectrum, as the regulator expects that EE's market share will be diluted over time as new spectrum is auctioned off in the coming years.

However, Three is currently seeking permission to appeal against the ruling.

"We are disappointed by the initial ruling of the court as a fairer distribution of spectrum is vital for UK consumers and the digital economy," Three said.

"Ofcom does not expect 5G to roll out in the UK until 2019/20 at the earliest, so this will have no impact on the delivery of this new technology."

But Ofcom said Three's potential appeal risked pushing back the auction date.

"We believe the High Court judgment is clear and Three's actions may further delay the auction, which is not in the interests of the UK," the Ofcom spokesman said.

Rival mobile network operator O2, which holds around 15 per cent of all usable mobile spectrum, said it was "imperative" that the industry does everything in its power to "avoid further delays".

Chief executive Mark Evans said: "I'm calling on Ofcom to move forward and set a date for the auction as soon as possible.

"This is in the interests of businesses and consumers across the UK.

"Some of the frequencies can be used immediately to improve customer experience, boost investment in digital connectivity and deliver economic growth.

"There is simply no time to waste."

PA

Read More: Compare providers and find the best deals with our Mobile Phone Deals page
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 }}

European investment banks operating in the UK may still have to undergo a costly operational overhaul due to Brexit, the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, confirmed today.

The Bank revealed on Wednesday that it would not compel EU-headquartered investment banks to establish separately capitalised subsidiaries due to Brexit, but that they could continue to operate as branches.

But giving evidence to the Treasury Select Committee, Mr Carney made it clear that this would only remain the case if there was still deep regulatory co-operation with the EU financial authorities indefinitely after Britain leaves the EU.

In circumstances where we didnt have that comfort with European institutions post-Brexit we would require them to subsidiarise, he said.

Mr Carney said that hopes to conclude a minimum two-year transition deal after March 2019  in which the UK would remain in the single market  meant that it would not make sense for the Bank to compel subsidiarisation on EU investment banks now and then reverse it when such an agreement materialises.

Now is not the time one has to say: glass half empty, subsidiarise, were never going to get a deal, he said.

But if it comes to a pointa year from now, and where it doesnt look like were going to have [that] then those directions to subsidiaries would be there.

Recommended Why City bankers are warming to Jeremy Corbyn

There are 77 branches of EU banks in the UK.

EEA [European Economic Area] banks and insurers may (if they are not conducting material retail business) apply for authorisation to operate as a branch in the UK, the Bank said in its press release.

For UK banks operating in the EU there is expected to be much more upheaval since the EU has repeatedly made it clear that UK-based financial firms will lose their financial passport when Britain leaves the single market.

Many UK-based financial firms are already shifting operations out of the City of London and are bulking up subsidiaries in mainland Europe in anticipation of this.
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 Government has appointed a small business commissioner dedicated to supporting the countrys 5.7 million small businesses, and helping them to resolve disputes around payment practices.

According to the Government, a third of payments to small businesses across the UK are late and 20 per cent of all small businesses have run in to cash flow problems as a result of late payments.

It said that if small businesses were paid on time, it could boost the economy by an estimated 2.5bn annually.

As well as appointing Paul Uppal to the role of small business commissioner, the Government on Wednesday launched a complaint-handling website, providing guidance to companies on payment issues and how to take action if a payment is overdue.

Over the last five years the amount owed to smaller businesses has more than halved from 30bn to 14bn, said Margot James, small business minister. She added, however, that the appointment of a commissioner will empower small businesses to take action and clamp down even harder on the problem.

Mr Uppal said that his mission was to help all small businesses nurture positive and lasting relationships with their customers that work in the best interests of both.

Mike Cherry, chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, welcomed the move.

The UK is gripped by a poor payments crisis, over 30 per cent of payments to small businesses are late and the average value of each payment is 6,142. This not only impacts on the small business and the owner, it is damaging the wider economy, he said.

The small business commissioner is crucial to turning the tide on this late payments culture, he added.

He said that the FSB would encourage small businesses to use the service.

We hope then to see clear actions taken to tackle the worst examples of supply chain bullying. Success will be a UK economic culture where a business that does a job promptly, is paid promptly, he 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 }}

Uber has been dealt a major blow after the European Court of Justice ruled that it is a transport company, not a digital platform, as the company had contended. But what exactly does the decision mean for drivers and passengers across the continent?

What is the decision?

Europes top court had been asked to rule on a case brought by Spanish taxi drivers who argued that Uber should be subject to the same rules as normal cab companies.

Uber has consistently claimed that it is merely a platform that connects passengers with drivers.

Recommended Uber faces tougher regulation across Europe after ECJ ruling

The ECJ disagreed, ruling that a service whose purpose was to connect, by means of a smartphone application and for remuneration, non-professional drivers using their own vehicle with persons who wish to make urban journeys must be legally classified as a transport company.

What does this mean for the way Uber operates?

It means Uber may be subject to increased regulation.

EU governments previously had to prove to the European Commission that any restrictions they put on Ubers business are reasonable and proportionate, as this is required for digital companies under single market rules.

This is not required for transportation services which are regulated at the national or local level to a larger extent.

Will this make a difference for passengers?

The US company said that the verdict would make little difference to the way it operates in many areas because it already operates under local laws governing transportation firms.

However, others have suggested that it will have wide-ranging implications for not just Uber, but the wider gig economy.

The exact ramifications are unknown right now because the ECJ has simply ruled that the EU member states are right to treat Uber in the same way as other taxi firms. How each state interprets that is up to them but it is likely to mean more strict controls on Uber.

The company has attracted criticism for failing to carry out adequate safety checks in some jurisdictions. This could be one area that local regulators might crack down on.

Will Ubers fares increase?

That is uncertain, but if Uber had to comply with additional regulations it would also face extra costs. These would likely be passed on to drivers and ultimately to passengers at some point, meaning there is a possibility that fares could rise.

What wider implications might there be for the gig economy?

The Uber ruling specifically related to Ubers peer-to-peer service, UberPOP, which connected unlicensed drivers with people needing a lift. This could mean that a similar argument could be made to reclassify other services that are now deemed to be digital p2p platforms.

Rohan Silva, a tech entrepreneur and former adviser to David Cameron, said that sharing economy services like Airbnb will probably face regulation as a result of the ECJ ruling.

The IWGB union, which has brought cases against Uber and Deliveroo in the UK over drivers rights said the ruling was one more nail in the coffin for Ubers argument that it is simply an agent acting on behalf of drivers and therefore not liable to pay them minimum wage and holidays.

How have people reacted to the ruling?

TUC general secretary Frances OGrady said the verdict meant Uber must play by the same rules as everybody else.

She added: Their drivers are not commodities. They deserve at the very least the minimum wage and holiday pay.

Advances in technology should be used to make work better, not to return to the type of working practices we thought wed seen the back of decades ago.

Bernardine Adkins, head of EU, trade and competition law at Gowling WLG, welcomed the vital clarity that the ECJs decision had given to Ubers status in the taxi market.

Ubers control over its drivers, its ability to set prices and the fact its electronic service is inseparable from its ultimate consumer experience means it is more than simply a platform connecting drivers to passengers, Ms Adkins said.

For Uber, this means it needs to comply with the relevant transport regulations governing local taxi services.
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 EU's top court has ruled that Uber is a taxi service and can be regulated like other transport firms.

The long-awaited decision could have wide-ranging implications for how Uber, and other gig economy firms, can operate across the continent.

Uber had labelled itself an information society service that merely connects drivers with passengers through an app.

The European Court of Justice has rejected that argument.

The Luxembourg court said that a service whose purpose was "to connect, by means of a smartphone application and for remuneration, non-professional drivers using their own vehicle with persons who wish to make urban journeys" must be legally classified as a transport service.

"As EU law currently stands, it is for the member states to regulate the conditions under which such services are to be provided in conformity with the general rules of the treaty on the functioning of the EU," the judgment read.

The judgment is final and cannot be appealed and means Uber faces tougher regulation in the EU's 28 member states.

The US firm has attracted the ire of local taxi operators and regulators, many of whom say that it has been allowed to operate with too little oversight.

States are now free to impose restrictions or conditions on Uber as they would with any other mini-cab service.

Prior to the judgment, a spokesperson for Uber said: "Any ruling will not change things in most EU countries, where we already operate under transportation law.

 Uber ordered to treat drivers as workers with employment rights after losing appeal

"However, millions of Europeans are still prevented from using apps like ours. As our new CEO has said, it is appropriate to regulate services such as Uber.

"We want to partner with cities to ensure everyone can get a reliable ride at the tap of a button."

A Spanish taxi drivers' association had brought the case, arguing that Uber is a taxi company and should be subject to the same rules as other such businesses.

It is the latest blow for Uber, which has faced a number of legal challenges around the world.

Transport for London refused to renew Uber's licence, stating that it did not deem the firm be fit and proper to run a taxi service, citing a string of safety concerns.

Uber has appealed the decision and will be free to operate in London until that process is exhausted.

Last month, the company lost a separate appeal in the UK against an employment tribunal ruling that its drivers were workers and must be afforded corresponding legal rights.

That means that the California-based company will have to pay drivers a minimum wage in the UK, provide sick pay and holiday pay.

Uber has vowed to launch another appeal in the case.
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 NHS faces a crisis if the UK becomes a less attractive place for foreign doctors after Brexit, the General Medical Council has warned.

Almost half of doctors in parts of the country were trained overseas meaning the NHS workforce is particularly vulnerable, the UKs medical watchdog said.

The reliance on overseas doctors, as high as 43 per cent in some areas, is a sign of the system struggling to keep pace with growing demand and an ageing population.

A GMC report revealed that since 2012, the number of doctors on the register has increased by just 2 per cent, while the number of A&E attendances has shot up 27 per cent.

The State of Medical Education and Practice report said the medical profession is at crunch point, with the NHS growing increasingly dependent on doctors who have trained overseas.

In the south-west of England, 18 per cent of doctors are educated overseas, but in the east of England the number jumps to 43 per cent.

The number of international graduates or graduates from the European Economic Area (EEA) on the UK medical register fell by 6,000 in six years, the report found.

While it was unable to pin the drop on a single factor, it highlighted improving economic conditions in countries such as India and Pakistan, while Brexit may have prompted some overseas doctors to seek opportunities elsewhere.

A survey of 2,100 EEA-educated doctors conducted in February this year found 61 per cent said they were considering leaving the UK at some point in the future.

Of the doctors who said they were considering leaving, more than 90 per cent said the Brexit vote was a factor in their thinking.

It also said the demands of training put off some people considering a career in medicine, and many doctors now want greater flexibility in how they work and train.

The report follows the launch of consultation by Health Education England on the future of the NHS workforce as a whole, which revealed it would have to fill a further 190,000 jobs by 2027.

On Tuesday, Labour published figures estimating that the NHS already has 100,000 vacant posts, with an average of 9 per cent of jobs vacant across Englands acute, community and mental health trusts.

This is a rise from 8.4 per cent last year, Labour Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth found.

Charlie Massey, chief executive of the GMC, said in a statement: We have reached a crucial moment  a crunch point  in the development of the UKs medical workforce. The decisions that we make over the next five years will determine whether it can meet these extra demands.

He added: We are a professional regulator, not a workforce planning body, but we want to be an active partner in helping each country of the UK to address these priorities.

He said more needed to be done to meet the challenges on the horizon and various NHS bodies have a part to play in making medicine a worthwhile, sustainable and rewarding career.

Among the recommendations suggested by the GMC to reduce pressure and stress on doctors was a reform in the law to reduce the number of full fitness to practice hearings, particularly involving one-off clinical mistakes.

Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves Show all 6 1 /6 Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves The elderly We acknowledge that there are pressures on the health service, there are always extra pressures on the NHS in the winter, but we have the added pressures of the ageing population and the growing complex needs of the population, Theresa May has said. Waits of over 12 hours in A&E among elderly people have more than doubled in two years, according to figures from NHS Digital. Getty Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves Patients going to A&E instead of seeing their GPs Jeremy Hunt has called for a honest discussion with the public about the purpose of A&E departments, saying that around a third of A&E patients were in hospital unnecessarily. Mr Hunt told Radio 4s Today programme the NHS now had more doctors, nurses and funding than ever, but explained what he called very serious problems at some hospitals by suggesting pressures were increasing in part because people are going to A&Es when they should not. He urged patients to visit their GP for non-emergency illnesses, outlined plans to release time for family doctors to support urgent care work, and said the NHS will soon be able to deliver seven-day access to a GP from 8am to 8pm. But doctors struggling amid a GP recruitment crisis said Mr Hunts plans were unrealistic and demanded the Government commit to investing in all areas of the overstretched health service. Getty Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves Simon Stevens, head of NHS England Reports that key members of Ms Mays team used internal meetings to accuse Simon Stevens, head of NHS England, of being unenthusiastic and unresponsive have been rejected by Downing Street. Mr Stevens had allegedly rejected claims made by Ms May that the NHS had been given more funding than required. Getty Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves Previous health policy, not funding In an interview with Sky Newss Sophy Ridge, Ms May acknowledged the NHS faced pressures but said it was a problem that had been ducked by government over the years. She refuted the claim that hospitals were tackling a humanitarian crisis and said health funding was at record levels. We asked the NHS a while back to set out what it needed over the next five years in terms of its plan for the future and the funding that it would need, said the Prime Minister. They did that, we gave them that funding, in fact we gave them more funding than they required Funding is now at record levels for the NHS, more money has been going in. But doctors accused Ms May of being in denial about how the lack of additional funding provided for health and social care were behind a spiralling crisis in NHS hospitals. Getty Images Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves Target to treat all A&E patients within four hours Mr Hunt was accused of watering down the flagship target to treat all A&E patients within four hours. The Health Secretary told MPs the promise  introduced by Tony Blairs government in 2000  should only be for those who actually need it. Amid jeers in the Commons, Mr Hunt said only four other countries pledged to treat all patients within a similar timeframe and all had less stringent rules. But Ms May has now said the Government will stand by the four-hour target for A&E, which says 95 per cent of patients must be dealt with within that time frame. Getty Images Everyone the Government blames for the NHS crisis  except themselves No one Mr Hunt was accused of hiding from the public eye following news of the Red Crosss comments and didnt make an official statement for two days. He was also filmed refusing to answer questions from journalists who pursued him down the street yesterday to ask whether he planned to scrap the four-hour A&E waiting time target. Sky News reporter Beth Rigby pressed the Health Secretary on his position on the matter, saying the public will want to know, Mr Hunt. Sorry Beth, Ive answered questions about this already, replied Mr Hunt. But you didnt answer questions on this. You said it was over-interpreted in the House of Commons and you didnt want to water it down. Is that what youre saying? said Ms Rigby. Its very difficult, because how are we going to explain to the public what your intention is, when you change your position and then wont answer the question, Mr Hunt. But the Health Secretary maintained his silence until he reached his car and got in. Getty

It also found that GPs and medical students were under increasing pressure.

The number of GP consultations increased by 15 per cent from 2010/11 and 2014/15.

Between a similar period, the number of medical students in UK universities fell by 5.4 per cent and the number of doctors in post-graduate training increased by only 1.7 per cent.

A fifth of doctors in training said they felt short of sleep while working, with 40 per cent of those surveyed rating the intensity of their day as heavy or very heavy  this figure jumps to 70 per cent for doctors training in emergency medicine.

As a result more and more doctors are taking a break after they finish foundation training, with the number doing this jumping from 30 per cent to 54 per cent between 2012 and 2016.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, council chair of the British Medical Association, said: We welcome the regulators recognition that the NHS is in the midst of a workforce crisis and that decisions made today will have a significant impact on what the health service and patient care will look like in 20 years time.

As the research notes, the UK is reliant on doctors from abroad, and Brexit could compound difficulties recruiting and retaining these staff.

"Despite pledges from the government to protect European doctors already working in Britain, the tangible effect of the referendum result on the lives of EU nationals is beginning to become clear, with our own research showing that a fifth of EEA doctors have made solid plans to leave the country since last June.

Additional reporting by PA
Sign up for a full digest of all the best opinions of the week in our Voices Dispatches email Sign up to our free weekly Voices 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

Voices Dispatches email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }}

Nasa is reportedly planning an interstellar mission to search for life outside our solar system in the three-star Alpha Centauri system.

The mission is as yet unnamed and the technology required to get a craft there does not exist yet, but the projected launch date would coincide with the 100th anniversary of the first moon landing.

The ambitious mission would require a craft that would need to travel at a minimum of 10 per cent of the speed of light.

Recommended Nasa finds entire solar system filled with planets like our own

The Alpha Centauri constellation is 4.4 light years away, and even if a record-breaking tenth of the speed of light could be achieved, the system would still be a 44-year trip, reaching our nearest neighbour by 2113.

Its very nebulous, Anthony Freeman, at Nasas Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), told the New Scientist.

Nasa is said to be considering sending tiny probes powered by lasers which in theory may be able to reach a quarter of the speed of light. Other techniques under consideration include harnessing nuclear reactions, or through collisions between antimatter and matter, the magazine reported.

There is already a known exoplanet in the Alpha Centauri star system, Proxima Centauri b, which orbits a red dwarf star. However, it has not been considered a perfect location for finding alien life, as the star throws out bursts of radiation that make the conditions inhospitable.

So far humans have only made one spacecraft that has successfully left our solar system  the Voyager 1 craft, which was launched in 1977 and despite the limitations of the technology it was equipped with, provided astonishing new insights into the planets and moons within our own solar system. However, it was never designed to be an interstellar craft.

Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Show all 30 1 /30 Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Solar Flare An image from Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows a 200,000 mile long solar filament ripping through the Sun's corona in September 2013 Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Nasa Celebrates 50 Years of Spacewalking For 50 years, NASA has been "suiting up" for spacewalking. In this 1984 photograph of the first untethered spacewalk, NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless is in the midst of the first "field" tryout of a nitrogen-propelled backpack device called the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space A Hubble Cosmic Couple The spectacular cosmic pairing of the star Hen 2-427  more commonly known as WR 124  and the nebula M1-67 which surrounds it ESA/Hubble & NASA Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Veil Nebula Supernova Remnant Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope has unveiled in stunning detail a small section of the Veil Nebula - expanding remains of a massive star that exploded about 8,000 years ago Nasa's most stunning pictures of space The Soyuz TMA-15M rocket launch The Soyuz TMA-15M rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday, Nov. 24, 2014, carrying three new astronauts to the International Space Station. It also took caviar, ready for the satellite's inhabitants to celebrate the holidays Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Earth from the ISS From the International Space Station, Expedition 42 Flight Engineer Terry W. Virts took this photograph of the Gulf of Mexico and U.S. Gulf Coast at sunset Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Black Hole Friday Nasa celebrated Black Friday by looking into space instead  sharing pictures of black holes Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space NuSTAR X-rays stream off the sun in this image showing observations from by NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, overlaid on a picture taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Cassiopeia A c A false colour image of Cassiopeia A comprised with data from the Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes and the Chandra X-Ray observatory Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Orion Capsule splashes down The Orion capsule jetted off into space before heading back a few hours later  having proved that it can be used, one day, to carry humans to Mars Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Earth Observations From Gemini IV in 1965 This photograph of the Florida Straits and Grand Bahama Bank was taken during the Gemini IV mission during orbit no. 19 in 1965. The Gemini IV crew conducted scientific experiments, including photography of Earth's weather and terrain, for the remainder of their four-day mission following Ed White's historic spacewalk on June 3 Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Frosty slopes of Mars This image of an area on the surface of Mars, approximately 1.5 by 3 kilometers in size, shows frosted gullies on a south-facing slope within a crater. The image was taken by Nasa's HiRISE camera, which is mounted on its Mars Reconaissance Orbiter Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Yellowstone from space NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman shared this image of Yellowstone via his twitter account Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Saturn This near-infrared color image shows a specular reflection, or sunglint, off of a hydrocarbon lake named Kivu Lacus on Saturn's moon Titan Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Worlds Apart Although Mimas and Pandora, shown here, both orbit Saturn, they are very different moons. Pandora, "small" by moon standards (50 miles or 81 kilometers across) is elongated and irregular in shape. Mimas (246 miles or 396 kilometers across), a "medium-sized" moon, formed into a sphere due to self-gravity imposed by its higher mass Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Solar Flare An X1.6 class solar flare flashes in the middle of the sun in this image taken 10 September, captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy An image of the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy seen in infrared light by the Herschel Space Observatory. Regions of space such as this are where new stars are born from a mixture of elements and cosmic dust Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Mars Rover Spirit Nasa's Mars Rover Spirit took the first picture from Spirit since problems with communications began a week earlier. The image shows the robotic arm extended to the rock called Adirondack Nasa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Morning Aurora From the Space Station Nasa astronaut Scott Kelly captured this photograph of the green lights of the aurora from the International Space Station Nasa/Scott Kelly Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Launch of History - Making STS-41G Mission in 1984 The Space Shuttle Challenger launches from Florida at dawn. On this mission, Kathryn Sullivan became the first U.S. woman to perform a spacewalk and Marc Garneau became the first Canadian in space. The crew of seven was the largest to fly on a spacecraft at that time, and STS-41G was the first flight to include two female astronauts Nasa's most stunning pictures of space A Fresh Perspective on an Extraordinary Cluster of Galaxies Galaxy clusters are often described by superlatives. After all, they are huge conglomerations of galaxies, hot gas, and dark matter and represent the largest structures in the Universe held together by gravity Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Hubble Sees a Galactic Sunflower The arrangement of the spiral arms in the galaxy Messier 63, seen here in an image from the Nasa Hubble Space Telescope, recall the pattern at the center of a sunflower ESA/Hubble & NASA Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Pluto image Four images from New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) were combined with colour data from the Ralph instrument to create this enhanced colour global view of Pluto Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Fresh Crater Near Sirenum Fossae Region of Mars The HiRISE camera aboard Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired this closeup image of a "fresh" (on a geological scale, though quite old on a human scale) impact crater in the Sirenum Fossae region of Mars. This impact crater appears relatively recent as it has a sharp rim and well-preserved ejecta Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Hubble Peers into the Most Crowded Place in the Milky Way This Nasa Hubble Space Telescope image presents the Arches Cluster, the densest known star cluster in the Milky Way NASA & ESA Nasa's most stunning pictures of space An Astronaut's View from Space Nasa astronaut Reid Wiseman tweeted this photo from the International Space Station on 2 September 2014 Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Giant Landform on Mars On Mars, we can observe four classes of sandy landforms formed by the wind, or aeolian bedforms: ripples, transverse aeolian ridges, dunes, and what are called draa Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Expedition 39 Landing A sokol suit helmet can be seen against the window of the Soyuz TMA-11M capsule shortly after the spacecraft landed with Expedition 39 Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos, and Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio of NASA near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan (NASA/Bill Ingalls) Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Jupiter's Great Red Spot Viewed by Voyager I Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system and perhaps the most majestic. Vibrant bands of clouds carried by winds that can exceed 400 mph continuously circle the planet's atmosphere Nasa's most stunning pictures of space Chandra Observatory Sees a Heart in the Darkness This Chandra X-Ray Observatory image of the young star cluster NGC 346 highlights a heart-shaped cloud of 8 million-degree Celsius gas in the central region

Voyager 1 is currently 11.7 billion miles from Earth, and is trundling along at just 38,000 mph (61,000kmh), less than 1 per cent of the speed of light.

Nasas announcement follows an admission from the former head of the Pentagons secret UFO-hunting bureau that he believes we may not be alone, and said he had seen compelling evidence to support the idea of alien life.

Recommended First alien object to visit solar system is even stranger than thought

On Monday, scientists revealed the first ever interstellar visitor to our solar system was wrapped in a layer of organic insulation.

Oumuamua has enthralled astronomers and the public since it flew through the solar system in October.

As the first alien rock to travel here from another star, it was immediately recognised as highly unusual  but as scientists learn more about the object, they are discovering how strange it actually is.
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 }}

Scores of convicted rapists could attempt to overturn their convictions amid a growing row over police failing to present all evidence to court, lawyers have warned.

Scotland Yard is urgently reviewing around 30 live sexual offence and child abuse investigations after its officers failed to disclose evidence that should have stopped Liam Allan and Isaac Itiary ending up in court.

Both investigations were led by the same officer, who remains on full duty, but lawyers say a mounting crisis in the system is threatening to cause miscarriages of justice across the country.

We have been warning for many years that disclosure failures and lack of resources will lead to miscarriages of justice, said Angela Rafferty QC, chair of the Criminal Bar Association.

We fear unconscious bias stops the police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) impartially and thoroughly investigating and scrutinising complaints in sexual offence cases.

It is not the job of the police or CPS to judge the truthfulness or otherwise of any allegation made.

Robin Murray, former vice chair of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association, said that although rape cases had sparked the scandal, disclosure issues apply to everybody.

 Liam Allan says rape suspects should have anonymity until proven guilty

This is about criminal justice in every case  every one is now potentially a land mine of failed disclosure, he told The Independent.

Its the hidden cases we dont know about. How do defendants know if theyre the victim of the withholding of vital evidence?

Its impossible to say how many convictions might be unsafe.

Mr Allan is launching legal action, and representatives of Mr Itiary, a 25-year-old father, said he was was considering recourse for failings that kept him in custody for four months.

Solicitor Sundeep Pankhania and barrister Mary Aspinall said the need to access phone messages was raised repeatedly in court as far back as August, as well as in written correspondence.

Disclosure in this case has been disjointed, piecemeal and in contravention of repeated court orders, said a joint statement which claimed that some evidence had still not been shared with the defence.

The delay is not only gravely concerning but also unconscionable and in contravention of the ongoing duty of disclosure, particularly of a defendant remanded in custody.

Mr Allan is also launching legal action against the Metropolitan Police and there are warnings of a slew of appeals from prosecuted rapists and sexual offenders seeking grounds to argue their convictions were unsafe.

Sergeant Kirsten Treasure, who worked in Croydon, south London, has been dismissed without notice (Getty)

Police are legally obliged to examine all evidence from all participants in a case and pass it on to lawyers, whether it supports or hinders prosecution.

Julia Smart, who represented Mr Allan, told The Independent defence teams were routinely having to fight to get evidence investigators should have already reviewed.

Another trial has been paused after 50,000 phone messages were revealed, she said, adding: Police officers must understand their duty to investigate, and that means if it takes time to look through this material, they must do it.

Theresa May backed the inquiries in the House of Commons as the scandal grew on Wednesday, telling MPs: I think it is important that we look at this again to make sure that we are truly providing justice.

She said the Attorney General had already initiated a review on the issue before Mr Allans and Mr Itiarys unrelated cases were thrown out within a week.

In both cases, police had downloaded the contents of claimants phones but failed to pass on the information they contained to the prosecution or defence.

Mr Itiary was charged with the statutory rape of a 14-year-old girl but messages showed she had claimed she was 19, while Mr Allans alleged victim had told friends she wanted and enjoyed sex she later reported as rape.

After the new evidence was released at the request of defence lawyers, the CPS decided to offer no evidence against the defendants and they were acquitted.

Liam Allan, a 22-year-old criminology student, was acquitted of all charges (Facebook)

Dominic Raab, a justice minister, said it was absolutely right for Scotland Yard to carry out a review, adding: The basic principle of British justice is at stake.

Nigel Evans, a Conservative MP who was acquitted of sexual offence charges in 2014, renewed calls for accused rapists to be granted anonymity until at least being charged.

There are two cases which have collapsed with this one particular police officer but when you listen to barristers, they tell me that this is something that is systemic within the judicial system, he told Sky News.

I dont believe the Attorney General would have embarked on his own review of disclosure had he not believed there was a real problem at the heart of the British judicial system.

Mr Evans called on the Government to urgently look at providing resources to meet the rising number of sexual abuse reports, the day after it sparked anger by demanding police take more money from council tax to generate an increase in funding.

While publicly apologising over Mr Allans case, Alison Saunders, the Director of Public Prosecutions, said cost considerations play no part in decisions over disclosing evidence.

But police officers and prosecutors interviewed by independent inspectors said they believed limited resources and a lack of time were the main causes, even though long-standing problems predate recent budget reductions.

A report issued in July by HM CPS Inspectorate and HM Inspectorate of Constabulary said even unused items of evidence must be reviewed by police, to see whether it is capable of undermining the prosecution case or assisting the defence case, and passed on.

Warning of widespread failures by both police and prosecutors, the authority said officers failing to comply with requirements were often ignorant of their disclosure responsibilities.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 17 November 2022 Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt leaves 11 Downing Street, London, for the House of Commons to deliver his autumn statement PA UK news in pictures 16 November 2022 Emma Woolf, great niece of British author Virginia Woolf, and her son Ludovic sit next to a new bronze statue of Woolf, unveiled in Richmond, London Reuters 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

Non-compliance with the disclosure process is not new and has been common knowledge amongst those engaged within the criminal justice system for many years, the damning report concluded. Until the police and CPS take their responsibilities in dealing with disclosure in volume cases more seriously, no improvement will result and the likelihood of a fair trial can be jeopardised.

Scotland Yard said it was reviewing every live case being investigated by Child Abuse and Sexual Offences Command as a precaution to ensure that all digital evidence has been properly examined, documented and shared.

Commander Richard Smith, who oversees rape investigations in the Metropolitan Police, said the force was completely committed to understanding what went wrong in a joint review with the CPS on Mr Allans case.

Recommended Police failing to respond to some crimes because of budget cuts

Rape investigations are by their nature very complex, and often hinge on the contradictory accounts of the alleged suspect and the complainant about what has taken place, he added. We are reviewing all our investigations, where we are in discussion with the CPS, to assure ourselves that we are meeting our disclosure obligations in an acceptable timescale based on the volume of data that some cases involve.

Campaigners emphasised that false rape allegations are rare in comparison to the publicity they receive, with the crime believed to be severely underreported.

Rachel Almeida, from Victim Support, said: We are aware that false claims of this nature can cause significant harm to those accused, however it is important to highlight that untrue claims of rape are incredibly rare.

Extensive research has shown this to be the case and that false reporting is actually lower for rape than for other offences.

Inflated perceptions of false allegations of rape may cast undue doubt on the credibility of victims claims and further deter them from coming forward.
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 brother of an Isis suicide bomber has been jailed for 10 years for preparing for a potential terrorist attack.

Judge Paul Watson QC ordered Mohammed Awan to remain under tight licence conditions for three years after he is released from prison.

The dentistry student was found guilty of preparing a terrorist act and possessing material likely to be useful to a terrorist at Sheffield Crown Court last week.

His older brother, Rizwan, blew himself up in a suicide bombing while fighting for Isis in Iraq in March 2016. Rizwan, a former British Gas employee, was the nephew of a local councillor and had travelled to Isis territories with his wife in 2015.

Mohammed Awan was arrested by counter-terrorism police in June, following an intelligence-led investigation with police raiding his student accommodation in Sheffield and family home in Huddersfield.

24-year-old Awan is the brother of Isis suicide bomber Rizwan Awan (North East Counter Terrorism Unit)

The 24-year-old told police he intended to hunt rabbits and other game with a slingshot and 500 ball bearings purchased online.

But investigators uncovered a bomb-making manual advising jihadis to use the metal balls as shrapnel, among a prolific quantity of terrorist propaganda.

Prosecutors told Sheffield Crown Court that the day before the slingshot was delivered, Awan searched online for information about the injuries ball bearings fired from a slingshot could cause.

He had downloaded a manual advising would-be terrorists to practice using primitive weapons before moving onto firearms, alongside tips on Survival Techniques, Modern Weapons, Bomb Making and Escaping for Safety.

The document was among a significant amount of terrorism-related material found on 11 mobile phones, 16 USB sticks and seven computers examined by specialist police officers.

Awan had watched a video calling for young Muslims to join al-Qaeda, featuring graphic footage of how to kill and kidnap victims and tactics for terrorists using assault rifles and guns.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 17 November 2022 Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt leaves 11 Downing Street, London, for the House of Commons to deliver his autumn statement PA UK news in pictures 16 November 2022 Emma Woolf, great niece of British author Virginia Woolf, and her son Ludovic sit next to a new bronze statue of Woolf, unveiled in Richmond, London Reuters 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

Detective Superintendent Simon Atkinson, the head of investigations at Counter Terrorism Policing North East, said Awan was influenced by online terrorist propaganda from Isis and other groups.

Whilst we do not know the full details of Awans intentions, officers intervened swiftly before Awan could put any plans into practice, he added.

Public safety is, and always will be, our priority when making operational decisions.
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 law student who wanted to be the best lawyer in the country has become the fifth young black man to die after being restrained by police officers this year.

The mother of Nuno Cardoso, 25, demanded justice for her son after he collapsed in the back of a police van in Oxford.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said four Thames Valley Police officers involved in the incident were under investigation.

Mr Cardoso, who was originally from London, was arrested and restrained after an assault was reported in the early hours of 24 November.

At around 5.30am, Mr Cardoso was being taken to a police station in the back of a police van when officers reported that he had become unwell, a spokesperson for the IPCC said.

Officers stopped the van in order to administer CPR. Additional officers arrived at the scene with a defibrillator and provided further medical assistance.

He was taken by ambulance to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford where he died later that day.

Mr Cardoso was described as a caring and good-natured young man [who] enjoyed living life (GoFundMe)

Investigators have taken initial accounts from officers, reviewed footage from body-worn cameras showing Mr Cardosos arrest and medical treatment, and met his relatives.

A post-mortem proved inconclusive and further tests are being carried out to establish the cause of death, which will be examined at an inquest.

Doroteia dos Santos, Mr Cardosos mother, called for those responsible for her sons death to be held to account.

The number of deaths in police custody, particularly of young black men, makes me worried that something is wrong, she said.

I have so many questions about how this could have happened to my son. Police officers are meant to be trained to notice if people are unwell and to ensure that they can keep people in their custody safe.

I trust that there will be a thorough investigation, and I believe that any failures can be found out and the people responsible held to account. I just want justice for my son.

IPCC Associate Commissioner Guido Liguori said: My thoughts are with the family and friends of Mr Cardoso and all those affected by his death

The investigation, which is in its very early stages, will look at the full circumstances surrounding this incident.

 Rashan Charles was 'well loved' and a 'caring older brother' to many, say residents

Mr Cardoso grew up in north London but moved to Oxford in September to start a law course at Ruskin College.

The Ruskin Students Stand Up to Racism group urged police to be as open as possible as the probe continues, while principal Paul di Felice paid tribute to a valued student who was highly regarded by his peers.

Supporters have raised more than 2,500 for Mr Cardosos family on a crowdfunding page set up by friend Tia Murray.

She described him as a caring and good-natured young man [who] enjoyed living life and strived to create a better one for himself and those around him.

Mr Cardoso aspired to become a lawyer and had enrolled for a law degree at university, she said.

Representatives of his family said he told relatives of his ambition to be the best lawyer in the country.

Ruth Mellor, of Saunders Law, said: Any concerns that might come to light around the actions or omissions of the police officers or paramedics involved in these events should be robustly examined to ensure proper accountability and justice.

Mr Cardosos family must be allowed to properly engage in these investigations; their concerns must be addressed, and their questions answered.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 17 November 2022 Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt leaves 11 Downing Street, London, for the House of Commons to deliver his autumn statement PA UK news in pictures 16 November 2022 Emma Woolf, great niece of British author Virginia Woolf, and her son Ludovic sit next to a new bronze statue of Woolf, unveiled in Richmond, London Reuters 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

Campaigners at Inquest, the charity providing expertise on state-related deaths and their investigation, said it was despairing to end 2017 with yet another restraint-related death of a black man.

Enough is enough, said director Deborah Coles. That young black men are dying with such regularity shows that this is a systemic problem that needs urgent attention.

Edson Da Costa, 25, died in east London following restraint by police in June; Shane Bryant, 29, died in Leicestershire following restraint on 15 July; Darren Cumberbatch, 32, died in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, following restraint by police on 19 July; and four days later, 20-year-old Rashan Charles died after being chased by police in Hackney.

Mr Cardosos death came weeks after an independent review into deaths in police custody said forces must recognise that all restraint has the potential to cause death.

Dame Elish Angiolini warned that training on restraint techniques across the 43 police forces in England and Wales is sporadic and inconsistent, concluding: National policing policy, practice and training must reflect the now widely evident position that the use of force and restraint against anyone in mental health crisis or suffering from some form of drug or substance induced psychosis poses a life-threatening risk.

All eight prosecutions of police officers over deaths in custody in the last 15 years have ended with acquittals, even where coroners have issued unlawful killing verdicts in inquests.

Anyone who witnessed the events surrounding Mr Cardosos arrest or the medical treatment he received is urged to contact the IPCC on 0800 029 4690.
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 }}

EU nationals have said letters from the Prime Minister and Home Secretary urging them to stay in the UK come too little too late and serve only as an "insulting" last-ditch attempt to prevent gaps in the workforce.

Theresa May published a letter for EU citizens last week saying she "greatly values" their contribution to the country, urging: I know our country would be poorer if you left and I want you to stay.

Amber Rudd echoed this in a letter on Tuesday claiming that the Government is proud that they have built their lives in Britain and pledging that the country will remain an open and diverse place for them to live.

But EU nationals have told The Independent the letters make no difference whatsoever and appear to be merely ticking the boxes in trying to prevent an exodus of European workers, without offering anything in terms of their rights.

The letter from the Home Secretary, sent to more than 120,000 recipients on the Home Office's mailing list, reads: Im proud that so many EU citizens like yourself have built your lives in the UK and made it your home.

We value your contribution which is why the Government put safeguarding your rights as the first priority in the Brexit negotiations. I am absolutely delighted that we have now reached an agreement with the EU that does this.

"I know that at times youve had an anxious wait while the fine details were ironed out, but we wanted to get it right and we have always had you at the forefront of our thoughts.

The open letter from Theresa May meanwhile read: "I am proud that more than three million EU citizens have chosen to make your homes and livelihoods here in our country.

"I greatly value the depth of the contributions you make  enriching every part of our economy, our society, our culture and our national life. I know our country would be poorer if you left and I want you to stay."

Myriam Kniveton, 62, who lives in Bristol after coming to the UK from Paris 38 years ago, and is moving back to France next month as a result of the Brexit vote, said the letters felt like an attempt by the Home Office to "appease" Europeans before it is ready to "kick them out".

The letters have made no difference whatsoever. I'm still leaving, she told The Independent.

(Myriam Kniveton (Myriam Kniveton)

Nothing has changed in terms of what the offer is. Weve still got to go out of our way and apply for something we never needed before. We will have to reapply every so many years. The reliance on the European Court of Justice is time-limited.

Its too little too late. Its just ticking the boxes. It felt to me that it was a reaction to the Governments fear that everyone will go and they will be left with big problems in the workforce.

It didnt feel like a genuine interest in how we felt, or a genuine care for our situation. It felt like wed better do something because we dont want them all to go. Its just an attempt to appease us to keep us there until theyre ready to kick us out.

Ms Kniveton said the EU referendum changed England overnight, creating a hostile environment for EU citizens. "After the Brexit vote, it felt like England was a different country. It wasnt the country I came to 38 years ago. Were now the scapegoats, she said.

Weve seen whats been happening in America, the rise in populism and everything. I can see that happening in the UK, and I dont want to be in a place where Im looking over my back all the time.

Other EU citizens in Britain expressed their disapproval of the letter on a Facebook forum run by campaign group the3million, with one describing it as Insulting, patronising and hypocritical, adding: This Government cannot be trusted.

Another wrote: I was furious this morning when I read it - the disparity between her words and the current actions of the home office practice is frightening.

Responding to the letter from Amber Rudd on Tuesday night, the3million released a statement stating that it is unlikely to reassure EU nationals before Christmas.

We say the optimistic narrative developed by the Government is well-meaning, but the actions of the Home Office tell a different story, the statement read.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 17 November 2022 Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt leaves 11 Downing Street, London, for the House of Commons to deliver his autumn statement PA UK news in pictures 16 November 2022 Emma Woolf, great niece of British author Virginia Woolf, and her son Ludovic sit next to a new bronze statue of Woolf, unveiled in Richmond, London Reuters 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

Only last week, the High Court found the policy of deporting homeless EU citizens was unlawful and discriminatory. So how can we trust the Home Secretary with our lives after Brexit if this continues while we are still in the EU?

An agreement reached between the UK and the EU last week means that EU citizens who arrive by 29 March 2019 and have been continuously and lawfully living in the UK for five years will be able to apply to stay indefinitely by getting settled status.

Those who have been in the country for less than five years before the exit date will be able to apply to remain until they have reached the five-year threshold.

But the agreement has not reassured many EU citizens living in the UK, who raised concern that the concessions come with a "time limit" and that uncertainty remains over who will qualify for the lesser rights post-Brexit.

Nicolas Hatton, chair of the3million, said after the agreement was made: Our rights should not have an expiry date. More worryingly, there is still no clarity around the registration criteria for these rights.

"There are a huge number of people still in the dark about whether they will qualify or not. Hundreds and thousands of them might get a letter that they have to go.
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 Government has been condemned for taking an unacceptably complacent attitude towards tackling homelessness, as soaring numbers of people are forced to live on the streets or in temporary accommodation.

A damning report by the cross-party Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said ministerial attempts to solve the national crisis had ended in abject failure.

Figures show more than 9,000 people are sleeping rough on the streets of England at any one time  up 134 per cent since 2011. Over 79,000 households, including 120,000 children, are meanwhile homeless and living in temporary accommodation  a rise of 65 per cent since 2010.

Recent research by charity Shelter revealed that child homelessness has reached a 10-year high, with nearly 130,000 children in Britain set to wake up homeless and in temporary accommodation this Christmas.

But the Governments commitment to eliminate rough sleeping by 2027 will only address the tip of the iceberg, according to the PAC report, which found there to be an unacceptable shortage of realistic housing options for the homeless or those at risk of homelessness.

Labour MP Meg Hillier, who chairs the committee, said the level of homeless was shameful and said the report must serve as a wake-up call for ministers.

The latest official figures hammer home the shameful state of homelessness in England and the abject failure of the Governments approach to addressing the misery suffered by many thousands of families and individuals, she said. As we approach Christmas there are thousands of children in temporary accommodation  a salutary reminder of the human cost of policy failure.

 Home Office policy of deporting homeless EU citizens is illegal, High Court rules

The evidence we heard from organisations that work with homeless people should serve as a wake-up call: government decisions are not made in a vacuum and the consequences can be severe.

The Government must do more to understand and measure the real-world costs and causes of homelessness and put in place the joined-up strategy that is so desperately needed.

The report warns that there are also hidden homeless, people who are housed by family and friends in shifting circumstances, but not captured as part of the official figures.

It states that action taken by the Department for Communities and Local Government has lacked urgency, saying its light touch approach to working with the local authorities tackling homelessness has clearly failed.

The MP said the new Homelessness Reduction Act to provide the solution to homelessness would no doubt help, but that it cannot be successful unless it is matched by a renewed focus across government on tackling both the supply and affordability of decent housing.

Ms Hillier said this must mean properly addressing the shortage of realistic housing options for those at risk of homelessness or already in temporary accommodation, and getting a grip on the markets failure to provide genuinely affordable homes, both to rent and to buy.

Delegating a problem is not a solution and we do not share the Governments faith in the cure-all potential of the Homelessness Reduction Act, she added.

There are practical steps it can take now  for example, targeting financial support on local authorities with acute shortages of suitable housing, rather than those councils which are simply ready to spend  that would make a real difference to peoples lives.

In light of the report, John Healey MP, Labours Shadow Housing Secretary, accused the Conservative Party of causing the crisis of rapidly rising homelessness, and having no plan to fix it.

He added: This Christmas, the increase in homelessness is visible in almost every town and city in the country, but todays report confirms Ministers lack both an understanding of the problem and any urgency in finding solutions.

After an unprecedented decline in homelessness under Labour, Conservative policy decisions are directly responsible for rising homelessness. You cant help the homeless without the homes, and ministers have driven new social rented homes to the lowest level on record.

Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, who sits on the committee, said the Government was failing to protect the most vulnerable in society, saying that its complacency on this issue was totally unacceptable and must come to an end.

Instead of passing the buck to local authorities, the Government must take responsibility for ending rough sleeping and building the truly affordable homes the country needs, she added.

Jon Sparkes, chief executive of charity Crisis, who gave evidence to the PAC, said there was no excuse not to act, urging that the crisis cannot go on.

Over Christmas and throughout winter, thousands of people across the country will be sleeping out in the cold, and thousands more will be trapped in unsuitable temporary accommodation, or sleeping in cars or on public transport, hidden from help, he continued.

The mental and emotional impacts of this crisis cannot be understated: the average age of death of a homeless person is just 47 years old, and they are nine times more likely to commit suicide than the general public. This cannot go on.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 17 November 2022 Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt leaves 11 Downing Street, London, for the House of Commons to deliver his autumn statement PA UK news in pictures 16 November 2022 Emma Woolf, great niece of British author Virginia Woolf, and her son Ludovic sit next to a new bronze statue of Woolf, unveiled in Richmond, London Reuters 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

When we know that homelessness can be ended and prevented from happening in the first place, theres no excuse not to act.

A government spokesman said: Tackling homelessness is a complex issue with no single solution, but we are determined to help the most vulnerable in society. Thats why we are providing more than 1bn up to 2020 to reduce all forms of homelessness and rough sleeping and we are bringing in the Homelessness Reduction Act, which is the most ambitious reform in decades, to ensure people get support sooner.

In addition, we have established a Rough Sleeping and Homelessness Reduction Taskforce across Government, with support from experts, so we can respond as effectively as possible.
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 Metropolitan Police has launched a sweeping review into its investigation of sex crimes following the collapse of two rape cases in the past week.

The force has confirmed the same detective was the investigating officer in both collapsed cases, and that he remains on full duty in the sexual offences investigation unit.

Scotland Yard said every case currently being considered for prosecution will be looked at again to ensure that all digital evidence has been properly examined, documented and shared with the CPS to meet obligations under disclosure".

The prosecution against Isaac Itiary for alleged child rape collapsed on Tuesday following last weeks halted rape trial of student Liam Allan, 22, following problems relating to the disclosure of evidence.

In the child rape case, the CPS offered no evidence against the defendant Mr Itiary at his trial at Inner London Crown Court.

The Met said material had not been disclosed to Mr Isaacs defence team until lawyers asked for it, in a breach of procedure.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 17 November 2022 Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt leaves 11 Downing Street, London, for the House of Commons to deliver his autumn statement PA UK news in pictures 16 November 2022 Emma Woolf, great niece of British author Virginia Woolf, and her son Ludovic sit next to a new bronze statue of Woolf, unveiled in Richmond, London Reuters 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

The defendant was charged in July this year, but police only disclosed further relevant material in response to the defence case statement submitted on 15 December.

A CPS spokesman said: On December 17 2017, the police provided new material to the CPS, which had previously been requested, and this was reviewed.

"Prosecutors decided that there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction and we offered no evidence against the defendant at a hearing today (Tuesday)."

The Met announced a review of the Itiary investigation as well all other live probes by the Child Abuse and Sexual Offences (CASO) command, where Scotland Yard is in discussion with the CPS.

Recommended Rape trial collapses after police fail to disclose sex messages

Commander Richard Smith, who oversees Met rape investigations, said: "I completely understand that this case may raise concerns about our compliance with disclosure legislation given the backdrop of the case of R v Allan last week.

The Met is completely committed to understanding what went wrong in the case of Mr Allan and is carrying out a joint review with the CPS, the findings of which will be published.

"Rape investigations are by their nature very complex, and often hinge on the contradictory accounts of the alleged suspect and the complainant about what has taken place.

We are reviewing all our investigations, where we are in discussion with the CPS, to assure ourselves that we are meeting our disclosure obligations in an acceptable timescale based on the volume of data that some cases involve.

Mr Allens trial for multiple counts of rape was halted at Croydon Crown Court after it emerged that police had been too slow to disclose phone messages between the complainant and her friends that cast the prosecutions case into doubt.

Announcing the review, Scotland Yard said: As a precaution, every live case being investigated by the child abuse and sexual offences command, where the Metropolitan Police Service is in discussion with the Crown Prosecution Service, is being reviewed to ensure that all digital evidence has been properly examined, documented and shared with the CPS to meet obligations under disclosure.

The Met was not immediately able to say how many cases will be reconsidered or which officer would have overall responsibility for the review.
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 United Kingdoms post-Brexit trade deal with the EU will be along the same lines as the ones signed between the union and countries like South Korea, Japan, and Canada, the European Commissions chief negotiator has said.

Michel Barnier said Theresa Mays red lines to take Britain out of the customs union and single market, and to reject the jurisdiction of European courts, meant a close relationship similar to the ones the EU has with other non-EU European countries was off the table.

The statement is an explicit knock-back for Downing Street, which said only the day before that it wanted a bespoke deal with the EU that was significantly more ambitious deal than the EUs agreement with Canada.

Recommended EU says Brexit transition will end no later than 31 December 2020

Logically, for the economic side of our partnership, well be working on the basis of a free-trade agreement  along the same lines of what we negotiated and signed with Canada, South Korea, and Japan, Mr Barnier told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday.

There are of course differences between these different models, because each of these trade models is of course tailor-made and specific to these countries when we sign these agreements.

But its the same approach and logic underpinning these agreements. Thatll be the situation with the United Kingdom in light of what they said their position is themselves.

Crucially, Mr Barnier said no other EU free-trade agreement had yet covered financial services, suggesting the City of London could be left out in the cold. Financial services were potentially to be a part of the TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) agreement with the United States, but talks on this agreement have now collapsed.

A slide drawn up by the chief negotiator and widely circulated in Brussels shows that the UK could not have a Norwegian or Icelandic-style deal because of the PM refusing jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), free movement, regulatory alignment and making a financial contribution to the EU budget.

A Swiss-style deal is also off the table because of the UKs rejection of free movement, regulatory alignment and financial payments.

Britain would also be unable to have a relationship with the EU similar to the one enjoyed by Ukraine  which would require some regulatory alignment and recognition of the ECJ. The model followed by Turkey is also ruled out because of the UKs desire to sign trade agreements with other countries  leaving a looser deal such as the one with non-European countries like South Korea as the only option.

Also speaking at the same press conference, Mr Barnier confirmed that the commission wanted any Brexit transition deal to end on 31 December 2020  just under two years.

This recommendation, which is broadly in line with the request made by Theresa May in her Florence speech, coincides with the end of the EUs multi-annual financial framework  effectively its budget period.

Theresa May has ruled out single market and customs union membership  putting a close economic relationship off the table (PA)

The transition period is useful and it will enable the public administration in Britain to prepare themselves for the kind of challenges that they will have to face at their borders, which are also our borders, and to prepare for the new relationship, he told reporters in Brussels.

It should be of a short and specific duration: at Florence, Theresa May in her speech referred to a maximum of two years. Our position, the European Commissions position, is that this would run logically to 31 December 2020 because thats also the duration of the current multi-annual financial framework.

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 he warned that if negotiations collapsed there would still be no transition period, arguing that an orderly withdrawal and transition go hand-in-hand.

The UK and EU are expected to move onto talks about the Brexit transition period swiftly in the new year, but talks about of the framework for the future trade relationship have been put back until March to give both sides more time to prepare.
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 }}

MPs will have the power to block a post-Brexit trade deal with the US if they believe it will damage animal welfare standards, Michael Gove says.

The Environment Secretary vowed to argue against any agreement that would open the door to chlorine-soaked chickens, for example  insisting he had Cabinet support.

But Mr Gove pledged that, regardless, Parliament  not the Government  would decide whether to plough ahead with a US deal, the dream of Tory hard Brexit supporters.

I think if Parliament wanted to, it could stop the Government signing a trade deal, he told the Commons environment select committee.

Mr Gove insisted chlorine-washed chickens were perfectly safe to eat  but suggested the way they were reared is crueller

In America they cannot guarantee the same high standards in terms of how chickens are reared that we insist on here, he told MPs.

Unless there is a change in the American side we would say that those animal welfare rules are things on which we will not compromise.

The whole point about trade deals is that you have got to be assertive in defence of your own interests.

The Environment Secretary was also asked how the Government would achieve its hopes for frictionless trade in Ireland, to avoid a hard land border.

Neil Parish, the committees Conservative chairman, urged him to set out how the work was progressing, warning otherwise this frictionless border is not going to work.

If we are outside the customs union, how are we going to get those lorries in and out with food that will go off? he asked.

But Mr Gove was only able to say that ministers held weekly meetings, at which they discussed a range of scenarios.

In the Brexit negotiations, Theresa May agreed to full alignment of regulations needed to avoid a hard border, if no technological solution can be found, to apply across the UK.

Mr Gove denied that meant full harmonisation, arguing it was an agreement to achieve the same goals by different means.

Later, asked about the Cabinet debate on what sort of Brexit the Government will aim for after a transitional period, he claimed there was absolute full alignment.

Earlier this year, Trade Secretary Liam Fox appeared to open up a Cabinet split when he dismissed protests that US farmers use chemical washes to make up for inadequate hygiene on farms and abattoirs.

Other concerns surround the US practice of pumping beef full of hormones and growing genetically modified crops.
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 }}

Theresa Mays most important ally in Government has been asked to leave his Cabinet job after a probe found he made misleading statements about pornography found on his Commons computer.

Damian Green was forced out after an investigation exposed he had known for years that the explicit material had been discovered by police, something at odds with his public comments.

The probe carried out by a senior Whitehall official also found claims from Conservative activist Kate Maltby that Mr Green made unwarranted advances on her were plausible, though it was not possible to prove them one way or the other.

In a letter, the Prime Minister said how extremely sad she was to have to let him go, but said that his actions set out by the investigation, meant she needed to ask him to resign. He responded apologising, but insisting he had never downloaded the pornography and denied Ms Maltbys allegations.

The departure is a major blow to the Prime Minister who used Mr Green, an old university friend, as a deputy who could bring stability to her Cabinet as it threatened to implode following the June election fiasco.

She now must decide who, if anyone, replaces Mr Green, but The Independent understands she is unlikely to take a decision until after Christmas.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 17 November 2022 Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt leaves 11 Downing Street, London, for the House of Commons to deliver his autumn statement PA UK news in pictures 16 November 2022 Emma Woolf, great niece of British author Virginia Woolf, and her son Ludovic sit next to a new bronze statue of Woolf, unveiled in Richmond, London Reuters 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

Mr Green is the second senior ranking minister and ally she has lost to Westminsters sexual harassment scandal, which also saw Sir Michael Fallon resign from his defence secretary post earlier this year amid allegations of inappropriate conduct.

The inquiry against Mr Green was triggered after Ms Maltby, 30 years younger than Mr Green, claimed he fleetingly touched her knee during a meeting in a pub in 2015, and a year later sent her a suggestive text message after she was pictured wearing a corset in a newspaper.

But the investigation later spread to claims that pornography was found on his computer in 2008 and whether he had been honest in his statements on the matter.

Director General of Propriety and Ethics at the Cabinet Office, Sue Gray, had been trying to ascertain if Mr Greens alleged behaviour happened when he was a minister and if it had breached rules governing the conduct of members of government.

A summary of the investigation from the Cabinet Office said allegations from Ms Maltby were found to be plausible but that it was not possible to reach a definitive conclusion on the appropriateness of Mr Greens behaviour.

 Former detective constable found 'thousands' of pornographic images on Damian Green's computer

But, crucially, the Cabinet Office inquiry found problems with statements made by the First Secretary of State regarding allegations of indecent material found on his parliamentary computer almost a decade ago.

The report added: Mr Greens statements of 4 and 11 November, which suggested that he was not aware that indecent material was found on parliamentary computers in his office, were inaccurate and misleading, as the Metropolitan Police Service had previously informed him of the existence of this material.

These statements therefore fall short of the honesty requirement of the Seven Principles of Public Life and constitute breaches of the Ministerial Code. Mr Green accepts this.

In his letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Green has described the allegations that he downloaded or viewed pornography on his parliamentary computer as unfounded and deeply hurtful.

 Emily Thornberry alludes to Damian Green sexual harassment allegations

The ex-minister wrote: I regret that Ive been asked to resign from the government following breaches of the Ministerial Code, for which I apologise.

He then went on: I accept that I should have been clear in my press statements that police lawyers talked to my lawyers in 2008 about the pornography on the computers, and that the police raised it with me in a subsequent phone call in 2013. I apologise that my statements were misleading on this point.

Mr Green said that he did deeply regret the distress caused to Kate Maltby following her claims, but insisted he did not recognise them.

He added: I clearly made her feel uncomfortable and for this I apologise.

Damian Green at Theresa May's side (left) as she secures a deal to hold power with the Northern Irish DUP

Ms May had brought her ally back in from the political wilderness as Work and Pensions Secretary in 2016, but it was after the botched 2017 election that he really made his presence felt.

With her credibility devastated, some in the Cabinet were eyeing Ms Mays job, while others feared Brexit could collapse. But she made a raft of swift changes, including instating Mr Green as her deputy.

In her letter to him on Wednesday evening, she wrote: I am extremely sad to be writing this letter.

We have been friends and colleagues throughout our whole political lives  from our early days at university, entering the House of Commons at the same election, and serving alongside each other both in opposition and in government.

 Amber Rudd comments on Damian Green allegation and whips' culture in Westminster harassment scandal

She said she understood the considerable distress caused to him by the allegations, but said she believed he shared her commitment to maintaining the high standards which the public demands of Ministers of the Crown.

She finished: It is therefore with deep regret, and enduring gratitude for the contribution you have made over many years, that I asked you to resign from the Government and have accepted your resignation.

Recommended Fallon resigned after Leadsom accused him of inappropriate language

A source close to Brexit Secretary David Davis confirmed he would not quit the Government in protest at Mr Greens departure, despite a report earlier this month that he had threatened to resign if the First Secretary of State was forced out over the material found by the police.

Liberal Democrat chief whip Alistair Carmichael said: Christmas cant come early enough for Theresa May as her Cabinet continues to crumble.

Midwinter is going to be especially bleak for a Government barely holding itself together.

Mr Green was crucial to holding together the warring Brexit tribes of Ms May's Cabinet. While he had backed remain, he was respected by Leavers as being committed to withdrawal.

The Prime Minister must now decide if she brings someone else into a role effectively created for Mr Green, if she fills the void left by her ally herself or even conducts a wider reshuffle.

Either way she is not likely to rush to a decision, but instead will take soundings from other key figures including her Chief of Staff Gavin Barwell

It is the third Cabinet minister Ms May has lost following the departures of Sir Michael and Priti Patel, who was pushed out after holding secret meetings in Israel with top politicians, including the country's Prime Minister, without telling her leader.

There is still an outstanding Cabinet Office investigation into whether Mark Garnier, another more junior minister, broke the code of conduct by asking his secretary to buy him sex toys.
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 }}

Almost a decade ago, the then-Shadow immigration minister Damian Green found himself in the custody of the Metropolitan Police for nine hours while officers raided his home and parliamentary offices.

He was the subject of an investigation by the force over leaked official documents from the Home Office that had embarrassed Gordon Browns government.

The then-assistant Met Commissioner Bob Quick had ordered his arrest on suspicion of conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office and aiding and abetting misconduct. Officers claimed to have found pornographic material on Mr Greens parliamentary office, but it was not reported at the time.

But he was cleared a year later by Keir Starmer, who was then director of public prosecutions, who claimed there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Mr Green as national security was not put at risk.

Recommended Damian Green resigns

Mr Green then held low-level ministerial jobs in David Camerons administration until 2014 when he was unexpectedly sacked, and entered a period of political wilderness on the Conservative backbenches.

Three years later, however, he was brought in from the cold when, with Theresa May as Prime Minister, he was made Work and Pensions Secretary.

In the immediate days after Ms Mays failed election gamble, Mr Green was promoted again  this time to First Secretary of State and de facto deputy Prime Minister.

Responsible for standing in for his Oxford University colleague at Prime Ministers Questions, and brokering the crucial deal with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) behind the scenes in the tumultuous days following the inconclusive election result, his return to prominence was indeed remarkable.

The pair were friends from Oxford University (Reuters)

But several months later allegations appeared from a Conservative activist and journalist Kate Maltby, who is almost 30 years younger than Mr Green. The pair had met at a bar in Waterloo and she alleged that she felt a fleeting hand against my knee.

A year later, in 2016, Ms Maltby claimed to have received a text from Mr Green, who is also an old acquaintance of her parents.

Long time no see, she claimed it read. But having admired you in a corset in my favourite tabloid I feel impelled to ask if you are free for a drink anytime?. Mr Green denied any advances and said the allegation came as a "complete shock" and was "deeply hurtful".

Ms Maltby made her allegations public in an article for The Times in November 2017, amid the claims of sexual harassment in Westminster in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal. The Prime Minister was then forced to launch a Cabinet Office investigation into the actions and behaviour of her most important political ally.

But as the investigation opened, other incendiary claims appeared in The Sunday Times and on the BBC. Two former Metropolitan Police officers alleged they had found pornography on Mr Greens parliamentary computer during the 2008 raid on his office. The first was from Bob Quick. The second was from Neil Lewis, a former detective, who claimed Mr Greens computer had contained thousands of pornographic material. The Cabinet Office then widened its investigation.

The conclusions of the Cabinet Office inquiry  publicly released just after 8.30pm on the penultimate day of Parliament before the Christmas recess  found Ms Maltbys account to be plausible, but that it was not possible to reach a definitive conclusion on the appropriateness of Mr Greens behaviour.

Crucially, the Cabinet Office inquiry added that statements made by the First Secretary of State regarding allegations of indecent material found on his parliamentary computer almost a decade ago were inaccurate and misleading.

The Metropolitan Police Service had previously informed him of the existence of this material. These statements therefore fall short of the honesty requirement of the Seven Principles of Public Life and constitute breaches of the Ministerial Code, the report added. "Mr Green accepts this.

In an exchange of letters between the Prime Minister and Green on 20 December, Ms May accepted the resignation from her lifelong friend and a crucial figure of her praetorian guard in Government.
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 European Commission has taken the unprecedented step of recommending a move towards political sanctions against Poland to stop the drift towards authoritarianism in the EU member state.

Over the last two years Polish government has passed 13 laws that would help it stuff the entire structure of the justice system with political appointees, including courts that decide the validity of election results. It comes amid a growing nationalist movement in the country operating with the tacit support of the government

After years of warnings about the changes, the Commission on Wednesday said it was moving to invoke Article 7.1 of the EU treaty for the first time ever  starting a legal process whose end would see Poland stripped of its voting rights at EU level.

Frans Timmermans, the first vice-president of the European Commission, told reporters in Brussels that the Commission was invoking the treaty clause with a heavy heart.

If you put an end or limit the separation of powers, you break down the rule of law, and that means breaking down the smooth functioning of the Union as a whole, he said.

The Commission has issued a rule of law opinion and three rule of law recommendations, it has exchanged more than 25 letters with the Polish authorities on this matter; numerous meetings and contact between the Commission and Polish authorities have taken place.

He added: Sadly, our concerns have deepened. Within a period of two years, 13 laws have been adopted which put at serious risk the independence of the judiciary and the separation of powers in Poland.

The entire structure of the justice system is affected: the constitutional tribunal, the supreme court, the ordinary courts, the national council for the judiciary, the prosecution service, and the national school of judiciary.

The common pattern of all these legislative changes is that the executive or legislative powers are now set up in such a way that the ruling majority can now systematically interfere with the composition, power, and administration or functioning of these authorities  thereby rendering the independence of the judiciary completely moot.

Mateusz Morawiecki, Polands Prime Minister, said: Poland is as devoted to the rule of law as the rest of the EU. Current judiciary reform is deeply needed. The dialogue between the Commission and Warsaw needs to be both open and honest. I believe that Polands sovereignty and the idea of United Europe can be reconciled.

However, a spokesperson for his ruling Law and Justice party suggested that the decision was politically motived, and in fact because we don't want to accept Muslim migrants, as we care for the security of Poles. 60,000 nationalists marched in Warsaw on Polish independence day, with some carrying banners calling for a "White Europe". The march was attended by significant numbers of Law and Justice supporters, and defended by the Government as a "a great celebration of Poles".

Under the Polish governments judicial changes, almost 40 per cent of current Supreme Court judges would be forced into retirement, with discretionary powers given to the president to retain favoured justices. New appointments would be made on the recommendation of a newly constituted council dominated by the appointees of ruling parties. Other courts throughout the whole judicial system would also face similar controls from the government and president.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki (Getty) (Getty Images)

Mr Timmermans made clear that the European Commission was open to restarting talks with the Polish government about the issue at any time and that if the countrys Government fixed the proposals within three months it would consider withdrawing the move.

European Council president Donald Tusk said last week that he had not received a response from the Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki when he asked to meet at the European Council summit on Thursday and Friday.

The next step in the Article 7 procedure will be for EU heads of state to consider the Commissions procedure and to vote on it. This is expected to take place at the March meeting of the European Council; in order for the proposal to pass, a supermajority of four fifths is required. The European Parliament would also have to back the motion.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

The Article 7.1 motion put forward by the Commission will warn that there is a clear risk of a serious breach by a Member State of the values of the EU  which include the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary.

If the breach continues then member states can be asked to vote again, under Article 7.2, to confirm that there is a serious and persistent breach  which if passed could see Polands voting rights in EU institutions suspended.

The second vote would however be harder to pass, because it requires the unanimous consent of the other EU member states  and Hungarys right-wing authoritarian prime minister Viktor Orban has said he would vote against such a move. Mr Orban has also been accused of pursuing anti-democratic reform.
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 }}

People who shine lasers at pilots or drivers of trains and buses will be jailed for up to five years, under tough new laws being unveiled today.

The courts will also be able to impose unlimited fines, to stamp out a practice which can have fatal consequences ministers say.

The Laser Misuse (Vehicles) Bill will also make prosecutions easier, by removing the need to prove that someone shining a laser intended to put the driver of a vehicle at risk.

Recommended Pilots furious after crackdown on aircraft laser attacks ditched

The move follows evidence of a big rise in the number of incidents of lasers being shone at aircraft in the UK, from 746 in 2009 to about 1,258 last year  or 24 every week.

Legislation was first proposed earlier this year, but appeared to have been dropped after it was left out of the Queens Speech, which will run until 2019.

Now the Department for Transport will say it is pressing ahead, although without setting a date for the introduction of the new penalties.

Baroness Sugg, the aviation minister, said: Lasers can dazzle, distract or blind those in control of a vehicle, with serious and potentially even fatal consequences.

The Government is determined to protect pilots, captains, drivers and their passengers and take action against those who threaten their safety.

The Bill was welcomed by the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA), which called for an effective and speedy implementation.

This is good news for transport safety. BALPA pilots and other transport workers have raised the growing threat of laser attacks for some time, said Brian Strutton, its general secretary.

Only a handful of people have been prosecuted since shining a light at an aircraft became an offence in 2010.

Under current legislation, police have to prove a person endangered the aircraft  but the new law, extended to buses, trains and boats, will only require proof that the suspect shone the laser.

Civil Aviation Authority figures showed that laser attacks on aircraft using Heathrow Airport rose by a quarter last year, to 151.

There were also large numbers of attacks at Glasgow (83) Birmingham (73), Manchester (72), London City (62) and London Gatwick (55).

In November 2015, a British Airways pilot was left with significant damage to his eyesight after a military strength laser was shone into his plane while he was landing at Heathrow.

A laser pointer can cause eye injuries from up to 1,200ft away and can be bought in Britain with very few checks on the buyer, critics say.

At least 47 children had suffered permanent eye damage - including blindness - in the last four years, The Sunday Times found.
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 May has been accused of planning to thwart the meaningful vote on the Brexit deal won by MPs last week, after repeatedly refusing to stand by the commitment.

The Prime Minister failed  five times  to guarantee the vote would be on a Bill, allowing it to be amended, or for her to be sent back to Brussels to seek better terms if her deal is rejected.

Instead, Ms May appeared to suggest it would remain what was dubbed a take it or leave it vote, allowing the Government to press head with Brexit  even if MPs object.

Recommended EU says Brexit transition will end no later than 31 December 2020

Asked by Labour MP Yvette Cooper to confirm there would be a vote on a statute (on legislation), she said only that there would be an opportunity to vote on the deal.

The choice of words immediately provoked suspicions that the Government will seek to strike out the meaningful vote, at a later stage of the EU Withdrawal Bill next month.

Ms Cooper told The Independent: The Prime Minister wriggled out of giving a straight answer and appears also to be trying to wriggle out of Amendment 7. Thats not on.

The Prime Minister still obviously doesnt want the statute until after the deal has been ratified. She cannot keep trying to concentrate power in ministers hands in this way.

In the Commons, Dominic Grieve  the former Tory Attorney General, who led last weeks revolt  warned ministers that kicking hornets nests is not a very good idea.

Fellow Labour MP Alison McGovern, supporter of the pro-EU group Open Britain, said: The language of the amendment was crystal clear: Parliament must be given a real, meaningful vote on the terms of Brexit.

That means by statute, not just a rubber-stamp of whatever the Government manages to negotiate. It is not acceptable for the Prime Minister to try and ignore the democratically expressed will of our elected MPs.

And Tom Brake, the Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesman, said: With all her muddling and obfuscation, it is quite clear that Theresa May is trying to worm her way out of a meaningful vote in Parliament on the Brexit deal.

Amendment 7, put forward by the highly respected Mr Grieve, was designed to stop the Government using Henry VIII powers to enact Brexit by bypassing MPs.

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

It would prevent the process starting until Parliament has voted in favour of a separate Bill, which could be amended  perhaps to keep the UK in the EU single market and customs union.

Ms May was humbled last Wednesday when 11 Tory MPs joined forces with Opposition parties to defeat her on the controversy, by 309 votes to 305.

But in tense exchanges with Ms Cooper, the Prime Minister repeatedly failed to commit to a vote on a statute, as ordered by the Commons just seven days earlier.

Ms Cooper asked: Now that Amendment 7 has been passed by Parliament, can you confirm that means there will now be a vote on a statute on the withdrawal agreement before the withdrawal agreement is ratified?

Speaking to the Commons Liaison Committee, Ms May replied: It slightly depends what youre talking about in terms of before.

And hinting that the vote would in fact be on a yes-no motion, she added: There will be an opportunity for Parliament to vote on that withdrawal agreement before that legislation is brought into place.

During 45 minutes of questioning on Brexit, the Prime Minister also:

* Insisted she was confident she could complete a free-trade agreement with the EU before March 2019  despite widespread scepticism.

Hilary Benn, the Brexit committee chairman told her: Ive met nobody who think it will be possible to negotiate all of the details of that trade deal by March 2019.

* Refused to say what goods would be covered by her commitment to full alignment with EU rules to prevent a hard Irish border  or in what areas the UK would be free to diverge.

Ms May said she did not believe that full alignment would be necessary, describing it as a default default position, at one point.

* Refused to rule out cameras at the Northern Ireland border, saying: We are not going to give a running commentary on every detail of our negotiations.

* Dismissed suggestions of increased trade barriers with either the EU, or the countries with which the EU has trade agreements  suggesting those latter deals could be rolled over.

* Denied the UK will be forced to leave Europol and EU arrest warrant  which Brussels has argued  claiming the issue was part of the negotiations.

* Denied she was losing out in the negotiations by begging for a transitional deal, telling the committee: I havent begged the European Union for two more years.

Earlier at Prime Ministers Questions, she conceded Brexit could be delayed until after March 2019, but insisted it would only be in exceptional circumstances for the shortest possible time.

Ms May confirmed the Government would support an amendment allowing MPs to put back the exit date if the Brexit negotiations run into trouble.

But she tried to head off unease on the Tory benches by insisting: Were very clear we will be leaving the EU on March 29 2019 at 11pm.

Her comments came as the European Commission said it wanted the planned Brexit transition period to end no later than 31 December 2020.

The transitional arrangements should apply as from the date of entry into force of the Withdrawal Agreement and should not last beyond 31 December 2020, its latest negotiating directives said.

The deadline coincides with the end of the EUs seven-year budget period  but appears earlier than the Prime Ministers requested transition of around two years.
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 May is set to climbdown on her promise to stamp the Brexit date into UK law on Wednesday after shying away from another confrontation with Tory rebels.

Ms May had been warned she faced a second bruising defeat if she tried to rigidly enshrine the March 2019 Brexit day on the face of her EU Withdrawal Bill.

Instead, on Wednesday evening she is expected to agree to a compromise proposal which allows for a degree of flexibility in when Brexit happens.

Recommended Bank of England will allow EU banks to operate as normal after Brexit

It comes as Theresa May is set to face a major two-hour grilling in Parliament at the hands of the influential Liaison Committee, made up of the chairs of all the other Commons select committees.

The compromise amendment to Ms May's Eu Withdrawal Bill is being brought forward by Sir Oliver Letwin, who said: All the indications Im getting are that the Government is likely to accept it.

It was last month that the Prime Minister announced a change to the her Brexit Bill that would set the date of withdrawal at 11pm on 29 March 2019.

The plan angered Tory rebels who want the Brexit deal she agrees with Brussels enshrined in a full Act of Parliament, as they feared there may not be enough time to pass it before the March date came and went.

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

Enough rebels, many of who had already defeated the Government in a previous vote on the Bill, pledged also to oppose her plan on the Brexit date.

With Ms Mays authority already dented and concern that a second defeat would do further damage, Sir Oliver tabled his new amendment as a compromise.

If accepted on Wednesday evening, it will leave the date on the face of the Bill but allow Parliament a vote to change it if negotiations overrun.

The new amendment has the support of dozens of Tory MPs, including Brexit supporters Jacob Rees-Mogg and Sir William Cash and Remain supporters George Freeman and Nick Boles.

As the process continues, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling insisted the Government is not in danger of falling and would see out a full term in office.

We have got a strong relationship with the DUP. We have got a team of Conservative MPs who are committed to taking this country forward, he told BBC Twos Newsnight.

 Brexit bill: Grieve warns Theresa May of second defeat and says he does not care about 'knives being out for me'

But Mr Freeman, former chairman of the Prime Ministers policy board, warned that getting Brexit wrong could be a catastrophe for conservatism.

He told the BBC: It is really urgent, that as the Prime Minister sees through the noble and, frankly, thankless task of negotiating Brexit that under her leadership a messianic piece of work has begun, to make this a moment of Conservative renewal that can inspire those who didnt vote for it.

I think its very urgent. I think if we dont, this is in danger of being a Brexit that breaks, not makes conservatism. We are in a risk of this being a moment, a catastrophic moment, where conservatism isnt forgiven by a generation that didnt vote for it.
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 }}

It is theoretically possible that when Yvette Cooper started eyeballing Theresa May and repeatedly shouting ARE CAMERAS PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE? ARE CAMERAS PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE? she genuinely thought the PM might go the full Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men and crumble under the pressure.

But, much to no ones surprise, Theresa May did not suddenly bellow YOURE GOD DAMN RIGHT THEY ARE! waking the 16-strong committee from their 90-minute-long slumber.

Instead, she transformed her face into a mask of utter disdain and returned the question if not quite with the contempt it deserved, then the contempt it was always going to get.

This was Ms Mays first appearance in a year before the Liaison Committee, the committee made of the chairs of all the other parliamentary committees. It has been, well, a busy year, but there is arguably comfort to be drawn in these turbulent times from our Prime Ministers utterly undimmed resolve never to answer even the straightest question put to her.

With specific regard to ARE CAMERAS PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE?, this was a question regarding the potential hardness of the currently metaphysical future Irish border, which may or may not return at some point before or after the end of the as yet undefined transitional period after the UK leaves the single market and the customs union while maintaining full regulatory alignment with it from which it intends to gradually divert. But then you knew that.

Theresa May has promised there will be no physical infrastructure on any supposedly free-flowing border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. But one such technological solution that has been proposed would involve automated number plate scanning for vehicles. Ah! Ah! But this would require cameras, Ms Cooper had worked out, and cameras, are physical infrastructure, are they not?

Ive checked my notes. Ive even watched back the footage, and, yes this is the exchange verbatim.

Yvette Cooper: Are cameras physical infrastructure?

Theresa May: Im not going to give a running commentary.

Cooper: Are cameras physical infrastructure.

May: Im not going to give a running commentary.

Cooper: Cameras are physical. Theyre not virtual.

May: Ive said before, Im not going to give a running commentary.

Can you blame Cooper really? When you are trying to inflict damage on a tortoise that has not merely retreated into its shell but also superglued itself to the concrete floor, what more can you do but repeatedly jab a cocktail stick into its exposed neck cavity and hope for the best?

Shortly before this, Hilary Benn, chair of the Brexit Select Committee had sought to extract an answer to the question on how Theresa May could possibly guarantee there would be no hard border in Ireland, given, for example, cows currently freely wander across it, and after Brexit it is highly likely that different agricultural regulations will have to apply on either side.

As she answered, for a third consecutive time, that a hard border would be avoided because Ive told you were going to avoid a hard border, the temptation to imagine the Prime Minister as a captain on D-Day became overwhelming.

How are we going to get past the German guns captain?

Ive told you were going to get past the German guns.

But how are we going to get past the German guns captain?

I cant answer that question yet because we havent yet opened the landing craft door and run full frontal into their open fire, but thankfully were about to begin that phase of the battle, so were going to get past them.

But how are we going to get past them?

Ive told you were going to get past them.

But how?

At one point, Maria Miller wanted to know whether it was right that Harvey Weinstein had silenced his personal assistant with a non-disclosure agreement after he allegedly raped a colleague. Even this was considered too risky territory for a a rare female world leader to venture into with anything approaching an answer.

In the end, all this becomes a story about the waste of taxpayers' money. The mere man hours of preparation undergone by these 16 senior backbenchers, their various aides and researchers, not to mention the Prime Minister herself, for what is meant to be a grand and meaningful question and answer session, will run well into six figures. And yet, here she was not even waving the vaguest answer in the direction of even the slowest paced of questions.

At the end, the Committee Chair Dr Sarah Wollaston told the Prime Minister she Hoped shed return before the committee in three months time.

She failed to answer that one either. We can only hope its a no.
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 }}

An attempt to prosecute Cliven Bundy for leading an armed standoff against the federal government has ended in a mistrial, the latest setback for government efforts to penalise the Bundy family and its followers.

US District Judge Gloria Navarro said prosecutors had committed constitutional due-process violations and faulted them for not turning over evidence to defence attorneys, according to the Associated Press.

The trial concerned a confrontation outside the Bundy family ranch in Nevada, where a dispute over more than $1m in unpaid grazing fees turned into an armed standoff that drew in scores of supportive militiamen after the government began rounding up cattle under a court order.

We are a step closer to freedom, Carol Bundy, whose husband Cliven and sons Ammon and Ryan have faced federal charges, wrote on Facebook.

The Nevada clash, and a subsequent takeover of an Oregon wildlife refuge by people aligned with the Bundys, became magnets for people angry about perceived government overreach in the American West. Much of the land west of the Rocky Mountains is managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management, and Cliven Bundy  the familys patriarch  asserted that the government lacked the constitutional authority to oversee the land where his cattle fed.

So far, prosecutors have a mixed record on winning convictions against participants in the two insurrections.

Protest against the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Show all 5 1 /5 Protest against the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Protest against the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Protesters hold signs during a rally against the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge by Ammon Bundy and his armed followers, while at the Federal Building in Eugene AP Protest against the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge With the armed takeover of the national wildlife refuge in southeastern Oregon in its third week, Bundy and his armed group are still trying to muster up broad community support, so far without much luck AP Protest against the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Protesters rally against the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge by Ammon Bundy and his armed followers, while at the Federal Building in Eugene AP Protest against the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge John Perry holds a poster during a rally against the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge by Ammon Bundy and his armed followers AP Protest against the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Renee Irvin holds a sign during a rally against the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge AP

In April, jurors deadlocked on charges against six men accused of threatening government agents during the Bundy ranch standoff. In August, a federal jury did not return guilty verdicts against four men facing conspiracy and weapons charges.

Participants in the takeover of the Malheur, Oregon refuge have also evaded conviction. All seven defendants  including Ryan and Ammon Bundy  were acquitted of weapons and conspiracy charges related to the seizure last October, and in March a jury acquitted two men involved in the occupation while convicting two others.
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 }}

Canadians spent $6.2bn (3.5bn) on marijuana in 2015, almost as much as they did on wine, a report has shown.

A study of marijuana consumption between 1960 and 2015 carried out by Canada's bureau of statistics estimated there were 4.9 million cannabis consumers aged 15 and older in 2015.

The agency is preparing to track weed's effect on economy and society when it is made legal next year.

 Cannabis fans in London celebrate 420 at Hyde Park gathering

The report found use of pot has increased over the years as it became more popular with adults.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the market was predominantly driven by young people.

However, by 2015, 6 per cent of 15-17-year-olds consumed cannabis, while two-thirds of users were over 25.

Where cannabis is and isn't legal Show all 10 1 /10 Where cannabis is and isn't legal Where cannabis is and isn't legal UK Having been reclassified in 2009 from a Class C to a Class B drug, cannabis is now the most used illegal drug within the United Kingdom. The UK is also, however, the only country where Sativex  a prescribed drug that helps to combat muscle spasms in multiple sclerosis and contains some ingredients that are also found in cannabis - is licensed as a treatment Getty Where cannabis is and isn't legal North Korea Although many people believe the consumption of cannabis in North Korea to be legal, the official law regarding the drug has never been made entirely clear whilst under Kim Jong Uns regime. However, it is said that the North Korean leader himself has openly said that he does not consider cannabis to be a drug and his regime doesnt take any issue with the consumption or sale of the drug MARCEL VAN HOORN/AFP/Getty Images Where cannabis is and isn't legal Netherlands In the Netherlands smoking cannabis is legal, given that it is smoked within the designated smoking areas and you dont possess more than 5 grams for personal use. It is also legal to sell the substance, but only in specified coffee shops Getty Where cannabis is and isn't legal USA Although in some states of America cannabis has now been legalised, prior to the legalisation, police in the U.S. could make a marijuana-related arrest every 42 seconds, according to US News and World Report. The country also used to spend around $3.6 billion a year enforcing marijuana law, the American Civil Liberties Union notes AP Photo/Ted S. Warren Where cannabis is and isn't legal Spain Despite cannabis being officially illegal in Spain, the European hotspot has recently started to be branded, the new Amsterdam. This is because across Spain there are over 700 Cannabis Clubs  these are considered legal venues to consume cannabis in because the consumption of the drug is in private, and not in public. These figures have risen dramatically in the last three years  in 2010 there were just 40 Cannabis Clubs in the whole of Spain. Recent figures also show that in Catalonia alone there are 165,000 registered members of cannabis clubs  this amounts to over 5 million euros (4 million) in revenue each month Getty Where cannabis is and isn't legal Uruguay In December 2013, the House of Representatives and Senate passed a bill legalizing and regulating the production and sale of the drug. But the president has since postponed the legalization of cannabis until to 2015 and when it is made legal, it will be the authorities who will grow the cannabis that can be sold legally. Buyers must be 18 or older, residents of Uruguay, and must register with the authorities Getty Where cannabis is and isn't legal Pakistan Despite the fact that laws prohibiting the sale and misuse of cannabis exist and is considered a habit only entertained by lower-income groups, it is very rarely enforced. The occasional use of cannabis in community gatherings is broadly tolerated as a centuries old custom. The open use of cannabis by Sufis and Hindus as a means to induce euphoria has never been challenged by the state. Further, large tracts of cannabis grow unchecked in the wild Getty Where cannabis is and isn't legal Portugal In 2001, Portugal became the first country in the world to decriminalize the use of all drugs, and started treating drug users as sick people, instead of criminals. However, you can still be arrested or assigned mandatory rehab if you are caught several times in possession of drugs Getty Where cannabis is and isn't legal Puerto Rico Although the use of cannabis is currently illegal, it is said that Puerto Rico are in the process of decriminalising it RAUL ARBOLEDA/AFP/Getty Images Where cannabis is and isn't legal China Cannabis is grown in the wild and has been used to treat conditions such as gout and malaria. But, officially the substance is illegal to consume, possess and sell Getty

Canadians consumed around 697.5 tonnes of the drug in 2015, the report said, putting the estimated value of consumption between $5.0bn (2.9bn) and $6.2bn (3.5bn).

The researchers arrived at those figures after estimating the drugs market value to be between $7.14 (4.14) to $8.84 (5.13) per gram.

Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister, has committed to legalising the recreational use of cannabis by July 2018.
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 }}

Beijing has responded to Donald Trumps recent labelling of China as a strategic competitor, by telling the US President to end Americas cold war mentality.

The remarks follow the publication of the Trump administrations National Security strategy on Monday, in which the President accused China of pursuing a repressive vision and designing economic policies to weaken America.

On Tuesday, the Chinese embassy in Washington hit back, describing the Trump administrations America First theme as selfish, and warned that promoting rivalry between the US and other countries will lead to failure.

The Americans on one hand say they want to develop a partnership with China, but on the other hand they take an oppositional stance. This is contradictory, it said in a statement.

It is completely selfish for any nation to put its interests above the common interests of other nations and the international community. It will lead to a path of self-isolation.

The statement adds: On the one hand, the US government claims that it is attempting to build a great partnership with China. On the other hand, it labels China as a rival. The self-contradictory rhetoric of the US betrays the truth that China and the US are becoming increasingly interdependent and have growing intertwined interests. The US' rhetoric also runs counters to China's efforts to cooperate with the US on bilateral and global issues.

Recommended Donald Trump threatens to cut aid to countries over UN Jerusalem vote

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said later on Tuesday that China was calling on Washington to stop distorting Chinas strategic intentions, or the US government would risk causing damage.

Speaking to reporters in Beijing she said: Any country, or any report, which distorts the facts, or maliciously slanders will do so in vain.

No one should be under the illusion that China will swallow a bitter pill that affects its interests.

We call on the US to stop distorting Chinas strategic intentions and to give up its cold war mentality and outdated concept that this is a zero-sum game  or it will end up causing damage to both sides.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Mr Trumps address on Monday came in stark contrast to that of his predecessor Barack Obama, who described China as a strategic partner.
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 Canadian jury has found a man guilty of possessing an explosive substance but cleared him and his partner of three terrorism-related charges after the government alleged they were trying to build a bomb with ingredients that included Christmas lights.

The Montreal couple, El Mahdi Jamali and Sabrine Djermane, were charged with trying to leave Canada to join a terrorist group, possessing an explosive substance, facilitating a terrorist activity and committing an offence for a terrorist group.

Jamali, now 20, was found guilty of a reduced charge of possessing explosives without a lawful excuse and acquitted of other charges.

Jamali was given credit for time served and ordered released during a Tuesday afternoon hearing. He was also prohibited from owning a firearm for 10 years.

Djermane, 21, was acquitted of all charges. The two had been detained since they were arrested in 2015, when they were teenagers.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police found a handwritten bomb-making recipe copied from a propaganda magazine published by al-Qaeda militants when the police searched a condo rented by the couple in 2015, according to prosecutors.

The two were arrested at a time when international security forces reported that college students from Montreal were among waves of young people heading to Syria to join Isis militants.

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

RCMP began investigating the couple after receiving a tip, and arrested them days later.

Canadian prosecutor Lyne Decarie said she has not ruled out filing an appeal and would examine the judge's instructions to the jury.

The government has 30 days to file an appeal.

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 }}

A teacher has been arrested for sending sexually explicit messages to a 15-year-old boy she met over Xbox One.

Robin Dunlap, 27, continued to exchange sexual messages with the boy even after learning his age, police said.

The boy, from Texas, presented himself as a 19-year-old throughout conversations with the science teacher, who worked at Haines City High School in Florida.

Their conversations moved to instant messenger and video calls.

When the mother of the victim checked her son's phone, she contacted Dunlap to inform the teacher her son was 15, not 19.

Dunlap voluntarily turned herself in to police and admitted she had sent nude photos to the boy before learning his real age.

"But it didn't stop there," the press release from Winter Haven police said.

Robin Dunlap continued to exchange sexual messages with the boy even after learning his age (Winter Haven Police)

Dunlap continued to contact the boy through Google Hangouts and would later tell police the teenager was the only person who understood her.

The teacher gave police access to her phone, where they found conversations which "slowly to extremely vulgar with sexually explicit language," according to the release.

There is absolutely no excuse for an adult  especially a high school teacher  to continue sexually explicit conversations with a 15 year-old long after his real age is revealed, Winter Haven Police Chief Charlie Bird said.

The vulnerable age of this victim and the fact that this woman took advantage of him for her own personal needs is inexcusable.
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 }}

Harvey Weinstein's former personal assistant has broken her confidentiality agreement to detail her experience working for the Hollywood producer.

On Tuesday evening, Zelda Perkins, who says she signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) in 1998, broke it to share her perspective with the BBC.

The once-powerful Hollywood producer has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than 30 women - claims he has strongly denied.

Breaking a near-20-year legally-enforced silence, Ms Perkins said of Weinstein: You never knew if you were his confidante or going to be screamed at."

She called Weinstein a "repulsive monster" and a "master manipulator" but also acknowledged that he was a "brilliant person to be around".

The former assistant said things came to a head with Weinstein in 1998 at The Venice Film Festival when he allegedly tried to rape her colleague. Weinstein denied the attempted rape.

When they arrived back in the UK, Ms Perkins says she spoke to her only manager, and she suggested she get a lawyer.

They were left with minimal options, she said, because they didnt go to the police in Venice.

As a result, she says she signed a non-disclosure agreement with Weinstein in exchange for 125,000,

It ultimately would have been two under 25-year-old women's words against Harvey Weinstein," she explained.

She said she knew the only way to get Weinstein to the table was by making a monetary request, so Ms Perkins made an agreement that would be as binding for him as it would be for her: a way to prevent him from harming other people.

Recommended Director admits blacklisting actresses after Weinstein smear campaign

While the agreement's terms are said to have included Weinstein going to a therapist and being dismissed if anyone made a sexual harassment claim against him among others, she never saw proof of anything in the contract because one clause of the settlement barred her from having a copy of it.

"It's a smoking gun," she claimed.

Perkins concluded: You cant change the Harvey Weinsteins of the world, but if the rules or laws that we have to protect ourselves enable that, then theres no point in having them.

Weinstein's lawyers told the BBC that Weinstein categorically denied engaging in any non-consensual conduct or alleged threatening behaviour.
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 }}

Ivanka Trumps surprise unannounced visit to a school in Connecticut has prompted some parents to pull their children from class.

The US presidents daughter addressed secondary school students at the Norwalk Early College Academy about the importance of education in the sciences, technology, mathematics, and engineering.

Ms Trump, who serves as an unpaid advisor to her father, said: "To see the passion and enthusiasm for bringing real-life skills into a classroom environment, but then coupling it with real-life experience through internship, creates this really beautiful virtuous angle.

Ms Trump, who is a former businesswoman and fashion advisor, drew attention to the event on Twitter. She said: Great visit to Norwalk Early College Academy today with @IBMCEO @GinniRometty.

PTECH schools equip high school students with skills training in #STEM & Computer Science, enabling them to thrive in our modern economy. It was an honour to meet so many bright and talented students!

But Ms Trump provoked fierce criticism from those parents who disagree with Donald Trumps views. They claimed they had received little information about Ms Trumps visit, perhaps the result of concerns about security.

"This should have been brought to our attention, although I do understand security reasons. I think we should have had the choice to send our child to school or keep them home, Karey Fitzgerald, a Norwolk parent, told News 12 Connecticut.

Monica Mercuri, an alumna of the academy, condemned Ms Trumps trip to the school, tweeting: "Hope the diversity of our students and our large immigrant population doesn't scare her away!"

The visit to the school comes just days after Ms Trump was accused of a "conflict of interest" after her fashion brand opened a shop in Trump Tower in downtown New York.

The company's first retail outlet, which sits behind the building's security checkpoint and armed police guards, sells handbags, shoes and jewellery in the lobby of the 58-storey skyscraper which is also the headquarter of The Trump Organisation.

Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Show all 22 1 /22 Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Supporters of Difa-e-Pakistan Council a coalition of right wing Islamic parties, burn an effigy of US President Donald Trump, during a protest in Quetta, Pakistan EPA Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Israeli police scuffle with a Palestinian protester outside Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City Getty Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protesters burn pictures of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu following Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in Gaza City AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Israeli forces disperse Palestinian protesters outside Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City on 7 December 2017 AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Supporters of the Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC), an Islamic organization, chant slogans as they burn Israeli and US flags during a protest against Donald Trump in Peshawar REUTERS Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinians paint an 'X' over the face of a picture of US president Donald J. Trump which was painted on the Israeli separation wall in Bethlehem EPA Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protestors burn the Israeli flag and a poster of US President Donald Trump in Gaza City AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Supporters of a Pakistani religious party rally against Donald Trump in Lahore AP Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protesters burn the US and Israeli flags in Gaza City AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital A poster depicting U.S. President Donald Trump is burnt during a protest against Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in the West Bank city of Ramallah REUTERS Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Israeli forces detain a Palestinian protester during clashes that followed protests against US President Donald Trump recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in Hebron AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protesters burn an effigy of U.S. President Donald Trump AP Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protesters shout slogans against Donald Trump EPA Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital A Palestinian protester wears a Guy Fawkes mask used by the anonymous movement during clashes with Israeli troops in Hebron AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian demonstrators clash with Isralei troops during protests AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Supporters of a Pakistani religious party chant anti-American slogans during a rally in Islamabad, Pakistan AP Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Pakistanis burn a representation of the U.S. flag during a protest rally in Hyderabad AP Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Young Palestinian women look on as smoke billows from burning tyres as fellow Palestinian demonstrators clash with Isralei troops AFP/Getty Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Protesters burn a picture of U.S. President Donald Trump at a protest in Islamabad REUTERS Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Protestors shouts slogans against US President Donald Trump as they hold Palestinian and Turkish flags during a protest near the US Embassy in Ankara, Turkey EPA Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protestors put their feet over a picture of US president Donald Trump during a protest in the West Bank City of Nablus EPA Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Pakistani protesters burn tires at an anti-Donald Trump rally in Multan AP

Ivanka Trump merchandise had previously only been sold through wholesale distributors and online but some retailers had gone so far as to stop stocking the brand because sales plunged in the wake of Mr Trumps electoral victory.

The company recently began selling its wares, including $25 earrings, $34 candles and $298 handbags directly on its website. The shop has raised fresh concerns about the ethics of the Trump family profiting from the president's supporter base.

Ms Trump made more than $5 million (3.75 million) from her fashion business between January 2016 and March 2017. Nevertheless, she chose to step down from the day-to-day running of the company after her father became president and appointed her as his adviser.

She also transferred her business assets into a trust overseen by relatives including her older brother Donald Trump Jnr but continues to maintain control of the brand.
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 }}

The US has scientific evidence of unidentified flying objects thanks to the Pentagons secret UFO unit, the senator who set it up has said.

Harry Reid, a retired former Democratic Senator, succeeded in launching the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Programme (AATIP) in 2007 after requesting initial funding for the project.

The unit, which the Department of Defence (DoD) insists was terminated in 2012, produced documents that described sightings of aircraft that travelled at extremely high speeds with no visible signs of propulsion.

If this movement took place in anything we now have available to us, it would kill everybody, Mr Reid told Las Vegas news channel KLAS Channel 8, in reference to reported encounters with UFOs. They couldnt withstand those g-forces. Something sitting there, whoom, down it goes.

Previously classified footage released by the DoD showed US fighter jet pilots as they tracked an unidentified aerial object gliding above the Pacific ocean in 2004. The object had been detected appearing suddenly at 80,000 feet by the USS Princeton, a naval cruiser, which had been tracking mysterious aircraft for two weeks.

Commander David Fravor told The New York Times the object was about 40ft long, had no plumes, wings or rotors, and outpaced their F-18s. It was big enough to churn the sea 50ft below it, he said.

I have no idea what I saw ... It accelerated like nothing Ive ever seen, he added, admitting he was pretty weirded out.

Revealed: eerie UFO sightings recorded in MoD files Show all 17 1 /17 Revealed: eerie UFO sightings recorded in MoD files Revealed: eerie UFO sightings recorded in MoD files National Archives/PA Wire Revealed: eerie UFO sightings recorded in MoD files National Archives/PA Wire Revealed: eerie UFO sightings recorded in MoD files The National Archives/PA Wire Revealed: eerie UFO sightings recorded in MoD files National Archives/PA Wire Revealed: eerie UFO sightings recorded in MoD files The National Archives/PA Wire Revealed: eerie UFO sightings recorded in MoD files The National Archives/PA Wire Revealed: eerie UFO sightings recorded in MoD files National Archives/PA Wire Revealed: eerie UFO sightings recorded in MoD files PA Revealed: eerie UFO sightings recorded in MoD files PA Revealed: eerie UFO sightings recorded in MoD files PA Revealed: eerie UFO sightings recorded in MoD files Revealed: eerie UFO sightings recorded in MoD files PA Revealed: eerie UFO sightings recorded in MoD files PA Revealed: eerie UFO sightings recorded in MoD files PA Revealed: eerie UFO sightings recorded in MoD files PA Revealed: eerie UFO sightings recorded in MoD files PA Revealed: eerie UFO sightings recorded in MoD files PA

Mr Reid said countries including China, Russia and Japan were already taking UFOs seriously, and that it was important the US did the same. Asked if he was glad the revelations had been made public, Mr Reid responded: Im very glad, because now we have scientific evidence.

KLAS Channel 8 reported Mr Reid had told them one factor in the shutting down of AATIP was intelligence officials fears the findings would end up on the front page of a newspaper. He also said some officials had religious objections to the unit.

Most of the $22m (15m) funding for the research went to an aerospace research company run by a billionaire and friend of Mr Reids, Robert Bigelow. Mr Bigelow has said he is absolutely convinced UFOs have visited Earth.

But Mr Reid denied his friends company was given preferential treatment. Even though this was a secure programme, we wanted to make sure people couldnt complain that it was some sweetheart deal. No, it was put out to bid, he said.
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 }}

The US ambassador to the United Nations has warned she is "taking names" of UN members who oppose Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

In a letter to UN members, Nikki Haley said the US President took the issue personally and the names of those who supported a resolution rejecting the bill would be reported to him.

As you consider your vote, I want you to know the president and the US take this vote personally," she said.

She described Mr Trump's decision to move the US embassy as "an acknowledgement that peace is best advanced ... when all parties are honest with each other about the basic fact that Jerusalem has been the capital of Israel since the country's founding".

The president will be watching this vote carefully and has requested I report back on those who voted against us," she added.

In a Twitter post, she said: "At the UN we're always asked to do more & give more.

"So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl, abt where to locate OUR embassy, we don't expect those we've helped to target us.

"On Thurs there'll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names."

The 193-member UN general assembly, where there are no vetoes, will hold an emergency session on Thursday to vote on the latest resolution at the request of Turkey and Yemen.

The international community has broadly condemned Mr Trump's decision to move the embassy, with Turkey describing it as "a deliberate undermining of all peace efforts".

Earlier this week, the US was outnumbered 14 to 1 at a UN security council vote on a resolution calling on America to reverse its decision, but the nation used its veto to block the measure.

Ms Haley described the 14-1 vote as an "insult", warning: "It won't be forgotten".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Ms Haley and Mr Trump for the veto in a video posted on his Facebook page, in which he said the US Ambassador "lit a candle of truth" and dispelled "lies".

A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the veto "threatens the stability of the international community because it disrespects it".

Britain was among the nations that supported the resolution and Downing Street said Theresa May restated her disagreement with Mr Trump's decision after the vote during a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"The Prime Minister reiterated that the UK disagreed with the decision and believed it to be unhelpful in terms of prospects for peace in the region," a No 10 spokesperson said.

She added that the status of Jerusalem should be determined in a negotiated settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and that Jerusalem should ultimately form a shared capital between the Israeli and Palestinian states.

Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Show all 22 1 /22 Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Supporters of Difa-e-Pakistan Council a coalition of right wing Islamic parties, burn an effigy of US President Donald Trump, during a protest in Quetta, Pakistan EPA Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Israeli police scuffle with a Palestinian protester outside Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City Getty Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protesters burn pictures of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu following Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in Gaza City AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Israeli forces disperse Palestinian protesters outside Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City on 7 December 2017 AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Supporters of the Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC), an Islamic organization, chant slogans as they burn Israeli and US flags during a protest against Donald Trump in Peshawar REUTERS Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinians paint an 'X' over the face of a picture of US president Donald J. Trump which was painted on the Israeli separation wall in Bethlehem EPA Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protestors burn the Israeli flag and a poster of US President Donald Trump in Gaza City AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Supporters of a Pakistani religious party rally against Donald Trump in Lahore AP Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protesters burn the US and Israeli flags in Gaza City AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital A poster depicting U.S. President Donald Trump is burnt during a protest against Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in the West Bank city of Ramallah REUTERS Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Israeli forces detain a Palestinian protester during clashes that followed protests against US President Donald Trump recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in Hebron AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protesters burn an effigy of U.S. President Donald Trump AP Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protesters shout slogans against Donald Trump EPA Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital A Palestinian protester wears a Guy Fawkes mask used by the anonymous movement during clashes with Israeli troops in Hebron AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian demonstrators clash with Isralei troops during protests AFP/Getty Images Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Supporters of a Pakistani religious party chant anti-American slogans during a rally in Islamabad, Pakistan AP Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Pakistanis burn a representation of the U.S. flag during a protest rally in Hyderabad AP Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Young Palestinian women look on as smoke billows from burning tyres as fellow Palestinian demonstrators clash with Isralei troops AFP/Getty Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Protesters burn a picture of U.S. President Donald Trump at a protest in Islamabad REUTERS Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Protestors shouts slogans against US President Donald Trump as they hold Palestinian and Turkish flags during a protest near the US Embassy in Ankara, Turkey EPA Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Palestinian protestors put their feet over a picture of US president Donald Trump during a protest in the West Bank City of Nablus EPA Protests erupt after Trump recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital Pakistani protesters burn tires at an anti-Donald Trump rally in Multan AP

The Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour, said said he hopes for "overwhelming support" at Thursday's general assembly vote.

Israel considers Jerusalem its indivisible capital and wants all embassies based there, while Palestinians want the capital of an independent Palestinian state to be in the city's eastern sector, which Israel annexed in a 1967 war.
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 US government has lifted a three-year ban on funding the development of three deadly viruses.

Lifting the ban will help scientists "develop strategies and effective countermeasures against rapidly evolving pathogens that pose a threat to public health, National Institutes of Healths Director Francis Collins said during the announcement.

Development of three viruses - influenza, severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), and Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers) - will begin shortly.

Between 2002 and 2003, nearly 800 people died around the world after an outbreak of Sars in China. However, no cases of the virus have been reported since 2004. Approximately 440 people died from Mers - also known as camel flu - between 2012 and 2015, according to the World Health Organisation.

Mr Collins said that a scientific review panels approval will be required before any centre or group can begin work on them, however.

NIH has not yet responded to a request for information on the makeup of the panel and what metric will be used to determine whether research is ethical," a requirement per Mr Collins' statement.

"We have a responsibility to ensure that research with infectious agents is conducted responsibly and that we consider the potential biosafety and biosecurity risks associated with such research," Mr Collins said in a statement.

 Singapore: Zika virus infections jump to 189

The previous Obama administration had halted the development of the diseases in 2014 primarily out of safety concerns and in order to develop a new Federal policy regarding the funding of this research, according to an NIH statement from that time.

The agency stated that though the research helped define the fundamental nature of human-pathogen interactions...and inform public health and preparedness efforts, it also posed biosafety and biosecurity risks, which need to be understood better.

The Zika virus - in pictures Show all 5 1 /5 The Zika virus - in pictures The Zika virus - in pictures A three-month-old, who has microcephaly, in Recife, Brazil. A rise in microcephaly cases is thought to have been caused by the spread of the Zika virus in affected countries Getty Images The Zika virus - in pictures A mother holds her baby who has microcephaly Getty Images The Zika virus - in pictures A five-month-old baby, who has microcephaly, in Recife, Brazil Getty Images The Zika virus - in pictures A pediatric infectologist examines a two-month-old baby, who has microcephaly, in Recife, Brazil Getty Images The Zika virus - in pictures A baby affected with microcephaly

As CNN reported, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention accidentally exposed dozens of workers to anthrax in 2014 and vials of the deadly smallpox virus were found in a cardboard box in an unsecured refrigerator at NIH as well.

The review panel will determine if the facility or institution wanting funding for the research has the "capacity and commitment to conduct [the research] safely and securely, and have the ability to respond rapidly" in case of an emergency.

Critics have suggested that development of the pathogens is too risky given the past breaches of safety protocol, which supercede any potential benefits to public health.

But, several scientists have suggested lifting the ban will be good for the research community.

Samuel Stanley, president of Stony Brook University and chair of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, told NPR that there has been increased scrutiny of laboratories working in this area, which can lead to an even more robust culture of safety. But I also fear that the moratorium may have delayed vital research.

"I believe nature is the ultimate bioterrorist and we need to do all we can to stay one step ahead, Mr Stanley said.
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 }}

Democrats look to have flipped a Republican seat in the Virginia state legislature by just one vote, creating a rare 50-50 tie between the parties.

The dramatic, razor-close recount of election ballots in the 94th District of the Virginia House of Delegates resulted in Shelly Simonds edging out David Yancey, with a panel of judges needing to confirm the result on Wednesday. .

Mr Yancey went into the recount - supervised by local elected officials - leading by just ten votes.

Recommended Virginia Governor says election is rejection of Trump

After five hours of meticulously re-counting the Newport News, Virginia ballots, the final tally: Ms Simonds had 11,608 to Mr Yanceys 11,607 votes.

In a statement, the Virginia Republican party conceded it lost its majority in the House of Delegates.

After a close recount it appears the citizens of the 94th District have elected Shelly Simonds to the Virginia House of Delegates, pending confirmation by a three judge panel, the statement read. We congratulate Delegate-elect Simonds and welcome her to this historic body. We also thank Delegate David Yancey for his distinguished service.

I knew it was going to be a roller coaster ride and the counts were going to change and votes were going to shift around. but I had faith in the system and final outcome, Ms Simonds told the Washington Post, adding that she had stayed off of Twitter to avoid being even more nervous.

This is part of a huge wave election in Virginia where voters came out in record numbers to force a change in Virginia, and Im really proud to be part of that change and part of that wave election, she said.

The count has to be verified by a panel of three judges in the county.

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

If the panel upholds the recount, it would result in the seats in the House of Delegates beting split equally between the parties.

This could prove problematic for legislation in the commonwealth since there are no tie-breaking procedures in the legislative body.

Any bill that results in a strictly party-line vote, dies at that point. The process is meant to encourage more bipartisan legislation.

It ties the hands of Republicans who, despite a 21-19 majority in the state Senate, also face Democratic Governor-elect Ralph Northam, who will have veto power.

Mr Yancey is still allowed to contest the recount, but it is likely he will not challenge the result.
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 threatened to withhold billions of dollars in aid from those nations which criticise his controversial decision to unilaterally recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

In a raising of the stakes over the USs move to recognise Jerusalem and shift its embassy there - something long requested by Israel and their conservative supporters in the US - Mr Trump said he could penalise those countries that voted against the move at the UN.

Previously, the USs UN Ambassador Niki Haley had warned the US would would be taking names of any countries who supported a resolution criticising Washingtons actions. A vote is scheduled to take place on Thursday after the US on Monday vetoed a vote by the UN Security Council that would have demanded Mr Trump reverse his decision.

The Associated Press said Mr Haley had written to most of the 193 UN members states warning of possible retaliation. She said the President was taking the matter personally.

Speaking to members of his cabinet on Wednesday, Mr Trump said he liked what Ms Haley had spelled out. For all these nations, they take our money and then vote against us. They take hundreds of millions of dollars, even billions of dollars and then they vote against us, Mr Trump said.

 US vetos UN security council vote on condemning Trump's Jerusalem decision

Were watching those votes. Let them vote against us. Well save a lot. We don't care.

Earlier this month, Mr Trump declared he was recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv, a decision that other countries had for decades declined to take as the final status of the city was always considered central to part of any peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Today we finally acknowledge the obvious: that Jerusalem is Israels capital, he said when he made the announcement. This is nothing more or less than a recognition of reality. It is also the right thing to do. Its something that has to be done.

His decision sparked widespread criticism and many questioned whether the US could have any meaningful role in trying to establish a Middle East peace deal, something Mr Trump has vowed to pursue.

 Sarah Huckabee Sanders: Jerusalem decision not a sign that US is pulling out of peace process

The Palestinians had sought the General Assembly vote after the US used its veto on Monday. The UK had supported the censure and will likely do so again in the General Assembly.

Unlike votes taken by the Security Council, assembly resolutions are not legally binding although they do reflect world opinion.

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 letter sent by Ms Haley, she said: The US is simply asking that you acknowledge the historical friendship, partnership, and support we have extended and respect our decision about our own embassy.

She added: The President will be watching this vote carefully and has requested I report back on those countries who voted against us. We will take note of each and every vote on this issue.

On Twitter, she had written: At the UN we're always asked to do more & give more. So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl, abt where to locate OUR embassy, we dont expect those weve helped to target us. On Thurs therell be a vote criticising our choice. The US will be taking names.

The resolution was co-sponsored by Turkey, chair of the summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and Yemen, chair of the Arab Group at the UN

The resolution that will be put to a vote is very similar to the defeated Security Council resolution.

It reaffirms 10 Security Council resolutions on Jerusalem, dating back to 1967, including requirements that the city's final status must be decided in direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

It says: Any decisions and actions which purport to have altered, the character, status or demographic composition of the holy city of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded.
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 }}

US President Donald Trump has claimed his party "essentially repealed Obamacare" by passing a tax bill that rescinds a key component of his predecessor's health care legislation.

The Republican tax bill repeals the health insurance mandate that forms the core of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Mr Trump claimed the repeal would cripple Obamacare  something he and his party have long promised to do.

When the individual mandate is being repealed that means Obamacare is being repealed," Mr Trump told reporters at a Cabinet meeting. "...We have essentially repealed Obamacare and we will come up with something much better.

The individual mandate requires all Americans to have health care coverage, or pay a penalty fee. The mandate encourages healthy people to buy insurance, which helps to keep premiums lower.

Without the individual mandate, the number of uninsured Americans would increase by 4m in 2019 and 13m in 2027, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Premiums are also expected to increase by about 10 per cent.

The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Show all 9 1 /9 The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the media White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer takes questions during the daily press briefing Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Union leaders applaud US President Donald Trump for signing an executive order withdrawing the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations during a meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington DC. Mr Trump issued a presidential memorandum in January announcing that the US would withdraw from the trade deal Getty The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Mexico wall A US Border Patrol vehicle sits waiting for illegal immigrants at a fence opening near the US-Mexico border near McAllen, Texas. The number of incoming immigrants has surged ahead of the upcoming Presidential inauguration of Donald Trump, who has pledged to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. A signature campaign promise, Mr Trump outlined his intention to build a border wall on the US-Mexico border days after taking office Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and abortion US President Donald Trump signs an executive order as Chief of Staff Reince Priebus looks on in the Oval Office of the White House. Mr Trump reinstated a ban on American financial aide being granted to non-governmental organizations that provide abortion counseling, provide abortion referrals, or advocate for abortion access outside of the United States Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the Dakota Access pipeline Opponents of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines hold a rally as they protest US President Donald Trump's executive orders advancing their construction, at Columbus Circle in New York. US President Donald Trump signed executive orders reviving the construction of two controversial oil pipelines, but said the projects would be subject to renegotiation Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and 'Obamacare' Nancy Pelosi who is the minority leader of the House of Representatives speaks beside House Democrats at an event to protect the Affordable Care Act in Los Angeles, California. US President Donald Trump's effort to make good on his campaign promise to repeal and replace the healthcare law failed when Republicans failed to get enough votes. Mr Trump has promised to revisit the matter Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Donald Trump and 'sanctuary cities' US President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January threatening to pull funding for so-called "sanctuary cities" if they do not comply with federal immigration law AP The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and the travel ban US President Donald Trump has attempted twice to restrict travel into the United States from several predominantly Muslim countries. The first attempt, in February, was met with swift opposition from protesters who flocked to airports around the country. That travel ban was later blocked by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The second ban was blocked by a federal judge a day before it was scheduled to be implemented in mid-March SANDY HUFFAKER/AFP/Getty Images The controversial orders Donald Trump has already issued Trump and climate change US President Donald Trump sought to dismantle several of his predecessor's actions on climate change in March. His order instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to reevaluate the Clean Power Plan, which would cap power plant emissions Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

The Republican tax bill repealing the mandate passed both the House and Senate earlier this week. It returned to a final vote in the House on Wednesday, after the Senate made several minor, last-minute adjustments. The bill now goes to Mr Trump to be signed.

The bill's passage is expected to be the first major legislative achievement of the Trump administration. It will also be a welcome win for Republicans in Congress, who tried and failed to repeal Obamacare several times this summer.

Mr Trump, however, claimed he did not play up the mandate repeal until now, for fear that it would be misrepresented by the media.

Now that its approved, I can say that," he said on Wednesday.

 "Kill the bill, don't kill us": Protestors shout over Senate passage of tax bill

The Republican tax bill does not fully repeal Obamacare. The Obama-era Medicaid expansion will stay in place, as will protections for women, people with pre-existing conditions, and other vulnerable populations.

Americans will also still be able to buy health insurance through the ACA exchanges  though approximately 4.5m fewer people did so this year than last. This year's exchanges offered fewer options and higher premiums than in the past, and the Trump administration slashed the amount of time Americans had to enroll.

In a statement celebrating the passage of the tax bill, Mr Trump lauded the "great spirit of optimism sweeping across our land".

"Americans can once again rest assured that our brightest days are still to come," he said.
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 }}

North Korea said it will take revenge on the US for saying Pyongyang is developing biological weapons.

North Korea said via its state media Korean Central News Agency that: as a state party to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), [it] maintains its consistent stand to oppose development, manufacture, stockpiling and possession of biological weapons."

"The more the US clings to the anti-[North Korea] stifling move...the more hardened the determination of our entire military personnel and people to take revenge will be, said the KCNA.

KCNA called the US claims "groundless" and said it was just an excuse for harsher sanctions after President Donald Trump labelled North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism.

The Trump administration made the assertion that the isolated Asian country was developing a missile capable of carrying the biological weapons as well in its National Security Strategy document.

The 55-page document focused on Mr Trump's "America First" approach to security and stated: "North Koreaa country that starves its own peoplehas spent hundreds of millions of dollars on nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons that could threaten our homeland."

The administration also wrote that: "North Korea is also pursuing chemical and biological weapons which could also be delivered by missile."

 North Korea TV shows video of ballistic missile launch

According to a 2016 report by the Korea Institute for Defence Analyses, North Korea has 13 types of pathogens that can be weaponised such as anthrax and clostridium botulinum.

The US claims and subsequent North Korean denial come at a time when South Korean officials proposed a delay in military drills with the US in order to ensure a peaceful 2018 Winter Olympics, not ease tensions with North Korea and China.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in is seeking to soothe relations with Pyongyang and with China, the North's lone major ally, before the Olympics begin in South Korea in February.

China, which hosted years of on-again-off-again talks to try to end the North Korea standoff, resumed some blocks on group tours to South Korea and rebuked Seoul for firing warning shots at Chinese fishing boats.

Kim Jong-un inspects weapon North Korea says is powerful hydrogen bomb Show all 6 1 /6 Kim Jong-un inspects weapon North Korea says is powerful hydrogen bomb Kim Jong-un inspects weapon North Korea says is powerful hydrogen bomb Photos released by North Korea show Kim Jong-un talking to subordinates next to a device thought to be the new thermonuclear weapon. There is no way of independently verifying the pictures STR/AFP/Getty Images Kim Jong-un inspects weapon North Korea says is powerful hydrogen bomb North Korea claims it has successfully tested an advanced hydrogen bomb which could be loaded onto an intercontinental ballistic missile AFP/Getty Kim Jong-un inspects weapon North Korea says is powerful hydrogen bomb A diagram on the wall behind Mr Kim shows a bomb mounted inside a cone STR/AFP/Getty Images Kim Jong-un inspects weapon North Korea says is powerful hydrogen bomb North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) attending a photo session with participants of the fourth conference of active secretaries of primary organisations of the youth league of the Korean People's Army (KPA) in Pyongyang STR/AFP/Getty Images Kim Jong-un inspects weapon North Korea says is powerful hydrogen bomb A new stamp issued in commemoration of the successful second test launch of the "Hwasong-14" intercontinental ballistic missile KCNA via Reuters Kim Jong-un inspects weapon North Korea says is powerful hydrogen bomb A new stamp issued in commemoration of the successful second test launch of the "Hwasong-14" intercontinental ballistic missile KCNA via Reuters

A spokesperson for South Korean President Moon Jae-in said the proposed delay was "confined to our efforts to host a peaceful Olympics. We are only talking about the exercises which are supposed to take place during the Olympics and Paralympics."

Mr Moon had travelled to China to discuss the proposal last week, after it had been presented to the US.

North Korea sees the regular joint exercises as preparation for war.

China has maintained that the deployment of a US anti-missile system known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (Thaad) near Seoul is a threat to it because South Korea could use the powerful radar to see deep inside China's territory.

The South argues it needs Thaad to guard against the threat posed by North Korea.

China and Russia have proposed a "freeze for freeze" arrangement under which North Korea would stop its nuclear and missile tests in exchange for a halt to the exercises.

However, South Korea has denied that the proposed delay had anything to do with the "freeze" idea.
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 }}

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has engaged in a Twitter spat with a member of Congress, whom she told to spend less time tweeting and more time doing his job.

Representative Ted Lieu launched the first attack on Ms Sanders on Twitter, quoting a now-deleted tweet from the Hill that inaccurately quoted Ms Sanders as having said that Republicans begged Democrats to work with them.

Dear @PressSec: You dont serve in Congress. I do. And I can say with absolute certainty that you are lying, Mr Lieu wrote on Twitter.

Recommended Sany Hook mother slams Trump for anniversary of the massacre

Ms Sanders responded in kind.

Dear @tedlieu  I dont serve in Congress, but I can read. If you had read the story, not an incorrect tweet, you would see that what I said was Dems should be begging to help Americans keep more of their money. You should spend less time tweeting, more time doing your job.

But Mr Lieu wasnt finished, even if he hadnt read through to the story to see what the subject of his scorn had actually said.

Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Show all 30 1 /30 Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Threatening to shut down Twitter after being fact-checked After the president tweeted that voting by post would be "substantially fraudulent", Twitter attached a warning label to his tweet and referred readers to a site which explained how the claim was "unsubstantiated". Trump then said Twitter was "stifling free speech" and that he may have to shut it down, something which he would not have the power to do AFP/Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Flippantly dismissing a serious allegation of sexual assault When author E Jean Carroll accused Trump of raping her, the president responded: Number one, shes not my type. Number two, it never happened. It never happened, OK?" AFP/Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Insulting the Mayor of London as he landed in London Just before touching down at Stansted Airport for his state visit, Trump took time out to @ the London mayor Sadiq Khan on twitter. He said that Khan has done a "terrible job"as mayor and that he is a "stone cold loser" Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Taking plenty of "Executive Time" The president's official schedule sets aside the hours from 8 to 11am daily for "Executive Time". Further intermittent periods of "Executive Time" are scheduled throughout any given day, ranging from 15 minutes to 3 hours. His duties in these hours have not been officially disclosed, though Axios reports that he spends them watching TV, reading the newspapers and tweeting Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Shutdown the government for over a month in an effort to secure funding for his wall With Mexico declining to pay for the wall, the president has faced difficulty in raising the required $5bn at home. Due to his demand that the money for the wall be included in the budget, and Congress's refusal, the government partially shut down on 22 December 2018. It remained shut for over a month, the longest period in history Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Joking about the Nazi occupation of France to President Macron In this tweet from 13 November 2018, the president mocks Emmanuel Macron's suggestion of a "true, European army" by invoking the conflict between France and Germany in the world wars Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Railing against the Mueller investigation The president has repeatedly claimed that the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, is a "rigged witch hunt" Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Contradicting a US intelligence report on Russian meddling in the presence of Vladimir Putin In the press conference that followed his landmark meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin, Trump stated that he saw no reason why Russia would have meddled in the 2016 US election. This contradicted a 2017 report by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence that found evidence of Russian interference in favour of Trump Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Contradicting his contradiction of a US intelligence report on Russian meddling Following furious backlash in the US, the president claimed that he meant to say that he saw no reason why it would not have been Russia who meddled in the 2016 US election. As to why he would have intended to use such bizarre phrasing, he did not comment Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Colouring in the US flag wrong The president coloured in the US flag wrongly during a visit to a children's hospital in Columbus, Ohio. He added a blue stripe where in tradition, and statute, there have been only white and red stripes AFP/Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Firing a Secretary of State over Twitter The president announced on Twitter that he was appointing Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State, much to the surprise of then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Quoting a catchphrase from a reality TV show when discussing police brutality While addressing the issue of black athletes not standing for the national anthem in protest of police brutality, the president made reference to his catchphrase from reality TV show "The Apprentice": you're fired! Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Calling African nations "S***hole Countries" Ever one for diplomacy, the president reportedly referred to African nations as "s***hole countries". Asked to confirm this when meeting with Nigeria's President Buhari, Trump stated that there are "some countries that are in very bad shape". Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Defending Russian President Vladimir Putin Trump appeared to equate US foreign actions to those of Russian president Vladimir Putin, saying: There are a lot of killers. You think our countrys so innocent? Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Asking for people to 'pray' for Arnold Schwarzenegger At the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump couldnt help but to ask for prayers for the ratings on Arnold Schwarzeneggers show to be good. Schwarzenegger took over as host of The Apprentice  which buoyed Trumps celebrity status years ago Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Hanging up on Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull Early in his presidency, Trump reportedly hung up the phone on Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull after the foreign leader angered him over refugee plans. Mr Trump later said that it was the worst call he had had so far Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... The 'Muslim ban' Perhaps one of his most controversial policies while acting as president, Trumps travel ban targeting predominantly Muslim countries has bought him a lot of criticism. The bans were immediately protested, and judges initially blocked their implementation. The Supreme Court later sided with the administrations argument that the ban was developed out of concern for US security Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Praising crowd size while touring Hurricane Harvey damage After Hurricane Harvey ravaged southeastern Texas, Trump paid the area a visit. While his response to the disaster in Houston was generally applauded, the president picked up some flack when he gave a speech outside Houston (he reportedly did not visit disaster zones), and praised the size of the crowds there AP Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... 'Little Rocket Man' During his first-ever speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Trump tried out a new nickname for North Korea leader Kim Jong-un: Rocket Man. He later tweaked it to be little Rocket Man as the two feuded, and threatened each other with nuclear war. During that speech, he also threatened to totally annihilate North Korea Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Attacking Sadiq Khan following London Bridge terror attack After the attack on the London Bridge, Trump lashed out at London Mayor Sadiq Khan, criticising Khan for saying there was no reason to be alarmed after the attack. Trump was taking the comments out of context, as Khan was simply saying that the police had everything under control Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Claiming presenter Mika Brezinkski was 'bleeding from the face' Never one not to mock his enemies, Trump mocked MSNBCs Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski, saying that she and co-host Joe Scarborough had approached him before his inauguration asking to join him. He noted that she was bleeding badly from a face-lift at the time, and that he said no MSNBC Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Claiming the blame for Charlottesville was on 'both sides' Trump refused to condemn far-right extremists involved in violence at 'the march for the right' protests in Charlottesville, even after the murder of counter protester Heather Heyer AP Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Retweeting cartoon of CNN being hit by a 'Trump train' Trump retweeted a cartoon showing a Trump-branded train running over a person whose body and head were replaced by a CNN avatar. He later deleted the retweet Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Tweeting about 'slamming' CNN Trump caught some flack when he tweeted a video showing him wrestling down an individual whose head had been replaced by a CNN avatar. Trump has singled CNN out in particular with his chants of fake news Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Firing head of the FBI, James Comey Trumps firing of former FBI Director James Comey landed him with a federal investigation into Russias meddling in the 2016 election that has caused many a headache for the White House. The White House initially said that the decision was made after consultation from the Justice Department. Then Mr Trump himself said that he had decided to fire him in part because he wanted the Russia investigation Mr Comey was conducting to stop Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Not realising being president would be 'hard' Just three months into his presidency, Trump admitted that being president is harder than he thought it would be. Though Trump insisted on the 2016 campaign trail that doing the job would be easy for him, he admitted in an interview that living in the White House is harder than running a business empire Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Accusing Obama of wiretapping him Trump accused former president Barack Obama of wire tapping him on twitter. The Justice Department later clarified: Obama had not, in fact, done so Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Claiming there had been 3 million 'illegal votes' Trump was never very happy about losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 2.8 million ballots. So, he and White House voter-fraud commissioner Kris Kobach have claimed that anywhere between three and five million people voted illegally during the 2016 election. Conveniently, he says that all of those illegal votes went to Clinton. (There is no evidence to support that level of widespread voter fraud.) Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Leaving Jews out of the Holocaust memorial statement Just days after taking office, Trumps White House issued a statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, but didnt mention jews or even the word jewish in the written statement Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Anger over Inauguration crowd size Trumps inauguration crowd was visibly, and noticeably, smaller than that of his predecessor, Barack Obama. But, he really wanted to have had the largest crowd on record. So, he praised it as the biggest crowd ever. Relatedly, Trump also claimed that it stopped raining in Washington at the moment he was inaugurated. It didnt, the day was very dreary Reuters

 Sarah Sanders evades question of whether Donald Trump believes in UFOs

Dear @PressSec: If the Hill tweet was incorrect, then my tweet based on it would also be incorrect, he wrote. Unlike the Trump Administration, I am confident enough to admit errors. Also, I dare you to give the same tweeting advice you gave me to your boss.

Ms Sanders boss, President Donald Trump, is well known for his own love of tweeting, and has even indicated that messages written on the account are the official word of the President. And, similar to Mr Lieus situation, the President has retweeted questionable content before.

For instance, the President retweeted a bot that was later suspended by the platform earlier this year. That profile, which billed itself as a black pro-Trump supporter, but an investigation later learned that the profile picture was a stock image.
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 }}

Senate Republicans have passed the biggest overhaul of the US tax system in almost 30 years, sparking widespread condemnation from Democrats who say the new law will benefit the rich at the expense of the middle class.

After a year filled with Republican infighting and political turbulence, Congress is now on the cusp of handing President Donald Trump his first major legislative victory with its passage of the sweeping $1.5 trillion tax bill.

Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat House minority leader, called it the worst bill in history at a press conference on Tuesday night. Its a disgusting smash-and-grab. Its an all-out looting of America, a wholesale robbery of the middle class, she said.

Both the Senate  with a vote of 51-48 along party lines  and the House of Representatives approved the measure to enact large tax cuts in two separate votes.

But hours after the House had voted 227-203 to pass the final tax bill, Senate Democrats announced that the legislation contained multiple provisions that violate Senate rules. This means the House must pass the bill again on Wednesday with those measures withdrawn, before the final text can head to the Presidents desk to be signed into law.

A visibly angry Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, told Republicans they would rue the day they passed the bill during remarks on the Senate floor.

This tax bill will be an anchor around the ankles of every Republican. If they havent learned it yet, they will learn it next November, he said.

Mr Schumer also condemned Republicans for talking during his speech. This is serious stuff. We believe youre messing up America. You could pay attention for a couple of minutes, he said.

Mr Trump took to Twitter to praise House Republicans for their initial vote in favour of the tax bill. Congratulations to Paul Ryan, Kevin McCarthy, Kevin Brady, Steve Scalise, Cathy McMorris Rodgers and all great House Republicans who voted in favor of cutting your taxes! he wrote.

The President also confirmed he would hold a press conference at 1pm in the White House after the final vote in the House has taken place.

Both chambers must pass identical bills before the President can sign the legislation into law. However, the second House vote will be seen as little more than a formality before Republicans  and Mr Trump  can celebrate their success.

Republicans and the administration have marketed the bill as a gift for the middle class and have asserted that the package of tax cuts for corporations, small businesses and individuals will boost economic and job growth.

In an interview with Fox News programme Fox & Friends, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said middle-class Americans would see the biggest benefit out of this tax package  even though multiple analyses show the plan will disproportionately benefit the wealthiest Americans.

The plan is seemingly unpopular with the public  with one recent CNN poll suggesting 55 per cent of the public now oppose it  and Democrats have repeatedly called it a windfall for corporations and the wealthy.

Protesters chanting Kill the bill, dont kill us interrupted the Senate vote on passage of the tax bill. Visitors in the Senate gallery stood up shortly after the vote began and started chanting. Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding, stopped and repeatedly called on the Sergeant at Arms to restore order in the gallery.

 Paul Ryan argues for passing "monumental" tax reform in Congress

The vote took place with a heavy US Capitol Police presence outside the chamber in expectation of the protests and demonstrators had interrupted the House debate on the bill earlier in the day.

About a quarter of the tax cuts for individuals included in the tax bill would go to middle-class Americans, according to an analysis by the Joint Committee on Taxation.

The committee found that middle-class taxpayers would get about $61bn in tax cuts in 2019 under the bill. However, those same individuals would see their taxes rise overall after a decade, according to the report.

Republicans have asserted that the legislation is needed to maintain their majorities in both the House and Senate during next years mid-term elections.

When we get this done, when people see their withholding improving, when they see jobs occurring, when they see bigger paychecks, a fairer tax system, a simpler tax code, thats whats going to produce the results, said House Speaker Paul Ryan, who has worked for years on a tax overhaul.

Democrat Senator Jeff Merkley slammed the Republican tax plan as a bank heist.

This is the biggest bank heist, not just in American history, but in the history of the world happening here tonight brought to us by the powerful and the privilege and this is absolutely unacceptable, the Oregon senator said on the Senate floor.

Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Show all 30 1 /30 Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Threatening to shut down Twitter after being fact-checked After the president tweeted that voting by post would be "substantially fraudulent", Twitter attached a warning label to his tweet and referred readers to a site which explained how the claim was "unsubstantiated". Trump then said Twitter was "stifling free speech" and that he may have to shut it down, something which he would not have the power to do AFP/Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Flippantly dismissing a serious allegation of sexual assault When author E Jean Carroll accused Trump of raping her, the president responded: Number one, shes not my type. Number two, it never happened. It never happened, OK?" AFP/Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Insulting the Mayor of London as he landed in London Just before touching down at Stansted Airport for his state visit, Trump took time out to @ the London mayor Sadiq Khan on twitter. He said that Khan has done a "terrible job"as mayor and that he is a "stone cold loser" Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Taking plenty of "Executive Time" The president's official schedule sets aside the hours from 8 to 11am daily for "Executive Time". Further intermittent periods of "Executive Time" are scheduled throughout any given day, ranging from 15 minutes to 3 hours. His duties in these hours have not been officially disclosed, though Axios reports that he spends them watching TV, reading the newspapers and tweeting Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Shutdown the government for over a month in an effort to secure funding for his wall With Mexico declining to pay for the wall, the president has faced difficulty in raising the required $5bn at home. Due to his demand that the money for the wall be included in the budget, and Congress's refusal, the government partially shut down on 22 December 2018. It remained shut for over a month, the longest period in history Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Joking about the Nazi occupation of France to President Macron In this tweet from 13 November 2018, the president mocks Emmanuel Macron's suggestion of a "true, European army" by invoking the conflict between France and Germany in the world wars Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Railing against the Mueller investigation The president has repeatedly claimed that the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, is a "rigged witch hunt" Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Contradicting a US intelligence report on Russian meddling in the presence of Vladimir Putin In the press conference that followed his landmark meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin, Trump stated that he saw no reason why Russia would have meddled in the 2016 US election. This contradicted a 2017 report by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence that found evidence of Russian interference in favour of Trump Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Contradicting his contradiction of a US intelligence report on Russian meddling Following furious backlash in the US, the president claimed that he meant to say that he saw no reason why it would not have been Russia who meddled in the 2016 US election. As to why he would have intended to use such bizarre phrasing, he did not comment Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Colouring in the US flag wrong The president coloured in the US flag wrongly during a visit to a children's hospital in Columbus, Ohio. He added a blue stripe where in tradition, and statute, there have been only white and red stripes AFP/Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Firing a Secretary of State over Twitter The president announced on Twitter that he was appointing Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State, much to the surprise of then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Quoting a catchphrase from a reality TV show when discussing police brutality While addressing the issue of black athletes not standing for the national anthem in protest of police brutality, the president made reference to his catchphrase from reality TV show "The Apprentice": you're fired! Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Calling African nations "S***hole Countries" Ever one for diplomacy, the president reportedly referred to African nations as "s***hole countries". Asked to confirm this when meeting with Nigeria's President Buhari, Trump stated that there are "some countries that are in very bad shape". Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Defending Russian President Vladimir Putin Trump appeared to equate US foreign actions to those of Russian president Vladimir Putin, saying: There are a lot of killers. You think our countrys so innocent? Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Asking for people to 'pray' for Arnold Schwarzenegger At the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump couldnt help but to ask for prayers for the ratings on Arnold Schwarzeneggers show to be good. Schwarzenegger took over as host of The Apprentice  which buoyed Trumps celebrity status years ago Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Hanging up on Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull Early in his presidency, Trump reportedly hung up the phone on Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull after the foreign leader angered him over refugee plans. Mr Trump later said that it was the worst call he had had so far Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... The 'Muslim ban' Perhaps one of his most controversial policies while acting as president, Trumps travel ban targeting predominantly Muslim countries has bought him a lot of criticism. The bans were immediately protested, and judges initially blocked their implementation. The Supreme Court later sided with the administrations argument that the ban was developed out of concern for US security Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Praising crowd size while touring Hurricane Harvey damage After Hurricane Harvey ravaged southeastern Texas, Trump paid the area a visit. While his response to the disaster in Houston was generally applauded, the president picked up some flack when he gave a speech outside Houston (he reportedly did not visit disaster zones), and praised the size of the crowds there AP Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... 'Little Rocket Man' During his first-ever speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Trump tried out a new nickname for North Korea leader Kim Jong-un: Rocket Man. He later tweaked it to be little Rocket Man as the two feuded, and threatened each other with nuclear war. During that speech, he also threatened to totally annihilate North Korea Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Attacking Sadiq Khan following London Bridge terror attack After the attack on the London Bridge, Trump lashed out at London Mayor Sadiq Khan, criticising Khan for saying there was no reason to be alarmed after the attack. Trump was taking the comments out of context, as Khan was simply saying that the police had everything under control Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Claiming presenter Mika Brezinkski was 'bleeding from the face' Never one not to mock his enemies, Trump mocked MSNBCs Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski, saying that she and co-host Joe Scarborough had approached him before his inauguration asking to join him. He noted that she was bleeding badly from a face-lift at the time, and that he said no MSNBC Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Claiming the blame for Charlottesville was on 'both sides' Trump refused to condemn far-right extremists involved in violence at 'the march for the right' protests in Charlottesville, even after the murder of counter protester Heather Heyer AP Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Retweeting cartoon of CNN being hit by a 'Trump train' Trump retweeted a cartoon showing a Trump-branded train running over a person whose body and head were replaced by a CNN avatar. He later deleted the retweet Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Tweeting about 'slamming' CNN Trump caught some flack when he tweeted a video showing him wrestling down an individual whose head had been replaced by a CNN avatar. Trump has singled CNN out in particular with his chants of fake news Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Firing head of the FBI, James Comey Trumps firing of former FBI Director James Comey landed him with a federal investigation into Russias meddling in the 2016 election that has caused many a headache for the White House. The White House initially said that the decision was made after consultation from the Justice Department. Then Mr Trump himself said that he had decided to fire him in part because he wanted the Russia investigation Mr Comey was conducting to stop Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Not realising being president would be 'hard' Just three months into his presidency, Trump admitted that being president is harder than he thought it would be. Though Trump insisted on the 2016 campaign trail that doing the job would be easy for him, he admitted in an interview that living in the White House is harder than running a business empire Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Accusing Obama of wiretapping him Trump accused former president Barack Obama of wire tapping him on twitter. The Justice Department later clarified: Obama had not, in fact, done so Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Claiming there had been 3 million 'illegal votes' Trump was never very happy about losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 2.8 million ballots. So, he and White House voter-fraud commissioner Kris Kobach have claimed that anywhere between three and five million people voted illegally during the 2016 election. Conveniently, he says that all of those illegal votes went to Clinton. (There is no evidence to support that level of widespread voter fraud.) Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Leaving Jews out of the Holocaust memorial statement Just days after taking office, Trumps White House issued a statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, but didnt mention jews or even the word jewish in the written statement Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Anger over Inauguration crowd size Trumps inauguration crowd was visibly, and noticeably, smaller than that of his predecessor, Barack Obama. But, he really wanted to have had the largest crowd on record. So, he praised it as the biggest crowd ever. Relatedly, Trump also claimed that it stopped raining in Washington at the moment he was inaugurated. It didnt, the day was very dreary Reuters

This is a diabolic bill, Mr Merkley said. This is an abomination in a government of, by and for the American people.

Ms Pelosi made clear that her party will have no issue in using the bill during campaigns next year. This bill will come back to haunt them, as Frankenstein did, she said.

Earlier in the day, Senate Republicans had criticised their Democratic colleagues for not participating in their tax rewrite efforts.

Republican House members roared and applauded as their chamber passed the package  before later finding out they will have to take another vote.

After the vote on Tuesday, Mr Ryan declared, This was a promise made. This is a promise kept, as he and other Republican leaders called a victory news conference moments later.

After the second vote in the House, Mr Trump will finally get to sign a major bill into law after nearly a year in office.

The president warmed up for what is likely to become a public victory lap by tweeting his congratulations after the first vote to Republican leaders and all great House Republicans who voted in favour of cutting your taxes!

Congressional Republicans, who faltered badly in trying to dismantle Barack Obamas Affordable Care Act  or Obamacare  see passage of the tax bill as crucial to proving they can govern.

But it is clear the American public may take some convincing. Along with permanently lowering the corporate tax rate from 35 per cent to 21 per cent, the bill also repeals the Obamacare requirement that most individuals have health insurance  a provision that would lead to 13 million fewer people with health insurance over the next decade, according to nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Tax cuts for corporations would be permanent while the cuts for individuals would expire in 2026 in order to comply with Senate budget rules. The tax cuts would take effect in January, and workers would start to see changes in the amount of taxes take out of their monthly salaries in February.
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 animatronics team at Walt Disney Worlds Hall of Presidents has unveiled its robotic version of President Donald Trump, but the public has been quick to point out that it may not be the likeness they were after.

Many had dreaded how the Trump-bot would appear among robotic versions of widely-beloved presidents, such as Abraham Lincoln. But after the animatronic president was unveiled conversation centred on the figure's face.

Disney gave the job of Trump in the Hall of Presidents to Jon Voight and I cant stop laughing, one person wrote on Twitter.

Other people suggested Disneys team had first started creating a Hillary Clinton robot, under the assumption she would win the 2016 election, but had to redo it after Mr Trump won.

The more I see of Disneys Hall of Presidents Trump, the more Im convinced they made a Hillary one first and had to redo it, one person wrote.

Parkgoers who visit the Hall of Presidents are seated in a dark auditorium where they watch a 25-minute presentation performed by the presidential animatronic figures.

Crowds first started visiting the Hall of Presidents at Disney World in 1971, the New York Times reported. Since 1993, the parks research and development group, Walt Disney Imagineering, has worked with the sitting administration to produce close replicas of the current president that also features his own dialogue.

The Liberty Square attraction had been closed since last January as the parks team revamped it to include the 45th President.

The figure of Mr Trump stands next to a seated Abraham Lincoln robot in the centre of the stage. Several of Mr Trumps distinctive features are present: his signature hair, his unbuttoned suit jacket and a tie that dangles extra low.

Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Show all 30 1 /30 Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Threatening to shut down Twitter after being fact-checked After the president tweeted that voting by post would be "substantially fraudulent", Twitter attached a warning label to his tweet and referred readers to a site which explained how the claim was "unsubstantiated". Trump then said Twitter was "stifling free speech" and that he may have to shut it down, something which he would not have the power to do AFP/Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Flippantly dismissing a serious allegation of sexual assault When author E Jean Carroll accused Trump of raping her, the president responded: Number one, shes not my type. Number two, it never happened. It never happened, OK?" AFP/Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Insulting the Mayor of London as he landed in London Just before touching down at Stansted Airport for his state visit, Trump took time out to @ the London mayor Sadiq Khan on twitter. He said that Khan has done a "terrible job"as mayor and that he is a "stone cold loser" Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Taking plenty of "Executive Time" The president's official schedule sets aside the hours from 8 to 11am daily for "Executive Time". Further intermittent periods of "Executive Time" are scheduled throughout any given day, ranging from 15 minutes to 3 hours. His duties in these hours have not been officially disclosed, though Axios reports that he spends them watching TV, reading the newspapers and tweeting Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Shutdown the government for over a month in an effort to secure funding for his wall With Mexico declining to pay for the wall, the president has faced difficulty in raising the required $5bn at home. Due to his demand that the money for the wall be included in the budget, and Congress's refusal, the government partially shut down on 22 December 2018. It remained shut for over a month, the longest period in history Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Joking about the Nazi occupation of France to President Macron In this tweet from 13 November 2018, the president mocks Emmanuel Macron's suggestion of a "true, European army" by invoking the conflict between France and Germany in the world wars Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Railing against the Mueller investigation The president has repeatedly claimed that the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, is a "rigged witch hunt" Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Contradicting a US intelligence report on Russian meddling in the presence of Vladimir Putin In the press conference that followed his landmark meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin, Trump stated that he saw no reason why Russia would have meddled in the 2016 US election. This contradicted a 2017 report by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence that found evidence of Russian interference in favour of Trump Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Contradicting his contradiction of a US intelligence report on Russian meddling Following furious backlash in the US, the president claimed that he meant to say that he saw no reason why it would not have been Russia who meddled in the 2016 US election. As to why he would have intended to use such bizarre phrasing, he did not comment Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Colouring in the US flag wrong The president coloured in the US flag wrongly during a visit to a children's hospital in Columbus, Ohio. He added a blue stripe where in tradition, and statute, there have been only white and red stripes AFP/Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Firing a Secretary of State over Twitter The president announced on Twitter that he was appointing Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State, much to the surprise of then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Quoting a catchphrase from a reality TV show when discussing police brutality While addressing the issue of black athletes not standing for the national anthem in protest of police brutality, the president made reference to his catchphrase from reality TV show "The Apprentice": you're fired! Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Calling African nations "S***hole Countries" Ever one for diplomacy, the president reportedly referred to African nations as "s***hole countries". Asked to confirm this when meeting with Nigeria's President Buhari, Trump stated that there are "some countries that are in very bad shape". Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Defending Russian President Vladimir Putin Trump appeared to equate US foreign actions to those of Russian president Vladimir Putin, saying: There are a lot of killers. You think our countrys so innocent? Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Asking for people to 'pray' for Arnold Schwarzenegger At the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump couldnt help but to ask for prayers for the ratings on Arnold Schwarzeneggers show to be good. Schwarzenegger took over as host of The Apprentice  which buoyed Trumps celebrity status years ago Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Hanging up on Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull Early in his presidency, Trump reportedly hung up the phone on Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull after the foreign leader angered him over refugee plans. Mr Trump later said that it was the worst call he had had so far Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... The 'Muslim ban' Perhaps one of his most controversial policies while acting as president, Trumps travel ban targeting predominantly Muslim countries has bought him a lot of criticism. The bans were immediately protested, and judges initially blocked their implementation. The Supreme Court later sided with the administrations argument that the ban was developed out of concern for US security Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Praising crowd size while touring Hurricane Harvey damage After Hurricane Harvey ravaged southeastern Texas, Trump paid the area a visit. While his response to the disaster in Houston was generally applauded, the president picked up some flack when he gave a speech outside Houston (he reportedly did not visit disaster zones), and praised the size of the crowds there AP Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... 'Little Rocket Man' During his first-ever speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Trump tried out a new nickname for North Korea leader Kim Jong-un: Rocket Man. He later tweaked it to be little Rocket Man as the two feuded, and threatened each other with nuclear war. During that speech, he also threatened to totally annihilate North Korea Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Attacking Sadiq Khan following London Bridge terror attack After the attack on the London Bridge, Trump lashed out at London Mayor Sadiq Khan, criticising Khan for saying there was no reason to be alarmed after the attack. Trump was taking the comments out of context, as Khan was simply saying that the police had everything under control Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Claiming presenter Mika Brezinkski was 'bleeding from the face' Never one not to mock his enemies, Trump mocked MSNBCs Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski, saying that she and co-host Joe Scarborough had approached him before his inauguration asking to join him. He noted that she was bleeding badly from a face-lift at the time, and that he said no MSNBC Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Claiming the blame for Charlottesville was on 'both sides' Trump refused to condemn far-right extremists involved in violence at 'the march for the right' protests in Charlottesville, even after the murder of counter protester Heather Heyer AP Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Retweeting cartoon of CNN being hit by a 'Trump train' Trump retweeted a cartoon showing a Trump-branded train running over a person whose body and head were replaced by a CNN avatar. He later deleted the retweet Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Tweeting about 'slamming' CNN Trump caught some flack when he tweeted a video showing him wrestling down an individual whose head had been replaced by a CNN avatar. Trump has singled CNN out in particular with his chants of fake news Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Firing head of the FBI, James Comey Trumps firing of former FBI Director James Comey landed him with a federal investigation into Russias meddling in the 2016 election that has caused many a headache for the White House. The White House initially said that the decision was made after consultation from the Justice Department. Then Mr Trump himself said that he had decided to fire him in part because he wanted the Russia investigation Mr Comey was conducting to stop Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Not realising being president would be 'hard' Just three months into his presidency, Trump admitted that being president is harder than he thought it would be. Though Trump insisted on the 2016 campaign trail that doing the job would be easy for him, he admitted in an interview that living in the White House is harder than running a business empire Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Accusing Obama of wiretapping him Trump accused former president Barack Obama of wire tapping him on twitter. The Justice Department later clarified: Obama had not, in fact, done so Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Claiming there had been 3 million 'illegal votes' Trump was never very happy about losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 2.8 million ballots. So, he and White House voter-fraud commissioner Kris Kobach have claimed that anywhere between three and five million people voted illegally during the 2016 election. Conveniently, he says that all of those illegal votes went to Clinton. (There is no evidence to support that level of widespread voter fraud.) Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Leaving Jews out of the Holocaust memorial statement Just days after taking office, Trumps White House issued a statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, but didnt mention jews or even the word jewish in the written statement Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Anger over Inauguration crowd size Trumps inauguration crowd was visibly, and noticeably, smaller than that of his predecessor, Barack Obama. But, he really wanted to have had the largest crowd on record. So, he praised it as the biggest crowd ever. Relatedly, Trump also claimed that it stopped raining in Washington at the moment he was inaugurated. It didnt, the day was very dreary Reuters

Above all, to be American is to be an optimist  to believe that we can always do better  and that the best days of our great nation are still ahead of us, the Trump-bot says.

A Change.org petition began circulating six months ago to prevent the animatronic Mr Trump from having a speaking part in the programme.

Donald Trump ran a Presidential campaign on hateful speech, misogyny, racism and xenophobia. In doing so, he has tainted the legacy of the American Presidency forever, the petition stated. The Magic Kingdom at Disney World is a place specifically designed for the enjoyment of children and families. Therefore, it is not an appropriate place for a Donald Trump speech. We ask that Walt Disney World take a stand against divisive and hurtful rhetoric.
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 }}

If Donald Trump moves to fire special counsel Robert Mueller over his federal investigation into potential ties between Trump campaign officials and Russia he would provoke a constitutional crisis, a leading Democrat has warned.

If you were to see a firing, I think you would see a constitutional crisis that would also be a political disaster for the President, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia said in an interview with CNBC. Mr Warner sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is also looking into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible ties to Mr Trump's campaign.

Critics of the President have invoked the risk of a constitutional crisis as Mr Muellers investigation tightens around Mr Trumps inner orbit, warning that a move to fire Mr Mueller would undercut the principle that even presidents are not immune from legal repercussions.

The president said over the weekend he had no intention of firing Mr Mueller. But he has regularly railed against an investigation that he calls a partisan "witch hunt", rejecting any allegations of possible collusion with Russia.

Appointed to lead the federal investigation into Russia after Mr Trump dismissed former FBI director James Comey, Mr Mueller has increasingly become a target for conservative ire.

Some Republicans have called for Mr Mueller to step aside after the Department of Justice released text messages in which an FBI agent who would later work on Mr Muellers investigation disparaged Mr Trump.

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 agent was fired after the communications came to light. While deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has defended the investigations integrity during recent testimony before Congress following pointed questions from Republicans about FBI agents history of donations to political causes they said aligned with Democrats.

We recognize we have employees with political opinions. Its our responsibility to make sure those opinions do not influence their actions, Mr Rosenstein said. I believe that Director Mueller understands that, and he is running his office appropriately.

Before dismissing Mr Comey earlier this year, Mr Trump allegedly asked the then-FBI chief to "let go" the investigation into the president's former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Mr Comey raised the conversation during testimony to Congress, but Mr Trump and the White House have repeatedly denied it took place.

Mr Trump later cited this Russia thing as a reason for Mr Comey's dismissal. Mr Flynn is one of a number former Trump campaign aides to face charges as part of Mr Muellers investigation. Mr Flynn pleaded guilty to one count of lying to the FBI.

 Trump-Russia investigation: who has been charged in the Mueller probe

Noting that precedent, Democrats have worried that Mr Mueller could be next. During his interview, Mr Warner decried cheap shots when some of these Republican colleagues would question Mueller's integrity.

For his part, Mr Rosenstein said he would have to evaluate an order from Mr Trump to jettison Mr Mueller.

If there were good cause, I would act, Mr Rosenstein told Congress. If there were no good cause, I would not.
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 }}

Burma has banned a UN special investigator on human rights from visiting the country, triggering widespread condemnation and raising new concerns about its apparent refusal to address allegations of ethnic cleaning of a Muslim minority.

Yanghee Lee, UN special rapporteur, was scheduled to visit in January and prepare a report on human rights issues across the country, including the alleged torture and killing of Rohingya Muslims. At least 600,000 have in recent months fled or been forced into neighbouring Bangladesh, in what the UN has described as a textbook case of ethnic cleansing. Thousands are said to have been killed.

After the authorities in Naypyidaw announced they would not cooperate with her visit, Ms Lee called on the international community to exert more pressure on the Burmese government, whose de facto civilian leader is Aung Sang Suu Kyi.

From what I see right now Im not sure if they are feeling pressured. Im not sure if there is the right kind of pressure placed on the military commanders and the generals, she told Reuters.

She said she was alarmed that Burma, a Buddhist-majority nation, was being supported so strongly by China, which has a veto at the UN Security Council in New York. Other countries, including the United States, and human groups were advocating targeted sanctions on the military, she said.

It has to work. And Im sure the world has to find a way to make it work. And I think the United Nations and its member states should really try to persuade China to really act towards the protection of human rights, she said.

Burma has been on the receiving end of criticism since August when the Rohingya Muslims started making their way to Bangladesh to avoid what they said was a campaign of rape, murder and terror by the Burmese army. The army said it was responding to attacks by Rohingya militants.

 Pope Francis blesses Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar

The Rohingya have long been discriminated against in the country and this was not the first time they had been forced to flee. Yet their flight was never in such numbers; some reports suggest up to 650,000 may be sheltering in Bangladesh as the governments of the two nations try to broker a deal for some of them to return.

Ms Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate who was freed from almost 20 years of house arrest in November 2010, has rejected international criticism of the attacks on the Rohingya, disappointing activists around the world who for decades had supported her democracy struggle. The overwhelming majority of Burmese do not consider the Rohingya to be citizens and instead claim they are illegal migrants from Bangladesh.

Ms Lee has been unrelenting in her criticism of what is happening in Burma. While it had been transitioning towards democracy, the military retains a number of seats in the parliament and controls several of the most powerful government ministries.

Ms Lee said she believed the decision not to cooperate with her was a strong indication that there must be something terribly awful happening throughout the country.

Ms Lee has been unflinching in her comments about what is taking place in Burma (Getty)

They have said that they have nothing to hide, but their lack of cooperation with my mandate and the fact-finding mission suggests otherwise, she said.

She said she was initially told the Burmese authorities would cooperate with her, only to learn they have changed their decision.

Now I am being told that this decision to no longer cooperate with me is based on the statement I made after I visited the country in July, she said.

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

Speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York earlier this year, she said while many facts remained unclear, what is undeniable is that hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh from northern Rakhine and that hundreds of their villages have been torched and burnt down since the alleged attacks by Rohingya militants on 25 August.

She added: I have found events of past weeks devastating. The reports of villages in northern Rakhine that have been torched and destroyed are of villages that I had personally visited. The people reported to have fled must have included those I have met in my past trips.

Burma is also facing international criticism for its detention of two Reuters reporters, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who were held while investigating a mass grave in the Inn Din village near Maungdaw, one of the areas most affected by anti-Rohingya violence.

Police say they are investigating whether the duo violated the Official Secrets Act. Mr Lones wife, Pan Ei Mon, told the BBC she was worried and saddened by his arrest.

She said he had a passion for journalism, adding: His job is his first priority. He doesnt take sides when writing stories.
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 }}

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has reportedly executed the official responsible for the country's nuclear test site.

Park In-young was the chief of Bureau 131, a division of the ruling Workers Party of Korea's Central Committee tasked with supervising military facilities such as the Punggye-ri nuclear test facility and the Sohae Satellite Launching Station.

The official was dismissed and then executed as part of a recent purge, an unnamed North Korean defector told Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun.

 North Korea TV shows video of ballistic missile launch

Two potential reasons were given for the reported execution.

Mr Park could have been blamed for North Korea's sixth and most powerful nuclear test being delayed, the defector said. The test was originally planned to take place in Spring, but was pushed back to 3 September due to delays in tunnel construction.

Experts have warned a series of tremors and landslides near the nuclear test facility probably mean the country's latest nuclear blast has destabilised the region, and the Punggye-ri nuclear site may not be in use much longer.

Chinese scientists have warned that if the whole mountain collapsed, radiation could escape and drift across the region.

It is also possible Mr Park was held responsible for the reported collapse of a tunnel in October, which killed around 200 people, though North Korea has denied the reports.

North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch Show all 13 1 /13 North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch Pyongyang residents react after the news of the successful launch of the new intercontinental ballistic missile AFP/Getty Images North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un signing an order to test-fire the newly developed inter-continental ballistic missile KRT via AP Video North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch A news broadcast displays Kim Jong Un's signed document AP North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch People cheer as they watch the news broadcast announcing Kim Jong Un's order to test-fire the new inter-continental ballistic missile AFP/Getty Images North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch Residents react after the document signing AP North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch Pyongyang residents celebrate Kim Jong Un's announcement AFP/Getty North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch Cheering Pyongyang residents react AP North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch To counter North Korea's missile test, South Korea fired missiles into the East Sea The Defence Ministry/Yonhap via REUTERS North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch The Hyunmu-2 missiles firing during the drill South Korean Defense Ministry vi North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch The exercise was carried out in an attempt to counter Kim Jong Un's order South Korea Defense Ministry via AP North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch The South Korean army continue to carry out military exercises AP North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch Where K-9 self-propelled howitzers were taking part in a drill Rex Features North Korea announces intercontinental missile launch US soldiers are also present in the border city of Paju AFP/Getty Images

It comes a week after another high-ranking North Korean official, Hwang Pyong-so, was reportedly expelled from the party for taking bribes.

The military boss' deputy, Kim Won-hong, was also said to have been detained and sent to a prison camp.
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 man dubbed the book-keeper of Auschwitz is appealing his prison sentence for complicity in the murders of 300,000 people at the camp because, his lawyers argue, jail time would violate his right to life.

Oskar Groening, 96, has challenged a 29 November court ruling that said he was fit to go to prison as his special needs could be accommodated there.

The physically frail Groening was sentenced to four years in 2015 in one of the last cases against a surviving Nazi, but has not been incarcerated since then because of a legal argument about his health.

German media quoted Groenings lawyer, Hans Holtermann, as saying that the latest legal challenge asked Germanys constitutional court to determine if imprisonment would violate Groenings right to life, given his medical condition.

He told broadcaster N-TV an expert had concluded Groening was not fit enough to be imprisoned.

 94-year-old Auschwitz guard sentenced for 300,000 deaths

Groening, a former Nazi SS officer, did not kill anyone himself while working at the camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. But a court convicted him in 2015 of aiding and abetting mass murder there through various actions, including by sorting banknotes seized from arriving Jews.

He admitted during his trial that he was morally guilty and said he had been an enthusiastic Nazi when he was sent to work at Auschwitz in 1942 at the age of 21.

Some six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust carried out under Adolf Hitler.

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

During Groenings trial, Auschwitz prisoner Kathleen Zahavi told how her happy childhood was shattered when her family were kidnapped and her mother and aunt were executed

They were treated worse than animals at the death camp in occupied Poland, she said, telling a visibly distressed Groening how I hope the images of what went on there will stay with you for the rest of your days.

Additional reporting by agencies
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 }}

Syrians have launched a campaign in support of a baby who lost an eye and had his skull crushed during government attacks on his besieged hometown near Damascus.

Karim was first wounded in October when artillery shells struck a market in Hammouria, in rebel-held eastern Ghouta, killing his mother. The same attack killed a pregnant woman, her unborn child, and a third woman.

Ten days later later, after Karim was discharged from hospital, shrapnel tore through the roof of his house. Once again, he had to be rescued from the rubble.

A man in eastern Ghouta covers his right eye in solidarity with Karim (AP/Ghouta Media Centre) (AP/Ghouta Media Center)

In a series of images circulating on social media, residents of eastern Ghouta and activists elsewhere have posted pictures of themselves covering one eye, in tribute to the now three-month-old infant.

British permanent representative to the UN, Matthew Rycroft, also featured in a photo published by the British Foreign Office covering one of his eyes.

The Solidarity with Karim campaign is the latest effort to draw international attention to the four-year-long government siege.

Conditions in east Ghouta have rapidly deteriorated in recent weeks as fighting broke out and food shortages intensified.

Recommended UN seeks urgent medical evacuations from besieged area of Syria

Nearly half of the 400,000 people trapped there are believed to be children, according to Unicef.

The Syrian government has launched ferocious attacks on the area in recent weeks that monitors say have killed at least 150 civilians.

More than 100 children require immediate evacuation and five have already died because of a lack of medical care, according to the UNs childrens agency.

President Bashar al-Assads regime has refused to allow the UN to transfer nearly 500 people requiring medical evacuation to hospitals only minutes away.

Syrian solidarity with baby who lost eye during government shelling Show all 11 1 /11 Syrian solidarity with baby who lost eye during government shelling Syrian solidarity with baby who lost eye during government shelling Karim was injured twice from bombings on Eastern al-Ghouta, rebel-held Douma, Syria. He lost an eye, as well as his mother in the government shellings. EPA Syrian solidarity with baby who lost eye during government shelling Activists worldwide launched a campaign in solidarity with Karim as a symbol for the besiegement of Eastern al-Ghouta AFP/Getty Images Syrian solidarity with baby who lost eye during government shelling After spending 10 days at a hospital Karim Abdul Rahman was discharged to his house, in which another bombing led to a shrapnel to injure his skull. EPA Syrian solidarity with baby who lost eye during government shelling Many people in the rebel-held town of Douma in Syria's besieged eastern Ghouta region, have joined in AFP/Getty Images Syrian solidarity with baby who lost eye during government shelling A manon the street poses covering one eye AFP/Getty Images Syrian solidarity with baby who lost eye during government shelling Karim's aunt has been caring for him EPA Syrian solidarity with baby who lost eye during government shelling Children in Syria have joined in the campaign AFP/Getty Syrian solidarity with baby who lost eye during government shelling A girl poses covering one eye with her hand in the rebel-held town of Douma AFP/Getty Images Syrian solidarity with baby who lost eye during government shelling A man poses covering one eye AFP/Getty Images Syrian solidarity with baby who lost eye during government shelling As part of a campaign in solidarity with a baby boy, Karim, a child poses covering one eye with his hand AFP/Getty Images Syrian solidarity with baby who lost eye during government shelling This combination of pictures shows Syrians covering one eye with their hands in the rebel-held town of Douma AFP/Getty Images

Infants  some of them just one or two months old  will die if evacuation permits are not granted immediately, UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock told the Security Council on Tuesday.

He said 16 people waiting for permission to leave have died, including a 45-day-old infant, a nine-year old girl and a quadriplegic.

All that is needed is the green light from the Syrian authorities for these people to go to hospitals just a few miles outside of eastern Ghouta, he added.

The area is grappling with severe food shortages, with 11.9 per cent of children in the area suffering from acute malnutrition  the highest rate recorded in the country since the civil war began six years ago.

Aid is only able to reach around 7 per cent of those who are besieged, the UN said.

The Red Cross said frightening food shortages were driving up the prices of supplies, meaning the few provisions that were in the area were unaffordable.

Frances UN Ambassador Francois Delattre called the situation in eastern Ghouta repulsive.

The regime is starving its population to kill off the opposition, Mr Delattre said. Its a serious violation of international law and also a huge moral sin, and everyone who has an influence on the Syrian regime should pressure it to put an end to this situation, which is totally unacceptable.

Qussai Nour, a local journalist who visited Karimon on Monday, said the babys unemployed father was struggling to care for him while raising his other children.

Doctors in Ghouta are taking care of Karim, but he needs specialists in neurology, ophthalmology and cosmetic surgery, Mr Nour said. The situation at their home is quite miserable.

A medical report following the first attack said Karim, who was 40 days old at the time, suffered from loss of skull bone and severe tissue tearing that affected the eye socket, threatening to leave a permanent scare. The report said he needed specialist care that is not available in eastern Ghouta.

Karim is one of hundreds of cases in eastern Ghouta. If shelling against civilians doesnt stop, there are going to be a hundred or a thousand like Karim, said Moayed al-Halafi, a member of the Syrian Civil Defence, volunteer first-responders known as White Helmets.

The war  now in its seventh year  has left an estimated 500,000 people dead and displaced more than half of Syrias pre war population of 22 million people from their homes.

Ghouta is supposedly covered by a de-escalation zone deal brokered by Turkey, Iran and Russia earlier this year  but monitors and rebels say fighting has continued on many fronts.

Associated Press contributed to this report
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 large earthquake of magnitude 5.2 has struck Iran's capital Tehran, according to state television.

There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

The report said the quake hit just before 11.30pm Wednesday local time, Reuters reports.

The epicentre was at Meshkin Dasht in Alborz Province, 50 km west of Tehran, Tasnim news agency quoted Morteza Salimi, the head of Relief and Rescue Organization of Iran's Red Crescent, as saying.

The earthquake was also felt in the cities of Karaj, Qom, Qazvin and Arak according to state TV.

"There have been no reports of casualties or damage," Behnam Saeedi, a spokesman for Iran's National Disaster Management Organization, was quoted as saying by the ILNA news agency.

In parts of Tehran residents flooded into streets and parks, fearing a stronger aftershock.

Flights into and out of Tehran Mehrabad Airport are unaffected, despite the earthquake, Aviation Iran said.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

The quake comes five weeks after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit the country and became the deadliest of 2017 killing over 620 people.

Reuters contributed to this report
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 druids gather at Stonehenge to mark the winter solstice, one of Britains top traffic experts has identified the Wiltshire location as the worst place for Christmas traffic.

Dr Graham Cookson, chief economist at transportation analysts Inrix, told The Independent that traffic on the A303 beside the neolithic stone circle will be horrendous.

Most people heading from the South-east to the South-west, towards Devon and Cornwall, will venture down the A303, unfortunately.

Just east of Stonehenge, the dual-carriageway Amesbury bypass goes down to a single carriageway. About two miles further west, the A303 meets the A360 at a roundabout which provides another source of congestion.

Recommended Greater Anglia and South Western Railway to strike over Christmas

There were 13 hours of tailbacks last Christmas, said Dr Cookson. The only worse traffic jam was on the A5 near Watford Gap in Northamptonshire, following a serious accident on the M1 which closed the southbound carriageway.

Dr Cookson warned of doubled and tripled journey times on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, particularly on the M25 around London, and the M6 in the Midlands and North-west.

On Thursday afternoon, Inrix predicts that journeys on the M6 southbound could take five times as long as normal, with peak delays from 2.30pm.

People are creatures of habit, and they start journeys in the afternoon, said Dr Cookson. Any time from Wednesday afternoon onwards is going to be bad.

 The roads you should avoid this Christmas

Friday afternoon and early evening is predicted to see the highest density of traffic on Britains roads, when the normal rush at the end of the working week is augmented by people beginning the great getaway.

Dr Cookson advises motorists: Set off in the morning, give yourself plenty of time and have lots of Christmas tunes.

Highways England is lifting almost 400 miles of roadworks for the festive season, from 6am on Friday 22 December to 2 January. It says almost 99 per cent of motorways and strategic A roads will be free of works.

Meanwhile, the AA Trust is warning of the dangers of texting and driving with a short, hard-hitting film made in association with the FIA Foundation. Research shows that crashes are twice as likely from text driving as drink driving.

Traffic may increase from normal levels from 22 to 24 December because of rail strikes on Virgin Trains and CrossCountry.

As poor visibility continued in the London area, many more flights were grounded. London City was worst affected, with dozens of flights diverted, delayed or cancelled altogether.

Flybe diverted flights from Exeter and Belfast to Southend, as did British Airways from Malaga, while a Swiss flight from Geneva returned to its starting point.

At least 30 arrivals and departures at the Docklands airport were cancelled. Many flights are delayed by two hours or more.

At Heathrow, Aer Lingus, Lufthansa and Swiss have cancelled flights between Europes busiest airport and their hubs in Dublin, Munich and Zurich.

Recommended The busiest winter day for travellers in UK history revealed

British Airways has made short-notice cancellations of domestic flights to and from Newcastle, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, and European services to Zurich, Geneva, Frankfurt and Amsterdam.

Aer Lingus also grounded a flight to Belfast City. The musician Andrea Begley said: I was due to fly British Airways at 6.20 on Tuesday morning. I was rebooked onto the 11am flight with Aer Lingus today. She was later re-booked on a flight to Dublin.

At Gatwick, the worlds busiest single-runway airport, some long delays are building. The overnight Virgin Atlantic flight from Orlando left the Florida airport over five hours late. WestJets service from Calgary was over three hours late, as was an easyJet flight from Amsterdam.

Eurocontrol in Brussels tweeted: Arrivals at London Heathrow, Gatwick, City still regulated due to low visibility: moderate to very high #flightdelay.
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 most eye-catching move during this weeks cabinet debates on Brexit was the shift by Gavin Williamson, the Defence Secretary, who backed Remain in the referendum, into the Brexiteer camp led by Michael Gove and Boris Johnson.

His defection matters as it gives hardliners a 5-4 majority on the Cabinets Brexit subcommittee, with Theresa May also there in the chair. Williamson strongly backed Gove at the full Cabinet on Tuesday when he argued that the UK must be free to diverge from EU regulations. Perhaps Williamson enjoyed Goves pop at the Chancellor Philip Hammond; Gove urged ministers to avoid repeating the referendums Project Fear by being too pessimistic about Brexit.

For Williamson and Hammond have produced the Conservative Partys very own Christmas pantomime. After his surprise promotion to the Cabinet last month, Williamson launched a very public campaign to protect his already stretched defence budget. The Chancellors allies suspect the former Chief Whip fomented a Tory backbench rebellion, so he could win stripes by claiming he had headed off further cuts.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 17 November 2022 Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt leaves 11 Downing Street, London, for the House of Commons to deliver his autumn statement PA UK news in pictures 16 November 2022 Emma Woolf, great niece of British author Virginia Woolf, and her son Ludovic sit next to a new bronze statue of Woolf, unveiled in Richmond, London Reuters 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

In case you missed the panto, Williamson has been likened to Private Pike, the weedy stupid boy in the BBC comedy Dads Army. Williamsons allies are said to have likened Hammond to the gloomy Private Frazer, whose catchphrase was were doomed! In real life, Williamson banned the Chancellor from the RAF planes used by ministers and royals, alleging the Treasury had not paid a six-figure bill.

Hammond was upset by suggestions that he failed to protect spending during his time as Defence Secretary. In a condescending put down to the Cabinets new boy, he said he would be happy to discuss the budget once Williamson had a chance to get his head around it.

The panto reached its climax when Williamson and Hammond had a verbal spat during a Commons vote in front of a bemused Theresa May. One witness told the Mail on Sunday: She made it clear the two of them should grow up and calm down. After slugging it out toe to toe, they trudged off like naughty schoolboys.

Williamson has also flexed his muscles by suggesting that Isis terrorists should be hunted down and killed, and saying the UK must step up to deal with the massive threat posed to it by North Korea. He showed a softer side by intervening to stop two Army dogs who saved lives in Afghanistan being put down.

Williamson was best known as Chief Whip for having a pet tarantula on his desk, which he would take out of its glass case and stroke like a Bond villain while talking to rebellious Tory MPs. He called it Cronus, after the Greek god who came to power by castrating his own father and then ate his own children so they would not topple him.

 Who is new Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson?

An MP since 2010, the 41-year-old Defence Secretary is on the march and in a hurry. When the sexual harassment allegations spread from Hollywood to Westminster, May forced her loyal Defence Secretary Michael Fallon to fall on his sword. Williamson, who as Chief Whip would have advised May on the ensuing mini-reshuffle, landed the defence post he coveted, despite never having been a departmental minister. His Whips Office deputy Julian Smith took over his job, no doubt on his recommendation.

The word among Tory MPs is that Williamson, who never lost a vote on government business as Chief Whip, got out in time, knowing there was trouble ahead on the EU (Withdrawal) Bill. Downing Street is said to have been unimpressed with Smiths handling of last weeks Commons defeat which saw 11 Tories rebel to ensure MPs get a meaningful vote on a Brexit deal.

Despite this setback, Williamson has accomplished his first mission at the Ministry of Defence: he has gotten noticed, and thus entered the frame for the next Tory leadership race. It started on 9 June, when it was clear May would never lead the Tories into another election after needlessly throwing away their overall majority. Might Williamson be one of those unnamed ministers now urging May to stay on beyond Brexit in 2019  ostensibly to complete trade talks but perhaps also to allow him to get the experience to be a credible leadership contender? He might be the continuity May candidate, and enjoy the backing of her now exiled guru Nick Timothy, who could make a comeback if he won.

Allies of Williamson insist he was always a Brexiteer at heart but as his Parliamentary Private Secretary, loyally backed David Cameron in the referendum. Yet some Tory MPs believe his conversion is all part of a barely disguised campaign to succeed May.

The Tories Christmas panto would be funny if it were not so serious. As May negotiates with her own Cabinet as well as the EU, the danger is that Brexit is more about holding the squabbling, divided Tories together than pursuing the countrys economic interest.
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 }}

Everyone thought it would be a cake-walk. But Indians have a long-standing tradition of upending even the most confident political pundits.

Voters in Gujarat, one of Indias most important states, just delivered a stinging rebuke to its Hindu nationalist Prime Minister in election results out this week. They offered not just a warning for the BJP government, but something more powerful: a sign of how populist nationalism can be stopped in its tracks.

Gujarat is also one of Indias most powerful states and Prime Minister Narendra Modis home turf. He was its chief minister from 2001 to 2014, and can speak to its people like no other modern Indian politician. A large proportion of British Hindus also hail from Gujarat, and have been an important part of his base.

Just a few weeks ago, the PMs right-hand man Amit Shah was predicting they would easily win 150 seats out of 182 across the state. They already dominated state politics and controlled its media industry.

But the BJP failed to cross the 100-seat mark. They even lost Modis hometown seat by a wide margin.

 Modi escapes Trump handshake with ingenious move

Narendra Modi may have won overall, but like Theresa May in June he is wounded by the price of victory.

So what happened? The simple answer is vikas (development). Gujaratis started to ask loudly why the jobs and wellbeing they were promised had failed to materialise.

That feeling of alienation played out in stark urban-rural divide. Well-to-do Gujaratis in cities overwhelmingly went for the BJP  but most Indians still live in rural areas, and that is where the opposition Congress party picked up votes.

The Modi model has long been accused of bias towards big corporate friends. Even as chief minister he was frequently accused of making deals that helped rich businessmen at the expense of small farmers and workers.

Sound familiar? The Modi machine has much in common with the Trump train; both employ divisive nationalist rhetoric to polarise voters, both claim to be focused on creating jobs and both have dismissed critics as anti-national.

But, as Abraham Lincoln supposedly said, You cannot fool all the people all the time.

The Modi campaign was partly derailed by the opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, who finally found a voice and was able to stitch together a loose alliance of Modi critics. For the first time he stopped looking like a joke and became a more credible opposition leader.

But the strongest opposition to Modi came from the Gujarati people themselves. After nearly two decades of total BJP dominance, the claims about development trickling down began to ring hollow.

The most effective thorn on Modis side was Hardik Patel, a 25 year-old activist who single-handedly mobilised hundreds of thousands of Gujaratis (from the Patidar caste) against Modi, on the basis they were being excluded from development. This was a rebellion of epic proportions from Modis most dependable constituency, and says much about Indias lopsided development.

While development has lifted the urban middle-class, farmers are turning to suicide at an increasing rate. The effect of demonetisation (ie temporarily withdrawing cash notes) was also devastating on the poor.

Both the media and the BJP barely saw this backlash coming. They threw everything to neutralise it  even an alleged sex tape involving Patel. They tried to tie the opposition leader to the Pakistani government. They accused them of being in hock to Muslims. The xenophobic dog-whistles didnt work.

Modis hollow victory illustrates a broader point about populist nationalism. His party may have mastered the art of whipping up bigotry to use to win elections, but it will only be tolerated if their lives are improving.

Modi remains an effective politician and a master strategist. But this election has shown not only that he can be defeated, but also how. As Bill Clintons campaign manager said, It's the economy, stupid.

Its a lesson for those who oppose populist bigotry everywhere.
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 }}

Even the most loyal supporter of Donald Trump would struggle to say his presidency got off to a flying start.

Before he was out of the starting gates, his much-hyped Muslim travel ban was struck down by the courts, his national security adviser was forced to resign after lying about meeting Russian officials and his first attempt to scrap Obamacare crashed and burned in an embarrassing farce.

At the symbolic 100-day mark, that golden point where presidents typically expect to be making hay, Trump had little to show for his labour.

He is ending 2017 very differently. Despite the chaos and rancour, the law approval ratings and the constant tweeting, he has quietly delivered on many of the promises he made to his supporters.

In addition to the appointment of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, he has rolled back Obama-era regulations on the environment, dug in his heels on refusing to join the Paris Accord, finally got through a version of his travel ban and now, in a move that pleased him so much that he tweeted his joy at 1am, the Senate passed a sweeping tax bill unmatched in its scale and ambition for decades. For conservative Christians, he also recognised Jerusalem as Israels capital.

As Mike Allen of news website Axios wrote: You might not like his words or actions. But measured in terms of what Republican voters want and expected, hes winning on consequential and lasting fronts.

But there is a dark irony to much of this. While Trump may be forgiven for gloating over his success, the truth is the majority of the core of supporters who approve of his actions will benefit very little from any of them. Indeed, many may find themselves much worse off.

The tax bill is a case in point. While Democrats and Republicans argue over which Americans will benefit, an analysis by the non-partisan Tax Policy Centre suggested almost three-quarters of the savings would go to the top 20 per cent of earners  those making more than 149,000. More than half of the savings would go to the top one percent, that gilded group of folk who pocket more than $732,800.

Meanwhile, the bill will cut corporate tax from 35 per cent to 20 per cent, an overall likely saving to US businesses of almost $2 trillion over the next decade.

As the New York Times says, with such money, comes additional political power. As a smaller and smaller group of people cornered an ever-larger share of the nations wealth, so too did they gain an ever-larger share of political power, it wrote. They became, in effect, kingmakers; the tax bill is a natural consequence of their long effort to bend American politics to serve their interests.

Likewise, the Republican proposal to replace Obamacare would similarly hurt the poor. A report by the Urban Institutes Health Policy Centre and Brookings Tax Policy Centre, found families making less than $75,000 a year would end up losing money, on average, because they are the ones who today get coverage from Medicaid or rely most on tax credits.

Among the individuals and families with incomes of $10,000 to $20,000 a year, the average loss would equal roughly 13 per cent. Among the very poorest, the ones making even less than $10,000 a year, the average loss would be equal to 61 per of annual income.

 Trump praises withdrawl from 'expensive and unfair' Paris climate agreement

The phenomenon of people voting against their own interests is nothing new. But Trumps pitch to voters was that he would be utterly different. He was ready to shake up the Washington elites and put out the noses of industry lobbyists. Hed build a wall to keep out Mexicans who he claimed were stealing the jobs of ordinary Americans.

The billionaires claim to be a champion of the downtrodden always looked like a fantasy, as did his claim about the impact of migrant labour. But there were enough people, desperate and angry, and who felt the benefits of a global economy had passed them by, who were willing to roll the dice for him. (There were also lots of ideological Republicans who voted for him because they gambled hed help deliver the tax cut they so coveted.)

Among the communities that voted most strongly for Trump in the Republican primary was Virginias Buchanan County, a rural community that once made good money from mining but which had since fallen on hard times. It was also, per capita, the most ill county in the nation.

Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Show all 30 1 /30 Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Threatening to shut down Twitter after being fact-checked After the president tweeted that voting by post would be "substantially fraudulent", Twitter attached a warning label to his tweet and referred readers to a site which explained how the claim was "unsubstantiated". Trump then said Twitter was "stifling free speech" and that he may have to shut it down, something which he would not have the power to do AFP/Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Flippantly dismissing a serious allegation of sexual assault When author E Jean Carroll accused Trump of raping her, the president responded: Number one, shes not my type. Number two, it never happened. It never happened, OK?" AFP/Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Insulting the Mayor of London as he landed in London Just before touching down at Stansted Airport for his state visit, Trump took time out to @ the London mayor Sadiq Khan on twitter. He said that Khan has done a "terrible job"as mayor and that he is a "stone cold loser" Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Taking plenty of "Executive Time" The president's official schedule sets aside the hours from 8 to 11am daily for "Executive Time". Further intermittent periods of "Executive Time" are scheduled throughout any given day, ranging from 15 minutes to 3 hours. His duties in these hours have not been officially disclosed, though Axios reports that he spends them watching TV, reading the newspapers and tweeting Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Shutdown the government for over a month in an effort to secure funding for his wall With Mexico declining to pay for the wall, the president has faced difficulty in raising the required $5bn at home. Due to his demand that the money for the wall be included in the budget, and Congress's refusal, the government partially shut down on 22 December 2018. It remained shut for over a month, the longest period in history Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Joking about the Nazi occupation of France to President Macron In this tweet from 13 November 2018, the president mocks Emmanuel Macron's suggestion of a "true, European army" by invoking the conflict between France and Germany in the world wars Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Railing against the Mueller investigation The president has repeatedly claimed that the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, is a "rigged witch hunt" Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Contradicting a US intelligence report on Russian meddling in the presence of Vladimir Putin In the press conference that followed his landmark meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin, Trump stated that he saw no reason why Russia would have meddled in the 2016 US election. This contradicted a 2017 report by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence that found evidence of Russian interference in favour of Trump Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Contradicting his contradiction of a US intelligence report on Russian meddling Following furious backlash in the US, the president claimed that he meant to say that he saw no reason why it would not have been Russia who meddled in the 2016 US election. As to why he would have intended to use such bizarre phrasing, he did not comment Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Colouring in the US flag wrong The president coloured in the US flag wrongly during a visit to a children's hospital in Columbus, Ohio. He added a blue stripe where in tradition, and statute, there have been only white and red stripes AFP/Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Firing a Secretary of State over Twitter The president announced on Twitter that he was appointing Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State, much to the surprise of then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Quoting a catchphrase from a reality TV show when discussing police brutality While addressing the issue of black athletes not standing for the national anthem in protest of police brutality, the president made reference to his catchphrase from reality TV show "The Apprentice": you're fired! Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Calling African nations "S***hole Countries" Ever one for diplomacy, the president reportedly referred to African nations as "s***hole countries". Asked to confirm this when meeting with Nigeria's President Buhari, Trump stated that there are "some countries that are in very bad shape". Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Defending Russian President Vladimir Putin Trump appeared to equate US foreign actions to those of Russian president Vladimir Putin, saying: There are a lot of killers. You think our countrys so innocent? Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Asking for people to 'pray' for Arnold Schwarzenegger At the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump couldnt help but to ask for prayers for the ratings on Arnold Schwarzeneggers show to be good. Schwarzenegger took over as host of The Apprentice  which buoyed Trumps celebrity status years ago Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Hanging up on Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull Early in his presidency, Trump reportedly hung up the phone on Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull after the foreign leader angered him over refugee plans. Mr Trump later said that it was the worst call he had had so far Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... The 'Muslim ban' Perhaps one of his most controversial policies while acting as president, Trumps travel ban targeting predominantly Muslim countries has bought him a lot of criticism. The bans were immediately protested, and judges initially blocked their implementation. The Supreme Court later sided with the administrations argument that the ban was developed out of concern for US security Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Praising crowd size while touring Hurricane Harvey damage After Hurricane Harvey ravaged southeastern Texas, Trump paid the area a visit. While his response to the disaster in Houston was generally applauded, the president picked up some flack when he gave a speech outside Houston (he reportedly did not visit disaster zones), and praised the size of the crowds there AP Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... 'Little Rocket Man' During his first-ever speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Trump tried out a new nickname for North Korea leader Kim Jong-un: Rocket Man. He later tweaked it to be little Rocket Man as the two feuded, and threatened each other with nuclear war. During that speech, he also threatened to totally annihilate North Korea Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Attacking Sadiq Khan following London Bridge terror attack After the attack on the London Bridge, Trump lashed out at London Mayor Sadiq Khan, criticising Khan for saying there was no reason to be alarmed after the attack. Trump was taking the comments out of context, as Khan was simply saying that the police had everything under control Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Claiming presenter Mika Brezinkski was 'bleeding from the face' Never one not to mock his enemies, Trump mocked MSNBCs Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski, saying that she and co-host Joe Scarborough had approached him before his inauguration asking to join him. He noted that she was bleeding badly from a face-lift at the time, and that he said no MSNBC Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Claiming the blame for Charlottesville was on 'both sides' Trump refused to condemn far-right extremists involved in violence at 'the march for the right' protests in Charlottesville, even after the murder of counter protester Heather Heyer AP Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Retweeting cartoon of CNN being hit by a 'Trump train' Trump retweeted a cartoon showing a Trump-branded train running over a person whose body and head were replaced by a CNN avatar. He later deleted the retweet Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Tweeting about 'slamming' CNN Trump caught some flack when he tweeted a video showing him wrestling down an individual whose head had been replaced by a CNN avatar. Trump has singled CNN out in particular with his chants of fake news Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Firing head of the FBI, James Comey Trumps firing of former FBI Director James Comey landed him with a federal investigation into Russias meddling in the 2016 election that has caused many a headache for the White House. The White House initially said that the decision was made after consultation from the Justice Department. Then Mr Trump himself said that he had decided to fire him in part because he wanted the Russia investigation Mr Comey was conducting to stop Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Not realising being president would be 'hard' Just three months into his presidency, Trump admitted that being president is harder than he thought it would be. Though Trump insisted on the 2016 campaign trail that doing the job would be easy for him, he admitted in an interview that living in the White House is harder than running a business empire Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Accusing Obama of wiretapping him Trump accused former president Barack Obama of wire tapping him on twitter. The Justice Department later clarified: Obama had not, in fact, done so Reuters Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Claiming there had been 3 million 'illegal votes' Trump was never very happy about losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 2.8 million ballots. So, he and White House voter-fraud commissioner Kris Kobach have claimed that anywhere between three and five million people voted illegally during the 2016 election. Conveniently, he says that all of those illegal votes went to Clinton. (There is no evidence to support that level of widespread voter fraud.) Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Leaving Jews out of the Holocaust memorial statement Just days after taking office, Trumps White House issued a statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, but didnt mention jews or even the word jewish in the written statement Getty Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Anger over Inauguration crowd size Trumps inauguration crowd was visibly, and noticeably, smaller than that of his predecessor, Barack Obama. But, he really wanted to have had the largest crowd on record. So, he praised it as the biggest crowd ever. Relatedly, Trump also claimed that it stopped raining in Washington at the moment he was inaugurated. It didnt, the day was very dreary Reuters

I will vote for Trump, Jeanette Matney, 46, whose husband once had a job in a coal mine she said paid $10,000 a month, told The Independent shortly before the election. After being unemployed for a year, he had a job as a correctional officer she said paid $1,700. When you lose that sort of money, you live on a budget, you send things back. You go to the grocery store and only get the things you need.

For all of Trumps talk of being ready to upset powerful interests, he has pandered to them. Earlier this month, his Department of the Interior announced it was opening up two national parks in Utah, considered sacred by indigenous people, to mining exploration. His other rolling back of environmental standards, was described by one environmentalist as an industry wish-list.

The tax cut that House Speaker Paul Ryan is beside himself with joy about, was nothing but hardcore Republican orthodoxy. Its also likely to personally benefit Trump, but since he does not release his tax returns, we cant be sure.

Will Trumps supporters have some sudden awakening? Will they come to see that amid all the talk of making America great again, their president has done very little for them? Probably not.

American politics is turning more and more into tribal warfare, said David Corn, Political Editor of the left-leaning Mother Jones. And people make a decision based on their tribal affiliation rather than on the specific issues.

He added: At some point, as we say, the rubber hits the road. But to get to that point, will take a lot. Trump will continue to blame other forces that create problems for his supporters. Its abysmal.
With state class size reductions for elementary school set to kick in for the 2018-2019 school year, Kannapolis City Schools has joined several other area boards of education in sending an urgent message to Raleigh: without additional funding, this move will negatively impact kids and create a host of staffing and capital challenges for the school system.

The KCS Board of Education passed a resolution at the Monday, Dec. 11, board meeting requesting the state legislature phase in the class size reduction requirements over the course of several years to allow both lawmakers and educators across the state find solutions to the problems facing school systems.

I think it is time to breathe a minute and make sure we got this thing right, Superintendent Dr. Chip Buckwell said. I think theres a better way to do this, and Id like to do that.

The state legislation requires smaller class sizes for kindergarten through third grade beginning in the 2018-2019 school year. Schools must also set class size averages in those grades equal to the states classroom teacher funding ratio, which will mean a loss in flexibility to put state funding towards program enhancement courses such as art, music and physical education, the resolution said.

While state legislators have said they will create a new funding stream for those enhancement teachers by fall 2018, the KCS resolution stated school districts across the state and Kannapolis in particular would still face challenges with classroom space and staffing.

Several other boards of education in the region passed similar resolutions.

One of the biggest challenges, Buckwell said, would be in staffing. The KCS resolution stated that the district already has trouble finding licensed and qualified teachers, and increasing the needed personnel could lead to more classes taught by long-term substitutes or lateral-entry teachersWho do not have the pedagogy and classroom management training necessary for this age group, the resolution said.

Buckwell said the regionwhich includes KCS, Gaston, Cleveland, Lincoln, Iredell, Union, Cabarrus, Rowan, Stanley and Charlotte-Mecklenburg school systemswould need to hire 716 more teachers.

Theres a teacher shortage now, he said. Where are you going to find 716 qualified, certified teachers? And for some of the legislature to say just put two groups of kids in one class and have teachers solve the space problemI dont think they really, truly understand how difficult it is to do this job of teaching and what were asking.

I dont necessarily disagree with class size reduction, but youve got to have some flexibility in there.

KCS alone would need to hire between nine and 11 teachers, but that would still require combination classes.

In order to eliminate the combination classes, which nobody thinks is a good idea, were going to have to eliminate positions, and its going to have to come from those extra teachers, Buckwell said.

Another issue with strict class numbers is it restricts teachers and administrators ability to create classes with the right combination of students. Buckwell said KCS had one student move into the district on Oct. 31. With only two kindergarten classes, teachers and administrators alike thought that the child would be a better fit in one homeroom over the other; but the move put that class over the limit.

They would prefer we pull a kid out thats been in there all year and put them in the other class just to make the numbers right, Buckwell said. But that doesnt make sense to children. Nobody wants that. Principals dont want it; teachers dont want it; parents dont want it; kids dont want it. But the law says we have to do it.

Financially speaking, one of the biggest problems the class size reductions pose for the district is the sheer number of classrooms needed to accommodate fewer students. Cabarrus County Schools has already increased the construction costs for a new elementary school by $3 million to fit the extra rooms.

This is a good example of the impact to school systems with no funding for these changes from the state, Cabarrus County commissioner Lynn Shue said. Its all dumped on the backs of the counties, along with all the other things that have filtered down over the years that the counties are now paying but are statutorily the states responsibility.

KCS would have to get creative to accommodate smaller class sizes. Some schools might have to eliminate or move Pre-K classrooms, cancel contracts with other Pre-K providers using KCS space or delaying plans to expand the Pre-K program.

A need for additional classrooms will only add to the districts capital needs and could possibly require KCS to purchase more mobile units, adding on to schools or converting other rooms into classrooms.

This last scenario could have a huge impact on enhancement courses. One of the recourses KCS resolution outlines to accommodate smaller class sizes is converting art rooms, music rooms and even gymnasiums into traditional classrooms. This would force art and music teachers to travel from room to room with a carta challenge with courses that require several materials, and some messy at that.

Getting rid of the gym could force PE outside, with little alternative for cold or rainy days.

To give everyone a chance to rethink the consequences of class size reductions and brainstorm a better solution, the KCS resolution asks the General Assembly to enforce the restrictions over time rather than all at once.

Kannapolis City Board of Education respectfully requests the General Assembly slow implementation of the K-3 class size reductions outlined in S.L. 2017-9 through a multi-year phase-in that allows time for the legislature and Kannapolis City Schools to address the challenges, the resolution said.

Buckwell said he hoped a delayed implementation would give educators a chance to open a more honest dialogue with state officials.

I dont want to have an argument with the folks in Raleigh, on the one hand, he said. But on the other hand, I think we need to really sit down and talk about this in a common-sense way instead of just drawing lines in the sand and saying this is the way its going to be.
The teenager who went missing earlier this month has been found.

The Concord Police Department said Tuesday, Dec. 19, that Precious Maxwell, 15, of Roberta Road has returned safely home. Maxwell had been last seen Friday, Dec. 8, at 11:30 a.m. by a family member, and law enforcement said it was the third time she had voluntarily left her home.

Precious Maxwell has been located, and she is safe, the police department said in a release. The Concord Police Department would like to thank the community and the media for their assistance in this matter.

Law enforcement did not say where she was found, who she was with or why she left.


Arjun Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra are currently undergoing the most challenging shooting schedule of their career. Dibakar Banerjee has taken the lead actors in his directorial, Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar, to shoot at the international border of India and Nepal that is constantly under the radar for illegal immigration.



"Dibakar is filming extremely intense and gritty portions of the film at the Indo-Nepal border. The portions will show the tension between Arjun and Parineeti's character. These are crucial and defining moments of the film. The area where the two are shooting is exactly at the border and is constantly under alert for illegal immigration and smuggling. People use an inflated rubber tube as a flotation device on the Kali river at the border and make this risky crossing in the thick of a wintry night. So, shooting has been quite difficult. Local authorities have been of tremendous help providing the crew with assistance and necessary security," informs a source.



This new information builds more intrigue for this thriller! What are Arjun and Parineeti exactly shooting in this risky area? What does it have to do with this film's plot? Knowing Dibakar, is he exploring smuggling with the two lead characters of the film? Guess we won't know these details anytime soon.



Meanwhile, the shooting schedules of Yash Raj Films' Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar have been an adventure in many ways. The film's crew was previously shooting in an Uttarakhand village, Jhulaghat, which will soon be immersed underwater because of the construction of a dam. Dibakar's film will end up being the only film to have a visual record of this quaint town that will be first evacuated and then submerged under water. The hugely entertaining thriller, Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar, is set to release on August 3, 2018.
Trump Claims Credit For The Russian/Syrian Defeat Of ISIS

Trumps National Security Speech

By Paul Craig Roberts

December 20, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - What do we make of Trumps national security speech? First of all, it is the military/security complexs speech, and it is inconsistent with Trumps intention of normalizing relations with Russia.

The military/security complex, using Trumps position as President, has defined Russia and China as revisionist powers, Washingtons rivals who seek to put their own national interests ahead of Washingtons unilateralism. Russia and China are revisionist powers because their assertion of their national interests limits Washingtons hegemony.

In other words, Washington does not accept the validity of other countries interests if those interests are contrary to Washingtons interests. So, how does Trump expect to work with Russia and China when he reads a speech that Russia and China seek to shape a world antithetical to our interests and values.

Our values means, of course, Washingtons dominance.

Trump begins by honoring the military, police, Homeland Security, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In other words, America first means domination by Washington over the citizenry as well as over foreign countries.

Trump then cloaks himself in the American people who voted to make America great again.

Then Trumps speech picks up the Israel Lobbys line about a bad deal with Iran and asserts that previous administrations tolerated ISIS, when in fact they created it and set in upon Libya and Syria.

Then he attacks environmental protection and complains of illegal aliens, while ignoring the refugees Washingtons wars imposed on Europe.

In an era of neoconservative celebration of US world hegemony, Trump accuses his predecessors of losing confidence in America. This is extraordinary. When a countrys entire foreign policy is based on the assumption that it is the exceptional and indispensable country, how is this a loss of confidence? It is massive arrogance and hubris. The problem is not a loss of confidence by the rulers but an overbearing hubris.

Then Trump claims that through him, Americans again rule their nation.

He says that now Washington is serving the citizens. Looking at the tax bill, he must mean that citizens consist of the One Percent.

He next associates making America first with more money for the military.

Then he blames Iran for terrorism, something that Iran lives in fear of, but he does not mention Saudi Arabias support for terrorism or that of the US military/security complexs which encourages terrorism as a weapon against Iran and Russia and as an excuse for its massive budget and power.

Trump then claims credit for the Russian/Syrian defeat of ISIS. It has been proved that ISIS is supported and financed by Washington. Trumps claim is even more ridiculous than the previous claims of the Obama regime that the US defeated National Socialist Germany. Russia, which did defeat Germany, was not invited to the anniversary celebration.

Trump next demands that the countries we defend pay for it. Who are these countries and who do we defend them from? He can only mean Europe, Canada, Australia, Israel, and Japan. Is Washington defending them from Russia, China, North Korea and Iran or from the terrorists Washington creates, arms, and supplies to overthrow Libya, Syria and whatever countries Washington is successful siccing terrorists on. Apparently, some of these CIA-created terrorist organizations break loose from their creator and conduct operations on their own. So, Washington is a government that creates its own enemies.

Trump next brags on the sanctions he has imposed on the North Korean regime. He doesnt mention, and I would bet he does not know, that Washington has withheld a peace treaty since the 1950s from North Korea. Washington has kept the war status open for 64 years. Having seen the fate of Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, etc., little wonder North Korea wants nuclear weapons.

Trump, standing there threatening the world, says that Washington will take all necessary steps to prevent North Korea from threatening the world.

Trump then delivers the establishments propaganda that unemployment is at an all time low and the stock market at an all time high. So, what is Trump rescuing Middle America from if unemployment is at an all time low? What happened to Trumps case against jobs offshoring?

This is nothing but feel-good talk. Trump is repeating the lies because the lies make him look good. What Trump should be doing is pointing out the meaninglessness of the unemployment rate, because it doesnt count the unemployed, only those few who looked for a job in the last 4 weeks. He should be pointing out that the stock market is not a sign of a growing economy but a sign of massive money creation by the central banks of the US, EU, UK, and Japan. The massive printing of money has flooded into paper assets, driving up their price and further enriching the One Percent.

Trump says that one leg of the strategy is to preserve peace through strength. What peace is he talking about? In the past two decades Washington has destroyed in whole or part eight countries and overthrown democratic governments in others. Is Trump equating peace with Washingtons wars? No other country has initiated wars and invasions and bombings and aggressive military actions on other countries borders. Trump says that America is threatened by enemies and to protect us the military will be enlarged. He said he was overturning the defense sequester, something that clearly does not exist.

My conclusion is that Trump has surrendered to the real rulers of Americathe powerful interest groups such as the military/security complex, the Israel Lobby, the environmental polluters, Wall Street and the banks too big to fail.

America is a country in which despite the hopes flyover America had in Trump, an oligarchy rules. The American people, regardless of who they elect, have no voice, no input, no representation.

The governments of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush were the last governments that were subject to any accountability. With the Clinton regime the United States entered into the age of tyranny.

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts' latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West , How America Was Lost , and The Neoconservative Threat to World Order .
Home Trumps New National Security Strategy Should Alarm His Arab Allies



By Abdel Bari Atwan December 20, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - Donald Trump has been giving his Gulf Arab allies a hard time in recent days. His vetoing of the draft UN Security Council resolution that would have compelled him to rescind his recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital was an act of political thuggery that dealt them a serious blow. Then came his unveiling on Tuesday of his new National Security Strategy, which added insult to injury. In demeaning and contemptuous tones, Trump reiterated  for the first time since he was running for election  that he would require wealthy allies of the US to pay it the full costs of the military protection it provides them. This was partly addressed to members of NATO, but it applies more pertinently to Saudi Arabia and most of the other Gulf states. They now face a renewed round of extortion by the US, based on talking up the Iranian threat to ensure they spend billions on securing protection. Once they deplete their financial reserves they can borrow from US banks, or put their oil and gas reserves up for auction for decades to come if necessary. It would be a re-run of Egypts experience in the 19th century, when the debts run up by the Khedive Ismail to build the Suez Canal resulted in his country being brought under the complete tutelage of the Western debtors. When Trump visited Riyadh in May he returned home with $460 billion worth of aid, investment and arms deals in his pocket (not to mention the $100 million donation to his daughter Ivankas charity). He obtained a further $50 billion from selling warplanes to the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain. But as a salesman and go-between he is hungry for more, given that his customers never say no and are only too eager to produce their cheque books and sign on the dotted line. It is said that the late King Abdallah was subjected to similar extortion during the early years of his rule. Madeleine Albright, then the US secretary of state, brought him an offer of protection against the threats faced by Saudi Arabia from Iraq and Iran which would include deploying US Marines for the task. Never Miss Another Story Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter After pausing for reflection on that moonlit spring night, Abdallah turned to his guest and told her an old folk 0tale about a bedouin shepherd whose flock was constantly being attacked by a wolf. Every few day, the beast would take and devoured by a sheep. The shepherd was advised by an expert to acquire some ferocious guard dogs. They indeed managed to keep the wolf at bay, and he was never seen again. The problem was that the shepherd had to slaughter two or three sheep per day to keep the dogs fed. The flock quickly dwindled in number, and the shepherd became nostalgic for the good old days of the wolf. Albright got the message, departed post-haste, and the US administration did not raise the matter again  until the advent of Trump. Trump wants protection money from his Arab allies in cash. There will be no free protection any longer. The expert is his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has become best buddies with Saudi Arabias current leaders and advises them on how to deal with the presidents recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital and his plans for resolving the Palestine Question by creating a state in Gaza. The supposed wolf, of course, is Iran. There is also the matter of the JASTA law, under which Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states could be sued for hundreds of billions of dollars for the 9/11 attacks. Cases are slowly being put together and evidence is being gathered, with great confidence of success. In the meantime, the flock is unlikely to remain docile while it is being gradually fed to the dogs. It is no exaggeration to predict that the kingdom will eventually look back nostalgically to the times of the wolf, and rue the day it took on the American guard dogs. This article was originally published by Raialyoum - ==== Join the Discussion It is not necessary for ICH readers to register before placing a comment. This website encourages readers to use the "Report" link found at the base of each comment. When a predetermined number of ICH readers click on the "Report" link, the comment will be automatically sent to "moderation". This would appear to be the most logical way to allow open comments, where you the reader/supporter, can determine what is acceptable speech. Please don't use the report feature simply because you disagree with the author point of view. Treat others with respect, remembering that "A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still."- Benjamin Franklin. Please read our Comment Policy before posting - Search Information Clearing House === Click Here To Support Information Clearing House Your support has kept ICH free on the Web since 2002. Click for Spanish , German , Dutch , Danish , French , translation- Note- Translation may take a moment to load.
Haley Threatening UN Members: Trump 'Will Be Watching' Who Votes Against U.S. Recognition of Jerusalem



U.S. envoy's letter, obtained by Haaretz, sent one day before resolution rejecting U.S. move expected to pass by sweeping majority at the General Assembly



By Noa Landau

December 20, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley sent a letter to representatives of UN member-states, warning them against supporting a resolution rejecting President Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.



The resolution, which expected to pass by sweeping majority, is slated for vote on Thursday.



"The president will be watching this vote carefully and has requested I report back on those who voted against us," she wrote in a letter obtained by Haaretz. "Thank you for your consideration, and please do not hesitate to contact my team with any questions or concerns."



The President will be watching this vote carefully and has requested I report back on those who voted against us || The letter @nikkihaley sent tonight to UN members : pic.twitter.com/nPl8ilQLxM

 Noa Landau (@noa_landau) December 20, 2017



Haley continued, "As you know, the General Assembly is considering a resolution about President Trump's recent decision on Jerusalem. As you consider your vote, I encourage you to know the president and the U.S. take this vote personally.

"Twenty-two years ago, the U.S. congress declared that Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of Israel, and that the U.S. embassy should be moved to Jerusalem. President Trump affirmed that declaration by officially recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. However, the President's announcement does not effect final status negotiations in any way, including the specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem. The president also made sure to support the status quo of Jerusalem's holy sites, and did not advocate changes to arrangements at the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif."



Haley added: "The U.S. announcement is an acknowledgment that peace is best advanced, not set back, when all parties are honest Jerusalem has been the capital of Israel since the country's founding nearly seventy years ago The President clearly voiced support for a two-state solution if that's what the sides agree on."



"I know that many in the General Assembly are also committed to the cause of peace," Haley wrote, asking the member-states to consider whether such a resolution will not only fuel "the heated rhetoric and violence."



Haley stressed that the United States "was not asking for other countries [to] move their embassies to Jerusalem," but "simply asking you acknowledge the historical friendship, partnership, and support we have extended and respect our decision about our embassy."



At the UN we're always asked to do more & give more. So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl, abt where to locate OUR embassy, we don't expect those we've helped to target us. On Thurs there'll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names. pic.twitter.com/ZsusB8Hqt4

 Nikki Haley (@nikkihaley) December 19, 2017



Haley also tweeted on Tuesday that the U.S. will stand by the Jerusalem decision and will be "taking names" of those who criticize impending embassy move.



"At the UN we're always asked to do more & give more," Haley tweeted on Tuesday. "So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl, abt where to locate OUR embassy, we don't expect those we've helped to target us. On Thurs there'll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names."

Never Miss Another Story Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter

The UN General Assembly is set to meet on Thursday at 5 P.M. Israel time (10 A.M. EST) for an emergency discussion on the unilateral American recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital. Turkey and Yemen requested the meeting after an Egyptian draft resolution against the recognition was presented to the Security Council and was vetoed by the United States, although the 14 other members of the council voted for it.



An an attempt to avoid embarrassment, Israel has instructed its diplomatic missions to seek meetings with high-level officials to persuade them to direct their representatives at the UN to oppose, not to support, or at the very least not to deliver a speech at the General Assembly. Among the reasons ambassadors were told to cite are that Jerusalem was the de facto capital of Israel long before the United States recognized it as such; a resolution of this kind at the United Nations will damage American efforts toward a peace agreement in the region; the resolution will spur terror and violence in the area; and unilateral steps in the United Nations do more harm than good. The envoys will also pledge to maintain freedom of religion and the status quo in the city.

This article was originally published by Haaretz -

====

Join the Discussion
A Good Year for Israel and Its Friends



A bad year for the U.S. Constitution



By Philip Giraldi

December 20, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - The unfortunate Donald Trump Administration decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel serves no visible American interest, in spite of what some of the always-loyal-to-Israel punditry has been suggesting. Israel is already moving to exploit the situation in its usual fashion. Immediately after the announcement was made, Israeli Ambassador in Washington Ron Dermer suggested that the decision on Jerusalem could now be extended to include other disputed areas, most particularly Syrias Golan Heights that were occupied in 1967. And the decision on Jerusalem itself will quite likely prove elastic as the Israeli government has already prepared legislation to incorporate large chunks of settlements into the city limits, far beyond the historic boundaries.

The currently popular among Zionists argument that recognizing Jerusalem will somehow perversely accelerate a drive for a final peace settlement with Israel as it will demonstrate to the Palestinians just how hopeless their cause is has little merit as desperation is more likely to lead to increased violence than a political solution. A more intriguing reading suggests that Israel, the United States and Saudi Arabia are conniving at squeezing even more Palestinians into a slightly enlarged prison-camp in Gaza, leaving the rest of the West Bank open for absorption by Israel. Again, such an outcome is not very likely as the 2.5 million Palestinians remaining in the region will likely have some say regarding the issue no matter how much pressure is exerted by the Saudis and Jared Kushner for them to submit.

Nothing good will come out of the Trump decision as the situation in the region is already starting to unravel. The Turks are talking about opening an Embassy to Palestine in East Jerusalem and the 56 other Muslim countries in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation might follow suit. Israel, which has physical control of the entire city, would use force to prevent that, creating some interesting new points of conflict in the Middle East. The U.S. would, of course, become involved given its role as Israels patron and protector. The evolving situation is likely to develop into Israel and the United States versus the rest of the world, with unfortunate consequences as the conflict will spill over into normally unrelated issues like trade and otherwise innocuous international agreements, while American travelers and businesses will increasingly become targets for terrorism.

If you want to understand the reason why the United States cannot pursue sensible objectives in the Middle East or anywhere else, one has to look no farther than the all too often Israel-centric neocons who have become adept at advising nearly everyone in the government from the White House on down regarding what should be done, particularly in foreign policy. The Trump Administrations slowness in filling senior positions has meant that there are many vacancies, which has opened the door to eager neoconservative-leaning nominal Republicans to re-enter government. At the State Department Brian Hook of the neocon John Hay Initiative is now chief of policy planning, courtesy of Margaret Peterlin, Tillersons chief of staff. They have recently hired David Feith, the son of the infamous Pentagon Office of Special Plans head Doug Feith, to head the Asia desk. And Wes Mitchell, whose policies are largely indistinguishable from his predecessor, has replaced Victoria Nuland as Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs. While Elliot Abrams, Eliot Cohen, the Kagans and other prominent neocons have been blocked, second-tier activists carrying less political baggage have quietly been brought in.

And Congress is to a certain extent the source of all evil, as its numerous committee meetings gorge on advice from experts who are frequently anything but, reflecting the hardline views of many of the legislators themselves with nary a contrary opinion in sight. A recent session of the Senate Armed Services Committee featured a statement by leading neocon Eric Edelman. His presentation is hawkish in the extreme, with particular focus on Iran and Russia. It can be summarized briefly by citing some of the section headings: Adopt a post-ISIS Strategy for Syria and Iraq, Develop Credible Military Leverage Against Iran, Recognize Russia as an obstacle, not a partner, Increase internal pressure against the Iranian regime, and Enforce nuclear restrictions on Iran.

Never Miss Another Story Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter

So its garbage-in and garbage-out on how much of the government gets a large percentage of its information. And given the White House track record relating to Iran and Jerusalem over the past several months, one might also reasonably come to the conclusion that Israel will get whatever it wants, including a catastrophic war with Iran, because its also garbage-in at the White House by way of son-in-law Jared Kushners view of the Middle East.

But there is a second story playing out about Israel right here in the United States which should be even more concerning as what is happening on the ground in Palestine and Syria. You see, the problem that Israel has is that it is indeed an apartheid state based on race and religion. The 320,000 Palestinians attempting to hang on in and around East Jerusalem have no rights whatsoever and are being systematically forced out by being denied building permits and through arbitrary oversight by the Israeli military and police. Christian churches and foundations are also under pressure from the Israeli authorities but you wont hear much about that from Congress or the White House.

The truth about Israel is quite unpleasant, so it has been necessary to construct a completely untrue but compelling counter-narrative which relies psychologically on cultivation of claims of perpetual victimhood linked repeatedly to the holocaust. The false narrative usually starts with the myth about Israel being the only democracy in the Middle East, that it is a tolerant place where all religions can worship and where everyone enjoys freedom under law. But, alas, poor Israel is treated unfairly by the international community solely because it is Jewish.

The reality of life in Israel is quite different if one bothers to ask any Palestinian Christian or Muslim who has the misfortune to live there. Or if one reads about the essentially racist de-humanization of Arabs by Israelis, which has led to the killing, beating and imprisonment of children as well as an army snipers recent shooting dead of a legless Palestinian protester in a wheelchair.

And once you construct the false narrative you have to protect it by making sure that no one can easily pose a challenge to it. Much of the national media is on board this effort, voluntarily limiting or eliminating any coverage that is negative about Israel. And major players in the alternative media community have come around also, with increasing direct censorship and other manipulation of material appearing on sites like Facebook and Google. The ultimate objective of the Israel Lobby is to follow the example in some European countries, where criticism of Israel is equated to anti-Semitism and is therefore categorized as a hate crime, with both civil and criminal penalties attached.

I have previously reported on how 24 states are now requiring statements pledging not to boycott Israel from those citizens and organizations that receive government funding or even seek local government employment. And there is the reported progress in Congress of the Israel Anti-Boycott Act and the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, which constitute two major steps forward in the same direction. Both seek to define as anti-Semitism any criticism of Israel. On December 12th the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act was approved by the House of Representatives with 402 affirmative votes and only two libertarian-leaning congressmen voting no. The Israel Anti-Boycott Act that is also currently making its way through the Congress would far exceed what is happening at the state level and would set a new standard for deference to Israeli interests on the part of the national government. It would criminalize any U.S. citizen engaged in interstate or foreign commerce who supports a boycott of Israel or who even goes about requesting the furnishing of information regarding it, with penalties enforced through amendments of two existing laws, the Export Administration Act of 1979 and the Export-Import Act of 1945, that include potential fines of between $250,000 and $1 million and up to 20 years in prison. According to the Jewish Telegraph Agency, the Senate bill was drafted with the assistance of AIPAC.

Perhaps more dangerous than current and pending legislation, which is already being challenged in courts as a violation of First Amendment rights, are the bureaucrats being put in place by the Trump Administration to interpret and enforce laws and regulations. As we have discovered from the James Comey experience and the activities of some of his associates, senior bureaucrats have considerable freedom to interpret how they should carry out their responsibilities, making the rule of law standard for ethical government somewhat mythical. In that light, the recent naming of Kenneth Marcus as head of the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Education should be raising red flags for those who are concerned about civil liberties.

Marcus is currently head of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, which he founded in 2011. The Center has been involved in serial litigation with one objective  stopping protests staged by students at colleges and universities against Israeli policies. Marcus is focused on silencing the non-violent Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS), which has been gaining in popularity among young Americans, and which the Israeli government sees as a major threat to its legitimacy. The Brandeis Center mission statement is clear: The leading civil and human rights challenge facing North American Jewry is the resurgent problem of anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism on university campuses.

For those who respond So what? Marcus has a right to promote his viewpoints by whatever means, the response might well be that his appointment is putting someone with a clear agenda in charge of an organization established to make sure there are no agendas relating to the civil rights of students. To be sure, Marcus has never won a case in court, but that is not what he is seeking to do. He is more interested in creating trouble, bad publicity and in driving up the costs due to litigation. As he describes it, These cases  even when rejected  expose administrators to bad publicity If a university shows a failure to treat initial complaints seriously, it hurts them with donors, faculty, political leaders and prospective students.

Marcus will have the power and authority to deny federal funds to colleges and universities that do not meet his standards for action to quell the rising tide of Israel criticism, making him little different than the journalist who writes puff pieces on Israel or the politicians who takes PAC money and stands up twenty-nine times to applaud the monstrous Benjamin Netanyahu. Indeed, at Marcus confirmation hearing not one Senator asked him about his full-time advocacy for Israel.

Many universities are dependent on federal dollars and have already taken administrative steps to distance themselves from Israel criticism or to ban it altogether. Marcus will be able to move the bar even lower, putting pressure on colleges to drive the Israel haters, as he refers to them , out of the educational system. It is possible to foresee a future in which students will be free to criticize the United States on campus while discussing the foreign state of Israel with any candor will be forbidden.

This article was originally published by UNZ -

====

Join the Discussion
US War on ISIS Is the Biggest Lie Since the 2003 Iraq Invasion: Heres the Proof



By Darius Shahtahmasebi

December 20, 2017 " Information Clearing House " - On November 13, 2017, the BBC dropped a bombshell report that exposed how the U.S. cut a secret deal with hundreds of ISIS fighters and their families to leave the Syrian city of Raqqa under the gaze of the U.S. and British-led coalition and Kurdish-led forces who control the city. The convoys reportedly included some of ISIS most notorious members, as well as its foreign fighters and tonnes of weapons and ammunition.

Almost a month later, Reuters reported that a high-level defector from Kurdish-led forces in Syria had revealed that the number of ISIS fighters given safe passage by the U.S.-led coalition was actually in the thousands, not hundreds. This account was seconded by a security official in Turkey despite the fact that Turkey and the Kurdish militia do not typically see eye to eye).

Agreement was reached for the terrorists to leave, about 4,000 people, them and their families, the defector said, as quoted by Reuters, adding that all but about 500 were fighters.

The defector also noted that the fighters were headed toward Deir ez-Zor, Syrias most oil-rich region. The U.S. had been eager to bomb Deir ez-Zor for some time prior to the deal, and allowing ISIS safe passage to get there would merely give them the pretext to do so. In June of this year, regional outlet Al-Masdar released a video that appeared to show convoys of ISIS fighters leaving Raqqa, as well, though the media paid very little attention to this.

All of this begs the question: If the U.S. allowed 4,000 ISIS fighters to leave Raqqa, who on earth were they bombing during their brutal siege? Donald Trumps illegal air campaign killed well over 1,800 civilians and brought the city to ruin  to the point that Russia accused the U.S. of wiping Raqqa off the face of the earth. The U.S. government knew ISIS was leaving the city safely but kept on bombing it into devastation, anyway.

Raqqa Secret Deal Barely Scratches the Surface

Now that we know the U.S. is amenable to granting ISIS fighters safe passage, ISIS ability to take over huge swaths of Iraq and Syria in the first place start to make a bit more sense. In June 2014, ISIS effortlessly took the strategic oil-rich cities of Mosul and Baiji and almost made it as far as Baghdad. The U.S. sat on its hands and did nothing the entire time, even as the militants took massive loads of American military equipment as spoils and brandished it all over social media. While ISIS was flaunting its activities untouched by the American military in Iraq, the U.S. was busy launching drone strikes in Pakistan, instead.

Why would the Obama administration prioritize air strikes in a country that overwhelmingly disapproves of them when it could have prevented ISIS from setting up a mini-state in Iraq at the same time?

Over the last few years, we have seen this similar pattern occur over and over again. When it came to Obamas grand offensive to retake Mosul in 2016, reports also began emerging that the U.S. was granting safe passage for ISIS fighters to move from Mosul into Raqqa. Even if the U.S. hadnt cut a formal deal with ISIS on this particular occasion, the reality on the ground was that the U.S. was allowing ISIS fighters to make their way into Syria from Mosul and doing little to stop them regardless. As Anti-Media documented at the time:

 According to Army Lieutenant General Talib Shaghati , as reported by anti-Russian newspaper , the Guardian, ISIS militants are already fleeing Mosul to Syria. This was further confirmed by the Saudi foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, who said that if ISIS were forced out of Mosul, they would likely go on to Syria.

Why werent they striking these traveling ISIS fighters before they made it to Syria? When viewed in its recent historical context and with the most recent reports in mind, the answer to that question should be clear.

The U.S. Has Also Provided ISIS With Direct Air Support

The Syrian government and its allies are the most heavily engaged entities fighting ISIS inside Syria  not the U.S. military (or its allies). Yet the U.S. military has struck these pro-government forces directly multiple times over the last year, even when these troops have proven to be very effective against the jihadist group.

In September 2016, the U.S.-led coalition launched a barrage of airstrikes at Syrian government troops who were fending off the ISIS component of Deir ez-Zor at the time. Russia accused the U.S. coalition of providing air cover for ISIS because the terror group used the coalition strike to launch an offensive of their own. Over 60 Syrian soldiers died as a result of this illegal act of war, but no one was held accountable.

It has also been speculated that U.S. President Donald Trumps Syria strike in April paved the way for an ISIS offensive, as well.

ISIS Took Advantage of U.S. Weapons Transfers

So far, we know that ISIS has received safe passage from the U.S. on at least one occasion and that the terror group has also received free air support on a number of other occasions. We also know the U.S. either directly or indirectly allowed ISIS to gain territory in the first place only to provide the pretext for a military intervention.

But wait, it gets even better. Just this month, a report conducted by the U.K.-based Conflict Armament Research (CAR) group, which analyzed 40,000 items its investigators recovered along ISIS front lines between July 2014 and November 2017, found that the terror group was able to successfully arm itself by taking advantage of U.S. weapons transfers between Washington and its other allies in Syria. ISIS even garnered some of the more powerful anti-tank missiles through the CIAs covert arms program.

International weapon supplies to factions in the Syrian conflict have significantly augmented the quantity and quality of weapons available to IS forces  in numbers far beyond those that would have been available to the group through battlefield capture alone, the report said.

The U.S. didnt need to wait for an official report for this horrifying development to come to light. As far back as October 2012, the New York Times reported the following:

[M]ost of the arms shipped at the behest of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to supply Syrian rebel groups fighting the government of Bashar al-Assad are going to hard-line Islamic jihadists, and not the more secular opposition groups that the West wants to bolster [emphasis added]

Even if the U.S. had zero control over ISIS and the mayhem it has exacted over Iraq, Syria, and beyond  and was genuine in its bid to rid the world of its ideology and the horror the terror group has unleashed  there is one issue yet to be discussed: ISIS existence.

US Created Conditions for ISIS to Exist

ISIS evolved out of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), which only became a formidable fighting force after the U.S. invaded in 2003. This was in part due to the Bush administrations decision to fire close to 400,000 servicemen in Iraq, simply because of their affiliation with Saddam Husseins secular Baathist party. Some of these disgruntled servicemen now hold senior ISIS positions and are responsible for the terror groups success.

History clearly demonstrates that al-Qaeda only exists in the first place because the U.S. actively trained, funded, and armed the mujahideen in Afghanistan as a means of bogging the Soviet empire down into a quagmire. The Independent even ran a story on Osama bin Laden at the time, portraying him as a heroic freedom fighter and anti-Soviet warrior.

However, since 9/11, the U.S. made a specific point of making aiding and providing material support to al-Qaeda and its affiliated organizations a crime under U.S. law. Yet the U.S. has openly aided Syrias al-Qaeda branch , as well as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in Yemen , and now we have more than enough formal proof that the U.S. has knowingly continued a foreign policy strategy that essentially provided all manner of material support to ISIS, one of the most deadly terror groups in recent history, as well.

***

Its time for someone to be held accountable. There is a case to be made against the U.S. for some very serious criminal behavior here, and if anyone is serious about defeating radical Islamic terror, they should start by launching a court action against the U.S. government for its die-hard support for terrorism in the Middle East and beyond.

This article was originally published by Anti-Media -

====

Join the Discussion
The Director-General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, Julie Okah-Donli, has disclosed that more than 25,000 Nigerians have been held in slave and sex camps in Lybia.

Okah-Donli made this known while defending the agencys 2018 budget before the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters on Tuesday.

She said of the figure, about 5000 of the victims were repatriated within the period.

A large number of Nigerians have also been returned from other countries in Europe and Africa.

All these people need to be properly received, profiled and assisted.

NAPTIP has been working in conjunction with other governmental and non-governmental agencies such as NEMA, International Organisation for Migration and others to provide help to these unfortunate Nigerians, she said.

She lamented that in spite of the evils of human trafficking not so much attention was focused on the menace.

She said the recent trend which marked the resurgence of the slave trade was more alarming and required the attention it deserved.

According to her, the task before the agency is enormous while budgetary allocations have been comparatively low.

It is my honour and privilege to raise a cry for help in this hallowed chamber on behalf of the most vulnerable members of the society, especially women and children.

In recent months the odious and perverse consequences of human trafficking and irregular migration were forcefully brought to our television screens with gory tales, she said.

She said if human trafficking was to be reduced or eliminated, massive public awareness, as well as, behavioural change campaigns must be sustained from the grassroots to the national level.

The NAPTIP boss further said many victims of trafficking needed to undergo skills acquisition training or formal education.

The NAPTIP boss, however, commended the Federal Government and other stakeholders for their support in the wake of the recent slave trade of Africans.

Source : ( NAN )
A series of air strikes hit a residential district of a town in northwestern Syria overnight, killing 19 civilians, seven of them children, a monitor said on Wednesday.

Suspected Russian air strikes targeted several houses in Maarshurin, a rebel-held town in Idlib province, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Source : ( AFP )
Four Fulani herdsmen have been arrested in Ido Ani community by Ondo Police Command , in the Ose Local Government Area of the state for alleged abduction of the wife of a fellow Fulani man, Hadiza Saliu.

The suspects were also alleged to have earlier abducted the son of another Fulani herdsman in the community; but the boy was released after a ransom was paid by his father.

The state Public Relations Officer, Mr. Femi Joseph, told newsmen that the suspects were arrested last Friday.

He gave the names of the suspects as Adamu Ibrahim, Muhammadu Haruna, Saliu Bawa and Bashir Ibrahim.

Joseph explained that the suspects had confessed to be members of a kidnapping gang that had been terrorising residents of the Akoko area of the state.

He said, One Mohammed Gambo came to report to us that the men abducted his son and he paid N200,000 before the boy was released.

The same persons abducted another woman, Hadiza Saliu, on December 13, 2017. As they negociated the ransom with the womans husband, the victim ran away. Even after the victim had escaped, the abductors still called the husband for a ransom.

After reporting to us, we asked him to provide the ransom and our men, with some local vigilance groups, laid in ambush for the kidnappers, who later came to pick up the money.

Joseph stated further that one of the suspects, Adamu, was arrested when he went out of the bush to pick up the money.

He added that it was after the arrest that it was discovered that the same kidnap group was responsible for the abduction of Gambos son.

Adamu led us to arrest other members of the gang and they confessed that most of the kidnappings in the Akoko area were carried out by their gang, the PPRO said.

He noted that the suspects would soon appear in court.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
The police have arrested seven suspects who allegedly kidnapped and murdered a 64-year-old man, Mr Ubani Onyema, after collecting N10m ransom.

The Team Commander, Inspector-General of Police Intelligence Response Team, Abba Kyari, confirmed the arrest on Wednesday in Lagos.

Kyari, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, said the victim, a production manager in Niger Delta Petroleum Resources Ltd., was kidnapped by gunmen in Woji area of Port Harcourt on Oct. 16.

He said that a ransom call was made to the hostages company demanding N100m.

Eventually, the ransom was negotiated down to N10m, which was paid to the kidnappers despite not getting a proof of life.

IRT operatives deployed to Port Harcourt by IGP Ibrahim Idris swung into action as the hostage was not released after the ransom was paid as negotiated and agreed.

Unrelenting follow up by the IRT eventually led to the arrest of seven of the kidnappers. Suspects confessed to various roles each played in the kidnap.

They admitted that the victim died on the very day of his kidnap as a result of gunshot wounds he sustained during the incident.

They still went ahead to collect a ransom of N10m, Kyari said.

He said that the arrested suspects, including the gang leader, allegedly confessed to the crime.

According to him, the gang leader organised the kidnap and recruited the hostage keepers who brought the two cars used while his deputy purchased the pre-registered SIM used in negotiating and picking up the ransom.

Among the kidnap masterminds were three men who worked in the same company with the victim and a cultist who provided the arms.

Items recovered from the gang include one AK-47 rifle and two vehicles used in the kidnap.

Effort is ongoing to arrest other fleeing gang members, recover arms and the body of the victim which they confessed to have dumped into a river, Kyari said.

Source: ( NAN )
Men of the Nigeria Police Force have arrested seven suspects who allegedly kidnapped and murdered a 64-year-old man, Mr Ubani Onyema, after collecting N10 million ransom.

According to PM News, Abba Kyari, Team Commander, Inspector-General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT), confirmed the arrest on Wednesday in Lagos.

Kyari, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, said the victim, a production manager in Niger Delta Petroleum Resources Ltd., was kidnapped by gunmen in Woji area of Port Harcourt on Oct. 16.

He said that a ransom call was made to the hostages company demanding N100 million.

Eventually, the ransom was negotiated down to N10 million, which was paid to the kidnappers despite not getting a proof of life.

IRT operatives deployed to Port Harcourt by IGP Ibrahim Idris swung into action as the hostage was not released after the ransom was paid as negotiated and agreed.

Unrelenting follow up by the IRT eventually led to the arrest of seven of the kidnappers. Suspects confessed to various roles each played in the kidnap.

They admitted that the victim died on the very day of his kidnap as a result of gunshot wounds he sustained during the incident.

They still went ahead to collect a ransom of N10 million, Kyari said.

He said that the arrested suspects, including the gang leader, allegedly confessed to the crime.

According to him, the gang leader organised the kidnap and recruited the hostage keepers who brought the two cars used while his deputy purchased the pre-registered SIM used in negotiating and picking up the ransom.

Among the kidnap masterminds were three men who worked in the same company with the victim and a cultist who provided the arms.

Items recovered from the gang include one AK-47 rifle and two vehicles used in the kidnap.

Effort is ongoing to arrest other fleeing gang members, recover arms and the body of the victim which they confessed to have dumped into a river, Kyari said.
The Nigerian Army on Wednesday said its troops had killed 20 Boko Haram insurgents in a clearance operation in the Lake Chad Basin.

Timothy Antigha, This was confirmed by the Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, 8 Division, Timothy Antigha in a statement in Maiduguri.

Mr. Antigha said that the troops captured 17 insurgents, rescued 100 people, recovered vehicles and ammunition.

He said the six soldiers that sustained injuries in the operation were referred to military medical facility for treatment.

He said the operations were conducted in the past two weeks in Islands in Lake Chad region to crush Boko Haram insurgents inhabiting the islands.

In continuation of Operation DEEP PUNCH 2, designed to smoke out Boko Haram terrorists inhabiting remote Islands in Lake Chad basin lying within Nigerian territory, troops of 8 Division, Nigerian Army, on Operation LAFIYA DOLE, supported by soldiers of the Armed Forces Strike Group have inflicted heavy casualties on Boko Haram terrorists.

The operation which commenced about two weeks ago preceded by coordinated air and artillery bombardments of islands and localities occupied by terrorists.

The insurgents sneak into Magumeri, Kauram and other locations to loot property, attack security personnel and villagers.

Islands and villages cleared so far include: Arena Chiki, Chikun Gudu, Arena Waje, Saada and Juwe.

Mr. Antigha disclosed that the rescued civilians included 100 elderly men, women and children. He added that preliminary investigation revealed that most of the rescued persons were held hostage and forced to work in the farms.

The army spokesman listed the ammunition recovered to include one Mercedes Benz Truck; two gun trucks, two pick up vans, one Anti  Aircraft machine gun, five AK-47 riffles, three Fabrique Nationals (FN) Riffles, two G3 Riffles and one Pump Action Riffle.

Others are: one Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) tube, two bombs, two Very High Frequency (VHF) Radios and one Night Vision Goggle.

The troops also recovered 55 rounds of 5.56 X 45 mm ammunition, 5 Bangalore Torpedo, Two 120mm Mortar Bombs, and 1000 rounds of 7.62 mm Ball Metal Link ammunition.

Other ammunition included 55 rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition, 108 rounds of 12.7mm ammunition, two memory cards, two hydraulic jacks and a 1.5 amp battery.

Source: (NAN)
The Nigerian Army on Wednesday denied the invasion of Katsina Ala communities in Benue State where several houses were burnt on Monday.

According to the statement issued by the Assistant Director, Army Public Relations, 707 Special Forces Brigade, Nigerian Army, Major Olabisi Ayeni, intelligence report indicated that those who carried out the arson on Katsina Ala communities only disguised as soldiers.

The statement also said that the victim of the robbery incident was a discharged soldier who was traveling from Lagos to Katsina Ala.

Several houses were reportedly burnt down by supposed soldiers in the early hours of Monday in what locals described as reprisal over the killing of an army colonel at Saitti Agirigi along Katsina Ala- Tarkum expressway on Sunday.

The military in its statement on Wednesday described the report as baseless and unfounded, adding, our soldiers have been conducting themselves professionally in line with established Rules of Engagement and Code of Conduct for troops.

According to the statement, there was an incidence of reported armed robbery at Agirigi Community in Katsina-Ala LGA of Benue State on Monday 18th December 2017, where a discharged soldier travelling from Lagos to Katsina-Ala ran into unidentified suspected gunmen that fired at his vehicle and was killed.

Troops on Joint Task Force Operations Zyenda immediately moved to the scene of the incident. Unfortunately, the assailants absconded before the troops arrival.

The body was recovered and moved to Markurdi, the State capital. Patrols were also immediately intensified in the area of incident with a view to arresting the suspects, ensure normalcy, restoration of law and order and to also give confidence to the locals to pursue their daily activities without fear.

Consequently, on the early hours of 18th December 2017, there was an intelligence report that some people dressed in military uniforms were burning houses in the general area of the incident.

Upon arrival of own troops, nobody was seen in the area, however, it was suspected that the same armed men returned to attack the community probably believing the locals gave the security agencies information on their location.

We wish to state that it was not the troops of the Nigerian Army that were involved in the alleged arson; such uncivilized act is against the ethics of the Nigerian Army.

 It is our constitutional responsibility to protect the lives and properties of the civil populace and ensure peaceful co-existence amongst Nigerians.

Our troops are trained to ensure this without fear or favour, the statement said.
A bloody battle between men of the Nigerian army and Boko Haram members has resulted in the recovery of dangerous weapons from the terrorists.

In continuation of Operation DEEP PUNCH 2, designed to smoke out Boko Haram terrorists inhabiting remote islands in Lake Chad basin lying within Nigerian territory, troops of 8 Division, Nigerian Army, on Operation LAFIYA DOLE, supported by soldiers of the Armed Forces Strike Group have inflicted heavy casualty on Boko Haram terrorists.

The operation which commenced about 2 weeks ago was proceeded by coordinated air and artillery bombardment of islands and localities occupied by terrorists, and from where they sneak into Magumeri, Kauram and other locations to loot property and attack security personnel and villagers.

So far, 20 terrorists have been killed, captured 17 others, while over 100 elderly men, women and children have been rescued. Preliminary investigation has revealed that a large number of the rescued persons were held against their will and forced to work in farms under life threatening conditions and penurious wages. More investigation and interviews will be conducted before the rescued persons are handed over for further action.

The operation which is on  going has yielded handsomely as terrorists abandon vehicles, arms and ammunition, as well as assorted equipment when troops swooped on them. The troops also recovered 1Mercedes Benz Truck,

3 Toyota Land Cruiser Gun Trucks, 5 AK-47 Riffles, 3 Fabrique Nationals (FN) Riffles, 2 G3 Riffles and 1 Pump Action Riffle. Other items include 1 Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) tube, 2 Bombs, 2 Very High Frequency (VHF) Radios and 1 Night Vision Goggle.

The troops also recovered 55 Rounds of 5.56 X 45mm ammunition, 5 Bangalore Torpedo, Two 120mm Mortar Bombs, 1000 Rounds of 7.62mm Ball Metal Link Ammunition, 55 Rounds of 7.62mm Ammunition and 108 Rounds of 12.7mm Ammunition with links, as well as 2 memory cards, 2 Hydraulic Jacks and a 1.5 Amph Battery.

It is heartwarming to note we have not lost any life among our troops so far. However, 6 soldiers sustained various injuries and have since been evacuated for prompt medical attention.

Please, disseminate this information to the general public.

Colonel Timothy Antigha

Deputy Director Public Relations

8 Division Nigerian Army.
According to a report by Premium Times, a meeting between the federal government and striking university workers on Tuesday ended without an agreement.

The non-teaching staff embarked on the strike to protest the sharing of the earned allowance recently released to universities.

The meeting which held in Abuja was called to review governments offer on earned allowances and other demands of the three unions with a view to call off the strike.

The unions  Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, NASU , and National Association of Academic Technologists , NAAT  commenced an indefinite strike on December 4, accusing the government of violating an earlier agreement on the sharing pattern of earned allowances recently disbursed by it.

Some of the executives of the non-teaching staff while interacting with Premium Times said the meeting was deadlocked. They said the strike will continue until federal government meets the demand of the union.

Similarly, Abdussobur Salaam, SSANU public relations officer, said the nationwide strike continues

Our branch leaders have been informed that the strike continues and no stone will be left unturned to ensure full compliance of the strike directive, he said.

He said the federal government acknowledged the legitimacy of the unions grievances and has assured the three unions that efforts are ongoing to correct the unfortunate situation.

The commencement of the strike led to inactivity and disruption of services at many federal universities.

The N23 billion earned allowances was released to the universities in fulfilment of one of the resolutions reached to address the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.

But the three non-teaching unions rejected the prescribed sharing ratio of 11:89 percent between them and ASUU respectively which they said was in favour of the lecturers.
The Federal Government have been accused by the Peoples Democratic Party of building more prisons for its members, it also said that the government was planning to descend on PDP members in 2018.

The National Chairman of the party, Mr. Uche Secondus, stated these in Abuja at the opening of a two-day retreat for members of the newly elected National Working Committee of the party.

Secondus warned that those building the prisons might be the occupiers, adding that it was wrong for the Federal Government to be persecuting members of the PDP because of their refusal to defect to the ruling All Progressives Congress.

He said, We learnt that they are building more prisons. Let them go ahead and build more. They will be the one to stay there.

We learnt that they are coming after our members in January. Let them continue. How many people will they put in jail?

They should stop intimidating people. They should remember that almost everybody they had put in jail wrongly came back to become President.

This is because they were jailed unjustifiably. So, if they are persecuting us, let them continue. But we will not withdraw the ultimatum we gave them to quit Aso Rock in 2019.

Secondus stated that it was wrong to assume that the PDP was not ready to fight corruption, stressing that the regime of former President Olusegun Obasanjo established institutions that he said are currently waging a war against graft in the country.

The PDP chairman added that the former President did not spare members of the PDP then, unlike now when he alleged that the ruling party protects its members.

We stabilised the structure to fight corruption. Obasanjo, a PDP President, started the fight against corruption. He fought our members. But unlike now, no matter how corrupt you are, if you dont want to be arrested, just defect to the APC, he added.

Speaking when he received members of the Board of Trustees of the party earlier, Secondus called on the Federal Government to stop intimidating members of the party.

He said, APC should stop intimidating our leaders. We will no longer take it; enough is enough. They dont need to attack us; they should fulfil what they promised us.

Enough of this; we are not in a military era. What I am telling them is that God is not sleeping. When the time comes, the people will speak through their votes.

We handed over freely in 2015 and they should be prepared to hand over to us. No amount of intimidation will distract Nigerians.

Secondus condemned the alleged harassment of the former President of the Senate, David Mark, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

There is nowhere in the world where a former Senate President has been harassed like this before, he added.

While receiving former chairmen of the party, led by Ahmadu Ali, Secondus restated that he and members of the NWC would not be intimidated, adding that they would have zero tolerance for corruption and imposition of candidates.

The Chairman of the BoT, Senator Walid Jibrin, explained that at no time did members of the BoT support Senator Ali Modu Sheriff while the latter was leading the party.

Jibrin called on members of the party to unite and support the Governor Seriake Dickson-led reconciliation committee.

The BoT, however, recommended that the new NWC should visit all chairmanship aspirants that lost the bid to emerge as the chairman of the party and their key supporters.

It equally recommended that the new NWC should deal with the various petitions; organise a retreat for all party organs; revisit the issue of the new party secretariat; revisit the biometric registration of members and avoid anything that will lead to unnecessary court cases.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday congratulated the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, on his 55th birthday.

This was confirmed in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, the President said he joined all members of the National Assembly, friends and family in celebrating Saraki.

He said the President of the Senate had made his mark on the political scene.

The President believes that at 55, and having served as a two-term governor, senator and Senate President, Dr. Saraki, has demonstrated commitment in the pursuit of a prosperous, united and peaceful Nigeria.

President Buhari prays that God Almighty will grant him more years of good health, wisdom and fulfilment in the service of God and country, the statement read.

Also, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Land Transport, Gbenga Ashafa, sent out a warm message to felicitate with Saraki as he marked his 55th birthday on Tuesday.

Ashafa, who represents the Lagos East Senatorial District at the Senate, said, Happy 55th birthday to your Excellency, the President of the Nigerian Senate @bukolasaraki.

Ashafa, who also commended the leadership of the Senate under Saraki, said the Senate has transformed into a more dynamic and vibrant institution in the service of the Nigerian people.

Meanwhile, Saraki, his wife, Oluwatoyin, and the Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, were on Tuesday conspicuously absent at a special prayer for Saraki at 55.

The prayer was organised in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, by Sarakis associates and supporters.

No reason was however given during the prayers for the absence of Saraki and his wife as well as Ahmed, who usually played the role of the chief host at such a ceremony.

But Sarakis media aide, Yusuph Olaniyonu, informed one of our correspondents that the Senate President was not in Ilorin because the Senate resumed plenary and Saraki preferred national assignment to personal concern.

Also Ahmeds Senior Special Assistant on Media and Communication, Dr. Muyideen Akorede, in a text message said the governor did not attend the prayer so as not to negate Sarakis preference for low key birthday celebration.

The Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Dr. Ali Ahmad, however, led dignitaries at the prayer.

He said Saraki had sustained the legacies of his late father, Olusola.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
New Orleans rapper, Mystikal pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree rape and second-degree kidnapping at the Caddo District Court on Monday.

Recall that in August, the rapper whose real name is Michael Lawrence Tyler, turned himself in after local police sex crimes investigators looked into the alleged sexual assault that took place in 2016 at a casino in Shreveport, Louisiana.

After investigators submitted physical evidence to a lab, they were notified that the DNA linked Tyler, 47, and another man named Averweone Holman, 26, to the alleged rape.

Both Tyler and Holman were charged with first-degree rape and bond was set at $2 million for each.

The Did I Do It rapper is still being held at the Caddo Correctional Center in Louisiana on $3 million bond.

The Caddo district attorneys office disclosed to KSLA thatTyler plans to file a motion for a bond reduction during his next hearing on Jan. 18.

Meanwhile, a grand jury also indicted a woman related to the case for obstruction of justice. Shes being held at the Caddo Correctional Center.

Source: Linda Ikejis blog
An unidentified man was allegedly arrested by police operatives for not being able to produce receipts for the two phones on him.

According to an online source, Nki Ru, the man was in a cab to Rivers State University for a meeting before he was allegedly arrested by officers of the Operation Delta Police, Mile One division in Rivers state.

The police officers allegedly took the man into custody for possession of two cellphones without receipt.

Nki Ru wrote;

Police arrest man, alleged that he doesnt have receipts for the two phones on him.

Hear him;

In a taxi cap to rivers state university for a meeting Operation delta Nigeria police mile one just picked me up along Elabuchi road to their base (Mile one police station)

They alleged that i am in possession of two cell phones without receipt

Good Nigerian should draw the attention of the mile one DPO
Muktar Mohammed, a Nigerian soldier, has been arrested over his alleged involvement in the killing of a 19-year-old Richman Leyal in Gbaraun community, Southern Ijaw local government area of Bayelsa State.

According to The Nation, it was gathered that the soldier was arrested based on the directive of the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, who ordered the 6th Division of the Nigerian Army to investigate the circumstances that led to the Leyals killing.

The chief of army staff was said to have acted on a petition written by Mr. Efieseimokumo Bipeledei, a lawyer to Chief Oweilayefa Akpami, Chief Inaighaghe Abagidi, Chief Solomon Leyal and Mr. Mathial Leyal, who are members of the deceased family.

The teenager was reportedly killed on June 19, 2017 at the site of a community self-help project by gunshots allegedly fired by Mohammed and three other soldiers, who were said to be on the run.

Bipeledei confirmed the suspects arrest on Wednesday.

He said: The military police visited the scene of the crime at Gbaraun community where they saw evidence of sporadic shooting at the scene.

The team of military investigation visited the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) mortuary to see the body of the deceased where they confirmed that the deceased died of gunshot injury.

The team later visited the criminal investigation department of the police where the head Homicide Department briefed them of their preliminary findings.
In this concluding part of the interview President Muhammadu Buhari granted Eric Osagie, The SunMD/Editor-in-Chief in company of Paulinus Aidoghie in 2012, he explains why he is not super rich despite being former Head of State.

Read some excerpts from the interview below:

President Buhari: I used to smoke, but of course, I abandoned it I think in 1977.

Oh really? Before you became head of state?

President Buhari: Yes, I stopped smoking.

Have you ever taken alcohol?

President Buhari: No.

Never?

President Buhari: Never.

Even as a young man and all that?

President Buhari: No, no. Even in the military tradition, how they break you in, I said well, the military did not stop anybody practising his religion. My religion said no alcohol and no alcohol. So, that was respected. I was never forced to take alcohol and I have never voluntarily taken it because I want to remain alert all the time. There is a tendency that when you drink, you would want to have a bottle more, or a glass more and do something stupid.

As a young man, very handsome because I saw some of your old pictures, did you have women flocking around you? And women like soldiers, people who have power

I also thought women ought to have taken more interest in me but I dont know why they didnt. I must have something they didnt like. I assure you of that. I didnt drink, I smoked, I had girlfriends; it was true.

How many did you have?

President Buhari: I hope you wont publish this because my wife will read the interview. So, you will be very kind to me if you dont publish that (general laughter).

You joined the army and there was coup and counter-coup and civil war. You still had time to unwind?

You can create it but we had too much eventful time, professional career. It was too eventful. There were too many things happening almost at the same time. If I could recall, the 30 months civil war that we had, I was just having two weeks after every six months to come back home just to see my old mother and some of my relatives because I refused to get married till after the war.

Was it deliberate?

President Buhari: It was deliberate.

Why? I thought that would have been the reason to get married.

President Buhari: No, no. Some of our colleagues, like late Vatsa, like Babangida, they were more adventurous than myself. They took a weekend and had a quick marriage and went back to the front. I thought I would be putting the poor girl or the poor woman under a lot of stress. So, I said if I survived the war, I would get married, but if I didnt survive, no woman should cry for me other than my relatives.

Some of your General-colleagues became stupendously rich. Today, they have means. I am not a lawyer taking inventory of your assets or preparing your will, but tell me what property do you have now at 70? I am sure you have a house in Abuja, you have one in Lagos. You have one in Daura and you have one here (Kaduna). So, if I count your property, maybe five. Am I right or wrong?

You are right but am not going to read or declare with you. My assets were on record, I told some of your colleagues when they came. When Murtala/Obasanjo regime came, they made sure that certain grades of public officers must declare their assets when they assumed that office and they must declare when they were leaving. So, when I was sworn in as governor of North East, I declared my assets.

Source: Sun Newspaper
Controversial media personality, Daddy Freeze condemned the performance of Regga musician, Majek Fashek at Commonwealth of Zion Assembly, COZA, last week.

Freeze said it made no sense for a secular artist to perform in such gathering as Christian altars are supposed to be sacrosanct.

Majeks manager has now replied him by threatening to beat him up if he ever mentions Majeks name on social media again.

He shared the threat video and wrote;

Theres nothing wrong with a world class legend Majek Fashek whos music sends the right message to be invited to perform in any church. To Daddy Freeze u need to do your research properly b4 wagging your mouth and speaking like a Kid. And as Majek has said you need to wake up for the kingdom of GOD is at Hand. @biodunfatoyinbo thanks  you once more for impacting positively into the lifes of Young Nigerian and making the believe in themselves.

Watch video below
A young Nigerian Lady has recounted her near-death experience after she was shot and almost lost her life due to an attack by unknown gunmen.

Sharing the good news on Facebook the pretty lady named Obodo Amaka, revealed that she was just returning from the market when the men of the underworld struck.

Amaka was was shocked to realize that the bullet got lodged in her lungs. She is full of thanks to God for sparing her life.



She wrote: I was shot yesterday on my way back from the market by an unknown gun men, I felt something like stone hit me and kept walking until I started feeling the flow of blood down my legs. I have every reason to be grateful and thankful to God for giving me a second chance. Help me thank God, I also need your prayers cause the x-ray showed that the bullet is still resting on my lungs, its in a very delicate area and cant be removed at the moment.

-Gistreel
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (R) and General Secretary of the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party and President of Laos Bounnhang Vorachith (Source: VNA)



The Lao Party and State leader is in Vietnam for an official friendly visit from December 19th-21st at the invitation of General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Trong and President Tran Dai Quang.

PM Phuc expressed joy at the success of the Vietnam-Laos Friendship Year 2017, saying that the Governments of both countries have guided their ministries, sectors, localities and businesses in implementing Vietnam-Laos joint statements, agreements reached by their leaders, and cooperative pacts, programmes and plans, contributing to political stability, socio-economic development and international integration of each country.

Party General Secretary and President of Laos Bounnhang Vorachith commended the two governments for their close coordination and effective work in assessing bilateral cooperation and addressing obstacles in the implementation of key cooperative projects as well as outstanding problems in bilateral ties.

He urged the two governments to continue with their strong leadership of the implementation of bilateral agreements to foster the comprehensive cooperation between the two countries.

In particular, the Lao leader requested that Vietnam promote cooperation with Laos in agriculture, and expressed thanks to Vietnam for allowing land-locked Laos to use its Vung Ang Port for economic development.

In reply, PM Phuc affirmed that the Vietnamese Government will actively carry out bilateral agreements and take effective measures to remove obstacles in bilateral economic cooperation.

He took the occasion to thank the Lao Party and State for their sympathy and timely support for flood and storm victims in Vietnams Central localities./.
The Hialeah, Fla., City Council has agreed to extend a neighborhood business-district zone onto a 6-acre parcel, which will allow the development of East 41, a mixed-use project that includes an 80,000-square-foot self-storage facility. Development group 1100 E. 41st Street LLC, led by Miami investor Rolando Delgado, is under contract to purchase the property. The two-phase project will also include residential and retail components, according to the source.

The change in zoning from strictly industrial will allow the developer to have 413 apartment units above 15,900 square feet of ground-floor retail space. The property currently houses a 150,350-square-foot industrial complex.

The zoning requires the project to help revitalize the neighborhood. About 9,000 square feet will be dedicated for city-led community programs, the source reported.

Miami-based Modis Architects LLC has been tapped to design the project.
Top News - Investor Idea

Breaking EV Stock News: Mullen (NASDAQ: MULN) Announces Funding to Close on ELMS Assets

BREA, Calif. - November 17, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Mullen Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ: MULN) ("Mullen" or the "Company"), an emerging electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer, announces today receipt of $150 million on Nov. 16, 2022, which will be used in part to close on ELMS assets.

Top EV Stock News - Investor Idea

EV Companies on the Rise: (NASDAQ: MULN) (NASDAQ: TSLA) (NYSE: NIO) (NASDAQ: RIVN)

Vancouver, Kelowna, Delta, BC - November 16, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Investor Ideas Investorideas.com, a leading investor news resource covering EV stocks releases a special report on the continued growth within the sector

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
General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Nguyen Phu Trong (R) and General Secretary of the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party (LPRP) and President of Laos Bounnhang Vorachith (Photo VNA)



General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Nguyen Phu Trong and General Secretary of the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party (LPRP) and President of Laos Bounnhang Vorachith made the statement during their talks in Hanoi on December 19th.

They described the successful friendship and solidarity year 2017 between Vietnam and Laos as an important milestone in the two countries relations.

In the years to come, the two countries would face a lot of difficulties and challenges in building, safeguarding and reforming the nation. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen coordination in implementing development strategies in the respective societies while improving the bilateral cooperation efficiency across the fields, especially regarding economics.

Vietnam and Laos pledged to closely work to realise more effectively the agreements signed between the two countries Parties and States and the Vietnam-Laos Joint Statement.

The two sides will spare no efforts to deepen their political ties and increase experience sharing in building the Party and a strong political system as well as boosting socio-economic development and international integration.

They will focus on personnel training at all levels, promoting the spirit of the friendship solidarity year and raising public awareness of the traditional friendship and special relations between Vietnam and Laos, especially among youngsters.

The Vietnamese and Lao leaders agreed to continue coordinating effectively and providing mutual support at regional and international forums, especially at the United Nations (UN), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS).

The two countries vowed to coordinate with GMS nations and relevant international organisations to make effective and sustainable use and management of water resources of the Mekong River, while strengthening coordination with Cambodia to implement efficiently the trilateral agreement on Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle Area (CLV).

Regarding the East Sea issue, Vietnamese and Lao leaders stressed the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security, safety and freedom of navigation and overflight in the East Sea.

They agreed to settle any disputes via peaceful means and in line with international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), and the early building of the Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).

After talks, the host and guest witnessed the signing of an agreement between the Vietnamese and Lao Governments on the construction of the Lao National Assembly building and the handing over of a certificate on the Laos-Vietnam Port Joint Stock Company to the Lao side and a collection of books Vietnam-Laos, Laos-Vietnam friendship roads.

The Lao leader invited General Secretary Trong to visit Laos at an appropriate time, and the later accepted the invitation with pleasure.

The Lao leader is paying an official friendly visit to Vietnam from December 19th-21st, the second of its kind during his tenure (2016-2021). It is made at the invitation of Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President Tran Dai Quang./.
In a recent release, Kerlink, an IoT network solutions company, has announced it will provide Proximus, an international telecom company and the leading provider of telephony, Internet, television and network-based ICT services in Belgium, with 800 more stations for the Proximus LoRaWAN IoT network in that country.

This network densification with geolocation-ready Kerlink Wirnet iBTS Standard stations follows Proximuss deployment of a LoRaWAN IoT network in 2015 with 130 Kerlink Wirnet Stations, and Wirnet iBTS Standard reference. When the additional rollout is completed by year-end, the network will have more than 1,000 Kerlink Wirnet units in the field.

In addition to its increasing deployment to power new networks in Europe, South Asia and South America, the Wirnet product range readily supports cell densification and enhanced service, like geolocation or native security for remote management of gateways, said Yann Bauduin, director of sales for operators, Kerlink. Wirnet iBTS Standard stations modularity offers increased coverage through cell densification by simply adding an extra LoRaWAN module. Its geolocation-ready design also enables a fast ramp up to deploy innovative location-based services, natively localizing each end device through the network.

Targeting public network operators, Wirnet iBTS Standard and Wirnet iBTS Compact stations are deployed outdoors and provide carrier-grade versatile, long-range, two-way and geolocation-ready connectivity. Kerlink customers worldwide have already deployed several thousand of these stations for IoT dedicated networks.

Launching a cell-densification project in a short time after starting the deployment of our LoRaWAN network in Belgium is testimony to the positive reception and increasing use of the network by our customers, said Alex Thomas, IoT program manager, Proximus. We tested Kerlinks Wirnet stations before deployment, and they demonstrated that they fully meet the expectations of users, backed by the Kerlink teams constant customer support and confirmed expertise.

This new IoT network has already stimulated innovations and opened the door to new business models, said Joke Tisaun, IoT product manager, Proximus. This is the case for some interesting applications we support today, like measuring the fullness of glass containers in order to optimize pick-up routes and enhance customer experience. In addition, we launched a project with the biggest gas supplier in Belgium, where we will monitor the gas tanks of people in their homes, to improve the service they can offer to their end-customers.

Edited by Ken Briodagh
The Irish arm of catalogue retailer Argos returned to profit last year, despite revenues declining 3.4% to 219m.

Newly-filed accounts for Argos Distributors Ireland Ltd show a pre-tax profit for 6.37m for the 54 weeks to March 11 of this year.

This followed the company recording a pre-tax loss of 153m for the 52 weeks to the end of February 2016.

That loss arose from a goodwill impairment following UK supermarket Sainsburys 1.4m takeover of Argos late last year.

The latest year saw the Irish division record a post-tax profit of 5.4m following payment of corporate tax of 969,000.

Numbers employed by Argos in Ireland last year totalled 1,024.

The company operates 40 stores here including in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Longford, Athlone, Arklow, Tralee, Carlow, Dundalk, Killarney, Letterkenny, Navan, Waterford, Wexford, Portlaoise, Tullamore, Castlebar, Drogheda and Ashbourne.

Operating profit, before exceptional items, amounted to 8m.

That was reflective of a decrease in net operating expenses and an increase in gross margin on the reduced sales.

Argos Ireland posted a gross profit of 60.44m, with its cost of sales totalling 159.35m.

The companys cashpile last year reduced from 18.9m to 12.67m.

As of the end of its last financial year, Argos Ireland had accumulated profits of 13.7m.
The Dalata Hotel Group expects its 2017 earnings to be in line with market forecasts and said it is upbeat regarding its trading outlook for 2018, buoyed by a strong UK development pipeline.

The group, which owns the Clayton and Maldron hotel chains, has agreed to lease a new yet-to-be-built Maldron Hotel in central Glasgow.

That brings to five the number of UK hotels Dalata has in the planning stages, including another in Glasgow under the Clayton brand.

However, the opening of a Maldron hotel in Newcastle has been postponed from late 2018 to February 2019.

Dalata described trading in the final four months of this year as being as expected and said full-year earnings will meet analyst targets, namely somewhere between 102m and 104m.

In the first 11 months of this year, revenue per available room at Dalatas Dublin hotels was up by 9.5%, with an 8.7% growth rate evident in its Irish hotels outside of the capital.

Lower growth was seen in the groups hotels in the UK and the North, but that joint region was still the best performing with a 10.4% revenue rise.

Dalata is set to face more competition in Ireland and the UK on the back of Swedish group Pandox and Israels Fattal Hotels buying Jurys Inn for 908m with an eye on expansion.

Meanwhile, despite 75% of Irish hotels and guesthouses reporting a rise in visitor numbers this year, only 9% are seeing an increase in visitors from Britain. This has prompted the Irish Hotels Federation to call for more targeted marketing support for regional tourism.

The continued fallout from Brexit and the slowdown in visitor growth are worrying as they have a significant regional bias, said federation president Joe Dolan.
Ireland West Airport is to receive funding of 1,868,439 under the Public Policy Remit Operational Expenditure Subvention (PPR-O) Scheme for 2017.

The programme provides for Exchequer support to contribute towards the operational costs associated with air traffic control, fire, safety and security at the airport.
Ryanairs decision to recognise unions for the first time will not alter its profit forecast for the year, chief executive Michael OLeary has said.

Staff costs at the airline will increase by 100m in the current financial year following recent pay hikes, but rates of pay increases may moderate after that as the airline will no longer have to pay extra to attract pilots to a non-unionised airline, he said.

Ryanairs share price rose over 2% yesterday. However, since the companys announcement of trade union recognition, last Friday, around 1.5bn has been wiped from its market value.

We continue to hold our guidance, of 1.4bn to 1.45bn for the year to March 31, Mr OLeary said.

We have paid a lot of money to keep the unions out. I suspect there will be more modest rates of increase in the years going forward, he said.

Ryanair also sees chances for new bases in France and Scandinavia thanks to its move to recognise unions, Mr OLeary said.

Clearly one of the upsides of engaging in union recognition from our point of view is that it opens up growth opportunities for us in France and Scandinavia, countries that were previously closed to us because we felt it was going to involve mandatory union recognition, Mr OLeary said.

He said Ryanair could base up to 50 planes in France and that the airline had been in touch with pilot unions in France and Denmark already.

If anything it accentuates the Ryanair model, he said. However, while Mr OLeary said he was serious about his decision to recognise trade unions, he said the airline would retain the right to move planes to different countries if unions made unreasonable demands.

Ryanair shocked investors on Friday by recognising trade unions for the first time in 32-years to try to avoid its first-ever strike later that day.

The unions want to know there isnt some kind of curve-ball. There isnt, Mr OLeary said ahead of his airlines first meeting with Irelands pilot union last night.

But if someone is being unreasonable and we are being completely messed around by a union, we will still move aircraft away from that base or country, he said.

Thats not the plan. The plan is to work with unions. n Reuters
People right across the country will experience the arts in new and exciting ways in 2018, the Arts Council have pledged today.

Outlining its plan to invest 68.4m over the course of the year, the agency for developing the arts said the focus of this years investment would be on creating opportunities for the public to experience large-scale work, as well as work of real artistic ambition, by supporting organisations through its two new funding programmes.

2018 is going to be an excellent year for everyone in Ireland who enjoys the arts", said Arts Council Director, Orlaith McBride.

Whether you love theatre or opera or music or dance or literature or visual arts, whether you are young or old and no matter where you live, you will experience great work that will lift your spirit.

The Council said more than half of its total grant from Government would be invested through its new Strategic Funding programme, for established organisations operating at the highest level across all the areas of the arts. This includes funding for the first time at this level for several organisations.

In addition, there will be increased funding for particular work by artists, emerging companies and organisations through the new Arts Grants Funding programme.

New! Bursary awards open for applications in Architecture, Circus, Dance, Film, Literature, Music, Opera, Street arts & Spectacle, Theatre, Visual Arts. Deadline: 17:30, Thursday 25 January 2018. #artsIreland pic.twitter.com/9HcMHoFBDJ  Arts Council Ireland (@artscouncil_ie) December 19, 2017

Individual artists will be supported through a range of schemes such as bursaries and the Next Generation award, the Council said, with funding too for the dozens of unique festivals that take place in communities across Ireland from January to December.

This is the first year of our new funding framework, which by its rigour and strategic focus we believe will help shape and develop the arts in Ireland for many years to come, said Ms McBride.

We are already very encouraged by the response from artists and arts organisations, and when we look at the breadth and scale of the work being funded we know with confidence that people right across Ireland will experience the best of the arts in 2018.

Key areas of investment include:

- New national opera company bringing Irish productions from the great operatic repertoire, with overall investment in opera of 4.7 million

- Special focus on arts programmes for children and young people, including central role for Arts Council in Governments new Scoileanna Ildanaca/Creative Schools initiative in 150 schools and a special investment of 600,000

- Multi-annual grants for some organisations, to allow better planning for 2019 and 2020

- Development arts funding for all 31 local authorities and Ealain na Gaeltachta, and investment of some 2.4 million

- Investment in arts centres around the country to be maintained, with investment of 5.5 million

- Abbey Theatre supported in its ambitious new plans with tours around Ireland with 7 million for 2018

- Aosdana sustained and cnuas maintained to honour and support our established artists, with investment of 2.7 million

- Several organisations previously funded through non-recurring programmes now offered grants under Strategic Funding

For 2018, the Arts Council offered 28.4 million through its Strategic Funding programme to 156 organisations in literature, music, dance, visual arts, theatre, street art, circus, spectacle, opera, film, architecture and the traditional arts, as well as through special areas of arts practice such as arts participation and young people, children and arts education.

Tonight we celebrate 40 years of the Writers in School scheme. See why it was viewed as 'an exciting new project' by the Cork Examiner in 1977. #artsIreland. #archives pic.twitter.com/gOGd3YO3Qm  Arts Council Ireland (@artscouncil_ie) December 13, 2017

Amongst the grants offered to organisations were 286,000 to West Cork Music; 537,000 to Galway International Arts Festival; 232,000 to Arts & Disability Ireland; 241,000 to eva International; 671,000 to the Irish Traditional Music Archive; 450,310 to the Dublin Dance Festival; 565,000 to The Ark; 538,000 to Music Network; 80,000 to Louth Contemporary Music; 10,000 to Mill Theatre; 850,000 to the Irish Film Institute; and 40,000 to Helium Childrens Arts and Health.

A significant number of organisations supported through Strategic Funding have included touring of their work to different parts of the country. The Arts Councils policy of encouraging touring will be further underpinned by an additional investment of 1 million in touring during 2018.

Through its new Arts Grant Funding programme, the Council has also set aside some 1.6 million to support more organisations and artists making work directly for the public. The Council said it would be accepting applications to this programme from March 2018, and would hold workshops to assist organisations intending to apply. Details will be available on the Arts Council website and through its Newsletter early in the New Year.

Some 5.5 million has been set aside for supporting individual artists in 2018, through bursaries, travel and training grants, commissions and through Aosdana, the affiliation of creative artists, where qualifying members are entitled to an annual cnuas bursary of 17,180. The overall sum does not include grants to Individual artists through project funding, Open Call, and the new Arts Grant Funding programme.

The Arts Council has committed 4.7 million to opera in 2018. This will see the creation of a new opera company bringing Irish productions from the great operatic repertoire, touring across the country, continued funding for Wexford Festival Opera, and further support through projects, commissions, bursaries and other schemes.

In 2018, the Arts Council will continue to focus on the arts in the lives of young people and children, and will play a central role in Creative Youth pillar of the Governments Creative Ireland initiative. We will invest some 600,000 as we deliver the Scoileanna Ildanaca/Creative Schools pilot initiative to 150 schools.

Several organisations previously supported only through non-recurring funding have received offers under the new Strategic Funding programme, including theatre company ANU Productions, dance company United Fall, publishers Tramp Press and Galway Community Circus.

The Council will invest 210,000 its highly successful Title by Title scheme in 2018, with awards to support the production of seven books and to support the costs of eight literary journals. Works will be published in Irish and English, in both traditional and online formats, and will cover a number of genres including childrens literature, poetry and literary fiction. In addition, 2018 will see the appointment of a new Laureate for Irish Fiction and a new Laureate na n-Og, with both sure to underscore the excellence of Irish literature and encourage people of all ages to read.

Also in 2018, the Arts Council will invest 221,000 to support almost 700 artists in 19 studio spaces across the country, from spacecraft in Limerick, to BLOCK T in Dublin to Custom House Studios in Westport, Co Mayo.

- Digital desk
THE CENTRAL ORGAN OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF VIETNAM The Voice of the party, State and Vietnamese people on the internet

Notify:

The requested content was not found or the content is invalid!


The Irish Cancer Society has today announced a major investment to foster the growth of cancer research, which it hopes will significantly benefit people with cancer in Ireland.

Professor Peter OGorman, Consultant Haematologist at Mater University Hospital, has been awarded a two-year Clinician Researcher grant to advance high quality blood cancer research.

This Irish Cancer Society grant will allow Prof OGorman to dedicate two days a week to developing and growing new areas of cancer research for the benefit of patients in Ireland. His research will focus on multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells in the bone marrow.

As you get ready to celebrate your own special Christmas we invite you to donate & put your name on a star for our Christmas Tree of Thanks: https://t.co/c18KGQVeod. Your support means more patients receive free, confidential advice & support every step of their cancer journey. pic.twitter.com/8qvLu8vZLz  Irish Cancer Society (@IrishCancerSoc) December 14, 2017

As those at the forefront of patient care, doctors such as Prof OGorman are well placed to lead on research that can make improvements in cancer care and treatment.

Each year in Ireland around 300 people are diagnosed with multiple myeloma and 170 people die from this disease. Prof OGormans research aims to save lives by continuing the development of a global clinical trial program of new therapies, thus allowing real-time access for patients in Ireland to the best available treatments.

As a scientific expert in multiple myeloma and a member of Cancer Trials Ireland, Prof OGorman will use this time to design and lead new patient trials, discover new treatments, and optimise existing treatments in a way that makes them more effective for patients. At the core of his research will be a personalised medicine approach, i.e. the most appropriate treatment plan for each patient based on his/her genetic make-up relevant to the disease.

Through The Mater Institute of Research and Therapy (www.mirtireland.com) and the Medici Global (www.themediciglobal.com), Prof OGorman will keep patients, their families and the wider community informed of the latest developments in multiple myeloma research as well as the direct activities of his research group.

Prof OGorman added: I am delighted to have been awarded this grant, which will allow me to devote more time and resources to cancer research. Just a decade ago a multiple myeloma diagnosis meant that a patient could only expect to survive for three to five years. Today, that average survival time has doubled, and the introduction of new medicines in the coming years will see patient outcomes improve even further.

In the clinic we are leading clinical trials of new agents and treatment combinations to maximise response and to minimise toxicity. In the lab, using cutting edge proteo-genomic technology, I am focused on identifying new targets for drug development and developing predictive tests to individualise treatments and maximise its value and effectiveness.

The work which the Irish Cancer Society has agreed to fund will now allow me to provide more patients in Ireland with access to the next generation of treatments. Hopefully they will be among the first in the world to benefit from the latest advances in multiple myeloma research.

Prof OGorman is also one of five national Principal Investigators as part of Blood Cancer Network Ireland (BCNI), a collaborative cancer research network that offers early stage clinical trials to blood cancer patients around the country. BCNI is funded by the Irish Cancer Society and Science Foundation Ireland.

Prof OGorman was awarded his research grant from the Irish Cancer Society after a competitive and thorough application process, with proposals strenuously vetted and reviewed by an international, external panel of research professionals to ensure the very best research gets funded.

The Irish Cancer Society will continue to monitor Prof OGormans progress throughout his funding term, ensuring that his research is carried out to world-class standards. As part of the funding agreement, measures will be put in place to ensure that Prof OGormans dedicated research time will have no negative impact on patients and patient care.

Commenting on the announcement, Dr Robert OConnor, Head of Cancer Research at the Irish Cancer Society, said:

Were very excited to announce funding for Prof OGormans vital cancer research. This is only possible through the publics support for our work. As someone with a long and successful career as a haematologist and cancer researcher, including his role as National Lead for blood cancer trials with Cancer Trials Ireland which he held from 2010 to 2014, we know that the publics generous donations are being put to good use through Prof OGormans work.

Through this funding, Prof OGorman joins a team of around 100 cancer researchers around the country whose work is currently funded by the Irish Cancer Society. Each are working exceptionally hard to stop cancer and save lives, and we are tremendously proud to be able to back them.

- Digital desk
The LE Niamh returned to Haulbowline Naval Base in Co. Cork this morning.

The Ship had been on a three-month mission to the Mediterranean and came to the aid of more than 600 migrants.

Family and friends gathered to welcome the captain and his crew home to Cork.

For crew member, Jordan Culbert, there was a very important question to ask Alison Parsons, as he got down on bended knee on stepping off the ship in Cork.

Jordan Culbert proposes to his girlfriend Alison Parsons - both from Birr, Co Offaly - after the arrival of the LE Niamh to the Naval Base in Haulbowline, Co Cork, today. Pic: David Keane.

Afterwards, as he was stood next to a delighted Alison, he said it was the right time to do it.

He said: "It was long overdue, it was finally time to pop the question. Relieved."

- Digital desk
An annual database on motor insurance trends will be published by the Central Bank starting from next year, writes Political Correspondent Juno McEnroe.

Motorists to be informed why their insurance premiums change

The decision was taken by Cabinet yesterday and will see motorists informed why premiums go up or down. Consumer advocates and opposition TDs have been outraged over the sky-high rates being charged by insurance companies in recent years.

The European Commission last year even carried out raids on motor insurance companies in a bid to check if they were engaging in anti-competitive practices.

The Cost of Insurance Working Group recently presented its first report to the Government. The first steps towards the new group were set up by Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy, when he was junior minister for finance.

The Cabinet has examined the report and yesterday agreed that a National Claims Information Database will help facilitate a more in-depth analysis of annual trends in motor insurance claims.

This will help shed light on how claims costs are having an impact on premiums, and understanding the relationship between the price paid by a customer for motor insurance and the cost to insurance undertakings.

The Central Bank will publish an annual report on the data. However, a government spokesman could not say if this would include actual details or names of specific insurance companies and their rates being charged.

Nonetheless, it is hoped the data published will increase transparency on the relationship between insurance premiums and related costs, said the Government.

Drivers in recent years have been charged multiples of their premiums with insurers often claiming that the level and costs of accidents are contributing towards the sharp rises.

The government says the new database will identify current and emerging trends in the market, the factors that drive movements in the price of insurance and the number of claims annually.

The last government had blamed motor insurance rises on the frequency of claims by drivers, on the fact the amounts claimed had also risen and there had been a rise in legal costs. New material and figures that will be published in the database by the Central Bank will also provide statistical analyses of the costs associated with settling claims as well as, the Government said, an understanding [of] the settlement channels used.

Fianna Fails Michael McGrath, who has been trying to drive reform of the sector, has previously said: Seven out of every 10 claims are settled out of court by insurance companies, with no register or evidence as to consistency with regard to the settlement of those claims.

This story originally appeared in the Irish Examiner.
Ryanair is to be investigated by two powerful UK parliamentary committees following damning allegations over employee working conditions at the budget airline.

UK MPs Frank Field and Rachel Reeves, chairs of the Work and Pensions and Business select committees, have written to the airline's boss, Michael O'Leary, to demand answers amid claims of staff being underpaid, having to fork out for their own uniforms and incurring fees when they leave.

Ms Reeves even accused the company of "trying to wiggle out" of paying the National Minimum Wage.

UK Labour veteran Mr Field added: "Sadly, it will not surprise me if the sorry picture painted here is true: a company that turned in 1.15bn (1.3bn) profit last year squeezing its workers.

"People who work long, hard hours and have an important role in passenger safety, and yet apparently cannot count on receiving the National Minimum Wage - or even close to it.

"Ryanair once tried to make its passengers pay to use the loo - now they even make their workers pay to quit. As well as foisting a host of other miserly - and potentially unlawful - requirements on them."

He said that the two committees "will be investigating these allegations further".

A spokesperson for Ryanair said: "We will respond to the sub-Committee in early January as requested. Ryanair cabin crew earn between 24,000 to 40,000, which is more than double the UK national minimum wage."

The letter to Mr O'Leary sets out in detail the allegations, which include staff having to pay 25 (28) per month for their uniform in the first year of employment and stomaching a 175 (200) "administration cost", taken from their salaries, if they leave in the first 15 months.

Ms Reeves said: "These allegations of hours of unpaid work, of charges for uniforms, of fees being incurred to leave, suggest a company falling well short of its duty to the staff who help their planes get off the ground and who spend the flight attending to and serving its paying customers.

"Ryanair now need to provide answers on the fees and charges faced by cabin staff and set out how they ensure these staff are receiving the National Minimum Wage."

For its part, Ryanair earlier this week said it is to recognise cabin crew unions for the first time as part of a major shake-up in employee relations.

The decision, after years of trenchant opposition, follows threatened pre-Christmas strike action by Irish-based pilots, which was later called off.
The head of the Sexual Violence Centre Cork has described a tripling in the citys reported rape figures as a wake-up call, writes Eoin English.

Mary Crilly said the figures better represent the reality of rape in Ireland and show that co-operation between the centre and gardai is working.

I, for one, welcome the increase in these figures, she said. The rise in these figures is coming a bit closer to the reality of rape in this city.

She was speaking after a meeting of the Cork City Joint Policing Committee yesterday heard that the number of reported rapes of a male or female has jumped from 13 between January and November 2016 to 40 for the same period this year  a 208% increase.

Chief Superintendent Barry McPolin said the figures have risen in other parts of the country as well and that further analysis is needed to determine why there has been such an increase in the Cork figures.

However ,he said, many of the reported cases are historical and the spike in figures most likely reflects greater confidence among victims of rape to report the crime to gardai.

He also said the establishment just over a year ago of a dedicated garda unit to investigate rape and sexual assault, the Divisional Protective Services Unit, which comprises a detective inspector, two detective sergeants and 10 detective gardai, has helped streamline the investigation of rape and sexual assault.

However, Ms Crilly said that, despite the enhanced garda unit, rape remains one of the most unreported crimes in Ireland, and victims still blame themselves.

The fact is that one in five adult females is raped or is the victim of sexual assault in their lifetime but only one in four of these cases is reported, she said.

And the fact is that 80% of girls who are raped are raped by someone they know or trust.

She said the Sexual Assault Treatment Unit in the South Infirmary Victoria Hospital has conducted more than 130 forensic examinations so far this year.

Not all those examined were from Cork, and not all had a garda present, she said.

However, Ms Crilly said the volume of tests conducted, as compared to the number of reported rapes, shows just how much work remains to be done.

Whats heartbreaking, what makes me angry, and why I keep going, is that victims still feel its their fault. Thats what drives me mad, she said.

Everything that comes from them reinforces that they were in some way to blame.

We need to change the conversation about the guys that are doing this. The minority of guys who are doing this will continue to do it, and thats what we need to stop.

The Cork Sexual Violence Centre worked with 247 clients this year and fielded 1,500 calls.

You can contact the centre on 1800 496 496 or at sexualviolence.ie.

This story originally appeared in the Irish Examiner.
Update 10pm: Investigators are looking into whether the Amtrak engineer whose speeding train plunged off an overpass, killing at least three people, was distracted by the presence of an employee-in-training next to him in the locomotive, a federal official says.

The official, who was not authorised to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said investigators want to know whether the engineer lost "situational awareness" because of the second person in the cab.

The train was hurtling at 80mph in a 30mph zone on Monday morning when it ran off the rails along a curve south of Seattle, sending some of its cars plummeting onto an interstate highway below, National Transportation Safety Board member Bella Dinh-Zarr said citing data from the locomotive's event recorder.

Ms Dinh-Zarr said it is not yet known what caused the train to derail and too early to say why it was going so fast, adding investigators will talk to the engineer and other crew members.

In previous wrecks, investigators looked at whether the engineer was distracted or incapacitated.

The engineer, whose name has not been released, was bleeding from the head after the crash and his eyes were swollen shut, according to radio transmissions from a crew member.

The transmissions mentioned a second person in the front of the train who was also hurt.

The train, with 85 passengers and crew members, was making the inaugural run along a fast new bypass route that was created by refurbishing freight tracks alongside Interstate 5.

The 15-mile, 180.7 million dollar project was aimed at speeding up service by bypassing a route with a number of curves, single-track tunnels and freight traffic.

Positive train control - technology that can automatically slow or stop a speeding train - was not in use on that stretch of track.

Track sensors and other PTC components have been installed, but the system is not expected to be completed until the spring, transit officials said.

Regulators have been pressing railroads for years to install such technology, and some have done so, but the deadline has been extended repeatedly at the industry's request and is now the end of 2018.

The 7.34am accident left mangled train cars up on top of each other, with one hanging precariously over the freeway.

The screech and clang of metal were followed by silence, then screams, as the injured cried out to rescuers and motorists pulled over and rushed to help.

In addition to those killed, more than 70 people were injured, 10 of them seriously.

Two of the dead were identified as train buffs who belonged to the rail advocacy group All Aboard Washington and were excited to be on board for the inaugural run.

They were Jim Hamre, a retired civil engineer with the state Transportation Department, and Zack Willhoite, a customer service employee at a local transit agency.

"It's pretty devastating. We're having a tough time," said All Aboard Washington executive director Lloyd Flem.

In 2015, an Amtrak train travelling at twice the 50mph speed limit ran off the rails along a sharp curve in Philadelphia, killing eight people.

Investigators concluded the engineer was distracted by reports over the radio of another train getting hit by a rock.

In September, a judge threw out charges of involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment against the engineer, saying the wreck did not appear to rise to a crime. Prosecutors are trying to get the case reinstated.

In the Washington state crash, speed signs were posted two miles before the speed zone changed, according to Kimberly Reason of Sound Transit, the Seattle-area transit agency that owns the tracks.

After the Philadelphia wreck, Amtrak agreed to pay 265 million dollars to settle claims filed by victims and their families. It has also installed positive train control on all of its track between Boston and Washington.

The NTSB's Ms Dinh-Zarr said it is too soon to say whether positive train control would have prevented Monday's tragedy.

AP

Earlier 5pm: Train was travelling 50mph over limit before crash in Washington state

The train that careered off an overpass in Washington state, killing at least three people, was travelling 50mph over the speed limit when it jumped the track, federal investigators say.

Bella Dinh-Zarr, a National Transportation Safety Board member, said the data recorder in the rear locomotive showed the train was going 80mph in a 30mph zone when it derailed along a curve south of Seattle, spilling carriages on to a road below.

Ms Dinh-Zarr said it is not yet known what caused the Amtrak train to derail and too early to say why it was going so fast. She said investigators will talk to the engineer and other crew members.

In previous deadly train wrecks, investigators looked at whether the engineer was distracted or disoriented.

The engineer, whose name was not released, was bleeding from the head after the wreck, and both eyes were swollen shut, according to dispatch audio.

The train was making the inaugural run along a fast new bypass route created by refurbishing freight tracks alongside Interstate 5.

The $180m (152m) project was aimed at speeding up services by bypassing an old route that had a number of curves, single-track tunnels and freight traffic.

Positive train control - technology that can automatically slow or stop a speeding train - was not in use on the stretch of track, according to Amtrak president Richard Anderson.

Regulators have been pressing railroads for years to install such technology, but the deadline has been extended repeatedly at the industrys request and is now the end of 2018.

The accident left mangled train carriages on top of each other, with one hanging precariously over the freeway.

The screech and clang of metal was followed by silence, then screams, as the injured cried out to rescuers and motorists pulled over and rushed to help.

Train passenger Emma Shafer found herself at a 45-degree angle, staring at the seats in front of her that had come loose and swung around.

"It felt oddly silent after the actual crashing," she said. "Then there was people screaming because their leg was messed up. ... I dont know if I actually heard the sirens, but they were there. A guy was like, Hey, Im Robert. Well get you out of here."

More than 70 people were injured, 10 of them seriously.

In 2015, an Amtrak train in Philadelphia was travelling at twice the 50mph speed limit when it ran off the rails along a sharp curve, killing eight people.

Investigators concluded the engineer was distracted by reports over the radio of another train getting hit by a rock.

In the latest accident, speed signs were posted two miles before the speed zone changed ahead of a curve leading to the overpass, according to Kimberly Reason of Sound Transit, the Seattle-area transit agency that owns the tracks.

Eric Corp, a councillor for the small city of DuPont near the derailment, said he rode the train with about 30 or so dignitaries and others on a special trip on Friday before the service opened to the public on Monday.

"Once we were coming up on that curve, the train slowed down considerably," he said.

The train was not full on Monday. Authorities said there were 80 passengers and five crew members on board.

AP
The committees report, to be published today, is to recommend a series of changes to abortion legislation.

Among the proposals include repealing Article 40.3.3, also known as the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, which recognises the equal right to life of the mother and her unborn child. Such a repeal would allow the Oireachtas to legislate and decriminalise abortion in the State.

The committee has been considering the recommendations of the Citizens Assembly.

The majority of members will support the introduction of a GP-led abortion service with terminations available up to 12 weeks.

The Government at its meeting yesterday agreed to take the Christmas break to consider the 16-page report and will discuss the matter in full on January 10, the first Cabinet meeting of the new year.

Sources have indicated to the Irish Examinerthat the Government is minded to operate on the recommendations of the committee in terms of formalising the question to be put to the people by way of a referendum in May or June. But it is also set to use the committees recommendations to determine what legal framework will exist should the people decide to repeal the Eighth Amendment.

Committee chairwoman, Fine Gael Senator Catherine Noone told the Irish Examiner the majority report is backed by all political parties and most independents.

As it is an all-party report, it gives the Government a platform to proceed based on our work, but it is a matter for the Government as to what happens now, she said.

Reflecting on the hearings, she said she was shocked at the prevalence of abortion pills, adding that the revelation significantly impacted on the committees deliberations. The abortion pill was a new one on me. My level of ignorance was high on that one. The main factors that most impacted were the abortion pills and the difficulty in legislating in cases of rape and incest, she added.

Three committee members  Fine Gaels Peter Fitzpatrick, Independent TD Mattie McGrath and Senator Ronan Mullen  are to produce their own minority report today. The three refused to put their names to the report and accused their colleagues of operating in a biased fashion against those who oppose abortion.

Fianna Fail TD Willie ODea said he would read the report and said there would be a freedom of conscience vote for his partys TDs.

Asked about collective responsibility ending for Cabinet ministers as they would be allowed hold different views, he added: It is a novel proposition. As far as I understand the doctrine of Cabinet responsibility, I didnt think it extended that far. How it will operate in practice, Im not quite sure.
Hawe, his teacher wife Clodagh, and their three children, Liam, 13, Niall, 11, and Ryan, six, were found dead in their home near Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan, on the morning of Monday, August 29, 2016.

Mrs Hawe, 40, who was found in her pyjamas and dressing gown on the sitting room sofa, had suffered axe and stab wounds. The boys, who were found upstairs in their beds, had suffered stab wounds.

A jury recorded death by suicide for Mr Hawe and that of unlawful killing in regard to his wife and three sons.

Cavan Coroners Court heard from psychiatry professor Harry Kennedy, who compiled a report on the deaths for coroner Mary Flanagan.

Prof Kennedy said that he was limited in his report because he had never met Mr Hawe and he was relying on notes from Mr Hawes GP and counsellor and his suicide note.

Prof Kennedy said that, since 2008, Mr Hawe had suffered somatic anxieties [worries about physical ailments] without basis in reality that developed into severe and pervasive preoccupations with his physical condition.

Mr Hawe suffered ruminations and scruples and guilty feelings blown out of all proportion that indicate a major depressive illness.

He told the hearing that he believed that, at the time Mr Hawe carried out the murder-suicide, he had progressed from long-term depression to a severe depressive episode with psychotic symptoms.

When people act in the course of severe mental illness, such as very severe psychotic mental illness, their judgment is severely impaired, Prof Kennedy said.

Mr Hawe had told his GP, Paula McKevitt, that he had felt run down, that he had difficulty sleeping, and that he presented to her with a toenail problem which he said he treated with Domestos bleach.

Prof Kennedy said Mr Hawe told his counsellor that he was troubled, but the professor noted that there was no history of alcohol or substance misuse.

His GP said she had only ever treated him for physical ailments in the five years that Mr Hawe was registered with her. Mr Hawe also attended David McConnell, a counsellor for 10 sessions from March to June 2016.

A confidentiality contract between the two was signed and Mr Hawe was told that if any matters breached the agreement  risk of harm to himself or others  that Mr McConnell was duty-bound to inform gardai or the appropriate third party.

Mr Hawe told Mr McConnell that he had been feeling a little bit down in his 20s when he was between college and working. This had been resolved once Mr Hawe started working. Mr Hawe told his counsellor he had attended his GP and that he had also attended a marriage counsellor.

Mr McConnell said his client had wanted to get his family life back to where it was, saying he believed Mr Hawe to be a good father and husband who placed a very high value on his family.

In their last session, on June 21, Mr Hawe appeared stressed but spoke openly and emotionally.

Mr Hawe told his counsellor: People think of me as a pillar of the community... Of only they knew. Mr Hawe then wept, at which point, Mr McConnell said, the two felt a connection. Mr McConnell said Mr Hawe had a fear of shame and of being less than perfect.

During the 10 sessions, there were no reasons to break confidentiality and Mr Hawe stopped seeing the counsellor after the last session of June 21, 2016.

Dr McKevitt, said Mr Hawe and his sons were all registered at her Oldcastle practice but that none had a psychiatric history, nor repeat prescriptions.

On the same afternoon of his last counselling session, Mr Hawe presented to her with a toenail abnormality, for which he was prescribed daily medication. Mr Hawe had, in the past, attended Dr McKevitt for being run-down and for mouth ulcers.

She was told by Mr Hawe that his sleep problem was down to conflict with a colleague at work and that he felt isolated in that regard, but that he was not looking for a sick cert from her.

She said he was in preparation for the end of the school year and looking forward to a holiday in Italy. She prescribed him 10 sleeping pills to catch up on his sleep, which was being interrupted by short-term insomnia.

She also advised him to avoid further conflict at work and to come back to her if there was no improvement.

She said he seemed clear, coherent, with no agitation, focused, and was of normal behaviour. She said there was no mention of despair or hopelessness in him, that the work conflict was a great source of stress for him and that he appeared positive towards going on holiday.

However, Dr McKevitt said she was unaware that Mr Hawe was also seeing a counsellor and saw one on that day. Prof Kennedy said Mr Hawe had developed an odd preoccupation with somatic, or physical ailments and that, in this regard, his GP was at a disadvantage that she did not know his counsellor thought him to be troubled.

He said the somatic anxieties were unfounded and that it could have developed into an insidious depressive illness.

Prof Kennedy said he had notes from the counsellor, the GP and the suicide notes and in that regard he had an unfair advantage in his hindsight as the GP was not aware of the counselling.

He described psychotic symptoms as having the characteristics of a feeling of catastrophe from which there was no recovery but that the feeling was a sort of delusion and out of the context of reality.

At this point, Mary Coll, Mrs Hawess mother, asked if the professor ever considered interviewing the families of the people who were murdered or the family of the murderer.

Prof Kennedy said he was constrained in his role in the inquest.

Mrs Coll said: Did you consider interviewing them, seeing as you never met Alan Hawe, Clodagh, or his family? I knew him for 20 years. I didnt know him... but I knew him.

Gardai, the coroner, the legal representatives and the jury all expressed their deepest sympathies to the Coll and Hawe families. Dr Flanagan said she offered her sympathy for the most dreadful chain of events that occurred to this family.

There are no words to describe the upset that befell your family present here today, she said.

No words will reflect, or be of adequate sympathy or really condone with you. It is unimaginable what you have had to endure.

She said she had not attended an inquest before where the chairperson of the jury was almost going to cry in delivering verdicts.

The jurors deliberated for about 10 minutes before returning verdicts as the coroner advised.

The foreman said they had one recommendation to make: It will be to raise awareness of mental health issues within the work environment.

Stephen and Olive Hawe statement

The parents of Alan Hawe issued the following statement after the conclusion of the inquest, through their solicitor, Michael Hannigan:

Last August we received news no family should ever have to hear. In one night we lost 3 beautiful grandchildren, a beloved daughter in law and our son Alan. Deaths dark door opened and we have struggled over the last 16 months to comprehend how this came to pass.

We have had some light shed upon that darkness with the insight gained from thorough examination of the report of Prof Harry Kennedy and his opinion that Alan suffered from severe depressive illness. It does not make the pain and loss any easier for us.

We sincerely thank the Coroner Dr Flanagan for the extraordinary work she and her staff have put into this Inquest.

We pay particular tribute to the members of an Garda Siochana under the leadership of Supt Leo McGinn and Det Insp James OLeary. We extend our heartfelt thanks to the Garda first responders Gardai Alan Ratcliffe and Aisling Walsh and the paramedics who attended the tragic scene. We thank our Garda family liaison officers Garda Lisa Stephens and Sgt Ted Hughes who have helped us through very dark days.

We wish to thank Michael Lanigan our solicitor for his work and assistance throughout the last year.

We thank all those who have taken the time in the last year to contact us with messages of support and prayer from all parts of the country, they have brought us great solace.

Coll family statement

Clodagh Hawes sister Jacqueline Connelly outside Cavan Court House.

The Coll family solicitor, Liam Keane, read out a statement on behalf of Clodagh Hawes sister, Jaqueline Connolly and her mother Mary Coll.

On August 29, 2016, we lost our daughter and sister Clodagh and her lovely sons Liam, Niall and Ryan in the most horrific circumstances.

They were savagely and brutally killed by Alan Hawe in a premeditated and calculated manner.

We are aware that the inquest has a limited role in law in that its function is restricted to establishing how, where and when our loved ones died. However it is clear from the evidence presented that Clodagh and the boys were killed in a sequence that ensured that the eldest and most likely to provide effective resistance were killed first, and that they were executed in a manner which rendered them unable to cry out for help.

The inquest does not address why Alan Hawe committed this savagery but his counsellor has said that he was concerned about his position as a pillar of the community and we are aware that he was concerned at his imminent fall from that position and the breakdown of his marriage.

While the psychiatrist has attempted as best he could to create a retrospective diagnosis based on items and records, his GP who knew him for five years said he never displayed any signs of depression.

We want to thank Gardai Ratcliffe and Walsh, the first Gardai at the scene, sergeant Arthur OConnor from Ballyjamesduff, the investigating Gardai, Sergeant John Roddy, the garda family liaison officer, the other frontline responders, our family, friends and neighbours in Virginia County Cavan, Clodaghs friends, colleagues and the community in Oristown, Co Meath, where Clodagh worked.

We are aware of all those affected by these killings, especially the friends of Liam, Niall and Ryan, and their parents.

And finally we ask the media and the public generally to respect our privacy and to allow us to grieve with dignity.
Barnardos has said it is distressing that child poverty rates remain stubbornly high at a time when Irelands economy continues to thrive.

Poverty figures published by the Central Statistics Office show one in nine children here continues to live in consistent poverty.

The child poverty rate has not changed significantly over the last two years despite continued growth in the economy, an increase in average incomes and a fall in unemployment.

Barnardos head of advocacy June Tinsley said yet again there was shockingly little progress in tackling child poverty in Ireland.

In one of the wealthiest countries in the world it is a stain on our prosperity that almost 139,000 children are living in consistent poverty, said Ms Tinsley.

The Government is committed to lifting 100,000 children out of poverty by 2020, but with numbers failing to shift significantly that was unlikely to be achieved, she said.

Ms Tinsley said that families and children stuck in a poverty trap were more likely to become homeless.

It is notable that in 2016 those living in rented accommodation are significantly more likely to be living in consistent poverty than those living in homes that they own, she said.

Particularly worrying is the ongoing fact that lone-parent families experience a dramatically higher rate of poverty and deprivation than two-parent households.

Half of one-parent families are living in deprivation, and this means that they may not be able to keep their house sufficiently warm, they cannot replace worn-out furniture; they are going without good shoes or warm, water-proof jackets.

Those living in households with one adult and one or more children aged under 18 had the highest deprivation rate last year, at just over 50%. It is almost three times higher than two-parent families.

Daniel worries more than any 6 year old should.



Daniel is homeless this Christmas.



We cant give him his old home back but with your support we can be there for Daniel this Christmas; https://t.co/xM176tHQbr#MondayMotivation pic.twitter.com/z3hzMnbZv9  Barnardos Ireland (@Barnardos_IRL) December 19, 2017

This is not inevitable, said Ms Tinsley. It is the result of poor decision-making by policymakers who favoured tax cuts over investments in key public services.

Enforced deprivation was experienced by just over one in five of the population last year, down from over one in four in 2015 but the deprivation rate for those at risk of poverty was 50.7%, down slightly from 51.5% in 2015.

The most common types of deprivation experienced are an inability to replace worn- out furniture (21.1%); afford a morning, afternoon, or evening out in the last fortnight (15.5%), and have family or friends over for a drink or meal once a month (13.9%).

Director of Social Justice Ireland, Sean Healy, said there was little movement on poverty despite very substantial improvements in the economy.

That is not an accident, said Dr Healy. It is because we are not putting enough effort into reducing poverty. We are not giving it sufficient priority.

Despite some small improvements in poverty and deprivation rates, over 790,000 people are living in poverty in Ireland of which over 250,000 are children.

The Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) also showed that social welfare was critical in addressing poverty.

Without social welfare payments, 44.9% of Irelands population would be living in poverty, instead of 16.5%. Such an underlying poverty rate suggests a deeply unequal distribution of income, said the survey.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) will determine whether the contents of exam papers can be regarded as personal data in a landmark case brought by Peter Nowak, a trainee accountant from Arklow, Co Wicklow. He failed an accountancy exam overseen by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ireland (CAI) on four occasions and sought access to his test papers.

The ruling is expected to be closely watched by the State Examinations Commission, which oversees the Leaving and Junior Certificate exams.
It is not a bad thing for us, that the route known as the Goldene Strae or the Golden Road as we will get to know it- has escaped the attention of so many. It has been spared being overrun by hordes of tourists and as you will discover the
Gheorghe Adam, aged 28, of 21 Vicars St, Cork, who pleaded guilty to driving on the three occasions with no insurance.

On top of that he had, before yesterday, three other convictions for driving without insurance.

Judge Con OLeary said of the latest offences: This was deliberate and conscious. He knew what he was doing and felt he could keep going. I have no option when there is deliberate and persistent offending.

Dennis Healy, solicitor, said there was very little he could say in mitigation.

He is putting his hands up today, said Mr Healy. He is 28 years old. He has four young children. He should not have been driving without insurance. He used his car to bring his children to school.

Adam was also disqualified from driving for four years. The judge set bail at a 300 cash lodgement if the accused wanted to appeal the jail term. Adam later lodged this money in order to appeal the case.

Three gardai gave evidence of stopping Adam driving at different locations in the city.

Garda Kevin Coughlan encountered the motorist at Mardyke St on January 25. Garda Terence MacSweeney said he encountered the driver at Sharman Crawford St on February 5.

Sergeant Stephen OShea stopped Adam at Anglesea St on March 2.
Building contractor Doug Alexander, from Tyrone; his wife, Lily, from Patrickswell, Limerick; and their sons, Stephen P Alexander, a Bolingbrook police officer; and Doug Jr, a musician, were laid to rest following prayers at Thompson & Kuenster Funeral Home, on Friday afternoon and evening. Their funeral Mass was held at St Gerald Church, in Oak Lawn, early the following morning.

Doug, Lily, Doug Jr, and Stephen were killed when their rental, 5 series BMW collided with a 40ft articulated lorry, at Begerin Hill, at 6.30pm on Monday, December 4. The vehicle was struck from the side, on the N25, at Begerin Hill, and was pushed into a high embankment further down the road.

The four were en route to the funeral of Lilys sister, Winifred Keevey, in Cushinstown and had met their relations earlier that day. They had stopped off at their hotel, prior to the short journey to Cushinstown. Garda technical investigations are continuing into the cause of the crash.

Members of the Keevey family, from Lacken, went with the remains of Doug, 75, Lily, 75, Doug Jr, 52, and Stephen, 49, to Illinois on Thursday, following a funeral Mass at St Marys Church, in Cushinstown, three days previously, on the Monday.

The four were cremated at Mount Jerome Crematorium, in Dublin, also on Monday.

Debbie Ceglarek, the daughter and sister of the deceased, attended the funeral mass on Saturday, in Illinois, along with Doug Jnrs wife, Marian, their daughters Abby, 7, and six-year-old Katie, and Stephens partner, Susan Verden Schulze and their daughters, Trinity and Savannah.

Bolingbrook police officers attended, as Stephen was a member of the force for 17 years. Bolingbrook police director, Ken Teppel, said: Steve was an exemplary officer, who took great pride in his law enforcement career and who devoted himself to protecting and serving the citizens of Bolingbrook. Steve will be missed by all those who had the pleasure of knowing him and we will forever keep the Alexander family in our thoughts and our prayers.

A statement by the force added: Steve was a proud father who left behind two daughters, age 11 and 10, who were his pride and joy.

Doug Jrs wife, Marian, emigrated to Illinois, from Co Clare, 13 years ago and married him in 2008. Their daughters, Abby and Katie, are seven and six.
Chief Supt Barry McPolin told a meeting of the Cork City joint policing committee that gardai found return airline tickets to Romania in the possession of members of a group who were arrested in the city recently for obstruction, and who were later prosecuted for offences under begging legislation.

We have secured some evidence to suggest that some elements of these people who are involved in begging are organised, said Chief Supt McPolin.

Some of the prosecutions which have now been dealt with involved people who had purchased flight tickets from Romania to here, and they had return tickets as well.

"They were coming in and out, we believe, to use Cork as a base to get involved in begging activity.

Cork District Court heard earlier this month that one of five Romanians who were arrested in the city for obstruction had an invoice for 1,110 for return flights for himself and five colleagues from Romania to Cork.

While some were fined, some got suspended sentences, and others got the benefit of the Probation of Offenders Act, they were all warned by the judge that any repeat offences would end in jail.

It is believed that some of those involved had arrived in Ireland through Cork or Dublin airports, and had dispersed to cities including Galway, Limerick, and Cork.

They are believed to have availed of the services of homeless charities, including Cork Simon, while begging on the streets, before moving on to other cities.

Simon Centre, Cork

Business leaders in Cork city expressed concerns earlier this month about a marked increase in begging activity in the city centre.

Members of the Cork Business Association said it was clear people were coming prepared to bed down overnight in the doorways of shops on the citys main shopping street to ensure they occupied prime begging locations the next morning.

CBA president Pat OConnell said he has concerns that a Mr Big is involved in the organisation of some of this begging activity.

Chief Supt McPolin said it is possible that an individual is co-ordinating some of this activity, but added: At this point, we havent identified any particular one person  it may be organised collectively.

However, he said gardai would continue to work closely with the CBA and traders to identify those who are collecting money from the public without a permit.

If people havent got a proper permit of licence to seek money from the public on the street, then quite obviously they are involved in begging and under the Public Order Act, 2011, we will enforce the full rigours of the law, said Chief Supt McPolin.

Unless people are within the confines of the law, they will be prosecuted.

The law does not ban begging but offences arise when begging is accompanied by harassment, intimidation, assaults, threats, or obstructions of persons or vehicles.

We are actively policing it, said Chief Supt McPolin. Several people have been before the courts and we will continue our enforcement as part and parcel of our aim to make the city a safe and welcoming place to visit.
However, it has emerged that UCC student leaders have decided to cancel future Christmas Day events after a flood of complaints from residents about student drunkeness after this years event last month.

Fine Gael senator Jerry Buttimer told a meeting of the Cork City JPC this week that he has never fielded so many complaints from residents living around UCC about the behaviour of a cohort of students.

This term has been the worst term Ive seen in recent years in terms of anti-social behaviour of some students, he said.

The level of dissatisfaction amongst residents around the university about the lack of a coordinated response from UCC on this issue, has, I would say, quadrupled.

I know of two families who in recent months have sold their homes to get out of the area. People are at their wits end.

Complaints peaked after the student-organised Christmas Day event on November 23.

In previous years, UCC and CIT have held separate Christmas Day events. The events took place on the same day this year.

Pubs in the area could not cater for the large numbers, which led to large crowds of students gathering on the streets in the afternoon.

Gardai said they dealt as best they could with a lot of anti-social behaviour but admitted that their resources were spread thin.

Chief Superintendent Barry McPolin said there is no excuse for such anti-social behaviour.

If students are going to hold such an events, perhaps youre better off having an organised event that involves consultation with gardai akin to the plans that are already there for Rag and Freshers Week, he said.

That is a lot more productive than going on a solo run and causing difficulties for people living in the environs.

Yesterday, UCC students leaders confirmed that they will not be staging such an event next year.

Gardai have been working closely in recent years with UCC and CIT authorities, and with their students unions, on policing plans for the annual Freshers and Rag week events.

Chief Supt McPolin said gardai have also forged good relationships with the licensed trade in the college districts, with the security industry, and with local residents groups.

However, given that there are more than 30,000 third- level students in the city, some problems will arise when they socialise, he said, adding that students have a responsibility to behave, that parents should be aware of this behaviour, and that landlords have responsibilities too.
The Mater confirmed yesterday that the radiologist worked as a locum in the hospital for a very brief period some years ago.

Because of the situation with scans that has emerged at University Hospital Kerry, the Mater has instigated an initial internal review of any variant outcomes, a spokesperson for the Mater said.

The consultant worked in the Mater as a consultant locum radiologist from February until April of 2006. The doctor was also an intern in the voluntary hospital funded by the HSE for one year from July 1996 to June 1997.

It is important to note that there are no concerns regarding the quality of work of the radiologist from these brief periods, said the spokesperson.

However, in the light of the situation that has emerged at University Hospital Kerry, the Mater has instigated an initial internal review of any variant outcomes during the short period in question. Patient safety is always our greatest concern as we strive to be the safest hospital in Ireland.

The HSE confirmed on Monday that the consultant worked in one other hospital for two short periods but at the time did not state that it was the Mater.

As far as the HSE is aware no issues arose during these periods of employment, the health authority stated.

The consultant radiologist in question, who is on the specialist register of the Medical Council, was also employed as a locum at University Hospital Kerry and was not a permanent member of staff.

The doctor was employed by a locum agency based in Ireland. The doctor, who no longer works at University Hospital Kerry, also worked in Britain and Canada.

University Hospital Kerry said it could not give details of the treatment or status of any of the seven cases identified so far where there were serious missed diagnoses.

The hospital said it has to maintain patient confidentiality. Some of the cases identified involve serious missed cancer diagnoses.

The review of the 46,300 images at the Kerry hospital is being conducted backwards chronologically from July 2017 to March 2016.

The review has almost completed all of the 2017 cases. Over 20,170 images have been examined to date, and there are around 26,100 still to be reviewed.

Independent Kerry TD Danny Healy-Rae has questioned the consultants workload and wondered if the doctor was over-burdened.

The amount of images or scans this person dealt with is massive, he said.

Siptu said it is prepared to meet with senior management at University Hospital Kerry this week to discuss staffing levels in the x-ray department.

Radiographers raised issues about the X-ray department a year ago and have been seeking talks with management ever since.

Health Minister, Simon Harris said that the HSE will provide an update on the review every Thursday until it is completed.

About 260 people called the hospital helpline when it opened on Monday but yesterday calls had fallen to about 30 yesterday afternoon. The hospital helpline number is 1800 742 900.
William Gilsenan, of 2 Kilmahuddrick Green, Clondalkin, Dublin 22, had initially been refused bail at a sitting of Bandon District Court but successfully challenged that decision in the High Court last Thursday.

Bail was then granted at Clonakilty District Court yesterday when his sister-in-law provided an independent surety of 15,000.

Mr Gilsenan, 51, was one of four people arrested at a holiday home in Bantry in West Cork on November 26 last, when officers from the West Cork and Cork City Drug Units and the Garda Regional Support Unit conducted a search at Seascape, Dromleigh. Earlier court sittings heard that bleached cocaine worth an estimated 70,000 was found at the property.

Mr Gilsenan, his son Dean, with the same address at 2 Kilmahuddrick Green in Clondalkin, Sean McManus of 32 Burrowfield Rd in Baldoyle, Dublin 13, and Molly Sloyan, of 4B Buenosaires, Benidorm in Alicante in Spain, each face two charges, under Section 3 and Section 15 of the Misuse of Drugs Act.

Dean Gilsenan, Mr McManus, and Ms Sloyan had also been refused bail at earlier court sittings.

Insp Gary McPolin told Judge Mary Dorgan at Clonakilty District Court yesterday that William Gilsenan had received bail in the High Court on December 14, subject to the surety being provided.

Mr Gilsenans solicitor, Finbarr Murphy, said surety was being provided in the form of a bank draft and that it was being provided by Martina Proctor, who has an address in Clondalkin.

Insp McPolin agreed that gardai were satisfied with the provenance of the surety being provided. Ms Proctor took to the witness box and confirmed the surety was her own funds.

She confirmed that Mr Gilsenan was her brother-in-law and she said she was aware that the money, in the form of the bank draft made out to the Courts Service, could be at risk if there was any breach of bail or in the event of a failure by Mr Gilsenan to attend trial. She also assured the judge that no stop would be applied to the transfer of the funds.

Mr Gilsenan is to return to Clonakilty District Court on January 16, alongside his three co- accused, who remain in custody.

Insp McPolin told the judge that, on that date, formal directions will be issued by the Director of Public Prosecutions and legal representatives of all four accused consented to the January 16 court dates.
The decision was taken by Cabinet yesterday and will see motorists informed why premiums go up or down. Consumer advocates and opposition TDs have been outraged over the sky-high rates being charged by insurance companies in recent years.

The European Commission last year even carried out raids on motor insurance companies in a bid to check if they were engaging in anti-competitive practices.

The Cost of Insurance Working Group recently presented its first report to the Government. The first steps towards the new group were set up by Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy, when he was junior minister for finance.

The Cabinet has examined the report and yesterday agreed that a National Claims Information Database will help facilitate a more in-depth analysis of annual trends in motor insurance claims.

This will help shed light on how claims costs are having an impact on premiums, and understanding the relationship between the price paid by a customer for motor insurance and the cost to insurance undertakings.

The Central Bank will publish an annual report on the data. However, a government spokesman could not say if this would include actual details or names of specific insurance companies and their rates being charged.

Nonetheless, it is hoped the data published will increase transparency on the relationship between insurance premiums and related costs, said the Government.

Drivers in recent years have been charged multiples of their premiums with insurers often claiming that the level and costs of accidents are contributing towards the sharp rises.

The government says the new database will identify current and emerging trends in the market, the factors that drive movements in the price of insurance and the number of claims annually.

The last government had blamed motor insurance rises on the frequency of claims by drivers, on the fact the amounts claimed had also risen and there had been a rise in legal costs. New material and figures that will be published in the database by the Central Bank will also provide statistical analyses of the costs associated with settling claims as well as, the Government said, an understanding [of] the settlement channels used.

Fianna Fails Michael McGrath, who has been trying to drive reform of the sector, has previously said: Seven out of every 10 claims are settled out of court by insurance companies, with no register or evidence as to consistency with regard to the settlement of those claims.
Frank Buttimer made the comment at Cork District Court in defence of Glen Walsh, 24, of 87 Connolly Rd, Ballyphehane, who denied a charge of assault causing harm to Jamie Martin, aged 22, on October 29, 2016.

Mr Walsh had no previous convictions and is saving to do a masters degree. He claimed that the only reason he became involved in the incident in the first place was when he heard his then girlfriend being insulted by a man he had never seen.

He said the man told him go away and take his slut with him.

Mr Walsh said he approached Mr Martin in order to give him a fright and get him to apologise.

I must have frightened him too much because he punched me in the jaw, he just skimmed me, he said. I retaliated. I threw one punch back.

Mr Buttimer said: It does challenge one if one is in the presence of ones significant other when someone is behaving like a pup. I propose that it is not a wrong act to call up someone elses behaviour for what it is. God be with the days when people had manners around the town. Are we not allowed to say cut out that carry on.

Mr Martin said he and his girlfriend, Melissa Flynn, and two other couples left a nightclub to get food at Abrakebabra. He said there was rubbish in the form of takeaway food on the ground and that he and his girlfriend put it in the bin .

Five minutes later I remember smoking a rollie. That is all remember, he said.

Mr Buttimer said that, following a verbal exchange, it got more heated and Mr Walsh only punched the Mr Martin because Mr Martin) swung out at Mr Walsh. Mr Martin denied this.

Mr Martin said he was unconscious after the blow. Inspector Brian ODonovan asked him about his injuries.

I got scratches all down my neck, a hairline fracture to the jaw, stitches to my skull and a busted lip, he said. I would say I was hit four or five times.

It is not that he hit me once, he hit the shit out of me.

Judge OLeary told Mr Martin not to speak like that in Cork District Court.

Ms Flynn told the court: Jamie was smoking a rollie. He got hit to the face and fell on the ground. Glen was over Jamie and was hitting him. I pushed Glen off Jamie and I hit Glen.

One of his buddies came over to Glen and said: What are you after doing? Run. 

Mr Buttimer said that when Mr Martin went to the ground, Mr Walsh tried to revive him.

After hearing from other parties and noting Mr Walshs educational attainments and ambitions and his lack of previous convictions, Judge OLeary said he would give him the benefit of a dismissal under the Probation of Offenders Act if he gathered 2,000 for the injured party by January 2.
But little did the Co Kilkenny farmer know just how unique when he bought the 115-acre Jerpoint Park property and its old manor, Belmore House, just outside Thomastown.

Unbeknownst to him, beneath the dense vegetation of his new property lay the 12th-century ruins of the Church of St Nicholas and the grave of the saint himself.

Joe also discovered the remnants of the medieval lost town of Newtown Jerpoint, close to the supposedly haunted Jerpoint Cistercian Abbey.

I got the greatest fright when I discovered what Id just purchased, hidden beneath decades of thick, deep brush and forests filled with oak, chestnut, lime, and beech trees, said Joe. But Maeve and I, along with our children, Nicholas and Annabelle, accepted the challenge of being special custodians.

The OConnell family are planning to watch with great interest recent news that researchers are considering using DNA genetic testing to determine if the legendary Irish grave of St Nicholas is directly linked to relics of the saint that are kept in Italy and the US.

The proposal came as Oxford University confirmed that a bone supposed to be from the fourth-century saint, and owned by a US-based priest, does, in fact, date from the correct period.

The tomb of St Nicholas, at Jerpoint Park, in Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny.

There has never been a dig here, but nobody, so far, can prove or disprove the bones that are buried are those of St Nicholas. The ordnance survey map of 1839, of this area, highlights the tomb of the saint being here, added Joe.

Nowhere in the world has a history like this, I believe. This place is the best-kept secret in Ireland. Since moving here, there have been so many coincidences occurring, too. Our wedding anniversary is December 6, which, ironically, is St Nicholas Day, and our son, who was born before we moved here, is called Nicholas, who is called after his grandfather and great-grandfather.

They say that coincidences are Gods way of staying anonymous, so I firmly believe that his remains are here.

It is reputed that St Nicholas was born in 260AD, in Patara, a coastal town in what is now Turkey. The poor knew him throughout the land for his generosity, his love for children, and for being associated with ships, the sea and sailors.

He was eventually consecrated Bishop of Myra, just miles from his hometown. The beloved bishop died in 343AD.

Kilkenny folklore tells that the earthly remains of St Nicholas were secretly removed from Bari by returning crusader knights, who brought them back to Newtown Jerpoint for safe-keeping.

They buried those remains, with all due reverence, in the church that to this day bears the saints name.

The grave of St Nicholas is marked by beautifully carved grave slab, just outside the church. The tall figure of the saint dominates the carving, and flanking him on both sides are the heads of the two crusader knights who brought his remains here.

Since purchasing the property, the family have welcomed hundreds of visitors to the working farm.

Our busiest time with visitors is from March to November, but it does get quiet around this time of the year, which is kind of ironic, but we would never turn anyone away, not even if they turned up here on Christmas Day, added Maeve OConnell.
It is the largest retail penalty ever imposed by the communications regulator, ComReg.

Threes behaviour came to light largely because customers could not access the helpline number they needed to call if they wanted to cancel their contracts before the changes took effect.

The proposed contract changes related to a price increase of up to 5 a month for Threes 1.3m prepay and bill pay customers and changes to terms and conditions under all you can eat data ahead of the abolition of EU roaming charges.

Customers inability to contact the 1800 number supplied by Three led to a significant volume of complaints to ComReg.

The nature of the complaints varied but the majority of complainants were unhappy that they were unable to gain access to the notified 1800 number, ComReg said.

The 1800 number was issued to pay as you go and bill pay customers on March 3, along with notification their terms and conditions were to change from April 3.

ComReg paid a visit to Threes head office in Dublin and subsequently issued it with notifications of non-compliance with certain communications regulations, namely: Failure to properly advise customers of the nature of the proposed contract changes, or to adequately facilitate their right to exit contracts without penalty, after being notified of the proposals.

ComReg also found Three had failed to ensure that its conditions and procedures for contract termination did not act as a disincentive to consumers changing service provider  essentially, that it was difficult for customers to switch.

Yesterday a spokesperson for the telecoms company said it had refunded anyone charged an early termination fee as a result of withdrawal from their contract on foot of the proposed changes.

The spokesperson also said up to 100,000 has been paid in refunds to date. She said Three had also re-notified customers of the contract changes that came into effect on April 3 and had identified and contacted customers who had been unable to contact the 1800 number and advised them of their right to withdraw without penalty.

The spokeswoman said 2% of their 1.3m prepay and bill pay customers had been affected by the issues raised by ComReg.

Three has also told ComReg that it will not, in future, apply an early termination fee or other penalty, if a customer exercises their right to cancel their contract within a month of proposed changes taking effect.

Going forward, customers will be able to notify Three of their cancellation request by phone, post, online chat, or by visiting a retail store and Three will promptly confirm such cancellation requests using the same channel of communication.

Three also said it would not engage in save activity, whereby efforts are made to retain the customer, without first seeking the customers blessing to have that conversation.
Live gig

Saint Sister played a double bill, with Talos, in St Patricks Church, in Waterford, last May, and were the most musically satisfying gig I saw in 2017: the Dublin duo, of Morgan MacIntyre and Gemma Doherty, produced their intricate harmonies and wise, introspective lyrics with sublime, instinctive ease.

Body & Soul chucked out their usual, amazing line-up of discoveries: Anna Meredith, The Moonlandingz, Sleaford Mods, and Sinkane were some of the memorable acts on larger stages.

Book

Having written a novels worth of newspaper articles and an MA thesis in 2017, reading fell by the wayside; I didnt pick up a single novel.

On holidays, I read Gut, by microbiologist, Giulia Enders, a woman who combines her exploration of the human digestive system with a necessary sense of humour. Gut entertainingly covers everything from why people can burp more easily when lying on their left than on their right, to emerging discoveries about the gut-brain axis: how gut feeling and the health of our microbiome influence our mood.

Honourable mentions for another non-fiction: Irish Examiner columnist Mick Cliffords account of the Maurice McCabe whistle-blower scandal, A Force for Justice: The Maurice McCabe Story, combines forensic detail, from the years the veteran journalist has covered the story, with a thriller-like sensibility. Eminently suitable for screen adaptation.

Film

Tom of Finland, which screened at Gaze Festival 2017, is director Dome Karukoskis sensitively wrought Finnish biopic about Touko Laaksonen, the gay erotic artist who was an underground cult figure in the hedonistic scene of San Francisco in the 1970s.

Live event

Spraoi Festivals 25th anniversary celebrations in Waterford. Not only were there many phenomenal street performers and acts, but the loyalty of locals to the annual event was palpable.

The street theatre companys dedication to live, challenging, entertaining art on the streets for free, delivered to an audience that might never walk into a gallery for such encounters, is just amazing.

Lowlight

Middle-people. Only one-third of Creative Irelands budget has been spent on the arts.

Of the 4.4m spent to date, 1.32m, or 30%, was on marketing, according to the results of a Freedom of Information request lodged by Sinn Fein.

When artists across many disciplines are struggling, its frustrating to see so much window-dressing, and the insertion of so many middle-people in various guises, often carving out cosy, secure jobs for themselves, off the backs of the creative work of others.

Best interview

Sue Rynhart

Celebrity interviews dont do it for me; too often, youre just listening to someone trot out the same platitudes and tired anecdotes with polished ease.

The best thing about covering the arts is talking to the many wonderful people who excel at what they do because of how much they care. Of many Irish interviews that spring to mind, the most enjoyable were fiddler, Caoimhin O Raghallaigh, and jazz songstress, Sue Rynhart, both of whom explained their motivation with originality and considerable eloquence.

Interviewing eccentric New York performance artist, Reverend Billy Talen, of the Church of Stop Shopping, earned him a convert: as the interview evolved into a sermon, I saw the light and am now a convert to his anti-consumerist, ecological teachings. Earthelujiah!!

Looking forward to in 2018

Having had a preview of The English National Ballets new adaptation of Giselle, I predict that their May dates in the Bord Gais Energy Theatre will make waves.

Its a stunning and topical modern interpretation, with the German peasant class of the original replaced with a sweatshop work-force. Choreographer Akram Khans fusion of classic pointe-work with his native Bangladeshi Kathak dance is breath-taking.

Veteran Tuvan folk band, Huun Huur Tu, from the border between Russia and Mongolia, bring the sound of the steppes to Irish shores for several dates in March. They are characterised by otherworldly, polyphonic vocals, rhythms inspired by galloping horses, and a sense of freedom derived from the vast grasslands where the music was composed: if you see a rapt nutter in the audience with their eyes shut, itll be me.
THEYVE only been engaged a few weeks but already the Meghan effect is in full force.

Now that shes set to marry Harry in the spring, American actress Meghan Markle has taken her place alongside Kate as a fashion icon to millions.

The coat she wore for the couples engagement announcement sold out in minutes, and Canadian brand, Line, announced theyll reissue it as The Meghan next year.

Fellow Canadians, Mackage, reported a 630% bump in web traffic when Markle wore their coat to her first royal engagement in Nottingham; and Scottish company Strathberry, who made the bag she carried that day, had a sellout in just six minutes.

This was, of course, entirely predictable, and any partner of Harrys was bound to have aroused our interest.

That Meghan is a seasoned red carpet pro with a strong interest in fashion, personal friendships with designers like Roland Mouret, and well-honed personal style is just a bonus.

Speculation that shell soon take the lead in the Kensington Palace style stakes is rife.

While her new neighbour, the Duchess of Cambridge, manages well enough on the fashion front, a dive into the Markle archives reveals she has a stronger sense of self and a more natural flair for style than her soon-to-be sister-in-law.

Though Kate  who began dating William in her early 20s  had to find her fashion feet in the full glare of the media spotlight, at 36, Markle comes to the role fully formed, and the beneficiary of what she calls an education in fashion: playing Rachel Zane on TVs Suits.

Having grown up in LA, she told The Outnet in a 2014 video series that her early style was just jean shorts and flip-flops, adding: It has definitely evolved.

Describing her characters aesthetic as someone who comes from money and has a classic sensibility, she said working on the show had made her style more polished; teaching her what works for my body and what doesnt.

Though she works with a Canadian stylist  her pal Jessica Mulroney  her aptitude for fashion shines through even in her everyday attire, and her first public appearance with Harry was a master class in making a white shirt and jeans look effortlessly chic.

But its on the red carpet that her fashion education really stands to her. Shes been cultivating a classic style for years, and is now the queen of keeping it simple. She rarely wears print, though shell sometimes team a statement skirt with a white shirt or black polo neck  an approach that works well for evening or for day.

She favours monochromatic or tonal dressing, and appreciates good tailoring, clean lines and structured shapes.

If Markle has honed her red-carpet style almost to polished perfection, then that almost is definitely by design.

She points to a Diane Von Furstenberg lace dress she wore in 2012 as the start point on her red carpet learning curve.

It was too tight, too short, and my hair was too polished, she told The Outnet.

Everything about it was trying too hard.

I think as you get older you feel more confident and you dont need to put that much effort in. Her top styling tip, she added, is Nothing has to be perfectly polished.

If your outfit is perfectly put together, something about your hair or makeup has to be just a little dishevelled so you look effortlessly chic.

It is, she acknowledges, a very French way doing things, and she cites Vogue Paris editor-in-chief Emmanuelle Alt as her style spirit animal.

Its a good comparison, and her aesthetic could best be described as an American sensibility with a Gallic twist.

She doesnt shy away from an edgier approach  shell team leather trousers with a blazer, or a cocktail dress with a biker jacket  but for the most part she keeps it classic and chic.

How much shell have to tailor her approach for her new royal role remains to be seen, but an American-born English princess with a Gallic sensibility is certainly an interesting fashion proposition.

As far back as 2013s Hunger Games premiere, her style formula was established  great dress (McQueen), great shoes (she prefers a pointed pump), and youre done. She never kills a look with accessories.

Its a formula many of us could adopt, as too often we overcomplicate occasion dressing and let the pressure to look perfectly stress us out.

But Markles pared-back approach proves it doesnt need to be that hard. So with the festive season in full swing, tear a leaf out of her playbook and nail your party look by simply keeping it simple.

Sequins are best showcased on simple shift or sheer styles. Ombre sequined midi-dress by Mint Velvet, 249, mintvelvet.co.uk.

Steal her flirty Hunger Games premiere style with this girlish Fee G frock, featuring frilled hem and floral embellishment. 263, Mac- Bees, Killarney.

Meghan went for a cool, flowing midi dress with an edgy oxblood biker jacket for the opening of this years Invictus Games. Dress, 59.99, H&M.

With its modest length and form-fitting cut, the Harlow dress by Meghans friend Roland Mouret would be right up her alley. 1,930, Brown Thomas.

The devils in the detail and Meghan often completes her red carpet look with her favourite pointed pump, Aquazzuras Matilde. 495 at aquazzura.com.

Short and sweet. Meghan is a fan of simple showstoppers, and with its easy shift shape and feminine detailing, this quirky Zara dress (89.95) hits the mark.

Choose a tailored jumpsuit for the one-and-done appeal of a dress with the ease of trousers. Jumpsuit by Phase Eight, 165, littlewoodsireland.ie.

A beautifully-tailored blazer is a party season essential that will stand the test of time. Wool and mohair blazer, 195, & Other Stories at stories.com.

A longtime fan of the classic black polo neck, Markle knows the power of a great statement skirt. Sequined and fringed skirt, 59.95, Zara.

Strapless styles showcase her strong shoulders, so Meghan tends to soften them with draping, folding or fuller prom shapes. Dress, 111, Oasis.
Moved Permanently

The document has moved here.

Apache/2.4.25 (Debian) Server at www.irishnews.com Port 80
Black, Jewish, Americanmy triple consciousness

When I read the news about Kanye West, I didnt know whether to turn off my phone, or throw it. I knew it would only...

Make your voice heard by voting in the Nov. 8 election

The 2022 Election is fast approaching. Voting will be held on Nov. 8, less than one week from now. Nationally, control of the House and...
Charges were dismissed against a retired Winston-Salem fire chief in connection with a collision with a Winston-Salem police patrol car.

Antony Farmer, 60, was charged with unsafe movement violation and a child-restraint violation.

On Tuesday, Assistant District Attorney C. Ruffin Sykes voluntarily dismissed the charges against Farmer. Farmers attorney is Ken Tisdale.

Sykes said after the hearing that he dismissed the charges after consulting with the victim in the case. All insurance claims in the case had been settled, he said.

Thats consistent with how our office has handled these cases for years, he said.

Tisdale also offered proof that Farmer had installed a child-restraint seat in his vehicle.

The crash happened on May 15, 2016. Farmer was driving a Dodge Durango east on Motor Road about 7:45 p.m., according to Winston-Salem police. His grandson was also in the SUV.

Police Officer M.L. James was driving westbound.

When Farmer tried to make a left turn on Starmount Drive, he collided with James patrol car.

The child, who was 6 at the time, and James were sent to the hospital to be treated for non life-threatening injuries.

The claims were settled for $100,000, according to a Dec. 8 letter from Nationwide Property and Casualty Insurance Company that was sent to Farmer.

Farmer retired from the Winston-Salem Fire Department in 2015, having served his last seven years as the fire chief. Among his accolades, he was credited with keeping average response times down to four minutes.

In 2014, the Winston-Salem Police Department identified his pickup as the one that was involved in a hit-and-run on South Main Street with a car driven by Katrina Newton.

Police filed no charges, saying investigators couldnt determine who had been driving the truck.

Farmer said the case was one of mistaken identity and that neither he nor his truck was involved. Newton and her mother and daughter sued the city, a police officer and Farmer. The lawsuit was dismissed in April 2016.
GREENSBORO  Whats five words that take some getting used to?

Central North Carolina International Airport  the new name for Piedmont Triad International Airport that takes effect Jan. 1.

For more than 30 years, residents of the area have known their airport as PTI, but apparently that name didnt resonate with people outside the region. So the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority decided after months of discussion to make a big change that will better describe where our airport appears on the map.

I think its logical to name it after something geographical instead of geological, High Point Mayor Jay Wagner said.

Airport officials spent time talking to political, business and civic leaders about a new name that had to emphasize Carolina and international  which, frankly, doesnt allow a lot of room for creativity.

The new name is the logical choice, but it may not be easy to change decades of habit. PTI rolls off the tongue, after all.

Nearly 850,000 people flew out of the airport in 2016, and while its nowhere near as busy as Raleigh-Durham International Airport or Charlotte Douglas International Airport, PTI has been where many people make their first flight, routinely greet friends and family members and take off for short business trips to New York or Chicago.

Moreover, thousands of people work at PTI at major employers such as HAECO Americas and Honda Aircraft Co.

The name change comes at a crucial time in the life of the Greensboro/High-Point/Winston-Salem region, which has struggled to achieve the level of economic success enjoyed by the more well-known Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham areas.

It became painfully obvious to us that we were spending more time trying to define where Piedmont Triad was instead of explaining what our assets were, said Steve Showfety, chairman of the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority.

The new name, he added, clearly defines where were located and it addresses our single strongest asset, and that is our longitude and our latitude: between Miami and New York, Washington and Atlanta, Raleigh and Charlotte, Murphy and Manteo.

The business and elected leaders who packed the Airport Authoritys small boardroom Tuesday have been working for more than two years to put this region in a key position to land a major economic development trophy. And many believe the region  central North Carolina  is on the cusp of success.

The Greensboro-Randolph Megasite in Randolph County, the 1,900-acre focus of that attention, is one of two finalists for a $1.6 billion proposed auto plant that Toyota and Mazda want to build in the next three years.

Alabama, which has identity struggles of its own, is the other finalist for a plant that would employ 4,000 workers.

Stan Kelly, president of the Piedmont Triad Partnership economic development agency, said Tuesday his group has already been referring to the area as central North Carolina.

Well continue to further illuminate the name over time in our work, he said.

The airport, which opened as a small airfield 90 years ago, was the site of the states first air mail delivery and its first passenger service. And while it has struggled through the years to attract low-fare carriers and direct flights to some major destinations, the airport has always had a strong cargo and passenger service.

Whether it fills you with nostalgia or not, the airports name has always posed a practical problem for local business, however, one key Greensboro leader said Tuesday.

When people ask you Wheres the Piedmont Triad?, you immediately go to central North Carolina anyway, said Brent Christensen, chief executive officer of the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce.

Although the name changes on Jan. 1, it may take a little longer for the airport to present a new public face through road signs, its website and letterhead, airport authority officials said.

So weve got a while to let the news sink in and swap out all those old words for new ones.

Five little words.

Big changes.
Updated 6:07 p.m.

WASHINGTON  Democrats say three provisions in the Republican $1.5 trillion tax bill violate Senate rules and will likely be removed before that chamber votes on the measure.

The House approved the legislation Tuesday. But this means the House will have to vote again on the legislation once it's been amended and approved by the Senate.

Senate passage was expected Tuesday night or early Wednesday. GOP House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy's office says the House would reconsider the bill Wednesday morning and send it to President Donald Trump for his signature.

Democrats said the Senate parliamentarian had found three items that violated Senate rules.

These included one provision that would let families use tax-advantaged 529 accounts for home-schooling expenses.

The problem was revealed by Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden.

WASHINGTON  Gleeful Republicans on Tuesday muscled the most sweeping rewrite of the nation's tax laws in more than three decades through the House. House Speaker Paul Ryan dismissed criticism of the widely unpopular package and insisted "results are what's going to make this popular."

The vote, largely along party lines, was 227-203 and capped a GOP sprint to deliver a major legislative accomplishment to President Donald Trump after a year of congressional stumbles and non-starters.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the Senate would vote Tuesday evening, sending the legislation to Trump for his signature.

The massive $1.5 trillion package would touch every American taxpayer and every corner of the U.S. economy, providing steep tax cuts for businesses and the wealthy, and more modest tax cuts for middle- and low-income families. It would push the national debt ever higher.

The standard deduction used by most families would be nearly doubled, to $24,000 for a married couple, while those who itemize would lose some deductions.

"We're delivering a tax code that provides more jobs, fairer taxes and bigger paychecks to Americans across the country," said Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, Republican chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. "Our local job creators will see the lowest rates in modern history so they can invest more in their workers and in their future."

Democrats called the bill a giveaway to corporations and the wealthy, providing little if any tax help to the less-than-well-to-do and no likelihood that business owners will use their gains to hire more workers or raise wages.

And the Republicans' contention that the bill will make taxes so simple that millions can file "on a postcard"  an idea repeated often by the president  was simply mocked.

"What happened to the postcard? We're going to have to carry around a billboard for tax simplification," declared Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee.

Tax cuts for corporations would be permanent while the cuts for individuals would expire in 2026 in order to comply with Senate budget rules. The tax cuts would take effect in January. Workers would start to see changes in the amount of taxes withheld from their paychecks in February.

During debate, decorum on the House floor was fleeting as two New Yorkers  a Democrat and a Republican  voiced their opinions on the bill. Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., yelled, "Hell no" in opposition to the bill. Rep. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., replied, "Hell yes!" The proceedings were interrupted several times by protesters shouting from the gallery.

The bill is unpopular among the public, and Democrats plan to campaign against it in next year's congressional elections. Senate Democrats posted poll numbers on the bill on a video screen at their Tuesday luncheon.

"This bill will come back to haunt them, as Frankenstein did," said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi.

Not so, said Ryan, who has worked for years on tax overhaul.

"When we get this done, when people see their withholding improving, when they see jobs occurring, when they see bigger paychecks, a fairer tax system, a simpler tax code, that's what's going to produce the results," said Ryan, R-Wis.

The bill would slash the corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. The top tax rate for individuals would be lowered from 39.6 percent to 37 percent.

It scales back a popular deduction for state and local taxes, repeals a key tenet of Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act and allows drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Despite GOP talk of spending discipline, it is projected to add $1.46 trillion to the nation's debt over a decade. GOP lawmakers say they expect a future Congress to continue the tax cuts so they won't expire. If achieved, that would drive up deficits even further.

Republicans acknowledged they still have to convince many Americans of the benefits of their bill. Many voters in surveys see the legislation as a boost to the wealthy, such as Trump and his family, and only a minor gain for the middle class.

"I don't think we've done a good job messaging," said Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore. "I don't think we've gotten out there with specifics, and the final bill has only come together in the last week or so. Now, you're able to look at the final product."

The $1,000-per-child tax credit doubles to $2,000, with up to $1,400 available in IRS refunds for families who owe little or no taxes. Parents would have to provide children's Social Security numbers to receive the child credit, a measure intended to deny the credit to people who are in the U.S. illegally.

The legislation also repeals an important part of the health care law  the requirement that all Americans carry health insurance or face a penalty  as the GOP looks to unravel a law it failed to repeal and replace this past summer.

The bill would initially provide tax cuts for Americans of all incomes. But if the tax cuts for individuals expire, most Americans  those making less than $75,000  would see tax increases in 2027, according to congressional estimates.

Disgruntled Republican lawmakers from high-tax New York, New Jersey and California receded into the background as the tax train rolled. They oppose the new $10,000 cap on the deduction that millions use in connection with state and local income, property and sales taxes. The cap remains in the final bill.

The deduction is especially vital to residents of high-tax states.

Several defectors reaffirmed their "No" votes for the final bill on Tuesday. Rep. Peter King conveyed what people in his Long Island, New York, district were telling him about the tax bill: "Nothing good, especially from Republicans. ... It's certainly unpopular in my district," he said.
A friend from former days, Ill call him Frank, was flying from Los Angeles to Nashville. This was back in the seventies. He had been the musical director for one of the first Christian folk musicals and had become something of a minor celebrity in evangelical circles.

When the flight attendant asked if he would like a drink, Frank was inclined to accept the offer, but in the dark recesses of his brain he heard the voice of his Sunday School teacher saying, Someone is watching. You must not hurt your Christian witness.

Frank thought, Im in an airplane full of people I dont know, 35,000 feet in the air over Nevada. Who could be watching?

When the flight attendant returned, she handed him the glass of wine he ordered, looked at him curiously and said, Arent you the guy who wrote the musical the youth group at my church performed? It was wonderful.

OMG, Frank thought. They really are watching.

Yes, white evangelical Christians, they really are watching. And increasingly they are not liking what they see.

Earlier this year, the Pew Research Center investigated attitudes toward various religious groups  Jews, Catholics, mainline Protestants, evangelical Christians, Buddhists, Mormons, atheists and Muslims -- and found that since 2014 attitudes have become more positive toward every group except evangelical Christians. According to the survey, just under a third (32%) of respondents reported a positive attitude toward evangelicals.

The survey found that millennials view evangelicals about the way they view atheists and Muslims.

In 2016, a Christianity Today survey found that only about half (52 percent) of evangelical pastors were willing to call themselves evangelicals when talking with non-Christians, fearing that the brand is becoming toxic.

Undoubtedly, a major factor in the recent decline in the evangelical brand is its identification with a far-right political and social agenda which is often at odds with the direction the broader culture is headed, and more specifically with the election of Donald Trump, for whom large numbers of white evangelicals voted.

White evangelical Christians, who have been known for, among other things, their insistence on personal morality and their devotion to the Bible, in massive numbers voted for a thrice-married man who bragged about his sexual exploits (some with married women, according to him), who said he had nothing to repent of, couldnt name his favorite book in the Bible, and when asked his favorite biblical verse, replied, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

And then came Roy Moore.

According to exit polls, 80 percent of white evangelical Alabamans who voted cast their votes for the former federal judge who was twice fired by the state judicial panel, once for refusing to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from the Alabama Judicial Building and once for directing judges to continue to enforce the state's ban on same-sex marriage even though the US Supreme Court had ruled it to be unconstitutional; who said that homosexual conduct should be illegal and that a Muslim should not be seated in Congress because of his religion (ignoring Article 6 Section 3 of the US Constitution); who has been accused of sexually abusing a 14 year old girl; and who, according to The New Yorker, is rumored to have been banned from the Gadsden, Ala., mall for being a creep.

In the aftermath of Moores defeat, Mark Galli, editor of Christianity Today, the flagship of American evangelicalism, wrote that the big loser in all this is the Christian faith. No one will believe a word we say, perhaps for a generation. Christianitys integrity is severely tarnished. In a follow-up New York Times article, Galli said he should have been clearer that he was referring not to all Christians, but to evangelicals in particular.

It grieves me, said Ed Stetzer, executive director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, I dont want evangelical to mean people who supported candidates with significant and credible accusations against them. If evangelical means that, it has serious ramifications for the work of Christians and churches.

White evangelical Christians can no longer use the character matters argument when discussing political figures. For when they do, their opponents will respond, I have two words for you: Roy Moore. Or maybe the words will be Donald Trump.

The world outside evangelical Christianity is watching and finding what it sees  narrowness and rigidity  uninviting, even distasteful.

The greater danger is that the world outside will stop watching, because evangelical Christianity will have made itself irrelevant.

Richard Groves is a former pastor of Wake Forest Baptist Church and former adjunct instructor at High Point University.
Government domestic loan bonds have become attractive for nonresidents, who since September 2017 have invested over $200 million in them, Deputy Finance Minister of Ukraine Yuriy Butsa has said.

"Next year we would simplify access for nonresidents," he said at a press conference of the Finance Ministry to present the results of the year in Kyiv on Tuesday.

Butsa said that one of the relaxed rules will be a possibility of international custodian accounting for government domestic loan bonds.

He said that this would allow attracting more funds from nonresidents in 2018 and cut the cost of borrowing.

Commenting on expansion of currency-pegged government bonds at the end of this year, Butsa said that it was done in line with the plan.

"As for the next year, we now have sufficient currency liquidity. Nevertheless, we plan to continue the practice of domestic borrowing both in hryvnia and in foreign currency, since we have an obligation under the program of cooperation with the IMF, which speaks of the need for a rollover of domestic foreign currency-pegged loans, so that they do not lead to a reduction in the forex reserves," the deputy minister said.
Polish President Andrzej Duda signed judicial reform legislation [materials, in Polish; materials, in Polish] Wednesday, placing control over the courts into the hands of the ruling right-wing Law and Justice party.

The move came hours after the European Commission [official website] triggered [press release] Article 7 [text] of the Treaty on European Union against Poland over violations of the rule of law.

The unprecedented move serves as a warning to the Polish government and could lead to sanctions and suspension of EU voting rights.

Despite efforts for a constructive dialogue for 2 years, we have concluded that there is a clear risk of a serious breach of the rule of law in #Poland We therefore proposed to @EUCouncil to adopt a decision under #Article7 (1) of the Treaty on EU

https://t.co/EFfnjTOlF6  European Commission (@EU_Commission) December 20, 2017

According to the EU, Judicial reforms in Poland mean that the countrys judiciary is now under the political control of the ruling majority. In the absence of judicial independence, serious questions are raised about the effective application of EU law.

Duda rejected these claims in a speech Wednesday, stating that the new laws will make the courts more efficient and effective.
Security forces and an army-backed militia planned massacres in an opposition stronghold in the Democratic Republic of Congo, human rights activists charged Wednesday, calling the killings "crimes against humanity".

The southern Kasai region suffered "one of the worst human rights crises in the world" between March and July, the Paris-based International Human Rights Federation (FIDH) said in a report compiled with partner rights groups in the country.

It includes heart-rending testimony such as that of a 27-year-old woman who described soldiers attacking her village and burning down houses. As she fled, she "saw a lot of corpses... of children, of villagers."

The FIDH said the atrocities "were perpetrated mainly by elements of the Bana Mura militia at the instigation and with the support of security forces... against civilians of the Luba ethnic group."

The Luba are seen as supporting the anti-government Kamwina Nsapu militia, while other ethnic groups make up the Bana Mura militia active in Kasai.

In one of the worst attacks blamed on Bana Mura, the remote village of Cinq was "totally destroyed" and several female survivors said they were raped or sexually mutilated.

Several of their children were killed by militiamen with machetes, the 100-page report said.

- Kabila anniversary -

The Catholic Church has said the violence claimed more than 3,300 lives. The United Nations for its part has counted 87 mass graves and documented some 1.4 million displaced people.

The conflict erupted in September 2016 after government forces killed a tribal chieftain, known as the Kamwina Nsapu, who rebelled against President Joseph Kabila's regime in Kinshasa and its local representatives.

The release of the report comes a year to the day since Kabila refused to step down at the end of his second term, sparking a political crisis in the vast former Belgian colony.

The Catholic Church brokered a deal on New Year's Eve 2016 enabling Kabila to stay in office pending elections to be held in 2017. Those elections, in turn, were postponed to December 23, 2018.

The opposition has insisted that Kabila leave by the end of this year.

The FIDH said Lubas were "massacred in several dozen villages... because of their ethnicity, their supposed political affiliation with the opposition and their supposed support or membership" of Kamwina Nsapu.

"The crimes perpetrated... were planned, ordered and led by agents of the Congolese state" and the Bana Mura militia, it said, adding that the atrocities should be considered crimes against humanity.

The FIDH compiled witness testimony in July at a refugee camp in neighbouring Angola, speaking to 64 people, most of them Lubas, some with amputated limbs, permanent disfigurations or severe burns.

- Atrocities on both sides -

The report said anti-government Kamwina Nsapu militiamen earlier carried out "summary executions, often in the form of decapitations", after which they displayed the severed heads in the villages.

Two United Nations experts were killed in March while investigating the violence, of whom one was decapitated.

The atrocities led Congolese "defence and security forces to carry out disproportionate acts of reprisal" including against civilians, the FIDH said.

The UN, in a report released in August, also blamed state agents for more than 250 "extrajudicial or targeted killings" of civilians in the Kasai region from mid-March to mid-June.

Like the FIDH, UN investigators interviewed refugees in Angola who described atrocities at the hands of government troops and the Bana Mura as well as the anti-government Kamwina Nsapu militia.

The Congolese government questioned the "impartiality" of the probe, saying it was based "on testimony lacking in credibility".

The FIDH said it has the names of "at least 50" suspected perpetrators of atrocities which it could hand over to the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague if Kinshasa fails to mount a serious investigation.
Six Bosnian Muslim war crimes suspects were arrested Tuesday close to Sarajevo, on accusations that they murdered 30 Serbs during the country's 1990s conflict, officials said.

The arrests marked the second operation since early December targeting former members of Bosnian Muslim forces over crimes in the 1992-95 civil war, in which 100,000 people were killed.

The six suspects were arrested to the north of Sarajevo, police said in a statement.

Prosecutors allege that they took part in an attack on 10 June 1992 in the Serb village of Cemerno near the Bosnian capital.

The victims were aged between 18 and 80. Ten of them were women, the prosecutors' statement said.

On December 4, another 13 Bosnian Muslims who led police and military forces in the conflict were arrested on suspicion of war crimes against dozens of Serbs in the southern region of Konjic.

The military attache to the Bosnian embassy in the Netherlands was arrested in connection with the case a week later.

Serb victims' associations often denounce the Bosnian judicial system for not doing enough to prosecute war crimes against them.

They were outraged over the acquittal in October of Naser Oric, who commanded Bosnian Muslim troops in the war.
The UN Security Council on Tuesday voted to renew cross-border aid deliveries to Syria's rebel-held areas for one year, but Russia abstained and warned the relief operation must gradually wind down.

Russia had demanded changes to the aid operation that has allowed since 2014 convoys to cross into war-shattered Syria from Turkey and Jordan without the approval of the government in Damascus.

Russian Deputy Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov argued that the situation in Syria had "changed radically" over the past three years and that cross-border aid was "a legacy of the past."

"We think it is important to gradually draw down this rudimentary scheme which has worked for Syria's division," Safronkov told the council.

The resolution put forward by Egypt, Japan and Sweden was adopted by a vote of 12 in favor, with Russia, China and Bolivia abstaining.

The United Nations maintains that the cross-border deliveries are a lifeline to Syrians living in rebel-held territory because the government in Damascus has heavily restricted aid shipments to those areas.

More than 13 million people need humanitarian aid in Syria, now in its seventh year of war.

Cross-border aid reaches one million Syrians per month, on average, according to UN aid officials.

Despite its complaints, Russia did not resort to its veto power to block the measure as it did last month to bury a UN-led probe of chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

Russia has used its veto 11 times at the council to thwart action directed at its Syrian ally.

- Russia wants aid scheme to end -

Moscow had argued that the aid operation undermines Syria's sovereignty because aid agencies must notify Damascus, but not seek its permission, for the deliveries inside Syria.

Safronkov said aid agencies must return to the "traditional" approach of working with the Syrian government on providing humanitarian assistance to the entire country.

The United Nations must "make plans for a gradual withdrawal from this cross-border scheme," he said.

Syrian forces have made major military gains since Russia's intervention in the war in 2015, retaking large swathes of rebel-held territory.

After Russia complained that cross-border aid was falling into the hands of "terrorists," the council agreed to ask UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to review the operation in six months and recommend ways to strengthen monitoring.

Welcoming the adoption, US Deputy Ambassador Michele Sison stressed the aid was of "utmost importance to reduce the suffering in Syria."

France also said humanitarian aid was critical for Syrians and singled out the crisis in Eastern Ghouta, a rebel-held area near Damascus that has been under government siege.

With 400,000 people trapped with no access to food and medicine, Eastern Ghouta is "a new Aleppo in the making," said French Ambassador Francois Delattre, referring to Syria's second city, which fell to government forces after months of siege.

"The Syrian regime continues bombing its population, using hunger as a war tool," said Delattre. "This constitutes a war crime."

"Tiny amounts of aid have been allowed" in Eastern Ghouta, said UN aid chief Mark Lowcock.

More than 500 people are awaiting medical evacuation from the rebel-held area including 137 children, five of whom are suffering from acute malnutrition.

At least 16 Syrians have died waiting for permission to receive treatment just a few miles outside of Eastern Ghouta, among them three in the last few days, said Lowcock.

Close to three million Syrians live in besieged or hard-to-reach areas, with little access to humanitarian aid.

Reporting on the latest failed round of peace talks, UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said it was time for the United Nations to provide some ideas on the next steps to move towards a draft constitution and elections.

More than 340,000 people have died in Syria's nearly seven-year war and over half of the population has been driven from their homes.
Bosnian police arrested Wednesday three ethnic Serbs, including a brigade commander during the country's civil war, for allegedly participating in the Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslims in 1995, prosecutors said.

Mile Kosoric, 64, the former commander, and two members of his brigade, including the head of a special unit, were arrested in the eastern areas of Vlasenica and Han Pijesak.

"The suspects are being investigated over war crimes and aiding the genocide," the Bosnian prosecutor's office said.

In November, UN judges in The Hague sentenced wartime Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic to life in jail for the genocide at Srebrenica, along with other war crimes.

About 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered at the hands of Mladic's forces in the eastern Bosnian enclave in July 1995.

A total of 100,000 people were killed in Bosnia's 1992-1995 war, which pitched Muslims, Serbs and Croats against one another as Yugoslavia fell apart.

The latest investigation concerns the execution of "at least 30" Muslim civilians who were separated from a convoy of refugees leaving Srebrenica after it was captured by Serb forces, the prosecutors said.

They were first locked up in a school and then taken away to be killed.

So far, the remains of 6,733 victims of the Srebrenica massacre have been identified and buried, according to Bosnia's Missing Persons Institute.

In an interview with AFP in October, a month before the verdict against Mladic was announced, Kosoric defended his former commander and claimed he had not been aware of the massacre at Srebrenica.

"Most of my colleagues, commanders, ended in prison and some have already gone out. I was also interrogated by the Bosnian justice," but "nobody has ever ordered me to commit crimes, I have never seen nor heard Mladic ordering that," Kosoric said in Han Pijesak, where he lived.

"I only think that had we not defended ourselves, we would not exist any more," he said.
European requirements to quality of cacao, chocolate in Ukraine to take force on Jan 1, 2018

European requirements to the quality of cacao and chocolate that would take effect on January 1, 2018, envisage the switch to mandatory conformity of these products with GOST (industry standard), Deputy Minister of Agricultural Policy and Food for European Integration Olha Trofimtseva has said.

"Today, GOST in Ukraine is voluntary, and in fact, manufacturers are not obliged to fully comply with these standards. The implementation of this directive for chocolate, thanks to the resolution of the Ministry of Agricultural Policy, makes these requirements mandatory for all manufacturers," she said at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday.

According to the deputy minister, for the manufacturers, whose recipes are approved, the transition period will be in effect until July 1, 2019.

In addition, according to Directive 2000/36/EC of the European Parliament and the Council, only chocolate that contains at least 35% of cocoa solids can be considered chocolate. For milk chocolate, it must be at least 25% of cocoa solids and not less than 14% of dry milk solids, for white - not less than 20% of cocoa butter and not less than 14% of dry milk solids. For filled chocolate it is not less than 25% of chocolate.

Cocoa powder, cocoa contains not less than 20% cocoa butter, according to the directive.

Flavourings adding to these products is prohibited.

The requirements apply to the labeling of products made of cacao and chocolate.

The ministry said that in January-October 2017, exports of chocolate to the EU countries grew by 35%.

"We delivered there more than 10,000 tonnes for more than $ 23 million. I think that's good, considering that chocolate is a fairly popular product in the European market and the market is occupied by big players," Trofimtseva said.

It is expected that the implementation of these requirements will contribute to improving the quality of products with cocoa and chocolate in the Ukrainian market, simplifying exports to the EU, as the same requirements apply both to products in Ukraine and the EU.

"This is one of the steps that eliminates the discrimination of Ukrainian consumers. We are approaching to the fact that now we will not produce products of one quality for export and the other for domestic consumption. Thus, we protect our consumers, raise the standard and the potential competitiveness of our manufacturers," Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze said.
The German Federal Government has decided to allocate another EUR 2.5 million for the implementation of humanitarian projects of the Caritas Ukraine Charitable Foundation in the east of Ukraine in 2018-2019, the German Embassy in Kyiv said on Wednesday.

Moreover, the German Caritas Association will additionally allocate EUR 150,000.

The embassy noted that the project's activities will be focused on Luhansk and Donetsk regions, but those who need help in Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporozhia regions will be also able to use it.

Through the implementation of various humanitarian activities, Caritas will provide heating materials, fuel and basic food products to about 18,000 people who are affected by the Donbass conflict. In addition, many citizens, including chronically ill and elderly people, will get access to medical care.

The German Caritas Association together with Caritas Ukraine for many years has been supporting people who need help and socially vulnerable strata of the population in Ukraine, including internally displaced persons. The federal government in 2014-2017 already provided EUR 6.3 million to fund humanitarian activities of Caritas.
The Verkhovna Rada has not supported the draft resolution (No. 7000-P) on the abolition of a decision to adopt the bill on the state budget for 2018.

Only 65 MPs voted for this resolution with a required minimum being 226 votes on Wednesday.

Author of the draft resolution, non-affiliated MP Yuriy Levchenko believes the voting for the 2018 state budget law should be canceled, as it was conducted "with gross violation of the requirements of the Constitution and the Verkhovna Rada regulations."

In addition, people's deputies did not support draft resolution No. 7116-P on the abolition of the decision of the Verkhovna Rada dated December 7 on the adoption of the bill on amendments to the Budget Code of Ukraine, having supported it only with 41 votes.

Thus, since the parliament did not support the decision to abolish voting for next year's state budget, Verkhovna Rada Chairman Andriy Parubiy will now sign the bill and send it to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
First fully-featured feasibility studies for concession of some infrastructure facilities will be ready in the first half of 2018, Ukraine's Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan has said.

"Today the problem is that we do not have any document for any state-owned facility. The best things that we have are teasers or presentations, but no feasibility studies. This is not only my words. Recently Borys Lozhkin [former head of the Presidential Administration] pointed this out. The Infrastructure Ministry would have first fully-featured feasibility studies. They will be ready in the first half of next year. These are 10 facilities, including Kherson port and Olvia stevedoring company," he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

He said that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) backed these projects. The relevant letter and the project document were signed in London.

"I think that these would be feasibility studies that it would not embarrassing to go to foreign investors, show them and hold considerable negotiations," the minister said.

As reported on November 14, 2017, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) from the World Bank Group would help to structure public private partnership projects at two Ukrainian ports, which are state-owned enterprises (SOE): Olvia stevedoring company and Kherson maritime merchandise port. The memorandum of understanding was signed by the Infrastructure Ministry with the IFC in Kyiv. The IFC will also study the possibility of structuring the public private partnership project on the development of a rail and ferry complex at SOE Chornomorsk maritime merchandise port.
Ukraine's Infrastructure Ministry will focus on privatization, attraction of international investors and the introduction of digital infrastructure in 2018, Minister Volodymyr Omelyan has said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

"As for minor issues, but they are still important, these are transparent staff appointments, upgrade of teams for those strategic directions where it really requires, first of all, in railways, and roads  they are to be built," the minister said.

He pointed out the moves in the issues of roads, the Ukrainian Sea Port Authority and Ukrposhta.

"There is a problem with railways. I think that the company that forms 5% of the country's GDP must operate like Swiss watch. Now this watch is in a private collection," Omelyan said.

He also said that there are many interesting projects that could be launched in the coming year.

"Glorious victory is ahead  construction of the Beskyd tunnel, which would at least double the capacity of railways in this direction. We continue working on the attraction of global investors, in particular, for modernization of Ukrzaliznytsia's rolling stock. Ukrzaliznytsia has finally reached a consensus for key conditions of long-term partnership with U.S. General Electric," he said.

The minister said that next year the company will supply 30 locomotives under the rolling stock renewal program and pointed out the importance of the fact that this is production in Ukraine.

"The Canadian company Bombardier and the French Alstom are also interested in the development of projects for the construction of locomotive traction in the country. Negotiations with Germany on the transfer of used diesel trains continue, which will allow us to fully update the rolling stock used on non-electrified sections of suburban trains Believe me, the used German trains are times better than those we have today even after the modernization," Omelyan said.
Gazprom is working to have the gas volumes it supplies to territory in the Donbas not under Kyiv's control held out of its dispute with Naftogaz Ukrainy in the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, Naftogaz Chief Commercial Director Yuriy Vitrenko told journalists in Kyiv on Wednesday.

Gazprom argues there should be no decision on gas volumes supplied to the territory [not controlled by Kyiv]. We, in turn, are saying that any calculation is the price multiplied by volume. Without knowing the volume, it is impossible to say who owes what to whom," Vitrenko said.

Gazprom currently demands that Naftogaz pay for gas delivered to the Donbass territory not controlled by Kyiv. However, Ukraine argues that these volumes were not contracted. "Any payments to Gazprom could be credited as payment for supplies to ORDLO [the Ukrainian acronym for the Donbas territory not in its control]. For us, this is unacceptable," Vitrenko said.

Gazprom is currently claiming payment of $1.3 billion for supplies to that territory, he said.
The State Property Fund of Ukraine has included private joint-stock company President Hotel, public joint-stock company United Mining-Chemical Company, state-owned enterprises (SOE) Electronmash, Electrotyazhmash, Dniprovsky Electric Locomotive Plant, Radiorele plant and Vinnytsia-based Crystal plant to the list of large privatization facilities to be sold in 2018.

According to a decree of the fund dated December 13 and published in the Vidomosti Pryvatyzatsii newspaper on Wednesday, these facilities and SOE Black Sea Navigation, Severodonetsk combined heat and power plant (CHPP), UstDunaivodshliakh will be prepared for privatization by the central office of the fund.

Regional departments of the funds will prepare Agrarian Fund, SOE for processing scram metal and metal waste Dnipro-VDM, coal company Krasnolymanska, Lysychanskvuhillia and 16 more coalmines and smaller facilities for sale.

SPF Head Vitaliy Trubraov said on his Facebook page that around 200 facilities from various sectors were placed to the list, while more than a half of them are not eligible for privatization in the Ukrainian legislation.

This concerns Artyomsol, Ukrspyrt, Ukrbud, Lviv Jewelry Plant, Metal Powder Plant, Ukrainian Danube Navigation and 13 ports, including the largest ports Yuzhny, Odesa, Chornomorsk and Mariupol.
KEARNEY  The Nebraska Court of Appeals has overturned a Buffalo County judges decision to put a man on probation for a felony sexual assault conviction.

In its ruling issued Tuesday morning, the Court of Appeals said Buffalo County District Court Judge Bill Wright considered forbidden and irrelevant factors when he decided to place Taylor Welty-Hackett on probation.

In February, Wright placed Welty-Hackett on four years of intensive supervised probation for attempted felony first-degree sexual assault of a then-12-year-old girl on Aug. 1, 2015, in Kearney. The charge is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

The Court of Appeals ordered Welty-Hacketts case be sent back to Buffalo County District Court where he will be re-sentenced by a different judge. A hearing date hasnt been set.

Wright and Buffalo County Attorney Shawn Eatherton both declined to comment on the case. Earlier, Eatherton had argued Welty-Hacketts sentence was too lenient.

During the Feb. 23 sentencing hearing, Wright called Welty-Hacketts victim the aggressor in the case saying, She made the advances.

Wright also told Welty-Hackett he screwed up big time, but Ive got to find some way of bringing balance back into the system, given the nature of whats been occurring in this community.

The Court of Appeals said Wrights statement about the promiscuity of teenage girls and the need to bring balance into sentencing sexual offenders went beyond consideration of the facts in the case.

The Court of Appeals ruled Wright wasnt excusing or justifying Welty-Hacketts actions and specifically stated the victims actions didnt excuse the act. Wright had noted a lack of information in a state probation background check as it related to factors in making his decision.

In the ruling, the Court of Appeals said it couldnt determine from Wrights comments how much weight was given to the permissible and relevant sentencing factors compared with the forbidden and irrelevant factors, but it appeared that the trial court judges reliance upon the impermissible and irrelevant sentence factors largely influenced his decision to impose probation.

Court records outlined the case against Welty-Hackett:

In August 2015, the Kearney Police Department received a report the then-12-year-old girl had sex with Welty-Hackett, 21, at the time. The victim contacted Welty-Hackett on social media.

In September 2015, police obtained four social media files in which Welty-Hackett admitted to having sex with the girl.

Kearney police spoke with the victim, but she declined an interview. An interview with Welty-Hackett revealed the girl claimed to be 22. The two randomly met on social media and eventually met in Kearney and had sex.

The victim didnt cooperate with law enforcement.

According to the court transcript from the sentencing, Wright said although it was clear Welty-Hackett had sex with a 12-year-old, there was minimal information in a state probation background check of Welty-Hackett to know what Welty-Hackett knew about the victim.

Wright said from what he could tell, all contact or all initiation of contact between the two was made by the 12-year-old, and that there was very little background information about what the 12-year-old looked like.

According to Welty-Hacketts account of what happened, the victim was interested in having sex and contacted him, even though she only knew of Welty-Hackett by reputation.

She was the aggressor, she made the advances, Wright said. She actually grabbed him sexually and asked whether he was going to bring condoms.

Although it didnt excuse the incident, Wright said, it reminded him of repeated incidents he had heard about over the last several years of girls who have decided they want an experience and go out and force the issue with people they know are older and probably ought to know a hell of a lot better.

By placing Welty-Hackett on probation, the judge said he was trying to be fair to both parties.

@HubChic
ELM CREEK  When Austin Martin felt labor begin at 6 a.m. Nov. 26, she wasnt worried.

She had labored for 16 hours before delivering her daughter Peri, 2, in September 2015, and she assumed labor might drag on this time, too.

Little did she know that in less than four hours, shed give birth on her living room couch. She knew only that on this day, three days before her due date, she was in labor.

At 7 a.m., she awakened her husband, Ryan. He got up, showered and ironed the shirt he planned to wear to the hospital.

At 7:45 a.m., she and Ryan called their mothers, who were to come take care of Peri. By 8:30 a.m., when Ryans mother, Kyla Martin, arrived, Austins contractions were 10 minutes apart. She was still on her feet, so she decided to take a hot bath.

By 9 a.m., her contractions were five minutes apart, So I told Ryan, Lets get the van loaded up, she said. Ryan called Contemporary Obstetrics & Gynecology, the office of Austins obstetrician, Dr. Aime Jorgensen. By now, Austins contractions were four minutes apart.

When Austin got out of the bathtub, I didnt feel good, she said. She went into the kitchen, where her water broke. After my water broke, I was down on all fours, Austin said. At that moment, her mother, Lanae Fritsch, arrived after a hurried 90-minute-plus drive from McCook.

She walked into the house and saw me on my knees, Austin said. I felt a push. I told Ryan, Im not going to make it to the hospital.

Can you wait 20 minutes? he asked her, thinking he could hurry her to Kearney Regional Medical Center before she gave birth.

She shook her head. I cant make it into the van, she told him. It was the only time that morning that she raised her voice.

As Kyla took Peri outside, Ryan and Fritsch helped Austin onto the couch. The baby was crowning by the time they got me to the couch, Austin said, but she remained calm and quiet. Quickly, her mother got sheets and towels. Ryan called 911. Within minutes, Elm Creek EMS arrived.

Five minutes later, when Charli emerged, six EMS volunteers from the Elm Creek Fire Department and two paramedics from CHI Health Good Samaritan in Kearney had crowded into their cozy house, which was built by Ryans great-grandfather. A Buffalo County deputy sheriff was on hand, too.

We werent sure what time she was born, but finally someone looked at the clock here in the living room. It said 9:45 a.m., Ryan said. He cut the cord. They placed the baby into Austins arms.

The crowd erupted with excitement. For Carol Jorgensen, who delivered the baby, it was the first birth in her 26 years as an EMT volunteer from Elm Creek.

Her son, T.J. Johnson, was Ryans closest friend in high school. Another EMS member was Ryans uncle Scott Shubert, who lives north of Elm Creek.

Ryan is a chiroparctor with Milligan Chiropractic in Kearney. His parents, Tim and Kyla Martin, own a farm nine miles north of Elm Creek. Kyla is the development director at Community Action Partnership of Mid-Nebraska.

Quickly, an ambulance took Austin and Charli to Kearney Regional, where Charli was weighed for the first time. She weighed 6 pounds 3 ounces. She and Austin stayed for the customary 48 hours before returning home.

We thought it would be a long day, Ryan said. In fact, it was quite the opposite.
Far in the distance under a cold, snarling, sniffling New Mexico sky last November, I saw a solitary black speck, as small as a fly, furiously pedaling a stubborn bicycle.

Who is out in this rain? I wondered. As the volunteer coordinator at the Ghost Ranch Education and Retreat Center in Abiquiu, N.M., Id been out getting a new volunteer settled in his room at the ranch. I was driving back to my office when I saw the bike.

As I got close, I realized I knew the rider. It was Brother Rafael, a Benedictine monk from Kenya who lived at the Monastery of Christ in the Desert, a little flower of Eden hidden in a canyon 13 miles northwest of Ghost Ranch. I knew him because I went to Mass at the monastery every Sunday.

Slowing down, I rolled down my window and offered him a ride. With visible relief, the shivering Brother Raphael parked his old bike against a cottonwood tree and climbed into my warm car.

I bubbled with questions. Why are you out on a cold, sloppy day like this? And that bike  with just a mere seat, handlebars and two tires  where did it come from?

He explained that it was Desert Day, a day of silent retreat. After lunch, he had decided to ride down to Bodes, a convenience store 15 miles beyond Ghost Ranch, to pick up a few things. His round-trip ride from the monastery would be 60 miles.

First he pedaled 13 miles on that dirt road as skinny and wispy as a strand of hair high over the Rio Chama. When at last he got out onto paved Highway 84, clouds exploded with rain. He knew hed never get to Bodes, or back to the monastery through the muck, so he pedaled two miles south to Ghost Ranch, and another mile back over an up-and-down dirt road to get to the ranch.

What bloomed, then, was kindness. In this holiday season, I call it Santa Claus on steroids.

I spotted him there and picked him up. As I drove him up to the Welcome Center, Brother Rafael kept staring. He lived in a canyon of jaw-dropping beauty, but hed never been to the ranch, and his eyes lapped it up like a kitten lapping milk as we crept past the stables, an old bunkhouse, the maintenance building and up to the Welcome Center. I took him up to the front desk.

He needed a room for the night. I was ready to pay if he lacked money, and so were a few others, but Kelly Skinner, the front-desk agent, quietly beat us to it. Kelly knew Brother Rafael because he had worked at the monastery for a year.

After Brother Rafael got his room key, I went out to drive him to his room, but another Ghost Ranch employee drove up. Ill take him, he offered.

At 5:30 p.m., supper was served in the dining hall. Brother Rafael filled his plate and sat down at a roomy table amid a cluster of eager people who welcomed him to the ranch and talked up a storm. A man brought him pajamas and a toothbrush. Someone else gave him a flashlight, which is a ranch necessity after dark. It was fun and lively, hospitable and warm.

After dinner, he asked me one final question: Is the ranch chapel open all night? I assured him it was.

Far from the monastery that night, he nevertheless rose at 3:30 a.m. and walked through the dark to the chapel to start the day, as he always did, with the 4 a.m. liturgy. Gratefully and humbly, he had accepted gifts of a ride, food, shelter and friendships. Then, under a starry, silent night, he had gotten down on his knees and given thanks. Thats a lesson for all of us, especially at Christmas.
The Ukrainian State Air Traffic Services Enterprise (UkSATSE) has fully lifted limits for capital investment, which the enterprise had to introduce in 2014 under the anti-crisis program, UkSATSE Director Dmytro Babeichuk has said.

"In the financial plan of UkSATSE for 2017 capital investments for a total of UAH 643 million were announced, of which UAH 70 million are from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and UAH 70 million from the European Investment Bank, which our company actively cooperates with," he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

Answering the question how tangible for UkSATSE the closure of the airspace of the east of Ukraine and Crimea and the introduction of a ban on transit flights for Russian airlines was, Babeichuk said that as a result, these measures led to a decrease in the air traffic in the company's responsibility zone by 55-60% and, accordingly, the company's income fell by 70%.

"But thanks to the timely implementation of the anti-crisis measures program, we quickly stabilized the situation and these losses did not affect the safety of flights over the territory of Ukraine and the international airspace over the Black Sea, the responsibility for which is delegated to our state under international treaties," he said.

UkSATSE was founded in 1992. The main mission of UkSATSE is to provide an efficient and safe air navigation services in the Ukrainian airspace and in the airspace over the high seas where the responsibility for providing air traffic services is delegated to Ukraine under the international agreements.
We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

Go to form
FILE - In this Monday, Sept. 12, 2016, file photo, a self-driving Uber sits ready to take journalists for a ride during a media preview in Pittsburgh. On Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017, Uber named Barney Harford its new COO, the same day the European Union's top court dealt it a blow, ruling that the ride-hailing company should be regulated like a taxi company and not a technology service. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
Stephanie Hall, CEO of Okanagan Regional Library, is leaving her job to travel around the world on a tall ship that sails out of Bermuda in March of 2018. The trip will take 14 1/2 months to complete.
The engine from an Amtrak train crash onto Interstate 5 two days earlier is checked by workers before being transported away from the scene, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017, in DuPont, Wash. Canada's railway industry is waiting for the development of better technology before installing devices that could slow trains to prevent accidents like the Amtrak derailment that killed three people and injured dozens. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/Elaine Thompson
Naftogaz Ukrainy plans in 2018 to enter the external debt market with an offer of eurobonds worth $1 billion, Yuriy Vitrenko, the company's chief commercial director, has said in an interview with Bloomberg.

According to him, the placement of securities is expected in the second quarter of next year, following the decision of the Stockholm arbitration on disputes between Naftogaz Ukrainy and Gazprom.

In addition, Vitrenko said Naftogaz plans to expand the credit line raised from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to $500 million from $300 million.

As reported, Naftogaz Ukrainy on November 5, 2009 completed the comprehensive restructuring of external debt through a formal exchange of eurobonds and other obligations for new eurobonds for a total nominal amount of $1.595 billion maturing on September 30, 2014 at 9.5% per annum.
The Musson house in Burlington, Ont. is decorated for Christmas in a hadnout photo. A man from the Hamilton area known for decking his house in colourful Christmas displays for more than three decades died this week after falling from his roof. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO
Phil Saviano, a victim of clergy sex abuse, reacts, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017, in Boston, to the death of Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced Boston archbishop who epitomized the Catholic Church's failure to protect children from sexually abusive priests. Law died Wednesday in Rome at age 86. (AP Photo/Bill Sikes)
Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers on Wednesday approved the prolongation through December 31, 2018 of the embargo on the import of certain commodities from Russia and the import duty on other Russian goods, which were introduced in early 2016 in response to trade bans and restrictions imposed by Russia on Ukraine.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman said the relevant decrees were adopted on the condition that they be improved.

The Ukrainian government also decided to include on the list of embargoed goods ammonium sulphate, mixtures of ammonium nitrate and calcium carbonate or other non-organic substances that are not fertilizers, polyethylene with specific thickness of 0.94 or more, and polyvinylchloride unmixed with other substances. The changes will take effect on March 1, 2018.

These measures may be lifted if Russia lifts its restrictions on trade with Ukraine.

All goods originating in Russia have been subject to the import duty set by the customs tariff of Ukraine in accordance with the government resolution dated December 30, 2015 since January 2, 2016. Preferential treatment for Russia (free trade) has been canceled due to Russia's violation of the free trade area agreement dated October 18, 2011, the Ukrainian side has said.

The Russian food embargo on Ukrainian goods took effect on January 1, 2016. In response, the Ukrainian government approved countermeasures and banned the supply of Russian food products and other goods whose total import cost is the same as the cost of the Ukrainian exports banned by Russia.

In the meantime, trade between the two countries began recovering this year after a sharp fall in 2014-2016.

In January-October 2017, Ukraine increased its exports to Russia by 20.9% year-on-year to $3.263 billion. The import of goods in that period went up 36.5%, to $5.521 billion, which puts the total increase in bilateral trade in goods at 26.5%, to $8.78 billion.

The trade balance with Russia in the first ten months of this year was negative for Ukraine and stood at $2.258 billion, which is 1.9 times more than last year's figure.
White House Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert speaks during a briefing blaming North Korea for a ransomware attack that infected hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide in May and crippled parts of Britain's National Health Service, at the White House, Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
FILE - In this Dec. 5, 2016 file photo, Jill Stein, the presidential Green Party candidate, speaks at a news conference in front of Trump Tower in New York. Jill Stein says sheAos cooperating with a Senate intelligence committee probe into Russian interference in the election. Stein ran against President Donald Trump as a member of the Green Party. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
Neighborhoods, towns collaboration works best The development of the Willow Ridge/ Parkview draft action plan shows how active neighborhoods and municipalities, in this case, the towns of Amherst and Tonawanda,...

Spindle Items .. UNCERTAINTY  As we are approaching the Thanksgiving holiday, we prepare ourselves to give thanks for the many things we have. But how many...

Out of the Past 25 Years AgoNov. 19, 1997 Maybe I have Downs syndrome and maybe I have disabilities but I have the ability to be your friend. Wearing...

Erie County offering assistance with high heating costs The Erie County Department of Senior Services is working hard on behalf of senior citizens throughout Erie County by providing advice and guidance to address...
On Wednesday, December 20, at 11.00, the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency's press center will host a press conference, entitled "Government and Entrepreneurship: Dialogue or Confrontation." Participants include a member of the Committee of Entrepreneurs of Ukraine, Vasyl Savenko, a representative of the initiative for liberal tax reform B2F - Business to Future, Lina Klebanova, and the coordinator of the Business Help initiative, Oksana Zgureva (8/5a Reitarska Street). Accreditation of journalists is required by phone: (066) 710 6707.
One Ukrainian soldier killed on Dec 19 in Popasna district in militant shelling

A Ukrainian serviceman died on December 19 in shelling by militants of Novotoshkivske, Popasna district, Luhansk Regional Military Civil Administration said.

"Yesterday morning, the enemy opened fire at the outskirts of the village of Novotoshkivske, using 120mm and 82mm mortars, as well as anti-tank grenade launchers. Unfortunately, Ukraine again lost its defender," Luhansk Regional Administration Head Yuriy Harbuz said on Facebook page on Wednesday.

Last day militants violated the ceasefire along the contact line three times.

In the area of Troyitske and Novoaleksandrivka villages of the Popasna district, the enemy used 120-mm and 82-mm mortars, grenade launchers of various systems, infantry fighting vehicles, anti-aircraft guns, heavy machine guns and small arms.

Militants fired from small arms on the positions of the ATO forces near the town of Stanytsia Luhanska.

The Ukrainian military had to return fire, the regional administration said.

In the morning, the ATO press center reported two Ukrainian soldiers killed in the anti-terrorist operation zone as a result of a shelling.
Subgroups of the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine began their meetings in Minsk on Wednesday morning.

"Working subgroups of the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine are in a meeting in Minsk," the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said on its Twitter.
Digital broadcasting of ten Ukrainian television channels to the territory of Crimea is to be launched before June 2018, a member of the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting, Serhiy Kostynsky, has said.

"Simultaneously with the modernization of the Chaplynka tower in the south of Kherson region, we plan to increase the number of Ukrainian digital television channels that broadcast to Crimea, from +5 to +10. We should also increase the number of radio stations from +4 to +7 in the next six months," he wrote on his Facebook page.

Earlier, he announced plans of the national council to create an additional digital multiplex with the purpose of organizing the powerful broadcasting of the first five Ukrainian TV channels in the direction of Armiansk and Krasnoperekopsk.

As reported, it is planned to increase the height of the state television tower in Chaplynka in Kherson region to 133 meters in the first half of 2018. This will help broadcast Ukrainian television and radio programs to Krasnoperekopsk district in Russia-occupied Crimea.
Kyiv Court of Appeal has overturned Solomensky District Court's ruling to arrest the property of son of Interior Minister of Ukraine Arsen Avakov, Oleksandr, and has sent the matter to for reconsideration.

The relevant decision was taken by the Kyiv Court of Appeals at its meeting on Tuesday, lawyer Andriy Tarasov told Interfax-Ukraine.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) is investigating the criminal proceeding about embezzling more than UAH 14 million for the purchase of backpacks for the needs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in late 2014 - early 2015. Detectives find out the circumstances associated with the forgery of warehouse documents for the delivered backpacks.

Two individuals detained on October 31 as part of the investigation into the so-called 'backpack case' were notified on the same day of suspicion of committing a crime under Part 5, Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (appropriation, embezzlement or taking possession of property through abuse of power). These two are former Deputy Interior Minister Serhiy Chebotar and Oleksandr Avakov, the son of Interior Minister Arsen Avakov.

Later NABU detectives notified the third detainee of suspicion in committing a crime during the purchase of backpacks for the Interior Ministry in late 2014 and early 2015. Bloc of Petro Poroshenko MP Serhiy Leschenko said earlier, referring to his own sources, that NABU detectives had detained in Kharkiv head of IT firm Turboseo Volodymyr Lytvyn, who also runs a company that had to produce a batch of backpacks for the Interior Ministry.

On November 1, Solomiansky District Court of Kyiv chose for Oleksandr Avakov and two other defendants of the 'backpacks case' the measure of restraint in the form of a personal obligation.

On November 8, reports appeared that Kyiv's Solomiansky district court ruled to seize the property of two persons involved in the so-called "military backpacks" case  Oleksandr Avakov and former deputy Interior Minister Serhiy Chebotar.
Dec 20 (Reuters) - The Bank of England will on Wednesday unveil plans to allow European banks to operate in UK as normal post-Brexit, even in a "no deal" scenario, the BBC reported.

European banks offering wholesale finance, money and services provided to businesses and each other, would be able to continue operating through branches without having to go through the expensive process of creating subsidiaries, the BBC said, without citing sources. The BoE could not immediately be reached for comment.

The BoE has come under pressure from bankers and financial lobbyists to fast-track licensing of European banks that want to continue doing business in London after Brexit to avoid cutting off customers and disrupting markets. Over a hundred banks in London, which are branches of lenders headquartered elsewhere in the EU, operate under EU "passporting" rules and are uncertain whether they can still do business in Britain after it exits the bloc in March 2019.

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru)
HANOI, Dec 20 (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.

December 20 USD/VND mid-point 22,437 USD/VND interbank 22,713/22,716 USD/VND unofficial 22,760/22,775 SJC gold (mln dong/tael) 36.33/36.55

Interbank offered rates Overnight 0.6-1.1

1 week 0.8-1.2

1 month 2.0-2.5

3 months 4.3-5.0

NOTES: As of Jan. 4, 2016 the State Bank of Vietnam has begun setting the mid-point rate on daily basis, allowing dollar/dong transactions to move in a band of +/- 3 percent around the mid point. The dong's exchange rate against other currencies is not restricted by a band. Interbank offered rates are the latest indicative bid/ask prices, quoted from market sources.

One tael is equivalent to 37.5 grams or 1.21 troy ounces. SJC gold prices are quoted by state-owned Saigon Jewelry Co.

For more interbank rate fixings released at 0400 GMT, click on .

For Vietnam market overview click on: Vietnam's bonds market auctions: Bonds auction results: (Compiled by Hanoi Newsroom)
December 21 (Reuters) - Australian shares are expected to open lower on Wednesday, mirroring Wall Street after a month-long rally leading up to the U.S. tax cut plan, passed by Congress earlier in the day. The U.S. House of Representatives gave final approval to the bill, which Senate had already voted in favour of, sending it to President Donald Trump for his signature. Australian share price index futures fell 19 points to 6060, a 15.6-point discount to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index close. The benchmark rose 0.1 percent on Wednesday. New Zealand's benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index rose 0.1 percent by 2105 GMT.

(Devika Syamnath in Bengaluru)

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.
BRASILIA, Dec 20 (Reuters) - The Brazilian government on Wednesday freed up an additional 5.003 billion reais' ($1.5 billion) worth of public spending this year as Latin America's largest economy continues to recover from a deep recession. Reuters had reported the move earlier on Wednesday, citing a member of the government's economic team. ($1 = 3.29 reais)

(Reporting by Marcela Ayres; Writing by Bruno Federowski; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

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.
NEW YORK, Dec 20 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve, which was at the center of an unsolved $81-million cyber heist nearly two years ago, is ready for further talks with foreign counterparts to address the lingering risks of cyber fraud in global messaging systems, a top Fed official said on Wednesday.

Simon Potter, head of market operations at the New York Fed, said the SWIFT bank messaging system is only as strong as the weakest of the central banks and financial institutions that use it to communicate and transfer trillions of dollars each day.

In February 2016, hackers broke into Bangladesh Bank's systems and tricked the New York Fed - which maintained its account - into sending $81 million to entities mostly in the Philippines. Bangladesh's central bank has only recovered some $15 million of the stolen funds despite an international probe involving the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Fixing the "deficiencies in prevention and detection may require a substantial re-orientation of priorities and resources for some institutions," said Potter, whose unit within the U.S. central bank maintains the international accounts and oversees some $3.6 trillion in foreign dollar-denominated assets.

Potter, who did not mention the Bangladesh incident specifically, said "response regimes" need improvement and that co-operation was more important than ever.

The Fed was "ready to engage in further dialogue and co-operation with both its foreign official account-holders and fellow central bank service providers in addressing these challenges," he told a private forum at the New York Fed, according to prepared remarks.

Last year's heist exposed weaknesses not only in Bangladesh Bank and in SWIFT, or the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, but also in the way the Fed detects fraud and communicates with clients in an emergency.

Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Bangladesh Bank had asked the New York Fed to join a lawsuit it was considering filing against the Philippines bank through which the money was stolen. That in turn set off finger-pointing between the bank, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp, and Dhaka. (Reporting by Jonathan Spicer, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
By Huw Jones

LONDON, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Big foreign investment banks face a tougher regulatory regime in the European Union under proposals made on Wednesday by the European Commission to bring them under the direct control of the European Central Bank, already the main regulator for top euro zone lenders.

Investment banks trade stocks, bonds, currencies and derivatives on behalf of customers, activities that have traditionally been supervised by market regulators rather than a central bank.

But the Commission is proposing to bring big investment banks with assets of over 30 billion euros ($35.5 billion) under the tougher supervision faced by lenders who take deposits, while easing the regulatory burden on small investment firms, which account for the bulk of 6,000 investment firms currently authorised.

"The new rules will support well-functioning capital markets, while ensuring financial stability," European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said in a statement.

"At the same time, larger firms posing similar risks as banks should be regulated and supervised like banks."

The big investment banks are largely concentrated in Britain, but are shifting parts of their operations to elsewhere in the EU in order to maintain links with customers there after the UK leaves the bloc in March 2019.

The ECB, which will be their new regulator, has been vocal in warning that foreign banks in London won't get away with setting up "letter box" or thinly staffed operations in the bloc.

The banks are hoping, however, to continue serving EU customers from London to some extent after Brexit.

The EU has existing powers to grant such market access to non-EU financial firms if their home rules are "equivalent" or as robust as the rules in force in the bloc.

It is a test solely in the gift of Brussels, and it looks set to become tougher.

"As the proposals change the prudential rules for investment firms, the equivalence test must also be adjusted to include these new rules," the European Comission said in a statement.

"It is proposed to set out in greater detail some of the requirements for equivalence."

Any equivalence assessment done by Brussels will have to be "very detailed and granular", it added.

To remain equivalent, a non-EU country like Britain after Brexit has to avoid diverging from the bloc's rules, which could turn Britain into a "rule taker", a step which some advocates for Brexit fiercely oppose.

Separately on Wednesday the BBC reported that the Bank of England would not force branches of EU banks in London to convert themselves into subsidiaries after Brexit, which would have been a costly undertaking. The BoE announcement could help persuade Brussels to soften the plans it announced on Wednesday.

The proposals need the approval of EU states and the European Parliament, a process that will take many months and often results in changes. ($1 = 0.8447 euros)

(Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov (NSDC) has said that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will strengthen their positions in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone in Donbas.

"The Armed Forces are ready to repel any attacks. We will certainly strengthen our positions at the front," he said during an exhibition in memory of Armed Forces Lieutenant Amina Okuyeva in Kyiv on Wednesday.

He noted that in recent days the enemy had been shelling civilian facilities in Donbas from artillery and multiple launch rocket systems.

Turchynov also expressed hope that "the Normandy format [countries] will assess Russia's attempts not just to go through escalation, but completely remove any opportunities to stop the aggression in the east of Ukraine and Crimea by political and diplomatic means."
PARIS, Dec 20 (Reuters) - French banks should be able to cover increased capital needs under new international banks rules with retained earnings, the head of the Bank of France said on Wednesday.

Global financial regulators reached a long-sought deal earlier this month to harmonize global banking rules, capping a decade of effort to make banks more resilient even if they fell short of their own initial hopes. French banks in particular had resisted and Paris finally relented on the new rules, known as Basel III, only when a phase-in period was proposed, putting the rules into full force only by the start of 2027.

"The definitive Basel III agreement will lead to a capital increase over 10 years of a little more than 15 percent, a figure pretty close to the European average," Bank of France governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau told journalists.

"This capital increase is compatible with French banks general earnings capacity and their conversion into reserves. To say it differently, no French bank will have to carry out a capital increase specifically dedicated to Basel III," Villeroy added.

(Reporting by Leigh Thomas, Yann Le Guernigou and Myriam Rivet, Editing by Dominique Vidalon)
SHANGHAI, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Tianjin Airlines , a subsidiary of China's HNA Group , has cancelled a planned 1 billion yuan ($151.90 million) bond issuance, citing "market fluctuations".

This comes amid growing concerns that the acquisitive HNA conglomerate is experiencing repayment troubles.

"Due to recent market fluctuations, the company has decided to cancel this issuance of short-term bills," it said late on Tuesday, in statement posted on the China Foreign Exchange Trading System's website, which is managed by the central bank.

Tianjin Airlines had planned to issue 270-day securities in the onshore market by Dec. 18 and use the proceeds to repay two bonds maturing in January and February, according to a prospectus published on Dec. 13.

The company did not respond to further questions from Reuters about the bond cancellation.

HNA's $50 billion worth of deal-making in the past two years has sparked intense scrutiny of its opaque ownership and use of leverage. In June, the Chinese government told major banks to review their credit exposure to HNA and a handful of other non-state companies, putting pressure on its finances. The group's subsidiaries have issued 5 billion yuan ($755 million) in domestic commercial paper over the last month, all yielding around 7 percent - a level considered high by analysts.

Last week, China Citic Bank Corp said that HNA Group was "experiencing temporary liquidity difficulties", including difficulty repaying a commercial acceptance bill pledged by Hainan Airlines Holding Co , the conglomerate's flagship carrier. HNA said in its response that its cooperation with Citic Bank was "fully normal" and denied that the group was facing any temporary liquidity difficulties or that there was any repayment delays. ($1 = 6.5831 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
MUMBAI, Dec 20 (Reuters) - India's capital market regulator is talking with the government and central bank about how to regulate cryptocurrencies, its chairman said on Wednesday.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), plus officials from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), are on a panel tasked with determining the legal oversight for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, Chairman Ajay Tyagi said.

"There has to be a process or law, only then can you take action," Tyagi told reporters on the sidelines of a Confederation of Indian Industry conference in Mumbai.

India currently has no regulation for cryptocurrencies, and like other global policymakers, it is seeking to understand how to supervise a market that many feel is a speculative bubble. Earlier this month, the RBI said it was concerned about bitcoin. India's central tax authority is also surveying bitcoin exchanges to find out whether it can tax any transactions. (Reporting by Abhirup Roy; Editing by Richard Borsuk)
JAKARTA, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Indonesia's finance minister on Wednesday said she expects tax revenue to miss the government's target by 110 trillion to 130 trillion rupiah ($9.57 billion) this year, but maintained her outlook for the size of the fiscal deficit.

"Although there would be a tax shortfall, spending also would not reach the full target that has been budgeted," Sri Mulyani Indrawati told reporters, without explaining the reason for the shortfall.

Indonesia had originally targeted tax revenue of 1,472.7 trillion rupiah for the year, according to its revised state budget released in July. In the Dec. 15 year-to-date period, the government has collected 1,211.5 trillion in tax revenue.

Still, Indrawati maintained her outlook for the size of the fiscal deficit to be around 2.6-2.7 percent of GDP for 2017.

The minister has frequently said the government will continue slashing unnecessary spending to keep a tighter rein on its finances.

She also said better-than-assumed oil prices this year have helped the government's non-tax revenue exceed its target of 260.2 trillion rupiah due to revenue from the oil and gas sector. By mid-December, the government has recorded 281 trillion in non-tax revenue.

The government has an official target for its budget deficit to be 2.92 percent of GDP this year, below Indonesia's 3 percent legal limit.

It launched a tax amnesty program last year to broaden the taxpayer base, and nearly $360 billion of assets were declared before it ended in March this year. The programme added 107 trillion rupiah to its 2016 revenue. ($1 = 13,580 rupiah)

(Reporting by Tabita Diela; Writing by Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by Sam Holmes)
JOHANNESBURG, Dec 20 (Reuters) - South Africa's ruling African National Congress has adopted a resolution calling for the nationalisation of the central bank and land expropriation without compensation, a senior party official said on Wednesday.

Following a meeting of party delegates, the head of the ANC's economic transformation committee Enoch Godongwana told reporters the ownership of the South African Reserve Bank would not affect the regulator's independence.

He said the party had also agreed to initiate amendments of the constitution to achieve land expropriation without compensation, but gave no timeline. He said there would be no illegal occupation of land.

(Reporting by Alexander Winning and Ed Stoddard; Writing by James Macharia; Editing by Andrew Roche)
STOCKHOLM, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Swedish central bank has taken a first step towards a normalization of monetary policy by deciding not to make any net new bond purchases, governor Stefan Ingves said on Wednesday.

"It is a step on the way against some kind of normalization," he told reporters.

The Riksbank said on earlier on Wednesday it will keep benchmark rates unchanged, but also said it will end new net bond purchases, though coupons and maturing bonds will be reinvested. (Reporting by Stockholm Newsroom; editing by Niklas Pollard)
TAIPEI, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Taiwan's export orders for November, released by the Ministry of Economic Affairs on Wednesday. The data is an indication of the strength of Asian exports and of global demand for technology. NOVEMBER REUTERS POLL OCTOBER Export orders (y/y pct) +11.6 +8.1 +9.2 Export orders from China +12.8 +13.2 Export orders from U.S. +5.8 +6.5 Export orders from Europe +20.2 +13.8 Export orders from Japan +22.8 +22.9 The ministry's website is /

(Reporting by Liang-sa Loh; Writing by Jess Macy Yu; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

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.
BANGKOK, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Thailand's exports in November rose 13.36 percent from a year earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak said on Wednesday. He told reporters he expects exports to rise more than 10 percent this year. The commerce ministry is due to release November trade data on Thursday, at 0330 GMT. Economists polled by Reuters predicted annual export growth of 6.4 percent in November. (Reporting by Orathai Sriring; Editing by Richard Borsuk; Editing by)

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.
ROME, Dec 20 (Reuters) - The former chief of Unicredit said on Tuesday that a close ally of former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi had asked him in 2014 about the possibility of his bank buying the troubled smaller lender, Banca Etruria, where her father worked.

The remarks by Federico Ghizzoni to a parlaimentary commission are likely to cause embarrassment to Renzi and the Democratic Party he leads.

Ghizzoni said cabinet undersecretary Maria Elena Boschi had asked him in a one-to-one meeting "if it was possible for Unicredit to consider buying or intervening in Etruria".

Boschi, whose father was on the board of the struggling lender, had previously denied making any such request.

(Reporting by Gavin Jones)
(Adds background, quotes)

LONDON, Dec 20 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May's most senior minister, Damian Green, has resigned at her request after an internal investigation found that he had made misleading comments about pornography found on computers in his parliamentary office.

The resignation of one of her most trusted allies, who helped pacify her deeply divided party, is a serious blow for May as she navigates the final year of tortuous Brexit negotiations before Britain's exit in March 2019.

Green was appointed in the wake of her disastrous bet on a June snap election which lost her party its majority in parliament. Green, an old friend, was brought in to stabilise her leadership and counter enemies within the Conservative Party who wanted her to quit.

A review by the cabinet secretary found that Green's statements which suggested he was not aware that indecent material was found in 2008 on parliamentary computers in his office, were "inaccurate and misleading."

"I regret that I've been asked to resign from the government following breaches of the Ministerial Code, for which I apologise," Green said in a letter to May. He added that he did not download or view pornography on his parliamentary computers.

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Kate Holton)
One of the Russian officers of the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) who left Ukraine on Tuesday has been prohibited from visiting Ukraine for three years because of his travel to Crimea through an inactive checkpoint, assistant head of the Ukrainian State Border Service Oleh Slobodian said on his Facebook page on Wednesday.

"Russian officers of the JCCC left Ukraine last night. They were cleared by the Hoptivka checkpoint in Kharkiv region," Slobodian said.

A lieutenant colonel who visited Crimea through a checkpoint shut down by the Ukrainian government was discovered in the clearing process, Slobodian said. He confirmed in the interview that he visited Crimea in April 2017 through the temporarily shut down Simferopol checkpoint, he said.

"The border guards prohibited him from visiting Ukraine for three years consistent with current laws," Slobodian said.
* Surplus seen at around $3 bln this year - customs

* Trade jumps four-fold in a decade, department says

* China, U.S are among Vietnam's biggest trade partners

(Changes headline, adds quotes, background, bullets)

HANOI, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Vietnam posted a record combined export and import value in the year to Dec. 15 period, data from the country's customs department showed on Wednesday, and expects to post a larger trade surplus in 2017 than last year.

The Southeast Asian economy exported roughly $204 billion of goods over the Dec. 15 year-to-date period, the department said in a report, up from $167.9 billion a year earlier. Imports over the same period were $201.3 billion, up from $166 billion a year earlier.

Vietnam estimates the country will post a trade surplus of $3 billion for the 2017 calendar year, a government website quoted Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue as saying at a press conference on Wednesday.

That compares with $2.5 billion in 2016 and a deficit of $3.55 billion in 2015.

China, the United States, South Korea, Japan and the European Union are Vietnam's biggest trading partners.

While the Southeast Asian country of 80 million people is the United States' fastest-growing export market, Vietnam's widening trade surplus with the United States has become a focus for relations between Hanoi and Washington.

The customs department said in a separate statement on Tuesday that import and export volumes have grown significantly since Vietnam's admission into the global trade community.

"Vietnam's exports and imports combined hit $400 billion. Exports in particular have been over $200 billion, reaching the target that the National Assembly set for 2017," a government website quoted Nguyen Duong Thai, Deputy Director General of Vietnam Customs, as saying on Tuesday.

"Ten years since Vietnam joined the World Trade Organisation, exports and imports combined have jumped four-fold," Thai said.

Vietnam posted a trade surplus of $596 million in November, higher than a government forecast. (Reporting by Mi Nguyen; Editing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Sam Holmes)
* No timeline given on nationalisation, expropriation plans

* Central bank has said nationalisation won't affect mandate

* Debate on land emotional and "rowdy" - official

* ANC says there should be no illegal occupation of land

* Most land in white hands 23 years after apartheid

(Adds Godongwana, analyst quotes, details)

By Ed Stoddard and Alexander Winning

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 20 (Reuters) - South Africa's ruling African National Congress has adopted a resolution calling for the nationalisation of the central bank and land expropriation without compensation, a senior party official said on Wednesday.

Any mention of nationalisation in South Africa is enough to spook investors, since left-wing elements of the ANC have also called for mines and banks to be state-owned.

Similarly, land is an emotive issue two decades after the end of apartheid, and the ANC has been under pressure to redress racial disparities in land ownership.

Unlike most central banks in the world, the South African Reserve Bank has been privately owned since it was established in 1921. But its shareholders have no control over monetary policy, financial stability policy or banking regulation.

Following a meeting of party delegates, the head of the ANC's economic transformation committee, Enoch Godongwana, told reporters changing the ownership of the South African Reserve Bank would not affect its independence.

He said the party had also agreed to initiate amendments to the constitution to achieve land expropriation without compensation, but gave no timeline. He said there would be no illegal occupation of land.

Following the proposal made in July by the ANC at a policy conference to nationalise the bank's shareholding, South Africa's Reserve Bank said that changing its shareholding would not affect its mandate, because that mandate is derived from the constitution.

Godongwana said no timeline had been laid down for the plan to acquire the central bank's shares or for any directives to parliament to change the country's laws to effect the change.

"No change in the constitution, no change in the Reserve Bank Act," he said. "We've also said it's not likely to have an impact at all because shareholders in the Reserve Bank do not affect monetary policy in any way."

Godongwana said the changes would come after "more work" was done to prepare for the bank's nationalisation.

In July, when the party said it would like the central bank to be wholly state-owned, investors were initially worried and knocked the rand .

The currency was little changed on Wednesday immediately after the announcement by Godongwana, but analysts said markets would react negatively.

"The SARB resolution will spook the markets even if it is ultimately unlikely to be implemented," said Anne Fruhauf political analyst with consultancy Teneo.

'ROWDY' LAND DEBATE

On the land issue, Godongwana said some of the delegates became "rowdy" during the heated debate that "nearly collapsed the conference". ANC officials rejected reports that delegates had come to blows during the debate.

Godongwana said the delegates eventually agreed to initiate some amendments to the constitution in order to achieve expropriation of land without compensation.

"The condition is that it must be sustainable and not impact on food production and food security," he said, adding that there should be no illegal occupation of land.

Asked how the markets would react, Godongwana said: "My suspicion is they are going to say 'wow' and react badly ... my sense is, if I was the markets, I would simply hold off."

Most of South Africa's land remains in white hands 23 years after the end of white minority rule.

Experts say the plan to expropriate land in South Africa will not signal the kind of often violent land grabs that took place in neighboring Zimbabwe, where white-owned farms were seized by the government for redistribution to landless blacks.

However, some economists and farming groups have said the reform could hit investment and production.

Around 8 million hectares (20 million acres) of land have been transferred to black owners since apartheid ended, equal to 8 to 10 percent of the land in white hands in 1994, the government says. The total is only a third of a 30 percent target by 2014 set by the ANC.

(Writing by James Macharia, editing by Larry King)
(Adds context)

By William Schomberg

LONDON, Dec 20 (Reuters) - The Bank of England will allow European banks to continue selling their services in the United Kingdom without having to create expensive subsidiaries after Britain leaves the European Union, the BBC reported on Wednesday.

The decision, if confirmed, would mean European banks offering wholesale services would not face new post-Brexit hurdles to operating in London , which vies with New York for the title of the world's financial capital.

A BoE spokesman declined to comment on the report. The central bank is due to publish its approach to future supervision of foreign banks, insurers and clearing houses at 1300 GMT.

Financial services is Britain's single biggest tax-earning sector, bringing over 70 billion pounds a year into government coffers. If foreign banks began leaving, the City's fabric would begin to unravel, industry officials have said.

The EU has proposed that, as a last resort, clearing of euro denominated derivatives done mainly in London should move to the euro zone after Brexit.

By allowing branches of EU banks in London to be supervised by their home regulator, Britain will be hoping the bloc would in return allow euro clearing to remain in Britain.

The UK gesture could also soften European Commission plans, due to be published later on Wednesday, to stiffen the conditions for allowing investment banks from outside the EU to operate inside the bloc. Many of those banks, like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have their main European operations in London at present.

"The crucial thing here is to reassure EU banks that they can operate as they can now," said Matt Hancock, minister for digital, later told the BBC.

Asked if UK banks can retain financial passporting rights, Hancock added, "I'm confident we can get a good deal on it."

The BBC quoted unidentified government and industry sources as saying they supported the decision.

A later version of the BBC story removed a reference to the BoE proposing that EU banks would be allowed to operate as usual even if no divorce deal was struck between London and Brussels.

More than 100 banks operating in London are branches of lenders headquartered elsewhere in the EU. Currently, they operate in Britain under EU "passporting" rules which are due to expire when Britain leaves the bloc in March 2019.

The BoE had previously said it would let banks know before the end of the year whether these branches must reapply for branch licences to operate after Brexit, or would need to be turned into subsidiaries, an option Boston Consulting Group has said could cost banks up to 40 billion euros.

Switching from being a branch to a subsidiary means having to build up buffers of capital and cash locally, and come under the direct supervision of the Bank of England.

EU retail banks that hold UK customer deposits above a certain threshold would have to become subsidiaries, the BoE has already said.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has said Britain will leave the EU's single market, raising questions about how companies in Britain will do business in the bloc after Brexit, and how European companies can operate in Britain.

(Reporting by William Schomberg and Huw Jones, editing by Guy Faulconbridge/Jeremy Gaunt)
Saakashvili cannot come to SBU for interrogation on Dec 22 due to court session

The leader of the Movement of New Forces party and former Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, did not receive a summons for questioning to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on December 22 and cannot come due to Kyiv Court of Appeal's hearing on that day an appeal from the prosecutor's office against the Pechersky District Court's decision not to place Saakashvili under house arrest, his lawyer, Ruslan Chornolutsky, has said.

"We will attend a meeting of the Court of Appeal, which is scheduled for 11.15 on December 22. Therefore, we will most likely be physically unable to come for interrogation. Secondly, we did not get an official summons from the SBU," Chornolutsky told Interfax- Ukraine on Wednesday.

The lawyer said that in this situation, the Court of Appeal's session was a priority.

According to him, if the SBU still formally invites Saakashvili for questioning, the lawyers will ask it to choose another date.

As reported, a source in law enforcement agencies said that Saakashvili had been called in for questioning to the SBU on Friday, December 22.

On Monday, December 18, Saakashvili came for questioning to the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine and stated that his criminal case should be transferred to the SBU.

"When this case is transferred to the SBU by law, I will come there and testify," he told reporters after visiting the Prosecutor General's Office.
The Ukrainian side, at a meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) on the settlement of the situation in Donbas, has expressed outrage at Russia's unilateral decision to withdraw its representatives from the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC), stressing that this is a violation of Moscow's obligations.

"We consider this step as a violation of the obligations of the Russian Federation, which it assumed as part of the Normandy format and the Minsk process. This decision significantly increases the risks of conflict escalation and poses a threat to the security of the OSCE SMM on the territory of ORDLO. As a party to the conflict, Russia is fully responsible for the further development of the situation and ensuring the security of OSCE SMM observers on the territory of Donbas not controlled by Ukraine," Darka Olifer, spokesperson for Ukraine's representative in the TCG, second Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, wrote on her Facebook page on Wednesday.
A still capture from the film Haewon / Courtesy of Gu Ja-hywan



By Choi Ha-young



In 2013, film director Gu Ja-hywan recalled the forgotten deaths of those who were killed during the 1950-53 Korean War, in his documentary film "Red Tomb." Four years later, Gu is back with his new movie "Haewon," as a follow-up.





Gu Ja-hywan




Kim Miru shows off one of her nude self-portraits at the opening party for "The Camel's Way" held at Trunk Gallery in Samcheong-dong, Seoul, in this March 27, 2014, photo. Her new book "Miru's Adventure" gives a detailed account of her time in the world's deserts. / Photo by Jon Dunbar
By Jun Ji-hye



Eight out of 10 Vietnamese people think the increasing number of Koreans in their country would bring positive effects, according to a survey jointly conducted by The Hankook Ilbo and The Korea Times.





The survey was carried out on 1,000 Vietnamese people from Dec. 7 to 16 to mark the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and Vietnam.



Among the respondents, 77.8 percent said "yes" in response to a question on whether the increasing number of Koreans in Vietnam would positively affect them, while 22.2 percent said "no."



Forty percent of respondents said they have been influenced by Koreans the most in the cultural area, while 39 percent chose the economic field.



Three good features of Korean people, cited by the Vietnamese, were hard-working (41.3 percent), responsible (38.9 percent) and friendly (33.7 percent).



Sixty-one percent of participants also cited Korea and Vietnam's cultural similarities, while 71 percent said the similarities have made it easier to work with Korean people.






The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved a draft agreement with the government of Antigua and Barbuda on the mutual abolition of visa requirements.

According to an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent, the corresponding decision was made at a government meeting in Kyiv. Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman read out this decision among those adopted by the government without discussion.

The Cabinet authorized Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Valeriy Chaly, who is also Ukraine's Ambassador to Antigua and Barbuda, to sign this agreement.

The draft agreement provides for permission to enter the country without visas under the condition that the term of stay does not exceed 90 days during 180 days.

At present the island state unilaterally introduced visa-free entry for Ukrainian citizens for up to 30 days for tourism purposes.
President Moon Jae-in and Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha attend a welcoming ceremony for five new ambassadors to Korea at Cheong Wa Dae, Wednesday. Kang returned earlier in the day from a two-day trip to Japan. / Yonhap



By Jun Ji-hye



With South Korea scheduled to unveil the result of a five-month review of a controversial 2015 sex slavery deal with Japan next week, how Tokyo reacts to the announcement will be key to deciding whether strained bilateral relations will improve.



According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, its taskforce, set up to evaluate the Seoul-Tokyo verbal agreement reached during the former Park Geun-hye government, will submit their report, Dec. 27.



Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said Wednesday that she will offer a detailed explanation to Japan before the results are announced.



"I already explained the basic purpose of the task force's review to Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono," she told South Korean reporters in Tokyo. "I will also go into detail before the report comes out. That is diplomatic protocol."



The outlook, however, seems not too bright, given that Kono continued to urge Seoul to sincerely implement the contents of the agreement during his talks with Kang Kyung-wha in Tokyo the previous day.



Apparently mindful of Japan's possible protest, Kang noted that the report made by the taskforce is just an assessment of the agreement, and this is not the official position of the government.



"We will establish the government position based on the report and the opinions of victims and scholars," she said.



Under the deal, the two nations agreed to "finally and irreversibly" resolve a decades-old dispute over Japan's use of Koreans as sex slaves during World War II. The Japanese government agreed to contribute 1 billion yen ($8.9 million) to a Korean foundation dedicated to supporting the victims.



Since the signing of the deal, however, controversy has been abounding as some surviving victims accused the government of failing to obtain Japan's acknowledgment of its legal responsibility and reached the deal rashly without consulting them. They said they do not want to receive the money from Japan unless the country acknowledges its legal responsibility and offers a sincere apology.



Since his election in May, President Moon Jae-in has signaled his willingness to renegotiate the issue with his Japanese counterpart. But the Japanese government has claimed it has fulfilled its obligations and has already paid the 1 billion yen.



Minister Kang stressed that the government is seeking to satisfy the victims regarding the deal, but at the same time needs to overcome the conflict with Japan to better handle other bilateral challenges including North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.



"If we can solve this issue smoothly, that would be a big step forward for Seoul-Tokyo relations next year," she said.


Say founders Cho Yong-min, left, Jenny Cho, center, and Quan Nguyen / Courtesy of SAY



SAY links demand for Korean language with aging society



By Kim Bo-eun





A startup has connected the demand for Korean language education with the growing senior population in Korea.

Demand for learning Korean is growing due to the influence of Hallyu, or Korean pop culture spreading overseas.

Meanwhile, Korea is an aging society ?senior citizens aged 65 and above accounted for 13.2 percent of the population last year. Accordingly, an increasing number of people are seeking work after retirement.

The thought of linking the demand for work and the possible supply of jobs occurred to one of the founders of the new company, Cho Yong-min, while he was serving his military duty at a welfare center for senior citizens in Seoul.

"He saw that many senior citizens were not doing much, yet believed in the value they could create," Jenny Cho, another founder, said in an interview with The Korea Times.

At the time, Cho was a student at Princeton. He reached out to a professor at his school, and as a result, he connected seniors in Korea with students taking Korean language classes at Princeton through an online platform.

The exchanges were later offered for students at Yale as well.

After several years of experimenting, the social volunteer project developed into a business.

SAY

In January, the two Chos and Quan Nguyen founded SAY, a platform through which Korean senior citizens teach students Korean.

SAY now has 22 instructors and has sold over 1,000 lessons in the past year.

Seventy-five percent of its teachers are aged 50 and above. They are retired professionals with backgrounds in the corporate sector as well as education.

"We value empowering seniors," Nguyen said.

"Korea is one of the fastest aging societies in the world and many seniors are retiring and in need of jobs. We felt this was a great place to step in."

SAY got started with funding from personal care product company Yuhan-Kimberly, which is involved in projects for senior citizens, and from the Seoul Metropolitan Government's 50 Plus Foundation.

Among its students 40 percent are based in Korea and 60 percent abroad _ including the U.S., Singapore, China and Japan.

"Many students based abroad want to learn Korean for career reasons, while for others it is due to an interest in Korean pop culture, or because they have a Korean spouse," Nguyen said.

Students in Korea are mostly English-language instructors.

With help from an instructor at Yonsei University's Foreign Language Institute, the founders developed SAY's own curriculum _ which offers conversation-based classes ranging from levels one to five. Students taking level five classes are able to discuss issues such as North Korea's nuclear threats.

Nguyen, who has passed the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) II's 4th grade, took some of the classes earlier to improve his Korean.

Nguyen, who is from the U.S., had no ties to Korea but started learning the language in a class he took when he was a university student.

"My mom used to watch K-dramas and my college friends were listening to K-pop," Nguyen recalled.

After he started learning Korean, he developed a greater interest in Korea, which prompted him to come to Seoul on a one-year exchange program.

Nguyen's experience in Korea brought him back, this time for work. He recently earned a visa for residency.

Win-win strategy

SAY benefits not only senior citizens in providing them jobs but also students, the founders said.

"Previously we hired college students as teachers _ but we found they were busy with their studies and many left in search of better jobs," Cho said.

"However, senior citizens have the time to teach and can also offer students more with the richer life experiences they have."

SAY does not require its instructors to hold licenses to teach Korean, but subjects the applicants to rigorous training under a program it has developed.

According to SAY, 98 percent of its students rated the courses five out of five in their evaluations. Seventy percent of them come back and take more courses.

"It is our social mission to connect generations," Cho said _ and this is what SAY stands for _ Seniors and Youth.
Police leave the neonatal intensive care unit at Ewha Womans University Medical Center in Yangcheon-gu, Seoul, Sunday morning. / Yonhap



By Ko Dong-hwan



The deaths of four newborn infants on Saturday night have triggered a police investigation at Ewha Womans University Medical Center. The Seoul hospital was questioned months ago about a controversial "insect fluid" given to a baby.



Four pre-term infants in incubators in the neonatal intensive care unit at the major hospital in Yangcheon-gu died between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. Before their deaths, medical staff noticed the infants were not breathing normally and that their abdomens were disproportionately swollen. Staff performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but failed to save their lives.



Hospital officials told Yangcheon police that the deaths "do not seem to have originated from a contagious cause." Investigators from Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency and officials from National Forensic Service searched the hospital on Sunday. The forensic service plans to perform autopsies on Monday.



The hospital said at a press conference on Sunday afternoon, "four infants encountering a cardiac arrest almost at the same time is rare." They said the infants died one by one while receiving the emergency treatment between 9:31 p.m. and 10.53 p.m.





Ewha Womans University Medical Center President Chung Hye-won, center, leaves a press conference after issuing an apology, Sunday. / Yonhap
By Chyung Eun-ju







Eight gang members allegedly carrying a large amount of methamphetamines were arrested near Yeoksam Station in Gangnam, Seoul, Tuesday.







A Korean-Japanese surnamed Lee, 59, three other Japanese gang members, Taiwanese nationals surnamed Suh, 42, and Hwang, 47, and two others were charged with violation of narcotics laws, according to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office.







Prosecutors allege Hwang smuggled 16 kilograms of methamphetamines worth 57 billion won ($52.4 million) by hiding the drugs on board a freighter on gang leader Suh's orders in September.







Suh allegedly sold eight kilograms of methamphetamines to Lee, a member of Inazawa Kai, a faction of the Japanese Yakuza organized crime syndicate. The drugs had a street value of 28.8 billion won and amounted to 290,000 doses.







Four other suspects remain at large.







The Taiwanese gang and the Japanese Yakuza often select Korea to deliver drugs because customs at Incheon Airport are short-staffed and checks are cursory, reports say.







Prosecutors said the Taiwanese nationals were responsible for the delivery of the drugs while the Japanese purchased them.







The prosecution had been working closely with customs.


President Moon Jae-in holds talks with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang, second from right, at the City Hall in the central Vietnamese city of Danang on Nov. 11. / Korea Times file



By Im Byeong Min



Since Vietnam and South Korea set up diplomatic ties 25 years ago, the two countries have seen strong and steady progress in their cooperation in such areas as diplomacy, economy, technology and culture.



The two sides upgraded their relationship to a comprehensive partnership in the 21st century in 2001 and a strategic cooperative partnership in 2009. Korea regards Vietnam as one of the most important partners in Southeast Asia, especially in economic cooperation. Korea is now leading foreign direct investment in Vietnam and is one of its top three trade partners.



The Vietnamese government is attempting to simplify procedures to create favorable conditions for foreign investors. With abundant resources, relatively low production costs, and a government that always pays heed to investors' aspirations, Vietnam has become an attractive destination for foreign investment.



After more than two decades, the two countries' bilateral trade has increased to a record high. From only $500 million in 1992, two-way trade reached $43.45 billion in 2016, and $39.2 billion in the first eight months of 2017, and is forecast to hit over $60 billion in 2017.



In the last 10 years, two-way trade has continuously grown at an average rate of 23.4 percent per year in the context of global trade being negatively impacted by the global economic crisis. Korea is Vietnam's third largest trade partner after China and the United States, accounting for 14 percent of its total international trade. Vietnam is Korea's fourth largest trade partner.





Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang and Korean President Moon Jae-in hold a summit in Danang



Korea is a potential market for Vietnamese exports. With its strength in fuel, light industry and agricultural products, Vietnam exports telephones and spare parts; computers, electronic and various other products. Many of Vietnam's commodities have set their footholds in developed markets such as the United States, Japan and the EU with high requirements of technical and environmental standards, product safety, and designs.

They are gradually asserting their position in the Korean market.






By Jung Min-ho



Hanssem, the largest furniture maker in Korea, has been fined for overlooking sexual harassment and assaults, and failing to provide anti-sex crime education to its employees.



The Ministry of Employment and Labor said Wednesday its officials have confirmed that Hanssem didn't take any steps against the four employees accused of sexual harassment despite clear evidence.



The ministry has also found that the company violated the law which requires all employers to provide at least one anti-sex crime education session to all employees annually.



The ministry imposed a fine of 6 million won ($5,500) for these management failures.



Hanssem can file an objection to the decision within a month, but it is unclear whether the company will do so. PR officials did not respond to The Korea Times' call.



The ministry began the investigation Dec. 7, following news reports about a female employee, surnamed Kim, who accused two male employees of rape and other sex crimes.



During an investigation, the ministry confirmed additional sexual harassment committed by four other employees between 2014 and 2016.



The ministry and the prosecution are investigating the allegations made by Kim.



The case came into the spotlight after Kim's online post about the two went viral. According to the post, a senior worker, surnamed Kang, sexually assaulted her at a motel in January. At that time, she was one of the new employees and he was supposed to train them.



Kim also accused Hanssem's human resources director of sexually harassing her and trying to convince her to drop all the allegations against Kang. She claimed the company didn't try hard enough to protect her and to take proper measures.



"Once the investigation is over, prosecutors are expected to indict the suspects," a ministry official said.



In another accusation, Kim said another Hanssem employee recorded her with a smartphone camera while she was in a restroom in December 2016. Hanssem later fired the man and he was eventually arrested by police.



But the company did not take immediate measures against Kang and the director, saying it cannot penalize them based solely on her claims. But after the issue came to the fore in early November, the director resigned.



According to a company official, Kang claims the interaction was consensual and he and Kim were in a "romantic relationship." As evidence, he presented text messages they exchanged around that time to police and the media.



The Hanssem scandal has put the government under pressure to come up with better, more effective measures to prevent sex crimes in the workplace.



The ministry said it will toughen penalties for such crimes.








By Lee Kyung-min



A growing number of public health experts are raising possibilities that hospital infection or medical malpractice, or a combination of both, caused the deaths of four premature babies at Ewha Womans University Medical Center last Saturday.

Among other factors, they are faulting Ewha doctors and nurses based on blood test results from the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), which showed three of the babies were infected with the same bacteria.

The four died within an hour-and-a-half in the center's neonatal intensive care unit (ICU).



The KCDC said Citrobacter freundii, a gram-negative type of bacteria, found in the blood of the three shared the same genome sequence, indicating the same source of infection.

While the bacteria is commonly found in human intestines and soil, water and sewage, those with weakened immune systems are highly prone to infection.



"Simple hand-washing by hospital staff members would have prevented what, among other possibilities, is suspected to be a person-to-person transmission there," said a professor at the infectious diseases division of a Seoul-based hospital who declined to be named.

"The use of unsanitary medical equipment including syringes and intravenous solutions is also a possible contributing factor to the infection," he added.



The KCDC is investigating what treatment was given to the babies, including what drugs were administered. A more accurate assessment to confirm the causality between the bacterial infection and the deaths will come in about a month following an investigation by the National Forensic Service (NFS), it added.



The deaths came only four days after a district court ruled against the center in Mokdong, southwestern Seoul, in a medical malpractice case.

The Seoul Western District Court ordered a foundation that owns the hospital to pay 360 million won ($330,000) in compensation to parents of a two-year-old who suffered vision loss due to retinopathy through prematurity, a disease that affects premature babies under intensive neonatal care which requires oxygen therapy. Too much oxygen could cause blood vessels in the retina to grow abnormally, possibly leading to vision loss. He received treatment there after being born prematurely in 2015.

The parents sought 1.2 billion won, claiming the hospital failed to conduct checkups early on despite repeated requests after they noticed their son's eyes could not focus.



Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health and Welfare is coming under heavy criticism for poorly overseeing infection control at the hospital.

According to data from the ministry and the Korea Institute for Healthcare Accreditation, a ministry-supervised organization, the hospital met 50 infection control-related requirements, one short of the 51 total.

Under the law, medical malpractice is not recognized as grounds for accreditation cancellation, while inaccurate hospital information such as the number of hospital beds is.

The ministry said it had no plans to cancel the accreditation, while it may launch an investigation over whether the assessment followed strict guidelines.



Meanwhile, Health and Welfare Minister Park Neung-hoo ordered a complete and full inspection into neonatal ICUs nationwide by the end of the year, adding that the investigation findings will be promptly and transparently disclosed to the public. A total of 1,883 cots at 99 such facilities will be inspected.

"This is medical malpractice in the broad sense of the term. The country is responsible for the health and safety of the public. Necessary measures will follow to prevent a recurrence of this incident," he said.




Da Nang / Korea Times photo by Jung Min-ho



By Jung Min-ho



Vietnam is emerging as a popular destination for Korean tourists.



According to the latest data from the Korea Tourism Organization, Vietnam is now the most popular Southeast Asian country for Korean tourists. Among all countries, it is the third most popular only after Japan and China.



The data shows 1,714,349 Koreans visited the country between January and November, compared with Thailand (1,276,627), Hong Kong (1,227,587) and the Philippines (1,068,789).



After Vietnam became Koreans' most beloved Southeast Asian country last year for the first time, it is projected to cement its status this year.



From 2015 to 2017, the number of Korean visitors to Vietnam increased annually by more than 35 percent on average. In 2014, the country was far behind Hong Kong, the Philippines and Thailand.



In addition to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi  Vietnam's two largest cities  an increasing number of Koreans explore other parts of the country. Da Nang, which is famous for its pristine and crystal-clear blue water, and Hoi An, a UNESCO World Heritage Site full of lanterns and traditional beauty, are among the rising hotspots.



Among many reasons for growth, the country is known to be safe; Koreans are familiar with some of its dishes such as pho, a Vietnamese noodle soup; in general, prices are lower than other popular tourist destinations.



The country's natural wonders, from Ha Long Bay to the Mekong Delta, are also well-known here through media.



The rise of low-cost airlines has also helped boost the number of tourists from here. Eastar Jet operates seven flights between Incheon and Da Nang a week. Jeju Air plans to increase the number of its weekly flights between Incheon and Nha Trang to five on Dec. 26.



With the increasing trade volume between the two nations, the number of Korean visitors to Vietnam is expected to continue rising.






By Lee Kyung-min







Woongjin Foundation Chairman Shin Hyun-woong met with Philippine Ambassador to Korea Raul Hernandez, Monday, to discuss measures to foster bilateral cooperation in cultural exchanges, the foundation said Wednesday.



The Philippine ambassador came to the foundation at the invitation of Shin, who wished to express gratitude to the representative of the Southeast Asian country amid growing popularity of the Woongjin Multicultural Family Music Broadcast.





The occasion came shortly before the 10th anniversary of the multilingual music program, which was launched in 2008 to help foreign residents adapt to Korea. It runs many programs throughout the year.





The programs, popular among the foreign community, cover not only news and current issues but also provide information on cultural events and Korean language classes. Languages in service include Tagalog, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Mongolian and Arabic.





"I personally wished to express gratitude to Shin for continuing the broadcast program, a much-needed comfort to about 70,000 people that came from my country," Hernandez said.



"I also want to congratulate the foundation for winning the 2017 Migration on Advocacy and Media Award, which attests to the increased recognition of the program."





He also expressed his appreciation for the foundation-organized scholarship program, through which 79 students attended Seoul National University between 2010 and 2014.



Shin met with Thai Ambassador to Korea Sarun Charoensuwan on Dec. 14 and with Vietnamese Ambassador to the Philippines Nguyen Vu Tu on Nov. 28, to discuss ways to boost mutual cooperation on sharing cultural content.


















People's Party Chairman Ahn Cheol-soo leaves a press conference at the National Assembly, Wednesday, after proposing a vote by all party members on whether to merge the party with the minor conservative Bareun Party. / Yonhap



By Choi Ha-young



People's Party Chairman Ahn Cheol-soo proposed a vote Wednesday by all party members on whether to merge the minor center-left party with the minor conservative Bareun Party, an issue that has been at the center of a simmering factional feud.



A rival faction that has opposed Ahn's idea of unifying with the Bareun Party blasted his proposal, calling it a "declaration of war."



The faction members claimed Ahn has now crossed a "red line," and his behavior will lead to a division of the party.



In a press conference Ahn said he will resign from the party leadership if the poll rejects the merger. "I will take a confidence vote of my leadership, regarding the pros and cons of the merger," Ahn said.



"If a majority of party members approve my post, I will promptly move toward the consolidation of the two parties. Otherwise, I will abandon my post immediately."



The merger has fueled an internal feud within the People's Party. Lawmakers from the Jeolla area  the liberals' traditional support base  are unfavorable to the merger with a party formed with defectors of the conservative Saenuri Party which became the Liberty Korea Party.



While Ahn seeks to revamp his political fortune in pioneering a centrist party, the Jeolla lawmakers are defending the liberal values of former President Kim Dae-jung.



Ahn, however, virtually urged the opponents to leave the party, saying "decide where you will stand." He said the party will begin the poll right away and wrap up the merger process by the end of the year.



"Unfortunately, some lawmakers have opposed the merger, citing groundless public sentiment in the Jeolla area. What I found over a month of nationwide meetings with party members was that people overwhelmingly want a new start as a centrist-reformist party."



Ahn's declaration drew protests immediately. Rep. Park Jie-won, the de facto leader of the anti-merger faction, openly blasted Ahn on Facebook. "Stop the poll right now. The poll, without a decision by the party convention, is impossible. Only the party convention is authorized to decide the party's merger or dismissal."



Rep. Chun Jung-bae, another anti-merger lawmaker, denounced the party chairman's motion as "dictatorial" and "self-righteous."



However, it is not easy for the anti-merger faction to leave the party. The anti-merger group based in Jeolla region could find themselves in trouble if the ruling Democratic Party of Korea refuses to accept them.



The People's Party was originally scheduled to hold a closed-door general meeting to discuss the party's fate, but Ahn declined to appear at the meeting.



If the People's Party and the Bareun Party combine, they are likely to form a negotiation body with over 20 members. Both parties are at stake due to their scanty political presence. The two parties have launched an alliance for joint action over bills, the budget and the upcoming regional election, as a springboard for their merger.


On Thursday, December 21, at 13.00, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host a press conference entitled "Raider Attacks in the Agricultural Sector, Fresh Examples from Victims." Participants include Director of Agrarian 2016 Oleksandr Hulko, a lawyer and representative of the Business and Law company, Liudmyla Baliychuk (8/5a Reitarska Street). Admission requires press accreditation.


By Kim Bo-eun



Samsung Engineering, Taeyoung and Hyundai Heavy Industries had the largest number of industrial deaths in Korea last year, the labor ministry said Wednesday.



The companies were among 748 firms posted on the Ministry of Employment and Labor website that had poor levels of industrial safety.



Three workers were killed at Samsung Engineering, one at a company site and two at subcontractors. Three workers were killed at a subcontractor site of Taeyong and two at a subcontractor of Hyundai Heavy Industries. There were 21 other firms at which at least two workers were killed.



A total of 635 firms were included on the list of those that had serious accidents. A serious accident is defined by law as producing at least one death, or at least two injuries that take at least three months to recuperate from, or work-related diseases suffered by at least 10 workers.



Also on the list were Daelim, GS E&C, Hyundai Motor's Ulsan factory and Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries' subcontractor. There were also local governments such as Songpa District Office and Taebaek city government, as well as public companies including Seoul Metro and Incheon Transit Corporation.



In addition, the number of firms that had at least two industrial accidents in the past three years but failed to report them came to 80 firms. They include Hyundai Construction's Shin Hanul nuclear reactor site, LG Display's Paju establishment and Kolon Industries' Gimcheon factory.



Moreover, there were nine firms that had major accidents such as leaking harmful substances, fires or explosions which harmed workers or caused havoc for adjacent areas.



According to the ministry, construction companies accounted for the largest number of firms with poor safety management, followed by machine manufacturing and chemical product manufacturing.



Poor safety management was mostly seen at small firms employing less than 100 workers _ they accounted for over 80 percent of the companies on the list.



The labor ministry has been disclosing this list since 2004, in order to raise awareness of the outbreak of industrial accidents and prevent them from occurring. There are 3,163 firms on the list so far.



The ministry said it would supervise and subject firms with poor safety management to judicial action, while also providing guidance to prevent accidents from occurring.


By Ku Yae-rin





The Korean and Japanese governments have different interpretations of Article II of the 1965 Treaty of Basic Relations between them, which states, "It is confirmed that all treaties or agreements concluded between the Empire of Japan and the Empire of Korea on or before August 22, 1910 are already null and void." Whereas the Korean government asserts that the 1910 treaty, with which Japan occupied the Korean Peninsula, was illegal from the start, the Japanese government claims it was legitimate and then voided following the ratification of the 1965 treaty.

This argument brings to fore an important issue that has, until today, been side-stepped by the two governments  the crime of sexual slavery committed by the Japanese military in World War II. Starting in 1944, the Japanese government systematically built comfort women stations. Given that 80 percent of the 200,000 comfort women were Korean, it was reasonable to expect that the Korean government would seek Japan's acknowledgment of state for the crimes it committed against Korean nationals. However, when the Allied Forces negotiated treaties with Japan in San Francisco to end World War II and settle compensation for Koreans' suffering during this war and the Korean War, somehow, the issue of obtaining restitution for comfort women was put on the back burner. Until Kim Hak-soon courageously spoke up about her devastating experience at a comfort women station, victim-blaming had pervaded society, which had prevented other women from speaking out.

The South Korean government has clearly taken a more cautious approach. Although it has conceded that its 1965 treaty with Japan only settled claims for property damages incurred during the war, it has not addressed the sexual slavery by the Japanese military. It has withheld harsh criticism and prioritized obtaining financial aid from Japan, stating that the treaty aimed to normalize diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The 2015 oral agreement between the Korean and Japanese foreign ministers has been criticized as ludicrous and perplexing. Through this agreement, Japan gave Korea monetary compensation in the form of 1 billion yen in official development assistance, a kind of international aid, rather than as a sincere gesture of apology and acknowledgment of state responsibility.

The 2001 Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts clearly notes in Article 35 that "a state responsible for an internationally wrongful act is under an obligation to make restitution, that is, to re-establish the situation which existed before the wrongful act was committed, provided and to the extent that restitution is not materially impossible." Since the Japanese government refuses to acknowledge its legal responsibility, the aforementioned aid from Japan ought not be considered restitution.

It is thus understandable that many Korean advocacy groups, surviving comfort women, civilians and lawyers are requesting the foreign ministry to disclose the process in which the agreement was reached. Comfort women themselves have tried to resolve the matter through local and international remedies by bringing the case to Japanese, Korean and even U.S. courts, but to no avail.

The 2015 agreement violated major human rights principles established by the UN Charter because of the lack of transparency in the resolution of an international concern, that is, the two foreign ministers failed "to achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion," as stated in the Article 1 of the charter.

According to Gay McDougall, the crime of slavery accurately describes Japan's system of rape centers during World War II, a time when slavery was already prohibited by international laws. For instance, rape in times of armed conflict was already clearly prohibited by the Regulations annexed to The Hague Convention No. IV of 1907. According to jus cogens, statutes should not be placed on crimes against humanity, such as the sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II, and comfort women and their advocates should still be able to file civil and criminal cases in court.



Ku Yae-rin is an international relations student at Kyung Hee University. Write to her at realyepuda@hotmail.com.
SPECIAL REPORT'I was falsely accused of theft': foreign entertainer recalls painful memories of bullying by Korean agency


Seoul needs to cope with changing world order



A new U.S. national security strategy declared Monday by President Donald Trump is based on his "America first" mantra. It sent a clear and strong message to the world that the United State will stand up for itself to defend its national interests at all costs.



The so-called Trump doctrine could greatly change U.S. relations with the rest of the world if fully implemented. Its four key points are to protect the U.S., promote American prosperity, demonstrate peace through strength, and advance American influence in an ever-competitive world.



There is no doubt that Trump needs this new security formula to turn his "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan into practice. But his America-centric policy has become a cause for concern as it implied that the U.S. would run the risk of any confrontation with its rivals _ China and Russia _ to maintain its superpower status.



The doctrine appears to revive the specter of the Cold War. It holds that nation-states are in perpetual competition. It calls on the U.S. to fight on all fronts to protect and defend its sovereignty both from its friends and foes. This stance is a far cry from the strategy of his predecessor, Barack Obama, who stressed international partnerships and cooperation in tackling problems such as climate change.



Trump also emphasized the importance of U.S. economic security. He called for "firm action against unfair trade practices and intellectual property theft." This might bode ill for trade ties with its major business partners, including China. It is feared to trigger friction with South Korea, which is holding talks with the U.S. about the revision of a bilateral free trade agreement.



The Trump doctrine is drawing keen attention from South Koreans because of its position on the North Korean threat. It stated that the U.S. is ready to respond with "overwhelming force" to North Korean aggression. It added Washington will "improve options" to force Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons. It gave no details about the "options." But the U.S. may engage in military ones, especially after the North launched a new ICBM, the Hwasong-15, last month, which is believed to be capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.



The U.S. strategy may also have a unfavorable effect on President Moon Jae-in's efforts to resolve the North Korean issue peacefully. During his state visit to Beijing last week, he and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed on four principles including no war on the Korean Peninsula and the denuclearization of the peninsula.



Potential U.S. military options could not only detail these principles but also force Seoul to walk a tightrope between Washington and Beijing. That's why South Korea must leave no stone unturned in coping with the rapidly changing world order to avoid the worst-case scenario on the peninsula.




By Choi Sung-jin



President Moon Jae-in's four-day state visit to China last week has left some points to ponder about good diplomacy.



The rival political parties disagree on most issues, but their assessments of Moon's China visit couldn't be more of a contrast. The ruling Democratic Party of Korea praised it as a breakthrough that restored the bilateral relationship strained by South Korea's deployment of a U.S. anti-missile battery. Seoul says the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery is aimed at intercepting North Korean missiles, but Beijing maintains it disrupts China's military operations.



The main opposition Liberty Korea Party, while not entirely denying Moon's role in resolving the THAAD issue, argues the visit did more harm than good, especially regarding national pride.



The conservative LKP mostly took issue with the Chinese hosts' "mistreatment" of the South Korean leader. It cited as an example that a Chinese assistant foreign minister greeted Moon upon arrival. Beijing sent Foreign Minister Wang Yi to the airport to greet Philippine President Rodrigo Duarte last year. Wang was also on the lips of commentators here as he was seen patting the South Korean leader's arm after their handshake during the official welcoming ceremony. A conservative daily here also pointed out that President Moon "ate six meals by himself" during his stay in China.



"Why did President Moon visit China at all?" the Chosun Ilbo daily asked.



Some Chinese officials were apparently impolite hosts at times. Nothing showed their rudeness more than Chinese security guards beating Korean photojournalists covering their president at a trade fair. The Chinese foreign ministry has promised to investigate the incident but expressed no regret or a formal apology. No decent country, particularly one that poses itself as a global leader, would have committed such a serious offense to reporters accompanying its state guests. China has a long way to go before vying with the United States for global hegemony.



However, the conservative opposition party went too far when its leader described Moon's visit as "tributary diplomacy." LKP leader Hong Joon-pyo even said the South Korean leader was "given an audience" with Chinese President Xi Jinping, as the Joseon Kingdom's envoys had with the emperors of China's Ming and Qing dynasties centuries ago.



I don't mind the political parties being mired in mudslinging over domestic politics. However, these politicians had better show some decency when their listeners are foreigners. Curses, like chickens, come home to roost if they use diplomatic issues for partisan interests.



Throughout his trip, President Moon was seen to put national interest ahead of diplomatic protocol. Even the opposition parties should acknowledge Moon has managed to stop China's retaliatory economic sanctions for South Korea's installation of the U.S. missile shield, and has secured Beijing's agreement to the four principles for a peaceful and negotiated settlement of the North Korean nuclear issue. Moon had to clean up the diplomatic mess made by his predecessor Park Geun-hye, who deployed the THAAD battery with no prior notice to Beijing after repeatedly promising the Chinese she would not allow the battery to be deployed to Korea. A South Korean businessman reportedly expressed a tearful appreciation of the visiting president for ending the economic retaliation earlier than expected.



Some conservative critics also took issue with Moon's expression of sympathy with Xi Jinping's "Chinese Dream" and his "One Belt, One Road" project while the rest of the world, particularly Washington, is suspicious of Beijing's intentions. "How can President Moon take responsibility for his words later?" one critic said.



Not a few Koreans might have also felt their president was apple-polishing the host country and its leader. Flattery sometimes is part of diplomacy, however. Had similar remarks been made by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe or U.S. President Donald Trump, these critics might have described them as "pragmatism" aimed at maximizing their national interest while repressing their pride temporarily.



These conservative critics praised Abe's efforts to become intimate with President Trump earlier this year as mastering his pride for his country's interests. Even Trump heaped praise on Xi during his visit to Beijing in early November, blaming past American administrations for China's yawning trade surplus with the U.S.  to secure Xi's cooperation in defusing threats from North Korea.



Smaller countries and their leaders need to be far more pragmatic than the superpowers. Supplicating the big countries only stems from their inferiority complex.



Former President Lee Myung-bak, feeling a sense of crisis as prosecutors zero in on his aides for alleged corruption, criticized Moon for admitting Korea is a small country during his China visit. "Korea is not a small country," Lee reportedly told his followers Monday.



The world's 14th-largest economy may not be so small, but it is much smaller than the U.S., China and Japan, which take the top three positions in the global economic rankings. Japan alone is five or six times larger than South Korea in economic size. Above all, Lee should be the last person to criticize the incumbent president because most of the diplomatic problems Seoul is now experiencing resulted from Lee's unilateral approach to Washington in near total neglect of Beijing. The CEO-turned-politician called his policy "pragmatic diplomacy"  a complete misnomer. His was an entirely "ideological" diplomacy.



South Korea can neither leave the U.S. nor abandon China. It has no choices but to continue to be pragmatic  in its purest sense  to survive.



Choi Sung-jin is a Korea Times columnist. Contact him at choisj1955@naver.com.




A model poses with the Daechang Motors Danigo electric vehicle. / Courtesy of Daechang Motors



By Jhoo Dong-chan



The nation's startups are obtaining government approval for their cheap electric vehicle (EV) models, gearing up to expand their presence in the eco-friendly car market.



Their EV models are eligible for a government subsidy of up to 10 million won ($9,174) so consumers can buy them for less than 5 million won.



According to sources, the Daechang Motors Danigo EV and Semisysco D2 mini EV have completed environment and transport ministry certification. Both startups are receiving pre-orders for their vehicles.



Daechang Motors first introduced its Danigo EV in October at the Korea Automotive Industry Exhibition at KINTEX in Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province.



"The company developed the Danigo mini EV over the last three years, and has now completed all preparations for its debut," Daechang Motors CEO Oh Chung-gi was quoted as saying.



"Following its Jincheon production plants in North Chungcheong Province, Daechang Motors will build another one in Daegu while establishing its service center network across the country."



The Danigo EV mounts a 7.2-kilowatt LG Chem lithium-ion battery, and the North Chungcheong Province-based startup said it can travel 100 kilometers when fully charged.



It features air conditioning and power windows as basic options. The hill-start assist control system is also applied in the EV model.



Considering the nation's street environment, it also features a rear-view parking camera as a basic option while the anti-lock brake system and airbags are optional.



"The Danigo EV will compete with the Renault Samsung Twizy EV in the market," a Daechang Motors official said.



"Daechang Motors' Daegu plants will play a pivotal role in the upcoming battle against imported mini EVs with its price competitiveness."



Under Oh's leadership, Daechang Motors first entered the market with its electric delivery cart by supplying them for Korea Yakult sellers in 2013.



It also sold 700 electric carts for senior citizens in the U.S. last year, and Oh said it will soon land in the European market.



"An increasing number of European people drive mini EVs now," Oh said.



"We studied shortcomings of existing EV models in the European market, and recently started a joint operation with a global trading company for its debut in the market."





Daechang Motors CEO Oh Chung-gi, right, poses with TMON Chief Strategy Officer Han Jae-young during an MOU ceremony for the social commerce's exclusive sales right at the TMON head office in Seoul, Nov. 16. / Courtesy of TMON



The nation's other startup Semisysco also completed an approval process with the government for the D2 mini EV model. The firm is in charge of import and distribution operations in Korea for Chinese EV maker Zhi Dou's D2 EV, and the model will be sold by the end of this month.



The D2 mini EV proved its market competitiveness when Zhi Dou sold more than 3,000 cars in the European market this year.



Semisysco said it is discussing possible domestic production for the model with the Chinese EV maker.



The D2 EV mounts 17.3-kilowatt lithium-polymer battery that can travel maximum 150 kilometers when fully charged.



In a bid to attract young motorists, it features cute eye-shaped LED headlamps with enlarged air intake in the front. Various color choices are also given to consumers.



It also offers a 9-inch touchscreen infotainment system that offers navigation and rearview parking assistance.





The Zhi Dou D2 EV / Courtesy of Semisysco




By Jhoo Dong-chan







Han Sung Motor, the nation's largest Mercedes-Benz dealership firm, held a year-end art exhibition at the Horim Art Center in Sinsa-dong, Seoul, Tuesday. It awarded young, talented artists while showcasing their work.







Over 200 people, including Han Sung Motor officials, students and their parents, participated in this year's Dream Arts year-end exhibition. Han Sung Motor CEO Ulf Ausprung encouraged the young artists to chase their goals.







"Han Sung Motor's efforts to help young students have been highly recognized in Korea," Ausprung said during the event.







"The company will continue its support to help young talented artists."







Under an MOU deal with the Korea Mecenat Association, Han Sung Motor has operated the Dream Gream Project to help underprivileged but talented young artists since 2012.







Unlike other donations or scholarship programs, Han Sung Motor's corporate social responsibility project does not only financially support them but also introduces them to mentors to help them realize their dreams. The scholarship continues until they graduate from high school.







Starting with 20 scholarship students and 20 mentors, Han Sung Motor doubled its project volume to 40 students and 40 mentors in 2015.







Dream Gream students and their mentors volunteered to paint walls and engage in other activities to improve the residential environment of Jungang Traditional Market in downtown Seoul in 2014.







Han Sung Motor also signed another MOU deal with the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture in April 2014 to help improve the incubating environment for artists through various programs.







In September 2015, Han Sung Motor participated in a Seoul city project to refurbish Guro Station in western Seoul. The scholarship students joined local artists and citizens to turn the old subway exit into a place of art.







The dealership's continuous efforts to help underprivileged people were publicly highlighted as Ausprung was nominated as an honorary Seoul citizen in November 2016.




Dongbu, Hyundai caught for rigging bids for 10 years



By Park Jae-hyuk



Six steelmakers were fined a total of 92.1 billion won ($84 million) for rigging their bids on steel pipes ordered by the Korea Gas Corp. (KOGAS), the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said Wednesday.



The six are Dongbu Incheon Steel, Dong Yang Steel Pipe, SeAH Steel, HiSteel, Hyundai Steel and Husteel. The prosecution will also investigate them.



According to the nation's anti-trust watchdog, they agreed to decide which company would win each bid, bidding prices and the amount of steel pipes to be offered, during 33 tenders worth 735 billion won between January 2003 and December 2013.



Back then, KOGAS needed a large amount of steel pipes, as the state-run gas provider began establishing additional infrastructure to deliver vaporized natural gas, made form imported liquefied natural gas, to power plants and gas companies nationwide.



KOGAS annually invited tenders, so as to buy steel pipes on a set budget.



A company that offered the lowest price won the bid, so the manufacturers colluded with each other.



During the period, the participants notified their bidding prices to each other, before meeting KOGAS officials.



After KOGAS began placing the tenders online in 2011, the participants gathered at certain places, or employees of potential winners visited other companies to monitor their bidding.



"The recent measure was meaningful, given that it corrected the long-term chronic practice, by revealing collusion among manufacturers that had agreed on winners and quantities in advance in a bid for steel pipes placed by KOGAS from 2003 to 2013," an FTC official said. "We expect this will ensure fair competition in tenders placed by state-run enterprises and will allow them to save costs for projects."



The watchdog said it will continue to regulate bid rigging according to the law, and regularly inspect public projects.


Bombardier's CS300 / Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons





By Ko Dong-hwan







Korean Air is buying 10 of Bombardier's latest eco-friendly jet, the CS300, a deal the South Korean flagship carrier called "unprecedented" among Asia-based airlines.







The Korean company said Wednesday it will have an acquisition signing ceremony for the first CS300 at the Canadian manufacturer's office in Mirabel, Quebec, on Dec. 22 (local time). The jet is expected to land at Gimpo International Airport on Dec. 25.







The second CS300 will fly to South Korea on Jan. 1 and the remaining jets will arrive by the end of 2018, according to Korean Air.







The narrow-body, medium-range CS300 has two engines and seats 130 to 160. It has 20 percent more fuel-efficiency than other jets of the same class and reduced noise by as much as 20 decibels.







The GTF (geared turbo fan) engines by American firm Pratt & Whitney add efficiency while the aerodynamic design and mixed materials for the body and wings make the aircraft lighter and less noisy, Bombardier said.







And its seating is comparable to competitors. An economy class seat is 48.3 centimeters (19 inches) wide, 4.6 centimeters more than other jets of the same class. For 15,000 won more (only for one-way domestic flights), passengers can enjoy the limited 25 seats that have four centimeters more room front and back, Korean Air said.







The airline will initially begin operating the CS300s on Jan. 16 for domestic flights.


Uniqlo's Heattech, which in this commercial was worn by actress Lee Na-young, was given away to 9,000 people living under poverty line on Dec. 19 as the Japanese clothing designer's annual charity event. / Courtesy of YouTube





By Ko Dong-hwan







Clothing brand Uniqlo donated 9,000 Heattech inner-wear garments to the "energy poor" on Tuesday as part of its charity efforts.







The Japanese casual wear company's heartwarming act  amid weeks of sub-zero temperatures across South Korea  was part of Seoul city's campaign to support citizens who live under the poverty line and have no money for heating.







Uniqlo's latest donation was announced at an awards ceremony held by the Seoul Metropolitan Government Tuesday to recognize exemplary people or companies that help the poor.







Heattech garments are among Uniqlo's most-popular products in South Korea. They will be distributed to Seoul's senior citizens living alone, single-parent families and citizens living off the basic pension provided by the central government.







Uniqlo has been working with the city government since the start of its charity campaign in 2015. That year it provided 10,000 Heattech garments to the poor. The following year, 10,000 summer inner-wear AIRism products and 3,800 winter garments, including Fleece, were donated. Uniqlo gave 5,700 AIRisms to the poor earlier this year.







Hong Sung-ho, CEO of FRL Korea, which imports and sells Uniqlo products in South Korea, said corporate social responsibility is important.







"We are glad that Heattech, which represents our brand and contains its technology, helps out our neighbors going through hard times," Hong said.


Commentary: Unwise for U.S. to label China competitor instead of partner

(Xinhua) 07:22, December 20, 2017

BEIJING, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- China and the United States, both major powers of today's world, need to work together to address global challenges on many fronts. However, Washington seems to disagree.

The United States introduced its new national security strategy Monday, which referred to China and Russia as "revisionist powers" and listed them as "competitors" trying to alter the status quo that favors the United States.

Later on Monday, the Chinese embassy spokesperson in Washington made a quick response, saying that for both countries, cooperation leads to win-win outcomes, whereas confrontation results in mutual losses.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying echoed this in Beijing, saying that maintaining healthy and stable bilateral ties is the correct choice for the welfare of the two peoples and the international community.

The United States wants to secure its crown as the world's sole superpower, but it must not forget that with strength comes responsibility. It needs to work with China and other countries to address global challenges such frail economic growth, terrorism, and climate change.

According to a Chinese proverb, solidarity brings more power. China is willing and ready to take action with the rest of the world, including the United States.

One of the most evident signs of this is China's constant call for the building of a community with a shared future for mankind, which promotes win-win cooperation instead of zero-sum competition.

The U.S. move goes against consensus reached by leaders of the two countries to develop bilateral relations and the reality in which both countries share common interests in many areas.

Trade with China, the largest trade partner of the United States, helps each American family save 850 dollars every year. In 2015, bilateral trade and mutual investment created 2.6 million jobs for the United States.

During the state visit by U.S. President Donald Trump to China last month, the two countries signed deals worth 253.5 billion U.S. dollars, consisting of 34 cooperation agreements and letters of intent.

The two countries also have made efforts to cooperate in bilateral and international affairs.

During President Trump's visit, the two sides also agreed to advance the four high-level dialogue mechanisms: the diplomatic and security dialogue, the comprehensive economic dialogue, the law enforcement and cybersecurity dialogue, and the social and people-to-people dialogue.

As spokesperson Hua said in her response, China and the United States, the world's largest developing country and developed country respectively, have important responsibilities in maintaining world peace and development.

China, as a beneficiary of globalization, understands the importance of cooperation and partnership, and welcomes the world to benefit from its growth.
(Global Times) 07:46, December 20, 2017

Taiwan authorities on Tuesday arrested four leaders of Taiwan's pro-mainland New Party for "undermining national security" following their return from a trip to the Chinese mainland.

"The Taiwan authorities have been protecting and spoiling separatists who support 'Taiwan independence,' while using all means to suppress and persecute individuals who support peaceful unification," said An Fengshan, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council said on Tuesday.

"We firmly condemn such behavior and will pay close attention to this event," An noted.

The New Party supports the One-China policy, and opposes "Taiwan independence" and has been actively maintaining and promoting cross-Straits relations, to which we give high praise, An said.

Wang Ping-chung, spokesman of the New Party in Taiwan and three other young party officials were taken away after the police searched their homes on Tuesday, Taiwan-based China Times reported.

According to China Times, the four members on Saturday had just returned from a tour of the Chinese mainland, during which they held discussions with local officials in Beijing, Shanghai and Jiangsu Province. Their journey had been publicly announced and was open to the media.

The China Times' report questioned the grounds under which the "investigation department" detained the four New Party leaders.

According to the report, the authorities allege Wang violated the "national security act."

When authorities arrived at Wang's home he refused to open the door, forcing authorities to call a locksmith to force the door open. Wang live broadcast the event on Facebook Tuesday Morning. Wang called it "white terror," China Times said.

Documents "resembling account books" with simplified Chinese characters, common in the mainland, and RMB notes were found in Wang's room, Taiwan's pro-independence SET News Channel reported on Tuesday, adding that it is unknown whether they're relevant to the case.

New Party will take measures against the arrest, New Party Chairman Yok Mu-ming told the Global Times on Tuesday, without providing details. Asked whether the arrest was related to the four member's trip to the mainland, Yok said he believes that Taiwan authorities are trying to intimidate his party which is gathering ever greater numbers of followers.

Many Taiwan Netizens left comments on Wang's facebook page, to show their dissatisfaction with the Taiwan authorities and in support of Wang.

"Taiwan independence" is ok but unification is not: this is the logic of the Democratic Progressive Party, a Netizen said.
(Global Times) 07:47, December 20, 2017

Now that the US has isolated itself by vetoing a UN Security Council resolution on Monday critical of its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, Chinese experts say they expect new negotiation mechanisms to be introduced for the Middle East peace talks.

The other 14 members of the Security Council voted in favor of the Egyptian-drafted resolution, which did not specifically mention the US but expressed "deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem," Reuters reported on Monday.

After vetoing the resolution, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley stated, "What we have witnessed here today in the Security Council is an insult. It won't be forgotten."

This was the first veto cast by the US in more than six years, according to Reuters.

In early December, US President Donald Trump declared Jerusalem the legitimate capital of Israel, sparking criticism from the Arab world and protests around the globe.

"Members of the council knew that the resolution would be vetoed by the US, but they still wanted to put the US under pressure. The US has isolated itself, which means it can no longer act as a suitable mediator concerning the Palestine-Israel issue," Hua Liming, a former Chinese ambassador to Iran, told the Global Times.

"The Monday resolution does show something positive which is, except for the US, the international community has reached a consensus concerning the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital," Li Weijian, a professor of West Asian and African Studies at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, told the Global Times.

Li said that international pressure may cause the US to alter its future policies in the Middle East, including reconsidering whether to move its embassy to Jerusalem or deciding if the embassy should be located in East or West Jerusalem.

Li noted that Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of an independent Palestine state.

"The recent incidents in the Middle East show that previous mechanisms, which included the US, Russia and the Arab world, have failed to cool down tensions in the region. A new negotiation mechanism may be introduced to the region soon, with China playing a more active role as a mediator," Li said.

A Palestine-Israel peace symposium will be held in Beijing on Thursday and Friday. The symposium should help to de-escalate tensions in Gaza and the West Bank, analysts state.
BLOOMFIELD  The fate of Power Boat Days remains on hold until next year.

Last years Pell Lake event drew 165 contestants who raced boats at speeds of up to 80 mph.

Earlier this year, two local groups called for canceling the event, which has run nearly every year since 2009, and village leaders are concerned over the environmental impact of the races.

But on Dec. 11, the Bloomfield Village Board tabled action on the Power Boat Days permit application filed by the Badger State Outboard Association because there was not enough time to review it.

Village President Gary Grolle believes it will return to the village board in February.

For the 2017 races, the board approved the BSOA application in March, so the plan is to take action earlier this time, he said.

Kip Trumpulis, of the BSOA, said he understands the delay.

Our goal is to buoy our partnership with the village and resident race fans, to make this a weekend everyone can enjoy and look forward to year after year, he said.

The application states the 2018 Power Boat Days may occur May 18 to 20, with 60 to 75 race participants.

The village received the application Dec. 6, and Grolle said it is being reviewed by local police and fire departments.
WILLIAMS BAY  Despite serious injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident this summer, Williams Bay Police Chief Laura Washer is planning to return to work as soon as possible.

Washer was injured Aug. 9 when a motorcycle driven by her boyfriend  with her riding as a passenger  collided with a pickup truck near Green Bay.

Washer, 46, said she suffered a broken sternum, a shattered pelvis, multiple broken ribs, broken thigh bones in both legs, a broken right hip, a broken right arm and shoulder blade, and broken bones below the knee in her left leg.

In her first interview since the accident, Washer said her goal is to be out of the hospital by the first week in January. It may not happen that way, but thats her goal, she said.

I want nothing more than to go back to work, Washer said.

After two years as Williams Bays police chief, she has missed four months of work since the motorcycle accident.

Village President Bill Duncan said he is encouraged by her determination to return to her duties as the villages top law enforcement officer.

Duncan said he has been a supporter of Washers ever since she was first appointed in 2015.

I think she was a breath of fresh of air, Duncan said. And were disappointed that shes not here to continue her work.

Washer and her boyfriend, Mark Garry, a police officer in Waukesha County, were returning from a police training conference in Green Bay when the collision occurred with both of them atop Garrys emerald-and-black 2015 Harley-Davidson.

The couple lives together in Elkhorn.

Traveling south on a state highway in Brown County, Garry saw an oncoming pickup truck swerve into his lane. The pickup truck was driven by a 16-year-old girl who has been cited in the incident.

After the collision, the motorcycle ricocheted into a ditch and catapulted both driver and passenger into a nearby field. Neither Washer nor Garry was wearing a motorcycle helmet.

Washer and Garry both suffered severe injuries, particularly to their left legs.

Washer said she remembers colliding with the pickup truck and then hitting the ground. She said she knew she was in a ditch.

I could hear Mark moaning, she said.

She said she then blacked out. She woke up to paramedics cutting off her clothes, and then she passed out again.

Both were rushed to St. Vincent Hospital in Green Bay.

When I got here, it hurt to move, Washer said. It hurt to breathe. Moving for me was, she paused for the right word, horrible.

She knew she had a large number of broken bones, because every time she moved, she could feel her bones move.

I felt like a Rice Krispie, because everything was snapping and popping, she said.

Surgeons have implanted plates and screws in her arm and pelvis, and rods in her femur.

In addition, because she landed in a cow pasture after being thrown from the motorcycle, Washer has been treated for a bovine ecoli bacteria infection. She also has suffered a blood clot, three ulcers and pneumonia.

Four months after the accident, she is taking therapy and receiving additional treatment at the Wisconsin Rehabilitation Hospital in Waukesha County.

Garry walks with a cane. Washer is still in a wheelchair, temporarily.

Washers older sister, Debbie Ludin of West Bend, said she learned about the accident within hours and was devastated by the news.

When she arrived at the hospital the next day, Washer was still semi-sedated and was on a respirator. Despite Washers extensive injuries, Ludin said she never feared for her sisters life.

Ludin acknowledges, however, that there were scary moments during the pneumonia, infections and blood clot.

I never thought she wouldnt make it, Ludin said. I had no fear we were going to lose her.

Washer and Garry said their left legs probably suffered the brunt of the collision because it was the left side of the motorcycle that struck the pickup.

When I stand, I can put full weight on my right leg, Washer said. My left leg, theres no way it could take my full weight.

She said that, in addition to returning to work, she looks forward to going home to Garry.

Im missing everybody, she added.

She said she is proud of Capt. Chris Douglas, who stepped up and took over the police department temporarily in her absence.

We had assembled a great team in the department, she said. Things were going real well.

Washer has already celebrated a Thanksgiving at the hospital. And it appears she wont be able to avoid a Christmas there, too.

Since October, shes been doing two sessions of physical therapy a day, three hours a day.

At first, therapy was playing dominoes while wearing weights on her wrists to increase arm strength. Shes now doing weight training and resistance training.

Washer said shes nearly off all narcotics.

I was on a lot, she said. And it was necessary, because the pain was intense and constant. But as time went on, she insisted on cutting back.

I was the one who said I dont want this junk, she said.

Washer said shes received visits and get-well wishes from Williams Bay residents.

The people of Williams Bay have been absolutely amazing, she said.

Washer has made substantial progress over the past month, and shes classified as a free wheeler, which means she can wheel her chair pretty much anywhere in the hospital. Its no small irony to Washer that the free wheeler sign on the back of her wheelchair has the picture of a motorcycle.

Washer said Garry plans to buy a new motorcycle, because he prefers them to four-wheeled transportation.

She, on the other hand, has sworn off motorcycles.

Editors note: This story has been updated to correct a previous description of Chief Washer's injuries that was in error.
WALWORTH  A family-owned company in Walworth is in the business of wishing people a Merry Christmas.

Licensed Products Group, also known as LPGCreative, has been selling tidings of great joy since 1991 in places as far away as Hong Kong and as close as the local hardware store.

Headquartered in a large but nondescript building in Walworths industrial park, LPGCreative this year has shipped about three million boxed and individual Christmas cards to retail outlets.

Christmas is actually the slow time of year for the company, because its products hit store shelves long ago. Whats left to do is inventory  and a company holiday party.

Company President Troy Cecchi said the busiest times are in the spring and summer, when the company hires 40 temporary workers to fold and box cards. Retailers want their Christmas cards well in advance, some as early as April.

About 300 artists around the country are under contract to design LPGCreative cards.

The company came together in Chicago when Troys father, Terry Cecchi, a salesman, teamed up with a printer named John Tinnon and a couple of artists. They had all been cheated by a different company, so they decided to strike out on their own.

It was far from a jolly beginning. But why Christmas cards?

Nobody buys a box of Mothers Day cards, Cecchi said.

As the company grew, it moved from Niles, Illinois, to Gurnee, Illinois, and then in 2006 to Walworth.

The building they bought once housed a company that manufactured retail displays. It was filled with woodworking equipment.

Only a small percentage of the 30,000-square-foot building is used for creating Christmas cards. Most of that floor space is warehouse space for storing cards.

Coming to Walworth County was not a dramatic move. Troy Cecchi said his parents, Terry and Judy Cecchi, owned a house in Fontana since 1976.

His father is retired, but his mother remains the creative force behind the company. A retired teacher, Judy is not ready to slow down.

She started as a proof-reader for the company, and then began writing the verses that appear inside the cards.

Shes still writing verses, which she finds quite easy.

You kind of master the art, she said. You keep them short.

Judy Cecchi also knows the secret behind successful Christmas cards  what sells and what does not.

What sells? Birds and nativity scenes. Even Santa, who is also a big seller, cannot keep up with birds and nativity scenes.

What doesnt sell?

Well, they tried Christmas owls one year.

Owls do not sell, Judy said.

And what about kangaroos?

Kangaroos dont sell, either, she said.

Trademarked as LPG Greetings Performing Arts Collection, the cards have retailed at Walgreens, Walmart, Steins, Macys, Blaines, BonTon, Boston Store, Mills Farm & Fleet, Hobby Lobby, True Value and Hallmark.

Local retailers include Heyer True Value, Walworth; McColloughs Prescriptions and Gifts, Whitewater and Walworth; and Blains Farm & Fleet.

The cards also sell on the companys website lpgcreative.com.

To keep things fresh, the company changes about 30 percent of its line each year.

Lilia Borgus, who started as a temp worker, has now been with the company for 21 years.

I run everything in the back, Borgus said, referring to the giant warehouse and folding plant in the back.

Said Troy Cecchi: She fixes the machines, arranges the workers, and tells me about every problem. And she catches my mistakes.

The creative person is Jennifer Yunker.

Yunker is the only one with an art degree. She got a degree in three-dimensional ceramic art from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Yunker creates and manufactures a brand of wall plaques that LPG introduced in 2013, combining with another company called Creative Design Studios, which makes inspirational and decorative wall plaques.

The wall art represents about 10 percent of LPGs business, which remains dominated by Christmas cards.

In addition to its U.S. customers, LPG has printed Spanish-language cards for the South American market, as well as cards for Hong Kong, which were in English.

The company also has shipped cards to England, Brazil and Canada.

Shipments currently go out to Australia, too.

They liked our kangaroo card, Troy said. Just kidding.
(Global Times) 07:48, December 20, 2017

Preaching rivalry contradicts global trend, leads to failure

China has urged the US to stop purposely misinterpreting China's strategic intentions after the US labeled China and Russia "rival powers" that "were aggressively undermining American interests around the globe" in its National Security Strategy (NSS) on Monday.

China's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a press conference on Tuesday that cooperation is the only correct choice for China and the US.

"We urge the US side to stop purposely misinterpreting China's strategic intentions, abandon its outdated Cold War and zero-sum thinking. It will only harm both sides," Hua said.

As two large countries, it is not surprising that there is some divergence between China and US interests. In this regard, the two countries should properly deal with the problems using constructive measures in line with each others' core interests and important concerns, Hua said.

"US and China are competitors in many aspects such as market share, energy and geographical interests. But to maintain sound development of bilateral relations and global stability, the two countries need to deal with competition to avoid conflicts," Lin Guijun, vice president at the University of International Business and Economics, told the Global Times.

The US' unfair accusation of China stealing its intellectual property shows the US is maintaining a technological monopoly, which increases consumer costs and impedes the flow of knowledge, he said.

The Chinese Embassy in the US said Tuesday in a statement on its website that "preaching rivalry and confrontation goes against the global trend, and will lead to failure."

Path to industrial power

Following the NSS, US Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said in a statement that "we will leverage our powerful financial sanctions and other tools to counter rogue regimes, terrorists, and others who threaten American ideals."

At the end of November, the US announced new anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations into imports of common alloy aluminum sheets from China and then submitted a statement regarding China's "non-market economy" status to the WTO.

Chinese experts remarked that whatever protective measures the US takes, it will hardly hinder China's development, especially the fast growth of its high technologies and Internet sectors.

In recent years, China's scientific development has closely followed, if not overtaken the US, and is represented by its four key innovations of high-speed railways, Alipay, bicycle-sharing and e-commerce, said Wang Jun, deputy director of the Department of Information at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang introduced the "Made in China 2025" strategy and The Internet Plus initiative, in a bid to move traditional industries to higher value-added products using technology and to invest in establishing new capabilities in 10 new high technology industries.

Under the guidance of these policies, domestic companies and scientific research institutions should continue to carry out win-win cooperation with their counterparts in developed countries, gradually realizing industrial upgrading and economic growth, said He Weiwen, senior fellow with the Beijing-based Center for China and Globalization.

Lin said Chinese companies should understand US laws and strengthen independent innovation to improve their industrial competitiveness. "Independent innovation should not be a copy of foreign applications, and should rely on fair competition mechanisms. The country should strictly manage subsidies by following WTO rules," he said.

Despite trade frictions since US President Donald Trump took office in January, Sino-US trade has maintained steady growth. Latest data from the Chinese General Administration of Customs showed that trade between the two countries totaled $527 billion in the first 11 months, surpassing the full-year record of $519.6 billion in 2016.

Friction and competition from the US may increase in 2018, but bilateral cooperation is also expected to be strengthened, He noted, adding that bilateral trade may reach $600 billion next year.
For 35 years, residents of Wisconsin have been protected by law from government leaders who would seek to conduct the peoples business in secrecy.

The Wisconsin Open Records Law, enacted in 1982, ensures that taxpayers and others can access official records to learn how the government is spending the publics money and how it is protecting the publics interests. In other words, how government is doing its job.

As the open records law itself states: All persons are entitled to the greatest possible information regarding the affairs of government.

The village of Fontana has just learned a valuable lesson in the power of open records.

For weeks, local officials had been dodging questions about why Village Administrator Dennis Martin suddenly resigned Oct. 10 from his $82,500-a-year position overseeing the village government.

The Village Board had met in a special Saturday session to review a personnel issue. Martin was placed on paid leave while other village employees stepped forward to do his job. Then, Martin resigned and agreed to a $35,000 payout at taxpayer expense.

Through it all, village leaders refused to explain why any of this was happening.

But thanks to the Wisconsin Open Records Law, we now know: Investigators had uncovered evidence that Martins village-issued computers were used to access pornographic images more than 500 times, including during normal business hours.

After invoking the open records law to uncover records of the investigation  records that belong to the public  the Lake Geneva Regional News provided a comprehensive report on the situation after more than two months of rumor, speculation and secrecy. Martin even broke his silence and came forward with a public apology.

That is what open government looks like.

It might sometimes make people uncomfortable. It might cause embarrassment or hard feelings. And it might lead to prickly situations that government leaders will then have to manage. But the alternative is far worse  government officials sneaking around in the shadows and keeping secrets from the very same people who have entrusted them to conduct themselves in a manner that is above-board and transparent. All of which makes us wonder: What did the village of Fontana think it was accomplishing by keeping the Dennis Martin affair secret? What good was achieved by engaging in a prolonged and costly charade, rather than simply telling the truth from the very beginning?

Nothing was accomplished, and nothing was achieved. And that is the valuable lesson we hope Fontana and other government agencies in the region will take from this.

You know the open records law requires you to disclose the publics business. So when you recognize that the public has a right to know, go ahead and get it over with: Tell the truth.

It is easy. It is free. And, thanks to some very smart lawmakers in 1982, it is the law.

The Regional News editorial board consists of General Manager Robert Ireland, Editor Scott Williams, Business Manager Sue Hinske and Resorter Editor Jessica Franzene-Miller.
Its hard to believe, but we are preparing to turn the calendar to 2018. We have had a fantastic school year thus far at Traver. And, we are looking forward to the new year with great anticipation. As I wrote last month, we have much to be thankful for at Traver.

At the December school board meeting, two individuals received recognition. Timberwolves Awards were presented to five-year-old student Madilynn Schwartz for being selected at our recent all-school assembly with a Leader of the Pack award. Madilynn was selected by staff for exemplifying the Traver Traits we practice daily at school: Respect, Creativity, Integrity, Kindness, Perseverance, and Gratitude.

Two additional students, fourth-grader Yadira Castro and eighth-grader Grace Geils, will be recognized at a future meeting.

Also, one of our teachers, Cami Behrens, was recognized for her leadership in spearheading the student recognition programs started this year at school. Mrs. Behrens teaches mathematics at Traver.

Congratulations to both Madilynn Schwartz and Cami Behrens.

Also at the December school board meeting, two board members, Bill Leonard and Barry Machado, announced they would not seek re-election. Their three-year terms will be completed in April 2018. Therefore, two new members to the five-member board will be elected in the spring general election.

Mr. Leonard has served the Traver school community with distinction during his 26 years of service on the school board. For 15 years, he served as board president. Dr. Machado was first elected in 2012. During his six years of service to the Traver school community, he has worked with his fellow board members to help move our school forward.

We are very appreciative of the service Mr. Leonard and Dr. Machado have given to the school children, parents, staff, and the Traver school community. We thank them for their service, and wish them well in all their future endeavors.

If you are interested, or know someone who is interested in serving as a school board member, please note the following upcoming deadline and information required to be placed on the ballot for the April 3 spring general election:

Jan. 2  Candidate deadline for filing documents needed to establish eligibility to appear on the ballot

Two forms must be completed (available in the main office): Declaration of candidacy, and campaign registration statement.

If you or someone you know is interested in getting on the ballot, please contact me or our Interim Superintendent Mark Pienkos. We will be happy to explain school board responsibilities, as well as answer any questions regarding the forms indicated above.

Over the upcoming winter holidays, we will be installing some additional security features at school, including surveillance cameras. Our school is a very safe place for students, parents, staff and visitors.

Yet, our very proactive school board, after listening to recommendations from Town of Linn Police Chief James Bushey, decided to implement these additional security measures to continue to ensure that Traver remains a safe environment.

I invite you to visit our website to stay current concerning events happening at school.

Our website address is: www.traverschool.org. Also, if you would like to comment on my column, please feel free to contact me at school. My contact information is allyssa.andersen@traverschool.org or call me at 248-4067, ext. 222.

Merry Christmas, and as always, Go, Timberwolves.

Allyssa Andersen is the principal at Traver Elementary School.
Exercising during holiday season combats calories, improves mental health The cookies are baked and that glass of milk has been set out for Santa but you find yourself low on energy and need to combat those holiday blues. The...

Winter an ideal time to beef up lawns, plant new additions The recent week-long visit of late-summer warmth may have been a distraction from the seasonal change on the horizon, but the piling up pin oak and maple droppings  combined...
The 16th Meeting of States Parties to the Anti  Personnel Mines Ban Convention welcomed Sri Lanka on Monday 18th December 2017 as the newly joined 163rd State Party to the Convention, following the depositing of the Instrument of Accession on 13th December 2017 in New York.

We welcome Sri Lanka to this ever growing movement, said H.E. Thomas Hajnoczi Ambassador of Austria and Head of the Department of Disarmament at the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs who is Presiding over the 16th Meeting of States Parties (MSP) to the Convention held in Vienna from 18-21 December 2017. The meeting also coincides with the 20th Anniversary of the signing of the Convention.

Mrs. Priyannee Wijesekara, Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Austria, who is heading the Sri Lanka delegation to the 16MSP presented the 16MSP President with a copy of its Instrument of Accession to the Convention during the opening ceremony on Monday 18th December.

In her intervention under the General Exchange of views Ambassador Wijesekara said that as a country and a people that have faced the harrowing ordeal of the absolute terror and the indiscriminate nature of these weapons, Sri Lanka made mine clearance and mine-risk awareness, priorities with the goal of creating a mine and Explosive Remnants of War free environment that would facilitate resettlement and development, long before acceding to this Convention. She further added that Although we are the youngest State Party to the Convention, having deposited the Instrument of Accession just a few days ago, mine clearance was made a priority in my country 15 years ago in 2002, with the launch of the National Mine Action Programme. She noted, we are pleased, Mr. President, to inform this forum that we have succeeded in clearing 98% of the contaminated areas in the country.

Today, having joined the Convention, we in Sri Lanka join hands with all the other parties to this important Convention, and the dedicated men and women across the world, to devote ourselves as well, to advocate and work towards achieving the objective of a mine free world, where people can go about their lives without fear of these devastating weapons. We look forward to sharing our experience and our expertise with the international community, in realizing this noble vision, said Ambassador Wijesekara.

The Convention which will enter into force in Sri Lanka from 1st June 2018, provides a framework for mine action, seeking both to end existing suffering and to prevent future suffering. It bans the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines.

In addition, States that accede to the Convention accept that they will destroy both stockpiled anti  personnel mines and emplaced anti-personnel mines respectively within 4 and 10 years of accession to the Convention, and assist the victims of landmines.

The delegation of Sri Lanka to the 16th MSP also included Major General G.D.I. Karunarathne, RSP psc -Sri Lanka Army, Colonel P. T. Paranagama- Sri Lanka Army and Ms. Irosha Cooray, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka in Vienna.

Full text of the Intervention made by Ambassador Wijesekara

Instrument of Accession and Depository Notification

Press release issued by ISU of the Anti  Personnel Mine Ban Convention

Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka in Geneva

19th December 2017
PRESS RELEASE

European Central Bank Is Sued over Decision To Freeze Help to Greek Banks

Dec. 19, 2017 (EIRNS)Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and a German European Parliament Member Fabio de Masi (Die Linke party) are suing the European Central Bank to gain access to documentation of the reasoning behind ECBs decision to freeze vital funding to Greek banks in 2015, which the plaintiffs contend was illegal.

"By restricting liquidity to the Greek banking sector to force cuts in pensions, tax increases and fire-sale privatizations, the ECB overstepped its mandate,"

De Masi said.

Following the refusal of the ECB to release the document, they turned to the General Court of the European Union to obtain it.

An ECB spokesman said that a legal opinion preceded the decision to withhold funding by at least two months. The ECB decided not to disclose it to protect its legal advisors and its internal deliberations, he said.

"There is an overriding public interest in knowing how far the ECB ... weighed different goals against each other and how they themselves and their legal experts have interpreted the legal framework in this respect,"

the complainants lawyer Andreas Fischer-Lescano said in the appeal.
PRESS RELEASE

Response to NSS Document: China, Russia Tell U.S. To Reject Geopolitics, Imperial Confrontation, Join in New Paradigm

Dec. 19, 2017 (EIRNS)Both China and Russia responded to the just-released U.S. National Security Strategy (NSS) report labeling them rivals which threaten U.S. security and prosperity, with messages which can be characterized as "Grow up; its time the United States join in the new world developing out there."

Russian Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters today that

"after looking through [the strategy], particularly the parts concerning our country, one can see the imperial nature of this document, as well as unwillingness to abandon the unipolar world idea and accept a multipolar world."

The Russian Foreign Ministry statement rejected the strategys "confrontational character," writing that

"its key messagepeace through strengthis geared not towards constructive and equal cooperation with other countries in the interests of joint resolution of the existing problems, but towards confrontation.... [China and Russia] are being accused of infringing upon world order, which is obviously interpreted as a unipolar world reduced to Americas interests and needs only."

The Foreign Ministry reiterated, however, that Russia is

"ready to build partner relations with the United States. But ... really productive partnership is possible only on the principles of equality and mutual respect,"

it warned. Likewise, Peskov cited the strategy documents openness to cooperate with Russia "in the fields which correspond with the U.S. interests," as the same approach adopted by President Putin, who seeks to cooperate with the United States "in areas which are beneficial for us." Peskov cited as exemplary the exchange of information which was key to stoping a planned terrorist attack in St. Petersburg.

So, too, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying reminded the press today that "the Chinese people are full of confidence" in their nations development, while

"the development achievements scored by China are universally acknowledged and it is of no avail to attempt to distort the facts on the part of anyone or any country."

If the U.S. does not stop

"deliberately distorting Chinas strategic intentions, and abandon such outdated concepts as the Cold War mentality and the zero-sum game ... it will only end up harming itself as well as others. We hope that the United States can correspond with the trend of the times and the will of the people ... and join hands with China to uphold the sound and steady growth of China-U.S. relations."

Chinese daily Global Times added some pointed humor, in an editorial today titled "U.S. Security Strategy Blinded by Arrogance, False Beliefs." The U.S. strategy "showcases Washingtons indisputable insistence on its global hegemony. Neither Beijing nor Moscow will buy it," the paper writes. The Western Pacific region "has taken on a lively scenario of cooperation," and even Beijing-Toyko relations are improving; expanding cooperation on economic development is superseding perceived strategic insecurities.

"All the U.S.s strategic deployment to contain it will be in vain. If Washington keeps bothering itself with this stark fact, it will only drive itself up the wall and in the end, get its own comeuppance."

Global Times suggested that therefore Washington give "lip service" only to "voices" calling for a tougher stance on China, because
(Xinhua) 08:11, December 20, 2017

CAIRO, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump's speech on his national security strategy in many ways contradicted the document itself, experts in the Middle East said Tuesday.

In a speech outlining his administration's first national security strategy on Monday, Trump touted again his campaign logo of "America First."

But when it comes to several international issues, Trump's speech contradicted what is said in the 68-page document that provides the framework for his administration's foreign policy.

SOFTER TALK ABOUT RUSSIA

The outstanding example is Trump's much softer talk about Russia, which is labelled by the document as a "revisionist" power bent on undermining the U.S. interests, and accused of meddling in the U.S. presidential race in 2016.

But in his speech, Trump not only failed to mention the alleged Russia's intervention in the election that he won, but also touted a phone call from Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to thank him for providing intelligence to foil a major terror attack in Russia.

In fact, Trump has been seeking warmer ties with Russia since he took office in January despite the relentless investigation conducted by U.S. Congress into the suspected link between his campaign and Russia.

"Trump's speech highlighted the gap between his theories and his actions," Norhan al-Sheikh, professor of international relations at the Cairo University, told Xinhua.

"Also in the speech, we noticed remarkable gap between the tough language of Trump towards the rivals of the U.S. (China and Russia), and the actual policies that he has adopted since he took office," al-Sheikh noted.

Theoretically, Russia is called the main strategic enemy of the U.S., but Trump on Monday described happily Putin's phone call, which "seemed to be courting Russia," she pointed out.

Trump also contradicted himself in his speech when he talked about the rising competition from Russia and China.

After calling Russia and China two "revisionist" powers seeking to undermine the U.S. influence, values and interests, Trump immediately called for building "great partnership" with them, al-Sheikh noted.

Trump once again demanded NATO allies share more the cost of protecting Europe by threatening to beat a retreat, though his administration vows to restore the U.S. presence on international issues which diminished under his predecessor Barack Obama.

"Trump's speech is contradictory, and he seems to be dealing with a hypothetical world," al-Sheikh said. "His logic is very strange because of his contradicted polices."

TRUMP'S MORE CONFRONTATIONAL STANCE

However, experts expressed the worry about the more confrontational stance taken by the Trump administration in its new security policy.

Selcuk Colakoglu, director of Turkish Center for Asia Pacific Studies, said the new U.S. strategy indicates a "more confrontational" approach toward Russia, China, Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

"This also supports the argument that further escalation over the Iranian and North Korean nuclear issues is imminent," Colakoglu told Xinhua.

Mehmet Ali Guller, a columnist with the Turkish Aydinlik Daily, tweeted that the new strategy indicates that the U.S. will create more troubles for its rivals in order to curb their influence.

For al-Sheikh, one worrisome fact is that the main focus of the Trump administration's policy "is and will be the U.S. interests," so it could seek to buy new friends through trade and form new alliances even at the expenses of international agreements.

CONSISTENCY IN POLICY TOWARD IRAN

Trump's major consistency appeared on the policy toward Iran, as he denounced the nuclear deal signed by the previous government with Tehran as "disastrous, weak, and incomprehensibly bad."

Trump touted the sanctions he imposed on Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for its "support of terrorism" and his refusal to certify the Iranian nuclear deal to Congress.

This is in consistent with the charges against Iran in the strategy document, which calls Iran a "rogue" state and blasts Iran's efforts to beef up its influence through proxy groups, weapons proliferation and recommitment to its ballistic missile program. The document also vows to block the path for Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.

An Iranian expert at the Tehran International Studies and Research Institute dismissed Trump's rhetoric against Iran, saying it is not much different from his predecessors.

"It's just a minor issue for the Iranian media and readers as they have become tired of such word game because it happens every year for decades," the researcher, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua.

"Terrorism and violent extremism are a global threat, the U.S. government should focus on this threat in its security report," he said, charging that the U.S. chooses to ignore the fact that Iran is on the front line of fighting terrorism.
PRESS RELEASE

Syria Goes All-In into the New Silk Roads Belt and Road Initiative!

Dec. 19, 2017 (EIRNS)That sums up the report on a dialogue workshop held by the Wathiqat Wattan Foundation in Damascus called "Heading East ... China," given by SANA news agency on Dec. 16. The dialogue was opened by Presidential Political and Media Advisor Bouthaina Shaaban, who is also the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of Wathiqat Wattan Foundation, and addressed by the Chinese Ambassador to Syria, with participants reported to be from both Syria and Lebanon.

Dr. Shaaban situated the discussion at the highest level.

"There is a new world that is being formed not on the basis of hegemony and wars, but on the basis of scientific and technical cooperation between countries. Our role is carrying and disseminating Eastern culture and motivating societies in this direction,"

she told participants.

"The Arab region is witnessing a series of transitions, the most important of which is the rise of China as a global, economic, political, and cultural power, especially since China proposed several projects,"

including the Belt and Road Initiative, she said, adding that workshops such as this are needed to discuss Chinas role in the region and develop their own visions in order to benefit from Chinas experience.

In June of 2016, Dr. Shaaban addressed the Schiller Institutes international conference in Berlin, Germany via video hookup, and was scheduled to personally address its most recent conference in November, but was unable to attend because she had to travel to China at the last minute.

According to SANA, Chinas Ambassador to Syria Qi Qianjin agreed on the importance of such dialogue, and spoke of Chinas interest in going towards the Middle East, where 60% of its oil and gas imports comes from, stating that China will not leave countries facing turmoil behind, including Syria.

Other participants reportedly

"recommended establishing universities and institutes to teach the Chinese language and promote student exchange programs to contribute to the Sino-Arab cultural intellectual rapprochement, as well as opening Chinese trade centers in Syria."

Today Asia Times reported separately that more than 30 Chinese firms have visited Syria this year, including China Energy Engineering Corporation and China Construction Fifth Engineering Division, and the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs has already approved a number of initial aid projects. During the First Trade Fair on Syrian Reconstruction Projects held in Beijing in early August, a Chinese-Arab business group announced a $2 billion commitment from the government for the construction of industrial parks in Syria.
PRESS RELEASE

New White House National Security Strategy Document Presents Outmoded Geopolitics

Dec. 19, 2017 (EIRNS)The new White House "National Security Strategy" was released yesterday, as commissioned by Congress. The 68-page document begins with a cover letter by President Trump, stating his commitment to protect Americans, then proceeds, after an introduction, with chapters on the "Four Pillars" of U.S. security, ending with, "The Strategy in a Regional Context," covering six geographic areas, before the Conclusion. The regions are: Indo-Pacific, Europe, Middle East, South and Central Asia, Western Hemisphere, Africa.

The Pillars are: I. Protect the American People, the Homeland, and the American Way of Life; II. Promote American Prosperity; III. Preserve Peace Through Strength; and IV. Advance American Influence.

Among the recurring themes are the two most common, and outmoded geopolitical concepts, that the world is necessarily competitive among nations, and that one nations gain is anothers loss. Secondly, the most cited nations are China and Russia, for acting in ways deleterious to the United States.

The documents authors are not cited, but it is reported that the principal author is Nadia Schadlow, Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Strategy. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, she was on the Defense Policy Board, 2006-2009, during the Bush-Cheney years.

H.R. McMaster, National Security Advisor, is acting as spokesman. McMaster gave interviews yesterday on questions of American security, to the BBC and the American National Public Radio network, and others. For example, on BBC, McMaster presented bullet-head charges against Russia, conforming to the British Russia-gate line, saying,

"I believe that Russia is engaged in a very sophisticated campaign of subversion to affect our confidence in democratic institutions, in democratic processesincluding elections."

Trumps own speech at the time of release of the document, labelled Russia and China as rivals, not enemies or adversaries; he further said that he sought "great partnerships" with them.

However, the documents sense of confrontation comes right in the beginning, in the introduction.

"China and Russia challenge American power, influence and interests, attempting to erode American security and prosperity. They are determined to make economies less free and less fair, to grow their militaries, and to control information and data to repress their societies and expand their influence."

Later, under Pillar III on "Preserving Peace Through Strength," the document claims that Russia and China "want to shape a world antithetical to U.S. values and interests." China, it claims,

"seeks to displace the United States in the Indo-Pacific Region, expand the reaches of its state-driven economic model, and reorder the region in its favor."

Russia, it claims, "seeks to restore its great power status and establish spheres of influence near its borders."

However, here and elsewhere, the document makes the point that, the intentions of Russia and China "are not necessarily fixed" and so therefore "the United States stands ready to cooperate across areas of mutual interest with both countries."

The document targets drug trafficking and other activities of transnational criminal organizations, commits the United States to rebuilding its physical infrastructure, though without providing a mechanism for making that happen, and does commit the U.S. to discussions with other states (presumably Russia and China) to reduce the risks of nuclear miscalculation. The document also rejects, in principle at least, the basis of regime change wars. "We are not going to impose our values on others," it says.

"When the United States partners with other states, we develop policies that enable us to achieve our goals while our partners achieve theirs."
Author Matthew Salesses wife, Cathreen, was diagnosed with cancer in March, not long after the birth of their second child. Now, friends and colleagues in the Asian American writing community are offering literary rewards in a GoFundMe campaign to support the family.

Author Margaret Rhee organized the GoFundMe campaign to raise money for Salesses and Cathreen, who is undergoing treatment in South Korea for stomach cancer.

Salesses, author of the novel The Hundred-Year Flood and an English professor at Coe College in Iowa, is currently in Korea to help care for his wife and their two young children.

Rhee, author of the recently released poetry collection Love, Robot, reached out to members of the Asian American literary community to provide gifts for those who contribute to the fundraiser. Among the offerings, many of which have been claimed, are autographed copies of books: Celeste Ngs Everything I Never Told You and Times critic at large Viet Thanh Nguyens Refugees and Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War.

Advertisement

Other gifts for donors include an autographed book and personal letter of writing advice from author Alexander Chee, a dinner in New Yorks Chinatown with novelist Ed Lin, and a manuscript consultation from editor Vivian Lee.

The funds will go to his family medical expenses, and is a loving gesture of our solidarity and care during this time, Rhee wrote on the campaigns GoFundMe page. Your vital contribution will support Matts family and at the same time you will receive inspired books and gifts by formative Asian American writers creating today and into the future.

As of Wednesday morning, the fundraiser had exceeded its initial $3,500 goal, but was still accepting donations to Salesses family.

On his Twitter account, Salesses revealed earlier this month that his wifes cancer had spread. Send healing thoughts/prayers, please, he wrote. We still have hope.

On Monday, Salesses shared a message of gratitude :
Honda said another person has been killed by an exploding Takata air bag inflator.

The company said the person died when a 2004 Honda Civic crashed July 10 in Baton Rouge, La. Officials from Honda and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration inspected the car Tuesday and confirmed that the inflator blew apart and caused the death.

The persons name and age were not released. It is the 20th death worldwide caused by the inflators, which can explode with too much force and send shrapnel into the cabin.

Advertisement

Honda said in a statement that the cars air bag apparently was salvaged from another vehicle, a 2002 Civic.

The automaker said it is cooperating with the government as it investigates the matter.

Its perfectly legal under federal law for air bag assemblies or other parts subject to recall to be pulled out of wrecked cars and sold by junkyards to repair shops that may not even know the danger. No government agency monitors the transactions.

Unlike most other air bag makers, Takata used the chemical ammonium nitrate to create a small explosion to inflate the bags in a crash. But the chemical deteriorates over time when exposed to heat and humidity, causing it to burn too fast and blow apart a metal canister. The resulting shrapnel can kill or injure people. More than 180 people have been hurt this way in the United States alone.

The problem touched off the largest automotive recall in U.S. history, involving up to 69 million inflators and 42 million vehicles. Honda was Takatas biggest customer before the problems surfaced. In June, Takata filed for bankruptcy protection in both Japan and the United States, and rival Key Safety Systems bought most of its assets.
Two additional former Fox News employees are suing Bill OReilly and the cable news network for defamation, joining the legal battle that was brought earlier this month by former Fox News producer Rachel Witlieb Bernstein.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Rebecca Gomez Diamond and Andrea Mackris allege that they were defamed by OReilly and Fox News in a New York Times article from April 2016 that brought to light settlements paid by the network to women who had accused OReilly of sexual harassment and other forms of misconduct.

All three plaintiffs were mentioned by name in the April 1 article that ultimately led to OReilly being ousted from the network after two decades as the host of its top-rated The OReilly Factor.

Advertisement

Bernstein filed her original suit Dec. 4 for defamation and breach of contract, alleging that OReilly and Fox News violated a settlement she reached with the host. Her financial settlement with the network required that both sides not disparage the other and only say the matter had been resolved.

The new suit filed Wednesday alleges that OReilly and Fox News disparaged and defamed Diamond and Mackris by saying that they didnt complain to the company about OReillys alleged behavior.

Of course they complained, the suit argues. Plaintiffs did complain internally to Fox News in a timely manner. They all settled their complaints.

Fox News didnt respond to a request for comment.

Diamond was a host on the Fox Business Network, and Mackris was a producer on The OReilly Factor. They reached settlements in 2011 and 2004, respectively, according to the New York Times report.

The new plaintiffs are arguing that OReilly violated his non-disparagement clauses with them when he told the New York Times in a statement that Im vulnerable to lawsuits from individuals who want me to pay them to avoid negative publicity. He added that the worst part of my job is being a target for those who would harm me and my employer, the Fox News Channel.

The plaintiffs also claim that Fox News defamed them by reiterating OReillys defense of himself in comments the network sent to the New York Times through its parent company, 21st Century Fox.

The suit alleges that Rupert Murdoch, the executive chairman of 21st Century Fox, defamed the plaintiffs in recent comments to Sky News, in which the media baron seemed to downplay the sexual harassment accusations that have rocked the cable network. Its all nonsense, he told the British news organization.

The three plaintiffs of the suit are all seeking unspecified damages, including punitive damages.

david.ng@latimes.com

Twitter: @DavidNgLAT

UPDATES:

3:04 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details pertaining to settlements reached by Diamond and Mackris.

This article was originally published at 11:40 a.m
Former Orbitz chief Barney Harford has been named the No. 2 executive at Uber, as the company tries to move past a year of controversies and setbacks.

CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who took over the embattled ride-sharing company in August, announced Harfords appointment in a note to employees Wednesday.

Harford has been serving as an advisor to Uber for the past few months and will hit the ground running in January.

Advertisement

I have never met a stronger operator or a more thoughtful strategist than Barney, Khosrowshahi said in a note to Uber employees. He is able to go deep on key aspects of a business while never losing sight of the big strategic picture.

Khosrowshahi, the low-profile former chief executive of travel booking company Expedia, said he and Harford worked together at Expedia, before Harford was appointed CEO of Orbitz in 2009.

Uber has spent the year in crisis mode, weathering allegations of a toxic culture that allowed discrimination, sexual harassment and bullying. It also faces a high-profile lawsuit from Googles self-driving vehicle arm, Waymo, over alleged theft and use of trade secrets.

On Wednesday, the company was dealt another blow in Europe when the European Unions highest court ruled that Uber is a transportation service that is subject to transportation regulation.

The company also has battled with its co-founder, Travis Kalanick, who resigned from the role of chief executive in June. He has tried to retain some control of the company. Rumors swirled in August that he was angling for a comeback, with Recode reporting that Kalanick had told people he was Steve Jobs-ing it  a reference to the Apple cofounder who was ousted from his company but later made a triumphant return.

Uber co-founder and board member Garrett Camp tried to put those rumors to rest that same month, writing in an email to staff, Travis is not returning as CEO. We are committed to hiring a new world class CEO to lead Uber.

Still, Kalanick remains on the companys board and has the power to appoint anyone he wants to three board seats. Investor Benchmark tried to wrestle some of that control back from Kalanick in August when it sued the co-founder, alleging in the lawsuit that Kalanick misled investors into creating and granting him appointment powers of those seats.

The lawsuit is on hold while an investment deal with Japanese conglomerate Softbank is pending. If the deal goes through, Kalanick is likely to be stripped of some of his powers.

tracey.lien@latimes.com

UPDATES:

9:30 a.m. This article was updated with details about former CEO Travis Kalanicks role on Ubers board.

This article was originally published at 9:05 a.m.
Here are the 2018 SAG Awards nominees reactions to their nods

The on-camera talent recognized during the 24th Screen Actors Guild Award nominations on Wednesday shared their excitement and gratitude for the special honor bestowed upon them by the acting community.

The SAG Awards serve up laurels for actors and ensemble casts working in television and film as voted by their peers. The awards show, hosted by The Good Place star Kristen Bell, will take place on Jan. 21.

LIST: The 2018 SAG Award nominees

In statements to the Los Angeles Times, several nominees repeatedly thanked their drama families, particularly the casts and crews of their respective projects. Heres what some of them had to say about the recognition:

Alison Brie. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Alison Brie, GLOW

It is such a great honor to be recognized by my fellow actors with this nomination. I am so proud to be part of a show that celebrates the craft of acting, with all its pitfalls and glories, and to be able to work with such a diverse group of insanely talented women. GLOW has meant the world to me and Im deeply thankful for this recognition for me and the cast. Thank you SAG-AFTRA!!

Millie Bobby Brown. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Millie Bobby Brown, Stranger Things

Screen Actors Guild! Thank you SO much for recognizing me and our cast for the second year in a row! This means the world coming from you, our peers. I am so lucky and honored to have the privilege of playing Eleven  a strong, powerful, badass, strange, wonderful character! Cant wait to celebrate with my Stranger Things family!

Timothee Chalamet. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Timothee Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name

What an incredible morning! This nomination is very close to my heart because its from the actor. When we made Call Me By Your Name, we had no idea what it would turn into. The experience in making the film with Armie [Hammer] was so special, and yet, we just didnt know. Simply put, Ive been blown away by the response this film has received. And, to be included in ensemble along with my Lady Bird family (congrats, Saoirse [Ronan]!) makes this recognition that much more special.

David Harbour. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

David Harbour, Stranger Things

If it isnt wildly apparent by now, Ill say it directly  I love actors! To be recognized by my peers in such distinguished company gives me a special joy. And Millie [Bobby Brown] and the show! Beyond.

When I act, when I create, I feel alive, full to bursting, and I feel of service to the mysterious goodness that firmly exists in this world. I have been rewarded with a life that indulges in the primacy of self, but at its core and at its purest and its best, it is a life of service. A service to audiences. To prod and poke when necessary, to comfort and entertain when times seem dark, to ever expand the human experience, to offer a reason to live, to celebrate to the gods the great gift and scourge that is consciousness. Sometimes it means expressing iron intellect and rigorous truth that bonds us all in the achingly profound wisdom of no escape. Sometimes it means revealing the intimate moments of endurance, of unexpected kindness, unasked for love. And sometimes it simply means making a fierce and joyful noise, to spin, to twirl, to throw your hands up with the relentless dips and climb aboard this roller coaster of life. Ya know, to dance. *insert Hopper dancing gif*

Thank you for recognizing me, as it might mean itll be easier to get more jobs doing it.

Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water

I am beyond thrilled to have received the honor of this nomination. And to receive it from fellow colleagues is huge to me. Guillermo [del Toro], this film and the entire cast and crew hold a very special place in my heart and always will. Each and every one of them made me better. I am truly delighted more than I can really express in words but my heart is fit to burst with pride for us all. Thank you dearest SAG members. Thank you for your embrace.

Sean Hayes. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Sean Hayes, Will & Grace

I am so honored to be recognized in this category with these extraordinary actors. I love acting because I love actors. I also like to bake sometimes.

Richard Jenkins. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water

I am thrilled and humbled to be nominated by my peers for a SAG Award. This union is very close to my heart. Well, the SAG card is in my wallet, so its a little further south.

Zoe Kazan. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Zoe Kazan, The Big Sick

Thank you to SAG for honoring The Big Sick ensemble with a nomination. It means so much to us, especially from our acting peers. I am deeply proud to be a part of this film and to have brought Kumail [Nanjiani] and Emily [V. Gordon]s story into the world, especially at this time. We are particularly moved to have been recognized as an ensemble, as this was such an extraordinary collaborative experience Im excited to be reunited once more with my movie family, and to share this with Kumail, Holly [Hunter], Ray [Romano], Zenobia [Shroff], Anupam [Kher], and Adeel [Akhtar] and everyone else who helped bring The Big Sick to life.

Nicole Kidman. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Nicole Kidman, Big Little Lies

What an amazing morning! Thank you to SAG-AFTRA for recognizing Big Little Lies in such a significant way. Ive been acting since I was 14 and have dedicated an enormous amount of my life to my craft so to be acknowledged by my acting family is the most incredible honor.

Jason Bateman and Laura Linney. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Laura Linney, Ozark

I am so proud to be included in a list of such wonderful actresses who have raised the bar so high. What an amazing year for women in television. And I am especially proud to be representing Ozark with my TV spouse, the ever deserving Jason Bateman! Thank you SAG-AFTRA!

Marc Maron. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Marc Maron, GLOW

I am stunned and excited to be recognized by other actors in this way. I really never thought this was possible in my life. It helps to be surrounded by amazing actors and to have such a defined and well written character as Sam Sylvia and to be on a show as unique as GLOW. I am just a small part. So, thanks SAG for recognizing me and the mind-blowing ensemble that is GLOW.

Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, The Big Sick

We are so lucky to have been graced with the enormous talents of every single member of our cast. They each put a piece of themselves into our story and we are thrilled at being recognized. Thank you. And a special shout out to Holly Hunters individual nomination!

Now we have to go tell our real parents that they arent actually nominated.

Bob Odenkirk. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul

I am thrilled to get this nomination from my fellow actors! At Better Call Saul I am surrounded by an ensemble of excellence  Michael McKean, Rhea Seehorn, Jonathan Banks, everybody raises my game. Thank you to SAG-AFTRA.

Gary Oldman. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Gary Oldman, The Darkest Hour

No actor could ever deny the special satisfaction that comes from being recognized by your fellow artists  we all share the same challenges, insecurities, and uncertainties, chief among them, the question am I any good? this nomination, and in the wonderful company of the other nominees, is so very satisfying.

Margot Robbie. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Margot Robbie, I, Tonya

Im so incredibly moved and excited to be nominated by my fellow actors. I feel very fortunate to be able to have had the opportunity to bring Tonyas story to the big screen. Thank you to Steven [Rogers] for his brilliant and unique script, to Allison [Janney] and Sebastian [Stan] for being such incredible screen partners and to Craig [Gillespie] for his amazing direction and perfectly capturing the tone and essence of the film. Im so honored to be recognized among the truly powerful and wonderful women in the category. I cant wait to celebrate with everyone.

Sam Rockwell. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

It is such an honor to be nominated by your fellow actors, I have been a proud member of the Screen Actors Guild for as long as I can remember. To share it with this wonderful ensemble whom I have had the pleasure to work with over the years and others I got to collaborate with for the first time is truly special. I want to thank Martin McDonagh, our director and writer, for crafting these characters, as well as Woody [Harrelson], Fran [McDormand] and the rest of the cast who brought the town of Ebbing to life on screen. I am thrilled.

Ray Romano. (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Ray Romano, The Big Sick

This is awesome but I wont believe it till the recount.
Owning a piece of Zsa Zsa Gabors estate will be simple, darling. When the Hungarian-born actress and socialite died last year at age 99, she left behind a sprawling home filled with mementos of her glamorous life, many of which will be presented by Heritage Auctions on April 14 in Los Angeles.

She had a small mountain of [monogrammed] Louis Vuitton luggage that she traveled the world with, explained Carolyn Mani, a Heritage Auctions director overseeing the springtime sale, which will be held at Gabors historic Bel Air, Calif., home, which was once owned by Howard Hughes.

There are about 425 lots comprised of designer clothes, costume jewelry, examples of mostly 18th and 19th century French furniture, decorative arts, fine arts and silver, continued Mani of the catalogue that also includes a gilded Steinway piano previously owned by Gabors third husband, actor George Sanders. They painted it gold after he won the Academy Award [in 1951 for All About Eve] and she got possession of it again after he passed away.

Advertisement

Gabor reportedly left the entirety of her estate to her final husband, 74-year-old Frederic Prinz von Anhalt, who is pretty much divesting of everything, according to Mani. We tried to focus on the things that her fans would be most interested in [from] the house.

Additional examples of Gabors over-the-top style will be represented by items from her extensive wardrobe including pieces by Chanel, Dior, Valentino and James Galanos along with several Hermes handbags. A consummate hostess, the One Lifetime Is Not Enough author would typically offer a glass of Champagne to guests upon entering her home. Fittingly, a large collection of the actress vintage bubbly will hit the auction block along with more recently discovered treasures.

Just last week I found a two-handled silver horse trophy from 1907 that belonged to Reginald Vanderbilt, who was Gloria Vanderbilts father, added Mani. It was [hidden] in the bar surrounded by little plastic gold things and then all of a sudden heres this fabulous sterling trophy.

Items more personal to the Gabor family will include commissioned portraits by Hungarian artist Pal Fried and original artwork done by the late actress herself. A hand-painted, three-paneled, Asian-inspired screen will be offered along with a sketchpad Gabor used while on trial in 1989 for infamously slapping a police officer, a crime of which she was eventually convicted. The pad is filled with drawings of people in the room including that police officer, Mani added.

But in spite of Gabors expensive taste (she once quipped, Diamonds are a girls best friend and dogs are a mans best friend  now you know which sex has more sense,) the auction may have something for everyone. Bidding will start at just $1 and all of the lots will be sold without a reserve. The house is basically untouched since Zsa Zsa was there, added Mani.
(Xinhua) 08:15, December 20, 2017

SHANGHAI Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- A court in Shanghai Tuesday convicted a foreigner of delaying wages to employees and sentenced him to five months in detention with a fine of 40,000 yuan (about 6,050 U.S. dollars).

It was the first time a foreigner has been convicted of the crime in Shanghai.

The foreigner, owner of clothing firm Mingxin Fashion Clothes (Shanghai), was found to have held back the wages of its 158 employees totalling 600,000 yuan, according to Shanghai Qingpu District Court.

The foreigner's identity and nationality were withheld by the authorities. He was arrested in northeast China's Liaoning Province in August after having left the country for seven months.

The municipal government said it places importance on resolving issues of delayed wages and has cleared up defaults of 537 million yuan in the first three quarters this year.

The government said it will send inspectors to construction sites, factories, and restaurants to ensure workers receive their wages on time.
Each of the traditional brewing cultures around the globe  Germany, Britain, Belgium, and now America  has a different specialty beer style made for the holidays. You can take a trip through a worlds worth of holiday brews with just one trip to the local bottle shop.

Sugar and spice from Belgium

Any discussion of traditional Christmas brewing must start with Belgian beer. With all of the rich tradition of neighboring Germanys beer culture, but none of the Teutonic adherence to strict brewing laws, Belgian beer is both refined and adventurous, and the countrys brewers excel at the use of specialty brewing sugars that impart deep color and rich flavors. Often dark and potent (often 10% alcohol or more), the holiday brews can taste like liquid fruitcake. But spices arent often added to Belgian Christmas beer (thats more of a French brewing tradition). Its the signature Belgian yeast strains that provide all those fruit-and-spice flavors. Imported favorites such as Corsendonk Christmas Ale, Affligen Noel and Saint Bernardus Christmas Ale are classic examples.

Advertisement

There are many American craft breweries with their own take on the style, and actual fruit and spice additions are more common in these new world versions. Try the approachable and affordable (and spice-forward) example available exclusively at Trader Joes. Brewed at Quebecs Unibroue, the yearly Vintage Ale releases are bargains at around $6 for a 750 ml bottle, and the 2017 release is is boldly spiced stocking stuffer.

Strong lager from Germany

In the German brewing tradition, purity is prized and lagers reign. While there are few beers made specifically for the holiday season, the classic bock beer style is a perfect fit for long, cold evenings. A strong lager  meaning a slowly fermented beer with a minimum of the fruity flavors common in ales  bock showcases clean malt flavors. With a higher alcohol and more body than many of the German lager styles, bock was known as liquid bread by the monks who brewed it for their Lenten fasts. When the master brewers in Munich got a hold of the style, they bumped up the booze even more and the doppelbock was born. These malty lagers, rich with toast and toffee flavors, are somewhat sweet. They are a perfect match for roasted meats such as duck and pork that are often served with fruit or a sweet sauce as a counterpoint. Doppelbock is also great with chocolate treats and Christmas cookies.

Look for Paulaner Salvator, Ayinger Celebrator, or Spaten Optimator in the imports section at the store. American craft-brewed doppelbocks are a curiously rare breed.

Winter warmers and barleywine from Britain

While low-alcohol real ales such as milds, bitters and brown ales are the mainstay of British beer culture, theres a long history of brewing strong ales to combat Englands cold and dreary winters. Barleywine is the strongest style in the British tradition that reaches into double-digit alcohol content. The intense beer bursts with malt-derived flavors of toffee, caramel, dark fruits and nuts. Built to weather long years of rest in the cellars of British estates, where the barleywine develops sherry-like sweetness and even more fruit flavors, young barleywine can be quite hoppy (the woody, herbaceous flavors of English hops, and the bitterness they provide fade as the beer ages). There is no beer style better suited to sipping in front of a warm hearth on a quiet holiday night.

Craft brewers, with their tendency toward bombast and excess, have embraced the barleywine style, developing an even stronger and more hop-forward Americanized substyle. And many brewers have taken to aging their barleywines in used bourbon barrels for even more punch. Old Numbskull from San Diegos AleSmith is available in both standard and a barrel-aged version. Traditional English versions are more refined and showcase more fruity esters and a densely layered malt foundation. Thomas Hardys Ale, J.W. Kees Harvest Ale and Fullers Golden Pride are classic English examples, and there is no better beer to accompany a fragrant wedge of Stilton cheese.

The American brews

Spices, flavorings, barrel aging, and ever increasing alcohol contents are commonplace this time of year, but there are plenty of restrained and refined American classics too. Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale  an IPA made with freshly harvested hops  is as evocative of the holidays as string-lights and sleigh bells for many beer fans. Speaking of sleigh bells, Sleighr from Oregons Ninkasi brewing is a festive example of a rarely-seen German style: the doppelsticke. Now in its 41st year, Anchor Brewings Christmas Ale is another longtime favorite, and each year the San Francisco brewery offers its seasonal brew in oversized magnum bottles, perfect for host gifts and for slipping under the tree.

Its not all about Christmas brews though, New Yorks Shmaltz Brewing  home of HeBrew- the Chosen Beer  crafts a special Hanukkah Beer each year to help celebrate the festival of lights. This years offering is a dense and creamy golden ale brewed with cacao nibs.

food@latimes.com

@latimesfood

ALSO:

A toast to roasts: 34 main dishes that will wow your guests

How local farmers are coping with the devastating Thomas fire

How the Mario Batali and Ken Friedman sexual harassment allegations are affecting their L.A. restaurants
For three days, firefighters have purposely set hillsides on fire to reduce available fuel. Theyve quenched smoldering heaps of chaparral and cut down burned trees so they dont fall onto people passing by.

Many have worked for 14 hours straight, milking the lull in winds. Some sang songs to pass the time.

Now, their day of reckoning has arrived.

Powerful winds that have driven the ferocious Thomas fire for more than two weeks are expected to return Wednesday afternoon.

Advertisement

Forecasters predict a new blast of Santa Barbaras notorious sundowner winds, which blow down the canyons to the coast, late Wednesday afternoon into Thursday morning. Northerly gusts will probably exceed 40 mph, while isolated gusts of up to 60 mph are possible, according to the National Weather Service.

Theyll whip through the Santa Barbara County side of the fire first, creating crucial fire conditions for the western face of the blaze, before the Santa Anas pick up in Ventura County on Thursday morning.

Firefighters have been working hard for the last 3 days to prep for tomorrow, said Capt. Steve Concialdi of the Orange County Fire Authority. We are confident.

Its part of the vicious cycle that has kept the Thomas fire raging since it took root in the foothills above Thomas Aquinas College on Dec. 4. By Tuesday, it had charred 272,000 acres of land across Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, making it the second-largest wildfire in modern California history.

Despite hard-fought gains that allowed firefighters to increase containment to 55% late Tuesday, the wildfire that has destroyed 765 single-family homes is expected to keep growing. Fuel in the area remains critically dry, posing an especially acute danger when the winds pick up.

But fire departments from agencies across California are starting to travel home.

Its drastically ramping down right now, said Rudy Evenson, a spokesman for the multi-agency firefighting effort. Its nowhere near the scale that its been the past two weeks.

With more containment lines in place, thousands of displaced residents near burn zones in Carpinteria, Montecito and the Santa Barbara foothills got some good news Tuesday: Finally, they could go home.

What a relief, said Bob Boghosian, who evacuated his Toro Canyon area home a week ago, along with his wife, Beth.

They moved to their home from Anaheim Hills two years ago, after falling in love with the seclusion and ocean views. The couple knew they faced fire danger, but up until now all this discussion about fire risk was theoretical, Boghosian, 72, said.

I guess it comes with the territory, he said. We didnt think it was quite like this.

Boghosians home was unscathed, but he is a bit worried for the future, and his East Coast friends are urging the couple to move.

Everything smells like you had a fire in the fireplace, he said.

Along Coast Village Road in Montecito, businesspeople were working to reopen shops and restaurants that had been closed for several days due to a mandatory evacuation order. The order was lifted at 6 a.m. Tuesday.

Some merchants worried that closures during the peak holiday season could seriously hurt their profits for the year.

Its awful, said Jason Herrick, co-owner of the Liquor and Wine Grotto. The prolonged fires have resulted in his worst month for sales since December 2009, he said.

You didnt even see blue skies for 10 days, he said.

Herrick has owned the wine shop for nearly nine years and has been through wildfires before, but never one that lasted this long.

I dont think everyone can sustain, Herrick said of other business owners.

At Luckys, a steakhouse on the same street, employees wearing masks were working to clear ash from the patio. Larry Nobles, the restaurants wine director, said he could see the fire from the restaurants host stand a few days ago.

It looked like Armageddon coming at you, he said. Everybody had something packed.

Nobles was cautious about reopening the restaurant only to potentially have to close it again because of the expected return of the winds Wednesday.

Sounds like theyve got it contained, he said. But you never know.

alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

nicole.santacruz@latimes.com

Tchekmedyian reported from Los Angeles, Santa Cruz from Santa Barbara. Times staff writers Melissa Etehad and Hailey Branson-Potts contributed to this report.
A man who stole an unoccupied Holiday Inn Express van late Tuesday was arrested after crashing into cars in Westchester and briefly halting traffic on the 405 Freeway when he ran across lanes, authorities said.

The theft was reported just before 9 p.m. at 8000 Airport Boulevard near the Los Angeles International Airport, said Los Angeles Police Officer Sal Ramirez. The shuttle crashed into cars at Manchester and Truxton avenues before getting onto the freeway.

A witness who followed the man told police it appeared he was intentionally trying to hit cars, said LAPD Lt. Joseph Sanchez.

Advertisement

Eventually the man pulled over on the freeway, where he was seen running across lanes carrying a stick and rake, according to the California Highway Patrols online incident log.

Police set up a perimeter and arrested the man soon after. No one was injured during the incident.

Sanchez said the man was under the influence of narcotics. He added that someone who works at the LAPDs Pacific Division recalled seeing the man at the station last week, but it was unclear why he was there.

The incident briefly shut down all southbound lanes of the freeway at Culver Boulevard.

alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @AleneTchek
For nearly a decade, a South Los Angeles duplex has been a hub for gang violence and troublesome parties filled with drugs, city officials say. In the last four months alone, police have responded there multiple times after reports of gunfire.

To get a handle on the violence, Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer filed a lawsuit against the mother-and-son duo  Senorina Lara and Miguel Valencia  who own and live in the duplex in the 1300 block of East 43rd Street. Officials are seeking an injunction prohibiting gang activity and a court order to control raucous noise at the property.

We allege that for too long, a toxic combination of gangs, guns and drugs has made the property a dangerous hazard in this neighborhood, Feuer said in a statement. Well continue to hold property owners responsible for these unacceptable conditions as we take back our communities.

Advertisement

The homeowners could not be reached for comment.

Officials say the violence is carried out by members and associates of two criminal street gangs: 38th Street and Vernon Hood Locos.

Rival gangs know to attack the duplex to go after either group, putting the safety of the neighborhood at the whim of the gangs beefs,  the lawsuit said.

In one August incident, the building was struck by a hail of gunfire in the dead of night. Bullets shattered the front window of a neighboring home. Police picked up 10 spent casings from the sidewalk in front of the duplex.

In November, a man with a gun yelled, This is 38th Street hood, then shot at someone walking by, according to the lawsuit.

The property sits near three public schools, two public parks and several churches, officials said.

Valencia bought the property in 2002 and gave it to his mother this year, the lawsuit said. Before filing, city attorneys said they met with Valencia, whom they identified in court documents as a member of both gangs, and said he agreed to stop the nuisance. They had also sent him two written notices of nuisance activity. But violence continued.

The lawsuit marks the second time in as many months the city attorneys office has used legal action to crack down on gang activity. Last month, prosecutors sued the owners and managers of Chesapeake Apartments, a 425-unit complex on the northern edge of Baldwin Village.

The property, officials said, is a longtime stronghold for a street gang called the Black P-Stones and has been plagued by violent crime for decades. Feuer alleged in the lawsuit that their mismanagement has resulted in a serious threat to public safety and created an environment in which anyone who comes near the property is at risk of being a crime victim.

Since July 2013, city officials said, Feuer has filed nearly 100 nuisance abatement lawsuits and secured 96 injunctions related to specific properties with documented gang or drug activity.

alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @AleneTchek
Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston whose failures to stop child molesters in the priesthood sparked what would become the worst crisis in American Catholicism, died Wednesday in Rome, where he had been hospitalized. He was 86.

Pope Francis expressed his condolences Wednesday, and the Vatican announced that he will participate during Laws funeral rites at a Mass on Thursday at St. Peters Basilica, an honor accorded to all Rome-based cardinals.

Law was once one of the most important leaders in the U.S. church. He broadly influenced Vatican appointments to American dioceses, helped set priorities for the nations bishops and was favored by Pope John Paul II.

Advertisement

But in January 2002, the Boston Globe began a series of reports that used church records to reveal that Law had transferred abusive clergy among parish assignments for years without alerting parents or police. Within months, Catholics around the country demanded to know whether their bishops had done the same.

Law tried to manage the mushrooming scandal in his own archdiocese by first refusing to comment, then apologizing and promising reform. But thousands more church records were released describing new cases of how Law and others expressed more care for accused priests than for victims. Amid a groundswell against the cardinal, including rare public rebukes from some of his own priests, Law asked to resign and the pope said yes.

It is my fervent prayer that this action may help the archdiocese of Boston to experience the healing, reconciliation and unity which are so desperately needed, Law said when he stepped down as head of the Boston archdiocese in December 2002. To all those who have suffered from my shortcomings and mistakes, I both apologize and from them beg forgiveness.

Laws successor as archbishop, Cardinal Sean OMalley, said it was a sad reality that Laws legacy will forever be tied to the abuse scandal, when the church seriously failed to care for its flock and protect children.

The pope said nothing directly about Laws passing during his weekly general audience Wednesday, and in his condolence letter he made no direct mention of the cardinals tenure in Boston.

I raise prayers for the repose of his soul, that the Lord, God who is rich in mercy, may welcome him in His eternal peace, and I send my apostolic blessing to those who share in mourning the passing of the cardinal, Francis wrote.

It was a stunning fall from grace for Law and a rare step for the church, which deeply resists public pressure but could no longer do so given the scope of the crisis.

Since 1950, more than 6,500, or about 6% of U.S. priests, have been accused of molesting children, and the American church has paid more than $3 billion in settlements to victims, according to studies commissioned by the U.S. bishops and media reports. As the leader of the archdiocese at the epicenter of the scandal, Law remained throughout his life a symbol of the churchs widespread failures to protect children.

Law retained support in the Vatican. In 2004, he was appointed archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major, one of four principal basilicas in Rome. When John Paul died the next year, Law was among bishops who presided at a memorial Mass for the pontiff in St. Peters Basilica.

Law also continued for several years to serve in Vatican dicasteries, or policy-making committees, including the Congregation for Bishops, which recommends appointments to the pope. Advocates for victims saw the posts as a sign of favor for Law by church officials unrepentant about abused children.

Cardinal Laws soft landing in Rome, after his Boston disgrace, reminds us that prelate privilege remains the rule in Catholicism, said Terence McKiernan of BishopAccountability.org, a database of the global scandal in the church.

Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston lawyer who has represented dozens of people who say they were abused by priests, said Laws death reopened wounds among many victims.

Cardinal Law turned his back on innocent children and allowed them to be sexually abused and then received a promotion in Rome, Garabedian said.

Fifteen years after the scandal broke, the issue of holding bishops accountable for failing to protect children remains a pressing matter for the church. Francis had promised to go after bishops but backed off a proposed Vatican tribunal to prosecute them and opted instead to use existing measures.

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, the main U.S. advocacy group for those who were abused, urged Francis to keep the victims in mind during the funeral and complained that Law doesnt deserve the pomp and circumstance.

This celebratory focus on abuse enablers like Law must end, said SNAPs Joelle Casteix.

Law is expected to be buried in Rome, OMalley said. The location hasnt been disclosed, but Law would be entitled to burial at St. Mary Major.

Born Nov. 4, 1931, in Torreon, Mexico, Law was the only child of a U.S. Air Force colonel and a mother who was a Presbyterian convert to Catholicism. He graduated from Harvard University in 1953. He was ordained in 1961 and campaigned for civil rights in Mississippi, sometimes traveling in the trunks of cars for safety.

He was named bishop of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau in Missouri, then archbishop of Boston, one of the most prominent and important posts in the U.S.

A Times staff writer contributed to this report

UPDATES:

Dec. 20, 10:30 a.m.: This story was updated with the Vatican statement, additional reaction, and news that the pope will participate in funeral rites.

This article was originally published Dec. 19 at 9 p.m.
The Trump administration signaled support Wednesday for the incumbent president in Honduras in his much-disputed reelection bid, backing a longtime U.S. ally in Central America.

After initially saying it was awaiting a report by the Organization of American States, which monitored the election, the Trump administration has decided to disregard that groups call for a new election because of widespread irregularities in the Nov. 26 vote.

Instead, Washington has sided with the Honduran Supreme Election Tribunal and decided to recognize conservative President Juan Orlando Hernandez over his rival, Salvador Nasralla, whose coalition includes Honduran leftists.

Advertisement

The Trump administration had given tentative support to Hernandez on Monday but noted that under Honduran law the tribunals ruling opened a five-day period for people to register objections. On Wednesday, a senior State Department official said U.S. diplomats had seen no credible evidence to dispute Hernandezs victory.

We have not seen anything . that alters the final result, said the official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss internal assessments.

The official said the Honduran election tribunal gave Hernandez a margin of victory of 1.6 percentage points, and the U.S. will make a final determination after the five-day period ends Friday.

Mexico echoed the United States and congratulated Hernandez, who has been an ally of Washington and especially of the Trump administration.

Initial returns had put Nasralla, a well-known TV host, ahead of Hernandez. Then the election tribunal, which is in charge of counting votes and is led by Hernandez allies, went silent for more than 24 hours. When it began releasing results again, Nasrallas lead had dropped sharply and Hernandez soon moved into the lead.

Street protests erupted after the election and again this week after the tribunal declared Hernandez the winner. At least 14 people have been killed.

An analysis commissioned by the OAS and conducted by Irfan Nooruddin, a professor at Georgetown University, said the differences in vote patterns before and after the tribunals 24-hour silence are too large to be generated by chance and are not easily explicable, raising doubts as to the veracity of the overall result.

It was the first time a president in Honduras was allowed to run for reelection. Hernandez, who had stacked the courts with supporters, engineered a change in the Constitution to make his run possible. In 2009, when then-President Manuel Zelaya attempted the same move, he was ousted in a military coup.

Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, called for a new election, saying in a statement that widespread irregularities documented by the OAS raised further doubts about the legitimacy of the vote and represented an alarming indication about the fragility of democracy in Honduras.

Staff writer Kate Linthicum contributed from Mexico City.

tracy.wilkinson@latimes.com

For more on international affairs, follow @TracyKWilkinson on Twitter
A federal judge declared a mistrial Wednesday in the case involving Cliven Bundy and two of his sons after she found that prosecutors willfully failed to turn over evidence related to an armed standoff three years ago.

U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro pointed to several violations of the Brady rule  which requires prosecutors to disclose evidence that could be favorable to a defendant. She then called in jurors and dismissed them.

It was not possible to go forward with the case, Navarro told the jurors.

Advertisement

The ruling marked yet another setback for federal prosecutors, who have struggled to obtain convictions against the Bundy family and its supporters. The cases have become a rallying point for those who believe the federal government has overstepped its authority by controlling public lands operated by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

A spokeswoman with the U.S. attorneys office said it had no comment on Navarros decision.

Prosecutors have the opportunity to retry the case, and the judge told both sides to submit briefs by Dec. 29. Navarro told the packed courtroom she would also rule on whether it would be a mistrial with prejudice. That decision would effectively end the possibility of a new trial for Bundy, sons Ammon and Ryan and supporter Ryan Payne.

Rancher Cliven Bundy, 67, looks over the Virgin River on some of his 150 square miles of property in Bunkerville, Nev. in August 2013. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times )

The federal government alleged that Bundy and his two sons escalated tensions after refusing court orders to remove cattle from public lands  ultimately leading to an armed standoff with federal law enforcement officials in April 2014 outside Bunkerville, Nev.

The four defendants were charged with threatening a federal officer, carrying and using a firearm and engaging in conspiracy  all felony counts that could send them to prison for decades.

The government was removing cattle after Cliven Bundy had refused to pay grazing fees to the BLM dating back to the 1990s. The standoff ended after federal authorities backed down, saying they feared for their lives. About 400 Bundy supporters, many with guns, took part in the standoff. The incident briefly forced the closure of a segment of Interstate 15 near Mesquite.

Cliven Bundy, the 71-year-old rancher, sat in the quiet courtroom as Navarro read off instances in which the federal government didnt reveal information in a timely manner that she said wouldve helped the defense.

Outside the courthouse, Ryan Bundy said that with each reading of a Brady violation, he felt snowballing satisfaction. But he said he doesnt believe the government will give up easily.

They are kind of determined folks, but I dont think they have a prayer, he said. They have gone forward and further embarrassed themselves.

Up until Wednesdays decision, the trial had been engaged in fits and starts and, in recent weeks, jurors were rarely in the courtroom as lawyers worked under seal. Jurors had been seated in early November; opening arguments werent heard until Nov. 14. Defense lawyers claimed early on that evidence had been withheld by the prosecution; that set in motion a series of delays and sealed hearings.

A federal court order Bundy in 2013 to remove 500 head of cattle from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land in central Nevada. He refuses to do so. Im going to do whatever it takes, Bundy said about the order. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times )

Navarro on Wednesday ticked off several things prosecutors she said were willfully withheld from defense lawyers leading up to the trial, including key documents related to possible snipers outside the Bundy ranch and the existence of a surveillance camera at the ranch.

Ian Bartrum, a constitutional law professor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, has been following the legal fights involving the Bundys and said Navarros use of the word willful makes a dismissal with prejudice a real possibility.

I think the government has acted very strangely in this case, Bartrum said. They could retry, but theyve been trying and retrying now for awhile and at some point it becomes a matter of diminishing returns.

If there is another trial, Navarro set a date for Feb. 26.

The case twisted and turned with surprises leading up to Wednesdays mistrial. The government lost its bid to keep the defendants locked up when Navarro granted Cliven Bundys sons and Payne pre-trial release in late November so they could better prepare their case and be at home with their families. Cliven Bundy has remained jailed at a prison in Pahrump.

After Navarro declared a mistrial, Ryan Bundy asked for his release with a promise to appear in court if a new trial is set, but Navarro told him he would have to make the request through the pretrial office. Morgan Philpot, Ammon Bundys lawyer, said he would file a request of release with no conditions within the next day.

Bret Whipple, Cliven Bundys lawyer, said he also would seek an emergency request to have his client released. He said, however, the release would have to be with no conditions.

He doesnt believe he should be cutting a deal with anyone since he didnt do anything wrong, Whipple said.

The stakes have been high for the federal government, which has struggled to obtain convictions in cases involving the Bundy family and their cohorts.

Twice this year, Las Vegas juries acquitted or deadlocked on multiple felony charges against Bundy supporters.

Jerry DeLemus fixes a U.S. flag near an armed militia camp in 2014 that rallied to the Bundy ranch to protect him from the U.S. government. (John M. Glionna / Los Angeles Times )

Ammon Bundy, 42, and Ryan Bundy, 44, were acquitted on similar federal felony charges related to their roles in a 41-day standoff at an Oregon wildlife preserve in 2016.

Cliven Bundy is revered among those who believe the federal government abuses its authority, and supporters gathered outside the courthouse most mornings when court was in session. Today is a great day, one supporter yelled Wednesday.

As Ammon and Ryan Bundy and Payne emerged from the courthouse on Wednesday, supporters applauded.

Carol Bundy, Clivens wife, said the judge gave us hope.

Wearing his cowboy hat and surrounded by a crush of cameras and well-wishers, Ammon Bundy said even if the government decided to retry the case, he felt confident.

I do not believe there is a jury in this country that will convict us, he said. The truth is on our side.

david.montero@latimes.com

Twitter: @davemontero

UPDATES:

3:40 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details, including the judge announcing she will also rule on whether it would be a mistrial with prejudice, which would effectively end the possibility of a new trial..

This article was originally published at 10:10 a.m.
If your bliss is ignorance, this is a great time to be alive in the U.S. Its always been easy to shut out the facts, especially when they dont confirm your deeply held views on contentious issues. But wouldnt it be even easier if there were no facts at all?

Thats where the Trump administration comes in.

The president, with the help of Republican leaders in Congress, has endeavored not only to encourage ignorance, but also to ensure it through budget cuts, personnel decisions and policy changes. The federal government is doing its best to limit the information we have about this country, the people who inhabit it and the forces that are shaping it.

Unfortunately for bliss-seekers, the Constitution mandates a decennial census, which prevents the government from operating in complete ignorance of its population. Luckily, though, the Constitution also grants Congress the power to carry out the census in such manner as they shall by law direct. The manner that this Congress has selected appears to be on a shoestring. The Census Bureau has complained that it doesnt have the funds to properly plan for 2020, which will be the first-ever census conducted primarily online  a huge undertaking. And its working with only an interim leader because its director, who departed in May, has not been replaced.

Advertisement

What you dont study cant kill you, right?

Were not going to prioritize the collection of accurate information about our country? Information that determines how many representatives each state gets and how billions of dollars in federal funds are distributed? That sure sounds bad  but only if you fail to consider how stressful it is to make decisions based on actual figures about who lives in the United States and where. Starting with the facts might lead to some sort of government accountability. Its far more relaxing to begin from a position divorced from reality.

Since Trump took office, according to the Washington Post, several departments have changed some federal policies and how they collect government information about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. Recently, some career analysts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said they were encouraged not to use the phrases science-based or evidence-based in budget requests.

An anti-evidence sentiment is ascendant across the federal government. This summer the Office of Science and Technology Policy published a memo on its priorities for the coming year that failed to mention climate change. Civil servants with the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency who once focused on studying and mitigating the effects of climate change have been reassigned and sidelined. And, almost a year into his administration, Trump has yet to appoint a top science advisor. What you dont study cant kill you, right?

There will always be academics and researchers who stubbornly continue to collect facts. But they cant stop red-blooded Americans from claiming their right to live in ignorance: Privately funded research is easier to refute as biased. You cant make a strong case for renewable energy if you dont acknowledge evidence that our current energy sources are contributing to climate change. You cant address the specific health needs of a marginalized population if you refuse to consider data confirming that population exists. Ignorance is the perfect way to delicately sidestep complicated problems.

During the 2016 campaign, voters who agreed with the statement Thinking is not my idea of fun supported Trump by a 12-point margin. But the bliss gap may be closing. The headlines are so unrelentingly awful that its tempting to tune out, and many of us do. With each lapsed subscription and deactivated push-alert notification, a few more of us RSVP to the low-information party.

The more you ignore the challenges facing our country, the happier youll feel. Say goodbye to gloom-and-doom statistics about childhood asthma and rising sea levels! Bid farewell to sad figures about HIV transmission rates! Never feel angry about a tax bill again, because who knows how many low-income people live in the U.S. anyway? Just tuck your head down in the warm sand, take a deep breath, and thank the president for your sweet relief.

Ann Friedman is a contributing writer to Opinion.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook
Once, maybe long ago, maybe last week, as you sat and stewed in traffic on some petrified stretch of freeway, you looked up at an overpass and saw a homemade sign that read #TREASON, or SAVE DACA or WORST PRESIDENT EVER. And you wondered, who the heck put that up there? Heres where Patrick Randall takes a bow. Thats the pseudonym of the Southern California man who also calls himself the Freeway Blogger. [Its also a tweak on the name of the heroically doomed mental institution patient Randle Patrick McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. ]

Since the year 2000, with considerable time off during the Obama administration, Randall has managed to affix hundreds of his messages above freeways throughout California and beyond. He knows that you might not like what he has to say, or where he says it, but as far as hes concerned, hes a road warrior for the 1st Amendment.

Click here for the full archive of "Patt Morrison Asks" podcasts 

This mode of communication, putting up signs on freeways  how did you come up with the idea? Was your inspiration the medium, or the message?

Originally it was the message. Originally it was Bush v. Gore, the Bush v. Gore decision in 2000, which to me was essentially a stolen election. You knew there were no rules any more, and I could essentially speak out as loud as I wanted about this one.

Your first sign was what and where?

It was 1776-2000, R.I.P., and it was actually spray-painted on a mattress that I leaned up against a palm tree and then saw was still leaning there the next day, which struck me because at least 7,000 or 8,000 cars had passed by, any one of whom could have just pulled over, walked 20 feet and knocked the thing over.

And thats when I realized how it had stayed up: Everyone passed by thinking the next guy would take care of it. Once I had that little epiphany, I realized theres some power in this.

I read that law enforcement has to catch you doing this before it can do something to you. Is this an infraction? Is it a misdemeanor?

I believe its technically a misdemeanor, but the paradox is if I was ever taken to court, the 1st Amendment generally wins out over these things. The problem is, in order to put a sign [legally] on the freeway, you need to get permission  thats the rule. Once you get permission, its no longer free speech; its literally state-sanctioned speech.

So I operate kind of within that paradox. The process goes like this: I am a person walking with a piece of folded cardboard. I kneel for a moment and for about three or four seconds, Im a person putting up a sign.

Is that all it takes? Really?

You put the cardboard against the fence, you strap a bungee cord or two behind it, maybe a bit of duct tape on one of the corners, and then you walk away. So thats why Im able to do it as prolifically as I have.

You know, Ive been caught by police red-handed maybe 12 times. And each time it went like this: Did you put that sign there? Yes, I did. You mind taking it down? No sir, I dont. And thats the end of it. I even get to keep the sign. And they know perfectly well Im going to put it up down the street.

Do you have a schedule, or do you just wait until an idea and a phrase strike you?

After Bush v. Gore, I put up about six or seven signs. But then came the Iraq War. And once the  what would you call them?  the excuses for that war started to fall apart, is when I realized Ive got to start talking again.

And the phrase Nobody died when Clinton lied came to me after reading Joe Wilsons letter about the yellowcake uranium. [Former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IVs New York Times op-ed cast doubt on the Bush administrations claim that Iraq had bought yellowcake uranium for weapons purposes.] Because for about two years, we all heard about how Clinton lied and he lied and he lied about a very insignificant thing.

I want to see how many people I can reach with the least amount of energy expended on my side. Theres a certain amount of Zen to it.  Patrick Randall

Well, this is a war, and apparently Bush lied about that. I wrote a letter to the editor of the Los Angeles Times, the way one would, and it just said, editor, nobody died when Clinton lied. And when they didnt publish it, I said, OK, I know how to do this. Ill publish it myself.

And I started putting that phrase on signs all over the Southland, and then I got to watch it rise on Google. I got to watch it go from 17 hits to 100 to 1000 to 17,000, and then it came out on bumper stickers and t-shirts. And I thought, my God, I did it. I inserted a meme into society directly through the freeways.

Your range is California and the western United States?

I stick to big cities. Thats just where it works. When youre out in more rural areas people are not as trapped in their cars. In cities youve got an absolutely captive audience.

Well, you do have it down to a science. How big are the letters, and how big is the sign?

With long messages, obviously the letters have to be smaller. For example, I put one sign over the Santa Monica freeway recently that said, It appears that our president is working on behalf of Vladimir Putin. Discuss. Now, those letters were maybe eight to 10 inches tall, which is the minimum. But if you want a big, bold, graphic sign, I just put one up over the Hollywood freeway before coming here that said Deport Racists. And those letters can be two, three feet tall.

Its all done with a projector, and the cardboard is whitewashed, so just a thin coat of white paint on cardboard and its a perfect canvas for this sort of thing.

You have imitators. People have started doing this around the country. Is this flattering?

Well, yes. Its happening in woefully small numbers right now. But I believe that once people become more comfortable and, ironically, more frightened of whats happening with their country, then youve got to reach a certain level of mad, I guess.

It doesnt take much to talk yourself out of doing something that you dont get paid for, and that youve never done before. The baseline has to be that you have to think that it makes a difference. Ive put up hundreds of signs that just said Osama Bin Forgotten during the Iraq War.

And I dont know if that made a difference. But it made me feel good. It made me feel like I was doing something for my country. I am promoting this kind of free speech; I dont think theres anything quite like it. I can literally reach a half-million people for a nickel. And thats a fairly powerful medium.

What about the driver who agrees with your message but is ticked off at the distraction? Because he slows down for a fraction of a second; the woman behind him slows down for a fraction of a second.

And driver distraction would be the one charge that could be leveled against what I do. But so long as youre going to have jumbotron screens next to the 405 that are flashing and changing their message every 10 seconds, so long as youre going to have billboards, Im going to stick with what Im doing until you take those things down.

And what I do is practically sanctified by the 1st Amendment. The people who gave us the 1st Amendment did it for a reason, and it was precisely so people like me could do what Im doing.

Are you itching to go to court over this? It sounds like you are maybe spoiling for a 1st Amendment fight that you think you could win.

It would be like having the Chicago Seven in one guy! I dont think theyre ever going to take me to court over this.

Your politics  how do you characterize them?

Oh, just to the left of, say, Che Guevara!

Oh my! There must be, then, places where you parted company with the Obama administration, or the Clinton administration.

Oh no. Im a pragmatist. I went to sleep for the Obama years. I worked my little tail off during the Bush years and then, like a lot of us, we just let that [Obama] fellow take care of things.

We could go weeks without thinking about the president. It was wonderful. And it was a mistake on our part because he really did need our help, and I dont think its a mistake well be making again. At least I hope not.

Is President Trump almost too rich a target?

Certainly youve got to get the signs up quick, because hes going to do something else tomorrow, you know. I still have some SAVE DACA signs in my trunk that I didnt get up in time because DACA [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] got saved, temporarily.

Is this a solo undertaking?

I have literally thousands of volunteers. However, when you volunteer for something on the internet, thats just clicking a button, you know. In terms of actually picking up a paintbrush, maybe Ive got a dozen on the West Coast. A guy in Indianapolis just started in. Theres someone in Atlanta.

Frankly all Id need is about 25 guys working every day and I could change the political landscape of the country. If you want people in Chicago to think of Darfur, I can make that happen in an afternoon. I just drive to Chicago, paint Darfur 10 times, put them on 10 different freeways, and by the end of the day youll have a million people that you didnt have before thinking about Darfur.

One sign I saw was Were all wearing the blue dress now, meaning  ?

That was another experiment where, if the sign is cryptic enough, the person isnt going to get it until theyre at least a mile or two from where they saw it. And in that case, that was a polite way of saying that what Clinton did to the intern, Bush was doing to the country, if that makes any sense

Thats very delicately put.

The crown jewel of posting this kind of message has to be the Hollywood sign, which has had Hollyweed put there, and Hollyweird and Raffeysod, which nobody understands to this day. Caltech put up something years ago too. Do you have aspirations to the Hollywood sign?

No.

Why is that?

Because Im just going for numbers. I want to see how many people I can reach with the least amount of energy expended on my side. Theres a certain amount of Zen to it, where you want to get the greatest effect to the least amount of energy spent.

And the Hollywood sign, thats just  Ill leave that to other people.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook

MORE PATT MORRISON ASKS

Ken Burns on making his Vietnam War documentary: 'I was humiliated by what I didn't know'

Jimmy Webb on Auto-Tune, lying to keep John Lennon from being deported and how cocaine changed music

Caitlyn Jenner talks Trump, being a transgender Republican and missing Bruce
Wait  did the president really say, Mission Accomplished? By Marc Olson Some are recalling the last time a president declared Mission accomplished, in May 2003 when George W. Bush was talking about Iraq. (Stephen Jaffe / AFP/Getty Images) President Trump on Saturday morning thanked his allies in a tweet that declared the airstrikes on Syria perfectly executed, but he might have wished hed stopped there. Instead, he ended his message with the phrase, Mission Accomplished! Thats a line that might have a previous president shaking his head. On May 1, 2003, President George W. Bush declared an end to major combat in Iraq under a Mission Accomplished banner aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. That war, which began in March 2003, grew into a prolonged conflict that didnt end until 2011. In 2008, the White House said it had paid a price for the backdrop. A perfectly executed strike last night. Thank you to France and the United Kingdom for their wisdom and the power of their fine Military. Could not have had a better result. Mission Accomplished!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 14, 2018 Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Auditor says Pentagon is censoring key data on the war in Afghanistan By Shashank Bengali The Pentagon is blocking the release of data showing how much of Afghanistans territory lies outside government control, censoring a key metric used to gauge progress in the 16-year war, a watchdog agency said Tuesday. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, an auditing agency established by Congress, said in its latest report that the Pentagon instructed it not to release unclassified data on how many districts and people are controlled or influenced by insurgent groups. This is the first time SIGAR has been specifically instructed not to release information marked unclassified to the American taxpayer, the head of the agency, John F. Sopko, wrote in a letter. Sopko also said the U.S.-led military coalition, for the first time since 2009, classified information about the size and attrition rates of the Afghan security forces, important indicators of progress in building up army and police forces on which the U.S. already has spent $70 billion since 2002. The decision to withhold more information from congressional oversight and the public comes amid growing violence in Afghanistan and an intensifying combat mission involving a greater number of American troops. Following a series of bombings in Kabul that left at least 136 people dead in 10 days, President Trump signaled on Monday that he was focused on trying to win the conflict militarily, saying, We dont want to talk with the Taliban. But data released by SIGAR since 2015 have shown how the insurgents have gained ground against Afghan security forces. In its previous quarterly report, the watchdog said that only 57% of Afghanistans 407 districts were under Afghan government control or influence as of August 2017, the lowest level of control since it began tracking the statistic in December 2015. The steady decline in government control should cause even more concern about its disappearance from public disclosure and discussion, Sopko wrote. The watchdog also accused the Pentagon of overstating the impact of its efforts to combat drug cultivation and trafficking, among the Talibans main sources of revenue. The Pentagon touted airstrikes that destroyed 25 drug labs in November and December, saying it eliminated nearly $100 million of Taliban revenue. The labs being destroyed are cheap and easy to replace, SIGAR said. According to some estimates, they only take three or four days to replace. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Women journalists shunted to rear for Pences visit to Western Wall By Noga Tarnopolsky The view from the womens section. (Noga Tarnopolsky / Los Angeles Times) Vice-President Mike Pences 48-hour visit to Israel stumbled into a public storm Tuesday when female reporters covering his final stop at Jerusalems Western Wall were penned behind four rows of their male colleagues. White House officials told stunned journalists that the arrangement emanated from a request made by the Western Wall rabbi, Shmuel Rabinowitz, and followed Western Wall rules. Some women journalists said they could not recall such treatment in the past. In a statement to Israels Channel 10 news, the Western Wall Heritage Foundation said it was exactly as it was during the visit of the U.S. president to the Western Wall last May. Later in the day, in a statement to the newspaper Haaretz, the foundation blamed the United States embassy in Tel Aviv and Israeli security officials for the segregation, and announced they would reexamine the way they handle such events. Women who covered previous VIP visits said the Pence arrangements were significantly more onerous than previous visits, when male and female journalists were separated but not offered substantially different work conditions. LIVE coverage of our male colleagues granted access to cover VP at Western Wall as we are penned into #PenceFence pic.twitter.com/k3svkxfQsa  Noga Tarnopolsky (@NTarnopolsky) January 23, 2018 The arrangement reflected procedures at the Western Wall, Judaisms holiest site, where on regular days, men have access to two thirds of the area available for prayer. Tal Schneider, the diplomatic analyst for Globes, a financial newspaper, protested that the separation of men and women may be valid for the requirements of Orthodox prayer, but no one is praying here. We are here to work. I dont appreciate being restricted in my ability to work because I am a woman, she said. The discriminatory attitude towards women is infuriating and is unbefitting of a modern country. Yael Freidson, the Jerusalem affairs correspondent for Yediot Ahronot, Israels widest circulation newspaper, said she worried that her editors could choose male colleagues for the next assignment, knowing they would have better access. Before Pence arrived, journalists were herded onto a specially constructed platform in the middle of the Western Walls esplanade, with women guided to the right behind a white fence, and men, many carrying cameras, directed to the left, where they had more than double the space. Towards the end of the vice presidents 10-minute visit, male journalists were permitted into the VIP tent where he received a gift from Rabinowitz, while the women remained in their enclosure. None of the men publicly protested the treatment of their female colleagues. Israels Association of Women Journalists filed a formal complaint with Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, herself a woman. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Former Sheriff Joe Arpaio, after his pardon from Trump, says hell run for Senate in Arizona By Kurtis Lee (Mary Altaffer / Associated Press) (Mary Altaffer / Associated Press) Former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who last year was pardoned by President Trump in a case stemming from his enforcement tactics aimed at immigrants, announced Tuesday he will run for the open Senate seat in his home state. I am running for the U.S. Senate from the Great State of Arizona, for one unwavering reason: to support the agenda and policies of President Donald Trump in his mission to Make America Great Again, Arpaio, 85, said on Twitter. Hell enter a Republican primary for the seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Jeff Flake. Last summer, Trump pardoned Arpaio, who was convicted in July of criminal contempt for violating a federal court order to stop racially profiling Latinos. It was Arpaios roughly quarter-century as sheriff that gave him a national reputation for his tough treatment of people suspected of being in the country illegally. Repeated court rulings against his office for civil rights violations cost local taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. In the early 1990s, Arpaio directed construction of a tent city for immigration detainees, a measure he said was intended both to alleviate overcrowding and to underscore his aggressive enforcement measures. But it was open to the burning Arizona sun, and drew widespread criticism. After Trump entered the presidential race in July 2015, Arpaio invited him to Phoenix to talk about a crackdown on illegal immigration. He endorsed Trump just before the first votes in the Iowa caucuses in 2016 and frequently spoke out on behalf of Trumps campaign. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

President Trump ends controversial voter fraud commission By Kurtis Lee President Trump signed an executive order late Wednesday ending the voter fraud commission he launched last year as the panel faces a flurry of lawsuits and criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike. Trump signed the order disbanding the commission rather than engage in endless legal battles at taxpayer expense, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, created by executive order in May with the stated goal of restoring confidence and integrity in the electoral process, has faced a barrage of lawsuits in recent months over privacy concerns, as the commission sought personal data on voters across the country. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Congress returns to work with slimmer GOP majority to accomplish Trumps agenda By Lisa Mascaro Congress returns to work this week with unfinished business on spending, immigration and other crucial issues, but with an even narrower GOP majority that will make it tougher to move on President Trumps agenda. The House and Senate will convene Wednesday, swearing in the newly elected Democratic senator from Alabama, Doug Jones, and Minnesotas Tina Smith to replace a fellow Democrat, Sen. Al Franken, who is resigning as the latest high-profile public figure sidelined by allegations of sexual misconduct. The change gives Republicans only a one-seat margin in the Senate. Trump, fresh off passage of the GOP tax cuts bill, is pushing lawmakers to pivot quickly on his new year priorities of infrastructure investment and immigration, as well as his foreign policy agenda. But another legislative victory seems far off. Republicans have struggled to hold their majority together and Congress first must tackle critical stalled agenda items that leaders punted to 2018. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Trump threatens to cut off U.S. aid to Palestinians By Tracy Wilkinson President Trump on Tuesday angrily threatened to cut off U.S. aid to Palestinians as punishment for what he called their failure to show appreciation or respect to the United States. Writing on Twitter, the president compared the Palestinians to Pakistan, a nuclear-armed ally that abruptly drew his ire this week and a similar threat to drastically curtail aid. He accused the Palestinians of recalcitrance in what he described as their refusal to negotiate a peace deal with Israel. Palestinian officials have said they can no longer use Washington as a broker to restart peace talks with Israel following Trumps Dec. 6 decision to overturn decades of U.S. policy and recognize the disputed city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and ultimately to move the U.S. Embassy there. The Palestinians also claim part of Jerusalem as the capital of an eventual independent state. Until now, the United States and most of the world agreed the citys political status was a matter to settle in final peace talks. The United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly condemned any effort to recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital, and the Palestinian leadership said it would not meet with Vice President Mike Pence, who had planned a trip to the region. That trip is on hold. [W]e pay the Palestinians HUNDRED [sic] OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect, Trump wrote on Twitter. [W]ith the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them? In response to Trumps tweet, Hanan Ashrawi, a senior Palestinian official, issued a statement saying: Palestinian rights are not for sale. By recognizing Occupied Jerusalem as Israels capital Donald Trump has not only violated international law, but he has also singlehandedly destroyed the very foundations of peace and condoned Israels illegal annexation of the city. We will not be blackmailed, she said. President Trump has sabotaged our search for peace, freedom and justice. Now he dares to blame the Palestinians for the consequences of his own irresponsible actions! The United States does not pay large amounts of money directly to the Palestinian Authority, the government that rules over parts of the Palestinian West Bank. Instead, most money goes to the U.N., refugee or aid agencies and even Israel to pay for roads, welfare, schools, security and other Palestinian projects. The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, said Tuesday that the administration was planning to cut off one of those organizations, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, until the Palestinians return to the negotiating table. UNRWA, which receives around $300 million annually from the U.S., for years has been the lifeline to hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It was not clear if Haley was threatening to cut all U.S. support for the agency. Special correspondent Noga Tarnopolsky in Jerusalem contributed to this report. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

The White House stops short of calling for government overthrow in Iran By Brian Bennett President Trump wants Iran to give its citizens basic human rights and stop being a state sponsor of terror, his top spokeswoman said, but the White House stopped short of calling for a change of government in Tehran. If they want to do that through current leadership, if thats possible, OK, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters. Sanders praised the organic popular uprising, which she said the widespread protests in Iran represented. The protests grew out of years of years of mismanagement, corruption, and foreign adventurism have eroded the Iranian peoples trust in their leaders, she said. Earlier Tuesday, Trump called Irans government brutal and corrupt and wrote in a tweet: The people have little food, big inflation and no human rights. The U.S. is watching! Trump also blamed President Obama for foolishly giving Iran money that he said went to fund terrorism. The money he referred to were funds belonging to Iran that had been frozen by the U.S. and were released as part of the deal in 2015, which blocked Irans development of nuclear weapons. The people of Iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime. All of the money that President Obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their pockets. The people have little food, big inflation and no human rights. The U.S. is watching!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Retirement of Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch clears the way for a Mitt Romney revival By David Lauter The retirement of Utahs senior senator, Orrin G. Hatch, opens the way for a widely expected Senate bid by Mitt Romney, the Republicans 2012 presidential nominee and a frequent critic of President Trump. Although Romney previously served for two terms as governor of Massachusetts (and was raised in Michigan, where his father was governor and his mother ran for the Senate), he comes from a prominent Mormon family with strong ties to Utah. He also served as chief executive of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. Hes viewed as a strong candidate for the Senate seat. Romneys criticisms of Trump, however, could prompt a challenge in a Republican primary. Trump was widely reported to have tried to convince Hatch to run for a seventh term, in part to head off a Romney candidacy. Last month, Romney and Trump were on opposite sides of one of the biggest political fights of the fall  the battle over the Senate seat from Alabama. The president strongly supported Roy Moore, the Republican candidate who had been accused of sexual misconduct by several women. Romney called Moore a stain on the GOP. Roy Moore in the US Senate would be a stain on the GOP and on the nation. Leigh Corfman and other victims are courageous heroes. No vote, no majority is worth losing our honor, our integrity.  Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) December 4, 2017 On Tuesday, Romney tweeted praise for Hatch, but did not immediately reveal his own plans. I join the people of Utah in thanking my friend, Senator Orrin Hatch for his more than forty years of service to our great state and nation. Read my full statement: https://t.co/YwjUpjez5y  Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) January 2, 2018 Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

U.S. calls on Iran to unblock social media sites amid protests By The Associated Press The Trump administration is calling on Irans government to stop blocking Instagram and other popular social media sites as Iranians are demonstrating in the streets. Undersecretary of State Steve Goldstein says the U.S. wants Iran to open these sites. He says Instagram, Telegram and other platforms are legitimate avenues for communication. The United States is encouraging Iranians to use virtual private networks, known as VPNs. Those services create encrypted links between computers and can be used to access blocked websites. Goldstein says the U.S. is still communicating with Iranians in Persian through State Department accounts on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms. He says the U.S. wants to encourage the protesters to continue to fight for whats right. Goldstein says the U.S. has an obligation not to stand by. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Trump blasts Democrats in advance of immigration meeting By Brian Bennett The day before a meeting of administration officials and congressional leaders on outstanding legislative business, President Trump accused Democrats of doing nothing to hammer out an immigration deal to protect from deportation people brought to the country illegally as children. Democrats are doing nothing for DACA  just interested in politics, Trump wrote in a Tweet on Tuesday morning, referring to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program by its acronym. Democrats are doing nothing for DACA - just interested in politics. DACA activists and Hispanics will go hard against Dems, will start falling in love with Republicans and their President! We are about RESULTS.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018 House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer along with the Republican leaders, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, are scheduled to meet on Wednesday at the Capitol with Trumps legislative director, Marc Short, and budget director, Mick Mulvaney. The White House on Tuesday said the meeting is to discuss separate spending caps on military and domestic programs. Yet the Democrats insist the discussion also must include a variety of legislative issues that Trump and Congress punted into the new year  on immigration, the budget, healthcare and more. That stance reflects Democrats leverage: Republicans need Democratic votes to pass a government-funding bill and avert a federal shutdown when the current funding expires Jan. 19. Democrats especially want separate legislation replacing the Obama-era DACA program; Trump in September ordered a phase-out of the program, beginning March 6, and called on Congress to act before then on an alternative way to address the plight of the group. However, Trump has demanded that any alternative must be part of a package including both money for a border wall and immigration limits. Democrats are opposed. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Pakistan hits back after Trump accuses its leaders of lies and deceit By Aoun Sahi Pakistan lashed out Monday after President Trump accused its leaders of lies and deceit and suggested the United States would withdraw financial assistance to the nuclear-armed nation it once saw as a key ally against terrorism. U.S. Ambassador David Hale was summoned to the Foreign Ministry to discuss the presidents statement, U.S. Embassy spokesman Richard Snelsire said. Pakistan lodged a strongly worded protest, according to two foreign office officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Pakistans prime minister, Shahid Abbasi, called a Cabinet meeting for Tuesday and a meeting of the National Security Committee on Wednesday to discuss Trumps New Years Day tweet. It was the presidents latest broadside against Pakistan after a speech in August in which he demanded its leaders crack down on the safe havens enjoyed by Taliban militants fighting U.S.-backed forces in neighboring Afghanistan. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Trump again cheers on Iran protests By Laura King President Trump expressed renewed support Sunday for protesters in Iran, declaring that people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism. In a tweet from his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, the president said the nationwide economic protests that began on Thursday  and have taken on wider political overtones as they have grown in size --- were a signal that Iranians will not take it any longer. Big protests in Iran. The people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism. Looks like they will not take it any longer. The USA is watching very closely for human rights violations!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2017 The presidents earlier hailing of the protests drew condemnation from Irans government. A Foreign Ministry spokesman called his comments deceitful and opportunistic. Following an overnight report of the first two fatalities stemming from the protests, Trump raised some eyebrows by expressing concern over human rights violations as authorities move to crack down on the demonstrations. During his first year in office, the president has shown scant inclination to press foreign governments to respect the fundamental rights of their citizens. The USA is watching closely for human rights violations! Trump said in his tweet Sunday. Some domestic critics have pointed to the presidents inclusion of Iranian nationals in his travel ban, suggesting he was more interested in bashing the Tehran government than in supporting freedom of speech in Iran. Even some of the presidents allies said that supporting the protesters on social media did not amount to making policy. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he had urged Trump to give a national address laying out his Iran strategy. President Trump is tweeting very sympathetically to the Iranian people, Graham said on CBS Face the Nation. But you just cant tweet here. You have to lay out a plan. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Australian diplomats tip a factor in FBIs Russia inquiry By Associated Press Australian High Commissioner Alexander Downer. (Alastair Grant / Associated Press) An Australian diplomats tip appears to have helped persuade the FBI to investigate Russian meddling in the U.S. election and possible coordination with the Trump campaign, the New York Times reported Saturday. Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos told the diplomat, Alexander Downer, during a meeting in London in May 2016 that Russia had thousands of emails that would embarrass Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, the report said. Downer, a former foreign minister, is Australias top diplomat in Britain. Australia passed the information on to the FBI after the Democratic emails were leaked, according to the Times, which cited four current and former U.S. and foreign officials with direct knowledge of the Australians role. The hacking and the revelation that a member of the Trump campaign may have had inside information about it were driving factors that led the FBI to open an investigation in July 2016, the newspaper said. White House lawyer Ty Cobb declined to comment, saying in a statement that the administration is continuing to cooperate with the investigation now led by special counsel Robert Mueller to help complete their inquiry expeditiously. Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and is a cooperating witness. Court documents unsealed two months ago show he met in April 2016 with Joseph Mifsud, a professor in London who told him about Russias cache of emails. This was before the Democratic National Committee became aware of the scope of the intrusion into its email systems by hackers later linked to the Russian government. The Times said Papadopoulos shared this information with Downer, but it was unclear whether he also shared it with anyone in the Trump campaign. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Trump offers fresh support for protesters in Iran as demonstrations continue By Lisa Mascaro Oppressive regimes cannot endure forever, and the day will come when the Iranian people will face a choice. The world is watching! pic.twitter.com/kvv1uAqcZ9  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 30, 2017 President Trump again offered support Saturday for anti-government protesters in Iran, where a third day of demonstrations, the largest in years, spilled across the country amid fears of a crackdown. Oppressive regimes cannot endure forever, and the day will come when the Iranian people will face a choice. The world is watching! Trump wrote on Twitter. Trump took a break from playing golf near his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida to tweet clips from his speech to the United Nations General Assembly in September when he called for Iranian democratic reforms. Iranian authorities warned of potential violence as the street demonstrations, which began over economic conditions, swelled into frustrations with the theocratic rule of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Trump has maintained a hawkish stance toward Iran, sharply criticizing the landmark nuclear disarmament accord that Tehran reached with then-President Obama and five other nations in 2015. In October, Trump declined to certify the accord to Congress although the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency says Iran is complying with it. Several conservative GOP senators signaled their support for Trumps position and backed the protesters in Iran. Others in Congress did not immediately respond, however, amid conflicting reports over who had organized the demonstrations. Even after the billions in sanctions relief they secured through the nuclear deal, the ayatollahs still cant provide for the basic needs of their own people, said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a Trump ally and opponent of the nuclear deal. We should support the Iranian people who are willing to risk their lives to speak out against it, he added. Trump initially tweeted his support on Friday night. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued a statement at that time as protests spread. There are many reports of peaceful protests by Iranian citizens fed up with the regimes corruption and its squandering of the nations wealth to fund terrorism abroad, Sanders said. The Iranian government should respect their peoples rights, including their right to express themselves. The world is watching. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

When it comes to U.S.-Russia relations, it takes two to tango, Kremlin says By Sabra Ayres The deteriorating relationship between the United States and Russia is one of the biggest disappointments of 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putins spokesman told reporters today. Russia would like to rebuild relations between the two adversaries, but it takes two to tango, Dmitry Peskov said today during a conference call with the press. We want and are looking for good mutually beneficial relations based on mutual respect, mutual trust with all countries, primarily with European ones, including the United States, but it is necessary to dance tango, as they say. Peskov blamed the ongoing anti-Russian Russophobia in Washington for playing a major role in blocking the two countries from moving forward in their relationship. U.S. investigations into the Trump presidential campaigns alleged collusion with the Kremlin during the 2016 U.S. election and accusations that the Kremlin tried to interfere with the electoral process continue to cast a dark shadow over the relationship, he said. Peskov told reporters that Moscow was perplexed by the investigations. The Kremlin has continued to deny having any involvement with the Trump campaign or doing anything to interfere with the American election. This is definitely a U.S. domestic affair, but in this case it naturally hurts our bilateral relations, which is regrettable, Peskov said. Relations between the U.S. and Russia have been categorized as the worst theyve been since the end of the Cold War. This year, Washington and Moscow have engaged in a diplomatic tit-for-tat in which both sides have been forced to reduce diplomatic staff, embassy properties have been repossessed by the hosting countries and visa services have been interrupted. The U.S. diplomatic mission to Russia shrank from 1,200 personnel, including some Russian local staff, to just over 450 across all its three consulates and embassy in Moscow. In the U.S., Russia was forced to vacate its San Francisco consulate. Moscow has also blamed anti-Russian sentiments on the recent decision by the International Olympic Committee to ban Russian teams from wearing their tricolor uniforms or flags during the upcoming games in South Korea. The international body accused some of the Russian national teams of doping. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

U.S. and Turkey resume reciprocal issuing of visas but frictions remain By Tracy Wilkinson The United States and Turkey began issuing reciprocal visas again on Thursday, more than two months after normal visa service was suspended in a dispute over the arrest of two U.S. diplomatic staffers in Istanbul  the latest friction between the two nominal allies. The State Department said it was lifting the visa restrictions after it was assured by the Turkish government that U.S. Embassy employees would not be arrested when performing their official duties. But the Turkish Embassy in Washington denied assurances were offered concerning the ongoing judicial processes, and suggested that the arrests were legal and justified. It is inappropriate to misinform the Turkish and American public that such assurances were provided, the embassy said in a statement. The dispute has aggravated the already tense relationship between the United States and Turkey, which is a member of the NATO military alliance. The two countries have clashed over U.S. support for Kurdish rebels in Syria and over Turkeys demands that the U.S. extradite a Turkish cleric who lives in rural Pennsylvania. After a failed coup attempt killed more than 250 people in July 2016, Turkeys autocratic president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, launched a harsh crackdown on his political opponents, arresting or firing tens of thousands of teachers, police, journalists, military officers and others. Erdogan accused Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic educator and former political ally, of orchestrating the coup. Gulen, who has lived in a compound in the Pocono Mountains, has denied any involvement. The Justice Department has so far denied Turkeys repeated demands to extradite Gulen. Erdogan raised the issue again at the White House in May, but his visit ended in a public relations disaster when his security guards brutally beat peaceful protesters outside the Turkish ambassadors residence. Two Turkish employees of the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul were arrested this fall for alleged ties to the 2016 coup attempt. The U.S. responded by suspending most visa services at its missions in Turkey in October. The Turkish government reciprocated in November. State Department officials said they have repeatedly demanded more information about any formal charges against the two employees. They reiterated on Thursday that serious concerns about the allegations remained. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Trump: China caught RED HANDED allowing oil to reach North Korea By Brian Bennett (Andrew Harnik / Associated Press) President Trump isnt taking a holiday vacation from Twitter. In one of three tweets early on Thursday from his West Palm Beach golf club, he charged that China was caught RED HANDED allowing oil shipments to reach North Korean ports. Pronouncing himself very disappointed, Trump in effect was acknowledging the failure of his months-long effort to convince China to clamp down further on energy shipments going to the isolated country, which relies heavily on Beijing, as a way to pressure North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program. Caught RED HANDED - very disappointed that China is allowing oil to go into North Korea. There will never be a friendly solution to the North Korea problem if this continues to happen!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 28, 2017 Trumps tweet came after a South Korean newspaper published what it said were U.S. spy satellite images of Chinese ships selling oil to North Korean ships. The United Nations Security Council, which includes China, has voted repeatedly to restrict fuel shipments to North Korea. Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping in November to cut off North Koreas oil supply entirely, the American ambassador to the U.N., Nikki R. Haley, said at the time. It is unclear if Trumps admonishment of China was based on news reports or classified information he received from U.S. intelligence officials. There was no daily intelligence briefing on Trumps public schedule Thursday. He is expected to return to Washington next week after spending the Christmas holiday and New Years Eve at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

President Trump again falsely claims hes signed more bills than any president By Brian Bennett President Trump visits a firehouse in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Wednesday. (Nicholas Kamm / AFP) After another morning at his Florida golf club, President Trump visited firefighters and paramedics at a West Palm Beach firehouse and praised his own performance as president, including with a false boast. Trump touted his administrations work to roll back government regulations and cut taxes and claimed credit for the stock market hitting record highs. He also said hes signed more bills into law than any other president, which isnt true. We have signed more legislation than anybody, Trump said, standing in front of a rescue vehicle inside the fire station. We have more legislation passed, including  the record was Harry Truman a long time ago, and we broke that record, so we got a lot done, Trump said. An analysis by GovTrack, a website that tracks bills in Congress, shows that Trump has signed the fewest bills into law at this point than any president in more than 60 years, back to Dwight D. Eisenhower. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Trump administration urges Russia to reinstate monitors in Ukraine, lower violence By Tracy Wilkinson Sergei Lavrov (AFP/Getty Images) Secretary of State Rex Tillerson asked Russia on Wednesday to reinstate its military personnel at a monitoring station in eastern Ukraine intended to quell escalating bloodshed. In a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, Tillerson also urged Russia to lower the level of violence and underscored the Trump administrations concern over increased fighting in Ukraine, the State Department said in a statement. Russia last week withdrew its monitors from the Joint Center on Coordination and Control, which is tasked with verifying a much-violated ceasefire between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists. Moscow cited what it called restrictions and provocations from Ukrainian authorities that made it impossible for the observers to do their jobs. Washington has accused the pro-Russia forces of being responsible for many of the truce violations. Late last week, the State Department also announced plans to provide Ukraine with lethal defensive weapons, including Javelin anti-tank missiles, a decision that angered Moscow. The State Department statement did not say whether the weapons deal came up in Tillersons conversation with Lavrov. The two also discussed North Korea, its destabilizing nuclear program and the need for a diplomatic solution to achieve a denuclearized Korean peninsula, the statement said. Russia has offered to serve as a mediator between Washington and Pyongyang, but direct talks do not seem likely at this point. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

U.S. sanctions two more North Korean officials for ballistic missile program By Tracy Wilkinson The Trump administration announced sanctions Tuesday against two more North Korean officials for their alleged role in Pyongyangs expanding ballistic missiles program. The Treasury Department is targeting leaders of North Koreas ballistic missile programs, as part of our maximum pressure campaign to isolate [North Korea] and achieve a fully denuclearized Korean Peninsula, Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said in a statement. The nuclear-armed country tested an intercontinental ballistic missile last month that U.S. officials said appeared capable of reaching New York or Washington, a significant milestone in the countrys growing arsenal. The Treasury Department identified the two North Korean officials as Kim Jong Sik, who reportedly is a key figure in the ballistic missile program and led efforts to switch missiles from liquid to solid fuel (which makes them easier to hide before launch), and Ri Pyong Chol, who was reported to be a key official in the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles. The sanctions block banks, companies and individuals from doing any business with the targeted officials. It also allows the U.S. government to freeze any American assets owned by the officials. On Friday, the United Nations Security Council unanimously voted to add more sanctions on North Korea, its third round this year. The new measures order North Koreans working abroad to return home within two years, and ban nearly 90% of refined petroleum exports to the country. In a statement published Sunday by North Koreas state-run KCNA news agency, the foreign ministry denounced the new U.N. sanctions as an act of war. We define this sanctions resolution rigged up by the US and its followers as a grave infringement upon the sovereignty of our Republic, as an act of war violating peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula and the region and categorically reject the resolution, it said. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Salt Lake Tribune calls on Sen. Orrin Hatch to not seek reelection in scathing editorial Perhaps the most significant move of Hatchs career is the one that should, if there is any justice, end it. The last time the senator was up for reelection, in 2012, he promised that it would be his last campaign. That was enough for many likely successors, of both parties, to stand down, to let the elder statesman have his victory tour and to prepare to run for an open seat in 2018. Clearly, it was a lie. Read the editorial>> Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Christmas Eve, Trump on Twitter: New attacks on FBI official, decrying Fake News By Laura King President Trump launched a Christmas Eve attack on FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, whom he accuses of favoritism toward his former opponent, Hillary Clinton, and also returned to a longtime favored theme, excoriating the news media for failing to sufficiently extol his accomplishments. .@FoxNews-FBIs Andrew McCabe, in addition to his wife getting all of this money from M (Clinton Puppet), he was using, allegedly, his FBI Official Email Account to promote her campaign. You obviously cannot do this. These were the people who were investigating Hillary Clinton.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 24, 2017 Thank you President TRUMP!! pic.twitter.com/LKdkT0FL99  oregon4TRUMP (@shawgerald4) December 23, 2017 The Fake News refuses to talk about how Big and how Strong our BASE is. They show Fake Polls just like they report Fake News. Despite only negative reporting, we are doing well - nobody is going to beat us. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 24, 2017 Trump, who is spending the holidays at his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, also sent Christmas greetings to deployed military personnel, praising them for success in the fight against terrorism. The early-morning swipe at McCabe followed a flurry of tweets attacking the deputy FBI chief on Saturday. McCabe, who has been a lightning rod for Republican attacks on the FBI, is expected to retire early in the new year. How can FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, the man in charge, along with leakin James Comey, of the Phony Hillary Clinton investigation (including her 33,000 illegally deleted emails) be given $700,000 for wifes campaign by Clinton Puppets during investigation?  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2017 FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is racing the clock to retire with full benefits. 90 days to go?!!!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2017 Critics say the president and his allies are in the midst of a systematic campaign to denigrate the FBI and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is looking into potential collusion by the Trump campaign in Russias attempts to sway the 2016 presidential election. In a pair of statements on Twitter, Trump again expressed scorn regarding news coverage of his administration. For months, the president has been particularly critical of reports regarding the Russia investigation and more recently has repeatedly complained he does not receive enough credit for a booming stock market. In his video conference message to troops overseas, the president made apparent reference to the fight against the militants of Islamic State, who over the last year have lost most of the territory they previously controlled in Iraq and Syria, including former strongholds in Mosul and Raqqah. Were winning, Trump told military personnel deployed in Qatar, Kuwait, Guantanamo Bay and aboard the guided missile destroyer Sampson. Reporters traveling with the president heard his address, but were ushered from the room before he took questions from the troops. The president often breaks with longtime custom and makes politically charged statements at events in which he addresses military personnel. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Trumps Wells Fargo tweet cited in court hearing as reason to remove Mulvaney as CFPB acting chief By Jim Puzzanghera A recent tweet by President Trump about possible penalties against Wells Fargo & Co. was cited during a court hearing Friday as a reason for removing White House official Mick Mulvaney as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The attorney for Leandra English  the bureaus deputy director who has said she is the rightful acting head  said Trumps tweet showed he was trying to exercise improper influence over the independent consumer watchdog. I think that [tweet] shows you this isnt just some hypothetical concern, the attorney, Deepak Gupta, told Judge Timothy J. Kelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia during a nearly two-hour hearing. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Trump administration recognizes Honduran presidents reelection By Tracy Wilkinson The Trump administration on Friday formally recognized the incumbent president of Honduras, conservative Juan Orlando Hernandez, as the winner of a bitterly contested presidential election held last month. In a statement, the State Department congratulated Hernandez while also acknowledging widespread irregularities in the Nov. 26 vote and calling for a robust national dialogue to overcome political discord in the Central American country, a close ally of the administration. The Organization of American States, which monitored the election, said it was so flawed that only a new round of voting could establish a fair and transparent outcome. But the U.S. rejected that determination. Uproar over the contest led to demonstrations in Honduras that left numerous civilians dead after state security forces opened fire on the protests. Activists and others voiced criticism Friday of the administrations decision. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), a leading Democratic voice on Central American issues, said he was angry and deeply disturbed by the State Department decision. The recent elections in Honduras were deeply flawed, chaotic and marred by numerous irregularities, McGovern said. U.S.-Honduran cooperation on matters such as drug-trafficking, violence and immigration requires a credible, legitimate government that has the support of its people, in Honduras, McGovern said. Hernandezs victory also was controversial because it was the first time a sitting president was allowed to run for re-election, barred until now by the Honduran Constitution. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Senate Leader Mitch McConnell says fixing DACA is no emergency until March By Lisa Mascaro Amanda Bayer, left with banner, and Marisol Maqueda, right, join a rally in support of so-called Dreamers outside the White House. (Manuel Balce Ceneta / Associated Press) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Friday hes committed to allowing a vote on a bill for so-called Dreamers in January, but sees no rush to resolve the deportation threat posed by President Trumps decision to end a program protecting immigrants brought to the country illegally as children. There isnt that much of an emergency there, he said. There is no emergency until March. Well keep talking about it. Trump called for phasing out by March the Obama-era program that allows the young immigrants, many of them longtime residents, to get two-year deferrals of any deportation threat so they can legally attend school or work. Beneficiaries must be vetted for security purposes. Trump told Congress to come up with a legislative alternative for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which President Obama created by executive order, to protect those currently eligible. A bipartisan Senate group has been working with the White House, but talks stalled this week amid administration demands for curbs on legal immigration flows in exchange for protecting the DACA recipients. Meanwhile, Dreamers and immigrant advocates stormed the Capitol in recent days pressing for the help promised by Trump and Democratic congressional leaders that failed to materialize in the years final legislation. Advocacy groups say more than 120 immigrants each day are falling out of compliance without DACA renewals, putting them at risk of deportation. The number that is projected to swell to more than 1,000 a day in March. Weve been gridlocked on this issue for years, McConnell said. We want to have a signature. We dont just want to spin our wheels and have nothing to show for it. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

President Trump signs tax bill By Noah Bierman (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) President Trump on Friday morning signed a sweeping tax-cut measure  his first major legislative achievement  before heading off for a Christmas vacation at his Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Fla. The president also privately signed a short-term spending bill to fund government operations through Jan. 19. Congress approved it Thursday, after Republican leaders were unable to bridge differences in their own party as well as with Democrats to get agreement on funding for the full fiscal year. The stopgap bill punts fights on immigration and other issues to January. The tax bill, approved earlier this week in Congress in largely party-line votes, slashes corporate tax rates from 35% to 21% and also includes a host of other provisions for individuals, all intended to boost the economy. Critics point to nonpartisan analyses showing that the package, including changes greatly reducing the number of estates subject to taxes, steers the bulk of tax benefits to top earners and the wealthy, including Trump, despite his repeated claims that hell take a hit. Trump signed the bill quietly Friday, but held a public ceremony with Republican lawmakers on Wednesday after the bills passage; he also tweeted about the measure extensively. He is expected to hold another public ceremony after the New Years holiday. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Pelosi urges Ryan to prevent Republicans from curtailing Houses Russia probe By Chris Megerian House Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin greets House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to Speaker Paul D. Ryan on Friday urging him to ensure the Houses investigation into Russian interference with last years presidential campaign is not cut short. The American people deserve a comprehensive and fair investigation into Russias attacks, wrote Pelosi, of San Francisco, in her letter. Political haste must not cut short valid investigatory threads. The House Intelligence Committee has been probing the issue since March 1, and Democrats have repeatedly warned that Republicans are trying to wrap up its work prematurely. Pelosi said Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, should take urgent action to ensure this investigation can continue. AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Ryan, said Pelosi simply wants to see this investigation go on forever in order to suit her political agenda. Whether it concludes next month, next year, or in three years, she will say it is too soon, Strong said in a statement. She added, The investigation will conclude when the committee has reached a conclusion. The committees work is led by Rep. K. Michael Conaway (R-Texas). His spokeswoman, Emily Hytha, said he remains committed to conducting this investigation as thoroughly and expeditiously as possible. With more interviews scheduled, the investigation shows signs of extending into next year, Bloomberg reported Friday. BREAKING: Steve Bannon and former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski have been sent letters requesting they testify to House Intel panel in early January, per @HouseInSession  Laura Litvan (@LauraLitvan) December 22, 2017 Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Congress votes to avert government shutdown, but Senate fails to pass disaster aid package By Lisa Mascaro ( (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)) Congress approved a temporary spending bill to prevent a government shutdown, but failed to complete work on an $81-billion disaster aid package to help California, Gulf Coast states and Puerto Rico recover from wildfires and hurricanes, as lawmakers scrambled Thursday to wrap up business before a Christmas break. The stopgap measure continues federal operations for a few more weeks, setting up another deadline for Jan. 19. But it left undone a long list of priorities that members of both parties had hoped to finish this year. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Wells Fargo says raises were not linked to tax bill passage  then backtracks By James Rufus Koren Wells Fargo & Co.s move to raise its minimum pay to $15 an hour was part of a long-term plan and not related to the passage of the Republican tax overhaul as the company implied, said a bank spokesman, who later backtracked and stated the hikes were a result of the bills approval. The bank was among several large corporations to publicly announce pay raises or new investments immediately following the final House vote in an apparent public relations offensive to boost the popularity of the tax bill The San Francisco bank had implied the direct linkage to the tax legislation in a news release Wednesday, shortly after Congress passed the tax overhaul, which slashes the corporate tax rate to 21% from 35% starting Jan. 1. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Obamacare signups beat expectations, despite Trump administrations opposition By Noam N. Levey President Trump with Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) Despite Trump administration efforts to discourage people from signing up, the number of people enrolling for Affordable Care Act coverage nearly hit last years level, the government revealed Thursday. Exchange open enrollment for 2018 coverage ended w/ approx 8.8M people enrolling in coverage. Great job to the @CMSGov team for the work you did to make this the smoothest experience for consumers to date. We take pride in providing great customer service.  Administrator Seema Verma (@SeemaCMS) December 21, 2017 The 8.8 million people who enrolled in the 36 states that use the federal governments healthcare.gov system significantly exceeded most forecasts. The Trump administration stopped most outreach and other efforts this year aimed at getting people to sign up. The president also repeatedly said publicly that Obamacare was dead. Open enrollment continues in California and several other states that run their own healthcare marketplaces. The figures from the federal government indicate that when those states wrap up for the year, the number of people covered by Obamacare will be nearly the same as in 2017. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly condemns U.S. policy change on Jerusalem despite Trumps threats By Tracy Wilkinson The United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly voted Thursday to condemn President Trumps decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, despite Trumps threats to punish countries that voted against the U.S. position. The resolution passed in an emergency session at U.N. headquarters in New York with 128 in favor, nine opposed and 35 abstentions. The nonbinding resolution demands that Washington rescind its declaration, which included a plan to transfer the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in coming years. The resolution value is mostly symbolic, showing how isolated the U.S. is in the move. Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., warned this week that she would be taking names of countries that opposed the U.S., and Trump on Wednesday suggested he might cut U.S. aid to governments that voted in favor of the resolution. Let them vote against us, Trump said. Well save a lot. We dont care. The U.S. recognition of Jerusalem reversed decades of international consensus on the political status of the divided city. Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as their capital in a future independent state. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said the U.N. was facing an unprecedented test and that history would remember those who stand by what is right. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Democrats defend Robert Mueller, saying Russia investigation must be allowed to continue By Chris Megerian Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) speaking during a committee hearing earlier this year. (Molly Riley / Associated Press) House Democrats said they will fight Republican attempts to discredit and undermine the work of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is investigating whether President Trumps associates helped Russian meddling in last years election. There is an organized effort by Republicans, in concert with Fox News, to spin a false narrative and conjure up outrageous scenarios to accuse special counsel Mueller of being biased, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) said. Trump has said he has no plan to fire Mueller, but Democrats are alarmed by escalating criticism of the special counsels work. Why is the president afraid of the facts and the truth? Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) said. He added, No matter what the facts are, were satisfied if the investigation is complete. A letter of support signed by 171 Democratic members of Congress will be sent to Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller, a former FBI director, and oversees his investigation. Rosenstein has defended Mueller in the face of Republican criticisms. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

U.S. blacklists Myanmar army general who it says oversaw atrocities against Rohingya Muslims By Shashank Bengali The Trump administration on Thursday blacklisted a Myanmar army general who it said oversaw human rights abuses committed by security forces against Rohingya Muslims. Imposing economic sanctions against the general, Maung Maung Soe, was the toughest action the United States has taken in response to a brutal army offensive that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has described as ethnic cleansing. In a statement, the Treasury Department said it had examined credible evidence of Maung Maung Soes activities, including allegations against Burmese security forces of extrajudicial killings, sexual violence and arbitrary arrest as well as the widespread burning of villages. The Rohingya are an ethnic and religious minority of about 1 million people in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, also known as Burma. The United Nations says that more than 640,000 Rohingya have fled the country since August, after the army launched clearance operations in response to attacks carried out by a Rohingya insurgent group against security forces. Rohingya refugees in crowded camps in neighboring Bangladesh have described horrific violence by Myanmar forces, including mass rapes, summary executions and children being burned alive. The aid group Doctors Without Borders estimates that 6,700 people were killed in the first month of the operation. Myanmar authorities deny committing atrocities and say that only a few hundred fighters were killed. Maung Maung Soe was chief of the armys Western Command, which carried out the offensive. He was transferred from his position last month, according to news reports. He was one of 13 individuals worldwide who were blacklisted Thursday under a new U.S. law that gives the Treasury Department authority to target officials for human rights abuses and corruption. Others included former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh; Gulnara Karimova, daughter of the late Uzbekistan dictator Islam Karimov; and Artem Chaika, son of Russias prosecutor-general. Today, the United States is taking a strong stand against human rights abuse and corruption globally by shutting these bad actors out of the U.S. financial system, said Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin. The sanctions freeze any assets Maung Maung Soe holds in the United States and bars Americans from doing business with him. It is also a sign of how quickly U.S. relations with Myanmar have soured. Under the Obama administration, the United States forged closer ties with the former military dictatorship and eased economic and political sanctions as the country began implementing democratic reforms. But Myanmar, which does not regard the Rohingya as citizens, has lashed out at the international community over the current crisis. It has jailed journalists, blocked access to affected areas in the western state of Rakhine and this week barred a U.N. human rights investigator from entering the country. Rohingya activists said the U.S. action would not have much effect on a country that survived under economic sanctions for years. It is the whole military institution that has a policy to persecute these people, said Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya activist and blogger in Germany. According to the U.S.s own definition, the army is carrying out ethnic cleansing. They have a responsibility to protect these people. Sanctions on one person are really not enough. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Dreamers will have to wait until next year for Congress long-promised protections By Lisa Mascaro Amanda Bayer, left with banner, and Marisol Maqueda, right, join a rally in support of so-called Dreamers outside the White House. (Manuel Balce Ceneta / Associated Press)) A promised year-end deal to protect the young immigrants known as Dreamers from deportation collapsed Wednesday as Republicans in Congress  fresh off passage of their tax plan  prepared to punt nearly all remaining must-do agenda items into the new year. Congressional leaders still hope that before leaving town this week they can pass an $81-billion disaster relief package with recovery funds for California wildfires and Gulf Coast states hit during the devastating hurricane season. But passage even of that relatively popular measure remained in doubt as conservatives balked at the price tag. Rather than finish the year wrapping up the legislative agenda, the GOP majorities in the House and Senate struggled over their next steps. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Chants of protest drown out any caroling this holiday season at the Capitol By Lisa Mascaro U.S. Capitol Police arrest a man wearing a Santa Claus hat during a protest against the Republican tax bill. (Alex Edelman / AFP/Getty Image) Outside the U.S. Capitol, the lights on a towering Christmas tree are flipped on each evening, giving the Engelmann spruce a festive twinkle; inside the marble halls, wreaths and garlands decorate doorways and alcoves ahead of the holidays. But the spirit of the season has been punctuated by other sights: a Jumbotron parked across from the Capitol reflecting pool broadcasts images of young immigrants who face deportation; Little Lobbyists, children with complex medical needs, were featured in a recent news conference; protesters filed into the visitor galleries to shout against the Republican tax plan. While its beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the Capitol, its also shaping up to be a holiday season of protest. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Tax bill simplifies filing for some but complicates it for others  and dont count on that postcard By Jim Puzzanghera A priority of the Republicans tax overhaul was simplification, and they drove home the point this fall with an omnipresent prop: a red-white-and-blue postcard. Were making things so simple that you can do your taxes on a form the size of a postcard, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) said last month, pulling one from his jacket pocket as he and Republican leaders unveiled their bill. They gave a couple of the cards to President Trump at a White House meeting a few hours later and flashed them often during news conferences and TV interviews in the coming days. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Top U.N. human rights official reportedly wont seek reelection The top United Nations official for human rights, who has frequently criticized the Trump administration, has reportedly decided not to seek a second term, saying his work had become untenable. Zeid Raad Hussein, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, notified his staff in an email that was obtained by several news outlets, including Agence France-Presse. Staying when his four-year term is up for renewal at the end of August might involve bending a knee in supplication, AFP quoted Husseins email as saying. Hussein is a Jordanian prince who has criticized, among other things, President Trumps attempts to ban visitors or refugees from six predominantly Muslim countries. The news comes a day before the U.N. General Assembly is expected to vote on a nonbinding resolution condemning the Trump administrations formal declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a decision that went against international consensus. Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., has warned she will be taking names of those who vote against the United States on Thursday. Trump echoed that sentiment Wednesday, voiced support for Haley and implying to reporters that he would consider cutting off U.S. aid to countries that vote against the U.S. Well, were watching those votes, Trump said. Let them vote against us. Well save a lot. We dont care. On Monday, the United States lost a Security Council vote 14-1 on a binding resolution that would have required Washington to rescind its declaration. Haley then vetoed the resolution. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Top Democrat warns Trump not to fire Mueller or interfere with his investigation By Chris Megerian Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, one of the top Democrats involved in the congressional inquiries into Russian interference in last years election, said Wednesday that any attempt by President Trump to interfere with the separate criminal investigation would be a gross abuse of power. Warner, who is vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, delivered his warning from the Senate floor as Republicans escalate their criticism of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and his team of prosecutors and FBI agents. Some Democrats believe Trump is laying the groundwork to fire Mueller even though the president has publicly denied it. Mueller was appointed in May after Trump fired FBI Director James B. Comey. In the United States of America, no one, no one is above the law, not even the president, Warner said. Congress must make clear to the president that firing the special counsel or interfering with his investigation by issuing pardons of essential witnesses is unacceptable and would have immediate and significant consequences. Some Democrats say the White House may try to in effect short-circuit the Mueller investigation by replacing Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein, who is the only official empowered to fire Mueller. Rosenstein recently told Congress that the special counsel is acting appropriately and that he would not dismiss Mueller without just cause. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

We have essentially repealed Obamacare, Trump says after tax bill passes By Brian Bennett President Trump at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday at the White House. (Chris Kleponis / Getty Images) President Trump is celebrating Republicans passage of the tax overhaul bill as a two-fer: On Wednesday, in addition to tax cuts, he checked off his promise to repeal Obamacare, pointing to a provision in the bill to end the penalty on Americans who dont get health insurance. We have essentially repealed Obamacare, Trump told reporters during a Cabinet meeting at the White House. Other provisions of the 2010 Affordable Care Act are still in place, and Trump and congressional Republicans failed completely on the replace half of their vow to repeal and replace the program. In Trumps view, however, stripping away the laws individual mandate to get insurance or else pay a tax penalty amounts to repeal of the whole law. Congressional analysts have said that millions of people would lose insurance as a result, either by choice or because they cannot afford it without subsidies, and that premiums would increase for others as younger, healthy people drop coverage. We will come up with something much better, Trump said, adding that block grants to states could be one approach. By his comments, Trump tacitly acknowledged that repeal of the mandate is likely the best he can do following Republicans failure this year to agree on a repeal-and-replace bill. Looking back on his first year, Trump also boasted of his administrations efforts against the Islamic State and increased immigration enforcement. He said he had not given up on funding a border wall or tightening immigration law to limit citizens ability to resettle foreign relatives in the country. He said he would very shortly visit the border with Mexico near San Diego to see wall prototypes that have been built. He didnt answer a reporters shouted question about how he would personally benefit from the tax bill. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

House gives final OK to GOP tax plan, sending it to Trump By Lisa Mascaro Congress gave final approval to the GOP tax plan Wednesday, 224-201, after the House took an unusual do-over vote to clear up differences with the Senate-passed bill. The $1.5-trillion package now heads to President Trump, who plans to sign it into law. The House had approved the tax bill on Tuesday but was forced to take another vote Wednesday because a couple of provisions in the version it approved were found to be in violation of Senate procedures. Those provisions were dropped before the Senate gave its approval early Wednesday. Critics complained the Republicans rushed to pass the sweeping tax plan to deliver Trump a year-end legislative victory, but supporters shrugged off the problems as minor. The tax plan dramatically cuts corporate rates and provides some individual rate reductions, overhauling the tax code for the first time in 30 years. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Trump administration effort to block immigrant from having an abortion fails By David Savage Scott Lloyd is director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (Drew Angerer / Getty Images) President Trumps lawyers rushed to the Supreme Court and U.S. appeals court in Washington on Monday evening to file emergency appeals seeking to prevent an immigrant in detention, dubbed Jane Roe in court, from having an abortion. That set the stage for a legal showdown on whether the administration can block pregnant minors in custody from choosing to have an abortion. But the legal clash, which the administration has seemed eager to have, fizzled out Tuesday when the governments lawyers admitted the 17-year-old unaccompanied minor in their custody was actually 19. They said they had obtained her birth certificate and realized she was not a minor after all. As a result, Roe, who is 10 weeks pregnant, will no longer be held in a detention center for immigrant minors, and will not be subject to an administration policy that tries to prevent minors in immigration detention from having abortions. Administration lawyers told appeals court judges Tuesday night that Roe was being sent to a facility for adults and likely would be released until her immigration status can be resolved. In a brief order, the D.C. Circuit Court agreed to put the case on hold, but told government attorneys to confirm that she will be permitted to obtain an abortion. The administration had earlier tried to delay another young woman, referred to in court as Jane Poe, from having an abortion, but officials relented on Monday because she was 22 weeks pregnant and nearing the time limit for a legal abortion. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Senate panel rejects Trumps pick to lead Export-Import Bank, a leader in the effort to shut it down By Jim Puzzanghera A Senate committee on Tuesday rejected President Trumps nominee to lead the Export-Import Bank, extending the chaos at the embattled agency whose job is to help U.S. companies sell their goods abroad. Two Republicans joined all Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee in voting against former Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) to be the banks president. Garrett had been a vocal critic of the Ex-Im Bank and a leader of a conservative effort that shut the bank down for five months in 2015 by blocking its congressional authorization. He and other bank opponents branded the banks aid as crony capitalism. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Congress proposes $81-billion disaster aid package, including funds for California wildfires By Lisa Mascaro Congress is set to consider an $81-billion disaster aid package that includes wildfire recovery money for California and other Western states as well as hurricane relief with a price tag reflecting a year of record-setting natural calamities. The legislation, the text of which was released late Monday, would provide almost twice as much as the $44 billion the White House sought last month to cover relief efforts along the Gulf Coast and in the Caribbean. Republican congressional leaders added more money after California lawmakers objected that the administration had failed to include help for areas damaged by wildfires and Democrats protested that the overall amount President Trump asked for was insufficient. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

White House blames North Korea for worldwide WannaCry cyber attack By Noah Bierman The Royal London Hospital, a victim of the unprecedented global cyberattack in May. (Niklas Hallen / AFP/Getty Images) The White House officially blamed North Korea on Tuesday for the cyberattack in May known as WannaCry that infected hundreds of thousands of computers in 150 countries, affecting healthcare, financial services and vital infrastructure. Thomas P. Bossert, assistant to the president for homeland security and counter-terrorism, noted in a briefing with reporters that the consequences were beyond economic. He warned that North Koreas malicious behavior is growing more egregious. Bossert did not specify what evidence American officials have to blame North Korea, citing security issues, but he cited the countrys prior attacks as revealing hallmarks of how Pyongyang and its network of hackers operates. He said other allied countries had joined the United States in making the determination. The administration did not announce any penalties on the regime, which is already subject to severe sanctions over its nuclear program. They want to hold the entire world at risk, Bossert said of North Koreas rulers, referring to the nations nuclear and missile provocations as well as its alleged cyberattack. Given its isolation and international sanctions, North Korea is desperate for funds. Bossert said the country did not appear to make much money on the ransom attack, as word spread that paying a ransom did not result in getting computers unlocked. Its primary goal, he said, was spreading chaos. Bossert and Jeanette Manfra, assistant secretary of homeland security for cybersecurity and communication, said the United States, through a combination of preparation and luck, escaped the worst of the attack, as a patch to the malware was found before U.S. companies and other interests were severely crippled. However, Manfra said, We cannot be complacent. Bossert added, Next time were not going to get so lucky. Manfra praised Microsoft and Facebook for their efforts to combat WannaCry and to block more recent attempts to hack U.S. systems. She and Bossert urged more cooperation and information-sharing from American and multinational companies, arguing a united front is vital to protecting against bad actors who do not differentiate between government and business. Bossert rejected criticism that the the Trump administration has more aggressively called out North Korean cyberattacks than it has Russias meddling in the 2016 election. He said the administration has continued the national emergency initiated by President Obama. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

GOP lures some mountain bike groups in its push to roll back protections for public land By Evan Halper When their vision of creating a scenic cycling trail through a protected alpine backcountry hit a snag, San Diego area mountain bikers turned to an unlikely ally: congressional Republicans aiming to dilute conservation laws. The frustrations of the San Diego cycling group and a handful of similar organizations are providing tailwind to the GOP movement to lift restrictions on the countrys most ecologically fragile and pristine landscapes, officially designated wilderness. Resentment of these cyclists over the longstanding ban on mechanized transportation in that fraction of the nations public lands presents a political opportunity for Republicans eager to drill fissures in the broad coalition of conservation-minded groups united against the GOP environmental agenda. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Vice president postpones Israel trip a second time in case his vote is needed to pass tax cut bill By Noah Bierman (Ethan Miller / Getty Images) Vice President Mike Pence is delaying his trip to Egypt and Israel for a second time in case he is needed to break a tie in the Senate for the tax bill that is expected to pass narrowly this week. Two White House officials confirmed the changed schedule, which they say is unrelated to to protests in the region over the administrations decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital. Pence had initially been scheduled to leave last Saturday. Late last week, the White House moved the trip back a few days to Tuesday night, in case Pence was needed to break a Senate tie. But Monday, they decided to postpone the trip further, to January, given the possibility of a late Senate vote and the coming holidays. He wants to see it through the finish line, said a White House official, referring to the tax measure that is a centerpiece of the Republican legislative agenda. We dont want to leave anything to chance. The mid-January dates will allow Pence more breathing room to merge schedules with embassies and hotels, the official said. Trump still plans to address the Israeli Knesset, a high-profile venue to discuss the Jerusalem decision where it is most popular. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Trump judicial pick who drew ridicule at hearing withdraws By Associated Press A White House official says the Trump judicial nominee whose qualifications were questioned by a Republican senator has withdrawn his nomination. Matthew Petersen, who was nominated by President Trump to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, has been the subject of widespread ridicule since he was unable to define basic legal terms during his confirmation hearing Wednesday. A White House official says Petersen has withdrawn his nomination and that Trump has accepted the withdrawal. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the development publicly. Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy pressed Petersen, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, who testified he had never tried a case, on his qualifications to the bench. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Trump says McCain will return to Washington if needed for tax vote By Laura King President Trump said Sunday that Sen. John McCain, who is battling an aggressive form of brain cancer, was returning home to Arizona for the holidays but would come back to Washington if needed to cast a vote on the Republicans tax overhaul bill. The Arizona Republicans office announced last week that McCain was receiving treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center outside Washington for complications from his cancer treatment. McCains daughter Meghan tweeted earlier Sunday that her 81-year-old father would be spending Christmas in Arizona. The Senate is expected to vote early this week on the tax cut legislation, but the GOP appeared to have secured sufficient support without McCains vote. John will come back if we need his vote, Trump told reporters as he returned from a weekend at the presidential retreat at Camp David. Hes going through a very tough time. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Putin calls Trump to thank him for U.S. help foiling terrorist strike By Laura King Vladimir Putin phoned President Trump to thank him for what the Russian president said was CIA help in foiling a terrorist attack, the Kremlin said on Sunday. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed the two leaders conversation to reporters. It was the second time that the two leaders had talked in four days; Trump called Putin on Thursday to thank the Russian leader for lauding the U.S. economy. Putin, in his annual year-end news conference, had praised Trump for a strong performance by the U.S. stock market. Perhaps ironically, given his credit to the CIAs recent help, Putin at that news event dismissed as hysteria the consensus among American intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential campaign. In reporting Putins call to Trump on Sunday, the official Russian news agency Tass said Putin thanked his American counterpart for information shared by the US Central Intelligence Agency that had helped break up a plot to set off explosives in St. Petersburgs landmark Kazan Cathedral and elsewhere in the city, which is Russias second-largest. Russian authorities last week had credited their countrys counter-intelligence service, the FSB, for foiling the attacks. They reported that seven people affiliated with Islamic State had been detained in St. Petersburg in connection with the plot. The FSB, the successor organization to the KGB, announced Friday that the group had planned to carry out the attacks on Saturday, and that one of those in custody had confessed to the cathedral bomb plot. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Mnuchin: Government shutdown unlikely but could happen By Laura King Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said on Sunday that a government shutdown this week was unlikely but possible. A two-week stopgap spending bill passed by Congress earlier this month provided enough funding to keep the government running through Friday. A deadlock on another temporary funding measure would open the door to a possible shutdown. I cant rule it out, but I cant imagine it occurring, Mnuchin said on Fox News Sunday, suggesting everyone had an interest in avoiding the government grinding to a halt and federal workers going unpaid, especially in the holiday season. I would expect that both the House and Senate, Republicans and Democrats, understand if they cant agree on this, they need to have another short-term extension to move this to January, the Treasury secretary said. We cant have a government shutdown in front of Christmas. In May, irate over concessions made to Democrats in hammering out a spending measure, President Trump tweeted that a good shutdown might help matters. While both parties agree that a government shutdown involves a degree of disruption that is not beneficial to either side, shutdowns in 1995-96 and in 2013 mainly caused a backlash against Republicans. The latest funding measure is to be taken up after a vote on a massive GOP tax overhaul, expected by midweek. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Trump transition team says sensitive emails should not have been shared with Robert Mueller By Chris Megerian (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) President Trumps transition team is crying foul over how special counsel Robert S. Mueller III obtained emails for his investigation into Russian meddling in last years campaign and possible Trump campaign complicity. Kory Langhofer, a lawyer for the transition team, sent a letter to Congress on Saturday saying there was an unauthorized disclosure of emails. While the Trump transition is long over, the transition team remains a nonprofit organization. Its emails were hosted by the General Services Administration, a federal agency. Mueller reportedly obtained the emails directly from the agency. There are attorney-client communications, Langhofer said in an interview. There are executive-privileged communications. He added, What were asking Congress to do is to take some legislative action to make sure this never happens again. Peter Carr, a spokesman for the special counsels office, defended the process for obtaining emails. When we have obtained emails in the course of our ongoing criminal investigation, we have secured either the account owners consent or appropriate criminal process, he said. The letter was first reported by Fox News. A request for comment from the General Services Administration was not immediately answered. This story has been updated with a comment from the special counsels office. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Virginia house arrest is ending for Paul Manafort By Chris Megerian (Mark Wilson / Getty Images) A federal judge agreed Friday to end Paul Manaforts house arrest in Virginia, allowing President Trumps former campaign manager to return to Florida while awaiting trial. The decision followed a dispute between Manaforts legal team and prosecutors working for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who accused Manafort of violating a court order restricting public statements about the case. Under the terms of the judges order, Manafort will be allowed to live at his home in Florida as long as he stays within Palm Beach and Broward counties and obeys a curfew from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. If he misses a court appearance, he would forfeit four properties valued at $10 million total. The deal, which includes GPS monitoring, is not as permissive as Manafort originally sought. He had asked to be able to travel freely among Florida, New York, Virginia and Washington. Manafort faces criminal charges of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. He has pleaded not guilty. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

GOP negotiators enhance child tax credit to win over Sen. Rubio By Lisa Mascaro Republican negotiators slightly increased the refundable portion of the expanded child tax credit in their tax plan, raising it to $1,400 in hopes of winning back Sen. Marco Rubios (R-Fla.) support ahead of next weeks vote. Rubio announced Thursday he was withholding support after negotiators ignored his push to make the expanded tax credit, which increases from the current $1,000 to $2,000 in the proposed bill, fully refundable for lower- and moderate-income filers. The refundable portion in the original bill was $1,100. The Florida senator argued that was not enough to help working-class Americans, many of whom already view the GOP plan as tilted toward the wealthy. Rubios office was waiting to see the final text before commenting on whether the change was enough to win him over. We have not seen the bill text, and until we see if the percentage of the refundable credit is significantly higher, then our position remains the same, Rubios spokeswoman said. Negotiators meeting Friday before unveiling the bill said they thought they had the support they needed from Rubio and other holdouts. Im confident both chambers will pass it next week, said Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.). Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Sen. Marco Rubio opposes GOP tax bill, depriving leaders of crucial support By Lisa Mascaro 20.94% Corp. rate to pay for tax cut for working family making $40k was anti-growth but 21% to cut tax for couples making $1million is fine?  Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) December 12, 2017 Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) says he is currently opposed to the GOP tax plan because it fails to include his proposed enhancements to the child tax credit, leaving leaders without crucial support ahead of next weeks expected vote. Republicans can only lose two GOP senators from their slim 52-48 majority as they push the plan forward under special budget rules to prevent a Democratic filibuster. Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday altered his planned Israel trip so he could be on hand, if needed, to cast a tie-breaking vote. Rubio, and GOP Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, have fought to increase the child tax credit, doubling it to $2,000 in the GOP plan, but they also want to increase its refundability. They argue it will lower taxes on middle-income families at a time when the tax plan is being criticized as tilted to the wealthy. Sen. Rubio has consistently communicated to the Senate tax negotiators that his vote on final passage would depend on whether the refundability of the Child Tax Credit was increased in a meaningful way, Rubios spokeswoman said. Lee stopped short of opposing the bill, but his spokesman said Wednesday he is undecided. GOP leaders, though, have said they believe they have the support for passage. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

White House gives Roy Moore a unsubtle shove: Time to concede By David Lauter (Alex Wong / Getty Images) The White House sent a clear signal Thursday to the defeated Republican candidate for Senate in Alabama: Its time to concede. Roy Moore refused to concede the race on Tuesday night when Doug Jones, the Democrat, was declared the winner. Election night results show Jones winning by about 1.5 percentage points, three times more than the states standard for a recount. Although a few absentee and provisional ballots remain to be counted, theres no indication they would change the result. On Wednesday, Moore notably did not call to congratulate Jones  even as President Trump and other leading Republicans did. Instead, he released a video declaring the battle rages on. Asked at the daily news briefing whether the White House thinks Moore should concede today, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, It probably sounds like it maybe should have already taken place. Sanders also dismissed the idea, pushed by some Moore supporters, that Jones victory was tainted in some fashion. Asked if the Democrat had won fair and square, she said, I think the numbers reflect that. The states Republican senator, Richard Shelby, offered a similar comment in an interview with MSNBC in which he said he was willing to work with Jones. If I was 25,000 votes behind, its not going to change much, Shelby said. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

House Speaker Paul Ryan says hes not leaving anytime soon By Lisa Mascaro House Speaker Paul D. Ryan shot down suggestions Thursday that he might soon be retiring. Stories often circulate that party leaders, especially the House speaker, are stepping aside. Ryans tenure has been as rocky as that of his predecessor, Rep. John Boehner, who abruptly resigned in 2015 amid GOP infighting. Asked Thursday if he would be leaving, Ryan answered a simple no, as he left his weekly press conference in the Capitol. Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who reluctantly took over the speakers gavel after Boehners departure, had just finished talking up the GOP tax plan, which leaders hope to pass next week. He also outlined his sweeping agenda for his longtime goal of entitlement reform of welfare benefits next year. Two stories published Thursday suggested Ryan may soon be out. This is pure speculation, said spokeswoman AshLee Strong. As the speaker himself said today, hes not going anywhere anytime soon. Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

GOP leaders reach tax deal, cutting corporate rate to 21% and top individual rate to 37% By Lisa Mascaro Republican leaders on Wednesday agreed on a revised plan to cut taxes that would lower the corporate rate from 35% to 21% and drop the top individual rate for the richest Americans to 37%, according to GOP senators and others briefed on the deal. The tentative accord marked a significant step in the Republican push to have a tax bill on President Trumps desk by Christmas. Leaders did not release details of the compromise or the text of a final bill as negotiations continued. Its critically important for Congress to quickly pass these historic tax cuts, Trump said Wednesday, promising that Americans could begin to reap the benefits of the plan as early as February, if passed. Critics, however, said the latest changes  particularly the lowering of the top individual rate from the current 39.6%  only reaffirmed several independent analyses that show the bulk of the savings from the Republican plan would go to businesses and the wealthy. Read More Facebook

Twitter

Show more sharing options Share Close extra sharing options Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Email

Copy Link URL Copied!

Print

Advertisement

Farenthold to retire from House amid harassment accusations By Associated Press Texas Republican Rep. Blake Farenthold wont seek reelection next year, two Republicans said Thursday, adding his name to the list of lawmakers leaving Congress amid sexual harassment allegations that have cost powerful men their jobs in politics, the arts and other fields. The accusations against Farenthold surfaced in 2014, when a former aide sued him alleging sexually suggestive comments and behavior and said shed been fired after she complained. The lawmaker said he engaged in no wrongdoing and the case was settled in 2015. But the House Ethics Committee said last week that it would investigate Farenthold after congressional sources said hed paid an $84,000 settlement using taxpayers money. Though Farenthold said hed reimburse the Treasury Department, such payments have drawn public criticism from people saying lawmakers should use their own money for such settlements. A House official said Farenthold spoke twice Wednesday to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), while another official said the congressman spoke once with Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio) who heads the GOPs House campaign committee. Those discussions suggested that Farenthold may have come under pressure from leaders to step aside. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private conversations. Last week, three lawmakers facing accusations of sexual harassment announced their resignations. Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) have already left Congress while Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) has said he will step aside soon. Mike Bergsma, Republican county chairman in Farentholds home county of Nueces, Texas, said Fare
(Xinhua) 08:24, December 20, 2017

SHENZHEN, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Innovation saw this boomtown of Shenzhen in south China's Guangdong Province have the third highest gross domestic product in the country in 2016, following Shanghai and Beijing.

Statistics authorities of Guangdong earlier this month published a revised version of last year's GDPbased on a new calculating method taking into account of expenditure on research and development (R&D), which was previously excluded.

Shenzhen's GDP exceeded 2 trillion yuan (302 billion U.S. dollars), 58.6 billion yuan more than the previous calculation, replacing the provincial capital of Guangzhou as the third in the ranking.

In July, China's State Council approved the calculation method, which is in line with international standards, to recognize innovation in the economy.

China has been relying on innovation as a major engine for growth. At the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which charted the course for the country's future development, innovation was widely encouraged, and labeled as the primary driving force behind development.

INNOVATION RULES

In many ways, Shenzhen can be seen as a microcosm of China's innovation-based development.

The city has made a dramatic transformation from a tiny fishing enclave in the 1970s, to an innovation hub hosting some of China's most successful tech companies and startups.

Shenzhen-based tech giant Huawei said it spent 11 billion U. S. dollars on R&D last year, compared to 10 billion U.S. dollars spent by Apple Inc.

Two years after its founded in 2012, the Royole company rolled-out the world's thinnest bendable screens, which if used on an iPad, would allow it to be folded to the size of an iPhone.

Drone maker DJI has pioneered the development of drones, gaining 80 percent of global market share.

Shenzhen spent over 80 billion yuan on R&D in 2016, accounting for 4.1 percent of its GDP, comparing to 33.3 billion yuan in 2010.

According to the Ministry of Science and Technology, China's spending on R&D reached 1.54 trillion yuan in 2016, accounting for 2.1 percent of GDP.

INNOVATORS UNITE

Cities around Shenzhen are joining hands seeking to maximize their innovation might.

Guangdong wants to build a Chinese Silicon Valley and in September approved a plan to establish the Guangzhou-Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Corridor, vowing to make it a world-class hi-tech industry innovation center by 2050.

The economic belt, stretching more than 180 kilometers, covers an area of 11,836 square km, including the cities of Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Dongguan. The three cities are home to over 78 percent of hi-tech enterprises and 60 percent of advanced R&D institutions in the Pearl River Delta.

Chen Zaiqi, researcher with Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences, said the resources would boost innovation-driven development in the corridor as well as integrated development of free trade zones in the delta and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Liu Zunyi, an official with Shenzhen Finance Institute, said that to save costs and boost development more effort was needed in the flow of services, talent, capital and information between all cities in the region.
After 36 years of celebrating all that is Burbank, the board of directors of Burbank on Parade has decided its time to end the longstanding event and dissolve the organization.

Though event organizers added a family festival as part of the festivities in recent years to try to bring in more sponsors, the rising costs of public safety have reached a point where it is too much for officials to afford, said Carey Briggs, who was the president of Burbank on Parade the last five years.

Were having to spend $60,000 to throw a parade, and most of that is to keep the public safe from each other, Briggs said on Tuesday. The water barricades, police and general public safety  the cost of public safety is huge.

Briggs said public-safety measures were important not only for parade-goers, but for participants and animals involved each year.

He added that events such as the Ringling Bros. circus are popular for a certain amount of time but are bound to come to an end, and Burbank on Parade, he said, is an event that can no longer continue because of rising costs.

Burbank on Parade is the only parade that I know that was a community parade, Briggs said. It wasnt wrapped around Veterans Day or any other holiday. It was wrapped around the community. The community was great, and they supported us for years, but it just becomes time when its no longer feasible to raise a whole lot of money to keep people safe on both sides of the parade.

Burbank Mayor Will Rogers said that, although the parade will be missed, the city is facing an ongoing budget deficit and does not have the resources to resuscitate the event at this time.

As a 10-year volunteer with the parade, Briggs said discontinuing the annual tradition is a big loss for him and for every volunteer who has given time to make the parade possible year after year.

The parade was typically held every April and showcased various organizations from Burbank.

When asked if the parade might return in the future, Briggs responded briefly, Thatll all be in [Burbank] Parks and Recreations hands.

anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpio
The California Fair Political Practices Commission, or FPPC, recently determined that a resident group that was in opposition of Measure B, which paved the way for a new terminal at Hollywood Burbank Airport, did not qualify as a campaign committee during the November 2016 election.

Dave Bainbridge, assistant chief of enforcement for the state agency, wrote in a letter dated Nov. 27 to Burbank resident Roy Wiegand, one of the members of Save Burbank Neighborhoods, that there was not enough evidence to support a claim that the group received $2,000 or more in campaign contributions during a calendar year, which would have required the group to register with the FPPC as a campaign committee.

Under the Political Reform Act, campaign committees are required to file with the FPPC and display their identification number on all campaign materials distributed to the public.

Our investigation revealed insufficient evidence to conclude the group received contributions in excess of $2,000, Bainbridge said. As such, we are closing the case with no further action.

Wiegand said in an email that he was pleased that he and the other neighbors involved in the case were exonerated, adding that they had nothing to hide and did nothing wrong.

It did sadden me that a grassroots group of citizens were called into question while simply trying to get the other side of an issue out to the voting public, Wiegand said.

Voter approval of Measure B allows the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, which oversees Hollywood Burbank Airport, to build a replacement 14-gate terminal.

Wiegand and some other residents were against Measure B because they thought they would lose their right to vote on the issue and the authority would build more than the proposed 14 gates.

The complaint was filed by Tai Sunnanon, a consultant who worked on the Yes on Measure B campaign, on Nov. 2, six days before the general election on Nov. 8.

Sunnanon is the founder and president of the consulting firm the si3 Group. He could not be reached for a comment.

This is not the only complaint filed with the FPPC regarding Measure B.

In December 2016, Burbank resident David Spell filed a complaint with the state agency, alleging the marketing organization for the city, called the Burbank Hospitality Assn., better known as Visit Burbank, illegally donated $50,000 to the Committee for Yes on Measure B so the group could pay for campaign mailers.

The money was given to the committee after a member of the group had approached the association during a meeting on Sept. 14, 2016, and asked for the $50,000 donation. Association members approved the donation that day, even though it was not agendized, which is required according to Brown Act regulations.

A similar complaint was filed with the Los Angeles County district attorneys office, and this past May, the county agency determined that Visit Burbank had violated the Brown Act. However, the district attorneys office is still investigating whether the $50,000 donation was a misuse of public funds.

The Fair Political Practices Commission is still investigating Spells complaint.

anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpio
Airline passengers cope with the stress of flying in different ways. Some zone out to music, some read a book or magazine or scroll through their social-media feeds and others might buy an alcoholic beverage to calm their nerves.

However, Hollywood Burbank Airport recently launched a new program called Travelers Tails, in which service dogs and their owners walk up and down the terminals and allow passengers to de-stress with the furry companions.

On the clock Tuesday afternoon were two cavalier King Charles spaniels, Zoe and Miss Sherman Oaks, who were immediately bombarded by members of the Yawn family from Moorpark.

Melinda Yawn said she and her family were going to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to board a cruise ship to the Bahamas for their holiday vacation. While waiting at their gate, she and her children couldnt help but give Zoe and Miss Sherman Oaks some scratches behind their ears.

Kaylyn Yawn, Melinda Yawns 21-year-old daughter, said she does have some anxiety before she boards a plane and she sometimes has an adult beverage or just takes deep breaths to calm down before and during her flight.

But this is a way better alternative than just freaking out and dealing with yourself, said Kaylyn Yawn as she continued to scratch Zoes head. Shes so soft and calm, and her energy makes me happy. Shes so sweet.

Michael Johnston, the airports business development specialist, said airfield officials had been looking to have a pet therapy program at its terminals for some time and finally had the opportunity to partner with the Alliance of Therapy Dogs, a nonprofit that works with volunteers who have registered and certified service dogs and schedules them to spend time at different locations, including airports, hospitals and schools.

Johnston added that about 15 volunteers will spend time at Hollywood Burbank, but he hopes to have 40 to 50 volunteers over the coming months.

Though there are currently 15 people and their service dogs signed up for Travelers Tails at the local airport, there will be at most three volunteers during a shift.

It was the first shift for Linda Barnfather, Zoes owner, and Candy Malatesta, Miss Sherman Oaks owner, and both said it was heartwarming to see passengers faces light up whenever they approached the dogs.

Barnfather, who has been volunteering with service animals for 18 years, said she loves talking with passengers and hearing about their trips, but also likes to help people when they are in need.

Earlier that day, Barnfather said she talked to a passenger who told her she had to fly back home to put down her elderly dog. The woman found comfort after talking with Barnfather and petting Zoe, Barnfather said.

We come up to them as strangers, but I feel we leave as friends, Barnfather said.

anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpio
Editors note: This is an installment of Unsung Heroes, an annual feature that highlights otherwise overlooked members of the community.

When hurricanes, floods or earthquakes strike, Robbie Prepas heads to the scene, offering medical aid to people in need.



For the record: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that nurse-midwife Robbie Prepas expected the federal government to deploy her to Washington, D.C., in January.

The Laguna Beach resident and certified nurse-midwife joined the United States Department of Health and Human Services Disaster Medical Assistance Team before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

Advertisement

Prepas has been deployed following 10 disasters, including hurricanes Katrina in 2005 in New Orleans, Harvey and Maria earlier this year in Houston and Puerto Rico, respectively, and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

The U.S. government sends teams to areas following disasters such as floods, earthquakes, fires and disease outbreaks. Team members can include nurse practitioners, physician assistants, medical officers, registered nurses, respiratory therapists, paramedics and pharmacists.

Prepas has delivered babies in airports and assisted with emergency c-sections.

In November, Prepas returned home after a 17-day visit to Comerio, a city in a mountainous region of Puerto Rico. Crews there had erected tents and provided medical care for acute and chronic conditions, such as physical exams and wound sutures, Prepas said earlier this week in a phone interview.

Volunteers held a community clinic, working alongside Puerto Rican medical personnel. Crews visited 40 houses that held people too ill to come to the clinic, Prepas said.

We saw a lot of tetanus and a lot of upper-respiratory issues, said Prepas, who worked as a nurse-midwife at Fountain Valleys Orange Coast Medical Center. The country lost power and residents struggled to find any clean water.

Parts of the island are still without power almost three months after the hurricane struck, and the power grid is operating at 70% of capacity, the New York Times reported this week.

In Houston, crews saw 200 to 300 patients per day, Prepas said, adding that most people lost medications or needed dialysis.

The aftermath of Hurricane Maria was much different than in Houston, Prepas said. When towns in Puerto Rico lost power, people lost use of oxygen machines.

Prepas penchant for service started 30 years ago when she accompanied her husband, Stephen, a pediatric ophthalmologist, on medical missions.

They traveled to countries including Afghanistan, Vietnam and Myanmar. Prepas taught midwife classes, advising providers about hemorrhages, internal bleeding and infections, while Stephen performed corrective eye surgeries for children.

Even though relief teams followed the work of Prepas and other volunteers in multiple cities, she said its sometimes difficult leaving people who struggle to obtain clean water and medical supplies.

You feel guilty because you are leaving and they are in the same situation, Prepas said.

As examples, she mentioned the relative ease of accessing electricity, running water and the Internet in the U.S.

I had a hard time after Katrina, Prepas said. There is an abundance of people who dont have anything.

Despite the lack of resources, Prepas said patients remain grateful for the help and want to show their appreciation.

Puerto Ricans prepared food for her and colleagues.

Disaster team members are on call for one month at a time, every three to four months.

Closer to home, Jennifer Flowers met Prepas 20 years ago and the two have been friends since.

They walk their dogs together and attend theater performances.

She is the person everyone thinks of first when they need help, Flowers wrote in an email. She is always more interested in my life than I am.

bryce.alderton@latimes.com

Twitter: @AldertonBryce

ALSO

Unsung hero: Kathryn Rollins helps senior citizens take control of their bodies and lives

Unsung heroes: Brad and Trish Miller bring food and friendship to Main Beach
There probably are official year-end reviews of Laguna Beach from groups like the chamber of commerce, the City Council and school district, but theyre not nearly as fun as the unofficial year in review.

Think of this as street talk, party banter and salacious gossip  mashed up with Lagunatic-worthy irreverence.

The non-fake facts are that Laguna survived 2017 by doing what it does best: fleecing tourists while patronizing residents.

Advertisement

Using a delicate balance of charm and double-talk, the citys elders managed to dodge most of its core responsibilities.

Were there achievements? Sure, a few. Did they make a big difference? Not really.

But lets evaluate the top 10 stories, and you be the judge.

10. Death of John Gardiner. The eternal poet laureate of Laguna Beach died unexpectedly in October, leaving locals shocked and heartbroken. What made this news so difficult for everyone, among other things, was that he was so unflappable, so full of energy and so irascible. We mistakenly thought he would live forever.

9. Fake smoke. It was quaint, wasnt it, the no smoking ban? The city still warns people coming into town that its against the law to smoke in public. Then again, the city also says  on those same, annoying electronic billboards  that loud motorcycle noise will be cited. How is that working out? Bikers proudly wear loud pipes save lives stickers while smokers continue to throw butts into the ocean. Next the city will claim that leaf blowers are illegal  oh wait.

8. Consultant for hire. There must be a shortage of consultants within the greater Laguna area by now, right? I havent done the math, but my guess is the city hires more consultants per capita than any city outside of Washington, D.C. Its probably a record but not one that we should be proud of. I can appreciate hiring experts now and then but only for two reasons. One, you hire the consultant because its more cost effective than wasting staff time, or two, you truly lack the expertise. And that means you consider possible committees or task forces made up of citizen experts, which Laguna generally has. Heres the kicker though. If you do hire an expert, listen to the result. Dont shelve it.

7. Slumming on Park Avenue. Its not Forest Avenue, but organizers gladly acquired Park Avenue for their little closure experiment. Hailed as a nice start by some but sniffed at as an underachieving eyesore by others, the Park Avenue closure proved that Laguna would not implode if one of its sacred streets were closed to traffic. They added some music and spruced up the place over its short run, but would it be enough to make the experiment permanent? Time will tell, but my guess is yes.

6. Sun never shines in the canyon. Laguna Canyon continued to battle a laundry list of issues in 2017: the threat of new zoning, higher densities, homeless encroachment, loss of business, LCAD expansion and the inevitability of a road expansion  or fire. Its a wonder the beleaguered residents just dont split off from Laguna and form their own private commune like the old days. Hard not to blame them.

5. Laguna burned its ACLU card. Somewhere along the way, the ACLU became a bully. Not only that, it forgot who its friends were. Characterizing Laguna Beach as having harsh, inadequate policies on homelessness, it sued (again), saying Lagunas homeless programs are ineffective and discriminatory. It also said Laguna Beach, one of the most affluent communities in the country, is openly hostile to the plight of its disabled, homeless residents. That claim is so ridiculous I think Ill just stop there.

4. Closed for business. You can start to see it now along the downtown shops. The mom-and-pops are almost all gone, replaced with expensive restaurants or high-end boutiques. Multiple stores have closed because of rent hikes or building ownership changes. The Hotel Laguna stores will be out soon. The entire stretch of Sleepy Hollow is nearly vacant. The signs are up and the message is clear: Goodbye Laguna, hello Santa Barbara. Big names, deep pockets, very little diversity.

3. Outsiders win again. Its unbelievable how much outsiders control Laguna. Whether its the ACLU, Caltrans, the utilities or the California Coastal Commission, Laguna labors under the whims of these alien groups. Specifically, the city did all kinds of research on short-term rentals (aka the Airbnb problem) only to have its law steamrolled by the commission. Its like when an eager business committee comes up with a snazzy new slogan for the company and approaches the CEO for approval, only to hear, No, I dont like it. I want the old slogan. Deflated, Laguna must be asking, Why do I even try?

2. Not on my beach. One of the biggest stories of 2017 was the unfortunate assembly of hate groups in Laguna. They clearly were using the towns liberal, high-profile brand as a way to boost their small message. Did it work? Yes. Is there a way to prevent it in the future? Probably not.

1. Ill trade you four utilities for sanity. For those who want to underground power lines in Laguna, this year marked an important milestone: Will. There seems to be the political and public will to finally make progress on undergrounding. The foundation was laid for financing and project management. Now, we just have to see if the citys residents are willing to pay for it. But that will be next year.

In the meantime, 2017 was a year of fits and starts for Laguna. It was busywork with good intentions, high hopes with low results.

Fittingly, 2017 was the Chinese year of the rooster  full of cocksure bluster but reliably predictable.

DAVID HANSEN is a writer and Laguna Beach resident. He can be reached at hansen.dave@gmail.com.
A judge has rejected the city of Newport Beachs argument that a frequent critics defamation lawsuit is an affront to the citys right to free speech.

Judge Thomas Delaney of the small-claims division of Orange County Superior Court denied the citys anti-SLAPP motion Tuesday because the lawsuit is a small-claims case and anti-SLAPP motions are not proper small-claims actions.

SLAPP is short for strategic lawsuit against public participation, which is one intended to censor, intimidate and silence critics by burdening them with legal costs until they abandon their criticism or opposition. California has a law against such suits on the grounds that they may impede freedom of speech.

The city filed its motion in a bid for dismissal of a slander and libel case that activist Mike Glenn filed against it this year after City Councilwoman Diane Dixon called him out during a council meeting about hundreds of dollars in unpaid public-records fees that Glenn insists he doesnt owe.

On Tuesday, Delaney conducted a trial of less than an hour on the merits of Glenns defamation lawsuit. Dixon did not attend, sending City Clerk Leilani Brown as her representative.

The verdict was pending Tuesday evening.

Small-claims trials are relatively speedy, inexpensive and informal proceedings where participants typically represent themselves. When Glenn sued in August, he said he chose small-claims court because it would place no costly legal burden on the city.

He is seeking $5,000 in damages, which he said he would donate to charity.

Glenns chief complaint was that Dixon defamed him when she said from the dais at an April 11 council meeting that he owed more than $600 in fees for copies of public records he had requested the previous two years and hadnt picked up. She said more than 500 hours of staff time had been devoted to producing the records.

Glenn replied that he never asked to pick up copies of the records.

Glenn also accused Newport Beach Assistant City Clerk Jennifer Nelson of committing libel when she sent Glenn an email, copied to two other city employees, telling him he had not paid $619.93 the city said he owed for records related to the city-run Balboa Peninsula Trolley.

Glenn, who has been critical of the shuttle and its costs, had just spoken about the service during the public comment portion of the April meeting when Dixon told him he owed the city money.

Glenn, a software developer, said the implication that a small-business owner like himself doesnt pay his bills damaged his reputation.

In its unsuccessful motion for dismissal, the city said Dixons comments were about the use of taxpayer dollars, which is a matter of public concern. It also contended that Glenn was unlikely to prevail in his lawsuit because Dixons comments were substantially true and were made in the legally protected setting of a City Council meeting while doing the publics business.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHD
For nearly a decade, the Glendale Fire Department has been without a dedicated training facility where either current or prospective firefighters can simulate the high-heat and intense-smoke environments they would encounter during an emergency.

Last week, the Glendale City Council unanimously approved a more than $700,000 project to design and build a Live Fire Modular Training Complex, also known as a burn building, for joint use by the citys fire department and Glendale Community Colleges Verdugo Fire Academy.

Glendale-based engineering consultant United Engineering & Construction Inc. was awarded the contract to replace the 60-year-old concrete burn building, decommissioned in 2010, with a new facility constructed with steel shipping containers.

The old facility had gotten so damaged from many years of fire exposure that the concrete and steel reinforcements had started to give way, according to Fire Chief Greg Fish, who joined the Glendale agency in 1987 as a firefighter.

A burn building is a noncombustible structure where combustibles or flammable gases are placed inside to simulate a structure fire.

Fish said burn buildings provide invaluable training for recruits so that when they go into an actual fire, its not the first time theyve experienced severe conditions.

Its really important that they gain the success in a safe training environment to learn how to be successful in  that atmosphere, he said. We dont want to do that for the first time in a real fire because peoples lives are at stake.

For the past several years, local firefighters who have needed first-time, live fire training or annual evaluations have been sent to facilities in the Antelope Valley or the city of Los Angeles.

About $404,000 will come from the citys previously approved capital-improvement fund, and Glendale Community College officials have agreed to provide $300,000 toward the project.

This is a perfect partnership, and it is one that continues the work that the Verdugo Fire Academy has had with the city of Glendale Fire as the partner, said David Viar, the colleges superintendent/president, during the meeting.

Although Glendale has its own academy for new recruits, smaller fire departments, such as those in San Marino and South Pasadena that dont run recruit academies, rely on state-accredited training programs, such as the one offered at Glendale Community College, according to Fish.

We dont have to go over as great of detail in training when we have people who [have] graduated [from the Verdugo Fire Academy], Fish said.

Design and construction of the fire-training facility will take about six months, according to a staff report. It will be located on the site of the former fire-training facility, 541 Chevy Chase Drive.

jeff.landa@latimes.com

Twitter: @JeffLanda
Delta Air Lines farewell tour of its 747 airplane, known as queen of the skies for its wide-body size and comfort, will make a stop at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) this week.

The 747 is expected to land before 10 a.m. Wednesday, when Delta employees, members of the media and invited guests can tour the Boeing jumbo jet that made its first flight in 1969.

Angelenos who want to see the aircraft should visit the free Flight Path Museum & Learning Center (6661 W. Imperial Highway) between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Thursday. You wont be able to go inside, but you will be able to see the exterior.

Advertisement

Delta is the last U.S. carrier to retire the aircraft from its fleet. Its last scheduled 747 flight flew from Seoul, Korea, to Detroit, Mich., earlier this week. United Airlines also retired the hulking jet; its last flight was in November.

The plane, with what Delta calls a whale hump formed by the profile of its upper deck (once sold as posh penthouse seats with dedicated servers), made long-haul flights more affordable. Even fliers sitting in economy class benefited from roomy seats and aisles.

In recent years, the plane was eclipsed by more fuel-efficient wide bodies, such as the Boeing 777 and 787, and Airbus A330 and 350.

Delta says it will use the 747 for occasional charter flights.

ALSO

LAX Theme Building will house USO center starting in spring 2018

You can see airplanes outside and inside this LAX hotel where art reflects an aviation vibe

LAX is removing half the spaces in its cheapest parking lot. No word on when theyll return

travel@latimes.com

@latimestravel
Eight U.S. citizens were among the 12 people killed when a bus full of tourists from two cruise ships crashed en route to an archaeological site in Mexicos Yucatan Peninsula, authorities confirmed Wednesday.

The fatal toll in Tuesdays crash also included two Swedish nationals and a Canadian, according to officials in Mexicos southern Quintana Roo state, where the accident occurred.

Also killed was a Mexican tour guide on board the bus, which veered off the highway and flipped over into the brush about 10 a.m. Tuesday. The bus was headed to Mayan ruins at Chacchoben, authorities said.

Advertisement

Officials did not immediately release the identities of the casualties. The Sun Sentinel reported that three of the dead were a woman from Coconut Creek, Fla., and her daughter and grandson. Quoting family members, the newspaper identified the three as Fanya Shamis, 78, Anna Behar, 46, and Daniel Behar, 11. The Behars were from Lorton, Va.

Of the 12 fatalities, authorities said, 11 died at the scene and the other at a nearby hospital. Photos from the scene after the accident showed what appeared to be at least one body lying on the road.

A total of 13 passengers on the ill-fated bus remained hospitalized on Wednesday, including four U.S. citizens, four Brazilians, three Canadians and two Swedish nationals, according to Mexican officials. All were described as being stable.

The bus was transporting 31 people, including the driver, to the ruins from the port of Mahahual, 44 miles to the southeast, officials said.

Authorities provided no explanation as to why the vehicle drifted off the two-lane highway.

People receive medical attention after a bus crash near Mahahual, Mexico, on Tuesday. (EPA/Shutterstock )

The driver suffered unspecified injuries and was being detained as investigators opened a criminal inquiry into the incident, officials said.

Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises said 27 passengers from two of its ships, Celebrity Equinox and Serenade of the Seas, were on board the bus. Both ships were scheduled for seven-night Caribbean cruises, with a stop on Mexicos Mayan Coast.

Many cruise passengers docking in the Yucatan take daylong bus excursions to ruins and other sites on the peninsula.

Diplomats from the U.S. embassy and other foreign missions worked Wednesday to identify the dead and wounded and provide aid.

We have staff on the scene and at local hospitals to assist victims and loved ones, the U.S. embassy in Mexico said in a statement.

Roberta Jacobson, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, expressed in a tweet our deepest condolences to those who lost loved ones or were injured in the horrible bus accident in Quintana Roo yesterday.

patrick.mcdonnel@latimes.com

Twitter: @PmcdonnellLAT

UPDATES:

5:35 p.m.: This article was updated with the names of three crash victims.

1 p.m.: This article has been updated with additional details about crash victims and comments from Roberta Jacobson.

This article was originally published at 8:40 a.m.
Photo taken on Feb. 25, 2016 shows Pan Jianwei at a lab in the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province. For his role in pushing forward the development of quantum communications, Chinese physicist Pan Jianwei has been included in Nature's 10, the annual list of 10 people who mattered in science in 2017, which was released online Dec. 18, 2017 by the prestigious British journal "Nature". Dubbed "Father of Quantum" by some in China, Pan Jianwei and his team harnessed quantum laws to transmit information securely, called quantum communications. (Xinhua/Liu Junxi)

LONDON, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- For his role in pushing forward the development of quantum communications, Chinese physicist Pan Jianwei has been included in Nature's 10, the annual list of ten people who mattered in science in 2017, which was released online Monday by the prestigious journal Nature.

From quantum communications and genome editing to the threat of a nuclear crisis and the dismantling of environmental protections in the United States, "this list covers the highs and lows for science and scientists in 2017," said Brendan Maher, news features editor at Nature.

Dubbed "Father of Quantum" by some in China, Pan Jianwei and his team harnessed quantum laws to transmit information securely, called quantum communications.

In July, Pan and his team reported they had broken the record for quantum teleportation. In September, the team used a satellite to beam photons to Beijing and Vienna, generating quantum encryption keys that allowed teams in these cities to video chat securely, according to Nature.

More experiments have been planned by Pan and his team, and in the next five years, "many wonderful results will come, It's really a new era," Pan was quoted as saying in the Nature feature.

Renowned scientist and president of the Austrian Academy of Sciences Anton Zeilinger, seen as a pioneer in the field of quantum information and of the foundations of quantum mechanics, believes the landmark quantum-encrypted intercontinental video call between China and Austria is very important and impressive.

"I see this as a part of the goal of building a future quantum internet, where in this case China enabled a worldwide quantum-secure communication," the physicist told Xinhua earlier.

Another scientist featured in the list is David Liu. The biologist and his team at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have dedicated efforts to improving the powerful CRISPR genome-editing technique. Such tools could one day save lives, as cell-based therapies can be enhanced by the method.

"I'm deeply honored to be selected for this distinction, and I'm especially grateful to the remarkably talented and dedicated members of my research group. Their insight and hard work are what really mattered, and they are the true recipients of this recognition," Liu told Xinhua.

This year's list also includes Marica Branchesi. The astronomer is a member of the Virgo collaboration, which operates a gravitational wave detector near Pisa, Italy. Branchesi helped bring together more than 3,500 researchers who captured the collision of two neutron stars in detail, according to Nature.

Meanwhile, Khaled Toukan, a physicist who kept the Middle East's first synchrotron light source on track, is among Nature's top ten.

Nature's 10 are not just about scientists, and policy makers are also featured in the list. Lassina Zerbo, head of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, is included for his hard work on encouraging nuclear non-proliferation.
Attackers burst into an elementary school where a Christmas party was taking place and shot reporter Gumaro Perez to death Tuesday, making him at least the 10th journalist slain in Mexico this year in what observers have called a crisis of freedom of expression.

The Veracruz state security coordinator said in a statement that dozens of parents and children were present when the unidentified attackers shot Perez, whose own child attends the school in the city of Acayucan.

Perez, 34, covered crime for a number of local outlets, had founded the online news site La Voz del Sur and also worked for the local government in some capacity.

Advertisement

He was part of a state program designed to protect journalists as they carry out certain high-risk coverage, separate from a federal government program known as the mechanism that offers reporters measures like panic buttons on their cellphones and home security.

He belonged to the preventive program for safe coverage of this Commission since 2015, which refers to mechanisms for reporting that diminish danger in high-risk events, the Veracruz State Commission for Attention and Protection of Journalists said in a statement. Nevertheless, regrettably, he had not made us aware of having received any threats that could have put him at risk.

Commission president Ana Laura Vazquez said the group would monitor the investigation and urged the government of the gulf coast state to bring his killers to justice.

Adelina Mendoza, Perezs widow, said in an interview published by the local branch of the online news outlet E-Consulta that for the last year she had begged him to leave journalism and open a restaurant with her, but he refused.

She told E-Veracruz.mx that Perez arrived on time at the holiday party Tuesday and planned to keep their son company so she could leave early.

While Perez remained indoors, I went outside and my son went out of the room with his little friends, Mendoza was quoted as saying. I hugged him, I gave him a kiss because I was leaving, and right then I heard the gunshots. But I thought they were fireworks that some child had brought.

God knows how to do things, because my son never saw his father die, she said.

Gov. Miguel Angel Yunes condemned the shooting and said he ordered state police to provide protection to the journalists family.

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Roberta Jacobson wrote on Twitter that she was offended by Perezs death at the hands of cowardly killers.

The truth cannot be killed by killing journalists, Jacobson tweeted.

Mexico is one of the worlds deadliest countries for journalists, and Veracruz, plagued by drug gang violence and corruption, is seen as the worst state, with several killed there this year

They include Candido Rios, a hard-nosed crime reporter for Diario de Acayucan, who was shot to death on Aug. 22 at a highway gas station convenience store about 25 miles from Acayucan despite having been enrolled in the federal protection program.

Newspaper columnist Ricardo Monlui was killed in the Veracruz town of Yanga, near the city of Cordoba, on March 19 as he left a restaurant with his wife and son. The attacker appeared to have been lying in wait.

And Armando Arrieta Granados, news editor for the newspaper La Opinion de Poza Rica, Veracruz, was seriously wounded in late March in a shooting outside his home.

According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, 95 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 1992. In 43 of those cases the motive has been confirmed as being directly related to the victims work  including six in 2017, higher than any other year in that period, the group says.

UPDATES:

9:15 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details on the attack and comments from Miguel Angel Yunes, Adelina Mendoza and Roberta Jacobson.

This article was originally published at 1:35 p.m.
Yiwu is the largest small commodity wholesale market in the world. You can find almost anything in this county-level city in China's Zhejiang province. Over 75,000 stores in Yiwu International Trade Market are filled with merchants from all over the world, who try to dig business opportunities from over 1.8 million kinds of commodities here.

People say that if you spend 8 hours a day roaming the market and only 3 minutes in each store, it would take you a year and a half to finish your shopping-adventure here.

This is massive. Ive never seen anything like it." said Yahye Dineh, a merchant from Seattle, United States, who was doing business at Yiwu International Trade Market for the first time, "This is the first time I had to take a cab ride from one side of the district to another just to find something else.

During the first nine months of the year, Yiwu exported 168.9 billion yuan worth of goods. Thats $25.6 billion, a year-on-year growth of 5 percent. Today, Yiwu has trade ties with over 219 countries and regions around the globe.

If you are about to receive your Christmas presents, chances are they are made in China, exported from Yiwu. Around 60% of the world's Christmas decorations and presents come from factories surrounding Yiwu. But inside Yiwu International Trade Market, everyday feels like Christmas.

"For Christmas, foreign traders come to our shop to select our products or make orders online." said Cao Xiaogang, chairman of Xie Xin Toys Co., Ltd, "Thanks to the Belt and Road Initiative and the Yiwu-Europe freight trains, our Christmas sales have increased by 20-30% this year."

Remote control cars designed by Chinese companies. (People's Daily Online/Kou Jie)

Cao started selling toys about 30 years ago. At first, he only had one square meter of space to do business. Later he got a bigger shop. He said Yiwu International Trade Market supports vendors like him in expanding his small businesses internationally. Now he has over 120 employees doing sales.

The trade market is also expanding internationally. According to Lou Yuanbin, director of supply chain and foreign cooperation of Zhejiang China Commodities City Group Co., Ltd, the trade market has plans with Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Moscow-based company Kiev Square to collaboratively open branch markets overseas. "We are also planning to open markets in Southeast Asia." said Lou, "The Belt and Road Initiative has been guiding companies like ours to actively expand overseas.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. (Photo: VCG)

Never has Australia been so anxious as today in its foreign policy, especially when its Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull asserted he will "stand up" in response to "China's criticism."

New foreign interference laws were introduced to the Australian parliament earlier this month and many believed the bills were targeted at China.

Senator Sam Dastyari's resignation over his links to Chinese donors to Labor Party coffers is considered a symbolic moment in the breakdown of this complacent and inward-looking approach toward China.

Australian media has never provided any solid evidence despite accusing Dastyari of being bought by a Chinese millionaire connected to the Communist Party of China. Many observers were surprised by the fierce reaction on the Australian side. It seemed like China was shot lying down.

The Chinese Embassy in Canberra says some Australian media have fabricated news stories while some politicians and bureaucrats have made irresponsible remarks. China's foreign ministry accused Turnbull of "poisoning" the bilateral relationship.

Australia has witnessed steady development of trade with China, ranging from iron ore and coal, through beef and fruit, dairy products and vitamins to tourism and education. The Australian business community is deeply concerned that the relationship with Beijing has reached a tipping point and has urged the government to ensure political tensions not damage bilateral trade, Chinese students or tourist numbers.

Australian relations are finely balanced, while former Australian ambassador to China Geoff Raby has warned that a sustained period of turbulence could reduce international demand for higher education in Australia, according to John Brumby, chairman of the Australia China Business Council.

Phil Honeywood, chief executive of the International Education Association of Australia, warned that there have been times when China responded to tension by targeting higher education markets.

"This occurred with Chinese students going to New Zealand about a decade ago because of concerns about the quality of education provided in New Zealand. That was quite a massive downturn for the New Zealand international education industry," Honeywood said.

Australia and China have come a long way together since the establishment of diplomatic relations. As Rowan Callick, a correspondent in Beijing, wrote for The Australian newspaper, China has become the biggest buyer of many of Australia's most important products while at the same time Australia is the largest supplier of crucial drivers of China's economy including iron ore and liquefied natural gas. Trade has multiplied 1,372 times in the past 45 years.

With so much Australian trade already tied to China, the future will be shaped by the strength of the bilateral relationship. Conversely, the biggest threat to Australia's exports to Asia would be a deterioration of the political relationship with China.

Australian business leaders are always reluctant to become involved in political debate, particularly when that debate involves China. But the stalemate will be a stark reminder to business leaders that politics may now be in danger of damaging what until now has been a thriving business and trade relationship.
The panda cub's name Xiang Xiang is derived from the Chinese character for "fragrance." (Photo: AFP)

Panda cub Xiang Xiang made her public debut on Monday morning 190 days after her birth at Japans Ueno Zoo.

At 9:45 am local time, Xiang Xiang was seen climbing a stump before meeting her Japanese fans. Its the first time Japanese visitors have been able to see a panda in a zoo since 1988 when male panda You You met the public.

Xiang Xiang was born in Japan on June 12. The cub has grown from 147 grams at birth to more than 12 kilograms.

China hopes Xiang Xiang will continue to promote peace and friendship with Japan and the two peoples, said Wang Wan, counselor at the friendly exchange office of the Chinese Embassy in Japan.

When Kang Kang and Lan Lan arrived at Tokyos Ueno Zoo early in October 1972 to commemorate the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan, they immediately caused a sensation.

Since her birth, Xiang Xiang has repeatedly earned Japanese media headlines. She was formally named Xiang Xiang on September 25 through the participation of more than 320,000 people.

To enable more people to see Xiang Xiang, Ueno Zoo from Monday will broadcast in real time.

Xiang Xiang has brought great economic benefits, about 26.7 billion yen (1.57 billion yuan) to Tokyo annually, according to statistics from Kansu University Honorary Professor Miyamoto Shohor.

Ueno Station, the nearest metro station to Ueno Zoo, is panda-themed with a variety of posters, food and beverages.
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.
The Portlaoise Hospital Action Committee is pleased to respond to the statement from Minister for Health Simon Harris.

The Minister confirmed that he has ordered the Department of Health to engage in a consultation process with local clinicians and the community in Laois and the surrounding areas. Whilst we acknowledge that this will delay the Ministers decision on the future of Portlaoise Hospital, we believe that this is appropriate.



Chairperson, Thomas Timmons said: "We really welcome this development. Two days in a row, the Minister for Health has made sound decisions with respect to this matter. We will have to wait longer for a decision but he is right to not rush a decision on a report which has so many process flaws!"



Secretary, John Hanniffy stated: "The Minister is showing us that, like us, he lacks confidence in this plan. We are very happy that he is now calling for due process to be recognized and followed."

"We are delighted that the Minister, in calling for consultation, understands that any strategy for equitable, consistent and accessible health care cannot be achieved without working with local clinicians and with the community," said Eimear Holland, PRO.

"We have great respect for and faith in our local clinicians, who already have an alternative plan, which is draws on principles of collaboration and partnership and which is more cost-effective whilst ensuring safe and effective health care. Meaningful consultation will lead to a better plan for Portlaoise Hospital"

The committee is very aware that this decision has been brought to a head, due to the hard work of the people of Laois and the surrounding areas. We would also like to thank our TDs who clearly played a role in this outcome. They have been united, singing from the same hymn sheet. Party politics was put to the side with everyone focused on the one point; that our hospital cannot be downgraded in any way.

As such, they and the people have not allowed the HSE or the DMHG to ignore this important issue. They have shone a blinding spotlight on it helping the Minister to see that a decision cant be made without the people. We thank all concerned for their work in making this happen.
A meat factory production manager who claims he was unfairly suspended by his employer later made a protected disclosure about alleged food safety breaches to Food Safety Authority of Ireland, the High Court has heard.

The disclosure has been made by Alvaro Carvalho who works for Carrolls Cuisine Unlimited Company, based in Tullamore, Co Offaly which processes and packages beef, chicken, pork, ham, and turkey products for sale in Ireland and abroad.

Mr Carvalho, of Harbour Drive, Tullamore seeks various orders from the Court including an injunction restraining his employer from continuing any disciplinary process into alleged misconduct against him.

He also seeks orders restraining the company from penalising, demoting or victimising him and that the company deals with grievances he raised.

The company "strenuously denies" all allegations it has breached food safety standards and says it takes its obligations in that regard "very seriously." It has contacted the FSAI and the Department of Agriculture about the allegations.

Mr Carvalho who has worked with Carrolls Cuisine since 2013 was suspended in October for allegedly for having a lack of respect and empathy for fellow employees.

In a sworn statement to the court he said there is "no substance" to those claims and says he was not given a chance to deal with the allegations. The suspension was a way to force him to resign.

Following his suspension he says a senior manager told him there was one way to stop this and that was for him to make an offer and he would get an excellent reference.

He said earlier this year the company began to expanded production at the plant.

He said the pressure to increase production "got out of control" last September when senior management instructed staff to increase production to "an inordinate degree."

This placed an "intolerable burden" on both him and staff at the plant.

In order to meet those targets "food safety standards were blatantly ignored" and "normal cleaning and hygiene protocols were compromised," he said.

He said he was unhappy with the pressure to increase production and was unwilling to be a party to these dangerous practices and resisted them. He said he believes he was targeted by senior management as he had become "an obstacle to their business ambitions. "

Following his suspension an investigation, which he says he was denied fair procedures, was carried out in November which found the allegations against him did not merit any further investigation at this stage.

However he said that certain comments contained in the report said it appeared Mr Carvalho had shouted at colleagues acted in an aggressive manner towards them.were damaging to him, and in his proceedings seeks to have them quashed.

In late November he made a disclosure to FSAI because concerns he had raised had not been dealt with by management.

In early December his suspension was lifted but on his return to work he said "drastic changes" were imposed on him without his consent including that his shifts were changed from eight hours to 12 hours in length, he was moved to a smaller office, and that he was demoted.

He also claims that his job was advertised by the defendant.

He claims this was done to humiliate and undermine him because of his health and safety protest. He has been off work for some weeks and is on holiday leave.

In a sworn statement the company's Managing Director Kieran Carolan said the application is misconceived, and there was no basis for the injunctions sought.

He also denied any breaches of food safety standards.

He said Mr Carvalho is not subject to any disciplinary process and there are no adverse findings on his personnel record. He denied that work changes had been imposed on Mr Carvalho following his return to work.

Mr Carolan said Mr Carvalho did not raise any issues about food safety or hygiene with senior management prior to his suspension.

He said when the company eventually got details of the complaints it made contact with the relevant veterinary officials at the Dept of Agriculture and with the FSAI.

He said that food safety standards at the plant are regularly audited and checked by bodies including the Dept of Agriculture and by its customers.

The plant was audited by the British Retail Consortium in November.

Mr Carolan said the consortium had verbally confirmed that following the audit the plant will continue to hold the A grade status awarded by the body.

He rejected claims by Mr Carvalho including his allegations management instructed staff to increase production to levels where food safety standards were compromised.

The application for an injunction, pending the outcome of the full hearing of Mr Carvalho's action, was heard by Ms Justice Eileen Creedon who has reserved judgment.
Laois TD and Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan believes his colleague Simon Harris has stopped an 'ill-advised and flawed' downgrade process by embarking on a public consultation process on the future of Portlaoise hospital.

While the Minister for Health has not scrapped the HSE's Dublin Midlands Hospital Group plan, his Laois colleague believes it downgrade has been halted.

"I am very pleased that Simon Harris has stopped this train. It was ill-advised and fundamentally flawed. He has ordered a consultation process to be run by the Department of Health and not this HSE. That is important.

"He is committed to meeting the doctors again which is a restatement of a commitment he gave when he met them last April.

"We now have a consultation process which was refused by the HSE. It is an opportunity for local medics, doctors and nurses, local public representatives and the Portlaoise Hospital Action Committee to have their voices heard.

"I always maintained that this would been done better through dialogue than street protest," he said.

Minister Flanagan said the alternative plan drawn up by doctors which, he said came about at his instigation, is "very much on the table".

Laois Sinn Fein TD Brian Stanley said the consultation should not be used as a fudge. Minister Flanagan agreed and said the HSE must plan for the hospital to be 'busy' and not downgraded.

"I don't want a period of uncertainty. Ultimately what we need is a busy regional hospital that will meet the needs of the people of the midlands," he said.

Minister Flanagan said a new Dublin Midlands Hospital Group board will be appointed in the New Year the groups chief executive Dr Susan O'Reilly will also have departed the scene.

Asked if Minister Harris should have began a consultation process before now Minister Flanagan said the lack of a HSE consultation has resulted

"If the HSE had to act in accordance with their mission statement the controversy of the last year could have been avoided," he said.

The Portlaoise Hospital Action Committee have welcomed the consultation process.

Laois Fianna Fail TD Sean Fleming said his party leader Micheal Martin was shocked to learn of the lack of consultation when he met the action committee and doctors today.

Under the HSE /DMHG plan, Portlaoise hospital was due to be radically reconfigured. A&E, ICU, maternity, paediatrics were all due to be removed. The DMHG want to downgrade the hospital to Category 2 hospital with a focus on day care.

The hospital campaign group had threatened to protest in Dublin this week where the DMHG planned to launch a linked strategy for seven hospitals. It outlined in summary the removal of 24/7 emergency care from Portlaoise.

It is understood that this was called off after the Minister for Health intervened. The DMHG says it still intends to launch the strategy in 2018.
File photo

On October 26, 2017, the US Department of Commerce released its latest report, maintaining its classification of China as a non-market economy.

To support its conclusion, the report listed six criteria, ranging from currency convertibility, free bargaining for wages, foreign investment, to government's ownership or control of production, government control over the allocation of resources, and other appropriate factors.

These accusations played the same old tune, indicating that China is dumping goods to other countries using currency manipulation and providing preferential treatment to State-owned enterprises. Following the example of the US, the EU also deemed China as a "non-market economy."

The biased classification of the US and the EU not only contradicts the spirit of the WTO agreement but also neglects the tremendous achievements of the socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics. They also overlooked the diversified historical and cultural tradition of different countries. Chinas development during the past decade deserves a market economy status.

First of all, according to the WTO accession protocol China signed in 2001, the nation would automatically be recognized as a "market economy," which means the surrogate country provision terminated on December 11, 2016. Item 15(d) of the protocol made it clear that in any event, the provisions of 15(a) (ii) shall expire 15 years later.

However, China has not received the legal rights conferred by the protocol. Some Western economies, headed by the US and the EU, have refused to identify the status of China's market economy and continue dumping their accusations against China. This has severely breached the contract and broke international law. This is a new kind of protectionism, and such practice is incompatible with the trend of globalization and will impede the global economic recovery, undermine world peace and development as well.

Secondly, China has an established socialist market economy system and made remarkable achievements since the reform and opening up movement. China not only lifted more than 700 million people out of poverty, regarded as a miracle of human development, but also contributed significantly to world economic growth.

It is a gross distortion of the socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics by turning a blind eye to Chinas economic and historical development and continuing to identify China as anon-market economy.

Facts speak louder as Chinas practice has proved that the socialist market economy is also a sound economic system, which suits Chinas economic and social development.

Since its entry into the WTO, China has embarked on sweeping reforms in every field and gained recognition from numerous countries.

Speaking of a manufacturing industry, China never stopped its reform of State-owned enterprises. Private enterprises and foreign capital have been introduced into the monopoly sectors, which helped form a pattern of open competition.

In the monetary and financial sectors, China conducted a joint-stock reform of its major State-owned commercial banks. All the big four State-owned banks were listed overseas after establishing a modern corporate governance structure. Moreover, China has realized currency convertibility and promoted cross-border trade settlement through Chinese yuan. Since 2005, China has gradually decreased foreign exchange control, adopting a managed floating exchange rate system based on market supply and demand.

Besides, China has actively participated in the world trade system and established free trade zones with ASEAN and South Korea, which has effectively promoted regional trade development.

To attract foreign direct investment, China further opened its domestic market, adopting unified corporate income tax between domestic and international enterprises (25 percent). China has implemented some preferential measures to encourage foreign direct investment.

To protect property rights, China has promulgated property law and enterprise bankruptcy law in 2007. China also implements the new labor contract law to ensure that salary is determined by the market.

All these facts showed that the socialist market economy system has gradually improved and its achievements are being universally recognized. A total of 81 countries around the world have recognized China's "market economy status." The denial of Chinas market economy status by the US, Japan and the EU cannot change the fundamental fact.

Thirdly, the low cost of Chinese goods is determined endogenously by economic factors, rather than the result of government support and manipulation.

One of the basic tenets of dumping products is that the prices of imported goods are below their "normal value." As a result, how to gauge "normal value" on the condition of fixed prices of imported goods is key to the definition of dumping.

In non-market economies, to determine whether the product is of "normal value," we cannot use the prices of similar domestic products as "normal value," but to let surrogate countries with similar products as a reference. It is highly likely to declare dumping to the "non-market economy status, when using a surrogate country to determine the normal value.

If the low prices and low cost of Chinese products are due to the government's manipulation of economy and trade, then using the prices of a "surrogate country" as the normal value would be reasonable. But, if the low prices and low cost are inherent in the economic development, such exports should be encouraged because it will bring benefits to the whole world.

Chinas advantages in cost come from the large number of surplus labor, which is the result of a demographic dividend and the spirit of the Chinese nation (diligence and hard work). Therefore, China enjoys a lower labor cost, and the competitiveness of the economy is innate instead of from market factors.

Last but not least, the classification of China's non-market economy status by the US and the EU is not only an economic issue but also of political significance and represents competition of different values. The current market economy system, which represents the Western values, barely respects systems and culture of different countries.

Each country features its cultural tradition, leading to the various development of market economy. For the sake of peace, development and stability of the world, we should allow the existence of a US-styled market economy as well as the development of a market economy with Chinese characteristics.

As long as it can improve the living of its residents and contribute to the world's economic growth, such a market economy is a good one. It is unnecessary to judge Chinas economy by using the criteria of the US market economy.

Todays world is far from tranquil as the human beings are challenged by various threats and turbulence. Though the future of economic recovery is bright, it is still not out of the doldrums. At the moment, it is better to unite the world to establish a new partnership than to debate China's market economy status. A more inclusive world needs the creation of a community of shared future.

It is time to stop the unnecessary argument of Chinas market economy status.

(The author is an associate researcher at the Institute of Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
A Kildare South TD has vowed to fight for the seven Newbridge primary school children with special needs who have no secondary school place for next year.

The seven children are due to finish primary school at Scoil Na Naomh Uilig in June 2018, but to date none of these children have been able to secure an appropriate or suitable place locally.

The families will have to wait until January before they get any answers.

We have to keep the pressure on the government for our children, said to spokesperson Cecilia Semple, whose 12-year-old daughter Kelly is one of the children affected.

We wont know anything before Christmas and probably the end of January at this stage.

READ MORE: Pupils have to wait until after the holidays

Deputy Fiona OLoughlin TD said that it beggars belief that the Deptarment of Skills and Education have not recognised over the last ten years that this was going to be an issue this year.

I have been working with these parents for the last number of months, and quite frankly cannot believe how they have been treated, said Deputy OLoughlin.

Cecelia and her colleagues made the choice ten years ago to send their children to a mainstream school that could cater for their needs. Scoil an Naomh Uilig is a wonderful school and have an excellent unit. Last year the parents realising the situation came together to form a lobby group and I support them fully-I have also had them up in Leinster House at a Committee meeting around Special Education.

According to Deputy OLoughlin it is absolute disgrace the way these children have been treated,

I brought it up in the Dail chamber several times and no later than Thursday last, she added.

These parents made an informed choice to send their children to a mainstream school with the necessary resources ten years ago--surely there would have been an expectation that there would be a second level continuum at this point. As a last resource, parents felt there may be a place in St Annes Special school in the Curragh-but that is full to capacity.

It would be shocking to think that the children would have to travel very long distances outside of their home town. The chidren and their families are being let down by the Department and the Minister of Education-I will continue to fight with them.

The Department of Education have yet to respond to the Leader on the issue.
Pupils from primary schools in the greater Naas area took part in a recent art competition.

The Lions Club International Peace Poster competition attracted entries from some 450,000 children across the globe.

Lions Club International sponsors the programme with the aim of emphasising the importance of world peace to young people everywhere.

Katie Lynch, a sixth class pupil at St. Laurences National School in Sallins and Siofra Bartels Nic an Ghearr, a sixth class pupil at the Gaelscoil Nas na Riogh, at the Pipers Hill campus, were among the entrants.

And each won 150 for their respective schools.

Naas Lions Club president Cyriel Varwijk said he was impressed by the expression and creativity of all the participants.

It is apparent that these young people have strong ideas about what peace means to them. Im so proud that we were able to provide them with the opportunity to share their visions.

The winning posters were selected by a panel of judges focusing on originality, artistic merit and portrayal of the contest theme - the Future of Peace. Lions Club International is the worlds largest service club organisation with more than 1.35 million members in 210 countries and geographical areas around the world. Since 1917 Lions clubs have aided the blind and visually impaired and made a commitment to community service around the world.
Newbridge native Orla Tinsley, the renowned Cystic Fibrosis campaigner, has appealed from her US hospital bed for members of the public to carry organ donor cards.

The Kildare woman, who has been at the forefront of the fight for improved services for Cystic Fibrosis patients in Ireland, is waiting on a desperately-needed lung transplant in New York-Presbyterian hospital.

The well-known writer, whose book, Salty Baby, about her early years growing up in Kildare with the condition was released in 2011, moved to the US several years ago to study at Columbia University.

She has been on the list for a double lung transplant since earlier this year. She has received the transplant call six times so far, but unfortunately no set of lungs has yet proved suitable.

Orla tweeted yesterday that she was currently on life support fighting intensely. She appealed for members of the public to carry organ donor cards. Then you can live life and give life. Up to 8 people can be saved.

Please carry a donor card and let your family know your wishes. Then you can live life and give life. Up to 8 people can be saved. I am currently on life support fighting intensely. Love x #beatcf #cysticfibrosis  Orla Tinsley (@orlatinsley) December 19, 2017

She also posted a picture of her oxygen mask on instagram, stating  I am struggling a lot but I am strong and hopeful We are hopeful that lungs are coming. My family are with me and we just need those lungs to come. Thanks everyone for your love and prayers and best wishes.

A fundraising campaign to cover Orlas rehabilitation and other expenses after her transplant was set up earlier this year by her friend, the writer Belinda McKeown. It has, to date, raised over $85,000. You can donate here.
Japanese authorities on Monday confirmed the procurement of two new destroyers, noting that the decision was made to tackle Chinas increasing maritime expansion.

The minister of finance approved the allocation of 105.5 billion yen for the procurement of two new destroyers under the fiscal 2018 draft budget, as we need more destroyers for surveillance purposes due to Chinas maritime expansion and other factors, said Itsunori Onodera, Japans minister of defense on Tuesday, who added that China has been using the most advanced destroyers for its surveillance activities.

According to an announcement released by Japans defense ministry on Monday, the new destroyers can perform anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare operations, as well as other tasks, including minesweeping, which until now has been implemented by minesweepers.

Onoderas claims are supported by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who on the same day called on government to strengthen maritime security.

We will advance efforts to secure large patrol vessels equipped with helicopters for response in the territorial waters around the Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands, new jets for maritime surveillance, and large research vessels for maritime surveys, Abe said.

According to Abe, the maritime security environment remains severe, so Japan cannot let its guard down for even a moment.

Finger pointing has being escalating between China and Japan regarding the Diaoyu Islands in recent years, especially after Japan illegally purchased three disputed islands in 2012. China has repeatedly reiterated its sovereignty over the Islands, urging Japan to face up to history and stop all provocations that harm Chinas territorial sovereignty.
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.
China still has room for tax cuts after VAT reforms slash tax burden by 1.7 trillion RMB

China has cut 1.7 trillion RMB ($258 billion) of taxes after it replaced business tax with a value-added tax (VAT) in May 2016, Chinese newspaper Securities Daily reported Wednesday.

The tax reform has generally met expectations, noted Hu Genrong, a senior tax consultant with the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) during an interview with Securities Daily. According to him, the reform has not only lowered the burden on taxpayers, but also promoted the mass entrepreneurship and innovation strategy.

But as the biggest tax category of China that has broad and profound influence on the countrys modern economic pattern, the VAT system still needs to be further improved.

China is about to establish a provisional regulation on VAT that is applicable to all taxpayers as a basis for the VAT legislation, Hu noted.

The expert believes that China needs to further accelerate its fiscal and tax reform in the next year, and thinks that the country still has a lot of room for tax reduction.

It was learnt that four tax brackets had been adopted at the initial phase of the VAT reform, and one was canceled this July.

Though multiple tax brackets play a positive role at certain stages of economic and social development, the long-term co-existence of these brackets will increase both the cost of tax compliance and administrative costs, Hu said.

Huang Zhilong, macro-economy research chief at the Suning Institute of Finance, told Securities Daily that China needs to further cut taxes with the approaching new round of global tax reductions. In addition, unreasonable administrative fees which place economic burden on enterprises will also be a focus.

Statistics showed that corporate income tax accounted for 27.2% of Chinas tax revenue in the first three quarters of 2017. If corporate income tax could be reduced by a third, enterprises profits would go up by nearly 1 trillion RMB, noted Liu Zhe, director of Wanb Institutes New Supply Economics Research Center.

He believes that the rise in the return on investment will improve investment willingness, thus releasing supply potential and creating effective demands.
Aida Muluneh is an award-winning photographer and the founder of Addis Foto Festival

Award-winning Ethiopian photographer Aida Muluneh, founder and managing director of Desta for Africa (DFA), will give a talk on photography in Ethiopia at Darb 1718 on 27 December.

Muluneh will talk about her photographic practice, mentored by African-American photographers, and her mission to provide balance in the portrayal of Africa and black people.

She will also talk about establishing DESTA (Developing and Educating Society Through Art) and the DFA, a social entrepreneurship company that works with governmental and cultural institutions, making use of images, education and cultural diplomacy.

Muluneh will also share her experience in teaching photography and establishing The Addis Foto Festival  the first international photo-festival in East Africa - as well as the challenges of developing the creative industry and acquiring foreign funding for cultural activities in Africa.

Born in Ethiopia in 1974, Muluneh spent much of her childhood between Yemen and England. After several years in a boarding school in Cyprus, she settled in Canada in 1985. In 2000, she graduated from Howard University in Washington, DC, majoring in Film. She later worked as a photojournalist with the Washington Post, and her work can be found in several international publications.

Aidas work has been shown in South Africa, Mali, Senegal, Egypt, Canada, United States of America, France, Germany, England, China, and elsewhere. Her images are in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Hood Museum and the Museum of Biblical Art, all in the United States.

Muluneh won the European Union Prize in the Rencontres Africaines de la Photographie in Mali in 2007, in addition to the CRAF International Award of Photography in Spilimbergo, Italy in 2010.

She is considered an expert on photography from Africa, and has been invited to judge at several photography competitions, most notably the Sony World Photography Awards 2017 and the World Press Photo Contest 2017.

Programme:

Wednesday 27 December, at 6pm

Darb 1718, Kasr El-Shamaa, Old 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:


One military officer was killed and two people injured in the attack on an airport near Arish on Tuesday, according to a military press statement

Egypt's defence and interior ministers have returned to Cairo after a visit to North Sinai during which an airport was targeted in a missile attack, the military said in a statement on Wednesday.

The military published video footage early on Wednesday morning showing the two ministers stepping off a military aircraft.

They had travelled to North Sinai to inspect police and army forces in the area. During their visit, a missile was fired at an airport near the town of Arish in North Sinai, killing one military officer and injuring two other people, a military spokesman said via Facebook.

The attack caused "partial damage" to a helicopter, and Egyptian armed forces "dealt with the source of the fire," the spokesman added without elaborating further.

The Egyptian military has for several years been fighting an Islamist insurgency based in the North Sinai region. terrorists have killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen.

Hundreds of militants have also been killed in extensive campaigns to root out the insurgency.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


This is the second such incident to be reported this week

A man was killed and his mother seriously injured when their mud-brick house collapsed in Menoufiya governorate, north of Cairo, Egypt's state news agency MENA reported.

The small two-storey building was made of mud-brick and had a wooden ceiling.

This is the second such incident to be reported this week.

On Tuesday, a builder was killed and six others injured when the ceiling of an under-construction mosque collapsed in a town in Fayoum, south of Cairo.

Building collapses are not uncommon in Egypt and are usually attributed to violations of building regulations, illegal building extensions, and lax government oversight.

Last week, two people were killed and four others injured when two buildings collapsed in Cairo's district of Rod El-Farag.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church announced on Wednesday that its Christmas mass on 7 January 2018 will be held for the first time at the newly built cathedral in the new administrative capital, MENA news agency reported.

In January 2017, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi announced that the countrys largest mosque and church would be built at the new capital as a symbol of coexistence, following the terrorist attack that killed at least 27 people in December 2016 at St. Peter and St. Pauls Church in central Cairo.

Since 1969, the Coptic Orthodox Church had held its Christmas mass at the Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Church in Cairo.

Egypt's interior ministry announced on Tuesday that police will be on high-security alert during Christmas celebrations, which start next week, with 230,000 security personnel to secure 2,626 churches nationwide.

Egyptian churches have been targeted repeatedly by Islamist terrorists in recent years.

The countrys new administrative capital is set to be completed in 2020.

Located some 40 km to the east of Cairo, the under-construction city is part of the governments plan to expand urban areas to deal with the country's rapid population growth and improve the nation's infrastructure.

The government has started building 25,000 residential units in the city so far.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

DISCOVERY GREEN

1500 McKinney; discoverygreen.com

"A Madea Christmas"

Madea, right, dispenses her unique form of holiday spirit on a rural town when she's coaxed into helping a friend pay her daughter a surprise visit in the country for Christmas. 7 p.m. Thursday

MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, HOUSTON

1001 Bissonnet; mfah.org

"Loving Vincent"

In a story depicted in oil-painted animation, a young man comes to the last hometown of painter Vincent van Gogh to deliver the troubled artist's final letter and ends up investigating his final days there. 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday.

MEMORIAL CITY MALL

303 Memorial City Way; memorialcity.com

"Elf"

A man raised as an elf at the North Pole is sent to the U.S. in search of his true identity. 7 p.m. Friday

"Tangled"

The magically long-haired Rapunzel has spent her entire life in a tower, but now that a runaway thief has stumbled upon her, she is about to discover the world for the first time - and who she really is. 7 p.m. Tuesday

"The Little Mermaid"

A mermaid princess makes a Faustian bargain with an unscrupulous sea witch in order to meet a human prince on land. Wednesday 7 p.m.

14 PEWS

800 Aurora; 14pews.org

"The Breadwinner"

A headstrong young girl in Afghanistan disguises herself as a boy in order to provide for her family. 7 p.m. Friday

"The Divine Order"

In 1971, a young housewife organizes the women of her town to petition for the right to vote. 7 p.m. Saturday

"Jane"

The life and work of the renowned primatology scientist Jane Goodall are explored, especially her research about chimpanzees. 7 p.m. Monday

ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE CINEMA

531 Mason, Katy; drafthouse.com/houston

"Christmas Evil"

A toy-factory worker, mentally scarred as a child upon learning Santa Claus is not real, suffers a nervous breakdown, after being belittled at work, and embarks on a Yuletide killing spree. 10 p.m. Friday

RIVER OAKS THEATRE

2009 W. Gray; landmarktheatres.com

"Die Hard"

An NYPD officer tries to save his wife and several others taken hostage by a German terrorist during a Christmas party. Midnight Friday and Saturday

CENTRAL GREEN PARK

23501 Cinco Ranch, Katy; drafthouse.com

"How the Grinch Stole Christmas"

On the outskirts of Whoville lives a green, revenge-seeking Grinch who plans on ruining the Christmas holiday for all of the citizens of the town. Dusk Saturday

HOUSTON MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE

5555 Hermann Park Drive; hmns.org

"Museum Alive 3-D"

Witness what it would be like if the museum exhibitions came to life. Multiple screenings daily

"Incredible Predators 3-D"

Deconstructs the world of major predators and looks at the strategies they use to succeed. Multiple screenings daily

"Sea Monsters 3-D"

A prehistoric adventure transports the audience back to the Late Cretaceous, when a great inland sea divided North America. Multiple screenings daily
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Chef David Guerrero is no stranger to arepas. He's had them on his menu at Andes Cafe since the casual neighborhood restaurant, dedicated to the foods of South America, opened in 2014.

But four trips to Venezuela in recent years have intensified his appreciation of the griddled corn cakes, which are practically the national dish of Venezuela and enjoyed widely in Colombia as well.

His arepa passion is now manifest in Gordi's Arepas & More, the new vendor in the Conservatory food hall downtown.

Actually, it isn't in the basement space with the other food-hall vendors. It's at the street-level entrance in a snug kiosk space that Conservatory owners have used to feature pop-ups and tryouts for potential full-service vendors downstairs. But Guerrero's idea for a permanent space dedicated to the joys of the South American corn pockets made sense to Conservatory, which installed him several weeks ago in the very visible entrance space.

More Information Gordi's Arepas & More 1010 Prairie at Conservatory food hall, 832-894-2343 See More Collapse

"I'm so into arepas," said Guerrero, who will be one of the featured chefs in the new Bravery Chef Hall concept opening downtown next summer. "They're filling, casual, and you can make them with anything you want."

True, arepas, which can be fried, baked or griddle cooked, are thick corn cakes open to a variety of fillings. The Gordi's menu features assorted cold and hot arepas with amusing names: Phat Queen is a grilled arepa filled with chicken, avocado, green onions and sweet peas; The Best features braised beef, black beans, plantains and cheese; The Blondie offers shredded chicken and Muenster cheese; Domino is black beans and cheese; Cousin It boasts shredded flank steak; and The Snooty Girl likes hers with braised pork leg, avocado and cheese. The menu also offers daily and brunch-special arepas that may include the Porky Cowboy (Black Forest ham, two kinds of cheese and avocado), Sweetheart (sweet plantains, black beans, avocado and cheese), or Pericos (scrambled egg, bacon and Muenster cheese). Last month, Gordi's offered the Altuve Special (braised pork leg, braised beef and cheeses) to honor Astros star and Venezuelan native Jose Altuve.

In addition to arepas, the menu includes wrap sandwiches made with cachapas, a sweet corn pancake. These are also filled with a variety of braised and grilled meats, cheeses and avocado.

The "& More" part of the menu is dedicated to smoothies, such as passion fruit, papaya, mango and Venezuelan chocolate.

Arepas and cachapas wraps range in price from $6.99 to $8.99; smoothies are $3.99.

"It's not like I invented the arepa," Guerrero said, "but I want to show people here what they are."
Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi discussed the latest developments in North Sinai with Minister of Defence Sedky Sobhi and Minister of Interior Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar following their inspection of police and army forces in the governorate on Tuesday, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement on Wednesday.

The two ministers presented a report to the president about the security situation in North Sinai and the procedures taken by the army and police to fight terrorism and ensure stability and security.

As the ministers were conducting their field visit in North Sinais El-Arish, the citys airport was hit in a missile attack that killed one military officer and injured two other people, according to the Armed Forces.

The attack caused "partial damage" to a helicopter, and Armed Forces personnel dealt with the source of the attack, the Egyptian army spokesman said on Tuesday without providing further details.

The two ministers returned to Cairo early Wednesday morning.

The head of General Intelligence Khaled Fawzi and the head of Military Intelligence Mohamed Farag Shehata also attended the meeting.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


A handful of job postings appear to show popular restaurant Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. will soon have a San Antonio location.

Managers, including those for retail, the dining room and the kitchen, are needed at the local Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurant, according to the postings on the Landry's website and job sites Indeed and Glassdoor.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Police investigators said Wednesday that a woman who recently lost a child could be responsible for a slaying in northwest Houston after which a baby was also abducted Tuesday morning.

The mother of a 6-week-old infant was found dead Tuesday in her Greenspoint-area apartment, and her baby was missing. The Houston Police Department issued an Amber Alert Tuesday night for the child and a man identified by authorities as her father.

At a press conference outside the scene of the crime, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo asked for the public to be on the lookout for women or families who recently lost a child, or who might present the baby as their own or as a newborn. The missing infant is named Chamali Flores, police said.

The chief said that is simply a theory at the moment, but noted that the nature of the crime is consistent with others in which a baby was abducted by those who have lost children. The chief noted that nothing was taken from the home.

Acevedo also said it appears the person responsible for the killing was familiar with the apartment complex.

Search teams were preparing to search the area with bloodhounds Wednesday afternoon, and FBI abduction teams are assisting with the search.

Acevedo also said that the case has been difficult because of fears of law enforcement among other occupants of the apartment complex, many of whom are Hispanic.

"We're not worried about immigration status," Acevedo said. "We are worried about getting this baby back safely where she belongs."

The child's father, whose name police clarified on Wednesday as Marcos Mariano Thomas Palacios, 34, was sought and questioned by police Tuesday night. Acevedo declined to offer specifics on what he told police, though the chief said Palacios was cooperative.

Carolina Flores, the missing child's 33-year-old mother, was found dead around noon in the 180 block of Goodson, police said. An Amber Alert was issued Tuesday evening for her missing daughter, Chamali Flores.

Now Playing: Latest Local And State News Video: Houston Chronicle

Authorities initially said they believed that Chamali was taken by her father. The woman's body, which had multiple stab wounds, was found on the floor of her apartment by a family member. Several people apparently lived in the apartment with the woman, Spivey said.

The father did not live in the apartment, and police declined to provide details about their relationship.

Anyone with information about the case is urged to call Houston Police Department at 713-308-3600.

This is a breaking news story. Check back here for developments.




This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

The U.S. House of Representatives passed an expansive $1.5 trillion tax bill on Tuesday 227-203.

One of those dissenting votes belongs to Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, who said this bill disproportionately benefits the wealthy and doesn't do enough to help the middle and lower class.

"I genuinely wanted to support this legislation, but after analyzing the details, it fails to accomplish certain goals that true tax reform should strive to achieve," Cuellar is quoted as saying in a news release.

READ MORE: Laredo Congressman Henry Cuellar touts $1.5M grant for Laredo PD

Ten percent of households in Cuellar's district make less than $10,000 a year  41 percent make less than $35,000 annually, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

"I represent a poor congressional district," he said.

If this bill passes through the Senate and receives President Donald Trump's signature, Texans making less than $23,580 a year will see a 1 percent tax reduction. The average income in this bracket is $14,400, so these earners would pocket $140 a year, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

Texans making between $23,580 and $39,270 will see a 1.5 percent tax reduction, an average change of about $470 annually per person.

Meanwhile, the Texans with an income of $232,000 to $660,000 will have their taxes cut 3.8 percent. A person with an average income in this bracket, $347,500, will be taking home $13,210 that would otherwise be going to the federal government.

Households bringing in $200,000 or more annually make up 2.9 percent of Cuellar's constituents.

MORE ON LMTOnline.com: Laredoans enjoy a Holiday Extravaganza at Slaughter Park

He said the authors of this bill believe in trickle-down economics. And while a very small portion of his district will be receiving these larger individual tax cuts, in many Republican representatives' districts, it's probably the opposite, he said.

Cuellar told LMT that he met with President Trump, his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner in an effort to make this bill bipartisan. But they wanted a straight Republican bill, he said.

"People know I'm probably one of the most bipartisan folks out there," but there was no compromise, Cuellar said.

On top of disproportionate benefits to the wealthy, Cuellar notes that these individual tax cuts are temporary, while the bill's corporate tax cuts are permanent.

Cuellar said that these individual tax cuts should be permanent too.

"I think we ought to treat businesses and individuals equitably," he said.

Plus, millions of families may end up with a de facto tax increase because this bill gets rid of a lot of deductions, Cuellar said. And around 30,000 people in his district will lose health coverage due to the cuts this bill triggers to Medicare and health care, he said.

In 2010, Cuellar's Republican friends were saying that tax bills by the Democrats were increasing the debt, he said.

READ MORE: Laredo's college graduates share their immaculate memories on social media

"This one adds $1.5 trillion to the national debt," Cuellar said.

Cuellar noted that when he was a member of the Texas House of Representatives, he co-authored the largest tax cut in Texas history.

"And in Congress I've repeatedly crossed the aisle to support legislation that cut taxes and burdensome regulations. While this proposal fails to accomplish the true tax reform goals that our constituents want and need, I will continue to advocate for tax cuts at all levels," Cuellar is quoted as saying in a news release.
An Egyptian criminal court acquitted on Wednesday former housing minister Ahmed Maghraby and former tourism minister Zuheir Garana, both of whom served under former president Hosni Mubarak, of profiteering and squandering public funds between 2005 and 2010.

Maghraby and Garana were retried in a case where Maghraby was accused of selling a piece of state-owned land in the Red Sea resort city of Hurghada for $1.4 million below market price to a tourism company where Garana was a major stakeholder.

In March 2013, the two ministers were acquitted in the case, but a top appeals court reversed the verdict and ordered a retrial upon an appeal by the prosecutor-general.

Last month, the same court acquitted Garana in a 2016 case where he and his family were charged with illegally acquiring EGP 19 million during his tenure as minister from 2005 to 2011.

Garana still faces trial over two corruption and illicit gain cases.

Maghraby is also still being tried for graft in another case.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Even before it completely falls apart, even before it begins to seem as though it were being made up on the spot, Downsizing is strangely unlovable. Its a place we dont want to visit, a world we dont want to inhabit. Watching it feels like work.

Co-written and directed by Alexander Payne, the movie is an intelligent persons response to the environmental and economic anxieties plaguing the modern world. Dumb sci-fi movies are all about the destruction of the universe, but Downsizing is more localized, serious and despairing. Its whole atmosphere is depressed  post-hope.

In the movies first scene, scientists develop a process by which people can be shrunk to 5 inches in height, a process designed to reduce the human footprint and save the planet. But in practice  this is the movies one genuinely clever and poetic touch  people are attracted to downsizing for economic reasons. For an outlay of just $150,000, a person can buy a mansion and finance a life of leisure, without ever having to work again.

Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig play a fortyish couple, struggling to buy a first house. They become attracted to downsizing because they grasp that, in the full-size economy, they are always going to be struggling. Though they approach downsizing with some enthusiasm and expectation, we cant help but see this the way Payne and co-screenwriter Jim Taylor see it, as the self-abnegation of the middle-class, as two people willing to erase themselves and do violence to their own bodies because of the way wealth is allocated in modern America.

This is a provocative and arresting opening, but its only an opening, and from there Payne must deliver. He does, but only in small ways, such as the careful rendering of Leisureland, the downsized community. In terms of story, or at least narrative interest, Downsizing is essentially over less than a third of the way in. Paul (Damon) floats through the movie with a sadness that never lifts, which reflects the movies outlook and philosophy.

You know a film is bad when even Christoph Waltz cant save it. He plays Pauls upstairs neighbor, who is always having wild parties in his fancy apartment, and for a time we think, OK, good, something fun will come from this character. Hes full of mischief. Hes a black marketeer, pirating luxury items (wines, cigars) to the small communities. But nothing really happens.

Instead, Payne bogs himself down in a story line about a Vietnamese dissident (Hong Chau), who stows away to Leisureland and, because she didnt buy in, ends up as a cleaning woman. This leads to a whole rumination on income inequality within Leisureland itself, with the idea, I suppose, that even in a downsized community, hierarchies based on exploitation are inevitable. But it all seems so tired, so good, so preachy, so weak, so without vitality or promise, as though Payne were just indulging in liberal despair, rather than thinking his way through the story.

It doesnt help that he guides Hong Chau to a sentimental performance, full of tearful outbursts, or that he seems to forget that Waltz is even in the picture. Meanwhile theres poor Matt Damon: If you see Downsizing  but why would you?  pay attention to Damon in the movies last 45 minutes. Notice how hes hanging on by his fingernails, really trying. This is an experienced actor pushing through the scenes, actively willing the screenplay to work by investing in every moment. And he can do nothing.

In the end, Downsizing doesnt get past its original conceit and doesnt even work out the implications of its premise. What about predators? When the little people go boating in Norway, what about birds and insects? By the end, Downsizing is one of those great ideas that should have just stayed an idea.

Mick LaSalle is The San Francisco Chronicles movie critic. Email: mlasalle@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MickLaSalle

Downsizing

Sci-fi drama. Starring Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig, Christoph Waltz and Hong Chau. Directed by Alexander Payne. (R. 135 minutes.)
Fewer newborns with health problems in Katy will need to be transferred to the Texas Medical Center now that Katy Memorial Hermann Hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit was designated a Level III facility by the state.

This week, hospital officials confirmed the new rating from the Texas Department of State Health Services. Memorial Hermann Katy officials said thousands of babies are born every year at the hospital at 23900 Katy Freeway near the Grand Parkway.

"Receiving this designation further underscores our commitment to providing the highest level of patient care, especially for our tiniest patients," said Heath Rushing, the hospital's chief executive officer.

The be considered a Level III facility, the hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit - or NICU - had to meet several stringent standards, officials said.

The NICU must have sufficient staff on hand, such as a neonatologist, with the training and skill to handle high-risk medical procedures like a premature birth. The neonatologist or someone with a similar background may assist during a delivery if the child has birth defects or injuries. If the neonatologist is covering more than one hospital, a back up physician with similar skills must be on hand within 30 minutes.

"We know that having a baby in the NICU can be a stressful and emotional time," said Dr. Amir Khan, the NICU's medical director. "We hope this designation will provide comfort to parents, knowing that the physicians, nurses and respiratory therapists working in our NICU are specially trained to treat the range of complications that can arise with premature babies."

The new designation, Memorial Hermann Katy officials said, demonstrates their ability to address the needs of critically-ill neonatal babies with complex and congenital conditions.

"We strive to do everything we can to get the newest members of our community off to a healthy start," said Rushing, who is also CEO of Memorial Hermann Cypress Hospital.
Handout -- Memorial Herman

People who live in the east Montgomery County community of Bender Springs have another option in seeking treatment for minor illnesses and injuries.

Memorial Hermann has opened a new urgent care center on Riley Fuzzel Road in Bender Springs. The facility-open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.-hosts staff and equipment able to treat patients for a number of conditions that are not considered to be life-threatening such as the flu, fever, ear aches, insect bites, sprains, simple fractures, eye injuries and cuts requiring stitches. X-ray imaging and laboratory services are also available at the facility as well as sports, camp and school physicals. Doctors at the clinic can also treat patients as young as six-months old.
AT&T Inc., the phone carrier locked in a battle with the U.S. government over its Time Warner Inc. acquisition, lauded President Donald Trump and Congress for their tax-cut bill and said 200,000 U.S. workers will get a special $1,000 bonus to celebrate.

The payout is part of an effort by Corporate America to defy criticism that tax cuts for companies will benefit shareholders more than workers. Boeing Co. separately pledged $300 million Wednesday for employee training, improved workplace infrastructure and corporate giving, crediting the tax cuts.

Trump cited AT&T's bonus plan at a news conference Wednesday. "That's because of what we did. So that's pretty good," he said.

AT&T's relationship with the Trump administration has had its ups and downs. Even as Stephenson praised the president, the administration's Justice Department is busy preparing its antitrust case against AT&T's $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner. AT&T Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson has characterized the deal as strategically vital, but Trump has said the transaction would harm consumers.

On the other hand, AT&T scored a victory when the Republican-led Federal Communications Commission gutted utility-style regulations for internet service providers.

AT&T's payment will go to union-represented, non-management and front-line management employees, the company said Wednesday. The Dallas-based telecommunications giant also reiterated its plan to invest an additional $1 billion in the U.S. next year.

"This is a capital-freeing event," Stephenson said of the tax bill at an Economic Club of New York luncheon on Nov. 29. If Trump signs the bill before Christmas, employees will get their bonus over the holidays, AT&T said.

Phone carriers are among the companies that are likely to increase their capital spending because of the bill, which allows immediate tax deductions for such investments. AT&T and its rivals are upgrading their networks to provide faster speeds and more ubiquitous coverage as more devices get connected to the internet.

In the 2016 U.S. elections, Republican candidates got 62 percent of $2.7 million in donations to federal candidates from AT&T's political action committee that pools contributions from employees, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Stephenson has averaged a bonus of about $5.2 million over the past three years.
Egypt's Ministry of Interior says that police have arrested seven members of a gang responsible for stealing a shipment of 15,000 batteries imported for Egypt's first locally manufactured Smartphone 'Sico' earlier this week.

The ministry said in a statement that after interviewing the driver who was transporting the shipment from Damietta port to the Sico factory in Assiut, the ministry formed a search effort that led to the arrest of the main suspect behind the theft; the owner of a supply office identified as Alaa El-Din A.

According to investigators, the suspect collaborated with six other gang members in intercepting the shipment while en route to Assiut and loading the batteries onto two semi trailer trucks.

The shipment was then taken to a warehouse owned by the first suspect, who is already wanted in five other cases.

Police have recovered the stolen shipment, and the suspects have been referred to the prosecution.

Shortly after the theft, Egypt's Sico Technology company delayed the commercial launch of its Smartphone from late December to mid-January.

The company said that the thousands of pre-orders that have been made for the phone will now be delivered by mid-January.

The company has been planning to offer several types of regular and smart phones as well as the Sico tab.

Sico manufactures 58 percent of its products' components locally.

The Sico Smartphone was first unveiled at the inauguration of the 20th annual Information and Communication Technology Conference earlier this month.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


WASHINGTON - In just six seconds, the new ad from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee previews an attack that will have millions of dollars behind it in 2018.

"The Republican tax scheme gives huge breaks to corporations, but raises taxes on middle class families," says a narrator, as a woman checks her mailbox and recoils.

Democrats, routed but unified against the tax bill, plan to make it the centerpiece of a midterm campaign - one that may play out in a growing economy where the worst predictions about the tax cuts fall flat. Republicans, who once hoped that Democrats would feel pressured to back the bill, now suggest that voters will learn that the Democrats misled them.

"If we can't sell this to the American people, we ought to go into another line of work," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said after the bill's passage.

Republicans start that sales pitch from a surprisingly weak position. After months of rallies, presidential salesmanship, TV ads, and even a Republican National Committee door-to-door canvass, polling suggests that the bill is unpopular. In polls this week from CNN and NBC News, just 33 percent and 24 percent of voters said that they supported the bill.

The Republican response: Just wait. Millions of people now telling pollsters that the tax cut won't help them will, in fact, pay lower taxes.

"When people see their paychecks get bigger in February because withholding tables have adjusted to reflect their tax cuts, when businesses are keeping more of what they earn, when they can write off their expenses and investments in their businesses and hire more people, that is going to change its popularity, I am convinced," House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Wednesday on "CBS This Morning."

Democrats are less convinced. One reason, frequently cited, is the payroll tax cut of 2009, which handed the average worker nearly $700 back during the Great Recession - with zero political benefit. In an early 2010 CBS News/New York Times poll, just 12 percent of voters realized that Obama had cut their taxes; twice as many thought, incorrectly, that Obama had raised them. (The cut was part of the 2009 stimulus package.)

These tax cuts, arriving during a period of economic growth, might be more noticeable. But Democrats are raring to point out the difference between what Republicans ran on, and what they passed. The most memorable visual symbol of the tax cut push, a hypothetical postcard to demonstrate the simplicity of the GOP's tax plan, disappeared as Republicans put together a compromise that expanded the number of tax brackets and left many loopholes intact.

"Did they wave around that postcard today, or did they forget that?" joked Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Democrats, he pointed out, had endorsed previous tax plans with fewer (and lower) rates than the product that made it through the House and Senate. "Obama had it at 28 percent! Charlie Rangel and I had it at 25 percent 10 years ago. This bill is going to be the gift that keeps on giving."

Republicans' own polling has found the same weaknesses as public polling. In a study shared with The Washington Post, the GOP-leaning firm Public Opinion Strategies came up with four strong messages in favor of reform. Two of them - "removes and eliminates many loopholes so special interests start paying their fair share" and "simplifies and reduces taxes for most Americans by doubling the standard deduction" - are already being used by Democrats to attack the bill.

The idea of the bill as a corporate giveaway was key to Democrats' final pre-vote messaging, including a moment in the Senate debate when Sen. Sherrod Brown, R-Ohio, flung upon one of the Senate's doors and pointed to McConnell's office to dramatize the influence of lobbyists.

It will also be a key part of a 2018 campaign by the #NotOnePenny coalition, formed by progressives to oppose the tax cut. Next year, the coalition will up its media buy from $5 million to $10 million, hold 100 days of anti-tax cut events, and rally on April 15 in Washington "against tax policy that further rigs the economy in favor of the wealthy."

On Wednesday, Democrat after Democrat previewed those themes. Rep. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., a candidate for Senate next year, released a video in which Medicaid and Social Security recipients worried that Republicans had put their care at risk. Jenny Wilson, a Salt Lake City council member running for Senate in Utah, dramatized the effects of the bill with "lumps of coal and well-stuffed stockings" to dramatize the bill's differing benefits for the poor and the very wealthy.

"Washington chose to cut taxes for millionaires and corporations and pay for it by cutting Medicare and kicking people off their health insurance," said Brown, one of 10 Democrats seeking reelection next year in a Trump-won state, after the vote. "It won't stop there - congressional Republicans are already planning to steal the money Ohioans have paid into Medicare and Social Security to pay for the hole they are blowing in the deficit."

Democrats are also watching an X-factor in tax messaging: The president himself. Between them, the American Action Network and the 45Committee, political groups aligned with Ryan and Trump respectively, spent $40 million on ads selling the tax cuts as life rafts for middle-class families.

The president often did the same, promising a "middle class miracle" - and promising that he would not benefit from tax changes, a statement that seems to stand at odds with the bill's benefit to pass-throughs like the Trump Organization. But at other times, the president has described the bill's main purpose as help for corporations.

"Our plan also lowers the tax on American business from 35 percent all the way down to 21 percent," Trump said Wednesday morning at a televised cabinet meeting. "That's probably the biggest factor in this plan."

Within hours, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., was reading the quote back to reporters.

"It's no surprise that Donald Trump admitted this morning was the biggest factor in their plan," Schumer said.
WASHINGTON - The Republican chairmen of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees are asking the Justice Department to let them conduct transcribed interviews with three top FBI officials as part of an ongoing joint probe into how officials handled the investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server.

Reps. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., sent a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions late Tuesday asking to interview the Federal Bureau of Investigation's deputy director Andrew McCabe, FBI chief of staff James Rybicki, and FBI counsel Lisa Page, beginning as soon as Thursday.

Goodlatte and Gowdy released the letter publicly shortly before the House Intelligence Committee finished grilling McCabe in an eight-hour, closed-door session on Tuesday. Gowdy is a member of the intelligence panel and participated in the interview.

Leading Republicans, have criticized McCabe and even called for his removal from the FBI in recent days. Gowdy complained to Fox News on Tuesday that McCabe "cuts across every facet of every investigation in 2016" involving Clinton or President Trump.

McCabe postponed a scheduled interview with the House Intelligence panel last week. According to Bloomberg News, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, also called for McCabe's ouster this week.

Democrats have defended McCabe, criticizing those calling for his removal. Leaving the interview with McCabe Tuesday night, House Intelligence Committee ranking member Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said the calls to fire McCabe were "irresponsible."

"He has been a professional FBI agent and works with an impressive team of other agents, and I don't know that I understand the calls that I've heard from some to fire him," Schiff said.

The other two FBI officials named in Goodlatte and Gowdy's letter have already emerged as people of interest in other congressional inquiries into Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of state. Grassley named Rybicki as one of two FBI officials who, according to transcripts from an internal FBI inquiry, recalled former FBI director James Comey circulating drafts of the statement he would make exonerating Clinton months ahead of time.

Grassley accused the FBI of "conclusion first, fact-gathering second." The FBI later posted a heavily redacted document containing a May 2016 email from Rybicki to a small group of top FBI officials asking for "any comments" on the statement being drafted.

Page has also captured investigators' attention after it emerged earlier this month that she was trading pro-Clinton, anti-Trump text messages with Peter Strzok, a top counterintelligence at the FBI with whom she was having a romantic affair.

Several committees on Capitol Hill, including the ones Gowdy and Goodlatte chair, have demanded interviews and documents from Strzok following that revelation. Both Strzok and Page worked on the Clinton email probe, and were members of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's team investigating Trump, until their bosses discovered they had been exchanging politically charged texts.

McCabe, who worked closely with both Strzok and Page, has also come under fire because of those texts.

Goodlatte and Gowdy's committees announced their joint probe into the FBI and DOJ's handling of the Clinton email investigation in late October. Democrats have accused the GOP of using the investigations "to distract attention" from parallel investigations into allegations of ties between the Trump campaign and Kremlin officials. Democrats are concerned that Republicans on the House Intelligence committee are racing to wrap up their probe of Trump by the end of the year.
TOKYO - Fifty-six percent of Japanese think current Japan-U.S. relations are "good" or "very good," according to a joint survey conducted by The Yomiuri Shimbun and the U.S. survey firm Gallup, almost the same as the 57 percent who thought so in the previous survey in 2016.

In 2015, the percentage of Japanese who considered Japan-U.S. ties to be "good" or "very good" stood at 58 percent, the highest since the survey changed to telephone interviews in 2000. This year's survey showed that the rate has almost maintained that record level.

In the United States, 50 percent of respondents said present Japan-U.S. relations are "good" or "very good," so a majority of people in both countries viewed bilateral relations positively.

Asked about future bilateral relations, slightly fewer than 80 percent of Japanese respondents and slightly fewer than 40 percent of U.S. respondents said the relationship will "stay the same."

In Japan, 12 percent thought the relationship will "get much better" or "get somewhat better," up from 9 percent in the previous survey. In the United States, 33 percent said so, down from 35 percent. In both countries, the results remained at almost the same level as in the previous survey.

Six percent of respondents in Japan said bilateral ties will "get somewhat worse" or "get much worse," down from 41 percent, returning to almost the 7 percent seen in the 2015 survey.

U.S. President Donald Trump repeatedly made outrageous remarks during his presidential campaign, including that Japan should shoulder more of the cost of hosting U.S. forces stationed in Japan.

In the previous survey conducted right after the presidential election in November 2016, 40 percent of Japanese and Americans said the future bilateral relations would "get somewhat worse" or "get much worse."

However, Trump changed his stance to attaching importance to the Japan-U.S. alliance after his inauguration, so the pessimistic mood seems to have subsided.

The survey results showed a difference in the two countries' trust of each other.

Fifty percent of the Japanese respondents said they did not trust the United States "very much" or "at all," up from 43 percent in the 2016 survey. Those who trusted the country "very much" or "somewhat" stood at 39 percent, a slight decrease from last year's 42 percent.

It was the first time that the combined percentages of "not very much" and "not at all" had reached 50 percent or more since the survey in 2008, when the United States removed North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. In that year, 60 percent of Japanese respondents said they did not trust the United States "very much" or "at all."

Of respondents that support the Cabinet, 53 percent said they trusted the United States "very much" or "somewhat," but 65 percent of those who do not support it said they did not trust the country "very much" or "at all."

By gender, 56 percent of women do not trust the United States "very much" or "at all," up from 45 percent in the previous survey, while 43 percent of men gave those answers, slightly up from the last survey at 41 percent.

In the United States, 70 percent of respondents said they trusted Japan "very much" or "somewhat," up from 68 percent; while 25 percent said they did not, down from 29 percent.
The Daesh-affiliated Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis terrorist group claimed on Wednesday its responsibility for a missile attack on North Sinais El-Arish airport on Tuesday, which killed one military officer and injured two other people.

The group released a short statement online saying that it fired a Kornet anti-tank guided missile at a helicopter at the airport.

According to the Armed Forces, at the time of the attack, Minister of Defence Sobhi Sedky and Minister of Interior Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar were in El-Arish city to inspect police and army forces in the governorate.

Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis has claimed responsibility for most attacks against security and army forces in North Sinai in the past three years.

The Egyptian military has for several years been fighting an Islamist terrorist nsurgency based in a a small strip in North Sinai. Terrorists have killed hundreds of soldiers and policemen, and hundreds of terrorists the have also been killed in extensive campaigns to root out the insurgency.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Egypt sent on Wednesday a shipment of aid to Bangladesh to help alleviate the suffering of Rohingya Muslim refugees fleeing violence in Myanmar, Egyptian ambassador to Bangladesh Walid Shams said in a statement published by Egypt's foreign ministry.

The aid, which includes housing tents and food supplies, is donated by the Egyptian Agency of Partnership for Development and the Ministry of Defence to the Bengali Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief and the Red Crescent.

The shipment brings the total aid donated by Egypt for Rohingya refugees to 120 tonnes, including aid previously donated by Egypt's Al-Azhar institute since the beginning of the crisis in August, the statement added.

More than 630,000 Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh since Myanmar's military launched a crackdown on the minority group in August.

Egypt has expressed solidarity with Rohingya Muslims and supports the Bangladeshi governments efforts in addressing the fallout from the crisis.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


WASHINGTON - Senate investigators are scrutinizing links between Jill Stein, the Green Party's 2016 presidential nominee, and Russia's campaign to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, searching for evidence of possible conspiracy.

Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on Monday that the committee was "just starting" to look at Stein's campaign along with another campaign, which he declined to name, as it continues its investigation of the Trump campaign. Burr has previously suggested the committee is looking at aspects of the Clinton campaign.

Apparent closeness

Democrats have seethed for more than a year at Stein, whose tens of thousands of votes in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania either exceeded or nearly matched Donald Trump's margins of victory in those states, which delivered him the White House.

Jesse Ferguson, a former Clinton campaign spokesman, said Americans ought to know if a presidential nominee, no matter how minor, had become a Russian asset or was simply boosted in an effort to chip away Democratic votes from Clinton.

"Russian operatives were not promoting Jill Stein because they thought she would win," Ferguson said. "They were promoting her because they thought it would hurt Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump."

Stein confirmed late Monday that the committee had contacted her campaign to request documents, including emails. Such requests usually precede an interview with the committee. In a statement, she pledged to cooperate but warned against such inquiries being used to "intimidate and silence principled opposition to the political establishment."

"We strongly support legitimate inquiry into any illegal activity in our elections - including quid pro quo deals, money laundering, corruption and violation of campaign finance laws," Stein said. "At the same time, we caution against the politicization, sensationalism and collapse of journalistic standards that has plagued media coverage of the investigation."

The Senate Intelligence Committee's request to the Stein campaign was first reported by BuzzFeed News.

Senate investigators are interested in unraveling what was behind the apparent closeness between Stein, a Harvard-educated doctor and perennial Green Party candidate, and Russia.

Stein traveled to Moscow in 2015 for a dinner celebrating the 10th anniversary of RT, the state-run news organization that U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded was being used to spread propaganda during the presidential campaign.

Photographs from the event show Stein sitting at a table with President Vladimir Putin of Russia and other prominent Russian government officials. Sitting across from her was another American, Michael T. Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser who has now entered a plea agreement with Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating Russian election interference.

A year later, RT hosted the Green Party's presidential debate, and showered attention on Stein's campaign.

In her statement, Stein said she attended the 2015 dinner at her own expense in hopes of "reaching an international audience and Russian officials with a message of Middle East peace, diplomacy, and cooperation against the urgent threat of climate change."

Support for WikiLeaks

Also drawing scrutiny is Stein's relationship with Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks. Assange called in via Skype to the Green Party's convention in August 2016 to discuss the hacked Democratic National Committee emails that were published by WikiLeaks. And Stein praised Assange as a hero for exposing the emails.

"This is routine," Stein told CNN of what was then a presumption that Russia had hacked the DNC. "This is what state departments do to one another."

At least in part, her support of WikiLeaks is consistent with the Green Party's advocacy for transparency and its criticism of the hegemony of the country's two major political parties. But U.S. intelligence agencies have said that in publishing the emails, the anti-secrecy group was acting as a conduit for the Kremlin.

The disclosure that the committee is looking closely at Stein's campaign is the latest indication that the Senate committee is still expanding its investigation as it nears the one-year mark. It stands in stark contrast to the House Intelligence Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee, the two other congressional bodies investigating aspects of Russia's interference campaign.
AUSTIN  Texas Democrats sued Wednesday to keep Republican Rep. Blake Farenthold's name on the March primary ballot, but dropped the suit just a few hours later.

After several allegations of sexual harassment and abusive behavior, the Corpus Christi Republican announced last week that he would not seek reelection. But that decision came three days after the filing deadline.

The Texas Election Code states that candidates can remove their name from the ballot through the day after filing ends, which was Dec. 11. Still, the Texas GOP asked a judge this week to allow the party to keep Farenthold's name off the ballot. Lawyers for the state said while state law requires the inclusion of Farentholds name, the secretary of state had no power to enforce that law.

Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa decried that argument and filed a federal lawsuit to "ensure candidate filing laws are respected." But during an oral hearing Wednesday, a federal judge denied a motion to issue a temporary restraining order barring the GOP from removing Farenthold's name from the ballot. The Democrats then voluntarily dropped the case.

Texas Democrats will not stand idle while Republicans rig the ballot. Only voters have the power to choose who leads our state and nation, not politicians and party officers in backroom decisions. Last we checked, this was Texas not Russia," Hinojosa said.

The Secretary of State and Republican Party of Texas should not be allowed to make a smoke-filled room deal. If state laws setting election deadlines mean nothing, then the Courts should rule so," he said.

Farentholds decision to drop out of the race came after the House Ethics Committee reopened an investigation into the claims of a former press secretary, Lauren Greene, who settled a federal lawsuit against the congressman in 2015.

Though the settlement was made public at the time, Farenthold only recently acknowledged it involved an $84,000 taxpayer-funded payment, which he has agreed to repay.

Since then, at least two other former staffers have spoken publicly about inappropriate behavior on the part of the congressman and others in his office.

Alejandra Matos covers politics, education and immigration policy. Follow her on Twitter. Send tips to alejandra.matos@chron.com.
Egypt's health ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that 13 people were killed and three were injured when a bus collided with a truck on a desert road in Beni Suef governorate, 120km south of Cairo.

In 2015, Egypt registered 25,500 road fatalities, with a total of 14,500 road accidents, according to a study published by official statistics body CAPMAS in August 2016.

The high rate of accidents is often attributed to poorly maintained infrastructure and loosely enforced traffic regulations.

In 2014, the Egyptian Ministry of Transportation allocated EGP 8 billion to develop 365km of the countrys road network and add an opposite direction for 450km of one-way roads.
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.
U.S. President Donald Trumps recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital will stoke violence in the region, former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal said, dismissing reports of prior consultations made with Riyadh over the move.

"It is a very bad decision. The consequences will be more bloodshed, more conflict rather than peaceful resolution," Prince Turki, a senior royal family member and a former ambassador to Washington, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday in Riyadh.

Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy and veered from international consensus this month by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Most countries say the city's status must be left to negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Saudi Arabia condemned the decision. Saudi King Salman told President Trump that any decision to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem before a permanent peace settlement is reached will inflame the feelings of Muslims, official media reported.

"The reaction here was total surprise," said Prince Turki, who now holds no government office but remains influential.

"... If there has been prior consultation or anything like that, why would the King go through the process of telling him (Trump) this is a bad idea and make that known publicly?"

"I don't think there ever was any discussion of this" before the decision was taken, he added.

Arab Peace Initiative

As regards possible Saudi and Arab action in response to Trump's decision, Prince Turki said: "I am sure lots of people would prefer to have something just for the sake of appearance but I don't think that's how the Saudi government operates. If it is going to take action, it is going to be a serious action."

Four Palestinian officials, who spoke on condition they not be named, said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have discussed in detail a grand bargain that Trump and Jared Kushner, the presidents son-in-law and adviser, are expected to unveil in the first half of 2018. Arab officials say the plan is still in its early phases of development.

Prince Turki said he was unaware of details of any such plan.

Prince Turki is a son of King Faisal, who was assassinated in 1975. His brother, Saud al-Faisal, served as foreign minister for 40 years until 2015, and their branch of the family is seen as influential over Saudi foreign policy.

Prince Saud championed a 2002 Arab peace initiative which called for normalizing relations between Arab countries and Israel in return for Israels withdrawal from lands occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.

In a letter to Trump published in a Saudi newspaper on Dec. 11, Prince Turki said that Trump's "opportunistic" Jerusalem move would threaten security in the region.

Kingdom Quells Promoters Of Militancy

"The now much diminished terrorist international gets a rejuvenation boost from you and re-energizes its recruitment of volunteers to broaden their murderous attacks on innocent civilians, worldwide," he wrote in his letter.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has said he would encourage a more moderate and tolerant version of Islam in the ultra-conservative kingdom.

The young prince has already taken some steps to loosen Saudi Arabia's ultra-strict social restrictions, scaling back the role of religious morality police, permitting public concerts and announcing plans to allow women to drive next year.

Prince Turki said that Saudis share in the blame for the spread of extremist ideology through funding of mosques abroad that may have fallen into the wrong hands, but that such funding stopped since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

"The kingdom has been the victim of such people and such activity... Since Sept. 11 the kingdom has had a sustained and continuous programme opposing extremist ideology, not just in the kingdom but abroad," he told Reuters.

"For a period of time, yes it is true there were some Saudis who promoted issues of extremism and so on. Now we are getting rid of all of those. I would say we have gotten rid of most of them, if not all of them."

*This story was edited by Ahram Online.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


If you do not have a current print subscription to the Lodi News-Sentinel, but want to view unlimited articles for the month, please choose this option.
County Longford's rejuvenated local economy could be in line for further festive positivity, this time concerning its local pharmaceutical sector.

The Leader understands IDA chiefs are setting their sights on strengthening the county's pharmaceutical services sector over the coming weeks. It follows hot on the heels of recent confirmation that a fledgling manufacturing company were on the cusp of setting up base at the former Cameron site.

Off-Site Construction, a newly established firm involved in the production of bathroom pods and other products for Ireland's building industry, has begun advertising for employees to commence work early in the new year.

An advertisement in this week's Longford Leader details how it wants to recruit steel fabricators, carpenters, trade persons, plumbers, electricians and tilers.

In a further boost, it's emerged this week that both IDA and Enterprise Ireland senior officials are working behind the scenes in an attempt to bring further jobs announcements to the county.

Longford/Westmeath TD Peter Burke said he had been left upbeat about those prospects following recent talks with IDA Chief Executive Martin Shanahan.

"I met with Mr Shanahan only recently and he was very confident additional jobs will be arriving (to Longford) at the (Cameron) site and in Longford in general," said the Fine Gael politician.

Mr Burke would not be drawn on what potential job announcements were being worked on, though the Leader has learned a large slice of that focus centres principally on bolstering job numbers in Longford's pharmaceutical industry.

Medical products giant Abbott is already one of Co Longford's largest employers and earlier this year signalled its intention to create 150 additional jobs by carrying out a 3,000-square-metre extension to its plant at Lisnamuck.

Read next:

EXCLUSIVE: Longford set for major jobs boost
Rural counties like Longford face becoming little more than economic wastelands unless greater credence is afforded to its tired, weary and downbeaten  citizens.

They were among the sobering thoughts tabled by Longford County Councils newest inductee, Joe Flaherty following his co-option last week.

Cllr Flaherty, who was formally ratified to fill the vacancy left by Padraig Loughrey in October, used his maiden speech to warn of the huge economic and social upheavals potentially facing Longford.

I have no doubt the challenges facing Longford are immense, he said.

We are very much in the throws of the fourth Industrial Revolution and its going to significantly transform the way we live, work and go about our daily lives.

Its a stated fact that the Longford we know in 20 years will be nothing like the Longford we see now and unless we are able to put sufficient influence on central government places like Longford and other centres across rural Ireland in particular are going to become wastelands.

The local media chief reminisced over his decision to vacate his native Lanesboro in 1995 to live and start out on his journalistic career with The Longford News.

He said the county town he arrived into could learn a lot from the sense of drive and purpose that characterised it at the time.

Back in 1995 we would have thought Longford town was struggling and behind the curveball of the rest of the country but as I reflected on it today, if we would could have the vibrancy they had and the sense of hope they had in Longford town back then we would take that now and I think that puts into the context the scale of the challenge we have in Longford town, he said.

As a county, we have lost our way. Our communities, right across the county are tired and weary and downbeaten .

Cllr Flaherty attempted to soften those cautionary remarks by acknowledging the part played by elected members on all sides of the chamber in steering the county back towards more calmer economic waters.

There were warm welcomes too from his party colleagues as there were more caustic greetings from those in Fine Gael and in particular Cllr Flahertys general election rival Cllr Micheal Carrigy.

Its (being a councillor) a tough job, said the Ballinalee local representative, as he welcomed Cllr Flaherty into the chamber.

I will be doing my damndest though, to make sure your stay is a very long one on Longford County Council.

Not to be outdone, Cllr Flaherty held his counsel for a short period before hitting back at Cllr Carrigy and those sitting in the Fine Gael benches.

I am certain when I sit on this side of the house I am in the midst of the hardest working public representatives and I dont think you could get better public representatives than the Fianna Fail party that serves the people of Longford at the moment.

It will be a long journey but I want you all to know that I am ready to put my shoulder behind the wheel and work with all councillors and the executive to make Longford that we all know and love a great county again, he said.

Read next:

Sport and comedy top the bill at Longford Fianna Fail Christmas breakfast
British Prime Minister Theresa May said Tuesday she wanted an "ambitious" trade deal with the EU after Brexit as she chaired the first detailed cabinet discussion on future ties, her spokesman said.

She told ministers she wanted a "significantly more ambitious deal" than the EU's recent trade agreement with Canada -- even as the bloc's chief negotiator warned any deal would not cover Britain's dominant financial services sector.

The cabinet meeting came four days after EU leaders approved an interim agreement on the terms of the separation, and agreed to move negotiations on to the next stage.

May wants Britain to leave the EU's single market and customs union, but forge a new "deep and special economic partnership" with the bloc.

"The prime minister said it was clear what the cabinet's objective was -- a deal which secures the best possible trading terms with the EU, enables the UK to set rules that are right for our situation and facilitates ambitious third-country trade deals," her spokesman said.

She ruled out replicating Norway's membership of the European Economic Area, saying it would be "democratically unsustainable, because it would mean automatically adopting all EU rules without influence or a vote", the spokesman said.

Instead, the prime minister said she "would be seeking a significantly more ambitious deal than the EU's agreement with Canada".

Officials have discussed the so-called "Canada plus" option, adding other economic sectors into the agreement.

However, the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier warned Tuesday that any deal would inevitably result in Britain's banks and financial companies losing rights to trade across the bloc.

"There is no place" for financial services, he told The Guardian newspaper.

"There is not a single trade agreement that is open to financial services. It doesn't exist."

He said this was the consequence of Britain's decisions, adding: "In leaving the single market, they lose the financial services passport."

May said Britain needed to be "creative in designing our proposal", adding that Britain "would be seeking a bespoke deal".

However, no decisions have yet been taken and further government discussions are due "early in the New Year", the spokesman said.

Some ministers favour continued alignment with EU rules after Brexit to maintain a close trading relationship, while others say leaving the EU is an opportunity for Britain to forge a new path.

Media reports suggest that rival camps are coming to agree on a middle way, where Britain would agree a new trade deal with Brussels but gradually move away from the bloc's regulations.

The spokesman insisted the cabinet was "unified" behind the main principles of Brexit and the deal agreed last week on the financial settlement, expatriate rights and the future of the Irish border.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


NEW YORK (AP)  Burger King. Tim Hortons. Popeyes. All three fall under the same person, Daniel Schwartz, the CEO of their parent company Restaurant Brands International Inc. His strategy: spread those fast-food chains around the world.

Burger King, for example, has gone from having zero stores in France five years ago to more than 100 today. Canadian doughnut and coffee seller Tim Hortons has expanded into Europe and Asia. And there are plans to bring fried-chicken chain Popeyes, which Restaurant

Brands bought earlier this year, to more countries.

Schwartz talked with The Associated Press recently about delivery in the U.S., expansion plans and what he orders from each chain. The questions and answers below have been edited for clarity and length.

Q: Your rivals are expanding delivery in more parts of the country. When will Burger King deliver in the U.S.?

A: We actually explored delivery several years ago in the U.S. prematurely. But its something that we are focused on now. Were working on it. Were doing delivery in some of our Popeyes restaurants in the U.S. and Canada already.

Q: Restaurant Brands bought Popeyes earlier this year for $1.8 billion. Why Popeyes?

A: What we saw in Popeyes was an iconic brand with a big opportunity to expand all around the world. If you look at some of the peers in that space, the number of restaurants they have outside the U.S. is quite large. Popeyes is in around 30 to 40 countries, which is very small.

Q: Is Popeyes in China?

A: No, but the answer should be yes. Its a great brand and we think itll resonate really well with our guests all throughout Asia, so thats a priority.

Q: Why arent there many Tim Hortons in the U.S.?

A: It takes time and weve been expanding in the U.S. We have our largest presence in Buffalo, Detroit and Columbus. Weve opened some restaurants in Cincinnati; well be opening up some restaurants in Indianapolis; weve opened some in Minneapolis. Our new partners in Cleveland recently announced they will be opening some restaurants there. Its historically been a predominantly Canadian chain. We heard people ask the same question in the Philippines and the U.K., and now we are opening up restaurants there.

Q: Whats up with the crazy menu items, like the Cinnamon Toast Crunch shake at Burger King?

A: We have amazing milkshakes, and its a nice, fun, playful way of bringing some innovation to them. They get a lot of buzz on social media, and our guests like it.

Q: Do you have to approve those items first?

A: No, no, no. My involvement is fostering this creative and growth culture and being involved in the hiring of good people. I am not choosing the products because we have to empower people to be able to make decisions and be innovative. So if they need my approval to do all these things, then wed be really slow. And we dont want to be slow.

Q: Which menu items do you order at each place?

A: Whopper, obviously. With Tims, Ill have a double double and lately a latte because we launched espressos this year. Its a lot of coffee. And Popeyes, Im still in the phase where I just eat everything on the menu. I will tell you, its rare I have a week where I havent eaten products from all of them.

Q: Where do you work?

A: I kind of work on an airplane. The Burger King brand headquarters is in Miami. The Tims headquarters and our head office is in Toronto. And we have international offices for the brands in Switzerland and Singapore, so I kind of bop back and forth around all the offices. And I try to spend most of my time visiting our restaurant owners. In the office, you kind of lose sight. You have to go to the restaurants to see whats really happening.
DRACUT  A Department of Public Works employee fired last week after he was caught taking copper pipes from a Phineas Street home says his termination may have more to do with his role as a union president than the incident in question.

George Metros, 51, of Dracut, worked as a truck driver for the DPW for 13 years. In September, he was accused of stealing the copper pipes. After an investigation by the Police Department, the owner of the pipes agreed not to press any charges in exchange for $150 reimbursement.

George Metros is no longer employed by the town of Dracut, Town Manager Jim Duggan said. After a thorough and documented investigation by the Police Department, it was demonstrated to me that Mr. Metros engaged in unacceptable conduct.

Metros, who is the president of the local chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, said he had worked for the town for 13 years without incident and found the timing of his termination suspicious, given that the matter was resolved without criminal charges.

It was an unjust firing by the town manager, and a week before Christmas, which is kind of unfair as well, said Metros, adding that he is appealing the decision.

Duggan responded that his decision had nothing to do with Metros union position.

He violated the publics trust, and I will not tolerate that, he said.

On Sept. 6, the owners of the Phineas Street home called police to report that a man in a red Chevrolet truck had pulled into their driveway and loaded copper pipes from a barrel by the side of the house into his vehicle.

When one of the residents asked the man who he was and what he was doing, they told police, he identified himself as Gary and said he had permission from another resident of the home to take the copper, according to the police report.

Officers later found a truck matching the homeowners description and identified the owner as Metros.

The next day, officers were able to speak with Metros and asked him if he had stolen the copper. Metros responded that he had noticed the barrel of copper at the end of a driveway and had taken it because he believed it was being thrown out, according to the report.

He also told police he had knocked on the houses door to ask for permission to take the copper, but nobody was home.

The homeowner estimated that Metros took around 150 pounds of copper, worth $300. Metros told officers he sold the copper for between $48 and $52.

After speaking with officers again, the homeowners said they would not press charges if Metros reimbursed them $150, which he agreed to do.

The owners of the home could not immediately be reached for comment.

Follow Todd Feathers on Twitter @ToddFeathers.
By David Ignatius

Special to The Sun

WASHINGTON  The friendly words exchanged between Presidents Trump and Xi Jinping this month softened the edge of a Chinese economic and military buildup that a recent study commissioned by the Pentagon described as perhaps the most ambitious grand strategy undertaken by a single nation-state in modern times.

At the Beijing summit on Nov. 9, Xi repeated his usual congenial injunction for win-win cooperation, and Trump responded in kind, calling Xi a very special man. Trump also complained about the Chinese trade surplus, but the visit was mostly a serenade to Sino-American cooperation.

What caught my ear was Xis hint of Chinas big ambitions in his toast that night. He quoted a Chinese proverb that no distance, not even remote mountains and vast oceans, can ever prevent people with perseverance from reaching their destination. Xi then cited an adage from Benjamin Franklin: He who can have patience, can have what he will. Thats an apt summary of Chinas quiet but relentless pursuit of becoming a global superpower.

Chinas rise has been so rapid yet gentle in tone that its easy to miss how fast Beijing has expanded its ability to project power. The mesmerizing go-slow style of the pre-Xi years, summarized in the Chinese slogan hide and bide, has been replaced by what U.S. analysts now see as an open power play.

Trumps America First strategy has facilitated Chinas buildup, unintentionally. The administrations rhetoric on fair trade has been strong, but the actual gains have been modest. Meanwhile, Trump has shredded the Trans-Pacific Partnership and stepped back from other U.S.-led alliances  opening the way for Chinas new network of global institutions, including the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) plan for Eurasian trade and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to finance Chinese-led projects.

The scope of Chinas challenge to the American-led order is described in two unpublished and unclassified studies commissioned by the Air Force.

One study argues that Chinas Eurasian reach is beyond that of the 1947 Marshall Plan, which cemented American power in postwar Europe. The report estimates that the OBOR framework would provide up to $1 trillion in Chinese support for more than 64 countries, while the Marshall Plan provided $130 billion in current dollars, mostly to six countries. The report describes OBOR as a program of unprecedented size and scope with the strategic intent of constructing a Chinese-led regional order in Eurasia.

China is building the infrastructure of power. The study describes, for example, how Beijing is financing a string of ports in the Indian Ocean region, including in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Pakistan, Myanmar, Djibouti, Kenya and Abu Dhabi. The proposed investment is nearly $250 billion.

China has also invested $13.6 billion in Greece, buying control of the port of Piraeus and big shares of Greek utilities and fiber-optics companies. Greece serves as a strategic beachhead for China into Europe, notes the report.

The Asian infrastructure bank, meanwhile, has approved $16 billion in projects in 10 countries, including long-standing U.S. allies such as Egypt, India and Oman. And the Chinese are building rail lines to Europe and every part of Asia, allowing them to bypass U.S.-controlled sea lanes. China already has 40 rail routes to nine European countries.

American dominance has been built partly on the primacy of our scientific and technological laboratories, which have drawn the best and brightest from around the world. But the Chinese are challenging here, too. China is building at least 50 joint-venture science and technology labs with OBOR countries and plans over the next five years to train up to 5,000 foreign scientists, engineers and managers, the study notes.

As foreign scientists pull back from some U.S. labs because of visa and government-grant worries, the Chinese are doubling down. According to the second Air Force study, China surpasses the U.S. in annual patent applications, is now No. 2 in peer-reviewed research articles and in 2014 awarded more than twice as many degrees in science, technology, engineering and math.

China is mobilizing its best tech talent for this global empire. China Telecom plans to lay a 150,000-kilometer fiber-optic network covering 48 African nations. IZP, a big-data company, plans to expand soon to 120 countries. BeiDou, a government agency, is building a GPS-like satellite navigation system for all Eurasia.

Theres an eerie sense in todays world that China is racing to capture the commanding heights of technology and trade. Meanwhile, under the banner of America First, the Trump administration is protecting coal-mining jobs and questioning climate science.

Sorry, friends, but this is how empires rise and fall.

David Ignatius can be reached via Twitter: @IgnatiusPost.
Recently, the Trump administration announced it was withdrawing from the United Nations Global Compact on Migration and Refugees. UN Ambassador Nikki Haley cited numerous provisions that are inconsistent with U.S. immigration and refugee policies and the Trump administrations immigration principles, adding that our decisions on immigration policies must always be made by Americans and Americans alone.

This is unfortunate. It is estimated that there will be upwards of 2 billion refugees worldwide just from the effects of climate change, without counting those who are fleeing war, conflict and ethnic cleansing.

While the Trump administration may wrongly believe that two oceans will serve as an effective wall against the pressure of displaced humanity, clearly this will not work for our European allies, nor even for Australia. By withdrawing from the migration agreement, the administration is pursuing not an America First policy, but is creating an America Alone reality.

Nearly 30 percent of Lowells population is from countries of Southeast Asia, particularly those along the Mekong River and its delta. These countries  Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand  are among those which will be the most dramatically affected by climate change in the world. The UN Panel on Climate Change estimates 10 million refugees from Vietnam alone.

Lowell is also home to a substantial population from countries of sub-Saharan Africa; again, one of the areas that will see the greatest impacts of climate change.

So we can expect climate change to directly affect the lives and families of thousands of Lowell residents in the coming near future.

Regardless of what the administration may hope, neither the Atlantic nor Pacific oceans can or should isolate us from the suffering. As Americans of every background and ethnicity, and particularly as Lowellians, it is our common heritage to welcome the immigrant and the refugee whether they are fleeing war, famine, slavery or climate change. Its who we are. By withdrawing from the UN Global Compact, the U.S. is denying itself the very international mechanisms needed to both alleviate the suffering of our fellow human beings and to implement some measure of control over the process.

In the meantime, the Lowell City Council and the state of Massachusetts must take climate change seriously, and act with all expediency to reduce the use of fossil fuels that are worsening climate change daily.

Climate change is not an abstraction; its effects are impacting the most vulnerable populations of the Mekong and others now, today, and it will only get worse. The families of those people live here in Lowell. It is our responsibility to help them in every way we can.

STEPHEN MALAGODI

Lowell
Chelmsford

 Tiffany Bailey, 21, Roslindale; larceny of property over $250.

 Kristen Cynewski, 36, Plaistow, N.H.; warrant (shoplifting).

 George Muigai, 27, 18 Cannongate Road, Tyngsboro; operation of a motor vehicle after license suspension, open container.

 Jessica Pagliuca, 29, 2 Jordan St., Wilmington; assault and battery, destruction of property.

 Nancy Stamegna, 51, 48 Andrew St., Lowell; operation of motor vehicle after license revocation, possession of Class B substance, illegal left turn, failure to use seat belt, warrant.

 David Ganem, 36, Woburn; operation of motor vehicle under the influence of liquor, open container of alcohol.

 Adrien Fora, 27, 500 Princeton Way, Westford; breaking and entering with intent to commit crime.

 Jason LaRoche, 38, 90 Chandler St., Nashua, N.H.; illegal possession of a Class A substance.

 Dennis Messer, 44, 4 Foundry St., Nashua, N.H.; illegal possession of Class A substance.

 Maximo Guillermo, 29, Bradford; operation of motor vehicle after license revocation, failure to stop at stop sign.

 Casandra Pawlosky, 32, 54 Hadley St., Lowell; operation of a motor vehicle without being licensed, misrepresent residency, warrant.

 John Kalil, 28, 34 Massachusetts Ave., Boxboro; operation of motor vehicle after license revocation.

 Minh Van Ngo, 45, 104 Westford St., Lowell; shoplifting by concealing merchandise.

 Daniella Goncalves, 46, 68 Oak St., Lowell; operation of motor vehicle without being licensed, unlicensed crosswalk.

 Jason Murray, 29, 105 Montvale Ave., Woburn; warrants, operation of motor vehicle after license suspended, texting/emailing while driving.

 Kendra Sutton, 33, Ashburnham; giving false name to police officer, operation of motor vehicle without license in possession, warrant.

Lowell

 Eddie Cabrera, 50, 87 Temple St., No. 2; open and gross (lewdness).

 Ronald Brown III, 19, 134 Bowden St., No. 103; warrant (failure to appear for motor vehicle charges).

 Brayan Santana-Moyet, 19, 162 Branch St., Apt. 22; warrants, operating after revocation, operating uninsured motor vehicle, revoked registration.

 Armando Mora, 37, 12 Delmont Ave.; operating without license.

 Wael Hanna, 26, 160 Cross St.; assault and battery, disturbing peace.

 Heather Bennett, 29, homeless; sexual conduct for pay.

 Felisha Randolph, 24, 33 West St., Westford; sexual conduct for pay, wanton destruction of property over $250.

 Andrew Ryan, 22, 282 High St.; operation under the influence (alcohol).

 Sade Walker-Campbell, 20, 466 Bridge St., Apt. 35; warrrants (failure to pay fine for two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, vandalizing property, unlicensed operation, and failure to appear for assault and battery).

 Stacy Wells, 36, 7 S. Whipple St.; assault and battery.
LOWELL  While the federal government shut down the Affordable Care Act Exchange across the nation last week, the Massachusetts Health Connector is still going strong.

That was the message from Health Connector officials as they visited Lowell and the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association on Monday ahead of an important deadline this Saturday.

Massachusetts Open Enrollment runs through Jan. 23. However, individuals who wish to start the new year with coverage must complete their enrollment by this Saturday, Dec. 23.

We want to make sure the communities are aware that were still enrolling, said Hanoi Reyes, a Massachusetts Health Connector representative. We want to make sure everyone has access to affordable health care.

The Massachusetts Health Connectors event in Lowell was part of its Day of Coverage. They held activities across the state designed to get people enrolled prior to the deadline for coverage that begins in the new year. Other cities they visited included Lawrence, Springfield, Framingham and Boston.

We want families and individuals to start the new year right, with the peace of mind that comes from being covered, and encourage people to sign up by December 23, Louis Gutierrez, executive director of the Health Connector, said in a statement.

Our Day of Coverage will also let people know that, despite the federal marketplace ending Open Enrollment, Massachusetts remains open for enrollments through January 23, he added.

The Day of Coverage included activities in a number of communities with higher rates of uninsured residents.

Outside the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association in Lowell, there were Health Connector signs in English and Khmer.

Its very critical to send this information to the community, said Tooch Van, a field organizer for the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association.

Some people dont know how to enroll, so its very important for us to spread the word to them, added Visal Chin, program coordinator for the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association.

In late October, Massachusetts Health Connector officials visited Pailin Plaza, partnering with Lowell businesses to get the word out about open enrollment.

They posted signs at Amara Boutique & Service and Red Rose Restaurant, encouraging people to sign up for coverage. Some of the signs were in Khmer.

The Health Connector offers 52 plans for residents. They offer high-quality coverage and low or no-cost plans, according to officials. Residents can receive help with the application at the Lowell Community Health Center.

This is our busiest week of the year, Massachusetts Health Connector spokesman Jason Lefferts said of the upcoming deadline on Saturday.

In October, the Health Connector announced it would use higher rates than originally anticipated for next year to cover lost subsidies from the federal government, resulting in a premium increase of about 26 percent for 80,000 residents.

During the open-enrollment period, these individuals can find a less costly plan.

Were committed to make sure his cuts dont affect our enrollment, and that everyone has access to affordable care, Reyes said.

Enrollment has been successful, according to officials. As of Dec. 13, there were 260,385 people signed up for the new year. That compares to 247,610 at the same time last year.

The amount of new people who signed up this year, as of Dec. 13, was 31,389. That compares to 31,013 at the same time last year.

To be on the same track this year is great, Lefferts said. Were really happy about that.

For more information on the Health Connector or to enroll, visit www.mahealthconnector.org or call 1-877-623-6765.

Information from the State House News Service was used in this report.

Follow Rick Sobey on Twitter @rsobeyLSun.
Style / Fashion

A new edition of Coats! was recently presented in Seoul, South Korea, showcasing an array of items created ahead of the times and building on the strongest fashion trends of the moment with a strongly recognisable personality

Dec 20, 2017 | By Andrea Sim

Max Mara Coats! Seoul 2017

It has been an incredible journey for Max Mara, since it was founded in Reggio Emilia in 1951 by Achille Maramotti. It all began when a young man decided to take after his familys passion in the clothing business, with an aim to create the worlds most inspired and sophisticated collections, designed specifically for women of differing ages, body shapes and lifestyles.

Maramotti took after his great grandmother, who used to manage an elegant dressmaking shop in the mid nineteenth century while his mother established a tailoring and sewing school. Combining both womens passion, great vision and business acumen, the dressmaking shop sky-rocketed to success when it made an attempt to create a line of sophisticated garments, typically hand-crafted, with the initial idea to clothe the new middle class population; the doctors wife, an expression coined by Achille Maramotti.

When it came to Maramottis time, he decided to specialise in the production of coats, stylistically inspired by the most sophisticated French Haute Couture  combining a rich artistic heritage and sophisticated tailoring techniques.

Maximally Modernism: Pret-a-Porter Fashion

Fast forward to today, a new edition of Coats! was presented at the recent exhibition, which took place from Nov 29 through to Dec 12, 2017 in Seoul, South Korea. Dedicated to the Italian fashion house, Max Mara, Coats! was designed once again by Studio MIGLIORE+SERVETTO ARCHITECTS. Prior to Seoul, the luxury label has toured Moscow (2011), Beijing (2009), Tokyo (2007) and Berlin (2006).

The exhibition in Seoul was shown inside a monumental dome inspired by the utopian architecture of Etienne-Louis Boullee. With a showcase of over ninety coats from Max Mara Heritage, starting from the first ones from the 50s, the democratic coat for designers and pop from the 60s and the magic of the coat and Italian know how from the 80s to the more recent ones that walked the Milan runway, including the iconic 101801 style.

Unmistakable Identity: The Iconic 101801 Coat

The collections from Max Mara have an unmistakable style identity and are easy to detect: comfort sizes, young and innovative and coordinated look. One example of the groups trademark pieces is the iconic 101801 coat, which was created in partnership with Anne Marie Beretta. The Coat was made of wool and cashmere with oversize kimono sleeves, became a classic fashion item that is a must-have in every winter collection.

Highlights of the Exhibition

This journey took visitors on a visionary adventure to browse through the history of the coats and of the brand as they made their ways through seven themed rooms to view a series of modern-day wunderkammer, packed with garments, sounds, memorabilia and interactive features representing the vision that moved Max Maras founder, Achille Maramotti: to make the ordinary extraordinary.

The exhibition interpreted the desires of women since 1951 right up to today, the changes in taste, society and lifestyles that have marked each decade, sketches by the designers who have worked with Max Mara such as Anne Marie Beretta, Emmanuelle Khanh, Karl Lagerfeld, Jean-Charles de CastelBajac, Narciso Rodriguez and Proenza Schouler, and many more.

Also a main highlight, advertising campaigns shot by legendary fashion photographers were on showcase as well, featuring Richard Avedon, Arthur Elgort, Steven Meisel, Sarah Moon, Max Vadukul, Mario Sorrenti, David Sims and Craig McDean.

Coats! Seoul: Special edition look

A special look was also designed to celebrate the new edition of Max Mara Coats! Seoul, featuring a coat in pure camels hair with brass colour lining, and in the same fabric, a shirt with crystal buttons and French cuffs and pencil skirt.

Inspired by yugi, a Korean word to indicate daily used items such as bowls, plates and other serving dishes, the original tableware in brass were used by the Korean Royal Family. This dinnerware as shown above is a typical depiction of what we would use daily at dinner time. Like camel to Max Mara, yugi represents the importance of tradition and quality in Korean culture.

According to Max Mara, This is a record that the Max Mara Group has consolidated over time through a meticulous, luxurious style that has always achieved rising success on a world-wide scale, demonstrated today in more than 2,300 stores.

Max Mara can be seen in most famous shopping streets of metropolises such as Milan, Paris, London, Moscow, New York and Tokyo but also in South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Australia, Brazil and New Caledonia.
US Ambassador Nikki Haley warned countries that she will report back to President Donald Trump with the names of those who support a draft resolution rejecting the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The UN General Assembly will hold an emergency session Thursday to vote on the proposed measure that the United States vetoed at the Security Council.

"The president will be watching this vote carefully and has requested I report back on those countries who voted against us," said the letter from Haley seen by AFP.

"We will take note of each and every vote on this issue," she wrote to several UN ambassadors.

Haley posted on Twitter that "the US will be taking names" during the vote on Thursday at the 193-nation assembly.

Turkey and Yemen requested the urgent meeting on behalf of the Arab group of countries and the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

The two countries circulated a draft resolution on Tuesday that mirrors the vetoed measure, reaffirming that any decision on the status of Jerusalem has no legal effect and must be rescinded.

Egypt had put forward the draft at the council which was backed by all 14 other Security Council members in the vote on Monday.

Like the Egyptian draft, the text before the assembly does not mention Trump's decision but expresses "deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem."

Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour said the General Assembly would vote on a draft resolution calling for Trump's declaration to be withdrawn, which was vetoed by the United States in the 15-member UN Security Council on Monday.

Mansour said he expected "overwhelming support" for the measure stating that Jerusalem is an issue "to be resolved through negotiations" between Israel and the Palestinians.

"The General Assembly will say, without the fear of the veto, that the international community is refusing to accept the unilateral position of the United States," Mansour told reporters.

No country has veto powers in the General Assembly, contrary to the council where the United States, along with Britain, China, France and Russia, can block any resolution.

Trump's December 6 decision to recognize Jerusalem broke with international consensus, triggering protests across the Muslim world and drawing strong condemnation.

Key US allies Britain, France, Italy, Japan and Ukraine were among the 14 countries in the 15-member council that voted in favor of the measure.

After that vote, Haley described the 14-1 vote "an insult" and warned "it won't be forgotten."

She went further on Tuesday, warning in her Twitter post: "At the UN we're always asked to do more & give more. So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl, abt where to locate OUR embassy, we don't expect those we've helped to target us.

"On Thurs there'll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names."

After the clash at the top UN body, the White House announced that US Vice President Mike Pence was delaying a trip to the Middle East planned for this week.

Israel seized control of the eastern part of the city in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed East Jerusalem in 1980, a move that has never been recognised by the international community.

The Palestinians have long demanded occupied East Jerusalem for the capital of their future state.

Peace negotiations between the Palestinian authorities and Israel  which have lasted for more than two decades based on the 1993 Oslo accords  have been stalled since 2014.

In recent years, Israel has intensified the construction of hundreds of illegal Jewish settlements in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, thus creating new demographics that weaken the ability of the Palestinians to build a geographically contiguous state.

*This story was edited by Ahram Online.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Italian oil and gas company Eni has announced the official start of production from Egypt's massive Zohr gas field, less than two-and-a-half years after discovery

Italian oil and gas company Eni said on Wednesday that it had begun producing gas from Egypt's giant offshore gas field Zohr, the Mediterranean's largest ever gas discovery.

The mammoth gas field began production in record time, less than two-and-a-half years since its discovery in 2015, with potential gas reserves of 850bn m3, the company said on its website.

Once Zohr has reached full production, it will transform Egypt from a net importer to a net exporter of natural gas, helping the country achieve its aim of becoming a regional energy hub.

Experimental production from Zohr began last Saturday at an initial 350 million cubic feet per day (mcf/d), with gas transported from the field to the refinery in Port Said.

Zohr is a deepwater offshore gas field located in the 3,752km Shorouk block in the Mediterranean Sea, 150km from the north coast of Egypt. It was discovered by Eni in August 2015. In February of the following year, the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) granted Eni approval for the Zohr Development Lease.

In February 2017, BP acquired a 10 percent stake in Zohr from Eni subisidary IEOC Production for $375 million. Eni now holds a 60 percent stake in the Shorouk offshore concession, BP 10 percent, and Rosneft 30 percent, an acquisition the latter signed in October.

Zohr is being developed and operated by Belayim Petroleum Company (Petrobel), a joint venture between Eni subsidiary IEOC and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC).

The first phase of the project is set to be completed by mid-2018, by which time production will have gradually increased to 1 bcf/d. It is set to reach 2.7 bcf/d by the end of 2019.

Investments in the field are estimated to be at least $12 billion in the first and second stages, petroleum ministry spokesperson Hamdy Abdel-Aziz told Ahram Online.

Egypt as regional energy hub

Egypt's petroleum ministry has made clear its plans to turn the country into a regional hub for energy trading, a vision that Zohr will help to realise. With the surge in domestic production from Zohr, Egypt will be able to fulfill its own industrial needs, at which point the petroleum ministry says it will authorise the export of gas.

In five years' time, Egypt will allow oil companies to export gas that is not needed locally , Petroleum Minister El Molla told Reuters on Monday.

In November, El Molla said that once Egypt has fulfilled it commitments for liquified natural gas (LNG) imports, it plans to completely halt importing LNG by the end of 2018.

Egypt has been investing in ports, refineries, pipelines and LNG stations, to prepare for the storage and transportation of gas to and from other countries.

Boosting regional cooperation, investment

The vision of Egypt as an energy hub is expected to boost cooperation between various regional nations.

Egypt and Cyprus are in negotiations to build a natural-gas pipeline, for which a preliminary agreement was signed last year. The pipeline is set to become operational between 2020 and 2022.

Negotiations are ongoing for the establishment of a pipeline to transport gas from Aphrodite gas field to Egypts Idku liquefying natural gas plant, Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla said.

The Zohr, North Alexandria and Nooros gas-field discoveries have also boosted interest in investment in Egyptian oil and gas projets.

The North Alexandria concession will begin producing 500-700 mcf/d by the end of 2018, according to El Molla, who said that 83 new exploration agreements worth $15.5 billion would be signed next year, with 230 wells worth $2 billion being drilled.

Meanwhile, Exxon Mobil is reportedly in talks with the government to invest in Egypt's oil and gas production, sources told Reuters earlier this month.

Balance of payments

This appetite for Egypts oil and gas industry is reflected in Egypts latest balance-of-payments report.

In Q1 2017/2018, net investment in the oil industry surged by 84.2 percent year-on-year, the Central Bank said earlier this month.

The Zohr gas field is expected to alleviate pressure on the budget and the petroleum balance of payments.

The production of 350 million cubic feet per day is equivalent to three LNG shipments costing $90 million, ministry spokesperson Abdel Aziz told Ahram Online.

Gas from Zohr will save a monthly $60 million, i.e. $720 million per year, as production costs are estimated at a monthly $30 million.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


The great Gold Rush Music Festival returns to the township of Waihi, with the first nuggets of gold dropping for the highly anticipated return of the 2023 festival.
The Swiss Federal Council announced on Wednesday it has lifted a freeze on the assets of former President Hosni Mubarak, saying the realistic prospects of the restitution of these assets no longer exist within the framework of mutual legal assistance.

According to the statement, with the recent closing of the mutual legal assistance procedures between Switzerland and Egypt, the Federal Council decided to lift with immediate effect the freeze on assets in the context of this country.

The statement said that the frozen assets in Switzerland of Mubarak and other Egyptian officials who faced criminal charges were initially estimated at $700 million in 2011.

However, this figure was reduced to $437 million following the delisting of names from the ordinance at the request of the Egyptian authorities, who have in the meantime concluded reconciliation agreements in Egypt.

Together with several acquittals and classification decisions, these agreements contributed to the decision of the Egyptian judiciary to drop criminal proceedings in the most prominent cases with possible links to assets frozen in Switzerland... despite the joint efforts undertaken, the cooperation between the two countries has failed to produce the anticipated results, the statement said.

"The freeze on the Egyptian assets on the basis of the [Foreign Politically Exposed Persons] FIAA therefore has no further purpose as defined by law and in jurisprudence, which the Federal Council noted when lifting it with immediate effect," the statement added.

"This decision, however, will not result in the release of these assets (approx. CHF 430 million). They remain sequestered within the framework of criminal proceedings in Switzerland being conducted by the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland for the purpose of determining whether or not their origin is licit."

In January 2016, Mubarak and his sons lost a final appeal on a conviction of embezzling public funds.

Mubarak and his two sons were found guilty of embezzling $7 million in public funds originally allocated for the upkeep of presidential buildings, and were sentenced to three years in prison.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


MARTINSVILLE  The Southern Virginia GO Region 3 Council will wait until early 2018 to decide which proposed regional economic improvement projects it will recommend to the state for funding.

Project applications were due Nov. 6. The council was to have met today to decide which projects it will recommend to the state GO Virginia board. However, scheduling conflicts among officials with the regional collaborative have led to a delay, said Region 3 Contract Officer Liz Povar.

The boards project review committee will meet today instead. The full board then will meet on Jan. 5 to consider which projects it will present to the state board for consideration of funding. The state board then will consider the recommendations during its Feb. 13 session, according to Povar.

Five proposed projects have been submitted to Region 3, said Povar, adding that she was pleased with the number, considering that GO Virginia is a new entity.

She currently cannot comment on the projects because of proprietary information within the proposal documents, she said.

GO Virginia, also known as the Virginia Initiative for Growth and Opportunity in Each Region, is a statewide coalition of business leaders emphasizing a need for regional cooperation in efforts to create jobs and encourage growth within the private sector, as well as to prepare workers for careers.

Each of the nine GO Virginia regions statewide have prepared regional economic improvement plans.

Martinsville-Henry County is in Region 3 with Danville and Pittsylvania, Patrick, Halifax, Nottoway, Mecklenburg, Brunswick, Prince Edward, Lunenburg, Buckingham, Cumberland, Charlotte and Amelia counties. Region 3 is the largest GO Virginia region, covering roughly 17 percent of the state. Yet it has the smallest population at about 372,000, roughly 4 percent of the states residents. Most of its jobs pay lower wages, and overall its workers are less educated and poorer than elsewhere, its plan shows.

Region 3s plan focuses heavily on three matters  workforce talent development and recruitment, sectoral development (focusing on attracting and retaining types of businesses with the greatest potential for expanding employment in the region) and improving Internet infrastructure.

Two Martinsville-Henry County businessmen, Larry Ryder and James McClain II, are among the 18 members of the Region 3 board.

The Southside Planning District Commission, headquartered in South Hill, serves as Region 3s support organization.

On Nov. 12, Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced five GO Virginia projects that will receive a total of $2.2 million as part of the first round of funding. Those projects involve localities in Region 5, which includes Hampton Roads, and Region 7, which includes areas of Northern Virginia.

Only four of the nine GO Virginia regions submitted projects for consideration during the first round, Povar said.

As for why Region 3 has waited, she said weve had a tight time schedule amid council members scheduling conflicts and the council wanted to make sure the applications sent forward (to the state board) are of the best possible caliber.

The state has reserved about $800,000 to fund projects in Region 3, so the region has not jeopardized receiving any funding due to waiting until 2018 to decide on projects to recommend, Povar said.

Amounts reserved for individual regions were on a per-capita basis. Because Region 3 has the smallest population, it was reserved the smallest amount, Povar added.

Mickey Powell reports for the Martinsville Bulletin. He can be reached at mickey.powell@martinsvillebulletin.com.
Mohamed Hammad talked to Ahram Online about making of the award-winning Withered Green and how his belief in the film helped him overcome many obstacles

Following its world premiere at the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland (7 August 2016), as well as its Arab world premiere at the Dubai International Film Festival (9 December 2016) and several international screenings, the film Withered Green (Akhdar Yabis) had to wait several months to be released in Zawya on 25 October 2017, then across Egyptian cinemas the same month.

The film was then screened outside the competition during the 39th Cairo International Film Festival (26 November 2017) before returning to Egypt's cinemas.

Withered Green (2016) is the first feature film by director and scriptwriter Mohamed Hammad.

His first short narrative film as a scriptwriter was The First Pound (2006) directed by Ahmed Khaled, followed by two short films; Central (2006) and Pale Red (2009), both of which he wrote and directed, in addition to short documentaries.

Withered Green won the Muhr Award for best director at the Dubai International Film Festival 2016, and the Golden Palm Award in the Narrative Feature Competition at the Mexico International Film Festival 2017.

It was nominated for the Golden Leopard for Filmmakers of the Present at the Locarno International Film Festival 2016, and also for the Golden Bayard of the Best First Film at the Mexico International Film Festival 2017.

The film depicts Imans attempts to convince one of her three uncles to attend her younger sisters engagement in her deceased father's place. During her journey, Iman faces shocking discoveries about her own life and the people around her.

The film features a cast of amateur actors, some of whom make their first on-screen appearance, including lead actress Heba Ali.

Members of Hammads family also took part in the film, including his father, mother, and father-in-law.

The directors wife Kholoud Saad also makes her first attempt as a producer in the film.

Ahram Online talks to Mohammed Hammad about Withered Green and the obstacles he faced producing his first feature film.

AO: Tell us more about Withered Green as your first experience with feature film.

MH: A decade ago, I joined some friends in a film editing room, and since then I have been infatuated with the world of filmmaking.

Before that moment, I was a mass media graduate who dreamed of becoming a musician.

In 2006, I wrote my first film, which was directed by a friend, Ahmed Khaled. I then became more involved in the filmmaking world. I wrote, directed and produced some short narrative and documentary films.

But there came a time when I was frustrated and depressed because of all the obstacles one faces to making a long feature film, including financing the film, to the extent that I decided to quit filmmaking. I felt that I was struggling against time, and this is what this film is about. I decided to win the fight and to liberate myself from all the obstacles by producing my film by myself. This film is my radical response to those obstacles.

AO: Is Iman, the protagonist in Withered Green, your alter ego?

MH: In a way, yes, and at the end of the film there are some indications that she also decided to liberate herself and win her fight with time.

AO: Your film won the Muhr Award at the Dubai International Film Festival and it was nominated for the Golden Leopard at the prestigious Locarno International Film Festival. How would you describe your film in relation to the audience?

MH: I believe it is a not a mainstream film, it has its own audience. A filmmaker should make his film and he will slowly build his audience by time. This is the lesson we learned from our prominent directors Mohamed Khan, Yousry Nassrallah, and Daoud Abdel-Seid.

On the other hand, it is a very simple story about ordinary characters who belong to the lower-middle class, which is disintegrating at a blinding pace. It is about the effect of time on ones life and how much we could love ourselves compared to our love for others.

Films are not only about ideas, but also cinematic style. In this regard I have no compromises because I cannot compromise the truth. In other words, a story of two lower-middle class sisters who live alone facing dozens of challenges could also be done in a different style adapting mainstream film techniques.

If I had done this, however, I would have abandoned the reality of my characters. These characters have their very own pace in their everyday life, which is totally different from the cinematic pace. I wanted to be authentic to reality and to real life.

I am not after appeal, I want to reflect reality.

AO: Did you expect such positive reception of your film?

MH: My concern was to complete the film. This was our everyday challenge and motivation. I planned to submit the film to the Dubai International Film Festival and Cairo International Film Festival so it can be watched in Egypt.

But when the prominent late film critic Samir Farid watched it, he liked it so much that he advised me to submit the film to all the prestigious film festivals.

I did not imagine that it would be appreciated this much at every film festival, including Locarno.

I will really miss Samir Farid, [who passed away in April this year], and his encouraging advice.

AO: Can the limited budget of a film play any role in its cinematic style?

MH: Absolutely not, and I think you cannot tell the real budget of this film from the way it looks. The budget was not on my mind when I chose the films style, but only the dramatic context.

On the contrary, the limited budget was a motivation for me and the film crew to invent alternative methods and think about the resources we have to implement my vision.

The only effect the limited budget had on the production process is reflected in time. Although filming took 28 days, it took one year and a half to gather all the crew, find the proper locations, and have dress rehearsals at those locations so the actors and actresses can live in the characters shoes.

Dress rehearsals at the film location are the key point in this film, because it helps in capturing all the details of the characters. For example, Heba who played the role of Iman, spent weeks in the sweet shop as a seller so she can feel and act like one.

Had we had a big budget we would not have had the time for such preparations. I think this is the difference between my film and mainstream films, which lose the sense of real life and the tiny details of real people. Real life is slower than cinema.

AO: Some of your family members are part of this film, including your wife Kholoud as producer, and your father, mother and father-in-law as first-time actors. Why did you take this risk?

MH: Most of the acting team in this film, including the protagonist, is appearing in front of the camera for the first time. This sense of freshness and unexpectedness that comes from an amateur actor is precious.

Also a film director is a professional observer, and the story of this film is inspired by the people that I lived with and observed for years.

I like that the film was very organic in the sense that all our family gatherings turned into interesting discussions about the film, and everyone was very enthusiastic to make it happen. It took some time to convince them to play roles in my film, but I am lucky that they decided to do it.

AO: Who are your cinematic references?

MH: My references are all the great filmmakers who were part of cinema history, those who were able to build their very own cinematic personality and flavour. The artistic achievements of filmmakers such as David Lynch, Bela Tarr, Stanley Kubrick, Jim Jarmusch, and Agnes Varda are my references.

AO: Your film was given the green light by the censors hours before its Egyptian premier at Zawya Cinema. Why did it take months to receive permission?

MH: The film was introduced to the Censorship of Artistic Works Authority last February, after which I was invited to a series of meetings to discuss their remarks.

Since I did not seek any permissions in the pre-production or during the production phase, their first remark was that some scenes that appear in the film are removed from the script, and when I explained the reason for this, they had further remarks on those scenes in the film itself.

They described those scenes as disgusting and immoral. It took much negotiation to convince the censorship committee not to cut the scenes.

This is totally ridiculous, since prior to its Egyptian premiere, the film was publically screened in Dubai and Beirut without a single cut.

AO: Why did you not seek any permission during the films production phases?

MH: It is difficult to get permission to make film, and it is also difficult to make a film without permission. But I decided not to seek any permission on purpose.

I do not believe a censor should have a say on a filmmakers script or a films screening. Also since the film crew and I are not members of the Cinema Syndicate and we do not work under any production company, it would be impossible to have any permission of any kind.

We work under many pressures.

AO: Have you thought about your next step?

MH: Although I have no idea what the next film will be about, I am ready to start a new film because we have to capitalise on the success of this film.

What I am sure of is that in all my next films, the script will decide the style of the film, and that I will always work with people who share my vision in filmmaking. I will also do my best to be a part of the production process as a partner to be able to protect the vision.

AO: What would you say to young filmmakers?

MH: My main argument to every aspiring filmmaker is not to listen to any argument for why you should not make your film. If you are true to filmmaking, not to the outcome of making a film, then enjoy making your film and you will overcome all the obstacles.

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:


We need to be accountable

I read with interest and tearful eyes the article The Slave Meadow by Ralph Berrier in the Bulletin on Monday. The article was about a promise Bob Heafner made to a friend to enact a granite stone memorial in memory of the slaves who were buried in a meadow off the Blue Ridge Parkway near Meadows of Dan. The gravestone markers were removed and never replaced. I believe that a National Day of Mourning and Remembrance should be installed in our nations calendar in memory of our fellow citizens of African-American ancestry who suffered because of the horrible practice of slavery, practiced by even some of the leaders of our country on the federal, state and local levels of government. I heard Sen. Sam Erwin, a former senator, now deceased, from North Carolina, who was from my hometown of Morganton, North Carolina, say one time the saddest chapter of our nations history was the Civil War. I think he was wrong. The saddest chapter of our nations history involved the entire time when we allowed slavery to be practiced.

I write these words in sincere sadness.

Richard Erwin Harrison

Martinsville

A Christmas miracle

Its been a month of good and bad news so far. The overwhelmingly good news came in the form of all the stories of people helping others during this Christmas season. Ive enjoyed reading every one and seeing how people in this community rise up to help each other in times of need. Its honestly one of the things that makes me proud to live in Henry County. Regardless of who you are, if you need a hand, theres a long line of people and groups willing to step in. It reminds me of a story from the Bible, from the New Testament. Many people came into the temple and gave money, some gave impressively large sums. But the person Jesus singled out was the widow who gave all that she had. It may not have been the biggest sum, but it was done out of the kindness of her heart. The amounts of money given around here may not be in the millions of dollars, but its enough to satisfy the need. Maybe thats the Christmas miracle in all of this, that God makes sure the needs are met when we give out of love.

Thomas Faden

Axton

Saying thanks

As I go into my next year of letter writing, I want to thank all my many readers who love what I have to say and the Bulletin for making this possible. As this year comes to a close and a New Year starts, we can only hope things will improve with new jobs, and that our family will stay healthy and happy.

Think about it friends when it seems every year brings about the same old things like suicide bombers, mass killings and a hint of nuclear war is heard almost daily. Wouldnt it be nice to live in a world of no hate, no lying, no adultery, no murder, and that everyone could love one another as we are supposed to do? I realize when we do these sinful things it doesnt mean we are bad folks, but that we are just human beings and very weak. We also struggle with our monthly obligations sometimes wondering if we can pay all our bills, keep food on the table, and be able to pay for all those medications we need to keep us going.

We have to maintain ourselves, our homes and our automobiles, knowing if we dont, serious consequences can occur. I tell people today we live in an expensive world where it seems everything continues to go up in price and our salary continues to stay at the same rate. A dollar doesnt go very far; in fact $100 can vanish in a moments notice. This is why in most cases it takes man and woman working in a family to make ends meet. Can we expect our living expenses to decrease and our way of living in 2018 to improve? I say dont hold your breath, but only hope for the best. Everyone have a nice New Year.

Danny Clifton

Ridgeway
TODAYS WORD is compotator (kom-puh-tey-ter). Example: After a couple of hours at the tavern, Bud would usually begin holding forth on a variety of topics and his fellow compotators had no choice but to listen.

TUESDAYS WORD was barghest. It means a legendary doglike goblin believed to portend death or misfortune. Example: The big black dog at the junkyard was so mean and fierce that the local kids took to calling it barghest.

Richards Dinner

Richards Dinner is a free community meal designed to ensure that no one is hungry or alone on Christmas Day. The meal is served at First Baptist Church at the corner of Starling Avenue and Mulberry Road from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. next Monday. To order a delivery, call 403-9557; to volunteer, call 732-3422; and to donate, call 638-8500.

TODAY IS: Mudd Day

Today we observe the birthday of Dr. Samuel Mudd. After assassinating Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth rode with co-conspirator David Herold to Mudds home in the early hours of the 15th for surgery on his broken leg. Sometime that day, Mudd learned of the assassination but did not report Booths visit to the authorities for another 24 hours. This delay appeared to link him to the crime, and on April 26, he was arrested. A military commission found him guilty of aiding and conspiring in a murder and he was sentenced to life imprisonment, escaping the death penalty by a single vote. President Andrew Johnson pardoned Mudd, and he was released from prison in 1869. While the phrase your name is mud existed before Mudds conviction, it took on a whole new meaning afterward.

Scammers return

Weve warned about these guys before, but it seems like our friendly neighborhood scammers are back, harassing people in Henry County. On Monday, a Collinsville woman said she found a voicemail on her phone from Richmond, claiming to be from the IRS. She emailed the Stroller, just to let people know this was going on. The call went like this: "This is the IRS and were calling to inform you of a pending lawsuit against you for unpaid taxes. Call the department at 816-278-8417 immediately or you will face prosecution." As our sheriffs offices and police have warned, its not a good idea to return these calls. As our local police have mentioned before, the IRS isnt going to make threats like that. Instead, when you get phone numbers like that, please call the police and let them know.

TRIVIA QUESTION: Who was the first U.S. president to publish a work of fiction?

TUESDAYS TRIVIA ANSWER: The Department of Defense is the largest purchaser of explosives in the United States. Who is the second largest purchaser? The answer: The Walt Disney Company. If you make a trip to Disney World in Florida, youll get the chance to see a fireworks display like none other. Its estimated that Disney launches about $18 million worth of fireworks per year, with just the nightly (and sometimes twice per night) fireworks show Wishes costing anywhere from $41,000 to $55,000 per day.
Salvador Nasralla, the opposition candidate, travelled to Washington on Monday, 18 December, to meet with representatives of the OAS, the State Department and human rights organisations, to look for a solution to the post-electoral conflict in Honduras. In another clumsy move, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), on Sunday afternoon, 17 December, declared right-wing candidate Juan Orlando Hernandez (JOH) of the National Party (and current president) as the winner. Clearly this has been a fraudulent election.

The Alliance Against the Dictatorship immediately called for mobilisations in all public squares of the country (an action that was overtaken by events). After nightfall last Sunday, highways were occupied and fires lit, barricades were set up and banking and judicial offices were burned. Manuel Zelaya, coordinator of the Alliance Against the Dictatorship, called on Nasralla to return from Washington because nothing will be solved there. It is the people who will decide on the streets who the real winner of the elections is, he said. Faced with the new wave of action, Luis Almagro, secretary general of the OAS, has proposed that new elections be held as a way out of the conflict in a clear attempt to defuse the workers' struggle. Nasralla says he can win the election again, but JOH refuses to repeat it.

Juan Orlando Hernandez (left) and Enrique Pena / Image: official photo



The TSE is an instrument at the service of JOH, with a soft internal opposition. They alleged that JOH won with a difference of 50,446 votes (1.53%), obtaining 1,410,888 votes (42.95%) compared to 1,360,442 votes (41.42%) for Salvador Nasralla. The vote count resembled a runner clearly behind, who then came up with a tremendous sprint to win at the finish line by a hair. But an electoral count cannot behave that way. The opposition has denounced the inexplicable system crash, with just over 5,000 voting centres from the countryside, out of the 18.129 tables in total, left to tally. When the system was suddenly restored it already gave JOH in the lead. The Alliance has denounced that many electoral acts have been manipulated and changed.

After the elections on 26 November, Honduras has witnessed an insurrectional movement from the people who are against this fraud. The state has responded with repression (the number of people killed in the protest is up to 22, including 3 minors) and instituted a curfew that the people defied by going out to the streets in the urban neighbourhoods and villages throughout the country. On 3 December one of the largest ever demonstrations in Honduras was held. The resolve is such that the police have split. All these efforts and sacrifices can be undone by the TSE announcement. These are crucial moments: the rural and urban workers have understood that without their decisive action, JOH will impose himself and the nightmare will continue.

Why has the movement not triumphed?

We should ask ourselves: why has such a forceful movement not been able to triumph so far? The answer lies in the fact that it has not had sufficient organisation and adequate leadership to move to more decisive actions. The Alliance has limited itself to the legal struggle and crucial moments were lost, resulting in setbacks for the struggle. The national strike on 11 December was a sign of weakness, showing, as it might be expected, a certain weariness over time. Many people could not take part in these actions as they had to go to work, since in their workplaces no protests were organised.

Honduras political demonstration / Image: fair use

Throughout this time, the regime has embarked on a media campaign to try and manipulate or deflect attention. For example, the OAS Mission to Support the Fight against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (MACCIH), brought to light cases of corruption involving congressmen. An airplane crash, where allegedly a number of Hondurans died, including the sister of JOH, also dominated the news. Nobody has seen pictures of the dead woman and people are claiming that it is a lie. There has also been a campaign to criminalise local leaders, on the one hand using infiltrators to stage provocations and actions of sabotage; and on the other levelling false accusations at local leaders to bully them into retreat.

A new action was organised in response, with a call for a new strike on 15 December, and the results were better, even if not totally satisfactory. The blocking of streets was announced beforehand and the police mobilised in advance to stop them and also repressed the planned actions, disbanding several of them. With the actions being not as massive, the repression was easier, and at least two comrades were killed by the police. In spite of everything around 100 highways were occupied on this day, although this was a far cry from the highest moments of the struggle. It was after these signs of weakness that the TSE felt encouraged to declare JOH the winner. This temporary ebb did not amount to defeat, the people were prepared and ready to act if it was really worth it.

The working people of Honduras have the recent experience of struggle against the military coup of 2009. The National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP) was formed at this time. It was a mistake to effectively sideline this organisation in favour of the creation of Libre. This party was formed from the rank-and-file of FNRP but incorporated bureaucratic and bourgeois elements from the Liberal Party. The electoral struggle was prioritised, leaving the popular struggle in the background. As a result, at a time when the movement needs more decisive action, there is insufficient organisation to make it happen.

New sectors have joined in to denounce and fight against the imposition of JOH, such as the Convergence Against Continuity, which held a press conference alongside members of the Alliance against Fraud. Among those in the audience were the renowned union leader Carlos H. Reyes and Berta Oliva, founder of the Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH).

Nevertheless the entry of the organised labour movement brings constraints to the struggle, because even though H. Reyes has come out against the coup we have not seen declarations or decisive actions from the trade union movement. The organised labour movement should leave its mark in the struggle primarily by defending a clear class-based program in favour of the workers and using their methods of struggle. These include the formation of popular assemblies, where the rank-and-file can voice their opinions and carry out actions such as strikes. This will allow unionised workers to stop working to join the struggle, and thus in addition to paralysing production we can strike against the capitalist class that supports the National Party and JOH. The movement is very deep and inspiring, but in the medium term, if it does not organise itself, it will tend to disperse, leading to a defeat of the struggle. In 2009, a National Popular Assembly was established in the struggle against the coup. In a similar fashion today, popular assemblies should be set up in every workplace and education institution, neighbourhood and village. They should elect representatives who would form a new national assembly, to direct the movement in the streets and organise a national plan for the struggle.

The OAS and the EU

The leaders of the Alliance have stated that there have been attempts to divide them, but their unity is holding strong. However, there are differences between Nasralla and Mel Zelaya, with the former having declared publicly that he trusts the OAS and the European Union, while the latter has made stronger statements against imperialism. But Mel Zelaya has publicly said to the imperialists that he will not govern, that Nasralla is the one who will, and that if he is the problem he will step aside.

The main concern of the EU and the OAS is that the movement of the masses does not grow too much  they have always called for calm. Shortly after the TSE announced JOH as the winner, Jose Antonio de Gabriel, European Union observer in Honduras, gave a press conference that amounted to backing the TSEs announcement. After a new popular uprising, Marisa dos Santos Matias, MEP from the Portuguese Left Bloc, and chief of the EU observation mission, denied that JOHs victory had been recognised and that the process had been endorsed.

Salvador Nasralla / Image: Byga99

The OAS observers published a tame report about the elections but: it considers that this has been a low quality electoral process and for that matter cannot state that doubts lingering over it have been clarified.

The OAS General Secretariat produced a statement calling for dialogue without sectarianism, respecting the rule of law and peace. But it recognised that: Deliberate human intrusions in the computer system, intentional elimination of digital traces, the impossibility of knowing the number of opportunities to violate the system, pouches of votes open or lacking votes, the extreme statistical improbability with respect to participation levels within the same department, recently printed ballots and additional irregularities, added to the narrow difference of votes between the two most voted candidates, make it impossible to determine with the necessary certainty the winner.

This is called fraud, but the OAS refuses to use such terms. Further on it says: For the aforementioned reasons, and given the impossibility of determining a winner, the only possible way for the victor to be [sic] the people of Honduras is a new call for general elections, within the framework of the strictest respect for the rule of law, with the guarantees of a TSE that enjoys the technical capacity and confidence of both the citizens and political parties.

The call for a new election represents an attempted way out that deactivates the revolutionary mobilisation of the masses. The leaders of Libre have rightly called on the people to maintain social protests. Zelaya, despite his criticism, has left it to Nasralla to decide whether or not to accept this new election proposal. Nasralla, after his meeting with the OAS, has accepted the OAS proposal to call for new elections.

Imperialist meddling

Heide Fulton, charge d'affaires in the US embassy in Honduras, has tweeted some statements that the people have seen as meddling. On 3 December, in a clear attempt to endorse the process, she said: Congratulations to the Honduran people for the peaceful protests today and to the TSE for the orderly process now underway...As the OAS suggested, the broad participation of civil society in the count now underway helps ensure that this democratic process remains in the hands of the people. While Fulton was saying this, Mel Zelaya was telling protesters that the most right-wing sectors of imperialism were the ones stopping Nasrallas victory.

On 10 December, under the pretext of the International Human Rights Day, Fulton put out a statement that said:

Today, on International Human Rights Day, we pause to reflect and remember that we are all entitled to fundamental freedoms and basic human rights, regardless of nationality, race, religion, political persuasion or other distinguishing characteristic. A strong respect for these human rights is essential for a flourishing democracy. Civil society and the media are fundamental to preserving citizen participation in the democratic process and holding accountable those who govern. They must be allowed to do their jobs without interference, including investigating and reporting on allegations of human rights violations. In Honduras, we applaud the steps taken to strengthen the National Protection System for Human Rights Defenders, Journalists, Social Communications and Justice Operators in the last year. We encourage the current and future Honduran administrations to continue to strengthen the Protection Mechanisms efforts to protect these brave individuals when they are threatened, and to investigate and bring to justice those responsible for any attacks against them. We welcome the commitment of Honduran authorities to investigate allegations of human rights violations related to the post-electoral period, and urge that all such investigations be timely, thorough, and transparent. We also reiterate our call for all involved in the electoral process to support a transparent, impartial, timely and peaceful determination of the election result, consistent with Honduran law, in a manner that maximizes citizen participation and represents the will of the Honduran people as expressed in the 26 November election.

In Fultons fancy offices there is no tear gas, nor bullets that have killed dozens of Hondurans during the violent repression by JOHs government. Imperialists shed crocodile tears, but have had no doubts in supporting oligarchic and post-coup governments. A former colonel of JOH stated that this government, with US support, had created death squads in Honduras, in his words:

(The US embassy) not only supplied weapons to the death squads, they also paid for the houses that worked as safe houses, where they took people to torture and kill, and all this was paid by the American embassy. The Honduran oligarchy has a long reactionary tradition of collaboration with the US. Honduras became the centre of counterrevolution in Central America, after the fall of Somoza in Nicaragua. When Micheletti staged the coup detat, the national stadium was turned into a centre of torture against the people and more than 200 people were murdered with the support and complicit silence of imperialism.

On the night of 17 December, Mel Zelaya said in a press conference that he was constantly receiving death threats but that one could give his life for the cause of transforming society in Honduras. He called on the people to defy the repression and take to the streets.

A new popular uprising

Manuel Zelaya called on people to take to streets starting on the night of the 17th and the public squares on the 18th. During the night, throughout the country highways were blocked and barricades erected, and official buildings set on fire. This Monday Honduras woke up to find the main highways occupied. The police attacked but this time they met a fierce resistance.

An example of the brutality of the repression was witnessed on the Danli exit. The people were engaging in the occupation in a peaceful manner. A huge squad from the military police arrived and started firing hundreds of gas bombs against the defenceless population. Not only did they charge against the protesters, they attacked people that were walking by and also houses. They threw hundreds of gas bombs and two of them into a poor house, with a door made out of wooden sticks, with metallic sheets for walls. A poor family with children was inside. An old woman and a newborn baby had to be taken to the hospital as a result of the effects of the teargas.

Embed from Getty Images

In San Pedro Sula, a young protester died after being hit in the lungs. In this city there have been reports that officers from a private security firm have fired on peaceful protesters. The large majority of those killed these days are young people, who are the most willing and determined participants in the struggle.

Any revolution worthy of the name divides the forces of repression along class lines. The masses square up valiantly against state forces. There are civil war scenes but also scenes of people protesting against the military for these actions and, outraged, they tell them that they are willing to give their lives and that they cannot go on defending JOH, especially when they share the same misery conditions. A wounded policeman was captured by the people, he was abused and cursed, but not physically attacked, and in the end he was freed.

The police and the army are instruments of repression in defence of the interests of big capital, but in their rank-and-file are people that live in the same conditions of poverty as the rest of the workers and peasants, and their relatives are often fighting in the streets. The Cobras and other groups have refused in the past few days to repress the masses. During this new wave of struggle, several police commanders have renounced their posts. The low-ranking policemen, out on the street, are infected by the revolutionary spirit of the people. The movement should organise self-defence committees, as well as agitating at the rank-and-file of the armed forces to divide them. Mel Zelaya called on the armed forces to put themselves at the service of the new president. The soldiers and police officers that refuse to repress should instead form committees in their battalions, use assemblies to remove the repressive commanders and replace them with members controlled by the rank-and-file, they should isolate the most reactionary elements of the police that keep repressing the people and turn the guns against the exploiters and their representative: Juan Orlando Hernandez.

What happens next?

The Honduran popular movement is inspiring but it should aim to establish popular organisation. Libre would feel the impact at its rank-and-file and turn leftward under pressure from below. In each neighbourhood, village, workplace or education institution, committees for the struggle and general assemblies need to be created and elect representatives to coordinate the struggle at regional and national levels. Let us not forget the experience of the FNRP in 2009. In the subsequent stages, where the movement will not always count on the surge we see now, actions need to be better organised so that what happened in the 11 and 15 December strikes does not happen again. The interests of the working people should be made clear. A program of raising salaries, full employment, more spending on healthcare and public education, university access for everyone and so forth should be put forward. For that, the privileges of corrupt politicians and capitalists need to be brought to an end. Their assets, acquired through theft and exploitation of the people, should be expropriated, and put to work in an economy under the democratic control of the workers. For that purpose, in the rank-and-file of Libre and the people, a strong pole of organised workers needs to be formed.

Honduras political crisis / Image: Flickr, Yamil Gonzales

The main actor in this struggle are the people, and if they triumph, it will be thanks to them and nobody else. JOH needs to go now, without any new elections. The regime needs to change and so does society at its roots. Nasralla is in Washington, while the people are fighting heroically, and he has accepted new elections. This OAS proposal was the bourgeois response to the new insurrectional uprising of the people. The bourgeoisie may sacrifice JOH and make some superficial changes to the state, but they want the capitalist system to remain untouched. That is why they call for calm and for respect towards the bourgeois institutions, that is why they call for new elections, hoping that the people will go back to their homes. The decision to accept or reject a new election should not be an individual decision of Nasralla. Instead, an assembly with grassroots representatives from the parties in the Alliance and other struggling sectors should be convened to accept or reject this proposal and to decide on a plan of national struggle.

The people want JOH to go but they also want a decent life. Nasralla and the leadership of Libre will be pressured by the ruling circles. They may reach agreements through which JOH is disowned, in exchange for a new government with its hands tied. Nasralla will be pressured from above: it is the role of the workers who have voted for him to stop him from giving in and to get him to implement a program in favour of workers and peasants.

The regime of JOH does not want to hand over power. Its representatives want to protect their privileges and they know that the people will demand that they pay for the crimes they have committed. The government secretary, Ebal Diaz, said on Twitter:

Mr. Almagro, you have violated the procedures of the OAS and the observing mission, fostering more violence. You have been irresponsible, allowing a member of your team to collude with Salvador Nasralla to try and steal the election.

American imperialism and the OAS, in a hypothetical scenario where they would want to sacrifice JOH to save the system, would pressure him and withhold international recognition. But this will only happen if there is a fear of losing everything.

The mass movement has worked wonders and showed its determination, and has the full potential to move forward and develop. For that the popular movement based on assemblies at the base needs to be strengthened. The actions of blocking highways and the peoples defence against police aggression are inspiring, but it is not sufficient to just resist because the movement will inevitably be worn down. How can we move forward? We believe that beyond blocking the routes, we need to paralyse the economy with a general strike. In places where the movement is strong enough, the municipal palaces should be seized and run by committees elected in popular assemblies.

These are crucial times for the history of Honduras and the Americas, because this battle will affect other countries in the region. The working class, the peasantry and the youth in struggle can only rely on their own strength and nothing else. The bourgeoisie fears the Honduran people, because they are no longer afraid, because they will not be content with breadcrumbs and want to get, once and for all, the decent life that Hondurans deserve.

Article originally published in Spanish on Izquierda Marxista.
SPRINGFIELD -- Two hundred and ten of the country's newest citizens were welcomed Wednesday with a naturalization ceremony at American International College.

In a packed auditorium at the Griswold Theater, U.S. District Judge Mark G. Mastroianni administered the oath of citizenship to 210 people hailing from 63 countries.

"It is important to say at this period of time in our nation's history, when there is so much divisive discussion on immigration in the country, that we truly welcome you," Mastroianni said. "We truly value your talents and the culture you are bringing to the country."

Mastroianni noted that the United States is a country formed by immigrants and everyone with the exception of Native Americans has a family tree with roots in another country. He said his own ancestors hailed from Italy and Poland.

After administering the oath, he urged the new citizens to do their civic duty by registering to vote and by volunteering to serve on local boards and commissions.

"I wish for you and your families many moments of pride and happiness as Americans," he said.

Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, whose parents emigrated from Italy, also issued his welcome. He said he always looks forward to participating in naturalization ceremonies, and to schedule one days before Christmas is "a heartwarming holiday gift."

"You made it here to American but it is important that you did it the right way. You worked hard and you followed the rules," he said.

Like Mastroianni, Sarno urged them to retain memories of back home and to embrace their heritage but to also to take part in and contribute to American life and culture.

"My parents always say to be proud of our traditions and cultures, but to also be proud to be Americans," he said.

Nadia Dureika and her husband emigrated from Belarus six years ago. She and her family are now living in West Springfield. They have two children who were born in the United States. She earned her citizenship first while he is still working on taking the test, she said.

The immigration test is kind of hard, she said. "There are 100 questions on government, history, and culture," she said.

She said she wanted to move to America since she was younger. She and her husband applied for green cards twice before they were approved, she said.

Before the ceremony, she said she anticipated feeling proud when it comes time to take the oath.

Vitalliy Hrom of Ukraine has also been in the county six years after obtaining his green card. He lives in Agawam with his wife, who also emigrated.

"My wife and I wanted to get green cards. We were one of those lucky ones that got a chance to emigrate to the U.S.," he said. She is planning to take her exam next.

The test was not all that hard, because when he was a child in school, one of the teachers used to instruct them on American history and culture, he said.

"I will feel proud. It is a big day for us," he said.

The 210 new citizens originate from Albania, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bhutan, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, People's Republic of China, Colombia, Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, Cote D'Ivoire, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Hungary, India, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Mexico, Moldova, Nepal Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Russia, Senegal, Somalia, Spain, Sudan, Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.

The new citizens reside in communities throughout Western Massachusetts, and some live to the east in places like Lawrence, Beverly, Wilmington and Worcester.

New data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that over the past year, Massachusetts has a higher rate of population growth compared to the other New England states or the Northeast over all, and its primarily due to new immigrants moving here.

Massachusetts had an overall population increase of about 37,000 people, or about a half a percent.

Some 23,000 more people moved away from Massachusetts than came in from other states. But this was offset by the 45,000 people moving to Massachusetts from other countries immigrating.
Two former Fox News employees who received settlements after complaining about Bill O'Reilly's alleged sexual harassment are suing the network and the talk show host for publicly casting them as liars.

Attorneys for Rebecca Gomez Diamond and Andrea Mackris announced on Wednesday that the women had joined a defamation lawsuit former Fox News producer Rachel Witlieb Bernstein filed earlier this month in federal court in New York City, The New York Times reported.

Mackris was a former producer on "The O'Reilly Factor" and sued him for sexual harassment in 2004, while Diamond, a former host on Fox Business Network, had reached a settlement with O'Reilly in 2011.

Diamond, Mackris and Bernstein were identified in a New York Times story on April 1 as three of five women to whom O'Reilly paid settlements over sex harassment accusations.

According to the lawsuit, Diamond and Mackris had non-disparagement clauses in their settlements. The women said they were not the source of the New York Times story in April, and have been painted as opportunists seeking a payday from a celebrity.

O'Reilly's lawyer told The Hill that his client will "litigate fully and aggressively."

"The latest filing has absolutely no merit as we will show in court. Adding more plaintiffs does not cure the deficiencies in Bernstein's complaint," Fredric Newman said.

Fox News has not commented on the lawsuit.

In the past 18 months, Fox News has severed ties with O"reilly, former CEO Roger Ailes and former executive Bill Shine over sexual misconduct allegations,
Four people were arrested this week in connection to a series of break-ins and thefts in the the Greater Boston area.

Multiple break-ins occurred at Wendy's restaurants in Quincy and Taunton, with the suspects allegedly ripping at safes and smashing cash boxes, according to the Office of Attorney General Maura Healey. Authorities also recovered dozens of stolen Amazon packages in one of the suspect's homes.

Authorities arrested the four suspects on Tuesday after an "extensive" joint investigation between the AG's office, state police, and local police officers in Brookline, Quincy, Tuanton, Medford, Hanover and Stoughton. Boston Police Commissioner William Evans credited his department's Regional Intelligence Center with playing an "instrumental" role in investigating the case.

Boston residents Jason Geddes, 29, and Dharol Joyner, 33, were arraigned on Tuesday in Quincy after allegedly breaking in and stealing from a Wendy's restaurant in Quincy on Dec. 14.

When investigators later searched Joyner's home, they discovered unopened Amazon boxes addressed to different people in the Boston area. They suspect Joyner stole the boxes while working as a part-time delivery worker.

The AG's office said it is working with Amazon to return the packages before Christmas weekend.

Weymouth resident Edward Nugent, 55, was arraigned on Tuesday for allegedly breaking in and stealing from a Wendy's in Taunton on Nov. 26.

Geddes, Joyner and Nugent all face similar charges of larceny, destruction of property, conspiracy and breaking and entering to commit a felony. The three also face charges of Possession of Burglarious Tools.

The AG's office said authorities recovered "a loaded firearm, ammunition, prybars, a crowbar, a sledgehammer and other burglarious tools, clothing, thousands of dollars of cash, ski masks, gloves" and other evidence throughout the investigation.

Daniel Vo, 23, of Boston, was also arrested in connection to the break-ins. He has yet to be arraigned.
Cardinal Bernard Law died on Tuesday at the age of 86. He is most well-remembered as a disgraced former archbishop of Boston who helped protect and transfer child molesters within parishes.

In a statement, Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley apologized to the victims who suffered at the hand of sexual abuse by clergy.

"To those men and women, I offer my sincere apologies for the harm they suffered, my continued prayers and my promise that the Archdiocese will support them in their effort to achieve healing," O'Malley wrote.

"As Archbishop of Boston, Cardinal Law served at a time when the Church failed seriously in its responsibilities to provide pastoral care for her people, and with tragic outcomes failed to care for the children of our parish communities. I deeply regret that reality and its consequences."

Law was recently hospitalized in Rome before his death. The Vatican is expected to make a statement on Wednesday.

Despite once being a notable leader in the Catholic Church, Law's career as a holy man was plagued by investigations into hidden sexual abuse by the church.

In 2002, reports by the Boston Globe's Spotlight investigative team revealed the widespread sexual abuse against children, and the shuffling of abusive clergy. Law -- and others -- helped protect the priests instead of the children. Under pressure following the investigations, Law eventually stepped down in 2002.

In the Boston archdiosese, Law and two of his predecessors allowed former priest John Geoghan to continue work as a priest, despite knowing of his predatory and abusive behavior. Geoghan, who later served prison time for indecent assault and battery against a 10-year-old boy, allegedly abused more than 130 people.

O'Malley defended the early work of Law: "This fact carries a note of sadness because his pastoral legacy has many other dimensions," O'Malley wrote.

He noted Law's priestly work in civil rights, his "collaborative relationships" with Greek Orthodox and Jewish communities in Boston.

"He was well known for visiting the sick, the dying and the bereaved at all hours of the night and day, a ministry that extended to the rich and poor, the young and elderly, and people of all faiths. He also held the care for immigrants and their families in a special place in his ministry," O'Malley wrote.

Cardinal Law will be buried in Rome. He welcomed support from within the Vatican years after the sex abuse scandal.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
The month-long exhibition, which marks the centenary of French excavations at Deir Al-Medina, opens on Thursday night

The Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square opens a temporary exhibition on Thursday night focused on the artisans of Luxor's Deir Al-Medina archaeological site.

Titled The Artisans of the Pharaohs through their Artworks, the month-long show also marks the centenary of French archaeological research, excavation and restoration at the site.

On show for the first time will be a collection of 52 artefacts discovered by the French mission at Deir Al-Medina, along with documents and photos from the archive of the Institut Francais dArcheologie Orientale (IFAO), Elham Salah, head of the museums sector at the Ministry of Antiquities, told Ahram Online.

The artifacts, she explains, reflect the daily life, the faith and the funerary rituals of the Deir Al-Medina artisans. Among the most important objects are a statue of Sanejem, lintels of kings Amenhotep I and II, as well as a painted limestone ostraca.

The exhibition is organised by the Ministry of Antiquities, the IFAO and the University Paul-Valery Montpellier 3.



Search Keywords:

Short link:


The collection of King Tutankhamun is being transferred to the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) ahead of its soft opening in 2018

The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) is receiving another three artefacts of the King Tutankhamun collection  a chariot and two of his shirts, from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square.

The collection of King Tutankhamun is being transferred to the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) ahead of its soft opening in 2018.

Tarek Tawfiq supervisor general of the GEM, told Ahram Online that the chariot is the third to be transported to the GEM. Tutankhamun had six chariots. He explained that the move comes within the framework of an Egyptian-Japanese project between the Ministry of Antiquities and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to pack and transport 71 artefacts now on display at the Egyptian Museum to their new permanent exhibition spaces in the GEM.

Tawfik said that among the 71 artefacts was a collection of reliefs of founder of the ancient Fourth Dynasty Senefru and a collection of 65 objects from Tutankhamuns funerary collection, including three funerary beds, five chariots and 57 pieces of textile.

Director of first-aid restoration at the GEM, Eissa Zidan, said the restoration team had consolidated the wooden surfaces of the chariot as well as weak points in joint areas. The chariot, he said, was packed and transported as one item with the chair of the throne.

Zidan pointed out that the artefacts were padded with special materials to absorb any vibrations during transportation. State-of-the-art technology and modern scientific techniques had been used in order to guarantee the safe lifting and moving of the chariot from its display case at the Egyptian Museum. The team had also used acid-free packing materials.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Libya's eastern-based parliament approved a new central bank governor on Tuesday, deputies said, cementing financial divisions as the country grapples with political turmoil and economic crisis.

Libya, an oil producer, has two governments as a result of a power struggle waged since the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 - a UN-backed government in Tripoli and an eastern-based administration allied to the House of Representatives.

The Tripoli-based central bank rejected the move by the eastern-based parliament.

The east has set up a separate central bank branch issuing its own banknotes in competition with the headquarters in Tripoli headed by Sadiq al-Kabir.

The House of Representatives based in Tobruk approved as new governor Mohamed Abdelsalam al-Shukri by a vote of 54 of 107 MPs attending, deputies said. Shukri is a veteran central banker who served in the central bank under Gaddafi.

"He will replace Sadiq al-Kabir," said deputy Khalifa al-Dairi. The lawmakers dismissed Kabir in 2014, but he refused to leave, so they appointed his deputy Ali Salim al-Hibri as head of the eastern bank, which Shukri will now run.

The House of Representatives is the internationally recognised parliament, but is caught up in the greater conflict. It was elected in 2014 with a mandate of just 15 months and has been gripped by divisions. Only a fraction of its originally planned 200 lawmakers attend sessions.

It has not approved the Tripoli government and has allied itself with the eastern military commander, Khalifa Haftar, who on Sunday declared the administration set up through a UN mediation deal to be obsolete.

The Tripoli central bank said in a statement rejecting Tuesday's appointment that it was committed to implementing the UN deal. It asked that the central bank be kept out of the conflict.

Western powers fear the central bank division will make it more difficult to resolve a cash crisis -- loss of oil revenues and the reluctance of rich people to deposit money in insecure banks are making banknotes scare across Libya.

The Tripoli-based government had called on Hibri and Kabir on Monday to urgently work together to solve the economic crisis.

Search Keywords:

Short link:


Dakota Resources http://dakotaresources.org has been awarded a Rural Community Development Initiative (RCDI) grant in the amount of $214,090 from USDA Rural Development.

This 3-year program will provide financial and technical assistance to the economic development professional staff and local leadership teams from twelve private nonprofit economic development organizations and low-income rural communities in South Dakota, namely: 1) Centerville Development Corporation; 2) De Smet Development Corporation; 3) Eureka Community Development Company; 4) Faulkton Area Development Corporation; 5) Southern Hills Economic Development Corporation; 6) Lemmon Housing & Redevelopment Commission; 7) Grant County Development Corporation; 8) On Hand Development Corporation; 9) Grow Spink, Inc.; 10) Wagner Area Growth, Inc. (Strikeforce Area); 11) Wall Economic Development Corporation; and 12) Webster Area Development Corporation.

USDA makes grants available under the Rural Community Development Initiative program to strengthen the rural economy. Qualified intermediary organizations, like Dakota Resources, utilize the RCDI grants to provide technical assistance and training to strengthen nonprofit housing and economic development organizations in rural communities. Paula Jensen, Vice President of Advancement at Dakota Resources says, "We will work side-by-side with these twelve organizations to develop the capacity of their economic development staff and Board of Directors to undertake future housing, community facilities or economic development projects."

All applicants of the RCDI grant program must have a high capacity to deliver the necessary technical assistance and must provide nonfederal matching funds at least equal to the RCDI grant. Grants range from $50,000 to $250,000.

Dakota Resources is a certified Community Development Financial Institution under the United States Department of the Treasury with the purpose of stimulating financial and human investment in communities that are invested in themselves. They will help you and your community by identifying resource gaps in support of economic and community development, proactively educate and collaborate toward innovate solutions, share diversified, customized toolbox of resources that support economic and community development, and actively engage individuals, organizations, and the broader community in real and lasting change. For more information, visit http://dakotaresources.org.

USDA Rural Development provides loans and grants to help expand economic opportunities and create jobs in rural areas. This assistance supports infrastructure improvements; business development; housing; community services such as schools, public safety and health care; and high-speed internet access in rural areas. For more information, visit http://www.rd.usda.gov.

USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer and lender.

Photo Tagline: The RCDI grant agreement was signed on November 13, 2017, by Dakota Resources staff, Beth Davis, President and Jay Headley, VP of Finance along with USDA Rural Development staff, Austin Claeys, Loan Specialist and Tim Murray, Loan Specialist.

Cheryl Leasure

Communication and Event Coordinator

Dakota Resources and Dakotas America

25795 475th Avenue, Suite 1

Renner, SD 57055

605-937-8256

[email protected]

This institution is an equal opportunity provider.
Adelos, Inc. http://www.adelosinc.com/ and the U.S. Navy entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to develop new capabilities related to Phosonic 3.0+ fiber optic sensor system for border and perimeter security applications.

The CRADA represents specific collaborative areas of research between the U.S. Navy and Adelos and extends a long-term, valuable relationship between the research partners. These areas involve advanced materials design, acoustic signal processing applications, target classification algorithms, and other areas of interest to the U.S. Government.

"This Cooperative Research and Development Agreement builds on the decade-long partnership between Adelos and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Newport," said Scott Colton, CEO of Adelos, Inc. "The agreement will help us achieve a significantly enhanced solution for our customers and provides a substantial benefit to the Navy."
BitPower vice president Scott Mosebach said Wednesday that the company is interested in locating a bitcoin mine operation in Anaconda because of the regions cold temperatures, because keeping massive banks of computers cool is essential to the operation.

Now a startup with major financial backers behind it, New Mexico-based BitPower LLC, is considering the purchase of the W.K. Dwyer Primary School in Anaconda to convert the empty school into a training center for a bitcoin-based business.

The company says it has plans to purchase land in Anacondas Mill Creek TIFID district, east of downtown, to build a facility that will house computers  lots of computers. The more computers that BitPower has engaged in solving the bitcoin puzzles, the greater the chance of obtaining the reward  bitcoins.

ANNIE PENTILLA and SUSAN DUNLAP [email protected] [email protected]

http://mtstandard.com/news/local/startup-company-looking-to-invigorate-anaconda-economy-with-bitcoin-officials/article_6e7c4bb2-9d2d-551e-b7c5-9be7b00b6fc7.html
The Governors Office of Economic Development is producing a report on the state of the economy in Montana as of the end of 2017. Rather than use the same photos youve all probably seen before, we thought it might be fun to include new photos that highlight Montana.

Were looking for professional quality photos that could be of a landscape in your area, a business you work with, the main street of your town, a festival or other cultural event or similar. You must have the right to distribute the photos you send us and we must have the right to use them  this is very important; we dont want to infringe on anyones copyright.

If you have photos that might be a good fit, please send them to [email protected] no later than the end of the day on Thursday of this week 12/21.

Thank you and happy holidays!

Ken Fichtler

Chief Business Development Officer

Governors Office of Economic Development

State of Montana



Office: (406) 444-5470

Mobile: (406) 600-3595
Big picture approaches and "thinking outside the box" are critical to best manage Missoulas growth and traffic challenges ahead. Heres an insightful letter from a Grant Creek resident written after the Dec. 12 Grant Creek Neighborhood Council meeting, where MDT reiterated theres currently little funding for major fixes to Reserve St.:

"Montana Department of Transportation, I wish to thank you for your informative presentation at our Neighborhood Council meeting last Tuesday. Your support with planning for connections of the Grant Creek Trail into the rest of the city and county trail system is much appreciated.

Time for discussion of several issues related to Reserve Street and vehicular traffic generally were limited at the meeting. Id like to address several I believe deserve much more MDT consideration and support.

***

Join the Reserve Street discussion on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MissoulaReserveSt/

***

I-90/Grant Creek Road: Reconstruction of southbound Grant Cr. Rd. at I-90 is severely needed. Your planned reconstruction to three lanes will be helpful short-run, but a roundabout there would be more effective, safer and less expensive in the long run. I dislike seeing that much money spent on what is only a temporary fix, but thanks for doing all you can to get the project done in 2019 at the latest.

Of great concern to residents in Grant Creek is that no concurrent work is planned for the two (or 1 1/2?) northbound lanes. From I-90 north to Stonebridge Road, Grant Cr. Road is inadequately signed and marked, too narrow and very dangerous. Non-residents looking for McKenzie River, Town Pump, ComeOn Inn, etc. are confused and swerve all over the road looking for their turn; nothing indicates where they ought to be driving. It is critical that the reconstruction project create two full-width northbound lanes with standard signing and marking well past Stonebridge Road.

Reserve Street: Ive lived in Grant Creek (38 years) long enough to see Reserve Street go from two lanes, almost no traffic and ending at Mullan Road to the calamity it is today. This has got to be the worst city street in Montana, and is clearly the most dangerous. The projects you presented (barriers on the bridge, better signal coordination, etc.) will, again, be helpful. But much more radical measures must be taken.

Several Reserve St. intersections should be reconfigured into roundabouts. See: https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/intersection/innovative/roundabouts/ The Broadway-eastbound to Reserve south-bound signal causes severe problems; try driving south on Reserve through that signal at 5:00 on Friday! That signal must be removed and replaced with a "merge" lane or round-about. Let me know if youre not sure what happens there!

Traffic movement and safety would be enhanced if drivers turning left onto Reserve at any intersection turned into the left-most or nearest lane on Reserve. Drivers coming the opposite direction and turning right hesitate or refuse to turn, fearing collision with those turning into the farther (right) lane. The Montana Drivers Manual appears unclear whether you must turn into the lane nearest the one you came from, unless lane delineator lines prohibit crossing to the farther lane. Lots of double yellow curving lane delineator lines around corners would help educate drivers, speed up traffic and prevent collisions. This is an easy, inexpensive fix.

Last, despite your planned improvements, Reserve St. is unacceptable and cannot continue to be written off as apparently as has been  unfixable. MDT, city and county planning and road agencies must stop ignoring it while surrounding commercial and residential infrastructure booms and total gridlock approaches. Everyone involved needs to discontinue "traditional" thinking and develop new, perhaps radical solutions. The long-discussed N/S Byway needs serious study. Kalispell did it; so can we. Russell St. can be built north and connect with I-90. I think Missoulians would support a gas tax increase for well thought-out solutions.

The bottom line is that radical things have to be done to reduce traffic on Reserve St. I hope MDT will begin leading a movement toward that goal, not just constructing the next project to be funded on an endless list.

Thanks for your attention and your continued support of the citizens in Grant Creek.

W. Beardsley, Missoula"

Roundabouts are often safer, more efficient, less costly and more aesthetically appealing than conventional intersection designs.  US Department of Transportation http://www.matr.net/article-80394.html
Monday, January 8th, 2018

Reaching Home: Missoulas 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness

RSVP is encouraged by Thursday January 5th, 2018.

City Club of Missoula Presents:

Missoulas 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness:

Progress, Plans, and Possibilities

Approved unanimously by the Missoula City Council and Board of County Commissioners in 2012, Reaching Home http://www.ci.missoula.mt.us/DocumentCenter/View/21013 lays out clear solutions for ending homelessness in Missoula.

At Januarys City Club Missoula forum, Reaching Home coordinator Theresa Williams, and Eran Pehan, director of the citys Office of Housing and Community Development, will review progress over the last five years and outline plans for the future.

DOUBLETREE HOTEL EDGEWATER MISSOULA

100 Madison Street, Missoula, MT

January 8th, 2018

11:30 a.m.  1:00p.m.

RSVP

   RSVP   

PURCHASE TICKET

Coffee/Dessert Only: $10.00

Member Lunch: $17.00

General Public Lunch: $20.00

Open to the public or become a member today at: http://www.cityclubmissoula.com


Traditionally, the majority of entrepreneurs have been logical thinkers, problem solvers, with full attention to details. These are the stereotypical left-brain engineers. Yet I see a big shift from the knowledge age, with its left-brain foundation, to a critical focus today on visualization, creativity, relationships, and collaboration, which are more in the domain of right-brainers.

Of course, the best solution would be a new wave of so-called whole-brain thinkers, but this term is usually reserved for Einstein and Picasso, and no entrepreneurs that I can name. Even right- brain dominant adults are hard to find, according to many expert views. They say most children start out this way, but after their years in school, less than ten percent retain their high creativity.

Martin Zwilling

http://blog.startupprofessionals.com/2017/12/an-ideal-startup-team-excels-at-whole.html
Toyota has concentrated mainly on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and hybrid cars over electric ones. But the company made a big announcement in Tokyo this week: every Toyota and Lexus model will be available as fully electric or with an electric option in eight years. Theyre shooting for sales of over 5.5 million electrified vehicles by around 2030.

Lacy Cooke

https://inhabitat.com/all-of-toyotas-cars-will-be-either-hybrid-or-fully-electric-by-2025/
Make your marketing more effective and noticeable by incorporating plastic cards into your campaigns! These durable pieces are the perfect way to promote your company image over time.

Whether youre looking for unique business cards, season passes, loyalty & membership cards or more, plastic cards outlast and outperform their paper counterparts.

Personalize cards with names or photos, or include sequential numbering, QR codes, and signature panels for a custom card that is reuseable and remarkable.

Think outside of the box and stand apart from the competition. Get started with your plastic card project! Place an order or contact your personal team of experts today.

PrintingForLess

http://www.printingforless.com

[email protected]

1-800-930-7022

Order Now
Drew Angerer/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley had strong words for countries critical of America's decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, vowing that she, President Trump and the U.S. will take Thursday's vote on the issue "personally."

In a tweet, Haley warned that the US will be taking names of countries who vote in favor of a U.N. resolution criticizing the move.

Drafted by Turkey and Yemen, the U.N. Security Council resolution also asks other countries not to establish diplomatic missions in Jerusalem. The resolution mirrors a similar one authored by Egypt, which the U.S. vetoed Monday. That resolution was supported by all 14 other members of the U.N. Security Council.

At the UN we're always asked to do more & give more. So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl, abt where to locate OUR embassy, we don't expect those we've helped to target us. On Thurs there'll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names, Haley wrote in the tweet.

The tweet mirrored a letter sent by Haley to other U.N. member nations Tuesday and obtained by ABC News.

"The President will be watching this vote carefully and has requested I report back on those countries who voted against us. We will take note of each and every vote on this issue," Haley wrote in the letter.

In the letter, Haley also clarifies the U.S. is not asking other countries to move their embassies to Jerusalem, although she notes we think it would be appropriate. Instead, the letter requests support for the controversial decision to relocate the U.S. embassy.

"The U.S. announcement is an acknowledgement [sic] that peace is best advanced, not set back, when all parties are honest with each other about the basic facts. Jerusalem has been the capital of Israel since the countrys founding nearly seventy years ago," Haley wrote. "The Presidents honest assessment of this reality does not foreclose any of the options considered by Israelis and Palestinians for decades."

A spokesperson for the U.S. mission to the U.N. confirmed the letter had been sent, and added that Ambassador Haley received numerous replies from ambassadors of other nations who are appropriately concerned about maintaining their friendships with the United States.

President Trump voiced his support for Haleys message in a cabinet meeting Wednesday afternoon.

"I like the message that Nikki said yesterday at the United Nations, for all these nations that take our money and then vote against us at the Security Council or they vote against us potentially at the Assembly, they take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars and then they vote against us -- well, we're watching those votes," Trump said.

"Our great citizens that love this country, they're tired of this country being taken advantage of and we're not going to be taken advantage of any longer," Trump added.

Haley repeated that sentiment in another tweet Wednesday evening, writing: Referencing tomorrow's UN vote criticizing the US embassy move. In the words of the President, Let them vote against us, we'll save a lot.

At the State Department Tuesday, spokesperson Heather Nauert said she would not comment on behalf of Haley, but did say of the Egyptian-authored resolution that the U.S. had vetoed earlier: We exercised our veto power because we view that that resolution would do more harm than good.

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
This past summer Ohio joined a growing number of states that allow community colleges to offer four-year degrees when it enacted legislation allowing community colleges, state community colleges, and technical colleges to apply to offer applied bachelors degrees. If approved, the programs will join a growing number of applied baccalaureate degree programs being offered by community colleges across the country. The trend has met with resistance from some higher education institutions, while students and employers voice their support.

By: Ellen Marrison

https://ssti.org/blog/community-colleges-continuing-trend-offer-four-year-degrees?utm_source=SSTI+Weekly+Digest&utm_campaign=5a5939d0cc-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_12_20&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ecf5992d4c-5a5939d0cc-212414005
The conventional wisdom about 21st century skills holds that students need to master the STEM subjects  science, technology, engineering and math  and learn to code as well because thats where the jobs are. It turns out that is a gross simplification of what students need to know and be able to do, and some proof for that comes from a surprising source: Google.

Those traits sound more like what one gains as an English or theater major than as a programmer.

No student should be prevented from majoring in an area they love based on a false idea of what they need to succeed. Broad learning skills are the key to long-term, satisfying, productive careers. What helps you thrive in a changing world isnt rocket science. It may just well be social science, and, yes, even the humanities and the arts that contribute to making you not just workforce ready but world ready.

By Valerie Strauss

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/12/20/the-surprising-thing-google-learned-about-its-employees-and-what-it-means-for-todays-students/?utm_term=.50decdbaf0df
The Italian development finance institution Cassa Depositi e Prestiti SpA (CDP) has agreed a debut 100 million euro loan for Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), the leading infrastructure solutions provider on the African continent, to facilitate investments in renewable power, energy efficient projects and climate-resilient infrastructure.

CDP, with assets totalling over 400 billion euros, is providing the bilateral loan to support AFC projects that are urgently needed to transform African infrastructure to help combat and adapt to global warming, as well as catalyse industrialisation, create jobs and reduce poverty.

Building strong partnerships with major international institutions such as Africa Finance Corporation is part of our strategy to scale up impact finance and accelerate the ecological transition in developing countries affirmed Antonella Baldino, Head of International Cooperation and Development Finance at CDP. It is in this spirit that we welcomed AFC recent entry into the International Development Finance Club. By intensifying our commitment to Africa, this operation best places CDP as a partner of choice for regional and local Development Finance Institutions.

The loan agreement supports CDPs mission to boost economic growth in emerging markets and expand Italys global investment footprint and demonstrates continued interest from European investors in high-quality infrastructure projects on the African continent.

This milestone agreement today marks the start of a mutually beneficial relationship between AFC and CDP  the Italian DFI said Samaila Zubairu, President & CEO of AFC. Access to funding from highly rated institutions, like CDP, helps us to further our commitment to investing in projects that simultaneously combat climate change and develop the critical infrastructure required for Africas economic growth, while delivering reliably competitive investor returns.

AFC has invested over $10 billion in projects spanning 35 African countries over 15 years. The Corporation draws capital from a diverse range of international investors and lenders as part of a strategy to maintain its investment grade credit rating of A3 at Moodys. CDP joins AFCs pool of funding partners comprising international development finance institutions such as the German Development Bank KfW, the India Exim Bank, and a syndication of Germanys DEG, Netherlands FMO and Frances Proparco, demonstrating global investor confidence in AFCs strong credit profile and strategy to delivering de-risked, transformational projects for Africa.

The focus on sustainably reducing Africas energy deficit led to agreement by AFC last month to jointly acquire Lekela Power, the continents biggest renewables independent power producer, with plans to double generation capacity within four years. AFCs approach to balancing the need for emissions reduction in Africa with critical development imperatives is set out in a recently published white paper titled Roadmap to Africas COP: A Pragmatic Path to Net Zero. The report received wide endorsement from leaders including Ghanas President Nana Akufo-Addo, Nigerias Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and the Chair of the African Group of Negotiators at COP26, Tanguy Gahouma.

Partager et informez vous aussi......

0 shares Share

Tweet

LinkedIn

Articles similaires
Since the start of October 2021, Canon has helped to inspire a world of change through more than 20 sessions and workshops held at Expo 2020 Dubai, laying the path for a brighter future.

Set to run until 31 March 2022, the festival celebrates human brilliance and achievements in the fields of architecture, technology, innovation, music, arts and more. In its role as official printing and imaging provider, Canon has helped to showcase Expo 2020 Dubai to the world through on-site printing and photography capabilities, alongside an array of other supporting services.

Expo 2020 Dubai has also provided Canon with a platform to help inspire a world of change through thought leadership sessions, discussions and workshops that encourage the events global audience to consider how to change the world for the better.

Canon has focused its interactive sessions on the priority platforms of the Future of the Planet, the Future of the People in it and the Future of what is Possible, covering a wide variety of topics including youth skills and education, the future of smart cities, sustainability and empowering female talent.

Highlight sessions to-date have included:

Expo Live Impact Series: Bridging the Unemployment Gap (https://bit.ly/3HzlehC), which saw Adam Pensotti, Head of Canons Young People Programme, discuss how creative skills and technology can come together to open up new career opportunities for young people

Canon Young People Programme: Climate Action and the Environment (https://bit.ly/3gzeMM5), a session featuring Adam Pensotti alongside Neville Ngomane, Young Environmental Photographer of the Year (2019), where discussion centred on how creative storytelling can be used to inspire climate action

Frontiers of Innovation @ Expo 2020: How can businesses build resilience to climate impacts for a sustainable future? (https://bit.ly/3gzeMM5), a panel event where Peter Bragg, Sustainability & Government Affairs Director at Canon EMEA, discussed revolutionary new ways in which we can build a better future, alongside Priya Sarma, Head of Corporate Affairs & Sustainability at Unilever

Women in filmmaking: In the Spotlight (https://bit.ly/3gzeMM5), which focused on highlighting and celebrating a diverse range of women breaking new ground in the film industry, as well as the role Canon is playing in inspiring conscious choices to ensure womens inclusion in the sector

Alongside panel discussions and workshops, Canons on-the-ground and interactive activities have proved really popular with Expo attendees. Over 8,000 people have captured memories from the event at the Canon Photography Studios, while more than 20,000 used the many Canon Digital Kiosks dotted around the Expo to snap and share photos.

Canon Professional Services have also been on hand to support media attending the event, with technicians providing check, clean and repair services, as well as loaning camera equipment.

Expo 2020 Dubai represents a milestone moment in exploring how we can change the world for the better, and we at Canon are privileged to be playing a key role in the festival. said Yuichi Ishizuka, President & CEO, Canon EMEA. Alongside supporting the organisers in delivering a high-quality experience to attendees through our on-site printing, photography and technology capabilities, it has been incredible to see the ideas and visions for the future that are coming out the various presentations and talks at the event. Canon is dedicated to helping people reimagine what is possible through imaging, and we look forwards to this continuing for the rest of the festival.

The sessions will continue in 2022, covering topics such how technology is enabling advancements in medicine, gender equality and sustainable communities and championing empowering women.

Partager et informez vous aussi......

0 shares Share

Tweet

LinkedIn

Articles similaires
Public Survey Underway Audio Article Throughout the month of November, the Ohio State Highway Patrol (OSHP) is conducting an online survey to identify traffic safety concerns and obtain feedback about interactions with the agency. The 2022 Public Survey is anonymous and takes approximately five minutes to complete. The survey is designed to be used as...

Purple Heart Placed on Memorial Audio Article At the second stop during the Veterans Parade Saturday, Jack Bonsell, a Purple Heart recipient, places a purple heart-shaped wreath at the memorial dedicated to all men and women wounded in all wars. This memorial sits on Main Street in front of the Riecker Building.

Controlling Board Approves Funds for Multiple Projects in 20th Senate District Audio Article State Senator Tim Schaffer (R-Lancaster) announced Monday, Nov. 7, the approval of over $34 million for projects across the 20th Senate District by the states Controlling Board. Ensuring our infrastructure, universities, and parks are updated and well maintained is critical for the health of our area, Schaffer said. Im thankful...

Morgan County Veterans Day Parade slated Nov. 11 Audio Article The Morgan County Veterans Day Parade will be held on Friday, Nov. 11. The parade will form at the Commons, in McConnelsville, at 9:30 a.m. and set out at 10 a.m. The American Legion Post 24 will render honors at the monuments at the Commons, Riecker Building, the Square, at...

A concert with two purposes Audio Article Wednesday, Nov. 30, a concert with dual purposes is being held at the Twin City Opera House in McConnelsville, Ohio. Its a thank-you to healthcare workers, who can attend for free, and its a benefit for the Lymphoma and Leukemia Society. In September 2021, Rick Shriver contracted COVID-19. He collapsed...

BOE reminder of early voting hours and polling location change Audio Article Remaining early voting hours at the Morgan County Board of Elections are as follows: from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov, 2 through Friday, Nov. 4; 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5; from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6; and from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m....


Please complete this form and we'll send you a personalised information that is requested

You may use this for your own reference or forward it to your friends.

Please use the information prudently. If you are not a medical doctor please remember to consult your healthcare provider as this information is not a substitute for professional advice.
Wizz Air to launch flights from Kutaisi to Latvia from 2018

The Wizz Air Company will add a new flight from Kutaisi. As the air company has informed IPN, the flights from Kutaisi to Riga (Latvia) will be conducted twice a week - on Wednesdays and Sundays.As reported by the company the new direction will be available from the beginning of the year of 2018. The tickets starting price is 52,99 GEL/19,99 EUR.As a reminder, all flights are conducted by aircraft with capacity to contain 180 and 230 people.
JOURNALIST: Can you tell us about the results of your visit to Rome and your talks with your counterpart, Mr. Alfano?



N. KOTZIAS: We talked about issues of concern to both countries. In particular, we focused on our energy cooperation. We also discussed the potential for a future agreement on maritime zone issues. We talked about the current situation in the world. Beyond the discussion of our bilateral issues, the Italian side asked me about our positions on the changes taking place in the world, our view on the new Administration in the United States of America, as well as Chinas future role. I responded in great detail, and that is why our press conference was delayed.



JOURNALIST: Do you feel Italy is close to us on the issue of the future of Europe, that of a social Europe?



N. KOTZIAS: I think the two countries positions are close. As you know, on my initiative, with Hungary as the host, we had the meeting of the ten (10) in Budapest two weeks ago, with the four Visegrad countries, the four Balkan EU member states, Slovenia and Serbia. Three months from now, in Greece, we will be hosting a meeting of these European states with all of the candidate countries  the Western Balkan candidates and Turkey. I also invited my Italian colleague to take part in the meeting in Athens if he wants to  and I think he does.



JOURNALIST: One last question, on the Dublin regulation and the Visegrad countries that are pulling away. Does Rome share our positions?



N. KOTZIAS: I think Italy and Greece are the countries with the greatest experience  and on-the-ground experience  of the real problems arising from the migration and the influx of refugees and our positions are close. I want to underscore something that I say frequently: Those paying the consequences are not the ones carrying out the bombings.
. ALFANO: Unfortunately I have to be in Parliament for question time, so I cant be late. So just a tweet from me, to note our excellent relations with Greece, the importance of the two agreements we signed today. And I want to express my gratitude to my colleague, Nikos, for his support on the issue of the European Medicines Agency  very important support  and stress our cooperation, which can develop productively in the energy sector and in other fields opening up for further development with Greece.

And I want to underscore that our ties are historical and that history usually creates destiny. So the history and destiny of Greece and Italy are in the same direction; they are aligned towards a future of shared peace, development and prosperity within the framework of the EU. This is the point of the agreement that was strengthened in Corfu this past September; it is the point of everything we said today.

I wont be able to answer any questions, because I have to go to Parliament  I have to rush. I take this opportunity to thank the press for being here, and to thank my Greek colleague.

N. KOTZIAS: I would like to thank my friend, Angelino, and the interpreters. We had a very interesting discussion today, following up on the talks we had in Corfu between the two governments and one-on-one. We have decided to diligently and systematically continue to develop the relations between Greece and Italy, between the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to the benefit of the peoples of the two countries.

We have a number of plans for developing our relations in the sectors of energy, culture, education, economy, and through political consultations between the two ministries.

I thank my colleague very much for his hospitality, and I thank you. Parliament precedes any other activity of two ministers who are parliamentarians. Angelino, thank you.
BAD AXE - A month after an objection was raised on starting school before Labor Day, the Bad Axe Board of Education voted to do just that.

The board voted 5-2 on Monday to start school on Aug. 28, 2018, agreeing to the early start that the Huron Intermediate School District (HISD) was granted Sept. 29.

Dissenting from the rest of he board were trustees Nick Checkley and Mike Anderson.

Checkley mentioned during board discussion that Michigan would be one of six states that will be starting before Labor Day.

"I'm not necessarily against a pre-Labor Day start," he told the board.

President Mike Krug said during the meeting Bad Axe would be following what the HISD put in.

"The plan would be to do what the ISD does," Krug said.

Krug mentioned there were 20 states that start school Aug. 1.

"I think we're at the mercy of the ISD calendar," he said.

Superintendent Greg Newland told the board to take the new start for a test drive.

"Let's try it for three days and look at it after that," he said.

The board then voted to approve the earlier start to school.

"Next what typically happens is we sit down later in the winter with the teachers union and we work together to put together the school calendar," Newland said. "We work well together in getting the calendar put together and I don't see that being a problem."

Newland sees a benefit to the earlier start.

"The advantages are it will better align with students that are interested in dual-enrollment classes," he said. "Some students we tried to explain the benefits of dual enrollment. Another benefit is we're coordinating with the rest of the county and for the younger kids, it helps them get into the school routine, learn the routine in the first week, then come back."

Newland said he sees the school calendar being voted on by the entire school board at the Jan. 22 meeting.
Man discharged from probation

A Bad Axe man was discharged from his probation, after previously violating it, during court hearings this week.

Travis B. Wheeler, 34, was ordered to complete 20 hours of community service by Feb. 28, 2018.

Wheeler previously waived his right to an attorney.

Trial set for Caseville man

A Caseville man pleaded not guilty to one count of domestic violence and two counts of assaulting/resisting a police officer during court proceedings this week.

The case against Andrew Shane Meyer, 34, will head to trial on March 6, 2018, and the trial is expected to last one day. His bond was cancelled.

Meyer is being represented by Bad Axe-based attorney Andrew Lockard.

Man nets prison for domestic violence

A Harbor Beach man was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison this week for third-degree domestic violence and being a third-time habitual offender.

Stephen A. Murray, 47, was given credit for 107 days served. He was ordered to pay $130 to the Crime Victims Rights fund and $68 in State Minimum Costs.

Murray was represented by Bad Axe-based attorney Michelle Siev.

Man jailed for probation violation

A Port Hope man was discharged from his probation and sentenced to 365 days in jail for violating his probation.

Christopher D. Sluck, 25, was given credit for 307 days served. He was ordered to pay all monetary obligations still owing.

Sluck was represented by Bad Axe-based attorney Walt Salens.

Man denies bribing charge

A Port Austin man pleaded not guilty to one count of bribing a witness during court hearings Monday.

Daniel Harry Brault Jr., 54, is scheduled to move forward with his case for a one-day jury trial on March 7, 2018. His bond was continued.

Brault is being represented by Bad Axe-based attorney Kyle O'Mara.

Man jailed on tampering charge

A Caseville man was sentenced to 300 days in jail this week for a single count of tampering with an electronic monitoring device.

Chad Walter Mitchell, 34, was given credit for five days served. He was ordered to report to the Huron County Jail if he doesn't complete the Tri-Cap program. Mitchell was ordered to pay $130 to the Crime Victims Rights fund and $68 in State Minimum Costs.

Mitchell was represented by Sebewaing-based attorney Jill Schmidt.

Woman sentenced on illegal device charge

A Port Huron woman was sentenced to 160 days in jail this week for one count of illegal use of a financial transaction device.

Patricia F. Fox, 41, was given credit for 68 days served and placed on probation for a period of 24 months. She was ordered to pay $140 to the Crime Victims Rights fund, $68 in State Minimum Costs, $60 toward DNA testing and restitution in an amount to be determined.

Fox was ordered to not consume drugs or alcohol and must not enter any bars. She placed on an 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew and must seek substance abuse treatment.

Fox was represented by Bad Axe-based attorney Andrew Lockard.

Man nets prison on drug charges

A Bad Axe man was sentenced to one year, six months -- six years maximum -- in prison for four counts of delivery of a controlled substance.

Anthony Michael Spencer, 38, was given credit for two days served in each file and his sentences will run concurrently.

Spencer was ordered to pay $390 to the Crime Victims Rights fund, $272 in State Minimums Costs and restitution in an amount to be determined.

Spencer was represented by Sebewaing-based attorney Jill Schmidt.
MADISON  The Madison Historical Society, in partnership with the Madison Art Society and local artists, is pleased to offer for sale an art poster celebrating all that is unique to Madison. The poster project was launched in March as part of the historical societys centennial celebration.

Residents were asked to respond to the question, What makes Madison special? Using the letters of the alphabet, respondents offered ideas for natural features, events, people, places, and objects that best represent Madison.

Nearly 500 entries, including a rhyming poem, were received with suggestions for every letter. After all the responses were gathered, members of the MHS centennial committee chose the winning entries and coordinated with the Art Society and with local artists who created original paintings to fill the full-color poster.

The poster, designed and spearheaded by Madison native Rick Camp, was inspired by a crowd-sourced art project developed by the Craftsbury Historical Society and the Craftsbury Public Library in northern Vermont.

They asked the public to describe what they loved most about their town. Local artists illustrated the results and produced a poster, Camp said. I guess you could say I stole the idea from them, but I discovered they stole it from New Hampshire, who stole it from England. What it brought home to me was that town residents all have different reasons for loving their town and it was heart-warming for the MHS to see the responses in our ballot boxes confirming how even the smallest things are important to our residents.

The society recognized Beth Wardwell and Bev Schirmeier for their contributions to the project and for helping to coordinate the work of the other artists, and acknowledged the artistic contributions of Bill Colrus, Bill Dowling, Mike Eagle, Hillary Griffin, and Betsey Piner. Works from the late George Love were graciously donated by the Madison Lions Club, who commissioned paintings from Love for their annual greeting cards.

The poster represents the last in a series of projects conceived and developed in 2017 to mark the Societys centennial anniversary. The poster can be purchased through the MHS website at www.madisonhistory.org, at the historical societys office at Lees Academy on the green, or through local retailers. This project was supported by a generous grant from Mattesons Maple Manor, a local producer of maple syrup.
EAST HAMPTON  Now that Police Chief Sean D. Cox has left his position, Town Manager Michael Maniscalco hopes to have a new official in place by early April.

However, Maniscalco said Tuesday, the most important thing is not simply to get a new person in place but to get the best person in the position.

Cox, who has been chief for the past five years, left his position Friday. After the first of the New Year, Cox said will begin a job in the private sector of the defense industry. He leaves with almost uniform expressions of admiration and even affection by town officials for his tenure as chief.

Thursday, Maniscalco announced former Groton City Chief Thomas Davoren will serve as chief in an interim capacity. Davoren will begin as director of police services Monday, Maniscalco said. He will have to be recertified to meet Police Officers Standards and Training before he will become interim chief.

Coxs advocacy was deemed to have been essential in winning residents support for the proposed $18.9 million town hall/police headquarters. The proposal was narrowly approved by voters in a November referendum.

But now, Maniscalcos attention has shifted to the recruitment and selection process.

The qualification for the chiefs position has been posted on the websites of both the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association, as well as on the websites of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities and the International County Managers Association.

Maniscalco said he has already received expressions of interest in the position from a number of law enforcement professionals.

The job description says The ideal candidate should have a bachelors degree from an accredited college or university. A masters degree in relevant field is preferred. In addition, the qualifications also say a completion of advanced management training, such as the FBI National Academy or equivalent executive level training, is preferred.

Also desired is Connecticut (Police Officers Standards and Training) certification or the ability to obtain it within a reasonable amount of time, and 15 years of progressively responsible police experience with at least five years of supervisory experience holding a command staff rank or higher.

However, Experience or education may be submitted to meet requirements, the description says.

The deadline for submitting applications is Jan. 19. Qualified candidates will be identified during a four-day period from Jan. 22 to 26, and called between Jan. 29 to 31 to set up an interview, according to Manscialcos timeline.

The process then picks up speed from there, with initial interviews scheduled from Feb. 5 to 9 and a second round of interviews Feb. 12 to 14.

Maniscalco hopes to make a conditional offer of employment to his choice sometime during the Feb. 15 to 19 time frame, he said.

Assuming the candidates agrees, two weeks (Feb. 20 to March 2) will be spent on background screening and a pre-employment physical. After the completion of those two requirements, Maniscalco anticipates the hired candidate will provide a four-week notice to his or her current employer with a date of hire around April 2.

Reporter Jeff Mill covers East Hampton, Portland and Cromwell. Contact him at jeff.mill@hearstmediact.com.
ESSEX  Connecticut Audubon Society EcoTravel will again offer boat cruises on April 28 to search for Bald Eagle, Osprey, and other bird species migrating and nesting along the Connecticut River. Bald Eagle can be found along the lower river, a habitat that hosts a transient winter population as well as nesting residents.

Naturalists are on board the vessel to share information about the Connecticut River, the birdlife, and natural history. The vessel has a heated cabin, restrooms, and three decks for optimal viewing. Tours are approximately 2.5 hours in length and depart at 10am and 2pm. Cruises depart from Eagle Landing State Park in Haddam, Connecticut. Appropriate for children eight years old and over. Food and drink available on board. Enjoy the beauty of the Connecticut River in spring! Fee: $40 for members and nonmembers. To reserve now, call 860-767-0660. To make a reservation online, go to the EcoTravel link at www.ctaudubon.org. For gift certificates and phone reservations, please call us at 860-767-0660. Spaces fill up quickly.

Chamber gives Essex Printing and Event Magazines top honor

Essex Printing and Event Magazines is proud to announce that it has been named the 2017 Business of the Year by the Old Saybrook Chamber of Commerce. The announcement was made at the Chambers Annual Awards Evening and Silent Auction held at The Kate in Old Saybrook on December 6, 2017.

This is such a special honor for us. The company has been serving this community for many decades now. We always strive to do our best for our customers and the community. And no matter what we do, we always are looking to do more and we will continue to do so, said William McMinn, the companys President. For our company and our employees, this is a moment to cherish. We look forward to continuing to serve this community, building on existing relationships, and fostering new and exciting partnerships going forward. We are also grateful to the Old Saybrook Chamber of Commerce and the important role it plays in so many ways for so many of us.

Essex Printing and Events Magazines is a full service commercial printing and publishing company. Its skilled staff provides top quality service with respect to projects ranging from business cards to books and from graphic design, digital and large format printing to marketing consultations. The company has won 13 major print awards in the past 5 years, including the Benny award - an international award that is universally recognized as the symbol for excellence in the printing industry.

The company also produces and publishes Events Magazines. These magazines are published quarterly in 16 Connecticut towns and have been a trusted source for local news for 22 years. They are mailed directly to every home and business in these 16 towns and are a must read for residents and are widely recognized as a cost-effective advertising vehicle for businesses.

Essex Printing and Events Magazines is located at 18 Industrial Park Road in Centerbrook, Connecticut and can be reached at 860-767-9087.

Kaml joins Saint Francis Hospital

HARTFORD, Conn. (Dec.12, 2017) Gary J. Kaml, M.D., F.A.C.S., fellowship trained in surgical critical care, has joined Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center as with Saint Francis Medical Group as the Director of Trauma Services.

Dr. Kaml, a resident of Madison, earned his medical degree from New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York. He completed his residency in general surgery at Westchester Medical Center, Valhalla, New York. He also completed a fellowship in surgical critical care at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Prior to joining Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center, Dr. Kaml was chief of surgical services at St. Raphaels campus at Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven.

Dr. Kaml is board certified in surgery, as well as surgical critical care. His interests include general, trauma, and minimally-invasive surgery, as well as surgical education.

Dr. Kaml is located at Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center, 1000 Asylum Ave, Suite 4302, Hartford (860) 714-5237.

Church reminds communities of its programs, services

MIDDLETOWN  The Reverend Philip Bjornberg, Missional Priest, along with the congregation invite everyone to participate in our programs and activities. Trinity is handicapped-accessible and is located at 345 Main St., at the corner of Main and Spring Streets.

Sunday Worship Service and Holy Eucharist are celebrated Sunday mornings at 9:30 a.m. Coffee Hour and fellowship time is shared after the service. Church school Starts at 9:30 a.m. Students rejoin the congregation after their lessons to share communion with their families. For further information call the church office at 860-342-0458.

Bible Study meets at 8:30 a.m. in St. Michael's Hall to share and discuss the Bible readings from the upcoming worship service.

Christmas Worship Schedule:

Sunday, Dec. 24: Holy Eucharist 9:30am, Christmas Pageant and Holy Eucharist, 4 p.m. Christmas Eve Service and Holy Eucharist 10 p.m. at Holy Trinity in Middletown.; Monday, Dec. 25, Christmas Day Service and Holy Eucharist 9 a.m. at Holy Trinity in Middletown.; Sunday, Dec. 31, Interfaith Service and Carole Sing 10:00am.

Prayer requests can be written on cards provided in black bags in the pews and left in the baptismal font in the front of the church or can be written on cards provided in the mail container on the front door of St. Michael's Hall and left in the mail slot. When various groups and committees meet at the church, the attendees gather around the baptismal font and pray for the individual prayer requests. All requests are remembered collectively every Sunday during our Prayers for the People. Prayer chain requests can be made by contacting Charles at 860-508-7213.

Prayer Shawls/Squares and Hats for the Homless: A prayer knitting group meets Friday afternoons at 2 p.m. Call Kathleen at 860-342-3792 if you would like to request an item.

9 Minutes a Day Challenge: 3 minutes of prayer for thanksgiving, 3 minutes of prayer for listening, and 3 minutes of prayer for you, your family or others. Enter your minutes on the board in St. Michael's Hall to add to our congregation's total minutes of prayer. Please contact Sean at 860-759-1951 or more information.

Families Anonymous meets Tuesdays at 7 p.m. to give people a place to share and discuss what can be done for a loved one who is an addict or in recovery.

Church Office Hours: The church office is located on the first floor of the Parish House, which is connected to the main church building. Hours are Tuesday-Friday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Call the church office for pastoral care needs at 860-342-0458.
NORWALK  A visit to Norwalk High School by the senior White House adviser Ivanka Trump sparked debate among parents who were unhappy they were not notified about the event.

The trip was kept secret for security purposes, and though Secret Service and local police provided additional surveillance, most in the school community were unaware until after it was over.

Trump, who was invited by IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, toured three classrooms and visited with a handful of students in the Norwalk Early College Academy.

After the news of Trumps visit broke online, parents took to Facebook to express their feelings. Some had disdain for the current administration, others praise for the visit by a member of the first family, and some fell in the middle, saying that even if you are not a fan of the Trumps, the attention NECA received was a good thing.

Under normal circumstances, a visit from the Presidents daughter would be entirely exciting for ALL students. Unfortunately, given the current administrations record on bigotry and racism, the choice to have her as a guest in a diverse community is clearly controversial, wrote Sharon R. Encarnacao Baanante. While we all have our own opinions, I was curious has anyone talked to gay, transgender or minority students in this program about how her visit made them feel?

More for you Ivanka Trump impressed by Norwalk early college program

Speaking a proud, liberal Norwalk resident I think it is great that Ivanka came to NHS today ... our city is an amazing diverse place, with fantastic programs like NECA for our children, and Ivankas visit draws attention to that, wrote Kate Owen Morin in the Norwalk Parents for Education Facebook group. I am tired of the perception that we are the hole in the donut here in Fairfield County. This gets us positive recognition and good publicity and I for one am happy about that, regardless of who her father is.

Parents of Norwalk High School students received a robocall prior to Trumps arrival notifying them there would be no morning dropoff at the school because of a special event, and students would need to walk from neighboring Naramake Elementary.

Outside the high school, there was no indication anything unusual was happening. Inside, basement classrooms were cleared and more than a dozen police officers lined the hallway leading to where the panel was assembled.

IBM is looking to get significant funding to significantly expand these types of opportunities for young adults, Board of Education member Bryan Meek wrote in the Norwalk Parents for Education Facebook group. Its amazing how polarizing things are that a sitting first daughter can't even try to help without being ridiculed and demeaned.

Regardless of your stance regarding Ivanka Trump, I think we can all celebrate that NECA is the most successful program of its type in the state, thanks in part to IBMs generosity and partnership, wrote BOE member Barbara Meyer-Mitchell. I think that is where we need to focus. On the success of our program.

kkrasselt@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2563; @kaitlynkrasselt
MIDDLETOWN  The annual WESU Fall Pledge Drive is well underway.

As a community radio station, WESU offers a unique mix of talk and free form music programming that listeners are hard pressed to find elsewhere. The station depends on the community support to keep it this way. The service WESU provides is made possible by over 150 student and community volunteer broadcasters, two very part-time employees, and one full-time general manager. The stations lean budget is funded through financial support from Wesleyan University as well as listener and community support.

Due to a failing 30 year old FM transmitter, WESU has had intermittent broadcast problems this fall.

Our old faithful transmitter has made it clear that it is ready to retire, said WESU General Manager, Ben Michael. Weve been putting too much money and time into keeping the old transmitter up and running and its time to move on. says Michael. After negotiating with several vendors for the best possible deal, a transmitter purchase is imminent.

This purchase will pose a significant financial burden to the listener supported community radio station. During this season of giving, WESU needs to hear from new donors and is asking past supporters to consider increasing their contribution to help offset the cost of a new transmitter.

With that said, to sweeten the deal, the station is excited to offer new limited edition long and short sleeve t-shirt designs as thank you gifts for donors. In addition, all donors get a free WESU bumper sticker.

The WESU Annual Fall pledge drive is slowly building momentum but there is a long way to go. To reach the goal of paying this seasons bills and making a large down payment on a new transmitter, WESU is depending on listeners to donate as soon as possible to help make the goal a reality before the end of this calendar year.

Secure donations can be made online at www.wesufm.org/pledge or by sending a check or money order directly to WESU Radio, 45 Broad Street, 2nd Fl, Middletown, CT 06457, care of pledge drive.

Greenskies purchased by Clean Focus Yield

MIDDLETOWN  Greenskies Renewable Energy LLC (Greenskies) and its affiliates, have been purchased by Clean Focus Yield Limited and its affiliates, (Clean Focus) an integrated group of renewable-energy companies with global reach. With this acquisition Clean Focus becomes the owner and operator of the largest commercial and industrial portfolio in the United States.

Greenskies, a leading vertically-integrated solar company in the United States, will continue to operate under its brand and management from its Middletown, Connecticut headquarters. All current Greenskies employees in Middletown will remain based at company headquarters, with additional personnel growth in Connecticut and across the country to support its rapid expansion.

Clean Focus adds to its already large commercial, industrial, and small-utility portfolio with the purchase of Greenskies and its operating portfolio. This acquisition makes Clean Focus one of the largest and fastest growing commercial solar developers and operators with a national footprint. Greenskies will benefit from increased financial resources and international scale to accelerate growth and to deliver best-in-class service to its customers.

Clean Focus is excited to add Greenskies to its integrated group of companies. This acquisition strengthens Greenskies, grows Clean Focus, and provides new opportunities for our customers and financing partners, said Stanley Chin, President and CEO of Clean Focus. We look forward to accelerated growth across a wide breadth of markets.

Greenskies expects to expand its base of large corporate and retail clients, including Fortune 50 national big-box retailers, government entities, and utilities. Greenskies intends to build out its project pipeline of 350 MW and expand into new segments including schools, hospitals, and community solar.

The management team of Greenskies is led by Will Herchel who has been president since November 2016 and joined the company in January 2012. This purchase and investment is the next big step for Greenskies. We have seen explosive growth over the last five years, and this infusion of capital adds jet fuel to our business engine, Herchel said. With the support of Clean Focus, Greenskies will accelerate its growth, and it is better prepared to weather potential headwinds in the solar market.

Greenskies Renewable Energy LLC, a Clean Focus company develops, constructs, and maintains clean, renewable-energy projects in the United States. Greenskies ensures that its customized solar solutions operate at peak performance and deliver maximum savings to its clients. Learn more at www.greenskies.com

East Hampton Post takes part in Wreaths Across America

EAST HAMPTON  The East Hampton Post 5095 held the Wreath across America ceremony on Saturday Dec. 16 at noon at the post home.

The VFW and its auxiliary posted the colors and Patience Anderson, Auxiliary member conducted the ceremony.

Grace Michalowski led the Pledge of Allegiance, than sang the National Anthem, followed by Kelly Ezold saying the opening prayer. Anderson then introduced Linda Wallace and VFW Commander Roger Anderson.

With the help of East Hampton Superintendent of Schools Paul Smith, post members were able to get the school children involved. In the morning, students from the high school interact club helped place wreaths on veterans graves.

Throughout the post, members placed drawings of wreaths from grades K-3. Almost all the children participated and there were many drawings. Members of the post placed the winning drawings on a poster board near the head table. Many of the drawings were taken to the Veterans Home in Rocky Hill for the veterans to enjoy.

This year the 4th and 5th graders held an essay contest, I am an American. The winners were Gabriella Wiesner and Chelsea Ryan, who read their essays.

Ceremonial wreaths were then placed at the memorial stone across the street from VFW.

This year Mrs. William ONeill chose Robert Lanzi to place a wreath on the Memorial stone, to honor former Governor William ONeill, who was a member of the United States Air Force.

The following people placed memorial wreaths at the stone: U.S. Marines, Dennis Wall; U.S. Navy, Clifford Wise; U.S. Air Force, John Hasty; U.S. Merchant Marines, Gary York; U.S. Coast Guard, Donna McLaughlin; U.S. Army, Pete Brown; and POW/MIA, Doris Maitland.
FLINT, MI -- Four of the 15 current and former state and city employees charged with crimes related to the Flint water crisis have now taken misdemeanor plea deals with special prosecutors from Attorney General Bill Schuette's office.

Adam Rosenthal, a water quality analyst for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, pleaded no contest Wendesday, Dec. 20, to a public records charge, a one-year misdemeanor that's expected to be dismissed provided he cooperates in other prosecutions.

Genesee County District Court Judge Jennifer Manley said she will review the status of the agreement with attorneys in a March conference.

Rosenthal was initially charged with misconduct in office, willful neglect of duty, tampering with evidence and conspiracy -- two felonies and two high-court misdemeanors.

In response to questions from Manley, Rosenthal answered, "Yes, your honor," and "No, your honor," never discussing his involvement or knowledge of the involvement of others in the Flint water crisis.

He left the courtroom without answering questions, but his attorney said his client should never have faced the charges he did.

Defense attorney James Burdick credited special prosecutor Todd Flood for having ultimately come to the same conclusion and entering into the plea deal.

Flood returned to a preliminary examination for Dr. Eden Wells, the state's chief medical executive, after the Rosenthal hearing Wednesday, and MLive-The Flint Journal could not immediately reach him for comment.

During the plea hearing, Flood said Rosenthal "has been honest and candid with us to date (and) will testify in court if necessary" in other pending cases tied to the water crisis.

Investigators found Rosenthal's "role at most times was very low on the totem pole at DEQ," Flood said.

Prosecutors had initially alleged that Rosenthal was among state officials who were put on notice by Flint water plant officials, who warned they were not ready to safely put the facility into full-time operation when they did in April 2014.

The decisions to run the plant full-time and use the Flint River as the city's water source were made while Flint was run by emergency managers appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder.

Prosecutors also initially claimed that Rosenthal was told by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that high levels of lead are usually due to particulate lead, signaling a corrosion problem in Flint's water system.

Rosenthal was also accused of willfully participating in the manipulation of lead testing results and falsely reporting that the 90th percentile for lead was below the federal action level in 2015.

Rosenthal's plea deal means that four of 15 individuals charged with criminal wronging related to the water crisis have accepted plea deals in criminal cases.

Last month, former Flint utilities director Daugherty Johnson entered a no-contest plea to a misdemeanor charge -- also related to public records.

In May 2016, former water plant operator Mike Glasgow accepted a plea deal, admitting to filing false information about lead in Flint water, and in September 2016, Corrinne Miller, retired director of the state Department of Health and Human Services' Bureau of Epidemiology, pleaded no contest to neglect of duty for her role in the water crisis.
ALGOMA TOWNSHIP, MI -- The number of private drinking water wells testing above a federal safety threshold for toxic fluorochemicals dumped years ago by Wolverine World Wide has doubled as testing zones expand into areas not believed to be contaminated by the now-infamous House Street sludge landfill.

On Monday, Dec. 18, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality confirmed that 60 total homes in two Kent County townships have thus far tested above 70 parts-per-trillion (ppt) for two per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances called PFAS, or PFCs.

Thirty of those homes are in a three-square mile area of southeast Algoma Township, where the DEQ is investigating several contamination sources the agency believes are connected to tannery sludge spread on farm fields and dumped in gravel pits.

The township has largely escaped the attention paid to its municipal neighbor to the south, Plainfield Township, where the other 30 homes above 70-ppt are located along a plume running southeast through Belmont from Wolverine's dump on House Street.

In Algoma Township, testing and health information is being relayed through quiet neighborhood meetings with state and local officials and Wolverine's contractor, Rose & Westra GZA. Residents have been tight-lipped as concern spreads about the affect elevated levels of PFAS contamination will have on property values.

In the Wellington Ridge neighborhood off Elstner Avenue northeast of the Rockford Meijer, one home's well tested at 9,800-ppt for two PFAS chemicals, PFOS and PFOA.

That's about 140 times the 70-ppt non-enforceable health advisory guideline for PFOS and PFOA set last year by the Environmental Protection Agency in lieu of establishing a regulatory limit for the two chemicals under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

It's also on par with the highest PFAS test results found south of the House Street dump, where Wolverine once dumped liquid sludge into unlined pits for years.

West of U.S. 131 in a testing zone off Jewell Ave. NE, test results are coming back in the 400- to 600-ppt range, according to residents, local officials and attorneys pursing litigation against Wolverine.

The results have sparked talk of extending Plainfield Township water mains into affected areas of Algoma Township, a project that likely wouldn't break ground until 2019.

Of the roughly 400 Algoma Township homes tested, results are back for 170, the DEQ says. The state has established four separate testing zones along 10 and 11 Mile roads, called the Wolven, Wolven West, Wolven West-North and Jewell study areas.

Although PFAS from the House Street landfill south of 10 Mile Road is confirmed to have also traveled north, officials say they believe the results in Algoma Township are largely due to other sources.

According to Rose & Westra communication to DEQ, testing in the Wolven West-North area began Dec. 11 based on "recent analytical results from the Wolven and Jewell Areas and groundwater contour/flow information."

"We're still trying to figure out what the source could be" in those study areas, said DEQ spokesperson Melanie Brown.

Wolverine has thus far agreed to install whole house filtration units to most homes with any DEQ-verified PFOS or PFOA detection level in a DEQ-established zone.

On Dec. 12, Wolverine said it has "made the decision to extend its whole house filtration program to residents in the Wolven West North Study Area that that have confirmed test results with any detection of PFOA or PFOS. This decision has already been communicated to homeowners in this area."

In the Wolven Area, some source area speculation has centered around a pond at the end of Royal Hannah Drive, which is thought to have been a gravel pit which supplied material for construction of U.S. 131 through the area in the late 1960s.

"We know Wolverine liked to dump in gravel pits and some of the results are pretty high in homes near the pond," said Aaron Phelps of the Varnum Law firm, which is representing about 170 clients around the county, some of whom have already filed lawsuits.

Longtime residents say the neighborhood was once a farm where Wolverine spread tannery sludge over the years as fertilizer due to the heavy lime content in the waste. Officials who declined to speak on the record say results in the Wolven area show higher PFAS concentrations in shallower wells, with some uniformity suggestive of chemicals sinking into the ground from field application.

Since testing in Algoma Township began in November, about 10 neighborhood meetings with officials and Wolverine contractors have been held at the township hall. Initial meetings were about testing possibilities. Subsequent meetings have been to deliver test results and discuss steps forward, say local officials.

"They've been coordinated through the neighborhoods themselves," said Kevin Green, Algoma Township supervisor, who described the gatherings as "more personal, intimate meetings where you get to dive into the issues and where residents can ask all their question and get answers as well."

"At some of the big townhalls, it's hard to get the questions answered the residents are really looking for," Green said.

"I get at least a half dozen calls every day from people wanting to know about the closest plume," he said. "They are trying to make a good risk analysis for themselves."

While Green said Wolverine and the DEQ have been "very responsive" to residents in Algoma Township, Varnum attorneys say the state has been less responsive to them, regularly taking "weeks and months" to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests.

The DEQ has also automatically extended multiple MLive FOIA requests to the full 15 business days allowable before providing cost estimates for record disclosure.

The DEQ has not disclosed the exact number of homes tested to date in the county or said whether homes in other municipalities have tested over the EPA health advisory level. Wolverine only says it has tested more than 1,000 homes.

The DEQ says test results are pending at 19 homes near an old dump at 12 Mile Road next to the White Pine Trail, where Wolverine dumped sludge in the 1960s.

"I think everybody except Wolverine should be totally dissatisfied" with how information is being released by DEQ, said Phelps. "I have not seen any results from any of the work being done over at the House Street dump and that started back in September."

"This is a public investigation of a public health issue that affects the public resource," Phelps said. "Why in the world the public is not being given more information is beyond my understanding."
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - A Ludington fish dealer was sentenced to four months in prison for buying and selling Lake Michigan lake trout taken illegally by a tribal fisherman.

George Eugene Schrink, operator of Walters Gold Coast Fisheries, was caught in a three-year, undercover investigation by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service which set up a covert business to buy and sell fish.

The government used audio and video recordings at the Upper Peninsula Fish Company in L'Anse to buy and sell fish.

Schrink, who pleaded guilty to a felony of false labeling of fish, was also ordered to pay $270,276 in restitution by U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney in Kalamazoo. The judge, at the sentencing hearing on Tuesday, Dec. 19, allowed Schrink to self-surrender to prison at the direction of federal authorities.

The investigation earlier led to a no-contest plea in tribal court by George "Skip" Duhamel, who operated Beaver Island Fish Market, for illegally selling 60,000 pounds of lake trout in 2013, court records showed.

He died shortly after his plea.

The Fish and Wildlife Service investigated reports that large numbers of lake trout, sturgeon and walleye were illegally taken. The lake trout population is "dangerously low" because of over-harvest and sea lampreys, the government said.

The lake trout population in Lake Michigan is maintained mostly by stocking.

In 2000, Michigan began to pay tribal fishermen up to $200,000 to use trap nets - which allow release of undersized lake trout, unlike gill nets, which kill fish - in an effort to rebuild the lake trout population. Those who accepted the offer were prohibited from keeping lake trout.

The government said Schrink bought lake trout from a tribal fisher who had converted to trap nets and was not allowed to keep lake trout. Schrink listed a licensed gill-net fisherman as the seller, the government said.

During a three-month period in 2014, he bought at least 4,675 pounds of illegally harvested lake trout, the government said. In one of the three transactions, he bought 1,000 pounds of lake trout for $1 a pound but recorded a smaller amount of whitefish at $2.50 a pound, the government said.

The government said the restitution covered the cost of raising lake trout.

"The illegal harvest of more than 5,000 pounds of lake trout has a far greater economic impact that just the wholesale value, ($5,325) or retail value ($59,000) of the caught lake trout. Each caught fish represents the culmination of an extensive and expensive fishery program, paid for by the American taxpayer," Assistant U.S. Attorney Maarten Vermaat and Elinor Colbourn, senior counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice's environmental crimes section, said in court records.

Fish hatcheries release hundreds of thousands of young lake trout every year but many do not reach adulthood, or the "size prized by anglers," the prosecutors wrote.

"A single fish may represent the survivor of dozens of fingerlings. In short, the illegally harvested fish involved in this case represent the end-product of the stocking of over 215,000 lake trout fingerlings."

It costs about $1.25 for each fingerling.

Defense attorney Lafayette Beers described his client as a small businessman who acted at the direction of a fish broker for two tribal fishermen offering fish only if he would illegally report the purchase.

"Defendant agreed and engaged in four purchases before refusing to do further business with the crooks," Beers said.

He said Walters Fisheries is a small fish-smoking operation. Schrink goes to the Upper Peninsula every week to buy fish because there are few sources in the Lower Peninsula.

He prepares fish in smokers then places coolers on his porch for customers to pick up on the honor system. Some have taken advantage of his good nature. In his best year, he netted $14,000.

"Defendant knows there is theft, but rationalizes that he is feeding fish to God's people," his attorney said.

Beers said his client was coerced into participating in the scheme, and there was "no windfall" from his participation.

He said his client should not be incarcerated. He also said it was unreasonable for restitution to be set at $270,000. It will be difficult for Schrink to pay.

Earlier, he said, the parties agreed that restitution should be $4,500.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Grand Rapids city commissioners again can't agree on how to regulate panhandling in the city.

A proposed ban on panhandling from cars at intersections during rush hour only gained the support of the commissioner who introduced it - outgoing First Ward representative Dave Shaffer, as well as his First Ward colleague Jon O'Connor.

The proposed ban failed in a 4-2 vote at the commission's meeting Tuesday, Dec. 19. Mayor Rosalynn Bliss, Second Ward commissioners Ruth Kelly and Joe Jones as well as Third Ward Commissioner Senita Lenear voted against it. Third Ward Commissioner Dave Allen missed the meeting due to illness.

"I think it's an overreaching governmental policy," Lenear said. "For a city our size, the population that this is targeting is such a small population that instead of having a law created to address this, I think we need creative solutions."

Lenear said she's not interested in an inevitable lawsuit over the law.

Panhandling in Grand Rapids used to be banned outright -- but the city lost a lawsuit in 2012 after a judge ruled panhandling is protected by the First Amendment.

Local representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union have warned the city this December that the ban they were considering would likely trigger a lawsuit.

The proposed law, as introduced by Shaffer, would have prohibited people from soliciting money from drivers within 30 feet of an intersection between 5 and 7 p.m. Soliciting money from drivers would have also been banned within 30 feet of eight intersections at all times.

City officials have been working on reducing pedestrian deaths in the city, and paid a consultant to analyze pedestrian crash data. Shaffer's proposal was based off of the analyses -- but the report never showed whether pedestrian crashes involved panhandlers.

Residents spoke out overwhelmingly in opposition to the proposed ban at a public hearing Dec. 12 and again at the Tuesday meeting -- with the exception of former First Ward Commissioner Walt Gutowski, who spoke up at public comment.

"Bridge Street is quite the place to be now, so it's become a popular spot to panhandle," Gutowski said of the scene outside his Swift Printing business on the West Side. "The particular gentleman who was panhandling yesterday was going out, across traffic, doing little dances, coming back. It clearly is not safe to them or to the motorists."

Gutowski was among half of the commissioners who voted for panhandling regulations in 2014 -- the last time the body attempted to place restrictions on solicitation. The proposal in 2014 failed in a 3-3 vote.

Kelly also served on the commission in 2014.

"I was a no vote then and I remain a no vote," Kelly said. "I too believe it is the wrong approach to addressing panhandling."

Tuesday was Shaffer's last meeting as city commissioner, as he was term limited from running again. Voters elected Kurt Reppart to fill his seat starting in January.
business Jet Airways likely in talks with Air France-KLM, Delta to raise capital Jet Airways seeks to raise the capital via fresh share issues to the airlines. The airlines are seeking to acquire 5 percent, each, of Jet Airways' stake.
Edelweiss Wealth Management will be acquiring the securities business of Religare. The acquisition includes securities and commodities broking, and depository participant services. However, no financial details of the deal have been disclosed yet.

As part of the deal, Edelweiss will take on the pan-India distribution of around 1,250 points of presence including over 90 branches, and over 1 million clients and the employees of the business, a release said.

The acquisition is subject to receipt of requisite regulatory clearances and fulfilment of terms and conditions customary to a transaction of this nature.

Commenting on the announcement, Nitin Jain, CEO, Global Wealth & Asset Management, Edelweiss Group, said, The complementary nature of Religares business to our wealth management platform made for an attractive choice, as it expands our offering and supports our growth plans.

Market expert SP Tulsian told CNBC-TV18 although it will be a good exit opportunity for holders of the Religare stock, which has run up significantly in the last one month, the exit needs to be timed well. It is tough to take a call on the stock until further details like deal value emerge, he said.
In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Neeraj Kanwar, Vice Chairman and MD of Apollo Tyres discussed about his assessment of the last three quarters for the company.

It has been a challenging year. There was a big positive reform because of goods and services tax (GST) happening, we had the emission norms changing in commercial vehicles (CVs), so we have had a challenging Q1 and Q2, he said.

As far as Europe is concerned, we are already producing close to 3,000-4,000 tyres per day from Hungary. Our target is to get to 8,000 passenger car tyres per day by March end and we are in-line with it, he added.

I feel that heavy commercial vehicles (HCVs) and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) are on the growth path, said Kanwar.

On anti-dumping duty, he said that the Chinese tyres were also affecting the old conventional tyres. We should be happy that there is an anti-dumping duty.

Below is the verbatim transcript of the interview.

Q: It has been an important year for Apollo Tyres. It started with the opening of your Hungary plant. That was a big event. Then we have seen your revenues growing, but profitability has been under some amount of pressure. Raw material prices has been a big source of concern for many tyre companies. How would you describe the last three quarters for Apollo Tyres?

A: We are still in the third quarter. It has been a challenging year. If I take India, we have had our own hiccups with the GST happening, there was a big positive reform because the long-term effect is very good for us, we had that issue, then we had the emission norms changing, commercial vehicles. So we have had a challenging Q1 and Q2. But if you have seen on the revenue side, first half has been, you see the trend graph going up, positive on the revenue side. Profitability has been a challenge this year, continues to remain a challenge but better than the earlier half of the year. So while raw materials have eased a little bit, it still continues to be a challenge. As far as Europe is concerned, yes Hungary was the big bang in the first half of the year or in April this year. We have started on a good path. We are already producing close to 3,000-4,000 tyres per day from Hungary. Our target is to get to 8,000 passenger car tyres per day by March end which we are in line with.

Q: So you will double from the current levels in the next few months?

A: Yes and by next year same time September-October, we should be reaching the terminal capacity of phase-I which is 16,000 tyres per day. Europe, we have recently seen a delayed winter, up until November, we saw weather patterns in Germany which were only in the teens and therefore, there is a little bit slowness in the market as far as winter tyres are concerned. But as far as Apollo is concerned, again we are seeing trend graphs are going positive as far as revenues are concerned. Again, raw materials remain the same challenge that we have in Europe. So margins are under pressure and on top of it, we have a new Greenfield plant, so it is going to take time for it to come up.

Q: Let us talk about India business, 60 percent of your revenues come from here, so therefore, do you feel that the third quarter of the profitability front being better than the first two quarters because you are seeing that we are seeing lesser pain now because the chairman, when the press statement was issued at the end of the second quarter, he said that raw material prices increased 15 percent on a year-on-year basis. Since then we have seen some amount of softening. So do you anticipate third quarter being better than the first two?

A: Like I said, the trend graphs are going upwards both on revenue and on profitability. But I just want to underline one thing. Going forward, I see again raw materials going up because the demand cycles across the world are increasing and therefore, there is a lot of pressure coming on various raw materials in the world. So yes, I see raw materials going up and down, it is a volatile situation. I see challenges on that.

Q: So roughly then, you anticipate this year to be a year when your margins will face some headwinds or some pressure compared to the previous year.

A: Compared to the previous year, they will, but you will see by the end of this year, by March 2018, again our trend lines in India will be going positive, both on the revenue side and on the profit side.

Q: Talking about your topline because you had a target of Rs 10,000 crore, are you going to meet that? Talk to me a little about the target at the end of this financial year.

A: I would not like to give you a target, but I can only say that we are moving in the right direction. As you know, we had put in a capex at Chennai to double our capacity, so that is going as per our project timelines. We are very happy that today, we would be clearly the market leaders in the truck/bus radial segment. We have got the largest capacity in India at its terminal stage which we will reach some time next year in September which is 12,000 tyres per day in truck radial. We will be the clear leader in terms of volumes in India. Our brand value and our brand product itself has got great acceptability and that is really in what you see in your market share in truck/bus radial. On the passenger car side, you would have seen us, we have done a lot on the brand building side. We have created football as one our mainframes, whether it was Manchester United for Europe, now we have tied up with ISL recently, Chennai and ISL. So ISL we have taken for entire India and within the teams, we have taken for Chennai. Very happy that Chennai is doing well. In the past two matches that they have played, they have won. So that is a good sign. You will see a lot of activity on the football field where Apollo is putting in special skills, ladies have flown down and we are doing some skills in acrobats.

Q: So there is a lot of activity happening on the brand front too?

A: That is a clear sign that the brand today has come up and we are number one, number two in India today. So even today, as we speak, our capacities in passenger cars falling short of our sales capacity. So we are losing sales in some of the sizes in passenger car radial. Even in truck/bus radial, if we can move faster with implementation of our project, we gain sales. Today again we are losing sales. So given all of this, I feel they would be a double digit volume growth going forward in this year.

Q: For overall?

A: For India.

Q: The Chairman had also said recently that several expansion projects were under way and can you throw some light on that because you had, last year you said that you will be setting up a Greenfield plant in Andhra Pradesh. When does ground breaking happen? When does it go upstream? Give us an update on that.

A: Just generally on capex in India, we had invested in Chennai, so that is underway, so that is going as per time. We are trying to see how we can hasten that, as I said, we are losing sales on that front. We have just recently launched an SUV line for highly specialised SUVs for India. We will be launching them very soon. These will be coming out with the white sidewall lettering. So it will be a niche for the market. We are also looking at the higher end of motorcycle tyres to be made in India. We will be launching with the high end tyres for motorcycles. On top of it, we have also invested in off highway tyres (OHT) which are the big heavy, mining, industrial tyres. That is being put up in Kerala and that project is also going in the right direction. So all-in-all, all these small growth projects have been put in and actually all these revenues will start flowing in in terminal capacities by financial year 2019. So 2018-2019 you will see revenue expansion happening. As far as the Greenfield is concerned, we are looking at Andhra, we have tied up with Andhra. We are hoping that we do the Bhoomi Pooja in January of 2018 and thereon, it will take two years for our plant to come up.

Q: So we are looking at early 2020?

A: Early 2020 is when we look at passenger car. In the first phase, passenger car is what we are looking at, passenger car tyres. Again, capacity of 5.5 million tyres, like we have in Hungary will be the first phase. But we will also look at truck radials coming out of that plant eventually and we will also look at OHT coming out of that plant.

Q: So you are still being very bullish on the auto market overall in India because we are seeing sales, they have been somewhat tepid, it is still being driven by maybe one or two manufacturers. If you look at the medium and heavy commercial vehicle segment, so far this year, they have barely grown a little over 1 percent. You feel that there will be a turnaround? You are going to see sales volume picking up from the current levels?

A: Yes, given all the infrastructure that has been put in or are projects are under way with the government given what ports are happening. I feel that HCV, LCV is on the growth bound. And we can see it in our sales. Let us not forget that with the Chinese antidumping duty coming in, they had reached a level of 30 percent of radial tyres in India for truck and that has obviously taken a beating, not only because of the antidumping, but also because of demonetisation that took place. And also because of GST. So all these have built in costs to their product category, to their own product costing which landed here does not make it viable for them or for the consumer to buy at a higher price because they come at a certain level in a consumer's mind. Now if they charge higher then obviously the consumer. So that has got vacated and India manufacturers have got an advantage out of it. So that sale is also coming.

Q: That is for five years.

A: Sure. And then there is a repeat demand happening in truck radial. People are shifting, radialisation, the space of radialisation has grown much faster which we had anticipated and that is why we have doubled our production from 6,000 to 12,000 in time. And that is what is also actually giving growth to our sales other than the normal CV growing at 2-3 percent. And as you know, passenger car is growing. You have seen numbers of Maruti or Hyundai, how double digit growths are happening. So I am pretty bullish in this Indian market.

Q: Since you brought up antidumping, we have spoken about this several times in the past, it has happened now, September it was imposed. What has been the benefit out of that and the sense I am also getting from some manufacturers is the quantum of the duty is not as much as the industry was hoping for. So, tell me what has been the impact of that.

A: That is always the case. I wanted much more. If I get, we should be happy that there is an antidumping duty that has been put in.

Q: What has been the effect of that then?

A: Anti-dumping, in the Chinese tyres were also affecting the old conventional truck tyres. Let us not forget that and because they were priced at a very close level or sometimes lower than the Apollo branded truck/bus bias tyre you could get a radial tyre. So just to give you an index, truck-bus bias for Apollo was let us say 100 and the Chinese radial was coming at 98-97. So it was actually even eating the share of bias. So there is an upward movement upswing and it is coming in the market with the bias also and radial. So it is a two dimensional fold expansion or growth that has come into the market.

Q; So net-net, can you quantify the benefits if at all?

A: No, like that you cannot quantify it really. You can just see imports have started coming down. But overall, I think it is good from a customer perspective because now, you are getting good quality products, Indian made which is what everyone is driving and safety comes first for me. A customer's safety is very important. So you want to bring in tyres with good quality for these roads, because we know these roads, we have been making tyres for these roads for decades and decades. And that is why the quality of the tyre, we should know much better than a Chinese import company.

Q: And there is no move to seek more countervailing measures for some of the other category of tyres? This was for bus/truck radial, there is no move?

A: There is not much movement there because we do not see major imports coming in.
live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

ATMs or the automated teller machines have often been a platform for many fraudsters to hack away money from the customers bank accounts.

Earlier this week, about 40 people who used a Kotak Mahindra Bank ATM in Mulund (East), lost a total of around Rs 14.80 lakh fraudulently withdrawn from their bank accounts in three days from Sunday to Monday.

According to an Indian Express report, the customers got alerts saying their money had been withdrawn through ATMs in Saket in New Delhi and Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh. Bank officials, quoted in the report, told the police that the CCTV camera outside the ATM had not been working for the past 15 days and the police suspect the ATM data of the 40 people were stolen after someone put a skimmer on the ATM machine.

A skimmer is an electronic reading machine that illegally steals the personal information stored on a magnetic card and records the PIN number or password entered while making a transaction.

Reserve Bank of India norms

Keeping this vulnerability in view, the RBI has asked all banks to completely shift all their debit and credit cards with Europay MasterCard Visa (EMV) chip and PIN based cards, of global standards, by December 31, 2018. These cards offer two-factor authentication that is considered as the most effective counter-measure for card cloning through skimming globally.

As per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) norms, most banks have to install CCTV cameras in their respective ATM centres while state governments have asked to appoint security guards. The RBI has given the discretionary powers to bank managers to decide whether or not to deploy security guards.



All debit card holders must change their ATM password/PIN immediately.





Visit bank branch and check for safety of your money in your bank account.





In case of any discrepancy or doubt, ask for a fresh new debit card or card replacement or re-carding from your bank manager.



Past incidents

In September last year, about 32 lakh cards used at over 90 ATMs reportedly of Yes Bank operated by a technology firm Hitachi Payment Services were infected with virus/malware in the Switch which links the transactions from one bank to the other on the backend server.

A total of 19 banks have suspected data compromise with State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and Yes Bank mostly affected.

Reserve Bank of India norms

Keeping this vulnerability in view, the RBI has asked all banks to completely shift all their debit and credit cards with Europay MasterCard Visa (EMV) chip and PIN based cards, of global standards, by December 31, 2018. These cards offer two-factor authentication that is considered most effective counter-measure for card cloning through skimming globally.

As per the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) norms, most banks have to install CCTV cameras in their respective ATM centres while state governments have asked to appoint security guards. The RBI has given the discretionary powers to bank managers to decide whether or not to deploy security guards.



Set up app based/SMS/ email alerts for every form of transaction



Monitor your bank statements regularly



Report to the bank immediately in case you have lost your cards or you know your credentials for online transactions have been compromised



Dont link accounts for automatic transfer of funds



Dont have passwords which are easy to guess



Use a firewall, anti-virus software and update them as prescribed



Change your ATM Pin and online passwords from time-to-time



Update your current contact information all the time with your bank



In case your card gets stuck in the ATM, call your bank immediately



Sign up for paperless banking so there is lesser chance that other people have access to your financial statements



Prefer ATMs attached to banks, they tend to have better security checks than others



Globally, credit cards are more secure and its advisable to use them for point-of-sales gateways



Always destroy your old ATM/ debit cards



Dont have all your money in a single account



Always wait for Welcome screen to be displayed after completing transaction



Never give your card/card details at payment counters. Always get the card swiped in your presence.



Avoid getting enticed by free offers and do not swipe your cards for availing them.



For some domestic and international usage of debit cards, use the ON/OFF managing facility provided to you. This is provided by Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and State Bank of India among other banks.



The RBIs annual report on banking ombudsman released on Tuesday highlighted that ATM/Debit card complaints comprised 16,434 or 12.5 percent of the total complaints received.

Rohit Rao, Spokesperson, Kotak Mahindra Bank said, "We are investigating few instances of unauthorised ATM cash withdrawals from the accounts of our Mulund East branch customers. The issue is restricted to one ATM in Mulund EastShadow credit is being given immediately to complaints reported by Kotak customers and full credit will be given to them within three working days. As part of our standard compliance procedure, the incident has been reported to the RBI.

The ATM PIN has been reset for all affected customers to prevent any further misuse. We are also advising our customers to use the activate/deactivate feature of their debit card through the Kotak Bank mobile app to deactivate their debit card when not in use, which is an enhanced security feature to guard against potential misuse, Rao added.
Nitin Gadkari

Road, Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said road construction would further gather momentum with average addition of 40 km per day from next year.

"When we (government) took over, the average road construction was 2 km per day which has now been accelerated to 28 km per day. It will further go up to 40 km per day next year," he said while replying to debate on the Bill to amend Central Road Fund (CRF) Act 2000.

The Act regulates the CRF, that is credited with the cess collected on diesel and petrol. The amount collected is then released to National Highways Authority of India, and to the state/union territory for the development of national and state highways.

The amendment bill passed by the Lok Sabha today seeks to allocate a share of this cess towards the development of inland waterways.

Emphasising that there is huge requirement of funds for infrastructure development, Gadkari said the government intends to develop 12-15 inland waterways in the next two years with the help and support of all stakeholders.

Twelve major ports with combined profit of Rs 7,000 crore have been asked to invest a portion of their profit for development of waterways.

Talking about various initiatives taken by the government to develop inland waterways in the country, he said, "Our first priority is waterways, second railways and third roads."

Work has already started on 10 waterways and tenders have been issued, he said, adding these would be operational by the end of 2018.

Terming waterways as the cheapest mode of transportation, he said there are 111 national waterways in the country which can be used for the purpose.

Like airports, the country would soon be dotted with sea ports, he said.

"If you have to go to Patna then next time...you will not have to go to airport. Your aircraft will fly from Yamuna front and will stop at the river in Patna...such a revolutionary change is there in this," he said, adding, many years ago the trade used to happen on the river but slowly it stopped.

He announced that Mumbai to Goa cruise would start from next month and there is also plan to start cruise from Mumbai to Andaman and Nicobar.

On the Rs 60,000 crore Polavaram project of Andhra Pradesh, the minister promised that this will be completed by 2019.

It is resolve of the government to end all inter-state water dispute in its tenure itself by making available enough water to all states, he added.

Participating in the debate, Rajiv Pratap Rudy of the BJP said that through this bill tourism will be developed. Saugata Roy (TMC) said Gadkari is a salesman of dreams. "Gadkariji should present a white paper in the House as to which are the road ... been built. He is showing dreams to people. In India the condition of highways is not good." The minister in his reply said he does not indulge in selling dreams but make efforts towards converting dreams into reality.

The present bill seeks to allocate two and a half per cent of the CRF generated to accelerate the development and maintenance of national waterways by reduction of an equal percentage from the share of national highways.

This would tentatively generate about Rs 2,300 crore revenue for national waterways.

"This has paved the way for better regulation and development of the national waterways in the country. However, infrastructure such as jetties, terminals, navigational channels, etc. for better shipping and commercial navigation continues to be a challenge," Gadkari said.

In order to suitably develop national waterways, sustainable source of funding is highly necessary as budgetary support and funds from multilateral institutions are inadequate, he said.

Other members who participated in the debate included Kushlendra Kumar (JDU), Rajesh Rajan (RJD), Idrish Ali (TMC) and Varaprasad Rao (YSRC).
Bank consumer complaints at the central banks Banking Ombudsman increased 27.4 percent to 1.3 lakh, with the highest coming from New Delhi and Mumbai, said the Reserve Bank of Indias annual report of the Banking Ombudsman Scheme (BOS).

In the total 20 offices of Banking Ombudsman (OBO) of RBI in the country, In 2016-17, the OBOs handled 136,511 complaints (5,524 from the previous year) of which 92 percent were disposed within the year. The complaints received by OBOs increased by 27 percent in 2016-17 as compared to a rise of 21 percent in the previous year.

Costs of a complaint

The banking ombudsman takes care of customer grievances, petty and big, such as non-acceptance of small denomination currency, forced closure of deposit without notice or without any proper reason and non-adherence to the instructions of RBI-related to ATM/debit/credit card operations.

The average cost of handling a complaint was Rs 3,780 during 2016-17 which was lower than the average cost of Rs 4,396 during 2015-16 on account of increase in complaints.

The aggregate cost of running the Banking Ombudsman Scheme (BOS) has increased from Rs 45.2 crore in FY16 to Rs 49.5 crore in FY17. The volume of complaints increased by 27.30 percent during this period, thereby reducing the average cost of handling a complaint to Rs 3,780.

The RBI has borne the expenditure incurred on running the ombudsman scheme from 2006. This includes revenue expenditure and capital expenditure incurred on administration of the BOS. The revenue expenditure includes establishment items like salary and allowances of the staff attached to OBOs and non-establishment items such as rent, taxes, insurance, law charges, postage and telegram charges, printing and stationery expenses, publicity expenses, depreciation and other miscellaneous items. The capital expenditure items include furniture, electrical installations, computers/related equipment, telecommunication equipment and motor vehicle.

Eastern zone received the highest number of complaints at 33 percent, majority from Kolkata at 61.6 percent, followed by Western zone at 32.4 percent majority from Ahmedabad at 61.65 percent, northern zone at 30 percent (Jaipur at 44.5 percent) and southern zone at 13.8 percent (Bengaluru at 37.5 percent).

The highest complaints came from New Delhi (18.9 percent) followed by Mumbai (12.4 percent) and Ahmedabad (7.3 percent).

Rural population group witnessed the highest rise at 40.5 percent in reporting of complaints.

During the year, the 20 OBOs received 130,987 number of complaints, which increased 244 percent from 38,000 in the year 2006-07. In 2015-16, the volume of complaints stood at 102,894.

ATM and Card complaints

ATM/Credit and Debit card complaints together represented 18.9 percent (only Debit cards at 12.5 percent) of complaints. Pension-payment related complaints accounted for 6.5 percent of total complaints while the remaining categories including loans and advance and remittance which were all below 5 percent of total complaints, the annual report said.

As high as 44 percent people complained over emails and 39 percent through Post/Fax/Courier/hand delivery.

The Banking Ombudsman Scheme is a flagship program of the Reserve Bank started in 2006, which has evolved as an important pillar of the grievance redressal mechanism available to the customers of banks.

This rising trend, while reflecting the increasing awareness about the BOS, also underlines the need for banks to strengthen their internal grievance redressal mechanism, RBI said.

In this context, in the recent past 34 banks, on RBIs advice, had appointed Internal Ombudsman (IO) to ensure that all rejected or partially redressed complaints are reviewed independently before these are escalated to the BO, by the complainant.
Mortgage lender HDFC Ltd on Wednesday said it has sold 6.3 percent of equity in Computer Age Management Services Pvt Ltd (CAMS) to Warburg Pincus affiliate company Great Terrain Investment Ltd for Rs 209.50 crore.

"Computer Age Management Services (CAMS) is the target entity whose shares are being sold by the Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd (HDFC)," HDFC said in a regulatory filing.

Warburg Pincus is the US-based private equity investing firm.

Further, HDFC said its associate HDFC Bank is also a shareholder in CAMS, who is also selling a part of its shareholding in CAMS to the same purchaser at the same price at which the Corporation is selling its share in CAMS.

HDFC said it has been an investor in CAMS since 2000 and has decided to sell part of its shareholding in CAMS to Great Terrain Investment Ltd, Mauritius, an affiliate of Warburg Pincus group, amounting to 6.3 per cent of CAMS's equity share capital, it added.

"After completion of the sale, the Corporation would continue to hold 4.8 per cent of the equity share capital of CAMS," it added.

The mortgage lender said the deal which is an all cash consideration is expected to be completed by January 31, 2018. CAMS is a registrar and transfer agent that offers physical touch point for receipt, verification and processing of financial and non-financial transactions.

It is also engaged in services related to mutual funds, insurance, venture funds, banks and NBFCs.

HDFC shares closed 0.98 per cent lower at Rs 1692.90 on BSE today.
The logo of Hyundai Motor is seen on a steering wheel at its dealership in Seoul, South Korea, December 15, 2016. Picture taken December 15, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji - RTX2WG9E

Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL) today said it will increase prices of its vehicles by up to 2 percent from January in order to offset impact of rising input costs.

The company joins the likes of other automobile companies, including Nissan, Mahindra & Mahindra, Volkswagen, Maruti Suzuki India, Tata Motors, Ford, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, Honda Cars India, Skoda and Isuzu, which have already announced price hikes from early next year.

"We have been absorbing the increase in input and material costs but now are constrained to increase the prices up to 2 percent," HMIL Director Sales and Marketing Rakesh Srivastava said in a statement. The revised prices will be implemented from the beginning of next year, he added.

The company sells a range of models from hatchback Eon at Rs 3.29 lakh to premier SUV Tuscon priced up to Rs 25.19 lakh.

It has been a long-standing practice in the domestic automobile industry to announce price hikes in December as companies try to woo customers, who usually postpone purchases to acquire vehicles in the new year.
live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

The famous economist John Maynard Keynes once said, Markets can remain irrational longer than one remains solvent, guessing the levels of the markets could turn out to be a futile exercise and one that could cause damage.

However, what really matters is the balance of mind and behaviour particularly during times of exuberance in the markets where stocks tend to run ahead of fundamentals. While behavioural fallacies are common in all kind of markets, here are a few that need a serious check in a bull market.

Every time just after I sell a stock it makes a new high. Let me buy it again

If one recollects, a short para written in Benjamin Grahams investment classic The Intelligent Investor, it illustrated a famous story about physicist Sir Isaac Newton, who back in 1720 bought the shares of South Sea Company, considered as a hot stock at that time in England. When prices soared, he said that he could calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of the people. Soon Newton sold his stock pocketing 100 percent gain. However, feeling he sold early, as the prices further spiked, a month later he again purchased the stock and lost more money than he gained after his first purchase. The moral is that even the world's greatest scientist could not understand the crowd and lost huge money.

Rajeev Thakkar, CIO at Parag Parikh Financial Advisory Services explained this dilemma in his words as What many people forget is that there are a lot of things in life which go by cycles rather than in a linear relation. If noon temperatures keep rising month on month from January to May, it would be foolish to expect that temperatures will keep rising in June, July, August and so on. Everyone understands that seasons go through cycles. However, in the investing field, especially as regards stock markets investors get taken in by recency and drive their investing decisions looking at the rear view mirror instead of looking through the windshield.

In other words, investment decisions purely based on price and behaviour of the crowd could be costly.

Friend, you did not buy that stock it rose 50 percent last week?

Bull markets produce many stock pickers and one of them could be your friend, who is itching your head every time he made money. When every other stock is rising and a friend is making more money trading a few quick ones it is difficult not to attend his phone call next time.

Saloon-wala making stock recommendations

In a rising market it is often seen that every stock and every other investor is making money. When the optimism continues for a prolonged period it makes many a novice investor an expert. This is precisely the reason that they start to make recommendations, which is one of the early signs of danger. As a rational investor what is important is to stay away from the greed and take every investment decision cautiously.

Behavioural gurus suggest a rational investor will always look for a reason or a rationale for investing or picking any stock rather than get trapped by behavioural mistakes such as herd mentality bias where everyone around you is trying to act smart.

IPOs make quick money...Let me break my childs piggy bank

The old wisdom says that the best time for any company to come out with the IPOs is when the markets are at peak and sentiments and liquidity is high because that is the time promoters can get best possible valuations. No wonder most of the recent IPOs have not only subscribed several times but helped in bailing out many private equity investors and promoters to quick money.

Investors make listing gains and that drive liquidity, which in turn allow more and more IPOs to come and raise funds. This is typically known as self-propelled positive feedback loop where output becomes input like listing gains in the case of IPOs. As long as IPOs are making listing gains investors drive higher optimism, which is also known as recency bias in behavioural investing.

I would not miss this turnaround story

Do you feel anxiety having not invested in the most celebrated turnaround story in stocks market? In a bull market it is quite common for people looking for a trade-off among the quality and low quality stocks. When high quality stocks have low steam left, investors start to subscribe to all sort of stories like turnaround, value unlocking and many more.

Warren Buffett once said What the wise do in the beginning, fools do in the end" As an investor what is important is to remain calm and rational rather than take a plunge in fancy stories.

Investors will often find transitory stories. Companies which are in the industry that are in upsurge for making transitory profits will be the ones making all the headlines. If profits are transitory and not structural sooner or later share prices deflate to reflect the reality.

In a bull market where there is ample liquidity people come out with all sort of stories subscribing to higher valuations building valuations froth. People who have seen the bear market of 2008-09 will never make such blind mistakes, said Vijay Kedia.

Let me redeem my mutual funds I can make more money than my fund manager

One by-product of the optimism driven by notional profits earned in the market is increased gut feeling. Investment guru Peter Lynch once said, The trick is not to learn to trust your gut feelings, but rather to discipline yourself to ignore them."

Excessive confidence which is not well argued could lead to costly mistakes. A fund manager or a mutual fund has enough resources in terms of knowledge, access to information and a large pool of experience, whose utility could be often far greater than an individual investor who lack enough homework.

As an investor, our temperament, rationality and how we think are considered to be most important and critical to investment success.

Rolf Dobelli in his famous book The Art of Thinking Clearly said let's be honest. We do not know for sure what makes us successful. We cannot pinpoint exactly what makes us happy. But we know with certainty what destroys success or happiness. This realisation, as simple as it is, is fundamental.

Best returns are made in leveraged positions

Greed to generate more and more money with the same amount of investment often lead investors to leverage. Leveraged investing is like a double-edged sword, where people feel thrilled in a gaining position but often end up getting killed with a falling trade. A common joke in the markets (with a large element of truth) is that all gains from stock investing are due to the smartness of investors while all losses are the fault of the company, the government, stock brokers, global events and so on. In a bull market everyone feels like a genius and that is at the root of overconfidence. Overconfidence leads to excessive risk-taking, larger stock allocations, leverage and derivatives trading and so on, said, Rajeev Thakkar.

If company A is trading at price to earnings (PE) of 70, company B is actually cheap at 50 PE

The most common mistake that is often talked about in a bull market is comparing valuation of two companies to make the other one a compelling story.

This is not new. In the early 90s we saw euphoria in cement companies with even dormant, sick capacities getting higher valuations without any underlying business. The non-functional companies or the companies which were under BIFR were compared with the giants like ACC. Other interesting incidents happened around 1993-94 GDR rush when equity markets were opened for the foreigners and they wanted to buy Indian stocks. They bought our stocks at high valuations and that led others to justify their buying when the same stocks corrected marginally from the astronomical valuations at which FIIs bought them. Ultimately, they all got punctured and most GDR stocks fell to 10 percent of the value at which the foreigners bought. During the tech boom, investors started to compare everything and anything with Infosys, we saw this happening in infrastructure and real estate sector in 2007-8, said, Shyam Sekhar.

Shyam Further added: In chemicals, NBFC, graphite and few other commodity sectors people are running out of ideas. To be part of the story what they are doing is actually buying the next low value company in the sector irrespective of the underlying business of the company, whose prospects may be vastly different from the one that deserves valuations.

One needs to think independently and should not rush their investment decisions just because the other company is selling at higher valuations and the one which is trading at lower valuation may at some point deserve higher valuations.

Follow @jitendra1929

For more research articles, visit our Moneycontrol Research Page
3:30 pm Market Closing: Equity benchmarks closed rangebound session on a weak note as the Nifty failed to hold 10,450 level, tracking tepid global cues.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 59.36 points at 33,777.38 and the 50-share NSE Nifty declined 19 points to 10,444.20.

About 1,583 shares advanced against 1,124 declining shares on the BSE.

3:15 pm Forensic Audit: Sebi has ordered forensic audit of Pincon Spirit, which figures in the list of suspected shell companies, to check misuse of funds even as the regulator lifted trading curbs imposed on it.

Trading in the securities of Pincon Spirit will be reverted to the status prior to August 7, when the curbs were imposed, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said in an interim order dated December 19.

"There is prima facie evidence of misrepresentation of business/financials as well as suspicion of misuse of funds/ books of accounts of the company. The directors and KMPs (key management persons) have, therefore, prima facie failed to discharge their fiduciary responsibility.

3:05 pm Market Update: Benchmark indices erased gains in late trade, dragged by HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 48.83 points at 33,787.91 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 15.80 points to 10,447.40.

About 1,597 shares advanced against 978 declining shares on the BSE.

3:00 pm ADAG stocks in action: Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group stocks rallied, following the upsurge in Reliance Communications that shot up 45 percent.

Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Naval, Reliance Capital and Reliance Power gained 7-12 percent.

2:45 pm Acquisition: The board of Bharti Airtel, India's largest telecom firm, today approved an arrangement for takeover of consumer mobile business of Tata Teleservices, in a deal involving issue of equity and preference shares.

In October this year, the takeover of Tata Group's consumer mobile business by Airtel on a 'no-debt, no-cash basis' was announced by the two firms.

"...the Board of Director in its meeting held on December 19, 2017 has approved...composite scheme of arrangement between Tata Teleservices, Bharti Airtel and Bharti Hexacom and their respective shareholders and creditors...," Airtel said in a regulatory filing.

2:28 pm Prompt Corrective Action Framework: Bank of India informed exchanges that the Reserve Bank of India has placed the bank under Prompt Corrective Action Framework, consequent to the onsite inspection under the Risk Based Supervision Model carried out for year ended March 2017, and the report issued thereof.

"This is in view of high net NPA, insufficient CET1 Capital and negative return on assets for two consequent years. This action will contribute to the overall improvement in risk management, asset quality, profitability, efficiency, etc of the bank," it said.

2:15 pm Buzzing: Global brokerage firm Deutsche Bank said Jubilant Foodworks remains its top pick in consumer discretionary space. The stock gained more than a percent intraday.

The research house has maintained its Buy rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 2,000.

Consumer feedback is positive on recent extension of everyday value', Deutsche said while expecting national launch of Rs 99 price point in 2018 to enhance value-proposition positioning For Dominos.

Turnaround plans implemented are steps in the right direction, it said.

Automobile industry body SIAM has

proposed all new vehicle sales in India to be pure electric by 2047 while the same for intra-city public transport fleet can be achieved by 2030.

In a white paper submitted to the government, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) said it is aiming at 40 percent of new vehicle sales in the country to be pure electric by 2030.

The paper has been brought out in line with the government's vision of 100 per cent electric for public mobility and 40 percent electric for personal mobility by 2030, it said in a statement.

However, former power minister Piyush Goyal had in April this year said: "The idea is that by 2030, not a single petrol or diesel car should be sold in the country."

Here are the top headlines at 2 pm from Moneycontrol News' Anchal Pathak

1:59 pm Buzzing: The golden run for Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) continued as the stock hit Rs 10,000 mark for the first time in intraday trade. The stock which has already rallied over 80 percent so far in the year 2017 is all set to close the year on a high note.

Maruti Suzuki entered the list of stocks which trade above Rs 10,000. Most of the high-value stocks have outperformed the S&P BSE Sensex returns so far in the year 2017.

Stocks which are trading above Rs10,000 market price include names like MRF, Rasoi, Eicher Motors, Page Industries, Honeywell Automation, Bosch, Shree Cements, 3M India, Polson, and Maruti Suzuki.

1:47 pm Market Update: Equity benchmarks continued to trade higher with mild gains while the broader markets outperformed as the Nifty Midcap index gained half a percent.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 55 points at 33,891.74 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 16.20 points to 10,479.40.

About two shares advanced for every share falling on the BSE.

ONGC, Hindalco Industries, Hero Motocorp, Lupin, GAIL and Tata Motors were top gainers while Dr Reddy's Labs, HPCL, Eicher Motors, Ambuja Cements, Tata Steel and Adani Ports were under pressure.

1:29 pm VRS: SAIL said the scheme of VRS-2017 was implemented during the period June 18, 2017 to November 30, 2017 and total number of 1269 employees has been taken VRS and one time financial implication works out to be Rs 254 crore etc.

1:20 pm US FDA nod: Morepen Laboratories today said the US health regulator has given approval to Montelukast Sodium, used in managing asthma symptoms and seasonal allergies, for sale in the US market.

"The US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has cleared Montelukast Sodium, a bulk drug/API manufactured by Morepen Laboratories, for sale in the US market," the company said in a regulatory filing.

"This gives Morepen an entry into the Rs 2,000 crore (approximately USD 300 million) US market for Montelukast. The first commercial orders for the bulk drug are expected in the second quarter of the next financial year," it added.

1:05 pm ONGC gains: Shares of oil & gas major Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) gained over 2 percent intraday on Wednesday after global research firm Macquarie initiated a coverage on the stock with an outperform call for target at Rs 290 per share, implying 60 percent potential upside and 6 percent dividend yield.

The house is of the view that realisations and margin are likely to gradually rise and sees the mispricing with respect to HPCL deal a substantial opportunity.

Macquarie expects production growth after five years of lacklustre performance adding that oil & gas production is likely to rise 35 percent by FY 22. It expects favourable dividend yield of 6 percent over FY18-22.

12:45 pm Stock view: Phillip Capital has initiated coverage with Buy rating on Sintex Plastics Technology and set a target price at Rs 145, implying a potential upside of 85 percent. The stock rallied as much as 6.7 percent intraday Wednesday.

The subsidiary of Sintex Industries is in strong position to capitalise on economic recovery and growth in retail, warehousing and cold chain post GST.

Sintex Plastics Technology operates under two divisions - custom moulding solutions and building products & solutions (water storage tanks, prefab and construction for mass housing).

12:35 pm Buzzing: Phillip Capital has initiated coverage with Buy rating on Sintex Plastics Technology and set a target price at Rs 145, implying a potential upside of 85 percent. The stock rallied as much as 6.7 percent intraday Wednesday.

The subsidiary of Sintex Industries is in strong position to capitalise on economic recovery and growth in retail, warehousing and cold chain post GST.

Sintex Plastics Technology operates under two divisions - custom moulding solutions and building products & solutions (water storage tanks, prefab and construction for mass housing).

The research house sees stable and sustainable growth in custom moulding segment and expects prefab business to grow on government spending on healthcare, education, and sanitation.

Phillip Capital expects revenue/EBITDA/net profit to grow at a CAGR of 9/6/10 percent over FY17-20.

12:20 pm Market Check: The broader markets continued to outperform benchmark indices in afternoon despite sluggish trade in Asian stocks.

All sectoral indices traded in green barring PSU Bank (down 0.8 percent) and FMCG.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 34.72 points at 33,871.46 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 12.80 points to 10,476.

About two shares advanced for every share falling on the BSE.

12:05 pm Order Win: Ramco Systems, a enterprise software company, said its Global Tax Engine is configured to address UAE VAT, which is one of the biggest tax reforms being introduced in the Gulf nation.

Ramcos Finance and Accounting Suite will offer clients a VAT-ready application to manage the new tax regime.

Effective 1st January 2018, the UAE government will implement taxation in efforts to diversify its source of revenue.

Here are the top headlines at 12 pm from Moneycontrol News' Anchal Pathak

11:55 am Order Win: Veer Energy and Infrastructure has received an order from well-known chain of school group having schools in Gujarat and Maharashtra for rooftop solar panel installation.

The company is eyeing on this cost saving advantage as the big opening for solar rooftop industry.

11:40 am Redemption of CP: Havells India informed exchanges that the commercial papers issued on September 19 by the company to UTI Mutual Fund, for an amount of Rs 150 crore have been redeemed on the maturity date i.e. December 19, 2017.

11:20 am Fundraising: HDFC Bank informed exchanges that the board of directors today has approved raising of funds aggregating up to Rs.24,000 crore.

Of which, an amount up to a maximum of Rs 8,500 crore will be through issuance of equity shares of face value of Rs 2 each pursuant to a preferential issue to promoter Housing Development Finance Corporation, the bank said.

The balance will be raised through issuance of equity shares / convertible securities / depository receipts pursuant to a qualified institutions placement / American Depository Receipts / Global Depository Receipts, it added.

The bank said extra-ordinary general meeting will be held on January 19, 2018 to seek approval of the shareholders of the bank for above fund raising plant.

10:50 am Acquisition: Strides Pharma Asia Pte, Singapore, a wholly owned subsidiary of Strides Shasun has entered into definitive agreements with Trinity Pharma proprietary, South Africa for acquisition of controlling stake in Trinity.

10:40 am Amara Raja in focus: Shares of Amara Raja Batteries advanced 4.7 percent intraday as it has commissioned its two-wheelers battery plant at the Amara Raja growth Corridor in Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh.

The plant was inaugurated by George R Oliver, Chairman and CEO at Johnson Controls, showcasing another milestone in the successful joint venture between the two companies.

The first phase of the plant was commissioned will have a capacity of 5 mn units.

The plant will have an ultimate capacity of 17 mn units with an estimated investment of Rs 700 crore taking the total capacity for two-wheelers batteries to 29 million units.

10:20 am Buzzing: The US Food and Drug Administration has cleared Montelukast Sodium, a bulk drug / API manufactured by Morepen Laboratories, for sale in the US market. The stock rallied 10 percent.

"This gives Morepen an entry into the Rs 2,000 crore (approximately USD 300 million) US market for Montelukast. The first commercial orders for the bulk drug are expected in Q2FY19," the company said.

10:01 am Earnings: Telecom operator Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) today reported widening of loss to Rs 8,194.67 crore in the second quarter ended September 30, mainly on account of writing off its consumer mobile business.

The company had posted a loss of Rs 452.82 crore in the same period a year ago.

Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (TTML) impaired Rs 7,708.63 crore for its mobile business which it is transferring to Bharti Airtel.

"The company has recorded Rs 7,708.63 crore towards impairment loss during the quarter and half year ended September 30, 2017 on its consumer mobile business (CMB) assets based on the assessment of its recoverable value," TTML said in its result report.

In the last quarter of previous fiscal, the TTML had written off Rs 905.41 crore for spectrum it acquired in an auction that was conducted by the Department of Telecom in 2015.

Here are the top headlines at 10 am from Moneycontrol News' Anchal Pathak

9:45 am Market Update: Equity benchmarks remained rangebound around previous closing values, after hitting record highs in opening.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 13.05 points at 33,823.69 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 6.90 points to 10,456.30.

Midcap continued to outperform benchmark indices. Market breadth remained strong as about three shares advanced for every share falling.

GAIL, Maruti Suzuki, HDFC Bank and M&M hit fresh record highs.

9:35 am Merger: Fair trade regulator CCI has approved the scheme of amalgamation between IndusInd Bank and Bharat Financial Inclusion.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) intimated that the commission in its meeting held today considered the proposed combination and approved the same, a regulatory filing on stock exchanges by both companies said.

The scheme remains subject to the receipt of approval from the RBI and regulatory approval including approvals of the stock exchanges, Sebi, the National Company Law Tribunal and respective shareholders, it said.

IndusInd Bank in October decided to acquire country's leading microfinance player Bharat Financial Inclusion Limited (BFIL).

9:29 am Fundraising: Steel major Tata Steel said its board has approved raising Rs 12,800 crore through a rights issue to finance organic and inorganic growth plans.

The board in its meeting today also approved a proposal to expand the capacity of Kalinganagar plant by 5 million tonne per annum (MTPA) to 8 MTPA with a total investment of Rs 23,500 crore, the company said in a statement.

The board also reviewed the financial strategy of the company in the light of organic and inorganic growth strategy of the company and approved financial plan to raise capital for the plan.

"The Board approved issuance of equity and equity linked instruments including ordinary shares of the company by way of a rights issue to existing shareholders on record date for an amount not exceeding Rs 12,800 crore...," the statement said.

9:20 am Ruchi Soya in focus: Debt-ridden Ruchi Soya Industries said that insolvency proceeding has been initiated against the company and the powers of its board have been suspended.

On December 9, the company had said that petitions filed by Standard Chartered Bank and DBS Bank against Ruchi Soya Industries before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Mumbai have been admitted.

In a filing to the BSE, Ruchi Soya said that pursuant to an order of the NCLT, Mumbai Bench, "Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) has been initiated for the company as per the provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code".

9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks started off trade at record highs on Wednesday, but immediately slipped into red to trade volatile.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 18.70 points at 33,818.04 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 12.40 points to 10,450.80.

About 785 shares advanced against 445 declining shares on the BSE.

Tata Steel, UltraTech Cement, Dr Reddy's Labs, SBI, L&T, HUL and Power Grid were early losers while ONGC, Coal India, Maruti Suzuki, GAIL, M&M and Hero MotoCorp were gainers.

Nifty Midcap was flat.

Religare Enterprises rallied 5 percent and Edelweiss Financial was up 1.7 percent. Edelweiss Financial will buy Religare's securities business which includes securities & commodities broking & depository participants services.

MTNL, Reliance Communications, Indiabulls Real Estate and Jain Irrigation gained 2-12 percent.
live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

For next 12 months, we expect appreciation of about 10-12 percent with 11,450-11,650 target level for Nifty. After Gujarat elections, focus will revert to fundamentals and earnings, Yogesh Mehta, VP- Retail Research, Motilal Oswal said in an interview to Moneycontrols Sunil Shankar Matkar.

Mehta expects recovery in earnings led by low base following demonetisation.

Excerpts

Q. The Nifty is expected to close the year with more than 20 percent gains. What are your targets for the next 12 months (up to December 2018)?

A. Nifty has appreciated around 26 percent (as on date) in 2017. For the next 12 months we expect appreciation of about 10-12 percent with 11,450-11,650 target level.

Q. Apart from Gujarat elections, what are other key events that will keep markets higher in 2018?

A. In 2018, assembly polls will be held in Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Rajasthan and Tripura state and the Union Budget will keep market volatility high.

Q. How important are these state elections ahead of General Elections 2019?

A. These assembly elections in some large territories are very important as it will have an impact on the upcoming 2019 General elections.

Q. Will reforms announced by the Modi government revive the Indian economy and earnings before general elections 2019?

A. Modi Governments primary agenda was to boost economy and it has announced many a structural reforms like GST, demonetisation, digitisation, Make in India, Direct Benefit Transfer etc. The impact and effect will definitely be seen over next 12 months before general elections.

Q. Midcaps outperformed the Sensex in 2017. Do you think it will continue to outperform in 2018?

A. Midcaps delivered around 45 percent returns compared to Sensex returns of around 26 percent, and are likely to continue delivering higher earnings growth as these companies are largely domestic-focused. Continued strong flows by domestic institutions will also help.

Q. Could crude hovering around USD 60-65 a barrel be a big concern for the Indian economy? At what levels of crude prices can India manage its economy?

A. Currently, Indian economy is stable and can manage until crude prices are under USD 70-72 a barrel. Concern will be if it sustains above USD 75 for longer time.

Q. Top five sectors which you think stand to gain in 2018?

A. Auto, cement, consumer, healthcare and infra are five sectors that will gain in 2018.

Q. As we move to 2018, what are your 5 best picks?

A. Bajaj Auto

Company is back on the growth path, driven by (a) regulatory changes in key domestic passenger 3W states providing strong medium-term growth visibility, (b) filling up of product gaps in domestic motorcycle portfolio helping to regain lost market share, (c) stability in key export markets and ramp-up in new markets driving export sales.

It is well placed to ride on premiumisation trend. Husqvarna and KTM present an opportunity to drive contract manufacturing volumes by 3x over the next few years. Expect total volumes to grow at a CAGR of 10 percent over FY17-20. Net revenue should grow at 14 percent and PAT should grow at 16 percent CAGR over FY17-20. Valuations at 17x FY19E and 15x FY20E consolidated EPS are attractive.

Bajaj Auto owns little over 48 percent stake in Austrian off road bike specialist KTM who in turn owns Husqvarna. Husqvarna bikes will be sharing platforms with bikes made under KTM and Bajaj bikes when they start getting made at Bajajs Chakan plant in Pune.

Disclosure: Motilal Oswal Financial Services (MOFSL), the spokesperson or his relatives, do not have financial interest in the securities mentioned above. The spokesperson has not served as a director, employee or officer at the subject company in the last 12 months. MOFSL or its associate might be involved in market making for the subject company or have potential conflict of interest.

Birla Corporation

Consolidated operations with capacity of 15.5mt, it is among the largest in the Satna cluster, with around 22 percent market share. Acquired subsidy Reliance cement is operating at 74 percent in first half of FY18 due to sand mining ban in UP Eastern operations witnessed good demand coupled with higher share of premium products.

The stock trades at 10x/9x FY19/20E EV/EBITDA and EV/tonne of USD 120 on FY20 capacity. We increase our valuation multiple given the strong performance reported by the acquired subsidiary and value BCORP at INR1435 at 11.5x FY20E EV/EBITDA.

Britannia

Company has delivered consistent healthy performance in a difficult operating environment. Rapidly expanding distribution, continuing investment in R&D and significant expansion of its own manufacturing indicate managements optimism about the growth prospects. Guwahati factory will be operational in six months.

Company is investing in capacities for the international business as well. It is setting up a factory in Mundra SEZ and another factory in Nepal. Opportunity beyond biscuits is also substantially high. Continuing premiumization, significant incremental cost savings and a favourable commodity cost outlook mean that 15 percent EBITDA margin is achievable.

Aurobindo Pharma

Company exports to over 125 countries across the globe with more than 70 percent of its revenues derived out of international operations and among the largest filers of DMFs and ANDAs from India. It is well poised to outperform its peers in the current circumstances because of strong US pipeline, diversified product mix (top-25 products accounts for around 35 percent of sales) and no pending regulatory issues.

Cumulatively, Aurobindo has filed 463 ANDAs in the US and has received approvals for 3334 products (includes 40 tentative approvals). It has transferred manufacturing of 74 products from Europe to India. Europe market increased on back of high growth across all countries and expects growth momentum to continue in key Europe markets like UK, Germany and France going forward.

Sadbhav Engineering

Company sees robust business opportunity coming up in the road sector post the Bharatmala project announcement  the company expects annual awarding from the NHAI to be ~INR800b in FY18 versus Rs 60,000 crore in the previous year. Company has maintained its standalone revenue guidance of Rs 3,800/4,500 crore for FY18/FY19, and expects the operating margin to be in the range of 11-12 percent and traffic growth to be around 10 percent in second half of FY18.

Order inflow is expected to be around Rs 7,000 crore for FY18. Management has reiterated its commitment to reduce debt incrementally by around Rs 200 to Rs 1,250 crore by end-FY18. The river-linking and Metro projects to provide massive business opportunity over the medium term.

Government has announced plans to inter-link more than 60 rivers across India to reduce floods and address the issue of water shortage in India. Company is well placed to take advantage of the upcoming opportunity in the Rs 7 trillion road sector, given its execution capability, management bandwidth and recent balance sheet improvement. Over FY17-20, we expect a CAGR of 17 percent in revenue and 16 percent in earnings.

Disclosure: Motilal Oswal Financial Services (MOFSL) and its associates have a financial interest in the securities mentioned above however they do not have actual/ beneficial ownership of 1 percent or more securities of the subject company at the end of Jan 2015. The spokesperson or his relatives, do not have a financial interest. The spokesperson has not served as a director, employee or officer at the subject company in the last 12 months. MOFSL or its associate might be involved in market making for the subject company or have potential conflict of interest.

As we are near the year-end and no major events (apart from Gujarat elections) lined up, next key events are earnings and Budget. What are your expectations from the last full-fledged budget of the Modi government?

Election overhang is largely behind post winning in UP and Gujarat after big structural reforms like demonetization and GST which have created short term disruption. Focus will revert to fundamentals and earnings, expect recovery in earnings led by low base of demonetisation.

: As promised by FM in his earlier speech to gradually lower the corporate tax rate to encourage Manufacturing and other businesses. Projections for Government spending, fiscal deficit target, food subsidy bill and DBT amount, progress on banks NPA resolution, progress on bank recapitalisation and pro poor and rural policies with mild populist tone.
The Nifty, which hit a record high in the opening tick, failed to gain momentum throughout the trading session on Wednesday and closed slightly in the red making a Bearish Belt Hold kind of pattern on the daily candlestick charts.

Formation of Bearish Belt Hold after two bullish candle suggests pause in the momentum. Short term traders can book partial profits while the rest can remain long with a stop below 10400 on a closing basis, suggest experts.

A Bearish Belt Hold pattern is formed when the opening price becomes the highest point of the trading day (intraday high) and the index declines throughout the trading day making up for the large body. The candle will either have a small or no upper shadow and small lower shadow.

In Wednesdays price action, Nifty opened at 10,494.40 rose marginally to 10,494.45 which was its intraday high. The index slipped after hitting a record high to its intraday low of 10,437.15. It finally closed 19 points lower at 10,444.20.

Traders are advised to remain long as long as Nifty trades above 10350 levels and a stop can be placed around 10400 levels on closing basis for the index. A hold above 10,350-380 could propel the index towards 10,495-10550 levels.

Albeit it looked like a day of consolidation on the bourses the Bearish Belt Hold kind of formation in Wednesdays session should ring alarm bells for the short term traders about the impending weakness, Mazhar Mohammad, Chief Strategist  Technical Research & Trading Advisory, Chartviewindia.in told Moneycontrol.

Unless Nifty get past 10,494 levels in the next couple of trading sessions there can be a possibility of Double top formation going forward. Besides, another major index v.i.z Bank Nifty which was underperforming hitherto has registered Bearish Engulfing formation in todays session and hence any selling pressure on this index may eventually spill over to broader markets, he said.

Mohammad is of the view that it looks prudent for short-term traders to book part profits and ride remaining positions with a stop below 10400 on a closing basis. The momentum on the index should once again pick up only on a close above 10495 levels, he said.

India VIX remained almost flattish at 12.18. India VIX has fallen down by 27 percent in the last three sessions and needs to hold below 13-12.50 zones to get the smooth ride.

We have collated the top ten data points to help you spot profitable trade:

Key Support & Resistance Level for Nifty

The Nifty closed at 10,444.2 on Wednesday. According to Pivot charts, the key support level is placed at 10,422.77, followed by 10,401.33. If the index starts to move higher, key resistance levels to watch out are 10,480.07 and 10,515.93.

Nifty Bank

The Nifty Bank closed at 25,591.7. Important Pivot level, which will act as crucial support for the index, is placed at 25,511.83, followed by 25,431.97. On the upside, key resistance levels are 25,725.83, followed by 25,859.97.

Call Options Data

Maximum Call open interest (OI) of 65.24 lakh contracts stands at strike price 10,500, which will act as a crucial resistance level for the index in the December series; followed by 10,600, which now holds 44.57 lakh contracts in open interest, and 11,000, which has accumulated 36.46 lakh contracts in OI.

Call writing was seen at strike price 10,500, which added 2.73 lakh contracts; followed by 10,700, which saw added of 0.96 lakh contracts, 10,600 saw adding of 0.86 lakh contracts.

Call unwinding was seen at strike price 10,400, which shed 6.54 lakh contracts, followed by 10,300 which shed 5.6 lakh contracts and 10,200, which shed 3.79 lakh contracts.

Put Options Data

Maximum put OI of 80.58 lakh contracts was seen at strike price 10,000, which will act as a crucial base for the index in December series; followed by 10400, which now holds 56.74 lakh contracts and 10,300 which has now accumulated 52.49 lakh contracts in open interest.

Put writing was seen at strike prices 10,500 (11.54 lakh contracts added), 10,400 (5.01 lakh contracts added), and 10,300 (2.68 lakh contracts added).

Put unwinding was seen at strike 10,000, which shed 2.41 lakh contracts, followed by 10,200, which shed 2.04 lakh contracts.

FII & DII Data

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 1,505.4 crore, while domestic institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 146.17 crore in the Indian equity market on Wednesday, as per provisional data available on the NSE.

Stocks with high delivery percentage:

High delivery percentage suggests that investors are accepting the delivery of the stock, which means that investors are bullish on the stock.

66 stocks saw long build-up:

59 stocks saw short covering:

A decrease in open interest along with an increase in price mostly indicates short covering.

57 stocks saw short build-up:

An increase in open interest along with a decrease in price mostly indicates short positions being built up.

32 stocks saw long unwinding:

Long unwinding happens when there is a decrease in OI as well as in price.

Bulk Deals:

Archies

Manoj Kumar Mehta has bought over 2 lakh shares at around Rs 50 apiece, while it has sold around 1 lakh shares at the same price.

Ashiana Housing

Goldman Sachs Mutual Fund and SBI Mutual Fund have offloaded some shares in the company. The former sold 9.8 lakh shares at Rs 167, while SBI Mutual Fund purchased 17.77 lakh shares.

Reliance Communications

Adroit Financial services bought 2.27 crore shares, while 2.26 crore shares were sold during the day. Meanwhile, Shaastra Securities bought and sold 1.43 crore shares.

Analyst Meet/Briefings:

Union Bank

The bank had a concall with Tokyo Marine AMC on Wednesday.

Stocks in news:

Canara Bank: Proposes to sell 4,00,000 shares to NSDL.

Kwality: Cancels 19,400 ESOPs.

Shriram City Union: Postal ballot vote to chance articles of association of a company.

Bajaj Hindustan announced allotment of 2,51,71,925 Optionally Convertible Debentures (OCDs) of Face Value of Rs 100 each at par on conversion of a portion of Part -B (Unsustainable Loan) in accordance with the BHSL S4A Scheme.

Jet Airways told to pay Rs 50,000 to passenger who found a button in his food.

Strides Shasun buys controlling stake in South African drug co Trinity Pharma for Rs 27.5 crore.

Coal India looking to buy stakes in overseas coking coal mines

Allahabad Bank, United Bank workers, officers against share allotment under ESPS

Gujarat NRE Coke faces liquidation as NCLT says no to deadline extension

Lenders put Jaypee Group firm PPGCL up for sale

HDFC sells 6.3 percent in CAMS to Warburg Pincus arm for Rs 210 crore

Sebi orders forensic audit of Pincon Spirit

IVRCL to sell stake in arms to Singapore firm for Rs 726.18 crore

Essar Steel creditors may extend deadline to sign agreements with bidders

Dalmia Bharat to Acquire Bankrupt Murli Industries

7 stocks under ban period on NSE

Security in ban period for the next trade date under the F&O segment includes companies in which the security has crossed 95% of the market-wide position limit.

Securities which are banned for trading include names such as TV18 Broadcast and Wockhardt apart from Fortis Healthcare, HDIL, Jet Airways, JP Associates, and JSW Energy.

Fund Flow Picture:
Aurobindo Pharma Ltd.

live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

Morepen Laboratories today said the US health regulator has given approval to Montelukast Sodium, used in managing asthma symptoms and seasonal allergies, for sale in the US market.

"The US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has cleared Montelukast Sodium, a bulk drug/API manufactured by Morepen Laboratories, for sale in the US market," the company said in a regulatory filing.

"This gives Morepen an entry into the Rs 2,000 crore (approximately USD 300 million) US market for Montelukast. The first commercial orders for the bulk drug are expected in the second quarter of the next financial year," it added.

Morepen said patent for Montelukast has expired in all markets worldwide.

Morepen is the market leader for Montelukast in India with over 50 per cent market share, supplying to almost all major finished dosage manufacturers in India, it added.

Shares of the company rallied 16.44 per cent to trade at Rs 29.40 apiece on BSE.
Unitech | Board submitted resolution proposal before Supreme Court. (Image: unitechgroup.com)

live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

The National Company Law Tribunal on Wednesday adjourned the corporate affairs ministrys plea against the embattled real estate firm Unitech, saying that it will wait for the outcome of the case before the Supreme Court, sources said.

On December 13, the Supreme Court had stayed the NCLT order which had suspended Unitechs board and allowed the Centre to take over control of the companys management.

Attorney general KK Venugopal appearing on behalf of the government had conceded that the Centre should not have approached NCLT when apex court was hearing the matter relating to Unitech's failure to refund home buyers, informed a Unitech lawyer.

This should not have happened. The government should not have approached NCLT when Supreme Court was seized of the matter relating to Unitechs failure to refund homebuyers, he had said at the hearing last Wednesday.

On December 12, the Supreme Court had expressed serious apprehensions about the manner in which the Centre moved the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to take control of embattled real estate firm Unitechs board without seeking its permission.

On last Tuesday, the Supreme Court had expressed its unhappiness over the December 8 order and had said that NCLT should have taken its leave before allowing the government to take control over the management of the company.

The Supreme Court asked the Centre on Tuesday why it did not seek its permission to move NCLT for suspension of the companys directors. It is disturbing to see that the NCLT passed an order when the top court was hearing the Unitech case. It should have taken leave of the apex court before allowing the Centre to take over Unitech, said the apex court.

A bench comprising chief justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud considered the request of additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta on Tuesday that one more day be given to him to seek instruction from the concerned authorities on the appeal of Unitech against the order of NCLT.

Unitech, on its part, had argued through its lawyer that NCLT passed a hurried order without hearing it. It said that the Supreme Court had allowed its promoter Sanjay Chandra to negotiate from jail to sell assets to generate funds to pay back buyers and yet the Centre had breached discipline and moved NCLT.

The stay of NCLTs order dated December 8 meant that Unitechs promoter Sanjay Chandra, who is currently in jail, can now resume negotiations from prison for sale of assets to generate Rs 750 crore that he has been asked to deposit in court by end of this month.

According to insolvency experts, NCLTs decision to wait for the outcome of the Supreme Court order is natural. The government may decide to take leave of the Supreme Court keeping public interest in mind but that is difficult to say at this juncture.

Meanwhile, in a related development on Wednesday, the Kolkata bench of the NCLT has ruled that the ordinance amending the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) does not debar every promoter and guarantor from bidding for insolvent companies. The bench was hearing the case filed by RBL Bank against MBL Infrastructures. It said that the guarantors against whom lenders had not invoked the guarantee cannot be clubbed with those who are prohibited from the bidding process, sources said.

The tribunal said the intent of the ordinance was not to disqualify promoters as a class from submitting resolution plans. The intent, it said, was to exclude such class of persons from offering resolution plans who, on account of their antecedents, might adversely impact the credibility of the processes under the IBC.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), on December 8, had suspended all the eight directors of the realty firm over allegations of mismanagement and siphoning of funds and had authorised the Centre to appoint its 10 nominees on the board. In its petition filed under section 241 of the Companies Act, 2013, the government had requested the tribunal to remove the eight directors and said that the company has over Rs 6,000 crore debt and over 16,000 undelivered units from a total of nearly 70 projects.

The NCLT, in its order, had also said the government must give names of its nominees by December 20 and restrained Unitech's eight suspended directors from selling their personal and company properties.

The apex court had on October 30 said jailed businessman Chandra will be granted bail only after the real estate group deposited money with its registry by December end. The top court had earlier directed the jail authorities to facilitate Chandra's meeting with his company officials and lawyers so that he could arrange money to refund the home buyers as well as for completing the ongoing housing projects.

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 located in Gurgaon.
Shares of oil & gas major Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) gained over 2 percent intraday on Wednesday after global research firm Macquarie initiated a coverage on the stock with an outperform call for target at Rs 290 per share, implying 60 percent potential upside and 6 percent dividend yield.

The house is of the view that realisations and margin are likely to gradually rise and sees the mispricing with respect to HPCL deal a substantial opportunity.

Macquarie expects production growth after five years of lacklustre performance adding that oil & gas production is likely to rise 35 percent by FY 22. It expects favourable dividend yield of 6 percent over FY18-22.

In a bull Case scenario Macquarie has a target of Rs 345 per share.

At 12:55 hrs Oil and Natural Gas Corporation was quoting at Rs 189.15, up Rs 3.95, or 2.13 percent. It has touched an intraday high of Rs 191.00 and an intraday low of Rs 187.70.
rbi_300_35636652

live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

After Bank of India, Reserve Bank of India on Tuesday imposed additional restrictions on United Bank of India under the Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework given the high stress levels owing to the banks high bad loans.

The action points focus on profit retention, capital augmentation, provision coverage, diversification of credit portfolio, rationalisation of expansion and cost control," UBI said Wednesday said in its disclosure filing to stock exchanges.

It said that the RBI, in a letter dated December 19, has prescribed certain additional actions under the PCA in view of high net NPAs or non-performing assets, low leverage ratio and requirement to raise capital based on the assessment of the banks position as on March 31, 2017.

Bank of India is the ninth lender placed under Prompt Corrective Action Framework by the RBI after Corporation Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, UCO Bank, Central bank of India, IDBI bank, Dena Bank, United Bank of India and Bank of Maharashtra.

This is the second time in four years that UBI has come under regulatory sanctions and is forced to take corrective measures for strains in financials.

In 2013, RBI had restricted the bank from lending freely after the then chairperson Archana Bhargava flagged off accounting malpractices.

The Kolkata-based government bank had net NPA ratio at 10 percent as on March which rose to 11.63 percent as on September 2017 , breaching the prescribed second level risk limit of 9 percent, which was the reason for inviting RBI direction.

The bank added that the normal banking activities such as acceptance of deposit, credit disbursement and treasury function remain unaffected.

United Bank reported a loss for two consecutive quarters now at Rs 345 crore for the September quarter that followed a Rs 211 crore in the first quarter of 2017-18 ending June, 2017.

Its asset quality deteriorated further with gross NPA at Rs 12,893 crore at the end of September, accounting for 18.80 percent of the total advances at Rs 68,562 crore. This is one of the weakest NPA ratios in the banking sector, other banks being IDBI Bank.

"The regulatory action is not likely to have any material impact on the bank's performance and will contribute to the improvement of the internal control and intrinsic strength of the bank," UBI added in its filing.
By Durba Ghosh

It was in 1986 that Bharat Goenka's father who was running a textiles business asked him to write a program which could handle the company's accounts easily.

All of just 23 years, at the time Goenka wrote the software and Tally Solutions, an accounting software firm was born.

Three decades later, in 2017, the company is seeing a rebirth with a rising demand for accounting software by businesses to comply with India's new taxation norms.

Our association with GST definitely is a big thing for us. In fact, it is the single most consuming thing we as a company have worked for (since past several months), Goenka says.

Tally's accounting solution has powered many SMEs since decades, becoming their de facto choice to manage finances and taxation.

But GST rollout also meant widening of this customer base as more unregistered small businesses are scrambling to be GST-ready.

An estimated 1 million VAT users upgraded to the Tally version in the initial phase of GST rollout, Goenka tells me.

Tally also went out of its way to reach out to businesses that have never been exposed to Information Technology.

The company conducted more than 7,000 events and training including daily webinars to educate and appraise SMEs on GST regulations.

More than 13 million businesses were to migrate to GST, only about eight or nine million actually did. Our training and information modules will help rest of the small business owners to register (easily), says Goenka.

GST roadblocks ahead for India's small businesses

I wish I could talk about our GST story as a success, as yet! The whole country including us and the government is still trying to come to terms with it. Its a journey. The first part of it wasnt probably a very happy part, he says.

The GST rollout could have been done differently, he rues, in terms of the framing of laws and rules, including the implementation of its IT backbone.

Problem for the SME is not invoice-making. The problem was that they could not make sense of the whole GST regime. The original intent was that the written format will be easy to understand. But eventually, the written guidelines were complicated for an average SME businessman. That created cascading errors, Goenka explains the problems in GST rollout.

The most important thing, Goenka feels, was the Governments attitude in the initial rollout phase. It seemed to be a signal of belligerence, he says.

With this apathy, Tally stumbled too. We massively underestimated the amount of handholding the businesses will seek. It wasnt just restricted to technological know-how. They would expect interpretation of the law, taxation implication, etc. We never accounted for such engagement in our manpower requirements. We had to pool all our resources to make this work, Goenka says.

According to him, things have started to sort out.

Six months deep into GST rollout, the Government is now more receptive to industrys views and fundamentally thats a major shift.

Now that the company has got a hang of it, it is gradually releasing resources out of GST project to its internal projects that were put on hold due to the rollout of a new tax regime.

Tally also suffered a one-year delay in the release of its updated software as GST consumed the companys available bandwidth.

Now we are restarting with a view to expanding domestically as well as internationally. Our next release is delayed by a year. It was supposed to happen now, but it will now happen next year, Goenka says.

But GST troubles are far from over for Tally.

While the government has proactively taken the mantle to smoothen out issues with GST, the changes have been incremental at best.

The real problems that SMEs face today are still unresolved.

A major shift, Goenka says, will be if the GST network is developed to wean out complexities and made more user-friendly.

Key characteristics of SMEs is not profit-motivated but cash-flow motivated. They have to keep looking for more sales to keep that up. As long as we let them focus on this activity rather than focusing on the recording of activity and its compliance GST will be effective, he says.

Tally, on the other hand, has been designed to disappear.

We obsess far more on what will make something fail than what will make it a success. So that only causes of success remain, Goenka reflects. The company, under Goenka, has adopted a common-sensical approach to developing products for SMEs.

We are constantly looking for causes why someone may find the software difficult. We test it in real-life simulations and incorporate them in the product. We try and make the system work seamlessly in the background with minimal intervention from the business owners. That way they can focus on doing business, he adds.

"Now, look at GST, if it allows the SMEs to just punch in simple details and the system thereafter takes over completely that will make things much easier , he says.

According to him, the government hasnt taken cognizance of the fact that the GST framework was too complex for an SME to understand and adapt.

It is this single-minded focus on making the SMEs life easier that has made several of Tallys products a success.

Sticking to a product-driven approach

The company, which has seen several of its peers shift to services after the Y2K scare in 2000, stuck to its gun of remaining a products company.

Our peers moved to services because of steady cash flow. Products are a high-risk cash-flow environment. If we were not focused on SMEs, we would probably have made the shift to services too.

We never saw any use case for services in the SME market. We saw more value for products that smoothen outs their day-to-day functioning. It was also our passion and we knew we are good at it, Goenka says.

So much so, that Goenka insisted on giving away ancillary services free of cost to prevent digressing from the focus on products.

You cannot mix products with services. Once you build a profit line you are bound to turn to it. When we leave ourselves no choice but to work on only one thing, we can think of ways to improve our products so that we dont incur cost on giving out services, he adds.

But the journey hasnt been easy.

In 2006, Tally released a premature product Tally 8.1, which was one of the breakthrough products from the company.

It was multilingual in a sense that a system could seamlessly work in different languages being used by different employees of the same company.

It was a brilliant product in our minds, in the way it could work in different languages, the way keyboard sync was worked out, how information was disseminated, and so on, Goenka shares. But the product bombed. In a matter of months Tally had to come out with an upgrade - Tally 9.

Our judgement was that people will love it given the diverse nature of the country. But the damage was done. Tally 8.1 with all its marketing, rollout cost and so on, led us to negative cash flow, he adds.

This setback came close on the heels of its 2004-05 fiasco when the company slashed its product fee from Rs 22500 to Rs 5000 in order to increase volumes.

We were expecting to sell 10 times as much. But we sold just about twice as much, Goenka elaborates. It almost halved the companys revenue. Add to that some ridiculous amount of money that was put in sales and marketing, that pushed up expenses at the same time. It pushed the company to the brink of bankruptcy.

All we could do was put down our head, go back to the drawing table, and work it out. Failures are part of a journey. We had no other choice but to recover from those failures. If we had had multiple streams, we could have been at the peril of falling back on services. But we had no choice, Goenka nails his point.

His confidence is palpitating.

But what does Goenka feel about the growing competition from startups, cloud, and DIY IT infrastructure?

Its least of my worry because of India, essentially, isnt a DIY economy, he says.

There is nothing called brand loyalty. Users can be passionate about a brand but they will go where they get the best product. They might hope their favorite brand does it for them, but if not, they will move elsewhere. So it doesnt matter how many options consumers are presented with. Underlying point is, if we provide what the user wants, we will survive, he adds.

Tally Solutions is also looking at introducing the benefits of cloud infrastructure to its clients, but it would rather adopt a hybrid approach.

The company is currently developing a cloud-integrated product, which it plans to launch soon.

The aim now, Goenka says, is to reach 10 million customers. Tally has over 1.3 million business customers at present.

We got sidetracked by GST in last one year. It has taken the juice out of the company. We will resume working towards our targets now, Goenka signs off.
Shahina Mukadam, Independent Market Expert told CNBC-TV18, "Keep all of Chennai Petroleum and enjoy the New Year better. They reported phenomenal numbers for the quarter and I would expect that they would continue to do so."

She further added, "We have seen crude oil price also remaining steady and on an operational level they are operating at around, I think about 87 percent capacity. However, their throughput is improving year-by-year, so I think one should just continue holding."
Sandeep Wagle of powermywealth.com told CNBC-TV18, "Chennai Petroleum is definitely a hold. I would talk of a stoploss of Rs 350 and I would talk of a target of Rs 550-560 in the next 12-15 months."

At 14:52 hrs Chennai Petroleum Corporation was quoting at Rs 430.65, up Rs 11.00, or 2.62 percent.

The share touched its 52-week high Rs 477.10 and 52-week low Rs 252.10 on 31 October, 2017 and 27 December, 2016, respectively.

Currently, it is trading 9.74 percent below its 52-week high and 70.83 percent above its 52-week low.
live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

Global brokerage firm Deutsche Bank said Jubilant Foodworks remains its top pick in consumer discretionary space. The stock gained more than a percent intraday Wednesday.

The research house has maintained its Buy rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 2,000.

Consumer feedback is positive on recent extension of everyday value', Deutsche said while expecting national launch of Rs 99 price point in 2018 to enhance value-proposition positioning For Dominos.

Turnaround plans implemented are steps in the right direction, it said.

The food service company has a network of 1,126 Domino's Pizza restaurants across 264 cities (as of October 26, 2017). The company & its subsidiary have the exclusive rights to develop and operate Dominos Pizza brand in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. It also has exclusive rights for developing and operating Dunkin Donuts restaurants for India.

For the quarter ended September 2017, the company had reported a 9.2 percent growth year-on-year in operating revenues and profit grew by 124.7 percent to Rs 48.5 crore, driven by a 5.5 percent same-store-sales growth (against 4.2 percent in Q2FY17).

At 14:02 hours IST, the stock price was quoting at Rs 1,779.95, up Rs 17.20, or 0.98 percent on the BSE.
live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

Tata Steel fell over 1 percent intraday even as the company announced capacity expansion plans for the firm.

The board of Tata Steel decided to expand the capacity of Kalinganagar plant by 5 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) to 8 MTPA with an investment of Rs 23,500 crore.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Board of Directors where the company's long-term strategy including organic and inorganic growth opportunities were reviewed, Tata Steel said in a statement.

An amount of Rs 23,500 crore will be required for the project which the company aims at completing within 48 months from the date of commencement of construction, it said.

Brokerage: Jefferies | Rating: Underperform | Target: Rs 536

Jefferies said that spreads/steel prices could moderate & may lead to potential earnings downgrade. At, 7.4x FY19e EBITDA, risk reward appears negative.

Brokerage: CLSA | Rating: Buy | Target: Rs 880

The brokerage said that the move is justified given that it has large organic & inorganic opportunities in India. Further, its decision of 5 MTPA organic expansion in India is positive. The firm is turning aggressive in India where it has lagged in capacity expansions.

Brokerage: IDFC Sec | Rating: Outperform | Target: Rs 759

The companys fundraising is at 10% discount to CMP and it will lead to 20% equity dilution. Further, fundraising will help pursue inorganic growth without stretching balancesheet.

Brokerage: JPMorgan

The brokerage said that balancesheet flexibility critical to pursue opportunities. Further, rights issue implies dilution of 18.5% based on current price.

Brokerage: IDFC Securities | Rating: Outperform | Target: Rs 759

Fund raising at 10% discount to CMP to lead to equity dilution of 20%, it said, adding that buying distressed good steel assets will be a unique opportunity. Further, focus on growth opportunity in India to help in doubling capacity within next 5 years.
a raja 2g case 2g scam 2g spectrum case

The trial court on Thursday is set to give its verdict in the 2G Spectrum Allocation Scam.

The 2G Spectrum Scam involved issuing of 122 licenses of the 2G spectrum to 85 companies including many new telecom companies with inadequate experience in the sector. The allocation of the spectrum was made at a price set in year 2001.

The scam not only costed the Indian exchequer estimated USD 15.03 billion, but also impacted politics. The 2G Spectrum Scam, among others dented Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA)'s image at the Centre and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government in the state of Tamil Nadu, where one of the key accused A Raja hailed from.

LIVE: Follow the latest updates about 2G spectrum scam on our live blog

The scam was believed to have costed around USD 15.03 billion to the Indian exchequer.

Impact on Tamil Nadu politics

While price rise and nepotism in politics were major issues, one of the biggest poll issues was the 2G Spectrum scam. The telecom minister accused in the scandal was DMK's A Raja.

A Raja was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in relation to the case. Rajya Sabha member and then Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's daughter was also chargesheeted by the CBI few days before the state went for voting.

Political pundits said that the five years of DMK rule in the state and as part of the ruling coalition in the Centre, unduly helped members of the DMK's ruling family members business and politics.

The opposition parties including J Jayalalithaa's All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) repeatedly characterised the DMK rule as a dark era in the state's history and said that the 2G Scam had shamed the people of the state.

Following DMK's loss, Congress leader Jayanthi Natarajan admitted that 2G spectrum scam played a major role in the DMK-Congress alliance's defeat. However, she re-iterated that they had done everything they could to take action against individuals responsible for corruption.

Allegations that cracked the Centre

According to political pundits, multiple corruption cases had eroded the UPA regime's image.

A year before the 2014 General Election polls, the DMK abruptly quit the UPA before the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) vote against Sri Lanka, citing that Congress' stand would not help Sri Lankan Tamils' cause.

However, experts suggest the withdrawal was actually the result of fractures caused by A Raja's arrest by CBI, two years ago.

The opposition, including Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s 'star campaigner' Narendra Modi highlighted corruption allegations levelled against Congress and its allies during the 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign.
Supporters of Congress party are framed by the party's symbols installed at the venue where Rahul Gandhi is addressing a rally at Bardoli

The Bharatiya Janata Party, which had a vice-like grip over voters in Gujarat for many years, has suffered a mini-jolt of sorts as the Congress has significantly raised its vote-share in the state in the recently concluded Assembly elections.

The Congress vote share in Gujarat has steadily increased from 32.8 percent in 1995 to 41.4 percent. No wonder, the party considers this as a figurative win.

The grand old party, after staying out of power in the state for a long time, improved its tally in the state by winning 77 seats this Assembly elections, compared to 61 in 2012. Meanwhile, BJP secured 99 seatsfar away from its expected 150-seat markand hitting its lowest tally since 1995 when it won 121 out of 182 Assembly seats.

While the BJP has recorded a net loss of 16 seats from 2012 when it had won 115 seats, Congresss seat gain is largely due to the swing in the vast rural regions of Saurashtra.

Although the number of rural-urban constituencies vary from source to source, as per a Times of India report BJP won 55 of 73 urban seatsa strike rate of over 75 percent. But, the Congress bagged 62 of the 109 seats that are predominantly rural.

According to Congress spokesperson Manish Joshi, Congress failed in getting votes in urban regions while Prime Minister Narendra Modis communal polarisation tactics also fetched support for the saffron party. Our organisation is weak in urban areas. We will have to work on it, said Joshi.

Margins and vote optimisation

Even with a decreased tally compared to 2012, BJP has increased its vote share in the state by 1.3 percentage points to 49.1 percent. It won by big margin in the urban areas but the margin was not helpful in reality with lack of optimisation of its vote share.

BJP won Vadodara City with a margin of more than 52,000 votes and also added over 12,000 votes this year. In Vadodaras Savli, Surats Choryasi and Ahmedabads Asarwa BJP won with a whopping margin of over 40,000 votes; all these districts are dominantly urbanized and BJPs mainstay.

The Congress meanwhile managed a number of narrow wins in the rural and semi-urban regions.

BJP won a swathe of seats by more than 20,000 vote margin in Dharampur, Rajkot South, Amraiwadi, Ankleshwar, Bardoli, Bharuch, Bhavnagar (East, West, and Rural), Sabarmati and so on.

On the other hand, Congress won several seats such as Anand, Junagadh, Dasada, Vav, Nandod, Morbi, Bapunagar, Bayad, Daskroi with an average margin of 6,000 votes. It even won over a dozen seats with an average of 1,000 votes in places like Chhota Udaipur, Morbi,, Chanasma, and Dangs,

While the BJP has conquered urban areas as it traditionally does, the Congress has also made inroads in the Ahmedabad district where its share has increased from two in 2012 to six seats now. The party also got two seats in Vadodara where it drew a blank last time.

Patidar factor

Although backing from Patidar leader Hardik Patel did not help Congress much in Patidar strongholds in North Gujarat such as Mehsana, Congress did gain some seats due to split in Patidar votes and support from OBC communities owing to its ally Alpesh Thakor. For example, Congress and its allies won six out of nine constituencies in Banaskantha district.

The Patidar factor also contributed, along with the major farmer distress, to the Saurashtra win for the grand old party. However Hardiks call did not work for majority of patidar voters and in places like Surat, where the Patidar leader has campaigned extensively, BJP reigned in all seats.

There were reasons for people to believe Patidar votes could actually swing the election and bring Congress to power. The Patidar quota agitation, which started in 2015 July, influenced the outcome of local body elections that year under Chief Minister Anandiben Patel. BJP lost a number of District Panchayats and Taluka Panchayats to Congress.

A comparison of local body elections of 2010 and 2015 in Gujarat.

While BJP held sway in the 56 municipalities and six municipal corporations, its vote share fell from 47.8 percent to 44.7 percent and 51.7 percent to 50.1 percent respectively. On the other hand, the Congress improved its vote-share from 29.6 percent to 39.6 percent (Municipalities) and 33 percent to 41.12 percent (Municipal corporations).

However, the large gatherings at Hardik's rallies against BJP and in support of Congress did not translate into votes. According to political experts, while Congress could not garner much faith in the community aspiring to get reservation, Hardik belonging to a minor sub-caste of Kadwa Patels also worked against the Congress.

Other factors also helped keep BJP in power. For instance, in Surat, disgruntled traders went back to the BJP fold due to the Centre's hurried policy reforms to smooth out hurdles resulting from GST implementation. In Porbandar, troubled fishermen moved away from BJP to Mayawati's BSP by a significant number but the party won with a narrow margin of 1,855 votes.
India Economy

India's ties with the America and Israel are prospering because there is a commonality in the belief of human values and a desire for peace around the world, Indian Ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna has said.

Indian Jewish diaspora is an important part of the Indian-American diaspora, Sarna said on the occasion of Hanukkah celebrations at the Indian Embassy here.

"Both (India-US and India-Israel) relationships, which in many ways draw strength from the other are today prospering like they have never done before," Sarna said.

"They (the two relationships) are prospering because there is a commonality in the belief of human values, in democracy in the rule of law and in the desire for peace around the world," said the Indian Ambassador at the celebrations attended by members of the Indian American Jewish community, members of the diplomatic corps and eminent Jews.

"I think that the Indian Jewish diaspora in the United States is an important part of the overall Indian diaspora, which is going to be three million strong," he said, adding that Jewishness has been playing an important role in American industry or American politics or American media.

At the same time, there is the Indian Jewish diaspora in Israel which is about 80,000-strong.

"It is this people-to-people underpinning which is a very very crucial aspect of India-US relations and India-Israel relations," Sarna said.

"This year we have a lot to celebrate. We have to celebrate the 25 years of diplomatic relations between Israel and India. We have to celebrate a very successful visit of the prime minister of India to the United States and the first ever visit by the prime minister of India to Israel.

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to visit India next month.

Addressing the gathering, Congressman Brad Schneider, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the bond of the communities in the three nations is really extraordinary.

The Deputy Israeli Ambassador to the US Reuven Azar also spoke on the occasion.

"We never had any record of anti-Semitism in India. This is another sign, another reason why there is admiration in Israel for the Indian people in general and for this relationship in particular," he said.

Hanukkah is the Jewish eight-day, wintertime "festival of lights," celebrated with a nightly menorah lighting, special prayers and fried foods.
A Jet Airways passenger plane takes off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad

A consumer court has directed Jet Airways to pay a compensation of Rs 50,000 to a passenger who discovered a button in the in-flight meal.

The incident that led to the court order occurred in 2014 on a New Delhi- Ahmedabad flight. According to a report in Times of India, Surat native Hemant Desai was travelling business class when he discovered a button in the garlic bread he got as part of his in-flight lunch.

He notified the cabin crew and later sued the airline for Rs 3 lakh. His claim was bolstered by an affidavit filed by MP Parimal Nathwani who happened to be travelling on the same flight.

The company tried to settle the case out of the court, but later rejected the claim when they appeared before the Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum, Ahmedabad (rural) by stating that the button was not in the food they had supplied. Adding that the passenger did not show the button to the crew or cooperate with the carrier, they also claimed that the button could not have caused any harm to the passenger.

However, the court finally ruled in favour of the passenger stating that the entire incident, along with the fact that the crew did not provide the passenger with a complaint book, showed deficiency in service and constituted an unfair trade practice.

Adding that the lack of quality in Jet's service even after charging higher rates from business class passengers made it evident that the carrier was only interested in earning more money, the court ordered the airline to pay Rs 50,000 for the pain and agony. It was also ordered to pay an additional Rs 5,000 to reimburse the passengers for his legal expenses.

We respect the order passed by the Honble Consumer Court and have accordingly, complied with the same. We have no further comments to add, Jet Airways told Moneycontrol.
vidhana saudha bengaluru, twitter

A group of Kashmiri youth was allegedly physically assaulted in Bengaluru by another group for their inability to speak the native Kannada language. Tensions have been on the rise in the state due to emergence of fringe groups asserting regional identity.

As per a report in the Times Now, the incident took place on December 11 within the limits of Sanjay Nagar police station. The youths claimed they were assaulted by a gang of pro-Kannada activists who were drunk. The assault happened after the Kashmiri youths failed to respond to questions that were asked in Kannada.



Very disturbed by the news of 2 brothers from Kashmir being assaulted in Bengaluru. I would urge the authorities to take strict action against the accused.

 Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) December 19, 2017

The assaulted youths immediately called the police for help soon after the attack occurred. The police responded immediately and even managed to arrest two of the assaulters identified as Harish and Mahesh, the report said. They are also in search for the remaining members who were part of the gang.

Mehbooba Mufti, the Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir asked authorities to take strict action against the accused via a tweet.

Karnataka has been witnessing a surge in activities and campaigns by pro-Kannada groups and movements.

The groups, besides demanding reservation in jobs for Kannada speakers have also been in the forefront of several attacks that targeted non-Kannada speaking population in the tech hub. And with elections around the corner even authorities are bowing down to the demands of these fringe elements.

The recent instruction by the state authorities to remove Hindi sign boards from Bengaluru metro stations was seen by many as a strategy to appease these elements.
The Maharashtra government is considering a proposal requesting it to hold the monsoon session of the legislature in Nagpur, the second capital of the state, instead of Mumbai which is the norm.

As per a convention, the winter session of the state legislature is held in Nagpur, located over 800 kms away from the state Capital.

Maharashtra Parliamentary Affairs Minister Girish Bapat said the government has received a proposal requesting shifting the monsoon session to Nagpur and is "keen on implementing it".

"The state government has received a proposal from some legislatures to hold monsoon session in Nagpur. The monsoon session generally lasts for a month. It (holding the session in Nagpur) will help many legislatures from Vidarbha region to raise and discuss their issues. We are keen on implementing it (the proposal)," Bapat told reporters outside Assembly in Nagpur today.

The winter session of the state legislature is currently underway in Nagpur.

"The next session (of the legislature) is scheduled to be held in Mumbai, where we will discuss the possibility of holding the monsoon session in Nagpur," Bapat said.

After Maharashtra was formed from the division of the Bombay State in 1960, it was decided to hold every winter session in Nagpur where most of the issues are expected to be regarding Vidarbha region.

"Generally, the period of monsoon session is not more than two weeks. If monsoon session is held in Nagpur, more issues related to Vidarbha could be discussed," the minister said.
India's IT industry association NASSCOM on Wednesday signed an agreement with China's top internet hub to co-develop a collaborative technology platform which is expected to provide a major opening for Indian IT-SMEs.

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) and Dalian Municipal People's Government signed a joint investment agreement in Dalian to co-develop a collaborative technology platform called the Sino-Indian Digital Collaboration Plaza (SIDCOP.)

Top Indian IT firms have big presence in China servicing multinationals and the IT corridor at Dalian will provide a gateway to the Indian IT-SMEs, Gagan Sabharwal, Senior Director, NASSCOM who signed the MOU told PTI from Dalian.

IT firms from India and China can come forward and co- develop global markets leveraging their respective strengths in hardware and software, he said.

Though India is widely regarded as ahead of China in software development, top Indian IT firms struggled to gain access to Chinese commercial IT market prompting New Delhi to press Beijing to open-up the vital sector for Indian firms to bridge over USD 50 billion bilateral trade deficit.

NASSCOM hopes that if successful, the Dalian experience can be replicated at various other Chinese provinces which are setting big data centres to attract investors.

Powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IOT), the co-created Dalian platform will operate in both online and offline modes to enable matchmaking between the two ecosystems to leverage each other's strengths in technology, Sabharwal said.

China is currently investing big in AI as it seeks to end its dependency on manufacturing and enlarge its presence in IOT. Top Chinese firms like Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu are investing heavily in AI technologies. Alibaba has announced plans to invest about USD 15 billion in AI-related technologies in the next three years.

Dalian, a bustling port city and major industrial hub with presence of top Chinese and multinational firms, could provide a big platform for Indian IT-SMEs, Sabharwal said.

"In this digital era of convergence, hardware and software lines are merging because consumers today demand solutions that are IOT ready. And through this partnership for cooperation that we have formed with the government of Dalian will help us create a platform for firms in both the countries to collaborate, he said.

The agreement provides tax concessions as well as number of other logistical benefits like access to banks, school admissions for wards of workers in Indian SME firms.

"The arrangement that we have carved out with the BEST city will serve as a launch-pad for the Indian companies to partner with Chinese enterprises and get entry into large Chinese market. We are committed to creating an ecosystem here with help from government of Dalian that will make Chinese market an attractive proposition for the Indian companies and this joint initiative of setting up of this collaborative platform is a step in that direction," he said.

Sun, an official at the Dalian Best City Administrative Committee said, "We at Dalian BEST City are delighted to reach this understanding with Indias NASSCOM for developing the NASSCOM IT Corridor. We strongly believe this is the innovative step in enhancing and mutually benefiting Chinese and Indian companies in software and services sector."

Earlier this year, an MOU was signed between NASSCOM and the Dalian government to promote IOT collaboration between Chinese and Indian IT companies. Pursuant to this, subsequent discussions at a local level converged on the idea of setting up the first NASSCOM IT corridor within Dalian BEST City to promote IoT and AI cooperation between the two nations.

This dedicated IT park will be an exclusive place for interested Indian IT providers of all sizes to begin operations and avail special policy benefits and incentives provided by Dalian BEST City administration, a NASSCOM press release said.

NASSCOM and the Dalian government agreed to set up collaborative platform that could work online and offline mode to help establish partnerships for Indian and Chinese companies.

Zeta-V Technology Solutions Ltd, an Indian start-up with a local presence in Dalian will be deployed as the operator of the SIDCOP platform.
On Thursday, a special CBI court in Delhi will announce its verdict on the Spectrum 2G case, ending nearly 6 years of wait for a closure. The court's decision will also be a judgement on the then telecom minister A Raja, DMKs Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi.

The CBI, led by Vinod Rai, had filed its first charge sheet in 2010 in a case relating to the inconsistencies in issuing licences and allocating 2G spectrum.

A Raja, former Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura, and 15 others were involved in this scam.

The Telecom Ministry has been blamed for changing the rules and the eligibility criteria multiple times before the auction, as the cut-off date for the auction was decided by the ministry.

The licences have been believed to be issued on a First Come First Served (FCFS) Policy, which was not clearly defined. Adding to this, it was sold at 2001 prices, and the not 2008 prices, which was the current year at that time.

The report revealed that the 2G spectrum licences had been issued to telcos at underestimated prices which led to a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the government.

It is believed that Swan Telecom, among the nine companies which were involved in the bidding process, did not meet the eligibility criteria and got the licence for Rs 1537 crore. The nine companies paid DoT only Rs 10,772 crore for 2G licences.

Also, it pointed that the licences were issued to ineligible applicants. The facts, it said, were not disclosed; false documents were submitted and fraudulent means were used to get licences.

The report also said that the licence owners, in turn, sold a major share of their stakes to Indian or foreign firms at a high premium within a short period of time.

The premium earned by these new operators to the telecom sector was actually stated to be 2G's accurate value.

If the gaps did not exist, these profits could have been earned by the government.
Congress

Two days after the Gujarat assembly poll results, the Congress today began an exercise to analyse the electoral outcome at a three-day conclave that will be attended by party president Rahul Gandhi on Friday.

During the 'chintan shivir' (introspection camp), the Congress leaders and workers will analyse the election results district-wise and discuss the road-map ahead in view of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, state party president Bharatsinh Solanki said here. In the elections, the results for which were declared on Monday, the Congress could not wrest power from the BJP even though its tally increased to 77 seats from 61 last time.

The Congress ally Bharatiya Tribal Party won two seats, and along with an independent backed by it winning his seat, the tally of the Congress-led alliance stood at 80, 12 short of the simple majority in the 182-member assembly.

The BJP retained power for the sixth time, though with a reduced score of 99 seats against 115 in 2012. The Congress performed well in rural areas of Gujarat but failed to make a significant mark in the urban pockets. The venue of the conclave today and tomorrow is a resort in Mehsana district and on the third and final day, the venue will shift to Ahmedabad where Gandhi will be present, Solanki said.

Gandhi, who campaigned extensively in the state for the assembly elections, will address the Congress workers on Friday.

"The Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee has organised the 'chintan shivir' with the aim of discussing the Assembly poll results and to provide a road-map to strengthen the organisation and increase its connect with the people, keeping in mind the 2019 Lok Sabha elections," Solanki told reporters.

"For two days, we will meet here in Mehsana, and on third day, we will meet in Ahmedabad where Congress president Rahul Gandhi will visit to address party workers," he said. Congress general secretary and election in-charge for Gujarat, Ashok Gehlot, expressed satisfaction over the party's performance in the polls, while accusing the BJP of "misusing government machinery" and raising questions over the approach of the Election Commission.

"Both in terms of seats and campaigning, the Congress performed wonderfully well. Although we could not form the government, a message has been sent across that the BJP can have a tough time fighting the Congress even in the home state of (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi and (BJP president) Amit Shah," said Gehlot, who is also attending the camp.

"The way the BJP campaigned involving cabinet ministers with the prime minister himself making emotional appeals, the way they misused government machinery for polls, and the manner the Election Commission took decisions, we believe we have done exceedingly well," he said.

Senior Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil, who lost from Mandvi in Kutch district, said the party could have formed government had it won 16 seats on which it got defeated by narrow margins. However, he took solace in the fact that the BJP was reduced to "double-digits" despite an aggressive campaigning. "At one point after forming the government in 1985, the Congress was reduced to a mere 32 seats.

This time people have supported Congress in large numbers and we have increased our seat tally," he said. "And after 1990, for the first time the BJP has been reduced to double-digits. We were defeated by small margins on as many as 16 seats. Had we won those seats, we could have formed the government," Gohil said.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the results of Assembly elections in neighbouring Gujarat had made his own government stronger.

"Those who were jumping (with excitement) before poll results had to fall flat. The results have made us stronger and more stable," said Fadnavis, in an apparent jibe at those who predicted a Congress victory, as well as at the BJP's disgruntled ally Shiv Sena. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of ongoing winter session of Maharashtra legislature, Fadnavis said the results showed that voters didn't trust the opposition.

"We may have won fewer seats than last time, but we have got almost 50 per cent of the votes. It clearly shows that people stood strongly with us. Even in Maharashtra, people are voting for us and for (Shiv) Sena at some places. They don't want the Congress and NCP," he said.

Fadnavis also sought to dismiss the notion that the BJP doesn't enjoy much support in rural areas.

"There is nothing called rural distress. Even in Maharashtra, the opposition-organised farmers' rally was much smaller than our (BJP-organised) farmers' rally of 2013," he said.

Asked when senior BJP leader Eknath Khadse, who is apparently peeved as he has been sidelined following his resignation over corruption allegations, would return to the cabinet, Fadnavis said, "Khadse hasn't been isolated, he is a top leader in the party. He, or Narayan Rane (who recently quit the Congress to form his own party) may be outspoken, but they are experienced politicians. I think that it is more important.

"Rane has joined the NDA and now he will be well taken care of," Fadnavis said, adding that Rane's inclusion in the cabinet will not be from the Shiv Sena's quota and hence any question of Sena being unhappy about it does not arise.

Rane, a former Sena leader, is a fierce critic of the Thackeray family, and the Sena is reportedly opposed to his inclusion in the cabinet.

On a planned oil refinery in Konkan region, which is facing a stiff opposition from locals as well as the Shiv Sena, Fadnavis said some "commercial NGOs" coming from as far as Chennai were behind this opposition.

"Chembur (in Mumbai) has a refinery for years. Did anyone die there? These claims (about adverse effects on environment) are made due to the lack of knowledge," he said.

"These days even an agitation has become a business. Why these commercial NGOs are making noise in the areas with which they have no association?" he asked, claiming the project may generate one lakh jobs and would probably be the biggest green oil refinery in the world.
New Delhi: A view of Parliament in New Delhi on Sunday, a day ahead of the monsoon session. PTI Photo by Kamal Singh (PTI7_16_2017_000213B)

The Congress today forced the adjournment of the Lok Sabha's pre-lunch proceedings demanding an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his comments against former premier Manmohan Singh.

The House was first adjourned till noon minutes after it had assembled for the day, the second adjournment till 2 PM came soon after the listed papers were laid. The Prime Minister was present in the House when it was adjourned for the first time.

As soon as the House met at noon after the first adjournment to take up the Zero Hour, Congress members stormed the Well raising slogans and asking Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to allow their leader Mallikarjun Kharge to speak.

Unmoved by the pleas, the Speaker asked BJD leader Bhartruhari Mahtab to speak on the issue of formation of a tribunal to settle the Mahanadi water sharing dispute.

As Mahtab started speaking, the Congress protests continued, though on a low key. But as soon as BJP MP Poonam Mahajan started speaking, the slogan-shouting by the Congress members intensified.

"What is happening? Why I am not being allowed to speak," Kharge was heard asking.

Kharge's colleague K C Venugopal said Kharge should be allowed to speak "that is his right". Another Congress MP Sushmita Dev shouted "We want Zero Hour".

When Poonam Mahajan tried to raise the statement of a former MP who had allegedly said in a talk show in Pakistan that Modi should be removed as the Prime Minister and another statement of an opposition leader that PoK belongs to Pakistan, the Congress MPs protested strongly and raised vociferous slogans.

As the turmoil continued, the Speaker adjourned the House for about 40 minutes till 2 PM.

Earlier as soon as the Speaker took up the Question Hour, Congress leaders raised the issue of the remarks made by Modi against Singh during the Gujarat election campaign.

Modi was present in the House at that time as questions related to the Prime Minister's Office are listed on Wednesdays.

The Congress has been raising the issue since Monday and demanding an apology from the Prime Minister for his remarks during the poll campaign.
Ashok Leyland

live bse live

nse live Volume Todays L/H More 

Chennai-based truck and bus manufacturer Ashok Leyland said it is steadily progressing on plans to have satellite plants outside India in a bid to generate one-third of its revenue from outside of the country.

Keeping in mind the rising competition at home from a growing number of players including heavyweights like Daimler, MAN and Volvo the company is hedging its future by entering markets similar to India.

Earlier this year Ashok Leyland opened an assembly plant in Dhaka, Bangladesh which has a capacity to make 9600 trucks and buses every year. It also has a plant in Ras al-Khaimah, in the United Arab Emirates.

Anuj Khaturia, President (global trucks), Ashok Leyland, said, The Bangladesh plant is up and running; it started in January this year. The others are subject to decisions, we are progressing on them but the environment and economy of certain countries are fluid so we have to do course correction accordingly. We are working on them and in due course we will be having plants which will come up in various countries.

While the immediate focus for the company is the African continent for later years Ashok Leyland could look at Latin America and ASEAN markets.

We have the RAK plant doing very well, Bangladesh plant has started and we have a small operation in Sri Lanka also. Going forward we will be seeing some satellite plants in Africa, especially East Africa and West Africa, added Khaturia.

Such assembly plants, which could be completely or semi knocked down (CKD/SKD) plants, will put together vehicle parts shipped from Ashok Leyland's India-based plants the investment required will not be huge.

For instance the investment for the Bangladesh plant was around USD 5 million. The one planned for Kenya, where a bus plant is envisaged, could be of similar nature.

Through this international expansion the company is targeting a minimum of one-third of the revenues to come from outside India in the near future from the current 10 percent.

Our long stated vision is that we would like to have one-third of sales coming from outside of India," added Khaturia.

Ashok Leyland, which exports to 30 countries, is the market leader in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Mauritius and has a significant presence in Middle East and Africa. It already has a plant in UAE whose capacity is being raised by 50 percent to 6,000 units a year.

In comparison commercial vehicle market leader Tata Motors has plants in South Africa, Thailand, South Korea, Morocco and Ukraine. The Mumbai-based company is exploring possibilities of opening assembly plants in Africa and Asia.

Mumbai-based Mahindra & Mahindra is also looking to have a second base outside India. The manufacturer of trucks, utility vehicles and two-wheelers, already has assembly plants in Tunisia and Bangladesh.
North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un is seen during the inspection of a potato flour factory in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang. (Reuters)

Canada and the United States announced they will host a summit of foreign ministers in Vancouver on January 16, including envoys from Japan and South Korea, to seek progress on the North Korean nuclear crisis.

"We believe a diplomatic solution to the crisis is essential and possible," Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told a joint press conference with visiting US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Tillerson said the meeting would seek to further increase pressure on North Korea to come to the table to negotiate an end to its nuclear program.

This could include "other steps that could be taken to put additional pressure on the regime in North Korea," as well as preparing for the prospects of talks, he said.

"We (will) continue to find ways to advance the pressure campaign against North Korea," Tillerson said, "to send North Korea a unified message from the international community that we will not accept you as... a nuclear weapons nation, and that all of us share one policy and one goal -- the full complete verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula."

"It's all intended to lead to talks. Otherwise we wouldn't need to do this. We would just go straight to the military option," he said.

"The White House supports diplomatic talks," Tillerson added, dismissing suggestions of a rift between US President Donald Trump and his chief diplomatic.

The so-called Vancouver Group will also include Australia, Belgium, Britain, Colombia, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Turkey.

Throughout the afternoon, Tillerson and Freeland also discussed Canada-US border security, North American defense, energy and environmental cooperation, and the ongoing renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which binds the two countries with Mexico to form the world's second-largest trading bloc after the EU.

They discussed the plight of the Rohingya in Myanmar and "the potential for a peacekeeping mission" in Ukraine.

Freeland will travel to Ukraine to meet with government officials today.

As well, said Freeland, she and Tillerson considered "the crisis in Venezuela and what actions we can take individually, together and in cooperation with the Lima group... to address the deteriorating political, economic and humanitarian situation there."

Canada hosted foreign ministers of 12 countries of the Americas in October to try to find ways to cool the fierce power struggle that had been raging for months between President Nicolas Maduro's left-wing nationalist government and the center-right opposition.

Later yesterday, Tillerson was to meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau before heading back to Washington.
Jarrett Coleman goes from school board to statehouse with win in 16th Senate District race
State officials announce $2.85M for new police station in Upper Moreland
HILDEBRAN  A new business soon will be tossing dough for the folks of Hildebran and the surrounding area.

Franky Ts Pizzeria soon will be opening in a former Dominos location at 701 U.S. Highway 70 W in the town, close to Hildebran Elementary School. The grand opening for the new restaurant is scheduled for Friday, Jan. 5.

Hildebran will be the second location for Franky Ts, which also operates a location in Gastonia. Tom Moore, the companys president, said hes excited to expand the business into eastern Burke County.

Through a friend who bought a truck, I found a property up here in Hildebran right at the corner of 1st (Street Southwest) and U.S. Highway 70 (West), Moore said. We decided to go ahead and move forward. Were a full-service restaurant. We have seating for approximately 40 people.

We do carry-out, dine-in and delivery. All of our recipes are authentic Sicilian recipes. Were a New York-style pizzeria, but we also have pastas, salads and hoagies. Im very well-known for my cheesesteaks that we put out in the Gaston County area.

Moore said his Gastonia location was nominated for six Best of Gaston County food awards this year. His pizza menu includes toppings like pepperoni, black olives, green olives, ham, jalapenos, green peppers, mushrooms, bacon, onions, banana peppers, pineapple, fresh tomatoes, Italian sausage, beef, fresh garlic with olive oil, marinated tomatoes and hot cherry peppers. Specialty toppings include grilled chicken, ricotta cheese, Philly steak, sliced meatballs and salami.

The restaurant is family-owned and all its menu items are homemade, Moore said. He doesnt use pre-packaged or frozen ingredients and his dough is made fresh daily and the sandwich bread is baked onsite.

Franky Ts will fit in well with Hildebran and fill a niche in the area, Moore said. He said he already has received positive feedback on the restaurants arrival.

A lot of the local people Ive met over the past several months Ive been up here while theyre constructing have said to me that there is a big need for more diversity in the foods that they have, Moore said. I just put the phones on last week and Ive already had 150 calls from various customers asking if were open yet.

Moore, who lives in Dallas in Gaston County, said the grand opening will include a celebration with some special offers that day.

He said he wasnt necessarily looking at a smaller town when he decided to expand his business. He wanted to look at the entire area when making his choice. Moore said he hopes to not only serve Hildebran, but cater to about 8,000 to 10,000 customers there and in Connelly Springs, Icard, Granite Falls, Long View and west Hickory when his store opens. He plans to have a delivery range of 5-7 miles initially.

Moore has hired four people so far and plans to hire four more. He said he needs another delivery driver and three more cooks. Those who are interested in working at Franky Ts should go to frankytpizzeria.com, choose the Hildebran location and choose the employment tab where they can fill out and submit an online application.

In terms of community outreach, Moore said he already has spoken with the administration at the school. Franky Ts will sponsor a monthly citizenship award where the winner will be entitled to a free personal pizza.

For more information about Franky Ts Pizzeria, including a full menu, visit frankytpizzeria.com.

Justin Epley can be reached at jepley@morganton.com or 828-432-8943.
Lady Gaga will join the list of superstars with regularly scheduled shows in Las Vegas in 2018, when she kicks off a two-year residency in December.

Gaga in a statement Tuesday says it has been her "lifelong dream" to perform in Las Vegas. She says she is humbled to be joining a historical lineup of performers that include Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley.


U.S. federal investigators say a train that derailed Monday in the northwestern U.S. state of Washington was traveling at 129 km per hour on a stretch of track where the speed limit was 48 km per hour. The train went off the tracks on a curve south of Seattle, sending some of its cars onto a busy interstate highway below and killing at least three passengers.

National Transportation Safety Board member Bella Dinh-Zarr told reporters that investigators have examined an event data recorder recovered from one of two locomotives on the train, which was making its first-ever run along a faster new route.

Dinh-Zarr said the NTSB team will really begin its work at the crash site on Tuesday, and that investigators will be interviewing crew members to determine what went wrong and why.

"It's a very complicated accident," she said. Typically NTSB teams are on-site for seven to 10 days before analyzing the information they gather and issuing a report on the findings. In addition to those killed, local officials said more than 100 others were injured.

Washington State Patrol spokeswoman Brooke Bova said five vehicles, plus two semi-trailer trucks, were hit by the derailed train cars. Some motorists were injured but none died, according to authorities. "It's pretty horrific," Pierce County Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer told reporters.

Amtrak said 80 passengers and five crew members were on board the Cascades train 501, part of a newly expanded service between Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon.

Herb Krohn, Washington state legislative director for the former United Transportation Union Sheet Metal Air Rail Transportation union that represents workers there, said the new train route opened after several years of work and cut about 15 minutes off the ride time from Seattle to Portland. He expressed concern for the families of the passengers and crew and said the NTSB will look at "absolutely every factor" during its probe.

"It's a very thorough collaborative process between the federal government and the railroad carriers and railroad labor and they do a really good job at trying to piece these things together and come out with a determination as to the causes as well as possible contributing factors," Krohn said.

He cautioned against jumping to conclusions until there is "credible evidence as to what happened and how we can make sure it doesn't happen again."
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.
Nearly two-thirds of Americans have a favorable view of the U.S. economy, according to a new poll, even as they give President Donald Trump negative reviews for his handling of the world's largest economy and an array of other issues.

In its latest poll, Quinnipiac University said 63 percent of voters consider the U.S. economy to be "excellent" or "good," while 34 percent say it is "not so good" or "poor."

Three-fourths of voters described their own financial situation as "excellent" or "good," while a quarter had a negative view of their personal financial situation.

The pollster said voters, by a 51 to 44 percent margin, disapprove of Trump's handling of the economy. By a narrow margin, 45 to 43 percent, voters say that former President Barack Obama deserves more credit than Trump for the favorable state of the U.S. economy. The current 4.1 percent jobless rate is at a 17-year low and stock market indexes are at all-time highs.


The Texas Education Agencys selection of Midland ISD to be part of a program to develop its own local academic accountability system is line with the things happening inside the district, according to Elise Kail, the districts executive director of Accountability and Data Systems.

She said the TEAs decision fits with what the district is doing with its Midland on the Move. This calls for innovative thinking to enable more students sitting in more seats in better schools, according to the districts website.

Last week, TEA Commissioner Mike Morath announced Midland ISD was one of 20 schools selected to participate in the program during the 2017-18 academic year.

The program, according to the TEA, was established by House Bill 22 during the legislative session earlier this year. The local accountability system program allows an independent school district or public school charter to develop plans locally that evaluate its campuses.

Participating districts will be required to attend four monthly meetings hosted by TEA in the spring of 2018 as part of the local plan development, according to the agency. Once a plan receives TEA approval, districts and charter schools may use locally developed domains and indicators in conjunction with the three state-mandated domains to assign overall A-F ratings for each of its campuses.

Approved local accountability systems will be available for use beginning with the 20182019 school year.

Kail said this works well for MISD because the districts recent initiatives have led officials to look beyond test scores and toward getting students college- or career-ready.

She also is excited Midland ISD has a voice on how this is created. MISDs participation in the pilot program is another opportunity for the district to work with the TEA on academic improvement and assessment efforts.

At the end of 2016, TEA officials worked with board and staff members to help the district put together its Lone Star Governance Report. Earlier this year, the TEA also selected Midland as one of eight districts that would make up the first cohort of districts in Texas to become part of the agencys new SGS Technical Assistance Network. It is a two-year program designed to support districts in their exploration, design and implementation of the SGS strategy in their district.

We have a lot going on that is positive and trending up, Kail said.

Kail said there will be advantages to relying on more than just the STAAR scores for only 50 percent of a campus rating. For example, some campuses can use data related to AP and dual-credit courses and surveys as components to measure the climate of the campus.

It will help us create a scorecard for campuses, Kail said. We can see how campuses are performing in certain areas.

The 19 other participants in the 2017-18 pilot are: Alief, Austin, Bullard, Canadian, Clear Creek, Dallas, El Paso, Humble, Jonesboro, Lyford, Point Isabel, San Saba, Sharyland, Snyder, Spring Branch, Sunnyvale and Waco ISDs, Premier High School campuses and Richland Collegiate High School.
Police on Tuesday raided the hospital where four newborn babies died within 80 minutes of each other last Saturday.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency sent investigators to Ewha Womans University Medical Center to collect evidence including incubators, medical tools and medical records as they try to find out what happened.
Former presidential chief of staff Kim Ki-choon made a tearful plea during his appeals court sentencing hearing on Tuesday.

Kim (78), an ancient retainer to the Park family, appealed to the court's sentiment by referring to his eldest son, who has been in a coma since a car accident.

He was sentenced to three years behind bars by a lower court for compiling a blacklist of "hostile" artists and other public figures with a view to sabotaging them in various ways.

"My last hope is to hold the hands of my aged wife and my 53-year-old son, who has been lying on a hospital bed in a coma for the last four years, and to thank them for putting up with a husband and father with so many shortcomings," Kim told the court as he failed to hold back tears.
Chinese scientist Pan Jianwei impresses the world

By:Wu Qiong | From:english.eastday.com | 2017-12-20 08:50

Thanks to his contribution to Chinas quantum science, Pan Jianwei has become a star scientist all over the country. Now the professor is getting the attention of the whole world, as he is included in Natures 10, the annual list of ten people who mattered in science in the past year.



As Chinas quantum space pioneer, Pan has helped China to the forefront of long-distance, ultra-secure quantum communications. Pan returned to China in 2008 after finishing his overseas studies in Europe. Since then, he has devoted himself to scientific research on quantum science and technology.



In July, 2017, he and his team at the University of Science and Technology of China set a record in quantum teleportation. They beamed the quantum state of a photon to another on an orbiting satellite 1,400 kilometers above, which is a record-breaking distance. In September, they used the satellite to beam photons to Beijing and Vienna, generating quantum encryption keys that allowed teams in the two cities to video chat with absolute security.



As Christopher Monroe, a physicist with the Joint Quantum Institute at the University of Maryland, points out, he is always impressed each time China makes progress in quantum science.

For the time being, Pan and his team plan to launch a second quantum satellite and carry out a new space quantum experiment in Chinas Tiangong-2 space lab. In the next five years, we will see lots of inspiring achievements. That will be a new era, says Pan.


A 73-year-old Orlando man who was walking his dog on Wednesday was killed after a garbage truck backed into him, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

James Lear was killed while walking dog

Lear's dog is receiving care

The crash is under investigation

The incident happened on Prestbury Drive and Kelsall Drive in Orlando around 7 a.m. James Lear was walking his dog along Prestbury Drive when 42-year-old Walner Jean Philippe of Orlando backed up the garbage truck he was driving into Lear and his dog, stated the FHP.

Lear was taken to Florida East Hospital, where he died, and his dog is receiving care at a vet, according to the FHP.

The crash is under investigation and charges are pending, stated the FHP.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Less than a month before his sudden death last week, then-Mayor Ed Lee made an ambitious pledge to bring 1,000 homeless people off San Franciscos streets this winter, primarily though the opening of emergency Navigation Centers  temporary shelters offering services to the homeless population.

On Tuesday, in an effort to see Lees promise through, Acting Mayor London Breed instructed San Franciscos Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing to make room for a total of 75 additional beds at the citys two largest homeless shelters.

Before he left us, Mayor Ed Lee made a promise to move 1,000 people off the streets by the end of this winter, and I intend to honor that pledge, said Breed. Increasing capacity at our two largest shelters is an important step forward in our goal to transition more people off the streets and into safe, stable living situations.

Beginning Saturday, an additional 50 beds will be made available at the Open Door shelter on Polk Street and 25 beds will be opened at the MSC-South center on Fifth Street, according to Breeds office.

The beds will be available through the end of March, said Jeff Kositsky, director of the citys homelessness department. By then, he expects the added beds will have served between 150 and 200 additional people needing temporary places to stay.

Its common practice to expand capacity at homeless shelters during long stretches of rainy days and nights, Kositsky said, but what (Breed) asked us to do was make that expansion ongoing throughout the entire winter, rather than on an ad hoc basis.

Were pleased that Acting Mayor Breed is continuing on with the mayors direction and is taking an active and aggressive approach to getting 1,000 people off the streets this winter, Kositsky said.

On Wednesday, the city also plans to officially open the Auburn Hotel, a 70-unit supportive housing facility for homeless veterans. Its the fourth such site  intended as permanent housing for a total of 300 veterans  to open in the past year.

City officials are also working to open an emergency Navigation Center at 125 Bayshore Blvd. in San Franciscos Visitacion Valley neighborhood, with between 100 and 125 beds. It could be open by February. The city is also negotiating with Caltrans to use two state-owned sites for temporary Navigation Centers that could hold a combined 180 beds. Those sites are located at Fifth and Bryant streets and at 13th and Division streets.

Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassa
AT&T Inc., the phone carrier locked in a battle with the U.S. government over its Time Warner Inc. acquisition, lauded President Donald Trump and Congress for their tax-cut bill and said 200,000 U.S. workers will get a special $1,000 bonus to celebrate.

The payment will go to union-represented, non-management and front-line management employees, AT&T said Wednesday. The Dallas-based telecommunications giant also reiterated its plan to invest an additional $1 billion in the U.S. next year.

The payout is part of an effort by Corporate America to defy criticism that tax cuts for companies will benefit shareholders more than workers. Boeing Co. separately pledged $300 million Wednesday for employee training, improved workplace infrastructure and corporate giving, crediting the tax cuts.

This is a capital-freeing event, AT&T Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson said of the tax bill at an Economic Club of New York luncheon on Nov. 29. If Trump signs the bill before Christmas, employees will get their bonus over the holidays, AT&T said.

AT&Ts relationship with the Trump administration has had its ups and downs. Even as Stephenson praised the president, the administrations Justice Department is busy preparing its antitrust case against AT&Ts $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner. Stephenson has characterized the deal as strategically vital, but Trump has said the transaction would harm consumers. On the other hand, AT&T scored a victory when the Republican-led Federal Communications Commission gutted utility-style regulations for internet service providers.

Trump cited AT&Ts bonus plan at a news conference Wednesday. Thats because of what we did. So thats pretty good, he said.

Phone carriers are among the companies that are likely to increase their capital spending because of the bill, which allows immediate tax deductions for such investments. AT&T and its rivals are upgrading their networks to provide faster speeds and more ubiquitous coverage as more devices get connected to the internet.

In the 2016 U.S. elections, Republican candidates got 62 percent of $2.7 million in donations to federal candidates from AT&Ts political action committee that pools contributions from employees, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Stephenson has averaged a bonus of about $5.2 million over the past three years.

2017 Bloomberg L.P.
Internet-connected devices are nearly ubiquitous, with computer circuitry now found in a variety of common appliances. They can include security cameras, DVRs, printers, cars, baby monitors, and refrigerators - even "smart" lightbulbs and clothing. Collectively those devices are called the internet of things.

The internet of things is a big, juicy target for criminals. Up to a million devices were hijacked to create the Mirai botnet which was used to extort companies and bring a university computer system in New Jersey to its knees. The botnet was later exploited to bring down vast swaths of the internet in a sustained attack on Oct. 21, 2016.

Paras Jha, a former Rutgers University student, pleaded guilty Dec. 8 with two other men who admitted they wrote the Mirai code. Named after an obscure anime film character, Mirai scoured the internet for unsecured devices and easily found them.

Once discovered, the Internet of things devices were hijacked by the Mirai malware and became part of a botnet that launched assaults on internet service providers and scores of websites. Jha, 21, allegedly monetized the botnet by demanding ransom to call off the attacks, using it to inflate the number of advertising clicks on websites, and renting it out to other hackers for their own nefarious ends.

The attacks on Rutgers computer system may have cost the school $9 million, prosecutors said. Rutgers officials told NJ.com the cost of enhancing security was one of the reasons the school hiked tuition in 2016.

When Jha discovered federal investigators were closing in, he released the Mirai source code to the world to cover his tracks. The code is still circulating online and causing damage, according to Brian Krebs, of KrebsOnSecurity.com.

Krebs advises taking these precautions to keep your Internet of things devices protected:

Avoid connecting your devices directly to the internet.

Change the default credentials to a complex password that only you will know and can remember.

Check the defaults, and make sure things like UPnP (Universal Plug and Play - which can easily poke holes in your fire wall without you knowing it) are disabled.

Avoid Internet of things devices that advertise built-in Peer-to-Peer (P2P) capabilities. P2P Internet of things devices are notoriously difficult to secure, and research repeatedly has shown that they can be reachable even through a fire wall remotely over the internet. Thats because theyre configured to continuously find ways to connect to a global, shared network so that people can access them remotely.

When it comes to Internet of things devices, cheaper is definitely not better. There is no direct correlation between price and security, but history has shown that less expensive devices tend to have the most vulnerabilities.

The Department of Justice also offers these tips to protect internet-connected devices.

Do your research. Consider the security features of your Internet of things devices before buying. If the device uses a password, make sure it allows you to change it.

Update firmware when available. Internet of things devices can be susceptible if not regularly patched. Only install updates from known and reputable sites.

Disconnect your insecure Internet of things devices. Outdated security? Cant update passwords? Then unplug it.

Turn off Internet of things devices when not in use, or periodically if otherwise always on. Malware is stored in memory and can often be erased by turning the device off and back on.

Protect routers and Wi-Fi networks. Use your routers built-in fire wall, confirm its enabled.

Avoid using public Wi-Fi to check Internet of things devices from a smartphone.

Use antivirus and intrusion-detection products.

Ask for help, or hire help, if you cant figure out fire walls or how to "segment" your network of Internet of things devices.

Some free online resources can help determine whether your devices are susceptible to being accessed by Mirai or other malware. Be cautious and use only well-known sources.

If you suspect your Internet of things device is infected, turn it off and on again to purge the devices memory. Change the password. File a report with the internet Crime Complaint Center.
The U.S. officially blamed North Korea for the WannaCry ransomware attack that affected hundreds of thousands of computers globally this year, offering further justification for the White House's campaign to step up international pressure on the regime.

"After careful investigation, the United States is publicly attributing the massive WannaCry cyberattack to North Korea," White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert told reporters Tuesday. "We do not make this allegation lightly. We do so with evidence, and we do so with partners."

WannaCry crippled parts of the U.K.'s state-run National Health Service and compromised companies such as FedEx Corp. and Nissan Motor Co.

After WannaCry began infecting computers powered by Microsoft Corp.'s Windows via the internet on May 12, users had 72 hours to pay $300 in bitcoin, or pay twice as much. Paying didn't unlock their computers, Bossert wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that was published Monday.

"It was cowardly, costly and careless," he wrote. "The attack was widespread and cost billions, and North Korea is directly responsible."

While calling the public attribution an initial step in holding North Korea accountable, Bossert said President Donald Trump had exhausted many of the tools available for punishing the regime in Pyongyang as he seeks to halt its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

"North Korea has done everything wrong as an actor on the global stage that a country can do," he told reporters Tuesday during a White House briefing. "President Trump has used just about every lever that you can use short of starving the people of North Korea to death to change their behavior. And so we don't have a lot of room left here to apply pressure to change their behavior."

Bossert called on governments and companies around the world to cooperate to mitigate cyber risk and said the U.S. would lead the effort. Microsoft, Facebook and other companies worked to disrupt the attack and moved last week to disable North Korean accounts that were being used for cyberattacks, Bossert said.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Tales of the City was TV at its juicy, candid, vivid, warm, addictive, groundbreaking best  and its returning as a new series on Netflix.

Armistead Maupin, executive producer, said were well into the revival of his signature creation for the streaming service. The series is still in the writing phase and no release date has been set, but several of the original cast members are signed on.

The new series will feature Laura Linney and Olympia Dukakis in their original, beloved roles of Mary Ann Singleton and transgender landlady Mrs. Anna Madrigal, who befriended the wide-eyed 25-year-old Midwesterner who felt a bit lost upon arriving in her new swinging home of San Francisco.

The series also will revisit the colorful community of 28 Barbary Lane, where Mrs. Madrigal serves as modern mother hen to her tenants, revealed gay rights trailblazer Maupin who wrote the groundbreaking novels that eventually became the 1970s-set TV adaptations on PBS and Showtime.

In a fun and frank phone chat with Maupin  the subject of an engaging and sometimes startling documentary coming to PBS on New Years Day  he shared a few more details.

Its brand new, he said, meaning this Tales of the City continuation is not based on one of his Tales sequels.

Its set in present day  2018  and just as his novels and former series did, this one will incorporate events of the real world that surround the characters.

Theres a younger, delightfully diverse crew at Barbary Lane, he said of the revival thats being penned by Orange is the New Black scribe Lauren Morelli, who recently married actress Samira Wiley.

Alan Poul, the producer on the first three adaptations, Tales of the City, More Tales of the City and Further Tales of the City, will produce and direct, he said.

As for his role as executive producer, he chuckled: I get to hover.

Mary Ann, whos been living in Connecticut, he said, comes back to Barbary Lane in a state of distress. Shes looking for support from her logical family (as opposed to her biological family), including, naturally, Mrs. Madrigal.

Caretaker Jake Greenleaf, a second transgender character, also will be around and played by a trans actor, Maupin said. And Im pretty sure Paul Gross (Due South) is signed on. Gross played Brian Hawkins, who eventually married Mary Ann, in the original series.

Theyre a very hot divorced couple. They see each other for the first time in many years, Maupin added.

Of course, well have to wait a while to see it.

In the meantime, Tales fans  and really anyone else who loves a meaty real-life story  will want to watch the first full-length documentary film on Maupin. The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin debuts as part of PBS Independent Lens series. In San Antonio, it can be seen at 10 p.m. Jan. 1 on KLRN.

Here are some highlights from the documentary, directed by award-winning documentary filmmaker Jennifer M. Kroot, as well as from my conversation with the gentlemanly Maupin:

Vintage photographs, video, famous voices: Actors Linney, Dukakis, Sir Ian McKellen, Joy Luck Club novelist Amy Tan and bestselling fantasy author Neil Gaiman all weigh in on Maupin, whos described by Linney like this: You laugh, you cry, you feel close, you feel intimate, and thats something everyone craves.

Rock Hudson: Maupin relates how he met the movie star, who was in the closet at the time publicly, but freer privately, and being charmed by the personable actor during further encounters.

A surprising heritage: He grew up in Raleigh, N.C. in a highly conservative Southern family. The great-great grandson of a Confederate general, Maupin doesnt sugar-coat his fathers racism. I suppose you could say he was a white supremacist, the author notes.

His mom, he adds, stood up for him and protected him, but privately told her children not to behave that way. He grew up trying to please his daddy by embracing conservatism  Jesse Helms gave him his first writing job  and volunteered for Vietnam. I was terrified of who I was, Maupin says, meaning being gay.

After serving, he was honored by President Richard Nixon of all people, and shares a hilarious anecdote about their moment on stage together.

Newspaper background: One of the most popular features of the San Francisco Chronicle was its inside back page. Thats where Maupins Tales of the City was introduced in serialized form.

They actually were born in a smaller paper, where he wrote a fictionalized version of Wednesday night at the local grocery store. Thats when overdressed single men and women, after donning their finest rhinestone-studded brushed denim jeans, hoped to find a partner.

If youll recall, the grocery store was where Mary Ann met the man of her dreams, Mouse, aka Michael Tolliver, who was there with the man of his dreams. It struck a nerve, the author says, particularly with straight women, who were trying to figure out why there were so many attractive, but completely unresponsive, men in town.

Biological vs. logical family: Coined by Maupin some years back, the latter refers to the more suitable group of friends you form later in life  the family that accepts you as you are. At the age of 73, he said, he has little patience with many of his bigoted, homophobic relations back home, who are thrilled, he said, that Donald Trump is president. Ive long since passed the concept of putting up with anybody just because I share blood with them.

Journalism old and new: I was blessed that Tales appeared at a time when San Franciscans read one thing every morning: the newspaper ... They didnt go to computers and look at pictures of cute puppies and kittens. Sounding horrified, he added: The Chronicle today writes news stories about Tweets!

Gay characters on TV: Im happy the (TV) world looks more like it does in real life, that television is telling stories about the way things really function, he said of portrayals of LGBTQ characters. A fan of Will and Grace, particularly star Megan Mullally, he finds himself binge-watching reruns.

In the 1950s, 60s and 70s, you rarely saw gay people presented in any way except as serial killers or clownish freaks, he said. Im proud of being part of the cultural movement that changed that.

jjakle@express-news.net
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Texas graduates have the world rooting for them this graduation season.

From San Antonio to Austin, a number of winter grads are sharing the inspiring stories behind their degrees on Twitter and Instagram and the Internet is sharing kudos in return.

These are more than the usual graduation Instagram photos. These students shared stories of juggling parenthood with class. Of having parents arrested as children overcoming depression in college. Of having people tell them they wouldn't succeed and then walking across the state.

Many included the hashtag "#GradSZN" in their Twitter and Instagram posts, adding themselves to a trend of success stories from around the country.

RELATED: San Antonio college graduates are picture-perfect on social media

A few of the graduates spoke more in-depth with mySA about their journeys through unexpected pregnancies, deaths and other difficulties that didn't stop them from crossing the stage.

Briana McFadden, known as @brielize_ on Twitter, got the attention of nearly 100,000 people when she posted her graduation photos and testimony.

McFadden found out she was pregnant at 17. She graduated last weekend from UTSA with her masters of science in information technology at 24.

"The things I went through early in life, the mistakes I made, I learned from all of it and it motivated me to achieve and do all I can to allow my daughter to have the best possible life ever," she told mySA.com.

Jessica Reyes, like McFadden, is a recent UTSA graduate and young mother and received support of thousands online. With her new, bachelors of science degree under her belt, she's looking forward to Fall 2018, which is when she will begin her graduate career.

"I almost dropped out of school because I had given up on myself," she said. "But my junior year, I took control of my life and refused to be victim of my circumstances. I would not be another statistic that fed into the stigma against young mothers."

Celebrate with these Texas students, and others, in the gallery above.

And, hats off to all of those crossing the stage this graduation season  viral or not.

Madalyn Mendoza is a digital reporter for MySA.com. Read more of her stories here.| mmendoza@mysa.com | Twitter: @MaddySkye
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

WASHINGTON  The deadly Amtrak crash in Washington state struck a nerve in Connecticut, which has its own history of recent train wrecks, and raised anew questions about how much progress Metro-North Railroad is making on installation of life-saving Positive Train Control.

The Amtrak crash on Monday, which killed three and injured more than 100, was like Spuyten Duyvil all over again, said Jim Cameron, veteran commuter advocate and Hearst Connecticut Media transportation columnist.

He was referring to the 2013 Metro-North crash in the Bronx, N.Y., that took four lives when the operator dozed off as the train rounded a sharp 30 mph curve at 82.

Excessive speed also played a major role in the Washington Amtrak crash, with safety experts Tuesday concluding the train was traveling at 80 mph on a curve with a 30 mph limit.

In both instances, experts say Positive Train Control  a GPS-like system of towers and transponders designed to halt trains traveling too fast  would have made a difference.

Mandated by Congress in 2008, PTC was supposed to be fully in operation along freight and passenger lines nationwide by 2015. Despite objections from Connecticuts Democratic lawmakers, Congress extended the deadline to the end of 2018, with two-years of further extensions possible if certain conditions are met.

Metro-Norths New Haven line is a ground zero of sorts for PTC, with advocates and lawmakers accusing its parent Metropolitan Transportation Authority of slow-walking the installation process.

I am deeply concerned about Metro-North meeting the 2018 deadline, said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

They are providing very extensive assurances, but Im disturbed about the apparent gaps in progress on the ground.

The Federal Railroad Administrations PTC progress report for the second quarter this year shows Metro-North with 20 percent of its locomotives equipped with PTC devices, 9 percent of its transmitting towers completed and zero route miles in PTC operation.

But officials of MTA, which got a $1 billion FRA loan to spur PTC, insist they are with the program.

We are moving heaven and earth to meet the PTC deadline by the end of 2018, MTA Chairman Joseph Lhota said at a news conference Tuesday with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The Amtrak wreck on Monday would not happen on either Metro-North or the Long Island Railroad, Lhota said, explaining that MTA has already installed what is known as automatic civil speed enforcement.

It is built into the existing signal system and is in advance of PTC, operating on five critical curves on the New Haven line, including those in Bridgeport and Port Chester, N.Y.

Blumenthal said he was unimpressed.

As a consumer and a passenger, Id be concerned if a train was going three times the speed limit on a straightaway, he said. I would not be so emphatic or optimistic.

As of the end of October, according to railroad spokesman Aaron Donovan, Metro-North already had installed 80 percent of transponders, and 92.9 percent of interface units alongside tracks. But it had put up only 16.3 percent of the poles and antennas necessary to make the PTC system operate.

Another major crash on the New Haven line involved neither curves nor excessive speed. In 2013, a Metro-North train heading in the direction of New Haven derailed between Fairfield and Bridgeport, and a New York-bound train sideswiped it. Investigators blamed that mishap on a broken section of track.

No one died, but Metro-North paid out $22.4 million to settle lawsuits and claims.

dan@hearstdc.com
Dear Toni,

As a retired Texas teacher I decided to stay on my husband's insurance some 25 years ago when I retired. Fine, TRS said I would never be able to join again. So, I stayed with the TRS Care 2 Aetna group plan to remain on Original Medicare and use my husband's retiree insurance.

Well, without notification they enrolled me in TRS Medicare Advantage plan that automatically cancelling my good insurance from my husband's company. Cannot believe that TRS changed my Medicare to a Medicare advantage plan. I have to get it changed and yes this has been a nightmare.

Called the TRS Medicare Advantage plan and they said I would have to be mailed a lot of forms to fill out and return to TRS. They informed me that it would probably be February before I am disenrolled in a plan I never personally enrolled in and return to Original Medicare and use my husband's retiree insurance.

I am a senior and need good doctors, good doctors do not take this Medicare Advantage plan in Houston! I never signed anything, where is my freedom of choice!? I am livid! Can you please explain what one can do to make this process simpler? Josie from Pearland

Hello Josie,

To make this process simple for those wanting to leave the TRS Medicare Advantage plan, you must call TRS Health & Insurance Benefits at 888-237-6762 and request a TRS cancellation form. Because you did not return the cancellation form to TRS, you are now enrolled in the TRS Medicare Advantage plan. This is what happened to you, Josie.

During many TRS Retiree Medicare consultations in the past few weeks, the Toni Says Medicare team members have noticed serious discrepancies from the TRS Austin home office. Those who wish to leave the TRS Retiree Medicare plan and have already mailed their forms to TRS in Austin have been advised via information from TRS that their cancellation letters will not be mailed to the retiree until the last week in December or beginning of January.

In the Dec. 7 edition of "My Statesman" newspaper, reporter Julie Chang wrote about problems with leaving TRS and that "in November, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid did not receive from TRS or its vendors certain information about the thousands of teachers who want out of TRS."

Toni Says Medicare agents are helping TRS Retirees who have applied for a Medicare Supplement and standalone Medicare Part D plans only to have plans cancelled because Medicare believes that these retirees have enrolled in the TRS Medicare Advantage program because TRS did not scrub the TRS retiree list with what retirees had already mailed in their notarized cancellation form for themselves and their spouses.

To be honest with my readers, I, Toni King am very concerned about how TRS is disenrolling the TRS retirees because I know Medicare rules. I am not confident that if one has cancelled out of the TRS Medicare plan and is not able to enroll in a standalone Medicare Part D plan or another Medicare Advantage plan that you will not have prescription drug coverage beginning Jan. 1, 2018. I am advising all who have opted out of the TRS Retiree Medicare plan to now order a 90-day supply of their prescriptions to be sure you have your prescriptions for January until this problem is solved.

TRS Medicare Changes and How to Cancel Properly Webinar, Dec. 21 and Dec. 27 at 2 p.m. To register call 832-519-8664 or visit www.tonisays.com under webinar tab.

Toni King, author of the new Medicare Survival Guide Advanced edition, has a "Merry Christmas special package for Toni Says readers at www.tonisays.com.
The Woodlands Township is again being recognized for its efforts in fighting crime through its National Night Out campaign, receiving a first place for communities of its size.

The National Association of Town Watch-the organization that works to make neighbors safer through police and community partnerships and neighborhood participation-has honored The Woodlands Township with the top prize in its 2017 National Night Out campaign for communities with populations of 100,000 to 300,000 residents.

The night is an annual event that's been held every year since 1984 as part of an year-round effort to help reduce crime and increase awareness of community-based law enforcement programs.

The township has come in first place seven times since it began taking part in the campaign in 1990, although the first place honors have been for various categories of population size as the township's population has expanded, said Marian Leck, director of The Woodlands Township Law Enforcement Services.

"It takes a true partnership," Leck said in crediting the work of local law enforcement agencies and strong citizen participation in boosting the township's success in the program. "It's not just one thing that makes it happen it takes several partners to pull it off and make it successful."

The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, the Harris County Constable's Office, Precinct 4, and The Woodlands Fire Department all take part in the program. There are also thousands of residents signed up to help out, with Leck saying there are more than 25,000 watch members and over 1,200 watch coordinators in The Woodlands registered to take part in the campaign.

"The old saying in crime prevention 'Is neighbor know neighbor,'" Leck said. "Ultimately you are the first line of defense, if you will."

Gordy Bunch, chairman of The Woodlands Township Board of Directors, also acknowledged the strong law enforcement and community participation in the program.

"These public safety partnerships are an essential part of all township crime and fire prevention programming throughout the year," Bunch said. "We are thankful for our many public safety officials and first responders who help to keep The Woodlands safe."

Beside The Woodlands, the state of Texas and several other Texas communities were given high rankings for their efforts. Texas was the awarded the National Night Out 2017 State Cup, while Arlington placed second and San Antonio came in fourth place for communities with populations of more than 300,000.

For communities with populations between 100,000 to 300,000 people-the category that The Woodlands won-Longview, in the northeast corner of the state, placed 11th.

National Night Out is an annual community-building campaign that promotes police-community partnerships to make communities safer. Organizers say nationwide 38.6 million people participated in National Night Out in 2017.

"It's a party with an important purpose," said Matt Peskin, national project coordinator, in New Spirit, the official publication of the National Association of Town Watch. "On (National Night Out), neighbors and local law enforcement meet, greet, eat and solidify their partnerships."

The Woodlands supports National Night Out through its neighborhood watch program by helping residents to host National Night Out parties, hosting the Community Safety Expo and hosting public safety open houses.

As for next year's participation, Leck is expecting The Woodlands to do well again, but was not willing to make any predictions.

"I'm not jinxing anything," she said.
An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., as chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Inhofe stepped aside as chairman of that panel earlier this year. This version has been corrected.

---

Back in November, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, the 83-year-old Republican from Utah, was at the helm when the Senate's massive tax bill came through the Finance Committee. But Hatch also deputized four younger Republicans on the panel to serve as de facto co-chairmen over various parts of the legislation.

This week, with a compromise bill marching toward final passage in both chambers, the House will take the unusual step of voting first - because a pair of senators, Thad Cochran, R-Miss., and John McCain, R-Ariz., are recuperating from, respectively, non-melanoma skin surgery and the side effects of cancer treatments.

Hatch's advisers say his move demonstrates a keen sense of coalition building, and aides and friends to both Cochran, 80, and McCain, 81, contend that their bosses should be back in the Senate before long.

But here's something else to consider: All three are exemplars of an institution that has become, by one measure, the oldest Senate ever - where eight octogenarians currently serve, nearly twice as many as ever before, according to records maintained by the Senate Historical Office. Another handful of senators are at least 75, poised to join those ranks soon.

For decades, older members of Congress have brushed aside questions about their fitness for office. They have defended their health and faculties, and some have implied that those who inquire are ageists who don't understand that America is growing older.

But the change in schedule for the tax bill is at least the third time this year that Senate leaders paused action to accommodate ailing colleagues. It is now clear that the large number of older senators in positions of power is taking a toll on the operations of Washington.

First came the unsuccessful repeal effort of the Affordable Care Act, delayed until McCain returned to Washington following his initial diagnosis and surgery. McCain is currently recuperating at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center from the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation.

In mid-October, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., waited out Cochran's return from a debilitating urinary tract infection to pass a budget that was essential to setting up the framework for passage of the tax plan.

To be fair, some of these seniors are healthier and wittier than their junior colleagues - Sen. Charles Grassley, 84, runs four times a week - and some exemplify an aging society where professionals function at high levels well beyond traditional retirement age.

But, collectively, the institution is struggling amid the weight of so many seniors holding such critical positions. Some colleagues believe that it has become too hard for senators to walk away at the right time.

"What happens around here, it's pretty seductive," said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., a 65-year-old who decided this fall he would retire at the end of 2018. "The longer you're here, the more influence that you have. So it causes you to want to stay and stay and stay."

All eight of today's eighty-something senators hold top posts. Cochran, first elected in 1977, controls the purse strings of every federal agency as chairman of the Appropriations Committee. McCain, who oversees the Pentagon on the Armed Services Committee, temporarily handed over the gavel this week to Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., who ran hearings on Middle East security issues. Inhofe, 83, was until early this year the chairman of the Environment Committee.

Some senators get angry when asked about their age. "If I can run three miles, four times a week, I'll be running for re-election," Grassley, R-Iowa, said, pondering a bid for re-election in 2022, when he will be 89. "I ran just two miles this morning, but don't read too much into that. Because it's the same day I packed my suitcase to go home, and I needed a little extra time."

Informed that this was the oldest Senate ever, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chuckled. "I feel younger every day," the 77-year-old joked.

Leahy, first elected in 1974, won re-election last year to a term that will end when he is 82. He has a ritual, around every birthday, to test his physical fitness. He goes scuba diving, first swimming down to the depth of his new age, doing a somersault underwater to the 90-foot mark, then swimming to the surface.

"If I reach the point that I can't go scuba diving and do my somersaults, that will be one clear indication," Leahy said of knowing when to retire.

For the Senate's first 100 years, no one ever served into their 80s, according to the historical office data; over the next 100 years there were a few brief moments with two or three. Only 49 senators have ever turned 80 in office, and 15 of those came in the last 20 years.

It's a very sensitive topic. When Leahy noted that "some in both parties stayed too long," his chief of staff interjected to say the senator was not referring to any of today's senators.

Some senators face pressure to stay in office from former staff, whose K Street livelihood is in large part connected to clients with interests before that senator. Sometimes it comes from leaders back home who want their states to reap the benefits of Senate seniority.

Trent Lott, the former Senate majority leader, said his friends in Mississippi are worried about Cochran's health, but he tells them that the Appropriations chairmanship is too valuable to pass up. "Some people say, 'Is it time for Thad to come home?' I say, 'No! We should keep that chairmanship until the bloody last day that we can,' " Lott said.

Now running the lobbying shop of Squire Patton Boggs, Lott gives a presentation to senators who decide it is time to retire. "It's called the Wheel of Fortune. And every spoke represents what you can do when you get a real life," he said, with options ranging from joining a lobbying shop to teaching.

"It's hard to know when it's time to move on," Lott added.

President Donald Trump, himself 71, is pressing Hatch to ask the voters of Utah to elect him to an eighth six-year term that would end when he is 90 and bring his service in the Senate to 48 years. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the oldest senator, is already running for re-election to a fifth full term that would last until she is 91.

Cochran, when he has appeared in the Senate in recent months, has been attended by a staffer who sits next to him and alerts the senator when it is time to vote. McCain, who appeared in good health when he won a sixth term last year, in the last few weeks has relied on staff to push him in a wheelchair to Senate votes.

Corker believes it's easy to grow comfortable with the trappings of power and a large staff that, as senators grow older, sometimes function like aides in a retirement home.

"Think about it," he said. "If you're older, you've got more influence, and you've got an entire staff of people that, in essence, take care of you every day. Where else, where else can you obtain that? Seriously?"

Yet for him, the decision to retire was clear. He wanted to leave on his own terms, at an age, 65, when he could start another chapter to his life. There are fewer senators than ever making that choice.

"It is a lot of work, if you really want to do your job right," conceded Leahy. "You've got to be able to do that. If you can't, it's not fair to your state or the U.S. Senate to stay here."
It is possible to hold a pilot's license while using an artificial limb, regulations say. But according to federal prosecutors, it was what happened when a man who used a prosthesis tried to land a small plane at a Virginia airport this year that figured in a court case.

The pilot, identified as Robert R. Gray Jr, 55, of Suffolk, Virginia, made a crash landing in July while trying to land a 1972 Piper airplane at the Umphlett Airstrip in Suffolk, said the U.S. Attorney's office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department has formally withdrawn its appeals in a fast-moving case this week involving two undocumented teenagers seeking abortions, clearing the way for the teens to end their pregnancies.

Until Tuesday, the case challenging the Trump administration's policy of impeding access to abortion services for unaccompanied minors in custody had appeared to be on a fast track to the Supreme Court.

But government lawyers dropped their appeals at the high court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit late Tuesday after obtaining new information about one of the teens in federal custody.

The government said in court filings that it had received information from the teen's home country that she is not a 17-year-old minor, but an adult at 19.

The 19-year-old, who is about 10 weeks pregnant, was quickly transferred to the Department of Homeland Security and released from government custody Tuesday night, according to court filings. Court papers do not name the teen, her home country or the state where she was being held.

Separately, the Justice Department chose not to oppose an earlier court order from Monday that allowed the second teen, who is 17, to end her pregnancy. The government did not disclose its reasons other than noting the "differing circumstances." The 17-year-old is close to 22 weeks pregnant.

In a statement, an attorney for the teenagers, Brigitte Amiri of the American Civil Liberties Union, said, "We are pleased that these two young women are able to finally get the care they need. But the government's policy is still in place. These two cases show how the government continues to abuse its power by denying abortion access."

The Department of Health and Human Services cares for unaccompanied minors taken into federal custody after crossing the border illegally. The agency's office of refugee resettlement has since March prohibited federally funded shelters housing the minors from taking any action that "facilitates" an abortion without approval from the director.

The government says in court filings that it "has strong and constitutionally legitimate interests in promoting its interest in life, in refusing to facilitate abortion, and in not providing incentives for pregnant minors to illegally cross the border to obtain elective abortions while in federal custody."

The Obama administration did not generally pay for abortions for teens in custody, but officials did not block immigrants in custody from having the procedure at their own expense.

While the individual cases involving the two teens are now resolved, the larger challenge to the administration's new policy remains. U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan has been asked to decide whether the broader case over the policy can go forward on behalf of other pregnant immigrant minors in federal custody in recent years.

That challenge was initially filed by a Central American teenager who terminated her pregnancy in October after a favorable ruling from the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

In the legal machinations this week, the Justice Department had anticipated a similar result and had simultaneously asked the D.C. Circuit and the Supreme Court to halt Chutkan's order late Monday as it applied only to the 19-year-old.

That preemptive maneuver was a sign that the Solicitor General's office was not taking any chances this time. In the similar case in October, lawyers for the other pregnant teen in custody moved quickly and were able to arrange an abortion for her before the Justice Department had time to step in and ask the high court to intervene.

A separate administration request is pending at the Supreme Court to vacate the D.C. Circuit's judgment from October.
It's been more than a century since Arabs revolted against the rule of the Ottoman Empire. But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan thrust himself into the center of that World War I confrontation Wednesday to defend the honor of a legendary Turkish officer slighted in the United Arab Emirates.

Erdogan lashed out at UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan for sharing a Twitter post accusing Fahreddin Pasha of thievery, kidnapping other crimes against the local population. "These are Erdogan's ancestors and their history with Arabs and Muslims," the post said.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

A weekend cold front is likely to stir up a heavy wave of pollen, afflicting allergy sufferers and ramping up cedar fever season.

Abundant rain, with nearly 4 inches having fallen officially in San Antonio since Dec. 1, has set the stage for ashe juniper bushes to release heavy pollen as winds from the front blow through this weekend, according to the National Weather Service.

Ashe juniper is better known as mountain cedar to South Texans.

Recorded mountain cedar pollen counts fell from about 1,200 grains per cubic meter last weekend to light amounts this week. But Dr. Dennis Dilley, a San Antonio allergist, predicted the numbers could jump to 5,000 grains per cubic meter this weekend, then climb to up to 30,000 before pollen season ends in mid-February.

Im expecting it to hit pretty hard this weekend. The peak of it is coming, said Dilley, who has begun seeing patients in recent weeks to give allergy shots and other treatments ahead of the pollen season.

About 20 percent of the population suffers from cedar fever, although that percentage doubles in San Antonio because mountain cedar is so predominant in the region, he said. While male mountain cedar bushes farther north in Kerrville and Junction already have released their pollen, the ones in San Antonio, with the small cones on the tips of branches having turned recently from yellow to deep orange, are poised to follow suit, dispersing pollen granules with an outer shell that causes inflammation of eyes, noses and throats.

Thats why people call it cedar fever, with sufferers experiencing achiness, a runny nose, watery eyes, congestion and other flu-like symptoms, Dilley said.

Aside from staying indoors, sufferers can turn to over-the-counter nasal steroid sprays, antihistamines, nasal decongestants, saline solutions and allergy medications to treat symptoms. Dilley also recommends that clothes exposed to outdoor pollen be removed and put in the wash as soon as possible.

Scott Huddleston is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here. | shuddleston@express-news.net | @shuddlestonSA
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Local defense attorney Joe Gonzales, who this year went toe-to-toe with Bexar County District Attorney Nicholas Nico LaHood and accused him of threatening to shut down his legal practice, officially kicked off his campaign Tuesday to unseat the incumbent who once was his friend and business partner.

The two will face each other in the Democratic primary in March, and the winner will face defense attorney Tylden Shaeffer, who is running unopposed in the Republican primary.

Gonzales told a party room full of supporters at Tomatillos Mexican Restaurant that he would bring experience, ethics and integrity to the office if elected. His platform focuses on criminal justice and bail reforms to even the scales of justice in Bexar County so that people who commit minor offenses dont stay in jail because they dont have enough money to post bond, he said.

He also referenced the need for the office to have someone in charge with a better temperament, referencing a confrontation between the men in front of a sitting judge in her chambers.

Part of the reason that I decided to run is because of what happened earlier this year, involving a case where the elected DA threatened us in the middle of a trial, said Gonzales. That wasnt OK. You ought not intimidate members of the bar. You ought not to bully people.

Gonzales and fellow lawyer Christian Henricksen in March tried to dismiss a murder indictment in a case LaHood was arguing, stating that a prosecutor from his office withheld information about a previous sexual encounter between a witness and a fellow prosecutor, and they alleged that LaHood threatened to shut down their practices if they pursued the claim.

The case was being heard before 437th state District Judge Lori Valenzuela, who later testified that she heard LaHood threaten the lawyers and that she considered it official oppression, a Class A misdemeanor.

Senior District Judge W.C. Kirkendall of Seguin, who presided over the hearing, later found that LaHood engaged in an unprofessional rant that could be subject to sanction by another tribunal.

LaHood has accused Gonzales of making a living out of representing child pornographers, child sex abusers.

Gonzales also told his supporters that Bexar County needed a full-time elected district attorney.

You dont need somebody that is spending time going off on his own crusade against vaccinations, said Gonzales, referring to LaHoods public stance that vaccines cause autism. That doesnt have anything to do with prosecuting crime, it doesnt have anything to do with his job. He needs to do his job. He hasnt done his job.

Gonzales, 58, a native of San Antonio, attended schools in the Edgewood district and graduated from St. Marys University. He has been practicing law for more than 30 years, as a former prosecutor in Bexar County; as a chief prosecutor in Harris County; and also was a magistrate and municipal court judge in San Antonio.

Gonzales and his wife, Yvonne, have been married for 29 years and have a daughter, Marisa, 17.

Elizabeth Zavala is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of her stories here. | ezavala@express-news.net | @elizabeth2863
A gun battle erupted Tuesday night at a home on the West Side, resulting in at least two people hospitalized for gunshot wounds.

Police said the incident began just before 10 p.m. at an apartment complex in the 1500 block of NW Crossroads. A man living at the apartment received a text asking him to come outside.
A Round Rock father was arrested after police said his three-year-old son was seen crawling around a grocery store parking lot with a car seat strapped to him, according to a report from the Austin-American Statesman.

Police were called to the H-E-B on University Boulevard on Monday by witnesses who found the child, according to the report.
On Dec. 4, a 6-year-old girl's father overheard a man tell her not to tell anyone about the video he was about to show her.

Robert Milton Popp, 48, was arrested Tuesday night after police believe he showed the girl pornographic material and groped her.

When the girl's father asked Popp what he showed her, Popp didn't give him a clear answer, according to the arrest affidavit.

RELATED: Family left cleaning up after driver plows through home, severely injuring woman

The father questioned his daughter instead, who told him he showed her a video containing genitalia, the affidavit states.

The girl's parents called police shortly after, who opened an investigation.

On Dec. 13, the girl told forensic interviewers that Popp had exposed himself to her before and that he's touched her genitals.

Popp was questioned by detectives on Dec. 19. He allegedly admitted to having inappropriate contact with the child, but said it was because "she told him the area was irritating her."

Popp was brought into custody on a $80,000 bond for indecency with a child and displaying harmful material to a minor. He remained in jail Wednesday.

Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here. | fsabawi@mysa.com | Twitter: @FaresInSA
Firefighters on Tuesday rescued a woman from her car after a pickup truck smashed into it in an H-E-B parking lot on the Southeast Side.

Police said a driver in a light-colored dually pickup truck T-boned the woman's car around 10:40 p.m. in the 3300 block of Southeast Military Drive.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Seguin police are asking for the public's help finding a suspect they call a "career thief."

In a Wednesday Facebook post, police posted images of Porfirio Navarro Jr., 37.

"Unfortunately, we know him well and deal with him all the time," the post read.

Navarro's criminal history stretches back to 2001 in Seguin, according to Guadalupe County records. He has been convicted of charges that range from violating protective orders to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

RELATED: San Antonio man accused of showing 6-year-old girl porn, touching her inappropriately

Navarro most recently bonded out of jail Sunday, but he is now wanted for evading arrest and criminal trespassing, police said in the post. Navarro is known to be around the West Humphrey area of Seguin.

"The sooner we get Porfirio Navarro in jail the safer everyone's belongings are," the post read.

Navarro is 5 feet 4 inches tall with black hair. He has a tattoo under his left eye and other tattoos on his neck.

Anyone with information on his location can call Seguin police at 830-401-2360 or submit a tip through the Guadalupe County Crime Stoppers online at www.gccsTIPS.org.

Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here. | fsabawi@mysa.com | Twitter: @FaresInSA
As the #MeToo movement gained momentum the past several weeks  and more than a dozen powerful men accused of sexual misconduct were suspended, fired or banished into the outer darkness, it was reasonable to wonder where it would all end.

Last week, it ended for Kentucky state Rep. Dan Johnson on a remote bridge, where he shot himself with a .40-caliber handgun. In an apparent suicide note posted (briefly) on Facebook, he wrote: GOD knows the truth, nothing is the way they make it out to be  I cannot handle it any longer  BUT HEAVEN IS MY HOME.

Johnson was referring to accusations published two days earlier by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting that he had fondled a 17-year-old friend of his daughter during a New Years Eve sleepover in 2013. According to his accuser, now 21, a drunk Johnson slipped his hand under her top and down her pants as she was sleeping on a couch. She begged him to stop, which, ultimately, he did.

RELATED: At least 5 former and current Texas lawmakers were accused of sexual misconduct in 2017

Assuming the womans story is true, Johnsons actions were reprehensible, made more so by the fact that the girl considered him a second dad. The betrayal of a trusted adult is a higher order of evil. The circumstances of the alleged event magnify the drama and invite condemnation seasoned with relish. The woman, whose identity is being protected, said the incident occurred at the Popes House, a fellowship hall next to the Heart of Fire Church where the well-known Republican was the self-anointed pope to his congregation.

Even with all of that, however, didnt Johnson have a right to some sort of dispassionate hearing? It is convenient to think he was too ashamed to withstand what would lie ahead for him. Or, one could believe, as Johnson hoped people would, that things didnt happen as described. Thats the trouble with weighing allegations of years-old behavior in the court of public opinion. Given that the statute of limitations precludes indictments in many of these recent cases, were left to decide for ourselves whether the accusers are telling the truth  or enough truth to be convincing.

An accusation isnt a conviction or even an indictment, of course. Yet, weve rather quickly moved away from a society that embraces the suspension of judgment pending a fair trial to one in which subjective opinion  or fear of financial repercussions  justifies harsh sentencing.

Why have a jury-trial system at all if were comfortable passing judgments derived primarily from common sense-based calculus. This we know about common sense: Everyone considers theirs to be of higher quality than mine or yours. During the past couple of months, weve all become rather expert in dispensing verdicts, which seem to go something like this:

When several women tell similar stories of sordid encounters with the same individual, then we deem the accusations true. This was the case with Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, who admitted to some of the charges. When only one accuser is involved, we tend to give the accused some benefit of the doubt. Its when only three or four victims come forward with similar tales that we begin to hear terms such as credible accusations or credibly accused.

READ MORE: 'Top Chef' cuts San Antonio chef from episode after sexual harassment allegations

Credible accusations brought down Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore after the Washington Post conducted an extensive investigation into allegations against him. Theres no proof of anything, of course, but there was enough corroboration from other people interviewed to suggest a strong likelihood that the women were truthful.

Were on new ground these days when everyone occupies a seat of infinite power. Thus, it may be impossible to mitigate the effects of a determined mob, especially given a zeitgeist poised to assume the worst of men and the best of women. This shift in the balance of power may feel justified at some level, but this, too, should give one pause.

Should every man who has ever made an unwelcome advance on a grown woman be ruined? In instances of poor judgment or reckless behavior, is there no punishment short of firing?

It is notable that shame, so long out of vogue, is in these most modern of times making a comeback, indeed, with a vengeance. Johnsons suicide reminds us that the best of causes conducted without the usual rules of law can lead to disastrous, even fatal, consequences.
Leader of Opposition in the Assembly V D Satheesan said reports on the conflict between the State governments and Governors were coming from several parts of the country.
So Democrats are now the saviors of the Dreamers? How in the world did that happen?

For those of us who have paid close attention to the immigration debate over the last couple decades, its surreal watching Democrats in Congress threaten to go to the mattresses for a legislative fix that protects undocumented young people. After all, when Democrats had the chance to get Dreamers out of harms way by legalizing them, they were asleep at the switch.

Its not politics. Most Democrats dont have anything against Dreamers, many of whom they see as future Democratic voters. Blame Republicans for that, since their approach to immigration is often belligerent, boorish and boneheaded.

Its just personal. Democrats arent ready to adopt the Dreamers by taking on their cause. As long as restrictionists paint as amnesty any accommodation for the Dreamers, you wont see squeamish Democrats snuggling up to that group.

Such cowardice. According to a recent Marist poll, 81 percent of Americans support allowing Dreamers to stay in the U.S. legally, either with or without citizenship; only 15 percent think they should be deported. That includes 92 percent of Democrats  and 67 percent of Republicans.

In fact, although Democrats have promised a government shutdown if Republicans dont protect recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)  the estimated 800,000 undocumented young people who signed up for a temporary reprieve under the last president and had it snatched from them by the current one  Democratic leaders may be backing off that threat.

During a recent appearance on CBS News Face the Nation, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois  who earlier said that he was not prepared to go home for the holidays until we get our work done, which would include protection for DACA recipients  signaled that he may be back in the Land of Lincoln in time to trim the tree.

Dear Dreamers, you are now  and have always been  on your own, and the last group of people you should trust to have your back are Democrats. Actions speak louder than words. And despite what Democrats say about how you belong in the United States, they have not done all they could to keep you here.

There are villains in this story, Democrats who went overboard either failing to come to the aid of Dreamers  or, even worse, helping remove them from the country. The Democratic unholy trinity includes former Rep. and White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Lets start in August 2001, when the original Dream Act was proposed by Durbin and Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah. The bill would have given young undocumented immigrants a shot at U.S. citizenship if they joined the military or went to college.

The terrorist attacks one month later scuttled any discussion of immigration reform for the next few years.

When those talks began in 2005, with President George W. Bush eager to sign legislation, Democrats and immigrant advocates convinced Dreamers not to settle for the piecemeal approach of the Dream Act and instead demand what then Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda called in 2001 the whole enchilada  namely, a path to citizenship for all 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States. That was never going to happen. And Dreamers came away empty-handed.

Once President Obama took office in 2009, and started an enforcement juggernaut that would earn him the nickname Deporter-in-Chief, many Dreamers were swept up and removed from the country. That continued even after Obama unveiled DACA.

Finally, in 2010, when the Dream Act died in the Senate because it didnt get enough votes for cloture, it was the no votes of five conservative Democrats  Jon Tester, Max Baucus, Mark Pryor, Kay Hagan and Ben Nelson  that killed it.

Dreamers, this is your wake-up call. Democrats want you to think theyre in your corner. But its not so.

The Democrats failed you. Dont let them fool you.

ruben@rubennavarrette.com
The economic development ecosystem of a major city is complex. Getting it right is a mix of art and science, and how much of each is needed is a constant topic of debate among economic development experts.

But there is one subject that unites the experts. No matter what economic advantages a city has to offer, education, traditional or otherwise, must be part of that package. Having a strong network of engaged educational partners is a critical asset that is undeniably linked to a thriving and growing economy.

Any community looking to compete in todays marketplace must have a strategic, long-term plan for building the workforce pipeline that will attract new business and compel existing businesses to expand. But a city relying only on solutions that look 20, 10 or even 5 years out cannot compete in todays market. A community has to build the workforce needed right now, in addition to 20 years down the road, or it risks losing attractive new-business opportunities  not to mention putting itself at risk of losing the enterprises it currently enjoys.

Companies need employees. And they are only too ready to recruit from outside the market, or to move to a city that has a ready-made workforce. A robust and creative higher-education system is key to creating that workforce.

Consider the industries that are among the fastest growing in San Antonio: cybersecurity, bioscience, information technology and financial services. These are among the key disciplines of San Antonios colleges and universities. From UTSA, to the Alamo Colleges District to Trinity and St. Marys universities and the University of the Incarnate Word, our higher-education system is creating a workforce pipeline that is needed by companies today  and in the future.

We have proof that education is a key economic draw. In a recent story in the San Antonio Business Journal, company officials from EY (formerly Ernst & Young) stated that UTSA played a key role in their decision to establish a new line of business, the Financial Services Organization, in the Alamo City. The university could offer EY the homegrown talent the firm needed.

San Antonio understands this sense of immediacy in the business world. It was with that recognition that in 2015, a coalition of business and government leaders established SA Works with the purpose of bolstering collaboration among educators, community organizations and employers.

The strategy works. CAST Tech High School and citywide STEM programs are tangible examples of the power of an industry connector like SA Works. Integrated with the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation since last March, SA Works is plugged into our industry working groups  the private-sector-led forums that inform our strategies and plans for how to attract, retain and grow San Antonios target industries. A key piece of those efforts is workforce development.

Academic institutions have proven to be greenhouses for new enterprises as well. Bringing together students in different majors from all walks of life, our colleges and universities are often the birthplaces of the next big idea that will give rise to new business. It is a philosophy that prompted UTSA President Taylor Eighmy to focus on turning the downtown campus into an epicenter of high-tech innovation  or what he has called a makers space.

As the recent national frenzy over a second Amazon headquarters demonstrated, the economic development game has become increasingly more competitive. One way San Antonio can differentiate itself from a crowd of cities that can offer greater economic incentives than we can is to continue to invest in workforce development today and in the young people who will be the key to our lasting economic growth. They are certainly our most valuable asset to offer.

Jenna Saucedo-Herrera is president and CEO of the San Antonio Economic Development Corporation.
A president with no concern for veracity or consistency has assured us he is not considering the firing of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. This does not make the prospect even marginally less remote. And it has done little to inhibit the attempt by some conservatives to discredit the investigation.

On a move against Mueller and his office, the wind is thick with straws. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, warns: We do not know the magnitude of insider bias on Mr. Muellers team. Sen. John Cornyn urges Mueller to clean house of partisans and wonders if the Special Counsels final report will be legitimate. The Murdoch press  lead in silly shrillness by Fox News personalities  continues to trash the reputations of Mueller and his associates.

At one level, this is whataboutism run amok. What about Bill and Hillary Clinton? Didnt they ruthlessly discredit Ken Starr and his investigation? Why should Republicans hobble themselves with scruples?

But here is a difference. Clinton and his defenders were accusing an investigator of being a power-mad prig. Some of Trumps defenders are claiming, in effect, that the FBI is engaged in a coup detat  a politically motivated attempt to reverse the results of the 2016 election. Their evidence? That some senior investigators donated to Democrats, supported Hillary Clinton and called Trump an idiot.

If that last charge were considered a disqualification, we would have the political equivalent of the Rapture (including, apparently, some of the Cabinet). But the larger point is this: Trump Republicans are willing to smear a man of genuine integrity, and undermine confidence in federal law enforcement, for reasons they must know are thin to the point of transparency. This is beyond cynicism. It is institutional arson.

Because Mueller is inexorable, the desperation in Trump world is palpable. We know that senior officials in the Trump campaign wanted to collude with the Russians in order to influence the election. (Donald Trump Jr. has admitted meeting with a Russian lawyer in June of 2016 to get damaging information on Hillary Clinton.) We know that Russian intelligence had the means to influence the election, hacked from a variety of sources. We know that Trump officials tried to conceal their contacts with the Russians, while seeking policy changes favorable to Russian interests. We know (on the credible testimony of a former FBI director) that President Trump tried to shut the investigation of these matters down. And it is a good bet that Mueller knows far more about all of this than we do.

As the investigation seems to be closing in on members of the Trump family, the president has a variety of options, all with serious risks. He might be able (it is debated among legal scholars) to fire Mueller directly. But unless he also abolishes the Special Counsels office, FBI officials would continue to investigate any crimes they have discovered. Other precedent would require Trump first to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (to whom Mueller reports), then (probably after a cascade of Justice Department resignations) find a stooge willing to fire Mueller. This would be a direct assault on the autonomy and integrity of the FBI.

Or Trump could do a pre-emptive pardon of individuals being investigated. This would look deeply corrupt  like an admission of guilt written in neon  and there are serious legal issues surrounding a presidential self-pardon. This option would put the tolerance of Hill Republicans for executive lawlessness to the test.

If Trump takes any of these aggressive actions, it will define his presidency, exaggerate social division and throw America public life into chaos. At that point, he will deserve impeachment, whether he is impeached or not. (That will be determined, not by the degree of the offenses, but by which party controls the House of Representatives.)

Behind all this is a nagging fear. Other presidents would be restrained by the prospect of social division and political chaos. For Trump, these may be incentives. He seems to thrive in bedlam. But the anarchy that sustains him damages the institutions around him  a cost for which he cares nothing.

michaelgerson@washpost.com
There is nothing more characteristic of the Trump era, with its fire hose of misinformation, scandal and hyperbole, than that America and its allies recently managed to win a war that just two years ago consumed headlines and dominated political debate and helped Donald Trump get elected president  and somehow nobody seemed to notice.

I mean the war against the Islamic State, whose expansion was the defining foreign policy calamity of Barack Obamas second term, whose executions of Americans made the U.S.A. look impotent and whose utopian experiment drew volunteers drunk on world-historical ambitions and metaphysical dreams. Its defeat was begun under Obama, and the hardest fighting has been done by Iraqis  but this was a U.S. war, too, and we succeeded without massive infusions of ground troops, without accidentally getting into a war with Russia, and without inspiring a huge wave of terrorism in the West.

Why havent we noticed this success? As Max Abrahms and John Glaser wrote recently in the Los Angeles Times, the defeat of the Islamic State didnt happen the way many foreign policy hawks envisioned, because it didnt require also going to war with Bashar Assad or creating a new Syrian opposition army. At the same time, it happened more easily than intervention skeptics feared  so there isnt a pundit chorus, right or left, ready to claim vindication in the victory.

The National Reviews David French, in a piece that helped inspire this one, posits the war-weary assumption that if you crush one terrorist group another just springs up; a popular appetite for bad news that leaves little room for celebrating victory; and the inability of Trump himself to take credit for anything without immediately firing up some unrelated controversy.

But this is also a case where the media are not adequately reporting an important success because it does not fit into the narrative of Trumpian disaster in which our journalistic entities are all invested.

I include myself in this indictment. Foreign policy is the place where the risks of electing Trump seemed to me particularly unacceptable, and Ive tended to focus on narratives that fit that fear, from the risk of regional war in Middle East to the perils in our North Korean brinkmanship.

But all punditry is provisional, and for now, the Trump administrations approach to the Middle East is close to what I would have hoped for from a normal Republican president following a realist-internationalist course.

The Saudi war in Yemen remains a humanitarian catastrophe, and our relationship with the House of Saud remains corrupt. But the war in Yemen was already an American-abetted disaster under Obama, and the Trump White House has at least called for Riyadh to lift its Yemen embargo and seen the new king promise some mild social and economic reforms.

And the relatively mild reaction to Trump recognizing Jerusalem as Israels capital may be a case study in expert consensus falling behind the facts; the Arab world has different concerns than it did in 1995, and Trumps move has helped clarify that change.

The truth is that the specific two-state vision of the late 1990s was overtaken by events a while ago, and demonstrating that some Arab states are more amenable to accommodating Israel is a useful step toward diplomatic clarity.

The rule with this White House is that if you write in praise of anything it has done, something disastrous swiftly follows. So if this column conjures up a Saudi invasion of Lebanon, a renewed intifada, or something terrible in the Koreas  well, I apologize in advance.

But if you had told me in late 2016 that almost a year into the Trump era the caliphate would be all-but-beaten without something far worse happening in the Middle East, I would have been surprised and gratified. So very provisionally, credit belongs where its due  to our soldiers and diplomats, yes, but to our president as well.

Ross Douthat writes a column for the New York Times.
Ruth Jones McClendon leaves a legacy as a valiant cancer warrior who did not allow her illness to interfere with her relentless legislative efforts to address the injustices in the system.

McClendon, 74, is a former juvenile probation officer who held the San Antonio City Council District 2 post from 1993-1996 and served in the Texas House, representing District 120 for 20 years. She resigned her seat in January 2016.

She died Tuesday in San Antonio.

McClendons work focused on senior citizens, the young and homeless. It affected the entire Bexar County community, but the effects went well beyond her legislative districts boundaries.

A Democrat, McClendon earned the respect of colleagues on both sides of the aisle and will long be remembered for navigating the halls of the state Capitol on a motorized scooter during her last session in the Legislature as she battled stage 4 nonsmokers lung cancer.

It was during her final session that she authored legislation that will have a lasting impact on the Texas criminal justice system. She filed the bill that created the Timothy College exoneration review commission whose task is to investigate wrongful convictions. It was a fitting finale to a distinguished career in public service that started in the criminal justice system.

During her distinguished political career McClendon served two terms as chairwoman of the House Committee on Rules and Resolutions and was a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. She also served on the Transportation Committee.

McClendon was an energizing role model for young women, women of color and cancer patients. She was held in high esteem by political neophytes who sought her guidance, as well as seasoned political veterans who went to her for advice.

It is notable that state and local leaders offering their condolences noted her tireless battle for justice, her integrity, her tenacity and her ability to provide a powerful voice at the state House for the downtrodden.

They also commended her for being a champion of the people and setting the bar high for those who followed in her footsteps at City Hall.

McClendon grew up in Houston and moved to San Antonio in 1967.

She made a tremendous difference in our community in those too-short 50 years.
After many high-profile stumbles, and much-needed change in leadership, San Antonios Tricentennial Commission is moving in the right direction.

The musical talent added to the New Years Eve kickoff is dynamic, fitting for our citys 300th birthday and representative of our community. The reconstructed website is far better. It is engaging and easy to use. Visit it at www.sanantonio300.org

Most important, strong and focused leadership has given the Tricentennial Commission a clarity of purpose and sense of urgency that had been inexplicably lacking.

Assistant City Manager Carlos Contreras has shown poise and savvy as the nonprofit Tricentennial Commissions interim executive director. Texas A&M University-San Antonio President Cynthia Teniente-Matson, now serving as the Tricentennial boards president, is a strong and visionary leader. And Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who inherited the Tricentennial woes from his predecessor, has accepted the challenge of lifting the event.

Were also pleased with the additions of former Northside Independent School District Superintendent John Folks and Palo Alto College President Mike Flores to the commissions board. They are steady hands.

In many ways, we cant help but wonder where the Tricentennial might be if these leaders had been in place from the beginning. Still, they are making substantive improvements in a short window of time and under immense pressure.

The Tricentennial is much more than a New Years Eve celebration, but the kickoff is a big event that commands public attention.

REO Speedwagon and Pat Benatar as headliners sparked criticism that they are dated acts, but the fact is that they also have a good fan base. And the additions to the lineup of local legends Flaco Jimenez, Little Joe y La Familia and jazz saxophonist BillyRay Sheppard add to the allure.

Such local talent should have been booked from the start.

The New Years Eve kickoff is also much more than a concert. Its a family-friendly event that will take place at Hemisfair. There will be free performances at the Magik Theatre, a giant Ferris wheel, fireworks, street performers, face painting and plenty of food trucks. Families really should consider going because, if the weather is decent, the night will be magical.

This brings us to the Tricentennials website, www.sanantonio300.org

In previous editorials, we refrained from offering a link to the website because it was not all that informative.

Thats changed. The website has been reconstructed, is easy to navigate and is substantive, with room to grow. It is already a great resource to identify events throughout the year that people might want to participate in. It also provides important background information about the Tricentennial.

Going forward, the focus must be on promoting and highlighting Commemorative Week in the spring and other major events that will define the Tricentennial year.

There have been significant stumbles, but dwelling on those is counterproductive. The focus has to be on moving forward and building momentum for a memorable and lasting Tricentennial celebration that stretches across 2018. Those fundamentals appear to be in place, or are getting in place.

We are eager to see where things go from here with proper leadership, better communication and continued fundraising.
As you read this, the experts are debating whether to call the unrelenting brutalization of the Rohingya Muslim minority by Myanmars military a genocide or mere ethnic cleansing.

More than 10,000 dead and about 600,000 displaced to Southern Bangladesh, where they are also unwelcome.

The men and boys separated from the girls and women and then shot.

Babies thrown into bonfires.

Girls and women gang raped and then their huts set afire with them inside.

Entire villages burned from existence.

Genocide? Ethnic cleansing?

Willful, purposeful extermination apparently has different names, but there should be only one response. All pressure necessary to stop it.

The stories of their brutalization have been confirmed, cross-checked and then reconfirmed and then re-cross-checked. Satellite imagery reveals villages eradicated. This is extermination occurring in what amounts to plain sight, even if Myanmar is tightly restricting access to Rakhine state where the Rohingya live  or, rather, lived.

The United States, belatedly, is considering sanctions, reportedly narrowing a target to a single man. But the leader of the nations powerful army  Gen. Min Aung Hlaing  will apparently be spared such discomfort.

Meanwhile, the nations elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been sounding more like an abetter of the violence than the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for her fight to bring democracy to Myanmar. In her battle from house arrest against the military junta ruling the country, she spoke of justice, freedom, dignity and rights.

But she apparently didnt have the Rohingya in mind when she spoke these words.

Yes, we understand. Though elected, Suu Kyi is thought to be a leader perhaps in name only. The generals are still all powerful and sanctions too strong may undermine her and bring the generals back into full control.

But whos being fooled here. The generals are already in full control and Suu Kyi is but a figurehead. If she could speak of justice from house arrest as the worlds most famous political prisoner, surely she can speak of it for her countrymen as a figurehead. Yes, that is what the Rohingya are  her countrymen.

She should return that prestigious prize. She has disowned the right to keep it.

And its thought that sanctioning the chief general will only harden his position. Harder than it already is since he can commit genocide  or is it mere ethnic cleansing  with impunity?

President Barack Obama drew down sanctions as a nod to Myanmars democracy aborning. Now is vastly different from then.

President Donald Trump has an opportunity here to show global leadership. Its clear that, on this issue, the job is open. He should step in no matter the issues looming over his presidency. He can do something right.

But if inaction  or something akin to it with sanctions-light  occurs, there are still things the rest of us can do. Google these names and acronyms, along with Rohingya: BRAC, IOM, Action Against Hunger, UNICEF, Save the Children, Doctors Without Borders, the International Rescue Committee, UNHCF and the World Food Program. And then give, so they may continue helping the Rohingya. They are virtually the only ones who are.

It should not be the stirrings of Christmas spirit that prompt Americans to come to the aid of the Rohingya at this time. It should be the stirrings of humanity, the same impulse that should motivate President Trump and all the worlds leaders to come to the Rohingyas aid.

Genocide? Ethnic cleansing? What name do we give mass murder and rape as an instrument of terror?
Early December snowfall in San Antonio.

Has to be global warming!

Charles F. Rodriguez

Double standard

Re: Trumps paycheck helps fight opioid woe, Nation & World, Dec. 1:

Why was this article hidden way back in the paper?

I am sorry to say that if it had been a Democrat in the White House, this item would have been front-page news.

By the way, I am 86, and I get more disappointed every day.

People have no respect for anyone or anything.

Bobbie Magers, Bulverde

Change of plans

Isnt it funny that, about five years ago, then Gov. Rick Perry wanted to shut down the U.S. Department of Energy, telling everybody it was a waste of money. But then his plans to get a little closer to D.C. failed. Oh, my, we must not let the Department of Energy go down. Mr. Perry, decided, all of a sudden how important it was and took the helm. Whew! Almost lost his allowances. That was a close one.

Michael B. White

Keep your resume

Re: Heres my resume, Your Turn, Dec. 12:

Every once in a while, I read a letter that really makes me angry, and I feel the need to respond.

To this delusional writer, let me remind you that Donald Trump lost the popular vote by almost 3 million, and you are so wrong that most Americans like and support him. Seriously? Why is his approval rating down to 32 percent?

He is one of the most unpopular presidents in recent history. He is the one who is stupid beyond belief, not Elizabeth Warren, who has more brains than Trump. How do you know if she really is a Native Indian or not? If you think she deserves to be called Pocahontas, then Trump deserves to be called a narcissistic, lying, egotistical, overweight, childish bully with no clue about how to run the country. He does not respect anybody and insults everybody who disagrees with him. He is also a sexual predator.

He may be your president but he is not mine. Trump has done nothing to deserve respect, which is earned, not given. As for the fake news, I will believe them before I believe a word Trump says.

What a shame that people like this writer actually believe his lies.

Rebecca Hernandez

The nuclear button

I recently re-read On the Beach by Nevil Shute, a novel adapted into a movie, that is as relevant today. We seem oblivious to the terrifying consequences of using nuclear weapons.

Mr. Trump, apparently ignorant of the lessons learned from the Cuban missile crisis, is counting on brinkmanship to force Kim Jong-un to dismantle his nuclear arsenal. He threatens North Korea with fire and fury like the world has never seen, yet wants to undo the Iran deal, an agreement that stopped Iran development of nuclear weapons.

Contemptuous of diplomacy (Its a waste of time), the president refuses to understand Kim will keep his weapons despite threats and insults. Without the help of China to broker a new detente between a nuclear-armed state governed by a despot and a psychologically unstable president, both Koreas and other nations, including the U.S., could face a nuclear cataclysm.

Mr. Trump, whose authoritarian instincts and routine lying are alarming, trusts no one but himself to make decisions. He is a master at fomenting conflict and divisiveness almost daily to gain attention, reasons enough for safeguards to keep his finger away from the nuclear button.

Joseph Dunwoody

Theyre adults, too

Re: Theyll keep smoking, and city will suffer, Anwar Tahir, Other Views, Dec. 11:

This viewpoint on the proposal by City Council to raise the legal age of purchasing tobacco and tobacco products is right on. It should not be raised. It is time government and society treat 18-year-olds and older as adults for all purposes.

An 18-year old can join the military and die for our country, but cannot have a beer at a restaurant. An 18-year old woman can have an abortion, even in her early teens, but cannot have a glass of wine at the same restaurant. And citizens can vote and be held fully responsible as an adult for criminal acts at age 18 and, sometimes, earlier.

A person may drive a motor vehicle at 16, and the council is considering restricting him or her from purchasing a cigarette for another five years. If a man becomes a father at 20, he will be unable able to buy celebration cigars.

I realize some politicians think people are not smart enough to make their own decisions at any age. Thus, the ever-expanding Nanny State. Let us stop this pampering and change all federal, state and local laws to treat 18-year-olds as adults for all purposes.

Chris Heinrichs

Case against Trump

I hold these truths to be self-evident, based on demonstrable fact:

Russia has not been a friend to the U.S. since the end of World War II.

To cause problems for the U.S., Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

Russia did so with the help of gullible dolts in social media, like Facebook, Twitter and Google.

Russia posted ads and fake news about Hillary Clinton that were seen by huge numbers of gullible voters who believed them.

Consequently, Donald Trump won the election, even though he lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes.

Had it not been for Russia, Clinton, not Trump, would be president today.

I rest my case.

Alex Pollard
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Benjamin Gran was a train enthusiast, a beloved son and an autism success story. He was also a registered sex offender, having served nearly two years in federal prison for child pornography crimes.

On Wednesday, the world learned that he among the three men killed in the derailment of the Amtrak Cascades train that crashed into Interstate 5 during an inaugural run.

Much was made at SeattlePI and elsewhere of Gran's criminal history in the hours after the 40-year-old's identity was released. Speaking by phone Wednesday evening, though, Gran's mother described her son as an autistic young man caught in a "witch hunt" after being duped by an unrepentant pedophile.

Linda Daniels said her son had recovered from his "little blip" and had made a life for himself.

Now Playing: Investigators probing a deadly train crash in Washington State are due to question the driver and a trainee conductor who were in the cab of the locomotive at the time. They say the possible distraction of the driver is one of the lines of inquiry. Three people died and dozens were injured when the Amtrak train came off a bridge onto a motorway below. The train reportedly took a sharp bend at more than twice the speed limit. Investigators say the emergency brakes were automatically activated during the derailment instead of being manually applied by the driver. In the video above, NBC Correspondent Tom Costello takes a look at the various issues surrounding the investigation. Video: Euronews

"He'd pulled it together," Daniels said by phone.

I am in huge grief, she c1ontinued. But Ben deserves the truth.

Daniels described Gran as her autistic, but awesomely autistic son who loved trains. Gran, she said, was an Amtrak fan to the max.

The days since the deadly Amtrak derailment between Tacoma and Olympia saw two of the three fatally injured victims, Jim Hamre and Zack Willhoite, celebrated for their love of trains. Hamre, 61, and Willhoite, 35, were close friends and volunteers on the board of All Aboard Washington, a rail advocacy organization. Gran shared that love of trains.

"He lived, breathed Amtrak since he was 2," Daniels said by email.

Gran, Hamre and Willhoite died on the inaugural run on a faster train route between Seattle and Portland. Authorities have said that the train was going 80 mph in a 30 mph zone, derailing south of Seattle and toppling some cars on I-5 below. Dozens of others were hurt, some seriously.

The Pierce County coroner's office said Wednesday that Gran, 40, died of multiple traumatic injuries sustained in Monday's crash.

Gran's death came six years after child pornography investigators arrived at his door. He was caught in an investigation into an online forum dedicated to promoting the sexual abuse of children, and ultimately served 18 months of a federal prison term after he was caught with a collection of child pornography videos.

MORE FROM SEATTLEPI: Highway cleared, no estimate on reopening I-5 near crash site

Agents visited Grans home in July 2011 after investigation launched in the Netherlands targeting boylovers identified him as a member of an online pedophile group. Dutch police and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security launched the investigation  dubbed Operation Rescue  in 2009 aimed at bringing down the forum. Investigators had arrested 12 suspected child abusers and rescued 100 children by the time they came for Gran.

Robert Mikelsons, a Dutch man at the center of the ring and a fellow supporter of the movement to legitimize the sexual abuse of children, had corresponded with Gran directly as early as 2004, according to court papers. Mikelsons and the other forum members asserted molestation was healthy for the children they hurt.

Speaking with KING-TV's Drew Mikkelsen, Daniels described him as "Amtrak's biggest fan."

Benjamin Gran's mother described him as "Amtrak's biggest fan." He was identified as the third person killed in the train crash. He served time for child porn possession, but his mother says he paid his debt to society and was on the right path. pic.twitter.com/neoBnhb2ZJ  Drew Mikkelsen (@drewmikkelsenk5) December 20, 2017

Court papers that would describe Gran more completely remain sealed.

Gran was ultimately sentenced to two years in prison and placed under court supervision for the rest of his life. He was released from federal prison in 2015.

Before his death, he had been working as an accountant for a medical organization related to autism care. His death, Daniels said, left his friends and family shattered beyond belief.

Gran's love of trains was evident in his letters to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which twice published Gran's offerings. In one, he argued for the preservation of a disused Eastside rail line slated to be replaced with a bicycle path.

"The New Mexico Rail Runner has far exceeded ridership expectations, despite serving smaller cities than Bellevue," Gran opined in 2007. "The Eastside line runs within a quarter mile from downtown Bellevue, which needs commuter rail now, not 10-20 years from now."

In messages shared by Daniels with SeattlePI, Gran was described by one family friend as a young man graced with a generous spirit and loving heart. His Special Olympics coaches described him as a dear sweet friend who they considered family.

This young man brought such joy and love to everyone he met, they wrote in the message provided late Wednesday. He was incredibly kindhearted and insightful.

His love of trains, they added, knew no bounds.

He made a mistake that he paid dearly for, Daniels said. Because of his optimism, a team of professionals and his best friends who believed in Ben, he turned his life completely around and was living his life in a mature, contributing manner, and was the happiest he had been in his life.

An investigation into the wreck that killed Gran is ongoing.

This report contains information from The Associated Press.

SeattlePI senior editor Levi Pulkkinen can be reached at 206-448-8348 or levipulkkinen@seattlepi.com. Follow Levi on Twitter at twitter.com/levipulk.
THE United Nations (UN) has commended Zimbabwes new Government for its commitment to rebuild the economy and mend international relations. President Emmerson Mnangagwa has, since coming to power a few weeks ago, pledged to rebuild the economy and normalise relations with the international community.

In a statement posted on their website yesterday, the UN system in Zimbabwe said it welcomed the new political dispensation after President Mnangagwas commitment to uphold human rights, while improving the countrys economy.

The United Nations (UN) System in Zimbabwe welcomes the expressed commitment of the Government towards: social cohesion and peace; economic recovery and job creation; improved quality delivery of social services; anti-corruption; accelerated reform efforts, including in the public sector; human security; credible, transparent and peaceful elections in 2018; and re-engagement with the international community, the UN said.

It said it will assist the country in rebuilding the economy, as the authorities re-engage the international community and international financial institutions.

The UN System in Zimbabwe reconfirms its commitment to supporting Zimbabwe to advance sustainable, rights-based and inclusive development for all and strongly supports the Governments commitment and efforts towards re-engagement with the International Financial Institutions (IFIs), said the UN.

It said the countrys National Budget Statement for 2018 was sound, showing the Governments commitment towards reviving the economy. We also take note of the policy shifts and measures towards economic recovery, stabilisation and inclusive growth through employment creation, the UN said. Timely disbursements and efficient use of the allocated budgets would be critical.

The UN pledged to support Government through its initiatives to promote accountability in the public sector and deliver social services. Building on the long-standing engagement in the country anchored on a relationship of trust and mutual respect with all stakeholders, the UN System in Zimbabwe renews its collective commitment to support the Government and the people of Zimbabwe to realise their aspirations, said the UN.

In this regard, the UN System in Zimbabwe commits to scale-up its joint support to national efforts. In so doing, the UN System remains committed to the principle of national ownership and leadership, under the overarching collective commitment to leaving no one behind, with a special focus on the most vulnerable populations, particularly children, youth and women.

The UN will enhance its co-operation under the existing strategic programme framework of the 2016-2020 Zimbabwe United Nations Development Assistance Framework (ZUNDAF), signed with the Government in 2015. The Herald



Breaking News via Email
ZIMBABWE Defence Forces Commander General Constantino Guvheya Nyikadzino Dominic Chiwenga yesterday officially handed over the reins to General Philip Valerio Sibanda, marking an end to his 44-year illustrious military career.

The colourful hand-over and take-over grand parade was held at Commando Regiment and was witnessed by the Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Gen Chiwenga retired this week after spending 44 years as a soldier, 13 of which he was ZDF Commander.

The ZDF is composed of the Zimbabwe National Army and Air Force of Zimbabwe.

Gen Chiwenga had taken over from late national hero General Vitalis Musungwa Gava Zvinavashe, who retired in 2003. Before handing over the ZDF colours and symbol of command, Gen Chiwenga inspected a guard of honour, his last in military uniform.

President Mnangagwa thanked Gen Chiwenga for showing consistency and steadfastness during his tenure.

I, therefore, urge you to maintain the same loyalty, robustness and dedication to duty as you move to your next assignment which is quite prominent.

He said Gen Sibandas promotion was based on distinction and merit.

You have demonstrated visionary leadership, when you were Commander of the Zimbabwe National Army, President Mnangagwa said.

As you assume a higher and more challenging assignment, I hope and trust that you will continue to take a leading role in developing the Zimbabwe Defence Forces into a professional, competent, hard hitting and highly disciplined force.

President Mnangagwa said the Defence Forces should continue working closely with Government Ministries to ensure economic development.

Our Defence Forces are renowned and respected nationally, regionally and internationally for their professional conduct of duties, he said.

This was clearly demonstrated by the way Operation Restore Legacy was clinically executed, right from the start to finish. I want to assure you that Government is fully committed to the task of ensuring that your requirements and those of all citizens are provided for as we continue to review your conditions of service.

In his farewell speech, Gen Chiwenga reminisced the journey he travelled with his military family since he joined the army at the age of 17. He chronicled how he left school in 1973 to join the liberation struggle and how President Mnangagwa superintended over the integration over Zanla and Zipra armies to form the Zimbabwe Defence Forces in 1980.

Gen Chiwenga said during his tenure as ZDF Commander, the main focus was on retraining and re-equipping the force following intermittent years of successful military campaigns.

The campaigns, he said, were held under the auspices of Sadc, African Union and United Nations.

As I retire today, I am proud to have been associated with such a professional, battle tested and efficient force that has become the envy of many, friendly and foe, the world over, Gen Chiwenga said.

I implore upon you to jealously guard this good reputation that we have earned over the years.

He said in the last 13 years, the ZDF had registered numerous achievements despite limited budgetary allocations.

These include a small hard hitting force, commonly referred to as Combat Group Concept, introduction of an inspectorate department and the Defence Economic Development Department, establishment of the Zimbabwe National Defence University and the recent Operation Restore Legacy among others.

Gen Chiwenga said his command was made easier because of the unity among officers.

As I retire together with other Generals, I am aware though that some among us might be full of emotions due to this separation, over which I implore you all to reserve your energies in ensuring that you continue to give maximum support to the incoming command element, Gen Chiwenga said.

He said the incoming Commander Gen Sibanda was an able freedom fighter and professional soldier.

Gen Sibanda said: Many challenges confronted us during this period and General Chiwenga was always up to the task seeking solutions to these challenges.

We overcame most of these because we worked as a team. Team work is our secret to success.

He thanked President Mnangagwa for trusting him and pledged to do his best in executing his mandate.

The ceremony was witnessed by service chiefs, Government Ministers and senior officials. The Chronicle

Breaking News via Email
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa will today present his inaugural State of the Nation Address (SONA) amid high expectations that he would tackle the skyrocketing prices of basic commodities and bring to an end the current cash crisis ahead of the festive season.

Mnangagwa who took over as State President last month after long-time ruler ex-President Robert Mugabe stepped down following military intervention would be under pressure to urgently introduce a raft of measures to stabilise the economy currently on a tailspin and restore public confidence in his administration.

Clerk of Parliament Kennedy Chokuda yesterday said the Presidents address would be held at the Harare International Conference Centre (HICC).

President Mnangagwa will address a joint sitting of Parliament and issue out a SONA at the HICC, Chokuda confirmed to NewsDay.

The sitting at the HICC is in compliance with section 150 of the Constitution which allows Parliament to sit at different venues other than Parliament.

MDC-T spokesperson Obert Gutu said Mnangagwas statement should address the current economic meltdown and the liquidity crunch before things get out of hand.

In fact, the situation is now worse than it was during the Mugabe regime. Life is getting very tough for the majority of Zimbabweans and the government appears at sixes and sevens regarding what to do in order to arrest the economic implosion, Gutu said.

He also implored Mnangagwa to de-militarise State organs and revert back to civilian rule as provided for in the Constitution.

The State apparatuses are becoming increasingly militarised as we see more and more members of the armed forces being appointed to influential positions in government.

The MDC would like the President to address what measures his government is taking to stop the creation of a de facto military junta running the affairs of government, Gutu said.

The opposition added that Mnangagwa should spell out the roadmap to free and fair polls and indicate when he would appoint the new Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) chairperson following Justice Rita Makaraus recent

resignation.

The Zec chairperson recently resigned and we dont know when exactly her replacement will be announced, the MDC-T said.

The Morgan Tsvangirai-led party also urged Mnangagwa to rein in his special adviser, Chris Mutsvangwa, and stop him from making inflammatory statements that could cause alarm and despondency ahead of next years crunch polls.

We are still being denied access to the State-controlled print and electronic media and we are concerned that senior members of Mnangagwas administration have publicly announced that the army and traditional leaders will be campaigning for Zanu PF in next years elections. This is a very serious cause for concern because such a move flagrantly violates the basic tenets of our Constitution, Gutu added.

Mutsvangwa has, however, disowned the alleged remarks, saying he was quoted out of context.

Peoples Democratic Party spokesperson Jacob Mafume also said Mnangagwa should arrest the cash crisis and skyrocketing of prices, to mention but a few.

He needs to atone for the disaster of the Cabinet he has appointed. We need clear strategies and roadmaps on how he will deal with the crisis of political illegitimacy and economic crisis, Mafume said.

For political legitimacy the army has to go back to the barracks, but not just changing uniforms and coming back as civilians in suits. We need a roadmap to free and credible elections and a transitional management which is inclusive.

The countrys economy has been on a free-fall with prices of basic commodities rising while foreign currency shortages have not eased.

Political analyst Blessing Vava said Mnangagwa should highlight the roadmap to elections. (It is fundamental) how this government is going to ensure and guarantee a free and fair election.

Will there be a shift in terms of the playing field, equal access to the media and campaign zones etc? There might just be pledges, but is there the will to ensure that the reforms are addressed? Vava said.

University of Zimbabwe media lecturer Wellington Gadzikwa said todays address would give Mnangagwa an opportunity to unveil his economic vision to instil investor confidence as well as end partisan politics in State matters.

He has to tackle the cash crisis, elections, stability in government and remove partisan politics in State resources, Gadzikwa said.

Welshman Ncubes MDC said since the rise of Mnangagwa to the throne, there has been a lot of paperwork and fictitious stories, but no tangible results to accompany the publicity he had received so far.

We are expecting the same old lyrics, too sweet to hear, but not achievable. Mnangagwa is more of a Hollywood actor than a State President, MDC spokesperson Kurauone Chihwayi said.

The MDC is not expecting miracles from the same Zanu PF comedians. They still need cartons of cosmetics to convince us that they are beautiful, not the cheap bar-talk.

MDC-T vice-president and Kuwadzana East MP Nelson Chamisa requested Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda to allow MPs to ask Mnangagwa questions after the SONA presentation.

We know that section 140 (1) of the Constitution and Standing Rules and Orders section 167 and 168 give that right since the President is still new so that we are allowed to do a question-and-answer session with Mnangagwa so that we present to him the issues troubling the nation, especially after reports that some senior security officers have been retired, Chamisa said.

But, Mudenda ruled Chamisa offside saying although section 140 (3) of the Constitution allowed for the President to attend Parliament to answer questions in Parliament, the Head of State was not obliged to respond to questions from his SONA presentation.

He urged Chamisa to raise SONA-related questions at a different forum. NewsDay

Breaking News via Email
An elite crime-busting unit run by government is going after flamboyant businessman Wicknell Chivayo over a string of energy deals entered with the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) a unit of Zesa Holdings.

Controversy around the mega deals between ZPC and Intratrek Zimbabwe (Private) Limited a company owned by Chivayo is said to have aroused the interest of the National Economic Conduct Inspectorate (NECI), which falls under the ministry of Finance and Economic Development and reports directly to its secretary, Willard Manungo.

NECI has written to Chivayo, in his capacity as managing director of Intratrek, requesting that the businessman avails his companys bank statements, cash books and documentation in relation to the energy deals.

As part of an exercise that NECI is carrying out, may you avail the following documents for inspection: All contracts or agreements entered into with the Zimbabwe Power company, Intratrek Zimbabwes bank statements from January 2015 to date, cash books and all documents pertaining to the Gwanda Solar Project and Munyati Power station. An expeditious submission of the above will be appreciated, reads part of the letter dated December 7, 2017.

NECIs mandate is that of carrying out compliance checks on companies to ensure that the country is not prejudiced through prejudicial transfer pricing as well as unfair business practices such as externalisation.

Inspectors from NECI draw their powers from Section 5(1) (b) of the Bank Use Promotion Act Chapter 24:24, which gives them the power to monitor and enforce compliance with the said legislation.

They also operate within the confines of the Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Act, Chapter 9; 24 and in terms of Section 6 of the Bank Use Promotion Act Chapter 24:24.

The latest development comes as controversy has marred a 100 Megawatt Gwanda Solar Plant where a $5 million pay-out was made by the power utility to Intratrek without following proper procedures and despite Chivayo not providing a performance guarantee as required by law.

Intratrek has been awarded several tenders by ZPC.

These include the $200 million tender for the Gwanda Solar Project; a tender for the refurbishment of the Harare Power Station at a cost of $73 million, $163 million for the restoration of the Munyati Power Station, and $248 million for the Gairezi Power project.

Chivayos rivals have called on authorities to expedite their investigations into his company and establish how he won all the lucrative power tenders running into hundreds of millions of dollars.

Chivayo told the Daily News yesterday that there was nothing unusual about NECIs request and he would avail the documents.

Yes I got their letter. There is nothing unusual though about the department making a follow up on government projects. I am in constant discussions with them and I will give them what they have requested, he said.

Zesa Holdings chief executive officer Josh Chifamba referred questions to the power utilitys board, chaired by former Finance minister Herbert Murerwa.

You can get in touch with the board on that one, he said.

Chifamba told the Daily News last week that the Zesa board was due to meet to deliberate on Chivayos projects, but refused to be drawn into disclosing whether the Intratrek managing director would be asked to return the $5 million he was given, insisting that the position would only be made clear after the board meeting.

The businessman has often set tongues wagging with Facebook posts of his expensive apparel, something that he does not make apologies about, as he also posts pictures spending loads of United States dollars.

Chivayo, who once served a jail term for fraud, has also in the past been pictured with former president Robert Mugabe in his offices, as well as with his then powerful wife Grace and son Robert Junior while on holiday in Dubai.

In a video posted on social media a few days after Mugabe had tendered his resignation, Chivayo bragged that he was one of the lucky few who had access to the former first family.

The colourful character also poured cold water on claims that he was the former first familys runner.

As a businessman, the controversial socialite said it was in his interests to align himself with the ruling party.

He has since declared his full support for President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Mugabes successor.

Chivayo seems to be on the list of people targeted under the Zimbabwe Defence Forces Operation Restore Legacy targeting criminal elements around Mugabe.

Zimbabwes military reportedly detained the flashy businessman after a dawn raid on his Harare home last week, almost a month after seizing power.

While his lawyers have denied that he was ever detained for whatever reason, the Daily News had it on good authority that his captors wanted to ask the businessman a few questions before releasing him the following day.

The militarys interest in the matter reportedly stems from the draft impeachment motion of Mugabe which accused the former Zanu PF leader of being a source of instability, flouting the rule of law by refusing to hold to account Energy minister Samuel Undenges alleged scandal at Zesa Holdings, involving Chivayo.

Further concerned that the president has not taken any meaningful steps to stem endemic corruption which has become the countrys number one enemy like evidenced in the Zesa case where his Cabinet minister approved the transfer of $5 million without following provisions laid down in the Public Finance Management Act; therefore calls upon this House to cause the removal of the president from office in light of the above and that voting in the motion of no confidence in the president be by secret ballot, the draft motion read.

Mugabe subsequently resigned, abruptly halting the impeachment hearing that had begun against him, and drawing the curtain on his 37-year rule and sparking unrestrained celebrations in the nations streets. DailyNews

Breaking News via Email
Mayor Marty Walsh signed the ban into law, making the city the 60th Massachusetts community to have such a prohibition.

BOSTON  Last month, the Boston City Council okayed a ban on plastic bags, with a nickel fee for thicker bags handed out at drug stores, supermarkets and convenience stores. This week, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh signed the measure into law, Boston Magazine reports. The city is the 60th in Massachusetts to have such a ban.

Even though he expressed reservations about who would pay for the ban, Walsh ultimately approved it because in theory, its great for the environment. Opponents fret that the ban will negatively impact lower-income residents, while the Retailers Association of Massachusetts believes it will vex tourists.

"Imagine being an out-of-state tourist and going to Faneuil Hall [or] Quincy Market during the holiday season and having to pay for a bag, said Jon Hurst, the associations president. That just sends the wrong message.

The bag fee wont be implemented until December 2018 to give retailers and residents time to adjust to the changes. In August, Chicago released a study on its 7-cent-per-plastic-bag fee that supported its assertion that it did alter shopper behavior. Research on a Washington, D.C., disposable bag tax showed that grocery stores didnt experience an uptick in plastic bag usage in the more than two years that the tax has been in effect.
WASHINGTON  This week, six styles of Camel Snus entered the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations (FDA) review process, as Reynolds American Inc. seeks to have the products listed as having a modified-risk status, the Winston-Salem Journal reports.

The applications for substantive review are for winterchill, robust, mint, mellow, frost large and frost camel snus styles. The review process could last 12 months, and began with a public comment period that opened on Monday.

If ultimately approved by the agency, Reynolds could market the snus styles as less risky for those who replace smoking with snus, a teabag-like pouch containing loose tobacco that users insert between cheek and gum. Unlike chewing tobacco, no spitting is necessary. Reynolds launched Camel Snus in 2006.

James Figlar, senior vice president for scientific and regulatory affairs with RAI Services Co., said that the agency moving the applications forward represents an important step forward in fulfilling Reynolds commitment to collaborative leadership in the transformation of the tobacco industry.  We believe the science and our proposed advertising to be compelling and accurate.

The true test here is whether the FDA is able to follow through on its commissioners proclamation of the importance of moving smokers to the low-risk end of nicotines continuum of risk, said David Sweanor, an adjunct law professor at the University of Ottawa who studies electronic cigarettes. The success of product substitution with snus in Sweden, vaping in the UK, and now the dramatic success of heat-not-burn products in driving down cigarette sales in Japan could be not just replicated but accentuated in the United States.

Other tobacco companies are also seeking approval for modified-risk products, such as British American Tobaccos heat-not-burn glo and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.s similar product, Eclipse.
Find the newest releases to watch from National Geographic on Disney+, including acclaimed documentary series and films Fire of Love, The Rescue, Limitless with Chris Hemsworth and We Feed People.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court today sentenced former TV anchor and producer Suhaib Ilyasi to life imprisonment for killing his wife Anju more than 17 years ago, saying he "committed murder and gave it a colour of suicide".

READ HERE | 'India's Most Wanted' host Suhaib Ilyasi killed wife fearing she may disclose his frauds: Delhi court

The court ruled out that the case was in the realm of the rarest of the rare category warranting death penalty to the host of famous show 'India's Most Wanted' and said ends of justice would be met if the convict is sentenced to life term.

Also read: It was Suhaib Ilyasi's duty to make three-year-old daughter witness, says Delhi court

Anju was rushed to a hospital on January 11, 2000 with stab wounds she received at her East Delhi residence.

Suhaib, who had shot into limelight after hosting TV crime show - 'India's Most Wanted', was arrested on March 28, 2000 and later charges were framed against him in the case after his sister-in-law and mother-in-law alleged that he used to torture his wife for dowry.

Former television serial producer Suhaib Ilyasi being escorted by police at a court in New Delhi on Wednesday after he was awarded life imprisonment for killing his wife Anju. PTI

"In the case in hand, it has been held that the convict, who was the husband of the deceased, committed her murder and gave it a colour of suicide," Additional Sessions Judge S K Malhotra said today.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on Ilyasi, who was convicted on December 16 for stabbing to death his wife and also directed that Rs 10 lakh would be paid as compensation to parents of Anju which would be borne by him.

"Keeping in view the facts and circumstances of the case, I am of the opinion that the ends of justice would be subserved if the convict is sentenced under section 302 of the IPC to imprisonment for life and also to pay a fine of Rs 2 lakh in default of payment of fine to further undergo SI for six months," the court said.

Immediately after the pronouncement of the order, 51-year-old Ilyasi, who was brought from Tihar jail, shouted that he was innocent and the award of life sentence is an "injustice". His brother was also present in the courtroom.

Rukma Singh, Anju's mother, expressed satisfaction over the court's order and said, "I am satisfied with the verdict as long as he is convicted I am fine." During the arguments on sentence, the prosecution said Ilyasi committed his wife's murder in a brutal manner and capital punishment should be awarded as he does not deserve any leniency.

The prosecution said the case fell into the category of rarest of rare as the convict "betrayed the faith of not only his wife but of the public at large" as he was producing a TV serial and his image in the eyes of the public was that of a law abiding citizen.

The advocate appearing for Ilyasi claimed that the case was based on circumstantial evidence and that he faced the trial for 17 years without violating the bail condition and his conduct was good before the court.

Earlier, Ilyasi was only charged with milder sections including 304 B (dowry death) of the IPC.

However, Anju's mother Rukma Singh and sister Rashmi Singh moved the Delhi High Court which in August 2014 ruled that the TV producer would be tried under Section 302 for the offence of murder.

Mother-in-law satisfied with verdict

Anju Singh's mother today expressed satisfaction over the life term awarded to Suhaib Ilyasi for killing her daughter after a 17-year-long battle.

Rukma Singh, who arrived from Patna to attend today's proceedings, said, "I'm satisfied with the verdict. As long as he is convicted I'm fine." She told the reporters that she had spoken to her granddaughter, who was three-year-old at the time of the incident, and had seen her.

"She resembles Anju a lot," she said.

Her lawyer Satender Sharma said that Rukma had met her granddaughter, currently in Ilyasi's custody, in 2008 on her birthday, adding that she had visiting rights and used to meet her on special occasions like birthdays.

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court today sentenced former TV anchor and producer Suhaib Ilyasi to life imprisonment for killing his wife Anju more than 17 years ago, saying he "committed murder and gave it a colour of suicide". READ HERE | 'India's Most Wanted' host Suhaib Ilyasi killed wife fearing she may disclose his frauds: Delhi court The court ruled out that the case was in the realm of the rarest of the rare category warranting death penalty to the host of famous show 'India's Most Wanted' and said ends of justice would be met if the convict is sentenced to life term. Also read: It was Suhaib Ilyasi's duty to make three-year-old daughter witness, says Delhi court Anju was rushed to a hospital on January 11, 2000 with stab wounds she received at her East Delhi residence. Suhaib, who had shot into limelight after hosting TV crime show - 'India's Most Wanted', was arrested on March 28, 2000 and later charges were framed against him in the case after his sister-in-law and mother-in-law alleged that he used to torture his wife for dowry. Former television serial producer Suhaib Ilyasi being escorted by police at a court in New Delhi on Wednesday after he was awarded life imprisonment for killing his wife Anju. PTI "In the case in hand, it has been held that the convict, who was the husband of the deceased, committed her murder and gave it a colour of suicide," Additional Sessions Judge S K Malhotra said today. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on Ilyasi, who was convicted on December 16 for stabbing to death his wife and also directed that Rs 10 lakh would be paid as compensation to parents of Anju which would be borne by him. "Keeping in view the facts and circumstances of the case, I am of the opinion that the ends of justice would be subserved if the convict is sentenced under section 302 of the IPC to imprisonment for life and also to pay a fine of Rs 2 lakh in default of payment of fine to further undergo SI for six months," the court said. Immediately after the pronouncement of the order, 51-year-old Ilyasi, who was brought from Tihar jail, shouted that he was innocent and the award of life sentence is an "injustice". His brother was also present in the courtroom. Rukma Singh, Anju's mother, expressed satisfaction over the court's order and said, "I am satisfied with the verdict as long as he is convicted I am fine." During the arguments on sentence, the prosecution said Ilyasi committed his wife's murder in a brutal manner and capital punishment should be awarded as he does not deserve any leniency. The prosecution said the case fell into the category of rarest of rare as the convict "betrayed the faith of not only his wife but of the public at large" as he was producing a TV serial and his image in the eyes of the public was that of a law abiding citizen. The advocate appearing for Ilyasi claimed that the case was based on circumstantial evidence and that he faced the trial for 17 years without violating the bail condition and his conduct was good before the court. Earlier, Ilyasi was only charged with milder sections including 304 B (dowry death) of the IPC. However, Anju's mother Rukma Singh and sister Rashmi Singh moved the Delhi High Court which in August 2014 ruled that the TV producer would be tried under Section 302 for the offence of murder. Mother-in-law satisfied with verdict Anju Singh's mother today expressed satisfaction over the life term awarded to Suhaib Ilyasi for killing her daughter after a 17-year-long battle. Rukma Singh, who arrived from Patna to attend today's proceedings, said, "I'm satisfied with the verdict. As long as he is convicted I'm fine." She told the reporters that she had spoken to her granddaughter, who was three-year-old at the time of the incident, and had seen her. "She resembles Anju a lot," she said. Her lawyer Satender Sharma said that Rukma had met her granddaughter, currently in Ilyasi's custody, in 2008 on her birthday, adding that she had visiting rights and used to meet her on special occasions like birthdays.
By AFP

ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hit back Wednesday at the United Arab Emirates' foreign minister over a social media post that accused "Erdogan's ancestors" of kidnapping people of Medina in the early 20th century.

Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan retweeted a post on Twitter this week, in which a user claimed Fahreddin Pasha -- Medina governor from 1916 to 1919 -- was a thief.

The UAE's top diplomat shared the tweet by the user called "Ali al-Iraqi" and presenting himself as an Iraqi dentist living in Germany.

"Ali al-Iraqi" said the former Medina governor "committed a crime against the people of Medina by stealing their money, kidnapping them and putting them on trains that took them to Syria and Istanbul".

The user added: "Those are the ancestors of Erdogan and this is the history that they have with Arab Muslims."

The controversial tweet:

   1916                    ( )

          .



       pic.twitter.com/lEynzANQiV  .   (@ali11iraq) December 16, 2017

Erdogan told the minister to "know your place" as he railed against the Twitter user's claims.

"Now you see unfortunately those near (Medina) unashamedly, relentlessly are making slanderous claims. First, know your place! It means you do not know this country, you do not know Erdogan, you do not know about Erdogan's ancestors," he thundered.

Fahreddin Pasha was governor during the siege of Medina (1916-1919).

"When Fahreddin Pasha was protecting Medina, hey you wretched slandering us, where were your ancestors?" Erdogan retorted during a speech in Ankara.

Erdogan's spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, said on Tuesday the tweet was a "propaganda lie" and the governor had "bravely defended" Medina against the "British plans".

Ibrahim Kalin, presidential spokesperson for Erdogan too slammed the UAE minister:

It is a shame that @ABZayed, FM of UAE, retweets this propaganda lie that seeks to turn Turks & Arabs against one another, again. It was Fahreddin Pasha who bravely defended Madina against the British plans then. Is attacking President Erdogan at all costs the new fashion now? https://t.co/E9o4u7aSCH  Ibrahim Kalin (@ikalin1) December 19, 2017

Relations between the UAE and Turkey are filled with distrust as Ankara supports Qatar in a six-month crisis with its Gulf neighbours including the UAE, as well as political groups stemming from the Muslim Brotherhood movement.

The UAE outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood as a "terror" group in 2014.

Since June 5, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt have cut all ties with Qatar, accusing the emirate of supporting Islamist extremists and of being too close to Shiite Iran, Riyadh's arch-rival.

Turkish pro-government newspapers also routinely allude to UAE involvement in last year's attempted coup against Erdogan.

ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hit back Wednesday at the United Arab Emirates' foreign minister over a social media post that accused "Erdogan's ancestors" of kidnapping people of Medina in the early 20th century. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan retweeted a post on Twitter this week, in which a user claimed Fahreddin Pasha -- Medina governor from 1916 to 1919 -- was a thief. The UAE's top diplomat shared the tweet by the user called "Ali al-Iraqi" and presenting himself as an Iraqi dentist living in Germany. "Ali al-Iraqi" said the former Medina governor "committed a crime against the people of Medina by stealing their money, kidnapping them and putting them on trains that took them to Syria and Istanbul". The user added: "Those are the ancestors of Erdogan and this is the history that they have with Arab Muslims." The controversial tweet:    1916                    ( )           .        pic.twitter.com/lEynzANQiV  .   (@ali11iraq) December 16, 2017 Erdogan told the minister to "know your place" as he railed against the Twitter user's claims. "Now you see unfortunately those near (Medina) unashamedly, relentlessly are making slanderous claims. First, know your place! It means you do not know this country, you do not know Erdogan, you do not know about Erdogan's ancestors," he thundered. Fahreddin Pasha was governor during the siege of Medina (1916-1919). "When Fahreddin Pasha was protecting Medina, hey you wretched slandering us, where were your ancestors?" Erdogan retorted during a speech in Ankara. Erdogan's spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, said on Tuesday the tweet was a "propaganda lie" and the governor had "bravely defended" Medina against the "British plans". Ibrahim Kalin, presidential spokesperson for Erdogan too slammed the UAE minister: It is a shame that @ABZayed, FM of UAE, retweets this propaganda lie that seeks to turn Turks & Arabs against one another, again. It was Fahreddin Pasha who bravely defended Madina against the British plans then. Is attacking President Erdogan at all costs the new fashion now? https://t.co/E9o4u7aSCH  Ibrahim Kalin (@ikalin1) December 19, 2017 Relations between the UAE and Turkey are filled with distrust as Ankara supports Qatar in a six-month crisis with its Gulf neighbours including the UAE, as well as political groups stemming from the Muslim Brotherhood movement. The UAE outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood as a "terror" group in 2014. Since June 5, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt have cut all ties with Qatar, accusing the emirate of supporting Islamist extremists and of being too close to Shiite Iran, Riyadh's arch-rival. Turkish pro-government newspapers also routinely allude to UAE involvement in last year's attempted coup against Erdogan.
Haven't bought your Thanksgiving turkey yet? A look at local prices.

While farms like Helgers in Tiverton have already sold out of turkeys, there are still frozen and fresh birds for sale at local markets.
Hartmut Schick will be the new Head of Daimler Trucks Asia (DTA). He will succeed Marc Llistosella, who will leave the company by March 31, 2018 in order to pursue new career challenges. DTA is the Asian subsidiary of Daimler Trucks and Buses and includes the Japanese Mitsubishi Fuso Trucks and Bus Corporation (MFTBC) and the Indian Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV).

Marc Llistosella has contributed to many important milestones of Daimler Trucks. We thank him for his great commitment and wish him all the best for the future, said Martin Daum, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG for Trucks and Buses.

In Hartmut Schick, a very experienced and internationally minded commercial-vehicles executive is taking charge of our business in Asia. In recent years, he has turned Daimler into the worlds most successful bus producer, characterized by an integrative management style. We are delighted that he is taking over this important task in Asia, continued Martin Daum.

Marc Llistosella joined the then Daimler-Benz AG in 1994 and held various management positions in the areas of sales and strategy. He planned the market entry in India as Head of Truck Strategy in 2005, and then moved to the newly founded DICV in India, at first as project manager and later as CEO. In 2014, he moved to Mitsubishi Fuso as Head of Sales, where he provided crucial support with the merger of the two Asian brands and national companies into Daimler Trucks Asia.

Since April 1, 2015, Marc Llistosella has been CEO of MFTBC and Head of DTA with responsibility for the worldwide business of FUSO and BharatBenz. Since then, he has repositioned both MFTBC as a company and also the FUSO brand through investments in products, production, quality management and digitization and the launch of E-FUSO, the first product brand for electric trucks and buses.

Hartmut Schick has been Head of the Daimler Buses division and CEO of EvoBus GmbH since January 1, 2009. Under his leadership, the division has developed into the worlds most profitable bus manufacturer and at the same time, as the only bus manufacturer that continues to produce in Germany. In addition, Daimler Buses further extended its technological leadership in the last years, not least due to the Mercedes-Benz Future Bus, the worlds first city bus to operate in autonomous mode.

Hartmut Schick joined the Central Research Department of the then Daimler-Benz AG in 1986 after graduating in mechanical engineering. After a period working in car production at the Sindelfingen plant, Schick joined the Marketing department of DASA in Munich in 1990. He was appointed Head of the Corporate Secretariat and Head of the Office of the Chairman of the Board of Management in 1993. In 1995, he returned to Stuttgart and took charge of the Chairmans Planning Staff. Two years later, he was given the task of establishing the Mercedes-Benz plant in Juiz de Fora (Brazil) as Head of Production and Logistics. From 2002 onwards, he headed the global communications of the Daimler Group.

Also Watch: Isuzu MU X vs Toyota Fortuner Comparison Review | Cars18
Okinawa, the electric-two wheeler manufacturing company, launched its latest e-scooter Praise, which the company claims to be the fastest e-scooter in India, with a maximum speed of 75 km/hr basing upon loading capacity. The company also claims that it travels the longest range covering a distance of 170-200 km on a single charge.

The scooter was already available for pre-booking from the 24th of November across all Okinawa authorized dealerships in India at a pre-booking amount of Rs 2000, Praise is Okinawas premium offering as the favoured e-scooter for Indias next generation.

Apart from its range and performance, Praise is laden with many unique features. From LED lights, digital speedometers to different speed modes such as Economy, Sporty and Turbo, it offers the quintessential futuristic ride to the commuter. The stand is equipped with the Anti-theft sensor along with the telescopic front fork & rear suspension with gas charge, aluminum alloy wheels with tubeless tyres. Other exclusive features which make Praise different are Mobile Charging point, Big boot space, Keyless start that offers a Keyless ride and a pre-loaded Find My Scooter location tracker device. Praise is available in distinct shades of Glossy Purple/Black Double Tone, Matte Blue/Black and Matte Golden/Black.

Commenting on its latest offering, Mr. Jeetender Sharma - Founder & M. D. of Okinawa Scooters said, With Praise, Okinawas years of painstaking research have finally found a tangible shape. Across the industry, it has been considered as one of the complete e-scooters ever built, with a combination of superlative design and technology that gives it immense power. Every feature in Praise has been added after careful consideration of the needs and preferences of riders which came after the rigorous screening of each component & day long endurance testing of praise of around 25000 km different parts of the country that immensely facilitate their commuting experience. In an effort to further facilitate buyers interested in opting for Praise, HDFC Bank in partnership with Okinawa will provide easy financing options for the e-vehicle with loans up to 80% of the on-road price of the e-scooter. This offer will be available on a Pan-India basis, facilitating the growing market for the e-vehicle in tier-I, II and III cities. We firmly believe that Praise will be gladly welcomed by Indian users and prove to be the harbinger for a new age of e-vehicle revolution on Indian roads.

Praise is an essential cog in the wheel of Okinawa Autotechs long-term vision for the Indian market, which has already seen the organization invest USD 40 million in further expansion of its dealer and distribution network.

Also Watch: Isuzu MU X vs Toyota Fortuner Comparison Review | Cars18
New Delhi: Automobile industry body SIAM has proposed all new vehicle sales in India to be pure electric by 2047 while the same for intra-city public transport fleet can be achieved by 2030.

In a white paper submitted to the government, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) said it is aiming at 40 per cent of new vehicle sales in the country to be pure electric by 2030.

The paper has been brought out in line with the government's vision of 100 per cent electric for public mobility and 40 per cent electric for personal mobility by 2030, it said in a statement.

However, former power minister Piyush Goyal had in April this year said: "The idea is that by 2030, not a single petrol or diesel car should be sold in the country."

Proposing 100 per cent pure electric vehicles -- battery electric and fuel cell -- by the 100th anniversary of India's Independence in 2047, SIAM outlined a road map that includes 60 per cent of new vehicle sales in the country to employ greener technologies like hybrids and other alternative fuels by 2030.

To make sure this vision is realised, the industry, the government and various stakeholders need to collaborate and invest with 100 per cent commitment, SIAM President Abhay Firodia said.

"To ensure smooth phasing in of pure electric vehicles and to sustain the transition to cleaner fossil fuel vehicles, the IC (internal combustion) engine upgradation must continue over the next decade or so," the paper added.

Progressively, cleaner fossil fuel vehicles will be an essential stepping stone in this journey towards 100 per cent pure electric, it added.

The proposed policy measures in the White Paper will be needed for creating a robust market and manufacturing ecosystem for electric vehicles in India and such a policy must be sustained over time to remain stable to enable the industry commit to investments with full confidence, Firodia added.

He also emphasised that policy should be necessarily adaptive in view of the nature of the fast-evolving technology.

"At the same time, there must not be sudden changes so as to allow outcomes in a planned manner and to ensure that the necessary transformation takes place with the minimum of disruption which may have socio-economic impact in terms of industrial growth, employment and livelihood of people in the auto industry," Firodia said.
New Delhi: The government is set to roll out a pan-India "faceless and nameless" e-assessment procedure for income tax payers from 2018+ with the CBDT on Tuesday constituting a high-level committee to prepare a quick roadmap for the implementation of this ambitious proposal.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the policy- making body for the Income Tax Department, notified a nine-member committee  headed by a principal chief commissioner rank officer  and has set for it a deadline of February 28, 2018, for submitting its report.

"The deadline of February end to the committee is an indication that the government and the CBDT want to usher in this new regime from the first half of the new year," a senior tax officer privy to the development said.

The committee is being constituted as the "department is embarking upon the concept of a faceless and nameless e-assessment procedure", the CBDT order, issued late evening, said.

The CBDT has been running a pilot project in a few major cities and has been testing the feasibility of implementing this new regime of tax assessment for the last few years.

The initiative was launched to reduce visits by taxpayers to I-T offices and their interface with the taxman, thereby curbing corruption.

"As such, there is an imperative need to re-deploy the available manpower in the light of the proposed e-assessment," the CBDT order said.

PTI has accessed the CBDT order. The terms of reference of the committee are to propose the new deployment of manpower in view of the implementation of e-assessment; to propose modalities and stages of re- deployment of manpower from existing stations and to recommend the requirements of additional manpower and infrastructure, if any, in the light of this new initiative.

The committee will also "recommend distribution of manpower between assessment units, investigation wing and DG Systems (the technical wing of the CBDT) in view of the new areas assigned to the investigation wings in matters related to Operation Clean Money", launched by the government to check black money post demonetisation.

A blueprint prepared by the CBDT earlier this year had said the number of income tax payers opting for paperless assessment, under the pilot project, rose by 78 per cent over the last three years.

An official CBDT statement issued at the conclusion of the two-day 'Rajaswa Gyan Sangam' conference (national meeting of top tax officers of the country), held here this year, had said the government wanted I-T assessing officers to "be encouraged to maximise e-assessment in a phased manner and to ensure that work be completed online so that there is complete transparency."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had inaugurated the conference, had also asked I-T employees to create an environment that instills confidence among honest taxpayers and uproots corruption.

PTI had first reported in April this year that all I-T department related proceedings would henceforth be conducted online.

A new link  e-proceeding  was recently hosted by the department on the personal login of the taxpayer on the e- filing website (https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in).

The new regime of e-communication will, however, be voluntary and taxpayers can take a call on whether to conduct their dealing over the e-system or through the existing procedure of manual submissions of documents by visiting the tax office.

Once taxpayers register on the web portal, they will get a confirmation as a text message and an email on their registered mobile number and email ID, indicating success.

The functionality to conduct e-proceeding will be available for all types of notices, questionnaires and letters issued under various sections of the I-T Act, the CBDT had earlier said.
Billionaire philanthropist and co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates made a revelation on Tuesday that Toilet: Ek Prem Katha - a Bollywood movie which attempts to spread the message of eradicating open defecation in an entertaining vein - was one of the things that inspired him in the "tough year" 2017.

The Akshay Kumar-Bhumi Pednekar starrer that takes an in-depth analysis of how open defecation in India leads to sexual assault of women and diseases scored second on his list.

Gates took to the microblogging site and shared 7 inspiring tweets with his 42 million followers on the website.

From Edwardo Sanchez, who had tweeted that he was the first person in his family to graduate from college to WHO certifying that Bhutan and Maldives had eliminated measles, Gates shared tweets that inspired him from across the globe.

Giving an overall assessment of the year, he wrote, "Theres no denying that 2017 was a really tough year... but it also delivered some amazing moments of hope and progress. Here are some inspiring tweets that you may have missed"

1/ Theres no denying that 2017 was a really tough year... but it also delivered some amazing moments of hope and progress. Here are some inspiring tweets that you may have missed Bill Gates (@BillGates) December 19, 2017

And the stories that inspired him.

2/ On May 18, 2017, Edwardo Sanchez tweeted that he was the first person in his family to graduate from college. Congratulations, Edwardo! https://t.co/V5uzWQAc75 Bill Gates (@BillGates) December 19, 2017

This is truly an honor. Thank you so much for retweeting my graduation post, Mr. Gates! Edwardo Sanchez (@eddy___sanchez) December 19, 2017

Quoting a Tribune story about the movie, Gates wrote, Toilet: A Love Story, a Bollywood romance about a newlywed couple, educated audiences about Indias sanitation challenge."

'Toilet, a Love Story': Bollywood spotlights India's sanitation crisis in new film https://t.co/6bkAOEVZip pic.twitter.com/u2Kx2QpeQ2 The Express Tribune (@etribune) July 11, 2017

3/ Toilet: A Love Story, a Bollywood romance about a newlywed couple, educated audiences about Indias sanitation challenge. https://t.co/TIRRmcamLy Bill Gates (@BillGates) December 19, 2017

"In June, the WHO certified that Bhutan and Maldives had eliminated measles."

4/ In June, the WHO certified that Bhutan and Maldives had eliminated measles. https://t.co/WdhAHIhs7A Bill Gates (@BillGates) December 19, 2017

"2017 World Food Prize winner @akin_adesina will use his prize money to establish a fund to provide grants to African youth involved in agriculture."

The World Food Prize gives me greater zeal to feed Africa and end hunger in our world. No resting until we succeed! pic.twitter.com/2b9spyYefz Akinwumi A. Adesina (@akin_adesina) October 21, 2017

5 /2017 World Food Prize winner @akin_adesina will use his prize money to establish a fund to provide grants to African youth involved in agriculture. https://t.co/20S5KznAhX Bill Gates (@BillGates) December 19, 2017

"The New York Times reported that doing good for others helps those who give as well as those who receive."

My debut in the @nytimes couldn't be more perfect and timely. Here's why helping others is good for your health https://t.co/q8qHC9Lh0Y Nicole Karlis (@nicolekarlis) October 26, 2017

6/ The New York Times reported that doing good for others helps those who give as well as those who receive. https://t.co/dWMpvXXtpP Bill Gates (@BillGates) December 19, 2017

"A new sport caught on in schools to encourage students to read. Its called #extremereading."

7/ A new sport caught on in schools to encourage students to read. Its called #extremereading. https://t.co/hXtnVIuhfF Bill Gates (@BillGates) December 19, 2017

His own submission to the #extremereading challenge.

8/ Heres my own extreme submission to the challenge. #extremereading pic.twitter.com/z6Uk1cM5Cq Bill Gates (@BillGates) December 19, 2017

He concluded his thread by saying, "These tweets made me feel better about 2017 and more optimistic about the new year. I hope they make you feel more hopeful, too. What tweets inspired you this year?"

9/ These tweets made me feel better about 2017 and more optimistic about the new year. I hope they make you feel more hopeful, too. What tweets inspired you this year? Bill Gates (@BillGates) December 19, 2017

Toilet: Ek Prem Katha puts forth the story of Jaya (Bhumi Pednekar) who puts up a fight with her husband Keshav (Akshay Kumar) after she discovers on the wedding night that he doesnt have a toilet in his house. Least interested in joining the lota party (a bunch of women from the same village who visit the nearby jungles to relieve themselves), Jaya decides to abandon her husband. Her fight isnt just against the discomfort that women have to face when they have to go to the fields to defecate. It is a fight against women bearing the brunt as they are usually attacked and assaulted when they step out either early in the morning or late at night. It is a fight against women falling prey to predators.
New Delhi: The government told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that it has formulated a scheme to check contraband of radioactive materials and that the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has set up teams to check nuclear smuggling.

This comes after a few noteworthy incidents of radioactive material smuggling rackets being busted in the country.

In March 2016, an anonymous tip-off had helped the DAE, Intelligence Bureau and Rajasthan Polices Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) bust a smuggling racket of radioactive materials.

The racket involved the exports of beryl  an atomic mineral ore of beryllium  to China. Almost 31 tonnes of beryl was recovered after the smuggling plan was subverted by the DAE, which received information through the anonymous letter early in January. The intelligence bureau was alerted after this tip-off.

Shiv Sena MP Krupal Tumane had asked in the House whether the government has formulated any scheme to check the smuggling of radioactive material and the radiation emanating from it and whether the government had set up any special team for the purpose.

To this, Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region, Prime Minister Office, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, said that the government has formed a scheme to check the smuggling of radioactive material.

The scheme has been implemented to detect, intercept, and help in interdiction, prevention, preparedness and further response to mitigate consequences for unauthorized entry of radioactive material, he said.

The government also stated that it has formed Counter Nuclear Smuggling Teams (CNST) under the DAE. The team has representation from all concerned ministries / departments/ agencies and meets periodically.

The government, in order to speed up relief during emergencies, has also developed Emergency Response Centers (DAE-ERCs) for technical expertise and advice on using radiation detection, which also helps in figuring out response to nuclear/radiological emergencies.

In December 2016, nine kg of radioactive uranium, a banned material, was seized from two persons in Thane. Laboratory tests confirmed that the seized material was depleted uranium, which is a radioactive poisonous heavy metal. According to preliminary investigations, it was brought from abroad and was intended for sale to some unknown parties in Thane.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi too, while addressing leaders at the Opening Plenary of the Nuclear Security Summit 2016 had said that, India will counter nuclear smuggling and strengthen the national detection architecture for nuclear and radioactive material.

The government today also informed that Ministry of Home Affairs and the National Disaster Management Authority have selected 56 major cities/vulnerable locations and 900 police stations for installation of ERCs.
New Delhi: Though former judges and chief justices have at times spoken about the presence of corruption in lower judiciary, the government on Wednesday stated in the Lok Sabha that since the Central government has no authority to look into complaints of corruption in subordinate judiciary, no data were maintained".

The government also said that it does receive complaints from time to time alleging corruption in the judiciary.

The Minister of State for Law and Justice was asked whether the government has received any complaints or representations regarding alleged corruption in judiciary and if so to provide details of such cases in the last three years.

However, PP Chaudhary, while stating that Central government does not have control over corruption cases in the subordinate judiciary, pointed out that no data were maintained in that regard.

In so far as subordinate judiciary in the State is concerned, the administrative control over the members rests with the concerned High Court and state government. The Central Government has no mandate to look into such complaints or to monitor the action taken on the same. As such, no data in this regard is maintained, replied the Minister.

With a count of over 600 district courts and hundreds of subordinate courts, the heterogeneous lower judiciary acts as the primary link between Indian judiciary and its citizens.

However, corruption in the lower judiciary has been a moot point of legal discussions over the past couple of years.

After Andhra Pradesh High Court in 2012 suspended additional special judge for CBI cases, T. Pattabhi Rama Rao, following allegations of corruption filed by the CBI, where he was alleged to have taken a bribe of Rs 5 crore to grant bail to former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhana Reddy in the illegal mining case, former Chief Justice of India VN Khare, in an interview, had said that, Corruption in the lower courts is no secret. Sometimes, in the high court as well, cases of corruption have surfaced.

This government's reply also comes close on the heels of a recent Supreme Court judgment where the then Chief Justice of India, Justice JS Khehar, and justices Dr DY Chandrachud and Sanjay Kishan Kaul, held that even if allegations of corruption were not aimed at any particular Court, the Contempt of Courts Act could be invoked, if the alleged contemptuous action is aimed at more than one court, or a large number of courts, all at once.

The government has accepted that it does get representations or complaints from time to time regarding corruption in judiciary.

Complaints or representations alleging corruption in judiciary are received by the Government from time to time, replied Chaudhary, who also stated that CJI is competent to receive complaints against the conduct of the Judges of the Supreme Court and the Chief Justices of the High Courts. Similarly, the Chief Justices of the High Courts are competent to receive complaints against the conduct of High Court Judges.

Even former CJI, Justice P Sathasivam, had in June 2013 interview, said, I should fairly admit that the judiciary is not untouched by corruption. On some occasions in the past, few judges have willfully dishonoured the oath by adopting corrupt practices.
New Delhi: The Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed two Bills to repeal 245 obsolete and archaic laws, including the 158-year-old Calcutta Pilots Act of 1859 and the 1911 Prevention of Seditious Meeting Act.

Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the old and many irrelevant pre-independence laws were the "unfortunate part of the colonial legacy" and repealing them was a progressive move that reflects the "pro-reform" approach of the government.

He was replying to a debate on the Repealing and Amending Bill and the Repealing and Amending (Second) Bill which would repeal these age-old laws.

Some of the old acts that have been repealed are the Hackney Carriage Act 1879 which was legislated for the regulation and control of hackney-carriages, Dramatic Performance Act 1876 when theatre was being used a medium of protest against the British rule.

Another such old act which was repealed by the Lok Sabha was The Ganges Tolls Act, 1867 which provided for collecting toll "not exceeding 12 annas" on certain boats and steamers plying on the Ganga to improve navigation of the river between Allahabad (UP) and Dinapore (Bihar).

Prasad said 1029 old laws were first repealed by Parliament in 1950 and the last time such old laws were abolished during the Atal Behari Vajpayee government that repealed old laws in 2004.

After the Modi government came to power a two-member panel was set up to look into the repealing of archaic laws and the panel also consulted the Centre and the state government before recommending the legislations to be repealed.

Some 1824 acts were repealed after Prime Minister Narendra Modi took over the reins of the government, the law minister said.

When Prasad spoke on abolishing the Prevention of Seditious Meeting Act, 1911, he was needled by BJD MP Tathagata Satpathy who alluded to the use of the sedition provision in the Indian Penal Code against opposition activists by the BJP governments in certain states.

To this, the Law Minister said that all senior ministers in the BJP government including the prime minister had vehemently opposed Emergency in 1975 and his government was in favour of the freedom of the press.

Patidar leader Hadrik Patel and JNU student union leader Kanhaiya Kumar too were booked for sedition.

BJD MP Pinaki Misra lauded the government and said 1301 "obsolete" laws were repealed in last 65 years, but after the Modi government took over 1824 legislations were repealed but the pace has to be accelerated.

BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi said abolishing of old laws was "swachchata abhiyan" by the House, drawing a parallel to the Swachch Bharat Abhiyan, the flagship programme of the Modi dispensation.

Shiv Sena MP Vinayak Raut demanded repealing of Article 370, while Narendra Sawaikar, BJP MP from Goa, said his state was the only one to practise the Uniform Civil Code.
Lucknow: Prime Minister Narendra Modi may be fond of taking selfies with the youngsters of the nation, but now taking selfie around the official residence of UP CM Yogi Adityanath can land you in jail.

A banner was put up on Wednesday at the intersection leading towards 5 Kalidas Marg, the official residence of UP Chief Minister in Lucknow, which said that taking pictures and selfies in this VIP area is an offence. Those who caught doing it will face strict action.

Taking a jibe at this move of the UP Police, ex CM of UP Akhilesh Yadav tweeted and said that its a New Year gift to the people of Uttar Pradesh, taking selfies will be invite action under UPCOCA.

         ,       ! Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) December 20, 2017

In a delicious irony, the intersection on which the banner was hooked was made during the regime of BSP Supremo Mayawati, but later on gates were thrown open for the common man as soon as Akhilesh Yadav became the chief minister of the state.

Akhilesh Yadav, who is also national president of the Samajwadi Party, said that UPCOCA is a tool to threaten the voices against the government. He said, BJP used to say that encounters of the criminals will improve the law and order situation in the state but nothing has changed. Nothing will change until the government gives charge to able officers. UPCOCA will be used to suppress the voice of the opposition and to threaten them.

The government should instead focus more on Dial 100 and 1090 emergency numbers, then only law and order situation can improve, he added.

Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati also raised her concerns against UPCOCA and said that this would be used against Dalits, the poor and minorities. In a statement issued on Wednesday, Mayawati said, BJP is using such laws against Dalits and the poor in the BJP-ruled states for their vested interest. Hence, UPCOCA which is made on the basis of MCOCA will also be misused to suppress the voices against the ruling party.

On the other hand, BJP has said that the opposition to UPCOCA by other parties is very unfortunate. State spokesman Dr. Chandramohan said: The need for a stringent law was being felt for a long time to bring the criminals involved in organised crime in the legal realm in Uttar Pradesh. Now, while the Yogi Government wants to break the backbone of organised and protected crime by bringing the criminals into legal boundaries, the protest against UPCOCA by BSP Supremo Mayawati and other opposition parties is beyond understanding,
Lucknow: Twenty five years after demolition of Babri mosque and setting up of a make shift temple of Ram lala Virajman at the disputed site in Ayodhya, Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) might just be moving ahead to give broader public sanctity to it.

For the first time an official petition has been made to the Receiver, who is Commissioner of the Faizabad division, requesting him to order woolen clothes, blower or a room heater for 'Ram Lala', to keep the deity warm from the prevalent cold wave.

The point that VHP never officially came ahead with a such a request during previous governments and it is only now during Yogi rule that such a petition has been made, is reason strong enough to raise concerns on the Muslim side in the case.

It raises the question is this an attempt to give further credibility to existence of Ram Lala at the disputed site, even while the title suit over the place is being heard by the Supreme Court?

VHP's national spokesperson, Sharad Sharma, says: "Temple already exists there. There is no doubt over that. According to Hindu religious rituals, once the statue of a deity has been established following the Pran Pratishta it is treated as a human being. Ram Lala is a child and therefore the deity needs care like a child. Winter clothing is part of it."

Mahant Satyendra Das, the chief priest of Ram Lala, supports the demand. He says: 'Deities across temples are treated in similar way. attention is paid to their food, rest and clothing. Demand of amenities for 'Ram Lala' is justified since temple exists there and deity is worshiped."

The UP chief minister has not been shy of his commitment for the Ram temple. As a chief minister he has already visited and worshiped twice at the Ram Lala Virajman temple.

Muslim petitioner in the case Haji Mehboob is, therefore, concerned about VHP's latest move. He says, "Never before such a demand has been made. The matter is sub-judice and no change or additions can be done at the disputed site." He said that they will take up the matter with Commissioner/receiver.

Meanwhile, interacting with media in Faizabad, Commissioner Manoj Mishra said: "Petition has been made to me. Since the matter is in Supreme Court, further decisions will taken entirely under the rules and guidelines of the apex court."
New Delhi: Kulbhushan Jadhavs wife and mother were issued visas by Pakistan on Tuesday, close to 21 months after he was taken into custody by their military. The two are expected to meet Jadhav on December 25 and will also be accompanied by an official of the Indian High Commission there.

"Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi issued the visas to the mother and wife of Commander Jadhav to visit Islamabad to meet him, today," Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal tweeted.

Islamabad had granted permission to Jadhav's wife to visit him on humanitarian grounds" on November 10. The Indian government then urged the neighbouring country to also allow his mother to meet him along with an Indian diplomat, a demand to which it ceded.

New Delhi had tried several times to arrange a meeting of Jadhav with his family. Minister of External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj, had even written a personal letter to Sartaj Aziz, the advisor to the Pakistani PM, asking for approval for the visa application. Finally, on Thursday, Pakistan directed its High Commission in New Delhi to issue the visas.

The 47-year-old was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and terrorism in April, following which India moved the ICJ in May. The ICJ halted his execution on India's appeal pending the final verdict by it.

Pakistan has so far rejected over 30 Indian requests for consular access to Jadhav, but the Indian government called the gesture of allowing him to meet his family a positive development.

Pakistan claims its security forces arrested Jadhav alias Hussein Mubarak Patel from its restive Balochistan province on March 3 last year after he reportedly entered from Iran. India, however, maintains that Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the Indian Navy.
Thiruvananthapuram: Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Ockhi affected areas in Lakshadweep, Kanyakumari and Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday.

At Thiruvananthapuram, he visited the fishing village of Poonthura. He spent about 10 minutes with the affected by the cyclonic storm. The PM was seen listening to them patiently.

"I am here to assure you that India stands shoulder to shoulder with all those affected by Cyclone Ockhi. We will leave no stone unturned in the rescue and relief operations," Modi said to the gathering.

Modi said search operations to trace the missing fishermen in Kerala and Tamil Nadu would continue and expressed hope that all of them would come back home before Christmas.

But immediately after the PM left people complained that he did not interact with them. Many were holding the photographs of their loved ones and said there was no information available.

A fisherman whose father is missing said, We waited for about 5 to 6 hours to see the PM. We thought he will interact with us and give us some solution but that did not happen. There is no information about my father since November 29. At least bring his body back to us, we want to do his last rites.

A family member of another missing fishermen said, When we heard that the PM is coming we thought he will announce some relief package for us. We thought he will listen to us, but we could not speak to him.

Modi held high-level discussions with the chief ministers of Tamil Nadu and Kerala and the administration of the union territory of Lakshadweep and reviewed the situation post-Ockhi.

During the meetings, both Tamil Nadu and Kerala demanded a special financial package from the Centre to tide over the destruction caused by the natural calamity and wanted the cyclone to be declared as a national disaster.
New Delhi: The 16-year-old student accused of killing Pradyuman Thakur, a Class 2 student of Ryan Internation School Gurugram, will be tried as an adult.

A Juvenile Justice Board gave the ruling on a plea filed before it seeking that the accused, under the new JJ Act, was mature enough to know the consequences of his actions and hence should not be treated as a juvenile delinquent. The report, which CNN-News18 has exclusive access to, claims that the accused is hyper-aggressive and knew what he was doing.

Seven-year-old Pradyuman was found near the toilet of Ryan International School with his throat slit on September 8. The Gurgaon Police had arrested a bus conductor of the school pinning the blame of murder on him.

The CBI later announced that it had apprehended the senior student in connection with the murder of Pradhuman rejecting the Gurgaon Police theory that the killing was the handiwork of school bus conductor Ashok Kumar.

According to the agency, the Class 11 student, believed to be weak in studies, allegedly slit Pradhuman's throat to get the school to declare a holiday in order to defer a scheduled parent-teacher meeting (PTM) and an examination.

The father of teenager had alleged that the CBI was torturing his son which was strongly refuted by the agency.
New Delhi: Every election season, politicians across parties make long, glorious speeches on womens safety and empowerment. And every election season, the same politicians turn stingy when it comes to fielding women candidates.

It was similar in Gujarat too. Out of the 1834 candidates who were fighting the elections, only 122 were women. Thats not even 7 percent of the total candidates filed. And among these 122 women, only 22 were fielded by the BJP and the Congress. BJP gave tickets to 12 women candidates, Congress gave it to only 10. In the end, 13 women ended up winning from those 22 candidates.

Rashmi Bahuguna, who runs an organisation called Suresh Bhakti Foundation that helps in childrens education, didnt get a ticket from either of the two biggest parties, despite repeated pleas. The 48-year-old woman who ran the contest independently from the Gandhinagar constituency said that despite working for years at the grass root level, neither of the parties thought she is worthy of a ticket.

I went to Amit Shahs house, his PA stopped me. He asked me to come back the next day. When I went back, he asked me to leave again, she said. Bahuguna said that despite having a sick father at home who she has to take care of, and very little money in hand, she fought the Gujarat elections only because she wanted to bring a change. Bahuguna had reached out to the Congress party as well, emailing him repeatedly. But, he never responded, she said.

Bahuguna teaches poor kids, offers free meals to them that she cooks herself and has done several campaigns against tobacco.

Bahuguna feels that while the politicians talk about women empowerment, they dont believe in women representation. They will never back women without a political clout. The speeches on empowerment are all a farce, she added.

Even as women account for 47.80 per cent voters, their representation by the two biggest political parties was 1.19 percent.

While politicians seek women votes in every election, it backtracks when it comes to giving them to real power. What happens to 'Bharat Mata' and 'Ganga Mata' during election? Do the parties feel women candidates dont win?

Well, the numbers prove that women candidates have a good success rate when it comes to winning elections.

During the last state elections in 2012, BJP fielded 20 women candidates. Out of which, 13 won the election. The same year former Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel contested and won from the Ghatlodiya constituency with a margin of more than 175,000 seats which was the highest in that election.

This year, 13 women won out of the 22 candidates fielded by the Congress and the BJP. Thats a success rate of 59 percent.

While women in local self-government bodies had benefitted with 50 percent reservation, that isnt the case when it came to state elections. Zankhana Patel, who has won from the Choryasi constituency with 173882 votes said that she believes more women in politics would mean improvement in work. Women do their work very sincerely. Most of us are preempt at handling work at home and outside with equal dedication, Patel said.

Patel, whos a mother of two, entered politics in the last assembly elections after her father passed away. I am an accidental politician, she said. The BJP leader wants to create more jobs for women in both rural and urban areas.

However, when asked why the BJP didnt field enough candidates, she said, Maybe they thought it would be the right decision for the party.

Chandrikaben Chhaganbhai Bariya, the Congress leader who won from Garbada, expressed disappointment over the few women who were fielded. This isnt a good thing, we definitely need more women leaders, she said. Urmila Bhagat, who contested independently from Mangrol (ST) in Surat, agreed. Bhagat, too, didnt get a ticket from either of the parties despite meeting the leaders several times. They dont want women candidates, she said.

Ashaben Patel, who won from the Ujha constituency, said, There arent enough women who want to enter politics. If there are strong women leaders, the parties wont hesitate in giving ticket.

Shweta Brahmbhat, however, feels that the responsibility also lies with the women politicians, and not just the party leaders. Brahmbhat, who contested from the Congress party from Maninagar constituency in Ahmedabad, said, My responsibility is to encourage and bring more women in politics. Brahmbhat, who used to be an investment banker and now works in a management consultancy firm, said that more women voters need to made aware. Women voters form half the population, so shouldnt there be enough representation? she asked.

Recently, in the Uttar Pradesh election, 34 women went on to become MLAs in the 312 member Legislative Assembly. When the BJP claimed that this is the largest number of women MLAs for any party in UP since Independence, they were not wrong.

But guess what? Despite this number, women are under-represented in both the BJP and the UP assembly. The proportion of women MLAs in the UP assembly continues to be around 10%, and has not crossed 10% since Independence, according to data compiled from Election Commission of India and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

Here are the women MLAs from Gujarat.
Geneva: India has failed to comply with a World Trade Organization ruling on solar power, the United States will tell the WTO's dispute settlement body (DSB) next month, triggering a fresh round of litigation, according to an agenda issued on Wednesday.

Renewable energy has become a hot area of trade friction as major economies compete to dominate a sector that is expected to thrive as reliance on coal and oil dwindles.

India unveiled its national solar programme in 2011, seeking to ease chronic energy shortages in Asia's third-largest economy without creating pollution.

But the United States complained to the WTO in 2013, saying the programme was discriminatory and U.S. solar exports to India had fallen by 90 percent from 2011.

The United States won the case last year, when WTO appeals judges ruled India had broken the trade rules by requiring solar power developers to use Indian-made cells and modules.

Such "local content" requirements are banned because they discriminate in favour of domestic firms and against foreign competitors.

Under an agreement with the United States, India had until Dec. 14 to comply with the ruling and it told the DSB last week that it had done so.

"Indian authorities have held extensive internal stakeholder consultations since the adoption of the rulings and recommendations of the DSB to fully comply with them," India said in its statement to the DSB.

"Accordingly, in compliance with the findings and recommendations of the DSB in this dispute, India has ceased to impose any measures as found inconsistent in the DSBs findings and recommendations."

But an agenda for the DSB's next meeting on Jan. 12 showed the United States plans to raise the dispute again, citing WTO rules on non-compliance with trade rulings.

If India is found not to have complied, Washington could ask the WTO for permission to impose trade sanctions on India. But the WTO dispute system is struggling to process a large number of highly complex disputes, so the legal process is likely to continue for a year or more.
New Delhi: The government on Wednesday that there cannot be any comparison between the cost of the 36 Rafale fighter jets it inked with France and the price negotiated by the previous UPA regime for the original 126- fighter aircraft deal as the deliverables were different.

Replying to a question on the issue in the Rajya Sabha, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said a better price was ensured while finalising the deal for 36 Rafale jets and that there was no increase in its cost.

She, however, did not give the rates at which government is procuring the combat jets from France.

"The cost of the 36 Rafale aircraft cannot be directly compared to the cost of the original MMRCA (Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft) proposal as the deliverables are significantly different," she said.

The minister said better pricing, better maintenance terms and better delivery schedules were ensured in the agreement India had signed with France last year for the jets.

India had inked an inter-governmental agreement with France in September last year for the procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets at a cost of around Rs 58,000 crore, nearly one-and-half years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the proposal during a visit to Paris. The delivery of the jets is scheduled to begin from September, 2019.

The Congress recently raised several questions about the deal, including the rates, and accused the government of compromising national interest and security while promoting "crony capitalism" and causing a loss to the public exchequer.

The party had claimed that the UPA was negotiating a price of Rs 526 crore for each fighter jet under the MMRCA deal.

As per the negotiation during the UPA tenure, 108 aircraft were to be manufactured in India after transfer of technology (ToT) and 18 jets were to be supplied in direct fly-away condition.

Under the deal inked by the NDA government, each of the 36 Rafale jet will come at a price of around Rs 1,610 crore which includes a lethal weapons package.

"In the present procurement, 36 Rafale aircraft are being procured in direct fly-away condition to meet the operational necessity of the Indian Air Force. There is no increase in the cost. Instead, a better price has been ensured," Sitharaman said.

To a separate question, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre said 19 contracts amounting to Rs 11,739 crore were finalised by the Army to procure ammunition.
New Delhi: The Rajasthan High Court has issued a notice to the Information & Broadcasting Ministry, Principal Secretary to Central Government and Union Health Secretary asking why condom ads cannot be telecast between 6am to 10pm.

On December 10, the I&B Ministry passed an order stating that condom ads can only be telecast between 10 pm and 6 am and not in the prime time. The ministry felt that children were getting exposed to the 'indecent and inappropriate' content.

The decision was taken after the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) sought the ministry's suggestions, reportedly after receiving a number of complaints from viewers.

The ASCI received letters saying that the content of the advertisements of condoms was meant for adults and should not be aired during prime time.

It is claimed that the root of the problem was reportedly Manforce, a condom brand that has had a history of making suggestive commercials with Sunny Leone as the star.

The hoardings of the ad had sparked protests in Gujarat after a Surat-based group took offence to its message. The message in Gujarati on the hoarding read 'Aa Navratri a ramo, parantu premthi' (This Navratri, play but with love).

According to the protestors, it "insulted the religious sentiment". It clearly didn't end with the condom brand withdrawing its hoardings.
Leidy Garcia awoke one morning in 2011 to discover she could no longer see. By then, Francia Papamija was already blind. Disease swept away one sense but sharpened another, and their heightened sense of touch has become a valuable weapon in Colombia's fight against breast cancer.

Garcia and Papamija are two of five women who are blind or visually impaired who have been specially trained to use their fingertips to detect breast cancer, one of Colombia's biggest killers.

The disease is responsible for 2,500 deaths annually in Colombia, where 7,000 new cases are detected each year in a country where sophisticated detection equipment is rare. They are among the latest practitioners to use a method made popular a decade ago by German doctor Frank Hoffman, who noted that the blind have an innate facility to detect nodules -- groupings of cells -- which may be the first signs of the disease.

"People with visual impairment have an increased sensitivity," said Luis Alberto Olave, a surgeon and coordinator of the Hands Save Lives project at Cali's San Juan de Dios hospital. "There is a greater sense of touch and greater discrimination of the elements." Hoffman's method was tested in Germany and Austria and was brought to South America with support from Latin American bank CAF.

Five women between the ages of 25 and 35, free of vascular or neurological problems that could impede their sensitivity, were chosen. After training, they graduated as tactile examining assistants. Since then, they have evaluated more than 900 patients, their fight against cancer a simultaneous battle against discrimination. "We are breaking a paradigm where people believe that because we have a disability, we cannot think or do things for ourselves," said Papamija, 35, who lost her sight at age seven when she suffered a detached retina.

At the hospital, physicians found that checks carried out by the blind auxiliary assistants had "better" results than those with the regular evaluation. "The clinical examination performed by them is a more elaborate examination and requires more time," Olave told AFP, adding, "This generated in our patients a sense of well-being and comfort that they did not find was the case with a doctor using traditional methods."

While clinical trials show that a woman performing self-examination can detect masses of between 15-20 millimeters and a doctor can find one of 10 millimeters, the blind can find nodules as small as eight millimeters. Regular mammograms are widely available in the developed world and recommended for women over the age of 40, but such services are not widely available in Colombia where sophisticated medical facilities are relatively rare, making the Cali hospital's "hands on" approach all the more vital. "In developing countries, where we have certain limitations in technology to diagnose breast cancer, manual examination continues to be of great importance," said Olave.

Garcia went almost totally blind six years ago after suffering a cerebral thrombosis, a trauma which forced her to cut short her engineering studies. "People who see well are very visual -- that is, they let themselves be guided by what they see. I locate myself a lot by touching and hearing," the 26-year-old said. Garcia palpates patient's breasts for cysts or lumps, highlighting possible nodules by marking them with yellow and red tape. When a lump is detected, she notifies a doctor who then orders tests to rule out or confirm the presence of cancerous tissue. Examinations last up to 45 minutes, while the traditional ones are usually completed inside 10 minutes.

Papamija explained it "can be a bit difficult" when she has to explain to a patient that she has found a "complex" lump. Both women agree that patients react generally in two ways: curiosity or distrust. Some fall silent, others talk out their personal problems. "You have a precision in your touch, the truth is that I'm terrified," said a 42-year-old shop assistant after being examined by Papamija. "They found something, but the doctor said it was just an inflamed ganglion," added the mother-of-two. According to Olave, of every 100 nodules detected in the examinations, only about 10 turn out to be malignant.

Before becoming tactile medical auxiliaries, Garcia and Papamija had no work, like 62 percent of Colombia's half-million visually impaired people, out of a population of 48 million. The figure is seven times higher than the Colombian employment rate, according to the National Institute of the Blind. "This fell out of the sky to me," said Garcia. Olave believes the work is an important outlet for employing the visually impaired, and is getting ready to launch a new intake of medical auxiliaries in 2018.
From Peter the Great's doublet to the wedding dress of the last tsar's wife Alexandra, Russia's renowned Hermitage museum has put on display highlights from its vast and unique costume archive. A new 'Costume Gallery' opened this month as a permanent exhibition in a huge modern building in northern Saint Petersburg that houses the Hermitage's conservation and restoration center.

A long gallery with panoramic glass cases features 130 mannequins wearing clothes dating from the 18th century, most of which belonged to the Romanov dynasty that ruled until the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. "The costume department takes up 600 square meters (6,460 square feet). Behind the mannequins that are on show there are cupboards and dressers where we keep our collection of 24,000 pieces," said Nina Tarasova, the display's curator.

"What's on show is just three percent of our collection," she added. "For example, we have 280 personal items that belonged to Peter the Great -- this is the most important collection of 18th-century men's clothing in the world." Ruling in the 17th and 18th centuries, the tsar who founded Saint Petersburg was extremely tall for his day at around two metres (6.5 feet) and was known for his simple tastes.

The exhibition's focus is on the Romanovs, from Peter the Great to the last tsar Nicholas II and his family, who were killed by the Bolsheviks in 1918 after his abdication. But it also gives a broader picture of society, from the traditional clothes worn by peasants in various regions of Russia to the ball gowns donned by aristocrats in Saint Petersburg. "Thanks to these items, we can learn not only about the fashions of the time but also about what size the Romanov family members were and even what they were like as people," said Tarasova.

A ceremonial robe worn by tsar Alexander I (who ruled from 1777 to 1825), shows that he was tall and slender, while the plump Alexander III, who ruled from 1845 to 1894 and was reputed to be indifferent to fashion, is represented by a plaid suit. A simple green wool doublet, a kind of padded fitted jacket, worn by Peter the Great, rubs shoulders with a magnificent blue dress with silver brocade that Catherine the Great, who ruled between 1729 and 1792, used to wear to review the troops. "It took many months to create some of these dresses," said Tarasova. This was particularly true of a white lace dress decorated with fine embroidery, created for the wedding of tsar Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra Fyodorovna in 1894, shortly after he took the throne. Dressmakers and lacemakers spent more than six months creating the dress.

"This is very impressive. Most of all because all these dresses and items come from the 18th and 19th centuries, yet they look new and are even sometimes very trendy," said one visitor, Anna Gryaznova, who was photographing Louis Vuitton suitcases from 1902. To keep the very fragile clothing in perfect condition, there is a strict temperature regime of precisely 21 degrees Celsius (around 70 degrees Fahrenheit) with humidity of 46 percent, and there are no windows to prevent sun damage.

Also at the Staraya restoration center, visitors can view items of furniture and even carriages. Visitors need to sign up in advance for a guided tour of the restoration center, with details on the Hermitage's website.
Bengaluru: BJP MP and former Union Minister Dr Subramanian Swamy on Wednesday predicted that the TTV Dinakaran-led faction might win the prestigious RK Nagar bypoll on December 21.

Swamy said that if the contest narrows down to TTV versus DMK, TTV's candidate should win to teach a lesson to MK Stalin-led DMK.

Speaking to News18, the leader said, I believe the contest is now between TTV Dinakaran and the DMK. The ruling EPS-OPS faction of the AIADMK may not even be in the race.

Dr Swamy, who has been highly critical of his party's support to the ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu, described E Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam as homeless, spineless wonders who can't lead the party or do anything good for the state.

Both of them are incompetent. They don't have the backing of the cadre. I believe most are still with the TTV, who is now emerging as the main challenger to DMK, said the MP.

The economist also called DMK a Hitler party which has to be decimated to save Tamil people from their corrupt, criminal activities.

The campaigning for the RK Nagar constituency by-election in Tamil Nadu came to an end on Tuesday, the voting for which will take place on December 21.

While RK Nagar is just one of 234 constituencies in the state of Tamil Nadu, it has piqued the countrys interest as it has turned into a prestige battle of sorts. It is being believed that whomsoever wins the seat, will decide what shape the political landscape of the state takes.

In 2015, the sitting MLA resigned to make way for former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalithaa to contest from the seat after she was acquitted in a disproportionate assets case. She won the bypoll and in 2016, she contested from the same constituency for the Assembly elections.

However, Jayalalithaa died in December 2016 and the seat fell vacant. What followed was political drama and the state saw pitched battles between rival factions of AIADMK.
Bengaluru: Late Monday night, long after the crackers were spent and a hush fell over the BJP headquarters in Bengaluru, there was a sudden buzz of activity in another corner of Karnataka.

At the Bajpe airport in the outskirts of Mangalore, in coastal Karnataka, a special plane had just landed and India's most powerful man had stepped out in his grey waist-coat to a surprise crowd. It was a sudden plan that Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted of going to Mangalore  en route to Lakshadweep to assess damage wrought by a cyclone more than 20 days ago.

It was past 11 pm, and as he stepped out on the tarmac, the people waiting with phones and cameras for selfies started chanting slogans.

To the ordinary party worker, the message was simple: Youre next.

It was just hours after the BJP had wrested power in Himachal Pradesh and scraped past the winning post in Gujarat, and as political analyst Prof Sandeep Shastri puts it, "It may have been incidental but given the fact that his timing has always been meticulous... a lot of people will read into this. And for sure, he will be in Karnataka more often now.

"Sure he is on his way to Lakshadweep. But he chose this route. And for our workers, to come on the same day as the result, to choose to stay at the government Circuit House and give them an opportunity to see him. All this is a positive message. It energises them," says BJP spokesperson and MLA S Suresh Kumar.

Even as counting came to an end and the Congress licked its wounds post the defeats (and tried to explain it as a moral victory) on Monday,Congress leaders in Karnataka were already aware of their position -- and they knew three things are a given:

1) The party's expectations will be huge in Karnataka. It's a fight for survival

2) You can expect all kinds of dramatics in the run-up to polls. The sea plane kind.

2) Expect things to get vicious. Mud-slinging is bound to turn its gaze this side of the Vindhyas.

''It's bound to happen, 2018 will be a more venomous election. Have you ever heard a Pratap Simha talk about bringing more industry to Mysore or protecting the Cauvery? Have you ever heard an Ananth Kumar Hegde saying he will train one lakh people in this state with his portfolio? They only talk of Hanuma Jayanthi routes," says Congress MLA and minister Priyank Kharge, whose father Mallikarjuna Kharge is also party leader in the Lok Sabha.

Already, agitations related to Hindutva have been gaining ground over the last few weeks  Datta Jayanthi in Chikmagalur, Hanuma Jayanthi in Mysore, the murders of Hindus in the coastal region  have all been emotive issues that have led to rioting, violence in the really sensitive areas.

On its part, the Congress has been steeling itself for the onslaught -- in fact, getting more aggressive against both Yeddyurappa, the BJP's CM candidate, and PM Modi. Eight days ago, CM Siddaramaiah embarked on a month-long tour ostensibly to launch projects in all districts but one that is turning out to be an early election campaign to spread the word about his government's achievements.

His tagline -- roughly translating as delivered as promised -- is in stark contrast to the jumlas that the BJP has admitted to. He has spoken at almost every dais in every district about how his party is more about sabka saath, sabka vikas, as he has been at the forefront of taking all castes and communities with him in every government programme. He has criticised, questioned, imitated and taunted Modi in every forum.

"He starts every morning with a taunt, a negative speech. He is trying to give the message that he is more aggressive than Rahul (Gandhi), that no one else in the Congress can question Modi as he does. Or is he growing larger than life, a streak of megalomania?" asks Suresh Kumar, who says the BJP is encouraged by the party's win in Gujarat but knows that the realities of Karnataka and Gujarat are completely different.

Booth-level micro-management is crucial, they realise, but not everything that succeeded in Gujarat can be replicated here, he points out.

"The fact that there are 18 seats in Gujarat where we lost by a margin of less than 500 should remind us constantly that we cannot take anything for granted, that the last voter in every booth is important," Kumar adds. Booth committees, in fact, have proven more important than political rallies.

There are lessons for the Congress too in Gujarat  specifically in building cadre and booth management  more feet on the street would have helped improve their performance in Gujarat too, as Kharge says.

Our only strategy is to become more aggressive at the grassroots-level, where they are using social media better than we are, unfortunately," admits Kharge, adding, "More students are coming out of WhatsApp University than anything else. People have forgotten to read, they will believe anything that comes on WhatsApp, such lies have been spread over issues like Tipu Sultan."

But the party's biggest strength is also its CM -- the man who has held his own against Brand Modi, the man who is the first CM in four decades to actually complete a full term, the man who managed to nip rumours and fake news on social media before it grew out of control. Just last week, the news about a teenager's death being 'murder' through 'torture by pouring hot oil on his head' was trashed away when the post-mortem analysis was made available to quickly quash such reports.

Besides, what makes this an ace up Congress sleeve is that the BJP cannot boast of the same -- a strong local leadership.

"The BJP is going to have a centrally-managed campaign, because it would not want to project its local leaders entirely. The memory of 2013 (the Rs 3000-crore illegal mining scam) is something the BJP won't want people to recall. No wonder they have deputed their HRD MInister and Railways Minister as in-charge, to micro-manage and monitor things on a weekly basis," points out Prof Shastri.

The other problem for the BJP is that Yeddyurappa, the CM candidate has not been able to unite the party cadre fully. Rebels within the party have stalled or disrupted his Parivarthan Yatra this past month, some going to the extent of embarrassing him by putting up different dais' at the same venue. His KJP past -- of having moved away from the BJP to launch his own party in 2013 -- is yet to be forgotten.

"All this just helps the Congress' strategy of challenging the BJP -- where Siddaramaiah can flaunt the idea of: Here, I'm your CM. Now tell me, who is your CM face?" says Prof Shastri.

That Karnataka too is a state where the Congress has empowered its state leadership -- akin to Punjab -- where Rahul's photos are never larger than Siddaramaiah's on the party posters, will go to help the party cause.

The Karnataka battle perhaps is going to be as important -- and filled with as much despair -- as the Gujarat one: the BJP cannot boast a pan-India presence without a foothold in the south. For the Congress, it's a fight for survival. Losing Karnataka would make the idea of Congress-mukt India more visible on the India map. And this is the largest state where it is in power.

Even a little short of majority -- and there is a third party, the Janata Dal (Secular), waiting in the wings to become king-maker. A factor that both national parties are wary of.
New Delhi: Kerala Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader M.P. Veerendra Kumar resigned from the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, days after rebel party leaders Sharad Yadav and Ali Anwar were disqualified from the Upper House.

Addressing reporters here, the 80-year-old who was also the JD-U state chairman, said he submitted his resignation to Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu.

"I resigned because as per the rules, I am a member of (Bihar Chief Minister) Nitish Kumar's party and I should sit with them. But now he has moved to follow the Sangh Parivar agenda and I just cannot accept that," the leader said.

"I know I got this seat last year when I was a part of the Socialist Janata Democratic (SJD) party in Kerala, which was part of the Congress led UDF. Later after my election, the SJD merged with the JD-U.

"But now with Nitish tagging along with Sangh Parivar forces and the BJP, I do not want to be a burden to the UDF by being tagged with Nitish Kumar. Also I checked with Election Commission and with Rajya Sabha and I found out that legally and technically, I will not be able to be a member outside of Nitish Kumar's party and hence I have quit," he added.

Nitish Kumar's decision to break away from the Grand Alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress in Bihar and align with the BJP-led NDA in July triggered a rebellion in the party.

JD-U's founder leader Sharad Yadav led the rebel faction to protest against Nitish Kumar's decision. He was disqualified from the Rajya Sabha along with Ali Anwar on December 4.

On his future course of action, Veerendra Kumar said that at the moment his main concern was that they have no party.

"I spoke to Sharad Yadav and he is also discussing and debating on the way forward and the need for a party. Once I am back in Kerala, I will sit down with my people and chalk out what needs to be done," he said.

The SJD was formed in 2009 when Veerendra Kumar along with his supporters broke away from the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) after he was denied his Kozhikode seat to contest the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.
Lucknow: The opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh have decided to stand united against the UP Control of Organised Crime Act (UPCOCA) tabled by the Yogi Adityanath-led government during ongoing winter session of the Assembly.

They have termed UPCOCA as a tool to suppress the voice of opposition and against the interest of the common man.

Former chief minister and national president of the Samajwadi Party, Akhilesh Yadav, said that UPCOCA is a tool to threaten the voices against the government.

He said, BJP used to say that encounters of the criminals will improve the law and order situation in the state but nothing has changed. Nothing will change until the government gives charge to able officers. UPCOCA will be used to suppress the voice of the opposition and to threaten them.

         ,       ! Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) December 20, 2017

The government should instead focus more on Dial 100 and 1090 emergency numbers, then only law and order situation can improve, he added.

Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati also raised her concerns against UPCOCA and said that this would be used against Dalits, the poor and minorities. In a statement issued on Wednesday, Mayawati said, BJP is using such laws against Dalits and the poor in the BJP-ruled states for their vested interest. Hence, UPCOCA which is made on the basis of MCOCA will also be misused to suppress the voices against the ruling party.

BSP MLA Mukhtar Ansari said, My leader Mayawati has opposed UPCOCA and even I oppose such law which might be used against Dalits, OBCs and will also be used by the ruling party to threaten the opposition. I demand Yogi Government to take back this bill immediately; our CrPC has enough law and is capable to handle any kind of crime.

Congress MLA Lallu Singh also raised concerns over the misuse of UPCOCA. This government is bringing UPCOCA to threaten people who speak freely in a democracy. Why their sudden need to bring such law, already there is are enough laws. When the government should be bothered about law and order situation in state, the government wants to bring its own law and have no confidence in CrPC and IPC. We oppose such move by the government, he said.

The BJP-led government defended the act and said it will curb organized crime and to break the nexus of mining and land mafia in the state.

UP Power Minister and Government spokesperson Shrikant Sharma said, UPCOCA will break the spine of criminals involved in organized crime in the state. Once this law is made then there would never be any such event like the one happened in Mathuras Jawahar Bagh.

The bill has a provision of stringent punishment for people engaged in organised crime with capital punishment accompanied by stiff penalty up to Rs 25 lakh and jail terms ranging from three years to life for other crimes, including possession of unaccountable wealth and harbouring of criminals. The bill is patterned on the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act.

Apart from this, violent demonstrations against the government have also been included in it. The government will not only provide security to the witnesses but the testimony will also be held in closed rooms and the court will not reveal the name of the witness. Under this law, the accused will not have the right to know who has testified against him.
Lucknow: Former BJP MLA from Haidergarh and a close aide of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Sundar Lal Dixit has complained against BJP MP from Barabanki Priyanka Rawat to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah, UP CM Yogi Adityanath and State BJP President Mahendra Nath Pandey.

Dixit has accused Rawat of misbehaving with officers and alleged that Rawats working style is causing a dent in the credibility of the party in the state.

In a letter addressed to PM Modi, Dixit has written that by appointing her father as her representative, Rawat bypassed the orders issued by PM Modi himself and it was only post-intervention that she changed her decision.

Dixit also wrote in his letter that Rawat made a mockery of the PMs dream project of adopting a village as she has hardly visited her village.

She (Rawat) is getting a palatial 20,000 sq ft bungalow built for herself. This again raises questions and dents the image of the party, wrote Dixit.

The minister from Haidergarh has also complained about his female colleagues behaviour with officers from upper caste as very objectionable.

Speaking to News18, he said, Since the BJP government was formed, Priyanka Rawat is causing harm to the image of the party and has not done anything for the people. She wants to run a parallel organisation in Barabanki with her gang of criminals.

The leader also claimed that he would hold a demonstration against Rawat at the district administration. That will make it clear as to who is supporting her and who is supporting me, added Dixit.

Recently, Barabanki MP Priyanka Rawat was in news for threatening SDM (Sirauli Gausour) Ajay Kumar Diwedi when he went to remove illegal encroachments on government land. Barabanki mein jeena mushkil kar dungi (I will make it difficult for you to live in Barabanki), screamed Rawat at the IAS trainee. The BJP MP has been in news earlier for misbehaving with government officials. Rawat has earlier been aggressive towards SSP Kunwar Singh and District Magistrate Akhilesh Tiwari.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his first address to BJP MPs in the ongoing Winter Session called for promotion of youth both within and outside the party.

At the beginning of the meeting on Wednesday morning, PM Modi was felicitated by BJP president Amit Shah for the partys twin victories in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.

The PMs message at the BJP parliamentary party meeting comes close on the heels of 47-year-old Rahul Gandhi assuming the leadership of the Congress party and two days after counting of votes in a bitterly contested Gujarat elections.

In Gujarat elections, the BJP faced a tough challenge from young emerging caste leaders who aligned with the Congress.

The PM while addressing the BJP parliamentary party meeting this morning turned emotional recalling his association with former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee even as he urged party MPs to work on booth level management to win the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Glimpses of BJP Parliamentary party meeting. pic.twitter.com/uiPOi7S9yi Amit Shah (@AmitShah) December 20, 2017

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for strengthening BJP at booth levels across India for victory, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar told reporters.

Staving off the stiff challenge from the Congress in its bastion, BJPs tally in the Gujarat state assembly this time dwindled to double digits.

The party well entrenched in the western state seems to have been buffeted by a better booth management. Prime Ministers call to strengthen BJP at booth level is seen as an attempt to underscore the point to MPs preparing to face the electorate in 2019.

The BJP has also been assiduously trying to woo voters born after 2000, who would be eligible to exercise their franchise for the first time in the next general elections.
Lucknow: Since his appointment earlier this year as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath is increasingly being called upon by the BJP to campaign far and wide, outside his home turf.

The head of the Gorakhnath Peeth in eastern UP has been present at major events organised by the BJP and the RSS in the last nine months he has been in power  from the killing fields of Kannur (where BJP launched a high decibel campaign this year to find a firm hold on Kerala politics) to RSS coordination committee meetings in Mathura.

In the recently concluded Gujarat elections, Yogi was the most visible face from the league of BJP chief ministers. The UP chief minister toured 23 districts and addressed 36 rallies in Gujarat. The party candidates won in more than two dozen seats he campaigned in.

In Himachal Pradesh too, he addressed more than 20 rallies.

In Gujarat especially, Yogi is said to be have been deputed in rural belt where the party was up against the caste web Congress had built around BJPs over-arching Hindutva discourse.

For politics of 'Kamandal' that is Hindutva, 'Mandal' had often proven to be a strong antidote. And vice versa.

A senior BJP leader from Uttar Pradesh, not willing to be quoted, observes vikas or development in Gujarat would have worked well had there not been a resurgence of Mandal 2 in the state politics.

Going by the conventional wisdom from the heartland politics, Yogi in saffron robe had the credentials to repulse Congress pincer attack riding on caste combinations and rural distress.

Prashant Trivedi, Associate Professor at Giri Institute of Social Studies in Lucknow, says Yogi Adityanath's selection as the CM of Uttar Pradesh was in itself proof of RSS/BJP's search for Hindutva icon.

Party Spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi, however, disagrees. No doubt Brand Yogi has had a tremendous impact, but it was not out of his Hindutva image but the because of the work done by his government, he said.

In UPs caste conundrum, BJP is the only party in the last three decades to have experimented with upper caste chief ministers. In the case of Yogi, the additional advantage has been that the religious identity tends to subsume traditional caste fault lines.

But then, such overarching identities need to be buffeted with governance if one were to assume power. For Yogi, the biggest test of his performance would be in his home turf in 2019 general elections where NDA will be defending to retain 73 out of 80 seats alliance won in the last elections.
Germany's competition watchdog has found that Facebook abused its dominant market position, challenging the U.S. social network's model of monetising the personal data of its 2 billion users worldwide through targeted advertising. Presenting preliminary findings of its 20-month-old probe, the Federal Cartel Office said Facebook held a dominant position among social networks - a characterisation the company dismissed as "inaccurate".

The case is being closely watched in Germany, where concerns over data privacy are strong due to a history of state surveillance under the Nazi and Communist rule. Facebook has been running an ad campaign to try to allay those fears. Separately, Berlin will introduce a law in the new year imposing fines of up to 50 million euros ($59 million) on social media platforms that fail quickly to remove posts that propagate hate speech - a crime in Germany.

The anti-trust authority objected to Facebook's requirement that it gain access to third-party data when an account is opened - including from its own WhatsApp and Instagram products - as well as how it tracks which sites its user's access. "Above all we see the collection of data outside the Facebook social network and its inclusion in the Facebook account as problematic," cartel office President Andreas Mundt said in a statement.

This happens when a Facebook user views a page with a Facebook 'Like' button embedded in it - even if they don't click on the button itself, he added. On Monday, France's data privacy watchdog said it may fine WhatsApp, the encrypted messaging app if it does not comply with an order to bring its sharing of user data with Facebook into line with French privacy law.

'INACCURATE PICTURE'

Responding, Facebook said the cartel office had "painted an inaccurate picture" but said it would cooperate with the German investigation. "Although we are popular in Germany, we are not dominant," its head of data protection, Yvonne Cunnane, said in a blog post. About 41 percent of Germans have active Facebook accounts, below the 66 percent in the United States, 64 percent in Britain and 56 percent in France, according to a survey by social media agencies Hootsuite and We Are Social.

"A dominant company operates in a world where customers don't have alternatives," said Cunnane, adding that the average smartphone user now accesses seven different communications apps or services. Facebook, founded by CEO Mark Zuckerberg and fellow Harvard students in 2004, has grown exponentially to become the world's top social network and is valued on the stock market at $525 billion.

It has done so by providing free access to users while analysing their online behaviour to target advertising, where its revenues rose by half in the third quarter to $10 billion. The probe by the German cartel office has raised eyebrows because some European Union officials see it as encroaching into an area properly overseen by data-protection authorities under EU-wide rules.

One German data-protection official said the investigation was legitimate because data protection and preventing abusive competition were "two sides of the same coin" when it comes to social networks. "Facebook has built up an intricate network for unlimited data collection and compilation that is totally opaque," said Johannes Caspar, data protection commissioner for the city-state of Hamburg.

"This fundamentally collides with the right to self-determination of those affected." In her blog post, Cunnane noted that Facebook abided by European data-protection laws and would comply with a new General Data Protection Regulation when it comes into force in the EU in May 2018. The cartel office, which said it was working closely with data- and consumer-protection bodies, expects to publish the final results of its investigation into Facebook in the early summer of 2018 at the earliest.

Although the probe will not result in a fine, it could lead to assurances being sought from Facebook, or certain of its practices being banned, a cartel office spokesman said by way of clarification.

Watch: Tech and Auto Show | Ep 24 | Honor 7X, TVS Apache RR 310, Volvo XC60 & More
The budget commission of Italy's lower house approved on Tuesday a provision obliging companies to pay a 3 percent tax on some internet transactions made in Italy. Italy has long complained that companies such as Amazon, Apple and Google have avoided taxes by maintaining that they do not have a "stable presence" in the county, even though they generate huge revenues here.

To get around that problem, the new sales levy will be aimed at firms buying services in Italy. The so-called "web tax" will be introduced in 2019 and is projected to bring in 190 million euros ($224.2 million) a year. The tax does not cover e-commerce, but rather "intangible digital products" such as advertising and sponsored links embedded in web pages. The finance ministry has said it will identify exactly which services are taxable by next April.

Companies will only have to pay up if they make more than 3,000 digital transactions in a year. The measure is included in the 2018 budget bill, which has to be passed into law before the end of the year. The upper house Senate originally proposed a 6 percent tariff, but this was halved in the lower house. Under EU law, corporate taxes are paid where firms have a physical presence, which allows large digital multinationals to book most of their profits in the low-tax countries where they have set up headquarters.

France, Germany, Italy and Spain are pushing to change the tax legislation, but are facing resistance from smaller nations like Luxembourg and Malta, which fear reform could hurt their economies.

Watch: Tech and Auto Show | Ep 24 | Honor 7X, TVS Apache RR 310, Volvo XC60 & More
Sony Corp is poised to report its highest-ever profit this year on strong sales of image sensors after years of losing ground in consumer electronics and hopes to develop the technology for use in robotics and self-driving cars as competition heats up. The results will mark a significant turnaround for the conglomerate, once famed for leading the world in consumer gadgets such as its Walkman music player, but now be finding a new focus on image sensors and gaming.

Sony forecasts that operating profit in the year through March will more than double to 630 billion yen ($5.6 billion) compared with the year-earlier and expects the chips division, most of which is made up of the image sensors business, to be the conglomerates biggest growth driver. Executives say a technological breakthrough in image sensors and a sea change in the company's thinking are behind the success. The breakthrough, creating a sensor that captures more light to produce sharper images, coincided with soaring consumer demand for better smartphone cameras for sharing photos on social media.

The breakthrough, which involved reconfiguring the sensor layout and known as backside illumination, allowed Sony to grab nearly half of the market for image sensors. "We knew we wouldn't be able to win if we did what our rivals were doing," said Teruo Hirayama, technology chief of Sony's chip business, recalling initial scepticism around the technology that is now used widely. Japanese names such as Hitachi Ltd, NEC Corp and Fujitsu Ltd, which dominated mainstream chips through the late 1980s, have lost business to Asian rivals such as Samsung Electronics.

Sony's success "is really a function of having decided a long time ago to focus on that niche within semiconductors," says Andrew Daniels, a Tokyo-based managing director at Indus Capital, an investment management firm. He declined to say whether his fund owns Sony shares. "The process technology is very much that kind of 'takumi-no-waza'," he said, using a Japanese phrase for the pursuit of manufacturing perfection.

OUTSIDER

The sensor business was also helped by being an "outsider" within the company. By selling to companies outside Sony, it was insulated from declining sales of the company's own smartphones and other consumer electronics. The sensors, for example, were first sold to All Nippon Airways, which used them to broadcast views from the cockpit to passengers. "Sony used to be obsessed with the idea that its technologies should be kept within the group for use only in its own products," said Atsushi Osanai, a professor at Waseda University's business school. "Selling components outside the firm was out of line with Sony's traditional business model."

The sensor business also got a boost from a shake-up initiated by Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai, who called for each division to be more independent and profitable on its own. "It was a great help for us to be told that we should operate independently," Terushi Shimizu, the chief of Sony's chip division, said, "rather than just belong to Sony."

REINVENTION

But the company is already bracing for intensifying competition in sensors as rivals, such as Samsung and OmniVision Technologies, step up their game, and is developing new sensor technologies for use in robotics and self-driving cars. Investors say Sony still has a technological advantage that will take time for others to replicate. "Sony has been trying to be ahead, but could face a turning point in a year or two," said Kun Soo Lee, a senior principal analyst with IHS Markit in Tokyo.

It is developing sensor technologies that can quickly measure distances or detect invisible light that are expected to be used in autonomous driving, factory automation and robotics, they said. "Time-of-flight" sensors, for example, calculate distances by measuring the time it takes for light to reflect from an object and could be used in drones or robotics for gesture and object recognition.

"It's clear that we are currently dependent on the smartphone market," Shimizu, the chip business chief said. "The market's shift to dual-lens cameras from single-lens is good for us, but how long is this going to last as the market is only growing 1 or 2 percent?"

Watch: Tech and Auto Show | Ep 24 | Honor 7X, TVS Apache RR 310, Volvo XC60 & More
Beijing: Chinese cybersecurity firm Qihoo 360 has shut down a controversial live streaming platform that allowed people to stream footage online from surveillance cameras in locations such as classrooms and restaurants to grocery stores.

The move, announced on the platform's official microblog account on Wednesday, comes after the service sparked an outcry over concerns it infringed on people's privacy and a fierce debate about the limits of surveillance.

The firm said in the statement it would halt livestreams on the platform - called Shuidi, or Water Drop - due to an "internal corporate business adjustment". The platform allowed people who bought Qihoo surveillance cameras to upload feeds.

China is trying to build one of the world's most sophisticated surveillance technology networks nationwide, with millions of cameras in public places and increasing use of systems such as facial recognition.

The Water Drop platform had come under fire after netizens online criticised it as an intrusion of privacy, especially in more sensitive places like schools or swimming pools.

In one commentary widely read online, blogger Chen Feifei questioned the legality of livestreaming surveillance footage, and said she had visited a dance studio where many parents had said they were unaware their children were being streamed.

Qihoo has previously said it was up to the owners of the cameras to inform people that they could be streamed.

Despite shutting down the platform, the firm said its smart cameras "will focus on providing reliable security surveillance and provide services to customers".

"We will unswervingly continue to offer smart cameras to nursery schools all over China, and help parents watch their children real time," the platform's managers wrote in an open letter posted on its Weibo account.
Korla: Nobody knows what happened to the Uighur student after he returned to China from Egypt and was taken away by police. Not his neighbours, not his classmates, not his mother.

"Is he dead or alive?" the mother said, tears streaming down her face when Associated Press reporters visited her at home unexpectedly and showed her a photo of the student.

The student's friends think he joined thousands  possibly tens of thousands  of people who have been spirited away without trial into new indoctrination centers. The mass disappearances, beginning the past year, are part of efforts by Chinese authorities to use detentions and data-driven surveillance to impose a police state over the region of Xinjiang and its 10 million Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority that China says has been influenced by Islamic extremism.

Unprecedented levels of police blanket Xinjiang's streets in many cities. Cutting-edge surveillance systems track where Uighurs go, what they read, who they talk to and what they say.

Through rare interviews with Uighurs who recently left China, a review of government procurement contracts and unreported documents, and a trip through southern Xinjiang, the AP pieced together a picture of a campaign that's ostensibly rooting out terror  but instead instilling fear.

Most of the more than a dozen Uighurs interviewed for this story spoke on condition of anonymity for fear that Chinese authorities would punish them or their family members. The AP is withholding the student's name and other personal information to protect people who fear government retribution.

The Xinjiang regional government did not respond to repeated requests for comment. But China's government describes its Xinjiang security policy as a "strike hard" campaign that's necessary following a series of attacks in 2013 and 2014, including a mass knifing in a train station that killed 33. A Hotan city propaganda official, Bao Changhui, told the AP: "If we don't do this, it will be like several years ago  hundreds will die."

China also points to decades of heavy economic investment and cultural assimilation programs and measures like preferential college admissions for Uighurs.

Authorities refer to the detention program as "vocational training," but its main purpose appears to be indoctrination. Training sessions on "Mandarin, law, ethnic unity, de-radicalization, patriotism" are described as lasting anywhere from 3 months to 2 years.

In Korla, one center the AP visited was labeled a jail. Another was downtown on a street sealed off by rifle-toting police.

Southern Xinjiang, where Korla is located, is one of the most heavily policed places on earth.

In Hotan, police depots with flashing lights and foot patrols are set up every 500 meters. Motorcades of more than 40 armored vehicles rumble down city boulevards. Police checkpoints on every other block stop cars to check identification and smartphones for religious content.

Xinjiang's published budget data shows public security spending this year is on track to increase 50 percent from 2016 to roughly 45 billion yuan ($6.8 billion) after rising 40 percent a year ago. It's quadrupled since 2009, when a Uighur riot broke out in Urumqi, killing nearly 200 people.

But much of the policing goes unseen.

Shoppers entering the Hotan bazaar must pass through metal detectors and place their national identification cards on a reader while having their faces scanned. AP reporters were stopped outside a hotel by a police officer who said the public security bureau had been remotely tracking the reporters' movements by watching surveillance camera footage.

The government's tracking efforts have extended to vehicles, genes and even voices. A biometric data collection program appears to have been formalized last year under "Document No. 44," a regional public security directive to "comprehensively collect three-dimensional portraits, voiceprints, DNA and fingerprints." The document's full text remains secret, but the AP found at least three contracts referring to the 2016 directive in recent purchase orders for equipment such as microphones and voice analyzers.

China has also turned to a familiar low-tech surveillance tactic: recruiting the masses.

A Uighur businessman from Kashgar who fled China said his four brothers and his father were in prison because of his escape and that families tasked with spying on one another in his community had also been punished. Members from each were sent to re-education centers for three months, he told the AP.

A document obtained by U.S.-based activists and seen by the AP shows Uighur residents in the Hebei Road West neighborhood in Urumqi, the regional capital, being graded on a 100-point scale. Those of Uighur ethnicity are automatically docked 10 points. Being aged between 15 and 55, praying daily, or having a religious education, all result in 10 point deductions. A neighborhood police official in Urumqi surnamed Tao confirmed that every community committee in the city needed to conduct similar assessments.

Uighurs abroad say it's too risky to stay in touch with their families in China.

When Salih Hudayar, an American Uighur graduate student, last called his 70-something grandfather this summer, the elderly man told him kindly not to call again. He later heard his grandfather had been sent to an indoctrination camp.

A Uighur student who moved to Washington following the crackdown this summer said that after his move, his wife, a government worker still in Urumqi, messaged to say the police would show up at her home in 20 minutes. She had to say goodbye: after that she would delete him permanently from her contacts list.

Later, he couldn't help himself placing one last call home. His daughter picked up.

"Mom is sick but she doesn't want me to speak to you. Goodbye," she said.
Geneva: The U.N. independent investigator into human rights in Myanmar has been barred from visiting the country for the rest of her tenure, she said on Wednesday.

Yanghee Lee, U.N. special rapporteur, said she had been due to visit in January to assess human rights across Myanmar, including alleged abuses against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State, but Myanmar had now told her it would not cooperate with her any more.

"This declaration of non-cooperation with my mandate can only be viewed as a strong indication that there must be something terribly awful happening in Rakhine, as well as in the rest of the country," she said in a statement.

"It is a shame that Myanmar has decided to take this route," she said.

"The government has repeatedly denied violations of human rights are occurring throughout Myanmar, particularly in Rakhine State. They have said that they have nothing to hide, but their lack of cooperation with my mandate and the fact-finding mission suggests otherwise."

She hoped Myanmar's government would change its mind, adding that she was "puzzled and disappointed", since its Ambassador in Geneva Htin Lynn had told the U.N. Human Rights Council only two weeks ago that it would continue to cooperate.

"Now I am being told that this decision to no longer cooperate with me is based on the statement I made after I visited the country in July," she said.

Neither Lynn, nor Zaw Htay, spokesman for Myanmars de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, nor Kyaw Moe Tun, a spokesman for the ministry of foreign affairs that Suu Kyi heads, were immediately available for comment.

Lee's mandate requires two visits to Myanmar each year and she has visited six times since taking up the mandate in June 2014, although the government has consistently refused access to some areas, citing security concerns, the statement said.

More than 650,000 Rohingya fled into Bangladesh after attacks by Muslim insurgents on the Myanmar security forces triggered a response by the army and Buddhist vigilantes.

Surveys of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh by aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres have shown at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed in Rakhine state in the month after violence flared up on Aug 25, MSF said last week.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein has called the violence "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing" and said he would not be surprised if a court eventually ruled that genocide had taken place.
Washington: The US has concerns about JuD chief and 26/11 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed running for office in Pakistan in 2018, a senior Trump Administration official has said.

The Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) head and LeT founder had earlier confirmed that his organisation Jammat-ud-Dawah will contest the 2018 general elections in Pakistan under the banner of the Milli Muslim League, which is yet to be registered with the Election Commission.

"Saeed, who was released by Pakistan from house arrest last November resulting in angry reaction from the US, was the "mastermind" of the Mumbai terrorist attacks and is leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba," State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said.

"It's a group that the US government considers to be a terror organisation. We have many conversations with the government of Pakistan. One of the things that happened recently was that this guy was held on house arrest. Pakistan released him from house arrest, and now there's word that he may be running for some sort of office," she said reporters here.

Saeed, who has a USD 10 million American bounty on his head for terror activities, was freed by Pakistan on November 24. He is a UN and US-designated terrorist.

"I want to remind folks, we have a USD 10 million Reward for Justice programme that would reward for information that would bring him to justice. So I want to make that clear, so that everybody knows  USD 10 million, out for this guy. And we would certainly have concerns about him running for office," Nauert said.

The US had also strongly condemned the release of the Lashkar-e-Taiba leader from house arrest and had called for his immediate re-arrest and prosecution.

However, top Pakistani diplomats based in the US have said that there is no evidence against Saeed.

"I can tell you his organisation that was responsible for those attacks is considered a foreign terror organisation. It's considered a foreign terror organisation by the US government for a reason, and for a good reason," Nauert said.

"I would imagine that if we had any intelligence, and that's not an area that I can discuss anyway, but we would certainly share it with the Pakistani's on that front. I hope they'll do the right thing," Nauert said.

"I hope that they will do the right thing and remind folks across Pakistan, we have a USD 10 million reward for this guy," the spokesperson said.

The banned JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Taiba which carried out the 2008 Mumbai terror attack in which 166 people were killed.
Police are hit by fire bombs thrown by protesters during a general strike against a pension reform measure, outside Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina on December 18, 2017. Union leaders complain the legislation, which already passed in the Senate, would cut pension and retirement payments as well as aid for some of poor families. (Image: AP)
As more residents rely on their smartphones to navigate everyday life, the city of Lynchburg recently has launched three new apps to engage citizens with their community and make life in the Hill City more tech savvy.

All three apps are put out by different city departments  the citys Communications and Marketing Department, the Lynchburg Fire Department and Parking Management  and connect residents with a wide range of city services.

The city of Lynchburg app, developed through a partnership between the Communications and Marketing and the Information Technology departments, serves as a portal for users to find information about the local government, access a calendar of events, navigate to city parks or pay a bill.

People arent always in front of their computers or have their tablets, but they always have their phones, Lynchburgs Communications & Marketing Director JoAnn Martin said. If they want to access information quickly, now we have the app for them to use.

The app is powered by MyCivic, a company that develops mobile applications for local governments, and costs the city $6,000 annually, Martin said. From the main page of the free-to-download program designed with the same color scheme as the citys website, users can find information about city schools, contact City Council members and use Google Maps to navigate to a park, trail or museum in Lynchburg they may want to visit.

Another useful feature is the Report an Issue page, where users can alert the city to problems like potholes in the road, traffic signal timing, missed trash collection, a burnt-out street light or a clogged storm drain. The app also allows users to attach a photo of the problem, and if you send the issue from its exact location, Google Maps will pinpoint your location and attach it to your request. The issues will be sent direction directly to the Citizens First Information Center, which will send it along to the correct department to be resolved.

Say you have a neighbor that has overgrown grass  you can report it to us, Martin said. Having a picture will help our folks to see actually what the issue is and helps give us some context.

Since launching the app, it has been downloaded more than 300 times.

The Lynchburg Fire Departments new app is less about connecting residents with its services and more about connecting residents with each other when they are in need.

Called PulsePoint, the departments new app will alert users who have CPR training if anyone within a quarter-mile radius has a cardiac arrest in a public place in the city. The app also guides the user to the person in need of assistance, shows the locations of nearby Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) to assist in resuscitating someone and acts as a metronome to help a person keep a steady rhythm while administering CPR.

According to Interim Deputy Fire Chief Heather Childress, providing chest compressions as soon as possible after someone has a cardiac arrest improves the likelihood of full recovery.

The amount of time between that collapse and when people receive CPR is directly reflective of what their chances are of being successfully resuscitated, Childress said. The more we can reduce that gap, the more likely our citizens will walk out of the hospital  walk out, not [be] carried out.

When users download the app, it asks if you have any CPR training, but no proof of a CPR certification is necessary because just doing basic chest compressions is the most important part of the emergency procedure, Childress said.

Our goal is to have more people walk out of the hospital neurologically intact because they had CPR as early as possible, she said. The compressions are the single most important factor in that. Thats what gets your blood circulating and oxygenating your heart muscles and limits damage.

PulsePoint is a California-based company that has distributed its app for use by public safety agencies across the country. The app cost $50,000 for a five-year subscription, which included start-up costs. After the five years is up, the app will cost $8,000 annually to renew. The free-to-download app has been downloaded by more than 500 Lynchburg residents so far, Childress said.

The home screen of the app also serves as a window to LFDs dispatch center, allowing users to see where the fire department has been responding and to what kinds of calls. Fire calls provide more information, but users only are alerted to the street of a medical emergency and given very little details because of Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations.

Users also can sign up for notifications of structure fires, vegetation fires, vehicle crashes, hazardous material responses, water rescues or other incidents.

If you know that there is a fire on your street or on the street you use to get home, you may avoid that, so it provides some helpfulness in that way, Childress said. If you know something huge is going on at the mall, you may want to stay away from it. PulsePoint has found over and over that instead of people showing up and being nosy to see whats happening, they use it as a way to minimize traffic and keep people away.

The third app newly available for Lynchburg residents and visitors is PassportParking, which allows users to pay for their parking spots in any of the citys parking decks that require a fee to use.

Our whole goal is to promote safe and convenient parking, Lynchburg Parking Manager David Malewitz said. Even though people dont like paying to park, were promoting different options for them to use.

To use the app, residents input the zone number for the area they are parking in and then pay for the amount of time they would like to use the spot. When their time runs low, the app will also notify the user so they either can return to their car quickly and avoid a ticket or easily add more time remotely and continue their business in Lynchburg.

PassportParking is available at all of the citys parking lots that require payment, including Lot E at 1310 Main St., the Mid-Town Parking Deck at 910 Main St., the SunTrust parking deck at 1001 Commerce St. and the Clay Street Deck at 800 Clay St. behind the Lynchburg Museum.

Since the app launched at the beginning of November, Malewitz said it has handled more than 110 transactions for a total value of more than $350, and he expects it to grow.

As more people know about it, were getting more transactions, he said. Usually for the first six to eight months, you see the usage increase once the words out.

PassportParking costs the city no fee and is paid for by 25-cent convenience fees applied to each parking transaction, according to Malewitz.

The apps are all available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Call it the aftershock.

After flipping 15 Republican seats in the House of Delegates last month, Democrats appeared to pick up one more Tuesday after winning a Newport News-area recount by a single vote.

If the stunning result is confirmed Wednesday by a recount court, it would throw the House into an extraordinary 50-50 split that would require Republicans and Democrats to share legislative power.

Democrat Shelly Simonds, a Newport News School Board member, entered Tuesdays recount in the 94th House District trailing Republican Del. David E. Yancey by just 10 votes. When the ballots were retabulated, the unofficial results showed Simonds with 11,608 votes to 11,607 for Yancey.

So I think I won, right? Simonds said as she got on a conference call with reporters Tuesday evening.

Republicans went into last months election with a 66-34 majority and a plan to elect Del. M. Kirkland Cox, R-Colonial Heights, the successor to retiring House Speaker William J. Howell, R-Stafford. With the speakership now up in the air, the GOP will have to work with Democrats to rewrite the basic rules of how the House works, including hashing out the membership of committees and subcommittees that decide which bills live and which die.

With Democratic Gov.-elect Ralph Northam taking office early next year and the state Senate narrowly split with a 21-19 GOP majority, Democrats now have a chance at getting some of their policy initiatives through the House by picking off a Republican vote or two.

I can imagine getting Medicaid expansion done. Getting some things out of committee that weve never been able to get out of committee before, Simonds said. Like nonpartisan redistricting. The Equal Rights Amendment. We may even be able to increase the minimum wage.

The 10-vote margin in the 94th was the closest by far of the four recounts called after last months election.

The last time a recount overturned a legislative election result in Virginia was 1991, when two House races flipped in recounts. One of those races was also decided by a single vote, but neither was pivotal in deciding who would control the House.

Republicans seemed resigned to having lost their majority, giving no indication they were preparing a legal challenge to contest the apparent Simonds victory over Yancey. In a statement, Cox dropped the speaker-designee title he had been using since February after the GOP caucus chose him as the presumptive House leader.

The responsibilities of the House of Delegates as an institution transcend party labels, and our obligations to govern this Commonwealth remain, Cox and other Republican leaders said in a joint statement. As we have said for the last six weeks, we are committed to leading and governing alongside our colleagues. We must balance the budget, grow our economy, improve our schools, and fight the opioid crisis, to name a few of the tasks before us.

The Republican leaders said they stand ready to establish a bipartisan framework under which the House can operate efficiently and effectively over the next two years.

A power-sharing deal could mean partisan parity on House committees, the smaller panels that play a critical role in deciding which bills go to the floor for a vote. Unlike the Senate, the House has no mechanism to break a tie on the floor, meaning a 50-50 vote on party lines would doom legislation.

The House adopted a power-sharing agreement in 1998 built around equal party splits on committees, with rotating chairmanships or co-chairs.

Del. David J. Toscano, a Charlottesville Democrat who serves as House minority leader, said he hopes to meet with his GOP colleagues later this week to begin talks about how the new-look House will function.

The Republicans and the Democrats have a chance to do something really special here, Toscano said.

If Toscano hopes to become speaker himself, hell first have to win re-election as the Democratic leader at a caucus meeting scheduled for Wednesday night.

Del. Kenneth R. Plum, a Fairfax County Democrat and the Houses longest-serving member, has already expressed interest in becoming speaker if Democrats have a shot at electing one of their own.

Democrats are holding out hope they could add to their tally before all is said and done.

Two more recounts are scheduled this week in the Fredericksburg areas 28th District and the Richmond regions 68th District.

In the 28th, Republican Bob Thomas leads Democrat Joshua Cole by 82 votes. Because of system errors that caused some voters to cast ballots in the wrong House district, Democrats have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to have the result thrown out to allow a special election.

Cole reiterated his call for a special election Tuesday, saying he will continue to fight.

Shelly has given us hope tonight, Cole said.

In the 68th, Democrat Dawn Adams leads Republican Del. G. Manoli Loupassi by 336 votes.

A recount last week in Northern Virginias 40th District confirmed Republican Del. Timothy D. Hugo as the winner.

Yancey and 15 other Republicans werent so fortunate.

This definitely was a wave election, Simonds said. We may be the tail end of the wave, but we can definitely feel the movement here in Newport News.
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday paid a visit to the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority to familiarise himself with the operations of the organisation.



Addressing journalists after the tour, Zimparks director general Mr Fulton Mangwanya said they invited the President to appreciate their operations.





We invited him to see what we are doing as national parks, he said.

As you know, the national parks is part of the cog of tourism and as you know the President is on the drive to make sure that tourism picks up.





Visitors come here for the heritage that we have and what we are doing is to push up tourism so that we benefit as a country.





Mr Mangwanya said they had also introduced the President to Akashinga, an all-female team of rangers from Nyamakati in Hurungwe.





We have these ladies who are doing a task which was usually done by men and its so

encouraging because in a lot of communities we actually have a lot of these ladies who are doing nothing and they actually assist in the conservation of our wildlife resources and it goes a long way in preserving our animals, he said.

The women were trained with the assistance of a non-governmental organisation to carry out community conservation and improve their livelihoods.





Meanwhile, Mr Mangwanya said investigations into the origins of the ivory that was intercepted at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport recently were ongoing.

Zimparks intercepted 200kg of Malaysia bound ivory valued at $1 million.





A number of poachers have been arrested or killed in shoot-outs with Zimparks rangers in the countrys wildlife reserves. Several elephants have been killed by poachers through cyanide poisoning, especially in Hwange. Herald
Idaho Cops:

Actually, There

Could Be a Threat

to the Community
A 26-year-old woman in Tennessee has given birth to a baby girl, but this otherwise everyday event comes with a remarkable twist. The embryo that resulted in the birth was frozen 24 years ago, meaning mom and baby are in one sense nearly the same age. "This embryo and I could have been best friends," Tina Gibson of Clinton tells CNN. The National Embryo Donation Center, which facilitated the procedure, says in a release that last month's birth of Emma Wren Gibson sets the record for the longest-frozen embryo becoming a baby. An anonymous couple had the embryo frozen back in 1992, when Gibson was all of 18 months old, and the NEDC thawed the fertilized egg in March and implanted it in Gibson, reports USA Today.

"Emma is such a sweet miracle, says dad Benjamin Gibson, whose cystic fibrosis made it impossible for the couple to conceive. I think she looks pretty perfect to have been frozen all those years ago. She's also healthy, having been born at 6 pounds, 8 ounces, and 20 inches long, per People. The process in which the embryo remained in cool storage all these years is called cryopreservation, and the process by which the Gibsons became parents is known as embryo adoption. The procedure is probably a record, as the NEDC says, but confirmation is tricky. "Identifying the oldest known embryo is simply an impossibility," IVF expert Dr. Zaher Merhi tells CNN, because American companies aren't required to report embryos' ages. (Read more embryo stories.)
Just over four months after a young Charlottesville woman was killed when a car plowed into people protesting a white nationalist rally, the Virginia city will dedicate part of the street where she was marching in her honor. Charlottesville is holding a ceremony Wednesday morning to designate part of 4th Street, where the gray Dodge Challenger barreled into the crowd, "Honorary Heather Heyer Way." Among those slated to speak is Heyer's mother, Susan Bro. "This puts her death spot on the map, so to speak," Bro tells the AP. Heyer, a legal assistant described as a compassionate woman with a powerful sense of fairness, had taken to the streets with hundreds of others on Aug. 12 to decry what experts say was the country's biggest gathering of white nationalists in a decade.



The counterprotesters were making their way through downtown, singing songs and chanting triumphantly, about two hours after authorities had cleared the park where the rally was to take place.The attack sent bodies flying and sparked panic. A police detective testified last week that 35 other people were injured. The driver of the car, James Alex Fields Jr., a 20-year-old Ohio man described as an admirer of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, was arrested and has been charged with murder and nine other felonies. Bro said she was the "first one in the courtroom and last one out" at Fields' preliminary hearing last week, where a judge agreed to upgrade a second-degree murder charge to first-degree murder at the request of prosecutors.

(Read more Charlottesville, Va. stories.)
Gumaro Perez is at least the 12th media worker to be killed in Mexico this year and his murder was shocking even by the standards of violence-plagued Veracruz state. The 34-year-old was gunned down by unidentified attackers in front of dozens of horrified children and parents at a Christmas party at his son's elementary school in the town of Acayucan Tuesday, the Guardian reports. Perez covered the crime beat for several local outlets and was also the founder of the news site La Voz del Sur. State authorities say he was part of a program to protect journalists in high-risk areas, though he had not reported any recent threats against him.

The journalist's widow, Adelina Mendoza, told local media that she had begged him to leave the profession and open a restaurant with her. She said her son was spared seeing the murder because she was leaving the party early and he left the room to say goodbye. "I hugged him, I gave him a kiss because I was leaving, and right then I heard the gunshots. But I thought they were fireworks that some child had brought," she said, per the AP. "God knows how to do things, because my son never saw his father die." Other journalists in Veracruz state say they are not being protected. "It continues being the same nightmare," says Miguel Angel Diaz, founder of the Plumas Libres news site. "Criminals have permission to do as they want."
Louisiana veterinarian Kelly Folse's prescription for a barking dog next door was a bullet, police say. Folse, 35, was booked on aggravated cruelty to an animal Tuesday, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports. She also faces charges of drug possession and illegal discharge of a firearm. Police say Folse shot Bruizer, her next-door neighbor's 15-month-old American bulldog, in the head when her neighbor was out on the afternoon of Dec. 13. The family took the wounded animal to the Abadie Veterinary Hospital in Harahan, where Folse works, but it died from its injuries the next day. Folse was not involved in caring for the dog, authorities say. The hospital fired Folse on Tuesday.

Police say the neighbor, suspecting Folse had shot her dog, showed them hostile messages from the vet complaining about constant barking. Narcotics were found in the vet's home after police obtained a search warrant. "This is crazy, a veterinarian shooting a dog of her next-door neighbor," Sheriff Joseph Lopinto said Tuesday. "This is nuts. I don't know how else to put it." He added: "This is not supposed to be normal. Someone lost a pet today ... I don't care how much it barks; this is not appropriate behavior," per the Advocate. (A Texas veterinarian who killed a cat with a bow and arrow did not permanently lose her license.)
Weeks before he would be accused of detonating a bomb in a New York subway corridor, Akayed Ullah was a "happy" religious man, so "loving and giving" that he traveled hundreds of miles, at one point sleeping under a tree, to deliver medicine to Rohingya refugees. That's the portrait painted by friends and relatives of the Bangladesh native interviewed by the New York Times, which presents a strikingly different portrayal alongside its own. The Times reports Ullahwho investigators say was monitoring jihadi websitesmight not have been "following his own heart" but rather the directions of al-Qaeda, which had urged Muslims to help the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic group that recently fled Myanmar. Ullah would later tell investigators he was inspired by the Islamic State to attack the US for policies targeting Muslims.

Those who knew him say the 27-year-old didn't seem like the kind of person to commit a terrorist act, though his mother-in-law says he returned from refugee camps in September enraged that the Rohingya were "living in hell." Around the same time, he tried to get his wife to read a book written by a jailed Islamic scholar calling for the murders of those who insult Islam. Some wonder whether Ullah met militants known to be recruiting at the Rohingya camps. "Definitely someone helped him around," a former member of an Islamist group tells the Times. A complaint, however, states Ullah began reading about ISIS online in 2014, three years after he moved to New York, and researched explosives in 2016, per Quartz. "You guys in the West are naive," an analyst tells the Times. "You give more space for the preachers, the hate speech. We don't tolerate it." (Read more Akayed Ullah stories.)
In the late '90s, Zelda Perkins was Harvey Weinstein's assistant, and she recalls the man as "extremely exciting, brilliant, stimulating"and a "repulsive monster" and "power addict." Perkins signed a non-disclosure agreement in 1998 and was paid $168,000 over an incident involving Weinstein, and tells BBC's Newsnight it was stiflingly strict. She first recounts that she "had one warning" upon taking the job, and "that woman really saved my honor, because actually being warned is very important because it arms you. All she had said to me is, 'Don't ever sit on the sofa next to him. And always keep your puffer jacket on.' ... It meant that I was ready when he did start behaving badly, and it also meant that I wasn't as frightened, because I knew that it had happened to other people." What happened to someone else is what led to her NDA: She alleges he tried to rape a colleague at the Venice Film Festival.

Once back in the UK she spoke with a Miramax superior who advised her to get a lawyer. She resigned, and expected "criminal proceedings" would follow. But "the lawyers made it very clear that we didnt have many options. ... Ultimately, it would be two under-25 women's word against Harvey." She describes the NDA process as an "intense experience" that ultimately barred her from even discussing her time as Weinstein's employee, talking to her accountant about the payment, or speaking to a therapist without that person signing a confidentiality agreement. She said over the last 19 years she made "attempts to circumnavigate my agreement, however, it was almost impossible for me because one of the clauses of the agreement disallows me to have a copy of it." In her view, that was so she couldn't hold Weinstein accountable to its terms, which specified things like "he will be dismissed ... if anyone makes a complaint in the ensuing period." (Read more Harvey Weinstein stories.)
A type of Mexican fish heads every spring to the Gulf of California to spawnand their "reproductive orgies," as the AFP puts it, are so loud they can damage hearing in other marine life. A pair of studies from the same researchers, one published in June in the Scientific Reports journal and one posted just this month in the Biology Letters journal, says that the sound of an individual Gulf corvina issuing a pulsating mating call sounds like a "really loud machine gun." And when hundreds of thousands of them get together to do the deed, "the collective chorus sounds like a crowd cheering at a stadium or perhaps a really loud beehive," says study co-author Timothy Rowell. This commotion-filled copulation isn't just the "loudest sound ever recorded for a fish species," Rowell says. When this happens, it's "among the loudest wildlife events found on planet Earth."

The researchers gathered data in March and April 2014, when about 1.5 million corvinas converged in the Colorado River Delta to procreate. Different tools were used to measure fish location, density, and loudness. What scientists found was a racket so loud (listen to clips at Gizmodo) it can cause hearing loss in dolphins, seals, and sea lions, even deafening themthough, oddly, sea lions and dolphins were found feeding nearby. The noise the spawning fish make doesn't help themselves, either: Fishermen are able to track exactly where they're located from the sound and scoop them out of the water. Gizmodo notes this ends up as a harvest that's "hugely disruptive" to the species, leaving them "vulnerable" to extinction due to overfishing. The researchers say the sex sounds came about as part of the evolutionary process, allowing the fish to communicate above the surrounding din. (Maybe they should go spawn in Sweden.)
A Massachusetts grocery store employee has surprised shoppers with his operatic renditions of popular Christmas music, per the AP. Tony Russo, owner of Russo's Market in Watertown, tells the Boston Globe he had no idea Guilherme Assuncao could sing when the 23-year-old volunteered to sound check equipment Friday night for an upcoming weekend performance. His voice shocked his co-workers, and Assuncao was invited back to the stage to perform for shoppers.



One woman who visited the store Saturday says everyone stopped what they were doing when they heard Assuncao sing. One video of him performing "O Holy Night" has since garnered more than 74,000 views on Facebook. Assuncao moved from Brazil to the US in 2015 to attend school. While he hasn't performed in years, Assuncao says "music is my life."

(Read more Christmas carols stories.)
Consider it a not-so-veiled threat. The UN General Assembly votes Thursday on whether to reject President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and US Ambassador Nikki Haley is warning that the US will be paying very close attention. "When we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl, abt where to locate OUR embassy, we don't expect those we've helped to target us," she tweeted. "On Thurs there'll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names." In a letter circulated to other countries, Haley reiterates the point, reports the Guardian. "As you consider your vote, I encourage you to know the president and the US take this vote personally," she writes, adding that she'll be reporting back to Trump on the nay votes.

It's unclear whether the US pressure will work. When the Security Council voted on a similar measure Monday, the other 14 members of the council voted against the US. However, because the US has veto power on the council, the measure failed anyway. No such vetoes are in play during the General Assembly vote, which is being held at the request of Arab and Muslim states, reports the BBC. A draft of the non-binding resolution asks the General Assembly to declare the American move "null and void," and Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour predicts victory: "The General Assembly will say, without the fear of the veto, that the international community is refusing to accept the unilateral position of the United States." (Read more Nikki Haley stories.)
She hoped the stunt would be a viral hit. Instead, it's likely to land Monalisa Perez behind bars. The 20-year-old Minnesota woman has pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter after fatally shooting her boyfriend, Pedro Ruiz, through a hardcover book the pair believed would stop the bullet on June 26. A plea agreement reached Friday, yet to be approved by a judge, would see Perez spend 180 days behind barsin 30-day increments per year for the first three years, followed by the possibility of electronic home monitoringand 10 years on supervised probation, report the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Minneapolis Star Tribune. The agreement would also prevent Perez from possessing firearms for life and profiting from videos recording the shooting.

"Me and Pedro are probably going to shoot one of the most dangerous videos ever. HIS idea not MINE," Perez, who has two young children, tweeted hours before authorities found Ruiz dead outside the couple's home in Halstad. They say a bullet fired from a handgun went through a book and into Ruiz's chest in an accident recorded by two cameras. Perez said she had only agreed to the stunt, meant for YouTube, after Ruiz showed her another book that had stopped a bullet. Perez is to be officially sentenced in February, reports the New York Times, noting she could've faced up to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine if she was convicted at trial. Ruiz's relatives, who previously expressed support for Perez, reportedly approve of the agreement. (Read more manslaughter stories.)
Sorry!

This content is not available in your region
The Daily News-Miner encourages residents to make themselves heard through the Opinion pages. Readers' letters and columns also appear online at newsminer.com. Contact the editor with questions at letters@newsminer.com or call 459-7574.
Bengaluru:

At a time when India is still pondering about the legal status of the LGBT community, Bengaluru's The Lalit Ashok has come up with an innovative theme for this Christmas in support of LGBT Community by making a Rainbow cake and replacing Santa with Elfie.



In order to bring inclusive society irrespective of gender The Lalit Ashok in Bengaluru have organised a week-long programme based on the theme inclusive and diversity of pure love. This event will welcome everyone without any gender bias on Christmas Eve.



Keshav Suri, Executive Director The LaLiT Sur Hospitality Group said, "The rainbow colours denote we are a gender-neutral and perfectly complements our theme of inclusivity and diversity as we gear up to spread the love.



LGBT community has welcomed this step and is eager to attend the Christmas Eve at the hotel.



Alex, member of the LGBT community said, "I wanted people to accept us in the society without any conditions. Hope such events will encourage inclusivity of our community members with others".
New Delhi:

Days after moral victory in Gujarat Assembly elections, Congress President Rahul Gandhi will visit Ahmedabad on December 23.

During a days visit, Rahul Gandhi will meet winning candidates and district presidents of Congress party.

The Congress President is also expected to visit Somnath temple during the visit.

After missing the cut in high stake Gujarat Assembly elections, Congress party is holding a three-day introspection meet starting from Wednesday, said AICC General Secretary Ashok Gehlot.

We are going to organise a three-day review meet starting December 20. The meeting will be attended by all the district president, party candidates and leaders, Ashok Gehlot, Congresss election in-charge in Gujarat told News Nation.

Also Read | After missing the cut in Gujarat, Congress to hold 3-day review meeting to analyse results

Rahul Gandhi-led Congress put up a strong fight in the high-stake assembly elections in Modis home state Gujarat and restricted the BJP below hundred mark.

The Congress won 77, up by 16 seats in the Gujarat assembly elections while BJP crossed the halfway mark and got 99 seats, down by 16 from 115 seats in 2012 assembly polls.

Rahul Gandhi termed the Gujarat verdict as a moral victory for Congress saying the election results in PM Modis hometown have raised serious questions on his credibility.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

A group of heavy-armed naxals attacked the Masudan Railway Station in Bihar on Tuesday. According to initial reports, the naxals attacked the railway station on Tuesday night and torched the station property as well.

Reports also say that naxals abducted the Assistant Station master and one other railway staff. No casualties have been reported from the spot.

Divisional Railway Manager Maldah received a call from the abducted assistant station master. He said that the naxals have threatened to kill the two abducted people if trains continue plying on the Masudan track.

The authorities have advised the passengers to take alternative routes for precaution.In August, a train was hijacked by them in the Lakhisarai district of Bihar. In March, a group of 20 alleged Naxalites attacked an Odisha railway station, Doikallu, with explosives.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

A special court will pronounce judgement on 2G spectrum scam case on December 21. Former telecom minister A. Raja, DMK chief M Karunanidhis daughter M. K. Kanimozhi and former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura are main accused in this case along with others.

Unitech managing director Sanjay Chandra and bollywood producer Karim Morani have also been charge sheeted in the case and are out on bail.

CBI filed charge sheet in the 2G scam case on April 2, 2011.

The 2G scam case gained notoriety in 2010 when the then Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) Vinod Rai came out with a report that the 2G spectrum was allocated at throwaway price causing a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer.

Interestingly, in its charge sheet CBI has said that the scam caused a loss of Rs 22,000 crore to the exchequer.

However, CAG figures were quoted all over the world and in India. The scam became front page news in all leading newspapers globally. The Time Magazine called it the second biggest instance of the abuse of executive power  just a notch below Richard Nixons Watergate scandal.

In India, it became a big political issue and it helped in creating public opinion against the UPA government. It was one of the factors that were responsible for UPA losing elections.

2G spectrum scam explained

How it started?

In January, 2008, the former telecom minister A. Raja issued licences and allotted 2G spectrum of 4.4 MHz along with it to six new telecom operators at the 2001 price. The ministry charged only Rs 1,650 crore from an operator for Pan India spectrum.

What are the charges against Raja?

Initially, Raja was accused of allotting spectrum on first-come-first-served (FCFS) basis to new operators. It was alleged that instead of FCFS, if the spectrum was auctioned the government could have earned much higher revenue. This is how CAG came to conclusion that the exchequer lost Rs 1.7 lakh crore.

Interestingly, CBI charged Raja, former telecom secretary Siddharth Behura and private secretary R. K. Chandolia, for not following the FCFS policy. CBI alleged that the department of telecommunications (DoT) introduced a cut off date, which was later advanced to suit a few players.

In a FCFS process, there should not be any cut off date. Priority of applications is determined based on its date of receipt at the communications ministry. However, DoT changed it to the date of compliance to the letter of intent (LOI).

What is Rajas defence?

Rajas defence is that he allotted spectrum on FCFS basis as it was the policy. His argument was that if he had changed the policy and auctioned spectrum, customers would have to pay higher price for telecom services.

On irregularities in implementation of FCFS process, he said that introduction of cut off date didnt change the order.

Who are prominent accused in the scam and how much time they have spent behind bars?

A Raja (former telecom minister)  15 months in jail

M. K. Kanimozi (Rajya Sabha MP and daughter of DMK chief M Karunanidhi)  6 months in jail

Siddharth Behura (former DoT secretary)  15 months

R. K. Chandolia (IAS and former PS to telecom minister)  11 months

Sanjay Chandra (MD, Unitech Wireless)  7 months

Gautam Doshi (MD, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group) - 7 months

Shahid Balwa (promoter, DB Realty and Swan Telecom) - 10 months

Vinod Goenka (promoter and managing director, DB Realty and swan telecom)  7 months

A Delhi court had on December 5 fixed December 21 for pronouncement of judgment in the 2G scam case. The court had asked all the accused to be present on the judgement day.

Judgement will be pronounced in two cases related to the scam - one is of corruption charges and the other is under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Former TV producer and host of Indias first crime show Indias Most Wanted, Suhaib Ilyasi, who murdered his wife Anju in 2000, was on Wednesday found guilty and was sentenced to life term by a Delhi sessions court.

Additional sessions judge Sanjeev Kumar Malhotra found him guilty under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC and pronounced him life sentence.

Ilyasi's wife Anju was murdered at her marital home in East Delhi. According to police records on the day of the incident, Anju was rushed to a hospital with multiple stab injuruies.

Initially, Ilyasi was booked for charges of subjecting his wife to cruelty, dowry death and destroying evidence.

The Delhi Police had arrested Ilyasi on March 28, 2000, after his in-laws lodged an FIR on the basis of an inquest report by the area magistrate.

The court granted bail to Ilyasi in 2000. However, The Delhi High Court in 2014 ordered that Ilyasi be tried for murder.

Also read: Differently abled man alleges harassment by Air India staff at Bengaluru Airport, airline refutes



The magistrate then had asked the police to investigate the case after Anjus mother recorded her statement before the magistrate holding Ilyasi responsible for her death.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

In a bid to combat the deadly smog that has gripped the city over the past one month, the Delhi government on Wednesday tried out an anti-smog gun in Anand Vihar, which is one of the most polluted areas of the city.

The anti-smog gun a a canon that sprays atomized water 50 metres into the air to bring down suspended pollutants The vehicle-mounted canon sprays water, which are expected to bring down suspended pollutants in the air by clinging on to it just like how the rain does.

At around 8 am on Wednesday, the Air Quality Index a a measure of pollutants in air a touched 332 in Delhi, which is considered very poor.

This device was first tested on Monday at the Delhi Secretariat in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Environment Minister Imran Hussain.

A combination of smoke from stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana and moisture turned Delhi into a "gas chamber" in November, prompting authorities to announce a series of preventive measures including a four-fold hike in parking fees and slashing of metro fares.

The smog has brought down the visibility levels, affecting flight and train operations. The heavy intoxicated air in the city is making it difficult to breathe, turning eyes watery.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Former Calcutta High Court Judge CS Karnan has been released from Presidency Jail after serving six-monthA jail sentence.A He had been in Coimbatore since May 9 when the apex court held him guilty for contempt of court and sentenced him to six months imprisonment.

Karnan, 62, who retired on June 12 as Calcutta High Court judge, was arrested on June 20 by the West Bengal CID.A

Karnan has the dubious distinction of being the first sitting high court judge to be awarded a jail term by the apex court and also the first to have retired as a fugitive.

A seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice of India J S Khehar, had on May 9 directed the West Bengal director general of police to take the then serving judge into custody immediately.

Despite several attempts, Karnan has failed to get any relief from the apex courtas vacation benches which has refused to hear his plea seeking a stay of its jail term order.

aHe [Justice Karnan] is scheduled to be released tomorrow [Dec. 20]. I am coming to Kolkata to accompany him back to Chennai,a Justice Karnanas wife Saraswati Karnan had told PTI over the phone on Tuesday.

Ms. Saraswati Karnan, a professor of economics in a Chennai college, said she had last met her husband at the Presidency Correctional Home in Kolkata a month-and-a-half ago.

aI found him in good spirits and health,a she said.

Justice Karnan had earned the dubious distinction of becoming the first sitting high court judge to have been sentenced to jail.

The apex court had sentenced him to six months in jail for contempt of court on May 9. Justice Karnan was a serving judge of the Calcutta High Court at that time.

A seven-judge Bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice of India J.S.

Khehar, had asked the West Bengal Director General of Police (DGP) to take Justice Karnan, who was on a warpath with the apex court for months, into custody.

The Supreme Court had earlier issued a bailable warrant against the judge to secure his presence before it in connection with the contempt case.

Justice Karnan had appeared before the apex court on March 31, a first in the countryas judicial history, and asked for restoration of his powers as a pre-condition for his re-appearance, but the plea was rejected.

Justice Karnan, who enrolled as an advocate with the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu in 1983, was appointed a judge of the Madras High Court in 2009. He was transferred to the Calcutta High Court on March 11, 2016.

He was transferred from the Madras High Court for his repeated allegations against and run-ins with the then Chief Justice and fellow judges of the court.

With PTI Input

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
Uttarkashi :

The IAF on Tuesday successfully landed an AN-32 multi-purpose aircraft at the strategically important Chinyalisaur airstrip in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi district after visibility improved in the region.



Efforts were underway for the past three days to land the 56-seater aircraft at the airstrip, but it could not be done due to poor visibility, an IAF official said requesting anonymity.



Air Commodore S Banerjee of the Central Air Command expressed happiness over the aircraft's successful landing at the strategically important airstrip.



Earlier, an IAF team from the command and the aviation department had inspected the airstrip to find if it was fit for landing such an aircraft.



Inspections had also been conducted on Monday by an IAF team from Bengaluru.



Ninety-five per cent of the work on the 1,165 metre-long and 30 metre-wide Chinyalisaur airstrip is through, an official said, adding that work on an ATC tower, a terminal and levelling of the area around the runway remains to be done.



The airstrip is not just strategically important but also crucial from the point of view of disasters, he said.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Opposition Congress members on Wednesday disrupted proceedings in the Rajya Sabha over the insinuations made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi against his predecessor Manmohan Singh.



Congress members rushed into the Well of the House demanding an apology from Modi for his remarks made at an election rally that Singh had allegedly colluded with Pakistan to defeat BJP in Gujarat.



Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu repeatedly reminded members of their conduct and asked them to returned to their seats. However, his pleas went unheeded, forcing him to adjourn the proceedings till 1200 hours.



No sooner had the listed papers been tabled, Congress members were up on their feet demanding an explanation from the Prime Minister on his remarks against Singh.



Naidu disallowed them. At this point, Congress members rushed to the Well of the House shouting slogans. Naidu asked them not to create obstruction and allow other members to raise important issues.



"This is not the way," he said. "This is Parliament. This is Rajya Sabha. Wrong message is going." Stating that he did not appreciate their behaviour, Naidu said, "Please dont exceed limit. Please go to your seat."

Here are the Live updates:

#A Over 1,000 cases of people securing jobs using forged caste certificates have been reported by various central government departments, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday. The Department of Personnel and Training had in June sought data from all central government organisations regarding appointments made on the basis of fake caste certificates.- PTI

#A "There is no question of middle path...The country's prime minister has alleged that the former prime minister has taken steps against the country and that too with the enemy nation. Don't you think it is an issue that calls for an apology?" Chowdhury told reporters.-A PTI

#Rajya Sabha adjourned till tomorrow after opposition walked to the Well in the House over allegations made by PM Narendra Modi against former PM Manmohan Singh of conspiring with Pakistan.

#Lok Sabha adjourned till 2 pm, slogans of 'Dr sahab se maafi maango' raised by opposition during proceedings.



Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu had earlier said during the proceedings, 'This is not the way. Nobody is going to give apology. Nothing happened in the House. The statement was not made here.' pic.twitter.com/e5ki4QIvVF a ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2017

#Rajya Sabha adjourned till 2 pm after uproar by opposition in the House over allegations made by PM Narendra Modi against former PM Manmohan Singh of conspiring with Pakistan



#PM Modi said that work should be done to bring youth forward on every platform. PM spoke about new millennium voters, those born after 2012, who will be 18 next year. He said new generation should be involved in services for country, society & development: Ananth Kumar



#PM said our booth level workers, with support of people, must tread towards victory & should not be distracted by what opposition is saying about credibility & the low-level comments they are making: Ananth Kumar after BJP Parliamentary Party Meeting pic.twitter.com/xw2DH1h3Ic

#Why is BJP so narrow minded? It pertains to one's personal life. Now if someone had their 'suhaag-raat' that day, they will say 'ye suhaag-raat kyu mana raha hai?': Naresh Agrawal, SP on question about Rahul Gandhi watching a movie on #GujaratElection result day. pic.twitter.com/uNIgtilBvx

#Rajya Sabha adjourned till 12 pm after Congress MPs walked up to the well raising slogans against PM Narendra Modi over allegations made by him against former PM Manmohan Singh of conspiring with Pakistan.

#Lok Sabha adjourned till 12 pm

#A Rajya Sabha passes amendment to the Companies Act, 2013

#A Rajya Sabha passes bill to give more autonomy to IIMs

#Lok Sabha passes bill to repeal 245 old laws

#Emotional PM Modi gets standing ovation in BJP Parliamentary board meeting

#PM Modi says the victory is a result of the hard work of BJP workers

#PM Modi gets emotional as he talks about BJP's victory in Gujarat and Himachal assembly elections

BJD leaders staged a protest demanding tribunal to resolve the Mahanadi river water dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh, in front of statue of Mahatma Gandhi outside the Parliament #Delhi pic.twitter.com/4lNlRNGuLf a ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2017

#PM Modi to address party workers shortlyA

#Amit Shah greets PM Modi

#WATCH: Earlier Visuals from BJP's Parliamentary Party meeting underway at Parliament Library Building in Delhi. pic.twitter.com/TZAX6OBw8h a ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2017

Delhi: Inside visuals of BJP's parliamentary party meting underway at Parliament's Library Building. pic.twitter.com/VeoNZ9E446 a ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2017

# PM Modi arrived for BJPas parliamentary party meeting at Parliament Library building; the meeting has begun.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Pakistan on Wednesday granted visas to jailed Indian national and former Indian navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhavs mother and wife, the countrys Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

The visas for Jadhavs wife and mother to visit Islamabad were granted by the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi. They are now likely to meet him on December 25 in Islamabad.

Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal confirmed the development on Twitter.

Faisal on Twitter wrote, Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi issued the visas to the mother and wife of Commander Jadhav to visit Islamabad to meet him, today.

Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi issued the visas to the mother and wife of Commander Jadhav to visit Islamabad to meet him, today.  Dr Mohammad Faisal (@ForeignOfficePk) December 20, 2017

Faisal earlier had tweeted, Visa applications of mother and wife of Commander Jadhav received for their visit on humanitarian grounds. Being processed."

Earlier on November 10, Pakistan had granted permission to Jadhav's wife to visit him "on humanitarian grounds".

New Delhi then had urged Islamabad to also allow Jadhav's mother to accompany his wife along with an Indian diplomat and had also requested for a sovereign guarantee to ensure their safety and security during the visit.

Pakistan after the request had given Jadhav's mother and wife permission to meet him on December 25, in the presence of an Indian high commission official. However, it has yet not responded to New Delhi's request to ensure safety and security of the visitors.

The visa for Jadhavs mother and wife comes after 21 months of Jadhav's arrest.

Also read| Kulbhushan Jadhav: Sitharaman calls Pakistans move to allow former navy officer meet wife good humanitarian gesture



Pakistan claims Jadhav to be indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) officer and they arrested him on March 3, 2016 from Balochistan after he entered the country illegally from Iran.

A Pakistani military court in April 2017 found him guilty of "espionage and sabotage" and sentenced him to death. Jadhavs execution was halted by the International Court of Justice on earlier this year.

Also read: Pak FM claims India made proposal to swap Kulbhushan Jadhav for Peshawar school attacker



Pakistan so far has rejected over 30 Indian requests for consular access to Jadhav.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

The Congress on Wednesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of violating the Constitution and the dignity of his office by not acting against those behind conspiracy with Pakistan, a charge he made against his predecessor Manmohan Singh during the Gujarat poll campaign. It said Modi should at least clarify his remark which he allegedly used to win the Gujarat election, saying had it been Atal Behari Vajpayee as prime minister, he could have apologised 10 times.



The party also alleged that Modi was trying to break the country and blemish the image of his predecessor. It earlier demanded an apology from the prime minister. The Congress earlier created an uproar in both the Houses of Parliament and disrupted proceedings. While the days work in the Rajya Sabha was washed out, its members in the Lok Sabha staged a walkout and boycotted the lower house post-lunch.



The prime minister is trying to break the country and blemish the image of good people, senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge told reporters outside Parliament. He said if the prime minister had information about a secret meeting between senior Congress leaders and the Pakistan envoy and its ex-foreign minister which was anti-national, then why did he not use the Intelligence Bureau and other agencies at his disposal.



If you had proof, you should have lodged an FIR against former prime minister Manmohan Singh and arrested him. You are tarnishing his image and questioning his nationalism. If the prime minister had proof, why did he not take the services of intelligence agencies if there was something anti-national. He has thereby violated the oath of secrecy he has takenIf it was not in the nations interest and was anti-national, then you have violated the Constitution and the maryada (dignity) of office, he alleged.



The Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said opposition parties have demanded that the prime minister clarifies the serious allegation he made during the Gujarat election about a secret meeting between the Pakistan envoy and an ex-foreign minister and Manmohan Singh, former vice president Hamid Ansari and an ex-Indian Army chief.



When the countrys prime minister publicly accuses Manmohan Singh of conspiring with Pakistan then it is a very serious allegation and he should clarify. If he has a problem in seeking an apology, then the prime minister should say that to win the Gujarat election he threw a stunt, a gola (ball). It is acceptable to us, he said.



Azad said had Vajpayee been there (as prime minister), he would have apologised 10 times. It depends on who is the prime minister. If the prime minister is taking his words back, we will accept that too. Then he need not apologise. He should only say that he said it to win the Gujarat election, he said.



Azad said Modi should state in Parliament that the BJP was losing in Gujarat and it had no other option but to concoct the story of conspiracy with Pakistan, seek public sympathy and portray Congress leaders as anti-national. Let the prime minister say and admit that his job is done and now the BJP has won the election, hence I take back my words. We will accept that. The one who has levelled allegations, should explain. If there is truth in his allegations, the people concerned be punished. We are ready for it, he said.



It is the culture of the BJP to abuse, call people anti-national, beat them, fire bullets at them. This has become an order of the day, he alleged. There is only one way in a democracy and that is Parliament. The prime minister and the former prime minister, who is facing the allegation, both are members of Parliament, he said, adding that Modi should clarify in Parliament.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Union minister Giriraj Singh on Tuesday took a dig at Rahul Gandhi, saying that he was forced to visit temples to win votes in Gujarat as the Congress could no longer ignore sentiments of the majority community.

"Earlier secularism was about appeasement of minorities but for the first time it meant that the majority community could no longer be ignored," he said outside Parliament.

Targeting the Congress president, the Hindutva leader said Gandhi's party workers slaughtered a calf in Kerala to win votes but now he had to visit temples.

Gandhi was like a man who kept jumping from one God to another but none came to his rescue, he said.

Singh also attacked National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah after the latter targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his charges against his predecessor Manmohan Singh.

The Union minister alleged that Abdullah had become a voice of Pakistan in India's Parliament.

Sometimes he says Pak-occupied Kashmir should be given to Pakistan and sometime he supports separatists, Singh said.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

In a bid to explore some more intriguing objects in our own solar system and to search for life outside the Earth, NASA outlined a tentative mission that will allow it to send a spacecraft on an interstellar mission to explore the Alpha Centauri system.

According to NASA scientists, they are working on technology that may allow a spacecraft to reach ten percent of light speed and the ambition of the NASA scientists is to have it ready by 2069 with Alpha Centauri in its sights.

There is a possibility that the projected launch date would coincide with the 100th anniversary of the first moon landing. Its very nebulous, Anthony Freeman, at Nasas Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), told the New Scientist.

If everything goes by a plan and NASA succeeds at achieving ten percent of light speed with a spacecraft, it would allow them to reach the system with a probe in as little as 44 years.

Alpha Centauri

Alpha Centauri is a system which is made up of three stars- Alpha Centauri A, Alpha Centauri B and the third one is Proxima Centauri. The system is around 4.3 light years from Earth.

However, NASA proposed mission is facing hindrances, firstly, the development of the propulsion technology that would allow a probe to travel the massive distance in a relatively short period of time.

Secondly, NASA is mulling over using more techniques, including laser-propelled sails which could be pushed to incredible speed, but putting such theoretical technology into practice is easier said than done.

For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Samsung launched worlds biggest curved QLED monitor in India after recently launching first curved gaming monitor earlier this year in the country.

The QLED monitor, which is 49-inch ultra-wide, named CHG90, has been specifically designed for businesses. However, the monitors features will satisfy hardcore gamers too. The curved screen comes at Rs 1, 50,000 and will be available from Samsung shop in the start.

According to Samsung, the monitor boasts of a leading 1800 radius of curvature with a fast response time of 1 ms and 144hz refresh rate for a blur-free experience. Powered by the companys in-house Quantum Dot technology, the monitor also holds a VA panel to prevent light leakage and flexible ergonomics.

The design of the monitor is done is a way which will seemingly work with Samsungs Dex. According to Samsung, Dex offers a unique solution that transforms Samsungs high-end Galaxy S8/S8+ and Note 8 into a desktop by providing a secure desktop-like experience.

The companys new curved monitor also supports an app called Easy Setting Box S/W on the desktop that can carry out multitasking by partitioning the screen into various sizes and functional configurations.

The monitor uses Flicker Free technology to assist in light comfort. In addition, it also comes with an Eye Saver Mode which filters blue light wavelengths out and reduces eye-fatigue.

Also Read: Samsung Galaxy A8, A8+ (2018) launched with dual selfie cameras, may arrive in India in January

Puneet Sethi, Vice President of Consumer Electronics Enterprises Business, Samsung, said, Samsung has always been at the forefront of consumer-centric innovations and the launch of QLED curved monitor is in line with that very commitment. A perfect companion for serious business professionals and gaming enthusiasts, the monitor is not only the biggest in the category, but also a trend setter in terms of specifications and technology.
For a third straight year, Connecticut denizens reported an increase in robocalls and other unwanted telemarketing pitches, despite more tools for people to block calls and a few high-profile prosecutions brought by the Federal Trade Commission.

Nearly 95,000 Connecticut citizens and businesses complained in the past year of calls they received despite registering their telephone numbers on the FTCs National Do Not Call Registry, a 23 percent increase from the year before. In 2017, Connecticut ranked seventh among states for the rate at which people are bombarded with robocalls.

Nationally over 12 months through October, the FTC fielded 7.1 million complaints of telemarketers or computerized systems dialing numbers in the National Do Not Call Registry, which has grown to 229 million telephone numbers in a nation of 323 million people.

The registry is online at donotcall.gov, with the FTC fielding complaints online at ftc.gov/complaint as well as offering tips to block unwanted calls and text messages to mobile devices.

Robocalls are the No. 1 complaint to the FTC, which suggests a need for more stringent regulation, tightening of laws, and more vigorous enforcement, said Sergei Lemberg, whose Wilton firm Lemberg Law has pursued legal cases against telemarketers that violate Do Not Call rules. Unfortunately, collection agency and banks are fighting the strengthening of these and other and consumer protections.

Debt reduction and vacation offers were behind more telemarketing calls than any others in the past year, many of them placed by robocall programs designed to generate millions of calls, in some cases from numbers that spoof local exchanges to gull people into thinking the call is from a neighbor.

In June, Dish Network was fined $280 million after a federal judge sided with the FTC that the satellite TV company generated 66 million calls that violated Do Not Call and other consumer protection laws, with the company having disputed the accusation. The same month, the FTC hit a Miami robocall operation with a proposed $120 million penalty.

And this fall, the Federal Communications Commission separately authorized telephone and cable companies to block known robocalls within their networks to prevent the call being placed at all, a major new tool.

Will nuisance calls decrease? The last time that happened was 2014, which Lemberg speculates was the result of a relative lull in activity in advance of the next hot idea ripe for telemarketing.

Now whats popular is warranty scams, he said. People getting deported are getting jobs at call centers across the border and they sell warranties.

Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman
The second youngest of Diane and Peters four children has a disorder that requires special medical treatment, including frequent trips to the hospital and overnight stays.

The trips, for which Peter or Diane need to miss work, have put a strain on the familys ability to pay their monthly expenses. The medical specialist their child needs to see is also at a hospital that is over an hour away.

Peter and Diane hope to soon move their family closer to that hospital and will be able to pay the rent for a new apartment, but they are overwhelmed by the security deposits required to move in.

During the holiday season, The News-Times, in partnership with the United Way of Western Connecticut, has presented cases like Peter and Dianes every Thursday. Each week the stories will outline how a local resident or family, whose names have been changed to protect their privacy, could be helped through an estimated dollar amount.

For Peter and Diane, a gift of $1,500 would help cover the cost of the security deposit of an apartment at a much better location for the family.

As in previous years, the United Way of Western Connecticut will administer the fund at no charge, so 100 percent of the donations go to the cases. Donations are collected for each case until it is fully funded. Any donations received above the amount needed will benefit underfunded cases. If all are funded, then the money will be used for other United Way programs that assist ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) families.

Click here to donate to The Giving Fund.

This weeks six cases:

Diane & Peter  Case 224

Diane and Peters story.

Ella  Case 225

Ella, who left an abusive marriage, has two children. Despite feeling overwhelmed and facing an uncertain future, Ella knew she had to move ahead, get a job and start a new life with her small children. She has attended classes to improve her skills and worked hard to become self-sufficient. It has been two years and Ella now has a job, a small apartment and her children are in school and doing well. A gift of $700 would provide this hard-working parent help with paying some bills, buying those extra treats for the holidays, and surprising her children with a few gifts on Christmas morning.

Teresa & Roger  Case 226

Teresa and Roger, along with their young daughter, lived with Teresas mom, Dotty, who had a terminal disease. Teresa took care of her mom full time until Dotty recently passed away. Teresa is now looking for full-time work. Roger works a seasonal job, which means he is sometimes without work during the winter months. Their finances are now very stretched and paying their winter utility bill and buying food are a challenge. A gift of $750 would cover a few months of the bill and pay for some groceries while this family tries to get back on their feet.

Martha  Case 227

Martha and her young son live in New Milford. During the past year she found herself unemployed and without transportation, but that did not stop her. She enrolled in a job training program and immediately after graduation used her new skills to secure a full-time job. Martha also took on a second job so that she could save for a security deposit on an apartment. She recently found a place near her sisters apartment, where she and her son could live, but is still short of the security deposit. If she is able to move to this apartment, her sister could help Martha with childcare on the nights she works her second job. A gift of $1,000 would provide Martha with the remaining money she needs for the security deposit so she could use her savings to cover the cost of moving and rent.

Cathy  Case 228

Cathy and her two young children moved to the Danbury area seeking shelter from an abusive situation. During the past year they lived in a womens shelter while she got herself back on her feet with employment training, stable housing, and ultimately a job to support her family. One of her children was diagnosed with autism and the other has ADHD. Although this has been a challenge to deal with, she is a loving advocate who gets the proper educational support for both of her children. While she has completed many of her goals on her way to self-sufficiency she could use some financial assistance. A gift of $700 would help Cathy cover the cost of gas for her car, pay for groceries and buy a few Christmas gifts for her children.

Bianca  Case 229

Bianca is a mother of twin 10-year-old boys. Having been raised in foster care, she was determined to be the best parent and provider for her sons. After working for the same employer for seven years, the company eliminated her position. After the layoff, she could only find part-time work, earning barely enough to pay the rent because she had no computer skills. Bianca was able to upgrade her skills through a business skills training program and secure a full-time position paying $18 an hour. Shortly after, she found a part-time job that she can do from home in addition to the full-time position. It was tight, but she was earning enough to cover the necessities with a little to put in savings whenever possible. However, a recent rent increase has put a strain on an already tight budget and coming just before the holidays makes it more difficult. A gift of $700 will help to add holiday treats along with groceries for holiday meals, some gifts for the boys, and something toward the bills.
OTTAWA, Dec. 19, 2017 /CNW/ -The Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, today announced the following appointment under the new judicial application process announced on October 20, 2016. The new process emphasizes transparency, merit, and diversity, and will continue to ensure the appointment of jurists who meet the highest standards of excellence and integrity.

Francesca Marzari, a partner at Young Anderson Barristers and Solicitors, is appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of British Columbia. She replaces Madam Justice V. Gray, who resigned effective August 31, 2017.

Biography

Justice Francesca Marzari joined the municipal law boutique Young Anderson in 1998, where she was a partner until her appointment. There she specialized in administrative law; her other areas of practice included constitutional division of powers, human rights, tort liability, environmental law, judicial review, freedom of information and planning law. A trusted advisor, Justice Marzari carried on an active litigation practice, appearing before all levels of court in British Columbia, as well as the Supreme Court of Canada.

Throughout her career, Justice Marzari has dedicated herself to improving the accessibility and inclusiveness of laws and institutions. She contributed to the equality work of West Coast LEAF (Women's Legal Education and Action Fund) as a board member and as pro bono counsel. She represented West Coast LEAF before the Supreme Court of Canada in the landmark decision Trial Lawyers Association v. British Columbia (Attorney General), which recognized a constitutional foundation for access to justice. She was well-known as an advocate for improved and equal access to justice as a volunteer with the Canadian Bar Association  British Columbia.

After completing her law degree at the University of British Columbia, Justice Marzari clerked at the British Columbia Court of Appeal. She has been a regular lecturer at Allard School of Law and Capilano University, as well as a frequent contributor to continuing legal education programs.

Excerpts from Justice Marzari's judicial application will be available shortly.

Quick Facts

Today's announcements bring the total number of judicial appointments this year to 100, the most a Minister of Justice has made in one year in over a decade.

Of these appointees, half are women, four are Indigenous, and 16 have self-identified as a member of a visible minority population, LGBTQ2, or a person with a disability.

Budget 2017 includes additional funding of $55 million over five years beginning in 2017-2018 and $15.5 million per year thereafter for 28 new federally appointed judges. Of these new positions, 12 have been allotted to Alberta and one to the Yukon , with the remaining 15 being assigned to a pool for needs in other jurisdictions.

over five years beginning in 2017-2018 and per year thereafter for 28 new federally appointed judges. Of these new positions, 12 have been allotted to and one to the , with the remaining 15 being assigned to a pool for needs in other jurisdictions. To ensure a judiciary that is responsive, ethical and sensitive to the evolving needs of Canadian society, the Canadian Judicial Council will receive $2 .7 million over five years and $0.5 million ongoing thereafter. This will support programming on judicial education, ethics and conduct, including in relation to gender and cultural sensitivity.

.7 million over five years and ongoing thereafter. This will support programming on judicial education, ethics and conduct, including in relation to gender and cultural sensitivity. Federal judicial appointments are made by the Governor General, acting on the advice of the federal Cabinet and recommendations from the Minister of Justice.

The Judicial Advisory Committees across Canada play a key role in evaluating judicial applications. There are 17 Judicial Advisory Committees, with each province and territory represented.

play a key role in evaluating judicial applications. There are 17 Judicial Advisory Committees, with each province and territory represented. Significant reforms to the role and structure of the Judicial Advisory Committees, aimed at enhancing the independence and transparency of the process, were announced on October 20, 2016 . Sixteen Judicial Advisory Committees have been reconstituted to date.

SOURCE Department of Justice Canada

For further information: media may contact: Kathleen Davis, Communications and Parliamentary Affairs Advisor, Office of the Minister of Justice, 613-992-4621; Media Relations, Department of Justice Canada, 613-957-4207, [email protected]

Related Links

http://www.justice.gc.ca/


/NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES. ANY FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH THIS RESTRICTION MAY CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF U.S. SECURITIES LAW./

CALGARY, Dec. 18, 2017 /CNW/ - Sterling Resources Ltd. ("Sterling" or the "Corporation") (TSXV: SLG) and PetroTal Ltd. ("PetroTal") are pleased to announce the completion of the previously announced reverse take-over by way of a statutory plan of arrangement (the "Arrangement") involving Sterling and PetroTal under the Business Corporations Act (Alberta). Pursuant to the Arrangement, each common share of PetroTal ("PetroTal Share") was exchanged for 5.35 common shares of Sterling ("Sterling Shares") resulting in the issuance of an aggregate of 203,300,005 Sterling Shares. As part of the Arrangement, Sterling and PetroTal were amalgamated and continued as one corporation under the name "Sterling Resources Ltd." ("New Sterling").

In addition, New Sterling has completed the acquisition of all the issued and outstanding common shares of Gran Tierra Energy International (Peru) Holdings B.V., an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Gran Tierra Energy Inc. ("GTE"), for 187,250,000 common shares of New Sterling ("New Sterling Shares"), at a deemed price of approximately US$0.1869 per New Sterling Share (the "Acquisition"), and an option to retain a 20% working interest in Block 107 following the drilling of an initial exploration well ("GTE Option"). GTE holds approximately 45.8% of the outstanding common shares of New Sterling.

The TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") granted conditional approval of the transactions on December 15, 2017, and final acceptance will be predicated upon the satisfactory achievement of certain conditions required by the TSXV, including completion of all outstanding filing requirements, delivery of customary legal opinions and corporate documentation and delivery of material agreements in respect of the transactions. Final acceptance of the Arrangement, Acquisition and Financing will occur upon the issuance of a Final Exchange Bulletin by the TSXV. The New Sterling Shares will only commence trading on the TSXV under the symbol "SLG" once all conditions have been satisfactorily met and the TSXV issues the Final Exchange Bulletin.

Pure Play Development and Exploration in Peru

With over US$50 million cash (1) and no debt, New Sterling is well-positioned to execute on its pure play Peruvian development and exploration business plan

cash and no debt, New Sterling is well-positioned to execute on its pure play Peruvian development and exploration business plan New Sterling's business plan is primarily focused on unlocking value through the establishment of production and full field development of the Bretana Oil Field

In addition, New Sterling will continue to advance technical work on the Block 107 Osheki prospect with the intention of farming-down working interest to finance exploration drilling

New Sterling Highlights

Team with extensive Peruvian experience supported by a board of established international oil & gas professionals

100% working interesting in Bretana, one of the largest undeveloped discoveries in Peru with 330 MMboe of best estimate discovered oil in place and 39.8 (37.6 net) MMbbl of 2C contingent resources at 12% recovery factor (2)

with 330 MMboe of best estimate discovered oil in place and 39.8 (37.6 net) MMbbl of 2C contingent resources at 12% recovery factor Substantial infrastructure in place at Bretana, with the ability to deliver first production by Q4 2018 for USD$24 million in anticipated capital expenditure

in anticipated capital expenditure Robust netbacks of USD$24 /bbl forecasted for Bretana oil (3)

/bbl forecasted for Bretana oil Fully financed to commercial production at Bretana targeting 5,000 bbl/d in first half of 2019

Significant recovery factor upside at Bretana as analogous fields in Peru have achieved recovery factors of approximately 20% - 40% versus 12% estimated for Bretana (2)

have achieved recovery factors of approximately 20% - 40% versus 12% estimated for Bretana Exploration upside potential with seismically defined Block 107 Osheki prospect and 2.2 million net undeveloped acres including Block 95 (100% working interest), Block 107 (100% working interest subject to the GTE Option) and Block 133 (100% working interest)

Notes:

1) After giving effect to the Arrangement, the Acquisition and the Financing (defined below), as well as certain adjustments, including transaction costs 2) Based on the independent assessment of contingent resources completed by Netherland Sewell & Associates, Inc. ("NSAI"), a qualified reserves evaluator as defined in Canadian National Instrument 51-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Oil and Gas Activities ("NI 51-101"), with an effective date of June 30, 2017 and prepared in accordance with the Canadian Oil and Gas Evaluation Handbook and the standards established by NI 51-101 (the "NSAI Contingent Resources Assessment") 3) Based on USD$55/bbl Brent crude price less USD$7/bbl quality discount, USD$11/bbl lifting costs, USD$6/bbl barging costs, USD$5/bbl pipeline tariff and USD$2/bbl royalty payments

Manuel Pablo Zuniga-Pflucker, President and Chief Executive Officer of New Sterling, commented: "Our commitment to investors, the country of Peru and to our employees is to deploy capital in an efficient manner to unlock value for our shareholders, increase activity in Peru and grow our business for the future. Beginning with the Bretana oil field, we are confident in our ability to unlock the potential of this large established oil discovery through the application of proven oilfield practices. The team we have assembled in Peru has a track record of successful development in-country and their experience working fields like Bretana will be key to our success. PetroTal's team joins an existing GTE team in Peru whose experience and knowledge will be instrumental in the go-forward plan and we look forward to working together."

"Over the next few months we will methodically pursue important milestones, including the conversion of contingent resources to reserves, the installation of production equipment at the Bretana oil field, and the work-over of the existing Bretana well to initiate first production within the next twelve months. New Sterling will also advance the search for a joint venture partner to drill the Osheki prospect in Block 107."

The Financing

On December 12, 2017, PetroTal issued 34 million subscription receipts for total gross proceeds of US$34 million pursuant to a brokered private placement (the "Financing") co-led by Eight Capital and Pareto Securities AS and including PillarFour Securities Inc. Each subscription receipt was exchanged for one PetroTal Share on December 18, 2017 without any further action required on the part of the holders of the subscription receipts and without payment of any additional consideration.

Following completion of the transactions, New Sterling has a total of 537,740,990 New Sterling Shares issued and outstanding, as well as 23,540,000 common share purchase warrants exercisable to purchase New Sterling Shares at an exercise price of approximately US$0.1869 per New Sterling Share. At the next annual general meeting of the holders of New Sterling Shares, shareholders will be asked to approve a change of New Sterling's name to "PetroTal Corp." A further review will be ongoing to determine if a share consolidation is appropriate.

An aggregate of 208,650,005 New Sterling Shares and 23,540,000 common share purchase warrants exercisable to purchase New Sterling Shares are subject to value escrow pursuant to TSXV escrow requirements.

Eight Capital acted as exclusive financial advisor to PetroTal with respect to the Arrangement and Acquisition and PillarFour Securities LLP acted as exclusive financial advisor to Sterling with respect to the Arrangement.

New Sterling Management Team and Board of Directors

With the closing of the transaction, the directors and executive officers of New Sterling are now:

Manuel Pablo Zuniga-Pflucker Director, President and Chief Executive Officer Gregory Smith Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Charles Fetzner Vice President, Asset Development Estuardo Alvarez-Calderon Vice President, Operations Sanjib Gill Corporate Secretary James B. Taylor Director Douglas C. Urch Director Gary S. Guidry Director Ryan Ellson Director Gavin Wilson Director Mark McComiskey Director

Additional Information

Please refer to the filing statement of Sterling dated November 29, 2017 for additional information regarding New Sterling, the Arrangement, the Acquisition and the Financing, which is available under Sterling's profile on www.sedar.com.

Abbreviations

bbl barrels bbl/d barrels per day MMbbl million barrels boe barrels of oil equivalent boe/d barrels of oil equivalent per day MMboe million barrels of oil equivalent

Presentation of Oil and Gas Information

For the purpose of calculating unit costs, natural gas volumes have been converted to a boe using six thousand cubic feet equal to one barrel unless otherwise stated. A boe conversion ratio of 6:1 is based upon an energy equivalency conversion method primarily applicable at the burner tip and does not represent a value equivalency at the wellhead. This conversion conforms to NI 51-101. Boe may be misleading, particularly if used in isolation. Contingent resources are the quantities of petroleum estimated, as of a given date, to be potentially recoverable from known accumulations using established technology or technology underdevelopment, but which are not currently considered to be commercially recoverable due to one or more contingencies. Contingencies are conditions that must be satisfied for a portion of contingent resources to be classified as reserves that are: (a) specific to the project being evaluated; and (b) expected to be resolved within a reasonable timeframe. Contingencies may include factors such as economic, legal, environmental, political and regulatory matters or a lack of markets. It is also appropriate to classify as contingent resources the estimated discovered recoverable quantities associated with a project in the early evaluation stage.

Estimates related to contingent resources:



Estimated cost to achieve commercial production General timeline including the estimated date of first commercial production Estimated recovery technology (conventional or unconventional) Basis of project (conceptual or pre-development) Bretana (Block 9) USD$22.1 million 10  12 months Conventional Pre-development

Estimates of contingent resources included in this press release relating to the Bretana oilfield are based upon the NSAI Contingent Resources Assessment.

The estimates of contingent resources provided in this press release are estimates only and there is no guarantee that the estimated contingent resources will be recovered. Actual contingent resources may be greater than or less than the estimates provided in this press release and the differences may be material. There is no assurance that the forecast price and cost assumptions applied by NSAI in evaluating the contingent resources will be attained and variances could be material. There is uncertainty that it will be commercially viable to produce any part of the contingent resources.

Estimates of contingent resources are by their nature more speculative than estimates of proved reserves and would require substantial capital spending over a significant number of years to implement recovery. Actual locations drilled and quantities that may be ultimately recovered from our properties will differ substantially. In addition, we have made no commitment to drill, and likely will not drill, all of the drilling locations that have been attributable to these quantities.

The contingent resources estimates that are referred to herein are risked as to chance of development (i.e. the level of risk associated with the chance of development was assessed by NSAI as part of the evaluations that were conducted). Risks that could impact the chance of development include, without limitation: geological uncertainty and uncertainty regarding individual well drainage areas; uncertainty regarding the consistency of productivity that may be achieved from lands with attributed resources; potential delays in development due to product prices; access to capital; availability of markets and/or take-away capacity; and uncertainty regarding potential flowrates from wells and the economics of those wells. Risk assessment is a highly subjective process dependent upon the experience and judgment of the evaluators and is subject to revision with further data acquisition or interpretation.

The following classification of contingent resources is used in the press release:

Low Estimate (or 1C) means there is at least a 90 percent probability (P90) that the quantities actually recovered will equal or exceed the low estimate

Best Estimate (or 2C) means there is at least a 50 percent probability (P50) that the quantities actually recovered will equal or exceed the best estimate

High Estimate (or 3C) means there is at least a 10 percent probability (P10) that the quantities actually recovered will equal or exceed the high estimate

In general, the significant factors that may change the contingent resources estimates include further delineation drilling, which could change the estimates either positively or negatively, future technology improvements, which would positively affect the estimates, and additional processing capacity that could affect the volumes recoverable or type of production. Additional facility design work, development plans, reservoir studies and delineation drilling is expected to be completed by New Sterling in accordance with its long-term resource development plan.

Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. The use of any of the words "expect", "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "objective", "ongoing", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe", "plans", "intends" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking information or statements. Statements about: the trading of New Sterling Shares on the TSXV, final regulatory approvals and the timing thereof; the change of New Sterling's name and a possible share consolidation; New Sterling's business strategy, objectives, strength and focus, including plans to install equipment, work over existing wells and identify a joint venture partner; and New Sterling's ability to create value for shareholders in the Bretana oil field, including by converting contingent resources to reserves, among others, are forward-looking information. These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by such statements.

The forward-looking statements and information are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by New Sterling, including expectations and assumptions concerning: the ability of existing infrastructure to deliver production and the anticipated capital expenditures associated therewith, the need for incremental financing to commercial production, reservoir characteristics, recovery factor, exploration upside, prevailing commodity prices and the actual prices received for New Sterling's products, the availability and performance of drilling rigs, facilities, pipelines and other oilfield services, royalty regimes and exchange rates, the application of regulatory and licensing requirements, the availability of capital and skilled personnel, and the accuracy of New Sterling's geological interpretation of its drilling and land opportunities.

Although New Sterling believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking statements and information are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward looking statements and information because New Sterling can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. By its nature, such forward-looking information is subject to various risks and uncertainties, which could cause the actual results and expectations to differ materially from the anticipated results or expectations expressed. These risks and uncertainties, include, but are not limited to, risks associated with the oil and gas industry in general (e.g. operational risks in development, exploration and production, and delays or changes in plans with respect to exploration or development projects or capital expenditures), commodity prices, the uncertainty of estimates and projections relating to production, cash generation, costs and expenses, health, safety, litigation and environmental risks, access to capital as well as additional risks associated with operating in a developing country. Due to the nature of the oil and natural gas industry, drilling plans and operational activities may be delayed or modified to react to market conditions, results of past operations, regulatory approvals or availability of services causing results to be delayed. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on this forward-looking information, which is given as of the date hereof, and to not use such forward-looking information for anything other than its intended purpose. New Sterling assumes no responsibility to update or revise forward-looking information to reflect new events or circumstances unless required by law.

Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE Sterling Resources Ltd.

For further information: Greg Smith, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, T: (713) 894-4156

Related Links

http://www.sterling-resources.com


THUNDER BAY, ON, Dec. 18, 2017 /CNW/ - Wolfden Resources Corporation (WLF:TSX-V) ("Wolfden" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has commenced diamond drilling on its wholly-owned Pickett Mountain Property, located in Penobscot County, northern Maine, U.S.A (the "Property'). The Property comprises 6,871 acres of timberland and all mineral, mining, subsurface and surface rights and includes the Pickett Mountain volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposit.

The Pickett Mountain VMS Deposit:

The Pickett Mountain Zn-Pb-Cu-Ag deposit is thought to be one of the highest-grade undeveloped VMS deposits in North America. The deposit was discovered by Getty Mines Ltd. in 1979, using a combination of soil surveys and diamond drilling and has not been explored since 1989.

Wolfden management believes that the Property has excellent potential to host a VMS deposit as evidenced by grades obtained from historic diamond drilling1 that intersected (true widths):

18.66% Zn, 10.27% Pb, 1.63% Cu & 6.72 oz/t Ag over 7.70 metres

14.65% Zn, 6.48% Pb, 2.74% Cu & 3.78 oz/t Ag over 7.68 metres

15.95% Zn, 7.41% Pb, 1.41% Cu & 5.25 oz/t Ag over 7.30 metres

13.71% Zn, 5.25% Pb, 1.07% Cu & 3.57oz/t Ag over 6.30 metres

1 Data documented in an internal report authored by Getty Mines Ltd.

The Pickett Mountain deposit has been traced over a strike length of approximately 900 metres and remains open along trend and at depth. The first phase exploration program that will continue into 2018 is expected to include some 10,000 metres of delineation and expansion drilling. A large loop ground electromagnetic survey (EM) and downhole EM surveys will be completed concurrent with the drilling program to assist in targeting. Drill results will be released as they become available.

About Wolfden Resources:

Wolfden is a mineral exploration company holding nickel properties in Manitoba and Zn-Pb-Cu base-metal properties in Maine, USA and in New Brunswick (>24,000 hectares). Manitoba is ranked #2 in Canada and #2 in the world as the most favorable jurisdiction to conduct mining and exploration (Fraser Institute (2016-2017)).

The information in this news release has been prepared and approved by Donald Hoy, M.Sc., P. Geo., President and CEO and a director of the Company. Mr. Hoy is also a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101.

Cautionary Statement regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains certain information that may constitute forward-looking information or forward-looking statements under applicable Canadian (collectively, "forward-looking information"), including but not limited to information about future drilling activities and results at the Pickett Mountain Project; the potential of the Picket Mountain Project, ; and the scope of and the anticipated effect of new mining legislation in Maine. This forward-looking information entails various risks and uncertainties that are based on current expectations and actual results may differ materially from those contained in such information. These uncertainties and risks include, but are not limited to, the strength of the global economy; the price of base metals and minerals generally; operational, funding and liquidity risks; the degree to which mineral resource estimates are reflective of actual mineral resources; the degree to which factors which would make a mineral deposit commercially viable are present; the risks and hazards associated with mineral exploration and mining operations; and the ability of Wolfden to fund its substantial capital requirements and operations. Risks and uncertainties about the Company's business are more fully discussed in the Company's disclosure materials filed with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada available at www.sedar.com. Readers are urged to read these materials. Wolfden assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from such information unless required by law.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE Wolfden Resources Corporation

For further information: Donald Hoy, President and CEO, Wolfden Resources Corporation, Tel: (807) 624-1131, Email: [email protected]
The body of an elderly hunter from Upstate New York was found Tuesday afternoon after an extensive, week-long search by hundreds of rescue workers.

The Daily Star reported that the body of 77-year-old Carl Weaver was found on privately-owned land in the woods of Harpersfield in Delaware County where he had hunted in the past. It was discovered less than 5,000 feet from a nearby road where his snow-covered truck was found on December 13.

The truck of a missing 77-year-old man from Schoharie County has been located in Delaware County. Carl D. Weaver of Hyndsville in the Town of Seward told friends he was going hunting Sunday. A search is currently underway for Weaver. The latest at 5pm on @CBS6Albany pic.twitter.com/td0vhfrjex  Heather Kovar (@CBS6Heather) December 13, 2017

Officials gave no suspected cause or time of death, but said foul play was not suspected, and that there were no signs of mortal injury to the body. Weaver still had his gun on him when he died.

Weaver last told a neighbor that he was going hunting on December 10, and was reported missing on December 12.

Over the course of the search, 737 people from multiple state, county and local agencies, as well as a helicopter, a drone and K-9 units, covered more than 2,000 acres of land.

Lt. David Pachan, supervising Department of Environmental Conservation forest ranger, said freezing temperatures and snow cover were the main causes for delay in the search.

"Really mother nature is what hampered this," he told media at a news conference on Tuesday.

Officials also had to use chainsaws to clear the brush in the area where Weaver's body was found.

The Albany Times Union reported that an autopsy has been scheduled to determine Weaver's cause of death. His body was taken to Mereness Putnam Funeral Home in Cobleskill.
Syracuse, N.Y. -- Upstate New York, the land of the reliably white Christmas, might not be white this year.

Snow on the ground across much of Upstate is likely to melt away as warm temperatures and rain move in this week, and forecasts show little substantial snow across most of Upstate.

There's an outside chance that a pair of storms could bring an inch or 2 of snow Christmas Eve into Christmas morning, though, although forecasters say that's far from certain.

"I'm dealing with about a 40% chance this scenario happens," said New York state climatologist Mark Wysocki.

If you want a white Christmas, you might have to head to Tug Hill. In the Oswego County town of Redfield, more than 100 inches of snow has fallen this season, and 2 feet remained on the ground this morning. A few more inches could fall this week.

Some of that snow should still be around Christmas Day, said Tom Kines, a meteorologist with Accuweather.

"They're going to keep that snow," he said.

The rest of Upstate? Probably not, Kines said. Syracuse, the snowiest major Upstate city this season, had 7 inches on the ground this morning. Another couple of inches could fall tonight and Wednesday, he said, but warm temperatures and rain Friday will probably melt away that snow.

"By the time Saturday afternoon rolls around, I don't think there's any snow left in the Syracuse area," he said.

That leaves us with the slim possibility of a Christmas Eve snowfall.

"There's probably going to be some moisture along the coast, and there will be another weak system coming in from the west," Kines said. "Either of those two systems could put snow into the area."

It wouldn't be much -- maybe an inch or two. It could be enough for an official white Christmas, defined by meteorologists as at least 1 inch of snow on the ground at 8 a.m. on Christmas Day.

Wysocki isn't optimistic. If you're listening to "White Christmas," he said, it's "time to change the playlist."

Contact Glenn Coin: Email | Twitter | Google + | (315) 470-3251
CHESHIRE  A lawsuit against the state Department of Correction by the town involving a disputed sewer bill has resulted in a damage award of $1.45 million by the Connecticut Superior Court.

Cheshire officials announced the outcome of the lawsuit Tuesday. Arnett Talbot, the towns public information officer, said the Department of Correction has until Jan. 2 to appeal the court ruling.

We have no idea at this point whether there will be an appeal, Talbot said. The court denied a claim made by town officials that the state agency should also be required to pay $1.13 million in interest payments on the amount of the unpaid retroactive bill, she said.

The dispute started in 2011 after town Wastewater Treatment Plant Superintendent Dennis Dievert discovered that the states Cheshire Correctional Institution had been underpaying for the wastewater that was flowing from the prison complex on Highland Avenue. The wastewater flow meter at the prison had under-reported the volume of seweage that was being sent to the treatment plant  for a decade.

Town manager Michael Milone said Tuesday that Department of Correction officials were made aware of the problem in 2011 and paid $180,000 for the previous 12-month billing period. But the agency officials refused to pay for the remaining nine years owed, an amount estimated at more than $1.4 million

Our position was and has always been that if they agreed with the methodology that we used for that 12-month period, they should pay for the remaining period because we used the same calculations, Milone said. But they didnt come up with an alternative figure to pay, they just said they werent going to pay any more.

Before the town filed the lawsuit in February 2016, it spent two years trying to get the Connecticut legislature to bring its complaint to bring the State Claims Commissioner. The town filed its claim with Claims Commission in July 2014, which granted Cheshires request to sue the state 19 months later.

The trial on Cheshires lawsuit against the state was held earlier this year.

Andrius Banevicius, a state Department of Correction spokesman, called the lawsuit a long and complex case.

The department respects the courts decision and is reviewing the ruling to determine if it is going to appeal, Banevicius said.

luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com
CHESHIRE  The identity of the communitys new Town Manager will be revealed Wednesday.

The Town Council has scheduled a special meeting at 6 p.m. in Town Hall, at which it will appoint the individual who will replace Michael Milone when he retires. Milone announced in February that he would retire in June 2018.
WOODBRIDGE  Maybe it was the news reports about the looming national Christmas tree shortage, but procrastinators lost out if they planned to buy their tree from their local Boy Scouts at the old firehouse on Center Road.

Troop 63 sold out on Sunday and shut down its annual operation. A few straggler trees were propped up against the building free for the taking. A note left directions for a donation, if people chose.

This year seems to be extra busy, and I dont know why, said Troop Leader Ted Pocwierz, who theorized the reported shortage prompted people to buy earlier. We had one of the best years, as far as selling out.

Last year, the scouts and parents worked up until Christmas Eve to accommodate the real procrastinators.

Its a small tree-selling operation  they had 320 balsam pine trees delivered the weekend after Thanksgiving  but a major fundraiser for the local troop, which has 18 members. They also have a loyal following, he said, having been selling trees, wreaths and decorations at the same location for 54 years.

When they first started the troop up, they started the Christmas tree sale as one of their first fundraisers, Pocwierz said. Weve had a few people who came with their newborns who said theyve gotten them (here) when they were kids and now they are coming with their own. We have a lot of return customers.

It helps that they deliver, he said. This year saw a first. Some Yale students wanted a tree but didnt have a car.

So the scouts took some pictures of trees and after a series of back-and-forth text messages, the students made their selection and the tree was en route.

Maybe next year, well even accept credit cards, Pocwierz joked. They dont.

The trees this year came from Massachusetts and Canada. The Canadian trees were organically grown, with no chemical fertilizers or pesticides.

The shortage only affected lots that get trees from giant production farms in places such as North Carolina, Maine and Oregon. The root of the problem goes back to the economic downturn of 2007-10.

In 2007, we were at the beginning of our recession and tree sales were down, prices were down, farmers didnt have the space in their fields to replant because they werent harvesting as many, National Christmas Tree Association spokesman Doug Hundley told Hearst Newspapers last month.

Now, those trees from about 10 years ago are at the right age to sell, and there just arent enough to go around.

Longtime Woodbridge resident Charlie Whiting, who is 89 and still lives in town, was one of five founding fathers of Troop 63 and started the Christmas tree sale decades ago, first selling at the corner of Amity Road and Center Street before moving to the old firehouse at the center of town.

Decades ago, through a connection at the water company, scouts were allowed to cut pine trees on water company property to sell and used larger trees to build a log cabin on town property that has become a Boy Scout camp used by troops from throughout the area. From December to April, troops spend weekends doing winter camping.

No lights. No running water. No telephone. Just a 30-by-30 log cabin with a well for water, wood burning stove and fire pit outside.

Town resident Bob Hill came in and helped Whiting run the sale from 2006 to 2011. Before that, Whiting ran the operation on his own.

Not only is the sale the troops primary fundraiser, it also teaches valuable lessons to the scouts in salesmanship, merchandising, customer service, community service and how to earn your own way and be proud of that, Hill said.

Hill said Whiting retired from the troop this summer but hasnt stayed completely retired.

Hill said he went down to the troop campground to check on the property after a group camped therefor the weekend and, of course, Charlie was there.

Troop 63, which has two Eagle Scouts and one more on the cusp, uses the proceeds to subsidize camping trips, the cost of badges and awards, and to help offset parental contributions for a weeklong summer camp.

Amity High School seniors Dean Pocwierz, 18, Teds son, and Andrew Burford, 17, both earned the rank of Eagle Scout in November. Daniel Feitchtner, 17, also an Amity senior, is scheduled to attain the rank in January.

The three joined Cub Scouts together.

For Pocwierz, selling out early has one distinct benefit: He gets be at home home with his family on Christmas Eve.
The state Board of Examiners for Nursing Wednesday disciplined two nurses, including a registered nurse from Branford who stole an opioid painkiller for her own use.

The RN, Alice J. Miller, admitted that on Nov. 24, 2016, she took the oxycodone, a consent order she signed with the board said. The same month, she also used alcohol or controlled substances to excess, the order said.

Her license was temporarily suspended, and Wednesday, the board continued the suspension for six months, followed by a four-year probation during which Miller must pass drug tests and attend therapy and support group sessions, the order said. The state Judicial Branch website contains no record of any case involving Miller.

The board also reprimanded RN Deirdre T. Kenny of Meriden and placed her license on probation for two years after she admitted that while working as a behavioral health home care nurse at Salute Homecare of Waterbury in March, she failed to discard a patients narcotic properly, a consent order she signed said.

Kenny also practiced outside the scope of an RN when in May, she gave the same patient 10 tablets of Ativan, an anti-anxiety medication, without a doctors order, the consent order said. Kenny also improperly gave the patient medical advice on how to take the Ativan, the order said.

During the probation, Kenny must take courses in ethics, boundaries, medication administration and the nursing scope of practice.

Kenny is employed as an RN nurse consultant for PJW Nursing Consultants of West Hartford, which places its consultants in residential group homes. During the probation, she is to have no role in maintaining any group homes medication inventory, it said.

By signing the orders, both nurses chose not to contest the allegations.

Kate Farrish is a Conn. Health I-Team writer. This story was reported under a partnership with the Connecticut Health I-Team (c-hit.org).
NEW HAVEN  Plans to convert a large home in Westville to apartments has been withdrawn.

Neighbors made it clear to the Board of Zoning Appeals last week month that the proposal to change the residence at 1377 Ella T. Grasso Blvd. to five apartments would be out of character with the neighborhood.

They also expressed strong criticism of Wells Fargo Bank for letting it deteriorate after it went into foreclosure. They said the bank also failed to open up the bidding process to include local residents interested in purchasing it.

Doris Zelinsky, a nearby neighbor who helped organize residents to fight the proposed conversion, said her husband, Ed Zelinksy, was notified by the city and attorney David Olson that the plans were no longer before the BZA.

The public hearing on the project had been continued until February, as the BZA does not meet in January.

Given that the deadline for making a deal with the bank was set to expire the next day, on Dec. 13, according to Olson, moving forward seemed problematic.

Olson was representing developer Eyal Preis, who first proposed converting the site to nine apartments, before then dropping that to seven units.

On the day of the public hearing, the developer revised it a third time to five apartments, but city officials said it still could not be approved because of a faulty parking plan.

As a neighborhood, it is a great feeling. Now we neighbors will move forward and stimulate Wells Fargo to behave appropriately and market, show and sell this lovely late nineteenth century house, Doris Zelinsky said in an email.

The neighbors complained that the bank failed to return calls from interested local buyers.

Edward Zelinsky told the BZA that he and others had invested in this part of the Edgewood neighborhood on the assumption that 1377 would remain a one- or two-family home and he cited a deed restriction which he said required this.

The property is part of the Edgewood Historic District.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

NEW HAVEN  A Luckey Climber, a 3D vertical maze, is coming closer to being a reality for New Haven with work scheduled this spring to fix a leaking Millennium Plaza where it likely would be located.

Architect Eric Epstein, who has been laying the groundwork for the project, poke about it to the Downtown Wooster Square Community Management Team Tuesday night.

The specifics of the design, community input and fundraising all have to be firmed up, but preparing for it as the Millennium space is repaired will make the project proceed more smoothly.

As the city waterproofs beneath the pink concrete space behind City Hall next to the federal plaza, the plan would be to keep the template of the climber in mind and incorporate the necessary attachments as the work is being done on the surface.

Architect Thomas Luckey came up with the original concept and built the climber at the Boston Childrens Museum in 1984, a project that advanced his career.

Spencer Luckey, his son, now runs the business, which designs the 30-foot to 60-foot sculptures in an industrial space close by on Chapel Street, from where they have been shipped around the world to 16 countries.

Epstein said it makes sense to coordinate the climber foundation with the necessary repairs to the plaza.

After that it becomes installation furniture in a prepared plaza, Epstein said of putting in the actual sculpture.

He said somewhere along the way in these discussions, the Pincus Foundation stepped up and said it might cover half of the cost.

This is still just a glimmer in a parents eye, but the forces seem to be coming together that might actually bring something like this to City Hall plaza, Epstein told the group.

Spencer Luckey, in an earlier story in the New Haven Register, said his father had always hoped to put up a public climber in New Haven. The company has installed two climbers at the private Foote School, which Spencer Luckey and several of his staff members attended as children.

The waterproofing will take place in February, March and April and Epstein hopes that late 2018 or sometime in early 2019, a pocket park with this climbing sculpture for children could become a reality.

Alex Esdaile, an engineer with Turner Construction, and Jennifer Waldron, a landscape architect with Stantec, would be consultants to the project, Epstein said. Waldron would be the master planner who would lead the public discussion as to what residents would want to see there.

All the hiring will be done by the city, Epstein said.

Epstein said years ago, when City Hall was being renovated, architect Paul Rudolph looked at the Millennium Plaza area as a good location for a new 5-story library.

The space was capped and waterproofed for the future. It is that waterproofing under the concrete that now needs to be torn up and replaced.

Epstein said Mayor Toni Harp has encouraged the project to advance after discussing it with Luckey, Doug Hausladen, who heads the citys Transportation, Traffic and Parking Department; city Engineer Giovanni Zinn; and then-City Planner Karyn Gilvarg.

It is seen as an amenity for downtown where there are more and more residences being built.

After the meeting, the one question was how safe it is for children to climb.

Epstein said throughout there is stainless steel netting with drops not deeper than 18 inches.

Luckey has said in 30 years there has never been an incident involving their sculptures.

They have been vetted by safety agencies all over the world and we always pass with flying colors. The only way this business survives is by a fastidious attention to detail, Luckey said in the earlier interview.
FOUND: Felecia Rodnick of Groton wrote,  I work in New Haven but live in Groton and commute daily and have enjoyed a few favorite area foods and would love these recipes: Zois chili and Greater Mt. Carmel Pentacostal Church in Hamden, corn bread served at the church dinners.

Felecia, with the cold weather, it is perfect timing for the chili recipe you requested. So, get out a big pot because Pete Maniatis, owner of Zois, that recently moved to 63 Grove St., New Haven, www.zoisnewhaven.com 203-777-6736 was delighted to share the recipe. I will still attempt to sleuth out your other recipe request.

Pete said the restaurant is named after his wife, Zoi. The Greek origin of the name is life. He left the banking world in 2003 and started a new work life  Zois  and home life. It has become a community hangout and refuge from the daily grind, and a place to catch up with friends. This New Haven treasure is known for their 27 specialty sandwiches, heart-healthful salads, vegetarian and gluten-free offerings and catering. Always looking to keep the restaurant fresh, Pete began a lite bite small plate daily creation and soon to be introduced, prepared meals to- go for the busy professional.

Walking into the new location for the first time made me think of a column I wrote in 2009 featuring a readers recipe request for their cheese chicken pasta (find it at http://bit.ly/2o2CnvU) It was inspiring to see how much Zois has grown. It seems as if it was only yesterday that I walked into the small eatery then located on Orange Street, with just a few tables. If you havent been to Zois, check it out. I have a feeling it will become one of your favorites for breakfast and lunch.

Zois Chili

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 Spanish onion, chopped

1 large green peppers, diced

1 tablespoon garlic, minced

1  pounds ground Beef

 cup ketchup

1/3 cup hickory BBQ sauce

2 -28 ounce cans San Marzano plum tomatoes, including the liquid

1 tablespoon salt

 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon Cajun spice

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2- 15  ounce cans dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

Optional: chopped scallions, shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream.

In a large stock pot heat oil and saute onions and peppers until onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and ground beef. Cook until beef is browned and then add ketchup, BBQ sauce and tomatoes. Stir and let cook for  hour on low-medium heat, stirring occasionally. Add salt, pepper, Cajun spice, bay leaves, cumin and cinnamon. Stir well, add beans and continue to cook over low-medium heat for  hour, stirring occasionally. Adjust seasoning as desired. Remove bay leaves before serving. Serves 6-8.

Optional: after placing in serving bowls, top with scallions, cheddar cheese and sour cream.

DESPERATELY SEEKING

Patricia Ludington of North Haven wrote, I would like to request a recipe from LoMonacos Restaurant in Branford. We were t a communion dinner for my granddaughter Sofia. Five of us ordered Gamberoni Monachinashrimp with mushrooms, wine, topped with mozzarella. All five of us thought it was delicious. We would love to have this recipe. We love your column and look forward to it every Wednesday in the New Haven Register.

Send us your requests: Which restaurant recipes or other recipes would you like to have? Which food products are you having difficulty finding? Do you have cooking questions? Send them to me.

Contact Stephen Fries, professor and coordinator of the Hospitality Management Programs at Gateway Community College, at gw-stephen.fries@gwcc.commnet.edu or Dept. FC, Gateway Community College, 20 Church St., New Haven, 06510. Include your full name, address and phone number. Due to volume, I might not be able to publish every request. For more, go to stephenfries.com.
Hemmed in by war and geography, Yemen's 28 million people are essentially trapped. It's tough to get out by air, it's dangerous by land, and the sea crossing to Africa is perhaps the most perilous of all - especially if, like Awzra Abdusaid, you can't swim.

In early September, Abdusaid and her adult son boarded a fishing boat in the southern port of Aden. It was her first time at sea and she had sold her gold earrings to pay 35,000 Yemeni riyals ($140) for the journey. They set sail into waters patrolled by various foreign navies, swarming with pirates, and buffeted by heavy winds. By evening, their small vessel had arrived at the fishing village of Obock in northern Djibouti, site of the only United Nations camp for refugees from Yemen's often-forgotten war.

Since her escape fighting has intensified, alliances have shifted and the country has sunk deeper into a humanitarian crisis. Saudi Arabia, which is leading the war on rebels linked to Iran, has stepped up bombing and tightened an economic blockade. There are signs that the U.S. is getting impatient with its ally - yet America continues to provide military support for the Saudi campaign. Meanwhile, inside Yemen, cholera and famine are spreading.

"Anyone who's tasted the pain there will try to flee," Abdusaid said.

If they can. When Abdusaid got to the U.N. camp she found about 1,100 fellow Yemenis there, a tiny fraction of the 3 million who've been forced from their homes. The longer Yemen's conflict goes on, and the deadlier it becomes, the harder it is to get out. It's estimated that about 180,000 people have left the country, compared with perhaps 5 million from Syria, which has a similar population.

"This is how we feel - that the whole world is saying, 'the Yemenis should stay in their country and die,"' said Suha Basharen, a gender researcher in the capital, Sana'a.

Yemen is the Arab world's poorest country. Although plenty of women worked before the war, cultural expectations were that men supported their households.

In recent years, though, men have been disappearing to the frontlines to fight. Tens of thousands have been killed or injured. Many more saw their incomes evaporate, as Yemen's government stopped paying the salaries that about 30 percent of the population depended on.

"Who's taking the burden of all this? It's women," Basharen said.

That wartime shift is happening inside Yemen, where stories are spreading of women breaking taboos by selling vegetables at street stalls, or starting bakeries. Journalists are largely barred from entering Yemen, so it's difficult to capture the trend. But it's happening among refugees too.

"Women have become the sole breadwinners of entire families," said Mayada Saleh, who works at a non-governmental organization in Amman, Jordan - one of the few countries where Yemenis can get refugee status. "When the war started, women started to look for creative ideas to earn more money and to make ends meet."

That's a constant preoccupation at the Obock camp in Djibouti.

It was set up three years ago, in an area that has centuries-old ties with Yemen. In the early days, there were security problems for women and their families: Aid workers reported cases of adolescent girls lured into sex work in exchange for food and money.

Now, the camp has settled into life as a makeshift Yemeni village.

Several aid agencies have set up shop, offering handicraft lessons and reading programs. Children run in and out of neighbors' tents. And men, when they can get it, chew on the country's beloved qat, a mild narcotic.

The camp's men work in fishing and construction, at restaurants in town, or for aid agencies. Or, like Ahmad Abdu Ragab, not at all. Ragab, shirtless with wisps of thinning white hair, interrupts another man complaining about the quality of qat. He has a deeper problem with the camp arrangements. There aren't enough jobs and only a bare minimum of food, mostly rice, he said. "We've become addicted, like sheep."

The qat offers comfort, and a reminder of lost lives. Meanwhile, many of the camp's women are having to break new ground.

---

Mahina Saleh, a middle-aged divorcee, has been in the camp since its early days. She crossed by sea from Dhubab on Yemen's southwestern tip, along with her children and relatives, after their coastal homes were destroyed in the war.

Inside her tent, Saleh displays a series of purses and wallets she's made at the camp. One design has a labyrinth of red and khaki squares, another is like a rainbow.

"The most important thing is money," she said. "If you have money, you can be mobile."

Saleh appreciates the aid efforts of camp officials, but says the monthly rations aren't enough for her family. So she and other women turned to sewing. They use their own money to buy supplies, then sell their products to shops in Djibouti's capital, three hours away, for about 750 Djiboutian francs ($4.20) apiece - half what they're worth, she says.

"I think about how I used to live in Yemen," Saleh said. "I imagine, and then I cry, and contemplate suicide. And then I say, God forgive me. And then I tell myself, 'This is my destiny, this is what was written for us by the Most Merciful."'

The midday call to prayer reverberates through the camp.

Deep in the capital's central bazaar, the Souk al-Dhubab, is where Saleh's handiwork finds a market. It's a bustling scene. Hawkers sell perfume and Yemeni sweets; women crush into a small abaya shop, sizing up the designs.

Further down, another refugee is selling her own goods.

Afrah Suhail's shop has signs in Arabic and French. Open the door, and a waft of bukhoor, Yemeni frankincense, fills the air. Inside, tubs of Yemeni and Ethiopian honey sit on shelves, along with spices and herbal teas. Almost everything is hexagonal, from the yellow honeycombs painted on the walls, to the light fittings and storage boxes. "It's all my idea," says Suhail from behind her desk.

Trained as a chemist, Suhail worked for Yemen's education ministry before the war. She flew to Djibouti with her teenage son shortly after the fighting started and hadn't reckoned on staying there. But Egypt - where she was planning to join some relatives - imposed new entry requirements for Yemenis. Suhail found herself with a visa to nowhere. The money she'd brought out of Yemen started to dry up.

Then, her son fell ill with a high fever. She couldn't find a taxi, and had to carry him to the hospital. She found herself thinking of the remedies she would've tried at home - including honey, for which Yemen is famous. And she was surprised that she couldn't find anywhere selling it.

"I wasn't thinking about honey as a business," Suhail said. "But suffering produces ideas."

---

For Suhail's husband and his family, the idea of a woman running a shop was outlandish. She blames tribal and cultural traditions - not religious principles - for the taboo, which is shared by younger Yemeni males. "My son started asking, 'How are you going to go out and how are you going to open a shop and stand there?'" Suhail said. "He was in shock."

Still, she arranged for the sale of her car and other assets back in Yemen, and found a store to rent. Family members helped out with money, and sent tubs of honey from her homeland; she also found suppliers from Ethiopia. The shop opened in August 2015.

"I had a comfortable lifestyle in Yemen," Suhail said. "I had to push myself through a much harder situation here." The store has brought in enough money for her to send her mother and son to Egypt, once visa rules were eased. The boy, Majdi, studies there; back in Djibouti during vacation, he was helping his mother with the labelling as she poured dark honey from five-liter tubs into smaller jars. When he was gone, for almost a year, Suhail said she felt alone.

"Yemeni men come to me and say, 'How could you open the project all by yourself, as a woman, in Djibouti?"' she said. "I transformed from a refugee into a businesswoman."

Yemenis like Suhail who earn money abroad are sending much of it back to their homeland - providing a lifeline for the broken economy. Remittances totaled about $3.4 billion in 2014, the last available estimate, according to the World Bank. That's about 8 percent of GDP.

---

Across the sea, Jordan has a sizable concentration of refugees from Yemen, with about 8,500 officially registered. They tend to be better-off than their compatriots in Djibouti, and many were already in Jordan when the war broke out.

In mid-September a group of them gathered at a hip co-working space in Amman. They're a mash-up of students, consultants for international NGOs, and job-seekers.

Most feel welcomed by Jordanians, but many also grumble that it's hard to get by in this expensive Arab capital, which also hosts some 2 million Syrian refugees. You can get a residency permit by depositing 20,000 dinars ($28,000) in a Jordanian account. Few have that kind of money.

Yasmeen Al-Nadheri, a divorcee who's supporting her parents and daughter with her income from a job at a foreign NGO, started a network dubbed #TransitYouth; she says she's trying to build a database of exiles, in Jordan or Egypt but also further-flung outposts like Malaysia, where Yemenis have ended up, and "raise awareness among donors that we exist.''

The group set up a telephone hotline for Yemenis coming to Jordan, or just passing through, in case of medical emergencies. Many of its members were shaken by the story of a Yemeni who was transiting through Amman to get medical treatment in India, but wasn't allowed onto the plane because he didn't have a doctor's note saying he was well enough to travel. He then died.

Al-Nadheri's outfit has also voiced concerns to Ismail Ould Sheikh Ahmed, the U.N. special envoy to Yemen, whose office is based in Amman, and whose efforts to broker peace talks have struggled. But for all their ambitions, the gatherings also serve as a kind of support group for these young people, many of whom haven't seen their families for almost three years.

One thing that the Yemeni women in Jordan have noticed is that their roles are changing.

Some of the shifts may look tiny. "I put my picture up,'' says Soumaia Al-Montaser, who's studying to be a nurse, with a smile. It's the first time her Facebook profile carried her photo. Yemeni women typically wear a face-veil, and on social media their appearance - and sometimes even their real names - often remain hidden.

That's just the visible part of deeper shifts that the war has brought, says al-Montaser, who also tutors kids in Amman to earn extra cash which she sends back to her family in Sana'a - helping pay school fees of her nieces and nephews. "The suffering has opened up something different," she said.

On a busy street in Amman, Al-Montaser recounts just how it's different. When her father passed away a few years ago, she said, her brothers forbade her from continuing her education. After four years of sitting at home, she was "broken."

She gathered all her clothes and possessions from her room, dumped them in the back-yard, and sprinkled petrol over them. She set them on fire. Then, she says, she turned to her brothers: "You want me to be like that? I'm like that - I'm burning." They relented, and she eventually studied English at Sana'a University, before the war got her thinking about a stable career like nursing.

Across town, near the University of Jordan, Sala Khaled, who moved to Amman with her family in 2015, also talks about a silver lining to the hardships of war. It's not that an elder generation of Yemenis suddenly became more open-minded, she says; it's that they're afraid. Parents, she said, think: "We have to find an alternative future for our daughters. So even if they're not married, they can go to wherever."

Khaled, who's part of a venture called Innovative Yemen that aims to encourage entrepreneurs, sees social changes afoot as well. Even previously conservative friends have stopped wearing not only the face-veil but the staple black abaya, and in some cases even headscarves. She's now hunting around for scholarships to continue her studies abroad, something her family never would have countenanced before.

There's a sense of transience in Amman. "We don't know if the war's ending tomorrow or after 10 years,'' says Al-Nadheri, of #TransitYouth. "If we're staying here or leaving to another country."

---

There have been comings and goings at the Obock camp in Djibouti, too. Locals described the scenes early on, when boatloads of refugees were arriving daily. Restaurants offered free meals of Yemeni spicy grilled fish for the new arrivals, as they waited at the port for their cases to be processed.

But many have moved on. Djibouti's government estimates that more than 20,000 Yemenis have passed through the country since 2015. The camp hosted more than 6,000 Yemenis at its peak; the number is now less than one-fifth of that. The war hasn't eased; it's just harder to get out.

Those still in Obock probably aren't going anywhere. Around the tents, workers have been busy erecting more permanent structures paid for by Saudi Arabia. "At the beginning, we thought these people would stay one or two months,'' says Hossein Hassan Darar, director of Djibouti's refugee agency. "But I think it will be protracted and they will stay for a long time."

In late afternoon, a boy seizes a September gale that sends his red kite soaring. On the other side of the camp, a white kite's tail rips above. Then, a black kite snakes high up in the distance. All three colors of the Yemeni flag.

As Yemenis anchor their lives here, there have been births, marriages and deaths. In May, 22-year-old Niyala Salem married Abdu Ibrahim, a shy guard at the camp. She wore a white dress, and there was music, Yemeni and African.

Salem, in a black face-veil, works as a nutritionist at the camp's clinic. She's made friends with two other young women, Iyhan and Fatima, who also have jobs there. All of them help support their families with their income, though they insist that women in Yemen worked before the war too. They tick off some of the reasons why people are no longer arriving at Obock. Few fishing boats are willing to make the trip; people don't have money to pay smugglers; roads to the coast are closed and drivers demand high fees.

Salem says she lost her brother during the war. She won't say how. She takes her husband's hand as they walk out of the clinic tent.

"As soon as the war finishes,'' she says, "we'll go back."

---

Bloomberg's Samuel Dodge contributed. Reporting for this article was supported by a Media Fellowship through the initiative on Religion and the Global Framing of Gender Violence, Center for the Study of Social Difference at Columbia University.
WEST HAVEN  Nicks Luncheonette, which at the start of this month was told it had to be out of its longtime home at 423 First Ave. by Dec. 31 to make way for The Haven upscale outlet mall, has been given one last reprieve, until March 31.

The extension was worked out with The Haven Group LLC after Mayor Nancy Rossi and her executive assistant, Louis Esposito Jr., got involved last week, both Rossi and Nicks owners Nick and Irene Milas confirmed.

That made the Milases happy, as well as their employees and the many die-hards who often pack the place for breakfast.

Five people work at Nicks.

Mark Zaretsky / Hearst Connecticut Media /

The Milases sold their property on First Avenue near Elm Street to The Havens developers almost exactly two years from the date they now will actually vacate it.

They remain open as tenants on a month-to-month basis  and are still looking for their new spot, they said Tuesday.

We knew we had to go ... but it was disheartening, over the holidays, said Irene Milas.

But Nick Milas confirmed that he will, in fact, reopen in another location  and said he remains committed to opening that restaurant in West Haven.

Im still looking, he said Tuesday as he grilled up a pound or two of bacon on the flattop grill in his modest restaurant, which over the past 26 years has grown into one of West Havens favorite afffordable breakfast and lunch joints.

Nicks Luncheonette currently is the second-highest rated restaurant in West Haven for breakfast on Yelp.com, second only to West End Bistro.

The Milases have run Nicks for almost as long as the 32 years theyve been married, and their children, all grown now, pretty much grew up in the place.

Im looking at a couple of places, but I havent decided, Nick Milas said. I definitely am going to open a restaurant and its definitely going to be in West Haven.

I want to be in West Haven, Nick Milas said.

Whatevers empty in West Haven, weve looked at, said Irene Milas.

Both Nick Milas and Irene Milas thanked Rossi and Esposito for their help to secure the extension. They also thanked Matt Armstrong, The Haven Groups executive vice president, for agreeing to it.

He could have said no, said Irene Milas.

Irene Milas said she called the mayors office early last week to see whether there was anything Rossi might be able to do, and Esposito got back to her.

The next day, he came over and said the mayors office would try to work something out, and said he would let them know shortly.

The day after that, Esposito and Rossi both came over to Nicks to give them the good news, Irene Milas said.

Rossi said her office had received a number of calls from Nicks customers, in addition to the call from Irene Milas.

As Nick Milas spoke, Philip Pilletere and his daughter, Donna Williams, sat eating lunch in a sunny booth near the window.

Hes a regular, said Williams of her father. Hes a three-day-a-week customer.

Pilletere is such a good customer that hes been going to Nicks since it opened  and has continuing eating there three or four days a week despite moving from West Haven to Orange a few years ago.

You meet a lot of nice people here, he said.

And then theres the food!

I like my pastrami, he said, soon after finishing a sandwich. I love that! Where else am I going to find a place like this and meet people like this?

Pilletere said of Nick Milas, Hes Number 1! I love watching him on the grill!

He said hes one of a core group of customers who will follow Nick  and Nicks  where ever they end up.

No matter where it is, wherever he goes, were going to go, Pilletere said.

Armstrong has told the City Council that The Haven, which is expected to go before the Planning and Zoning Commission for its zoning approvals this winter, will be the only direct-waterfront, luxury retail center in the country, with 60 stores, seven restaurants, a public waterfront promenade.

It would pay $2 million in annual property tax and create more than $15 million in incremental sales tax for the state, he said.

The Haven would provide 800 full-time and 400 part-time jobs, plus 800 construction jobs using all Connecticut-based contractors, he said. The developers have spent $15 million so far, to date, he said.

Developers Sheldon Gordon, who has since passed away, and Ty Miller proposed to build the waterfront development project in two phases. Miller is proceeding with the project despite Gordons death.

The first phase, proposed for an area along what is now Water Street south of Elm Street where the mouth of the West River widens into New Haven Harbor, would be 230,000-250,000 square feet with a waterfront promenade, open-air amphiteatre and boat-launch ramp for non-motorized watercraft.
During a routine surgery in 2013, Dr. John Paul Kim, an anesthesiologist at Yale New Haven Hospital, learned that the patient he was about to put under was Dr. Edward Ziglerthe father of Head Start. Overcome with emotion,Kim thanked him profuselybecause he was a Head Start child himself. The son of Cambodian immigrants, Kim, has said that his life turned out differently than many other children in his neighborhood because of the power of Head Start. Programs like Head Start are inflection points for educational, nutritional, and health services. Kim is proof of the power of the social safety netto lift up children and support families during tough times.

Social safety net programs ensure children are not punished for their parents povertyand that they do not have to go hungry. The programs that make up our social safety net also fulfill our promise to seniors who have worked their entire lives that we have their backs in retirement. They provide quality healthcare to millions of children and seniors through Medicaid and Medicare. And they give families the boost they need when they lose a job.

After the Second World War, Republicans and Democrats came together to build our social safety netprograms that grew out of the belief that we have a moral responsibility to lift up our fellow Americans when they fall on tough times. Support for these programs has historically been bipartisan. Even as Republicans and Democrats had disagreements about their visions for the federal government, the social safety net remained an unassailable promise to the American people. When it came to these programs, real leaders on both sides of the aisle put people in need before politics.

Then came Ronald Reagan, and the advent of trickle-down economics. President Reagans fiscally irresponsible tax cuts created a massive deficit, which Republicans used as justification to try to gut social safety net programs  particularly food stamps, or SNAP, and Social Security.

Even Reagans birector of the Office of Management and the Budget, David Stockman, admitted the impact of the Reagan cuts were overblown, saying to the Atlantic: Republicans claim that we had this great Golden Age in the 1980s My argument is that this was mostly a phony prosperity built on massive additions to public and private debt. He went on: The prosperity didn't come from tax cuts made by Republican policy makers.

Fast forward to today, when the Republican tax scam that passed the Congress sets the stage for Paul Ryan and Donald Trump to slash the very social safety net programs that were once met with bipartisan support. The massive deficit the tax giveaway to millionaires, billionaires, and corporations lays the groundwork for what Ryan calls entitlement reform.

However, Republicans have not been coy about their true intentions. Sen. Orrin Hatch said, and I quote: I have a rough time wanting to spend billion and billions and trillions of dollars to help people who wont help themselves, wont lift a finger, and expect the federal government to do everything. This is the ugly truth of the Republican tax scam  give money to the wealthy through tax cuts and ultimately pay for it by gutting the programs that help hard-working Americans.

Frankly, this is Ryans dream. The New York Times has reported that Ryan and his colleagues are beginning to express their big dreams publicly, vowing that next year they will move on to changes in Medicare and Social Security. We cannot allow Republicans to use irresponsible fiscal policy as an excuse to betray older Americans. President Trump has said, and I quote, were going to go into welfare reform.

Republicans will try to gut programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, LIHEAP, TANF, Head Start, childcare assistance, and SNAP. This is a slap in the face to the millions of Americans who do everything right, and still cannot get by. This will be our biggest battle yetbut with the health and safety of millions of seniors, children, and struggling families on the line, we cannot afford to lose.

The destruction of the social safety net is straight out of the Reagan playbook  and we have seen these heartless tactics rear their ugly head with Newt Gingrichs Republican Revolution and the Tea Party movement.

But remember, together, we beat Newt Gingrich and his contract with America. We rejected Tea Party politics. Just this year, we saved the Affordable Care Actand we beat back some of the most egregious cuts in Donald Trumps mean-spirited budget proposal.

It is time to ask what kind of country we want to be. Will we betray millions of Americans, or fight for the legacy of good government? The social safety net is the heart and soul of that legacy  and I intend to fight for it.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro represents Connecticuts 3rd congressional district.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Amanda Knox is branching out.

In the decade since she was thrust into the international spotlight as a suspect in roommate Meredith Kercher's murder in 2007, Knox has been a prisoner, an exoneree, an author and columnist, an advocate for those wrongly convicted and the subject of a documentary.

Now, she'll be adding a new title to her resume: host.

Earlier this week Vice Media announced that the 30-year-old Knox would host a five-episode run of "The Scarlet Letter Reports," highlighting women publicly shamed by the media.

According to Variety, the show is one of three Vice shows that will air on the Facebook Watch video platform, joining renovation show "Breaking & Entertaining" and "The Hangover Show," which is about actual hangovers, and not the movie franchise by the same name.

Knox's show will include interviews with people like model and "SlutWalk" founder Amber Rose and rape survivor and victim advocate Daisy Coleman.

"While on trial for a murder I didn't commit, my prosecutor painted me as a sex-crazed femme fatale with magical powers to control men," Knox said in a statement. "I lost years of my life to prison because of two-dimensional and misogynist stereotypes. In 'The Scarlet Letter Reports,' I'm hoping to re-humanize others who have been similarly shamed and vilified, and elevate the standard for how we think and talk about public women."

Now Playing: Why Amanda Knox Is Returning to Italy for the First Time since Her Exoneration for Murder Video: People

In 2009, Knox and boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were convicted of murdering Kercher two years earlier, while Knox -- a University of Washington student -- spent a year studying abroad. Knox and Sollecito were then acquitted in a second trial in 2011, and she was able to return to her native West Seattle. The pair was again convicted in 2013, but an Italian high court threw out the convictions after finding "stunning flaws" in the prosecution's case.

Rudy Guede was eventually convicted of the murder, while Knox has gone on to become an advocate for those wrongly convicted of crimes. She wrote "Waiting to be Heard," a memoir, in 2013, and she was the subject of a 2016 Netflix documentary titled "Amanda Knox."

Seattlepi.com reporter Stephen Cohen can be reached at 206-448-8313 or stephencohen@seattlepi.com. Follow Stephen on Twitter at @scohenPI.
The controversy over the nod given by governors under the aegis of Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) to withdraw $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) to fight the insurgency in the North-east took another turn Tuesday, when Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo clarified that the $1 billion was not solely earmarked for the fight against Boko Haram, but to tackle security challenges nationwide.

Osinbajos clarification came just as Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose said he had dragged the federal government and the NGF to court over the matter.

The vice-president, who spoke at the opening of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Secretaries to State Governments retreat in Abuja, said the $1 billion approved by the governors was meant to fight all forms of security challenges facing various states in the country.

He said the money from the ECA would be used to tackle security challenges such as Boko Haram in the North-east, kidnapping, small arms trafficking, cattle rustling, and clashes between herdsmen and farmers.

According to Osinbajo, It was on account of the security summit that the governors under the NGF decided that they would vote a certain sum of money, which has become somewhat controversial.

The $1billion is meant to assist the security architecture of the country. It is to cater to all of the issues in the states, including policing in the states, community policing, and all of the different security challenges that we have.

It was after the security summit that the governors forum met across party lines, and I must add that this is what is needed to be done to shore up our security architecture.

At the end of last weeks meeting of the National Economic Council, the governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, had made public the approval given by the governors to the federal government to withdraw the $1 billion from the ECA to fight the insurgency.

But the decision has stirred up a lot of criticism, especially from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which claimed that the reason given for the withdrawal was a ploy to deceive Nigerians.

PDP also alleged that the $1 billion was going to be used by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to fund its campaigns for the 2019 elections.

Fayose Heads to Court

But even as the presidency moved to do some damage control, the Ekiti State governor announced Tuesday that he had dragged the federal government and the NGF to court over the matter.

Fayose, who disclosed this to State House correspondents after a meeting of the NGF and Conference of Speakers of State Houses of Assembly at the State House, Abuja, said he filed the case in court Tuesday at exactly noon.

The meeting of state governors and speakers of the state assemblies was convened to discuss the amendments to the 1999 Constitution as presented to the assemblies by the federal legislature.

Fayose, however, said he did not have the opportunity to express his objection to the decision before all the governors Tuesday, because the matter was not listed on the agenda for the meeting.

May I say this to you? I filed the case in court as early as noon today (yesterday). If it was not listed as part of the meeting, so how am I going to raise the issue? I have options and I have said it expressly. I have gone to court, he said.

But when doubts were expressed by reporters over his submission that such a controversial matter was not discussed at Tuesdays meeting, Fayose responded: No, no, if it was one of the issues discussed, I would have said so. I am not a pretender. I wont suffer in silence.

He insisted that he was opposed to the decision because the people of Ekiti State had been robbed of their own share of the money which he said would further compound the hunger ravaging the state.

Insisting that the matter was not raised at all in the meeting, Fayose said his position on the matter was not that of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but personal, pointing out that the matter had not been considered at all by the PDP, nor was he part of the NGF meeting where the decision was taken.

Im not in support of the $1 billion and will never be in support. In my state, we have agreed to go to court to contest this. It is our legitimate right. All accruals to the federation must be shared by the three tiers of government and for me to get justice, I have to go to court.

The issue was not discussed at all. But for me, I have taken appropriate steps because the money belongs to Ekiti people not for any other use. But I am speaking for Ayo Fayose.

With the PDP and other stakeholders, we have not met. I did not attend the meeting (last week). Even if I was part of the meeting, I would have made it expressly clear that I will not support it. Every state has its own peculiarities in terms of security.

Ekiti State has hunger haram where hunger is afflicting people everywhere. A lot of people are being kidnapped daily. Whatever is in that money, as far as I am concerned, we should share it.

Let everybody go and solve his own problem. I have challenges and they should give me my money. It is Ekitis money, he stressed.

Also addressing reporters on the issue, NGF Chairman Abdulaziz Yari said Fayose had the right to protest against the decision because democracy gives room for agitation.

According to him, the matter was discussed at the meeting of the NGF in November this year, also revealing that the meeting was attended by 32 of the 36 governors and there was no single dissenting voice to the decision.

Yari also argued that by the governors decision, they were only building on the precedent set by the former administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, when according to him, $2 billion was withdrawn from the ECA to fight the insurgency.

Yari claimed that it was the then Governor of Akwa Ibom State Godswill Akpabio, who moved the motion for the concession of $2 billion to the federal government from the ECA to fight the insurgency.

He said it had become imperative to build on the precedent because of the need to purchase equipment for the military to aid the battle against insecurity.

Yari who stated that the decision would be backed by resolutions of Houses of Assembly, added that a similar decision was taken during the administration of President Umaru YarAdua.

He also argued that the money in the ECA was actually being kept for emergency use, recalling that there was a time money belonging to states was illegally deducted by the federal government, a situation he said the current government was now redressing.

Gentlemen, this is a democracy and each and every person has his own way at looking at things and you cannot stop him from being a dissenting voice.

One, the Nigeria Governors Forum discussed this issue at our November meeting and we agreed across party lines that this thing has been done in 2014 when $2 billion was taken in agreement with the governors at that meeting.

Governor Akpabio was the one that moved the motion. This time, we realised that there was the need to purchase equipment for the military. So, we felt we should not compromise the issue of security for the entire country.

We said as governors, we agreed to forfeit $1 billion of our own share of the Excess Crude Account which we are going to back up with the State Assemblies resolution at a later time.

This is not the first time a decision like this is being taken. It happened during the Jonathan era when they took $2 billion. We all agreed at that time collectively in the same chamber to withdraw $2 billion to procure equipment and logistics for the military because they were telling us, whether it was true or false, that our soldiers were being killed.

Some came on the social media, saying that they were being killed like rats because they didnt have the training and equipment. That was what generated discussions in the same chamber and there was no controversy. There was no opposition to the decision at that time.

Secondly, there was this decision also during YarAduas time when they were sourcing funds for the Niger Delta Power Holding Company to build the independent power projects.

They took over N5 billion for power generation and we followed the same process to withdraw the money from the same account and our respective Houses of Assembly passed the resolution.

The $2 billion taken during Jonathans time was not backed up by any resolution from the state assemblies. So, gentlemen, we should not play politics with the issue of national security.

By the way, in the governors forum, 12 members form a quorum. At the time we took this decision, we had 32 members in attendance and there was no single opposition to the decision.

So, if anybody has his own idea of how he wants things to go, we had the majority and there was not even a minority opinion at that meeting. We looked at the country, Nigeria, first before any other issue. It is only when you have a country that you can have the politics.

You see if you are not an economist, you may not understand what we are talking about. These monies are kept there for the rainy day, and how much is in the ECA? It is about $2 billion.

In the past, the federal government was deducting the money illegally. So, we were asking the federal government to give us what was our own. Then, we were appealing but they did not listen.

But thank God today, we have a listening government which also makes an attempt to pay 50 per cent (of the Paris Club refund). So, we are looking forward to the last balance of 50 per cent.

And graciously, understanding the economies of the states, the federal government has agreed to pay that, so that the state governments can pay outstanding salaries and meet their obligations to their citizens, Yari explained.

However, as Fayose and Yari made the case for and against the approval given to the federal government to withdraw the $1 billion from the ECA to wage the war against Boko Haram, the chairmen of the 16 local government areas in Ekiti State dragged the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and governors of the 36 states to court challenging the approval.

The applicants in the suit filed Tuesday before the Abuja division of the Federal High Court are seeking an order of injunction restraining the federal government and the 36 states governors, their agents, servants, privies, representatives in interest, howsoever called and by whatsoever name designated, from giving effect to the appropriation and/or approval of appropriation of the sum of $1 billion or any other sum whatsoever, from the Excess Crude Account of the Federation, as contained in the decision made on December 15, 2017, unless and by means of statutory allocation by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).

In the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1264/17, the council chairmen asked the court to declare that the approval of the sum of $1 billion by the 36 state governors to purportedly execute the constitutional duty of the federal government, which has been sufficiently funded from the Federation Account, without their consent was ultra vires, unlawful, null and void.

The suit, which was filed at the registry of the court by the counsel to the plaintiffs, Mr. Ola Olanikpekun (SAN), also listed RMAFC as a defendant.

The chairmen are Deji Ogunsakin (Ado LGA); Bola Alonge (Ikere LGA); Lanrewaju Omolase (Ekiti South West LGA); Dapo Olagunju (Irepodun/Ifeelodun LGA); Samuel Adeniyi (Ekiti East LGA); Olumide Falade (Ise/Orun LGA); Sade Akinrinmola (Gbonyin LGA); Tayo Ogundare (Oye LGA); Chief Ayodeji Arogbodo (Ido/Osi LGA) and Taiwo Oguntuase (Emure LGA).

Others include Kolawole Omotunde (Ekiti West LGA); Bolaji Jeje (Efon LGA); Adesola Adeyanju (Ikole LGA); Ganiyu Bakare (Ilejemele LGA); Adeniyi Adebayo (Moba LGA) and Abiodun Dada (Ijero LGA).

The applicants, in addition, are seeking for an order of court declaring that in the discharge of its constitutional duty to safeguard the security and territorial integrity of Nigeria, the Federal Government of Nigeria, being the 1st defendants principal (AGF), must be funded in accordance with its Appropriation Act and by means of due accruals from the Federation Account only.

A declaration that the 1st-37 defendants appropriation and/or approval of appropriation of the sum of $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account of the federation made at the National Economic Council meeting of December 12, 2017, without regard to the consent of the 38th defendant (the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission), the plaintiffs (integral part of the Local Governments of the Federation of Nigeria), and the due appropriation of the various state Houses of Assembly, was unconstitutional, unlawful, ultra vires, null and void ab initio and of no effect whatsoever.

The council chairmen also asked the court for a declaration that they are entitled to a full share of all revenue accrued and accruable to the Federation Account and the Federation Excess Crude Account or any other account whatsoever operated by and for the Federation of Nigeria, including the sum of $1 billion (which was purportedly approved for the expenditure of the federal government by the 1st-37th defendants at the 83rd National Economic Council meeting of December 15, 2017, in accordance with Section 162 of the 1999 Constitution and the provisions of Allocation of Revenue (Federation Account) Act.

They want the court to determine whether by the provisions of Sections 153 (1) (h), 162 and Paragraph 18, Part 1 of the Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution, the 1st -37th defendants can lawfully appropriate and or approve the appropriation of funds in the Excess Crude Account of the Federation of Nigeria, without affecting, reducing or obliterating the plaintiffs lawful share of proceeds from the Federation Account.

Furthermore, they asked: Whether the 2nd defendant can lawfully appropriate and/or approve the appropriation of funds in the Excess Crude Account of the Federation of Nigeria, without the consent and/or consultation of the plaintiffs.

Whether in the discharge of the federal governments constitutional duty of safeguarding the security and territorial integrity of Nigeria, (as mandated by Section 217 of the 1999 Constitution, the federal government can lawfully resort to funding other than by means of its Appropriation Act.

The suit was supported by a 14-paragraph affidavit deposed to by one Everest Igweokolo, a litigation executive in the law firm of Messrs Ola Olanikpekun.

As of Tuesday, it had not been assigned to any judge for a hearing.
The House of Representatives said on Wednesday that over $5 billion had been diverted by the Central Bank of Nigeria from the Federation Account.The House stated that part of the money was kept in secret accounts known only to the apex bank.In a resolution it passed in Abuja, the House set up an ad hoc committee to investigate several cases of non-remittances and under-remittances of revenue to the federation account by the apex bank.A member of the All Progressives Congress from Osun State, Mrs. Ayo Omidiran, had raised the issue in plenary under matters of urgent national importance and called for urgent investigation.Omidiran noted that the federation account was jointly owned by the three tiers of government, but managed solely by the CBN.However, she informed the House that the CBN took advantage of being the custodian of the account to manipulate the system by opening various accounts not known to the three tiers of government.She added, Funds are remitted, hidden, diverted and spent without authorisation.The lawmaker observed that the $5bn would make some remarkable impact if it was used to fund the 2018 budget.Omidiran cited some instances of the alleged diversion. She said in 2014, the sum of $339million was moved out, while in the following year, it was $446.3m.She added that in 2015 again, $1.3bn was diverted from the account in connection with Joint Venture operations.In March of 2016, $1.6bn was diverted to a secret account.There are others, Omidiran told the House.
Innoson Group, on Wednesday, said the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission lied in the reasons the anti-graft agency gave for the arrest of its chairman, Innocent Chukwuma.The Innoson boss was arrested at his Enugu residence on Tuesday morning by EFCC operatives.EFCC had explained that Chukwumas arrest followed his refusal to honour an invitation by the Commission, having earlier jumped an administrative bail granted him in a case being investigated by the Capital Market and Insurance Fraud Unit of the Commissions Lagos office.The anti-graft agency alleged that Chukwuma brought six truck-loads of thugs, who reportedly manhandled its operatives when they moved to arrest him.Reacting to the development, Innoson Group, in a statement entitled Re: EFCC arrests Innocent Chukwuma (Innoson), and signed by the Head, Corporate Communications, Cornel Osigwe, said the EFCC lied in the reasons it gave for the arrest, as well as in the account of what transpired during the incident.Innoson group said Chukwuma was never invited by the EFCC.Part of the statement read, Inasmuch as we would not join words with EFCC, but because their official statement has been widely circulated among many news media, including various online blogs and social media platforms, we would, for record purposes, state the facts of the alleged invitation as well as what happened in his (Dr. Innocent Chukwuma) residence during his arrest yesterday (Tuesday).We wish to deny EFFCs claim categorically that Dr. Innocent Chukwuma (Innoson) was invited by the Commission or was there any time or that he jumped an administrative bail granted by the EFCC.Dr. Chukwuma (OFR) is a law-abiding citizen, a public figure and a well known industrialist of international repute. There is no how he would be invited by the EFCC and he would ignore or refuse to honour the invitation.Dr. Chukwuma has never had any issues or query from the EFCC recently. The last issue he had with EFCC was an invitation extended to him in 2012 based on a complaint against him by Guaranty Trust Bank, GTB, which he duly honoured.Upon the completion of investigation, EFCC requested him through a letter, to pay some money to GTB, saying that the money is what Innoson owes GTB after it (EFCC) deducted excess charge of about N560m which GTB illegally and unlawfully took from their account.Innoson rejected the demand, maintaining that it was GTB that was owing it and that GTB is to pay interest on the excess and unlawful charges. This resulted in a stalemate between Innoson and EFCC.Consequently, Innoson commenced a lawsuit against GTB at Federal High Court in suit no: FHC/AWK/139/2012 at Federal High Court Awka division and thereat got a judgment in its favour in the sum of N4.7bn against GTB.As a consequence of the above, EFCC filed a charge against him at the Lagos High Court. The charge was subsequently struck out after EFCC filled a notice of discountenance.However, Dr. Innocent Chukwuma and Innoson Nigeria Ltd. appealed against the order striking out the case on the basis that it ought to be dismissed and not struck out.The appeal no: CA/I/1330Cm/2017 till date is still pending at the Court of Appeal Lagos State.Since then, EFCC has never invited Dr. Chukwuma again.Innoson group said EFCC must provide evidence of Chukwumas alleged refusal to honour the said invitation, as well as proof of the alleged assault on the anti-graft agencys operatives by alleged thugs during Chukwumas arrest.The statement added, We challenge EFCC to show proof and evidence of EFCC invitation extended to Dr. Chukwuma; the various dates of the invitation and the letter of invitation extended to him.We further challenge EFCC to also show proof of how and when Dr. Chukwuma jump an administrative bail granted to him.EFCC also claimed that Dr. Chukwuma is being investigated by the Capital Market and Insurance Fraud Unit of the Commissions Lagos office.We also challenge EFCC to show proof of this investigation: On whose petition is this investigation being carried out and proof of any letter on this investigation ever written to Innoson from this unit, stating also the month and year.The Commission is being economical with the truth by stating that Dr. Chukwuma mobilised six truckloads of thugs pretending to be staff of his company to his residence, where they manhandled EFCC operatives.The truth at our disposal is that some factory workers, on hearing that their boss was being arrested, mobilised themselves to his residence to protest what they said was an illegal arrest.However, the EFCC operatives, together with the police team, fired tear gas and dispersed them. We have pictures to back up our claim.At no point did these factory workers manhandle the armed EFCC and Police officials at his residenceInnoson Group urged the EFCC to allow the court to decide Chukwumas case with GTB, as, according to the company, the matter is already before the Supreme Court.The statement said, EFCC, as a law-abiding organisation and a strong advocate of rule of law as constantly shown and practiced by its head, Ibrahim Magu, should allow the court processes to reach its logical conclusion.Dr. Chukwumas case against GTB is already at the Supreme Court.We have absolute faith the Nigerian judiciary. They should be allowed to adjudicate over this matter without undue interference from any quarters.Meanwhile, our correspondent learnt that Chukwuma was, on, Wednesday moved to Lagos by the EFCC.It was gathered that the businessman was moved from the detention facility at the EFCC zonal office in Enugu to the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, by a team of heavily armed EFCC operatives, including anti-riot policemen.Sources at the airport informed our correspondent that Chukwuma was clad in a T-shirt, shorts and slippers when he was flown out in an Arik airline aircraft.
Femi Fani-Kayode, former Minister of Aviation, on Wednesday reacted to an alleged statement that slavery is part of Islam.

Femi Fani-Kayode, former Minister of Aviation, on Wednesday reacted to an alleged statement that slavery is part of Islam.

A member of Saudi Arabias highest religious body, Senior Council of clerics, Sheik Saleh Al-Fawzan, was quoted as saying slavery is part of jihad and jihad will remain as long as there is Islam.





Al-Fawzan had said, Slavery is part of Islam. Slavery is part of jihadand jihad will remain as long as there is Islam.Those who argue that slavery has been abolished are ignorant, not scholars.





They are merely writers. Whoever say such thing is an infidel.





Reacting, the two-time Minister expressed shock via his Twitter handle.




The Nigeria Governors Forum and the Speakers of the State Houses of Assembly have agreed to hold public hearing over the proposed amendmen...

The Nigeria Governors Forum and the Speakers of the State Houses of Assembly have agreed to hold public hearing over the proposed amendment of certain sections of the 1999 constitution.

The Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, Abdul-Aziz Yari, made this known after the emergency meeting between the forum and the Conference of Speakers on Tuesday at the old conference hall of the State House, Abuja.





Yari stated that the meeting had agreed to constitute a committee and approach the amendment of the 1999 constitution with maturity and the future of the nations democracy at hand.





The communique read: We, all the governors of the 36 states of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, under the platform of the Nigeria Governors forum and the Speakers of the states houses of assembly, under the auspices of the Conference of Speakers at the end of a consultative meeting regarding the ongoing efforts to amend certain sections of the 1999 constitution resolved as follows:





The meeting agreed to approach this amendment with maturity and the future of our democracy at the back of our minds.





The meeting agreed that the State houses of Assembly should consult all stakeholders and hold public hearing on all the items transmitted to them by the National Assembly in a bid to promote our democracy and strengthen its institutions.





Yari, further spoke on the recently approved one billion dollars by the National Economic Council (NEC) to fight insurgency in the country which has generated reactions saying this is not the first time as Jonathan administration approved 2billion adding that funds would also be used for logistics and training of soldiers.





We (governors) agreed to forfeit one billion dollars of our own share of excess crude which we are going to back up with state assembly resolution at a later time.





This is not the first time a decision like this is being taken. It happened during former President Jonathans era when they took two billion dollars.





We all agreed at that time collectively in the same chamber to withdraw the two billion dollars to procure equipment for the military and also for logistics for the military because they were telling us whether it was true or false that our soldiers were being killed.








The senator representing Abia-South Senatorial District, Sen. Eyinnaya Abaribe has described the arrest of the Chairman of Innoson Group, Chief Innocent Chukwuma, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, yesterday in his Enugu residence as a self care package that must be stopped.





founder and chairman of Nigerias automobile company, Innoson Motors, Innocent Chukwuma.founder and chairman of Nigerias automobile company, Innoson Motors, Innocent Chukwuma.





founder and chairman of Nigerias automobile company, Innoson Motors, Innocent Chukwuma.

EFCC is engaging in a self care package, we must say NO to this kind of impunity, he said.





The operatives of EFCC who unlawfully arrested Innoson over his alleged refusal to honour their invitation, was condemned by the deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremmadu and senators who spoke at the Wednesday senate sitting.





According to Sen. Abaribe, How can a commercial transaction between a client and his bank lead to the involvement of @officialEFCC and his arrest? @officialEFCC is engaging in a self care package, we must say NO to this kind of impunity.





Supporting Abaribes position, Sen. Naallah said, There is no doubt theres been a carryover of the military mentality that is lacking concentration. The @officialEFCC do what they like because they have the power, this is uncivilized and unhealthy.





Senator Olusola Adeyeye on the other hand opined that, When injustice is fostered on any Nigerian, it is fostered on all of us. The @officialEFCC violated sections 34, 35 and 36 of the Nigerian Constitution. Whats the business of @officialEFCC in making arrest over civil matter.





However, senate resolved to intervene in the arrest of Mr. chukwuma innocent, Chairman @innosonmotors by the @officialEFCC and also mandated the Committee on anti-corruption and financial crimes to investigate the matter and report to the Senate in 24hours.
The Governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, has said that former President Goodluck Jonathan got twice the $1 billion approved by the go...

The Governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, has said that former President Goodluck Jonathan got twice the $1 billion approved by the governors to fight insurgency.





Yari said there was nothing wrong with the approval of $1 billion for the fight against insurgency for the current administration.





The governor was addressing reporters after a meeting at the presidential villa in Abuja.





Yari, who is the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, NGF, said his colleagues decided to shun partisan politics when accepting that the money should be taken from the excess crude account.





Nigeria governors forum discussed this issue at our November meeting and we agreed across party lines that this thing was done in 2014 where $2 billion was taken in agreement with the governors.





And Governor Akpabio was the one who moved the motion at the time. This time around, we realised that there was need to purchase equipment for the military, so we felt we should not compromise the issue of security for the entire country.





As governors, we agreed to forfeit $1 billion of our of own share of excess crude account which we are going to back up with state assembly resolution at a later time.





This is not the first time a decision like this is being taken, it happened during Jonathans era.





They took $2 billion. We all agreed at that time collectively in the same chamber to withdraw $2 billion to procure equipment for the military and also for logistics for the military because they were telling us, whether it was true or false that our soldiers were being killed.





Some went to social media to say that they were being killed like rats because they didnt have equipment. That was what generated discussions at the time and there was no controversy, there was no opposition.





The $2 billion taken under Jonathans time did was not backed up by any resolution from the state assemblies.





The Governor also said that N5 billion was spent on Niger Delta during the time of the late President Umaru Musa YarAdua.





He added, There was this decision under YarAdua when they were sourcing funds for Niger Delta Power Holdings. They took over N5 billion for power generation, we followed the same process.





The money was withdrawn from the excess crude account, and our respective houses of assembly confirmed the resolution.





We shouldnt play politics with the issue of national security.





On Governor Ayo Fayoses opposition, Yari said, Gentlemen, this is democracy. Each and every person has his own way to want to look at things and you cannot stop him from agitation.





At the governors forum, 12 members form quorum. At the time we took this decision, we had 32 members in attendance and there was no single opposition to the decision.




Angry reactions have continued to trail yesterdays arrest of the Chief Executive, Innoson Group, Chief Innocent Chukwuma by officials of t...

Angry reactions have continued to trail yesterdays arrest of the Chief Executive, Innoson Group, Chief Innocent Chukwuma by officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

Maduka, popularly known as Innoson, was whisked away by operatives of the anti-corruption commission from his Enugu residence on Tuesday.





In a statement on Wednesday by the spokesman of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Comrade Emma Powerful, he described the arrest as an attack on Ndigbo.





The Ohanaeze Youth Council also toed same line in a statement signed by Comrade Obinna Achionye, its





National Vice president and the national secretary, Mazi Okwu Nnabuike.





The youths said, We are concerned over the commando-like manner, with which the EFCC clamped down on the Patron of Igbo Youths worldwide without proper invitation; the arrest may cause another catastrophe in this festive season.





This is the highest level of impunity against Igbo nation and another attempt to cripple economic fortunes of Ndigbo and the Igbo.





There will be massive protests by Igbo youths and other ethnic nationalities youth groups in Enugu, Abuja and Lagos before the 31st December 2017 if the EFCC fails to release him unconditionally. The EFCC should be ready to arrest millions of igbo youths during the protest.





The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide calls on President Buhari to call Magu to order before it is too late; we e demand for the immediate and unconditional release of Chief Innocent Chukwuma, chairman Innoson Group of Companies; enough is enough.





On its part, the IPOB said it condemns in the strongest possible terms the recent and ongoing harassment of notable Biafran business men, especially those of Igbo extraction by the Nigerian Government and her security agencies.





Not content with the economic emasculation of the Biafran territories through decades of punitive policies, the few successful businesses that made it against all odds like Chief Innocent Chukwuma the owner of Innoson Motors who is now being harassed and humiliated publicly by agencies headed by Northerners for three major reasons.





This include ongoing policy of de-industrialisation of the East. Had Innoson sited his factory in Lagos or Kaduna, every possible line of credit would have been extended to him but due to the fact his company is located in Enugu, he must be chased down and destroyed. This hopefully is to serve as a deterrent to others who might be entertaining the idea of relocating their businesses to Biafraland.





Politics of appeasement and sabotage of collective interest by Ohaneze Ndigbo, PANDEF and similar interest groups. Age long South East/South South political philosophy of cowardly acquiescence to the dictates of the North, regardless of the consequences on the psyche and well being of the masses, is a major motivator for government agencies, headed by Northerners, to destroy indigenous Biafran businessmen at will.





Nigeria is guided by the knowledge that politicians from the two geo-political zones that make up Biafra are terrified of the mythical might of their Northern masters and will be prepared to condone every manner of evil against their own people.





Ohaneze Ndigbo and South East governors are to blame for this major embarrassment and humiliation of the topmost entrepreneur in black Africa. What Innoson Motors has accomplished so far, no Indigenous business in Sub-Saharan Africa has been able to do.





If Innoson Motors were owned by a Northern Hausa Fulani man, he would have been revered and idolised to high heavens. But because it is a business owned and run by a Biafran and equally sited in Biafraland, it must be destroyed.





Since the emergence of this Buhari regime, Biafrans of Igbo extraction have been lurching from one persecution another. After Operation Python Dance which had the backing of Ohaneze Ndigbo leadership and South East governors, the Buhari regime has turned its attention to the destruction of economic interests in the South East starting with Innoson Motors, in the hope of frustrating the first indigenous automobile company in West Africa because he opened his factory in Igboland.





The effect of this ongoing persecution of Innoson Motors Company is as a direct result of the impotency of Igbo leadership exemplified by Nwodos stewardship of Ohaneze Ndigbo.





Today, the effects of the age long sabotage of public interest by the likes of Ohaneze Ndigbo and imposed political leadership have started manifesting negatively on our people. Arewa Consultative Forum, Northern Governors Forum and Arewa Caucuses in the National Assembly will never allow Dangote to be humiliated the same way Ohaneze, South East governors and Abuja based politicians allowed Chief Chukwuma to be so publicly insulted.




Majek Fashek has slammed media personality, Daddy Freeze for hitting at him for performing at the Christmas concert of COZA church in Abuja...

Majek Fashek has slammed media personality, Daddy Freeze for hitting at him for performing at the Christmas concert of COZA church in Abuja.

OAP Freeze had earlier condemned the performance of Regga musician, Majek Fashek at Commonwealth of Zion Assembly, saying it was insane for a secular artiste to perform on a sacred church altar.





Freeze said it made no sense for a secular artist to perform in such gathering as Christian altars are supposed to be sacrosanct.





On his Instagram page he wrote I am still searching for the sense in this. I am a huge Majek fan, but do I want to see him perform in a church?





How did we get here?





Maybe Im wrong, but I thought christian altars are supposed to be sacrosanct





Can a secular musician like Majek perform in a mosque? Have you ever seen an artiste like Majek perform in a Buddhist or Hindu temple? Can Majek perform inside the Okija shrine? or the soppona or ayelala shrine?





If other religions value their altars and keep them sacred, is it out of place to suggest we do the same?





We need to start asking ourselves these questions and we need to start asking them now!





In a video shared on Instagram, Majek Fashek alongside his manager Uzoma Omenka asked Freeze to repent and make research before talking like a kid.





According to him, theres nothing wrong with a world class legend Majek Fashek whose music sends the right message to be invited to perform in any church.





He also warned him to never mention Majeks name else hell be beaten up.





He wrote To Daddy Freeze you need to do your research properly before wagging your mouth and speaking like a Kid. And as Majek has said you need to repent.





Theres nothing wrong with a world class legend Majek Fashek whos music sends the right message to be invited to perform in any church





@biodunfatoyinbo thank you once more for impacting positively into the lives of Young Nigerians and making them believe in themselves.

VIDEO:





However an eyewitness disclosed that Majek Fashek was not expected to perform but was led to the altar after he came out to be born again. On receiving salvation, the Reggae musician was allowed to perform his track Redemption song after General overseer of COZA, Pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo prayed for him.This happened at COZA Christmas carol service.
The Chairman of Nigerias Governors Forum, NGF, Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State and Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PD...

The Chairman of Nigerias Governors Forum, NGF, Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State and Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Governors Forum, Ayodele Fayose, yesterday disagreed over the recent approval of $1 billion by the National Economic Council, NEC, for the fight against insurgency. While Yari said 32 of 36 governors were in attendance when the decision was taken, Fayose said he was not part of the decision and that his state had gone to court to challenge the decision.The two governors spoke separately to State House correspondents after an emergency meeting between the NGF and Speakers of State Houses of Assembly at the Old Banquet Hall, Presidential Villa, Abuja. Meanwhile there was indication that as the $1 billion approval from the Excess Crude Account continues to generate controversy, the governors have involved speakers of State Assemblies to give legislative backing to the approval. Fielding questions from journalists on the objection of Fayose to the approval, Governor Yari said: Gentlemen, this is democracy and each and every person has his own way of looking at things and you cannot stop him from agitating.One, Nigeria Governors Forum discussed this issue at our November meeting and we agreed across party lines that this thing has been done in 2014 where $2 billion was taken in agreement with the governors at that meeting. Governor Akpabio was the one that moved the motion.This time we realize that there was need to purchase equipment for the military, so we felt we should not compromise the issue of security for the entire country. We said as governors, we agreed to forfeit $1 billion, our share of Excess Crude Account which we are going to back up with state assembly resolution at a later time.This is not the first time a decision like this is being taken, it happened during Jonathans era when they took $2 billion. We all agreed at that time collectively in the same chamber to withdraw $2 billion to procure equipment for the military and also for logistics for the military because they were telling us, whether it was true or false, that our soldiers were being killed, some came on the social media, saying they were being killed like rats because they didnt have the training and the equipment.That was what generated discussions at the same chamber and there was no controversy, there was no opposition to the decision at that time. Second, there was this decision also under YarAduas (Umaru Musa YarAdua) time when they were sourcing funds for Niger Delta Power Holdings. They also took over N5 billion for power generation.We followed the same process to withdraw the money from the same account and our respective houses of assembly confirmed the resolution. The $2 billion taken under Jonathans time was not backed up by any resolution from the state assemblies. Gentlemen, we shouldnt play politics with the issue of national security.By the way, at the Governors Forum, 12 members form quorum; at the time we took this decision we had 32 members in attendance and there was no single opposition to the decision. If anybody has his own way that he wants things to go, we had the majority and there was not even a minority opinion at that meeting. We look at the country, Nigeria, first before any other issue, it is only when you have the country that you can have politics.On why governors should give out $1 billion, despite not paying salaries, he said: You see, if you are not an economist, you may not understand what you are talking about. This monies are kept there for the rainy day. And how much are those monies, it is $2 billion. Except in 2015 when we came begging, now we are asking for what is our own. The Federal Government was deducting the money illegally in those days; we were asking the Federal Government to give us what was our own.Then we were appealing, they were not listening, thank God today we have a listening government that makes attempt to pay 50 per cent and now we are looking forward to the last balance of 50 per cent. Graciously, understanding the economies of the states, the Federal Government has agreed to pay so that the state governments can pay salaries and meet their obligations to their citizens.But Governor Fayose insisted that neither him nor his state gave approval for the money. He said: Im not in support of $1 billion and will never be in support. In my state we have agreed to go to court to contest this. It is our legitimate right; all accruals to the federation must be shared by the three tiers of government and for me to get justice I have to go to court.When asked what was the consensus at the emergency meeting, he said: The issue was not discussed at all. But for me I have taken appropriate steps because the money belongs to Ekiti people; not for any other use. Also asked whether he was alone in this fight or the entire PDP states are with hm, Fayose said, Excuse me; I am speaking for Ayo Fayose.With the PDP and the stakeholders, we have not met. I did not attend the meeting. Even if I was part of the meeting, I would have made it expressly clear but I will not support it. Every state has its own peculiarities in terms of security. Ekiti State has Hunger Pangs where hunger is catching people everywhere. A lot of people are being kidnapped daily; whatever is in that money for me we should share it, let everybody go and solve his own problem. I have challenges and they should give me my money. It is Ekiti money.On whether the emergency meeting would have been a good platform to raise the issue, he replied, May I say this to you, I filed a case in court as early as 12 noon today; if it was not listed as part of the meeting, how am I going to raise the issue? I have options and I have said it expressly, I have gone to court.On rumours that there was disagreement over the issue at this meeting he said: No, no, no. If it was one of the issues discussed I would have said so. I am not a pretender I wont suffer in silence. However a statement read after the meeting explained that the two arms met to resolve some issues concerning the ongoing constitutional amendment.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC plans to build power plants with combined capacity of 4600 megawatts in Abuja, Kaduna and Kano States.The NNPCs Group Managing Director, Dr. Maikanti Baru, who disclosed this during a courtesy call on him by the Executive Governor of Niger State, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, Tuesday in Abuja.The planned plants would be a fallout from the recently approved contract for the construction of Ajaokuta-Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Gas Pipeline project, dubbed AKK Pipeline.Baru said the Corporation in partnership with private investors would build the power generating plants to support the Federal Governments effort to provide stable electricity in the country.As part of the drive to establish power plants to augment the power supply to the nation, the Federal Executive Council has recently approved the AKK Gas Pipeline project to be financed through Public Private Partnership (PPP). The project comes with other auxiliary ones which include, 1350megawatts, 900megawatts and 2350megawatts of power generation plants in Abuja, Kaduna and Kano respectively, Baru stated.The NNPC in partnership with private investors would also build fertilizer plants in some parts of the country, one of which would be located at Izzon, Niger State, Baru said.Dr. Baru informed the visitors that in line with the presidential mandate on oil exploration in all the frontier basins, the NNPC was well-focused on the exploration in the Bida Basin and would carry out the job professionally.We have contracted the geological mapping of the Bida Basin to Ibrahim Babangida University, Lapai and the job would be completed in three months, Dr. Baru Stated.He explained that once the geological mapping is completed, the NNPCs Integrated Data Services Limited would be engaged to carry out the other aspects of the seismic activities, which would be completed by July 2018.The GMD stated the Corporation would go into more detailed 2D seismic data acquisition in the Bida Basin by August 2018, to be followed by an Environmental Impact Assessment exercise in order to establish what the baseline is, which would signify the need or otherwise for the deployment of 3D acquisition facilities.As part of efforts to decongest our highways, the GMD said the NNPC would encourage private investors to build tanker parking facilities around Minna Depot, Suleja Depot, Tegina, Mokwa, amongst others and charge the users of the facility appropriately.Dr. Baru explained that talk was ongoing with the Federal Ministry of Works, Power and Housing to re-introduce weight bridges on the highways to checkmate the issue of excessive loading by tankers above the recommended 46, 000ton gross weight.He said that the NNPC on its part, had already directed all its Depots nationwide to stop loading tankers with loading capacity above 40, 000litres.Governor Abubakar Sani Bello said that the NNPC, under the stewardship of Dr. Baru, was doing well, adding that what was being witnessed is a a new NNPC that is transparent in all its dealings.He stated that the essence of their visit was to get first-hand information on NNPCs plans on oil exploration in the Bida Basin and to also solicit NNPCs support on finding alternative parking space for tankers parking along the highways and communities in the State.
The Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) on Wednesday said it had commenced a robust and purposeful collaboration with like-minded political parties to wrest power from the ruling APC in 2019.Mr Damian Ogbonna, the National Chairman of PPP, told newsmen in Lagos, that no single party could, by itself, remove a sitting government from power.According to him, coalescence of some political parties into a large one was the only way of fighting the upcoming electoral corruption in any meaningful way.Peoples Progressive Party is gearing up to participate fully in the upcoming general election.As part of this effort, we have concluded an internal party re-organisation to ensure that we are structured to campaign in the plurality of states and local government areas in the country.We are also consulting with like-minded parties to partner with the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and PPP-led Credible Alternation Alliance (CAA) in our efforts to strengthen the political opposition.You will recall that CAA is a coalition of 13 political parties formed in the months leading to the 2015 general elections.We believe that a robust and purposeful collaboration among political parties is necessary to counter the propensity of APC to return itself to power.To salvage our country, CAA and other political parties must find a way to work together to stop the hemorrhage.Failure to do this will sacrifice this single last opportunity to reclaim and rebuild the nation, he said.Ogbonna called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to work towards holding a credible general election in 2019.The chairman urged the commission to undertake major reforms to reposition itself in a way that would differentiate it from the INEC of the past.According to him, voter registration is still rudimentary and haphazardly done and so easy to manipulate.Continual full registration of previously registered voters creates circumstances that belie confidence in the voters register. Overwhelming plurality of INECs commissioners are mostly covert members or sympathizers of the government and party in power.Therefore, there is the need to reform INEC in ways that will gender confidence in the composition of the commission, Ogbonna said.
President Muhammadu Buhari has written to the Senate to confirm the appointment of nine persons as state Resident Electoral Commissioners of the Independent National Electoral Commission.President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, read the letter from Buhari at the plenary on Wednesday.The letter read in part, In accordance of the provisions of Section 154 (1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I write to forward herewith the names of nine of the Resident Electoral Commissioners appointed for the INEC for the consideration of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.The curriculum vitae of the nominees are attached herewith, while thanking you immensely in anticipation of the early consideration and confirmation of the above appointments by the Senate.The nominees are Monday Udo Tom (Akwa-Ibom), Baba Abba Yusuf (Borno), Eric Olawale (Osun), Lukman Abdulrahman Ajidaba (Kwara), Segun Agbaje (Ekiti), Cyril Omoruyi (Edo), Yahaya Bello (Nassarawa), Emmanuel Alex (Rivers) and Mohammed Magaji Ibrahim (Gombe).Meanwhile, the Senate on Wednesday considered the request by President Buhari to confirm his appointments for the board of the Code of Conduct Bureau.Saraki referred the request to the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions to report back to the chamber in two weeks.
Authorities are still trying to determine what caused more than a dozen students to become ill at a northern New Jersey school last week.

Elmwood Park school officials have said a glycol leak from an HVAC unit on the roof at the Gantner Avenue Elementary School may have caused the students and some staff members to faint or feel sick.

But speaking Tuesday night at a community meeting, they said a definitive answer hasn't been found. Hazmat teams have been at the school monitoring air quality, but no other dangers have been detected.

Students first reported feeling ill Dec. 13. The following day, Thursday, six staff members left sick, two by ambulance, Superintendent Anthony Grieco said.

No students became sick on Thursday. And the staff members taken away by ambulance were treated and released, Grieco said.

The pre-K through 5th grade school, which opened in 1929, was closed on Friday and the district brought in an environmental consultant to conduct an indoor air quality evaluation.

The tests, conducted by Enviro Vision Consultants, Inc. of Fair Lawn, failed to detect interior odors or active leaks in 55 areas of the school that were tested.

NJ Advance Media reporter Allison Pries contributed to this report.

Allison Pries may be reached at apries@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AllisonPries. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
A federal judge on Monday overturned a jury's award of $50 million in punitive damages to a former Moorestown-based employee of Lockheed Martin in his age discrimination case, setting the stage for a retrial on that portion of the lawsuit.

In a 58-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Renee M. Bumb said Robert Braden, an engineer, failed to provide evidence over his four-day trial in January that the defense contractor's upper management had "actually participated" in or been "willfully indifferent" to his termination.

"In the end, the Court concludes that the weight of the evidence on this issue clearly favors Defendant, the jury's verdict shocks this Court's conscience, and allowing it to stand would constitute a miscarriage of justice," Bumb wrote. "Accordingly, the Court will vacate the jury's punitive damage award and order that a new trial be held on punitive damages."

Braden, who began working for RCA in 1984 before its business operations at the site were acquired by Lockheed Martin, was laid off in 2012. He filed a lawsuit against Lockheed Martin, alleging the company had violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination in firing him.

Braden said he was the oldest employee on his team and the only one terminated during the layoffs. All five of the workers with his title let go were over the age of 50, as were eight of the 12 people laid off who had reported to his manager, he alleged in his complaint.

Bumb did not reverse the jury's award to Braden of just over $1 million for emotional distress and lost wages. A new trial on the punitive damages alone has been scheduled for Feb. 6, 2018, court records show.

Thomas Moriarty may be reached at tmoriarty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ThomasDMoriarty. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips
An 18-year-old Burlington City man was one of the three young people killed in a fiery crash in Tabernacle Monday, his former high school confirmed.

Burlington City Schools Superintendent Patricia Doloughty said police notified the district Tuesday that Xavier Wells, who had been a student at Burlington City High School up until Dec. 12, had died in the crash.

Wells' family confirmed to NBC10 that he was driving when the crash occurred and said the other victims were a female friend, 17, and his girlfriend, 16.

New Jersey State Police have said the vehicle was stolen and crashed into a utility pole while fleeing from troopers in Tabernacle. A State Police spokesman said they could not confirm or release any names Wednesday because they had not confirmed that each victim's family had been notified.

State Police said the vehicle, a GMC Yukon, was reported stolen from the Pic-a-Lilli Inn on Route 206 around noon. Troopers attempted to stop the vehicle after passing it going North on Route 206.

The vehicle was "driving erratically at a high speed" and struck the pole at the intersection of Flyatt and Caranza roads shortly after the pursuit began, State Police said. Police declined to release the speed at which the vehicles were traveling, but on archived scanner transmissions, the trooper told a dispatcher shortly before the crash that he was traveling at 60 mph about a quarter-mile behind the Yukon.

The vehicle burst into flames after wrapping around the utility pole.

It was directly in front of the Sequoia Alternative Program, a school in the Lenape Regional High School District, and the school was evacuated as a result of the crash.

At Burlington City High School, Doloughty said that counseling was available for staff and students -- some of whom are related to Wells -- starting Wednesday.

"We're a very tight community and there were a lot of relatives," she said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of these young people whose lives were lost."

She said she could not release details of why Wells was no longer enrolled at the school, but said he was a student for approximately two months.

Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
A New Jersey boat captain has been indicted by federal authorities on a manslaughter charge in a fatal boat crash that killed an 81-year-old man two years ago off Rhode Island.

Cooper "Chick" Bacon, 78, of Middle Township in Cape May County, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a charge seaman's manslaughter in federal court in Rhode Island, authorities said. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison.

The boat crash killed Walter Krupinski, of Stonington, Connecticut, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office District of Rhode Island.

Bacon, who is free on bond, was ordered to surrender his U.S. Coast Guard 100-ton Merchant Marine license and to refrain from piloting or operating any vessel while he awaits trial.

On Sept. 22, 2015, Bacon and a then-73-year-old Woodbine man were aboard a 60-foot, 2016 Viking Princess 60 when it collided with a 23-foot power boat, the Peggy K, in waters off Westerly, Rhode Island, killing Krupinski, the sole person on the vessel.

Bacon had been bringing the yacht from the Newport Boat Show to a boat show in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, previous reports said.

Earlier this month, prosecutors returned an indictment against Bacon alleging that he "failed to take precautions required of the ordinary practice of a seaman when he was at the helm of a yacht."

Bacon failed to "adequately assess the risk of collision; proceed at a safe speed; post his first mate to look-out; and properly overtake, give-way and steer well clear of the Peggy K," authorities said.

A Coast Guard official previously testified that Bacon's yacht was traveling at speeds between 25 to 31 knots and had auto-navigation engaged just before the crash, previous reports said.

In addition to 10 years in prison, seaman's manslaughter also poses three years of supervision upon release and a fine of up to $250,000.

Bacon was initially fined $300 earlier this year by a Rhode Island Traffic Tribunal after being found guilty of improper navigation or failure to have a lookout, failure to take action to avoid a collision and improper overtaking of another vessel.

Krupinski's widow, Peggy Krupinski, had told WesterlySun.com at the time that she felt the penalty was far too lenient.

Spencer Kent may be reached at skent@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerMKent. Find the Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Shawn Cier, the art teacher whose controversial past was documented this week by an NJ Advance Media investigation, was fired by a Newark charter school Monday, a spokeswoman said.

The board of trustees at the Marion P. Thomas Charter School voted to terminate Cier's employment the same day he was revealed to be still teaching, despite leaving three previous jobs where he was accused of misconduct.

A school spokeswoman said she could not explain why the board chose to end Cier's employment because it's a personnel matter.

Cier taught in Bridgewater, Roselle, Hightstown and Keansburg before coming to the charter school.

At his previous teaching jobs over the past decade, Cier was reported to school officials for texting a student late at night, accused of showing two students pornography on his cellphone and was later caught with pornography on his school computer, according to police records and interviews with former administrators in his previous districts.

While in Hightstown, Cier's was arrested after he was accused of showing students pornography, but the criminal charges were dropped and he continued teaching elsewhere.

Pornography was discovered on Cier's computer in Keansburg, according to police records, and the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office last year notified the state Board of Examiners, which is considering revoking Cier's teaching license.

Cier, through his attorney, issued a statement after losing his $66,000-a-year teaching post, in his first full response to the allegations raised against him:

"From the very start of the Hightstown investigation I did everything I could to cooperate. I immediately handed my phone over to forensics although I knew it was my right to refuse at the time. A student came forward who was a witness to my accusers planning 'getting me in trouble' in the hallway just after I redirected them during class the day prior to the accusations. That student was voluntarily willing to speak for me if the accusations went to court.

"My accusers never showed up for questioning of any kind, and forensics reported that nothing my accusers said they saw on the phone was found. By this time, I passed a polygraph test at my own request that focused on my interactions and conversations with my accusers, and satisfied both police and DYFS's thorough questioning. Although it is difficult to prove a person did NOT do a thing, I can say I did everything in my power to show that I was completely innocent. All charges were dropped and the matter expunged.

"As for Keansburg, I am still unaware as to how a student found personal files in my trash. I have never interacted with those photos on my school computer nor did I know they were reachable from that computer. Computer records showed these files were created when school was on break; the late time stamps show they were neither created nor viewed during school hours.

"If I had known the files were available in a public setting I would have simply emptied my trash or dismantled my Google drive instead of being humiliated and putting a career I love and value in jeopardy, especially after already having had to deal with the perceptions fabricated by the prior accusations."

Cier was one of five teachers featured in NJ Advance Media's report on a pattern known as "passing the trash" that allows teachers to continue to get teaching jobs despite being accused of sexual misconduct. Teachers' new schools are often unaware of complaints made against them.

A reporter had questioned officials at the Newark charter school in October about complaints made against Cier in his previous jobs in three different districts.

"As a district that is based in an urban community with a student body that is predominately African American and Latino, we understand what it means to be accused of a crime or inappropriate behavior and later be found innocent or not be charged," Marion P. Thomas Charter School officials said in a statement.

Adam Clark may be reached at adam_clark@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on twitter at @realAdamClark. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Earlier this year, Dunkin' Donuts announced they would focus less on food and more on drink options, even dropping the "Donuts" from the signage on some of their stores.

It appears that the focus is broader than the standard coffee-based drinks -- because now Dunkin' Donuts is getting into the craft beer game.

On Dec. 21, timed to the winter solstice, the giant Massachusetts-based chain is unveiling DDark Roasted Brew -- the first beer ever made with Dunkin' Donuts' Dark Roast Coffee, according to MSN.com. It's a collaboration with a Massachusetts brewery called Wormtown Brewery.

(This actually marks the second time Dunkin' has released a beer. Last fall, the company released Dunkin' Punkin Brown Ale, in conjunction with a small craft brewery in North Carolina.)

Except there is a catch: You'll only be able to get the wintry brew in Worcester, Massachusetts, where Wormtown is based. Not since Dunkin' decided to phase out afternoon sandwiches have so many people been so instantly disappointed.

Still, if you happen to be in the Worcester area, or if you feel like making a pre-Christmas drive, at exactly 11:28 a.m. on Dec. 21, the beer -- which is described as a "full-roasted coffee flavor reminiscent of freshly-ground beans with a creamy mouthfeel" -- will be released exclusively at the Wormtown Brewery taproom.

In the last year, Dunkin' Donuts has shown signs of becoming a more innovative company and attempting to branch out from their stereotypical brand of strictly being a fast-food coffee and doughnut shop by updating their stores and tending to more specialized coffee drinks.

"While we remain the number one retailer of donuts in the country, as part of our efforts to reinforce that Dunkin' Donuts is a beverage-led brand and coffee leader, we will be testing signage in a few locations that refer to the brand simply as "Dunkin'," the Massachusetts-based company said in an August statement.

Joe Atmonavage may be reached at jatmonavage@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @jatmonavageNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook
Tamika Darden grew tired of seeing the dejected faces every summer.

Young people in Newark would apply for the city's summer jobs program but, unfortunately, not everyone could be selected. There were not enough jobs for the thousands who filled out applications.

Juwan Thomas-Jackson, 18, was one of them this year. So was Ja'Mir Horton, 15. Both thought they had a shot to be among the nearly 3,000 young people, ages 14-24, to be hired.

"I was extremely disappointed," said Thomas-Jackson, a freshman at Rider University. "I needed the money for supplies and books."

MORE: Recent Barry Carter columns

As examples like this played out, Darden, a Newark community leader, decided to do something. She spent $7,000 to $9,000 of her own money to offer a nontraditional work experience for 11 Newark young people, including Horton and Thomas-Jackson, a psychology major.

As her platform, she had her own nonprofit organization: the Gregory Thomas Foundation, named after her late father. She had the money to give Newark youth something constructive to do for six weeks.

"My thing is, if we're here for the youth, why not do that if I can," Darden said.

Darden's plan spread by word of mouth, and it wasn't long before people found out that she was paying $100 to $200 every other week. She was known in Newark's community circles, plus she was an outreach employee at the Newark Youth One Stop and Career Center, the office in charge of the summer job employment program.

Darden's idea wasn't a typical 9-to-5 gig when the participants reported to a site provided by the Newark Housing Authority.

"She was doing it for kids she doesn't even know," said Horton, a high school sophomore at Eagle Academy for Young Men in Newark. "She actually cares."

There were writing exercises every day. They met professionals who talked about their careers. The expansive list included a judge, an attorney, a talk show host, a school board member, a musical artist and a retired executive.

Some of the young people learned videography, others did office work. No day was the same. Martial arts lessons were mixed with strategies to cope with trauma they may have been going through.

When the homegrown initiative was about to end, Darden kept it going, but without the money. They met at the Newark Public Library to network and talk of life, achievement and setting goals.

"That's why I'm sticking with her," Thomas-Jackson said.

Thomas-Jackson said he appreciates her vision, which he believes is to promote excellence in urban communities like Newark that are often frowned upon.

"Without Ms. Tamika doing what she did, I wouldn't have had much going on. It was like it was meant to be."

Whether it's fate or not, there are still nice people among us who do the right thing and don't look to be written about. This story came to me months after the fact when I heard about Buju Hopkins, a 19-year-old man who contemplated dropping out of Lead Charter School, an alternative school, where he's a senior.

He signed up for Darden's program, but not for the same reasons as the other participants. Hopkins didn't apply for a summer youth job. He was looking for a permanent job through the city's One Stop-Career Center, so he could help his 80-year-old grandmother.

That department, which serves adults re-entering the workforce, sent him to Darden's office. She thought he had not been selected for summer youth employment, and suggested that he show up for her program.

He did, but was skeptical. The writing exercises, the professionals talking about careers didn't add up for him. Hopkins wondered when the "real money" would kick in.

"It wasn't easy to trust Ms. Tamika," he said. "When somebody is being nice to you off the rip (from the beginning), you put your wall up."

Gradually he gave in, especially after learning Darden used her own money. The exposure to new people and experiences, he said, was genuine. Darden showed him that he could trust people, and not to judge prematurely as he did her kindness.

"I believe everything happens for a reason," Hopkins said. "I don't believe anything happens by mistake."

So, when Hopkins thought leaving school was the answer to his personal struggles, Darden had him attend a mentorship breakfast last month at the Robert Treat Hotel in Newark. Several men talked to him, but one in particular, Charles Williams of West Orange, had his ear for 90 minutes.

"I told him that while you're going through all of these problems and tribulations, you have been chosen to be the one in your family to be the example of how you can take a bad situation and turn it into something," said Williams, who owns a media production company and said he has mentored many young men across the country.

MORE CARTER: Newark housing tenants have a fighter in their corner| Carter

He explained to Hopkins that he had to improve his grades and that he would walk him through the college process and help him get into school.

"I was telling him, 'You have to make that first step. When you make that first step, the angels will send people into your life and will help guide you on the right path.' "

Between Darden and Williams and the other men surrounding him, Hopkins left the event thinking differently from when he arrived.

"I got a lot of hope and new life out of it," he said. "You never know how life gets planned out. You can go from nothing to something."

He was feeling like something on Saturday.

Because of Darden, he met Mayor Ras Baraka at a re-election rally. It was just another sign for the young man that his life held promise.

"There are some kids that fall by the wayside and don't make it," Darden said.

She wasn't going to let that happen last summer, but she deflects the credit.

"It wasn't me," Darden said. "God made a way."

Barry Carter: (973) 836-4925 or bcarter@starledger.com or

nj.com/carter or follow him on Twitter @BarryCarterSL
Four Hoboken High School students have been charged with forcing a female student to perform a sex act inside the school during school hours, the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office said.

Prosecutors say a student was sexually assaulted inside Hoboken High School

The assault occurred on Nov. 30 when a 17-year-old girl was forced into a room in the school, said Gene Rubino, an assistant county prosecutor.

The assault occurred during school hours and school surveillance cameras captured a part of the incident, Rubino said.

Amir Goodwin, 18, appeared Tuesday in Superior Court in Jersey City in the case. Rubino could not immediately comment on the nature of the court appearance. The other three students charged are juveniles - two 16-year-olds and a 17-year-old - and their names were not disclosed because they are minors.

All four are charged with aggravated criminal sexual contact and have been released, Rubino said.

Hoboken schools Superintendent Christine Johnson did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Juan Melli, a spokesman for the administration of Mayor Dawn Zimmer, could not immediately comment on the incident.

Hoboken Police Chief Kenneth Ferrante said his department was not involved in the response to the incident or the investigation, and he referred any questions to the prosecutor's office.

Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
BAYONNE -- Councilman-at-large Juan Perez announced he will seek re-election on Mayor Jimmy Davis' ticket in next year's municipal race.

"Bayonne is moving in the right direction with Mayor Davis and our team and we can't afford to turn back now," Perez said in a statement. "Our city is on the verge of a new era of prosperity that will improve the lives of every resident, but that can all be erased if we don't have the right leadership in city hall."

"I will do everything I can to prevent that from happening," he added.

Perez, the first Hispanic ever elected to the Bayonne City Council, took office in 2014 with Davis. He previously served as the Hudson County Sheriff after almost three decades with the New Jersey State Police.

He is also the founder and past president of the Hispanic Law Enforcement Association, a former trustee and vice chair of the Jersey City Medical Center board, and a lieutenant in the Civil Air Patrol.

Perez has lived in Bayonne for nearly 20 years.

"Councilman Juan Perez has been a dedicated public servant at multiple levels of government and like myself comes from a law enforcement background, which gives him a strong insight into what our community needs," Davis said. "I'm proud to once again be running with Juan and I look forward to working closely with him to spread the message that Bayonne is moving forward and we can't turn back now."

He joins Council President Sharon Nadrowski in announcing re-election bids for at-large council seats.

They will face Dan Ward, a longtime educator, and Melissa Enriquez-Rada, a community advocate, for the council's two at-large seats in the May 2018 municipal election.

Ward and Enriquez-Rada are running on the ticket of mayoral candidate Jason O'Donnell.

Corey W. McDonald may be reached at cmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @coreymacc. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
JERSEY CITY - The woman fighting to keep her job as a sheriff's officer after videos surfaced of her in bondage films has accused a Hudson County attorney of sexual misconduct.

Kristen Hyman says county attorney Robert Pompliano rubbed his hand up her leg while she was on leave from the academy and tried to kiss her on the lips. Hyman rebuffed his advances and Pompliano retaliated by pushing the Hudson County Sheriff's Department to bring administrative charges, Hyman's attorney Doug Anton said.

Hyman first discussed the sexual misconduct allegation when she testified during a disciplinary hearing. Anton said Hyman had repressed the 2016 encounter.

The accusations are a stunning new twist to Hyman's protracted fight to perform her duties as a sheriff's officer. Hyman was first suspended just days before her graduation. A judge ordered the suspension be lifted in time for her June 1 graduation, but she has remained on paid leave pending the outcome of the departmental probe of her past.

According to Anton, Hyman suffered a leg injury and needed to take a medical leave from the academy. She was assigned to the sheriff's intake office, where she would encounter Pompliano and on one occasion the attorney told Hyman how beautiful she was. Pompliano leaned in for a kiss on the lips and Hyman pushed back, but the attorney still kissed her on the cheek, Anton said.

Pompliano has not returned multiple emails seeking comment. He's listed as a part-time attorney who is paid about $44,000 a year.

It was about six or seven months later that the county brought the departmental charges against Hyman. The Sheriff's Office alleges Hyman lied about her past on her application, but Anton says she did report being an actress and the dominatrix films were "clearly an acting role."

The videos first came to light when Hyman's ex-boyfriend "made it his mission to paint her movie roles in a false light." He had enlisted help from a current sheriff's officer to spread rumors about Hyman's past and say she was a drug addict who was having sex in the basement for money, Anton said.

Departmental charges were allegedly prepared by Pompliano and signed by Undersheriff Bruce Lamparello, who retired last month. Sheriff Frank Schillari allegedly admitted to not seeing the reports, according to Anton.

A spokesman for the sheriff declined to comment.

Pompliano was assigned to be the prosecuting attorney for the sheriff's office in the departmental case. Hyman left the room after she accused Pompliano of sexual misconduct during her testimony, and Pompliano admitted he did touch her, Anton said. Pompliano said he couldn't remember what comments he made, Anton said.

The county lawyer removed himself from the case and a new attorney has been assigned. Pompliano has been accused by at least four other women of sexual misconduct, according to Anton, who said he was present when three officers and a house keeper filed internal affairs complaints. Sources say more women may be coming forward with similar allegations.

"I want to blame the sheriff because the buck stops with him, but the fact of the matter is he (expected) his underlings to do their job," Anton said. "He had no idea Mr. Pompliano had a reason to want to get rid of my client and the reason is she rebuffed him and he's just cleaning house."

A county spokesman said an outside attorney is being hired to review the allegations against Pompliano and any other allegations that may be brought up during the course of Hyman's hearing, which will pick up again next month.

Anton has motioned to have the charges dismissed because Hyman was not a sheriff's officer when she made any films. Her last acting job was in January 2013 and she played the role of a nurse.

Caitlin Mota may be reached at cmota@jjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @caitlin_mota. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.
Stephen Zadroga, 27, has been charged in connection to the fatal crash that claimed the life of a Jersey City firefighter last month.

JERSEY CITY -- One of the drivers involved in the head-on collision that claimed the life of a 29-year-old Jersey City firefighter last month is now facing a series of charges, including death by auto and driving while intoxicated.

Stephen Zadroga, 27, of Jersey City, surrendered to authorities Tuesday for his alleged role in the Nov 16 crash on Paterson Plank Road, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez announced today.

Jersey City firefighter Matthew Nierstedt, who was in the backseat of Zadroga's Mazda MZ6 at the time of the crash, was killed in the wreck.

In addition to death by auto, Zadroga is also charged with three counts of assault by auto and four counts of causing death or injury while driving without a license or a suspended license, Suarez said.

Zadroga was also issued motor vehicle summonses for driving while suspended, driving while intoxicated, failure to maintain a marked traffic lane, reckless driving, and speeding, Suarez added.

The driver of the other vehicle involved in the 2:10 a.m. crash -- Steven Carvache, 40, of Jersey City -- was issued motor vehicle summonses for driving while intoxicated and speeding, Suarez said.

Officers responding to the crash determined Carvache had been driving his 2006 Acura southbound while Zadroga was driving northbound. The vehicles collided in the southbound lane, Suarez said.

Zadroga had a female passenger in the front seat of his vehicle and Nierstedt was in the rear seat. The off-duty firefighter was taken by ambulance to Jersey City Medical Center where he was pronounced dead around 3 a.m., officials said.

Zadroga's female passenger was taken by ambulance to Hoboken University Medical Center, while he was treated as a walk-in patient at JCMC, officials said.

Carvache and his passenger were transported by ambulance to Christ Hospital in Jersey City, officials added.

Prior to joining the Jersey City Fire Department in 2016, Nierstedt served in the Navy as a crash and salvage specialist aboard the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower. As a military veteran, he was eligible for an early promotion within the Fire Department. He died two days short of his captain's exam.

Zadroga made his first court appearance on the charges this afternoon at the Hudson County Administration Building, where Superior Court Judge Mark Nelson ordered that he be released from custody pending trial.

At the hearing, defense attorney Max Novel noted that Zadroga has no criminal record and his Public Safety Assessment shows he is not a risk of engaging in criminal activity while awaiting trial and is not a risk of failing to appear for court hearings.

"We're happy right now that we are able to bring Stephen home for Christmas and New Year," co-counsel Peter Willis said after the hearing.

Willis added: "These types of cases are decided by experts that are retained and represent each side. Once we receive the discovery, we will be an in better position to move forward."

The state was represented by Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Leo Rinaldi. No family members or friends of Zadroga were in attendance.

The homicide detectives are actively investigating the case and ask anyone with information to call 201-915-1345 or to leave an anonymous tip at: www.hudsoncountyprosecutorsofficenj.org/homicidetip/.

Suarez said all information will be kept confidential.
Water flows from pipes as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers test drainage pumps and canal gates on the London Avenue canal on Tuesday, May 24, 2016. (Photo by Brett Duke, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
What happens to Christmas traditions when the kids aren't kids anymore?
Former President Donald Trump is preparing to launch his third campaign for the White House with an announcement Tuesday night. Trump is looking to move on from disappointing midterm defeats and defy history amid signs that his grip on the Republican Party may be waning. The former president had hoped to use the GOP's expected gains in last week's elections as a springboard to win his party's nomination by locking in early support and keeping potential challengers at bay. Instead, Trump now finds himself being blamed for backing a series of losing candidates in last week's midterm elections.
The following editorial appeared in the Sioux City Journal on Dec. 14:

In an editorial published two days after the July 4 Independence Day holiday, we said changes in our citys fireworks ordinance were, based on what we saw and heard ourselves and heard from other city residents, warranted. We suggested the City Council significantly shorten the window of 10 days during which residents can shoot off fireworks for the July 4 observance.

So we support action taken by the council on Monday.

The council voted 5-0 on first reading in support of an amendment to the fireworks ordinance under which residents would be allowed to discharge fireworks only on July 3 and 4, as well as on New Years Eve. Under the proposed ordinance change, residents could discharge fireworks on private property from 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. on both July 3 and 4 and from 1 p.m. on Dec. 31 to 12:30 a.m. on Jan. 1. The ordinance must pass two additional readings.

Along with the change to the ordinance, we support and urge the following with respect to local discharge of fireworks moving forward:

* Beefed-up enforcement of the fireworks ordinance by police. By beefed-up enforcement, we mean a no-tolerance policy toward fireworks offenders. In other words, no warnings. You violate the fireworks ordinance, you get a citation and fine. The police department should publicize its get-tougher approach prior to affected holidays. Sometimes, the simple act by law enforcement of telling the public it intends to crack down harder on something can have a positive impact.

* Embrace of greater personal responsibility by individual citizens. That includes communicating with and extending courtesy to neighbors, practicing safety, not discharging fireworks on public property, only discharging fireworks during the time frame allowed by the local ordinance and cleaning up.

No one possesses a constitutional right to shoot off fireworks. Its a privilege city leaders can rescind. In fact, the cities of Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Davenport and Iowa City ban fireworks discharge. As we have said before in this space, our view of legalized fireworks is mixed. We understand both sides of this discussion.

We acknowledge majority support for legalized fireworks among Iowans and appreciate the economic benefits of capturing part of a business Iowa loses to border states (including Nebraska and South Dakota) each year, but we sympathize with residents who want their neighborhoods free of them.

As a community, we should strive to strike a proper balance between supporters and opponents of fireworks. In our view, this proposed ordinance amendment is a positive step in that direction.
April marked 100 years since then President Woodrow Wilson asked a special session of Congress for a formal declaration of war against Germany.

The U.S. entered World War I four days later, and among the countrys heroes of the time were a group of Council Bluffs doctors and nurses. The group became the first mobile hospital unit on the front lines, bringing medicine to the wounded, instead of the wounded being brought to them.

Council Bluffs kept its Gordmans store, though four others in the Omaha area were shuttered as the chain declared bankruptcy and partially liquidated its inventory.

Documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Omaha listed 48 stores set to close. Including locations at 14933 Evans Plaza and 17202 Lakeside Hills Plaza in Omaha, as well as two area stores in the Nebraska communities of Bellevue and Papillion.

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley supported the continued investigation of Russian influence on the 2016 election. Grassley also questioned the involvement of an FBI deputy director whose wife has ties to former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Every emphasis weve had on Russia interfering with our election is legitimate, Grassley said in early April. But theres not enough concern about whos leaking (information).

On April 7, Iowas senators both voiced support for U.S. missile strikes against Syria. Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst praised President Donald Trump while criticizing former President Barack Obama in discussing the military action.

The U.S. launched the strike on a Syrian air base from which Syrian President Bashar Assad launched a chemical weapons attack against his own people. More than 80 men, women and children were killed.

For the fifth year in a row, Council Bluffs was honored as a Pacesetter for its work in eliminating literacy barriers faced by children from low-income families. The community was recognized by the national Campaign for Grade-Level Reading for exemplary work in reporting measurable progress in school readiness, summer learning and overall grade-level reading.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, 80 percent of children nationally from low-income families in fourth-grade are failing to read proficiently, compared with 49 percent of their more affluent peers. Studies show that a child who cant read proficiently is likely to fall behind in school.

The Council Bluffs Community School District announced Vickie Murillo of the Kansas City Public Schools in Missouri as the successor to Council Bluffs Superintendent Martha Bruckner. Members of the Board of Education cast votes to offer a contract to Murillo, who was the chief academic and accountability officer for the Kansas City district, which serves about 14,500 students.

A pool of 67 applicants was trimmed down to a dozen by Ray and Associates, the search firm hired by the school board to help run the school districts search process.

Residents of Crescent voiced concerns to the Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors when they learned the bridge on Old Lincoln Highway north of town would be closed for two months because of construction. The county shut down County Bridge CR20 on Old Lincoln Highway over Simon Run Creek for work that replaced the bridge and shifted the roadway slightly to the northeast. About 2,330 vehicles pass the bridge daily.

The Council Bluffs and Lewis Central school boards voted to approve budgets for the 2017-18 fiscal year, which meant C.B. residents would see their property tax levy go up 15 cents, while L.C. residents will see their property tax levy drop by about 5.6 cents. Both tax rates are calculated per $1,000 of taxable valuation, which includes a residential rollback from a homeowners assessed valuation.

For five consecutive years, the Lewis Central Community School District was again shown to be above the state average for its four-year graduation rates at 92.8 percent graduation rate. The state average for the 2015-16 school year was 91.26 percent.

At the RNG Gallery at Dixie Quicks, the Survivor Statement Project  a collection of more than 30 photos of sexual abuse survivors with a signs  was presented. Each photo showed the survivors with signs speaking about their own experiences.

The collection was part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month through the Catholic Charities Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault program, previously known as the Phoenix House.

Plans for the PACE arts and cultural center in Council Bluffs took a major step forward with the announcement of a $2 million lead gift from Ted and Polly Hoff of Council Bluffs.

The Hoffs donation, made through the Pottawattamie County Community Foundation, will become part of an endowment fund for ongoing operation of the facility, which will now bear their name the Hoff Family Arts and Culture Center.

The Council Bluffs City Council approved a bid to build the new police headquarters.

The $12.06 million bid was awarded to the Lincoln, Nebraska-based Sampson Construction Company to construct the police headquarters off Woodbury Avenue.

The winning bid comes in about $2.5 million under city projections. In May 2016, voters in Council Bluffs approved a $20 million bond for the facility. The design team of the police department, Hoefer Wysocki Architecture of Leawood, Kansas, and Project Advocates of Omaha designed the headquarters.

After a long journey, the Carter Lake City Council approved a $134,997 bid from Outdoor Recreation Products of Elkhorn, Nebraska, for a new childrens splash pad to be built along Redick Boulevard near Carter Lake Elementary School and the Owen Memorial Library. The 71-by-40-foot splash pad has with 12 interactive water features for children to enjoy.
May had scarcely started when the local community was shocked by the brazen murder of Pottawattamie County Sheriffs Deputy Mark Burbridge by a prisoner and convicted murder escaping custody.

Wesley Correa-Carmenaty, 24, who had just been convicted of attempted murder, shot Burbridge and Pottawattamie County Sheriffs Deputy Pat Morgan during a prisoner transfer operation May 1 at the Pottawattamie County Jail.

Burbridge was fatally injured. Morgan was hospitalized but released a few days later.

Jerry Brittain of Council Bluffs was injured during an attempted carjacking by Correa-Carmenaty near the jail, while a Glenwood woman was carjacked but was not injured.

Correa-Carmenaty was apprehended a short time later after a high-speed chase across the Missouri River into Omaha.

Hundreds of local residents showed their support for the officers in the days that followed, lining the street while the slain officers body was taken to Hoy-Kilnoski Funeral Home May 2 and again during his funeral May 8 at the Mid-America Center and the funeral procession that followed.

Several fundraisers were held for the family he left behind. Residents in Burbridges hometown of Missouri Valley also grieved.

On May 2, voters in Logan approved a measure to increase the Logan City Council from three members back to five, which had been the number before it was changed to three in January 2014. Initially, the top three vote-getters won four-year terms and the other two received two-year terms. When those terms expire in 2019, candidates will be elected to four-year terms, giving members staggered four-year terms.

On May 3, the first Kerri Orozco Memorial Scholarship was awarded to Emma Seilstad, a senior at Abraham Lincoln High School.

On May 4, the Iowa West Foundation announced that it would fund the Council Bluffs West Broadway Beautification Project despite the Council Bluffs City Councils decision to eliminate some of the medians from the proposed plan.

On May 9, President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, purportedly for his handling of the investigation into Hillary Clintons email practices. Critics accused the president of trying to stop the FBIs investigation into possible collaboration between Trumps presidential campaign and the Russian government.

On May 10, Iowa Rep. Greg Forristall, 67, of Macedonia died after a battle with cancer. He was serving his sixth term as the District 22 representative in the Iowa House. His widow, Carol, ran for the seat as an independent after losing in the Republican primary to Jon Jacobsen. Jacobsen won the seat.

On May 11, Treynor Superintendent Kevin Elwoods letter of resignation was released to the public. Elwood had been criticized for allowing his son to continue working at the schools after he was accused of sexually assaulting other students, and the superintendents license had been suspended for 30 days by the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners for failing to meet ethical obligations.

On May 12, Harold Bernstein, founder of Peoples True Value Hardware and other businesses, died at 96.

On May 13, Michael Boska, 59, of Glenwood, a professor and research scientist at University of Nebraska Medical Center and amateur pilot, died in a glider crash at an airport in Blair, Nebraska.

On May 16, the area was struck by a severe thunderstorm that brought heavy rain and blew down trees and limbs.

On May 17, former FBI Director Robert Mueller was named special counsel to oversee the investigation into allegations that Russia and the Trump campaign collaborated to influence the 2016 presidential election.

On May 18, it was announced that Martha Bruckner, soon to retire as superintendent of the Council Bluffs Community School District, had been appointed executive director of the Metropolitan Omaha Education Consortium.

On May 19, Sears announced that its auto center on Woodbury Avenue would close on May 27.

Also on that day, the Council Bluffs Fire Departments restored bell tower was dedicated and Cedric Whitmire was found guilty of third-degree sexual abuse, pimping, willful injury, domestic abuse assault by strangulation causing bodily injury and possession of marijuana. He was found not guilty of two counts of false imprisonment and two counts of domestic assault and human trafficking.

On May 21, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland announced that it would close four Iowa clinics after the Legislature took action to cut off funding to the organization. The Council Bluffs clinic was one of eight to remain open.

On May 25, former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad was formally sworn in as U.S. ambassador to China. Soon afterward, Kim Reynolds was sworn in as Iowas first woman governor.

Also, the Council Bluffs Fire Department announced that it had acquired a K-9 to help with arson investigations.

The next day, Reynolds named Adam Gregg acting lieutenant governor.

Meanwhile, court employees in the Iowa Judicial System took a day of furlough because of cuts in state funding.

On May 30, officials announced that more than 45,000 people had attended Loessfest activities during the previous weekend.
The 2017 Iowa Legislature session saw a number of bills of consequence pass, sparking applause from some and outrage from others.

The Republican-controlled House and Senate made its mark on the state, passing laws that expanded gun rights, reduced collective bargaining power, changed voting requirements and availability, defunded Planned Parenthood and legalized firework sales.

In addition, lawmakers finalized a budget amid revenue shortfalls.

Freshman Sen. Dan Dawson, who represents Council Bluffs and Carter Lake, said, Its the most impactful and consequential session the State of Iowa has had in the last five decades.

The gun legislation will allow people to use deadly force anywhere if they feel a risk to their life or safety. It would also allow a person to use deadly force even if alternative action were available and an individual could be wrong in his or her estimation of danger.

One of the final bills to pass the Legislature was a bill that gave up millions in federal Medicaid money to remove funding for Planned Parenthood. The $1.7 billion health and human services budget bill would create a state-run family planning program that excludes organizations that provide abortions.

Democrats criticized the decision amid the states budget constraints.

The Legislature passed a bill that legalizes consumer-grade fireworks, including bottle rockets, firecrackers and roman candles. The explosives could be sold annually from June 1 through July 8 and from Dec. 10 through Jan. 3 in permanent structures or tents, though the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency said that the majority of licenses issued would be for temporary retailers.

A bill requires voters to show identification at the polls and reduces the early voting period from 40 days to 29 days.

Early in the session, Republican lawmakers passed a bill that eliminated most collective bargaining rights for public workers in the state.

Union representatives said the legislation effectively guts public sector labor unions in the state. The bill made drastic changes to how public sector employees can negotiate working conditions. Discussions over health insurance, evaluation procedures and extra pay would be prohibited.

These are changes to make it even more even-handed, the late Republican Rep. Greg Forristall of Macedonia said about the bill after its passage, comparing it to the 1974 collective bargaining law on the books. I think it will be a lot fairer of a situation between public employees and the people that pay them, which is taxpayers.

Rep. Charlie McConkey, a Democrat who represents Carter Lake and the western half of Council Bluffs, called the Legislatures work a terrible session for Iowans.

The corporations got everything they wanted, he said. The working class didnt get anything.
Two area school administrators are being honored by the Nebraska Association of Elementary School Principals.

Eisenhower Elementary Principal Mary Derby has been named the 2017 National Distinguished Principal from Nebraska; and the elementary principal of Maxwell Public Schools, Missy Friend, has been named New Principal of the Year.

Derby has been a principal for North Platte Public Schools for 19 years. A press release announcing the honor describes her as passionate and active in her role as administrator. She has been instrumental in implementing such initiatives as the school-wide discipline plan and bullying plan of action, according to the press release. She serves on the district crisis response team as a team leader.

Derby will represent Nebraska in Washington, D.C., in the fall of 2018.

Friend began her administrative career in 2014. Before becoming a principal, she was an elementary teacher at Maxwell and at Matt Kelly Elementary in Las Vegas. She is involved in several organizations including NAESP and the Nebraska Council of School Administrators.

In a press release, Maxwell Superintendent Todd Rhodes said Friend is insightful, shows interest in all people and approaches her work with a high level of professionalism.
When Jessica Polanco wasnt cooking her traditional Mexican dishes or teaching religious education at St. Patrick Catholic Church, she worked as a claims specialist for the U.S. Social Security Administration. She won several performance awards. She took on overtime hours and Saturday shifts. She loved the extra work, said her husband, Romano Polanco.

Jessica Polanco, 52, died unexpectedly Saturday at her job. When her family couldnt contact Polanco after her shift, her daughter called Polancos manager, who found her, Romano said. North Platte police do not suspect foul play.

Tuesday night, Jessica and Romanos home filled with family and friends who shared memories of a woman who sent prayers and Scripture via Facebook.

They remembered her famous Mexican dishes, like pork chili verde and tortillas. Polanco catered weddings, work parties and family gatherings, Romano said. Co-workers asked for her salsa.

Her pork chili was so spicy, but it was so good, said Jessicas sister Angelica Scovill.

Cooking was a way for Jessica to celebrate her Mexican heritage, Romano said. It was also a way to bring her loved ones together, said her brother Carlos Ramos.

For more than 20 years, Jessica taught religious education at St. Patrick Catholic Church, getting kids ready for First Communion, Romano said. He doesnt know when she began sending daily prayers and Scripture on Facebook, but has heard from many since her death how much theyll miss it.

Jessica told her five children, ages 19 to 32, to pray and trust God in everything, said her daughter Shante Polanco.

Despite Jessicas death happening so close to Christmas, Romano said the timing was appropriate, given Jessicas faith.

We celebrate Christs life, Romano said. And we celebrate hers.

Jessica traveled with her grandson, Hayden Albertson, 9, to Island Oasis Water Park in Grand Island. She traveled to Denver to stay with her best friend from middle school, Dolores Fuentes, after Fuentes underwent surgery.

In August, she went to Las Vegas with her sisters and Fuentes. Jessicas birthday and her sister Ofelia Leyvas were one day apart. Leyva joked that growing up, Jessica hated the shared celebrations.

Before the trip, Jessica and Scovill both debated whether they should leave their children behind  Haydens birthday was also close.

Im so glad we went, Scovill said.

Jessica teased her children that she would boss them around until she was old and gray, Shante said. She would tease her siblings when they entered a room to get out, said her brother Martin Ramos.

Jessicas daughter Tatiana would tease her mother via text message, just to make Jessica respond by typing her name in all caps. Her son, Elijah, was the favorite child, he said, drawing laughter from his relatives.

Jessica could walk in a room, and it would light up, Carlos said.

To Jessica, family and friends came first. She loved her nine godchildren, and loved babies. Her sister CheeRee Perez said she couldnt think of a bad memory.

When Jessica did get into a disagreement with someone, before she left, shed always give them a hug, Tatiana said.

Jessica and Romano grew up in the same neighborhood in North Platte. She was a year behind him at North Platte High School. After attending events together in groups of friends, the two became a couple in 1983. They married in 1985.

Romano worked at Perkins Restaurant and Bakery, and relocated the family to Grand Island in 1999 for a short time. They made their permanent home in North Platte in 2001.

In addition to those quoted, Jessica is also survived by daughters Santana and Aaliyah.

Jessica and Romano also had two sons who died at birth in 1986.

Their family members said the couples love story was out of a movie. Jessica looked as young as ever, and was once even mistaken as Romanos daughter  to Jessicas delight, Shante said with a laugh.

Jessica worked as a case worker for the State of Nebraska until eight years ago, when the Social Security Administration hired her as a billingual claims specialist, Romano said. Jessica made lasting friends with her co-workers.

She always thought of others first, Carlos said.

Mass of Christian Burial for Jessica Polanco will be at 11 a.m. on Friday at St. Patrick Catholic Church. Rosary will be at 7 p.m. on Thursday at the church. Visitation will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday at Carpenter Memorial Chapel. Family will receive guests and friends at St. Patrick Catholic Church from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Thursday.

Editors note: A story in Saturdays Telegraph about Jessica Polancos death incorrectly stated that she failed to return home from her Friday shift. She failed to return home after work Saturday.
Do you remember this Reagan-era witticism: The scariest words in the English language are We are from the federal government, and we are here to help you? We are currently suffering an episode suggesting that, if you hold the First Amendment dear, the scariest words in Nebraska are We are from the Unicameral, and we are here to protect free speech on college campuses.

This tale began innocently enough on Aug. 25 when University of Nebraska-Lincoln student Kaitlyn Mullen was recruiting on the Lincoln campus for a conservative organization called Turning Point USA. Some who disagreed with positions of TPUSA let their opinions be known. One of those in disagreement was Courtney Lawton, a university graduate student and lecturer. Lawton went so far as to call Mullen a neo-fascist and to flip the bird at the student. The university sent Lawton a letter of reprimand and relieved her of lecturing duties.

This is where things get scary. Three state senators  Steve Halloran, representing the Hastings area; Tom Brewer, representing the sprawling Sand Hills Legislative District 43; and Steve Erdman, whose District 47 covers much of the Panhandle  got involved, claiming to be motivated by concern for university students freedom to express conservative views.

Did these senators take up their proclaimed fear for conservative students with university administration? Was this supposed worry addressed to the citizen-elected Board of Regents that governs the university system and is made up of eight voting members including Hal Daub, a conservative Republican politician who served four terms in the 1980s as a U.S. congressman and was twice elected Omahas mayor? No. In October, the senators sent a letter to news media outlets including the Omaha World Herald  a letter consisting principally of rhetorical questions alleging that the university was hostile toward, and would not fairly treat, conservative students. Sending a self-serving, accusatory letter for wide publication is undoubtedly not the best way to try to solve a problem, but it is hard to beat if you are looking to gain political attention and favor through demagoguery of an ideological issue.

The senators letter prompted immediate responses from University President Hank Bounds and UNL Chancellor Ronnie Green that noted the absence of direct contact from the senators and the broad political perspectives of university professors and employees. Green pointed out that to recklessly and falsely accuse the university as a whole of hostility toward a particular view appears to be an attempt to further political agendas. Three ultra-conservative state senators closely aligned with Gov. Pete Ricketts attempting to further political agendas through reckless and false accusations  stop the presses! Erdman responded that he and his politician colleagues just want to make NU better. Look out! On Nov. 17, a day after university administrators met with Erdman, Halloran and Brewer, the graduate student and lecturer was notified that her contract would not be renewed.

Next, the senators publicly endorsed the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a Philadelphia-based national organization with a strong reputation for impartiality, as an organization with the expertise to review university free speech policy and examine the Aug. 25 incident and NU administrators response to it. To the senators chagrin, far from concluding that conservative views are insufficiently protected, FIRE criticized the universitys discipline of the lecturer, writing: Punishing a faculty member for public political expression on the basis that it lacks civility is unconstitutional. The First Amendment does not permit the government, including public universities, to require its constituents to respond only politely to views they find offensive. The First Amendment is a sticky wicket.

Not to be deterred, the senators criticized FIREs investigation and insisted that they will continue to safeguard the well-being and rights of students attending our state universities. Halloran and Erdman have indicated they intend to sponsor free speech legislation in the upcoming session creating rules protecting speech and expression on campuses and adopting disciplinary sanctions for anyone who interferes with that free speech and expression.

Virtually everything about how the senators have dealt with this incident suggests that the motivation is not protection of free speech; the intent appears much more likely to be the suppression of views with which these politicians disagree. There is no comfort in these senators assurances that they will safeguard students rights. In fact, demagoguery on issues of individual liberty is downright frightening.

We are from the Unicameral, and we are here to protect free speech on college campuses. No thanks!
CALUMET TWP.  Have you ever heard the hoot or screech of an owl and wondered about the species?

Have you driven down the street and saw a wild animal  a raccoon or bird  lying bleeding in the roadway after being hit by a car? Or have you taken a run through the Indiana Dunes and seen a turtle, immobile and suffering from a broken shell?

The students in Sam Miestowski's art class at Calumet New Tech High School had an opportunity to get up close and personal with wildlife when Humane Indiana educator Nicole Harmon brought wild animals into the art room.

Students have been preparing for the lecture by drawing pictures of wild animals and putting them up around the art room.

Harmon brought an Eastern screech owl named Riley, a female red tail hawk named Phoenix, and an Eastern box turtle named Carrot, calling them "the education ambassadors."

Harmon, who was accompanied by the organization's intern Dalton Good, talked about the wildlife the agency works with and gave students some advice about what to do when they encounter endangered wildlife.

The agency's goal, Harmon said, is to heal the injured animals and return them to the wild. However, if an animal has been badly injured and it would be dangerous to return it to its habitat, it becomes one of the organization's "education" animals, visiting schools, libraries and other facilities across the Region.

Harmon cautioned nearly 100 students and teachers from other classes, crowding the art room, that wild animals are not pets.

"Do not feed them," she said.

Harmon said foxes or other wild animals who get used to humans will walk up to them, which can be dangerous.

"One of the cool things about owls is that it they will take care of baby animals, even if it's not their baby," she said. "He will raise it no matter whose baby it is, bringing food to it and sheltering it. We know it will be successful when it goes back into the wild," Harmon said as she put on thick gloves to let the Eastern screech owl attach to her wrists.

"Once the babies are able to feed themselves and are healed, they are released back into the wild," she told the packed room.

"They need to be with humans as little as possible so they adjust well when going back into the wild," Harmon said.

Calumet junior Reyna Cooper said the presentation was "pretty great" and it was interesting to see the owls and other birds up close. She volunteered at Humane Indiana in Munster, she said, working with cats and dogs.

Calumet seniors Francheska and Alexis Williams, who are sisters, took numerous pictures of the wildlife.

Francheska Williams said her sister loves owls and their entire bedroom is decorated with the birds. Francheska said she loves turtles and got a kick out of seeing the orange-colored Eastern box turtle.

Three students  Travis Doty, Jacqueline Herrera-Morales and Jennifer Castillo  donated some of their wildlife drawings to Humane Indiana.

Freshmen Kyle Carroll said he thought, "Whoa," when Harmon pulled out the hawk. Carroll wondered if Harmon was scared or nervous when she first started working with wild animals.

"I was, like, I want to do this," he said. "I'd love to work at the Humane Society."

Harmon talked about how she started at the zoo and then became an educator with Humane Indiana.

"I love animals. I have an iguana, two ferrets and a dog at home," Carroll said.

Harmon travels throughout Northwest Indiana because she wants students to have an appreciation for wildlife. "I want them to be humane to all animals," she said. "When I come out and bring wildlife ambassadors, it is an introduction to a species they've never seen before and that gives them more appreciation for wildlife."
CROWN POINT  A tragic history was revealed in edits Wednesday to a background report for Jessica S. Pichon.

Pichon, 27, pleaded guilty last month to two counts of resisting law enforcement for her role in a police pursuit in February that ended in a 13-year-old girl's death and her grandmother's injury.

Pichon was scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday, but the hearing was delayed after defense attorney Patrick Young offered several line edits to the defendant's pre-sentence investigation report.

Young said Pichon was sexually abused and beaten by her father and his friend while growing up in Dansville, Illinois. Both men were convicted for the abuse, Young said.

At age 12, Pichon was herself convicted of criminal sexual abuse by force in Vermilion County, Illinois. She was jailed at an Illinois Youth Center, where she remained incarcerated for several years as a teenager.

She was held in three psychiatric hospitals between 2010 and 2017, Young said. The defense attorney said his client had attempted suicide on three occasions, including by attempting to jump off a bridge.

Pichon said she was in the psychiatric ward at Lake County Jail from February to May. Pichon had three daughters, but she terminated her parental rights Nov. 30, according to Young.

Pichon appeared in court in jail garb, her hair braided. She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue during the proceeding.

Judge Diane Boswell said she wanted the jail's medical records included in the pre-sentence investigation report before she ordered a sentence.

A new sentencing hearing is scheduled for Jan. 11.
CROWN POINT  A man allegedly stabbed his friend in Lake Station before hiding the blood-stained butcher knife under a Christmas tree.

Allen M. Orange, 23, was charged Tuesday in Lake Criminal Court with attempted murder and three counts of felony battery.

Lake Station police were dispatched at 3 a.m. Thursday to a home in the 2500 block of Riverside Drive after receiving reports of a stabbing, according to court records.

Officers were met outside the home by a man armed with a BB gun, who said the victim was inside the home, records state.

A blood-covered man was found by police seated on a couch, the records state. He was treated at Methodist Hospitals Northlake Campus for stab wounds to the stomach, neck and shoulder.

The home's residents told police the man was attacked by Orange after an argument within the home, records state. A witness told police after the stabbing that Orange threw the weapon under a Christmas tree.

A 12-inch long blood-stained butcher knife was found by police under the tree, the affidavit states.

Orange is not afforded bond on the charges, according to court records.

Orange was previously convicted in July 2014 with assisting a criminal, a felony offense.
LANSING  A 46-year-old Dixmoor, Illinois, man already on parole for an armed robbery case is now accused of pistol-whipping and robbing a man in the parking lot of the Pioneer Motel.

Curtis Blackmon has been charged with armed robbery for allegedly robbing a 49-year-old man Dec. 7 in the motel's parking lot and fleeing the area in a blue vehicle, according to a news release from the Lansing Police Department.

Blackmon was arrested by Homewood police on a related charge, police said. He was allegedly located in Harvey, Illinois, driving a stolen car matching the description in the armed robbery.

Blackmon allegedly admitted his involvement in the armed robbery, police said.

Blackmon was on parole for a separate armed robbery case and two other cases during the incident.
LAKE STATION  Police plan to seek a murder charge against a 23-year-old man following the death Tuesday of a 24-year-old the defendant is accused of stabbing multiple times.

Allen M. Orange, 23, of Lake Station, was charged Tuesday in Lake Criminal Court with attempted murder and three counts of felony battery.

His friend, Marchon Moss, 24, of Merrillville, was pronounced dead about 7 p.m. Tuesday at Methodist Hospitals Northlake Campus, according to the Lake County coroner's office.

Lake Station police Capt. Brian Williams said Wednesday he planned to work with the Lake County prosecutor's office to amend the charge against Orange to murder.

Lake Station police were dispatched at 3 a.m. Dec. 14 to a home in the 2500 block of Riverside Drive after receiving reports of a stabbing, according to court records.

The first officers to arrive on scene encountered a man armed with a BB gun that resembled a rifle, according to a probable cause affidavit. The man dropped the gun as directed and pointed inside, saying, "He's in there."

The man later told police he grabbed the BB gun and followed Orange outside, but Orange fled.

Police found a blood-covered Moss seated on a couch, the records state. He was taken to Methodist Northlake with stab wounds to the stomach, neck and shoulder.

Residents of the home told police Orange attacked Moss after an argument inside and that Orange threw the weapon under a Christmas tree, a probable cause affidavit states.

Police found a 12.75-inch-long blood-stained serrated kitchen knife under the tree, according to court records.

Police spoke with Moss at the hospital, and he initially said Orange was his "brother" and he didn't want to "snitch." He later told police he couldn't believe Orange had tried to kill him.

Moss said he was sleeping and became angry when Orange, who was trying to wake him, punched him. Orange then picked up a knife and stabbed him five or six times, court records state.

Police had to stop the interview with Moss at that point, because Moss became upset and was having trouble breathing. Moss suffered a collapsed right lung because of the attack, the affidavit states.

Orange was arrested Tuesday, according to court records.
CROWN POINT  A city councilman took on the role of irate constituent this week, using a microphone and podium usually reserved for members of the public to address his fellow City Council members.

During Monday's council meeting, Councilman Bob Clemons expressed his displeasure with a majority of council members who made a decision that could mean a long-vacant building in his district remains just that  vacant.

That decision made earlier this month involves the former Hallmark building on the northeast corner of Main and Summit streets. The building is in Clemons' district and has been empty for more than a decade.

Petitioners for the proposed Kiddie Academy that would take over the site were seeking designation for the site as an economic revitalization area to obtain a tax abatement. However, after the Economic Development Committee narrowly passed a favorable recommendation to the council for the declaration, the council voted it down 4-3.

On Monday, Clemons stepped away from his council meeting chair and faced the council from the podium members of the public typically use during public comment portions of council and other public meetings.

"I'm not happy about the vote on that situation out there," Clemons said. "I've been talking to the (petitioners), and they aren't coming back. Unless we could do something differently, they are not coming back."

Clemons said he would be surprised if the council can't come together and do something.

"This is my district, and I want that and I need that," he said. "We should wrap our arms around it. If we can't come to any agreement, then we're not the negotiators that we think we are."

Clemons followed several local residents, developers and business owners who voiced their displeasure in the council's Hallmark building vote.

Michael Dexter, whose business has benefited from the city's facade grant program, called the vote "shortsighted."

"We've got a business owner who has come to our town, who has designated our community as a place they want to start their business," he said. "We should be reaching out to that individual and saying thank you."

Dexter said one of his biggest concerns is the message being sent to Northwest Indiana and downstate that Crown Point does not want to work with small business owners.

"That's the message being portrayed," he said.

Dexter said he hopes city government doesn't have to buy and raze the abandoned building  at taxpayer expense  to solve the problem.

"Because it's going to get to a point once it starts falling down, and that's what we are going to end up doing," he said. "You guys have done some great things, but people are going to remember that you are not willing to partner with small businesses."

Council President Laura Sauerman, who voted against the tax abatement, reiterated what she said at the previous meeting that the "no" vote was for the tax abatement  not the project.

"This has not stopped the project," she said. "It is up to the purchasers and the sellers."

She also said the tax abatement request was not in the original plan.

Petitioners for Kiddie Academy have previously said the cost for the project initially was more than $2 million for land acquisition and structure improvements. Those costs have gone up "substantially," according to the developers, after an additional entrance/exit was added along Summit based on city suggestions.

The petitioners already have been awarded a $25,000 facade grant by the Redevelopment Commission.
U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., announced his 2018 nominations for admittance to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York; the U.S. Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, Colorado; and the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. Donnelly was honored to nominate 29 students this year. Among those nominated were three students from Northwest Indiana:

 Korie Berdine, of Valparaiso, to the U.S. Air Force Academy

 Braden Delaney, of Valparaiso, to the U.S. Naval Academy

 Katherine OShea, of Munster, to the U.S. Air Force Academy

Our young men and women who attend our nations service academies exemplify the best of Hoosier values," Donnelly said. "As Indianas Senator, it is my honor every year to nominate outstanding young men and women to our service academies, and if accepted, I know they will serve our country with dignity and excellence. Thank you to everyone who applied for your desire to serve and protect our nation.

The individuals chosen were evaluated using a competitive system recommended by the academies. The selection process includes a personal interview by Donnellys Service Academy Nominations Committee and a thorough review of the applicants essays, academic records, letters of recommendation, community involvement, character and leadership experience.

A congressional nomination is not a guarantee of admission. The final admission decision will be made by each individual academy following a whole-person evaluation that considers a candidates character, scholarship, leadership, physical aptitude, medical fitness, goals and motivation.
Christmas Eve service

VALPARAISO  First Baptist Church will hold a Christmas Eve service at 8 p.m. with traditional Christmas music at 2205 Campbell St.

Raise the roof for 2018

Make your reservations now and party with the Porter County Expo Center on New Years Eve. From casual to formal attire, all who are age 21 or over are welcome. This all-inclusive event includes open bar, live band, prime rib buffet (with chicken and vegetarian options), coffee and dessert bar, late-night nacho bar, party favors and a champagne toast at midnight! All of this is included for $75 per person, and groups are welcome. Visit www.portercountyexpo.com/nye

Artists Savoldi, Lambing display at library through December

Art by Eileen Kasenga/Savoldi and pottery by James Lambing are displayed at the Hammond Public Library this month. Savoldi, a retired educator, taught art to students in Indiana and Arizona. Lambing, of Chesterton, is a senior at Indiana University Northwest, where he has participated in art shows. Works may be viewed during library hours: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday at 564 State St. Call 219-931-5100, ext. 302.

Crime Watch meeting

Join the Crime Watch at 7 p.m. Dec. 21 for a holiday gathering in the Hammond Housing Authority conference room at 1402 173rd St. Hammond Community Resource Officer, Sgt. J. Muta, will be featured at this meeting along with snacks and refreshments. For additional information, contact Crime Watch Director George T. Janiec at 219-678-6761.

Christmas Masses

The Rev. Theodore Mens, pastor of St. Mary Catholic Church, 525 N. Broad St., Griffith, welcomes all to their Masses on Christmas Eve at 4:30 and 10 p.m. The singing of Christmas carols by the choir begins at 9:30 on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day Masses are at 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. New Year's Day Mass is at 9 a.m. Call 219-924-4163.

Hammond Historical Society

The Hammond Historical Society is hosting Steve McShane, co-director and archivist/curator of the Calumet Regional Archives at Indiana University Northwest, at the Jan. 6 meeting at 10 a.m. in the Community Room at Hammond Public Library, 564 State St. Call 219-931-5100.

Birding with the Indiana Audubon Society

Join birding expert and Indiana Audubon Society Executive Director Brad Bumgardner from 8 to 10 a.m. Dec. 23 for his monthly Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore birding series. Meet at the Visitor Center and car pool to the birding spot of the month. No experience required. Bring binoculars and dress for the weather.

Christmas bird count

Join volunteers for an adventure on Dec. 29. This 24-hour bird count encompasses the INDW 10-mile radius circle in Northwest Indiana. Families, students, amateurs, birders and scientists, alike, arm themselves with binoculars, bird guides and checklists and go out on an annual mission anytime during this 24-hour period to count the worlds bird populations. There will also be a ranger-led hike offered from 8 to 10 a.m. at the Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk site in Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.
Holiday home decorating awarded

HIGHLAND  The tallies are in. Through online voting, the public judged the Highland 2017 Home Decorating contest. First place was awarded to the Banas home at 3433 41st Place, receiving 188 of 553 votes cast. A second, third and honorable mention were also awarded. Prizes included gift cards, and winners have been notified.

Supporting care center

CROWN POINT  Staff members at Crown Point's Vibra Hospital of Northwest Indiana donated $1,200 to the Franciscan Health Crown Point Breast Care Center. The donation was made in appreciation of services provided to a late Vibra colleague treated there. Funds were derived through various efforts conducted in November. Rick Peltier, Franciscan Health Foundation executive director, accepted the donation and expressed gratitude to the hospital for the effort.

Holiday spirit shines

HAMMOND  The holiday spirit shone during an Adopt-A-Family Christmas program at Franciscan Health Hammond. Employees, representing 62 hospital departments, chipped in time, money and cheer to make the holidays better for area residents, whose names were supplied by the Hammond-area Women, Infants and Children program. Some 200 adults and 307 children received items, delivered by hospital staff members after the program. Sister Aloysius Albert, a hospital chaplain, explained how everyone is a light in Gods eyes, comparing that beauty to the lights that adorned Christmas trees in the room. Santa also was hand to spread cheer and take photos with participants. Similar programs were conducted the same day at Franciscan Health Dyer and Franciscan Health Munster.

Opportunities for year-end giving

SOUTH LAKE COUNTY  As we enter the holiday season and look forward to the new year, we would like to share all of the ways that you can make a donation to The Crown Point Community Foundation. The foundation has continued to make a difference in the community in 2017, from scholarships to grants. The CPCF has partnered with nonprofits and schools throughout South Lake County, as well as committing $1 million to the expansion of the Dean and Barbara White Southlake YMCA. All gifts, whether cash, stocks or securities, wills, bequests, life insurance or real estate receive the maximum tax deduction allowed by law. To learn more, visit www.thecpcf.org.
WASHINGTON  The Environmental Protection Agency says an internal task force appointed to revamp how the nation's most polluted sites are cleaned up generated no record of its deliberations.

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt in May announced the creation of a Superfund Task Force that he said would reprioritize and streamline procedures for remediating more than 1,300 sites.

Pruitt on Dec. 8 named East Chicago's USS Lead Superfund site to a list of 21 Superfund sites in the U.S. to be targeted for "immediate and intense attention."

Pruitt, the former attorney general of Oklahoma, appointed a political supporter from his home state with no experience in pollution cleanups to lead the group.

The task force in June issued a nearly three-dozen page report containing 42 detailed recommendations, all of which Pruitt immediately adopted.

The advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, known as PEER, quickly filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking a long list of documents related to the development of Pruitt's plan.

After EPA didn't immediately release any records, PEER sued.

Now, nearly six months after the task force released its report, a lawyer for EPA has written PEER to say that the task force had no agenda for its meetings, kept no minutes and used no reference materials.

Further, there was no written criteria for selecting the 107 EPA employees the agency says served on the task force or background materials distributed to them during the deliberative process for creating the recommendations.

According to EPA, the task force also created no work product other than its final report.

"Pruitt's plan for cleaning up toxic sites was apparently immaculately conceived, without the usual trappings of human parentage," said Jeff Ruch, the executive direction of PEER. "It stretches credulity that 107 EPA staff members with no agenda or reference materials somehow wrote an intricate plan in 30 days."

The task force was led by Albert "Kell" Kelly, whom Pruitt hired at EPA as a senior adviser. Kelly was previously the chairman of Tulsa-based SpiritBank, where he worked as an executive for 34 years.

The Associated Press reported in August that Kelly was barred by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation from working for any U.S. financial institution after officials determined he violated laws or regulations, leading to a financial loss for his bank. The FDIC's order didn't detail what Kelly is alleged to have done. Without admitting wrongdoing, he agreed to pay a $125,000 penalty.

Kelly attended several EPA meetings this year in East Chicago focused on the USS Lead site and a meeting organized by activists to fight a proposal to store highly toxic waste dredged from the Indiana Harbor Ship Canal in a confined disposal facility close to several schools. State and federal environmental officials in September said they would study an option for off-site disposal and capping of contaminated sediment hot spots in the canal.

EPA said last week the estimated cost of cleanup in two of the USS Lead site's three residential zones had ballooned from $22.8 million in 2012 to $84.9 million. The agency is currently accepting public comment on its proposed explanation of significant differences document.

EPA said this week it issued two unilateral orders to six companies to continue with soil excavation and indoor dust removal in zones 2 and 3. However, the agency declined to comment on why it chose to issue the orders rather than seeking a settlement with the companies, also called potentially responsible parties.

EPA estimated it would cost USS Lead, Atlantic Richfield Co., E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., The Chemours Co., U.S. Metals Refining Co. and Mueller Industries a total of $26.25 million to complete the work.

Times staff contributed to this report.
We've known outgoing Indiana Department of Child Services Director Mary Beth Bonaventura as an ardent champion of child well-being and safety for years.

Many of us also have come to know Gov. Eric Holcomb as a reasonable leader who's taken the state to new economic and quality-of-life heights in his first year.

Holcomb should bring the best of his reasonable nature to bear when considering the concerns of Bonaventura as she resigns her state director's post.

It was Bonaventura's sterling track record as a Lake County juvenile court judge, coupled with her Republican Party affiliation, that no doubt attracted the attention of then-Gov. Mike Pence in 2013.

Pence anointed Bonaventura to lead a troubled Department of Child Services that year. At that time, the agency was reeling from unexplained spikes in child death and abuse cases.

Bonavetura was seen as the right person to help turn the agency around, and Holcomb seemed to agree.

In 2016, Holcomb announced he would retain Bonaventura as agency director, noting she was "widely respected for her bold service in the department."

"Her relentless passion for child advocacy will serve Hoosier families and children well for years to come," Holcomb said at that time. "I am proud to have her on our team."

Now, Bonaventura is resigning the post, "rather than be complicit in decreasing the safety, permanency and well-being of children, who have nowhere else to turn."

Bonaventura claims that since Holcomb took office in January 2017, she's been relegated to "DCS director in name only," with a chief of staff actually leading the agency and Holcomb's budget officials controlling its spending.

She argues the move has driven out valued career professionals, equated to bullying tactics and created a hostile work environment while diminishing child safety, among other complaints.

Holcomb has countered that Bonaventura's claims of detrimental cost-cutting are false, noting the agency received $200 million more in its 2018 and 2019 budget years than its base 2017 appropriation.

Holcomb has shown true signs of having the state's best interests, including those of its children, at heart.

That's why we're hoping it's not too late for Holcomb and Bonventura to discuss and consider each other's concerns on the crucial matter of protecting the state's most vulnerable children.

Abandoned, orphaned, abused and other vulnerable groups of Hoosier children rely on the Department of Child Services for their protection and very survival every day.

Two reasonable leaders should be able to work through these issues for the greater good.

A firm and united front is the only way forward for the protection of youth who need it the most.

Perhaps there are too many differences between Holcomb and Bonaventura for the partnership to be tenable, but that doesn't mean her concerns shouldn't be reviewed and addressed.
The Auburn City Council approved an agreement for acquisition of the Baptist Student Center for $2.33 million to be used as a lot for the future downtown parking deck Tuesday night.

The Alabama Baptist Convention and Auburn First Baptist Church, which had first right of refusal on the property located at 135 N. College St. if the Baptist Convention decided to sell the lot, came to an agreement to sell the property this week. The sale is set to close on Dec. 28.

The city soon will finalize its contract with the architectural firm that will design the project, which should be on the council agenda in January. Simultaneously, the city will be working on a contract to start demolition of the Baptist Student Center.

We want to start a contract with a demolition company to get the building torn down, get the site graded and get ready for construction in June, David Dorton, director of public affairs for the city of Auburn said.

Plans include the entrance to the parking deck to be on Wright Street, which is planned to be converted into two-lane road in January, and a new Baptist Student Center to be built into the bottom floor of the parking deck.

Buston estimated that construction of the parking deck will take between 9-12 months. Until it is designed, the city isn't sure how large the parking deck will be, but the city plans for a minimum of 300-350 parking spaces. The number will be based on two deciding factors: cost and how much traffic Wright Street can support.

The next steps will be looking at design and actually moving forward with the parking deck, Dorton said. The city manager has really been dedicated to answering peoples call for more parking downtown.

Dorton added that construction on the parking lot on Glenn Avenue, across the street from Felton Little Park, should be finished in early 2018 and that this will also answer the need for more parking downtown.

Several Auburn citizens also spoke out against the council's conditional use approval on Nov. 21 of property located at 406 N. College St. by owners of the Crenshaw Guest House Bed & Breakfast for an additional bed and breakfast. The citizens referred to city ordinances that require the owner reside at the residence and said they plan to pursue legal action.

Owner Stephen Jenkins said he and his wife, co-owner Sarah Jenkins, did their best to previously address concerns and added that when the house is in use by the business, one of the owners will reside in the location.

"(The ordinance) doesn't say it has to be a permanent residence," Jenkins said. "This B&B will operate at a much lower frequency, probably 60 days out of the year, and someone will reside on the property."

In other action:

> The council approved various ordinances including annexation of 38.4 acres between 700 and 1800 Sandhill Road and a zoning ordinance to rezone 11.1 acres from Development District Housing to Redevelopment District at the property located at the eastern end of Jack Hampton Drive and beyond the northern end of Pitts Street.

> The council approved resolutions including conditional use approval for Jim Parker Properties, LLC, event facility conditional use at 2108 South College St.; Owens Family Partnership, LLC, agricultural use at the northeast corner of the intersection of Shug Jordan Parkway and North Donahue Drive.; and Silver Eagle LTC, Inc., road service at 590 Webster Rd.

> The council approved contracts and agreements including the purchase of one 2018 Kenworth T370 14 flat dump truck by Environmental Services Department from Truckworx Kenworth of Montgomery for $89,160 and the Lipscomb Land Co. acquisition of property located at 800 McKinley Ave. for $45.000.

> The council approved easements including ACC OP (College Street), LLC vacation of drainage and utility easement and execution of quit-claim deed for poperty located at 191 N. College and various drainage and utility easements and rights-of-way at Samford Commercial Subdivision on East Samford Avenue owned by East Glenn Investment Property, LLC.
All was set for the election of the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) speaker at the resumption of the regional parliament's sittings in Arusha, Tanzania, but the process could not go on after a walk-out by Tanzania and Burundi.

Both countries presented candidates for speakership, but it's Rwanda's Martin Ngoga who appeared to have overwhelming support. Ngoga's nomination was seconded by nearly all members from Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and new entrant, South Sudan, while Burundi's Leontina Nzeyimana and Tanzania's Adam Kisimbi were seconded by their respective members.

The Burundians and Tanzanians walked out leading to the cancellation of the proceedings. The EALA clerk, Kenneth Madete adjourned the session for 15 minutes but even on resumption, the two member states did not return.

Burundi's Leontina Nzeyimana (L) is vying for EALA speakership

The rules require the presence of at least three representatives from each of the member states. Madete adjourned the session again but still, that was not enough to get the Tanzanians and Burundians from the corridors into the chamber.

Burundi wants the assembly to consider the alphabetical order of the countries' names to hand them the speakership while Tanzania says at the time it held the speakership, the community had only three member states.

These arguments were rejected by other delegates, the most outspoken being Uganda's Fred Mukasa Mbidde, Susan Nakawuki, George Odong and Mathias Kasamba.

In the corridors, meanwhile, rumours of bribery went around claiming that a minister from one of the two boycotting member states was bribing the members.

Julius Maganda, Uganda's state minister for EAC affairs, told The Observer that one of the EALA members had confessed to him having received money from the said minister. After the suspension of the day's business, Ugandan and Rwandan delegates were forced into meetings to plot for Tuesday.

Maganda told The Observer that they called in legal experts to interpret the EAC treaty and the EALA rules of procedure to enable the election of the speaker to proceed even in the absence of Burundi and Tanzania.

sadabkk@observer.ug
It was always going to be an uphill task to stop the Raphael Magyezi bill in parliament this week given the opposition lawmakers inferior numbers; so, in the end a handful of them huffed and puffed in vain.

A combination of the ruling partys determined state machinery and money on the one hand, and lack of a clear strategy on the part of the opposition, dashed any hopes of unexpected victory.

Everything is being done in a knee-jack way. We have resorted to short-term tactical deployment that has not helped matters. We could have done better than this, said Masaka municipality MP Mathias Mpuuga after the group walked out of parliament following a string of unsuccessful interventions.

The Observer has established that before parliament convened on Monday, the opposition had agreed on a strategy to get the bill thrown out on technical grounds.

Aruu South MP Odonga Otto goes for the microphone to stop Bukooli Central MP Solomon Silwany from speaking during the heated debate on the age limit bill yesterday

The first technical ground was Ugandas obligation under the East African Community Treaty. Wilfred Niwagaba, the shadow attorney general and Ndorwa East MP, was expected to lead the debate on this by arguing that the House should not proceed to consider the report on the bill since the substance is before the East African Court of Justice.

The case in question was filed by opposition politicians seeking a declaration that amending the presidential age limit opens Uganda to a life presidency, which is contrary to the democratic principles enshrined in the East African Community Treaty.

Article 38(2) of the East African Community Treaty states that where a dispute has been referred to the Council or the Court, the Partner States shall refrain from any action which might be detrimental to the resolution of the dispute or might aggravate the dispute.

This argument was expected to sway the speaker, given that she had deferred the debate last week on similar grounds, an MP who was privy to the planning said.

Whereas Niwagaba made the arguments as planned, the speaker appeared to have anticipated the challenge, as she pulled out a written ruling that extinguished the challenge. Taken aback by the speakers ruling, the opposition MPs resorted to raising procedural objections in a bid to buy time and perhaps postpone the inevitable.

Amid multiple points of procedure from frustrated MPs, Ntungamo municipalitys Gerald Karuhanga raised yet another technical ground of objection to the effect that parliament could not proceed to debate the report that had just been tabled until after three days in accordance with Rule 201(2) of parliaments Rules of Procedure.

This was intended to allow usto analyse and studyso that when we come here, we debate for Ugandans, and not ourselves, Karuhanga said.

Whereas this seemed a valid argument, one opposition MP said the timing wasnt right. In the end this too was shot down. Then Lwemiyaga MP Theodore Ssekikubo came in with another argument that sought to have the report nullified on grounds of having been signed by members who belonged to another sessional committee.

Ssekikubo argued that it was procedurally wrong for Rose Lilly Adong (Kaabong Woman MP) and Prossy Akampurira Mbabazi (Rubanda Woman MP), who belonged to the Defence and Internal Affairs committee, to have signed on the report of the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee.

This too was overruled by the speaker who pointed out that the affected members were designated to the said committee by their chief whip, and this was allowed by the House then presided over by the deputy speaker.



NATIONAL ANTHEM

We understand that when it came to singing the national anthem as agreed, after all tricks seemed to have failed, it was only a handful of MPs that sang along with Kira municipalitys Ssemujju Nganda who had been tasked to lead that part.

Eventually, the speaker adjourned the House and also suspended six MPs; Ssemujju, Karuhanga, Mubarak Munyagwa, Allan Ssewanyana (Makindye West), Jonathan Odur (UPC- Erute South) and Anthony Akol (FDC-Kilak North).

With benefit of hindsight, Bugweri county MP Abdu Katuntu says that at this point some of his colleagues were not proceeding as agreed.

I would understand that they were playing the urban constituency politics, which is playing to the gallery, but this was not what we had agreed. What were some of these guys doing on the floor? That was not helpful. They should have left the chief whip [Ssemujju] to make the points on our behalf but when he stood up everyone was standing to speak, something that armed the speaker, he said.

Mathias Mpuuga agreed with Katuntu: No wonder they were suspended. What were they doing? This recklessness and unilateral decision-making made them play in the enemys hands.

Mpuuga added that their members had to exercise caution upon judging the speakers mood.

Suspension was inevitable after it became clear that the speaker was not on our side. So, the ideal thing was to refrain as much as possible, Mpuuga said.



MUSEVENIS HAND

Speaking to The Observer yesterday, Ssemujju said whereas there was no coherent plan on the part of the opposition, this criticism should be put into its proper context.

We are working in a dictatorship. You dont know who is with you or not. That is why I was ready to move with those MPs who were ready to cause chaos. I agreed with a fewI was leading a troop that was not willing to fire. We are dealing with mercenaries, Ssemujju said.

Sources have told us that President Museveni had indeed infiltrated the opposition through an independent woman MP.

This MP distributed money to some members in the opposition. This made planning hard. In fact, we could not even agree on basic things such as returning the money that was meant for facilitation. Whereas there are those who returned it, a substantial part of us did not, said one senior opposition leader.



WALKING OUT

After the House was adjourned, it was believed that opposition members would now rally around a common way forward. Indeed, they met in the Leader of Oppositions boardroom but the meeting was characterised by divided opinion on almost everything.

However, there was some agreement on the basics such as challenging the suspension of their colleagues and re-introduction of the sub judice argument.

The lead voices on this were to be Leader of Opposition Winnie Kiiza, Medard Sseggona (Busiro East) and Wilfred Niwagaba.As the trio put up a spirited fight, Winnie Kiiza led a walk-out, a move that some in the opposition felt wasnt right at the time.

We had agreed to walk out after the speaker has turned down our request to rescind her decision on the suspended MPs. Instead, we moved when the speaker overruled us on our plea to have the NRM MPs, who were standing on their seats, ruled out of order, said one MP.

Nakaseke South MP Paulson Luttamaguzi Ssemakula acknowledged on a radio talk-show after the Monday session, that their uncoordinated approach had made it harder to fight the bill.

Even when it came to walking out; the LOP said all those who are with me should follow me while others stayed because they could not see the reason for boycotting, Luttamuguzi said.

After walking out, the group sat down to discuss another strategy.We are told that while majority of MPs decided to go back in, Muwanga Kivumbi (Butambala), Mpuuga and Odonga Otto (Aruu South), among others, opposed the idea.

Our argument was that if you dont agree with the process, like what they said at the press briefing, it is okay to stay away from it. This is not the same as not to participate in the decision-making. We were to stay away for only that evening, Mpuuga said.



UNHELPFUL SPEAKER

Whereas the opposition might have made mistakes in strategy, theirs was a tall order given the speakers determination to thwart their every move. According to Busiro East MP Sseggona-Lubega, their case was killed by Kadagas readiness to sidestep rules of procedure.

For instance, when Niwagaba raised the issue of the matter being in the East African Court of Justice, she should have sought an opinion from the court in Arusha other than merely rushing, he said.

On sub judice, Sseggona says Kadaga was wrong to overrule the procedural concern on grounds that there was no judgment on the matter.

When there is judgment, the matter ceases to be subject to the sub judice rule, he argued.

On waiving the rule about debating after three days, Katuntu said although the rules allow such a waiver, it was not prudent to suspend Rule 201.

The rationale for this clause is to ensure that a proposed amendment to the constitution has been thoroughly discussed and consensus generated, the Bugweri MP argued, adding that parliament should not have rushed to throw its own rules in the dustbin like the country is ending tomorrow.



skakaire@observer.ug




Ever wonder what a cross between a bear and a large dog would look like? Well, if you cant even imagine it, maybe these pictures of a bear-like dog rescued by a shelter in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk will give you an idea.

Named Medvebaka, from the Russian words for bear (Medved) and dog (Sobaka), the unusual-looking canine was recently rescued by the Nash Dom animal shelter, whose volunteer staff have been working hard to find him a forever home. Photos of the animal, with a head resembling that of a brown bear and the body of a large dog have attracted a lot of attention on Russian social media, and even abroad, but as it turns out, this in not some mythical creature, but the result of poor mixed breeding.

Photo: Polina Kefer, Nom Dosh/VK.com

Polina Kefer, a volunteer at the Nash Dom animal shelter, told the Siberian Times that one of her colleagues already confirmed that Medvebaka appears to be a cross between a chow-chow (by his distinctly blue tongue) and another long-nosed breed. Irresponsible dog breeders in Chelyabinsk often sell such puppies as pure breeds, without thinking for a second about what will happen to them when they start to grow and their owners realize that theyve been duped.

Once puppies grow into something like this dog, they throw them out like a broken toy, Polina said.

That is exactly what Polina and her colleagues believe happened to Medvebaka. He is constantly stressed out and seems to have lost his faith in humans completely.

Photo: Polina Kefer, Nom Dosh/VK.com

Sadly the dog is so stressed it fights and bites back, says Polina. We think it might take months for him to start socializing again.

The shelter has already placed the so-called bear dog with a family, but he was constantly trying to escape and showed no interest whatsoever in making human friends, so they took him back.

The dog hid inside an outdoor kennel and refused to come out, another Nom Dosh volunteer said. With his new family he was trying to escape. He hated the leash, and showed no interest whatsoever in making friends. We tried our best foods on him, but the dog is clearly so stressed that it might take weeks, if not months, to help him trust people again.

Photo: Polina Kefer, Nom Dosh/VK.com

This may sound silly, but looking at pictures of this beautiful animal, I cant help but notice the sadness in his eyes.

While Medvebakas bear-like features have attracted a lot of attention online, Polina Kefer wrote on Russian social network VK that very few people have offered to help him by donating food, vaccines or even a collar. She has appealed to animal lovers to support the shelter so they could afford to take care of the unique-looking dog until he is rehabilitated.
Wealthy residents of an elite neighborhood in Bristol, England have installed anti-bird spikes on trees in an attempt to protect their expensive cars from bird droppings.

The spikes, which are commonly used to prevent birds from roosting and nesting on building ledges over public sidewalks, were nailed to two trees in the exclusive Clifton area of the city, near the wildlife-rich Downs and the Avon gorge. The use of these spikes in trees has outraged locals and environmentalists alike, with one Twitter user calling it a war on wildlife. The affected trees have been described by a local Green Party councilor as uninhabitable to birds. A spokesperson for Bristol city council, however, said that the trees were on private property, so there was nothing that the local authorities could do to stop them. The spikes had apparently already been in place for several years.

Photo: Jennifer Garrett/Twitter

A resident, who has chosen to remain anonymous, confirmed to The Guardian that the spikes were meant to protect cars from the birds. The spikes are solely to protect the cars; there is no other reason. There is a big problem with bird droppings around here. They can really make a mess of cars, and for some reason, the birds do seem to congregate around this area. We did try other methods to scare off the birds. I think we had a wooden bird of prey in the branches, but that didnt seem to do anything.

Our war on wildlife: now birds are not allowed in trees?! Pigeon spikes spotted in Clifton, Bristol above a car park. Has anyone seen this before? How is it allowed?!

: thanks to Anna Francis pic.twitter.com/NuG9WvYBMj  Jennifer Garrett (@JMAGarrett) December 18, 2017

Paula ORourke, the Green Part councilor who represents the area, told The Guardian: Im aware that the landowner might be legally within their rights to do this to the trees as they seem to be on private land. However, I will be looking into this at the council. Whether allowed or not though, it looks awful, and its a shame to see trees being literally made uninhabitable to birds  presumably for the sake of car parking. Sometimes its too easy to lose sight of the benefit that we all gain from trees and green spaces and from the presence of wildlife around us in the city.

wealthy residents have fitted trees with anti-bird spikes in a bid to protect their expensive cars from bird droppings https://t.co/hz1thQngj3 pic.twitter.com/K0TlcJCLmg  Rossalyn Warren (@RossalynWarren) December 19, 2017

Nature is in trouble and needs our help more than ever. We have all seen recent TV programmes or reports in the media telling us that nature is facing a struggle to survive, said Jeff Knot, the RSPBs head of nature policy. In fact, the recent State of Nature report highlights that more than half of all wildlife in the UK has declined over the past 40 years. Instead of looking at ways we can force nature into an ever smaller space, we should look at how we can live alongside wildlife and help give it a home in our villages, towns, and cities.


Joe Pounder

Definers Public Affairs today quit its no-bid $120K media monitoring contract with the Environmental Protection Agency, saying the work had become a "distraction."

President Joe Pounder via Twitter said the firm offered the EPA a "better and more efficient service that would give EPA employees real-time news at a lower cost than what previous Administrations paid for more antiquated clipping services."

The New York Times on Dec. 15 ran a critical story about the EPA, saying it uses DPA's service to track coverage of its employees who criticized the performance of EPA chief Scott Pruitt.

Calling the EPA contract a distraction, Pounder's said DPA will no longer offer its Console war-room clipping service product to federal clients.

Mother Jones broke the story about DPA's contract with the EPA.


Carlos Slim



Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim has sold half of his 17 percent stake in the New York Times Co., reaping a hefty profit on his investment.

He first moved into NYTC stock in 2008 during the financial meltdown, which hammered the price of media stocks.

Slim extended a $250M loan to the company in 2009, the year in which shares of the NYTC sank below $5 a-share.

NYTC stock closed yesterday at $18.65 and has traded in the $13 to $20.15 range during the past 52 weeks.

A spokesperson for Slim declined to disclose to the Financial Times how much money the billionaire made on his NYTC investment.

The NYTC noted that Slim made his investment "at a critical time in the company's history" and thanked him for his confidence and support.
Verizon will launch Fifth Generation wireless residential broadband services in three to five U.S. markets in 2018, becoming the first company to do so.

5G service will use radio signals, rather than copper or fiber cables, to provide unprecedented wireless speeds for Internet access, it said today.As 5G continues to evolve, customers will benefit from a wide array of services  including broadband, mobile and the Internet of Things and the necessary bandwidth and low latency for 3D and virtual reality applications.

The launch is planned for Sacramento, Calif., in the second half of 2018.

It conducted 5G residential applications in 11 markets in 2017. It said the launch is based on customer experience and on Verizons confidence in new technology powered by millimeter-wave spectrum.

Verizon estimates the market opportunity for initial 5G residential broadband services to be approximately 30 million households nationwide.

The launch will not have a material impact on Verizons consolidated capital expenditures in 2018, the company said. It expects its full-year 2018 capital spending program to be consistent with the past several years.

This is a landmark announcement for customers and investors who have been waiting for the 5G future to become a reality, said Hans Vestberg, Verizon president of Global Networks and Chief Technology Officer.

We appreciate our strong ecosystem partners for their passion and technological support in helping us drive forward with 5G industry standards, for both fixed and mobile applications. The targeted initial launches we are announcing today will provide a strong framework for accelerating 5Gs future deployment on the global standards.

White House Supports 5G

The White House in a National Security Strategy report released yesterday, said, We will improve Americas digital infrastructure by deploying a secure 5G Internet capability nationwide. Other than natural gas, 5G wireless service was the only area of technology to get a specific calling out for infrastructure.

It described 5G a set of standards and technologies that interoperate in the millimeter wave spectrum to meet the needs of users today. That includes better performance around latency and bandwidth, as well as support for low-power, many-device contexts due to the rise of Internet of Things.

The standards have been discussed and researched for years, and TechCrunch has talked about its promise before in 2015 and how that promise seems ever more distant just earlier this year. There is hope though that the technology will soon see the light of day since Verizon just announced that it will launch its first U.S. service of the technology next year in Sacramento and up to five other cities.

Now, a line in a report in Silicon Valley would be useless  people want to see actual products, not talk of products, said NSS. The reports are designed to send a signal throughout the government on how a particular administration sees policy issues. As such, they are important for setting the guidelines for future actions of the federal government. By attaching wireless connectivity into national security, the Trump administration is putting its heaviest hand behind such a recommendation.

Gov. Brown Vetoed Cell Tower Bill

Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown, on Sept. 10, after about a months wait, vetoed Senate Bill 649 that would have removed local control of cellphone tower creation needed for implementation of 4G and 5G technology.

It would have created a state mandated system of cell towers every couple of hundred feet apart in California.

Opposing it were 300 cities, 47 counties and more than 100 community, planning, health, environment and justice organizations.

EMF Safety Network and Ecological Options Network opposed SB 649 since the bill was introduced in March because it said cell towers emit harmful radiation. The bill would have allowed unlimited refrigerator-size cell equipment on utility poles, streetlights, sidewalks, in parks, on schools and public buildings with no safety oversight.

Sandi Maurer, Director of EMF Safety Network said, We mailed Governor Brown a couple thousand postcards depicting SB 649 as a slobbering warty monster wielding a zapping cell tower and asked him to veto SB 649. We are thrilled and relieved Governor Brown vetoed this bill.

Mary Beth Brangan co-director of EON said, Now we need to prepare ourselves for the next state and federal telecom push, where they will try again with bills to overtake local authority and disregard public health.

Gov. Brown said local communities should have a say in placement of any such towers.
Youre Lucky We Brought You Over As Slaves: Florida Official Resigns Amid Racist Accusations Elijah C. Watson Elijah Watson serves as Okayplayer's News & Culture Editor. When

A member of a volunteer board in Boynton Beach, Florida resigned recently after she was accused of being a white supremacist and racist because of comments she made while discussing sanctuary cities.

READ: New York Woman Running For Office Defends Use Of N-Word

The incident took place back on December 5 during a commission meeting where the citys leaders discussed the issue of becoming a sanctuary city. According to a report from the Palm Beach Post, volunteer board member Cindy Falco-DiCorrado told one resident, Mathi Mulligan, that he should speak better English, as well as told a group of black residents Youre lucky we brought you over as slaves, or else youd be deported, too.

Falco-DiCorrado said that her comments were misunderstood and she did not mean any harm. Although she initially declined a request for resignation from the citys vice mayor, Justin Katz, Falco-DiCorrado ultimately resigned after she informed a city clerk that she received a new career opportunity.

I also heard that the City of Boynton Beach is being attacked through my stance on sanctuary cities and things that I said that were taken out of context and it just keeps getting worse as those who have hate in their hearts only can hear and see hate, she wrote. I ask if anyone was hurt by things that I said that could of been misconstrued, taken out of context or due to misunderstandings to please forgive me. For the record I am NOT a racist nor a white supremacist (which I had to look up what it meant) I forgive them too.

I see that a lynch mob was put out on me which keeps Boynton Beach in a negative light. I do love the City of Boynton Beach and I dont want to see lies and vileness spewed for an agenda of a certain group, she added.

Source: palmbeachpost.com
Tennessee Black Man Discovers Noose, White Supremacist Flag Hung Near His Home Elijah C. Watson Elijah Watson serves as Okayplayer's News & Culture Editor. When

A black man from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, recently found a noose and white supremacist flag hanging on a fence near his home.

READ: Missouri Man Claims Hes Not Racist, Displays Slaves 4 Sale Sign Over Confederate Flag

Ernest Beal, a 42 year old who moved to Murfreesboro five years ago with his family, said he was returning home from church Saturday when he noticed some items hanging off the fence near the house he rents with his family. Upon closer inspection he realized that it was a noose and a black flag emblazoned with a white Celtic cross.

I just want everyone to see whats actually going on, Beal said to the Daily News Journal. While we think this is happening somewhere else, its actually here. The only statement this made was to remind me that theres still a lot of stupidity in the world.

Beal, who considers the neighborhood to be diverse, said that some of the residents have shown him support.

They came to the door to say, We want to be involved,' Beal said. It meant a lot. It was a lot of different neighbors that Id waved to, were looking out for each other. Its part of us coming together.

An investigation into the incident is ongoing.

Source: dnj.com
Agricultural News

Rabobank Report Studies the Feeder Cattle Basis to Explore Better Ways to Manage Market Volatility

Is the feeder cattle contract still viable and how can the market volatility be managed? These are the main questions in a new Feeder Cattle Basis report from the RaboResearch Food & Agribusiness group.







The CME Index is comprised of 12 states, and the Rabobank analysts explores the need for regionalization for a more accurate picture of the Feeder Cattle Basis and Market. Analysts have suggested 5 regions: Montana and Wyoming; Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota; Iowa and Missouri; Kansas and Colorado; and Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico.







"The number of feeder transactions by region comprising the CME Index are not distributed equally through all geographies, a key consideration producers should have when establishing a heading program," explains RaboResearch Food & Agribusiness, Senior Animal Protein Analyst Don Close. "The question as to how well a geographic area is represented in the composition of the index is an important consideration to incorporate in hedging strategies."







The market has also seen an increase in volatility since 2014.







"A widely accepted complaint surrounding cattle futures in recent years is that volatility has escalated to the point that risk management has become increasingly unpredictable, more difficult and much more expensive," notes Close.







No matter your circumstance, Rabobank analysts recommend working with a knowledgeable broker because of the uncertainty in the basis and the numerous influences.







Source - Rabobank













WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady NSI

Top Agricultural News
Douglas County has joined dozens of governments across the nation who are suing drug companies over the opioid epidemic.

The County Board unanimously agreed Tuesday to contract with outside law firms for a federal lawsuit against distributors of prescription painkillers such as oxycodone and hydrocodone.

The contract with a Florida firm and the Abboud Law Firm of Omaha is on a contingency basis, meaning the lawyers will be paid only if they win.

The attorneys will receive 30 percent of any money awarded to Douglas County or the attorneys fees ordered by a judge, whichever is greater, according to the proposed contract. The county would receive the rest.

The agreement approved Tuesday was amended to make it clear that the county would not be expected to pay any legal fees if the lawsuit doesnt succeed.

Numerous counties and cities and a handful of states have filed such lawsuits. Generally they claim that drugmakers and distributors used deceptive marketing practices and failed to warn doctors how addictive the painkillers are.

The lawsuits seek to recover costs associated with public health care, law enforcement and jail expenses.
Barba Edwards was born with a cleft palate and struggled with speech as a little girl, but her voice was powerful on a variety of topics as an adult.

Edwards, an Omaha nurse and advocate for the vulnerable, was the first black president of the Association of Operating Room Nurses, a national organization that now goes by the name of Association of periOperative Registered Nurses.

Edwards, 87, died Dec. 11 at an Alzheimers care facility in Omaha after a long struggle with that disease.

She was chief nursing executive and director of surgery at Bergan Mercy Medical Center in the 1980s.

She also had studied music and cooking in Europe.

She and her late sister Tessie, a teacher, were known for throwing teas and dinners in their central Omaha home.

She was born with a severe cleft palate, and children made fun of her, said another sister, Paulyne Y. Campbell. And after that she was determined to be the best she could be in whatever she did.

Amy Haddad, a professor in Creighton Universitys Center for Health Policy and Ethics, said her mother, Paula, became friends with Edwards because both went through St. Joseph Hospitals nursing certificate program.

Haddad was teaching at the College of St. Mary when she partnered with Edwards to establish an ethics committee at Bergan.

It was lovely to work with her, but it was also lovely to be her friend, Haddad said. She was passionate about patient-centered care, their safety. They came first. And she was in a position to make a difference.

Edwards earned a bachelors degree from Creighton University and a masters from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

She wrote a book published in 1981, Communication in Nursing Practice, with a UNO professor, John Jack Brilhart.

She also participated in studies and reports by the League of Women Voters. They included examinations of how local courts handled domestic violence cases and how the juvenile detention system was performing.

She did not back down, said Joanna Lindberg, with whom Edwards worked on League of Women Voters projects. She was really comfortable talking truth to power.

Edwards also served on the Douglas County Health Center Foundation Board with Clare Duda of the Douglas County Board.

Her passion was just intense and her dreams were big, Duda said.

Diana Nielsen, director of oncology at Bergan Mercy, said Edwards focused on excellence, integrity and compassion.

Barba was a professionals professional, Nielsen said.

Besides Campbell, Edwards is survived by nieces, great nieces, nephews and great nephews.

Her funeral service was Monday.
The Omaha Police Department is a step closer to full deployment of automatic body cameras.

The Omaha City Council on Tuesday signed off on a plan by the department to purchase 460 body cameras that will activate automatically.

The contract with Axon will also upgrade the departments existing 115 body cameras so that they too have automatic activation technology.

With the approval, Omaha is believed to be the first major city in the U.S. to have full deployment of automatic body cameras.

The city is set to be reimbursed $1.4 million for the cameras with a donation from the Omaha Police Foundation, a nonprofit that raises private money to buy equipment and support the police.

Omaha Deputy Police Chief Kerry Neumann said the fundraising effort is going well.

Were comfortable enough to move forward, he said.

The department will roll out the cameras in phases starting in May, with most in place by the end of 2018.

It aims to equip most of its uniformed patrol officers with the cameras, plus gang unit officers and those who frequently interact with the public.

Council Vice President Chris Jerram said evidence shows that the cameras improve encounters with police for both citizens and officers.

Im glad to see were making such an expansion, he said.

The cameras will activate when an officer readies a Taser, turns on a cruisers emergency lights or its dashboard-mounted camera, or when other body cameras in the area are turned on.

The department will test a newer feature that starts the camera when an officer draws a gun.

The contract with Axon will fund storage of the video.
KEARNEY, Nebraska  The Nebraska Court of Appeals has overturned a Buffalo County judges decision to put a man on probation for a felony sexual assault conviction.

In its ruling, issued Tuesday, the Court of Appeals said Buffalo County District Court Judge Bill Wright considered forbidden and irrelevant factors when he decided to place Taylor Welty-Hackett on probation.

In February, Wright placed Welty-Hackett on four years of intensive supervised probation for attempted felony first-degree sexual assault of a then-12-year-old girl on Aug. 1, 2015, in Kearney. The charge is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

The Court of Appeals ordered that Welty-Hacketts case be sent back to Buffalo County District Court, where he will be re-sentenced by a different judge. A hearing date hasnt been set.

Wright and Buffalo County Attorney Shawn Eatherton both declined to comment on the case. Earlier, Eatherton had argued Welty-Hacketts sentence was too lenient.

During the Feb. 23 sentencing hearing, Wright called Welty-Hacketts victim the "aggressor" in the case saying, "She made the advances."

Wright also told Welty-Hackett he "screwed up big time, but Ive got to find some way of bringing balance back into the system, given the nature of whats been occurring in this community."

The Court of Appeals said Wrights statement about the promiscuity of teenage girls and the need to bring "balance" into sentencing sexual offenders went beyond consideration of the facts in the case.

The Court of Appeals ruled Wright wasnt excusing or justifying Welty-Hacketts actions and specifically stated the victims actions didnt "excuse the act." Wright had noted a lack of information in a state probation background check as it related to factors in making his decision.

In the ruling, the Court of Appeals said it couldnt determine from Wrights comments how much weight was given to the permissible and relevant sentencing factors compared with the forbidden and irrelevant factors. But it appeared that the trial court judges reliance upon the impermissible and irrelevant sentence factors largely influenced his decision to impose probation, the court said.

Court records outlined the case against Welty-Hackett:

In August 2015, the Kearney Police Department received a report the then-12-year-old girl had sex with Welty-Hackett, 21 at the time. The girl had contacted Welty-Hackett on social media.

In September 2015, police obtained four social media files in which Welty-Hackett admitted to having sex with the girl.

Kearney police spoke with the victim, but she declined an interview. An interview with Welty-Hackett revealed the girl claimed to be 22. The two randomly met on social media and eventually met in Kearney and had sex.

The victim didnt cooperate with law enforcement.

According to the court transcript from the sentencing, Wright said although it was clear Welty-Hackett had sex with a 12-year-old, there was minimal information in a state probation background check of Welty-Hackett to know what Welty-Hackett knew about the victim.

Wright said from what he could tell, all contact or all initiation of contact between the two was made by the 12-year-old, and that there was very little background information about what the 12-year-old looked like.

According to Welty-Hacketts account of what happened, the victim was interested in having sex and contacted him, even though she only knew of Welty-Hackett by reputation.

"She was the aggressor, she made the advances," Wright said. "She actually grabbed him sexually and asked whether he was going to bring condoms."

Although it didnt excuse the incident, Wright said, it reminded him of repeated incidents he had heard about over the last several years of girls who have "decided they want an experience and go out and force the issue with people they know are older and probably ought to know a hell of a lot better."

By placing Welty-Hackett on probation, the judge said he was trying to be fair to both parties.
Nebraska continues along a path of slow and steady population growth, posting some of the regions best gains in the past year despite absorbing some recent economic jolts.

Nebraskas population on July 1, 2017, stood at 1.92 million, up 12,473 people over the previous year, according to the latest population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Thats .65 of 1 percent, a growth rate that was the 20th-highest among the states.

It was another good year for Nebraskas population growth, and pretty steady compared to recent years, said David Drozd, a demographer with the University of Nebraska at Omahas Center for Public Affairs Research.

Iowas population grew .47 percent for the year, to stand at 3.15 million.

Nebraska was not far below the U.S. growth rate of .72 percent.

Nebraskas numbers could have been worse. Nebraska has seen the loss of some big employers in the past couple of years, including the relocation of Conagras corporate headquarters, the sale of Cabelas and the closure of the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant.

Drozd said those changes most likely were reflected in domestic migration numbers, with Nebraska losing a net of about 3,500 residents to other states. But that was offset by an increase of 5,000 in international migrants. The state also added 11,000 residents through births exceeding deaths.

While the percentage growth was the second lowest Nebraska has seen in the past decade, the growth overall was in line with what the state has been seeing. Since 2009, the state has gained about 12,000 to 13,000 every year.

This was the 30th consecutive year that Nebraska has posted population growth, dating back to population losses during the 1980s farm crisis.

The numbers continue to bode well for Nebraska looking ahead to the congressional reapportionment coming after the official 2020 Census count. Drozd said Nebraska is in a good position to retain all three of its seats in the 435-member U.S. House of Representatives.

With Nebraska again having an annual growth rate near the U.S. average, it is becoming more and more certain that Nebraska will keep its three congressional seats, Drozd said.

Idaho led the nation in percentage of growth at 2.2 percent, followed by Nevada at 2 percent and Utah at 1.9 percent. Texas saw the biggest numeric growth, adding just under 400,000 citizens.

Eight states lost population, with Wyomings 1 percent loss topping the list. Other states seeing declines were North Dakota, Alaska, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Illinois and West Virginia.
LINCOLN  A Gretna state senator is not giving up on bringing voter identification to Nebraska.

Days after an opponent of voter ID visited Omaha, Sen. John Murante called a press conference Tuesday to say he plans to introduce a package of legislation with more than one option for enacting voter ID in the state.

The details are still being worked out, and the senator did not offer specifics.

I am confident that these options will preserve the integrity of our elections without turning a single lawful voter away from the polls, Murante said.

Murante also said he would continue to fight in the coming session for Legislative Resolution 1CA, which asks Nebraskans whether they want to put a photo ID requirement in the State Constitution. If adopted by the full Legislature, ballot language on the constitutional amendment would then go before voters. In May, the resolution failed to overcome a filibuster.

State Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha opposed the resolution and at the time said voter ID is intended to discourage poor and minority voters from going to the polls.

On Tuesday, Wayne said he would adamantly oppose attempts to bring voter ID to Nebraska.

We have other priorities right now, Wayne said. And this is political at best.

Wayne said the state does not have the money to ensure that every person has a state-issued ID. He said the best way to secure the states elections is to upgrade election technology.

Murante, a GOP candidate for state treasurer, also took issue with a recent visit to Omaha by Jason Kander of Let America Vote. The former Missouri secretary of state spoke at an event on Thursday. The event was sponsored by the nonprofit Nebraskans for Civic Reform, which is run by State Sen. Adam Morfeld of Lincoln.

Kander said his goal is to make sure there are political consequences for politicians who pass voter ID and similar laws, which he described as a Republican strategy to make it harder for people who are generally Democrats to vote.

If you make it harder to vote, well make it harder to get re-elected, Kander said.

Murante was named to the organizations Voter Suppression Hall of Shame, which lists elected officials the group says support voter suppression bills.

Murante said Kanders comments are an attempt to intimidate conservative senators into voting against the will of their constituents.

To Mr. Kander and his liberal cronies, voter ID might be a bad idea, but to Nebraskans, its common sense, Murante said.

I will not give in to the attacks of these leftist elites, Murante said. I will stand strong. And I will continue to fight for our elections, to make our elections more safe and secure, and to ensure the voice of the people is truly heard.

Kander responded Tuesday through a spokesman.

Sen. Murante should get used to being called out for his un-American assault on voting rights unless he ends his support for restrictive, unnecessary and ineffective proposals that have already been defeated in Nebraska with bipartisan opposition.
LINCOLN  The Nebraska State Patrol has fired a veteran, decorated trooper over his role in the internal investigation of a fatal high-speed chase in 2016.

Trooper Tim Flick of Chadron, whose 20 years with the patrol included being shot three times during an armed standoff in 2012, was one of seven officers who either resigned, retired or were disciplined this week for violating internal policy and procedures. Although Col. John Bolduc declined to name the disciplined personnel Wednesday, multiple sources had previously confirmed Flick as one of the officers placed on paid administrative leave last summer.

The labor union that represents troopers issued a statement Wednesday saying it stands in full support of Trooper Flick and will not rest until this unjust offense against his reputation is reversed in arbitration.

Flick engaged in a high-speed chase in northwest Nebraska last year that resulted in the death of a fleeing drunken driver. Although a grand jury cleared him of criminal wrongdoing in the chase, the recent internal investigation reviewed statements he made to investigators in the wake of the crash.

The termination represented the most severe punishment against any of the officers who have been on leave since June 30, the day Gov. Pete Ricketts fired the patrols superintendent, Col. Brad Rice, for allegedly interfering in two internal use-of-force investigations. One involved the fatal chase; the other involved a trooper who used a state-issued rifle to deliver a blow to a drunken motorist in 2016, also in northwest Nebraska.

Bolduc, hired several months ago to replace Rice, said he knows the discipline he ordered Wednesday could negatively affect morale at the agency, especially among the roughly 450 uniformed officers.

I want you to know I have your back, Bolduc said, directing comments to troopers during a press conference in Lincoln. But having your back isnt a blank check for every error. There must be accountability. Unfortunately there are some mistakes that just cant be tolerated.

Bolduc said the patrols internal investigation division spent more than 1,000 hours over 15 weeks interviewing 46 people and filing hundreds of pages of reports. While he said he doesnt expect his personnel to like the results, he asked them to respect the process.

Confidentiality requirements spelled out in both labor agreements and state personnel rules prevented Bolduc from discussing the investigation in any detail, he said. Pressed by reporters to give a general sense of the violations, however, he said truthfulness emerged as an issue.

The standard isnt perfection, the standard is honesty, he said.

Meanwhile, related investigations into potential criminal wrongdoing at the patrol remain underway. Joe Stecher, a special prosecutor assigned to investigate matters related to the fatal chase in Sheridan County, said this week that he hopes to reach a decision on potential charges as soon as next month.

The matter also has been turned over to the FBI and the U.S. Attorneys Office in Omaha.

The World-Herald has investigated the two use-of-force cases, which were detailed in stories published prior to and immediately after Rices termination.

The first incident occurred March 4, 2016, in Sioux County at the end of a high-speed chase. A trooper used the butt of his patrol-issued rifle to strike the drunken driver. The man was not seriously injured and the trooper has since resigned.

Then, on Oct. 3, 2016, Flick was involved in the fatal high-speed chase. The trooper initially said he used a tactical vehicle intervention, or TVI, to bump the fleeing vehicle in an effort to cause it to safely spin out.

But the official narrative changed as command staff got involved, and Rice eventually concluded that the fleeing vehicle swerved into the trooper.

In addition to the termination of a trooper, a lieutenant colonel retired and a sergeant resigned, Bolduc said in an email sent to patrol staff that was obtained by The World-Herald before the press conference. A patrol major was demoted to captain and a patrol captain was demoted to sergeant. And finally, one sergeant and one trooper were given administrative penalties but allowed to remain in their current positions.

All but one of the officers  a trooper  had been on paid administrative leave since June 30. A personnel review ordered by the governor and released in August indicated that Rice and the six suspended officers had engaged in conduct that gives rise to a reasonable suspicion of dishonesty and/or dereliction of duty.

The World-Herald has previously confirmed the identities of six officers on leave:

 Lt. Col. Thomas Schwarten of Lincoln, who ranked second in command under Rice. He and Rice both would have had final oversight of the internal investigations stemming from the fatal high-speed chase and the rifle-butt strike. Schwarten had been with the agency for 30 years, which made him eligible for retirement.

 Maj. Mike Gaudreault, who commanded the field services division and was responsible for patrol troopers, carrier troopers, police service dog handlers and pilots. His division includes the field personnel involved in both incidents. He is stationed in Lincoln.

 Capt. Jamey Balthazor of Scottsbluff, who was the top supervisor of Troop E, a region that encompasses 11 counties in the Panhandle. Both of the incidents took place in the region.

 Sgt. Kevin Waugh, with the patrols Chadron office, which is part of Troop E. He supervised troopers involved in both the high-speed chase and the rifle-butt strike.

 Sgt. Travis Wallace, an investigator and accident reconstructionist stationed in Scottsbluff. He investigated the high-speed chase and reached a conclusion questioned by others within the agency.

The identity of the other trooper who was disciplined could not be confirmed Wednesday.

Patrol members who hold the rank of sergeant, trooper or investigator are covered under the labor agreement with the State Troopers Association of Nebraska. Those individuals have a right to appeal the disciplinary actions to an arbitrator.

Dave Domina, an Omaha attorney who represents Flick, declined to discuss any discipline against his client Wednesday. But Domina said the trooper will pursue arbitration.

He has served the state honorably throughout his career, and he will contest this, Domina said.

The union also issued a statement defending Wallace, the accident reconstructionist. It said the sergeant gave his opinion, as he was called to do.

Wallace, the union said, was disciplined for some technical policy violations, and he has accepted responsibility for these. He is weighing whether to appeal.

Gary Young, the Lincoln attorney who represents the troopers union, said that from what he knows about the cases, Wednesdays actions are not justified. And he predicted that they will hurt agency morale.

They are uneasy about whether they will be treated fairly in critical situations, Young said. The actions today will certainly increase their concerns.

State Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, a sharp critic of law enforcement, said Wednesday that he was encouraged that the new patrol superintendent showed a willingness to hold his staff accountable. But the senator said that for now he will withhold judgment on whether Bolduc had taken sufficient action.

State Sen. Tom Brewer of Gordon, whose legislative district includes the counties where the critical incidents occurred, said he wanted more information about the investigation. Without more transparency, neither policymakers nor the public can judge whether the disciplinary actions were fair or even warranted.

Brewer said he personally knows the fired trooper, calling him an outstanding officer. Flick received the agencys Honorable Service Award in 2013.

I think the patrol has taken an extreme action, Brewer said.
The writer, a major general, is adjutant general of the Nebraska National Guard.

As Nebraskans complete a yearlong celebration of 150 years of statehood, the Nebraska National Guard is celebrating two significant milestones in December.

On Dec. 13, the National Guard marked its 381st birthday, harkening back to its formation in 1636, when the Massachusetts General Court in Salem ordered all able-bodied men between the ages of 16 and 60 to form into militia units.

Two centuries later, on Dec. 23, 1854, the Nebraska National Guard was established when acting territorial Gov. Thomas Cuming issued a proclamation organizing two militia regiments, one north and one south of the Platte River.

Over the next 163 years, the Nebraska National Guard has evolved into an organization our predecessors would hardly recognize but would undoubtedly take great pride in.

While our missions and people have changed, our unfailing pursuit to help keep our state and nation safe has never wavered. Today our three enduring responsibilities are the warfight, the homeland and partnerships.

Todays Nebraska National Guard consists of 3,314 soldiers and 1,012 airmen, supported by 244 federal and state civilian employees, serving in facilities in 23 communities across the state. Our strength comes from our citizen soldiers and airmen who hail from nearly all 93 Nebraska counties and the families and civilian employers who support them.

Our mission is to prepare combat- ready forces and, when called upon by the governor, protect the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of the state.

We conduct combat operations around the globe, serve to defend the homeland and build partnerships here and abroad.

Todays Nebraska National Guard soldiers and airmen expect to deploy in defense of our nation.

This past year, four Nebraska Army National Guard units and dozens of Nebraska airmen returned home from deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, Qatar and other locations around the world.

As they returned, three units began deployments to places such as Cuba and the Horn of Africa.

We do this with an all-volunteer force willing to go, as they leave their families behind, to do our nations work.

Their work is dangerous, but you can have great confidence in knowing we have some of the best-trained, best-equipped soldiers and airmen in the world, and we do everything we can to ensure we bring everyone home.

Wherever disaster strikes, Nebraska soldiers and airmen stand ready to serve their fellow citizens. In 2017 we carried out the longest continuous out-of-state disaster response operation in Nebraska National Guard history. Beginning in late August and continuing until this month, hundreds of Nebraska soldiers and airmen responded when three separate hurricanes unleashed unimaginable devastation upon Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Nebraskans should take enormous pride in knowing that their soldiers and airmen made a major difference in the lives of those affected.

The Nebraska National Guard is also building important local, national and international partnerships. We continue to engage with Nebraska educators, governmental organizations and our fellow citizens.

We also participated in numerous overseas exercises to strengthen important alliances. We, along with the Texas National Guard, continue to work closely with our Czech Republic partners  a state partnership program effort that will mark its 25th anniversary next July.

Because of these successful global engagements, the United States will continue to be a beacon of hope for the world.

The warfight, defense of the homeland and our partnerships continue to shape the Nebraska National Guard of today and tomorrow. Yet our ties to our original militia heritage remain as strong as ever. Just like our forbears, we are prepared to lay down our plowshares and pick up our muskets whenever our state or nation calls.

We stand with and for Nebraska because we are a part of the fabric of our great state. With our fellow Nebraskans amazing support, your Nebraska National Guard continues to be Always Ready, Always There.
#Itaewon Yongsan Ward chief, senior police officer summoned over Itaewon crush probe Police brought in a Yongsan Ward chief for questioning on Friday as part of an investigation into the crowd crush in Seoul's Itaewon neighborhood. Yongsan Ward office chief Park...
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

The dog's ears perked up when Danielle Balzer played a video of her other dog howling, which has been missing for four months until a few days ago.

For four long months, Balzer has been without her Alaskan malamute, Mollie, that went missing in August when she traveled from her Colorado home to pay her parents a visit in Midland. Over the weekend, a group of women worked together to trap Mollie in the Hemlock area.

Mollie is currently safe and healthy, and will hopefully be coming home sometime this week, Balzer said.

The 24-year-old Auburn native credits the greater Midland area with locating her dog. Mollie has gained a large following on social media in the months she was missing, and strangers would tell Balzer they were looking for her dog.

"Everyone helped," Balzer said. "There were kids that called for Mollie when they went to school. It's hard for me to just praise certain people because it was everyone's eyes and ears that brought her home."

Balzer was heartbroken when she had to return back to her home in Colorado without Mollie.

"It was really hard leaving without a clue or trail of evidence proving she was alive," Balzer said. "We had a lot of unanswered questions and it was very hard for us to leave."

There were lots of dog sightings reported around the same time Mollie went missing, Balzer said, but there was no photo proof her dog specifically had been spotted until about last week.

Lauren and Shelby Vigue posted a picture on a Midland lost pets Facebook group, and Balzer could tell the dog pictured was probably Mollie. The Vigue sisters partnered with Jenna Dunn, an animal shelter volunteer and animal advocate, to trap Mollie. Armed with trail cameras and patience, they were able to secure Mollie, who currently resides with Dunn until she can be reunited with her owner.

"It's been the longest waiting game of my life," Balzer said. "It's been a crazy wild four months, I still can't believe where I'm at."

Dunn took Mollie to the vet and said she is healthy, and relaxing until she can see her owner again. Dunn and Balzer hope to meet up this week so Mollie can finally return home.

"She was spotted in Hemlock for the last month and people didn't know what they were seeing, and thought it might be a wolf," Dunn said.

Dunn has helped owners find missing pets in the past, and knew she needed to use the largest trap on the market to safely trap Mollie.

"You learn as you go, I just have started helping reuniting cats and dogs so it's a passion, it's what I like to do," Dunn said.

Balzer is grateful of Dunn's help. Dunn has been "following Mollie since Mollie left," Balzer said, and helped her make posters around town. To help Dunn's work of reuniting pets with her owners, she started an online crowd funding effort.

When I got (Mollie) a year ago she was scared, very shy and very docile," Balzer said. "But we had an instant connection, and it didn't take long and she was always lying next to me. She didn't want to ever see me out of her sight."

Balzer said she became inseparable with Mollie, who also became very close with her other dog, Naomi. When she played a video Dunn posted on Facebook a couple days ago of Mollie howling, Naomi's ears perked up, and she was alertly focused on the screen. Like Balzer, Naomi took Mollie's absence really hard.

"She's healthy and ready to come home," Balzer said.
A be on the lookout call for a runaway teen Tuesday ended with Midland County sheriffs deputies and Michigan State Police troopers working together to track two suspects through the woods.

The Midland County Sheriffs Office reports deputies received the be on the lookout call from Ogemaw County at 10:26 a.m.

The call said a 14-year-old girl had run away from home and might be with two men, both of whom were wanted on warrants, and officials were concerned she might be in danger, Capt. Tracy Thomas said. The group was said to be driving a white PT Cruiser.

A deputy who was driving on M-30 in Edenville Township spotted the PT Cruiser at 11:18 a.m., and turned around to follow it. The suspects in the other vehicle saw the deputy, and tried to evade detection by pulling into a farm and hiding behind a barn.

Thomas said the suspects then drove down a two-track into the woods, where the car got stuck. Deputies were setting up a perimeter when state police troopers arrived.

The suspects were found near the Tittabawassee River, where they were taken into custody at 11:44 a.m.

The suspects, a Saginaw man and a West Branch man, both 41 years old, were turned over to the state police. Charges include resisting officers, fleeing and eluding, and failing to register with the states sex offender registry, according to Midland County Jail records.

Thomas said the runaway teen was found with the suspects, unharmed. She also was turned over to the state police.
A Midland woman has entered a no contest plea in the case of a fatal motorcycle crash that occurred on city streets in July.

Vicky Lynn Sowden, 59, appeared Tuesday morning before Midland County District Court Judge Michael D. Carpenter to make the plea to one count of moving violation causing death.

A no contest plea is an acceptance of responsibility which is treated as a guilty plea for sentencing purposes, the judge explained to Sowden.

It was used in this case due to civil liability, and there is no sentencing agreement.

The misdemeanor charge was filed in connection with the July 19 crash that occurred at the intersection of Wheeler Street and Swede Avenue, and took the life of motorcyclist Reggie Dean Schmalbeck, 62, Auburn.

Before accepting the plea, Carpenter read excerpts from an affidavit detailing the crash.

Midland Police reported Schmalbeck was driving a 2008 Honda GL1800 west on Wheeler when the motorcycle and a 2013 GMC Yukon, driven by Sowden, collided. Sowden was headed east on Wheeler and was making a left hand turn to Swede.

A witness told officers the driver of the SUV should have yielded to the motorcyclist, Carpenter read from the papers. "There were other witnesses at the scene all indicating the same thing," he said.

A firefighter at the scene told a Midland Police officer that Sowden stated, "It was my fault. I turned in front of the motorcycle," Carpenter read.

Schmalbeck was wearing a helmet. He was taken to MidMichigan Medical Center-Midland, where he died days later.

Sowden is being represented by attorney Richard L. Lee of Midland. Sentencing has been set for Feb. 5.

The charge is punishable by up to one year in jail.
Its a Christmas miracle! Selected as one of only 50 locations worldwide, North Parks own Polite Provisions is participating in the beloved Miracle pop-up at its 30th street location. Launched in 2014 in New York City, the annual event draws in crowds to celebrate the holidays between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve.

The San Diego event, entitled Miracle on 30th Street, has Polite Provisions adorned in a festive array of garland, lights and a vintage decor, including kitschy glassware and mugs.

Other cities taking part in the event include Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, Montreal, Paris, and Panama City, Panama. Each of the pop-ups worldwide feature 10 Miracle cocktails, with each lending their own local twist.

PACIFIC spoke with Brian Vong, manager of Polite Provisions for the lowdown on Miracle on 30th and his top suggestions for cocktails and Christmas gifts.

PACIFIC: Being one of only 50 bars in the world for Miracle is impressive. How did you get involved in the pop-up?

VONG: The founding Miracle team has been a fan of Polite Provisions since its opening and reached out to us. Of course we jumped at the opportunity to bring some of that festive, Yuletide spirit to sunny San Diego!

What in the world is the Budweiser-marshmallow syrup seen in the Youll Shoot Your Rye Out cocktail?

Top secret deliciousness combining two great things, marshmallow fluff and a nice, crisp lager. Its a total game changer and brings a great malty depth to the cocktail. (See what else in in this cocktails at end of story)

Whats your favorite cocktail on the list?

My personal favorite would have to be the Run Run Rudolph. Im a sucker for chocolate and this cocktail is essentially a take on a Mexican hot chocolate combining great spices with chocolaty goodness. We top it off with whipped cinnamon cream and cocoa powder to combine nostalgia with something truly delicious.

Best Christmas present for a cocktail lover?

The Bar Book: Elements of Cocktail Technique by Jeffrey Morgenthaler. This book is great for anyone getting into serious cocktail making. Whether you are a home enthusiast or an old pro, you will learn loads from all of the interesting information in here.

Favorite thing about the holidays?

The excitement and energy in the air  even here in San Diego, when were more likely to be in the middle of a December Santa Ana than pleasant winter chill  its hard to not enjoy the holidays with all the shining lights and smiling faces.

Not-to-miss cocktails at Miracle on 30th Street

Christmapolitan: Vodka, elderflower, dry vermouth, spiced cranberry sauce, rosemary, lime, Absinthe mist

Fa La La La La, La La La La: Gin, aquavit, hazelnut liqueur, cardamom, vanilla, lemon, egg white, club soda

Bad Santa (served hot): Mulled red wine, tawny port, orange liqueur, spices, golden raisins

Youll Shoot Your Rye Out: Pumpkin spiced rye whiskey, Budweiser-marshmallow syrup, egg

Miracle on 30th Street runs through Dec. 24. Join in on the festivities by hashtagging Polite Provisions Miracle drinks with #MiracleCocktails.

4696 30th St., North Park, 619.269.4701, politeprovisions.com
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.
BLOOMINGTON  Another wind farm is coming to McLean County.

After nearly two years studying the area and securing easements from local landowners, Chicago alternative energy company Invenergy has submitted paperwork for a county permit that would allow construction of a new McLean County Wind Energy Center to start in the next two years.

Invenergy plans to construct about 100 turbines and related infrastructure across more than 100 parcels in Chenoa, Gridley, Lawndale, Lexington and Money Creek townships, according to county records.

"The project will power approximately 69,000 homes (with a 250-megawatt capacity)," according to a permit application. "The project will likely commence construction in 2018 or 2019 with the goal of being operational in 2019 or 2020."

The project could create 35 long-term jobs and at least $2.3 million in new annual taxes in the county, according to a study by David Loomis, an Illinois State University economics professor who directs its renewable energy center.

Invenergy officials could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. Officials have not said how much the farm will cost to build.

The affected area starts south of Chenoa, west of town, and runs southeast around Lexington toward Colfax. It totals about 13,000 acres.

"The project location was selected due to the areas strong wind resource, land use, and proximity to existing transmission infrastructure," according to the permit application.

The permit would allow "wind turbine generators that are up to 500 feet in height, as well as any access roads, transformers, power lines, communication lines, interconnection lines, substation, construction lay-down yards and other ancillary facilities or structures," states a county notice.

"The application also requests that the time period to apply for building permits for the (farm) be extended to three years, rather than two years as provided by the McLean County Zoning Ordinance," according to the notice.

The permit will be the subject of a public hearing at the county's next zoning board of appeals meeting, 7 p.m. Jan. 2 in room 2400 at Heartland Community College's Astroth Community Education Center in Normal.

Another company, EDP Renewables, has been competing to build a wind farm in the same area. Officials with that firm did not respond to requests for comment.
BLOOMINGTON  Two people have died this week in McLean County as a result of flu, Coroner Kathy Davis said Wednesday morning.

We have two deaths related to influenza A, she said. One came in from Michigan into Illinois but was a 25-year-old. The other was in an assisted living facility.

Over the last decade in Illinois, an average of 3,500 people died each year because of influenza, commonly called the flu, and pneumonia.

Some hospitals already have enacted voluntary visitor restrictions and several schools in Illinois have reported flu outbreaks.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are four types of influenza, categorized as A, B, C, and D. Type A is the most common.

We just need to remind people to stay home if they are sick, get a flu vaccine if you have not had one and just try to limit the spread of this in any way we can, said Davis.

The CDC said last week that flu season across the country looks to be early and severe. The Illinois Department of Public Health does not track flu cases, just the number of people who are hospitalized.

According to the IDPH, a typical flu case includes fever (usually 100 degrees to 103 degrees in adults and often even higher in children); respiratory symptoms, such as a cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose; headache; muscle aches; and extreme fatigue.

Although nausea, vomiting and diarrhea can sometimes accompany influenza infection, especially in children, these are rarely the primary symptoms.

A person can be showing no signs of the flu, and then quickly they get the severe body aches, and they go from feeling fine to feeling like everything is turned upside-down, said Lisa Slater, a spokeswoman for the McLean County Health Department. We urge them to get to the doctor because drugs such as Tamiflu can shorten the duration and lessen the severity.

Most people who get the flu recover in one to two weeks, but some people develop serious and potentially life-threatening medical complications, such as pneumonia.

The flu can be contagious, but there are precautions that can be taken to reduce the spread of the disease, Slater said.

If someone is recuperating from the flu in a home with multiple people, assign one person to be the caregiver, she said. Also, keep the sick person confined to one room, preferably with a bed, couch and television, so everything can be contained to one area. Also, use as many disposable things as possible, like cups, plates, utensils and things like that.

Many families will be traveling or attending holiday events in the next few days, which could make for some tough decisions, she added.

Its hard, but if someone truly is sick, they shouldnt go, and this goes for children, too, she said.

One thing to keep in mind that if someone is taking an anti-fever medication and their fever is down, that doesnt mean they arent sick," she added. "They should have no fever for 24 hours without any anti-fever medication to know for sure.

Sue Rutherford, a nurse at Bent Elementary School in Bloomington, said the school is starting to see an increase in absences due to the flu.

Younger students can be more at-risk with spreading illness due to how closely they interact with each other and are also at risk for complications from illness, she said.

Flu-related complications can occur at any age, but the elderly and people with chronic health problems are much more likely to develop serious complications after influenza infection than are young, healthier people, say health officials.
BLOOMINGTON  A 22-year-old woman pleaded guilty Wednesday morning to first-degree murder in the stabbing death of her mother in July.

Christine Roush of Washington was charged with killing her biological mother, Teresa Ann Poehlman, by stabbing her and then leaving her body in a secluded area of Funks Grove Nature Preserve.

Roush faces 20 to 60 years in prison when she is sentenced Jan. 31. Her plea did not include an agreement on a sentence.
EAST CHICAGO, Ind.  A Gary man arrested Sunday in Normal is accused in the May 11 shooting death of a 4-year-old child in the city's Harbor section, police said.

Lamario E. Delgado-Gonzalez, 23, is charged in the death of Garrion Glover Jr., said East Chicago police Lt. Marguerite Wilder.

Relatives told police after the boy died that he must have found a weapon in apartment where he was living, and accidentally shot himself. But the Lake County Coroner's office later ruled Glover's death a homicide.

Bloomington police said Delgado-Gonzalez was arrested Sunday and booked into the McLean County jail about 3 p.m. The Normal Police Department, the U.S. Marshals Violent Fugitive Task Force and K-9 units from Bloomington and Normal assisted in the arrest.

East Chicago police said in June they had been suspicious about inconsistent statements given during the investigation into the child's death. The boy suffered a gunshot wound to the neck.

Glover's mother told police she was awakened by a noise in the living room of their apartment. She told police she went to investigate and saw her son unresponsive on the floor, near a couch.

A man told police he was sleeping on the couch when he heard a noise and was awakened by his sister and saw his nephew on the floor next to the couch, police said.

Glover was taken to St. Catherine Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Delgado-Gonzalez is awaiting extradition to Lake County.

As of Tuesday, he was the only person charged in connection with the boy's death, Wilder said.
In the debate over net neutrality, one key question has not been sufficiently answered.

What, exactly, was going wrong with the rules that were in effect? Who, exactly, was being prevented from doing anything when net neutrality was the law of the land?

We still don't know the answer to the latter, and we won't for some time. Net neutrality cases will clog federal and district courts for years. The matter may end up in the hands of the Supreme Court.

Legal minds around the country have made their position clear. The ink was barely dry on the ruling reversing net neutrality when attorneys general around the country announced their plans to contest the ruling. Among those battling are attorneys general in New York, Washington, California, Kentucky, and Illinois' Lisa Madigan.

Too often, discussions about computers and the internet are left to the few who understand the complexity of the issue, and the rest of us, overwhelmed with difficulty grasping the concepts, are left to go along with whatever decisions are made.

There's scant evidence of everyday internet users seeing any benefits from the elimination of net neutrality.

The law of network neutrality says all users have equal access to content providers. Comcast, or AT&T, or Sprint, or any other broadband network supplier cannot block content, slow speeds to regulate bandwidth use, or allow prioritized access for a fee.

It's difficult to set aside suspicions that the latter regulation is the one that specifically interests big business.

The internet plays a wider, and growing role in the vitality of our lives. Our ability to communicate and learn has been enhanced exponentially, and a key part of that enhancement has come from the utilization of higher speeds and extended bandwidth use.

The discussion could solve itself more quickly than anyone expects. Public Knowledges Harold Feld, a pro-neutrality lawyer, said, The history of net neutrality is that whenever you get rid of the rules, one of the carriers does something stupid that makes people very upset.

We've seen repeated outrage as internet providers have been discovered giving positive or negative attention to specific content providers.

This is an issue millions of Americans are already involved with, as evidenced by the piles of messages received by the FCC during the public comment period on the issue. It's difficult to see the ruling standing if even a fraction of what doomsayers predict comes to pass.

Perhaps those predicting an internet apocalypse are right. Perhaps those suggesting the regulation change will result in untold innovations and improvements are correct.

The first question that should be asked, again, is simple: What was wrong with net neutrality last week that has been made suddenly better for consumers today? Unless and until there's a satisfactory answer to that question, it's an unsatisfactory ruling.
Australia's Federation Square was designed to be recognized internationally as a contemporary world site and Melbourne's inspirational public space. Since opening in 2002, Fed Square has seen more than 100 million visits and has recently been named the 6th Best Public Square of the World in a list of 10 international icons including Naghsh-e Jahaan Square in Iran and Red Square in Moscow, Russia.

To make it an even better public space, The Melbourne City Council and Fed Square Pty Ltd were proud to share the exciting news late yesterday that Federation Square will be the home of a brand new Apple Global Flagship Store in 2020.





As Melbourne's most loved meeting place, Federation Square won out over a range of other global and Australian location options to be the destination of choice for Apple.

This isn't just any regular Apple shop  as a Global Flagship Store and Apple's most significant store in the Southern Hemisphere, the space will host workshops, classes, and live music events. It will add to the exciting program of events already delivered by Federation Square, its partners and cultural tenants such as ACMI, the Koorie Heritage Trust and the NGV.

The project will create nearly 500 square meters of new public space in Federation Square and connect Federation Square with the Yarra River and Birrarung Marr through the construction of a building which takes up less space than the current Yarra building it will replace.

This means more space in front of Federation Square's recently announced $5.4m screen evolution project, the Digital Experience Screen, and Stage which will build on major events as well as cultural and community festivals. You'll now be able to enjoy the best of Melbourne and a much better connection with our beautiful Yarra.

With construction anticipated to commence in mid-2019, the store has been designed to enhance Federation Square's world-renowned architecture. Original lead architect, Donald Bates has given his tick of approval.

Melbourne's City Council stated: "We're thrilled that Apple has chosen Melbourne and Federation Square for their new Global Flagship Store. We look forward to welcoming them as we continue to grow Federation Square as an innovative and exciting place for our community."



You could learn more about this on Australia News here.





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.
News and commentary on organized crime, street crime, white collar crime, cyber crime, sex crime, crime fiction, crime prevention, espionage and terrorism.
Former Iranian President Ahmadinejad Battling With Powerful Judiciary

12/19/17

Source: RFE/RL

Iran's chief prosecutor says authorities will soon issue an "appropriate" response to an ultimatum made by former President Mahmud Ahmadinejad to the country's powerful judiciary. Prosecutor-General Hojatoleslam Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said on December 18 that the judiciary will issue its response to Ahmadinejad "within a day or two."





Ahmadinejad's 48-hour deadline!

cartoon by Mehdi Ahmadian, Ghanoon daily



Ahmadinejad issued a 48-hour deadline for the judiciary on December 17, calling on it to issue documents proving that the former president and his close allies have been convicted of "sedition" and other crimes.



In an online video message, Ahmadinejad suggested that the ultimatum was a reaction to recent comments by judiciary head Sadegh Amoli Larijani, who had accused Ahmadinejad of damaging the Islamic establishment in Iran and involvement in "seditious acts."



"I call on the head of the judiciary to publish within 48 hours documents proving that we've been convicted of sedition, deviation, or supporting [jailed businessman Babak Zadjani, who has been sentenced to death for corruption]," Ahmadinejad said.



"Otherwise, I will tell the people my views about you and your performance in the past eight years and I would defend my rights through the appropriate venues," the former president added.



Montazeri has described Ahmadinejad's presidency as a period of "lawlessness and lies."



Read related coverage by Ghanoon daily



Ahmadinejad, who was president from 2005-13, has become increasingly isolated for challenging Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his powerful allies, namely the judiciary.



In his video message, Ahmadinejad said that "if the judiciary is reformed, then the whole country would be reformed."



Last month, the former president accused the judiciary of "dictatorship" and said that it is more powerful than Khamenei.



Earlier this year, the Guardians Council -- which vets presidential candidates -- prevented Ahmadinejad and one of his top aides from running in the May election in which President Hassan Rohani was reelected.



Khamenei had suggested before the decision by the Guardians Council that Ahmadinejad's candidacy would not be in the best interest of the country.



With reporting by ISNA, Dolatebahar.com, ILNA, and RFE/RL's Radio Farda
Tehran Prosecutor Ignores Imprisoned Iranian-Austrian Businessman's Request for Back Operation

12/20/17

Source: Center for Human Rights in Iran

The Tehran prosecutor has ignored a request by imprisoned Iranian-Austrian dual national Kamran Ghaderi for an urgent back operation, his wife told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). "Kamran has been suffering from a herniated spinal disk for a long time and now constant neck pain has been added to his problems as well," said Harika Ghaderi, who lives in Vienna, on December 15, 2017.



Kamran Ghaderi

"A specialist doctor outside the prison checked him months ago and recommended undergoing surgery but Kamran decided not to do it because he was worried that after the operation he would have to go straight back to prison," she said.

"Now his condition has gotten steadily worse and he can't walk or stand on his feet for more than a couple of minutes," she added. "A request was filed a month ago with the [Tehran] prosecutor to go ahead with the surgery but so far there has been no response."

During their last phone conversation, Ghaderi told his wife to tell his relatives in Tehran not to come to Evin Prison for their weekly visit because he is unable to walk, Harika Ghaderi told CHRI.

The 54-year-old businessman is about to enter the third of his 10-year prison sentence for the charge of "conducting espionage for enemy states." Khaderi confessed to the charge after his interrogators threatened him with arresting his wife.

He is awaiting a decision from the Supreme Court on his final appeal request.

The CEO of Avanoc, an Austrian IT management and consulting company, Ghaderi was arrested on January 2, 2016, in Tehran by agents of the Intelligence Ministry.

A resident of Vienna with his wife and three children, Ghaderi had traveled to Iran on many occasions for work and business seminars, including as a member of the Austrian delegation to Tehran led by then-President Heinz Fischer in October 2015.

"In the past two years I have written numerous letters to Iranian officials but I have received no response," Harika Ghaderi told CHRI.

She continued: "I don't know what else to do. My only request is for his freedom. He's only a businessman. He has done nothing against the Iranian government or anyone else. He has not seen his kids for two years. His health is getting worse every day. It's enough. Let him go."

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has arrested at least 30 dual nationals since the signing of the Iranian nuclear deal in July 2015, according to a Reuters investigation. At least 12 dual nationals, foreign nationals, and foreign permanent residents are currently imprisoned in Iran on national security charges.
IRAN: First national conference on citizens' rights held in Tehran

12/20/17

Source: Mehr News Agency

In a ceremony in the Islamic Summit Conference Building in Tehran on Tuesday (December 19, 2017), the first report on the 'Charter on Citizens' Rights' was released in the presence of President Rouhani and ministers, deputy ministers and other government officials.

Opening the ceremony entitled the "1st National Conference on Reporting the Progress and Solutions for Removing Obstacles to the Realisation of Charter on Citizens' Rights," Hassan Rouhani said "today is the anniversary of the Citizens' Rights Charter after it was released last year," adding that at first his government wanted all the ministers, deputies and other related officials to report their organizations' performances in terms of respecting citizens' rights to the people but at the end only some officials were tasked with doing so.

Following President Rouhani, his Special Assistant for Citizenship Rights Shahindokht Molaverdi presented her report on the implementation of the charter and declared that citizens' rights in Iran are facing cultural, managerial, political, economic, legal, and social challenges.



The president asked Molaverdi to establish a special website on which people can submit their viewpoints to the government.



Rouhani also thanked Elham Aminzadeh, his former assistant in citizenship rights for her efforts.

Following Rouhani and Molaverdi, Laya Joneydi, the vice president for Legal Affairs presented a report followed by Rouhani's comments.



The president said that If citizens' rights are to be constantly reviewed, the related government bodies and officials must hold regular meetings and present them to the ministries and the president.



Rouhani also thanked Majid Ansari, his former deputy for Legal Affairs for his efforts.



The ceremony continued with the speech of Ali Rabiei, the country's Minister of Labor, who represented his report on his ministry's performances in respecting citizens' rights.



Following minister of labor's report, Rouhani emphasized the role of his ministry in citizens' rights.

At the end of the ceremony, Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Abbas Salehi Amiri was another speaker who presented a report on the implementing the Citizens' Rights Charter and preserving citizens' rights at his ministry.



After Abbas Salehi's speech, the president thanked Ali Jannati, the former Minister of Culture and stressed the important role of that ministry in preserving citizens' rights, adding "the ministry of Culture must act in accordance with law and must preserve the rights of journalists, writers, artist, and other involved individuals."



The 'Charter on Citizens' Rights' was released in a conference in late autumn last year and all the government bodies were obliged to submit a report on their executive, administrative, and educational measures according to the charter before the end of Iranian year 1395 to the President's Advisor for Citizen's Rights. This ceremony was held a year after the release of the charter.
Iran, Turkey Azerbaijan agree to reject US decision on Jerusalem at UN

12/20/17

Source: Press TV

Iran, Turkey and Azerbaijan have rejected a US decision to recognize Jerusalem al-Quds as the "capital" of Israel. The three neighboring states agreed to adopt a united stance on Washington's new policy at an upcoming meeting of the UN General Assembly on the issue.

The agreement was reached during a trilateral meeting in Baku on Wednesday among Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Turkish and Azeri counterparts, Mevlut Cavusoglu and Elmar Mammadyarov.



Following the talks, Zarif said "rejection of the US decision on the holy city of al-Quds was among the issues agreed at the trilateral meeting...The three countries will also adopt a unified stance at the emergency meeting of the UN General Assembly," which will be held on Thursday.



The three top diplomats also discussed cooperation in different economic fields, including transit, transportation, customs and technology.



They also held talks on political issues of trilateral significance, including avenues of cooperation for promotion of regional peace and stability.



The ministers are also scheduled to hold separate bilateral meetings during their stay in Baku.
Iran's Royan Institute clones Murciana goat

12/20/17

Source: Mehr News Agency

Scientists at Iran's Royan Research Institute has succeeded in producing the country's third cloned goat belonging to Murcia-Granada breed of goat. Dr. Mahdi Hajian, Head of Embryology Department at Isfahan Campus of Royan Research Institute, made the announcement asserting "following successful cloning of Saanen and Alpine goats, we sought to clone a third one from Murcia-Granada breed."

Imported from Spain, these types have no particular season for breeding and the females can come into heat at any time of the year and produce a significant amount of milk, said the Iranian scientists while highlighting main characteristics of Murciana goats.



"We managed to extract a sample tissue from the imported goat's ear in order to obtain necessary stem cells," noted Hajian.



We were able to extract a sample of the tissue of the ears of this goat to extract the cells, resulting in simulation of the third goat in Royan Research Institute in the central city of Isfahan, Iran.



Hajian said the goat had been born a month ago since when its conditions have been analyzed and investigated.



Referring to the characteristics of the three cloned goats, he said "each simulated goat has its own unique features; the first two ones produce high milk yields."



"They yield about 3-4 kilos of milk while the newly-born one produces two to 2-3klograms of milk and instead is more resistant to heat."



Murciana goat can even tolerate high temperatures in southern regions of Iran, emphasized the Iranian embryologist.



Royan Institute



In 2006, Iran became the first Middle Eastern country to announce it had cloned a sheep, named Royana.



The effort is part of Iran's quest to become a regional powerhouse in advanced science and technology by 2025. In particular, Iran is striving for achievements in medicine and in aerospace and nuclear technology.



The cloning of sheep and other animals could lead to advances in medical research, including using cloned animals to produce human antibodies against diseases.



Royan Institute's main aim in cloning the goat is to produce medicine to be used to treat people who have had strokes.
Ghana Mineworkers Union (GMWU) has urged government to stop mining firm, Gold Fields Limited from implementing its proposed contract mining at its Tarkwa Mine in the Western Region.



The call was contained in a resolution passed by the National Executive Council of GMWU of Trades Union Congress (TUC) on December 14, 2017.



Gold Fields Limited is reportedly planning to lay off a total of 1,700 workers from its Tarkwa Mine in the Western Region.



The move to lay off workers is due to a scheduled shift from owner mining to contractual mining at Gold Fields Tarkwa Mine.



But the National Executive Council of the Ghana Mineworkers Union, which held a meeting in Accra from December 13-14, 201, resolved among other things that government and the industry stakeholders must as a matter of urgency take immediate actions to halt the implementation of Gold Fields Ghana Limiteds contract mining decision because there is no logical business case to warrant such a model at this time, considering the potential socio-economic consequences on workers and their families, the Tarkwa community and the nation as a whole.



According to the Union, There is a creeping phenomenon of unconventional methods of mining that support short term profiteering motives of multinationals in the mining industry but with long term ramifications on the Life of Mine and future of the stakeholders, particularly workers, host communities and the nation as a whole.



The Union said that government and its regulatory agencies, together with the industrys stakeholders, must re-examine the implementation of the Stability Agreement with the view to eliminating the non-compete clause, which has given an unfair competitive advantage to a few large-scale companies at the expense of others. We believe that an equal playing field is the way to go.



Furthermore, the Union commented: Government and its regulatory agencies must, as a matter of priority, subject Gold Fields Ghana Limiteds assertions and factual inaccuracies to critical scrutiny and where falsehood is established, the necessary sanctions and penalties duly applied to serve as a deterrent to multinationals who operate in the industry.



Government and its regulatory agencies, together with the industrys stakeholders, must re examine the implementation of the Stability Agreement with the view to eliminating the non-compete clause, which has given an unfair competitive advantage to a few large scale companies at the expense of others. We believe that an equal playing field is the way to go, it said.

Source: Daily Guide









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
A country may be endowed with the most sought after natural resources but when its benefits do not reflect in the lives of its people, it will be met with an open expression of anger when issues of the role of resources in national development are being discussed.



As the Ghanaian proverb goes, An old lady feels uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb, Oil resources became a new kid on the block and was well celebrated after the declaration of its discovery in commercial quantities and the expectations of all stakeholders were further heightened as the price of crude oil on the world market was at a record high.



The interests of government, investors and regulators on one side and the public and other civil society groups on the other, made it difficult for all to appreciate the contribution of the new sector.



The interests



Each group made inferences to the Ghanas bitter historical precedent with gold, timber, manganese and bauxite among others and how the country did not benefit in their doomsday predictions.



The sad part after the commercial declaration was that, it seems there were no conscious efforts to gauge the sentiments of the people, to draw the line between those mistakes of gold, timber, manganese, and measure the projected impact of oil in 10-years.



That means there should have been a baseline, which would have clearly defined the starting point from when the discovery was made through the stages of exploration, development and finally production which would ensure the improvement, or comparison made based on what is available.



Baseline data



Obviously there has been a multiplicity of baseline data  the Ghana Statistical Service has a baseline data and also for the price sensitivity of shares on stock exchanges, as well as the environment to their operations the international oil companies (IOCs) also have collected baseline data.



But how are we validating all these data to create the needed awareness, shape our plans and strategies and inform society to ensure that after another decade of oil, impacts could be measured.



Oil companies for the sake of a peaceful and harmonious working environment continue to be surrogate state or development partners responsible for building, renovating and equipping health facilities, building water systems, education, even road and other social infrastructure in the region.



The truth is, an entity called government takes the revenue for national development, what the oil companies are doing is to secure the social license for their operation.



Therefore, after a decade of oil, citizenry are still asking where is the oil money? How have we benefited, or if companies in the oil sector decide not to carry out any social investment, what happens to host communities?





Johannesburg & Mining



In Johannesburg, the discovery of gold near Krugersdorp in July 1852 and mining activities started successively in various places on the Witwatersrand  the first gold from the main reef on the Witwatersrand was obtained in 1885, after which Johannesburg was laid out in 1886.



This discovery led to a turning point in South African history more than diamonds, and it changed South Africa from an agricultural society to become the largest gold producer in the world.



Unlike Johannesburg, South Africa, Ghana has a long history of mining, especially for gold. Gold from West Africa was traded to Europe at least as early as the tenth century.



The Precambrian auriferous, Tarkwa conglomerates of Ghana were developed in a modern way during the period 1876-1882 by Pierre Bonnat, the father of modern gold mining in the Gold Coast.



Again in 1895, the Ashanti Goldfields Corporation began work in Obuasi developing the Ashanti and other mines, which have produced the largest proportion of gold since 1900s in Gold Coast.



At the Obuasi mine, for few years, a million ounces of gold were mined. At Bogoso, since mining operations commenced in 1873, several million ounces of gold were produced, largely from extensive underground operations but little to show.





Jburg and Tarkwa-Bogoso & Obuasi



Today in Johannesburg, the city of Egoli (meaning City of Gold) and Kimberly are some of the beautiful places in Africa or in the world in a sharp contrast, Tarkwa, Bogoso, Obuasi, and other serious gold mining places in Ghana the story is different.



These resource rich areas in Ghana are in a very sorry state with people living in abysmal poverty. Therefore it is legitimate for people to ask questions such as where is the oil money, what are the impacts of oil.



After the discovery of oil, we were fast in comparing ourselves to Norway which has reached an advanced stage of development before the oil was discovered in 1963 and subsequent exploration in 1966, when Ocean Traveller drilled fruitless first hole in its initial exploration until in 1969 when Ocean Viking found oil.



In Norway, just like in Ghana, its main natural resources are natural gas, oil, copper, lead and timber and this sustains a stable and resilient economy backed by prudent management of this resource wealth that differentiates it as a nation and a shipping superpower, a seafood giant, and the world's third largest exporter of petroleum.



$1-trillion mark



Today, in the third quarter of this year Norway announced that sovereign wealth fund surpassed the $1-trillion mark for the first time, driven by climbing stock markets.



The fund has grown to become one of the world's biggest investors in stocks, owning $667 billion of shares in more than 9,000 companies.



Therefore if we in Ghana made mistakes of gold, timber, manganese, and bauxite, there is the need to look at how to explore diversity to Ghanas advantage.



Economists were of the view that Norway has a highly-educated population and as a result a good foundation for sound economic development, even without oil what about us in Ghana?



Ghana had it all going  but we cannot put our finger to anything after millions of ounces of gold, millions of tones of bauxite, manganese, cocoa and countless timber species depleted without any sustainable plan.



At present, oil discovery has now become a serious yardstick to measure what the country can achieve but will the oil story be written differently?



What did Ghana benefit from the Saltpond Basin, since its inception as it inches towards decommissioning? The Minister for Petroleum has terminated the Saltpond Petroleum Agreement and the field has reached its economic limit.



Currently, a Committee has been established under GNPC to decommission the project, the most active Tano basin will also one day be next in line to be decommissioned, again will the story be different?





The perching fly & Kwame Sefa-Kayi



One of the biggest challenges faced Norway at the time of its discoveries at Ekofisk was skills, as it absolutely had no expertise in oil and gas production, compared to Ghana.



Before Ghana discovered crude oil, several Ghanaians were working on huge modern platforms in Libya, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Huston and other parts of the world.



However, we failed to make use of them and depended on international companies for the first oil for every skill, even cleaners  local content was abysmal not even for a position of roustabout until the law in 2013.



As Ghanaian Proverb goes, it requires a lot of carefulness to kill the fly that perches on the scrotum. We have the oil, they have the money, and what do we do? Money first and skills later or we hit the fly hard to hurt our pocket?



It was heartbreaking that one of the giant oil service providers opted to employ Ghanas engineers from its university as drivers to the visible expression of anger by a Ghanaian media delegation to Singapore for the first FPSO.



One of the countrys respected broadcasters, Mr. Kwame Sefa-Kayi, called for immediate withdrawal of that statement and an apology in Singapore.



The 10 Commandments



As we compare to Norway, it will be informative to state that the countrys politicians were reported to be very determined to prevent potential oil revenues from disappearing out of the country into the pockets of multinational companies.



To prevent this, the Norwegian government was said to have endorsed a series of measures nicknamed The 10 Oil Commandments to ensure that oil development benefited the nation.



The position adopted by the politicians required that oil companies who wish to exploit Norways petroleum resources are to finance research in Norway in the oil and gas sector at BI Norwegian Business School.



In the case of Ghana, when the oil prices were good, above the $110.00 mark, oil companies shipped monies out of the country to their home countries by in the name sponsoring Ghanaian students to study abroad, Ghanas medical services were sidelined by international health service providers who were imported into the country.



Sprinkled oil money



Today, in the face of the dwindling crude oil prices, the countrys technical universities became the best place to sponsor students in the name of cost cutting and investing in more locals.



Ten years on, the expectations are still high; people are still expecting the magic of oil money, which has been scattered everywhere in Ghana of which some of the projects cannot even be traced, cost are highly inflated to benefit few.



Ghana like other countries has high prospects in redefining the direction of the oil resource management in West Africa by making sure that in the next 10 years, skills development,

Ghanaian ownership and openness of oil contracts among others takes precedent over self and political interest.



Areas reserved for Ghanaian companies should be enforced and the Petroleum Commission should be stronger in enforcing, promoting and ensuring that healthy partnerships are formed.

Source: DOTSEY KOBLAH AKLORBORTU









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 Kwabenya police in Accra have apprehended a 32-year-old trader for allegedly killing her own son.



Suspect Rosina Sam is alleged to have beaten up her 11-year-old son, Andrew Sam  a Class 4 pupil of C&J Montessori School, Kotobabi, Accra  to death when he reportedly misplaced her GH120.



Rosina, who operates a supermarket in front of her house, was said to have sent the boy with the money to go and buy some credit cards for sale when the money reportedly got missing.



Out of anger, Rosina Sam allegedly locked up the child in a room and severely beat him up, according to reports.



Confirming the story to DAILY GUIDE, ASP Effia Tenge, regional police Public Relations Officer, said the incident occurred on Friday, December 15, 2017 but the case was reported the following day.



She said the boy used a bicycle for the errand and a few minutes later, he came to inform the mother that the money was missing.



According to the boy, the money fell from his pocket.



Rosina Sam allegedly left the boy in the room and went back to the store.



A few minutes later, she reportedly returned to the room and saw the boy lying in bed.



The son then told the mother that he was feeling cold and so the mum asked him to cover himself with a piece of cloth and left the room.



ASP Tenge said at about 9:30 pm after she had locked the shop and returned to the house, she called the boy several times but there was no response and so she went and touched his forehead but realised that his body was very cold.



The mother called for help and when Andrew was rushed to the La Hospital for treatment, he was pronounced dead on arrival.



The matter was then reported to the Kwabenya police while the body was deposited at the La health facility.



ASP Tenge said plans were being made for the body to be transferred to the Police Hospital for autopsy to be conducted as part of investigations.

Source: Daily Guide









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will, from Thursday, begin a three-day tour of the Eastern Region.



The tour will be the last of such regional tours for the year, intended to get first-hand information on developments in the regions.



The President will begin his tour at Akosombo and then leave for Asesewa and later address a durbar of the chiefs and the people of Upper Manya Krobo.



On the second day, President Nana Akufo-Addo will extend his tour to Kwahu, where he will pay a courtesy call on the Kwahumanhene.



He will also visit Akyem Afosu and inspect the site for a proposed technical college.



The President will make a brief stopover at Nkawkaw to inspect town roads and end the second day of the tour with a visit to the Ghana Consolidated Diamond at Akwatia.



On Friday, December 22 and last day of his three-day tour, he will inspect Agro-Tech Ghana Ltd, a poultry farm and Hatchery, at Apedwa.



He will then join some children in Kyebi for a Christmas party and later inspect the abandoned affordable housing project in Koforidua.



President Akufo-Addo will end his tour of the region with a durbar of the chiefs and the people of New Juaben at the Jackson Park in Koforidua.

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
Audio Attachment: Carlos and Ablakwa in a heated argument

Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, Carlos Ahenkorah, on Tuesday locked horns with the Minority Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto in Parliament over alleged money charged expatriates who sat beside the President during the recent Ghana Expatriates Business Awards.



The near fisticuff occurred after the two met in a media interview on the matter, Tuesday, outside Parliament.



Mr Ablakwa described the alleged 'extortion' as "dubious, immoral and unethical". According to him, the Ministry of Trade and Industry is "using the Office of the President to extort money from expatriates.



Carlos Ahenkorah who was fuming with rage, described Okudzeto Ablakwa as a 'thief' and a 'liar'; adding he has no moral right to accuse anyone of corruption.



"Where is the fact; what you are saying is only coming from your mindLet him know that he is a thief; you have stolen through your life and you have even lied throughout your education..." he slammed.



Mr Ablakwa before walking out of the interview also remarked: you can tell from the Ministers attitude that he is clearly uncomfortable with this matter and he stands exposed I think as a public officer he has to behave himself.



Background



The Member of Parliament for Asawase, Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak was first to raise the allegation in Parliament last Friday, describing as illegal charges imposed on businesses by the trade ministry.



According to Alhaji Mubarak, the Trade Ministry allegedly collected US$ 100,000 from participants at the awards held on December 8, 2017 at the Movenpick Hotel in Accra.



The Minority Chief whip, referring to a letter dated October 23, 2017 and signed by the deputy Minister for Trade and Industry Carlos Ahenkorah asked business executives who would want to sit closer to the president to pay in excess of US$ 100,000.



But in a rebuttal, the trade ministry accused the MP of peddling falsehood and playing politics. (click to read)

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured Video
Member of Parliament for Akwatia in the Eastern Region, Mercy Adu Gyamfi, popularly known as Ama Sey, has, for the first time, delivered a speech on the floor of parliament.



Ms Gyamfi entered Parliament this year after beating the National Democratic Congress Baba Jamal, the incumbent, in the 2016 General Elections.



Before entering parliament, she was a hairdresser operating a salon in Akwetia.



She was mocked at by her opponents for her inability to speak English fluently.



In her maiden speech on Tuesday, Ama Sey expressed concerns about the manner in which the current management of the Ghana Consolidated Diamond Limited situated in her constituency, was running the place.



She said, among other things, that the company promises to create 25,000 direct jobs and 50,000 indirect jobs for support servicesIt further promises to bring a turnaround strategy plan that will lift the company.







Source: UTV/Ghana/Class FM









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
Chef Candido Ortiz, stands inside his restaurant, El Sabor Del Cafe, Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017 in Jersey City, N.J. The former prison chef who was serving a 49-year federal sentence for drug-related crimes when he was released in December 2017, is opening a restaurant that will serve American and Hispanic dishes. (AP Photo/David Porter)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks with the media in the foyer of the House of Commons following the release of an ethics report in Ottawa on Wednesday December 20, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
In this photo provided by the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, CAL FIRE Inmate Firefighting Hand Crew members hike through the charred landscape on their way to work east of Gibraltar Road above Montecito, Calif., Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017. Officials estimate that the fire will grow to become the biggest in California history before full containment, expected by Jan. 7. (Mike Eliason/Santa Barbara County Fire Department via AP)
House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., center, leaves the House Chamber after voting on the Republican tax bill, Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Republicans muscled the most sweeping rewrite of the nation's tax laws in more than three decades through the House. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
In this Monday, Dec. 18, 2017 photo provided by Curry Sawyer, Ray and Curry Sawyer pose at a hotel where they're staying in Goleta, Calif. The Sawyers have been away from their home for 11 days because of a massive wildfire and may not be allowed back before Christmas, when both their sons and their families were supposed to celebrate the holidays. (Curry Sawyer via AP)
Poland's President Andrzej Duda tells a news conference he has decided to sign two laws that will put courts under more political control even though they are part of a review a concerned European Union is conducting in Warsaw, Poland, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017. President Duda announced his approval for the laws on Wednesday, just hours after the EU's executive body triggered proceedings over Warsaw's overhaul of the justice system, of which the pending legislation was part. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)
A chunk of Sempra Energy 's natural gas pipeline sits in the dirt behind a community center in the village of Loma de Bacum in northwest Mexico. Guadalupe Flores thinks it would make a great barbecue pit.

Cut it here, lift the top,'' he says, pointing to the 30-inch diameter steel tube. Perfect for a cook-out.''

It would be an expensive meal. The pipeline cost $400 million, part of a network that's supposed to carry gas from Arizona more than 500 miles to Mexico's Pacific coast. It hasn't done that since August, when members of the indigenous Yaqui tribe  enraged by what they viewed as an unauthorized trespass their land  used a backhoe truck to puncture and extract a 25-foot segment. They left the main chunk about a mile from the community center, perpendicular to the rest of the pipeline, like a lower-case t.

The impact extends far beyond Loma de Bacum and its 4,500 residents. Arizona's gas exports to Mexico have plunged 37 percent since the shutdown, hitting an eight-month low in December. Mexico's state utility is having to burn fuel oil instead to generate power, raising costs.

It's not an isolated case. Mexico's opening of its energy industry has succeeded in attracting capital, but it's also been beset by territorial or environmental disputes, often involving the country's myriad indigenous groups. When protest turns into sabotage, there's a risk that investors will be put off from future phases, like an extensive shale development. It's also grist to the mill of the leftist frontrunner for next year's presidential election, who's vowing to reverse some of the reforms.

Refused Consent'

The Yaquis of Loma de Bacum say they were asked by community authorities in 2015 if they wanted a 9-mile tract of the pipeline running through their farmland -- and said no. Construction went ahead anyway.

The Energy Ministry acknowledged that account is true, in a statement that highlights the difficulties its officials confront. Consultation of the eight Yaqui communities along the route was carried out, as required by law. Seven of them gave a green light, the ministry said by e-mail, while the town of Loma de Bacum refused consent.''

The project is now in a legal limbo. Ienova, the Sempra unit that operates the pipeline, is awaiting a judicial ruling that could allow them to go in and repair it -- or require a costlier re-route. If they want to build a pipeline, that's fine,'' said Flores, the would-be barbecue designer who's a local community leader. But it won't pass through here.''

At the Energy Ministry in Mexico City, that's becoming a familiar refrain.

As many as four pipelines have been stalled or temporarily suspended -- and that's just the tip of the iceberg, according to Jesus Reyes Heroles, a former energy minister. I can't quote the number but it's more than that, Heroles said in an interview. He said the stalled projects go beyond pipelines; in some cases, opposition comes from ranchers who are abusing the situation to make some money off of it.

Our Homework'

Still, it's indigenous peoples who've been at the forefront of resistance. In June, their protests in Chiapas state led the ministry to scrap an auction of two onshore blocks for oil exploration. In neighboring Oaxaca, communities have stalled development of wind energy projects, claiming a lack of consultation.

Mexico recognizes about 70 indigenous groups, numbering more than 12 million people. The task of consulting those communities falls to the ministry's Social Impact Evaluation team  which has just six members.

Its mandate, which includes ensuring that there's no damage to water supplies or other natural resources, is a key element of the energy reforms, says Aldo Flores, the deputy minister.

Could the Energy Ministry become even more efficient in the procedure of consultation? Yes, it could,'' Flores said in a Dec. 8 interview. It's part of our homework to improve.'' The ministry says it's contemplating a significant expansion of the team early next year.

Taken Away'

That would be in time for Mexico's planned shale offensive. It's promising to lease swaths of land for development, much of it in states like San Luis Potosi and Veracruz that numerous indigenous groups call home. Shale accounts for more than the half of the new oil potential in Mexico,'' and the Burgos Basin alone may hold 50 percent more reserves than Texas's famed Eagle Ford, Flores said.

It's politically sensitive too. Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has vowed to revise energy and oil contracts if he's elected in July. That could put deals signed by oil majors from Exxon Mobil Corp to BP Plc at risk. Amlo, as he's known, is ahead in early polls, but most analysts expect a tight three-way race. Indigenous votes could be vital.

It's not just in Mexico that pipeline projects have revivified old tribal claims. It's happening across North America. In Canada, Kinder Morgan Inc 's Trans Mountain pipeline has encountered legal challenges led by indigenous groups. In the U.S., the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline faced months of protests from members of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation.

Like many such groups, the Yaquis have a history of fighting to defend their land from intruders, starting with Spanish colonialists in the 1500s. In the last 200 years, the tribe has frequently clashed with the Mexican government, suffering massacres and losing land. Little by little, their territory has been taken away,'' says Rodrigo Gonzalez-Enriquez, a professor at the Technical Institute of Sonora and consultant for the Loma de Bacum community.

Deer Dancers

The Yaqui language predominates in homes, though local schools teach only in Spanish after kindergarten. The tribe is famous for its deer-dance ritual. Throughout southern Sonora, you can find statues of the Yaqui dancer -- shirtless, holding gourd rattles, with an antlered deer perched on his head.

The pipeline has caused tensions within the tribe. Last year, there was a clash at the community center, leaving one person killed and several injured. Townspeople say it was an attempt by neighbors to get rid of local leaders who resisted the pipeline.

Just off the central plaza, there's a row of 12 charred vehicles. The cars are witnesses to what happened here,'' said Juan Antonio Maldonado, an 81 year-old resident.

He had a message that could have been meant for other Yaqui towns  or for the energy companies. We are a peaceful community and we don't like intruders,'' Maldonado said. Don't come here anymore. Please leave.''
In general, men are twice as likely to cheat on a spouse than women are. That frequency increases over the lifespan, peaking among the elderly. Among men 18 to 29 who have ever been married, about 1 in 10 is
FILE: Cannabis flowers. Several Philadelphia area schools are jockeying to do research on medical marijuana. (Dreamstime/TNS) Read more

The University of the Sciences this week became the latest academic player to announce it was getting into marijuana research.

The school is pairing with Franklin BioScience, a large grower out of Denver, to create more consistent marijuana products and develop a cannabis education program for pharmacists, physicians, and students planning on entering the health professions.

Big marijuana is banking on Pennsylvania to become a major hub of the burgeoning legal cannabis sector, which last year was valued at $6.7 billion nationwide and is expected to balloon to over $21 billion by 2021, according to estimates by the Arcview Group.

When the commonwealth legalized medical marijuana last year, it was the first in the United States to include provisions for the academic study of the plant and its derivatives.

The law carves out eight permits for medical schools, which are called Academic Clinical Research Centers (ACRCs). But the interest for those slots among hospitals and universities has outpaced the number of permits. A green rush of companies is courting a wide range of health institutions in hopes of forging partnerships that each could be worth tens of millions of dollars.

These partnerships are also being assembled before the regulations are complete, so some deals could be made moot. The regulations to govern the academic permits are expected to be released in early January.

If the Pennsylvania Department of Health approves the partnerships, each cannabis company can operate a marijuana grow house, a processing facility that will turn plant materials into legal oils, and six dispensaries.

The prospect of the "Godzilla licenses" has irked the smaller 12 grower/processors and dozens of dispensaries that won permits in July after a grueling and highly competitive process. Under the current draft regulations governing ACRCs, there is no requirement for growers to be competitively scored by the state. Rumors have swirled for months about schools accepting millions of dollars from high-bidding cannabis companies in exchange for the use of their names.

Six Pennsylvania medical schools have struck deals to partner with marijuana growers, according to industry insiders. Those include Drexel, Temple, and Thomas Jefferson Universities, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM).

Of those half-dozen large institutions, only the arrangements between Temple and Laurel Harvest Labs and LECOM and grower Franklin Labs have been made public. Franklin Labs, which is not related to Franklin BioScience, is a Reading-based company headed by John Hanger, a former adviser to Gov. Wolf.

The potential revenues, and opportunities for research, have spurred smaller schools and independent hospitals to jockey for arrangements of their own. Last week, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia said it had joined with an Australian biopharmaceutical company to investigate the effectiveness of marijuana-derived medicines for autistic children.

Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine said Friday it was "negotiating with several companies." A PCOM spokeswoman said she could not provide any additional details due to non-disclosure agreements.

Franklin BioScience, the USciences partner, won permits in July to open three medical marijuana dispensaries in Southeastern Pennsylvania. The first of those is set to open in Bristol in early 2018. Two additional sites are pending state approval. It also operates grow houses in Colorado and Nevada and markets the cannabis brands Lucky Edibles and Altus Labs.

The collaboration will also include "significant" research to create medical marijuana products "with more consistency and reliability," said Helena Yardley, Franklin BioScience's head of scientific research operations. "Pennsylvania, with their educational facilities, is in a powerful position to be one of the R&D capitals of this industry."

The partnership will build on the work of the school's Substance Use Disorders Institute, said Andrew Peterson, a USciences dean. USciences already offers the certification courses for health-care providers who want to recommend medical marijuana to their patients.

For more information about medical marijuana in Pennsylvania, including information on how to enroll in the program, visit medicalmarijuana.pa.gov. For complete cannabis coverage in Pa. and New Jersey, go to philly.com/cannabis.
Michael Zimbalist, 61, joins the Philadelphia Media Network as chief strategy and innovation officer starting Jan. 15, 2018. He reports to publisher Terry Eggers (Credit: LinkedIn) Read more

Philadelphia Media Network on Wednesday announced that Michael Zimbalist, 61, will join the news media company in the newly created position of chief strategy and innovation officer in mid-January.

"Following an extensive national search, we were thrilled to find such a uniquely talented and experienced leader for this critical new role," said publisher Terry Egger in a statement.

"I am thrilled that he's joining," added venture capitalist Josh Kopelman, board chairman of Philadelphia Media Network, which operates the Inquirer, Daily News, and Philly.com. "He's creative, innovative and energetic  with a nuanced understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing the newspaper industry."

Most recently Zimbalist worked as chief marketing officer at Simulmedia, a television advertising start-up, from March 2016 to August 2017. Before that, he spent 10 years at the New York Times Co. as a senior vice president of advertising products and research and development. Early on with the Times company, he was also involved with the Boston.com operation. Starting in 2009, he led UCompareHealthCare, a Times unit, that was sold to MDx Medical in 2011.

Before that, Zimbalist worked for other media companies including Scripps, Disney, AT&T, and Capital Cities/ABC. He was the cofounder and president for five years of the Online Publishers Association, now known as Digital Content Next.

"I wanted to get back into the news industry," he said Wednesday. "That's my passion."

Zimbalist will lead all consumer and business-to-business marketing, advertising campaigns, branding, business intelligence, and strategic partnerships.

"He will also work closely with the advertising and product teams to develop cutting-edge digital advertising solutions, as well as guide us to best position our value to consumers and advertisers," Egger said. "Michael will work closely with our newsroom to help us dramatically increase our digital traffic and audience engagement."

Zimbalist is a St. Louis native and a graduate of Brown University, where he majored in chemistry and philosophy.

At the Times, Zimbalist reported to Martin Nisenholtz, who is now a board member of the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, which owns PMN. Zimbalist founded the R&D group whose R&D Lab incubated new ad products to counter a weakening print ad market, according to Digiday. The Times also created "paid posts" under Zimbalist.

Zimbalist resides in Montclair, N.J., and has three children. He will eventually relocate to Philadelphia, he said. As chief strategist, "I will be working on brand marketing, consumer marketing, audience development and working closely with the newsroom and product team to evolve into a must-read for the Philly metro area. One of the findings from the digital transformation at the New York Times is the news cycle for print focuses at the end of the day. The news cycle for digital carries over straight through  winning the morning is an essential part of capturing audience."

Among his first moves, he said, "first and foremost, I'll be getting to know the team and understand all the great things underway. There are some opportunities in digital advertising out of the box."
A prescription being filled in July 2016 at a Sacramento, Calif., pharmacy. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America gave $64 million to a California fund established to defeat a proposal requiring state agencies to pay no more for drugs than the federal Department of Veterans Affairs does, according to the industry groups 2016 disclosure to the IRS. Read more

Facing bipartisan hostility over high drug prices in an election year, the pharmaceutical industry's biggest trade group boosted revenue by nearly a fourth in 2016 and spread the millions collected among hundreds of lobbyists, politicians, and patient groups, new filings with the Internal Revenue Service show.

It was the biggest surge for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, known as PhRMA, since the group took battle stations to advance its interests in 2009 during the runup to the Affordable Care Act.

"Does that surprise you?" asked Billy Tauzin, the former PhRMA chief executive officer who ran the organization a decade ago as Obamacare loomed. Whenever Washington seems interested in limiting drug prices, he said, "PhRMA has always responded by increasing its resources."

The group, already one of the most powerful trade organizations in any industry, collected $271 million in member dues and other income in 2016. That was up from $220 million the year before, according to its latest IRS disclosure.

PhRMA spent $7 million last year to prepare its ubiquitous "Go Boldly" ad campaign and gave millions to politicians who were up for election in both parties in dozens of states. It lavished more than $2 million on scores of groups representing patients with various diseases  many of them dealing with high drug costs.

Some of the biggest patient-group checks went to the American Autoimmune Related Disease Association, for $260,000; the American Lung Association, for $110,000; the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, for $136,150; and the Lupus Foundation of America, for $253,500.

PhRMA also gave big money to national political groups financing congressional, presidential, and state candidates. The conservative-leaning American Action Network got $6.1 million. The Republican Governors Association got $301,375. Its Democratic counterpart got $350,000.

PhRMA's state and federal lobbying spending rose by more than two-thirds from the previous year, to $57 million.

"That's PhRMA. They do it all" to protect drug companies from potential policy risks, said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks political financing. "And they're going to marshal even more resources when they perceive that these threats or opportunities are most imminent."

Threats seemed especially dire last year. Storms of bad publicity hit the industry in the form of stories about arrogant executives and thousand-dollar pills.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said some pharma companies were "making a fortune off of people's misfortune." Then-candidate Donald Trump suggested he could save $300 billion annually by requiring drugmakers to bid on business.

Nonprofit organizations such as PhRMA must file detailed disclosures with the IRS. PhRMA, which submitted its 2016 report in early November, shared a copy with Kaiser Health News.

The group also aimed dollars at states where policymakers were considering drug-related measures such as price limits or greater price transparency, the document shows.

It gave $64 million to a California fund established to defeat a proposal requiring state agencies to pay no more for drugs than the federal Department of Veterans Affairs does. Also supported by direct contributions from drug companies, the fund spent $110 million last year to defeat the initiative, California regulatory filings show.

This year, California established a less comprehensive law requiring drug firms to give notice and explanation when they substantially raise prices. PhRMA recently sued to block that measure.

In Louisiana, where policymakers were considering proposals to make drug prices clearer to consumers, PhRMA gave campaign contributions directly to scores of state legislators last year. The group also gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to help defeat a ballot proposal for single-payer health care in Colorado.

Last year's massive mobilization underscores how besieged the industry felt over complaints about soaring medicine prices and high profits. PhRMA's $271 million in revenue for the year represented its biggest budget since 2009, when it recorded $350 million in dues and other revenue. The $57 million it spent on lobbying was also the most since 2009, when the lobbying bill was $70 million.

The association's 37 members include the biggest and best-known drug companies: Johnson & Johnson, Celgene, Merck, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and Amgen. Holly Campbell, a PhRMA spokeswoman, declined to make an executive available to discuss the report, saying it does not comment on contributions.

Patient groups receiving PhRMA money often deny that it influences their policies or keeps them from criticizing high drug prices.

The Lupus Foundation has policies to ensure there is no conflict of interest, a spokeswoman said. At the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, donors such as PhRMA "have no role" in the group's decision-making process, a spokeswoman said.

"No funder influences our position, agenda, or science-based messages" at the American Lung Association, its spokeswoman said. The American Autoimmune Related Disease Association did not respond to requests for comment.
Boyd Gaming Corp. has agreed to acquire the Valley Forge Casino Resort in King of Prussia for $280.5 million, the Las Vegas-based gaming company said in a release on Wednesday.

The Valley Forge resort, now held by an ownership group led by Philadelphia investor Ira Lubert, will be Boyd's first Pennsylvania property upon the deal's completion, expected in late summer or early fall 2018.

"The acquisition of Valley Forge Casino Resort is another excellent opportunity to further grow and diversify our nationwide portfolio," Boyd president and chief executive Keith Smith said in the Wednesday release. "With this acquisition, we will expand into the second-largest gaming state in the country, establishing a presence in a densely populated, high-traffic area just west of Philadelphia."

Earlier this week, Boyd announced that it would acquire four properties from Wyomissing-based Penn National Gaming Inc. in Missouri, Indiana and Ohio.

The Valley Forge resort, located two miles north of the King of Prussia Mall, encompasses a 40,000-square foot casino with 600 slot machines, 50 table games, and nearly 500 hotel rooms. The property also has eight restaurants and bars, and more than 100,000 square feet of meeting, convention and exhibit space.

Following the passage of gaming expansion legislation in November, Valley Forge plans to expand its gaming capacity in 2018 with the addition of 250 slot machines, Boyd said. Plans also call for SEPTA's proposed Norristown High Speed Line extension to end at the resort.
In just the past few days, State Sen. Daylin Leach of Montgomery County and State Rep. Thomas Caltagirone of Berks County have been the subjects of stories about allegations of sexually charged improprieties or harassment against women. Read more

It's not easy to sum up a cascading politics-meets-sexual-misconduct scandal in just three words printable in a family newspaper. But Joe Foster, chairman of the Montgomery County Democratic Party, did just that when I reached him on vacation in Paris this week.

"Oh my God," he said.

Foster's words weren't about progressive poster boy and state Sen. Daylin Leach. He already knew, when he hopped a plane for France over the weekend, that the high-profile Dem from his own back yard was in trouble for alleged sexually charged improprieties documented in an Inquirer story Sunday.

Eight women and three men said Leach had crossed the line with instances of sexual talk and inappropriate touching of women. Leach, under pressure from Gov. Wolf to resign and from other Democrats to end his Congressional bid against U.S. Rep. Pat Meehan, has since said he was heartbroken to have "put someone in a position that made them feel uncomfortable or disrespected" and would cooperate with any Senate investigation of the allegations.

Leach's response came after he criticized alleged victims online. In a nutshell, his position has shifted to: I'm-sorry-but-I'm-not-going-anywhere just yet. Regardless of what magic he believes is possible, any thought that Leach can remain a viable candidate in Meehan's race is fairytale thinking.

Because it looks as though Pennsylvania now has its very own #metoo Ground Zero.

What did Foster think, I asked Leach's party overlord, of a second shoe that had just dropped earlier that day:Pennsylvania taxpayers, according to a story by Angela Couloumbis and Liz Navratil, were tapped to the tune of a quarter million dollars to silence a 2015 sexual harassment complaint against veteran Democratic state House Rep, Thomas Caltagirone of Berks County.

"Taxpayers should not be paying any kind of settlement in these kind of deals," Foster said.

He'd left for vacation, he said, and "didn't realize all hell would break loose."

The demons of disclosure that have exposed accused hounds in Hollywood and Washington have arrived in Pennsylvania's halls of power a week before Christmas. And it's about time; men so outnumber women in elected office there, one can only imagine how many other stories are out there waiting to be told.

Lots of people are now wondering: Who's next  and what should happen to the men being outed as boors or more?

Caltagirone and Democratic House leadership had no comment about the sexual harassment story or payout. But Gov. Wolf called on him to resign.

In Leach's case, the degree of outrage seemed dependent on who was being asked and  brace yourselves  politics.

In Montco, the few women I called in the party's ward structure either didn't call me back or said "no comment" when asked about the pro-women warrior's alleged indiscretions.

Foster called it all "very astonishing," "very sad," and "intolerable," but stopped short of calling on Leach to step down or end his Congressional bid. (Leach has said only that he would "step back" from the campaign.)

In Delaware County, it was like an alternate Democratic universe.

Top Dems there haven't been high on the guy who helped make medical marijuana law in Pennsylvania. They don't like Leach's chances in the Congressional midterm race because Meehan's seat is so gerrymandered to favor Republicans they can't see someone like Leach pulling off a Hail Mary win there.

Delco's emerging power hitters in the party don't seem inclined to kowtow to the bigwigs in Montco who also run the state Democratic organization. It was grassroots newbies and outsider types who walloped Delco's entrenched Republican establishment for the first time a few weeks ago in local elections.

And their de facto leader  a relative newcomer who herself doesn't fit Harrisburg's establishment politician mold  minced no words in calling for Leach's head.

Rep. Leanne Krueger-Braneky said Tuesday that Leach, despite his progressive bona fides, is no longer fit to represent women.

"He did not take responsibility," Krueger-Braneky told me. "And beyond not taking responsibility, he attacked the women who had come forward with some really strong language on social media."

On Wednesday, she joined Wolf in calling for Caltagirone's departure, too.

"The conspiracy of silence that protects harassers and abusers in the state Capitol while leaving victims economically and professionally vulnerable or isolated must end, now," she said.

Harrisburg is a tough place for women, where fewer than one in five lawmakers is not a man. As cases come to light, she said, there should be swift and equal outrage for offenders of all political stripes.

Until then, buckle up.
Tommy Wiseau at a screening of "The Disaster Artist" on Nov. 12, 2017 at the AFI FEST 2017, held at TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Calif. Read more

Philadelphia, get ready to say: "Oh, hi, Tommy."

There's a special nationwide release of the cult classic The Room next month, and a few theaters in the region have scheduled screenings for the Jan. 10 event.

Tommy Wiseau, the mysterious mastermind behind the 2003 film known for being so bad it's good, recently noted on Twitter that the one-day viewing, to be held in hundreds of theaters across the country, will be The Room's "largest ever."

The special screening comes just a month after James Franco's The Disaster Artist, which centers on Wiseau's making of The Room, hit the big screen.

So what makes the nationwide release so special? Well, The Room is notoriously difficult to find. It's not available to stream, and a website for the early January event notes that it is best enjoyed "in a full theater," to experience audience interactions with the film.

That opportunity will arise at three theaters in the Philadelphia region at 8 p.m. Jan. 10, according to listings from Fathom Events:

Riverview Plaza 17, 1400 S. Columbus Blvd.

Cinemark University City 6, 4012 Walnut St.

Movies 16 Somerdale, 711 Evesham Ave., Somerdale.

Audiences will also get a peek at a trailer for "Best F (r) iends," starring Wiseau and Greg Sestero, who plays Mark in the cult comedy, according to Fathom Events.

"We've seen a tremendous response to The Room as a RiffTrax event," Kymberli Frueh, Fathom Events' vice president of programming, told Forbes. "With interest in the movie at a fever pitch, thanks to The Disaster Artist, we can't wait to bring Wiseau's creation back to the big screen to stand on its own unusual merits."

Can't make any of those shows? There's good news. The Ritz at the Bourse, which occasionally holds its own screenings of the cult classic, lists two midnight showings for Jan. 12 and Feb. 9.

Still can't get enough? Check out movie critic Gary Thompson's review of Franco's The Disaster Artist or read his recent interview with Franco.
Gavin, 61, and Cindy, 60, Kerr at their Wayne home. The couple lost son Ryan 10 years, ago when he was 17, to bone cancer. They started a website called Coping Space to give support to families going through similar situations. Read more

Ten years ago, when Cindy Kerr's teenage son, Ryan, was in what would turn out to be the final stages of a five-year battle with bone cancer, she decided to do something to brighten the lives of other children like her boy.

So Kerr and husband Gavin started Ryan's Case for Smiles, a charity inspired by the cheery pillowcases they would bring to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia to brighten up their son's room. Nearly a decade later, their nonprofit has grown to 120 chapters in 360 hospitals, with more than 1.6 million volunteer-sewn pillowcases distributed to children throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Cancer wasn't done with them, however: Last summer, Kerr, 60, discovered she, too, had the disease. Earlier this month, she had surgery to remove a tumor the size of a casserole dish from her abdomen.

The Kerrs' second brush with cancer did not deter them from their mission; in fact, it's only increased their resolve to help families like them. This month, the Wayne couple launched Coping Space, an extensive online resource for parents and children dealing with serious illness and for the family and friends who want to help them.

"Having spoken with hundreds of families whose children are facing life-changing illnesses and injuries, I know they also struggle with overwhelming stress and worry," Kerr said.

The goal is to help fend off post-traumatic stress disorder, which strikes many families like theirs. Experts from the Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress at CHOP and Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children provided research and strategies for the site.

Often when a child is in the grips of something like cancer, parents are so focused on the young patient they neglect their own well-being. Kerr said she was one of them.

Nearly a decade after losing her son, she still experiences some of the symptoms of PTSD. If Gavin, a former executive of CHOP and Inglis House and now an executive mentor, is late coming home or if she doesn't hear from their grown daughters for a few days, Kerr said she becomes fearful that something bad has happened.

An estimated 42 percent of mothers of cancer patients develop PTSD symptoms, according to research by the Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress. Only teenage cancer sufferers are at a higher risk, at 49 percent.

Siblings of the sick child can suffer such symptoms, too. The Kerrs said that for their older daughter, now 33, it took almost 10 years to quell the sense of dread she felt every time her parents called.

When age appropriate, the Kerrs say, parents should try to keep kids appraised of what is going on with their sick sibling. They thought they were protecting their two daughters by withholding some details about their brother's illness, but the girls resented not being told.

Kerr said she and her husband have tried to keep their daughters informed about her own illness, even though it hasn't always been easy.

"The first thing I thought when I woke up and they told me I had cancer in August was, 'Oh my God, I can't believe my girls and my husband have to go through this, because it's just so hard on the family,' " Kerr said.

Small acts of kindness

Coping Space offers many suggestions for how friends and other family members can help. The Kerrs say time is the most valuable gift a person can give. Offer to sit with an ill child at the hospital so the parents can do something with their well children. Walk the family dog.

Acts of kindness, no matter how small, can make all the difference.

Earlier this month, Kerr returned home from surgery to find neighbors had decorated her home for Christmas. A wreath hung on their door, bows adorned lantern posts, and candles were in the windows.

"It was huge," Kerr said. "I was in pain, and it just meant so much that someone would do that for me."

And don't forget about the well siblings, who often get overlooked. This time of year, people often come bearing gifts for the child who is in the hospital.

"Bring stuff for the siblings, because they're going through this, too," Kerr said.

In the new year, the Kerrs plan to launch another initiative called Caring Boxes, which will be packed with playthings and coping suggestions for young children who have siblings with a serious illness.

Even when hope turns to grief, family and friends can make a difference. One of the worst things well-meaning friends can do, the Kerrs said, is to stop talking about the deceased.

Two years after Ryan died, Kerr ran into a woman whose children had gone to school with her son. The other mother told her that she still had Ryan's photograph on her refrigerator; he had so touched her children.

"That was the best gift she could have ever given me," Kerr said, " because I knew he was still in people's hearts."

What do you do with his stocking?

The Kerrs know this time of year can make illness and loss especially hard for families to bear. The first Christmas after Ryan's death was full of emotional land mines.

"How do you sign the [Christmas] cards?" Kerr remembers asking herself. "What do you do with his Christmas stocking?" The answer for the Kerrs  and, they stress, each family has to find what is right for them  has been to hang Ryan's stocking with the rest of the family's, with a note by Kerr tucked in, telling him what the family has been up to that year.

It is one of the many ways they keep Ryan in their lives.

They often think back to Ryan's last Christmas at home in hospice care. The gifts that year were last minute; the Kerrs weren't sure Ryan would make it to the holiday, but they strung his room with lights, and the whole family gathered. Ryan told them it was "the best Christmas ever."

For this Christmas, the family will gather again, including a little granddaughter who brings the family so much joy. Kerr, who still has another round of chemotherapy ahead, wonders what the future may bring.

"It's certainly crossed my mind," Kerr said. "Is this my last Christmas?"

She has no answer to that question. But what she does have is the memory of what Ryan told her he loved most about his last Christmas:

"The love of family and friends. That's the most important thing in life. None of the other stuff matters."
Bucks County DA Matthew Weintraub holds up photos of the slain four young men during the July search for their bodies on the DiNardo family farm in Solebury Township. The four men are (from left) Dean Finocchiaro, Thomas Meo, Jimmy Patrick and Mark Sturgis. Read more

The family of one of the four men allegedly killed by Cosmo DiNardo on his family's Bucks County farm in July has filed a wrongful death suit that in part blames DiNardo's parents for allowing their mentally ill son to have access to guns.

The claim is one of several made in the suit, filed Tuesday in Philadelphia by the parents of Mark Sturgis against DiNardo, a 20-year-old Bensalem resident; his cousin Sean Kratz; and DiNardo's parents, Sandra and Antonio.

Sturgis, 22, of Pennsburg, was one of the four men found buried on the DiNardo family farm in Solebury Township after an exhaustive search that drew national attention. Also killed were Jimi Patrick, 19, of Newtown; Dean Finocchiaro, 18, of Middletown; and Thomas Meo, 21, of Plumstead.

DiNardo is charged with killing each at the farm after bringing them there for drug deals. Kratz, 20, of Philadelphia, is charged as a conspirator in three of the killings.

Both pleaded not guilty to murder and other offenses at their Dec. 14 arraignments in Bucks County Court. Prosecutors have made a deal with DiNardo to spare him the death penalty if he pleads guilty at a later date, and have said they are still deciding whether to pursue the death penalty against Kratz.

The lawsuit is the first civil case filed in the murders.

In addition to blaming DiNardo and Kratz for Sturgis' death, it contends that the elder DiNardos knew their son "suffered from mental health issues, violent tendencies, and a proclivity for utilizing firearms" yet didn't prevent him from getting access to a Smith & Wesson .357 handgun  registered to Sandra DiNardo  allegedly used to kill Sturgis. The parents, the lawsuit says, created a "dangerous condition" on their expansive farm by allowing DiNardo to have access to the property and farm equipment allegedly used in the slayings or to hide the bodies.

"With this lawsuit, the heartbroken parents of Mark Sturgis intend to hold accountable everyone responsible for the horrific death of their son, not just those who pulled the trigger," attorney Robert Ross said in a statement Wednesday. "This includes those who negligently and carelessly permitted either of the accused to gain access to firearms and equipment used in these heinous crimes."

Ross said Sturgis' father described his son as a "wonderful young man" who loved sports and working construction with his dad.

An attorney for Antonio and Sandra DiNardo said the couple had done "everything humanly possible" to help their son and had been making progress before the killings.

"There were not four families victimized by this matter, there were five families. The DiNardo family has been absolutely crushed and devastated by what's occurred," said lawyer George Bochetto. "It's regrettable that they would be subject to lawsuits when they themselves are grieving so heavily over all of this."

Kratz's criminal attorney, Craig Penglase, said the filing "added unnecessary complication" to the criminal case.

"While any aggrieved party has the absolute right to file a civil lawsuit in this matter, it's important to remember that there was absolutely no reason to file this suit before the conclusion of the criminal proceedings," Penglase said.

Fortunato Perri Jr., one of Cosmo DiNardo's criminal attorneys, could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday morning.
Fox News contributor Kevin Jackson floated the idea of an FBI plot to assassinate President Trump on "Outnumbered" Tuesday. Read more

It only took one day for a wild conspiracy theory about a made-up FBI plot to assassinate President Trump to move from a fringe website to Fox News.

Even as Trump's lawyers cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller, conservative media outlets like Fox News are painting Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election as a partisan witch hunt.

Fox News hosts have been particularly incensed since Mueller removed FBI agent Peter Strzok from his team of investigators after it was revealed that Strzok sent text messages expressing anti-Trump views with FBI lawyer Lisa Page, with whom he was having an affair. Among the 375 exchanges, which were released last week by the Justice Department and go back to December 2015, Strzok referred to Trump as an "idiot" and a "loathsome human."

Sean Hannity, who reportedly speaks with Trump often and is an ardent supporter of the president, has repeatedly demanded Mueller's firing. New Fox News host Laura Ingraham has claimed a "web of Clinton and Obama loyalists" have infiltrated Mueller's office. Watters' World host Jesse Watters, a Philadelphia native, was widely criticized for suggesting there may be an anti-Trump "coup" going on within the FBI. Jeanine Pirro, a Trump ally who has met with the president multiple times, called on her weekend show for the arrest of FBI officials. And Fox News legal commentator Greg Jarrett compared the FBI to the KGB, suggesting that Mueller has turned the bureau into "America's secret police."

"Secret surveillance, wiretapping, intimidation, harassment and threats," Jarrett told Hannity earlier this month. "It's like the old KGB that comes for you in the dark of the night banging through your door."

But Fox News contributor Kevin Jackson has taken criticism of Mueller and the FBI to a new level of conspiracy theory, suggesting on Tuesday afternoon's Outnumbered that the FBI might actually be plotting to assassinate President Trump.

"Well, I think they're going to say, is it  what was his intent, right?" Jackson said, referencing Strzok's texts. "Because that's exactly what FBI director, former FBI director [James] Comey said when he was letting Hillary Clinton off the hook. And his intent, regardless of whether it was an assassination attempt or whatever, it was definitely something."

To her credit, Outnumbered host Harris Faulkner pushed back immediately on the false claim. Faulkner noted that no credible news source has reported or even floated the idea of an FBI conspiracy to assassinate the president.

"Oh, it's been floated," Jackson responded. "When I talk about this, I'm talking about social media stuff and, you know, that's out there, I'm not talking about media sources."

"Nothing credible," co-host Sandra Smith interjected.

"Well, I mean yeah," Jackson shot back.

Watch:

A Fox News spokesperson said the situation "has been addressed" with Jackson, but did not elaborate any further. Jackson, a Fox News contributor since Jan. 2016 who regularly appears on many of the network's shows, describes himself on his website as a "bestselling author, syndicated talk show host, nationally known speaker, former management consultant, and a rising star in political circles."

Jackson didn't cook up the conspiracy theory on his own. The "social media stuff" he's referring to stems from the fringe, right-wing conspiracy website InfoWars. Alex Jones, the host of InfoWars (a show Trump himself has appeared on), told his listeners Monday that "the Clintons and their operatives in the FBI" have been quietly making moves to permanently silence Trump.

"I think they're going to go ahead and make their move to kill the president," Jones said. "I think in the next 30 days, I think they're going to make an assassination attempt. I just  my gut  I see all of them together, they're that desperate. They're either going to give up or they're going to activate their cells."

For now, Trump is resisting calls to fire Mueller. Upon returning from Camp David on Sunday, Trump said it's "quite sad" to see reports of bias within the FBI, but denied planning to make changes to the special counsel's investigation.

"No, I'm not," Trump told reporters. "What are you, surprised?"
Lawmakers in Harrisburg must pass legislation that reduces the number of children sent to residential placements and helps children to remain in their communities  including ensuring that children who are truant are not court-ordered to residential placements as a method of addressing their truancy. Read more

Young people in foster care are among the most educationally at risk of all student populations. A 2014 CHOP Policylab Report showed these children fall far below their peers academically, are more likely to be eligible for special education services, and experience higher rates of absenteeism and lower rates of grade promotion and credit accumulation. All of these factors mean a greater risk of dropping out. Philadelphia is making progress in addressing these issues, but, according to a 2014 Project UTurn report, more than half of youth in foster care, and 64 percent of youth involved in the juvenile justice system, still do not graduate from high school.

Philadelphia cannot ignore this problem. One in five high school students (and 17 percent of students districtwide) are involved with the child-welfare or juvenile-justice systems  including about 6,000 total youth in foster care at any one time in the city. They are disproportionately students of color, students with disabilities, and students that identify as LGBT or gender-expansive. We are fortunate to have many dedicated partners actively working on this issue, but we all must and can do more.

First, we need to ensure that students who change foster homes and other child-welfare living placements can continue attending the same school. According to the 2013 CHOP PolicyLab Children's Stability and Well-being Study, youth in care attended an average 2.7 schools over two years, and 20 percent of youth attended four or more schools in that period. Children who change schools lose four to six months of educational progress with every move, which leads to significant remedial needs, higher rates of grade retention, and dropping out.

Federal law requires all school districts to ensure school stability or immediate enrollment for children in foster care. At a local level, we need to ensure that placement decisions are made promptly and are in the child's best interests, and that transportation is provided both inside and outside city limits. We need to identify more foster home placements close to the schools children currently attend.

Second, we must address the fact that youth in care fall behind in school because their academic credits often do not transfer or do not count toward graduation. Youth who experience frequent school changes often are unable to graduate because they don't receive full course credits for prior work. They may be ineligible for a district diploma because the school they "landed in last" in 12th grade has a requirement they missed, like a 10th-grade parenting class.

Pennsylvania should follow the lead of other states like Maine, South Carolina, and California by passing state legislation to ensure the prompt transfer of credits from all schools, the availability of credit waivers for local requirements, individual graduation planning, and access to a statewide diploma. This measure should be applicable to all highly mobile students who experience educational disruptions  including those in foster care and the juvenile justice system, or those who experience homelessness.

Third, we need to eliminate the black hole that youth in foster care fall into when they are placed in residential settings, like residential treatment facilities, where they often receive a far inferior education at an on-grounds school. Pennsylvania law already allows children in residential placements to attend the local public school where the placement is located. However, this rarely happens, as few students are aware of this right.

Instead, most students living in group settings attend on-grounds private academic schools licensed by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. These schools vary widely but most do not have the same curriculum requirements as public schools, do not require certified teachers, and are rarely monitored by the state or local school district. Youth in these schools report that they complete worksheets far below grade level, or only have access to cyber-based learning, or are subjected to restraints, assaults, or an isolation room by staff. Upon returning to their community schools, these children often find themselves on a trajectory to dropping out because of the significant disruption in their education from which they never recover.

Pennsylvania must pass legislation that reduces the number of children sent to residential placements and helps children to remain in their communities  including ensuring that children who are truant are not court-ordered to residential placements as a method of addressing their truancy. This only exacerbates future absenteeism upon their return to public school. We must increase protections to ensure the right to attend a local public school is meaningful. And the state should require that all publicly placed students be educated in schools that meet the same rigorous standards as traditional public schools and that are subject to thorough and frequent monitoring to ensure compliance with those standards.

In addition, neighborhood schools must provide targeted supports for these children, including mentoring programs, trauma-informed approaches to learning, and programs like schoolwide Positive Behavior Supports and Interventions in our schools. And we must always listen to youth in care and empower them to make decisions about their own futures.

Without these changes, we will continue to fail children in foster care, and they will continue to pay a heartbreaking price: the loss of a meaningful education and high school diploma, which unfairly stacks the cards against them and sets them on a course of unemployment, underemployment, instability, and high risk of homelessness and imprisonment. We can and should do more for these children in our care.

Maura McInerney is legal director at Education Law Center. @EdLawCenterPa

Kate Burdick is a staff attorney at Juvenile Law Center. @JuvLaw1975

The authors were editorial contributors to the Winter 2017 edition of the Philadelphia Public School Notebook on foster care and education.
Tarana Burke, a once Philadelphia-based activist, is shown in this Oct. 19, 2017 (Ken Murray/New York Daily News/TNS) Read more

The year keeps getting better for #MeToo founder Tarana Burke.

Burke, who managed to turn two small words into a rallying cry against sexual harassment, will push the Waterford crystal button on the main stage in Times Square on New Year's Eve. The push signals the ball drop that officially begins the 60-second countdown to the new year.

"I'm delighted to be participating in this momentous occasion," Burke said. "I think it's fitting to honor the #MeToo movement as we close a historic year."

Burke, a onetime Philadelphia artist and fashion blogger, coined the phrase "Me Too" 10 years ago, when she was executive director of her nonprofit, Just Be Inc. Burke, a three-time survivor of sexual harassment, worked with many girls who had been victims of abuse and didn't want them to feel alone.

Then one Sunday night in October, actress Alyssa Milano tweeted #MeToo as a gut response to the numerous allegations of sexual assault by producer Harvey Weinstein. Millions of sexual harassment survivors used the hashtag in their social media posts in the following weeks. As the year unfolded, many more high profile men, from television news anchors Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose to hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, were accused of harassing women they worked with.

This month, Time magazine called Burke and several other famous faces, including actors Rose McGowan and Terry Crews, the Silence Breakers, naming them its Persons of the Year.

We predict more big things for Burke in 2018.
President Trump has said he is in favor of law and order, but it doesnt ring true when it comes to his own administration. Read more

As mega-corporations join wealthy individuals in celebrating the impending passage of tax cuts for the rich, I'd like to take a moment to talk about another of President Trump's favorite subjects  law and order.

Remember "law and order"? It was Trump's refrain during his presidential campaign and in this earliest days in office. He repeated it often, even amid swirling accusations of Russian collusion. The phrase made his supporters feel secure when Trump said he would protect them from lawbreakers. Of course, the lawbreakers Trump had in mind were black and brown people who had the unmitigated gall to demand that police stop killing us.

But now that the lawbreakers are from Trump's inner circle, the president has changed his tune. Former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos have pleaded guilty to charges connected to the Russian collusion investigation headed by special counsel Robert Mueller. Former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his protege, Rick Gates, have also been charged by Mueller, who now has thousands of Trump transition team emails that were retrieved from government servers.

With those realities in mind, the man who told us we must support law enforcement at all costs now calls federal law-enforcement agencies the enemy.

Using Twitter to slam the Justice Department, Trump complained that former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was not charged with lying to the FBI during a long-closed email investigation, while Flynn was charged with lying to the FBI during the current Russia investigation. Never mind that the Trump administration has already said Flynn is a liar. Never mind that Flynn pleaded guilty to the charge. In Trump's mind, it's still about Clinton, because, after all, law and order applies only to other people. It never applies to Trump himself.

Maybe that's why he sent out this tweet earlier this month: "Many people in our Country are asking what the 'Justice' Department is going to do about the fact that totally Crooked Hillary, AFTER receiving a subpoena from the United States Congress, deleted and 'acid washed' 33,000 Emails? No justice."

He also tweeted that the FBI is tainted and very dishonest because FBI agent Peter Strzok  formerly an agent involved in Mueller's Russia investigation  was found to have sent anti-Trump text messages.

Of course, the one-bad-apple-spoils-the-bunch logic doesn't apply when black people complain that we are 2.5 times to be shot and killed by police than our white counterparts. Trump and his minions tell us that the police who shoot us are outliers. They tell us that they are individual actors who are not part of a system that is built on the assumption that black lives have less value. They tell us to lighten up.

Yet when Trump comes face to face with one biased agent in an investigation, it's fine for him to use that agent's behavior to paint the entire FBI as corrupt.

That's an odd turn of events from the man who pledged to support police no matter what the circumstance. It's downright hypocritical for a guy who promised us law and order.

Trump is the same man who derided black protesters for taking to the streets after police shot unarmed people. You know, because we should support the police no matter what.

Trump is the same man whose Justice Department refused to honor consent decrees with police departments that had been proven to engage in patterns of systemic discrimination against black people. You know, because we should always support the police.

Trump is the same man who overturned President Obama's ban on giving military surplus equipment to police departments because, in Trump's mind, cops need that stuff to deal with those pesky brown taxpayers who keep demanding equal treatment. Why? You guessed it. Because we should always support the police.

As long as they're shutting down black protests after police shootings, or deporting brown immigrants from Mexico, or upholding the ban on Muslim travelers, law-enforcement officers in Trump world should never be questioned.

But woe to those who dare to hold Trump to the same law and order standard that the rest of us are expected to honor. Woe to those who dare to question whether the Trump presidency came into being through illegal collusion with a foreign enemy of the United States.

Here's an idea: If the Trump administration is going to impose law and order on the rest of America, it should set the example it wants us to follow.

I'm all for law and order. Let's make sure we have it first in the White House.
A mans shadow falls onto a section of the new mural painted on the B Street bridge in Kensington section of Philadelphia on Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2017. The project was led by Philadelphia Mural Arts Program and designed by artist Calo Rosa. Read more

This is the third in an occasional series about the Kensington Storefront, a space for art and healing at the front lines of the city's opioid epidemic. Part One covered the launch; Part Two examined what it takes to make art with people in the throes of addiction.

Markees Quillen was just 13 years old when he started selling drugs along D Street in Kensington.

So, for the now-21-year-old from North Philly, it was an odd feeling to be back in the neighborhood, this time helping paint a colorful mural on a bridge over the Conrail track that has long cut a gash through the neighborhood  a 20-year-old encampment for heroin users that was cleared out in August.

"It's weird. Sometimes I feel cautious. Just being in that area, I'm like, 'Damn, I used to sell drugs there.' The same people I used to sell drugs  now I see them and they're still out there," said Quillen, who now works for the Guild program, part of Mural Arts. He invited them to paint. "I told them, 'I'm just trying to give back to y'all, because I was the one out there hurting you.'"

The brilliant splashes of color on the B Street bridge are the first large-scale signs of a Mural Arts initiative to answer the gaping wounds of poverty, disinvestment, and addiction in this neighborhood with grand gestures of hope. It was born out of the organization's Kensington Storefront, a space opened in March in collaboration with community organizations and the city's Department of Behavioral Health to test the notion that art could be part of the answer to the city's opioid crisis.

"The bridge is quite symbolic. People see this as a way of connecting the communities," Mural Arts executive director Jane Golden said. "This is a project of reclaiming space. I'd like to see this be catalytic. It's my hunch that the more we can go in with beauty and color and reflect back people's aspirations, it gets people thinking about possibility."

Then, as Deputy Managing Director Joanna Otero-Cruz arrived at a Tuesday ribbon-cutting, Golden switched gears. "Four more bridges to go, right, Joanna?" she said, referring to the other overpasses along Gurney Street.

"We've got to work on the funding," Otero-Cruz warned.

Progress in Kensington has been at times slow and lurching. Plans in the works include storefront improvement initiatives, paintings on 500 boards to be installed as part of clean-and-seal efforts on vacant rowhouses around the neighborhood, and more small-scale public artworks rooted in workshops that organizers hope might steer people toward seeking help.

But there have been months of delays in obtaining those clean-and-seal boards; winter weather has foiled recent mural installation plans; the storefront rehab has been held up by red tape; and neighbors have complicated feelings as a sparkling-clean Gurney Street has flushed addicts into the surrounding neighborhoods.

The freshly painted bridge, said Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez, is a symbol of the city's promise.

"This is block-by-block, day-by-day, slow progress," said Quinones-Sanchez, who heard from angry and frustrated residents in a meeting at the Storefront on Monday. "But this community is not going to be forgotten."

Still, Calo Rosa  the artist who created the colorful mural design, meant to speak to the Caribbean and Mexican heritage of many nearby residents  said the community response has also been one of gratitude.

"Every day we had people coming over to thank us," he said. "They said, 'I never thought this day would happen.' They saw us working in the cold and brought us food or whatever they had."

A larger-scale response to the crisis, including a possible safe-injection site, remains elusive.

Meanwhile, according to Laure Biron, director of Mural Arts' Porch Light Program, more than 100 people are now coming through the Storefront on any given day, for painting and weaving workshops, open-mic nights, support groups and job-readiness programs.

Some want to get warm for just a minute. Others inquire whether there are any sandwiches. A few, if their hands are steady, sit awhile to work on an art project.

On a recent evening, Jim Alvin played Christmas music on a smartphone while leading a workshop titled Emotional Painting.

Alvin grew up in Kensington, writing graffiti under the Market-Frankford El, then used drugs there.

"I got sober eight years ago, and my whole lifestyle changed," he said. "From illegal [graffiti] to with permission only." He does anti-drug murals at schools, and installs signs for a living. He never thought he'd qualify for a Mural Arts gig, but he landed one through a Storefront initiative to create residencies for local, little-known artists.

"The idea for me is to get someone to talk about their feelings and listen to what they say," he said, "and maybe figure out where to go with it."

A man wandered in, bringing the aroma of liquor with him, and picked up a brush. He painted his name on a panel: Hakim. He declined to give his last name. He's 49, he lives in West Philly, and once had seven years clean. But it's hard to stay away from Kensington.

"It's not a life I want to continue to live,' he said. "It's so horrible."

The Storefront is like a small vacation from all that. "You're not thinking about doing nothing negative," he said.

Biron said that over time, some regulars are starting to ask for more extensive assistance: addiction treatment, psychiatric help, domestic violence counseling and shelters, inpatient detox, housing assistance.

"A person may come back several weeks in a row to an art program, or to every program that we offer," Biron said. "We know that people have to be in that contemplation period for a long time before they are really ready."

Golden's aim is to bring more symbols of hope into the neighborhood. Those will include new artworks by ESPO, a.k.a. Steve Powers, painted-over-signs repurposed from the defunct Shooter Shop at Emerald and Allegheny; an art component in Shift Capital's Kensington Avenue Storefront Challenge rehabs; and many more clean-and-seal boards, painted to look like windows onto clear blue skies.

And she aspires to provide more opportunities. She'd like to add a larger workforce component and create a pipeline of resident artists.

One man brought his portfolio into the Storefront with him, and told her it had always been his dream to work for Mural Arts.

"But," he added, "I'd be a bad bet, because I have to go get help. I need to go to rehab, and I'll call you when I get back.'"
Pennsylvania State Rep. Thomas Caltagirone speaking at a press conference in Harrisburg regarding Trump Administrations decision to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. AP FILE Read more

HARRISBURG  Pennsylvania House Democrats spent nearly a quarter-million dollars in taxpayer money to secretly settle a sexual harassment complaint against a 40-year lawmaker, according to a document obtained by the Inquirer and Daily News and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

A payment of $248,000 went to resolve a complaint in 2015 against State Rep. Thomas Caltagirone, a Democratic lawmaker from Berks County, by a longtime legislative staffer. The settlement included a nondisclosure agreement, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The year after the settlement, Caltagirone, a legislator since 1977, won reelection to his 21st two-year term; he was unopposed in the primary and the general election.

It was not clear whether Caltagirone, who faced a separate and widely publicized sexual harassment complaint in the mid-1990s, was disciplined or reprimanded after the 2015 payout. House Democrats would not discuss details of the case, and Caltagirone did not respond to requests for comment.

Hours after the Inquirer and Daily News reported the settlement on Tuesday, Gov. Wolf, a fellow Democrat, called on Caltagirone to resign, saying: "Verbal and physical harassment is flat-out wrong, whether towards an employee or any other person."

The payout in Caltagirone's case was in addition to $30,000 that House Democrats made in 2013 to end a sexual harassment lawsuit against former State Rep. Jewell Williams, now Philadelphia's sheriff.

House Minority Leader Frank Dermody (D., Allegheny) this week declined to be interviewed about the settlement payouts, which were itemized in a document prepared by the state's Bureau of Risk and Insurance Management, and obtained by the newspapers. The bureau manages the state's self-insurance programs, and investigates and pays tort claims and lawsuits against the state and its employees, including harassment suits.

In a statement Tuesday, Dermody said he could not discuss a case where the parties involved agreed to keep the terms confidential: "I don't like it, and I wish I could disclose more of the specifics, but I have to follow the law."

The document obtained by the newspapers is the first indication that Pennsylvania's legislature has dipped into public funds multiple times to settle such claims  a practice that has received renewed scrutiny in recent weeks as a wave of sexual harassment cases roils statehouses across the country.

A group of female lawmakers is pushing a package of bills to strengthen Pennsylvania law on sexual harassment, including one by Rep. Leanne Krueger-Braneky (D., Delaware) that would ban nondisclosure agreements in legislative sexual harassment cases and prohibit lawmakers from using taxpayer money to settle such claims.

In all, the document shows that House Democrats paid $600,000 since 2007 to settle four complaints against legislators: the two sexual harassment cases, as well as two cases involving claims by legislative staffers that they were improperly fired.

Late Tuesday, however, House Democrats said they had spent roughly $514,000 to settle the claims. They did not give specifics on any of the complaints, break down how much each cost, or explain the discrepancy between the figures.

The document does not show payouts by House Republicans. Their spokesman, Steve Miskin, said that "as far as we know, we have not made any type of payout or payment" for sexual harassment claims.

Caltagirone, 75, for many years chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Messages were left at his district office and his home, and on his cellphone. He also did not respond to an email.

The woman paid as a result of her claim against Caltagirone declined to comment, referring questions to the lawyer who handled her case. The lawyer, Patricia Pierce of Greenblatt Pierce Funt & Flores in Philadelphia, did not return calls to her office.

The Inquirer and Daily News and the Post-Gazette are withholding the woman's name, as her case involved allegations of verbal and physical harassment over several years. State records show that she worked for Caltagirone in his district office in Reading for a decade, starting in 2004, and earned about $63,000 a year when she left.

House Democrats authorized paying the woman $165,500 in February 2015, and her lawyer $82,500 that same month. The report does not give details about her case.

Mike Herzing, a spokesman for Dermody, would not say who authorized the payout.

But another document related to the Caltagirone case shows that Nora Winkelman, the top lawyer for House Democrats, wrote that the settlement was "in the best interests" of the institution because the woman's threat to file an EEOC complaint and civil suit was "real and imminent," and defending the claim over a long period would be costly.

Winkelman also wrote that the woman had initially asked for $1.5 million.

The disclosure on Caltagirone cames two days after the Inquirer and Daily News reported that State Sen. Daylin Leach, a Montgomery County Democrat running for Congress, had crossed the line with sexual talk and inappropriate touching, according to interviews with former campaign and legislative staffers.

Leach, 56, denied that he inappropriately touched women. Several prominent Democrats, including Wolf, have since called for Leach to resign. On Monday, he announced that he would be "taking a step back" from his congressional campaign.

A 'Need to Know'

Each caucus in the legislature has its own sexual harassment policy. The policy for House Democrats, updated earlier this year, prohibits "unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature" when it is made a condition of employment, is used as the basis for employment decisions, or creates an "intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment."

The same policy states that if an employee makes a complaint, "a preliminary investigation will be conducted to determine the merits of the case and to seek a prompt resolution." If a quick resolution can't be reached, a formal investigation follows, including interviews and a review of personnel files and other relevant documents.

"Confidentiality is essential to the fair investigation and resolution of complaints under this policy. Only those individuals who have a 'need to know' about the investigation and resolution of the complaint will be entitled to the information," according to the policy.

It does not provide any insight into how decisions are made about settlement payments or who authorizes them.

In Caltagirone's case, it marked the second time he faced accusations of sexually harassing a subordinate.

Allegations, investigations and a truce

In 1994, a grand jury investigated claims by a contract worker in his office that the legislator demanded she have sex with him if she wanted to keep her job. The woman  the sister-in-law of Caltagirone's ex-wife  also alleged that during an out-of-town trip with Caltagirone, she walked into a room and found him naked and that, when she fled that house, he chased her and at gunpoint ordered her into his car.

Caltagirone denied any wrongdoing. A grand jury concluded there was "more than enough evidence" to prosecute but then-acting Attorney General Walter Cohen announced that charges would not be filed in the case. Attorney General Tom Corbett later also declined to file charges, saying the woman, Marci Lynn Santoro, was credible but there was not enough evidence to win a conviction.

About a decade later, Santoro returned to work for Caltagirone. A source close to the legislator said at the time that the two had forgiven each other. She has since left state employment.
Jules Williams (left) was arrested Dec. 14, 2017, in the May 19, 2017, double shooting in Kensington that wounded a 2-year-old boy and his father. Revoire Harris (right), is also a suspect in the shooting. He remains a fugitive. Read more

A 25-year-old West Philadelphia man has been arrested and another man is being sought in a shooting that injured a toddler and his father in Kensington, police said Wednesday.

Jules Williams of the 5700 block of Market Street was arrested Dec. 14 and charged with two counts of attempted murder, conspiracy, and weapons offenses.

Police are still seeking Revoire Harris, 25, of North Philadelphia.

Both are accused of pedaling down the 3300 block of Malta Street on BMX-type bikes about 9:15 p.m. May 19 and firing at a rowhouse, hitting and injuring the 25-year-old father and his 2-year-old son, who were on their porch.

The toddler, Pryce Johnson, was shot twice  once in his right wrist and once in his right buttock, his mother, Donata, 25, has said. Police took him to St. Christopher's Hospital for Children and he was released later that month.

His father, whose name has not been released, was shot once in his right knee and taken to Temple University Hospital in stable condition.

Just before firing their guns, one man yelled, "This is our block," according to a neighbor.

Police said 16 shell casings remained in the street after the shooting. The gunmen pedaled away and turned right onto Westmoreland Street, police said.

Harris was identified in June as one of the suspected gunmen. Police have said he has past addresses on the 2500 block of North Sydenham Street and the 3300 block of Philip Street. Tipsters can call East Detectives at 215-686-3243, or 911.
WASHINGTON  The secret letter was tucked inside the pages of an old book. It had been written by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to a top lieutenant, condemning civil rights leader the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

It was Nov. 19, 1964, and Hoover the previous day had assailed King at a news conference as "the most notorious liar in the country." Now he was writing a colleague privately to say he hoped King was getting his "just deserts."

"I certainly hope so," Hoover wrote.

Four years later, King would be assassinated. And the letter  previously unknown to the public, an author says  sheds yet more light on the historic malice the FBI director had toward King.

It also touches on a later, even more nefarious FBI effort to damage King.

Washington scholar James L. Swanson said he found the letter inside an envelope clipped to a page in Hoover's 1938 book, Persons in Hiding, which Swanson said he purchased in a bookstore several years ago.

The envelope was marked "PERSONAL" and "DO NOT MAIL." Inside was a letter from Hoover to his subordinate William C. Sullivan, then the FBI's head of domestic intelligence and the bureau's No. 3 officer.

(The book, which Swanson believes once belonged to Sullivan, is inscribed, "To William Sullivan, Best wishes, J. Edgar Hoover.")

Hoover the day before had held a rare, three-hour news conference with women reporters in Washington. There, he had attacked King for saying two years earlier that FBI agents in Albany, Ga., didn't pursue civil rights cases because they were southerners.

Sullivan had sent the notoriously vain Hoover a note of praise, and the director had dashed off an appreciative "Dear Bill" reply.

"I share your view in thinking that [King's] exposure is long overdue," Hoover wrote. "It is grand to know that I have the support and goodwill of my close associates in the Bureau."

The letter is reproduced in Swanson's new book for young adults, Chasing King's Killer, about the hunt for King's assassin, James Earl Ray, due out in January.

"This is a hitherto unknown and unpublished letter," Swanson said in telephone interview last week. He said he was stunned to find it.

"It's an ominous and disturbing letter," he said. But it "in no way indicates that the FBI or Hoover was plotting against King's very life."

"What happened was this: It was announced [the previous month] that Dr. King had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and that provoked Hoover," he said. King was scheduled to accept the award in Norway in December.

Hoover believed that King and his movement were threats to the social order and that King was influenced by close associates who were communists.

The FBI had begun wiretapping King's home and office, and bugging his hotel rooms the previous year, according to Yale historian Beverly Gage.

No serious links to communism were uncovered, but hints about King's sexual dalliances allegedly were.

In the note to Sullivan, an aggrieved Hoover wrote: "I have always been reluctant about holding press conferences . . . [but] there were a number of things I wanted to get off my chest."

For his part, King denied that he had accused southern FBI agents of foot dragging, although he had been quoted by the New York Times in 1962 as saying, "One of the great problems we face with the FBI in the south is that the agents are white southerners who have been influenced by the mores of the community."

In a telegram to Hoover after the director's news conference, King said: "I have sincerely questioned the effectiveness of the FBI in racial incidents, particularly where bombings and brutalities against Negroes are at issue. But I have never attributed this merely to the presence of southerners in the FBI."

In a separate statement, he said Hoover seemed to have "faltered under the awesome burden, complexities and responsibilities of his office."

But Hoover and Sullivan were not finished with King.

Days after Hoover's news conference, a salacious anonymous letter was delivered to King's wife, Coretta Scott King, and later given to King. This letter was from a person masquerading as an angry African American.

The letter was in a package that also containing a tape recording that allegedly captured evidence of King's sexual misconduct.

The typed letter condemned King as "a colossal fraud . . . and a dissolute, abnormal moral imbecile."

"Your 'honorary degrees,' your Nobel Prize (What a grim farce) . . . will not save you," the letter said. "You are done."

"There is only one thing left for you to do," the letter said. "You know what it is . . . There is but one way out . . . You better take it before your filthy, abnormal, fraudulent self is bared to the nation."

King suspected that the FBI was behind the letter and interpreted it as an attempt to blackmail him, apparently into committing suicide.

Swanson and Gage believe that the letter was probably written by Sullivan, who later admitted his involvement in the plan during testimony before a Senate committee but claimed that he had been opposed to the idea.

A draft copy of the letter was later found among Sullivan's files, Senate investigators said in 1975, noting that Sullivan claimed that it had been planted there and was written by someone else.

In a 1979 book, Sullivan said he knew about the tape but not about the letter. Hoover was behind both, Sullivan suggested.

Swanson, author of top-selling books on the Lincoln and Kennedy assassinations, said King was "one of the bravest men in American history."

"Unlike John Kennedy, unlike Abraham Lincoln, King was under constant threat of harassment and death," he said. "He was shot at. His home was bombed. He was hit with rocks and bottles and stones. . . . He received death threats."

"For more than a decade during his rise, Martin Luther King was under constant threat of violence and fear," he said. "And the FBI was very much part of this."

By 1971, Hoover and Sullivan had developed bitter differences, and that year Hoover forced Sullivan to retire.

Two years later, Sullivan told the Los Angeles Times that Hoover was "a master blackmailer."

In 1977, Sullivan was killed in a hunting accident in New Hampshire when he was shot by another hunter who mistook him for a deer.
Mayor-elect Frank Gilliam and residents Sheila Hull-Freeman (left) and Carol Ruffu (right) claim victory in the states announcement that it would not seek to privatize Atlantic Citys water authority. Read more

ATLANTIC CITY  Residents and activists claimed victory Wednesday after the State of New Jersey said it would not seek to privatize Atlantic City's coveted water authority.

The announcement caps a year of petition drives and neighborhood activism during a state takeover of city government that many thought had left the financially strapped city vulnerable to a sale of the water authority to New Jersey American Water or another politically connected company.

"The water company is a solid asset of this city," said Sheila Hull-Freeman, president of the Bungalow Park Civic Association, who said residents feared rate hikes under a private company. "We have no interest in giving up autonomy to the county, the state, or anyone else."

At a news conference in City Hall, Mayor-elect Frank M. Gilliam Jr. released a statement from former U.S. Sen. Jeffrey S. Chiesa, the state designee in charge of Atlantic City's finances, saying the state would not "sell or lease the Atlantic City Municipal Utilities Authority to a private company."

The statement cited "the important role the MUA plays in the community at large and the visible pride that city residents and businesses have in their water system."

It did not address any future public role Atlantic County's Utility Authority might play in operations, a scenario that has been floated. Chiesa did not attend the news conference. The MUA has been estimated to be worth $100 million.

"This allegiance was evident in this year's petition drive in support of the MUA, and in City Council's vote to give city residents a say in any dissolution of the MUA," Chiesa's statement said. "Therefore, the public can rest assured that the MUA will not be privatized by the state."

Gilliam said the announcement "shows how the power is really with the people."

He said any talk about a potential role for the county would be premature. "It allows the city to do what it wants with its water," he said.

"We made it very clear to the State of New Jersey that we wanted to retain the power of our MUA, and today we have prevailed," Gilliam said. "It wasn't just a political fight. It was a fight for the residents of Atlantic City to make sure we retained power over our water."

City Council President Marty Small Sr. issued a statement praising residents, the NAACP, and several other national groups for their work, and cited "numerous trips to Trenton" made by himself and outgoing Mayor Don Guardian in an effort "to make our voices heard."

Carol Ruffu, head of the Chelsea Heights civic association, also appeared with Gilliam and spoke of the grassroots petition drive that resulted in 2,348 signatures and a City Council resolution assuring a right of referendum before any moves could be made on the authority.

"We got together, and it was unanimous at all the civic association meetings: We did not want to lose the right to have control of our water," Ruffu said. "We have the best water in the country, just about. With everything going on, with Flint, Mich., and Detroit, there were a lot of horror stories out there."

Lena Smith, an activist with Food and Water Watch who spent a year working on the petition drive in Atlantic City, said the state's announcement was "a huge victory for the residents and the citizens who really should be claiming this victory."

"All of the work people put in to protect their system and the importance of the ACMUA to the residents is reflected by the state's announcement," she said.
Attorney Robert Mongeluzzi (2nd left) and his partner Andrew Duffy (left), using a large photo, explain to the media during a press conference December 20, 2017 about where government officials believe last months nursing home fire at Barclay Friends Senior Living complex in West Chester started  on a covered outdoor patio. Seated at right are the children of Theresa Malloy, one of those killed in the fire, who are being represented by the lawyers. They are (from left) Mary Dimaio, Gary Malloy and Martin Malloy. Read more

After Martin Malloy had dinner with his mother, Theresa, on Wednesday, Nov. 15, he left her in the first floor lobby of Barclay Friends. She joined a circle of fellow residents, who were batting around a balloon and "laughing like schoolkids," he said.

To Martin Malloy, dinner with mom had been a success. For the first time in the four weeks she had lived there, 85-year-old Theresa Malloy seemed to have come to the realization that the West Chester senior living complex was her new home, he said.

Before he left, he stood in the doorway and watched his mother for a few extra minutes. She was not aware he was still there. He listened to that laugh, the one the family knew so well.

"I thought I turned a corner there," Martin Malloy said. "That is the last time I saw her."

The next night, a five-alarm blaze ripped through the senior living complex, killing Malloy and three other residents and displacing more than 100 from a facility that may not have been properly protected, according to a preliminary investigation by the Malloy's legal team.

At a Wednesday afternoon press conference in Center City, attorneys Robert Mongeluzzi and Andrew Duffy said that Barclay Friends' fire suppression system failed the night of the Nov. 16 fire and the sprinklers did not activate.

Barclay Friends "did not protect Theresa as she was alone in her room, fire beginning to creep through the facility," Mongeluzzi said, "and she died because she did not get the protection she deserved."

"We continue to grieve for the families that lost loved ones in the fire, while also working to support the residents, families and staff members of the Barclay Friends community that have been displaced," The Kendal Corporation, Barclay Friends' parent company, said in a statement. "We are taking the information shared by representatives of one of our families seriously."

Kendal said it is fully cooperating with authorities but could not provide any additional information as the investigation remains ongoing.

Mongeluzzi said he was not ready to discuss any potential litigation. No lawsuits have been filed. Mongeluzzi said his legal team, working alongside fire experts, are first investigating what caused the fire and whether it could have been prevented.

Duffy, accompanied by its experts, conducted their first on-site inspection earlier Wednesday. The team took note of a U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives reconstruction of the rear covered patio, where the ATF has said the fire began. That reconstruction included the placement of a chair next to a metal trash receptacle, which Mongeluzzi said raises suspicion that a cigarette ignited the blaze.

"While we cannot address specific statements or questions about particular aspects of the investigation raised today, we can say that we are at a critical stage of our investigation," ATF Special Agent in Charge Donald Robinson said in a statement."The investigative agencies are united in wanting to make sure that we have all possible data before presenting the families, and then the public, with the results of our investigation."

Malloy's children  Gary Malloy, 62; Martin Malloy, 58; and Mary Dimaio, 55  anxiously await those answers.

Speaking alongside their attorneys in Philadelphia, they recalled their mother as a faithful Catholic and the daughter of Irish immigrants. She was a single parent who raised her children in Oxford Circle and worked for the Internal Revenue Service for 25 years. She loved babies, laughter, and trips to Wildwood and Stone Harbor, with Springer's Homemade Ice Cream always a highlight.

She was fiercely independent, they said, but had begun to develop memory issues. Her children tried to care for her in her Chester County apartment for as long as they could, they said. After much consideration, they moved her to a second-floor room in the Barclay Friends assisted living facility at the end of October.

Martin Malloy said he stays awake many nights imagining what his mother went through that night less than four weeks later. Perhaps she was confused, he said, and did not know how to get out of the building.

The day after the blaze, "our panic was growing as we weren't able to locate her," Mary Dimaio said. "But it's nothing compared to the panic she must have felt in the middle of the night, dark, alone, by herself."

"Why was she not protected?" Martin Malloy said. "What happened?"

The fire, which broke out at Barclay Friends just before 11 p.m. on Nov. 16, killed four residents: Malloy; Mildred E. Gadde, 93; and a married couple, Delores G. Parker, 89, and Thomas F. Parker, 92. All died of smoke inhalation, according to the Chester County Coroner's Office.

The ATF said last week that the fire began on the building's back patio, then possibly climbed an outside wall and set the roof ablaze. The cause has not been determined, but smoking was not permitted anywhere on the Barclay Friends campus, the parent company has said.

Neither arson nor foul play are suspected. Charlene Hennessey, an ATF spokeswoman, said the fire was a tragic accident. No additional information was available Wednesday, she said, and may not be until after the holidays.

A total of 137 residents and 15 staff members were at the complex when the fire ignited and ripped through the two-story assisted living building, growing to a five-alarm blaze in half an hour. Some 27 people were injured.

In the days afterward, authorities hailed the efforts of the 400 responding emergency providers, some of whom ran into the inferno without breathing apparatuses. Meanwhile, neighbors in homes surrounding the 700 N. Franklin St. complex rushed to help move residents and keep them warm in a 40-degree night.

Fire-protection experts had previously told The Inquirer and Daily News that the speed at which the fire spread suggested a failure of the building's fire-suppression system. And tapes from that evening indicated firefighters struggled to get adequate water pressure.

It was not immediately clear whether the families of any of the other three victims had retained lawyers. Mongeluzzi said he could not comment on whether he would be representing any other families.
Adam Xu, chairman of the Asian American Licensed Beverage Association of Philadelphia, speaking at the Wayne Junction Deli, a beer deli in Logan, on Nov. 27, 2017, said the businesses need the barrier windows for safety reasons. Read more

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that the city's Department of Licenses and Inspections would let proprietors know about the bill's new restaurant licensing requirements in the first few months of 2018. The article has been updated to say weeks, not months. Also, the second paragraph in the article was based on statements made by Councilwoman Cindy Bass.

Mayor Kenney is expected Wednesday to sign a controversial bill passed last week by City Council aimed at cracking down on stop-and-go stores, also known as beer delis.

The bill seeks to rid the city of the stores  which sell alcohol and at times have not complied with state laws  by transforming them into traditional restaurants; convenience stores, or takeouts that don't sell alcohol; beer distributors where alcohol consumption is prohibited; or closing them altogether.

For beer deli owners, the future is uncertain. Besides wondering how they can maintain their businesses, they have been left to wonder whether they can keep intact their interior bullet-resistant barrier windows, which many maintain in higher-crime neighborhoods. That issue won't be decided for at least several months.

So what happens next?

Karen Guss, spokeswoman for the Department of Licenses and Inspections, said Tuesday that the department would let proprietors know about the bill's new restaurant licensing requirements in the first few weeks of 2018. The new licensing categories would be implemented in the first four months of the year, she said.

In the summer at the earliest, she said, the city would convene a diverse group to discuss the polarizing issue of the barrier windows that separate store workers from customers in some establishments. "Certainly, we want affected businesses to be at the table," she said.

The Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations will "organize community conversations in neighborhoods affected to address tensions and to help build more positive relationships and stronger communities," the commission said in a statement Tuesday.

What does the bill say?

The bill, introduced Nov. 2 by Councilwoman Cindy Bass, separates food establishments into two categories: large and small. Large establishments would be required to have 30 or more seats and at least one easily accessible toilet for customers.

Bass' bill was aimed at stop-and-go outlets, where people can buy single cans of beer from early morning until late at night. She has said they encourage drunkenness, sell items for children like candy and chips next to alcohol for adults, and in some cases have flouted state requirements for food establishments selling alcohol. She has said the beer deli business model needs to end.

The controversial part of the bill originally called for a mandatory ban on any "physical barrier" between food servers and customers in large food establishments. (Any potential restrictions on barrier windows would not affect takeouts or other small food establishments that don't sell alcohol.)

Beer deli owners strongly oppose a ban on the thick plastic, bullet-resistant windows. Without the windows, they say, their lives would be at risk. They point out that banks, fast-food outlets, gas stations, and convenience stores have bullet-resistant partitions.

How was the bill amended?

On Dec. 4, Council's Committee on Public Health and Human Services amended the section on physical barriers to remove the mandatory ban and instead instructed L&I to issue by Jan. 1, 2021, regulations for "the use or removal of any physical barrier" in places that serve food and alcohol.

The amended bill was approved Dec. 14 in a 14-3 vote by the full Council.

What will happen to the beer delis?

After the Council committee vote, Bass said beer deli owners "need to decide what they want to be: Do you want to be a restaurant or a beer distributor?"

Beer delis currently have a "restaurant" or "eating place" license from the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, which allows them to sell certain types of alcohol. LCB rules also require them to have 30 seats and to prepare and serve food. Bass has pointed out that some have not complied.

If they want to continue to sell alcohol as a restaurant or eating place, under the new city law they would have to apply for a large food establishment license  and would be subject to whatever rules L&I issues on barrier windows in large establishments.

Adam Xu, chairman of the Asian American Licensed Beverage Association, which represents 245 beer delis in the city, said Monday that it was not clear what beer delis would decide, given the continued uncertainty over the window issue. If they opt for a large food establishment license, they eventually could be forced to remove their bullet-resistant windows and thus risk their safety.

Becoming beer distributors would have obstacles, too, including a difficult zoning-approval process, he said.

Meanwhile, State Rep. Todd Stephens, a Republican who represents part of Montgomery County, as he said he would at a Dec. 8 news conference, issued a memo last week to House colleagues seeking co-sponsors of a bill aimed at countering Bass' bill.

"My legislation will authorize employers to voluntarily create workplace violence prevention policies and/or implement safeguards for their employees (including the installation of barriers, security systems and other measures)  as long as those policies and safeguards are consistent with state and federal law," Stephens wrote in the memo. He noted that bullet-resistant barriers are listed in the U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration's workplace violence prevention recommendations for late-night retail establishments.

Stephens said he plans to introduce his legislation in January.
Demonstrators hold up balloons during an immigration rally in support of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and Temporary Protected Status (TPS), programs, near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017. Read more

WASHINGTON  Democrats are backing away from a pledge to force a vote this month over the fate of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to this country as children, angering activists but probably averting the threat of a government shutdown at a critical moment in spending negotiations with Republicans and President Trump.

With a deadline of midnight Friday to pass spending legislation, dozens of Democrats had vowed to withhold support if Republicans refused to allow a vote on a measure, known as the Dream Act, that would allow roughly 1.2 million immigrants to stay legally in the United States.

But a group of vulnerable Democratic senators facing reelection in conservative states next year aren't willing to go that far  meaning the party is unlikely to muster the votes to block the spending bill.

"We've got to get it done, but I'm not drawing a line in the sand that it has to be this week versus two weeks from now," said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who faces reelection next year in a state that Trump won by more than 18 points. Other Democrats facing similar head winds echoed that sentiment, including Sens. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., and Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., Trump won those states by 42 and 19 percentage points, respectively.

Their reluctance to enact legislation protecting "dreamers" has exposed a rift among Democrats, with immigration advocates staging protests this week and accusing some Democrats of taking the party's Latino supporters for granted.

"I had [House Minority Leader] Nancy Pelosi tell me to my face that she would get this done by the end of the year," said Adrian Reyna, 26, an immigrant who arrived from Mexico at age 11 and whose work permit expires in May. Reyna is the membership director of United We Dream, the youth-led immigrant organization organizing protests.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Reyna said, "looked into the eyes of our members and said he's committed to getting this done. They cannot just tell us they are going to do something and then just drop out."

The current push for immigration legislation erupted in September, after Trump vowed to end a program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, instituted by President Barack Obama via executive action, allowing some immigrants brought into the country as children to stay legally.

At the time, Trump declared the program unconstitutional  and he challenged Congress by setting a March 5 deadline to pass legislation offering parallel protections to those provided under DACA.

Schumer responded to that challenge by promising that "Democrats will do everything we can to prevent President Trump's terribly wrong order from becoming reality." Pelosi, D-Calif., said in October: "We have to do it before Christmas. That's just the way it is."

But in the weeks since, both leaders have amended their wish list and are now also pushing to use the looming spending showdown to reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program and devote more federal funding to cash-strapped pensions and programs targeting opioid abuse.

DACA recipients remain a top concern for House Democrats and a handful of Democratic senators, including Richard Durbin, Ill., the second-ranking Democrat, as well as senators mulling 2020 presidential campaigns.

"This can't come down to an issue of what is politically popular. It's just morally right," said Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., a potential 2020 contender. "History is going to judge us."

But 25 Democratic senators face reelection next year  10 of them in mostly rural states that Trump won overwhelmingly, where talk of a shutdown over immigration reform is a politically risky move.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., is seeking a second term in a state that is home to about 13,000 DACA recipients  and hundreds of thousands of federal employees whose livelihoods are at risk during government shutdowns.

"I will exercise every bit of leverage I can for the Dream Act, but if there is a vote that would lead to a shutdown, that's where I draw the line," he said.

Kaine recalled meeting last month in northern Virginia with a group of Latino voters to discuss his support for the Dream Act. "But around that table there were Latino federal employees who say, 'Don't shut down the federal government,' " he said.

Even Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who is seeking her fifth full term next year in a deep-blue state with the largest number of DACA recipients in the nation, isn't willing to pick the fight.

Some advocates believe it would be politically infeasible for Democrats to force a government shutdown this year because the GOP would blame them for cutting off essential government aid to citizens over a relatively small group of immigrants when there is still time to fix DACA next year.

Others marveled at Democrats' unwillingness to use the leverage they have. Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, a nonpartisan immigration advocacy organization, said Republican aides in Congress recently told him that they couldn't pass an immigration bill because Democrats had refused to shut down the government and force the GOP's hand.

Both parties should be held accountable, Noorani added.

"Republicans are in charge here," he said. "Either they want to do this or they don't. They keep saying they want to do this. For them to say if only Democrats would make good on this threat to shut down the government then we'd be able to pass the Dream Act . . . America deserves better than this right now."

Several Democratic aides said Republicans have pushed the spending fight into January by focusing more in recent weeks on tax reform instead of government funding. Prospects for a potential bipartisan breakthrough seem especially ripe in the House, where members of both parties are still working on a proposed compromise that could be unveiled soon. Pelosi was seen huddling on the House floor Tuesday afternoon with Reps. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., and Will Hurd, R-Texas, two members trying to craft a deal.

Democrats pushing to protect dreamers have widespread public support. In an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Tuesday, 62 percent of respondents said Congress should enact protections for DACA recipients; 19 percent said Congress should let DACA expire.

Asked whom they would blame if disagreements force a government shutdown, 31 percent said they would blame congressional Republicans, 29 percent said they would blame Democrats and 18 percent said they would blame Trump, according to the poll.

Some Democratic lawmakers said the potential inaction suggests a failure to appreciate the political power of immigrants.

"Don't underestimate the disappointment and the anger of people who feel they've been hoodwinked or led astray," said Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., an outspoken advocate for comprehensive immigration reform.

Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., suggested that some lawmakers are less willing to enact a permanent solution for dreamers because they can't vote. "Well, they have relatives and neighbors and friends who vote," he said.

Espaillat, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, said he worried that his colleagues misunderstand the story of DACA recipients. While a majority of them are from Latin America, he said, "a good number of the dreamers are from India. There are dreamers that are African, there are some who are European."

This week, more than 1,500 young immigrants from California, New York, Texas, Montana and other states are on Capitol Hill pressuring Republicans to permit a vote on the Dream Act or similar legislation  and pressuring Democrats to play hardball.

About a dozen DACA recipients from Texas camped out on Monday in the lobby of the office of Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., the only female Hispanic senator. She supports the Dream Act but has not said whether she would vote against a spending bill.

Members of the group shared their stories of immigrating to the United States, sang the spiritual, "We Shall Not Be Moved" in English and Spanish and shouted chants that bellowed down the cavernous halls of the Russell Senate Office Building.

"I am somebody! And I demand full equality!" they screamed. "Right here! Right now!"

Diana Alexander, a teacher from Houston traveling with the group, said activists are seeking "a specific response" from Democrats.

"Not only do you have to say that you're with us, but we also want to have a promise  a verbal promise that you will not vote for this [spending bill] without including the Dream Act legislation along with it."

Advocates also said that Democrats who vote this week for a new spending bill would essentially be providing money to fund immigration enforcement, which has risen significantly under Trump.

House Republican leaders filed a spending bill last week that would temporarily extend funding for most government agencies at current levels until Jan. 19, while providing longer-term military funding at higher levels  $650 billion through Sept. 30. The bill is considered dead on arrival in the Senate, where Democrats can block it because of the chamber's 60-vote filibuster threshold.
Former Fox News contributor Julie Roginsky, seen here alongside former The Five co-host Eric Bolling, claimed a promised position never happened after she rejected Roger Ailes sexual advances. Read more

Fox News' parent company has reached a settlement with former contributor Julie Roginsky, a New Jersey political strategist who claimed in a lawsuit that former chairman Roger Ailes was a "sexual predator" who punished her for refusing his advances.

"Now on to vocally ensuring that other women are treated with dignity and respect in their chosen fields," Roginsky wrote on Facebook. She declined to comment further. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

In the lawsuit, which was filed in New York state court in April, Roginsky alleged that Ailes made a promised promotion to a permanent hosting job on The Five "contingent upon having a sexual relationship" with him.

Roginsky also claimed that former Fox News executive Bill Shine retaliated when she refused to publicly disparage former Fox & Friends host Gretchen Carlson when Carlson filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Ailes in July 2016. Fox News' parent company, 21st Century Fox, also ended up settling with Carlson, who was reportedly paid $20 million.

Most strikingly, Roginsky claimed that the environment at Fox News, which she described as a "culture of misogyny and sexism," didn't change after Ailes was forced to resign in July 2016. She claimed Shine, in-house lawyer Dianne Brandi and other senior executives continued to punish her and deny her promotion opportunities for raising the issue of sexual harassment.

Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Susan Estrich, an attorney for Ailes, who died in May, has previously called Roginsky's allegations "total hogwash."

"Her interactions with Mr. Ailes were not even close to the fictional version she wants people to believe," Estrich told NPR's David Folkenflick in April. "The idea that Mr. Ailes would pressure Ms. Roginsky or any other women to have sexual relations with him is total nonsense."

Shine was ousted by the network in May. Brandi took a "voluntary leave" at the beginning of October but has yet to return.

Roginsky, a Democratic consultant from New Jersey, had made appearances on Fox News since 2004 and had been a paid contributor since 2011. She appeared across multiple shows to provide a liberal counterpoint to the network's heavy conservative offerings. She was one of the first advisers Gov.-elect Phil Murphy turned to when he began exploring a gubernatorial bid back in 2013. Most recently, Roginsky worked for the Democratic Governors Association through the 2017 election, where she also helped elect Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam as the next governor of Virginia.

Fox News has been roiled this year by sexual harassment lawsuits. Former star host Bill O'Reilly was fired in April after the New York Times reported the network paid $45 million to settle claims of sexual and verbal assault by six former Fox News personalities. Three of those women  former O'Reilly producer Andrea Mackris, former Fox Business host Rebecca Gomez Diamond and former Fox News producer Rachel Witlieb Bernstein  have joined in a defamation lawsuit against O'Reilly, claiming statements that he and Fox News made cast them as liars and extortionists.

Fox News was also forced to fire longtime host Eric Bolling after an investigation into allegations that he sent lewd photos to at least three female coworkers. Bolling has maintained that he has been falsely accused and has vowed to clear his name.
U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn has proposed legislation that would take net neutrality out of the hands of the FCC. Read more

A key Republican lawmaker has offered legislation to restore net neutrality protections that the Federal Communications Commission yanked last week.

"Our goal is to preserve access to a free and open internet and to make certain that we're continuing to see innovation in this space," Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican who is chairman of the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

But while Democrats have objected to the FCC's action, they have been skeptical of open-internet proposals from Republicans that would crimp the agency's future ability to oversee broadband providers such as AT&T Inc. and Comcast Corp.

"We are at the point of litigation, not legislation" as groups look to federal courts to overturn the FCC's decision, said Senator Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat.

Broadband providers have long called for the issue to be settled in Congress and removed from the FCC, where policies can change as presidential administrations change. But the apparent impasse in Congress shows how web-traffic rules have become a divisive partisan issue likely to elude compromise anytime soon. Democrats could gain congressional seats in next year's elections and be in a stronger position.

"Why in God's name would anyone agree to something now?" said Gigi Sohn, a Democratic FCC aide who helped craft the agency's 2015 rules that were overturned Dec. 14.

Blackburn's legislation, offered Tuesday, would ban broadband providers from blocking or slowing web traffic. It doesn't address so-called "fast lanes" that the earlier FCC rules had prohibited. The bill would prohibit states and the FCC from carving out any further authority over net neutrality in the future. In a phone interview, Blackburn said her legislation didn't tackle fast lanes because "that is an issue where there is not agreement." She said "innovators" in autonomous vehicles, health care, and other sectors might want to be able to pay for their data to get priority, which the FCC has also argued.

She also warned against the Democrats making net neutrality a campaign issue. Americans "don't want something to be held over as a campaign issue when there is a solution," she said.

Republican FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly, who joined his agency's 3-2 vote to kill Obama-era rules, said in an emailed statement that the bill "offers a realistic opportunity for compromise and finality on this much-debated issue."

Internet companies objected.

"The proposal circulated today does not meet the criteria for basic net neutrality protections," Michael Beckerman, president of the Internet Association, a trade group with members including Alphabet Inc.'s Google, Facebook, Netflix, and Amazon.com. The group wants a ban on so-called fast lanes that offer quicker passage over broadband networks in return for payment, Beckerman said.

The FCC rules barred broadband providers from blocking or slowing web traffic, or offering quicker passage in return for payment. Under the FCC measure passed last week, which has yet to take effect, the Federal Trade Commission would assume enforcement responsibilities that the FCC is abandoning.

"I hope our Democratic colleagues will rethink their public strategy to 'litigate not legislate' as we begin this serious legislative effort," Greg Walden, the Republican chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said in a statement.

Republicans have generally taken the side of broadband providers, and Democrats have adopted positions alongside Silicon Valley, which wants rules to ensure data flows smoothly to consumers. Although in the minority in both houses of Congress, Democrats have enough votes to stop a bill in the Senate.

Republican proposals have amounted to a "legislative wolf in sheep's clothing, offering select few safeguards while taking away the FCC's future authority over broadband," Markey said in an email.
At 11:59 p.m. Dec. 12, Talik Monsanto became Philadelphia's 300th homicide victim of 2017.

"He was a good, loving child," says his grieving mother, Atiya Wilson. "He loved his friends. He was outgoing, a people person, affectionate."

Monsanto loved his friends so much that when he heard they were in a fight, he tried to help. For his loyalty, he was shot in the back of the head. No one was around when police found his body face down on the cold sidewalk at American and Westmoreland Streets.

Monsanto was only 21 when he became the 300th homicide victim this year. By midnight Dec. 18, the number had hit 304. This is the highest the city's homicide rate has reached since 2012, and a considerable increase since the city's lowest rate, in 2013, of 238. With fewer than a dozen days left this year, it's likely Philadelphia will have more homicides than New York City, which reports 267 homicides so far this year and has a population of 8.53 million to our 1.56 million.

But there are important differences. Philadelphia is the poorest of the nation's big cities and New York City's so rich, it has 114 cops per square mile. In Philadelphia, it's 41. And our army is out-gunned in a city flooded with illegal weapons that are so easy to get, a criminal can even rent a piece for a quick job. New York, by contrast, has some of the toughest gun laws in the country.

At least 80 percent of the city's homicide victims were killed with guns. Shooters are using guns to settle turf battles in the lucrative drug trade, to extract revenge, to finish arguments, and to kill themselves. At the same time, police started the year about 400 down from the department's roughly 6,500 staffing level. And, the homicide clearance rate  the percentage of cases cleared by arrest or other means  has slipped to its lowest in 15 years.

It's all pretty dismal, but there are signs the city is going into 2018 on firmer footing.

Police Commissioner Richard Ross said the department will be close to full strength early in the year, and he's already making gun-related policy changes. Ross created a gun intelligence bureau, which rapidly investigates shootings with an eye towards figuring out if there will be a retaliation shooting. That task force can also follow the illegal gun trade, stemming the easy access malevolent individuals have to lethal weapons.

To follow up on gun arrests, which number over 1,000 a year, Ross wants a gun court with judges who specialize in gun crimes and punishment. This is an excellent idea that should be funded and up and running as soon as possible.

Monsanto's murder illustrates a problem that smart policing can't solve. His so-called friends, the very crew he died helping, didn't have the courage and decency to wait with his body and give police leads on his killers.

From reluctant witnesses to elected leaders, the entire city has to take on this fight. Leaving it just to the police and emergency room doctors to patch up victims isn't enough.
Behind the scenes at QVC, Program Host Jennifer Coffey sits in the companys West Chester-based main studio. Read more

In the nearly five years I spent covering the Philadelphia tech scene for local tech-news outlet Technical.ly Philly, I rarely thought twice about the West Chester-based retailer known for its television shopping experiences. It felt so old school. I opted to focus on more traditional tech startups. But if we're talking local technology, QVC is impossible to ignore.

Once its $2 billion Home Shopping Network merger is finalized, the emerged QVC Group will become the third-largest e-commerce retailer in North America in terms of sales, trailing only Amazon and Walmart, according to QVC chief executive Michael A. George. That's huge. Amid all the chatter about Amazon HQ2, it seems important to note that the region has an e-commerce player like QVC in its midst. With a few caveats: It's not actually within city limits and only a tiny fraction of its soon-to-be 27,000 employees will work in the region. (Might QVC open an office in the city to attract tech talent, the way suburban companies like Vanguard and social network MeetMe have?) And of course, the merger is still pending so it's too early to say if QVC could truly challenge Amazon or Walmart.

Still, the company is worth watching. That was one of my takeaways while reading Philadelphia Magazine's recent feature on QVC, on whether it could win over the thirtysomething set. The company's merger with HSN was also the subject of a story on Racked about the future of TV shopping. Here's what else you should pay attention to from those stories.

E-commerce sales made up nearly half of QVC's 2016 revenue.

As one point of comparison, e-commerce sales made up one-third of Urban Outfitters' revenue in 2016, according to eMarketer Retail. (In 2012, Urban Outfitters told me it aimed to be at 50 percent e-commerce sales by 2017.)

QVC employees refer to their customers as "she."

That's intentional, as Racked notes that "QVC describes its base as one that 'spans virtually all socio-economic groups,' [according to its website] but more often than not, she's a 35- to 65-year-old woman with a 'somewhat above-average income,' somewhere between $50,000 and $250,000."

That language, the language of "she," speaks to the company's larger mission of trying to create an emotional relationship with its customers.

QVC senior vice president of digital commerce Alex Miller told Philadelphia Magazine that sometimes it's not always about the sale. (Of course, in a roundabout way, it is.)

"We don't try to shove the commerce part of it too far up the funnel, because sometimes she really is just coming to be educated and entertained," he said.

HSN takes a similar tack. From the Racked story:

"Crucially, HSN dialed down the pushiness of its pitches and focused on engaging its audience with an aspirational 'best girlfriend' attitude. 'It's not just a transactional relationship. It becomes an emotional relationship,' [former HSN exec Mindy] Grossman told Forbes."

QVC's parent company, Liberty Interactive, owns Zulily, the online women's clothing store with spammy ads.

Liberty Interactive bought the company for $2.5 billion in 2015. But people don't like those ads. QVC, are you listening? Can you handle?

QVC has downsized its West Chester office in the last year.

The employee count at headquarters is 2,220, down from 2,600 in September 2016, when my colleague Joseph M. DiStefano reported that QVC would cut 100 Philly-area jobs. QVC employs 17,000 but the HSN merger would mean its workforce would grow to 27,000, pre-merger layoffs at least. It's not yet clear how the West Chester headquarters will be affected by the merger, though the companies said they planned to cut at least $75 million in yearly spending "by eliminating duplication in management, administrative, and information technology spending," according to an Inquirer report.

QVC is broadcasting more than 100 hours of content on Facebook Live every week.

If you're wondering who's actually going live, it's QVC.

Amazon had a failed televised shopping effort called Style Code Live.

The show, live-streamed for free on Amazon's site, was canceled after just 15 months.

QVC is tapping beauty vloggers as new school hosts on its year-old beauty channel, Beauty iQ.

Vloggers are the highly influential women who take to YouTube and Instagram to talk about makeup. It certainly seems like a natural fit, but it remains to be seen if the approach is working  the way vlogging works, viewers usually go straight to the source. Will they turn to a middleman to curate the content? My colleague Suzette Parmley wrote about Beauty iQ's launch last year.

Despite what they might think, millennials have not escaped the pull of legacy companies like QVC.

Miller, QVC's digital commerce exec, told Philadelphia Magazine's Emily Goulet that QVC as a brand isn't focusing too hard on attracting millennials. They'll find their way to QVC, he said, through avenues like Zulily or BeautyiQ. Which brings Goulet to this point:

"'Millennials and the Gen Z generation are rebelling against and disrupting legacy companies in bolder ways than we've seen previously. But the legacy companies aren't standing still,' says [Wharton marketing professor Barbara] Kahn. To wit: Unilever bought Dollar Shave Club; Walmart acquired Jet.com, which in turn bought indie-clothing e-tailer ModCloth and trendy men's apparel company Bonobos. 'There are ways to buy cool,' she says."

One final note: Goulet's story is called "Can a Style-Conscious 30-Something Like Me Ever Become a Fan of QVC?" and finishes (spoiler alert) with a scene of Goulet buying a $119.98 crocodile ring online, in what can only be described as a QVC trance. Tell us, style-conscious thirtysomethings of the world: Would it work on you?
From the vibrant city of Helsinki to the forests and islands, Finland provides visitors with a vast possibility of experiences. The cities and towns offer many unique cultural and historical attractions, while the natural surroundings serve as a playground for both winter and summer activities.

Helsinki is the main point of entry for most tourists coming to Finland. This is where visitors will find the country's finest museums, art galleries, restaurants, and shopping. It is easy to spend a day or two exploring the city and enjoying the cultural attractions. Some of the most important sights include Finlandia Hall, the architecture around Senate Square, and the underground Rock Church. Those with an interest in history or art will also want to allow some time to wander through the Finnish National Museum or the Finnish National Museum of Art. Nearby, the Open-Air Folk Museum on the island of Seurasaari, with old houses and timber buildings, reveals an interesting historical perspective.

From Helsinki there are a number of great day trips. Northeast of the city is the historic town of Provoo, which can be reached by road or by boat. During the summer the latter is a particularly lovely option. The nearby islands of Suomenlinna are also easy to reach by ferry. The islands are dominated by the old Sveaborg Castle, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Those looking to venture further afield will find a countryside of forests and lakes. This becomes clear on a trip to Tampere, a lively industrial city with an active cultural scene. The most prominent attraction here is the Tampere Cathedral, but there are also numerous museums and parks, and depending on the time of year, various events. In the surrounding area is the old town of Hameenlinna, with the 13th to 17th C Hameenlinna Castle.

Other places of interest which visitors may want to include on their itinerary are Turku, located on the Gulf of Bothnia and home to a 13th C Castle and Cathedral of the same period. From Turku it's also possible to visit the Aland Islands, a large archipelago which can be reached by ferry. The main destination and only town is Mariehamn.
As one of the most visited destinations in the world, France is a country that tugs at the heart strings of even the most seasoned travelers. Wandering the streets of Paris, soaking up the sun along the French Riviera, or visiting the inland towns and villages, it's hard not to be inspired by the country. In addition to touring France's top tourist attractions, visitors also come here to enjoy the fine cuisine and embrace the French culture.

Strolling around Paris, sipping coffee at a street side cafe, or examining the timeless works of art held in the Louvre is, for many, what travel is all about. What trip to France would be complete without a visit to the Eiffel Tower, a walk down the Champs-Elysees, or a look at the Notre-Dame Cathedral? There are so many attractions in Paris travelers may have a hard time venturing beyond the city. But, those who take the time to branch out to other regions will be glad they did.

Perhaps the second most popular destination in France is the beautiful stretch of coast along the Mediterranean, known as the French Riviera. Encompassing such cities of Nice, St Tropez, Cannes, and Marseilles, this area has become a magnet for sun seekers during the summer months. Beaches, harbors, and lovely architecture characterize the area. The small towns like Roquebrune-Cap-Martin and Eze, with stunning views out over the sea, have a certain indescribable charm.

There are also all kinds of inland cities to be discovered throughout France. Provence draws huge numbers of tourists to its quaint cities and ancient towns. Aix-en-Provence, Arles, and Avignon, are just some of the top choices in this region. Other cities to discover include Lyons, the old town of which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an architectural delight. Places like Bordeaux, Strasbourg, and Beaune, all have their own unique attractions which should also not be overlooked.

Itinerary options for travel through France are extensive. The French Alps are a popular destination in summer and winter. Some of the most well known resorts in this area are Chamonix, Grenoble, St Gervais, and Annecy. Visitors who take the time to explore France will surely find interesting places with the plenty to see and do.
Hungary conjures up all kinds of images for travelers, from the city lights of Budapest to small traditional villages in the hill sides. It is also a country with many lovely small cities and towns showing old architecture, ruins, and other historical attractions. The countryside offers some beautiful scenery with mountains and lakes, and opportunities for hiking and other activities.

Budapest is by far Hungary's biggest tourist attractions. Often compared with cities like Prague, Budapest is a cultural delight, with beautiful buildings, thermal baths which have been popular since the Middle Ages, and historic sites at every turn. The old city of Buda, on the hilltop, with the Castle Quarter and the Castle Palace, is the main tourist area. This is a great place to spend an afternoon or even an entire day, wandering about. But, it is the combination of old and new, the bridges spanning the Danube River, and much more that gives the city its charm.

Those who take the time to travel beyond the capital city will find all kinds of interesting places to visit and things to do. Just north of Budapest is the historical town of Visegrad. Set along the Danube, this is a popular day trip destination. Some of the main highlights are the remains of a 13th C Citadel and a 15th C Royal Palace. Also within easy reach of Budapest is Szentendre, with lovely old homes in the neighborhood of Fo ter, the 18th C Blagovescenska Church, and the Hungarian Open Air Museum, recreating life in the 18th and 19th C.

Further afield, some of the best sightseeing destinations in Hungary include the city Pecs in the Mecsek Mountains, and Szeged, the captial of Csongrad region. Esztergom, one of the oldest towns in the country, is another good option for those looking to get off the beaten path. To enjoy some of the beautiful scenery tourists may also want to investigate the hill towns, some of which even offer limited ski facilities in winter.
While most visitors to the Netherlands focus on Amsterdam, there are many interesting cities, islands, and resort destinations. Small towns and villages in the countryside reveal long held traditions and some of the countries classic sights, with fields of blooming flowers or old style windmills.

Arrival by air usually sees travelers entering the country through the capital city of Amsterdam. This is a great place to begin, with plenty to see and do, from simply biking along the canals and enjoying the cafes, to sightseeing and gazing at the works of the Old Masters. Some of the main attractions are the Royal Palace, the Van Gogh Museum, the Dutch National Museum, or just outside the city, the Keukenhof, a lovely park which is particularly beautiful during the spring bloom.

Although Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands, The Hague is home to the Dutch Government and the residence of the Royal Family. Many people find themselves here on business due to the city's large number of international offices. The early 17th C mansion of Mauritshuis is today one the principle tourist attractions, along with the Binnenhof, Grote Kerk, Peace Palace, and the Dutch National Dance Theater. During the summer months the nearby resort community of Scheveningen is a popular destination for both locals and visitors, with a long stretch of beach.

Other popular cities in the Netherlands are Rotterdam and Utrecht, showcasing the contrast between old and new. Rotterdam is a vibrant port city with a modern metropolitan atmosphere, while Utrecht features a lovely historic center. In Rotterdam art lovers will want to stop by the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Boymans-van Beuningen Museum), one of the best museum's in the Netherlands. Outside of the city, at Kinderdijk, are a number of traditional 18th C windmills, which are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In Utrecht, spend some time wandering through the old town and see the Cathedral of St Martin. For an excursion, visit the town of Doorn, with the former medieval castle of Huis Doorn.

For an escape from the cities there are plenty of areas to relax and enjoy a little nature. The West Frisian Islands along the north and northwest coast are home to long stretches of beautiful sandy beaches and dunes. Large numbers of seabirds also nest or spend the winter in the islands.
Portugal is a small country with much to see and do, making it relatively easy to explore. From the cosmopolitan city of Lisbon to the traditional villages, visitors will find a diverse range of travel options. If you are traveling in the summer there are many beaches to enjoy, but the cultural and architectural attractions are a draw for tourists year round.

Beginning in the south, many people start their vacation in Lisbon. This is the heart of modern day Portugal and the cultural center of the nation. It is home to many of the country's finest museums and historic buildings, along with quaint neighborhoods. Visitors can wander through the streets and artists studios of Barrio Alto, or spend a day sightseeing and soaking in the atmosphere of the Old Quarter.

There are numerous day trip options from Lisbon, but one of the main sightseeing destinations is the town of Sintra. Set in the hills outside of Lisbon, this town is centered around the Palacio Nacional de Sintra, with its cone shaped towers. From here it's easy to explore a number of interesting sights, including the fairy-tale-like Palacio de Pena and the ruins of Castelo dos Mouros. During the summer months the Costa do Sol is another popular area near Lisbon known for its beach resorts. Sun seekers will find no shortage of things to do.

Equally impressive, in its own unique way, is the city of Porto. The old town is picturesquely set on a hillside overlooking the River Douro. The Riberia area, with its colorfully painted houses, is one of the city's main tourist attractions. Around the Praca da Ribeira small shops and restaurants have set up in old restored houses. There are also many possible excursions from Porto.

Somewhat off the beaten path in Portugal are the islands of Madeira and the Azores. Madeira has a pleasant year round climate and is well set up to handle visitors. It is a hot spot for Europeans from northern counties who come here in the winter months to escape from the cold. The main city is Funchal, which is also a big cruise ship port. The Azores, also highly dependent on tourism, are laid back islands of green rolling hills and mountains.
19 Top-Rated Tourist Attractions in Greece

Written by Jane Foster and Michael Law

Updated Apr 25, 2022

We may earn a commission from affiliate links ( )

Home to some of the world's most important historical sites, along with some 6,000 islands, Greece is known for its natural beauty and fascinating culture. Ancient archaeological sites, cliffs tumbling into sparkling blue water, sand and pebble beaches, and a balmy Mediterranean climate make Greece one of Europe's prime places to visit for tourists.

Besides the capital, Athens, top things to see on the mainland include Ancient Delphi and the monasteries of Meteora. But most people come here to catch a ferry to the islands: Santorini, Mykonos, Zakynthos, Corfu, and Crete are the most popular. Plan your trip with our list of the top attractions in Greece.

1. Acropolis, Athens

Acropolis, Athens

Considered the symbol of Athens and Greece, and indeed of Western civilization, the Acropolis is a rocky mound rising in the heart of modern Athens, crowned by three magnificent temples dating from the 5th century BC. The best known and most distinctive is the Parthenon, originally made up of 58 columns supporting a roof and decorated by ornate pediments and a frieze.

2. Acropolis Museum, Athens

Acropolis Museum

The Acropolis Museum is one of Athens' most-visited tourist attractions. Designed by Swiss architect Bernard Tschumi, it is an ultra-modern glass and steel structure with light and airy exhibition spaces, built specifically to display ancient finds from the Acropolis.

Top things to see here include the 6th-century-BC Moschophoros (statue of a young man carrying a calf on his shoulders), the Caryatids (sculptures of female figures that held up the Erechtheion), and the highly controversial Parthenon marbles. From the museum's cafe-restaurant terrace, you can enjoy amazing views of the Acropolis itself. Read More: Top-Rated Attractions & Things to Do in Athens

3. Santorini

Santorini

Stunning Santorini is the most dramatic of all the Greek isles. It is best known for the west coast cliff-top towns of Fira and Oia, which appear to hang over a deep, blue sea-filled caldera. Made up of typical Cycladic whitewashed cubic buildings, many of which have been converted into boutique hotels with infinity pools, both Fira and Oia are considered romantic destinations, popular for weddings and honeymoons.

Things to do in Santorini include sunbathing and swimming at the black volcanic-sand beaches on the south and east coasts and visiting the archaeological site of Akrotiri, an Ancient Minoan settlement buried below lava following the volcanic eruption that created the caldera, some 3,600 years ago. The island has an airport and is served by ferries and catamarans from Athens' port, Piraeus. Accommodation: Where to Stay in Santorini: Best Areas & Hotels Read More: Top-Rated Tourist Attractions on Santorini

4. Mykonos

Mykonos

Many people consider Greece's most glamorous island destination to be Mykonos. After-dark activities center on Mykonos Town, noted for its chic boutique hotels, classy seafood restaurants, and live music venues. Other attractions include Paraportiani (a whitewashed church in Mykonos Town) and numerous sandy beaches along the island's south coast (served both by bus and taxi-boat from Mykonos Town).

The island is particularly popular with international celebrities. Mykonos has an airport and is connected by ferry and catamaran to Athens' port, Piraeus, and Rafina. Accommodation: Where to Stay on Mykonos

5. Delphi

Delphi

On the Greek mainland, Delphi is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Built on the lower slopes of Mount Parnassus, overlooking a dramatic ravine, the site was sacred to the ancients, who came here on pilgrimages to worship Apollo (god of light, prophecy, music, and healing) and to ask advice from the mythical Oracle.

It is made up of the crumbling ruins of numerous temples, a theater, and stadium, dating from between the 8th century BC and the 2nd century AD. Nearby, stands the Delphi Archaeological Museum, displaying an impressive collection of finds from the site. Delphi lies 180 kilometers northwest of Athens. Read More: Visiting Delphi from Athens: Highlights, Tips & Tours

6. The Towns and Beaches of Crete

The beach fronting the town of Plakias | Photo Copyright: Lana Law

The massive island of Crete is one of the most popular vacation destinations in Greece. Blessed with some of the best beaches in Greece, the island draws visitors from around the world. Some of the most popular beaches on Crete range from small arcs of sand backed by restaurants and promenades to wide-open natural stretches lapped by incredibly clear waters and endless views across the sea.

But Crete is not all about beaches. It has its fair share of notable archeological sites, including the impressive Palace of Knossos, located near the pleasant city of Heraklion. The historical city of Chania and the laid-back town of Agios Nikolaos have wonderful old waterfront areas perfect for spending long afternoons on a cafe terrace getting lost in the views.

Get away from the bigger communities, and head to smaller towns like Plakias or Matala on Crete's south coast to find more remote beaches and beautiful mountainous backdrops.

If archeological sites, beaches, and historical towns weren't enough, the island has one of the most impressive hikes in the world: the Samaria Gorge.

7. Corfu

Beach view on Corfu Island

One of Greece's top tourist destinations, Corfu sits in the Ionian Sea off the west coast of the mainland. The capital, Corfu Town, is a UNESCO World Heritage site, thanks to its elegant Italianate architecture  it was ruled by the Venetians for several centuries. Explore its romantic pedestrian-only streets to discover two 16th-century fortresses and the arcaded Liston, lined by old-fashioned cafes.

Away from the main town, the island is lushly beautiful, with rugged limestone rocks tumbling into the sea in its north and velvety green hills in its south. The most popular beach area is Paleokastritsa, on the west coast, about 25-kilometers from Corfu Town. Here, you'll find a collection of deep, curving bays sheltering sand and pebble beaches stretching into a clear blue sea. Corfu is served by an airport and ferries from Igoumenitsa and Patras on the Greek mainland. In summer, ferries sailing from Ancona and Venice also stop here. Accommodation: Where to Stay in Corfu Town Read More: Top-Rated Tourist Attractions & Things to Do on Corfu Island

8. Meteora Monasteries

Meteora Monasteries

One of the most unusual things to see in Greece has to be the Thessaly Plain, where bizarre rocky outcrops are capped by the centuries-old monasteries of Meteora. On the UNESCO World Heritage list, six of the monasteries are open to the public. You need to climb up several flights of stone steps carved into the rocks to reach each monastery, and inside, you'll find flickering candles, religious icons, Byzantine frescoes, and burning incense.

Opening hours vary, and to see all six monasteries, you need to spend at least one day in the area. The nearest town is Kalambaka. Consider staying here, as it's a pleasant and relaxed place to visit, with small hotels and family-run restaurants serving traditional fare. Read More: Top-Rated Tourist Attractions in Meteora

9. Rhodes Town

Rhodes Town

Lying on the Aegean Sea, close to Turkey, Rhodes is the largest of the Dodecanese islands. Its capital, UNESCO-listed Rhodes Town, is one of Greece's top tourist destinations. It is enclosed by an impressive fortification system, including monumental towers and gates built by the Knights of St. John after they took control of the island in the 14th century.

The car-free cobbled streets of the old town are a joy to explore on foot. Nearby attractions include the pretty hillside coastal town of Lindos, and Marmaris on the Turkish coast, which can be visited by excursion boat. Rhodes is served by an airport, as well as regular ferries from Athens' port, Piraeus. Accommodation: Where to Stay in Rhodes Town Read More: Top-Rated Tourist Attractions in Rhodes Town

10. Zakynthos

The blue caves of Zakynthos

Home to gorgeous scenery both above and under the sea surrounding it, Zakynthos (Zante) island is another top tourist destination in Greece. It is also easy to access, located just 16 kilometers off Peloponnese's west coast in the Ionian Sea.

Two of the biggest boasts on this geographically intriguing island are its pebble and sand beaches  Shipwreck Beach is the most famous  and stunning sea caves like the Blue Caves, off the island's northern tip. Inside, the sparkling water reflects the color of the blue sky on the cave walls to create a magical glow. The Blue Caves are only one of the many watery attractions around this island. There is also excellent snorkeling and scuba diving. Read More: Top Rated Tourist Attractions & Things to Do in Zakynthos

11. Samaria Gorge

Samaria Gorge

On the island of Crete, the Samaria Gorge is a top attraction for lovers of the great outdoors. Measuring 16 kilometers in length and, at its narrowest point, only four meters wide, it runs from Omalos (1,250 meters) in the White Mountains down to Agia Roumeli, on the Libyan Sea.

Depending on your level of fitness, it will take five to seven hours to walk. It is steep in parts and rocky, so you should wear good hiking shoes and carry plenty of water. The gorge lies within the Samaria National Park, and is on the UNESCO tentative list. Through summer, organized tours depart from Chania and Rethymnon. Read More: Top-Rated Tourist Attractions in Chania

12. Nafplio

Nafplio

Often cited as Greece's most beautiful city, Nafplio is a popular weekend destination for wealthy Athenians. Built on a small peninsular on the east coast of the Peloponnese, it became the first capital of modern Greece in 1828 before Athens took over in 1834.

Take an afternoon or a day to wander through the old town, this car-free area is filled with Neoclassical mansions and proud churches and overlooked by the 18th-century Palamidi Fortress. Nearby attractions include Tiryns, Epidaurus Theater, and Ancient Corinth. Accommodation: Where to Stay in Nafplio

13. Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki doesn't seem to mind not being on most people's touring list. The locals are happy to have the place and all its sights to themselves. The main sightseeing attractions are its UNESCO-listed Byzantine churches, but worth investigating are several Roman monuments (including the Triumphal Arch of Galerius and the 4th-century Rotunda), the 15th-century White Tower on the seafront, and an excellent Byzantine Museum.

Overlooking the Aegean Sea in northern Greece, Thessaloniki (Salonica) is the country's second biggest city after Athens. Founded in 316 BC due to its position close to both Bulgaria and Turkey, it has always been a crossroads of various cultures and religions.

One of the top day trips from Thessaloniki is to Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece. Only 80 kilometers away on good roads, this impressive natural sight is well worth visiting. The most popular hiking trails depart from near the town of Prionia. Accommodation: Where to Stay in Thessaloniki

14. Corinth Canal

Corinth Canal

As you drive along the relatively flat highway 8 approaching the Peloponnese Peninsula, be sure to stop in at the lookout over the Corinth Canal. This canal, first dreamed about and attempted in 1 CE, was finally brought to fruition in 1883. Unfortunately for the builders, the canal was never particularly profitable or successful.

Park your car and walk out onto the bridge and give some thought as to how the original builders managed to dig down through the solid rock to carve out the canal.

15. Mount Olympus

Mount Olympus

Mount Olympus, famous home of the god Zeus, lies about halfway between Athens and Thessaloniki. Towering over the surrounding countryside at an impressive 2,918 meters, this mountain is a top recreation destination in the summer.

Three hiking trails lead to its summit, although most people take the two-day, one-night Priona trail. From the top, the views are unparalleled and well worth the effort expended to get here. You do not need any special equipment to do this hike, just a good assortment of clothing, sturdy hiking boots, and a taste for adventure.

16. Palace of Knossos

Palace of Knossos

One of the top archeological sites here in Greece, the Palace of Knossos is a must-see when visiting Crete. The site dates from the Late Minoan time period and has been very well restored. Although the standing buildings give you a real sense of what this place once looked like, as with many archeological sites in Greece, some portions require a bit of imagination.

The site is well laid out, with walking trails that wind their way past the main buildings and plazas. Be sure to check out the colorful paintings on some of the major structures near the end of the walkway.

The Palace of Knossos is located just outside of Heraklion, one of the main gateways to Crete. Tours can be easily arranged.

17. Mycenae

Lion Gate, Mycenae

The impressive citadel of Mycenae is one of the top archeological sites south of Athens and well worth a visit for those interested in Greek history. Set impressively on a hill, Mycenae dates from around 1350 BCE, the peak of the Mycenaean civilization.

One of the key sights at Mycenae is the impressive Lion Gate. Set into the side of the hill, the gate is composed of perfectly inlaid stones over a rectangular doorway. This is the site where the famous gold mask was found by the explorer Heinrich Schliemann in the late 19th century. If the sun is getting to you, step inside the impressively domed Treasury of Atreus and enjoy some shade.

18. Paros

Naousa village, Paros island

The island of Paros is sometimes overlooked by ferry travelers exploring the Cyclades, intent on visiting the more popular Santorini. However, this is a mistake. This laid-back island has everything that the busier islands offer farther south and north. The same whitewashed towns perched on the waterfront with patios full of laughing and smiling patrons are what you'll find here, but without the crowds.

Paros also has a fine selection of beaches and historical sites to explore. It's also a good spot to go if you are watching your costs; accommodation is cheaper here.

19. Naxos

Paradise Beach on Naxos

Another popular destination, Naxos is one of the largest Cycladic islands. This huge island is a fun place to explore, and with fewer tourists than places like Santorini or Mykonos. A couple of must-sees when exploring include the small towns of Filoti, Halki, and Apiranthos.

Take some time to wander through the main town, Chora of Naxos, especially the Kastro district. Here, you'll find a variety of shops selling all manner of souvenirs, along with cute restaurants with inviting patios.

If you want to hit the beach, Naxos does not disappoint. A couple to check out include Paradise Beach, Agia Anna, or Agios Prokopios. If you are into kiteboarding, the windswept Mikri Vigla is the place to go.
16 Top-Rated Tourist Attractions in Sweden

Written by Andrew Birbeck and Lura Seavey

Updated May 26, 2022

We may earn a commission from affiliate links ( )

With its rich history and varied landscapes, Sweden is a traveler's paradise. If you love the outdoors, it's certainly hard to beat. The air and water are crystal clean, and there are thousands of acres of unspoiled forests and majestic lakes to explore, not to mention vast archipelagos along its coasts.

The roads and public transport are excellent, the citizens are invariably friendly and helpful, and in recent years, Swedish cuisine has undergone what can only be described as a revolution. Throw in a mind-boggling history, from notorious Viking invaders to Royal dynasties and imperial intrigue, and one thing is certain: you'll never be bored.

Sweden's tourist attractions range from opulent palaces and ancient towns to vast Arctic landscapes and the famed Ice Hotel. There are so many things to do that you'll want to allow plenty of time to enjoy all its outdoor adventures and historic treasures.

To help you make the most of your Scandinavian travel itinerary, we've pulled together our list of the top tourist attractions in Sweden.

1. Gamla Stan, Stockholm

Gamla Stan

Stockholm's Old Town, known as Gamla Stan, is a small concentrated area where the city began in the middle of the 13th century. Much of the medieval enclave remains, although in typical Scandinavian style, it is freshly brushed and painted regularly. Its charm is in the architecture along its narrow stone-paved lanes and cobbled streets around its squares, especially the main one, Stortorget, surrounded by old merchants' houses.

In this neighborhood, along with plenty of shops, restaurants, and cafes, you'll find the Nobel Museum, the Post Museum, the Royal Coin Cabinet, and several churches. It's also a good area to stay if you can find suitable accommodations, with options including luxury boutique hotels, guesthouses, and even affordable inns and hostels.

2. Vasa Museum, Stockholm

Vasa warship

The Vasa Museum (Vasamuseet) in Stockholm is Sweden's most popular museum and now attracts around a million visitors annually. More than 20 million people have visited since the museum opened in 1990, and it's not hard to see why.

In 1628, the pride of the Swedish Imperial fleet, the 64-gun warship Vasa, sank on its maiden voyage. The ship lay below the icy waters for more than three centuries until, in 1961, an incredibly ambitious salvage operation took place. Now, visitors from across the world come to see this fascinating time capsule.

The museum caters to tourists of all nationalities, and English language guided tours and audioguides are available. A visit to the Vasa, which houses 10 separate exhibitions and a further four museum ships, is a day out in itself. A shop and a restaurant are located on the site for those wanting to make a full day of it.

Another Stockholm museum worth visiting is Fotografiska, an innovative gallery of changing exhibits celebrating the art of photography. It is also known for its entertainment venue and restaurant, which features sustainably grown organic produce. Address: Galarvarvsvagen 14, 115 21, Stockholm Official site: https://www.vasamuseet.se/en Read More: Top-Rated Tourist Attractions & Things to Do in Stockholm

3. Drottningholm Palace, Lovo

Drottningholm

Fairy-tale Drottningholm Palace (Drottningholms slott), on the island of Lovo, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It lies about 11 kilometers west of Stockholm city center (45 minutes by ferry), making it an excellent day trip from the capital city. Dating from the 17th century, the palace is now the official residence of the Swedish Royal Family.

In the picturesque terraced park are bronze sculptures from Bohemia and Denmark, brought back as trophies of war. Be sure to take in the Chinese Pavilion, which dates from the late 1700s. The 18th-century Palace Theatre (Drottningholms Slottsteater) is still used for performances during the summer months. In the Theatre Museum, you can see period stage costumes and stage scenery.

Guided tours are available (in English), and a variety of fun programs and workshops are available for kids and adults alike. Address: 178 93 Drottningholm Official site: www.kungligaslotten.se/english/royal-palaces-and-sites/drottningholm-palace.html

4. The Gota Canal, Gothenburg to Stockholm

The Gota Canal

Often described as Sweden's greatest feat of engineering, the Gota Canal (Gota kanal) dates from the early 19th century and is 190 kilometers in length. It's now one of the country's premier tourist attractions and offers a unique perspective on Sweden's heartland. In addition, by connecting with lakes Vanern and Vattern and the Trollhatte Canal, it forms part of a water link all the way from Stockholm, in the northeast, to Gothenburg, in the southwest.

Featuring 47 bridges and 58 locks the canal stretches from Sjotorp at Lake Vanern to Soderkoping on the Baltic Sea. There's a choice of passenger cruise vessels or you can hire a boat and experience the canal in your own way. Official site: http://www.gotakanal.se/sv/

5. Kiruna and the Ice Hotel, Lapland

Kiruna Church

Sharing the same latitude as central Greenland, Kiruna in Lapland is Sweden's northernmost town. It's also the chief town of the largest commune in the country, which borders both Norway and Finland. The midnight sun is visible here from mid-May to mid-July.

Originally a Lapp settlement, the town began to develop when mining of iron ore started around 1900. Incredibly, due to subsidence caused by mining, the entire city is being slowly moved northwest to the foot of the Luossavaara Mountain.

The world's first ever Ice Hotel at Jukkasjarvi is about 17 kilometers outside the city. The ICEHOTEL , with its stunning rooms and furnishings, is re-created each year in a new design, built from ice in the river Torne.

In the summer, this is a center for river rafting, stand up paddleboarding, fishing, and canoeing. Sweden's highest mountain, Kebnekaise, is 90 kilometers west of Kiruna, and 95 kilometers northwest is Abisko National Park, where the Lapland Railroad runs west to Narvik on the Norwegian coast. Address: Marknadsvagen 63, 981 91 Jukkasjarvi Official site: www.icehotel.com Accommodation: Where to Stay in Kiruna Kiruna Map - Attractions (Historical)

6. Skansen and Djurgarden, Stockholm

Traditional Swedish houses in Skansen National Park

Skansen, the world's oldest open-air museum (and one of the world's largest), is a historic village made up of houses and farmsteads from all over Sweden. Together, these impressively preserved buildings represent both rural and urban culture at various periods from 1720 to the 1960s.

Gathered here are churches, schoolhouses, manor houses, shops, mills, workers' homes, artisan's shops (including a book bindery, print shop, shoemaker, tinsmith, comb maker, and glassworks), a bakery, a funicular railroad, a Sami camp with reindeer, and a number of complete farmsteads.

These homes, farms, and workshops are inhabited by costumed interpreters who carry on the everyday work, demonstrating the crafts and skills as well as doing household and farm tasks. A zoo includes animals native to Sweden, as well as sections for exotic animals and a children's zoo.

Skansen is located in the huge urban Djurgarden park, a favorite place for locals, especially in the summer. Throughout are traditional cafes, restaurants, snack-bars, and even hotels. Canoe and bicycle hire are also available if you're feeling energetic. Abba the Museum can be found here, along with the Grona Lund amusement park.

To get here, you can catch a ferry from Gamla Stan or Slussen or take a tram or bus from Norrmalmstorg. Alternatively, the park is a pleasant 15-minute walk from the city center. Stop by the Djurgarden Visitors' Center for more information. Address: Djurgardsslatten 49-51, 115 21 Stockholm Official site: http://www.skansen.se/en/ Accommodation: Where to Stay in Stockholm: Best Areas & Hotels

7. Visby, Gotland

Visby, Gotland

Steeped in medieval history and brimming with ruined churches, the rose-entwined, walled town of Visby, on the island of Gotland, is a huge draw for visitors from around the world. Quaint cobblestone streets snake about the town, and when exploring, it's all too easy to lose your sense of being in the modern world. Adorned with stepped gables, many medieval trading houses remain, as well as some timber buildings from the 17th and 18th centuries.

Clearly, Visby's reputation as 'the pearl of the Baltic' and UNESCO World Heritage Site status are both well deserved. A self-guided or guided sightseeing tour of the magnificent walls, which date back some 700 years, is a must. Built into the structure are some 44 defensive towers, and the walls still bear the scars of attack in the form of two breaches.

Direct flights are available from Stockholm and several other Swedish cities, as well as excellent ferry links. Accommodation: Where to Stay in Visby

8. Stockholm City Hall

Stockholm City Hall

One of Sweden's most famous buildings, Stockholm City Hall (Stockholms stadshus) was built between 1911 and 1923, using an astonishing eight million bricks. It is considered one of the finest examples of National Romanticism, designed by the architect Ragnar Ostberg. The 106-meter-tall tower is topped by three crowns.

A very informative tour recounts some of its history, as well as information about the Nobel Prize, which is presented here each year. On the tour, you'll see the Bla Hallen, the Blue Hall, where the Nobel dinner is held, and the Gyllene Salen, the Golden Hall, lined by 18 million gold mosaic tiles.

Those who want to travel even farther back in history can visit the Royal Palace (Sveriges Kungahus), located on Queen's Island (Drottningholm). After a scenic ferry ride, tourists can explore this 18th-century Baroque palace, which has more than 600 rooms. It is also home to several museums, including the Tre Kronor (Three Crowns) Museum, the Museum of Antiquities, the Armoury, and the Treasury. Be sure to time your visit to catch the daily changing of the guard. Address: Hantverkargatan 1, Stockholm

9. Liseberg Theme Park, Gothenburg

Liseberg Theme Park, Gothenburg

Liseberg is one of the most popular places to visit in Sweden, and each year, the park lures more than three million visitors. It has a huge range of attractions, from children's carousels and a fairy-tale castle to adrenalin-pumping rides for speed demons, bumper cars, and four roller coasters.

The park stages concerts in summer, too, and it's a real favorite with both Swedish families and visitors from abroad. At Christmas, the park hosts an excellent market. There are plenty of places to eat and beautiful flowers in bloom during the summer. For the best views in Gothenburg take a ride on the Big Wheel. Address: Orgrytevagen 5, 402 22 Goteborg Official site: www.liseberg.com Accommodation: Where to Stay in Gothenburg Read More: Top-Rated Tourist Attractions & Things to Do in Gothenburg

10. Karnan & the Fredriksdal Open-Air Museum, Helsingborg

Karnan (The Kernel), Helsingborg

Located across the Oresund strait from Denmark's Helsingor (Elsinore), the town of Helsingborg is full of historic sites. Its most prominent feature and famous landmark is a massive brick tower called Karnan (The Kernel), originally built in the 14th century as a lookout turret for the town's fortress. It stands at the head of market square (Stortorget), looming 35 meters above. Ambitious tourists can climb its 190 steps to get stunning views of the town below, as well as the Oresund Bridge and Denmark.

After exploring the city's historic center, head to the Fredriksdal Open-Air Museum & Botanical Garden (Friluftsmuseum) for an authentic look at Swedish daily life in centuries past. In addition to visiting the living history at a working Skane farm, visitors can tour the Fredriksdal Mansion, a beautiful Botanic Garden, and visit the Grafiska Print Museum and a Music Museum. Read More: Top-Rated Attractions & Things to Do in Helsingborg

11. Oresund Bridge, Malmo

Oresund Bridge, Malmo

From Malmo city center, a 15-minute drive takes visitors to the magnificent Oresund Bridge. Famous throughout the world since opening in 1999 and several decades in the planning, the structure has gained further notoriety through the hit Danish/Swedish TV drama 'The Bridge.'

This incredible engineering feat now links Sweden to Denmark, and in turn, the continent of Europe. The bridge is both rail and road, and on the Danish side, merges into a tunnel so as not to impact on aircraft at Copenhagen airport. Take a trip across the bridge and through the tunnel to neighboring Denmark, and if you like, spend some time exploring the attractions of Copenhagen. Accommodation: Where to Stay in Malmo

12. Domkyrka (Uppsala Cathedral), Uppsala

Uppsala Cathedral

The Uppsala Cathedral is the crowning jewel of this city, originally built around 1270. Over the centuries, it has acquired additions, each era leaving its own influence. Its most striking exterior features are neo-Gothic spires added in the late 19th century, as well as stained-glass windows from the same remodel period.

Inside, take note of the details in the Baroque pulpit, which was carved in 1707, and be sure to visit the north tower's Silver Chamber, home to a gold brocade robe worn by Queen Margaret (circa 1400), as well as the final resting place of King Eric IX (St. Eric) whose rule ended in 1160.

Uppsala's medieval university, Uppsala Universitet, operates a museum (Gustavianum), which sits just across from the cathedral. It houses a wide variety of artifacts, ranging from Viking weapons and jewelry to Egyptian relics, including several mummies. It also has exhibits about Sweden's cultural history and an art collection. Read More: Top-Rated Attractions & Things to Do in Uppsala

13. Sigtuna

Sigtuna

Famous as being Sweden's first ever town and founded in 980 CE, the last century of the Viking era, the idyllic village of Sigtuna nestles alongside Lake Malaren in the lush green landscape of Uppland, north of Stockholm. Sigtuna's amazing history is to be found in the medieval churches, ruins, rune stones, and buildings that remain to this day.

Along Storgatan, which has stood for more than a thousand years, are clusters of interesting little boutique shops selling fashion, designer items, and handicrafts. By car, Sigtuna is just 45 minutes from Stockholm, 30 minutes from the medieval university town of Uppsala, and just 20 minutes from Arlanda airport. Accommodation: Where to Stay in Sigtuna Read More: Top-Rated Tourist Attractions in Uppsala

14. Stockholm Archipelago, Stromma Boat Tours

House on a small island near Stockholm

Stockholm is often referred to as the "Venice of the North." Water is everywhere, and around 30,000 islands lie in Stockholm's wondrous archipelago (skargarden). Distinctive red and yellow timber summerhouses occupy some islands, while others remain totally unspoiled.

A trip on the water, either in and around the city or to one of the islands, should be top on your list, whatever time of year you visit (cruises operate year-round). Many tours include lunch or dinner, and all give a unique vantage point of the city. Hop-on hop-off options are available, too. When downtown, the distinctive Stromma boats are impossible to miss. Official site: www.stromma.com/en-se/stockholm/

15. Abisko National Park, Lapland

Abisko National Park, Lapland

In summer, this is the Land of the Midnight Sun with 24-hour daylight lasting several weeks. The park is some 77 square kilometers in size and famous for its pristine natural beauty and Nordic wildlife. It's a great place to visit for Scandinavian winter adventures and long summer hikes.

Abisko is situated approximately 100 kilometers west of the town of Kiruna and is more than 200 kilometers inside the Arctic Circle within the auroral oval, a particular area where there's a higher chance of seeing the Northern Lights. Regular flights operate to Kiruna from Stockholm, and bus, train, or taxi transfers are available to the park. Weather permitting, make sure you visit the spectacular Aurora Sky Station. Accommodation: Where to Stay in Abisko

16. Lund Cathedral

Lund Cathedral

This is Sweden's most visited cathedral and one of the most visited sites in the southern province of Skane. You'll understand why when you stand in front of the imposing Roman structure with its magnificent twin towers. Lund Cathedral (Lunds domkyrka) was founded around 1080 by the Danish King Canute IV and is the oldest and finest Romanesque church in Sweden.
A bill that seeks to limit the income of double dipper public pensioners is recommended by lawmakers as ought to pass, according to the New Hampshire Retirement System, the pension pool for police, fire, school and other public employees.

In a Wednesday memo, the NHRS announced House Bill 561 was amended in the Senate Executive Departments and Administration Committee and, if passed as expected, will limit the number of hours pensioners can work at post-retirement jobs for employers in the public retirement system. The bill seeks to reduce the current 32-hour weekly limit of hours worked by pensioners at other public jobs, to 1,040 hours a year. That would mean a reduction of 624 hours a year and anyone found to have exceeded the limit would lose the employer-funded portion of their pension for a year, according to the proposed law.

The bill, as currently written, also states public retirees would have to wait 60 days from when they retire to the day they start working a subsequent public job. If passed by the Senate, the bill will be sent to the House and the NHRS has advised its members the legislation is recommended likely to pass.

The proposed law is expected to be reviewed by the Legislature in January and, if passed, would have an effective date of January 2019, Sea Coast Online reports.
Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Email

Print

By Sharon Bernstein

(Reuters)  Virginia Democrat Shelly Simonds won a seat in the House of Delegates by one vote, changing the power balance in the state legislature and extending a tide of Democratic victories beginning with Novembers capture of the governorship and several legislative seats.

Simonds beat incumbent David Yancy in a recount held Tuesday, both parties said in statements released after the unofficial vote recount was completed by officials in Newport News.

Never, ever forget how very much your vote counts, House of Delegates member David Toscano said on Twitter, one of many Democrats rejoicing that a single vote handed them the seat.

I want to thank the voters who came out on Nov. 7, Simonds said in a news release. It wouldnt have happened without their participation.

Republican leaders in the House of Delegates welcomed Simonds and thanked Yancy for his service, but the chairman of the state party vowed to fight on.

Today, our opponents carried the day, Republican Party of Virginia Chairman John Whitbeck said in a statement emailed to Reuters. Tomorrow, we begin again.

Simonds election, which still must be affirmed by a panel of three judges, means that the 100-member House of Delegates will have an equal number of Democrats and Republicans. That could lead to more moderate policies by forcing the parties to share power.

Before the Nov. 7 general election, Republicans held 66 seats to Democrats 34, along with a majority in the state senate, according to the election information website Ballotpedia. The GOP still holds a slim margin in the senate.

Also on Nov. 7, the state elected Democrat Ralph Northam in a bitter race for governor, dealing a setback to President Donald Trump with a decisive victory over a Republican who had adopted some of the presidents combative tactics and issues.

Democrats also picked up a hotly contested Senate seat in Alabama this month, after Democrat Doug Jones narrowly defeated Republican Roy Moore in a special election to replace former Senator Jeff Sessions, now President Trumps Attorney General. Democratic Party activists hope their candidates can ride to victories in the 2018 Congressional elections on a wave of voter disenchantment with Trump and his Republicans.

Four legislative races, including the Simonds-Yancy battle in the 94th District, were slated for recounts.

Going into the 94th District recount, Yancy was ahead by just 10 votes. On Tuesday, that changed, and Simonds clinched with a margin of one.

(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, California; Editing by David Gregorio)
Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Email

Print

Rachel Maddow ripped Mike Pence for a lie that was so flimsy and implausible that it is an insult to every American.

Video:

Maddow said:



Literally, the quote the vice presidents office gave to NBC news was, quote, that has nothing to do with it. They insisted instead that the real reason vice president Mike pence was canceling his trip to the Middle East is because he was needed at home. Hes needed in Washington to vote on the tax bill. Heres the problem. There is no conceivable mathematical scenario in which Mike Pence will be needed to vote on the tax bill. None. We have known since this weekend that Arizona Senator John McCain would be home in Arizona tonight recovering from cancer treatment. He will not be voting on the tax bill tonight. That means since this past weekend, we have  we have known the full range of mathematical possibilities for what could happen in this big Washington vote tonight. We know all the Democrats are a no, thats for sure.

With all of the Democrats voting for it an all the Democrats against, that vote would be 51-48, the Republicans would win. If one Republican votes no, it would be 50-49. If two Republicans vote no, the vote would be 49-50 and the Republicans would lose. John McCain is gone. That means there are an odd number of senators in Washington voting on this thing. That means there cant be any circumstance in which there is a tie vote. In which Mike Pence has to cast the deciding vote. The only conceivable reason Mike Pence would need to be there for the tax vote is to break a tie. Mathematically speaking, there cannot be a tie. So factually makes no sense to say that Mike Pence had to bail out of his Middle East peace trip because he was urgently needed on the hill. Its a nice story, it makes him sound very responsible and not at all afraid to go to a place where hes not wanted and where hes definitely going to get yelled at, but once again it is a story that is factually implausible that is coming out of the vice presidents office.

Rachel Maddow has been one of the few members of the mainstream press to point out that Mike Pence liesa lot. Of course, any person who would work for Donald Trump must be one of questionable character, but Mike Pence is in a special class of his own. Just like his boss, Pence lies about things both big and small. He is lying to cover his backside on the Russia scandal and he is lying about why he canceled his trip to the Middle East.

Vice President Pence wont save the country from Trump. He is an extension of Trump. A number two who is cut from the same character cloth as the current president.

Mike Pence has a problem with telling the truth, and Rachel Maddow just called him on it.
The Massachusetts man arrested earlier this month in a prostitution sting has resolved his case.

Todd R. Bosell, 57, of Marble Head, Mass., pleaded guilty Tuesday in Olmsted County District Court to one count of prostitution-patron-agrees to hire 18-year-old or older, a misdemeanor.

He was immediately sentenced to 90 days in jail, stayed for a year, and fined $1,335.

Bosell was arrested about 1:15 p.m. Dec. 4 at a local hotel, but declined to give a statement to police. The text conversation between him and an undercover police officer indicated Bosell planned to pay $160 for an hour of sex, the complaint says.

He was one of several men arrested after Rochester police placed an ad on a website that contains a section for adult services. Members of the local street crimes unit often monitor the site and place false ads to target people involved in prostitution or respond to ads placed by others.

ADVERTISEMENT

According to the criminal complaints against them, the men all responded to the ad via text message throughout the day and arranged to come to the hotel room, where they were arrested.
WABASHA  A Rochester woman who has helped place thousands of cats and dogs in new homes faces a felony charge after taking back an animal she believed was being mistreated.

Michele Renee Quandt, 49, the director of Camp Companion , a pet adoption group, will appear today in Wabasha County District Court, where she's been charged with second-degree burglary.

She claims the dog, Rena, was "wet and cold" when she found her in a cluttered garage; law enforcement says the "rescue" was against the law.

The case began Oct. 27, when an Elgin man told law enforcement someone had taken the family's dog from their property.

The animal had been in the garage, which had a dog door to allow it access to the yard. A note was left behind, saying the dog was removed because neighbors reported it was not being cared for.

ADVERTISEMENT

The note was written on a pamphlet for Camp Companion, the shelter from which the dog had been adopted, but the note was unsigned.

A check of law enforcement records showed there had been no complaints made about the dog, either from the owners or the neighbors.

The next day, the man's wife said she'd contacted Quandt, who founded Camp Companion; Quandt allegedly admitted to the woman that she'd taken the animal from the garage.

Quandt told a deputy the family's neighbor had contacted her to tell her the dog was being mistreated. She knocked on the door of the new owner's home, but no one answered.

She saw the dog in the garage, which is attached to the house, and took the animal, the complaint says; Quandt claimed the dog was wet and cold.

She argued with the deputy about returning the dog, court documents say, telling him she'd contact her attorney and sue the new owner.

Quandt told the Post Bulletin Tuesday that she couldn't comment on the case, but posted her version of the story on a Facebook page for Camp Companion volunteers. It reads, in part:

"Rena was adopted in April and I above all others could not have been more thrilled for her  I, in fact, did a fundraiser so the new adopter would not have to pay the adoption fee," Quandt wrote. "In October I received a call from a neighbor stating he was concerned about the way that Rena was living. This day it was snowing, sleeting and he informed me she was essentially living outside.

ADVERTISEMENT

"I immediately drove to check on her. I knocked on the door and no one answered. The garage door in the back of the house was open and the dog bed I had given them was full of snow and no Rena. I looked in and saw her laying on a cold concrete floor. I walked in over several 2-by-4s and other stuff littering the garage floor to find she was wet and cold. I knocked on the inside garage door and no one answered, so I put Rena in my van and wrote a note on a CC brochure stating that  Rena deserved better.

"I was called in the morning by the owner and she told me she had contacted the Sheriff's department. I asked for the deputy's name and called. We discussed at length my feelings on how I found Rena, but the bottom line was that he wanted to make sure I realized I had broken the law. I told him that I wanted to talk to my attorney but that I would bring Rena back. I did return Rena even though I felt like I was putting her into a position that she would live a life she did not deserve.

"My attorney has asked that I do not discuss any of this with the press but you the volunteers have a right to know. Camp Companion will continue to operate to save as many animals as we can and as soon as I am able I will discuss and share my story with everyone."
CANNON FALLS  A local business owner is seeking to challenge freshman Republican Rep. Barb Haley in 2018.

Democrat Lori Ann Clark recently announced she will run for the House District 21A seat. Clark and her husband founded Danville Signal Processing, Inc.  an electronics manufacturing company in Cannon Falls. She serves as the company's chief financial officer.

Clark said she is running for office with the goal of helping the middle class. That includes helping Minnesotans struggling with the cost of health care, child care and housing.

"We need to put money into the pockets of the middle class because they are the ones that keep our economy going," she said.

This is the first time Clark has run for public office. While she has been a regular voter, she said she was inspired to get involved in politics after the 2016 election. She joined the Cannon Falls Indivisible group, which is part of a larger network of progressive groups dedicated to resisting Trump's agenda.

ADVERTISEMENT

"After 2016, I decided to step up and get active," she said.

Clark, 50, has lived in Cannon Falls for 18 years. She has a master's degree in business administration from the University of St. Thomas. She describes herself as a political moderate.

"My campaign colors are purple. I am a moderate. I consider myself fiscally conservative and socially progressive," she said.

Clark is hoping to unseat Haley , a Red Wing Republican who defeated DFLer Lisa Bayley in 2016 with nearly 55 percent of the vote. The battle over the open House District 21A seat proved to be one of the most expensive in the state, with more than a half a million dollars in outside money flooding the district.

A kickoff event for Clark's campaign is planned from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Thursday at Fiesta Mexicana in Red Wing. The DFL candidate said she intends to do kick off events in all the other cities in House District 21 A, which include Cannon Falls, Goodhue, Lake City and Wabasha.

Clark said she plans to spend the coming months talking with voters in the district about their concerns.

She added, "I know I need to get out and meet folks, and I want to get out and meet folks because I'm not the only one with good ideas."
A $1.5 trillion tax cut package cleared both the U.S. House and Senate on Tuesday.

The measure passed the House by a vote of 227-203 and the Senate 51-48. The bill will need another vote in the House today because of some items in the bill that violated Senate rules and had to be removed.

Members of Minnesota's congressional delegation voted along party lines, with Republicans backing the measure and Democrats voting against it.

2nd District GOP Rep. Jason Lewis said in a statement he voted for the measure because it will benefit Minnesotans.

"Long before I arrived in Congress, I spent the better part of two decades advocating that putting more money in the hands of the people who earned it is always a good idea. I'm keeping that commitment to Minnesotans by voting to cut taxes on hardworking Minnesota families and businesses," Lewis said.

ADVERTISEMENT

1st District DFL Rep. Tim Walz voted against the tax bill. In a statement, he said the vast majority of tax cuts in the bill would benefit the wealthiest one percent of Americans.

"I believe this bill is evidence that the influence of money in our politics is taking a growing toll on the good we are capable of achieving here in Washington for working families back home. In order to ensure the voices of all those we are tasked with representing here on Capitol Hill are heard, it is imperative that we reform how campaigns are financed in this country," Walz said.
The Democrats in Congress and the press have frantically tried to convince the American people that cutting businesses taxes wont do any good. This view is delusional, but we hear it so often it almost begins to sound plausible. Here is a contrary view from a different source, German industry: Germans fear huge loss of jobs from US tax reform.

German investment in the US is expected to rise by 39 billion because of lower US corporate taxes. While Americans are anxiously awaiting full details of the tax bill now being finalized in Congress, German economists are warning that the changes sought by President Donald Trump mean that significant amounts of new investment and jobs will shift from Europe to the United States. The tax competition will have a new dimension, said Christoph Spengel, chairman of the corporate tax department at the University of Mannheim. Mr. Spengel, who is also a research associate at the Center for European Economic Research, and a group of tax experts at the university have done a detailed comparison of the two countries tax systems and published a report under the heading, Germany loses out in US tax reform. Clemens Fuest, who heads the Ifo economic think tank, also said he believed German business would suffer. Investments and jobs will migrate to the US, he said.

The report itself is dense and technical, but interesting. A few readable excerpts:

Scholars and politicians from both US parties agree that the high statutory corporate income tax rate of up to 39% (35% federal rate) is a devastating factor in international tax competition and should therefore be decreased (see, e.g. Avi-Yonah and Mazzoni 2017, see Devereux et al. 2008 for an analysis of competition over tax rates).

Scholars certainly agree, but politicians from both parties? Someone better tell Nancy Pelosi.

When considering the changes in US outbound FDI [Foreign Direct Investment] and US inbound FDI, total investment within the US will increase more than in Europe once the tax reform is implemented. This means that despite the overall expansion after the US tax reform which is expected to foster FDI in all countries, the US will benefit disproportionally by additional inward FDI.

Which means that Europeans will be creating American jobs. Finally:

The expected significant reduction in the statutory federal corporate income tax rate from currently 35% to 20% [Ed.: The final rate was 21%] will presumably have a substantial impact on the location attractiveness of the US in global tax competition. As evident from Figure 6, the proposed corporate tax reform would improve the US competitive position relative to the EU Member States from being among the jurisdictions with the highest effective corporate tax burden to a jurisdiction with a comparatively moderate effective tax rate.

It is hard to understand how the Democrats can deny basic economic realities that European economists regard as virtually self-evident. That isnt the Democrats biggest problem, though. They will really have a lot of explaining to do when a large majority of Americans see their paychecks increase in February.
Christian Adams at PJ Media denounces the nomination of Chai Feldblum for another term as an EEOC commissioner. Christian writes:

Some Republicans, apparently including some inside the White House, think its fine to put an activist radical on the EEOC in order to get two more Republicans confirmed to the EEOC. But Feldblum is no ordinary radical. As one lawyer familiar with EEOC practice tells me, shes worth three Republicans because of her radicalism and willingness to fight to transform notions of gender, family, and life.

I agree. I worked for the EEOC in the late 1970s and have followed it pretty closely since. Except for Clarence Thomas, Feldblum is the most consequential EEOC commissioner of the past 40 years.

The very fact that President Trump renominated her can be viewed as evidence of her will and her canniness. Its astonishing that a radical LGBT activist and Obama nominee who faced fierce resistance the first two times she was before the Senate was (is?) on the verge of being confirmed with virtually no fuss now that the White House and Senate are controlled by Republicans.

Adams offers two explanations both of which ring true, though, even combined, they may fall short of a full accounting.

First, ideological illiteracy is to blame. Too many Beltway insiders are illiterate when it comes to the radicalism of the Left, and in this case the radicalism of Feldblum. They dont understand the zealous creative destruction that animates activists like Feldblum. They think two Republicans beat one Democrat. Paper covers rock. They dont understand that radicals like Feldblum are soldiers in the fundamental transformation that was part of the Obama age.

Spot on.

Second, too many Republicans are still afraid of what Chuck Schumer and National Public Radio think. They arent following the cues of their president. They dont know how to fight.

Right again.

Adams hints at an additional explanation  a backstory that hasnt been fully reported. My sense is that a move as off-the-charts as the Feldblum renomination doesnt happen without behind-the-scenes connections and manipulation.
( Read 4309 Times)

Source :

The Statue of Liberty is a sculpture on Liberty Island in New York City which symbolizes the United States of America to millions of people around the world. The 151 feet statue was a gift from France to the United States and was designed by French sculptor - Frederic Auguste Bartholdi & built by Gustave Eiffel. It took over a decade to build (1875 to 1886) and over $250,000 which was a significant amount considering that it was the 19th century.For more than 100 years, the Statue of Liberty welcomed seafarers to the shores with dignity, grace, health, and vigor. But deep down, it was hurting. Standing in the humid and saline environment of New York Harbour, left the Statue of Liberty interiors vulnerable to massive corrosion. The regular maintenance checks in the 1980s revealed that galvanic corrosion had taken place between the outer Copper skin and the inner wrought Iron structure.In 1982, it was announced that the statue was in need of considerable restoration.A Zinc Silicate coating was used in the restoration that provided the Statue with superior corrosion resistance. Zinc Silicate coating was an inorganic water-based Zinc primer that was applied as a rust inhibitor. Also, according to the New York Historical Society, the Statue had developed a green hue by the year 1920. If the Statue had been covered with a Zinc & Copper alloy, this process would likely have taken much longer and stood the test of time.Restoring the metallurgic integrity to Liberty took 6 years and cost $162 million. According to author Jonathan Waldman, Rust is costlier than all other natural disasters combined, amounting in the US alone to $437 billion a year, which approaches to 3% of the nations GDP. By comparison, the damage done to property by hurricanes Katrina, Sandy, and Andrew in 2012 was $128 billion, $50 billion and $44 billion, respectively.
On a recent fall day, people from around South Jersey answered a call to share their stories of domestic violence.

Everyone had a connection to the issue, whether they had been beaten or abused by a partner, watched their parents get attacked, or spent time helping people escape the grip of an abuser.

For some, this was the first time sharing the intimate details of their abuse in a long-building catharsis. For others, speaking out with their stories  heartfelt and personal, tinged with anger, frustration, and sadness  has become routine, all of them striving to educate others and increase awareness about an often silent, sometimes deadly, issue.

I wanted women and men  because men do get abused  to realize that there is help and that you can do something different, said Juanita Battle, founder of the Coalition Against Rape and Abuse, or CARA, in Cape May County. I wish more people knew that there is help.

Battle said one of the first things that needs to happen is the creation of more services for victims. A domestic violence survivor herself, Battle said she started CARA so she could help other people in her situation.

Domestic violence knows no bounds and can affect any gender, race or income level, statistics show. Many of those who shared their stories eventually got out of the dangerous situation  but most know more victims are out there, and it's not just physical injuries that have to heal.

The conversation around domestic abuse must shift from questioning or blaming the victim to instead focus on the accused batterer, and fostering education.

Domestic Violence Tamu Lane talks about her personal experience with domestic violence in the studio at The Press of Atlantic City. We always want to blame the

We always want to blame the victim. We always say, Well, why dont she leave? But no one ever asks the question: Why did he hit her in the first place? said Tamu Lane, director of social justice programming at the Womens Center. Its always on the victim. Its never on the batterer.

Lane, who oversees domestic violence and sexual violence programs at the Women's Center in Linwood, also survived domestic violence. The dynamics of thinking about abuse must change, she said, as she believes many dont know the severity of abuse consequences.

Some only think in terms of bruises, but the mental effects linger, she said.

Sometimes the refusal to blame the batterer begins with the victims, suggests Martina Singleton. She is a domestic violence survivor who works as a counselor and program coordinator for the sexual abuse program at CARA.

Domestic violence response has improved, but more work to do From laws to protect domestic violence victims to public campaigns to expose its effects on victims, their families and friends, much has chan

Survivors not only have to overcome the actions of their abusers, but also their own doubts.

Sometimes you feel like people are not going to believe this is domestic, or maybe I dont believe this is domestic violence, Singleton said.

Even as victims correctly point the blame at their attackers, they still wonder how they will get by financially, or how separation could affect their children. Getting past that point is critical, Singleton said.

I dont know what steps to take. I dont know anything, Singleton said. I had to come to the realization: Is this helping my child? Absolutely not. Is this helping me? Absolutely not.

With advances in law, victim services and technology, there is a way out, Singleton said. More people need to realize that.

She said the answers are out there for victims, but skepticism remains around stories of domestic violence, and still people dont come forward  men, children, teens and people with disabilities  which she would like to see change.

Battle said she sits in court every week to support victims of domestic violence.

Domestic Violence Donna DAndrea talks about her personal experience with domestic violence in the studio at The Press of Atlantic City.

To let them know, there is help, there is somebody that understands. We didnt just learn it in a book, a lot of lived it, so we know the feeling and the fear, she said.

Before Donna DAndrea became the crisis service coordinator and program assistant of Violence Intervention Program at the Womens Center, she was among the many people who didn't fully understand the different types of domestic violence.

Now, as an advocate for domestic violence victims, she tries to emphasize and educate others about the importance of reacting to violence that is invisible to the eye.

"Its getting people to understand that (physical abuse) is not the first thing we normally see happen (in relationships)," D'Andrea said. "In most abusive relationships, its not physical, but its the emotional, psychological, sexual  all those things we can't see, and that is sometimes hard for people to understand."

And while domestic violence directly involves an abuser and a victim, it also affects others in the household, especially children. Leslie Koehler was in a relationship with her abuser for 15 years before she escaped with her children to a women's shelter.

Domestic Violence Leslie Koehler talks about her personal experience with domestic violence in the studio at The Press of Atlantic City.

Koehler said there were few protections or laws to help victims of domestic violence several decades ago. While that has changed, more needs to be done to get victims  especially people with children  the help they need, whether it is physical relocation, housing, employment support or something else, she said.

Pull quote "I stopped loving him four years into our relationship, and was only there because of the fear and because I knew I had to support my children," she said. "I knew I had nowhere to go at that point. I had tried to go to the police, I tried to go to people to help me, and nobody was there to help me."

For Valeria Marcus, 63, of Atlantic City, her childhood was a "living hell." She watched her father abuse her mother, and she was abused by her father as well, she said.

Now, she's an advocate against child abuse and domestic violence. Marcus said a greater push is needed to have a conversation in the schools, government, church households about domestic violence.

Children need more education and encouragement to report a problem when they are being treated inappropriately or witnessing violent behavior, she said.

I want the conversation to be out there, she said.

Editor's Note These women and three others answered a Press of Atlantic City request to speak about the impact domestic violence on their lives, the lessons they have taken from their escape from abuse, and misconceptions surrounding partner violence. To read our coverage on domestic violence and to watch the video, go to PressofAC.com/breaking-the-cycle.
CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE  One of the two men charged in the 2015 murder of Lower Township teenager Nicole Angstadt pleaded guilty Tuesday to first-degree aggravated manslaughter.

Charles Mosley, 34, formerly of Middle Township, admitted in Superior Court to choking the 15-year-old Angstadt to death. Prosecutors will recommend Mosley be sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Murder charges against a second man, Derrick Powers, were dismissed as a result of Mosleys guilty plea.

Angstadts family attended Mosleys hearing Tuesday but declined to comment on the plea bargains.

Cape May County acting Prosecutor Robert Johnson, who has been prosecuting the case since it began, said the family consented to the signing of the plea agreements.

One man pleads guilty in 2015 killing of Nicole Angstadt Charles Mosley, recently of Middle Township, pleaded guilty at Cape May County Court House to first degree aggravated manslaughter in the deat

Theyve been informed of every single decision weve made, he said following the proceedings.

The plea bargains came more than a year after the two men were indicted on charges related to Angstadts killing, which shocked the community and led, in part, to the Middle Township Police Department opening a 24-hour substation in Rio Grande.

Mosley testified Tuesday that he was in a romantic relationship with Angstadt at the time of the killing.

Rob Johnson appointed Acting Cape May County Prosecutor CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE  Rob Johnson was appointed Acting Cape May County Prosecutor Friday, Sept. 29, replacing former county Prosecutor Robert L. Taylor, who announced his retirement effective the same date.

He said he was with Angstadt and Powers the morning of Nov. 29, 2015, in an abandoned house in Rio Grande.

Mosley said he went into a separate room with Angstadt and got into an argument with her because he believed she was interested in Powers. During the argument, Angstadt slapped him, and he went into a fit of rage, according to Mosleys testimony.

Thats when Mosley said he began choking Angstadt until she died.

Angstadts remains were found in the crawlspace of the vacant home on Vermont Avenue two weeks after her family reported her missing in December 2015.

She was a home-schooler who started seventh grade two years ago at the Richard M. Teitelman School in Lower Township.

Mosleys sentencing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Feb. 5 in front of Judge John C. Porto.

More information revealed about suspects charged in Angstadt killing CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE  A Superior Court judge denied a defense request Tuesday to move the t

If the judge goes with the recommended sentence, Mosley will have to serve at least 85 percent, or 25 years, of the 30-year term.

Mosley was previously charged with murder, aggravated sexual assault, criminal trespass, endangering the welfare of a child, conspiracy and disturbing human remains in the teenagers death.

Those charges were dismissed as part of the plea agreement.

Powers, 25, also formerly of Middle Township, faces 10 years in prison as a result of an agreement in which he pleaded guilty to several charges, some of which were unrelated to the Angstadt case.

In his testimony, Powers said he broke into the Vermont Avenue house and gave Angstadt large quantities of marijuana and alcohol the day she was killed.

Two men accused of killing Nicole Angstadt in court Tuesday The two men accused of killing 15-year-old Nicole Angstadt will be in court Tuesday in Cape 

For those actions, he pleaded guilty to third-degree child endangerment and third-degree burglary.

He also pleaded guilty to first-degree armed robbery and second-degree robbery for a pair of robberies committed by Powers and his brother, LaQuan Harris, in December 2015.

In one incident, Powers said he and Harris approached a juvenile in Middle Township and pointed a pellet gun at him before taking a cellphone and cash.

The two also robbed a group of juveniles in Lower Township after threatening them, Powers testified.

Powers was initially charged with murder, robbery, conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to desecrate a body and endangering the welfare of a child in Angstadts death.

He is scheduled to be sentenced at 10 a.m. Feb. 8.
PROVIDENCE, R.I.  A Cape May County man who was captaining a 60-foot yacht that collided with a small fishing boat two years ago, killing a 81-year-old man, has been barred from pilot ships.

U.S. District Court Magistrate Patricia Sullivan ordered Cooper Bacon, 78, of Middle Township, to surrender his Merchant Marine license and not to operate any vessel.

Bacon is awaiting trial after a federal indictment was returned on Dec. 6 alleging he failed to take precautions required of the ordinary practice while at the helm of a yacht, according to the Rhode Island U.S Attorneys Office.

In 2015, Bacon was piloting his yacht from a Rhode Island to a Connecticut boat show from when he collided with a smaller boat, piloted by Walter Krupinski of Stonington, Connecticut.

The Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management had previously found Bacon violated three U.S. Coast Guard navigation rules and had been negligent in the crash.

Bacon pleaded not guilty and was released on a $50,000 unsecured bond.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
MAYS LANDING  A choir director charged with sexually assaulting a student for more than three years is a flight risk and a community threat, a Superior Court judge said Wednesday. He ordered the man held in jail until his trial.

Atlantic County Superior Court Judge John Rauh made his ruling during a detention hearing for Brian McSee, 53, Port Republic Elementary Schools part-time choir director.

McSee is charged with aggravated sexual assault, official misconduct, criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child. The assaults, which authorities said occurred twice a week for three years, involved a student at the Port Republic school.

McSee, who is also a choir director at Port Republics St. Pauls United Methodist and a part-time teacher at Atlantic Christian School in Egg Harbor Township, turned himself in to State Police at the Tuckerton Station on Dec. 13.

Special Victims Unit Chief Assistant Prosecutor John Flammer said McSee, who owns a shotgun, had a physical altercation with the victim two weeks ago after showing up uninvited at his home.

And the juvenile victim has indicated that the defendant can be violent at times, Flammer said, adding McSee lives close to the school and the victim.

But defense attorney Rochelle Rozier, citing her clients lack of prior criminal involvement, argued that McSee had turned himself into State Police when the charges came out.

According to Rozier, McSee lives with the Rev. Frank Brown of St. Pauls United Methodist Church. Rozier said the pastor indicated he was willing to let McSee continue to live with him if he were released.

Brown and his wife were in the courtroom Wednesday but left quickly after McSees hearing. He did not return phone calls for comment.

It is a small community, however my client is heavily involved in church activities, Rozier said. He has no issues with respect to not returning to the school environment; he has no issues with that at all.

Rozier said McSee was is no way running from any of these charges and argued for an order of no contact and ankle-monitoring provisions rather than jail.

Those things dont prevent contact between the victim and the defendant. They simply exist as conditions in the order, Rauh said before ruling for McSees detention for the protection and safety of the community.

Port Republic Board of Education President Joy Hooper said an automated call went out to district parents last week following the announcement of the charges against McSee.

At Wednesday nights Board of Education meeting, after an executive session, the board voted to terminate the contract with McSee Music Venture Inc., effective Dec. 13.

We are moving on, Hooper said.

Community members who attended the meeting were more interested in the meet and greet event with newly appointed district Superintendent Brian Z. London.

Interim Port Republic Superintendent and Principal Carmine Bonanni said earlier Wednesday that McSee was never alone with individual students.

Never was there an opportunity for Mr. McSee to be with the children individually, Bonanni said. He always came in as a choral presentation with large groups of students or full classes in the multipurpose room, so he was never alone with individual students or any private tutoring of any sort.

Officials at Atlantic Christian School said their first indication that something was wrong was when McSee sent a letter of resignation Dec. 13 to Chief School Administrator Karen Oblen. She said McSee did not specify his reason for leaving.

I am still very shocked, Oblen said. I feel very heartbroken for these families and anybody involved. Im certainly praying that nobody else is involved.

Police said McSee was the male students seventh- and eighth-grade choir director at Port Republic Elementary School, as well as the childrens choir director at St. Pauls (also called Port Church).

Bonanni said McSee taught students in the multipurpose room at Port Republic Elementary School once a week, on Mondays. He worked there for four years.

State Police called Bonanni last Thursday afternoon, and Bonanni met with staff Friday morning, he said. The school sent information to parents Sunday evening through its phone system, and Bonanni met with students and staff Monday morning, he said.

The elementary school did not have prior issues with McSee, nor have any other students come forward, Bonanni said. He encouraged students to speak with him if they have issues or concerns related to the alleged incident. He said the school will continue to monitor students commentary, of which there has been very little.

Atlantic Christian School has received a positive response from parents, who said they are grateful the school alerted them, Oblen said. She said Atlantic Christian did not have any prior issues with McSee and is offering counseling to its students. McSee had taught students twice a week since 2011.

Many parents dropping off their children to the Port Republic school Wednesday morning said they did not know anything about the alleged sexual assault and did not wish to speak with a reporter.

Its scary. Plain and simple, said 37-year-old John Surace who has a daughter in first grade and a son in third grade. He declined to comment further.

A pre-indictment conference is scheduled for Jan. 29. McSee has seven days to appeal his detention.

Staff Writer Lauren Carroll contributed to this report.
PORT REPUBLIC  An elementary school choir director has been arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a young boy twice a week for three years, State Police said Tuesday.

Brian McSee, 53, of Port Republic, turned himself in to State Police at the Tuckterton Station on Dec. 13. McSee is charged with aggravated sexual assault, official misconduct, criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child.

Sgt. Lawrence Peele said McSee was the boys seventh- and eighth-grade choir director at Port Republic Elementary School, as well as the choir director at the childs church, St. Pauls United Methodist.

Attempts to contact church pastor the Rev. Frank Brown Tuesday night were unsuccessful.

Mayor Gary Giberson said he knew McSee and the situation has beaten me apart.

He lived with our pastor and was very close to the whole church, Giberson said. We went to church Sunday, and this was discussed there.

Giberson said he feels like hes been pulled both ways on the issue because McSee was a prominent member of the community. According to public records, McSee moved to Atlantic County from Indiana in 2009.

Im the mayor, and Im personally responsible for safety, he said. Im just shocked at the whole thing.

He said the school board is in the process of notifying parents.

The interim superintendent and principal of the school, Carmine Bonanni, could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.

McSee is being held at the Atlantic County jail in Mays Landing, pending a mandatory court appearance.

State Police ask anyone with information regarding inappropriate behavior or interactions with McSee to call the Tuckerton Station Detective Bureau at 609-296-5807.
After a springlike past couple of days, winter came crashing back overnight. This will leave temperatures feeling like the holidays Wednesday and Thursday, before an Easter-like surge of mild air for the weekend.

Temperatures fall back into the mid 40s for Wednesday, aided by a gusty northwest wind that will make it feel like the 30s if you include the wind chill.

No rain or snow is expected, though, just a sunny sky.

The sunshine will continue right into Thursday. High pressure settles into New England. After a seasonable morning in the mid 20s, afternoon air temperatures will be cooler, with a high of 41. This will be the coldest day all week, very fitting for the winter solstice and the shortest day of the year.

We then turn active as we go into the holiday weekend. A Pacific storm system will ride across the northern tier of states Friday. While this will not bring us any wet or white weather, the southerly winds ahead of it will pop temperatures right back up into the mid 50s.

A low-pressure system will then cut from the Deep South and up Pennsylvania on Saturday. This will bring a warm front and a cold front all within 24 hours. The computer models are catching onto what usually happens during these inland runners.

The warm front will bring rain showers during the pre-dawn and first hours of daylight Saturday. Once the front passes, we dry out. Sunshine is even not out of the question for a few hours during the day as temperatures soar to 60 degrees. Then, the cold front arrives at night, bringing rain as temperatures cool down behind it. By Christmas Eve morning, we should be dry.

Christmas Eve should actually be a pretty nice day. We will have a mix of sun and clouds with a bit of mild air around. Another low pressure will then ride up somewhere between the Appalachians and the Atlantic Ocean.

A green Christmas is looking more and more likely, with wintry weather unlikely, but not out of the question.

Regardless, Santa will leave behind the North Pole weather going into Tuesday.{/span}
Two years ago, we urged state officials to impose some order on the wildly growing world of drones.

Towns were enacting their own varying restrictions and bans. The federal government, which has ultimate responsibility for airspace oversight, clearly wasnt going to come up with rules in time to stop emerging problems.

Were glad to see the Legislature is nearing passage of a drone-operation law, including prohibiting their use while intoxicated. The rules look sensible and should eventually be enacted.

But a more urgent drone matter has come up  an opportunity to build on South Jerseys promising drone testing and development.

The White House in late October launched a pilot program to expand commercial drone operations by creating test sites with shared oversight by federal and state officials. More than 75,000 drones already are registered for commercial use, with more than 400,000 expected by 2021.

The Federal Aviation Administration and federal Department of Transportation within a year will choose an expected five to 10 locations nationwide for partnerships to test new drone-inclusive air traffic management networks.

South Jersey is a strong candidate for such a partnership and New Jerseys officials and federal representatives should focus on putting together the proposal to advance it to this next level of testing unmanned aircraft systems.

This region has a unique advantage  the nations premier air transportation system laboratory, the William J. Hughes Technical Center in Egg Harbor Township.

South Jersey also has a good drone-testing record since the state was chosen by the FAA in 2013 to co-host one of the nations six UAS Test Sites.

The following year, the region saw its first drone tests when the N.J. Institute of Technology ran some flights safely over the ocean from the U.S. Coast Guard Training Center in Cape May. American Aerospace Technologies began drone test flights out of the Cape May County Airport in 2015.

Last year, a test at the Cape May Lewes Ferry facility in Lower Township became the first FAA-approved drone delivery flight in history, according to Nevada-based drone service Flirty. It took a box of simulated medical supplies, flew a half-mile out over the Delaware Bay and landed on a barge.

This year, drone tests in South Jersey demonstrated two highly anticipated uses. A drone developed by Rutgers University flew to the Delaware Memorial Bridge, entered the water and maneuvered like a submarine inspecting bridge supports, then surfaced and flew back to base. Then a joint venture between Verizon and American Aerospace used a drone to provide ad hoc cell-phone service for first responders around Belleplain State Forest, a critical capability when disasters wipe out mobile communications.

This seems like the perfect region to develop the necessary systems for tracking and managing low-altitude drones.

The drone regulations that have passed the state Senate and await Assembly action would make it a disorderly persons offense to endanger people or property with a drone, or harm wildlife. Operating a drone under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or interfering with first responders or security at correctional facilities, for example, would be more serious crimes.

These restrictions on civilian use of drones are needed and will surely become law either in the current lame duck session or after the new governor and Legislature take office in January.

New Jerseys crucial partnership with the federal government on drone systems testing, however, is not at all certain.

Considering its great potential to bring tech companies and jobs to South Jersey, state officials should focus on their proposal now.
For flag and freedoms

I am sick and tired of liberals and radical leftists who complain about political correctness. Now their sights are on the American flag, using excuses that it is offensive and racist, and students in California have banned flying it.

NFL players who kneel in protest are dishonoring the flag and those who have sacrificed for this great nation. This is a national disgrace. We as Americans have become complacent. We take too much for granted and we dont exercise the rights of our freedom in our own country.

I fly the flag. I have two. One I fly on the 4th of July with 13 stars for the original 13 Colonies that fought for independence. The other one I fly year-round because I am an American and proud of it.

Its time to draw the line, stand up and stop all the division going on. The investigations, the scrutiny of everyone in office, the political turmoil between Republicans and Democrats. Its time to come together, to move forward to settle all the issues that are at hand.

Make English the national language  no English, no citizenship, no backdoor amnesty. Insist on term limits to insure a fair and just form of government where representatives listen to the will of the people, where all men are created equal.

Lets come together and embrace our freedoms as citizens of the greatest country in the world.

Carl Fischbach

Egg Harbor Township

Freedom, democracy, race

Regarding the Nov. 28 letter, Proud of flag and country:

I assume that the writer is a white male. If so, he should try walking in the shoes of a black male for a week, and see how freedom and democracy work for him then.

Jackie Enochs

Barnegat

Raise minimum wage

Regarding the Nov. 28 guest commentary by Michael Busler, $15 minimum wage would hurt workers:

The column suggests that this state increase in the minimum wage would result in the curtailed use of unskilled workers and make them unemployable  and that robotics and the use of touch screens and mobile apps would replace some of the need for employees.

Every business or service needs the unskilled workers to oil the robots, check batteries, settings, connections, clean the floors, throw out garbage and change lighting when needed. Most important to any business is personal contact with a human. Of all those unskilled workers, many become skilled from basic employment. Machines cannot say thank you.

The added cost of higher wages would be tax deductible, as well as medical and other benefits provided. People tend to use such wage increases for basic needs and debt reduction.

Lets not return to a pat on the back, thanks for a job well done.

Lou Green

Mays Landing
LONDON, December 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Avillion LLP, a drug development company focused on the co-development and financing of pharmaceutical candidates from proof-of-concept through to regulatory approval, announces that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved a supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for Pfizer's BOSULIF (bosutinib). The approved sNDA expands the indication for BOSULIF to include the treatment of adult patients with newly-diagnosed chronic phase Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myelogenous leukemia (Ph+ CML).

The approval was based on positive results from the randomized, multinational BFORE Phase 3 study, which was conducted successfully by Avillion under an exclusive collaborative development agreement with Pfizer. The sNDA was reviewed and approved under the FDA's Priority Review and accelerated approval program based on molecular and cytogenetic response rates demonstrated by BOSULIF. BOSULIF is also indicated in the U.S. for the treatment of adult patients with chronic, accelerated or blast phase Ph+ CML with resistance or intolerance to prior therapy.

Avillion provided funding and undertook the BFORE study to generate the clinical data used to support this application and other potential regulatory filings for marketing authorisation for BOSULIF as first-line treatment for patients with chronic phase Ph+ CML. Avillion is eligible to receive milestone payments from Pfizer based on this approval. Pfizer retains all rights to commercialize BOSULIF globally.

Prof. Tim H. Brummendorf, Director of the Clinic for Oncology, Haematology and Stem Cell Transplantation at the Euregionales Comprehensive Cancer Center Aachen (ECCA), and European lead investigator on BFORE, added: "Molecular targeted therapy has substantially improved outcomes of patients with CML over that last two decades. Due to its efficacy and distinct tolerability profile, BOSULIF significantly expands our treatment options for newly diagnosed CML patients."

Allison Jeynes-Ellis, MD, Chief Executive Officer of Avillion, said: "We are delighted with the approval today of BOSULIF by the US FDA. It not only adds an important treatment option for newly diagnosed Ph+ CML patients, but also represents a significant validation of our innovative business model and capabilities for the co-development and partnership of late-stage clinical candidates. Our model provides pharma partners with opportunities and capacity to advance additional late-stage clinical projects in parallel to their own development efforts. This achievement is testament to the expertise and hard work of the teams at Avillion and Pfizer, and we look forward to replicating this success in other partnerships."

"Today's approval is a testament to the strength of our partnership with Avillion and to the commitment of both of our companies to work together to improve lives for patients living with CML," added Liz Barrett, Global President, Pfizer Oncology.

Efficacy and safety data support BOSULIF approval

The BOSULIF approval was based on results from BFORE (Bosutinib trial in First line chrOnic myelogenous leukemia tREatment), a randomized multi-center, multinational, open-label Phase 3 study which showed BOSULIF 400 mg was associated with a significantly higher rate of patients achieving major molecular response (MMR) at 12 months (47.2%; 95% CI, 40.9-53.4) compared to the rate achieved in patients treated with imatinib 400mg (36.9%; 95% CI, 30.8-43.0), a current standard of care. Complete cytogenic response (CCyR) rate by 12 months was 77.2% for patients treated with BOSULIF compared to 66.4% for patients treated with imatinib (P<0.008), with time to CCyR shorter for patients treated with BOSULIF (HR 1.38; P0.001). The adverse events seen in the trial were consistent with the known safety profile for BOSULIF. The most common adverse events in newly diagnosed CML patients treated with BOSULIF (incidence 20%) are diarrhea, nausea, thrombocytopenia, increased alanine aminotransferase (ALT), rash, abdominal pain, and increased aspartate aminotransferase (AST). For more information, please see Important Safety Information for BOSULIF below.

ABOUT CHRONIC MYELOGENOUS LEUKEMIA (CML)

Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is a rare blood cancer, which begins in the bone marrow, but often moves into the blood.[1] Researchers estimate that by 2020, more than 412,000 people worldwide will be diagnosed with leukemia (all types)[2]. CML accounts for 10-15% of all incident leukemia cases.[3] In the U.S., approximately 48,000 people are living with CML.[1] Around 9,000 new CML cases were diagnosed in the U.S. in 2017.[2]

ABOUT BOSULIF (bosutinib)

BOSULIF (bosutinib) is an oral, once-daily, tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), which inhibits the Bcr-Abl kinase that promotes CML; it is also an inhibitor of Src-family kinases. In the U.S., BOSULIF (bosutinib) is now indicated for the treatment of patients with newly-diagnosed chronic phase Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myelogenous leukemia (Ph+ CML) and for the treatment of adult patients with chronic, accelerated or blast phase Ph+ CML with resistance or intolerance to prior therapy (first approved in September 2012). A 400mg tablet was also recently approved by the FDA in addition to the previously approved 100mg and 500mg strengths. The recommended dose for newly diagnosed patients is 400 mg orally once daily with food. For patients who are resistant or intolerant to prior tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy, the recommended dose is 500mg orally once daily with food.

In Europe, BOSULIF was granted conditional marketing authorization in March 2013 for the treatment of adult patients with Ph+ CML previously treated with one or more TKIs and for whom imatinib, nilotinib and dasatinib are not considered appropriate treatment options. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has also validated for review a Type II Variation application for use of BOSULIF in the same patient population.

About the BFORE Study

BFORE (Bosutinib trial in First line chrOnic myelogenous leukemia tREatment) is a multi-center, open-label Phase 3 study designed to assess the effectiveness and safety of BOSULIF (bosutinib) as a first-line treatment for patients with chronic phase Ph+ CML. The study enrolled 536 patients at multiple sites in North America, Asia and Europe. Patients were randomized 1:1 to receive BOSULIF 400mg or imatinib, a standard of care, for the duration of the study. The primary outcome was to show superiority of bosutinib over imatinib at 12 months by comparing MMR, or the proportion of patients in each arm whose levels of the Bcr-Abl1 kinase have dropped below 0.1%.

About Avillion

Avillion LLP is a drug development company with an innovative business model focusing on the clinical co-development and regulatory approval of pharmaceutical products. Avillion offers a compelling opportunity to partner assets from post proof of concept through to regulatory approval globally and to accelerate their development and hence availability to patients. Avillion's objective is to enable its partners to continue to develop the drug candidates in their pipeline whilst maintaining quality data without increasing the burden on their P&L or cash reserves. Avillion can achieve this by incurring 100% of the clinical and regulatory risk, while advancing the development of these assets in return for milestone and royalty payments on the commercialisation of successfully developed products.

To date, Avillion has advanced Pfizer's BOSULIF (bosutinib) successfully through Phase 3 trials and providing the clinical data to gain US approval to expand its use to include patients with newly diagnosed chronic phase Philadelphia chromosome-positive (Ph+) chronic myeloid leukaemia.

Avillion is also undertaking Phase 2 trials with Merck's anti IL-17 A/F Nanobody in plaque psoriasis.

Avillion was founded in 2012 in London, UK, and is backed by Abingworth, Clarus Ventures and Royalty Pharma.

www.avillionllp.com

IMPORTANT BOSULIF (bosutinib) SAFETY INFORMATION

Contraindication: History of hypersensitivity to BOSULIF. Reactions have included anaphylaxis. Anaphylactic shock occurred in less than 0.2% of treated patients in single-agent cancer studies with BOSULIF.

Gastrointestinal Toxicity: Diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain can occur. In the Phase 3 clinical trial of 268 patients with newly diagnosed CML in the bosutinib treatment group, the median time to onset for diarrhea (all grades) was 3 days and the median duration per event was 3 days. Among 546 patients in a single-arm Phase 1/2 study in patients with CML who were resistant or intolerant to prior therapy, the median time to onset for diarrhea (all grades) was 2 days, median duration was 2 days, and median number of episodes per patient was 3 (range 1-268). Monitor and manage patients using standards of care, including antidiarrheals, antiemetics, and/or fluid replacement. Withhold, dose reduce, or discontinue BOSULIF as necessary.

Myelosuppression: Thrombocytopenia, anemia, and neutropenia can occur. Perform complete blood counts weekly for the first month and then monthly thereafter, or as clinically indicated. Withhold, dose reduce, or discontinue BOSULIF as necessary.

Hepatic Toxicity: Elevations in serum transaminases (alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST)), can occur. Liver enzyme elevation usually occurs early in treatment. Perform hepatic enzyme tests at least monthly for the first 3 months and as clinically indicated. In patients with transaminase elevations, monitor liver enzymes more frequently. One case consistent with drug-induced liver injury occurred in a trial of BOSULIF in combination with letrozole without alternative causes. Withhold, dose reduce, or discontinue BOSULIF as necessary. In patients with mild, moderate, or severe hepatic impairment, the recommended starting dose is 200 mg daily.

Renal Toxicity: An on-treatment decline in estimated glomerular filtration rate has occurred in patients treated with BOSULIF. Monitor renal function at baseline and during therapy, with particular attention to patients with preexisting renal impairment or risk factors for renal dysfunction. Consider dose adjustment in patients with baseline and treatment emergent renal impairment.

The recommended starting doses for newly diagnosed chronic phase Ph+ CML patients with severe renal impairment (CrCL <30 mL/min) or moderate renal impairment (CrCL 30-50 mL/min) are 200 mg and 300 mg daily, respectively.

The recommended starting doses for chronic, accelerated, or blast phase Ph+ CML patients with resistance or intolerance to prior therapy with severe renal impairment (CrCL <30 mL/min) or moderate renal impairment (CrCL 30-50 mL/min) are 300 mg and 400 mg daily, respectively.

Fluid Retention: Fluid retention can occur with BOSULIF and may cause pericardial effusion, pleural effusion, pulmonary edema, and/or peripheral edema. Among 546 patients in a single-arm Phase 1/2 study in patients with Ph+ CML who were resistant or intolerant to prior therapy, Grade 3/4 fluid retention was reported in 26 patients (5%). Monitor and manage patients using standards of care. Interrupt, dose reduce, or discontinue BOSULIF as necessary.

Embryofetal Toxicity: BOSULIF can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman. Women of childbearing potential should be advised of the potential hazard to the fetus. Advise females of reproductive potential to use effective contraceptive measures to prevent pregnancy while being treated with BOSULIF and for at least 30 days after the final dose.

Adverse Reactions: The most common adverse reactions observed in greater than or equal to 20% of patients with newly diagnosed CML were diarrhea, nausea, thrombocytopenia, increased ALT, rash, abdominal pain, and increased AST. The most common Grade 3/4 adverse reactions and laboratory abnormalities observed in greater than 10% of newly diagnosed CML patients were thrombocytopenia and increased ALT.

The most common adverse reactions observed in greater than or equal to 20% of patients with CML who were resistant or intolerant to prior therapy were diarrhea, nausea, abdominal pain, thrombocytopenia, rash, vomiting, anemia, fatigue, pyrexia, cough, headache, and ALT. The most common Grade 3/4 adverse reactions and laboratory abnormalities observed in greater than 10% of patients who were resistant or intolerant to prior therapy were thrombocytopenia, neutropenia, and anemia.

CYP3A Inhibitors and Inducers: Avoid concurrent use with strong or moderate CYP3A inhibitors or inducers.

Proton Pump Inhibitors: Consider using short-acting antacids or H2 blockers instead of PPIs to avoid a reduction in BOSULIF exposure. Separate antacid or H2 blocker dosing and BOSULIF dosing by more than 2 hours.

Lactation: Given the potential for serious adverse reactions in nursing infants, a decision should be made whether to discontinue nursing or BOSULIF, taking into account the importance of the drug to the mother.

Please see full Prescribing Information at www.bosulif.com.

Contacts

Allison Jeynes-Ellis, CEO

Tel: +44-(0)-203-764-9531

Email: allison@avillionllp.com

Mark Swallow, Citigate Dewe Rogerson

Tel: +44-(0)-207-282-2948

Email: avillion@citigatedewerogerson.com

[1]American Cancer Society. What is Chronic Myeloid Leukemia? [link ]. Accessed August 2017.

[2]GLOBOCAN Online Analysis/Prediction. [link]. Accessed August 2017.

[3]Hochhaus, A. Educational Session: Managing Chronic Myeloid Leukemia as a Chronic Disease. American Society of Hematology. 2011; 10: 1.

SOURCE Avillion LLP
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130522/614177 )

The contest invites small and medium agencies, freelancers and anyone with an inclination toward web design to participate and showcase their talent. The rule being, the website submitted for F3 should be on any one of the Radix domain extensions, namely ONLINE, .TECH, .SPACE, .STORE, .PRESS, .SITE, .WEBSITE, .HOST and .FUN.

Speaking about F3, Shridhar Luthria, Vice President, Channel Partners, Endurance International Group said, "ResellerClub has always been targeted towards Web Pros, even hosting our own version of a web design contest a year ago with SiteWars. Since then, we have organised and participated in several events such as Ctrl+F5, TechTalks and WordCamps around the country. Our collaboration with Radix is allowing us to bring this contest to our audience and I'd strongly recommend ResellerClub clients to enter and give it their best. Great money, fantastic recognition and a chance to get reviewed by expert judges - F3 has it all. This is a win-win for Web pros, Radix and ResellerClub; may the best designer win."

An expert panel will evaluate the entries to F3 which includes judges like Chad Borlase, Group Creative Director at SapientRazorfish; Laura Muller, UX Lead at MetaDesign and Hakarl Bee, Group Creative Director at RAPP. Entries will be evaluated on 3 criteria - Form, Function and Flair (F3). Along with these criteria, the contest also has a social angle wherein the entries are open to public votes which add weightage to the evaluation.

Speaking about the vision of the contest, Vice President and Business Head of Radix, Sandeep Ramchandani, said, "Radix is focused on engaging with end users through various initiatives. While we are actively working with the global startup community through the Startup League with F3.Space we are focusing specifically on the web design community, including small and medium sized agencies and freelancers."

The contest which began on 10th August, 2017 is currently open and will end on 31st March, 2018. To participate, visit: https://f3.space/.

About Radix

Radix offers rich and memorable Internet addresses that will host the next big idea, initiative, community, enterprise, killer app or viral sensation. Radix has successfully launched 9 new domain extensions, including .ONLINE, .TECH, .STORE, .SPACE, .FUN, .SITE, .PRESS, .HOST and .WEBSITE.

About ResellerClub

ResellerClub was founded with the objective of offering domain names and hosting products to Web Designers, Developers and Web Hosts. Today, ResellerClub has evolved into a one-stop-shop marketplace for all products and services that a Web Professional can use to enable small businesses to build a meaningful web presence. ResellerClub offers Shared Hosting, Cloud Hosting, Dedicated Servers, VPS, Email, Backup, Security and more with multi-brand options in many of these categories to empower choice. ResellerClub also offers a comprehensive solution to register and manage 500+ gTLDs, ccTLDs and new domains. Through the platform customized for Web Professionals, ResellerClub envisions provisioning the widest variety of Web Presence products, PaaS and SaaS based tools.

About Endurance International Group

Endurance International Group Holdings, Inc. (em)Powers millions of small businesses worldwide with products and technology to vitalize their online web presence, email marketing, mobile business solutions, and more. The Endurance family of brands includes: Constant Contact, Bluehost, HostGator, iPage, Domain.com, BigRock, SiteBuilder and SinglePlatform, among others. Headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, Endurance employs over 3,600 people across the United States, Brazil, India and the Netherlands. For more information, visit: http://www.endurance.com.

Media Contact:

Karthik Balachander

pr@resellerclub.com

+91-22-3079-7676, extn: 7791

Senior Manager - Marketing

ResellerClub



SOURCE ResellerClub
HEIDELBERG, Germany, December 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The Royal Pretzels, shaped by Prince William and Duccess Kate during their visit to Heidelberg in summer of 2017 can now be admired at the BODY WORLDS Museum in Heidelberg. To preserve these unique specimens permanently, the royal pretzels were plastinated by Gunther von Hagens' team of experts.

BODY WORLDS curator Dr. Angelina Whalley celebrated the introduction of the pretzels to the BODY WORLDS museum yesterday: "We are proud and very happy that we not only were able to plastinate the pretzels, but also to win the charity auction," says Whalley. The auction amount of  2,355.67 now will go to children and families in need.

Plastinating food items is not part of Gunther von Hagens' (72) every day routine. "However, the individual steps of plastinating a pretzel are similar to those we employ when plastinating human specimens," says plastinator von Hagens, adding: "Water and fat contained in the specimen are replaced by polymer under vacuum conditions. In order to be sure that we would be using the perfect polymer mixture, we ran a number of trial plastinations before actually working on the royal pretzels."

Press office of the BODY WORLDS Museum in Heidelberg

Jana Engelhardt

Tel: 06221-33-11-26

E-mail: j.engelhardt@plastination.com

SOURCE BODY WORLDS Museum Heidelberg
New Delhi, Dec 15 : The BJP Delhi unit on Friday accused Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of showing "double standards" on the issue of fee hike in private schools in the national capital.

"Nowadays, parents of students of private schools are getting notices to pay Rs 10,000 to Rs 40,000 extra fees to these schools," Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Manoj Tiwari told reporters here.

"Kejriwalji's double standards have been exposed since he says on one hand that private schools will not be allowed to increase fees, on the other his government has issued orders to private schools to collect more fees," the BJP MP from northeast Delhi said.

Tiwari said the order to collect more fees to private schools was issued by the Directorate of Education (DoE).

Slamming Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who is the Education Minister, Tiwari said: "You promised to take action against schools if they increased fees. But how have you given them permission now to collect more fees?"

"Is there any deal (by the Kejriwal government) with private schools? Or is it a way to collect subsidy earlier given on water and electricity?"

The BJP leader's remarks came soon after parents of private school students protested outside Sisodia's residence on Mathura Road here against notices to them to pay extra fees.

The notices were sent to parents as per a DoE circular notifying Pay Commission recommendations, which said a school can claim up to 15 per cent fee hike for the current salaries and 7.5 per cent for arrears, only if all other resources have been exhausted.

On Thursday, Kejriwal had warned Delhi's private schools against effecting steep fee hike along with arrears under the pretext of complying with the 7th Pay Commission recommendations.

On Wednesday, the Delhi government ordered the formation of district-level fee anomaly committees in all 12 DoE districts to look into complaints against schools that have sought a fee hike.

Tiwari also sought to put the Delhi government on the mat regarding cancellation of the licence of Max Hospital in Shalimar Bagh.

"When you cancelled its licence, we did not question you. But if you will reinstate the hospital's licence, we will understand that you have cut a deal with them," the BJP leader said.

The government had, on December 8, cancelled its licence regarding the November 30 declaration of a newborn premature baby as dead by hospital doctors even though he was alive.
Mumbai, Dec 15 : Actress Neetu Chandra who became a producer with films like "Deswa" and "Mithila Makhaan" said she wants to make Bhojpuri films to clean the image of her mother tongue.

Asked why she wants to produce Bhojpuri films despite doing content-driven Hindi films, Neetu said: "I come from Bihar where Bhojpuri films are seen as soft porn, cheap, double meaning films.

"The moment you hear Bhojpuri, you don't want to be associated with it. They (Bhojpuri films) are looked down upon and rightfully so... There are reasons. I refuse to accept that this is the cinema of my mother tongue.

"That's where I and my brother Nitin, who had all the achievements and education to do Hindi cinema, chose to do Bhojpuri, Maithili and Magahi films. We wanted to do films to clean the image of our mother tongue which has been maligned," said Neetu.

"It has nothing to do with business, it's like they say 'if you want change, you have to be the change'."

With brother Nitin Chandra who is a National Award winning director, Neetu runs a Production House called Champaran Talkies.

The house produces Bhojpuri, Maithili and Magahi films along with other content for their platform NeoBihar.

Asked whether she would prefer to produce regional content films or commercial Hindi films, the "Garam Masala" actress said: "I think content-driven films with a commercial angle is what should be done."

Talking about her first production "Deswa", Chandra said: "'Deswa' became a very big film for Bhojpuri and very small for Hindi cinema. The Bhojpuri industry mafia did not let us release it. So finally we came up with a platform NeoBihar where we will release the film and work on different content-based videos."

"Deswa" will be released on December 23 on NeoBihar YouTube Channel of Champaran Talkies.
Chennai, Dec 16 : The doctors at Apollo Hospital were advised not to reveal the condition of late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa was critical, said Apollo Hospitals Group founder and executive chairman Prathap C Reddy on Saturday.

Speaking to reporters here, Reddy noted that Jayalalithaa came to the hospital in a critical condition and later showed progress.

Jayalalithaa was admitted to Apollo Hospital here on September 11, 2016 and died there on December 5, 2016. The hospital had issued a statement that she was admitted for fever and dehydration.

Reddy said the doctors were advised not announce that Jayalalithaa was in a critical stage as it would be difficult to control people's emotions, but he did not mention who had advised the doctors not to disclose the actual status of her health.

He also said he has not received any summons from the one man inquiry commission set up by the state government to go into the circumstances leading to Jayalalithaa's death.
United Nations, Dec 19 : The US has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution criticising President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move its embassy to the city that is also claimed by Palestinians.

With all the other 14 members of the Council, including its allies Britain and France, lining up against the US, Permanent Representative Nikki Haley cast the veto-powered negative vote killing the resolution on Monday.

This was the first time the US exercised its veto since Trump became President. The last time the US had vetoed a resolution was in 2011 when it voted against a motion condemning the building of Israeli settlements in Jerusalem and the occupied territories.

The Egyptian-sponsored resolution, which avoided naming the US or Trump directly, sought to express "deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem" and asked other countries to not follow suit and move their embassies to city considered holy by Jews, Christians and Muslims.

The resolution also called for reversing the "negative trends on the ground that are imperiling the two-State solution" for Arab-Israeli dispute.

Introducing the resolution, Egypt's Permanent Representative Amr Abdellatif Aboulatta said that the US decision violated Council resolutions on the status of territories occupied by Israel and also the UN Charter which prohibits annexation of territories.

Haley called the resolution and the votes for it "an insult".

"This veto is being done in defence of American sovereignty and in defence of America's role in the Middle East peace process.

"The President took great care not to prejudge final status negotiations in any way, including the specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem... That remains a subject to be negotiated only by the parties," Haley added.

Trump has tasked his son-in-law Jared Kushner with mediating peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Britain's Permanent Representative Matthew Ryrcroft reflected the views of the other members when he said the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital decision had no legal affect and his country disagreed with it.

Palestine's Permanent Observer Riyad Mansour called the US decision reprehensible and said that Washington had undermined any role it could have in the Middle East peace process.

The Palestinian people's heritage was intimately interwoven with that of the city and East Jerusalem was the capital of Palestine.

Israel's Permanent Representative Danny Danon said that Trump had only recognised the fact that Jerusalem was the capital of Israel, which it had been for 3,000 years since its establishment by King David.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)
New Delhi, Dec 19 : The Delhi High Court on Tuesday ordered immediate inspection of an institute here where girls and women were allegedly kept in illegal confinement in the name of religious preaching.

The court directed an officer, not below the rank of Deputy Commissioner of Police, to conduct an inspection of the Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya in Rohini on Tuesday itself and said this should be video-graphed.

Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal was also asked to accompany police during the inspection. The court also asked Dev Dixit, referred to as the founder and spiritual head of the institute, to cooperate with police during the drive.

The court issued notice to the Central government, the Delhi government and the police while asking them to file a status report on the issue.

It referred to a similar situation witnessed in Dera Sacha Sauda chief and rape convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insan's ashram in Haryana's Sirsa.

The court's order came on a plea filed by NGO Foundation for Social Empowerment, which said that several minors and women were allegedly being illegally confined there and are not allowed to meet their parents.
Tehran, Dec 20 : Iran's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday summoned the Swiss ambassador to Tehran to hand him a protest note over the US' recent claims that missiles fired at Saudi Arabia from Yemen were of Iranian origin.

Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi said that the Islamic Republic's "strong and official protest at the US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley's injudicious and baseless allegations was conveyed" to the Swiss envoy.

Swiss embassy in Tehran represents the US interests in Iran since 1980, Xinhua quoted Press TV as saying.

The letter to the Swiss envoy envisages protest regarding Haley's "provocative" and "irresponsible" remarks, which had been based on "fake evidence," Qasemi was quoted as saying.

On Thursday, Haley appeared standing before parts of a ballistic missile that she claimed Iran delivered to Yemen's Shiite Houthis, which was fired at Saudi Arabia's Riyadh airport last month.

On Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that Iran will refer the "baseless" US accusations of arms smuggling to Yemen's Houthis to the United Nations.

Tehran has denied arming Iranian-allied Shia Houthis against the Saudi-led coalition which seeks to restore President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who was ousted by Houthis in September 2014.

The Saudi-led coalition has recently blamed Iran for a recent Yemeni missile strike on Riyadh, which Iran dismissed categorically.
Athens, Dec 20 : The Greek parliament have ratified the 2018 state budget as the government appeared confident that it will be the last one tabled while the country was under a bailout programme.

The budget was approved on Tuesday evening with the backing of the 153 deputies of the two-partite Left-led ruling coalition, while 144 MPs voted against, reports Xinhua news agency.

A total of 297 lawmakers participated in the roll-call vote.

It projects 2.5 per cent GDP (gross domestic product) growth next year up from 1.6 per cent for this year and a 3.8 per cent of GDP primary surplus for 2018 up from 2.4 per cent forecast for 2017.

Both estimates are higher than the targets set by the current three-year bailout programme which expires in 2018.

Addressing the plenary shortly before the roll call vote, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras argued that the 2018 budget heralds the post-bailout era and Greece's return to normalcy.

"The country will honour the commitments it has made towards its creditors and will achieve a stable and lasting access to the international markets at favourable rates," he said.

The debt-ridden country has been shut out by international markets since 2010, when it resorted to the first bailout to avoid disorderly default.
Washington, Dec 20 : The House of Representatives will re-vote on Wednesday on the Republicans' tax bill, though the legislation is still expected to pass both chambers in Congress and be on President Donald Trump's desk in the next 24 hours, the media reported.

A version of the bill passed along sharp partisan lines, 227-203, with 12 House Republican members opposing the legislation, and no Democrats voting for it, earlier on Tuesday, reports CNN.

But shortly after debate started in the Senate, the House Majority Leader's office advised its conference to be prepared to vote on Wednesday citing Senate rules that would likely strip out certain parts of the final bill in order to pass with a simple majority.

The Senate is expected to clear the bill later by early Wednesday morning, with Vice President Mike Pence presiding over the vote.

After the bill clears the House, the measure will then head to the President's desk for his signature before the Christmas holiday.

As House Republicans prepared to vote on the tax bill the first time, Speaker Paul Ryan was seated next to the conservative House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, a North Carolina Republican.

The two men went head to head at certain points on health care and spending bills, but on tax reform, the House Freedom Caucus has worked hand in glove with leadership.

Ryan spoke from the floor and said that this vote on the tax bill is a "generational defining moment".

"This is without question the single most important thing we can do to once again make America the best place to do business," Ryan said.

Meanwhile, protesters were repeatedly removed from the chamber for shouting "kill the bill, don't kill us", in the minute before the House vote.

The plan, which critics say is heavily weighted to ease the tax burden of businesses rather than the middle class, drops the corporate tax rate down from 35 to 21 per cent, repeals the corporate alternative minimum tax, nearly doubles the standard deduction for individuals and restructures the way pass-through businesses are taxed, reports CNN.

The bill keeps seven personal income tax brackets, and lowers that tax rates for most brackets, including dropping the top rate to 37 from 39.6 per cent.

It would also reduce tax breaks important to states and cities with higher taxes by placing a $10,000 cap on the deduction for state and local and taxes.

The bill would also repeal ObamaCare's individual mandate and open up a section of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling.
London, Dec 20 : British Prime Minister Theresa May spoke to Donald Trump about their countrys very different positions on Jerusalem, but it was left unclear whether the US President would visit London in February 2018 to open a new American embassy.

The call on Tuesday evening between the two leaders came 13 days after May had announced she would speak to Trump about his decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a position at odds with the policy pursued by London and almost all other UN member states, which argue that the fate of the city should be decided in comprehensive negotiations, reports the Guardian.

Asked if the two-week delay amounted to a snub by Trump, a spokesman for May said the pair had "a good relationship", which included being able to differ on some matters.

"The Prime Minister has always been clear on these matters that part of having a special relationship is that where there are times you don't agree, you can say so," the spokesman said.

However, there was still no agreement on a Trump visit to the UK, which had been postponed because of fears that it would trigger mass demonstrations.

The US ambassador to the UK, Woody Johnson had said last week that he expected the President to visit London in the new year, raising expectations that he would fly in to open a new $800 million embassy complex in Battersea on the south bank of the Thames.

However, neither the Downing Street nor the White House confirmed a presidential visit, the Guardian reported.

A later statement from Downing Street said that May had offered condolences for Monday's train derailment in Washington state and that they had "discussed the different positions we took on the recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, and agreed on the importance of the US bringing forward new proposals for peace and the international community supporting these efforts".

Downing Street said May reported on progress in Brexit talks and the President and Prime Minister "wished each other a very Merry Christmas and looked forward to keeping in close touch".

Earlier this month, Trump announced that the US would break with longstanding practice and recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Both Israelis and Palestinians claim the city, and the US and other countries have avoided taking a position on the matter.

The move has isolated Washington from almost all its allies, and forced a rare US veto of a UN Security Council resolution on Monday, when the 14 other council members, including the UK, voted to call for the US recognition of its status as Israeli capital be rescinded.

The White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, said discussions with London about the visit were continuing.

"We are working with them to finalise the details, which we expect to announce soon," Sanders said on Tuesday night.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : There are nearly 650 million mobile phone users in India -- and over 300 million of them have a smartphone. For these users, Chinese players became the first choice this year as they launched devices with compelling features, thus dominating the budget and mid-range price segment in the country.

Chinese vendors captured 49 per cent of the Indian mobile phone handset market in the first quarter of 2017 -- with a 180 per cent (year-on-year) revenue growth -- threatening to wipe out domestic players from the overall handset segment.

Among the top Chinese brands, Xiaomi witnessed the biggest growth this year.

With a market share of 23.5 per cent and having shipped 9.2 million smartphones in the third quarter this year, Xiaomi became the fastest-growing smartphone brand with a growth rate of nearly 300 per cent (year-on-year) in the third quarter this year.

According to IDC, Samsung had 23.5 per cent market share in India, similar to Xiaomi, the Lenovo-Motorola combine was at 9 per cent, Vivo at 8.5 per cent and OPPO at 7.9 per cent.

For Xiaomi, its Redmi Note 4 device that was launched in January at Rs 9,999 for the base model (2GB RAM and 32GB onboard storage) proved to be a game-changer and its best-selling smartphone too. The company shipped approximately four million units of the device in this quarter, said IDC.

Chinese brands like Huawei (which sells its youth-centric sub-brand Honor in India), Vivo, Motorola (a Lenovo brand) and OPPO's performance remained strong and contributed to more than half of the total smartphone shipments in the country.

Aiming to push its position up in the highly competitive Indian market, Honor launched flagship products at "unbeatable prices", like the highly-successful Honor 8 Pro (Rs 29,999) and Honor 7X (starting at Rs 12,999).

Vivo and OPPO's aggressive marketing spends also paid them hefty dividends. With smartphone growth nearing saturation in metros, Chinese players were also busy building their base in the tier II and III cities.

When it comes to manufacturing in India, Xiaomi announced its third plant in the country based out of Noida and the first facility for power banks in partnership with Hipad Technology.

Spread across 230,000 square feet, the Noida unit is a dedicated facility for Xiaomi power banks where the Mi Power Bank 2i will be assembled. The company already has two smartphone manufacturing plants in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh, where more than 95 per cent of its smartphones sold in India are assembled locally.

Meanwhile, South Korean giant Samsung also announced that it would invest Rs 4,915 crore in expanding its Noida manufacturing plant to double the production capacity of both mobile phones and consumer electronics.

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board approved OPPO's request to open single-brand retail stores in the country. With this decision, OPPO became the first smartphone company to get this opportunity in India.

The Chinese players also handled the post-demonetisation ripples well with high decibel marketing, increased credit line to distributors and efficient channel management.

Global vendors, led by Samsung, were able to withstand the aggressive Chinese players post-demonetisation owing to their good distributor coverage and penetration in the Indian market.

Aiming to gain a further foothold in the offline smartphone market, Xiaomi opened its first "Mi Home" store in Bengaluru in May and plans to add 100 such stores in the next two years.

Similarly, Lenovo-owned Motorola opened six "Moto Hubs" in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai and plans to open 50 more by the end of this year.

Huawei's sub-brand Honor announced opening four more exclusive service centres in Kolkata, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Guwahati. Its service centres are already operating in 17 cities.

India this year surpassed the US to become the second-largest smartphone market in the world after China. Yet, according to Counterpoint Research, only one fourth of India's population uses smartphones, thus making the country an attractive destination for Chinese players in the mobile ecosystem.

Highlights:

Chinese vendors captured 49 per cent of the Indian mobile phone handset market in the first quarter of 2017.

Among the top Chinese brands, Xiaomi witnessed the biggest growth this year.

South Korean giant Samsung announced it would invest Rs 4,915 crore in expanding its Noida manufacturing plant.

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board approved OPPO's request to open single-brand retail stores in the country.

Xiaomi announced its third manufacturing plant in the country based out of Noida and the first facility for power banks in partnership with Hipad Technology.

(Krishna SinhaChaudhury can be contacted at krishna.s@ians.in)
Patna, Dec 20 : Maoists attacked a railway station in Bihar, killing one person and abducting two officials to enforce a shutdown they have called, police said on Wednesday.

Armed Maoists attacked the Masudan railway station on Jamalpur-Kieul rail section late Tuesday night.

According to an Eastern Railway official, the attack took place at about 11.25 p.m.

They killed a deputy village body head, torched cabin panel and abducted two railway employees -- station master Mukesh Kumar and porter Narendra Mandal -- to enforce a shutdown they had called on Wednesday Train services on that stretch were stopped.

Eastern Railway spokesperson Ravi Mahapatra told IANS that after the attack, the Gaya-Jamalpur passenger train, which arrived at the Masudan station at 11.39 p.m. was halted there as the signalling system was damaged.

"Senior police officials then arrived at the station with engineers and the train was allowed to move at 5.45 a.m. on Wednesday morning," he said.

"But soon after the services were started, an Assistant Operations Manager at Malda received a threat call from the Maoists that if any movement continued, the abductees will be killed. It prompted the suspension of services on the section at 7 a.m.," Mahapatra said.

A number of trains were halted at the Kiul-Jamalpur-Bhagalpur section of Malda Division including -- Farakka Express and Muzaffarpur Bhagalpur Jan Sewa Express at Kiul, Banka Express at Barahiya, Jaynagar Howrah Passenger at Dinkar Gram Samaria, the officer added.

Search operation for the abducted railway officials were ongoin.
Madrid, Dec 20 : Catalan giants Barcelona have accepted the terms for their star defender Javier Mascherano to join the Chinese Super League (CSL) in the January transfer window.

According to reports by Marca, the two parties made a deal that will see the Argentina international depart for China for 10 million euros ($11.83 m) in the second half of January, after Samuel Umtiti has fully recovered from his injury.

The 33-year-old Argentine has made 202 appearances for Barcelona since 2010. He has also helped the club lift the La Liga title four times and the Champions League twice.
Udhampur (Jammu And Kashmir), Dec 20 : The stories of 40-year-old Mohammad Younis and 33-year old Mohammer Tariq are similar. Residents of Rajouri and Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir, both were advised knee joint replacement surgery -- but the cost in a private hospital was prohibitive and the wait at a government hospital much too long.

Younis had met with an accident in 2014 while Tariq had been suffering for four years. Both were on medication.

They found succour in mid-December thanks to a state government initiative to encourage specialist doctors to return to the state and the surgical process being subsidised. Thus, the operations at the Udhampur district hospital cost the duo Rs 50,000 each - - just the cost of the implant, with the state government picking up the remaining tag.

"Till now such surgeries were being performed in medical colleges and some private hospitals. The benefit of extending it to district hospitals is that people won't have to wait for long. Through this initiative, we are also urging specialist doctors from the state working outside to come and work in the state for the people," Health Minister Bali Bhagat told IANS on the phone.

As the initiative is at the initial stage in district hospitals, high-end orthopedic surgeries are being performed only at Udhampur under the leadership of Dr Balvinder Singh, a senior orthopedic surgeon from Delhi's Safdarjung hospital, who quit his lucrative job early this year to return to the state.

"This is a boon for patients like me who were reluctant to undergo knee replacement surgery despite doctors recommending this to us years back. While till now most of the disrict hospitals treated only minor health issues, the initiation of the replacement procedure has not just saved our money and health but also revived the district hospitals," Younis, who underwent the surgery on December 15, told IANS.

He said while district hospitals have an arrangement for diagnostics, neither the manpower nor the infrastructure had supported high-end surgeries.

According to the J&K Health Department, every year over 5,000 patients undergo specialised joint replacement surgeries, including knee joint, shoulder and hip joint replacements. While many initially prefer getting this done at government medical colleges in Srinagar or Jammu, several move to the metro cities due to the long waiting period.

"Such initiatives will revive the district hospitals and also decrease the patient burden on major government hospitals in Jammu and Srinagar, where patients have to wait long to get their orthopedic surgeries done. The initiation of high-end orthopedic surgeries will not just help civilians but also be a boon for paramilitary personnel, who now will have facilities for joint-related surgeries in the district hospitals," Balvinder Singh told IANS.

Stating that in the last one week, six joint replacement surgeries have been performed at the Udhampur district hospital, Singh informed that all of them were knee joint replacements and he will soon start shoulder joint surgeries that require a greater degree of skill.

"This initiative will not just reduce the distance hurdle as people won't have to travel out of the state; they also have to pay much less for the surgeries. The patients are only charged for the implants," said Singh.

Despite the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority capping the prices of knee joint implants, many private hospitals continue to charge exorbitantly for the procedure.

According to Health Minister Bhagat, the initiative was launched from Udhampur as its district hospital was declared the best in the state under the Centre's Kaya Kalp initiative for public health facilities.

Udhampur is Jammu and Kashmir's fourth-largest city and is the district's headquarters. Encircled by lush green eucalyptus trees, the city rests on the foothills of the Shivalik ranges, which are part of the mighty Himalayas. Udhampur is also the Indian Army's Northern Command headquarters and forms an important transit point between Jammu and Srinagar.

(Rupesh Dutta can be contacted at Rupesh.d@ians.in)
New Delhi, Dec 20 : The Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day on Wednesday amid sloganeering by Congress members demanding an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his remarks against his predecessor Manmohan Singh.

The House had resumed at 2 p.m. after it saw repeated disruptions.

The Congress members wanted Modi to apologise for alleging at an election rally in Gujarat that Manmohan Singh and others at a dinner meeting discussed the Gujarat Assembly election with Pakistani diplomats.

As soon as the House met, Congress members were on their feet. Many had given notice under Rule 267 to suspend all listed business and discuss the issue.

However, Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu rejected all the notices and asked the members to continue with Zero Hour submissions. The Congress members then trooped near the Chair's podium shouting slogans.

Earlier, Naidu adjourned the House till noon after his repeated requests to maintain order failed to bring peace.

As soon as the House met again for the Question Hour, the Congress members again shouted slogans. The Chair then adjourned the House till 2 p.m.
Hyderabad, Dec 20 : To strengthen its offline retail presence across India, Motorola India on Wednesday opened its first "Moto Hub" in Hyderabad in partnership with mobile retail chain BigC and personalised mobile store chain Lot Mobiles.

This is the first "Moto Hub" to be launched under the collaboration that will let prospective buyers experience the latest Motorola technology and get a hands-on demo of the entire product portfolio.

"With the launch of first ever 'Moto Hub' in partnership with BigC, we aim to provide access to Motorola's premium product experience to the people of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana," Sudhin Mathur, Managing Director, Motorola Mobility India, said in a statement.

"We are also partnering with Lot Mobiles to give the people of Hyderabad a seamless experience of the entire portfolio of Motorola products," Mathur added.

The Lenovo-owned brand is planning to open "Moto Hubs" in 185 BigC stores and 140 Lot Mobiles stores across 55 cities in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

The company inaugurated its first "Moto Hub" in Chennai in partnership with the multi-brand retail chain Poorvika Mobiles on Tuesday.

Earlier this month, the company announced the first-ever experiential store in south India.

The company currently has six "Moto Hubs" (without the partnership) in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai, and opened three such stores in Kolkata last month.
Chennai, Dec 20 : The Apollo Hospital should confirm whether the room in which late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa was seen getting admitted in a video actually exists or not, a former AIADMK MP said on Wednesday.

Reacting to the video clip showing Jayalalithaa in the hospital room after she was shifted from the intensive care unit (ICU), K.C. Palaniswamy told IANS: "It is for the Apollo Hospital to clarify whether such a room actually exists and whether the video clip is genuine."

Over a year after Jayalalithaa's death, P. Vetrivel, belonging to the sidelined AIADMK leader T.T.V. Dinakaran faction, released the video clip on Wednesday.

"The video was shot by (the now jailed) V.K. Sasikala after Jayalalithaa was shifted to a general room from ICU," Vetrivel told reporters here.

The clip was released a day before the by-election in the Radhakrishnan Nagar Assembly constituency in Chennai. Dinakaran is an Independent candidate in the constituency. The seat fell vacant after Jayalalithaa died.

Referring to Apollo Hospitals Group founder and Executive Chairman Prathap C. Reddy's statement on Saturday that doctors were told not to reveal that Jayalalithaa's condition was critical, Palaniswamy demanded to know who advised the doctors.

Jayalalithaa was admitted to Apollo Hospital here on September 11, 2016 and died on December 5. The hospital had said she was admitted with fever and dehydration.

Reddy said the doctors were advised not to announce that Jayalalithaa was in a critical stage as it would have become difficult to control mass emotions but he did not say who had advised the doctors.

K.S. Gita, a friend of Jayalalithaa, told a television channel that the video seems to be fabricated.

The Bharatiya Janata Party called the timing of the video release -- a day before polling -- improper.

Earlier, Dinakaran had stated that he would release a video clip showing Jayalalithaa in the hospital at an appropriate time.

Officials of Apollo Hospital were not available to comment on the video clip.
Chennai, Dec 20 : A day ahead of a critical by-election here, sidelined AIADMK leader T.T.V. Dinakaran's faction on Wednesday triggered a major row by releasing a video clip of the late J. Jayalalithaa purportedly on her hospital bed, forcing the Election Commission to tell TV channels not to telecast it.

The ruling AIADMK cried foul and asked the poll panel to stop the telecast of the clip that showed Jayalalithaa drinking something from a plastic container, apparently while watching television.

The ruling party contended that the video was released with a "motive" before the high-stakes by-election in the R.K. Nagar Assembly constituency on Thursday and said a case should be filed against those responsible.

There was no indication as to when and where the video was shot.

Fisheries Minister D. Jayakumar alleged that leaking the video clip was a misuse of the proximity enjoyed by the Sasikala family with the late leader, particularly during her last days at the Apollo Hospital.

It was also in violation of election rules, he alleged.

Jayakumar said the video clip, if at all, should have been presented before the judicial commission set up to inquire into the death of Jayalalitha last year. Instead it was done with the by-election in mind.

Rejecting to the minister's charges, Dinakaran faction spokesperson Thangathamizhchelvan said there was no motive behind the release of the video clip which was shown to dispel allegations that the Sasikala family had a hand in her death.

He also rejected the demand for action on the issue saying the Commission was not taking any action on the distribution of money to the tune of Rs 6,000 per voter in R.K. Nagar by the ruling AIADMK.

If any action was to be taken, it should be against the bribing by the ruling AIADMK, he said.

Dinakaran is contesting as an Independent in the by-election against AIADMK's Madhusudhanan, DMK's Marudhu Ganesh and BJP's Karu Nagarajan among others.

Meanwhile, Returning Officer Praveen Nair told television channels to stop showing the video clip, saying it violated Section 126 of the Representation of the People Act.

The provision bars display of any material by cinematographic or electronic means in areas going to polls on election eve and is a punishable offence.

Vetrivel, a disqualified MLA belonging to the Dinakaran group who released the video clip to the media, denied it had anything to do with the by-election.

"The video was shot by V.K. Sasikala after Jayalalithaa was shifted to a general room from ICU," Vetrivel told reporters here.

K.C. Palaniswamy, a former AIADMK MP, said: "It is for Apollo Hospital authorities to clarify whether such a room actually exists in their hospital here and whether the video clip could be genuine.

"The genuineness of the video has to be established. Our point is that what happened to Jayalalithaa at her residence before she was rushed to Apollo Hospital on September 22, 2016," Palaniswamy said.

Referring to Apollo Hospitals Group founder and Executive Chairman Prathap C. Reddy's statement on Saturday that doctors were advised not to reveal that Jayalalithaa was in a critical condition, Palaniswamy wondered as to who advised the doctors.

Jayalalithaa was admitted to Apollo Hospital on September 11, 2016 and died there on December 5. The hospital had said she was admitted for fever and dehydration.

K.S. Gita, a friend of Jayalalithaa, said the video seemed to be fabricated and was released with a view to get votes in the by-election. She said the video clip does not have a date.

The BJP called the timing of the video clip release as improper.

Earlier, Dinakaran had stated that he would release a video clip of Jayalalithaa in the hospital at appropriate time.

Officials of Apollo Hospital were not available to comment on the video clip.
Patna, Dec 20 : RJD leaders Tejashwi Yadav, Tej Pratap Yadav and Misa Bharti on Wednesday attacked the Bihar government over rising crime and wondered why television channels were silent over the issue.

Opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav asked: "Dear patriotic and law-abiding channels, why are you not discussing and debating all-time high crime and corruption in Bihar?"

The former Deputy Chief Minister, a son of RJD leader Lalu Prasad, posted a tweet regarding the murder of a Home Guard in Siwan district on Tuesday.

Former Bihar Health Minister and Lalu's elder son Tej Pratap Yadav said the crime rate had soared like never before in Bihar, now ruled by the Janata Dal-United and the Bharatiya Janata Party.

"Every day there are reports of murder, rape, loot, extortion, abduction and Bihar is touching a record in crimes... Media, particularly TV channels, have deliberately decided to ignore (this)," he tweeted.

Lalu's elder daughter Misa Bharti, a Rajya Sabha member, too attacked the state government and targeted the media for not highlighting the spurt in crime.

"No one crying 'jungle raj', no prime time debates," she tweeted.

Lalu Prasad's family has been increasingly using Facebook and Twitter to target Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday slammed Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal for a stay order on the Delhi government's decision to cancel the licence of Max Hospital here for declaring a live newborn baby dead.

On December 8, the Delhi government had cancelled the Shalimar Bagh-based 250-bedded hospital's licence after its doctors on November 30 declared the baby dead.

On Wednesday, the hospital said operations were resumed after the Court of Finance Commissioner on Tuesday put on hold the December 8 order.

AAP leader Dilip Pandey said the court has given the Lieutenant Governor all administrative powers of Delhi and he should be accountable.

The leader also said that the party doubted whether the appellate authority who stayed their government's decision "worked for the people or for crony capitalists".

Meanwhile an official statement from Baijal's office distanced itself from the decision.

"The matter with respect to Max Hospital licence is not before the LG. It is before the Court of Financial Commissioner. It is also clarified that no Max officials have met the LG or any officer of Raj Niwas," it said.
Hyderabad, Dec 20 : Mahan Air, Iran's private carrier, proposes to launch flights connecting Hyderabad to Tehran and Mashhad, which houses a prominent Shia shrine, Iran's Consul General here said on Wednesday.

Earlier, Aseman Airlines, another private carrier, was planning to launch flights connecting Hyderabad to the holy city of Mashhad.

However, this could not materialize due to some technical issues, said Iran's new Consul General in Hyderabad, Mohammed Haghbin Ghomi.

Under the new proposal, Mahan Air will operate the flight on Hyderabad-Tehran-Mashhad route. "This flight will be launched in the near future," he told reporters.

To begin with, this will be a weekly flight. Depending on demand, the frequency may be increased to thrice a week.

Hyderabad will become the first Indian city to be connected to Mashhad, the capital city of Khorasan province and famous for Ali Reza shrine. A large number of Shia Muslims travel to Mashhad for 'ziarat' (pilgrimage).

Hyderabad has a large population of Shia Muslims. The Iranian consulate here issues 5,000 to 6,000 visas every year and the visitors include pilgrims, businessmen and traders.

The flight will also make Hyderabad the first city in south India to be connected to Tehran.

Mahan Air currently operates four flights a week between Tehran and Delhi and two flights a week between Tehran and Mumbai.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : The BJP on Wednesday slammed the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government soon after Max Hospital, Shalimar Bagh, resumed its operations, days after its licence was cancelled by the city government for declaring a live newborn baby dead.

"Chief Minister Kejriwal needs to tell Delhi what deal did he strike with the Max Hospital administration for preparing a legally weak case that could not stand for a single date?" Delhi BJP President Manoj Tiwari told reporters.

"The restoration of medical services at Max Hospital in Shalimar Bagh is no surprise for us, in fact, it was expected," the BJP MP from northeast Delhi said.

Tiwari's remarks came soon after Max Hospital, earlier on Wednesday, said operations were resumed after the Court of Finance Commissioner on Tuesday put on hold the government's December 8 order.

The hospital had appealed to the appellate authority to revoke the cancellation of the licence.

Lashing out at Kejriwal, Tiwari said: "He is master at scripting such gimmicks with which he can emotionally attach to people for political gains. The legally unsubstantiated ban was just aimed to mislead people."

On December 8, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government cancelled the 250-bed hospital's licence after its doctors on November 30 declared a premature newborn baby dead. He was found to be alive when his parents took his body for the final rites.

The baby died a week later due to "infection and other medical problems".
Jaipur, Dec 20 : Additional forces were deployed in some villages of Rajasthan on Wednesday to maintain the peace after the demolition of a temple built on encroached land led to tension.

Incidents of stone pelting were reported from different villages of Rajsamand district after a tussle broke out between the administration and villagers of Tarsingda. On Tuesday night, a car was set on fire and a shop was also gutted.

The administration then called the villagers for fresh talks on Wednesday to ensure that the situation remains under control and they held no grudges with the administration.

"The villagers have been informed that if they want to have a temple at the said land, they will have to follow proper protocol and it seems they too have understood the same," said District Collector P.C. Berwal.

Berwal told IANS that the villagers of Tarsingda had installed an idol in a temple which was removed and the temple was demolished on Monday night as it was built on government land.

"As the temple was built on encroached land, we had to demolish it. However, the religious sentiments of the villagers were hurt in the process.

"On Tuesday evening, they took out a silent and peaceful procession. They were in large numbers and had gathered outside the Collectorate demanding the re-installation of idols in the temple. They also submitted a memorandum in the same reference," he said.

"Meanwhile, a few miscreants started raising inflammatory slogans while on their way to the village and some of them resorted to stone pelting making the situation tense in the village.

"The situation got worse when a car parked outside a school in the village was set on fire. Soon after, a shop was also gutted by the miscreants in Kakroli.

"Taking quick action, police arrested three people on charges of disturbing peace and harmony. Also, additional forces were deputed in sensitive areas to keep a strict vigil.

"Further investigations are on to find out if the tensions have been triggered with the help of outside forces. We never thought that a minor incident like this could trigger this kind of tension," Berwal said.

He added that the situation will be reviewed to decide if additional forces are required further.

Rajsamand had witnessed riots recently when the murder of Mohammed Afrazul went viral on social media and the accused Shambhulal Raigar was arrested.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : The Pakistan High Commission here on Wednesday issued visas to the mother and wife of Kulbhushan Jadhav to visit Islamabad to meet the death row prisoner.

"Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi issued the visas to the mother and wife of Commander Jadhav to visit Islamabad to meet him," Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal said.

On December 17, 2017, Pakistan had said that the visa applications of Jadhav's wife and mother had been received and were being "processed".

Jadhav's mother and wife are expected to arrive in Pakistan on Saturday via the Wagha Border. Informed sources said that during a meeting on Monday, Pakistan's National Security Committee cleared the visas for Jadhav's mother Avantika Jadhav and his wife.

Pakistan had rejected India's plea for consular access to Jadhav, a retired navy official who has been sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court for alleged spying.

Kulbhushan Jadhav was sentenced on charges of espionage and terrorism.

India maintains that Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the navy. Pakistan claims he was arrested from Balochistan after he reportedly entered from Iran.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : BJP MLA Jairam Thakur is emerging as the "key" face in the race for picking a chief ministerial candidate in Himachal Pradesh, with the party expected to take a final call after a meeting of the newly-elected MLAs with the central observers.

A senior party leader said that Thakur has "suitable credentials" for the post as he has been a member of ABVP, the student wing affiliated to BJP's ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

He said Thakur has been BJP state unit chief, a state Minister and has been elected five times as an MLA. Another factor in his favour is that the party will not need to go through a by-election if he is chosen.

Sources said that central observers - Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Narendra Singh Tomar - are expected to speak to BJP MLAs individually to ascertain their views and then convey these to the party's central leadership.

While Thakur is the key face in the chief ministerial race, other names doing the rounds are of Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda and party MLA Rajeev Bindal. The name of defeated chief ministerial face Prem Kumar Dhumal has not been ruled out either.

If the party chooses either Nadda or Dhumal as Chief Minister, they will have to get elected as legislators in six months, and it will entail a sitting MLA vacating his seat.

Nadda's name had been doing the rounds even before the elections but his going to Himachal Pradesh as Chief Minister will create a vacancy in the Union Cabinet.

The BJP also has to weigh the caste equations in the hill state before it makes a final choice, keeping in mind the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Nadda is a Brahmin and the community is numerically less than the Rajputs. The last BJP Chief Minister from the Brahim community was Shanta Kumar (1990-1992).

But the BJP also has to weigh various factors in terms of national politics. It already has Chief Ministers from the Rajput community including Yogi Adityanath and Trivendra Singh Rawat.

Party leaders said that central observers are expected to visit Shimla later this week to ascertain the views of MLAs. The name of the Chief Minister is likely to be announced after a meeting of the party's parliamentary board.

Jairam Thakur won from Seraj constituency by defeating Chet Ram of the Congress.

Dhumal's name was announced as the party's chief ministerial candidate midway through the election campaign in the state.

Dhumal, who had won the last election from Hamirpur constituency, had reservations over contesting from Sujanpur. But the BJP central leadership asked him to contest from there, and he faced defeat against close rival Rajinder Rana of the Congress. Rana was once the "election manager" of Dhumal and knows his family well. Rana defeated the two-time Chief Minister by a slender margin of 1,919 votes.

BJP MLA Virender Kanwar, who won from Kutlehar seat, has offered to resign from his seat for Dhumal.

The BJP won a near two-third majority in Himachal Pradesh.

In Gujarat, Vijay Rupani and Nitin Patel are widely expected to continue as Gujarat's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister after the BJP retained power in keenly fought elections, but some others are said to be eyeing the top post.
Mumbai, Dec 20 : A sessions court here on Wednesday released, on bail of Rs 25,000, the businessman charged with molesting a teenaged Bollywood actress on a New Delhi-Mumbai flight last week.

Vikas Sachdeva, 39, was arrested by Sahar police the day after the actress complained and was charged under sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 and the Indian Penal Code.

The National Award winning actress had complained, in a social media post, of the incident which happened on the Vistara Airlines flight on December 10, creating a nationwide furore.

She said she was travelling in the business class when the male passenger behind her (Sachdeva) rubbed his foot along her neck and back when she was half asleep.

She also claimed that though she informed the flight crew, they did not help her. However, the airline had later tendered an apology and ordered an enquiry into the incident.

She narrated and broke down in a self-shot video which went viral, drawing widespread condemnation from all over India.

"I just landed, the whole irony of this that I yelled... and this is not done... this is not how you should be treated or made to feel. This is terrible.

"This is how they will take care of girls? No one will help us if we don't decide to help ourselves and that is the worst thing," she said.

The Maharashtra State Women's Commission, the Shiv Sena, the Bhumata Ranragini Brigade and others condemned the incident and demanded action against the accused, while the Civil Aviation Ministry has threatened to put Sachdeva on a no-fly list if he is convicted.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : India and Myanmar on Wednesday signed a MoU to develop Rakhine State, from where thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh following a military crackdown.

Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar and Myanmar's Deputy Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement U Soe Aung signed the Memorandum of Understanding.

"This MoU is the first government to government agreement signed by the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement of Myanmar with a cooperation partner focussed on socio-economic development and livelihood initiatives in Rakhine State," the External Affairs Ministry said.

"This is intended to help the government of Myanmar achieve its objective of restoration of normalcy in Rakhine State and enable the return of displaced persons," a statement said.

It stated that the Indian government proposed to take up, among others, a project to build prefabricated housing in Rakhine State, so as to meet the immediate needs of returning people.

Jaishankar's visit is of strategic importance after more than 650,000 Rohingyas fled to neighbouring Bangladesh since violence erupted in Rakhine in August.

The minority Rohingya community does not enjoy citizenship in Myanmar and is sparingly given refugee status in Bangladesh.

Human rights monitors have accused Myanmar's military of atrocities against the Rohingyas.

India has maintained that the issue should be handled in a humane manner, development activities should be initiated in Rakhine State and conditions should be created for the safe and secure return of the refugees to their homes.

Jaishankar, during his day-long visit, also called on Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, Union Minister in State Counsellor's Office U Kyaw Tint Swe and Union Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Win Myat Aye.

All matters relating to bilateral cooperation, including follow-up on decisions taken during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Myanmar, as well as matters pertaining to Rakhine State were discussed during these meetings.

According to the External Affairs Ministry, ongoing friendship projects were reviewed.

These included operation and maintenance of the deep-water port at Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State, and the road from Paletwa to Zorinpui on the border of India's northeastern state of Mizoram.

Both the port and road are parts of the Kaladan Multi-modal Transit and Transport Project being developed by India, which is aimed at reducing the need to transport goods between northeastern India and the rest of India through the narrow Siliguri corridor Other key projects, such as the Rhi-Tiddim road project, the Trilateral Highway road from Kalewa to Yargyi, the project to build 69 bridges on the Tamu-Kyigone-Kalewa road, the Yamethin Police Training Centre and hospital projects, among others, were also discussed.

Earlier, Jaishankar also called on Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar Defence Services, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.

According to the statement, all matters relating to security and bilateral cooperation as well as the situation in Rakhine State were discussed.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : Less than a fortnight after its licence was cancelled for declaring a live newborn as dead, the Shalimar Bagh branch of Max Hospital on Wednesday resumed services after an appellate court put on hold the Delhi government's cancellation order, triggering a fresh war between the ruling AAP and Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal.

The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) insisted that the decision to suspend the licence cancellation order was taken by the Court of Finance Commissioner on the instructions of Baijal, an allegation the LG dismissed.

AAP Chief Spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged that Baijal had taken the decision in connivance with the BJP that rules in the Centre.

"It goes to show the extent to which the BJP is willing to stoop to in order to protect the hospital mafia, by acting through the central government-appointed Lieutenant Governor," he said.

"Whenever the elected government takes a strong decision against someone, the LG's office or his delegated authorities comes to their rescue and provides succour to them."

But the Lt. Governor distanced himself from the decision, calling AAP's allegations "a misinformation campaign launched by vested interests".

"The office of the Lt. Governor at no stage is/was involved in this matter," an official statement from Baijal's office said.

Baijal said the decision was taken by the "quasi judicial" body and its "function are performed by the Financial Commissioner, Delhi as per his/her judgment without any interference or supervision by any authority".

The AAP government said that the appellate court was under Baijal's control and that he was involved in taking the decision.

The Delhi government cancelled the 250-bedded hospital's licence on December 8 after its doctors erroneously declared a newborn dead on November 30. The baby died a week later in a city nursing home.

On Wednesday morning, Max Hospital said its operations resumed after the Court of Finance Commissioner on Tuesday put on hold the government's December 8 order.

Within hours, AAP leader Dilip Pandey said the High Court had given the Lt. Governor all administrative powers of Delhi and that he should be held accountable for the decision.

Pandey said the AAP wondered whether the appellate authority who stayed their government's decision "worked for the people or for crony capitalists".

Delhi BJP President Manoj Tiwari attacked Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's government for "preparing a legally weak case that could not stand for a single date".

Tiwari accused Kejriwal of striking a secret deal with the hospital authorities that let them get away with their error. "(Kejriwal) Needs to tell Delhi what deal did he strike with the Max Hospital administration."

Responding to the allegations, Bharadwaj said the BJP was siding with the powerful hospital mafia. He said if Tiwari believed that there was corruption involved in the appellate authority's decision, the AAP would back any decision to dismiss the officer.

"Is Tiwari ready for it?" he asked and added that only Lt. Governor has the power to appoint and dismiss the concerned officer.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : Expediting the process of appointing principals, the Delhi University on Wednesday wrote to colleges asking them to submit a formal request for the Vice Chancellor to send his nominee to be part of the selection committee "Kindly send formal request to the university for providing one nominee of the Vice Chancellor and a panel of six experts approved by the Academic Council for associating three subject experts with the selection committee," said the letter addressed to the governing body chairmen of several colleges.

It also asked the colleges to respond to the letter within three days to call a meeting of the selection committee for recommending names for the posts of principal.

A total of 26 colleges in the university are without principals at the moment and as many have advertised.

Dean of Colleges Devesh Sinha told IANS that it was difficult to say by when the hiring will be complete.

"It is difficult to say since the process will be done by the colleges now at their end... However, all colleges are likely to have principals by July, before the next session starts," Sinha said.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the Railway Ministry's initiative to set up the first-ever National Rail and Transport University in Vadodara in Gujarat to skill its human resources and build capability.

A statement after the Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said the University will be set up as a "Deemed to Be University" as per University Grants Commission regulations.

"The government is working towards completing all approvals by April 2018 and to launch the first academic programme in July 2018.

"This innovative idea, inspired by the Prime Minister, will be a catalyst for transformation of rail and transport sector towards New India," the statement said.

It added that a not-for-profit company will be set up to manage the proposed university.

"The company will provide financial and infrastructural support to the university, and appoint Chancellor and Pro-Chancellor of the university. Board of Management, comprising professionals and academics, shall be independent of the Managing Company with full autonomy to perform its academic and administrative responsibilities," it said.

The university, expected to have 3,000 full-time students, will be set up at the existing land at National Academy of Indian Railways (NAIR) in Vadodara and will utilise its infrastructure, suitably modified and modernised for the purpose of the university.

"This university will set Indian Railways on the path of modernisation and help India become a global leader in transport sector by enhancing productivity and promoting 'Make in India'.

"It will create a resource pool of skilled manpower and leverage state-of-the-art technology to provide better safety, speed and service in Indian Railways," the statement said.

With Indian Railways set to embark on ambitious projects like high-speed trains, massive infrastructure modernisation and Dedicated Freight Corridors, it would require high level of proficiency and skills.

Further, factors such as unprecedented growth in the transportation sector, increased requirement of qualified manpower and upgradation of skills and capability necessitated a world-class training hub, it added.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : Arab nations here have sought India's support ahead of a rare emergency UN General Assembly session on Thursday that will vote over Jerusalem being recognised by the US as the capital of Israel.

Diplomatic sources here told IANS that representatives of the Arab diplomatic community have met senior officials of the External Affairs Ministry seeking New Delhi's support in Thursday's crucial vote.

The latest development followed 18 Arab Ambassadors' meeting with Minister of State for External Affairs M.J. Akbar last week to seek India's support in this regard.

The emergency meeting of the UN General Assembly on Thursday will take up Trump's decision on Jerusalem after the US vetoed a Security Council resolution criticising it.

General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak is convening the special session at the request of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Arab Group at the UN, his spokesperson Brenden Varma told reporters at the UN headquarters on Tuesday.

On Monday, US Permanent Representative Nikki Haley vetoed the Security Council resolution introduced by Egypt seeking to express "deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem" and asking other countries to not follow Washington and move their embassies to the city considered holy by Jews, Christians and Muslims.

All the other 14 members of the Council voted for the resolution.

Unlike in the Council, there is no veto in the Assembly and a resolution criticising the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital and move its embassy there is expected to pass easily because even Washington's allies broke ranks with it and supported the Egyptian resolution.

Technically, Thursday's meeting is a continuation of the emergency special session that last met in 2009, Varma said. Its theme is "Illegal Israeli Actions in Occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory", and it first convened in 1997, he added.

Unlike the regular annual sessions of the Assembly which end after a year, an emergency special session can continue indefinitely and be reconvened periodically even after a gap of several years.

Following US President Donald Trump's statement recognising Jerusalem as Israel's capital, the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement: "India's position on Palestine is independent and consistent. It is shaped by our views and interests, and not determined by any third country."

Trump's announcement came ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's expected visit to India early next year.

(Aroonim Bhuyan can be contacted at aroonim.b@ians.in)
Pyongyang, Dec 20 : North Korea on Wednesday rejected reports by some US media that Pyongyang is pushing forward her "biological weapons development programme" amid its development of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) capacities.

The Director of Press of the Institute for American Studies of North Korea Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that such accusation is another example of the US habit to pander fiction as "truth", Xinhua news agency reported.

"It is the US that conducts military aggressions and cruise missile attacks on sovereign states in broad daylight while faking 'possession of WMD' and 'use of chemical weapons' of those countries," said the statement.

It recollected when US troops openly used biological weapons during the Korean War and inflicted needless suffering on innocent civilians.

"They are also the American politicians and the white supremacists making conceived attempts for state terrorism and racial extinction through overt research and development of the biological weapons in the worldwide-scattered US laboratories," it said.

The US daily Washington Post said this month that US intelligence officials sent a report as early as 2006 to US Congress, warning secret work was underway on a biological weapon in Pyongyang. The report was widely relayed by other US media outlets.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : As many as 35 defence aircraft, including 11 helicopters, crashed between 2014 and 2017, killing 14 pilots, the government informed the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

In a written reply, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre said every aircraft accident is thoroughly investigated by a Court of Inquiry to ascertain the cause and recommendations implemented.

"Various preventive measures are being taken, including invigoration of the Aviation Safety Organisation, streamlining of accident/incident reporting procedure, analytical studies, and quality audits of aircraft fleet, to identify vulnerable areas to avoid such accidents," Bhamre said.

"Accident prevention programmes have been given an added thrust to identify risk-prone and hazardous areas specific to the aircraft fleet and operational environment to ensure safe practices and procedures," he said.
Kolkata, Dec 20 : Three people have been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a minor pavement-dwelling girl in Kolkata, police said on Wednesday.

The girl was kidnapped from a north Kolkata footpath on Tuesday night and sexually assaulted by three men in a van rickshaw, the police said.

"The minor girl was recovered by the officers on patrol in north Kolkata's Chittaranjan Avenue on Tuesday night. She was sexually abused. Her clothes were half torn and she had bruise marks on her body," an officer from the Boubazar Police Station said.

"The girl has been admitted to a the Calcutta Medical College. She is stable now," he said.

The police have arrested the three offenders.

"The three persons involved in the case have been arrested and remanded to police custody for 14 days," the officer added.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : Observing that it was "high time public officials are held accountable" for turning a blind eye to encroachment of public land, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday ordered a CBI enquiry into how an 108-feet Hanuman idol came up on public land in Karol Bagh area of the national capital.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C. Hari Shankar directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to go after the civic officials under whose tenure the structure came up.

The bench directed the CBI to also investigate if there was any quid pro quo for not acting against the encroachers.

"It's high time all public official are held accountable. It is an abuse of official position," said the court while directing DDA, North MCD, Land and Development Office, Public Works Department and Mandir Marg Police Station to join the investigation and cooperate with CBI.

The court also froze the bank account of the trust running the temple. It said the trust should not be permitted to enjoy the benefit of money derived from the public land.

As per the police, the monthly income of the temple from offerings is Rs four lakh but the actual figures may be more than what they were able to ascertain, said the court.

Earlier, the High Court was informed that while one paw of the Hanuman idol fell on the pavement, the rest of the structure was primarily located on land belonging to DDA.

The High Court had called for full particulars of the persons who are responsible for erection of the idol as well as the unauthorised buildings and constructions, including particulars of the persons who have funded it and are in control of these encroachments.

The court was hearing a bunch of petitions relating to illegal constructions and encroachments in Karol Bagh area of Delhi.

The court was earlier informed that the idol was built in 2002 and the temple along with it was run by a trust.

A committee appointed by the High Court had revealed large scale trespass on public land, including for construction of the Hanuman idol and unauthorised construction of multiple small and big buildings.
Patna, Dec 20 : Hours after abducting two railway employees in Bihar, Maoists on Wednesday night released them, police said.

Munger Superintendent of Police (SP) Ashish Bharti and Lakhisarai SP Arvind Thakur confirmed the release of abducted railway employees.

"The two abducted railway employees -- Assistant Station Master Mukesh Kumar and porter Narendra Mandal -- were releasaed by Maoists near Dharhara forest," they said.

According to the police officials, Bhagalpur Range IG Sushil Khopde talked to the railway employees after their release by Maoists in Dharhara Police Station to know about the incident.

Armed Maoists on late Tuesday night attacked the Masudan railway station on Jamalpur-Kiul rail section, torched cabin panel and abducted the two railway employees to enforce a shutdown they have called.

According to an Eastern Railway official, the attack took place at about 11.25 p.m. After that train services on that stretch were halted.

Eastern Railway Spokesperson Ravi Mahapatra told IANS that after the attack, the Gaya-Jamalpur Passenger train, which arrived at the Masudan station at 11.39 p.m, had to be halted there as the signalling system had been damaged.

"Senior police officials then arrived at the station with engineers and the train was allowed to move at 5.45 a.m on Wednesday," he said.

"But soon after the services started, an Assistant Operations Manager at Malda received a threat call from the Maoists that if any movement took place, the abducted persons would be killed. It prompted the suspension of services on the section at 7.00 a.m," Mahapatra said.

A number of trains were halted on the Kiul-Jamalpur-Bhagalpur section of Malda Division including Farakka Express and Muzaffarpur Bhagalpur Jan Sewa Express at Kiul, Banka Express at Barahiya and Jaynagar-Howrah Passenger train at Dinkar Gram Simaria, the officer added.
Riyadh, Dec 20 : Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud affirmed on Wednesday his country's firm stand on the rights of Palestinians to have East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, Saudi Press Agency reported.

The King's statement came while receiving visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The two leaders reviewed regional issues, during which the Saudi king also stressed the rights of Palestinians to have their independent state.

Saudi Arabia had expressed disappointment at the decision of US President Donald Trump recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and relocating the US embassy there, and said that the step does not change the inalienable and preserved rights of the Palestinian people in Jerusalem, and other occupied territories.

It also warned that the move exemplify a drastic regression in the efforts to move the peace process forward, and is a shift away from the US' historically impartial position with regard to the Jerusalem issue, which will further complicate the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : The government plans to combine traditional and modern technology for "more sophisticated" analysis and "accurate" agriculture forecasts, a senior officials said on Wednesday.

The the technology of acreage, yield estimation with satellite imagery was possible through a small hand-held device, Statistics & Programme Implementation Secretary T.C.A. Anant said after inaugurating an ASSOCHAM conference on geospatial technologies in India, as per a release.

When acreage is recorded and crop cutting experiments are done, farmers will get not only the estimates but the geospatial coordinates as well, he said.

"It is a question of working with all the state officials and there is huge administrative machinery out in the districts to adopt it, that is one work which is going on," said Anant, as per the release.

Anant, who is also the Chief Statistician of India, said the government had entered into partnership with National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) to modernise the system of developing urban sample frames.

"The advantage of this is that it is updated much more frequently than any physical ground survey system could have done," he said.

As the technology gets more deeply embedded, it will help in further improving the quality of forecasts in agriculture, he added.

Anant said the government had plans to bring data available on different websites in a standerdised manner.
Jaipur, Dec 20 : In a horrific incident, a man burnt his two wives to death in a car after an argument broke out between the women while travelling together in Rajasthan's Jalore district, police said on Wednesday.

In order to hoodwink the police, accused Deepram concocted a sob story, but ultimately spilled the beans on his crime committed on Tuesday in Chilatwana village. He has since been arrested.

Police said Deeparam and his two wives Malu, 27, and Dariya, 22, were accompanying him to market along one of his sons to buy jewellery when a verbal duel ensued.

Already frustrated by their frequent fights, Deepram took the car to a deserted street, doused it in petrol and set it afire even while the two women were inside, burning them alive.

Deeparam told police that while they were on way to the market, the car developed a snag, following which he got down to check. He claimed that the car doors got autolocked even as the car caught fire. Area villagers helped him in dousing the flames, he told policemen.

Not convinced by his narration of the whole incident, police quizzed passers-by and others.

A rural woman told police that one of the women victims, before she was burnt alive, had come running to her while she was working in the fields. Even as they were talking, Deeparam arrived there and pulled away his wife and made her sit in the car, the village woman allegedly told police.

Deepram then drove away the car and later villagers saw the car ablaze a few kilometres ahead. Area villagers rushed to the spot and tried to douse the flames by throwing water but could not save the two women occupants. Deepram had, in the meantime, pulled out his son to safety.

When Chitalwana police grilled him, Deeparam finally broke down and admitted to his crime.

Deepram, a construction labourer, said he had married the second time as his first wife was mentally challenged.
New Delhi, Dec 20 : Banks will need to take a "haircut" of up to 60 per cent on their bad loans to resolve the issue of massive non-performing assets (NPAS) accumulated in the Indian banking system, which is holding up higher economic growth, rating agency Crisil said on Wednesday.

According to the American agency S&P-owned Crisil, tepid investment growth and the high level of NPAs are the two uncertain factors clouding the outlook on India achieving a Gross Domestic Product growth rate of over 7 per cent in the next fiscal.

"Banks will need to take a haircut of up to 60 per cent to resolve the issue of NPA," Crisil Chief Analytical Officer Pavan Aggarwal said at an editors meet organised here by the company.

"The top 50 NPA accounts constitute 50 per cent of all bad loans of banks in the country and account for Rs 4,25,000 crore of NPAs," he said.

"The critical element for the economy now is a speedy resolution of these cases which will bring down the level of gross NPAs," he added.

Pointing out that the credit growth of banks would improve on a resolution of the NPAs issue, the Crisil analyst said that their capacity to take haircuts had been bolstered by the massive recapitalisation recently announced by the government for state-run banks.

The government has embarked on a two-pronged strategy in this regard, he said.

On the one hand, the government has brought in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code which provides for a time-bound insolvency resolution process. The Reserve Bank of India has already identified 12 accounts adding up to 25 per cent of the NPAs for insolvency proceedings. Another 29 companies also identified by the Reserve Bank of India are set to head to the bankruptcy court.

On the other hand, the Union Cabinet, in October, approved a Rs 2.11 lakh crore recapitalisation plan for state-run banks. Of this, Rs 1.35 lakh crore will be raised through recapitalisation bonds and the remaining through budgetary support and market borrowings.

The accumulated NPAs in the Indian banking system have crossed a staggering Rs 8 lakh crore.
New York, Dec 21 : The United States Congress passed a mammoth tax reform bill on Wednesday giving embattled President Donald Trump his first major legislative victory enabling him to redeem at least one of his election campaign promises in a year of political turmoil.

In the highly polarised political atmosphere, the tax overhaul did not get a single vote from the Democratic Party, which has denounced it as a give away to corporations and the rich at the expense of the poor.

The bill will now go to Trump for his signature to become law.

The highlight of the tax reform is cutting the corporate tax to 21 per cent from 35 per cent, which Trump and the Republicans say would stimulate the economy through more investments.

The legislative victory is a breath of fresh air for Trump, who had so far not been able to fulfill his campaign promises, which include a wall to prevent illegal immigration through Mexico.

Trump is also under pressure from an investigation into Russia's alleged interference in last year's election that brought him to power.

He called the passage of the bill "a historic victory for the American people" and "an incredible Christmas gift for hardworking Americans."

However, Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democratic Party member of the House of Representatives, criticised it as "a bad deal for working families and our country" that "will squeeze middle class families."

After weeks of bargaining among Republican Party members of the Congress, the bill was passed on Wednesday night in the Senate and by a second vote for procedural reasons in the House Representative on Thursday with no input from the Democratic Party legislators.

It would also cut income taxes for most people, although the reductions would end in 2025, at which time it could be renewed.

The bill also simplifies some aspects of tax filing, although it does not fulfill the promise of simplifying it to the extent that the tax form would shrink to the size of a postcard.

The bill also gives Trump and the Republicans a partial victory on their promise to repeal the health insurance programmed introduced by former President Barack Obama. It ends a provision that penalises those who do not have insurance coverage, which is expected to lead to higher health insurance premiums when healthy people opt out.

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)
Berlin, Dec 21 : Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) and the Conservatives Union announced on Wednesday that they will hold exploratory talks for government formation from January 7 to 12, according to local media.

The decision was announced after lengthy deliberation among SPD chairman Martin Schulz, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) head Chancellor Angela Merkel and Horst Seehofer, head of CDU's Bavarian sister Christian Social Union, and other senior officials from the three parties, Xinhua cited Focus Online as saying.

"It was a good conversation in a trusting atmosphere and we agreed on the further procedure of sounding out," the three parties were quoted as saying.

Party leaders agreed to discuss 15 topics, including finance/taxes, business, energy, family and migration, integration and others.

The statement also noticed that a report of exploratory talks will be presented on January 12, which will be discussed by every party.

Germany is now in a vacancy of new government since the September 24 federal elections, the longest period ever since 1949.
ZogoTech announced the winners of its inaugural Innovations Award Competition, recognizing five community colleges for the inventive and effective use of data for improving student success. Honorees used ZogoTechs data analytics solution to increase student retention, create a more data-informed culture, and implement more efficient and effective advising, registration, and program review processes. Each institution will receive a cash donation to assist in ongoing efforts to support students on campus through scholarships, emergency funds, and food pantries.

What makes these particular projects truly innovative is the way in which theyve combined people, process/policy, and the data analytics technology we provide to address specific challenges on their campuses, noted ZogoTech co-founder and CEO Michael Taft. By sharing these colleges success stories, we hope to inspire other community colleges looking to turn data into actionable information.

The winners of the inaugural ZogoTech Innovations Award are:

First Place - City Colleges of Chicago (IL)

ZogoTech played a key role in City Colleges of Chicagos efforts to facilitate large-scale, aligned organizational change by providing its more than 5,000 administrators, faculty, and staff with direct access to data. The OpenBook tool and built-in Strategic Dashboard, built on ZogoTech Analytics, empower employees to monitor progress toward key goals and take action to improve institutional and student outcomes.

Second Place - Midland College (TX)

By providing direct access to timely student data via ZogoTech Analytics, Midland College has empowered its advisors to proactively - and more meaningfully - engage students, without having to rely on Institutional Research or Information Technology. As a result, current students are registering earlier and for classes they need, and fall to spring retention has increased, ultimately ensuring more students stay on their chosen path.

Third Place - Piedmont Technical College (SC)

Piedmont Technical College used ZogoTech Analytics to implement a new program review process that requires Deans, program managers, and even faculty to monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) and drill into the data to uncover underlying factors in program performance. This process led to changes in course sequencing and prerequisites, and even the discontinuation of one program. Program staff further use ZogoTechs Student Navigator tool to identify and intervene with students who are off path.

Honorable Mention - Black Hawk College (IL)

Black Hawk College is utilizing ZogoTech Analytics to evaluate the effectiveness of a mandatory advising intervention first implemented in Fall 2015. The wealth of data available in the ZogoTech system enables the college to compare outcomes for a mandatory advising cohort (i.e., degree-seekers with fewer than 10 credit hours) with both a control group and all enrolled students. Initial results indicate that fall-to-fall retention rates are higher for the mandatory advising cohort; research staff will begin comparing completion outcomes in Spring 2018.

Honorable Mention - Brazosport College (TX)

Leveraging data from ZogoTech Analytics, Brazosport College undertook a leakage analysis to uncover why students fail to re-enroll, develop targeted interventions designed to get those students back, and evaluate the effectiveness of those interventions. Rather than focus solely on student-centric factors such as poor academic performance, BC places specific emphasis on institutional policies/processes that may prevent students from re-enrolling, including dropping students for non-payment, registration holds for missing transcripts, etc.

About ZogoTech

Since 2003, ZogoTechs data warehouse and analytics tools have helped community colleges to effectively leverage student and institutional data for everyday and long-term decision-making. From predictive analytics and getting/keeping students on path, to longitudinal cohort tracking and enrollment analytics, ZogoTechs solutions enable users at every level to easily access the information they need, when they need it.
We are eager to serve our new members.

Dallas-based Neighborhood Credit Union has acquired Good Street Baptist Church Federal Credit Union, also located in Dallas. The merger was effective December 1, 2017 and was approved by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) and the Texas Credit Union Department.

Neighborhood Credit Union has 12 locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area with three branches in close proximity of the church. The Good Street Baptist Church FCU office will close permanently as of December 31, 2017.

We have successfully transferred all of the 600 membership accounts of the Good Street Baptist Church FCU to Neighborhood Credit Union, said Carolyn Jordan, senior vice president of Neighborhood Credit Union. We are eager to serve our new members.

Chet Kimmell, president and CEO of Neighborhood Credit Union said the partnership will allow Neighborhood CU to further its commitment to help people achieve their financial goals in the neighborhoods it serves.

Good Street Baptist Church Federal Credit Union was chartered on December 3, 1957 after C.R. Robinson felt the need to bring the benefits of a credit union to his congregation and those who were not employed to enjoy the benefits of a fair and equitable credit service. Members of Mount Sinai Baptist Church were later added to the field of membership.

In addition to expanded branch locations, former members of Good Street Baptist Church FCU will now have access to robust online services, including the award-winning MyNCU Mobile app. New products like Prize Savings, Kasasa Checking accounts, a comprehensive line of loan products, and credit and debit cards are all now available as a result of the merger.

We believe Neighborhood Credit Union and Good Street Baptist Church FCU are a good match, Good Street Baptist Church FCU Board Chairperson Theodore Faulkner said in a letter to members. We are located in similar parts of Dallas servicing similar members. Neighborhood Credit Union has a long history of serving members with unique lending situations.

About Neighborhood Credit Union: The oldest credit union in Dallas (chartered April 18, 1930), Neighborhood Credit Union is a not-for-profit financial organization serving Dallas, Denton and Ellis counties, as well as the City of Arlington. With branches in Dallas, Richardson, Arlington, Mesquite, Duncanville, Waxahachie, Lancaster, Grand Prairie, Coppell, and Highland Village, and assets topping $600 million, Neighborhood Credit Union has a membership of approximately 50,000 and continues to welcome new members daily. For more information, call (214) 748-9393 or visit http://www.myncu.com.
HRH Prince Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy Addresses Guests at the Ballo di Savoia (Savoy Ball) on December 9, 2017 I am grateful to all the members of the American Delegation of Savoy Orders and their guests this evening, for your effort in supporting the charitable causes of the Savoy Orders that will benefit from the funds raised tonight for the needs of Veterans who have served so well.

On Saturday evening December 9, 2017, the American Foundation of Savoy Orders held its annual charity event, the Ballo di Savoia (Savoy Ball). His Royal Highness Prince Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, Prince of Venice and his cousin His Royal Highness Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia were guests of honor. The Ball was part of a four day weekend of events organized by the American Delegation of Savoy Orders and the Savoy Foundation, continuing the spirit and tradition of charitable giving and hospitaller care of the historic dynastic orders of knighthood and merit of the thousand year Royal House of Savoy.

The festive evening included an elegant reception, a beautifully presented gourmet dinner, Viennese dessert stations, music, dancing, and raffle gifts. Hundreds of supporters attended the white-tie affair. The Ball is the Savoy Foundations largest fundraiser and helps provide the resources needed to continue its year-round mission of assisting disabled war veterans, emergency relief aid, educational initiatives, scholarship programs and other charitable initiatives. Prior to Saturdays evening Gala, a private reception for the Patrons and Benefactors was held on Thursday evening, December 7 at the Lotos Club followed by a welcome reception for guests attending the Savoy Ball on Friday evening, December 8 at the Knickerbocker Club.

The 20th anniversary Savoy Ball of New York was a much anticipated white-tie event. The gala soiree was hosted by the American Foundation of Savoy Orders, Incorporated and was under the patronage of Their Royal Highnesses Prince Victor Emmanuel and Princess Marina of Savoy. Prince Victor Emmanuel is the son and Prince Emmanuel Philibert is a grandson of the last King of Italy, Umberto II. Prince Victor Emmanuel is also the Grand Master of the Dynastic Orders of the Royal House of Savoy. Prince Dimitri is the son of Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia and his first wife, Princess Maria Pia of Savoy, the eldest daughter of King Umberto II of Italy.

The Savoy Foundation is supported by 200 knights and dames in the United States and Canada who are members of the American Delegation of Savoy Orders, which is part of the historic dynastic and chivalric Orders of the thousand year Royal House of Savoy, which united Italy as a kingdom between 1861 and 1871. The Savoy Foundation, whose mission is to serve the poor and the sick, raises funds for humanitarian projects. The ball benefited the VetDogs PTSD Service Dog Program for disabled American war veterans and the Savoy Foundations disaster relief fund.

Due in large part to funds raised at the Gala, the Savoy Foundation is able to continue to support humanitarian projects, including a children's causes, veterans programs, disaster relief for earthquake and flood victims and scholarships for college students. During his speech, Prince Emmanuel Philibert said: I am grateful to all the members of the American Delegation of Savoy Orders and their guests this evening, for your effort in supporting the charitable causes of the Orders that will benefit from the funds raised tonight for the needs of Veterans who have served so well. The fact that you are by your generosity so effectively supporting charitable works in your community and throughout the world, gives me great happiness, since these excellent endeavors are being carried out in the name and traditions of the Royal House of Savoy.

The Savoy Ball of New York continues a thousand-year tradition of goodwill and charitable giving through its Patrons, Benefactors and Sponsors. Patrons, Benefactors and guests included: Co-Chairs and Gold Sponsors: Mr. and Mrs. Vincent Pica II; Vice Chairs and Grand Patrons: Mr. and Mrs. Frank J. Desiderio, Esq., Mr. and Mrs. Daniel McClory and Mr. and Mrs. Mark Pigott; Patrons: Ms. Vivian Cardia, Mr. Richard Cuneo, Carl J. Morelli, Esq., Mr. Jean Tamenne and Mr. and Mrs. George C. White. Benefactors: Louis Benza, Esq., Dr. Raymond Benza, Dr. and Mrs. William J. Caccese, Baroness Flavia Frati-Spagnola, Dr. and Mrs. John M. Iacono, Mr. Jeffrey Ryan, Marcello Tallarigo di Zagarise e Sersale. Other guests included Reverend Monsignor Robert T. Ritchie, Rector of the Cathedral of Saint Patrick, Her Excellency Vicki Downey, Mrs. Christina Rose and Baroness Gabrielle von Langendorff. Sponsors included Mr. and Mrs. Frank J. Desiderio, Esq., Dr. Timothy DeZastro, Fra' John T. Dunlap, Mr. and Mrs. Marco Grassi and Mr. Joseph Sciame.

International guests included Prince Stephane Belosselsky-Belozersky of Paris, France, Mr. Jean Tamenne and his wife Yurie Hatanaka of Monaco and the Japanese Delegation of the Savoy Orders, headed by Vice Delegate Dr. Hideto Tomabechi.

Next years ball is scheduled for Saturday, December 8, 2018, at the Metropolitan Club. In New York City.

About The American Foundation of Savoy Orders, Incorporated

The American Foundation of Savoy Orders, Incorporated, a U.S. charitable 501(c) (3) organization, is a NGO in Roster Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. It has three endowments: charitable causes, educational programs and an operating fund. Its Savoy Orders Pigott Scholarship was established to provide financial aid to students in the humanities and international studies. Annual grants are also made to educational programs, hospice care facilities, orphanages and programs supporting disabled veterans. (http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/02/prweb14075469.htm)

In order to raise funds for the support of its activities, the Savoy Foundation sponsors a winter event, Savoy Ball of New York (Ballo di Savoia) (http://www.prweb.com/releases/2016/12/prweb13924916.htm) and a spring event, Festa della Primavera. It also confers an annual Chivalry Award, which honors individuals whose humanitarian work, public service and exemplary conduct have contributed significantly to the betterment of the community and world. Its goal is to bring public recognition to individuals whose principles, values, civil conduct and humanitarian accomplishments provide inspiration to current and future generations. http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/05/prweb14364352.htm

Members of the Italian Royal Family, headed by His Royal Highness Prince Victor Emmanuel of Savoy, actively support, attend and lend their names through formal patronage of these Savoy Foundation events.

About The American Delegation of Savoy Orders

The American Delegation of Savoy Orders, which includes the United States of America and Canada, is a part of the Dynastic Orders of the Royal House of Savoy, among the oldest orders of chivalry in the world. The Savoy Orders are headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland and have 35 Delegations worldwide that support the ongoing charitable works of these ancient Dynastic Orders of Knighthood and Merit. Their origins and their principles, traditions and humanitarian goals date back a thousand years. HRH Prince Victor Emmanuel, Prince of Naples and Duke of Savoy, is Head of the House of Savoy and Grand Master of the Savoy Orders, He is the great, great grandson of King Victor Emmanuel II, Italys first reigning sovereign, who united the nation of Italy under his rule between 1861 and 1870. The Princes father, King Umberto II, was Italys last reigning sovereign. He died in 1983.

For more information, please visit http://www.savoia.org.

Contact:

American Foundation of Savoy Orders, Incorporated

230 Park Avenue Suite 1000

New York, NY 10169

212-972-0495

Email: amsavoy(at)aol(dot)com

website: http://www.savoia.org
Residents living near the Potomac River have a very precise vision of what a basement remodel or room addition should look like.

Elite Contractor Services, a professional home remodeling business servicing Northern Virginia communities is proud to announce a new city-specific page for Mount Vernon, Virginia. Homeowners living in historic Mount Vernon may have a penchant for specialized home remodeling projects, that is for upgrading older homes to more modern standards via remodeling.

Mount Vernon, Virginia, is an incredible historical community, explained Ana Blanco, marketing manager for Elite Contractor Services. "Residents living near the Potomac River have a very precise vision of what a basement remodel or room addition should look like. Thats why weve created a city-specific page just for them and help them understand how to synergize the needs of modernity with the historical attitudes of their city.

To review Elite Contractor Services new city-specific information page for Mount Vernon, VA, please go to http://elitecontractorservices.com/services-areas/mount-vernon-va/. The new page can help Mt. Vernon residents find details about home remodeling projects unique to the area including bathroom remodeling, attic upgrades, room additions or garage remodels. For information on specific issues such as kitchen remodeling, please visit the project-specific page such as http://elitecontractorservices.com/kitchen-remodeling/.

HISTORICAL COMMUNITY FINDS A STRONG FOUNDATION IN A MT. VERNON HOME REMODELING CONTRACTOR

Here is background on this release. Residents along the Potomac River in Virginia could be used to living in the shadow of the first President of the United States. Residing near Mount Vernon may also give locals a feeling of great pride. Pristine views and beautiful landscaping combined with expert craftsmanship can leave an impression on visitors. Living near a perfectly kept historical property could inspire greatness in neighbors. Mt. Vernon residents might expect a home remodeling project to include a trustworthy and highly skilled craftsman. If a property owner has chosen to upgrade an attic or add a guest room, searching for an exemplary home remodeling contractor in Mt. Vernon, VA can be the first step.

For this reason, Elite Contractor Services has announced a new informational page specific to the Mount Vernon, VA area. The new page overviews how to synergize the needs of modernity with a respect for history. High expectations could be normal for residents living near the family home of George Washington. If a local has decided to upgrade a property, the key to success can begin with a strong foundation. Finding a trustworthy home remodeling contractor to share the same vision may be important. A kitchen remodel or room addition can require the talents of true American craftsmanship. A well-built addition can reflect the characteristics of a steadfast and enduring community. Locals could find an expert contractor shares the same ideals for the best home remodeling results in Mt. Vernon, VA.

ABOUT ELITE CONTRACTOR SERVICES

Elite Contractor Services (http://elitecontractorservices.com/) is a family owned home remodeling company serving cities as diverse as Washington DC, Mount Vernon Virginia, and Bethesda Maryland as well as Falls Church home contractor services. Persons looking for a top remodeling contractor for a home remodel or kitchen remodel, can reach out for a no obligation consultation. The company consists of expert contractors for kitchen remodels, home remodels or additions, and even specific jobs such as basement remodels or attic additions. The company aims to be one of the best, top-rated remodeling companies and remodeling contractors in communities as diverse as Arlington or Fairfax, Mt. Vernon or Washington DC or up to Vienna, Fairfax County or even Rockville, MD.

Media Relations

Tel. 703-813-1678
Bureau of Automotive Repair Attorneys Technology keeps making advances to help people get easy and accurate answers for important searches, including in the automotive repair and SMOG check industry.

Automotive Defense Specialists, a law firm focused on defending against California's Bureau of Automotive Repair, is proud to announce a new blog post on the topic of Bureau of Automotive Repair citations that has garnered the prestigious 'featured snippet' slot on Google. With the rise of voice search, this accomplishment is indicative of the law firm's success at blogging answers to the lay public.

Technology keeps making advances to help people get easy and accurate answers for important searches, including in the automotive repair and SMOG check industry, explained attorney William Ferreira of Automotive Defense Specialists. This is certainly true for those seeking help after receiving a Bureau of Automotive Repair citation. Weve noticed a bump in attention after Googles voice search feature launched and our blog post on Bureau of Automotive Repair citations garnered the top slot as a so-called 'featured snippet.'

To review the new blog post as optimized for Google voice searches please go to

http://automotivedefense.com/about/services/repair-citation-smog-check/. Interested parties may try the new voice search feature at the following link https://goo.gl/sF1nBp. Details to finding advice and support for STAR accusations, SMOG citations and BAR letters can also be found on the website. However, any station owner, SMOG technician, or other type of auto repair shop that may be facing a Bureau of Automotive Repair letter, citation, invalidation or other form of action is strongly encouraged to reach out for an attorney consultation as no two situations are the same.

SMOG Auto Community Speaks Out about Fighting Bureau of Automotive Repair Citations

Here is background to the release. The evolution of voice activated technology can provide support for less tech-savvy persons. Mediocre typing skills may have created a struggle for persons trying to manage basic searches on the screens of iPads, smart phones and computers. New voice technology has closed the gap for unskilled typists, however. Instead of wasting time hunting and pecking letters on a keyboard, important searches can happen quickly. If the goal is to find the best pizza place in town, a voice-activated search can provide results in seconds. Other online searches may involve more dire situations. If an auto shop has received a Bureau of Automotive Repair Citation letter, accurate answers could be more vital. An auto tech may find requesting a top defense lawyer to fight a BAR accusation can be as easy as a quick voice search for "Bureau of Automotive Repair Citations."

For this reason, Automotive Defense Specialists recently created voice-friendly blog posts, and one of their posts on the topic of citations has already garnered 'featured snippet' status. Instead of struggling to type on a keyboard, an auto shop owner can speak out and ask for results regarding a Bureau of Automotive Repair Citation letter. A voice activated search can generate answer boxes providing an immediate list of skilled attorneys ready to defend an auto tech from a SMOG citation. New voice technology has helped the SMOG and STAR certified communities speak up about important searches. In summary, mediocre typing skills might no longer be an obstacle to finding the best attorney for a Bureau of Automotive Repair citation case.

ABOUT AUTOMOTIVE REPAIR SPECIALISTS

Automotive Repair Specialists is a top law firm representing auto repair facilities, SMOG check stations, and technicians in every facet of their legal needs. Lawyers can help manage a day in court involving BAR letters, citations and accusations as well as how to fight the Bureau of Automotive Repair. The company offers free phone consultations to auto shops, mechanics, technicians and others who are facing disciplinary actions from the California Bureau of Automotive Repair. ARS attorneys are highly skilled in how to check STAR program scores.

Web. http://automotivedefense.com/

Tel. (415) 392-2886
Xyngular, a weight loss and nutritional supplement company, has been selected as one of the best places to work in Utah as announced by Utah Business magazine. Final winners were awarded top honors at a luncheon held December 7, 2017 at The Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City.

Words really cannot express how thrilled we are to be nominated for this award, said Russ Fletcher, CEO of Xyngular. It reflects that what we are trying to accomplish as a company is being acknowledged, not just within our company and among our customers, but even outside our industry. We strive to develop a culture of growth and development among our employees and this nomination demonstrates our progress towards that goal.

Fletcher also acknowledged that only two other direct selling companies are listed, which says a lot about our company when you consider that Utah is a haven for network marketing with some of the industrys largest and most respected companies having their headquarters in Salt Lake and Utah Counties.

According to the Utah Business website, nominees went through a rigorous examination of workplace elements such as benefits and pay, fairness and opportunities, corporate culture, internal communication and employee pride. Companies nominated for the award must have at least 25 employees and are placed into one of five categories: Micro, Small, Medium, Large and Massive. 10 nominees are chosen for each of these categories making 50 nominees in all.

About Xyngular

Xyngular is about becoming more. Founded in 2009, Xyngular features health-changing, wellness-driven products designed to help people look better, feel better, and live better. Xyngulars product development system ensures Xyngular formulas feature the purest, most potent ingredients and are manufactured to the highest level of quality. Xyngulars simple weight loss and business systems empower people to become the best version of themselves. The company is founded on family values with a supportive community of purpose driven individuals dedicated to helping people become more. Xyngular currently sells its products through a network of sales leaders in the United States, Canada, the Philippines and Caribbean. To learn more about Xyngular visit http://www.xyngular.com.
Hossam Elbadawy Joins Deep Imaging's BOD I am excited about the technology advancements in subsurface imaging that Deep Imaging has introduced to the upstream oil and gas sector and their positive impact on well productivity optimization, said Elbadawy. "It's great to be part of the Deep Imaging team.

Deep Imaging, the technological leader in electromagnetic (EM) fluid monitoring solutions for the E&P industry, is pleased to announce the addition of Hossam Elbadawy, CEO of O&G Technologies and former CEO of Tercel Oilfield Products, to its board of directors.

Hossam has a unique understanding of bringing advanced technology to oil and gas companies to improve efficiency and operations. I believe Hossam is going to make an important and positive impact at Deep Imaging and am very excited to have him join our board, said Trevor Pugh, CEO of Deep Imaging.

Elbadawy is the founder and CEO of O&G Technologies, a Houston-based technology incubator focused on the energy sector. With decades of experience in the energy sector, he most recently served as a Senior Operating Partner at Lime Rock Partners and also as CEO of Tercel Oilfield Products.

Prior to these roles, Hossam spent nearly 17 years at Schlumberger where he served as Vice President of Manufacturing, and managed the companys leading-edge Rosharon Technology Center and Houston Product Center.

I am excited about the technology advancements in subsurface imaging that Deep Imaging has introduced to the upstream oil and gas sector, and their products' meaningful impact on well productivity optimization, said Elbadawy. "It's great to be part of the Deep Imaging team."

Elbadawy holds an MBA from Northwestern Universitys Kellogg School of Management, and a Masters in Engineering Management from Northwestern Universitys McCormick School of Engineering.

About Deep Imaging

Deep Imaging is an oilfield services company that directly measures subsurface fluid movement with minimal interpretation. The companys unique imaging technology and services provide superior, in-depth information, enabling operators to gain a better understanding of fluid placement for improved drilling and reservoir optimization. Deep Imaging was founded in 2008 and is the leading provider of onshore electromagnetic (EM) imaging. They hold patents on their proprietary technology.

To learn more visit http://www.deepimaging.com

Media Contact:

Name: Melissa Turowsky

Email: MelissaTurowsky(at)DeepImaging.com

Phone Number: (281) 290-0492, Ext: 3502
Westchester Toyota held its 24th Give Back Donation Event Thursday, December 14th. The dealership, located at 2167 Central Park Avenue in Yonkers, was filled with the Westchester Toyota staff, members of the nonprofits and folks of the community to award the three organizations. Salesian Missions, CHOICE of NY and Cross-Cultural Solutions were the commendable charities that were given their prizes and honored by all.

Each charity was awarded its donation based on the number of votes it received on Westchester Toyotas Facebook page. Salesian Missions received the most votes and was the grand prize winner of $1,500. Salesian Missions enables poor and suffering children to live better lives by operating thousands of schools and training centers and hundreds of hospitals and orphanages. Salesian Missions is made up of more than 28,000 Priests, Brothers, Sisters and novices serving in the spirit of Don Bosco. The next winner of $750 was CHOICE of NY. CHOICE of NY provides no cost assistance to those in need of benefits, housing, case management and health services. CHOICE of NY became the first agency in Westchester County to be given full time access and office space inside Westchester County jail. The organizations goal is to work with prisoners struggling with mental illness before they are released. The last charity and winner of $500 was Cross-Cultural Solutions. Cross-Cultural Solutions has a goal of sustaining international volunteering. The members build relationships to increase tolerance and global awareness by working with refugee children, supporting vulnerable women, distributing food and nourishment and much more.

The charities involved in our 24th Give Back are really special and unique, said Rich Prager, General Manager of Westchester Toyota. He continued, The members of these nonprofits are selfless, and we are excited to have the opportunity to honor and thank them.

Westchester Toyota is a full-service Toyota dealership located at 2167 Central Park Avenue in Yonkers, New York. Westchester Toyotas goal is to always give the best customer service and fulfill every customers need, whether it be in the sales or service department.

For more information, hours and directions, please visit http://www.WestchesterToyota.com.

###
The Correspondent Lending Division of Envoy Mortgage announces the expansion of its non-delegated loan program with enhanced underwriting services, private mortgage insurance resources and complete fulfillment options. Providing technology and solutions to manage risk and increase profitability, the companys Non-Delegated program creates additional value and opportunity. This allows lender partners to close and fund their own loans without assuming the additional underwriting risk, regulatory burden or staffing costs. Envoy Correspondents scenario desk provides direct communication with our in-house industry specialists.

With over thirty years of lending experience from the correspondent management team, combined with a suite of government, conventional and jumbo programs, lender partners can be confident that Envoy Correspondent is not only relevant in todays market but also knows how to navigate the constantly changing mortgage landscape.

"A great amount of opportunity exists within the mortgage lending market, which is why weve expanded our services to provide our lenders with the necessary tools to succeed," said Dan Hastings, Executive Vice President, Correspondent Lending Division. He added, Our goal is to take the worry out of the lending process so that our lenders can focus on whats important, their borrowers."

For additional information about the Expanded Non-Delegated Loan Program and services offered by Envoy Correspondent Lending Division, please visit: http://www.envoycld.com

About Envoy Mortgage:

Founded in 1997, Envoy Mortgage is an independently owned, full-service mortgage lender headquartered in Houston, TX. As a Fannie, Freddie and Ginnie approved seller/servicer, Envoy branches offer a full menu of loan products with locations across the U.S. In addition to the retail channel, Envoy operates its nationwide Correspondent Lending Division from Monroe, Louisiana and is licensed in 49 states. Envoy provides outstanding customer service by offering a full menu of loan products with the tools, expertise and technology needed to support all functions of the mortgage process. For more information, visit http://www.EnvoyMortgage.com. Envoy Mortgage, Ltd. NMLS #6666
MemberClicks, the leading provider of membership management software for small to mid-sized associations and chambers, is pleased to announce a new partnership with MobileUp Software, a mobile app development company.

MobileUp Software builds affordable, customized apps for Android and iPhone that are specifically designed to engage and manage members of professional and trade associations. With the companys apps, customers can upload original, branded content, establish geofences, deliver push notifications, pull data for reporting, and more. The apps are most commonly used for conferences and meetings.

Were constantly looking for ways to provide value to the association community; to make association professionals lives easier, said Mark Sedgley, President and CEO of MemberClicks. This partnership with MobileUp Software just makes sense because it helps association professionals further engage their members - a mutual goal of both companies.

We are excited to extend the functionality of our native mobile solutions through our partnership with MemberClicks to their customers, said Tom DeBacco, CEO of MobileUp Software. Conferences and meetings present their own unique challenges in engaging and informing attendees. Our solutions meet these needs through the convenience of a smartphone while providing meeting organizers with participation data and attendee feedback that was previously difficult or in some cases impossible to collect.

For more information, please visit http://www.memberclicks.com/memberclicks-event-app.

ABOUT MEMBERCLICKS

MemberClicks provides an all-in-one membership management solution and a refreshing support experience that small to mid-sized associations and chambers actually love. Founded in 1998, MemberClicks works with 3,000 organizations throughout North America and Canada. For more information, visit memberclicks.com or call 1-800-914-2441.

ABOUT MOBILEUP SOFTWARE

MobileUp Software builds affordable, customized apps for Android and iPhone that are specifically designed to engage and manage members of professional and trade associations. The company delivers a full set of administration tools to help customers build content, establish geofences, and deliver notifications to their app. Reporting and analytics provide data on app usage to help teams make better decisions. The company website is https://www.mobileupsoftware.com.
Rethink Wire Transfers Millennials are leading the way when it comes to technology and globalization

According to a recent online survey conducted by Ipsos on behalf of Veem, the leading multi-rail global payments platform for businesses, the future generation of business leaders is global in nature and intent on running their businesses beyond the US borders. With 48 percent of small business owners ages 18 to 34 currently selling their products outside of the US compared to just 7 percent of business leaders age 55 and up, the future is global.

Millennials are leading the way when it comes to technology and globalization, said Marwan Forzley, founder and CEO at Veem. Business leaders of all ages are open to using new technology, like blockchain, with an overwhelming majority of Millennials being open to trying new technology even when it comes global payments, one of their most critical business functions.

Results from the survey, which was conducted among 500 small business leaders who are the owners of companies with up to 30 employees illustrate that although business leaders are generally confident about doing business and taking advantage of global opportunities, there are some major differences that emerge across demographics.

Millennials vs. Baby Boomers:



Only 25 percent of Millennial business leaders (adults age 18-34) do business solely with US partners compared to 63 percent of baby boomers who say the same. However, the proportion of those who say they don't do business internationally but are planning on going global soon is consistent across these age groups (8 percent of adults age 18-34 and 10 percent of adults age 55+).

80 percent of Millennial small business owners are confident in their business ability to take advantage of global opportunities despite the trade policies and potential tariffs proposed by the Trump administration, compared to just 32 percent of those 55 and up.

However, confidence drops when thinking about their company's ability to take advantage of trade opportunities with NAFTA under renegotiation with 66 percent of Millennial small business owners and 17 percent of older business leaders (ages 55+) remaining confident.

Future businesses leaders are just starting out and are bringing a global perspective to their business. They are the first generation to have internet access from childhood and social media has been a way to connect as long as they can remember. Technology has had a profound impact on how this age group does business compared to generation in the past. The way the future generation does business is different than older business owners. They have always been and will always be global thanks to the removal of barriers by technology. continued Forzley.

"Were a company of five and weve been able to grow our business in a way that wouldnt be possible if we were limited to just doing business in the US," said Ronald Renshaw, President at Jupiter Lighting Group, LLC. Many of our customers are in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong and its been such a positive experience for us to work internationally. Were proud to be an American business that works across borders."

Men vs. Women:

Women are especially likely to lack confidence in the future of their business under the current administration. Only 35 percent think they can take advantage of global opportunities given the current administration trade policies/current events/potential tariffs compared to 64 percent of men.

There is less of a divide when it comes to working with only US based partners, with 40 percent of men and 54 percent of women stating their company only works with domestic partners. 14 percent of women and 8 percent of men plan to work with businesses outside the US soon.

The survey comes at a time when many important issues are up in the air. Will the new tax laws be good or bad for small and medium businesses? Will the US remain a part of NAFTA? Only time will tell but its positive to know that the future generation of business leaders are confident in what they are doing.

To learn more, please visit http://www.veem.com

About Veem

Veem is a next generation platform for business-to-business payments. Veem enables businesses to send and receive payments in local currency with a few simple steps using our unique multi-rail technology across several global networks. Founded by a world class team of industry veterans with over 100 years of combined experience in payments, payment processing and banking IT infrastructure management, we aim to change the financial payment system through innovation. Our mission is to change the legacy financial payment system through innovation and improve the costly and outdated payments industry by building a new user focused financial ecosystem that services businesses globally.

About the Survey

These are the findings from an Ipsos poll conducted September 28  October 10, 2017, on behalf of Veem. For the survey, a sample of 508 adults over the age of 18 from the continental U.S., Alaska and Hawaii was interviewed online, in English. In order to qualify for the survey, respondents had to be employed full-time or self-employed for a company that employs 5 to 30 employees, and identify as being the owners of the business. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll has a credibility interval of  5.0 percentage points for all respondents surveyed.
A La Carte, has released their first album after being together on-and-off for over forty years. A La Carte was like ZZ Top meets The Rocky Horror Picture Show; they were the nastiest blues-rock bunch of guys...it was theater at the same time, said George Lynch (Dokken/Lynch Mob)

The extremely popular Southern California Band from the late 70s to the early 80s, A La Carte, has released their first album after being together on-and-off for over forty years. The notorious power trio of KK Martin  Guitar/Vocals, Craig Miller  Bass/Vocals and Brian OBrian  Drums, still has a large following of fans. With their unique sound, they distinguished themselves from the rest of the rock bands coming out of that era of music.

According to Dokken/Lynch Mob guitar wizard George Lynch, A La Carte was like ZZ Top meets The Rocky Horror Picture Show; they were the nastiest blues-rock bunch of guys...it was theater at the same time". Founded in 1976, A La Carte had outrageous stage attire, high-energy showmanship, dual lead vocals and superb musicianship. They created a following that remains fiercely loyal to this day and this CD release is their first and only album, as they ceased performing in 1984.

So why release an album after all this time? Journalist/filmmaker Bob Nalbandian (Inside Metal: Pioneers of L.A. Hard Rock and Metal) had an advanced listening and said, "It was damn well worth the wait! Awesome production, fantastic performances and great song selection from their original live repertoire. This is classic A La Carte! Nearly a half a century later, the three original members of A La Carte havent missed a beat...These guys totally nailed it!"

This new release reflects very new recordings of songs that were written between 1976 and 1979. The record is a no frills representation of the way A La Carte sounded during that wonderful era, designed to please old friends, and hopefully make a few new ones.

The album is titled, A La Carte Est. 1976, and opens with one of the band's best-known songs "Old #7", a ferocious boogie that sings the praises of Tennessee whiskey. Next, "No Tell Motel" tells the tale of a chance encounter with a sultry damsel that leads to an ill-advised rendezvous at a disreputable establishment. "Ride of Your Life" and "Hard Line" lock in the band's relentless groove, followed by "Pink on the Inside", described by the band (untruthfully) as an ode to a tomato omelet. "Leave the Back Door Open" leads off with one of Rock Music's most unforgiving guitar riffs, detailing the risks from heavy fisted husbands and unchained bulldogs in the pursuit of illicit midnight affairs. "Where Angels Dwell", with its psychedelic syncopated thrust, assures the listener that a woman's love can be transformative. "Since Youve Been Gone" shows the angry, heartbroken side of guitarist KK Martin's considerable arsenal, while "Help Yourself" is the missing piece, a life affirming-anthem of self-determination.

The album closes with the unexpected instrumental "Ace", all thunder and bombast, a celebratory slice of Pop-Motown Acid-Funk Mayhem.

The album was produced by Ron Sandoval who likes to keep his resume a secret, but claims to be unwilling to work on any project that he is "not totally in love with". Members of the band say he has the best ears of any producer they have ever worked with.

Gene Hoglan, International Drum Superstar (Testament, Dethklok, Galaktikon, Meldrum, Strapping Young Lad, Death, Dark Angel) said, "A La Carte helped mold my teenage rock sensibilities, as they were the most entertaining, explosive three-piece in LA. Their powerhouse boogie and blues were an absolute influence on the entire LA scene, and lemme tell ya, I've made no bones about their obscenely-talented drummer Brian O'Brian's complete influence on my entire life. From ZZ Top's swagger, to the Isley Brothers' strut, like Rolling a Stone down a Mountain, A La Carte has all bases of boogie covered, and their rock is timeless and ageless. Bow and thank the rock gods for A La Carte. I know I do."

The album can be purchased at http://www.alacarte.rocks.

Stay connected with A La Carte at their website https://alacarte.rocks and on Facebook at ALaCarte1976.

For media inquiries and interviews contact: Kelly Bennett, Bennett Unlimited PR, Kelly(at)BPUnlimited.com (949) 463-6383 http://www.BennettUnlimitedPR.com
Aegle Therapeutics Corp. announces the election of Dr. Robert Ryan to its Board of Directors, effective immediately.

"We are pleased to welcome Dr. Robert Ryan to Aegles Board," said Shelley A. Hartman, Chief Executive Officer of Aegle Therapeutics. "Robert's deep experience in various skin diseases and pathological conditions including epidermolysis bullosa, along with his extensive global regulatory experience will be invaluable to Aegle."

Dr. Ryan has more than 27 years of research, development and regulatory experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. He currently serves as President and CEO of Innova Therapeutics. Prior to Innova, Dr. Ryan served as President and CEO of Scioderm, a company he founded focused on developing a therapy for the rare disease epidermolysis bullosa. Scioderm was sold to Amicus Therapeutics for upfront payments and milestones totaling approximately $957 million.

Dr. Ryan also served in senior development and regulatory positions at Roche, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), UCB, Atherogenics, Pfizer and Quintiles. Dr. Ryan graduated with a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and has advanced degrees in Genetics and Pharmacokinetics.

About Aegle Therapeutics Corp.

Aegle Therapeutics is a regenerative medicine company developing novel therapeutics based on our proprietary extracellular vesicle isolation technology. The company is isolating extracellular vesicles secreted by bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells to harness the regenerative healing power of stem cells without using the cells as therapy. Its extracellular vesicle therapy is being developed to treat burns, scarring, epidermolysis bullosa and chronic wounds as well as other indications such as stroke.

Aegles proprietary isolation process is easy to scale, low cost and produces extracellular vesicles with an extended shelf life. For more information, visit http://www.aegletherapeutics.com.

CONTACT:

Bob Williamson

Chief Financial Officer

info(at)aegletherapeutics(dot)com

http://www.aegletherapeutics.com
We are very happy to receive this funding from the Nassau Bar Foundation WE CARE Fund, which will allow us to continue to dispel the myths around race and racism.

ERASE Racism has received a generous grant of $5,000 to support Long Island's Leaders of Tomorrow, a leadership development project that brings diverse students together to explore race and equity in their communities and schools.

The Nassau Bar Foundation WE CARE Fund is a Long Island based charitable initiative that provides grants to improve the quality of life for children, the elderly, and the under-served throughout Nassau County. The new grant will help support ERASE Racisms program to uplift the voices of students and equip them with resources that cultivate their leadership skills in advocacy and cross-cultural relations.

Despite Long Islands increasing diversity, in the past 12 years, the number of Intensely Segregated school districts (i.e. 90-100% non-white) has doubled. Lack of integration leads to myths, stereotypes, fear, and distrust, but the Long Islands Leaders of Tomorrow project challenges this lack of understanding at its core. The Nassau Bar Foundation WE CARE Funds grant will allow ERASE Racism to create a more socially cohesive Long Island, where diversity and integration are celebrated.

ERASE Racisms President Elaine Gross said, "We are very happy to receive this funding from the Nassau Bar Foundation WE CARE Fund, which will allow us to continue to dispel the myths around race and racism."

About ERASE Racism: ERASE Racism is a regional organization that leads public policy advocacy campaigns and related programmatic initiatives to promote racial equity in areas such as housing and public school education. It engages in a variety of research, education, community organizing, and policy advocacy to identify and address institutional and structural racism, primarily on Long Island. ERASE Racism's goal is transformed, integrated communities in which no-one is limited by race or ethnicity.

About the Nassau Bar Foundation: The WE CARE Fund is the nationally-recognized charitable arm of the Nassau County Bar Association. Founded in 1988 by NCBA Past President Stephen Gassman, WE CARE funds are raised by the legal profession and the community at large. The money is distributed through charitable grants to improve the quality of life for children, the elderly and others in need throughout Nassau County. Nurtured by the tireless efforts of lawyers and judges, the WE CARE program has matured into a nationally recognized model for similar programs instituted by other bar groups. With the financial support and personal effort of so many, WE CARE has been able to serve the community in myriad ways.
Gordon Korman

CareOne, a premier family-owned healthcare company with more than 30 centers in New Jersey, is excited to welcome local community members and their loved ones to attend a book signing with Gordon Korman, acclaimed author of Pop, at Harmony Village at Paramus on January 17, 2018. Inspired by Kormans personal experience, the novel Pop chronicles the effect of Alzheimers on adult caretakers as well as the impact on children within the family. An ideal event for families with children and a loved one who suffers with some form of dementia, this book signing will help to open the lines of communication between generations regarding behaviors memory impaired loved one are demonstrating or may display in the future and why their personalities are changing.

WHAT: Community members with loved ones suffering from Alzheimers or other forms of dementia, are invited to a book signing of Pop with Gordon Korman. Pop follows 16-year-old Marcus as he moves to a new town and befriends an older gentleman, Charlies. Throughout the story, Korman explores how Alzheimers affects families, specifically children and teenagers. To support families through greater understanding of Alzheimers, Gordon Korman will host a question and answer session with the audience before the book signing. The first 25 children in attendance will receive a free copy of the book.

WHEN: January 17, 2018, 6:30pm- 8:30pm

WHERE: Harmony Village at Paramus. 189 Paramus Road, Paramus, NJ 07652

RSVP: Please RSVP to John Albanese at 551-275-7213 or JAlbanese(at)care-one.com by January 10.

To secure a spot at this event, please RSVP to John Albanese at 551-275-7213 or email JAlbanese(at)care-one.com. To learn more about the CareOne, please visit http://www.Care-One.com.

About CareOne

With services that include post-hospital care, rehabilitation, assisted living, long-term care and a variety of clinical specialty programs, CareOne offers compassionate care in gracious, professionally managed centers and communities. CareOne serves thousands of patients every day and admits and discharges more than 20,000 patients every year. With more than 65 centers in New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Virginia, CareOnes outstanding programs and services are conveniently located throughout the state. Interested parties can engage with CareOne on social media by following @CareOneMgt on Twitter, @careonemgt on Instagram, and CareOne Management, LLC on Facebook and LinkedIn. For more information about CareOne, please visit http://www.care-one.com.
Access to Learning Allys quality audiobook library built for a school learning environment can make a significant difference in a childs academic potential.

This holiday season, Learning Ally, an ed-tech nonprofit with 70 years experience helping individuals and schools bridge the reading achievement gap, is encouraging Americans to give the gift of reading to learn through quality human-read audiobooks in support of the most vulnerable children in U.S. schools  struggling readers.

Each year, tens of thousands of children and teens fail in school, due to reading challenges that make it difficult, if not impossible, to read standard print materials because of a learning disability, like dyslexia or a vision impairment. Research now suggests that one in five students has dyslexia and many will go undiagnosed.

The Childrens Literacy Foundation also finds that one out of six children who do not read at age level by the end of third grade will not graduate from high school. The lack of reading proficiency is a key reason why an estimated 8000 U.S. students drop out of school each day limiting their financial potential and ability to compete in the workforce.

Learning Ally is a nonprofit organization and relies on donors to make tax-deductible donations of $65, $135 or $270 to support U.S. schools that do not have the funding to provide accessible audiobooks for students with print disabilities. The library offers access to 80,000 human-narrated titles, including K-12 textbooks, literature and popular titles to engage all ages.

Skye Malik, a college student in New York City with dyslexia thrives in her courses today because of access she received to Learning Ally in middle school. It changed my life, she says. This reading accommodation was the single most important resource in my class!

Access to Learning Allys quality audiobook library built for a school learning environment can make a significant difference in a childs academic potential, says Dr. Scott Taylor, Superintendent of the Highland Park School District, NJ. Often, these students have high intellectual ability, but cannot keep pace with their reading assignments. Dr. Taylors district received a grant this year through a partnership with his NJ Senator, Patrick Diegnan and his Department of Education.

Donors to Learning Ally include U.S. businesses with employee-matched contributions who believe in supporting their local communities and schools and to improve education for all learners; philanthropists concerned with the growing reading crisis in America, and individuals who understand the frustration and anguish a child who is blind or dyslexic experiences in the reading and learning process.

By giving the gift of reading to learn with Learning Ally, your generous donations will support more U.S. schools who want to provide learning equality for struggling readers. You will make a lasting impact on a childs academic achievement now and for a brighter future.

Visit http://www.learningally.org or call 1-800-221-4792 and select option 4.

About Learning Ally

Learning Ally is a leading nonprofit ed-tech organization delivering a comprehensive learning solution for struggling readers in elementary, middle and high schools. Our proven solution includes an extensive library of human-read audiobooks that students want and need to read at home and at school, along with a suite of teacher-focused resources that ensure student success. This reading experience helps accelerate learning, enables a new level of access to knowledge and powerfully increases confidence and self-belief.

Learning Ally successfully partners with more than 13,000 U.S. schools, districts and leading state education systems across the country to empower over 240,000 students with improved comprehension, vocabulary, fluency and critical thinking skills.

For over 70 years, the organization has helped to transform the lives of struggling readers by bridging the gap between their reading capability and their academic potential to become confident, lifelong learners who thrive in school and beyond.

Educators can request a demo at 1-800-221-1098 or visit http://www.learningally.org/educators.
Who Trespass Against Us A gripping read from cover to cover . . . an imaginative account of the shooter's progression into madness . . . the reader also sees the desperation experienced by the victims during their struggle. . . the reader is left with endearment, hope, and the satisfaction of having finished a fine read.

D.P. Conway was on the verge of releasing his 12 Book 'After Life' series when Stephen Paddock opened fire. Conways daughter narrowly missed attending the concert, and this moved him to want to tell a story that would offer hope to many, and give an answer to the question "Why?"

In his debut novel Who Trespass Against Us, Conway uses fast paced storytelling to bring you the untold story of the life and judgment of the Las Vegas shooter. A work of fiction based on actual events, Conway takes what is known, and imagines what is missing to write a compelling narrative that you will not want to put down.

The story begins with the dark connection to the killers ancestry and moves quickly into the criminal life of his father, Bingo Bruce, and his Bonnie and Clyde style mistress, both of whom cast long shadows over the killers life.

Conway keeps you on the edge of your seat as Paddocks heinous crime races to its conclusion in a way you may not have anticipated. After the shooting, you will witness the judgment, where he will face his victims and his maker.

But the story does not end there. In parallel fashion, you will also read the inspiring account of a young woman and her best friend, both country music fans, who journey through life and face that dark night together.

It has been said that great story tellers use their imagination to bring order out of chaos, and in this work, D.P. Conway does not disappoint.

Author Bio

Conway is a CPA who lives in a suburb of Cleveland with his wife Marisa. They are running a kickstarter campaign to raise money to market and publish the 1st three books of the series.

Series Info

The next two installments of Conway's "After Life" series, Dawn of Days, and Empire of the Damned, are scheduled for release in January and February 2018. Dawn of Days includes the account of the Sandy Hook Shooting, written the day after the tragedy. The series is entirely written and has been 5 years in the making.

Contact Info

Daniel Conway conwaycpa(at)gmail(dot)com, 440.799.2738

Website: https://www.dpconway.com

Available on Amazon.com Kindle, & Trade Paperback. E-Book only, Barnes Noble, Kobo, I-Tunes

Kickstarter Campaign in progress https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/afterlife/launch-after-life-book-series

Who Trespass Against Us, by D. P. Conway, was released December 8, 2017

Quote from an Amazon Reviewer

A gripping read from cover to cover . . . an imaginative account of the shooter's progression into madness . . . the reader also sees the desperation experienced by the victims during their struggle. . . the reader is left with endearment, hope, and the satisfaction of having finished a fine read.
We are excited to have entered into this relationship with ReIntent. Data quality and timeliness are both foundational tenants of our offerings, and ReIntent demonstrated their unique ability to aid in this pursuit through the application of their automation technology."

ReIntent, a software company that automatically corrects contact data with real-time information, announced its latest enterprise client in S&P Global Market Intelligence. ReIntents solution will be integrated into S&Ps data management process to enhance the quality of contact data. ReIntents software will also expedite updates to the millions of C-Level and senior management contacts in S&P Global Market Intelligences financial data products.

S&P Global Market Intelligence clients use their products to make informed business decisions every day, and we are excited to provide our technology to continuously enhance this process for their end-users, said ReIntent Co-Founder and CEO Mathan Parasuram. ReIntent is designed to cleanse, correct and enrich contact data at a large scale. This partnership speaks to our technology, and I cant think of a better use case than working with S&P Global Market Intelligence, a company thats firmly committed to the quality of its data."

We are excited to have entered into this relationship with ReIntent, said Adam Scanlon, a Senior Director within S&P Global Market Intelligences content organization. Data quality and timeliness are both foundational tenants of our offerings, and ReIntent demonstrated their unique ability to aid in this pursuit through the application of their automation technology.

This client announcement follows a period of momentum for ReIntent. Recently the company released a new application for CRM and Marketing Automation systems that automatically identifies and corrects contact data changes without any manual intervention. This new application leverages real-time contact information to help companies ensure that sales and marketing teams have access to the most current and comprehensive data.

About ReIntent

ReIntent provides innovative software to automate the cleansing and maintenance of contact data. The companys proprietary technology uses machine learning technology to provide real-time data to identify changes, correct, and enrich contact data within CRM, Marketing Automation, or proprietary databases. ReIntent is used by enterprises in industries like Software, Data Services, and Healthcare. To learn more visit http://www.reintent.com.
To make accurate and ethical public health decisions, the risks of a vaccine must be compared to the risks of the disease one is trying to prevent.

The California-based nonprofit organization, Physicians for Informed Consent (PIC), recently responded to an article in the BMJ that every year about 5,700 U.S. children suffer seizures from the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.

This finding is derived from results of the most statistically powered safety study ever to measure the association between MMR vaccination and febrile seizures. More than half a million children were evaluated, both vaccinated and unvaccinated, from a Danish population that is relied upon globally to examine vaccine safety. The results showed that seizures from the MMR vaccine occur in about 1 in 640 children up to two weeks following MMR vaccination. Applying this risk of seizures to the 3.64 million U.S. children vaccinated with a first dose of MMR every year results in about 5,700 annual MMR-vaccine seizures.

To make accurate and ethical public health decisions, the risks of a vaccine must be compared to the risks of the disease one is trying to prevent, said Dr. Shira Miller, PIC president and founder. When considering the MMR vaccine to prevent measles, the risks of the MMR vaccine need to be compared to the risks of measles.

There is a five-fold higher risk of seizures from the MMR vaccine than seizures from measles, and a significant portion of MMR-vaccine seizures cause permanent harm. For example, 5% of febrile seizures result in epilepsy, a chronic brain disorder that leads to recurring seizures. Annually, about 300 MMR-vaccine seizures (5% of 5,700) will lead to epilepsy.

Furthermore, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), designed to be a warning system for identifying vaccine side effects, receives only about 90 annual reports of MMR-vaccine seizures following the first doseonly 1.6% of the 5,700 MMR-vaccine seizures that actually occur. Thus, other serious vaccine adverse events from MMR, including permanent neurological harm and death, may similarly be underreported.

In the United States, measles is generally a benign, short-term viral infection; 99.99% of measles cases fully recover, said Dr. Miller. As it has not been proven that the MMR vaccine is safer than measles, there is insufficient evidence to demonstrate that mandatory measles mass vaccination results in a net public health benefit in the United States.

Physicians for Informed Consent is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization dedicated to safeguarding informed consent in vaccination. To learn more about vaccine risks vs. disease risks, read PICs Letter to the Editor in The BMJ, and PICs Measles Disease Information Statement (DIS) and Vaccine Risk Statement (VRS) at http://www.physiciansforinformedconsent.org/measles.
Tsugami B0326-II Were ecstatic to be part of the SHOT Show Supplier Showcase and the main event this year, Michael Mugno, Vice President, Rem Sales, LLC shared. We look forward to exhibiting our B0326II at the show; being such a versatile machine, it is perfect for the firearms and defense industry.

Tsugami/Rem Sales, the exclusive North American importer of Precision Tsugami machine tools, announced today that they will exhibit the Tsugami B0326 at the Las Vegas SHOT Show, directly following SHOT Show Supplier Showcase January 2018.

Tsugami/Rem Sales will participate in the SHOT Show Supplier Showcase for the second year in a row. Visitors can find Tsugami/Rem Sales representatives in booth number S1919 on January 22nd and 23rd.

For the first time ever, Tsugami/Rem Sales will feature a machine in the SHOT Show from January 23rd through January 26th; booth location is in the lobby, directly behind registration. Rem Sales will feature the Tsugami B0326II running a gun sight demo in brass throughout the show.

The Tsugami B0326II 32 mm 6axis Opposed Gang Tool Lathe has 11 live tool positions, seven of which are modular, and eatures a dual path Fanuc 32iB CNC that slashes cycle time by permitting true simultaneous operation of the main and sub spindles. The addition of an optional back rotary tool increases the machines capabilities. This specific machine can be run as a traditional sliding headstock machine with a guide bushing or operated with an optional chucker kit. When used as a chucker, the machine can use drawn bar stock instead of centerless ground stock, dramatically reducing remnant size and increasing shop rofitability and flexibility.

Were ecstatic to be part of the SHOT Show Supplier Showcase and the main event this year, Michael Mugno, Vice President, Rem Sales, LLC shared. We look forward to exhibiting our B0326II at the show; being such a versatile machine, it is perfect for the firearms and defense industry.

Radax Industries, a loyal Tsugami/Rem Sales customer, located in Webster, NY will also be featured in the lobby booth.

Radax is looking forward to partnering with Tsugami/Rem Sales this year at the SHOT Show because we believe that together, we can add value to the gun parts industry. Tsugami/Rem Sales makes and supports robust machines that we rely on to help us create top notch, tight tolerance parts day in and day out, explained Ben Sacco, Operating Manager, Radax Industries.

Visit Tsugami/Rem Sales in Supplier Showcase booth S1919 and Tsugami/Rem Sales and Radax Industries in

SHOT Show booth L100 this January.

For more information on Tsugami machines contact Rem Sales at 866.224.8576 or via email at info@remsales.com.

About Radax Industries

Radax Industries (http://www.radax.com) was founded in 1967 and serves both foreign and domestic markets. Radax is setting industry standards for threaded and nonthreaded fasteners. With its mark set on excellence, Radax is committed to customer service with the same devotion it insists on in manufacturing.

About Tsugami/Rem Sales

Tsugami/Rem Sales (http://www.remsales.com) has been the exclusive North American importer of Precision Tsugami machine tools since 1978. A division of Morris Group, Inc. of Windsor, Connecticut, Rem Sales sells new Tsugami machine tools via national distribution channels and direct sales agents. The company also provides application engineering, service and customer training.

About Morris Group, Inc.

Morris Group, Inc. (http://www.morrisgroupinc.com), one of North Americas largest machine tool supply networks, owns fifteen independently operated business units. It supplies CNC machine tools and related technology and services to manufacturers representing virtually every industry segment. Morris Group, Inc. is headquartered in Windsor, Connecticut, home of its founding company, The Robert E. Morris Company, which

has served the manufacturing industry since 1941.
Garold Decker Inlanta Mortgage Regional Vice President, Brian Jensen, said, We are pleased to have Garold Decker join the Inlanta Team. He is an industry veteran and will be a great addition.

Garold Decker is an experienced branch manager with a demonstrated history of working in the financial services industry. Decker will soon be expanding in the Toledo, Ohio market.

Inlanta Mortgage Regional Vice President, Brian Jensen, said, We are pleased to have Garold Decker join the Inlanta Team. He is an industry veteran and will be a great addition.

Garold Decker can be contacted at 419-329-8200 or garolddecker(at)inlanta(dot)com. The office is located at 7931 Allen Road, Allen Park, MI 48101.

About Inlanta Mortgage

Headquartered in Pewaukee, WI, Inlanta Mortgage was established in 1993. The company has grown to over 40 branches in 20 states and over 250 employees. Inlanta Mortgages mission is to be the home financing partner that you trust to serve your family, friends, and community. Their team of dedicated mortgage professionals is committed to delivering an exceptional experience using honest and ethical lending practices.

Inlanta Mortgage was named a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Top Workplace in 2014, 2015, and 2016. Inlanta has been consistently recognized as one of the 50 Best Mortgage Companies to Work For by Mortgage Executive Magazine and one of the countrys Top Mortgage Employers by National Mortgage Professional.

Inlanta Mortgage continually seeks branch managers and loan officers who want to grow their business. To learn about growth opportunities, please contact David Williams (Colorado and Texas) at davidwilliams(at)inlanta(dot)com or 303-947-1960; Brian Jensen (Midwest) at brianjensen(at)inlanta(dot)com or 630-927-0380; or Kevin Laffey (Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa) at kevinlaffey(at)inlanta(dot)com or 913-645-4647. To learn about opportunities in other locations, visit http://www.inlantapartners.com, call 262-439-4260, or email partners(at)inlanta(dot)com.

Inlanta Mortgage, Inc. NMLS #1016. Garold Decker, NMLS #1070150.
Dr. Ben Carson speaks to student-doctors at Liberty's Center for Medical and Health Sciences in November 2015. The Liberty community greatly respects Dr. Carson, and he told me in person recently how excited he is about addressing our graduates," President Jerry Falwell said.

United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and former presidential candidate Dr. Benjamin Carson will address the Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicines first graduating class this May.

It is with great excitement and a sense of pride that we officially announce Dr. Carson as our inaugural graduation speaker, LUCOM Dean Dr. Peter Bell said. His medical accomplishments and professional achievements as well as humble personality are qualities of a true leader. I have no doubt his message to the inaugural class will be one of great inspiration.

Dr. Peter Bell has made Liberty University proud. He could not have selected a more fitting keynote speaker for our College of Osteopathic Medicines first graduating class, President Jerry Falwell said. The Liberty community greatly respects Dr. Carson, and he told me in person recently how excited he is about addressing our graduates.

Carson has spoken at Liberty in the past, during Convocation in 2012 and again in 2015 while he was running for the Republican presidential nomination. During the 2015 visit, Carson toured Libertys Center for Medical and Health Sciences and met with LUCOM students, faculty, and staff.

A graduate of Yale University and the University of Michigan Medical School, Carson became the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Childrens Center at age 33, making him the youngest director in the hospitals history. He held the position from 1984 until his retirement in 2013. In 1987, Carson and his team performed the first successful surgery to remove type-2 conjoined twins. In 2008, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the country. Carson has received more than 60 honorary degrees and written hundreds of articles concerning advancements in neurology.

LUCOMs graduation will be held on Saturday, May 19. Details about the event will be announced at a later date.

Liberty University, founded in 1971, is the largest private, nonprofit university in the nation, the largest university in Virginia, and the largest Christian university in the world. Located near the Blue Ridge Mountains on more than 7,000 acres in Lynchburg, Va., Liberty offers more than 550 unique programs of study from the associate to the doctoral level. More than 250 programs are offered online. Libertys mission is to train Champions for Christ with the values, knowledge, and skills essential for impacting tomorrows world.
For all of these reasons, Luggage Pros takes a first-place finish among online retailers of Luggage, as our highest-ranked business in 2017.

TopConsumerReviews.com has awarded their highest five-star rating to Luggage Pros, an industry leader in Luggage sales.

From backpackers traversing Europe to grandparents flying to visit family - and every imaginable traveler in between  owning the right luggage is critical. However, finding the most appropriate carry-on, duffel, or hard-sided wheeled suitcase at the best possible price is almost impossible when shopping strictly at local stores. Most brick-and-mortar retailers carry a few brands and may not have the color, size, or style needed for a particular type of travel. Fortunately, online luggage retailers carry the most popular brands, often at lower prices than what can be found in person, and also allow shoppers to find new brands that may be a perfect match for their next adventure.

Luggage Pros leads the pack when it comes to every kind of luggage on the market, explained Brian Dolezal, of TopConsumerReviews.com, LLC. From over 100 brands to choose from to a low-price guarantee, using Luggage Pros is the best way to save yourself time and money while getting the roll-away or suitcase you need. Sales and special offers are plentiful, and the Luggage Pros website makes it easy to see when there are rebates that can save you even more. Plus, their 30-day free return/refund policy gives customers the peace of mind of knowing that they wont be stuck with a bag that just doesnt match what they thought they needed. For all of these reasons, Luggage Pros takes a first-place finish among online retailers of Luggage, as our highest-ranked business in 2017.

To find out more about Luggage Pros and other Luggage retailers, including reviews and comparison rankings, please visit the Luggage category of TopConsumerReviews.com at http://www.topconsumerreviews.com/luggagesites/.

About Luggage Pros

The Luggage Pros story began in 1974, when the family-owned and operated luggage specialty store, Luggage Pros, opened in a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Their simple business philosophy combines high quality, name brand luggage, bags, business cases and travel accessories with exceptional customer service and prices. They have developed strong authorized relationships with the luggage industry's most important brands including Tumi, Hartmann, Swiss Army, Travelpro, Rimowa and Samsonite.

About TopConsumerReviews.com

TopConsumerReviews.com, LLC is a leading provider of independent reviews and rankings of hundreds of consumer products and services. From Luggage to Travel Insurance and Expedited Passports, TopConsumerReviews.com delivers in-depth product evaluations in order to make purchasing decisions easier.
Monica Cost, Chief Pathfinder of The Core Value Company LLC.

Monica Cost, Chief Pathfinder of The Core Value Company LLC, to speak at The Small Business Cookout Summit to be held February 9-10, 2018 at The Hilton Center City of Charlotte.

Hosted by the Founders of OnceLogix, The SBC will consist of a two-day experience. Attendees will immerse in knowledge and best practices that will take the individual and their business to the next level.

We are thrilled to host Monica Cost at this years Conference, said Rod Brown, COO of OnceLogix. Monica is a leader in her field and her collective wisdom challenges us all to make the most of our own lives, talents and experience. Monica will provide attendees life-changing opportunities to connect with other women and to create new professional and personal roadmaps for their lives.

At the Summit, Cost will discuss the VIP (Value Identification Process) that she created to assist individuals in creating sustainable strategies and processes that allow them to reach their goals for personal development and processional success.

Speaking at the SBC is a unique opportunity to exchange high level and tactical strategies and vision for the long-term sustainability of small businesses, said Cost. Many times we are just sitting at large conferences with high-level executives speaking from the stage about their experience and journey to now. The SBC allows for a different level of connectivity. I am honored to participate.

OnceLogix, LLC is a nationally recognized award-winning Software Company in Winston-Salem North Carolina. Over the past 10 years, OnceLogix founders have created several successful, profitable businesses that continue to sustain profitability year after year. In 2016, Inc. magazine ranked our Winston-Salem based company 3,719th on its 35th annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the nations fastest-growing private companies. The list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economys most dynamic segment  its independent small businesses. After learning that less than 1.5% minority-owned companies were on the list, the founders concluded that they wanted to do something to help with this systemic problem creating The Small Business Cookout.

For more information about Monica Cost, please visit http://www.monicacost.com.

Facebook: MonicaDCost

Twitter: @monicacost

For more information about the Small Business Cookout and to register, please visit the conference website here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-small-business-cookout-charlotte-nc-tickets-39480601542.
We are experiencing the deadliest drug overdose crisis in our country's history, and we know that unique and innovative approaches are critical to effectively combatting the opioid epidemic.

Allegheny Health Network (AHN) announced today that it has established a medication-assisted opioid treatment program that is part of a new, hub-and-spoke model of care aimed at reaching more patients with opioid use disorder. The program, to be progressively implemented over the next year, is supported by a $1 million grant that has been awarded to only three other medical institutions in Pennsylvania. Together, the institutions form the Pennsylvania Coordinated Medication-Assisted Treatment (PacMAT) program.

The hub of the new program, located at Allegheny General Hospital, is led by Mitchell West, DO, Director of Addiction Medicine at AHN, who will oversee a multidisciplinary staff including an addiction psychiatrist, behavioral health specialist, pharmacist, clinical educator, and more. The hub staff will provide clinical leadership to the spokes which include 10 primary care sites throughout Western Pennsylvania. Each site will be equipped to provide high quality Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) as defined by the American Society of Addiction Medicines practice guidelines. MAT combines medication with onsite behavioral therapy to reduce urges and withdrawal symptoms.

To provide ongoing support to the spokes, as well as health care providers in rural areas who are caring for patients with opioid use disorder, the hub staff will utilize telemedicine technology to provide education, expert consultation, and operational assistance. Both the hub and spokes will be closely connected to many of the regions licensed drug and alcohol treatment facilities, single county authorities, behavioral health providers, and social services which can address patients at all stages of recovery.

We are experiencing the deadliest drug overdose crisis in our countrys history, and we know that unique and innovative approaches are critical to effectively combatting the opioid epidemic. This new model of care reaches patients in the communities they live, wrapping them with a range of evidence-based therapies and services  all of which is supported by a team of leading experts in addiction medicine, said Dr. West.

In addition to the integration of MAT into multiple primary care sites across AHN, enhanced pain management centers will be piloted at AHNs West Penn Hospital, Forbes Hospital, and Wexford Health + Wellness Pavilion. The pain centers will host integrated, multidisciplinary teams that can address chronic pain in the setting of addiction, mental illness and opioid dependence. The goals of the centers will be to reduce opioid prescribing for chronic pain, replace opioids with effective treatment modalities for pain management such as acupuncture and massage therapy, and address issues of opioid use disorder and substance use disorder in patients suffering from pain.

Finally, for those who arrive at an AHN emergency department following an overdose, the hub staff will work to develop pathways for stabilization of these patients, including initiation of an effective opioid replacement therapy such as buprenorphine, followed by more rapid handoffs to treatment.

It has been estimated that more than half of overdose patients who are revived with naloxone and then treated at an emergency department leave against medical advice, said Dr. West. It is our goal to begin routinely administering in the emergency department a replacement therapy which treats symptoms of withdrawal, providing a greater opportunity to bridge the patient to community-based MAT and/or other recovery services. In this way, a patients life-threatening event can quickly transition to the beginning of recovery. 

In August, AHN announced its Center of Excellence for Opioid Use Disorder. This comprehensive program helps Medicaid patients with opioid-related substance use disorders receive the health and community-based care and support they need to overcome addiction and maintain long-term wellness.

Through our Center of Excellence (COE) for Opioid Use Disorder, 340 patients have been connected with MAT or other recovery services, said Stuart Fisk, CRNP, Director, AHN Center for Inclusion Health. These new programs and services are a natural extension of the COE model and will help us to serve a broader population including patients who are uninsured, underinsured and privately insured.

According to Charles DeShazer, MD, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, Highmark is committed to creating sustainable payment models following the terms of the grant to support the continued fight against the opioid epidemic.

Our entire enterprise has made significant investments in a range of opioid addiction support services to guide our members to recovery, said Dr. DeShazer. Combined with AHNs clinical expertise in addiction medicine, AHN and Highmark are poised to be able to address the opioid epidemic in a significant way for the benefit of our members, patients and families throughout Western Pennsylvania.

The grant is funded through the 21st Century Cures grant, a $26.5 million federal grant received by the Wolf Administration to combat the heroin and opioid epidemic by increasing access to treatment, reducing unmet treatment need, and reducing opioid overdose-related deaths through the provision of prevention, treatment and recovery activities for opioid use disorder. According to the Wolf Administration, 23 organizations applied.

###

About the Allegheny Health Network

Allegheny Health Network (http://www.AHN.org), a Highmark Health company, is an integrated healthcare system serving the greater Western Pennsylvania region. The Network is composed of eight hospitals, including Allegheny General Hospital, its flagship academic medical center in Pittsburgh, Allegheny Valley Hospital in Natrona Heights, Canonsburg Hospital in Canonsburg, Forbes Hospital in Monroeville, Jefferson Hospital in Jefferson Hills, Saint Vincent Hospital in Erie, West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh and Westfield Memorial Hospital in Westfield, NY. The Network provides patients with access to a complete spectrum of advanced medical services, including nationally recognized programs for primary and emergency care, cardiovascular disease, cancer care, orthopedic surgery, neurology and neurosurgery, womens health, diabetes and more. It also is home to a comprehensive research institute; Health + Wellness Pavilions; an employed physician organization, home and community based health services and a group purchasing organization. The Network employs approximately 17,000 people, has more than 2,800 physicians on its medical staff and serves as a clinical campus for Drexel University College of Medicine, Temple University School of Medicine, and the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine.

About Highmark Health

Highmark Health, a Pittsburgh, PA based enterprise that employs more than 40,000 people nationwide and serves nearly 50 million Americans in all 50 states, is the second largest integrated health care delivery and financing network in the nation based on revenue. Highmark Health is the parent company of Highmark Inc., Allegheny Health Network, and HM Health Solutions. Highmark Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates provide health insurance to more than 5 million members in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Delaware as well as dental insurance, vision care and related health products through a national network of diversified businesses that include United Concordia Companies, HM Insurance Group, Davis Vision and Visionworks. Allegheny Health Network is the parent company of an integrated delivery network that includes eight hospitals, more than 2,800 affiliated physicians, ambulatory surgery centers, an employed physician organization, home and community-based health services, a research institute, a group purchasing organization, and health and wellness pavilions in western Pennsylvania. HM Health Solutions focuses on meeting the information technology platform and other business needs of the Highmark Health enterprise as well as unaffiliated health insurance plans by providing proven business processes, expert knowledge and integrated cloud-based platforms. To learn more, please visit http://www.highmarkhealth.org.
Building a company is a continuous process, its a never-ending drive toward embracing change and trying new things, Nick Damoulakis, President of Orases

Orases, a Maryland custom software development firm, is thrilled to announce it has secured a spot on https://www.entrepreneur.com/360 Entrepreneur Magazines Entrepreneur 360 List, a comprehensive list of private companies that have mastered a balance of impact, innovation, growth, and leadership.

Building a company is a continuous process, its a never-ending drive toward embracing change and trying new things, said Nick Damoulakis, President of Orases. This award recognizes our appetite for innovation, culture and our commitment to always pushing the envelope for our clients and ourselves.

The Entrepreneur 360 List celebrates outstanding companies for the value they bring to the world, not just the worth of their company, says Bill Shaw, president of Entrepreneur Media, Inc. The companies on this list exemplify growth, not just in top and bottom line, but in their ability to create a superior value for their customers, build adaptive learning cultures, and drive innovation in their marketplace.

Founded in 2000 by Nick Damoulakis and Amy Damoulakis, Orases was established with the goal of creating a different kind of custom software firm which could be a partner to clients in making the world more efficient through their product, 24Watch Business Suite. Today, Orases provides Business Process Automation, Case Management and Grant Management solutions to a broad range of global, national, and regional clients, including NFL, MLB, Roy Jorgensen Associates, BlueScope, Wright Manufacturing, Association of Interior Design, NATSO, American Kidney Fund, NV Roofing and most recently US Lacrosse.

Orases was named #289 on the Entrepreneur 360 List. Companies are selected by Entrepreneur Magazine following a comprehensive study built on a balanced scorecard designed to measure four metrics reflecting major pillars of entrepreneurshipinnovation, growth, leadership, and impact.

For additional details on the Entrepreneur 360 List and companies recognized, visit http://www.entrepreneur.com/360.

About Entrepreneur Media Inc. For nearly 40 years, Entrepreneur Media Inc. has been serving the entrepreneurial community providing comprehensive coverage of business and personal success through original content and events. Entrepreneur magazine, Entrepreneur.com, and publishing imprint Entrepreneur Press provide solutions, information, inspiration and education read by millions of entrepreneurs and small business owners worldwide. To learn more, visit entrepreneur.com. Follow us on Twitter at @Entrepreneur and like us on Facebook at facebook.com/entmagazine.
The Grubb Company has opened a new office at 100 Grand Avenue in the Uptown district of Oakland.

"I have always believed in Oakland since moving here in 1976," stated John Karnay, owner. "Oakland had enjoyed a rich cultural history from the days of the Pullman Porters bringing food and music here from around the country, to being known as the Milwaukee and Detroit of the West Coast for our beer and automobile production prior to WW2, and now the Port of Oakland is the 4th busiest port in the country. Even the Mai Tai was invented at Trader Vics original location on San Pablo Avenue in Oakland."

But starting in the 1950s, the Downtown area began to languish. Nightlife disappeared while businesses and residents left the center of the city. The city still had a few bright spots, a few jewels scattered about, but unconnected. The downward spiral finally came to a halt due to the visionary leadership of Mayor Jerry Brown in 1999. His vision of 10,000 residents in the downtown corridor was the way to turn things around. Businesses, restaurants and nightlife returned to all the neighborhoods, connecting those disparate gems in the city into a cohesive work of art that is now Oakland. Downtown Oakland is a community of artists, young professionals, families and businesses who chose to live and work here.

"Today, our city attracts people who arent afraid to come together to build a better community," said Karnay. "Its that vision that keeps us focused and proud to serve our community. We opened this office to serve the Uptown community: all of those who live and/or work in the area. In addition to the main office, weve designed a second space to be used as a resource center for artists, architects, designers and visionaries."

The Grubb Companys new office combines top real estate agents, technology and community to continue the company legacy. The Grubb Company also has offices in Oaklands Montclair district and The Uplands neighborhood in Berkeley. The first office was opened 50 years ago in Montclair by Donald Grubb Sr. after his departure from Grubb & Ellis Commercial brokerage in 1967. The second office was opened in Berkeley 12 years ago.

"The Grubb Company has been in Oakland for 50 years, and now we are excited that we are in Uptown," stated owner D.J. Grubb. "It took us over a year to find this strategic location."

The Uptown Oakland location has two spaces for both work and community. The office space will have a team of top real estate agents who will integrate technology, strategy and design to create a positive and dynamic experience for clients. Likewise, the community resource center will provide access to downtown residential development, and facilitate communication with neighborhood vendors, and non-profit organizations.

The Grubb Company is a privately held company with 80 full-time professional agents. There are more Grubb Company agents who rank in the top 100 East Bay Agents List in sales volume than any other Bay Area residential brokerage. The Grubb Company is a community based local company with a broad footprint.

The CFO, John Karnay stated, "Our market is Oakland, Berkeley, Piedmont, and we specialize in the East Bay. This is our community; we live here, and want to continue our legacy of community support and involvement."

For more information on The Grubb Company, visit grubbco.com or follow The Grubb Company on social media.
Kadus Professional today announced the appointment of its newest brand ambassadors, celebrity hairstylist, Ray Christopher, and boho hair guru, Torie Bliss. In their new role, the talented duo, who together have more than 160K Instagram followers, will share exclusive content on their social media accounts, review products  like Kadus Professionals latest Red-Copper Collection  and act as a valuable educational resource for busy, independent stylists.

From branching out on their own to building and maintaining a robust clientele, Ray Christopher and Torie Bliss are an inspiration to the independent stylist community, said Carole Protat, Senior Creative Director, Coty Professional Beauty. They are exceptionally talented stylists and true experts at their craft. Both embody the Kadus Professional brand and share our passion for empowering independent stylists and helping them work smarter, not harder.

Ray Christopher, a two-time Emmy nominated celebrity hair stylist, is one of the most sought-after names in the industry for his work on and off the red carpet. Touted for his cutting-edge style and master artistry, Ray frequently works with some of the most influential stars and artists in the business.

I have been using Kadus Professional color and styling products on my celebrity clients for a while now, and am both thrilled and utterly grateful to partner with a brand that creates some of the best products in the industry, said Christopher.

Independent stylist and lifestyle blogger, Torie Bliss, is best known for her innate boho-chic style. With more than nine years of industry experience, Torie is celebrated as a braid and bridal expert, and multi-dimensional color master.

As an up-do and braid artist, I always have Kadus Professional styling products in my bag  especially for events! Product longevity is out of this world, and I am honored to partner with a brand that creates reliable, quality products for stylists, said Bliss. The braid curators effortlessly tousled tresses and beachy waves are often featured as festival and wedding inspiration throughout the salon professional industry.

For more information about the brand ambassadors, follow the updates with #KadusProfessional or visit Kadus Professional on Instagram.

###

About Kadus Professional

Founded by an independent stylist nearly 100 years ago, Kadus Professional is one of the most experienced salon brands in the world. With a rich, international heritage in color, Kadus Professional is committed to developing reliable products, intuitive techniques and services, accessible education and a thriving social community for independent stylists. Loved by industry professionals across the globe, Kadus Professional empowers entrepreneurial stylists to work smarter, not harder. For more information, please visit http://www.kadusprofessional.com.

About Coty, Inc.

Coty is one of the worlds largest beauty companies with approximately $9 billion in pro forma revenue, with a purpose to celebrate and liberate the diversity of consumers beauty. Its strong entrepreneurial heritage has created an iconic portfolio of leading beauty brands. Coty is the global leader in fragrance, a strong number two in professional salon hair color & styling, and number three in color cosmetics. Coty operates three divisions - Consumer Beauty, which is focused on mass color cosmetics, mass retail hair coloring and styling products, body care and mass fragrances with brands such as COVERGIRL, Max Factor and Rimmel; Luxury, which is focused on prestige fragrances and skincare with brands such as Calvin Klein, Marc Jacobs, Hugo Boss, Gucci and philosophy; and Professional Beauty, which is focused on servicing salon owners and professionals in both hair and nail, with brands such as Wella Professionals, Sebastian Professional, OPI and ghd. Coty has over 20,000 colleagues globally and its products are sold in over 150 countries. Coty and its brands are committed to a range of social causes as well as seeking to minimize its impact on the environment. For additional information about Coty Inc., please visit http://www.coty.com.
Robert will play a key role in helping us deliver lasting value to our customers, especially as we continue to help enterprises and leading service providers secure their mission critical cloud. - Scott Sanders, CEO of 5nine Software

5nine Software, a leading provider of Microsoft Cloud management and security solutions, today welcomed Robert Corradini to the senior leadership team as Director of Product Management. In this role, Robert will help the company develop new, innovative solutions for the Microsoft Cloud Platform, and spearhead product strategy across all of 5nines product lines, including the award-winning 5nine Manager and Cloud Security solutions.

Robert brings over 20 years of experience managing high-performance technology solutions, and helping Microsoft clients of all sizes. Robert has co-founded innovative technology programs to identify applications and solutions that enhance a companys delivery infrastructure and has built teams dedicated to partner validation and performance. These programs are now considered among of the best of their kind. Robert is also a two-time winner of the Microsoft MVP award for excellence in Cloud & Datacenter for 2016 and 2017.

Im thrilled to be joining the leadership team of such a dynamic organization during a time of rapid growth, both in the industry and at the company. We are helping to simplify and secure the day-to-day management of your datacenter to let you focus on growing your business and keeping your customers happy. I look forward to working with the team to make 5nine the premier, one-stop-shop for all your Hyper-V and Azure needs, stated Robert Corradini.

We are very excited to add Robert to our leadership team and look forward to leveraging his broad technical skills and experience in cloud and hybrid computing, as well as his experience in building value-added IT solutions to help drive 5nines growth, commented Scott Sanders, 5nines Chief Executive Officer. His contributions will strengthen our position in the virtualization management and security market for the Microsoft Cloud platform. Robert will play a key role in helping us deliver lasting value to our customers, especially as we continue to help enterprises and leading service providers secure their mission critical cloud.

About 5nine Software

5nine provides the worlds leading management, security and migration solutions for Microsoft Azure and Hyper-V. Our powerful, integrated platform delivers scalable efficiency, automation and performance, empowering customers to accomplish every cloud initiative rapidly, securely and at exceptional value. Today, 5nine helps thousands of businesses, service providers and government institutions of all sizes to reach their full potential with the Microsoft Cloud Platform.

5nine is headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida, with offices worldwide. 5nine is a Microsoft Gold Datacenter Partner, Enterprise Cloud Alliance Partner, Azure Pack Partner and member of the Virus Information Alliance.
Im looking forward to helping our customers thwart phisher's campaigns however theyre delivered.

IRONSCALES, the worlds first automated phishing prevention, detection and response provider, today confirmed the appointment of Ryan OKeefe as its new Regional Sales Director responsible for UK and Ireland. This is the first of many employees the company is looking to secure in EMEA, reaffirming its expansion plans for this region, following its $6.5million Series A investment earlier this month.

Speaking about his appointment, Ryan confirmed, Its an exciting time to join IRONSCALES as it realizes its expansion plans in this region. Phishing continues to be a major threat vector for organizations, with many struggling to deflect the inventive campaigns attackers unleash. From its inception the company has looked to challenge how organizations approach phishing detection and remediation, focusing on the mailbox where the threat is most volatile rather than just the gateway. As both a human and machine problem, the response also requires the powerful combination of human intelligence with machine learning which is what IRONSCALES delivers. Im looking forward to helping our customers thwart phisher's campaigns however theyre delivered.

Ryan brings with him 17 years sales experience in the technology sector, having previously held roles with Sungard Availability Services and OCSL. At Sungard, Ryan received numerous awards and recognition for his achievements, including the title of New Business Rookie of the Year. Prior to this Ryan has held roles in the banking and finance sector.

David Burnett vice president of sales for UK and EMEA at IRONSCALES added, Were excited to welcome Ryan to our expanding team. Ive worked with Ryan previously so know he has a genuine passion for technology, but also that he likes to challenge conventional wisdom and thinking, making him a perfect fit for IRONSCALES. Im confident he will be a great asset to the team.

Ryan will focus primarily on supporting IRONSCALES customers and partners in the UK and Ireland.

Since entering the UK and European markets in mid-2016, IRONSCALES has steadily built a strong customer-base and established a robust channel partner program with MSSPs and other IT resellers. It opened its first UK office in April, with David joining the team in August, this year.

IRONSCALES email security products include:



IronTraps - Automated email phishing incident response

IronSights - Anti-impersonation & spoofing email security

Federation - Actionable email phishing intelligence sharing

IronSchoo l - Advanced employee simulation & experiential learning

For more information on IRONSCALES, visit http://www.ironscales.com and follow @ironscales on Twitter and Linkedin.

About IRONSCALES:

IRONSCALES is the leader in anti-email phishing technologies. Using a multi-layered and automated approach to prevent, detect and respond to todays sophisticated email phishing attacks, IRONSCALES expedites the time from phishing attack discovery to enterprise-wide remediation from months to seconds, by significantly reducing the workload on incident responders. Headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, IRONSCALES was founded by a team of security researchers, IT and penetration testing experts, as well as specialists in the field of effective interactive training, in response to the phishing epidemic that today costs companies millions of dollars annually. It was incubated at the 8200 EISP, the top program for cyber security ventures, founded by alumni of the Israel Defense Forces elite Intelligence Technology unit.
Degrees Without Boundaries Charter Oak State College (www.CharterOak.edu) announces two online open house events for interested students who cannot attend in person. The Undergraduate event is January 3rd 1-2PM ET, the Graduate program event is January 11th 1-2PM ET. Choose the option that works for you!

Charter Oak State College (http://www.CharterOak.edu) announces two online open house events for interested students who cannot attend in person. The Undergraduate event is January 3rd 1-2PM ET, the Graduate program event is January 11th 1-2PM ET. Choose the option that works for you! For more info and to link to the events - https://www.charteroak.edu/news/2017-12-12-January-2018-Open-Houses.cfm

Plus, now through January 5th new applicants to any Charter Oak undergraduate degree program and certificate program can apply for free. This $75 value is offered for a limited time.

Charter Oak offers programs in over 20 fields of study and career focused majors that can be completed through flexible online 5, 8 and 15-week courses. Popular workforce relevant majors include Business Administration, Cyber Security, Public Safety Administration, Health Information Management, Health Care Administration, Sociology and more!

As Connecticuts Public Online institution, the College offers 100% online courses, accredited and affordable programs, six start dates a year and a generous transfer credit policy. Visit CharterOak.edu now through January 5th and save the application fee. Mark your calendar to attend one of the online open houses for specific degree program information.

Founded in 1973, Charter Oak State College (http://www.CharterOak.edu) is Connecticuts only public online college, offering associate and bachelors degree completion programs in high-demand fields including Health Information Management, Health Care Administration, Cyber Security, Business Administration, and Psychology. The College offers a Master of Science in Organizational Effectiveness and Leadership. Charter Oak is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges and governed by Connecticuts Board of Regents for Higher Education.

Degrees Without Boundaries

55 Paul J. Manafort Drive, New Britain, CT 06053-2150 http://www.charteroak.edu

(860) 515-3701

Contact: Carolyn Hebert; 860-515-3880

chebert(at)charteroak(dot)edu
Cybereasons platform is built to scale for AI and ML at all levels: machine level, organization/enterprise level, regional/cluster and full global context levels. That beats the other approaches where others seem to merely throw the terms around." Sam Curry, Chief Security Officer, Cybereason.

Cybereason, creators of the leading cybersecurity data analytics platform including endpoint detection and response, next-generation antivirus, and active monitoring services, today announced it has been named to the 2018 AI 100, CB Insights ranking of the 100 most promising private artificial intelligence (AI) companies in the world. The AI 100 recognizes the teams and technologies that are successfully using AI to solve big challenges.

Read Sam Currys latest blog which focuses on the artificial intelligence industry.

Cybereason is thrilled to be named to the prestigious list of the best private AI companies in the world and earn recognition for the evolution of our award-winning big data analytics. The AI 100 is a big deal in the market, and with every company today touting products with artificial intelligence, separating the hype from the substance can be a daunting task especially for cybersecurity companies, said Sam Curry, Chief Security Officer, Cybereason.

This year's AI 100 list was culled from 2000+ applications and looks even more impressive. These are companies using artificial intelligence in industries from drug discovery and cybersecurity to robotics and legal tech. I'm happy that CB Insights is able to shine a light on the founders and companies that will revolutionize these industries and look forward to seeing what they do in 2018 and beyond, said Anand Sanwal, CB Insights CEO.

Cybereasons platform is built from the ground up for scale and for AI and ML at all levels: machine level, organization/enterprise level, regional/cluster and full global context levels. That hands down beats the other approaches from a raw mathematics perspective where others seem to merely throw the terms around, added Curry.

About the AI 100

The CB Insights research team selected the AI 100 companies based on criteria, examining company-submitted data and the companys Mosaic Score. The Mosaic Score, based on CB Insights National Science Foundation-funded algorithm, measures the overall health and growth potential of private companies. Through this evidence-based, statistically-driven approach, the Mosaic Score can help predict a companys momentum, market health and financial viability.

About Cybereason

Cybereason, creators of the leading cybersecurity data analytics platform, gives the advantage back to the defender through a completely new approach to cybersecurity. Cybereason offers endpoint detection and response (EDR), next-generation antivirus (NGAV), and active monitoring services, all powered by its proprietary data analytics platform. The Cybereason suite of products provides unmatched visibility, increases analyst efficiency and effectiveness, and reduces security risk. Cybereason is privately held, having raised $189 million from top-tier VCs, and is headquartered in Boston, with offices in London, Tel Aviv and Tokyo.

Learn more: https://www.cybereason.com/

Follow us: Blog | Twitter | Facebook

Media Contact:

Bill Keeler

Director, Public Relations

Cybereason

bill.keeler(at)cybereason(dot)com

(929) 259-3261
The American Institute of Architects - Minnesota (AIA Minnesota) honored two Adolfson & Peterson Construction (AP) and HGA projects, Ramsey County Shoreview Library and The Mill Street Parking Ramp in Wayzata. The awards were announced on November 16, 2017 at the AIA Minnesota Conference. The Honor Awards recognize outstanding architecture designed by AIA Minnesota members. A total of 87 projects were submitted in 2017 which were evaluated in five categories: architecture; interiors; renovation and restoration; and urban design and master planning. AP and HGA were presented the awards at the annual AIA Minnesota Awards Dinner on December 8, 2017 at International Market Square in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

About AP

Adolfson & Peterson Construction (AP) is a U.S.-based, privately held builder that is consistently ranked among the top 50 construction managers and general contractors in the nation. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the company delivers innovative and collaborative building solutions for clients across the country from its regional offices in Charlotte, Dallas, Denver, Minneapolis and Phoenix. Founded in 1946, AP serves clients in the education, healthcare, commercial, municipal, multifamily, hospitality and senior living market sectors. For more information, visit http://www.a-p.com or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Cookies

What are cookies ?

How do we use cookies?

How to control cookies?

Managing cookies in your browser

see what cookies you have got and delete them on an individual basis

block third party cookies

block cookies from particular sites

block all cookies from being set

delete all cookies when you close your browser

X

A cookie is a small text file that a website saves on your computer or mobile device when you visit the site. Cookies are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site.Website use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. ("Google") to help analyse the use of this website. For this purpose, Google Analytics uses"cookies", which are text files placed on your computer.The information generated by the cookies about your use of this website - standard internet log information (including your IP address) and visitor behaviour information in an anonymous form - will be transmitted to and stored by Google including on servers in the United States. Google will anonymize the information sent by removing the last octet of your IP address prior to its storage.According to Google Analytics terms of service, Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website and compiling reports on website activity.We not use, and not allow any third party to use the statistical analytics tool to track or to collect any personally identifiable information of visitors to this site. Google may transfer the information collected by Google Analytics to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google`s behalf.According to Google Analytics terms of service, Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.You may refuse the use of Google Analytics cookies by downloading and installing Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. The add-on communicates with the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js) to indicate that information about the website visit should not be sent to Google Analytics.Cookies are also used to record if you have agreed (or not) to our use of cookies on this site, so that you are not asked the question every time you visit the site.You can control and/or delete cookies as you wish. You can delete all cookies that are already on your computer and you can set most browsers to prevent them from being placed.Most browsers allow you to:If you chose to delete cookies, you should be aware that any preferences will be lost. Also, if you block cookies completely many websites (including ours) will not work properly and webcasts will not work at all. For these reasons, we do not recommend turning cookies off when using our webcasting services.
News

World news

Belgrade is now allowed to re-export Russian gas

Putin: Connecting Serbia to Turkish Stream is under consideration

AUTHOR: publics.bg



 Russian Presidential Executive Office



Serbia is allowed to re-export Russian gas and there is an option to connect to Turkish Stream, international agencies reported.

Russia's government said it adopted an amendment of an intergovernmental agreement with Serbia to allow the Southeast European country to re-export Russian natural gas to third countries, SeeNews reported. The Russian government has adopted a protocol which annuls an article of an intergovernmental agreement, which reads that natural gas supplied to Serbia is intended for consumption in the Serbian market.

Gazprom has reportedly agreed to drop clauses restricting the re-export of Russian natural gas from countries in Central and Eastern Europe to settle a dispute with European Commission. In 2011, the Commission accused the Russian energy giant of abusing its market position in Central Europe by overcharging customers and by preventing them from re-exporting gas, SeeNews reminded. Landlocked Serbia imports 82% of the gas it needs from Russia through a pipeline crossing Hungary and Ukraine. The rest comes from domestic sources. Belgrade works on a project for the construction of a gas link with Bulgaria, which is expected completed by 2019 and become operational a year later.

Moscow and Belgrade are exploring an opportunity of connecting Serbia to the Turkish Stream gas pipeline, Russian President Vladimir Putin said after talks with his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic, TASS reported.

"The issue of connecting Serbian partners to the Turkish Stream, the construction project of the new supply route of energy resources implemented by Gazprom, is under consideration," Putin said.

Other Russian energy companies are also working successfully on the Serbian market, the Russian head of state said. Gazprom Neft continues upgrading its NIS subsidiary in Serbia. Lukoil owns a chain of 115 retail sites and two oil depots. Russias Power Machines are ready to participate in technical upgrade of Serbian power installations.

Russia's Gazprom has agreed with Serbia's Srbijagas to increase the contacted volume of gas supply as of next year to 2 Bcm/year from the current 1.5 Bcm/year, Gazprom said, Platts informed. Serbia, which is almost entirely dependent on Russian gas imports, has been importing above its contracted volume in 2016 and 2017, with the additional volumes supplied under supplementary agreements. Last year, Serbia received 1.75 Bcm/year of Russian gas  above its 1.5 Bcm/year contracted volume  and this year it already exceeded that level in mid-November. Russia supplies gas to Serbia under a deal signed in 2013 that is valid until the end of 2021. The increased volumes are part of an addendum to the existing medium-term deal.
News

From Bulgaria

Borissov: The Interconnector with Turkey Will Be Ready in July 2018

Bulgartransgaz announced the ranking in the auction for the feasibility study for a new gas pipeline between Bulgarian borders with Turkey and Serbia

AUTHOR: publics.bg

As for the Balkan Gas Hub, the Prime Minister clarified that the project is not about transit, but rather about gas trading in the Bulgarian gas hub.

 Council of Ministers



Four companies have submitted offers for the feasibility study for a new gas pipeline, one of which has been suspended.

 Bulgatransgaz



The interconnector with Turkey will be ready in July 2018, Boyko Borissov, the Prime Minister of Bulgaria told reporters in Brussels on the occasion of a publication in a Turkish newspaper that Turkish Stream would deviate to Bulgaria, instead of Greece. He reminded that an inspection of the construction of the interconnection was conducted in August.

The issue is about a 20-kilometer section of the pipeline between Lozenets and Nedyalsko (looping) which helps achieve a slight increase of the transmission capacity from the current 15 billion cubic metres (bcm) annually in a straight direction  from Bulgaria to Turkey.

We agreed with Turkey, president Putin, we signed with Serbia for 10 bcm and with Macedonia  for 1 bcm and we prepared for July 2018 and we will reverse the flow so that our pipes are not left empty, Borissov said, referring to Russias intention to stop the transit through Ukraine after Turkish Stream is built. This directly affects Bulgaria, which transits Russian gas for Turkey, Greece, Serbia and small volumes to Macedonia. Boyko Borissov added that the completion of the project will enable the reversion of the gas flow in the opposite direction  from Turkey to Bulgaria.

In relation to the Balkan Gas Hub, the Prime Minister said that work towards its realization is underway, but president Putin requires a solid guarantee from the EU. He explained that they have such a guarantee but it is not a solid one and reminded that a Turkish Stream deviation to Bulgaria is being negotiated. One of the Turkish Stream pipes goes to Istanbul and the other  to Bulgaria, otherwise we are left off the gas transmission network. I have informed my colleagues Tusk and Juncker about this. This is the Turkish Stream scheme in Junckers office, he commented.

As for the Balkan Gas Hub, the Prime Minister clarified that the project is not about transit, but rather about gas trading in the Bulgarian gas hub. Each buyer will pay, we will transport. The gas hubs name is Balkan, and I add European to its name, highlighted Borissov.

Meanwhile, it became clear that there are 4 offers for the preparation of the feasibility study for a new gas pipeline between our borders with Turkey and Serbia. As publics.bg informed, the starting point of the new pipe is set to be immediately close to the existing connection between the Bulgatransgazs and Turkish operator BOTASs gas transmission network. The pipeline then would continue until It reaches Compressor Station Provadia (CS Provadia) as a part of the existing infrastructure (see the picture) and from there it would go near Zajecar on the border between Bulgaria and Serbia where would be its exit point. Commercial exploitation of the new gas pipeline is expected to begin on 1 January 2020.
Thanks for signing up for our daily insight on the African economy. We bring you daily editor picks from the best Business Insider news content so you can stay updated on the latest topics and conversations on the African market, leaders, careers and lifestyle. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected!
The new political administration in Ghana was not without some controversies as some key political figures got engaged in some controversial moments that sparked of discussions and became the talk of town.

READ ALSO: Meet the beautiful daughters of the big names in Ghana

Legalization of Homosexuality in Ghana is bound to happen  President Akufo-Addo

The president of Ghana in an interview with Aljazeera said that, he think that it is something that is bound to happen".

At the moment, I dont feel, I don't see that in Ghana there is that strong current of opinion that will say this is something that we need you to deal with, It is not so far a matter which is on the agenda, the president further stated in the interview.

Many individuals and organizations including the Christian Council criticized the presidents comments and asked that the government should out clear with its stance on the issue of homosexuality.

READ ALSO: Ghanaian politicians with the most interesting nicknames

NPP members are more Ghanaian than other  George Ayisi-Boateng

Mr George Ayisi-Boateng, Ghanas High Commissioner to South Africa came under intense pressure to resign for his partisan comment. The high commissioner said he will prioritize members in the NPP and its tertiary education wing, Tertiary Students Confederacy Network (TESCON) in his dealings with Ghanaians as a High Commissioner. The High Commissioner who initially stood by his words later apologized and is still serving as a diplomat of the state.

READ ALSO: These are the political families in Ghana that apparently control everything

NPP members are pigs  Former President Mahama

On the backlash of Mr. Ayisi Boatengs partisan comment, former President John Mahama told NDC members during the unity walk on Sunday in Cape Coast, Central Region, When they were looking for your votes, President Akufo-Addo said they shall open the opportunities of this country to all Ghanaians, irrespective of their party or ethnic affiliations. He came to power and now that the pigs are enjoying, they say some Ghanaians are more Ghanaian than others. Many took the comments in its literal term and condemned the ex president. The comment was apparently an analogy from George Orwells Animal Farm and was to be taken figuratively.

READ ALSO: Rich and powerful Ghanaians you never knew were freemasons

Former President Mahama is ignorant  Vice President Bawumia

Former President Mahama went in hard again on the government when he addressed the cost of the new National Digital Property Addressing System. He accused the vice President of embarrassing President with a 419 digital addressing application which cost Ghana $2.5 million (GHS9.9m) when it already existed on mobile phones.

The Vice President in an immediate reply said, For former president Mahama to claim that Ghanas NDPAS and the accompanying GhanaPostGPS app is a 419 scam demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the system. We have been witnesses to 8 years of his governance as vice president and president and we know what 419 scams look like. We know a 419 scam when we see one and that unfortunately was the hallmark of the administration of former president Mahama.

READ ALSO:These fabulously rich Ghanaians are all under 40

Northerners are difficult and liars  Former Deputy Member of Agric

Former Deputy Minister of Agriculture, William Agyapong Quaittoo caused an uproar when he made comments that sought to suggest that people from the three Northern regions are difficult and insincere. The Minister, who was responding to complaints from farmers that their farms have been destroyed by the fall armyworm appeared to suggest that their complaints were false. The minister later resigned for his comment.

READ ALSO: Meet the daughters of Millionaires in Ghana
LONDON  Michel Barnier has said that the European Union will not let a Brexit transition deal run beyond December 31, 2020.

The EU's chief Brexit negotiator said in a press conference on Wednesday morning that Brussels does not want any transition deal to stretch beyond 2020, in order to fit the EU's financial calendar.

In practice, this means that Britain would be fully out of the EU on the first day of January 2021.

Prime Minister Theresa May has said she wants a transition deal to last "around" two years from the formal exit date at the end of March 2019 to guarantee a smooth exit from the EU.

Barnier announced the decision from a European Commission building in Brussels, and spoke French.

According to a live translation by Sky News, he said the transition period "should be of a short and specific duration."

He said: "At Florence, Theresa May referred to a maximum of two years. Our position, the European Commissions position, is that this would run logically to December 31, 2020, because that's the duration of the current multi-annual financial framework."

Barnier reiterated that Britain will be expected to continue adhering to all EU laws, rules, and regulations  including the freedom of movement, the rules of the single market, and the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.

"During the transition period, the UK will keep all benefits but also all the duties of the single market, customs union, and common policies," Barnier said.

He set out five commitments to which Britain is expected to agree. The paraphrased commitments are:

These conditions mean that Britain will effectively remain a member of the European Union in everything but name for nearly two years after March 2019.

Both EU and UK negotiators agree that this sort of transition, often referred to as "status quo" or "standstill" transition, is best for businesses across the continent as they won't be forced to adapt to any major changes.

During this period, however, the UK will lose its representation in the European Parliament and will have no say in shaping EU laws and regulations.

Professor Anand Menon, director of the think tank UK In A Changing EU, told the British parliament's Brexit committee earlier Wednesday that such a transition will leave Britain with "all the obligations but none of the rights" of EU membership.

Barnier dashes Mays hopes of a special free trade deal

Barnier added that Prime Minister May's policy of taking Britain out of both the single market and customs unions means a future EU-UK trade deal cannot be as close as those the bloc has with other European countries.

He said that he expects the free trade deal negotiated with Britain to be "along the same lines" of the deals reached with South Korea, Japan and Canada.

The EU's deal with Canada, known as CETA, took seven years to finalise but crucially does not cover services. The services sector accounts for around 80% of Britain's economy.

"There are of course differences between these different models, because each of these trade models is of course tailor-made and specific to these countries when we sign these agreements," Barnier said.

"But its the same approach and logic underpinning these agreements. Thatll be the situation with the United Kingdom in light of what they said their position is themselves."

Barnier has warned Britain that there is "no way" the EU will allow "cherry picking" in negotiations on a future trade deal.

"We wont mix up the various scenarios to create a specific one and accommodate their wishes, mixing, for instance, the advantages of the Norwegian model, member of the single market, with the simple requirements of the Canadian one," Barnier told Prospect magazine.
NASA on Wednesday announced two finalists for its next robotic mission to explore mysterious corners of our solar system.

The finalists came from 12 proposals for the mission, called New Frontiers-4. (It will be the fourth in the series of New Frontiers missions.)

NASA will choose a winner in 2019, granting it $850 million and a free rocket ride into the solar system, at a combined value of about $1 billion.

One of the finalists, named Dragonfly, is a lander that would head to Saturn's largest moon, Titan. The other, nicknamed Caesar (full name Comet Astrobiology Exploration Sample Return), would go to the Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet and collect samples.

Each team now has about one year and $4 million to finalize its concept.

Here's a glimpse at what the Dragonfly mission  which would attempt to follow up on and advance the Cassini probe's groundbreaking 13-year exploration of Saturn  might look like:

Dragonfly is a dual-quadcopter lander built and tested at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory. It would take advantage of the thick atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon to fly to a variety of locations, some hundreds of miles apart.

"Titan is a unique ocean world," Elizabeth Turtle, a planetary scientist leading the Dragonfly mission proposal, said during a NASA teleconference on Wednesday. "It has lakes and seas of liquid and methane, and rivers that flow across the surface."

The radioisotope-powered lander would sample materials and determine surface composition to investigate Titan's organic chemistry and habitability, as well as monitor atmospheric and surface conditions, capture images of landforms to investigate geological processes, and perform seismic studies.

Turtle said the probe would arrive on Titan in 2034 and radio data back to Earth as it hopped from location to location.

The other option, Caesar, would fly back to a comet that the European Space Agency explored in 2004 with its Rosetta mission.

The Caesar probe would grab a sample from the nucleus of Churyumov-Gerasimenko in hopes of learning about how those materials contributed to the early Earth, including its oceans and life.

"They're the most primitive building blocks of planets," said Steve Squyres, the Caesar mission leader, adding that comets carry volatile ices that aren't found anywhere else in the solar system.

"They obtain materials that date from the very earliest moments of solar-system formation and even before," Squyres said.

If picked, Squyres said, the spacecraft would collect at least a 100-gram sample of the comet to come back to Earth in capsules.

"The sample will arrive back on Earth on the 20th of November 2038  so mark your calendars," he said.

The spacecraft-manufacturing company Orbital ATK would manufacture the Caesar probe, which would use solar-electric propulsion.
The Associated Press reported one lawyer, Asaad Heikal to have said that the presidential hopeful, Colonel Ahmed Konsowa himself was present in the court when his sentence was announced.

READ MORE: Wild Kangaroo chases man and his dog in a woody area

The 42-year-old military mans conviction follows his announcement on December 2 that he would be running against incumbent President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi.
READ MORE: RSPCA has initiated a search for owner of this dog for questioning

The bill generated a heated debate in parliament and on Tuesday, the speaker had to suspend proceedings and further suspended six other MPs who had raised objection to the bill.

The reason assigned to their suspension was that they allegedly conducted themselves in a disorderly manner, after the lawmakers raise concerns about the presence of military men who had stormed the house for suspicious reasons.

Africanspotlight.com reported that the legislators blocked by police were attempting to enter parliament to serve court documents on House speaker Rebecca Kadaga, who was presiding over the debate.

It said the document called on her to appear in court at 2 p.m. in respect of the irregular suspension of our members of parliament, independent lawmaker Wilfred Niwagaba said prior to his detention.
Marrying the three women at the same time in the same ceremony was not what took people aback, because it was not unprecedented. The shocking aspect of the entire development was the fact that two of the wives are blood sisters.

READ MORE: Army officer jailed 6 years for declaring his presidential ambitions

Tuko.co.ke reported Ssemanda to have said that the women themselves were well aware of his poor financial standing and yet resolved to be with him.

"They knew that I am not doing very well financially before they got married to me, but they still love me," the hot cake said.

Ssemanda wedded Salmat Naluwugge, 48, Jameo Nakayiza, 27, and Mastulah Namwanje, 24, all of whom reportedly have children already.

READ MORE: Wild Kangaroo chases man and his dog in a woody area
The Irish Sun reported that Matt Murphy, 85, and Michael O'Sullivan, 58, have been close friends for over 29 years. Michael acts as Matt's carer, and he wants to appreciate him by bequeathing his properties to Michael.

READ MORE: Army officer jailed 6 years for declaring his presidential ambitions

However, the biggest headache for the two friends now is the fact that Michael would have to pay 33 percent of the value of the inheritance to the Ireland government, in fulfilment of the Ireland's capital acquisitions tax laws.

Necessity, they say is the mother of invention. The duo have hatched a plan to marry, as the controversial law excludes gifts or inheritance given to a spouse or civil partner.

Some news portals have quoted Michael as having revealed that, Matt said to me look, Im going to leave you the house.

I said its a nice idea, but because of tax reasons, Id have to pay half to the Government. But once we are married, Im his spouse then, and if one partner dies, the house automatically goes to the other partner.

READ ALSO: Wild Kangaroo chases man and his dog in a woody area

I love Matt, but not in a [romantic] way. Im his carer now and as Matt said to me one day, it isnt a bad idea. Michael said.
In an interview with Accra-based Starr FM, she argued that the boys would not be reformed if they are made to serve a jail term.

However, the humiliation that comes with being publicly caned would deter others better than a prison term.

READ ALSO: The sad story of 17yr old who sleeps with over 10 men each night

I dont think prison will change them. It even hardens them because we dont have the kind of atmosphere where people can really reflect, and then show remorse for what they have donebut when you are publicly punished I believe that will make you betterI believe [flogging] them will help.

The MP blamed the lack of parental care for the boys alleged actions.

The things that could have urged the young ones to indulge in this kind of sodomy as I call it is either they were under the influence of alcohol or were on drugs.

But like I said, they are showing their wild edge, they have started having feelings and therefore were examining their feelings and directed it [there] because they dont have the right parental care to tell them that there are certain things that we dont do in our society, she added.

The 3 suspects are expected to appear before a Juvenile court today (Wednesday).

In a video circulating on social media, 5 young men were seen forcibly having sex with a teenage girl.

The young men are seen taking turns to rape the teenager.

READ ALSO: Mysterious stone with cross design discovered at Gomoa Ojobi

At a media briefing in Kumasi in the Public Relations Ashanti Regional Police Command, ASP Juliana Obeng confirmed the arrest and said the incident happened Bantama.

The command has arrested 3 suspects. The arrest of these suspects was made on Saturday, 16th December 2017 at their various homes at Bantama. The three suspects and their 4 accomplices who are currently at large are all students.Two of the 3 arrested are in SHS 1 and the other in JHS 3.

According to the prosecution, the case, which was supposed to have been heard on Tuesday in-camera by a Juvenile Court, had to be postponed to today [Wednesday], due to the absence of some relevant stakeholders expected to be in the at the in-camera sitting.
They were remanded by an Asokwa District court presided by his Lorship Peter Oppong-Boahen.

The suspects will re-appear in court on Wednesday, December 27.

READ ALSO: 4 boys gang rape teenage girl

The three were arrested after the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service launched an investigations into the matter.

They were among seven teenagers who were seen on video gang-raping another teenager at Bantama in Kumasi last Friday.

The police are also on the heels of four other teenagers whose identities are known but who have gone into hiding.

READ MORE: Police arrest 3 over gang rape video

The seven suspects attend either senior high or junior high schools at Bantama.
Abaase is a farming community near Asamankese in the Eastern Region.

READ ALSO: Police arrest 3 over gang rape video

The incident occurred Tuesday.

A resident told Accra-based Starr FM, that they suspect the deceased was raped by her killer.

According to Yaw Charles, when the youth rushed to the crime scene, they saw the underwear of the deceased stained with blood. He said there were signs of a struggle at the crime scene.

Meanwhile, the suspect who has been arrested Yaw Donkor is a native of Akanteng, a nearby village.

The Asamankese Police is yet to comment on the issue.
Mr Choaki discovered what he described as a miracle in November 2017 during a process of breaking the rock with machines.

He narrated that in the process of breaking the stone, a greater force pushed him.

Although the machine was used for the cutting of the rock, he said the particular stone would not break and, therefore, he had to use his manpower to remove the stones from the area.

READ ALSO: Promotion exam papers of police leak

He said he knows little about Christ and miracles but he believes this is an act of God.

I do not have much knowledge about the Christian religion, but what I can say to Ghana and the world at large is that we need to wake up again to know exactly where we are going and this is a good sign for Ghana. What we found in November was a big miracle. God has really blessed Ghana.

The black and white granite stone, with the brown and red cross colour, releases fragrance when water is poured on the cross.

Subsequently, the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mrs Catherine Ablema Afeku, visited the site to inspect the miracle.

READ ALSO: Female resident of Abaase butchered to death

She said the ministry would deploy technical experts, including archaeologists and a geologist, to examine the formation of the granite stone for further study and action.

She said the ministry will prepare a suitable site for the stone. She intimated that the site, when completed, can serve as a tourist attraction and a pilgrimage centre.

We would like to lift it from here, prepare a suitable and decorated place for it, while we provide visitors information, including the time it was discovered, how long it has been and other vital information for tourists.
READ MORE: Here are the MPs who absented themselves from Parliament

Koku Anyidoho, deputy General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has accused him of surrounding himself with inexperienced appointees.

According to him, the president has surrounded himself with family, friends and cronies who are inexperienced and committing blunders and mistakes that could have been prevented.Below are the instances where Nana Addo appointed people of family or friends in his government.

The Ramadan family

The President swore-in Alhaji Ahmed Ramadan as Ghanas Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The former Peoples National Convention (PNC) Chairman, is also the father of Ghanas second lady Samira Bawumia.

Also, there is Abu Ramadan, son of Alhaji Ramadan, who is currently the deputy boss at the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO).

That makes it two members of the Ramadan family getting appointments in the Nana Addo government.

Yaw Osafo-Marfo and sons

Senior Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo falls within the category of people whose families have had multiple persons appointed into the Nana Addo government.

The former banker has his sons also occupying top positions in the current government.

First, there is Kofi Bosompem Osafo-Marfo, who is the Deputy Director General in-charge of Investment & Development at the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT).

Then there is Kwadwo Gyamfi Osafo Marfo, who occupies the position of Deputy Director, in-charge of Cyber Security at NCA.

Gloria Akuffo and Ken Ofori-Atta. Mike Ocquaye and his son Mike Ocquaye Junior have been appointed to serve in the government of Nana Addo.

Daniel Akuffo, junior brother of Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Gloria Akuffo, was also being endorsed to join the government as the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Shai-Osudoku District in the Greater Accra Region.

Both Daniel and Gloria, are first cousins of President Akufo-Addo, from Akropong-Akuapim in the Eastern Region.

Works and Housing Minister, Atta Akyea, Minister for Roads and Highways  Kwesi Amoako Atta, Executive Secretary to the President, Nana Asante Bediatuo are reported to be friends and family members of the President.
The two suspects were picked up in connection with the disappearance of one Osei Kwaku.

The two suspects, Kwame Adom Boakye and George Appiah Kubi, a Research and Elections Officer and deputy Constituency Organizer of the NPP, are alleged to be behind the disappearance of the NPP officer.

Osei Kwaku, according to the police, was last seen in the company of the suspects with four stout men who seized and bundled him into a vehicle.

This was at an ongoing polling station registration exercise at Kokobra in the Ashanti region.

They are reported to have picked the polling station officer to assist them to locate an NPP polling station register.

The two suspects said the polling officer has not been seen since the incident happened.
Her first speech was on the works of Ghana Consolidated Diamond Limited which is in her constituency.

Her address was received with great enthusiasm from Members of Parliament.

READ ALSO: Here are the MPs who absented themselves from Parliament

She made the headlines earlier this year when she gave a speech at Ghanas 60th-anniversary celebrations. Many called it a dismissal speech.

After her submission on the floor, she received a mighty round of applause and huge support from fellow members of government's legislative body.

Mercy Gyamfi beat the then MP for Akwatia Baba Jamal of the NDC to represent her people in Parliament.
Never before used, article seven proceedings are seen as a "nuclear option" against an EU member state as they can lead -- albeit at the end of a complex process -- to a suspension of voting rights at the European Council.

Poland's parliament last week adopted new reforms allowing it to choose members of a body designed to protect judicial independence and reinforce political control over the Supreme Court.

As well as heavy criticism from Brussels, the reforms have sparked street protests in Poland and concern from the US State Department.

The initial phase that the EU's commission, the bloc's executive arm, may set in motion on Wednesday allows member states to "determine that there is a clear risk of a serious breach" of the rule of law. Such a ruling would need the backing of 22 states.

Any possible sanctions would only come at a second stage and would need unanimous support of all EU members -- apart from Poland.

Hungary has already said it would veto such a move, making sanctions unlikely, but Brussels is hoping the start of proceedings will have significant symbolic power.

'It must be done'

The commission, which has the backing of Paris and Berlin, has refused to confirm that any decision has been taken.

But France's Europe Minister Nathalie Loiseau said Tuesday that "unless something happens by tomorrow, there is a strong likelihood the procedure will begin".

"It must be done. France is supporting the commission in this step completely," she said, even if French President Emmanuel Macron has said he hopes Poland will change course under its new PM.

The right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) government in Warsaw, which began making changes to the judiciary after coming to power in late 2015, insists its reforms are needed to combat corruption and overhaul the judicial system still haunted by the communist era.

Warsaw and the EU have clashed over the reforms for more than a year with little result. Poland has refused to implement the "recommendations" from Brussels, defending its right to clean up what it says is a corrupt judicial "caste".

"I am firmly convinced that sovereign states -- and Europe must be a Europe of sovereign states -- have an absolute right to reform their judicial systems," Morawiecki said last week, sticking to the line of his eurosceptic predecessor Beata Szydlo.

In the face of this doggedness, the commission has been threatening to trigger article seven for months, but given that the threat of sanctions is no more than theoretical, the EU is trying to come up with other ways of getting Poland to comply.

One idea is to link access to European funding for major infrastructure projects to respect for EU values and rulings.
A court last month increased Pistorius's sentence for murdering Reeva Steenkamp to 13 years in the latest stage of a long court battle since his trial in 2014.

Pistorius shot dead Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine's Day in 2013 when he fired four times through the door of his bedroom toilet, later saying that he thought she was an intruder.

"We respect the law. It is Oscar Pistorius's constitutional right to appeal his sentence. The law must take its course," Tania Koen, a lawyer for the Steenkamp family, told AFP by email.

Pistorius was originally convicted of culpable homicide -- the equivalent of manslaughter -- but his conviction was upgraded to murder on appeal.

Pistorius also tried to take the murder conviction to the Constitutional Court, South Africa's highest tribunal, but it refused to hear the matter.

The year before he killed Steenkamp, Pistorius became the first double-amputee to race at the Olympics when he competed at the London 2012 games.
The country has been thrown into a state of shock following allegations by the Minority that expatriates were charged as high as $100,000 just to sit by the president during last Fridays Ghana Expatriate Business Awards.

The subject has since generated huge debate among Ghanaians, with certain quarters calling on the Trade Ministry to come clear on the matter.

However, responding to the issue, Director of Communications at the Presidency Eugene Arhin says President Akufo-Addo is not aware that expatriates were made to pay before sitting beside him.

READ ALSO: Weird Police arrest and detain MPs for opposing a bill seeking to make Museveni rule Uganda for life

We want to be clear that we heard it just like almost everybody from the MP for Asawase on the floor of parliament and also through the media, Arhin told Joy FM.

The president had no knowledge whatsoever about the fact that people were being charged $100,000 to sit by him on a table, he had no idea whatsoever.
Here's what has been announced so far:

AT&T

"Once tax reform is signed into law, AT&T plans to invest an additional $1 billion in the United States in 2018 and pay a special $1,000 bonus to more than 200,000 AT&T US employees  all union-represented, non-management and front-line managers," apress release said. "If the president signs the bill before Christmas, employees will receive the bonus over the holidays."

At a White House event on Wednesday afternoon, President Donald Trump called AT&T's plan "pretty good."

Boeing

Boeing released a statement announcing "immediate commitments for an additionalin investments that will move forward as a result of the new tax law."

They are:

for corporate giving, with funds used to support demand for employee gift-match programs and for investments in Boeing's focus areas for charitable giving: in education, in our communities, and for veterans and military personnel.

for workforce development in the form of training, education, and other capabilities development to meet the scale needed for rapidly evolving technologies and expanding markets.

for "workplace of the future" facilities and infrastructure enhancements for Boeing employees.

Boeing CEO

"For Boeing, the reforms enable us to better compete on the world stage and give us a stronger foundation for the investment in innovation, facilities and skills that will support our long-term growth."

Fifth Third Bancorp

Fifth Third Bancorp said it would raise its minimum hourly wage for all employees to $15, with 3,000 hourly employees benefiting from the hike. The bank also said it would $1,000

"We want to invest in our most important asset  our people," said Fifth Third President and CEOGreg Carmichael. "Our employees drive our reputation, our business and our success."

From the release:

"Newly passed tax legislation includes a reduction in corporate tax rates designed to spur economic growth. Carmichael said the tax cut allowed the Bank the opportunity to reevaluate its compensation structure and share some of those benefits with its talented and dedicated workforce."

Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo said it would raise its hourly minimum wage 11% to $15 from $13.50. Additionally, the bank plans to donate $400 million to community and nonprofit organizations in 2018 and will target 2% of its after-tax profits for corporate philanthropy beginning in 2019.

Comcast NBC Universal

Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast NBC Universal, said the company would award $1,000 special bonuses to more than 100,000 eligible frontline and non-executive employees following tax reform and the repeal of net neutrality.

Roberts also pledged to spend $50 billion over the next five years investing in infrastructure, saying that the investments would "add thousands of new direct and indirect jobs."

Bank of America

Bank of America will pay employees making up to $150,000 a year a special one-time bonus of $1,000, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing an internal memo from CEO Brian Moynihan.

Sinclair Broadcast Group

Sinclair Broadcast Group announced in a Friday press release that it will award almost 9,000 employees a special $1,000 bonus.

"We are grateful to our President and legislature for passing the landmark Tax Cuts andJobs Act and are excited about the benefits it will provide for our countrys economy, ourCompany, and our employees, Sinclair President and CEO Chris Ripley said in a statement "We recognize that our employees are our most valuable resource, truly appreciate their combined achievements for our Company and look forward to a very bright future."

Texas Capital Bank

Texas Capital Bank on Friday announced it will give a majority of its employees a special $1,000 bonus following the passage of the GOP tax overhaul.

"This investment in our people is a thank you for their hard work and dedication, CEO Keith Cargill said in a statement. "Our clients have come to expect the very best service and in order for us to deliver the highest quality consistently, every link in our chain must be strong. This bonus reaffirms the respect we have for the important role each of our colleagues play in delivering world class service to our clients."
According to market reports, the cement maker sold 550 million shares at N225.7 each in a one-off stock market deal valued at $350 million (N107 billion). Although details of the investor(s) are currently not available, but the buying offer was coordinated by CSL Stockbrokers Ltd.

Dangote Cement Limited (DCL) is the biggest company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). Its stock value is one-third of the market's total capitalization.

The shares of DCL was listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in October 2010 at a price N135 per share. As at close of trade on December 19, 2017, its price stood at N238.99 per share.

Also Read: Dangote Cement moves to acquire biggest cement producer in South Africa

Also, the business accounts for over 75 percent of Dangote's wealth. Within the last five years, Dangote Cement has expanded to nine other African countries.

The deal is expected to increase the market capitalisation of NSE and positively impact on the end of year results of the bourse.

Why is Dangote selling his stake in the cement business?

Africas biggest cement maker has been selling small stakes to increase its free float (a number of his shares that could be traded on the stock market). On July 2017,128.5 million of its shares were sold at N210 each.

A similar deal was also struck with an unknown foreign investor in August. Dangote sold 416 million shares (2.3%) of its cement subsidiaries to a foreign investor for $236 million (N86.1 billion).

Dangote is currently shielding some weight in his investment portfolio to accommodate his proposed refinery business. Market analysts also noted that he may be transferring some risks in his businesses to other willing investors with these deals.
In a recount following November's Virginia elections, Virginia House candidate Shelly Simonds, a Democrat, was found to have won her election over Republican incumbent David Yancey by just one vote, with a final tally of 11,608 to 11,607.

Incredibly, that single vote will likely prove to be the difference in which party controls the Virginia House. Ahead of the results, Republicans were set to hold a 51-to-49 majority, with Yancey earlier projected as the winner. But with Simonds now determined to be the winner, the House has a 50-50 split.

On Wednesday, a three-judge panel has to certify the results. But already, Virginia Republicans conceded that they lost their majority.

"After a close recount it appears the citizens of the 94th District have elected Shelly Simonds to the Virginia House of Delegates, pending confirmation by a three judge panel," a statement from Virginia Republican House leadership said. "We congratulate Delegate-elect Simonds and welcome her to this historic body. We also thank Delegate David Yancey for his distinguished service."

Jordan Pascale, a reporter for the Virginian Pilot, noted that there were no contested ballots.
An erroneous tweet from The Hill sparked a feud between White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu of California on Monday, in which the two officials accused the other of lying and spending too much time on Twitter.

In a now-removed tweet linking to a story on the Republican Party's tax reform efforts, The Hill tweeted: "Huckabee Sanders: GOP 'begged' Dems to work on tax reform."

In the article, Sanders is quoted in an interview on "Fox and Friends" saying President Donald Trump "would've been happy" to work with Democrats to pass the Republican Party's tax code reform that has since passed in the House.

"That's something that Democrats shouldn't need to be begged to be a part of," Sanders reportedly said. "They should've been begging and banging down the door of the building behind me to be part of this process and to be part of helping more Americans be more successful."

The Hill has since published a new tweet with the corrected title: "Huckabee Sanders: Dems should have been 'begging' to participate in tax reform."

Lieu shared The Hill's erroneous tweet before its removal, adding: "Dear @PressSec: You don't serve in Congress. I do. And I can say with absolute certainty that you are lying."

Nearly an hour later, Lieu replied to a MarketWatch columnist who suggested that "everybody knows she's lying": "That is a fair point," Lieu said.

Around two hours later, Sanders quoted Lieu's first tweet and fired back.

"Dear @tedlieu - I don't serve in Congress, but I can read," Sanders said on Twitter. "If you had read the story, not an incorrect tweet, you would see that what I said was Dems should be begging to help Americans keep more of their money."

"You should spend less time tweeting, more time doing your job," Sanders continued.

Lieu later admitted to his flawed tweet and deleted it, but included a partisan quip in another statement: "Dear @PressSec: If the Hill tweet was incorrect, then my tweet based on it would also be incorrect," Lieu tweeted.

"Unlike the Trump Administration, I am confident enough to admit errors," Lieu continued. "Also, I dare you to give the same tweeting advice you gave me to your boss."
The GOP is on the brink of passing its massive tax reform bill.

On Tuesday, the House and Senate voted in favor of the bill. If a last-minute technical vote passes  after the House revotes on the bill on Wednesday  President Donald Trump could sign the bill as soon as Wednesday.

The bill would cut the corporate tax rate to 21% from 35% and overhaul the way individuals pay for taxes. If passed into law, it would also make significant changes to the Affordable Care Act, a bill the GOP unsuccessfully tried to repeal earlier this year.

Ending the individual mandate

The bill would repeal the individual mandate, the provision in the ACA that requires individuals to have health insurance or face a penalty fee.

Without the individual mandate, healthy people may opt out of getting insurance, and the number of uninsured Americans would increase by 13 million by 2027, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Premiums on the individual market are expected to increase about 10% a year over the next decade without the mandate.

The CBO also said that the insurance markets in "almost all areas" of the country would remain stable.

The repeal of the individual mandate would also have a small effect on the employer market as well, with 3 million fewer people opting into employer coverage.
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!
More than 8,053 store closures were announced this year. Mall traffic has dropped, and retailers such as Payless, Rue21, and Toys R Us have struggled to compete with ecommerce rivals.

For some companies, the pressure became too much. A growing list of retailers have declared bankruptcy.

Here are the most notable retail bankruptcies to happen in 2017:

Charming Charlie

The accessories retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December. Charming Charlie is seeking court approval to close 100 stores across the US, The Chicago Tribune reported.

Styles for Less

In November, the budget teen apparel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company said in a filing at the time it had already closed 55 stores, USA Today reported.

Toys R Us

The toy retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in mid-September.

Since it was taken private in 2005, Toys R Us has struggled to compete with both its ecommerce and its brick-and-mortar competitors, like Target and Walmart, that have built up their online business.

Aerosoles

Aerosoles Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in mid-September.

The women's shoe retailer said that it planned to significantly reduce the number of its stores in an effort to better compete with ecommerce rivals. Aerosoles had 300 stores around the world at the time it declared bankruptcy.

Vitamin World

The vitamins and nutritional supplements chain announced plans to file for bankruptcy in September. The 345-location chain said it hoped to end certain expensive lease agreements in restructuring.

Perfumania

The perfume company filed for bankruptcy in late August. In filings, Perfumania announced plans to close 64 of its 226 stores.

Gymboree

The children's clothing retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June. In July, Gymboree confirmed that it would be closing 350 of its 1,281 stores.

Alfred Angelo Bridal

The bridal company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in July. The chain abruptly closed all of its stores, leaving many brides without the dresses they had purchased.

True Religion

The denim company filed for bankruptcy in July.

"After a careful review, we are taking an important step to reduce our debt, reinvigorate True Religion's iconic brand and position the company for future growth and success," CEO John Ermatinger said in a statement at the time.

Rue21

The teen clothing retailer filed for bankruptcy in May.

Rue 21 started closing 400 stores in April, and it has said it is considering closing more.

"These actions are being undertaken with the goal of strengthening the Company's balance sheet, achieving a more efficient cost structure, and concentrating resources on a tighter retail footprint in order to pave the best path forward for Rue21," CEO Melanie Cox wrote in a statement.

Payless

Payless announced it April it had filed for bankruptcy and would immediately close 400 stores in the US and Puerto Rico.

The shoe retailer had struggled to grow sales as mall traffic declined. Payless spent months in talks with lenders over the best way to restructure, at one point reportedly considering a restructuring plan that included closing as many as 1,000 stores.

RadioShack

General Wireless Operations Inc, RadioShack's parent company, announced it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March. RadioShack itself had declared bankruptcy two years earlier, in 2015.

Gander Mountain

The outdoor goods retailer filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March. In May, Camping World Holdings, Inc. acquired the company and announced plans to rebrand the locations as "Gander Outdoors and Overtons" stores.

Gordmans

The department chain, which has more than 100 locations in 22 states, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March with plans to liquidate assets. In April, another regional department chain, Stage Stores, purchased roughly 50 stores and Gordmans' inventory.

Hhgregg

The appliances and electronics retailer filed for bankruptcy protection in March after years of declining sales.

BCBG

BCBG Max Azria Group LLC filed for bankruptcy in March. The retailer said it would keep stores open as it restructured in an effort to better compete with fashion rivals.

"The steps we are taking now, to address the shift in customer shopping patterns and the growth of online shopping, will allow us to focus on our partner relationships, digital, ecommerce, selected retail locations, and wholesale and licensing arrangements," Marty Staff, acting interim chief executive of the company, said in the statement.

Wet Seal

Wet Seal was one of a number of teen retailers struggling to grow sales in 2017.

The retailer filed for bankruptcy protection in February. Wet Seal had filed for bankruptcy once previously, in 2015.

The Limited

The women's clothing retailer shut down all 250 of its stores in early January, shortly before filing for bankruptcy.
I'm the kind of person that likes to travel light. Really light. Usually when I head out on vacation, I make it a game with myself to see how little I can pack.

Last year, when I took off a few weeks to visit Mexico and Cuba, I narrowed down everything to a small hiking daypack that doubles as a camera bag.

The only reason I was able to pull that off was because I had recently discovered travel wear clothing brand ExOfficio's Give-N-Go boxers. The underwear, which retails for $26 (or $16-18 on sale), isn't cheap for a single undergarment, but I have found that it's undoubtedly worth it.

The underwear is made of a nylon/lycra mesh fabric that is somehow durable, breezy, and comfortable. The mesh is surprisingly soft and light and dries quickly.

In fact, that's what makes it such an incredible piece of travel wear. You can wash it in the sink at the end of the day with a little detergent (or hand soap if you're short), hang it to dry, and in a few hours its ready to go.

It's also treated to reduce odors, which is key when you are spending your day hiking or running around a city.

On that trip to Mexico and Cuba, I ended up bringing two pairs so I could switch off  giving each a wash every other day  but I could have easily just brought one. A bonus: Because the fabric is mesh and dries quickly, it can double as a swimsuit in a pinch; as it did for me on a hike in the Sierra Norte Mountains.
Former Ivy League admissions directors say it's harder than ever to get in.

"Admissions have gotten more and more competitive in the past decade," Angela Dunnham, a college admissions counselor at InGenius Prep and former assistant director of admissions at Dartmouth College, told Business Insider via email. "In addition to the sheer number of applicants applying, the expectations for candidates have increased."

The steady uptick of college applicants, especially at elite schools, is stark, driven in part by the emergence of Common App, which allows students to apply to many schools at once.

Take, for example, an article in the Harvard Crimson about the acceptance rate for the class of 2000. "The class was chosen among a pool of 18,190 applicants, making Harvard's admission rate a paltry 10.9 percent  the lowest in College history," The Crimson wrote.
The movie producer Mo' Abudu revealed this on her Twitter account on Wednesday, December 20, 2017.

"We are riding high! All glory to God. Because when God says YES!! Nobody can say No!! We have now hit N100m in 5 days!!

"This is another industry record being broken! Incredible. Thank you so much Nigeria, thank you so much Africa! With God all things are truly possible."

The movie which had its world premiere on Sunday, December 10, 2017, at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, featured the likes of Banky W, Adesua Etomi, Ireti Doyle, Patience Ozokwor as some of its casts.

ALSO READ: 7 things to love and hate about sequel

Check out red carpet moments of Wedding Party 2 World Premiere
Nigeria's youth population (more than half of the country) has surely been up to a lot.

This year some attention was paid to drug abuse in Nigeria. In 2017, mainstream Nigeria got a glimpse of how the booming drug culture. Even the Nigerian Senate talked about the consumption of codeinein the country, especially in the Northern region. That's to show you how serious got.

There was nothing more chilling than the first-hand narration of a young, male Nigerian who gave an account of how he almost overdosed on Tramadol and Rophynol. His story provides a scary insight into what is happening.

2017 witnessed more countries legalize or decriminalize marijuana including the African country of Lesotho. While other African countries are considering to legalize it, Nigeria still remains silent about it. This hasn't deterred people from smoking weed. Within this year, we have found out that Nigerian women have joined their counterparts around the world in smoking more marijuana.

While marijuana is mainstream, the synthetic marijuana known as 'spice' or 'black mamba' made its entry this year. The drug moved on the streets despite its harmful effects.

With regards to sex, the hookup culture thrived as ever before. With Tinder and special WhatsApp group, millennials have commoditized sex with the push of just a button. Also, underground porn scene became more lively with the entrance of content providers such as Kingtblakhoc.

Young Nigerians are not shying away from sex, whether as participants, consumers and observers. Unfortunately, consent and rape were big issues in 2017. Stories of sexual molestation and harassment were still present on our timelines. These showed us that little progress had been made from previous years.

On the political side of things, the Not Too Young Run bill was passed by the Nigerian Senate. The bill lowered the age limit for various political offices in the land. This move was highly praised. Whether Nigerian youths will take advantage of this opportunity is a matter for 2018 and 2019.

ALSO READ: 5 things Nigerian millennials hate

Overall, this was an interesting year for Nigerian millennials. Not only did big names such as Wizkid, Davido and Tekno get more international acclaim, but up and comers like the skating crew Waffles n Cream continued to ride the international wave.
Anyanwu stated this while contributing to a point of order raised by the deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu on the matter on Wednesday, December 20, 2017.

He said the acting EFCC chairman, Ibrahim Magu was rejected twice by the Senate thus should have been relieved of his duty by the President.

He expressed displeasure over the recent activities of the EFCC under Magus watch.

I want to ask a question, The Imo lawmaker began.

EFCC as its stand today, does it have a chairman? Because I knew in this chamber, the head of EFCC was rejected during screening because of poor performance and yet he has been there has chairman.

There was a businessman from Imo state that was killed in EFCC custody. The body is still in the mortuary till today. These are the kind of things we are seeing in this country; why must we allow it to continue?

We have been talking about promoting made in Nigeria goods. This man manufactures vehicles, he has over 5, 000 people in his employment, he has international partners. What are you projecting before them? That he is a criminal? If we as Senate allow this to continue, there is nothing else that will ever work.

We rejected somebody here, yet he is allowed. Are there no other Nigerians who are credible to fight corruption? Every small thing, EFCC. Tomorrow, if a wife refuses to give his man sex, they will go and call EFCC. It will get to that point, he added.

ALSO READ: EFCC says Innoson chairman hired thugs to attack them

Similarly, Senator Bwacha Emmanuel representing Taraba state condemned the alleged snooping of wife Innoson boss by the EFCC.

As a member of this Senate, I sponsor a motion for the to call for support of the anti-corruption war but as I listen to this story. If truly the wife of Innocent Chukwuma was snooped by a member of EFCC, something has to be done. Somebody must be held responsible; somebody must lose his job. Otherwise, well be wasting our time here, the lawmaker said.

In his remarks, Senate President Bukola Saraki described the situation as a case of mockery.

As a society that we are all planning that our country to be civilized, I think this does not speak well of the country. How a private commercial transaction has now become the focus of the EFCC.

I think this area is the focus. Whether he is owing or not, I think we must be seen protecting the fundamental rights of. Ive never seen when FBI interferes between and , or the financial crime agency in UK intervenes. We are just making a mockery of ourselves and we really should be able to do the right thing, he added.
According to a statement released by Deputy Director Public Relations 8 Division Nigerian Army, Colonel Timothy Antigha, on Wednesday, December 20, 2017, the operation has resulted in the rescue of over 100 elderly men, women and children held captive by the terrorists.

He also revealed that vehicles, arms and ammunition, as well as assorted equipment were recovered from the terrorists after confrontations with soldiers.

According to him, only 6 soldiers have sustained various injuries in the confrontations with the group, with no casualties recorded.

The statement read, "In continuation of Operation DEEP PUNCH 2, designed to smoke out Boko Haram terrorists inhabiting remote islands in Lake Chad basin lying within Nigerian territory, troops of 8 Division, Nigerian Army, on Operation LAFIYA DOLE, supported by soldiers of the Armed Forces Strike Group have inflicted heavy casualty on Boko Haram terrorists.

"The operation which commenced about 2 weeks ago was proceeded by coordinated air and artillery bombardment of islands and localities occupied by terrorists, and from where they sneak into Magumeri, Kauram and other locations to loot property and attack security personnel and villagers.

"So far, 20 terrorists have been killed, captured 17 others, while over 100 elderly men, women and children have been rescued.

"Preliminary investigation has revealed that a large number of the rescued persons were held against their will and forced to work in farms under life threatening conditions and penurious wages.

"More investigation and interviews will be conducted before the rescued persons are handed over for further action.

"The operation which is ongoing has yielded handsomely as terrorists abandon vehicles, arms and ammunition, as well as assorted equipment when troops swooped on them.

"The troops also recovered 1 Mercedes Benz Truck, 3 Toyota Land Cruiser Gun Trucks, 5 AK-47 rifles, 3 Fabrique Nationals (FN) rifles, 2 G3 rifles and 1 Pump Action rifle.

"Other items include 1 Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) tube, 2 Bombs, 2 Very High Frequency (VHF) Radios and 1 Night Vision Goggle.

"The troops also recovered 55 Rounds of 5.56 X 45mm ammunition, 5 Bangalore Torpedo, two 120mm Mortar Bombs, 1000 Rounds of 7.62mm Ball Metal Link Ammunition, 55 Rounds of 7.62mm Ammunition and 108 Rounds of 12.7mm Ammunition with links, as well as 2 memory cards, 2 Hydraulic Jacks and a 1.5 Amph Battery.

"It is heartwarming to note we have not lost any life among our troops so far. However, 6 soldiers sustained various injuries and have since been evacuated for prompt medical attention."

$1 billion fund to fight insurgency

The Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF)approved the withdrawal of $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account by the Federal Government to intensify the war against Boko Haram after a National Economic Council (NEC) meeting on December 14.

While speaking to State House correspondents after the meeting, Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki,said the approval was announced by Zamfara State governor, Abdulaziz Yari, who's the chairman of the NGF.

He said, "Pleased with the achievements that have been made till date in the fight against insurgency, particularly in the North East, the governors of Nigeria through their chairman announced at the NEC meeting that the governors have given permission to the Federal Government to spend the sum of $1bn on the fight of insurgency.

"This money is supposed to be taken from the Excess Crude Account.

"As you know, the issue of security, particularly with regard to the North East, is a very comprehensive response by federal forces.

"So, we expect that the contribution of the states to these efforts will cover the whole array of activities required to secure the country and counter insurgency.

"We expect that the amount will include but not limited to purchase of equipment, procuring intelligence and logistics and all what is required to ensure that we finally put an end to the scourge of insurgence."

Boko Haram menace

Since the insurgency of the terrorist group escalated after a 2009 crackdown by the military, Boko Haram, chiefly under the leadership of Abubakar Shekau, has been responsible for the death of over 20,000 people and the displacement of more than 2.5 million scattered across Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps across the country and its neighbours.
Amasa was reportedly barred from the ceremony for wearing an Hijab (an apparel worn by Muslim women as a symbol of modesty and privacy).

According to Premium Times, the House directed its Committees on Justice and Judiciary to look into the matter.

NAIJ also reports that the issue was brought to the floor of the House by Honourable Abubakar Danburam-Nuhu, who raised a motion accusing the Law School of infringing on Amasas fundamental rights.

Sultan of Sokoto condemns Law Schools action

Reports say the Sultan of Sokoto, Mohammad Saad Abubakar recently condemned the Nigerian Law Schools decision to stop Firdaus Amasa from being called to the bar.

The Sultan also added that the constitution is clear and that no Nigerian can be discriminated against and denied their right.

ALSO READ:

Firdaus Amasa vows to keep on fighting

Meanwhile, the lady in the eye of the storm, Firdaus Amasa, has vowed to continue her demand for Muslim ladies to be allowed to wear their hijab during their call to bar ceremony.

Amasa also said that she wants to change the narrative by giving her Muslim sisters the right to express their constitutional rights as enshrined in the constitution.
Firdaus who graduated from the University of Ilorin with a second class upper degree, relayed how she refused to take off her hijab which is a piece of clothing worn by Muslim women.

Her decision meant she was denied entry into the International Conference Center, Abuja, where the call to bar ceremony was held.

The implication is that Firdaus would have to wait to be certified as a practising lawyer in Nigeria because she wore a hijab.

Some have interpreted the incident as an infringement on her religious rightsas enshrined in the nations constitution.

Pulse has been speaking to Firdaus' law school classmates. Some craved anonymity for this story because of the sensitivity of the subject and for fear of incurring the wrath of the Islamic authorities.

These are their responses...

__________________________

Well, I feel she should have raised concerns about it during dinners in law school. I feel she should have done something about it earlier on while they were preparing us for call in our different campuses. The timing seems not cool at all, she knew all about the hijab thing before call so why has she been complying before and then suddenly decided it was during call she wanted to make a 'scene'? But then that's just my opinion.

Though Hijab is part of a Muslim sister's dressing, I feel that she should have been wise about it sha...

--Anon

_________________________

Law was made for man and not man for the law. However, disregard for laid down principles of practice will only lead us into a state of anarchy.

The Law profession is an old one with its own principles, rules and regulations. Aspirants and members are required to adhere strictly to these rules.

I do not consider the refusal to call the lady in question a breach of her fundamental rights as she gave up that right when she chose to aspire to join the bar. Her actions constitute a flagrant disregard for laid down professional principles and constituted authority.

It doesn't matter what she set out to achieve, the point is she was wrong in her approach and fell short of the condition precedent to her call.

 Paul

__________________________

I feel the action she took was uncalled for. Two wrongs never make a right.

--Eriye

__________________________

Well, I think the major issue is with understanding rules and complying with rules. Truth be told, the rule is not targeted at any religion as some folks have seem to put it. In the real sense, every adherent to any religious or cultural belief has had to make an adjustment for the purpose of being called to bar.

Assuming that Firdaus wanted to challenge the status quo, she could have written to the body of benchers about the rule before the call. The attempt to cause a friction at the time of entry to the call isn't only a disgraceful act, it is an act that shows she isn't fit and proper to be called to the bar.

However, the truth be told, it is not about any religion and I hope in the future, we must always learn to separate emotions from facts.

--Anon

_________________________

It's a right battle waged at the wrong time. Only God, not even the media support can help her. Our profession is something.

 Anon

__________________________

What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.. If it's indeed established that it's a law for hijab not to be allowed, then it shouldn't be.. But if it's made flexible then Christian fanatics should also be given similar leverage and allowance.
Fayose had immediately kicked against the decision when it was announced last week that governors had agreed that the federal government should withdraw the amount from the excess crude account.

Speaking with on Tuesday, December 19, 2017, Fayose said Ekiti should be given its own share of the $1 billion for its fight against hunger haram.

Ekiti State is expected to collect the sum of N4,772,836,647.08 when the fund is shared among the states.

Im not in support of $1 billion and will never be in support of it. In my state, we have agreed to go to court to contest this. It is our legitimate right, all accruals to the federation must be shared by the three tiers of government and for me to get justice I have to go to court, he said.

I filed the case in court as early as 12 noon today. I have options and I have said it expressly, I have gone to court I have taken appropriate steps because the money belongs to Ekiti people not to any other use.

I did not attend the meeting where the issue was discussed, even if I was part of the meeting I would have made it expressly clear that I will not support it. Every state has its own peculiarities in terms of security. Ekiti state has Hunger Haram hunger is everywhere. Whatever is in that money, for me we should share it, let everybody go and solve his own problem. I have challenges and they should give me my money. It is Ekiti money.

The governor further stressed that his battle against the decisions of other governors to approval the funds is not in his capacity as the chairman of PDP governors forum but solely as Ayo Fayose.

ALSO READ: See full details of what each state got from Paris Club Loan Refund

Governors Forum says approval of $1B will strengthen security

Meanwhile Gov. Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa has explained that the Governors Forums decision to grant Federal Government permission to utilize one billion Dollars from the Excess Crude Account for security was taken in good fate.
The two-day programme was organised by the Senate as part of the measures to address the drug use crisis in the country with a view to finding a lasting solution to it.

The Governor, who was represented by the Sokoto State Commissioner for Health, Dr Balarabe Kakale, said banning the syrup was necessary to check its indiscriminate use and rampant abuse by youth.

This is a straightforward message of the Sultan of Sokoto, and Gov.Tambuwal that there should be a total ban on syrups containing codeine, he said.

He said the call was necessary because the syrups that contained codeine were not life-saving drugs but drivers of drug abuse in the country.

Codeine syrups only push youths and married women to become drug addicts in the country because it is not a life-saving drug and the country can do without having it, the governor said.

Also, a renowned pharmacist with the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), Ahmed Gana, urged the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency in the three most affected states by drug abuse.

This, he said, would enable the government to establish rehabilitation centres to cater for drug abuse victims with a view to making them useful members of the society.
"Suspected Russian air strikes targeted several houses in Maarshurin," a rebel-held town in Idlib province, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

He said 13 members of a single family were among the dead.

Residents of Maarshurin were still working on Wednesday morning to clear rubble from buildings hit in the bombardment, an AFP photographer reported.

One had been completely flattened and blood stained the rubble.

"These are all civilian homes," said resident Zahed Abu Abdo.

The Observatory said more than 25 people were wounded in the strikes, some of whom were in critical condition.

The Britain-based war monitor relies on a network of sources inside Syria and says it determines whose planes carry out raids according to type, location, flight patterns and munitions used.

Russia has been carrying out air strikes in support of President Bashar al-Assad's government since 2015.

Idlib province is one of four regions of Syria which are supposed to be safe areas under a deal agreed by Russia, fellow regime ally Iran, and rebel backer Turkey in May.
Deputy chief executive of Turkish lender Halkbank, Mehmet Hakan Atilla, is in the dock accused of violating sanctions against Iran, bribery and money laundering.

But the most explosive aspect of the trial has been testimony from fellow accused, turned cooperating witness Reza Zarrab, who admitted being involved in the multi-billion-dollar gold-for-oil scheme to subvert US economic sanctions against Iran.

His testimony implicated former Turkish ministers and even President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the scheme, and identified 47-year-old Atilla as a key organizer.

"If you believe it then Mr Atilla is guilty," defense lawyer Victor Rocco told jurors on Tuesday. "But should you believe Mr Zarrab?"

That is the question jurors will now have to decide.

Zarrab, 34, was arrested by US authorities in March 2016 after jetting to Florida with his pop-star wife and child on a family holiday to Disney World. Shortly before the trial got underway, he cut an apparent plea bargain.

'Liar'

But in the words of Rocco, Zarrab is a "liar and a briber" who threw the book at Atilla only in the hope of himself avoiding a US prison sentence.

His client, he insisted, was an "honest, hard working man," who was "not corrupt" and "has never been bribed."

Atilla took the stand for two and a half days, denying that he had ever been in "any meeting where violating the sanctions were discussed."

But US prosecutor Michael Lockard called him "a man of big and little lies" who lied about everything from his grasp of English to what he knew about sanctions.

Atilla was Halkbank's "sanctions fixer," said fellow assistant US attorney Sidhardha Kamaraju, who alleged he took the risk of travelling to the United States in March 2017, after Zarrab's arrest, so certain was he of Turkish protection.

"He thought he was too big to jail," Kamaraju said.

Any conviction risks further straining relations between Erdogan and President Donald Trump, already damaged by rows over the Syria conflict and US prosecution of Turkish presidential bodyguards.
The two men, who have been held incommunicado since December 12, have been charged under a colonial-era Official Secrets Act for allegedly possessing documents relating to security forces in Rakhine State, where the military is accused of atrocities against Rohingya Muslims.

Their families, lawyers and colleagues from the international newswire have not been told where the two are, nor been allowed any contact with them.

"We expect the Myanmar authorities to ensure the full protection of their rights and to release the journalists as quickly as possible," the EU said in a statement on Tuesday, adding its voice to calls from the United Nations and the United States.

The pair had worked on Reuters' coverage of the Rohingya crisis in northern Rakhine, where a brutal military-led crackdown has pushed some 655,000 people from the Muslim minority to flee to Bangladesh.

"We are deeply concerned about their detention. We do not know their whereabouts, that is of concern also," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert sad in Washington.

"Today I want to make it clear that we're calling for their immediate release. ... I hope the government of Burma will let us know how they're doing and let the families know how they're doing."

UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein told AFP on Monday that the crackdown could possibly amount to "genocide".

The allegations are highly sensitive in Myanmar, where authorities have denied any abuse but blocked access to the conflict zone.

The military insists its crackdown was a proportionate response to Rohingya militants who attacked police posts in August, killing around a dozen officers.

The journalists were arrested after accepting a dinner invitation from police officers on the outskirts of Yangon.

Two policemen, who had returned from duty in northern Rakhine, have also been arrested.

All face maximum sentences of 14 years in prison.

Myanmar's government has not responded to requests for comment.

Reuters said Tuesday it had not been able to contact its employees since they disappeared.

"We and their families continue to be denied access to them or to the most basic information about their well-being and whereabouts," said Stephen J. Adler, Reuters editor-in-chief, adding that the pair were "innocent of any wrongdoing".

Sean Bain, a legal adviser with the International Commission of Jurists, said their situation "appears to constitute arbitrary detention".

At least 11 journalists have been arrested in Myanmar this year, despite hopes Suu Kyi's civilian government would usher in a new era of freedom in the former junta-run nation.

"The latest arrests have further terrified many journalists in the country," said Swe Win, a prominent Myanmar reporter who was detained earlier this year and is fighting his own online defamation case.
"When we talk about those referred to as 'the Kurds', they are in fact not just Kurds," Assad said in remarks released by the presidency on social media. "All those who work for a foreign country, mainly those under American command... are traitors".

"This is how we see these groups working for the Americans," he told Russian media and Syrian officials after receiving a large Russian delegation.

His comments prompted an angry response from the Kurdish-dominated SDF, which seized swathes of northern and eastern Syria from the Islamic State group in a months-long assault backed by US-led coalition air support.

"Bashar al-Assad and what's left of his regime are the last people with the right to talk of treachery," the SDF said in a statement.

"It was the regime that flung the country's doors wide open to hordes of foreign terrorists from across the world."

The SDF also accused the regime of freeing "terrorists" from its prisons so they could "shed the blood of Syrians of all stripes".

The Syrian opposition has long accused Damascus of releasing extremists from its prisons in the early months of the uprising in a bid to turn the largely peaceful movement into an armed conflict.

Uneasy face-off

Assad had criticised the semi-autonomous Kurds in the past, but his latest comments were harsher than any since the war broke out in 2011 with demonstrations brutally crushed by state security forces.

The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which form the backbone of the SDF, have largely avoided armed clashes with the regime throughout Syria's war, which has killed more than 340,000 people dead and displaced millions since it broke out in 2011.

But the Kurds, who make up some 15 percent of Syria's population, were long oppressed under Assad and his father Hafez, and have long demanded greater rights.

Early on in the war, Kurdish forces adopted a position of neutrality towards both the regime and rebel forces.

Regime forces unilaterally withdrew from Kurdish areas in mid-2012 in a move widely perceived as a tactic to discourage the Kurds from allying themselves with rebels.

Both Damascus, backed by Russia, and the Kurds, backed by a US-led coalition, have fought the Islamic State group in recent months.

But while some in the regime have reached out to Kurdish forces, suggesting some level of autonomy could be eventually be discussed, senior figures have slammed the SDF for launching operations independently of Damascus.

With their common enemy now defeated across much of the country, the SDF and regime forces are in an uneasy face-off.

But the SDF denied it was seeking to break up the country.
Tillerson said the meeting would seek to further increase pressure on North Korea to come to the table to negotiate an end to its nuclear program.

This could include "other steps that could be taken to put additional pressure on the regime in North Korea," as well as preparing for the prospects of talks, he said.

"We (will) continue to find ways to advance the pressure campaign against North Korea," Tillerson said, "to send North Korea a unified message from the international community that we will not accept you as... a nuclear weapons nation, and that all of us share one policy and one goal -- the full complete verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula."

"It's all intended to lead to talks. Otherwise we wouldn't need to do this. We would just go straight to the military option," he said.

"The White House supports diplomatic talks," Tillerson added, dismissing suggestions of a rift between US President Donald Trump and his chief diplomatic.

Freeland said Canada and the United States "are aligned with the rest of the world in our position that these provocative and illegal acts cannot be tolerated. We fully support regional and international efforts to address the North Korean threat and the work of the UN Security Council."

The so-called Vancouver Group will also include Australia, Belgium, Britain, Colombia, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Turkey.

Throughout the afternoon, Tillerson and Freeland also discussed Canada-US border security, North American defense, energy and environmental cooperation, and the ongoing renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which binds the two countries with Mexico to form the world's second-largest trading bloc after the EU.

They also discussed the plight of the Rohingya in Myanmar and "the potential for a peacekeeping mission" in Ukraine.

Freeland will travel to Ukraine to meet with government officials on Wednesday.

As well, said Freeland, she and Tillerson considered "the crisis in Venezuela and what actions we can take individually, together and in cooperation with the Lima group... to address the deteriorating political, economic and humanitarian situation there."

Canada hosted foreign ministers of 12 countries of the Americas in October to try to find ways to cool the fierce power struggle that had been raging for months between President Nicolas Maduro's left-wing nationalist government and the center-right opposition.
"After careful investigation, the United States is publicly attributing the massive 'WannaCry' cyberattack to North Korea," said White House homeland security advisor Tom Bossert.

"We do not make this allegation lightly, we do so with evidence and we do so with partners," he added.

The United States is the latest country to point the finger of blame at Pyongyang, attribution which comes as part of a drive to exert "maximum pressure" on the regime.

As yet, no retaliatory measures have been announced.

Among the infected computers were those at Britain's National Health Service (NHS), Spanish telecoms company Telefonica and US logistics company FedEx.

London had already blamed North Korea, which hit a third of Britain's public hospitals.

Pyongyang then denied the allegation, saying it went "beyond the limit of our tolerance" and was a "wicked attempt to lure the international community into harboring greater mistrust of the DPRK."

US government under scrutiny

Questions had been raised about whether the US government acted in a timely manner to respond to the attack, with Microsoft accusing Washington of spotting the flaw and using it for its own ends.

"This attack provides yet another example of why the stockpiling of vulnerabilities by governments is such a problem," Microsoft's Brad Smith said at the time.

"Repeatedly, exploits in the hands of governments have leaked into the public domain and caused widespread damage," he said, claiming that the National Security Agency of spotting the flaw and saying nothing.

Bossert said that the United States kept only 10 percent of security flaws secret and had no policy of "stockpiling" or withholding information from potential targets.

Since coming to office Donald Trump has sought to put pressure on North Korea, as its reclusive leaders edge ever-closer to developing a ballistic missile that could deliver a nuclear warhead to the United States.

Amid a series of tests Trump's administration has appeared at odds over whether talks could offer a way out of the standoff.

National Security Advisor HR McMaster tried to clean up that question in an interview with the BBC, saying the United States wanted a peaceful solution: "Of course that's what we want but we are not committed to a peaceful resolution."

"We are committed to a resolution, we want the resolution to be peaceful. But, as the president has said, all options are on the table and we have to be prepared if necessary to compel the denuclearization of North Korea without the cooperation of that regime."

Trump's first National Security Strategy released Monday, declared that "North Korea seeks the capability to kill millions of Americans with nuclear weapons."
The audacious attack aimed at the heart of Saudi power follows the downing of another missile last month near Riyadh airport that triggered the tightening of a Saudi-led blockade on hunger-stricken Yemen.

For the past three years Saudi Arabia has led a military campaign involving air strikes and ground troops against the Huthis, who seized the Yemeni capital from the internationally recognised government in 2014.

The kingdom accuses the Shiite rebels of being a proxy for its arch foe Iran, which vehemently denies arming the insurgents.

An AFP correspondent in Riyadh heard a loud explosion at 1050 GMT, shortly before King Salman was due to oversee the unveiling of the Saudi annual budget.

"The missile was aimed at populated residential areas in the Riyadh area, and -- thank God -- was intercepted and destroyed south of Riyadh without any casualties," the official Saudi Press Agency quoted a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition as saying.

"The possession of Iranian-manufactured ballistic weapons by terrorist organisations, including the Iran-backed Huthi militia, is a threat to regional and international security," Turki al-Maliki added.

More than 8,750 people have been killed since Saudi Arabia and its allies joined the government's fight against the Huthis in 2015, triggering what the UN has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

"In exchange for a thousand days of bombardment with internationally banned weapons, there has been a thousand days of steadfastness in which our people have demonstrated that their resolve will not be broken," rebel chief Abdulmalik al-Huthi said in a speech Tuesday.

"Today our people reached the heart of Riyadh  the government palace  with a ballistic missile."

The missile attacks, which could further escalate the Saudi-led military campaign, underscore how the raging Yemen conflict is increasingly spilling across the border.

'Big bang'

Saudi Arabia angrily accused Iran of supplying the missile involved in last month's attack to the rebels, a charge Tehran strongly denied.

On Thursday, US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley presented what she called "undeniable" evidence that the missile was "made in Iran".

But her comments went beyond the findings of a UN investigation which reached no firm conclusion on whether the missile came from an Iranian supplier, saying only that it had a "common origin" to some Iranian designs.

Residents in the Saudi capital reported hearing a loud explosion and seeing smoke after Tuesday's attack.

"I was in my office when I heard a big bang," said Tomas Kompikan, one of the many foreign workers in Riyadh.

"Suddenly after around 30 to 45 seconds I heard a next sound... and we saw a white smoke."

The Huthi rebels last month warned that they considered "airports, ports, border crossings and areas of any importance" in Saudi Arabia, as well as its ally the United Arab Emirates, as legitimate targets.

Saudi-led air strikes have intensified since the December 4 killing of ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh at the hands of the Huthis after his alliance with the rebels collapsed.

The UN human rights office said Tuesday it was "deeply concerned" by the surge in civilian casualties due to intensified coalition air strikes.

UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein told AFP a combination of the violence and the blockade the coalition imposed on rebel-held ports last month had created "a horrifying situation in Yemen... literally an inferno for many Yemenis."

Pro-government forces have also stepped up attacks on the rebels and last week retook the Red Sea town of Khokha.

A medical source in Yemen said Tuesday that 23 Huthi fighters had been killed in clashes with Saudi-backed government forces over the past day in Hodeida province on the Red Sea coast.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  New projections show climate change could induce a 5 percent increase for the average commercial buildings energy consumption in Indiana by the year 2100, while reducing an average residential homes energy use by 3.5 percent.

These are looking at statistically representative average residential homes and commercial buildings in Indiana, so the effects of climate change on residential and commercial energy consumption will range above and below these estimated projections, said Roshanak Nateghi, an assistant professor in Purdue Universitys School of Industrial Engineering and Environmental and Ecological Engineering.

Since the largest part of residential energy demand in Indiana is attributed to heating, future warming scenarios could lead to reduced end-use residential demand due to lower space heating and water heating needs. In the commercial sector, the overall energy demand is expected to increase under future warming scenarios. This is because the increased space cooling required during hot summer months will likely outpace the reduced heating needs during the more temperate winter months.

One surprise for us was that the demand goes down for statistically representative average households in the residential sector, Nateghi said. The main reason is that air conditioning use is only 2 percent of energy consumption for residential households. In fact, the majority of residential energy use is for heating, at about 74 percent.

The majority of existing energy-economy models do not account for climate variability and change.

So, we propose a multi-paradigm framework to help extend the energy-economy models, such as a well-known model called MARKAL, to be able to account for climate change, said Sayanti Mukherjee, a postdoctoral research associate in the Division of Construction Engineering and Management and a visiting scholar in the School of Industrial Engineering. To illustrate the applicability of our proposed framework, we used the state of Indiana as a case study.

She and Nateghi co-authored a paper about the research published online Nov. 20 in the journal PloS One. They refer to their approach as a multi-paradigm framework because it integrates different types of modeling techniques.

The study compared the future projections to historical energy consumption for cooling, heating and water heating for the commercial and residential sectors from 19812013.

Two sets of projections were calculated: one assumes a future world with lower greenhouse gas emissions than the other because more aggressive steps are taken to mitigate emissions. The analysis concluded that under both scenarios, by the year 2100 the effects of climate change alone will cause energy consumption for an average commercial building in Indiana to increase by 5.1 percent and 5.4 percent, respectively. Energy consumption for the average residential household is projected to decrease by 3.5 percent on average under both scenarios because warmer temperatures will reduce energy use for heating.

Projecting long-term trends in energy demand is an increasingly complex endeavor due to the uncertain emerging changes in climate, policy, the regulatory environment, the economy and technology, among other factors, Mukherjee said.

The projected changes are in addition to the expected changes in energy consumption caused by a variety of factors such as changes in electricity rates, population and energy policy.

The work was conducted as part of the Indiana Climate Change Impacts Assessment (IN CCIA) project, led by the Purdue Climate Change Research Center in the universitys Discovery Park. The IN CCIA is a multidisciplinary effort to provide accessible, credible climate science to Indiana residents, allowing a better understanding of climate changerelated risks that will support more effective planning. Another team working on the assessment provided critical climate-change data, downscaling general climate models to focus on Indiana. The findings will be part of the Indiana Climate Change Impacts Assessment being coordinated by the center to be released next year.

Being an importer of electricity from the neighboring states and Canada, Indiana is vulnerable to supply shortages in cases of shifts in end-use demand due to reasons such as climate variability and change. The state ranks second in terms of coal consumption in the energy sector.

Changing patterns of energy consumption, therefore, will have significant implications for the environment, Nateghi said.

The researchers used a Bayesian, ensemble decision-tree based algorithm to develop predictive models.

For the residential sector, the findings reveal that the future median energy demand under the lower-emissions scenario is projected to be 278.5 trillion British thermal units (Btu), a 3.5 percent decrease from the historical median, and can range from 243.7323.2 trillion Btu. Under the higher-emissions scenario, the median residential demand is projected to be 278.7 trillion Btu, also a 3.5 percent decrease from the historical median, and could range between 243.0276.9 trillion Btu.

The demand in the commercial sector will be on-average substantially higher than the historical average values under both emission scenarios. More specifically, under the low-emission scenario, the average demand will be around 179.9 trillion Btu, a 5.1 percent increase than the historical median, and it could range between 147.8214.1 trillion Btu. Similarly, under the high-emissions scenario, the projected median commercial demand will be around 180.5 trillion Btu, a 5.4 percent increase from the historical median and could range between 146.4211.4 trillion Btu under the uncertain future scenario.

The projected increase is due to the commercial sectors greater use of cooling energy, relative to the residential sector, and higher projected daytime temperatures.

It should be noted that while our proposed framework accounts for demand variation due to climate change, it does not account for potentially higher intensity and frequency of climatic extremes such as ice storms and tornadoes under climate change, Nateghi said. Future work is needed to extend our paradigm to also account for such weather and climate extremes that could become much more intense and frequent under climate change, and have significant impacts on our energy sector in the future.

The projections could be underestimating the potential influence of climate change because they are based only on the expected rise in temperature, not relative humidity.

In future work, the researchers will use a more sophisticated dynamically downscaled model from the Climate Change Research Center to more accurately predict the impacts of climate change on energy consumption.

The researchers also are expanding their work to prepare projections across other energy-intensive states in the United States.

The research was funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the Climate Change Research Center.

Writer: Emil Venere, 765-494-4709, venere@purdue.edu

Sources: Roshanak Nateghi, 765-494-7059, rnateghi@purdue.edu

Sayanti Mukherjee, sayanti.purdue@gmail.com

Note to Journalists: A copy of the research paper is available at https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0188033 or by contacting, 415-590-3559, plosone@plos.org or Emil Venere at Purdue, 765-494-4709, venere@purdue.edu.

ABSTRACT

A Multi-Paradigm Framework to Assess the Impacts of Climate Change on End-Use Energy Demand Roshanak Nateghi1, Sayanti Mukherjee2* 1 School of Industrial Engineering and Division of Environmental and Ecological Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA 2 Lyles School of Civil Engineering and School of Industrial Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA * Corresponding author E-mail: sayanti.purdue@gmail.com

Projecting the long-term trends in energy demand is an increasingly complex endeavor due to the uncertain emerging changes in factors such as climate and policy. The existing energy-economy paradigms used to characterize the long-term trends in the energy sector do not adequately account for climate variability and change. In this paper, we propose a multi-paradigm framework for estimating the climate sensitivity of end-use energy demand that can easily be integrated with the existing energy-economy models. To illustrate the applicability of our proposed framework, we used the energy demand and climate data in the state of Indiana to train a Bayesian predictive model. We then leveraged the end-use demand trends as well as downscaled future climate scenarios to generate probabilistic estimates of the future end-use demand for space cooling, space heating and water heating, at the individual household and building level, in the residential and commercial sectors. Our results indicated that the residential load is much more sensitive to climate variability and change than the commercial load. Moreover, since the largest fraction of the residential energy demand in Indiana is attributed to heating, future warming scenarios could lead to reduced end-use demand due to lower space heating and water heating needs. In the commercial sector, the overall energy demand is expected to increase under the future warming scenarios. This is because the increased cooling load during hotter summer months will likely outpace the reduced heating load during the more temperate winter months.
Strive For Unity So We Can Thrive

Once the dust settles (in our minds at least) after the Midterm Election, with some new people in office, a few being members of different...

Letters To The Editor

Lessons From Ukraine To The Editor: After occupying the Crimea in 2014 without any pushback by world powers, Russian President Putin decided to invade Ukraine...
The U.S. Department of Transportations Federal Transit Administration awarded approximately $5 million to help American Indian and Alaskan Native tribal governments initiate, continue and improve transit service on tribal lands.

The funding is provided through the FTAs Tribal Transit Program and will go to 36 competitively selected transit projects in 19 states.

Among the projects, the Pueblo of San Felipe in New Mexico received funding of $112,106 to purchase accessible vehicles for a new bus service connecting Pueblo members with the New Mexico Rail Runner Express commuter rail service. Currently, the nearest station is a 20-minute car ride away. The new bus service will give residents more convenient access to employment, educational, medical, recreational and other opportunities along the Rail Runner Express, which connects Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

The Tribal Transit Program makes funds available to federally recognized Indian tribes and Alaskan Native villages, groups or communities to support capital projects, operating costs and planning activities for public transportation services on and around Indian Country.
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
Kyrgyz citizen gets 12 years in prison for plotting terror attacks in Russia

Context Kyrgyz national faces trial in Russia on terrorism charges

MOSCOW, December 20 (RAPSI)  The Moscow District Military Court has sentenced a 23-year old Kyrgyz citizen to 12 years in high-security prison for justifying terrorism and plotting terrorist attacks in Russia, the press service of the Kirov Regions prosecutors office reports Wednesday.

According to investigators, the Kyrgyz citizen being a member of an international terrorist organization banned in Russia posted images containing linguistic and psychological features of inciting hatred and enmity towards representatives of another social group on his VKontakte page in 2016.

In 2017, the defendant attempted to induce two residents of the Kirov Region on the Internet to carry out terrorist attacks in Moscow. Among others, the man planned to run over people by a lorry, prosecutors said.

The man has been charged with justifying terrorism, attempted facilitating a terrorist activity, and preparing a terrorist attack.
Bloggers may be subjected to foreign agents media law  MP

MOSCOW, December 20 (RAPSI)  Vice-speaker of Russias State Duma Petr Tolstoy has told journalists that law on media classified as foreign agents does not affect bloggers as a whole except for those, who are financed from abroad and are registered as media.

On Tuesday, a group of MPs submitted a bill to the State Duma, obligating media registered as foreign agent to establish a legal entity in Russia in order to distribute their content.

On December 5, Russias Ministry of Justice designated nine media outlets, including Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) as foreign agents.

According to the press-service of the Ministry, other media included in the list are Current Time TV, Tatar-Bashkir service of RFE/RL and several projects of Radio Liberty including Factograf, Sibir.Realii, IdeLRealia, Kavkaz.Realii, and Krym.Realii.

Earlier, the Ministry has forwarded warnings of possible labeling as foreign agents to these outlets.

On December 4, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Ministry of Justice to maintain registry of foreign media designated as foreign agents.

On November 25, the President signed a bill on foreign agent label for foreign media into law.

Decisions regarding registration of media as foreign agents are to be made by the Ministry of Justice. The document is also to establish regulations such as what markers are going to be used for this kind of media or whether there is a need for a special registry in this case.

The Russian law adopted in November 2012 requires that all NGOs engaged in political activity and receiving foreign funding register as foreign agents.
Russian experts propose to establish specialized courts for children and teenagers

MOSCOW, December 20 (RAPSI)  Specialized courts for children and teenagers should be established in Russia, according to Anastasia Kovalyova, head of the working group on prevention of deviant behavior among minors organized by the Public Council for the countrys Childrens Rights Commissioner.

The working group member, lawyer Stalina Gurevich told RAPSI that there is a need for specialized judges with additional education in spheres of teaching and psychology. These judges should be aware of specifics related to children with deviant behavior. She also noted that the Russian Criminal Code prescribes transfer of a child to parents for discipline as the punishment, but this measure was used by courts only once in 13 years of her practice.

There is a need for personal and individuated approach, Gurevich said.

It is also necessary to increase age threshold in juvenile prisons from 18 to 21 years, Gurevich said. Young persons, who reached the aged of 21, may serve sentence in penal colonies, while 18-year old individuals are still children, especially if they were in conditions of restriction of liberty until the majority age, the lawyer added.

Moreover, the working group members believe that there is a need to foresee the possibility of transfer from juvenile correctional facility to penal colony settlement by social indications and personal characteristic. If a child mended his/her ways, and wants to grow up to be a productive member of society, there is merit in his/her transfer to penal colony settlement, where he/she will get more freedom, Gurevich stated.

A probation service for minors, who received suspended sentence, is to be established as well, to help such convicts in socialization after committing a crime, she added.
Russian prosecutors file 5,400 lawsuits protecting rights of orphans

MOSCOW, December 20 (RAPSI)  Russian prosecutors filed about 5,400 lawsuits and motions with courts in order to protect the rights of orphaned children in the first half of 2017, the Prosecutor Generals Office told RAPSI on Wednesday.

During the interactive forum called Protecting future generations, head of the Offices department on supervision of protecting rights and freedoms of citizens, Larisa Kopteva, said that oversight over summer recreation for children is to be toughened after reports of numerous violations.

Head of the department on minors and young adults, Marina Zaitseva, reported that 11,000 cases of violating housing rights of orphaned children have been reported. The examinations resulted in 21 criminal cases. The Prosecutor Generals Office characterized a problem with provision of housing for these minors as serious.
Property details:

Reserved Parking off street in Fishtown -- Only 2 spaces left!Save yourself time (which is money) from driving around and around and around, looking to park. Guarantee yourself (and/or your family, friends, and guests) a spot every time. Self-park; reserved; assigned; safe; no waiting; easy access 24/7/365. You know Fishtown is fun and happening, but offstreet parking is rare and on street parking is almost impossible. You will love the proximity to Berks subway El, Shissler Recreation Center, K...

Price: $ 64 Seller State of Residence: Pennsylvania State/Province: Pennsylvania City: Philadelphia Type: Homesite, Lot Zip/Postal Code: 19147 Location: 191**, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

You will be redirected to eBay



Nearby 19147
Property details:

Silver Lake Resort-Silver Points Free Closing and Usage! Seller Pays All Closing Costs and 2017 Maintenance Fees! Buyer Pays High Bid and RCI Fee! 89,000 Annual Points ~ August Renewal Buyer's First Year Available: 2017 Points ***Usage: Annual ***Buyer will receive 42,900 Free 2017 points, the seller has used 46,100*** Estimated Maintenance fee: $997.00 due annuallySpecial Assessments: $0Property Tax: Included in Maintenance FeesOwnership type: Perpetual Deed Exchange Company: RCI The buyer of t...

Price: $ 1 Seller State of Residence: Montana Property Address: 7751 Black Lake Road State/Province: Florida City: Kissimmee Type: Attractions Zip/Postal Code: 34747 Location: 347**, Kissimmee, Florida

You will be redirected to eBay



Nearby 34747
Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale

Buy real estate. Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale in US and Canada.

Search Real Estate
,



We're sorry, this article is not currently available
All major sectors -- real estate, e-commerce, IT, retail and consumer products, healthcare -- saw new all-time highs in value invested.

The month of November recorded the highest monthly value ever of exits by private equity and venture capital (PE/VC) entities, with 25 of these worth $2.7 billion.

The month also saw investments worth $2.9 billion by these entities, across 56 deals. Large value deals (over $100 million) are a highlight in 2017, according to consultancy EYs monthly PE deal tracker.

The highest value of exits ever for any month was mainly due to one large open market one, Qatar Foundation Endowment selling five per cent stake in Bharti Airtel for $1.5 billion.

There were two PE-backed Initial Public Offers (IPOs) of equity in November.

Kedaara sold 13.6 per cent stake in Mahindra Logistics for $65 million and Reliance Alternative Investment Fund sold 33 per cent stake in Khadim for $68 million.

From a sector perspective, telecom topped in spite of only one deal, due to the $1.5-billion exit by Qatar Foundation Endowment.

Next was financial services, with four exits worth $650 million.

Vivek Soni, partner at EY, said as projected earlier, it was a stellar month for investments and exits; a similar story was expected in December.

In fact, 2017 has been the best year so far for Indian PE. The Indian market is now considered one of the most attractive of destinations for investment by global Limited Partners (LPs).

In 2018, we project increased allocation/exposure to India by large global LPs and expect continuation of the upward trajectory within both PE/VC investments and exits, said Soni.

In all, the year so far saw 54 deals were recorded of value greater than $100 mn.

All major sectors -- real estate, e-commerce, information technology (IT), retail and consumer products (RCP), healthcare -- saw new all-time highs in value invested.

November recorded a 217 per cent increase in value of investments. In terms of volume, up 37 per cent from the same period last year ($2.9 billion across 56 deals versus $0.9 billion across 41 deals in November 2016).

Month on month, an increase of 40 per cent in value, while the number of deals remained the same.

This increase was driven significantly by a high number of large value deals.

The 10 with individual values greater than $100 million (highest for any month ever) aggregated $2.3 billion.

Large value deals are 54 deals so far, aggregating $18.2 billion, said Soni.

This is mainly due to increasing exposure of big pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and global buyout funds in India, which earlier preferred the LP route.

Reinforcing the growing interest in the investor community in Indian PE and their growing confidence to make larger bets, he added.

2017 has been the best year for financial services, with $5.8 billion across 95 deals, more than double the previous high of $2.5 billion across 72 deals for the whole of 2016.

Also, 2017 is turning out to be the best year in value terms for real estate, e-commerce, IT, RCP, and healthcare.

Photograph: Thomas White/Reuters.
'Gujarat should have been a breeze. But the Patidar agitation and economic uncertainty queered the pitch.'

'Yes, the BJP won and its rank-and-file will take great comfort in the assembly victory.'

'But the leadership is taking stock for a very tricky set of elections coming up in 2018.'



IMAGE: A Modi supporter holds up a cut-out of a lotus, the BJP's symbol at a rally. Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters

"The kind of connect Modi has with Gujarati voters does not extend to electors in upcoming poll-bound states. Here, the BJP has readily identifiable chief ministers who will have to defend their records," Dr Milan Vaishnav, Director and Senior Fellow South Asia Programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington, DC think-tank, tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih in an e-mail interview.

What are the reasons for the BJP's victory in Gujarat?

The Gujarat result confirms what we already know: That it is a very difficult uphill climb to defeat Modi on his home turf.

Gujarat is widely viewed as an impregnable citadel for the BJP. The BJP has held a lock on power there since 1995 -- a tenure that rivals that of the Left Front in West Bengal.

In some sense, the BJP's victory is overdetermined. If I had to point to the core reasons, I would point to three: The BJP's organisational advantage, Modi's personal appeal and charisma, and the Congress party's historic shortcomings on both of these scores.

What are the biggest pointers -- the big story -- from this verdict?

In my mind, there are three principal takeaways from the BJP's triumph in Gujarat. First, the BJP's desire to run on its economic record faces serious impediments.

Without access to the dazzling economic numbers it had hoped for, Modi and Shah have pivoted to less shaky terrain: Majoritarian nationalism, anti-corruption, and strong leadership.

Second, those who see vikas and Hindutva as two independent planks of the BJP's approach must recognise they are really two sides of the same coin. Modi sees no contradiction between the two.

Third and finally, the Congress is showing nascent signs of revival. Admittedly, it is starting from a very low base, but the organisation has received a jolt of energy.

With a more consistent Rahul Gandhi, a smart coalition strategy, and better messaging, it can be a competitive Opposition party again -- especially in states featuring bipolar competition between the BJP and Congress.

Despite agitations by the Patels and Dalits, Mr Modi remains unbeatable. How does this consolidate his position in the party and his leadership in the country?

As Pew and other all-India surveys have shown, no one can touch Modi's popularity on a pan-Indian basis.

Despite his government's failings -- and there was no shortage of the upset in Gujarat over GST and demonetisation -- voters still have faith in his leadership.

There is no question of a challenge from within the BJP at this moment, not least because Modi and Shah have ensured that there is no space for such an alternative power centre within the party.

The BJP has dipped below 100 seats and the Congress has won in Mr Modi's hometown. Is this win as rude a shock for the BJP after the 2014 landslide?

The Gujarat result is a wake-up call for the BJP, no question.

Given the Lok Sabha sweep in 2014, Gujarat should have been a breeze. But the Patidar agitation and economic uncertainty queered the pitch.

Yes, the BJP won and its rank-and-file will take great comfort in the assembly victory. But the leadership is taking stock for a very tricky set of elections coming up in 2018.

In Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan -- in particular -- the BJP will have to stave off anti-incumbency.

What are the lessons for Mr Modi?

One of the broader lessons is how powerful campaigns can be.

As imperfect as they are, the pre-election polls suggested a tighter race than what the exit polls eventually revealed.

Certainly, Modi had an impact on individuals' voting decisions. He campaigned as if his life depended on it.

A second lesson is that the BJP won re-election not because of 'acche din', but in spite of the fact that it has not yet materialised.

The defeat sustained by the BJP in rural parts of the state, namely Saurashtra, suggests that not all is well in the rural and agrarian sectors.

This is a major liability for the BJP as it heads into a big election year.

What are the lessons for Rahul?

The first lesson is that the Congress does well when it keeps its ego in check.

Whereas the Congress of old would have crushed a Hardik, Jignesh or Alpesh, this time the Congress found an accommodation with them.

The party is cognisant of its own failings. As recovering addicts are often reminded: Acceptance is the first step towards recovery.

Second, consistency is key. Rahul has a long way to go before he can be thought of as a charismatic orator, but he has shown considerable improvement over the last few months.

As he takes the reins of the party, he has accumulated a little more goodwill these past few weeks and months.

The BJP has lost seats and vote share in the home state of the prime minister and BJP president, and fallen below the 150 mark predicted by Amit A Shah -- how is this going to impact the party?

Had the BJP lost Gujarat, there would be cause for more introspection.

But given how close the fight is, there is no question that the government will have to calibrate policy to plug its shortcomings.

The first place to look is the trust deficit with rural voters.

As the Modi government readies another Budget, it cannot afford to leave those rural dwellers behind.

The BJP high command has calculated that urban voters, including traders, will stick with it given the paucity of acceptable alternatives. In Gujarat, that bet has paid off.

Rahul Gandhi, with allies Alpesh Thakore, Jignesh Mevani and Hardik Patel, fought a spirited campaign but fell short -- what is the difference you find in the Congress?

Where has it fallen short? Does it imply that there will be firming up of more such alliances?

Rahul Gandhi has been very clear about one thing: The key to a shock 2019 defeat of the BJP is alliance politics.

Gandhi has indicated that he is willing to work with just about anyone who is interested in stopping the BJP's electoral juggernaut.

He and other party leaders see the 2015 Bihar Mahagathbandhan as a model. To the extent it can stitch up marriages of convenience -- going state-by-state -- the Congress plans to do so.

The question worth asking is whether other parties will see the Congress as a rising star or a sinking ship.

What difference do you expect in the Congress under Rahul Gandhi's presidency?

It is too soon to tell. But I expect we will see a greater prominence given to next generation leaders like Jyotiraditya Scindia in Madhya Pradesh, Milind Deora in Maharashtra, Sachin Pilot in Rajasthan, and Sushmita Dev in Assam.

Second, the Gujarat elections excepted, I think the Congress will paint the BJP as 'anti-minority.'

Minority here refers to not just religious minorities, but caste, linguistic, and other minorities (like migrants).

The party calculated that this would not fly in Gujarat, but I would not take that to mean it won't rely on this line of attack elsewhere.

The BJP held on to its urban voters. What is it about Mr Modi's agenda that appeals to urban voters despite the hardships they may have to bear because of policies like demonetisation, the lack of jobs, GST?

I think one cannot overemphasise the degree to which business and the urban middle class were put off by some of the worst excesses of the United Progressive Alliance government, especially towards the tail end of its second term in office.

Corruption, economic paralysis, a lack of leadership, poor governance -- it really was a perfect storm.

Under Modi's leadership, life is not all sweetness and light by any stretch, but urban voters seem to be giving Modi space to at least carry out some of his proposed changes.

The Congress lost Himachal Pradesh to the BJP, thus widening the party's grip over the country's politics. Do you see the gap widening between the two parties? Or will the Congress be able to bridge the gap?

The simple fact is that there is scope for a protest vote against the national ruling party. The outstanding question is whether the Congress can be an effective receptacle for that vote. To date, it really has not been.

If that begins to change, 2019 will shape up to be a fascinating contest.

Right now, the Congress has to come together to hold onto Karnataka. This is for political but also practical purposes: It will strike a severe psychological and financial blow if the party loses control of a state of this significance with so few regions in its kitty.

Next year, the BJP and the Congress will be in a straight fight in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.

The close contest in Gujarat will have lessons for both parties -- does it imply that these elections will be tough ones for the BJP?

I expect that these fights will be hotly contested, but I would give the BJP the upper hand in all of these elections.

If you follow how the BJP has constructed its electoral machine over the past few years, it has proven it can cross the finish line first.

In Goa and Manipur, despite finishing second in terms of seats, it ended up forming governments in both places literally while the Congress leadership slept.

It simply wanted it more. The Congress, for its part, is often on the backfoot, reduced to playing catch up.

But, at the same time, the kind of connect Modi has with Gujarati voters does not extend in the same way to electors in upcoming poll-bound states.

Here the BJP has readily identifiable chief ministers who will have to defend their records. It won't be as easy for Modi to say 'A vote for the BJP is a vote for me.'

With 19 states under its belt, is the BJP well on its way towards a 'Congress-mukt Bharat'?

I think the Congress has shown, despite its loss, that it is possible to find a way out of the deep hole it has dug for itself.

It will be a long hard slog and Rahul Gandhi has not yet proven he is up for it.

As someone said on a television debate, Amit Shah will spend his New Year's plotting the Karnataka campaign. Will Rahul spend it plotting his next holiday?

The truth is: We simply do not know. But history tells us the answer is yes. It is for Rahul to prove his critics wrong. And keep in mind many of his harshest critics reside within the Congress party though they dare not speak publicly about their concerns.

What do you make of the new crop of leadership in Hardik Patel, Jignesh Mevani, Alpesh Thakore -- what difference are these entrants going to make in Indian politics?

I think it speaks to the incredible churning in Indian society at the moment.

Debates about inequality, poverty, status, recognition -- these are not confined to think-tank discussions or academic seminars. These are real, bread-and-butter issues that are playing out in state after state.

Whether it is Kanhaiya Kumar or the Jat agitation in Haryana or the Maratha uprising in Maharashtra, there is a sense of anxiety mixed with impatience among segments of the electorate.

I think jobs is the single largest motivating issue, but let's not forget jobs are inextricably linked with status, honour, respect, and community.
Uttar Pradesh cops are on high alert after the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-affiliate called the Hindu Jagran Manch issued a threat to all schools in Aligarh about celebrating Christmas.

The fringe outfit issued a circular warning the managements of all Aligarh schools against celebrating Christmas and threatened, if they did so, it would be at their own risk.

The warning set alarm bells ringing in all educational institutions in the Aligarh city, especially Christian schools.

Taking note of the warning, the Uttar Pradesh Police directed all district police chiefs to take strict action against those indulging in intimidation of any sort.

The Aligarh Senior Superintendent of Police and all district police chiefs have been directed to take strict legal action against those indulging in intimidation of any sort, Additional Director General, Law and Order, Anand Kumar said.

The ADG also directed all district police chiefs of the state to ensure the freedom of practising religion is protected.

Expressing concern over the warning, Praveen Agarwal, president of the Public School Development Society, Aligarh, said, Each year we celebrate festivals belonging to all communities and this experience helps our children to play a responsible role as citizens of this country.

Similar sentiments were echoed by Anurag Gupta, convener of the Parents Association, Aligarh, who said, Our schools have been playing an important role in helping students acquire knowledge of different religions and this helps them when they move out to different countries all over the globe.

Image used for representational purposes only. Photograph: Phil Walter/Getty Images
Questions should be crisp and answers should be sharp and to the point, Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu suggested to the House members on Tuesday so that the Question Hour could be better utilised.

Naidu made the suggestion to members after some of them asked lengthy questions, prompting him to inform the members about the decision taken at the business advisory committee of the Upper House.

Questions being asked should be crisp and brisk and ministers also should not elaborate the answers. As and when there is a discussion, ministers can add things, he said, urging members to keep this in mind while asking questions.

He said members have raised it in the business advisory committee that only a few questions are taken up during the Question Hour and some suggestions were made.

Please keep it in mind that in future the question has to be crisp and the answer also has to be sharp and to the point, he told the members just before the House adjourned

for lunch.

Naidu said that in the Business Advisory Committee, members have requested the Chair unanimously that up to 10 questions should be taken up. Only six questions could be taken up on Tuesday.
The United States has concerns about Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed running for office in Pakistan in 2018, a senior Trump Administration official has said.

The JuD head and Lashkar-e-Tayiba founder had earlier confirmed that his organisation will contest the 2018 general elections in Pakistan under the banner of the Milli Muslim League, which is yet to be registered with the Election Commission.

Saeed, who was released by Pakistan from house arrest last November resulting in angry reaction from the US, was the mastermind of the Mumbai terrorist attacks and is leader of LeT, State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said.

Its a group that the US government considers to be a terror organisation. We have many conversations with the government of Pakistan. One of the things that happened recently was that this guy was held on house arrest. Pakistan released him from house arrest, and now theres word that he may be running for some sort of office, she told reporters.

Saeed, who has a $10 million American bounty on his head for terror activities, was freed by Pakistan on November 24.

He is a United Nations and US designated terrorist.

I want to remind folks, we have a $10 million Reward for Justice programme that would reward for information that would bring him to justice. So I want to make that clear, so that everybody knows -- $10 million, out for this guy. And we would certainly have concerns about him running for office, Nauert said.

The US had also strongly condemned the release of the LeT leader from house arrest and had called for his immediate re-arrest and prosecution.

However, top Pakistani diplomats based in the US have said that there is no evidence against Saeed.

I can tell you his organisation that was responsible for those attacks is considered a foreign terror organisation. Its considered a foreign terror organisation by the US government for a reason, and for a good reason, Nauert said.

I would imagine that, if we had any intelligence, and thats not an area that I can discuss anyway, but we would certainly share it with the Pakistanis on that front. I hope theyll do the right thing, Nauert said.

I hope that they will do the right thing and remind folks across Pakistan, we have a $10 million reward for this guy, the spokesperson said.

The banned JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the LeT which carried out the 2008 Mumbai terror attack in which 166 people were killed.
'What's on offer for India is to establish a production line here that would be the world's only production line.'

Ajai Shukla reports.

Lockheed Martin, the US firm that is offering to relocate F-16 fighter production to India as the world's only F-16 line, has rebutted the argument that perceptions of the F-16 as an 'outdated fighter' would mean very little international business flowing to India.

The company points out that, over the last three months, the US State Department has informed the US Congress of the proposed sale to Bahrain of 19 fighters in the F-16V configuration for an estimated $2.8 billion; and the upgrade of 123 Greek F-16s for an estimated $2.4 billion.

Asked about further F-16 orders, a Lockheed Martin spokesperson revealed that, beyond the 100 to 200 fighters India would buy, "F-16 production opportunities include multiple countries in the Middle East, the Mediterranean, Central Europe, Southeast Asia, and South America -- approximately 200 aircraft altogether."

Further, "Lockheed Martin also has three F-16V upgrade programs on contract today -- a total of around 325 aircraft -- and is in discussions with several other customers interested in upgrading their F-16 fleets with the latest technology."

Assuming a price of $80 million for each current version F-16 Block 70 fighter, the production of 200 new fighters would bring to India business worth $16 billion.

And, extrapolating from the Greek order an upgrade cost of $20 million per F-16, Lockheed Martin already has $6.5 billion worth of upgrade orders.

With 4,588 F-16s delivered over the decades to some 25 air forces, and an estimated 3,000 of them still in service, the Indian F-16 line could expect to upgrade some 1,000 F-16s over the years, bringing in $20 billion of business.

Lockheed Martin is competing to build the F-16 Block 70 in India, with its rival being the Gripen E fighter offered by Swedish company, Saab.

In the absence of an Indian production line -- which would only be established if the Indian Air Force selects the F-16 -- these orders will flow to an alternate F-16 production line Lockheed Martin has set up in Greenville, South Carolina.

Randy Howard, who heads Lockheed Martin's international business development, told me, the Greenville production line had to be established as a "temporary measure".

This was to meet continuing F-16 orders, since the India line was uncertain and the old F-16 production line at Fort Worth, Texas, was being given over to building the F-35 joint strike fighter.

Were India to choose to buy the F-16, the Greenville line would be shut down, says Howard.

"What's on offer for India is to establish a production line here that would be the world's only production line."

The India line would be gradually ramped up to build three to four fighters per month, says Howard, a production rate India has never come close to achieving while building other fighters like the Jaguar, Sukhoi-30MKI or Tejas.

"This would position Indian industry at the centre of the world's most extensive and successful fighter aircraft supply ecosystem. We expect Indian industry to be highly competitive within that global supply ecosystem, which in turn opens the door for new relationships and opportunities around the globe," says a Lockheed Martin spokesperson.

A confident Howard points to Lockheed Martin's success building up the Turkish aerospace industry. "(The Turkish F-16 production line) was a wheat field. There was nothing there. Today it is the largest aerospace facility in Turkey, and there is a complete eco-system around it. We know how to do this."

If Lockheed Martin has a compelling business case for India to choose the F-16 and transfer the production line to India, Sweden's counter is the offer of unmatched technology transfer to India.

A senior Swedish government official told me: "We all know the F-16 would have technology 'black boxes' that the US would not part with. The Gripen E comes with far greater levels of technology transfer."

Defence analysts point out that the US defence industry is in a win-win situation.

India's choice of the F-16 would be a windfall for US firms.

But if New Delhi opts for the Gripen E instead, US industry would still benefit, since 40 per cent of the Gripen E is American.

IMAGE: Photograph, kind courtesy Lockheed Martin
As Christmas approaches the blues scene is filled with many local acts in the states venues. It is a good time to see the homegrown , offering Christmas celebration shows and then a celebration of New Years Eve.

One of the states international talents, Jaimoe, brings his Jasssz Band to 41 Bridge Street Live on Saturday. Jaimoes the legendary drummer and founding member of the Allman Brothers Band, and plays American music with his band. They combine elements of jazz, blues, rock n roll, and R&B into blend that reaches ones soul. Expect a show with music that ranges from new interpretations of classic tunes, as well as original songs that are classics in the making. Jaimoes Jasssz Band, besides Jaimoe on drums, features solid performers that put a stamp on the stage. Musicians include Dave Stoltz, bass, Junior Mack, guitar and vocals, Bruce Katz, keyboards. Add some of the fine horn players and you have the makings of a memorable evening. They include Paul Lieberman, sax, flute, and piccalo, Kris Jensen, sax and Reggie Pittman, trumpet.

Recently, Jaimoe was presented the Harriett Tubman Medal of Freedom, for his role in progressing the fight for civil rights. The Allman Brothers Band was one of the first integrated bands to find success in the segregated South, and went on to transcend the South and become an international band. Jaimoe also has two historic markers on the Mississippi Blues Trail, honoring his role in the local and international worlds of blues and R&B.

You can catch Jake Kulak and the Lowdown at Black-Eyed Sallys on Friday. This is one young band that has made its presence known on Beale Street, performing as the Connecticut Blues Societys Youth Showcase Band during the International Blues Challenge.

Jake Kulak and the LowDown bring a blend of modern and traditional blues and blues-rock to their shows. Led by Kulak with some hard-driving guitar, the band formed in 2013, these talented young artists have made themselves known. They have also been nominated for a New England Music Award in the Best New Act of the Year category and were one of six Boston-area bands to win the the House of Blues emerging artist competition. Bassist Anthony Dailey is a crowd favorite with his quiet swagger and tasteful grooves. Drummer Jeremy Peck is a formally trained, multi-instrumentalist whose killer high-energy beats anchor the band.

Saturday, XY Eli presents his Holiday Extravaganza at Sallys. XY Eli Williams is an active Hartford art personality. He works on his own music, and adds to the community by teaching blues guitar and as an all-around mentor at the Artist Collective performing art school in Hartford. He also works with the collectives youth orchestra and teaches blues history there.

With Williams playing blues guitar and his stage presence, youll hear a deep, groove with a lot of soul. Hes also got a serious, somewhat flamboyant style that is all his own.

While XY knows the traditions of the blues, he adds a modern mix and tosses it up with younger artists. They can range from gospel to hip-hop to dance. Some of that young talent will share the stage on Saturday.

Friday has a full range of acts. The Maple Tree Cafe hosts Mark Nomad, and Eran Troy Danner, playing solo acoustic, is at the Woodbury Brew House.

Over at The Eleven Bar & Grille, Creamery Station leads the Elevens Holidaze Party.

Friday continues with the Rich Badowski Blues Band at the Cambridge Brew House.

Saturday, Shawn Taylor has a 5 p.m. show at the Tipping Chair Tavern and Danny Draher is at Mullingans.

Cafe 9 has pre- and post-Christmas activities. Saturday, it is an Afternoon Jazz Jam with Guitar George Baker from 4:30-7:30 p.m. Then Thursday, it is the Cafe 9 Holiday Party with Christine Ohlman & Rebel Montez, joined by the George Baker Band.

There is still time to plan for the the Blues Foundations 34th annual International Blues Challenge. While it definitely is about competition, the five-day celebration also is about blues community as well. Musicians, music business professionals and fans converge in Memphis every year, not just to hear the terrific blues in the C\challenge and the many other showcase events, but also to enjoy the entire IBC experience, which includes expert panels, master classes, documentary movie screening, a memorabilia auction, a Blues Hall of Fame memorabilia unveiling, networking events, and receptions for blues societies, fans, and professionals. It is a wonderful and unique opportunity to salute the past, present and future of this American-bred musical style that is loved around the world.

The International Blues Challenge has hundreds of musicians from across America, as well as from more than a dozen other countries, come to Memphis to play their hearts out, hoping to nab top honors in the challenges five performance categories: best band, best solo/duo act, best

Get the complete Blues Beat schedule on Thursday at the blog http://bluesbeatnews.wordpress.com/. Any questions or comments should be sent to Domenic Forcella at TWBlus@aol.com.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

MIDDLETOWN  Officials broke ground Tuesday at the State Veterans Cemetery on two projects totaling $8.6 million that are designed to expand and beautify the Bow Lane grounds.

As the wind whipped on a brisk afternoon with a bright sun overhead, firefighters held tight against their backs the edges of a 60-foot American flag hoisted high from the South Fire District ladder truck off Bow Lane.

This is a sacred place, Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman said during the groundbreaking ceremony.

The men and women interred here made tremendous sacrifices to Connecticut and our nation. We will serve them as they served us, and ensure they have a final resting place where the families can come to reflect and remember, she said.

Civil engineering firm Fuss & ONeill of Manchester prepared the design for the improvements project, which includes raising, realigning and cleaning more than 7,000 headstones, as well as improving the turf throughout the grounds as part of a federal grant.

Construction on that portion of the project is estimated to be finished by February 2020. It is being paid for by a $3.18 million federal grant.

This is an important milestone as we continue to honor those who have given so much, said George Eisenbach Jr., director of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, National Cemetery Administration.

He retired with the rank of first sergeant after serving 23 years in the U.S. Army, said Thomas J. Saadi, acting commissioner of the state Department of Veterans Affairs.

Let us remember always the debt to the deceased American soldiers can be best paid by kindness in regard to the living American soldiers, Eisenbach said.

Also, an expansion grant will allow for the addition of 2,000 vaults, repairs of the grounds irrigation system and a new roadway that leads to the cemetery. That work, which will cost $5.45 million, is expected to be complete by the end of the year.

The ceremony, which began with the posting of colors by the Marine Corps League, marked the first day of construction for the expansion and appearance improvement for the grounds.

Thank the veterans in your life while you still have the chance and bring your children and grandchildren here so they can learn to appreciate the service and sacrifice of others so they can, too, grow to understand that freedom is not free, Eisenbach told those gathered.

At the conclusion of the short program, Wyman, Mayor Dan Drew, Saadi, Bud Salemi, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Administrative Services, and project designers and contractors shoveled dirt from a mound of earth during a ceremonial groundbreaking.

Chaplain, Vietnam veteran and member of Middletowns Veterans of Vietnam Wars and American Legion Post 75 Jerry Augustine spoke from personal experience during his benediction.

They teach us to dedicate ourselves to the things for which they fought and died, he said of the servicemen and women interred in the cemetery.

This is absolutely wonderful, he said following the event. The dedication that Middletown has to expand this cemetery means so much to all our veteran groups in Middletown that the state does this for us.

He paused to look out over a large field of simple white headstones nearby, where, for national Wreaths Across America Day Saturday, several volunteers from high schools and civic organizations placed wreaths on each of 9,300 veterans graves at the cemetery.

They all come together and we get it done within about an hour, Augustine said of the laying of balsam fir tip wreaths, each adorned with a red ribbon.

More than 12,000 veterans and their eligible dependents are interred in the states three veterans cemeteries in Darien, Rocky Hill and Middletown.

Members of the Veterans of Vietnam Wars arrived hours before Saturdays wreath laying to honor their own. We say a prayer for each one, eight of them, that we lost over the years in our organization, Augustine said.

U.S. Army veteran Phil Cacciola of Middletown, who was stationed in Germany during the Vietnam era, said Theyre averaging 2.3 burials here in a day  it means roughly 15 in a week.

Were getting old, infirm and all. Unfortunately, were dying at a faster rate, he said.

To do the expansion is terrific and it needs to be addressed in terms of some of the stones. You can see theres been a wetlands problem in some areas where the trees have been hanging over the stones. Weve got some stones that have turned green, Cacciola said.

Eisenbach said veterans burial rates in Connecticut are on the rise.

In 2000, there were 14,000 burials statewide, Eisenbach said. You bring it forward to 2017 and theres 38,219 to be exact.

As part of the renovations, thousands of grave markers will be realigned, he said, pointing to the stones in the distance, whose lines slightly weave in and out.

As the earth surrounding the gravestones heaves during the cold and becomes soft from the effects of the elements, Eisenbach said, the white markers have a broken-tooth effect.

Theyll be cleaned and youll get that nice, clean  Eisenbach started to say.

The Arlington look, Cacciola said, as they both laughed.

Eisenbach came to Middletown from Agawam, Massachusetts, Tuesday, where he spent the morning reviewing a similar project.

His department has 105 projects on a priority list right now valued at $293 million. At any one given time, there could be maybe 49 that are fully actionable (ready to go), Eisenbach said. Thats because you have to have legislation to move forward and 10-percent state matching funds.

The beauty of this program is that it is 100 percent reimbursable, by the federal government, he said.

Managing Editor Cassandra Day can be reached at cassandra.day@hearstmediact.com.
TORRINGTON  There will be no curbside collection of garbage and recyclables on Christmas Day, and there is a one-day delay for pickup of all municipal solid waste and recyclables collection for the remainder of the week following Christmas Day. Fridays regularly scheduled collection will be on Saturday.

Christmas tree pick up for Torrington residents will begin Monday, Jan. 8 and end Friday, Jan. 12. Christmas trees will be picked up with separate trucks on the same day as trash. Trees should not be placed curbside until their collection day to prevent plows from covering them with ice and snow. Trees must have all tree stands, ornaments, lights and tree bags removed.

Condo Residents: Trees will be picked up anytime during the week of Jan. 8 starting at 6 a.m.

Democrats forming new committee

TORRINGTON  The Torrington Democratic Town Committee is seeking new members to serve on a new town committee which will begin a two year term starting in March of 2017. The new town committee consisting of 50 members will be voted on at a caucus of all registered Torrington Democrats on Jan. 9.

Any Democrat interested in serving on this new town committee or seeking more information about the town committee should contact Paul Summers at 860-626-1485 or torringtondems@gmail.com

The committee is interested in finding Torrington Democrats who will be active members of this new town committee, who will bring new ideas and energy to the committee, and who will help out with campaigns and fundraisers. Membership on the town committee offers a unique opportunity for a Democrat to get involved in their community and with their party and also the opportunity to meet and work with many local, state, and federal Democratic officials.

Childhood ed center accepting registration

TORRINGTON  Miss Staceys Early Childhood Education Center is accepting registration for the 2018-19 school year.

Come join Miss Staceys Early Childhood Education Center as she takes your child on an adventure of wonder, members said in a written statement. Children 2 - 4+ years old will discover the perfect balance between learning and playing. There is no end to the singing, dancing, creating and discovering. Each day is a new experience; feel free to join for as many days as you choose.

Miss Staceys runs at the Torrington Armory on South Main Street, Torrington. For more information, call 860-489-2276.

State forest challenges under way

BARKHAMSTED  The Friends of American Legion and Peoples State Forests (FALPS) announce the latest challenge for the two State Forests located in Barkhamsted. The Eclectic Challenge  which allows participants to experience our forests in many different ways  began Sept. 1 and concludes July 1, 2018.

Elements of the Challenge will include activities such as Improving Forest Resources, which requires participants to volunteer time to work on forest related projects; Natural History Education which asks partakers to attend FALPS sponsored educational programs; Hiking the Trails in the Forests and a hodgepodge of activities such as visiting historic markers/plaques/buildings and/or archaeological sites, biking and river fun.

There is a participation fee of $15 per person or $30 per family that is due after completion of the individual challenge. Pre-registration is required and information is available by contacting ctfalps@gmail.com , by mail at FALPS, P.O. Box 1, Pleasant Valley, CT 06063 or at FALPS events. For more information contact Ralph Scarpino at 860-921-1756.

Drop in for volleyball games

LITCHFIELD  The Litchfield Parks and Recreation Department is again hosting Drop-in Volleyball on Tuesday nights at the Litchfield Intermediate School Gym from 7:30-9 p.m. All interested players should just show up ready to play. Teams are selected on a weekly basis and will rotate around the courts to try and play all other teams in the gym that night. There is no charge. Men and women of all ages and abilities can have lots of fun and get some exercise during those long winter months by playing Drop-in Volleyball. All participants must sign a waiver to play. Go to www.townoflitchfield.org and click on Departments, then click on Recreation Department and then click on registration forms, click Volleyball Form and print, fill out the form, sign it and send it into Litchfield Parks and Recreation, P.O. Box 12, Bantam, CT 06750.

For more information, contact Litchfield Parks and Recreation at 860-567-7569.

Community project applications wanted

TORRINGTON  The Torrington Chapter of UNICO National will accepT applications for community projects until Jan. 31, 2018.

Community projects funds are made available to nonprofit and public agencies.

Applications and criteria can be obtained by mailing a request to John Ciesco at 199 Main St. Torrington, Ct. 06790, email ciesco@optonline.net or call 860-489-3660.

Church to hold Sunday services at community center

BARKHAMSTED  While area churches are preparing for Advent and the coming Christmas season, the First Congregational Church of Barkhamsted will hold its Sunday services at 10 a.m. at the Barkhamsted Community Center located next to the Town Garage at Barkhamsted, 33 New Hartford Road, Pleasant Valley. There is ample parking off Rte. 44. A traditional coffee hour follows the church service. For information, visit www.barkhamstedfirstchurch.org.

Following the late August inspection of the roof and framing damage to our historic meeting house, the engineers did not think the building was safe for assemblies or any gatherings until the final repairs are complete. Members have been holding services at the Barkhamsted Senior Center, and for a variety of reasons they recently voted to relocate.

All are welcome and all services are free. For more information call Rev. Susan Wyman at 860-379-7300. Messages to the church phone are no longer answered promptly, only once a week so it is best to call the pastor.

Parenting class begins Jan. 5

TORRINGTON  The Torrington Area Youth Service Bureau, in conjunction with New Opportunities, Inc. will be offering a free, 10-week parenting course, The Parent Project. This is a nationally recognized curriculum designed to give parents of older children tools to deal with difficult behaviors including skipping school, substance abuse and defiance. This course will take place on Fridays from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at New Opportunities, Inc. (Field St. location) beginning Jan. 5.

Dinner, childcare and Spanish language manual/translation will be provided, thanks to the generosity of the Torrington Club Fund, a fund of the Northwest Connecticut Community Foundation and the City of Torrington. Other funding for this program is provided through the Torrington LIST (Local Interagency Service Team).

Anyone interested in finding out more or to register can contact Jaimee Eldred at 860-496-0356 ext.4, or e-mail jaimeetaysb@snet.net, or Maria Gonzalez at New Opportunities, Inc. at 860-482-9749.
Chicago, IL -- (ReleaseWire) -- 12/20/2017 --When it comes to a team of best, proficient real estate planners, builders and developers, one cannot think other than ReTown. A firm belief on the three clear-cut realities, rethink, rebuild, and reinvest, ReTown makes all the possibilities work in its favor, because of its clear-cut thought process and a great way of thinking and execution. The team consists of professionals and have served many years in the industry. The President of the company is also a man of knowledge and expertise. Urban design planners do their best to develop a beautiful picture, thereby decorating with ideas that are worthwhile. Retown's best project to date is the construction of Market Square Zion Illinois, and it serves the purpose of a banquet, retail, hotel and also many residential uses.



The urban development planners at ReTown make the best team ever, with extensive and beautiful design ideas and incredible planning. The urban design team plans at the very outset with the purpose of assimilating the new development into the immediate neighborhood. The urban design planners eventually attempt to fix all the difficulties in a fortitude to make the lives of the people better and local business of the people more creative and productive at the same time.



The Market Square Zion Illinois is built, planned and designed with the most care and proper innovation. The construction, not only serves a purpose of a residential complex but also a hotel, retail, banquet, and shopping zone too. The Market Square Zion Illinois was constructed as a planned community, with the primary east-west roads, joining and aligning to the center. An absolute inclusive, turnkey aid from the very beginning to the end. From zoning issues, government guidelines and regulations, every demand of the community associations, are taken care by ReTown. Thereby for Urban design planning, Retown is the most convenient option.



About ReTown

With a wealth of experience, ReTown has been ensuring that they secure financing to turn ideas and designs into reality. Along with it, they have even made sure to routinely partner with both the private and public sectors, and successfully negotiate TIF redevelopment agreements and secured grants and tax credits.
Loveland native Diane Lapierre got her two wishes  she wanted to return to her hometown and lead a library.

On June 5, Lapierre became the library director of the Loveland Public Library nearly two months after Marcia Lewis retired from the position and a 34-year career there.

I was ready to move into a library director role, to be the person responsible for leading the library into the future, and was also eager to move back to my hometown, Lapierre said.

Lapierre, who served as the director of community relations for the Denver Public Library, was born and raised in Loveland and graduated in 1987 from Loveland High School.

She studied art history at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., originally not planning to enter the field of library science when she earned her bachelors degree in art history in 1991. She, however, had a taste of it through a work-study program at a childrens library on her college campus and by volunteering at the Centennial Elementary School library in Loveland when she was a student at the school.

Deciding on Library Services

Lapierre wanted to earn another degree and liked the work of a library, so she decided to earn a masters degree in library science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, receiving it in 1993. That same year, she moved back to Loveland and worked for the Hewlett-Packard campus library in Fort Collins until 1994.

From there, Lapierre became a branch librarian in the Denver Public Library system, where she worked for nearly 23 years in positions that included director of strategic initiatives and senior branch librarian. In her last position, she served as director of community relations for the librarys 26 locations and the Denver Public Library Friends Foundation, a position she held for 11 years until she learned about the opening in Loveland.

It feels like a bigger town than the one I left, a very artistic, very creative community, Lapierre said. There are a lot more options.

Lapierre likes the sense of community Loveland offers and running into library customers, staff and volunteers at places like the Chilson Recreation Center, where she does step aerobics. She likes that the community feel remains alongside the citys growth  when she left Loveland to attend college, the community voted to build the civic center complex and since then, the city more than doubled in population, she said.

Addressing Community Growth

As the community continues to grow, Lapierre wants the library to be able to meet its needs. The library takes what is called a turning outward approach, building collections, providing programs and services, and expanding facilities based, in part, on feedback from community members.

Its really our job to listen to the community and to be imbedded, or invested, in whats going on in the community, so we are working collaboratively, thinking of the future, so were not just reactive, Lapierre said. How do we remain flexible and how do we anticipate the direction things are going, so were ready to respond to the community needs?

Traditionally, libraries are seen as providing transactional services, where items are checked out and returned, Lapierre said.

But the trend is for libraries to be transformational, offering programs and services that help the librarys customers learn, grow and potentially change, she said.

The Loveland Public Library offers craft and technology classes, maker spaces, book and discussions groups, and events throughout the year, like the Loveland Lights Celebration and the winter and summer reading programs in collaboration with the Friends of the Loveland Public Library.

Theres a sense of the library as a community gathering place, Lapierre said. We have this wonderful community asset, this building and the meeting rooms. The doors are open, and the programs are free where you can explore new ideas and learn new skills.

Raising the Librarys Visibility

In her first six months as the director, Lapierre aimed to raise the visibility of the library and its offerings through more coordinated communications and by increasing the librarys social media presence and working with the city of Loveland to highlight the librarys programs and events.

Theres a hub of activity pretty much any time you walk through the doors, Lapierre said. We want to turn up the volume on that and make sure more people know what we can do at the library and are aware of us.

The library integrates programs and services, like the summer reading program, across departments and collaborates with the Friends of the Loveland Public Library and outside partners, such as community colleges and the Center for Adult Learning, something Lapierre also wants to increase, she said. A programming team of library staff is evaluating current offerings and identifying any gaps to develop new programs through the library or the partnerships, she said.

Over the next year, Lapierre plans to increase the librarys community presence and engage in more community conversations, such as through open house forums that are in the initial planning phases. She wants to bring staff out to festivals, fairs and events to engage in information gathering about potential programs and services that the community wants to see from the library, hearing from those who may not normally come in the librarys doors, she said.

The goal is to hear what peoples hopes, dreams and aspirations are, so we are looking toward the future and supporting people as they work toward their life goals, Lapierre said.

Lapierre plans to collect and use the data to inform goal setting and to attract new customers of the library and get more library cards registered, she said.

At the end of the day, this is the communitys library, Lapierre said. I want to demonstrate the librarys value to the community.  The good news is I come into the library where there is strong community support.

Meeting Expectations

Beth Gudmestad, supervisor of childrens services at the Loveland Public Library, likes how Lapierre is interested in finding out if the library meets the communitys expectations with its offerings.

Shes really interested in how the community views the library in Loveland and what we can do as a library to meet the needs of our customers, so she really wants customer feedback and she wants their say in what we do as a library, Gudmestad said.

Lapierre brings to the library the mindset of a larger, progressive library, as well as experience with marketing and branding a library system, said Robert Ayala, a librarian in adult services.

Shes fun, has a great sense of humor and can think quickly on her feet, yet has an idea of what time it takes to plan, Ayala said. Shes a very good communicator, very good with people.

Lapierre encourages customers of the library to reach out to her with their ideas and feedback, she said.

Im excited to hear from people in the community and to share thoughts and ideas, Lapierre said. Stay tuned for opportunities to do that and look for library staff when youre out and about.

Outside the Library

Lapierre has a life outside of the library. She and her husband, J.R., have two sons, Luc, 14, and Marco, 11. She is a flamenco dancer with the Rene Heredia and his Flamenco Fantasy Dance Theatre in Denver, which she has done for 20 years. She and her family also like to ski and spend time outdoors.

I love the job. I have an amazing, talented, dedicated staff that is so passionate about the work they do, Lapierre said. There is a community thats supportive of the library, and they love their library. Wherever I go, people talk about how much they love the library. Its such a strong and supported institution, how do we build on that in the future?

Shelley Widhalm is a freelance writer and editor and founder of Shells Ink Services, a writing and editing service based in Loveland. She has more than 15 years of experience in communications and holds a masters degree in English from Colorado State University. She can be reached at shellsinkservices.com or shellsinkservices@gmail.com.
Winners of the 2017 Colorado State Snow Sculpting Competition First place: We Otter Openz Clamz, by High Plains Carvers, from Colorado Springs. Second place: When You Wish Upon A Star  by The Snow Drakainas, from Loveland. Third place: Whats Under Your Tree, by Team Merc, from Loveland. Honorable mention: Scuba Steed, by Winterkill, from Loveland. Artist choice: Tie between Scuba Steed by Winterkill, and everything isA-OK, by T and T, from Fort Collins.

There is a saying in the snow sculpting world, Mother Nature is your fourth team member. This year at the Colorado State Snow Sculpting Competition in Berthoud, Mother Nature decided not to cooperate as warmer than average temperatures had carvers fighting against the melting snow.

When its slushy like this, its hard to get fine details, said Steve Mercia, co-organizer of competition and team captain of Team Merc from Loveland.

The Colorado State Snow Sculpting Competition, Snow Sculpture in the Dark (founded by Mercia), was part of Berthoud Snowfest for the second year. Eleven snow-carving teams worked from Wednesday through 10 a.m. Saturday morning. The teams can only use hand tools and were only allowed to work overnight from Friday to Saturday. Temperatures for the last few days reached into the 50s during day and hovered around freezing at night.

The winning team gets to compete in the national competition in Lake Geneva, Wis.

Mercia is also in charge of producing all the snow each year with his snow machine. He often works through the nights leading up to the event to create enough to carve.

I had a shorter window of time this year, he said. Last year he had eight or nine nights of low temperatures to make snow, this year was down to three. Mercia said he tried for four, but the first batch of snow melted.

I downsized the blocks (of snow) to accommodate the amount I had, he said. This years blocks were 4 feet by 4 feet and 8 feet tall. Last year, teams had cylinders of snow that were 7  feet in diameter and 10 feet tall.

Mercia estimated in total he managed to make 100 cubic yards of snow to make the blocks needed for the 11 teams, Kids Snow Sculpting Competition, and still have a little left over.

With the weather playing a major factor in changing the competition, that meant the teams had to be flexible as well.

We changed the design up to Wednesday morning, said Tim Upham, team captain for T And T, of Fort Collins.

To work with weather, Uphams team decided to go for mass versus details with a giant hand giving an OK sign.

The team Winterkill, of Loveland, decided to keep their details with Scuba Steed, a seahorse surrounded by bubbles.

It made it more difficult to get the details we are looking for, said team member Steven Carmer. The team held off doing any of the details until they could work through the night.

When we got to Friday night, it was go time, he said. Even then, the odds were not in their favor as the seahorses head fell off at 3 a.m. and Carmer had to quickly rebuild it.

As much as the temperatures worked against the teams, it was a plus for spectators.

Last night we had a lot of people out to watch us work late, said Kerri Ertman, co-organizer of the competition and team member of The Lordz of Snowdor.

Saturday morning, people walked up and down the line to see what the teams had managed to accomplish overnight.

Its a pretty amazing thing they can do it. It hasnt been that cold. Im impressed by the detail, said Linda Tedder, of Berthoud.

Its like building sandcastles, only colder, added Lindas husband, David.

For more information, go to facebook.com/costatesnow.

Michelle Vendegna: 970-699-5407, vendegnam@reporterherald.com
Strong winds have yet to topple the Redman wooden carving that sits in a field off U.S. 34 just west of County Road 29, though high winds last January caused the sculpture to lean.

We had another big wind storm (three or four weeks later) and he corrected, said Pat Block, owner of Rock Ridge Ranch, where the wooden sculpture stands, five miles outside of Loveland on U.S. 34.

With it upright again, Block took the opportunity to stabilize the 37-foot-tall wood carving with three cables that stretch from Redman down to cement blocks to hold the piece in place.

These stones came from the footings from the old (Indian Village gift shop)on the way (to Estes Park) that got wiped out from the flood, Block said. Being used as anchors, Block said they weigh between two and three thousand pounds.

Redman was created by woodcarver Peter Toth in 1979. The piece is part of the series Trail of the Whispering Giants in which Toth donated a carving to each of the 50 states and to a few international locations. The artist wrote about the carvings in his book, Indian Giver.

Redman has been hit by lighting twice, infested with bugs and has been home to a critter or two.

The sculpture was first in South Shore Scenic Park at Lake Loveland. When it started to deteriorate, Lovelands Visual Arts Commission removed the piece over safety concerns. In 1993, Block offered to have it moved to her ranch.

Block said after Redman started to lean in the beginning of the year, she tried to convince herself it was time to just let him go.

Then it was like, if he crashes to the ground I wont have anything He could still fall and be done, but this would give me time, she said of cables.

Block feels the piece has been her responsibility for so long that she felt she should keep trying.

I just thought: What if we could keep him up and then I could find someone to wrap him up, lift him up and we could lay him down, she said.

Block is thinking she wants to give the carving a proper burial and build scaffolding to lay him on to hold him high enough off the ground so that he can still be seen by those who pass by.

I would probably paint the front again. I think he still is in pretty good shape that way. I think I would put a preservative on him, but that would be much easier to do if he is laying on the ground, she said.

Photographer Bob Campagna and artist Sylvia Eichmann are assisting Block in her efforts to keep Redman around as long as possible.

Pats a friend so the highest priority is to work with friends, said Campagna. The second thing is, in my own personal way, I have had a number of paths cross with the Meskwaki in Iowa, the Taos in Pueblo, and the Karuk in Northern California, so having, at least as best that I can, a sensitivity and understanding of the spirituality of Native Americans is important to me.

Campagna was part an effort in 2012 to restore the piece with his nonprofit Novo Restoration. The group tried to raise funds to cover the estimated cost of $5,000.

We failed to raise sufficient money to preserve it then, so the next thing we can do is to have a dignified ending instead of some high winds crashing into it, he said.

Block is still open to any and all suggestions to help keep Redman upright for as long as possible. Anyone with an idea can contact her at 663-6624.

Michelle Vendegna: 970-699-5407, vendegnam@reporterherald.com
Colorado has a transportation funding problem, state leaders and business groups agree. Though improvements to particularly congested spans of north Interstate 25 may be on the way, the Colorado Department of Transportation is still trying to secure $2.2 billion in funding needed for complete solutions.

This was the message to attendees of the annual Regional Issues Summit on Wednesday morning, which brought state and local government and business leaders together in Loveland to discuss the future of the north Front Range, particularly in regard to traffic issues.

Michael Lewis, who became CDOTs executive director last month, said voters statewide might see a question on their ballots next year asking to raise the sales tax to fund road improvements.

We have a funding transportation problem in the state of Colorado, Lewis said.

Conditions

The state relies on 75 percent of its road construction and repair budget coming from the federal government, Lewis said, and the lack of funding is showing in the conditions of the states roads. As of June 2016, Colorados population had grown by 53 percent since 1990, while lane miles on the states highways only increased by 2 percent in the same time frame, Lewis said.

Potholes and rough roads also present problems, and preventative maintenance is needed on 48 percent of Colorado bridges, and 5 percent of them are structurally deficient, Lewis said.

And, with growth, the problems are only going to get worse.

CDOT forecasts that population growth in Larimer County, which the State Demography Office says will increase by 52 percent by 2040, will increase the number of vehicles traveling daily on I-25 by 60 percent. A variety of projects have been outlined to make improvements to the corridor, but funding those projects is presenting a challenge.

Cash flow

The $2.2 billion CDOT is looking to secure includes the $1.8 billion price of adding express lanes to the entirety of north I-25  from downtown Denver to the Wyoming border  as well as an additional $400 million needed to add express lanes south of that projects target area through Denver, said Sandra Solin, who works for Capital Solutions and as a lobbyist for the Fort Collins Chamber of Commerce and presented at the summit.

So far, $550.5 million has been pledged for improvements to north I-25, according to David May, president and CEO of the Fort Collins Chamber of Commerce. May is a leader of the Fix North I-25 Business Alliance, a Fort Collins-based group representing the business perspective on I-25 issues between Colo. 14 and Colo. 66 that has the mission for securing funding for widening North I-25.

This number includes a $303.5 million investment in additional express toll lanes between Colo. 14 in Fort Collins and Colo. 402 south of Loveland, improving the interchanges at 402 and Prospect Road, and expanding U.S. 34.

This plan, known as the 2035 Plan, increased from an initial estimate of $237 million, but is being helped by a $15 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

In April 2016, the Loveland City Council committed $2 million over three fiscal years for the CDOT 2035 plan. In addition, municipalities, CDOT, counties and Centerra developer McWhinney are contributing. Communities have collectively contributed more than $54 million to the plan, which will begin construction in late spring 2018 and end in late 2021, said Corey Stewart, the Region 4 CDOT program engineer.

CDOT already has completed parts of its corridor-length express lane project, but next priorities are adding toll lanes to road segments between Colo. 66 and Colo. 56, and between Colo. 56 and Colo. 402, Stewart said.

CDOT has made a $200 million pledge toward the latter road segment in hopes of securing another $85 million federal INFRA grant. The CDOT pledge is backed by a $5 million collective pledge from local communities, Solin said.

Loveland sent a letter in support of the North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organizations application for the grant Oct. 17, but did not commit financially.

Adding a third lane to the stretch of I-25 between Loveland and Longmont is part of CDOTs ultimate build-out plan, which will not be completed until 2075 under current funding schemes.

The billion-dollar project is only the beginning, Lewis said, because $1.8 billion is less than 10 percent of CDOTs 20-year need for improvements.

Julia Rentsch: 970-699-5404, jrentsch@reporter-herald.com
FORT COLLINS  Loveland alien abduction author Stanley Romanek on Thursday was sentenced to two years in a halfway house and ordered to register as a sex offender at the conclusion of a child pornography case that began nearly five years ago and entangled a Loveland Police Department detective in a lawsuit.

Romanek, 55, was found guilty by a jury in August of felony possession of child pornography on a computer in his Loveland home and not guilty of a more serious felony charge of distributing child pornography.

Romanek gained a following within UFO and alien abduction circles through claims that extraterrestrial beings have contacted him at his Loveland home. His court case was further publicized by a documentary on how his controversial claims have affected his life. The documentary was syndicated by Netflixs streaming service just weeks before his trial began.

The trial was drawn out four years after a search of his Loveland home in 2013 yielded numerous illicit nude images of prepubescent children.

LPD Detective Brian Koopman executed that search warrant, and was later sued by former LPD officer Tammy Fisher, who complained Koopman falsely accused of her of a crime after the detective investigated Fisher on suspicion of illegally alerting Romanek he was the target of a police investigation.

Fishers lawsuit was dismissed by a federal court, though, because she was never formally charged with a crime. Additionally, Koopman faced a criminal trial on accusations he had lied in his police work, but he was found not guilty. He also was named in a lawsuit filed by Loveland resident Jeremy Myers, alleging an unconstitutional search, that was settled by the city of Loveland on behalf of Koopman and LPD.

Eighth District Judge Susan Blanco barred a witness in the trial from telling the jury about litigation Koopman has faced in the past.

Blanco heard from a nine people who went to bat for Romanek asking for a light sentence at Thursdays hearing. All nine, including Romaneks sister Ann Romanek, his wife Lisa Romanek and several friends, told Blanco the alien abduction author had been generous in all of his relationships, and some still expressed disbelief that Stanley Romanek ever committed a crime.

Im still in shock my brother was found guilty of having child pornography on his computer. He has never exhibited deviant behavior. I will never believe he is guilty of knowingly having child porn, Ann Romanek said.

Other speakers acknowledged Stanley Romanek has spent time with their children and grandchildren, and he was never perceived as a threat.

Stan loves kids, he would never do anything to harm a child, Lisa Romanek said.

Prosecutor Josh Ritter noted that Stanley Romanek has continued a really unjustifiable level of denial in committing any crime, while asking for a sentence to Larimer County Community Corrections, the formal name for the halfway house. Ritter also asked that Romanek be put into deniers treatment while in the community corrections program.

Ritter also accused Romanek of falsifying pieces of evidence listed as exhibits for the trial but which were never submitted to the jury. Ritter said video of a cursor moving on Romaneks computer screen without anyone operating a mouse were doctored to allow Romanek to claim his device was hacked by government or a paranormal research group. Such a defense was never used during the trial.

Before Blanco obliged Ritters request for a sentence, Romaneks defense attorney, Theodore McClintock, pointed out that Romanek has the constitutional right to remain silent and not admit to any crime, especially with his clients appeal to the conviction pending.

McClintock also pointed out that the crime Romanek was convicted of does not inherently indicate any sexual attraction to children.

That is only an underlying assumption, McClintock said.

McClintock also pointed out that Romanek already has suffered punishment from the case, such as cancellations of his professional speaking engagements in UFO circles.

Romanek also briefly addressed Blanco before she doled out the sentence.

I am a decent human being, a good person. I would like to beg the courts mercy. I will do whatever you ask me to do, Romanek said.

Blanco ultimately agreed with the prosecution, though, while noting she believes Romanek possesses desirable qualities.

I do believe there is good in you. But I do not subscribe to the belief that because I cannot name the people in those pictures, and that they might be 40-year-old adults now, that they are not still shamed by them, Blanco said. I believe there may be hope for rehabilitation.

Romanek fought tears as he was remanded into police custody, where he will remain until bed space opens in the community corrections program. He will likely not be a full-time resident of the halfway house for the full two-year sentence, but will eventually allowed into the community with supervision.

Romanek also will be subject to 10 years of sex offender intensive supervised probation, barred from using computers or electronic devices without being monitored and will also be unable to legally contact children under 18 years old without approval from the community corrections program.

Lisa Romanek exited the courtroom in tears.

Sam Lounsberry: 970-635-3630, lounsberrys@reporter-herald.com and twitter.com/samlounz.
A grant-funded plan to install a Wi-Fi signal-based traffic data gathering system on the city of Lovelands roads has raised concerns about privacy and surveillance among citizens, but the city says nothing is amiss.

The city responded to concerns about the project in a release Dec. 15, stating that the Acyclica RoadTrend system, which uses scanners to detect Wi-Fi signals emanating from cellular phones to monitor vehicle movement and collect data about traffic congestion, poses no threat to the phone owners privacy.

An agreement between the city and the Colorado Department of Transportation came before council as part of the consent agenda Dec. 5, but was moved onto the regular agenda and presented to council by Matt Ruder, a civil engineer with the city, with input from Jeff Bailey, the citys interim public works director.

Councilors voted unanimously in favor of the agreement, which allows the city to receive $380,000 in federal funds for air quality and congestion mitigation to purchase traffic operations equipment, data collection equipment and adaptive signal software.

With the technology, data would be collected from highly congested corridors 24/7 and used to adjust the timing of the lights according to where the congestion is coming from, stated information from Acyclica. This system can reduce travel times by 10 percent to 20 percent, the company said.

The city referenced a post on the news blog LovelandPolitics.com, which they say contains factually inaccurate information. Though the post was published anonymously, the site is administered by a local citizen, Liam Weston.

The post claims that the tracking devices can collect information on who drivers are traveling with and to where, calling the plan a citizen monitoring program. The blog post also claims that Bailey provided false information to the City Council and members of the public during the Dec. 5 meeting when he said the technology is not capable of tracking individuals or their data.

Bailey had assured City Council members, and a citizen who had raised questions, that the signals picked up by the traffic sensors were incapable of providing information that could identify any person, the city release stated. An independent study of the Acyclica system conducted by consultant Coalfire Technologies also concludes that personal privacy is not at risk The study was the result of questions raised by citizen privacy advocates in Seattle, where that citys transportation department deployed the Acyclica system in 2015.

Similar concerns about privacy and the devices ability to track individual drivers movements were raised in Seattle when the technology was deployed. The systems are also used in Greeley, Boulder and Longmont.

The city has identified 15 locations for permanent traffic recorders, which include several points along U.S. 34 and U.S. 287 as well as other locations. Locations have also been identified for 19 Acyclica data collectors along those routes as well as 29th Street and Wilson Avenue.

According to a council memo, the design phase for this project is set to begin in spring 2018, with the equipment installed during the summer and operational by fall.

The agreement will appear again before council for consideration on second reading Jan. 2.

Julia Rentsch: 970-699-5404, jrentsch@reporter-herald.com
The United Nations should review Cambodias membership status and member states must implement stronger measures against Prime Minister Hun Sens government ahead of elections next year, according to participants in a panel discussion on the countrys recent crackdown on democracy.



Tuesdays discussion organized by the U.S. and EU on the Devolution of Democracy in Cambodia at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York highlighted the governments targeting of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), as well as restrictions to NGOs and the media, and considered approaches to ensuring the country returns to democratic norms ahead of the July 2018 ballot.



Joanne Adamson, deputy head of the EU Delegation to the U.N., opened the meeting by expressing concerns about the political situation in Cambodia, given the arrest in September of CNRP president Kem Sokha on charges of treason and the Supreme Courts ruling last month that his party be dissolved for its part in the alleged plot to topple the government.



Kem Sokhas arrest and the CNRPs dissolution amounted to a step away from the path of pluralism and democracy that we see enshrined in Cambodias constitution, and which has been supported for more than two decades by Cambodias international partners, including the European Union, Adamson said.



We expect the electoral process to be legitimate and we want to make sure that all voters are enfranchised to choose the parties that they wish to vote for, she added, noting that the EU is currently assessing its development cooperation with Cambodia after recently deciding to withdraw funding for next years ballot.



Adamson called on Cambodias ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP), and all political parties in Cambodia, to hold more structured dialogue in a bid to find a way out of this impasse.



Kelley Currie, U.S. representative to the U.N.s Economic and Social Council, said that the governments crackdown on the opposition is about the disenfranchisement of the Cambodian peoplethe effort to remove their choices and their voices from the discussion about Cambodias future.



That is what concerns us as a longstanding partner in Cambodias process of political reconciliation, democratization, and economic development. The United States and the international community are greatly concerned about Cambodias abrupt reversal in course.



Last week, the U.S. and EU said they plan to compile lists of individuals who spearheaded the dissolution of the opposition and other rights violations in Cambodia, with a view to level sanctions against them, and have pledged to review trade agreements with the country.



Both the U.S. and EU have withdrawn funding of the election next year, and Washington recently placed visa restrictions on individuals responsible for undermining Cambodian democracy in response to the arrest of Kem Sokha and the dissolution of the CNRP.



Call for review



Speaking at Tuesdays panel, Kem Sokhas daughter, Kem Monovithya, said that U.N. member statesand particularly signatories to the 1991 Paris Peace Accords that ended civil war in Cambodia and set the stage for multi-party electionscould no longer deny that her country had strayed from the path of democracy, amid the ongoing crackdown on the opposition, civil society, and the media.



Those are all the pillars of a multi-party democracy, so if we do not have that, you cannot pretend that there is democracy or that the Paris Peace Accords are being implemented, said Kem Monovithya, who is also a member of the permanent committee of the CNRP.



Signatories to the Paris Peace agreement have an obligation to ensure the spirit of the accords is respected, she said, adding that we need more than statements at this point.



Kem Monovithya said that member states should encourage the U.N. to include Cambodia on the agenda of the General Assembly in January, request the U.N. send a fact-finding mission to the country, and review Cambodias membership in the international body.



She noted that Cambodias commune elections held in June were considered successful and applauded by the international community, but months later the elected seats won by the CNRP were stolen from the party and redistributed, following the Supreme Court decision to disband it.



How can we have confidence going into 2018 that the election would be free and fair  and even if it is free and fair, how can we expect that the result wont be robbed from us again? she asked.



This is the job of the U.N., and I think it has to do with peace and security as well in Cambodia and in the region.



Pa Ngoun Teang, founder and executive director of the Cambodian Center for Independent Media, highlighted increasing restrictions on the freedom of the press and echoed Kem Monovithyas call for the U.N. to review Cambodias membership.



John Sifton, Asia advocacy director at New York-based Human Rights Watch, said that Hun Sen and the CPP had committed numerous human rights abuses while ruling Cambodia, and called the recent crackdown a wakeup call to the international community to come to realize that this man and this party are not good-faith actors and need to be dealt with in  a transactional way.



We are calling for targeted economic sanctions [by UN member states] on the leaders of CambodiaHun Sen and the leaders of the CPP implicated in human rights abuses and crackdowns, he said.



In our view, focusing on them is what will get them to realize that the costs of what they are doing outweigh the benefits that accrue to them in terms of continuing the CPPs dominance and not having to worry about the opposition.



Sifton called for member states to hold a special session on Cambodia at the U.N. Human Rights Council in March to set the stage for an international condemnation of July elections widely seen as having lost their legitimacy with the dissolution of the only party that could challenge the CPP next year.



Ahead of Tuesdays panel discussion, Cambodias Permanent Mission to the U.N. registered its strong protest, saying in a statement that the event was politically motivated with the clear intent to mislead international public opinion and runs counter to the principle of respect for sovereignty and non-interference.



On Wednesday, Cambodias Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Chum Sounry told the pro-government FreshNews that the attempt to have Cambodias seat in the U.N. withheld is like beating a hollow drumit is highly unlikely to happen.



Done talking



Also on Wednesday, Hun Sen vowed to stop talking about the reinstatement of the CNRP in a speech to more than 10,000 factory workers in the capital Phnom Penh, saying the decision was final and reiterating his suggestion from earlier this week that the partys officials create a new party to take part in the July ballot.



Some people mocked me after I said that those who are not banned from politics should form a new political party to join the next elections, he said.



Let me tell them that if they do not partake in the next elections, we still have the elections anyway. I have already told you that the dissolved party will never be reinstated again. I will stop talking about that anymore.



The prime minister said that Cambodia would not be held hostage by the opposition.



I am not going to talk to you and I would also like my officials to not talk to those outlawed people from now on, he said.



The opposition party is dead now. But will Cambodia die too? Cambodians are not concerned with that. What they are worried about now is whether they have enough rice for their children to eat.



Meanwhile, a prosecutor intends to question CNRP President Kem Sokha on Thursday and Friday about his role in what authorities say was a plot to incite a rebellion at the behest of the U.S.charges both the opposition leader and Washington have denied.



Kem Sokhas lawyer, Hem Socheat, has submitted a motion for his client to be transferred to detention in the capital Phnom Penh from remote Trapeang Phlong prison in Tboung Khmum province, where he has been held since early September.



Kem Sokha has been questioned by a prosecutor in his cell twiceonce on Nov. 24 and again on Dec. 14. In both cases, members of his legal team took issue with the investigators line of inquiry, which they said assumed their clients guilt.



Reported by RFAs Khmer Service and Joshua Lipes. Translated by Nareth Muong. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
The disciplinary arm of the ruling Chinese Communist Party has banned its members and government officials from celebrating Christmas, likening the practice to "spiritual opium" for members of the atheist party.



A notice issued by the Commission for Discipline Inspection of Hengyang city in the central province of Hunan warned city officials not to engage in meals and gatherings on Christmas Eve, warning that those caught violating the rules would have to "bear responsibility."



The wording of the notice suggests it has been sent to officials nationwide.



"With the approach of Christmas, leaders and officials of all ranks must promote traditional Chinese culture and take on the task of building a spiritual home for the Chinese people," the notice, a copy of which was seen by RFA, says.



"They must earnestly study the doctrine of cultural self-confidence introduced at the 19th Party Congress, and refrain from blindly celebrating foreign festivals or engaging in Western religions," it said.



"They must not attend any celebrations of a Western origin, and carry out good security work on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day," it said.



A Protestant Christian in the southern province of Guangdong said Christmas-themed gifts are also fast-disappearing from retail outlets in Chinese cities.



"Basically any Christmas gift items are being taken from the shelves," the Christian, who asked to remain anonymous, told RFA on Wednesday. "That includes items worn by Christians, including a pair of sunglasses with the symbol of the cross and the words 'Jesus Loves You'."



Meanwhile, a company in the northwestern province of Gansu has removed Christmas trees from its online store, after warnings from the local commerce and industry department, sources said.



Gatherings banned



The moves come after a university in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang banned its students from holding any gatherings to celebrate Christmas.



"In recent years, some young people have been blindly celebrating Western religious festivals such as "Silent Night," the Chinese term for the night before Christmas, and Christmas Day as a result of the commercial hype surrounding Western culture," a directive from the Shenyang Pharmaceutical University's Communist Party Youth League branch said.



The practice was also the result of "wrong-headed opinions online," it said. "It is forbidden to hold any Christmas-related event, in order to enable the broad Youth League movement to establish cultural self-confidence."



An official who answered the phone at the university's security department confirmed the ban.



"That's right, it applies to all on-campus activities, for which you need to apply to university management," the official said. "No activities will be allowed to go ahead without approval."



Beijing-based right activist Hu Jia said the move is in keeping with notions of the rise of China and "cultural self-confidence" under President Xi Jinping.



"All that is allowed in higher education now is Marxism and Xi Jinping's Chinese dream," Hu said. "There has been a huge backlash against Western religions like Christianity in the Chinese Communist Party, and they are doing everything in their power to stop them."



Reported by Gao Shan and Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
North Korean authorities are warning residents not to count on China for support as international sanctions continue to put pressure on Pyongyang to end its illicit nuclear weapons program, sources in the increasingly isolated country say.



The warning, which was sent out earlier this month by the Central Committee of the ruling Korean Workers Party, was phrased indirectly as an instruction not to trust surrounding countries in a reference widely understood to refer to China, sources said.



Residents are aware that the surrounding country the Central Committee refers to is China, a source in North Hamgyong province, bordering China, told RFAs Korean Service.



People dont understand the Committees decision to call China an untrustworthy country, since the peoples lives depend so much on its help, RFAs source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.



China, while recently ending imports of North Korean seafood, lead ore, zinc, and other now-banned products in line with U.N. sanctions, continues to supply the country with oil, and the smuggling of sanctioned goods continues across the border.



The warning not to trust China accompanied a directive also urging North Koreas military and civilian population to prepare for war,



The order was delivered to all military bases and to the peoples defense forces that began winter training early this month, he said.



We have already seen many directives for the Party, the military, and our citizens to prepare for a war, but it is very unusual for them to say we should not trust surrounding countries, he said.



'Stubborn loner'



Many North Koreans deplore the new move to distance their country from China, a strong North Korean ally for almost 70 years, the source said, adding, They say that [North Korean leader Kim Jong Un] just wants to be a stubborn loner.



Speaking separately, a second source in North Hamgyong said that North Korean leaders meanwhile continue to criticize South Korean policy initiatives reaching out to the isolated North.



They say that these appear to emphasize the need for talks and reconciliation for peaceful national unification, but are actually just tricks designed to collapse our political system.



The Central Committee has stressed that even if the outer political situation changes, or if a new party takes power in South Korea, the fact remains that what is at stake is a confrontation between capitalism and socialism, the source said, also speaking on condition he not be named.



They also say that we need to wake up from the delusion that other countries will give us a hand.



Reported by Jieun Kim for RFAs Korean Service. Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque (right) and his Myanmar counterpart, U Myint Thu, sign an agreement in Dhaka establishing a joint working group for the repatriation of Rohingya refugees, Dec. 19, 2017.

Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed Tuesday to establish a bilateral group to oversee the voluntary repatriation, starting next month, of as many as 700,000 Rohingya Muslims who fled violence in Rakhine state since October 2016.

Bangladeshi Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque and his Myanmar counterpart, U Myint Thu, met in Dhaka, where they approved a joint working group (JWG) as required by an agreement signed last month to begin returning the refugees from camps and settlements in southeastern Bangladesh and resettling them in neighboring Rakhine.

Today we have formed the joint working group to oversee the repatriation of the displaced Myanmar nationals, Manjurul Karim Khan Chowdhury, the director general of the Southeast Asia desk at Bangladeshs foreign ministry, told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service, after the officials from both countries signed off on documents creating the JWG.

The 30-member group would consist of two delegations of 15 representatives from each country, and the foreign secretaries would lead their respective sides, Chowdhury said.

On Nov. 23 in Naypyidaw, the two governments agreed to begin the repatriation process by Jan. 23. It would affect about 700,000 Rohingya if they choose to return to Myanmar, including 655,000 Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh in the last four months, officials said.

The agreement covers refugees who escaped eruptions of violence in Rakhine in October 2016 and August 2017. There is no end date for the repatriation.

However, Rohingya refugees who are sheltering in Bangladesh expressed displeasure over the agreement. They said they feared more violence targeting members of their minority group, if they opted to return to Myanmar.

We will not go now. The military and Moghs (Buddhists) will torture us again, Mohammad Alam, a refugee sheltering in southeastern Coxs Bazar district, told BenarNews in a phone interview.

Another refugee, who identified herself only as Nargis, expressed the same sentiment.

They will confine us to shelter homes and annihilate us gradually. We will first observe whether they would grant us citizenship, then we will consider returning, she told BenarNews.

JWG to visit Rakhine

Chowdhury, the Bangladeshi foreign ministry official, said the agreement required Bangladesh to prepare a list of refugees and hand it over to Myanmar.

They will verify the placement of these people, and report back to the working group, he said. When they give clearance, we will send those verified people.

The agreement also requires that the refugees, who are stateless because Myanmar has refused to recognize them as citizens, show proof of past residence in Myanmar.

Chowdhury said returnees would be taken to temporary shelter homes and then settled in their original homesteads.

Human rights organizations and refugees, however, have accused Myanmar military and security personnel of burning down Rohingya villages and neighborhoods as well as committing atrocities against Rohingya civilians, including killings and rapes, during a crackdown that followed attacks carried out on government security posts by Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) insurgents on Aug. 25. Myanmar government and military officials have flatly denied the allegations.

On Monday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) identified 40 new burned villages in Rakhine state, increasing the total to 354 Rohingya communities that were partially or fully destroyed by violence since the military crackdown began in late August, Radio Free Asia (RFA), a sister entity of BenarNews reported.

Dozens of buildings were torched the same week the repatriation agreement was signed in November.

The Burmese armys destruction of Rohingya villages within days of signing a refugee repatriation agreement with Bangladesh shows that commitments to safe returns were just a public relations stunt, Brad Adams, HRWs Asia director, said.

The satellite imagery shows what the Burmese army denies: that Rohingya villages continue to be destroyed, he said. Burmese government pledges to ensure the safety of returning Rohingya cannot be taken seriously.

Meanwhile, Bangladeshs government issued a statement on Tuesday saying the JWB would seek assistance from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), along with mandated U.N. agencies and other international organizations, during the repatriation process.

Mohammed Abu Asaker, a UNHCR spokesman, said his agency would work with the two governments.

We are waiting for the proposal, he told BenarNews.

Last month, when the bilateral deal was struck, UNHCR officials at the agencys Geneva headquarters expressed grave concerns for the safety of Rohingya who would be repatriated to Rakhine under the agreement.

Their return must be voluntary, and take place in safe and dignified conditions that pave the way for lasting solutions, UNHCR said in a statement on Nov. 24.

At present, conditions in Myanmars Rakhine State are not in place to enable safe and sustainable returns.

We will set ourselves on fire

Also on Tuesday, Oxfam, the British-based NGO, said in a report that interviews with more than 200 Rohingya revealed that many refugees, especially women, were deeply traumatized by their experiences, including being raped and seeing loved ones killed. Some threatened to commit suicide if forced to return to Myanmar, according to Oxfam.

Rohingya refugees interviewed by Oxfam in Bangladesh say they will not go back to Myanmar until their safety can be guaranteed and they have equal rights, including being able to work and travel freely, the report said.

Refugees were unwilling to be repatriated without such guarantees, despite reporting feeling unsafe at night in overcrowded, makeshift settlements in Coxs Bazar, Oxfam said.

I want to go back to my home  when we are treated as citizens, when there is no violence, when women are not tortured and kidnapped, when at last we can be free, Fatima Sultan told Oxfam. If we are forced to go back we will set ourselves on fire.

In related news, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday that 21 Rohingya had died of diphtheria in Bangladeshi refugee camps.

The deaths were among the more than 1,500 cases of diphtheria reported since Nov. 10, according to WHO. The contagious disease, which can be controlled through vaccination, can cause breathing difficulties leading to death, if not treated.

Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.
The Myanmar government has barred a United Nations human rights envoy from visiting the Southeast Asian nation to assess the rights situation for the rest of her tenure after it deemed a previous mission report she issued was biased and unfair.

Yanghee Lee, a U.N. special rapporteur who works with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, was scheduled to visit Myanmar in January to evaluate rights developments, particularly in violence-wracked Rakhine state where the military has carried out a brutal crackdown on Rohingya Muslims.

I am puzzled and disappointed by this decision by the Myanmar government, Lee said in a statement issued on Wednesday. This declaration of non-cooperation with my mandate can only be viewed as a strong indication that there must be something terribly awful happening in Rakhine, as well as in the rest of the country.

More than 650,000 Rohingya from northern Rakhine state fled across the border to Bangladesh during the crackdown which began in late August to escape attacks and village burnings by the military and ethnic Rakhine mobs.

Lees last visit in July came 10 days after the Myanmar government said it would deny visas to members of a U.N. fact-finding mission appointed under a resolution in March to investigate atrocities that Myanmar security forces committed against the Rohingya during a previous four-month security sweep in Rakhines northern townships that began in October 2016.

After that trip  her third visit to Myanmar under the civilian-led government of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party  Lee said the situation of the Rohingya had hardly improved and that she had continued to receive reports of violations by security forces.

Since then, Lee and other U.N. officials have been highly critical of the governments response to attacks on the Rohingya during the crackdown that began in August, of its denial of access by independent media and international humanitarian groups to areas affected by the violence, and of its refusal to let in the U.N.-appointed fact-finding mission.

Only two weeks ago, Myanmars permanent representative informed the Human Rights Council of its continuing cooperation with the U.N., referencing the relationship with my role as special rapporteur, Lee said in the statement issued on Wednesday.

Now I am being told that this decision to no longer cooperate with me is based on the statement I made after I visited the country in July, she said.

Nevertheless, Lee said she hopes Myanmar will revisit the decision.

An outrageous decision

News of Lees denial of entry into Myanmar spurred both criticism and praise.

Human rights groups, including London-based Amnesty International, were quick to take the government to task for banning the envoy from the country.

The Myanmar governments decision to bar the special rapporteur from accessing the country is outrageous, said James Gomez, director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific. It is a further indication that authorities will do anything they can to avoid international scrutiny of their human rights record.

Tun Khin, a Rohingya activist and president of the Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK, said the military is behind the ban on Lee.

It is clear, he told RFA's Myanmar Service. Because the Myanmar government and military are involved in this genocide, they have gotten worried that Yanghee Lee will find out more information on this issue during her visit. Thats why they banned her.

Every military government operates this way, he said. Nothing has changed in Myanmar. Myanmars democracy is backwards.

Aung Myo Min, director of Equality Myanmar, an NGO dedicated to human rights education and advocacy programs, expressed surprise at the announcement.

Im surprised to see Myanmar ban Yanghee Lee and say it wont collaborate with her anymore, he told RFA. I dont want the relationship between her and Myanmar destroyed. If so, it would be like Myanmar has received a red card on the U.N.s record.

Refusing to collaborate with her means the current government is doing the same as military governments did in the past, Aung Myo Min said, referring to the 50 years when an army junta ruled the country following a coup in 1962.

The Myanmar government is responsible for allowing the international community and media to freely cover news in the crisis area and for granting them permission to question all related communities so they can obtain the truth, he said.

Yanghee Lee arrives at the airport in Sittwe, capital of western Myanmar's Rakhine state, July 12, 2017. Credit: RFA Governments decision is right

But Monywa Aung Shin, a spokesman for the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD), said he agreed with the governments move.

I think the governments decision to ban Yanghee Lee is right, he told RFA.

She has visited Myanmar many times, and she didnt get along with Myanmar authorities, Monywa Aung Shin said. I dont mean she has to say only what we want her to say. She saw actual and on-the-ground situations and evidence, but she said one thing in Myanmar and something different in other countries.

Myanmar has been experiencing calculated problems caused by other countries, he said. What I think is that things will get worse, and we will have more problems if we allow her to enter the country. And the ban on her is not permanent, but just for this time.

Sit Myaing, vice chairman of the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission, questioned whether those like Lee who write special reports on Myanmars rights situation demonstrate good will toward the country when it comes to improving human rights.

We have seen that some U.N. officials had given their comments and opinions on Myanmar even before they visited, he said. Its sad. They should have made comments, suggestions, and conclusions on the report [on Myanmar] only after they investigated and raised questions while on the ground.

The principle of human rights is that no one, no organization, can be biased, he said. This principle also applies to those who write human rights reports on Myanmar. They must not be biased.

Former information minister Ye Htut said the governments decision to not allow Lee into the country will likely lead to more pressure and criticism of Myanmar from the outside.

In contradiction to Lees previous comments that she could not travel everywhere she wanted to in Myanmar during her July visit, Ye Hut said the government allowed her to go wherever she wished during that time and that Aung San Suu Kyi had explained to her various issues concerning the countrys human rights situation.

The Myanmar government believes that Yanghee Lees report doesnt reflect what it and Daw [honorific] Aung San Suu Kyi explained to her, he told RFA. I think thats why the Myanmar government has banned her. Myanmar has lost its trust in Yanghee Lee.

As I understand it, the Myanmar government has tried to say it wants impartial participation [from Lee], he said. At the same time, the Myanmar government also needs to create an opportunity for the international community and media to observe [whats happening] in the country, to show that the information that the Myanmar government has given her is true.

Sanctions must be made to work

In a report to the United Nations General Assembly in October, Lee slammed the Myanmar government and military commander-in-chief for their response to the exodus of the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fleeing atrocities in northern Rakhine.

That same month, the European Union decided to cut its exchanges with Myanmars top military officers as first step to increase sanctions. A month later, the United States also said it was eliminating invitations to Myanmars top generals and would pursue possible targeted sanctions on individuals who committed atrocities.

Rights groups have called for the U.N. Security Council to impose an arms embargo against Myanmar's military and targeted sanctions against the country.

On Wednesday, Lee told Reuters that targeted sanctions imposed upon Myanmars top military officers must be made to work.

Ye Htut, however, said that two of Myanmars closest allies will likely prevent that from happening.

There will be more pressure on and comments about Myanmar, but in my opinion, Myanmar wont have serious sanctions imposed on it as long as China and Russia are backing us, Ye Htut said.

The Human Rights Council appointed Lee, a South Korean national, to her current position as special rapporteur in 2014. The rapporteurs are part of the Councils Special Procedures, comprising a body of independent experts and independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address specific country situations or thematic issues around the world.

Thematic special rapporteurs are usually appointed to serve for three years, after which their mandates can be extended for another three years.

In all, Lee has made six trips to Myanmar and issued constant warnings about the persecution of the Rohingya, a stateless minority group denied Myanmar citizenship and access to basic services because its members are considered illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Reported by Kyaw Kyaw Aung, Khin Khin Ei, and Thinn Thiri for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
An aerial photograph taken from a helicopter shows the remains of a small burned-out village among large unharvested fields near Maungdaw township in the northern part of Myanmar's Rakhine state, Nov. 12, 2017.

The Myanmar military carried out systematic killings and rapes of several hundred Rohingya men, women, and children during a crackdown in northern Rakhine state, according to a report issued by an international human rights group on Tuesday.

The 30-page report by New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the Myanmar army trapped and massacred Rohingya residents of Tula Toli village, known officially as Min Gyi, in Maungdaw township on Aug. 30.

The massacre occurred during a brutal military crackdown targeting Rohingya in northern Rakhines Maungdaw, Buithidaung, and Rathedaung townships following deadly attacks on police outposts by a Muslim militant group on Aug. 25. The campaign forced nearly 650,000 Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh where they now live in massive refugee camps.

Rights groups, including HRW, the United Nations, and the United States say the atrocities amount to crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.

Based in part on interviews with 18 survivors of the massacre who fled to Bangladesh, the report details the armys trapping of Tula Tolis 4,300 Rohingya residents along a riverbank where soldiers shot, hacked to death, and raped residents while torching their village.

Soldiers and ethnic Rakhine villagers burned the bodies in pits they dug in the sand to try to destroy evidence of the slaughter, HRW said.

The Burmese armys atrocities at Tula Toli were not just brutal, they were systematic, said Brad Adams, HRWs Asia director, in a statement. Soldiers carried out killings and rapes of hundreds of Rohingya with a cruel efficiency that could only come with advance planning.

HRW used satellite imagery to confirm the complete destruction of Tula Toli and nearby Dual Toli village, which together contained 746 buildings, while neighboring non-Muslim villages remained untouched.

HRW also issued a report on Monday with new satellite images showing that 40 Rohingya villages had been destroyed by fire since October and November in northern Rakhine, at a time when the Myanmar government was in talks with Bangladesh about a plan to return Rohingya who had fled during the crackdown.

The two countries signed an agreement on Nov. 23 to allow those who wished to return to Myanmar to do so if they could prove prior residency.

Very general terms

Responding to both reports, Nyan Win, spokesman of the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party, said HRWs information was based on generalities.

They are saying this in very general terms, and they should come up with solid facts, he told RFAs Myanmar service.

International organizations have mixed the information they got with actual facts and have distorted them, Nyan Win said. If they know the exact facts, then they can inform us with evidence, and we will do what we need to.

Myanmars government and military have repeatedly denied accusations that soldiers committed atrocities in northern Rakhine state, with the army completing its own investigation which cleared security forces of committing any violent acts.

But the countrys de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi or military commander Senior General Min Aung Hlaing may one day face genocide charges at an international court, Zeid Raad Al Hussein, the U.N.s high commissioner for human rights told the BBC on Monday.

Its very hard to establish because the thresholds are high, Zeid said during the interview. But it wouldnt surprise me in the future if the court were to make such a finding on the basis of what we see.

On Tuesday, Win Myat Aye, Myanmars minister for social welfare, relief, and resettlement, said Zeids talk of genocide was unfounded.

I dont want to comment on what Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said about genocide in Myanmar because it is not true at all, he told RFA. The current government has responded immediately about what it has to [about Zeids comments].

Nyan Win also denied that there was genocide in the country.

There is no genocide in Myanmar, he said. Talking about genocide in Myanmar is based on incorrect views, thoughts, and information.

Mass grave investigated

Meanwhile, the Myanmar army said it is investigating a mass grave where 10 bodies were found in Inn Din village in Maungdaw township, one of three areas affected by the violence.

A group was formed this morning to investigate the mass grave site, said Maungdaw township lawmaker Hla Tun Kyaw. The group has five members, including medical doctors, a forensics expert, police, a judge, and an administrator. They went to the cemetery to see the bodies.

The group led by Maungdaw district administrator Ye Htut together with township judge Zaw Than, Inn Din village police officer Aye Min Tun, township doctor Kyaw Maung Thein, and assistant doctor Myat Tun Khine found the bodies, though their identities could not be established, according to an announcement on Monday by Min Aung Hlaings office.

If investigators determine that security forces were involved in this case, they will be prosecuted, according to the announcement.

Also on Tuesday, a Myanmar delegation with officials from the foreign affairs and immigration ministries arrived in Bangladesh to finalize the agreement signed on Nov. 23 for the voluntary return of Rohingya refugees. The two countries are forming a working group to carry out the repatriation program, which Myanmar will begin on Jan. 22.

The delegation group is visiting Bangladesh because the joint agreement said a committee would be formed in three weeks to begin accepting refugees, said Win Myat Aye. It seems they are working according to the agreement.

Rights groups, including HRW, have criticized the agreement for not including the United Nations in the repatriation plan, for an unrealistic timetable for voluntary returns, and for continued discrimination against the Rohingya, who are considered by Myanmar to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and are denied citizenship and access to basic services.



By Thiri Min Zin, Khin Khin Ei, Thinn Thiri, Kyaw Thu, Thant Zin Oo, and Aung Theinkha for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Virginia Tourism Corp. has selected The Martin Agency as its advertising agency of record.

The agency was selected after a competitive bidding process that attracted more than 20 applicants.

Its familiar territory for the Richmond-based agency, which invented the enduring Virginia is for Lovers slogan in 1969 and which has done creative work for the state tourism division over the years.

The Martin Agency is known for representing global brands, said Rita McClenny, Virginia Tourism president and CEO.

The award is about engaging the best and most progressive agency to bring greater success and awareness to the Virginia is for Lovers brand globally. And they have a highly regarded creative team at Martin, McClenny said.

The multimillion contract award is for 18 months with four, one-year options to renew. The award was made Dec. 15, and the contract term starts Jan. 1

The first Virginia tourism campaign using the Virginia is for Lovers slogan rolled out in 1969 created by ad agency Martin & Woltz, led by founders David N. Martin and George R. Woltz. When Woltz left in 1975, the agency became The Martin Agency.

The Virginia is for Lovers slogan has persevered even as state tourism officials have worked with other advertising agencies over the years.

It has enduring value, and people really associate it with Virginia and with travel. Virginia is for Lovers is really about what you love in a vacation experience, and we want to continue to build on that, McClenny said.

The Martin Agency spokesman Dean Jarrett said Virginia is for Lovers is still one of the slogans for which the agency is best known. Agency staff spontaneously tweeted out Virginia is for Lovers and Virginia is for everyone and #standforlove in the aftermath of the racially charged skirmishes in Charlottesville in August.

Being headquartered in this great commonwealth has been a big part of our success, and we cant wait to work with Virginia Tourism to bring more visitors to the state we love so much, Jarrett said.

McClenny said BCF, an agency in Virginia Beach, previously had the state contract and did not bid on the new contract.

In all, 23 companies bid to be Virginia Tourisms creative agency of record and nine bid on the paid media agency of record portion of the contract. The Martin Agency won the contract for both.

The contract includes a $35,000 monthly retainer for creative services and a $15,000 monthly retainer for paid media services.

Whats in there doesnt include any kind of production costs that we would incur, McClenny said.

She said allegations that The Martin Agencys former chief creative officer, Joe Alexander, sexually harassed a number of female coworkers did not affect Virginia Tourisms confidence in the agency or the selection process. The Martin Agency severed ties with Alexander earlier this month.

No concerns whatsoever. That was environmental to the agency and really has no impact on the business, McClenny said.
There is a new sign in the front of Kristina Preisners Museum District home.

Warning Security Cameras in Use, it reads.

Preisner put out the sign in response to a package theft in which she had dog toys and a gym bag stolen from the front porch last week. This isnt the first time its happened to her, though, and shes not surprised given when it happened.

Its the holiday season, Preisner said. Im hoping the sign will deter some of it, but its that time of year.

Shes had other packages and bikes stolen before, but that was two to three years ago. About six months ago, she installed the security camera, which caught the suspect in the act. She had been getting packages sent to her office but felt safer getting them sent to her house with the installation of the camera, she said.

Now police are looking to identify the suspect in the theft, which happened about 3:10 p.m., Friday. A man walked up to the front door of Preisners house in the 2800 block of West Grace Street and took the Amazon package from the porch, police said. Police describe the thief as a black man wearing a brown jacket, jeans and white shoes.

Richmond police and Chesterfield County police said Tuesday that they see an uptick in package thefts around the holidays. Hanover and Henrico police officials said the two counties havent seen an increase.

Richmond police spokeswoman Chelsea Rarrick said its hard to quantify the specific number because package thefts are grouped in with all other larcenies.

Richmond Third Precinct Detective Sgt. Chuck Hayes advised city residents in late November to have packages shipped to a workplace, if possible, or to a holding center.

Every year during the holiday season our numbers tend to creep up on package thefts, Hayes said. If the community could help us out, it would greatly reduce our numbers of package thefts and therefore youd get the packages you ordered.

An Amazon spokesperson said the majority of packages make it to customers without issue, but highlighted Amazon Locker, a program launched in 2011 that allows recipients to pick up their packages at a neutral location.

Amazon was able to replace the package, Preisner said.

A United States Postal Service spokesperson referred the Richmond Times-Dispatch to a list of 10 tips to make sure packages are not stolen. Among them: Dont leave delivered mail and packages unattended, consider an alternate shipping address, and require a signature for the package when its delivered, if the option is available.

UPS did not return a request for comment Tuesday or Wednesday.

A growing percentage of shopping is done online, specifically around the holidays, leading to more packages having to be delivered.

Online holiday shopping is set to exceed $107 billion, according to a recent study by Adobe, a 13 percent increase over 2016. Just two years ago, online holiday shopping totaled $25 billion less than the expected 2017 total, according to the study.
CHARLOTTESVILLE  The city of Charlottesville formally designated a section of Fourth Street Northeast as Honorary Heather Heyer Way during a ceremony Wednesday morning.

Family and friends of Heyer, as well as several dozen residents and city officials, gathered at the Downtown Mall site where the 32-year-old was killed in a car attack while protesting the Unite the Right rally on Aug. 12.

Heyers mother, Susan Bro, along with Alfred Wilson, whom Heyer worked with at the Miller Law Group as a paralegal, spoke at the event. They are both co-founders of the Heather Heyer Foundation.

I thank the city for taking this step to name this street after Heather, said Bro, who shortly afterward thanked those who attended.

Your love and your support continue to give me hope for Charlottesville and for the world and for people in general, and I thank you so much for coming out today, she said.

Mark Heyer, Heather Heyers father, also spoke, saying its an honor for the city to commemorate his daughters memory in this way.

The Charlottesville City Council had approved the decision to designate the street in honor of Heyer at an October meeting.

Mayor Mike Signer read the official proclamation at the start of the ceremony, as council members Wes Bellamy, Kathy Galvin and Bob Fenwick stood by.
The city of Charlottesville will likely be ordered to pay $7,600 to an activist-attorney who no longer lives in the city following a failed public effort to remove City Councilor Wes Bellamy from office earlier this year.

Pam Starsia, a former Showing Up for Racial Justice Charlottesville organizer and attorney, represented Bellamy in the short-lived court case. She moved with her husband and family to Texas when her husband was accepted into a law school program at a university.

According to a letter from Circuit Court Judge Richard Moore, the city must bear Bellamys attorney fees under the circumstances of the case. Starsia said she spent about 30 hours working on the case and submitted a schedule of fees incurred through the course of the case.

No court order for the payment has been filed. In a message Wednesday, Starsia said the she has yet to see an official court order for the city to pay her fees. Earlier this year, she said she would donate the money from the case to a political candidate or activist organization advancing anti-racism causes in Charlottesville.

She did not immediately respond when asked Wednesday whether she still plans to donate the proceeds from the case.

Bellamy on Wednesday did not immediately respond to a question about the case.

The law suit was the result of an effort by pro-white activist Jason Kessler who in February submitted a petition to the circuit court seeking Bellamys removal.

He claimed Bellamy misused his office by advocating the removal of the citys Robert E. Lee monument and by writing a series of scandalous and profane tweets disparaging women, gays and others, including African-Americans who talk white.

The tweets were written before he was elected to office in 2015.

Kessler discovered and published the tweets in a post to his personal blog in November 2016, stirring a local controversy that resulted in Bellamy resigning from his job as an Albemarle County Public Schools teacher and his seat on the Virginia Board of Education.

While Bellamys tweets may be considered disturbing and understandably concerning to citizens, Doucettes motion for a non-suit, which effectively dismissed the case, raised questions about whether such questionable acts could be construed to be [a] misuse of office, Moore wrote.

After the petition was filed in court, a special prosecutor appointed to the case, Lynchburg Commonwealths Attorney Michael Doucette, determined that Kessler failed to obtain enough signatures for his petition.

Moore in his letter said he thought it would be more appropriate for Kessler to pay some of Starsias attorney fees, but state code says anyone who files a removal petition shall not be liable for any costs asso-ciated with removal proceedings.
Gov.-elect Ralph Northam chose a Lynchburg cardiologist to lead his health and human resources team as Democrats prepare for an all-out attempt to expand Virginias Medicaid program after four years of futile efforts to extend health coverage to hundreds of thousands of uninsured Virginians.

Dr. Daniel Carey, a cardiologist and chief medical officer at Centra Health in Lynchburg, will serve as secretary of health and human resources under Northam, a pediatric neurologist who made Medicaid expansion a top priority in his campaign for governor this year.

Carey will be joined by another physician, Dr. Jennifer Lee, a former emergency physician from Northern Virginia, who will become director of the Department of Medical Assistance Services, the states Medicaid office.

Lee was formerly deputy secretary of health and human resources under Gov. Terry McAuliffe but has been working since 2016 as deputy undersecretary and senior adviser to secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

As a physician, ensuring that Virginians are able to access the care they need, when they need it, is deeply personal to me, Northam said Wednesday at a ceremony on announcing the new appointments at the VCU Health System in Richmond.

Carey will succeed Bill Hazel, a former orthopedic surgeon who served two terms as secretary under McAuliffe and previous Gov. Bob McDonnell. Lee will assume leadership of the Medicaid office from Cindi B. Jones, who has served in various capacities in the state Medicaid office under four governors, including the last six years as director, and more than 35 years in state government.

Im looking forward to turning over the reins to Jennifer, Jones said Wednesday.

After the announcement, the governor-elect expressed confidence that his administration will be able to persuade a politically transformed General Assembly to accept billions of dollars in federal funds under the Affordable Care Act to expand health coverage for more than 300,000 uninsured Virginians.

I think were in great position to bring people from both sides of the aisle to expand Medicaid, he said.

Unlike McAuliffe, who faced an unyielding opposition to expansion by Republicans who held a two-thirds majority in the House of Delegates, Northam will enter office next month with what could be a politically even House. The Senate is controlled by a 21-19 Republican majority, but will be presided over by a Democratic lieutenant governor in position to cast a tie-breaking vote.

Democrats had appeared to gain an equal share of power in the House in a stunning recount on Tuesday that awarded a Newport News seat to Democrat Shelly Simonds by one vote over Del. David E. Yancey, R-Newport News, who had held a 10-vote lead after the election in November.

I think history was made (Tuesday), said Northam, who marveled that the hard-fought election in the 94th District could come down to a plus one, especially in a race that really changes the power structure in the House of Delegates.

But a three-judge panel ruled the race in the 94th a tie on Wednesday, leaving Republicans with a 50-49 majority at least until the Board of Elections decides the outcome of the district election by drawing lots and two other recounts are completed.

Asked what message he has for Republicans in the General Assembly, Northam responded, No message but that what we saw on Nov. 7 was a mandate.

At the top of the mandate is Medicaid expansion, which McAuliffe has proposed for the fourth time in a two-year budget built on the assumption of $421.7 million in savings for the state general fund by using $3.2 billion in federal funds under the Affordable Care Act.

McAuliffe is counting on Virginias acute-care hospitals to be willing to pay a provider assessment that would raise $307 million in the biennium to cover the states share of expanding the program in return for guaranteeing a payment stream for patients whose care currently is uncompensated.

Northam said he supports the proposal McAuliffe pitched to legislators on Monday. Its something we worked on before he came forward with the budget.

Carey, who also serves as senior vice president at Centra, declined to speculate on the political prospects for the proposed provider assessment but said expanding Medicaid eligibility is critical to hospitals.

I just know from my health system, its very important, he said after the announcement at the James W. and Frances G. McGlothlin Medical Education Center at VCU. Were doing the care. ... Its a question of whether were being reimbursed for it even at Medicaid rates.

His appointment drew a rave review from the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association, which will be a key player in the debate over Medicaid expansion and how to pay for it.

Were extremely excited Gov.-elect Northam has chosen such a strong candidate from the hospital community to be his health and human resources secretary, said Julian Walker, vice president of communications at the association. At a time when health care is a top concern for many Virginians, Dr. Carey is the right person to help develop common-sense public policy solutions to address population health and behavioral health needs, respond to the opioid crisis and work on coverage access.

In addition to Carey and Lee, Northam announced three other appointments to positions in the health and human resources secretariat:

Gena Boyle Berger, as deputy secretary;

Marvin Figueroa, as deputy secretary; and

David Brown, for a second term as director of the Department of Health Professions.
By James F. Burns

The magic of Christmas comes in many shapes and forms. I remember the shiny gloss of a purple and white J.C. Higgins bicycle when I was 8. The next year was even better  a Lionel train whose sleek black engine could puff smoke and race around the track, pulling an orange boxcar, a silver tanker car, and a bright red caboose.

We often had a white Christmas where I grew up  the yard carpeted with thick snow, icicles clinging to window frames, and my mother sowing the window sill with seeds for the birds from the nearby woods.

A bright red cardinal would come to the window when Mother rang a little bell. All this was magical in a childs mind.

I can even glimpse what a Christmas was like for my mother when she was 3 years old  back in 1907  because her own mother wrote a letter that day, describing a Christmas program of songs and recitation at the local school.

They asked two boys what they wanted to be when they grew up. One said he was going to be a splendifferous lawyer, the other said a preacher, and preach as loud as I can.

Each of the 85 children in the program received a gift bag of candy, nuts, and fruit.

Back at the family farmhouse, the gifts included flannel shirts for the boys, blocks and a picture book for my mother, and a ladder wagon for her twin brother.

But work remained an integral part of farm life in 1907. The day before Christmas, the boys shucked 23 shocks of corn and my grandmother ended her Christmas Day letter with: I must close and get to work. I want to wash windows this afternoon. Less magical but realistic.

Christmas can come with deep spiritual meaning for Christians, even as it coexists with a secular Santa and a gift-oriented holiday, as well as with Hanukkah and other religious celebrations that hold deep meaning for those of other faiths.

Appreciating both a personalized and a generalized significance is part of Christmas magic.

This magical facet of a Christmas that we all share can be recognized in what it is not  call it Christmas Opposite.

Christmas Opposite exists in a mean-spiritedness that would snuff out a Christmas candle. It is seen in its most raw forms today in homeless refugees, the bombing of civilians, and the literal slaughter of innocents  even this year in the U.S. Christmas Opposite exists in attitudes of taking rather than giving and in crude and noncivil discourse thats unfortunately also flourished here at home this past year. Christmas Opposite would steal Santas bag of toys and blacken Rudolphs shining red nose.

The magical generosity that pervades a genuine Christmas spirit was perhaps best described by a newspaper editors reply to a little girls question about the nature of Santa Claus. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist  The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see  You can tear apart a babys rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man ... could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance can push aside the curtain and view ... the supernal beauty and glory beyond. (The New York Sun, Sept. 21, 1897)

You have the Christmas spirit if you see a neighbor in need and help; if you hear the bell ringers call and give; or if the sight of a child in tattered clothes or an aged person in the hospital brings a tear to your eye.

And you embody the Christmas spirit when you see people, even strangers, hungry and thirsty, scantily clothed and cold, sick, or in prison  and feed them, give them drink, clothe them, and visit them. The Christmas Spirit is ageless, timeless, loving, giving, and generous. It can be no other.
MOSCOW

Four days before U.S. President Donald Trumps Dec. 18 speech outlining his national security strategy, I sat a few feet away from Russian President Vladimir Putin as he spent nearly four hours responding to questions at his annual press conference. Despite the ongoing hysteria in the Western media regarding the relationship between the U.S. and Russia under these two leaders (hysteria that doesnt exist in the Russian media, by the way), a new way forward is emerging  and it consists of a mix of trolling and serious cooperation.

The reality of the situation is perhaps best captured in Good Hunting: An American Spymasters Story, a memoir by Jack Devine, former acting director of the CIAs operations outside the United States. Devine recalls that a CIA officer stationed in Santiago, Chile, during the Cold War decided to tweak the Russians by placing an ad in the local paper offering money to anyone who showed up at the Russian Embassy with a cat. When people were turned away without being paid, they released their cats, resulting in an infestation of strays around the embassy. Annoyed, the Russians reciprocated with a similar prank. Devine says this kind of trolling persisted throughout the Cold War. But there was nonetheless a pragmatic realism  not hysteria  in dealing with opposing powers.

Trump did a good job of laying out the challenge in Mondays speech.

We also face rival powers, Russia and China, that seek to challenge American influence, values, and wealth, Trump said. We will attempt to build a great partnership with those and other countries, but in a manner that always protects our national interest.

Trump then mentioned that Putin had called him the day before, expressing gratitude to the CIA for providing intelligence that led Russian authorities to terror suspects who, according to the Kremlin, plotted to set off explosions at Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg and other public places in the city. The Kremlin also stated that if Russian intelligence came across any such information related to the U.S., it would pass along the details.

If you view the world as a giant pie of dwindling resources to be divvied up among the global powers, then indeed Russia and America are rivals. However, Trump and Putin are able to recognize this economic reality while avoiding the sort of ideological trolling favored by others.

For example, during Putins press conference, former Massachusetts governor and Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney tweeted: Putin today blames US politics for icy relations. Get real: It was Russia invading sovereign nations, propping up dictators, hacking elections, abusing human rights, and cheating at the Olympics.

Romneys remarks were in stark contrast to the more diplomatic tone that Putin took while addressing the media.

I hope that ... we will eventually normalize our relations to the benefit of the American and Russian people, Putin said, and that we will continue to develop and will overcome the common and well-known threats, such as terrorism, environmental problems, weapons of mass destruction, crises around the world  including in the Middle East, the North Korean problem, etc.

Ah, yes, the North Korean problem. This is another issue that highlights the importance of taking an agnostic approach to intelligence and information from Russia and other sources capable of complementing what U.S. intelligence agencies already know.

Rather than reducing the problem to Kim Jong Un being a nutter, Putin provided nuance. He believes one of the reasons for North Koreas belligerence is that the U.S. ramped up sanctions against North Korea shortly after North Korea had agreed in 2005 to end its weapons program.

North Korea sees no other means of self-preservation but to develop weapons of mass destruction and missile technology, Putin said. As you can see, their upgraded missiles are now capable of hitting the United States. Is there anything good in this situation?

If fear of regime change is the impetus for Kims acting out, its a much different problem than if he was simply an irrational whack-job. Fleshing out the picture through intelligence cooperation can better inform critical decisions affecting national security, which must take precedence over economic rivalries.

So as special counsel Robert Mueller and Congress press on with the seemingly endless probes into proximity between Russian and American leadership, so-called collusion has already prevented a terrorist attack. Maybe Trump and Putin can rack up a few more victories in the name of collusion.
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
A former banker at BB&Ts Pearisburg branch was sentenced to more than two years in federal prison after she was convicted of embezzlement, according to a news release from the U.S. attorneys office.

Anna Burton Holt, 48, pleaded guilty in September in Abingdon federal court to embezzlement by a bank employee. The Staffordsville woman faced the charge after two of her relatives told the BB&T branch she worked for that they had not been receiving account statements for a year. Those customers later discovered transactions on their statements that they did not recognize.

U.S. Secret Service investigators determined that Holt stole money between 2013 and August 2017 by withdrawing funds from customer accounts, cashing customer bonds and taking money from fraudulent credit accounts created under her relatives names. Some of the money embezzled was used to repay accounts that Holt had stolen from, according to the release.

A total of $584,805 was taken from 15 separate accounts, according to the release. When confronted, Holt confessed to the embezzlement and was fired, according to a court affidavit.

Tuesday, Holt was sentenced to 33 months in prison and ordered to pay $400,868 in restitution, according to the release.

Holt is the second BB&T employee convicted recently of embezzlement in the area. On Sept. 19, 47-year-old Melissa Dawn Huffman of Roanoke was sentenced to 14 months in prison for stealing $31,850 from vaults while acting as senior vice president and regional branch operations manager. She repaid the embezzled funds.
Del.-elect Chris Hurst filed his first bill Tuesday, proposing to exempt student cellphone numbers and personal email addresses from publicly available college campus directories.

Hursts bill, which adds a single sentence to state code, exempts the student email addresses and phone numbers from public disclosure.

The genesis of House Bill 147 stems from this past election cycle, in which progressive political group NextGen Virginia used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain student directories from some of Virginias public colleges and universities. The group intended to use the information to text students about their voter registration status.

People have their phones with them all the time, Hurst said. Its an extension of their body, and I think its reasonable to assume that getting unsolicited text messages, especially from people who are trying to solicit you something whether its a product or its a vote from you, I think thats an invasion of privacy.

NextGen obtained directory information, which is often posted on a colleges website, from Virginia Tech and Radford University  campuses that played a vital role in Hursts win in November. Hursts election campaign worked with NextGen and accepted $53,946 in in-kind donations from the group, but he did not support NextGens use of students personal information and asked the group not to use the cellphone numbers to aid his campaign.

Hurst filed his bill after Del. Tony Wilt, R-Rockingham, filed legislation addressing the same issue. Hurst characterized Wilts bill as too broad and his own bill as a razor-thin change in law. Wilts legislation requires students to opt in for their personal information to be publicly available, a reverse of the current situation in which students can opt out of the directory by telling university officials not to publish their contact information.

A former newscaster for WDBJ-TV (Channel 7), Hurst sees the irony in an ex-journalist proposing limits on public records.

As a former journalist and a reporter, Im always going to be for government transparency and government accountability, he said. At the same flip of the coin, Im always someone who is a staunch advocate for consumer privacy and individual privacy. Those things need to be balanced.
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.
To activate the text-to-speech service, please first agree to the privacy policy below.

Taipei, Dec. 20 (CNA) Several Chinese military aircraft were seen flying near Taiwan again on Wednesday, passing through the Bashi Channel to the south then going north before flying over the Miyako Strait that lies between two Japanese islands, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said.
NEWBY JR., Eric Kenneth August 8, 1929 - December 18, 2017 Eric Kenneth Newby Jr., of Radford passed away at home on Monday, December 18, 2017. He was born on August 8, 1929. He is survived by his wife of 66 years, Freda M. Newby; daughter and son-in-law, Mary and Douglas Thompson; sons and daughters-in-law, Clifford Eric and Charlotte Newby, Stephen Michael Newby and John Joeeph and Cathy Newby. Also nine grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren and by two sisters, Neata Stier and Charlotte Mitchell; and by many nieces and nephews. Eric was a cadet at VPI and joined the Army Air Corps. He was a retired Senior Master Sergeant from the United States Air Force and was a logistics engineer at Radiation Inc. of Palm Bay, Fla. during the NASA Apollo program. Eric and his family returned to Virginia in 1971. He attended and was a instructer at New River Community College and later became Building Official for the city of Radford. Upon retiring from the city he started "Ask Eric" his own small contracting business that he operated until January of this year. He was an avid fisherman and storyteller. A man of great intelligence and character above reproach, he inspired and touched many peoples lives and he will be fondly remembered by all that had the privilege of knowing him. At Mr. Newbys request there will be no visitation or service. He will be interred in the Southwest Virginia Veterans Cemetery in Dublin. In lieu of flowers please make a donation to the American Cancer Society or a charity or organization of your choice. The Newby family is in the care of Stevens Funeral Home in Pulaski. Va.
BEHEADING PLOT

Man sentenced for plot to kill conservative blogger

BOSTON  A man convicted of leading an Islamic State-inspired plot to behead a conservative blogger who upset Muslims when she organized a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest was sentenced on Tuesday to 28 years in prison.

David Wright sobbed as he apologized to blogger Pamela Geller, law enforcement and his family and denounced the terror group, whose horrific acts he used to celebrate online.

Wright was convicted in October of conspiracy to provide material support to the Islamic State group, conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries and other crimes.

Prosecutors had sought a life sentence for Wright, arguing it would send a strong message to others considering terror attacks in the U.S. But Judge William G. Young said he was uncomfortable with sending Wright away for life, telling him: You are not a monster, yet you embraced a monstrous evil.

SAUDI ARABIA

Yemeni missile aimed at royal palace intercepted

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia  The Saudi-led coalition fighting Yemens Shiite rebels said it intercepted a missile fired over southern Riyadh on Tuesday, which the rebels said was targeting a top leadership meeting at the royal palace in the kingdoms capital.

It was the second time in as many months that a rebel projectile had reached as far inside the kingdom as Riyadh.

The Yemeni rebels, known as the Houthis, said they launched a ballistic missile to target Yamama Palace in Riyadh, where King Salman chairs weekly government meetings and receives dignitaries and heads of state from around the world.

The statement from the U.S.-backed coalition, carried by Saudi state TV, said the missile was fired by the Houthis. State TV said no damage was caused by the intercepted missile.

The coalition later said the missile launch proved the continued involvement of Iran in supporting the Houthis.

RUSSIA PROBE

Senate looking into 2016 candidate Jill Stein

WASHINGTON  The Senate intelligence committee has asked for documents from Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein as part of its probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, adding another new thread to the panels investigation as it heads into next year.

Stein said Tuesday that she was cooperating with the probe and providing documents to the committee. She has captured the interest of investigators partly because she attended a 2015 dinner in Moscow sponsored by Russian television network RT with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, Richard Burr, R-N.C., appeared to confirm the investigations new focus on Stein on Monday. Asked what the committee wanted to know about from Steins campaign, Burr responded: Collusion with the Russians.

UNITED NATIONS

Migrant population up 50 percent since 2000

UNITED NATIONS  An estimated 258 million people have left their birth countries and are now living in other nations  an increase of 49 percent since 2000, says a U.N. report on international migration released Monday.

The biennial report released on International Migrants Day said the percentage of the worlds people who are international migrants has increased modestly from 2.8 percent in 2000 to 3.4 percent this year.

But the report from the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs said the percentage living in high-income countries rose from 9.6 percent in 2000 to 14 percent in 2017.
MEXICO

Journalist killed at elementary school

XALAPA, Mexico  Attackers burst into an elementary school where a Christmas party was taking place and shot reporter Gumaro Perez to death Tuesday, making him at least the 10th journalist slain in Mexico this year in what observers have called a crisis of freedom of expression.

The Veracruz state security coordinator said in a statement that dozens of parents and children were present when the unidentified attackers shot Perez, whose own child attends the school in the city of Acayucan.

Perez, 34, covered crime for a number of local outlets, had founded the online news site La Voz del Sur and also worked for the local government in some capacity.

He was part of a state program designed to protect journalists as they carry out certain high-risk coverage, separate from a federal government program known as the mechanism that offers reporters measures like panic buttons on their cellphones and home security.

MEXICO

Bus carrying foreign tourists crashes

CANCUN, Mexico  A bus carrying cruise ship passengers on an excursion to Mayan ruins in southeastern Mexico flipped over on a narrow highway Tuesday, killing 11 travelers and their guide and injuring about 20 others, officials said.

Seven Americans and two Swedes were among the injured, said Vicente Martin, spokesman for the Quintana Roo state Civil Defense agency. Authorities had not yet established the nationalities of the dead. The bus ended up on its side in vegetation along the two-lane road.

CONGO

U.N. vows justice in peacekeepers deaths

BENI, Congo  The United Nations mission in Congo will pursue the Allied Democratic Forces rebels who killed 14 peacekeepers earlier this month in the single deadliest attack on a peacekeeping mission in nearly 25 years, the U.N. said Tuesday.

The Dec. 7 attack on a peacekeeping base also killed at least five Congolese soldiers. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the U.N.s official death toll is 14 peacekeepers dead and one missing, which has accounted for a shifting death toll.

In a new indication of the severity of the hours-long attack, Jean-Pierre Lacroix said the peacekeeping base has been recovered and reoccupied. It also is being rebuilt and reinforced, he said on Twitter.

FRANCE

Nation to ban oil and gas production by 40

PARIS  Frances parliament has approved a law banning all exploration and production of oil and natural gas by 2040 within the country and its overseas territories.

Under that law that passed a final vote on Tuesday, existing drilling permits will not be renewed and no new exploration licenses will be granted. The French government claims the ban is a world first. However, it is largely symbolic since oil and gas produced in France accounts for just 1 percent of domestic consumption. The rest is imported.

Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot says the law shows current generations can take care of future generations.
On legislative items on which Reid and McConnell agree to take up, the cloture vote on the motion to proceed would take place the day after the motion is filed, eliminating a waiting day. In addition, there would be no further debate after cloture is invoked, cutting out another day. That falls short of doing away with the ability to filibuster motions to proceed altogether. (Cloture motions, which limit debate, require 60 votes for adoption.)

Reid would have a second choice, however. The majority could proceed to legislation without risk of an initial filibuster if it guaranteed that each party is allowed to offer a pair of amendments. Partially resolving a concern publicly raised by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, amendments offered through that process would be subject to an automatic 60-vote threshold if they are not germane. Thats based on an idea from Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Carl Levin, D-Mich.

Shortly before the votes, Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee cautioned that those changes could actually undermine the ability of all senators to have rights to offer amendments.

In addition, the rules package will make it easier to get bills into conference because senators will have only one chance to filibuster, rather than the three in place under the old rules. The difficulty of getting bills to conference has made the House-Senate negotiating process virtually defunct because only unanimous consent allows bills to go to conference without burning too much floor time.

Separate from the formal changes, Reid and McConnell appear to have another gentlemens agreement, similar to the one they entered into during the 2011 rules debate. This time, the leaders will say they agree to press senators to actually use post-cloture debate time and raise objections on the floor. Thats designed to end the constant quorum calls that have plagued the Senate in recent years.
Fancy color diamond prices up 1% in Q3 2022, yellow showed highest increase The Fancy Color Research Foundation's (FCRF) results of the Fancy Color Diamond Index (FCDI) for the third quarter of 2022 demonstrate that after an increase of 0.8% in Q2 2022, the average price of all colors and sizes of fancy...

NDC continues efforts to distinguish between natural, laboratory-grown diamonds The Natural Diamond Council (NDC) has launched a new ASSURE 2.0 online portal, which helps build industry capability to correctly verify natural diamonds and ensure pipeline integrity.

Orion secures pre-development funding for Okiep copper project Orion Minerals has entered into definitive agreements that will see the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC) acquire 43.75% of the shares in the New Okiep Mining Company (NOM). This triggered pre-development funding...

Angolas SODIAM realises $28,7mln from fifth international diamond tender Angola's state-owned diamond trading company, SODIAM realised $28,7 million from the sale of 1,819.79 carats at its fifth international rough tender held in the capital, Luanda. The diamonds sold were special productions from Lulo, Catoca, and Luele...
US polished-diamond imports slumped 14% year on year to $1.81 billion in October, according to data the government released recently. By volume, polished imports dived 13% to 881,922 carats, with the average price declining 1% to $2,049 per carat.

Polished exports fell 5% to $1.24 billion, leaving net polished imports  representing imports minus exports  29% lower at $567 million, the figures showed.

Rough imports more than doubled to $124 million from $51 million a year ago, while rough exports fell 61% to $46 million. Net rough imports, representing imports minus exports, stood at positive $78 million versus negative $67 million a year ago.

The US net diamond account  total rough and polished imports minus total exports  fell 11% to $646 million in October.

In the first 10 months of the year, polished imports dropped 8% to $18.38 billion, while polished exports declined 4% to $15.21 billion. Net polished imports slid 23% to $3.17 billion.

Rough imports jumped 14% to $738 million, while rough exports leapt 51% to $608 million. Net rough imports fell 47% to $130 million, with the net diamond account down 24% to $3.3 billion.




Sothebys auction house has announced that its jewellery division sales amounted to $551.3 million this year owing to record prices for several exceptional diamonds.

Sothebys final jewellery sale of the year was held in Geneva on December 14 and totaled $3.6 million.

In addition to strong results for colored gemstones and signed jewels, major highlights from 2017 included a world auction record for any diamond or gemstone, with The CTF Pink Star ($71.2 million) and a world auction record for earrings, with The Memory of Autumn Leaves and The Dream of Autumn Leaves ($57.4 million).

2017 has been an exceptionally successful year for Jewellery at Sothebys, with all four selling centers  Geneva, New York, Hong Kong and London - performing very well. Innovations this year have included the scaling up of our online-only sales, as well as our very successful new Fine Jewels auctions in Geneva, which totaled $8.9 million. We were also very pleased to celebrate the tenth anniversary of our dedicated sales of Noble Jewels in Geneva,  said David Bennett, Worldwide Chairman, Sothebys Jewellery Division.

Earlier it was reported that Christies global jewellery auction sales for 2017 amounted to $556.7 million thanks to several new world records set at its trading sessions.

The cumulative sales from Sothebys and Christies jewellery auctions exceeded $1.1 billion this year.



Theodor Lisovoy, Rough&Polished, Moscow




The Bank of Botswana, in a recent statement said that Rating Agency Moodys has reaffirmed Botswanas sovereign credit rating as A2 for both foreign and domestic bonds and the stable outlook for the year.

According to Moody's, expected growth in diamond output, progress in enhancing diamond value addition and development of the services sector as some of the positive indicators.

In addition, Botswana's strong fiscal position with low debt burden, a sizeable sovereign wealth fund, strong institutions and well-designed macroeconomic frameworks, as well as stable political environment, prospects for continued fiscal prudence and achievement of a balanced budget in the medium term are positive indicators, the statement added.

Moodys has also noted that there is a possibility of a medium-term upward revision of the ratings if progress is made in diamond beneficiation, economic diversification, and the implementation of efficiency-enhancing public sector reforms as well as private sector development leading to a marked reduction in unemployment.

Moody's, however, warns that in the near term, a substantial depletion of fiscal reserves or a rapid increase in public debt could lead to a downgrade. In the medium term, slow progress in the implementation of structural reforms and limited economic diversification would undermine the fiscal position and put downward pressure on the rating.




The Tacy Diamond Pipeline, which has provided an independent and unbiased view of the diamond pipeline since 1989 and serves as a guidepost and benchmark of industry value-addition, will henceforth be published by Pharos Beam Consulting LLP in India.

The Tacy Pipeline has hitherto been published by Chaim Even Zohar through the Diamond Intelligence Briefs and other media. Pranay Narvekar, of Pharos Beam Consulting LLP in India, has been involved in developing the pipeline with Tacy since 2009.

Pharos Beam has worked closely with Tacy in preparing several previous editions of the Pipeline. It was announced on 20 Dec that the forthcoming 2017 Pipeline will be published by Pharos Beam, adhering to the proven methodology, and ensuring that the diamond industry can continue to use the pipeline consistently, as in the past.



Aruna Gaitonde, Editor-in-Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough &Polished




Today's Daily Dose brings you news about Aduro's revised pipeline; of a new indication for CoolSculpting; Blueprint's stock offering; encouraging preliminary results from Cellectis' CALM and PALL trials; expanded FDA approval for GlaxoSmithKline's Nucala and Omeros' OMIDRIA.

Read on...

Aduro Biotech Inc. (ADRO) has decided to pull the plug on its drug candidate CRS-207, which is under phase II trials in the indications of malignant pleural mesothelioma and gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma.

The decision to discontinue the development of CRS-207 was based on preliminary results from its mesothelioma and ovarian studies, as well as a and commercial assessment.

Stephen Isaacs, chairman and CEO of Aduro Biotech said, "We will shift our focus and investment toward our STING agonist program, B-select antibodies and personalized neoantigen approach with pLADD. In our STING program in particular, there are several additional clinical trials under consideration to complement our ongoing Phase 1 dose escalation trial of ADU-S100 as well as our combination study with Novartis' PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor, PDR-001".

The Company now expects its current cash balance to be sufficient to fund planned activities for the next three years through 2020.

ADRO closed Tuesday's trading at $8.25, up 5.10%.

Allergan plc's (AGN) CoolSculpting treatment has received FDA clearance to improve lax tissue in the double chin.

CoolSculpting came under Allergan's fold, following the acquisition of ZELTIQ Aesthetics Inc in February of this year.

CoolSculpting is a non-invasive fat reduction procedure, and it received its initial FDA clearance for fat reduction in abdomen as well as flanks (love handles) in September 2010. It received expanded FDA clearance to treat thighs in April 2014 and to treat double chin in September 2015.

The use of CoolSculpting was further expanded to reduce fat around bra straps, on the back and underneath the buttocks, following FDA clearance in April of 2016.

AGN closed Tuesday's trading at $171.87, down 0.52%.

Blueprint Medicines Corp. (BPMC) has offered to sell 3.7 million shares of its common stock to the public at a price of $81.00 each.

The underwriters have a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 555,555 shares of its common stock at the public offering price. The offering is expected to close on December 15, 2017.

Earlier in the week, the Company reported strong data from its ongoing phase I trial of Avapritinib (BLU-285) in patients with advanced Systemic Mastocytosis, sending the stock soaring to an all-time high of $92.

The Company plans to meet up with global regulatory authorities in the first half of 2018 to obtain input on registration pathways for Avapritinib.

If all goes well as planned, a registration-enabling clinical trial of Avapritinib in patients with advanced SM will be initiated in the first half of 2018 and a dose escalation and proof-of-concept clinical trial of Avapritinib in patients with indolent and smoldering SM will be initiated in the second half of 2018.

BPMC closed Tuesday's trading at $81.98, down 7.18%.

Cellectis (CLLS) and Pfizer Inc. (PFE)/Servier have reported encouraging preliminary results from two phase I studies of UCART19 in adult and pediatric patients with relapsed or refractory (R/R) CD19-positive B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL).

The data are from two phase I studies namely CALM, which tested UCART19 in adult patients with R/R B-ALL, and PALL, which tested UCART19 in pediatric patients with high-risk R/R B-ALL.

The first-in-human data demonstrated the safety and tolerability of UCART19, resulting in an 83% complete remission rate across the adult and pediatric patient population, noted the Company.

CLLS closed Tuesday's trading at $24.02, down 4.42%.

More than two years after winning the initial FDA approval to treat severe asthma, GlaxoSmithKline plc's (GSK) Nucala has been greenlighted for a second indication - i.e., for the treatment of eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis for adults in the US.

The expanded approval was based on results from MIRRA study that evaluated the efficacy and safety of 300mg of Nucala administered subcutaneously every four weeks versus placebo as add-on therapy to standard of care (corticosteroids plus or minus immunosuppressants) in 136 patients with relapsing and/or refractory eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis.

Nucala brought home sales of 223 million for GlaxoSmithKline in the first nine months of 2017 compared to 58 million in the year-ago period.

GSK closed Tuesday's trading at $35.52, up 0.59%.

The FDA has extended the decision date on Pfizer Inc.'s (PFE) supplemental New Drug Application for XELJANZ for adult patients with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis by three months to June 2018.

The supplemental new drug applications for XELJANZ 5 mg and XELJANZ XR 11 mg for the treatment of adult patients with active psoriatic arthritis are under FDA review, with a decision expected this month.

XELJANZ and XELJANZ XR are already approved for the treatment of adult patients with moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis.

XELJANZ is an immediate release tablet that releases medication into the bloodstream over the course of several hours, and is taken twice daily. XELJANZ XR is an extended release tablet that releases medication into the bloodstream over the course of a day, and is taken only once a day.

The drugs netted sales of $935 million in the first nine months of 2017 and $927 million for full year 2016.

PFE touched a new 52-week high of $36.82 on Tuesday, before closing the day's trading at $36.58, up 1.02%.

The FDA has expanded the approved use of Omeros Corp.'s (OMER) OMIDRIA to include pediatric patients.

OMIDRIA, used during cataract surgery or intraocular lens replacement, prevents intraoperative miosis (pupil constriction) and reduces postoperative pain, and it received the first FDA approval in June 2014.

In the first nine months of 2017, revenues from OMIDRIA sales were $51 million compared to $28.5 million in the year-ago period.

OMER closed Tuesday's trading at $18.90, up 1.12%.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
(Agencia CMA Latam) - The Brazilian government is still discussing with the Federal Attorney General (AGU) a way to appeal against the Supreme Court injunction that suspends a decree which would have delayed a pay rise to public workers to 2019, said the country's Finance Minister, Henrique Meirelles.

According to him, if the Supreme Court upholds the preliminary decision then the government would need to think of ways to compensate around R$ 5.1 billion in additional spending next year.

"If the decision prevails, we will have to think about alternatives to control expenses and compensate for this measure," he said, adding that the Court recess would be an obstacle to a fast solution.

President Michel Temer's published the decree in October as a way to meet the fiscal target. The Brazilian Supreme Court injunction attended a request by the PSOL left-wing party.

by Agencia CMA Latam

For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com

Economic News

What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.
(Agencia CMA Latam) - Merval, the main index of the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange, rose 2.11% Tuesday, closing at 27,710.17 points after the ruling party coalition pressed ahead with the approval of a pension reform sponsored by the Mauricio Macri's administration.

After a legislative session that lasted 17 hours and despite protests and clashes outside the Congress, the Argentinean ruling coalition passed the controversial pension reform at dawn. The legislation was approved in a 128-116 vote.

Analysts indicated that the market was firmer today given that the approval of the pension reform in the Congress, calms investors.

On the side of the companies, the President Mauricio Macri hosted the main executives of the company Lafarge Holcim (+2.01%), who announced the expansion of a cement plant in Cordoba through an investment of US$ 120 million.

The locally traded U.S. dollar climbed 0.84%, closing at 17.90 Argentinean pesos, due to the demand by banks and companies for covering positions. After its fourth consecutive rise, the greenback reached the highest level since the end of October in the local market.

by Agencia CMA Latam

For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com

Economic News

What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.
It seems that e-commerce giant Amazon is getting ready to take the fight directly to its rival Google by planning to launch a YouTube like video-sharing platform.

According to reports, Amazon is mulling about its own video platform and has filed two trademarks requests with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for names "Amazontube," and another called "Opentube. It was first spotted by TV Answer Man.

In its filings, Amazon describes Amazontube or Opentube as providers of "non-downloadable pre-recorded audio, visual and audiovisual works via wireless networks."

The service will also allow users "to share content, photos videos, text, data, images and other electronic works," and goes on to list topics, ranging from gaming to dance, fashion and tech.

Meanwhile, DomainNameWire points out that Amazon has been registering a bunch of domain names, including AlexaOpenTube.com, AmazonAlexaTube.com, and AmazonOpenTube.com.

This news comes amidst ongoing battle among Amazon and Google about YouTube's blockade on Amazon devices. Google had announced that it was removing its app from the Echo and from Fire TV.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
President meets parliamentary bloc of Hajjah province





SANAA, Dec. 20 (Saba)  President of the Supreme Political Council Saleh al-Sammad met here on Wednesday with the parliamentary bloc of Hajjah province, in presence of the province governor Helal al-Sofi and a number of the province undersecretaries.



The meeting discussed the situations in the province in light of the present circumstances under the continuation of the aggression and blockade, as well as the role of the parliamentarians during the current stage and their efforts in enhancing the social stability.



In the meeting, president al-Sammad urged the parliament members in the province to play their roles in groping the citizens needs and reflect them to the concerned organizations to meet them one by one and activating the values of cohesion between the society members.



The president pointed to the importance of dealing positively with the citizens needs, especially in light of the difficult conditions being experienced by the country due to the aggression and siege.



Al-Sammad stressed the necessity of developing the revenues and spending them in serving the society and its daily needs, as well as contributing to the development process through strengthening the role of the tax and customs revenues so as to serve the public interest.



He praised the honorable positions of Hajjah people and what they had presented and still present every day in facing the aggression and countering the invaders and aggressors through supporting the fronts with men and gear, as well as their effective role in treating the damage resulting of the aggression, sheltering displaced people and supporting those who are in need.



For his part, the governor of Hajjah hailed the efforts of the Supreme Political Council in carrying the responsibility during this critical phase, which is one of the hardest phases the country is going through since decades.



BA



Saba

Facebook Facebook

Twitter Twitter

Whatsapp Whatsapp

Telegram Telegram

Email Email

Print Print

[20/December/2017]
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had printed high denomination notes worth Rs 15,78,700 crore as on December 8, of which Rs 2,46,300 crore has not been supplied to the market, state-run State Bank of India (SBI) said on Wednesday.

Based on the government and RBI data, the SBI, in a research note titled "Are Rs 2,000 high denomination notes being held back?", said that deducting the small denomination notes in circulation on December 8 this year, printed high-value currency worth Rs 2,46,300 crore had not been released in the market.

"As per the information given by the Ministry of Finance in the Lok Sabha, the RBI has printed 16,957 million pieces of Rs 500 notes and 3,654 million pieces of Rs 2,000 notes as on December 8. Total value of such notes translates into Rs 15,787 billion," said the SBI Ecoflash report authored by Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) Soumya Kanti Ghosh.

As per the RBI data, that the value of small denomination currency in circulation upto March 2017 was Rs 3,50,100 crore.

"This implies that the value of high denomination notes was equivalent to Rs 13,324 billion as on December 8 after we net out the small denomination notes from the currency in circulation on that day," the SBI said.

"This means that the residual amount of high currency notes (Rs 15,787 billion-Rs 13,324 billion) of Rs 2,463 billion may have been printed by the RBI but not supplied in the market," the report said.

"As a logical corollary, as 2,000 denomination currency (following demonetisation) led to challenges in transactions, it thus indeed seems that RBI may have either consciously stopped printing the 2,000 denomination notes or printing in smaller numbers," it added.
The upcoming Salman Khan starrer mega-budget film "Tiger Zinda Hai" has run into a political controversy barely two days ahead of its scheduled December 22 release.

While the Maharashtra Navnirman Chitrapat Sena (MNCS) has warned cinema owners against booking all shows for Tiger Zinda Hai and denying slots to two Marathi films, other parties like the Congress and the Shiv Sena also joined the controversy with their own party lines.

MNCS President Amey Khopkar told the media that the screening of the movie should not be at the cost of the Marathi films, "Deva" and "Gachhi", which must be allotted suitable prime time slots.

"We are not against the release of any film, including Tiger Zinda Hai, our objection is why should all the slots be reserved for just one film and all others have no slots to exhibit their films," Khopkar said.

On Tuesday, the MNCS shot off letters to all cinemas, demanding proper prime-time slots for the Marathi films, failing which it would agitate against the Salman Khan film.

Mumbai Congress President Sanjay Nirupam has come out in favour of "Tiger Zinda Hai", but a party legislator Nitesh Rane has espoused the cause of the Marathi film industry, while the Shiv Sena has also toed a pro-Marathi line in this matter.

Terming the plight of Marathi film-makers "comparable to hawkers", Sena MP Sanjay Raut demanded that they should be given equal treatment in releasing their films.

However, theatre owners are in a quandary since Tiger Zinda Hai is the first mega-budget film after several months, and probably the last this calendar year, after protests and threats pushed back the release of the much-anticipated Sanjay Leela Bhansali film "Padmavati" to 2018.

Khopkar said the MNCS, part of the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), would not tolerate "the monopolising of theatres by Yashraj Films in this manner".

"They should not forget that they do all their film shootings in Maharashtra. If this matter is not resolved amicably, we shall be forced to stop even their shoots," Khopkar warned.

He termed it as tragic that Marathi film-makers "have to beg" for screens in their home state because big film companies book all cinema halls in advance for exhibiting their films.

According to MNCS activists, nearly 95 per cent of all shows in all theatres in the state have been blocked for "Tiger Zinda Hai" for its Friday release, leaving others with unviable options like early morning or late night shows which are poorly patronised.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that Yashraj Films has stipulated all theatres to have at least five shows of "Tiger Zinda Hai", hoping to lure cinema buffs and Salman Khan fans in the Christmas holiday season.
The Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day on Wednesday amid sloganeering by Congress members demanding an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his remarks against his predecessor Manmohan Singh.

The House had resumed at 2 p.m. after it saw repeated disruptions.

The Congress members wanted Modi to apologise for alleging at an election rally in Gujarat that Manmohan Singh and others at a dinner meeting discussed the Gujarat Assembly election with Pakistani diplomats.

As soon as the House met, Congress members were on their feet. Many had given notice under Rule 267 to suspend all listed business and discuss the issue.

However, Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu rejected all the notices and asked the members to continue with Zero Hour submissions. The Congress members then trooped near the Chair's podium shouting slogans.

Earlier, Naidu adjourned the House till noon after his repeated requests to maintain order failed to bring peace.

As soon as the House met again for the Question Hour, the Congress members again shouted slogans. The Chair then adjourned the House till 2 p.m.
The Pakistan High Commission in Delhi on Wednesday issued visas to the mother and wife of Kulbhushan Jadhav to visit Islamabad to meet the death row prisoner.

The Pakistan High Commission here on Wednesday issued visas to the mother and wife of Kulbhushan Jadhav to visit Islamabad to meet the death row prisoner.

"Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi issued the visas to the mother and wife of Commander Jadhav to visit Islamabad to meet him," Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal said.

On December 17, 2017, Pakistan had said that the visa applications of Jadhav's wife and mother had been received and were being "processed".

Jadhav's mother and wife are expected to arrive in Pakistan on Saturday via the Wagha Border. Informed sources said that during a meeting on Monday, Pakistan's National Security Committee cleared the visas for Jadhav's mother Avantika Jadhav and his wife.

Pakistan had rejected India's plea for consular access to Jadhav, a retired navy official who has been sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court for alleged spying.

Kulbhushan Jadhav was sentenced on charges of espionage and terrorism.

India maintains that Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the navy. Pakistan claims he was arrested from Balochistan after he reportedly entered from Iran.

_

_SHOW_MID_AD__
Maoists have attacked a railway station in Bihar, killing one person and abducting two to enforce their shutdown, police said on Wednesday.

Dozens of armed Maoists attacked the Masudan railway station on Jamalpur-Kieul rail section late on Tuesday night.

They killed a deputy village body head, torched cabin panel and abducted two railway employees to enforce a shutdown they had called on Wednesday

Train services on that stretch was stopped.
BJP MLA Jairam Thakur is emerging as the "key" face in the race for picking a chief ministerial candidate in Himachal Pradesh, with the party expected to take a final call after a meeting of the newly-elected MLAs with the central observers.

A senior party leader said that Thakur has "suitable credentials" for the post as he has been a member of ABVP, the student wing affiliated to BJP's ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

He said Thakur has been BJP state unit chief, a state Minister and has been elected five times as an MLA. Another factor in his favour is that the party will not need to go through a by-election if he is chosen.

Sources said that central observers - Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Narendra Singh Tomar - are expected to speak to BJP MLAs individually to ascertain their views and then convey these to the party's central leadership.

While Thakur is the key face in the chief ministerial race, other names doing the rounds are of Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda and party MLA Rajeev Bindal. The name of defeated chief ministerial face Prem Kumar Dhumal has not been ruled out either.

If the party chooses either Nadda or Dhumal as Chief Minister, they will have to get elected as legislators in six months, and it will entail a sitting MLA vacating his seat.

Nadda's name had been doing the rounds even before the elections but his going to Himachal Pradesh as Chief Minister will create a vacancy in the Union Cabinet.

The BJP also has to weigh the caste equations in the hill state before it makes a final choice, keeping in mind the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Nadda is a Brahmin and the community is numerically less than the Rajputs. The last BJP Chief Minister from the Brahim community was Shanta Kumar (1990-1992).

But the BJP also has to weigh various factors in terms of national politics. It already has Chief Ministers from the Rajput community including Yogi Adityanath and Trivendra Singh Rawat.

Party leaders said that central observers are expected to visit Shimla later this week to ascertain the views of MLAs. The name of the Chief Minister is likely to be announced after a meeting of the party's parliamentary board.

Jairam Thakur won from Seraj constituency by defeating Chet Ram of the Congress.

Dhumal's name was announced as the party's chief ministerial candidate midway through the election campaign in the state.

Dhumal, who had won the last election from Hamirpur constituency, had reservations over contesting from Sujanpur. But the BJP central leadership asked him to contest from there, and he faced defeat against close rival Rajinder Rana of the Congress. Rana was once the "election manager" of Dhumal and knows his family well. Rana defeated the two-time Chief Minister by a slender margin of 1,919 votes.

BJP MLA Virender Kanwar, who won from Kutlehar seat, has offered to resign from his seat for Dhumal.

The BJP won a near two-third majority in Himachal Pradesh.

In Gujarat, Vijay Rupani and Nitin Patel are widely expected to continue as Gujarat's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister after the BJP retained power in keenly fought elections, but some others are said to be eyeing the top post.
Theresa Grace has a goal. She wants to explore the world to discover new horizons and experience life in different places.

Being in Samoa this week is part of that journey. Theresa has roots in Savaii although she was born and raised in Australia.

She is here to celebrate her cousins wedding and this is her first time in Samoa.

It feels really good to be here for the first time and for me personally, returning to a place that I have a strong connection to, even though I have never been here before, she said.

Everything that Theresa knows about Samoa was taught by her grandparents who are native to Savaii.

My grandparents and dad would always teach us the way it is in Samoa. They always tell us of the struggles and how hard life is in Samoa and that we are so lucky to live in Australia and to have everything given unto us, she told Dear Tourist yesterday.

Since arriving in Samoa, everything she has been told has taken on a new meaning and her appreciation for her Samoan heritage has grown.

Being here cemented everything that they said about Samoa. It has really changed my perspective and people say that life is hard, but life here seems so free. It is different.

Even though it is far away from home, we are still taught the ways of being a Samoan and I owe it to my dad and grandparents for always reminding us of our roots and the culture.

Theresa has only been here for three days and she hopes to explore the island before she leaves. She looks forward to going to see some of the beaches, but admits that she wants to try everything. But above all Theresa is looking forward to meeting her cousins for the first time.

I am excited that I am going to be meeting some of my cousins that I have never met before and I know that they will probably laugh at us of how we will be mainly on our phones. But it will be an eye-opening experience just to be able to see how they live life.

The 18-year-old mentioned one of the highlights she expects from her trip is to see Leulumoega College which her grandmother attended

The best part of our culture is how people love and how they look at us with just so much love and friendly smiles. Everyone is so warm hearted. Since there are so many cultures and people have their own way of doing things, here everyone has that spark within them which makes them the same and that is kindness.
Kolio Penitito, of Nofoalii, dreads the day when the high cost of living in Samoa will leave people penniless.

Although there are some products that remain affordable, the rising cost of living is a constant struggle for low-income families.

Come to think of it, there are some goods which we can afford, but it all depends on the shopkeeper how much a product is worth, he said.

You may assume that it will be cheaper since it is delivered here but petrol has also become expensive, the 50-year-old told the Village Voice team yesterday.

Kolio comes from a family of 10 and he understands the struggle of trying to budget and search for money.

I dont work; I stay home to look after my father. There are only three people who work in our family, but they also have families to look after, so imagine having an elderly person at home ? It is definitely a struggle trying to budget everything out, he added.

Kolio said that everything nowadays is about money.

There are bills everywhere that you need to pay, within a household of 10 people, there will be so much water and electricity that will be used. The more water we use in terms of doing the washing and also washing the dishes, the more the bill. When it is time to pay for it and we are day or a week late, then there is interest that we will need to pay which means more money to be spent. It does not stop there, there is also the electricity bill.

Through his own experiences, he says the only kinds of farmer swho will prosper are the ones who have cattle, chickens and pigs.

Those are the only kinds of farmers with confidence that have a backup plan to turn to when the weather is not going so well and your crops are ruined or not ready.

Having cattle or pigs, you will have nothing to worry about.
With the everyday hardships, securing a stable job is the only way forward.

This is the belief of 20-year-old Sefo Siaki from the village of Saleimoa.

Life here in Samoa is really hard now because if you dont work, you wont be able to survive and put food on the table for your family, Mr. Siaki told the Village Voice team.

After I left school, the only thing that came to my mind was to work and support my family through the plantation. I havent got a regular job to support my family, but the only thing I have now is work on the plantation.

Mr. Siaki says his job was to provide his family with food from the plantation and his dads was to cater for the financial side because he was the only who worked.

We also live together with my aunties at our house and sometimes her kids go fishing to provide for us. My banana patch here in the plantation is for food and money as well because I sometimes sell it over at the supermarket just down the Beach Road.

Mr. Siaki adds he is also searching for employment to help him support his family.

I would like to get a regular job so I can make money to help my family and work on my plantation at the same time.

My family is struggling so badly and I really need a job to support them because life nowadays is not that easy anymore.

Mr. Siaki added securing a regular job will not only helps his family, but it will also develop his experience in the labour market.
This much we know. They are the unsung heroes of many families, villages, churches and to an extent Samoa as a whole.

They are among the strongest pillars of economic stability and social harmony in this country.

Who are they?

We are referring to our relatives based all over the world who continue to open their windows and hearts and look towards their families back in Samoa.

What will we ever do without them?

The truth is that whether they are based in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Canada, U.S.A. or more popular places like New Zealand and Australia, our relatives always give back. They all know their way to the nearest Western Union or whatever form of money sending agency. They do it out of love and sense of responsibility to the motherland.

They dont have to. They could easily go on and forget us. But they dont.

As the festive season excitement builds, we know that many of them are here in Samoa.

For many relatives, they dont have the chance to visit often.

Not because they dont want to but many times its due to the fact that they sacrifice coming over to send their fares to their families here.

Indeed, it is fair to say that the backbone of Samoas economy is money or goods sent over from Samoans living overseas.

Its the blood that keeps the veins of this economy pumping.

Everyday we see hundreds of people here queuing up at money transfer companies. Its fascinating. That translates to millions each year, which makes a huge positive difference to the lives of our people.

The point is that its these remittances that keep most Samoan families afloat throughout the year.

Some would be living in extremely difficult financial situations if it werent for remittances. But its not just money.

They send food, boxes of appliances, building materials and much, much more.

There are scores of flash homes across the country and cars in Samoa today thanks to this generosity.

So at this time of the year when these people who have given so much throughout the past months come to visit us, and still spend a lot of their hard earned dollars in Samoa, it is our time to say thank you.

It is time to acknowledge their contribution to our families, churches and country. A time to repay their generosity and kindness by showing them love and hospitality while they are here with us.

Its the least we could do for them after everything they have done for us.

One of the most special sights on these shores leading up to Christmas is the long line of people at freight companies to claim their boxes and parcels.

This week was no exception. Hundreds of elderly people lining up with anticipation to claim their boxes of goodies from families and friends overseas.

Seeing the look of joy on their faces upon receiving these boxes really warm the heart. For many of these families, these gifts from afar really make their Christmas. Those boxes represent many things: joy, kindness, sharing and most of all, love.

It has been said that once a Samoan, always a Samoan. Even if you take a Samoan away from his country, you can never take his country away from him.

Remittances are a testament to that.

But its more than just money.

Samoans are a we people. We care for each other and we are family-oriented. Which means that it doesnt matter where in the world you are, you will always open your window and look back to Samoa.

Giving and sharing is part of us because it is about love first and foremost. It is part of our sense of responsibility to our families and each other because we know where we came from and how far we have come. It is what makes us unique.

Which is precisely what this time of the year is all about. Little or much, its about sharing, giving and receiving with gratitude.

Have a great Thursday Samoa. God bless!
Refugees, asylum seekers and the idea of waiving visa fees for U.S. nationals were among the issues raised during the last day of Parliament at Tuanaimato yesterday.

The issues surfaced during the discussion of the Immigration Amendment Bill 2017, which was tabled and passed after the third reading.

The bill increases the duration of a visitors visa from 60 t0 90 days.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, who is also the Minister of Immigration, explained the importance of the legislation.

In 2015, many of the European countries have added Samoan passport on to their free visa entrance list, but not all E.U. countries, he said. This means that when our people visit these countries, there is no need for a visa.

This was not always the case, Tuilaepa said.

I remember back when I attended a meeting in the E.U. I had to wait for a couple of hours for confirmation that I was there attending a meeting. However that has changed and now visiting Europe is much flexible."

Also the E.U. invested $60 million for our water tank which now caters to the public.

According to the Prime Minister, the governments efforts are in line with most of the countries that have similar legislations, such as Fiji in terms of visitors visas.

He downplayed concerns about terrorists exploiting the visa.

Those terrorists will not reach our shores as they will get caught in other countries, he said.

We also have the Transnational Crimes Unit in Samoa who deals with issues such as these.

The amendment, however, was strongly opposed by Member of Parliament, Olo Fiti Vaai.

We dont usually visit Europe unless its official trips, he said.

Unlike us, there is an influx of Europeans visiting Samoa."

There should still be in place stringent policies to govern our boarders. Another issue at hand is that the 60 days shouldnt be increased, rather it should be decreased."

It should be decreased to 30 days; the world is not safe anymore from terrorism."

Also there are an increasing number of refugees and I believe that 90 days is just too long for a visitors visa."

The government should reconsider this amendment. The 90 day Visitors Visa would open the door for refugees to enter under false pretense.

Olo called on the Speaker to consider these concerns.

No tourist would come and stay here for two weeks or a month, yet the visitors permit is up to three months.

Olos questions angered Prime Minister Tuilaepa, who said there is nothing Samoa can do about refugees.

Whether we pass this law or not there will always be refugees who will do everything in their power to attempt and enter, said Tuilaepa.

He sharply reminded Olo that he is in the nightclub business.

And in that business no tourists would come to your place of business to buy your beer if you disagree with the amendment at hand, he said.

The Prime Minster then launched a verbal barrage on Olo.

Despite the fact that the Liquor Board is well aware that you broke the law, they continue to be patient with you, Tuilaepa said.

You shouldnt jump the gun and voice concerns about issues here and there. You should look at yourself to see if you havent violated any laws.

Olo was unperturbed.

When you talk about breaking the law, youre talking to these people, he said while pointing to Cabinet Ministers.

But not all of you are criminals, just some.

Back to the issue at hand, Olo said: I am shocked to hear of refugees who have gained entrance into Samoa. How did they get visitors visa and where are they staying?"

Also where are the funds allocated from the U.N. to care for these refugees?

Tuilaepa interfered and made it clear, that whether the amendment passes or not there will always be refugees.

They come here as tourists and later on its uncovered they are refugees."

Also within the Attorney Generals Office, there are 50 top notch lawyers working in that office who assure that Samoa 'is well protected' from refugees."

If anyone comes as a refugee, there are policies in place to deal with refugees, he said.

Member of Parliament, Faumuina Wayne Fong, inquired as to why other countries would come over for free on the visitors visa, yet neighboring island American Samoa need to pay a permit.

Our people no longer travel to Tutuila but their people visit us and when theyre here they spend money and its good for the economy, said Faumuina.

Never mind how they have been acting lately in terms of immigration but I think we should open the door for Tutuila and let them come here to spend their money here for us.

Prime Minister said there have been consultations.

Initially we paid entry permit fee of $5, however for Tutuila they travel over free of charge and only an idiotic government would let others travel here for free while we pay to enter their country.

The Prime Minister also mentioned that one time Samoa was fined with US$20,000 (T$50,558) for not complying with immigration laws in terms of visitors permits.

However the issue was that they amended their laws without informing us and so when passengers traveled to Samoa without permits, we were fined $20,000 and thats what prompted the Cabinet to implement reciprocity that if we pay visa fees, they will pay visa fees as well."

The Governor during his visits has requested for things to go back the way they were, but that was not happening.

Tuilaepa assured that as soon as Samoan Citizens gain free entrance into American Samoa, the same principle will be applied for U.S. Nationals.

Parliament has been adjourned until next year.
People pass on, but memories live forever.

Honouring her mother at the National University of Samoa Institute of Technology (N.U.S.I.O.T.) graduation yesterday was Fofo Tuneva Saleaula.

The 21-year-old was among the 369 students who graduated in front of families and friends at the N.U.S. gym at Le Papaigalagala.

The students received certificates and diplomas from various Technical and Vocational Education and Training Programmes.

Fofo scored the highest mark for the Diploma in Office Management.

She hails from the villages of Foaluga, Savaii and Vaitele fou.

In an interview with the Samoa Observer, Fofo said her journey to achieving the special recognition was not an easy ride.

She said at times she felt like giving up, but memories of her mothers support and sacrifice until the day she passed away, kept her focused on her studies.

Her being by my side, giving me every support that I need really helps me a lot to strive for the best, she said.

This award is for my mother, Fetu Saleaula, who is now in heaven. She passed away on the 28th of May this year.

Mum I know you are looking down on me and you are very proud of me.

Being the youngest of seven children, Fofo says she has a lot of responsibilities towards her family.

Now I have a diploma in Office Management, I am going to look for a job and start working to look after my father.

Fofo acknowledged God for the strength, wisdom and guidance throughout the year.

She also thanked the teachers for helping and equipping them with the necessary skills and knowledge needed in the workforce.

Ministry of Work, Transport and Infrastructure C.E.O. Afamasaga Sua Poumulinuku Onesemo in his keynote address congratulated the graduates.

Special awards:

 Laulu O Vini Michael Ah Young received a trophy as recognition for topping in Electro Engineering.

 Journalist Association of Samoa (J.A.W.S.) Trophy for Top Journalism Student was awarded to Solonaima Uelese.

 Manukau Institute of Technology Award for Top Tourism and Hospitality Student was awarded to Sue Vaifale.

 Leufisa Asiasta Seumanutafa Memorial Trophy for Top Diploma in Office Management Student was awarded to Fofo Tuneva Saleaula

 Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism Trophy for Top Diploma in Tourism Student was awarded to Theres Rose-Hannah Mcfall.
The Accredited Mediators of Samoa Association (A.M.S.A.) yesterday welcomed twenty four new Mediators.

The graduation follows a weeklong training under the guidance of Professor Nadja Alexander.

It was 4th Mediation training hosted by the Mediation Council, A.M.S.A and the Ministry of Justice and Courts Administration (M.J.C.A.).

Chief Justice, His Honour Patu Tiavaasue Falefatu Sapolu, congratulated the new Mediators.

Mediation has already become a popular method of dispute resolution worldwide, he said. Samoas commitment to mediation is within the mainstream of dispute resolution processes which the world has accepted and practiced."

I am pleased to witness that such a diverse, experienced and well qualified group has answered the call to become mediators.

Chief Justice Patu added that they look forward to working with the new mediators.

The Land and Titles Court disputes are an integral part of our Samoan way of life in which mediation has had an essential role to play, he said. We anticipate that as trained and accredited mediators, you will carry out your roles as impartial facilitators in the mediation process."

Paramount to your role is ethical behavior that safeguards the principles of natural justice namely that of fairness and in harsh reality. The credibility and success of the mediation process depends on your roles and behaviors as mediators.
Leather wear could be a way forward for Samoa economically.

Thats the opinion shared by six Samoan delegations attended a Leatherware Processing and Trade for Developing Countries training in China recently.

One of the representatives, Fata Chris Aluni, believes its not something that can happen overnight. But he says there is huge potential for Samoa.

Fata says leather produced and sold in China is made from the skin of cattle, sheep, lambs, goats, and pigs.

The interesting thing about it is the fact that Samoa could be part of it by increasing the number of livestock in Samoa, he said.

There are many alternatives to leather, including cotton, linen, rubber, ramie, canvas, and synthetics and many others.

Its a million dollar investment in China, many leading fashion houses have switched to China and acknowledging the improved quality of leather craftsmanship in the country.

He said China and India were the worlds two biggest sources of leather.

The leather business in China itself produces millions and employs millions of individual and as Ive mentioned, its not something that can happen today and tomorrow.

Because China is looking at ways to reduce pollution, theyre seeking other countries for the growth of the leather industry.

The success of the leatherwear industry is the result of the mastering of know-how, the variety of ranges, and the optimization with the rationalization of costs, short-lead times and proximity to Chinese decision-making circles.

But as Ive mentioned earlier, the thing is we need more on breeding stock to make it happen and hopefully then we will look into it for Samoa.

Returning the favour, the group acknowledged the assistance of the Peoples Republic of China.

A big faafetai to the Chinese Ambassador H.E. Wang Weufeng and his good lady as well as his staff for organising our group travel, Fata thanked.

It has been a wonderful and amazing intercultural and architectural experience sharing knowledge, skills and attitudes from each country of everyone attended.

Four weeks of training is a lifetime experience for the participants, everyone were having a good time of sharing and fun because for some, this is their first time in China.

But for others, this is one of their many trips and theyre still fascinated by the growing social and economic development of China.

Honestly, coming from different backgrounds, with different perspectives, from different parts of the world to one country, we have learnt a lot about Chinas culture through its wonderful and friendly people, lectures and activities, but we have also learned about the cultures of other countries.
A man convicted of tying up a male while raping his wife at knife point had escaped from Tafaigata Prison.

The good news is that Lauititi Tualima has been recaptured.

But he was among four prisoners who escaped from Tafaigata this morning, according to the Samoa Police Service.

The others are:

2. Vaioa Solia (m)

3. Aniseko Vaelei (m)

4. Uili Manuleleua (m)

According to the Police, Tualima and Solia are now back in police custody.

The remaining two prisoners Aniseko Vaelei and Uili Manuleleua haven't been located.

The police are appealing to members of the public for their assistance in order to catch the two remaining convicts.

The public is also advice not to approach the prisoners directly as they are considered aggressive and dangerous but urgently report it to police at phone number 22222.

The SPS would like to ensure the public that there safety is our priority at this time of the year and the police are working around the clock to catch these criminals.

The public will be further informed once the other two prisoners are back in custody. Police investigations are continuing.
San Juan Capistrano city council member Pam Patterson has sometimes clashed with other members of the Community Engagement Panel, which gives the public updates on the decommissioning of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS).

But she wont be asking any more sharp questions from the panels dais because last week she was ousted as her citys representative to the panel by fellow members of the San Juan Capistrano city council.

In a 3-2 vote, the council decided to remove Patterson from the SONGS panel.

Advertisement

I am definitely outspoken as far as the risk we all face in respect to health and safety as a result of the mismanagement thats going at the San Onofre power plant, said Patterson, who has often criticized the plants operator, Southern California Edison.

Patterson will be replaced by San Juan Capistranos current mayor, Sergio Farias.

She was there to represent residents of San Juan Capistrano and ask questions on behalf of them, not to be an activist, Farias said. If you create this atmosphere of questioning everything I dont think it leads to what this panel is supposed to be. Its supposed to be disseminating information.

The Community Engagement Panel was formed by Edison and has 18 members representing a range of stakeholders that include local governments, the Sierra Club, a labor union, a Native American group, a member of the American Nuclear Society and a representative of Camp Pendleton, where the SONGS facility is located.

The panel is not a regulatory body and does not have rule-making authority. Members serve on a voluntary basis and do not get paid.

The meetings typically involve a featured speaker, public comment and updates from SCE  usually centering on the 3.55 million pounds of nuclear waste stored at the site and efforts to move the spent fuel to another location.

Patterson said she was not surprised by the vote because there had been earlier attempts by the city council to replace her.

In San Juan Capistrano, the mayors position rotates among members of the city council in one-year increments. Farias assumed mayoral duties earlier this month.

Although no longer a member of the Community Engagement Panel, Patterson said she will still attend the quarterly meetings as a member of the public.

This is a very, very important issue we all face and we cant be cavalier about it, she said. We really need to understand how important it is to everyone.

Patterson said she is a member of the board of Public Watchdogs, a San Diego-based advocacy group that been harshly critical of Edison and last month filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court arguing SONGS should not be allowed to store nuclear waste since it no longer produces electricity.

Farias said the Community Engagement Panel is asking important questions and said he will be an assertive member.

I hope to ask tough questions, he said. Whether or not it hurts Edisons feelings, Im not concerned with how they feel. Im going to ask tough questions for my constituents.

Business

rob.nikolewski@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1251 Twitter: @robnikolewski

ALSO

San Onofre nuclear waste agreement offers hope for some, an illusion for others

Moving nuclear waste out of San Onofre: When and how?

New Mexico group makes pitch to store San Onofres nuclear waste
Add another item to your holiday shopping list: last-minute tax planning.

Congress has passed the most sweeping overhaul of the federal tax code in three decades. The Republican legislation, which President Trump celebrated on Wednesday, delivers most of its benefits to corporations and the wealthy, but there are key changes that affect individuals.

Unlike the corporate tax cuts, the revisions to the individual code are temporary and expire in 2026. Most of them kick in on Jan. 1, and there are steps you could take in the coming days to maximize new advantages and minimize the potential hit from other changes.

Tax advisors are going to be busy the next couple of weeks, said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst for financial information website Bankrate.com.

Here are five things to talk to your advisor about doing before New Years Day.

Pay your property taxes early

A pedestrian walks by a row of Victorian houses in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

The legislation sets limits on the amount of state and local taxes that people can deduct. Beginning in 2018, couples filing jointly will be limited to an annual deduction of no more than $10,000 worth of state and local income, sales and property taxes.

Right now, there is no limit on the deduction and the change will be a hard hit to many residents of California and other high-tax states.

Property tax bills generally go out in the fall, with half the taxes due by early December and the other half due by April. If your state and local taxes will be greater than $10,000, you could pay the second installment bill before the end of this year and should still be able to deduct it on your 2017 taxes when you file in the spring, if you itemize.

The legislation doesnt specifically rule out such a move. But it does prohibit people from pre-paying 2018 state or local income taxes this year and claiming them as an itemized deduction for 2017.

The bill is pretty clear that you will not be able to prepay, even if you could, your income taxes, said Darien Shanske, a tax law expert at the UC Davis School of Law. But its silent about property taxes.

Pre-paying property taxes might not be possible if your mortgage servicer pays them for you from an escrow account. People should contact their servicer.

Make an extra mortgage payment

The tax overhaul will nearly double the standard deductions for taxpayers who dont itemize, from $6,350 to $12,000 for individuals, and from $12,700 to $24,000 for couples.

The change is expected to dramatically reduce the number of filers who itemize because fewer people will have total deductions above the new levels.

Given that, taxpayers who anticipate itemizing on their 2017 returns might want to consider making their January mortgage payment before the end of the year.

Doing so would allow you to deduct an extra month of mortgage interest that you might not be able to deduct on your 2018 return if you dont end up itemizing because of the higher standard deduction, McBride said.

The tax bill also limits the deduction to interest on as much as $750,000 in mortgage debt, down from the current $1-million limit. People who already own homes still get the higher limit.

But lawmakers added a provision to prevent people from a last-minute scramble to buy homes before the limit goes into effect next year.

Unlike most of the bills changes, which take effect on Jan. 1, a taxpayer must have entered into a binding written contract before last Friday to be eligible for the $1-million limit.

Give more to charity

Volunteers sort pears at the SF-Marin Food Bank on Nov. 28 in San Francisco. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

Charitable contributions are one of the most popular deductions. But the number of people who itemize is expected to fall sharply. If you think youll stop itemizing, you might want to consider making your 2018 contributions by Dec. 31 so you would be able to deduct what you give to charity.

This might be the year, if they can no longer itemize their charitable donations, to clean out the closet and donate to Goodwill or the Salvation Army or make that extra contribution to your church, said Kathy Pickering, executive director of the Tax Institute at H&R Block, which provides research and analysis to the companys tax preparers.

As with an extra mortgage payment, the move makes tax sense only for people who believe they will have enough deductions to itemize on their 2017 return but not when they file 2018 taxes, said Robert Spielman, a partner at Marcum, an independent public accounting and advisory services firm.

The key is estimating your chances of having deductions in 2018 that exceed the new standard deduction level.

If youre not going to exceed that, maybe you arrange with your parish and prepay your 2018 pledge in 2017, Spielman said.

Defer or accelerate income

Individual marginal tax rates are shifting lower, so youll generally pay less taxes on the same amount of earnings in 2018 compared with 2017.

People who are self-employed, such as contract workers or freelancers, should consider holding off on sending invoices so the payments come in 2018.

For most people, their federal tax bracket is going to be lower under the tax bill, so it would make sense to defer, McBride said.

Depending on the size of your family, however, you might not want to make that move. Instead, it might make sense to accelerate any possible income into this year when you might owe less taxes.

The tax bill eliminates the existing $4,050 exemption that can be claimed by taxpayers for themselves, their spouses and their dependents and also reduces taxable income. Those exemptions currently phase out at upper-income levels.

Some of that change is offset by the legislations doubling of the child tax credit to $2,000 and making it applicable to higher-income households, as well as adding a $500 family tax credit for dependents other than children.

It all means that some people might have more offsetting family-related deductions this year.

If you have a big family, three or more kids, it might make sense to accelerate the income into this year before the tax bill takes effect next year, McBride said.

Take advantage of expiring deductions

Deductions for home office business expenses would disappear through 2025 under the Republican tax bill. (artparadigm / Getty Images)

Under current law, employees are allowed to deduct unreimbursed business expenses if they total more than 2% of their adjusted gross income.

They include a home office, depreciation on a personal computer required for the job, dues to professional societies and subscriptions to journals and trade magazines.

All of those deductions would disappear through 2025 under the Republican tax bill, so you probably want to move as many of those expenses as you can to this year, such as by re-upping professional journal subscriptions.

A key to tax planning is figuring out which deductions to take in one year and which to postpone until the next, Spielman said.

This years a little different because we have a lot of deductions going away, he said.

jim.puzzanghera@latimes.com

Twitter: @JimPuzzanghera

UPDATES:

Dec. 20, 1:35 p.m.: This article was updated to note that Congress has passed the GOP tax plan.

2:10 p.m.: This article was updated to note that passage is expected this week and not on Tuesday after a procedural hurdle meant the House will have to vote again.

This article originally was published at noon Dec. 19.
Proficio, a Carlsbad firm providing managed cybersecurity services to businesses, said last week that it has received a second round of funding from current investor Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, bringing the total raised by the firm to more than $20 million.

Founded in 2010, Proficio moved its headquarters from Irvine to Carlsbad about three years ago. It will use the money to further international expansion efforts for its managed cybersecurity platform, which it sells on a subscription basis.

This funding will allow us to rapidly expand our global presence in Asia Pacific and Europe as well as deliver a number of enhancements to our security operations center-as-a-service platform, said co-founder and President Tim McElwee.

Advertisement

A Proficio spokeswoman declined to reveal the exact amount of this latest funding round. Kayne Anderson, an alternative investment fund, provided $12 million to Proficio in November 2016. Prior to that, the company had been bootstrapped with about $3 million in funding from founders and executives.

Very large firms typically have the money to hire staff to operate in-house security operations centers to monitor cyber threats and analyze data to find flaws in their network protections.

For small and mid-size businesses, however, running a security operations center themselves can be a significant expense, particularly with recent increases in the number and complexity of attacks.

Proficio provides outsourced security for a fee  known as Security Information and Event Management. It has security operations centers that provide 24/7 threat detection and monitoring to clients.

It has offices in Carlsbad, Singapore and Spain, and recently established a footprint in Australia. It employs 119 workers worldwide.

In 2018, Proficio plans to continue expanding into new regions globally.

Since our initial investment, Proficio has continued to expand internationally and we are excited by the European growth stemming from the companys Barcelona security operations center, said Nate Locke, partner at Kayne Partners Fund group. We are excited to help Proficio continue its strong trajectory.

Business

mike.freeman@sduniontribune.com;

Twitter:@TechDiego

760-529-4973
A close associate to drug lord Joaquin El Chapo Guzman has been extradited from Mexico to face charges in San Diego federal court of heading a money-laundering ring on behalf of the powerful Sinaloa cartel.

Victor Manuel Felix-Felix was being held in a Mexican prison when he and 28 others were indicted in 2011 as part of a massive drug-trafficking and money-laundering case.

He was extradited on Monday and he made his initial appearance in front of a San Diego judge on Tuesday afternoon.

Advertisement

Felix-Felix, also known as El Senor, is the father-in-law of one of Guzmans sons and also the godfather to one of his children.

He is the lead defendant in the prosecution, which alleges an operation that spanned five countries: the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Ecuador and Columbia.

The amount of cash and drugs outlined in the indictment suggest the big leagues  an operation that didnt just operate in millions of dollars but hundreds of millions of dollars.

The case revolved around a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent who went undercover and infiltrated the operation, according to the indictment. The agent was aided by other law enforcement officials who went undercover, as well as confidential informants. The agent posed as a manager of a worldwide criminal organization that could transport ton quantities of drugs and move millions of dollars in bulk currency, including depositing the money into a bank account in San Diego  an account held secretly by the DEA  and wiring funds to other banks, according to the indictment.

Alleged couriers for Felix-Felix would deliver the bulk cash to the agent or other operatives to be laundered, the indictment states.

The indictment outlines several transactions involving the undercover agent.

On June 3, 2009, associates of Felix-Felix met with the agent in Panama City, Panama, and said they were interested in obtaining the agents services to pick up more than $300 million located in New York, Los Angeles and Houston. The money was to be flown to Mexico as well as laundered through the U.S. banking system so it could be accessed by the cartel in Mexico, the indictment alleges.

In November of that year, one of the associates called the agent and asked for a bulk money pick up of $10 million in New York and another $10 million in Washington, D.C., with the sum to be transported to Mexico City, according to the indictment.

In November 2010, Felix-Felix himself was accused of coordinating the pickup of $1 million in Canadian currency to be transported to Bogota, Colombia, in a phone call with the agent, the indictment states.

Felix-Felix is also accused of directing the shipment of large loads of cocaine, including a cargo truck load of about 2,500 kilograms of cocaine within Ecuador. The drugs were seized by Ecuadorian National Police.

In January 2011, Felix-Felix sent an email to the undercover agent in San Diego confirming the arrangement of a 2,000 kilogram delivery of cocaine to the agent in Ecuador, the indictment alleges. Three days later, an associate delivered about 500 kilograms to a confidential informant, according to the court document.

The case highlighted the DEAs controversial practice of laundering drug proceeds as part of undercover investigations. In this case, $13 million was laundered by agents during the sting, an amount that the government wants back in forfeitures. Prosecutors are also asking for $76.2 million, the proceeds from drug trafficking in the case, to be forfeited.

kristina.davis@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @kristinadavis
A San Diego judge refused a defense request on Wednesday to dismiss all charges against a Navy commander accused of trying to rape a junior officer at her home last year.

Prosecutors affirmed that they would retry John Michael Neuhart II after a jury deadlocked 11-1 last week in favor of finding him guilty of assault with intent to commit rape during a burglary and attempted forcible rape.

Superior Court Judge Kathleen Lewis declared a mistrial in the case. She set a new trial date for March 5.

Advertisement

Defense attorney Kerry Armstrong asked for the case dismissal, saying he didnt believe there was any new evidence against Neuhart and that another 12 jurors would not be able to find that he went to the junior officers home planning to rape her.

Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Tag said that with just one holdout for conviction in the first trial, In my view, its not even a close call on re-trial.

The judge agreed.

I think the evidence is more indicative of guilty than innocence, Lewis said. A guilty verdict is very possible.

Security video showed Neuhart and the woman at a downtown hotel on Sept. 11, 2016, where both drank heavily before catching a ride to her Valencia Park home.

Tag alleges Neuhart took advantage of the womans intoxication and his position as her former commanding officer on a Guam-based helicopter squadron. Tag told jurors Neuhart ripped off the womans pants and tried to rape her, then was scared off when a neighbor heard her loud screams for him to stop.

Defense attorneys said the case is one of two consenting adults engaged in aggressive foreplay. The lawyers said Neuhart ran off because the neighbor yelled that he had a gun.

Neuhart ran into a canyon, chased by police. They caught him when he broke his leg and fell.

Neuhart was relieved of his command pending the trial outcome. He faces life in prison if convicted of the most serious charge of assault with intent to commit rape during a burglary.

pauline.repard@sduniontribune

Twitter: @pdrepard
Thinking about building a new home on a bluff overlooking the sea? You may want to think again.

A new report out of UC San Diegos Scripps Institution of Oceanography finds that methods of tracking coastal cliff erosion using historical data to predict the impacts of sea-level rise may be unreliable.

Using those old rates could significantly under predict whats going to happen at a particular location, said the studys author and Scripps researcher Adam Young. You could see very high rates of retreat in the future in areas that have so far seen very little.

Advertisement

The report released online and slated for publication early next year in the journal Geomorphology called out Californias worst areas for cliff failure in the first decade of this century  including San Onofre State Beach, Daly City, Point Reyes National Seashore and Palos Verdes. The research was funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations California Sea Grant program.

In these areas, ocean waves, rain storms and other factors eroded coastal bluffs at a frightening pace of up to about 12 feet a year.

However, Young said he was surprised to find that there was little historical precedent for the most rapidly crumbling shorelines within these regions.

What this says is the predictions of future coastal erosion from sea-level rise could be significantly under or over predicted for some locations, Young said.

Cities around the world are grappling with ocean waves that threaten to destroy everything from roads to railways to military bases to homes and businesses. About a quarter of the worlds population lives along the coast, with many communities pushed right up against a shoreline.

In March of this year, the U.S. Geological Survey forecasted that rising tides would swallow up to 67 percent of beaches in Southern California from Santa Barbara to San Diego by 2100.

To improve the understanding of how such impacts will play out, Young is using light detection and ranging technology, called LIDAR, to create three dimensional images of Californias coastline.

New laser technology has really revolutionized the way we map the cliffs, Young said. In the past, we were using aerial photographs and old topographic maps. The resolution and accuracy of those methods are a lot less (accurate) than compared to the type of technology that we have right now.

The laser mapping data Young used for his study was from 1998 to 2010, the most recent available at the time. New maps for the California coast were released this year, which he said he will use in his ongoing research.

The results will likely be sought after as local governments and state agencies prepare for the worst impacts of climate change.

A large part of planning for a future of rapidly rising tides is determining where to build sea walls to protect vulnerable cliffs. Armoring the coast can save structures but it also prevents bluff erosion from naturally replenishing beaches.

Thats pitted homeowners that favor using the walls against environmental groups that advocate for a slow retreat to save the shorelines for public use.

Right now, what were doing is choosing if we want to save our beaches and deciding which of those beaches we want to save, said Jennifer Savage, California policy managers with the San Clemente-based Surfrider Foundation.

Nowhere in the state is that debate raging louder than in North San Diego County, Savage said.

We see every month at the (California) Coastal Commission hearings where homeowners show up because they want to put in a seawall, she said. Certainly, theres cases up and down the coast, but if I had to name one place in California that we hear about it would be Del Mar and Solana Beach.

Developers have taken note of the conflicts inherent in seaside living. For many builders, constructing communities atop costal bluffs is no longer in vogue.

The amount of housing planned along our shoreline is very small and nearly all custom home related, said Borre Winckel, president of the Building Industry Association of San Diego County. Anecdotally, we hear that folks who rebuild or build newly are dissuaded from (building near) the shoreline, because the (coastal) commission wants the ocean to reclaim the beach and allow for natural sand replenishment where this can occur.

As officials consider the tradeoffs between saving beaches and protecting property, Young said that science will eventually give us the tools to help make those hard choices.

Ultimately, wed love to make predictions, Young said. Were getting more and more data as we move forward, and the data is getting much better. Well start to understand these things in the future for sure.

Twitter: @jemersmith

Phone: (619) 293-2234

Email: joshua.smith@sduniontribune.com
People who see immigration officers knocking at their doors  or their neighbors  in San Diego County can now call a new 24-hour hotline for support.

The hotline is part of the San Diego Rapid Response Network, which sends trained volunteers to reported immigration enforcement activity across the county to document officers behavior, gather information for legal screenings and offer resources to family members. The network is activists answer to increased immigration arrests under President Donald Trump.

More than 150 volunteers have received training so far.

Advertisement

First and foremost, I think that its a statement about values, its a statement about what matters in our community, said Alor Calderon, director of the Employee Rights Center, one of the organizations involved. Our values are about growing together and being inclusive.

When Trump ramped up immigration enforcement after he took office, San Diego activists from faith-based organizations, civil rights organizations and labor organizations started looking for ways to protect and support the countys immigrant communities.

Cities like San Francisco and Indianapolis started rapid response programs, often through faith-based groups. During research and planning for the San Diego network, organizers said they took best practices from other cities efforts.

In the final years of the Obama administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement priorities focused on people who were convicted of felonies or certain misdemeanors. Since Trump signed executive orders in January that expanded priorities for ICE, arrests and deportations of immigrants living in the U.S. rose significantly.

ICE officers arrested 143,470 people in fiscal 2017, a 30 percent increase from the year before. ICE deported 61,094 people from such arrests, up 37 percent.

Many Trump supporters have welcomed increased enforcement as a promise fulfilled, and heads of the federal agencies involved celebrated what they see as progress. For many immigrant rights activists, that increase is a crisis.

We all know that if any of us lost a member of the family, its an emergency, Calderon said.

Calling the hotline probably wont stop an arrest thats already in progress, but it might help stop a deportation, depending on the details of the case.

Anyone wanting to report an immigration arrest, a checkpoint or a raid to the rapid response network can call 619-536-0823. Dispatchers, who must be bilingual in English and Spanish, will take down information from the caller about the enforcements location and send a text to volunteer responders, asking for someone to verify whats happening.

A responder will go to the address provided and document the situation. Responders are taught not to obstruct an arrest in any way. Instead, they observe and document in case the immigrants civil rights are violated.

Responders must be U.S. citizens, Calderon said, and dont have to be bilingual.

The responder also gathers information to send the case to a team of lawyers. The legal team screens cases for those they might be able to help. Others get referrals to free or low-cost attorneys.

Getting more access to attorneys has been an issue in immigration court for years. Unlike criminal court, immigrants do not have a right to an attorney, meaning that many go through the court system without representation.

Studies have shown that having an attorney can have a significant impact on whether immigrants win their cases.

The rapid response network also recommends resources at various organizations throughout the county based on individual needs.

Kate Clark, a member of the networks legal team from Jewish Family Service, said that as an immigration attorney, shes given Know Your Rights workshops for years but that this is different.

Giving out the names of organizations locally that can assist with immigration cases just didnt feel like enough. I felt like we really needed to have this coordinated effort, Clark said. For me its really being able to be committed to immigrant community members through and through.

After the hotline is fully implemented, the next step is to incorporate a way to alert those in immigrant communities about enforcement activity in their neighborhoods, Clark said.

I feel like theres been a lot of calls to action, and this is really the action piece, which is exciting to be a part of, Clark said. Were actually doing something that is going to make a difference in the lives of these families.

The hotline has been operational for about a week as part of a soft-launch. While it has received calls, they havent yet been from people in crisis, Clark said.

The network celebrated its official kick-off Tuesday evening at Saint Jude Shrine of the West, a Catholic church in the community of Southcrest.

The Employee Rights Center is hosting a dispatcher training at 5 p.m. on Friday.

Immigration Videos On Now New developments in family separation case 9:53 On Now A San Diego woman volunteered as a medic in Texas helping migrant families 2:35 On Now Immigration policy protests in Carlsbad nearly cancelled after permit issue 1:38 On Now When children are separated from their parents at the border, here is where they go next On Now Prospects of a deal for 'Dreamers' may hinge on separating Trump from hard-liners on his staff On Now What is DACA? On Now Border wall prototype contractors selected On Now Video: Ukrainian boxer wins asylum in U.S. On Now 30 apprehended after Border Patrol agents discover tunnel On Now Video: Kurdish diaspora prepare to vote on independence

Follow me on Facebook for live updates about immigration news

kate.morrissey@sduniontribune.com, @bgirledukate on Twitter
Labor leader and political kingmaker Mickey Kasparian has resigned from the San Diego County Democratic Central Committee  a week after a new lawsuit accused him of sexual assault.

Kasparian, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 135, said on Facebook that he is busy with union work.

He posted a copy of his resignation letter, in which he apologized for his limited participation with the committee and said union work has stretched him thin. He made no reference to the sexual misconduct allegations.

Advertisement

Of course, it goes without saying that our union will continue to assist the party in whatever you need, so we can elect good Democrats and move the progressive agenda forward, Kasparian wrote in his letter to Jessica Hayes, chairwoman of the countys Democratic Party.

Hayes said she could not discuss the resignation  or complaints from Democrats that she has not condemned Kasparian in response to allegations of sexual misconduct.

I speak for the party, so I cant. I would love to, but I cant even defend myself, she said.

Last week Melody Godinez, a labor activist, sued Kasparian, accusing him of sexual assault after he allegedly once forced himself onto her and, on several other occasions, groped her. Kasparian denied her allegations.

Late last year Kasparian was also sued by Sandy Naranjo, a former Local 135 employee who claimed she was fired in retaliation for a stance her husbands rival union took on a political matter, and Isabel Vasquez, a woman who said Kasparian, her boss, pressured her into a sexual relationship before she retired from Local 135. Kasparian denied their allegations as well.

The specific position that Kasparian vacated was as an alternate member of the party central committee. He remains president of Local 135 in addition to the San Diego Working Families Council, a coalition of labor unions.

His resignation from the party came after Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez-Fletcher, D-San Diego, called on him to do so. She has not specifically called on him to step down from his positions as a labor leader. Kasparians support has been credited with playing a role in her political rise.

Kasparian should have quit months ago, said Shawn VanDiver, a Democrat who runs a small political action committee.

This is not something, if we want to call ourselves leaders, something that we sit back and wait for, VanDiver said by telephone. He should have resigned or been suspended immediately. Its a failure of leadership on the party chair.

Laurie Black, a long-time Democratic activist who has worked on several campaigns, agreed the party could have been more proactive.

If I were chairwoman of the Democratic Party, I would have come out in the winter of 2017 and said somethings wrong here...we need to do something about the alleged abuse, sexual abuse by one of our members, Black said.

Hayes said the criticism is unwarranted.

It is patently false that the Democratic Party did not take action regarding the claims against Mickey Kasparian earlier this year, she said in an email Tuesday, before Kasparian resigned. Our Central Committee considered the allegations in accordance with our rules governing membership. The committee held the women in these cases must be heard, and that due process is integral to the pursuit of justice.

Other labor leaders have been silent since the latest allegations of sexual assault emerged against Kasparian. UCFW International  Local 135s parent union  did not respond to requests for comment. Nor did any of the six unions in the San Diego Working Families Council, the labor coalition that Kasparian leads. Local 135s board members also did not respond to a request for comment.

The scandal began a year ago when Naranjo and Vasquez sued Kasparian. It reached a new level level last week when Godinez, a county government employee, filed her own lawsuit. It was the first time Kasparian, who denies all of the allegations, was accused of non-consensual sexual misconduct.

Since then two incumbent Democrats, Gonzalez Fletcher and Chula Vista Councilman Steve Padilla, have called on Kasparian to resign from his various posts.

I have remained publicly quiet during our local drama regarding Mickey Kasparian, Gonzalez Fletcher said in a Facebook post. Many of you understand that my long history with all those involved kept me from getting into it publicly. Nonetheless, given the latest allegations, I have asked Mickey to resign from the positions of power and influence he holds, while he fights these allegations in court.

Padilla said the party should have no tolerance for sexual harassment or aggression, and that Kasparian should resign from his various positions in order to allow for investigations and reforms, and to make it easier for any other people who might have been mistreated to feel comfortable speaking up.

If theres an issue, other witnesses or potential victims wont come forward, Padilla said by telephone. And I dont think that Mickey will get the due process he needs if he remains in place.

Beyond that, however, Democratic officials and their allies in organized labor have said little about Kasparian. Sara Kent, an environmental liaison in a law office who has been calling for Kasparian to step down since February, said the local Democratic Party has not taken the allegations seriously.

As more additional allegations kept coming out, the more that their silence was deafening, she said.

Twitter: @jptstewart

joshua.stewart@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1841

UPDATES:

This story was updated at 5 p.m. to add comments from Kasparians Facebook page, in addition to comments from several community leaders.
A 38-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of using a gun to rob a gas station in Kearny Mesa in October.

The incident occurred in the early morning hours of Oct. 14 at the Chevron station on Copley Park Place.

San Diego police said they linked the suspect to the crime through forensic evidence recovered at the crime scene.

Advertisement

He was arrested Tuesday as he left his home in City Heights and booked in jail later on suspicion of robbery and gun possession.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the San Diego Police Department at (619) 531-2299 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.

dana.littlefield@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @danalittlefield
Sarah Palins family was thrust into the national spotlight in 2008 when Sen. John McCain picked her to be his GOP running mate in the campaign for president.

Now, after years of attention that accompanied Palins role as a popular and controversial conservative advocate and media personality, the family is once again under scrutiny, this time after her eldest son was arrested on suspicion of breaking into his parents home and beating his father.

Painful new details emerged Monday about the arrest of Track Palin, who at one point pleaded with his father to shoot him, according to a police affidavit. The document said his father, Todd, was brandishing a gun but refused to shoot.

Advertisement

After his arrest Saturday, Track Palin, 28, was charged with first-degree burglary, fourth-degree assault and criminal mischief. He remains in custody. The police affidavit, contained in a court filing, describes a chaotic scene at the familys home in Wasilla, Alaska, when Palin confronted his father over a truck he wanted to pick up.

Todd Palin had told him not to come to the home because Track Palin had been drinking and taking pain medication, according to the affidavit and charging documents.

Track told him he was [going to] come anyway to beat his ass, according to an affidavit filed by Wasilla Police Officer Adam LaPointe.

When Todd Palin, 53, confronted his son at the door with a pistol, the younger Palin broke a window and entered the house and started beating his father, according to court filings. Palin pushed his father to the ground and hit him repeatedly on the head, the documents say.

Sarah Palin called police at 8:30 p.m. and said her son was freaking out and was on some type of medication.

When police arrived, they saw Todd and Sarah Palin fleeing the house in separate vehicles, Todd Palin with blood running down his face and Sarah Palin looking visibly upset, the documents say.

Police confronted Track Palin in the home. He called them peasants and told them to lay down their weapons, according to the documents. Eventually, Palin left the house and was placed in handcuffs.

He told police that when he arrived at the house, his father aimed his gun at him, and he urged his father to shoot him several times before entering the house, according to the documents.

When policed interviewed Todd Palin, he was bleeding from multiple cuts to his head, and one ear was discharging liquid, the documents say. There is no record of an interview with Sarah Palin; the Wasilla Police Department did not respond to a question about whether its officers interviewed her.

A judge set Track Palins bail at $5,000. He remains in custody at the Mat-Su Pretrial Facility in Palmer, Alaska. Palmer Dist. Atty. Roman J. Kalytiak said that if Palin remains in custody, his office must take the case to the grand jury within 10 days. If Palin pays bail and is released, prosecutors will have 20 days to go before the grand jury.

An attorney for Sarah and Todd Palin declined to comment on the case.

Given the nature of actions addressed ... by law enforcement and the charges involved, the Palins are unable to comment further, John Tiemessen said in a statement. They ask that the familys privacy is respected during this challenging situation just as others dealing with a struggling family member would also request.

Todd Palin declined to comment about the incident, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

Were fine. Were fine, he said when asked whether he sought medical treatment.

Sarah Palin has not commented publicly about the encounter. On social media, she has continued to offer her take on current events and politics.

The incident is the latest controversy involving the Palins since McCain picked Sarah Palin to be his running mate in 2008. At the time, she had been governor of Alaska for less than two years and was a relative unknown in the Lower 48 states. Just days after Palin was named as the vice presidential nominee, she acknowledged that her unmarried teenage daughter Bristol was pregnant.

In the aftermath of the campaign, she faced criticism over her behavior and her spending habits.

In 2014, the family was involved in a drunken brawl on Todd Palins birthday, though no one was charged. Track Palin, shirtless and bleeding, appeared heavily intoxicated and he acted belligerent during his initial interaction with police officers, according to an Anchorage Police Department report.

In January 2016, Track Palin was arrested on suspicion of punching his girlfriend at the same Wasilla home. He pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm while intoxicated and took a plea deal that resulted in other charges being dismissed. His girlfriend later filed for custody of their child and sought a protective order against him.

At the time of that arrest, Sarah Palin was campaigning for then-candidate Donald Trump during the GOP primaries and caucuses. She alluded to her sons arrest during a campaign rally, suggesting that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after returning from a military deployment in Iraq.

She described soldiers who come home from the battlefield bringing new battles with them [and] coming back different than when they left for the war zone.

When my own son is going through what he goes through coming back, I can certainly relate to other families who feel these ramifications of PTSD, she said, before accusing then-President Obama of not respecting veterans.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Palin frequently spoke of her sons service in the military. He was stationed in Iraq during most of the general election campaign.

McCains selection eventually proved unpopular among some conservatives who questioned whether Palin had the experience and knowledge to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

But Palins folksy personality and colloquialisms strongly resonated with the partys base, and she became a powerful force in national GOP politics after her and McCains loss. She resigned as governor the following year but was a frequent presence in the media and on the campaign trail as a forceful critic of President Obama and an early supporter of the tea party. Palin sparred with the GOP establishment, and her endorsement swung Republican primary races and drew dollars.

She was the subject of several books as well as a documentary by Stephen K. Bannon. She starred in a television show and flirted with a presidential run in 2012. Her prominence has waned since then, but she remains a popular draw among socially conservative voters.

Todd and Sarah Palin met in high school and wed in 1988. He worked in oil production on the North Slope of Alaska and as a commercial fisherman. Todd Palin, a champion snowmobile racer, liked to refer to himself as the first dude when his wife was governor.

ALSO

This Colorado city declined to allow pot sales. Now its having second thoughts

Bakemans Restaurant is closing after 47 years, and patrons are already missing this slice of pre-digital Seattle

From a 911 call, a friendship bloomed between Baltimore cop and widow, 98: All she wanted was somebody to talk to

seema.mehta@latimes.com

For the latest on national and California politics, follow @LATSeema on Twitter.

UPDATES:

6:40 p.m.: This article has been updated with additional background.

3:50 p.m.: This article has been updated with background, Wasilla police not responding to question about Sarah Palin.

1:40 p.m.: This article has been updated with statements from the Palins attorney and a district attorney.

This article was originally posted at 12:50 p.m.
The House and Senate passed the sweeping GOP tax plan on near-party-line votes as congressional Republicans moved to give President Trump his most significant legislative victory of the year  one that has come at a steep political cost.

Polling indicates the $1.5-trillion package remains broadly unpopular, contributing to a political environment in which surveys, including some by Republican groups, show the party in serious danger of losing control of Congress in next years midterm election.

Those political problems may be especially acute in parts of California, where the bill, sold as a tax-cut, is expected to lead to tax increases for a significant number of individuals and families. Thats largely because it curtails the current deduction for state and local income and property taxes.

Advertisement

Many of those voters live in affluent suburban areas, such as Orange County, that have often backed Republicans. Democrats already have gained in suburbs nationwide this year and believe the tax bills unpopularity will give them an opening to sway more voters to their side.

Concern over the state and local tax deduction led two Southern California Republicans, Reps. Darrell Issa of Vista and Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa, to join others from New York and New Jersey, which are similarly affected, in voting against the bill in the 227-203 House roll call Tuesday. In all, 12 Republicans opposed the tax plan. No Democrats voted for it.

Senate approval shortly after midnight fell similarly along party lines, 51 to 48, with only Republicans voting yes. Republican Sen. John McCain, who returned home to Arizona as he fights brain cancer, did not vote.

Republicans have been rushing the bill to passage  Trump tweeted congratulations after the House vote for what he has called a Christmas gift for Americans  but it ran into a last-minute problem in the Senate.

Some small provisions, including one pushed by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that would have expanded college savings plans to allow use for home-schooling, were ruled to violate the chambers procedures and some of the language had to be stripped from the bill.

Fixing that glitch will require an unusual additional vote in the House, which was quickly scheduled for Wednesday, before the bill can be sent to Trump for his signature.

Republican leaders say the overhaul, which is centered on a huge cut in corporate taxes, will spur economic growth and become more popular once it takes effect.

No concerns whatsoever, said House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), who has spent his career trying to lower taxes and shrink government.

When we get this done and people see the withholding improvement, when they see the jobs occurring, when they see bigger paychecks, he told reporters, thats whats going to produce the results.

In saying that, however, Ryan sounded much like one of his predecessors as speaker, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), who insisted in 2010 that the Affordable Care Act, passed with only Democratic votes, would become more popular once Americans experienced it. It didnt  at least not right away  and instead contributed heavily to the Democrats losing their House majority that year.

On Tuesday, Pelosi called the tax bill an all-out looting of America.

This is the worst bill to ever come to the floor of the House, Pelosi said. The American people see this tax scam for exactly what it is.

Before the House vote, protesters in the gallery shouted, Kill the bill! and interrupted speeches by Ryan and other lawmakers. Hours later, similar protests interrupted the final Senate roll call.

Americans reject the tax plan by a wide margin, roughly 2 to 1, according to a new Monmouth University poll. In a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll released Tuesday, just 24% of respondents said the tax bill was a good idea, compared with 41% who called it a bad one  a significant decline from the bills standing earlier this fall.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky conceded that Republicans hadnt yet convinced Americans of the merits of the bill.

Were just beginning to make the argument to the American people, McConnell told reporters, despite the months of debate over the tax measure. The argument is still out there to be won.

The legislation will provide much-needed relief to middle-class families and small businesses, and will set America on a trajectory towards more opportunity and greater prosperity, he said earlier in the day.

Outside analysts, though, have warned that the benefits of the tax overhaul will largely flow to corporations and the wealthy, with lower- and middle-income households seeing only modest improvements.

Moreover, the cut in corporate tax rates will be permanent, while the breaks for individuals and families are scheduled to expire in 2025.

The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimates that households will see their taxes reduced by $1,600, on average, in 2018. Thats on par with Republican claims.

But those savings are uneven across income levels.

Taxpayers earning less than $25,000 will save about $60 a year, while the top 1%, earning more than about $733,000 annually, would see a roughly $50,000 cut, or 3.4% of their after-tax income. Middle-income taxpayers, earning between $49,000 and $86,000, would see an average tax cut of about $900.

Among middle- and upper-middle-income households, results will vary widely, depending not only on state and local taxes, but also on the number of children they have and even how they earn their income. The measure treats income from businesses more favorably than wages.

The basic story of the bill has remained the same since it was first introduced in early November, Tax Policy Center analyst Howard Gleckman wrote. Most households would get a tax cut at first, with the biggest benefits going to those with the highest incomes.

Central to the legislation is a reduction in the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. Republicans say the resulting economic growth will more than cover the cost to the Treasury. Most independent economists, however, warn that growth will not be so robust and that the $1.5-trillion package will add to the federal deficit.

For individuals, the tax bill is mixed. Once envisioned as a simplification that would allow Americans to file tax returns on a postcard, it has not fully met that goal. Rates will be lowered, including the new top rate of 37%, which will hit households earning $600,000 or more.

A bigger standard deduction, at $12,000 for single filers or $24,000 for couples, is intended to replace many popular write-offs.

The state and local tax deduction will be capped at $10,000, covering both income and property taxes. Mortgage interest deductions will be limited to loans of $750,000, rather than the $1 million in current law, a change that is expected to ripple through housing markets in high-cost areas.

Other deductions that had been targeted for elimination were salvaged in last-minute negotiations between House and Senate Republicans, including those for medical expenses, student loan interest and graduate student tuition waivers.

A child tax credit championed by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), with backing from presidential advisor and daughter Ivanka Trump, will be doubled to $2,000. Part of that, $1,400, will be refundable for those who pay payroll taxes but dont owe income tax.

The legislation will effectively repeal the Affordable Care Acts mandate that all Americans carry health insurance, starting in 2019, by doing away with a tax on those who fail to have coverage.

Republicans shrug off the poor standing the bill has in polls as no different from the last major rewrite of the tax code, under President Reagan in 1986. But the current proposal is significantly less popular than that one.

As Monmouth warned in its analysis of the polling data, the bill gets especially poor ratings in suburban areas where the Republicans already have struggled this year.

The package doesnt play well in areas of the country that the GOP needs to win in 2018, the university said.

Republicans in Congress, though, have pushed past those worries. Theyve been eager to deliver a legislative win for Trumps first year in office and make good on some of their campaign promises before facing voters, especially after the collapse of their efforts to repeal Obamacare.

Many of the tax cuts will take effect in the new year, meaning workers can adjust their withholding to see the change in their paychecks.

Despite the GOPs majorities in both houses of Congress, passing the tax cut has not been easy.

To win over holdouts, Republican leaders included various provisions, including one to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling, which was important to Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).

Republican Sen. Susan Collins, a centrist from Maine, announced her support after winning other concessions, including future votes to help stabilize Obamacare marketplaces.

The lone Senate Republican who opposed the overhaul earlier, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, now supports the bill, brushing back criticism that he will personally benefit from it.

As the Senate cast the final roll-call vote, Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin watched from the chambers floor. Vice President Mike Pence, who had postponed a Middle East trip so he could be on hand if needed to cast a tie-breaking Senate vote, presided.

Its so important I would not be able to comprehend not getting it done, said Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), a Trump ally.

We were always going to be attacked that it was a tax cut for the wealthy, even though its not, he said. The public doesnt understand it.

Staff writer Sarah D. Wire in Washington contributed to this report.

lisa.mascaro@latimes.com

@LisaMascaro

ALSO

Bannons ouster could boost the powerful Koch network, which has surprising sway in Trumps White House

Congress proposes $81-billion disaster aid package, including funds for California wildfires

Is this small-town congressman from New Mexico tough enough to win Democrats the House majority?

More coverage of Congress

More coverage of politics and the White House

UPDATES:

9:40 p.m.: This article was updated to reflect Senate passage of the bill.

1:50 p.m.: This article was updated with news that a procedural issue in the Senate is expected to require an additional vote in the House on Wednesday.

1:25 p.m.: This article was updated with additional information about the political impact in suburban areas.

12:05 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details on the vote in the House.

The article was originally published at 11:25 a.m.
As GOP leaders in Congress met behind closed doors to hash out the details of their massive tax overhaul, a group of UC Irvine graduate students met in Rep. Mimi Walters district, fretting about how the plan could cost them money.

About 20 miles north, dozens of activists in top hats stood outside Rep. Ed Royces Brea office as they chanted, Shame on you!

And up in the Central Valley, protesters gathered outside Rep. Jeff Denhams Modesto office to sing Protest ye dreary congressman  Remember that he voted to take healthcare away. To save himself from taxes now, so you will have to pay.

Advertisement

With the tax bill on its way to President Trump and Republicans nationwide claiming victory as they decamp to their districts for the holidays, Democrats are hoping California Republicans will have to answer in next years midterms for their support of the unpopular effort to abolish the Affordable Care Act, backed by all 14 California Republicans in May, and now, the sweeping tax overhaul that passed Tuesday with support from 12 of them.

The actual impact on the household budgets of middle-class voters and families in California is such total economic despair, said Katie Merrill, a Democratic strategist who helps lead the political action committee Fight Back California, which has run ads targeting GOP members on economic issues. We  are going to tell voters in every one of these districts exactly what the impact on them is going to be.

Some of the bills effects will be felt quickly as employers modify how much in taxes they withhold from peoples paychecks, though most taxpayers wont get a complete view of what the bill means for them until 2019 when they file their 2018 returns. Analysts expect taxes to initially go down for many Californians because of temporary cuts in the bill. But a significant number of residents are also likely to see a tax hike because of new caps to popular deductions.

In districts that have been shifting toward Democrats and where challengers and left-leaning groups have been attacking the plan as a huge hit to the middle class, GOP members tax votes are likely to exacerbate their problems as Republicans try to maintain control of the House.

A recent statewide poll by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found that 62% of likely California voters oppose the tax reform plan. The tax votes potential as a campaign issue is even more clear at the party level: 58% of Republicans favor it, but 84% of Democrats and 59% of independents are opposed.

It definitely is a political land mine for some of these members, on top of all the other challenges theyre facing as the ground is shifting under their feet in the Trump era, said Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Larry Sabatos Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, a nonpartisan election handicapper.

So why did so many California Republicans support it anyway? National Republicans needed a win after ultimately failing to overhaul Obamacare, which took up most of the year and failed in the Senate. To get the tax legislation over the finish line, Republican members put themselves in a precarious position of voting for a bill that could raise taxes on their constituents because of slashes to widely used deductions for state and local taxes and mortgage interest.

The tax bill appeared to cause the most heartburn for vulnerable Southern California Republicans whose districts face some of the deepest effects, according to a Times analysis. All four GOP members considered vulnerable in Orange County represent districts where between 40% and 50% of constituents took advantage of the deduction for state and local taxes.

Two of them  Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa and Darrell Issa of Vista (a small part of his district is in southern Orange County)  voted against the plan.

Rep. Walters spent weeks pressing House leaders to change the bill to lower the burden on her constituents before deciding to support it. She said she believes that changes to the deductions and subtle tweaks to the income ranges would mean a tax cut for her constituents.

I campaigned on tax reform. Ive always been a big proponent that we need to have tax reform in this country, and I think we have a very good package that we are presenting to the American people, she said.

Vulnerable California Republicans who voted yes seem to recognize the political risk, but said it couldnt be a determining factor.

Rep. Steve Knight of Palmdale said Democrats are trying to win votes by making people scared of the tax bill, but when voters actually see how it affects them, opposition will drop.

The numbers are pretty goldarn clear. When they sit down with their numbers, with their [accountant] or by themselves, I think they are going to see a difference [from] this narrative, Knight said.

The American Action Network, a conservative nonprofit linked to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), has runads in California praising wavering members for supporting the legislation that would create a simpler, fairer tax code that cuts middle class taxes.

Corry Bliss, executive director of the group, said its work to advance that narrative is just beginning. We have to explain to people what this does and how this helps them. If theres a way to sign a contract that says well base the entire midterms on whether or not these people like this tax deal, I would sign that deal today.

But so far, liberal groups have dominated the messaging on the bill in California, casting it as a giveaway to the rich and another example of how GOP members are out of touch with constituents.

We arent just angry,   were FURIOUS!! read one fundraising blast from Red to Blue California, which urged its supporters to join them to make them pay  with their seats in Congress.

Michael Eggman, a Democrat who ran against Rep. Denham last year and is Red to Blues founder, said his group saw a 15% bump in donations from October to November, just as the tax bill debate was heating up. Eggmans group and others blanketed Californias airwaves and digital real estate with ads decrying the billionaire tax cuts.

Were going to keep on banging this tax plan drum, of course, because it hurts the people we are really trying to give voice to, the middle working class, Eggman said. And, he added, the bill is certainly making it easier for me to grow my organization.

Not One Penny spokesman Tim Hogan said activists will use it to bring voters to the polls the same way that Republicans used the Affordable Care Act in 2010, which had just been passed, but didnt go into effect for several years.

Activists will work to make sure people know that regardless of when these provisions go into effect, the light at the end of this tunnel is a train with a tax hike for middle-class families, he said.

Democratic candidates running against Republican members across the state have also used it to make fundraising appeals or build their supporter lists. Back in Orange County, challenger Dave Min, a Democrat whos running against Walters, was direct.

You all know this bill is going to screw you, he told the group of graduate students he gathered for a discussion over pizza.

Deyanira Nevarez Martinez, a 32-year-old student who showed up to Mins event, has resolved to knock on doors and make phone calls for Democrats in Orange County next year.

I think the fact that [Republicans] showed they are willing to go there should be a wake-up call for all of us, she said.

christine.maiduc@latimes.com and sarah.wire@latimes.com

For more on California politics, follow @cmaiduc and @sarahdwire

ALSO

Updates on California politics
Garcetti is reelected. Whats next for him?

Mayor Eric Garcetti and his wife, Amy Wakeland, greet the crowd outside L.A. City Hall before his swearing-in for his second term. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti won a landslide reelection this spring, riding a wave of prosperity and civic rebirth that is marked by a growing skyline, blossoming neighborhoods  and wrenching gentrification. But where Garcetti goes next is a question. He says he simply wants to serve L.A. but has not completely knocked down presidential aspirations. In the meantime, he got locked out of the two most logical stepping stones: California governor and U.S. senator.

The state drought is over  for now

Californias five-year drought ended with a bang. The wettest year on record caused flooding, and Sierra snow kept ski resorts in business through the summer. But many of the problems that the drought highlighted remain, prompting debate about the massive delta tunnel plan, groundwater problems in the Central Valley and whether the state can live within its ecological means.

Former sheriff is convicted in a retrial

Former L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca, center, departs the Los Angeles Federal Courthouse after his sentencing. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

While overseeing the troubled L.A. County Sheriffs Department, Lee Baca remained so popular that L.A. Weekly started calling him the Teflon sheriff. That was before the feds started investigating allegations of abuse in the jail system. In March, in a retrial, the former sheriff was convicted of obstruction of justice, conspiracy and making false statements to federal investigators.

Dam disaster averted, but a massive repair job is on the agenda

The Oroville Dam is Americas tallest. And for a few hours this spring, it came close to sending a deadly wave of water down into the Sacramento Valley. The main spillway was damaged and its emergency spillway showed signs of collapsing. Although the structure withstood this particular test, it raised major questions about how Oroville was built and maintained. In the meantime, the state is rushing to complete repairs before the rains come.

Charter school backers victorious, but future is unclear

The status of schools Supt. Michelle King, left, who is on medical leave, and board member Ref Rodriguez, who faces criminal charges, has created uncertainty and turmoil in the L.A. school system. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

In May, charter school backers won a majority of seats on the Los Angeles Unified School District board in what was the most expensive school election in U.S. history. L.A. already has more charter schools than any other city, but advocates want to dramatically increase those numbers. What happens next is unclear. Ref Rodriguez, a charter backer and LAUSD board member, is facing three felony charges on allegations of campaign money laundering. He stepped down as board president. Meanwhile, Supt. Michelle King is on an extended medical leave.

Constituents turn up the heat at town halls

Red cards indicate disapproval as Rep. Linda Sanchez discusses a GOP tax overhaul proposal in Fullerton. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Protesters don hospital gowns and surgical masks outside Rep. Darrell Issas Vista office to protest his vote on the GOP healthcare bill. (Christine Mai-Duc / Los Angeles Times)

Shortly after President Trumps inauguration, many voters turned to local town hall meetings to express their frustration  particularly with Republican members of Congress. The events often were marked by protests, rowdy crowds and a touch of political theater. Facing criticism over votes on the Obamacare repeal and tax reform, some GOP members avoided in-person town halls while others publicized their appearances. Activists rallied at so-called empty chair town halls without congressional members present, in some cases inviting Democratic representatives from neighboring districts to sit in.

But Republicans werent the only ones to face contentious town hall meetings. Sen. Dianne Feinstein fielded tough questions at events in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and several people were arrested after protesters interrupted an immigration-focused town hall held by Rep. Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana).

California works to protect people in the U.S. illegally

Maya Casillas, 7, joins a protest at Los Angeles City Hall against President Trumps executive orders on immigration. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

President Trumps harsh words and promises of a crackdown on those in the U.S. illegally have sparked fears in L.A.s large immigrant communities, and political leaders and others across California have voted to offer protection. In Sacramento, Democrats introduced bills specifically to counter the presidents agenda. The centerpiece of the legislation was a sweeping expansion of efforts to limit state and local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration agents. Gov. Jerry Brown signed the so-called sanctuary state measure into law on Oct. 5.

Californias key climate change tool gets a big boost

California Democratic Party faces a civil war

Kimberly Ellis, left, lost the election for leader of the California Democratic Party to Eric Bauman, right. (Kirk McKoy and Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

A blistering leadership fight in the California Democratic Party unearthed divisions, mirroring a similar struggle at the national level, and threatening to undercut Californias role as the nations political counterweight to President Trump. In May, delegates elected Eric Bauman, a bullish union organizer and party insider, as the new party chairman. He won a narrow victory over Kimberly Ellis, a progressive Bay Area Democrat who tapped into a wellspring of disaffected backers of 2016 presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders. Ellis accused party establishment hacks of skewing the election in Baumans favor by ballot stuffing and other underhanded tactics, but her challenge was rejected by the party in August after a months-long appeals process.

Two Mexico quakes serve as a warning for California

This animation shows how intense shaking is directed from the San Andreas fault into the Los Angeles Basin. Areas of yellow indicate strong shaking; orange is "very strong" shaking and red is "violent" or "extreme" shaking, causing collapses. (U.S. Geological Survey / Southern California Earthquake Center)

Two destructive earthquakes in Mexico offered a grim reminder of California's vulnerabilities. But unlike Mexico, California does not have an early warning system that gives residents precious seconds to prepare for the shaking. The Golden State was set to launch its own warning system next year, but the Trump administration has proposed a decrease in funding, cuts that are opposed by congressional representatives of both parties.

San Diego's hepatitis outbreak spreads to other cities

Cory Preston Adams, 38, who is homeless, receives a hepatitis A vaccination in West Hollywood, part of a free mobile clinic aimed at combating the spread of the disease fueled by poor sanitary conditions. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Americas worst hepatitis outbreak in years hit San Diego in the late summer and later spread to other California cities, spreading through the most vulnerable population  the homeless. Experts said filthy street conditions contributed to the outbreak, prompting San Diego to launch a massive public health campaign that included the addition of portable restrooms and steam cleaning sidewalks.

The L.A. County rail boom continues

(Los Angeles Times )

Los Angeles Countys rail boom shifted into overdrive  with construction on the long-promised Wilshire Boulevard subway, as well as a light rail line along Crenshaw Boulevard that will eventually connect to Los Angeles International Airport. Metros Expo Line to Santa Monica has proven to be a huge hit with riders, though the numbers for the transit system overall are still sobering. All that construction downtown? Thats for yet another new, connecting, subway system snaking its way through the city center.

Free speech on campus

Milo Yiannopoulos speaks to a crowd at Cal State Fullerton. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

The University of California, where the free speech movement started and students now argue over how far unrestricted expression should go, announced plans in October to launch a national center to study 1st Amendment issues and step up education about them. Many of this year's student protests took place at UC Berkeley, but in November, eight people protesting an appearance by conservative firebrand Milo Yiannopoulos were detained at Cal State Fullerton.

Big Sur access problematic as Highway 1 awaits repairs

Travelers still hoping to drive on the scenic but sidelined Highway 1 in Big Sur will have to wait. Fixing the biggest debris slide in the states history, which closed the road to all traffic for almost four months, will take at least until late summer 2018 and cost $40 million, Caltrans said.

Wildfires in Northern and Southern California

The last three months of the year were plagued by destructive wildfires that left several communities in the state reeling. In October, infernos killed more than 40 people and destroyed more than 8,000 buildings in California's wine country. Losses from insured properties alone are expected to far exceed $1 billion, and the total bill for the fires will be still higher. Fighting the fires alone cost $189 million, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. In December, wildfires made headlines in Southern California, as homes and countless acres were lost to the Skirball, Lilac, Rye and Thomas fires. Heavy winds, dry conditions and thick brush combined to make the Thomas fire, which scorched parts of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, the second-largest in modern California history; as of mid-December, it had destroyed more than 600 homes and cost more than $74 million to battle.

Northern California shootings

Four people were killed and nearly a dozen were wounded when a gunman went on a 45-minute shooting rampage through the Rancho Tehama Reserve. (Elijah Nouvelage / AFP/Getty Images)

For 45 minutes, a gunman stormed through the Rancho Tehama Reserve in the northern Sacramento Valley, killing at least four people. Authorities were investigating seven crime scenes, one of them an elementary school where, after hearing gun shots, teachers and staff rushed children into classrooms and under desks, and locked the doors. When the gunman arrived, officials say, he shot at walls and windows, wounding two students, but could not enter the buildings and moved on to other targets. Police would later fatally shoot him.

Gas tax goes up. Now GOP vows to fight it at the ballot box

On Nov. 1, the state gas tax increased by 12 cents per gallon to 41.7 cents, and the excise tax on diesel fuel increased by 20 cents to 36 cents per gallon. (Alan Diaz / Associated Press)

An effort to help ease housing crisis

Gov. Jerry Brown signed a package of bills aimed at tackling Californias affordable housing crisis. (Eric Risberg / Associated Press)
The California Public Utilities Commission has amended its long-standing mission statement, leaving out the idea of ensuring reasonable rates for the water and power used by the public.

The change comes as state utility regulators have been under criminal investigation for potentially improper backchannel dealings with the utility companies they oversee and facing multiple lawsuits alleging they failed to protect the people they serve.

For more than 20 years, the agency mission statement said, The CPUC serves the public interest by protecting consumers and ensuring the provision of safe, reliable utility service and infrastructure at reasonable rates, with a commitment to environmental enhancement and a healthy California economy.

Under a recent revision, the statement now says: The CPUC regulates services and utilities, protects consumers, safeguards the environment and assures Californians access to safe and reliable utility infrastructure and services.

Spokeswoman Terrie Prosper said the change has not affected the commissions dedication to making sure water and power costs are affordable for California consumers.

Advertisement

Our mission statement is now more concise but our commitment to rates and affordability has not changed, she wrote in an email. In fact, we now have a strategic directive on rates and affordability that discusses ensuring that rates are just and reasonable.

The commission published the strategic directive in August as a way of spelling out its governance policies and practices. The 52-page document addresses how the agency makes decisions and manages safety, compliance and other issues.

The section addressing rates and affordability says the commission ensures that rates are just and reasonable and assures that essential services remain affordable for Californians.

Critics say the commission decision is worrisome because a mission statement is reflective of any organizations core beliefs.

To me its unnerving that they would think its OK to remove reasonable rates, said Rita Benton, co-founder of WRATES, Water Rate Advocates for Transparency, Equity and Sustainability, a Silicon Valley advocacy group established last year to challenge escalating water rates.

Theyre saying statutorily that nothing has changed, said Benton, who lives in Saratoga, Calif. But if thats the case, why the change? It seems like theyre trying to align themselves with investor-owned utilities and not ratepayers.

Mindy Spatt of the Utility Reform Network or TURN, a Bay Area consumer grouop, said it sounds like the commission is sending consumers the wrong message at the wrong time.

Rather than drop reasonable rates from its mission, the commission should elevate affordability, she said. PG&E, Sempra and Edison are living high on the hog with bloated executive pay and high profits while customers suffer under the burden of exorbitant rates.

The utilities commission was under criminal investigation by the state Attorney Generals Office starting in 2014, when emails were released showing that regulators routinely met privately with utility executives to discuss business that is supposed to be conducted in public.

More recently, the Attorney Generals Office has declined to make public statements about the status of the case  either to the news media, or to the CPUC itself.

The commission also is facing multiple lawsuits alleging it acted to benefit utilities over ratepayers, particularly in regards to the settlement of costs for the failed San Onofre nuclear plant north of Oceanside.

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
When Californians voted last year to legalize recreational use of marijuana as of Jan. 1, 2018, they likely assumed that given nearly 14 months of lead time, state government was up to the task of setting up a framework for a new era of legal pot sales.

Instead, the Brown administration still hasnt resolved the most obvious problem: Banks fearful of federal regulators who note that marijuana remains illegal under federal law wont take deposits from and provide services to businesses which make money off pot. Creating a multibillion-dollar industry without giving it access to banks is a recipe for an epidemic of armed robberies. All-cash industries also are hotbeds of corruption.

Last month, state Treasurer John Chiang called for the state to establish its own bank to handle marijuana industry funds. The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday that the Brown administration had also quietly met with 65 banks and credit unions to create a financial network that would accept pot dollars and placate federal regulators.

Advertisement

Given Attorney General Jeff Sessions deep hostility to state legalization of marijuana, its unlikely that federal regulators will ever be placated by something that normalizes pot growing and selling as legal. Chiangs proposal seems more likely to work. But this is a discussion Californians needed to have starting a year ago  not in late 2017.

Twitter: @sdutIdeas

Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion
Re Tax plan may mean cuts in services (Dec. 18): I wonder why the Republicans have not had Gov. Sam Brownbeck of Kansas, a firm believer in trickle-down economics, front and center pushing the proposed tax plan. He did, after all, sell that idea to the Kansas legislature, which implemented his drastic cuts for business a few years ago.

Could it be because his plan was an abject failure? Taxes were slashed as citizens waited for the economic bonanza. Theyre still waiting. While theyre waiting, theyve had to increase taxes dramatically to keep the schools open and the state running. Gov. Brownbeck has been nominated for a minor ambassadorship somewhere.

For a real-world example of what really happens when huge tax breaks go to big business and the wealthy, check it out.

Advertisement

Louhelen E. Hassan

Rancho Bernardo

The Republican architects of the tax bill headlined their sales pitch by saying the plan would deliver a tax break of $1,182 a year to a typical family of four earning $59,000 a year.

When do you think the always-Trump people will put it together their health insurance will go up much higher than their tax cut?

Richard Schauer

San Diego

Ronald Reagan was the first president to try boosting the economy by cutting taxes for the wealthy (the Laffer effect). The net result was a near tripling of the national debt. George W. Bush one-upped him by cutting taxes for the wealthy during a time of war. Net result: doubling of the national debt to about $10.6 trillion. And neither of them provided any noticeable economic stimulus.

Now, with corporations making record profits and the stock markets at all-time highs, Trump and company tell us our economy needs revving up, and tax reform (aka tax cuts for the wealthy) is just the thing that will do it. And such a bargain, adding only $1.5 trillion to the national debt over 10 years. So lets celebrate this momentous event and have ourselves a merry little Christmas.

John H. Terrell

Fallbrook

The Republican Congress is foisting one of the greatest scams in living memory onto the American people. The tax overhaul is supposed to be a major tax reduction, but not for most people.

Firstly, 47 percent of workers pay no Federal taxes, so they get nothing. Second, half of middle-income earners will see no change since they lose most of their deductions. Thirdly, the remaining middle class will get a few hundred dollars a year. Only the wealthy will see a significant tax reduction.

We have essentially full employment and an expanding economy, so why do we need a tax cut that further increases the budget deficit? Corporations pay taxes on profits, if they expand their businesses, most of the cost of that is expensed, so they dont pay tax on it anyway.

The big winners are the shareholders who will see a 60 percent increase in dividends, or the executives who will give themselves a big raise.

Phil Kirk

Encinitas

Paul Ryan says that a family of four earning $73,000 a year will see more than $2,000 in tax cuts, but is not permanent.

I suppose that same family will also benefit from the permanent inheritance and corporate tax changes as well (not).

Most Americans disagree with this tax plan and there should be a price to pay in the 2018 elections.

We are not idiots and we do not forget.

Bart Castellitto

Poway

The GOP tax bill scam should make it perfectly clear that this is a government of the wealthy, by the wealthy, and for the wealthy.

All citizens who dont fit in that category should take note and vote accordingly in the next election.

Marilyn Coffey

Carlsbad

The Republicans say they have their final tax cut bill written now. But the name tax cut is inaccurate. It is really a tax delay.

The vast majority of proposed cuts will directly benefit large corporations and wealthy people, but all the cuts are being put on the national credit card (debt).

Who do you think is going to pay back that debt? Middle- and lower-income Americans will pay back that debt through reductions in their promised Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid that Republicans already are talking about.

Fewer benefits have the same effect on the pocketbook as a tax hike.

James Sallis

San Diego

Trumps tax plan turns the U.S. economic model on its head. We all know that consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of U.S. gross domestic product and businesses respond to this demand with capital investments to meet the demand. It would seem, then, that tax reduction should mainly benefit consumers.

Instead, it mostly benefits the wealthy and corporations on the theory that they will use it for capital improvements that will grow the economy. In other words, supply will now drive demand.

This economic revisionism leads to another upside-down phenomenon: The Dow has risen 28 percent in 2017, driven by stock buybacks ($3.8 trillion since 2010), while GDP has grown only 3 percent. Even before potential tax cuts, S&P 500 companies have a record $1.5 trillion in cash. (CNN 11/30/2017). So while main street struggles with 3 to 4 percent growth, Wall Street booms at 28 percent and we blow a $1.5 trillion hole in our deficit.

Keith Larson

Escondido

Looks like the coal industry should be having a revival now that the Republicans passed their tax scam.

The vast majority will be getting a lump of coal this Christmas and for years to come.

Art Schaefer

Chula Vista

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.
Congress requires each new administration to prepare and submit a formal national security strategy. The Trump administration did so Monday, releasing a 55-page overview and having President Donald Trump give a speech that outlined the strategy while also bragging about the U.S. economy.

The fact that Trump doesnt share the view of the Pentagon that global warming is a national security threat because of its potential to trigger natural disasters and conflicts and to create refugee crises is appalling and dangerous. But his administrations overview  and parts of Trumps speech  were otherwise reassuring in their conventionality.

The four pillars [cited in the overview]  protecting the American people/homeland, promoting prosperity, peace through strength and advancing interests/values  could have been used by any president since Reagan, noted Peter Feaver in his analysis for Foreign Policy magazine.

Advertisement

But Trump did frame a key part of his foreign policy as a break with the past. While the last three presidents have at times in the post-Cold War era seen Russia and China as strategic partners, Trump described them as great-power rivals that challenge American power, influence and interests, attempting to erode American security and prosperity. The overview expanded on this point, rejecting the assumption that engagement with rivals and their inclusion in international institutions and global commerce would turn them into benign actors and trustworthy partners.

This explicit statement is grounded in a welcome realism about Chinas desire to become the worlds dominant superpower and Russias relentless bullying of neighbors and cybercrimes.

As analysts quickly pointed out, Trump appears to have a much sunnier opinion of Russia than the foreign-policy team that prepared the overview, and his speech omitted the specifics of Russian meddling in other nations cited in the overview. But that ultimately is not the most worrisome gap. That distinction goes to the chasm between the strategys acknowledgment of the need for coordinated efforts to keep Chinese and Russian expansionism in check and how the president has treated the nations we will badly need for these efforts.

The list of issues on which Trump has alienated our allies is long and growing: the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris accord; the U.S. undercutting the nuclear deal with Iran that it negotiated under President Barack Obama in tandem with China, Russia, Germany, France and the European Union; the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital; the U.S. withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal; U.S. immigration policies; and more.

While Trump has a point when he complains that our allies in NATO and other international accords should live up to their commitments to beef up their defense budgets and not just count on American military muscle for protection, he still doesnt grasp that the United States is a huge beneficiary of the global order that these treaties have created since World War II. And his continued insistence that America is taken advantage of by other nations in trade deals is both undercut by hard evidence and insulting to nations with whom the U.S. has long had mutually beneficial relationships.

Whats odd about Trumps quasi-isolationist rhetoric is how on the foreign-policy issue he seems most engaged with  North Korea and its growing nuclear might  Trump is all-in on the idea that America needs help. In person and on Twitter, he has called on China and its leader Xi Jinping to pressure Pyongyang to stop its threatening missile tests and to mute its belligerence.

If China continues its aggressive efforts to lay claim to much of the South China Sea  building islands with military bases atop coral reefs  the United States would be properly expected to lead the international response. But a U.S. president who likes to hector other world leaders in his phone calls might find few nations rallying to his side.

Twitter: @sdutIdeas

Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & Opinion
Devastating wildfires have plagued several counties in Southern California this month, including the Thomas fire, which has grown to become the second largest in California history.

Firefighters have made significant progress with Thomas, saying on Wednesday that the blaze was 60 percent contained, but winds are still affecting the region and threaten to complicate their work in the coming days. Some residents of Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties are still under evacuation orders, but others are returning home to find structures burned to the ground. There are also fire-related concerns in Los Angeles and San Diego Counties.

Many people in California and beyond want to support relief and recovery efforts, so weve compiled a list of ways to help. Officials are asking for donations in most cases, rather than volunteers or supplies.

Advertisement

Note: Consider contacting any organization in advance to be sure it isnt currently overwhelmed by support. After disasters, relief groups often need donations, volunteers and supplies as much in the weeks and months that follow as they do right away.

1. Donate to the Thomas Fire Fund

United Way started the #ThomasFire Fund-$1.2m already donated!!



Donation Fund Set Up To Help Victims Of Thomas Fire https://t.co/s38sZBjTJb pic.twitter.com/m1cDzd3ZiH  VCFD PIO (@VCFD_PIO) December 19, 2017

The Ventura County Office of Emergency Services, American Red Cross, United Way of Ventura County and United Way of Santa Barbara County have created a Thomas Fire Fund, pledging 100 percent of the funds to those affected by the fire. Text UWVC to 41444, visit vcunitedway.org or call 805-485-6288. Checks with Thomas Fire Fund written in the memo can be sent to United Way at 702 County Square Drive, Suite 100, Ventura, CA 93003.

2. GoFundMe

The GoFundMe community has now raised over $3 million dollars to support families affected by the devastating fires in Southern California. https://t.co/9l7DvsSr1y  GoFundMe (@gofundme) December 11, 2017

GoFundMe has verified crowdfunding campaigns all in one place and has also set up a direct impact fund to donate directly to the organization so youll be supporting a number of campaigns. Click here to donate.

The San Diego Union-Tribune has also partnered with GoFundMe to raise funds for victims of the Lilac fire in San Diego County. Donate below.

3. YouCaring

How to help real #SouthernCalifornia wildfire victims right now. Visit our landing page with personal #fundraisers here  https://t.co/go0akdQQwD pic.twitter.com/2DUPhNSGQw  YouCaring (@youcaring) December 8, 2017

YouCaring also has a landing page for all of its Southern California wildfire relief campaigns. Click here to see them.

5. Foodbank of Santa Barbara County

EMERGENCY FOOD DISTRIBUTION for next week Dec 18-22. This week, we provided emergency food to 6,000 people in #SantaBarbara county affected by #thomasfire. Impact is vast. Ppl are losing work/income PLZ RT!

More help is needed. Donate: https://t.co/g7m5KGmeip pic.twitter.com/jKbN2YKrco  Foodbank SB County (@FoodbankSBC) December 16, 2017

Emergency food distribution centers have been set up from Dec. 18 to Dec. 22 throughout Santa Barbara County, especially to help provide food for kids while schools are closed. Click here to donate online to help support the distribution centers.

6. The United Ways Southern California Wildfire Fund

The #ThomasFire has burned over 250,000 acres, and people affected by the blaze still need your help! Donate to the Southern California Wildfire Fund to make the greatest impact https://t.co/ekyVUxiSaZ  United Way of L.A. (@LAUnitedWay) December 16, 2017

United Way of Greater Los Angeles Southern California Wildfire Fund is dedicated to supporting long-term recovery and re-building efforts for low-income families affected by the fires. It will focus on rebuilding and recovery efforts all across Southern California, including Ventura County and San Diego County. Click here to donate.

Have you heard of volunteer or donation opportunities we missed? Let me know at the email below. We may update this page as more information becomes available, so check back.

Email: abby.hamblin@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @abbyhamblin
Water and sewer customers will notice larger bills starting in March as the result of the City Council approving rate increases on Tuesday night.

The council approved increases of 3.5 percent for water use and 5.5 percent for the fixed water meter charge. Sewer rates will increase by 4.5 percent and the fixed sewer charge will to rise by 4.75 percent.

The typical residential bi-monthly residential water and sewer bill would increase by $9.07, according Finance Director Donna Goldsmith. That estimate is based on a projected median water consumption rate of 23 units and payment of Tier 2 sewer fees.

Added to that is the 75-cents-per-unit drought recovery charge, which is expected to remain in effect until December 2018. It was initiated in January 2016 as a way to generate revenue lost due to state-mandated customer conservation efforts.

The new rates go into effect Jan. 1 and will be reflected on March billings.

A portion of the water rate increase is attributed by staff to pass-through hikes by the San Diego County Water Authority, part of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. The untreated water delivered by pipeline to Poway comes primarily from the Colorado River Basin and Northern California rivers.

Other factors contributing to the water rate hike include increase costs of maintenance of the citys aging water distribution system. On Tuesday night the council awarded a $1 million contract to rehabilitate the Pomerado Reservoir, a 1.5 million gallon tank on Sagecrest Drive.

Under state law, written protests from 50 percent plus one of the citys 14,139 customers were needed by Tuesday to block the increases. City Clerk Nancy Neufeld reported receiving 39 protests. Three residents spoke regarding the increases at Tuesdays public hearing.

In other business the council:

- Approved a 180-day exclusive negotiating agreement with Meridian Communities LLC and Sudberry Properties involving eight city-owned lots within the Town Center planning area along Poway Road. The partners will have that time to fine-tune proposals to develop the lots, including a city request for 44 units of low-income housing.

- Gave final approval to a series of changes to the Poway Road Specific Plan and to a related environmental impact report. (See editorial, page A14.)

- Awarded a contract for city attorney services to the Costa Mesa firm of Rutan & Tucker. Alan Fenstermacher from the firm will serve as the new city attorney. Morgan Foley is retiring from the position, which he held since 2011. His firm, McDougal, Love, Eckis, Boehmer & Foley, have been retained since 1984. The new firm, which handled Poways legal matters related to creation of by-district election maps, will charge the same $12,000 monthly retainer and will not charge for Fenstermachers travel expenses.

- Agreed to spend $11,100 toward the cost of the preliminary design of a Highway 67 pedestrian undercrossing near Poway Road. The county has committed to paying another $11,100. Proposed as an alternative to a costly overpass, the undercrossing would connect trails on both sides of the highway.

- Selected John Mullin as deputy mayor for the next year.

The next council meeting will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 9. Plans for the new Mickey Cafagna Community Center will now be discussed at the Jan.23 meeting.

Email: editor@pomeradonews.com
Rancho Bernardo Librarys new youth services librarian has a special affinity for encouraging teenagers to read.

Steven Roman, who began in the post on Dec. 11, has won awards for his efforts to improve literacy among teens and has written two books on the subject during his years with the DeKalb Public Library in Illinois. For 13 years he was the teen librarian there while also working in the adult and childrens departments.

I have a strong love for reading and wanted to share that (with others), Roman said about his career choice.

When he became the teen librarian in DeKalb, Roman said he learned that approximately two-thirds of the incoming high school freshmen were not reading at their grade level. To change that he decided to provide them with more services to encourage them to read.

One method was to start the first graphic novel discussion program for teens, which was funded by the Illinois State Library and later the Illinois Communities Council. While the teens were just having fun talking about comics, Romans said after awhile the teens started to expand their reading into other areas. Teens who read comics develop into those reading for pleasure, he said.

Eventually they developed their thinking skills and Roman had them learn about world literature by showing them how comic book themes related to other subjects.

I got positive feedback from parents who saw (their teens) reading and the teens were developing stronger reading skills, he said.

In 2007, Roman received the Lawrence W. Towner award for risk-taking in a public humanities endeavor. In 2010, he was one of four librarians among those across the United States and Canada to be honored at the American Library Associations conference by the Gale Cengage Database Corporation. He was dubbed a library superhero.

Also that year his book Read On ... Science Fiction was published. He said it was written for librarians not familiar with science fiction books to help them recommend books in that genre to patrons.

In 2014, he co-wrote Dragons in the Stacks with Cason Snow, that focused on teen library programming, such as role-playing activities involving Dungeons & Dragons. For that, he won the ENnies Judges Spotlight Award in 2015 at Gen Con, the biggest gaming convention.

A year ago he and his wife, Karen Woodworth-Roman, moved to California.

We were looking for a change, Roman said about their decision to leave Illinois, where he has lived most of his life.

Both work for the San Diego Public Library. Woodworth-Roman works in the collection development department at the Central Library in downtown San Diego where Roman was most-recently assigned to the teen center. Before that he was at the Valencia Park/Malcom X Library, which serves Valencia Park, Lincoln Park and Encanto.

Being the youth services librarian in Rancho Bernardo means his focus is on providing programming for infants through age 18. Roman said there will be a learning curve for him since he has not done as much work with young children. He also needs to see what is already available to youths  especially teenagers  through schools and other activities in order to not duplicate offerings and fill their needs and desires that are not being met.

Id like to develop a teen program here, he said. We are now seeing a huge surge in geek culture, which has become popular culture. He said this includes not only the Star Wars franchise, but recent movies that focus on The Avengers, Captain America and Guardians of the Galaxy. Dungeons & Dragons he said has become extremely popular again.

I have always been fascinated with seeing young people reading, because of how much of the world you can explore through books, literature and non-fiction, he said. There are so many experiences that we are not all able to have, but can appreciate those things (through books).

He added that it is important for there to be a continuum of programming at libraries so there is not a gap between when small children are brought by their parents to when they come in as adults. I do not want them to drop off (during adolescence), he said.

Roman earned his Bachelor of Science in psychology and Master of Science in library information science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and another masters degree in English from Northern Illinois University. He said he loves reading more than literary criticism, which is why he pursued a library career.

As for his favorite genres, they include speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy and horror) and crime fiction such as that by Elmore Leonard. When it comes to childrens literature, books by Roald Dahl like James and the Giant Peach are among favorites.

They are a big standout for the sheer bizarreness of the world he creates, Roman said. (Dahls) books have the full range of emotions  adventure, sadness and a touch of horror rather than just being monotone.

Email: rbnews@pomeradonews.com
Authorities have arrested 26 alleged members of a gang reputed to be one of the largest and most aggressive in northern Los Angeles County.

Sheriffs deputy Johnie Jones says a task force on Wednesday served 40 federal and state warrants to members of the Lancas 13 gang in the Lancaster and Santa Clarita areas.

The alleged head of the gang, Troy Larson, is one of 10 suspects arrested who were under federal indictment.

Advertisement

A small amount of narcotics and 22 weapons were also seized during the raid. Five children have been taken into protective custody and seven others are being monitored by the county.

Authorities say the Lancas 13 gang was formed in the 1980s, has about 150 members and was associated with the Mexican Mafia.
Chula Vista Mayor Cheryl Cox wiped a tear from her eye as she answered one last question at what had been her office for the last eight years.

On Nov. 25, the 39th mayor of the city was packing up Chula Vista centennial books, Parkview and Eastlake Little League jerseys and other gems in preparation for incoming Mayor Mary Salas.

Cox, termed out of the post, discussed city accomplishments, her favorite memories and what the future holds for Chula Vista.

Advertisement

Before being elected mayor in 2006, Cox was a teacher, principal and Chula Vista Elementary School Board trustee. When she first ran for mayor, her priorities were education and local, good-paying jobs.

Ive been absolutely blessed to be surrounded by the people who work for the city of Chula Vista, she said. I dont think that people in a leadership position achieve their goals unless they have backup.

Backup is especially crucial when it comes to the citys financial stability during a time when Chula Vista is looking for tenants to occupy its bayfront.

The Chula Vista Bayfront Master Plan envisions a world-class destination on a 535-acre waterfront that includes residential and commercial zoning, hotels, a conference center and more than 240 acres of parks and open space.

Its going to create 3,000 construction jobs probably over the next 15 to 20 years, Cox said.

She also touted the possibility of a four-year university on the citys east side as an economic catalyst.

I think this university property can be more than a four-year program, it can be the program that sets people up for good jobs  thats the missing link in Chula Vista, she said.

Some of her best memories include the Chula Vista Animal Care Facility opening an expanded cattery in 2012. The 800-square-foot building doubled the intake capacity and expanded feline living quarters to include seven apartment-style rooms.

Coxs work at the animal care facility has brought in nearly $1 million in funding and in-kind donations.

She also talked about reducing traffic on major streets. The city, as a member of the San Diego Association of Governments, took ownership of the 125 toll road from private ownership.

Forty thousand cars a day dont go on Telegraph Canyon Road, H Street and Olympic Parkway because of the 125, Cox said.

She also recalled the 25,000 people who came out to celebrate the citys centennial celebration on October 15, 2011. We raised the money to put it on, she said. It didnt involve taxpayer money.

Cox also called her community dialogue about the Sweetwater Union High School District corruption scandal an important part of recovering.

In February, she gave her eighth and final State of the City address using her priorities of education and its connection to good jobs as a platform. In her speech she addressed the controversial issues within the Sweetwater district and how they were affecting Chula Vistas reputation and students future.

In 2012, more than a dozen South County elected officials, administrators and contractors were indicted by the District Attorneys Office on numerous misdemeanor and felony charges in a pay-to-play contractor scheme.

As a result, four of the five sitting trustees on the Sweetwater school board were ousted.

Earlier this year Cox held two meetings about preparing for new district leadership and asked the public for comment. The meetings, she said, opened a positive community conversation.

But before the highs there were lows.

When Cox took office in 2006, the general fund budget was $172 million and the reserves were at 4 percent.

Within a year it was knocked down to $127 million, she said. The money just wasnt there. But if youd had reserves, the spinoff of the interest on the reserves gives you some buoyancy during times that are slow.

Today the city has a little more than 12 percent in reserves and $132 million in the general fund. The council has also set a goal for a 15 percent reserve.

However, Cox said the saddest time she recalls was in November 2008 when the city cut 300 jobs.

I remember specifically three men coming up to the podium and talking about the work they did trimming trees, she said. All they wanted to do was come to work every day for this city trimming trees, and we didnt have the money to pay them. The best we could do was stretch out their exit so they could make it through the holidays.

In October 2013, the Living Coast Discovery Center announced it would have to close its doors by the end of the month if it could not raise $200,000. The call for help exceeded expectations and the community brought in more than $400,000.

She said its the first time in years that the center has the capacity to stabilize.

As for the citys future, Cox weighed in on what the council must do to continue progress.

I think theres a legislative opportunity for the council to recognize what value there is in being a charter city, she said. When youre a charter city, probably the No. 1 most important component is home rule  that youre making your decisions here, with the local electeds, instead of deferring those decisions to the state.

As for whats next for Cox, 65, she dismissed rumors of her running for superintendent at Sweetwater.

Ive got projects at home that havent been touched in a long time, she said. Theres a lot going on in the city of Chula Vista to be really proud of. I have no regrets. Youre not going to satisfy 100 percent of the people 100 percent of the time, but you have to play fair.
SAN DIEGO - Eight people were indicted on charges stemming froman alleged scheme to defraud San Diego Countys child care systemout of more than $555,000, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanisannounced today.

Seven of the eight defendants were arrested during a sweepearlier this week following a 2 1/2-year investigation by theDistrict Attorneys Public Assistance Fraud Division, inconjunction with the San Diego County Health and Human ServicesAgency.

This is part of our ongoing efforts to crack down onwhite-collar criminals, Dumanis said. This investigation is notover, and we expect to make more arrests and file morecharges.

Advertisement

Due in court this afternoon for arraignment were:

- Deadra Brown, 34;

- Margaret Brown, 58, no relation to Deadra Brown;

- Miya Grant, 37;

- Jennie Horton, 43;

- Ruby Jackson, 82;

- Lathan Mashouna, 33; and

- Russell Moses Pete, 34.

Margaret Brown and Deadra Brown, who each owned and operated achild care business, are both charged with several counts of grandtheft and perjury.

The indictment alleges the two falsely claimed they wereproviding employment for their co-defendants, thus qualifying themfor child care services which were never provided.

The indictment also alleges that they billed for child careservices they never provided.

All of the defendants are from San Diego.

The eighth person to be indicted, 33-year-old Kesha Brown of ElCajon, is expected to be arrested and extradited to San Diego,authorities said.

The defendants each face more than six years in prison ifconvicted as charged.

Anyone with information regarding child care fraud or publicassistance is urged to call the District Attorneys Welfare FraudHotline at (800) 421- 2252.
Canada, U.S. to co-host meeting on North Korea in VancouverU.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland announced Tuesday they will co-host a meeting in Vancouver next month about the increasingly erratic behaviour by a nuclear North Korea.The two top diplomats told reporters most of the countries who fought in the 1950-53 Korean War have been invited to participate in the discussions in the B.C. city on Jan. 16, 2018. Those countries, tentatively dubbed the "Vancouver Group," are part of an aggressive diplomatic campaign designed to force the rogue regime to the negotiation table and avoid devastating military action."We continue to find ways to advance the pressure campaign against North Korea, and send a unified message from the international community: 'We will not accept you as a nuclear weapons nations.'"We share one goal, full and complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," Tillerson said.He said this display of solidarity sends a message to North Korea that the rest of world is prepared to talk. "We can't talk unless North Korea is ready to talk. We're waiting for them to indicate a readiness to talk  this pressure campaign will not abate. We will not be rolling any of it back," the former Exxon Mobil CEO said.Canada is pitching the conference as a way to jump-start diplomatic talks as the so-called six-party talks  South Korea, North Korea, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia  broke off in 2009."This is another visible sign that the international community is acting in concert to speak to the government of North Korea and to say this is threatening us all and the pressure will increase until the behaviour changes," Freeland added.When asked if this plea for talks with the regime differs from that of Trump, who has taken a hostile stance, threatening to launch military strikes if behaviour does not improve, Tillerson said he is presenting a united front with the White House. "The president's campaign has always been ... a pressure campaign of sanctions, and diplomatic pressure. The White House ... they haven't rejected diplomatic talks."Tillerson's openness to talk comes nearly two weeks after North Korea said it had successfully tested a breakthrough intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that put the entire United States mainland within range. In September, North Korea fired a ballistic missile over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, the second to fly over Japan in less than a month.
Sen. John Murante of Gretna said Tuesday he will push hard for approval of voter ID and winner-take-all presidential electoral vote proposals during what could be his final legislative session in 2018.

Murante is a Republican candidate for state treasurer next year and would leave the Legislature halfway through his second term if he is elected.

At a news conference called to respond to online criticism aimed at him by an organization called Let America Vote, Murante said his proposed voter ID constitutional amendment (LR1CA) would allow Nebraska voters themselves to decide whether voters should be required to show a form of ID before casting a vote.

The proposal was trapped on the floor of the Legislature by a filibuster this year.

I will continue to fight to make our elections more secure, Murante said.

Murante said he believes part of the ID process, which would be determined by a future Legislature if voters adopted the constitutional amendment, should be photo identification.

The online organization that has named him as one of 10 national politicians chosen for its Voter Suppression Hall of Shame is an out-of-state leftist group, a radical left-wing organization, Murante said.

Murante said he strongly supports election integrity efforts mounted by the Trump administration.

Most Nebraskans believe voter identification makes common sense, he said, and I will continue to fight to make our elections more secure.

Properly crafted voter ID legislation would not suppress the vote as its opponents argue, Murante said.

With a growing number of voters questioning the security and integrity of the current election process, he said, it is important to assure voters that elections are valid.

Nebraska experienced two convictions for voter fraud during the past year.

The winner-take-all proposal (LB25) would return Nebraska to a system that would award all five of Nebraskas presidential electoral votes to the statewide winner.

Under current law, Nebraska awards one electoral vote to the winner in each of its three congressional districts and two electoral votes to the statewide victor.

The winner-take-all system is strongly supported by the Republican Party.

The Democratic Party supports the current system, which resulted in one electoral vote for Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama in 2008, when he ran ahead of Republican nominee John McCain in metropolitan Omahas 2nd District.

That was the first electoral vote won in Nebraska by a Democratic presidential nominee since Lyndon Johnson won the state in 1964.

The winner-take-all proposal is awaiting consideration on the floor of the Legislature.
FLORENCE, S.C.  When it was time to take the next step in their health care careers, Leslie Herndon and Anna Shirley knew exactly where the path would begin.

At their alma mater, Francis Marion University.

Herndon and Shirley, both of the Class of '04, both returned to FMU to enroll in the Universitys new Master of Business Administration Healthcare Executive Management program.

The two women were among the 309 graduates who marched in Saturdays fall commencement at FMU.

There was never any question that I would eventually go back and get my masters, says Herndon, and I always knew Id go back to FMU. Its a place Ive always loved, always felt comfortable. The icing on the cake was the new program. When they began that program, I knew it was time.

FMU launched the program three years ago as a way to help prepare executives and managers in the health care industry. The online program is a hybrid that combines graduate-level business courses and courses from FMUs advanced practice nursing programs.

Both Herndon and Shirley say the classes associated with health care delivery were particularly enlightening.

Shirley, a data systems manager at Carolinas Hospital in Florence, says, Youre around it, but its a side of the business you dont really know. That was a great experience for me to be in the class with those professors, and with classmates who were in the (advanced practice) nursing program. Theres a tremendous amount of knowledge to gain, and a perspective that I know will be useful.

Says Herndon, The business courses were great, just like I knew they would be from my undergraduate days. But the health care courses were amazing. I wish I could have taken more of them.

Shirley, whose undergraduate degree was in management information systems, said she decided several years ago that she liked health care and saw a future there. Discussions with executives at Carolinas convinced that her she needed a graduate level degree to progress. So, she began the arduous task of managing a life, a career and becoming a student again.

I was a full-time mom, a full-time wife, a full-time employee and a full-time student, says Shirley. It was a challenge. When I passed my final exam, I definitely did a little happy dance.

Herndon, a business administration major at FMU as an undergrad, took a slightly different path. She began her career on the business side of health care at a hospital in Laurinburg, N.C.. While working in that job, she developed an interest in the clinical side of the business and went back to school to obtain a degree in radiation therapy.

She spent a decade delivering care in the Scotland County Cancer Center before deciding she wanted to be involved with patient care in a broader way. She recently took a new position at McLeod Hospital in Florence, where she works as neuronavigator, managing individual patients receiving brain cancer and brain lesion treatments.

It was obvious to me that wherever I was in health care, there was a need for leaders, says Herndon. You can be a leader, whether youre a manager or in another role. I knew thats what I wanted to do. I dont know where this will take me, but I know that Ill be ready.
MULLINS, S.C.  The Greater Mullins Chamber of Commerce ended the year with a luncheon to celebrate the holiday at Macedonia United Methodist Church.

Mullins Mayor William Bo McMillan said he wanted to encourage the public to contact interim director Carolyn Roberts to help increase membership. The chamber is seeking both businesses and individual members, he said.

What makes this town such a special town is because of the individual and collective love that is in the hearts of our citizens, McMillan said. This is a loving, caring and giving crowd, and Im enormously proud to be a part of it.

McMillan said teamwork and the generosity of corporate citizens help create partnerships and efforts to promote growth.

The guest speaker was Macedonia United Methodist Church Pastor David Inman.

You want to make room for others, too, he said.

The chamber will host its annual meeting on Jan. 22. Francis Marion University President Fred Carter will be the speaker.
CHICAGO, I.L.  Rebecca Liu, an International Baccalaureate sophomore at Wilson High School, won third place in the USA Round of the International German Olympiad 2018.

Liu was one of the top 14 students in the United States invited to this all-expenses-paid trip/competition in Chicago after a four-day online competition against students from across the nation.

The International German Olympiad, held every two years in Germany, is the largest German language contest in the world.

The goal of the competition is to make young people around the world enthusiastic about Germany and the German language. To demonstrate their German knowledge, the contestants need to take various tests, create audio/visual materials and take part in writing and performing skits.

On Dec. 1-2, the Goethe-Institut Chicago hosted the U.S. competition. The competition was held as an "Olympic pentathlon." Reading, listening, speaking, writing and presenting were tested. Liu won third place in Category A.

Liu is a student of Dr. Lucia Huang, German teacher at Wilson High School.

For more information on the IB Program at Wilson High School, contact Josie Stratton at josie.stratton@fsd1.org.
HARTSVILLE, S.C.  Its Simply Christmas at the Hartsville Museum, a tradition that began around 2012.

And after the Christmas parade on Dec. 9, Santa stopped by the museum, where an antique rocking chair awaited his arrival next to the fireplace so he could relax, chat with children and have photos taken with them. Nearly 200 visitors stopped in during the appointed hours.

The museum was lavishly decorated with artifacts from its collection, many seldom on display.

With each passing year, the decorations have become more elaborate and now include a Santas Workshop, a snow-covered Christmas village and more than 20 trees throughout, including one decorated solely with lights and cotton bolls from a cotton field.

We were doing just a tree in the beginning and bringing out some toys from storage, said Kathy Dunlap, executive director of the Hartsville Museum. And each year it began to take on a life of its own.

She said the first one was special because it was a living room and bedroom scene with a 'Twas the Night Before Christmas theme that allowed them to bring out artifacts that had never been on display. Dunlap said donors were issued special invitations to the museum to see their donations on display.

The idea of a Santas workshop came last year, she said. Her newest employee, Andrea Powell, assisted with the workshop, which was set up in the rotating gallery area.

Andrea incorporated her creativity and design skills in the workshop, Dunlap said.

It was a huge success with visitors.

This year on a much grander scale, an entire room has been dedicated to the workshop. There are many toys from yesteryear and a few as modern as an iPhone. There are spinning tops, a typewriter, baby dolls, blocks and more.

A Christmas Village, donated by Ray Vance, has moved to the gallery area, and interpretive material has been added to the display.

The Lionel train set  once belonging to the owner of the Hartsville Publishing Company, A.L.M. Wiggins, former under secretary of Treasury and chairman of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad  has a prominent space in the museum during Christmas and is always a favorite of the children who visit the museum.

Our big purchase this year was a vintage aluminum tree and color wheel for our 1950s living room, Dunlap said.

She said the tree and wheel were purchased separately, and both came in their original boxes.

Also added to this years display is a collection of silver and gold foil angels with wax faces and hands from Germany. They are on display in the dining room area.

They are very collectable and were given to the museum by Emily Bailey, Dunlap said. This is their first time out.

Dunlap said this is also the time of year when people reflect on past Christmases and loved ones who have died. She said two former museum employees, Thom Roberts and Laura Crouch, who shared her enthusiasm for Christmas and the Simply Christmas Exhibit, died recently. This year the museum will remember them and their many contributions to Simply Christmas and to the museum.

Looking to the future, the museum hopes to open its addition across the street in March.

The museum is at 222 N. Fifth St. in Hartsville.

Dunlap encourages the community to stop by the museum from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 10 to 2 p.m. Saturday to view the Simply Christmas Exhibit and perhaps stir a memory or two of a Christmas past.
After not making a recommendation during its November 20th meeting, the Fremont Planning Commission recommended approval of a zoning change request for the Fremont Memorial Complex on Monday.

The Fremont Memorial Complex is approximately 35.3 acres of land located at 1700 East Military Avenue, which is collectively owned by The City of Fremont, Fremont Family YMCA, and Robert and Sandra Murray, Trustees.

The tract of land includes Memorial Field, the Fremont Family YMCA, as well as the old armory building and is currently zoned as R-1 Single Family Residential.

A request to change the lands zoning from R-1 Single Family Residential to PD Planned Development was considered by the Planning Commission during its November 20th meeting, but following a motion to recommend approval to City Council, no second was made and therefore no recommendation was made.

Due to Nebraska Revised Statutes, the City Council cannot make a ruling on the proposed zoning change until a recommendation by the Planning Commission is given, which led to the Planning Commissions reconsideration of the item on Monday.

We went before the City Council at their meeting on December 12th and requested that they charge the Planning Commission with being able to reconsider this item and ultimately making a recommendation, either for or against this change. So the item could be forwarded to the City Council and final action could be taken, Troy Anderson, director of planning, said.

During its meeting on Monday, the Planning Commission heard support for the proposed change from Mayor Scott Getzschman and Fremont Family YMCA CEO Jerry Rinne.

Getzschman spoke about the recent history of the complex, as well as plans to continue renovations to Memorial Field and create additional parking within the complex.

There is not a residential piece of property on that land, but we technically have to abide by that zoning, so it becomes very difficult to do any development in regards to the stadium because the stadium has nothing to do with R-1, he said at the meeting. That is something that is in the works, it all takes money, but it is in the future and if we are ever going to add more parking we are going to want to do that without having to deal with setbacks and those types of things. The PD gives us the ability to do that and to develop that entire complex into a park type complex that also serves the largest YMCA in the country and adds to the parking as we move forward.

Following the public hearing, a motion was made by Commissioner Jarod Borisow to recommend approval of the zoning change. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Zach Carlson and was passed by a vote of 6-0.

The vote was passed 6-0 because two of the commissioners, Marty Gifford and Rory Bowen, abstained from the discussion due to possible conflicts of interest.

With the recommendation the City Council will consider and take action on the zoning change request at its next regular meeting on December 26th.
The Nebraska Public Service Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to deny TransCanadas motion to amend its application to the alternate route through the state for its proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

The decision did little to settle the battle between those working to get the pipeline built and those seeking to block it.

Those against it hope an appeal, which could result in TransCanada needing to restart the application process, will cause the company to rethink and shelve the project altogether.

Omaha attorney David Domina, who represents landowners who oppose the pipeline, said in a lot of ways it was the best possible outcome of the proceedings.

We got today exactly what we wanted, he said.

Commissioners approved the pipeline last month, but not the companys preferred route through Nebraska, the one for which it had applied.

What that means is that TransCanda is stuck with a 3-2 vote that approved a route that the company never applied for, Domina said Tuesday.

At a hearing a week ago, TransCanadas attorney, James Powers of Omaha, told commissioners they could resolve any questions over whether they overstepped jurisdiction or deprived landowners and other groups due process by allowing TransCanada to amend its application to the alternate route.

Then, the commission could issue a new final order.

But, on Tuesday, the Public Service Commission voted against the move, setting up an all but certain legal fight before the Nebraska Supreme Court that will delay the project several months, possibly a year.

And, if an appeals court finds an issue with the PSCs decision to approve an alternate route, TransCanada could find itself back at square one.

Robynn Tysver, a spokeswoman for the company, said they are going to take some time to review Tuesdays decision and determine the appropriate next step.

Keystone XL remains a viable project with strong commercial support and we remain committed to this project, she wrote in an email. It is important to remember that this project enjoys widespread support within the U.S. and Canadian federal governments, as well as state officials in Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska. President Trump and his administration continue to actively support Keystone XL and we expect to secure final federal permits in early 2018.

Bold Nebraska founder Jane Kleeb said TransCanada knows its on shaky ground with the route that was approved by the Public Service Commission, but never approved by the U.S. State Department, which puts the federal permit in question.

So now the route that TransCanada did not want  which still crosses the Ogallala aquifer and fragile Sandhills  is the route that theyre technically stuck with, she said in an email.

Kleeb said they will continue to organize landowner resistance inside the new route.

Outside the hearing room, Ken Winston of Lincoln, attorney for the Sierra Club, said the fact that TransCanada didnt get its preferred route means now there are new landowners, environmental issues and legal issues that need to be addressed.

It never was a good idea, and its getting to be a worse idea. We certainly hope that they would reach that conclusion, that this is not in their best interest, he said of TransCanada.

Winston said its the Sierra Clubs position that TransCanadas application should be denied on its face.

Were moving toward much more efficient energy usage, he said. Pipelines are no longer needed. Its a bad idea to continue to invest in fossil fuel infrastructure.

Winston said the Sierra Club has been fighting the Keystone XL pipeline from the beginning and we will continue to fight it until it is finally stopped.

TransCanadas 275-mile preferred route was the focus of a court-style hearing in August, but on Nov. 20 the commission opted for a slightly longer route known as the mainline alternative.

That route would cut farther east, then run parallel with the existing Keystone pipeline for about 95 miles. It would cross 11 counties: Keya Paha, Boyd, Holt, Antelope, Madison, Stanton, Colfax, Butler, Seward, Saline and Jefferson.

The pipeline would move Canadian oil bound for the U.S. Gulf Coast from Hardisty, Alberta, to a terminus in Steele City, Nebraska.
Our children are our future. In Nebraska and across the country, families are working hard and doing all they can to keep their kids happy and healthy. When a child is sick, caretakers want to know their children will receive the care necessary to get better. During my time in the Senate, I have worked hard to support effective programs to do just that. The Childrens Health Insurance Program (CHIP) helps to ensure all of our nations children have access to health insurance coverage, and it has my fullest support.

Just under nine million children, or roughly 1 in 8, receive health coverage from CHIP, and this includes about 55,000 children in Nebraska. This program has broad bipartisan support.

The last time Congress authorized funding for CHIP I was proud to cast my vote of support and the vast majority of my colleagues joined me. The bill passed by a vote of 392 to 37 in the House of Representatives and by 92 to 8 in the U.S. Senate.

That sort of bipartisan support for CHIP remains today. My colleagues and I know theres so much good achieved through this program, and we are working to extend it.

Earlier this year, the House of Representatives passed the CHAMPIONING HEALTHY KIDS Act, which would fund CHIP, community health centers, and other programs.

I am a cosponsor of the KIDS Act in the Senate, which, like the House bill, would extend the program for five years.

Additionally, I recently voted for a short-term spending bill that included a provision allowing the Department of Health and Human Services to shift funds to help shore up state CHIP programs through the end of the year.

I am also a strong supporter of our nations community health centers. Over the last 50 years, non-profit, community-based, patient-centered health centers have earned strong bipartisan support because of their ability to provide high quality, comprehensive, affordable healthcare, especially to women.

These organizations take care of nearly 26 million patientsnearly 60 percent of which are women and girlsat over 10,000 sites throughout the country.

Community health centers are vital to keeping our state healthy. Nebraska health centers served 84,556 patients in 2016, and 92 percent of them fell below 200 percent of poverty.

Last year, I had the opportunity to visit the Charles Drew Medical Clinic in Omaha and see first-hand the comprehensive and compassionate care they provide. In 2014, this clinic treated over 9,000 unique patients during 32,000 patient visits across its 15 service locations. According to their president and CEO, Kenny D. McMorris, patients under the age of 18 represented roughly a third of its patients.

As with CHIP, Congress has been working this year to extend funding for community health centers. I joined a bipartisan letter to the leaders of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee urging them to resolve the funding cliff community health centers are facing and expressed my willingness to work with them. I also cosponsored the Community Health Investment, Modernization, and Excellence (CHIME) Act, a bill to reauthorize the Community Health Center Fund (CHCF) and the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) for five years, offering a four percent annual increase to both the CHCF and NHSC beginning in 2019.

Throughout my time in the Senate, I have heard from many Nebraskans about the importance of CHIP and community health centers.

These issues are important and I believe it would be best for Congress to address both on their own merits and pass individual spending bills, delinking them from partisan fights over funding the government.

Bruce and I would like to wish all Nebraskans a Merry Christmas, a wonderful holiday season filled with joy, love and laughter, and a Happy New Year.
Addressing the recent 4th international tourism fair, as reported by gtp headlines, a service by Greek Travel Pages, Achladitis stressed the need to restore the cruise industry's performance, with the top priority being modernising island ports so they can cater to larger vessels.

He said currently only the ports of Corfu and Piraeus can handle sizeable cruise ships.

If Greek ports do not upgrade, they will miss out as more companies are now adding larger cruise ships to their fleet and they will not include Greek destinations on their itineraries, he said.

Achladitis said the expansion of the tourism season was vital but it required the continental experience offered to cruise travelers when they disembark at ports. This, he said, requires cooperation between cruise companies, local authorities and businesses.

Achladitis reiterated the position of other cruise sector experts that a steady tax framework must be in place, and the bureaucratic hurdles overcome in order to attract private investment.

He concluded with the need to upgrade the infrastructure of Greek ports, including Piraeus, in view of the increasing use of LNG by several cruise ships under construction.
"We have been serving the world for 100 years, promoting global maritime trade and favouring its development and reaching this mark of excellence represents recognition for our hard work, effort and sacrifice, and a lot of persistence, said Panama Minister of Maritime Affairs Jorge Barakat. Without a doubt, it is a great pride for all Panamanians and for our strategic partners at a global level and a great honour to receive this title of Guinness World Records, he added.

It is a source of pride for all Panamanians that this service that we provide with such commitment is recognized by Guinness World Records, a prestigious institution that has been present in the world since 1955, and whose publication of records is the most read book in more than 100 countries, and 23 languages, so our record will be recognized in all corners of the planet, where our Merchant Marine is present. It should be noted that this is the first time that this record title has been received, for which the number of vessels was validated with the greatest accuracy, using several international sources that endorsed this important decision, which we hope to maintain indefinitely.

The Ship Registry generates more than $1 BN guaranteed by mortgage and annually produces more than one million ship transactions, it should be noted that one of the most significant numbers of a Registry is the average age of its fleet. Based on this, we can indicate that the lowest average age is nine years and belongs to bulk carriers, explained Barakat.

The users of the Registry have benefited through the online issuance of technical certificates, which can be printed electronically and directly by the interested parties, thus streamlining processes by not having to physically move anywhere. For next year, it is expected that existing certifications will be fully incorporated.

The opening of 4 new Ship Documentation Technical Offices (SEGUMAR) was carried out in strategic cities such as: London, Manila, Dubai and recently, in Houston - Texas, as well as the relocation of the Segumar New York Office to the State of Florida, with headquarters in the city of Miami, in the United States of America (EU), joining in this way the existing ones that are: Miami, Pireos, Istanbul, Singapore, Busan, Imabari, Seoul, Tokyo and the one that is located in the main headquarters in Panama City.

Thinking about our Seafarers, the necessary controls in training and qualification standards were implemented, achieving the signing of important Agreements with other maritime administrations, such as: Singapore, Vietnam, Ecuador, Iran, Philippines, Kenya, Bahamas and Barbados, that allow the mutual recognition of the training and qualifications of Panamanian seafarers, so that in this way they can access to work in other international markets.

Another transcendental and visionary achievement was the signing of the Maritime Cooperation Agreement with the People's Republic of China, through which Panama receives the status of "Most Favoured Nation", where ships registered with the Panamanian flag will receive preferential rates upon arriving at the ports of the People's Republic of China.
John LaRue would step down from his duties as executive director on 1 January 2018, and officially retire from the Port in June 2019 and will serve in a senior advisory capacity to his successor.

As part of the Port of Corpus Christi Authority Commissions vision for the future, we pause to thank John LaRue for his outstanding leadership and steady hand over the last two decades, said Zahn. We have full confidence Sean will take the Port to new highs and new frontiers.

John has led the Port of Corpus Christi since 1994, arriving at the Port from Philadelphia Regional Port Authority where he also served as Executive Director. Over his 23 year tenure, LaRue marshalled the Port of Corpus Christi from a regional Port Authority to what is now the fourth largest port in the United States in tonnage.

In his advisory role, LaRue will help Strawbridge settle into the role of ceo of the nations largest export port for US produced crude oil. Strawbridge arrived in Corpus Christi in 2015 after a national search for a successor to LaRue. Previously, Strawbridge worked at Oxbow Energy, Ports America Group, and the Port of Long Beach where he was the managing director of Port operations and trade development.

I am confident the path we are on is the right one and I thank John for his continued support as we carry on his legacy, said Strawbridge.

The Port of Corpus Christi Authority is embarking on an ambitious capital investment programme, led by the deepening and widening of the Corpus Christi Ship Channel.

With 60% of the nations crude exports flowing through the Port of Corpus Christi, the surging energy sector growth is further fuelling the Port of Corpus Christis quest to build more infrastructure in support to be the Energy Port of the Americas.
The 1963-built Dona Paz collided with the tanker Vector on a voyage from Leyte Island to Manila leaving an estimated 4,386 people dead, and just 24 survivors. A press release from the Sailors Society referred to it as Asias Titanic and while the sinking of the ocean liner is much better known story globally, the Dona Paz was a far greater tragedy with nearly three times as many deaths.

The Dona Paz, operated by Sulpicio Lines, had an official capacity 1,518 passengers and 66 crew, but was vastly overloaded with thousands of unregistered passengers. Originally a passenger ferry in Japanese waters the vessel had operated with a capacity of just 608 passengers.

Many of the 4,386 who estimated died were burnt alive following the collision with the oil tanker.

Chaplains from the Sailors Society marked the 30th anniversary of the tragedy with a wreath laying.

Sailors Societys port chaplain in Manila, Rev Nic Tuban, who laid the wreath with his colleague Rev Jasper del Rosario, remembers the tragedy well.

People in Manila were excited to celebrate Christmas but instead mourned.

They waited at the citys North Harbour, hoping that their loved ones were still alive.

So many never saw their loved ones again.

It took the families of passengers lost in the tragedy nearly 30 years to get compensation which was paid in March this year.

Passenger ferry safety in the Philippines has remained a serious issue. In 2008 the owners of the Dona Paz, Sulpicio Lines, were involved in another major tragedy when the Princess of the Stars capsized in a typhoon.

Of 862 passengers officially recorded to be on the vessel just 56 survived.

Domestic ferry transport is not regulated by the IMO, however, it is an issue the organisation has highlighted in the past.
Part 3 of 4

This 1893 drawing depicts the Infant Jesus being carried by angels to the house of two children awaiting Christmas presents. Accompanying angels carry a decorated Christmas tree.

Part 1 of this series on holiday gift-givers talked about Saints and Santas, Part 2 about The Three Kings. Part 3 will discuss

The Baby Jesus or Christkind as Gift-Giver

In European countries such as Austria, Germany, Slovakia and some South American countries such as Columbia, Christmas presents are brought by the Baby Jesus or the Christkind. In Hungry he is called Jezuska, or Little Jesus. Though the Christ Child is generally pictured as a young, blond child with angel wings, he is never actually seen delivering the gifts.

In Columbia the children write Carta...
Press Release

December 20, 2017 Drilon renews calls for immediate review of business tax perks Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon urged the administration to push for the immediate passage of legislation rationalizing the grant of fiscal incentives to business enterprises in the Philippines. "I call on the President to exercise strong political will. He made a company pay the unpaid airport fees of P6 billion. He was able to collect from a cigarette company P26 billion. We applauded such political will. We would like such political will being applied in order to make the taxes more equitable," Drilon said. Drilon said the continued inaction on the measure is an affront to Filipinos who would be adversely affected by the Tax Reform Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law. The foregone revenues from the lowering of income taxes is compensated by the TRAIN by, among others, imposing steep taxes on fuel, which can trigger an increase in the prices of basic commodities. "I urge the administration and the Congress to start working on the rationalization of fiscal incentives granted to companies so that we can make our tax system more equitable," Drilon said. He added: "The TRAIN burdened the poor with higher taxes on fuel. It's about time that we review the incentives granted to companies to see if such incentives are necessary and continue to serve the purpose for which they are granted." He said "it is utterly unfair" that the poor would have to share the burden of raising revenues for the government under Republic Act 10963 or the TRAIN law, while the rich companies would continue to enjoy all forms of tax perks and tax holidays. "That is against the basic principle of progressive taxation which dictates that the higher a person's income, the higher his taxes should be. It's about time that Congress address this inequality in our current tax system," he added. Drilon said that a review of the tax incentives given to companies is long overdue. Drilon is the author of Senate Bill No. 229 or the proposed rationalization of fiscal incentives. The senator expressed hopes that the measure will be included in the second tax reform package promised by the administration's economic managers. "The government should review the various laws on the grant of tax incentives and plug the leakages in our tax system. The TIMTA has already provided the tools for transparency in the grant and management of incentives. The next step would be to rationalize these incentives," he added. The Tax Incentives Management and Transparency Act (TIMTA) which Drilon authored requires business entities to report all the incentives that they are enjoying - allowing the government to account for the amount of foregone revenues from various incentives given. Drilon said that according to government data, there are more than 186 laws on numerous fiscal and non-fiscal incentives and subsidies in the country, including income tax holidays, deductions, exemptions, credits or exclusions from the tax base. He also emphasized that according to previous estimates, the measure, once enacted, could generate P30 billion in additional revenue annually. Drilon's bill seeks to review the government's system of granting incentives to business enterprises in the country "in order to ensure that grant of incentives promotes social and economic benefits to Filipinos." By reviewing the grant and administration of incentives to business enterprises, Drilon said the government would be able to assess the economic impact of these incentives.
Press Release

December 20, 2017 Gatchalian calls Malacanang to certify Lifetime Cellphone Number Act as urgent In light of the possible entry of a new telco player next year, Senator Win Gatchalian is calling on Malacanang to certify as urgent the bill that would allow users to "easily transfer network providers without changing their preferred mobile numbers". Gatchalian is the principal author of the Lifetime Cellphone Number Act (Senate Bill 1636), a substitute bill to his earlier version Senate Bill 1237. Under this measure, mobile subscribers are given the preference to move to other network providers while retaining their existing mobile numbers. "This would actually reinforce government's campaign to break the existing duopoly in the telco industry. Kung tunay ngang prayoridad ng pamahalaan na maayos ang telco sa bansa, isa ito sa unang dapat sertipikahan ng ating Pangulo, (If it's really the government's priority to fix the telecommunications industry in the country, the President would need to certify this bill first.)" he explained. "We need to understand that the problem should be approached on both ends. On the one hand, you open the field and encourage participation from other players. On the other, you give your consumers the flexibility on which service they want without losing their digital identity," he added. China Telecoms has been endorsed by the Chinese government to invest in the Philippine's multi-billion telecommunications industry during the bilateral talks President Rodrigo Duterte had with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang last month. Malacanang has announced that it is directing the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to expedite the approval of necessary licenses and permits within seven days upon receipt or completion of requirements. President Duterte gave a directive to make the third player operational for local competition within the first three months of 2018. "The third player is a great welcome. Pag dumami ang players, mas darami ang serbisyo. Bababa ang presyo, at sisigla ang kompetisyon. Panalo tayong mga konsyumer doon" (If we have more players, more services will be added. Prices will be lower and competition shall be healthier. It will be to our best advantage as consumers.), the senator added. He explained that through the measure, telecommunication carriers will be compelled to offer better deals as a result of shifting network preferences. This will give consumers the freedom to choose what they truly need. The senator added that similar pieces of legislation were adopted in more than 100 countries across the globe.
Press Release

December 20, 2017 Legarda: 2018 Budget Provides Better Health Services for Filipinos Senator Loren Legarda today said that the 2018 General Appropriations Act (GAA), which was signed into law by the President yesterday, will provide better healthcare and medical services to all Filipinos. Total 2018 budget of the Department of Health (DOH), including budgetary support for government corporations, is Php171.09 Billion. Legarda, Chair of the Senate Committee on Finance, assured that all Filipinos are covered by the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), which means that even non-members of PhilHealth will automatically be made a member upon availing healthcare service in a public hospital. "In the 2017 national budget, we augmented the PhilHealth budget to ensure universal healthcare coverage. We have ensured the same under the 2018 budget because it is the duty of government to extend basic healthcare protection to all its citizens," Legarda said. Moreover, inclusive in the PhilHealth budget of Php60.628 Billion is the Php3.5 Billion allocation for health insurance of government employees under the Executive Department. Legarda said that she learned about the lack of health insurance for government workers in the Executive when Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi raised the concern during a budget hearing. "At present, government workers in the Executive are covered by PhilHealth for hospitalization, but when they need to undergo check-up, laboratory procedures, and other preventive healthcare procedures, they pay out of their own pocket. I am glad that Secretary Cusi raised this concern because it is only appropriate that we provide all state workers with the necessary health benefits. In the Legislature, employees have health insurance plans. Now, through the funding for PhilHealth Plus, government employees in the Executive will receive the same benefits," she explained. Legarda said that to ensure better services for the people, the DOH budget, including the budget of specialty hospitals such as the Lung Center of the Philippines, Philippine Heart Center, National Kidney and Transplant Institute, and Philippine Children's Medical Center, was increased to provide additional funding for medical assistance program for indigent patients, additional medicine for cancer patients and Health Facilities Enhancement Program, among others. The amount of Php51.591 Billion was allocated for the procurement of drugs, medicines and vaccines, including medical and dental supplies for distribution to government healthcare facilities. A special provision has been included under the DOH budget prohibiting the purchase of Dengue vaccines. Additional Php100 Million was also allocated for the National Nutrition Council's (NNC) Early Childhood Care and Development Intervention Package for the First 1,000 Days. "We have provided additional funding for the NNC's early childhood care and development because the first 1,000 days of a baby's life, which covers the nine months of a mother's pregnancy until a child's second birthday, is the foundation of a person's future health, intellectual development, and motor and social skills. Good nutrition for mothers and babies at pregnancy and infancy stage is therefore crucial to sustain a sturdy foundation for a child's well being," said Legarda. "The health of our people deserves to be on top of the priorities of government. What is crucial now is to make these healthcare benefits known by the people, especially the poorest households who are the intended beneficiaries," Legarda concluded.
Statewide efforts focused on making sure all Iowa students are proficient readers by the end of third grade are demonstrating a positive impact in the growth of literacy skills. A report released by the Iowa Department of Education highlights key findings since the early literacy law was adopted by the Iowa Legislature in 2012.

Iowa schools, Area Education Agencies, and the Iowa Department of Education responded to the early literacy law with a focus on prevention of reading difficulties and early intervention for students. The law reinforced the importance that teachers need data and resources in order to provide effective literacy instruction, as well as the need to provide early intervention for students who have fallen behind in reading skills

A critical component of this statewide effort is an early warning system for literacy. This system is designed to help educators identify and intervene with students in kindergarten through third grade (K-3) who are at risk for reading difficulties. The early warning system, which was fully implemented in Iowa schools in 2014, includes screening the reading skills of all K-3 students. This is done three times a year. Based on this information, teachers are able to provide targeted reading instruction to students who need it and monitor the progress of all students.

The work to put in place a statewide early warning system has begun to pay off. Student results on the screening assessments statewide have improved statewide.

On the screening assessments from fall 2015 through spring 2016:

 Of 398 public school districts and nonpublic schools using the early warning system, 60.8 percent saw an increase in the percentage of K-3 students at or above benchmark;

 The top 10 school districts and nonpublic schools demonstrating increases in the percentage of K-3 students at or above benchmark ranged from 19.5 percent to 32.2 percent.

 53 school districts showed double-digit increases.

 The number of students who met or exceeded benchmarks grew 4.2 percentage points from 63.4 percent to 67.6 percent. That equates to almost 9,000 students statewide.

Research shows that students who are proficient readers by the end of third grade are more likely to succeed in school, graduate, go on to college, and earn a living wage. Students who arent proficient readers are more likely to drop out of high school, less likely to earn a living wage, and less likely to obtain a postsecondary education.

Central Rivers AEA continues to partner with our area school districts to ensure that all students have access to a high-quality education  beginning with their very first academic years.
LEOMINSTER  In the 35 years shes owned Josephs Jewelers, Gini Tocci has helped a lot of people to smile. Weve fixed a lot of broken pieces so people can pass them down. Weve been there for birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, helping husbands and boyfriends picking out something special, she said.

The number of engagement rings she and her husband, Joe, have sold over the years number in the thousands, and few of them have ever been returned.

It maybe only would have been to get a bigger one, she recently joked. Maybe they wanted an upgrade.

The Toccis have been in business since 1982, but recently made the decision to close their Central Street shop for good.

The couple had considered selling off the business for several years now, but the growing impact the internet has had on retail jewelry sales has made it hard to stay open, Tocci explained. This was a hard decision because all these customers became friends. I felt like I was going to leave them and not be there for them when they needed us, she said.

The Toccis entered the jewelry business shortly after Borden Chemicals, the Leominster company Joe had worked for as a boiler room supervisor, moved out of Massachusetts. At the time, Joe was self-taught in jewelry repair and Gini was selling a wholesalers jewelry at private parties.

At first the couple just focused on doing more parties, but their success led to them moving into a storefront downtown, later buying and refurbishing a former Salvation Army location where theyve been for the last 20 years.

The move meant they were occupying a building that had been empty for roughly four years. The Toccis eventually bought a vacant lot where a house had burned down next to their shop, as well as a former taxi stand located on the other side of the vacant lot. In between the two buildings they created a new parking lot and converted the taxi stand into a business space where they now run a successful tanning salon and a spa.

I dont want to say we started it, but we had a lot to do with this part of town getting refurbished. It wasnt long before Foster Healey (Real Estate) bought the lot next to us and put up their beautiful brick building. Wallgreens came in, and then Mezcal, Tocci said.

Over the course of their 35 years in business, the Toccis also pursued other interests. Gini served several terms on the City Council and Joe, deciding to become less involved with the jewelry store, opened JJT Excavating and Construction in 2008.

While customers have been saddened to hear that the store is closing by the end of December, they have been understanding.

They walk in the door, they see the signs, and they say to me What are you doing?, Tocci said. Theyre sad, but I think theyre also happy for me.

For jeweler Steven Banks, the closing marks the end of his 18 years working in downtown Leominster.

For me personally, this has been a pretty significant part of my life, he said. I think its going to be a loss. While this one store is closing, the Toccis explained that this is only semi-retirement for them. Joe plans to continue working with his excavation company while Gini intends to keep running Sheeke Salon & Spa and Sun in the City Tanning Salon.

However, they do hope that one business closing will mean theyre able to spend more time with their 14 grandchildren.

Follow Peter Jasinski on Twitter @PeterJasinski53
The City of Leominster and the School Department dont need any more fiscal headaches following last summers budget fiasco which cost 90 employees their jobs, yet the latest controversy over school custodians is headed down that path.

Whats apparent is that Mayor Dean Mazzarellas administration and the School Department are not on the same page.

On Sunday, Sentinel and Enterprise reporter Peter Jasinskis story made it clear that Mazzarella helped create a problem, tried to ignore it, and then began negotiations when he realized he couldnt bully an outside nonunion contractor into just walking away from a legal document.

It begs the question how any vendor would want to do business with this administration.

In fact, Mazzarella insisted to Jasinski that no contract was in place with The Durkin Company, the parent firm of Emerald Green Building Services. The latter group was hired in July to supply Leominster schools with 23 custodians when the citys 27 union custodians were laid off in a cost-cutting move.

Mazzarellas claim is incredible on two levels: First, he is chairman of the same School Committee that ratified the agreement in July  a contract signed by former Schools Superintendent Jim Jolicoeur; second, the Sentinel & Enterprise has learned hes been privately negotiating with The Durkin Company for several weeks, trading addenda in an effort to get a revised contract to reduce the citys $79,700 monthly costs to Emerald Green. The contract runs through June 2018.

If theres no contract, Mr. Mayor, how can you be writing a proposed addendum to it?

What Leominster has now is a hybrid system  19 union custodians and 10 Emerald Green nonunion workers.

Yet the city is still paying for a full complement of 23 Emerald Green custodians set forth in the contract, in addition to the rehired union workers.

How did this situation arise? On Oct. 16, Mazzarella made a motion to the School Committee to bring back the laid-off union custodians, saying complaints were made that Emerald Green wasnt doing a good job. Mazzarella also said a state Department of Labor report suggested that the union workers might have been improperly terminated, putting the city at risk of a lawsuit. Whether conjecture or not on both points, what is clear is that the decision to rehire the union custodians came three weeks before the Nov. 7 city election in which Mazzarella was fighting for political survival.

How did Mazzarella plan to pay for the returning workers when Emerald Green already had a full labor force of 23 workers in place?

Obviously, the mayor didnt have a clue. After the election, however, he said Emerald Green didnt have a contract, implying its workers should just leave. Obviously, that didnt happen. The citys now in a fix of paying the salaries of 42 custodians when only 29 are working daily.

We hope this situation is resolved smoothly and to the taxpayers benefit. The Durkin Company is a major custodial and cleaning supply services provider in southeastern Massachusetts, handling the University of Massachusetts Lowell campus and many public and private companies. We do not believe it wants to make a legal test case out of Leominster.

Mayor Mazzarella, lets get this matter settled quickly and responsibly.
LEOMINSTER  Police arrested a Fitchburg woman after witnesses say she pulled a knife a man who was smoking inside a bus stop Friday, according to court documents.

Police briefs

Felicia Richard, 21, of 315 Charles St., was arraigned Friday with charges of assault and battery, assault with a dangerous weapon on a person over 60 years old, armed assault with the intent to murder someone over 60 and assault with a dangerous weapon.

A man said he was smoking in the covered bus stop near the intersection of Main and West streets in Leominster just after midnight when Richard yelled at him to stop smoking, referencing the no smoking signs in the bus stop, according to a police report.

The man said she grabbed him by the jacket, pulled out a closed folding knife and threatened to stab him. A woman, who is 60 or older, told Richard to stop grabbing the man, according to police. The knife opened and Richard swung it toward the woman and came at her throat area saying I will cut you (expletive), the older woman told police.

Richard was arrested and held on $1,500 cash bail or $15,000 surety bond. Her next court date is Friday.

DUI charge

LEOMINSTER  A city man was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, his second offense, following a car crash while his daughter was in the car Friday.

Khalil Jalloh, 42, of 84 Grove Ave., was arraigned Monday on charges of second offense driving under the influence, driving with a suspended license, lewd conduct and reckless endangerment of a child.

Police responded to a crash at 10:26 p.m. Saturday on 506 Main St., where Jalloh told police he drove into a grey Toyota Corolla, according to a police report.

Police said he was not carrying a license and smelled of alcohol. His daughter, who he said was 9 or 10, was inside the car, according to police.

He told police he had drunk Bacardi Gold and asked to urinate. According to a police report, an officer instructed him not to, but he urinated in the parking lot while facing grid-locked traffic on River Street. He later blew a 0.29 on the breathalyzer, according to police.

Jalloh was arrested and held on $1,000 cash or $10,000 surety bond. His next court date is Jan. 17.
OWATONNA, Minn. | Locally owned and operated Community Bank Owatonna (CBO) has hired Tim Kluender as its new President and Chief Executive Officer.

Kluender, who began his duties on September 25 and also has joined the banks Board of Directors, brings 24 years of banking experience to the role, including the last 15 years in an executive management capacity.

Kluender's banking career includes Manufacturers Bank & Trust (MBT) from 1996-1999 where he served as the banks Assistant Vice President. After leaving MBT he advanced to positions that included branch management, market management, and most recently was Senior Vice President/Chief Credit Officer with First National Bank in Fairfield.

While living in Forest City, his wife, Sherry, served as the Director of the Forest City Chamber of Commerce.

The couple plans to relocate to Owatonna as soon as their home in Iowa is sold.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

The agency that disciplines unethical judges in California does not have to release thousands of confidential judicial complaints and investigations sought by the state auditor, a San Francisco Superior Court judge has ruled.

Judge Suzanne Ramos Bolanos said in her ruling this week that the state Constitution gives the San Francisco-based Commission on Judicial Performance the power to shield certain records, effectively trumping the auditors legislative authority to review government agencies.

Regardless of the merit or popularity of the auditors arguments to view such records, Bolanos wrote, voters made clear in a 1994 proposition that amended the state constitution that only proceedings involving formal charges against judges would be public.

That is where the voters drew the line, Bolanos wrote. They maintained the absolute confidentiality for other proceedings and documents.

State Auditor Elaine Howle is expected to appeal the ruling.

The case stems from an unprecedented standoff between the commission and the auditors office after a state legislative committee approved a first-ever audit of the 11-member commission in August 2016. The commission was established in 1960 to investigate misconduct charges involving the states roughly 2,000 judges.

Although the small but powerful agency can publicly discipline judges, including removing them from the bench, the state Constitution allows commissioners to carry out the vast majority of their investigations and disciplinary actions in secret.

The commission releases a summary of a complaint and the judges reply in only the small fraction of cases that result in public disciplinary action. In other disciplinary cases, when the commission finds the misbehavior to be relatively minor, it withholds the documents and issues a private reprimand. Complainants are given limited information on the progress and conclusion of investigations that do not result in public proceedings.

Advocates for more public access have argued that the agencys lack of transparency has led to leniency for bad judges at the expense of the public. Some judges, meanwhile, have complained that the commission has penalized jurists too heavily for minor missteps.

Joe Sweeney, whose advocacy group Court Reform LLC pressed the state Legislature last year to order an audit of the commission, said Wednesday that he was encouraged that the ruling was headed for appeal, but concerned about the continued delay.

It is crazy that this judicial agency that has complaints about public officials that preside over our public court system isnt subject to any scrutiny, said Sweeney, whose complaint against a Contra Costa judge prompted a rare public proceeding this fall. The commission is funded by taxpayer dollars, and we have a right to know whether they are doing their job.

State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara), who as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee helped initiate the audit, echoed those sentiments.

Despite todays decision, I continue to believe that no state agency, funded by taxpayer dollars, is above the law, nor above its fundamental responsibility to be accountable and transparent to the public, Jackson said in a statement.

The commission operated on a $4.5 million budget last year. It receives roughly 1,200 complaints a year, and saw about 11,000 complaints from 2006 through 2015, according to a July court filing by the auditors office. In that time, the auditor noted, the commission instituted only 19 public proceedings.

Thus, in response to 99.4% of complaints, the Commission made every decision at every junction secretly  free from public scrutiny, the auditors filing said.

The commission has emphasized that the main reason only a small fraction of its cases result in discipline is that many complaints come from those who simply disagree with a judges decision. The commission has further maintained that private reprimands serve important purposes  educating the judge, deterring future misconduct and justifying increased punishment for further violations. It also has argued that overall confidentiality protects complainants, witnesses and judges who may have been unfairly accused.

In addition to a review of financial and staffing issues, the auditor sought to examine the commissions policies and practices for handling and resolving judicial complaints by reviewing those confidential records. Although the auditors office said it would keep those records confidential, as it does with other sensitive records like tax and health documents, the commission successfully argued that the state Constitution grants it the authority to keep those records secret.

Michael von Loewenfeldt, a lawyer representing the commission, lauded the judges decision on Wednesday, pointing out that the commission has offered to turn over financial records and staffing and case backlog information as part of the audit.

If they want to know how money is being spent and who is being hired and what the backlog is, they can, von Loewenfeldt said. Their parade of horribles argument that if we cant see everything we want, we cant do anything, is not accurate.

The auditors office has refused to conduct the review without access to all the records it argues are critical to evaluating the commissions performance. Myron Moskovitz, a lawyer representing the auditor, said Wednesday he plans to appeal the decision.

How can you expect the Legislature and the people to give the commission several million dollars a year without any idea if they are operating effectively? Moskovitz said. This isnt only about financial matters; it is about whether they are doing their job properly, and you cant tell that unless you look at their confidential files.

Cynthia Dizikes is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cdizikes@sfchronicle.com

Share your story

If you have filed a complaint or have been the subject of a complaint filed with the California Commission on Judicial Performance in the last five years and would like to share your story, please contact the San Francisco Chronicle investigative team at iteam@sfchronicle.com.
The death of San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee was so sudden that his family has yet to decide where hell be laid to rest  here or in his hometown, Seattle.

It was such a shock, no one had prepared for it, one family friend said of Lees death last week of a heart attack.

Lees wife, Anita, is the only family member who has a home in the city. His daughters live out of town  Brianna in Los Angeles and Tania in Washington, D.C.

Lee spent more than two decades in San Francisco city government and made his home in the Bay Area for longer than that, and its possible hell be interred here. But its also possible his cremated remains will be taken to the Seattle area, where he grew up and where his mother and five siblings live.

In addition to trying to handle the shock of Lees death, his family had public and private obligations last weekend, as the late mayors life was celebrated before family and friends on Saturday and more than 1,500 people and a TV audience at Sundays City Hall ceremony.

There were no officeholders at Saturdays private service at Duggans Serra Mortuary in Daly City, and the only religious speaker was the Rev. Cecil Williams of Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, where Lee was a regular.

But that doesnt mean the event was free of politics. Tech investor and longtime friend Ron Conway talked up the significance of the first Chinese American mayor being followed into Room 200 by the first African American woman, acting Mayor London Breed.

Breed has yet to say whether she will run in June to serve out Lees term, and Conway made no endorsement. However, Breed and Conway have a history dating back to his support of her in the 2011 race in which she upset Lees progressive appointee, Christina Olague, for District Five supervisor.

Conways remarks were noted by those in attendance as yet another sign that the citys Willie Brown-Gavin Newsom moderate establishment is coalescing behind Breed.

Conway also hosted a private reception at the Four Seasons Hotel after Sundays memorial service. Guests included the Lee family, Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Jackie Speier and a host of other politicos. Among them were four eyeing a mayoral run  Breed, fellow Supervisor Mark Farrell, Assemblyman David Chiu and Tipping Point charity chief Daniel Lurie.

On board: Regional transportation planners will meet soon with Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Mark DeSaulnier of Concord to discuss the two Democrats call for a study into building a new bridge between the East Bay and northern Peninsula or southern San Francisco.

The idea of a Southern Crossing that would carry both cars and rail transit has been discussed for decades but has never gotten off the ground, in part because of the cost. But the combination of ever-increasing traffic congestion and the call to action from two political heavyweights has planners once again sharpening their pencils.

We have done this (study) in the past, and we would be happy to do it again, said Randy Rentschler, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

What planners and local politicians dont want is any talk of a new bridge being part of Regional Measure 3, a planned June ballot initiative to raise tolls on the areas seven state-owned bridges by as much as $3. The new money is already designated for a laundry list of less-costly traffic projects.

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.

Adding the cost of a new bridge would mean tacking another $5 to the toll hike  and pretty much doom its chances of winning the required majority voter approval in the nine Bay Area counties.

Meanwhile, private-sector groups like the Bay Area Council, Silicon Valley Leadership Group and the urban planning think tank SPUR are working behind the scenes on a wish list of other mega-projects.

In addition to a Southern Crossing, it includes a new Transbay Tube for BART, an underground high-speed rail line for downtown San Franciscos new Transbay Transit Center, and a hub northeast of Livermore connecting BART, high-speed rail and the ACE train.

The combined price tag of all those big ideas is estimated at more than $100 billion.

This is the big view, said architect Jeffrey Heller, a member of the Bay Area Council business group. It is absolutely essential to do this (study) to know what we need to do and what would be effective.

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
An off-duty Richmond police officer was charged with three felonies Tuesday after he allegedly went on a shooting spree inside San Franciscos Four Seasons Hotel over the weekend.

No one was hurt, though the shooter shot six or seven bullets on the hotels 17th floor, and at least one on the 12th floor on Sunday from around 5 to 6:30 am, when he surrendered, police said.

On Tuesday, the San Francisco district attorneys office charged Phillip Sanchez, 45, on felony counts of discharging a firearm in an inhabited dwelling, negligent discharge of a firearm, vandalism over $400, and a misdemeanor count of brandishing a firearm.

Sanchez has also been placed on administrative leave from the Richmond Police Department while the matter is under internal investigation, said Lt. Felix Tan, a police spokesman, adding that he was unable to provide additional information about Sanchez while the investigation is active.

On Sunday morning, witnesses at the hotel at 757 Market St. described Sanchez as acting erratically and talking about spirits before opening fire, according to police dispatch recordings.

San Francisco police who responded to the emergency directed several hotel guests to remain in their rooms as they negotiated with the shooter, who had also been a guest at the upscale inn.

Not all guests got such direction  and some were terrified as they called down for meals or other services and got busy signals or no answer over and over.

I thought maybe I should go down and say the phones not working, said Kimberly Archie, 48, a legal consultant from Los Angeles and a frequent guest at the Four Seasons. But when she tried with her cell phone, she still couldnt get through.

Finally, Archie opened her window drapes and saw that police had surrounded the hotel.

I thought I was going to die, said Archie, who finally reached a desk clerk who said there was a live shooter in the hotel and dont leave your room.

Archie said she thinks hotels should have an alert system to notify guests of danger.

Meanwhile, Sanchezs arraignment is pending.

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

A banner hangs underneath the front windows of Frances Moores apartment. The white and red letters cant be missed by passersby.

The banner reads: Dont evict Aunti Frances. Stop gentrifying North Oakland.

A forceful, eye-catching message. Sure, but its also a daily reminder to Moore that shes living in limbo. And its wearing her down.

Moore, a former Black Panther, is known for cooking and serving weekly meals to anyone who is hungry in Driver Plaza, the small park she can see from the steps of her apartment. Last weekend, hundreds gathered in the park to protest Moores eviction.

Everybody knows now, said Moore, affectionately known in the community as Aunti Frances, as she took deep breaths. I guess its the stigma of being evicted. I wish I wasnt even going through this.

We were sitting in her spacious two-bedroom home, the upstairs apartment in a three-unit building on 61st Street. A rush-hour BART train screeched past on the elevated tracks that can be seen from her living room window.

There was a framed photograph of Elizabeth Taylor leaning against a door frame. Portraits of Angela Davis and Rosa Parks were on the walls.

Moores lived here since 2010. She has a Section 8 voucher for the apartment that costs $1,300 per month.

Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle

She doesnt know how much longer shell be able to stay. She could soon be swept out of Oakland, amid a housing crisis that has priced out many longtime Bay Area residents.

Moores trouble began when the building she lives in was sold in June 2016 to James and Alexandra Morphy and their daughter Natalia Morphy. The Morphys gave Moore, who lives in the largest of the three units, a 90-day notice to move.

We decided to buy as an alternative to Natalia renting, said James Morphy in an email, explaining that they plan for his daughter to move into Moores unit, the largest in the building. This property was affordable because it was a fixer-upper. The building is in need of significant structural repairs. We bought it with the intention of fixing it up and living in the largest dwelling unit. That is still our intention.

But Moore refused to leave, believing she was being unlawfully evicted.

I feel betrayed and blindsided, Moore told me. There was a time you got evicted because you didnt pay your rent.

Moore cited the citys Just Cause For Eviction ordinance that states a landlord cant take possession of a unit if the landlord knows a tenant is disabled, has been in the unit for five years or more and is over 60 years old. Moore, who is 63 with arthritis and mental-health problems, satisfies all three.

James Morphy said she refused to talk with the Morphys and got a lawyer, which in turn prompted him to get a lawyer.

Shes been in the apartment since  and 18 months after they bought the building, the Morphys are still looking to get her out.

Now, theyre citing what housing advocates say is a loophole in the eviction ordinance that says that if the building is a triplex or duplex and the owner lives in one of the units, tenants dont have just-cause protections, which means they can be evicted for any reason.

Or no reason at all.

Daniel Cheung, the Morphys attorney, said Natalia Morphy is living in a downstairs unit and the Morphys are complying with the law as they attempt to take full possession of the building.

Though Natalia is certainly empathetic to Ms. Moore, she is confident that her right to recover possession is proper, legal and ethical, Cheung said. Moreover, her intention and hope is to reach a resolution that provides a smooth transition for Ms. Moore into her new home.

In August, the Morphys sent another 90-day notice to Moore that her tenancy was being terminated. Moore still didnt leave.

She and her attorney are disputing the Morphys claim that Natalia Morphy lived in the building in August, when the 90-day notice was filed.

Moores attorney, Sarah Winfield of Centro Legal de la Raza, a legal services agency, have requested a jury trial to resolve the dispute, which is common practice in these types of cases.

I asked Moore, who wears her hair in ornamental head scarves known as geles, where she would go. She raised her arms before letting her hands slam against her thighs. Thats the sound of I dont know. Her Chihuahua, Chester, who was balled up next to her on the couch, briefly raised his head.

When she moved into the building seven years ago, Moore founded the Self-Help Hunger Program, a weekly event where she provides free food to the neighborhood. Every Tuesday afternoon, she cooks meals in her kitchen and then walks a half a block to serve the food in Driver Plaza, a sliver of concrete, grass and pine straw at 61st and Adeline streets.

On one shelf in the room that overlooks the street, she has plates, cups and foam-and-plastic to-go trays neatly stacked.

Theres a lot of children around here, she said. Theres a lot of seniors around here that are hungry. Hungry. You hear me? They might not show up to eat at the park, but I have something for them to take.

Lately, shes skipped weeks serving food in Driver Plaza.

Because of this eviction crap, I havent been, she said. I constantly look to the end of this.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Otis R. Taylor Jr. appears Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Email: otaylor@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @otisrtaylorjr
Its been a tough year for Uber, but the embattled ride-service company got a bit of good news this week. Its lowering Americans health care costs.

According to a study from the University of Kansas, per-capita ambulance usage rates decline by around 7 percent when Uber enters a new city. Basically, sick people who would have previously called ambulances to get to a hospital are hailing an Uber instead.

The riders decisions make economic sense. For an uninsured person, an ambulance ride can cost thousands of dollars. Even surge pricing is a bargain by comparison.

Other benefits? When Uber frees up more ambulances, emergency personnel can get to critical patients faster. When emergency workers save minutes, they can potentially save lives.

All of this sounds great  unless youre the unlucky rider who hails the car next. Uber passengers, dont forget to wipe off the seat.

Caille Millner, editorial writer
OSAGE | Gary Gonnerman, who is no stranger to Mitchell County, has been named interim pastor at the First Baptist Church in Osage.

Gonnerman pastored the St Ansgar Baptist Church, from March of 1984 until he retired in May of 2013. The Gonnermans moved to Lyle, Minnesota in 2014, and after his retirement, Gonnerman has supplied pulpits in Algona, Belmond, and Charles City. He also filled the pulpit of a Chatfield, Minnesota church for almost a year.

A year ago, last August, I was asked to fill the pulpit in Osage. I went and preached one Sunday, and they asked if I would come every other Sunday, Gonnerman said. They then voted to make me their interim pastor in early winter of 2016. I have been filling the pulpit here for over a year.

Gonnerman, who has four adult children and 17 grandchildren, grew up on a farm near Dysart. In the fall of 1960, he attended the Baptist Bible College in Omaha, Nebraska, graduating in 1964.

I then went home to farm, but I was so miserable, he said. I went back to school in the fall of 1965, and took further schooling and graduated in 1967.

From June of 1968 to January of 1975, he pastored the Regular Baptist Church in Clear Lake. His family then moved to Mount Ayr, where he pastored from 1975 to 1984, before moving to St Ansgar. In August 2007, Gonnermans first wife, Sheryl, passed away. In April 2010, he married Marquerite Muzzey, who had been a high school classmate.

Marguerite, who had never married, served with Wycliffe Bible Translators for 40 years, in Papua New Guinea for 28 of those years. While there, she lived among the Hote language-speaking nationals, learning their language and translating the text of the Bible from English into their language. She worked with the Hote people to do the translation work.

During her years in Papua New Guinea, Marguerite was able to translate parts of the Old Testament and about two-thirds of the New Testament. After she returned to the States, another missionary couple completed the work of translating the New Testament into Hote, one of the over 800 languages found in the island nation. In April 2010, the two were wed. Today, they partner in helping to lead others to Christ and to build local churches.

My goal is supplying the pulpit and try to help the Osage church rebuild, and to help and get a full time pastor here, Gonnerman said.

Along with his duties in Osage, he still writes a weekly column in the St. Ansgar paper called Lessons for Living and has weekly chapel services at the Good Samaritan Center in St. Ansgar.

I was an active pastor before I retired, and even though I am retired, I do keep real busy, Gonnerman said.
DOUG MILLS/NYT

Republicans in Congress, who will need Democratic support to keep the government open through Christmas, spent much of the Obama administration threatening shutdowns and, in one case, following through with an unscheduled two-week vacation. Their first significant act of the Trump administration will likely be to add more than a trillion dollars to the national debt to pay for tax cuts favoring the rich. In short, they have not seized the moral high ground on fiscal stewardship.

Moreover, Republicans cant seem to agree with one another, let alone Democrats, on spending and other matters. One intraparty impasse concerns a bipartisan bill to stabilize Affordable Care Act insurance markets by restoring payments ended by President Trump. Senate Republicans promised the measure to one of their own, Susan Collins of Maine, to get her vote for the tax bill (which, oddly enough, stands to destabilize the markets by repealing the ACA coverage mandate). Hard-right House Republicans are bristling at the idea of such a constructive measure, at least not without an antiabortion caveat that would alienate Democrats.
Was Matt Lauer fired without due process? Was Ryan Lizza legally entitled to a detailed investigation before the New Yorker fired him? Was Garrison Keillor denied some basic civil liberty?

The pace and power of the #MeToo movement has brought on a new debate about the way in which alleged harassers are being treated by their employers. But this concern about fairness is misplaced. The real targets of unfair firings are those who report harassment and fall victim to a legal system that, by virtue of court-created precedents, ends up protecting harassers at the expense of their victims.

Politicians and talking heads across the country seem incensed by the speed at which Lauer and others have been terminated. While they may be expressing ethical or emotional concerns, they are not legal ones.

The principle of due process, found in the U.S. Constitution, refers to government actions against individuals, not the actions of private employers against their employees. Most employees of private companies in the United States are at-will employees who can be terminated for no reason or any reason so long as that reason is not unlawful. If these media personalities had employment contracts, then the terms most likely allowed for termination for any behaviors that reflect poorly on the company regardless of whether they are unlawful.

The victims of unfair firings, demotions and lost opportunities, and the ones who are entitled to legal protections, are the alleged victims of harassment. Individuals who complain about discrimination and harassment often face retaliation for coming forward. Retaliation can be overt  terminations, demotions and the like  or it can involve more subtle but still harmful actions, such as denials of professional opportunities, transfers to less desirable teams or departments, or the undeniable feeling of being iced out by supervisors and co-workers.

Its no accident that virtually all the silence breakers who have recently come forward stopped working for their harassers long before they spoke out  the act of coming forward is unbearably risky, and those who do get little to no protection from the law.

In 2016, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reported that more retaliation claims were brought than any other type of discrimination claim (race, sex, age, disability, etc.). In fact, retaliation charges under all of the federal anti-discrimination statutes came to 45.9 percent of all charges. Among people who file harassment complaints with the EEOC, at least one-third say that after complaining to the company they were demoted, moved to lousy jobs or shifts, fired, raped or further harassed. Indeed, as several large-scale surveys show, people who file harassment complaints are much more likely to lose their jobs than those who experience similar levels of harassment and say nothing.

Why do victims of harassment continue to face retaliation when they report? Two court-created doctrines serve to embolden those who would retaliate and inhibit employees willingness to come forward. A legal framework protects employers from liability for a large swath of retaliatory conduct and incentivizes employees to stay quiet when bad things happen to them.

First, courts have concluded that for an employees report of discrimination or harassment to be protected from retaliation, she must be reporting behavior that a court would deem to be unlawful discrimination. Otherwise, any retaliatory action taken against her is legally permissible. If you were unsure whether the harassing comments you were reporting amounted to unlawful sexual harassment, would you report under these circumstances?

Second, courts often conclude that if an employee complains in a manner that is considered insubordinate, an employers decision to fire the complainer is not unlawful. If an employee is concerned that he may not be able to report sexual harassment without getting angry or emotional or losing his cool, then he would be wise to not report at all.

The silence breakers, those who left the unbearable workplace situations, kept quiet for years, and only now with strength in numbers are speaking out. Why did they wait? Well, now you know.

It is within Congress power to right that wrong to better protect the silence breakers. Congress should amend Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal statute that prohibits workplace discrimination, to provide protection to all employees who have a good faith belief that the conduct they are reporting violates the law, and to require courts, when dealing with an angry employee, to examine the context of the complaint and not merely accept the employers finding of insubordination.

If we want victims to speak up at the time of the event; if we want to create workplace environments that encourage rather than suppress complaints; and if we want to have a chance at preventing the rampant sexual harassment we are only now discovering, Congress must first fix this problem created by courts.

Leora Eisenstadt is an assistant professor in the Department of Legal Studies at the Fox School of Business at Temple University.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

In his Between Meals column, Chronicle restaurant critic Michael Bauer writes about the restaurants he visits each week as he searches for the next Top 100 Restaurants. His main dining reviews, written after three or more visits, appear in the Sunday Food + Wine section.

Im trying to finish up my Top 10 restaurants of the year (to be published Dec. 31), and I decided to go back to the 2016 restaurant of the year, In Situ.

It was a clear choice last year because this restaurant in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is like no other place Ive experienced. Corey Lee, who also owns Benu, meticulously re-creates signature recipes from some of the best restaurants in the world. They are so faithfully rendered that last year, when I tried In Situs warm tomato basil tart re-created from Michel Guerards Les Pres dEugenie in France, it propelled me back to 1981 when I actually had that dish in the French restaurant. Long-forgotten memories of driving down tree-lined roads to get there came flooding back.

Lee and chef Brandon Rodgers have amassed more than 100 dishes, but only 16 or so are on the menu on any given day.

I hadnt been back in nearly a year so almost all the dishes were different, except the wasabi lobster ($28) from Restaurant Tim Raue in Berlin. It carried as much kick as I remember: a sharp contrast of sweet, buttery seafood and the sharp heat of the root.

While there were dishes from Seoul, Barcelona, Sao Paulo and Australia on the menu, my favorite dish this time was fried fish cake with ginger scallion ($10), cubes of finely minced seafood browned to form a very thin and tender crust. Ironically, this dish was actually invented at In Situ, as was another excellent dish, the fine herb salad of lettuce, avocado and lemon with a rectangle of lavash with paper-thin slices of zucchini, carrots and other vegetables pressed into the crisp cracker.

I found it interesting they now include some of their own dishes in the mix, showing that what they produce creatively stands up to the best dishes from around the world.

From Daniel Boulud of Daniel in New York, Rodgers re-created the Maine sea scallops black tie ($46), with black truffles in between the slices, and wrapped in puff pastry. Its set on a rich sauce generously peppered with truffles. According to the menu, which lists each chef and a short bio, the dish was invented in 1986.

The format of In Situ has changed slightly in the last year; dishes are now categorized as small, medium and large. That last category includes The Voyage from the Indies ($42), with John Dory fillets on a cabbage salad with mango-apple compote and a sauce bright yellow from turmeric. It was invented in 1982 by Olivier Roellinger at Les Maisons de Bricourt in Saint-Meloir-des-Ondes, France.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

We traveled to Australia and the year 2013 for dessert from Dan Hunter at Brae. The presentation included a coronet of candylike tuille of parsnip on an apple puree along with slices of dehydrating apples, with the dry texture of Styrofoam.

In Situ feels like a new restaurant every time I go, providing a sense of discovery that dovetails with the purpose of a museum. Like a piece of great art, each dish has a unique context and stands on its own. In Situ proves in its own way that food is definitely art.

In Situ, 151 Third St. (in SFMOMA near Mission), San Francisco; (415) 941-6050 or http://insitu.sfmoma.org. Lunch 11 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Thursday-Tuesday; dinner 5-9 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, and until 8 p.m. Sunday.

Michael Bauer is The San Francisco Chronicle restaurant critic and editor at large. Email: mbauer@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @michaelbauer1 Instagram: @michaelbauer1
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Two short years ago I asked why there werent more West Coast sparkling wine producers. Did I tempt fate? It now seems like practically everyone is getting into the sparkling game.

After all, Americans are drinking more sparkling wine than ever before. Last year, sparkling wine sales in the U.S. grew by 25 percent, and sparkling rose by 20 percent, according to Nielsen data. Our palates seem increasingly interested in light and refreshing drinks; witness the popularity of rose, or of spritz cocktails (which often incorporate sparkling wine). In 2016, I named a cult California sparkling wine producer, Michael Cruse, the Chronicle Winemaker of the Year. Surely a few short years ago we could not have fathomed the phrase cult California sparkling wine producer.

Now, in addition to the old California standbys  the Schramsbergs and Iron Horses and Scharffenbergers  theres a smattering of new names, too. Some are following the age-old method of transplanting a Champagne-based company to California (Pommery), but in a new trend, several California wineries (Jordan, Boisset, Claypool, Vivier) are actually making Champagne in Champagne.

Then there are Californias native newcomers. In addition to Under the Wire, Lichen Estate, Caraccioli and Cruses Ultramarine, a bunch of new wine labels are entirely devoted to bubbly (such as Loubud, Breathless, Flaunt), and established still-wine producers are now dabbling in the stuff (Presquile, Lucas & Lewellen, Alma Rosa, Fess Parker and too many more to name here).

Beyond the wines modeled on Champagne, there are all sorts of sparkling wines made with unorthodox grapes or by unorthodox methods: sparkling Grenache (Rock Wall), charmat-method Sauvignon Blanc (Bodkin), plus petillant-naturels of every hue imaginable from the likes of Scar of the Sea, Donkey & Goat, Halcyon, Birichino and Broc. Next year, Larkmead assistant winemaker Dan Person will be debuting his sparkling-focused Carboniste label with a traditional-method Albarino.

(For visual proof of this proliferation, check out Liz Dodders maps of sparkling wine producers just in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties on her blog, Cali Coast Wine Country.)

Given the bubbles-positive consumer market, I assumed that many of these new American sparkling wine labels would be the products of extensive R&D, born of calculated marketing strategies.

I was very wrong.

Bubbly was a backup plan, says Ryan Beauregard of Santa Cruzs Beauregard Vineyards, who released his first sparkling wines earlier this year. The weather forced us into doing it.

Mason Trinca/Special to The Chronicle

2010 brought such a cold harvest season, Beauregard explains, that a section of grapes in Beauregards Bald Mountain Vineyard couldnt get ripe. The result? Pinot Noir and Chardonnay far too acidic to make into still wine. Although hed never made sparkling wine before, Beauregard figured hed give it a shot.

That nascent base wine spent five years en tirage  resting in bottle with the dead yeast cells  while Beauregard saved up to buy the equipment hed need to finish the process. To fund the purchases of a riddling rack, a bottle neck freezer, a disgorgement agent and more, he offered the sparkling wines to his mailing list as futures.

But equipment wasnt Beauregards biggest hurdle. Knowledge was. When technical questions came up, he had no one to call for guidance. YouTube became my teacher, he says. I watched a bunch of videos in French. Eventually it started to make sense. Now Beauregard has released some wines from that first, serendipitous 2010 vintage  but hes keeping about 300 bottles en tirage until 2020, and plans to continue to keep a portion of each years inventory under extended lees aging.

A different sort of accident led to the inaugural 2014 vintage of sparkling wine from Oregons Willamette Valley Vineyards.

Back in 1983, the winerys founder, Jim Bernau, planted an uncommon Chardonnay clone, called Espiguette 352, at his estate vineyard. Those Espiguette grapes always made our least favorite Chardonnay, says winery director Christine Clair. It was too acidic, never had much body to it, and the flavors never got beyond lemon or lime, Clair says. It was just a neutral white wine.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

Decades later, it occurred to the team: What if instead of trying to make a Burgundy-style Chardonnay, they attempted a Champagne-style Chardonnay? We decided that we could dedicate these grapes to what they were meant to do, Clair says.

Max Whittaker/Prime/Special to The Chronicle

Willamette Valley Vineyards enlisted the help of local winemaker Andrew Davis, a protege of Rollin Soles at Oregons best-known sparkling winery, Argyle. To spread the bubbly gospel, Davis had recently launched Radiant Sparkling Wine Company to help small wineries make sparkling wine  imagining an Oregonian version of the grower-producer Champagne movement. With Davis guidance, Willamette Valley Vineyards can make its brut mostly in its own winery, sending the bottles out to the Radiant facility only for riddling and disgorgement.

We really believe sparkling is something Oregon can be known for, Clair says, pointing out that its climate and varietals  Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, two of Champagnes major grapes  are a perfect fit.

Production volume has expanded each year, reaching about 2,000 cases in the 2017 vintage. Willamette Valley Vineyards has even purchased a new vineyard in the Dundee Hills area that will grow grapes for sparkling wine exclusively. Theyve planted some more Espiguette 352 Chardonnay there, which will come into production in time for next years vintage.

Careful planning or happy accident  whos keeping track?

Ryan Beauregard is still feeling it out. The sparkling is selling well now, and if it seems like something I feel I can actually make a couple bucks at, Ill increase my production, Beauregard says. For now it just feels like beginners luck.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Beauregard Vineyards Sparkling Rose Brut Nature Coast Grade Vineyard 2015 (12.9%, $65): Ryan Beauregard began experimenting with sparkling wine in the 2010 vintage, but didnt release any until this year. Now several vintages are available. Of his roses, the 2015  a Pinot Noir from the chilly Coast Grade Vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains  shows the most focus, with light fruit flavors, a rich texture and a bracingly dry mouthfeel. It smells like orange peel and tastes like strawberries and cream.

Willamette Valley Vineyards Brut Willamette Valley 2014 (11.1%, $55): This zippy, brisk wine holds a generosity of texture in beautiful contrast with its austerity of flavor. It smells like gunflint and yogurt, in the best possible way; hazelnut, lemon and brioche flavors follow. Equal parts Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

Presquile Sparkling Rose Santa Maria Valley 2012 (12.9%, $65): Juicy and flavorful, this sparkling rose has plenty of varietal Pinot Noir character: red berries, orange peel, steely iron. Lean, with a precise, linear texture.

Jordan Cuvee by Champagne AR Lenoble Brut NV (12.5%, $49): This collaboration between Sonomas Jordan Winery and the Champagne house AR Lenoble is the only true Champagne on this list, created entirely in Frances famous sparkling wine region. A roughly even blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, the wine is about one-third from grand cru sites. Its rich, with a full, creamy texture, dominated by citrus flavors.

Louis Pommery Brut California NV (12.5%, $22): Louis Pommery is the latest grande marque Champagne house to make a California sparkling wine, and its first release is 96 percent Chardonnay. Honey and brioche lead into a creamy wine with flavors of lemon rind and golden apple.

McIntyre l'Homme Qui Ris Santa Lucia Highlands NV (13%, $42): The McIntyre Estate Vineyard in Monterey County has long produced grapes for sparkling wines, and since 2005 has made its own. Stony and citrus-y, this Pinot Noir wine smells like blanched almond and leads on the palate with tart green apple. It finishes with the distinct impression of orange soda.

Flaunt Brut Sonoma County NV (12.5%, $85): Flaunt is the new sparkling label from Dianna Novy Lee, co-founder of Siduri Wines. Her inaugural release, a blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay sourced from Sonoma Coast and Russian River Valley vineyards, is ultra-fruity, dominated on the nose by bright aromas of apricot and peach, with a crisp texture.

Breathless Blanc de Noirs North Coast NV (12.5%, $30): From a young Sonoma County winery, this quaffable wine is clean, if a little bit lacking in character, suggesting raspberry and almond.
When you come upon a 6-foot electronic kiosk that looks like a giant cell phone with Christmas snow falling across the screen, the temptation is to reach out and touch it. And as soon as you do, you become an artist in a unique work in downtown Redwood City.

Called Digital Finger Painting, the interactive work by Fresh AV is an invitation to draw on the screen and add your own snowballs, a snowman or ornaments on the tree. If you dont like the snowy forest backdrop, you can switch it to fish in the ocean, or any of six landmark buildings to color in.

The payoff is that your art can be posted to Instagram by using the hashtag #visitrwc. It can also be easily erased by clearing the screen and moving on. The background scenes provided are just an inducement. The finger painting need not have anything to do with them, says Jessie McDaniel, 29, production manager for Fresh AV.

Her business partner Drew Patterson, 37, demonstrates by coloring a tree in yellow and drawing ornaments in blue and red.

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 5 1 of 5 Sam Whiting Show More Show Less 2 of 5 Jessie McDaniel Show More Show Less 3 of 5 4 of 5 Jessie McDaniel Show More Show Less 5 of 5









The left hand works the color wheel, he explains, and the right hand draws anything you want.

The installation was commissioned by the Redwood City Improvement Association and can operate only when Patterson, McDaniel or other Fresh AV staff are out there with it working a control monitor on wheels.

Digital Finger Painting is for kids of all ages, says McDaniel, but the little ones take to drawing faster than the big ones. They dont have the hesitation that adults do. 

The installation is part of a major public art push in Redwood Citys downtown, which includes permanent shadow paintings in the sidewalk and Magic Lantern, a 3-D light show against the historic county courthouse building.

Digital Finger Painting debuted at a holiday fair in early December. It was followed Saturday, Dec. 16, by Interactive Spectacle, which involves a projector inside a retail shop that displays colorful video content on the storefront windows. The trick to it is a Kinect sensor in the store that tracks the movement of anybody who walks by, and triggers video content. For the holidays, it is a moving polar bear.

Both installations by Fresh AV are portable and move around downtown. Interactive Spectacle will be at Polam Federal Credit Union at Main and Marshall streets several times a week through Jan. 16. Digital Finger Painting will be out there for special events and random days or nights. It is usually in the vicinity of Broadway and Main Street, but can pop up anywhere, anytime, like Candid Camera.

Its one of those be on the lookouts, says McDaniel. There are three screens in a row, so nobody has to fight over who gets to paint first.

Decorating this tree, Patterson says, as he completes his drawing, is a lot easier than untangling the lights for the real one.

Sam Whiting is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: swhiting@sfchronicle.com Instagram: @sfchronicle_art

Digital Finger Painting: To find its next appearance in downtown Redwood City, go to http://visitrwc.org. To examine prior digital paintings, check out www.freshav.com.

Interactive Spectacle: Through Jan. 16. Polam Federal Credit Union, 770 Marshall St., Redwood City.

Watch Drew Patterson color the Christmas tree at http://bit.ly/digitalfingerpainting.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 Gary Sexton Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Gary Sexton Show More Show Less 3 of 3





San Franciscos Contemporary Jewish Museum hosts Community Day on Monday, Dec. 25, where visitors are invited to explore the museums galleries and exhibitions, free of cost.

The museums current shows deliver a holiday helping of color, whimsy and intrigue, as in Jewish Folktales Retold: Artist as Maggid, an exhibition that commissioned 16 artists to respond to and reimagine selections from a rich history of Jewish storytelling. Also on view is Kutiman: offgrid offline, a sharp, contemporary assemblage of sound clips found on the Internet that, combined, create a musical composition played from computer monitors to fill the airy, angular architecture of the Contemporary Jewish Museums Yud Gallery.
Ammunition and tactical gear were stolen from the locked truck of an immigration agents official car in Oakland, the latest in a string of thefts from law enforcement vehicles, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement service reported on Wednesday.

The theft, reported to police on Monday, did not involve the loss of firearms, according to ICE service spokesman James Schwab.
FOREST CITY | Forest City High School has diversified their student body by adding three new foreign exchange students - Tanaporn (Kwan) Muangalia, from Thailand, Fernada Corral, from Chile, and Sabiana (Fabi) Cocco, from Italy.

The three girls are here through the AFS program, a nonprofit leader in intercultural learning.

Muangalia said her dream was always to study abroad and travel. AFS is one of the most famous scholarship for those who want to study abroad in Thailand, she said. I never thought I would have a great opportunity like this.

I just kept signing up, taking tests, in case, if I was chosen by some program

Through the AFS program, Forest City High School can have up to five international students at a time. The students have to go through a screening in their homeland, attend meetings about how they are going to pay the $15,000 cost, which includes schools fees, insurance, flights, as well as attend meetings on how to transition into American culture.

For me at this moment, time is the hardest thing to adjust to, she said. I want to do a lot of things I have never done before during this year as an exchange student, so I keep signing up for many activities. That makes my every single day quite a bit busy.

At Forest City High School, she is involved in concert choir, musical, large group speech and is also in Cross Country as a manager with her host sister, Ellie Reece.

Maungalia said she is enjoying her new life in Forest City thus far. The thing I'm really impressed about is the people here in Forest City. People here are very nice and friendly and the teachers here are easy to access. If I have a problem or more than one problem, I can always ask for advice.

The liaison or Aunt for the AFS students, is Forest City High School Spanish and Geography teacher, Tami McInroy. McInroy said she thinks of herself as a safe place for the students to come for advice. I am a no judgement, here to give advice like an aunt type of person for the girls.

While Muangalia is experiencing and trying new things, her favorite thing, so far, has been tacos. I know it's not American, it's Mexican, but my first time to try tacos was here in America. When asked what she misses most about Thailand, she said, The desserts. I'm kind of going to miss the Thai dessert and cheap things there, some of the stuff here is quiet expensive.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The Chronicle

The camera equipment of a KGO-TV news crew was stolen Monday night outside San Francisco City Hall, just as they were preparing for a live broadcast in front of a memorial for Mayor Ed Lee.

The theft took place around 6 p.m., on the Polk Street side of the City Hall, where mourners left hundreds of bouquets, condolence notes and mementos for the late mayor, who died on Dec. 12 after suffering a heart attack.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

A police officer in Corte Madera shot and wounded a 23-year-old man, who authorities say made suicidal threats and appeared to be reaching for gun in his sweatshirt pocket after officers deployed a stun gun on him.

The incident began about 5:45 p.m. when police dispatchers got a call from a man saying his brother was missing and had threatened suicide, according to the Central Marin Police Authority.

Shortly after, dispatchers got a second call from the same man saying his brother was armed and at his house on San Clemente Drive, police said.

Officers responded to the address and found the suspect, whose name was not immediately released, walking on San Clemente Drive. Officers ordered him to stop, but he took off running, police said.

As the officers chased him on foot, he attempted to pull a handgun from the front pocket of his sweatshirt, officials said. An officer deployed a stun gun on the man, but it apparently had no effect on the man.

Another officer opened fire, hitting the man twice, officials said.

The wounded man was taken to Marin General Hospital and was being treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

Officials said a handgun was recovered at the scene.

The Marin County Sheriffs Office is conducting an investigation into the shooting. The officer who shot the man was placed on administrative leave, in keeping with protocol for police-involved shootings.

The officers name was not immediately released.

Any witnesses can contact Marin County Sheriffs Detective Shawn Baker at (415) 473-7274.

The incident was the second officer-involved shooting in the Bay Area on Tuesday. About 5 p.m., police in Vacaville shot and critically wounded a man suspected of stabbing two family members, leading officers on a chase and ramming into a driver.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
Rafe Swan/Getty Image

A 31-year-old employee at South San Francisco High School was arrested on suspicion of sexual misconduct with a minor, police said Tuesday.

Noelia Linares of Richmond was arrested Monday and booked into Redwood City Jail. South San Francisco Police began investigating early last week after receiving reports of possible inappropriate behavior and relationship(s) between student(s)and Linares, police said in a a statement.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

This article appeared on Hoodline.

Ride-hailing giant Uber has sold its Uptown Station building in Oakland to urban real estate management company CIM Group, CIM officials announced in a press release today.

CIM spokesperson Karen Diehl declined to disclose the purchase price, but the San Francisco Business Times reported that CIM paid $180 million, $56.5 million more than the $123.5 million Uber paid in 2015. The Business Times first reported in October that CIM planned to buy the building.

The building, located at 20th Street and Broadway, has been under renovation since Uber purchased it and requires another $50 million in renovations, according to the Business Times.

ALSO READ: Where to see the best holiday lights in the Bay Area

Uber bought the building with the stated intention of expanding its headquarters to Oakland and moving up to 3,000 employees there. But since then, the company's interest in expanding to Oakland has waned.

When it purchased space under construction next to the new Golden State Warriors arena in San Francisco in March, Uber said it planned to move only about 200 workers to Oakland. By August, the company acknowledged that it intended to sell the building.

Uber today declined to disclose whether it has any plans to lease space in the building now that it's been sold.

VIDEO: Oakland schools face budget cuts

Now Playing: KTVU's Rob Roth takes a look at what is expected to follow after the decision to cut $9 million. Video: KTVU

The building first opened in 1929 as H.C. Capwell's Department Store. It eventually became a Sears store, which closed in 2014, and has been vacant since.

In a press release, CIM expressed enthusiasm for the location,promising to finally open the renovated 356,000-square-foot building as a "Class-A creative office building." It would also feature 35,000 square feet of ground floor retail space in a multi-story atrium lobby, according to CIM.

"With immediate access to a BART station at 19th Street, the building's historic character, exceptional 78,000-square-foot floorplates on three floors, ample ceiling heights, interior atrium, and abundant outdoor deck space, Uptown Station is a rare opportunity and a standout among office properties in the BayArea for a broad array of large creative office tenants," CIM co-founder Avi Shemesh said in a statement.

CIM will have to sign on new anchor tenants. Uber's withdrawal also prompted anchor retailer Newbury Market to cancel its plans for a food hall that would have occupied two-thirds of the retail space, Eater reported in September, shortly after news broke that Uber was looking to sell.

Renovations are expected to be completed in late 2018, according to CIM.
For a couple days in January, Santa Rosa had been known to host RateBeer Best, a high-profile lineup of brewers of unparalleled talent, generating tourism money for the city in the process.

Unfortunately, those days may be over.

In 2016 and 2017, brewers came from all over the world  Brazil, the U.K., Belgium, Sweden, and all corners of the U.S.  to RateBeer Best, RateBeer's beer festival and live annual awards ceremony. Top-ranking breweries received medals for brews that earned higher ratings from RateBeer's site users than any other breweries in their states and countries. It was also an occasion for beer fans to visit the North Bay city to sample offerings from a number of the best breweries in the world.

"This [fest] lineup is the best all-around," said Medford Howell, a bartender at Russian River Brewing Company, at the awards ceremony in January.

RELATED: RateBeer ranks Russian River, Moonraker and other NorCal brewers among best in world

But things have changed since then. Joe Tucker, RateBeer's executive director, moved to Oregon in April, and a few months later, news broke that ZX Ventures, a "global incubator" arm of Anheuser-Busch InBev, purchased a minority stake in the beer ratings website.

As with other acquisitions by AB InBev, there was immediate blowback. Sam Calagione, the influential founder of Dogfish Head, requested that Tucker remove all ratings of their beer from the site, claiming the site's ownership now had a conflict of interest. Other breweries followed suit.

Now, perhaps due to both major changes, Tucker and RateBeer won't be holding the festival in Santa Rosa this January. Rather, editors will post the names of the winners on the site. And though Tucker won't rule out the possibility of the festival's return to the North Bay in future years, there's no plan to bring it back either.

That may be a loss for the city of Santa Rosa. Tucker estimates that RateBeer Best earned around $2 million in 2017  much of which went to charity  but was a real positive financial impact for local hotels and restaurants in what's typically their offseason.

"There are more beer festivals than you can count in the Bay," says Brad Calkins, executive director of Visit Santa Rosa. "We really look for one that's going to bring in the outside visitor. That's what we loved about RateBeer (Best). People came from St. Louis, Belgium, Boston, wherever."

Citing influential breweries like Hill Farmstead and others in Belgium, Calkins notes that RateBeer Best has the name recognition to draw in quality brewers and with them, their fans around California.

"It brought in such quality brewers that someone from Sacramento or Los Angeles would travel to and spend the night in Santa Rosa to try those beers," he adds.

But with AB InBev's involvement in RateBeer's endeavors, Tucker worries that craft beer loyalists in the U.S. may be wary of buying a ticket to the famed festival, even if the event benefits charities.

"I don't want there to be an opportunity for there to be an issue with regular (site) users or people out in the community," Tucker says. "The broader beer community is where there is some kind of stink we'd have to spend hours managing. We're still a tiny company. I don't enjoy dedicating hours to address public blowouts."

As a result, Tucker might take the RateBeer Best festival overseas, "where we wouldn't run into the PR issue."

"There are certainly places in Europe that would jump on an opportunity like this, but it's far before any planning," he adds.

In the meantime, in the wake of devastating fires from which the local tourism industry is still trying to recover, Santa Rosa is considering what to do next. The city doesn't have the manpower to plan another beer festival on its own, Calkins notes, so they're hoping to partner with another group to create a new beer festival tradition in town.

"We don't have the staff capacity to organize and that's where we enjoyed RateBeer, because Joe brought the name recognition and Mark (Lagris, the event organizer) brought the expertise," he says. "We brought the marketing behind some of that."

For now, the city is in "preliminary discussions" with a number of local beer retailers and other companies who may be willing to come together to build a new festival.

"There are quite a few ideas out there," Calkins adds, "but nothing in the details."

Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira.


In 1890, 14 years after Dr. John Kellogg converted a two-story home into a health institute, his Battle Creek Sanitarium had evolved into a massive medical center. The Michigan facility included a five-story hospital; 400 acres of land to grow the food seven to 10,000 patients consumed each year; canning and food manufacturing plants; 20 cottages for wealthy clients; and a charity hospital. With hundreds of publications bearing his name, Kellogg had an international reputation as a surgeon, an authority on nutrition, exercise and natural healing, and a patron saint of wellness.

In time, however, Johns younger brother Will would become the Kellogg. Founded in 1906, his Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company (based on the premise that there were many more healthy people eager to eat tasty, crunchy corn flakes for breakfast than sick people looking for health foods to aid their digestion) controlled more than 40 percent of the domestic ready-to-eat cereal market (and more than half of international sales) within three decades. And Wills signature was on every box. After Wills death, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation donated billions of dollars to worthy causes.

In The Kelloggs, Howard Markel, a physician and professor of the history of medicine at the University of Michigan, tells the fascinating (and intertwined) stories of the brothers, who, it turns out, hated one another.

Markel struggles at times to balance the voluminous recorded material left by John Kellogg with far less ample sources related to Will (and the restrictions imposed on scholars by the Kellogg Foundation). His narrative, moreover, does not always proceed chronologically and is, at times, digressive.

That said, as Markel examines a rivalry that lasted for 70 years (and made its way into boardrooms and courtrooms), he illuminates medical, nutritional and business practices in the United States at the turn of the 20th century, and the ways in which John and Will were  and were not  men of their times.

Breaking with conventional wisdom, Markel reveals, John Kellogg insisted that his patients move about as soon as possible after surgery, and remain hydrated. He warned that fashionable, tight-fitting corsets caused muscle injuries, poor posture, and damage to digestive and reproductive organs. Published in 1922, his book Tobaccoism, or How Tobacco Kills, maintained that cigarette smoking is addictive. Equally prescient were his advocacy of psyllium as a laxative, his studies of soy milk as a treatment for bowel problems in infants, and his role in developing bran cereals, fiber bars and nut foods.

Markel reads into the record as well the precepts that contributed to Dr. Kelloggs reputation as a quack. He thought masturbation a scourge, for example, bandaging the hands of boys, and if that did not work, circumcising them in a procedure without an anesthetic because pain, especially if connected with the idea of punishment would have a salutary effect on the mind. And, Kellogg was a vigorous proponent, facilitator, and financial backer of the racist pseudo-scientific eugenics movement.

Unlike his brother, Markel points out, Will Kellogg was a brilliant businessman, who made superb use of the latest developments in advertising, marketing and mass production. His Battle Creek operation was highly mechanized, operating 24 hours a day. To stimulate demand, Will authorized the installation of thousands of giant electric billboards depicting a child whose tearful plea I Want Kelloggs Toasted Corn Flakes turned to a smiling announcement, I Got Kelloggs Toasted Corn Flakes. He put toys in every cereal box, taking special pleasure in the knowledge that the space they filled up would have cost more had it contained corn flakes. And Will approved the slogan Snap, Crackle and Pop for a new product called Rice Krispies.

Biography lends to death a new terror, Oscar Wilde once wrote. This is not the case with The Kelloggs. To be sure, Markel documents the substantial and destructive character flaws and errors of judgment of each of the two brothers. More importantly, he gives them their due.

John Kellogg, Markel maintains, may not have always looked before he spent, spoke, or acted, but in his philanthropic, missionary, and medical work, in his new food creations, mechanical inventions, publishing and public health ventures, he was generous to a fault. And some of Dr. Kelloggs ideas about wellness remain sage prescriptions written out millions of times each day.

Will Kellogg, who may or may not have invented corn flakes, Markel indicates, has in a sense achieved the immortality denied to his charismatic and once more famous older brother.

Although neither Will nor John ever admitted it, Markel also concludes, their success was mutually dependent if not outright synergistic. After all, their shared interests and collaboration in their early years enabled John to create a university of health and wellness and Will to identify the possibilities of those toasted flakes of corn.

Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell University. Email: books@sfchronicle.com

The Kelloggs

The Battling Brothers of Battling Creek

By Howard Markel

(Pantheon; 506 pages; $35)
Uber lost a bid to prevent two unions representing taxi drivers from taking part in the appeal of Transport for Londons decision to ban the company from operating in the city.

The GMB union and the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association can take part in the appeal on a limited basis, Judge Emma Arbuthnot ruled Tuesday. The five-day hearing will start on June 25, she said.

The London fight over the companys right to pick up passengers is one of many legal battles Uber faces in Europe. On Wednesday, the European Unions top court will issue a ruling on whether Uber should be considered a taxi company or a digital app provider for regulatory purposes.

A spokesman for Uber declined to comment after the decision. The unions didnt immediately respond to requests to comment.

The decision leaves more than six months for the transport regulator and Uber to reach an agreement on the license to operate  a resolution both sides have expressed a desire to reach.

Economy

Housing starts

up in November

Construction of new homes increased 3.3 percent in November  with the gain largely coming from single-family houses being built at the strongest pace in more than a decade.

The Commerce Department said Tuesday that builders broke ground on homes last month at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.3 million units. The increase marks a key moment in the recovery from the recession: Builders started work on single-family houses at the fastest pace since September 2007, which was just a few months before the start of that economic downturn.

Driving the rebound in home construction has been a shortage of existing properties being listed for sale.

Fewer people are putting their property on the market, despite healthy demand from buyers. New construction has filled some of this gap with starts on single-family houses rising 8.7 percent this year.

The construction growth last month came from the South and West, while the Northeast and Midwest reported declines.

Earnings

Stitch Fix

disappoints

Stitch Fixs first earnings report as a public company has disappointed Wall Street and its shares plunged in after-hours trading.

The San Francisco online clothing styling service said Tuesday that it expects to make less money from the boxes of clothes it sends customers, due to rising shipping costs and having fewer products available in distribution centers for newer categories, such as mens and plus size clothes.

Stitch Fix reported profit of $13.5 million (4 cents per share) in the fiscal first quarter, missing analyst expectations by a penny.

Its shares closed at $24.76, up from its IPO price of $15. They sank nearly 12 percent to $21.81 after markets closed.

Export-Import Bank

Nominee

voted down

A GOP-controlled Senate panel rebuffed President Trump on Tuesday, killing the nomination of his controversial pick to run the Export-Import Bank.

Sens. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Mike Rounds, R-S.D., joined Democratic colleagues on the Banking Committee to shelve the nomination of former Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J., to head up the bank, which provides loans, credit insurance and loan guarantees to help foreign buyers purchase U.S. exports.

It has many GOP critics who say it distorts markets and benefits large corporations.

Garrett voted to shutter the bank when serving in Congress and didnt apologize for his opposition when testifying at his confirmation hearing. The bank has been languishing since 2015 without a quorum of board members required to approve larger transactions.

Chronicle News Services
SHANGHAI  China is the worlds No. 1 polluter. It burns more coal than the rest of the world combined. It produces more than a quarter of the worlds human-caused global warming gases, nearly as much as North America and Europe put together.

On Tuesday, the country set out to claim another title reflecting its ambitions to change all that: keeper of the worlds largest financial market devoted to cleaning up the air.

China released plans to start a giant market to trade credits for the right to emit planet-warming greenhouse gases. The nationwide market would initially cover Chinas vast, state-dominated power generation sector, which produced almost half of the countrys emissions from the burning of fossil fuels last year.

If it works as intended, an emissions market will give Chinese power companies a financial incentive to operate more cleanly.

The long-awaited announcement could bolster global efforts to combat climate change after President Trump signaled that the United States would back away from Obama-era promises to curb emissions. It could also serve as a big  though ultimately government-controlled  laboratory for such carbon markets, after earlier efforts in Europe and at the local level in China stumbled.

Chinas move to create the worlds largest carbon market is yet another powerful sign that a global sustainability revolution is under way, Al Gore, the former vice president and a prominent voice on the environment, said in a statement.

The government did not issue a hard timeline, and regulations and other details still have to be worked out. But environmental groups that worked with the government said they could emerge in the next couple of years. Everything is gradual, step by step, said Li Junfeng, a senior government adviser on the carbon market plan.

Chinas announcement could also disappoint those who were hoping the long-promised emissions market would cover the countrys broader economy, the worlds second largest after that of the United States. Chinas booming car culture, its industrializing agriculture sector and its huge chemical complexes, cement factories and steel mills are also big emitters.

Still, environmental groups welcomed the move. Nathaniel Keohane, vice president for global climate at the Environmental Defense Fund, said the market for power-sector emissions alone would cover 3.3 billion tons of annual carbon dioxide releases. The European Unions trading system encompasses about 2 billion tons of emissions.

This is like the Mount Everest of climate policy, Keohane said. Its an incredibly ambitious undertaking.

China is reacting to pressure at home and abroad to clean up its act. Rising sea levels could devastate its heavily populated coast. The Chinese public is increasingly worried about broader environmental issues like urban smog, water quality and soil pollution. China has invested heavily in green technologies such as electric cars, wind turbines and solar panels.

Chinas emissions of greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels like oil, coal and natural gas have nearly tripled since 2000, according to data from the International Energy Agency in Paris. The high tonnage partly reflects its huge population; Chinese emissions per person are still somewhat less than the average per capita figure in the United States, although the gap has been narrowing.

Under emission markets, power companies and others effectively pay for the right to pollute beyond a government-mandated limit. Those that cut their emissions could sell permits to pollute to dirtier companies, ideally at a healthy price.

So far, such efforts have been underwhelming. Markets in Europe and at the provincial level in China have faltered because authorities issued too many credits to existing polluters. That gave companies little reason to buy credits, or to cut their own emissions and sell the credits.

Zou Ji, president of the China arm of the Energy Foundation, one of several Western nonprofit groups that advised the government on the new market, said that China was likely to issue many credits starting early next year in response to domestic political pressures, and then gradually tighten annual allocations to force up the price.

The national emissions-trading system being started will initially cover power companies that emit at least 26,000 tons a year of carbon  the equivalent of burning 10,000 tons of coal a year, and a threshold high enough to cover mainly larger users of coal and natural gas. Experimental markets in the seven original provinces and cities, which further cities and provinces are starting to replicate, will continue to cover the cement and steel industries as well as other manufacturing and industrial sectors. The goal is to eventually move them into the national market.

Kelly Sims Gallagher, a professor of environmental policy at Tufts University, said the Chinese government was right to be cautious by starting with just the electricity sector. Taking a good inventory of emissions, ensuring the cap is set at a level that will actually spur a reduction in carbon dioxide and sorting out emissions allocations are all complex tasks that take time, she said.

Its important to realize you cant do that overnight, Gallagher said.

Keith Bradsher and Lisa Friedman are New York Times writers.
The European Unions highest court Wednesday declared that Uber is a transportation business, not just a tech service that connects drivers with riders.

The ruling, a significant setback for a company already grappling with a string of scandals, will force Uber to comply with the blocs transportation rules. It is also likely to restrict the San Francisco company from expanding services that allowed nonprofessional drivers to offer rides to clients.

While the ruling focused on these so-called peer-to-peer operations, it will most likely be scrutinized by regulators looking more broadly at the gig economy, a growing part of the workforce, in which people operate as freelancers or on short-term contracts as opposed to holding permanent jobs.

Policymakers around the globe have been struggling with how to frame rules for a new style of employment, as rapidly shifting business models outpace regulations that for decades were formulated around traditional 9-to-5 jobs. Legislation in many countries has not kept up with the rising trend toward atypical work arrangements that companies use to cut costs.

The uncertainty has fueled a wave of litigation, leaving the courts to create a patchwork of regulations.

Its normal that authorities dont know what to do  they cant just issue regulations anytime somebody claims to operate a new business model, said Valerio De Stefano, a law professor at the University of Leuven in Belgium. The litigation will lead authorities to better understand what is the reality of the work in the platform economy.

In Ubers case, the company has faced or brought lawsuits  including anticompetitiveness claims and labor disputes  in a number of countries in the European Union and North America.

The case before the European Court of Justice centered on a complaint brought by a taxi group in Barcelona, Spain. The group argued that it was unfair that Uber did not have to adhere to the same rules it did while operating in the city, when Uber ran a peer-to-peer service called UberPop, which linked nonprofessional drivers with riders.

The service has since been disbanded in Spain and several other countries, and Uber said it now operates only with professional drivers in the vast majority of the European Union.

In the decision, the court determined that Uber must be regarded as being inherently linked to a transport service. The 28 member countries in the European bloc will have to regulate the conditions under which such services are to be provided, the court added.

The ruling comes at a crucial time for Uber. The companys new chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, has said he wants to take the company public as early as 2019, but the ride-hailing service has instead been in the spotlight for largely negative reasons in recent months, including accusations of sexual harassment in the workplace. The company on Wednesday also announced the hiring of a chief operating officer: former Orbitz CEO Barney Harford.

London recently stripped Uber of its operating license, citing safety and security concerns, while a British tribunal ruled it could not treat drivers as self-employed contractors. And just last week, court documents showed that U.S. authorities were pursuing at least one criminal investigation into the company.

The European court ruling applies across the European Union, but not elsewhere. The company said that it is already operating under the transportation law of most European countries in which it does business, and that the ruling would have little impact. It added that it would continue a dialogue with cities across Europe for its services.

Elite Taxi, the group that brought the case, said in a Twitter post, Today, taxi drivers have beaten Goliath.

The Barcelona law firm representing Elite Taxi praised the decision and said in a statement that it could be extrapolated to other businesses that keep trying to avoid legal responsibilities in the services that they provide.

The case may provide a benchmark for countries seeking to regulate independent workers, who make up as much as 30 percent of the working-age population in the United States and Europe labors, according to the McKinsey Global Institute. Some worry, though, that such a group could soon become an underclass.

For policymakers, the challenge is to strike a balance between imposing labor protections and heeding warnings by businesses groups that tighter regulation will increase costs and thwart innovation. Revenue from sharing businesses in the region reached an estimated 28 billion euros, or $33 billion, in 2015, the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, reported.

But such numbers may mask the precarious side of atypical work. In Spain, for example, the government reported that 18 million temporary contracts were handed out last year, compared with 1.7 million long-term jobs.

The financial crisis took away a lot of permanent stable employment and skewed statistics to say we have record high employment, said Jeremy Coy, a partner and labor law specialist at the law firm Russell-Cooke, which is based in London. People may be forced to get that work because its the only work out there.

Efforts are under way to modernize the rules. A British review of modern working practices urges changes such as reclassifying gig-economy workers as dependent contractors who would be entitled to employee benefits and social security. The European Commission is also backing proposals to combat declining standards for those with ultra-flexible working hours and no regular salaries.

Some companies are leading the change. In Sweden, an Uber competitor called Bzzt employs drivers on regular contracts with social security, health insurance and other benefits.

We dont need to exploit our staff to be profitable, said Sven Wolf, Bzzts chief executive.

In the absence of clearer rules, those in the freewheeling world of gig work are also turning to unions to help wrest concessions from companies that have grown into juggernauts on the back of flexible labor.

Riders for Foodora, a food-delivery service with operations in Europe, Asia and elsewhere, set up a works council this year in Austria. Crowdsourcing platforms in Germany recently co-signed a code of conduct with IG Metall, the countrys largest trade union.

Liz Alderman is a New York Times writer.
A Santa Rosa attorney and two former executives of the failed Sonoma Valley Bank were convicted Tuesday of conspiracy, money laundering, fraud and a string of other crimes that cost taxpayers millions of dollars, federal prosecutors announced.

Those convicted after an eight-week trial in U.S. District Court in San Francisco were Sean Clark Cutting, 48, of Sonoma, the Sonoma banks chief executive officer before it failed in 2010; Brian Scott Melland, its chief loan officer; and attorney David John Lonich, who had represented the late Sonoma County real estate developer Bijan Madjlessi, who was convicted of similar crimes before his death in 2014.

The defendants resorted to bank fraud, lies to bank regulators, and other crimes in a multiyear scheme to conceal millions of dollars in failed and failing loans, U.S. Attorney Brian Stretch said in a statement.

The crimes, some of which carry penalties of 30 years in prison and $1 million in fines, were a massive fraud scheme designed to conceal bad loan after bad loan, said Christy Goldsmith Romero, a special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Romero said parts of the scheme were enacted soon after the bank received an $8.65 million bailout through TARP  all of which was lost.

Taxpayers lost more than $20 million, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. lost $11.5 million, prosecutors said.

The verdict sends a strong message that bank executives and attorneys who devise and orchestrate multimillion-dollar bank fraud schemes will be held accountable for their crimes, said FDIC Inspector General Jay Lerner.

Among the crimes, the evidence showed that Sonoma Valley Bank loaned Madjlessi and others more than $35 million between 2004 and 2010, beyond the legal lending limit of $24.7 million set by regulators.

To conceal the excess, Cutting and Melland recommended that the bank approve hefty loans to straw borrowers  though they knew the loans were actually going to Madjlessi and his companies, prosecutors said.

Lonich, Madjlessis lawyer, conspired with Cutting and Melland to mislead Sonoma Valley Bank into lending millions more to Madjlessi, again in the name of a nominee or straw borrower, prosecutors said.

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

The mother of a 42-year-old carjacking suspect who was shot and killed by a rookie San Francisco police officer this month has filed a wrongful death lawsuit demanding compensation for the execution of her unarmed son.

Unreasonable and unjustifiable deadly force was used in the Dec. 1 shooting of Keita Iggy ONeil, who was fatally struck just below the neck on a Bayview street corner by a bullet fired by a police officer who had been on the force for four days, according to the suit filed Monday in San Francisco federal court.

At this moment, I am hurting, said ONeils father, Charlie Grayson, in announcing the lawsuit at a news conference inside a church a few blocks from the shooting scene. We are going to miss him.

ONeil had carjacked a California Lottery van on Potrero Hill by shoving the driver to the ground and was then pursued by police to the corner of Fitzgerald Avenue and Griffith Street, where he reached a dead end, police officials said. He got out of the vehicle and was running when he was shot by Officer Christopher Samayoa, who fired through the closed window of his police car as ONeil ran past.

The lawsuit  which also alleges that an unnamed training officer sitting beside Samayoa was negligent for not preventing the shooting  seeks unspecified damages.

Now Playing: WARNIG GRAPHIC VIDEO: Police body camera footage released during a town hall meeting Thursday night showed a rookie San Francisco police officer fatally shooting an unarmed carjacking suspect, who had jumped out of a stolen minivan and ran beside a pursuing patrol cruiser. Keita ONeil, 42, was identified as the man killed by rookie police officer Chris Samayoa. Video: San Francisco Chronicle

It is without question a most shocking evidence of police brutality, said civil-rights attorney John Burris, who is representing ONeils mother, Judy. It was not a panic shooting. Its flat-out deliberate, premeditated murder.

The nine-page complaint, which calls the shooting a wrongful death (and) an execution, says ONeil was unarmed and did not present an immediate threat to the officers (who) were still located inside the safety of the patrol car.

The suit also alleges that neither officer had their body cameras activated during the pursuit, a violation of department policy. Samayoa turned on his camera after the shooting. But the camera had a feature that recorded 30 seconds of action before it was activated and captured the officer firing his weapon through the passenger-side window, hitting ONeil as he jumped out of the stolen minivan and ran.

A spokesman for San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera said the lawsuit was being reviewed but that ONeil was driving a van that had been carjacked, the driver of the van had been assaulted and (ONeil) was leading the police on a high-speed chase.

The lawsuit admits that when (ONeil) finally stopped the van, he got out and ran toward the police car, said John Cote, a spokesman for Herrera.

Alex Bastian, a spokesman for San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon, said the case was under investigation and there are no updates at this time. The district attorney is in charge of criminal investigation of the shooting.

During a Dec. 7 town hall meeting at the True Hope Church on Gilman Avenue in the Bayview, San Francisco police officials played two videos of the shooting, prompting gasps and outrage from about 100 community members. While the shooting remains under investigation, Police Chief Bill Scott said the footage was released for the purposes of transparency without drawing any conclusion during this stage of the investigation.

Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Vacaville police shot and critically wounded a man suspected of stabbing two of his family members, leading officers on a chase and ramming into a driver, officials said Wednesday.

The episode began about 5 p.m. Tuesday when officers responded to reports of a stabbing at a residence on the 900 block of Granada Lane, police said.

When officers arrived, they discovered two people stabbed inside the residence and were told a family member was responsible and had fled, police said.

Both victims, a man and woman whose names were not released, had non-life-threatening injuries. The woman was taken to a hospital and the man received medical treatment at the scene.

The victims provided officers with a description of the suspect and his car. Officers tracked down the suspect on Vine Street, about a mile and a half away from the incident, where they attempted to stop him.

After a short pursuit, the suspects car slammed into a vehicle at the intersection of Vine Street and Markham Avenue. The driver of the car that was hit, whose name was not released, was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

Officers opened fire on the suspect, critically injuring him, police said. The circumstances that prompted police to shoot the suspect were under investigation.

The identities of the suspect and the officers involved in the shooting were not released.

The incident was the second officer-involved shooting in the Bay Area on Tuesday. A police officer in Corte Madera shot and wounded a 23-year-old man about 5:45 p.m. when he apparently reached for a gun in his front pocket of his sweatshirt.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

A 20-year-old woman suspected of stabbing a 19-year-old man to death during a domestic violence dispute outside a Fremont fast-food restaurant over the weekend was charged for murder, officials said.

Ayah Abdallah of Fremont was arraigned Tuesday at Fremont Hall of Justice on charges of murder and being armed with a deadly weapon.

The incident unfolded Sunday when police dispatchers received reports of the stabbing about 10 p.m. outside a Burger King on the 41000 block of Fremont Boulevard, police said.

The victim, Yusuf Nawabi of Fremont, was stabbed in the stomach during the altercation, police said.

Witnesses said they believe the incident began as a domestic dispute, police said.

Police officers and paramedics quickly arrived on scene and began performing lifesaving measures on Nawabi, who died at a hospital.

Police did not comment on the nature of the relationship between Nawabi and Abdallah.

Abdallah fled the Burger King in a silver Mercedes E-Class sedan, witnesses said. A witness provided police with a partial license plate number and detailed description of Abdallah, police said.

Officers learned the registered owner of the car lived on the 38000 block of Logan Drive, nearly three miles from where the stabbing occurred, police said. When officers arrived at the house, the Mercedes was parked in front.

Police conducted surveillance on the house and arrested Abdallah when she came out and got into the car about 11:45 p.m., officials said.

A black knife with a 4 1/2 blade was found on Abdallah at the time of her arrest, police said.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

A UC Berkeley doctoral student whose academic career changed dramatically after an architecture professor placed his hand on her upper thigh and proposed they become close friends has agreed not to sue the University of California in exchange for an $80,000 settlement, The Chronicle has learned.

The university admits no wrongdoing under the settlement agreement, which was finalized last Wednesday and includes attorneys fees.

Nezar AlSayyad, a tenured architecture professor and an internationally recognized Middle East scholar, remains employed at UC Berkeley more than a year after an independent investigator determined that he sexually harassed his former student, Eva Hagberg Fisher, from 2012 to 2014.

The university has given AlSayyad no classes to teach since fall 2016, but he continues to receive $211,000 a year. He has taught at UC Berkeley since 1985.

Student protests erupted against AlSayyad and the campus administration in November 2016, after The Chronicle first reported the investigators findings. Dozens of graduate students also signed a petition demanding that the administration revoke AlSayyads tenure if a separate investigation by the Faculty Senate determined that the professor violated the Faculty Code of Conduct.

That highly confidential process is under way, The Chronicle has learned. In the 149-year history of the university, just eight professors have lost tenure.

AlSayyad, 62, has denied all allegations of misconduct.

Meanwhile, despite the campus finding against the professor, Hagberg Fisher, 35, said her access to the architecture library is still restricted because she worries about running into AlSayyad.

Scott Strazzante / Scott Strazzante / The Chronicle 2016

I feel dumbfounded. I feel angry, she said, Its inexplicable that I am restricted in any way from going wherever I want. That he has much more access to the building than I do  and Im trying to finish my dissertation.

Hagberg Fisher filed her sexual-harassment complaint on March 31, 2016. A year and a half later, she said, I still cant get my education.

A UC Berkeley spokeswoman confirmed that Hagberg Fishers potential civil claims have been resolved. As part of the settlement, the university is required to issue a statement, which reads in part:

The University acknowledges and appreciates the efforts of Ms. Fisher, and other brave complainants in the UC community, who have come forward with complaints of sexual harassment, and brought this issue to light.

Spokeswoman Janet Gilmore said that UC policy bars her from releasing additional information at this time.

Hagberg Fisher said she had been prepared to sue the university over delays she said shes had to endure since making her report  including the time it took to get answers to questions and the four months she said it took to get a no-contact directive sorted out.

Under the settlement, which stipulates that the university promptly responded to Hagberg Fishers allegations, she wont sue. In exchange, the UC regents will pay her $55,000, and give $25,000 to her attorney.

UC has recently paid far larger amounts to settle lawsuits by sexual-harassment claimants.

In April, the regents agreed to pay $1.7 million over 10 years to settle the lawsuit of a UC Berkeley employee who claimed that her boss, Sujit Choudhry, then dean of the law school, hugged, kissed and touched her repeatedly during 2014 and 2015, and that the campus did nothing to stop it.

That payout exceeded what had been a record UC settlement for sexual harassment, the $1.15 million won in January by a UC Santa Cruz student to settle her claim that a professor raped her when she was his student in 2015. The Chronicle hasnt named the professor because he hasnt been criminally charged.

In the case of AlSayyad, the investigators 52-page report, obtained by The Chronicle, concluded that the professors behavior toward Hagberg Fisher became increasingly personal, with frequent social invitations and hugs, as he sought to make her beholden to him.

The conduct can be seen as an attempt to groom (the student) for the possibility of becoming a romantic or sexual partner, wrote lawyer Eve Fichtner, the investigator.

Hagberg Fisher said last year that she nearly quit school and had years of self-doubt while AlSayyad held sway over her. And when I trace it back, it all goes back to him, she said.

The investigator found that AlSayyad sexually harassed Hagberg Fisher at a crucial time, while he served on an exam committee that would determine whether she was qualified to write the dissertation needed for her degree. The professor invited Hagberg Fisher to dinner and drinks repeatedly and expressed his love for her, despite his position of trust, authority and power, according to the report. He also hugged her and commented on her appearance, the report said, including on the morning of her doctoral exams.

Hagberg Fisher remained in school, but she withdrew from the architecture department and created an independent doctoral program.

Although Hagberg Fisher said the process of speaking up and reporting AlSayyad has been frustrating and, at times, discouraging, she is glad that she did.

I definitely know I did the right thing, she said.

Nanette Asimov and Cynthia Dizikes are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com, cdizikes@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov, @CDizikes
JOHNSTON | More work remains to convince federal government leaders that the U.S. should not withdraw from a North American trade agreement, especially since such an action could damage Iowas agriculture economy, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said Tuesday.

Reynolds a week ago traveled to the nations capital to discuss the trade agreement with top federal leaders, including Vice President Mike Pence and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.

During her weekly news conference Tuesday at DuPont Pioneer headquarters in this Des Moines suburb, Reynolds described those discussions as healthy but added that Iowa leaders must continue to urge federal leaders to be cautious with the trade agreement.

President Donald Trump has said the U.S. must renegotiate multiple international trade deals, including NAFTA, a trade agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico that was signed in 1994.

Iowa government and agriculture leaders say a U.S. withdrawal from the trade agreement would devastate Iowas economy. Canada and Mexico are Iowas top trade partners.

It would be devastating, Reynolds said.

During her most recent trip to Washington, D.C., Reynolds spoke about the trade agreement with Pence, Perdue, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. Reynolds said she made clear to those leaders that a U.S. withdrawal from NAFTA would crush Midwest farmers who already are feeling the pinch of low commodity and land prices.

Their intention is to hold ag harmless, but the fact of the matter is whenever we talk about pulling out (of trade deals), commodity prices are affected immediately, and that will be one of the first casualties that well see, Reynolds said. So were going to hold them accountable. Were going to continue to have conversations.

Ross earlier this year said he thinks farm groups and advocates are exaggerating when they say a U.S. withdrawal from NAFTA would hurt farmers.

Reynolds said she told Ross that farmers concerns are legitimate.

I indicated to (Ross) that (farmers) are feeling the pressure and theyre concerned, Reynolds said. And if you think theyre going to stand down and just let this be a negotiating tactic, theyre not. Youre going to hear from me. And youre going to hear from Iowa farmers about the impact that this would have on the ag economy, not only in Iowa but in the Midwest and across this country. Its serious.

The U.S., Canada and Mexico met in November to negotiate potential changes to the trade agreement. U.S. officials expressed frustration that the other countries did not seem willing to make changes, while Canada and Mexico said some of the U.S. demands would be harmful for all three countries under the agreement.

Reynolds said her administration will continue to communicate their concerns to the federal administration, especially their concern regarding what might happen if the U.S. withdraws from the trade agreement.

This would have a devastating impact, Reynolds said. Free and fair trade, modernizing, were all about that. But we just need to be very careful about how we talk about this moving forward.
Sometimes, miracles do happen.

The Passion of Joan of Arc, Carl Theodore Dreyers 1928 silent masterpiece, remains one of the most intense films ever made, with a one-of-a-kind central performance by Maria Falconetti in her only major film role.

That theres a revelatory new restoration, with a newly created electronic and acoustic score by Will Gregory of Goldfrapp and Adrian Utley of Portishead, seems, like the visions of Joan, to be some sort of divine intervention.

Consider that the film was virtually lost for half a century, surviving only in tantalizing scraps after the original negative was destroyed, as much nitrate-based film was at the time, in a fire. Then, in 1981, a print of the complete, uncut version was discovered, in all places, the janitors closet in a mental institution in Oslo, Norway.

A restoration debuted in 1985, but film preservation techniques have come a long way in the decades since. Now, one can appreciate the groundbreaking vision of Dreyer, Falconetti and cinematographer Rudolph Mate in its full power. The new restoration has played recently at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive and last week at the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael with an older score, but the print is scheduled to screen with the new score at the Smith Rafael at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 21, and Dec. 28.

Joan of Arc (1412-31), of course, famously claimed to receive heavenly visions that told her to support the French king Charles VII and resist British occupation of France near the end of the Hundred Years War. Although a teenage girl, Joan fought in the French army and was instrumental in the French victory at the Battle of Orleans, becoming a national hero. But she was captured and put on trial by the British, who challenged her visions as blasphemous and burned her at the stake.

When Dreyer, a Danish director, decided to make a film of Joan of Arc, she was all the rage in popular culture. Cecil B. DeMille made an action-packed epic about her (Joan the Woman, 1916); she was canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church in 1920 and soon after was the subject of a popular George Bernard Shaw play.

But Dreyer went a whole other direction. Instead of an action epic, he created an intimate film of close-ups, focusing on the trial of Joan of Arc. He based his screenplay on actual trial transcripts, built sparse sets and, unusual in a silent film at the time, dictated that the actors wear no makeup.

I did not study the clothes of the times and things like that, Dreyer later wrote. The year of the event seemed as inessential to me as its distance from the present. I wanted to interpret a hymn to the triumph of the soul over life. Everything human is expressed in the face, as the face is the mirror of the soul.

In Falconetti, Dreyer found a face for the ages. She was a successful comedic actress on the French stage at the time, but her big, expressive eyes and strong bone structure were what he was looking for. Mate, later a cinematographer (Stella Dallas, Foreign Correspondent) and director (D.O.A.) in Hollywood, used a special panchromatic film stock that made facial details stand out with a sharp clarity.

Most of the film is an interrogation, where Joan, the only major female character in the film, undergoes some serious gaslighting by her all male inquisitors. Her anguish is heightened not only by close-ups that fill the screen with her face, but also by the juxtaposition against bright white walls in the background and monochromatic skies.

In reality, Dreyer and Mate had the interior sets tinted yellow and the exteriors pink to heighten the look of this black-and-white film. It really is an extraordinary piece of cinema.

But the film belongs to Falconetti. Joan of Arc would later be played by actresses such as Ingrid Bergman, Jean Seberg, Milla Jovovich and Gemma Arterton, but no one found the soul of a martyr quite like this extraordinary actress, who never appeared in another film.

7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 21 and Dec. 28. Smith Rafael Film Center. 1118 Fourth St., San Rafael. (415) 454-1222. www.cafilm.org

G. Allen Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ajohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BRfilmsAllen
SANTA BARBARA  A respite from powerful winds allowed firefighters to reach 50 percent containment of Southern Californias enormous wildfire, but officials warned that potentially dangerous gusts would return.

Crews taking advantage of calm conditions were performing a controlled burn Tuesday to remove swaths of dry brush along the fires northern edge.

Were going to take a lot of that fuel out of there, fire Capt. Rick Crawford said. That way when the winds come back therell be nothing left to burn.

Residents near the city of Ojai could see new smoke from the controlled burn, Crawford said.

Hot, gusty winds that caused a huge flare-up and forced more evacuations last weekend are expected to whip up again Wednesday.

The fire northwest of Los Angeles has spread to about 423 square miles, making it the third biggest in the state since accurate records were kept starting in 1932. The largest, the 2003 Cedar Fire in San Diego County, burned about 427 square miles.

Officials estimate that the Thomas Fire will grow to become the biggest in California history before full containment, which is expected by Jan. 7.

Some evacuations were lifted Monday, and Crawford said more residents are being allowed to return Tuesday.

However he cautioned that hillside homes are still threatened near the city of Santa Barbara, where firefighters mounted an aggressive air attack on stubborn flames.

The fire churning through brush in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties has burned more than 1,000 structures, including at least 750 homes.

Firefighter Cory Iverson, 32, died Dec. 14 of burns and smoke inhalation while battling the flames. The blaze is also blamed for the Dec. 6 death of a 70-year-old woman who died in a car crash on an evacuation route.

More than 8,000 firefighters from nearly a dozen states are battling the blaze.

The cause remains under investigation.
CHICAGO  A Chicago foundation awarded $100 million Wednesday to two New York-based organizations to help educate millions of Syrian refugee children through home visits, learning centers and local versions of the educational program Sesame Street.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced Sesame Workshop and the International Rescue Committee as joint winners of a competitive grant program aimed at solving critical problems. Their project was chosen from more than 1,900 submitted proposals.

Officials with the organizations said they will use the five-year grant to address toxic stress experienced by displaced children in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria, in addition to educational basics. Roughly 9.4 million children will have access to the local version of Sesame Street in Arabic and Iraqi Kurdish through television, cell phones and direct services. The emphasis will be on language, reading, math and social skills, along with lessons on inclusion and equality.

Ryan Heffernan/Associated Press

The program also will include child development centers; community sites where organizers envision families will have access to books and videos; and home visits to bring books, toys and parenting resources. An estimated 1.5 million children will receive in-person services, organization officials said.

There is no more pressing issue. This is the humanitarian crisis of our time, said Sherrie Westin, an executive vice president at Sesame Workshop, a nonprofit organization behind the longtime television show.

The money represents a significant cash infusion for not only the organizations, but efforts in general to help refugee children. Officials with both Sesame, a nonprofit group with about a $117 million budget, and the International Rescue Committee believe its one of the biggest grants of its kind. IRCs annual budget is roughly $750 million.

Westin said she hopes the evidence-based program will become an educational model for refugee children worldwide.

Officials said theres already infrastructure in place for some of the community centers because of IRC. The International Rescue Committee is a humanitarian organization founded in 1933 that works in dozens of countries.

Sophia Tareen is an Associated Press writer.
Now Playing: It's not everyday a drunk man walks into a police station. Video: WISN

A man was arrested at a Wisconsin police department for driving under the influence after a misguided attempt to pick up a friend from jail  who was also arrested for a DUI.

Brown Deer police said the first offender was arrested Sunday night for causing some minor property damage with their vehicle in the parking lot of a bar, according to television station WITI-TV. The woman was arrested on suspicion of a DUI and taken to the police station, where she was instructed to call a friend to pick her up.
1 Russia probe: The Green Partys 2016 presidential nominee says shes cooperating with a request for documents from a Senate committee probing Russian meddling in the U.S. election. Jill Stein has acknowledged attending a 2015 event in Moscow celebrating the anniversary of a state-sponsored Russian news organization. The event has attracted investigators attention because former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn also attended and sat beside Russian President Vladimir Putin. Stein said Tuesday shes sharing all communications relevant to the Senate Intelligence Committees mission. The Massachusetts physician says she accepted an invitation to attend the Moscow event and that her campaign did not receive payment or reimbursement for the trip.

2 Park wildfire: Officials say a wildfire that has burned more than half of South Dakotas Custer State Park is completely contained. The park tweeted Tuesday that staff are busy fixing fences, removing hazard trees and monitoring park wildlife. The tweet says that park burros, which had been burned in the fire, remain under veterinary care. The fire burned more than 84 square miles since it started from a downed power line on Dec. 11. The park just south of Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a top tourist destination, featuring hills with ponderosa pine and prairie.
MASON CITY | Cerro Gordo County Emergency Management will host the Community Emergency Response Team course at the Mason City Police Department.

Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training promotes a partnering effort between emergency services and the people they serve. The goal of the course is to train community members in basic response skills.

If a disastrous event effects the communitys professional response, CERT members can assist others by applying the basic response and organizational skills that they have learned during the training.

The class is free and will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Jan. 6 and Jan. 13.

Those interested in attending the CERT class should email soneil@cgcounty.org or call 641-421-3665.

 Courtney Fiorini
MASON CITY | About 6:30 a.m. Dec. 2, 2016, Mason City police investigator Terrance Prochaska began his interview with Larry Whaley.

On Wednesday afternoon, Prochaska detailed much of that conversation with a Cerro Gordo County jury, which will soon determine if Whaley is guilty or not guilty of the second-degree murder in the shooting of 19-year-old Samantha Teeter.

Prochaska testified Wednesday that Whaley told him he felt threatened by Corey Mays the entire week leading up to the incident, and believed Mays had a key to his apartment and a gun.

Much of his testimony described the Dec. 1 timeline Whaley told him. That included Whaley renting a hotel room at the Days Inn for himself and Deb Ewing  the only other person in his apartment when he fired his .44-caliber revolver.

Before that, Whaley, Ewing, Samantha Teeter and Kalab Van Scyoc, Teeters boyfriend, had bought ammunition and a cell phone at Walmart in Mason City, shortly after 7 p.m. Dec. 1, Prochaska testified.

Whaley had previously bought the revolver earlier that day from a Charles City man, named Charles, for $500, Prochaska added.

Prochaskas timeline was dense, but it eventually put Ewing, Whaley, Teeter and Van Scyoc back at his apartment late that night. Whaley left to go see a friend and then to buy a TV and groceries from Walmart before returning.

As Whaley was doing that, Teeter and Van Scyoc got into an argument, and then eventually left the apartment with Whaleys key, Prochaska testified. When Whaley returned, Ewing told him they had left, and that Teeter said she would return.

Whaley then proceeded to insert two kitchen knives into his front doorjamb  Prochaska detailed this to the jury and demonstrated it on the door itself, which was brought into the courtroom Wednesday morning. Whaley then sat on his one of his couches with his revolver.

The next sequence detailed the shooting itself, which occurred about 3:43 a.m. Dec. 2, 2016.

He saw the doorknob starting to move, Prochaska testified. And then he said he heard knocking.

He said he got up, walked over to the door, and shot through it, he later added.

Prochaska later clarified that Whaley shot three shots total, and only yelled for someone to get away from his door after he first fired through it. He detailed how Whaley described the shooting, standing up and mimicking how it occurredone shot through the door, a pause, then two shots to the right.

In State Public Defender Mike Adams cross-examination, he asked whether Whaley was nervous about Corey Mays, who was allegedly involved in a shooting in the plaza near the north entrance to Soutbridge Mall Oct. 16, 2017.

Prochaska stated Whaley told him this in the initial interview, and that he was hoping Corey behind the door instead of Teeter. He added immediate recollections of events can be jumbled because of how stressful a shooting situation is.

Iowa Assistant Attorney General Douglas Hammerand followed up by questioning Prochaska if Whaley said he was confused when he was being interviewed Dec. 2, 2016. The Mason City police investigator said he hadnt.

The states last witness was Dr. Ross Reichard, a pathologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. Reichard performed the autopsy on Teeter Dec. 5, 2016, a day after she died.

Reichard testified he ruled Teeters death a homicide based off medical records and the autopsy. Photos of that autopsy, released in court, showed Teeter had been shot through her right eye.

Testimony ended about 3:10 p.m. Wednesday, and the defense is expected to begin calling witnesses tomorrow. Judge Christopher Foy said earlier Wednesday that he hopes to hand the case to the jury by the end of this week.

Previous story:

MASON CITY | Around 10:45 a.m. Wednesday morning, Cerro Gordo County Attorney Carlyle Dalen and Iowa Assistant Attorney General Douglas Hammerand carried in a white door into Courtroom No. 1 at the Cerro Gordo County Courthouse.

That door contained the hole where a bullet traveled through and hit 19-year-old Samantha Teeter in the head. Teeter died two days later in the hospital.

Larry Whaley, 61, of Mason City, has been charged with second-degree murder in Teeter's death. Police say Whaley shot Teeter through the door of his second-floor apartment in southeastern Mason City on Dec. 2, 2016.

Dalen and Hammerand's argument is that Whaley was not justified in shooting through his apartment door. State public defenders Mike Adams and Jill Eimermann argue he was acting in self-defense, and thought another person was behind the door.

Much of Wednesday morning's testimony focused on how the gun functioned, and physical evidence tied to the crime scene. Victor Murillo, a firearms expert who works in the state's Division of Criminal Investigation, told the jury how he examined the .44-caliber revolver that was recovered at Whaley's apartment the morning of the shooting.

He also handled the gun itself, and explained its different parts and how it works.

Another expert witness who testified Wednesday was Dennis Kern, a fingerprint expert with the DCI. He said no conclusive fingerprints could be found on the gun, but did say a box of bullets recovered at the crime scene was missing five bullets.

Multiple law enforcement officials who have testified in the trial said five rounds were found in the gun's chamber, but only three were fired. Pictures shown to the jury revealed one shot was fired from inside Whaley's apartment through his front door, and two to the right of the door.

Testimony is expected to continue Wednesday afternoon.
A San Francisco police officer who shot and killed himself in Richmond after being pulled over by an officer in that city was under investigation for child sexual abuse in Las Vegas, authorities said Tuesday.

The officer, identified by the Contra Costa County coroners office as 49-year-old Richmond resident Antonio Malinao Cacatian, killed himself Monday during a traffic stop in the Hilltop Mall parking lot.

Cacatian was a nine-year veteran of the San Francisco force and had worked out of the Taraval and Park district stations.

Police in Las Vegas began investigating Cacatian in November after learning he may have committed sexual acts in 2014 upon a child under the age of 14, said Officer Laura Meltzer, a spokeswoman for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

Richmond Police Department

The suspected victim didnt appear to be a stranger to Cacatian, Meltzer said. Police did not elaborate on the circumstances because of the childs age.

Las Vegas detectives were in the process of handing the case over to the Clark County district attorneys office. They had not secured a warrant for Cacatians arrest, but informed San Francisco police officials about the case sometime after Dec. 11, Meltzer said.

Cacatian killed himself at about 1:30 p.m. in Richmond. As an officer approached his car near a JCPenney store, he heard a gunshot, officials said.

The Richmond officer then retreated to his patrol car, but couldnt see inside Cacatians vehicle because of its tinted windows, said Lt. Felix Tan, a Richmond police spokesman. The officer fired a beanbag round, shattering the windshield, before discovering that Cacatian had shot himself, police said.

San Francisco police officials would not discuss the shooting, but said investigators were in Richmond regarding an investigation that involved multiple jurisdictions.

The Chief of Police and command staff of the San Francisco Police Department have expressed their condolences to the officers family, officials said in a statement.

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

The city and county of Santa Cruz have joined a growing number of communities suing oil companies over climate change, alleging a plot in which the fossil fuel industry concealed the dangers of its products from consumers, much like the tobacco industry did decades ago.

The two lawsuits, filed Wednesday, blame the use and combustion of oil, gas and coal for accelerating sea-level rise and threatening hundreds of millions of dollars of damage to the famously serene and much visited Santa Cruz County coast.

While the challenge is similar to other suits recently filed by waterfront communities in California, including San Francisco, the new cases in Santa Cruz County Superior Court go a step further. They seek to recoup not only the costs of rising seas but of other climate-related events, including big storms, wildfires and drought.

We believe enough is enough, said Santa Cruz County Supervisor Zach Friend, who represents the seaside city of Capitola as well as several miles of unincorporated shoreline along Monterey Bay.

These types of weather events are going to become more common and we can expect more of the fires we saw in Wine Country and Southern California, Friend said. It is directly related to fossil fuel-based climate change.

The tactic of suing oil companies over climate change has gained momentum over the past year in California, as regulation of the fossil fuel industry has eased under President Trump and scientists more precisely link the fallout of global warming to fossil fuels.

Though past lawsuits of this kind have had limited success, the newer cases have yet to be taken up by the courts.

Industry leaders criticize the mounting legal drive as counterproductive.

Chevron welcomes serious attempts to address the issue of climate change, but these suits do not do that, company spokeswoman Melissa Ritchie told The Chronicle in September. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a global issue that requires global engagement and action.

Chevron, among the 29 companies named in the latest lawsuits, is working to reduce its climate footprint. Other defendants include ExxonMobil, BP, Shell and ConocoPhillips.

The suits allege that the multinational corporations knew nearly 50 years ago that their fossil fuel products were contributing to global warming, yet hid the threats and worked to undermine support for regulating their activities.

The plaintiffs draw comparisons to Big Tobaccos efforts to cover up the health risks of cigarettes.

Like the other recent challenges to the oil industry, the Santa Cruz County lawsuits argue the companies constitute a public nuisance.

An estimated 930 buildings will be inundated with water in the city and county under a projection of four inches of sea-level rise by 2030, according to the lawsuit. The region is also likely to face increasing costs from wildfires, water shortages and storms, the suit says.

Legal scholars are paying close attention to the climate battles. While some experts say the suits contain solid research on the effects of fossil fuels on global warming, as well as more information on what executives knew about those effects, convincing a judge or jury of a specific connection between an oil companys practices and local damages may be tough.

The communities suing the firms must also show why their complaints arent better addressed through regulation, rather than in the courts.

Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander
MASON CITY | A Mason City man is in jail after making terroristic threats directed at police officers, hospital staff and others Monday, court documents say.

Steven Dwayne Williams, 49, walked into the Mason City Police Department about 7:30 p.m. and called dispatch from the phone in the lobby.

He told dispatchers he wanted to go to the hospital because he was homicidal and wanted to hurt officers when they arrived, according to court documents.

Officers secured Williams and searched him for contraband. Williams allegedly told them he "wanted to kill somebody" and was upset the hospital would not admit him, court documents said.

He informed the officers that he wants us (police) to take him back to the hospital and if they refuse to admit him he was going to get a bottle of alcohol, make a Molotov cocktail bomb, and come back here (police department) with it, the criminal complaint said.

Williams also threatened to kill children, teenagers, adults and nurses, court documents said.

Williams was charged with felony threats of terrorism.

He is being held in Cerro Gordo County Jail on a $5,000 bond. No court date has been set.
MASON CITY | As Iowa Assistant Attorney General Douglas Hammerand showed a picture of Samantha Teeter to a Cerro Gordo County jury Tuesday, Kalab Van Scyoc started to cry.

Van Scyoc, Teeter's boyfriend, was standing next to her when she was shot through the head Dec. 2, 2016, at an apartment building in southeastern Mason City.

Van Scyoc testified Tuesday about the events leading up to that shooting, and his relationship with Larry Whaley, the man who police say fired the shot through his apartment door.

"She cared for everybody," Van Scyoc testified. "She gave everyone the benefit of the doubt."

Whaley, 61, has been charged with second-degree murder in Teeter's death. Many of her family members and friends packed the right side of the courtroom Tuesday, and cried at several points throughout the morning's testimony.

In Cerro Gordo County Attorney's Carlyle Dalen's opening argument, he told the jury he was confident they would find Whaley guilty of second-degree murder. Dalen argued Whaley was not acting in self-defense, and thus was not justified in shooting through his apartment door.

"Without anything being said, he goes like this," said Dalen while motioning like he was firing a gun, "and goes 'pow,' and shoots through the door."

State Public Defender Mike Adams disagreed with that argument, saying Whaley had reason to fear for his life. He based this off of Whaley's relationship with Corey Mays, a Mason City man involved in a past shooting.

"If you're standing in Larry's shoes, who was it?" Adams asked the jury about who was behind the door. "Larry clearly didn't know ... why would this guy, a former U.S. Marine, shoot? He was terrified."

Van Scyoc was the state's first witness, and he detailed much of what occurred the night of Dec. 1. He and Teeter used bikes to get around, and locked them in his detached garage at 116 17th St. S.E.

He and Teeter left Whaley's apartment, and returned the morning of Dec. 2, after 3 a.m. Van Scyoc testified that he would whistle before entering friends or family's apartments, to let them know he had arrived.

Whaley's apartment was on the second floor of the building. After walking up the steps, Teeter knocked on Whaley's door. She started to put a key in the lock, but it only opened about 2 inches.

The door didn't fully open because Whaley had lodged two knives into the doorjamb. Then, Van Scyoc said he heard a loud sound like two two-by-four pieces of wood colliding.

He saw a hole in Whaley's apartment door. Then he turned, and saw Teeter had been shot.

"This whole side of her face was gone," he said while covering the left side of his head.

Both the prosecution and defendants agreed that Teeter had been shot in the head, but Jill Eimermann, an assistant state public defender, questioned whether Larry knew about Van Scyoc's whistling habit. She also noted Whaley had tried to contact Van Scyoc by phone three times before they returned to the apartment, and had failed each time.

Hammerand, in his redirect examination, asked Van Scyoc if he had ever whistled around Whaley.

"Plenty of times," he said.

Following Van Scyoc's testimony, Mason City Police Officer Stratton Steffy and Sgt. Michael Lillquist were called to describe their actions the morning of Dec. 2. Both were some of the first officers on the scene.

In brief testimony, they described entering through the apartment building's entrance and seeing Teeter on the floor, gasping for air. She had been dragged to the first floor by Van Scyoc.

Before their testimony, Hammerand played Van Scyoc's 911 call for the jury, in which Teeter can be heard.

The Globe Gazette is not sharing audio of the call as it is graphic in nature and does not provide any new information not previously released by police.

The call opens with Van Scyoc, who does not identify himself, telling an unidentified female dispatcher, My girlfriend just got, shes shot."

Van Scyoc later says Teeter had been shot in the head and that he knew who shot her, but did not provide a name.

Lillquist stated he called Whaley after they removed Teeter from the scene, and that he was cooperative and pointed him to where the gun, a .44-caliber pistol, was located in his second-floor apartment. He noted the gun was cocked back and ready to fire.

The only other person in the apartment when Whaley shot Teeter through his front door was Deb Ewing. Ewing testified Tuesday afternoon that she had known Whaley for about a week leading up to the shooting.

Ewing added that she had a prior relationship with Jason Bendickson, a Mason City man convicted of burglary. She suspected he was stalking her around the time she had met Whaley.

Whaley rented a room at the Days Inn in Mason City Dec. 1 for her and himself, and stated he didnt want to return to his apartment. Ewing thought this was for her protection from Bendickson.

He wanted to go to the hotel because he didnt want to kill anybody tonight  thats his words, Ewing testified.

She said she was sleeping on one of Whaleys couches right before the shooting. He woke her, and then within seconds, fired multiple shots toward the front door, she added.

Ewing said she thought she heard the door opening or a key opening the door right after she woke up. State Public Defender Mike Adams questioned her memory in his cross-examination, because she admitted she was using methamphetamine and heroin the night of the shooting.

Ewing responded that she remembers some details but forgets others, and stood by her memory and testimony. When she was re-questioned by Hammerand, she stated she did remember Whaley bought a gun and made the aforementioned statement of not wanting to kill anybody.
MASON CITY | The only other person in the apartment when Larry Whaley shot Samantha Teeter with a .44-caliber Magnum revolver through his front door was Deb Ewing.

Ewing testified Tuesday afternoon that she had known Whaley for about a week leading up to the shooting.

Ewing added that she had a prior relationship with Jason Bendickson, a Mason City man previously convicted of burglary. She suspected he was stalking her around the time she had met Whaley.

Whaley rented a room at the Days Inn in Mason City Dec. 1 for her and himself, and stated he didnt want to return to his apartment. Ewing thought this was for her protection from Bendickson.

He wanted to go to the hotel because he didnt want to kill anybody tonight  thats his words, Ewing testified.

She said she was sleeping on one of Whaleys couches right before the shooting. He woke her, and then within seconds, fired multiple shots toward the front door, she added.

Ewing said she thought she heard the door opening or a key opening the door right after she woke up. State Public Defender Mike Adams questioned her memory in his cross-examination, because she admitted she was using methamphetamine and heroin the night of the shooting.

Ewing responded that she remembers some details but forgets others, and stood by her memory and testimony. When she was re-questioned by Hammerand, she stated she did remember Whaley bought a gun and made the aforementioned statement of not wanting to kill anybody.

Earlier story:

As Iowa Assistant Attorney General Douglas Hammerand showed a picture of Samantha Teeter to a Cerro Gordo County jury Tuesday, Kalab Van Scyoc started to cry.

Van Scyoc, Teeter's boyfriend, was standing next to her when she was shot through the head Dec. 2, 2016, at an apartment building in southeastern Mason City.

Van Scyoc testified Tuesday about the events leading up to that shooting, and his relationship with Larry Whaley, the man who police say fired the shot through his apartment door.

"She cared for everybody," Van Scyoc testified. "She gave everyone the benefit of the doubt."

Whaley, 61, has been charged with second-degree murder in Teeter's death. Many of her family members and friends packed the right side of the courtroom Tuesday, and cried at several points throughout the morning's testimony.

In Cerro Gordo County Attorney's Carlyle Dalen's opening argument, he told the jury he was confident they would find Whaley guilty of second-degree murder. Dalen argued Whaley was not acting in self-defense, and thus was not justified in shooting through his apartment door.

"Without anything being said, he goes like this," said Dalen while motioning like he was firing a gun, "and goes 'pow,' and shoots through the door."

State Public Defender Mike Adams disagreed with that argument, saying Whaley had reason to fear for his life. He based this off of Whaley's relationship with Corey Mays, a Mason City man involved in a past shooting.

"If you're standing in Larry's shoes, who was it?" Adams asked the jury about who was behind the door. "Larry clearly didn't know ... why would this guy, a former U.S. Marine, shoot? He was terrified."

Van Scyoc was the state's first witness, and he detailed much of what occurred the night of Dec. 1. He and Teeter used bikes to get around, and locked them in his detached garage at 116 17th St. S.E.

He and Teeter left Whaley's apartment, and returned the morning of Dec. 2, after 3 a.m. Van Scyoc testified that he would whistle before entering friends or family's apartments, to let them know he had arrived.

Whaley's apartment was on the second floor of the building. After walking up the steps, Teeter knocked on Whaley's door. She started to put a key in the lock, but it only opened about 2 inches.

The door didn't fully open because Whaley had lodged two knives into the doorjamb. Then, Van Scyoc said he heard a loud sound like two two-by-four pieces of wood colliding.

He saw a hole in Whaley's apartment door. Then he turned, and saw Teeter had been shot.

"This whole side of her face was gone," he said while covering the left side of his head.

Both the prosecution and defendants agreed that Teeter had been shot in the head, but Jill Eimermann, an assistant state public defender, questioned whether Larry knew about Van Scyoc's whistling habit. She also noted Whaley had tried to contact Van Scyoc by phone three times before they returned to the apartment, and had failed each time.

Hammerand, in his redirect examination, asked Van Scyoc if he had ever whistled around Whaley.

"Plenty of times," he said.

Following Van Scyoc's testimony, Mason City Police Officer Stratton Steffy and Sgt. Michael Lillquist were called to describe their actions the morning of Dec. 2. Both were some of the first officers on the scene.

In brief testimony, they described entering through the apartment building's entrance and seeing Teeter on the first floor, gasping for air. She had been dragged to the first floor by Van Scyoc.

Before their testimony, Hammerand played Van Scyoc's 911 call for the jury, in which Teeter can be heard.

The Globe Gazette is not sharing audio of the call as it is graphic in nature and does not provide any new information not previously released by police.

The call opens with Van Scyoc, who does not identify himself, telling an unidentified female dispatcher, My girlfriend just got, shes shot."

Van Scyoc later says Teeter had been shot in the head and that he knew who shot her, but did not provide a name.

Lillquist stated he called Whaley after they removed Teeter from the scene, and that he was cooperative and pointed him to where the gun was located in his second-floor apartment. He noted the gun was cocked back and ready to fire.

The state is expected to continue calling witnesses Tuesday afternoon.

Earlier story:

MASON CITY | A 911 call reporting the shooting of a 19-year-old Mason City woman in December 2016 was played for jurors Tuesday morning in Cerro Gordo County District Court.

My girlfriend just got, shes shot, a man tells an unidentified female police dispatcher at the beginning of the call.

The man, who does not identify himself during the roughly 6-minute call, is Kalab Van Scyoc, 23, of Mason City.

The call was played during the first day of testimony in Larry Whaleys second-degree murder trial.

Whaley, 61, who has told police he was acting in self-defense, is accused of shooting Samantha Teeter about 4 a.m. Dec. 2, 2016, through a door in an apartment building in southeastern Mason City. Teeter died two days later in the hospital.

The Globe Gazette is not sharing audio of the call as it is graphic in nature and does not provide any new information not previously released by police.

Van Scyoc then attempts to give his location and tearfully says, please hurry.

At one point during the call he tells the woman  Teeter  to look at him.

The dispatcher asks Van Scyoc if he has anything to put pressure on the wound.

Van Scyoc replies that Teeter had been shot in the head.

The dispatcher then asks if Van Scyoc can provide any information about the shooter and does not get a response.

The call then goes silent for a few minutes before the dispatcher asks Van Scyoc if he can provide any information about the shooter and again Van Scyoc does not respond.

Van Scyoc later replies that he knows who the shooter is but does not provide a name.

The dispatcher tells police she is having difficulty getting information from the caller  his exact location, who the shooter is and if the shooter is still in the area.

This is a developing story. Check back later for more details.
A new supervisory order by the Iowa Supreme Court will enable individual counties to allow weapons in public areas of floors of a courthouse that are not totally occupied by the court system.

The order could alter the dynamics of courthouse security in the state.

Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Cady on Tuesday issued a two-page supervisory order, to update his weapons prohibition order of June 2017, 12 days before an expanded gun rights bill took effect in the state.

Cady's new order says the other elements of the June order remain, but after consultation with chief judges, sheriffs and other county officials there can be a way for weapons to be taken on floors without court system elements.

"Upon written request of a county board of supervisors, or other controlling entity, the chief judge shall modify the weapons prohibition imposed by the supervisory order by eliminating the prohibition in public areas on those floors of a courthouse not totally occupied by the court system," Cady wrote.

Once a chief judge grants the modification, Cady wrote, "the court relinquishes to the requesting entity any authority over the regulation of weapons in the public areas on a floor of a courthouse not totally occupied by the court system."

Cerro Gordo County Supervisors Casey Callanan and Chris Watts said public safety is their first concern. While I agree with people's right to the second amendment, safety is of the utmost importance in the courthouse for our citizens, deputies, employees, and judges. As Sheriff (Kevin Pals) is an elected official and our chief law enforcement officer I will defer to him and his recommendation, Callanan said.

Cerro Gordo County Sheriff Kevin Pals said he has no problem with the policy change.

"However, it will make it difficult to police the second floor of the courthouse where no weapons will be allowed," he said. Courtrooms and other court-related services are located on the second floor.

Cady's order has yet to be discussed during a supervisors meeting.

The new law, among other things, broadens the states so-called stand-your-ground provision, so a law-abiding citizen does not have a duty to retreat in a public place before using deadly force when confronted with danger to life or property.
MASON CITY | The City Council agreed Tuesday night to hire Mark Jackson and Brent Hinson to lead the search for a new city administrator.

Jackson, city administrator in Story City and Hinson, with city administrator experience in Garner, also operate consulting firms and have worked together on 14 city administrator recruitments in recent years.

"They came to us," said Personnel Director Perry Buffington. "They know most of the players in Iowa and the Midwest  who might be available and who would be a good fit. They give us an inroad into the most qualified candidates," he said.

Buffington said the search begins in earnest Friday with the placement of ads in various publications.

He said the city's personnel department is in charge of the search with the help of Jackson and Hinson.

The goal is to reach a good field of candidates, narrow it down to several finalists, bring them in for interviews and for the council to hire one of them in March.

The consultants' fee is $6,600. Buffington said typical fees from search firms for similar work are in the $20,000 to $30,000 range.

Tuesday's meeting was the last regular meeting for Mayor Eric Bookmeyer and Councilman Travis Hickey.

At the end of the meeting, Mayor-elect/Councilman Bill Schickel presented each of them with plaques and thanked them for their eight years of service. Both chose not to seek re-election.

Hickey thanked city staff and the community and said, "I was always trying to do the best thing for the citizens, knowing you're not going to make everyone happy."

Bookmeyer also offered his thanks to city staff and council members past and present. "We battle it out like you can't believe, but we get it done," he said.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Its always nice to hear when celebrities are nice.

Rob Lowe invited firefighters from Santa Clara County into his home for dinner last night.

He wanted to thank them for helping to save his house from the Thomas Fire in Southern California.

Tiffany Perry Ferritos husband Mike works for the San Jose Fire Department.

And he was one of those at the dinner.

Here's what Tiffany posted about their meal:

Rob Lowe invited Mike and his team inside for dinner last night.

Mike said he was humble and welcoming and the food was delicious (they havent had too many hot, delicious meals).

Mike said Rob is really just a regular guy and it was so nice to feel a little normal (if that is considered normal;).

RELATED VIDEO: Fire crew returns to Central Coast after battling Thomas Fire

Now Playing: Captain Chris Knapp and his fellow strike team members have been battling the Thomas Fire in Southern California since December 5. The local heroes returned home Tuesday, just in time for the holidays. Video: KSBW

ALSO: Somerville: Man with terminal cancer moved up wait list so he can get Tesla

The last picture here was off of Rob Lowes Instagram page...

Mike was on the end and got cropped out (because insta) and of course, this photo was on Good Morning America this morning and is now going viral.

I sent Rob a private message last night and thanked him for feeding my husband.

Ive been very grateful for the people down there who are taking care of our firefighters, while they take care of business.

Thanks again, @robloweofficial and please thank your wife as well.

---Tiffany Perry Ferrito

ALSO: Somerville: BART riders work together to help woman whose wheelchair rolled across car

As I said its always nice to hear when celebrities are nice.

And how about those First Responders.

We seriously cant thank them enough.

Especially here in California.

Frank Somerville is a contributor to SFGATE and anchors the 5, 6, and 10 p.m. news on KTVU. This post originally appeared on his Facebook page.
Drug kingpin Pablo Escobar was gunned down by Colombian authorities in 1993, but the location of a portion of his vast wealth remains a mystery.

A pile of Escobar's cash is rumored to be located on the grounds of the Miami Beach, FL, property he once ownedin fact, two safes were found when the residence was razed in 2016.

"But we've only excavated a portion of the 30,000-square-foot lot," says Christian de Berdouare, who recently put the now-vacant lot up for sale for $15.9 million.

Escobar was notorious for hiding his loot in the walls of his houses, and also burying it under the floors and on the grounds of his various estates. De Berdouare says he's had professional treasure hunters take a look at the lot, and they detected plenty of subterranean "activity," especially under the giant 100-year-old banyan tree.

But potential treasure isn't the sole reason for the lot's premium price. There are plans to build a 14,000-square-foot mansion in place of the pink 7,336-square-foot home Escobar bought in March 1980 for $762,500. De Berdouare says the current vacant lot listing is a sort of teaser to get people interested in the property.

As if the two safes found on the lot weren't enough to grab attention. In fact, the property's generated enough curiosity that de Berdouare signed a contract with Lincoln Square Productions, which plans to make a documentary on the former Escobar property. The deal he signed with the production company prevents him from saying anything about the contents of the safes.

Miami Beach, FL, property once owned by Pablo Escobar realtor.com

What we do know is two safes were found on the property, and one was stolen. The one still in de Berdouare's possession weighs between 600 and 700 pounds and has yet to be opened. There's speculation that the contents might be revealed on television.

It isn't known how much time Escobar spent on the property, but it's likely the waterfront property was used as a hideout by Escobars henchmen and as a landing point for extraordinary amounts of cocaine. Some of the wealth generated by these illicit dealings is still unaccounted forhence the interest in this lot.

Treasure hunters reportedly detected a lot of "activity" under the 100-year-old Banyan tree, on the left. realtor.com

Escobar owned the property until 1987, when U.S. authorities confiscated it along with $20 million in properties the Colombian drug dealer owned across Florida. An attorney bought the home from the U.S. government in 1990 for $915,000, and left the mansion pretty much as he found it. In 2014 he sold it to de Berdouare for $9.65 million. Left uninhabited, the property was burned and vandalizedwith large holes gouged in the walls.

But de Berdouare knows the value of the property isn't tied to potential buried treasure, or even in its connection to Escobar.

According to de Berdouare, the true value lies in its location, which offers sunset and city views; its 160 feet of waterfront; and its proximity to downtown Miami, South Beach, the design district, and the airport. "It's one of the premier streets in Miami Beach," he says. "They call it 'Millionaires Row.'"

The Escobar property sits on Miami's "Millionaires Row." realtor.com

De Berdouare, who founded the Chicken Kitchen fast-food chain, told us his interest in real estate and design came out of his experience as a restaurateur, because he designed each one of his 25 locations.

If the Escobar lot doesn't sell, de Berdouare intends to build perhaps his most ambitious project yet: a seven-bedroom modern home with a gym, library, and movie theater, among other luxury features. If he builds it, he plans to list the place for around $36 millionand he'll consider throwing the Escobar safe in as part of the deal.

We asked him if he'd be sorry if the safe wound up holding cash, gold, and jewels.

"Oh I'll keep the safe's contents," he says with a laugh. "The buyer would just get the safe."

The post Site of Pablo Escobar's Miami Mansion Up for SaleTreasure Hunter Alert! appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com.
Professor Chris Wilmers waggled the head of the fake deer in the equipment room of his UC Santa Cruz laboratory to demonstrate how alluring the contraption could be to a hungry cougar.

The purpose of the bobblehead deer - stored between a table covered with radio collars and a refrigerator full of cougar skulls, teeth, hair and scat samples - is to provoke mountain lion attacks.

Alas, said Wilmers, an environmental studies associate professor at the university and California's foremost expert on pumas, "we've gotten mountain lions to stalk it, but they have never touched it."

It's one of an array of gadgets the 41-year-old wildlife ecologist uses to collect information on how mountain lions live and where they travel - data that are crucial to preventing bad encounters between humans and the increasingly displaced cats.

Wilmers, the founder and lead researcher for the Santa Cruz Puma Project - the most comprehensive study ever done on Northern California cougars - exemplifies the new breed of techie scientist. He is laid-back and friendly, loves complicated gizmos and contrivances and, colleagues say, looks like he's about 15 years old.

Since he started the project in 2008, Wilmers and his team of researchers have fitted 39 mountain lions with specially designed collars affixed with radio telecommunications, global positioning and an accelerometer device, which uses software similar to that found in interactive video games to record activities like pouncing and even mating.

The work is important, Wilmers said, because cougars need travel corridors between wilderness areas if they are to avoid becoming isolated incest-ridden populations stuck in island habitats between cities. Human-cougar encounters are most frequent when wildlife corridors are blocked by development, he said, which makes his work extremely valuable when choosing locations for future housing and open space.

"We want to find out what effect fragmentation of habitat has on their ability to persist in these landscapes," Wilmers said. "It is important information from the Bay Area's standpoint if we are going to save mountain lions and keep them out of trouble."

High-tech tracking

The high-tech collars have documented the movements of the big cats through the Santa Cruz Mountains from Big Basin all the way to San Francisco. Using that data, Wilmers has published groundbreaking research on the travel routes, mating and territorial habits of the wily predators, which are known scientifically as Puma concolor but have more names - including mountain lion, catamount, panther and cougar - than any other cat.

Wilmers believes there are about 50 cougars in the Santa Cruz Mountains, a place where they were thought to be extinct a few decades ago. Thousands of the big cats were killed across the state between 1907 and 1963, when bounties were offered for shooting them. In 1920, California's estimated cougar population was 600.

Cougar hunting was banned in California in 1990, when the animals were given special protected status under the California Wildlife Protection Act. There are now an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 cougars in the state.

Human development is now the biggest threat to the powerful cats, Wilmers said. His research shows frequent cougar crossings of Highway 17. At least a half dozen cougars have been hit and killed between the Lexington Reservoir spillway and the Cats Restaurant and Tavern in Los Gatos, and at the notoriously treacherous Laurel Curve in Santa Cruz County.

One of the dead was a collared puma with a fetus in her belly. Another cougar was apparently hit by a car, lost its collar and was later photographed by a trail camera with a giant bloody scrape on its haunch. That lion was eventually killed by trappers under a depredation permit after it killed a farmer's goats.

In fact, Wilmers said, most of the collared mountain lions that have died have been killed by authorities for attacking goats and sheep. That, he said, is largely the result of road and home construction that has blocked historic travel routes to other mountainous regions of California, cutting off access to prey and forcing young males trying to establish new territory into populated areas. It is a situation that is destined to become more problematic with climate change, which Wilmers said will force wildlife to seek out new areas with better habitat.

"Clearly, living in California, you can't avoid noticing that human development impacts wildlife. At the same time, global climate change is impacting wildlife," he said. "All of that will continue. Our goal is to find out ... how we can help people manage the land in a way that is least detrimental to wildlife."

Manhattan upbringing

It's a pursuit that Wilmers seems unusually well adapted for. He grew up in the family home in New York City on 81st Street, across the street from the American Museum of Natural History on the edge of Central Park. He was the second of two brothers born in New York City five years apart. His father, Robert, is a banker and his mother, Gertrude, or Gigi, an art historian.

Wilmers went to the private Town School, on the Upper East side of Manhattan, and spent summers vacationing at the family-owned house in the town of Stockbridge in Western Massachusetts, a place Norman Rockwell once called home. As a boy, he spent a lot of time outdoors fishing, building forts and exploring the Berkshires, where he developed an early affinity for predators.

"I remember at age 7 or 8 watching as a hawk swooped down and grabbed a rabbit," he said. "My mom yelled, 'no!' and the hawk dropped the rabbit. I remember being mad at my mom for yelling because I wanted the hawk to get the rabbit."

He attended high school in the Bronx at the private Ethical Culture Fieldston School, where a physics teacher introduced him to the world of science.

Then, when he was 21, his older brother, Robert, who was studying philosophy in Germany, committed suicide. It was a devastating blow that Wilmers is, in some ways, still trying to come to terms with. "I'm more careful about the decisions I make in life than I might have been had he still been alive," Wilmers said. "In my career, I've tried to follow my interests as much as possible and do things that would bring me fulfillment."

Wilmers got a bachelor's degree in physics from Wesleyan University in 1995, but by then he had decided to change the course of his life. The catalyst, he said, was a monthlong backpacking trip in Wyoming sponsored by the National Outdoor Leadership School.

"It shifted my focus from basic physics to how the ecosystem worked," he said. "I became really interested in ecology, which, in my mind is a mixture of biology and physics. I knew graduating that I wanted to pursue an environmental career."

Wilmers went to graduate school at UC Berkeley, where he did his dissertation on how the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park impacted scavengers and the ecosystem.

Dan Stahler, the project biologist for the Yellowstone Wolf Project, worked with Wilmers as a field biologist starting in the late 1990s. Together, they documented the wide variety of scavengers, including coyotes, grizzly bears, golden eagles, bald eagles, ravens and magpies that benefited from wolf kills.

"He's a very curious person about the world around him, which is a key trait for any scientist," Stahler said. "He's creative, innovative and very analytically skilled. He has a great mind for observing how something in the natural world will work and developing a model to test it."

Stahler said he was with Wilmers when he saw his first cougar.

"I was working on the Yellowstone Cougar Project, and we were hiking through Yellowstone's back country, trying to see if a lion had made a kill," Stahler said. "I spotted it up ahead and pointed it out. We crouched down, and I remember how excited Chris was. We were both thrilled with the rare opportunity to see a mountain lion in the wild. Maybe it sparked his interest."

Wilmers married speech and language therapist Serena Rivera in 2006. The couple live in Santa Cruz with their two young boys, Theo and Dylan.

Foundation grant

Wilmers began the puma project with a grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to develop a lion collar containing all the latest tracking equipment. The collars were designed with a cotton spacer that wears out after about two years, allowing the collar to drop off the lion for later retrieval.

Wilmers said cougars avoid people and open spaces, are hardwired to fear wolves and dogs, and generally travel under the cover of darkness. The females evidently choose mates by sniffing their urine and determining which lion is least related to them.

The muscular felines sometimes lurk close to suburbia when they are stalking prey or searching out new territory, but Wilmers said they are not dangerous.

"Despite the fact that there are occasional attacks, the mountain lions we've collared have never shown any behavior that you'd worry about," he said.

Wilmers admitted that he would be reluctant to venture out alone at night in the Santa Cruz Mountains, but he said that is more because of his lifelong fear of the dark than a logical fear of mountain lions. Nevertheless, he said, basic precautions should always be taken when hiking. For instance, children should be kept close. There is evidence, he said, that cougars are attracted to high-pitched vocalizations, which sound like the squealing of wounded animals.

Stand your ground

A person who encounters a puma should never run, he said. Instead, one should stand tall, face the animal and back away slowly. If the cougar approaches, stand your ground, yell menacingly and hold up a stick or weapon. If attacked, fight back, he and others have said.

Wilmers recently took fellow Professor James Estes, a renowned expert on sea otters, out on an expedition to recapture a mountain lion and replace her collar. The overnight trek involved a long chase through the mountains with baying hounds and ended with the successful darting of the female puma, which, it turned out, had recently given birth.

"Right after the lion was darted, Chris suddenly just tore off into the woods and next thing I know he's coming back and he has this kitten," Estes said. "He didn't want to have it separated from the mother. (That's when) I really gained an appreciation for the work he does."

Wilmers was not discouraged by the failure of his synthetic deer to provoke an attack, which he was hoping would help him determine predation patterns in various landscapes. He has moved on to newer technology.

"I'm excited about using drones for wildlife research," he said, citing a variety of possible uses, including daily tracking of wolves, deer, elk, sea otters and even salmon. "The research potential is huge."
Death had already been on Hansa Bergwall's mind before he came up with the idea for an app that would remind him constantly. But, he found himself wishing it was more present in his mind. Bergwall, a publicist living in Brooklyn, had been trying to make himself happier by adopting a confronting Bhutanese adage: "to be a truly happy person, one must contemplate death five times daily."

But he'd been failing. He tried to go analog - using sticky notes - but even those didn't take. His mind was too distracted, too focused on the customary aches of life in the city: traffic, work, overcooked meals.

"It was nearly impossible," Bergwall said. "I don't live in a rural Himalayan community; I was in New York City, and I would get home and realize I'd thought about anything but."

At the time, he was renting a spare room through Airbnb to Ian Thomas, a freelance app developer from the Bay Area who was staying in New York City to attend an artificial intelligence boot camp. Mindfulness and meditation weren't exactly topics Thomas had on his radar, but a few weeks into his stay, the two forged a connection, and began discussing Bergwall's struggle to incorporate death into his daily life.

As a developer, Thomas was intrigued by the idea of building an app that would solve a simple problem for Bergwall, whom he'd grown close with. But the idea had far more reach than both imagined.

The two are the brains behind WeCroak, an app that prompts users to consider their mortality five times a day. The conceit is painfully simple: we are all alive, and then we dielet's acknowledge it. The design is too; five thought-producing quotations pop up as notifications throughout the day, but besides that, it doesn't offer much.

In some ways, WeCroak is the anti-app. It's not free, but there's no advertising. When Thomas debuted an early version of WeCroak to a group of people in tech, their first inclination was to scroll and to look for "more things to do;" they were disappointed to find they couldn't.

Story continues below.

That's because Bergwall and Thomas don't want users to spend a lot of time in their app; they want them to be living their lives, and basking in the 'now.' (It seems to be working, average time per user is less than a minute) In the past week, WeCroak's download count has jumped from a modest 84 to 5,000, with users from Uruguay to Indonesia. Last week, they were surprised to learn their death-related app was #1 on the Apple Store's health and fitness section.

For them, a major priority in WeCroak's design was to run counter to the idea of a 'successful' app: one that keeps users addicted, wanting more, and paying more. They didn't want to participate in the 'bottomless pit' of endless scrolling that apps like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have made vogue. They want people to reconnectwith each other, themselves, and the colossal world around themnot fall deeper into the cyber pit.

The quotations are all handpicked by Bergwall, but he's recently opened up the floor to crowdsourcing. Hundreds of suggestions have been appearing in his email, from people all over the world. You can see a few examples in the slideshow at the top of the page.

There are a fair number of people who find the unrelenting reminders of our impending finale disturbing. One woman Bergwall introduced the app to called the idea "sick." Most of their users are under 35-years-old. Older people have told Bergwall and Thomas they wish they could think about death only five times a day.

"It can sound like a provoking or crazy idea, but it's really not that bad," Bergwall said. "This stuff is true. It's not telling you something you don't already know. Things that stress me out feel smaller. It's really nice."

For example, the other day, Bergwall was sitting at the breakfast table with his husband. He was complaining to him about stress at work, and finding himself getting worked up.

Right at that moment, as if by fate, a quote he'd hand picked himself buzzed on his phone. Bergwall took a look at his device, let out an exasperated sigh, and continued: "And on top of all of that, I'm going to die," he declared to his husband. Then the two started laughing.

Read Annie Vainshtein's latest stories here. Send her news tips at avainshtein@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @annievain
BETHLEHEM, West Bank  President Trumps recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital looms large in Christmas festivities this year in the traditional birthplace of Jesus.

Some food vendors, sellers of holiday trinkets and a leading hotelier in biblical Bethlehem say Palestinian protests, triggered by what many here view as a provocative show of pro-Israel bias, have hurt their Christmas business.

Yet Bethlehem also offers a stage for a Palestinian rebuttal: banners proclaiming Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Palestine have been draped over facades on Manger Square as a backdrop for Christmas TV broadcasts to a global audience.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is keenly felt  perhaps even more so at Christmas  in Bethlehem, just a few miles south of contested Jerusalem.

Israels West Bank separation barrier cuts into Bethlehem and a segment of it has become a tourist magnet in its own right. Its cement slabs are covered with works by international graffiti artists such as Banksy and pro-Palestinian slogans left by visitors.

While Palestinians try to draw attention to the barrier when foreigners pour in for Christmas, Trumps policy shift on Jerusalem two weeks ago has emerged as the dominant theme this year.

It went against an international consensus that the fate of the city should be determined in negotiations. Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem houses major Muslim, Jewish and Christian shrines, and Palestinians seek it as a future capital.

In Bethlehem, the fallout was felt immediately.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was to have received Vice President Mike Pence, a devout Christian, in Bethlehem, but canceled after the U.S. pivot on Jerusalem. The snub came as Abbas shifted from cooperating with the United States to rejecting Washington as a Mideast peace broker.

Meanwhile, Bethlehems flagship luxury hotel, the 250-bed Jacir Palace, closed because of frequent nearby clashes.

General manager Marwan Kittani said the hotel had been fully booked for Christmas, but that he is now assessing day by day if he can reopen.

Palestinian activists have called for more protests.

In Manger Square, next to the Church of the Nativity built over Jesus traditional birth grotto, some merchants blamed Trump for a drop in business.

Two souvenir shop owners selling nativity scenes and tree decorations carved from olive wood said they hadnt had any customers by early afternoon.

Activists also plan to circulate a petition to Christmas visitors in support of Palestinian claims to Jerusalem and distribute stickers reading: We (heart) Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine, said organizer Munther Amira.

Karen Laub is an Associated Press writer.
MASON CITY | Olivia Ozuna smiled as she arrived at the Northern Lights Alliance for the Homeless Monday night.

"We won't have to sleep on the floor anymore," she said.

Ozuna was at the homeless shelter to pick up a bed donated by Slumberland Furniture in Mason City.

The mother of two small children said she was a resident of the women's shelter until recently when she found a place to live. She said she and her children will share the bed for the time being.

Her situation is an example of how help for the needy can be more than money or food or clothing.

Sometimes it is just having a bed of their own to sleep on.

Slumberland Furniture in Mason City offers beds to the needy through two programs  the 40 Winks Foundation and Homes for the Holidays.

Dan Dohlman, selling store manager at Slumberland, said the company recognizes the importance of a warm bed, particularly for children. "It can be more important to them than toys," he said.

The 40 Winks program is year-round and provides free beds for children. Homes for the Holidays is for anyone needing a bed, Dohlman said.

The programs work in coordination with the Salvation Army and Northern Lights Alliance for the Homeless, both of which process applications and make recommendations to Slumberland.

Jeannie Kingery, executive director of Northern Lights, said the program has had some amazing results.

She said one woman who moved out of the shelter can see her young children only on weekends and wanted a bed for them.

Another man who moved out of the men's shelter was reunited with his family and needed beds for his kids.

Shane Godden, coordinator of the men's shelter, said a man moved out of the shelter and found a place to live four blocks away. "He got a bed and was so excited about it that he walked home with it. It took him three trips," Godden said. "The mattress, then the box springs, then the frame."

Dohlman said the need is apparent.

"So far this year we've given away 15 sets of free beds through 40 Winks and 15 twin beds and five doubles through Homes for the Holidays," he said.
JAKARTA, Indonesia  Despite its denials, one of the worlds biggest paper producers has extensive behind-the-scenes ties and significant influence over wood suppliers linked to fires and deforestation that have degraded Indonesias stunning natural environment, The Associated Press has found.

Indonesias Sinarmas  better known by its international trade name, Asia Pulp & Paper  has insisted in company publications, public events and to the media that most of the companies that supply it with wood are independent, not owned by it or in other ways affiliated with it.

But the AP has found links between Sinarmas, its pulp and paper arm and nearly all the 27 plantation companies that it has told the outside world are independent. The companys apparent aim: to greenwash its image for the global market.

The AP reviewed nearly 1,100 pages of corporate records related to the purportedly independent plantation companies, which show they are owned by 10 individuals. Six are employees of the Sinarmas group and two are former employees, one with links to the Widjaja family, which owns Sinarmas. Several work in the finance department of Sinarmas Forestry.

The AP identified the eight by matching biographical details in the documents, including birth dates, to information in social media profiles, news reports, forestry industry documents and other sources.

The ownership of 25 of the 27 suppliers is exercised through layers of shareholding companies that are almost always based in Sinarmas offices and in most cases have Sinarmas employees, ranging from top executives to humble IT workers and accountants, as their directors and commissioners.

An internal Asia Pulp & Paper document seen by AP states it has significant influence over an unspecified number of its wood suppliers through the provision of loans, assets and services, long-term wood purchasing agreements and unusual trading relationships. The same document still insists these companies are independent.

Indonesia is cutting down its rainforests faster than any other country, swelling the profits of a handful of paper and palm oil conglomerates while causing massive social and environmental problems. The rapid forest loss combined with its greenhouse gas emissions has made Indonesia the fourth biggest contributor to global warming after China, U.S. and India.

Its emissions swelled dramatically in 2015 when record dry season fires burned 10,000 square miles. The fires blanketed much of Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and southern Thailand in health-damaging haze that a Harvard and Columbia study estimated hastened 100,000 deaths in the region.

Stephen Wright is an Associated Press writer.
BANGKOK  Myanmars military said a forensic investigation has begun after the discovery of 10 bodies in a mass grave in a village in troubled Rakhine state, where the countrys security forces have carried out a brutal crackdown against the Rohingya Muslim minority.

Local officials said Tuesday that they were investigating the 10 unidentified bodies found Monday near a cemetery in Inn Din village.

Meanwhile, the United Nations human rights agency said that Myanmars government is denying a U.N. special rapporteur access to the country.

More than 630,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since security forces in neighboring Myanmar launched a violent crackdown against them on Aug. 25, turning it into Asias worst refugee crisis in decades.

The United Nations and the U.S. accuse Myanmars military of human rights violations against Rohingya in Rakhine, including killings, rapes and the burning of homes. The U.N. has condemned the violence as ethnic cleansing.

International aid group Doctors Without Borders said last week that it conducted a field survey that found at least 6,700 Rohingya Muslims were killed between August and September in the crackdown.

International rights groups blame the government and military for being unwilling to investigate possible wrongdoing by government officials and have urged the government to accept the assistance of international investigators.

Its critical they (the government) accept the assistance of impartial, independent investigators and allow them to immediately travel to Inn Din to probe what happened and make a full report, said Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watchs Asia Division.

Two Reuters journalists were arrested last week in Yangon after obtaining photographs from residents of a Rakhine village reportedly showing proof of a mass grave. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were charged under Myanmars Official Secrets Act. The colonial-era law stipulates up to 14 years in jail for offenders.

Meanwhile, Myanmars government has informed U.N. Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee that it is denying her all access to the country for the rest of her tenure, the U.N.s human rights agency said Wednesday.
MOSCOW  The Russian spam kingpin had long been in the crosshairs of the F.B.I., and agents finally got their shot when the man scheduled a vacation in Spain. At the agencys request, Spanish security officers in April arrested the man, Pyotr Levashov, who is accused of stuffing untold millions of inboxes with ads for pornography, pills and penny stocks.

But then the Russian authorities sprang a trap of their own, filing an extradition request with the Spanish authorities for a crime they said Levashov had committed in Russia years ago. Currently, he is languishing in a Spanish jail, but soon the authorities will have to decide which extradition request to honor: the United States or Russias.

This was by no means the first time that Russia had filed a competing extradition request. Far-fetched as it may seem, the Russians tactic has in several instances prevented Russians suspected of being computer criminals from being deported to the U.S. while detained in Europe.

The tactic has raised suspicions that the Russian authorities are more interested in derailing American investigations and possibly protecting criminals they find useful than they are in fighting cybercrime.

People always ask me about this, Timofey Musatov, a Moscow lawyer whose Russian client is the subject of competing extradition requests.

In Levashovs case, Russian prosecutors sought his extradition after his detention in Spain when they discovered in August that he had hacked the computers of a hospital in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2014.

Three similar cases are pending in courts in Greece, Spain and the Czech Republic. In two of the three, either the defendants lawyers or relatives have said that their cases have some bearing on the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election in the United States. Though that may be true, they have not provided any proof.

Their theory is that with the politically charged atmosphere in the United States over the election meddling, the accused could not possibly get a fair trial there, so they should be returned to Russia.

In accordance with extradition treaties in all three countries, Russian lawyers say, the decision about where to send the accused resides with a government minister. That opens the prospect of the United States being powerless to stop the return to Russia of a suspect who may be able to offer valuable information on Russian meddling in the election.

The Greek police detained Musatovs client, Aleksandr Vinnik, on an American warrant that accuses him of running a Moscow-based Bitcoin exchange, BTC-e, that laundered as much as $4 billion in illegal funds. Russian prosecutors filed an extradition request on a fraud charge.

The Russian case, Musatov said, surfaced soon after Vinniks detention in Athens, possibly because the Russian police had read about his client in news reports and decided to investigate him.

Another of Musatovs clients, Dmitry Zubakha, who at the request of the United States was detained in Cyprus in 2012 on suspicion of hacking Amazon, was successfully extradited to Russia.

Andrew E. Kramer is a New York Times writer.
After adding $1.5 trillion to the deficit with the #GOPTaxBillScam, the next step will be for Republicans to claim that the country is too broke to afford the costs of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, so they will all have to be cut. https://t.co/Np32gxypHL
The New Zealand dollar fell against the greenback after figures showed the November trade deficit was wider than expected and dairy prices declined in the latest auction.

The kiwi traded at 69.61 US cents as at 5pm in Wellington from 69.93 cents late yesterday. The trade-weighted index was at 73.33 from 73.79 yesterday.

The kiwi lost ground early in the session when prices unexpectedly fell at the latest GlobalDairyTrade auction, with whole milk powder prices falling 2.5 percent. The futures had pointed to around a 3 percent lift in whole milk powder. Fonterra recently lowered its forecast payout to farmer shareholders to $6.40 per kilogram of milk solids and the weak auction result may put that forecast under pressure.

The kiwi fell further when the November trade deficit came in at $1.2 billion versus expectations for $550 million and compared to an average $447 million in the past five Novembers. The wider deficit was powered by a 27 percent on year lift in imports, the largest rise since a 62 percent rise in December 1999. The increase included aircraft, motor vehicles, computers and diggers.

"It was the big surprise in imports, although the exports also did very well," said Westpac Bank senior strategist Imre Speizer. "There was an immediate knee-jerk response to the headline numbers," he said.

Speizer said markets will continue to focus on the US tax overhaul as the vote heads to Senate. "While these things look like they are done deals ...there is some caution," he said. Domestically, investors will be focused on the third-quarter gross domestic product data, expected to show growth of 0.6 percent. Speizer said Westpac is expecting 0.4 percent. If that pans out the market will be disappointed and the kiwi may fall further, he said.

The local currency fell to 78.60 yen from 78.76 yen yesterday and to 90.89 Australian cents from 91.27 cents. It traded at 51.96 British pence from 52.26 pence yesterday and fell to 58.74 euro cents from 59.31 cents. It slipped to 4.5903 Chinese yuan from 4.6265 yuan yesterday.

New Zealands two-year swap rate fell 1 basis point to 2.17 percent and the 10-year swaps rose 2 basis points to 3.11 percent.

(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:

My Food Bag confirms dividend and releases HY results

Fonterra announces divestment of Chile business

Meridian Energy monthly operating report for October 2022

NZ Automotive to announce interim results for HY 2023

November 18th Morning Report

CHI - 2023 Guidance Update

TRA - Weblink for Turners Half Year FY23 Results Presentation

General Capital (GEN:NZ) Concludes Goodwill Discussions

General Capital (GEN:NZ) Announces Discussions on Goodwill

KMD - Trading Update


New Zealand's merchandise exports rose to their highest ever level for a November month as the country benefited from rising prices for dairy exports.

Goods exports jumped 20 percent to $4.6 billion in November from the period last year, the highest ever level for the month, said Statistics New Zealand. Exports of milk powder, butter and cheese led the rise, gaining 22 percent, or $262 million, to $1.5 billion.

New Zealand is the world's largest exporter of dairy products and has benefited from an increase in global dairy prices, boosting payouts to farmers and stoking the local economy. The latest gains were price led, with exports of butter up 79 percent in value but down 2 percent in volume, while milk powder was up 13 percent in value but 9.1 percent lower in volume, and milk and cream increased 122 percent in value and 43 percent in quantity.

Exports of meat and edible offal, the country's second-largest commodity export, rose 47 percent, or $160 million, to $499 million, led by a $92 million increase in lamb exports, Stats NZ said.

Meanwhile, exports of logs, wood and wood articles, the third-largest group, gained 50 percent to $484 million, as the quantity of rough logs exported rose 40 percent.

Exports to China, New Zealand's largest market, jumped 43 percent in November to $1.2 billion, led by a 54 percent increase in dairy products, an 87 percent rise in logs, wood and wood articles, and a 153 percent rise in lamb.

Goods exports to Australia, the second-largest market, lifted 3.6 percent to $762 million, with increases across a range of commodities, including food preparations such as infant formula, and milk powder, butter and cheese.

On the other side of the ledger, goods imports into New Zealand rose 27 percent to a record $5.8 billion. Mechanical machinery and equipment led the rise, up 50 percent, or $285 million, to $854 million due to increased shipments of parts of turbo-jets and turbo-propellers, computers and diggers. Imports of aircraft and parts jumped $268 million, due to the importation of a large aircraft.

Vehicles, parts and accessories rose 18 percent, or $127 million, to $836 million. The value of car imports reached a new high of $513 million and there were 26,700 passenger motor cars imported in November, including 140 new electric cars and about 170 used electric cars, Stats NZ said.

New Zealand had a monthly trade deficit of $1.2 billion, compared with an average of $447 million for the previous five November months. Stats NZ noted that monthly trade deficits can be significantly affected by large value import items such as aircraft, and excluding those items the November deficit would have been $930 million.

Stats NZ said the trade-weighted index has fallen 6.2 percent from November 2016. That makes imported goods and services more expensive domestically but makes exports to foreign markets cheaper.

The annual trade deficit for the year ended November was $3.4 billion, up from the $3 billion shortfall in October and $3.2 billion in November last year. Annual goods imports were valued at $56 billion, ahead of the $51.7 billion a year earlier, while annual exports increased to $52.5 billion from $48.5 billion.

(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:

My Food Bag confirms dividend and releases HY results

Fonterra announces divestment of Chile business

Meridian Energy monthly operating report for October 2022

NZ Automotive to announce interim results for HY 2023

November 18th Morning Report

CHI - 2023 Guidance Update

TRA - Weblink for Turners Half Year FY23 Results Presentation

General Capital (GEN:NZ) Concludes Goodwill Discussions

General Capital (GEN:NZ) Announces Discussions on Goodwill

KMD - Trading Update


Justice Robert Dobson and Professor Martin Richardson drew a line between online content aggregators and distributors such as Facebook and Google and news organisations Fairfax New Zealand and NZME in rejecting the publishers' appeal to merge.

Among Justice Dobson and Professor Richardson's findings in the 100-page High Court judgment, they backed the Commerce Commission's decision to turn down a proposed merger of NZME and Fairfax NZ, which was touted as the only way the country's dominant newspaper publishers could stand up to the likes of Facebook and Google eating into their online advertising revenue. The publishers claimed the online giants would remain a significant competitive constraint on a merged business, something the commission didn't believe in its decision to reject the transaction and that view was upheld in the High Court in Wellington.

The judge and professor said the commission's approach distinguishing a difference between producers of news, and collators and redistributors was relevant and that the regulator was right to exclude the likes of Facebook and Google in assessing the competitiveness of online national news production, which were unlikely to be a "meaningful constraint" on the merged publisher.

"Observed patterns of behaviour suggest that readers are likely to assess content from sites operated both by producers and by collators," the judgment said. "In seeking out reliable original news, visitors to collators' sites are likely to discriminate in their level of attention, placing greater credence and therefore spending more time on items from reputable producers of news."

Justice Dobson accepted the collators and distributors helped promote plurality of voices by inviting readers to access a wide range of news sources, however a distinction between production and distribution was still necessary, because "fifteen recyclers of the product of two producers of news are still only making two views available".

The publishers talked up the constraint caused by Google and Facebook, pointing to the two-sided market of competing for an audience as well as vying for advertiser dollars. Traditional publishers have struggled to respond to Google and Facebook hoovering up online advertising having devalued their print operations by freely distributing their content online.

While the online threat was front and centre of the firms' application, online ad sales only account for a fraction of the publishers' combined revenue which is still largely derived from traditional print advertising.

Among the regulator's concerns in rejecting the merger was the prospect of the dominant publisher introducing a subscription model to access a news website, better known as a paywall. NZME and Fairfax rejected that analysis, saying a merged entity would probably not introduce a paywall because of the unprofitable experience internationally. While Justice Dobson and Professor Richardson didn't accept that approach, saying the local environment was different, they did see the failure of paywalls internationally as compelling.

"We take a different view from the commission and cannot rate the prospect of a paywall being introduced as a sufficient likelihood to take it into account as conduct the appellants would likely undertake as a result of an SLC (substantially lessening competition) in the online reader market," they said.

(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:

My Food Bag confirms dividend and releases HY results

Fonterra announces divestment of Chile business

Meridian Energy monthly operating report for October 2022

NZ Automotive to announce interim results for HY 2023

November 18th Morning Report

CHI - 2023 Guidance Update

TRA - Weblink for Turners Half Year FY23 Results Presentation

General Capital (GEN:NZ) Concludes Goodwill Discussions

General Capital (GEN:NZ) Announces Discussions on Goodwill

KMD - Trading Update


NZAX-listed TruScreen has received payment for an initial order from its Chinese distributor following China Food and Drug Administration approval for its TruScreen2 device.

The Auckland-based cervical cancer test developer said it has received $188,000 as an initial payment for the new device. "The company is now producing consoles at its maximum capacity to meet current and anticipated orders from China which is our largest target market," said TruScreen chair Robert Hunter in a release.

TruScreen, which posted a 30 percent drop in revenue and widened its loss in the first half to Sept. 30 on delays to Chinese approval for its cervical screening device, said China issued its formal certificate of approval permitting the commercial supply and sale of new upgraded TruScreen2 cervical cancer screening device earlier this month.

The company's real-time cervical cancer technology uses a digital wand which is placed on the surface of the cervix to measure electrical and optical signals from the surrounding tissue. It currently has signed distribution agreements covering 24 countries with a focus on China, India, Russia and Mexico.

The stock last traded at 16 cents and has lifted 6.7 percent over the past 12 months.

(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:

My Food Bag confirms dividend and releases HY results

Fonterra announces divestment of Chile business

Meridian Energy monthly operating report for October 2022

NZ Automotive to announce interim results for HY 2023

November 18th Morning Report

CHI - 2023 Guidance Update

TRA - Weblink for Turners Half Year FY23 Results Presentation

General Capital (GEN:NZ) Concludes Goodwill Discussions

General Capital (GEN:NZ) Announces Discussions on Goodwill

KMD - Trading Update


Contact Energy has signed an agreement to sell its Ahuroa Gas Storage facility in Taranaki to Gas Services New Zealand, which is affiliated with Maui pipeline owner First Gas, for $200 million, which it will use to repay debt.

Wellington-based Contact expects to reap net proceeds of $151 million from the transaction, reporting a $15 million gain on the sale, which will go to repaying debt, it said in a statement. A $48 million tax bill will create extra imputation credits that could allow full imputation for the electricity generator-retailer's targeted 32 cents per share dividend in 2018.

Contact will keep the rights to use the facility to meet its future needs, entering into a 15-year agreement for gas storage at a "competitive annual fee" with the option to extend it for five years. Contact will also provide transition services for three months after the sale.

"By selling AGS to GSNZ we maintain access to a flexible and cost-effective fuel supply," chief executive Dennis Barnes said. "The deal has the additional advantage of seeing AGS operated by a dedicated gas infrastructure company, letting us focus on the generation and customer side of our business."

Gas Services NZ provides operational services to First Gas, which has built up a network of 2,500 kilometres of gas transmission pipelines and 4,800 kms of gas distribution pipelines in the North Island with the 2015 acquisitions of Vector's gas transmission and distribution network and the Maui natural gas pipeline, which it bought from Shell New Zealand, OMV New Zealand and Todd Energy. First Gas is the holding company for Australian infrastructure investor First State Funds.

The deal is subject to ministerial consent under the Crown Minerals Act and Overseas Investment Office approval, and contains other conditions such as getting a binding ruling on the tax treatment of the assets and a third party taking up or waiving its storage entitlements. Contact wants to settle the deal by June 30 next year.

GSNZ plans to expand the facility within two years of completing the deal, which First Gas chief executive Paul Goodeve said offers an "opportunity to provide gas producers, shippers and end-users more flexibility to manage their energy needs."

The facility's gas injection capacity is up to 27 terajoules per day and gas extraction capacity of up to 45 terajoules a day, and GSNZ plans to boost that to 65 terajoules a day for each.

On completion of the deal, Contact is contracted to use 75 percent of injection and extraction capacity, falling to 69 percent once capacity is expanded, and Barnes said his company's annual fee will fall as more customers come on board.

Contact bought the rights to develop a facility from former parent Origin Energy in 2007 for $164 million, and between 2011 and 2017 invested a further $58 million to do so. It took over the facility's operation in 2013 and has cut the annual operating cost to $7 million in the 2017 financial year from historical levels of $12 million a year.

The company's shares closed at $5.59 yesterday and have gained 20 percent this year.

(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:

My Food Bag confirms dividend and releases HY results

Fonterra announces divestment of Chile business

Meridian Energy monthly operating report for October 2022

NZ Automotive to announce interim results for HY 2023

November 18th Morning Report

CHI - 2023 Guidance Update

TRA - Weblink for Turners Half Year FY23 Results Presentation

General Capital (GEN:NZ) Concludes Goodwill Discussions

General Capital (GEN:NZ) Announces Discussions on Goodwill

KMD - Trading Update


CALGARY, Alberta, Dec. 19, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Marksmen Energy Inc. (Marksmen or the Company) (TSX-V:MAH) (OTCQB:MKSEF) announces that its non-brokered private press released on December 12, 2017 is over-subscribed. The initial offering was for 3,000,000 units which has been over-subscribed by 806,000 units bringing the total subscriptions to 3,806,000 units (the Units) of Marksmen at a price of $0.15 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds of $570,900 (the Offering). Each Unit is comprised of one (1) common share (Common Share) and one-half of one (1/2) share purchase warrant (Warrant) of Marksmen. Each whole Warrant entitles the holder thereof to purchase one Common Share for $0.30 expiring two (2) years from the date of issuance. The over-subscription is subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.



Marksmen would like to thank its investors for their support.

Completion of the Offering is subject to regulatory approval including, but not limited to, the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange Inc. The securities issued are subject to a four month hold period from the date of issuance. The Company intends to close the offering on December 22, 2017.

Operations Update  Horizontal well in Hocking County, Ohio - The one mile long access road and drill pad are substantially complete. Our fifteen to eighteen day drilling program for Ohio's most westerly horizontal well will commence in early January, after the holiday season.

Related Party Participation in the Private Placement

As insiders of Marksmen participated in this Offering, it is deemed to be a related party transaction as defined under Multilateral Instrument 61-101-Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions (MI 61-101).

Neither the Company, nor to the knowledge of the Company after reasonable inquiry, a related party, has knowledge of any material information concerning the Company or its securities that has not been generally disclosed.

The Offering is exempt from the formal valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 (pursuant to subsections 5.5(c) and 5.7(1)(b)) as it was a distribution of securities for cash and neither the fair market value of the Units distributed to, nor the consideration received from, interested parties exceeded $2,500,000.

For additional information regarding this news release please contact Archie Nesbitt, Director and CEO of the Company at (403) 265-7270 or e-mail ajnesbitt@marksmenenergy.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

This news release may contain certain forward-looking information and statements, including without limitation, statements pertaining to the Company's ability to obtain necessary approvals from the TSX Venture Exchange and the timing and size of the closing. All statements included herein, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking information and such information involves various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. A description of assumptions used to develop such forward-looking information and a description of risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking information can be found in Marksmens disclosure documents on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. Marksmen does not undertake to update any forward-looking information except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
TORONTO, Dec. 19, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rupert Resources Ltd (Rupert or the Company) (TSX-V:RUP) (FSE:R05) announces that further to the appointment of Mr. Jeffrey L. Karoly as Chief Financial Officer as per the Companys November 7, 2017 press release, and in order to streamline management, Mr. Karoly has been appointed Corporate Secretary of the Company. Mr. Gordon Chmilar who held the role previously will continue to act as an advisor to the Company.



Also, Max Hinchcliffe, who has acted as Vice President, Finance of the Company, has also stepped down from such position to take advantage of other opportunities that have come available to him. Mr. Max Hinchcliffe will also continue to act as an advisor to the Company.

James Withall, Chief Executive Officer, said, We are pleased to announce the appointment of Jeffrey Karoly as Company Secretary - Jeffrey is already Chief Financial Officer of the Company. I would also like to thank Max and Gordon for their efforts in establishing Rupert following the acquisition of the Pahtavaara Project, and are pleased that they will remain involved with the Company in their capacities as advisors.

About Rupert

Rupert is a Canadian based gold exploration and development company that is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol RUP. The Company owns the Pahtavaara gold mine, mill, and exploration permits and concessions located in the Central Lapland Greenstone Belt in Northern Finland (see the Companys November 9, 2016 press release). The Company also holds a 100% interest in the Gold Centre property, which consists of mineral claims located in the Balmer Township, Red Lake Mining Division of Ontario.

For further information, please contact:

James Withall

Chief Executive Officer

jwithall@rupertmining.com Thomas Credland

Head of Corporate Development & Investor Relations

tcredland@rupertmining.com

Rupert Resources Ltd

82 Richmond Street East, Suite 203, Toronto, Ontario M5C 1P1

Tel: +1 416-304-9004



Web: http://rupertresources.com/

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains statements which constitute forward-looking statements, including the statements with respect to those that address potential quantity and/or grade of minerals, potential for minerals and statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs and current expectations of the Company with respect to the future drilling and geological activities, business activities and operating performance of the Company. The words may, would, could, will, intend, plan, anticipate, believe, estimate, expect and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company, are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are based on the opinions, assumptions and estimates of management considered reasonable at the date the statements are made, and are inherently subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other known and unknown factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. These factors include the general risks of the mining industry, as well as those risk factors discussed or referred to in the Company's annual Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended February 28, 2017 available at www.sedar.com. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements except as otherwise required by applicable law.
CALGARY, Alberta, Dec. 19, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canacol Energy Ltd. ("Canacol" or the "Corporation") (TSX:CNE) (OTCQX:CNNEF) (BVC:CNEC) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a binding agreement with TecpetrolLibertador B.V. and Sertecpet E&P S.L. (together, the Purchasers) in respect of the sale of its 25% interest in Servicios Libertador S.L., the holding company of Pardaliservices S.A., which is the joint venture company that operates the 15-year incremental production contract awarded by the national oil company of Ecuador for the Libertador and Atacapi mature fields in Northern Ecuador since February of 2012. The Purchasers are each existing partners in the joint venture. In consideration for the sale of its non-operated 25% equity participation in the contract the Corporation will be paid a total of US$ 36.4 million, consisting of an initial payment of US$ 30.4 million anticipated to occur at the end of January 2018, and an additional payment of US$ 6 million in July 2019. Additionally, as part of the transaction, the corporation will also receive an immediate reimbursement of US$ 5.58 million in respect of a cash call it recently paid to the joint venture. The transaction is subject to certain conditions precedent including approvals by Petro Amazonas EP, the state oil company of Ecuador which are anticipated to be approved shortly.



Dr. Charle Gamba, President and CEO of the Corporation, commented This sale marks another important step towards shifting our focus to our high growth / high margin clean natural gas business in Colombia. Funds from this transaction will be used to execute our gas focused exploration and development projects as we move toward our goal of exiting 2018 with 230 MMscfpd of gas sales, making us the largest supplier of gas to the Caribbean coast of Colombia. We are currently planning the divestment of all our conventional oil assets in Colombia and hope to conclude a transaction in the second quarter of 2018, thus completing our transformation into Colombias leading independent clean natural gas exploration and production company.

Canacol is an exploration and production company with operations focused in Colombia and Mexico. The Corporation's common stock trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the OTCQX in the United States of America, and the Colombia Stock Exchange under ticker symbol CNE, CNNEF, and CNE.C, respectively.

This press release contains certain forwardlooking statements within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forwardlooking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur, including without limitation statements relating to estimated production rates from the Corporation's properties and intended work programs and associated timelines. Forwardlooking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made and 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 forwardlooking statements. The Corporation cannot assure that actual results will be consistent with these forward looking statements. They are made as of the date hereof and are subject to change and the Corporation assumes no obligation to revise or update them to reflect new circumstances, except as required by law. Prospective investors should not place undue reliance on forward looking statements. These factors include the inherent risks involved in the exploration for and development of crude oil and natural gas properties, the uncertainties involved in interpreting drilling results and other geological and geophysical data, fluctuating energy prices, the possibility of cost overruns or unanticipated costs or delays and other uncertainties associated with the oil and gas industry. Other risk factors could include risks associated with negotiating with foreign governments as well as country risk associated with conducting international activities, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Corporation.
TORONTO, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Honey Badger Exploration Inc. (TSX-V:TUF) (Honey Badger or the Company) and Cairngorm Mines Limited (CML) have entered into a non-binding letter of intent (the LOI) with respect to an option to acquire a 100% interest in the Beaver Silver Property (the Property). The Property is located in the historical Thunder Bay silver district and covers some of the most productive silver-bearing veins of the Rabbit Mountain group of deposits including the past-producing high-grade Beaver Silver Mine (Franklin et al., 1986). The Property is ideally located close to roads, power lines, infrastructure, and a skilled labour force (Figure 1).



The LOI provides that, subject to completion of a definitive option agreement (the Definitive Agreement) and satisfaction of certain other terms and conditions including the receipt of all necessary corporate, shareholder, regulatory and stock exchange approvals, CML will grant to Honey Badger an option to acquire the Property by making payments in cash issuing securities and incurring exploration expenditures.

Quentin Yarie, President & CEO, commented: "The Beaver Silver Property represents a great new opportunity for Honey Badger. The property has laid dormant for almost 90 years, but its potential is considerable. Our team has the technical expertise, experience and tools to reexamine the Property, assess its potential, and discover remaining and any new mineralization.

About the Beaver Silver Property

The geological history and the overall geological setting of the Beaver Silver Property make it a prime target for mineral exploration for high-grade polymetallic silver, gold, zinc, lead, and cobalt mineralization. The list of metals identified in historic operations in the region is extensive (Wilson, 1986; Barr, 1988). Just like the related famous Silver Islet, these silver bearing veins of the Beaver Mine are often referred to as five-element ores (potentially containing nickel, cobalt, arsenic, silver and bismuth) (Kissin, 1992).

The historic Beaver Mine operated between 1884 and 1891. During that time, it produced over 500,000 oz silver at an average grade of 0.25% with zones grading up to 3.42% Ag (Ingall, 1889, Szetu, 1969). The historic high-grade silver operations of the Thunder Bay Camp were developed by drifting, and losing the vein generally implied closing of the mine.

In contrast to the Cobalt district, most of the mining activity in the Thunder Bay silver district stopped at the end of the 19th century, with only sporadic exploration campaigns occurring during the 20th century in the Beaver Silver Property and in the broader Thunder Bay South District (Oja, 1966).

The region remains under-explored or un-explored with modern exploration techniques. Even drilling intersections of 1239 g/t Ag over 1 m in the structural extension of the Beaver Silver Mine were never followed up(AFRI 52A05SE0027).

The geological and mining history of the Thunder Bay Silver district indicate a high potential for new discoveries in the region. The Beaver Silver property is located in one of the most prolific zone of the district and the Company considers that it represents an area with a good potential to discover additional polymetallic-silver mineralized zones.

A map accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/775b4d4a-179e-403c-937b-9ee429f49289

Highlights of LOI Terms

Honey Badger will pay CML a total of $125,000 in cash (the Cash Consideration), of which $50,000 has been paid on execution of the LOI, and issue the equivalent of $410,000 in the Companys common shares (the Share Consideration);

For each $250,000 spent per year on exploration (the Exploration Expenses) on the Property over the next three years, Honey Badger will earn a 30%, 30% and 40% interest respectively;

Upon incurring the Exploration Expenses, payment of the Cash Consideration and issuance of the Share Consideration, Honey Badger will have earned a 100% interest in the Property.

CML will retain a 2% NSR on the Property, 1% of which can be bought back for $1,000,000,

The foregoing is a summary of the LOI only and does not include all of the terms and conditions that will be incorporated into the Definitive Agreement, if any. The LOI is non-binding except with respect to the Initial Payment, confidentiality and exclusivity provisions, and there can be no assurances that the Definitive Agreement will be completed on the terms noted above, or at all.

Qualified Person

Q. Yarie, P.Geo., is the qualified person in regard to the technical data contained within this news release and has approved the scientific and technical content of this news release.

About Cairngorm Mines Limited

Cairngorm Mines Limited is an inactive former mineral exploration company incorporated on November 15, 1955 and is an unlisted reporting issuer in Ontario.

About Honey Badger Exploration Inc.

Honey Badger Exploration is a gold and base-metals exploration company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada with properties in Quebec and Ontario. The Company's common shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol TUF.

For more information, please visit our website at http://www.honeybadgerexp.com.

Or contact:

Quentin Yarie, President & CEO, (416) 364-7029, qyarie@honeybadgerexp.com

or

Mia Boiridy, Investor Relations, (416) 364-7029, mboiridy@honeybadgerexp.com

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 contains forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as may, should, expects, plans, anticipates, believes, estimates, predicts, potential or continue or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our or our industrys actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.

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. 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.
Albert Pedersen must spend two more years in prison before he can re-apply for parole. (Photo courtesy of New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Now 64, Albert Pedersen has spent the last 47 years in a prison or jail cell for slaying a young mother and her in-laws inside his Clifton apartment building when he was just 17 years old.

Pedersen will remain locked in an upstate correctional facility for at least two more years after a state board denied his request for parole for the 14th time.

"You completely showed no remorse or insight into your actions that you caused three deaths," the board wrote, based on an interview with Pedersen on Dec. 11. "Clearly, from this interview, you demonstrated that you have no regard for human life. ... Your release would undermine respect for the law, as well as human life."

Pedersen was sentenced in 1971 to 20 years to life in prison for the cold-blooded killings of Lorraine Ciccone, 25, and her in-laws on April 24, 1970.

The deadly attacks took place on the fourth floor of the apartment building at 180 Park Hill Ave. where both Pedersen, a high school junior, and Ciccone lived.

According to Advance reports, Pedersen accosted Ciccone as she exited an elevator. He slashed her throat during the ensuing struggle.

Ciccone either broke free and staggered to her apartment or was dragged inside, where her two young sons were being watched by her in-laws.

A neighbor who witnessed the attack told the Advance at the time that Pedersen "was like an animal as if he was filled with rage." The witness ran back inside her apartment and called police for help.

A stunned George Ciccone Sr. was watching television when his daughter-in-law stumbled in. He came to her defense with a chair, but Pedersen warded off the blows and cut his throat, as well.

Pedersen also fatally slashed the elder Ciccone's wife, Grace, across the throat.

A witness allegedly heard the victim's 3-year-old son scream, "There's a boy cutting Mommy." Neither child was harmed.

The Ciccones, both 60, of Altoona, Pa., had arrived on Staten Island the day before to visit.

Pedersen himself had only moved to the borough from Jackson, N.J., less than four months before the killings, to live with his father. He transferred to Curtis High School, where teachers called him bright and intelligent.

Cops arrested Pedersen after following bloody footprints leading from the Ciccones' door to his apartment.

The teenager's jacket and shoes were blood-stained, as was a hunting knife with a 7-inch blade found in Pedersen's closet, Advance reports said.

Pedersen underwent months of psychiatric evaluations aimed at proving he was mentally incompetent to stand trial and that he'd suffered a psychotic episode at the time of the attacks.

But he went to trial almost a year to the date after the slayings. He was found guilty of murdering the elder Ciccones and of first-degree manslaughter in the death of Lorraine Ciccone.

After serving the minimum sentence of 20 years, Pedersen petitioned the parole board for release and was denied.

He has refiled that request every two years since and has been nixed each time.

In its latest decision, the parole board commended Pedersen's "personal growth and productive use of time" while incarcerated.

But the board also said parole isn't merely a reward for good conduct or efficiently performing tasks while behind bars.

The panel noted Pedersen had "brutally" stabbed the victims multiple times, and that small children were in the apartment where he slayed the elder Ciccones.

"Your release would be incompatible with the welfare of society," said the board.

Pedersen can re-apply for parole in two years.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Jessica Rose Kartalis, our hometown gal from West Brighton, will perform her annual "Hometown Holiday Show" Tuesday, Dec. 26, at the Flagship Brewery in Tompkinsville.

In between doing a radio tour in the Tri-State area, Jessica will perform at a "Happy New Year 2018" at the new Kettle Black in her home community of West Brighton, Friday, Jan. 12.

And her last stop on Staten Island will be at "Kickin Off Staten Island's St. Paddy's Day Parade Weekend" Friday, March 2, at Liberty Tavern also in West Brighton.

All performances that run from 7 to 10 p.m. are free and open to the public.

Jessica Rose, an "American Idol" Season 12 contestant, is living her lifelong dream: To relocate to Nashville to pursue a career in music, where says she, with hard work, dedication and perseverance dreams can come true.

The talented song-stylist received the "Modern Country Female Rising Star" Award at "The Josie Music Awards" at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, where artists and fans converge for a weekend of special events, concluding with what's touted as "the World's Largest Independent Artist Award Show."

FYI: The Josie awards honors independent musicians from around the world where winners are selected based on their talent, skill, material and professionalism. The awards were created by online radio host Josie Passantino. Her show has gone on to be an award-winning program that features musicians, artists, and celebrities.

Jessica Rose also sang the National Anthem at the very First Tunnel to Towers Nashville 5K and the post run performance and she appeared in the "Music Row Magazine" -- and she was included in the "Country Breakout Chart," releasing a first song "Look For Me" to Country Radio off of her new Album "Wild Hearts".

She has started a radio tour here in New York, co-hosted and was the featured artist on Thunder 102, and will be traveling around the U.S. promoting her music as an "Official Endorsed Artist" of Luna Guitars.

For more information, follow her on Facebook or visit RealJessicaRose.com.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The holidays are fast approaching and we all know what that means: Some of us will be getting presents we don't need or already have.

Well, now there's a use for those gifts thanks in large part to Where to Turn, a social service organization where the main goal is to "provide crisis relief services for victims of any kind of tragedy by aiding them in obtaining the help they need during the recovery process" according to Executive Director Dennis Mckeon.

Through this "Re-Gifting Drive," the Great Kills-based non-profit organization hopes to be able to turn donated gifts into Christmas presents for the less fortunate.

Toys will be given to local hospitals or shipped to needy children across the country and here on Staten Island. CDs and DVDs will be sent to injured soldiers in military hospitals.

Clothes will be sent out as needed and any other items that fall into the "other" category will be stored away in preparation for a major flea market in the spring. All proceeds will go towards covering the shipping costs for all relief effort programs.

If you are interested in participating in the drive all you need to do is ship the item or drop it off at one of the following locations:

Where to Turn

22 Brienna Ct., Great Kills

Joyce's Tavern

3823 Richmond Ave., Eltingville

Applebees (four Staten Island locations)

Staten Island Mall, 2655 Richmond Avenue, New Springville

Expressway Plaza, 1451 Richmond Ave., Graniteville

2720 Veteran's Road West, Charleston.

430 New Dorp Lane, New Dorp.

If you would like to be an official drop off point or would like to arrange for your gift to be picked up contact info@where-to-turn.org or 718-966-6531.
ZURICH, Switzerland, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mechel PAO (MOEX:MTLR) (NYSE:MTL), one of the leading Russian mining and metals companies, reports signing a memorandum for coal supply with Chinas Jidong Cement, one of the worlds top cement producers.



According to the memorandum, Mechel will supply its Chinese partners up to three million tonnes of steam coal mined at Elgaugol OOOs Elga Open Pit and Yakutugol Holding Company AOs Neryungrinsky Open Pit. Prices will be adjusted on a monthly basis following negotiations and on the basis of index rates.

Jidong Cement is our longstanding and strategic partner in Asia, and we aim to continue our long-term and mutually profitable partnership. Mechels mining division has met all its obligations on our prior agreement. Today, Jidong Cement is the chief foreign consumer of Elgas steam coal, Mechel PAOs Chief Executive Officer Oleg Korzhov said.

Mechel PAO

Ekaterina Videman

Tel: + 7 495 221 88 88

ekaterina.videman@mechel.com

Mechel is an international mining and steel company. Its products are marketed in Europe, Asia, North and South America, Africa. Mechel unites producers of coal, iron ore concentrate, steel, rolled products, ferroalloys, heat and electric power. All of its enterprises work in a single production chain, from raw materials to high value-added products.

Some of the information in this press release may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of Mechel, as defined in the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We wish to caution you that these statements are only predictions and that actual events or results may differ materially. We do not intend to update these statements. We refer you to the documents Mechel files from time to time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Form 20-F. These documents contain and identify important factors, including those contained in the section captioned Risk Factors and Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements in our Form 20-F, that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those contained in our projections or forward-looking statements, including, among others, the achievement of anticipated levels of profitability, growth, cost and synergy of our recent acquisitions, the impact of competitive pricing, the ability to obtain necessary regulatory approvals and licenses, the impact of developments in the Russian economic, political and legal environment, volatility in stock markets or in the price of our shares or ADRs, financial risk management and the impact of general business and global economic conditions.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Joseph Ferrara, principal of BFC Partners and developer of Empire Outlets, will join 106.7 Lite FM on Friday as a guest for the station's holiday radiothon.

From 7:30 to 8 a.m., Ferrara will help raise money to support the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and its humanitarian work for millions of children across the world. As the radiothon's representative for Staten Island, Ferrara will join other business leaders and celebrities from across the city.

Ferrara will discuss his commitment to supporting US Fund For UNICEF and its mission, as well as how Empire Outlets -- the city's first outlet center being built on the St. George waterfront -- will positively impact families.

"The Empire Outlets team is proud to represent Staten Island as we put children first and support US Fund For UNICEF's incredible mission to help millions of kids across the globe," said Ferrara.

"The spirit of the holidays should inspire all New Yorkers to give back to worthy causes like this as we work together to build a better city and a better world."

Sen. Diane Savino (D-Staten Island/Brooklyn) has worked to support children and families across the borough. (Staten Island Advance/Jan Somma-Hammel).

SEN. SAVINO WILL BE A GUEST

Ferrara's special guest for the segment will be state Sen. Diane Savino (D-Staten Island/Brooklyn), who has worked to support children and families in the local community and across the borough.

"I'm proud to partner with BFC Partners in support of UNICEF this holiday season," said Savino. "We both share a similar mission: making New York City and New York state a better place. I hope, with our work, we can raise enough awareness to gain more partners so that everyone can have a joyful holiday season."

Those who wish to donate can text "HOPE" to 864233 between 6 and 10 a.m. Friday to give $25 or more to UNICEF. Callers can also dial #250 on their cell phone and say "UNICEF" when prompted.

Empire Outlets, located adjacent to the St. George Ferry Terminal, will feature more than 100 designer retailers, a boutique hotel with a rooftop venue and a 1,250-space parking garage. It also will include a 40,000-square-foot food and beverage deck, which will provide unique views of Manhattan.

Empire Outlets is expected to open in the fall of 2018.

FOLLOW TRACEY PORPORA ON FACEBOOK
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The state Court of Appeals rejected a motion on Tuesday that sought the disciplinary records of the police officer at the center of Eric Garner's 2014 death.

The state's highest court did not give a reason for denying the motion for leave to appeal filed by the Legal Aid Society.

The suit, which also named the Civilian Complaint Review Board, sought the disciplinary records of Officer Daniel Pantaleo.

A Staten Island grand jury chose not to indict Pantaleo in the death of Garner, 43, of Port Richmond, who died after officers attempted to arrest him for allegedly selling loose, untaxed cigarettes on Bay Street near Victory Boulevard.

The city has repeatedly used section 50-a of the state's Civil Rights Law as the reason for not releasing police personnel records. The Legal Aid Society has argued that the city's interpretation of the law is too broad.

The law, which has been on the books for decades, had not been used to prevent media access to the records before Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration. The mayor has said the law should be changed for the sake of transparency.

"This decision is regrettable but not a surprise given the leak of Officer Daniel Pantaleo's CCRB history earlier this year," Cynthia Conti-Cook, a staff attorney with the Criminal Special Litigation Unit at The Legal Aid Society, told the Daily News.

"We have several other strong 50-a cases percolating and we do believe that the Court of Appeals, in one case or another, will rule clarifying the city's overly broad interpretation of the law."
Dreams really do come true



It was just over a week before Christmas and Mr S and I sat in the lounge at Heathrow Airport drinking our customary glass of champagne in anticipation for boarding the plane for our final trip of the year. Knowing Id always wanted to visit Budapest and stay in the Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace Budapest, Mr S had arranged for us to spend a festive weekend in the luxury hotel in the capital of Hungary.

And that was all I knew Ok maybe that is quite a lotbut were talking about me. Little Miss type-A, totally controlling about travel and creating spreadsheets to allocate every minute of time in order to combat any chance of missing out. Well there in the airport, my relaxed and spontaneous husband presented to me our trip plan. Not only had he done a spreadsheet but the plan was presented in a plastic folder with full details of all the restaurants that we would be visiting and the sites that we would see.

I started to cryhed planned the perfect trip to a city Id always wanted to visit, even booking the restaurants that Id hoped for. He smiled knowingly. The boy had done good. I cant wait to tell you all about this magical trip, that had me feeling like a princess at every second. But right now I want to start with telling you about the beautiful Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace Budapest, a place that really was like stepping into a fairy tale.

Ive not been on many festive holidays but I honestly cant imagine at city hotel thats more perfect over Christmas.

Enter through those wrought iron doors and into the most glamorous art-nouveau lobby. Glittering chandeliers, high glass ceilings, shimmering mosaic floor tiles and grand columns and arches flanking the main reception desk. Originally built between 1904-1906 and designed by architect Zsigmond Quittner, The Gresham hosted aristocrats whilst the London-based Gresham Life Assurance Company sat on the first floor. War tore the palace apart leaving much of it in ruin and disrepair until the building was acquired by the Four Seasons in 1998 and $110 million dollars was invested into restoring it.

Employing some of the best in the business, designer Miklos Szentkiralyi and his team of skilled craftsman and artisans set about restoring the palace based on research into how it was originally built. Through the hard work of team, the hotel retains its status as a historical landmark but it is every bit a modern luxurious hotel. Known to be the best in the city, and indeed the whole country.



A hotel that has pulled out all the stops for its festive decor. In terms of location the hotel couldnt be better, its right be the iconic Chain Bridge on the Pest side and it was an easy walk to all the restaurants that Mr S had booked and to the Christmas markets too.

Our River-View Park Suite (actually the size of a junior suite) was absolutely gorgeous. With an open plan bedroom and seating area in stunning neutral tones. Everything felt very fresh and new with classic and elegant decor.



A well stocked mini bar is always a good sign and not only was it full of high end drinks, but there were plenty of sweet treats. And not only that, every evening delicious home made pastries were delivered, one night there was even a gingerbread biscuit in the shape of the hotel.

A sizeable bathrobe came complete with snuggly robes and the hotels signature Omorovicza products

But let me show you the best bit



Waking up to this view from our Juliet balconies

Or watching it glitter by night



From the River View Park Suite there is a sweeping panoramic view that takes in the River Danube, the Chain Bridge, the Buda Hills, the Royal Castle and the Fishermans Bastion  some of the most famous sights of the city.

KOLLAZS Brasserie & Bar is the hotels main restaurant and we had our breakfast there every day from the high quality buffet or from the a la carte menu. Toasted bagels with smoked salmon and whipped butter for me, sausage, egg and bacon for Mr S.



The restaurant itself is inspired by the 1920s and is absolutely gorgeous

Particularly the stain-glass bar and the stunning floor tiles. We returned to the restaurant for lunch there too, and with a name meaning collage KOLLAZS Brasserie & Bar is a fusion of different ideas  both luxurious yet casual, serving food both modern and traditional that fuses Hungarian and French dishes from the Rotisserie and the Kitchen.

Service was excellent and our waiter was very knowledgeable and there is very good selection of Hungarian wines. With options from their lists of specials, Hungarian favourites or simple grills, Mr S and I chose a few dishes to warm our cockles from the chilly temperatures outside. Both opting for bouillabaisse to start with salmon for my main course and wiener Schnitzel with roast potatoes for Mr S.



Another option for a drink is the Bar and Lobby Lounge in the Hotels historic Pava Udvar (Peacock Passage) where I had a glass of bubbles and Mr S had the BEST boozy hot chocolate on the first night. Theyre also serious about their martinis here plus theres a list of Hungarian specials.

We didnt have much time to use the spa but the signature products are from Omorovicza, a Budapest based brand that harnesses the effects of Hungarys mineral-rich thermal waters combined with science of brands Healing Concentrate delivery system. I didnt get a chance to try any of the facials or body treatments here but I have at the Spa at Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane and they always leave my skin feeling amazing.

The spa also features seven treatment rooms, a sauna, rooms for men and women and this utterly gorgeous rooftop an infinity-edge swimming pool and a whirlpool. Theres a state of the art gym right next to it too.



It has to be said that Mr S did an absolutely incredible job in planning our trip but I couldnt end this review with mentioning the incredible hotel concierge. It was with their advice that Mr S pieced together the perfect itinerary and they were totally flexible with further bookings we made or requested changes. The attention to detail and level of service always characterises a Four Seasons hotel for me and of course the Gresham Palace is no exception.

Thank you to Mr S for organising a festive fairytale in a dream hotel!

PIN FOR LATER:



Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace Budapest

Budapest

Szechenyi Istvan ter 5

1051 Hungary
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
DOVER, Del., Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Metatron (OTC:MRNJ), a technology pioneer specializing in the accelerated release of over 2000 apps including Cannabis based, CBD, and Vaporized secure chat apps via iTunes and Google Play, is pleased to report late stage development of Bitweed, a cryptocurrency transaction and tracking app for Marijuana dispensaries and consumers that we expect to evolve into its own token/coin. Metatron will integrate this platform into existing brands like Cannaboids and the Vaporized app.



Metatron is pleased to announce a digital presence management deal with Livin in the Green Inc., a premier lifestyle brand focusing on fashion and products in the hottest consumer categories. More details about contract will appear in forthcoming news.

Our lifestyle brand journey with LIG will deliver us from cookie-cutter to the carefully curated, creating next generation consumer closeness relationships the top brands enjoy, said Metatron CEO Joe Riehl.

The Company also inked a deal recently with Sanguine Biotech Corp (SGUI) who now distributes the Metatron developed and recently updated Cannaboids and Vaporized Secure Chat app under its own iTunes account with Google Play soon to follow. The updated version for all the new phones is currently under development and will be submitted for review soon.

This week on December 19 the cryptocurrency market capitalization for all digital assets has crossed a significant $609B valuation. Ethereum (ETH) markets are up over 16 percent reaching an all-time high of over $850 per ETH. Trade volume for the digital currency has been high as Ethereum markets have traded over $4.3bn in the last 24 hours. The digital asset holds the second highest market capitalization at $81bn at press time. - source news.Bitcoin.com

This Blockchain disruption will likely create the largest social and financial markets the world has ever seen . There has never been a peer to peer exchange that provides a solution for lack of trust among un-related parties and its the underlying tech of Bitcoin. Cannabis is legal in about 29 states going full recreational in California next year, both multi-billion dollar Crypto and Cannabis industries deserve safe and efficient payment solutions that consumers should easily understand. We expect the Bitweed platform and upcoming products to eventually solve this glaring market need, said CEO Joe Riehl

This announcement coincides with the launch of http://www.icocryptoblockchain.com , the premier one-stop website soon to be app with the latest cryptocurrency news, education, editorials, market capitalizations, trade volume and ICO alerts.

Metatron an industry leader in the field of mobile app development with over 2000 apps created, millions in sales and downloads historically, has partnered with high profile companies and clients worldwide and is poised to revolutionize the exploding crypto and cannabis industries.

Through its app development division i-Mobilize, and as a pioneer in emerging markets, Metatron was the first company to release any Cannabis related apps on iTunes and has extensive experience in processing payments through its Just Data Billing division. Release date for the BitWeed app is expected first quarter of next year.

Metatron is also pleased to announce a formal offer to Buzzlink.com, a cannabis e-commerce platform for dispensaries and other retailers. Buzzlink.com will be financed partially by the issuance of preferred B series shares and we now accept Bitcoin, soon other Coins, the first being Litecoin.

Metatron approved investors can acquire Series B shares in blocks of various sizes. The first round investors will receive the highest discount. Series B shares can be redeemed through the Company, are immune to reverse splits, and will convert at 1 B share to 50,000 common shares at a discount. There are a limited number of B shares available and Metatron reserves the right to end and change offering at any time.

Details available at:

http://metatroninc.com/series-b/

Metatrons Apps:

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/i-mobilize-inc./id325075390

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Metatron+Inc

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/metatroninc

Twitter: http://twitter.com/metatroninc

News: http://metatroninc.com/blog

Crytpo consulting available now for existing shareholders and App clients. Email ir@metatroninc.com for more info.

Bitcoin Address: 1fYqUi5d8fanqQY5qWsp1NhV4Jj8UQxgv

Forward-Looking Statements:

Any statements made in this press release which are not historical facts contain certain forward-looking statements, as such term is defined in the Private Litigation Reform Act of 1995, concerning potential developments affecting the business, prospects, financial condition and other aspects of the company to which this release pertains. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results of the specific items described in this release, and the companys operations generally, to differ materially from what is projected in such forward-looking statements. Although such statements are based upon the best judgments of management of the company as of the date of this release, significant deviations in magnitude, timing and other factors may result from business risks and uncertainties including, without limitation, the companys need for additional financing, which is not assured and which may result in dilution of shareholders, the companys status as a small company with a limited operating history, dependence on third parties and the continuing popularity of the iOS/Android operating systems, general market and economic conditions, technical factors, receipt of revenues, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the company. Although we believe that the expectations and statements reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable and accurate at time of release, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements. Moreover, neither we nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of such statements, and we disclaim any obligation or liability to update information contained in any forward-looking statement or errors in press releases. Metatron does not grow, sell or distribute any substances that violate United States Law or the Controlled Substances Act.

Metatron, Inc. 302-861-0431 ir@metatroninc.com SOURCE: Metatron, Inc
Best Canadian Blog

2004, 2005, 2006, 2007

About Kate

Why this blog?

Until this moment I have been forced to listen while media and politicians alike have told me "what Canadians think". In all that time they never once asked.

This is just the voice of an ordinary Canadian yelling back at the radio - "You don't speak for me."

(goes to a private mailserver in Europe) I can't answer or use every tip, but all are appreciated!



Katewerk Art

Support SDA

I am not a registered charity. I cannot issue tax receipts.



Want lies?

Hire a regular consultant.

Want truth?

Hire an asshole.





The Proper Procedure



Poor Richard's Retirement



Polar Bear Facts & Myths



Polar Bears: Outstanding

Survivors of Climate Change.



Pilgrim's Progress



Trump The Establishment

Weather Shop

Click to inquire about rates.

Dow Jones

What They Say About SDA

"Smalldeadanimals doesn't speak for the people of Saskatchewan" Former Sask Premier Lorne Calvert

"I got so much traffic after your post my web host asked me to buy a larger traffic allowance." Dr.Ross McKitrick

Holy hell, woman. When you send someone traffic, you send someone TRAFFIC. My hosting provider thought I was being DDoSed. - Sean McCormick

"The New York Times link to me yesterday [...] generated one-fifth of the traffic I normally get from a link from Small Dead Animals." Kathy Shaidle

"Thank you for your link. A wave of your Canadian readers came to my blog! Really impressive." Juan Giner - INNOVATION International Media Consulting Group

I got links from the Weekly Standard, Hot Air and Instapundit yesterday - but SDA was running at least equal to those in visitors clicking through to my blog. Jeff Dobbs

"You may be a nasty right winger, but you're not nasty all the time!" Warren Kinsella

"Go back to collecting your welfare livelihood."Michael E. Zilkowsky

Intelliweather

Seismic Map

Comments Policy

Read this

Best Of SDA

Hide The Decline

The Bottle Genie

(ClimateGate links)

You Might Be A Liberal

Uncrossing The Line

Bob Fife: Knuckledragger

A Modest Proposal (NP)

Settled Science Series

Y2Kyoto Series

SDA: Reader Occupation Survey

Brett Lamb Sheltered Workshop

Flakes On A Plane

All Your Weather Are Belong To Us

Song Of The Sled

The Raise A Flag Debacle

(Now on Youtube!)

(.mwv Video)

Abuse Ruins Life Of Girl

Trudeaupiate

Kleptocrat Jeans

Child Labour

I Concede

Small Dead Feminist

Protein Hoser: THK Interview

The Werewolf Extinction

Dear Laura (VRWC)

We Wait

Blogging The Oscars

Jackson Converts To Islam

Just Shut The HELL Up

Manipulating Condi

Gay Equality Rights


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!
Set to Open Two Cannabis Science PRE ICO Medical Marijuana Dispensaries by the End of This Year in the City of Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley Area for the Anticipated January 2018 Influx





IRVINE, CA , Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cannabis Science, Inc. (OTC Pink: CBIS), a U.S. company specializing in the development of cannabinoid-based medicines, is pleased to announce that its expansion plans for Cannabis Science Medical Marijuana dispensaries are on schedule. The Company has recently signed agreements to acquire and officially open the first two Cannabis Science PRE ICO Medical Marijuana dispensaries in the city of Los Angeles and the greater San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles. Both dispensaries are scheduled to open at the end of this year to meet the expected, increased demand in the Los Angeles market from the much-anticipated January 2018 new California recreational market influx.

Opening the first two PRE ICO Dispensaries in Los Angeles by the end of this year is a huge step for Cannabis Science and accelerates our aggressive expansion plans in the Los Angeles area, throughout California, and eventually nationwide, stated CBIS President & CEO, and Co-founder, Mr. Raymond C. Dabney. We expect to open several compliant PRE ICO dispensary locations throughout California through numerous means. Our timing could not be better as Los Angeles just passed its recreational marijuana use regulations for the beginning of January 2018. We are strategically positioned to meet the demands of new customers in the medical and recreational cannabis markets with a large supply of our CBIS products addressing the approximately 700 medicinal uses of cannabis.

With Christmas and New Years right around the corner, weve opted to focus on opening these two locations by the end of this year, a tall order, but our guys are skilled craftsman so Im quite confident in their aggressive projections. The opportunity arrived late last quarter and we made sure we were there to answer. In the best interest of our shareholders we can always throw a party, so weve decided the 2017 CBIS Gala should wait until after we open these locations, giving us another really good reason to celebrate. We will announce the Gala Event after the store openings.

The acquisition and opening of these Medical Marijuana dispensaries is a huge step in CBIS 2017 growth plan and is expected to help the Company achieve revenue-positive status in 2018. As these dispensaries are acquired, CBIS intends to enlarge and enhance certain dispensaries, and each location will be converted into the Cannabis Science brand, with Grand Openings to showcase CBIS high-quality Cannabinoid and Cannabis products and accessories for patients, doctors, and the consuming public. These products will range from pills, creams, extracts, sprays, tinctures, edibles, balms, patches, oils, raw products, and merchandise. Not all products in the dispensary will be just from Cannabis Science, as the Company will also showcase products from other respectable, regulated brands.

The route to legalization began last year when voters approved Proposition 64, which opened the way for recreational marijuana sales to adults in the nation's most populous state, home to one in eight Americans. Hundreds of cities in California have been saddled with the challenging task of trying to govern a vast, emerging industry with a projected value of $7 billion. In San Francisco, Mayor Ed Lee signed legislation on December 14, 2017 authorizing recreational cannabis sales that could begin as soon as the first week of January 2018, provided local businesses acquire the required licenses. San Jose will allow its 16 medical marijuana dispensaries to sell recreational marijuana starting January 1st, provided they acquire the required licenses. In Los Angeles, the dense set of regulations passed on December 14, 2017 dictate where marijuana can be grown and sold in the new marketplace, along with how businesses will be licensed. The legal marketplace is a way to impose order, hopefully squeezing out illegal operators while raising a cascade of new taxes for City Hall.

CBIS University Partnerships

Partnering with Universities is an important component of CBIS business strategy. These partnerships allow for the cultivation and research of cannabinoid products derived from cannabis or industrial hemp, while dispensary expansions allow for efficient circulation of in-house manufactured products. CBIS is creating a self-sustaining model of getting Cannabinoid products directly to the patients. The upcoming relaunch of CBIS online Patient Access Center will help do just that on a nationwide scale. The Company has created an information exchange for cannabinoid research and information sharing, as well as online access to legal dispensaries and various cannabinoid products, thus giving CBIS the ability to monitor the efficiency and quality of its products and services, while tracking usage, reviews, and availability of all cannabinoid products on the market with direct real-time information from the patients themselves.

About Cannabis Science, Inc.



Cannabis Science, Inc. takes advantage of its unique understanding of metabolic processes to provide novel treatment approaches to a number of 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.
System error

error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.

context: ... 21: </%method> 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: </%perl> 28: <table width="90%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> 29: <tr> ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25

/usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:948

/var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17

/usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149



Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612f012d338)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f0255668)', '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(0x5612f012d338)') 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(0x5612f0255668)') 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(0x5612f020c568)') 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(0x5612f0255668)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f0255668)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612e2499d28)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f020f618)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f020f618)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
System error

error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.

context: ... 21: </%method> 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: </%perl> 28: <table width="90%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> 29: <tr> ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25

/usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:948

/var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17

/usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149



Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612e4ca3360)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f02c0688)', '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(0x5612e4ca3360)') 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(0x5612f02c0688)') 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(0x5612efe6d3c8)') 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(0x5612f02c0688)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612f02c0688)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612e249a388)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f02a99e8)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612f02a99e8)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0
So does your street have an opera star singing carols this Christmas Eve?

Well, the residents of Dungowan Street in Hawker have one.

Lorina has appeared as soprano soloist with the Sydney Philharmonia, Royal Melbourne Philharmonic, Collegium Musicum Choir, Melbourne Bach Choir and the Sydney, Darwin, Canberra, Queensland and Tasmanian symphony orchestras. And now she will be singing in Dungowan Street, Hawker on Christmas Eve. Credit:Ten Network

Opera Australia star Lorina Gore is returning to Canberra to celebrate Christmas with her husband Jonathan Steele's family.

It's been a big year for the Opera Australia principal who won the 2017 Helpmann award for best female performer in a supporting role in an opera for her performance of Roxana in King Roger.
Police on Thursday said they had seized almost $850,000 worth of illicit drugs destined for Canberra streets during a bust on the ACT-end of a major drug syndicate.

Nathan James Davidson, 34, was arrested overnight after police found more than 600 grams of the drug ice, 1000 MDMA pills, as well as $90,000 in cash at his city home.

Police seized drugs with a combined value for about $850,000. Credit:ACT Policing

Police also allegedly found trafficable quantities of suspected heroin and cocaine and 200 vials of anabolic steroids.

At Mr Davidson's home there was also allegedly drug paraphernalia, including scales and clip seal bags associated with trafficking drugs.
A former ACT Nomads bikie boss has been sentenced to more than three years behind bars for drug trafficking after police seized cocaine, MDMA and methylamphetamine during a raid of his south Canberra house.

Mohamed Nchuki, 37, was charged after police seized the drugs, weapons and ammunition during a search of his property and a car in November 2014.

Mohammed Nchouki, 37, was arrested after police raided his Calwell house.

Police said they found about 137 grams of cocaine, about 57 grams of methylamphetamine and 86 MDMA pills in bags in the raid. They also seized more than $7000 cash, two Taser-like devices, scales, a cocaine snorter and bullets.

A flick knife and more than $5000 cash were found in the pockets of Nchucki's work pants.
Telstras $300 million a year contract to supply payphones is likely to be up in 2020, rather than 2032, with the government finding the requirement for all Australians to be able to access payphones is outdated in the era of the mobile phone.

The contract is worth billions of dollars to the telecommunications company, as it was due to run for another 15 years under the Universal Service Obligation (USO), which requires everyone in Australia to have access to payphones and voice only standard telephone service.

Telstra's contract with the government to supply payphones is expected to be cut short. Credit:Josh Robenstone

The requirement came under fire in 2016 when the Productivity Commission described it as "difficult to justify the continuation of the payphones [obligation]" when there was extensive coverage of mobile services nationally.

As a result of the rapid change in technology and consumer preferences, the USO agreement will be replaced with the Universal Service Guarantee, Minister for communications Mitch Fifield announced.
SAN RAMON, Calif., Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Armanino LLP, a top 25 accounting and business consulting firm, today announced its service organization control (SOC) readiness assessments and assurance services meet the rigorous requirements of the Microsoft Supplier Security and Privacy Assurance (SSPA) Program.

The Microsoft SSPA initiative is designed to standardize and strengthen the handling of Microsoft customer, partner and employee personal information by Microsoft vendors worldwide. Microsoft vendors who collect, store or process customer, partner or employee personal information are required to comply with the program.

Cybersecurity is a hot topic for a good reason; its a real-world issue that we work with our clients on every day to ensure theyre protected, said Liam Collins, partner and head of Armaninos SOC assurance practice. As we continue to enhance our SOC offerings, ensuring we meet Microsoft SSPA reinforces our dedication to risk management and data security for our Microsoft clients.

In addition to meeting the requirements of this program, Armanino is certified through The Santa Fe Groups Shared Assessments Program and joined the HITRUST Alliance to reinforce its dedication to safeguarding health information and managing information risk in the healthcare sector.

About Armanino LLP

Armanino LLP (www.armaninollp.com) is one of the top 25 largest independent accounting and business consulting firms in the United States. Armanino provides an integrated set of audit, tax, business management, consulting and technology solutions to companies in the U.S. and globally. The firm helps clients adapt and change in every stage of business, from startup through rapid growth to the sale of a company. Armanino emphasizes smart technology, leading a cloud revolution of financial, operational, sales and compliance tools that are transforming the way companies do business. Armanino extends its global services to more than 100 countries through its membership in Moore Stephens International Limited  one of the world's major accounting and consulting membership organizations. In addition to its core consulting and accounting practices, Armanino operates its AMF Media Group (www.amfmediagroup.com) division, a media and communications services agency. Its affiliate, Intersect Capital (www.intersectcapitalllc.com), is an independent financial planning, wealth and lifestyle management firm.

Kyle McGuire, AMF Media Group

925.790.2788 / Kyle@amfmediagroup.com
Almost 8000 customers who paid for national broadband network plans with TPG Telecom will be compensated after being misled about the maximum speed they could achieve.

TPG is now the third major telecommunications company to provide remediation to customers due to NBN speeds after action from the competition regulator.

TPG will compensate almost 8000 customers after it was found to have sold them NBN plans with speeds they could not achieve. Credit:Rob Homer

In November, Telstra was required to compensate 42,000 customers about the same issue. And in December, Singtel Optus was required to do the same for 8700 customers.

Its understood other broadband providers, such as iiNet and Vocus, are under increased scrutiny.
Five days before Christmas, news has dropped that a section of Federation Square has been given to Apple for its flagship Melbourne store. The Yarra Building will be demolished, and its tenants, including the Koorie Heritage Trust, relocated to make way for a globally familiar glass cube design.

Ever since Apple's first Australian store opened on Sydney's George Street in 2008, Melburnians have been waiting for their turn. Rumours have swirled about Apple's agents scouting Bourke Street Mall and Collins Street for an appropriate site. In September 2016 news circulated about Apple's plans for Fed Square, and a year later these have turned out to be true.

Opening in 2002, Federation Square has become the heart of this city. Melbourne finally had a public civic square after decades of aborted and less-relished attempts like City Square. The once-derided architecture has become accepted as part of the fabric and life of the city. Our Fed Square may have been operated by a private organisation under a charter, representing the creep of private interests to control public space. But this only roused the most ardent critics of these kinds of partnerships.

After all, Fed Square hosts hundreds of community events each year, and houses institutions like the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia and ACMI. Mostly, we ignored the roaming security guards (preventing protests) and enjoyed the assortment of eateries on offer. This place has a buzz all day and night. Few places represent the rejuvenation of Melbourne in the 1990s and 2000s more than Fed Square.
For four years in the 1990s, Catalonia was my home, and I have visited Barcelona regularly ever since, watching it evolve into one of the smartest and most prestigious of European destinations. Alongside my Spanish, I developed a strong working knowledge of the Catalan language, and understand the powerful role its distinctive music plays in local identity. The desire for Catalonian independence, once a quiet but persistent murmur, has developed into an ongoing shout  but it is a call to arms not everybody shares.

The mood in Barcelona has changed. There was the appalling terrorist attack on Las Ramblas in August, but that was something random, an assault from outside. Now Barcelona appears divided against itself, centre against periphery, class against class, as years of internal rumblings have suddenly transformed into open defiance of the Spanish state.

Ousted Catalan president Carles Puigdemont sends a kiss to his supporters as he appears via video link from Brussels on Tuesday. Credit:Emilio Morenatti

While the city centre is packed with shoppers, lights and decorations, it will not be the usual festive season. Even the annual Christmas lottery draw, sung live on television by orphan children from the San Ildefonso College in Madrid and a traditional staple of the Spanish calendar, will feel different. On Thursday, a profoundly divided Catalonia goes to the polls, with voting taking place under the direction of the central Madrid government. After suspending regional autonomous rule under article 155 of the constitution and imprisoning many pro-independence leaders on charges of sedition, Madrid hopes these elections will weaken the independence movement sufficiently so that their formerly tenuous control of the regional parliament will be broken altogether.

The question of Catalonia is inescapable anywhere in Spain. Television channels broadcast endless hours of debate every day. Polls predict a participation rate as high as 90 per cent, at the same time as they point to an unworkable political deadlock with no grouping  pro-independence or pro-union  mustering a clear working majority. Catalan politics is complex; seven parties have a serious chance of affecting the result, and any of the seven might form part of a coalition of one stripe or another.
Before you leap in to defend these words as humorous and creative copy competing in a crowded commercial environment, bear in mind they are anything but harmless. They violate fundamental rules in English grammar for the sake of a quick buck. The more we let this happen, the less clear and precise our language will become. When Donald Trump is wrong, his staff insist he is "instinctively correct". Credit:AP Frankenwords were a notable trend in the 2017 list of the worst words and phrases released by the Plain English Foundation. Each year, the foundation collects the worst examples of doublespeak, buzzwords and spin.

Unsurprisingly, corporate spin featured prominently again this year, particularly whenever a company faced public scrutiny.

United Airlines, for example, used security staff to drag a passenger out of his assigned seat and off an overbooked plane. When confronted with video evidence of its bleeding and distressed customer, the airline played down the incident as an overbook situation that led to involuntary deboarding. The chief executive reluctantly apologised for having to reaccommodate the passenger. In Australia, another airline lost a propeller mid-flight, which the pilot described as an uncommanded engine operation. Im sure the control tower was relieved to know he didnt command the propeller to fall off.

United Airlines tried to play down the incident as an 'involuntary deboarding'. Credit:Facebook Why is it that airlines seem so perversely opposed to plain English?

Corporate spin took a darker turn after allegations against Harvey Weinstein unleashed some of the worst non-apologies ever uttered in the English language. Australias own Don Burke was among the chief offenders when responding to claims of sexual misconduct, admitting that "I might have terrified a few people, or whatever". The Plain English Foundation's worst sign of 2017. Words still matter, and when they are used to paper over an abuse of power and evade responsibility, its more essential than ever that we call them out.

Which brings us to the worst words of the year, and its no surprise they were associated with United States President Donald Trump.

Why is it that airlines seem so perversely opposed to plain English? On his very first day in the job, White House press secretary Sean Spicer lied about the size of the crowd attending the Presidents inauguration. When asked to clarify, Trumps adviser Kellyanne Conway argued Spicer had merely given alternative facts. Lets be clear about this: a fact simply cannot have an alternative that is also a fact. In the words of George Orwell, this is a language "designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind".

If you think thats an exaggeration, the Trump administration followed up by explaining the President wasnt wrong about something else hed said, he was instinctively correct. Which means, of course, that even when hes wrong, hes right. And day is now night.

Just this week, news emerged of a list of words that health agencies should replace if they want to get funding from the Trump administration. Science-based programs should instead be called science in consideration with community standards and wishes. The State Department now dubs sex education as sexual risk avoidance. Trump himself reinforced the Orwellian trends of 2017 when he tweeted the tautology of the year. Tautologies are an easy slip-up to make, as Michelle Obama did when she cautioned young people against expressing their first initial thoughts on Twitter.

But a quadruple tautology is rare, and Trump tweeted a classic for the ages when he wrote about recent leaks being "fabricated lies made up by the #FakeNews media". When the world watches its leaders abuse our language this way, it's no wonder our standards are slipping.

Sure, some cases are humorous and unintentional, such as Pauline Hanson's complaint that the covert recording of One Nation staff was very fixacious. But poor language also promotes self-importance, such as the blogger who opined about the latest millennial trend of co-living or living as a service. We used to call this renting. And the worst cases of buzzwords promise a world of technical meaning only to deliver pure wind, like the new electricity arrangements that will apparently follow an optimised non-linear trajectory. I think this means something will go up and down, but in a good way. Then there was the worst sign of the year, on which the local council warned the public that "no fixing of restraints to the handrail stanchions is permitted without express permission". Like many of the year's worst words, the more you think about this, the less clear it becomes. The council has our express permission to use plain English instead of giving the appearance of solidity to pure wind.
Dudley Simpson, who has died aged 95, was a conductor and composer best known for his spooky soundtracks to more than 200 episodes of Doctor Who between 1964 and 1980; he also wrote the music for all but two of the 52 episodes of Blake's 7, the dystopian science-fiction series set 700 years in the future, that ran from 1978 to 1981.

Talented and adaptable, Simpson found himself working at the cutting edge of sound technology, often using the latest equipment to create his eerie tunes. Although the Doctor Who storylines ranged from romantic to sci-fi, he approached them all with the same degree of professionalism. "I always treat it as serious drama and try to give the music a sense of doom," he told Radio Times in 1973.

All the doctors up until 1983. Dudley Simpson appeared in a six-part storyline with Tom Baker (centre). Credit:BBC

He recalled sitting up much of the night to write the scores, which he would deliver to the copyist at all hours. On one occasion he was pulled over by a police officer who wanted to know why he had driven past him three or four times. When Simpson explained that he was delivering music for Doctor Who, the officer said: "Well, you'd better be going on your way then."

He made an appearance in a six-part storyline called The Talons of Weng-Chiang with Tom Baker, the fourth doctor. "They had me dolled up in a set of tails, and I conducted my own music, which I'd recorded beforehand," he recalled.
Malcolm Turnbull, who seems always to look on the bright side of things, can at least claim truthfully that he is not to blame if parts of his reshuffle have become an instant mess. In fact a lot of what the Prime Minister has done to renew his team is not a mess. It is true that he has disappointed many by not appointing enough women to redress the gender imbalance within the ministry  a long-standing problem that has deep roots in the Coalition's flawed approach to gender equality. But that obvious shortcoming aside, there are several positives.

The promotion of Christian Porter to Attorney-General to replace George Brandis, soon to become high commissioner to London, recognises the former's experience and his capable performance as Minister for Social Services. The portfolio he inherits, however, has been downsized from the one Senator Brandis held, with some substantial functions transferred to Peter Dutton's new super-sized Home Affairs ministry. Of course, it remains to be seen whether this confection, which bundles immigration functions together with parts of Australia's security and enforcement apparatus, is more than a public relations exercise designed to make the government look tough on asylum seekers, to keep Mr Dutton content as the Prime Minister's ally, and to pacify the Coalition's right wing. Given Mr Turnbull was never going to agree to the other nagging demand of the right's supporters  that Tony Abbott be brought back into Cabinet  those are important considerations. Other moves within the Liberal section of the ministry and cabinet look minor but reasonable.

The Turnbull cabinet after the reshuffle. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The messy part is confined to the National Party where the management of change has been clumsy. The best that can be said is that the Nationals' leader, Barnaby Joyce, newly legitimised as an MP after his by-election, had a difficult task to perform. Balancing state representation within a cabinet contingent of five people was always going to be hard for Mr Joyce, who has the right to choose his party's ministerial candidates. Though he has denied it explicitly, he appears not to have convinced his colleagues that no element of payback influenced his choices.

The candidate Mr Joyce wanted as deputy senate leader, Matt Canavan, Minister for Resources, and  perhaps more importantly in this context  Senator for Queensland, was defeated by Senator Bridget McKenzie, a Victorian, who enters Cabinet as a result. Queensland bulks large in the National Party universe; Victoria less so. Senator McKenzie's arrival thus meant the other Victorian Cabinet minister, Darren Chester, who had performed well in the infrastructure portfolio, was dumped unceremoniously from the ministry.
Every Thursday morning when Parliament sits in Canberra, a group of Liberal MPs from regional and rural seats gather to talk shop. The meetings have been happening on and off since the early 1990s. In the past six months, Malcolm Turnbull started coming too.

The rural Libs, convened by South Australian Rowan Ramsey, used the opportunity to press the Prime Minister for better representation in the ministry. It's not just the Nationals that represent regional Australia, they stressed.

And the pressure has worked. Rural Liberals have excelled in this cabinet reshuffle, including the promotion of Dan Tehan, Angus Taylor and the spectacular elevation of Queensland MP John McVeigh from newly-elected backbencher to Minister for Regional Development.

"He's a wonderful choice," says Queensland Liberal senator Ian Macdonald. "It shows that Turnbull has listened to the concerns of rural Liberals, who make up the majority of rural representatives in the federal Parliament."
Employment Minister Michaelia Cash has two weeks to hand over documents linked to raids on the Australian Workers Union after she lost a legal bid in the Federal Court.

Justice Mordecai Bromberg on Wednesday found the AWU had a legitimate reason to see the documents from Senator Cash's office to determine if there was political motivation for the October 24 raids in Melbourne and Sydney.

He found the AWU "has a legitimate forensic purpose" in seeing the communications between Senator Cash and the Registered Organisations Commission.

But Senator Cash will not have to hand over all the documents the union sought, with Justice Bromberg limiting access to only relevant paperwork.
Senior Coalition MPs have dismissed the idea of Queensland's Liberal National Party formally breaking away to form a new grouping in Canberra, despite suggestions dumped junior minister Keith Pitt could lead such a move.

In a stand against treasonous talk, Nationals MP Darren Chester on Wednesday publicly responded to being booted from cabinet by Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, calling on his colleagues to stop criticising each other and unite after a "ratty" few months and "poor discipline".

Mr Pitt would not on Wednesday rule out setting up a separate LNP party room next year, and referred to an earlier statement that his priority "as it always has been  is to serve the people of Hinkler. They have supported me and the Liberal National Party in the past two elections, and I intend to ensure I continue to deliver for the people of my electorate."

Three of Mr Pitt's Queensland colleagues  Ian Macdonald, Scott Buchholz and Llew O'Brien  told Fairfax Media they did not want their colleague to quit the Nationals' party room and establish a separate LNP grouping.
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has denied "payback" motivated his cabinet decisions as the infighting in the Nationals continues to overshadow Malcolm Turnbull's ministerial reset.

Tuesday's reshuffle saw five people appointed to the 23-member cabinet, including rookie Queensland federal MPs David Littleproud and John McVeigh, in a move designed to woo voters in the key battleground state.

But the rapid promotion of Mr Littleproud and Mr McVeigh, who were both elected for the first time just 18 months ago, came at the expense of the now-former infrastructure minister Darren Chester and assistant minister for trade Keith Pitt.

The ministerial rearrangement has infuriated some Nationals MPs, who accused Mr Joyce of taking revenge on Mr Chester for supporting Bridget McKenzie in her successful bid to become the Nationals deputy leader.
PORTLAND, Ore., Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PDX Partners, Inc. (OTC PINK:PDXP) ("the Company"), a Telecom company, announces that it has executed a Letter of Intent to acquire AMC Financial Group, respectively.

AMC Financial Group is a Financial Services Company that operates in the Alternative Lending space. AMC specializes in providing alternative lending options to small and midsize businesses with products that are 90% revenue based and structured to fit every business type.

Nearly 70% of small business owners in America are deemed non-bankable according to traditional banking standards, Said CEO Patrick Johnson. The Alternative lending space is a great option for non-qualifying business because there are no collateral or personal guarantees required and offers flexibility, efficiency, and seamless funding processes. He said.

About AMC Financial Group

AMC Financial Group is a Financial Services Company that operates in the Alternative Lending space. AMC specializes in providing alternative lending options to small and midsize businesses with products that are 90% revenue based and structured to fit every business type. Our extremely flexible repayment options make AMC Financial Group an ideal solution to fit every budget as well. Our funding solutions are efficient, fast and the process is seamless. WE SAY YES, WHEN THE BANK SAYS NO!

For more information, visit: https://amcfinancialgrp.com/

About PDX Partners

PDX Partners, Inc. (OTC PINK:PDXP) is a Telecom company dedicated to creating revenue and shareholder value by marketing Telecom products and acquiring other long-term growth assets. The company was founded in 1997.

For more information go to: www.pdxpartners.net

Safe Harbor Statement

This release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E and/or 27E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that are based upon assumptions that in the future may prove not to have been accurate and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties, including statements as to the future performance of the company and the risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in reports filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Statements contained in this release that are not historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain. Although the company believes that the expectations reflected in its forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations or any of its forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. Factors that could cause results to differ include, but are not limited to, the company's ability to raise necessary financing, retention of key personnel, timely delivery of inventory from the company's suppliers, timely product development, product acceptance, and the impact of competitive services and products, in addition to general economic risks and uncertainties.

PDX Partners, Inc.

Patrick J. Johnson

Chief Executive Officer

(971) 258-8003

patrick@pdxpartners.net
You may think that being a minister is easy: something that any two-bit megalomaniac can manage, as long as they can string a sentence together and carry a folder. It's more complex than that. And there are good reasons why people tend to spend some time on the backbench before heading to the front.

These hasty elevations are terrifying not just because of the double standard they perpetuate (women have to wait and wait, while men are automatically deemed competent), but because of what it means for the highest decision-making body of government.

To be fair, McVeigh will already be familiar to Queenslanders, as he had a brief stint in state politics, including as Campbell Newman's agriculture minister. Littleproud (an agribusiness expert), was previously best known as one of the four MPs who voted "no" on same-sex marriage. People also had to remind themselves about Damian Drum, another first-term National, who made the junior ministry as Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister.

For starters, you need to learn how to be a parliamentarian and local member: how legislation and the chamber work; what committees do; how the party room functions; how to handle the deluge of electorate requests and questions that come in. And in the meantime, maybe get your melon on TV and get used to having a public profile.

Then you need to learn how the rest of government functions: the cabinet and budget processes; how the political side interacts with the public service; how to take responsibility for policies, starting with a small chunk of them; and how to handle a hostile opposition and hostile journalists.

So it's fairly terrifying to think Turnbull has just put three people into cabinet with no previous federal frontbench experience (though at least McKenzie has been in Parliament for a couple of terms).

For example, in Littleproud's case, he'll jump from having a personal staff of about five to having an office of about 20 and a department of more than 5000 people working for him. He'll have to answer questions in question time, take agriculture and water resources through the budget process (that has already begun without him), and generally be across all the details and decisions in a huge area of policy.

Of course, the reasons for these whopping promotions have precious little to do with merit and everything to do with Turnbull and Barnaby Joyce's logic about what's best for them and their parties. But they make a mockery of the heartfelt explanations from Coalition figures about why progress is so glacial on gender balance.
London: Meghan Markle has joined fiance Prince Harry at Buckingham Palace for the royal family's Christmas lunch.

The Queen traditionally hosts a festive lunch for her family before leaving for her private Sandringham estate, where she spends the holidays.

The prince and his fiancee will be married on May 19 at Windsor Castle's St George's Chapel, an event which will be one of the royal highlights of 2018.

It has already been confirmed that Markle will be part of the royal party at Sandringham for Christmas.
Did you hear hyper-consumerism is on its way out? The cool kids are repairing, refusing and re-using rather than buying new these days, or opting for socially-conscious stuff that's been designed and produced by ethical labels or social enterprises.

According to research by ING, 56 per cent of Australians are more inclined to buy sustainable, socially-conscious products today than they were 12 months ago, and, despite last week's news that they're a wasteful lot, millennials are leading the way.

So what to buy the early adopter in your life this Christmas?

Herewith, a list of mindfully brilliant ideas (and one that might get you into trouble  you have been warned):
Just a few years ago, student numbers at Sir Joseph Banks High were dwindling; it was far from the first choice of school for many and its reputation meant neighbouring high schools attracted the best and the brightest.

But within three years, the dedicated team of teachers, led by principal Murray Kitteringham, have turned the school around and for two years in a row, every student from the Revesby school who has applied for a university place has been accepted.

The school expects the same exceptional result this year when the University Admissions Centre (UAC) makes a large round of NSW university offers on Thursday.

Mr Kitteringham said when the school's population dipped below 500 students, the staff knew they had to make big changes.
A 59-year-old man who allegedly provided services to a "weapons of mass destruction program" on behalf of the rogue North Korean regime has appeared in court.

Chan Han Choi was arrested at his Eastwood apartment at the weekend, and faces six charges related to brokering the sale of missiles, missile parts and expertise from North Korea to "other international entities" and attempting to transfer coal from North Korea to non-government buyers in Indonesia and Vietnam.

All offences allegedly relate to the period between August and December this year.

Mr Choi, from Eastwood, appeared in prison greens at Central Local Court on Wednesday via audio-visual link from Silverwater Correctional Centre.
A man has won a legal battle in a NSW court after being prosecuted for failing to vote in the 2016 federal election, saying voting would have left him feeling "morally corrupt".

Adam Easton admitted he didn't vote in the July 2016 election but pleaded not guilty to failing to vote.

Adam Easton's win is the first time an elector has had charges dismissed under that section of the Act, which the magistrate said was "remarkably subjective". Credit:Max Mason-Hubers

He relied on a section of the Commonwealth Electoral Act that states a person who believes it's his or her religious duty to abstain from voting has a valid reason not to vote.

The self-described agnostic said he believed in "Freedom" - an ideology that forms the basis of his view of life and his moral framework.
A Romanian recluse lay dead in his Sydney flat for up to seven weeks before his decomposed body was found on his bedroom floor beside buckets he probably had used to vomit in.

Police could only locate one relative, a brother living in New Zealand, who said he wanted no further contact from them.

The acting state coroner could not ascertain the cause of Bodo Cazimir's death. Credit:Kate Geraghty

In Glebe Coroners Court on Wednesday, acting state coroner Teresa O'Sullivan found Bodo Cazimir, 64, died in his Drummoyne flat between May 19 and July 6, 2015, but could not ascertain the cause or manner of death.

Mr Cazimir, who was believed to have been a professor of music, had been diagnosed with a large tumour in his bladder months earlier but had refused any treatment, the inquest was told.
When Gladys Berejiklian contests the 2019 state election, the Premier should be guaranteed a faster trip between Macquarie Street and the Western Sydney electorates she will need to impress.

Ms Berejiklian travelled under the inner west on Wednesday, traversing new tunnels that will form part of the WestConnex motorway. In a little over 12 months, these tunnels should be open to general traffic.

"This is an amazing feat," said Ms Berejiklian, while standing under Parramatta Road, in a cavern carved out by 21 roadheaders variously working night and day over the past 18 months.

"I couldn't be happier with the progress," said the Premier.
It was on his alleged return from the Syrian war zone in late 2015 when authorities ramped up their investigation into young Sydney father Belal Betka.

Some 10 months beforehand, the Minister for Foreign Affairs had declared the Syrian province al-Raqqa as an area where a listed terrorist organisation was engaging in hostile activity.

Commonwealth legislation made it illegal for any Australian to be in a "declared area".

And for two years after Betka first arrived home, the NSW Joint Counter Terrorism Team  comprising of representatives from state and federal police, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and NSW Crime Commission  continued the in-depth investigation into allegations of money laundering and proceeds of crime being used to help fund terrorist organisations.
Alison Blake took her own life in June, 2015, only two weeks after a doctor told her nothing could be done to ease her pain or address the devastating consequences of pelvic mesh device surgery.

"I cannot bear the thought of leaving you but the emotional torment and physical pain I'm going through are just too much," Mrs Blake, 64, said in a final letter to her only child, Leesa Tolhurst.

Leesa Tolhurst and Alison Blake.

"I simply cannot bear to be lying on a couch for months on end and to have to rely on catheters, enemas, Temazepam, pain killers and be a burden to my family and friends."

Mrs Tolhurst sobbed this week as she remembered the day her mother gave up hope.
NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN AUSTRALIA, SWITZERLAND, CANADA, JAPAN, HONG KONG OR THE UNITED STATES OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION IN WHICH THE RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION WOULD BE UNLAWFUL. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER OF ANY OF THE SECURITIES DESCRIBED HEREIN.

Oslo, 20 November 2017

Reference is made to the stock exchange announcement dated 19 December 2017 regarding the preliminary result of the subsequent offering of up to 50,000,000 new Class A shares (the "Offer Shares") in SeaBird Exploration PLC ("SeaBird" or the "Company") at a subscription price of NOK 0.10 per share (the "Subsequent Offering").

The subscription period in the Subsequent Offering expired on 19 November at 16:30 CET. By the end of the subscription period, the Company had received valid subscriptions for a total of 70,704,994 Offer Shares. Hence, 50 million Offer Shares will be issued.

Notifications of allocated Offer Shares in the Subsequent Offering and the corresponding amount to be paid by each subscriber will be set out in a separate letter to each subscriber to whom Offer Shares have been allotted. The allocation letters are expected to be sent today.

No primary insiders have received allocation of Offer Shares in the Subsequent Offering.

The Offer Shares are not listed and tradeable shares. The Offer Shares will be converted to ordinary shares, transferred to the ordinary ISIN of the Company's shares and become tradeable on Oslo Brs under the trading symbol "SBX" upon a capital reduction relating to the reduction of the nominal value of the Company's ordinary shares having been completed by the resolution of a competent court in Cyprus.

ABG Sundal Collier and Arctic Securities acted as joint bookrunners in the Subsequent Offering. Advokatfirmaet Schjdt AS acted as Norwegian legal counsel to the Company.

ENDS

For additional information, please contact:

Christophe Debouvry

CEO SeaBird Exploration

Phone: +47 22402705

Nils Haugestad

CFO SeaBird Exploration

Phone: +47 22402717

SeaBird is a global provider of marine acquisition for 2D/3D and 4D seismic data, and associated products and services to the oil and gas industry. SeaBird specializes in high quality operations within the high end of the source vessel and 2D market, as well as in the shallow/deep water 2D/3D and 4D market. Main focus for the company is proprietary seismic surveys (contract seismic). Main

success criteria for the company are an unrelenting focus on Quality, Health, Safety and Environment (QHSE), combined with efficient collection of high quality seismic data.

Important information:

The release is not for publication or distribution, in whole or in part directly or indirectly, in or into Australia, Switzerland, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong or the United States (including its territories and possessions, any state of the United States and the District of Columbia).

This release is an announcement issued pursuant to legal information obligations, and is subject of the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5 -12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. It is issued for information purposes only, and does not constitute or form part of any offer or solicitation to purchase or subscribe for securities, in the United States or in any other jurisdiction. The securities mentioned herein have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"). The securities may not be offered or sold in the United States except pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements of the Securities Act. The Company does not intend to register any portion of the offering of the securities in the United States or to conduct a public offering of the securities in the United States. Copies of this announcement are not being made and may not be distributed or sent into Australia, Switzerland, Canada, Japan, Hong Kong or the United States. The issue, exercise, purchase or sale of subscription rights and the subscription or purchase of shares in the Company are subject to specific legal or regulatory restrictions in certain jurisdictions. Neither the Company nor the Managers assume any responsibility in the event there is a violation by any person of such restrictions.

The distribution of this release may in certain jurisdictions be restricted by law. Persons into whose possession this release comes should inform themselves about and observe any such restrictions. Any failure to comply with these restrictions may constitute a violation of the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. The Managers are is acting for the Company and no one else in connection with the Subsequent Offering and will not be responsible to anyone other than the Company for providing the protections afforded to their respective clients or for providing advice in relation to the Subsequent Offering and/or any other matter referred to in this release.
A woman has been charged after allegedly hitting another woman twice with a car in Sydney's inner city on Wednesday morning.

Police allege a 49-year-old woman was standing on John Street in Waterloo just after midnight when she was hit twice by the driver of a green Holden Commodore sedan, who then fled the scene.

Police said the incident was related to road rage, and believe the women are known to each other - it's understood they were friends.

The injured woman was taken to St Vincents hospital with multiple fractures and facial injuries. She has since had surgery and is in a stable condition.

About 2.30pm on Wednesday, police arrested a 50-year-old woman at a home in Beverley Park.
A woman has been charged with murder after allegedly stabbing her husband to death in Brisbanes west.

Their four-year-old son was in bed at the time but did not witness the stabbing, police said.

Police investigate the scene of an alleged murder in Chapel Hill. Credit:Jorge Branco

Paramedics were called to the home on Fig Tree Pocket Road in Chapel Hill about 9pm and rushed 35-year-old Jarred Castel to the Royal Brisbane and Womens Hospital but doctors were not able to save him.

The mans wife was charged with murder.
A 15-year-old boy needed emergency surgery after he was bashed with a metal pole outside what neighbours call "the feral house" in an attack by a gang of youths that police described as "quite vicious" .

The teenager and another 15-year-old boy went to confront a group of about four young men who had gathered outside the house in Endeavour Drive, Cranbourne North about 12.30am on Thursday.

The house in Endeavour Drive, Cranbourne North, where a 15-year-old boy was beaten with a metal pole. Credit:Jason South

Police said during the confrontation the boy, who's from Frankston, was attacked and struck across the head with a metal pole.

He is now in a stable condition after surgery on Wednesday morning.
WA's Minister for Child Protection says she is "confident" over 300 job cuts in the Department of Communities will not affect child protection officers or other frontline services.

Minister Simone McGurk announced the state government was aiming for over 300 voluntary redundancies by March next year, and said the changes were necessary due to the department's absorption of four other areas of public service.

The government has been tasked with pulling together around $750 million in savings over four years.

"There will be redundancies," she said.

"No minister takes joy in cutting staff or services in the programs in the case of education, absolutely no joy at all, it's very frustrating.
Family and domestic violence is a critical issue all year around, but at Christmas its effects can become even more hurtful as the stress of the holidays increases.

To raise awareness for the holiday period, Anglicare has launched its annual family and domestic violence appeal - last Christmas the organisation helped 2,762 people find safety from domestic violence.

Domestic violence orders will apply nationwide as of last week.

Anglicare WA chief Ian Carter said Christmas looked very different to the many families and children whose lives were traumatised by domestic violence.

"To help bring some safety, security and joy to those families which might see Christmas differently to the rest of us, Anglicare WA has launched its annual Christmas Appeal so we can help more victims of family and domestic violence on their journey to a safer and happier life," Mr Carter said.
George Psanoudakis spends every morning, without fail, walking up and down South Beach in Fremantle.

The 80-year-old takes off at 5.30am with his bathers, a towel, and a rubbish bag.

George on one of his South Beach walks. Credit:Hannah Barry

For three years now, George has spent every morning in both summer and winter walking between the groynes and cleaning up any rubbish left behind.

And for almost three years, his efforts went quietly noticed by the people of Fremantle.
Every year, WA's top 10 ATAR students are interviewed, celebrated and awarded for their amazing achievements in their year 12 exams.

But in 2017, around 25,000 WA students achieved an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank.

So what about the other 24,990? Jordan's story is one of incredible determination.

His mum Natalie Bock said her son who attended Ocean Reef Senior High School was faced with the daunting prospect of passing English.
When Mandurah's Ben Gerring was attacked by a shark last year, vital minutes were lost as rescuers tried to find him.

Now an initiative prompted by this tragedy is set to be rolled out state-wide in a bid to improve beach safety.

Rick Gerring spearheaded the BEN signage system after the tragic death of his brother Ben. Credit:Marta Pascual Juanola.

The Beach Emergency Numbers (BEN) system, named in honour of Mr Gerring, was implemented by the City of Mandurah earlier this year.

The idea came from Mr Gerring's brother, Rick, who suggested the system could lead to quicker emergency response times by allowing crews to locate the closest beach access point following a critical incident.
Jakarta: Australian accountant Isaac Emmanuel Roberts, who is being detained in Bali on drug importing allegations, has a history of depression and past trauma according to his legal team.

Bali police claim Roberts, 35, from Queensland, admitted he bought the drugs in Bangkok paying 2500 bhat (about $100) per gram of methamphetamine and 600 bhat ($24) per ecstasy pill.

Roberts was arrested on December 4 after he was allegedly nabbed with five packets of clear crystal meth weighing 19.97 grams, which Indonesians refer to using the slang term shabu, and 14 ecstasy tablets at Bali's international airport on December 4.

He faces charges of importing more than five grams of drugs under article 113, which carries a maximum punishment of death and a minimum of five years' jail.
European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans at EU headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday. The EU's executive has triggered proceedings against Poland that could lead to sanctions over its decision. Credit:VIRGINIA MAYO He said the laws would make the Polish justice system more efficient and enhance confidence in the courts. Jaroslaw Flis, a political analyst and sociologist at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, said the standoff between the Polish government and the European Union was becoming increasingly dangerous. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the ruling Law and Justice party. Credit:AP "It's a classic chicken race, seeing who chickens out first," he said. "Everyone seems to be playing tough guys. The ruling party seems convinced that the EU has enough problems to see this through and that they will eventually back down, but it's a very risky strategy. It could turn into a real mess."

It is the latest challenge facing officials in Brussels, where European leaders are struggling to deal with complicated questions surrounding Britain's exit from the union, a separatist movement in Spain and continuing disagreement over policies related to the migration of immigrants into Europe. The dispute between Poland and other members of the EU has been building for more than two years, since the populist Law and Justice party swept into power promising to rid Poland of corruption and the remnants of communism. The party has brushed aside criticism from Brussels, saying it amounts to meddling by out-of-touch and unaccountable bureaucrats. Since the fall of communism, Poland has been seen as a success story in the integration of former Eastern bloc nations with the West. That progress is now considered to be under threat. The passage of the laws was the latest and most drastic move by the party to solidify its hold on power, even at the cost of threatening the cohesion of the EU. Since taking control of the government in 2015, the party has curbed public gatherings, increased control over the news media, undermined the independence of civil services and the prosecutor's office, and restricted the activities of non-governmental organisations.

The threat to core democratic principles in Poland, critics say, is part of a broader shift taking place across Central and Eastern Europe, where populist leaders have tapped into deep economic anxiety and fears generated by the arrival on the Continent of hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Middle East and Africa. There is no one-size-fits-all ideology that links populist leaders. But countries in Western Europe have watched nervously as movements that were once on the fringe have gained legitimacy. At the same time, the United States has largely stayed out of the discussion. When President Donald Trump visited Poland in July, controversy about the judicial overhaul was swirling and his speech was widely interpreted as emboldening the right-wing government. Duda pointed to the US system in his speech. "It's with distaste that I'm listening to those thunderous voices that talk about what a terrible system we are introducing," he said. "Please check in how many countries the executives have influence on how the justices are picked. In the United States, it's the president who appoints the Supreme Court justices, whose candidacies are then reviewed by the Senate."

For leaders in Western Europe, especially in Germany and in France, the Polish government's decision to adopt the laws on the same day as the warning was issued amounted to a direct slap in the face. It was unclear how they would respond. One possible avenue would be to apply financial pressure. Poland is the biggest net beneficiary of financial aid from the European Union. The government also faces fierce opposition inside Poland. Law and Justice came to power with only 39 per cent of the vote. But with the opposition divided, it was able to take control of the government without having to form a coalition. An attempt to introduce a similar judicial overhaul failed over the summer after tens of thousands took to the streets night after night to voice their opposition, many waving gray flags emblazoned with a single word: "konstytucja," or "constitution." The legislation prompted the European Union's first-ever investigation into a member country's respect for the rule of law.

Under pressure from the protesters and from world leaders, Duda defied his own political camp and unexpectedly vetoed the first draft bills. Since then, however, he has huddled in private with the leader of the Law and Justice party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, a fierce ideologue who controls most of the levers of power in Poland, about ways to rewrite the legislation to make it more palatable. Originally, the plan was to get rid of the entire Supreme Court, but the revised legislation changes the retirement age for the court's judges to 65 from 70. That would effectively force out a little less than half of the roughly 80 active justices, including the court's president, Malgorzata Gersdorf, who has been a vocal critic of the government's actions. "What is happening in the country hurts me very much," she told the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita. "I can't understand how you can destroy social ties like that, turn the law into nothing." "I feel very sorry for my country," the judge said.
NEW YORK, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Greystone, a real estate lending, investment and advisory company, today announced it received several honors from Fannie Mae for its lending activity in the affordable housing sector.



At the annual Multifamily Affordable Housing (MAH) meeting in Chicago, Illinois on November 13, Greystone was bestowed with the highest number of recognitions to Fannie Maes Delegated Underwriting and Servicing (DUS) lenders, including:

Induction into Fannie Maes MAH Hall of Fame for ranking number five in overall production over the last four years;

Tied for the highest number of delegated Multifamily Affordable Housing loans in 2016-2017; and

Third-highest-volume in Multifamily Affordable Housing loans for 2016.

We are truly honored and grateful for our strong and long-lasting relationship with Fannie Mae and our valuable partnership with their Multifamily Affordable Housing team, said Jeff Englund, head of Greystones Affordable Lending team. By working so closely together, we are able to make strides in the creation, preservation, and financing of critical affordable housing around the country.

About Greystone

Greystone is a real estate lending, investment and advisory company with an established reputation as a leader in multifamily and healthcare finance, having ranked as a top FHA and Affordable Fannie Mae lender in these sectors. Our range of services includes commercial lending across a variety of platforms such as Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, CMBS, FHA, USDA, bridge and proprietary loan products. Loans are offered through Greystone Servicing Corporation, Inc., Greystone Funding Corporation and/or other Greystone affiliates. For more information, visit www.greyco.com.

PRESS CONTACT:

Karen Marotta

Greystone

212-896-9149

Karen.Marotta@Greyco.com
Moscow: Officials in Russia and China pushed back on Tuesday against the characterisation of their countries as threats to the United States in a new national security doctrine published by the White House a day earlier.

A spokesman for the Kremlin criticised Trump's foreign policy strategy as having an "imperialist character" while the Chinese Embassy in Washington suggested that the document's theme of "America First" reflected "outdated, zero-sum thinking."

Every US administration is obliged to publish its national security strategy, providing Congress with a blueprint for its intended policies around the world. The 68-page doctrine the White House released Monday described Russia and China as "revisionist" powers for seeking a change in the US-led world order.

"After being dismissed as a phenomenon of an earlier century, great power competition returned," the document says. Russia and China, it says, "are determined to make economies less free and less fair, to grow their militaries, and to control information and data to repress their societies and expand their influence."
Bangkok: Myanmar has barred a top United Nations investigator from visiting the country in what appears to part of a campaign to cover-up atrocities against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State.

Yanghee Lee, the UN's Special Rapporteur, lashed out at the government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, saying she is "puzzled and disappointed by the decision" made only days before she due was to make an official visit.

"This declaration of non-cooperation with my mandate can only be viewed as a strong indication that there must be something terrible happening in Rakhine, as well as the rest of the country," Lee said in a statement released in Geneva.

Suu Kyi's government and Myanmar's military have rejected widely documented atrocities in Rakhine that the UN Human Rights Council has described as "very likely" crimes against humanity and human rights groups label genocide.
New York: Nikki Haley has a warning for her fellow UN ambassadors ahead of a key vote on Jerusalem this week: Donald Trump is watching.

Still smarting from having to cast the first US veto in the United Nations Security Council in six years on Monday, Haley is pressing other countries not to support a resolution in the larger General Assembly critical of President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the American embassy there from Tel Aviv

In a letter to some countries  including key US allies  Haley warned that "the President will be watching this vote carefully and has requested I report back on those countries who voted against us. We will take note of each and every vote on this issue."

The letter was shared with Bloomberg News by one UN ambassador and confirmed by three others who all asked not to be named.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Traffic and Telecommunication (TEATT) Mellissa Arrindell-Doncher on Tuesday thanked the general media on St. Maarten for its cooperation and professional working relationship over her 10-month tenure as Minister.

Over approximately 10 months, the Minister issued 123 press releases with pictures in an effort to keep the public informed about Ministry TEATT. That averages out to 12 articles a month from the Minister or about 3 per week.

The Minister said she respected the fact that the media had its job to do and she strived to always maintain an open line of communication with the media via her cabinet. She said she also appreciated the opportunities the media gave her to respond to or clarify any matter before it was published.

The media has its role to play in any community and modern-day democracy. Though government is not always ready to provide information when the media calls, I understood that information had to be given sometimes and I think the media understood that information would come when it was ready to be given. At least with me, I had that understanding with the media core and I thank them for getting our messages and information out to the people of St. Maarten, the Minister said.

Press Release from the Ministry of TEATT
PHILIPSBURG:--- On Monday, December 18th, 2017 representatives of the University of St. Martin and the Ministry of Education finally arrived at an agreement and signed the MOU securing the continuity of education for students of the USM. This, after the representatives of the University of St. Martin had not seen it possible to sign the proposed MOU on December 11th, 2017. However, after hearing an interview by the Minister on the topic on December 12th, the University promptly contacted the Department of Education with a willingness to resume talks, which commenced on Wednesday, December 13th.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport was happy to do so and met with the Board of the University of St Maarten Foundation to revisit and discuss the MOU that had been presented to the Board by the Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport. At the end of an almost two-hour meeting, it was agreed that the University of St Martin would restart the 2017/2018 academic year on January 15th, 2018.

Representing the Ministry of Education at the meeting were the Secretary-General, drs. Jorien Wuite, the Head of the Department of Education, Mrs. Sidonia Lacorbiniere-Hodge, Senior Policy Officer, Mrs. Ruth Linger and Policy Support Officer, Mrs. Angele Bell. The Board of the USM Foundation was represented by the President Mrs. Valerie Giterson-Pantophlet M.Ed, Vice President Wycliffe Smith M.A., M. Ed., Vice-Treasurer drs. Vasco Daal, Secretary Marcellia Henry M. Ed. and MFO Robert Judd.

The Ministry and the Board reviewed the various drafts, discussed, negotiated, edited and re-edited a final draft which both parties could live with. It was then agreed that, within 24 hours, the Ministry would send a clean copy of the draft MOU to the Board for review. After receiving the amended MOU, parties continued to negotiate changes over the weekend on Friday, December 15, 2017 and Saturday, December 16, 2017. Discussions regarding the draft MOU ended on Monday, December 18, 2017 when the representatives of the USMF board and the representatives of the Ministry of Education met to reach to a final agreement on the text of the MOU with the blessing of the Minister under the mandate shed received from the Council of Ministers. The final text was approved by both entities and made ready for signing.

The USMF will receive the necessary financial injection from government in order to restart the 2017-2018 academic year. Meanwhile, the SOAB (Stichting Overheids Accountant Bureau) has begun a financial and management audit of USM which will eventually lead to an advice to government concerning structural funding for the university. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport has established the ordinance on higher education as a high priority and will strive to have the draft ordinance approved by the Council of Ministers by June 2018 in order to start the legislative procedure to the Council of Advice, and thereafter parliament in the second half of 2018. Parties have also committed to work together in the next few months to address the need for a structural increase in USMFs subsidy for USMF over the next couple of years.

The Board of the USM Foundation is grateful to the Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport and her staff for the work they have done to ensure that USM can reopen in January 2018. The Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport and The Board of University of St. Maarten Foundation are both extremely happy to inform the students that they can continue their education after so much uncertainty as to the future of USM. This is a happy ending for the students, staff and USM family, and the St. Maarten community.

The Board of the USM Foundation and Management is happy with the final version of the MOU. USM is undergoing a renaissance, seeking to re-root itself in a more sustainable manner in St. Maarten. The structural funding is an assurance of the sustainability of this higher education institution.

As a Board, we know that only by investing in USM, we can guarantee achieving our mission statement, which is to contribute to having at least an associate degree holder in every household on St. Maarten. In other words, an educated population able to face the challenges and make use of the emerging opportunities in our globalizing world.

The Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, Ms. Silveria Jacobs, thanks the Department of Education and all other departments and divisions within the Ministry and Government apparatus for their tireless work and dedication to see this through. Minister Jacobs is extremely proud of the never give up attitude and perseverance of all involved to continue the fight for the longevity of higher education on St. Maarten, with a focus on the students and staff as well as accountability for public funds.

Minister concluded by congratulating the students, teachers, staff, and parents of the USM students, saying: Congratulations to especially the students and staff for standing up for what you believe in and for speaking out and letting your voices be heard and for not ever giving up amidst the storm. Government is committed to live up to its pledge to do all within its purview to ensure continuity, quality and accountability for all past, present and future students for whom the University of St. Martin (USM) has been and is the gateway to a better and brighter future.

Joint Press Release by the Minister of Education and the Board of USM Foundation
THE HAGUE, Netherlands:--- Minister Plenipotentiary of Sint Maarten, H.E. Henrietta Doran-York, together with her staff, hosted the Sint Maarten students at her Cabinet in The Hague on Friday December 15th 2017, for an end of year "unification", which was the first of what will continue to be an annual event.

Minister Doran-York said that she organized this event for the students, as she was aware that the majority of the students would not be able to return home for the Holiday season, and therefore offering them the opportunity to come together, will give them the chance to unite with especially their peers.

The event, which was attended by students from all Cities in the Netherlands, served as an encouragement for some of Sint Maarten's brightest and best in The Netherlands, as for in particular the first year arrival students, this is a very difficult time of year, where they often times can become discouraged due to the missing their family that they recently left.

The Minister reminded the students to continue to make use of the Cabinet, in the event that the assistance of the Minister or the staff was needed, as the Sint Maarten House, is their house.

Minister Doran-York encouraged the students to work hard always and in the end, they will reach their desired goals.

Special thanks also to the Staff at the Cabinet, in particular, Kelly Busby, Guidance Councilor Xaviera Mc. Donald Archangel, Glenn, Tasika, Germaine, Louisa, Edna, Irma, and the ever helpful students who all volunteered their time to assist with the event.

The Minister wished them all a very enjoyable Christmas season, and a prosperous and bright 2018 when it rolls around.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Members of the Human Trafficking Unit (UMM) of the Police Force of Sint Maarten (KPSM) searched the Juan Bar in Cole Bay this week, on December 19, 2017, around 6:00 AM. The reason was the suspicion that some women were prostituting there. This suspicion was confirmed. It has been found that in the brothel seven prostitutes were present without the valid residence documents.

The women, from countries such as Colombia, Suriname, Curacao and the Dominican Republic, have been placed under the supervision of the Immigration Service and an expulsion procedure has been put into operation. During the search, in which members of the UMM were assisted by members of the Royal Marechaussee (KMar) and Immigration and Naturalization Service, administration, electronics, and narcotics were seized. But also money and valuable goods, because crime can and may not pay.

Since June 2015, it has been punishable to have a brothel without a license from the Minister of Justice. The manager of the brothel has therefore been arrested for this. In addition, he is suspected of a number of other criminal offenses, including illegal employment and human trafficking (providing residence to illegal aliens). For this, he has been taken into custody.

The Public Prosecutor's Office (OM) will take enforcement action in the future on (catering) occasions that do not have a brothel license from the Minister of Justice.

At the end of the search, the UMM unit closed and left the bar. Shortly thereafter, the police received a report that the closed bar was 'plundered'. The police have arrested 3 people on this.

Press Release from the Public Prosecutor's Office
Las Vegas, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- KSIX Media Holdings, Inc. (OTC: KSIX) LAS VEGAS, NV- a company focused on Telecom, Media and Blockchain FinTech and Cryptocurrency applications announced it has entered into two settlements with creditors which eliminates approximately $1,470,000 of convertible debt and recovers 1,782,000 shares of Company stock previously issued to a creditor. In addition, the settlements result in the release of an additional 18,745,015 shares of Company stock which had been reserved for the benefit of the creditors.





Specifically, on December 5, 2017, KSIX Media Holdings, Inc. and certain of its subsidiaries (collectively, the Company) entered into a Settlement Agreement with Salksanna, LLC relating to separate promissory notes, each in the original principal amount of $53,542.33. Under the terms of the Settlement Agreement, the Company paid Salksanna $110,000 cash in full satisfaction of all amounts due pursuant to the promissory notes.

On December 7, 2017, the Company and certain corporate and individual guarantors entered into a Settlement Agreement with TCA Global Credit Master Fund, L.P. with respect to a convertible promissory note in the original face amount of $750,000. Under the terms of the Settlement Agreement, the Company paid TCA $375,000 cash to settle all obligations between the parties. In addition, TCA agreed to the cancellation of 1,782,000 shares of Company Common Stock which it had held.





The settlement of this debt and cancellation of the stock associated with the debt was a significant achievement in cleaning up our balance sheet and settlement of pending litigation matters, said CEO Brian Cox, who has been in office only six months. This was one of my primary initiatives when I joined the Company and permits us to move forward with the completion of our pending merger with True Wireless and the strategic expansion of our Telecom, Blockchain and Cryptocurrency initiatives. Our Chief Strategy Officer, Anthony Nuzzo, was instrumental in negotiating these settlements.





Separately, the Company is proceeding with its name change to Surge Holdings, Inc., which it expects to complete within the next 30 days. The new name is emblematic of the repositioning of the Company.

ABOUT KSIX MEDIA HOLDINGS

KSIX Media Holdings Inc. is a diversified holding company with an aggressive plan to grow the existing media business through investments in Telecom, Blockchain Technology Software and Cryptocurrency markets.





For more information, go to ksix.com and subscribe to the CEO monthly newsletter. The Company utilizes the KSIX website to update the market in real-time, including blogs, information related to team members, investor relation tools, material news, updates on mergers and acquisitions and more.





Follow us on twitter @KsixHoldings , like us on Facebook @ksixmedia



FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain statements in this release, other than statements of historical fact, may include forward-looking information that involves various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate. Actual result and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. These and all subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements are based on the estimates and opinions of management on the dates they are made and expressly qualified in their entirety by this notice. The Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements should circumstances or management's estimates or opinions change, other than as required pursuant to applicable securities laws.
TORONTO, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PIMCO Canada Corp. (PIMCO), the manager of PIMCO Global Advantage Strategy Bond Fund (Canada) (the Fund), today announced several changes affecting the Fund.



Effective immediately, the U.S. dollar denominated units of the Fund -- Series A(US$), Series F(US$), Series I(US$), Series M(US$) and Series O(US$) -- are closed to new purchases including pre-authorized contribution plans (PACs). Existing PACs in the U.S. dollar-dominated Series will be cancelled. All other series of the Fund remain available for purchase. The U.S. dollar-denominated series will be terminated effective on or about February 23, 2018.

Effective on February 23, 2018, Fund will be renamed the PIMCO Flexible Global Bond Fund (Canada). Also, certain series of the Fund will be redesignated and the annual management fees of certain series of the Fund will be reduced, as follows:

Series O units will be redesignated as Series A units;

Series M units will be redesignated as Series F units;

The management fee payable with respect to Series A units will be reduced to 1.15%; and

The management fee payable with respect to Series F units will be reduced to 0.65%.

For further information on PIMCO and the PIMCO mutual funds, please visit www.pimco.ca or call us at 1 866 341 3350 (416 368 3350 in Toronto).

About PIMCO

PIMCO is one of the worlds premier fixed income investment managers. With our launch in 1971 in Newport Beach, California, PIMCO introduced investors to a total return approach to fixed income investing. In the 45+ years since, we have continued to bring innovation and expertise to our partnership with clients seeking the best investment solutions. Today we have offices across the globe and 2,150+ professionals united by a single purpose: creating opportunities for investors in every environment. PIMCO is owned by Allianz S.E., a leading global diversified financial services provider.

Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with mutual fund investments. Please read the prospectus before investing. The indicated rates of return are the historical annual compounded total returns including changes in unit value and reinvestment of all distributions and do not take into account sales, redemption, distribution or optional charges or income taxes payable by any securityholder that would have reduced returns. Mutual funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated. The information contained herein does not constitute an offer or solicitation by anyone in the United States or in any other jurisdiction in which such an offer or solicitation is not authorized or to any person to whom it is unlawful to make such an offer or solicitation. Prospective investors should consult their financial advisor to determine if the PIMCO Mutual Funds may be sold in their jurisdiction.

The products and services provided by PIMCO Canada Corp. may only be available in certain provinces or territories of Canada and only through dealers authorized for that purpose. PIMCO Canada has retained PIMCO LLC as sub-adviser. PIMCO Canada will remain responsible for any loss that arises out of the failure of its sub-adviser.

Contact:

Agnes Crane

PIMCO  Media Relations

Phone: +212 597.1054
Amnesty International said India is among the deadliest countries for defenders of rights related to land, territory and the environment.

In its global report Deadly but Preventable Attacks: Killings and Enforced Disappearances of Those who Defend Human Rights, , the rights watchdog said: In India, journalists, land rights activists, and those advocating the rights of ethnic and religious minorities, Dalits and Adivasis (tribal) are among those at risk of attack.

According to an Amnesty release, as many as 3,500 human rights defenders were killed worldwide since 1998 while the number in 2016 was 281-- a significant increase from 156 defenders killed in 2015 and 136 in 2014.

Also, 48 journalists were killed worldwide in 2016, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Asmita Basu, Programmes Director at Amnesty International India, said human rights defenders were painted as a threat to development or traditional values.

Human rights defenders, instead of being recognised and protected by the state, are portrayed as criminals, foreign agents, anti-nationals and terrorists, and painted as a threat to development or traditional values. Such labels are divisive, signal contempt for constitutional rights, and give a green light to further abuses, she said, as per the release.

The report has brought together stories from around the world including that of journalist Gauri Lankesh, who was fatally shot outside her home in Bengaluru in September 2017.

It also mentioned Chhattisgarhs Jailal Rathia, who had challenged the Adivasi land grabbing and later died of what was suspected as deliberate poisoning, and killing of Maharashtra Dalit activist Chandrakant Gaikwad.

Human rights defender and journalist Gauri Lankesh, was a champion of the right to freedom of expression and an outspoken critic of hardline Hindu groups. She had previously been threatened for her activism.

Jailal Rathia, an Adivasi community leader in Chhattisgarh, challenged the irregular acquisition and grabbing of Adivasi land. He died in March 2017 as a result of what his family suspect was a deliberate poisoning. He had been threatened on several occasions and told by the local land mafia and the state police to withdraw the petitions he had filed.

Dalit human rights defender Chandrakant Gaikwad from Maharashtra was shot and killed, allegedly by an individual against whom he had filed a complaint about committing crimes against Dalits. Gaikwad had supported victims of caste-based discrimination in accessing justice by helping them file and follow up on complaints with local authorities. He had been threatened repeatedly.

In many cases, the deaths of defenders had been preceded by a string of threats, which authorities turned a blind eye to. Lives could have been saved if states had taken their human rights obligations seriously and acted on reports of threats and other abuses,Asmita Basu said.

Many described how victims pleas for protection had been repeatedly ignored by the authorities and how the attackers had evaded justice, fueling a deadly cycle of impunity.

The report focused on the gravest of violations against human rights defenders-- killings and enforced disappearances.

The motives behind these attacks are multiple and layered. Some people are attacked because of their legitimate activities, for example, as they stand up to powerful actors violating human rights, share information and raise awareness, or confront discriminatory public opinion and social norms. Others are attacked both for what they do and who they are, it said.

The human rights defenders included those defending the rights of women, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people and indigenous peoples and minority groups, it added.

Meanwhile, another report said more than two people were killed every week on average this year defending their right to land and resources, with the Philippines recording the highest number of casualties amid a government crackdown on rural communities, a rights group said.

In the fight for land and the environment, communities around the world are locked in deadly struggles against governments, companies and criminal gangs exploiting land for products including timbre, minerals and palm oil.

At least 116 people were killed between January 1 and November 30, according to advocacy group PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP). The victims included farmers, indigenous people and activists, with women making up a tenth of the total.

The Philippines accounted for 61 victims, followed by Brazil with 22, said the report.

This has been yet another year of continuing and intensifying attacks against rural communities that are asserting their right to land and resources, the report said.

Alarmingly, global and regional developments that create conditions for greater land and resource grabbing continue to emerge and fuel social conflicts and unrest in rural areas. The number of victims this year is lower than the 171 killed in the same period last year, PANAPs data showed.

A separate estimate by UK-based advocacy group Global Witness puts the number of victims at 170 so far this year.

The final tally could equal, or exceed that of 2016, which was the deadliest year on record with about 200 deaths, a spokeswoman told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

In Asia, land rights defenders were also killed in India and Myanmar, and in Latin America, killings were recorded in Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Guatemala and Venezuela, according to PANAP.

Harassment of women land activists in Southeast Asia is on the rise, the report said, while in Myanmar, the government has taken over vast swathes of land in Rakhine state after driving out hundreds of thousands of Rohingya.

Chinas multi-trillion dollar Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to recreate the old Silk Road with massive infrastructure projects connecting China to Europe and beyond, will also see land grabs and huge displacements, PANAP said.
The leaders of Southeast Asias Muslim majority nations must walk a delicate diplomatic tightrope, observers say, as they balance cosy Washington ties and intense domestic pressure to push back harder against President Donald Trump for his recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and Indonesian President Joko Widodo this week joined the chorus of Muslim leaders slamming the move.

But signs that they continue to have an eye on being in Trumps good books  in part as a counterbalance to China  could prove costly because of the resonance the Palestinian cause has with their political bases.

As was the case in the aftermath of Trumps controversial January decision to seal off American borders to citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, the leaders criticism was sharply nuanced and did not directly target the US president.

While Widodo has so far escaped criticism, the Malaysian leader has not been so lucky.

Within hours of Najibs speech on Wednesday against the US move at the emergency summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), he faced stinging criticism for his hedging tactics.

The Malaysian premier had flayed Washington for adding fuel to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but Fahmi Fadzil, a spokesman for the opposition Peoples Justice Party, said the leaders words belied a hypocritical stance towards Trump.

Why does [the ruling party] oppose the US stand on Baitul al-Maqdis [Jerusalem] but still want to invest billions of dollars in the US economy?, asked Fahmi in an op-ed on the Malaysiakini website. The government needs to be consistent. Dont gather in front of the US embassy but at the same time go to the White House bringing investments, he said.

Najib announced during an official visit to Washington in September that the state pension fund would invest up to US$4 billion in Trumps master plan to overhaul American infrastructure.

Elsewhere, Mahathir Mohamad, the former prime minister who now leads the opposition coalition, in a protest rally late on Friday branded Trump an international bully and a villain.

The comments by the 92-year-old Mahathir, renowned for his anti-Israel stance, stood in stark contrast to Najibs decision not to take on Trump more directly at the Istanbul summit.

Najibs measured stance mirrored those of Widodo and Gulf leaders.

Peter Mandaville, a former adviser on political Islam at the US state department, said the cautious approach towards criticising Trump at the OIC summit reflected a pattern of action that began with the Muslim ban earlier this year.

I think major Muslim leaders in both the Middle East and Asia have decided they are willing to tolerate a lot of Islamophobia and unilateralism on the part of the United States so long as Washington takes a tough line with Tehran and Beijing, said the professor of international affairs at George Mason University.

Najib and Widodo were signatories to the summits final communique that called Trumps move a deliberate undermining of all peace efforts, an impetus for extremism and terrorism, and a threat to international peace and security.

The statement did not agree on concrete sanctions against Israel and the US, and did not contain the fierce rhetoric of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who in his speech at the summit assailed Trump for having a Zionist mentality.

Trumps decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was a departure from American foreign policy in the years since the 1980 declaration by Tel Aviv that the holy city would be its eternal and indivisible capital.

Israel seized and annexed the eastern part of Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East War, but much of the international community has not recognised that move.

Palestinians hope to establish a sovereign state in the West Bank and Gaza  controlled by Hamas  with east Jerusalem as its capital.

Najib said after the summit that he hoped to take a moderate approach in dealing with the US move, and dismissed calls for restrictions in trade and investment between the two countries.

With geopolitics on the leaders minds, experts said they did not expect a shift in stance any time soon.

The US is Indonesias second-largest trading partner after China, and Malaysias third-largest.

Foreign policy is multifaceted, multi-track, and multidirectional and so it is entirely possible to champion the Palestine cause on the one hand but also keep good ties with Trumps White House on the other, said Mustafa Izzuddin, a Southeast Asia politics expert at Singapores ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute.

Mandaville, the Barack Obama-era Washington official, said the most effective response to this American shift on Jerusalem would be for the world to speak diplomatically with one voice to impress on Israel and the US that they are out of line with the international consensus on this issue.

Asian leaders should work in concert with their European and African counterparts to make clear that a negotiated, two-state solution is the only viable way forward, he added.

Why Jerusalem is so important

Jerusalem is of huge importance to both Israel and the Palestinians. It contains sites sacred to the three major monotheistic faiths - Judaism, Islam and Christianity.

Israel occupied the eastern sector - previously occupied by Jordan - in 1967, and annexed it in 1980, but the move has never been recognised internationally.

Some 330,000 Palestinians live in East Jerusalem, along with about 200,000 Israeli Jews in a dozen settlements there. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, though Israel does not regard them as settlements but legitimate neighbourhoods.

According to the 1993 Israel-Palestinian peace accords, the final status of Jerusalem is meant to be discussed in the latter stages of peace talks.

The last round of talks between Israel and the Palestinians broke down in 2014 and while the US is formulating fresh proposals, Palestinian officials have said Mr Trump's announcement has disqualified the US from brokering future negotiations.
NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Remote Technologies Ltd. (Global Remote or the Company) (CSE:RGT), (OTCMKTS:RGTZF), (Frankfurt Stock Exchange:GR9) is pleased to announce that, further to its news release dated November 17, 2017, it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire (the Acquisition) 1Linx Ltd. (1Linx), a New York based blockchain technology company with a highly successful proprietary blockchain authentication platform and a suite of blockchain security services. As a result of the transaction, 1Linx will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Global Remote.

In connection with the Acquisition, Global Remote will issue an aggregate of 6,000,000 common shares of the Company (Common Shares) to the former shareholders of 1Linx.

"We are excited about joining the Global Remote team, where the companys leadership and team of advisors will help grow the 1Linx practice in multiple blockchain areas", said Aly Govani, Chief Executive Officer of 1Linx.

1Linx operates four distinct business lines: operator look-up, customer look-up, IP information, and customer friendly user-experience. All four business lines offer transaction verification services backed by the 1Linx proprietary blockchain technology platform. 1Linx continues to protect consumers in the cryptocurrency space to prevent fraudulent transactions and drive a secure marketplace. 1linx authenticates millions of transactions a month with an exponential growth as mainstream customers enter the cryptocurrency marketplace. 1Linx was founded in 2013 by veterans in the mobile space in order to leverage network data to serve as an authentication layer in blockchain transactions.

Neil Stevenson-Moore, Chief Executive Officer of Global Remote, stated, As we continue to evolve our client security services, we are extremely pleased to be acquiring a market leading blockchain platform. Combined with the recent additions of tech-security specialists Lonny McLean and Michael Shader, the incorporation of 1Linx into our technology infrastructure will allow us to drive significant value to all of our clients. Blockchain and crypto-security are going to be significant differentiators and disruptors in the coming years  and we have now positioned ourselves to lead this development opportunity. The continued development of blockchain technologies as both hardware and software solutions will be instrumental growth and profit drivers for our shareholders, and will continue to deliver excellent services and solutions for our clients.

The Acquisition is considered a fundamental change under the rules and policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange (the CSE) and, accordingly, remains subject to exchange approval. Trading of the Common Shares on the CSE has been halted in connection with the Acquisition and is not expected to resume until the CSE has approved certain documentation relating to the Acquisition, including a Form 2A Listing Statement (the Listing Statement) which is currently being prepared by the Company and 1Linx.

All securities to be issued in connection with the Acquisition will be subject to a hold period expiring four months and one day after closing of the Acquisition.

Private Placement Financing

The Company is also pleased to announce that, in conjunction with the Acquisition, it intends to complete a private placement financing (the Financing) of up to 10,000,000 units (each, a Unit) of the Company at a price of $0.50 per Unit, each Unit consisting of one Common Share and one share purchase warrant (a Warrant), each Warrant entitling the holder thereof to purchase one Common Share at a price equal to $1.00 for a period of 60 months following closing of the Financing. All securities to be issued in connection with the Financing will be subject to a hold period expiring four months and one day after closing of the Financing. It is anticipated that certain current members of the Companys board and management will participate in the private placement.

The net proceeds of the Financing are proposed to be used for general working capital.

Name Change

In connection with the closing of the Acquisition and subject to CSE approval of the Listing Statement, the Company intends to change its name to Cryptobloc Technologies Corp. and the symbol under which the Common Shares trade to CRYP.

About Global Remote Technologies

The objective of Global Remote is to develop innovative and forward-looking technologies that improve business practices and reduce operational costs for its clients. The Company is constantly improving its product suite and is investing in blockchain, crypto-security, and crypto-currency systems that are revolutionizing the practices of Global Remotes clients and partners in all industries. While Global Remotes evolution began in the energy sector, with technology products developed for the oil and gas industry, Global Remote now continues its commitment to innovation through involvement in multiple markets.

Global Remote operates in rugged locations around the globe, with offices in Canada, Mexico, Oman, and the United States. Global Remote Technologies is a public company, traded in Canada, U.S. and Germany under the symbols CSE: RGT, OTCMKTS:RGTZF and FRA: GR9.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

Neil Stevenson-Moore, CEO

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.grtcse.com .

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 the Company, including in regards to the expected benefits of the Companys acquisition of 1Linx, completion of the Financing, CSE acceptance of the Listing Statement, completion of the Companys name and symbol change, the Companys ability to provide clients with cutting edge security and process development software and the hope that such offerings will increase its partner profit margins and decrease such partners liability. Although the Companys management 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 because the Company 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 the Company 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.
BURBANK, Calif., Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Imaging3, Inc. (OTCQB:IGNG) announced today that it has appointed John Hollister as chief executive officer and chairman of the board.

Mr. Hollister brings over 25 years of leadership experience in large pharmaceuticals, biotech, and medical device companies. He has extensive experience in all aspects of commercialization in the healthcare industry, including significant involvement with multiple products successfully undergoing review by the FDA. Most recently, Mr. Hollister served as CEO of NuLife Sciences, Inc. (OTCQB:NULF) and CEO of NEMUS Bioscience (OTCQB:NMUS). Prior to NEMUS, he was vice president of marketing for Tethys Bioscience, a diabetes diagnostic company. Earlier in his career he was the CEO and chairman of EEG Spectrum, an EEG device manufacturer. John began his career working for SmithKline Beecham and Amgen.

Mr. Hollister earned his B.A. in economics from Stanford University and his MBA from Claremonts Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management. He serves as a board member for the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (formerly NARSAD), the worlds leading charity for brain and behavior research.

Mr. Dane Medley, president and principal executive officer stated, We welcome the addition of John to Imaging3 at this critical time, as we pursue FDA approval via the 510K pathway. In addition, the company will benefit from his experience in raising the capital and building the team necessary to achieve our goals.

Mr. Hollister stated, I am enthused about the opportunity to lead Imaging3 to the key milestone of commercializing an innovative imaging technology that will benefit healthcare providers and their patients alike. That the Company has reached this point is a credit to our current team of employees and consultants, and to a number of loyal investors as well, who have helped the company emerge from a very difficult few years. The company can now focus on the last critical steps to carry its innovative technology to market and on enhancing value for our shareholders along the way.

About Imaging3, Inc.

Imaging3, Inc., founded in 1993, has developed a patented medical imaging technology, called SmartScan, that will produce 3D x-ray images, virtually in real time. The SmartScan technology will allow healthcare professionals to perform diagnostic and therapeutic procedures more quickly and accurately, resulting in higher throughput for the clinicians and fewer safety risks for the patient. In addition, Imaging3s technology exposes patients to significantly less harmful radiation than current imaging technologies such as CT scans, which the company believes will allow scans to be used in more pediatric applications than are currently prescribed. The technology also allows for greater portability, easier installation, and a significantly reduced cost burden for the healthcare system overall. Imaging3 is planning to submit a 510K application to the FDA during 2018 in order to gain approval to commercialize the SmartScan technology.

Visit the companys website at http://www.imaging3.com for detailed information about the companys technology.

Safe Harbor Statement

Imaging3 cautions you that any statement included in this press release that is not a description of historical facts is a forward-looking statement. Many of these forward-looking statements contain the words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "may" "intend," "expect" and similar expressions. Actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those contemplated, expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements contained herein. These forward-looking statements are based largely on the expectations of the company and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties inherent in the Imaging3s business, including, without limitation: the company may not ever obtain FDA approval for any of its devices; the company may not be able to secure the funds necessary to support its product development plans; and the company may not ever achieve the market success to sustain a profitable business. In addition, there are risks and uncertainties related to economic recession or terrorist actions, competition from much larger imaging companies, technological obsolescence, unexpected costs and delays, potential product liability claims, and many other factors. More detailed information about Imaging3 and the risk factors that may affect the realization of forward-looking statements is set forth in the companys filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the companys Annual Report on Form 10-K and its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Such documents may be read free of charge on the SECs website at www.sec.gov. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement, and Imaging3 undertakes no obligation to revise or update this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof. This caution is made under the safe harbor provisions of Section 21E of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Investor Relations Contact:

John Hollister

Chief Executive Officer

info@imaging3.com
WILMINGTON, Mass., Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- UniFirst Corporation (NYSE:UNF) today announced that its Board of Directors has named Shane OConnor as the companys next Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO), effective January 5, 2018.



Mr. OConnor, 43, is a Certified Public Accountant and worked at UniFirst from 2005  2016, most recently in the role of Corporate Controller which he was promoted to in 2009. In 2016, Mr. OConnor left UniFirst to take the role of Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Unidine Corporation, a leader in dining management services. Mr. OConnor rejoins UniFirst to fill the role of CFO, previously held by UniFirsts President and Chief Executive Officer, Steven Sintros.

Prior to joining UniFirst in 2005, Mr. OConnor worked as a manager with Ernst & Young LLP in their Boston offices. Mr. OConnor attended Clarkson University, where he earned a Masters of Business Administration in Finance, and the University of Notre Dame, where he received a Masters of Professional Accountancy. He also earned his undergraduate degree in mathematics at the State University of New York.

About UniFirst:

Headquartered in Wilmington, Mass., UniFirst Corporation (NYSE:UNF) is a North American leader in the supply and servicing of uniform and workwear programs, as well as the delivery of facility service programs. Together with its subsidiaries, the company also provides first aid and safety products, and manages specialized garment programs for the cleanroom and nuclear industries. UniFirst manufactures its own branded workwear, protective clothing, and floorcare products, and with 240 service locations, 300,000 customer locations, and 13,000 employee Team Partners, the company outfits nearly 2 million workers each business day. For more information, contact UniFirst at 800.455.7654 or visit www.unifirst.com.

Forward Looking Statements:

This public announcement contains forward looking statements that reflect the Companys current views with respect to future events and financial performance, including projected revenues and earnings per share. Forward looking statements contained in this public announcement are subject to the safe harbor created by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and may be identified by words such as estimates, anticipates, projects, plans, expects, intends, believes, seeks, could, should, may, will, or the negative versions thereof, and similar expressions and by the context in which they are used. Such forward looking statements are based upon our current expectations and speak only as of the date made. Such statements are highly dependent upon a variety of risks, uncertainties and other important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in such forward looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to, the performance and success of Mr. Sintros as our new Chief Executive Officer, our ability to maintain and grow Arrows customer base and enhance its operating margins, our ability to compete successfully without any significant degradation in our margin rates, uncertainties caused by the continuing adverse worldwide economic conditions and their impact on our customers businesses and workforce levels, uncertainties regarding any existing or newly-discovered expenses and liabilities related to environmental compliance and remediation, any adverse outcome of pending or future contingencies or claims, uncertainties regarding our ability to consummate and successfully integrate acquired businesses, our ability to preserve positive labor relationships and avoid becoming the target of corporate labor unionization campaigns that could disrupt our business, the continuing increase in domestic healthcare costs, including the ultimate impact of the Affordable Care Act, our retention of customers and renewal of customer contracts, uncertainties regarding the price levels of natural gas, electricity, fuel and labor, the negative effect on our business from sharply depressed oil prices, fluctuation on our revenue and net income from our specialty garments segment, the effect of currency fluctuations on our results of operations and financial condition, rampant criminal activity and instability in Mexico where our principal garment manufacturing plants are located, the impact on our goodwill and intangibles that might result from adverse financial and economic changes, our ability to properly and efficiently design, construct, implement and operate a new customer relationship management (CRM) computer system, interruptions or failures of our information technology systems, including as a result of cyber-attacks, failure to comply with other state and federal regulations that might result in penalties or costs, seasonal and quarterly fluctuations in business levels, any loss of key management or other personnel, our dependence on third parties to supply us with raw materials, increased costs as a result of any future changes in federal or state laws, rules and regulations or governmental interpretation of such laws, rules and regulations, demand and prices for our products and services, economic and other developments associated with the war on terrorism and its impact on the economy, general economic conditions and other factors described under Item 1A. Risk Factors in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended August 26, 2017 and in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to update any forward looking statements to reflect events or circumstances arising after the date on which such statements are made.

Adam Soreff

Director of Communications

Phone: 978.658.8888

Email: asoreff@unifirst.com
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.
Kampala (Uganda), Dec 20, 2017 (SPS) - the Saharawi ambassador in Uganda, Habib Bujres, was received Monday, by the president of the Ugandan parliament at the headquarters of his institution, where he delivered a letter from the Speaker of the National Council Saharawi (Parliament), Jatri Adduh.

The Saharawi diplomat took advantage of the meeting to inform his interlocutor about the national cause, the humanitarian situation in the Saharawi camps, the peaceful resistance in the occupied Territories and the systematic pillage of Sahrawi resources by Morocco.

On the other hand, Habib Bujres, conveyed the gratitude of the people and the Saharawi government to Uganda for its support for the Saharawi cause, and in particular its strong support in the last session of the General Assembly, in the sessions of the African Parliament and in the work of the Euro-African Summit.

For her part, the President of the Parliament of Uganda reaffirmed the support and commitment of her country to the just struggle of the Saharawi people and their defense of a solution based on the self-determination and independence of the people of Western Sahara. SPS

125/090/TRA
Head of Resource Management at AHDB, Dr Storey received the award at the annual Cambridge University Potato Growers Research Association (CUPGRA) Potato Barons Conference Dinner, in front of an audience that included growers, researchers, processors and retailers from across the industry.

CUPGRA President John Chinn, said:

For the past 35 years Mike has been a driving force in research and innovation within our potato industry, initially at the Potato Marketing Board and then through its transformations over the years to AHDB today. The award celebrates his knowledge of the potato crop, his skills in knowledge transfer and his influence and contribution to our industry through the translation of applied science.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

A jury awarded a Dublin woman $5.6 million after she sustained injuries in a Walnut Creek elevator that was allegedly fixed with zip ties.

Amy Zapotoczny, 48, has undergone four surgeries and been declared disabled since the 2013 accident at Gateway Centre in Downtown Walnut Creek, her attorney Andy Schwartz told SFGATE. Zapotoczny, who was in nursing school at the time of the incident, herniated two discs in her back and tore her labrum.

"She'll never be able to work again," Schwartz said.

Sierra Pacific Properties, who owns and operates the Gateway building, will cover 60 percent of the liability and Schindler Elevator Corporation will cover 40 percent.

In court, Schwartz argued that the elevator was "negligently maintained."

"It was held together with zip ties," he said. "That was never really in dispute."

The attorney says the zip ties gave way while his client was in the elevator, which forced the shaft to make an abrupt stop and then appeared to drop twice. The elevator clutch was affixed with zip ties, he said.

Less than an hour before the accident, a similar incident occurred in the elevator, Schwartz said, in which a building tenant claimed to feel the elevator drop. That tenant emailed building management, the attorney said, who failed to respond to the report.

In a statement, Schindler said it "strongly disagrees with the jury award in this case." The company plans to file post-trial motions and "expects to aggressively pursue an appeal and all other legal rights available to it." Sierra Pacific did not respond to SFGATE's request for comment.

Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf.
NASHVILLE, Tenn., Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, LLP has added ten attorneys and a patent agent to the law firms Nashville office. The additions span a wide range of practice areas including, Real Estate, Finance & Restructuring, Corporate, Tax, Labor & Employment and Intellectual Property.



Waller recruits exceptional attorneys because we are committed to providing high-quality and cost-effective legal services to our clients, said Waller chairman Matt Burnstein. We place tremendous importance on recruiting and retaining talented young attorneys who will one day be responsible for ensuring the long-term success of our clients.

Sarah Bothma, a member of Wallers Tax practice, assists healthcare companies and investors with complex tax and business issues associated with transactional matters ranging from mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures to dispositions, liquidations and tax-free reorganizations. Bothma earned her LL.M. in Taxation in 2017 from New York University after earning her J.D. in 2016 from Samford University, Cumberland School of Law. She earned her B.A., cum laude, in 2013 from the University of North Carolina-Asheville.

Seth Cohen is a real estate attorney assisting hospitals, health systems and healthcare investors with all aspects of commercial real estate and leasing transactions related to medical office buildings, ambulatory surgery centers, physician practices and other healthcare facilities. Cohen earned his J.D. in 2014 from the University of Alabama School of Law. He earned his B.A. in 2011 from Vanderbilt University.

Emily Salomon Duncan is an associate in Wallers Corporate practice focusing on mergers and acquisitions, securities and general corporate law. Since joining Waller she has assisted a range of healthcare clients including hospital operators, behavioral health services providers, outpatient services providers, physician practices, dental support organizations and private equity healthcare investors. Duncan earned her J.D. in 2017 from Georgetown University Law Center. She earned her B.A. in 2011 from Rice University.

Kyle B. Fuller, a member of Wallers Real Estate practice, assists hospitals, health systems and healthcare investors in commercial real estate and leasing transactions involving medical office buildings and healthcare facilities. Prior to joining Waller, Fuller gained real estate law experience as an associate with a Chattanooga law firm. Fuller earned his J.D. in 2010 from Regent University Law School and earned his B.S. in 2007 from Tennessee Technological University.

Elizabeth Hernandez has more than a decade of immigration experience gained as a paralegal at a full-service law firm and an immigration boutique. She assists employers in the manufacturing, automotive and healthcare industries with a wide range of immigration matters including B-1/B-2, E-2, EB-1, H-1B, L-1A/L-1B, R-1/R-2, Tennessee visas, consular processing, labor certification (PERM), I-9 compliance and E-Verify counseling and training. Hernandez earned her J.D. in 2017 from the Nashville School of Law. She holds an M.A. from Belmont University and earned her B.A. in 1999 from Scripps College.



Justin R. Hickerson is an associate in Wallers Healthcare Compliance & Operations practice. He provides counsel on regulatory compliance and operational issues to healthcare providers ranging from hospitals and health systems to ambulatory surgery centers, dental support organizations and vision care providers. Hickerson graduated magna cum laude from Belmont University College of Law where he earned a Health Law Certificate. He earned his B.A., summa cum laude, in 2014 from the University of Tennessee.

Kimbra N. Ratliff assists investor-owned and tax-exempt providers, private equity firms and other healthcare investors in the purchase and sale of healthcare facilities and assets. Prior to joining Waller, she gained experience with a Memphis law firm in the areas of corporate law, commercial real estate transactions, and commercial finance transactions. Ratliff earned her J.D., summa cum laude, in 2015 from the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law where she graduated as class valedictorian. She earned B.A. and B.S. degrees, summa cum laude, in 2012 from the University of Tennessee at Martin.

Matthew Reddish assists clients in commercial leasing transactions involving healthcare facilities and medical office buildings located throughout the United States. Prior to joining Wallers healthcare real estate team, Reddish gained extensive real estate law and regulatory law experience while working at the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance, at a wireless telecommunications consultancy and at a boutique healthcare law firm. He earned his J.D. in 2014 from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law and earned a B.B.A. in 2008 from the University of Tennessee.

Courtney K. Stone is an associate in Wallers Finance and Restructuring practice and assists banks, financial institutions and specialty lenders in structuring commercial finance transactions within the healthcare industry. She also has extensive experience in bankruptcy and restructuring matters; she has represented both lenders and debtors in out-of-court restructurings, debt settlements and credit facility compliance matters. Prior to joining Waller, Stone was an associate in the Houston office of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, LLP from 2014 to 2017. She earned her J.D. in 2014 from Harvard Law School and earned a B.A., with honors, in 2009 from the University of Chicago.

Chad Talbot, an associate in Wallers Finance and Restructuring practice assists both lenders and borrowers in complex corporate finance transactions. His transactional experience spans the healthcare industry, including hospitals and health systems, behavioral health services, ambulatory surgery centers, physician practices. Talbot earned his J.D. and M.B.A. in 2017 from the University of Tennessee College of Law and the University of Tennessee, respectively. He earned a B.S. in Finance in 2012 from the University of Utah.

Johnathon Webb is a patent agent in Wallers Intellectual Property practice where he focuses on all aspects of patent applications and collaborates on patent strategy development and analysis for clients across a wide range of industries. Webb also assist clients with claim strategies, patent portfolio management, and IP development and monetization strategies. He earned his J.D. in 2017 from the Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law. Webb earned a B.S. in Biophysics and a B.A. in Russian Language and Literature from Brigham Young University in 2014.

About Waller

With more than 230 attorneys in Austin, Birmingham, Memphis and Nashville, Waller assists clients in complex transactional, regulatory and litigation matters. The firm has built a national reputation for its work in healthcare, financial services, retail and hospitality, and has extensive experience in manufacturing, real estate, technology and other industries. For more information, please visit www.wallerlaw.com.

Media Contact:

Sarah Brawner

615.610.0323

Sarah.brawner@dvlseigenthaler.com
Boehringer Ingelheim agreed to pay a $13.5 million settlement with the attorneys general of all 50 states and Washington D.C. to resolve allegations that the Ridgefield-based pharmaceutical company was deceptive and misleading in the promotion of four of its prescription drugs, it was announced Wednesday by Connecticut AG George Jepsen.

BI made misrepresentations about the drugs and claimed they had approval, characteristics, ingredients, benefits, uses, or qualities that they did not have, the AGs alleged. The trademarked drugs in question are: Micardis; Aggrenox; Combivent; and Atrovent.

"Companies are prohibited under state law from making false or deceptive claims about the products they produce and sell," Jepsen said in a release. "In the case of drug companies, the products they create and sell, and the representations they make about those products, have a direct impact on the health and well-being of patients, which makes it all the more important that those representations be truthful.

A BI spokeswoman said the company does not admit to the allegations and settled to avoid costs associated with the legal process.

The settlement requires court approval before it is final. If approved, Connecticut's share will be $186,357.19 and will be deposited into the state's General Fund.

BI spokeswoman Erin Crew said the latest allegations are essentially the same conduct alleged in the companys 2012 settlement with the federal government and several states regarding Medicaid claims.

The period during which the alleged conduct occurred ended in 2008, and most allegations are now more than a decade old, Crew said. As with the federal settlement, we are not admitting to any wrongdoing. We have agreed to the settlement to avoid the costs associated with a further prolonged legal process related to these allegations.

Resolving this matter allows us to focus our energy and resources on researching and developing innovative products to improve patients lives, she added.

The AGs alleged BI claimed the hypertension medication Micardis protected patients from early morning risks of strokes and heart attacks, and treated metabolic syndrome. The AGs said the company has no evidence to back up the claims.

Similar claims were made about the promotion of the antiplatelet drug Aggrenox, the AGs said. They also said Atrovent and Combivent, used to treat COPD and asthma, could be used at doses that exceeded the maximum dosage recommendation in the product labeling and that they were essential for treatment of COPD.

BI will also be required to ensure that its marketing and promotional practices do not unlawfully promote the drugs. It will also stop offering financial incentives for sales that may indicate off-label use of the four drugs.

The multistate investigation was led by the AGs of Kansas and Pennsylvania.

"Protecting public health and safety is our number one charge, and we take that very seriously, said Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection Commissioner Michelle H. Seagull. Companies who make untrue claims about health care products in our state will face the appropriate consequences."

cbosak@hearstmediact.com; 203-731-3338
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

FAIRFIELD  Following years of working in other peoples restaurants, two Norwalk residents have a place to call their own after they opened Tequila Revolucion.

Ryan Gillespie and Mauricio Guevara opened the restaurant on Monday at 1851 Post Road, introducing Fairfield to their style of Mexican cuisine.

Its a good feeling, Gillespie said. We dont really know much about Fairfield, but we are excited to show Fairfield what we have.

While this is their first time owning a brick and mortar restaurant of their own, they are no strangers to running a restaurant.

Prior to opening their eatery, Gillespie and Guevara worked together at Tequila Mockingbird in New Canaan. Gillespie served as the general manager and bartender of the eatery for 12 years while Guevara was a chef for 20.

Originally from El Salvador, Guevara moved to the United States 25 years ago when he began working at Tequila Mockingbird as a dishwasher. He worked his way up to chef in 1997.

After the New Canaan-based restaurant shifted ownership, Gillespie said he and his partner decided to set out on their own.

We decided that wed been there long enough, Gillespie said. We couldve easily stayed there and been content and lived a great life, but we said wed been working someone for so long, lets go do our own thing.

While Tequila Revolucion is less than a mile away from two competing Mexican restaurants, Gillespie and Guevara are confident they could set themselves apart with their flair and menu items.

A lot of people were calling us crazy, but we are a different style, so were excited to actually show people who we are and what we do, Gillespie said.

Along with Guevaras experience in the kitchen, the accompanying kitchen staff has around 40 years of cooking experience between them at Tequila Mockingbird, according to Gillespie.

Customers will be able to order popular Mexican dishes like tacos, burritos, and fajitas from the stock menu, but Gillespie said the restaurants hook will be with the specials menu that will change daily.

Depending on what Guevara wants to cook, the restaurant will also have a paper menu created on the same day and will feature a range of selections from traditional mole from Mexico City or seasonal dishes like Chiles en nogada.

Tequila Revolucion will also serve an array of drinks including margaritas, which Gillespie said will be a stand-out drink for the eatery.

The restaurant is set up in a 420 square-foot space with more than 36 seats, which was once occupied by Wilsons Holy Smoke BBQ. The barbecue restaurant closed more than a year ago, leaving a cozy space that Gillespie said was virtually ready for them to move into from the start.

Along with constructing a corner bar area, the duo also opened the kitchen area to allow customers to watch Guevara and his team work.

Now that the restaurant is open, Guevara said he is looking forward to creating a welcoming place where customers can get a freshly made meal and feel at home.

Im happy and so excited, he said. I want the people to feel like this is their house.

Tequila Revolucion is open Monday through Thursday from 4 to 10 p.m. On Fridays and Saturdays, the restaurant stays open until 11 p.m. and closes at 9:30 p.m. on Sundays.
STAMFORD  A city high school student was arrested and charged with having a sexual relationship with a runaway 15-year-old city girl.

Manuel Condo, 19, was charged with second-degree sexual assault, risk of injury to a minor and criminal trespass. He was held in lieu of a $10,000 court appearance bond.

Youth Bureau Sgt. Joseph Kennedy said Condo stands accused of helping the girl run away from home earlier this week. During the investigation into her disappearance, it was disclosed that the two were having a sexual relationship, he said.

He was not allowed to harbor or encourage a runaway, Kennedy said, adding that the four-year difference in age between the two resulted in the sex assault charge.

jnickerson

@stamfordadvocate.com
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

A British pop star has sparked a debate around whether UGG boots are sleepwear.

Joanne Catherall, a vocalist from the band the Human League, shared on Twitter on Dec. 13 that she was denied entry to the Qantas Airlines business-class lounge at the Melbourne Airport because she was wearing the Australian sheepskin-lined boots.

"UGG (Australia) Boots are deemed sleepwear by the lady working there although no problem in any of the other lounges so far," Catherall tweeted. "Helpfully she suggested I go to one of the shops & purchase some shoes."

READ ALSO: Airport outage blocks team's shot in Puerto Rico

Now Playing: FOX 26 News reporter John Donnelly Video: Fox 26 Houston

Qantas responded on Twitter with the statement: "Hi Joanne, we endeavour to remain consistent and uphold our Lounge's dress guidelines to all our guests. You may find details here: http://bit.ly/1TKrgMP."

Qantas specifically calls out UGG boots and identifies them as sleepwear in the domestic lounge dress guidelines that also deem thongs, bare feet, head-to-toe gym wear, and torn clothing inappropriate.

Catherall posted a followup tweet questioning the guidelines: "Why would an @UGG boot I wear outdoors in all weathers be classed as sleepwear in @Qantas lounge but nowhere else that I have ever been on this earth?"

READ ALSO: Breast-feeding Houston mom says she was kicked off Spirit Airlines

In the comments, many defended Catherall and criticized Qantas for enforcing a dress code.

"Why does it even matter to Qantas what people wear?" tweeted @isaaclibby. "Hilarious that somehow Uggs are sleepwear. What a joke company. Will avoid."

"I'm sorry but @Qantas this is pure snobbery," chimed in @bettycarlyle. "I always wear Ugg boots to travel in as they r so comfy & ive never not been allowed in a Lounge in America, Europe or the UK."

"Oh my goodness when would [you] go [to] bed in a pair of Ugg boots???" tweeted Michelle Teale.

UGG Boots have been around in Australia since the 1960s and were adopted by surfers in the United States in the 1970s. Today, many love them because they're warm and comfortable, but some also find the boots unattractive and overly casual.

A commenter shared in response to a Fox News story covering the issue, "Good - [UGGs] are like flip-flops, fine for the beach or coming out of a shower but in public, uh no (ok, flip flops are fine for 8 year old girls or 3 year old boys) but after that, get some real shoes."
Contributed photo

NORWALK  Norwalk Community College and its foundation have announced the launch of an African American STEM Scholarship.

The scholarship will be awarded to 10 African American male NCC students who major in STEM-related fields. The scholarships will become effective in spring 2018.
The following excerpt is from Perry Marshall, Mike Rhodes and Bryan Todds book Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes | IndieBound

When it's time to choose the best settings for a Google AdWords campaign, go to the "Campaigns" tab in your AdWords Account and click the big blue "+" button. You'll get a lot of different options thrown at you, but we'll review the main settings that you need to focus on. And don't worry -- you can adjust or reset most of these settings later.

Campaign type

You have five options for new campaigns:

Search network Display network Shopping Video Universal app

If you're a first-time user, start with the first option, "Search network." This is the most straightforward approach and is the area you should be looking to master before branching out into other areas of Google's networks.

Next, choose "All Features." (Don't leave your campaign set to "Standard.") This will ensure you have full access to every setting and feature later on.

Related: Set up Your Google AdWords Campaign in 9 Steps

Campaign name

Choose a name that's meaningful and useful to you.

Choice of networks

For now, turn this off so your ads will show only on Google's main search pages, such as Google.com, Google.co.uk, etc.

Device

Ads will show on all eligible devices by default. You're not able to adjust that here; this is done later, once your campaign is set up.

Location

As tempting as it may be to broadcast your ads across the entire world, it's much easier to start with a single location and expand from there as your clickthrough rates and conversion rates improve. Choose the single country that represents your main target audience. Or, if you're a local business, choose the town or city that you serve.

Related: 7 Tips to Get the Most Bang for Your Buck When Buying Ads

Language

The "language" of the users is dictated by the language their browser is set to. Again, don't try to reach the world with your first campaign; choose the main language(s) of your primary market only. If, for example, your market is the UK, then choose English. If it's Canada, go for both French and English.

Bid strategy

The default option is "I will manually set my bids," and this is the setting you should start with. You can look over the advanced options later.

Default bid

This option allows you to tell Google the maximum amount you're prepared to pay for a single click. This is tricky, especially if you're just starting out: You may not yet be 100 percent settled on an answer to this question. You can and will adjust this multiple times over the coming weeks and months, so don't worry about trying to find the perfect number. Just pick a sensible starting point. If you're unsure, start with $1.00. You can change it later.

Daily budget

Google has a very specific goal: They want to spend 30.4 times your daily budget each month. This is a fact. Sure, your daily spend will be a bit higher on some days and lower on others, but by month's end, it will even itself out.

Again, you can change this setting later. So choose what you think is a sensible starting point that won't melt your credit card. If you're not sure, $10 per day ensures that your overall spend won't exceed $304 per month until you're ready to increase their budget.

Related: SEO Tutorial: 12 Immutable Laws For Dominating Google's Search

Delivery method

You have two options for how Google spends your daily budget:

Standard. This spreads out your ad spend evenly over 24 hours. Accelerated. Starting at 12:01 a.m., Google will show your ads quickly, even if it means you hit your daily budget before sunrise.

"Standard" is usually the best option, unless you have a very high daily budget. With "Accelerated," Google will stop showing your ads early in the day if you've met your budget. That could be a problem if, for example, all your best prospects go online only in the evening.

Extensions

You'll be invited to add ad extensions at this stage; pass on this for now.

Once your campaign is running, you can adjust any of the above options. You'll also find some additional settings that are available to tweak. Here are two.

Start and end dates

Typically, you can leave this setting alone. But, if you're running a time-sensitive promotion, set an end date here. That way you won't have to remember to turn your ads off.

Scheduling

The most common use of scheduling is to turn off your ads at certain times of the day, or even entire days of the week. That's a powerful money-saver if you know that there are certain times where you'll burn through your budget if you let your ads show.

We recommend that you leave this setting alone to begin with. While your number of impressions and clicks may vary quite a bit depending on the time or day, conversion rates are usually consistent. Once you've gathered a significant amount of data on your campaign, then and only then would you have good reason to make adjustments.

You can also use this setting to specify an end date for your campaign. This is useful if you sell a product or service that's only relevant to a specific time of year, such as snow shovels, lawn mowers or Valentine's Day-themed gifts.

Related:

The Perfect Settings for a Google AdWords Campaign

4 Ways to Squeeze Every Last Bit of Value From Your Google AdWords Budget

4 Tips for Using Google's Keyword Matching Tool to Spend Your Ad Budget Wisely



Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


STAMFORD  When a woman came to Stamford police in October with a complaint that she had been sexually assaulted by her therapist four years earlier, investigators did something right out of a television script.

They outfitted the woman with a hidden electronic listening device and sent her to her therapists office on West Main Street. There she confronted Alexander Pino, 47, about what he allegedly did to her and worked to get him to incriminate himself, according to an arrest affidavit obtained this week.

The resulting recording is a chilling 20 minute argument between the victim and Pino, who appears to blame his animal impulse for the 2013 incident in which he grabbed her and  after pushing everything off his desk  turned her around and had intercourse with her, according to the affidavit.

The documents detail how Pino, who in addition to his private practice worked as a social worker at Hamilton Avenue and New Lebanon schools in Greenwich, apparently tried to employ tricks to get the woman to see the incident which happened at the end of a therapy session in his office  in a different light.

But things did not work out as Pino might have hoped. As instructed, the woman cooperated with police investigators, who transcribed the painful conversation which provided enough probable cause for a judge to sign a warrant for Pinos arrest on second-degree sexual assault charges at the end of November.

And last week, police charged Pino with second-degree sexual assault of another female patient, also during 2013. That former patient told police the two had intercourse a number of times during therapy sessions. The woman, now 23, came forward after hearing of Pinos November arrest.

He has not yet made a plea as to any of the charges and his attorney Alex Martinez said on Monday he cannot comment on the allegations made against Pino at the present time.

According to the just-unsealed arrest warrant from the first case, on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, the woman called Pino and told him she was near his office and wanted to speak to him. As she walked into the office at 7 p.m. two officers were recording the conversation and listening in for her safety.

At first, the woman asked Pino why he forced himself on her. Pino replied that he remembered that when the woman came for sessions, she always asked for a hug.

So, if I asked you for a hug, you have the right to do the other thing? she asked, according to the transcript translated from Spanish.

Pino replied that he shouldnt have done what he did. Im not saying its not my fault, he said, according to the transcript. I shouldnt have. In that moment I got aroused and I turned you around and everything.

The woman then told him, But that is what you did. Alex, I did not want that. I told you no. I only gave you a hug.

Later in the conversation Pino seems to admit his guilt again.

When I kept saying No, no, no, why didnt you listen to me? the woman said.

Pino replies, That situation lasted five seconds.

Yes it was fast, the woman said. Why wouldnt you listen to me?

Yes, I only thought about myself, Pino said, according to the transcript. I was selfish, completely selfish. I was overtaken by animal impulse and I regret my whole life that I did this.

The woman told Pino that he ruined her life. She said that she could not sleep with her husband because she was afraid that Pino had given her a disease. She said that Pinos actions prevented her from living a normal life.

She said she couldnt sleep and nearly lost two of her jobs and was always crying.

Pino then begins to approach the woman as her therapist.

Right now you are using this to fall again, Pino said, according to the transcript. Youre going to go through good times and bad times. You fall and get back up. And now you are using this again, until the day you decide not to use it again. Let it go. Only you can make that decision to let it go.

But the woman didnt budge from her accusation.

Im afraid you will do this to someone else, she replied.

Pino is due back in court Jan. 18.

Stamford police, who are also investigating a third former patients claims, and ask that anyone with further information on Pino call investigators at 203 977-4420.
LONDON, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Customisation is the new frontier for luxury goods online, and is now going even further as e-commerce makes bespoke products more accessible. With consumers desiring products configured exactly to their needs and tastes, mass customisation is forecast for extreme growth.



The benefit of this model is that purchase is made before production  a major advantage for businesses that operate in trend-driven sectors like fashion, where consumer demand can be unpredictable.

At the heart of the mass customisation e-commerce trend comes Undandy, the handcrafted, fully customisable dress shoe brand for men.

Without a middle man or bricks and mortar presence, Undandy is the latest disruptive e-commerce footwear brand, with a direct-to-consumer business model offering made-to-order shoes for men that are handcrafted in Portugal and sold at an honest price.

Guided by an online 3D platform, men can customise dress shoes, designing their unique creations in the comfort of their own home or on-the-go, and have them delivered to their door within two weeks.

With the best production time in the market and a unique price/quality ratio, Undandy offers men virtually limitless customisation possibilities, with the freedom to choose every detail imaginable; from the style, model, choice of leather, stitching, laces  even down to engraving on the soles.

Proving just how exponential the growth can be in this sector  in shy of just one year, Undandy has gone from selling 100 shoes a month to over 1,500 in over 100 countries.

Production capabilities withstanding, Undandy has vast potential when it comes to scalability, largely in thanks to its direct-to-consumer approach and global front door.

Each pair of Undandy shoes is handcrafted by third generation cobblers in Portugals footwear capital Sao Joao da Madeira, using the finest French and Italian leather.

Rafic Daud, co-founder and CEO at Undandy believes this to be the bedrock of the brand: We are proud to be supporting a community in Portugal that has hundreds of years of expertise and a somewhat overlooked heritage of world class craftsmanship.

By bringing centuries of old craftsmanship to the forefront of the e-commerce, customisation boom, Undandy leverages the best of both worlds  reviving traditional values and appreciation of fine craftsmanship through modern technology.

For more about Undandy and its disruptive entry into the luxury footwear market, read more in the latest edition of European CEO, available in print, on tablet and online now:

www.europeanceo.com

World News Media is a leading publisher of quality financial and business magazines, which enjoys a global distribution network that includes subscriber lists of prominent decision-makers around the world.

CONTACT INFORMATION

World News Media

Elizabeth Matsangou

Editorial Department

+44 (0)20 7553 4162

elizabeth.matsangou@wnmedia.com
Jesus Film Project Premieres 1,500th Translation of 'JESUS'

Contact: Heidi McDow, 972-267-1111, Heidi@alarryross.com



ORLANDO, Fla., Dec. 20, 2017 /Standard Newswire/ -- Representatives from Jesus Film Project recently traveled to one of the most remote places in Ethiopia to premiere the 1500th language translation of "JESUS" in Daasanach, which belongs to an ethnic group inhabiting parts of Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Sudan.



November 11th, in a dusty field set between two villages, a crowd of 300 people, which by the end of the film had almost doubled in size, witnessed the gospel of Jesus in their own language for the first time. At the end of the presentation, close to 90 percent of the Daasanach in attendance indicated they would like to begin a relationship with Jesus. Among them 79 gave their names to begin immediate follow up and discipleship.



"After giving for three years to a people group we had never heard of, it was surreal and humbling to sit among them in the dirt as they watched the life of Jesus for the very first time," said Gospel Patrons Founder John Rinehart, who with his wife Renee funded the translation and attended the premiere. "Seeing the Daasanach witness the story of Jesus for the first time in history is one of the highlights of our lives."



Prior to the premiere, 200 local Ethiopian leaders and believers gathered for a sneak-peek of the Daasanach version of the "JESUS" film. At the end of which a chief demanded to speak on behalf of his tribe and said, "Today, our prayers are answered. God's word is coming alive for our people."



The Daasanach are a people group with 70,000 in number and most of them have never heard the gospel. With the lack of available, affordable education, many are illiterate. Rinehart believes that without a visual representation of the gospel such as in "JESUS," they likely would never hear it.



"We wanted to see the Daasanach people get the film in their language because 'JESUS' has proven to be the most effective evangelistic tool in history," stated Rinehart. "Our hope is that going forward the Jesus Film Project staff and local church-planters will continue to use the translation to make disciples, plant churches, and reach people among the Daasanch who otherwise would never have the chance to hear the gospel."



Since the initial release of "JESUS" in 1979, Jesus Film Project's resources and strategies have been utilized in 7.5 billion gospel presentations in more than 230 countries and for many individuals in remote areas around the world. In fact, according to "The Guinness Book of World Records," "JESUS" is the most watched film in history.



"When you show the 'JESUS' film, it becomes an instant tool for church planters," said Josh Newell, Director of Marketing and Communications for Jesus Film Project. "Watching the story of Christ unfold from the Gospel of Luke puts viewers right into the Bible. After two hours, you have the raw ingredients for a fellowship."



The powerful impact of seeing the story of Jesus' life, death and resurrection in their heart language has resulted in more than 490 million indicated decisions for Christ following a film showing.



"As we watched the people glued to the screen, seeing the story of Jesus, it was awesome to think that God was speaking to them in their own language like never before," said Rinehart. "We know that Revelation 7:9 says that in heaven there will be a great multitude of people around Jesus' throne from every tribe and language, and we believe some of the Daasanch will be there, in part, because they were able to see the story of Jesus through the film."



"JESUS" is available on Blu-ray, DVD and digitally through Jesus Film Project app, available on IOS or Android. In addition to "JESUS," Jesus Film Project offers additional tools such as "Magdalena," a film that specifically addresses Jesus ministry toward women, and "The Story of JESUS for Children." For more information, visit www.jesusfilm.org/.



The "JESUS" film was envisioned by Bill Bright, co-founder of Cru, and was produced in cooperation with The Genesis Project. Jesus Film Project continues to carry out Bright's vision of showing this film to people in every country of the world. For more information on Jesus Film Project, go to www.jesusfilm.org/.



Note to Editors: To arrange an interview with a Jesus Film Project Spokesperson; please contact Heidi McDow at 972.267.1111 or via e-mail at Heidi@alarryross.com.


Foundation for Moral Law Applauds Supreme Court Decision to Let Texas Marriage Law Stand

Contact: John Eidsmoe, Foundation for Moral Law, 334-262-1245, info@morallaw.org

MONTGOMERY, Ala., Dec. 20, 2017 /Standard Newswire/ -- The Foundation for Moral Law, an Alabama-based nonprofit corporation, applauded the U.S. Supreme Court's decision not to review a decision of the Texas Supreme Court not to extend spousal benefits to same-sex couples.



After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act in 2013, Houston, TX Mayor Annise Parker unilaterally decided to extend spousal benefits to spouses of Houston city employees even though Texas law prohibits such benefits. Taxpayers Jack Pidgeon and Larry Hicks sued the City, saying their tax dollars were being used illegally for this purpose. The Foundation for Moral Law joined with the Texas-based Institute for Creation Research to file an amicus brief with the Texas Supreme Court in support of Pidgeon and Hicks.



After the Texas Supreme Court ruled in favor of Pidgeon and Hicks, the City of Houston petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for review. Earlier this month, the High Court denied their petition, thus allowing the Texas Supreme Court decision to stand.



Foundation President Kayla Moore welcomed the High Court's decision, saying "The brief prepared by the Foundation and the Institute for Creation Research laid the ground work for a sound Texas Supreme Court decision that correctly refused to stretch the Constitution farther than it has already been stretched. The Texas decision is a victory for traditional marriage and for strict construction of the Constitution. We are thankful the U.S. Supreme Court has let the decision stand."



Foundation Attorney Matthew Clark added, "The City of Houston tried to subvert the Constitution and Texas law by extending the Obergefell same-sex marriage decision beyond its limits. The Foundation is pleased to have partnered with the Institute for Creation Research to resist judicial activism and preserve jurisprudence of original intent."


Windsor, Ontario, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Green Shield Canada (GSC) encourages others to follow their lead as once again, GSC demonstrates its commitment to the greater good by making significant donations to a variety of local charities. And they are making these donations in honour of their 60th anniversary.

Founded in Windsor in 1957, GSCs history is rooted in social responsibility with charitable giving a main focusand again this holiday season GSC is doing just that. Celebrating 60 years of supporting our local communities, GSC is once again stepping up to help local families and individuals by donating $60,000, dividing the funds among the following charitable organizations: Unemployed Help Centre of Windsor Inc., The Salvation Army, Welcome Centre Shelter for Women, Windsor Goodfellows, Street Help Homeless Centre of Windsor, Place du Portage, Yonge Street Mission, and North York Harvest Food Bank.

As Steve Bradie, President and CEO of GSC explains, At GSC, we make dozens of donations each year across the country. However, this time of year, and as we close out our 60th year, its especially important to reflect on how fortunate we are, and an important part of this is showing gratitude to the communities where we live and work.

Always taking GSCs commitment to the greater good wholeheartedly, individual GSC employees are also making a difference by organizing food, coat and toy drives for local charities. Employees are donating generously to a number of charitable organizations, including the Windsor Youth Centre, Unemployed Help Centre, Toronto Kiwanis Boys and Girls Clubs, Yonge Street Mission, and North York Harvest Food Bank. In addition, GSC employees raised $6,000 that they donated to Ronald McDonald House in Windsor. As a result, families can stay at the House while their children receive medical care and enjoy free comfort food.

Steve Bradie urges other organizations and individuals to follow GSCs lead. We encourage everyone to give where they live and work. Through the collective generosity of organizations and individuals, we hope that people in all communities across Canada are cared for during the holiday season and beyond.

-30-

About Green Shield Canada

As Canadas only national not-for-profit health and dental benefits specialist, GSC offers group and individual health and dental benefits programs and administration services. But our reason for being is the enhancement of the common good. We seek out innovative ways to improve access to better health for Canadians. From coast-to-coast, our service delivery includes drug, dental, extended health care, vision, hospital and travel benefits for groups, as well as programs with a focus on individuals. Supported by unique claim management strategies, advanced technology and exceptional customer service, we create customized programs for two million plan participants nation-wide. greenshield.ca
TORONTO, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Noront Resources Ltd. (Noront or the Company) (TSX-V:NOT) announces that the Honourable Greg Rickford will step down from the Noront Board of Directors effective today. Greg recently declared his candidacy for Member of Provincial Parliament in the Kenora-Rainy River district and wishes to focus his energy on the upcoming campaign.



It was very beneficial for us to have Greg on our Board of Directors for the last several months, said Noront Resources Chairman, Paul Parisotto. His political acumen and knowledge of the complexities involved in resource development throughout Canada added a great deal of value to our discussions. We wish him all the best in his political endeavours.

I enjoyed my time on the Noront Board tremendously, added Greg Rickford. I had the great privilege to work with a talented, experienced and dedicated group of people on a legacy opportunity for northern Ontario."

Noront will review its Board composition and requirements in 2018 as part of the Companys annual governance review.

About Noront Resources

Noront Resources Ltd. is focused on the development of its high-grade Eagles Nest nickel, copper, platinum and palladium deposit and the world class chromite deposits including Blackbird, Black Thor, and Big Daddy, all of which are located in the James Bay Lowlands of Ontario in an emerging metals camp known as the Ring of Fire. www.norontresources.com

For more information:

Janice Mandel

janice.mandel@signaleadership.com

647-300-3853
Taken into custody were Patrick Jiron, 80, and Barbara Jiron, 83. Vrbka said the two elderly people indicated they were from Clearlake Oaks, California, and were headed for Vermont.
The Scotts Bluff County Sheriffs Department is seeking the publics help as it attempts to locate a juvenile inmate who escaped from detention.

According to a release from Scotts Bluff County Sheriff Mark Overman, Esperanza Espi Cross escaped from a detention center staff member at approximately 3 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 20.

Cross was being detained at the Scotts Bluff County Sheriffs Office on misdemeanor charges of theft and assault. She was awaiting transport to a juvenile facility in eastern Nebraska.

Overman alleged the girl bolted and ran from the staff member while being escorted to/from the rest room. Gering Police officers were on the scene quickly, he said.

Subsequent searches by Gering Police, Scotts Bluff County Sheriffs deputies, and Scottsbluff Police to locate the girl have so far been unsuccessful, but are continuing, Overman said.

Cross was last seen wearing a black hoodie and white stone washed jeans. She is identified as being 53 in height, having black hair and brown eyes.

Anyone with information about Cross whereabouts is asked to call the Scotts Bluff County Communications Center at 308-436-6666. Tipsters may also contact the Scotts Bluff County Sheriffs Department anonymously through its text a tip program, tips@sbsco.org, or contact Scotts Bluff County Crime Stoppers at 308-632-STOP (7867).
LINCOLN  According to 2015 Census data, nearly 225,000 Nebraskans  12.2 percent of the states population  are living below the poverty line. In many Nebraska communities, nearly half of the families with children registered in school qualify for the low-income, free and reduced-cost lunch program.

On the sunniest of days, making ends meet can be a daily stress. As temperatures drop, many households are contemplating the long winter ahead and wondering how theyll meet all of their familys needs.

Through the many programs it offers, The Salvation Army gets to know these families and their struggles personally. They sit with the single mother of three who works two jobs and the disabled veteran who has returned to his hometown. And they find ways to give assistance, which offers families hope.

Thats why the Heat Share program has become so important.

For families stretched to pay all their bills each month, an unexpected car repair or medical bill could put them behind, says Dr. Linda Burkle, divisional social services director for The Salvation Army. The Heat Share program, with funds provided by Black Hills Energy and their generous customers, is a vital resource for these families facing a shut off who come to The Salvation Army for assistance, In addition to helping with utility bills, Heat Share may repair heating systems.

The Heat Share program is largely funded by donations Black Hills Energy employees and customers make through the Black Hills Cares program. Employees give donations and organize fundraisers statewide, with the proceeds going to the energy assistance program.

Black Hills Energy customers can indicate the amount of a one-time or monthly contribution to Black Hills Cares on the return portion of their bill. Customers can also make donations to Black Hills Cares through the energy companys eBill program, a fast, free and paperless way to view their bill.

Black Hills Energy matches donations to Black Hills Cares dollar-for-dollar and forwards the total to assistance agencies in the community. In Nebraska, that means The Salvation Armys Heat Share program.

We are so grateful for this partnership with Black Hills Energy and the resources they provide, Burkle says. Without it, this program would not exist.

The future of our communities depends on us having a shared sense of responsibility and knowing we are all in this together, says Jeff Sylvester, vice president of Nebraska natural gas operations for Black Hills Energy. As the natural gas utility partner, we want to be able to give a hand up where we can, and our Black Hills Cares program and Heat Share partnership does that.

The program is now available to families in all of the communities Black Hills Energy serves throughout Nebraska.
LINCOLN  A state agency on Tuesday cast more uncertainty, and likely more delay and expense, into whether TransCanada has a route for its Keystone XL pipeline across Nebraska.

On a 5-0 vote, the Nebraska Public Service Commission denied motions made last month by both TransCanada and a group of pipeline opponents that sought to clarify whether the Canadian pipeline firm had won approval for a route across Nebraska last month.

Opponents of the controversial pipeline project had argued that TransCanada must reapply for approval, since its application had asked only for approval of its preferred route, not the alternative route that was chosen.

TransCanada lawyers, meanwhile, had asked the PSC to amend its application, so it could address questions raised by the choice of the alternative path.

On Tuesday, the PSC denied last months motions by both parties, thus setting up the need for a court to clarify what exactly last months approval meant.

Parties now have 30 days to file an appeal with the Nebraska Court of Appeals. Such an appeal could take up to a year to decide. Meanwhile, it appears doubtful that TransCanada has an approved route across Nebraska after almost a decade of legal and political wrangling.

A lawyer for the Sierra Club of Nebraska said that Tuesdays decision by the PSC throws more uncertainty into the process for TransCanada.

They ought to take the hint and withdraw their application (for a route), said attorney Ken Winston.

A spokeswoman for TransCanada said that the pipeline firm was going to take some time to review todays decision and determine our next step.

Keystone XL remains a viable project with strong commercial support, and we remain committed to this project, said spokeswoman Robynn Tysver.

In a surprise decision, the PSC last month didnt approve TransCanadas preferred route but instead an alternative route, which mostly parallels the route of an existing pipeline.

The Keystone XL is a 36-inch pipeline designed to carry thick, crude oil from Canadas tar sand region to oil refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. While the southern portion of the project was completed years ago, construction has been delayed on the portion from Alberta to Steele City, Nebraska.

TransCanada has said it will decide this month if the $8 billion project is still financially viable.
Im walking along the streets in Philadelphia, a city I deem the cradle of freedom with Carol and Ben and Im thinking of my Dad.

I remember the last day of first grade. I ran home and looked all through the house for my dad so we could play catch. I just figured that everyone was free for the summer. I was sorely disappointed when I learned that he still had to work all year round.

Carol and I have been to some wonderful places with our children, but my parents couldnt afford extended vacations for their family. When we were younger, a vacation would be a week at Lake Ozark at my great-uncles cabin. We bought groceries along with us on the 90-mile drive from home. We spent the week fishing, swimming, or floating on huge dump-truck inner-tubes. I would dive underwater and pick up freshwater mussels to use as bait. We ate a lot of fish. The treat for the week would be one box of Kelloggs Corn Pops or one box of Sugar Crisp cereal for the four of us.

When my great-uncles children began to use the cabin in the summers, we transitioned to the Current River. For two dollars a night we could afford to stay there Sunday through Thursday in relative peace alongside a spring-fed stream. We left the campground early Friday afternoon before the weekend crowds came. Dad said he didnt like the noise but I think he just wanted to get back home and make sure everything was still there and get ready for the work week ahead.

This made sense after I found out recently that my dad never had a stable home. His mother sent him to live with cousins, to a military school, and finally an uncle and aunt. My mom said until he married her he never had a home. Maybe thats why my dad was the kind of guy who could not really take it easy. He was always itching to get back to work because thats what he knew to be stable. As a boy he chopped (weeded with a hoe) cotton, tossed melons, and then picked the cotton to earn money to buy his school clothes.

At the same age I certainly had more freedom than my dad did. So while Im surrounded by our countrys icons of freedom today; I am thinking of the freedom I have now because of my parents and their dedication to family.

In Philadelphia, our nations first capitol, is the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, home of the First Continental Congress. Our Declaration of Independence was signed there. George Washington was appointed Commander in Chief of the Continental Army there in 1775, and the Articles of Confederation were adopted there in 1781.

Washington sat in a special chair for three months during the sessions of Congress in 1787. The chair had a half-sun carved in the back and Benjamin Franklin said he wondered for those long months if it was a setting or rising sun. Most of the time he dozed. He was 71 after all.

Independence Hall is actually the Pennsylvania State House built in 1732. Its now in an area encompassing the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall and part of The U.S. National Park Service and Independence National Historical Park. It was almost torn down in 1816 as the state capitol moved to Harrisburg. The City of Philadelphia purchased the buildings and the Liberty Bells for $70,000 ($1.4 million in current dollars). Today over five million people visit the Park each year and spend $300 million in the community while visiting.

As we toured Independence Hall, I looked out the window in the Long Gallery and saw the Liberty Bell Center. Theres a wall of glass on one end of the museum so you dont have to actually buy a ticket to see the Bell. The Long Gallery housed wounded American soldiers during the winter of 1777. The furniture in the room is not original. We are told by the Park Ranger that the original furniture was burned by the troops for heat.

It was in Philadelphia that John Adams signed the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798. The federal Alien and Sedition Acts imposed new rules governing free speech, immigration rights, and non-naturalized immigrants. The enactment of the laws helped topple the Federalist Party and elect Thomas Jefferson, a Democratic-Republican, President.

The general election of 1800 was so close that Jeffersons margin of victory can be traced to victory in one ward in New York City which delivered all 24 New York electoral votes. The ward was the one mostly affected by the naturalization policy of the Acts.

As I stand in the Assembly room where the Declaration of Independence was presented to Congress I smile because in 1819 John Trumbull painted Declaration of Independence which hangs in the United States Capitol rotunda. In the painting Jefferson is presenting the draft of the Declaration to Congress while stepping on Adams foot. A subtle political reminder.

We leave and head across the way to the Liberty Bell. Its been a wonderful year of travel. Carol takes a picture of Ben and me. I think once more about Dad. I wonder if he ever knew freedom.
Travel writer Janice Nieder is A Kiwi in Alabama. Part 4 takes us to Gees Bend and the Marion area.

As comfy as our stay was, Jules could barely sleep a wink last night since after flying over 8,000 miles to get here she was finally going to meet some of the quilters who had sewn what The New York Times called some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced,

I had last visited the G.B. Quilters about six years ago and I was dying to see how my two favorite ladies from last time were doing. When I barged in for a big hug I have to admit I was a little sad that they didnt remember me, although Mary Anne Pettway was quick to point out that they had had many visitors since then and that most days they were lucky if they remembered their own names.

However after I showed them a couple photos from before Mary Anne said, Oh, sakes alive, I do remember you. You brought us those itty-bitty lil gold thimbles and those tasty chocolates, and broke into gales of laughter.

I was thrilled to find out that her one-of-a-kind, $25,000 quilt, The Worlds Only U.S. Postal Office Uniform Quilt was bought by The Smithsonian Museum.

But, Mary Anne whispered, I didnt make them pay the full price.

Although not many of the younger generation want to learn quilting, Mary Annes teenage grandson is showing great promise.

Inside tip: If you havent spent all your money on quilts there is an excellent selection of local food, music, arts and crafts at the non-profit, Black Belt Treasures Cultural Arts Center in nearby Camden. I brought home a Do Rag Woman created by Charlie Tin Man Lucas, one of Alabamas top folk artist known for his unique style of working with recycled objects and repurposed tin.

Our next stop was the town of Marion (the opening scenes for Oprahs film Selma were shot here) where we walked over to the Perry County Court House to see the historical marker commemorating the shooting of Jimmie Lee Jackson.

It reads Gave his life in the struggle for the right to vote. Greatly aided by the efforts of Main Street Alabama the downtown area is working hard on beautifying the streets, getting jobs and revitalizing their community.

Instead of empty buildings and graffiti- covered walls; colorful planter boxes, historic photos and huge portraits of famous civil right activists now adorn the immaculate streets.

Vacant storefronts are giving way to antique stores and eclectic shops such as the Smith Building Art Gallerie, built in 1880 where w saw a wonderful photography exhibit done by third graders.

Off to visit another group of quilters at the historic Lincoln Normal School, an African American School that was started to teach newly freed slaves in 1867. Coretta Scott King is among the notable alumni. Many of these ladies were foot soldiers during the Civil Rights Movement but now it felt more like a group of old friends getting together to exchange local gossip and quilting tips. They all agreed that the best quilter by far, was Eunice Hewitt. Shes waiting for one of her grandkids to put together a website for her, but in the meantime, you can special order a quilt from her (phone: 334-683-6196).

We were feeling a bit peckish so our local guide, Cooper, took us for some tasty vittles at The Shack. Jules, normally quite the health nut, thoroughly enjoyed her first southern BBQ and made quite a dent in her piles of fried dill pickles & jalapenos!

Inside Tip: Oktime for a little background on Cooper. When Cooper Holmes, our superb trip planner, co-founder of the Alabama Black Belt Foundation and just an all-around, supremely lovely man, invited us to see his family farm, quite frankly, I was looking for just about any excuse to get out of it. But then I told myself that since the Black Belt Area was named for its fertile, dark soil, I suppose I should go see some dirt close up.

What a wonderful shocker to find out Coopers family farm was the Moore-Webb-Holmes Plantation which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It has been in his family since the early 1800s and is one of Alabamas last active plantations.

The farm has grown from the original 80 acres which William the wagon maker Moore homesteaded (ask to see the original deed signed by Andrew Jackson) into thousands of acres. Most of the buildings, farm equipment and furnishings are original to the site.

The Country Store is literally like entering a time machine since the shelves have not been touched since the days when sharecroppers could buy everything from long johns to castor oil.

Cooper took us all around the property us, showing us the old blacksmith shop filled with original tools, the first cotton gin in the log seed house, a carriage house, a potato house with a pit for the storing vegetables, the weaving house, a canning house, the overseers house, tenant quarters, a firehouse with a 1930s fire engine, and a two-story early Federal/Greek Revival style house with clapboards covering the original log structure (Coopers home).
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- San Francisco Federal Credit Union announced today that Sherry Javad has joined the credit union as chief operations officer. This announcement was made by Jonathan Oliver, president and chief executive officer of San Francisco Federal Credit Union.

Sherry joins the credit union with extensive experience in retail delivery and operations, Oliver said. Her operations support background will greatly assist us as we continue to strengthen the operations services and electronic payment functions of the credit union. In addition, she provides critical support and oversight in electronic banking, compliance and fraud protection. We are fortunate to have someone of Sherrys caliber on our team.

Javad has more than 25 years of financial experience. Prior to joining San Francisco Federal Credit Union, she was vice president of retail delivery for First Financial Credit Union and chief operations officer for Telesis Community Credit Union. At San Francisco Federal Credit Union, Javad is directly responsible for operations, account services, electronic payment systems, electronic banking services, compliance and fraud protection.

Javad holds a bachelor of science in business from John Carroll University.

About San Francisco Federal Credit Union

San Francisco Federal Credit Union has been serving San Francisco since 1954. Today, anyone who lives, works, worships or attends school in San Francisco and San Mateo counties may apply for membership. We currently serve more than 44,000 members with assets over $1 billion. San Francisco FCU is federally insured by the National Credit Union Administration and is an Equal Housing Lender. Our corporate office is located at 770 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco, California 94102. SanFranciscoFCU.com

For More Information:

David A. Szafranski

408.315.0754

david_szafranski@sanfranciscofcu.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/0e035835-bc80-4320-b70d-23150055fa99
This page is archived. Data published after 5 April 2022 can be found on the renewed website. Go to the new statistics page

Published: 20 December 2017

Total energy consumption rose by one per cent in January to September

According to Statistics Finland's preliminary data, total energy consumption in January to September amounted to 992 petajoule, which was one per cent more than in the corresponding period last year. Electricity consumption amounted to 62 terawatt hours (TWh), which is also one per cent more than one year earlier. Carbon dioxide emissions in the energy sector, in turn, fell by one per cent from last year.

Total energy consumption

*preliminary

The consumption of wood fuels grew by seven per cent in January to September, and they were the biggest energy source with their 27 per cent share of total consumption. The consumption of natural gas and peat fell by two per cent. For oil, the decrease was one per cent. In turn, the consumption of coal remained at last year's level.

The volume of electricity produced with hydro power was 15 per cent lower than in January to September 2016. Electricity produced with nuclear power also decreased, in all by four per cent. In turn, net imports of electricity increased by 11 per cent from last year and their share of total electricity consumption was 25 per cent. Electricity produced with wind power grew by 69 per cent and its share of total consumption was five per cent.

In January to September, diverse energy products were imported into Finland to the value of EUR 6.4 billion, which was 27 per cent more than one year earlier. Most energy products were imported from Russia, whose share of the value of imports was 62 per cent. Energy products were exported to the value of EUR 3.5 billion, which was 24 per cent more than one year previously. Most energy products were exported from Finland to OECD countries, which accounted for 80 per cent of the value of exports.

Stocks of coal amounted to 16 TWh at the end of September, which was 12 per cent less than one year earlier. At the end of September, peat stocks were estimated to contain 15 TWh of energy peat, or 20 per cent less than one year ago.

Total energy consumption by source (TJ) and CO2 emissions (Mt)

Energy source I-III/2017* Annual change-%* Percentage share of

total energy consumption* Oil 1) 232,571 -1 23 Coal 2) 85,737 0 9 Natural gas 3) 50,638 -2 5 Nuclear energy 4) 171,013 -4 17 Net imports of electricity 5) 56,323 11 6 Hydro power 5) 38,409 -15 4 Wind power 5) 11,528 69 1 Peat 37,791 -2 4 Wood fuels 269,268 7 27 Others 6) 38,560 -10 4 TOTAL ENERGY CONSUMPTION 991,839 1 100 Bunkers 27,877 -5 . CO2 emissions from energy sector 30 -1 .

* = Preliminary data. = Category not applicable1) Oil: includes the bio part of transport fuels.2) Coal: includes hard coal, coke, blast furnace gas and coke oven gas.3) The consumption of natural gas does not include raw material use.4) Conversion of electricity generation into fuel units: Nuclear power: 10.91 TJ/GWh (33% total efficiency)5) Conversion of electricity generation into fuel units: Hydro power, wind power and net imports of electricity: 3.6 TJ/GWh (100%)6) Others: includes exothermic heat from industry, recovered fuels, heat pumps, hydrogen, biogas, other bioenergy and solar energy.

Source: Statistics Finland, Energy supply and consumption

Inquiries: Ville Maljanen 029 551 2691, energia@stat.fi

Director in charge: Ville Vertanen

Publication in pdf-format (259.5 kB)

Updated 20.12.2017

Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Energy supply and consumption [e-publication].

ISSN=1799-7976. 3rd quarter 2017. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 18.11.2022].

Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/ehk/2017/03/ehk_2017_03_2017-12-20_tie_001_en.html
This set of statistics has been discontinued. Statistical data on this topic are published in connection with another set of statistics. Data published after 5 April 2022 can be found on the renewed website.

This page is archived.

Published: 20 December 2017

Household-dwelling units income has increased most in Helsinki in recent years

In 2016, the median income of household-dwelling units in the whole country was in real terms 1.1 per cent higher than two years previously, whereby the income development of household-dwelling units made an upturn after many years without growth. Of the largest towns, the income of household-dwelling units has increased most in Helsinki, where the median income was 2.7 per cent higher last year than in 2014. Over the same period, the income of household-dwelling units in Turku grew by 1.9 per cent, in Lahti and Salo a couple of tenths less. The data are based on the regional data of Statistics Finlands Total statistics on income distribution.

Changes (%) in real income of household-dwelling units in 2014 to 2016, 20 municipalities with the largest population

The income concept disposable monetary income per consumption unit, median

Of big towns, the income development was weakest in Lappeenranta, Pori, Kouvola and Vaasa, where the income of household-dwelling units has decreased over the past few years by a couple of tenths of a per cent.

The median for the disposable monetary income of household-dwelling units was EUR 31,820 in the whole country in 2016. Of municipalities with the largest population, the income of household-dwelling units in Espoo was clearly highest, EUR 41,650. In Vantaa, the median income of household-dwelling units was EUR 35,890 last year. In household-dwelling units of Helsinki, the biggest municipality in the country, this income was EUR 32,720.

With respect to all municipalities, household-dwelling units had by far the highest income in Kauniainen, where the median income of household-dwelling units was EUR 58,820 last year. In addition to Kauniainen, the income level of household-dwelling units in Alands Jomala exceeded EUR 50,000 (EUR 50,210). Household-dwelling units in Raakkyla in North Karelia and in Rautavaara in Pohjois-Savo had the lowest income, there the median income of household-dwelling units was below EUR 25,000 last year. Income data with different concepts for all municipalities are found in the database tables of Total statistics on income distribution.

Growth in Finnish households real income slowed down in 2016

In the early 2010s, the income development of Finnish households has long been weak, in some years, the disposable monetary income of household-dwelling units even decreased in real terms. In 2015, household-dwelling units income development turned clearly positive after a long time, but in 2016, the growth rate of real income slowed down, however. The growth rate of household dwelling-units real income was last year, measured both by average and median income, close on half a per cent, while one year earlier, it was around one per cent with both indicators.

Annual changes in household dwelling-units real income in 1995 to 2016

Income change in 1995 to 2000, 2000 to 2005 and 2005 to 2010 describes the average annual change in the period

Source: Total statistics on income distribution, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Pekka Ruotsalainen 029 551 2610

Director in charge: Jari Tarkoma

Updated 20.12.2017

Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Total statistics on income distribution [e-publication].

Income development by area 2016. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 18.11.2022].

Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/tjkt/2016/02/tjkt_2016_02_2017-12-20_tie_002_en.html
By Michael Boyd, jr. STE. GENEVIEVE HERALD While Ste. Genevieve County residents voted no to Amendment 3, the rest of the Show-Me State said yes to legalize marijuana, passing the measure on Tuesday (Nov. 8), according to unofficial results from the 2022 midterm elections. Missouri now is one of the 21 states, along with Washington,
FORM 8.3

PUBLIC OPENING POSITION DISCLOSURE/DEALING DISCLOSURE BY

A PERSON WITH INTERESTS IN RELEVANT SECURITIES REPRESENTING 1% OR MORE

Rule 8.3 of the Takeover Code (the "Code")

1. KEY INFORMATION

(a) Full name of discloser: Majedie Asset Management Limited (b) Owner or controller of interests and short positions disclosed, if different from 1(a):



The naming of nominee or vehicle companies is insufficient. For a trust, the trustee(s), settlor and beneficiaries must be named. (c) Name of offeror/offeree in relation to whose relevant securities this form relates:



Use a separate form for each offeror/offeree



GVC HOLDINGS PLC (d) If an exempt fund manager connected with an offeror/offeree, state this and specify identity of offeror/offeree: (e) Date position held/dealing undertaken:



For an opening position disclosure, state the latest practicable date prior to the disclosure 19 December 2017 (f) In addition to the company in 1(c) above, is the discloser making disclosures in respect of any other party to the offer?



If it is a cash offer or possible cash offer, state "N/A" Yes





2. POSITIONS OF THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

If there are positions or rights to subscribe to disclose in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 2(a) or (b) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security.

(a) Interests and short positions in the relevant securities of the offeror or offeree to which the disclosure relates following the dealing (if any)

Class of relevant security:



ORD EUR0.01



Interests Short positions Number % Number % (1) Relevant securities owned and/or controlled: 4,227,190 1.39 (2) Cash-settled derivatives:



(3) Stock-settled derivatives (including options) and agreements to purchase/sell:



TOTAL:



4,227,190



1.39

All interests and all short positions should be disclosed.

Details of any open stock-settled derivative positions (including traded options), or agreements to purchase or sell relevant securities, should be given on a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions).

(b) Rights to subscribe for new securities (including directors' and other employee options)

Class of relevant security in relation to which subscription right exists: Details, including nature of the rights concerned and relevant percentages:

3. DEALINGS (IF ANY) BY THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

Where there have been dealings in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 3(a), (b), (c) or (d) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security dealt in.

The currency of all prices and other monetary amounts should be stated.

(a) Purchases and sales

Class of relevant security Purchase/sale



Number of securities Price per unit ORD EUR0.01 Sale 24,410 924.8785

(b) Cash-settled derivative transactions

Class of relevant security Product description



e.g. CFD Nature of dealing



e.g. opening/closing a long/short position, increasing/reducing a long/short position Number of reference securities Price per unit





(c) Stock-settled derivative transactions (including options)

(i) Writing, selling, purchasing or varying

Class of relevant security Product description e.g. call option Writing, purchasing, selling, varying etc. Number of securities to which option relates Exercise price per unit Type



e.g. American, European etc. Expiry date Option money paid/ received per unit

(ii) Exercise

Class of relevant security Product description



e.g. call option Exercising/ exercised against Number of securities Exercise price per unit





(d) Other dealings (including subscribing for new securities)

Class of relevant security Nature of dealing



e.g. subscription, conversion Details Price per unit (if applicable)





4. OTHER INFORMATION

(a) Indemnity and other dealing arrangements

Details of any indemnity or option arrangement, or any agreement or understanding, formal or informal, relating to relevant securities which may be an inducement to deal or refrain from dealing entered into by the person making the disclosure and any party to the offer or any person acting in concert with a party to the offer:



Irrevocable commitments and letters of intent should not be included. If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none"



None





(b) Agreements, arrangements or understandings relating to options or derivatives

Details of any agreement, arrangement or understanding, formal or informal, between the person making the disclosure and any other person relating to:



(i) the voting rights of any relevant securities under any option; or



(ii) the voting rights or future acquisition or disposal of any relevant securities to which any derivative is referenced:



If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none"



None





(c) Attachments

Is a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions) attached? NO

Date of disclosure: 20 December 2017 Contact name: Matthew Hambly Telephone number: 0207 618 3900

Public disclosures under Rule 8 of the Code must be made to a Regulatory Information Service.

The Panel's Market Surveillance Unit is available for consultation in relation to the Code's disclosure requirements on +44 (0)20 7638 0129.

The Code can be viewed on the Panel's website at www.thetakeoverpanel.org.uk.




Partnership fuels expansion of Lendailys merchant-centric revolving credit solutions

NEW YORK, NY, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lendaily, Inc. (www.lendaily.com), a provider of merchant-centric revolving credit finance solutions, announced that it has closed on a strategic partnership agreement with New Oak Capital LLC, (www.newoak.com), a New York-based asset management and institutional advisory firm which has advised on over $5.5 trillion in assets on behalf of the world's top banks, institutions, law firms and regulators. NewOak will provide insight on capital markets, credit, growth, and additional business opportunities as both companies expand their point-of-sale lending merchant offerings to include revolving, private label payment products for all forms of merchant transactions.

New Oak will also facilitate over $100 Million of initial capitalization to the strategic partnership that will enable Lendaily to issue merchant centric consumer revolving credit lines to Lendailys clients.

Lendaily provides a secure and comprehensive alternative payment financing solution that facilitates enhanced customer convenience for purchases ranging from $500 to $10,000. As an alternative to standard open-loop credit cards, Lendaily provides merchants with a closed-loop, end-to-end processing systemwith real-time approvalsthat simplifies consumer purchases. Under the merchant-centric Lendaily program, merchant transaction fees are significantly lower than those associated with standard open-loop credit cards, and consumers are offered a FICO-based line of credit for current and future purchases with the merchant.

Weve been tracking the recent progress of Lendaily, and with the launch of its merchant-branded revolving credit solution, decided the timing is right to help bring the right capital, with innovative consumer credit solutions, under one umbrella, said Ron D'Vari, NewOaks chief executive officer. As a strategic partner to Lendaily, we are eager to apply our expertise and assist with growth, market penetration and analytics.

We are delighted that NewOak, which has exceptional success in supporting emerging financial technology providers, has elected to take a strategic role in Lendaily, said Gary Pryor, Lendailys chief executive officer. This partnership from NewOak provides Lendaily with a solid foundation to increase our reach and satisfy emerging opportunities. We are looking forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with NewOak, and offer innovative, revolving products. Through this partnership, our clients will see an increase in revenue, a reduction in shopping cart abandonment, and transaction fees cut in half. Just as importantly, their customers will be happier. That's a formula for merchant success.

Merchants interested in learning more about Lendaily can contact the company at http://lendaily.com/contactus/

About Lendaily

Lendaily is a merchant-centric facilitator of consumer credit loans. Lendailys mission is to empower small and medium-size merchants to provide competitive financing of products and services through web-based channels. Through its solutions, Lendaily helps merchants grow and retain their customers with its revolving credit offerings that include consumer authentication and account validation, and facilitation of merchant funding ACH through a variety of applications and channels. For more information about Lendaily, please visit www.lendaily.com .

About NewOak

NewOak is built for today's global financial markets. Powered by an experienced team of independent, cross-asset class experts, NewOak's financial advisory services and litigation consulting help our clients surmount the unique and demanding challenges in the critical areas of credit, risk, compliance and regulation, enabling them to maximize efficiencies internally and outperform externally. Backed by leading-edge analytics and proprietary, customizable technology solutions, NewOak's experienced market practitioners and legal professionals collaborate with clients to convert complex business threats into competitive advantage. www.newoak.com




Though the St. Louis Preservation Board has asked developers to save part of the 120-year-old brick building at 300 South Broadway before demolishing the rest, the fate of the old structure likely will be decided by the Board of Aldermen.

Action by the aldermen is expected because developers have asked for city incentives for the proposed 33-story, 265-unit apartment tower near Busch Stadium.

On Tuesday, the Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority approved a redevelopment plan that provides a property tax abatement of 90 percent of the projects value for the first 10 years, 85 percent for the next five years and 80 percent for the final five years. In addition to the 20-year property tax break, developers also are seeking a sales tax exemption on construction materials.

If approved by aldermen, the redevelopment plan could trump the Preservation Boards 4-3 decision on Monday to direct the developers to retain a corner of the existing buildings brick facade.

Thats because the ordinance governing demolition review says the Preservation Board shall approve demolition requests in compliance with redevelopment plans.

If it comes back to the Preservation Board, I think the only question will be denial or approval of demolition, and I think with a redevelopment plan in hand, it will be rubber-stamped, said Andrew Weil, executive director of the Landmarks Association of St. Louis.

At Mondays hearing, Weil urged the Preservation Board to deny demolition.(tncms-asset)035202cb-d4b7-51be-96ad-db9072940062[0](/tncms-asset)

A development team made up of Jack Holleran of local firm HDA Architects and two Chicago firms, White Oak Realty Partners and CA Ventures, wants to build an apartment tower similar to one they recently finished on Meramec Avenue in downtown Clayton. They plan to buy the existing building from St. Louis Community College, which is in the midst of budget cuts, for $5.8 million.

The developers can appeal the Preservation Boards decision to the Planning Commission. But the Planning Commission follows the same criteria, which says that demolitions that comply with redevelopment plans passed into ordinances shall be approved except in unusual circumstances.

The fact that the demolition request came to Preservation Board on Monday, before its redevelopment plan was passed, is unusual, Weil said.

It isnt a foregone conclusion that the redevelopment plan will be approved. Recently, aldermen have been more willing to question development incentives.

You do have to get it through the Board of Aldermen, Weil said.

And hes not sure how a requirement that the developers spare the brick walls, parts of which were designed by prolific St. Louis architect Isaac Taylor and date to the 1890s, can be enforced.

These other conditions they put forward, its questionable in my mind whether those are enforceable by the Preservation Board itself, he said.

Alderman Jack Coatar, who represents downtown, said the $100 million project justifies demolition. I dont say that lightly, Coatar said Monday.

Residential occupancy is relatively high downtown, he said, and the additional residents the new tower would bring to the area could catalyze other projects.

The developers havent yet said whether theyll appeal the Preservation Board decision. We are going to evaluate that, Holleran said of the boards request.
OMAHA, Neb.  A record number of holiday packages are on track to arrive this year, and the package delivery companies appear to be handling the load well.

FedEx offered the latest update Tuesday on its busiest time of the year as it released its fiscal second quarter earnings report.

"We are on track for another record holiday-shipping season, and customer-service levels have been outstanding," FedEx Chairman and CEO Fred Smith said. "We plan year around to meet the intense challenges of the peak season as average daily volumes can more than double."

Aside from some short-term delays at UPS last month because of a surge in online orders after Thanksgiving, few delivery problems have been reported this year. UPS restored normal delivery times after the initial surge.

So as long as consumers placed their orders in time, their gifts should make it on time, said Satish Jindel, founder and president of ShipMatrix, which tracks the shipping industry.

"There should be no concern about packages not getting there by Christmas Eve," Jindal said.

UPS spokesman Steve Gaut said UPS expects to deliver about 750 million packages during this holiday season, up from 712 million last year.

FedEx hasn't released an estimate of how packages it will handle during the holidays. ShipMatrix estimates that together FedEx, UPS and the U.S. Postal Service are delivering about 60 million packages a day during the holidays.

FedEx said Tuesday that its second-quarter earnings grew 11 percent to $775 million, or $2.84 per share. That's up from $700 million, or $2.59 per share.

The Memphis, Tenn.-based company said its earnings would be $3.18 per share if one-time costs were excluded.

The 13 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research expected earnings per share of $2.87 per share, on average.

The package delivery company reported revenue of $16.31 billion. Nine analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $15.67 billion.

FedEx boosted its outlook for full-year earnings to a range of $12.70 to $13.30 per share. Previously, the company had predicted fiscal 2018 earnings would fall between $11.05 to $11.85.

The company's stock was up $3.36, or 1.4 percent, to $245.90 in extended trading after the release of the earnings report.

FedEx shares have increased 30 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has increased 20 percent.
NEW YORK  AT&T Inc. said on Wednesday it will pay $1,000 bonuses to more than 200,000 employees and invest an additional $1 billion in the United States in 2018 once a tax reform bill approved by Congress is signed into law.

The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives gave final approval to the biggest overhaul of the U.S. tax code in 30 years on Wednesday, sending the sweeping bill to U.S. President Donald Trump for his signature.

Employees of the No. 2 U.S. wireless carrier who will receive the bonus are all "union-represented, non-management and front-line managers," AT&T said in a statement. The company has more than 250,000 employees in all. A person briefed on the matter said the bonuses will cost the company about $230 million.

AT&T has nearly 9,000 employees in Missouri  and "the vast majority of these employees are eligible for this special bonus," spokeswoman Katie Nagus told the Post-Dispatch.

The bonuses will be paid over the holidays, the company said.

Aerospace company Boeing Co. also said on Wednesday it would invest $300 million in workforce training and facilities enhancements for employees as its CEO lauded the tax bill.

The two announcements gave at least some support to claims by Trump and fellow Republicans that their tax bill, which cuts the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent, would lead to more investment by U.S. companies.

Republican senators and Trump praised the announcements.

Within hours of passing #taxreform, we're already seeing announcements that companies plan to give back to their employees and invest more at home," said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., on Twitter. "Good news for workers and the economy!"

Earlier on Wednesday, Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York criticized AT&T on the Senate floor.

"AT&T  big American company, fine American company  their tax rate over the last 10 years was a mere 8 percent, and they cut 80,000 jobs," he said. "That one statistic belies all this trickle-down bunk that our Republican colleagues still cling to even though its outdated and disproven.

AT&T is in the process of acquiring Time Warner Inc. for $85.4 billion, but the U.S. Department of Justice has sued AT&T to block the deal, saying it could raise prices for rivals and hamper development of online video.

In his statement announcing the bonuses and the additional investment, AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson said, Congress, working closely with the President, took a monumental step to bring taxes paid by U.S. businesses in line with the rest of the industrialized world. This tax reform will drive economic growth and create good-paying jobs. In fact, we will increase our U.S. investment and pay a special bonus to our U.S. employees.

Stephenson last week stepped down from the boards of directors of Ferguson-based Emerson and Chicago-based Boeing, saying he'd be "extremely busy" in 2018 defending his company's merger deal with Time Warner.
Updated at 4:27 p.m.

WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday recommended steep anti-subsidy duties on Bombardier Inc.'s CSeries jets, setting up the next round of a fierce international trade dispute between the United States and Canada.

The U.S. Commerce Department announcement to impose duties of nearly 300 percent stems from a complaint by Boeing Co. that Bombardier had been unfairly and illegally subsidized by the Canadian government, allowing the planemaker to dump its newest jetliner in the U.S. market below cost.

"Today's decision validates Boeing's complaints regarding Bombardier's pricing in the United States, pricing that has harmed our workforce and U.S. industry," Boeing said in a statement on the decision, which was generally expected within the aerospace industry.

Delta Air Lines, the second largest U.S. carrier by passenger traffic, has an order for 75 of the 100-to-150 seat CSeries jets.

The aircraft starts at $79.5 million, according to list prices, or some $5.9 billion for the total order, but carriers typically receive steep discounts.

If imposed, the duties would more than triple the cost of a CSeries aircraft sold in the United States, based on Boeing's assertion that Delta received the planes for $20 million each, well below an estimated cost of $33 million and what Bombardier charges in Canada.

Bombardier criticized the U.S. decision as out of touch, citing the Canadian planemaker's plan to team up with European Airbus to launch assembly of the CSeries from a production line in Mobile, Ala., making it a domestic product for U.S. buyers.

"Unfortunately, the Commerce Department decision is divorced from this reality and ignores long-standing business practices in the aerospace industry, including launch pricing and the financing of multi-billion dollar aircraft programs," Bombardier said in a statement.

The U.S. penalty against Bombardier will only take effect if the lesser-known U.S. International Trade Commission rules in Boeing's favor, as it so far has, in its final decision expected in early 2018.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said the government will consider its next steps and options for appeal.

"We are steadfast in our determination to defend Canadian companies and workers against protectionism," Freeland said in a statement.

Freeland said Boeing has failed to demonstrate that it is being threatened with injury by the CSeries "in a market segment it exited over a decade ago."

Boeing had called for countervailing duties of 79.41 percent to offset what it described as harmful Canadian subsidies to Bombardier. It also identified a "dumping margin" of 80.5 percent, based on the unpublished prices at which it claims Bombardier sold the CSeries planes to Delta, for a combined border charge of just under 160 percent on the Bombardier jets.

Wednesday's decision is in line with U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross' pledge to aggressively police unfairly traded imports to help shrink U.S. trade deficits.

It also coincides with negotiations between the United States, Canada and Mexico to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The dispute between the two planemakers could, however, move to a larger stage as Canada weighs a complaint to the World Trade Organization or through NAFTA.

At a contentious hearing of the ITC on Monday, Canada said that a positive finding of material harm to Boeing by the group could represent a possible violation of international trade agreements and prompt a formal objection.

Canada earlier this month scrapped plans to buy 18 St. Louis-made Super Hornets from Boeing, underlining Ottawa's anger over the trade challenge. Boeing has said it considered all potential risks before deciding to open its trade case.

U.S.-Canadian trade relations have also chilled over disputes about Canadian softwood lumber and U.S. milk protein products.
SEATTLE  A 22-year-old University of Washington student sued the rapper Nelly Wednesday, claiming he sexually assaulted her on his tour bus while it was parked outside a Walmart in Auburn following a performance in October, then later damaged her reputation in his public denials.

Monique Greenes lawsuit against Cornell Haynes Jr., widely known as Nelly, seeks unspecified damages for the alleged sexual assault as well as defamation.

Greenes lawyer said Wednesday her client reluctantly filed the suit, doing so only after Nelly publicly contended Greene fabricated her rape story, after prosecutors declined to file charges against him last week.

She honestly decided to stand up for herself after that last horrible post they made against her, Seattle attorney Karen Koehler said. If they had not done that, she wouldve just kept her head down. She didnt want to be a fighter at all. She didnt want anyone to know what happened to her. But enough was enough.

An attorney for Nelly, 43, who lives in St. Louis, said on Wednesday that Greenes lawsuit is financially motivated.

It comes as no surprise that Ms. Green (sic) filed a lawsuit against Nelly seeking money after we announced our intention to hold her accountable, attorney Scott Rosenblum said in a statement. We always believed her accusation was motivated by greed.

Nelly plans to countersue, Rosenblum added.

Greenes 14-page complaint filed in King County Superior Court relies heavily on information gathered during an Auburn police investigation, which found probable cause that Nelly committed the assault. The suit includes police photographs of Greene and Nelly following the alleged assault, and draws from statements given to investigators.

The suit contends Greene joined Nelly and his entourage for an after-party following the rappers performance on Oct. 6 at the Seattle nightclub Aston Manor, where Green also works part-time as a host. Early on Oct. 7, Nelly, his group, Greene and a friend were driven in three black SUVs from the Seattle club back to the performers tour bus, which was parked outside the Walmart in Auburn, the suit says. Greenes friend opted to leave, and was given a ride, but Greene, who had been drinking that night, decided to stay, the suit states. Once inside the tour bus, the suit contends, Nelly escorted her to his bedroom in the back of the bus.

Nelly sexually assaulted Ms. Greene against her will and after Ms. Greene refused to consent, the suit states.

Following the alleged assault, Greene became increasingly upset and began yelling that she wanted off the bus.

Ms. Greene was physically pushed out of the bus and Defendant Nelly threw a $100 bill at her then closed the bus door and said 'bye bye, the suit states. He taunted her from the bus window as she stood alone in the Walmart parking lot.

Greene called an Uber, then called 911 to report the alleged assault from the car-for-hire while it was parked in the Walmart parking lot near the bus. She later gave a recorded statement and underwent a rape examination, the suit states.

Police arrested Nelly, who claimed his sex with Greene was consensual.

In the days that followed, the rappers attorney put out several media statements contending Greene had fabricated the assault story, wasnt credible and had ulterior motives.

Last week, King County prosecutors announced they would not charge Nelly with a crime because Greene, through her attorney, had opted not to assist with the prosecution. Following the decision, Nelly and his attorney issued a news release claiming Credible evidence did show this accuser to be deceptive. Koehler said Wednesday Greene has never contacted the media about the incident, and, like many rape victims, simply didnt want to undertake the ordeal of pursuing a criminal sexual-assault case.

She did not want anybody to know, Koehler said. She was a 21-year-old college senior, she just wanted her life to be OK.

Following Nellys arrest in October, media coverage wasnt favorable toward her client, and a talk-show host even blamed Green for joining Nellys after-party, Koehler added.
RALEIGH, N.C., Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Real Estate Standards Organization, or RESO, announced today the results of its Board of Directors election and appointments of directors, as well as its 2018 Officers.



Testament to the growing success and influence of RESO, this Board election attracted the largest number of candidates ever to vie for open RESO board seats in the history of our organization, said Art Carter, Chair of the RESO Board and CEO, California Regional MLS or CRMLS.

A remarkable 17 highly respected and involved industry leaders ran for just five Director openings, and each of them were extremely well qualified. With those elected, we are ensured a bright future for RESO as well as growing implementation of RESO standards throughout the real estate industry.

2018 Officers elected to the Executive Board include:

Art Carter, CEO, California Regional MLS or CRMLS, Chair  re-elected

Michael Wurzer, President & CEO, FBS, Creators of Flexmls, Vice Chair  elected

Richard Renton, CEO, Triad MLS, Treasurer  re-elected

Tim Dain, President, Mid America Regional Information Systems Inc. (MARIS), Secretary - elected

RESO Board of Director elected representing Technology Companies, Developers, Partners & Consultants with revenue over $25 Million:

Chip McAvoy, Black Knight  elected

RESO Board of Directors elected representing Technology Companies, Developers, Partners & Consultants with revenue under $25 Million:

Michael Wurzer, President & CEO, FBS, Creators of Flexmls  re-elected

Scott Woodard, CEO, ShowingTime  elected

RESO Board of Directors elected representing Multiple Listing Services and/or Realtor Affiliated Association with less than 50,000 members:

Richard Renton, CEO, Triad MLS  re-elected

RESO Board of Directors elected (unopposed) representing other association or standards groups:

Jeffrey Young, Realtors Property Resource, LLC (RPR), Chief of Operations

Newly appointed member to the RESO Board of Directors, representing the National Association of REALTORS:

Todd Carpenter, Managing Director of Data Analytics, National Association of REALTORS

The RESO Board of Directors appointed four members representing the Real Estate Brokerage Industry, including:

Alon Chaver, CIO, HomeServices of America - reappointed

John De Souza, President, Cressy & Everett Real Estate - newly appointed

David Gumpper, CTO, Michael Saunders & Company - reappointed

Paul Boomsma, President, Luxury Portfolio, Leading Real Estate Companies of the World  reappointed

The RESO Board also made Director appointments to two open Board seats:

Suzanne Zinn Mueller, SVP of Industry Relations, Move, Inc.

Curt Beardsley, VP MLS Partnerships, Zillow Group

Other 2018 RESO Board members include Mark Lesswing, National Association of REALTORS; Ethan Bailey, Senior Director of Software Engineering & Technology, CoreLogic; Chris Carrillo, CEO, Metro MLS; Brian Donnellan, COO, Bright MLS; and Steve Byrd, Carolina Multiple Listing Services, Inc.

As we welcome and congratulate our new officers and newly elected Board members, we also must share our deep appreciation for those whose term is ending and have served our RESO Board with incredible distinction, said RESO CEO Jeremy Crawford.

Crawford cited departing board members Craig Cheatham, President and CEO of The Realty Alliance; Chad Curry, Managing Director for Center for REALTOR Technology at National Association of REALTORS; Tim Ford, President and CEO of dynaConnections; and Glenn Shimkus, Advisory Board Member of DocuSign.

Their unquestionable support of RESO helped advance our ability to attract the best-of-the-best to our organization and chart a bright future for real estate data standards, Crawford added.

ABOUT RESO

The mission of the Real Estate Standards Organization (RESO) is to create and promote the adoption and utilization of standards that drive efficiency throughout the real estate industry. RESO was incorporated in November 2011 as an independent, not-for-profit trade organization that was previously a section of the National Association of REALTORS. RESO has more than 730 active members, including NAR, multiple-listing services, real estate associations, brokerages and industry technology providers. For more information, visit www.reso.org. Contact RESO via email at info@reso.org.

Media contacts:

Kevin Hawkins | WAV Group for RESO

kevin@wavgroup.com | 206-866-1220

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c5689b82-22ca-4047-9db1-60bc1d3342b0

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/02b78911-7676-40c7-991c-32a957abe5ee

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/97ff74c1-43f9-4706-9b4f-b5db6e0c53f4

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/af099964-09b7-4adb-90ae-641e278947b6

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/61cd143d-246c-4f34-a949-85fbbaee7a7e
Dan Wiese Dan Wiese is a freelance automotive writer. He is a regular contributor for Brand Ave. Studios and to AAA Midwest Traveler magazine's online Web Bonus. Follow Dan Wiese 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

MARANA, Arizona -- With every new model, the Jeep brand finds itself between a rock and a soft place: required off-road capability, requested on-road civility -- two easily self-exclusive attributes.

More than any of its Jeep brethren, it is Wrangler, say the keepers of the Jeep flame that will never compromise the former to attain the latter.

First and foremost is off-road capability, said Brian Leyes, Wranglers chief engineer. We will never compromise that. Anyone who suggested that was immediately chased out of the room and doesnt work at Jeep anymore.

Of course, that legendary capability has to be wrapped in styling that reflects the heritage look of the iconic open-top Jeep.

Getting that styling right on this JL-generation Wrangler fell to design chief Mark Allen and his team, who took cues from classic open-top Jeeps -- headlight-pinched seven-slot grille from the 1955-86 CJ, raised hood panel from the 1997-06 TJ -- and blended them with new ideas -- lower beltline, larger windows, available LED lighting -- to create a modern look instantly traceable to Jeeps iconic appearance.

Again offered in two- and four-door variants, JLs trims include the base Sport, the muscular Rubicon, with its standard 33-inch tires, and the tony Sahara, that last one offered only as a four-door.

At launch, every Wrangler is powered by a 3.6-liter V-6, but a torquey, 2.0-liter, turbo four with mild hybrid electric assist will arrive within months. (A V-6 diesel with 260 hp and 442 lb.-ft. of torque is coming in 2019, a plug-in hybrid in 2020.)

Wranglers 285-hp six mates to either a six-speed manual or eight-speed automatic. The 270-hp turbo four, whose 295 lb.-ft. of torque betters the sixs 260, mates only to the automatic, as will the diesel.

Of course, 4WD is standard, and Wrangler retains its lever-operated two-speed transfer case. However, in a first for Wrangler, Saharas T-case, in addition to 2hi, 4hi and 4lo, adds an all-wheel drive Auto mode.

THREE TOPS ARE OFFERED:

 The easier-folding convertible top jettisons zippers and Velcro for tongue-and-groove attachments that make installing and removing windows less stressful.

 An all-new Sky One-Touch power-sliding top, which acts like a huge sun roof.

 A three-piece hard top, which is pretty much unchanged, although the panels are lighter and easier to handle.

Oh, and -- yes! -- the windshield still folds. Why? Because it always has, Allen said. We fought for that one. Now, however, it folds from a fixed windshield frame in less than five minutes with the removal of four bolts. Compare that to the 28 bolts and over-an-hour it took to fold the windshield on the outgoing JK Wrangler.

Despite no-compromise capability -- we drove a Rubicon on an Arizona moonscape and, believe me, this thing will climb a rope -- all the modern safety and convenience features are here: keyless enter and go, reconfigurable gauge display, 5.0-, 7.0- or 8.4-inch Uconnect touch screen, USB ports, 115v household-style outlet, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility, power windows, locks, mirrors, and more than 75 active and passive safety features, including blind-spot monitor, Rear Cross Path detection and electronic stability control with roll mitigation.

Look for the new Wrangler early in the first quarter of 2018.
The first time my parents left my brother and me alone overnight, it was New Years Eve. Being the wild-eyed, raucous partiers that we were, we celebrated our freedom by watching one of those countdown shows on television, popping a batch of popcorn and drinking Dr Pepper.

And thus was a tradition born. For the next several years, we observed New Years Eve, separately or together, with popcorn and Dr Pepper.

The point is that New Years Eve traditions are easy to make. But around the world, they seem to share a couple of themes.

Many cultures look to New Years Eve or New Years Day as a time to hope for prosperity. That is why many cultures celebrate with a pot of beans or lentils, which, because there are so many of them in a serving, represent abundance.

Other cultures focus on the end-of-year, beginning-of-year theme of continuity, by specifically serving foods that are round.

And some cultures combine these two ideas by placing a prize  often a coin  inside a round cake or bread. Whoever gets the piece with the prize or coin is said to be assured of wealth and good luck in the coming year.

Thats the case with the Greek tradition of serving Vasilopita.

Vasilopita is named for St. Basil, whose feast day is Jan. 1 for the Eastern church and Jan. 2 for the Western. Practically every family in Greece has its own recipe for Vasilopita, but the one I baked from Food from Many Greek Kitchens is truly stunning.

Vasilopita Yield: 12 servings

This elegant cake is dense and not too sweet. It is flavored with the zest of orange and lemons, scented with vanilla and brandy, and graced with a hint of almonds. It can also be beautiful; it is traditionally decorated with sliced almonds in a pretty pattern or with powdered sugar sifted over a doily.

I chose to decorate mine in another traditional method for the New Year, cutting out the numbers of the year 2018 to use as a stencil, with powdered sugar flurried over the cake. When I removed the numbers, their crisp image was clear in the sugar, reminding all of the reason for the celebration.

For my next New Years inspiration, I looked to the American South, where I can attest that Hoppin John is indeed a staple of the holiday. Hoppin John is nothing less than black-eyed peas cooked with a ham hock, and yet it is also, somehow, so much more.

Hoppin' John Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Perhaps it is the fact that this simple dish of ham-and-beans is made with 16 ingredients, proof of the extra care that is taken for the New Years celebrations. Even so, it is just beans cooked with ham and mirepoix (onion, carrot and celery), spiced with a hot pepper and flavored with a bay leaf and thyme, served on basmati rice.

Typically, Hoppin John is served on plain white rice, but the recipe I used gets great mileage out of the basmati substitution. Even better is this brilliant idea: It uses the flavored water that the beans were cooked in to also cook the rice. These simple tricks elevate an everyday dish to a comforting treat worthy of the new year.

In Italy, the holiday is also often celebrated with a plate of beans, only in this case it is sometimes lentils. The lentils are frequently cooked with sausage, but because that is too close in concept to Hoppin John, I decided instead to go the vegetarian route with Polenta with Lentils in Tomato Sauce.

What could be more Italian than that?

Its a straightforward dish, lentils plus garlic plus mirepoix plus tomatoes on polenta, but I made my own version of it fancier by pan-frying the polenta. All it takes is the forethought to make the polenta the night before. By morning, it can be cut into wedges and then fried until it is crisp and golden on the outside, and creamy on the inside. Its almost too good for lentils, but not quite.

Finally, I turned to Japan for a tradition that is said to assure a long life. Every New Years Eve, many Japanese eat Toshikoshi Soba, a noodle soup. The idea is that the noodles represent longevity, especially when they are slurped up without breaking them.

As with so many Japanese dishes, the base is dashi, a broth you can make yourself from bonito flakes, but I just used boiling water and a powder I bought at an international market. To this I added kaeshi, a blend of soy sauce, mirin and a little sugar that I did make myself. Combined, the two have a marvelous umami taste that is the perfect backdrop for soba noodles, which are made from buckwheat.

If you want, you could just serve the dish as is, but much of the fun of Toshikoshi Soba is deciding which ingredients to add into it. Chopped green onions are almost required, but I also added spinach leaves, a very popular seven-ingredient red pepper spice called shichimi togarashi and thin, dried seaweed called nori.

In Japan, it is often served with fishcakes called kamaboko, which I once saw described as a Japanese version of gefilte fish. And I know one Japanese native who adds a raw egg, allowing the heat of the broth to cook it. Thats not necessarily typical, but she does it because she likes it.
Thousands of people under wildfire evacuation orders in Southern California were wondering if they'll be home for the holidays as fire officials braced for a new round of strong winds Wednesday.

Firefighters finally got the upper hand on the blaze burning in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. The so-called Thomas Fire, which is one of the largest ever recorded in the state, is more than half contained, but officials were wary that harsh gusts could whip up new danger.

Those who fled the flames wonder whether they'll have a home to go back to.

"My husband has the feeling, 'Why aren't they letting us back in?'" said 82-year-old Curry Sawyer, whose Christmas tree is up still waiting for their grandkids to decorate it after she and her husband Ray had to evacuate from their home in Santa Barbara two weeks ago. "But they've got hot spots up there and if we get more Santa Ana winds, we're going to be back to square one. I'm not sure we're out of the woods."

The devastating fire that began on Dec. 4 has destroyed at least 750 homes.

Even if their beloved home of five decades survives the next onslaught of winds, the Sawyers are preparing for Christmas in yet another hotel.

"This is getting ridiculous," Curry Sawyer said from her hotel in Goleta on Tuesday.

The Sawyers' gifts for their family are hidden away in closets waiting to be wrapped, the ingredients for gingerbread men are sitting in cupboards, and the kindling for the fireplace has been chopped.

As of Tuesday, 432 people were still staying at evacuation shelters run by the Red Cross, agency spokeswoman Georgia Duncan said.

The shelters are preparing to stay open for Christmas and many agencies are donating toys so that the children there have presents to open.
ST. LOUIS  A St. Louis police officer who was badly injured in a car crash in March returned to St. Louis on Wednesday from a rehabilitation center in Nebraska.

Officer Gary Glasby was injured while on patrol in St. Louis on March 17. His patrol car collided with a pickup while turning south on Broadway from Chambers Street, north of downtown.

Glasby was sent to a Colorado rehab facility, the same one where officers who have been shot in the line of duty often end up to recover from their injuries. He was later moved to a facility in Nebraska, and returned from there Wednesday.

He was given a police escort from the airport about 3:30 p.m. to the Central Patrol station on Jefferson Avenue, where he worked.

There, family, fellow officers and Acting Police Chief Lawrence OToole welcomed him home.

St. Louis police Sgt. Charles Lowe, who was Glasbys sergeant, said Glasby is done with out-of-town rehab.

Lowe said Glasby was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and has had to relearn some basic functions.

Hes getting better, Lowe said. Hes still making strides.

Lowe said Glasby no longer is in a wheelchair.

He can use a walker unassisted, Lowe said. His voice is a little raspy, but he can speak. Hes very cognizant of what is going on.

Lowe said its not clear whether Glasby will return as a police officer.

The doctors wont say if he can come back to work or not, Lowe said. Either way, it will be a long way to getting back to a new normal for him.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.  Gov. Eric Greitens has commuted the life sentence of a former Springfield woman jailed since 1982 for her role in a homicide.

The governor announced Wednesday that he was commuting 68-year-old Judy Henderson's sentence to time served. The governor's spokesman said Greitens met with Henderson at the Chillicothe Correctional Center Wednesday to tell her the news. She is expected to be released later Wednesday.

Henderson was sentenced to life in prison without parole for 50 years for participating in a robbery that resulted in the shooting death of Springfield jeweler Harry Klein. Investigators said Henderson's boyfriend shot Klein. The judge at Henderson's trial said she played a "relatively minor" role in the crime.

Former Greene County prosecutor Thomas Mountjoy, who tried Henderson's case, said he supports Greitens' decision.
ST. LOUIS  A St. Louis judge on Wednesday found a homeless man not guilty of murder by reason of mental disease and ordered him committed for treatment.

Circuit Judge Christopher McGraugh said he believed that Norberto Trindad Castilleja fatally stabbed John Conner Jr. on Oct. 1, 2014. But McGraugh said there was substantial evidence that Castilleja suffered from schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type and didnt appreciate the consequences of his actions.

Castilleja was actively psychotic in the weeks before and after the crime, McGraugh said.

McGraugh committed Castilleja to the Biggs Forensic Center, a maximum-security unit at the Missouri Department of Mental Healths Fulton State Hospital.

Prosecutors were seeking convictions on charges of murder and armed criminal action, and a sentence of life without parole. Conners family could not be reached for comment.

Castillejas brother, Julian Castilleja, nodded his head at the verdict. The news brought tears to the eyes of his sister, Sheronica Castilleja.

Defense lawyer Brian Horneyer gave McGraugh a letter that his client had written apologizing to the victim and his family, who were not present in court.

After the hearing, Horneyer said, He feels truly sorry for the victim and the victims family and hes happy hes going to be in a secure facility where he can get the help he needs.

Castilleja stabbed Conner in the 3400 block of Montana Street, near Marquette Park in the citys Dutchtown neighborhood.

Conner, of the 4200 block of South Broadway, died of stab wounds to his chest and back. He also suffered knife wounds to his abdomen, hand and neck.

Authorities have not revealed a motive. Police said witnesses saw the two talking before Castilleja began chasing Connor. Horneyer said there was no indication that two had any prior relationship.

Castilleja waived his right to a jury trial last month. McGraugh reached his verdict hearing no testimony and relying on police reports, 911 recordings, autopsy reports, Castillejas medical records, reports from experts and filings from prosecutors and the defense.

Outside the courtroom Wednesday, Sheronica Castilleja said that her brother and his then-wife came to St. Louis from Minnesota, where hed also experienced mental problems.

They took a chance coming here, she said, speculating that they were hoping for a better life. But he was not taking his medication and she said that the mental health services were better in Minnesota.

Relatives didnt know he was living here, and he didnt recognize them when they ran into each other, she said.
Carlsbad, CA, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Prescott Companies (TPC), an Associa company, hosted its 3rd annual vendor appreciation event at their corporate office.



The event hosted more than 100 vendors as well as The Prescott Companies leadership team, community managers, and vice president of Inland San Diego. The guests included vendors from roofing and plumbing companies, pest control, pool services, landscaping, alarm and security, and restoration as well as local attorneys, CPAs, and insurance agents. The crowd enjoyed the catered networking event and festive holiday music.



The Prescott Companies hosted this event to show our appreciation to the vendors that have supported us throughout 2017, stated Gloria Todisco, The Prescott Companies president. We are focused on serving our communities and residents and we could not do it without the support of our local vendors. We want to thank everyone that participated and look forward to our next successful event.



With more than 180 branch offices across North America, Associa delivers unsurpassed management and lifestyle services to nearly five million residents worldwide. Our 10,000+ team members lead the industry with unrivaled education, expertise and trailblazing innovation. For more than 40 years, Associa has provided solutions designed to help communities achieve their vision. To learn more, visit www.associaonline.com.



Stay Connected:

Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/associa

Subscribe to the Blog: https://hub.associaonline.com/

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/associa

Join us on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/associa

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c661943e-6590-46b3-86fd-874ed8697647
Ashley Jost Ashley Jost is the higher education reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Ashley Jost 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

ST. LOUIS  Less than a week after several dozen people were laid off from St. Louis Community College, the schools governing board has approved two voluntary buyout programs.

The buyouts could save some of the jobs of people who were notified last week.

College spokeswoman Kedra Tolson confirmed that 58 faculty members were laid off last week. Staff members facing layoffs will be notified in March, she said. The colleges Board of Trustees gave administrators the green light to cut up to 70 faculty and 25 staff at a Nov. 30 meeting.

The buyouts will offer benefits similar to those offered earlier this year when 120 employees left. College leaders continue to look for ways to save as an enrollment drop and a dip in state funding for higher education plagues the community colleges budget.

The college is offering two buyout programs: one for all employees and one specifically for full-time faculty members.

Both buyouts apply to anyone 55 years old or older as of July 31, 2018, and who, by that same date, will have worked for the college for five or more years. Other employees can take it if they have worked for the college for 20 or more years as of July 31, 2018.

The more general option for all employees offers two years of subsidized medical insurance or a cash payment of up to $20,000, depending on years of employment.

The buyout for full-time faculty includes a one-time payment of up to 50 percent of their base salary, up to $50,000.

Andrew Langrehr, vice chancellor for academic affairs, said in a statement that employees who were notified last week that they were set to be laid off continue to work through the end of the current academic year.

We expect faculty members will find the terms of the VSIPs generous and a much-preferred alternative to layoffs, Langrehr said in a statement. If the College does not need to fill vacancies created by employees accepting the VSIP, the need to eliminate positions through one of the approved programs can be avoided.
ST. PETERS  It was a seemingly small act of bravery that changed the final moments of veteran Bill Hahs life.

It was the fall of 2015, the year after Hahs wife of 62 years, Opal, died. The 85-year-old spent his days going to Walmart, visiting the library by himself and listening to his favorite big band music at home alone.

But in September of that year, Hahs spotted a yard sign in his Lake Saint Louis neighborhood: Ballroom. Latin. Swing. Dance Pizazz.

He worked up the nerve to make the call.

Two years later, Hahs lay in the intensive care unit at Barnes-Jewish St. Peters Hospital. His favorite old big band music was playing again, and the room was packed with his frequent dance partners determined to give a now-dear friend a last dance in his hospital bed.

Dancing in the living room

Hahs first spotted Opal McQuay on a dance floor in 1950s St. Louis.

He was in his early 20s. She was 13 years his senior.

I think she caught his eye because she could really move, said Hahs son, William E. Hahs Jr., who goes by Ed.

The two danced that night and married in 1952.

Bill Hahs had a nearly 30-year career in the Army. He served in the Korean War and two tours in Vietnam, where he got a Silver Star Medal for dragging a wounded soldier out of harms way, Ed Hahs said.

Hahs and his wife moved around the world with the military, including years in Germany, but would go out dancing on Saturday nights wherever they were.

Ed Hahs remembers leaving his bedroom at night and often spotting his parents dancing together in the living room. Theyd rotate around the furniture to Skylark by Ella Fitzgerald, Candy by Johnny Mercer or old classics from Dizzy Gillespie and Glenn Miller.

Bill was always a little more reserved versus Opals outspoken friendliness  she resolved to get a job at McDonalds in her 80s, not for money but to give her the chance to interact with people.

In retirement the couple traveled the country in an RV. But they slowed down when Opal was in her 90s and showed signs of dementia. Bill was her caretaker for about five years before she died in November 2014 at age 98.

They were in love until the moment she died, Ed Hahs said of his parents. But I was worried about my dad after. He doesnt show a lot of emotion, but he just said: I cant take my own life, because I wont see her again.

Ed Hahs, who lives in Michigan, said he tried to convince his dad to make more connections with people.

He was spending a lot of time alone, Hahs said.

So when his father mentioned considering ballroom dance, Ed Hahs encouraged him to call the studio.

I just told him: Do it dad!

Dance moves and the tango hat

Bill Hahs set up his first lesson at Dance Pizazz in St. Peters in September 2015 with teacher Nikki McElvain, who co-manages the studio with her fiance, Mike McAllister.

I could tell he had done some dancing in the past, McElvain said. He loved to do this one step and toe-tap move I call the Bill.

McElvain tried to push Bill. She invited him to come to weekly dance parties at the studio.

For nearly five months, he declined.

Then one day he was like: Nikki tell me about those parties again, McElvain said. I think I just might like to come tonight.

At his first party, Bill met other people who remembered the big band era in St. Louis. He started coming to the studio several times a week for lessons and was a regular at the parties.

Ed Hahs visited his father and spotted a patch of open space in the older mans home where the floor was worn where Bill Hahs would practice his dance steps.

McElvain and Hahs agreed that hed become her adopted grandpa. But she continued to push her student, convincing him to try tango, even though he considered any music that wasnt big band rock n roll.

He kept smiling when I was teaching him, so I had to stop him and say, No laughing, Bill. Tango is serious! McElvain said. So hed always say that to me after: No laughing, Nikki!

The dance grew on Hahs, who even brought an old fedora he dubbed his tango hat.

McElvain eventually convinced Hahs to perform. He was reluctant, but went from a nervous performer in his first showcase, to confidently whipping off his jacket between songs to cheers from the crowd in a later show.

Hahs invited a large group of family members to come to his Dec. 2 showcase and had big plans for the performance.

He was always very particular about what music would be the best, McAllister said. And I think he just told everybody in his life about the show.

A bad turn

In late September, McElvain and McAllister noticed Hahs wasnt dancing much at a weekly party. They asked him to call them when he got home.

When he was leaving, he mentioned he hadnt had a lot of people hed met to care for him like that, said McAllister.

Hahs called to say he had gotten home, but the next day his nephews stopped by the studio and told McElvain and McAllister that Hahs had been admitted to the hospital with fluid entering his lungs.

The couple visited him every day for a week.

He just kept talking about getting out and recovering in time to make the showcase, McAllister said. He was always talking about it, and we just said, Yeah Bill, youll be back in time for the show.

The next week, hospital staff told Hahs family he wouldnt make it.

So his daughter-in-law Tammy Hahs asked if McElvain and McAllister would come to the hospital the next day, Oct. 11, and re-create the show he would miss.

We werent sure at first, McElvain said.

Bill is a little bit stubborn, said McAllister. He had talked nonstop about making the showcase, and we didnt want it to be a moment where he thought we were giving up on him.

The couple decided to make the dance like a party instead of a goodbye and invited all of Hahs closest friends at the studio.

The next day, hospital staff, patients and more than a dozen of Hahs relatives and friends stood shoulder-to-shoulder in the ICU as the music of Ella Fitzgerald, Johnny Mercer and Glenn Miller filled the hospital floor.

Bill Hahs couldnt talk much or stand, but he snapped his fingers weakly, and rocked his toes to songs including Chattanooga Choo Choo.

Ed Hahs brought his fathers tango hat and put it on the guest of honor.

McElvain held her students hand and swayed to the music. He moved his hand to indicate a turn.

I couldnt look at anybody, McElvain said. Everyone was tearing up, but I couldnt show it was bothering me. It was one of the hardest things Ive ever had to do but I just couldnt cry in front of him because I wanted it to be a happy memory for him.

Hahs fought to say: You and Mike to McElvain. He wanted to watch the young couple dance and looked on from his hospital bed. Soon everyone was dancing.

I never saw him smile that big the whole time he was there. I swear his smile was touching his ears, said Ed Hahs, his voice breaking. It was pure joy. He always gave so much to everyone else. And  I was just glad I could give him that last gift.

Bill Hahs died the next day. He was 87.

His son returned to St. Louis with his wife to attend the Dec. 2 showcase at Dance Pizazz.

I wanted to be where my dad loved to be, he said.

McElvain and McAllister created a memorial to Bill Hahs at the show.

People should really admire Bill, said McElvain. He was isolated, but he decided to go out of his comfort zone, and for the last two years, I know he had a great time. You know? He started living again.

McElvain found a note after Bill Hahs died, attached to a bouquet of flowers he sent the studio the week before he went to the hospital.

Thank you all for 2 years of wonderful Dance, the note read. To my outstanding instructor. Just one more time and no laughing. All my prayers. Bill.
The St. Charles County Department of Public Health canceled vaccine clinics, education programs and CPR training this fall after more than half of its nurses and a health educator resigned.

Kids arent getting immunizations. Theyre not being educated on everything from tobacco to STDs to hand-washing practices, said Brittany McNamara, a former health educator with the department who resigned in August over concerns about management. This administrations failure to rectify personnel issues has crippled their capacity to provide needed public health services.

Four out of seven public health nurses resigned from the department in the first half of 2017, leading to the cancellation of four back-to-school vaccine clinics and about 2,400 fewer immunizations last summer.

The department administered 4,133 vaccines to children in July and August 2016 through a federally funded program that provides free vaccines for low-income families. This year, it gave 1,754 vaccines in July and August.

The nursing shortage also delayed the departments CPR training classes for day care employees until 2018, health officials said.

Two positions have remained open since the summer. Hope Woodson, the departments director, said that between a huge outpouring of job applications and a remodeling of the offices on Boones Lick Road, she hasnt had much time to do interviews.

Weve had a staffing issue but we are filling those roles as quickly as possible, she said. Public health nurses turn over quickly.

After a spate of staff departures over the summer, the countys human resources department conducted a satisfaction survey of health department employees. The majority of employees said they were satisfied in their jobs, according to the human resources report on the survey, while some employees expressed a lack of trust in leadership and/or a feeling of lack of honesty from management.

The staffing shortage coincided with the departments plans to revamp its services in an effort to increase revenue. The departments health services division has projected revenue of $1.4 million and expenses of $2.1 million in 2018, according to the county budget.

The health department shut down its sexually transmitted disease clinic this month and terminated the position of nurse practitioner. Residents will no longer be able to get STD exams or treatment through the department. There were more than 2,000 STD clinic visits in 2017 and all testing and treatment supplies were provided by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

Woodson said the demand for STD treatment was outweighed by requests from residents for new services including travel vaccines and cholesterol, blood pressure and glucose screenings.

Weve been tracking concerns for years, she said. Now was a good time to provide those services.

Between 2016 and Oct. 31 of this year, the health departments immunization clinic received 158 requests for typhoid vaccines, 53 requests for yellow fever vaccines and 41 requests for malaria vaccines (which are unavailable in the U.S.).

A spokesman for the department said there are no records on community requests for blood pressure and cholesterol screenings.

In an exit interview from July obtained by the Post-Dispatch, a former nurse said the health department has future plans that do not take into account the community needs and wants  the immunization and education program has significantly decreased their services, when the needs have tremendously increased.

While St. Charles County has some of the lowest poverty rates in the region, more than 8 percent of children, or about 7,700 kids in the county, live at or below the poverty level, according to 2016 U.S. Census Bureau estimates. Thats up from 6 percent in 2009.

Last year, the department hosted 531 health education presentations on topics that included eating disorders, drug and alcohol use, hygiene and STDs to schools, day cares, prisons and community groups. There were 268 such presentations in 2017 with the health educator position vacant from July to November.

The cutbacks at the county health department have affected our students and families, said Mary LaPak, spokeswoman for the Wentzville School District. We used to be able to refer our students to the county for required immunizations, but they have not been the resource they were in the past due to lack of supply and personnel.
Washington D.C., Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- For years, the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC) has called for an overhaul of our complicated and burdensome tax code. Today, Congress did exactly that. Thanks to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, recently passed through Congress and soon to be signed into law, American businesses and many American families will see their tax rate rates drop. We applaud provisions such as the additional deduction for pass-through businesses and the increase in the child tax credit. We hope that these reforms will generate economic activity, making our nation stronger.

However, the final Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is not perfect.

Despite its many benefits, the new tax plan also includes several provisions that will create undesired outcomes. The USHCC is opposed to the foreign intellectual property tax that will be imposed on Puerto Rico. Because Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, imposing foreign taxes on the island is unconstitutional. Additionally, like representatives on both sides of the aisle, we are concerned by the potential increase in the deficit. The economic benefits of this new tax code must not be lost to the economic detriment caused by a growing deficit.

We now task our Congressional and Senatorial representatives with mitigating the undesired outcomes that this imperfect legislation could have on American citizens and the American economy. Overall, we congratulate Congress on their ability to pass comprehensive reform, and we celebrate the tax relief for American businesses

About the USHCC



The USHCC actively promotes the economic growth, development, and interests of more than 4.4 million Hispanic-owned businesses, that combined, contribute over $700 billion to the American economy every year. It also advocates on behalf of 260 major American corporations and serves as the umbrella organization for more than 200 local chambers and business associations nationwide. For more information, visit ushcc.com. Follow us on Twitter @USHCC.



Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e0fafeff-b8dc-4af8-9ff7-6876078d8c59
President Donald Trump has the best words  and only the best. If there is a word he does not like, or a phrase or proper noun that is not performing up to his expectations, he calls that word into his office and he tells that word, in no uncertain terms, Youre fired.

This month, we learned that Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel dropped Romney from her official communications  at the request of Trump, who did not like McDaniel using the name Romney, even though that is her name, because it is also the name of her uncle Mitt, who Trump regards as a loser.

Word dismissed. Problem solved.

Now The Washington Posts Lena Sun and Juliet Eilperin report that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention barred the use in budget documents of terms Trump officials find objectionable: vulnerable, entitlement, diversity, transgender, fetus, evidence-based and science-based.

The CDC disavowed the word ban after a brutal couple of days in which the response proved, to a science-based* certainty, that the Trump administration had made itself vulnerable* to a great diversity* of mockery. The prevailing view: What the fetus* is going on?

(*Forbidden words used without permission.)

My own analysis, made in consideration with my personal wishes, finds that the administration should not give up on its word ban. In fact, a more extensive word ban  an all-out vocabulary blockade, enforced by an armada of language police  could be Trumps ticket to survival.

Trump could benefit enormously from restricting the use of the many words, names and phrases that threaten him: Robert Mueller. Good taste. Facts. Spelling. The Geneva Conventions. Suit-jacket buttons. The Constitution. Exercise. International trade. Democrats. Intelligence briefings. Intelligence.

It would be even more effective if the administration replaced problematic words with favorable ones. The tax bill just passed by Congress is deeply unpopular because its a giveaway to the rich and it keeps loopholes, such as the tax bonanza for hedge-fund billionaires, that Trump promised to abolish. But if the administration simply bans the word rich in favor of deserving and replaces loopholes with incentives, the tax bill is instantly jam-packed with incentives for the deserving.

The tax bill could become even more unpopular when people discover its likely that 13 million fewer Americans will have health insurance, and as a result more will get sick and die. But the situation sounds much better if the word uninsured is banned in favor of treatment-unencumbered, sick is replaced with in transition and dead is replaced by inactive.

Trump might also need to restrict use of the words kickback and self-dealing after Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., reversed himself and announced his support for the bill, just as it emerged that a provision had been added providing a bonanza to real estate investors such as ... Bob Corker.

Using the word ban to thwart the Russia probe is more problematic  but doable. Collusion would need to be replaced by a more benign word, such as cooperation. The name Russia could be jettisoned in favor of the friendlier-sounding Canada and the problematic phrase obstruction of justice replaced by the inoffensive phrase presidential discretion. To be safe, Trump should ban impeachment in favor of commendation. The worst-case headline for Trump becomes: President Trump commended for using presidential discretion over cooperation with Canada.

Trump should probably ban the word irony after his attorneys argued that the .gov emails from his transition team are private property and not official  even though Trumps defenders argued the opposite when defending Michael Flynns Russia contacts during the transition as official and not private.

There is no Trump problem a word ban wouldnt fix. Forbidding the phrases rules of evidence and civil procedure would prevent meddlesome senators from exposing Trump judicial nominees lack of familiarity with what the elites call law. Banning the word credibility could boost the reputation of White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who proclaimed the defeat of ISIS on Sunday  just after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said dont believe such claims.

And then theres poor Rex Tillerson, waiting quietly to be fired as secretary of state. He will need to have words such as humiliation and defenestration barred to protect his dignity.

Or maybe Trump will inform the secretary of his dismissal simply by announcing he has banned two more words: Rex Tillerson.

Dana Milbank dana.milbank@washpost.com Copyright The Washington Post
Heijmans: 135 Heijmans ONE homes in the Netherlands

Heijmans and the Nijkerk Housing Association have signed a purchase agreement for the delivery of 28 Heijmans ONE homes. The homes are to be installed in the second quarter of 2018 and will be used as temporary rental homes for various target groups. 57 Heijmans ONE homes are currently in production, including the homes that are the subject of the agreement with the Nijkerk Housing Association. So far, 78 homes have been installed at various locations in the Netherlands.

The demand for temporary housing for one-person households and the pressure on the housing market continued to increase in 2017. As a result, government organisations, housing associations, care institutions and investors have shown increased interest in the Heijmans ONE. This has resulted in orders and deliveries of 135 ONE homes since 2016.

In addition to the 28 homes to be installed in Nijkerk, Heijmans will install 20 ONE homes in Sneek next month for the Accolade Housing Association. In February 2018, 6 ONE homes will be installed in Zwolle for deltaWonen. In that same month, 3 homes to be used for overnight accommodation and housing for volunteer caregivers will be installed for the Cello care institution in Rosmalen. Cello is the first care institution in the Netherlands to order these relocatable homes.

Last month, Heijmans installed 20 ONE homes for the Wooninc Housing Association in Veldhoven. In 2016, under contract to Wonen Limburg, 52 Heijmans ONE homes were installed in Weert, Panningen and America - a town in the Netherlands. The Huis & Erf Housing Association commissioned 6 ONE homes in Schijndel. All homes were deployed to absorb the temporary shortage of homes within various municipalities.

The interest in relocatable homes also continues to increase among private individuals. Heijmans is studying the possibility of introducing the Heijmans ONE to the private market.

About Heijmans ONE

Heijmans ONE responds to the changing housing market. As such, the relocatable home is an interesting option for the growing number of one-person households and the increasing need for flexible living arrangements. Furthermore, the installation of multiple Heijmans ONE homes offers an opportunity for areas that are not (yet) being developed due to market conditions. These homes temporarily give such areas new life. Heijmans ONE has a surface area of 39 square metres and is equipped with all necessary facilities, including a kitchen, bathroom, living room, bedroom, its own front door and outside patio. The home is very energy efficient (fully electric and, as an option, comes with 9 PV solar panels), complies with the Buildings Decree for non-permanent structures and can be relocated and reinstalled within a single day. The home was co-designed with MoodBuilders.

The continued interest in relocatable homes gives us the confidence to focus on the further growth of Heijmans ONE; a non-permanent home is a contemporary solution to a diverse range of housing issues.

About Heijmans

Heijmans is a listed company that combines activities related to property development, residential building, non-residential building, roads and civil engineering in the areas living, working and connecting. Our constant focus on quality improvements, innovation and integrated solutions enables us to generate added value for our clients. Heijmans realises projects for private consumers, companies and public sector bodies and cooperates and together we are building the spatial contours of tomorrow. You will find additional information on www.heijmans.nl.

For more information / not for publication:

Media

Rik Hammer

Communications

+31 (0)73 543 52 17

rhammer@heijmans.nl

Analysts

Guido Peters

Investor Relations

+ 31 (0)73 543 52 17

gpeters@heijmans.nl





This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients.

The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.

Source: Heijmans NV via Globenewswire


Wentworth Resources Limited : Operational Update

PRESS RELEASE

20 December 2017

WENTWORTH RESOURCES LIMITED

("Wentworth" or "the Company")

Operational Update

Wentworth, the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSE: WRL) and AIM (AIM: WRL) listed independent, East Africa-focused oil & gas company, is today providing an update to shareholders.

The Company is pleased to confirm that December payments have been received from Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation ("TPDC") and Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited ("Tanesco") totalling $2.5 million net to Wentworth for gas sales during the year. The receipt of these payments is further evidence of TPDC and Tanesco's commitment to continue to settle invoices on a regular monthly basis.

The Company is also pleased to report that gas delivery has commenced to the country's newest power facility, Kinyerezi-2 for commissioning of the first two of six gas turbines. Kinyerezi-2 is expected to add 36 MMScf/d to the national daily gas demand once it becomes fully operational during 2018.

We continue to maintain 2017 full year production guidance of between 40 and 50 MMscf/d.

-Ends-

Enquiries: Wentworth Geoffrey Bury,

Managing Director gpb@wentworthresources.com

+1 403 993 4450 Lance Mierendorf,

Chief Financial Officer



lance.mierendorf@wentworthresources.com

+1 403 680 8773 Katherine Roe

Vice President Corporate Development & Investor Relations



katherine.roe@wentworthresources.com

+44 7841 087 230 Crux Advisers Investor Relations Adviser

(Norway) +47 909 808 48 Carl Bachke



Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited AIM Nominated Adviser and Broker (UK) +44 (0) 20 7710 7600 Callum Stewart Ashton Clanfield



GMP FirstEnergy Broker (UK) +44 (0) 20 7448 0200 Hugh Sanderson

David van Erp



Peel Hunt LLP







Broker (UK)

Richard Crichton

Ross Allister

Chris Burrows



+44 (0) 20 7418 8900



FTI Consulting Investor Relations Adviser (UK) wentworth@fticonsulting.com

+44 (0) 20 3727 1000 Edward Westropp

Kim Camilleri

About Wentworth Resources

Wentworth Resources is a publicly traded (OSE: WRL, AIM: WRL), independent oil & gas company with: natural gas production; exploration and appraisal opportunities; and large-scale gas monetisation initiatives, all in the Rovuma Delta Basin of coastal southern Tanzania and northern Mozambique.

Inside Information

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by Wentworth to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) no. 596/2014 ("MAR"). On the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service ("RIS"), this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain

Cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements

This press release may contain certain forward-looking information. The words "expect", "anticipate", believe", "estimate", "may", "will", "should", "intend", "forecast", "plan", and similar expressions are used to identify forward looking information.

The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date the statements are made in light of management's experience, current conditions and expected future development in the areas in which Wentworth is currently active and other factors management believes are appropriate in the circumstances. Wentworth undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless required by applicable law.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to numerous assumptions, risks and uncertainties that contribute to the possibility that the predicted outcome will not occur, including some of which are beyond Wentworth's control. These assumptions and risks include, but are not limited to: the risks associated with the oil and gas industry in general such as operational risks in exploration, development and production, delays or changes in plans with respect to exploration or development projects or capital expenditures, the imprecision of resource and reserve estimates, assumptions regarding the timing and costs relating to production and development as well as the availability and price of labour and equipment, volatility of and assumptions regarding commodity prices and exchange rates, marketing and transportation risks, environmental risks, competition, the ability to access sufficient capital from internal and external sources and changes in applicable law. Additionally, there are economic, political, social and other risks inherent in carrying on business in Tanzania and Mozambique. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could vary or differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. See Wentworth's Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2016, available on Wentworth's website, for further description of the risks and uncertainties associated with Wentworth's business.

Notice



Neither the Oslo Stock Exchange nor the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange has reviewed this press release and neither accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.

This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients.

The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.

Source: Wentworth Resources Limited via Globenewswire


MONTPELLIER, France, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sensorion (FR0012596468  ALSEN / PEA-PME eligible), a biotech company pioneering novel treatments of inner ear diseases, today announced that its senior management team will host institutional investor and partnering meetings at the LifeSci Advisors Corporate Access Event taking place in San Francisco, January 8-10, 2018.



To schedule a meeting with Sensorion, investors can register on the online system managed by the Companys US investor relations firm, LifeSci Advisors, LLC, or make a request via e-mail at Access@LifeSciAdvisors.com.

About Sensorion

Sensorion is a biotech company pioneering novel treatments of inner ear diseases such as severe vertigo, tinnitus or hearing loss. Two products are currently in the clinical development stage: SENS-111, in phase 2 in acute unilateral vestibulopathy (vestibular neuritis), and SENS-401, which has completed a phase 1 trial. The company was founded by Inserm (the French Institute of Health and Medical Research) and is utilizing its pharmaceutical R&D experience and comprehensive technology platform to develop first-in-class easy-to-administer, notably orally active, drugs for treating and preventing hearing loss and the symptoms of bouts of vertigo and tinnitus.

Based in Montpellier, Southern France, Sensorion has received financial support from Bpifrance, through the InnoBio fund, and Inserm Transfert Initiative.

Sensorion has been listed on the Euronext Growth Paris exchange since April 2015.

www.sensorion-pharma.com

Contacts
LAS VEGAS, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- International CES  Kicking the new year off with a bang, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), Taiwans foremost trade promotion organization, will provide a first look at brand new smart innovations from ITRI, AEON Motor, GEOSAT, Robotelf, and Taiwan Main Orthopedics at a January 8 press conference at CES 2018. The companies will showcase products poised to make an impact in the global consumer electronics marketplace. These breakthrough products include an intelligent family robot, a futuristic drone, a smart motorcycle dashboard, smart surgical glasses and an intelligent vision system for robots.

TAITRA is spotlighting some of Taiwans most innovative companies and products at CES. These companies innovations have the potential to dramatically improve peoples work and everyday lives. They are also advancing their respective industries by reimagining how the Internet of Things can improve and transform our lives  not just in Taiwan, but globally.

Taiwan has had a strong presence at CES over the years. The 2018 press conference highlights the Silicon Islands evolution in the consumer electronics industry, from its early prowess in hardware technology to creating some of todays most cutting-edge AI, robotics, and IoT innovations. They are exemplified by the five companies/organization that will unveil the following at the Taiwan ICT Industry Innovations Press Conference at CES:

1. AEON Motor

Transforming the rider experience, the CROXERA Smart Dashboard is the future of UX in motorcycles. For the first time, the new dashboard provides riders with turn-by-turn display and voice navigation. It also offers IoT-related functions such as accident detection, reporting, and a full dynamic digital interface.

2. GEOSAT

Weighing under five pounds, the GEOSAT Pterosaur is a portable all-wing drone that can take off by hand-throwing or catapult, depending on terrain, wind, and operation conditions, and the only one with a parachute to ensure a safe landing. Its equipped with an auto-pilot flight control computer and can carry a 24 million-pixel camera, infrared camera, or multi-spectral sensor making it ideal for aerial photography, precision agriculture, and 3D modeling for buildings and environmental monitoring. It offers best in class air time and coverage up to70 minutes and up to 1800 hectares in a single sortie.

3. Robotelf Technologies

A CES 2018 Innovations Award winner, Robotelf is a cute next-generation AI robot with a warm personality and rich expressions. It talks like a friend as it patrols your home, plays with kids, and makes life easier for elders. Its advanced voice detection and facial recognition technology transcends all other robotic interactions. Its patented technology is the first to allow the head to swivel 90 degrees vertically, making it easy to operate while standing. And its the only family robot to have dual camerasone in front and one in back called Elf Eye, which doubles as a webcam, so you wont have to worry about anything when youre away from home.

4. Taiwan Main Orthopedics

Redefining the future of surgery, the futuristic mixed reality smart surgical glasses are the first wearable glasses that assist in orthopedic navigation operations. Putting information right into the field of view of the surgeon at the point of care means that the surgeon no longer needs to look away from the patient and the surgical site to reference key information such as vital signs, fluoroscopy, and endoscopy video feeds, x-rays, CT/MRI scans, and so on. This provides dramatic improvements in accuracy and efficiency, advancing patient care.

5. ITRI

The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), one of the world's leading technology R&D institutions, will showcase at CES 2018 AI-related solutions for smart homes and cities, such as a companion robot, portable pesticide residue detector, sleep monitor, intelligent battery system, and cloud-based video analytics for city surveillance. Their intelligent Vision System (IVS) for companion robots and handheld pesticide residue detector are both CES 2018 Innovation Awards winners.

TAITRAs Taiwan ICT Industry Innovations Press Conference

On January 8th, TAITRA will be hosting the press conference at the Hotel Encore Tower Suites in Las Vegas at 4pm. The event will provide early access to these innovative companies spokespeople and their products, as well as the opportunity to hear from senior officials from TAITRA and the Taiwan government. Media representatives are encouraged to register in advance or to request for one-on-one media interviews here.

Follow us on Facebook or on Twitter.

Information about Taiwan Excellence / Bureau of Foreign Trade, MOEA and TAITRA:

The symbol of Taiwan Excellence was established in 1992 by Taiwans Ministry of Economic Affairs, and subsequently the Taiwan Excellence Selection was launched the following year. The selection is based on the distinct criteria of R&D, quality, design, and marketing. Products that have been selected for the Taiwan Excellence Awards would serve as examples of the domestic industries and be promoted by the government in the international market in an effort to shape the creative image for Taiwanese businesses. This year marks the 26th selection, making the symbol of Taiwan Excellence a prestigious brand for enterprises in Taiwan to strive and be recognized by, and is highly reputed throughout the world. Please visit www.taiwanexcellence.org for more information.

Sponsored by:

The Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT), under The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) of Taiwan, is responsible for implementing policies and regulations governing foreign trade, economic cooperation, and foreign investments. Established in January 1969, BOFT's role and position have undergone ongoing adjustments to meet the needs of a shifting international economic and trade environment. BOFT has been guiding and working with the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) in numerous trade promotion projects and activities both internationally and domestically. Having worked closely with TAITRA for many decades, BOFT continues to entrust TAITRA with various critical government projects relating to trade and investments, promoting Taiwan on every international aspect.

Organized by:

Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) is the foremost non-profit, semi-governmental trade promotion organization in Taiwan. Founded in 1970 to help promote foreign trade, TAITRA is jointly sponsored by the government, industry associations, and several commercial organizations. TAITRA assists Taiwanese businesses in strengthening their international competitiveness and in dealing with the challenges they face in foreign markets. TAITRA boasts a well-coordinated trade promotion and information network consisting of over 1,200 trained specialists stationed throughout its Taipei headquarters and 60 branches worldwide. Together with its sister organizations, the Taiwan Trade Center (TTC) and Taipei World Trade Center (TWTC), TAITRA has created a wealth of trade opportunities through effective promotion strategies. www.taitra.org.tw

Media Contacts:

Sharon Y. Sim

SKC, Inc.

(415) 420-1889

sharon@sim-krause.com

Mary Placido

SKC, Inc.

(415) 218-3627

mary@sim-krause.com
Ranjani Perera shines at this years Photography Society exhibition View(s):

From an elderly lady laughing as she carries a large stack of driftwood on her back, to the amicable stare down between a rhinoceros and myna bird and the exclusion of a young girl as she gazes at a group of friends whispering to each other  a picture does speak a million words.

These were some of the images on show last weekend at the Mihilaka Medura, BMICH when the Photography Society of Sri Lanka (PSSL) held their annual 62nd International Competition and Exhibition of Photography.

Dating back to 1906, the Photographic Society of Sri Lanka has a rich history of promoting photography as a hobby and art.

Initially founded as the Amateur Photographic Association of Ceylon by Henry Lorenz Wendt, father of Lionel Wendt, the society was renamed and revamped by Lionel who further developed the work. The movement went on to attract a small group of photography enthusiasts namely; P.J.C. Durrant, B.G. Thornly, Joe de Livera and B.P. Weerawardena.

Even after Lionel Wendts untimely passing the society continued  conducting their annual competition and exhibition since 1934 and later upgrading it to an annual international competition in 1954.

The competition, one of the highlighted events in the societys calendar attracts many local and foreign entries. Patronage from prestigious photography bodies like the Federation of Photographic Art (FIAP), Royal Photographic Society (RPS) and Global Photographic Union (GPU) make the exhibition a sought after event.

British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and the Maldives James Dauris and Helen Dauris were present at the opening and over 80 awards were presented. Current president of the society Hiran Weliwitigoda opened the exhibition stating that exhibitions like this were pinnacle moments for photographers everywhere. The majority of our members are not professional photographers, Hiran said, adding that there are IT engineers, architects, doctors etc. among them united by their passion for photography.

This year the competition welcomed close to 2100 entries from participants across 20 countries who submitted entries along the given themes of Open Colour, Open Monochrome, Creative and Nature. A total of 200 images, handpicked by two Singaporean and four Sri Lankan judges were displayed at the exhibition.

Scoring big that evening was Ranjani Perera as she was awarded the PSSL Gold medal for the highest number of acceptances received by a local participant for her picture Retro.

Ravi Tennakoon was also awarded the DCL Amarasinghe Memorial Challenge Trophy for the Best Local Show for his stunning capture of a young leopard cub in mid air titled I can fly and Achim Koepf of Germany was awarded the FIAP Blue Pin for Best Author.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pistol Bay Mining Inc. (TSX-V:PST) (Frankfurt:OQS2) (Pistol Bay or the Company) is pleased to announce that PB Blockchain Inc., a Pistol Bay Mining Inc. wholly owned subsidiary, is pleased to welcome Brad Moynes to its advisory board. Mr. Moynes is the founder of DigaTrade Financial Corp (OTCQB:DIGAF), which launched its digital assets exchange on July 1st, 2015.



Along with his accomplishments in the Bitcoin early entry into the Cryptocurrency and Blockchain space, Mr. Moynes has extensive experience in public company management, finance and corporate relations and has served as a senior executive of a junior mining exploration company.

Charles Desjardins, President & CEO of Pistol Bay, states, We are excited to have the experience of such a visionary as Brad Moynes to call upon as the company moves forward in its development of blockchain applications specific to the mining industry.

About Pistol Bay Mining Inc.

Pistol Bay Mining Inc. is a diversified Junior Canadian Mineral Exploration Company with a focus on zinc and base metal properties in Confederation Lake, Ontario. The company is also creating a subsidiary for resource driven blockchain applications. For additional information please visit the Company website at www.pistolbaymininginc.com or contact Charles Desjardins at pistolbaymining@gmail.com.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

PISTOL BAY MINING INC.

" Charles Desjardins "

Charles Desjardins,

President and 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 release.

Cautionary note:

This report contains forward looking statements. Resource estimates, unless specifically noted, are considered speculative. Any and all other resource or reserve estimates are historical in nature, and should not be relied upon. By their nature, forward looking statements involve risk and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on factors that will or may occur in the future. Actual results may vary depending upon exploration activities, industry production, commodity demand and pricing, currency exchange rates, and, but not limited to, general economic factors. Cautionary Note to US investors: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission specifically prohibits the use of certain terms, such as "reserves" unless such figures are based upon actual production or formation tests and can be shown to be economically and legally producible under existing economic and operating conditions.
DETROIT, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PulteGroup, Inc. (NYSE:PHM) announced today that company founder William J. Pulte was inducted into the Home Builders Association of Southeastern Michigan (HBA) Hall of Fame. This award and recognition represents the highest honor the organization can bestow upon a member.



Our honorees have shaped the current residential landscape of Southeastern Michigan and are diligently creating its future, said Michael Stoskopf, CEO of the HBA. It is a pleasure and an honor to acknowledge their accomplishments.

The award is presented annually to those who have demonstrated exceptional qualities of leadership over the years, and who display exemplary devotion to their industry and their community as a whole. The Hall of Fame recognizes members who have made the greatest contributions since the formation of the Association back in 1928.

From his humble roots as a Detroit native, Pulte created a company that has built over 680,000 homes since its founding in 1950. In 1969, William J. Pulte, Inc. became Pulte Home Corporation and went public with Pulte as chairman and president. The Company remains one of the nations largest homebuilders generating $7.5 billion in homebuilding revenue in 2016. Pulte announced his retirement in 2010, following the 60th anniversary of the company, and the same year Fortune magazine recognized Pulte Homes as one of the worlds most admired companies. The company employs 4,500 people and is the nation's leading multi-brand homebuilder, capable of serving homeowners during all phases of life under its Centex, Pulte Homes, Del Webb, DiVosta Homes, and John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods brands.

It is an honor to be recognized by the HBA and inducted into their Hall of Fame, said Bill Pulte, founder of PulteGroup. I consider myself incredibly lucky to have never worked a day in my life, because I truly loved what I did and the tremendous people I got to work with.

The Home Builders Association of Southeastern Michigan honored the 2017 Industry Leadership Award honorees at the associations Awards Night and Holiday Celebration held at The Diamond Center at Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi. Robert Pulte, son of William J. Pulte, accepted the award on his fathers behalf. Nearly 400 members and guests attended the event which is an annual celebration for local builders, land developers, remodelers and suppliers to the home construction industry.

The full list of honorees is published in a commemorative magazine available to view online here: https://www.builders.org/pdf/bbam-2017-12.pdf

About PulteGroup, Inc.

PulteGroup, Inc. (NYSE:PHM), based in Atlanta, Georgia, is one of Americas largest homebuilding companies with operations in approximately 50 markets throughout the country. Through its brand portfolio that includes Centex, Pulte Homes, Del Webb, DiVosta Homes and John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods, the company is one of the industrys most versatile homebuilders able to meet the needs of multiple buyer groups and respond to changing consumer demand. PulteGroup conducts extensive research to provide homebuyers with innovative solutions and consumer inspired homes and communities to make lives better.

For more information about PulteGroup, Inc. and PulteGroup brands, go to pultegroupinc.com; www.pulte.com; www.centex.com; www.delwebb.com; www.divosta.com and www.jwhomes.com. Follow PulteGroup, Inc. on Twitter: @PulteGroupNews.

For Media Inquiries

Macey Kessler

Office: 404-978-6414

macey.kessler@pulte.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/efe62621-707c-4339-a825-daf5becfb214
An officer struck by a vehicle this morning in the Bay of Plenty is being flown to Waikato Hospital after sustaining leg injuries.

He was hit by a fleeing vehicle at the intersection of State Highway 30 and Kope Drain Rd in Awakeri, Whakatane area.

The car was being sought by Police in connection with a petrol drive-off, but the driver failed to stop when instructed to, says Eastern Bay of Plenty Area Commander, Kevin Taylor.

The Constable was laying road spikes at the time as part of the Police response to the fleeing driver.

Police then found the offending vehicle and later located the diver in Whakatane town centre.

Kevin says a 26-year-old man is being spoken to by investigators.

Police would like to thank the public for their assistance.

The Serious Crash Unit will investigate and Eastern Bay of Plenty Police are providing support to the injured officer and his family.
An appeal which began as a token of gratitude by one Essex couple, has now reached Bay of Plenty hospitals, in an attempt to bring a little joy to unwell children this Christmas.

Teddies for Loving Care is an appeal which provides teddy bears to accident and emergency units in New Zealand.

Medical staff can give teddies, at their discretion, to children aged between two and seven who are in severe distress.

The idea began overseas after the wife of an Essex Freemason suffered an allergic and wound up in an accident and emergency unit.

After suffering what they describe the most traumatic experience of their lives the pair wanted to find a way to say thanks to the medical staff who had helped them.

Teddies for Loving care was born as a result and launched in 2002.

Through support of Freemasons the appeal is currently being run in England, Wales, Gibraltar, Cyprus, Ireland, Scotland, and as of this year, New Zealand.

In a special presentation this morning, more than 80 boxes were delivered to Tauranga Hospital.

TLC Appeal New Zealand chairman and freemason member Tony Mansfield says the appeal started in New Zealand last year, with Rotorua being the first in the country to receive them, soon followed by Waikato and Gisborne Hospitals.

More than 18 months ago freemasons around the world celebrated a 300-year anniversary.

As a way to mark the occasion, we decided to support a charity. We found out about the TLC appeal overseas, decided it would be wonderful for New Zealand, got the money together and helped bring appeal here.

The first container brought in 12,960 bears for hospitals around the country, he says.

We have made a deliberate policy to go to smaller regions first. This is because we often find that these health boards dont tend to get access to these sorts of things, unless they are left over from the larger hospitals.

He says a delivery is planned for Whakatane later today and Taranaki before the end of the week.

Accident and emergency medical staff work hard every day, in an already stressful environment.

They do a fabulous job and largely go by without being thanked, so to provide them with something that can help improve the work they do is something we are more than happy to do.

He says the appeal is not just a one-off, but a long-term partnership.

We will continue to provide bears as they are needed for the next three years.
This mornings video was filmed from Shark Alley and from the dotterels nest on Mount Main beach, where the chicks are due to hatch any day.

In todays weather forecast we are expecting a fine day with southwest breezes which should die out at night.

Its a two-clothing layer day today with a high of 27 and an overnight low of 17 degrees.

High tide is at 9.50am and low tide at 4pm. Sea temperature is 20 degrees. Theres an average sea swell of .2m. Sunset tonight is at 8.32pm.

If youre going fishing today the best fish bite times are between 7.30 and 10.30pm.

This day in NZ history in 1964 New Zealand whalers harpooned their last victim.

More than 170 years of New Zealand whaling history ended when J.A. Perano and Company caught its last whale off the coast near Kaikoura.

In 1971 it was full steam ahead for the Kingston Flyer.

A few months after the last steam locomotives had been withdrawn from this countrys scheduled rail operations, New Zealand Railways launched a new tourist-oriented steam passenger venture in the South Island.

In world history on this day in 1620 the Pilgrims landed at or near Plymouth Rock.

In 1910 over 2.5 million plague victims were reported in the An-Hul province of China.

In 1946 an earthquake and tidal wave killed hundreds in Japan.

In 1964 Great Britains House of Commons voted to ban the death penalty.

In 1986 500,000 Chinese students gathered in Shanghais Peoples Square calling for democratic reforms, including freedom of the press.

In 1988 on this day, Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York exploded in midair over Lockerbie, Scotland, an hour after departure.

All 259 passengers were killed in the explosion caused by a bomb hidden inside an audio cassette player  that detonated inside the cargo area when the plane was at an altitude of 31,000 feet.

A shower of airplane parts falling from the sky also killed 11 Lockerbie residents.

Today is the birthday of Benjamin Disraeli, Prime Minister of Great Britain.

He was born in 1804 and once said "The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes."

To get involved in activities and events please check out our Whats On page.

Have an awesome day and stay safe on the roads!
With huge numbers of savvy investors positively rolling in bitcoins, there is significant new wealth doing the rounds  and one company has stepped in to offer something lavish to do with them.

A London-based service called Moonlambos has partnered with automobile dealers in the US and Europe to sell Lamborghinis in exchange for Bitcoins, with a Lamborghini Huracan currently up for grabs for 11.2 of the prestigious digital coins.

I know a lot of traders who got in early, and a lot of them are really concerned about how to liquidate that, Moonlambos cofounder Ivan Soto-Wright said.

We want to facilitate a solution to a key problem, which is how do you spend it?

The Moonlambo project is a part of a larger initiative called HODL and also a first step towards offering a much larger range of ecommerce options to this new class of consumers.

The HODL initiative includes the formation of a VC fund along with its own cryptocurrency  a virtual currency wallet. To promote the business, Moonlambos rented two Lamborghinis along with some Star Wars costumes and recently crashed the London premiere of The Last Jedi.

However, this is not the first time a business is trying to sell cars for cryptocurrencies. Recently a mystery Chinese millionaire purchased four rare fully-functioning F1 cars by using Litecoins.

As well as the Huracan, if you want a Lamborghini Gallardo LP 570-4 SuperLeggera Coupe, Moonlambos can sell you one for one 9.72 Bitcoins.
NEW YORK, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- After reviewing the proxy statement and marketing materials that SandRidge Energy (SandRidge) has filed and meeting with management, Guggenheim Partners Investment Management currently intends to vote all the SandRidge shares under its management (approximately 11.9% of shares outstanding) against the proposed acquisition of Bonanza Creek and the associated share issuance.



For more information, please visit http://www.guggenheiminvestments.com.

About Guggenheim Investments

Guggenheim Investments is the global asset management and investment advisory division of Guggenheim Partners, with $243 billion1 in assets across fixed income, equity, and alternative strategies. We focus on the return and risk needs of insurance companies, corporate and public pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, endowments and foundations, consultants, wealth managers, and high-net-worth investors. Our 275+ investment professionals perform rigorous research to understand market trends and identify undervalued opportunities in areas that are often complex and underfollowed. This approach to investment management has enabled us to deliver innovative strategies providing diversification and attractive long-term results.

1Guggenheim Investments total asset figure is as of 9.30.2017. The assets include $11.6bn of leverage for assets under management and $0.4bn for assets for which Guggenheim provides administrative services. Guggenheim Investments represents the following affiliated investment management businesses: Guggenheim Partners Investment Management, LLC, Security Investors, LLC, Guggenheim Funds Investment Advisors, LLC, Guggenheim Funds Distributors, LLC, Guggenheim Real Estate, LLC, GS GAMMA Advisors, LLC, Guggenheim Partners Europe Limited and Guggenheim Partners India Management.

Media Contact

Gerard Carney

Guggenheim Partners

310.871.9208

Gerard.Carney@GuggenheimPartners.com
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe was in Bland County last week to celebrate the arrival of broadband internet service to the Hollybrook area.

As part of the ceremony Dec. 14, the governor helped power up equipment on the GigaBeam Networks tower in Hollybrook, which will deliver wireless service to 350 homes and businesses in the area.

County Administrator Eric Workman said the high-speed service will be available early next year. The service is wireless, so GigaBeam will install a receiver outside the house and a modem inside the house to deliver the service.

Its kind of like satellite TV with a dish outside, but instead of talking to a satellite, the receiver talks to the tower, Workman said.

Over the next few weeks and into the New Year, GigaBeam Networks will work in the Hollybrook Community to complete additional infrastructural development that is needed before customers can join the system. GigaBeam Networks has offices in Rich Creek and Bluefield, Virginia.

A grant from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development is paying for the 160-foot tower and equipment installation. Earlier this year, Bland County received $192,141 in grant funding for broadband deployment in the Hollybrook community as part of a public/private partnership with GigaBeam.

In addition to providing high-speed internet service to more than 350 homes and businesses, the project is expected to improve the countys main broadband infrastructure.

This is a wonderful project for the Hollybrook community, Hollybrook Supervisor Randy Johnson said. Many of the residents of the Hollybrook community either have limited or no access to high speed internet. Hopefully, this project will be a catalyst for broadband providers to expand service throughout the rest of the county.

GigaBeam Network, the County of Bland and community volunteers worked together to construct the tower. The Sam Sloop family donated the land on which the tower sits, visible from the Hollybrook Community Center.

While the governor was in Bland, he visited with members of the Bland County Volunteer Rescue Squad, employees of Venco, and had a lunch meeting with the ABB leadership team and plant manager Joey Chandler. The last Virginia governor to visit Bland County was Mark Warner in 2004.

For information on GigaBeams Network service or to sign up for the service, visit the company online at www.GigaBeam.net or call 540-726-2317 (866-988-2638).

To reach Millie Rothrock, call 276-228-6611, ext. 35, or email mrothrock@wythenews.com.
Bruce Alva Beverly, 64, of Coeburn, Virginia, pleaded guilty to one count of failing to maintain proper records as a federal firearms licensed dealer, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office. Beverly was also sentenced to serve one year of probation, pay a $5,500 fine, relinquish his federal firearms license and agree to never work in a business that has a federal firearms license, the release states.
ABINGDON, Va.  Two men were arrested in connection with the Reedy Creek Road murder over the weekend, Washington County Sheriff Fred Newman said at a press conference on Monday.

Gary Lynn Murray, 19, and Timothy D. Carrick, 38, both of Bristol, Tennessee, were arrested after being found connected to the homicide of Steven Jeremy Hafen, 39. The homicide occurred in late November at an apartment on Reedy Creek Road.

Additionally, the Sheriffs Office has what we believe to be the murder weapon, which is a hammer, Newman said. When the body was found, Newman said that based on preliminary investigations, it appears the victim died from violent trauma to the head, the Bristol Herald Courier previously reported.

Carrick was arrested on late Friday night, and Murray was arrested on Sunday night, both by the Bristol Tennessee Police Department, Newman said at the press conference.

Both Carrick and Murray were charged with first-degree murder, robbery, conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to commit robbery, Newman said. They are both currently being held in the Sullivan County Jail in Blountville, Tennessee, awaiting extradition back to Virginia.

Through the cooperative efforts of multiple law enforcement agencies  in particular, the Bristol Tennessee Police Department  we were able to bring this homicide investigation to what we believe to be a successful conclusion, Newman said.

The Sheriffs Office was able to develop the two suspects through numerous interviews and intense investigation, Newman said.

The motive apparently  [is] robbery, Newman said.

On Nov. 30, Hafen was found deceased at his apartment located on Reedy Creek Road, after family members became concerned and tried to enter the apartment, the Bristol Herald Courier previously reported. Police said the door lock had been dismantled, and the body was found in the living room of the apartment.

The victims family provided as much information as possible throughout the entire investigation, Newman said.

Newman said that the homicide is an isolated incident, for the neighborhood.

Washington County Commonwealth Attorney Josh Cumbow said that once the suspects are back in Washington County they will be arraigned, have the opportunity to enter a plea and be appointed counsel if they have not already hired their own. A preliminary hearing date will also be set.

The possible sentence for first-degree murder is up to life in prison  and maximum sentence for robbery is 40 years in prison, Cumbow said.

Newman could not provide comment on whether the investigation is drug-related. The sheriffs office would also not disclose if the suspects knew each other prior to the homicide.
FOSTER CITY, Calif., Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GridGain Systems, provider of enterprise-grade in-memory computing solutions based on Apache Ignite, today announced a Call for Papers for the In-Memory Computing Summit Europe, taking place June 25-26, 2018 at the Park Plaza Victoria London. The Call for Papers for the In-Memory Computing Summit Europe 2018 will end on March 11, 2018. Sponsorship opportunities for the In-Memory Computing Summit Europe 2018 are available. For attendees, Super Saver registration discounts end on April 22, 2018.



Organized by GridGain Systems, the In-Memory Computing Summit (IMCS) is held in both Europe and North America. They are the only industry-wide events that focus on the full range of in-memory computing-related technologies and solutions. Attendees will learn about the role of in-memory computing in the digital transformation of enterprises. The conference is attended by technical decision makers, business decision makers, architects, CTOs, developers and more who make or influence purchasing decisions about in-memory computing, Big Data, Fast Data, IoT and HPC solutions. The In-Memory Computing Summit Europe Conference Committee is looking for talks on a variety of topics including:

User stories and business use cases

What's new and upcoming in in-memory computing

Best design practices and performance optimizations

High availability, clustering, and replication

Monitoring, management, automation tools and best practices

In-memory computing in the cloud

Registration Discounts

A Super Saver General Admission rate of 375, a 28 percent discount on the standard rate of 525, is now available. The Super Saver rate ends on April 22, 2018. Register via the conference website.

Sponsorship Opportunities

The In-Memory Computing Summits are sponsored by leading technology vendors. A limited number of Platinum, Gold and Silver sponsorship packages are currently available. Sponsors have an opportunity to increase their visibility and reputation as technology leaders, interact with key in-memory computing business and technical decision makers, and connect with technology purchasers and influencers.

About the In-Memory Computing Summit

The In-Memory Computing Summits are the only industry-wide events of their kind, tailored to in-memory computing-related technologies and solutions. They are the perfect opportunity to reach technical IT decision makers, IT implementers, and developers who make or influence purchasing decisions in the areas of in-memory computing, Big Data, Fast Data, IoT and HPC. Attendees include CEOs, CIOs, CTOs, VPs, IT directors, IT managers, data scientists, senior engineers, senior developers, architects and more. The events are unique forums for networking, education and the exchange of ideas  ideas that power digital transformation and the future of Fast Data. For more information, visit https://imcsummit.org/us/ and follow the events on Twitter @IMCSummit.

About GridGain Systems

GridGain Systems is revolutionizing real-time data access and processing by offering enterprise-grade in-memory computing solutions built on Apache Ignite. GridGain solutions are used by global enterprises in financial, software, ecommerce, retail, online business services, healthcare, telecom and other major sectors. GridGain solutions connect data stores (SQL, NoSQL, and Apache Hadoop) with cloud-scale applications and enable massive data throughput and ultra-low latencies across a scalable, distributed cluster of commodity servers. GridGain is the most comprehensive, enterprise-grade in-memory computing platform for high volume ACID transactions, real-time analytics, and hybrid transactional/analytical processing. For more information, visit gridgain.com.

CONTACT:

Terry Erisman

GridGain Systems

terisman@gridgain.com

(650) 241-2281

GridGain is a trademark or registered trademark of GridGain Systems, Inc. Apache, Apache Hadoop, Hadoop, Apache Ignite, and Ignite are trademarks of The Apache Software Foundation. All other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their registered owners.
ULYSSES, N.Y. -- A pedestrian died after being hit by a vehicle Tuesday night in Tompkins County.

The accident happened around 10:20 p.m. on Trumansburg Road (State Route 96) near Wilkins Road intersection in the Town of Ulysses. The town is about 10 minutes northwest of Ithaca.

The pedestrian was walking north on Trumansburg Road from the Iradell Road area when he was hit by a vehicle, said the New York State Police. He was fatally injured.

The pedestrian was a teenager, the Trumansburg Fire Department told The Ithaca Voice. Troopers said his name will be released after his family is notified.

The driver of the vehicle involved in the crash wasn't injured, reported The Ithaca Voice. The driver's name has not been released.

In addition to troopers, the Trumansburg Fire Department, the Ithaca Fire Department, Bangs Ambulance and the state Department of Transporation responded to the scene.

The accident remains under investigation.

Troopers asked anyone who saw the pedestrian walking in the area or witnessed the deadly crash to call (607) 347-4463.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A Syracuse dentist admitted today that he drove drunk and hit a boy walking in the street this past February.

James Draveck, 56, of Camillus, pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated assault before Onondaga County Court Judge Matthew Doran.

Draveck admitted to driving drunk and causing the 15-year-old boy serious injuries. He is expected to be sentenced to six months in jail and five years probation in exchange for his guilty plea.

Draveck will also have his license suspended for at least a year and must use an interlock device in any vehicle he drives. He will receive credit for any time he's already served in jail.

Draveck appeared in court today in plain clothes. He posted $7,500 bail and was released from jail after his arrest in February.

Police said Draveck hit 15-year-old Anthony LaPorte as the boy was walking in the road near the 300 block of West Bear Street near Destiny USA. The crash happened around 6:15 p.m. on a Tuesday in February.

LaPorte suffered from a broken leg and deep cuts to his head.

Police said Draveck left the scene in a blue 2015 Audi. Officials said Draveck had "numerous" alcoholic beverages at his dental office on Oak Street before he got into the car and hit the boy.

Draveck admitted his blood alcohol content was over 0.18 percent, more than two times the legal limit.

Chief Assistant District Attorney Christopher Bednarski said the victim and his family asked that Draveck be sentenced to six months or a year in prison.

Draveck is scheduled to turn himself in to the jail in January. He will officially be sentenced at a later date.

Public Affairs Reporter Julie McMahon covers courts, government and other issues affecting taxpayers. She can be reached anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-412-1992
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Police are investigating a stabbing near Midland Avenue that left a man in his 20s with a non-life-threatening injury, according to a police spokesman.

The victim arrived at Upstate University Hospital just before 4 p.m. with a stab wound to his buttocks, according to spokesman Sgt. Richard Helterline. He is expected to survive.

He told police that he was in a fight with a group of male teenagers at Midland Avenue near West Colvin Street. He was stabbed during the fight, the victim told police.

However, the victim did not provide any specific suspect information, Helterline said.

Police ask anyone with information to call the department at (315)442-5222 or use it "SPD tips" app. Calls and tips can be confidential.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Cor Development Co. has settled its dispute with New York state over unpaid rent at the Central New York Film Hub in DeWitt, a lawyer for Cor told court officials today.

Details of the settlement were not available late today. But the deal appears to end Cor's effort to evict Fort Schuyler Management Corp., the state-owned nonprofit that hired Cor to build the 52,000-square-foot facility in hopes of generating a local film industry.

"Confirming my conversation with Chambers this morning, this matter has been settled,'' wrote lawyer Christopher Buckey, who represents Cor, in a letter filed with the court today. Buckey said the terms of the settlement would be filed with the court soon.

Cor sued Fort Schuyler Management in October seeking to evict the state from the film hub at Collamer Crossings Business Park in DeWitt. Fort Schuyler paid Cor $10.6 million to build the facility, which was completed in August 2015, but never made payments under a 20-year land lease for the 7.6-acre site, according to court documents.

Cor officials said the state owed $831,000 in rent, penalties and unpaid property taxes.

The film hub has been implicated in a federal corruption case that will go to trial in 2018. Steven Aiello and Joseph Gerardi, principals of Cor Development, are accused of participating in a bid-rigging scheme that allegedly assured them of getting the contract from FSMC to build the film hub and other facilities in Central New York. Aiello and Gerardi have proclaimed their innocence.

FSMC, a nonprofit corporation that owns and develops property for SUNY Polytechnic Institute, initially signed a $217,000-a-year ground lease to rent the film hub site from Cor. But the state grant program that paid for the film hub did not permit lease payments.

FSMC later made a deal in June 2015 to buy the parcel from Cor for $1.18 million, but never finalized the purchase.

Contact reporter Tim Knauss | email | Twitter | 315-470-3023
To the Editor:



With the defeat of ISIS in the Middle East, I would call on Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand to at least apologize to Defense Secretary James Mattis for not voting for this great general in his confirmation hearing. If you recall, Gillibrand was the only no vote, 98-1. Her lack of insight, in my opinion, disqualifies her as a United States senator and I think she should resign for her lack of comprehension on the qualifications of this American hero. She chose politics over our defense and continues to focus on issues irrelevant to our country's success. The reason she voted no was because she did not care about winning future battles, only that transgender people could serve even if it meant losing a war. Mattis has destroyed ISIS in 11 months and I hope in the next election cycle that New Yorkers will cast a vote for anyone other then Gillibrand.



Michael Boyle

Cicero
Nathalie Pena is a senior at the State University of New York College at Oswego, majoring in journalism and French.



By Nathalie Pena | Special to Syracuse.com



My life is intimately tied to every community's desire to contribute, and every family's desire to thrive. As a child of immigrants, my mere existence in the United States is linked to my parent's desire for a better future for their children, a future in a land that they saw as full of opportunities and hope. As an undergrad at SUNY Oswego, I see the contributions of immigrants every day: from the work of my peers in class, to the brilliance of my professors in lecture. While these different groups of people occupy different spaces in my life, we all have a profound desire in common -- the desire for those around us to succeed and create a future made fruitful by America's bedrock principles of hard work, perseverance and determination. The Dreamers, the young people brought to America as children and who've graduated from school or served in the armed services, deserve to pursue these American principles, and it is past time for Congress to end the limbo these young people are under and put the Dream Act up for a vote.



When President Donald Trump ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, he proposed an arbitrary March 5, 2018, deadline. An average of 122 young people per day -- more than 850 per week -- will lose protections if Congress does not pass the Dream Act, or similar legislation to protect Dreamers. Losing protections means people won't be able to continue to work or go to school. A recent study by the Center for American Progress shows that among DACA recipients 25 years and older, 8 percent started their own business after receiving DACA. This contrasts to the 3.1 percent rate among the general American public. In the study, 65 percent of DACA recipients reported purchasing their first car, a significant event in any young person's life, and an event that brings important tax revenue to states. Twenty-four percent of respondents 25 years and older also reported having purchased their first home thanks to DACA. Like car purchases, the purchase of a home brings important tax revenue, but also is directly tied to the creation of jobs and new spending in local communities.



The DREAM Act has been languishing in Congress for over 15 years, and year after year members of Congress from both parties promise to find a solution for Dreamers. Since President Barack Obama signed DACA in 2012, almost 800,000 young people stepped out of the shadows and handed the federal government their personal information under a promise that they'd be allowed to pursue their dreams. That promise was broken, and those dreams halted. It is not fair that people brought as children-- and who've been proven to be decent, contributing members of society-- have to live under a constant threat of deportation. We share a common American culture in which we all contribute to, and whether we know it or not, these young people are our friends, our co-workers and our classmates.



I'm proud that my parents made the tough decision to move to this country and work on creating a bright future for me, in a similar way that many people are proud of their grandparents or great grandparents for leaving their lives behind as a sacrifice for future generations. We cannot punish the children of immigrants because their parents did not take the steps required by law.



If my parents didn't have a way to normalize their statuses, I could very well be a Dreamer right now, filled with anxiety and worry about a future in the hands of politicians. Instead of playing political games, our leaders should be working on recognizing the contributions of Dreamers and finding a permanent fix to DACA. Dreamers are integral members of our communities; they enrich our schools and contribute to our economy. As business owners, students and young professionals, they represent the best of America, embodying core American principles in a land that currently does not recognize them as equal members of society.



A deadline is fast approaching for nearly 800,000 young people. This is the time to act. Congress needs to move to once and for all recognize Dreamers as the contributing members of society they are.
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Imperial Capital, LLC announced that it served as the financial advisor to exhale Enterprises, Inc. (exhale or the Company) in its sale to an affiliate of Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE:H), where exhale has become a standalone business as part of Hyatts wellness category. The acquisition reflects Hyatts understanding of wellness as an area of growing importance to high-end travelers, as well as its strategy to expand its offerings beyond traditional hotel stays.

Founded in 2003, exhale is a unique wellbeing brand that addresses mind and body, through spa and fitness. With more than 20 locations in key markets throughout the U.S. and Caribbean, more than 1,000 associates and dozens of branded programs, exhale has a loyal following with guests who have an emotional, energetic and social connection to the exhale brand. A recipient of hundreds of awards and attracting more than one million annual guest visits, exhale has firmly established itself as a premium wellbeing brand and category leader.

The exhale brand has been at the forefront of the wellness industry for the past 10+ years as an early pioneer in the fitness industry targeting mind body transformation. Given the brands best-in-class programs and unique reach into the hospitality sector, Hyatt is the ideal acquirer to team with exhales founders and management team in order to take the business to the next level, said Brian Wood, Head of Imperial Capitals Branded Consumer Group. John Mack, Managing Director and Co-Head of Investment Banking at Imperial Capital, added, This transaction is representative of Imperial Capitals capability across various industries, and in particular our Consumer groups deep understanding and strong relationships at all levels of the Health, Wellness & Fitness sector."

The term Hyatt is used in this release for convenience to refer to Hyatt Hotels Corporation and/or one or more of its affiliates.

About exhale

Exhale, a leading wellbeing brand, revolutionized the spa + fitness industry in 2003 with a unique business model that addresses both mind and body through spa + fitness. Dedicated to transformation, mindfulness and healing, exhale has more than 20 locations in the U.S. + Caribbean offering dozens of proprietary boutique fitness class programs and award-winning healing + spa therapies. Exhale is now part of the Hyatt family, operating as a standalone business within Hyatt's wellness category. For more information, please visit www.exhalespa.com.

About Hyatt Hotels Corporation

Hyatt Hotels Corporation, headquartered in Chicago, is a leading global hospitality company with a portfolio of 13 premier brands. As of September 30, 2017, the Company's portfolio included 739 properties in 57 countries. The Company's purpose to care for people so they can be their best informs its business decisions and growth strategy and is intended to create value for shareholders, build relationships with guests and attract the best colleagues in the industry. The Company's subsidiaries develop, own, operate, manage, franchise, license or provide services to hotels, resorts, branded residences and vacation ownership properties, including under the Park Hyatt, Miraval, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt, Andaz, Hyatt Centric, The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, Hyatt Place, Hyatt House, Hyatt Ziva, Hyatt Zilara and Hyatt Residence Club brand names and have locations on six continents. For more information, please visit www.hyatt.com.

About Imperial Capital, LLC

Imperial Capital, founded in 1997, is a full-service investment banking firm with offices in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, London, Minneapolis, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Charlotte, Palm Beach and Tel Aviv. The firm currently employs over 250 professionals and offers a wide range of proprietary products and services to institutional investors, middle market companies and private equity firms. Imperial Capital provides institutional clients research and sales and trading of high yield and distressed debt securities, bank debt, convertible bonds, preferred stocks, and equities. The firm provides middle market companies and financial sponsors with capital markets, merger and acquisitions, capital structure, restructuring and recapitalization advisory services. More information about Imperial Capital can be found at www.imperialcapital.com.

For more information regarding Imperial Capital, please contact:

Tigist Gessesse

Corporate Finance Manager

(310) 246-3605

tgessesse@imperialcapital.com
Thank you for reading!

Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue.
TORONTO, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Effective February 6, 2018, Gerard McDonald, P.Eng., MBA, is resigning as registrar of Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO)Ontarios engineering regulatorto become CEO of Engineers Canada.



On behalf of PEO Council, I thank Gerard for his inspiring and effective leadership over the past four years, said PEO President Bob Dony, PhD, P.Eng., FIEE, FEC. We accomplished several milestone achievements under his watch, notably the recent passage of Bill 177, which made several changes to the Professional Engineers Act that improve the regulators transparency, accountability and effectiveness in regulating professional engineering.

Gerard leaves PEO in excellent shape to continue our regulatory work, particularly with the release of our new 2018-2020 Strategic Plan, which focuses on nine strategic objectives covering three priority areas: protecting the public interest, engaging stakeholders and advancing PEOs mission.

McDonald also oversaw the development and implementation of PEOs Practice Evaluation and Knowledge (PEAK) programa unique annual program designed to improve the associations data about its practitioners engineering practice profiles while encouraging individualized continuing knowledge development.

He was appointed registrar by PEO Council in January 2014.

We wish Gerard well on his new endeavors and look forward to continuing to work with him in his new role, said Dony.

PEO Council will appoint an interim registrar and begin the process for recruiting a new registrar in January 2018.

About Professional Engineers Ontario

Under the authority of the Professional Engineers Act, PEO governs over 85,000 licence and certificate holders and regulates professional engineering in Ontario. PEOs mission is to regulate and advance the practice of engineering to protect the public interest. Its vision is to be the trusted leader in professional self-regulation. Professional engineering safeguards life, health, property, economic interests, the public welfare and the environment. Professional engineers can be identified by the P.Eng. after their names. Holders of limited licences can be identified by LEL or LET after their names.

For additional information or interviews, please contact:

Duff McCutcheon, Manager, Communications

Tel: 416-840-1068; 800-339-3716, ext.1068

Cell: 416-797-8175

Email: dmccutcheon@peo.on.ca
Stringer/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images(JERUSALEM) -- Her wild, curly hair was unmistakable, piled on top of her head, as she approached the two Israeli soldiers outside her house.

"Come on, get out," the teenage girl yelled last Friday afternoon at the soldiers. "Get out of here, don't stay here."

Standing in her driveway, 17-year-old Ahed Tamimi can be seen in a now-viral video pushing one of the Israeli soldiers, then kicking him in the shins. She went in again, this time with her right fist, hitting his shoulder. He deflected her.

"Don't touch me," she screamed in his face and reached up to slap the soldier. Five days after the incident, Ahed was led into an Israeli military court today.

The dramatic video, shot and distributed by the Tamimi family, has gone viral in the past few days. Ahed is a well-known teenage activist, from a family of well-known activists in the Palestinian village of Nabi Saleh, in the occupied West Bank.

Palestinians hail her as a brave young fighter and some pro-Israel blogs have dubbed her "Shirley Temper." Right-wing Israelis accuse her of using social media to distribute propaganda and discredit Israel. After the video garnered widespread media coverage in Israeli media Monday, overnight, the Israeli military arrested Ahed.

The morning after the arrest, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman threatened the family, saying, "Everyone involved, not only the girl but also her parents and those around them, will not escape from what they deserve."

Lieberman continued, whoever goes wild during the day will be arrested at night. This is also an important message."

Ahed was suspected of "assaulting an IDF soldier and officer" and participating "in a violent riot last Friday, the Israeli army told ABC News in a statement.

Army officials said the only reason they were there was because "rioters" had been throwing stones from the Tamimi house. The army stayed at the entrance to make sure no one else entered and that's when "several Palestinians exited the house and began to violently provoke the soldiers."

The soldier slapped by Ahed "acted in a professional and restrained manner by not using force," the army statement said. "He could have arrested the Palestinians," the statement said, and he didn't.

That was Friday afternoon.

In the middle of the night Monday, her father described being woken up by the Israeli army.

"They came at 3 a.m. in the morning," her father, Bassem Tamimi, told ABC News. "They were so aggressive. They arrested her and confiscated all the mobile phones and computers in the house," including those belonging to her siblings, he says.

"Ahed was not scared."

Ahed has been a constant feature at protests in the village for years but it's the first time she has been detained by the Israeli military. Her detention has just been extended through Monday, according to her father. Even though she is a minor, she still goes to military court because she's in the West Bank, not in Israel.

"Ahed is a symbol of her generation," Tamimi told ABC News. "She is a symbol of victory and not defeat."

Northwest of the West Bank city of Ramallah, Nabih Saleh sits right next to Israeli settlement, Halamish. Palestinian villagers have been holding regular protests since 2009 against the expansion of Halamish. Going through checkpoints, and around the settlement, Tamimi said, is "a very threatening environment" for his children.

Ramal Salah, a Palestinian psychologist who focuses on teenagers, said Palestinian teenagers, like in other conflict areas, "are not your average teenagers" and pay a high psychological price for the daily exposure.

"They see everything in the West Bank," Salah said. "They pass through the checkpoints, they see Israeli settlements, their land being confiscated and they see how Israeli soldiers humiliate their parents."

They grow up angry, she added. Palestinians now see Ahed as a hero but that, Salah noted, puts any teenager under tremendous pressure.

Ahed's parents have both encouraged youth activism, and it's not the first time Ahed has gone viral.

In 2015, Ahed can be seen biting a soldier as he pins down her younger brother, then accused of throwing stones.

Speaking to Army Radio Tuesday, Israel Education Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the extreme right-wing Jewish Home party, said Ahed and her cousin, the other girl seen in the video last Friday, "should finish their lives in prison."

The pictures are harsh, Bennett said. I trust that the incident will be investigated, the lessons will be learned, and those activists who attacked will be tried.

Ahed could face seven years in prison, Bennett added.

Her father, however, has different plans: "I hope one day she will be able to be a leader of the Palestinian people."

Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Trek Mining Inc. (TSX-V:TREK) (Trek Mining or the Company) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a definitive credit agreement through its wholly-owned Canadian subsidiary, Aurizona Goldfields Corporation, with Sprott Private Resource Lending (Collector), L.P. (Sprott) to provide a US$85 million (C$109 million) secured project credit facility (the Credit Facility) that will be used for the development, construction and working capital requirements of the Companys Aurizona Gold Mine (Aurizona) located in Brazil.



With the Credit Facility now in place and the Equinox Gold merger set to close this week, construction of Aurizona is fully funded, said Christian Milau, CEO of Trek Mining. We expect to announce the approval of full-scale construction when the new Equinox Gold Board of Directors meets in January and remain on track to pour gold at Aurizona by late 2018.

Key Terms of the Credit Facility

Term of 5 years

US$85 million in principal First advance of US$15 million has been made Subsequent tranches available to the Company on satisfaction of customary conditions

Interest at 7% plus the greater of 3-month US LIBOR or 1% 50% of interest costs capitalized to the principal until May 31, 2019

Repayable in quarterly instalments from September 2019 to September 2022 with a six-month extension election to March 2023

2.5% arrangement fee payable pro-rata on drawdown of each tranche

No requirement for hedging commitments or reserve accounts

Penalty-free repayment of outstanding principal and interest after September 2019

8,000,000 warrants to be issued to Sprott with a five-year term and an exercise price of C$1.01

Fixed US$20 per ounce production-linked payment on 75% of the first 400,000 ounces with payments to be financially settled monthly after the start of production

In addition to the Credit Facility, Sprott has agreed to provide up to US$200 million to fund future development projects and acquisitions (the Development and Acquisition Facility), which could include development of the Castle Mountain project. The Development and Acquisition Facility is subject to, among other items, negotiation, documentation and approval by Sprotts investment committee.

Trek Mining was advised by Endeavour Financial and Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP.

On behalf of the Board of Trek Mining Inc.

Christian Milau

CEO & Director

About Trek Mining Inc.

Trek Mining is a Canadian mining company with a portfolio of production, near-production and exploration-stage projects in North and South America. Early works construction is underway at the Companys Aurizona project in Brazil, with the objective of pouring gold by year-end 2018. On October 25, 2017, Trek Mining announced the signing of a definitive agreement to combine its business with NewCastle Gold Ltd. (TSX:NCA) and Anfield Gold Corp. (TSX-V:ANF). The combined entity intends to operate under the name Equinox Gold Corp. (Equinox Gold) and expects to trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker symbol EQX. Led by Ross Beaty as Chairman, Equinox Gold will be a well-financed, multi-asset mining company with a near-term gold production and strong growth platform of copper and gold assets. Further information about the proposed business combination and Trek Minings current portfolio of assets is available at www.trekmining.com or by email at ir@trekmining.com.

Trek Mining Contacts

Christian Milau, Chief Executive Officer

Rhylin Bailie, Vice President Investor Relations

Tel: +1 604-558-0560

Email: ir@trekmining.com

Cautionary Notes

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as such term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This document contains certain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities legislation (collectively forward-looking statements). The use of the words will, should, subject to, objective, intends and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release include statements regarding the anticipated restart of production at Aurizona, the expected merger to form Equinox Gold, and the potential to access the Sprott Development & Acquisition Facility. Although Trek Mining believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements and/or information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements since Trek Mining can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements, including the risks, uncertainties and other factors identified in Trek Minings periodic filings with Canadian securities regulators, and assumptions made with regard to: the anticipated Board approval of full-scale construction at Aurizona; the ability to successfully complete mine development at Aurizona and restart production; timing of the anticipated restart of production; the Companys ability to achieve the production and operating results estimated in the Aurizona feasibility study; the Companys ability to complete the merger to form Equinox Gold; and the Companys ability to realize the synergies anticipated from the Equinox Gold merger. Furthermore, the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as at the date of this news release and Trek Mining does not undertake any obligations to publicly update and/or revise any of the included forward-looking statements, whether as a result of additional information, future events and/or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable securities laws.
Microsoft has now rolled out a significant Windows 10 update to testers. Insiders in the Fast Ring can now download Windows 10 build 17063, which comes with the previously announced Timeline feature, plus a new tabs system the company revealed last month.

The much-hyped Timeline feature didn't make the cut in time for the release of the Fall Creators Update, but thankfully, Microsoft was able to push it out before the end of the year.

Windows 10 Timeline

Timeline gives users a visual history of tabs, files, and windows so they can get back to what they were previously working on if ever they accidentally closed a tab, forgot where they saved a file, and so on. With Cortana functionality, Timeline is also a way for users to continue their work when they switch to iOS and Android devices if need be. Simply put, it's not just a visual history of one's activity in Windows 10, but also a quick way of jumping from one platform to another, kind of similar to Apple's continuity feature in iOS and macOS.

Windows 10 Sets

Meanwhile, there's also a new feature called Sets, which Microsoft already previewed a while back, though it might be called something else once officially released. It enables a tabbed interface so that users can perform different activities in a single window, which makes workflows easier and less cluttered. It's similar to tabbed browsing, but for every Windows 10 app. Right now, only Universal Windows Apps support it, but Office and win32 programs will also get Sets functionalities next year.

Other Improvements

Microsoft has also added a ton of new features in the latest build. As for Cortana, it will now suggest activities users might want to resume to help them stay productive, which goes hand-in-hand with Timeline.

As for the Edge browser, it's now slowly transitioning into a new design language Microsoft calls "Fluent," complete with an updated Dark theme, which makes the user interface more visually pleasing. The bookmark and flyout button has been merged, providing a consistent experience across books, bookmarks, and other documents.

Microsoft says it's also beginning to align Windows 10 programs with its new Fluent design language, starting with the Action Center and the Start menu, which now look, as Microsoft puts it, "acrylic."

There are a ton of changes and improvements in Windows 10 build 17063. Microsoft has listed everything in its blog, so make sure to check that out.

Are you on the Windows 10 Insider Fast Ring? Thoughts on the new build so far? As always, feel free to sound off in the comments section below!

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Finalists of the fourth New Frontiers competition will be announced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) via a teleconference Dec. 20 at 2 p.m. EST.

Out of such short-listed concepts, only one winner is to be selected. The chosen team's proposal will then be built out by the agency for a space mission to explore the solar system. Robots are conducting the mission with no crew on board. Launching of the winning vessel is slated in the middle of 2020 but the location for investigation remains unannounced.

Possible Destinations For Fourth New Frontiers Mission Includes Top Exploration Goals

However, the six themes assigned to participating teams give a preview of where the future spacecraft could be sent. Based on a press release by NASA, proposals were asked for six themes, which include obtaining a sample from an undetermined comet's surface and the moon's South Pole-Aitken Basin; probing the planet Saturn; touring the micro planet or moon Trojan and the asteroid Rendezvous; performing experiments on Venus; and exploring the Ocean Worlds, comprised by Titan and Enceladus.

The themes were chosen by the agency based on expert advice from the anatomical community. Goals included in the list have been identified to be of high priority.

Present in the teleconference that will be aired over NASA's official website are Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator at the NASA Science Mission Directorate; Jim Green, director at the NASA Headquarters' Planetary Science Division; Curt Niebur, program scientist of the New Frontiers initiative at NASA Headquarters; and participants of the competition.

The finalists will be granted $4 million each to create models of their ideas. A total of 12 proposals were submitted in May 2017.

New Frontiers Missions Allow Scientific Investigations

The program, which launched its first mission in 2006, includes medium-scale missions operating under a limited budget. Under the guidance of a lead investigator, they are sent to various locations across the solar system.

Currently, there are three New Frontiers Mission in outer space. The latest one to take off is the OSIRIS, which left Earth in September 2016 to study the asteroid Bennu. It is expected to make a landing in 2018 and conduct a study until 2021. Its return has been scheduled for 2023.

Other missions under the initiative are New Horizons, which left Earth in 2006 and landed in Pluto by 2015; and Juno, which took off 2011 and reached Jupiter's orbit by 2016.

A recent investigation conducted by NASA using the Kepler space telescope led to the discovery of an eighth planet orbiting the star Kepler-90. The agency is also expected to launch a lunar mission as part of President Donald Trump's commitment to maintaining America's leading status in space exploration.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Scanship Holding ASA through its subsidiary Scanship AS, has been awarded contracts by the Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri for the supply of total clean ship system for the Norwegian Cruise Line new generation newbuilds. The first newbuild will arrive in 2022 with three more coming in 2023, 2024, and 2025. Norwegian Cruise Line has the option to order two more for delivery in 2026 and 2027.

The Scanship contracts includes delivery of systems for food waste processing, garbage handling, advanced wastewater purification and bio-residue treatment. The advanced wastewater systems to be installed, processing all black water and grey water from accommodation, laundry, galley and foodwaste will be designed according to the new standard in the Baltic Sea with nutrient removal.

"In our efforts to keep our oceans clean, we are thrilled to work with Fincantieri on this new class of ships for Norwegian Cruise Line. These ships will be meeting highest environmental standards worldwide", says CEO Henrik Badin.
Los Angeles, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Six children. This number sounds like a lot to most people, but not to Clayda Nicholas, a Southern California resource or foster parent for Hillsides, a childrens charity headquartered in Los Angeles.

Six is the number of nieces and nephews she took care of when her brother was in the military and her sister-in-law sidelined with cancer. And six is the number of children in foster care she filled her house with after her nieces and nephews returned to their parents.

When my brothers kids left, I was melancholy, she recalled. I had a big house with seven bedrooms, but it was empty.

Her mother, a social worker, suggested she become a resource parent and referred her to Bienvenidos, an affiliate of Hillsides. Naturally I had a few concerns, but the staff there made me feel at ease, said Nicholas.

After six months of training, she became a licensed resource parent. Soon afterwards, she received a call from Bienvenidos Foster Care and Adoptions social worker Sandra Zuniga. Zuniga started the conversation hesitantly, saying in a tentative voice, I know you just got out of training and its a lot to ask, but I have a set of siblings, and there are six of them The childrens ages ranged from 9 to 16, and they needed a place to live.

Without hesitation, Nicholas said yes, she would take the children. She quickly went to work, transforming her house from boy-centric (her brother had five boys and one girl) to girl-oriented (the new family had five girls and one boy). Within days, the children moved in. Used to sharing one room, they were thrilled to each have their own bedroom, and the six quickly settled in to their new home. I was blessed by them  they were so sweet, said Nicholas.

Three months later, their grandmother gained custody of them. While Nicholas felt a stab of pain at losing them, she was also happy they were going to a good home.

She didnt have long to dwell on her feelings, however. A day or two later, Bienvenidos sent four siblings and a set of twins to live with her. They wound up staying a few months, before being replaced with another six children in need of a loving home.

Currently Nicholas house is filled with five children (one was just placed so she will soon be getting a sixth), two of whom are siblings sets. She never turns down siblings because she understands the value of being with those you love. You already have had the loss of your house and your parents, so its important to be with those you are related to, she said. Siblings need to be kept together.

Over the two years shes been a resource parent, she has helped raise some 25 children. She sees herself as a second mom. When new children come into her home, she tells them, I dont know how long you will be here and we may not know much about each other, but lets take it as a learning experience and make the best of it. She explains to children that just like in their previous homes, there are rules  she expects them to do chores, go to school, and keep up good grades. Usually kids are shy and standoffish at first. However Nicholas self-described big, maternal heart wins them over.

Nicholas believes that many people have the wrong idea about being a foster parent. People see it as a job, but its much more than that. These are children who need you to be their parent. Its not a job, its about providing a child with a home and the same care you would give your own children, she said.

Nicholas says one of the most rewarding aspects of being a resource parent is maintaining relationships with the children after they leave. She spent last Mothers Day with the original six siblings she fostered, and another youth who lived with her for six months spends the holidays with her. It gives me such an immense extended family, she said.

Since becoming a resource parent, Nicholas has moved from the six-bedroom house to smaller one with four bedrooms. Despite the downsizing, one key element remains the same. The house can still easily accommodate that magic number of children she likes in her life  six.

About Hillsides:

Hillsides, with its affiliate Bienvenidos, is dedicated to healing children and young adults, strengthening families, and transforming communities through quality comprehensive services and advocacy. Headquartered in Los Angeles, the agency serves 14,000 children and families in Southern California throughout more than 40 sites, including school-based mental health offices in Los Angeles, Pasadena, and Baldwin Park. Foster care and adoptions services are offered in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties. To learn more about Hillsides, please visit www.Hillsides.org. Visit Hillsides on Facebook @hillsideschildren, on Twitter @Hillsides, or on Instagram @HillsidesPasadena. To donate to Hillsides over the holidays and help other children experience a happy holiday, please visit http://bit.ly/hillsidesholidaygiving.

###

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/42720320-d510-4212-a401-f770d24bee1d

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/2a11afcd-0581-405e-85f1-3ef824fde75f
LAFAYETTE, La., Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PetroQuest Energy, Inc. (NYSE:PQ) announced today its entry into an oil focused play in central Louisiana targeting the Austin Chalk formation through the execution of agreements to acquire interests in approximately 24,600 gross acres. The leasehold acquisition costs were funded by $8.75 million in proceeds from the sale of certain of the Companys water disposal assets in East Texas, approximately $6 million of cash on hand and the issuance of 2 million shares of the Companys common stock. The Company plans to drill its initial horizontal test well during the second quarter of 2018 utilizing data from existing vertical and unfracked horizontal wells in the area and from fracked horizontal wells that are expected to be drilled in the area.



Through geologic and reservoir studies and analysis of results comparing fracked and unfracked horizontal Austin Chalk wells in both Texas and now in central Louisiana, the Company believes that applying modern hydraulic fracturing methods to this formation provides the opportunity to achieve a substantial uplift in recoveries versus vintage unfracked horizontal wells. Based on a comparative analysis between 22 fracked and hundreds of unfracked Austin Chalk wells drilled in Karnes County, Texas, fracked horizontal wells achieved an approximate 500% increase in resource recoveries as compared to unfracked horizontal wells. The average per well recovery for these fracked wells was in excess of 600,000 barrels of oil equivalent.

This acreage position is expected to provide PetroQuest the opportunity to utilize its expertise gained from operating and/or participating in over 600 horizontal wells in multiple resource projects. Since selling its Woodford shale assets in 2015, the Company has shifted its focus to a horizontal Cotton Valley program in East Texas that is estimated to have over 800 horizontal locations. The emerging Austin Chalk play is expected to complement the Companys growing East Texas operations, and could serve as the catalyst to achieve a balanced commodity mix over the ensuing years through a project that is expected to offer years of inventory.

Managements Comment

We are excited to have an early, first mover position in this emerging oil play right in our backyard at a very attractive cost, said Charles T. Goodson, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President. Based on recent well results in the area of our acreage, as well as in South Texas, the application of contemporary horizontal drilling and fracking is showing a material impact on resource recovery from the Austin Chalk formation, which has produced over 1.3 billion barrels of oil since 1902. Our acreage position is expected to provide us with a capital allocation option to grow our oil production, which should complement our gas-weighted Cotton Valley assets in terms of diversifying our future production mix and cash flow. These assets are ideally located with available takeaway options close to the gulf coast refineries and rapidly expanding options for NGLs and associated natural gas that fit with our strategy to focus on assets near these key markets.

About the Company

PetroQuest Energy, Inc. is an independent energy company engaged in the exploration, development, acquisition and production of oil and natural gas reserves in the Texas, Louisiana and the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico. PetroQuests common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker PQ.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this news release are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, these statements are based upon assumptions and anticipated results that are subject to numerous uncertainties and risks. Actual results may vary significantly from those anticipated due to many factors, including the volatility of oil and natural gas prices and significantly depressed oil prices since the end of 2014; our indebtedness and the significant amount of cash required to service our indebtedness; our estimate of the sufficiency of our existing capital sources, including availability under our multi-draw term loan facility; our ability to post additional collateral to satisfy our offshore decommissioning obligations; our ability to fund and execute our Cotton Valley and Austin Chalk development programs as planned; our ability to increase recoveries in the Austin Chalk formation and to increase our overall oil production as planned; our estimates with respect to fracked Austin Chalk wells in Louisiana, including production EURs and costs; our ability to hedge future production to reduce our exposure to price volatility in the current commodity pricing market; our ability to find, develop and produce oil and natural gas reserves that are economically recoverable and to replace reserves and sustain and/or increase production; ceiling test write-downs resulting, and that could result in the future, from lower oil and natural gas prices; our ability to raise additional capital to fund cash requirements for future operations; limits on our growth and our ability to finance our operations, fund our capital needs and respond to changing conditions imposed by our multi-draw term loan facility and restrictive debt covenants; more than 50% of our production being exposed to the additional risk of severe weather, including hurricanes, tropical storms and flooding, and natural disasters; losses and liabilities from uninsured or underinsured drilling and operating activities; changes in laws and governmental regulations as they relate to our operations; the operating hazards attendant to the oil and gas business; the volatility of our stock price; and our ability to meet the continued listing standards of the New York Stock Exchange with respect to our common stock or to cure any deficiency with respect thereto. In particular, careful consideration should be given to cautionary statements made in the various reports the Company has filed with the SEC. The Company undertakes no duty to update or revise these forward-looking statements.
Washington, DC, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TCMA (A Drew Company), the group that manages the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center (RRB/ITC) has added the National Childrens Museum to the Reagan Buildings impressive roster of tenants. The Museum is expected to open March 2019 and will occupy approximately 33,000 square feet at the Reagan Building, taking over multiple spaces including the former restaurant, Aria. The lease term will span 10 years with options.

The National Childrens Museum, represented by Petch Gibbons, President of Summit Commercial Real Estate, will be a fitting addition to a thriving and energetic hub for business; international trade; and community-centric events, anchoring the Federal Triangle property and solidifying the Building as a landmark destination. With direct access from Woodrow Wilson Plaza and a private entrance, the Museum will offer a hands-on space for families, friends, educators and other visitors, with an emphasis on teaching science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM), reinforcing and expanding national education goals for children of all ages.

We were able to reposition multiple spaces to create this exciting opportunity for the National Childrens Museum, said Bill Jacobini, VP of Leasing for TCMA (A Drew Company). Its a great fit and offers so many synergies with our other offerings here at the Reagan Building.

The Reagan Building is a 3.1 million square foot, mixed-use property with nearly 250,000 square feet of office and retail space. National Childrens Museum is the newest tenant to sign on at the Reagan Building, another recent deal includes Bambini Play and Learn, leasing approximately 8,500 square feet, the child development center and Spanish Immersion Program is slated to open in January 2018. In addition to its newest tenants, the Reagan Building houses a rich mix of recognizable names such as SAP, Sandler Travis, AFLAC, Volkswagen America as well as smaller consulting firms and nonprofit organizations.

###

About Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center (RRB/ITC)

The Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center is a dynamic hub for government, commerce, culture and the community, in the heart of the nations capital. As the first and only federal building dedicated to both public and private use, the Reagan Building is the official World Trade Center Washington DC and features a premier conference and event center, executive office space, attractions, exhibits, retail, dining, parking and more. For more information, visit www.itcdc.com or follow us @ReaganITCDC.

TCMA (A Drew Company)

TCMA is the exclusive manager of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center (RRB/ITC). TCMAs team excels in delivering unparalleled service and expertise in Real-Estate Development, Leasing, Building Operations, Hospitality Services, and International Trade Promotion. For more information, please visit www.drewcompany.com.

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/25b6dbdf-ce9a-40ff-ad2c-2c5410e8cef9
A Baton Rouge man who pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in the 2015 killing of a Honduran immigrant during an armed robbery on Tracy Avenue is asking a state judge to reconsider the 30-year prison term he gave him.

Thirty years is the maximum sentence Karlos Jawoski Ghoram, 22, could have received from District Judge Beau Higginbotham for conspiracy to commit second-degree murder in the slaying of 22-year-old Oswal Migdonio Andrade.

Ghoram, who was indicted in 2016 on a second-degree murder count, pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge in July and was sentenced last month. He filed a motion to reconsider the sentence earlier this month.

+2 Two plead guilty in fatal 2015 shooting of Honduran immigrant in Baton Rouge Two of the three defendants accused in the fatal 2015 shooting of a Honduran immigrant during an armed robbery in Baton Rouge pleaded guilty M

"I have a 1-year old son that needs me. I am his only provider besides by mother," Ghoram says in the motion, noting that his mother is legally blind.

If Ghoram had been convicted of second-degree murder, he would have faced a mandatory term of life behind bars.

Devaughn Tyler, 18, and Lawrence Bennett, 19, both of Baton Rouge, also were indicted on second-degree murder charges.

Tyler pleaded guilty in July to conspiracy to commit armed robbery and was sentenced to 10 years in prison by Higginbotham.

+2 Three Baton Rouge defendants charged in December shooting during alleged robbery A Baton Rouge man and two teenagers were indicted Thursday on second-degree murder counts in the December shooting death of a 22-year-old Hond

The judge last month found Bennett incompetent to proceed, saying he currently lacks the mental capacity to understand the proceedings against him and assist in his defense.

Higginbotham ordered Bennett sent to the state mental hospital in Jackson and ordered officials there to inform him when Bennett "has obtained maximum benefit from competency restoration services and is able to comprehend the proceedings against him and to assist in his defense."

If the state hospital determines Bennett will not attain the capacity to proceed with his trial in the foreseeable future, the judge wrote that he would conduct a hearing to determine whether Bennett "is, and will in the foreseeable future be, incapable of standing trial and whether he is a danger to himself or others."

Andrade moved to the United States from Honduras about 15 years ago and worked as a roofer, family members have said.

He was fatally shot at about 11:10 p.m. on Dec. 9, 2015, in the 9000 block of Tracy Avenue.

No court date has been set for Higginbotham to take up Ghoram's request for a new sentence.
DENVER, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sandspring Resources Ltd. (Sandspring or the Company) (TSX-V:SSP) (OTCQX:SSPXF) is pleased to announce an amendment to the precious metals purchase agreement (the PMPA) with Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (TSX:WPM) (NYSE:WPM) (Wheaton) extending the due date of a final feasibility study for the Companys Toroparu Mine in Guyana S.A. (the Toroparu Project) from December 31, 2017 to December 31, 2018.



Under the PMPA, Wheaton has committed a total of US$153.5 Million to the Toroparu Project and USD$15.5 Million has been advanced to Sandspring for feasibility work in 2014 and 2015. Payment of the balance of the US$153.5 Million is subject to Wheatons election to proceed after receipt of the final feasibility study for the Toroparu Project. The balance will be released in installments during construction of the Toroparu Project after all necessary mining licenses and project capital finance have been obtained and other customary conditions are satisfied.

Wheaton and Sandspring entered into the PMPA in 2013 after Sandspring completed its project Prefeasibility Study.1 The Prefeasibility Study estimated average annual gold production of ~228,000 oz from a 4.1 Moz proven and probable gold reserves over a 16-year mine life; US$1.25 Billion of Free Cash Flow at a US $1,400/oz gold price; $893 Million Free Cash Flow at a US $1,260/oz gold price; and a US $501 Million pre-fresh rock production capital expense.

Rich Munson, CEO, stated: We began discussing an extension of the final feasibility study due date with Wheaton after initial work with SRK Consulting (Denver) indicated incorporation of the maiden resource for the Sona Hill deposit announced in 2017 could lead to positive changes to the Prefeasibility Study mine plan. Based on this work and the encouraging results from the Wynamu Hill discovery, we asked for the further extension of the due date for the final feasibility study to allow us to complete the 2017  2018 exploration program announced in September 2017 targeting near surface saprolite and fresh rock gold mineralization that could further enhance the Toroparu Project economics. 2

Sandspring commenced operations in early November 2017 on the 2017  2018 exploration program which consists of a drilling program of 12,000-15,000 meters in the Sona Hill and Wynamu Hill areas and a surface geochemistry program in the Otomung area. The drilling program utilizes two drill rigs and is being done in two phases.

Phase 1 of the program (~6,000 m of drilling) concluded on 14 December 2017. The drilling consisted of step-out drilling to the west (Sona W) of the Sona Hill Resource Area and exploration targets to the northwest and southeast (Sona NW, Sona SSE) of the Sona Hill Resource Area, and infill drilling at Wynamu Hill. Initial assay results are being collected.

Additionally, the surface exploration team conducted additional ground geochemical surveys across the Otomung concession during Phase 1 of the program and the geologic team is awaiting the assay results.

Phase 2 of the program will focus on infill drilling of the Phase 1 program areas after the geologic team has evaluated the results of Phase 1 and infill drilling within the constrained resource pit at Sona Hill. It is anticipated that Phase 2 of the program will commence in early January of 2018 and conclude in March of 2018.

The Company further announces that, subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange, it has agreed to settle $432,852 in outstanding indebtedness through the issuance of an aggregate of 1,236,718 units at a price of $ 0.35 per unit. Each unit will consist of one common share and one share purchase warrant entitling the holder to acquire one additional common share at a price of $0.50 for a period of five years. The Company is issuing shares for debt to preserve capital from the recent financing. The shares issued under the debt settlement will be subject to a hold period of four months and one day from the date of issuance.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Richard A. Munson, Chief Executive Officer

Sandspring Resources Ltd.

(720) 991-5683 or via email at info@sandspringresources.com

About Sandspring Resources Ltd.

Sandspring Resources Ltd. is a Canadian junior mining company currently moving toward a definitive feasibility study for the multi-million ounce Toroparu Project in the Guyana, South America. Additional information is available at www.sandspringresources.com or by email at info@sandspringresources.com.

Contact Sandspring Resources

Richard A Munson

Chief Executive Officer

Tel: (720) 991-5683 or via email at info@sandspringresources.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-looking Statements

This news release contains certain forward-looking information and statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. The use of any of the words potential, suggesting, indicating, will, plans and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking information and/or statements. Forward-looking statements and/or information are based on a number of material factors, expectations and/or assumptions that Sandspring has used to develop such statements and/or information, but which may prove to be incorrect. Although Sandspring believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements and/or information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements since Sandspring can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Such information and/or statements, including the assumptions made in respect thereof, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results and/or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information and/or statements including, without limitation: the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development; risks associated with the uncertainty of exploration results and estimates; results from drilling and exploration activities and Sandsprings ability to identify additional gold mineralization; Sandsprings ability to successfully advance the Toroparu Gold Project toward feasibility; Sandsprings future plans; the availability of financing and/or cash flow to fund current and future plans and expenditures; the impact of increasing competition; fluctuating commodity prices; the general stability of applicable economic and political environments; the general continuance of current industry conditions; uncertainty regarding the market price for gold, silver and copper; uncertainty of conducting operations under a foreign regime; uncertainty of obtaining all applicable regulatory approvals and related timing matters; Sandsprings dependence on management personnel; and/or certain other risks detailed from time-to-time in Sandsprings public disclosure documents. Furthermore, the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as at the date of this news release and the Company does not undertake any obligations to publicly update and/or revise any of the included forward-looking statements, whether as a result of additional information, future events and/or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable securities laws.

1 See NI 43101 Technical Report, Prefeasibility Study, Toroparu Gold Project, Upper Puruni River Area, Guyana; Effective Date: May 8, 2013, Report Date: May 24, 2013 prepared by SRK Consulting (USA) (the Prefeasibility Study)

2 See Sandspring Press releases dated February 23, 2017, February 13, 2017, and September 18, 2017








Ochsner, which owns, manages or is affiliated with 29 hospitals in Louisiana, has tentatively agreed to take over day-to-day oversight of state-owned safety-net hospitals in north Louisiana
The Industrial Tax Exemption Program (ITEP) has been hotly debated lately. As a 15-year veteran of Louisiana economic development policy, I wa
The Louisiana Supreme Court announced Thursday it will appoint an ad hoc judge to decide whether the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court be
A New Orleans police officer who lost his job for firing his gun at a suspect eight years ago  but won it back on appeal  shot and wounded a
Not for distribution to U.S. Newswire Services or for dissemination in the United States. Any failure to comply with this restriction may constitute a violation of U.S. Securities laws.

SAN FRANCISCO and TEL AVIV, Israel, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kalytera Therapeutics, Inc. (TSX-V:KALY) (OTCQB:KALTF) (the Company or Kalytera) is pleased to announce the closing of its previously announced brokered private placement offering (the Offering) of CDN$5,750,000 aggregate principal amount of convertible debenture units at a price of CDN$1,000 per convertible debenture unit, which includes the full exercise by the Echelon Wealth Partners Inc. (Echelon) of its option to sell an additional 750 convertible debenture units. Echelon acted as agent for and on behalf of the Company in connection with the Offering. The net proceeds of the Offering will be used by the Company to advance its Phase 2 clinical program evaluating the use of cannibidiol in the prevention of graft versus host disease, as well as for general corporate purposes. Completion of the Companys Phase 2 program will be required by the FDA prior to the initiation of a pivotal Phase 3 study. The Company anticipates that the Phase 2 program will be completed during the second half of 2018, following which the Company will initiate the Phase 3 study as quickly as possible.

All securities issued in connection with the Offering are subject to a hold period expiring on April 21, 2018 in accordance with applicable Canadian securities laws.

Pursuant to the Offering, the Company issued a total of CDN$5,750,000 of 9.0% senior secured convertible debentures (the Convertible Debentures) and 22,114,500 common share purchase warrants (the Warrants). The Debentures are convertible at the option of the holder into common shares of the Company (the Common Shares) at any time prior to the close of business on December 20, 2019 (the Maturity Date) at a conversion price of CDN$0.13 per Common Share (the Conversion Price). Beginning on April 21, 2018, the Company may force the conversion of all of the principal amount of the then outstanding Convertible Debentures at the Conversion Price on 30 days prior written notice should the daily volume weighted average trading price of the Common Shares be greater than CDN$0.75 for any 10 consecutive trading days.

Each Warrant will be exercisable to acquire one Common Share (a Warrant Share) at an exercise price of CDN$0.13 per Warrant Share until December 20, 2019, subject to customary adjustments in certain events and provided that if at any time following April 21, 2018 the daily volume weighted average trading price of the Common Shares equals or exceeds CDN$1.00 for any 10 consecutive trading days, the Company may, on prior written notice, accelerate the expiry date of the Warrants to the date that is 30 days following the date of such notice. Any unexercised Warrants shall thereafter automatically expire.

The Convertible Debentures and the Warrants comprising the convertible debenture units and any Common Shares issuable upon conversion or exercise thereof, as applicable, are subject to a statutory hold period until April 21, 2018.

We are delighted to announce the closing of this offering with Echelon and we look forward to advancing Kalyteras program in using cannabidiol in the prevention of graft versus host disease, said Robert Farrell, Kalyteras Chief Executive Officer.

On closing of the Offering, Echelon was paid a commission comprised of a cash fee in the amount of CDN$460,000 and was issued an aggregate of 3,538,462 agent warrants. Each agent warrant is exercisable for Common Shares at a price of CDN$0.13 until December 20, 2019. Echelon also received a work fee of CDN$50,000.

The securities offered have not been, and will not be, registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the U.S. Securities Act) or any U.S. state securities laws, and were not offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, United States persons absent registration or any applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable U.S. state securities laws. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities in the United States, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

About Kalytera Therapeutics

Kalytera Therapeutics, Inc. (Kalytera) is pioneering the development of a next generation of cannabinoid therapeutics. Through its proven leadership, drug development expertise, and intellectual property portfolio, Kalytera seeks to establish a leading position in the development of novel cannabinoid medicines for a range of important unmet medical needs.

Kalytera is focused first on developing a new class of proprietary cannabidiol (CBD) therapeutics. CBD is a versatile compound that has shown activity against a number of pharmacological targets. However, there are limitations associated with natural CBD, including its poor oral bioavailability. Kalytera is developing innovative CBD formulations and prodrugs in an effort to overcome these limitations, and to target specific disease sites within the body. Kalytera intends to file composition of matter and method of use patents covering its novel inventions, with the goal of limiting future competition.

Website Home: https://kalytera.co/

News and Insights: https:// kalytera.co/news/

Investors: https:// kalytera.co/investors/

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Company Contact

Robert Farrell

President and CEO

Phone: (888) 861-2008

Email: info@kalytera.co

Cautionary Statements

This press release may contain certain forward-looking information and statements (forward-looking information) within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation, that are not based on historical fact, including without limitation statements relating to the completion of the Offering and associated transactions and statements containing the words believes, anticipates, plans, intends, will, should, expects, continue, estimate, forecasts and other similar expressions. Readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by these statements (including failure to obtain the required approvals or clearances from regulatory authorities) Kalytera undertakes no obligation to comment on analyses, expectations or statements made by third-parties, its securities, or financial or operating results (as applicable). Although Kalytera believes that the expectations reflected in forward-looking information in this press release are reasonable, such forward-looking information has been based on expectations, factors and assumptions concerning future events which may prove to be inaccurate and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond Kalyteras control. The forward-looking information contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement and are made as of the date hereof. Kalytera disclaims any intention and has no obligation or responsibility, except as required by law, to update or revise any forwardlooking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.




ACT Attorney-General Gordon Ramsay says a national redress scheme to help victims of institutional child sexual abuse should not exclude survivors who have spent time in jail for serious crimes.

Under the draft laws introduced into the federal parliament in October, victims would be paid up to $150,000, given access to counselling and entitled to an apology from the institution where they were abused.

ACT Attorney-General Gordon Ramsay. Credit:Jamila Toderas

But the redress scheme excludes anyone convicted of sex offences, or sentenced to prison terms of five years or more for crimes such as serious drug, homicide or fraud offences.

Mr Ramsay said the federal legislation was a "good start" but the ACT were "continuing to negotiate" with other jurisdictions over the details.
A Canberra man accused of importing more than 350 kilograms of ecstasy, stashed in buckets of chlorine and bound for a Fyshwick pool supplies company, is set to fight the charges.

Tamim Jamaal Nozhat, 23, was arrested months after border force authorities in Sydney allegedly spotted "anomalies" in an air cargo consignment of pool cleaner from Hamburg in Germany that was headed to the ACT in May.

Tamim Nozhat, 23, pleaded not guilty to importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug.

Mr Nozhat, of Crace, is behind bars charged with importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug after he was arrested at a Lawson construction site and refused bail in the ACT Magistrates Court earlier this month.

Police allege eight cardboard boxes authorities seized contained 144 buckets marked as chlorine.
A man who killed a Canberra university student while he was driving a stolen car more than a decade ago has been denied bail as he awaits trial accused of breaking a guard's back and cracking his skull in a prison bashing.

The man, 27, who cannot be named, will remain behind bars after an ACT Supreme Court judge found he posed an "unacceptable risk" to the community and should not be released to attend a drug rehabilitation program.

The man is accused of bashing prison guards at the Alexander Maconochie Centre. Credit:Jay Cronan

He pleaded not guilty to threat to kill, recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm, strangulation, and assault occasioning actual bodily harm over the alleged attack at the Alexander Maconochie Centre in January.

The man was 15 when he struck and killed Clea Rose in a stolen car during a police pursuit in 2005.
Look out firefighters of Canberra - there's a new male calendar in town and it stars the staff of one of our most famous nightspots.

Thirteen security guards from iconic pub and nightclub Mooseheads have banded together to feature in a new calendar for 2018, with all proceeds going to Civic weekend support service Canberra Nightcrew.

Mooseheads head of security Tim Barnes. Credit:Ben Develin / Mude Agency

There's Mr April, Blake, the newest member of the security guard team, Mr June is Jake, who keeps an eye on the pool table in the pub area, and head of security Tim Barnes, a Mooseheads staple for almost a decade but who's been the boss of the security team for about seven years.

Mooseheads marketing and events manager Ryan Dyson said the idea for the calendar was born a week ago after a Facebook post, featuring a mock-up of a fake security guard calendar, went viral.
Police have taken a man into custody peacefully after his protest led to the closure of parts of Anzac Parade and Parkes Way on Wednesday afternoon, causing widespread traffic delays in the area.

Road closures were in place for a number of hours, but have since been lifted.

Police are asking people to avoid the area.

The man was taken into custody about 2.30pm.

Police had been negotiating with the lone protester, who had been at the site since about noon.
The woman accused of causing Tuesday's horrific Kings Highway crash was denied bail in Queanbeyan Local Court on Wednesday.

Katrina West, 39, from Batemans Bay had three charges of dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm brought against her by NSW Police.

The scene of the crash on the Kings Highway on Tuesday afternoon. Credit:NSW Police

Prosecutor Danielle Byrne told the court West admitted to police in a recorded interview that she had injected ice on Monday evening and Tuesday morning before then driving from Batemans Bay to the ACT.

West was due in the ACT Magistrate's Court for a charge of driving with methamphetamine in her oral fluid.
After conducting an international and domestic executive search the Australian Agricultural Company has found its next chief executive close to home, announcing on Wednesday that a former Westpac executive would be its next chief executive officer.

Announcing the appointment of Hugh Killen as AACos next CEO, company chairman Donald McGauchie praised Mr Killen, saying he was the best candidate for the role and the right person to lead the company.

AACo has announced that Hugh Killen, pictured, will be its next CEO. Credit:Robert Shakespeare.

Mr Killen, whose most recent executive role was as the head of fixed income, currency and commodities for Westpac, will start the role at the beginning of February and be paid fixed remuneration per year of $600,000, before any bonus or incentive rewards.

We have no doubt that we have the right person to be our chief executive officer, Mr McGauchie said.
Technology isn't big on the Australian sharemarket, but it has provided investors with a stock that has soared 1,226 per cent this year.

Big Un, which uses its software to make promotional videos for restaurants, salons and other small businesses at lower costs, is the top performer this year among the almost 700 companies in Australia whose shares fetch at least $1 apiece.

A penny stock until June, Sydney-based Big Un is trading at more than $3 per share and is worth about $450 million.

It's hard to pinpoint what changed Big Un's fortunes, but it's been raising sales projections regularly.
TORONTO, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alexandria Minerals Corporation (TSX-V:AZX) (OTCQB:ALXDF) (Frankfurt:A9D) (AZX or the Company) announced today that, at a meeting of its Board of Directors held on December 19, 2017, the mandate of a Special Committee of the Board was finalized. The Special Committee, which was formed on December 15, 2017, is comprised of Walter Henry, Chair, Priya Patil and Gary OConnor. The Special Committee has been tasked with examining strategic alternatives for the Company which include evaluating and implementing financing alternatives, considering possible joint venture and other strategic transactions, and assessing potential merger and acquisition proposals.



Walter Henry, Chairman of the Special Committee, said, There is a fair amount of speculation about the Company at the present time and we are expecting geological updates within the next 60 days. This is an opportune time for us to start an open and transparent process to determine how we, as a board, can best be responsive to shareholder expectations, and to choose the best path for the Company moving forward.

There is no defined timeline for the strategic review. The review of strategic alternatives may result in a variety of outcomes or no outcome and there can be no assurance that the Company will pursue or execute any specific action or transaction. The Company does not intend to make any further announcements or comments regarding the review of strategic alternatives unless required by law.

In other matters, Eric Owens, President and CEO, in his annual year-end review, stated, We have made tremendous progress this year finding gold, completing 45,000 metres of drilling and expanding our Orenada Zone 4 gold deposit. We expect even greater progress in 2018 as we complete our resource update and build on that with a larger planned 60,000 m drill program.

Further information about the Company is also available on the Companys website, www.azx.ca, or our social media sites listed below:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlexandriaMinerals

Twitter: https://twitter.com/azxmineralscorp

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/AlexandriaMinerals

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/alexandriaminerals/

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/alexandriaminerals

About Alexandria Minerals Corporation

Alexandria Minerals Corporation is a Toronto-based junior gold exploration and development company with strategic properties located in the world-class mining districts of Val dOr, Quebec, Red Lake, Ontario and Snow Lake-Flin Flon, Manitoba. Alexandrias focus is on its flagship property, the large Cadillac Break Property package in Val dOr, which hosts important, near-surface, gold resources along the prolific, gold-producing Cadillac Break, all of which have significant growth potential.

WARNING: This News Release may contain forward-looking statements including but not limited to comments regarding the timing and content of up-coming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles, potential mineral recovery processes, etc. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. Alexandria Minerals Corporation relies upon litigation protection for forward-looking statements. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

PLEASE CONTACT

www.azx.ca

info@azx.ca Mary Vorvis

Vice President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations

(416) 305-4999 Eric Owens

CEO/President

(416) 362-9100




The trend towards digital continues, with the majority of Australias top-read newspaper titles offsetting moderate declines in print readership with a surge in online interest.

The most-read newspaper in the country in the 12 months to October 2017 continued to be Fairfax Medias Sydney Morning Herald, the latest Enhanced Media Metrics Australia (EMMA) survey results show.

Fairfax Media's Sydney Morning Herald scored at the top of the EMMA list for readership.

Over the year, 5.42 million people picked up a copy of the paper or read the title digitally on any device.

While print readership was down by 60,000 year-on-year, the overall audience for the title fell by 15,000 on the EMMA measure.
On New Year's Day, a bold experiment in Australian university policy will end. It began six years ago, when the national government lifted most controls on undergraduate student numbers, triggering an enrolment boom and today's highly competitive student market. But from January 1, 2018, this demand-driven system will be no more. Regardless of how many students they enrol, each university will be paid no more than their 2017 funding level.

Critically, this change does not need Senate approval. The government has hit an already-legislated fiscal panic button that lets it freeze demand-driven funding for bachelor degree student places. With some additional cuts to postgraduate places, the government estimates it will save $2.2 billion over the next four years.

Peter Costello (left, with Joe Hockey) in 2004. The former treasurer's "baby boom generation" could easily add 20,000 higher-education applicants in the early 2020s. Credit:Andrew Taylor

Universities are understandably upset about this blow to their finances. But freezing demand-driven funding damages the higher-education system in ways that go well beyond the consequences of universities having less money than they expected.

As its name suggests, demand-driven funding let universities meet student preferences. Previously, they had to work within a fixed government allocation of student places.
Australia's top public servant, Martin Parkinson, offered a useful criticism of parliamentarians this week, that applies as much to the Coalition as to Labor. Senate estimates hearings were losing their important place in our democracy, he suggested, because senators tended to try to nock up trivial "gotcha!" victories rather than do their job: scrutinise policies and spending.

"You understand why it's all about trying to embarrass the government of the day, but there are times when public servants sit there and think: 'We really don't need to be here, because we're simply bit players in this whole exercise and you're not actually interested in improving the quality of public administration,"' Dr Parkinson said.

One needn't look far for examples. Liberal senator Eric Abetz recently forced more than 80 senior bureaucrats to give him copies of their holiday wishes to staff. He said Australians had a right to know the extent of "the infiltration of a political-correctness agenda in the public service". (Incidentally, almost all the bureaucrats had wished their staff a "merry Christmas".)

Every few months, hundreds of public servants collect answers to other questions about how much money is spent on coffee machines, fruit, office plants and so on, in every government workplace in Australia.
By the time the Turnbull government is booted from office, the people who speak out on our behalf will be silenced. They will be unable to campaign on poverty, health or the Coalition's pathetic attitude to the environment.

The lifeblood has already drained from the Human Rights Commission. Gone are the days when its president would stand up for the dispossessed and the disadvantaged. For the Liberal government, that was just the beginning of undermining those who speak out. Now, Attorney-General George Brandis, chief architect of the "great silencing", is off to Britain. Lucky him.

Agents of foreign influence? A charity collector in Sydney. Credit:Andrew Quilty

If you are exercised because the United States government told the Centres for Disease Control not to use words like evidence-based and science-based, look a little closer to home for Australia's banned beliefs.

This lot are all over religious freedoms when it comes to gay marriage but not keen to defend the right to political beliefs and advocacy. The government is determined to mute the charities that challenge harmful policies and their effect on our bodies and land. I should be Christmassy and cheerful but this government isn't taking time off from its agenda of crushing criticism. The silencing bill, also known as the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Funding and Disclosure Reform) Bill 2017, was introduced on December 7.
Ocean's 8 shouldn't have to be a perfect film - Ocean's 11 certainly wasn't. Go back and watch it. It's cheesy; it's cliched and the acting - from Clooney and Pitt in particular - is average. Let's not even mention Ocean's 12 and 13. But none of it mattered. What mattered was that a group of good-looking, sweet-talking, movie star men were banding together and getting up to no good.

It's interesting that all-male casts don't have to be extraordinary, they can just be average. Because all-male casts aren't considered special, they're the generic default.

It's just a tad reminiscent of what happened late last year. You know that thing that set the backlash ball rolling in the first place: the first woman to run for President of the United States lost the election.

Hillary Clinton was far from perfect, but because she's a woman she was held to a higher standard than every other candidate. And in the end, even accounting for voter suppression, the college electoral vote and collusion with Russia, the American people sent a clear message: they'd rather have an unstable, unqualified, racist, sexual harassing narcissist in the top spot than a woman.

Similarly, women aren't yet allowed to make fun-loving, slightly pointless movies. If there's a female cast, it had better be super important and statement-making, like Wonder Woman; or Big Little Lies. It should tell us something about how strong women are, and how seriously we've fought against patriarchal constraints. If it is trying to be funny, it has to be the right type of funny - not Bridesmaids funny, where there's pooping and burping involved. And not Ghostbusters funny where the gags don't always land. No, it has to be expertly hilarious and shiny and perfect. You know, like Woody Allen's Wonder Wheel, or Louis CK's I Love you Daddy. Yeah, just exactly as funny and topical and brilliant as that.
By contrast, doctors routinely ask middle-aged men about their sexual function and are quick to offer prescriptions for Viagra, said Lauren Streicher, medical director of the Northwestern Medicine Center for Sexual Medicine and Menopause. "If every guy, on his 50th birthday, his penis shrivelled up and he was told he could never have sex again, he would not be told, 'That's just part of ageing'," Streicher said. Iona Harding had come to regard GSM, also known as vulvovaginal atrophy, as just that. For much of their marriage, she and her husband had a "normal, active sex life." But after menopause, sex became so painful that they eventually stopped trying. If every guy, on his 50th birthday, his penis shrivelled up and he was told he could never have sex again, he would not be told, 'That's just part of ageing'. "I talked openly about this with my gynaecologist every year," said Harding, 66, a human resources consultant. "There was never any discussion of any solution other than using estrogen cream, which wasn't enough. So we had resigned ourselves to this is how it's going to be."

It is perhaps no coincidence that the same generation who first benefited widely from the birth control pill in the 1960s are now demanding fresh solutions to keep enjoying sex. "The Pill was the first acknowlegment that you can have sex for pleasure and not just for reproduction, so it really is an extension of what we saw with the Pill," Streicher said. "These are the women who have the entitlement, who are saying 'Wait a minute, sex is supposed to be for pleasure and don't tell me that I don't get to have pleasure'." The push for a "pink Viagra" to increase desire highlighted women's growing demand for sexual equality. But the drug flibanserin, approved by the FDA in 2015, proved minimally effective. For years, the array of medical remedies has been limited. Over-the-counter lubricants ease friction but don't replenish vaginal tissue. Long-acting moisturizers help plump up tissue and increase lubrication, but sometimes not enough. Women are advised to "use it or lose it" - regular intercourse can keep the tissues more elastic - but not if it is too painful. Systemic hormone therapy that increases the estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone throughout the body can be effective, but if used over many years it carries health risks, and it is not always safe for cancer survivors.

Local estrogen creams, suppositories or rings are safer since the hormone stays in the vaginal area. But they can be messy, and despite recent studies showing such therapy is not associated with cancer, some women are uncomfortable with its long term use. In recent years, two prescription drugs have expanded the array of options. Ospemifene, a daily oral tablet approved by the FDA in 2013, activates specific estrogen receptors in the vagina. Side effects include mild hot flashes in a small percentage of women. Prasterone DHEA, a naturally occurring steroid that the FDA approved last year, is a daily vaginal insert that prompts a woman's body to produce its own estrogen and testosterone. However, it is not clear how safe it is to use long term. And then there is fractional carbon dioxide laser therapy, developed in Italy and approved by the FDA in 2014 for use in the U.S. Similar to treatments long performed on the face, it uses lasers to make micro-abrasions in the vaginal wall, which stimulate growth of new blood vessels and collagen. The treatment is nearly painless and takes about five minutes; it is repeated two more times at 6-week intervals. For many patients, the vaginal tissues almost immediately become thicker, more elastic, and more lubricated.

Harding began using it in 2016, and after three treatments with MonaLisa Touch, the fractional CO2 laser device that has been most extensively studied, she and her husband were able to have intercourse for the first time in years. Cheryl Edwards, 61, a teacher and writer in Pennington, New Jersey, started using estrogen in her early 50s, but sex with her husband was painful and she was plagued by urinary tract infections requiring antibiotics, along with severe dryness. After her first treatment with MonaLisa Touch a year and a half ago, the difference was stark. "I couldn't believe it...and with each treatment it got better," she said. "It was like I was in my 20s or 30s." While studies on MonaLisa Touch have so far been small, doctors who use it range from cautiously optimistic to heartily enthusiastic. "I've been kind of blown away by it," said Streicher, who, along with Millheiser, is participating in a larger study comparing it to topical estrogen. Using MonaLisa Touch alone or in combination with other therapies, she said, "I have not had anyone who's come in and I've not had them able to have sex."

Cheryl Iglesia, director of Female Pelvic Medicine & Reconstructive Surgery at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington D.C., was more guarded. While she has treated hundreds of women with MonaLisa Touch and is also participating in the larger study, she noted that studies so far have looked only at short-term effects, and less is known about using it for years or decades. "What we don't know is: is there a point at which the tissue is so thin that the treatment could be damaging it?" she said. "Is there priming needed?" Millheiser echoed those concerns, saying she supports trying local vaginal estrogen first. Some women continue to use local estrogen or lubricants to complement the laser. But unlike hormones, which are less effective if begun many years after menopause, the laser seems to do the trick at any age. Streicher described a patient in her 80s who had been widowed since her 60s and had recently begun seeing a man. It had been 20 years since she was intimate with a man, Streicher said. "She came in and said, 'I want to have sex.'" After combining MonaLisa Touch with dilators to gradually re-enlarge her vagina, the woman reported successful intercourse. "Not everything is reversible after a long time," Streicher said. "This is."

But Iglesia said she has seen a range of responses, from patients who report vast improvement to others who see little effect. "I'm confident that in the next few years we will have better guidelines (but) at this point I'm afraid there is more marketing than there is science for us to guide patients," she said. "Nobody wants sandpaper sex; it hurts. But at the same time, is this going to help?" The laser therapy can also help younger women who have undergone early menopause due to cancer treatment, including the 250,000 a year diagnosed with breast cancer. Many cannot safely use hormones, and often they feel uncomfortable bringing up sexual concerns with doctors who are trying to save their lives. "If you're a 40-year-old and you get cancer, your vagina might look like it's 70 and feel like it's 70," said Maria Sophocles, founding medical director of Women's Healthcare of Princeton, who treated Edwards and Harding. After performing the procedure on cancer survivors, she said, "Tears are rolling down from their eyes because they haven't had sex in eight years and you're restoring their femininity to them."

The procedure also alleviates menopause-related symptoms in other parts of the pelvic floor, including the bladder, urinary tract, and urethra, reducing infections and incontinence. Ardella House, a 67-year-old homemaker outside Denver, suffered from incontinence and recurring bladder infections as well as painful sex. After getting the MonaLisa Touch treatment last year, she became a prostheletizer. "It was so successful that I started telling all my friends, and sure enough, it was something that was a problem for all of them but they didn't talk about it either," she said. Loading "I always used to think, you reach a certain age and you're not as into sex as you were in your younger years. But that's not the case, because if it's enjoyable, you like to do it just as much as when you were younger."
The Tax Office will be allowed to roll out hot-desking after winning a fight over the controversial workplace trend at the industrial umpire.

A stoush between unions and the Australian Taxation Office went to the Fair Work Commission, which heard arguments the agency was prohibited from adopting hot-desking for non-fieldwork staff by its new industrial deal.

Hot desking is a trend in workplaces but is despised by some private sector staff. Credit:Louise Kennerley

In a decision on Wednesday, Fair Work found the agreement let the ATO move all of its public servants into hot-desking, an office set-up whereby staff find new desks each day and pack up their belongings before finishing.

But the Tax Office, which wants to adopt hot-desking at its new Gosford office and has trialled it at Docklands, said it had no plans to roll it out in all workplaces.
The federal opposition has questioned Australia's most senior public servant over comments about scrutiny from budget estimates hearings, suggesting Martin Parkinson should make himself available to Labor and crossbench senators.

The Prime Minister and Cabinet boss used an interview with Fairfax Media this week to argue public servants are sometimes left feeling like bit players in parliamentary hearings, suggesting they can become a political exercise to embarrass governments with "gotcha" moments.

Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Martin Parkinson. Credit:Rohan Thomson

In a wide ranging interview, Dr Parkinson said regular estimates hearings held an important role for scrutiny of government but could also descend into political point scoring.
The state's top prosecutor, Mark Tedeschi, QC, has announced he will step down in February after two decades in the role.

Mr Tedeschi, who was appointed Senior Crown Prosecutor in 1997 after 15 years as a Crown Prosecutor, helped put some of state's most notorious criminals behind bars, including serial killer Ivan Milat and Simon Gittany, who was convicted of throwing his fiancee off a high-rise balcony in Sydney.

Senior crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi, QC, outside court in Sydney in 2016. Credit:Anna Kucera

He was also the prosecutor in three murder trials of Robert Xie - which variously ended in a hung jury, illness of a judge, and the jury being discharged - before Xie was found guilty after a fourth trial.

The top prosecutor took an extended period of leave earlier this year and Christopher Maxwell, QC, took over while he was absent.
Lady Flo Bjelke-Petersen has died in her family's heartland of Kingaroy after a short illness.

In a statement, a Lutheran Services spokesman said Lady Flo died at 3.46pm on Wednesday at its Orana Aged Care Service, where she had lived since August 2014.

Lady Flo Bjelke-Petersen, pictured in 2013, died in Kingaroy on Wednesday. Credit:Harrison Saragossi

"She was surrounded by her family and loved ones including her sister Margaret Gilmour," he said.

"We safely entrust her into the hands of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES



VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- URZ Energy Corp. (TSX-V:URZ) (OTCQ:BURZZF) (URZ or the Company) is pleased to announce the closing of the non-brokered private placement (the Private Placement) announced on November 28, 2017. The Company has issued a total of 2,227,187 units of URZ (Units) at a price of $0.45 per Unit for gross proceeds of CAD$1,002,234.

Each Unit is comprised of one common share of the Company (a Share) and one-half of one non-transferable share purchase warrant (a Warrant). Each whole Warrant will entitle the holder thereto to purchase for a period of eighteen (18) months one additional Share (a Warrant Share) at an exercise price per Warrant Share of CAN$0.75 provided that in the event that the closing price of the Companys common shares on any stock exchange is CAD$1.10 or greater per common share during a 10 consecutive trading day period at any time after the Closing Date, the Warrants will expire, at the sole discretion of the Company, 30 days after the date on which the Company provides notice of such fact to the holders thereof. The Company paid a cash commission of $2,047.50 and issued 77,000 Units as finders fees.

The Private Placement is subject to certain conditions including, but not limited to, the receipt of all necessary approvals, including the final approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. All securities issuable pursuant to the Private Placement are subject to a four month hold period from the date of issuance in accordance with applicable Canadian securities laws.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the Private Placement towards the advancement of its Gas Hills Project and for working capital and general and administrative purposes.

This news release does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in the United States. The securities being offered have not been, nor will they be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and such securities may not be offered or sold within the United States absent U.S. registration or an applicable exemption from U.S. registration requirements.

About URZ Energy Corp.  URZ is a uranium exploration and development company that is primarily engaged in the evaluation, acquisition and development of prospective ISR uranium properties in the United States. The Company is led by an experienced management team including Glenn Catchpole as CEO. Mr. Catchpole is a licensed engineer with 39 years of uranium experience, including extensive work with Cameco Company on its Inkai Project in Kazakhstan. Additionally, Mr. Catchpole was the former CEO of Uranerz Energy Company (Uranerz) prior to its US$175 million acquisition by Energy Fuels Inc. in 2015. During his tenure, Uranerz successfully explored, permitted, built, and operated its Nichols Ranch ISR uranium project in Wyoming.

The Company owns uranium properties in the Gas Hills, Juniper Ridge, and Shirley Basin as well as uranium properties in Utah and Colorado.

Contact Information - For more information, please contact:

Glenn Catchpole, CEO and Director

Tel:1-307-421-7344

Email: gcatchpole@urzenergy.com

Website: www.urzenergy.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein.

ForwardLooking Statements

This news release contains forwardlooking statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in these forwardlooking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on them because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since forwardlooking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature, they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Additional information on these and other factors that could affect the Companys operations and financial results are included in reports on file with Canadian securities regulatory authorities and may be accessed through the SEDAR website (www.sedar.com).
How the new Apple store will look at Federation Square The Koorie Heritage Trust, which is based in the Yarra building, will be moved to a new site within Federation Square. Tourism Minister John Eren insisted the government offered no funding or other incentives to entice Apple to undertake the project. An artist's impression of the view from the new Apple store. The company will lease the building but the terms of that arrangement were not made public.

Mr Eren said the Yarra building needed commercial tenants to ensure the entire precinct was viable. How the new Apple store will look at Federation Square "It does need to generate some money through commercial ventures," he said. Mr Eren confirmed negotiations had been underway for about two years. Apple retail senior vice-president Angela Ahrendts said the company was thrilled to move forward with the plans and was honoured to "call the world-class galleries and museums of Melbourne our neighbours".

There are large Apple stores in suburban shopping centres across Melbourne as well as a shop selling Apple products directly opposite Federation Square. The government insisted the redevelopment would create 200 jobs. But Melbourne City councillor Rohan Leppert slammed the plans, accusing the government of failing to consult the public or councillors. "It has radically different architecture and converts cultural space to commercial space  but [planning minister] Richard Wynne has made that change to the planning scheme by exempting himself from the normal public participation requirements," Cr Leppert, a Greens member, told The Age. "The bottom line is that this is Melbourne's civic square and Melburnians deserved to have their say."

In response, a government spokesman said advice had been sought from Victorian government architect Jill Garner and Federation Square's original architect Donald Bates. "Mr Bates said the location was suitable for a commercial development and designed as such, and commercial and retail uses has always been part of its vision," he said. The architect himself said the Yarra building had not been particularly successful in its "various iterations". "I don't have a huge problem with it being replaced with something that would be more viable," Mr Bates said.

He also said it was appropriate that the new construction look substantially different from the Yarra building rather than mimicking the current "aesthetic". Ex-premier Ted Ballieu, who is also an architect, described the plan as a "bananas idea". He told radio station 3AW said it was "completely incongruous" with the square's existing buildings. "It could only be a financial solution to a financial problem," he said. Mr Baillieu said he did not have a problem with commercial activity in public places, including restaurants and cafes. But handing part of Federation Square over to Apple was going "way too far".

Federation Square and Apple were both powerful "brands" but only one could survive in the proposed arrangement, Mr Ballieu said. "I don't think Fed Square is going to have an easy time with Apple on top of it." Mr Baillieu said the deal would allow Apple to, in effect, "own the square in terms of the way the space is used". The Koorie Heritage Trust moved into the Yarra Building just two years ago. But its chief executive Tom Mosby said it was already outgrowing its current space and had been assured there would be a new, larger site within Federation Square.
Melbourne Express: Thursday, December 21, 2017

Were sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. Were working to restore it. Please try again later.

Dismiss
For people in the community doing it tough, Christmas can be a challenging time of year.

One in eight Australians live in poverty and many of these people turn to UnitingCare West (UCW) to put food on the table, buy gifts for their children and provide temporary accommodation over Christmas.

UnitingCare West is urging people to dig deep this year. Credit:Tanya Lake

UCW chief Amanda Hunt said during last year's appeal more than 850 gift packs and 1225 food hampers were distributed to families and individuals across Perth and the regions.

"This year we've seen a real spike in calls for assistance, so we're calling on the people of Perth to play their part in helping us prepare and deliver more than 1500 food hampers and at least 1000 gift packs for people of all ages," she said.
Turning and turning in tightening gyres, the sight of pink snapper spawning close to the surface off the coast of Perth has become a rare sight in recent years as the species' numbers dwindled.

But thanks to a raft of protective measures - many of them instituted by WA fishers - the species is thriving again and 'spiralling vortexes' of pink snapper have been seen churning the water off Cockburn and Warnbro Sound.

The sight of Pink Snapper spawning off Perth's coast has become rare in recent years - but its return is a welcome sign. Credit:David Allan-Petale

"As the snapper come together to spawn they begin to circle in the same direction close to the surface until they form a dense spiral of fish," Recfishwest said.

"The power of these fish is such that it creates a vortex in the centre of this aggregation. For many species of surface spawning fish, it is thought that this vortex assists the eggs in rising towards the surface more quickly than they would without the help of the vortex.
An Australian man who was fatally stabbed in Sweden managed to walk several hundred metres along a street before collapsing.

The 30-year-old was found in Odinsplatsen, a public space in the middle of the city of Gothenburg, at 4.50am on Wednesday morning, Swedish time.

He was suffering severe spinal and abdominal injuries and later died in hospital.

Police believe the assault may have taken place in Drottningtorget, closer to Gothenburg's central station, several hundred metres from where the man was found.
Berlin: German authorities unveiled a new memorial in Berlin on Tuesday, honouring the 12 people killed in the terrorist attack at a Christmas market last year, but their families and some survivors accused the government of failing to deport the attacker before he could strike and of a cold-hearted stance since the attack.

It was a year to the day that the attacker, Anis Amri, drove a stolen truck into the crowded square. Amri, who died in a shootout with the Italian police days after the attack, had been under scrutiny by German security agencies for months before, but repeated opportunities to deport him were missed.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel after the opening of a memorial site for terror victims in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday. Credit:Michael Sohn

Before the ceremony, Chancellor Angela Merkel joined members of the acting government, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and representatives from Berlin at a memorial service open only to survivors and the victims' families. Michael Muller, the city's mayor, dedicated the memorial in Breitscheid Square, where the attack took place.

Steinmeier offered an apology for the shortcomings of the German state and promised those present that their "complaints and warnings have not fallen on deaf ears."
Cardinal Bernard Law, right, kisses Pope Benedict XVI's hand in 2006. Credit:PLINIO LEPRI "While I would hope that it would be understood that I never intended to place a priest in a position where I felt he would be a risk to children," Cardinal Law said in an apology in November 2002, "the fact of the matter remains that I did assign priests who had committed sexual abuse." In the course of legal proceedings arising from the scandal, Cardinal Law was called to give depositions in several civil cases and, in February 2003, appeared before a criminal grand jury considering potential indictments of him and other high-ranking Boston-area prelates. Cardinal Bernard Law celebrates Mass in Rome, Italy, in 2004. Credit:DOMENICO STINELLIS Later that year, then-Massachusetts attorney general Thomas Reilly concluded that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute the Boston archdiocese or its leaders. But his office released a report on the matter, declaring that "the mistreatment of children was so massive and so prolonged that it borders on the unbelievable."

Although not bearing sole responsibility for the wrongdoing, Cardinal Law, the report found, "had direct knowledge of the scope, duration and severity of the crisis experienced by children in the Archdiocese; he participated directly in crucial decisions concerning the assignment of abusive priests, decisions that typically increased the risk to children." Among the most notorious offenders in the Boston area was Father John Geoghan. Church documents unearthed as the scandal was uncovered showed that Cardinal Law had known of accusations against Geoghan and still permitted the priest to continue his pastoral work. In all, Geoghan would be accused of abusing 150 children, mainly boys, over decades and in numerous parishes. Another priest, Peter Frost, was removed from active ministry in 1992 and later described himself in a letter to Cardinal Law as a "sex addict," also revealing that one of his victims had committed suicide. In later correspondence, Cardinal Law told Frost he hoped the priest would one day "return to an appropriate ministry, bringing with [him] the wisdom which emerges from difficult experience." Frost was ultimately removed from the clerical state. In a 2002 civil deposition related to the case of Paul Shanley, a priest who was later defrocked and then convicted in 2005 of child rape and other charges, Cardinal Law presented himself as a leader who had delegated many personnel matters to his subordinates.

He attributed the shroud of secrecy about abusive priests to concern for victims and their privacy. A victims' lawyer pressed him on the point, suggesting that "there have been other focuses, have there not, Cardinal Law?" "There have been and there are," he replied, according to an account in the Globe. "One of those has been to avoid scandal in the church?" the lawyer asked. "That's correct," Cardinal Law said. As reports mounted of coverups in dioceses around the world, some church leaders argued that they had been ignorant of the trauma of sexual abuse and that they had treated offending priests not as criminals, but as sinners deserving of mercy. That defense was insufficient for many victims and other critics, who charged that church officials - exemplified by Cardinal Law - had guarded their ranks at the expense of children.

"Many could read his career as a cautionary tale about the perils of power in the church," said Gibson, a national reporter for the Religion News Service and author of "The Coming Catholic Church" (2003). "He became a creature of and a victim of the clerical culture. ... There were bishops right, left and center who did the same things that he did." Cardinal Law stepped down as archbishop on Dec. 13, 2002, and later moved to Rome, where he served, until shortly before his 80th birthday, as archpriest of a basilica within the territory of Vatican City. His stature, achieved after years of ecclesiastical leadership, made his downfall particularly painful for the faithful who continued to love the church while recognizing that it had grievously erred. Bernard Francis Law was born on Nov. 4, 1931, in Torreon, Mexico. His father, a pilot, was Catholic; his mother was Presbyterian before converting to her husband's faith. As a youth, Cardinal Law made frequent moves with his parents, including to Colombia, Panama and the Virgin Islands. In St. Thomas, he was elected president of his mostly black senior class, according to a biographical sketch in the book Boston's Cardinal: Bernard Law, the Man and His Witness. He studied medieval history at Harvard University, from which he graduated in 1953. After completing his religious training at St Joseph Seminary in Louisiana and the Pontifical College Josephinum in Ohio, he was ordained in 1961.

His first assignment was in the Natchez-Jackson diocese in Mississippi. Amid boiling racial hatred, the young priest helped found and then led an interfaith council on human relations. A Unitarian minister who served with him was shot, according to the biographical sketch, and the home of a rabbi was bombed. Cardinal Law reportedly received death threats. Later, in Washington, he joined the organisation now known as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and led a committee on interreligious understanding. He served as bishop of Springfield-Cape Girardeau in Missouri before succeeding Humberto Medeiros as archbishop of Boston's 2 million Catholics in 1984. The next year, he was elevated to cardinal, a prince of the church. In Boston, Cardinal Law was credited with helping to ease race relations during the divisive court-ordered busing for public schools. He urged voters to make abortion, which the Catholic Church opposes, "the critical issue" in elections. Politically well-connected, he spoke as frequently as once a month with George H.W. Bush during his presidency, the Globe reported. In international affairs, Cardinal Law became a visible envoy for the church. He met with Cuban leader Fidel Castro eight years before John Paul's historic visit to the Communist country in 1998, travelled to Vietnam, and led humanitarian relief efforts after natural disasters in Latin America. In 2002, as the sexual-abuse scandal intensified, The Washington Post interviewed Thomas O'Connor, a historian at Boston College who had followed Cardinal Law's career. Reflecting on his accomplishments, O'Connor paraphrased a line from Shakespeare's tragedy Julius Caesar.

"There's going to be a lot of good," the historian said, "interred with his bones." Cardinal Law's public response to sexual abuse within the clergy could be traced at least to 1992, when he was confronted by claims that a former Massachusetts priest, James Porter, had molested dozens of children in the 1960s. Cardinal Law decried "the tragedy of a priest betraying the sacred trust of priestly service" but described abusive clergy as "the rare exception." In 1993, Porter was sentenced to 18 to 20 years in prison. Three years later, a Waltham, Massachusetts, woman filed the first in what would be a raft of lawsuits against another priest - Geoghan - whom she said had abused her three sons. Through a lawyer, Cardinal Law admitted that, as archbishop in September 1984, he was advised of accusations that Geoghan had molested seven boys. Geoghan nonetheless was transferred to another parish, where he was permitted to lead altar boys. Reports of abuse continued. "It is most heartening to know that things have gone well for you and that you are ready to resume your efforts with a renewed zeal and enthusiasm," Cardinal Law wrote to Geoghan in 1989, as reported by the Globe, after moving the priest to his new parish. Church records showed that Geoghan had been medically cleared for work.

In 1998, under Cardinal Law's leadership and with John Paul's approval, Geoghan was defrocked. He was strangled in 2003 by a fellow inmate at a correctional facility in Massachusetts, where he was serving a prison sentence for fondling a boy at a pool. The Boston archdiocese reached settlements with many of Geoghan's reported victims. Such settlements, made in dioceses across the United States, were estimated to have cost the church more than $US2 billion. In January 2002, Cardinal Law issued a public apology for his reassignment of Geoghan. In the same announcement - belatedly, to many critics - he said that priests would be required to notify law enforcement authorities of alleged sexual abuse. In the ensuing months, Cardinal Law came under growing pressure to resign. His public expressions of remorse culminated with his remarks in November 2002, at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, where he said that "the forgiving love of God gives me the courage to beg forgiveness of those who have suffered because of what I did." He acknowledged the "devastating effects of this horrible sin" - substance abuse, depression, in some cases suicide - and sought to assuage the sense of shame many victims suffer by assuring them that the perpetrators were to blame. He urged anyone living "with the awful secret of sexual abuse by clergy or by anyone else to come forward so that you may begin to experience healing."

"No one is helped by keeping such things secret," he said. "The secret of sexual abuse needs to be brought out of the darkness and into the healing light of Jesus Christ." His resignation came the following month. Cardinal Law later was a chaplain at the Sisters of Mercy of Alma convent in Clinton, Maryland, and maintained posts on Vatican committees, including the one that nominates bishops. He assumed his post at the papal basilica of Saint Mary Major in 2004. After John Paul's death in the next year, Cardinal Law participated in the conclave that selected Joseph Ratzinger, later Benedict XVI, as the new pope. Cardinal Law had no known immediate survivors. In his apology at the Boston cathedral, he reflected on the priests whom he had known in his youth, and who had made an enduring impact on his life.
Grimes County Sheriff Don Sowell said Tuesday that law enforcement's investigation into the death of a man struck by a car on Texas 105 early Monday morning was "at a standstill" because authorities have "very little evidence right now."

Officials said Michael R. Bell of Austin was hit by a vehicle while he was walking on the shoulder of the highway east of Navasota around 5 a.m. Monday. The driver left the scene of the crash without contacting law enforcement.

Authorities are asking members of the public with any information to come forward and help identify the driver who struck Bell. Sowell said the Grimes County District Attorney's Office will ultimately decide what criminal charges to file, but there is very little evidence at the moment.

Sowell asked anyone with information "little or big" to contact the Grimes County Sheriff's Office at 936-873-2151.

"Somebody knows something out there, I'm sure," Sowell said.
HUNTSVILLE -- A Texas prison inmate has been charged after allegations he sexually assaulted a teacher after she had taught a class at a penitentiary.

The teacher says she had finished teaching at a classroom at the Ferguson Unit in Madison County on Nov. 13 when the inmate, who was hiding behind a door after everyone had left, assaulted her. The prison system's Office of the Inspector General has served an arrest warrant for 25-year-old Xavier Johnson on a charge of aggravated sexual assault.

He already had been serving two 13-year sentences for burglary of a habitation out of Victoria County at the unit, located in Midway. Before his current sentences, he served a one-year sentence for unlawful possession of a controlled substance and a six-month sentence for unauthorized use of a vehicle.

The teacher says there were no prison guards or working cameras in the area where she was attacked.

According to an article that previously ran in The Eagle, Randall Kallinen, the teacher's Houston-based lawyer, said his client is contemplating legal action, citing issues with understaffing and a lack of proper procedures in the classroom. He specifically points to multiple classes being let out at the same time along with a lack of guards at dismissal, a lack of security cameras in the classrooms and the lack of a window on the door, which created a blindspot.

"She was sexually assaulted after she let out her class of felons at the Ferguson unit, because there were many problems," he said.

According to a statement send by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, an initial review found that three correctional officers were assigned to the education building that day, although spokespeople for the department declined to say whether those guards were nearby during the dismissal of the woman's class.

The TDCJ adds that staff take "immediate action" in the event of sexual misbehavior.

"The Texas Department of Criminal Justice is also conducting an internal review which will take a comprehensive look at the events surrounding the incident," reads the statement. "The review is ongoing."

The teacher is on leave from her job at Windham School District, which provides literacy, life-skill and vocational classes to 68,000 adult inmates across the state. It offers eight classes at the Ferguson Unit.

Johnson faces up to life in prison if convicted of aggravated sexual assault.
Making a return to our two favourite summer locations, Mount Maunganui and Nelson in early January 2023, we've got whiff of the first release lineup and me oh my, yes boy
By Matthew Morawski,

Special to The Post

The Vancouver Economic Commission boasts Vancouver has the largest cluster of Visual effects (VFX) and Animation studios in the world. The Vancouver visual effects community is already home to over 60 studios and the numbers keep growing.

With so much growth in Vancouvers visual effects industry comes great opportunity for foreign workers as there is an imbalance between demand for talent and the supply that Canada can naturally provide. The 2016 Tech Talent BC Report identified that British Columbias tech sector jobs reached approximately 149,000 in 2015, and tech jobs have the potential to grow to 196,000 by 2021.

British Columbias expected growth of nearly 50,000 skilled tech jobs (most of which will be in Vancouver) cannot simply be filled with local skilled talent.

Presently, and over the next 5 years, foreign workers passionate about working in a world-leading center for visual effects should look to Vancouver, Canada.

In recognition of the shortfall of local talent in the tech industry, British Columbia introduced the BC PNP Tech Pilot.

This program provides an expedited immigration pathway to internationally trained workers in 32 key tech occupations. The mandate is speed. If foreign workers in these prescribed tech occupations obtain a full-time permanent job in British Columbia they can benefit from priority processing to secure a BC PNP nomination certificate.

A BC PNP nomination certificate is a big advantage towards obtaining Canadian permanent residency as it provides 600 points towards the individuals permanent residency Express Entry selection system which essentially secures an invitation to apply for Canadian permanent residency.

If you do not have the education or work experience to secure a permanent job in Vancouvers visual effects industry, you can seek permits to study at a Vancouver post-secondary institution offering programs in visual effects.

Vancouver is home to many outstanding degree, diploma and certificate programs specifically for the visual effects industry. During these programs, students often have an opportunity to make connections with instructors who know the industry and with guest-instructors who are employers in Vancouvers close-knit visual effects community.

In addition, international students taking full time courses at a designated learning institution are able to work 20 hours per week during their studies, and full-time during school breaks.

The opportunities for visual effects students to connect with decision makers in the industry often leads to a job offer with a studio after graduation.

There has never been a better time for visual effects artists to come to Canada as a result of the overwhelming demand for jobs in Vancouvers visual effects industry.

If you are a talented and experienced visual effects artist with a goal to work in Vancouvers world class visual effects industry, we can assist in choosing the correct immigration strategy for you.

If you are passionate about studying visual effects in Canada, we can assist in preparing the best long-term strategy for you to complete your studies and work in Vancouvers visual effects industry.

Matthew Morawski , is a Vancouver immigration lawyer with a focus on working with visual effects studios, internationally trained visual effects artists and international students who are passionate about visual effects. If you are interested in these opportunities email Matthew at: [email protected]
Due to increasing teacher shortages statewide, Ferrum College is exploring the possibility of offering an education major at an undergraduate level.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) recently signed an order that introduces budget actions to address Virginias teacher shortage, according to a press release from the governors office.

I think it will make a big impact on our school, said Nancy Bradley, director of teacher education at Ferrum. To me, not being able to major in it kind of downplays the importance of it. I think it gives more value to a teaching major.

Currently, a four-year undergraduate degree in teaching is not permitted at colleges and universities in Virginia, according to the states Department of Education. Graduate degrees in education, though, are permitted.

According to Charlotte Gomer, McAuliffe spokeswoman, many universities have five-year programs where students can earn an undergraduate degree in another area and a graduate degree in education.

At Ferrum, undergraduate students can only minor in education if they want to pursue a career in teaching. The college does not offer a masters program in education, Bradley said.

If students get into the program early, they can get a four-year degree and get licensure in four years, Bradley said. Thats what the board of education really wants, so students can get out faster and teach.

The directives actions include new funding to automate the teacher licensure process, new funding to support the recruitment and retention of principals in the states most challenged school divisions, an increase in the Tuition Assistance Grant, new funding to help cover costs of tests and test-preparation programs for provisionally licenses minority students and a revised budget to improve the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Program, according to the release.

If a student majored in education, they would be in the school of education and can receive more support and services from there, said Charles Pyle, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Education.

Bradley said she is unsure when the college will be able to offer the four-year education degree, explaining regulations would need to be issued and then curriculum changes would have to be put through the colleges curriculum committee.

But I think its a positive move in teacher education, she said. I think it will increase enrollment in our program.
France is leading climate action. The host nation for the signing of the historic Paris Agreement has repeatedly refuted Trumps climate denial while adopting a raft of measures as part of an ambitious national climate plan. It is fair to say that with its support of science, climate focused political agenda, and progressive climate plan France is one of the most sustainable countries in the world. French efforts have been ongoing for years and include everything from mandatory sustainability reporting to the problem of food waste. In May France announced that it was moving forward with 17 GW of clean energy investments. These are just some of the reason France has emerged as a global climate leader.



Science



The US under Donald Trump is the only nation in the world that is not signed on to the Paris Climate Agreement. In reponse to Trumps contempt for climate science, France awarded Make Our Planet Great Again grants to 18 researchers including 13 US climate scientists. The research grants will extend throughout the remainder of Trumps term (assuming he is able to avoid impeachment). The laureates include professors and researchers from Cornell University, Columbia University, and Stanford University.

Following Trumps withdrawal from the Paris Accord in June French President Emmanuel Macron said that France would cover the US share of funding for a U.N. climate change panel. When Macron and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger met in July they made fun of Trumps climate denial. Now we will deliver together to make the planet great again, Macron said.

He also sent out an invitation to US climate scientists saying:

To all scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs who were disappointed by the decision of the President of the United States I want to say that they will find in France a second homeland. I call them to come and work here, with us on concrete solutions for our climate and our environment. I can assure you that France will not give up the fight.

Macron awarded 3-5 year long climate research grants worth between 1  1.5 million. The grants cover research for climate modeling as well as well as the technological and social challenges associated with transitioning away from fossil fuels. At the beginning of 2018, France is teaming up with Germany to provide 60 million worth of grants to 50 projects.

Macron said during the ceremony: We will be there to replace US financing of climate research. If we want to prepare for the changes of tomorrow, we need science.

As reported by the Star one of the awardees lamented the devaluing of science by this administration These remarks came from Louis Derry, a leading professor of Earth and atmospheric sciences at Cornell, who also said that he is happy to be free of the crazy stuff that goes on in Congress and with the current administration.

Another grant recipient is Nuria Teixido Ullod, a visiting scientist at Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University. Her research revealed the relationship between fossil fuels and drought. Another recipient of the French grant is Alessandra Giannini. Giannini is a Research Scientist at Columbia University. Giannini is well known for having conducted research that makes a causal connection between global warming and drought.

Trump is pleased to see these people go because their research flatly contradicts his climate denying narrative.

Politics

Macron has made it clear that climate action will continue regardless of what the ruling US administration does. After it has become clear that the US president has no interest in listening to reason, The French president seems to have decided that Trump is not relevant. Macron is part of a growing chorus that sees Trump as irrelevant. To make the point Trump was not invited to the climate-focused UN and World Banks One

Planet Summit, that took place one day after the Macrons grant award ceremony.

France must also be acknowledged for having stemmed the tide of right-wing populism. In the wake of Trumps electoral victory, some were concerned that similar dystopia creating governments would pop up all across Europe.

Many are saying that Frances rejection of the far right in recent elections killed the momentum that threatened all of Europe. Germans followed the French lead reelected Angela Merkle. Europeans seem to be rejecting the politics of Trump (and UK Prime Minister Theresa May), instead they are embracing progressive centrist forms of government. The importance of France in this respect cannot be overstated. France is a bulwark against the cancerous nationalism that is presently dividing Americans.

The fossil fuel industry pays the Repubublicans handsomely to deny climate science and the recent tax bill is an homage to that relationship. It would appear that Trump and the GOP are using nationalism to mask a plutocracy.

Although Macrons government is decidedly pro-capitalism, they are also anti-corruption. The Trump administration by contrast is the most corrupt administration in Amercian history.

Economy

France is a model for Republicans who purport to be concerned about the economy and claim to be pro-business. Since 2015 the French economy has been steadily growing. Entrepreneurs seem to be thriving in the country and this has pushed France ahead of the rest of Europe in startup fundraising.Macron acknowledges the importance of climate consideration as both a health concern and an economic issue. This is evident in their appraisal of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Canada. In October France announced that they would only ratify the trade deal it will not affect the nations climate policies and regulations.

France has seen tremendous economic returns from their investments in clean energy. First with nuclear and increasingly with renewables France is a clean energy titan. France is currently a low carbon energy leader getting more than 75 percent of its electricity from nuclear power. It produces so much energy, in fact, that it exports much of it to nearby nations to the annual tune of $3.2 billion.

France wants to become the No. 1 green economy. This is part of Frances ambitious climate plan. After the announcement Shares of French automaker, PSA Group rose 2.4 percent and Renault SA gained 1.9 percent, making them the days best performers on the Bloomberg 500 Autos Index.

Climate plan

In July French Ecological Transition Minister Nicolas Hulot unveiled details of a national climate plan to help France eliminate net carbon emissions by 2050. Macrons predecessor President Francois Hollande, strongly supported renewable energy and he made bold strides towards ramping up capacity. Holland announced that France will close all of the nations coal-fired power plants by 2022.

Macron is continuing Hollands agenda by ramping up renewables and encouraging homeowners to produce their own energy. Last summer Macron announced that he is planning a massive home renovation retrofit program that will reduce energy consumption and cut CO2 emissions.

France is embracing renewables are abandoning fossil fuels. This includes an initiative to end the sale of fossil fuel powered cars by 2040. Hulot said that the government will stop issuing licenses for oil and gas exploration on French territory. There will be no new exploration licenses for hydrocarbons, Hulot told BFMTV. Hulot has previously indicated that France will offer tax incentives to help get fossil fuel powered vehiclesespecially older vehiclesoff of the road. Hulot has also expressed an interest in raising diesel taxes.

On the issue of climate change Trump is like Macrons polar opposite just as Scott Pruitt is Huots evil antithesis. Trump and Pruitt are eroding support for renewables and smoothing the path for more fossil fuel development. The contrast between the climate focus of Macrons government and the rampant denial in the Trump administration could not be starker. The two governments have diametrically opposed climate narratives. While Macron is charting a course into the future, Trump is reaching back to the darkness that got us here.

Related Posts

Vive La France! French Electorate Rejects Climate Denial and Commits to Progressive Action



France: One of the Most Sustainable Countries in the World

France Curbs Vehicles and Decrees Green or Solar Roofs

Why France is a Global Climate Leader

France Restricts Both GMOs and Cars

Obama and Hollande Call for Climate Action
AP Photo /Jessica Hill

A Norwalk woman was arrested and charged with illegally collecting more than $10,000 in unemployment compensation from Connecticut while holding down a job in New York.

Jennifer C. Pauling, 32, was charged with larceny in the first degree by defrauding a public unemployment compensation program, following an investigation by the Connecticut Department of Labor which administers benefits.
It's a terrible feeling to get out of the airport and realize you don't have any cash for the skycap, or to end a relaxing massage with doubts over whether you tipped enough.

And, do you know when a tip is in order for a hotel's front desk clerk? What about the doorman?
HARTFORD  The General Assembly will gavel into session next week, but wont actually gather to restore income eligibility for 113,000 elderly people in the Medicare Savings Program until the first week of January.

Legislative leaders made the announcement Tuesday night after a two-hour session in the Capitol, as they drew closer to a deal on where to cut the $53 million for the seniors.

Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz expects the official start to be Friday, Dec. 29, but action wont occur until Jan. 4 or 5.

We have to deal with this sooner than later, said Aresimowicz, D-Berlin.

We are ready to address the cuts, said House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby. We have to, obviously, talk with our caucuses. The problem is, its Christmas week, so there are people away, and this is a very important issue to many people that represent their districts and we want them to be able to be here to vote on it.

Overtime reductions and curtailing new jobs in the Executive Branch agencies are the core of the potential savings, but Klarides told reporters that some of those savings cannot be realized.

Were looking at other areas, too, she said.

The overtime piece proved to be problematic, said Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven.

The leaders declined to offer more specifics, pending closed door discussions with their caucuses. Democrats have a 79-72 majority in the House, but there is an 18-18 tie in the Senate.

Earlier this month, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said the scheduled 50-percent cut in income thresholds that were to take effect January first, have been extended through February. Malloy has asked lawmakers to meet to also address the $208-million deficit, but the leaders said they are more likely to do that after tax revenue is reported in mid-January.

We have seniors around the state of Connecticut that are making decisions on what programs theyre going to enroll in, not enroll in; what their budget looks like for the next couple of months, Aresimowicz said. If we can provide them with that peace of mind to know, again that the legislature is again acting in a bipartisan way to assure the benefits they so desperately need, thats what we wanted to do.

Senate Republican Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, said that he thinks the planned savings are not likely to affect overall state services.

We have looked at a whole bunch of different ways of coming up with the number, Fasano said.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

NORWALK  Developers are pushing back hard against a proposal to boost the affordable-housing requirement from 10 percent to 20 percent within the area surrounding the South Norwalk train station.

Clayton Fowler, chairman of Spinnaker Real Estate Partners, said his company supports the proposed Transit Oriented Development Redevelopment Plan regulation  putting housing where density already is, where facilities already are, near train stations is really important  but not a 20-percent mandate.

Were happy to take the 10 percent burden, Fowler said. We do it every day in our work. Were used to it. It does fit into our projects. Twenty percent will not. We only make 7 percent (profit) on our cost. It takes three units to make up for the profit that we dont get in the one affordable unit.

His advice to the city on how to incentivize the construction of affordable housing: Give developers a 100-percent tax break on those affordable units.

Clayton was among a number of developers to share their concerns to the Norwalk Planning and Zoning commissions during a public hearing at City Hall on Monday evening.

In 2016, the Common Council and Norwalk Redevelopment Agency approved the TOD plan, which is intended to improve the areas around the South Norwalk train station by encouraging redevelopment of former industrial and other underused properties through infill development.

At issue now is whether to implement the affiliated zoning changes. While the TOD regulation requires a minimum of 10 percent of total dwelling units be priced as affordable, a proposed amendment would require the number to be 20 percent within the SoNo Station Design District  the core area of the plan.

More than 70 people attended the public hearing in the Community Room of City Hall. The commissions took no action afterward, deciding to accept public comment until Jan. 2 after two-dozen speakers had weighed in.

Bob Giolitto, a member of St. Pauls Episcopal Church, spoke on behalf of a Conect, a group of churches throughout Norwalk and lower Fairfield County. He distinguished between people concerned about gentrification and those displaced by it.

I would propose that if youre white and privileged, like me, it might be a sensitive issue, Giolitto said. If youre  living in this area now it might be an issues of either losing your housing or keeping it. And thats a lot more than sensitive.

He calculated that a two-bedroom apartment deemed affordable at $1,530 per month, based upon information presented earlier, would consume 46 percent of the annual pre-tax income of a person making $40,000 a year. He didnt consider that affordable.

A presentation by consultants consumed the first half of the public hearing.

Craig Seymour, managing principal with RKG Associates, Inc., provided an overview of a housing affordability analysis performed by the company.

RKG used a four or five-story, 100-unit building as a hypothetical development and estimated development costs and profit margins under a 10-percent and 20-percent affordability requirements. The former presented a profit of 10 percent, the latter an 8.7 percent return. The consultant concluded that increasing the affordability requirement to 20 percent while holding all other variables constant results in a hypothetical development that is most likely infeasible.

Tom Rich, president and CEO of F.D. Rich Co. and developer of The SoNo Pearl on Washington Street, found those profit estimates overly rosy. He said providing affordable housing should be shared by the citizens at large and not just by a select few.

I never quite understand how its fair that multi-family housing developers and landowners, in any city, should be singled out to solve a citys affordable housing problem, Rich said.

Bob Barton, who with his wife purchased and renovated several South Main Street and Hanford Place properties, rejected that boosting the affordability requirement would prove overly burdensome to developers.

I believe developers can make a buck with 15 to 20 percent of residential units as affordable, and we will try to hit that target, whether its required or not, in the rehabilitations that we do, Barton said.

Reiterating a comment made earlier by Zoning Commission Chairman Nathan Sumpter, he recommended that the city require more three-bedroom apartments to serve families.

Nora King, a planning commissioner, asked for information detailing the impact of apartment construction on the citys public school system.

Not all questions centered around development costs, affordability and impact on local infrastructure.

Tod Bryant, Norwalk Preservation Trust president, asked the city to exempt historic structures within the TOD area from parking requirements.

I want to see as many of these historic building preserved as possible, Bryant said.

In 2007, Norwalk adopted a Workforce Housing Regulation, which requires that a minimum of 10 percent of units within developments of 20 or more units be affordable to households earning no more than 80 percent of the applicable median income.
NORWALK  Norwalk schools are one step closer to a comprehensive music curriculum.

The Board of Education spent the majority of its monthly workshop meeting Tuesday night learning about the new curriculum from a presentation by Interim Chief Academic Officer Craig Creller and Margaret Kelley, a vocal music teacher at Fox Run Elementary School and co-facilitator of the team tasked with developing the new curriculum.

The board members seemed largely impressed by the curriculum overhaul, the first of its kind in 40 years.

A lot of work went into this, its obvious, board member Bruce Kimmel said.

Board member Sarah LeMieux, a musician studying for her masters in music composition at Vermont College of Fine Arts, praised the curriculum, asking only that world music be mentioned specifically in the curriculum.

I actually read through the whole curriculum because this is one of my areas of expertise. ... Its a wonderful curriculum, and its very thorough and robust, LeMieux said. The one thing I would say, is because an effort was made to name specific composers ... it might make sense, not only because were such a diverse district ... to include something about exposure to world music.

LeMiexs suggestion is likely one of the only revisions that will be made to the curriculum before it is voted on next month by the board. Once approved, the document will live online, where it can be updated regularly by the curriculum department, as well as be accessed 24/7 by parents, teachers, students and administrators.

The music curriculum in Norwalks Public Schools has not been touched in nearly four decades. The new curriculum, which lays out guidelines for pre-K through 12th-grade education, is an effort not to write lesson plans, but to outline what students should know at the end of each grade.

The new curriculum will include common assessments to measure progress of music students, a rarity in music education anywhere, and a relatively new accomplishment for the district in general, which recently revised math and reading curriculum to include common assessments.

I want to applaud the music department, Creller said. Ive never seen a music department actually propose a common form of assessments.

Superintendent Stephen Adamowski said this type of curriculum development process is new to the board, which has historically adopted programs and textbooks rather than broad overarching curriculum concepts and rubrics.

This is an area where the former board members and I have tried to evolve the district, Adamowski said. In the old days, the Board of Education would adopt a program and set textbooks and think they were adopting curriculum. What you will see from this document, as well as others, is that you have a set of priority standards, units and expectations, but the issue of the issue of materials is left up to the autonomy of the school and the teacher and their expertise.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

NORWALK  Two men from the Bronx, N.Y. are facing kidnapping charges after a used cell phone transaction went awry Tuesday, police said.

Norwalk police responded to eyewitness reports of an attempted kidnapping occurring in the Starbucks parking lot at 555 Main Ave. around 2:13 p.m. Tuesday.

According to police reports, officers found 25-year-old Hector Pagan-Sanchez and 29-year-old Rafael Santana-Cuevas attempting to force another man into their vehicle.

The victim, who police said was uninjured in the incident, told police he had met Pagan-Sanchez through an online merchandise sales website on Monday. That day, he met Pagan-Sanchez in the same Starbucks parking lot and sold him a used iPhone.

On Tuesday, Pagan-Sanchez contacted the victim again and expressed interest in purchasing two more used iPhones. However, when the victim arrived at the Starbucks, police said Pagan-Sanchez and Santana-Cuevas tried to force him into their car.

As the victim resisted, police said the two suspects stole the two iPhones, credit cards and other loose items from the mans pockets.

Pagan-Sanchez and Santana-Cuevas were charged with second-degree kidnapping, conspiracy to commit second-degree kidnapping, second-degree robbery and conspiracy to commit second-degree robbery.

Both men were held on $100,000 bonds, and were scheduled to be arraigned in Norwalk Superior Court on Dec. 20.

In light of the incident, police spokesman Lt. Terry Blake reminded residents that there is an e-commerce safe zone in the parking lot of the Norwalk Police Department at 1 Monroe St.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

WILTON  At the Montessori School in Wilton, a peacekeeper is someone who has an open mind, a thoughtful heart and a selfless attitude. The school has a rotating committee of peacekeepers selected from each classroom, ranging from 3 to 12 years of age. Together, they brainstorm ideas, create a strategy and present their completed proposal to peers and adults.

Being a peacekeeper is very important because you get to learn whats better or not and you get to help other people, Alisa Shatilo, 5, said. Also, a peacekeeper is always helpful and caring.

Shatilo and her fellow peacekeepers recently unveiled their latest project: a peace bench on the schools front yard where students can rest, visit a friend or invite another to play. Students are familiar with this purpose, as peace benches are found at the schools playgrounds.

The school held a dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday, Dec. 15, with music and remarks from the committee and the schools director, Lisa Potter.

This is a very special time. This is the dedication of our peace bench, Potter told dozens of students, staff parents who gathered that afternoon at 34 Whipple Road. This is a culmination of many months of work.

The project is an example of the Montessori approach to education  student-driven with guidance from adults. With 142 students enrolled, and 38 staff members on-hand, the Montessori School in Wilton supports children from 14 months through sixth grade in a way that fosters intellectual curiosity and subject mastery through experiential and personalized learning within the bounds of defined curriculum, Potter explained. Classrooms are divided by similar age groups based on a three-year cycle and have carefully prepared environments designed to meet their development needs, with tables and chairs adjusted their height.

Overall, the schools program is founded upon the scientific research and work of Italian physician, educator and innovator Maria Montessori, who opened the first Montessori school in Rome in 1907.

Academically, I cant think of a better way to learn, Potter said. Its not so much about teaching as it is learning.

Having been a Montessori student herself, Potter attests to the effectiveness of a Montessori education. She later enrolled her son at the Montessori School in Wilton and eventually joined the administration in 2008. The warmth of the community and the breadth of education offered, to both students and parents, were particularly appealing to her, Potter said.

Not all Montessori schools offer the breadth of that, Potter said.

With accreditation from both the Association Montessori Internationale and the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools, Potter also believes Montessori education should no longer be considered untraditional but an option for any child. The teachings not only focus on the individual child academically but also allow for social and emotional growth among peers  which make for a holistic education, she said.

These are important elements to be able to expand intellectually and cerebrally where you can, but at the same time, take care of the whole child, Potter added.

skim@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2568; @stephaniehnkim
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

WILTON  Tom Moore usually worked at the post office on Saturdays, so he could never make it to the wreath-laying tradition at the Veterans Memorial Green on Wreaths Across America Day. But this year, having recently retired, he was finally able to join his fellow American Legion Post 86 members in paying their respects to Wiltons fallen heroes.

Moore described the ceremony as somber, but more so uplifting.

Its more of a pride, being proud of those who have gone before, who have given their lives, said Moore, the posts adjutant and historian. I think its important to remember those people and its a great time of year to do it because it sort of brings focus on veterans, so people may remember veterans for charitable giving and the troops who are serving overseas who cant see their loved ones.

The annual tradition was started by the Wilton Boy Scout Troop 125 several years ago, Moore said. This year, one of the boy scouts played Taps while the rest of the troop laid wreaths in front of the six granite columns dedicated to Wiltons fallen heroes who made the supreme sacrifice in Americas wars from the French and Indian War to the Iraq War. Afterwards, First Selectman Lynne Vanderslice, state Rep. Gail Laville, R-Wilton, and state Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton, gave their remarks.

Vanderslice read the poem, Remember Me, by Harry Riley, in remembrance of more than 80 Wiltonians who have died in service to their country.

It is always important to remember those who sacrificed their lives so that we can enjoy the freedoms that we (are) enjoying, Vanderslice said in an email Tuesday. By laying the wreaths, we are acknowledging their sacrifice.

Wreaths Across America Day started with one mans annual tribute to veterans 25 years ago. Morrill Worcester, owner of Worcester Wreath Company of Harrington, Maine, had a surplus of wreaths near the end of the holiday season in 1992 and had them placed at the Arlington National Cemetery. Since then, a national network of volunteers have laid more than 700,000 memorial wreaths at 1,000 locations in the nation and beyond, including Sharp Hill Cemetery in Wilton.

Pamela Brown, executive administrator of Wilton Congregational Church and Sharp Hill and Hillside cemeteries, organized the effort to lay wreaths at Sharp Hill Cemetery this year. She was joined by members from Wilton Congregational Church, the Drum Hill Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (to which she belongs), the Children of the American Revolution in Wilton, and U.S. Navy veteran Ron Egut.

Seven commemorative wreaths were laid along the stone wall at the entrance of Sharp Hill Cemetery, for every branch of the military including Prisoners of War and Missing in Action, and 28 wreaths were laid on the headstones of veterans who served in the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. A commemorative wreath was also placed at Comstock Cemetery.

The wreaths were purchased from the national nonprofit Wreaths Across America through fundraising and a matching grant received by the Children of the American Revolution in Wilton.

Next year, Brown hopes to have historical re-enactors to help lay the wreaths and that more will join in on the effort.

I think its important because Sharp Hill is the oldest cemetery in Wilton, Brown said. Its a town treasure that we have so many patriots buried in one spot.

I think its important for our citizens and especially our young people to honor those who fought for the founding and the freedom of our country, she added.

skim@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2568; @stephaniehnkim
CENTRAL CITY  A long-awaited goal has finally come to fruition for the Merrick County Youth Council and the Central City community.

Thanks to grant funding from the United Way, Merrick Foundation and the Wolbach Foundation, an after-school program was launched last week. The program is currently available for Central City Public School students in third through sixth grade. The program is every Tuesday and Thursday from 3:45 to 5:45 p.m., and is held at the MCYC office building, 1303 17th St., near the Widman Cinema.

Lynelle Homolka, co-chairwoman of the MCYC Board of Directors, said the program has been a long time coming.

Its been a goal of ours for years, Homolka said.

The Merrick Foundation purchased the modular building where the program is held. Students walk there from the elementary school with an adult. Along with MCYC volunteers and Central City teachers and paraeducators, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension staff help with the program. The program provides a snack to each student, homework assistance, educational activities and recreational time.

On Tuesday, the programs third time meeting, students played a holiday-themed Jeopardy game and decorated pine cone Christmas ornaments. Students could paint the pine cones, tie them with canvas and lace bows, or make cinnamon-scented ornaments. They were to make an ornament for someone else and one for themselves to coincide with the lesson on gratitude and generosity. The UNL Extension educator taught about how people are scientifically proven to be happier if they are thankful for what they do have instead of what they dont and if they are generous to others.

Anthony Bourland, 10, attended the after-school program for his second time on Tuesday. Anthony, a fifth-grader, decorated his pine cone with pearl beads to emulate twinkling lights. He said he enjoys coming to the after-school program.

It helps me do my homework and it lets me do fun activities, he said.

Sierra Boroviak, president of the MCYC and a senior at High Plains Community High School, said shes happy to have the program.

It is joyous to have this, Boroviak said. I like the fact that we have somewhere for the kids to go.

Boroviak and Homolka said the program helps keep kids off the streets and teaches them to stay away from drugs and alcohol and keep busy.

Homolka also said they aim to include an entrepreneurial program in which people from the community share about different jobs they do.

I think that it fits directly in line with the MCYC mission, she said of the program.

Homolka said there were 42 students on the first day and 52 students on the second day.

Boroviak said its wonderful to see the planning for the program bear fruit. She said she has heard many positive comments from the community about the program, especially from the kids.

The kids dont want to leave when the nights over, she said.
ORD  A North Loup woman who was charged with fatal child abuse in 2016 was sentenced Tuesday in Valley County District Court.

Jocelyn M. Nordin, 26, was sentenced by District Judge Karin Noakes to no less than 60 years and no more than 70 years for child abuse. Nordin will serve another 29 years before being eligible for parole and 34 years for mandatory discharge.

A press release by the Nebraska Attorney Generals Office states that Assistant Attorneys General Mike Guinan and Sandy Allen prosecuted the case.

The charges against Nordin came from an investigation by the Valley County Sheriff of injuries her baby sustained that led to the infants death.

On May 2, 2016, Nordin called 911 and reported that her infant wasnt breathing. When the Valley County Sheriff investigated the injuries, they were consistent with child abuse. In addition, when Nordin was interviewed, she confessed to shaking the child and dropping her twice.
Hall County Attorney Jack Zitterkopf will draft a letter to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services in regard to the DHHS building at 116 S. Pine St.

The Hall County Board of Supervisors voted 6-0 to have Zitterkopf draft a letter to be approved at its next meeting on Jan. 9, 2018. Supervisor Jane Richardson was absent from Tuesdays meeting.

Prior to the vote, Supervisor Doug Lanfear gave the board an update on the meeting he and Hall County Facilities Director Doone Humphrey had with DHHS on Monday in Lincoln, in regard to the DHHS building not being Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant.

DHHS Chief Operating Officer Bo Botelho sent the county board a letter earlier this month asking the board to renovate the building, provide DHHS with another ADA-compliant space or reimburse DHHS for the cost of leasing an ADA-compliant space.

Lanfear said he, Humphrey and DHHS officials discussed the Berggren building study and presented the master plan, which indicates vacating the DHHS building is a high priority. He added Karen Heng with DHHS said 20 to 25 people would be working in the DHHS office. Lanfear said it is a high-walk-in office and is the third-largest DHHS office in Nebraska.

One concern Lanfear said he brought up during the meeting was security at the DHHS building.

The previous tenants used elevators for security on the second floor, he said. You would have to create a secure area for the clients that come into the building. Karen (Heng) brought up later that they did not want (offices in) the Federal Building because of the lack of security.

Supervisor Karen Bredthauer questioned how the Federal Building is not secure enough for DHHS when it previously housed federal offices.

We have security at both locations  at least the parts I have been to  with a small reception area with a window there and then they buzz you in, Bredthauer said. The Federal Building could have that accessibility if we would rent the entire rest of the Federal Building to DHHS.

Lanfear said another alternative discussed in the meeting with DHHS was the benefits and drawbacks of moving the DHHS office into either the county attorney office building or the former Central District Health Department building. He added the county attorney building has 10,000 square feet available that would allow DHHS to bring all its employees to one location, which they liked.

Supervisor Steve Schuppan asked if this would bring more people to a single location than DHHS currently has housed at the building on Pine Street.

Lanfear said it would, and that DHHS wants to bring all its staff under one roof.

Humphrey emphasized to the board that DHHS is not asking the county to supply space for its entire operation.

That would be ideal to them if they can move their operation into one building, he said. However, they are only going to hold the county to one obligation  whatever that square footage might be. Ideally, they would like to have it (operations) all in one building, but they understand the county is under no obligation to do that.

Schuppan said he felt DHHS needs to figure out how many square feet of building space it needs before Hall County can take any action with regard to the DHHS building. Supervisor Gary Quandt asked Humphrey and Lanfear if there is a drop dead date for the county to provide space to DHHS. Lanfear responded DHHS did not provide him or Lanfear with an answer to that question.

Board Chairwoman Pam Lancaster said she would like Hall County Attorney Jack Zitterkopf to go over the 1984 lease agreement for the DHHS building and see what the county is required to do in providing DHHS with an ADA-accessible space.

For the record

In other action, the county board:

 Voted 6-0 to accept a bid of $33,275 for $41,030 in historic tax credits from the Keith Brown Family Trust of Central City.

 Voted 6-0 to approve a revised contract with EcoWater Systems for a water cooler in the veterans services office. The proposed contact calls for Hall County to pay a monthly fee of $39.95, plus tax, to rent the water cooler for a period of 12 months. A one-time installation fee of $50 is also included in the contract.
For years, Iran has been accurately labeled as the worlds largest state sponsor of terrorism. Now, quietly with little notice beyond the region, the militant regime in Iran has established a major land force in Syria effectively threatening the existence of Israel.

Using the cover of helping Syrian President Bashar Assad against domestic insurgents, Tehran now has stationed an estimated 125,000 troops in that country, outnumbering the Syrian army, and enhanced by Russian forces. This is in addition to thousands of Iranian militia allegedly helping Iraq forces extinguish ISIS threats there.

Ambassador Nikki Haley outlined last week how Iran is flouting United Nations resolutions by supporting and arming Yemens Houthi rebels, who recently fired an Iranian missile into Saudi Arabia.

Under pressure from U.S.-advised troops and Iranian and Russian attacks, ISIS has effectively declined as an organized military threat, leaving Iranian and allied Hezbollah forces with time and motivation to make other mischief.

White House National Security Adviser H.R. McMasters team is currently developing a new post-ISIS strategy focusing on neutralizing or containing the looming threat of Iran to Israel and U.S. forces.

In his national security outline this week President Donald Trump noted the global balance of power has shifted in recent years in ways adverse to U.S. interests. He focused on Russia and China in this congressionally-mandated statement, adding realistically, Whether we like it or not, we are engaged in a new era of competition.

But Iran is likely to be a major policy target in the new year when the McMaster strategy is completed. With American troops still fighting in Afghanistan now for the 17th year, presenting a case for confronting Iran anew is likely to take considerable public education and selling, short of a direct attack on Israel or American troops.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary James Mattis has indicated the 2,000 special operators stationed in Syria are not going anywhere soon in order to stymie any ISIS rebirth. But this raises the possibility of armed encounters with Irans nearby forces.

Already, U.S. planes have downed two armed Iranian drones. Israeli planes regularly bomb Hezbollah convoys in Syria. And intelligence reports say Iran is building a missile base in northwest Syria.

What we face, McMaster said recently, is the prospect of Iran having a proxy army on the borders of Israel. Thats a more imminent threat to the closest U.S. Middle Eastern ally than the longstanding  and remaining concern  about Iranian missiles traveling the 600 miles to erase Israel, as Tehran has threatened.

President Barack Obama preferred ineffective words, red lines and sanctions against the Syrian regime. He ignored Irans troop buildup in Syria in favor of negotiating his much-coveted nuclear weapons agreement with Tehran. Trump has denounced that agreement as incomprehensibly bad and certified to Congress this fall that Iran is not living up to the spirit of the pact.

With Trump already facing down a rapidly developing nuclear threat from North Korea, the stakes with Iran are high and growing. Such confrontations are likely to figure in the current budget debate over the GOPs enhanced defense appropriation desires versus the domestic spending priorities of Democrats.

No U.N. resolutions, sanctions or words have halted Irans expansionist ambitions. Like Russia, Iran has cycled much of its armed forces through years of Syrian fighting, giving them real-life regular army training under Russians and actual combat experience for whatever Irans future military plans might be.

The nonpartisan Institute for the Study of War reported earlier this year that Iranian military cooperation with Russia in Syria is dramatically increasing Tehrans ability to plan and conduct complex conventional operations (and) is transforming its military to be able to conduct quasi-conventional warfare hundreds of miles from its borders. This capability, which very few states in the world have, will fundamentally alter the strategic calculus and balance of power within the Middle East.

Washington is consumed this month with passing the tax bill and a continuing spending resolution, both of which have been languishing all fall. And, of course, theres a half-month recess to enjoy.

But the volatile Iranian problem, like that annual arrival of post-holiday credit-card bills, is likely to come due early in 2018.
Several Montana teens were recently featured on the national Megyn Kelly Today show to talk about suicide prevention efforts in the state.

As part of a series called Stressed Out Teens, Kellys crew interviewed teens from Great Falls and Helena and brought two of them, including Kaytlin Newlun of Helena, to film in New York. On the show, Newlun talked about her own mental health problems and why she thinks Montana has a particularly high rate of suicide.

The rate of suicide has increased by 28 percent in the United States since 2000, although the rates are variable by region and state. According to the 2016 Montana Suicide Mortality Report, the Intermountain West states have the highest rate of suicide as a region, and Montana has been among the top 5 states for four decades.

Kellys team came across the Montana students after reading a story in the Great Falls Tribune about a new app, called #LetsTalk. In addition to bringing the apps creator Nicole Zimmerman, a program coordinator at Great Falls Alliance for Youth, the show brought Newlun and a student from Great Falls.

Newlun said she was selected because she started a club at Helena High School called HHS Together.

Newlun started the club after one of her friends died by suicide. She told the show she has chronic health issues that cause physical pain every day that can lead to depression. HHS Together puts up posters around school to create awareness on the warning signs of suicide and different student resources. Newlun said she hopes to provide stress relieving activities during semester testing and advertise clubs to get students involved.

Its proven that getting involved can help you find friends and improve your mood, she said. You dont feel so alone.

Newlun said she thinks students in Montana are prone to feeling isolated and dont have enough resources when theyre experiencing mental health problems. She also said Facebook and other social media platforms create an intense competition and need for validation. Instead of hearing in person about several friends accomplishments, social media allows her to compare herself to endless people.

Newlun said young people are facing pressure to figure out their lives right after graduation, and they experience more pressure than their parents did to attend college. When one of her peers posted on Facebook that she got into her dream school, Newlun said she felt bad about her own financial decision to attend a community college.

So much knowledge of other peoples achievements make people need to live up to what other people are doing, she said.

But Newlun said she thinks young peoples involvement in the conversation on how to prevent suicide is a step in the right direction. She said it was humbling to be on Megyn Kelly Today to advocate for all youth in the United States. She said they werent given much information on what Kelly would ask or how long they would be filmed.

It was mostly nerve-wracking, but it also felt like we were doing something important, she said.

Although the app is fairly new, Newlun said she thinks it will connect students to important resources in the community.

Zimmerman developed #LetsTalk to put resources for suicide prevention in the hands of students. She asked students to help come up with content and promote #LetsTalk. The app has information on the warning signs of suicide, contact numbers, a calendar of events and for Great Falls users, a list of safe spaces. On the safe spaces tab, users can see different organizations on a map of Great Falls such as the police department and Big Brothers Big Sisters. Any business or organization can complete a form on the app to become a safe space.

On Kellys show, part of Montanas high rate of suicide was attributed to access to firearms, alcohol and and a social stigma that keeps people from seeking help.

The app is hoping to dismantle the social stigma.

We talked to youth and found out what they wanted, Zimmerman told Kelly.

The #LetsTalk app is available to download on iPhone and Android devices.

Warning signs of suicide include repeatedly talking about wanting to die or feeling a sense of hopelessness, increasing use of alcohol or drugs, changes in sleep habits, isolation and displaying extreme mood swings. People who know of someone exhibiting warning signs should remove firearms, alcohol, drugs or other objects that could be used in a suicide attempt and seek help from a medical or mental health professional or call a suicide hotline.

The National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-TALK.
Gov. Pete Ricketts, with the help of the Legislature, is delivering on his pledge to constrain spending, not increase the tax burden on families and ag producers, and apply business principles to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government.

But their work is far from done.

This fall the Nebraska Economic Forecasting Advisory Board reduced revenue projections by $100 million for fiscal year 2018 and $123 million for 2019. The revised forecast leaves a $195 million gap for the Legislature to close when the 60-day session begins next month.

The growth of state spending has slowed from 6.5 percent annual growth to just .6 percent in the current budget year.

With few alternatives left to generate revenues beyond sales and property tax, heavy pressure will rest on further expense reductions.

A hiring freeze instituted in October 2016 has reduced the states workforce by 484, primarily through retirements and attrition. The current employment count stands at 13,303. An additional 1,500 vacant positions have been trimmed.

Further expense savings have been realized through reduction of travel, limits on equipment purchases and strict budget accountability for all state agencies, boards and commissions.

Ricketts has also led the movement to adopt continuous process improvement into government culture in order to boost quality and timeliness in delivery of state services, reduce waste and cut red tape. Additional efficiencies have been found by combining state agencies where it makes sense.

Still, a host of daunting challenges wait in the new year. Further relief must be found for the states struggling ag producers, funding for education must be fixed and the unacceptable backlog of DOT road and bridge projects must be funded to ensure a minimum level of public safety. Capacity issues within the judicial system and unresolved problems within the Department of Corrections are also on the front burner. Each of these issues comes with a high price tag.

In order for the state to continue to grow, attention must be given to economic diversification and bridging the rural-urban technology divide. The divide could widen when redistricting eliminates two rural senate seats.

Nebraska has earned one of the best credit ratings in the nation because of its conservative fiscal policies and also scores high rankings for its favorable business climate and work ethic. Those values must be preserved.

Last session, the Appropriations Committee was able to close much of the budget gap by appropriating funds from the budgets of various state agencies. That approach wont work in 2019. The governor and Legislature will have to collaborate on more innovative, constructive solutions to balance the budget while doing the least harm to property owners, ag producers and taxpayers.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Feel the warmth of family, friends and tradition at the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicagos (MSI) 75th anniversary of Christmas Around the World and Holidays of Light. Guests are invited to celebrate dozens of holiday customs with trees and displays, including three new additions, decorated to represent cultures from across the globe. This one-of-a-kind celebration returns to MSI November 16, 2017 and will run through January 7, 2018.

Christmas Around the World began in 1942 as a United Nations Day salute to the Allies during World War II. In its first year, a single tree was newly decorated every day for 12 days to represent the countries fighting alongside America during World War II. Today, the exhibit has grown to more than 50 trees and displays, offering insight into the holiday customs celebrated by families around the world.

Now in its 23rd year, Holidays of Light highlights the holidays that honor light or enlightenment with decorated vitrines containing symbolic objects that showcase these celebrations. Holidays of Light focuses on the traditions of the Chinese New Year, Diwali, Kwanzaa, Ramadan, Hanukkah, Visakha Puja Day, and St. Lucia Day. Holidays of Light is located among the trees throughout the Museums Main Floor.

At the center of it all stands the 45-foot-tall Grand Tree, adorned with more than 30,000 twinkling lights and ornaments. Guests can also enjoy festive holiday music and snow falling every half hour on the Museums Main Floor.

New Trees and Traditions

This year, guests will notice three additional trees in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of Christmas Around the WorldAssyria, Australia, and Nigeria:

Assyria: Assyrians come from modern-day Iraq, Iran, Syria and Lebanon. The theme of this tree is brotherhood, and is celebrated with decorations that include photos and ornaments that represent khigga, a folk dance in which people form a line by holding hands.

Australia: Guests will see home-made paperchains, decorations representing native Australian fauna and flora, and sheep. Plus, several ornaments are created by indigenous Australian artists which reflect the multicultural nature of the country.

Nigeria: This tree will include traditional Nigerian holiday decorations, including handmade, multi-colored Nigerian lace fabric and garlands created from black-eyed peas and beaded jewelry, highlighting the rich family customs shared by all Nigerian people at Christmastime.

These trees join the more than 50 trees and displays in the exhibit, inviting guests to celebrate the rich history surrounding the holiday traditions of cultures from nearly every continent.

Festive Performances and Other Holiday Fun

Guests can enjoy lively performances from all corners of the globe during Christmas Around the World and Holidays of Light. Local cultural groups will perform native dances in the Museums Main Auditorium inside the West Pavilion. Performances will take place on November 18-19, 24-26; December 2-3, 9-10, and 16-17. A full schedule and times will become available at msichicago.org in November.

Stop by Yesterdays Main Street where Santa will be making special visits during Christmas Around the World and Holidays of Light. Children can meet Santa before his epic Christmas journey on November 18-19, 24-26, 30; December 1-3, 7-10, 14-17, and 21-23. Guests are also welcome to take photos with our 45-foot-tall Grand Tree.

Dont forget to make a stop at the Holiday Shop, full of great gifts and festive trinkets for family and friends, including unique ornaments representing cultures around the world and a one-of-a-kind snow globe sold exclusively at MSI.

Christmas Around the World and Holidays of Light are included in Museum Entry, as are all cultural performances.

Christmas Around the World photos are available for download online. Please credit Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago.

Christmas Around the World and Holidays of Light are sponsored by GATX Corporation.
City Administrator Tim Harr and Director of Public Works Eric Williams were honored at Tuesdays City Council meeting.

Following the recent grand-opening of the public safety facility on South Main Street, the completion of the SIUE fire station, significant construction projects and others that have been achieved this year, Edwardsville Mayor Hal Patton recognized both Williams' and Harrs contributions to the city's major projects.

I thought it would be great to reflect at the end of the year, back on the accomplishments. I specifically want to honor two individuals tonight, Patton said.

Harr was the first to be recognized in front of Council members, other city staff, and his family. With a Masters of Public Administration (MPA) from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Harr served in the Air Force from November of 1975 to December of 1995 before joining the city of Edwardsvilles Public Works Department.

Tim has been in public service for his entire lifetime. He started as a teenager in his hometowns Public Works Department as a laborer, Patton said. After that, he went on to the Air Force for 20 years and he served our country well and multiple states, even across the cities. He was in Florida, Nevada, Nebraska, New Jersey and finally landed in Illinois. For over 20 years, hes been with the city of Edwardsville. He started in July of 96 as a construction inspector. In September of 97, he was appointed to be the Assistant Director of Public Works and then in January of 2001, he became the Director of Public Works for the city of Edwardsville.

Patton said after seeing Harrs successful career with the city continue for several years, he decided to recommend Harr for the City Administrator position in 2014, which was supported by City Council as well.

Williams, a Bethalto native, was also recognized for his efforts and Patton said he also began his career with the city early on as well.

(Williams) was hired in 1997 while attending SIUE as a city engineer technician. Became full-time as a project engineer in May of 1998 upon graduation. He became the assistant engineer in December of 2001 and finally became the city engineer in July of 2008. Those are all full-time positions. From there we moved him up to something more than full-time  we gave him the Director of Public Works (position) and hes been there since March of 2014, Patton said. Hes the past president of the Gateway American Public Works Association and he is currently on the state board of the American Public Works Association.

City Engineer Ryan Zwijack was in agreement of honoring both Williams and Harr at the meeting and offered a statement in regards to his fellow coworkers.

It is great to see that others recognize what they do and for the city to know what I see on a day-to-day basis. The effort and dedication that these two put into their careers is unsurmountable. Having the privilege of a backstage view into their decision making and seeing the knowledge they possess is truly remarkable. I can say without hesitation that I owe my entire career to these two and look forward to continue working with them in the future, Zwijack said.

Assistant City Engineer David Sirko also offered words of support in recognizing both Harr and Williams for their contributions to the city, both this year and in years passed.

The encouragement and advice they give us has helped our department and the city become what it is today. From my first day at the city, they embraced the opportunity to educate those around and to provide practical solutions to any issues as they arose. The ability to analyze situations and quickly develop solutions is a skillset that I will continue to utilize and pass along to those I mentor and supervise, Sirko said.

The city's most recent project, the new public safety facility, held its grand opening ceremony Saturday, Dec. 2nd. Both fire and police departments began moving into the new building from the old facility, located on North Main Street, over the weekend.

Also accomplished this year was the completion of the SIUE fire station, construction projects on South Buchanan Street, Schwarz Street, Quince Street, Linden Street, the new Madison Mutual building, and others.

Patton said although both Fire Chief Rick Welle, Police Chief Jay Keeven, City IT specialist Devin Gray, and a handful of other individuals were involved in the completion of the public safety facility, both Harr and Williams truly helped shape the final product.

There were many others who have put a lot of work into our public safety combined facility, but it was the two of you that made the weekly stakeholder meetings and worked with the contractors, worked with the architect, the engineers, to not only deliver such a beautiful building and such a fantastic location, but you did it on time, you did it below the estimated budget, you did it in a safe and clean work environment and you did it significantly less than one percent of change orders, which I think is just phenomenal, Patton said.

Both Williams and Harr received the Knock Out of the Park Award by Patton  two wooden bats with the citys emblem and recognition for their efforts.
Lt. Major Jeff Mills retirement was finalized at Tuesdays City Council meeting.

After receiving a recommendation for approval from the Public Safety Committee, Mills anticipated date of departure is set for Sunday, Jan. 7.

After all seven aldermen voted to approve his retirement, with regret, Mills took to the podium and said he was thankful for his career successes with the city thus far.

For the last 15 years of Lieutenant Major, Ive been blessed to get to know all of you and your predecessors. Ive worked with three great chiefs, two great deputy chiefs, two great city administrators, three great mayors and a great community, Mills said. It is time for me to start a new chapter of my life. My wife and I, were relocating to a new zip code, but 62025 is always going to be my zip code.

Mills retirement required Council approval given that his position was appointed by Police Chief Jay Keeven and given approval from Edwardsville Mayor Hal Patton.

Sgt. Todd Ramirez will also be taking his retirement in January of 2018 as well.

Patton thanked Mills for his service to the city and said he will be missed by all.

Your passion, your professionalism, intelligence, humor  its been fun working with you and impressive Im sure for your department to watch you lead the way you have. You will be sorely missed, Patton said. Tennessees gain is our loss.

In other business, a license to conduct a raffle for the Edwardsville Legion Post 199 for the Queen of Hearts Raffle was approved unanimously by Council. 75 percent of the proceeds will go to the winner and 25 percent will go towards charitable veterans events with chances to be sold Dec. 20 of 2017 through Dec. 20 of 2018.

A tobacco license and a Class A Liquor License was approved for Aarohi, Inc. at 332 S. Buchanan Street, effective Jan. 1 of 2018. All aldermen voted in favor of the licenses unanimously.

Next, the Public Services Committee recommended the approval of a change order for the citys wastewater treatment plants aeration system air header replacement for $16,625.

If approved, extra supports will be added to the I-beams, which support the air header piping. Loellke Plumbing, Inc. will add the new parts, in addition to its current contract with the city to replace the air header piping at the plant.

With none opposed, the motion was approved unanimously.

In addition, the Administrative and Community Services Committee recommended the approval of an amendment to a city ordinance that would create the addition of two police officers to department staffing allocation, with one being hired this current fiscal year.

With the new public safety facility in service and two EPD staff members preparing to retire at the beginning of the year, the EPD is looking for two individuals to fill the vacant spots.

Also, there is room in this years budget to cover the additional cost of one third of an officers annual salary and both officers will be budgeted in the next fiscal years budget.

With none opposed, the motion was approved unanimously.

The next City Council meeting will take place at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 2 at City Hall in the Council Chambers. All meetings are open to the public.
For The Intelligencer

This December, the Edwardsville Rotary Club honored Edwardsville High School student Jessica Harris with the Student of the Month Award. Nominated by Mrs. Harris, Jessica hopes to attend Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

She would like to double major in Spanish and Nursing and would like to study abroad. She also wants to become a registered nurse and work in a Spanish-speaking country. Jessica participates in many organizations at Edwardsville High School including being the president of Spanish Honors Society, a member of National Honors Society, FFA Organizations, Business Professionals of America, and Spanish Club.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin EDITORIAL (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, December 20, 2017 07:59 1794 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e3c982 4 Editorial job-creation,workforce,#workplace,technology,digital-technology,industrial-revolution,manufacturing-industry,unemployment,#manufacturingindustry Free

Set against the global economy and the world of work that have increasingly been reshaped by rapid changes in technology, the Indonesia Jobs Outlook 2017 report of the International Labor Organization (ILO) is quite interesting. Even though technology and jobs usually have a symbiotic relationship, technology also tends to be disruptive, causing job losses at least in the short term, as can be seen in the various sectors affected by digital technology.

The ILO report launched last week at a conference in Jakarta took note of the steady economic growth and falling unemployment rate in the country, but also underlined the slowdown in the pace of job creation in the manufacturing sector. Although in absolute terms, more Indonesians are employed in manufacturing, employment in this sector increased only slightly to 13.1 percent of the estimated 125 million-strong labor force in 2016, compared to 12.5 percent in 2006. Together services and trade now account for 46.7 percent of the employed.

Even though the Indonesian unemployment rate fell to 5.3 percent this year, the report cautioned that unemployment among youth was still 19.4 percent, a much higher rate than the global average. Over 57 percent of workers are in vulnerable employment.

The ILO strongly recommends a second wave of structural transformation to secure jobs in light of technological changes, moving away from the countrys heavy dependency on extractive industries and creating new sources of growth in manufacturing and high-value services.

This recommendation makes a stronger case for continued and even more public investment in skills development, because even though 20 percent of the national budget has been allocated for education, education quality and students learning achievement remain fairly low.

Many studies have concluded that, due to technological advancements, more and more routine tasks are being automated or being taken over by machines and jobs are becoming more polarized. Many jobs that involve routine tasks will be replaced by machines. In such an environment of change, skills development and human capital will play an even greater role in the future economic development of Indonesia.

The problem, though, is that Indonesia has a wide skills gap that urgently needs to be addressed; otherwise, future economic development will be constrained. The experiences of Vietnam and Thailand have shown one effective way of addressing the skills gap in the short to medium term, by massively expanding vocational education.

Implementing well-resourced, well-targeted vocational training can prove to be a better long-term investment in skills acquisition to help ameliorate the difficulties faced by workers, whose prospects look to be quite bleak.

The answer is that improved access to better vocational education can contribute greatly to higher incomes for workers and help bridge the skills mismatch that has caused what economists call structural unemployment, whereby existing job opportunities cannot be filled by the skills available on the job market. The government has increased budget appropriations for vocational training, but what is acutely lacking is a well-targeted vocational education.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Bradley Wood (The Jakarta Post) Canberra  Wed, December 20, 2017 15:29 1793 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e56a24 3 Opinion Donald-Trump,#DonaldTrump,Asia-Pacific,Indo-Pacific,international-relations,geopolitics,foreign-policy Free

The Trump administrations approach to the Indo-Pacific has focused on improving bilateral relations with Southeast Asian states situated closer to China, neglecting Indonesia.

The Trump administrations interpretation of the term Indo-Pacific remains vague. It was rarely used by the Barack Obama administration, which preferred Asia-Pacific. It appears the Trump administration prefers the broader term, a possible shift away from the narrow China-centric description of the region, to one that includes India.

The Indo-Pacific concept is well understood by academics and policymakers in the region to widen the strategic view of the Asia-Pacific to one that reflects a single strategic system comprising of both the Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific.

Indonesias size, geographic location, and its de facto leadership status of ASEAN should make Indonesia a heavyweight consideration for the Trump administration as part of its approach to the Indo-Pacific. However, Indonesia has remained largely absent.

In April, Vice President Mike Pence visited Indonesia during his first official visit to the region. Pences visit was a promising sign of the Trump administrations early engagement with Indonesia and ASEAN. But Pences limited foreign policy mandate at the time reduced the overall significance of the visit, as it aimed mainly to improve economic ties between the two countries. Remaining absent, however, was any new emphasis on American leadership in Southeast Asia, where Chinas economic influence and military might continue to grow.

Then in July, President Joko Jokowi Widodo invited President Donald Trump to Jakarta during their first official bilateral meeting at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. Trump answered, Well get there, its a place I would like to go actually. But when Trump embarked on a 12-day tour of Asia in November, the longest Asian tour of any American president in a quarter of a century, Indonesia was not included.

Moreover, Indonesia has also struggled to get US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to visit Jakarta. Tillerson did not visit Indonesia during his first trip to Asia in March, nor did he visit the country in August during his Southeast Asia trip. So far, Tillerson has visited China three times; South Korea, Japan, and the Philippines twice; and paid a visited to Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and India. This indicates the Trump administration is prioritizing its North Asian allies and mainland Southeast Asian states except for the Philippines, all of which remain more at risk to Chinas growing sphere of influence.

While Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi has met the Secretary of State on the sidelines of multilateral engagements such as the recent ASEAN summit in November, the encounter does not equate the undivided attention and focus that an official visit provides. This sense of diplomatic neglect has also been amplified by recent speculation that Tillerson is likely to step down this January. This will be viewed by Indonesia as either an opportunity to build a new relationship with the next Secretary of State or as a more futile scenario whereby Indonesia becomes even more overlooked.

Added to this anxiety are revelations of a shrinking State Department, depleting leadership ranks, and falling application rates for new staff. The State Department also plans to cut funding for Indonesia from US$129 million in 2016 to just $89 million by 2018. While Indonesia will appear to be the largest recipient of American foreign assistance in Southeast Asia, the country will continue to receive less in per capita terms than Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

Indonesia has long been trying to get the Trump administration to pay closer attention to it as an emerging regional power within the Indo-Pacific. Just days before President Trumps inauguration, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs, Luhut Pandjaitan, remarked that the inauguration opened a window of strategic opportunity for Indonesia in its relations with an enduring partner.

Luhut has recently appealed to the US advocating for increased engagement with Indonesia as an important strategic buffer in the Indo-Pacific. Luhut said, It is unimaginable that Washington can build sound and resilient ties with Southeast Asia, the buffer region between its Chinese and Indian strategies, without reaching out to Indonesia in particular. Indeed, there is no real Indo-Pacific strategy in Southeast Asia without including Indonesia.

But Trumps recent decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel  a country which Indonesia has no formal diplomatic ties with  will now make him an unwanted figure here for the foreseeable future. The Palestine issue for Indonesia not only represents a focal point of contention for Muslims nationally, but it also resonates more broadly, as it is viewed by many Indonesians as a policy that supports Israels colonization of Palestine.

A visit by the first American President who officially supports such a controversial policy will potentially provide an opportunity for Jokowis political opponents to mass-mobilize a wide array of political and religious groups to protest such a visit. Jokowi will wish to avoid being targeted by another round of mass protests ahead of the 2019 presidential election.

It makes sense that Trump prioritized the Southeast Asian states most at risk to China in his first year.However, as the de facto leader of ASEAN and the next-door neighbor of Singapore  the 2018 ASEAN chair  Indonesia should get the attention it seeks next year. Tillerson or his replacement will now be the only ones likely to visit Indonesia anytime soon.

***

The writer is a Master of Strategic Studies (Advanced) student at the Australian National Universitys Strategic and Defence Studies Centre. He was the 2017 Robert ONeill scholar at the International Institute for Strategic Studies based in Singapore. He tweets @bradleywoodAU.

---------------

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 Santika Indonesia Hotels & Resorts (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta, Indonesia  Wed, December 20, 2017

The beaches that wrap around the Nusa Tenggara Islands are highly pristine landscapes featuring the original coral reef ecosystem still relatively undisturbed by the human population. Thanks to the beauty they possess, both West and East Nusa Tenggara are one of Indonesias most sought-after travel destinations.

If you are looking forward to visiting a new local tourist attraction this holiday season, you should consider going there, where you can enjoy these amazing places:

1. Rejuvenate yourself with beautiful views in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara

Kupang is the capital city of East Nusa Tenggara. In the old days it served as an important harbor for traders from Portugal and the Netherlands. Kupang offers a friendly tropical climate, rich historical background as well as mind-blowing natural panoramas. Kupang also has a hidden swimming pool called Pol Air, which is very suitable for a rejuvenating swim. Also, do not miss the Lasiana beach, with its white sands and ocean waves, located in Lasiana village. The beach also offers a romantic atmosphere during sundown.

2. The cultural and environmental wonders of Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara

Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara offers enormous beaches, surrounded by grand mountains and populated with locals whose daily lives are heavily imbued with their cultural practices. Its beach stretches from the west to the south, offering a world-class surfing destination. One of Lomboks natural panorama highlights is definitely Mount Rinjani, Indonesias second-tallest volcano, standing 3,726 meters above sea level.

. (./.)

When you take your trip to either West or East Nusa Tenggara, you should pick the best accommodation for your travels. In this case, Santika Indonesia Hotels & Resorts offers the best hotels and resorts across the two provinces. For further information, visit santika.com/id/destination/nusa-tenggara/
During this time of year, we talk of peace on earth and goodwill towards our neighbors. I wish those beliefs applied universally. Instead, there are groups waging campaigns of intimidation and fear against certain community members. Frequent targets include Muslims and refugees, and there is an entire movement behind the attacks.

We recently released "ACTing for Islamophobia," a report examining Montanas anti-Muslim movement. Even though our state has a small immigrant/Muslim population, it hasnt bypassed the national trend of increased hostility towards Muslims.

The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that anti-Muslim groups have increased by almost 200 percent since 2015. Not coincidentally, Pew Research notes that crimes against Muslim people hit an all-time high in 2016. We also live in a time when the current president frequently uses anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Our report illustrates how the central driving force of Montanas anti-Muslim movement is Flathead ACT, which is a county-level chapter of the national organization ACT for America. Civil rights organizations frequently call ACT for America the leading anti-Muslim hate group in the country. ACT promotes a false narrative about a diverse religious group by claiming all Muslims are extremists and Islam is trying to destroy Western (a code word for white) civilization.

Think for a minute about ACTs discriminatory message that all Muslims are extremists. Lets apply it to a different religion. Does that mean that the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nations represent all Christians? After all, they call themselves Christian and carry out their terror campaigns in the name of God. The answer is an emphatic no! This example rings hollow for most Christians, just like ACTs message does for the majority of Islams 1.8 billion followers.

Its important to understand that these anti-Muslim groups arent interested in having legitimate policy discussions about national security, how people become radicalized and join violent extremist groups, etc. Instead, their only purpose is peddling conspiracy theories steeped in fear and trying to get people to believe that jihadists lurk around every corner. Flathead ACT leads this misinformation campaign in Montana.

Our report examines the leadership of Flathead ACT and the speakers it has sponsored in Montana. Lets be clear that the speakers havent been religious scholars or academics relaying fact-based information. Instead, Flathead ACT has sponsored a slate of propagandists representing anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant and white supremacist groups.

One characteristic all the speakers share is reinforcing the false jihadist around every corner message. Government studies show that, if anyone is around every corner, its far-right extremists, as theyve perpetrated 74 percent of the attacks in the U.S. by violent extremists between 2001-2016. Instead of adding knowledge to the community, Flathead ACT and its allies contribute anti-Muslim vitriol and misinformation.

Despite this, Flathead ACT and its allies have migrated from the political fringe to the mainstream. The county-level ACT chapters in Montana share leadership with entities within the state GOP. They used this influence to get the Republican majority during the 2017 legislative session to pass a bill banning Sharia law which had questionable constitutional footing. During its legislative journey, the bills supporters spewed derogatory testimony that dehumanized and targeted Muslims and refugees. Gov. Steve Bullock thankfully vetoed the measure, recognizing it could be seen as an endorsement for anti-Muslim sentiment and activity.

We encourage you to read our report, which can be accessed at https://tinyurl.com/ACTingforIslamophobia. We think youll find yourself rejecting ACTs fear-based bigotry and agreeing with the majority of Montanans and Governor Bullock, who wrote in his veto note for the Sharia law ban that Montanans should recommit ourselves to protecting the religious and cultural diversity that makes our state and nation strong.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Paris  Wed, December 20, 2017 15:07 1793 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e55eb1 2 Environment Alaska,snow,global-warming,climate-change Free

Snowfall in central Alaska has more than doubled since the mid 1800s, said a study Tuesday which pointed the finger at global warming.

Two ice cores drilled into Mount Hunter in the Denali National Park, revealed a 117-percent increase in wintertime snowfall in south-central Alaska since about 1840, researchers wrote in the journal Scientific Reports.

Summer snow also increased, by nearly 50 percent.

"We were shocked when we first saw how much snowfall has increased," said Erich Osterberg of Darmouth College, who co-authored the study.

"We had to check and double-check our results to make sure of the findings."

Next, the team set out to find out why.

Scientific models predict that global precipitation -- rain or snow -- would increase by as much as two percent per degree of global warming. Warmer air holds more moisture.

This accounted for some, but not most, of the Denali snowfall increase, the team said.

They found another contributor: the strengthening of a low-pressure system called the Aleutian Low in the Bering Sea off the Alaskan coast, driven by warmer tropical oceans.

Read also: Antarctica is greening due to global warming

The Aleutian Low brings a northward flow of warm, moist air to Alaska.

"It is now glaringly clear from our ice core record that modern snowfall rates in Alaska are much higher than natural rates before the Industrial Revolution," study co-author Dominic Winski of Dartmouth College said in a statement.

This is when humankind started pumping planet-warming greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

The same changes accounted for a decrease in Hawaiian precipitation, the paper pointed out.

And it stressed the Alaskan impact would not necessarily be repeated in other places with similar conditions.

"Scientists keep discovering that on a regional basis, climate change is full of surprises," said Osterberg.

The world's nations vowed in the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global warming to under two degrees Celsius (1.5 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels.

Anything more, experts warn, will give rise to life- and asset-threatening superstorms, sea-level rise, floods and drought.

The 1 C mark has already been breached.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Beijing  Wed, December 20, 2017 17:04 1793 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e5abc2 2 Lifestyle China,panda,toilet-paper,poop,Qianwei-Fengsheng-Paper-Company Free

When life gave one Chinese company giant panda poop, it decided to make paper -- and profits.

The Qianwei Fengsheng Paper Company in southwest Sichuan province has teamed up with the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda to recycle the animal's feces and food debris into toilet paper, napkins and other household products, state media reported Wednesday.

The goods, soon to be released on the Chinese market, will be marketed as part of a "panda poo" product line decorated with a picture of the bamboo-eating, black-and-white bear.

"They're taking care of our garbage for us," Huang Yan, a researcher at the giant panda center, told the Chengdu Business Daily.

Read also: Dog poop for dessert: turd-shaped treats a hit in Thailand

Huang told Xinhua state news agency that the 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of bamboo poo that adult pandas unleash daily are rich in fibre after absorbing the fructose from the shoots.

In addition to their valuable dung, pandas also produce 50 kilograms of food waste every day from the bamboo husks they spit out after chewing.

While the process of turning bamboo into paper generally involves the breaking down of fructose to extract fibre, this step naturally occurs in the pandas' digestive tract, the paper company's president, Yang Chaolin, told Xinhua.

Fengsheng will collect the faeces from three panda bases in Sichuan a couple of times a week. After it is boiled, pasteurised and turned into paper, it will be tested for bacteria before going on sale.

Boxes of "panda poo" tissues will be sold at 43 yuan ($6.5) a pop.

"Pandas get what they want and we do too," Yang said. "It's a win-win."
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Jessicha Valentina (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, December 20, 2017 18:02 1793 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e5f253 1 Lifestyle Uber,#Uber,baby,newborn,ride-hailing-application,ride-hailing-service Free

Muhammad Akbar was born in Surabaya, East Java, on Nov. 22. However, unlike other babies born that day, Akbar was born in an Uber car.

Uber driver Indra Prawoto shared on the companys website that he received an order from the Anyar Tambak area at 5:30 p.m. The passengers were two women and one of them was in labor.

They asked Indra to take them to the nearest Women and Children Hospital. Alas, it was raining cats and dogs, which led to the road being jam-packed. Indra then spent two hours driving six kilometers to the hospital.

After spending more than an hour in the car, the pregnant lady started shouting. With help from her friend, Akbars mother then gave birth in Indras car.

Indra recalled that Akbar was safe and he continued driving to the hospital as both mother and son needed a doctor.

Read also: Uber joins forces with NASA to develop flying taxis

Muhammad Akbar was born in an Uber car on Nov. 22. (Uber's website/File)

They finally reached the hospital 50 minutes after Akbar was born. As they were queuing, Indra ran into the emergency room to ask for help. A doctor and nurse rushed out and cut the babys umbilical cord in the car.

Indra then waited at the hospital for a while, ensuring that both mother and baby were safe.

Akbar now lives in Madura with his parents and grandparents.

The online transportation company reportedly gave Akbar baby products and a onesie with #UberBABY written on it. Furthermore, Akbars mother was given Rp 1 million (US$73.66) Uber credit and a #UberMOM T-shirt. Meanwhile, her friend received Rp 500,000 Uber credit and a #UberHero T-shirt.

The 49-year-old Indra reportedly received some cash and a #UberHero T-shirt as well. Uber also paid to have his car cleaned.

Akbar was not the first baby to be born in an Uber. Prior to this, a woman reportedly gave birth to a baby girl in a taxi in Bandung, West Java, in April. (kes)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) New York, United States  Wed, December 20, 2017 12:06 1793 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e4fb11 2 Science & Tech YouTube,music,Streaming Free

YouTube said Tuesday that it had sealed a licensing agreement with the world's largest music label conglomerate Universal as the video behemoth explores creating a new streaming service.

YouTube, which is part of Google, said it reached a long-term agreement with the Universal Music Group, months after a deal with competitor Warner Music.

A joint statement did not specify the terms but hinted that the agreement would address compensation by YouTube, a constant source of irritation within the music industry.

"This important step forward provides our recording artists and songwriters improved content flexibility and growing compensation from YouTube's ad-supported and paid-subscription tiers," Universal chairman and CEO Lucian Grainge said in the statement.

He said the agreement also advanced "YouTube's commitment to manage music rights on its platform."

Read also: YouTube reveals most popular Indonesian videos of 2017

The recorded music industry has posted two years of solid growth after years in the doldrums thanks to the rapid growth of subscriptions on Spotify, Apple Music and other streaming platforms.

But the industry, led by the IFPI trade group, has long berated YouTube for the rates it pays.

YouTube argues that it pays a fair price. With the video site's focus on user-generated content, YouTube enjoys protection under United States law that largely absolves internet companies from responsibility for users' activities.

With Google languishing behind in music streaming, several technology sites reported last month that YouTube is preparing the launch of its own streaming service in 2018.

The video site already has a YouTube Music platform and the advertising-free YouTube Red subscriptions, but it is reportedly looking to set up a more elaborate site on the model of the major, on-demand music services.

The licensing agreements would be vital for a successful YouTube streaming service, with music fans unlikely to embrace a platform that has glaring gaps in its catalog.

Topics : YouTube music Streaming
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Theresia Sufa (The Jakarta Post) Bogor, West Java  Wed, December 20, 2017 19:07 1793 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e5fd88 1 City bogor,immigration,immigration-violations,ImmigrationOffice,Immigration-Office,overstay,overstayers Free

More than 100 foreigners staying in Bogor, West Java, were discovered to have overstayed their visas, according to an immigration official.

We have taken administrative measures against 110 foreigners, comprising 79 men and 31 women, who had overstayed their visas by a combined 861 days, Bogor Immigration Office head Suhendra said on Wednesday.

The resulting overstay fees totaled Rp 258.3 million [US$18,081], which have been submitted to the government treasury as non-tax state revenue [PNBP].

Immigration operations conducted in Bogor throughout 2017 have netted 104 foreigners  76 men and 28 women  from 19 countries who allegedly misused their stay permits.

The [Bogor] immigration office has deported 104 [of the 110] foreigners, Suhendra said, adding that most of them were from China, Egypt, Iraq, Malaysia and Morocco.

He further explained that the number of passports issued by his office had increased this year.

We issued 11,622 passports this year, up from 6,478 in 2017.

Meanwhile, the number of requests for visitors visas at the Bogor Immigration Office reached 1,519 this year, up from 1,365 last year. Requests for permanent stay permits (ITAP) increased to 89 from 77 last year, while requests for temporary stay permits (ITAS) amounted to 2,215, down from 2,300 in 2016.

Countries with the highest number of citizens submitting ITAP requests this year were Malaysia, Pakistan, South Korea, the Netherlands and the United States, most of whom applied for business and educational reasons.

ITAS applicants were mostly industry experts or industrial workers from China, India, Japan, Malaysia and South Korea. (ebf)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, December 20, 2017 21:45 1793 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e66f07 1 National Christmas,New-Year,New-Year-Celebration,New-Year-Eve-celebrations,Yogyakarta Free

The Yogyakarta police are set to deploy 1,700 of its personnel to secure Christmas and New Years Eve celebrations.

The police in each regency and district will also deploy extra personnel to enforce security, said Yogyakarta Police chief Brig.Gen. Ahmad Dofiri as reported by Antara on Wednesday.

More than 60 percent of the total police force in Yogyakarta would contribute to safeguarding the festivities, he added. Additional forces comprising military personnel, Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) members and volunteers of several mass organizations, are ready to give assistance.

We are focusing our attention on securing 352 churches in Yogyakarta, said Ahmad, noting that the police would prioritize the churches with the largest congregations.

We aim to provide peace and safety for those who celebrate Christmas and other people who wish to enjoy the end-of-year holiday. We are 100 percent ready, he said. (vla/ebf)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Moses Ompusunggu (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, December 20, 2017 21:49 1793 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e6742e 1 National AMAN,Rukka-Sombolinggi,indigenous-people,indigenous-people-rights,customary-forest Free

Indigenous communities in Indonesia have faced rampant rights violations throughout 2017, a rights group said on Wednesday.

Alliance of Indigenous People of the Archipelago (AMAN) secretary-general Rukka Sombolinggi said indigenous leaders fighting to defend their land had been criminalized this year while the government was slow to acknowledge custodial forests.

Rukka further said there had been a decline in trust of indigenous people toward the government of President Joko Jokowi Widodo, who had pledged to improve their livelihoods and defend their rights during his presidential campaign in 2014.

We were enthusiastic in 2014 and remained that way until 2015. We were a bit disappointed in 2016 and finally we lost our spirit in 2017, Rukka told a press conference.

She said 2017 was filled with violence against indigenous people, who found themselves in a difficult position as they defended their land.

Rukka further said AMAN was disappointed by the lack of progress in the acknowledgement of custodial forests by the government, although various rights groups had submitted a map of customary boundaries that covered 8.2 million hectares across the country.

Jokowi acknowledged in 2016 the forests belonging to nine indigenous communities that covered 13,122-ha while this year, his administration had acknowledged only 3,092-ha of forests. (ebf)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Denpasar, Bali  Wed, December 20, 2017 13:03 1793 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e52138 2 National bali,Kerobokan,overcrowded,extortion Free

An American man who escaped Bali's notorious Kerobokan jail before being recaptured claimed Wednesday he broke out of the facility because he faced extortion threats.

Christian Beasley, who is awaiting sentencing after being caught in August with five grams of hashish, made a break from the Indonesian resort island's main prison with a fellow inmate after cutting a hole in the roof with a hacksaw.

He was found Saturday hiding on the neighboring island of Lombok after five days on the run.

At a press conference Wednesday, the handcuffed American was paraded in front of media with chains around his ankles and wearing an orange prison uniform and balaclava.

The 32-year-old told journalists he escaped because he was being extorted -- although he did not say by whom.

"In jail they threatened me for protection money, that's why I left," he said.

Beasley said he had permission from US authorities to use marijuana for an undisclosed medical condition.

"I need rehab not four years or more in jail, please help me, in my country (it) is not a crime to use ganja -- I have (a) licence," he shouted as he was escorted away by armed officers.

But Kerobokan's chief warden, Tonny Nainggolan, rejected Beasleys extortion claims as "total nonsense".

He added: "There is no such thing, he made it up, we protect and guarantee the safety of the inmates and detainees in Kerobokan."

Beasley escaped last Monday along with Paul Anthony Hoffman, 57.

Hoffman was immediately recaptured but Beasley managed to cross to Lombok where he evaded police for five days.

Topics : bali Kerobokan overcrowded extortion
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, December 20, 2017 13:35 1793 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e54517 4 Business Aqua,kppu,verdict,denial Free

PT Tirta Investana, the producer of Aqua bottled water, has denied any wrongdoing after the Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) ordered the company to pay Rp 13.84 billion (US$968,800) in fines to the state on Tuesday.

The commission also fined Aquas distributor PT Balina Agung Perkasa (BAP) Rp 6.29 billion.

PT Tirta Investama lawyer Rikrik Rizkiyana said as reported by kompas.com that his client was disappointed by the KPPUs decision, saying that the commission did not consider facts he presented during the hearings.

KPPUs decision was based on a report by PT Tirta Fresindo Jaya (Mayora Group), the producer of bottled water brand Le Minerale, in October, 2016, which complained that Aqua and its distributor had tried to prohibit several shops from selling Le Minerale bottled water.

KPPU found that the companies had threatened to downgrade the status of several shops that sold Le Minerale bottled water from star outlet (SO) to wholesaler (WO). With the change in status, the shops would have to buy Aqua at higher prices.

Rikrik said that he and his client would study the verdict document before making an official legal response to the KPPUs decision. (bbn)

Topics : Aqua kppu verdict denial
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, December 20, 2017 15:33 1793 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e58097 4 National Bengkulu,sexual-violence,dress,bylaws,regional-administrations Free

The Bengkulu Provincial Legislative Council (DPRD) is drafting a regional bylaw on child protection and family resilience that stipulates proper dress and bans "sexy clothing" in public, reports kompas.com.

The bylaw comes from concerns over sexual violence and rape against women and children in Bengkulu. This is one of our efforts to mitigate such cases, the head of Commission IV overseeing health and education affairs, Muharamin, said on Tuesday.

Bengkulu caught national attention in 2016 for a sexual violence case. In the case, 14-year-old student YY was gang-raped and murdered by 14 male students in her hometown in Rejang Lebong regency. The case triggered a nationwide movement urging better protection of children and women, as well as a call to put an end to sexual violence.

Muharamin admitted that the draft contained a ban on wearing provocative clothing in public, especially for students. For example, female students should not wear skirt uniforms that rise above the knee or tight-fitting clothing. The draft bylaw also stipulates how people should dress in public spaces and at formal events.

Once the draft was completed, the Bengkulu DPRD would start the deliberations next year, he said, adding that most party factions and executives had indicated their approval of the draft.

The director of the PUPA community learning center for women and children in Bengkulu, Susi Handayani, criticized the draft bylaw, saying that it should not only stipulate a public dress code.

Boys and girls must also be taught to respect each other. Female health reproduction must also be given attention, she said.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Kafr Batna, Syria  Wed, December 20, 2017 19:45 1793 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e6257f 2 World Syria,war,victims,children,Twitter Free

The heartrending photograph of a Syrian baby who lost his eye in an air strike has set off a viral social media campaign, with users sharing pictures of themselves covering one eye.

The shot depicts 40-day-old Karim Abdallah, wrapped in a puffy red jacket, with crescent-shaped scarring where his left eye should be and a dark red welt on his forehead.

Dear friends , I stand with 2 months old baby Karim who lost his eye & mother in Syria . What is the crime of a baby? Please #StandWithKarim pic.twitter.com/IIWhSVRrIN  Bana Alabed (@AlabedBana) December 19, 2017

An October 29 government air strike on a rebel bastion near Damascus severely wounded Karim and killed his mother, according to relatives and the doctor who treated him -- and kicked off a worldwide support campaign.

Users are taking pictures of themselves covering one of their eyes and sharing them on Twitter and Facebook with the hashtag #SolidarityWithKarim.

The campaign even reached the United Nations, where British ambassador Matthew Rycroft tweeted a photograph of himself at the Security Council, his right hand over his eye.

"When we sit around the UNSC & warn that inaction will mean more people are going to die. More schools bombed. More children scarred. This is what we mean," he wrote.

When we sit around the #UNSC & warn that inaction will mean more people are going to die. More schools bombed. More children scarred. This is what we mean.



We must see an end to the bombardment & siege of #EasternGhouta.#SolidarityWithKarim pic.twitter.com/8Io85VlDdF  Matthew Rycroft (@MatthewRycroft1) December 19, 2017

"We must see an end to the bombardment & siege of Eastern Ghouta."

Government forces have besieged the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta region since 2013, restricting access to food and medicines for some 400,000 residents.

Photographs in solidarity with Karim have been posted by other Syrian children, journalists, activists and members of the White Helmets rescue service, which operates in rebel-controlled areas.

A man poses covering one eye with his hand in the rebel-held town of Douma in Syria's besieged eastern Ghouta region, on Dec. 18, 2017, as part of a campaign in solidarity with a baby boy, Karim Abdallah, who lost an eye, as well as his mother, in government shelling on the nearby town of Hammouria. (Agence France -Presse/Handout / STR / #SolidarityWithKarim campaign)

Government ministers in Turkey, a supporter of the rebels, also took up the cause.

"Even if the world remains silent, and nobody hears the screams from Syria, we will be the voice, eye and ear" of baby Karim, tweeted Culture and Tourism Minister Numan Kurtulmus.

The campaign was launched by Amer Almohibany, a freelance photographer in Eastern Ghouta and occasional AFP contributor.

"I visited the baby, and he made his mark on me even before taking his picture. It haunted me," said AlMohibany, 28.

"The goal of the campaign is to... bring to the world the voice of this baby, who lost his eye and his mother," he said.

A girl poses covering one eye with her hand in the rebel-held town of Douma in Syria's besieged eastern Ghouta region, on Dec. 18, 2017, as part of a campaign in solidarity with a baby boy, Karim Abdallah, who lost an eye, as well as his mother, in government shelling on the nearby town of Hammouria. (Agence France -Presse/Handout / STR / #SolidarityWithKarim campaign)

The raid that wounded Karim hit a market in Hammuriya, a town in Eastern Ghouta, on October 29.

Eastern Ghouta is one of four "de-escalation" zones agreed in May in a bid to reduce fighting in some parts of the war-ravaged country.

More than 340,000 people have been killed and half the country's population displaced since the conflict broke out in 2011.

Over the years, several Syrian children have become powerful symbols of the civilian suffering brought on by the war, including toddler Omran, who was photographed bloodied in an ambulance in second city Aleppo in 2016.

Topics : Syria war victims children Twitter
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Indra Budiari (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, December 20, 2017 15:28 1793 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e569ae 1 World Brazil,surgery,Brazilian-President-Michel-Temer,Michel-Temer,Jokowi,Joko-Widodo,Southeast-Asia Free

Brazilian President Michel Temer has postponed his visit to Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries to enable him to rest after having minor surgery.

The 77-year-old president underwent surgery last Wednesday to treat a urethral obstruction at the Sirio-Libanes Hospital in Sao Paolo, Brazil, AFP reported. Temer has been discharged from the hospital but reportedly needs time to recuperate.

President Temer has postponed his visit to Southeast Asia due to health issues that prevent him from taking long trips, an envoy at the Brazilian Embassy told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

He also underwent surgery two months ago for an enlarged prostate at the same hospital, while in November he had angioplasty on three blocked arteries.

Temer was scheduled to meet with President Joko Jokowi Widodo on Jan.12 as a part of his visit to Southeast Asian countries, including Singapore, Timor Leste and Vietnam from Jan.5 to 13.

Brazilian Ambassador to Indonesia Rubem AC Barbossa said last week that Temer had planned to meet Jokowi to talk about trade and other things. The diplomatic envoy said the visit was important to deepen the relationship between Indonesia and Brazil.

Due to the cancellation, the Indonesia-Brazil business forum previously scheduled for Jan.12 will be postponed.

The embassy said a new date for a visit would be proposed as soon as possible. The Brazilian Embassy will keep the Foreign Ministry updated on the issue, it said. (ebf)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, December 20, 2017 15:45 1793 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e582e6 1 National energy,energy-and-mineral-resources-ministry,women-empowerment,affordable-energy,sustainable-energy Free

Womens access to affordable energy, especially those who live in rural areas, may reduce the time they spent on domestic tasks, leading to improved health, self-development and entrepreneurship opportunities, a discussion on equal access to energy has concluded.

The use of energy should be equal for both genders, Maritje Hutapea, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry's director general for new and renewable energies, said at Tuesday's discussion in Jakarta.

The event was part of the Pojok Energi (Energy Corner) discussion series held by the Institute for Essential Services Reform in cooperation with the Strategic Partnership for Green and Inclusive Energy, with support from Hivos Southeast Asia.

Tri Mumpuni Iskandar, director of the non-profit People Centered Economic and Business Institute (IBEKA), shared Maritje's opinion.

With greater access to energy, around 98 percent of womens workloads in rural areas, such as collecting firewood or water, will be reduced, she said.

Tri said that even installing pumps or a modern stove at home could allow women more time for themselves. The extra time could be used for organizing women's or other community groups, creating a home business or pursuing other activities that could improve their capacity.

Gender equality in the context of energy access is about who can access energy and how they empower themselves, said Asclepias Rachmi Indriyanto from the Indonesian Institute for Energy Economics.

Indonesia achieved a 93 percent electrification rate this year, but 5 million households, or 18 million people, still do not have access to electricity. Meanwhile, 20 million households do not have access to clean fuel for cooking.

Marlistya Citraningrum, the sustainable energy transition program manager at the Institute for Essential Services Reform, said that improving access to energy should be an inclusive effort that considered the conditions in each region.

There is no one-size-fits-all strategy to improve access to energy, she said. (ebf)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Gregory Viscusi (Bloomberg) Paris, France  Wed, December 20, 2017 21:25 1793 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e669f7 2 World France,spending,flight,Prime-Minister Free

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe defended his decision to spend 350,000 euros ($410,000) to hire a private plane to fly him and his delegation home from a work trip to the Pacific, even though a government plane was available.

Philippe flew to the French overseas territory of New Caledonia on a commercial flight in early December, and started the trip home on a French Air Force Airbus A340 that had carried most of his delegation on the way out. But during a refueling stop in Tokyo, Philippe and his 60-person entourage left the government plane and continued to Paris on a rented A340 with only business class seats.

The prime minister and his team arrived back in France two hours before the governmental A340, which flew back almost empty, AFP reported.

Transporting a prime minister is complicated and its expensive, Philippe said Wednesday on RTL radio. I made a decision and I defend it. He also said the overall cost of the trip was clearly lower than a trip to New Caledonia by Manuel Valls when he was prime minister, though he provided no figures.

While the popularity of President Emmanuel Macron has recovered in recent months, polls also show the majority of the French think his policies favor wealthier French after he scaled back a wealth tax and cut spending on housing and job subsidies.

After the weekly cabinet meeting, government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said that the total cost of the trip was 30 percent less than a similar one made by Philippes predecessor Manuel Valls.

These sums are impressive, and we understand it can shock our citizens, Griveaux said.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, December 20, 2017 12:39 1793 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e51105 4 Business LRT,Greater-Jakarta,fares,subsidy Free

Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi has said that the government will subsidize passenger fares on the light rail transit (LRT) commuter service for 12 years, so the new public transportation will be affordable to all commuters in Greater Jakarta.

The government will allocate about Rp 14 trillion (US$980 million) toward the LRT fare subsidy so ticket prices would be set at Rp 12,000, the minister said in Jakarta on Tuesday, according to the kompas.com report. He added that the unsubsidized economy fare would be at about Rp 24,000.

So we will be providing a subsidy of about 50 percent, or about Rp Rp 1.2 trillion in one year, Budi said. After 12 years, LRT passengers would have to pay the normal fare.

Read also: SOEs to press on with LRT in latest deals

On Tuesday, the Transportation Ministry signed an agreement with state-owned railway operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) to grant a 50-year concession to KAI for managing the LRT, which is still under construction.

Under the agreement, KAI is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the LRT system, as well as managing the LRT's business assets.

The ministry's director general of railways, Zulfikri, said that total investment in the Greater Jakarta LRT was Rp 29.9 trillion.

Two LRT projects are being developed in Jakarta. The first, the Greater Jakarta LRT, will depart from Bogor and travel through Bekasi, Cawang and Kuningan to terminate at Sudirman Station. The second, Jakarta LRT will depart from Kelapa Gading through Rawamangun and Manggarai to also terminate at Sudirman Station. (bbn)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, December 20, 2017 19:19 1793 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e61a52 1 City #Christmas,#security,#holiday,#Police,#Jakarta Free

With Christmas and New Year's Eve just around the corner, the Jakarta Police traffic division has planned to deploy personnel to help organize traffic ahead of the peak of the holiday exodus on Friday.

Jakarta Police traffic division deputy head Adj. Sr. Comr. Suhandono said Wednesday that the police would deploy 1,200 personnel to secure traffic in areas prone to heavy congestion.

"Our prediction was about 10,000 vehicles [will leave Jakarta] but we were not certain since it is a holiday season," he said as quoted by kompas.com.

He said the personnel would largely focus on overseeing traffic on toll roads heading outside of Jakarta.

"We will focus on securing the toll road that heads to Cikampek, West Java, and Merak in Banten," he added. (rdi)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Kharishar Kahfi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, December 20, 2017 16:50 1793 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e5a4b9 1 Politics KPK,setya-novanto,Jakarta-Corruption-Court,corruption-case,corruption,graft-trial,e-ID Free

Graft defendant and former House of Representatives speaker Setya Novanto has objected to the accusations lodged against him by prosecutors of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), calling the indictment against him in the e-ID trial "invalid".

The objection from the embattled politician was included in the defense's refutation, which was read out by Setyas legal team at Wednesday's hearing at the Jakarta Corruption Court. Setya is standing trial for his alleged role in embezzling funds that were intended for the e-ID card procurement project.

The indictment is legally flawed, as it is unclear and incomplete [and proceeds] from an invalid investigation. Therefore, we ask that the judicial panel reject the indictment, lawyer Firman Wijaya read out.

The defense, he added, also requested that the embattled politician be released from detention once the judges had issued a decree to refute the relevancy of the indictment.

One of the key points in the refutation concerned the estimated state losses of Rp 2.3 trillion (US$161 million) that the KPK prosecutors had used in their indictment. Setya's team claimed that the figure had not come from an institution that was authorized to issue a formal estimate.

The calculation [in the indictment] was made by the BPKP [Development Finance Comptroller] , while the authorized institution as mandated by the Constitution is the BPK [Supreme Audit Agency], said lawyer Maqdir Ismail of the defense team.

The KPK prosecutors also listed other individuals that had allegedly benefited from the illicit scheme to rig the e-ID procurement project.

Presiding Judge Yanto adjourned the hearing until Dec. 28, when the prosecution's response to the refutation would be heard.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, December 20, 2017 17:12 1793 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e5b8fd 1 National LIPI,research,scientific-development,budgetary-allocations,BudgetaryAllocations,Science,house-of-representatives Free

The Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) strives to tackle the same problems every year, namely its limited budget, the institutes envoy said on Wednesday.

The LIPIs ambassador of scientific information, Rieke Diah Pitaloka, said the budget allocation to support LIPI researchers had never been more than 0.25 percent of the countrys gross domestic product (GDP).

Rieke said as a House of Representatives member, she would continue to push for the government to raise the budget allocation for scientific research, Antara reported.

Among other countries in Southeast Asia, Indonesia has the lowest amount [of research funds]. Even Vietnam and the Philippines have allocated more money for science, she said, asserting that the ideal percentage of research funds was 2.5 of the total GDP.

In the 1960s, the government allocated Rp 240 billion [US$17.7 million] for research, which was 1.1 percent of the GDP. We should continue to urge our leaders to pay more attention to research, said Rieke.

Rieke said research should be treated as the backbone of the countrys development. Research is based on science and should be aimed at improving many sectors in the country, she went on.

Meanwhile, LIPI acting chairman Bambang Subiyanto said the institute would see a small increase in its budget allocation in 2018.

The research budget will increase by 18 percent or around Rp 1.41 billion [$104,266, he said. (vla/ebf)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Marguerite Afra Sapiie (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, December 20, 2017 11:38 1793 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e4e604 1 Politics Hadi-Tjahjanto,Gatot-Nurmantyo,TNI,military,politics Free

New Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto has revoked the rotations of 16 of 85 high-ranking officers ordered by former commander Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo earlier this month.

The cancellations were set out in a TNI commander decree letter dated Dec. 19 that has been circulating among the press and has been confirmed by TNI officials. The letter was issued more than a week after Hadi was officially inaugurated by President Joko Jokowi Widodo on Dec. 8.

"Yes, it's true. A few [of the rotations] have been revised according to the organization's needs," TNI spokesperson Maj. Gen. Sabrar Fadhilah told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

The cancellations include the rotation of Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) commander Lt. Gen. Edy Rahmayadi, who was previously set to be assigned to the Army headquarters ahead of his planned retirement and his plan to run in the 2018 North Sumatra gubernatorial election.

His planned replacement, the Army Chief of Staffs operation assistant Maj.Gen. Sudirman, will also remain in his current post, according to the letter.

The timing of the mass rotation ordered by Gatot has been called into question, as it came on the heels of the announcement of Hadi's sole candidacy as Gatots successor. (kmt/rin)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, December 20, 2017 21:05 1793 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e6480d 1 Business Apkasi,expo,2018,BSD Free

The Regency Administrations Association (APKASI) expects to record at least Rp 2.2 trillion (US$154 million) in transactions during the 2018 Autonomy Expo, to be held in BSD City, Tangerang, Banten on July 6-8 next year.

"We hope that all regencies will use this opportunity to attract investments that can boost their local economy, APKASI secretary general Nurdin Abdullah said in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, APKASIs head of business and regional development, Syaifudin Kai, said each regency was expected to showcase its investment opportunities and tourist sites during the event, as well as to promote their potential commodities.

He believed the expo would be an opportune place for regional administrations to promote their respective regencies.

Last years Autonomy Expo resulted in Rp 2 trillion worth of transaction.

"The Tegal regency, for example, collected Rp 500 billion in investments to develop a port project," Syaifuding said.

North Lombok Regent Najmul Akhyar added that last year, North Lombok attracted a foreign investor who would be developing Gili Trawangan Beach as a tourist area.

He added that his administration was currently in talks with potential investors about five projects in tourism and the agriculture sector.

About 200 regencies took part in the 2017 Autonomy Exo, which received more than 10,000 visitors. (srs/bbn)

Topics : Apkasi expo 2018 BSD
DECATUR  Coffee in the morning and beer at night can be considered a way of life.

The two are a natural marriage not only for your taste buds, but also in their methods of production. That's how a Decatur coffee roasting company came to partner in the opening of a new brewery in Decatur that will serve both cold-brew coffee and as many as 36 styles of craft beer. Door 4 Brewing Co. is set to open at 3 p.m. today in the lower level of the Marquis Beverages campus, 1234 W. Cerro Gordo St.

With about $1 million invested in the project and with the capacity to brew up to 155,000 gallons of beer a year, majority co-owner Tim Fyke said the business owners are doing everything they can to establish themselves as a Central Illinois destination.

I think breweries are the new bar, he said. Its the place people go to connect, to socialize, rather than go on their cell phones.

Fyke is joined in the venture by his wife Aimee Fyke, operating partner Charlie McGorray and DJ Cooper, general manager of Marquis Beverage. Along with a 3,500-square-foot taproom that can seat 72 to 80 people, the business could begin distributing beer and cold-brew coffee throughout Macon County as early as next spring.

I think, from a humorous side, (the saying) goes 'beers at night and coffee in the morning,' so were covering all the beverages, Cooper said. But they do complement one another ... There is a market out there, so it is a good fit.

Door 4 will be the city's second brewery, joining Decatur Brew Works, which opened in downtown Decatur in January 2016 and quickly developed a diverse fan base who come to the business for trivia nights, yoga and even running events.

Door 4s business partners say dont see themselves as competition for the existing brewery. McGorray said hes worked with the operators of Brew Works and is friendly with them, and he believes the welcoming nature of the craft beer business can help the two thrive going forward.

By having a larger brewery along with Decatur Brew Works, I think that will bring people in from Springfield, Bloomington, Champaign and the surrounding communities, McGorray said. Theyre outside dollars coming into the city that would not be coming here normally.

Dreux Lewandowski, co-founder of Decatur Brew Works, said he and his business partners have been pursuing same mission for two years, trying to convert people to craft beer and attract visitors to the area.

"Any business, especially a sister business, is one that we will support," he said. "We hope that having both breweries in town will bring more new people to Decatur."

Parallel paths

The opening of Door 4 has been years in the making, with Cooper and Fyke each searching for an opportunity to enter a new market until their plans converged last year.

About three years ago, Marquis Beverage started to work on making a nitrogen-infused cold-brew coffee, which is said to yield coffee that is sweeter, smoother and less acidic. After about a year of testing and working out a formula, Cooper said he realized the challenges that could come with mass production of the coffee, such as extended refrigeration and other equipment not typically found at a coffee roastery. To make the coffee in bulk, Cooper said he realized it would be important to partner with a brewery, as they would already have most of the equipment needed to produce cold-brew coffee.

But Cooper couldn't find a partner among breweries in the region, he said. Those he approached said they were too busy with their own businesses to work with Marquis.

Around the same time, Tim Fyke and McGorray had been searching in vain for a spot in Decatur to build a brewery. They looked at seven or eight spots, but the pair said they still could not find a place that matched the vibe they were seeking.

Eventually McGorray, a friend of the Cooper family who has helped work on the cold-brew coffee project, realized a partnership could help solve all of their problems. Within a month, they finalized an agreement and decided to locate the brewery in the first floor of the Marquis Beverage campus, which before had been used to store cars and boats.

The idea, Cooper said, was for the business owners to support each other while pursuing their separate projects.

As we talked, we went, 'We want to brew the coffee' and (Fyke) went, 'We want to brew the beer,' Cooper said. It came together pretty quick, we had a deal together in a few weeks. So the reality is, Tim is the beer guy, Im the coffee guy, and weve gone from there.

Along with the cold-brew coffee on tap, the brewery will also have a number of coffee beers to go along with the more traditional styles of beer, such as India Pale Ales. Fyke said they hope to have 10 of their own beers on tap in the coming weeks. Brewmaster Jimmy Misner will have creative control over what styles to brew going forward.

One thing that will not open with the brewery is the Door 4 Brewing Co. Food Truck, which became a hit this summer at its main location on West South Side Drive. The citys zoning ordinance only allows food trucks and other temporary facilities to operate between March 15 and Nov. 30. McGorray said they plan to make a formal proposal to the city council to adjust the policy once the brewery is up and running.

Fruitful friendship

Fyke has had a firsthand look at how to build a successful beer business through his longtime friendship with Adam Avery, a Decatur native who has established himself as one of the bigger names in the craft beer industry. His Avery Brewing Co., founded in Boulder, Colo. in 1993, distributes beer in 38 states and the District of Columbia, as well as in Japan and Sweden. In 2015, its revenue projections were $25.6 million.

Fyke was there for Avery from the beginning. The two have been friends since the fifth grade, attending school together at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School and St. Teresa High School, Avery said in a phone interview Monday. Fyke was among the earliest supporters of Avery Brewing Co., traveling to Colorado to help bottle beers after it opened.

Avery returned the favor, encouraging his friend to follow his dream and tap into the Decatur craft beer market. He had been surprised whenever he came home to visit to see that Decatur has not followed the trend of cities like Springfield or Bloomington, where a handful of larger breweries have been founded in the past decade.

Along with words of encouragement, Avery also had Misner visit Boulder for several weeks earlier this year to train with the staff at his brewery.

With the combination of market, unique pairing of beer and coffee and Fykes business skills, Avery said hes sure Door 4 can make Decatur a bigger player in the local craft beer scene.

(Fyke is) a bulldog, literally, since we both went to St. Teresa, Avery said with a laugh, referring to the school's mascot. So when I call him a bulldog, I mean it.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Arya Dipa (The Jakarta Post) Bandung, West Java  Wed, December 20, 2017 19:30 1793 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e61a70 1 Politics ridwan-kamil,PKB,PPP,Bandung-mayor,West-Java,West-Java-gubernatorial-election Free

Bandung Mayor Ridwan Kamil said he would immediately speak with the central executive boards of the United Development Party (PPP) and the National Awakening Party (PKB) to discuss running mates for the West Java gubernatorial election next year.

The two parties need to carry out intensive communication to detail [my deputy governor candidate]. So, I cannot yet convey to you who will be my running mate. Both parties want more time to discuss opinions and survey results, said Ridwan in Bandung on Wednesday.

Ridwan had asked for input from West Java leaders after attending a forum that presented possible deputy governor candidates Tasikmalaya Regent Uu Uzhanul Ulum, Golkar Party member Daniel Muttaqien, House of Representatives member Maman Imanulhaq of the PKB, West Javas NasDem Party regional executive board chairman Saan Mustopa, West Javas PKB regional executive board chairman Saiful Huda and Asep Maoshul, a House member from the PPP.

Ridwan said he had communicated with parties supporting his candidacy.

A meeting between Ridwan and his supporting parties has been scheduled to take place in Jakarta on Thursday.

It is probable I will depart for Jakarta tomorrow [Thursday], and I will strive to meet with DPP [central executive board] officials of the two parties in the evening, Ridwan said. (ebf)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Ivany Atina Arbi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, December 20, 2017 15:30 1793 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e5711e 1 City #Jakarta,#Narcotics,#BNN,#drugs Free

Jakarta Deputy Governor Sandiaga Uno has declared that the administration will take a hard stance in its fight against drug trafficking in the capital, including a "shoot to kill" policy for drug dealers that resist arrest.

We are serious [in fighting drugs], we will 810 drug dealers who try to evade authorities' pursuit, Sandiaga recently said at City Hall, referring to the police code for shooting and killing a potential suspect that attempts to flee arrest.

He added that the administration had been cooperating with the Jakarta Narcotics Agency.

Amnesty International Indonesia recorded that at least 80 suspected drug dealers were shot dead this year by law enforcement personnel, a significant increase from 18 last year.

The growing number of shooting deaths by law enforcement has raised concerns that the country's fight against drugs could follow in the footsteps of the controversial anti-drug policy in the Philippines.

Amnesty International recorded that 7,000 people had been killed up to February 2017 in anti-drug operations in the Philippines, which has reportedly been tainted by many irregularities.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, December 20, 2017 13:30 1793 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e5361c 1 Business traveloka,Blue-Bird,cooperation Free

Online travel company Traveloka has enlisted Indonesias leading taxi firm, Blue Bird, to provide transportation for its customers in 10 Indonesian cities.

The collaboration, announced at a press conference on Tuesday, allows customers to book taxis in advance along with their flights and hotels.

Publicly listed PT Blue Bird offers customers a range of vehicles including limousines and mini buses at airports in Jakarta, Surabaya, Bandung, Denpasar and Medan among others.

Those who opt to take Blue Bird shuttle buses can also book and pay for tickets in advance.

Traveloka senior vice president of business development, Caesar Indra, said at the joint press conference that his firm had agreed to collaborate with Blue Bird because it had built and maintained a good reputation for decades, which would give customers added assurance.

"We decided to partner with Traveloka because we have the same vision, which will promote further expansion and development," Blue Bird director Sigit Priawan Djokosoetono added.

He also said the collaboration offered more airport transfer options to customers, rather than just taxis. (sha/bbn)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Carole Landry (Agence France-Presse) New York, United States  Wed, December 20, 2017 10:53 1793 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e477ef 2 World UN,Jerusalem,US,trump Free

US Ambassador Nikki Haley on Tuesday warned countries that she will report back to President Donald Trump with the names of those who support a draft resolution rejecting the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The UN General Assembly will hold an emergency session Thursday to vote on the proposed measure that the United States vetoed at the Security Council.

"The president will be watching this vote carefully and has requested I report back on those countries who voted against us," said the letter from Haley seen by AFP.

"We will take note of each and every vote on this issue," she wrote to several UN ambassadors.

On Twitter, Haley posted on Twitter that "the US will be taking names" during the vote on Thursday at the 193-nation assembly.

Turkey and Yemen requested the urgent meeting on behalf of the Arab group of countries and the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

The two countries circulated a draft resolution on Tuesday that mirrors the vetoed measure, reaffirming that any decision on the status of Jerusalem has no legal effect and must be rescinded.

Egypt had put forward the draft at the council which was backed by all 14 other Security Council members in the vote on Monday.

Like the Egyptian draft, the text before the assembly does not mention Trump's decision but expresses "deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem."

Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour said he expected "overwhelming support" for the measure stating that Jerusalem is an issue "to be resolved through negotiations" between Israel and the Palestinians.

"The General Assembly will say, without the fear of the veto, that the international community is refusing to accept the unilateral position of the United States," Mansour told reporters.

No country has veto powers in the General Assembly, contrary to the council where the United States, along with Britain, China, France and Russia, can block any resolution.

Trump's December 6 decision to recognize Jerusalem broke with international consensus, triggering protests across the Muslim world and drawing strong condemnation.

Key US allies Britain, France, Italy, Japan and Ukraine were among the 14 countries in the 15-member council that voted in favor of the measure.

Topics : UN Jerusalem US trump
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin Carla Bianpoen and Stevie Emilia (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, December 21 2017

Undeterred by continuing commercial quiet in the art world, Indonesias artists and enthusiasts go the extra mile, infusing the art scene with astounding creative energy.

INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS



A selected number of artists have been busy creating works based on colonial history for the 2017 Europalia Arts Festival, an international biannual arts and culture festival in Europe, which this year took Indonesia as its focus country.



At the four-month festival, which runs until Jan. 21 next year, Indonesia aims to showcase the countrys diversity by presenting nearly 250 programs.



Meanwhile, a number of artists took part in the exhibition Sunshower: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia 1980s to Now, held at the Mori Museum and the National Art Center in Tokyo, which is now on its way to Fukuoka.



While it is not immediately known how many other international events have included Indonesian artists, it seems there was a huge amount of creative energy on the move.



Given the abovementioned successes, the outlook for next year is fairly optimistic.

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
Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) staff members examine food at a supermarket in Kota Kasablanka mall in South Jakarta on Wednesday. The agency held the inspection to ensure food safety ahead of Christmas and New Year. During the inspection, the agency found several unlicensed food products containing harmful substances as well as expired products.(JP/Seto Wardhana)(BPOM) staff members examine food at a supermarket in Kota Kasablanka mall in South Jakarta on Wednesday. The agency held the inspection to ensure food safety ahead of Christmas and New Year. During the inspection, the agency found several unlicensed food products containing harmful substances as well as expired products.(JP/Seto Wardhana)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Geneva, Switzerland  Wed, December 20, 2017 18:46 1793 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e5f535 2 SE Asia Myanmar,Rakhine,rights-issue,UN Free

The UN's rights envoy for Myanmar said Wednesday the government had banned her from the country, adding her exclusion suggests something "awful" is happening in Rakhine state.

UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee had been due to visit Myanmar in January to assess the state of human rights across the country including in Rakhine, which was plunged into crisis by a military crackdown on the Rohingya minority Muslim community in late August.

Some 655,000 of them have fled for Bangladesh since then, with accounts of arson, murder and rape at the hands of soldiers and vigilante mobs in the mainly Buddhist country.

The UN has accused troops of ethnic cleansing and possible "elements of genocide" against the Rohingya -- charges the government vigorously denies as it faces intense global outrage.

"I am puzzled and disappointed by this decision by the Myanmar government," said Lee, who is required to go to the country twice a year in order to report to the Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly.

"This declaration of non-cooperation with my mandate can only be viewed as a strong indication that there must be something terribly awful happening in Rakhine, as well as in the rest of the country," she added.

The South Korean academic said she was told the decision was based on a statement she made after her last visit to Myanmar in July, in which she sharply criticised the government's rights record and its treatment of the Rohingya.

At the time the government criticized the statement as "biased and unfair".

The UN confirmed Myanmar had withdrawn all cooperation for the duration of Lee's tenure.

Myanmar's government spokesman Zaw Htay said Lee had been barred because she was not unbiased.

"She is not impartial and objective while conducting her work. There is no trust on her," the spokesman said.

Lee, who has visited Myanmar six times since 2014, has consistently sounded the alarm over the persecution of the Rohingya.

The stateless group has been targeted by bouts of violence and systematically stripped of legal rights in recent decades.

But the latest crisis is the worst to rip through Rakhine state in years.

Myanmar has blocked journalists and investigators -- including a UN fact-finding team -- from independently accessing the conflict zone.
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Straits Times/Asia News Network) Kuala Lumpur  Wed, December 20, 2017 13:38 1793 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e54a17 2 News AirAsia,Firefly,flight-attendants,Malaysia,Airlines,#airlines Free

Two Malaysian ruling party lawmakers have chided home-grown airlines AirAsia and Firefly for dressing their stewardesses in uniforms that are "too revealing".

Senator Abdullah Mat Yasim, a division chief of the ruling Umno party, said in Parliament that the fitted attire of AirAsia's and Firefly's female flight attendants can "arouse passengers", reported the New Straits Times.

The "eye-catching outfits" also do not reflect the status of Islam as the official religion of Malaysia, Datuk Abdullah added, according to the newspaper.

"The Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) must really look into this," he said when debating the Mavcom (Amendment) Bill 2017 in Parliament on Monday.

His view was supported by Senator Megat Zulkarnain Omardin, who suggested that the airlines redesign the uniforms.

"My wife is worried whenever I fly alone on Malindo or AirAsia," quipped Datuk Megat, who is also general secretary of the Malaysian National Silat Federation.

Read also: Malaysian hotel industry in the spotlight over no-headscarf uniform policy

"This is a real hassle for me," he said, drawing laughter from other members of the Dewan Negara, or Upper House of Parliament.

Mr Abdullah said that the flight attendant uniforms of Malindo Air, a Malaysian-Indonesian budget carrier, were "acceptable", the NST reported. The uniforms are also body hugging, but at least the "sensitive areas" are covered, he was quoted as saying.

He was praised by the assembly's deputy president for highlighting the issue. "This is a good topic that many people can relate to as they always take flights," said Datuk Seri Abdul Halim Abd Samad .

It was the second time in two weeks that the uniforms of flight attendants have been spotlighted in the Upper House, or Senate, whose 70 members carry the senator title. Malaysia's 222 Members of Parliament occupy the Dewan Rakyat, or Lower House.

Last week, Senator Hanafi Mamat from Kelantan said that flight attendants should wear "syariah-compliant" uniforms as Malaysia is an Islamic country.

Tourists might get the wrong impression of Malaysia if flight stewardesses dress up "sexily and disrespectfully", he said.

Topics :

This article appeared on The Straits Times newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, December 20, 2017 11:03 1793 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e4bf63 1 News bali,Mount-Agung,tourism,Garuda-Indonesia,Airlines Free

Following the recent eruptions at Mount Agung, national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia president director Pahala N. Mansury said Bali had seen a 15 percent decrease in the number of foreign tourists visiting the island.

As reported by tempo.co, the number of domestic tourists to Bali had also decreased, especially after the alert level at Mt. Agung was raised to its highest level.

Pahala said he expects countries that had issued travel warnings would now reassure their citizens it was safe to visit Bali. He also called on the government to reassure foreign governments that it was safe for their citizens to travel, especially China, one of Indonesia's biggest source of tourists.

Read also: Bali offers up to 50 percent discounts to tourists: Minister

During the Christmas and New Year holidays, it has been reported that the national flag carrier will adjust its fares for flights to Denpasar, Bali, in a bid to boost tourist visits.

Separately, Ngurah Rai International Airport general manager Yanus Suprayogi said up to 477 additional flights had been proposed by Garuda to accommodate for the high demand during the year-end holidays. "During year-end, Bali has always been the most popular destination for domestic and foreign travelers," said Yanus.

He said the addition of hundreds of flights, or around 80,000 seats, had been proposed by five national airlines, namely Citilink, Garuda Indonesia, Lion Air, Nam Air and Sriwijaya Air, with the most popular routes including Surabaya, Jakarta, Makassar, Labuan Bajo, Waingapu, Lombok and Maumere. (kes)
Share this article Whatsapp

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, December 20, 2017 11:37 1793 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2e4e570 1 News Tourism-Ministry,#tourism,Tourist,tourist-arrivals,bali,#Bali,Mount-Agung Free

The Tourism Ministry has set a target to attract 7 million foreign tourists to Bali next year.

Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said the target was not reduced as the number of foreign tourists visiting Bali were lower when compared to 25 million and 32 million foreign tourist arrivals in Malaysia and Thailand, respectively.

He said that Bangkok welcomed 18 million tourists per year, adding that Bali actually had more to offer than the capital of Thailand.

Tempo.co reported that the ministrys target to attract 6 million foreign tourists to Bali in 2017 would not be achieved.

Read also: Bali remains most popular destination for Middle Eastern tourists

As of October, Bali had actually welcomed 5 million foreign tourists. However, the recent volcanic activity of Mount Agung in Karangasem saw the rate of foreign tourist arrivals slow.

Arief said that although the ministry had failed to achieve its target, the Bali administrations target of attracting 5.5 million foreign tourists had been achieved.

To boost tourist arrivals, the ministry is currently spending Rp 100 billion (US$7.36 million) to promote Bali. (jes/kes)
DECATUR  The Decatur defendant charged with luring an Effingham man to his death in a cannabis heist failed on Tuesday to get his $5 million bond reduced.

Keirsean M. Bond, through his attorney, Monroe McWard, had pleaded for the bond to be reset between $50,000 and $100,000, so he could then afford to post the 10 percent required and walk out of the Macon County Jail.

But Judge Thomas Griffith, acknowledging $5 million was very substantial, said it was also necessary for Bond who faces five counts of first degree murder. ... I believe at this time the bond is appropriate to ensure the safety of the community, Griffith added.

Bond, 26, is pleading not guilty to what Griffith described as the execution-style shooting death of Todd Feldkamp, 48, whose body was found Nov. 18 behind a house in the 1600 block of North Edward Street. A 25-year-old man, also from Effingham who traveled with Feldkamp, survived with gunshot wounds.

Police reports said Feldkamp and his companion came to Decatur thinking they were going to be able to sell a large quantity of cannabis. Assistant States Attorney, Kate Kurtz, said Bond had originally met the wounded man in prison and it was Bond, working with him, who set up the drug deal.

Police have acknowledged that Bond was not the gunman and an unknown accomplice he brought to the drug deal rendezvous did the shooting.

Griffith asked if the second suspect had been identified or arrested yet, and Kurtz told him he had not.

And Mr. Bond could certainly lend credence to that situation? asked the judge, meaning he could name his accomplice so police can arrest him. And he has chosen not to, repeatedly, replied Kurtz.

Arguing the bond reduction motion earlier, McWard said Bond needed out of jail so he could support his wife and four young children. McWard said Bond was a qualified truck driver and had a job waiting for him.

McWard did acknowledge Bond had not only the murder charge hanging over him but also a pending charge involving the distribution and manufacture of cocaine. But he said Bond had never missed a court appearance and could be trusted to show up.

But Kurtz had objected, arguing Bond posed a danger to the public and his past included several previous convictions for drug crimes. He may have a history of showing up for court, but that is because he has so many court cases, said Kurtz. He comes to this court with a lengthy and serious criminal history.
Could something finally be happening at this stalled Lower East Side construction site? The beginnings of a 12-story residential building at 208 Delancey St. have been a neighborhood eyesore for several years. Now The Real Deal reports that a group of investors has finally unloaded the site for $29 million.

According to the story, the development parcel with frontages on Delancey and Pitt streets, was sold to New Empire Real Estate Development, which is, managing the project for a developer based in the Chinese second-tier city of Wuhan.

In 2011, The Lo-Down first reported that 53 investors had pooled their resources to buy five parcels for $8.5 million. They planned to build a 69-unit condo project with 8300 square feet for ground floor commercial use. Construction got underway but then stopped. A deal to sell the site collapsed with the seller and prospective buyer tangling in court.

Andy Zhu, heading up the original investment group, told The Real Deal, The Lower East Side is better for rentals. We dont do a lot of rentals.

No documents have showed up in city records just yet, so well have to wait to find out what the new owners have in mind.
A recent visit to the fashionable city of Milan left me bursting with creative inspiration thanks to its rich artistic culture, impressive variety of art galleries, and stunning architecture.

As a result of this inspiration I created a collection of illustrations depicting my favourite parts of the city. There may be many guides to Milan out there, but none like this one. Instead of bombarding you with photos, let me guide your imagination through Milans beauty via artwork, and inspire you to one day go and see it for yourself.

Visit the Piazza del Duomo

Milans number one attraction by far just has to be il Duomo. This massive, Gothic cathedral is one of the largest in the world, an impressive architectural masterpiece that took around 600 years to complete! Standing in the geographic centre of Milan, its an icon of the citys art, culture, and history. Visits to the interior and roof are so popular that queues line the square every day. But if, like me, youre unable to find time to wait in line, dont worry, its so spectacular from the outside that there is plenty enough marvelling to be done. Fun fact: there are more statues on this building than any other in the world, with a total of 3,159!

The Piazza (square) del Duomo also has a lot more to offer: for museums and galleries Id strongly recommend the Palazzo Reale for fine art, and the neighbouring Museo del Novecento for more contemporary art. Home to la Rinascente department store and the elegant Galleria Vittorio Emanuele shopping mall (think Gucci, Prada, Versace) the Piazza is also a shopaholics paradise. While youre there, dont forget to visit the mosaic of the dancing bull and spin on its balls weirdest tradition ever, I know, but its renowned for giving you good luck.

Explore Navigli

Milans canal district, Navigli is the place to be for art enthusiasts. As you explore this up-and-coming part of the city youll discover a whole host of small galleries nestled into canal-side streets, where you can appreciate the talent of well-known artists and young, local artists alike. As well as being home to a variety of small shops, authentic Milanese restaurants, and some great gelato places, its also where you can visit the Basilica di San Lorenzo, which was consecrated in the late fourth century, making it one of the oldest churches in Milan. Dont forget to stick around until the sun sets over the canal: watching the transformation as darkness falls and the lights come on is truly magical.

Discover the Cimitero Monumentale

It may seem odd to recommend a city cemetery as a tourist destination, but a visit to the Cimitero Monumentale is a must

The spectacular mausoleums, sculptures, and monuments here truly are works of art made to be admired, making walking through the grounds feel like exploring an outdoor gallery exhibit. I could lose myself in there for hours on end, its just so touching to regard the haunting beauty of what love for another can make people create, even after they have passed on from this life. Be warned though, some of the sculptures are eerily lifelike, I swear I felt some of their eyes following me around as I passed through  unlike Navigli, this not a place Id be eager to visit at night!

Take a day trip to Bergamo

As wonderful as the city of Milan is, Italys Lombardy region also has a lot of other fascinating destinations to offer. One such destination worth mentioning is Bergamo; thanks to its proximity to Milan, you can be there in under an hour (via double decker train!), making it perfect for a day trip.

Bergamo is particularly interesting in that its divided into two parts: the Citta Bassa, or lower city, and the Citta Alta, the upper city. Though the lower city is very lively, the upper city certainly steals the show! Suspended above the lower city, it makes for some dramatic scenery, and after taking the two-minute funicular railway journey upwards, you can enjoy incredible views looking down from Citta Altas fortified Venetian city walls.

Bergamo is a UNESCO world heritage site swimming in history, with the ancient town first being founded by the Celts, and then becoming a Roman municipality in 49 BC. Bergamos Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, as illustrated, is considered the most prestigious monument in the city. Founded in 1137, its exterior is rich in ornate architecture and its interior is decorated with tapestries and wood carvings so precious that you arent even allowed to take photos!

Brush up on Coffee Etiquette

It may seem like a stereotype, but the Milanese really do enjoy their coffee. And little did I know before I visited, there seems to be many rules of coffee etiquette that it might be handy to learn! For example:

Milky coffees are morning coffees only. A cappuccino after 11am? Are you mad!?

In Milan it seems unusual to sit down and enjoy a coffee slowly; dont be surprised if you find youre expected to down your coffee whilst standing at the bar.

A caffe, is not (as I thought) the direct translation for a standard coffee, its actually an espresso. So, if youre a coffee wimp like me, watch out, its going to be a lot more powerful than you were expecting.

Please never say expresso but thats just a tip for life in general!

________________________________________________________________________
Looking for a post-Christmas getaway before the New Year kicks in?

In the run up to December 25th and beyond,

we'll be counting down the best spots for a festive break - so go on, soak up the atmosphere whilst the lights are still sparkling and the festivities are still in full swing...

Helsinki is a spectacular sight during the festive period - here are just a few of the highlights.

Christmas Market

The Helsinki Christmas Market is one of the oldest and largest events on the Finnish calendar, attracting thousands of tourists and locals every year. It usually runs throughout December and oozes relaxation, overindulgence and good times.

Overlooked by a beautiful 19th Century cathedral, the market is filled to the brim with around 100 different stalls offering an abundance of hand-crafted gifts, festive ornaments, and locally produced food and drink.

Buying gifts from the market will also support local Finnish artists and shops.

Winter warmer

Whilst youre wandering around the market, stop off for a quick tipple.

Glogi is one of the traditions of Finnish Christmas; hot red wine, mulled together with spices such as cinnamon, sugar, clove.

Sounds pretty similar to the classic European mulled wine, right? The Scandinavians add a little twist: almonds and raisins to give a little bite at the bottom of your cup, and optional (Haha, yeah right. Chuck it in!) vodka or rum to give it that extra kick.

Grab a bite

Do yourself a favour, and find something to soak up some of that glogi.

Joulutorttu, literally meaning in Finnish Christmas tart, is star-shaped puff pastry filled with prune jam and covered in icing sugar. The ultimate Christmas dream, am I right?

These sweet treats are mainly made in Finland, but also pop up in Sweden. Fun fact: the Swedish media actually accused the Finnish pastry-makers of shaping their joulutorttu like swastikas. Hmm

Ice Skating

The ultimate romantic festive activity or a complete disaster. Either way, youll have a laugh at one of Helsinkis seven artificial ice rinks dotted around the city.

Ice Park in the centre of the city gives you the choice of spectating from the warmth of the indoor cafe with a cup of hot chocolate, or competing with the pros in the rink.

Rent skates or bring your own, and enjoy the lively atmosphere in one of the top ten ice rinks in the world.

The Winter Circus

A trip to Helsinki over the festive period wouldnt be complete without visiting the Winter Circus.

Bringing together acrobats, magicians, dancers, musicians, and virtuosos of every kind, the Winter Circus has become a winter time tradition for many Finnish families.

Enjoy the video art, magic shows, trapeze artists, live music, and professional circus stars from around the globe at this terribly affordable, family-friendly show.
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.
DECATUR  An attorney defending a Decatur father accused of shaking his own baby to death is hoping to hire an independent forensic expert to review critical medical evidence.

Karen Root, who is representing Duan L. Lewis, 24, told Macon County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Griffith that she had found an expert willing to review the case. Her problem now, she said in a pretrial hearing Tuesday, is coming up with the money to pay the experts fees.

Questioned by Griffith, Root said she had applied for a grant that would cover the costs, if it comes through.

Well, the grant has been submitted and were waiting to find out whether its approved, she added. But she (the independent expert) has agreed to look at it (the evidence) regardless; she may not go any further until she gets paid, but shes looking at it pro bono at this point.

Lewis is charged with causing the injuries that led to the death of 5-month-old Daniya Lewis who died March 28 after suffering severe head trauma. Lewis, who has pleaded not guilty, is being held in the Macon County Jail.

Griffith wondered out loud how far he should put the trial date back while the defense waits to see if its expert will get paid.

Assistant Macon County States Attorney Lindsey Shelton preferred putting the date back far enough to ensure the issue is settled one way or the other. She said she did not want to risk setting a trial date she would have to later cancel because the prosecution also has a big list of medical witnesses who are pressed for time.

We do expect a lot of doctors will have to be subpoenaed in this case, so we dont want to schedule it before were ready, Shelton said.

Griffith agreed to schedule a pretrial hearing for Jan. 23 when the court will assess where the case stands.
In the midst of mounting concerns about Elections 2017, Dr. Togba-Nah Tipoteh says that the Way Forward is action through the Rule of Law. Dr. Tipoteh made his Statement on the Way Forward over the weekend after reflecting on the increasingly numerous expressions of concerns about Elections 2017.

At the outset of his Statement, Dr. Tipoteh reminds us about his decision to step out of the Presidential Race because the 2017 Elections would not be fair. He said that the Election would not be fair because the National Elections Commission (NEC) did not have a credible Voter Registration Roll, without which it is universally considered that it is impossible to have any fair election.

Prior to his stepping out of the Presidential Race, Dr. Tipoteh, in his persistent efforts to promote fair elections, took the NEC Chairman to the Supreme Court of Liberia, claiming that the NEC Chairman must be removed from NEC because he is a citizen of the United States of America (USA), thereby violating the Rule of Law in Liberia. Dr. Tipoteh produced information provided by the USA government indicating that the NEC Chairman was sworn in as a USA citizen on December 21, 2007 with the naturalization number 30628201, having voted in the 2008 and 2016 USA Presidential Election, while he was residing in New Jersey, USA.

When the Tipoteh versus the NEC Chairman case was in the Supreme Court, Dr. Tipoteh observed that no Presidential Candidate in Liberia supported the case against the NEC Commissioner. However, Dr. Tipoteh, and most importantly, Liberia received support from the ECOWAS Authority and the African Union (AU when President Alpha Conde of Guinea made a Statement in Liberia, stressing the indispensability of the Rule of Law in the Electoral Process.

Through his Statement, Dr. Tipoteh is bringing to the attention of the People of Liberia and Friends of Liberia that the failure to follow the Rule of Law, as seen in the absence of a credible Voter Registration Roll, not to mention the unconstitutional performance of the NEC Chairman in his support for unfair elections, mentioned in the Senate, and the irrelevance of the Voter Registration Roll, stated in a Press Conference, denounced by NEC Commissioner Jonathan Weedor, led to the recognition of electoral irregularities in the October 2017 Election by the Supreme Court. According to Dr. Tipoteh, all of the unnecessary election-related tension and the potential for violence could have been prevented if there had been support for the Rule of Law, in practical terms, by the Political Parties prior to the October 10th Election. Nevertheless, Dr. Tipoteh asserts that it is never late to do the right thing, as in following the Rule of Law. Therefore, the "better than late" court actions of some Political Parties should be welcomed by all patriotic Liberians and not be considered as waste of time or delay tactics, especially after the People of Liberia have gone through the horrific Liberian Civil War experiences.

As the Supreme Court is the highest Court if Liberia, the Rule of Law, Dr. Tipoteh reminds us, calls for obeying the decisions of the Supreme Court. However, patriotic Liberians have a patriotic duty to use the Rule of Law to help the Supreme Court to follow the Rule of Law, as the Justices are all human beings and only God does not make mistake. Dr. Tipoteh says that the Supreme Court could use some patriotic help in its decisions related to the Code of Conduct and the Run-Off/Re-Run, respectively. In the case of the Code of Conduct, Dr. Tipoteh points out that any violation is a violation that must be punished, as there is no small or big violation. According to Dr. Tipoteh, it is essentially the overlooking of what some persons call small stealing that has led to corruption that has now become the uncontrollable vampire. In the case of the Run-Off/Re-Run, as the Court admits to the existence of irregularities in the October 10th Election, NEC must be punished by having a new and credible set of Commissioners to conduct the Re-Run of the Election. Dr. Tipoteh maintains that an unclean entity like NEC can not be ordered to render the unclean Final Registration Roll (FRR) unclean, which is like calling upon the blind to lead the blind, a COMPLETE NONSTARTER. Money arguments would be unacceptable here, Dr. Tipoteh insists, because by doing the wrong thing, no amount of money could bring back the life of one person who dies from electoral violence. Dr. Tipoteh concludes his Statement by calling on all Liberians and Friend of Liberia to do the right thing by following the Rule of Law to move Liberia forward for the better, as would be seen in the sustained improvement in the living standards of the People of Liberia.

Signed: Robert Cummings

Media Affairs Director





What is your take? Please post your comments below:


I was in Israel when Trump made his announcement recognizing Jerusalem as Israels capital. Initially, I thought Israelis would pour out into the streets celebrating this historic moment, but other than small chatter here and there, and some expressions of jubilation, not much else gripped the nation. On the Palestinian side, relatively small demonstrations broke out in the West Bank and Gaza, which continued in the following days with limited violence, and condemnation of the US declaration was heard from most Arab and Muslim capitals. This is pretty much where things stand today.



Perhaps it is too early to draw a definitive conclusion, but based on everything I have seen and heard while in the area and since then, not much more is likely to happen. The question that many people are asking is why, and could anything positive come out of this declaration?



About a year ago, when Trump initially stated his intention to relocate the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, I predicted that the move would have major consequences and may well destroy the prospect of a negotiated peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians based on a two-state solution.



Yes, this would have been the case had Trumps declaration been phrased in a manner that included East Jerusalem directly or indirectly as part of Israels capital, and ignored the need for a two-state solution. But this is not what happened. In fact, what he stated clearly implied that East Jerusalem was not part of the equation.



Regardless of how strongly I disagree with Trumps overall foreign policy, he was correct to state that: The record is in. After two decades of waiver [to relocate the US embassy to Jerusalem] we are no closer to a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Indeed, the final status of Jerusalem never constituted a make-or-break issue in any previous negotiations. Thus, there is no reason to assume that declaring Jerusalem as Israels capital affects East Jerusalem, when in fact everything else he stated  implicitly if not explicitly  was limited to West Jerusalem.



Jerusalem, he said, is the home of the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, as well as the Israeli Supreme Court. It is the location of the official residence of the Prime Minister and the President. It is the headquarters of many government ministries. All of these institutions are located in West Jerusalem, and none are likely to be relocated to East Jerusalem. The Trump administration made it clear to the Israelis that any such move will not be tolerated, as it will cause undue turmoil that would completely undermine the US efforts to advance the peace process.



Trump further noted in his declaration that Jerusalem is today, and must remain, a place where Jews pray at the Western Wall, where Christians walk the Stations of the Cross, and where Muslims worship at Al-Aqsa Mosque. This in no way is any different from what has been on the negotiating table in every set of peace talks since the 1993-1994 Oslo Accords. In fact, during the Olmert-Abbas negotiations in 2008, a basic agreement was reached on the future of Jerusalem along these lines to preserve the unity of the city.



Moreover, it is important to emphasize the fact that nearly thirty years ago the US leased land in West Jerusalem on which to build the future American embassy. It was not contemplated then and it is not expected now that the US embassy should or would be built in East Jerusalem.



No Israeli government, including the current one led by Netanyahu, has requested to build the American embassy on the East side of the city. Thus, the future building of the US embassy in West Jerusalem does not constitute recognition of Israels sovereignty over East Jerusalem.



From the Trump administrations perspective, there was nothing in his statement that is contrary to the premise that Jerusalem will still end up the capital of both Israeli and Palestinian states. In fact, it may engender a new momentum toward the resumption of peace negotiations, as the Palestinians now realize the longer they wait, the more ground they are likely to lose. Ive judged this course of action Trump said, to be in the best interests of the United States of America and the pursuit of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. This is a long-overdue step to advance the peace process and to work toward a lasting agreement.



Further in Trumps statement, he said: We are not taking a position of any final status issue, including the specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, or the resolution of contested borders. Those questions are up to the parties involved [emphasis added]. He further stated that The United States would support a two-state solution if agreed to by both sides. Neither of these assertions contradict in any way similar statements made by previous American administrations. Trump knows that the two-state solution remains the only practical option.



Even though President Abbas criticized Trump for his declaration, and pronounced the US as being biased and no longer an honest broker, the US (especially Congress and most previous administrations) has in fact always been biased in favor of the Israelis. That said, Abbas and all other heads of Arab states know that only the US can exert the kind of pressure on Israel to exact compromises central to reaching an agreement.



In return for Trumps announcement, Netanyahu quietly conceded not to expand the settlements outside the three blocks along the 1967 borders, and also to engage in confidence-building measures, especially joint economic development projects with the Palestinians.



Abbas may now be dismissive of the US critical role in negotiations with Israel, but neither he nor his successors can afford to ignore the US role in future negotiations and expect a peace agreement with Israel that meets the Palestinians basic requirements.



Most Arab states criticism of Trumps declaration, led by Saudi Arabia, was largely muted, not only because they are preoccupied with domestic and regional tensions, but because they understand the real implications of the declaration, which has little or no effect on the reality on the ground and the ultimate framework of a peace accord.



Notwithstanding the aforementioned, the EU has now an enhanced opportunity to play a significant role to guard the principle of a two-state solution by undertaking significant people-to-people confidence-building measures between Israelis and Palestinians. The EU can, in fact should, use its financial aid to the Palestinians and its extensive trade with Israel as a lever to effect significant change in the Israeli-Palestinian political climate, which is a prerequisite to substantive and successful peace negotiations.



To be sure, from my perspective, nothing in Trumps declaration fundamentally changes the principle of a two-state solution as a prerequisite to peaceful and enduring coexistence between Israel and the Palestinians. Those who claim that the two-state solution has all but vanished because of Trumps recognition of Israel seem to be engaged in illusions.

They have forgotten what the Zionist dream was all aboutthe creation of a Jewish state imbued with its long historic experiences, culture, religion, and identity, that can be secure and enduring only if it remains a Jewish and democratic state that offers a home with security to any Jew, and remains as such to eternity.



The one-state option defies every principle of the Zionist dream, and no Israeli government, regardless of its political orientation, will settle on anything less than a Jewish state with a sustainable Jewish majority to ensure the national identity of the state. To be sure, the current status quo is simply unsustainable.



Trumps declaration does not in any way foreclose the Palestinians aspiration to establish their own capital in East Jerusalem, while maintaining the unity of Jerusalem as a single city and as a microcosm of Israeli-Palestinian peaceful coexistence.

What is your take? Please post your comments below:


Global Witness and Tropenbos International condemn new law that rewards logging companies at the expense of Liberias people and call on Liberias donors to halt their support until it is overturned



The Liberian government has secretly given the countrys loggers a US$13 million tax break, subsidising companies at the expense of the country and forest communities. International NGOs Global Witness and Tropenbos International say the move has undone 15 years of reform.



Signed by Liberias President  and lauded economist  Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the law knocks a massive hole through Liberias budget. It also undermines the countrys efforts to mitigate climate change through preserving its forests and managing them for the benefit of its people.



David Young, Campaign Leader at Global Witness said: This is a disastrous move, which puts back efforts to halt climate change, whilst also massively short-changing the Liberian people. With such economically-irrational decisions being made on the future of Liberias forests, it is only right that partners providing budget support to Liberia and aid to its forest sector should now suspend that support until the law is overturned.



The law, known as the Forest Industrial Development and Employment Regime Act, was passed in October but only made public last week, at the height of Liberias election season. (1)

It effectively writes off US$13 million of Bid Premium (2) payments, funds owed by Liberias logging companies to the state and accrued over the past ten years. (3) For the next three years the companies will not need to pay what they owe. And the companies will be able to claim ill-defined investments accrued between 2016 and 2020 against this tax bill. Given the dismal state of companies past investments, not to mention their persistently poor delivery on their obligations to forest communities, (4) it is hard to see how this could possibly be in the interests of the Liberian people.



Young said: There is no logical explanation for why Liberia should be subsidising loggers who have persistently broken the law and now are failing even to pay the taxes they owe. Liberia is one of the worlds poorest countries, with projected budget in 2017-18 of just US$563 million (5)  this money would have made a huge difference to the Liberian people. Given the extent of high level corruption in Liberia, the inescapable question is what is motivating the government to do this?



The law also comes as a surprise given the heavy investments made by the UK, Norway, EU, and the US in reforming the forest sector and supporting the countrys poor finances. Donors contribute heavily to improving the rule of law in the forest sector and fighting climate change, including through a US$150 million agreement between Liberia and Norway. The EU not only helps the Liberias Forestry Development Authority, but between 2011 and 2015 also provided nearly US$ 128 million to boost the countrys budget.



(6) Young added: The choice is a stark one for Liberias donors: why should they spend millions helping Liberia, only for the Liberian government to give millions back to predatory logging companies? President Johnson Sirleaf should immediately issue an Executive Order overturning the law. Until she does, funds provided by the UK, Norway, EU and US for the forest sector and budget support should be suspended.

What is your take? Please post your comments below:


A battle over one vote has left control of the Virginia House of Delegates up in the air -- and headed for the winner's name to be drawn at random.

After a recount Tuesday had Democrat Shelly Simonds declaring victory by a margin of one vote over Republican Del. David Yancey and Virginia Republicans conceding defeat, a three-judge panel deliberating the recount Wednesday declared a previously uncounted vote for Yancey valid.

Virginia law says that in the event of a tie, the election board will determine the winner "by lot," after which point Republicans believe the loser can petition for another recount; however, there is some disagreement among Virginia election experts as to how the law should be applied in this case.

The panel's decision meant that what had been a one-vote victory for Simonds became a tie. A victory for the Democrat would split control of the House of Delegates 50-50 and end Republican control of the chamber, while a victory for the Republican would mean the GOP would continue in the majority.

A split would mean Virginia Republicans and Democrats must craft a power-sharing agreement, which would include committee assignments and who is elected speaker of the House.

In the initial count, Simonds had been behind by 10 votes, and the recount found her ahead instead by one vote.

Virginia Republicans released a statement Tuesday afternoon conceding the race after the "close recount" and said they "stood ready" to forge a bipartisan, power-sharing agreement for the chamber. But on Wednesday, Republicans asked the judges to look at an uncounted vote for Yancey, and the panel agreed, bringing the race to a tie.

"While it appeared yesterday that Shelly Simonds was elected, it's obvious now that the result will remain unclear for a while longer," Virginia House Republican leadership said in a statement Wednesday.

The statement continued, "The State Board of Elections will publicly meet to make a determination by drawing lots, after which the loser may request an additional recount."

The outsize impact of the one-vote margin came after other close results in off-year elections across the country. A city council race in Idaho came down to a coin toss and a recount Monday, resulting in the discovery of one new ballot that tilted the race for the incumbent. In the Alabama US Senate election earlier this month, a potentially decisive share of voters wrote in candidates in a race that saw Democrat Doug Jones defeat Republican Roy Moore.
"They all feel its the right thing to keep doing what theyve always done as a band, make new music"
It has been 34 years since U.S. farmers planted more soybeans than corn, but that just may happen in 2018.

Farmers have a love affair with corn. They love to plant it. They love to grow it. And they would much rather harvest corn than soybeans.

But they are quickly realizing that for the past few years they have made more money per acre raising soybeans than corn. That will tend to sour that love affair.

University of Illinois farm management specialist Gary Schnitkey has been telling farmers for the past five years their beans have made more money than their corn, but crop management transitions come slowly.

His most recent economic fact sheet indicated that the value of production, less total costs, indicated a positive return for soybeans, but a negative return for corn. And with more farmers visiting with lenders this year than last year, many lenders are making sure their new loan clients see that information.

But before the tearful breakup, and ordering more seed beans than seed corn for 2018, there will be a lot of planning and preparation that will need to be done.

The first and foremost is marketing the 2018 crop before even planting it; and that will take many farmers out of their comfort zone.

However, the commodity market is offering farmers a 2.62 to 1 price ratio for soybeans over corn, when a typical breakeven ratio would be about 2.3 to 1.

Taking advantage of that price now by marketing the 2018 soybean will ensure that price advantage. And since more than 80 percent of farmers now carry crop insurance to backstop them against a potential crop production issue, there is no reason it cannot be accomplished.

Waiting until the crop is made next year will find that ratio back to 2.3 to 1 or less and there is no advantage.

But there are other issues that will need to be addressed before planting more than the average number of soybean acres. Many of them are agronomic issues, and addressing those may need some consultation with trusted advisors. After all, Dad always said dont plant soybeans after soybeans. But when moving away from a typical 50-50 crop rotation, there will be some soybeans planted next spring where soybeans were harvested this fall.

Fertilizer is one key ingredient and since soybeans remove more potassium (K) from a field than corn, good soil tests should be taken this fall to ensure that a sufficient amount of K is present.

Most university research indicates nitrogen only becomes necessary when very high yielding beans are being raised, but other nutrients should be in a good balance.

Soybeans dont do well under stress, so keep them out of fields with a stressed environment. Plant your second year beans on fields that have better drainage, and they will be less apt to suffer from any root rot problems. How often have you scouted soybeans only to find watery tissue on stems and roots, and knowing it is disease fostered by poor soil drainage? That field is not the place to take advantage of higher soybean revenue.

When ordering seed beans for next year, invest in a good disease-resistant package offered by seed dealers. Get beans that have good resistance to soybean cyst nematode, brown stem rot, white mold, sudden death syndrome and phytophthora. Those will all neutralize any economic advantage of increased soybean acres, so use some strategy to get strong seed.

Many crop consultants also will recommend seed treatments that will provide protection against fungal issues, insects, and carry a biological treatment to enhance rapid growth next spring to establish a better crop with more vigor.

If you dont cover the potential agronomic challenges of soybeans after soybeans, then yields will potentially suffer, and the whole idea of planting more soybeans than corn in 2018 will be for naught. Crop management meetings will likely address more soybean management issues this winter because of the increased acreage potential.

How much increased acreage? Informa Economics last week projected 2018 soybean acreage at 91.387 million and corn at 89.675 million. There is a lot of time between now and planting, and a lot can change, but be prepared.
Japanese auto major Yamaha is conducting a feasibility study to evaluate possibility of launching electric two-wheelers in India, a top company executive said.

The company, which sells a range of bikes and scooters in the country, may also look at investing opportunities for power units and batteries for electric vehicles (EVs). Through the study, the company is also planning to assess if EVs could completely replace models that are run on internal combustion engines.

We are at present conducting a feasibility study in this area (electric two wheelers). Yamaha has an edge in this segment as we already have such products in other countries. Transferring such products to India, it is not so difficult, Yamaha Motor Research and Development India MD Yasuo Ishihara told PTI.

I believe that the EV products cannot be the complete replacement to the current internal combustion engines. This is the one of the biggest study points, Ishihara said.

In order to safeguard its position in the country, the company also plans to continue with the development of traditional internal combustion engines.

We have already started our feasibility study in order to achieve this target set by the government of India but at the same time we will continue to develop more highly efficient engines in order to cater to the demands of Indian customers, Ishihara said.

When asked about companys investment plans in the EV space, he said: Investment shall mainly be for power units and batteries. Infrastructure development in collaboration with some partners may be another area where we would look forward to make our investments.

With alarming rise in air pollution, the government is pushing for electric mobility in the country.

According to a report by government think tank Niti Aayog and Rocky Mountain Institute, Indias move towards 100 percent electric vehicles fleet by 2030 could create a USD 300 billion domestic market for EV batteries.
Parliament on Tuesday passed a bill that will enable the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) to award MBA and Ph.D. degrees, with the Rajya Sabhas nod to the legislation.

The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bill 2017, passed in Lok Sabha in July, envisages greater autonomy to the IIMs than other institutions of higher education such as the Indian Institutes of Technology and the All India Institute of Management Sciences.

The bill to declare certain institutes of management to be institutions of national importance with a view to empower these institutions to attain standard of global excellence in management, management research and allied area of knowledge, Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar said in Rajya Sabha while presenting the bill.

He said that management institutes are handicapped because they have power to grant diploma certificates and the power to grant degrees to management students is important aspect of the bill.

Being registered under the Societies Act, the IIMs earlier were only allowed to award Postgraduate Diplomas (equivalent to an MBA) and fellowship programmes (equivalent to a Ph. D) in management, but with the conferring of status of Institutions of National Importance through the bill, they will be able to award degrees now.

According to the Indian Institutes of Management Bill 2017, the board of governors will be the executive body of each IIM, comprising up to 19 members and will nominate 17 board members including eminent persons, faculty members and alumni. The remaining two members will be nominees from the central and state governments, respectively.

The academic council of each IIM will determine the academic content, criteria and process for admission to courses and guidelines for conduct of examinations.

The Bill will also grant more autonomy and flexibility to the institutes in constitution of their boards and will reduce government interference. Unlike earlier when it was supposed to have two members from the Central government, there will be only one such now.

A board member cannot be chosen for more than two consecutive terms now, unlike an indefinite number of terms earlier.

According to the new Bill, the board will have the freedom to select its Chairperson, who was earlier selected by the government from a panel of names recommended by the board. The Chairperson, like other members, also cannot be selected for more than two consecutive terms.

The Director of the institute can now be selected by the board through a search and selection committee, unlike before when the Central government would do so by picking a name from a panel recommended by the board.

As per the new Bill, neither the Director nor any other board member can be removed by the government.
About 4.5 lakh directors are likely to face disqualification from various companies by the year-end in one of the countrys biggest operations against shell firms, government sources said.

Until September, over 3 lakh directors had been disqualified for flouting the provisions of the Companies Act, the Minister of Corporate Affairs told Parliament on Monday. They are facing action for non-filing of annual returns by their companies, mostly shell firms, for three straight years. Shell or on-paper firms with no real operations are typically used to launder funds.

Initial investigations into the account details of the disqualified directors suggest that `4,500 crore was deposited and withdrawn after the government announced demonetisation on 8 November 2016. Most accounts had zero balance earlier. Some firms had as many as 100 to 300 accounts in their names. A company was even found to have 2,134 accounts associated with it. These accounts have been frozen by the government as further investigations are going on.

The action against the erring directors and shell companies is going to be a continuous process from now on. The objective is to instill respect for law, pointed out an official dealing with the matter. The credentials of a person who has a track record of remaining non-compliant also raises doubts at the corporate governance level, he added.

Meanwhile, 50 persons have approached the government as well as courts seeking reversal of the order. We have got representations from some directors claiming innocence. There may be cases having valid reason for filing late returns, said a Corporate Affairs Ministry official. The ministry will be dealing with it on a case by case basis.

Some directors said they have not been provided opportunity of hearing and no notice was served on them. Others claim to have been disqualified wrongly from other companies.

Many privately held companies have also sought relief saying the disqualification has been made effective retrospectively.

The decision on relief will be taken case by case.
Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Tuesday urged entrepreneurs and industrialists in Karnataka to invest in his northeastern state, as it is the springboard for Indias Act East Policy.

Though our state is in the northeast, it is strategically located with access to markets to seven states in the region and eight countries in Southeast Asia, he said at a road show here on the first Global Investors Summit Advantage Assam being held in Guwahati on February 3-4, 2018.

Terming the northeast as the new engine of growth, Sonowal said his government had created a business-friendly environment for investments in diverse sectors of the economy.

We have new policies for start-ups and investments in diverse sectors like plastics, petrochemicals, agro-food processing, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment across the state, which is blessed with natural and human resources to tap, he said.

Noting that his government had opened skill development institutes to train the youth and incubation centres for start-ups, the Chief Minister urged the IT firms in Bengaluru to set up their development facilities in Guwahati and other cities across the state.

There is a huge potential to offer software and IT-enabled (back office) services from our state and create jobs for thousands of young graduates passing out of colleges and universities in the region, he said.

Sonowal claimed that his government had attracted Rs 6,500 crore in investments into the state in one year after the BJP came to power in May 2016.

The state government is also improving air connectivity to make Guwahati a regional hub for travel to and from southeast Asian nations.

Efforts are underway to improve national waterways across Brahmaputra and Barak and provide connectivity to ports in Bangladesh across the border, said Assam Chief Secretary V.K. Pipersenia.

The state government has also set up a separate department for promoting the Prime Ministers Act East vision and position Assam as the centre for India-Asean interface.

We are building a World Trade Centre in Guwahati, which will house consulates from the Asean region, added Sonowal, who, along with officials, held interactive sessions with top executives of Biocon, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Ltd, Wipro, IBM, Bharat Electronics, BEML and ISRO.

The two-day summit, to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Mod on February 3, is aimed at flagging the states geo-strategic advantages and opportunities for investors from across the country and overseas.

The Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry is the summit partner.
The Goa bench of the Bombay High Court has dismissed former Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpals plea to quash rape and other charges against him, it is learnt.

Earlier in September, the Panaji bench of the Bombay High Court refused to stay the framing of charges against Tejpal in a lower court, but also directed that the trial could begin only after the consent of the High Court.

The court direction followed a petition by Tejpal challenging the framing of charges against him by the Additional North Goa District and Sessions court for the alleged rape of a colleague during a conference in Goa in 2013.

Tejpals counsel Aman Lekhi, while challenging the September 7 framing of charges process, said that the accusations of rape were false and that the prosecution had delayed handing over the evidence to him by three years. The prosecution lawyer Saresh Lotlikar on the other hand argued that only a proper trial could establish the veracity of the charges levelled against the journalist.

Justice Prithviraj Chavan also directed that examination of witnesses at the lower court could only begin after its consent.

Tejpal faces charges under Sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 342 (wrongful confinement), and 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code had been endorsed by the court, while an additional Section 354 (b) (criminal assault with intent to disrobe) had been added.

The former editor-in-chief has been accused of sexually assaulting a junior female colleague in the elevator of a hotel in north Goa during an event in November 2013.

Tejpal was subsequently arrested but is now out on bail.

While the next hearing at the additional District and Sessions court in Mapusa town, located 10 km from Panaji, is scheduled for September 28, the High Court will continue hearing Tejpals petition on November 1.

(With agency inputs)
To provide on-job training to the youth, Haryana government will engage 15,000 trade apprentices under Apprentices Act, 1961 in all government departments, boards and corporations by 31 January 2018.

Disclosing this in a review meeting, chief secretary, DS Dhesi said the move will also help to produce skilled manpower required for industrial growth as well. He said that skill development of unemployed youth is the key purpose of the scheme under which the departments, boards and corporations were required to engage minimum 2.5 per cent and maximum up to 10 per cent apprentices of the total strength as per the Act.

Dhesi directed the officers to notify Nodal Officers in their department concerned for implementation of the provisions of the Act.

He also reviewed the action plan of government departments, boards, corporations and universities for engagement of apprentices under the Act.

Principal Secretary, skill development and industrial training department, TC Gupta informed that during the current financial year, a budget provision of Rs 31.64 Crore had been provided to the Skill Development and Industrial Training department for payment of stipend to the apprentices engaged by various departments.

He also urged the officers to explore the areas for engagement of maximum trade apprentices in their departments. Under the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme, the Union government would reimburse 25 per cent of the prescribed stipend subject to a maximum of Rs 1,500 per month per apprentice to the employer, he added.
SPRINGFIELD  Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs has returned a Purple Heart medal to the family of Marine killed during the Vietnam War.

Frerichs returned the medal to two of Marine Pfc. Andrew Gust Richard's nieces during a ceremony at the Illinois Statehouse on Tuesday. Richard, a native of Elkhart, was killed in June 1968.

The State Journal-Register reports that Richard's original medal was destroyed in a house fire during the 1970s. His brother later requested and received a replacement medal that was put in a bank safe deposit box. The Purple Heart and other medals were turned over to the state treasurer's office about a year ago as unclaimed property.

Richard was assigned to the First Battalion, 27th Regiment. He was killed while participating in Operation Allen Brook.
Maoists attacked a railway station in Bihar, killing one person and abducting two officials to enforce a shutdown they have called, police said on Wednesday.

Armed Maoists attacked the Masudan railway station on Jamalpur-Kieul rail section late Tuesday night.

According to an Eastern Railway official, the attack took place at about 11.25 p.m.

They killed a deputy village body head, torched cabin panel and abducted two railway employees  station master Mukesh Kumar and porter Narendra Mandal  to enforce a shutdown they had called on Wednesday

Train services on that stretch were stopped.

Eastern Railway spokesperson Ravi Mahapatra told IANS that after the attack, the Gaya-Jamalpur passenger train, which arrived at the Masudan station at 11.39 p.m. was halted there as the signalling system was damaged.

Senior police officials then arrived at the station with engineers and the train was allowed to move at 5.45 a.m. on Wednesday morning, he said.

But soon after the services were started, an Assistant Operations Manager at Malda received a threat call from the Maoists that if any movement continued, the abductees will be killed. It prompted the suspension of services on the section at 7 a.m., Mahapatra said.

A number of trains were halted at the Kiul-Jamalpur-Bhagalpur section of Malda Division including  Farakka Express and Muzaffarpur Bhagalpur Jan Sewa Express at Kiul, Banka Express at Barahiya, Jaynagar Howrah Passenger at Dinkar Gram Samaria, the officer added.

Search operation for the abducted railway officials were ongoin.
The Uttar Pradesh government introduced a bill in the state Assembly to enact a stringent law on the the lines of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) to combat organised crimes in the state.

The Uttar Pradesh Control of Organised Crime Bill, 2017, was introduced in the House by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath soon after the Question Hour.

The state cabinet recently approved the draft of the proposed legislation, which has been prepared in consultation with the law department for effective check on organised crimes, mafia and white collared crimes.
Veteran actor Ian McKellen has said that while he condemns sexual harassment, he is troubled about people being wrongly accused of misconduct in the aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein expose.

The 78-year-old actor, who denounced predatory behaviour, claimed female actors had used sex to get roles in the 1960s, News.com.au reported.

 But from my own experience, when I was starting acting in the early 60s, the director of the theatre I was working at showed me some photographs he got from women who were wanting jobs, he said while delivering a talk at the Oxford Union.

Some of the would-be stars had written DRR  directors rights respected  at the bottom of their photograph, he said.

In other words, if you give me a job, you can have sex with me, McKellen said, adding that it was commonplace.

People have taken advantage of that and encouraged it and it absolutely will not do, the Lord of the Rings star said.

McKellen lauded the courage of victims for coming forward with horrifying stories of sexual harassment, but said he was concerned about people being wrongly accused.

I assume nothing but good will come out of these revelations, even though some people get wrongly accused  theres that side of it as well, he said.

Several A-listers such as Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cara Delevingne, among others opened up about facing sexual harassment at the hands of Weinstein after The New York Times and The New Yorker expose in October.

The actor has worked with Kevin Spacey, who has also been accused of sexual harassment.

McKellen, who is homosexual, added the timing Spacey chose to come out was not ideal.
A group of prominent Leftists under the banner of Govind Pansare Abhivadan Samiti has demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should not be invited for the annual Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan (ABMSS) in Vadodara in February.

We appeal to the organising committee that Modi should not be invited in any capacity for the inauguration or the closing ceremonies of the 91st ABMSS scheduled in Vadodara, the GPAS said in a statement released on Wednesday.

Justifying the call, the GPAS signatories  veteran communist leaders Prakash Reddy, Subodh More and Yogesh Kamble  said under Modis tenure as Prime Minister, progressive writers were being attacked and secular people and rationalists were made to face mobocracy.

As a result, many prominent literary figures had returned their prizes or honours while government institutions in cinema, theatre and textbooks were being imposed with Manuvadi cadres, they pointed out.

However, Modi has maintained a stoic silence all along. His economic policies have done injustice to Mumbai and Maharashtra, and his love for Marathi is nowhere to be seen, the GPAS said.

Hence, they urged the ABMSS to omit Modis name for the three-day literary event scheduled on February 16-18 and to be presided over by Pune-based Marathi novelist Laxmikant Deshmukh.

This is the fourth time Vadodara  the former Lok Sabha constituency of Modi  has been selected to host the ABMSS event since its inception in Pune in 1878 under the chairmanship of the legendary Justice M.G. Ranade.

Prior to 2018, the literary meet has been held in the erstwhile royal kingdom of Baroda in 1901 (7th ABMSS), 1921 (11th), and 1934 (20th), while earlier this year, the 90th ABMSS was held in Dombivali in Thane in Maharashtra.
India on Tuesday said it would take up with Islamabad reports that some members of the Sikh community were forcibly converted to Islam in Pakistan. We will take this up at the highest level with the government of Pakistan, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted.

According to a Pakistani media report, members of the Sikh community in Hangu district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province told Deputy Commissioner Shahid Mehmood that Assistant Commissioner Tehsil Tall Yaqoob Khan was allegedly forcing Sikhs to embrace Islam. Farid Chand Singh, who filed the complaint, was quoted as saying that community members were living in the area since 1901 and peacefully with Muslims. He said residents of Hangu district had never harmed the Sikh people.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh also expressed concern over reports of forced conversions in the neighbouring country. Request @SushmaSwaraj ji to take up this issue with Pakistan. We cannot allow the Sikh community to be victimised in such a manner. Its our duty to help protect the Sikh identity and the @MEAIndia should pursue the matter at the highest levels, he tweeted.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday congratulated Patidar leader Hardik Patel for the great job that he had done ahead of the Gujarat Assembly polls.

He has done a great job at such a young age. He has worked really hard. I have telephoned him and conveyed my congratulations, Banerjee, also the Trinamool Congress chief, told reporters at the state secretariat Nabanna, a day after the declaration of the poll results, which saw BJP retaining the state narrowly.

She said she would also call up two other young politicians  Other Backward Classes leader Alpesh Thakor and Dalit Leader Jignech Mevani, who won their seats in the Gujarat polls.

I want to congratulate these two young leaders for their positive show, said Banerjee.

Thakor won from the Radhanpur constituency by over 21,000 against BJP strongman Lavingji Thakor on a Congress ticket. Mevani fought as a Congress-backed independent, and defeated his BJP rival Vijay Chakravarti by by 19,696 votes in Vadgam.

Patel, who is yet to reach the age of 25, which would make him eligible to contest polls, heads the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) which has been agitating for reservation for the Patel community in Gujarat.

Patel, Thakor and Mevani had thrown a stiff challenge to the BJP by leading agitations over the past few years.

They supported the Congress in the latest elections, reducing the BJP seats to below 100 in the 182-member assembly.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday asked party leaders to strengthen the BJP at booth levels across the country to ensure a comfortable victory in the 2019 general elections.

Modi issued the diktat at BJPs Parliamentary party meet here before the beginning of the days proceedings on day four of the ongoing Winter Session.

PM Modi calls for strengthening BJP at booth levels across India for victory in 2019 Lok Sabha polls at Parliamentary party meet, Union Minister Ananth Kumar told the media.

At the meeting chaired by Modi to chalk out a strategy to counter the opposition in both houses of Parliament, the prime minister also asked BJP leaders to promote youth in and outside the party.

Modi called for promotion of youth in and outside party, Ananth Kumar added.

The meeting comes at a time when the opposition especially Congress has launched a scathing attack on the government as well as Modi on a series of issues including the prime ministers remarks on his predecessor Manmohan Singh.

Since the beginning of Winter Session on December 15, the frequent disruptions have led to adjournment of both the houses repeatedly stalling debates on crucial bills which are lying pending.

During an election rally in Gujarat, Modi had claimed that during a meeting at Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyars house, the guests including Manmohan Singh, discussed the Gujarat polls with Pakistans High Commissioner to India and former Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri.
The suspense over choosing the Chief Minister in Himachal Pradesh mounted on Tuesday with some names  including five-time MLA Jairam Thakur and union minister J.P. Nadda  doing the rounds and defeated chief ministerial face Prem Kumar Dhumal also not being completely ruled out.

The name of another senior leader, Rajeev Bindal, MLA from Nahan, is also in the reckoning for the top post, as he apparently has the backing of a section in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Jairam Thakur won from Seraj constituency by defeating Chet Ram of the Congress.

So far, the party has not decided who will be Chief Minister in the state. Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Narendra Singh Tomar will visit Himachal Pradesh to talk to party leaders in the state before deciding on the name, said a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) source.

Sources in the BJP, however, also did not rule out the possibility of Prem Kumar Dhumal being chosen for the CMs post. Although earlier Naddas name was doing the rounds, Dhumals name was announced as the partys chief ministerial candidate midway through the election campaign in the state.

Dhumal, who had won the last election from Hamirpur constituency, had reservations over contesting from Sujanpur. But, the central leadership asked him to contest from there, and he faced defeat.

Dhumal faced defeat against close rival Rajinder Rana of the Congress from Sujanpur. Rana was once the election manager of Dhumal and knows his family well. Rana defeated the two-time Chief Minister by a slender margin of 1,919 votes.

Meanwhile, BJP MLA Virender Kanwar, who won from Kutlehar seat, has offerered to resign from his seat for Dhumal.

In Gujarat, although the BJP had announced Vijay Rupanis name as the chief ministerial candidate before the election, by appointing a team of observors under Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and party leader Saroj Pandey, the central leadership has kept the options open.

There were speculations that union minister Smriti Irani could be sent to Gujarat as Chief Minister as she represented the Rajya Sabha from the state.

However, certain quarters denied such possibility because of the responsibility given to Irani by the party leadership to counter Congress President Rahul Gandhi in Amethi in the next general elections.
India and China will hold the annual meeting of their Special Representatives on their border row here on Friday, it was announced on Wednesday.

The External Affairs Ministry said that while National Security Advisor Ajit Doval will be Indias Special Representative at the 20th Meeting of the Special Representatives, China will be represented by Yang Jiechi, State Councillor and a Communist Party Politburo member.

Indian and Chinese troops were locked in a face-off earlier this year in Doklam region near the India-China-Bhutan trijunction.

Earlier this month, the Doklam issue came up for discussion during a meeting between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi here.

The last Special Representatives meeting was held in Beijing in April 2016. India and China dispute their winding border and went to war over it in 1962.
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday rejected allegations that Rafale fighter jets being bought by India from France are priced higher than under an earlier deal, and said the charges were motivated and baseless.

The allegations are motivated and baseless. the government has bought Rafale aircraft on better terms, Sitharaman said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

She said that the Defence Procurement Procedure was followed for the deal and an Inter-Governmental Agreement signed on September 23, 2016, after approval from the Cabinet Committee on Security.

Earlier this week, Sitharaman, in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, had said the price of the 36 Rafale aircraft under the present deal cannot be compared with the cost of the original MMRCA (Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft) deal, but added that the present deal had better terms.

The MMRCA proposal was for the procurement of 126 aircraft, as per which 18 aircraft were to be in fly-away condition whereas 108 aircraft were to be manufactured in India under licence.

In the present deal, 36 Rafale aircraft are being procured in fly-away condition.

There is no increase in the cost. Instead, a better price has been ensured, Sitharaman said.

The cost of the 36 Rafale aircraft cannot be directly compared with the cost under the original MMRCA proposal as deliverables are significantly different. Though there is no transfer of technology in the procurement of the 36 aircraft, the provision of 50 per cent offsets has been retained. The delivery schedule, maintenance arrangement and product support under the Inter-Governmental Agreement are more beneficial, she said.

In 2000, in order to replace the existing MiG-21 aircraft, a case to procure 126 Mirage-2000 aircraft was initiated in year 2000, which was later converted into procurement of 126 MMRCA.

According to information given to the Rajya Sabha by the Defence Minister, the Request For Proposal (RFP) was issued in 2007, wherein six vendors responded.

On completion of field evaluation trials, only two of the six vendors were found to be fully compliant.

Commercial proposals of both vendors  EADS and Dassault Aviation  were opened and negotiations were commenced with DA as the L1 vendor in November 2011.

The contract negotiations had reached an impasse and the RFP was formally withdrawn on June 24, 2015. To meet the IAFs critical operational necessity, 36 Rafale were procured through the Inter-Governmental Agreement route.

The government decided to procure 36 aircraft through the government-to-government route to meet the critical operational necessity of the IAF, Sitharaman had informed the Rajya Sabha

An Inter-Governmental Agreement was signed on September 23, 2016, between the governments of India and France.

Asked about the offset partner in the present deal, Sitharaman said the vendor is free to select the Indian offsets partners.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi will visit Gujarat on Saturday to attend a review meeting to analyse the partys showing in the Assembly elections, in which it gave a tough fight to the ruling BJP.

During his three-day visit to the state, Gandhi will hold meetings with all the newly-elected MLAs and party workers and review the Gujarat election results, said sources in the party.

Congress along with its allies won 80 seats and restricted BJP to less 100 in a state it considers its fortress.

AICC General Secretary in-charge of Gujarat Ashok Gehlot held the review meeting with party workers in Mehsana on Wednesday.

The Congress will analyse in detail why it failed to dislodge the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has ruled Gujarat for 22 long years, and the road ahead.

Rahul Gandhi became the party President on December 16, two days after the Gujarat elections got over.
Head to the China Club here to savour authentic Chinese delicacies in a fine wine and dine set-up with simple and classy interiors. Dishes with duck, poultry and pork will delight the non-vegetarians and theres much to try for vegetarians too.

The appetizers set the momentum going for a hearty meal. Stir fried asparagus with dried chilli and Ya Cai was as tempting and tasty in the vegetarian menu, and crispy fried prawns with ginger in the non-vegetarian section was a delight. However, if you dont want to indulge in fried food, then sauteed sliced lamb with black pepper and capsicum is a good option.

Dont come looking for Manchurian here.

Yuan Sheng, the Master Chef, told IANS: The clientele here is mostly well travelled and exposed to international, authentic Chinese menu that we provide to our patrons. Still, sometimes we do receive such requests (of street food style spicy Chinese). However, the staff is well-trained to explain the authenticity of the food at our restaurant and recommend dishes to them, keeping in mind their palate.

Asked if people are open to experimenting as the restaurant also offers pork, lamb, duck and crab besides chicken meat, Sheng said: Yes. Once they are explained the cuisine and the various offerings available, they are more than willing to leave things to the attendant who is able to recommend dishes after understanding their likes and dislikes.

There are a variety of options for vegetarians  dispelling the misconception that pure Chinese food is all about different meats. Some of the preparations include sauteed bean curd, tofu, eggplant, mushrooms, Chinese cabbage and sauteed vegetables, in different sauces like the good old chilli sauce, oyster sauce, bean curd and Szechuan special sauce.

The braised eggplant with Szechwan special sauce and boiled dumpling with chicken in spicy chilli sauce were my heroes.

The perfect dumplings were a delight in the spicy sauce. Even though it was hot, it left a lasting taste. Tip: Even if your food looks spicy, give it a try. As they say, dont judge a book by its cover.

The braised eggplant is a must-try even if you prefer non-vegetarian because it melts in the mouth. To enjoy this dish, dont forget to sip on your red wine or whiskey on the rocks after a few bites.

Home-style sliced chicken with black fungus is another recommended dish.

As for the fish, I tried the steamed basa with soy. It is for those with an acquired taste. Steamed basa is always a very healthy choice and it has an interesting taste when paired with red wine.

Coming down to the sweet section, it is important to understand that Chinese arent very big on desserts, although the restaurant does offer a few options.

The general offerings would typically be sweet dimsum or fresh fruits. However, we still offer a variety of international desserts, the popular amongst them being caramelized fruit toffee dipped in brandy and hot chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream, Yuan said.

FAQs:

Where: China Club, Lobby Level, Tower C, Global Business Park, MG Road, Gurugram

Timings: 12 p.m to 3 p.m, 7 p.m to 11 p.m

Price: Rs 2,400 (approx) for two people, exclusive of applicable taxes and charges; Rs 320 for a pint of beer
It is not just about the hostility of the government in Kabul; more troubling is the fact that the adverse sentiments in Afghanistan towards Pakistan are deeply entrenched in the public. The indignation has heightened over the past years, with most people in Kabul blaming Pakistan for their suffering. Those feelings are especially evident in urban and educated sections of Afghan society. There are very few who see Pakistan in a positive light.

This was very clear during my interaction last week with young students at a private university in Kabul. Education is one area that has seen massive progress over the last one decade in this country, despite worsening political instability and the spreading insurgency. Hundreds of thousands of students are enrolled in more than one dozen universities in the city  a marked transformation from the days of the retrogressive Afghan Taliban rule.

Most students I interacted with in a seminar shared similar views about Pakistan being a villain that is responsible for many of Afghanistans problems. Among the audience, there were many who were either born in Pakistan or whose parents had lived there as refugees for decades. Many complained about Pakistan supporting the insurgents responsible for the death of thousands of Afghans. Distrust of Pakistan is palpable. It is hard to find anyone in the Afghan capital willing to speak in favour of Pakistan.

Ironically, there are many in the cabinet and several high-ranking officials in the Afghan government who spent a large part of their lives in Pakistan and benefited from its hospitality. The resentment is not restricted to any particular ethnic group  it is across the board. Even former Taliban officials who now live in Kabul have little empathy for the country which once patronised them. One is not sure, however, about public sentiments in other parts of the country.

Of course, it is expedient for Pakistans civilian and military leadership to dismiss these growing anti-Pakistan sentiments in Afghanistan as merely inspired by enemy forces. This state of denial is, however, not helpful in improving our image. Surely, one cannot deny that there has been a concerted campaign to slander Pakistan and make it a scapegoat for everything that has gone wrong in the war-torn country across the border. Yet one must not gloss over flawed policies and attitude that are stoking public scepticism inside Afghanistan.

One of the major reasons for Pakistans growing isolation is that its entire Afghan policy is built around a skewed security paradigm while diplomacy has taken a back seat. Understandably, four decades of conflict in the region and Pakistans position as a front-line state has enhanced the role of the security agencies. But the formulation and implementation of policy should not be left entirely to the security establishment. In fact, there is great need for diplomacy to take charge in times of conflict. Pakistans foreign policy has suffered hugely because of its direction being determined solely by a national security paradigm that must be corrected in light of the fast-changing geopolitics of the region. Indeed, past baggage and Afghanistan being turned into a centre of a new Great Game does not make it easy for policymakers to tread the tricky path.

But sticking to the old ways may not help deal with the challenges. Irrespective of whichever government is in power in Kabul Pakistan needs to work with it and to respect its sovereignty. The obsession with a friendly Pakhtun-dominated government in the past has hugely contributed to public resentment against Pakistan.

One understands the concerns of Pakistans security establishment regarding Indias growing presence in Afghanistan, but the issue must not be exaggerated so that it clouds the entire decision-making process. What irritates the Afghans most is Pakistans insistence on curtailing Indias role in their country. Its very mention is seen as meddling in their internal matters.

Indeed, Pakistani militant groups having been granted sanctuaries across the border and the alleged Indian connection with these terrorist networks has become a major source of tension between Islamabad and Kabul. But there are also allegations of Afghan insurgent groups operating from inside Pakistani territory.

The question regarding Pakistans alleged support for the Taliban insurgents is not only regularly raised at official meetings but also questioned by the public. The rise of Taliban insurgents is seen by the younger generation as the most serious threat to the gains made in the field of education. The number of female students reportedly surpasses that of males in most universities and they want this trend to be protected.

It is not only important for Pakistan to improve relations with the Kabul government, but also to bridge the widening gap with the Afghan people. Pakistan has failed to take advantage of geographical and cultural proximity to win public goodwill and strengthen economic and trade ties in order to neutralise the antagonists. It is not just geopolitics but also geo-economics that should be driving Afghan policy.

The recent measures taken by Pakistani authorities to send back Afghan refugees and put restrictions on cross-border travel have added to the indignation. Many complain about long queues for visa and difficulties in travelling to Peshawar for medical treatment.

Now many of them are flying to India that is providing subsidised air travel facility for those requiring medical help. Unnecessary travel restrictions under the pretext of border management have further alienated the Afghans. The move has also affected trade, with Pakistani exporters suffering greater losses.

Although Pakistan remains Afghanistans biggest trading partner, the situation may change soon with Iran and Central Asia making significant inroads into the Afghan markets. The move to close down the border for over a month early this year has dealt an irreversible blow to exports to Afghanistan that had reached between $2 billion and $5bn in 2014.

Such short-sighted and reactive actions have hugely affected Pakistans interests in Afghanistan. Hence it is not surprising to see how young Afghans feel about Pakistan.

Dawn/ANN
In retrospect, 9/11 was the defining moment of the re-engagement and recalibration of the US-Pak dynamics that till then were nestled in favour of Pakistan as a major non-NATO ally. After the Cold War ended in the 1990s, Pakistan had fallen off the immediate radar as Washington was busy meddling with the affairs of the Middle East. In the process, it effectively overlooked Pakistans dangerous transgressions as in Kargil, its support to terrorism in Kashmir or even its surreptitious stockpiling and proliferation of its nuclear wherewithal.

The Bush-Mush equation underwent a sudden reality-check as the simplistic with us or against us spirit accompanying the looming war on terror was evident when the Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage threatened Pakistans Intelligence Director ~ Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age, in case Pakistan failed to join the US-led initiative against Al Qaida and the like.

Since then, Pakistan has undertaken a delicate dance of pandering to contradictory pulls from both the external and internal constituencies, leading to the perfection of its famed and patented double game. The coercive tone of the US notwithstanding, the Pakistanis had managed to extract three important concessions from Washington ~ an assurance that India and Israel would not join the mopping up operations, an undertaking that the US will not act unilaterally inside Pakistani territory and above all, securing the invaluable reimbursements in exchange for its operational costs and commitments towards the war on terror. And yet, a reluctant and visibly embarrassed Pervez Musharraf had to publicly retract from his erstwhile policies of open-patronisation of the terror groups like the Taliban, and join the chorus of war on terror, albeit, selectively.

As per the US Agency for International Development (USAID) data, the US had sanctioned up to $33.4 billion during the past 15 years, of which 44 per cent ($14.57 billion) was earmarked for logistics and aerial support in the Afghan war, whereas the remainder $18.8 billion was meant for civilian and internal security-related infrastructure. However, given Pakistans track record of misuse, persistent double game and cozying-up to the Chinese, the levels of US support and aid for Pakistan are steadily declining and the relationship is on a functional lifeline. According to opinion polls, the societies in both Pakistan and the US have the most negative perceptions of each other. This trust deficit between the two allies has led to bitter counter-accusations, with Pakistan claiming $123 billion as the financial cost and the loss of 60,000 Pakistani lives, on account of its commitments towards the war on terror. The US administration, on its part, is increasingly talking about getting ripped off, with routine threats of cutting all military aid to Pakistan.

China has strategically moved into the vacuum created by the US disinterest in Pakistan, and is trying to plug the financial-military-diplomatic gap. As per the official Board of Investment figures released by the Pakistani PMO, the foreign investment inflow into Pakistan by the US in 2008-09 was $ 869.9 million and that of the Chinese was a negative $ 101.4 million. The figures for the July-November 2017-18 period read as $42.6 million by the US and $837.4 by the Chinese. The latest Pentagon report to the US Congress has upped the ante by reiterating, To move forward, we must see fundamental changes in the way Pakistan deals with terrorist safe havens in its territory. Rather provocatively, it suggests the use of a range of tools to expand our cooperation with Pakistan in areas where our interests converge, and to take unilateral steps in areas of divergence. This is virtually forcing Pakistan to drop its deliberate ambiguity and duplicity of the double game, failing which it will be left with only one recourse ~ sovereign sustenance, via China.

Beyond all-weather-friendship, the Sino-Pakistan equation is bereft of any civilisational, cultural or ideological convergence; it is an outright case of hardnosed realpolitik and compulsions. This over-dependence on Beijing is fraught with risks for Islamabad, as the implications of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) are gradually unfolding. Already rumour mills in Pakistan are awash with the hard bargaining that the Chinese have done in the CPEC projects, with the Pakistan government giving up a lot more than it secured in the bargain. Demeaning suggestions like making the Chinese yuan the free-usage currency in the Gwadar Free Zone has growing portents of compromising on Pakistans economic sovereignty.

Economically, the US remains the biggest trade partner (four times that of China). Militarily, Pakistan needs the US drones to target specific areas in the restive Af-Pak frontier. The bulk of Pakistani military hardware still has US-markings (F-16 fighter planes, Lockheed C-130 transporters, Cobra Attack Helicopters, M113 APCs, artillery guns, Aati-tank missiles and so on). Therefore, beyond the political theatrics and sabre-rattling, a sudden freeze of US support could be devastating for the Pakistanis, both economically and militarily. Equally for the US, avoiding the Pakistani land routes and airlifting the wares for its men and material deployed in landlocked Afghanistan, would be impractical and prohibitive.

There is an obvious urgency to curb the menace of extremist ideologies and the terror industry that is consuming, bleeding and sapping the vital interests and energies of both Pakistan and the US. Towards that end, Pakistan has to overcome its traditional instincts and confidence in retaining leverage with select terror groups (e.g. the Haqqani network that faces Afghanistan and Lashkar-e-Taiba, that faces India). It will have to dispense with its flawed belief in China adequately stepping in to fill in the vacuum caused by US disinterest.

The principal institutions in Pakistan ~ the military, the political class and the clergy ~ must desist from misusing the extremist elements for furthering their own institutional interests in the ongoing turf wars for control of power. The US-bashing may make political and emotional sense in the short-run. However, for Pakistan to retain the economic-military control over its own sovereignty and destiny will call for Islamabad to make peace with its hypothetical ghosts, ulterior motives in the neigbourhood, and a reality check of the efficacy of its fabled all-weather-friendship with China.

The writer IS Lt Gen PVSM, AVSM (Retd), Former Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands & Puducherry
It is a measure of the Maoist potential in Chhattisgarhs Bastar region that the raising of the CRPFs specialised Bastariya Force has almost immediately been greeted with the formation of the Bastar Tiger Battalion by the extremists. In effect, the new unit of the CRPF will countenance the Tigers, who are intent on liberating a wider swathe of the state. The southern part of Bastar is now said to be controlled by the Maoists, and quite obviously the crimson turf extends beyond the Chhattisgarh-Odisha border. In terms of experience and promptitude, the Bastariya Force cannot be compared to the crack Greyhounds of Andhra Pradesh. For one thing, the scope of operations will be limited to Bastar, once the countrys largest district  followed by Bengals Midnapore, also a part of the Red Corridor. To the extent that security forces have little or no presence in the liberated zones, a shortcoming that is exacerbated by a skeletal civilian administration in a disturbed region.

For another, the striking feature of the new force must be the fairly sizeable induction of women, who will constitute 33 per cent of the force. Markedly, the four worst-affected zones constitute the recruiting base for the battalion ~ Bijapur, Sukma, Dantewada, and Narayanpur. Not wholly unrelated is the fact that to the extent that it well be what they call a tribal only battalion, the force will represent the subaltern in action against the predominantly subaltern Maoists. This could well lend a new dimension to subaltern studies, though it might be presumptuous to conclude that the BJP establishments in Delhi and Raipur might be intent on splitting the class group. On the face of it, the Centres initiative is embedded in the anxiety to recruit young men and women in tribal areas to the security forces, and thus afford an opportunity for sustainable livelihood. The plan of action is to be welcomed as judging by the parameters of training and internal combat operations, the CRPF comes closest to the army. It is quite another story that the military is on occasion deployed to beef up the paramilitary presence.

It must be conceded that this is an ingenious initiative in the chronically restive Red Corridor. More positive than such sops as doling out rice at Rs 2 a kg. Having said that, the mere raising of a battalion can do but little to contain extremism. Equally critical is coordination with the state police, as the mayhem in Dantewada reaffirmed a couple of years ago. Almost invariably, it is the CRPF personnel who are the casualties of a Maoist counter-mobilisation because of their unfamiliarity with the topography of a rugged terrain. It is here that the local law-enforcement authorities can lend strategic support, instead of leaving the task entirely to the devices of the central force. And also, of course, ~ in the case of Chhattisgarh ~ by fielding the Salwa Judum against the mortal militants.
Taking the gaming industry in India to a new level, Samsung India on Wednesday launched the worlds biggest QLED curved monitor for gaming enthusiasts and business professionals at Rs. 1,50,000.

Samsung has always been at the forefront of consumer-centric innovations and the launch of QLED Curved monitor is in line with that very commitment. A perfect companion for serious business professionals and gaming enthusiasts, the monitor is not only the biggest in the category, but also a trend setter in terms of specifications and technology, Mr. Puneet Sethi, Vice President, Consumer Electronics Enterprise Business, Samsung India, said.

The 49-inch ultra-wide curved monitor packs High Dynamic Range (HDR) technology which offers better contrast, depth and range to colours.

The monitor uses eye saver mode and flicker free technology which enhances eye comfort, obstructs blue light, thereby reducing eye fatigue. The bezel-less curved QLED monitor with aspect ratio of 32:9 provides a motion picture response time with low input lag (which is how fast the screen responds to commands), thus reducing eye strain and preventing ghost images, the company said.

It also features quantum-dot technology and a wider colour spectrum. Connectivity options include multiple input ports that make it easier to connect the display with any device.

Priced at Rs. 1,50,000, the 49-inch ultra-wide Samsung QLED gaming monitor will soon be made available at all leading retail outlets across country.

(Written with inputs from IANS)
Chinese handset maker Xiaomi on Wednesday introduced a new payment option, powered by Google Tez, for its online consumers buying devices via official Mi.com and Mi Store app.

Users on Mi.com and the Mi Store app would see an option to select Tez and pay conveniently using their Tez UPI IDs. They can pay directly from their bank accounts online for any purchase that they make.

Xiaomi says that their Mi.com on average gets over 21 million unique visitors in one month and over 1 million daily active users. Also, Mi Store app on Google Play has over 20 million app installs with more than 6 million organic downloads to date.

Our vision is to bring innovation to everyone and our integration with Tez is another step forward in this direction. Xiaomi is currently the number one smartphone brand with a dominant online smartphone market share of 50.8%, of which a significant portion is attributed to Mi.com. With this new payment option, we hope to provide an even better purchasing experience that is truly cashless, said Raghu Reddy, Head  Online Sales, Xiaomi India.

Sujith Narayanan, Head of Partnerships and Business Development for Tez, said, We are delighted to bring a seamless mobile web payment experience through Tez to Xiaomi customers on Mi.com. As a merchant partner for the Tez for Business program, all Xiaomi customers can now seamlessly and securely pay with any bank account stored in their Tez account on their phone.

Google had launched its UPI-based Tez payments app in India in September that was built for India. Working on the vast majority of the countrys smartphones, the app is available in English and seven Indian languages (Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu).
Come December, I go back to Turkey, albeit in my thoughts. The memories of visiting Konya come flooding back around this time of the year. Thousands of people descend from all over the world on the Turkish city of Konya for a week-long (10-17 December) celebration of Rumi and the Whirling Dervishes Festival.

This was my first visit to Konya, a city south of Ankara in Turkeys Central Anatolia region to attend the annual festival, which is one of the most important events in the whole of Turkey. Konya is a pilgrimage destination for Sufis and Mevlana Jelaleddin Rumi (1207- 1273) was an acclaimed Sufi and a poet from the 13th century, who lived and died in Konya. Followers of Rumi are called whirling dervishes.

A few days before visiting Konya, while exploring Istanbul, I had come across several hoardings and billboards advertising the Whirling Dervish performance in the Turkish Capital. While I did not pay much attention to it, dismissing it as one of those touristy things to do, a fellow tourist suggested (read insisted) that any trip to Turkey is incomplete without visiting Konya. It is a must-see attraction, particularly in Decembers second week. Since Konya was just an hours flight away, I decided to visit the Anatolian city, also known as Turkeys most culturally conservative city. I was joined by hordes of people (two million or so tourists visit annually) as I headed for the Sufis tomb inside the Mevlana Museum for a ceremony known as Sema. The brochure that was handed to me by my guide Nurdogan read that Sema is part of the inspiration of Mevlana Rumi as well as part of Turkish custom, history, beliefs and culture. Sufism expresses love of God in an ecstatic whirling dance.

The atmosphere was ripe with mysticism as the dancers, known as whirling dervishes, clad in black coat (which they shed later to reveal underneath a flowing white skirt) with cylindrical hats (hat represents a tombstone and the wide white skirt symbolizes the death shroud) and bowed heads, gathered in a large circle in the circular hall. The soft music of Ney (reed flute), strings and tambourines created a divine atmosphere. I noticed, as the dervishes bowed, they looked between the eyebrows of the dervish opposite them, which Nurdogan explained as contemplating the divine manifestation within. Gradually they started spinning like tops across the stage while seeming to be in a meditative stance. They twirled in perfect harmony as the mesmerized and an awestruck audience watched in pin-drop silence.

I could not help wondering what made these whirling dancers not feel dizzy as they incessantly spin and twirl in rhythm. Everything is about balance, I guessed. Nurdogan again explained that this is no ordinary dance.

Sacred ritual

Sema, meaning to listen to the music, is a sacred ritual of love. It represents a mystical journey propelled through the love of perfection and involving a spiritual ascent through the mind. Rumi had emphasised that music uplifts our spirit to realms above and we hear the tunes of the Gates of Paradise. Rumi preached love and respect for all, regardless of their religion. He taught inclusivity and tolerance. I understood a deeper meaning that whirling of a dervish is symbolic of the person, who grows through love, deserts the ego, finds the truth and arrives at perfection. Their whirling symbolizes the rotation of the universe in the presence of God. Nurdogan gave a meaningful explanation, In a Sema, in the ecstasy, the Sufi finds God and peace by extending himself from the earth to the cosmos. He is aware of time by concentrating on his movements on all different velocities.

Near the end, as the last part of the ceremony, the sheikh enters the circling dervishes, where he assumes the place of the sun in the centre of the circling planets. The dervishes returned side by side and knelt down. They put on black cloaks again to represent the material world. At the end of the hour-long performance everyone seemed to be in a deep meditative state. Like in other cultural performances, there was no photography, no video, and no applauding, at all. A serene silence prevailed. As the crowd walked out silently, I noticed some had Qurans in their hands and some had Rumis poetry. Some were so moved that they wiped their tears. I, too, felt elevated, as if my soul has been freed from the worldly affairs and had come closer to the divine.

The feeling of having attended a ceremony that is part of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO was quite satisfying. The 800-year-old tradition and ritual is now taught by many Turkish universities and cultural organisations as a way of preserving the history and transferring it on to the next generation. I shall visit Konya again, not in my thoughts, but in person.
Crisp white snow, crackling fires, long nights that call for coziness, a good cuddle-around-the-hearth feeling is what my impression was of Rovaniemi and I discovered this and much more. We had booked on the net with Lapland Safaris and everything, from warm overalls to adventure and sightseeing, was taken care of. Later I realized there was really no need to have carried so much of winter wear (not even thermals).

Reindeer safari

The best part of Rovaniemi, aside from meeting the Big Man himself, was undoubtedly the reindeer. Though slow rides, they are a lot of fun. Sample this: Hold on to a rope and let the reindeer pull you on skis. Interestingly, Reindeer herding in Finland became organised as far back as the 1700s and the animal is a source of food, clothing, shelter and inspiration from then on.

Snowmobiling

After a few seconds of starting, I could hear someone singAh! It was me. The thought that I was driving on the Arctic sent pleasure up in my heart and my brains. The most astounding experience of my life, it was fun to drive through pristine snow covered trees with perfectly sculpted snow all around.

Saunas

A vital part of every Finns essential nature and, as the saying goes, The sauna is to Finns as wine is to the French. The ritual is sauna, then roll around in the snow or dip in the frozen lake and repeat the process for as long as you like and I was surprised to see how the Finns beat themselves with the whisk of birch twigs and each other for that matter. Its great for blood circulation, they say! Interestingly, nowadays, friends often sauna bathe together regardless of gender.

Ice-fishing

A sport Finns love is ice-fishing. Out of the lakes one has a fair chance for a good catch. Its amazing to see people in their arctic clothing, staring into a little hole in the water that seems like an ice-fishing competition. I waited for over an hour to catch one but in vain!

Santas village

Eight kilometres north of Rovaniemi is Korvatunturi, where Santa Claus officially lives year round at his Arctic Circle headquarters. It sure is a white fantasy land, constructed partially of snow buildings. Tall, narrow ice obelisks glowed blue and green, eerily illuminating the afternoon darkness. Its great fun to drop off letters for your near and dear kids at the Santa Claus post office, where the merry Elves are busy but ever ready to help you out. Trust me its a great high to stand under the blue line marking the Arctic Circle and seeing Aurora Borealis in winter (in summers you can see the midnight sun!). Do not miss taking your picture with Santa, buying souvenirs and seeing exhibits.

Food and drinks

A must-try specialty here is the reindeer meat. You may have it stewed, broiled or sauteed in butter, splashed with lingonberry sauce; its so tender that recipes urge cooks not to be rough with it. Do not also miss the creamy morel soup and the cold smoked arctic char (a mixed taste of salmon and trout). The Finns raise their lids for the national drink of Karhu (fishermans candy) and Koskenkorva (vodka). Cloudberry cocktails, made with the more commonly known Lakka, work just as well too.

Shopping

The duty free at the Helsinki airport is beyond compare. One can buy a variety of souvenirs, ranging from reindeer meat, reindeer horn handicrafts, clothes, accessories and Koskenkorva to the famed Fazer breads and chocolates. A must-buy is the kuksa, a traditional cup made out of wood by hollowing it out (make sure you buy the hand-made one though). If you have enough time on you, buy yourself a Spa treatment at the Airport ~ theres nothing like watching planes take off and land while you get a massage done.

DID YOU KNOW?

Rovaniemi has 58,000 inhabitants and the area covers 8,016 sq km.

The lowest temperature ever measured is -47.5 degrees Celsius (-53 degrees Fahrenheit).

MUST KNOW

Pre-booking

Book all your adventure activities through Lapland safaris from the net and their tagline says aptly, Just come as you are, we take care of the rest!

VISA and CURRENCY

Indians need a Schengen Visa to enter Finland. The currency is the Euro.
Armenias Minister of Economic Development and Investments Suren Karayan discussed the drafting of a new cooperation project with an IMF delegation led by Hossein Samiei.

A ministry press release says that the parties reviewed the governments five-year development plan and economic priorities.

Samiei led a delegation to Armenia in the spring of 2017 to conduct discussions for the fifth and final review of the IMFs Extended Fund Facility Arrangement.

After that visit, Samiei wrote:

Looking ahead, Armenia continues to face significant challenges: growth remains volatile and narrowly based; the export sector is relatively undiversified; unemployment and poverty remain high; and public and external debt are on the increase. This warrants decisive action to promote sustainable and inclusive growth, including reforms to attract foreign direct investment, improve infrastructure and education, tackle corruption, and enhance the business climate.
British Prime Minister Theresa May spoke to Donald Trump about their countrys very different positions on Jerusalem, but it was left unclear whether the US President would visit London in February 2018 to open a new American embassy.

The call on Tuesday evening between the two leaders came 13 days after May had announced she would speak to Trump about his decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a position at odds with the policy pursued by London and almost all other UN member states, which argue that the fate of the city should be decided in comprehensive negotiations, reports the Guardian.

Asked if the two-week delay amounted to a snub by Trump, a spokesman for May said the pair had a good relationship, which included being able to differ on some matters.

The Prime Minister has always been clear on these matters that part of having a special relationship is that where there are times you dont agree, you can say so, the spokesman said.

However, there was still no agreement on a Trump visit to the UK, which had been postponed because of fears that it would trigger mass demonstrations.

The US ambassador to the UK, Woody Johnson had said last week that he expected the President to visit London in the new year, raising expectations that he would fly in to open a new $800 million embassy complex in Battersea on the south bank of the Thames.

However, neither the Downing Street nor the White House confirmed a presidential visit, the Guardian reported.

A later statement from Downing Street said that May had offered condolences for Mondays train derailment in Washington state and that they had discussed the different positions we took on the recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, and agreed on the importance of the US bringing forward new proposals for peace and the international community supporting these efforts.

Downing Street said May reported on progress in Brexit talks and the President and Prime Minister wished each other a very Merry Christmas and looked forward to keeping in close touch.

Earlier this month, Trump announced that the US would break with longstanding practice and recognise Jerusalem as Israels capital. Both Israelis and Palestinians claim the city, and the US and other countries have avoided taking a position on the matter.

The move has isolated Washington from almost all its allies, and forced a rare US veto of a UN Security Council resolution on Monday, when the 14 other council members, including the UK, voted to call for the US recognition of its status as Israeli capital be rescinded.

The White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, said discussions with London about the visit were continuing.

We are working with them to finalise the details, which we expect to announce soon, Sanders said on Tuesday night.
Montreal, CA (H4T1V6)

Today

A few clouds. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Low 19F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds. A few flurries or snow showers possible. Low 19F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.
Marat Duryan, who heads the Investigation Department of Armenias State Revenue Committee has applied for an exploratory license for the Soflou-Lernashen mine field.

Last October Hetq wrote that a company 90% owned by Duryan, Premium Mining, had received geological survey rights for a site in Armenias Tavoush Province.

It seems that Duryan has been bitten by the mining bug and wants to expand operations.

The Soflou-Lernashen field is in Syunik Province, in the Sisian area.

Premium Mining estimates it will cost AMD 450 million to explore the site for possible metal extraction.

A public hearing on the companys plans is scheduled for noon on October 25 at the Sisian Municipality.
Organisation: University Research Co., LLC (URC)

Project Name: USAIDs Defeat TB Project

Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda

Reports to: Deputy Chief of

Party

About US:

University Research Co., LLC (URC) is a global company dedicated to

improving the quality of health care, social services, and health education

worldwide. With a non-profit affiliate, the Center for Human Services (CHS),

URC manages projects in over 45 countries, including the United States.

About USAID Defeat TB project:

University Research Co., LLC (URC) is implementing the USAIDs Defeat

TB project. Aligned with Objective #3 in USAIDs Country Development

Cooperation Strategy and in support of the Government of Ugandas TB Program,

this five-year, USAID funded projects goal is to increase TB case notification,

case detection, and treatment outcomes through health system

strengthening. The Defeat TB project goal is to increase TB case

notification, case detection, and treatment outcomes through health system

strengthening with the aim of ending the TB epidemic in Uganda.

Job Summary: The

Communication Specialist will handle communication and branding requirements

for the Defeat TB project with the overall aim of conveying accurate and timely

information about project work to various project audiences, including USAID,

the Ministry of Health, The National TB and Leprosy Program (NTLP), Hospital

Directors and staff, Health care service beneficiaries, and the General public.



Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Write, edit, and, design project

materials, including project reports, success stories, monthly update

articles, brochures, and blog posts

Develop a communications strategy for the

Defeat TB project through which materials will be shared and communicated

Liaise with URC Headquarters in the United

States to develop and maintain the project documentation plan

Identify topics for documentation, collect

information through interviews and on-the-ground research and observation,

and determine appropriate mediums for documentation and dissemination

Ensure that project print and online

materials are consistent with donor branding guidelines

Manage the content on the USAID/project

webpage: develop and review the content, assist in the identification of

relevant topic areas, and collect and disseminate best practices

Monitor relevant media coverage, take

photos and video, and maintain a photo and video library and supporting

photo/video release documentation

Handle the projects design and branding

needs

Manage the project social media platforms

e.g. Facebook, Twitter

Provide support to the COP when needed,

including handling communication on supported hospitals, MOH, Partners and

presenting project work at high-level meetings and conferences

Perform any other duties assigned by the

Supervisor/Chief of Party.









Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

The applicants for the USAID Defeat TB

Project Communication Specialist job opportunity must hold a Bachelors Degree

in Mass Communication, journalism and any related qualification

Five years of exposure and experience in

health communication

Previous experience in program planning,

implementation and reporting.

Excellent writing, interpersonal and

problem solving skills.

Computer literacy including Microsoft

Office (Word, Excel and Power Point), and ability to use internet.

Ability to express self and communicate to

others very clearly in English language

Possession of a Masters Degree in Public

Health or related field will be an added advantage

Previous experience working with USG

funded projects is desired

NB: Only candidates who are eligible to work in

the Uganda for an indefinite period without a need for sponsorship will be

considered for this position.

How to Apply:



URC should upload their updated CVs / resumes and cover letters at the link

below. Also, please complete your application form and attach a completed USAID

Form 1420 Contractor Employee Biographical Data Sheet as well, All suitably qualified and interested candidates who wish to join theURC should upload their updated CVs / resumes and cover letters at the linkbelow. Also, please complete your application form and attach a completed USAIDForm 1420 Contractor Employee Biographical Data Sheet as well, download it

here

Deadline: 29th

December 2017 by 5:00 pm
VATICAN CITY (AP)  Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston whose failures to stop child molesters in the priesthood sparked what would become the worst crisis in American Catholicism, died early Wednesday, the Vatican said. He was 86.

Law had been sick and was recently hospitalized in Rome.

Law was once one of the most important leaders in the U.S. church. He broadly influenced Vatican appointments to American dioceses, helped set priorities for the nations bishops and was favored by Pope John Paul II.

But in January 2002, The Boston Globe began a series of reports that used church records to reveal that Law had transferred abusive clergy among parish assignments for years without alerting parents or police. Within months, Catholics around the country demanded to know whether their bishops had done the same.

Law tried to manage the mushrooming scandal in his own archdiocese by first refusing to comment, then apologizing and promising reform. But thousands more church records were released describing new cases of how Law and others expressed more care for accused priests than for victims. Amid a groundswell against the cardinal, including rare public rebukes from some of his own priests, Law asked to resign and the pope said yes.

It is my fervent prayer that this action may help the archdiocese of Boston to experience the healing, reconciliation and unity which are so desperately needed, Law said when he stepped down as head of the Boston archdiocese in December of that year. To all those who have suffered from my shortcomings and mistakes, I both apologize and from them beg forgiveness.

It was a stunning fall from grace for Law and a rare step for the church, which deeply resists public pressure but could no longer hold out given the scope of the crisis. Since 1950, more than 6,500, or about 6 percent of U.S. priests, have been accused of molesting children, and the American church has paid more than $3 billion in settlements to victims, according to studies commissioned by the U.S. bishops and media reports. As the leader of the archdiocese at the epicenter for the scandal, Law remained throughout his life a symbol of the churchs widespread failures to protect children.

Still, Law retained some support in the Vatican. In 2004, he was appointed archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major, one of four principal basilicas in Rome. When John Paul died the next year, Law was among bishops who presided at a memorial Mass for the pontiff in St. Peters Basilica. Law also continued for several years to serve in Vatican dicasteries, or policy-making committees, including the Congregation for Bishops, which recommends appointments to the pope. Advocates for victims saw the posts as a sign of favor for Law by church officials unrepentant about abused children.

And even today, 15 years after the scandal broke in Boston, the question of holding bishops accountable for their failures to protect children remains a pressing issue for the church. Pope Francis had promised to go after these negligent bishops, but he backed off a proposed Vatican tribunal to prosecute them and opted instead to use existing measures, leading survivors to question his commitment to the task.

Laws successor as archbishop, Cardinal Sean OMalley, said it was a sad reality that Laws legacy will forever be tied to the abuse scandal since he led the Boston archdiocese at a time when the church seriously failed in its job to care for its flock and protect children.

I offer my sincere apologies for the harm they suffered, my continued prayers and my promise that the archdiocese will support them in their effort to achieve healing, OMalley said in a statement.

Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston attorney who has represented dozens of people who say they were sexually abused by priests, said Laws death has reopened old wounds.

Many victims are reminded of the pain of being sexually abused upon hearing of Cardinal Law passing away, Garabedian said. Cardinal Law turned his back on innocent children and allowed them to be sexually abused and then received a promotion in Rome.

Alexa MacPherson, who says she was a victim of clergy sex abuse for six years as a small child, had no words of sorrow at the news of Laws death.

Good riddance to bad rubbish. I hope the gates of hell are swinging wide to allow him entrance, she told The Associated Press.

I wont shed a tear for him  I might shed a tear for everyone whos been a victim under him.

MacPhersons mother Barbara Sidorowicz, whose two sons were also abused, also was not mourning him.

Im a person, I cannot ever turn my back on my faith, but I cant find it in my heart to forgive, she said. I cry over what happened to my children, but I cant cry over him. I cant even get myself to say a prayer for him. He should have been in jail.

Francis, who met with Law briefly the day after he was elected pope when he went to pray at St. Mary Major, made no comment about Laws passing during his weekly general audience Wednesday. Francis though was expected to send an official telegram of condolence later in the day and celebrate Laws funeral Mass, an honor accorded to all Rome-based cardinals.

Law was expected to be buried in Rome, OMalley said. The location hasnt been disclosed, but Law would be entitled to be buried at St. Mary Major.

Law had been expected to leave a far different mark on the church.

Born Nov. 4, 1931, in Torreon, Mexico, Law was the only child of a U.S. Air Force colonel and a mother who was a Presbyterian convert to Catholicism. He was educated throughout North and South America and the Virgin Islands before graduating in 1953 from Harvard University. He was ordained in 1961 and campaigned for civil rights in Mississippi, sometimes traveling in the trunks of cars for safety. After a post with the national bishops conference, he was named bishop of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau in Missouri, then archbishop of Boston in 1984, a prominent appointment to the countrys fourth-largest diocese.

Law was a prominent voice in Massachusetts and beyond, especially on abortion. He publicly challenged public officials such as Gov. William Weld and Lt. Gov. Paul Cellucci over their support for abortion rights. The cardinal was among a chorus of bishops sharply critical of Geraldine Ferraro, the 1984 Democratic nominee for vice president and a Catholic over her support for abortion rights. Under President George W. Bush, Law was a regular visitor to the White House.

Within the church, he was devoted to building Catholic-Jewish relations, including leading a delegation of Jewish and other Massachusetts leaders in a 1986 visit to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland. He worked closely with church leaders in Latin America, acting as an unofficial envoy of the pope to Cuba and revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.

However, Laws legacy has been overshadowed by the scandal. In the notorious case that started the 2002 crisis, as recounted in the move Spotlight, the Globe reported that Law and two of his predecessors as Boston archbishop had transferred former priest John Geoghan among parish assignments despite knowing he molested children. More than 130 people eventually came forward to say Geoghan abused them. The archdiocese paid $10 million in settlements with 86 of his victims and their relatives as Law was clinging to his job. It was nowhere near enough to ease the growing anger.

As he announced he would leave, Law asked Boston Catholics, Please keep me in your prayers.



Rachel Zoll reported from New York. Rodrique Ngowi in Holbrook, Massachusetts, contributed to this report.
DRACUT  The Ipswich fire chief, a Dracut resident, is behind bars without bail after an investigation into the recent alleged assault of a female acquaintance uncovered additional allegations from a year ago, according to the Middlesex District Attorneys Office.

Gregory Gagnon, 41, was arrested Friday in Lowell Distict Court and charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, witness intimidation and two counts of assault and battery on a household or family member in connection with the alleged assault that occurred on Thursday.

The fire chief was then released on his own recognizance with conditions that included demands that he stay away from the victim, the District Attorneys Office said in a statement.

Gagnon was again arrested Saturday morning after further investigation conducted by the District Attorneys Office and Dracut police. Investigators allegedly determined that Gagnon had assaulted the same victim last year, according to the release. He was then charged with strangulation for the older allegations and placed behind bars.

Ipswich Town Manager Robin Crosbie said on Saturday that Gagnon has been paid on administrative leave with pay pending the outcome of the investigation. His salary is $127,000 for 2017.

Lt. Andre Theriault has been designated as acting chief for the weekend, according to Crosbie.

I am meeting on Monday with an outside candidate to serve as acting chief, Crosbie stated in an email.

Follow Aaron Curtis on Twitter @aselahcurtis.
The Nativity scene, or creche, as some call it, is credited to Saint Francis of Assisi, who displayed a live scene in 1223 after his inspirational visit to the Holy Land. The representation of the birth of Jesus as described in the Gospel of Matthew is shown at churches, homes, shopping malls and other public places around the world.

But in the 1980s, a case that originated in Rhode Island challenged the legality of Christmas decorations on town property, and said public sponsorship of a Nativity scene is a violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Political correctness at its worst.

Eventually, the case went to the Supreme Court, which overturned the ruling by a 5-4 vote, but not before the original ruling disrupted community displays across the country. Not in Lowell, though.

In this article from The Sun in 1982, then-Assistant Lowell City Manager James Campbell spoke out against the court ruling, and the city continued the practice of displaying a Nativity scene on city property, even though it was deemed unconstitutional.

The Nativity scene is still displayed in front of Lowell City Hall to this day but, unfortunately, its surrounded in Plexiglas due to vandalism.

Is anything sacred? Is nothing off limits, not even the baby Jesus?
But the tribe has a long way to go
E-commerce complaints have more than doubled in 2017. In fact, the number of such complaints have been rapidly rising since 2014. It stood at 13,812 for May-March 2014, went up to 23,955 for 2015-16 and climbed further to 50,767 for 2016-17. These complaints have been received in the national consumer helpline.

Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution C.R. Chaudhry admitted, in the Lok Sabha, that there has indeed been a rise in the number of e-commerce complaints. However, he said that there is no plan to have a regulator for grievances against e-commerce companies.

"The National Consumer Helpline has partnered with more than 340 companies including 55 commerce companies under its convergence programme. The complaints received are transferred through the system software to these companies for redressal," he said.

It is expected that the new consumer protection bill will come up with regulations for the e-commerce sector. The bill will replace a 29-year-old law and proposes to set up a regulatory authority which will have powers to recall products and initiate class suit against defaulting companies, including e-tailers.

The key features of the new bill include establishment of an executive agency 'Central Consumer Protection Authority' (CCPA) which will protect and enforce the rights of consumers. The authority will intervene when necessary to prevent consumer detriment arising from unfair trade practices and to initiate class action including enforcing recall, refund and return of products.

That apart, the bill has provisions for "product liability," if product/services causes personal injury, death or property damage, in that case action will be taken against defaulting manufacturers or service providers.

The bill is expected to be passed in the current session.

As of now, consumers can file complaints against e-commerce entities in respective consumer forums according to the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, or approach the National Consumer Helpline or Online Consumer Mediation Centre at National Law School India University.

In the absence of a regulator, social media has become an important tool for people to express their grievances; some of them even get help after posting on Facebook and Twitter. E-commerce complaints especially shoot up during sale seasons, when people make a beeline for offers and quality takes a backseat.
India figured among the top 10 nations in the world where inequality reigns the highest. The World Inequality Reports first edition comes as a by-product of the World Inequality Lab, at the Paris School of Economics, which maintains the worlds wealth and income database. The institute is run by five globally acclaimed economists including Nobel prize winner Thomas Piketty.

Launching the report in New Delhi, Lucas Chancel, co-chancellor of the World Inequality Lab, said that globally, distance between China and the richer countries have narrowed over a 60-year-period.

This is primarily because China chose to invest far more on public infrastructure related to education, health and transport, addressing the bottom 50 per cent income population, but not India, said Chancel, at the India spotlight session of the global report launched earlier in Paris on December 14, and hosted by Indian Council of Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER).

Sieving through income data of nations over past 60 years, Chancery said that this inequality gap between the two Asian tigers existed as Chinas bottom 50 per cent income groups wealth grew at 400 per cent during the period, while Indias bottom 50 per cent grew only by 100 per cent during the same period.

It is the middle class, the top 40 per cent to 50 per cent income group, which grew slower than average in India, said Chancel, drawing attention towards a growing middle class distress in India.

The report observed that the bottom 50 per cent income group across the world increased their wealth by 11 per cent during last 60 years. However, the top 1 per cent income groups wealth grew by more than double that, at 25 percent.

Interestingly, this report also challenges a number of long held notions over economic terms used to calculate wealth. It challenges the veracity of GDP or GVA numbers, or even the household consumption based surveys, as absolute reflection of an economy.

Instead, it upholds national income and tax data, rather personal and government wealth, as a far better picture of a nations overall economic health.

Indias investment in education, health and transportation has remained stressed in the past. But if this inequality gap between the top one percent and at the bottom 50 per cent are to be removed, we will have to address these, said Chancel.

The report also found that public capitalcomprising of government spending on public infrastructure, shares and stocks in publicly listed companies, deposits minus its debtshas come down significantly across major economies.

This is a worrying trend as it means that peoples expectations from the government are being driven to an all-time low, said economist Pronab Sen, speaking at a panel discussion around the launch. This is a threat to any welfare economy model, said Sen, currently the Country Director for the International Growth Centres India Central programme, and former national statistician. In India, we are saying that the saving individual does not need too much of an incentive. Bank rates have come down abysmally, yet no one is talking about it, while the market for various financial products have flourished. And all we are told is mutual fund sahi hai, Sen said.

Sen, also argued that public debt is not always bad and said that the Current Account Deficit is a western-introduced concept developed to brainwash Indians, owing to rising paranoia in the west about Indias public debt levels, even though their own case might be much worse.

Reflecting on Indias situation for inequality, Himanshu, an associate professor in JNU and a scholar on agrarian distress in India, said: Inequality is not an inevitable consequence of growth.

He said that in last 15 years in India, the middle class has been squeezed to accommodate phenomenal growth of the top 10 per cent and a relatively high growth of the bottom 40 per cent.

Social anthropologist Sandeep Chachra, executive director, Action Aid India, raised doubt that Indias formal economy could absorb 500 million jobless people and another 200 million who will be added after being pushed out of farming.

In India, land is central of reducing inequality. Therefore, an investment in Indias peasant economy would be the most relevant solution to reduce the inequality gap, said Chachar.
Former Calcutta High Court judge Justice C.S. Karnan was released from prison on Wednesday after serving six months of imprisonment for contempt of Supreme Court.

"It is a matter of great pleasure, nay, relief, that Justice Karnan will be released from Presidency Jail, Kolkata, tomorrow, on the completion of six months of imprisonment," his counsel Mathew J. Nedumpara said in a media release on Tuesday.

Karnan had earned the dubious distinction of becoming the first sitting high court judge to have been sentenced to jail. The apex court had sentenced him to six months in jail for contempt of court on May 9. Karnan was a serving judge of the Calcutta High Court at that time. After remaining untraceable for over a month, he was arrested on June 20 by the West Bengal CID officials from Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore on Tuesday, and brought to Kolkata the next evening. He was lodged in Presidency jail since then.

His wife, Saraswati Karnan, who resides in Chennai, arrived in the city on Tuesday evening, along with her elder son. "He (Karnan) is scheduled to be released tomorrow. I am coming to Kolkata to accompany him back to Chennai," Saraswati Karnan said on Tuesday.

A seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice of India J S Khehar, had asked the West Bengal director general of police (DGP) to take Karnan, who was on a warpath with the apex court for months, into custody.

The Supreme Court had earlier issued a bailable warrant against the judge to secure his presence before it in connection with the contempt case.

Karnan had appeared before the apex court on March 31, a first in the country's judicial history, and asked for restoration of his powers as a pre-condition for his re- appearance, but the plea was rejected.

Karnan, who had enrolled as an advocate with the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu in 1983, was appointed a judge of the Madras High Court in 2009. He was transferred to the Calcutta High Court on March 11, 2016.

He was transferred from the Madras High Court for his repeated allegations against and run-ins with the then chief justice and fellow judges of the court.
On the heels of a recent scare in Armenia regarding the importation of agricultural products containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs), the government says that it has created a working group to ensure that the use of GMOs does not endanger the countrys environment.

A government press release says that the working group includes officials from the agricultural, environmental protection and health ministries, civil society representatives, and independent experts in the field.

According to the release, the group has reached an agreement regarding legislation dealing with the use of GMOs.

Armenian Minister of Agriculture Ignaty Arakelyan told U.S. Ambassador Richard Mills that the public would be warned in advance regarding the existence of GMOs in food and other items, since it has yet to be proven that they are safe.

Ambassador Mills is reported to have told Arakelyan that the United States is ready to assist Armenia develop its agriculture, and will be sending specialists for that purpose.

P.S. Many in Armenia and worldwide lambasted the U. S. Embassy in Armenia for inviting the biotechnology giant Monsanto at an agricultural seminar in Yerevan. Monsanto is a leading producer of genetically engineered (GE) seed and RoundUp (a glyphosate-based herbicide. Currently, legislation in Armenia is relatively unspecific regarding the use/monitoring of GMOs and whether consumers must be made aware of their existence.

Top photo (from left): Minister Arakelyan, Ambassador Mills
Less than a fortnight after the Delhi government cancelled the licence of the Shalimar Bagh branch of Max Hospital, the hospital resumed operations on Wednesday.

The hospital had been asked to shut down operations following a case of medical negligence involving a pre-term baby that was declared dead, but found alive later. Following an inquiry into the matter by the Delhi government, the scale of medical negligence by the hospital was found to be 'unacceptable'. At a press meet to announce the decision that the hospital should shut shop, Delhi's Health Minister, Satyender Jain, had also called the hospital a 'habitual offender.'

The hospital had termed the decision 'harsh' and said that it would approach relevant authorities to appeal against the order. A statement from the hospital on Wednesday said that it had obtained a stay order issued by the the 'appropriate appellate authority'.

The authority in this case is the Court of the Financial Commissioner, which the hospital had approached for relief. The statement also said that the hospital was 'fully focused' on providing quality care to all patients, and "honouring our commitment of ensuring free treatment to the economically weaker sections of society.

According to the government, the decision to cancel the hospital's licence was taken on several grounds such as the hospital's dysfunctional OPD for poor patients.

Other corporate hospitals, such as Fortis Hospital, and the IMA and its Delhi branch had also criticized the Delhi government's decision to shut the hospital.
The process of nominating Tassaduq Mufti, brother of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, to Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Council (upper house of the assembly), is likely to gather pace as Jammu and Kashmir Governor N.N. Vohra has returned to the state after holding meetings in New Delhi.

Vohra is likely to approve his nomination to Legislative Council in place of Vikramaditya Singh, son of Karan Singh, who resigned from the PDP after accusing the party of neglecting the Jammu province, sources said.

Singh was upset with the government for refusing to the declare the birthday of his grandfather and former Maharaja of the state, Hari Singh, as a holiday.

He had also supported the demand to remove Rohingya Muslims from Jammu.

(File) Tassaduq Mufti | PTI

Before seeking Vohra's approval, all cabinet members had supported Tassaduq's nomination to the upper house in writing.

Tassaduq is likely to get tourism ministry which is currently held by Mehbooba.

Mehbooba, sources said, was also under pressure from some of her family members to induct Tassaduq into the cabinet at the earliest.

Tassaduq's induction into the cabinet could possibly coincide with the winter session of the J&K assembly that starts on January 2 in Jammu.

Last week, he had resigned from chief minister's grievance cell, lending credence to reports that the party was planning to induct him into the cabinet.

Tassaduq was the PDP 's candidate for bypolls in Anantnag parliamentary constituency, which were scheduled for May 25, but were cancelled after the PDP made an appeal to the Election Commission of India (ECI) in view of the killing of eight civilians during Budgam Parliamentary constituency bypolls on April 9.

The proposed move to induct Tassaduq in the cabinet has come after Mehbooba was re-elected president of the PDP, unopposed for the sixth time. The party later elected Sartaj Madni, Mehbooba uncle, as vice president.

After the induction of Tassaduq in the cabinet, Mehbooba hopes to tighten the family's grip on party and government.

About Tassaduq's induction into the cabinet, Madni told THE WEEK, ''Let us see what god has in store for him''.


The Aligarh Students Parents Association has bitterly criticised a statement by the Hindu Jagran Manch (HJM), a body affiliated to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which had warned schools in the city not to celebrate Christmas.

A delegation of the association has been meeting district officials and has demanded strong action against the HJM. A meeting of the parents association held under its head, Umesh Chandra Srivastava, criticised the stance and statement of the HJM.

According to Srivastava, the HJM had intentions to create trouble before and on December 25 in Aligarh and its efforts will not be allowed to succeed. Another member of the association, Anurag Gupta, said that some political organisations are trying vitiate the peaceful atmosphere of the city and trying to threaten schools in the name of religion.

Rajesh Pandey, SSP Aligarh, said that though police have not received any written complaint against the HJM, any body, political or apolitical, would not be allowed to disturb the communal harmony of the city. The police came to know about this issue through media.

The Hindu Jagran Manch is a group affiliated to the VHP. It has been in the news for preventing religious conversions and the body was reportedly founded by the BJP MP Vinay Katiyar in 1982. It first came to light for its activism and religious violence in the tribal areas of the Dangs district of Gujarat in 1998. It has also been in the news for its Ghar Wapsi (reconversion to Hinduism) programmes in 2014 in the western UP district of Agra.

Meanwhile, Rashpal Singh, a local resident, described this kind of statement by the HJM as a Taliban-style diktat.'

Earlier, the HJM had asked schools of the city, which have majority of Hindu students, not to impose their decision to celebrate Christmas. HJM city president Sonu Savita said the group would resist all efforts by those schools that would compel its students to celebrate Christmas. Its city general secretary Puneet Sharma said that all such efforts will be opposed by the HJM.

The Forum for Muslim Studies and Analysis (Aligarh) has demanded stern action against the members of HJM.

Meanwhile, ADG (law and order) Anand Kumar, in a letter written to various district police chiefs, has clearly directed them to taken strict action against those who have been trying to prevent people from celebrating Christmas. The step has been taken after the statement by the members of the HJM.

Meanwhile, commenting on the threats, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma on Tuesday said people were free to celebrate festivals of any religion.

(With agency inputs)
The Juvenile Justice Board on Wednesday ruled that the teenager accused of killing a seven-year-old boy at the Ryan International School in Gurugram would be tried as an adult.

The 16-year-old boy, a class-11 student of the same school, allegedly killed Pradhyuman Thakur, a class-two student, in September to force the school to postpone examinations. The Haryana Police had initially arrested a school bus conductor in connection with the case. The teenager was detained after the CBI took over investigation of the case.

Making its decision, the JJB observed that the crime was 'heinous' in nature and that the accused was 'mature enough' to understand the consequences of his actions. The ruling means that the accused can be tried in a sessions court for the crime; his family have announced that they will appeal the ruling.

Earlier this month, the JJB had rejected a bail application from the accused after receiving expert reports that he was 'aggressive' in nature.

(With agency inputs)
After the BJP was made to fight hard to retain its bastion of Gujarat by the Congress, the saffron party's central leadership is considering a replacement for incumbent Chief Minister Vijay Rupani. The names of Union Ministers Smriti Irani and Mansukh Mandaviya are doing the rounds.

However Mandaviya, 45, played down the speculation while interacting with THE WEEK. All this is media speculation. I am not in the race for the post of the chief minister of Gujarat. I am happy to be the Union minister of state for road transport and highways.

Mandaviya is young and is said to be very close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. There is talk that the party could favour Mandaviya, as he belongs to the Patidar community.

If Mandaviya is made the CM, it will also propitiate the Patidar community that has been demanding reservation in jobs and education.

Sources in the BJP said party president Amit Shah wont prefer a high-profile and outspoken leader like Irani as the chief minister of Gujarat, as it could shrink the Modi-Shah magic and their clout in the state.

The party is also said to be considering Governor of Karnataka, Vajubhai Vala, 78, for the CMs post. Vala had served as the speaker of the Gujarat Assembly from 2012 to 2014.

Most likely, it will be Vijay Rupani who will be the chief minister of the state, though the final decision will be taken by the prime minister and the party president, said a senior party leader.

Rupani could face the heat for the BJPs performance in the state, where it won much lesser seats than what it had expected. After two decades, the Congress made impressive progress in the BJP's stronghold.

Other sources indicate that Shah himself could take up the post. But it is highly unlikely as important assembly elections are lined up in 2018 and the party needs his far-seeing strategies.

The BJP has appointed senior leaders Arun Jaitley and Saroj Pandey as observers for the selection of the CM in Gujarat. The final announcement is likely on December 22.
The first time the far right Freedom Party of Austria was part of a ruling coalition in Vienna was in 2000. The FPO, which finished the 1999 parliament elections marginally ahead of the centre right People's Party (OVP), entered into an alliance with them to stop the Social Democrats who topped the elections. However, on the day the new government was set to take charge, there were massive demonstrations in Vienna and would-be ministers had to take a tunnel from the chancellery to the presidential palace to avoid their wrath. The world, too, reacted strongly, some countries downgraded ties with Austria, Israel recalled its ambassador, accusing the FPO of anti-Semitism. Nearly two decades later, the FPO, a party launched by the erstwhile Nazis, once again became a part of a ruling coalition with the OVP. The new cabinet was sworn in on December 18. This time, the protests were muted, nothing that the local police could not manage. And, the EU thought it prudent to welcome the new government.

The muted protests show the mainstreaming of right wing groups across Europe, especially in Austria. In the parliament elections held in October, the OVP under Sebastian Kurz won 32 per cent of the votes to emerge as the single largest party. The FPO finished third behind the ruling Social Democrats. Kurz, 31, conducted two months of intense negotiations with the FPO led by Heinz Christian Strache and sealed a deal to form a coalition. He took over as federal chancellor, the youngest head of government in the world, on December 18, and, in the process, brought back the far right once again into the national mainstream.

The FPO experiment could well be a litmus test for right wing movements across Europe. Under Kurz, nicknamed wunderwuzzi (wonder boy), the OVP has shifted considerably to the right so it was natural for him to ally with the FPO. After the elections, FPO leaders, in fact, charged Kurz with stealing their agenda on a range of issues like national security and migration. The right wing parties have been gaining in popularity across Europe. The National Front came second in the French presidential elections early in the year, the Alternative for Deutschland made astonishing gains in Germany, and now, the FPO is part of the government in Austria.

Under its alliance with the OVP, the FPO will be in charge of defence, interior and foreign ministries, giving it complete control over security policy. In return, Strache has agreed to rein in his criticism of the European Union and the euro and has pledged support to the economic agenda of the OVP, including keeping the national debt under check. Under the FPO, migrants, refugees and asylum seekers will be subject to stricter background checks and evaluations. For instance, the FPO plan proposes to confiscate the mobile phones of refugees to verify their identity and travel routes. Anything suspicious will result in immediate expulsion. It also proposes to confiscate cash carried by refugees and add it to a common pool to support them. The new policy even waives off privacy rights of the refugees, including about their medical records and stipulates that they will not be given private accommodation. It also sets tough standards of integration, making it mandatory for the immigrants to learn German, imbibe Austrian values and admitting children in state run schools only after they pick up required proficiency in German. The policy makes it illegal to accept foreign donations for building mosques and madrassas and proposes to strictly monitor what is being taught in madrassas.

Kurz and Strache could get away with such promises because of the marked right turn taken by the Austrian voters. The 2015 refugee crisis played into the hands of the far right as ordinary Austrians found it difficult to digest an influx of a large group of people into their country, who spoke a different language, practiced a different religion and above all, belonged to a different value system. The inept manner in which the Austrian government addressed their concerns made many of them shift to the right.

The right wing made use of the situation with promises to take a tough stand on immigration, cut welfare spending for refugees and crack down on radical Islam. And, it worked. It could well be a model for other right wing groups as well. In the long run, it could pose a threat to the future of the European Union as most right wing groups are fundamentally Eurosceptics and ultranationalists. The mainstreaming of the far right could therefore possibly mark the beginning of the end of the multicultural European project.
The Republican-led US Senate approved a sweeping, $1.5 trillion tax bill in the small hours of Wednesday morning, moving their party and President Donald Trump a step closer to the largest overhaul of the US tax code in more than 30 years.

The victory, expected to be sealed within hours, will not come without embarrassment for Republicans, who tripped up on a last-minute procedural snag that forced them to schedule a re-vote by the House of Representatives later in the day.

Republicans shrugged off the mistake. White House legislative affairs director Marc Short, commenting on the need for a House re-vote, said: I dont think its that uncommon for a big piece of legislation like this.

The bill slashes taxes for corporations and wealthy taxpayers, revamps how the United States taxes multinational companies and creates a tax deduction for the owners of pass-through businesses, ranging from mom-and-pop stores to large real estate and financial enterprises.

The debt-financed bill offers temporary tax rate cuts for some individuals and families, while sharply reducing the number of Americans who itemize deductions on their tax returns and cutting back the number and scope of many available deductions.

Weve had two quarters in a row of 3 percent growth. The stock market is up. Optimism is high. Coupled with this tax reform, America is ready to start performing as it should have for a number of years, said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell after the chambers vote.

Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said the bill will harm millions of middle-class families.

It contains huge, permanent giveaways for big banks and corporations, and asks our children, millions of working Americans and senior citizens, and future generations to pay the price, he said.

Protesters chant 'kill the bill'

The House passed the measure 227-203 in its first vote on the bill on December 19, steamrolling Democrats who said it will add $1.5 trillion to the $20 trillion national debt over 10 years.

The House then sent the bill to the Senate for action, but a Senate staff official ruled that three minor provisions in the measure had to be removed. They were, and the Senate passed the bill by a 51-48 vote.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was on the Senate floor during the vote, shaking hands and exchanging congratulations with Republican senators as protesters in the spectator gallery overlooking the floor chanted: Kill the bill.

The changes made by the Senate, although small, meant that another House vote was required and it was set for late Wednesday morning, with approval expected. It would then go to Trump for his signature, enacting it into law.

Republicans see the measure as crucial to defending their majorities in the House and Senate in congressional elections coming in November 2018. It repeals part of the Obamacare health system and allows oil drilling in Alaskas Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, just two of many items added on to secure votes of support as it rocketed through Congress in mere weeks.



 Reuters
The US Senate on December 20 approved the final version of the first overhaul of the US tax code in more than three decades, handing President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans their most significant legislative victory of 2017.



The bill passed the Senate 51 to 48 with no Democrats backing the bill while all present Republicans voted for it. The final result was announced by Vice President Mike Pence who presided over the vote.



Earlier, the House passed the bill on December 19 but technical changes were made to it in the Senate. The bill will go back to the House on Wednesday for a re-vote where it is expected to pass again, the media reported.



It will then head to the President's desk for his signature before Christmas, making good on the Republican Party's promise to enact tax relief by the end of the year.



The $1.5 trillion tax bill will have broad effects on the economy, making deep and lasting cuts to corporate taxes. It will also lower income tax bills in 2018 for the vast majority of households, though the wealthy would see far more relief than the middle class and working poor.



The plan would revise nearly every part of the tax system by lowering income tax rates at all levels and restructuring deductions. And it extends beyond taxes and into healthcare by scrapping a central part of the Affordable Care Act.



Trump acknowledged the Senate's vote in a tweet: "The US Senate just passed the biggest in history Tax Cut and Reform Bill. Terrible Individual Mandate (ObamaCare) Repealed."



The approval of the bill in the House and Senate came over the objections of Democrats, who accused Republicans of giving a gift to corporations and the wealthy.



At around midnight, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer made his final pitch to his colleagues to vote against the tax bill. He said that "this is some bill for the middle class", noting the heftiest provisions will help corporations.



Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, called the tax bill a scam, saying it "is simply theft - monumental".



Under the final tax bill, the corporate tax rate would fall to 21 per cent, from the current 35 per cent, a move that Republicans bet will increase economic growth, create jobs and raise wages.



Individuals would also see tax cuts, including a top rate of 37 per cent, down from 39.6 per cent.



The size of inheritances shielded from estate taxation would double, to $22 million for married couples, and owners of pass-through businesses, whose profits are taxed through the individual code, would be able to deduct 20 per cent of their business income.



But the individual tax cuts would expire after 2025, a step that Republicans took to comply with budget rules.



The tax changes will affect businesses and individuals unevenly. The bill strikes at a core component of the Affordable Care Act, eliminating the requirement that most people have health coverage or pay a penalty, a move that the Congressional Budget Office projects will increase premiums for people who buy insurance.



It will also open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil and gas drilling, a defeat for environmentalists who have fought against such action for decades.
Share your opinion on this topic by sending a letter to the editor to tctvoice@madison.com. Include your full name, hometown and phone number. Your name and town will be published. The phone number is for verification purposes only. Please keep your letter to 250 words or less.
The UK's competition watchdog has given the final green light for Tesco's 3.7billion takeover of wholesale group Booker to go ahead.

Consumers are unlikely to experience price hikes after the deal because there is sufficiently 'strong' rivalry in the sector, the Competition and Markets Authority said.

Despite fears raised by rival wholesalers, the CMA said Tesco and Booker do not compete 'head to head' in most areas, particularly when it comes to catering.

Green light: The UK's competition watchdog has given the final green light for Tesco's 3.7billion takeover of wholesale group Booker

The deal, which will be completed in March, will see Tesco become a major supplier of thousands of small retailers operated by Booker, including the Londis, Budgens and Premier chains.

On the CMA's clearance, Tesco's share price fell 0.2 per cent to 205.95p, while Booker's rose 0.66 per cent to 227.2p.

The CMA said it had 'carefully' considered the impact of the deal on shops set to be supplied by Tesco, but found that the supermarket giant cannot have any direct influence over them.

Simon Polito, chairman of the CMA's inquiry group, said: 'Millions of people use their local supermarket or convenience store to buy their groceries or essentials, so it is vital that they have enough choice to secure the best deal for them.

'Having examined the evidence in depth, we are satisfied this will remain the case following the merger.'

He added: 'We have carefully listened to feedback from retailers and wholesalers who operate in what are highly competitive UK retail and wholesale sectors.

'Retailers have told us that they shop around for the best prices and service from their wholesaler, and we are confident that this will continue after Tesco buys Booker.'

As details of the deal surfaced, a string of rival wholesalers raised concerns that the deal could see Booker benefit from improved supplier terms, making it difficult for them to compete.

Booker accounts for between 10 per cent and 20 per cent of the grocery wholesale market and 18 per cent of the retail market, while Tesco accounts for 28 per cent of the grocery retail market.

Clearance: Despite fears raised by rival wholesalers, the CMA said Tesco and Booker do not compete 'head to head' in most areas

The CMA launched its investigation into the deal in May and kicked-off an in-depth probe in July after Tesco and Booker asked for the inquiry to be fast-tracked.

Its investigation saw a group of independent CMA panel members scrutinise 12,000 locations where a branch of Tesco and a Booker-supplied shop were both present.

Shareholders will now be asked to vote on the deal next February.

In October, Tesco announced a 2.1 per cent increase in like-for-like sales in the second quarter.

Pre-tax profits for the period increased to 562million in the first half, up from 71million over the same period a year ago.
Embattled UK construction firm Carillion is parting ways with its outgoing interim chief executive three months earlier than planned.

Keith Cochrane will be stepping down form the top job on 22 January rather than 2 April, paving the way for replacement Andrew Davies to take his place.

The group, which has issued a string of profit warnings in recent months, has seen its share price rise by 4.62 per cent to 17p this morning.

Early start: Andrew Davies will become Carillion's new chief executive from 22 January 2018

In November, the HS2 contractor issued its latest profit warning and said it will breach its debt covenants, prompting its share price to nosedive by 70 per cent.

The firm, which posted a half-year loss of 1.15billion has warned its annual profits are set to be 'materially lower than current market expectations' as it grapples with a string of delays and smaller-than-expected improvements to its margins on certain contracts.

Despite efforts to drive down costs, haul in cash and push through disposals, the firm has also said it would fail to hit its net debt to earnings ratio of 1 to 1.5 times by the end of 2018.

Commenting on the chief executive shift, Philip Green, Carillion's chairman, said: 'We are very grateful to the board of Wates, and to James Wates CBE, their chairman, for their facilitation of Andrew's earlier appointment.

'It is a demonstration of how the sector is willing to co-operate and collaborate to ensure the long-term sustainability of UK industry.'

Davies is currently the chief executive of Wates Group, where he has held the role since 2014.

Before that, he held a string of senior roles with BAE Systems over a 28-year period and is also non-executive director at Chemring.

The group first announced Davies was moving to the top role at the end of October.

Last week, Carillion agreed to sell a slice of its healthcare business to Serco for 47.7million.

Serco, which works across healthcare, transport, defence and citizen services, will be taking over a string of healthcare contracts from Carillion spanning five hospital trusts and 20 other public sector organisations.
Bitcoin tumbled from recent highs as the digital currency was hit by a series of controversies.

Its price fell to less than $16,500 (12,310) yesterday, which was almost 16 per cent below Sundays record of about $19,547 (14,580).

It came as a leading US exchange revealed it was investigating possible insider trading, while another in South Korea went bust after a cyber attack.

A separate blow came from Australia, where researchers claimed half of all bitcoin transactions enabled trade of illegal goods such as drugs and weapons.

Fears of insider trading emerged after Coinbase, a San Francisco-based exchange, revealed it was investigating a suspicious spike in the price of bitcoin cash.

The price of Bitcoin fell to less than $16,500 during trading yesterday, almost 16 per cent below Sunday's record of about $19,547

The rival currency, which is almost identical to bitcoin, surged to $8,500 (6,347) on Tuesday, just hours before a surprise move by Coinbase to launch it on its own platform.

Brian Armstrong, Coinbases chief executive, said a probe would try to establish whether any employees took advantage of their knowledge of the secret plans.

He wrote: It appears the price of bitcoin cash on other exchanges increased in the hours before our announcement.

I take the confidentiality of material non-public information very seriously. If we find evidence of any employee or contractor violating our policies  directly or indirectly  I will not hesitate to ... take appropriate legal action.

In South Korea, the Youbit exchange filed for bankruptcy after a cyber attack saw hackers steal bitcoins suspected to be worth more than 60million.

The heist has been blamed on North Korea. Youbit said it was calling in administrators and would try to minimise customer losses.

It followed several other similar attacks on other exchanges in the Asian country.

Australian researchers yesterday said concerns over bitcoin threatened to undermine enthusiasm for the blockchain technology which underpins it.

The researchers from the University of Technology in Sydney, using forensic accounting techniques, said they had found half of all the currencys transactions facilitated trade of illegal goods such as drugs, weapons and stolen software.

This sort of illegal activity risks stunting the adoption of this technology and limiting the potential benefits to society, said Professor Talis Putnins. Legal users, meanwhile, often seemed to just buy the currency and hold it.

The frenzy surrounding bitcoin continues. But in a cruel twist of fate, many people who bought it years ago before its massive surge in price have been unable to access it.

Because they cant remember their security codes, investors had turned to hypnosis and brute force supercomputing to try to get to their bitcoins, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Ex Shell director Malcom Brinded is among fifteen ex oil bosses due to stand trial in Italy

Oil majors Shell and Eni, and ex-bosses at both firms, are due to stand trial in Italy over alleged corruption over an 800million field in Nigeria.

Former Shell director Malcolm Brinded, 64, who was given a CBE in 2002 for services to the oil and gas industry, is among 15 accused, including Enis chief executive Claudio Descalzi.

Prosecutors say a large part of around 800million paid by Shell and Eni in 2011 was distributed as bribes.

Brinded, head of Shells upstream international division at the time of the alleged payments, has denied wrongdoing.

He is president of the Energy Institute, a professional body for the industry.

Anti-corruption campaigner group Global Witness said the trial, set to begin on March 5, will be the biggest corporate bribery trial in history.

Brinded said there was no basis for the charges against him. Shell said it believed judges will conclude there is no case against it or its staff.
SOURCE: Peter Bruce

The ANC has miraculously given the country a Get out of Jail Free card.

The thieves and crooks are in trouble, but for the most part we can breathe again. At the end, it seemed it would never end; the company running the African National Congress elections dithered over final numbers, desperate to avoid conflict. But Cyril Ramaphosa came through, defeating Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma by a slender 179 votes. Ramaphosa is the new President of the ANC and unless the combined opposition in Parliament pull their fingers out, he will be the next president of South Africa. In fact, the opposition might not have to wait until the 2019 election to have to start calling him Mr President when they attack him. It seems almost impossible that President Jacob Zuma will survive long in office at the Union Buildings. He got some supporters into the Top six, notably Ace Magashule as the new Secretary General. But even though Ramaphosa would have preferred a deputy other than Mpumalanga Premier David DD Mabuza, and must have groaned at the return of Jesse Duarte as Deputy Secretary General, they will quickly get behind him.

There is absolutely no mileage in any of them fighting for Zuma to stay in office. Ramaphosa takes the lead of a party at odds with itself but the possibilities for renewal are there. A new national executive committee will defenestrate Zuma just as Zumas NEC did to Thabo Mbeki in 2008, after he lost the party race to Zuma in Polokwane 10 years ago. What goes around comes around and with a Ramaphosa rather than a Dlamini-Zuma victory, the ANC is much less likely to split. The Dlamini-Zuma camp was always the more opportunist. For most of its leaders a life outside the party is unimaginable. Ramaphosa, being the gentleman he is, will be torn between making some sort of magnanimous gesture towards her or burying her completely, though that may be easier said than done. The leadership elected around him has some ambitious people in it, not least Mabuza, who appears to have handed victory to Ramaphosa by backing him when it had been widely assumed he was backing Dlamini-Zuma.

It would be a significant break with ANC tradition if Ramaphosa does not make him deputy president of the country whenever he assumes office. Ramaphosa could do that, nevertheless, without much risk to himself until 2023 when the ANC next elects a leader. Ramaphosa has to move quickly. He is by nature a conciliator but he may quickly discover the virtues of total power. The markets cheered his victory with the Rand rising fast and bonds yields falling (thats good) equally fast. The political calendar though is unrelenting, with the traditional January 8 statement on the anniversary of the ANCs founding less than a month away. Ramaphosa will have to make a significant statement of policy and intent then and it is less than a month away. Then it is on to the State of the nation address and the budget in February  huge moments for the country as Moodys, the last remaining big ratings agency not to have downgraded our sovereign debt to junk, waits to give its verdict. Ramaphosa will be desperate to avoid that. He may even call Pravin Gordhan back into the Treasury.

It goes without saying that the moment Zuma goes, Ramaphosa will institute a judicial inquiry into State Capture or a kind of State Capture Truth Commission. The Guptas have been fatally rude about him and arrogant generally about their access to power. That stops now. They prospered under a particular set of circumstances in South Africa, most important of which was Jacob Zumas weakness for money. Those circumstances have dwindled for months now and they too are officially over. If I were the Guptas, Id get out of South Africa immediately. Ramaphosa, despite his incomplete victory, suddenly has great power but he will be judged harshly if he hesitates. The mood of the country is easy to read. It wants justice. A judicial inquiry will spare no-one. Ramaphosa will draw former Public Protector Thuli Madonsela into his administration for a start, and his big test will be who to prosecute once the inquiry is done. Zuma could face imprisonment, Ramaphosa would probably pardon him but he could only do that once he had been found guilty of something. He will institute a process, with the enthusiastic help of the rest of the world, to bring back money stolen under the State Capture project.

The Dlamini-Zuma camp will quickly fall apart. It has no patronage to offer. But the biggest job now, politically, is for the opposition. Once Ramaphosa starts doing what obviously needs to be done, where will it find political space? The Economic Freedom Fighters are vulnerable. Zuma was such an easy target.
MBABANE  Cyril Ramaphosa is the type of democratic leader who will bring healing to the Southern Africa region, Swaziland inclusive.

These were the words of political analyst Musa Hlophe in reaction to the landmark victory of Ramaphosa as the President of the African National Congress (ANC). Ramaphosa took over the presidency from current South African President Jacob Zuma, during the partys 54th National Conference at Nasrec in Johannesburg on Monday. Interviewed yesterday, Hlophe said he was celebrating Ramaphosas victory and said it was not only for him but for the whole Southern African region. Our region needs healing. The more we get democratic leaders like Ramaphosa the more the opportunities for countries to follow suit and respect democracy, said Hlophe. He mentioned that Ramaphosa was a multi-billionaire who was not entering politics for money.

Hlophe shared a background of how far Ramaphosa had come in the political field and stated that he was a man who understood the struggle and had the ability to mobilise people to push for a better future. There will be less corruption under his leadership because even the other people who were elected are genuine ANC leaders who are concerned about the socio-economic situation of the masses, he said. According to Hlophe, Zuma had been the worst leader of the ANC and this plan to plant his former wife, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma into the presidency seat of the party, was only to assist him in securing a defence for his alleged corruption charges. Hlophe said by pushing for his former wife to be president, Zuma wanted to ensure that he did not go to jail for his alleged involvement in criminal activities. He knew how Ramaphosa insisted on the recommendation that those who were implicated in the report released by the then public protector should go to jail to account for their alleged crimes, he highlighted.

Responding to a question on what Ramaphosas victory meant for Swaziland, Hlophe mentioned that he was adamant that the new ANC leader would eventually become the South African president come 2019 and that he would have a lot of positive influence on the whole SADC region. He stated that each time President Zuma made a mistake, Swaziland suffered a lot. Zumas mistakes always downgraded his country and this had an effect on Swaziland because the cost of living increased due to the fact that we are getting 80 per cent of our livelihood from the neighbouring country. Each time the cost of living goes up in South Africa, it becomes three times more in our country, Hlophe said.

He highlighted that there were many issues in Swaziland that called for the assistance of democratic leaders and singled out the issue of businesses being taken by foreign nationals mainly of Asian origin. Furthermore, Hlophe said this came at the right time when Zimbabwe was going through change following the ousting of former president, Robert Mugabe.
MBABANE  The Industrial Court has interdicted SRA employees from verbally threatening managers.

The aggrieved employees, who are currently on strike, are among other acts reported to be verbally threatening some of the managers who were at work and the situation was getting volatile. The order by the court comes after SRA yesterday approached the Industrial Court on urgent basis. The employees were also interdicted and restrained from carrying out their picket in areas other than the designated ones. The interim order was issued by Judge President of the Industrial Court Sifiso Nsibande. Judge Nsibande further issued an order restricting the union and its members from entering SRA offices. In his founding affidavit, SRA Commissioner General Dumisani Masilela, mentioned that the application sought to interdict unlawful activities perpetrated by the union and its members during the course of the strike. He told the court that the union and its members were interfering with SRA clients, obstructing traffic, violating provisions of strike picketing rules, committing acts of misconduct during the course of the strike.

Masilela averred that certain conduct by the union and its members constituted a breach of the strike rules and were tantamount to misconduct. Since the inception of the strike, the union and its members have wilfully and persistently violated the picket rules and in particular, have committed different acts of misconduct, submitted the SRA commissioner general. He alleged that the employees had failed to adhere to Clause 4(d) and (f) of the picketing rules, by staging pickets in Manzini Service Centre, Mahamba Border Post and in other areas without notification and/or agreement with SRA. Masilela averred that in terms of the notice issued by the union on December 12, 2017, these areas were not designated as picket areas. They have consistently interfered with the free flow of traffic, particularly at Matsamo, Ngwenya and Matsamo Border post on December 13-14, 2017,alleged Masilela. He contended that this was in violation of Clauses 4(e) and 5(a) of the picket rules.

The commissioner general also disclosed that the employees had forcefully entered into SRAs head office in Matsapha Service Centre during the course of the strike action. He alleged that some of the employees of SRA who were at work were not allowed to enter the premises during the course of the strike action in accordance to Clause 5(b) of the strike picketing rules. Masilela highlighted that there were other violations and this caused SRA on December 14, 2017 to send a formal letter to the union reminding it of its obligation. In the letter it wrote to the union, SRA was also seeking an undertaking from it that it would refrain from this unlawful conduct. No undertaking was received from the union within the stipulated timeframe. However, the violations of the strike picketing rules continued unabated, argued Masilela. He submitted that the obstruction of traffic at major border posts such as Ngwenya, Matsamo, Lavumisa and Mahamba had continued.
MBABANE  Anxiety will continue to grip the thousands of pupils awaiting the external examination results because the Exams Council of Swaziland (ECoS) is not sure when they will be released.

The challenge according to the ECoS Registrar, Dr Edmund Mazibuko, is due to the shortage of markers of the scripts as many of them have shied away from the exercise. The reason forwarded by both the markers and Mazibuko is that following the 33 per cent taxing of the markers pay by the Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA), most of them felt that they were not making any money out of it. Interviewed yesterday, Mazibuko said he could not commit to the date of the release of either the Grade VII or Form III results because marking was still ongoing. We have had a great challenge with markers this year especially those of Science subjects, said Mazibuko. He said although they tried to pay the markers who were mostly teachers, a majority of them, in particular those who had previously been trained in the exercise, declined to come forward.

They complained of the 33 per cent tax saying that it is just not worth it, said Mazibuko. He said they could also try and increase what was paid to the markers, by using the money paid by parents and government for the orphaned and vulnerable children (OVCs) as examination fees, but that too was not enough. Mazibuko, who also spoke on national radio yesterday morning could not immediately provide a solution to the dilemma as he stated that it all centred around money which was unfortunately not available. He said to try and lure the markers they had this year provided them with an allowance of about E1 300. The other challenge, according to Mazibuko, was that the markers had to find their own accommodation around Manzini where the marking centres are, yet they (teachers) came from all over the country. The marking takes place at Manzini Central, Salesian High and St Theresas High Schools. It should be noted that some of the markers of Form V scripts have completed the exercise.

Mazibuko further said the markers had also complained about transport issues because some of them could not reside at places like Caritas Manzini, which charges about E50 per day. However, the markers are given lunch and tea.

We have to train the teachers or markers too so it is not a simple case of simply going to a school and asking for teachers, he said. He, however, said they were all working around the clock to ensure that the results are released as early as possible. Mazibuko said he was not in a position to state how many markers they needed as he was out of the office when interviewed. Last year the Grade VII results were released on December 30, 2016 and about five days later, the Form III results were released on January 5, 2017 by the Minister of Education and Training Phineas Magagula.
MBABANE  Booze lovers will not be allowed to stay for extended hours in bars and certain drinking spots.



This basically means that the six to six club parties will remain a fantasy this festive season.

This was confirmed by the Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) in the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade Magenius Hlophe, during an interview yesterday.



Hlophe stressed that all businesses were expected to close shop at the time stipulated in their business licences. He explained that the law only permitted hotels, clubs, and sport clubs to exceed their normal operation hours although by only three hours. He stated that the three entities could operate for more hours after successfully applying for same and added that the extension was granted to an entity only once a month.



You only apply once, there is no negotiating, stressed Hlophe.

Hlophe stated that he was not sure if any entity within the three types of businesses had applied for an extension as he was out of office. He explained that the three types of businesses could only apply if they would be hosting certain functions. He added that businesses that were outside of this bracket would not be given any extension as owners knew that it was not provided for by the law.



Even if you have a cross-over party, you cannot apply for an extension if you are not part of the three types of businesses, emphasised Hlophe.



When asked about whether there would be an exception this festive season that could allow the three types of businesses to apply for extensions around Christmas and on New Years Eve, Hlophe responded to the negative. He stressed that there would be no negotiations in this regard and added that they had a system in place that showed if a certain company had already been granted permission to operate additional hours in that month.
SITEKI  A boy (6) sustained serious injuries and was forced to flee and spend a night in a forest after he was brutally assaulted by his mother, who is reportedly on drugs.



The incident, which has been described as gruesome and shocking by some people, occurred recently at the rural community of Maphungwane, which is situated east of Siteki town.



The names of both the woman and her son are known to this publication but have been deliberately withheld for ethical reasons.

The minor was reportedly at home with other siblings when the minor attacked him with a stick, severely assaulting him on the head, hands and legs.



Scared boy flees into forest

SITEKI  Fearing for his life, the boy fled and hid in a forest before he was discovered by a relative who is a former member of Parliament (MP) of the area, a source privy to the details of the matter said.



He was then brought to the Siteki Social Welfare offices before he was taken to the police. He was then taken to Good Shepherd Hospital for medical attention. The mother was then arrested by the police and she was charged with contravening Section 48(1) of the Childrens Projection and Welfare Act No: 6/2012



Court papers allege that the woman did wrongfully and unlawfully assault the minor and further failed to seek medical assistance for the injuries he had sustained, thus exposing the boy to danger. It is further mentioned in court papers that the severe beating inflicted on the minor resulted in both physical and emotional injuries.

The mother appeared before Acting Lubombo Principal Magistrate Donald Mavuso, who was sitting at the Siteki Magistrates Court. She was not asked to plead to the charges she is facing but she informed the court that she would represent herself during trial. Prosecutors informed the court that the minor has been discharged from hospital and that he is recuperating at a safe place.
BOULDER  A Longmont man accused of trying to kill his neighbors in July by setting fire to their home while they slept pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder and arson on Friday.

Demian Weigle, 43, is scheduled for a one-week trial the week of Sept. 16. He is scheduled to return to Boulder District Court on Aug. 7 for a pretrial motions hearings.

Police and prosecutors believe Weigle set fires to the front and back doors of his neighbors home at 534 Bowen St. overnight on July 16 in an attempt to kill the family of three inside. The family woke and escaped out of a side window with the help of other neighbors, according to police.

According to court documents, police suspect Weigle had suffered increasing paranoia after using bath salt drugs that he ordered on the Internet and came to suspect that his neighbor was spying on him. He told police he was traveling in Wyoming at the time of the fires and provided receipts from motels and other businesses. However, investigators believe the timeline of the fires and his receipts would have allowed him to set the blazes and drive to Wyoming to collect the receipts for the alibi, according to court documents and earlier testimony in court.

Weigle remains at the Boulder County Jail awaiting trial.

Pierrette J. Shields can be reached at 303-684-5273 or at pshields@times-call.com.
Longmont police are warning residents today of scam callers identifying themselves as city officials and demanding financial information.

Sgt. Matt Cage said by 10:30 a.m., two people reported to police that the callers aggressively asked for money to pay for items for the city.

Its not true, Cage said. Nobody from the city is calling asking for credit card information today.

Cage said because the scammers have changed caller ID, its hard for police to track down whos behind the scam.

If anyone believes theyre a victim of the scam, they can file a report with police by calling 303-651-8555.

Anyone with questions about the scam can call Cage at 303-651-8520.

Amelia Arvesen: 303-684-5212, arvesena@times-call.com or twitter.com/ameliaarvesen
On Saturday, Nov. 11, we will honor the men and women who took an oath swearing their allegiance to support and defend the Constitution against enemies both foreign and domestic.

Longmonts Veterans Day parade starts at 11:11 a.m. Saturday downtown, and we encourage everyone to come out and thank our veterans for their service.

While Memorial Day remembers those lost in war, Veterans Day celebrates all who served, not only in war but in the equally important role of peacekeeper.

It celebrates those who fought to protect freedom at home and around the world.

In the past year, the rights that the Constitution affords Americans have been frequently on peoples minds.

Those rights start with freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom to assemble and the right to petition the government to address grievances, many of which have faced challenges this year.

They continue with the often-debated right to bear arms.

They ensure the government cant take private property without compensation.

Anyone who has a brush with the law benefits from constitutional rights to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures, to due process under the law, to swift public trials, to bail that is not excessive and the right of those being tried to have defense counsel. If found guilty, the Eighth Amendment says, excessive fines cannot be imposed, and cruel and unusual punishments cannot be inflicted.

Most likely you wont need to exercise all these rights this week, but you can exercise one of your most important constitutional rights: the right to vote.

The Constitution didnt originally give every American of age the right to vote  just men over age 21. Later amendments gave that right to all men regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude in 1870, and finally 50 years later, in 1920 to women.

Expansion and protection of voting rights have been hard-fought battles.

Our veterans have worked hard to protect these rights for all of us.

To honor veterans this week, take time Tuesday to vote, then come out Saturday and celebrate them.
Colorado Congressman Ken Buck last week stepped forward to announce an amendment to the GOPs tax plan that would prohibit companies from deducting the expense of legal settlements, such as those that might arise from sexual harassment claims.

Bucks target: Hollywood, with its culture of deceit and depravity, according to a press release from his office.

In allowing these businesses to expense the cost of resolving legal issues, the tax code makes it less financially costly for the business to engage in or allow activity that draws lawsuits, his office announced.

Well, yes, Buck is right about Hollywood. Hes correct that Congress should do something now about sexual harassment. But the target hes chosen is too distant.

Before Congress acts to address the culture of deceit and depravity in Hollywood and in other business spheres where harassment has yet to give way to openness and decency, it should take the first step in solving its own problem and pass laws putting reins on itself.

The #metoo movement has pried loose what was a tightly sealed lid that concealed the extent of sexual harassment among the wealthy and the powerful  yes, even more than the sordid stories that Americans already knew. Whats worse, it has revealed the measures that lawmakers specifically have taken shield themselves from victims as well as from the public.

This with taxpayer money, of course.

According to multiple reports in the past week, the government has spent $17 million over the past 20 years to settle complaints brought against members of Congress for workplace violations ranging from sexual harassment to pay disputes. And since the office that handles the payments  taken from the treasury  doesnt break down its figures, taxpayers cant know how many of the settlements were related to sexual harassment.

Getting that far is a chore for those who are victimized. They must endure a 90-day process to file complaints, including the signing of a non-disclosure agreement.

Made to keep quiet. Paid with taxpayer dollars. Only in Washington.

The complaints are about more than off-color jokes.

Rep. Jackie Speier of California, who is introducing bills to reform the process and make sexual harassment training mandatory, has said that offenses in the capital include harassers exposing themselves to others as well as inappropriately touching others private parts.

Hollywood is a problem. It is not the problem.

Its time for Congress to say #metoo, because it too is to blame this culture.
Albany

Capital Repertory Theatre has been awarded a $2 million state grant for its planned redevelopment of a former warehouse a few blocks from its longtime home into a potential new theater for the company.

The money is from New York State Homes and Community Renewal as part of the agency's Rural and Urban Community Investment Fund. It was awarded based on the promise of the renovation of the 33,000-square-foot building  most recently headquarters of Gomez Electrical Contracting and, before that, a bakery for National Biscuit Co.  as part of a block-wide redevelopment of what's being called Livingston Square. The building is at 251 N. Pearl St., at the intersection with Livingston Avenue and about four blocks from Capital Rep's site at 111 N. Pearl, where it has been since 1981.

The Gomez building is near Ida Yarbrough Homes, an HCR-funded affordable-housing development of the Albany Housing Authority with residential towers and new townhomes. Philip Morris, CEO of Schenectady-based Proctors, of which Capital Rep is a subsidiary, said if the project goes forward the Albany theater company will partner with the AHA and local service organizations to develop programs for workforce training and job placement at the theater's cafe, in theater operations and in an expanded Downtown Ambassadors program. Ambassadors assist theater patrons before and after performances with crossing the street and other duties.

"HCR is committed to investing in dynamic community-development projects that support the revitalization of cities like Albany," the agency's commissioner, RuthAnne Visnauskas, said in a statement accompanying the grant announcement. Capital Rep's proposal for the Gomez building predicts its redevelopment would increase full-time jobs about 34 percent at the theater and create 150 temporary construction jobs.

"With generous support of our loyal audiences, we've been able to do wonderful work here for a very long time," Capital Rep's producing artistic director, Maggie Mancinelli-Cahill, said in a statement, "but, in order to advance our standing in developing new work, increase our patrons' comfort and utilize modern theatrical stagecraft, we need a well-planned, up-to-date facility. Accomplishing this while staying in the city of Albany would be a dream come true."

Morris said the HCR grant is one component among many that still need to come together before Capital Rep can commit to moving its theater to 251 N. Pearl. Among the others are a workable building design to incorporate a 300-seat theater, offices and more production facilities. Production work including set construction had long been done in space rented from The Egg but was moved to the Gomez building in September after Capital Rep completed its $350,000 purchase of the property.

Also key to a future relocation, Morris said, are viable plans for patron parking, new artist housing and additional funding for the project, estimated to cost $7 million to $8 million. Morris said he would like to have up to $5 million committed before officially going forward with the renovation and move. If Capital Rep decided against the relocation for whatever reason, it would lose the HCR funds, Morris said.

Last month, Capital Rep's Gomez project was chosen by the city of Albany to be its candidate for another $2 million state grant, this from Restore New York Communities Municipal Grant, offered by Empire State Development. Winners of those grants have not been chosen.

The current theater is in a former supermarket space under a parking deck. It has a variety of problems and challenges, including a basement prone to flooding, a deteriorating structure and lack of on-site rehearsal and production facilities.

Capital Rep considered buying and renovating 111 N. Pearl, but the owner, developer Herb Ellis, also owns a number of other nearby downtown buildings that he would like to sell as a package, and he and Capital Rep have been unable to work out a deal to separate the theater property. Capital Rep will continue to lease 111 N. Pearl from Ellis for a nominal fee, Morris said.

Capital Rep in recent years had discussed launching a $4 million capital campaign to renovate 111 N. Pearl, but that would be contingent on control of the property, Morris said. The company has no plans to significantly invest in a building it doesn't own, he said.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

WASHINGTON - U.S. Reps. John Faso and Elise Stefanik insisted that although they believe in the GOP creed of lower taxes, they voted "no" on their partys mammoth tax bill Tuesday out of concern for their high-tax-state constituents and New Yorks precarious budgetary situation.

"It really was a tough decision," said Faso, R-Kinderhook, a first termer already facing a potentially stiff challenge in 2018 from several Democratic opponents. "But I didnt come down here just to be a trumpet for a political party."

Faso and Stefanik were among 12 Republicans, most from New York, New Jersey and California -- all high-tax, high-expenditure states -- to vote against the bill, which House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., said would produce "more jobs, fairer taxes, and bigger paychecks."

The bill passed 227-203, but House members will have to do it all over again Wednesday. Late Tuesday, lawmakers on Capitol Hill encountered a glitch, saying the final bill ran afoul of Senate rules that Republicans relied on to enable them to pass it without help from Democrats.

After some tweaking, the Senate was expected to approve the bill overnight Tuesday. The House would then need to re-vote on Wednesday. After that, it would head to President Donald Trumps desk for enactment.

For Faso and Stefanik, the bills limits on deducting state-and-local taxes -- SALT -- were the deciding factor. Instead of eliminating it entirely, as the original Senate bill initially proposed, Republican lawmakers reinstated deductibility of property, sales and state income taxes up to $10,000. But for Faso, Stefanik and three other New York Republican House members -- Reps. Peter King and Lee Zeldin of Long Island and Dan Donovan of Staten Island -- it was not enough.

"The bill we voted on was an improvement from the original bill, said Stefanik, a second termer also facing Democratic challengers in 2018. "But at end of the day, Ive been consistent about SALT remaining in the code."

Democrats have characterized the bill as benefiting corporations and the wealthy at the expense of middle-class and poorer taxpayers. But Republicans have insisted the bill, which adds nearly $1.5 trillion to the federal deficit, gives many if not most middle-class Americans a tax cut at the same level as the 21 percent corporate benefit, boosting investment, job creation, higher wages and offsetting tax revenues.

The potential impacts in Stefaniks largely rural North Country district and Fasos Hudson Valley district remain uncertain. The bill doubles the standard deduction from $12,000 per couple to $24,000. Republicans hope the doubled deduction will lead middle-class taxpayers not to itemize, and thus avoid the pain of not losing the SALT deductions.

Indeed, Faso has said 30 percent of taxpayers in his 19th Congressional District itemize, and that will drop to eight percent once the tax bill goes into effect.

Stefanik said Tuesday that roughly a quarter of her constituents itemize. Even so, the prospect of the many non-itemizers in those districts paying lower federal taxes was not enough to sway either one.

"Im a Republican and I support cutting taxes, but I support tax cuts for 100 percent of my constituents," Stefanik said.

Faso said his overriding concern was the impact on high-net-worth New Yorkers, upon whom New York depends to shoulder a major share of the states tax burden. Without SALT deductions, many might leave the state, he said.

The loss of the SALT deductions is more likely to be felt those New Yorkers in tony suburban areas like Westchester and Nassau counties. Taxpayers there depend on the SALT deductions in communities where salaries are generally high, homes are expensive and local property taxes alone can easily exceed $10,000.

But the verdict is less certain in upstate areas with relatively lower taxes, home prices and wages.

Democrats uniformly opposed the bill in both the House and the Senate. And they werent bashful about promising they would do their best to make Republicans pay a price at the polls in 2018.

"Republicans will rue the day they passed this bill and the American people will never let them forget it," Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer said. "Ultimately, the Republicans have taken what they call a 'once in a generation' opportunity on tax reform and squandered it on corporate welfare and tax cuts for the rich."

Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, voted against the bill on Tuesday.

"The trillion dollars or more in debt this plan will saddle to our economy amounts to some $12,000 for every U.S. household," he said. It will be "debt we are forced to carry so wealthy corporations can get tax benefits for outsourcing good jobs."

Although the votes of Faso and Stefanik arguably could ward off what otherwise would be a Democratic assault in 2018, New York Democratic operatives were not giving them a pass.

"The repeal of the SALT deduction is designed to directly penalize New Yorkers, and if these members are effective at their jobs they should be able to get their political bosses to repeal this ugly, anti-New York provision," said New York State Democratic Committee executive director Geoff Berman. "Anything less is unacceptable. If they are not effective, then they are complicit."
Words, in the new movie "Darkest Hour," are weapons.

Set roughly during the same time period as "Dunkirk," between May and June 1940, the World War II drama takes place not on the beaches of northern France, where British forces were cornered by German troops, but in the backrooms of England's war cabinet. It is there that the newly installed prime minister, Winston Churchill (played by Gary Oldman), struggles with how to rally Parliament and the British people for the coming Battle of Britain.

Oldman, who underwent a remarkable metamorphosis to play the iconic politician, is a front-runner for a best actor Oscar nomination. While in Washington, D.C., recently for a preview screening of the new film, the 59-year-old British actor sat down with director Joe Wright, 45, to talk about the historical film's surprisingly contemporary resonance.

Q: Gary, you're known for playing characters with the gift of gab. How does this role continue that tradition?

Oldman: One of the themes of the film was to show Churchill as a writer. Nowadays, it is somewhat unusual for anyone to write their own speeches. The genesis of the project was that (screenwriter) Anthony (McCarten) had this book on his shelf for many years, and he went to it one day, and it was one of those anthologies of the greatest speeches in the English language. Three of them, he discovered, were by Churchill, written in the space of four weeks.

Q: Joe, how did Churchill harness the power of words?

Wright: He generally used Anglo-Saxon words. They're shorter, more muscular, not particularly flowery or intellectual. But they hold great intellectual weight. These extraordinary blunt and vital words are so much a part of the British psyche.

Q: You've spoken of film as a balance between dialogue and visuals. This movie shifts that balance markedly. Why?

Wright: I've made some films that were very much image based: "Anna Karenina" and "Pan," for instance. Here, I wanted to engage with the purest drama. It's interesting that both Chris Nolan and I seem to be interested in a return to a minimalist aesthetic. In a way, "Dunkirk" has no words in it, and ours has lots of them.

Q: The scene in which Churchill goes into the London Underground to assess the mood of the populace  it's cinematic, but it never happened, did it?

Wright: No. He famously would go and talk to Londoners and meet them at their houses, especially during and after the Blitz. He would get quite dewy-eyed and have a little cry with them. One of the main narrative arcs for me in the film is the connection between Winston and the public. At the start of the film, as we see him driving through London, he is completely disconnected. Over the course of the movie, he comes into an intense union with the public, to the point where he is then able to speak their hearts.

Q: Gary, much has been written about your physical and vocal transformation for this role. Did the prosthetic makeup and fat suit you had to wear help you to find the character, or were they a pain in the a--?

Oldman: They were far from a pain in the a--. First of all, you know what you're getting into. You have to surrender to shaving your head every morning. This was the year of surrendering to Winston. We had four weeks of rehearsal, on top of 50 days of shooting, which is unheard of. But before all of that happens, you work in isolation. I call it "kitchen acting." The countertop in the kitchen is higher than the table, and I like to put the script on it, and I glance down, walk around the house, come back, make a cup of tea. What I'm looking for is a physical sensation. I'm trying to find (imitating Churchill's lisping voice and pouting lower lip) that sound in my mouth. When everything was put together and I looked in the mirror after many makeup tests and we felt that we'd got him, I suddenly realized that I didn't have to do so much with the lip, because the makeup was doing it for me.

Q: Gary, you initially didn't want this part. In fact, you had turned down another Churchill film before this one, until you learned that makeup artist Kazuhiro Tsuji was on board. Joe, how else did you woo Gary?

Wright: Part of the courtship was making sure that we both felt safe and trusted each other. A lot of directors don't really like actors.

Oldman: If a director comes in and says, "I saw dailies last night. It's good. It's going to be a cracker." You float on air, but you have to have trust them.

Wright: Most actors hate the feeling of being handled.

Q: Let's talk about the film's topicality. Joe, there was an interview with you with a headline that said "Winston Churchill of 'Darkest Hour' a rebuke to Trump."

Wright: I don't think I used those words.

Q: You did not. You called the film a rebuke to "bigotry and hate and totalitarianism." Do you believe that period films are less about the time in which they're set than the time in which they're made?

Wright: I think that's very true.

Q: How do "Dunkirk" and "Darkest Hour" speak to our times?

Wright: I don't know, and I don't think it's my job to know. When I came on board this project in January 2016, the world was a very different place. It had zero topicality. Suddenly, the film had a kind prescience.

Q: In that same interview, you said that this film asks "What does good leadership look like?"

Wright: That's a really important question.

Q: Isn't it also asking "What does good leadership sound like?" Isn't it about something intangible?

Oldman: That's called statesmanship.

Q: In the age of Twitter, is statesmanship a dying art form?

Oldman: Yes. We've gone from Greek oratory to the emoji.

Q: There's a great line in the film, where Churchill says, apropos of Hitler, "You can't reason with a tiger when your head is in its mouth." Did he really say that?

Wright: I don't think he did. I'm telling tales, but there was a terrible script meeting where a studio executive brought in a little book of Churchill's greatest quotes, and said, "You've got to get this one in, and this one, and this one." I got quite angry and said, "Listen, that's exactly the antithesis of what we're trying to do." Soundbite-ism obscures our relationship to the character of Winston Churchill.

Q: Is "Darkest Hour" ultimately a war story, a political story or a personal story?

Wright: For me, everything else serves the personal. Yes, I find the history interesting  and, dare I say, educational  but what I really wanted to tell was a story about a character who doesn't fit in.

Q: Gary, your Churchill is a flawed hero. King George VI (Ben Mendelsohn) asks him, "How do you manage drinking during the day," to which Churchill replies, "Practice." What did you learn about this complex man?

Oldman: I'm still finding out things about him. His achievements over 50 years in politics are almost superhuman, but his bad habits raise the question: How drunk was he? If you have a bottle of wine at lunch, as I know from my old days, the afternoon is over, finished, done. I discovered that Winston Churchill is someone who hates, who loves, who's arrogant. He's all the things we are.
SURVIVOR: HEROES VS. HEALERS VS. HUSTLERS

CBS, 8 p.m.

Season finale! In the beginning, there were 18 contestants so kindhearted that they were divided into tribes based on their brand of altruism. And Wednesday, after presumably much lying, cheating and backstabbing, one will be crowned the winner of the million--dollar prize. Hey, you know what they say about money changing people!

THE NIGHT BEFORE

FX, 8 p.m.

Three best friends have made a tradition out of celebrating Christmas Eve with a night of wild partying. Now that they are entering adulthood, they set out on one last epic quest to find the best Christmas party. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen and Anthony Mackie star in this 2015 comedy.

THE SANTA CLAUSE 2

FXX, 8 p.m.

Tim Allen is back as Scott Calvin, who, in 1994's "The Santa Clause," accidentally offed the big guy and inherited his job. Eight years later, Bernard the Elf discovers the "Mrs. Clause," and Scott has to act fast if he wants to save Christmas and ho-ho-hold on to his bowlful-of-jelly belly.

WILL & GRACE: "ROSARIO'S QUINCEANERA"

NBC, 8 p.m.

When Karen (Megan Mullally) has trouble dealing with a personal tragedy, Will (Eric McCormack), Grace (Debra Messing) and Jack (Sean Hayes) try to intervene. Minnie Driver guest-stars.

THE LIBRARIANS: "AND THE CHRISTMAS THIEF"

TNT, 8 p.m.

It's the first time Santa has left his sleigh in the care of anyone (well, besides his elves) so the pressure is on for its safekeeping! When Santa takes Flynn (Noah Wyle), Baird (Rebecca Romijn) and Jenkins (John Larroquette) on his first vacation in centuries, he leaves his beloved sleigh in the care of the Librarians. But when Ezekiel's (John Kim) career-criminal mother steals the magic door, they must use the sleigh to save her, as well as Christmas itself, from Santa's Grinch of a brother, the Patron Saint of Thieves.

VIKINGS: "THE PRISONER"

History, 9 p.m.

Ivar meets his match in Bishop Heahmund while Floki returns to Kattegat and Bjorn receives a lavish welcome in North Africa.

DIAN FOSSEY: SECRETS IN THE MIST

National Geographic, 9 p.m.

Miniseries finale! The conclusion of this documentary series examines the uncertainty surrounding the killing of primatologist Dian Fossey. Fellow researcher Wayne McGuire fled Rwanda after being sentenced to death for the murder, but did he do it?

NOVA: "BIRD BRAIN"

PBS, 9 p.m.

Witness the brainpower of birds. Long mocked as empty-headed, our feathered friends hide acute intelligence. Watch as scientists test avian aptitude and challenge basic notions of intelligence.

KNIGHTFALL: "THE BLACK WOLF AND THE WHITE WOLF"

History, 10 p.m.

On the pope's orders, Landry and Tancrede travel to investigate the Holy Grail's whereabouts. Meanwhile, the plotting behind the royal wedding becomes deadly.

Brought to you by the publishers of TV Guide.  TV Guide 2017
The El Campo, Texas house - with arguably the largest private swimming pool in the state - finally sold after being on and off the market since late 2014. El Campo is more than an hour southwest of Houston.

Situated on nearly 40 acres of land, the 7,312-square-foot home was originally listed at $5 million before being reduced to $3.5 million. According to its public listing, it sold for somewhere between $2.5 and $2.879 million in early November.
Attorney General Brad Schimel released a report in early December on his investigation into the leak of documents collected during a Joe Doe probe. The report was such a mess that Schimel was forced to begin correcting its inaccurate claims, but he has continued to defend the report, claiming that complaints are "not serious criticisms. He is wrong. The complaints reveal the extent to which his partisanship has caused him to abandon basic legal standards. PHOTO BY M.P. KING/STATE JOURNAL

Correction: An earlier version of this editorial incorrectly stated that the photograph was taken in 2017. The photo was taken prior to this year.
When Dominic Mainella looks at the people waiting to order pastries and sweet treats from Bella Napoli, his family's 60-year-old bakery, he can almost predict what each will order. Call it a gift; a near-psychic ability to read a customer and know if they are sfogliatelle person or a radio bar person. Or, just call it good bookkeeping: Mainella and his family spend plenty of time reviewing sales figures to determine what should be rolling off the production line.

No time is that more true than during the holidays. Mainella and his siblings (Victoria, Gino and Mario) have continued to make Italian holiday cookies the same way their mother and father did.

Little has changed since the early Bella Napoli days. The longtime Troy production facility still sells pastries and breads from its River Street storefront, though a second location in Latham was opened 35 years ago and offers soup, sandwiches and breakfast items, too. Some of the staff has been working on the baking line for decades (John Nardoia has been with Bella Napoli for more than 37 years, Carmen Sposito for 40 years), and the entire operation is still family-run.

Also unchanged are the old-school techniques applied to the baking. When John Mainella arrived in America from Naples, Italy, he worked at Royal Bakery in Jefferson Street in Troy. When he opened Bella Napoli in 1957 (along with wife, Phyllis), he began making breads and rolls, and Italian cookies soon followed. A handful of employees and family members has ballooned to 100 year-round staff members, and Dominic Mainella says he only adds three or four seasonal workers during the holidays.

More Information Italian treats Jam Thumbprint Biscotti Chocolate-Dipped Butter Spritz Almond Spritz Linzer Butter Spritz Pastafrolla (almond linzer) Chocolate Chip More treats Biscotti Quarresamali (almond and cinnamon biscotti) Rugelach Rainbow Cookie Pignoli Cookie See More Collapse

A light haze of flour and powdered sugar hangs in the Troy bakery, and staff members intricately pipe holiday bows made of royal icing onto petit feur cakes. Workers shape balls of dough by hand and nestle them into wooden proofing boxes. Enormous bricks of Sungold butter are dropped by hand into industrial-strength mixers, and workers stand over fryers of oil, flash-cooking individual portions of guanti, a paper-thin egg dough. Storefront workers in both Troy and Latham still pull bakers' twine down from a spindle in the ceiling to wrap boxes of doughnuts and cream puffs, just as Phyllis did when she was working alone in the Troy storefront while John and his brother Michael baked.

The most innovative change to Bella Napoli is witnessed with cookie production. A platter or box of Bella Napoli Italian holiday cookies (which are available year-round) is as quintessential at Christmas for customers as twinkle lights and hanging stockings. As orders for the cookies grew, Dominic knew he had to invest in mechanized equipment to keep up with demand. The $13,500 extruder machine quickly pipes out cookies in large batches, but Dominic notes, "we brought in equipment to help the bakers, not get rid of them." Though he hesitates to provide an exact number, he says Bella Napoli produces "several thousand pounds" of cookies throughout the holiday season, altering production based on previous year's sales.

"Things you thought over the years would be discontinued continue to grow," he says, and traditional Italian flavors like anise, lemon, almond and fig are blended into an array of cookies that rarely last on glass-encased shelves. Trays and packages of cookies are crammed into every available corner of the production facility, filling a mammoth walk-in cooler known as the "cookie room," turning it into a sugary maze and populating storage rooms on 6-foot-tall racks that are rolled around the bakery with the precision of air traffic control.

Dominic says the cookie sales (as well as much else in the Bella Napoli catalog) are strictly a word-of-mouth process. The company has a website, but very little web or social media presence otherwise, and while as much as 30 percent of the company's sales comes from wholesale bread and roll items to local restaurants, the holiday cookies are sold only in-house.

Though much of the activity in the bakery's production facility feels like an edible Santa's workshop, Instagram users are allotted a glimpse of the action through an account run by Dominic's son and nephew, Michael and Vinny Mainella. Both members of this third generation attended Siena College (Michael is a business major graduating in 2018) and realize the importance of keeping the company relevant in the age of technology. Instagram allows them to marry the traditional techniques in the bakery (recent postings show how all holiday cookies are hand-dipped in sprinkles or chocolate, or dolloped with crystalline jams) with the free advertising of social media.

"The goal is not to drive sales," says Michael, but instead to show the generational legacy that is embraced at Bella Napoli. "People are always going to eat and value traditional products," he says, and the company's Instagram feed emphasizes those values (Phyllis sometimes appears in the feed, monitoring the company multiple times a week, even at 81 years old) while acquainting a new wave of potential customers with the baking process.

Dominic admits that while his father (who died in March 2013) didn't always agree to his ideas for expansion and growth, he knew it was ultimately best for the business. The pattern continues with Michael and Vinny, and Dominic says he is happy to let Michael and Vinny embark on this social media project.

Baked goods  especially holiday cookies  from Bella Napoli have their own patch in the Capital Region culinary quilt, and while that patch is cut by hand, new stitches are added as needed with the aid of modern technology.

Deanna Fox is a food and agriculture journalist. www.foxonfood.com @DeannaNFox
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Albany

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday said hell work with state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to halt future fossil-fuel investments in the massive state pension fund as part of what he termed a de-carbonization effort.

The Common Fund remains heavily invested in the energy economy of the past, Cuomo said, referring to the state pension fund for state and local public sector employees. "This proposal lays out a roadmap for New York's $200 billion Common Fund to take responsible steps to divest from its fossil fuel holdings.

The governor and comptroller also will create an advisory panel to develop a de-carbonization roadmap for investing the fund in clean technology and efforts to combat climate change.

The fund, which holds assets for more than 1 million people, has investments in more than 50 oil and gas companies that have been identified as among the 100 most carbon-intensive in the world.

They have nearly $1 billion in Exxon/Mobil alone.

More for you Hundreds of lawmakers call for state pension fund to divest from fossil fuels

Significant divestment could take time since the pension fund is obligated by its mission statement to provide our beneficiaries with a secure pension through prudent asset management.

Still, oil and gas stocks have generally lagged in the stock market for the past several years, according to a chart from Morningstar investment research firm.

Cuomo noted that the World Bank plans to end support for oil and gas exploration within the next two years. And the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, the largest fund of its kind in the world, is moving away from fossil fuel investments. That funds wealth, however, comes largely from the cash that Norway has realized from North Sea oil reserves over the years.

The agreement is notable for its scope and the way it was rolled out. Cuomo and DiNapoli have frequently jousted via their staffers in the past over varying interpretations of financial issues and the state budget.

And while DiNapoli is the pension funds sole trustee, with ultimate authority over the money, Cuomo made the initial announcement.

The move, which will be noted in the governors State of the State speech in January, appears to be part of a leftward tilt by Cuomo.

In addition, Cuomo has said he wants to increase the minimum wage for tipped workers and impose tougher laws allowing confiscation of guns from those convicted of domestic violence crimes.

Also on Tuesday, Cuomo said he would take legal action against the Iowa Pacific Co.s storing of unused rail cars on tracks that are in the Adirondack Park forest preserve.

rkarlin@timesunion 518 454 5758 @RickKarlinTU
HARPERSFIELD  A 77-year-old Schoharie County hunter was found dead in Delaware County nine days after he went missing, Schoharie County Sheriff Anthony Desmond said Tuesday afternoon.

State and local authorities launched a large-scale, seven-day search for Seward resident Carl Weaver on Wednesday, covering nearly 2,500 acres of wilderness with the assistance of hundreds of volunteers.

Weaver left his home  located in a town just north of Cobleskill  at about 1 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 10, for a hunting trip, Capt. Steve Preston, a state Forest Rangers spokesman, said. When Weaver had not returned home by Tuesday, Dec. 12, a neighbor called police to report him a missing, Desmond said.

On Wednesday evening, officers found his vehicle parked at the corner of Titus Lake Road and South Worcester Hill Road in Harpersfield, Delaware County, and began searching the surrounding wilderness, Preston said.

Snowfall this past Tuesday and Sunday not only covered Weaver's tracks but also made the steep terrain slippery. Five members of the search party sprained their ankles or wrists from minor falls, Preston said.

Search party members found Weaver's body at 1:53 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 19, nearly 5,000 feet from where his car was found parked a week earlier.

An autopsy to determine Weaver's cause of death has been scheduled. His body was taken to Mereness Putnam Funeral Home in Cobleskill by order of Delaware County deputy medical examiner James Cuaros.

Police do not suspect foul play, Sheriff Desmond said Tuesday evening. The Delaware County Sheriff's Office will investigate Weaver's death.

Magnitude of the search

More than 200 volunteers took part in the rugged, week-long search.

Two search-and-rescue teams, five state law enforcement agencies, two sheriff's departments, two county offices of emergency management, and more than 45 fire departments from five surrounding counties sent volunteers. The Salvation Army, as well as local residents, donated food and drinks for members of the search party.

In addition to patrolling the area on foot, police also used helicopters, drones, police dogs and off-road vehicles. Organizers estimated volunteers spent 6,152 hours on the search.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

ALBANY  New York state had a slight population increase, adding 13,113 new residents, which is about how many people live in Schodack, to reach 19,849,399, according to U.S. Census Bureaus latest state and national population estimates released Wednesday.

New Yorks percentage increase was just 0.1 percent making it the 40th fastest growing state in terms of percentage increase. Idaho was the fastest growing at 2.2 percent from July 1, 2016 to July 1, 2017, according the Census Bureau.

New York remains the nations fourth most populous state with 19,849,399 residents. It trails California, Texas and Florida.

Right behind Idaho with increases were Nevada at 2 percent; Utah, 1.9 percent; Washington, 1.7 percent, and at 1.6 percent each, Florida and Arizona.

Domestic migration drove change in the two fastest-growing states, Idaho and Nevada, while an excess of births over deaths played a major part in the growth of the third fastest-growing state, Utah, said Luke Rogers, chief of the Population Estimates Branch.

New York's flat population numbers reflects what's happening in the Capital Region, said Mark Castiglione, executive director of Capital District Regional Planning Commission, which tracks the region's population trends.

Changes in the Capital Region's city, town and village populations are like many of those nationwide: they're due to migration between communities.

"We're seeing internal migration in the region. Perhaps there's interest in apartment life... it's not in the traditional urban centers, it's out in the surrounding suburbs," Castiglione said.

The state as a whole has seen its residents depart for other regions in the country to seek jobs and lower retirement costs. This has been offset in part by international immigration with New York City continuing to be an attractive new home.

Net international migration decreased 1.8 percent between 2016 and 2017, making it the first drop since 2012-2013. However, net international migration continues to be a significant factor in the population growth of the United States, adding just over 1.1 million people in the last year, the Census Bureau said.

The nation added 2,313,243 more residents to reach a population of 325,405,935. Thats an increase of 0.7 percent. The South and West grew fastest at 1 percent each. The seven states with population increases of more than 100,000 were in these two regions. These included Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Texas and Washington.

Meanwhile, the Midwest had a 0.3 percent increase compared to the Northeasts growth of 0.2 percent.

The five states with the largest percentage loss of population are Wyoming at -1 percent; West Virginia, -0.7 percent; Illinois, -0.3 percent; Alaska, -0.2 percent and Hawaii, -0.1 percent.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 5 1 of 5 SKIP DICKSTEIN Show More Show Less 2 of 5 Lori Van Buren Show More Show Less 3 of 5 4 of 5 Lori Van Buren Show More Show Less 5 of 5









TROY  Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel Abeloves lawyer will be paid for his legal work in the unsuccessful attempt to end the state attorney generals ability to take over cases from local district attorney offices involving an unarmed civilian being killed by a police officer

The Rensselaer County Legislature unanimously approved without comment Tuesday night appropriation changes of $22,800 requested by Abelove in his 2017 department budget. This allows Abeloves attorney John W. Bailey to be paid $22,799 from the litigation expense fund which previously was budgeted at $500.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

SARATOGA SPRINGS  SUNY Empire State College President Merodie Hancock announced Wednesday she will step down from her post to lead Thomas Edison State University, a public university in New Jersey.

The board of trustees at Thomas Edison approved her appointment at a special board meeting Wednesday. She will take office March 5.

Hancock has served as president of SUNY Empire since July 2013.

The Saratoga Springs-based college is one of few institutions in New York that caters exclusively to nontraditional students, including adults, veterans, military members and working parents through a mix of online and distance learning course offerings available at 35 locations around the state and eight international sites. It serves nearly 18,000 students worldwide.

"While I am thrilled at the opportunity to join New Jersey's flagship institution for adult education, leaving Empire State College will be difficult for me," Hancock said. "Working closely with the extraordinarily capable people who believe so deeply in the mission of providing access to a broad array of learners across the state has been a high point of my career. The work has been both challenging and rewarding, and would not have met with the success it has without the commitment and efforts of the good people across the college."

Her last day will be March 2.

At its next meeting in January, the SUNY board of trustees is expected to appoint an interim president, and a nationwide search will begin after.

"Empire State College has been very well served by President Hancock, and is recognized as a leader in public education for students across the state of New York seeking affordable and flexible, quality degrees," said SUNY Chancellor Kristina Johnson. "She has expanded access, services and options for students, while establishing a solid financial foundation for the college. We are grateful for her service to SUNY, and wish her the very best as she leads Thomas Edison State University."

Under Hancock's leadership, SUNY Empire has undergone a massive reorganization that involved eliminating 14 regional dean positions and reorganizing college leadership by discipline instead. The move was intended to help the college achieve system-wide efficiencies and scale student support services across the state.

Before SUNY Empire, Hancock served as vice president of Central Michigan University Global Campus University. She held both teaching and administrative positions at the University of Maryland University College and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida.

She earned a doctorate in urban services and education administration from Old Dominion University in Virginia, a master's degree from Claremont Graduate University and a bachelor's degree in economics from Scripps College, both in California. She holds numerous certificates in areas like educational management and leadership, as well.
I would like to commend Mark Dunlea on his excellent commentary ("Looking to Gov. Cuomo to lead the way with clean energy," Dec. 8) in which he urges Andrew Cuomo to take leadership on climate change mitigation.

Dunlea points out that many believe Cuomo is eyeing a 2020 White House run. According to a new Gallup Poll, two-thirds of Democrats, or 66 percent, worry a great deal about global warming. That's up nine points from 2016. These are Americans who will rush to the governor's side if, and only if, he has a proven track record of fast and comprehensive action that eliminates fossil fuel, fracking and natural gas in favor of wind, solar and geothermal energy.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Albany

Amid a rise in opioid overdose deaths and challenges in hiring and retaining staff, addiction treatment providers called on the governor and legislators on Tuesday to include $100 million in the state budget specifically to support staffing.

The Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Providers of New York State has dubbed its campaign to secure more funding for drug abuse prevention, treatment and recovery services Superstorm Opioids. ASAP Executive Director John Coppola likened what he termed a pandemic of opioid abuse and overdoses to a natural disaster that requires a prompt response.

When we hear of a hurricane or a major storm approaching  we do everything we can to limit losses and death, Coppola said.

As statewide overdose deaths from heroin, prescription painkillers like Oxycontin and synthetic opioids like fentanyl have risen almost 200 percent between 2011 and 2016, from 1,165 to 3,253, state funding for addiction prevention, treatment and recovery services has risen 10 percent in the same period, from $446 million to $501 million, according to state figures provided by ASAP.

That leaves treatment providers unable to meet the growing demand for their services. Slots for outpatient programs and beds in residential treatment facilities often go empty due to staffing shortages, providers said.

The treatment providers cannot merely raise the rates they charge in order increase salaries and lure staff, said Kevin Connally, executive director of Hope House, which provides an array of addiction services in different settings.

Requested workforce investments Prevention workforce -- $34.5 million Treatment workforce -- $40.5 million Recovery services workforce -- $3.5 million Peer advocates and recovery coaches -- $750,000 Scholarships, training, student loan forgiveness -- $21 million Source: Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Providers of New York State See More Collapse

Fees for Hope Houses services are set by the states Medicaid health insurance program or by private insurance companies, Connally said. Meanwhile, staff including direct care workers, nurses and social workers are paid 20 percent to 40 percent more at hospitals and other health-care settings, so they dont stay at Hope House for long.

Meanwhile, addiction services have changed, Connally said. They are not integrated with mental health and focused on supported recovery afterward.

This model requires a workforce that is skilled, educated and highly trained, Connally said.

Dr. Mustafain Meghani of Troy-based Upstate Physician Services, which provides outpatient addiction treatment, said he has had to resort to paying a Seattle-based psychiatrist to spend a couple of weeks a month at his practice or have counselors travel once or twice a week from their homes in New York City.

The states Medicaid rates are based on a formula based on the cost of treatment from a decade ago, Coppola said, adding that a change in those rates is overdue.

The number of professionals working to prevent drug abuse has also declined, even as opioid abuse has increased, Coppola said. In 2009, there were 500 prevention trainers in the New York City school system, he said. Today, there are 280.

Stephanie Campbell, executive director of Friends of Recovery-New York, also spoke about the need for recovery services following someones completion of an addiction treatment program.

We cant get people into recovery if they die first, she said.

The governor typically presents his budget proposal for the fiscal year beginning April 1 in January.
Dave Zweifel, the Cap Times' editor emeritus, was among the panelists at last week's celebration of the newspaper's 100th anniversary.
States have reached a settlement with the maker of drugs to treat stroke, blood pressure and lung ailments over the alleged deceptive marketing of those products, according to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

Schneiderman and the attorneys general from 49 other states and the District of Columbia on Wednesday announced a $13.5 million agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc., resolving alleged deceptive and misleading marketing of usage beyond what is indicated on the labels of four of its prescription drugs: Micardis, Aggrenox, Atrovent, and Combivent.

The allegations involve similar conduct to that alleged in a 2012 settlement between BIPI and the federal government and a select group of states bringing Medicaid claims, according to company spokeswoman Erin Crew. The period during which the alleged conduct occurred ended in 2008, she said.

"As with the federal settlement, we are not admitting to any wrongdoing. We have agreed to the settlement to avoid the costs associated with a further prolonged legal process related to these allegations," Crew wrote in an email. "Resolving this matter allows us to focus our energy and resources on researching and developing innovative products to improve patients' lives."

Aggrenox is an antiplatelet drug approved to reduce the risk of secondary stroke in patients who have had a mini-stroke known as a transient ischemic attack (TIA). Micardis, in a class of drugs called angiotensin receptor blockers, is indicated to treat hypertension and to reduce cardiovascular risks in patients unable to take angiotensin-converting-enzyme (ACE) inhibitors. Atrovent and Combivent treat spasms caused by airway narrowing, associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

In a complaint filed Wednesday in New York County Supreme Court, Attorney General Schneiderman alleges that BIPI:

* Misrepresented that Aggrenox was effective for many conditions below the neck, such as heart attacks and congestive heart failure, and that it was superior to another drug, without evidence to substantiate that claim;

* Misrepresented that Micardis protected patients from early morning strokes and heart attacks, as well as treated metabolic syndrome;

* Misrepresented that Combivent could be used as a first-line treatment for bronchospasms associated with COPD and

* Falsely asserted that Atrovent and Combivent could be used at doses that exceeded the maximum recommendation in the product labeling and that they were essential for COPD treatment.

The settlement requires BIPI to ensure that its marketing and advertising practices do not illegally promote these prescription drugs. Among practices the company must refrain from is providing financial incentives to doctors for prescribing the drugs for unapproved uses.
Bylaws in Cashel's St. Cormac's Cemetery must be enforced heard the December meeting of the Municipal District.

Repairs have been carried out on St. Cormacs Cemetery in Cashel, including footpaths, the installation of CCTV at the entrance, and putting in another light across the road from it, said Senior Engineer Mr. Aidan Finn.

Drainage is also an important issue at the Cemetery. A solution is being found for the flooding at nearby Wallors Lot. Once resolved, that area can be used for further development, said Mr Finn.

Cllr Tom Wood requested that Management would advise if Council approval has been given for the erection of headstones in the extension of St. Cormacs Cemetery, Cashel, as concerns have been expressed about the failure to implement bylaws in some instances.

Cllr Wood said a number of people were concerned about unauthorised works in the Cemetery. All I ask is that the bylaws that were initiated by Cashel Town Council be implemented, and observed. People are bringing it to my attention.

Cllr Martin Browne encouraged the Council to enforce the bylaws. The longer you leave it, the harder it is to remove them. I would urge them to move in straight away.

Cllr Roger Kennedy said there was no reason the bylaws should not be observed.

It's understood three spaces can be sold per family, with a maximum of nine burials per plot. There are also height restrictions on what monuments can be built. Cormac's Cemetery has been the focus of ongoing complaints regarding anti-social behaviour. In April, Cllr Roger Kennedy said people are not happy with headstone heights and some headstones are twice the legal height.
Former Thurles and Anacarty priest, Francis O'Toole has just penned a book entitled 'Walking on Air' which charts the many challenges and adversity he has faced in his life, and advises on how to cope and be resilient.

Now working as a career guidance counsellor in the Loreto school in Navan, the Templemore native took to the pen having received what he describes as a shot in the mouth from God while out surfing in Donegal in 2015. He came off the surfboard and was struck in the face, losing seven teeth in the process and almost drowned. It took him some time to recover and he had to undergo much reconstructive surgery in the intervening months.



Francis O'Toole

That was a real turning point in my life and I have tried to turn it into something positive by writing about it and all of the many experiences in my life. The book is about resilience and I am delighted that all of the proceeds from Walking on Air will be going towards the Fr Peter McVerry Trust for the homeless, Francis told The Tipperary Star this week.

Having been based in Bohernanave, Thurles and then Anacarty and Donohill as CC, Francis left the priesthood in 1998 - he had been Ordained from St Patrick's College in Thurles amongst a class of 35, including five from Templemore alone, and made an enormous contribution to the parishes in which he worked during his time as a priest.

And, he had to draw on all his life experience as a cleric a few years ago when a fatal bus crash involving a number of the students in his school resulted in there being much upset, and much counselling required. It was a very difficult time for the school, the students, the bereaved and the staff, and Francis played a central role in the recovery process and in helping people to cope with the trauma of loss and pain.

Walking On Air brings much of this experience together - it is a book about how to face challenges with resilience and adversity and with strength.

It documents one mans journey, inspires through honest stories of overcoming adversity, including depression, marriage break-up and clerical abuse.

Francis lays bare his pain and brokenness in the genuine hope that after reading this book the reader will be inspired to reach their full potential, and go on to flourish.

Hailing from a large family in Templemore, Francis is a regular visitor, with his children, to the Cardens town where his mother Phyllis is hail and hearty at the age of 91. He lives in Slane, County Meath and says that spirituality remains very close to his heart despite the many trials and tribulations he has encountered in life. He charts those trials with great honesty and openess and is hoping that others might find solace in the fact that digging deep can help to see you coming out the other side.

The book is available to buy through Amazon, the online bookstore. It has been described as a magnificent, insightful read, full of positivity and hope.
As part of the British and Irish Trading Alliance's programme on Education, Research and Cultural Policy, the Israeli Embassy, Dublin, recently honoured both Dr. Mary Honan (Tipperary) and Prof. Dr. Michael Casey (Templemore) for their contributions in the promotion of Irish and international historical research.

The ambassadorial reception marked with great celebration the publication of Dr. Honan's book entitled: The Literary Representation of WWII Childhood: Interrogating the Concept of Hospitality, published by Cambridge Scholars Publishers, U.K.

Dr. Honans book focuses on twenty one primary texts about childhood under Nazism, this book examines how childhood in literature has changed over the years, from the Romantic writers to child slave labour in the Victorian era, the child-soldier and the impact of deportation on both the child victim and their families post-wartime.

The genres covered  range from diaries, letters, comics, allegories, time-travel novels, fairy tales and novels and memoirs about Hitler youth.

Because of its broad focus, the work will be of interest to a diverse readership from survivors of World War II and their families to historians, teachers and librarians  including those in the Premier County of Tipperary  It will also benefit those practitioners working in the areas of deportation, trauma, child-soldering and human rights and tolerance studies.

Prof. Dr Casey, who researched and wrote the forward, describes Dr. Honan as a very fine writer, and an equally wonderful artist, the portraits on the cover of the book all having been drawn by her based on fragments of photographs that survived the camps, even when, in most cases their child subjects had sadly perished.

Through her drawings, she exposes a little of the humanity of some of the children discussed in the book, each of the drawings an exposition of pain, suffering and loss that might otherwise have been concealed behind their smiles.

Dr Honan's book has been crafted with an obvious determination to imbue Nazism's young victims back to life.

Beyond that, her work is a gentle reminder to the world today about the dangers of anti-Semitism, of hatred, of bigotry towards all minority groups and the effects of such violence on the victims, the deportees, the injured, the dying, dead, and those left behind.

She has also crafted a work of empathetic beauty, and of hope, a glorious literary and artistic testimonial to the dead and those left to grieve.

Ambassador Boker, Dr. Honan and Prof., Dr. Casey were delighted to receive guests as diverse as the Tanaiste Simon Coveney, Prof., Dr. Eoin O'Brien, Prof., Dr. Hilary Pyle, Frances Lynch, Superintendent Gerald Delmar and members of the International Diplomatic Corps: H.E., Deike Potzel (Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany), H.E., Marie-Claude Meylan (Ambassador of Switzerland), H.E., Egidijus Meilunas (Ambassador of Lithuania), H. E., Levent Murat Burhan (Ambassador of Turkey) and H.E., Ivan Masina, (Ambassador of Croatia).
Chevron Announces $500,000 for Southern California Fire Relief Efforts

Chevron (News - Alert) today announced a contribution of $500,000 from the Chevron Global Community Fund to the American Red Cross in support of relief efforts for the wildfires in Ventura, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and San Diego counties.

"Chevron, like others in California, wants to help with the response to these devastating wildfires," said Mike Wirth, Chevron's vice chairman and executive vice president. "Our heartfelt thoughts are with the people affected by the fires, including the brave firefighters working so hard over the holidays to contain them."

Chevron, based in California for more than a century, makes it a priority to provide support to the communities where it operates. Chevron will match any qualifying donations to wildfire relief efforts made by its employees and retirees.

The contribution from the Chevron Global Communit Fund follows a similar donation in October for California wildfire relief efforts. https://tinyurl.com/y97vhz3z







Chevron (NYSE: CVX) is one of the world's leading integrated energy companies. Through its subsidiaries that conduct business worldwide, the company is involved in virtually every facet of the energy industry. Chevron explores for, produces and transports crude oil and natural gas; refines, markets and distributes transportation fuels and lubricants; manufactures and sells petrochemicals and additives; generates power; and develops and deploys technologies that enhance business value in every aspect of the company's operations. Chevron is based in San Ramon, Calif. More information about Chevron is available at www.chevron.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171220005625/en/
[December 19, 2017] Clear Ballot Technology Used to Conduct Successful Elections in Oregon, Washington, New York and Florida

BOSTON, Dec. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Jurisdictions in Oregon, Washington, New York, and Florida successfully conducted elections using Clear Ballot technology in 2017. The implementation of Clear Ballot technology significantly improved the efficiency and transparency of their election processes. Clear Ballot's ClearVote voting system provides election officials with an easy and intuitive ballot layout process, a tabulation and reporting system that scans ballots with commercial off-the-shelf scanners, and a complete digital database of the election that includes visual verification of all votes cast. ClearVote's digital inventory of all ballots reduces ballot handling and provides the highest quality ballot images in the industry, allowing for more efficient and streamlined processes. The ClearVote system was used to tabulate the vote of 65% of registered voters in Oregon, including the following counties: Coos, Douglas, Deschutes, Harney, Jackson, Jefferson, Josephine, Klamath, Lane, Linn, Multnomah, Wasco, and Washington. Additionally, ClearVote was used to tabulate the vote of 42% of registered voters in the state of Washington, including King and Pierce County. All Oregon and Washington counties reported successful and efficient elections using ClearVote. Julie Anderson, the Auditor for Pierce County, Washington, expressed great satisfaction with the County's voting technology, stating, "ClearVote, purchased in early 2017, has exceeded our expectations! We've saved time, reduced expenses, increased accuracy, and improved transparency. Clear Ballot's support and communication have been outstanding. Clear Ballot's innovative election solutions have earned the trust and confidence of Pierce County's employees, political parties, voters, and candidates." In Jackson Couny, Oregon, County Clerk Chris Walker said, "implementation of the Clear Ballot system has allowed us to streamline our workflow and find greater efficiencies during elections." She also noted that "by using a software-based system that tabulates ballots with off-the-shelf scanners, digital adjudication, and digital write-in capabilities, the citizens of Jackson County will see cost savings and greater efficiencies during an election cycle."



The New York counties of Clinton, Jefferson and Saratoga used Clear Ballot technology to count absentee ballots at a central location, and provide a digital database of ballots and the visualization of voter marks. The visualization of voter marks allows counties to establish voter intent with confidence. Mary R. Dyer and Gregory B. Campbell, Election Commissioners in Clinton County said in a joint statement, "Clinton County is proud to have been the first County Board of Elections in New York State to use Clear Ballot's innovative ClearCount Central Scanning System and Audit Tool. They have greatly reduced the time, and increased the efficiency of our Absentee Ballot counting process. The system enhances the transparency of the vote counting process by allowing observers of the procedure to clearly see ballots with questionable votes or markings. Additionally, we have found the Clear Ballot staff very responsive in helping us learn and use their system."

In Florida, the counties of Bay and Nassau used Clear Ballot's audit technology, ClearAudit, to conduct automated, independent audits of election results. ClearAudit is the only technology that can read and provide automated, independent, tabulation of ballots produced by several voting systems, giving county officials confidence that election results are accurate and counted as cast by the voters. Additionally, counties have shown significant reductions in manual processes and election operation costs since adopting ClearAudit. Because of these savings, Florida counties conduct an audit of every ballot for every election, giving election officials, staff, candidates, and voters, confidence in election results. Bay County Supervisor of Elections, Mark Andersen said, "I have been working with Clear Ballot since 2009 verifying our election results. ClearAudit gives us absolute comfort providing an independent validation of election results and a digital inventory that no other system provides. Clear Ballot has allowed us to become more efficient, transparent and cost-effective." Clear Ballot is pleased with the success of its customers. "We are extremely proud of the way our technology performed in Oregon, Washington, New York and Florida," said Larry Moore, CEO of Clear Ballot. "All counties have reported significant improvements in speed, performance, and efficiency. We look forward to many more jurisdictions finding success with voting solutions from Clear Ballot." About Clear Ballot:

Clear Ballot is the leader in election innovation. We have introduced a new class of tools and a modern approach to voting, enabling unprecedented speed, accuracy, and transparency that officials and the voting public have sought for decades. Designed for ease-of-use, Clear Ballot's browser-based software, used in conjunction with commercially available scanning hardware, scales to election jurisdictions of all sizes, and responds directly to the budgetary realities of counties and municipalities. Our election technology has been used in six states, and is in the process of federal certification. Contact

Hillary Lincoln

Clear Ballot

617-842-5127

[email protected] View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/clear-ballot-technology-used-to-conduct-successful-elections-in-oregon-washington-new-york-and-florida-300573238.html SOURCE Clear Ballot

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[December 19, 2017] Cuties, iHeartRadio Surprise After-School All-Stars of South Florida with Special Holiday Gift

Cuties, the brand that pioneered California-grown mandarins, teamed up with After-School All-Stars (ASAS), the leading national provider of daily, comprehensive tuition-free academic, fitness and enrichment programs for underserved families after-school, to deliver a special holiday gift to kids enrolled in the program at Bowman Ashe/Doolin K-8 Academy in South Florida. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171219005726/en/ Y100 DJ Frankie P and students enrolled in After-School All-Stars at Bowman Ashe-Doolin point to their favorite artists' signatures on the Cuties Buddy Bench. The Buddy Bench was signed by Nick Jonas, Halsey, Logic, Demi Lovato and others at the Y100 Jingle Ball in Miami on Sunday. (Photo: Michele Eve Photography) Cuties joined Y100's Jingle Ball concert tour at the BB&T Center Sunday to introduce the concert series' first ever Cuties correspondents, Ayden and Ryan Soria, two brothers from Los Angeles. Ryan and Ayden were selected after submitting a video about what kindness means to them through Cuties' 100 Days of Sunshine contest promoted during ON (News - Alert) with Mario Lopez and Ryan Seacrest's AT Top 40. During the concert, Ryan and Ayden asked artists and celebrities from the popular tour to sign a custom-designed Buddy Bench. Buddy Benches were created by an elementary student in Pennsylvania to help foster friendship on the playground. Students sit on the bench when they're looking for a friend to talk to or play with. Artists at the Jingle Ball tour, including Demi Lovato, Nick Jonas, Halsey, Charlie Puth and Logic signed the bench and added personal messages of encouragement to After-School All-Star students. "Cuties i on a mission to spread positivity and sunshine during California Cuties season, from November through April," said Howard Nager, vice president of marketing and business development at Sun Pacific, the grower and shipper of Cuties. "We're thrilled that together with iHeart Radio and After-School All-Stars, we'll be able to give All-Star students at Bowman Ashe/Doolin a very special reminder to share sweetness all year long with our Cuties Buddy Bench and pledge to provide healthy snacks to all the students enrolled in ASAS programs in South Florida."



Cuties and Y100 DJ Frankie P donated the Buddy Bench on Monday at Bowman Ashe/Doolin, one of 400 After-School All-Star school sites nationwide. Cuties also announced it would donate a season's worth of fruit to the 2,000 students enrolled in the program locally. According to the Afterschool Alliance, making after-school meals available helps combat the hunger and food insecurity that affects more than 15 million children in the United States1. "We are honored to partner with Cuties' and iHeart Radio to support the wellbeing and good nutrition of our students," said Natalia Sol of After-School All-Stars. "Our programs teach kids the value of kindness and inclusion, and the Cuties Buddy Bench will reinforce those values and serve as a reminder for students to continue to spread positivity and sweetness in their community."

For more information about After-School All-Stars of South Florida, visit AfterSchoolAllStars.org. To learn more about Buddy Benches and how you can implement one at your school, visit BuddyBench.org. About Sun Pacific

Founded in 1969, Sun Pacific is a leading California grower, packer, and shipper of fruit with more than 75 million boxes of the highest quality fresh fruit sold each year. Sun Pacific is the owner of America's most preferred brand of clementines, Cuties, and the largest kiwi grower with the number one kiwi brand in North America, Mighties. They are one of the largest navel orange grower/shippers in California, with exceptional brands such as Air Chief and Vintage Sweets. Sun Pacific is also renowned for its outstanding quality Air Chief table grapes. For more information, visit www.sunpacific.com. About After-School All-Stars

Founded in 1992 by Arnold Schwarzenegger, After-School All-Stars (ASAS) is a leading national provider of year-round, school-based, comprehensive afterschool programs. The organization's mission is to keep children safe and help them succeed in school and in life. Every school day, students in low-income communities have access to free programs that offer academic support, enrichment opportunities, and health and fitness activities. 73,000+ children from 19 U.S. locations benefit: Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Hawaii, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Newark, New York, North Texas, Orlando, Philadelphia, San Antonio, South Florida, Tampa Bay, Toledo, Washington D.C., Bay Area and Puget Sound. For more information, visit www.as-as.org. 1 http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/policyAfterschoolMeals.cfm View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171219005726/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
The Columbia County District Attorneys office has filed felony drug charges against a Wisconsin Dells man found with the key to a motel room where guns and marijuana were found.

Johany Abernathy-Duewel, 19, is charged with felony counts of maintaining a drug trafficking place and possession with intent to distribute marijuana along with misdemeanor counts of resisting an officer, bail jumping and possession of drug paraphernalia.

On Dec. 12, a Wisconsin Dells police officer was parked across the street from the Deer Trail Motel for an unrelated matter and reported seeing Abernathy-Duewel acting suspiciously after leaving one of the Deer Trail rooms. The officer spoke with Abernathy-Duewel as he was walking on River Road, at which point he told the officer that he was not a registered guest and had been visiting a friend.

According to the criminal complaint, Abernathy-Duewel was carrying two cellphones and a key to the room in question. The officer told him that he was free to go and proceeded to search the room. The officer noticed a smell of marijuana and two guns lying on the bed: a semi-automatic shotgun and a .233 caliber rifle with a banana-style magazine. Both guns were loaded. Additional ammunition was found in the cupboard.

Nearly 4 ounces of marijuana were found in a jar in addition to one-quarter ounce in a baggie.

Abernathy-Duewel was then found walking on River Road and taken into custody. One of the cellphones he was carrying included a text message exchange of, James, you still want that coke I can grab it tomorrow, followed by, Not yet man I gotta go down to my Grandmas tomorrow in South Carolina but dont worry, saying to hit up a different number and give Johany the money, so the stuff and the money is separate.

Abernathy-Duewel has since been released on bond, awaiting scheduling of an initial appearance and bail hearing.
[December 19, 2017] ICOs Have Killed Traditional Venture Capital, Claim Prominent Blockchain Investors at CryptoFriends HypeUp in Singapore

SAN FRANCISCO, December 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The traditional Venture Capital sector in its current form is dead, according to some of the top names involved in funding blockchain based startups. The main reasons cited were the sector's failure to innovate amidst the explosion of funding through ICOs, and waning confidence from entrepreneurs that venture capitalist backers have their best interests at heart. Meanwhile, it was predicted that the combined market cap for ICO projects could reach one trillion dollars within the next twelve months. Speaking during a panel discussion on Cryptofunds at the CryptoFriends HypeUp in Singapore, Brock Pierce, co-founder of Blockchain Capital and Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation, commented, "What Venture Capital has become today is a far cry from what it was supposed to be, and it's bad. The old school venture capitalists were legit, unlike the fakers today. They showed up and helped entrepreneurs, rolled up their sleeves and provided advice and real work to help them. What's happened recently is it was co-opted by financial engineers, who don't actually do anything other than take advantage of entrepreneurs." Pierce continued, "They are supposed to fund innovation but haven't innovated themselves. There are some legit venture capitalists out there, wonderful guys in our space like Tim Draper. Those are the guys that are still going to have a job, who evolve into the things that those of us up here are doing. ICOs are a global phenomenon and this model is not just democratizing venture capital and bringing liquidity to an illiquid market. It means that Silicon Valley doesn't need to be the epicenter of innovation. The next Zuckerberg could now come from Indonesia, Malaysia or Africa." Joining Pierce on the panel were Daniel Shashoua, Sefi Golan, Mike Costache, Anatolii Radchenko, with Cryptopay MD, Eric Benz acting as moderator. Sefi Golan added, "I was an entrepreneur and, believe me, this revolution is first and foremost for entrepreneurs. They now have another way to finance their ambitions. We must be vigilant with every project, but this is a great opportunity for exponential growth. They say about 90% of startups will fail after three years. I think we are now seeing a new paradigm, with many startups getting more money than they usually get from seed rounds. Let's see if that improves their chances to succeed."



The highly anticipated discussion was a key attraction at the exclusive CryptoFriends event, where over 300 crypto influencers and investors gathered on the rooftop of the Hotel Jen Orchardgateway, to get the latest insights into the world of crypto and party into the night with a world-first crypto-concert by breakthrough indie pop group, Pompeya. The main sponsors of the intimate HypeUp included Esports.com BlockEX, Arbidex and CoinTelegraph and included further guest talks by some of today's most esteemed blockchain influencers.

As with most CryptoFriends events, the real stars were the ICOs. Seven handpicked blockchain startups pitched their ideas and announced their token sales to an eager audience looking for the latest attractive investment opportunities. The seven ICOs to pitch included: BetterBetting - A robust peer-to-peer sports betting cryptocurrency, facilitating a decentralized betting liquidity pool

Gladius - Decentralized DDoS protection and content delivery with the Blockchain

United Traders - High end solutions for the crypto finance world

VR Token - Decentralized platform for creating and distributing VR content

Moeco - A blockchain-powered platform for IoT connectivity

DeHedge - A risk-hedging platform for cryptocurrency investors

Sensay - An app that creates a marketplace for p2p conversations using blockchain based smart contracts in chat Following the pitches were further ICO presentations from three of the Hypeup sponsors, eSports , Blockex, and Arbidex. If this was not enough, participants also saw a special performance from Jason King and Bryce Case with an incredible Cryptorap. Daria Arefeva, Cryptofriends founder and CEO says, "The high level of the projects presented at the Singapore HypeUp event showed that ICOs are still a hot topic for investors. It was fantastic to see such exciting startups having the chance to forge long-lasting connection and friendships with high caliber names from the crypto world and each other. Cryptofriends is all about mixing cutting edge thinking with eating and drinking, and we will continue to organize more high-end events that put both business and having fun on an equal footing." About CryptoFriends CryptoFriends is a team of blockchain & crypto professionals with a wide network of connections worldwide. We have quickly become the go-to experts when it comes to organizing high-end blockchain-related events. Our mission is to bring together a huge range of experience and ideas from some of the leading names and talents in the international crypto space, and for blockchain professionals and enthusiasts to share their opinions and expertise and build long-lasting connections. SOURCE CryptoFriends

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[December 19, 2017] International Human Rights Lawyer Amal Clooney to Speak at Globoforce's WorkHuman 2018 Conference

Globoforce, a leading provider of social recognition and continuous performance development solutions, today announced international human rights lawyer and equality advocate Amal Clooney as a keynote speaker at its WorkHuman 2018 conference, April 2-5, 2018, at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171219005242/en/ International Human Rights Lawyer Amal Clooney to Speak at WorkHuman 2018 (Photo: Business Wire) The annual WorkHuman conference, pioneered by Globoforce, is dedicated to helping educate, energize, and engage business and HR leaders to build a more human-focused work culture. The event has grown five times in size since the inaugural event in 2015, and has featured some of the world's most influential thought leaders and visionaries, including former First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama, actors Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Rob Lowe, and Michael J. Fox, and best-selling authors Susan Cain, Adam Grant, Shawn Achor, Arianna Huffington, Amy Cuddy, and Gary Hamel. Clooney, a practicing attorney at Doughty Street Chambers in London and a visiting professor at Columbia Law School, will discuss her commitment to give a voice to those who don't have one and advocate for neglected and exploited groups. "Amal is synonymous with the word humanity and embodies all that WorkHuman represents," said Eric Mosley, CEO of Globoforce. "Through her work advocating for the neglected and underappreciated, Amal brings a global and persnal perspective to WorkHuman that will help elevate our diversity and inclusion dialogue and validate the importance of bringing humanity back to the workplace."



Throughout her career, Clooney has advocated for neglected and exploited groups, including appearing before the United Nations on behalf of thousands of Yazidi women sexually enslaved by ISIS in Iraq and Syria; representing Armenia in the European Court on Human Rights in a case concerning the denial of the Armenian genocide; and co-founding the Clooney Foundation for Justice to advance justice in courtrooms, classrooms, and communities around the world. Clooney is a frequent adviser to governments on international law and has held several posts within the U.N., including senior adviser to Kofi Annan when he served as the UN Envoy on Syria. She has also advised the Greek government on the return of the Parthenon Marbles, represented the Chagossians in their legal fight to return to their islands, and challenged the detention of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko at the European Court of Human Rights. She has also been named a "Young Global Leader" by the World Economic Forum and currently serves on the Forum's Global Council on Human Rights.

"Humanity is not just a concept that applies within the context of law; it is something we can all practice every day in our own lives, no matter where we are and what we do," said Clooney. Clooney joins several established workplace experts as a WorkHuman 2018 conference speaker, including business thinker and best-selling author Simon Sinek; Dr. David Rock, best-selling author and director of the NeuroLeadership Institute; Brene Brown, Ph.D., research professor and three-time New York Times best-selling author; Adam Grant, best-selling author and Wharton professor; Mike Elliott, executive vice president and chief people officer for JetBlue; John Ryan, CEO of Great Place to Work Ireland and global CEO of Healthy Place to Work; Alexander Kjerulf, chief happiness officer at Woohoo inc.; Tony Schwartz, founder and CEO of The Energy Project; and Trina Chiara, founding partner at FIKSU Communications. For the full WorkHuman 2018 conference agenda, click here. For more information or questions about the conference, call toll-free at 844-975-5626 (844-WRKHMAN) or visit www.workhuman.com. About Globoforce

Pioneer of the WorkHuman movement, Globoforce helps make work more human for millions of people and organizations worldwide. Its cloud-based social recognition and continuous performance development solutions help build award-winning cultures where employees feel more appreciated and socially connected at work - driving a sense of belonging and inspiring the entire organization to reach its full potential and achieve business success. Founded in 1999, the company is headquartered in Framingham, Mass., and Dublin, Ireland. To learn more: Visit: http://www.globoforce.com

Read: http://globoforce.com/globoblog

Follow: Twitter (News - Alert) @Globoforce LinkedIn (News - Alert): http://www.linkedin.com/company/globoforce Facebook (News - Alert): http://www.facebook.com/globoforce

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171219005242/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[December 20, 2017] Ohio Boy Receives Reagan Letter; 30 Years Later, His Creative Agency Wins Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute Contract

DAYTON, Ohio, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- More than three decades have passed since Ron Campbell wrote a letter to the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan. He wrote to tell the president he was praying for him, after President Reagan survived an assassination attempt in March of 1981. To his surprise, Campbell received a responseand 30 years later, Campbell brought that letter with him when he went to meet with the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute. Located in Simi Valley, the Reagan Foundation also houses the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, the largest of 13 presidential libraries in the United States. Last year, they released a Request for Proposal, seeking a partner who could relaunch their website. From a long list of applicants, and a rigorous interview process, the Reagan Foundation chose U! Creative for the project, and today, students and historians across the world have limitless access to a full archive of presidential history. "Originally, I heard about this from another client, The GRAMMY Museum, who encouraged us to pursue the project," said Campbell. "We were told the Reagan Foundation wanted to work with a Southern California creative agency, but I knew we had the skills, the heart, and even the history to conquer this project better than any competitor." In the final round of presentations, Campbell included something deeply personal to the proposalan authentic letter from Reagan himself. Sitting in the room was Melissa Giller, Chief Marketing Officer for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute. "Not only did U! Creative present a more comprehensive and visually appealing proposal, they also brought a piece of history," said Giller. "Their team's thoughtful, creative approach illustrated for us exactly how Ronald Reagan's story would be told, and that attention to detail and respect for the subject is exactly what we were looking for in a partner." Having several top U.S. destination attractions as long-term clients, U! Creative brought with them unmatched knowledge of how usability and human factors should drive the project.And while the team knew that aesthetics and access were two important elements for any interactive, digital piecethe Reagan Foundation also wanted it self-sustaining.



"Enabling users to find the information they're looking for is most important," said Campbell. "But, we went beyond simply addressing the site architecture to create an immersive, multimedia-based learning environment that is comparable to the physical library itself." And to meet their long-term needs, U! Creative developed a custom solution that would allow the Reagan Foundation to maintain the website on their own moving forward. Halfway through the project, the Reagan Foundation was so energized by U! Creative's approach, they also asked the team to take on the redesign of the Reagan Foundation's logo, Brand Guide, E-mail Newsletters and Marketing Templates, and Video Series Motion Graphics, which would coincide with the new website launch.

"The legacy of Ronald Reagan, his work and wisdom, are more relevant today than ever before," said Giller. "U! Creative has helped us to communicate that truth, bringing it to life through our brand, in a lasting, meaningful way." To see more on this project, including the Reagan letter, an interview with Ron, a case study, and more, visit reagan.ucreate.us. About the U! Creative Brands

Rather than call them a creative agency, U! Creative is a house of thought and execution. A grab bag of innovators, illustrators, designers, and rock stars who are always in pursuit of the next big idea. U! Creative headquarters, which stood as the last rock n' roll record store in America, now serves as a playground where creative minds thrive. Within the U! Creative brand lives The Social Farm, cultivators of conversation in the social space, Overdrive Development, a pit crew of support for motorsports, and Destination2, a dream team of talent focused on elevating attractions. Each of these unique brands consistently delivers concepts and executes plans that drive higher visibility, higher profits, and more cool than anyone thought possible... Except U! To see their work, visit ucreate.us or destination2.com. About The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute (RRPFI) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to the promotion of the legacy of Ronald Reagan and his timeless principles of individual liberty, economic opportunity, global democracy, and national pride. It sustains the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, the Ronald Reagan Institute, the Reagan Center for Public Affairs, the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Presidential Learning Center, The Air Force One Pavilion, and the award-winning Air Force One Discovery Center. Located in Simi Valley, California, the Library houses over 55 million pages of Gubernatorial, Presidential, and personal papers, and over 60,000 gifts and artifacts chronicling the lives of Ronald and Nancy Reagan. It now also serves as the final resting place of America's 40th President and his first lady. www.reaganfoundation.org View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ohio-boy-receives-reagan-letter-30-years-later-his-creative-agency-wins-ronald-reagan-presidential-foundation--institute-contract-300574152.html SOURCE U! Creative

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[December 19, 2017] Ziyen Inc. Software Division becomes key media partner for Iraq Petroleum 2018

SAN DIEGO, Dec. 19, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ziyen Inc.s procurement portal, Rebuilding Iraq has recently signed on as a Gold Media Partner for Iraq Petroleum 2018 in Berlin, Germany on February 27th-28th, 2018.

Iraq Petroleum 2018 is one of the key events organized by CWC Media and brings together Iraqs oil and gas industry to enhance international cooperation from the international energy community to support the countrys hydrocarbons sector and re-establish it on the world energy map as the next oil and gas cluster. In its 12th edition working year on year with the Federal Government of Iraq and the Ministry of Oil, the conference is renowned for gathering the countries' senior Government representatives alongside key industry stakeholders to drive the strategy for the year ahead in one of the world's most important oil and gas markets. In 2017, the Iraq Petroleum Event drew over 200 speakers and sponsors include Shell, Chevron, LUKOIL, Petronas and Baker Hughes. The partnership with CWC Media will provide further global exposure to Rebuilding Iraqs comprehensive tender, project and news notification services. This partnership also marks the launch of Rebuilding Iraqs new Business Development service offered in the websites Gold Membership Service in which a thorough marketing and sales plan is created for a clients specific business requirements. Greg Simpson, Head of Business Development for Ziyens Intelligence Software Division, based out of the UK adds: With 100 bilion dollars being invested in Iraq in the coming years, we are excited to be a part of an event that promotes business in the country. As a Gold Media Partner, Rebuilding Iraq will continue to advance CWCs profile whilst showcasing our business development services at the upcoming Iraq Petroleum Event in Berlin. This is one of a number of key enhancements we have recently developed as part of our service relaunch, as we seek to provide additional value to our new and existing members, at an exciting time for business opportunities and expected growth throughout Iraq.



Rebuilding Iraq is a leading international source of tenders, contracts and news in Iraq. The portal currently has over 5000 users, published over 40,000 contracts and tenders and has over 350,000 followers across social media. Head of Business Development, Greg Simpson and Business Development Manager, Cameron Murray will attend CWCs Iraq Petroleum Event in Berlin, Germany on February 27th-28th to represent Rebuilding Iraq.

About Ziyen Inc. Founded in 2016, Ziyen Inc. is a Scottish-American company developing cutting edge procurement software to provide clients with industry specific government and private contracts via procurement portals. In 2017, Ziyen diversified, instating the Ziyen Energy Division, with intent to produce oil in the U.S. with advanced extraction methods and technology implemented and guided by career experts in the oil and gas industry. In June 2017, Ziyen acquired the mineral rights to its first oil field in Indiana, and now has two assets. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently qualified Ziyen Inc. in November 2017 for our second round of funding, with a pre-IPO share price of $1.50. More information may be found in its Offering Circular filed with the SEC, or on their website www.ziyen.com About Granite PR Founded in 2008, Aberdeen-based Granite PR offers the full spectrum of PR services with an emphasis on the energy, technology, hospitality, food and drink, professional services and healthcare sectors. The company has developed strong links in domestic and overseas markets, particularly the US and Scandinavia, and these have been enhanced by Granite PRs Gateway series of business events which encourage trade between key locations. For more information visit www.granitepr.co.uk Forward Looking Statements: Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to, statements related to anticipated commencement of commercial production, targeted pricing, performance goals, and statements that otherwise relate to future periods are forward-looking statements. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, which are described in more detail in the Company's periodic reports filed with the SEC- specifically the most recent reports which identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are made and based on information available to the company on the date of this press release. Ziyen Inc. assumes no obligation to update the information in this press release.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[December 19, 2017] Media Alert: Texas Capital Bank, FHLB Dallas Award $200K to Small Business Recovery

Fifteen Houston small business owners were helped in their post-Hurricane Harvey recovery efforts by a total of $200,000 in Small Business Recovery grants from Texas Capital Bank and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas (FHLB Dallas). Each business received up to $15,000 to aid in their repair and/or rebuilding efforts. These grants are part of $6.7 million in grants offered by FHLB Dallas, including more than $2.25 million to assist small businesses in their recovery efforts. Texas Capital Bank, an FHLB Dallas member institution, awards Small Business Recovery grants to help qualified small business owners in counties that have been designated for Individual Assistance by FEMA. The media is invited to attend a check presentation at 1:30 p.m. on December 20 at The Green Bone, a doggy day care in Houston, and one of the grant recipients. In addition to The Green Bone, 14 other Small Business Recovery grant recipients have been invited to attend.







WHAT: Check Presentation WHEN: 1:30 p.m., Wednesday, December 20 WHO: Bill Wilson, Chairman, Houston Region, Texas Capital Bank Effie Dennison, SVP, Community Development and Corporate Responsibility, Texas Capital Bank Jennifer Leighton-Guzman, AVP, Community Development, Texas Capital Bank Grant Recipients Greg Hettrick, Vice President, Director of Community Investment, FHLB Dallas Jaime Jordan, Vice President, Director of Corporate Communications, FHLB Dallas WHERE: The Green Bone 2901 Rusk Street Houston, Texas 77003

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171219006301/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[December 19, 2017] Government of Canada Supports Wind Energy Study in Canada's Arctic

CanNor invests $950,000 to foster renewable energy source and offset the use of diesel in Inuvik, Northwest Territories INUVIK, NT, Dec.19, 2017 /CNW/ - The Government of the Northwest Territories' Department of Infrastructure is exploring the feasibility of using wind turbines and energy storage devices in the Town of Inuvik thanks in part to an investment of $950,000 from the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency (CanNor). The funding was announced today by Member of Parliament Michael McLeod on behalf of the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Minister responsible for CanNor. Residents and businesses in the Town of Inuvik face high energy costs as they rely heavily on trucked-in petroleum products from southern Canada. To help lower the use of diesel and reduce greenhouse gas (GHS) emissions, the Department of Infrastructure is conducting a study to determine the possibility of adding one or more wind turbines to the town's electricity grid. CanNor's investment is assisting with the design, engineering and geotechnical work related to the potential installation of commercial size turbines at High Point, located ten kilometers outside of Inuvik. The Agency's contribution is also supporting consultation sessions with local stakeholders, including the Mayor and Council, the Gwich'in Tribal Council and the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation. If this renewable energy source is deemed feasible and is implemented in the future, the wind power generated could displace between 18 to 28 percent of the energy currently produced using diesel. This offset could help save approximately $1.6 million to nearly $3 million in fuel and also reduce GHG emissions by roughly 4,000 to 7,000 tonnes annually. Reducing the use of fossil fels in remote communities is a key priority for both the Government of Canada and the Government of the Northwest Territories. Harnessing local and renewable fuel sources such as wind in the Beaufort Delta region of the territory would not only reduce the North's reliance on imported diesel fuel but also support renewable energy initiatives.



Quotes "Our government's investment in clean technology reflects our commitment to establishing a clean growth and diverse economy, while protecting the planet at the same time. Exploring innovative ways to use renewable energy technologies in Canada's Arctic fosters energy conservation and efficiency, green infrastructure, healthier communities and job creation for Northerners."

 The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Minister responsible for CanNor

"I'm very pleased that the Government of Canada is investing in this feasibility study, which could lead to the first large-scale wind turbine above the Arctic Circle in Canada. This investment is a significant contribution to the advancement of clean technology in the North and helps to diversify the northern economy."

 Michael McLeod, Member of Parliament, Northwest Territories "Energy drives our economy. Access to share, affordable and environmentally-sustainable sources of energy are essential to the prosperity of the Northwest Territories. A large-scale wind energy project in Inuvik could result in the reduction of millions of litres of diesel fuel year, and help fulfill one of the strategic objectives of our proposed 2030 Energy Strategy."

 The Honourable Wally Schumann, Minister of Infrastructure, Government of the Northwest Territories Quick facts In addition to CanNor's commitment of $950,000 over two years (2016-2018), the Government of the Northwest Territories Department of Infrastructure contributed $760,000 bringing the total funding of the project to $1,710,000 .

over two years (2016-2018), the Government of the Northwest Territories Department of Infrastructure contributed bringing the total funding of the project to . This project received funding from CanNor's Strategic Investments in Northern Economic Development (SINED) program.

One of the strategic objectives in the Government of the Northwest Territories' 2030 Energy Strategy is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% in northern communities dependent on diesel. This renewable energy project also aligns with the territories' Climate Change Strategic Framework scheduled to be released next month. Associated links Government of Canada supports clean energy feasibility study

supports clean energy feasibility study Government of Canada Supports NWT Greenhouse Feasibility Studies

The Government of the Northwest Territories  Department of Infrastructure Follow Minister Bains on Twitter: @ISED_CA

For more information about CanNor, visit cannor.gc.ca. SOURCE Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency (CanNor)

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[December 19, 2017] 5G Americas to Host 5th Global 5G Event

5G New Horizons Wireless Symposium

May 16-17, 2018 in Austin, Texas BELLEVUE, Wash., Dec. 19, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 5G Americas proudly announces the fifth of the biannual Global 5G Events, to be held in Austin, Texas on May 16 and 17, 2018. 5G New Horizons Wireless Symposium will bring together experts from leading global associations from around the world to discuss the current status and progress of 5G. Chris Pearson, President of 5G Americas commented, We are at the point in time where 5G is truly visible on the horizon, and yet there remains further discussion and planning for the successful rollout of many new technology, regulatory, business and spectrum concepts. 5G Americas is pleased to offer this global event with strong representation by the leading international organizations that are fostering this development for a truly connected society. 5G New Horizons Wireless Symposium is co-located with both 5G North America and BCE at the Austin Convention Center. For more information on the program and Symposium, visit 5G New Horizons. Association executives, regulators and policy makers, leading operators and manufacturers representing the five world regions including 5G Americas will provide presentations and panel discussions at the 5th Global 5G Event. The Global 5G Event series was developed in the interest of efficiency and building global consensus on 5G, and was announced in October 2015 by the following parties of a Memorandum of Understanding: 5G Americas, (Americas), The Fifth Generation Mobile Communications Promotion Forum (5GMF) (Japan), 5G Forum (Republic of Korea), IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group (China) and The 5G Public Private Partnership (5G PPP) (Europe). In May 2017, Brazil (Telebrasil) joined the partners on the Global 5G Event to support multi-lateral collaboration on 5G systems across continents and countries. Following are the 5G Global Events: 1st - Beijing, China, IMT-2020, May 31-June 1, 2016 2nd - Rome, Italy, 5G PPP, November 9-10, 2016 3rd - Tokyo, Japan, 5G MF, May 24-25, 2017 4th - Seoul, Korea, 5G Forum, November 22-23, 2017 5th - Austin, USA, 5G Americas, May 16-17, 2018 About the Global 5G Event:

The Global 5G Event is an event where the worlds leading 5G organizations discuss the latest research and development achievements and views on 5G technologies, spectrum, standardization, field trials, applications, the future roadmap and global collaboration. The series of events is based on a Multi-Lateral MoU to cooperate on building global consensus on 5G with the worlds 5G promotion organizations: The Fifth Generation Mobile Communications Promotion Forum (5GMF, Japan), 5G Forum (Korea), 5G Americas (Americas), IMT-202 (5G) Promotion Group (China), 5G Infrastructure Association (5G-IA, Europe) and Telebrasil  Projecto 5G Brasil (Brasil). The event is held twice a year in rotation.



About 5G Americas: The Voice of 5G and LTE for the Americas:

5G Americas is an industry trade organization composed of leading telecommunications service providers and manufacturers. The organization's mission is to advocate for and foster the advancement and full capabilities of LTE wireless technologies and their evolution to 5G, throughout the ecosystem's networks, services, applications and wirelessly connected devices in the Americas. 5G Americas is invested in developing a connected wireless community while leading 5G development for all the Americas. 5G Americas is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. More information is available at www.5gamericas.org or Twitter @5GAmericas. About IMT-2020 PG:

The IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group was established in February 2013, with the support of three ministries of China (the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Science and Technology), based on the original IMT-Advanced Promotion Group. It is the major platform to promote the research and development of 5G in China. Its members include the leading operators, vendors, universities, and research institutes in the field of mobile communications. More information is available at http://www.imt-2020.cn/en

About 5GMF:

The Fifth Generation Mobile Communications Promotion Forum (5GMF) was founded on September 30 2014. 5GMF has been conducting research & development concerning 5G (The fifth Generation Mobile Communications Systems): including the standardization thereof, along with liaison & coordination with related organizations, the collection of information, and the dissemination & enlightenment activities. Towards 5G realization by 2020, these activities will contribute to the sound development of the 5G Eco-society. More information is available at http://5gmf.jp/en/ About the 5G Forum:

The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning and mobile industries in Korea founded the 5G Forum in Seoul on May 30 2013. 5G Forum members consists of public and private sectors, including mobile telecommunication carriers, manufacturers and academic professionals.

The goal of the 5G Forum is to assist in the development of the standard and contribute to its globalization. By 2020, the South Korean government intends to commercially deploy 5G mobile telecommunication technology for the first time in the world featuring five core 5G services during the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics. This would include social networking services; mobile 3D imaging; artificial intelligence; high-speed services; and ultra- and high-definition resolution capabilities; and holographic technologies.

SeongMok OH, President of KT, is chairperson of the forum. The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI); three major telecom companies; and several major electronics companies, including Samsung Electronics, LG electronics, TTA, KMW were appointed to the Board as co-chairs. More information is available at https://www.5gforum.org/eng About the 5G Public-Private Partnership & the 5G Infrastructure Association (5G-IA)

The 5G Public Private Partnership (5G PPP) is the 5G collaborative research program that is organized as part of the European Commissions Horizon 2020 program  The European Union Program for Research and Innovation. It is aimed at fostering industry-driven research, monitored by business-related, technological performance and societal KPIs. The 5G PPP will deliver solutions, architectures, technologies and standards for ubiquitous next-generation communication infrastructure over the coming decade.

In the 5G PPP, the 5G Infrastructure Association (5G-IA) represents the private side and the European Commission the public side. The 5G-IA is committed to the advancement of 5G in Europe and to building global consensus on 5G. To this aim, the Association brings together a global industry community of telecoms & digital actors, such as operators, manufacturers, research institutes, universities, verticals and SMEs. The 5G-IA carries out a wide range of activities in strategic areas including standardization, frequency spectrum, R&D projects, technology skills, collaboration with key vertical industry sectors, notably for the development of trials, and international cooperation. More information is available at https://5g-ppp.eu/ Twitter: @5GPPP About 5G Brasil

The main objective of the 5G Brasil project is to foster the development of the 5G ecosystem in Brazil and contribute to the global definition of this technology. The 5G Brasil Project has 22 associates (including operators, manufacturers, research institutes, universities, and companies associations) involving more than 120 professionals. The activities of 5G Brasil are performed by a Steering Committee and by five thematic commissions: Research and Use Cases, PreStandards, Backhaul Infrastructure, Future Frequencies Bands, Verticals Regulatory Actions and Market Actions. The 5G Brasil Project advocates the inclusion of a fourth scenario for 5G networks: 5G for remote areas. Contacts: Vicki Livingston

5G Americas

Cell: +1 414 688 9000

Mail to: [email protected] Po HU

IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group

Phone: +86-10-62300159

[email protected] Alessandro Bedeschi

5G Infrastructure Association

[email protected] Jaewon HEO

5G Forum

[email protected] Yoshinori Ohmura

5GMF

Phone: +81-3-5510-8594

[email protected] Jose Marcos C. Brito

5G Brasil

[email protected]

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[December 19, 2017] Cameroon - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband - Statistics and Analyses

LONDON, Dec. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Vodafone Cameroon closes down operations

The ICT sector in Cameroon contributes only about 3. Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/3883142

5% of GDP, which is low for the region. The sector requires considerable development for the country to make better use of the digital economy.

To this end the government has in train its Cameroon Digital 2020' program, aimed at improving connectivity nationally. A large number of small ICT projects form part of the overall program. The country will greatly benefit from the SAIL submarine cable providing a direct link to Brazil, and so onto other countries in the Americas. The cable, expected to be ready for service in late 2018, will improve international bandwidth and lead to further reductions in access prices for consumers.

Cameroon was for many years one of the few countries in Africa with only two competing mobile operators, MTN Cameroon and Orange Cameroon. After some delays, Nextell Cameroon majority-owned by Viettel) launched a third network in late 2014, including the country's first 3G mobile service. The operator has grown swiftly, signing up more than three million subscribers and claiming a 16% market share. Competition in 3G followed in early 2015 when both MTN and Orange launched services.

Mobile broadband based on LTE was established at the end of 2015 and this has been the catalyt for a fast-developing mobile broadband sector.



The investment programs among operators over the next few years will considerably boost mobile broadband services in rural areas of the country, many of which are underserved by fixed-line infrastructure.

Fixed-line penetration in the country is extremely low, and the privatisation of Camtel's fixed-line business has failed several times. Given these condition, fixed-line services are relatively insignificant in terms of internet connectivity. Further development is quickening in mobile banking and commerce, with both the MTN Money and Orange Money platforms making considerable progress in facilitating services for customers, the number of which approaches six million.

Key developments:

Vodafone Cameroon closes operations after losing licence;

SAIL submarine cable soon to be laid, linking Cameroon with Brazil;

Three MNOs fined for SIM card registration failures;

YooMe Mobile launches LTE offers as an MVNO;

World bank proposes split-up of Camtel;

Camtel handed newly built fibre loops in Douala and Yaounde;

MTN launches its mobile health platform in Cameroon;

Government calls end to temporary telecom licences;

Delay in MNP launch, to be managed by Huawei;

Nextell planning to sign up five million subscribers on the back of an anticipated LTE launch;

MTN and Orange launch LTE services;

National fibre rollout continues with new funding;

Report update includes regulator's market data, telcos' operating data to Q3 2017, recent market developments.

Companies mentioned in this report: MTN Cameroon, Orange CM, Camtel, Cameroon Mobile Telecommunications (CMT), Pastel, CamNet, MTN Network Solutions, Matrix Telecoms, Ringo, Nextell Cameroon (Viettel), YooMee. Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/3883142 About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 208 816 85 48

Website: www.reportbuyer.com View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cameroon---telecoms-mobile-and-broadband---statistics-and-analyses-300573608.html SOURCE ReportBuyer

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[December 19, 2017] Bytedance Co-organizes an International Dialogue on Social Responsibility and Ethics in Artificial Intelligence at the United Nation's 12th Internet Governance Forum

BEIJING and GENEVA, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- During the twelfth annual meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) held this week in Geneva, Bytedance co-organized the workshop "Social Responsibility and Ethics in Artificial Intelligence: An East-West Dialogue" with the University of Zurich and the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology. This is the first instance Bytedance co-organized a workshop at the IGF, and the company is the only Chinese firm to have a proposed workshop chosen by the Forum this year. The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) serves to bring people together from various stakeholder groups as equals in discussions on public policy issues relating to the Internet. While there is no negotiated outcome, the IGF informs and inspires those with policy-making power in both the public and private sectors. At this annual meeting, delegates discuss, exchange information, and share best practices. The IGF facilitates a common understanding of how to optimize opportunities created by the Internet as well as address risks and challenges. The 12th IGF is held at the UN's offices in Geneva and themed "Shape Your Digital Future!". The Forum includes over 100 workshops discussing current and emerging topics in internet governance. As one of the world's leading AI companies, Bytedance is committed to being a responsible stakeholder in the digital economy and the company has been actively participating in an international dialogue on the social impact and governance of AI. As part of this commitment, Bytedance co-organized an IGF workshop featuring a multidisciplinary group of experts from diverse geographies to discuss how AI technology will affect our society, and how government, academia, industry and civil sciety can work together to responsibly promote its development. The wide-ranging discussion touched on several topics, including AI technology's impact on employment and economic growth, laws and regulations governing AI, initiating and sustaining multi-stakeholder dialogue on AI, and AI companies' social responsibilities.



Among the many distinguished speakers participating in the panel were: Dr. Ma Yi, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley, Dr. Urs Gasser, Professor of Practice at Harvard Law School, Executive Director at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society and Karen McCabe, Senior Director of Technology Policy and International Affairs at IEEE. Ma Yi said at the conference, "The process from technological advancement to deployment at mass is something that requires a long time, this transformation and acceptance of users at scale requires a gathering of all the stakeholders to obtain a deep understanding of the technology and its applications." At a separate IGF workshop "Policy Challenges for AI Development", Ma used Bytedance's project Toutiao Missing Person Alerts as an example of how AI technology can be employed to benefit society. Toutiao Missing Person Alerts helps families look for missing relatives by sending alerts via the mobile application to Toutiao users who come within 10 kilometers of where a missing person was last spotted. As of December 2017, the project has helped reunite over 4,000 people with their families, leveraging advanced technologies to enhance a social cause.

Earlier this month, Bytedance held the first annual Global Festival for AI Ideas in Beijing, with esteemed collaborators including The Berkman Klein Center, which convened AI experts and innovators from all over the world to further a dialogue on the future of AI and its impact. Zhang Yiming, Bytedance Founder and CEO, stated in his opening remarks at the Festival that as AI becomes an increasingly integral part of society, Bytedance -- and its industry peers -- have a duty to ensure that companies and other stakeholders understand and anticipate the social impact of new technologies, and manage this impact responsibly. Bytedance is also one of three sponsors of the AI Index, an initiative within the Stanford 100 Year Study on AI, to track, collate, distill and visualize data relating to artificial intelligence's development. And Bytedance has formed a global strategic partnership with EQUALS, a joint initiative of UN Women and ITU, the leading United Nations agency for information and communication technologies. Bytedance will work with EQUALS on programs in China that will empower women and girls by facilitating access to more opportunities in the digital economy. About Bytedance Founded in 2012, Bytedance owns a series of content platforms that enable people to connect with, consume, and create content through machine learning technology. Bytedance's flagship product, Toutiao, is the largest AI-powered mobile content platform in China. Toutiao delivers personalized content recommendations to every user based on their interests. Bytedance also operates a series of products popular with mobile users around the world, including TopBuzz, Flipagram, and musical.ly. In 2016, Bytedance established an AI Lab which builds on the company's vast and complex datasets to develop state-of-the-art innovations in artificial intelligence. Media Contacts Jingjing Zhang

Bytedance

[email protected] SOURCE Bytedance Ltd.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[December 19, 2017] SME Sector Remain Buoyant in 2017

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The small and medium enterprises (SME) sector in Malaysia remain buoyant, with participants of the SME100 survey registering a 14.54 percent growth in revenue and a 6.93 percent growth in profit. This contrasts sharply with the GDP growth projection of 5.2 percent for the country as a whole. The SME100 survey is conducted by SME Magazine, with the top 100 companies by business performance recognised with the SME100 awards. The survey and awards are conducted every year since 2009. This year, the SME100 awards are officiated by Dato' Seri Ong Ka Chuan, Minister of International Trade and Industry II. "Despite the global headwinds, our SMEs are gaining grounds. Much of these are the result of pent-up demands following several years of economic uncertainty, and a renewed regional focus with the AEC kicking in," says Dato' William Ng, managing director of Business Media International, the publishers of SME Magazine. In officiating the awards, Dato' Seri Ong Ka Chuan called for SMEs to embrace the Fourth Industry Revolution. "Moving forward, SMEs must scale their operations and their capability through the use of technology. The government is committed to helping our businesses to adopt technology, and embrace the digital and innovation economy," he said. TECHNOLOGY SECTOR CONTINUES TO LEAD Among the winners that make up the SME100 Awards, 19 percent came from the ICT and telecommunications sector, followed by 11 percent from the transportation and logistics sector, with furniture and wood-based industry in the third place with 9 percent of the winning companies. The construction, property development and building materials sector saw a tumble, dropping from occupying 15 spots in the ranking to only 6 companies represented in the SME100 this year. The oil and gas, mining and energy sector, which claimed third place in 2016, fell to sixth place with only 7 companies representing the industry, less than half of the previous year. "It is quite clear that while the oil and gas and construction sectors are currently experiencing a correction phase, the technology sector is growing rapidly. A surprise resurgence is our furniture and wood-based industry, which has also seen robust growth following increased demand from Europe and East Asia," Ng said. TOP 10 ANNOUNCED While the top 100 companies in the survey were selected to receive the SME100 awards, the most outstanding 10 were also named. They are (in alphabetical order): Accendo HR Solutions Sdn Bhd

Bridgenet Solutions Sdn Bhd

Central Medicare Sdn Bhd

Everest Integrated Logistics Sdn Bhd

HTC Travel Services (M) Sdn Bhd

Masterplan Consulting Sdn Bhd

Nestcon Builders Sdn Bhd

Neu Dimension Sdn Bhd

PE Mixed Sdn Bhd

Sulomas Sdn Bhd "It is important that SMEs plan beyond their current capability and act fast to reskill and rescale themselves in the face of a changing market. It is quite clear that business as usual is no longer possible. We must change or be changed," added Ng. Also present at the SME100 awards ceremony were former second Finance Minister Dato' Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah, CEO of MATRADE, Dr Shahreen Madros and deputy CEO of SME Corp, Rizal Nainy. The SME100 awards are sponsored by AffinBank Group, CTOS Data Systems Sdn Bhd, and MAB Kargo Sdn Bhd. Some Words from the Winners "It's phenomenal to be bestowed with SME100 Award. This encourage SME like us to strive harder to be the best!" - Mr. Sharma Lachu, Chief Executive Officer of Accendo HR Solutions Sdn Bhd. "Together we move what matters towards greater heights." - Ms. Ooi Lay Pheng, Chief Executive Officer of Berjayapak Sdn Bhd. "We are absolutely thrilled for this award and it is certainly a tremendous closing for 2017. The award publicity has given a positive boost to all of us at Bestinet and we are looking forward for a greater year ahead." - Dato' Sri Mohd Amin, Founder & Group President and Dato' Rathakrishnan Vellaisamy, Executive Director of Bestinet Sdn Bhd. "Having the recognition, together we as a team are one step closer to the dream that we desired." - Mr. Haziq Zairel Oh, Chief Executive Officer of Central Medicare Sdn Bhd. "Impossibilities are overshadowed by those who dares to dream big." - Ms. Lynnie Voon, Director of Crynx Group Sdn Bhd. "Success is not final; Failure is not fatal; Winning the SME100 award will definitely encourage us to go further." - Dato' Khor Kok Seng, Managing Director of Edaran Livall Sdn Bhd. "Being a winner has definitely provided us with the platform to raise our profile via the media and inspire everyone." - Dato' Sri Mohniandi Harikrishnasamy, Group Managing Director of Everest Integrated Logistics Sdn Bhd. "Our achievements are shaped by the strength of the foundations we set. Thank you for your commitment to excellence." - Mr Ker Choon Siong, Executive Director and Ms Shley Lee Siow Hong, Managing Director of KG Global Furniture (M) Sdn Bhd. "This SME100 Award is a reminder to remember everything we have faced, all the battles we have fought and all the fears we have overcome together. It's our honor to be a part of SME 100 Legacy "- Ganeson Muthu, Kajendran Veerasamy and Mohd Halem Bin Sani of Micro Energy Holdings (M) Sdn Bhd. "SME100 Award indeed inspires me and now I do believe with a great passion, sky is the limit!" - Ir. Dr. Lim Jee Gin, Managing Director of Nestcon Builders Sdn Bhd. About Business Media International Business Media International is a leading business-to-business media owner with products ranging from printed publications and online portals to exhibitions and business awards. These include brands such as SME Magazine, HR Asia, Capital Asia, Mega Career Fair, SME Solutions Expo, Post Graduate Education Fair, ITX Asia, SME 100 and more. Table 1: SME100 in Brief







Number of Industries 20 Average revenue RM18,066,823 Average revenue growth 14.54% Average net profit growth 6.93% Average operating profit growth 9.40% Average gross margin 4.76%

Table 2: SME100 Winners Industrial Breakdown ICT & Telecommunication 19 Transportation & Logistics 11 Furniture & Woodbased Manufacturing 9 Professional & Business Services 8 Trading & Wholesaling 8 Food & Beverage 7 Healthcare, Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology 7 Oil & Gas, Green Tech, Mining 7 Construction, Property Development & Building Materials 6 Education & Training 4 Hospitality, Food Service & Tourism 3 Automotive 3 Industrial & Commercial Products 2 Eletrical & Electronic 2 Chemical & Plastics 1 Civil Engineering 1 Consumer Goods 1 Retail 1 Personal Services 1 Agriculture, Livestock, Plantations And Commodities 1 Photo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20171220/2019445-1 SOURCE Business Media International

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
RACINE  Authorities have released the name of the pizza delivery driver found dead last week whose death was previously labeled suspicious.

Ryan Neff, 43, was found dead Wednesday night in his vehicle on the 2000 block of Case Avenue, Sgt. Adam Malacara of the Racine Police Department said Monday.

Malacara said nothing seemed out of the ordinary about the death, but the decedents age was factored into why his death had initially been deemed suspicious. Since his death, police learned Neff had a medical condition that may have contributed to his death.

Neff's death is not currently being investigated as a homicide, Malacara said. Police could not say Monday where Neff was from.
[December 20, 2017] Winners of India Design Challenge Announced at Autodesk University, Bengaluru 2017

BENGALURU, December 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- - Prototypes of Green Vehicle and Personal Mobility Solution for 2025 Showcased

- Winners to intern at Maruti Suzuki

Autodesk, a leader in 3D design technology, in partnership with the National Institute of Design (NID) and Maruti Suzuki, announced the winners of the India Design Challenge 2017 contest at the Autodesk University, India & SAARC 2017, Bengaluru. The contest witnessed participation from fulltime students of undergraduate and postgraduate courses from various design schools across the country. Participants used Fusion 360, the cloud-based product design software from Autodesk, to conceptualize and build out-of-the-box industry design solutions. (Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/621687/India_Design_Week_Autodesk_University.jpg )

All participating teams at the India Design Challenge submitted their unique designs and concepts on two design topics: Personal Mobility Solution for Urban Youth - 2025 and Design of Green Vehicle in year 2025 (full brief). Akhilesh Manchandani and Aravind S (Team Fortnight) from Maharashtra Institute of Technology (MIT) won the first prize for their design of an electric compact SUV, capable of running through all types of terrain. Sharing details of their project, Akhilesh Manchandani and Aravind S, said, "As design students we had a great experience working on Autodesk's Fusion 360 with mentrs from the industry and leading academicians. Our endeavor was to style the vehicle with a very unconventional body shape focusing more on its functional parts without losing the aesthetic values. It was indeed a unique opportunity for us to attain hands-on training and understand the intricacies of modern day designing." The winners will now get an opportunity to intern with Maruti Suzuki for a period of 6 months.



The first runners up position was bagged by Komal Karnik and Samarjitsinh Waghela (Team Strings) from NID for the design of their green vehicle, while Vishnu C P and Dheeraj K (Team Transhumans) from IIT Bombay were the second runners up with their design of a sustainable car for greener future. Commenting on the India Design Challenge and the role of NID Hon'ble Minister of Commerce & Industry of India, Mr. Suresh Prabhu said, "Mobility is going to be the key of the future as you will see its different dimensions in the future. If we continue to use mobility the way we are using today, we will face lot of challenges because of the environment, climate change and others. So, let us think about new ideas, new solutions and there is no other better institute than NID to do this."

Mr. Pradeep Nair, Managing Director, Autodesk India & SAARC said, "The best part about conducting the India Design Challenge year on year is that we get the opportunity to mentor young design talent and enable them to be future ready. Our aim is to shape young talent to be drivers of innovation. As leaders in 3D design technology we work with several higher education institutions and vocational schools in India to provide training and free access to our design software for students and educators. Our partnership this year with a premier design school, NID and the leading auto maker, Maruti Suzuki, also contributes to several Government initiatives such as Skill India and Make in India." The winners of the Indian Design Challenge were selected from the top 25 entries which were shortlisted basis their design objective, technology usage (Fusion 360), creativity, novelty of design, design process and overall presentation. These teams were then mentored by experts from NID and Maruti Suzuki over a period of four weeks to finalize the three winners. About Autodesk Autodesk makes software for people who make things. If you've ever driven a high-performance car, admired a towering skyscraper, used a smartphone, or watched a great film, chances are you've experienced what millions of Autodesk customers are doing with our software. Autodesk gives you the power to make anything. For more information visit autodesk.com or follow @autodesk. Autodesk, Fusion 360 are registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.  2017 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

Media Contact:

Debarshi Behera

[email protected]

+91-9717776197

Senior Account Manager

Edelman India Pvt. Ltd



[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[December 20, 2017] Top-Rated Cryptocurrency Podcast, "Bad Crypto Podcast" Features Interview with ChineseInvestors.com, Inc.'s CEO, Warren Wang

SAN GABRIEL, California, December 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- ChineseInvestors.com, Inc. (OTCQB: CIIX) ("CIIX" or the "Company"), the premier financial information website for Chinese-speaking investors today, announces that the top-rated cryptocurrency podcast "Bad Crypto Podcast" recently featured an interview with its CEO, Warren Wang. On December 16, 2017, on Bad Crypto Podcast, Episode 63, titled "Interview with Warren Wang of ChineseInvestors.com" Wang shared his perspective and insights on bitcoin and cryptocurrency in China, reaching listeners in 183 countries. Wang's interview delves into the attitude of the Chinese investors towards bitcoin versus other financial instruments, the current limitations and future possibilities for cryptocurrencies in China, and the Chinese rush to enter the bitcoin market. Referencing his own experiences and contacts in China, Warren Wang provided his personal insights into specific virtual currencies. "Bitcoin is a worldwide phenomenon and many believe that its scale makes it a once-in-a-lifetime investment opportunity," says Warren Wang, founder and CEO of CIIX. "Bitcoin mining operations in China have already made a major contribution to the development of the bitcoin market. As the Chinese become more educated about bitcoin's potential, I expect to see a substantial impact on the market and ancillary crypto businesses. Programs such as the Bad Crypto Podcast, ChineseInvestor.com, Inc.'s Chinese daily video newscast, Bitcoin Multimillionaire, the Company's free bitcoin Chinese language news and education website, newcoins168.com, have broken down informational barriers and facilitated a free exchange of information and education globally." In response to the Chinese community's overwhelming interest in cryptocurrency, in addition to expanding its financial education services to include the Bitcoin Multimillionaire newscast and its Chinese language educaion site, newcoins168.com, the Company also hosts a Bitcoin ATM at its San Gabriel, California office with plans to expand to serve other Chinese Communities throughout the United States. The Bitcoin ATM, located in the lobby of the Company's offices in the San Gabriel Hilton Plaza, is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, making it convenient and easy to purchase Bitcoin. Purchasers have access to on site customer service representatives available to provide instruction regarding the Bitcoin ATM in both Chinese and English. The machine however offers translation into five languages including traditional and simplified Chinese, English, Spanish, French and Korean. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts can purchase up to $7,000 worth of Bitcoin daily from the ATM. For those that wish to make a more significant investment, over $7,000, the Company can provide information on how to facilitate a much larger transactions.



Episode 63, "Interview with Warren Wang of ChineseInvestors.com," can be downloaded directly from the Bad Crypto Podcast website at the following location: http://badcryptopodcast.com/2017/12/17/warren-wang-63/. About ChineseInvestors.com (OTCQB: CIIX)

Founded in 1999, ChineseInvestors.com endeavors to be an innovative company providing: (a) real-time market commentary, analysis, and educational related services in Chinese language character sets (traditional and simplified); (b) advertising and public relation related support services; and (c) retail, online and direct sales of hemp-based products and other health related products. For more information visit ChineseInvestors.com Subscribe and watch our video commentaries: https://www.youtube.com/user/Chinesefncom Follow us on Twitter for real-time Company updates: https://twitter.com/ChineseFNEnglsh Like us on Facebook to receive live feeds: https://www.facebook.com/Chinesefncom Add us on WeChat: Chinesefn or download iPhone iOS App: Chinesefn Forward-Looking Statements This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain as they are based on current expectations and assumptions concerning future events or future performance of the company. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are only predictions and speak only as of the date hereof. In evaluating such statements, prospective investors should review carefully various risks and uncertainties identified in this release and matters set in the company's SEC filings. These risks and uncertainties could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Contact: ChineseInvestors.com, Inc. 227 W. Valley Blvd, #208 A San Gabriel, CA 91776 Investor Relations: Alan Klitenic +1.214.636.2548 Corporate Communications: NetworkNewsWire (NNW) New York, New York http://www.NetworkNewsWire.com 212.418.1217 Office [email protected] SOURCE ChineseInvestors.com, Inc.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[December 20, 2017] Huntkey to Showcase a More Convenient Smart Home at CES 2018

LAS VEGAS, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Huntkey, a global smart home solution's provider, will attend the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the world's largest electronics sourcing fair, from January 9 - 12, 2018. It is the world's gathering place for all who thrive in the business of consumer technologies and where next-generation innovations are introduced to the marketplace. Huntkey announced it will be showcasing at this year's CES its whole series smart home products, including smart power strips, smart led lighting products and smart home appliances. The latest magic outlet becomes a favorite with the small cubic appearance and high practicability, it looks cute and is very handy for daily use and travel. In addition, they can be stacked tidily in a row. This product will hit amazon soon. The multi-function led desk lamp will make its debut at the fair. It is equipped with two USB ports that share 2.4 Amps of power, allowing users to charge two mobile devices at the same time. The built-in calender and alarm clock make it very convenient for daily life. The brightness level and the angle of the lamp can be adjusted as needed. The indoor air purifier is different from other air purifiers on the market, it adapts photocatalyst technology to decompose airborne hazards to avoid secondary pollution. It can be controlled via APP and the operating modes canbe adjusted.



All of Huntkey's smart home solutions will be on display at the Huntkey booth #36160 in South Hall 4 throughout CES, from Jan. 9-12 in Las Vegas. Huntkey Invitation:

https://en.huntkey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/invitation.jpg

Magic outlet:

https://en.huntkey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/magic-outlets.jpg

LED desk lamp:

https://en.huntkey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/desk-lamp.jpg

Air purifier:

https://en.huntkey.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/air-purifier.png

About Huntkey Huntkey Enterprise Group, founded in 1995 and headquartered in Shenzhen, is a member of The International Power Supply Manufacturer's Association (PSMA) and a member of The China Power Supply Society (CPSS). With branch companies in the USA, Japan and other areas, and cooperating factories in Brazil, Argentina, India and other countries, Huntkey has specialized in the development, design, and manufacturing of PC power supplies, industrial power supplies, surge protectors, adapters and chargers for many years. With its own technologies and manufacturing strength, Huntkey has served Lenovo, Huawei, Haier, DELL, ZTE, Bestbuy and many other large enterprises for years, and has received unanimous recognition and trust from most of the customers. For more information about Huntkey, please visit en.huntkey.com/.

Huntkey's Amazon page: www.amazon.com/huntkey Contact:

Ferris Liao

+86-755-8960-6658

[email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/huntkey-to-showcase-a-more-convenient-smart-home-at-ces-2018-300573893.html SOURCE Huntkey Enterprise Group

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[December 20, 2017] Diversifying Calgary's economy by bolstering its clean technology sector

Calgary-based organizations receive support to develop and promote clean technology CALGARY, Dec. 20, 2017 /CNW/ - Technology and the innovation it helps promote are key to the future of Canada's economy. This is why Western Economic Diversification Canada is committed to supporting technologies that will advance the Government of Canada's environmental objectives, create jobs and stimulate growth in the clean tech sector. The Honourable Kent Hehr, Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities, on behalf of the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Minister responsible for Western Economic Diversification Canada, today announced combined investments of almost $3.5 million towards eight projects that support the development of clean technologies in Alberta. The clean technology sector spans across traditional industries like transportation, manufacturing, and power generation and advances sustainable environmental objectives. Alberta's vibrant clean tech sector is comprised of research institutions and firms that are developing ground-breaking technologies and processes. Five of the projects announced today are focused on developing emissions reduction technologies and three are forums that promote Canadian clean technology companies at high-profile events. A focus on clean technology, innovation and growth is a core element of the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change. Through the Framework, Canada will focus on creating and maintaining globally competitive Canadian businesses as we transition to a low-carbon economy. Canada's Innovation Agenda promotes clean growth, good jobs and higher living standards for the middle class. The investments announced today are an example of this vision in action. Quick Facts In Budget 2017, the Government of Canada committed more than $2.2 billion to support clean technology research, development, demonstration and adoption, as well as to accelerate the growth of clean technology companies.

committed more than to support clean technology research, development, demonstration and adoption, as well as to accelerate the growth of clean technology companies. In 2016, the production of clean technologies, clean energy, and environmental goods and services contributed three per cent of Canada's gross domestic product and provided jobs to 274,000 Canadians. Quotes "Our government is proud to support Alberta industry partners in clean technology innovations. Investments in these eight projects will help bring about advances in energy efficiency  leading to lower carbon emissions and create opportunities for businesses to grow. We will continue to work with partners to invest in clean technologies that will create new jobs, provide environmental benefits and reinforce Canada's globally competitive advantage in clean tech."

-The Honourable Kent Hehr, Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities and Member of Parliament for Calgary Centre "This investment from the Government of Canada will enable our researchers to test ideas, apply solutions, and develop cutting-edge applications at scales that will accelerate deployment and adoption by industry. These projects pave the way for Canadian industry to expand and develop new business opportunities in clean tech, and enhance Canada's position as a global energy leader. The University of Calgary has the capacity needed to tackle the challenge of eliminating reliance on non-renewables, and we have the proximity to energy corporations, decision makers, and technology users to affect real change."

-Ed McCauley, Vice-President (Research),The University of Calgary "We welcome this investment by the Government of Canada to develop effective and cost efficient technologies and systems to reduce methane emissions. This support enables us to accelerate innovations that are critical to Canada's ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while also supporting the ability of our economy to grow and prosper."

-Sandra Odendahl, President and CEO, CMC Research Institutes "This investment from Western Economic Diversification Canada will allow TECTERRA to expand our GeoSpace, an equipment library open to tech companies for the development, testing, and commercialization of geospatially powered clean-tech. We are grateful for this continued support, as access to cutting-edge equipment has proven to be extremely valuable for the small and innovative companies who otherwise couldn't access the tools they need. As a result of this support, companies across the West will be able to accelerate the development and commercial success of their clean-tech."

-Jonathan Neufeld, CEO, TECTERRA "CeDER will provide PTAC, the Saskatchewan Research Council, and innovators with a new tool to validate the field performance of air emissions detection, quantification and reduction technologies, leading to increased rapid technology adoption, economic growth and faster GHG emissions reductions."

-Marc Godin, Technology Advisor, Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada "Through our portfolio of annual technology financing events, CapitalRoad Foundation is committed to improving the opportunities for early and growth stage Canadian technology companies to better access investment financing. WD's strategic investment in support of clean technology will help strengthen the overall innovation ecosystem and ensure that Canada, and the growth stage technology companies that are integral to the country's prosperous future, remain globally competitive."

-Tom Ogaranko, Chairman, CapitalRoad Foundation "The Alberta Clean Technology Innovation Alliance is committed to positioning the province as a global clean technology leader. This support will allow ACTIA to bring together entrepreneurs, investors, customers and mentors to accelerate the development and deployment of made-in-Alberta clean technology solutions."

-Jason Switzer, Executive Director, Alberta Clean Technology Industry Alliance "With the support of WD, CGEF has organized Clean Tech Pavilion for two different Oil and Gas industry trade shows, one in 2017 and another to be held in 2018. These venues provide Clean Tech innovators an opportunity to move from their Research & Development phase and showcase their products to Oil & Gas extractive experts. At the CGEF conference in September, 2017, CGEF provided booth space to 7 innovators to demonstrate their products, make presentations and to network with delegates at the conference. CGEF will host a Clean Tech Pavilion at the upcoming Global Petroleum Show in June 2018. This will increase the exposure of innovative products and processes that are designed to increase efficiency and reduce environmental effects of natural resource extraction, leading to the development and/or commercialization of Clean Tech products and processes that will surpass the current industry standards. Meetings with domestic and international Oil & Gas executives and foreign governments will increase capital investment and market share of Clean Tech products for western Canadian businesses. This, in turn, will lead to increased employment and the retention of highly qualified personnel in western Canada."

-Adele Williamson, Director, Canadian Global Exploration Forum Backgrounder: Government of Canada Invests in Alberta's Clean Technology Industry The global economy is moving toward a greener future and Canada is working to keep pace. The global campaign against climate change is an economic opportunity for Canada to create jobs and meet our climate change goals. Developing a strong clean technology industry will help support the adoption of alternative technologies and create well-paying, middle class jobs for Canadians. The Western Diversification Program (WDP) is the main program through which Western Economic Diversification Canada (WD) makes strategic investments in initiatives with not-for-profit organizations that enhance and strengthen the economy of Western Canada. Contributions are made to projects that support the development and diversification of the western Canadian economy through clean technology and Indigenous economic growth. Today's announcement is for eight WDP clean technology projects in the Calgary area:







Project Proponent Project Description Western Diversification Program Funding CMC Research Institutes Inc. Support the development of state-of-the-art technology for methane emissions monitoring in water, soil and the atmosphere. This project will improve emission detection accuracy and provide industry with sensitive tools that will aid in better understanding and reacting to methane emissions. $974,000 TECTERRA Inc. Invest in new equipment to expand the GeoSpace. The equipment will help companies to develop, test and commercialize clean, geospatial technology. $915,000 University of Calgary Establish the Centre for Smart Emissions Sensing Technologies. The project will result in the development of smart technologies to detect and quantify methane emissions in the oil and gas sector. $400,000 Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada Build and deploy a mobile facility, called the Centre for the Demonstration of Emissions Reductions (CeDER), which will field test methane emissions reduction technologies. $393,000 University of Calgary Create an outdoor validation facility for demonstrating solar bio-technology that will produce renewable gas, renewable plastic, biochar and electricity. The project will result in clean technologies that will help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. $314,500 CapitalRoad Foundation Support hosting the Canadian Financing Forum, PROPEL Energy Tech Forum, and the Banff Venture Forum from 2018 to 2020. These forums provide clean technology companies an opportunity to showcase their products and services and find investors. $228,000 Alberta Clean Technology Industry Alliance This investment will support ACTia's industry-focused events in 2017-2019, fostering enhanced access to services and programs, activating international opportunities and promoting Western Canada as a global clean tech destination. $190,000 Canadian Global Exploration Forum Support the showcasing of Western Canadian clean technology innovators at the Global Petroleum Show 2017, CGEF's annual conference 2017, and the Global Petroleum Show 2018. $70,906 Total Funding $3,485,406

Additional Links Western Diversification Program

Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change

Innovation Agenda Follow us on Twitter: @WD_Canada, @ISED_CA

WD Homepage

WD Toll-Free Number: 1-888-338-WEST (9378)

TTY (telecommunications device for the hearing impaired): 1-877-303-3388 IF THERE IS A DISCREPANCY BETWEEN ANY PRINTED VERSION AND THE ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THIS NEWS RELEASE, THE ELECTRONIC VERSION WILL PREVAIL. SOURCE Western Economic Diversification Canada

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
[December 20, 2017] North America B2C E-Commerce Market 2017 - Research and Markets

The "North America B2C E-Commerce Market 2017" report has been added to Research and Markets' offering. The North America region will continue to trail Asia in B2C E-Commerce sales and the online share of total retail sales, as sources cited in the report project growth in Asia to outpace the double-digit growth in North America. Retailers in the region count on market trends and innovations such as shopping via virtual assistants and chatbots, click and collect, and mobile shopping to drive continued growth of B2C E-Commerce in this mature market. Online sales growth surpasses growth rates for total retail sales in both major economies in the region with Amazon.com (News - Alert) capturing nearly a third of online sales in the USA, forcing traditional retailers to look to E-Commerce for future growth. Walmart, for example, has recently invested heavily in online marketplace offerings and improvement of delivery options. Online marketplace eBay (News - Alert) has introduced an innovation allowing shoppers to upload a photo from a smartphone to shop for similar items. However, sources cited in the yStats.com repot suggest that innovations such as voice enabled shopping via Alexa and the growth of Prime Membership will permit Amazon to expand its lead in B2C E-Commerce.



Canadian online retail sales are also dominated by Amazon, with cross-border shopping from the USA as well as through Amazon.ca characterizing E-Commerce in Canada. The yStats.com report cites research reflecting that about half of shoppers in Canada visit an Amazon web page at least once a month, and likewise, more than half of Canadian shoppers make purchases cross-border. However, traditional retailers in Canada are also increasing their online offerings, encouraging behaviors such as seeing a product in-store before online purchase, or research online before purchase in-store. Key Questions Answered

What is the size and the growth projections for B2C E-Commerce sales in the USA and Canada?

Which important market trends affect the development of online retail in North America?

Who are leading market players in North American B2C E-Commerce?

Which product categories are purchased by U.S. and Canadian online shoppers the most?

What are the preferred payment and delivery options of North American online shoppers? Key Topics Covered: 1. Management Summary 2. Regional 3. USA 4. Canada Companies Mentioned Amazon.com Inc

Apple (News - Alert) Inc.

Best Buy Co. Inc.

Canadian Tire Corporation Ltd

Costco Wholesale Corp.

eBay Inc

Home Depot Inc.

Hudson's Bay Co.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/vctl7q/north_america_b2c?w=4 View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171220005916/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
SHAREHOLDER ALERT: Levi & Korsinsky, LLP Notifies Investors of an Investigation Involving Possible Securities Fraud Violations by the Board of Directors of Signet Jewelers Limited

Levi & Korsinsky announces it has commenced an investigation of Signet Jewelers Limited (NYSE: SIG) concerning possible violations of federal securities laws.

On November 21, 2017, during the Company's Quarter 3 conference call, CEO Virginia Drosos disclosed that Signet "faced headwinds" from "disruptions in our systems and processes during our credit outsourcing transition" which "impacted our comp sales by sixty basis points." Drosos further elaborated that the disruptions were caused by the conversion of IT systems and the magnitude of in-store process changes related to the new program. To obtain additional information, go to:

http://www.zlkdocs.com/SIG-Info-Request-Form-6312







or contact Joseph E. Levi, Esq. either via email at [email protected] or by telephone at (212) 363-7500, toll-free: (877) 363-5972.

Levi & Korsinsky is a national firm with offices in New York, California, Connecticut and Washington D.C. The firm's attorneys have extensive expertise in prosecuting securities litigation involving financial fraud, representing investors throughout the nation in securities and shareholder lawsuits. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171220005961/en/
[December 20, 2017] Matthew Sather Joins AXIS Insurance, U.S. Programs, Property & Casualty Division

AXIS Capital Holdings Limited and its operating subsidiaries ("AXIS Capital") (NYSE:AXS) today announced that Matthew Sather has joined the U.S. Programs, Property & Casualty team of its AXIS Insurance business unit as VP, Underwriting. Mr. Sather is based in the Company's Chicago, IL office and reports to John Tatum, Executive Vice President and Head of U.S. Programs, AXIS Insurance. Commenting on the appointment, Mr. Tatum said, "Matt is a proven talent within the property and casualty space with exceptional leadership skills. His diverse experience within the P&C sector leading various lines of business and functions will further strengthen our team as we continue to grow." Mr. Sather will work with Tim McGee, U.S. Programs Underwriting Officer, to guide underwriting best practices and portfolio management across AXIS' U.S. Programs business. Mr. Sather has 25 years of experience in the Property & Casualty sector. He joins AXIS from Chicago-based CNA, where he most recently served as Vice President, Workers' Compensation and Underwriting Officer, Large Casualty Business Unit. Throughout his career, Mr. Sather has held roles leading various P&C lines of business including workers' compensation, automobile and large casualty. He holds a Bachelor of Scienc in Finance & Statistics from Calvin College.



About AXIS Capital AXIS Capital is a Bermuda-based global provider of specialty lines insurance and treaty reinsurance with shareholders' equity at September 30, 2017 of $5.5 billion and locations in Bermuda, the United States, Europe, Singapore, Middle East, Canada and Latin America. Its operating subsidiaries have been assigned a rating of "A+" ("Strong") by Standard & Poor's and "A+" ("Superior") by A.M. Best. Follow AXIS Capital on LinkedIn and Twitter.

About AXIS Insurance AXIS Insurance - a business segment of AXIS Capital Holdings Limited (NYSE:AXS) - provides Property & Casualty, Professional Lines, Terrorism, Marine, Energy, Aviation, Credit & Political Risk, Environmental, Accident & Health coverages and other customized insurance solutions. Our products are offered through our distribution partners, which include wholesale brokers, retail brokers and designated managing general agents/underwriters ("MGAs"/"MGUs") in the U.S. and abroad. Coverages are backed by the financial strength and security of the AXIS Insurance Companies, rated "A+" (Strong) by Standard & Poor's and "A+" (Superior) XV by A.M. Best. For more information, visit our website at http://www.axiscapital.com/en-us/insurance. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171220005995/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
La Crosses parking utility will ramp up efforts to get the downtown pigeon population under control after getting the OK Monday from the citys Board of Public Works.

The utility, which operates under the La Crosse Police Department, entered into an agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, agreeing to pay $23,201 for the USDA to help manage the invasive species.

The effort comes after the city paid more than $33,000 to clean up pigeon feces from the Main Street Parking Ramp in October, after the buildup damaged the ramps insulation atop the walls surrounding the commercial portion of the building.

What were doing now isnt working. We cant continue to spend $50,000 every couple years to clean up pigeon mess and issues created by pigeons, Police Chief Ron Tischer said. If we listen to the experts and what theyre telling us, this project will work.

The project takes care of the birds through a process called netting.

To attract the pigeons to the area that they can force the net over the top of them, they lay down feed which is contaminated with some stuff thats going to kill them, Tischer said. The firearms come into play when all the pigeons land and are feeding on the feed.

Small cannons on the ground shoot the net over the pigeons, capturing them for removal.

We already tried it a few times in a couple locations to make sure it was going to work. Its not like its going to rattle windows or shake doors or anything. Its not that loud, he said.

The agreement covers all of 2018, allowing the nettings to take place when conditions are best.

They did it a couple weeks ago and it works. They only get a couple shots at it though, then theyve got to back off and do it again on a later date, parking utility coordinator Jim Flottmeyer said.

They plan to do the netting when there arent a lot of people around to scare the pigeons off.

The last thing we want to do is make an announcement and have a thousand people come down and see this big pigeon capture, Tischer said.

Because pigeons arent a native species, they are not protected by federal laws; however, the use of pesticide requires authorization from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. According to the agreement, the USDA will get the necessary permits for the pesticide, and any pesticide-treated bait will be removed the day after application. The birds will be disposed of according to federal and state requirements.

We want to fix this as cheaply as possible and make it as pleasant of a downtown as possible, Tischer said.

The removal will build upon other pigeon eradication efforts, including Downtown Mainstreet Inc.s pigeon-feed contraceptive program to sterilize some of the birds.

If we reduce the flock through this procedure, then the sterilization program will have the chance to catch up. Right now its helping, but the numbers arent significant enough at this point, Flottmeyer said.

The citys police force is also looking at other small things it can do to keep the population down.

There are things were already taking care of, like we cant have people down in the park feeding pigeons or feeding ducks or feeding geese, Tischer said.

City officials were clear that pigeon control would likely remain a maintenance issue for the citys downtown.

Its going to be an ongoing thing to keep doing this and get rid of them, Tischer said.

City planner Jason Gilman, a member of the Board of Public Works, said removing the pigeons was a preventive maintenance cost the city might have to shoulder to avoid paying for infrastructure fixes like the one earlier this year.

I dont think there is a large city anywhere that doesnt have some sort of ongoing pigeon problem, Gilman said.
Kansas isn't prepared for health emergencies, according to a report released Tuesday. Neither is the country as a whole, according to the report from the Trust for America's Health. "If we don't improve our baseline funding and capabilities, we'll continue to be caught completely off-guard when hurricanes, wildfires and infectious disease outbreaks hit," said John Auerbach, president and CEO of the organization, in a news release.
THE GREATER KANSAS CITY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE DEMANDS MAYOR SLY & CITY COUNCIL 'PROCEED' ON THE NEW AIRPORT!!!

Dear Mayor James and members of the City Council:





We are writing to share our concern about recent developments in the process to finalize an agreement on the construction of a new, single terminal at KCI Airport.





Business, labor, and civic organizations invested $2 million in a campaign to create a new, modern gateway to our community. Voters agreed, answering with a nearly 76 percent mandate to proceed with a new modern terminal.





Kansas City voters said yes to A Better KCI, expecting you and your colleagues to proceed in an open, transparent, and professional manner to bring the new terminal to fruition. The airports many regional users expect the same. As does the business community.





The actions of these past few days do nothing to reassure Kansas Citians and the business community in the process now underway at City Hall, and is not a good example of how business should be conducted. We urge you to negotiate in good faith and in a transparent manner respecting the integrity of the process. We also urge you to get it done.

#######

Let's start the midweek off with just a bit of documentation about who is really in charge of Kansas City.To wit and for those who haven't seen it already:Developing . . .
Celebrate Bigger KC Biz Class

Greater Kansas City Chamber expands Centurions program - Kansas City Business Journal Spurred by the success of the program, the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce is launching a second cohort for the Centurions Leadership Program. In addition to the fall class, the chamber now will run a spring cohort, effectively doubling the number of emerging leaders who can become Centurions members.

Neighborhood Conversation

Kansas City's Community Newspapers Review 2017 Looking back, this year was slammed with national news: tropical storms, wildfires, protests and even Twitter wars. But plenty happened here in Kansas City, too! So before entering a new year, we check in with community newspapers to learn about the important local stories of 2017. Guests:

OP Police Need Help Finding Lady

Overland Park Police Department release person of interest in missing 18-year-old woman The Overland Park Police Department has released a person of interest in its search for 18-year-old Mikayala L. Norris. Tuesday morning, OPPD asked for help location Norris, who was last seen around 8:30 p.m. Monday at her place of employment in the 9500 block of Metcalf. Then around 4 p.m.

Local Po-Po Collabo

See how local & federal authorities work together to find wanted suspects WYANDOTTE COUNTY, Kan. - The U.S. Marshals Service is a federal department that partners with state and local authorities across the United States. One entity, the Kansas Fugitive Apprehension Task Force, is responsible for hunting down alleged violent fugitives.

Metro Holiday Booze Report

Tap List | JAS Metalworks & The Beer Year in Review The bottle openers that Jared Schmid of JAS Metalworks forges from mild steel have an old-school, blue-collar feel to them. Whether opening a yard beer or a craft beer bomber, Schmid's openers hark back to a time when working with tools was more commonplace.

Quick glimpse at some of the top news stories for today asthe holiday season. Take a look:And this is thefor right now . . .
Cyprus' Department of Antiquities, of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works announced the completion of the 18th season of archaeological investigations (8 October  5 November 2017) of the ancient Hellenistic-Roman theatre and surrounding areas of Nea Paphos.

The University of Sydney team is directed by Dr Craig Barker and supported by the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens and the Nicholson Museum at the University of Sydney.

The site of the theatrical quarter of ancient Nea Pafos is located to the south of Fabrika hill in the north-eastern quarter of the ancient walled city. The theatre itself was shaped out of the bedrock of the hill and used for performances from the foundation of the ancient city, around 300 BC, until its final destruction by earthquake in the late 4th century AD. The theatre was at its peak of activity during the reign of the Roman emperors Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius in the middle 2nd century AD when the stage building and ceremonial entranceways were adorned with sculptural and painted decorations.

The Australian excavations have also begun to reveal a complex urban layout around the theatre with a wide paved Roman road due south and a Roman nymphaeum or water fountain, built to the south east of the theatre.

The Australians work in 2017 was concentrated on the south-eastern corner of the site, near the nymphaeum and eastern end of the theatre. Three trenches were opened by the team in 2017.

Trench 17A was a large open trench over the road with the long term aim of clearing more of the surface of the paving stones. Although the trench was not completed it, the archaeological team did successfully define the complete front wall of the nymphaeum. The nymphaeum itself is over 20 metres long and 5 metres wide, and the masonry of the structure was considerable with the walls over a metre wide. Carved into the top of one of the blocks was a gaming board, which could have been used by workmen while building the nymphaeum. The nymphaeum was constructed in the earlier part of the 2nd century AD and demonstrates Roman ability to control water and create artificial environments. A marble block and plaster-lined basin in front of the nymphaeum would have allowed travelers to refresh with water from the fountain.

A second trench (17B) investigated a wedge of soil between the rear of the nymphaeum and the foundations of the Antonine theatre expansion. Excavations revealed a series of bedrock cut channels that relate to the control of water supply to and from the theatre and the nymphaeum, and many fragments of a near intact Roman amphora which will be restored next season.

The third trench (17C) was designed to expose the theatres Antonine phase exterior wall. Bedrock cuts indicate that the wall would have over 2.2 metres wide and constructed from massive blocks of stone; these retaining walls had to support seating embankments that were very high and constructed onto artificially created hills.

In addition to the excavation the Australian team in 2017 completed considerable work on the study of finds from previous seasons, including the analysis of hundreds of fragments of Crusader-era glazed ceramics that would have been produced at a kiln built over the remains of the ancient theatre which has yet to be located. A 3D virtual reality model of the ancient theatre has also been constructed which enables viewers to get an idea of the size and scale of the Antonine phase of the buildings history and an understanding of how much the landscape of the site has changed from antiquity to the modern world. This model will be available in a mobile app form in the near future.

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: Cyprus Department of Antiquities
Laskaridis heads up Lavinia Corp. and he is also the CEO of Laskaridis Shipping Ltd.

Greek shipowner Panos Laskaridis will assume the presidency of the European Community Shipowners Associations (ECSA) at the beginning of 2018, following a relevant decision by the ESCA board of directors last week.

Laskaridis heads up Lavinia Corp. he is also the CEO of Laskaridis Shipping Ltd. and will succeed Denmark's Niels Smedegaard, the CEO of DFDS

The latter will remain a member of ECSA's board of directors, representing Denmark's shipowners and interests.

"I am committed to focusing on Europe's shipping agenda, regarding issues that interest owners, and I will work with stakeholders for an effective, competitive and future-directed shipping community," he noted.

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: naftemporiki.gr
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Monday had a meeting with the board of the Hellenic Banking Association (HBA) at the Maximos mansion,  reported.

Addressing the board, he noted that it was now time to translate the good climate that exists in the Greek economy into more than figures and statistics, so that it was really felt by society and especially by those that were weakest, most vulnerable and the middle class.

The best thing we can do, the prime minister noted while addressing the Greek bankers, "is to work together closely. To set up an observatory so that we have a clear picture of which cases take priority. We are determined to confront the phenomenon of big-time debtors and at the same time do whatever is possible for the economy to recover by restoring the real role of financial institutions. I am sure that you will be the first to restore reality in terms of informing the public about what we really want to do and what is really happening."

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: Dimboukas License: CC-BY-SA

Source: capital.gr
Political stability in Greece is very important for the recovery of the crisis stricken economy as well as the strengthening of the tourist industry

The positive signs coming out of the Greek economy increased this week as the country saw its fiscal targets being met while unemployment drops and bond yields dropped to their lowest point in almost a decade.

Finance Ministry figures released on Thursday recorded a primary budget surplus of 4.66 billion euros was achieved in the eleven months to November 2017.

The governments goal was for a primary budget surplus of 3.07 billion euros for the January-to-November period.

Net tax revenue was also higher than the target set by 517 million euros, reaching 43.8 billion euros.

Meanwhile, unemployment fell to 20.2 percent in July-to-September from 21.1 percent in the second quarter, the Greek statistics service announced.

As a formal conclusion of the countrys third review of its ongoing bailout program is expected in January, the Greek 10-year government bond yield decreased to around 4.15 percent on Thursday. This is the lowest point since 2008.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras noted that the easing in Greek bond yields show that Greece could potentially return to the markets immediately. However, he stressed that his government wants to ensure that this will be sustainable, so this will happen after the exit from the program.

Despite the ongoing economic recovery, an expected successful conclusion of the third review and improved relations with the countrys creditors, local media reports suggest that objections to government policy raised from within SYRIZA and the partys waning popularity in opinion polls is an immediate concern for Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

These developments could reportedly force the Prime Minister to restart his government, immediately after the formal conclusion of the review  most possibly at the 22 January Eurogroup meeting  that will create a positive momentum for the national economy.

The same media reports suggest the Prime Minister is also mulling his long-term options, which include determining the exact date of a general election.

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: Matti License: CC-BY-SA

Source: balkaneu.com
Greeks are very proud of their history and national heritage and are very eager to share both with the country's visitors

The Dance of Zalongo is considered to be a monumental act of bravery and defiance against the Ottoman rulers by the women of Epirus, and stands as one of the most dramatic pages in Greeces history.

By the end of 1803, Epirus ruler Ali Pasha wanted to finish once and for all with the Souliotes; the rebel people of Souli who were creating problems for him and the Sultan. His army besieged Souli and forced them to sign a treaty on December 12. The basic condition of the agreement; which was not observed, was for the Souliotes, along with women and children to evacuate their villages, and they would not be hurt. On December 16, the people of Souli; divided into three phalanxes, left their ancestral land behind.

Two days later, the third phalanx, heading south, was attacked in Zalongo by a large body of Turkish-Albanian soldiers. During the violent fight that ensued, a group of Souliotes was trapped by the enemy. Among them there were about 60 women, some of them pregnant.

In order to avoid capture, enslavement and humiliation, the women threw their children off a steep cliff and then they held hands and started singing and dancing, with the steps leading to the cliff where they jumped to their death one by one. The incident soon became infamous across Europe, with the Dance of Zalongo becoming a symbol of heroism and self-sacrifice over the years.

Source: Philip Chrysopoulos/greekreporter.com

Read full story 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: Ary Scheffer Museum License: CC-BY-SA
Dubai-based real estate developer Limitless will close out 2017 with an early payment of Dh412.4 million ($112.3 million) to banks and trade creditors tomorrow (December 21).



The payment  a week ahead of the due date  comprises Dh297.1 million to banks and Dh115.3 million to trade creditors.



Once made, Limitless will have repaid almost half of its outstanding bank debt and trade creditor obligations, said a statement from Limitless.



Thursdays transactions will bring Limitless bank repayments to Dh2.2 billion (49.4 per cent of the total due), with Dh278.7 million paid to trade creditors (48.3 per cent of the total settlement due).



In May last year, Limitless had cleared Dh1.9 billion of bank debt with an immediate payment following the conclusion of its restructuring agreement with lenders, it stated.



Limitless Chairman Ali Rashid Lootah said: "Limitless continues to meet its obligations and commitments to investors. We thank the Government of Dubai and our lenders, trade creditors and investors for their continued trust and support."



The payment, six months ahead of time, covered the first instalment and 80 per cent of the second, said the statement from Limitless.



The company also paid Dh163 million to trade creditors at the time. The final repayments are due in December 2018, it added.-TradeArabia News Service
Bahrain government has started distributing homes to needy citizens in the Tubli housing project, which will boast all basic services and facilities including public parks, mosques, schools and shops.



The delivery of these residential units is in line with the directives from HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister, on the construction and delivery of 4,800 housing units in various governorates, reported BNA, citing a senior official.



Housing Ministry Undersecretary Shaikh Abdullah bin Ahmed Al Khalifa said the distribution process of housing units in the Tubli are of the kingdom would continue as per schedule and on priority basis.



The ministry seeks to fast-track the pace of work in housing units under construction to deliver them to the beneficiaries according to the schedule, he added.
National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (Bahri), a leader in logistics and transportation, recently launched a nation-wide roadshow on a state-of-the-art truck, to highlight its services, key achievements and future opportunities.



Following its launch, the Bahri Truck Roadshow has already visited several government and private organisations in Saudi Arabia, said a statement.



The roadshow has made stops at the headquarters of Saudi Coast Guard, Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA), and Saudi Railways Company (SAR), allowing the entities the opportunity to learn more about the growth story of the kingdoms maritime transportation sector, as well as to discover Bahris journey through modern and sophisticated technologies integrated into the truck, it said.



Equipped with the latest technologies, the Bahri Truck Roadshow introduces valuable information about the history of Bahri, since its inception in 1978 to its latest achievements in 2017, including the launch of "Door-to-Door Services.



In addition, the roadshow offers visitors insights into the companys endeavours in Big Data analytics and how it leverages the technology to achieve increased revenue growth and cost optimisation, as well as to make rapid strides in smart operations and customer service excellence.



Wael Al Sarhan, senior vice president  marketing and communication, Bahri, said: The roadshow provides us with an excellent opportunity to reiterate our emphasis on harnessing innovation and new technologies, not only to enhance our offerings, but also to improve our communications and strengthen relationships with our customers.



As we wrap up another successful year, it makes us immensely proud to highlight our unmatched contributions toward bolstering the kingdoms economic integration and connectivity regionally and internationally, and our commitment to the Saudi vision 2030 through supporting the kingdom's position as a strategic hub and logistic gateway that connects the three continents, he said.



Additionally, an interactive map in the truck displays the global reach of Bahri and maritime connectivity by displaying new routes of vessels operated by its business units; a strategy that strengthens the Kingdom's position as a unique regional hub, he added.



Al-Sarhan added that Bahri Truck Roadshow will continue its tour in 2018 to reach out to Bahris clients in the kingdom.



Besides various government agencies and ministries, the roadshow will make stops at universities to introduce students, especially in specialised colleges, to the logistics and maritime sector, and inform them of its unparalleled contribution to the growth of the Saudi economy, it stated.  TradeArabia News Service
Former Wisconsin regulator Cathy Stepp was named Tuesday as head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys regional office in Chicago, drawing praise from business groups and criticism from environmental activists fearful she will weaken enforcement of rules protecting the Great Lakes and air quality in the Upper Midwests industrial centers.

The assignment came four months after Stepp was named a deputy administrator for another EPA regional office near Kansas City. Previously, she served six years as director of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and was a Republican state senator from 2003-07. As head of EPAs Region 5, she will oversee operations in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Cathy Stepps experience working as a statewide cabinet official, elected official and small business owner will bring a fresh perspective to EPA as we look to implement President Trumps agenda, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said.

Henry Henderson, the Natural Resources Defense Councils Midwest director, said Stepps record fits nicely with the lax mode of enforcement favored by the Trump administration, adding that environmental groups will be very, very busy under her tenure.

A former homebuilder with no scientific background, Stepp was chosen by Gov. Scott Walker to lead the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, where she oversaw a reorganization that included staffing cuts in its science and research bureau.

The number of enforcement cases fell sharply during her tenure. The department replaced some passages on its website describing humans as partly responsible for climate change, saying instead that scientists were still debating the matter.

When she accepted the earlier EPA posting in August, Stepp told staffers with the DNR she was leaving behind an agency that ensured businesses were not delayed by bureaucracy.

Walker said Stepp was a strong, trusted reformer, while Kurt Bauer, president of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, said she had routinely balanced the needs of a growing economy with the importance of protecting our natural resources.

But the head of the EPAs national employee union said Stepp, 54, is unqualified and has a history of favoring business interests over environmental protection.

I see her cutting back on enforcement and fines and doing things that certain aspects of industry will appreciate, said John OGrady, president of AFGE Council 238, which represents about 9,000 EPA staffers.

Howard Learner, executive director of the Chicago-based Environmental Law & Policy Center, said the DNR under Stepp turned back the clock on basic safeguards of water and air.

Heading up Region 5 means protecting the Great Lakes, the worlds largest freshwater resource that supplies safe, clean drinking water to tens of millions of people, Learner said. We hope Ms. Stepp will bring a different perspective ... than her track record in Wisconsin would suggest.

The region includes most of the Great Lakes and manufacturing cities such as Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland. The EPA Chicago office criticized Michigan for failing to prevent lead pollution of drinking water in Flint, but some members of Congress said the federal agency also should have done more.
Italy's Techint Engineering and Construction has signed an agreement with Ardabil Petrochemical Company to provide the technical know-how for the construction of a 500,000-tonne petrochemical unit in northwest Iran, said an official.



The contract, worth 34 million ($40.2 million), was signed between Giorgio Veronesi, Techint's commercial manager, and Bahram Shahsavari, Ardabil Petrochemical Company's head of the board of directors, in Tehran earlier this week, reported the Financial Tribune, citing Nipna.



Shahsavari said that the unit, which is to be completed in 18 months, will convert natural gas to value-added products, namely polypropylene and olefin.



He added that the unit will produce 500,000 tons of petrochemical products per annum, and will also create 10,000 jobs in the region.



Pointing to lengthy talks with the Italian firm since mid-2016, the official said negotiations were mainly centred on completing the value chain and manufacturing polypropylene from low value-added commodities like methanol.



According to Shahsavari, Ardabil complex's core products include base goods such as ethylene and propylene as well as polymer items like high density polyethylene, low linear density, polyethylene, polypropylene and polybutadiene rubber.



This project is part of a megaproject, worth around $1.89 billion, which will see to the processing of natural gas into polypropylene.
Oman Drydock Company (ODC) is exploring opportunities to offer its fabrication capabilities to international contractors preparing to launch work on the $7 billion Duqm Refinery project coming up on the adjacent Special Economic Zone in Duqm.



ODC is a member of ASYAD Group  the governments logistics development arm.



Fabrication jobs will account for a lucrative share of the multi-billion dollar contracts awarded in August for the three main engineering-procurement-construction (EPC) packages for the implementation of the world-scale grassroots refinery, added the Oman Daily Observer report.



The 230,000 barrels per day capacity refinery is being developed by Duqm Refinery & Petrochemicals Company (DRPC), a partnership of Oman Oil Company and Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI).



Considering its advantageous proximity to the site of the refinery project, wholly government-owned ODC is looking to position itself as the fabricator of choice to contractors requiring potentially tens of thousands of metric tonnes of steelworks during the construction phase.
The UAE and China have signed an agreement to exempt UAE nationals carrying regular passports from obtaining pre-entry visas, with the possibility of staying for up to 30 days on each visit, starting from January 16.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi by Ahmed Saeed Elham Al Dhaheri, Assistant Under-Secretary for Consular Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation for UAE, and Ni Jian, Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to the UAE, reported Emirates news agency Wam.



Al Dhaheri said that from January 16, 2018, UAE citizens can visit China without getting a pre-entry visa and stay for up to 30 days per visit.



Al Dhaheri added that the move by the Chinese Government reflects the stature attained by the UAE and contributes to strengthening bilateral relations and opening new avenues for growing tourism and trade between the two friendly countries.



"The UAE has become a model for good governance, moderation and peaceful co-existence and a symbol for achievement and excellence at the international levels," he said.



He also noted that the welfare of the UAE citizens features as a priority in the wise leadership's vision.



The UAE and China established diplomatic relations in November 1984. The UAE opened its embassy in Beijing on March 19, 1987. It also opened consulates in Hong Kong on April 2000, Shanghai on July 6, 2006, and in Guangzhou on June 13, 2016.



China opened its embassy in Abu Dhabi in April 1985 and its consulate in Dubai in November 1988.
Despite a strong headwind of global economic turbulence and fluctuating oil prices, Trumponomics and Brexit, the Middle East will see strong passenger growth in 2018 with an expected annual increase of 7 per cent, according to figures from International Air Transport Association.



Aviation will feature heavily in the programme at Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2018, which is being held between April 22-25, 2018 at the Dubai World Trade Centre. The sessions at ATM 2018 will be moderated by Alan Peaford, a former national newspaper journalist and current president of the UKs Institute of Internal Communications. Peaford edited Flight Internationals Flight Daily News for 17 years and has won an Aerospace Journalist of the Year award on five occasions.



He said: Aviation and aerospace is thriving despite lower oil prices. Even with regional uncertainties aviation continues to grow. The Arab air transport market grew by 9.9 per cent in the past year, according to the Arab Air Carriers Organisation (AACO) at its 2017 AGM. Growth figures like these should support lively debate at ATM 2018 and provide an element of cautious optimism.



Iata figures also revealed that Middle East airlines will see net profits doubling to $600 million in 2018, double what they are estimated to make this year. Passenger capacity is also estimated to rise by 6.6 per cent this year and a further 4.9 per cent increase is forecast for 2018.



The Emirates Group which is, one of Arabian Travel Markets premium partners, had a revenue of Dh49.4 billion ($13.4 billion) for the first six months of its 2017-18 financial year, up 6 per cent from Dh46.5 billion ($12.6 billion) during the same period last year.



However, Etihad Airways bucked the trend in July when it posted a group loss of Dh6.86 billion ($1.86 billion) for 2016. The figure was heavily influenced by one-off impairments that included Dh3.67 billion ($999.1 million) on aircraft and Dh2.96 billion ($805.8 million) on exposures to the ailing carriers Alitalia and Air Berlin.



Air Arabia saw profits rise in this year's second quarter, up 21 per cent to Dh157.93 million ($42.9 million) from the same period last year, although revenues were flat, rising 1.3 per cent to Dh907.23 million ($246.9 million). But Flydubai reported losses of Dh143.24 million ($38.9 million) on revenues of Dh2.5 billion ($680.6 million) for the first half of 2017.



Simon Press, senior exhibition director, Arabian Travel Market, said: As this mixed bag of results demonstrate, there are continued challenges to be faced by the aviation sector in the Middle East. This includes the US Supreme Courts decision to back President Donald Trumps third travel ban, blocking the entry of travellers from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.



President Trumps protectionist agenda may also impact the Open Skies Agreement which US airlines have campaigned bitterly against for several years.



The success of the aviation industry in the sky is matched in the Middle East by the continued huge infrastructure investment.



The total value of 152 active aviation-related projects in the Middle East reached $57.7 billion at the end of April 2017, according to research provider BNC Network.



In the GCC countries, Saudi Arabia accounted for the largest share of project value (at 46 per cent of the GCCs total), followed by the UAE (26 per cent), and Kuwait (12 per cent).



The Gulf regions aviation projects also accounted for 72 per cent of the total estimated value for all aviation projects in the Middle East and North Africa.



Aviation is integral to the Arabian Travel Market show and plays a significant role not only during the seminars but also on the exhibition floor. With strong investment prevalent throughout the industry in the region, the growth in passenger numbers will continue unabated, added Press.



Confirmed exhibiting airlines for ATM 2018 include Etihad Airways, Fly Dubai and Saudi Airlines with more major players to follow.



ATM 2018 has adopted Responsible Tourism as its main theme and this will be integrated across all show verticals and activities, including focused seminar session, featuring dedicated exhibitor participation.



ATM  considered by industry professionals as a barometer for the Middle East and North Africa tourism sector, welcomed almost 40,000 travel professionals to its 2017 event, including 2,661 exhibiting companies, signing business deals worth more than $2.5 billion over the four-day show. - 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.
Our remarkable agency known as The RurBan Village is striving towards the heights of progress by serving the people with distinct packages to explore the beauty of Rural India. They are offering cost-effective day and night packages to make the time of the users a memorable one.



(TRAVPR.COM) INDIA - December 20th, 2017 - People are somewhat stuck in the effects of globalization which is keeping them occupied and not letting them attain the slightest peace of mind. All the hustle and bustle of the busy urban life is the main cause of the intolerable stress and strain most people face. After discovering this source of stress, the Sahas Foundation took an initiative to create a platform which can provide that one moment of peace to the souls of the people. This is how The RurBan Village originated and has been a prolific platform for the people since then.

It is the best place for people who love to enjoy the core soul of India and experience the bliss it has to offers. The open field, the fragrance of the fresh cut grass, the joy of playing in the fields, all these things always offer an ode of joy to the soul.

For the ease of the people, RurBan has started a web portal which can enable individuals to book a stay in RurBan. You will find a wide array of different packages such as activities, stay, tents & cottages, etc. to make your stay a pleasant experience.

You can get cost-effective One Day Package near Delhi to explore the beauty of rural India with your loved ones. These One Day packages can also consist of multiple adventurous rural and urban activities. You can enjoy

 Cricket, Basketball, Football, etc.

 Mud Bath & Tube well Bath

 Bird, duck and Fish Feeding

 Zip Line

 Wall Climbing

 Swing

 Ladder Walk

 Pottery

 Charkha

 Lattu

 GilliDanda

 Kite Flying

 KancheGoli

 Kho Kho

All of these activities are available at the most competitive, per head prices. You can re-live the memories of your childhood with all these activities.

The RurBan Village believes in taking good care of mother earth. Hence, they use solar energy, biogas, and animal breeding. They promote reforestation and share the techniques of improving the environments with all the visitors.

The Day, as well as the overnight packages of The RurBan Village, are quite elusive and entertaining. You can easily get a Day Package near Delhi by browsing the web portal at therurbanvillage.com. All you need to do is visit the website and open the Package section. There, you will find all the details regarding the package. You need to select the date and number of people before booking.

Not just the activities, you have the opportunity to choose the type of accommodation. You can also choose from a variety of food selections.

RurBan has attempted to recreate the rural India which has vanished in present times. If you are willing to experience a trip to the roots of our nation, be a part of The RurBan Village.

About the Company: RurBan Village is a part of the great vision of Sahas Foundation. The core objective of RurBan is to remind the people that our roots start from the rural region of India. The RurBan is the amalgam of RURal and urBAN and is the Holy Grail for the people who are looking to get away from the concrete jungle of a metropolis.

Contact US:

For more information visit here: http://therurbanvillage.com/

Contact us: 9871005139.

Follow US:

https://www.facebook.com/TheRurBanVillage/

https://twitter.com/rurbanvillage

https://plus.google.com/102539342613871567461

https://www.instagram.com/therurbanvillage/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/therurban-village-b851ab150/

https://in.pinterest.com/therurbanvillage/

###
Im close to family

Im rooted in a community

I feel truly independent

I have a career now

Ive found a new part of the world to explore

Moving is expensive and hard

Teaching English in Spain, speaking Spanish, and traveling across Spain and Europe made up my day-to-day life for three years after I graduated college in 2012. June 2015 saw me go on a farewell tour of Spain before moving back to Texas at the end of the month, and it wasnt until May of this yearalmost two years to the daythat I would return to the country I called home for three school years.I had the opportunity to co-lead a small group of ten public radio listeners on a cooking tour of Spain, making stops in Barcelona, Sevilla, and Madrid for cooking classes, tapas-themed guided walks , and winery visits. It was a lot of work planning the trip, photographing events, translating questions, and leading these adventurous, inquisitive travelers, but it was so, so worth it to share one of my favorite places in the world with this great group of people.A question I was asked quite frequently while chopping potatoes or hurrying to a Metro stop was, Would you ever move back to Spain?as you sip on a two-euro glass of white Verdejo wine, or make your way on footrather than by carthrough centuries-old cities, or confidently shift between Castilian Spanish and American English without blinking an eye.I left the country in the summer of 2015 fairly unhappy with things, and I was so ready to get integrated back into American society. However, being back in Spain once again reminded me why I moved to the country in the first place: the low cost of living, a plethora of travel opportunities, a multitude of ways to practice my Spanish, history around every corner, and a delicious (if bland) cuisine first brought me to a place like Ubeda for Year One and kept me in Santiago de Compostela for two more years.But its been over two years now since my initial re-entry, and today (brushing aside various quarter-life crises and associated drama that have now passed)living in my home country.Ill tell you what,First of all, theres the eight-hour timezone difference, which makes it all-but-impossible to call home without setting up a Skype date on the weekend a week in advanceand then you spend half the conversation saying what? huh? I think youre breaking up! because of crappy Wi-Fi. Living in Arizona, which is only ever one or two hours off from Dallas, makes it possible to just call up my parents, brother, or friends on a whim; I dont have to worry about bothering them at 3 in the morning!Then theres the physical distance of always being an eight-hour flight away from your family (and being $1,500 poorer after the fact). I spent two Christmases in Europedistracted by Midnight Masses at Notre-Dame de Paris and St. Peters Basilica and it was really hard being so far away from home for Mothers Day, Fathers Day, birthdays, and July 4th. When my grandmother died halfway through my stay in Spain, I was only able to attend her funeral because my parents paid for me to fly home. Now that I live in Phoenix, whose airport is a hub for both American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, I dont think twice about shelling out $300 for a flight home for the holidays.The problem with living in Spain as a language assistant is that its so difficult to put down roots . Part of this is our own damn faults, since us expats tend to flock together and create temporary communities that we turn to for support, communities that inevitably disintegrate the moment the school years over and we all go on vacation or move back to the States.The other part is that it can be really hard to make solid friendships with Spaniards, not only because many already have siblings and cousins and the same friend-group since first grade, but also because theres a language and cultural barrier. Sometimes you just dont have anything in common with your Spanish roommatesat all.Its taken me a while to start making new friends here in Phoenix, but I recently started attending an Episcopal church downtown where Ive met a lot of affirming and like-minded people whove reintroduced me to what it means to follow Jesus in this world.Also, unlike some travel bloggers who advocate giving up and running away from your country the moment the other political party wins an election, Im committed to staying in America for the long haul and to making my city, state, and country a better placebe that by donating to local non-profits, by volunteering, by spending my money at local businesses, by voting in every election, and by advocating for policy changes at all levels of government.As a language assistant living on my own in Spain, I had all the trappings of adulthood: I was renting a room in a shared apartment, I had a pay-as-you-go cellphone, I was working a job with health insurance and paid holidays, and I was cooking most of my meals from scratch at home.But my permanent residence was still my childhood house in Texas, I was still on my parents health insurance plan to hold me over when I was back home for the summer, and I had little savings or retirement accounts to speak of. It was this weird hybrid state of being an adult in Spain yet still living in extended adolescence in America, which was frustratingespecially after I moved back home to start the job hunt.Now that Im living in Phoenix, Ive got my own car whose loan Im slowly paying off, a one-bedroom apartment whose lease is in my name, an 8-to-5 job with health insurance and a retirement plan, a cellphone that isnt on my parents plan, and a growing emergency savings account.so Im not ready to give up the safety of the world Ive created for myself in Arizona for the chaos of trying to survive in Spain again.Unless youre dating a Spaniard and either get married or apply for(civil union), there arent really any options for you in terms of steady employment outside of teaching Englishand even that is hard to come by as most academies or schools will hire Irish or (until Brexit goes into effect) British teachers, who have EU passports and thus can work in Spain. And Ill be completely honest:Im grateful today for the realization that Im not cut out to be a teacher.Im thriving in my current line of work, where I get to use almost all of my skillsets on a daily basis and contribute to a cause I feel passionate about. What more could I ask for? I dont even know where to begin if I had to look for a non-teaching job in Spain that would actually help me get a work or freelance visa.Over the span of three years living in Spain, I managed to visit 26 of the countrys World Heritage Sites, plus almost all of its major cities and many of its charming small towns. Fulfilling long-held dreams of mine, I spent Christmases in Paris and Rome and also visited southern France, Portugal, Morocco, and Germany. This isnt to brag or anythingI acknowledge how privileged I am to have seen so much of the world at such a young ageits just that if I were to never return to the continent, I could die happy without any regrets.In addition, I would argue thatPhoenix is so strategically located that Im never more than a days drive from stunning natural wonders, challenging hikes, ancient ruins, quirky small towns, or vibrant, diverse cities with good eats and lots of history. Theres simply so much to see just in the Southwestnot to mention the rest of the U.S.and Im looking forward to exploring everything from the national parks of Utah, to Arizona mining towns like Ajo and Bisbee, to sand dunes in New Mexico and California.The whole process of moving abroad costs a lot of money: first flying across the Atlantic Ocean just to get to Spain, then staying in a hotel and eating out while you hunt for an apartment, then paying a deposit and your first months rent, and finally getting sheets, towels, and blankets and stocking your pantry and fridge. When you add to this the fact that, at least in the language assistant program I was in, you dont get paid for at least a month after you start, your first month can cost you thousands of dollars.I did this three times, but fortunately I managed to save a few bucks because I stayed in Santiago de Compostela for two years and stored my bedding and other belongings with friends.My move from Dallas to Phoenix last year was one of the most draining experience of my life: physically, emotionally, and financially. Moving boxes of all my stuff in 100 F heat and then building IKEA furniture the rest of the week truly exhausted my dad and me. Being thrown into a brand-new city where I didnt know anybody meant I was a little lonely the first few months. And my savings account took a huge hit between multiple IKEA and Target runs and my first months rent.I really dont want to do this all over again.Moving back to Spain would involve such emotional labor and such a financial commitment that Im honestly not willing to put out right now, so Im staying put in Arizona for the foreseeable future.***Im happy where I am right now, in my job, in my community, and in the region where I live. Im not looking to move anytime soon, and Im trying to deepen the roots Ive put down in Arizona. In short, Phoenix is home.
The expansion of Mills Fleet Farm is coming to Dane County.

The retailer of farm and automotive supplies, sporting goods and clothing will break ground Thursday on a 218,628-square-foot store and a 4,100-square-foot convenience store and car wash in DeForest at the intersection of Highway 19 and Interstate 39-90-94.

The $25 million project comes less than two years after the Brainerd, Minnesota, company was purchased by KKR of New York, one of the countrys largest investment firms, in a move designed to add stores to its lineup of 37 locations in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and North Dakota. Wisconsin is home to 18 stores, but others are planned or under construction in Kenosha, Ocononowoc, Eau Claire and Delavan.

The DeForest store is the latest addition to the interstate corridor that also includes East Towne Mall in Madison, the Shoppes at Prairie Lakes in Sun Prairie and a nearby Camping World and what is expected to be, in early 2018, a Gander Outdoors in the former Gander Mountain store at Highway 51. The Fleet Farm would also be near a busy cluster of smaller retailers that include Mousehouse Cheesehaus, Corniellers Fireworks, a Kwik Trip, McDonalds, A&W, Roadside Grill, a Walgreens distribution center and one of the largest Kenworth dealerships and service centers in the country.

Sam Blahnik, community development director for DeForest, said the Fleet Farm will bring up to 200 full-time and part-time jobs and is expected to spur more development along and around the Highway 19 and interstate corridor.

Weve had a lot of interest from other commercial and retail projects that maybe werent previously considering the area, Blahnik said. We dont want to replicate Sun Prairie. Were only five minutes away from what they have with the theater and shopping opportunities that they have. What this does, is it provides us some more proximate retail for our residents, and it leverages the interstate traffic.

The village was approached by Fleet Farm more than a year ago, which pushed the village in January to annex from the town of Windsor the 25 acres for the project plus about another 81 acres for other development projects. They could include more retail, a hotel and restaurants, Blahnik said. The properties are also part of a tax incremental finance district created this year that will fund about $4 million in improvements to roads, water and sewer services.

Mills Fleet Farm (no relation to Janesville-based Farm & Fleet) was founded in 1955 by Stewart Mills Sr. and his sons Henry Mills II and Stewart Mills Jr. The sons said in early 2016 that they sold the majority of the company to KKR, which also has holdings in Toys R Us, so the company would be poised for the next level of growth for the future.

Most of the Fleet Farm stores in Wisconsin are not in the southern half of the state. The closest store to the Madison area is in Beaver Dam. The DeForest store is scheduled to open in October of 2018, Blahnik said.

Thats key for them to hit the hunting crowd, Blahnik said. Theyve got this schedule, and its impressive. Theyre going like gangbusters.

But stores arent the only addition for Fleet Farm in Wisconsin.

In April, the company began construction on a $65 million, 1.12 million-square-foot distribution center expected to bring more than 300 jobs to Chippewa Falls in northwestern Wisconsin.

The deal to bring the center to Chippewa Falls was completed in March, when the Chippewa County Economic Development Committee unanimously approved selling a 70-acre parcel in Lake Wissota Business Park to the projects developer, Minneapolis-based Ryan Cos., for $1. The Chippewa Falls City Council approved the agreement a day earlier.

The Chippewa Falls distribution center will help us modernize our supply chain ... and facilitate planned growth of future retail stores in Wisconsin and the Midwest, CEO Wayne Sales said in a statement at the time.

That project should reach substantial completion by February, according to the developer agreement between Chippewa County, the city of Chippewa Falls, Mills Fleet Farm Group, Ryan Cos. and DHL Supply Chain of Germany, which will manage the distribution centers employees.
The owner of two dogs shot and killed at night by an Evansville coyote hunter in the Badfish Creek Wildlife Area nearly two years ago testified Tuesday that both dogs suffered before they died and apologized to her Alaskan husky mix named Franny for attending to her paralyzed mastiff named Gary while she died.

I never said goodbye to her, said an emotional Deanna Clark, a veterinarian, at the trial of Kurt K. Rausch, 36, on two counts of animal mistreatment and a negligent handling of a firearm charge stemming from the incident that occurred in the town of Rutland around 6 p.m. on Jan. 22, 2016. All the charges are misdemeanors.

Emotions ran so high during the first day of the trial that the court reporter in the packed Dane County courtroom requested a break during Clarks testimony and a new court reporter was in her place when the trial resumed several minutes later. When Rauschs attorney, Michele Tjader, asked Dane County Circuit Judge Josann Reynolds about the condition of the court reporter, Reynolds said, She is an animal person.

In her opening statement, Tjader told the jury that Rausch believed he was shooting at coyotes after hearing rustling in some brush and seeing eyes reflecting back and pointy ears about 15 yards away when he turned on his headlamp. She said Rausch decided to shoot based on what he knew and saw. While it was a mistake, Tjader said he wasnt criminally negligent.

Rausch was characterized by the prosecution and witnesses as an inexperienced coyote hunter who fired his rifle from the hip at the dogs that were both wearing blaze-orange vests with reflective tape as they went for a run with Clark, of Edgerton, and her other two dogs. In his opening statement, Assistant District Attorney Paul Humphrey questioned Rauschs story that he mistook the dogs for coyotes, especially the mastiff because the 75-pound dog is much bigger than a coyote and has floppy ears.

Humphrey also tried to discount Rauschs statement to a Department of Natural Resources warden and a Dane County Sheriffs Office deputy that the dogs were facing him when he shot them. He showed the jury graphic photos of the dogs and their wounds as Clark testified that the mastiff died from a gunshot that entered below its tail and the husky mix died from a gunshot to its side.

After former DNR warden Kyle Dilley testified that he talked to Rausch about what happened that night, Humphrey asked him if he thought Rausch identified his targets, which is one of the most important rules of hunter safety. Obviously not, sir, Dilley replied.

But Dilley, who is now a special agent for the state Department of Justice, gave Rauschs case a brief boost during cross examination when he agreed with Tjaders interpretation that dogs that arent hunting or are being trained to hunt arent allowed to run at large there.

That led Reynolds to question Dilley about the interpretation of the DNR regulation and he testified that he never enforced it in wildlife areas when he was a warden. Upon further examination by Reynolds, Dilley said the regulation allowing unleashed dogs in wildlife areas is not limited to hunting dogs.

Clark testified that her dogs were running ahead of her on the trail when she heard two rapid gun shots and then I heard Franny screaming. She found Franny with a wound in her side so big she could see that her lungs had collapsed and her heart was barely beating. Then, Clark testified that she looked up to see Gary, the mastiff, dragging himself along the ground because the bullet had shattered his pelvis and he couldnt walk.

At that point, Clark testified that she slung Gary over my shoulder and started running toward her car about one mile away in an effort to try and save him. She testified that she saw Rausch attempting to carry Franny and told him to leave Franny because she was dead and that she needed help carrying Gary. Rausch then helped carry Gary to the parking lot and they used his white camouflage jacket as a makeshift stretcher, Clark said.

Clark testified that Gary survived one surgery but died during a second operation at the UW-Madison Veterinary Emergency Clinic.
Tokyo, December 20

Bitcoin prices plunged about 15 per cent in Asian trade today before recouping some of the losses as investors apparently took fright at news that a South Korean exchange had been hacked.

The unit, which hit a record USD 19,500 at the start of the week, took a hit as it emerged that South Korean exchange Youbit had been hacked, leading the firm to say it will close and start bankruptcy proceedings, according to Bloomberg News.

Separately, US authorities yesterday suspended trading in a popular Bitcoin-related stock, citing concerns about market manipulation.

The Crypto Companys share price had risen 1,700 per cent between the end of September and Monday evening before the Securities Exchange Commission intervened to halt trades until January 4.

Both the news of South Koreas exchange having been hacked and position adjustment following recent rallies affected the market today, Raita Yamaguchi, senior consultant at Nomura Research Institute, told AFP.

However, the weight of South Korea as a Bitcoin market is not that big, he added.

Bitcoin dropped to USD 15,815.78 in early Tokyo trade from USD 18,000 yesterday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The crypto currency recovered to around USD 16,000 in early afternoon trade in Tokyo.

Bitcoin has soared almost 20-fold since the start of the year and this month saw it move into the mainstream as two major US exchanges began trading futures in the unit.  AFP
Vijay C Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 19

Chandigarh-based Finvasia, a fintech company offering zero brokerage, has received the Certificate of Registration (CoR) from RBI to operate as a non-banking financial corporation (NBFC). This extension will allow the company to offer loan-based products to retail and corporates alike. The company plans to develop block chain technology based P2P (peer-to-peer) lending platform.

Sarvjeet Singh Virk, co-founder and managing director, Finvasia, said, Post-demonetisation, investors are actively managing their portfolios themselves. The licence by RBI will allow us to provide complete spectrum of financial services. We are also looking forward to build a P2P lending platform along with introducing few more disruptive Fintech products revolving around NBFC.

Peer-to-peer lending, also known as P2P lending, is a practice of lending money to individuals or businesses through online services that match lenders with borrowers. Since peer-to-peer lending companies generally operate online, they can run with lower overhead expenses and facilitate funds at much cheaper rate than traditional financial institutions.

On upcoming products, Tajinder Singh, co-founder and CEO, Finvasia, said The licence will allow us to offer more disruptive financial products to our clients to help them diversify their portfolios. Our focus will be to offer short to mid and long-term loans to individuals and MSMEs, using our analytical tools during evaluation and monitoring them post-disbursement. The investors will stay invested using our financial products and will spend using our payment e-wallet.

To facilitate decision making, the P2P platform will use artificial intelligence- based analytical tools, social presence and other key information touch points to constitute user profiles, he said.

With offices in Chandigarh, Mississauga (Canada) and London, Finvasia is one-stop shop for various hedge funds, fund of funds, FPIs (previously known as FIIs) by providing pre/post-registration with DDP to clearing, trading, advisory, compliance and accounting services.
Mohali, December 19

The State Special Operation Cell, along with the Zirakpur police, has nabbed 39-year-old fraudster Sanjay Kumar, alias Sanjay Singh, alias Narinder Kumar, who has conned around 20 government officials recently.

Sanjay targeted those government officials, whose names appeared in newspapers in some controversy or dispute. Posing as a senior official of the chief ministers office, Sanjay offered these officials help in getting their names cleared in cases of controversy/dispute in lieu of some amount, which ranged from Rs 20,000 to Rs 2 lakh.

The AIG, Varinder Singh, from the State Special Operation Cell, said the fraudster had conned around 20 government officials, including tehsildars and junior engineers.

After reading news about such officials, Sanjay procured their telephone numbers and contacted them posing as a senior official posted at the chief ministers office. He asked them to meet him at some place and offered his help to get their work done. He also took money from officials in lieu of getting them transferred, recruited in government departments and getting their suspension revoked. His targets included officials of revenue, electricity, district welfare and mining departments of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, said the AIG.

The police said the accused was a graduate and ran a transport business earlier. After suffering losses in the business, he started conning people. Sanjay had also opened an institute in Shimla to provide training in electronic media to aspirants, said the AIG.

The police have registered a case under Section 420 and 120 B of the IPC against Sanjay and his unidentified accomplice at the Zirakpur police station.  TNS
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 20

The Department of Hindi, Panjab University (PU), will launch a joint student-exchange forum with Pennsylvania State University (Penn State).

Dr Suchismita Sen, Director, Hindi Language Programme, from Pennsylvania State University, will visit Panjab University on December 22 to finalise this proposal and to interact with the faculty and students of the Department of Hindi.

She will also meet the Dean, International Students, and Dean, Research Promotion Cell, and other officials of Panjab University.

Dr Gurmeet Singh, chairperson, Department of Hindi, said, As per the proposal, a selected group of Penn State students interested in learning Hindi language and Indian culture will be interacting with a selected students of the Department of Hindi from Panjab University. PU students will write about their understanding of American culture, and US students will write about Indian culture in Hindi.

He added that these essays would then be shared within the student groups on the website and would be accessible to both groups for follow up comments.

He also added that the proposal also involved more opportunities to work closely in the field of language and cultural education, once the pilot project took off and was successful.
Tribune News Service

Mohali, December 20

Three days after the local police seized diamond-studded gold jewellery, worth nearly Rs 5 crore, from two Mumbai residents at the Chandigarh international airport, the Excise and Taxation Department today asked the accused to pay Rs 28.33 lakh as tax and penalty for tax evasion.

The accused have submitted a bank guarantee of the said amount.

Excise and Taxation officials said Manish Bandi and Milan Chheda were trying to dupe airport officials by claiming that the jewellery, evaluated to be worth Rs 4.72 crore, was meant for display (not sale) at an exhibition organised in Mohali by two Mumbai-based firms, M/s Infosel Technologies LLP and M/s BVC Logistics Pvt. Ltd.

Officials said the businessmen did not have proper documents for the jewellery and failed to answer queries of excise officials. They added that the operation was conducted in co-ordination with the Mohali police.

The officials had received prior information that the aforesaid Mumbai residents were in possession of jewellery and ornaments. Upon questioning the owners of Mumbai-based firms, it was revealed that the accused were not among the participants of the exhibition.

During further interrogation, the accused admitted that apart from memorandum, they were not carrying any other proper document to establish the legitimacy of the jewellery carried by them, as required under the GST Act. The officials further directed the organisers of the exhibition to provide a list of all participants with their respective opening and closing stock statements to the office of the AETC, Chandigarh.

Manish Bandi had landed here on IndiGos afternoon flight from Delhi on Saturday and was carrying three boxes of jewellery. One box contained 74 diamond-studded gold rings, another had 54 items, including 24 necklaces and pairs of earrings, and the third had 11 items, including jewellery sets.
Apoorvanand

Apoorvanand

Professor of Hindi in Delhi University

IT was a fight of Gujarat with Gujarat. And in this battle, Gujarat managed to defeat itself. If one looks at the number of seats where the BJP just scraped through and the number of NOTA votes or the vote share that the dummy candidates fielded by it cornered, the real meaning of this victory of the BJP in the Gujarat elections becomes clearer.

Gujarat wanted to get rid of the farce that the Modi-led BJP is but.... This is a huge BUT the poor state could not cross.

Inhibitions shackling Gujarat

Let us try to understand what are the inhibitions shackling Gujarat.

1 Infatuation with Modi: One is the infatuation it has developed with Narendra Modi. Nearly all poll observers, while talking about the discontent across communities and sections of society that Gujarat is, agreed that the Gujarati Hindus still nursed a small soft corner for their man. That he could think of flying in a seaplane to impress his voters speaks a lot about his estimation of their intelligence. A cheap gimmick treated as a heroic act!

2 Social stupidity: It also tells you about the gradual spread of stupidity in Gujarat. Let us call it social stupidity. And urban Gujarat is more prone to it. Generation after generation passing out of schools fed on poorly written textbooks. Ill-trained teachers. Broken colleges run by contractual teachers. Universities turned into barren lands. You have to see the destruction of the Sayaji Rao University of Baroda to understand what has been done to the higher education of Gujarat. And an impoverished Gujarati print media which does not inform or educate the readers.

3 Civil society silenced: The absence of civil society is something everybody talks about in Gujarat. After the genocidal violence in Gujarat against its Muslims, it was a vigorous civil society which led the battle for justice for the Muslims. But gradually, it fell apart. Threats from the government and its vindictive approach silenced the civil society organisations. Intervention from persons like Teesta Setalvad or Harsh Mander or Shabnam Hashmi were dubbed as interference in the family affair of Gujarat. They were successfully painted as the enemies of Gujarat.

4 No critical space: It is very difficult, if not impossible, to get halls or spaces for discussion on issues which the authorities find unpalatable. There is absolutely no critical space available in Gujarat.

It would be true for the other states as well, but the carelessness about the notion of justice and fairness strikes you in Gujarat. It is impossible to talk about the consequences of the raising of the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujarat. Even those groups which can call themselves secular publicly shun this topic. Gandhians are elsewhere against big dams and who love bashing of Nehru for his development model dare not discuss this issue.

The issue of the cost of the riverfront at the artificial Sabarmati does not perturb the conscience of the urban Gujaratis.

Medha Patkar is not welcome in Gujarat. One cannot forget the incident that took place in Sabarmati Ashram. The year was 2002.Medha Patkar was in the Ashram for a meeting. She was surrounded by supporters and activists of the ruling party and attacked. The attackers pulled her by her hair and hit her. The peace-loving Gandhians simply shut the room in which they were holding their meeting and avoided the sight of violence. It was a timely intervention by some courageous academic from the IIM which saved Medha.

5 Rise of spiritual orders: The so-called spiritual orders identify themselves completely with the BJP. It gives it an extra shot of vigour. You would always find gurus like Morarji Bapu standing by Modi whenever he faces a challenge. Meanwhile, he maintains that he is all for social harmony The followers of these orders automatically turn into supporters of the BJP.

6 Hindu-Muslim divide: Total segregation of the Gujarati society into neat Hindu and Muslims populations and habitations has led to a dangerous growth of social and cultural ignorance. Especially among the Hindus. You would come across Hindu youth who do not know what kind of an animal a Muslim is. The Hindu society is becoming more and more inward-looking. It has also imbibed the security-conscious nationalist fear that the RSS has been spreading for years. Lack of liberal Hindu voices or constant loathing of Muslims and Christians has turned the Hindu masses into minority skeptics. This is one of the reasons why the merchants of Surat, despite feeling wretched after demonetisation and the GST, decided to vote for the BJP. They cursed the government but their misery was no match for the fear they have of the return of the "Muslim domination."

7 Urban arrogance: Arrogance of the urban Gujarat which does not share the pain of the rural counterpart is also evident in the election results. Urban areas have voted differently from the rural areas.

We saw an uncouth and crass election campaign led by the Prime Minister himself. There was no evidence of any revulsion in the masses against the crudity unleashed by him. On the contrary, it seems they loved the return of the unvarnished Muslim and Christian hater with whom they were familiar with.

There was hope against hope this time that the economic disaster that has disrupted the lives of the masses would provoke them to throw out the BJP government. But the cultural and ideological pull proved to be stronger.
The Janesville man who was the subject of a nationwide manhunt last spring after he stole guns and wrote an anti-government manifesto cursed a judge Wednesday and told him to Give me freedom or give me death before the judge instead gave him a 14-year sentence in the federal prison system.

Joseph Jakubowski, 33, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge William Conley at the federal courthouse in Madison for stealing 18 firearms and two silencers from a Janesville gun shop and illegally possessing guns because he is a felon.

He was convicted of the charges after a trial in the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Wisconsin in September.

Jakubowski spent much of the sentencing hearing Wednesday afternoon espousing his anti-government views, ending with a 10-minute, profanity-laced rant directed at Conley just before he was sentenced.

I dont care about your damned laws, he said.

During his trial, Jakubowski admitted on the witness stand that he stole the guns from Armageddon Supplies in Janesville in April. After he stole the guns, police say he burned his vehicle, sent a long anti-government manifesto to President Donald Trump and then disappeared for 10 days. Fears about his intentions prompted some Janesville-area schools and churches to close  and even threatened to cancel the annual Easter egg hunt at the Governors Mansion  until he was captured without incident on private land in Vernon County on April 14.

Just four of the guns were recovered at his campsite.

Since his capture, Jakubowski has been defiant when asked by police about the location of the 14 stolen guns, including one machine gun, that are still missing. He told Conley at his hearing, As far as the guns, you aint getting them.

Conley sentenced Jakubowski to 10 years in federal prison for stealing the guns and four years in prison for possessing them as a felon. He ordered the sentences to run consecutively and recommended that Jakubowski receive anger management treatment, mental health counseling and pre-release placement in a residential re-entry center with work-release privileges. He also said that if Jakubowski is found guilty of state charges during a separate trial scheduled next year in Rock County, the state can decide if the sentence should run consecutively or concurrently to the federal sentence.

Jakubowski also was ordered by Conley to pay nearly $15,000 in restitution to Armageddon Supplies for the stolen guns. That followed a discussion that began with Conley broaching the subject of restitution, to which Jakubowski angrily responded, I dont care about the money.

After Jakubowski is released from federal prison, Conley ordered him to spend six years of supervised release. Conley said he hoped Jakubowski will use his time in prison to grow as an individual and to learn  especially about subjects like truth and government  so that his education will be a value to him and society.

Prosecutors wanted a stiffer sentence. Assistant U.S. Attorney Rita M. Rumbelow referred to recent statements by Jakubowski in media reports that hed commit the same crimes as proof that a lengthy sentence is needed because society needs to be protected.

Jakubowskis attorney, Joe Bugni, said that wasnt necessary because Jakubowski is more talk than action. But Conley said he worried that might change.

Throughout the hearing, the judge often appeared sympathetic toward Jakubowski. He gave Jakubowski a great deal of latitude to express his opinions about the government and the flaws of a money-focused society, and sometimes agreed with his points. But when Conley queried Jakubowski about whether he understood the seriousness of his threats and comments, Jakubowski almost always responded with outbursts of anger.

Conley accepted Jakubowskis explanation that he was not planning to attack schools or churches after he stole the guns. But he told Jakubowski law enforcement officials were rightfully concerned by assertions in his manifesto that Ill fight to the death.

Jakubowski responded with a tirade against the media, which he accused of reporting on his psychological problems  then read off a list of conditions from a pre-sentence investigation that included schizoid paranoia, narcissism, anti-social traits and alcoholism.

Scott Blader, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, said the way Jakubowski responded to Conley was a reaffirmation of Mr. Jakubowskis inability to try to understand what he actually did (last April).

Hes unrepentant and unremorseful, and I think that was reflected here in the sentence today.
KC Singh

KC Singh

THIS week in the US, the oldest and most powerful democracy of the world, and in India, the largest, domestic politics and national security challenges ran on parallel tracks. Coincidently, both are led by right-wing leaders not above rabble-rousing for electoral advantage.

In Alabama, US President Donald Trump faced a crucial election to a Senate seat which his party had held for two decades. However, the Republican Party nominee Roy Moore, twice removed in the past from the post of Alabamas Chief Justice and now saddled with charges of sexual misconduct, was trounced by a genial Democrat who had been a successful prosecutor of members of the Ku Klux Klan.

The Alabama contest acquired an edge because Trump threw his full weight behind Moore despite serious charges against him and his known bigotry. The loss narrows Republican lead in Senate to 51-49. In Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi likewise took the low road to campaigning by abandoning talk of development and the Gujarat Model, which he marketed to propel himself to power at the Centre in 2014, for bigoted charges about Pakistan hand in a Congress conspiracy to appoint a Muslim as the CM of Gujarat. Not resting there, he further saw more seditious activity when a former PM, a recently retired Vice-President, a former foreign minister and sundry retired distinguished diplomats attended a private dinner in honour of an erstwhile Pakistani foreign minister Kasuri. The narrow win by the BJP in a state taken as Modi base and where, as someone put it in an ironical reference to Mahatma Gandhi, he conducted his experiments with truth, is a warning that his magic is dissipating, especially in rural India, which still forms two-thirds of the nation.

India and the US this week also had reason to assess geopolitical changes that colour their external environment. The US released its National Security Strategy, which outlines the challenges and possible Priority Action. In line with Trumpian rhetoric it begins by reiterating an America-First Foreign Policy. The new slogan is peace through strength, to be achieved by principled realism. It exposes the false belief that US power could be self-sustaining without constant vigil, effort and innovation. Thereafter follows a frank assessment of who and how is countering US hegemony.

The document claims that the US stood by as others subsidised their industries, forced technology transfers and distorted markets. The obvious reference is to China. Free enterprise it adds is historys greatest antidote to poverty. Thus the US will react to political, military and economic competition it faces globally. Then the antagonists are listed. Russia wishes to restore its great power status and establish its influence near its borders. China, on the other hand, more assertively, wants to displace the US in the Indo-Pacific and expand the reach of its state-driven economic model. While both, it is surmised, aspire to project power worldwide, they are currently engaged in overturning regional balances of power. The third force seen as posing a threat to the US is Islamic militancy.

The US counter strategy is to work with allies and partners. India is seen as a force for stability in the Central and South Asian paradigm, which contains a quarter of the global population, one- fifth of US-designated terror groups and two nuclear armed states. Even more significantly, India is seen as relevant in the Indo-Pacific theatre, which is incidentally defined as stretching from Indias west coast to the western shores of the US. The paper surmises that the competition is between free and repressive visions of world order and the US thus must counter these shifts in the Indo-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East.

The challenges are frankly identified but the solutions are thin and skirt over the gap between US rhetoric and action. If China is indeed the challenge, the US cannot be seen as sending contradictory signals to its allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific, like withdrawing from the Trans Pacific Partnership. Leading from behind cannot be the way forward as all regional powers suspect that Trump may be just bargain-hunting with the Chinese, using them to goad the dragon and not necessarily contain it.

The Indian encirclement by China has become more palpable in the past month or so while the Modi government has been entirely fixated on Gujarat. The handing over of Hambantota port in Sri Lanka to China on a 99-year lease, despite assurances that it is only for civilian use, creates a security challenge. It will, at the very least, be a listening post for the Chinese from where naval activities of rival powers can be monitored. A free trade agreement signed in unseemly hurry by the Maldives with China again brings its trade and influence to Indias west coast. The most troublesome is the success of the two main communist parties in Nepal. The likely ascent of KP Oli as Prime Minister augurs ill for India. In an earlier incarnation, he had caused consternation by his pro-China tilt. India should expect his anti-India bias, exacerbated by the Modi governments blockade in 2015, to manifest in closer integration with Chinese economy and mainland by subscribing to the Belt and Road connectivity project. This hardly provides solace when combined with reports that unlike what the Modi government marketed as Chinese withdrawal at Doklam, the Chinese have, in fact, bivouacked in larger numbers for a permanent pressure point on Bhutan and India.

The lesson that both India and the US need to imbibe is that there is a vast difference between perceiving a threat and devising a strategy to counter it. For instance, Trump cannot hope for de-radicalisation of Islam if he simultaneously does not stop feeding its radicalisation by recognising Jerusalem as Israels capital without first a peaceful resolution of the Israel-Palestine dispute. Similarly, Modi cannot begin to counter China without first securing Indias immediate periphery, which includes Pakistan. Using an imaginary Pakistan hand in Indian domestic politics is picking up the worst from Indira Gandhis election playbook. It helped neither her nor perhaps Modi. But it certainly signalled that he has no desire to engage Pakistan at least in his current term as PM.

Meanwhile, The Economist has devised a new term, sharp power, for nations actually attempting to interfere in domestic politics of other countries. The US is seeing a special prosecutor investigating the possible role of Russia in the US presidential election. In Australia, Sam Dastyari, a Labour MP, had to resign for suspected lobbying for China. A New Zealand MP was discovered as having taught at a Chinese spy school. Germany has detected an outreach by Chinese agencies to opinion makers. China has nearly 500 government-funded and staffed Confucius schools abroad which function more than soft power peddlers. Europe is just starting to see that China is not just a benign trade destination. It is a rising competitor poaching technologies and equipment, using annual foreign investment now of over $150 billion.

It is high time that rulers of major democracies wised-up to the real challenge, which is without and not within their nations. Sharp powers need a sharp response.

The writer is a former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs
THE BJP fared poorly in rural Gujarat and could have lost the election but for the urban voters. It paid the price for its urban-centric policies that reflected its traditional bias. Although the party has emerged victorious, almost half of the population, mainly representing rural Gujarat, has not agreed with the BJPs style of governance. Therefore, there is the need to introspect  why did the partys iconic, larger-than-life image fail to exert a pull on Gujarati villagers?

Traditionally, the BJP did not have a stronghold in the rural areas and the party mostly nurtured its constituencies in towns and cities. PM Modi, however, has made conscious efforts to go beyond the confines of the BJPs traditional vote bank since 2014. The UP victory is a recent example of the BJP influencing rural voters. This charisma, however, did not work in Gujarat. Modis political catchphrase  sabka saath sabka vikas is all about inclusive development. In every speech he spoke about uplifting the poor  Dalit, shoshit and vanchit; who are mostly part of the rural India. It is true that Gujarats economy had witnessed double-digit growth under the leadership of CM Modi. Its agriculture growth, however, dropped significantly since 2013 after a series of natural calamities. Similar conditions prevail pan-India and there is a need to help farmers through measures like easy crop insurance, assured procurement and remunerative pricing.

The countrys rural economy has suffered because of the ruling BJPs indifference. This has been reflected in the results of local-level elections. The national agricultural growth has already slumped in the second quarter to 1.7% and distressed farmers are committing suicide because they are unable to recover their input costs. Middlemen continue to exploit them and the Central government conveniently excuses itself citing helplessness because agriculture is a state subject. Now the BJP, which controls 19 states, cannot shrug off its responsibility. Nurturing rural constituencies is also a political necessity if it wants to repeat 2014 in less than one-and-a-half years.
Chandigarh, December 20

Haryana remained in news, mostly for wrong reasons, in 2017--be it the Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh episode, the lynching of a 17-year-old boy on a train or the killing of a seven-year-old in his school.

However, there was jubilation when Manushi Chhillar was crowned Miss World and 29-year-old police sub-inspector Anita Kundu became the first Indian woman to scale Mount Everest from the China side.

Improvement in gender ratio also brought cheers to the state, which celebrated its golden jubilee year. The gender ratio reached 937 compared to 830 in 2011.

The Congress and principal opposition INLD kept up the attack on the Manohar Lal Khattar government over its alleged failure on issues related to law and order, power, farmers, employees and governance.

The year saw a re-run of the trail of death and destruction which Haryana witnessed in 2016 in the violence that followed the Jat quota stir, but this time there was mayhem after Dera Sacha Sauda sect chief Ram Rahim was convicted in August of raping two woman disciples.

The widespread violence and arson, mainly in Panchkula and Sirsa, left 41 people dead and scores injured. The Dera chief is now lodged in a jail in Rohtak, serving a 20-year sentence.

A three-day long mammoth sanitisation of the Dera premises in Sirsa was conducted in September overseen by a court commissioner. Most of the jailed sect chiefs aides, including Honeypreet Insaan, who remained on the run after his conviction, were arrested as Haryana Police registered 173 FIRs with nearly 1,000 Dera followers named as accused and booked on various charges.

The lynching of Junaid Khan in June shocked the entire nation. Junaid, who boarded the Mathura-bound train from Delhi, was allegedly stabbed to death when he, along with his brothers and cousins, was returning home to Khandawali village after shopping for Eid.

His body was later dumped near Asaoti village in Faridabad district.

The matter reached the Punjab and Haryana High Court which has stayed a trial courts proceedings in the case. A division bench of the court also issued notice to the Haryana government and the CBI on a plea of Junaids family seeking a probe by the central agency into the matter.

In a shocking incident, class II student Pradhuman Thakur was found with his throat slit in his schools washroom in Gurugram on September 8.

School bus conductor Ashok Kumar was arrested by Haryana Police but got bail recently after the case was transferred to the CBI. The agency apprehended a class XI student in connection with the killing.

In December, another incident rocked the state and made national headlines. A seven-year-old girl died of dengue at Fortis Hospital in Gurugram which billed the victims family Rs 16 lakh for the treatment. A Haryana government panel indicted the hospital in the case saying there were several irregularities.

State Health Minister Anil Vij termed it as not a death, but a murder.

May and December saw two brutal cases of rape and murder involving a 23-year-old woman from Sonepat and a six-year-old girl from Uklana in Hisar.

The Opposition was up in arms against the government on the law and order front and other issues with former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and leaders like Randeep Singh Surjewala, Kiran Chowdhury, Ashok Tanwar and Abhay Singh Chautala leading the charge.

Hooda and Surjewala also addressed series of rallies raising issues of various sections including farmers. The INLD vociferously raised the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal issue and blamed the Khattar government for failing to safeguard the interests of the state.

The opposition parties also targeted the Khattar government for scrapping the Dadupur Nalvi canal project.

Hooda often maintained that the Khattar government was only doing event management without any concrete work on ground.

Amid raging concern over rising pollution levels, apparently caused by stubble-burning, Delhi and Haryana held discussions on a range of issues and dwelt on possible measures to prevent the recurrence of smog next winter.

During February-March, the Jats remained on warpath and sat on dharnas over their main demand of quota though their stir remained peaceful this year. In the spiral of violence which broke out last year, over 30 people had died, several were injured and large-scale damage was caused to both public and private property at many places.

In August, Haryana BJP president Subhash Baralas son Vikas was accused of stalking the daughter of a senior IAS officer from the state and this incident too remained in news for days.

On the positive side, Haryana became a kerosene-free state, rural Haryana was declared open defecation free in June and the BJP government also made the Public Distribution System online, which helped in keeping a tab on corruption and leakage of food-grains.

Sixty-three-year-old Khattar maintained he wanted to provide a corruption-free, transparent and accountable government and to put in his own words also to fill many potholes left by the previous government and ensure equitable development.

In May, BJP president Amit Shah paid a visit to Chandigarh and ruled out the possibility of change of guard in Haryana putting all speculation to rest which suggested that Khattar, a former RSS pracharak, would be replaced after there were reports on dissident activities by at least 16 MLAs. PTI
Pradeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 19

The state government is still dilly-dallying on the issue of extension of lal dora (area beyond which construction is not allowed) in villages. It had nearly five months ago set up a ministerial committee to look into it.

The reply to an application under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has revealed that the state government is yet to take a call on the matter that affects lakhs of people across the state.

The Development and Panchayat Department, in reply to the RTI application filed by Pinjore-based social activist Vijay Bansal, said the file had been sent to senior officials for necessary action. He wanted to know the status of lal dora extension issue.

In July, the government had constituted a four-member committee under the leadership of Finance Minister Capt Abhimanyu. It was tasked with looking into extension of lal dora and encroachment upon land belonging to urban local bodies and panchayats.

During the Bhupinder Singh Hoodas government in 2014, the Cabinet had approved categorisation of the area falling within lal dora and phiri (boundary) of villages as abadi deh (extended lal dora). The move was to pave the way for lakhs of villagers to construct buildings in this zone.

The Cabinet decision, however, was never implemented in letter and in spirit with the fate of constructions in the abadi deh area still uncertain.

Villagers for long have been demanding extension of lal dora. The village population has increased manifold in past decades, resulting in rise in demand for housing.

As construction outside lal dora was considered illegal, villagers were unable to construct buildings on their own land.

Even the Punjab and Haryana High Court and the Supreme Court had ruled that area falling within lal dora and phirni of a village should be considered abadi deh.

What the matter is
Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 20

To rein in private hospitals, the Haryana Government will soon implement the Central Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2010, with an amendment that hospitals having less than 50 beds will be exempted from it.

Health Minister Anil Vij said this after a meeting with office-bearers of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) here today. Representatives of the IMA are satisfied with the talks. Within a day or two, the government will bring in an ordinance to implement the Act, Vij said.

The government, he said, had addressed the apprehensions of the IMA and decided to keep hospitals with less than 50 beds out of the purview of the Act.

Principal Secretary (Health) Amit Jha said the government would soon frame rules once an ordinance was brought.

A part of the rules is already in place as these were framed by the Centre. Section 54 of the Act provides for the states to frame their own rules on certain matters. We hope to frame the rules by January, Jha said.

State IMA president Dr Atam Parkash Setia was happy at the relaxation given to hospitals having less than 50 beds. Nearly 85 per cent of IMA members will be exempted from the Act. And those members owning hospitals with more than 50 beds will be taken care of while framing rules. The meeting decided stringent provisions of the Central Act will not be incorporated in rules applicable for Haryana, he said.

He said the meeting decided that IMA representatives would be taken into confidence while framing rules.

The state government had invited representatives of the IMA today to decide whether to implement the Haryana Clinical Establishments Act, 2014, passed by the previous Congress government or go for the Central Act after making amendments that address the concerns of the IMA.
Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 19

In a huge financial loss to the Haryana Seed Development Corporation (HSDC), more than 50,000 quintals of wheat seed valued at over Rs 15 crore has been left unsold this season due to delay in announcement of prices.

This comes months after 4,200 quintals of moong seed worth Rs 4.8 crore in excess of market demand was found rotting due to maggot infestation in May-June.

More than 50 farmer-shareholders of the HSDC, who were present in the annual general meeting of the corporation today, demanded that officers responsible for the loss must be charge-sheeted.

When this government can charge-sheet IAS officer Ashok Khemka on account of 87,000 quintals of unsold wheat seed at the end of 2012, why can those responsible for unsold seed not be punished now? asked Rajender Singh Beniwal, an HSDC director elected by farmer-shareholders.

A progressive farmer from Kairanwali village in Sirsa district, he was elected as director for the fifth consecutive term. Parvesh Vohra of Karnal was also elected as director today.

The farmer-shareholders also expressed concern after they came to know that cumulative losses of the HSDC had crossed the figure of Rs 5.25 crore.

On October 23, a report in these columns  Sowing begins, HSDC yet to decide wheat seed price  highlighted the fact that farmers were being forced to buy seed from private dealers.

It was being alleged by farmers unions that the HSDC had delayed announcement of prices in connivance with private manufacturers to benefit the latter.

HSDC Managing Director RS Solanki said a situation wherein wheat seed remained unsold due to market forces had recurred after some years.

He admitted that there was delay in deciding prices, but claimed that rates were finalised a day after the issue was highlighted in these columns. He said it had been decided to take a call on rates by October 10 every year.

Responding to a query on the moong seed issue, Solanki said the HSDC would try to sell it next season. He maintained that pest infested only on a small quantity, which was later contained.

He tried to play down cumulative losses and said there were several factors responsible for losses. He claimed that the HSDC would earn at least Rs 1 crore as profit this year. I have prepared Vision-2027, which will take the HSDC towards profits, he added.
New Delhi, December 21

A 16-year-old student accused of killing a seven-year-old boy at the Ryan International School here will be tried as an adult, the Juvenile Justice Board said on Wednesday.

The board passed the order on Wednesday morning responding to a plea that the teenager accused of the crime should not be treated as a juvenile.

At its last hearing on December 15, the board had reserved its decision till December 20 on whether the accused could be tried as an adult.

The teenager  a Class-11 Ryan International School student  is likely to be brought before Gurgaon's Sessions Court at its next hearing on December 22.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The board had previously rejected the bail plea of the suspect, who has been accused of killing Pradhuman Thakur, a Class 2 student of the same school, in the school on September 8.

It had set up a committee that included a psychologist from PGI Rohtak for an expert opinion on the accused, who had been taken into custody by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) last month.

Read

The panel submitted its report in two sealed envelopes, which were opened in the court on the day of the last hearing.

Lawyer Sushil Tekriwal, representing Pradhuman's father, said the report was based on behavioural, sociological and psychological aspects of the teenager.

According to Tekriwal, the report said the accused should be treated as an adult and it suggested that he was "hyper- aggressive".

The CBI counsel had also pressed for the teenager to be treated as an adult.

The Juvenile Justice Board had noted that the accused was mature enough to recognise the consequences of his actions.

Pradhuman was found with his throat slit in the school's washroom. The Gurgaon police had said the crime was committed by the school bus conductor, which the CBI later refuted.

The CBI claimed the teenager had killed Pradyuman in a bid to get the school closed so that a scheduled parent- teachers meeting and an examination could be deferred. PTI
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 20

The district police today booked a Sirsa youth, identified as Aman, on the charges of rape and abetment to suicide.

A national-level judo practitioner allegedly committed suicide in Fatehabad on Saturday evening. The postmortem report revealed that the girl was pregnant. The victims father, in his complaint to the police, held Aman responsible for his daughters suicide.

Fatehabad DSP Ravinder Tomar said the youth had been booked under Sections 376 and 306 of the IPC.

The victims father alleged that Aman lured his daughter with the promise of marriage.

The victim, a resident of Baijalpur village, was pursuing graduation from a Fatehabad college. She used to live in a rented accommodation in the Swami Nagar locality.

On Saturday evening, she committed suicide by hanging herself from a ceiling fan. In her suicide note, she did not name anyone and said no one should be harassed for her death.

The victims father, however, alleged that before taking this extreme step, his daughter had called Aman.

The police said investigations were on.

One booked in Ynagar

Yamunanagar: The police have booked a resident of Purana Hamida Colony for raping his aunt. The victim, in her complaint to the police, said she was going to Damla village on October 26.

She said her nephew met her on the way. She added that he told her that he was going that way and would drop her in Damla village.

She reported that he gave her some sedative in some eatable and raped her in his car. She alleged that he abandoned her after committing the crime.

ASI Poonam said a case of rape had been registered after recording the statement of the woman.
A Missouri man originally charged with attempted homicide pleaded guilty Tuesday to a lesser crime for shooting another man in April on Madisons South Side.

Marvin Houston, 25, of Steele, Missouri, who was charged in April with attempted first-degree intentional homicide, pleaded guilty to first-degree reckless endangerment for shooting Jesse M. Howe, 34, early on April 4 at Penn Park.

The complaint states that after he was shot, Howe drove off down South Park Street and crashed into a utility pole near Badger Road, sending the pole crashing down on the car he was driving.

To meet a friend

Howe, who sustained internal injuries and two wounds to his left arm in the shooting, told police that he had been with a man earlier who he only knew as St. Louis at Downtown bars, according to the complaint. They drove to Penn Park afterward, purportedly to meet a female friend of Houston, the complaint states, but once there Houston got out of the car and shot Howe in the drivers seat.

Houston now faces up to 12 years of combined prison and extended supervision when he is sentenced in about two months by Dane County Circuit Judge Ellen Berz. A plea agreement did not contain any sentencing recommendations that would be offered when Houston is sentenced.
Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, December 19

The BJP victory in the 2017 elections is emphatic as the party not only bagged 44 out of 68 seats, but also improved its vote share by 9.33 per cent (from 38.47 per cent to 48.8 per cent). It added 18 seats to its tally of 26 seats won in the 2012 poll.

The Congress, which polled 41.7 per cent votes against 43.21 per cent in 2012, suffered a loss of 15 seats. However, the increase in the vote share did not reflect in the number of seats as most BJP candidates won with huge margins. Barring six candidates, the victory margins of Congress candidates were below 2,000 votes, with Deputy Speaker Jagat Singh Negi winning from Kinnaur with the lowest margin of 120 votes.

The victory margins of Asha Kumari from Dalhousie, ID Lakhanpal from Badsar, and Dhani Ram Shandil from Solan were 556, 439 and 671 votes, while BJPs Rajiv Saizal won with the lowest margin of 442 votes.

The victory margin of BJP candidates was more than 10,000 in eight constituencies and between 5,000 and 10,000 in 18 segments, while no Congress candidate breached the 10,000 mark.

The BJP polled 18,46,432 (48.8 per cent) votes and the Congress 15,77,450 (41,7 per cent) votes. Independents secured 2,39,989 (6.3 per cent) votes, while the CPM polled 55,558 (1.51 per cent) and NOTA 34,332 (0.9 per cent) votes.

Out of 17 seats reserved for SC candidates, the Congress could win only four seats  Rohru, Rampur, Solan and Sri Renukaji, while the remaining 13 seats  Kasauli, Pachhad, Jhandutta, Chintpurni, Bhoranj, Baijnath, Jaisinghpur, Indora, Balh, Nachan, Karsog, Churah and Ani  were bagged by the BJP. Out of three seats reserved for ST candidates, the Congress won the Kinnaur seat, while the BJP wrested the Lahaul-Spiti and Bharmour seats.

In 2012, the BJP had won four reserved seats of Kasauli, Pachhad, Bhoranj and Churah, while Indora was won by an Independent and the remaining 12 seats were bagged by the Congress, which also won three tribal constituencies.

This time, the Congress wrested 10 seats from the BJP, while two Independents defeated sitting BJP members in Dehra and Jogindernagar, but the BJP defeated the Congress on 25 seats and grabbed two seats won by Independents in the last elections, taking its tally to 44.

The performance of the BJP was best in Mandi and Kangra, where it won 13 out of 17 seats, while it won eight of 17 seats in Shimla and 10 in Hamirpur. Had Dhumal and some other senior leaders not lost the elections, the party would have achieved 50-plus seats, said senior party leaders.
Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, December 20

With the wait for the formation of the BJP government and decision on the Chief Minister getting stretched, the uncertainty and delay are making the party cadres restive as JP Nadda and Jai Ram Thakur are still the front runners for the top post.

The jubilation of the victory having been soured with the defeat of PK Dhumal, state BJP president Satpal Singh Satti and other stalwarts, the wait for the final decision on who will head the government is making everyone anxious.

In another interesting development, Jai Ram Thakur today reached Samirpur, Dhumals native place, to meet him. He was accompanied by Manali MLA Govind Thakur and Anni MLA Kishori Lal.

He is learnt to have spent more than one hour with Dhumal. Even though the visit is being termed a courtesy call by party insiders, much more is being read into the development.

Meanwhile, the elected MLAs, especially the new comers, have started arriving here. While a large number of Dhumal loyalist MLAs met the former CM before arriving here, they are now gradually pouring in despite the fact that there is still no intimation about the meeting of the BJP legislature party.

Party chief Satti also reached here late in the evening. None of the central leaders, including party in-charge Mangal Pandey or the central team members Nirmala Sitharaman and Narendra Singh Tomar, has arrived. Though they are expected to arrive here, there is still no confirmation about when they will be reaching, said Satti.

There are reports that a section of the senior leaders, owing allegiance to Dhumal, are still keen on the former Chief Minister being given a chance. There were reports that their sentiment would be conveyed to the party high command. Besides Kutlehar MLA Virender Kanwar, some more Dhumal loyalists offered to vacate their seats for him to gain entry in the Vidhan Sabha.

The BJP MPs from Himachal today called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah in New Delhi after the party wrested power from the Congress. The BJP has won 44 seats in a House of 68 as against 21 by the Congress. Two seats have been won by independents and one by the CPM.

Jai Ram meets Dhumal

Jai Ram Thakur on Wednesday reached Samirpur, Dhumal's native place, to meet him. He was accompanied by Manali MLA Govind Thakur and Anni MLA Kishori Lal. He is learnt to have spent more than one hour with Dhumal. Even though the visit is being termed a courtesy call by party insiders, much more is being read into the development.
Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, December 20

Amid speculations whether Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh will be appointed the Leader of the Opposition, the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) will hold its first meeting here on December 22. The party will also introspect the reasons for the defeat in the poll.

The meeting where a decision could be taken on the CLP leader will be held in the presence of AICC general secretary Sushil Kumar Shinde, who was in-charge of the Congress affairs in Himachal. AICC secretary and in-charge Ranjit Ranjan will also be present.

HPCC president Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu has convened a meeting of all Congress candidates, who lost the poll, at 12 noon on December 22. Later, a meeting will be held with all District Congress Committee (DCC) presidents to get the feedback on the reasons for defeat.

We will try to assess the reasons for the defeat based on the feedback from the defeated candidates and DCC presidents, confirmed Sukhu. He added that the meeting of the CLP would be held at 5 pm in the State Congress Office here. The Congress has 21 MLAs in the Assembly of 68 legislators.

Since it is unclear whether Virbhadra will be the CLP leader since he has said this will be his last election, there is a possibility that some other MLA could be given the responsibility. The names of Sukhu, AICC secretary Asha Kumari and Ram Lal Thakur are already doing the rounds.

It is being believed that a decision will be taken by the high command in consultation with Shinde. Though Virbhadra loyalists outnumber the rival faction led by Sukhu, it remains to be seen what stand the party high command will take.

The elections were fought under the leadership of Virbhadra and now it remains to be seen whether he will again lead his party. One thing is certain that there will be a bitter tussle for the CLP leader if Virbhadra opts not to take the responsibility. Virbhadra was the CLP leader from 2007 to 2012 while the BJP was in power and Dhumal was the Chief Minister.

In the race
Pratibha Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, December 19

It is the dawn of a new era in Himachal politics with neither Virbhadra Singh nor PK Dhumal at the helm of affairs. The well-executed high-decibel BJP campaign, attacking corruption, nepotism and poor governance did the trick for the saffron party.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Pitted against the Modi-Shah might, the Congress campaign failed to match up to the BJPs poll strategy. Even as the BJP repeatedly attacked the Virbhadra Singh government for mafia raj and the deteriorating law and order, much to the disappointment of the Congress, neither demonetisation nor GST evoked a response from the voters, even in urban areas.

Nevertheless, Virbhadra Singh not only managed to win his seat, but also successfully launch his son Vikramaditya Singh in his last political innings. Riding on the agenda of development, the six-time Chief Minister had hoped to make history in Himachal where no party has had a repeat performance ever since the 1985 mid-term polls.

The allegations of corruption against Virbhadra Singh and his government marred the Congress prospects considerably. The states poor financial health coupled with spiralling unemployment and poor job avenues left the voter disenchanted with the Congress that had romped home in 2012 on the promise to generate employment. However, it failed to deliver much on that front. And this turned the youth against the party. Also, the rape and murder of a minor girl in Kotkhai dented the government image.

The Congress unexpected performance in Hamirpur, where BJP CM-candidate PK Dhumal was defeated, was of little help as the party lost Kangra and Mandi to the BJP. Kangra, which holds the key to power and had given the Congress 10 of the 15 seats in 2012 elections, tilted in favour of the BJP  the latter winning 11 seats. In the second largest district Mandi, where the BJP and Congress had held five seats each, the BJP this time won nine. The Congress was wiped out in the district, the remaining seat going to an Independent.

The bickering within the Congress, with Virbhadra Singh and state Congress president Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu not seeing eye to eye, did considerable harm to the Congress. The party high command too did little to salvage the party from the BJP onslaught. In fact the state Congress was left to fend for itself. While Rahul Gandhi, then AICC vice-president, addressed three rallies, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president addressed almost a dozen, even as BJP stalwarts fanned out to every nook and corner to woo the voters.
Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, December 19

Post-poll results, its time for the Congress to introspect the reason behind the partys defeat.

A large number of supporters are shocked at the defeat of GS Bali. They gathered at his residence. Many women were seen crying.

Bali said the defeat was a shocker, but he had accepted it as a mandate of the people. It is up to the elected candidate to serve the people of the area now, he said.

The former minister, who had been winning the Nagrota seat since 1998, was defeated by his protege Arun Kumar, a BJP candidate.

Other Congress leaders like Sudhir Sharma, Sanjay Rattan, Chander Kumar and Jagjivan Pal from Kangra district lay low after their defeat.

BJP workers burst crackers and the celebration continued till late into the night. They then met Kishan Kapoor at his residence in the morning to congatulate him.

Sources said some BJP leaders left for Delhi in the morning to lobby for Cabinet berths. The BJP has won 11 of 15 seats in Kangra district. During the BJP regime from 2007 to 2012, there were four Cabinet ministers, including Kishan Kapoor, Ramesh Dhawala, Sarveen Chaudhary and Ravinder Ravi from Kangra district.

Three of them, except Ravinder Ravi, have won this time also. Ravinder Ravi was defeated by Independent Hoshiar Singh from Dehra. All three former ministers are once again eying Cabinet berths.

The sources said Rakesh Pathania, the firebrand leader from Nurpur and now considered close to Union Health Minister JP Nadda, was also in the race for a Cabinet berth since many senior leaders of the BJP, including state president Satpal Satti, Randheer Sharma, Gulab Singh and Maheshwar Singh, lost the elections this time.

Since Jai Ram Thakur, BJP MLA from Mandi, is being seen as the CM face, more MLAs from Kangra may get a place in the Cabinet. Former CM Prem Kumar Dhumals defeat has disappointed many leaders.
Tribune News Service

Shimla, December 19

With BJP getting a clear majority in the Assembly elections, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today called on Governor Acharya Devvrat to tender his resignation.

Having conceded defeat of the Congress in the elections, Virbhadra today drove to the Raj Bhawan to fulfill the formality of tendering his and the Cabinets resignation in wake of BJPs victory.

The Governor requested the Chief Minister to continue in office and discharge functions till the formation of the new government. Both, the Congress and the BJP are likely to hold their Legislature Party meetings in the next two days. The winter session of the government is likely to take place in Dharamsala, where the MLAs would take oath.

Though both Virbhadra and his son Vikramaditya Singh have won the Assembly polls Congress managed to win only 21 seats against 44 by the BJP. The party fared poorly in Kangra where it won only three out of 15 seats and in Mandi, it failed to even open its account.

In fact, five of the 10 ministers in Virbhadras Cabinet lost and only Industry Minister Mukesh Agnihotri, Social Justice and Empower Minister Dhani Ram Shandil and Power Minister Sujan Singh Pathania won. Irrigation and Public Health Minister Vidya Stokes had not contested while Rural Development Minister Anil Sharma had defected to the BJP and won on the opposition ticket.
Our Correspondent

Anantnag, December 19

Two militants of the Jaish-e-Mohammed and a 25-year-old woman were killed today in Shopian district of south Kashmir during an overnight gunfight between security forces and militants, holed up in a residential house.

Twentysix people, including a policeman and an Army soldier, were injured during the encounter and the intense clashes that erupted at the gunfight site.

The police have identified the slain militants as Tanveer Ahmad, a local, and Ali Askari, a Pakistani national. The woman who was killed in the crossfire has been identified as Rubina Jan, alias Beauty, a resident of Batmurran village in Shopian district.

The gunfight in Batmurran village, some 45 km from Srinagar, erupted late Tuesday evening amid clashes between the security forces and locals, who tried to provide a safe passage to the militants.

Deputy Inspector General of Police, South Kashmir range, SP Pani, said the operation concluded in the afternoon today, with the killing of two militants. Two residential houses were also reduced to rubble during the gunfight.

The slain militants were involved in the recent killing (December 11) of J&K Bank guards in Kellar village of the district, Pani said, Multiple efforts were put in to make local militant Tanveer surrender but he did not relent,

The DIG said one more militant broke the cordon with indiscriminate firing and fled. It was apparently then that the woman was shot at and she later succumbed, he said, adding that a policeman and an Army jawan who sustained bullet injuries during the gunfight were stable.

Meanwhile, locals claimed that the woman died when security forces opened fire on protesting locals. The injured protesters were shifted to the nearby Pulwama district hospital. Medical Superintendent of the hospital Abdul Rasheed Parra said the hospital received over 20 injured persons. One of them, a woman, succumbed. There were three with fire arm injuries and they have been shifted to a hospital in Srinagar, Parra said.

Clashes, meanwhile, continued throughout the day in the area. Thousands of people attended the funerals held for the woman and the militant.

The Pakistani militants body has been taken to an undisclosed location for burial by the police.

Grenade blast in Pulwama
Tribune News Service

Jammu, December 20

Governor NN Vohra today complimented and thanked all those people and organisations who are helping the Rajya Sainik Board in raising funds for the welfare of ex-servicemen and their families.

During a function organised by the Rajya Sainik Board in connection with the Armed Forces Flag Day celebrations at Tiger Auditorium here, the Governor observed that Armed Forces Flag Day, observed on December 7 every year, was an important occasion to remember the valiant soldiers who had sacrificed their lives for protecting the territorial integrity of the nation.

He lauded the crucial role of the Armed Forces, both during war and peace, and observed that their sacrifices were founded in their bravery, devotion and dedication.

The Governor stressed the need to make the civil society aware about the role played by the Army in safeguarding the country and maintaining a vigil along the border.

He observed that it was our moral responsibility to take special care of the families of the ex-servicemen, particularly martyrs, and expressed concern about the difficulties faced by the families of non-pensioner widows. He noted that consequent upon his taking up the matter with the Defence Minister, their pensions had been recently revised to Rs 48,000 per annum.

He said: We need to work hard to mitigate their sufferings by providing them timely support.

Brig Harcharan Singh (retd), Director, Rajya Sainik Board, spoke about the boards activities and the funds raised.

The Governor gave cheques of Rs 10,000 each to 34 war widows and prizes to winners of painting and patriotic song competitions. The competitions among schoolchildren were organised by the Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages and the Rajya Sainik Board.

Vohra also gave certificates of appreciation to Jammu citizens working for the welfare of ex-servicemen and their families. Brigadier TK Chopra, Station Commander, and RS Chib, former minister, were present on the occasion.
Arteev Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, December 19

Anjum Bashir Khan Khattak, who has topped the Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS) exam, is an inspiration for young people aiming to join the state administration as he defied all odds to realise his dream. He hails from a remote area in Poonch and his ancestral house was torched by militants in 1998.

For Khattak, who belongs to the Mohra Bachai area in Surankote tehsil in border district of Poonch, the act of militants was a turning point as his family shifted to Jammu after that.

I harboured the dream of getting into the state administration when I was just in Class VIII. The credit of this success goes to my parents who encouraged and supported me during the bad times. Our ancestral house was set on fire by terrorists at Mohra Bachai which led to shifting our family base to Jammu, the 27-year-old topper said. All these years, I did not give up and continued to toil hard in difficult times for accomplishing my dream, he said.

The KAS results were declared late on Monday evening. Khattaks father Mohammed Bashir Khan is a retired lecturer and mother Ghulam Fatima is a government teacher.

There is a lot of potential and talent among young people hailing from remote and hilly parts of the state but they need opportunity. You wont believe that primary and secondary schooling in Poonch district is pathetic, said Khattak who studied at the primary-level at Surankote. He said, Barring a private school, you will not find even a single good government school in the district. How will you expect a candidate from the remote area, like Surankote, to compete with a candidate from Jammu? There is an urgent need for revamping the primary and secondary schooling in the government sector. I was lucky enough that I got an opportunity to complete my Classes X and XII in Jammu.

Khattak, a computer engineering graduate from Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University, Rajouri, has set his priorities after joining the administration.

The policies formulated by the Centre as well as the state government are good enough but poor implementation remains a major issue. No individual can alone bring revolution but I will work for bringing accountability and transparency in the system, he said.

Meanwhile, Aliya Tabassum of mountainous Kishtwar has stood second and Fareed Ahmad of Bhaderwah in Doda district has secured third rank in the examination.

Attack a turning popint
Jammu, December 20

The Jammu and Kashmir government has ordered suspension of seven employees for allegedly remaining absent from duty in Jammu, an official said on Wednesday.

Minister for Law and Justice Abdul Haq had on Tuesday paid a surprise visit to the Directorate of Urdu Coordination Cell, an official spokesman said on Wednesday.

During the inspection, seven employees were found absent and the minister directed the department to place these officials under suspension, he said.

He also ordered attachment of the director of Urdu Coordination Cell to the Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, the spokesman said.

Haq also inspected the translation work being carried out by the Urdu Coordination Cell and cautioned the officers of strict actions against any dereliction of duty on their part.  PTI.
An agent of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives no longer works for the bureau after his arrest Tuesday for allegedly trying to take pictures of a woman inside a residence hall bathroom at UW-Madison.

Special Agent Justin Fahy is no longer employed with the agency, said Ashlee Sherrill, public information officer for the ATF St. Paul Field Division office.

The ATF wouldnt release any more information about Fahy or the investigation.

UW-Madison police say Fahy, 27, who lives in Monona, went into a womens bathroom at Witte Hall on campus on Friday, put his cell phone on the floor of an occupied stall and took photos.

Fahy told UW-Madison police he made a mistake and entered the wrong bathroom.

Fahy was tentatively charged with attempting to take photos depicting nudity and disorderly conduct.

UW-Madison Police spokesman Marc Lovicott said Fahy has been banned from campus.
Mumbai, December 20

Actress Priyanka Chopra says marriage doesnt happen as per plans and she is yet to find the right person to marry.

Priyanka attended the Zee Cine Awards on Tuesday and during a media interaction she was asked about her marriage plans to which she replied: Marriage doesnt happen as per plans. You just have to find the right guy for yourself. If I find a right guy then I will do it. I still havent found that person.

Talking about her Bollywood films, Priyanka confirmed that she was approached for the Rakesh Sharma biopic where Aamir Khan was supposed to play the title role.

It was one of those scripts, she said.

The film will be produced by Sidharth Roy Kapur and Mahesh Mathai.

Priyanka, a global star, has two Hollywood films in her kittyA Kid Like Jake which also features Jim Parsons, Claire Danes, Octavia Spencer and she has also begun shooting for Isnt it Romantic with Rebel Wilson, Adam DeVine and Liam Hemsworth. IANS
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, December 20

A three-day international workshop on Regression Modeling for Risk Factor Investigation was inaugurated by JPS Gill, Director of Research, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU), Ludhiana.

The workshop is being conducted by the School of Public Health and Zoonoses, GADVASU, in collaboration with the University of Sydney, Australia. Gill said GADVASU had signed a memorandum of understanding with the University of Sydney, Australia, in 2015 for collaborative research and for facilitating exchange of faculty and students. He congratulated the organisers for this endeavor and hoped that it would help boost research in risk factor investigation, disease prioritisation and risk analysis of animal diseases at the university and will further strengthen this relationship and enable the development of stronger ties between the two premier institutions.

During this workshop, Navneet Dhand, associate professor in veterinary epidemiology from the University of Sydney, Australia, will train participants in approaches for regression modelling and risk factor investigation. BBS Dhaliwal and Jaswinder Singh, scientists from GADVASU, will discuss approaches for disease prioritisation and risk analysis. These techniques are invaluable for science-based animal health policy development. The workshop will be attended by 43 postgraduate students and researchers from various departments of GADVASU.

RS Aulakh, the organising secretary of the workshop, said the workshop was being organised under the project for the development of effective animal disease control programmes in India and was supported by the Australian government through the Australia-India Council of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He said world-renowned epidemiologists Michael Ward, Navneet Dhand, Viki Brookes from the University of Sydney and Marta Hernandez-Jover from Charles Sturt University, Australia, trained GADVASU scientists and students on research study designs, spatial analysis and risk analysis during the workshops conducted in 2015 and 2016.

AS Nanda, Vice-Chancellor, GADVASU, congratulated the School of Public Health and Zoonoses for this endeavour and hoped that the participants would apply the skills learnt in the workshop in their research work.
Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 20

The Indian Air Force has formally asked the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to submit its proposal for making 83 additional Tejas fighter jets.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Of these, 73 will be the upgraded version called the Mark-1A and 10 will be the trainer version  a twin seat version that will be as per specifications allowed in the variant okayed for existing final operational clearance (FOC). The HAL will submit its proposal within 90 days that is by March next year. HAL is already making 40 Tejas jets as per the FOC standards set by the IAF.

At present pace, the Mark 1-A can first be ready for first flight by 2019.

The Tribune had first reported on November 14 how the Ministry of Defence (MoD) was clearing the hurdles to the project and was more interested in Make in India project of the light combat aircraft, Tejas.

On November 7 last year, the Defence Acquisition Council, chaired by then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, approved the procurement of 83 planes of the Mark1-A version. But a formal order is yet to be placed. It was almost two years ago, in December 2015, that the IAF indicated the requirement of 100 Tejas LCA MK 1-A aircraft, for which a formal order is yet to be placed. The plan of manufacturing and completion is from 2018 to 2022-23.

The seeking of proposal from HAL, an MoD owned public sector undertaking, is the first step towards getting these jets.

There are 123 Tejas jets  in two variants  that the MoD is looking at. Forty planes of the base version have been ordered and are under production. The Mark 1-A version will have 43 upgrades over the base version.

The IAF wants AESA radar in place of the manually scanned Israeli Elta radar. Besides it wants a self-protection jammer, fitted with external re-fuelling capability.

Besides, the MoD has Rs 1,331-crore plan to double the existing eight planes per annum capacity of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.
New Delhi, December 20

Air Marshal JS Gujral (retd) was on Wednesday granted bail by a Delhi court in the VVIP chopper scam case filed against him, former IAF Chief SP Tyagi and others.

Special CBI Judge Arvind Kumar granted the relief to Gujral on a personal bond of Rs 2 lakh and a surety of the same amount when he appeared before the court after a summons was issued to him.

Tyagi, who was earlier granted bail in the case along with others, also appeared before the court following summons issued in September.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The court directed the probe agencies to hand over the chargesheet and other documents filed along with it to the accused and posted the matter for hearing on May 30.

The court had issued summons to Gujral, Tyagi, his cousin Sanjeev alias Julie and advocate Gautam Khaitan on September 19.

Advocate PK Dubey moved an application on behalf of Khaitan seeking permission to go abroad next month.

The court will consider the application on December 22.

The CBI had on September 1 chargesheeted former IAF Chief SP Tyagi in a Delhi court along with Gujral and eight others in connection with a bribery case in the Rs 3,500 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal.

The agency alleged there was an estimated loss of euros 398.21 million (approximately Rs 2,666 crore) to the exchequer in the deal that was signed on February 8, 2010, for the supply of VVIP choppers worth euros 556.26 million.

They have been chargesheeted for offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act and the IPC in the case relating to the alleged bribery of Rs 450 crore. PTI
New Delhi, December 19

Ridiculing Congress president Rahul Gandhis upbeat mood and reaction on the Gujarat and Himachal results, the BJP said he was enjoying defeat as victory under the illusion that his party had delivered a big jolt to the ruling party there.

As per senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar, it seemed the results yesterday had jolted the Congress. We (the BJP) won both state Assembly elections and in Gujarat for the sixth time and this is a jolt for the Congress.

He alleged that the Congress tried to adopt divisive politics in Gujarat but people reposed faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi and in his development agenda. It is amusing to hear the Congress president describe the results as a big jolt to the BJP, he said.

It seems Rahul is under the illusion and enjoying defeat as victory. This shows his dynastic arrogance which is an insult to the peoples mandate, he said. He also rejected Congressallegations of corruption in the Rafale jet deal.  TNS
Dhaka [Bangladesh], December 20

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina hosted a lunch for a delegation of Indian war veterans at her official residence Ganabhaban.

The veterans shared their experiences of the great war of Liberation of Bangladesh.

India and Bangladesh celebrate December 16 as Vijay Diwas every year to mark their military victory over Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971, which led to the liberation of East Pakistan and the eventual creation of Bangladesh.

On Saturday, Bangladesh paid tributes to the 1971 Liberation War soldiers as the country is celebrating the 47th Victory Day.

Earlier on Friday, Bangladesh's Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque thanked India for its tremendous support that was extended by its people and government during the country's war of independence in 1971.

A battle-hardened veteran, who was in the midst of heavy action in Dacca (now, Dhaka) during the 1971 Indo-Pak war, Colonel (retired) Ashok Kumar Tara, is no stranger to limelight.

During the war, Colonel Tara was told to rescue Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's wife and family, which included his 24-year-old daughter Sheikh Hasina (current prime minister of Bangladesh) and her child.

The family was held hostage by a dozen trigger-happy, heavily armed Pakistani troops at a fortified house in the Dhanmondi area in East Pakistan (now, Bangladesh). Tara, then a 29-year-old Major, managed to rescue the Bangabandhu family, in a do-or-die situation as he himself puts.
Manas Dasgupta

Ahmedabad, December 19

Tribals in Gujarat, who had shifted to the BJP after the 2002 communal riots, seem to have resettled in the Congress fold since the last two elections. Of the 27 Scheduled Tribe reserved seats in the 182-member state Assembly, the Congress retained 16 seats in this elections as it did in 2012.

Of 11 tribal seats the BJP had in the outgoing House, (the party had snatched away one tribal seat from the Congress in a byelection in 2013) it lost three, reducing its ST share to eight. Gainers were a Congress-supported Independent and the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP). Chhotubhai Vasava, who floated the BTP, retained his Jhagadia seat in Broach district.

Vasava was elected on the JD-U ticket in the 2012 elections and after the split in the party had joined the Sharad Yadav faction. He floated his new outfit to contest the elections as Yadav faction lost the bow and arrow symbol.

It was also for the first time in the last 42 years that the Congress wrested the Jamalpur-Khadia seat which had remained in the erstwhile Jana Sangh and later in the BJP kitty since 1975.

Due to the delimitation of the constituencies in 2012, the minority-dominated Jamalpur locality was added with Khadia, changing its all-Hindu characteristics which believed to have contributed in the BJPs loss.

In respect of overall vote share, the Congress managed to improve its position, though it failed to touch the victory post. Strangely enough, despite the presence of None of the Above (NOTA) option for the first time in the state elections, vote shares of both the BJP and the Congress increased.

The BJPs vote share increased from 47.85 per cent to 49.1 per cent this time, an increase of 1.25 per cent, and the Congress vote share went up from 38.93 per cent to 41.4 per cent, an increase of 2.47 per cent. The BJPs loss of 16 seats, from 115 in 2012 to 99 this time, has directly benefitted the Congress increasing its tally from 61 to 77, excluding the three seats won by the independents supported by the party.
Ahmedabad, December 20

Two days after the Gujarat assembly poll results, the Congress on Wednesday began an exercise of analysing electoral outcome at a three-day conclave.

The Congress will analyse the election results district-wise and discuss the roadmap ahead in view of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, state party president Bharatsinh Solanki said here.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi will attend the meeting on Friday.

The Congress could not wrest power from the BJP in the assembly elections, even though it upped its tally to 77 seats from 61 in 2012. Results of the elections were declared on Monday.

Congress ally Bharatiya Tribal Party won two seats. An independent backed by the Congress also won, taking the tally of the Congress-led alliance stood at 80  12 short of simple majority in the 182-member assembly.

The BJP retained power for the sixth time, although it was reduced to 99 seats against 115 in 2012.

The Congress performed well in rural areas of Gujarat but failed to make a significant mark in the urban pockets.

The venue of the conclave is a resort in Mehsana district and on the third and final day, the venue will shift to Ahmedabad where Gandhi will be present, Solanki said.

Gandhi, who campaigned extensively in the state for the assembly elections, will address the Congress workers on Friday.

"The Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee has organised the 'chintan shivir' with the aim of discussing the Assembly poll results and to provide a road-map to strengthen the organisation and increase its connection with the people, keeping in mind the 2019 Lok Sabha elections," Solanki told reporters.

Congress general secretary Ashok Gehlot  who was the partys election in-charge of Gujarat  said he was satisfied with the party's performance in the elections, although he accused the BJP of "misusing government machinery" and raised questions over the approach of the Election Commission.

"Both in terms of seats and campaigning, the Congress performed well. Although we could not form the government, a message has been sent across that the BJP can have a tough time fighting the Congress even in the home state of (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi and (BJP president) Amit Shah," said Gehlot, who is also attending the camp.

"The way the BJP campaigned involving cabinet ministers with the prime minister himself making emotional appeals, the way they misused government machinery for polls, and the manner the Election Commission took decisions, we believe we have done exceedingly well," he said.

Senior Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil, who lost from Mandvi in Kutch district, said the party could have formed government had it won the 16 seats that it lost by narrow margins, but he said it was comforting that the BJP was reduced to "double-digits" despite an aggressive campaigning.

"At one point after forming the government in 1985, the Congress was reduced to a mere 32 seats. This time people have supported Congress in large numbers and we have increased our seat tally," he said.

"And after 1990, for the first time the BJP has been reduced to double-digits. We were defeated by small margins on as many as 16 seats. Had we won those seats, we could have formed the government," Gohil said. PTI








Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 20

The Supreme Court Collegiums historic move to make public all decisions on appointments and transfers has brought in the open the differences among the top judges of the country over the contentious issue.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Almost three months after the October 3 decision, it has come to light that two senior judges of the Supreme Court  Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Kurian Joseph  had written to Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra seeking further discussion and the need to respect the rights of others affected by the attempt to introduce transparency.

The decisions henceforth taken by the Collegium indicating the reasons shall be put on the website of the Supreme Court, when the recommendation(s) is/are sent to the Government of India, with regard to the cases relating to initial elevation to the High Court Bench, confirmation as permanent judge(s) of the High Court, elevation to the post of Chief Justice of High Court, transfer of High Court Chief Justices/ Judges and elevation to the Supreme Court, because on each occasion the material which is considered by the Collegium is different, a note posted on SC website had said.

The resolution is passed to ensure transparency and yet maintain confidentiality in the Collegium system, it had said heralding an era of transparency in judicial appointments that was welcomed by activists.

The October 3 decision taken by the SC Collegium comprising CJI Misra, Justice J Chelameswar, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Lokur and Justice Joseph was made public on October 6, amid severe criticism of the Collegium for its controversial decision to transfer Justice Jayant Patel of the Karnataka High Court to the Allahabad High Court, leading to his resignation.

The two judges have mainly talked about making public information that might violate human rights of those still serving in the judiciary, sources privy to it said. Many sitting and former judges are understood to have conveyed their apprehension to the CJI in this regard, they added.

Former CJI KG Balakrishnan, too, had expressed similar apprehension about the possible fallout of the transparency move on candidates rejected by the Collegium.

The reasons for rejection of a name should not be made public. Suppose, a Chief Justice of a high court has been rejected for elevation to the Supreme Court and the reasons for non-elevation are put on the website. It would be difficult for him to continue as a Chief Justice, Justice Balakrishnan had told The Tribune.

Similarly, if a senior advocate is rejected for judgeship of a high court; disclosure of the reasons for rejection of his candidature could affect his public standing, reputation and practice. Genuine candidates may not come forward for judgeship for fear of possible embarrassment, Justice Balakrishnan had said.

Judicial appointments in India have traditionally been wrapped in secrecy making it difficult to know about candidates being considered or recommended for judgeship. After creation of Collegium system by the Supreme Court which took over the power to appoint and transfer judges in 1993 through a verdict described by many as a judicial coup, degree of opacity increased.
The fifth of eight people charged in a large-scale methamphetamine ring in Wisconsin has been sentenced to two years, six months in prison.

Amanda Brown, 31, of Fullerton, California, was sentenced on Friday by U.S. District Judge William Conley in federal court in Madison.

She pleaded guilty in October to a charge of conspiring to distributing meth in.

Brown was accused of helping to sell large quantities of pure methamphetamine, with the amount attributed to her totaling about three pounds of meth.

She assisted her brother Sean Brown, who worked at the other end of the meth chain in Los Angeles, sending multiple packages of meth by the pound from California to Wisconsin.

A federal grand jury returned indictments against eight people in March, with seven of the suspects pleading guilty.

The others sentenced so far include Christopher Dutton of Madison, sentenced to 15 years in prison; Sean Brown, 11 years; James Nehls of Lone Rock, seven years; and Brandon Frank of Argyle, 12 years, four months.
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 19

The Central Government today announced that the decision to change the name of Dyal Singh (Evening) College here had been put on hold, as it distanced itself from the contentious and controversial move.

Responding to the issue raised by Punjab MP Naresh Gujral (SAD) in the Rajya Sabha during Zero Hour, Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javdekar said Delhi University, with which the college was affiliated, had been informed of the decision.

It is not a government decision and the government does not like it. Thats why we have asked that the decision be withheld forthwith and an immediate meeting be convened... We dont like it and such a thing will not happen, he said.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Gujral said unfortunately, the managing committee of the college recently decided to rename it as Vande Mataram Mahavidyalaya. While stating that Vande Mataram evoked patriotic fervour in every Indian, he suggested that the government should set up Vande Mataram universities all over the country.

But to change the name of a minority institution is a direct assault on the feelings of Sikhs... I feel this is something to be condemned, Gujral said demanding replacement of the management committee.

Gujral said philanthropist Dyal Singh Majithia, who founded The Tribune, had given his entire savings and life to the cause of education and set up several colleges and schools. There is a Dyal Singh College in Lahore also, he said. The trigger for the swift decision appears to be Gujrals frontal attack in television interviews last evening post-Gujarat results in which he said the age of arrogance is over, TINA factor is over.

He cited the change of name of the college as a reflection of such an attitude.

It is understood that the top BJP leadership took cognisance of the sharp criticism and intervened to put to rest the controversial decision taken last month by the college managing committee, headed by Amitabh Sinha of the BJP.

Several political leaders, including Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, DGSMCs Manjinder Singh Sirsa and intellectuals raised objection, with some scholars from Pakistan reminding how they had successfully resisted change of name of the institution.

Delhi University sought to make a subtle distinction that the name of the evening college now for day-scholars was being changed and not the original morning college that remained named after the philanthropist.  TNS
Washington, December 20

India will be a part of an international meeting hosted by the US and Canada next month to discuss North Koreas nuclear threat and ways to improve the effectiveness of the current pressure campaign against the reclusive nation.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his Canadian counterpart Chrystia Freeland made the announcement during their meeting in Ottawa on Tuesday. The meeting co-hosted by the US and Canada will take place on January 16 in Vancouver.

With the convening of what were calling the Vancouver Group in mid-January, this is a convening of foreign ministers from the original sending states that were involved in the original Korean conflict.

The Vancouver Group include Australia, Belgium, Britain, Colombia, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Turkey.

But we also obviously are including other important parties  the Republic of Korea, Japan, India, Sweden, and others, who we think are important to have engaged in this meeting, Tillerson told reporters.

The participating countries at the level of foreign minister will be discussing how to improve the effectiveness of the current pressure campaign, Tillerson said.

Are there other steps that could be taken to put additional pressure on the regime in North Korea, and how do we further take our diplomatic efforts forward? And then how do we prepare for the prospects of talk? he said.

North Korea this year increased the pace of its missile programme. Since February, Pyongyang has fired off 23 missiles. On November 29, the North Korean leader said that his country had achieved full nuclear statehood after what he said was the successful test of a new missile capable of striking anywhere in the United States.

Fears of a catastrophic conflict between the US and North Korea spiked as the leaders of the two nations taunted each other, with the US President Donald Trump calling North Korean leader Kim Jong-un Rocket Man.

The pressure campaign is intended to lead to talks, Tillerson said, adding that the US led international community cannot talk unless North Korea is ready to talk.

And I think as weve indicated, were waiting for them to indicate a readiness to talk. But whats important for North Korea to know is that this pressure campaign will not abate. We will not be rolling any of it back. It will only be intensified as time goes by. It will remain in place until they agree to give up their, Tillerson said.

Freeland said the meeting would demonstrate international solidarity against North Koreas dangerous and illegal actions.

We will use this gathering as an opportunity to advance our work on diplomatic efforts towards a more peaceful, prosperous, and nuclear-free future on the North Korean Peninsula and to demonstrate international solidarity in our condemnation of North Koreas actions, she said.

Freeland said the pressure on North Korea would increase until its behaviour changes.

Were confident that this campaign of international pressure will lead to the best outcome for the whole world, I think the only outcome for the whole world, which is a diplomatic path to a resolution of this crisis, a diplomatic path to the outcome that I think we all believe in, which is a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, she said in response to a question. PTI
Chennai, December 20

Setting off a controversy a day ahead of the RK Nagar bypoll, a video purportedly showing the late CM J Jayalalithaa in a hospital was released by sidelined AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakarans loyalist today.

Amid questions on the timing of the 20-second video, that went viral on the social media, election officials asked TV channels to stop its telecast. The footage, showing a frail Jaya in a nightdress, sipping a health drink with a straw, was released by Vetrivel, disqualified MLA and election agent of Dhinakaran, contesting as an Independent.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

A police complaint was lodged against Vetrivel, who said he released the clip in view of doubts raised over the circumstances leading to Jayas death.  PTI
Prateek Chauhan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 20

Laser fencing will be installed along Indias open borders with Nepal and Bhutan to curb infiltration and smuggling of FICN and drugs, said Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) Director General Rajni Kant Mishra.

The force today celebrated its 54th Raising Day and 15 Nepalese Armed Police Force officers witnessed the parade.

The DG said the force was running two laser fencing pilot projects. It has established and operationalised 635 border outposts along the Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bhutan borders to fulfil its mandated duties of securing the people living in border areas and to prevent trans-border crimes.

He said five battalions were deployed for counter-insurgency in J&K, seven in Naxal-hit areas in Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh and two in Assam for counter-insurgency operations and law and order duties.

In J&K, the existing Bomb Detection and Disposal Squads have been doubled to six by raising three additional BDDS teams, he said.

However, the DG denied any type of Chinese influence on the Indo-Bhutan border, but added that the SSB had increased force deployment along the Indo-Bhutan border on the Sikkim front.
Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 20

The Lok Sabha was adjourned for the second time on Wednesday during Zero Hour amid sloganeering by the Congress that is seeking an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for having levelled allegations against former PM Manmohan Singh.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the House till 2 pm. Earlier, Question Hour was adjourned within seconds of the Lok Sabha convening for the day.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The Speaker did not allow Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge to speak on the Modi-Manmohan issue.

The Congress rushed to the Well of the House seeking an apology from Modi.

Doctor sahib se maafi maango, shouted the Congress protesters.

Modi was not in the House during Zero Hour when the slogans were raised.
New Delhi, December 19

National Green Tribunal (NGT) chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar today retired from the post after completing his five-year tenure. His successor is yet to be appointed. A Full Bench reference was organised today at the NGT in court number 1 on the occasion. Justice Kumar resigned as a Supreme Court judge after he was appointed NGT chairperson on December 20, 2012.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

During his tenure as NGT chief, he passed several landmark orders and judgments. These include the ban on 10-year-old diesel and 15-year-old petrol vehicles, the slew of directions for rejuvenation of the Ganga and Yamuna, the demolition of illegal hotels in Himachal Pradesh and the ban on plastic items in Delhi, Haridwar and Punjab.

His recent order capping the number of pilgrims at Vaishno Devi to 50,000 per day and his direction to maintain silence at Amarnath invited ire from various quarters. The first chairperson of the tribunal was Justice Lokeshwar Singh Panta, who was appointed on October 18, 2010 and relinquished the post in 2011 when he was made Lokayukta of Himachal Pradesh.

The NGT was established on October 18, 2010, under the National Green Tribunal Act 2010 for effective and expeditious disposal of cases relating to environmental protection and conservation of forests and other natural resources. The tribunals Principal Bench is located in New Delhi while its Zonal Benches are in Bhopal, Pune, Kolkata and Chennai and its Circuit Benches in Shimla, Shillong, Jodhpur and Kochi.

The tribunal consists of a full-time chairperson, judicial members and expert members. The minimum number of judicial and expert members prescribed is 10 in each category and the maximum number is 20 in each category. PTI
Tribune News Service

New Delhi/ Islamabad, December 17

Pakistan has granted visa to Indian death row convict Kulbhushan Jadhavs wife and his mother, Pakistans foreign office spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday.

The two will meet Jadhav  a former naval officer sentenced to death for espionage by a Pakistan military court  on December 25, Pakistans foreign office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal said in a tweet on Monday.

"Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi issued the visas to the mother and wife of Commander Jadhav to visit Islamabad to meet him, today," Mohammad Faisal's tweet said.

Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi issued the visas to the mother and wife of Commander Jadhav to visit Islamabad to meet him, today.  Dr Mohammad Faisal (@ForeignOfficePk) December 20, 2017

On Thursday, Pakistan directed its high commission in New Delhi to issue visas to Jadhav's wife and mother.

An official of the high commission in Delhi will also accompany the two women.

Pakistan had granted permission to both women in November after months of negotiating a meeting by the Indian government.

A Pakistan military court sentenced Jadhav to death for espionage in April  a decision that triggered a diplomatic row and strained already fragile ties between the two countries. Pakistan claims its security forces arrested Jadhav alias Hussein Mubarak Patel from its restive Balochistan province on March 3 last year after he reportedly entered from Iran.

India, however, maintains that Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the Indian Navy, and appealed the verdict at the International Court of Justice in May. ICJ halted the execution and asked Pakistan to allow India consular access to the prisoner.

Pakistan recently sent its response to Pakistan in which it said it could not give India consular access because Jadhav was a spy and could not be treated like an ordinary person. With PTI
Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 20



The Congress on Wednesday indicated it would not let the Parliament function until Prime Minister Narendra Modi either proved the serious anti-national charges he levelled against his predecessor Manmohan Singh and other dignitaries or withdrew his words with regrets.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said the PM maligned former Prime Minister, former vice President Hamid Ansari, former Army Chief and other tall leaders under a conspiracy to win Gujarat elections.

The PM should come and say in Parliament that he said what he said under a conspiracy to win Gujarat elections. He said all that because he wanted public sympathy and hoped that by painting Congress leaders as anti national he could swing the voters towards the BJP. Now that he has won the election and his objective stands achieved let him come and say this in the Parliament and tell people the reality, Azad said flanked by MPs in both Houses, which have not functioned due to disruption of the opposition on the above issue.

The Congress said the entire opposition was with it on the matter of principles.

We dont know how people in the media view this issue. Its not a routine disruption. PM makes serious allegations on his predecessor and other top leaders and doesnt feel the need to clarify. This means they will say anything and get away with it, paint anyone as anti national and not regret. We have nothing against the PM. Let him come and say all this as it is, Azad said.

The central government has ruled out any apology from the prime minister who had in the middle of Gujarat elections alleged that former PM Singh was at a dinner meeting with Pakistan High Commissioner and ex Pakistan foreign minister at the residence of Congress man Mani Shankar Aiyar to hatch a conspiracy to impact Gujarat polls in Congress favour.
The dean of the UW-Madison School of Business is resigning after just one semester, which included a proposal  since reversed  to end the schools Masters of Business Administration program.

Dean Anne Massey said Monday in an email to the schools faculty and staff that she will join the faculty as a professor after her resignation takes effect Dec. 31. She said the move will allow Chancellor Rebecca Blank to pursue a different vision than Masseys.

My vision for the future of the WSB has not changed since I visited campus last March. Rather it was reinforced as (I) learned more about the school and its needs, Massey wrote in the email. However, I have realized that my vision for the school differs from Chancellor Blanks.

In October the school announced that it would consider halting admission to its 2-year, full-time Master of Business Administration program, which enrolls about 100 students per year.

An annual survey by the Graduate Management Admission Council found that applications for MBA programs declined for the fourth straight year in 2017.

The consideration was met with immediate backlash from students and alumni, who raised concerns that suspending the MBA program could affect the value of their own degrees and weaken efforts to increase diversity.

The school backed off from the plan one week later.

Massey said that by resigning, Blank will have the opportunity to ensure that her vision is implemented.

Chancellor Blank and I have reiterated our commitment to developing a vision for the Wisconsin School of Business that will grow from the collaborative strategic planning process focused on expanding and building new programs and strengthening the full-time MBA program, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs Sarah Mangelsdorf said in a Monday email to students and faculty.

The suspension of MBA admissions would have made the school one of many high-profile business schools  including University of Iowas Tippie College of Business, Wake Forest and Virginia Tech  to drop its full-time MBA program. Closing the MBA program was one component of a greater overhaul of the business school to grow undergraduate programs and add specialized Masters programs, Massey said in October.

UW-Madison announced in March that Massey, a former Indiana University professor and administrator, would take over duties as the schools dean Aug. 7.

In a statement at the time, Mangelsdorf said, Her passion for innovation and forward-thinking research will inspire students and build upon the schools success.

Massey succeeded Francois Ortalo-Magne, who was dean from 2011 until becoming dean of the London Business School over the summer.

Mangelsdorf told students in the email Monday that associate dean Barry Gerhart will lead the school beginning Dec. 31 until an interim dean is selected. The search for a permanent dean will start in fall 2018.
Moradabad (Uttar Pradesh), December 20

The Uttar Pradesh Police have arrested a woman from Moradabad, accused of running away with the belongings of men, intending to marry her - on the first day of their 'marriage'.

Her con gang included her master mind husband, who would make all the wedding arrangements and search for new targets as well as plan to co-ordinate.

The accused would first wed the victim grooms and then rob them off their valuables like jewellery and cash.

The con bride took the idea to become rich from Bollywood movie Dolly Ki Dolly' featuring actress Sonam Kapoor.

A native of Uttarakhand's Dehradun, Preeti has duped at least 12 men till now.

Meanwhile, Superintendent of Police (SP) Uday Shankar said, We had been searching for her from past few days. Many people refused to file any complaint due to their respect in the society. The police have arrested Preeti and her husband. We are also looking for other people of her gang.  ANI.
Chandigarh, December 20

The Shiromani Akali Dal has asked Pakistan High Commissioner Sohail Mahmood to ensure safety of Sikh families living in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa after news reports said they were being forced to convert to Islam by a government official.

A delegation of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) led by party president Sukhbir Singh Badal met Mahmood in New Delhi on Wednesday and wanted Pakistan government's intervention.

The meeting came a day after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said India would take up the issue at the highest level in the Pakistan government.

The Express Tribune, a leading Pakistan daily, this week published a news story about the Sikh community raising serious concerns after being forced to convert to Islam by the government official in Hangu district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

The SAD delegation also urged the Pakistan High Commissioner to take strict action against any official who coerced Sikhs to convert to Islam, the partys statement said.

The party also asked Pakistan to allow a delegation to visit the Sikh families in Pakistan's northwest.

Mahmood told the delegation that an officer of the provincial administration had an altercation with the Sikh community members and that he had been suspended. A committee has been formed to probe the matter, the statement quoted him as saying.

Badal, meanwhile, also spoke to External Affairs Minister Swaraj, who assured him that her ministry would take up the issue with the Pakistan Government. PTI


Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 19

The state industry has been left with little option but to cooperate with the cash-strapped government on the issue of getting subsidised power at Rs 5 per unit. Citing its poor fiscal health and inability to give power at subsidised rates from November 1, the state asked industry representatives to bear with them. The new subsidised power tariff will now be applicable from January 1, 2018.

Amid protests by some industry representatives, mainly from Ludhiana and Mandi Gobindgarh, it has finally been decided that the power tariff hiked retrospectively (to be charged from April 1 to October 31) will be borne equally by the state government and the industry. In the process, the state government will take a hit of Rs 300 crore.

Sources told The Tribune that during the meeting chaired by Power Minister Rana Gurjit Singh, government officials argued that though the government was inclined to fulfil its promise, its hands were tied. Some industrialists, including SC Ralhan, threatened to walk out of the meeting after the government expressed its inability to give subsidised power.

The industry representatives, which included prominent industrialists from across Punjab, representatives of the CII and PHD Chamber, were also told that in lieu of accepting this proposal of bearing 50 per cent tariff retrospectively, the government would now charge them only a single variable power tariff till March 31 (where industrial consumers pay only on the units of power consumed).

RS Sachdeva, chairman, PHD Chamber, told The Tribune that an assurance was also given that for the next fiscal, the government and the industry representatives would approach the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission and ensure that in case a two-part tariff was imposed (variable tariff and fixed tariff, based on sanctioned industrial load), the fixed tariff would be capped at Rs 6.57 per unit.

With the issue now resolved, it will be taken up in the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Retrospective hike to be split

Amid protests by industry representatives, it has finally been decided that the power tariff hiked retrospectively (to be charged from April 1 to October 31) will be borne equally by the state and the industry. In the process, the state government will take a hit of Rs 300 crore.
Gagan K Teja

Tribune News Service

Patiala, December 20

The Patiala police have arrested Inderjit Singh Sandhu, a close accomplice of notorious gangsters Vicky Gounder, Prema Lohoria and Neeta Deol from Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi.

He was one of the masterminds in the Nabha jailbreak case and was instrumental in providing logistics, managing finances and providing hideouts to these gangsters.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The accused was travelling from Jordan to New Delhi on a fake passport. He is involved in a number of crimes registered across Punjab. A lookout corner notice had been issued by the Patiala police against the accused.

The accused has been sent to three-day police custody and his custodial interrogation is likely to throw significant light on the jailbreak case.
Sanjeev Singh Bariana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 20

More than 10 lakh upper primary class (Class VI-VIII) students of government and government-aided schools in the state have not received their school uniform this year.

This year, Punjab has received approximately Rs 525 crore under the Sarv Sikhya Abhiyaan (SSA) out of the sanctioned amount of Rs 1,139 crore by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).

Not managing to spare its earmarked amount of Rs 60 crore out of the SSA total for the uniform, the department this year gave school uniform only to students of primary classes.

Director General of School Education (DGSE) Prashant Goyal confirmed the paucity of funds under the SSA programme at the moment.

We are faced with the issue of paying salaries of SSA teachers besides certain other important works. So, we are a little tight on expenses for uniform. Approximately Rs 43 crore per month is spent on the salary of approximately 7,000 teaching staff, Goyal said.

On the list of items to be procured in this amount is a shirt and trousers (salwaar kameez in case of girls), shoes and a pair of socks; and sweaters during winters. Students from class I till VIII are entitled to get a complete set of uniform worth Rs 400 under the project.

Launched in 2010-11 as part of Sarv Shiksha Abhiyaan for all girls and reserved category students, the government had expanded the programme to include students from the economically weaker sections as well.

The big issue related with providing free uniform to students is its quality. A senior principal of a government school in Hoshiarpur district said, Rs 400 is a very small amount for a complete uniform set. Only after going to different outlets mainly in Ludhiana, we are able to complete the formality of giving a uniform set to students. We have cases of teachers contributing from their pockets.

Goyal said, I am aware that Rs 400 is too small for a set of uniform. However, we cannot make any amendment till we are informed by the Centre or state government volunteers to contribute out of its pocket.
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 19

Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu today admitted that his government's honeymoon period in the state was over.

He said: After the MC polls, we now have our councillors. We cannot make excuses now. This is time that we fix responsibility on our shoulders. After six months, if someone says development is not taking place, I will accept it.

Terming communalism as the biggest threat to the country, he alleged that it was unfortunate that BJP leaders had denigrated the office of the Prime Minister in the Gujarat polls.

He said levelling of false allegations of conspiring with Pakistan against former PM Dr Manmohan Singh was uncalled for. At a press conference here, Sidhu said: The spirit of Constitution should not be transgressed. The Congress will never attempt to polarise votes on the basis of caste or creed. Jodan wale nu maan milde te todan wale nu apmaan (Those who unite people get honoured while those who divide face disgrace).

He added that despite the fact that the Congress had lost the Gujarat polls, party president Rahul Gandhi was still the winner and would get the glory. As an individual, Rahuls stature has got elevated like a colossus after ascendency of the Congress in the state, he said.
Tribune News Service

Dehradun, December 20

The killing of a Dalit youth has sparked tensions in Nainital district.

Suraj (27), son of Ramcharan, a resident of Hari Nagar, entered into a scuffle with a few youths over some money matter.

The victim was hit on his head following which he was rushed to the BD Pandey Memorial Hospital, which referred him to the Ram Murthy Hospital, Bareilly, where he was declared brought dead.

The victim was working with the Nainital municipality.

Valmiki community members today staged a demonstration at the Tallital bus station seeking arrest of those behind Surajs murder.

It was only after police intervention that the culprits would be arrested at the earliest that the demonstrators ended their stir.
Washington, December 19

The US has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that called on President Donald Trump to withdraw recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital, exercising its veto power for the first time in six years.

Trump on December 6 announced that he would recognise Jerusalem as Israels capital and move the US embassy there from Tel Aviv, triggering protests and strong condemnation from across the world.

Even Americas closest allies on the 15-member Council, the most powerful body in the UN system, voted for the resolution. Fourteen UNSC members voted in favour of the Egyptian-drafted resolution.

The one-page resolution, drafted by Egypt, reiterated the longstanding position of the Security Council, in several resolutions dating back 50 years, rejecting Israels sovereignty claim over Jerusalem.

They warned that Trumps announcement about Jerusalem, which upended decades of American policy, threatened to subvert the effort to solve one of the worlds most intractable conflicts. This was the first veto exercised by the Trump administration and the first one by the US in six years.

The fact that this veto is being done in defence of American sovereignty and in defence of Americas role in the Middle East peace process is not a source of embarrassment for us; it should be an embarrassment to the remainder of the Security Council, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said. The resolution was supported by Britain, France and Japan.  PTI
London, December 19

Britains biggest ever warship, the new 3.1 billion pound ($4.2 billion) aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, has a leak and needs repairs, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said on Tuesday. The 65,000-tonne ship, hailed as Britains most advanced military vessel and which was only officially commissioned by the Queen two weeks ago, has an issue with a shaft seal which was identified during sea trials, the MoD said.

This is scheduled for repair while she is alongside at Portsmouth, a Royal Navy spokesman said. It does not prevent her from sailing again and her sea trials programme will not be affected. The Sun reported that the 280-m warship was letting in 200 litres of water every hour and the fix would cost millions of pounds.

A defence source said the navy was aware the ship, which took eight years to build, had an issue when it was handed over by manufacturers. The Aircraft Carrier Alliance built the Queen Elizabeth and its sister aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, as apart of a 6.2 billion pound project.  Reuters
London, December 20

The UK-based brother of an Islamic State (IS) suicide bomber was on Friday sentenced to 10 years behind bars for terror offences.

Mohammed Awan was sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court here after being found guilty of preparing for terrorist acts and possessing material likely to be useful to a terrorist.

The 24-year-old younger brother of Rizwan Awan, an IS suicide bomber who killed 30 people in an attack in Iraq last year, was a fourth-year dentistry student at the University of Sheffield.

"I am completely satisfied that you had intentionally adopted an outwardly innocent and respectable persona with the clear intention that, at some future point, you would be able to perpetrate a terrorist act without being detected," Judge Paul Watson told him during the sentencing hearing today.

He jailed Awan for 10 years and also ordered him to serve three years extended licence on his release, which means he will remain under surveillance at the end of his prison sentence.

Awan was arrested by anti-terror police in June after purchasing 500 ball bearings online.

During raids on his family home in Huddersfield and a flat in Sheffield, officers recovered a "significant volume" of extremist material, including advice on how to be a "sleeper cell" in the West. Police also seized 11 mobile phones, 16 USB memory sticks and seven computers.

One memory stick contained a 36-minute video of a senior Al-Qaeda leader calling on young Muslims to join IS and featured graphic footage of how to kill and kidnap victims.

The judge noted: "The ideology to which you had so clearly wedded yourself is, to all right-thinking, peaceful, tolerant and inclusive Muslims living in harmony in this country, utterly abhorrent.

"Your romanticised notions of a jihadi struggle involving violence and destruction are far removed from the Islamic faith. You are, in my view, someone who is even now in the grip of idealistic extremism."

Awan had claimed he had bought the ball bearings and a catapult to use for hunting.

"Whilst we do not know the full details of Awan's intentions, officers intervened swiftly before Awan could put any plans into practice," said Detective Superintendent Simon Atkinson, head of investigations at Counter Terrorism Policing North East.

During his trial, the jury was told that Awan's brother Rizwan had travelled from Manchester to Istanbul in May 2015, where he appeared to have joined IS. The court heard that the brothers remained in contact until Rizwan launched an attack on an Iraqi military convoy. PTI
Ottawa, December 20

Canada and the United States announced they will host a summit of foreign ministers in Vancouver on January 16, including envoys from Japan and South Korea, to seek progress on the North Korean nuclear crisis.

We believe a diplomatic solution to the crisis is essential and possible, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told a joint press conference with visiting US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Tillerson said the meeting would seek to further increase pressure on North Korea to come to the table to negotiate an end to its nuclear program.

This could include other steps that could be taken to put additional pressure on the regime in North Korea, as well as preparing for the prospects of talks, he said.

We (will) continue to find ways to advance the pressure campaign against North Korea, Tillerson said, to send North Korea a unified message from the international community that we will not accept you as... a nuclear weapons nation, and that all of us share one policy and one goalthe full complete verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

Its all intended to lead to talks. Otherwise we wouldnt need to do this. We would just go straight to the military option, he said.

The White House supports diplomatic talks, Tillerson added, dismissing suggestions of a rift between US President Donald Trump and his chief diplomatic.

The so-called Vancouver Group will also include Australia, Belgium, Britain, Colombia, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Turkey.

Throughout the afternoon, Tillerson and Freeland also discussed Canada-US border security, North American defense, energy and environmental cooperation, and the ongoing renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which binds the two countries with Mexico to form the worlds second-largest trading bloc after the EU.

They discussed the plight of the Rohingya in Myanmar and the potential for a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine.

Freeland will travel to Ukraine to meet with government officials said on Wednesday.

As well, said Freeland, she and Tillerson considered the crisis in Venezuela and what actions we can take individually, together and in cooperation with the Lima group... to address the deteriorating political, economic and humanitarian situation there.

Canada hosted foreign ministers of 12 countries of the Americas in October to try to find ways to cool the fierce power struggle that had been raging for months between President Nicolas Maduros left-wing nationalist government and the center-right opposition.

Later on Tuesday, Tillerson was to meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau before heading back to Washington.  AFP.
Washington, December 20

Pakistan has been mobilising widespread protests and calling on the Arab world to pressurise the United States to revert President Donald Trumps decision of recognising Jerusalem as capital of Israel.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The Middle East Media Research Institute has published an article, Pakistani religious, political leaders react to President Trumps recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel, which cited statements made by the Pakistani religious and political leaders that appeared in Roznama Islam, a pro-Islamism Urdu daily, from December 7-10, 2017, against the US Presidents move.

US President Donald Trump announced the US recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and also that the US Embassy would be moved there from Tel Aviv. The announcement sparked protests in the Islamic world, since Muslims consider Jerusalem to be the First Qibla, or direction of prayer, before it was superseded by Mecca. Leaders of political and religious parties in Pakistan also condemned the US announcement in speeches and press statements and at protest rallies in towns across the country, the article read.

According to a media report, protests were held by different religious and political groups in Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Multan, Karachi, Quetta, Hyderabad, Faisalabad, Bahawalpur, Muzaffargarh, and other towns across Pakistan on December 8, and also on previous days. The lead organisations holding the protest rallies included Jamaatud Dawa (the charity arm of the Pakistani jihadi organisation Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT)), Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan, Jamiat Ahle Hadith, Difa-e-Pakistan Council (Defense of Pakistan Council, a network of militant religious groups that includes Jamaatud Dawa), Jamiat Ahle Hadith, Jamaat Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, Milli Muslim League (a political party in the making and established by Jamaatud Dawa leaders), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, and Pakistan Ulema Council, among others, it added.

The article further went on to quote the statements made by the Pakistani religious and political leaders, in which they condemned the US Jerusalem recognition and harshly criticised the President Trump of the decision.

Global terrorist and Jihadi Commander Hafiz Muhammad Saeed said, The oppressed Palestinian Muslims are calling for help; they are today awaiting a Salahuddin Ayyubi; for the defence of Jerusalem, every child of Muslims is ready to sacrifice his life.

Militant leader Allama Aurangzeb Farooqi said, The current Islam-enemy President (Trump) is pursuing the dangerous plan of stoking a war between the crescent and the cross.

While, Jamaat-e-Islami Leader Naeemur Rehman called for a million man march, Islamic Scholar Mufti Muhammad Naeem termed the Trumps decision to recognise the Jerusalem as the capital of Israel as declaration of war against the world of Islam.

The Trump decision is against the entire Muslim Ummah and an attack on the first Qibla; we stand by the resistance movement of Hamas; Jamaat-e-Islami calls for million man march on December 17, said Rehman.

To recognise Jerusalem as the Israeli capital Is Trumps declaration of war against the world of Islam; America, by becoming the agent of the Jewish lobby, is pursuing a policy of destroying all Muslim countries, said Naeem.

Pakistans National Assembly also passed a resolution calling the US Jerusalem move an "attack on the Muslim Ummah".

This Assembly considers the shifting of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to the occupied Jerusalem as an attack on the Muslim Ummah.

Former Pakistan president Gen. Pervez Musharraf said, Trumps policies are pushing the world toward destruction.  ANI
WASHINGTON, December 20

The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives gave final approval on Wednesday to the biggest overhaul of the US tax code in 30 years, sending a sweeping $1.5 trillion Bill to President Donald Trump for his signature.

In sealing Trump's first major legislative victory, Republicans steamrolled opposition from Democrats to pass a Bill that slashes taxes for corporations and the wealthy while giving mixed, temporary tax relief to middle-class Americans.

The House approved the measure, 224-201, passing it for the second time in two days after a procedural foul-up forced another vote on Wednesday. The Senate had passed it 51-48 in the early hours of Wednesday.

Trump had emphasised a tax cut for middle-class Americans during his 2016 campaign. At the beginning of a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, he said lowering the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% was "probably the biggest factor in this plan."

Trump planned a tax-related celebration with US lawmakers at the White House in the afternoon but will not sign the legislation immediately.

Once signed, taxpayers likely would see the first changes to their pay check tax withholdings in February. Most households will not see the full effect of the tax plan on their income until they file their 2018 taxes in early 2019.

In two provisions added to secure needed Republican votes, the legislation also allows oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and repeals the key portion of the Obamacare health system that fined people who did not have healthcare insurance.

Democrats have called the tax legislation a giveaway to the wealthy that will widen the income gap between rich and poor. Despite Trump administration promises that the tax overhaul would focus on the middle class and not cut taxes for the rich, the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, a think tank in Washington, estimated middle-income households would see an average tax cut of $900 next year under the bill, while the wealthiest 1% of Americans would see an average cut of $51,000.  Reuters
BRUSSELS, December 20

The EU executive launched an unprecedented action against Poland on Wednesday, calling on other member states to prepare to sanction Warsaw if it fails to reverse judicial reforms that Brussels says pose a threat to democracy.

Voicing frustration after two years of fruitless requests to the right-wing government, the European Commission gave the socially-conservative Law and Justice party in Warsaw three months to change tack.

But Poland fired back defiantly and was immediately assured that its like-minded allies in Hungary would veto the ultimate sanction of suspending Polands voting rights in the bloc.

Budapest said on Tuesday that the move by the Commission violated Polands sovereignty .  Reuters
Smita Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 19

US President Donald Trump on Monday unveiled his first National Security Strategy (NSS) with re-awakening of America, America First and principled realism as key themes.

The 70-page document described India as a leading global power and sought increased Indian assistance in South Asia. We welcome Indias emergence as a leading global power and stronger strategic and defence partner, the NSS said.

While warning Pakistan on terrorism, it said, We seek a Pakistan that is not engaged in destabilising behaviour and a stable and self-reliant Afghanistan. President Trump remarked, We have made clear to Pakistan that while we desire a continued partnership, we must see decisive action against terrorist groups operating on their territory. And we make massive payments every year to Pakistan. They have to help.

The strategy paints Russia and China as the big global villains and challenges to American national interests. China seeks to displace the US in the Indo-Pacific region, expand the reaches of its state-driven economic model, and reorder the region in its favour. Russia seeks to restore its great power status and establish spheres of influence near its borders, the document says. We also face rival powers  Russia and China  that seek to challenge American influence, values, and wealth. We will attempt to build a great partnership with those and other countries, but in a manner that always protects our national interest, Trump said.

Keeping in line with the White House statements under Trump, the document minces no words for Chinas aggressive behaviour and gives prominence to Indias role in the Indo-Pacific. China is using economic inducements and penalties, influence operations, and implied military threats to persuade other states to heed its political and security agenda, says the report. It adds, in veiled remarks against the One Belt One Road, China presents its ambitions as mutually beneficial, but Chinese dominance risks diminishing the sovereignty of many states in the Indo-Pacific.
Washington, December 20

The US and Canada will next month co-host a meeting of foreign ministers from around the world, including India, to discuss North Koreas nuclear threat and ways to improve the effectiveness of the current pressure campaign against the reclusive nation.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his Canadian counterpart Chrystia Freeland made the announcement during their meeting in Ottawa yesterday. The meeting will take place on January 16.

With the convening of what were calling the Vancouver Group in mid-January, this is a convening of foreign ministers from the original sending states that were involved in the original Korean conflict.

The Vancouver Group include Australia, Belgium, Britain, Colombia, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Turkey.

But we also obviously are including other important parties - the Republic of Korea, Japan, India, Sweden, and others, who we think are important to have engaged in this meeting, Tillerson told reporters.

The participating countries at the level of foreign minister will be discussing how to improve the effectiveness of the current pressure campaign, Tillerson said.

Are there other steps that could be taken to put additional pressure on the regime in North Korea, and how do we further take our diplomatic efforts forward? And then how do we prepare for the prospects of talk? he said.

North Korea this year increased the pace of its missile programme. Since February, Pyongyang has fired off 23 missiles. On November 29, the North Korean leader said that his country had achieved full nuclear statehood after what he said was the successful test of a new missile capable of striking anywhere in the United States.

Fears of a catastrophic conflict between the US and North Korea spiked as the leaders of the two nations taunted each other, with the US President Trump calling North Korean leader Kim Jong-un Rocket Man.  PTI
Gov. Scott Walkers elimination of the states tiny portion of your property tax bill isnt that big of a deal. The average homeowner in Wisconsin is saving $27 on this years bill  roughly the cost of two movie tickets and a bucket of popcorn  because the state will no longer apply a small charge for forestry programs.

More broadly, though, the change is part of a sustained and largely successful effort by Republicans over time to hold down property taxes in a state that has ranked high for burdening homeowners.

Wisconsin had the 8th highest property tax, relative to personal income, in 2011, the year Gov. Walker and a Republican majority won control of the statehouse. By 2015, the state had fallen to 15th highest, based on the same criteria, and pending census data is expected to show further improvement.

Local schools, municipalities, technical colleges and counties impose the property tax, which is affected by the amount of state aid they get.

The governor and his GOP colleagues have appropriately prioritized property tax relief over the last seven years. Besides ending the states small charge to property owners for forestry programs, the Republicans have limited local tax levies and required public workers to contribute more to their benefits and pensions.

The states median-valued home of $160,000 is projected to receive a $2,832 property tax bill this month, according to a report in Tuesdays State Journal. Thats down from the $2,963 the same home paid in 2010.

The Republican governor has accomplished this feat, in part, by requiring schools and local governments to restrain their spending. In some cases, thats hurt public education and services.

But its also true that controlling property taxes has been a longtime goal of the Democrats, too. And they failed under the previous administration to deliver this kind of lasting relief.

Not every community has experienced savings, because of differences in home values, school referendums and other factors. While the average property tax bill fell by 4.4 percent in Green Bay over the last five years, for example, the average bill in Madison has gone up 8.2 percent, according to the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance. Yet overall, the trend is a 1.9 percent drop in property taxes over five years on the median-valued home in the state, according to the Taxpayers Alliance.

Weve disagreed with many of the GOPs decisions in recent years, including a huge cut to the University of Wisconsin System, sweetheart tax breaks for manufacturers and poor maintenance of roads.

Nonetheless, with property tax bills hitting mailboxes this month, its good to see some restraint.
Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Canada. Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Canadas federal government has unveiled plans to mandate electronic logging devices in trucks, largely echoing rules that officially took hold in the U.S. on Dec. 18.

Draft versions of the rules have been published in the Canadian government's official news outlet, and once finalized are to roll out within two years.

This will make truck drivers less prone to fatigue, federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau said after announcing the proposed regulations. It will make our roads safer.

Canadian-based truckers heading across the border already have to comply with the U.S. mandate.

For a number of years, the Canadian Trucking Alliance has been pointing to research that shows a universal electronic logging device mandate would have a direct and immediate impact on curbing behaviors strongly linked with higher crash rates such as driving over [their] prescribed limits of service, which leads to fatigue, Garneau told a crowd of fleet executives and media assembled in a Trailcon Leasing service bay.

These electronic logging devices can help commercial drivers and employers comply with existing hours of service regulations and help reduce the potential of driver fatigue. They also help drivers and employers on the administrative side of their work, and the devices electronic records virtually eliminate the need for time-consuming paper logs.

A two-year rollout will allow enough time to deploy the devices, Garneau added. If we can do it quicker than that, that would be even better.

The rules are essentially expected to mirror those that are now in place in the U.S.

There are almost 30,000 trucks a day that travel between Canada and the United States, Garneau said, responding to questions about any proposed differences in the mandates. It helps if we have the same rules on both sides of the border.

The new federal rules would only apply to federally regulated carriers, but Garneau will be encouraging his provincial and territorial counterparts to enact mandatory ELDs in their own jurisdictions.

Ontario Transport Minister Steven Del Duca said his province is extraordinarily supportive of the rule. Anything that we can do collectively to make sure that we are supporting and enabling road safety is something we need to embrace.

The time to debate the safety benefit of ELDs is over, added Scott Smith of J.D. Smith and Sons, chairman of the Canadian Trucking Alliance. By supporting the adoption of proven technology that will help to address and reduce fatigue in truck drivers, and help to reduce one of the main factors that lead to distracted driving, this is a good day for road safety.

Mike Millian, president of the Private Motor Truck Council of Canada, echoed the sentiment.

Our current system of tracking hours by means of pen and paper is an outdated one, and one that has too many opportunities for unscrupulous operators to pressure their drivers to fudge their records. While the majority of carriers in our industry are safe operators and have policies and procedures in place to ensure compliance with hours of service regulations, there are always outliers in every industry, he said. We all pay a price for this. Safe carriers who operate legally end up competing against rates that cant be met in a proper operation. The public pays a price as a result of sharing the road with some of these operators who may be forcing tired and unsafe drivers out onto our roads.

Millian rolled out electronic logging devices as early as 2013 when he was overseeing safety and compliance at a fleet in southwestern Ontario. Within six months, more than 90% of its drivers were happy with the shift away from paper logs, he said.

Louis Carette, a driver with Kriska Transport, has used an ELD since 2011 and wouldnt go back. But acceptance by some of his peers did take time.

It was mixed reviews at first because everyones scared of change. They think, Oh, you know Im going to run out of time to park, he recalls. If youre on paper and running a legal logbook, you should have no kickback or worry on electronic logs because its the same thing. Just electronic. More user-friendly.

He has cut it close on a few occasions, pulling into truck stops with just 10 minutes left to go, but has yet to see it change the way he operates.

The hours of service rules are not going to change, Carette stressed. If youre obeying the rules, it really shouldnt matter.

Exemptions for the oil and forestry sector remain, adds Stephen Laskowski, president of the Ontario Trucking Association and head of the Canadian Trucking Alliance.

Admittedly, the change is first and foremost a compliance issue, he said. If we didnt have compliance issues with paper, we wouldnt be doing this. But Laskowski also says the focus of electronic logging devices will help to reduce fatigue.

He leaves little question that the underbelly of the industry will fight the proposed rules, but he hopes the government will consider the source of such arguments. I have yet to see one logical reason why we shouldnt be bringing in ELDs.

But the rollout of ELDs can make a difference in operating procedures.

Its as much training and learning for the operations group as it is for the drivers themselves, as to how you can do it, what you can do, and what you cant do, said Gary Arnold, president of Manitoba-based Arnold Bros.

Windsor, Ontario-based Onfreight Logistics has had to recover trucks and drivers who have run out of hours, and customers had to be educated about the impact of tightly controlled electronic logs, said Steve Ondejko, fleet president and chairman of the Ontario Trucking Association. Rack loads and other low-priority loads sometimes have to be parked in favor of those critical to a companys production, and the fleet has also opened additional terminals in Kentucky and Pennsylvania to support the shift.

Its not only putting ELDs in. Its actually educating the customer. Educating our operations people to understand the good way of doing business, Ondejko said. Its really a change in the way you do business.

John G. Smith is the editor of the award-winning Canadian publication Today's Trucking. This article was used under a cooperative editorial sharing agreement between HDT and its Canadian counterpart.
Photo: Virginia Tech Transportation Institute

With the electronic log rule now in effect, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is considering revising a much older but related regulation. Per an announcement published in the Federal Register for Dec. 19, the agency is proposing to revise its regulatory guidance on commercial-vehicle drivers legally using trucks as personal conveyance while off duty.

FMCSA noted it is seeking public comment on this guidance and its economic impact for a 30-day period ending on Jan. 18.

At this point, the agency said it is considering only a narrow change in its guidance on personal conveyance. FMCSA stated it now wants to focus on the reason the driver is operating a CMV while off duty, without regard to whether the CMV is or is not laden.

FMSCA said the original personal conveyance guidance  unchanged since 1997-- required the truck to be "unladen" and was written with combination vehicles in mind, where the driver could readily detach the trailer and use the unladen tractor for personal conveyance.

The agency now contends that 20-year-old interpretation had the inadvertent effect of not allowing drivers of single-unit work trucks that carry loads, as well as tools of [the] trade and related materials, on the power unit to document this off-duty time on the RODS.

For such drivers, it notes, these loads, tools, and other equipment cannot reasonably be offloaded, left unattended, and reloaded after the power unit has been used for personal conveyance.

FMCSA stated that this proposed revision would simply eliminate the requirement that the CMV be unladen and thus the disparate impact created by the previous guidance.

The issue of personal conveyance has been the source of quite a few questions under the new electronic logging device mandate, since those miles will now be recorded. Carriers are advised to have a policy in place regarding personal conveyance, train drivers on it, and document it.

Comments on the proposed changes, bearing Docket ID FMCSA-2017-0108 may be submitted via any of the following methods:

Federal eRulemaking Portal. Go to www.regulations.gov. Follow the online instructions for submitting comments

Mail. Docket Management Facility; U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, Washington, DC 20590-0001

Hand Delivery or Courier. West Building Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., ET, Monday through Friday, except Federal Holidays

Fax. 1-202-493-2251

The agency also noted that as part of the ELD rule now in effect, ELD manufacturers are required to include a special driving category for personal conveyance. This may be used at the motor carrier's discretion, based on their operations, stated FMCSA. In addition, motor carriers may grant drivers authority to operate a CMV under personal conveyance without preconfiguring the ELD with the personal conveyance special driving category.
The Rev. Bill Tims, 87, pastor of Love Christian Ministries and a one-time candidate for mayor of Tulsa, was killed Dec. 12 in a car accident.

Services are scheduled at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Christian Chapel.

Tims was known as an old-fashioned fire-and-brimstone preacher who conducted his first revival when he was in high school.

Raised on a Minnesota farm, he pastored a church to work his way through Central Bible Institute and Seminary, an Assemblies of God school in Springfield, Missouri, and went on to pastor churches in Minnesota, North and South Carolina, Texas and Oklahoma.

From 1973 to 1982, he pastored the Lewis Avenue Assemblies of God Church in Tulsa, building a congregation of 30 up to 1,100 people, the third-largest Assemblies church in the state at that time.

He turned in his Assemblies of God ordination papers over a dispute about whether divorced men should be allowed to minister, and joined the much smaller Independent Assemblies of God, based in Ada, which allows divorced ministers under some circumstances.

Tims conducted revivals around the nation before starting Love Christian Ministries in the mid-1990s with his wife, Dale Anne Tims, who survives him. The church first met in the former Camelot Hotel, 4956 S. Peoria Ave.

Tims also is survived by three sons and daughters-in-laws, Barry and Margo Tims, Bill and Trudy Tims, Paul and Kerrie Tims; a daughter and son-in-law, Angie and Conrad Casler; eight grandchildren; and nine great grandchildren.
OKLAHOMA CITY  The leader of an LGBTQ advocacy group no longer is asking Kirk Humphreys to resign from the University of Oklahoma Board of Regents but said Tuesday that he should not lead the panel as its next chairman.

Freedom Oklahoma Executive Director Troy Stevenson and Humphreys announced at a joint news conference that they will host a community forum at OU on Jan. 18 so that the former mayor can hear the concerns of students and the community.

Stevenson thanked Humphreys for making a gracious apology during a two-hour meeting Monday with members of the LGBTQ community.

Humphreys, vice chairman of the OU Board of Regents and a former Oklahoma City mayor, has been criticized for comments he made condemning homosexuality during a televised talk show that aired Dec. 10.
ELWOOD - Illinois farmer Matt Boucher put together a video of Wreaths Across America 2017's laying of Christmas wreaths on veterans' graves at the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Cemetery.

Wreaths Across America is a nationwide event in the U.S., honoring military veterans by placing wreaths on their graves during the second week in December.

In nine years, the event has grown to placing 19,000 wreaths in the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood IL.
BARTLESVILLE  The original deed for one of northeast Oklahomas most-beloved historical sites called for it to be demolished if several provisions were not met.

They were not met.

But the Frank Phillips Home in Bartlesville, a piece of state history more than 100 years old, has been saved after nearly two years of determined effort.

Woolaroc has taken possession of the mansion, reuniting it with the late oilmans ranch and wildlife preserve, a popular tourist site.

Were very happy, and I believe Frank and Jane Phillips would be very happy that the home and ranch are back together again, said Woolaroc CEO Bob Fraser.

It was not easy and did not come quickly.

Woolaroc and the City of Bartlesville had to jump through a number of legal hoops to make it happen.

A plan was finalized last summer, but the home wasnt officially saved until last month.

I cant say enough about how much help we received from the City of Bartlesville and everyone in this community that wanted to save this important part of our history, Fraser said.

At the heart of the issue was the deed to the home.

A provision in the deed, when it was donated to the Oklahoma Historical Society, was that if certain things happened, the home was to be demolished and a green park built in its place.

The deed specified that if the historical society could no longer operate the facility, then ownership was to be transferred to the City of Bartlesville.

If Bartlesville was unable to operate the museum, the deed called for the demolition of the historical site.

All of the contents of the home were to be donated to the Frank Phillips Foundation at Woolaroc, a museum and wildlife preserve about 12 miles southwest of Bartlesville.

If we were getting the contents, then it made sense for us to save the home, too, Fraser said. Everyone we talked with was united in the effort.

The first thing Woolaroc officials did was contact member of the Phillips family.

They were united in a belief that the house should be saved if we could find a way to do it, Fraser said.

Two things had to be resolved. The legal issue of the deed had to be overcome, and funding had to be found to endow the home and its future.

People were eager to help, Fraser said. Our supporters really stepped up. This is an important part of our history.

The final legal judgment and the new deed were approved last month.

There are things we need to do such as add parking and do some update maintenance, but were more than happy to help preserve the home, Fraser said.

The Frank Phillips Home, at 1107 S. Cherokee Ave. near downtown, was finished in 1909. The original 26-room neo-classical mansion has been remodeled twice, the last time in 1930. The interior is filled with original furniture, decorations and personal effects.

The Oklahoma Historical Society had owned and operated the home since 1973, but the organization has been facing critical funding issues. Last year, for example, it transferred ownership of Sequoyahs Cabin to the Cherokee Nation and has been working with other local entities to find additional money for other historical sites.

Bob Blackburn, director of the historical society, told the Tulsa World earlier this year that the groups state funding has been cut by more than 40 percent in the past eight years.

The thought of a bulldozer knocking down that great piece of history was just something none of us could imagine, Fraser said. Everyone at the city and throughout the community was so helpful.

I think having the home reunited with the ranch is a special thing. I think it will be fabulous for the ranch and home to be under one umbrella, just like it was with Frank Phillips.
It turns out the first person who said, Never say never, had a point.

Since I first started ranking the new Tulsa restaurants in 2003, I always said I never would pick a tie. Ties are a copout, I said. A cheap way out of a tough decision, I said.

For a person who eats for a living, I now can add my own words to my dining consumption. Because this year, folks, we have a tie.

The owners and chefs of the two restaurants all came out of Stonehorse Cafe this year, both have been doing some creative and delicious things in the kitchen, and both already have developed a following. Both have one-word names.

In a quirky side note, longtime Tulsa bartender-hostess-server Liz Taylor-Pounds works two nights a week at each restaurant.

The rankings in all of the different categories are based solely on new restaurants reviewed in the Tulsa World in 2017. The rankings might or might not reflect the number of stars awarded them at the time of their reviews. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. The ratings are based on my overall dining experiences, a very subjective exercise.

Let us know how you would rate them, where you think I went right and where you think I went wrong.

TOP TEN

1. (tie) Amelias

Amelia Eesley, former general manager at Stonehorse Cafe, and chef Kevin Snell, formerly of Stonehorse, teamed to open their Tulsa Arts District restaurant that specializes in spectacular wood-fired cooking techniques.

1. (tie) Oren

Chef Matt Amberg, formerly of Stonehorse, and wife Yara feature an ever-changing variety of inspired small plates to go with a handful of full entrees at their Brookside restaurant in Center 1.

3. OlVine Fresh Grill

Don Jones, co-owner of Cafe Ole in Center 1, went a short way down the sidewalk to open olVine, featuring a wide selection of tasty fare, from gourmet pizzas to steaks.

4. Maryns Taphouse & Raw Bar

Corey Crandall has had a good thing going with his Georges Pub in Jenks, and this year joined in the revival of the Riverwalk shopping center with Maryns. The raw bar is only a part of a well-rounded menu.

5. Ruths Chris Steak House

It had been rumored for years this high-end chain steakhouse was coming to Tulsa, and it finally happened when it was tapped to be part of the Margaritaville expansion at River Spirit Casino Resort.

6. Bread & Butter Kitchen & Bakery

The Nasreddine family added something we dont see much anymore, a moderately priced restaurant of mostly comfort food in a stylish setting.

7. Prairie Fire Pie

James Shrader, chef-proprietor of the next-door Palace Cafe, opened this cozy spot with communal tables, an excellent bar and interesting gourmet pizzas.

8. Flavors of Louisiana

Amanda Gibson draws on handed-down family recipes from her parents restaurant of the same name in Arizona to offer consistently good country Cajun cuisine in London Square.

9. Cherry Street Kitchen

Beth Bias and her former personal chef, Jen Lindsay, combined their talents to open their kitchen and bakery. Breakfast and lunch entrees go with a tantalizing array of pastries and desserts.

10. Le Louvre French Cafe

Recent French immigrants Yakham Ngom and wife Micheline put out some of the prettiest and most delicious baked delicacies around.

PUB

1. Growler USA: Awesome flights of beer and a solid menu make this a winner in the busy Tulsa Hills shopping complex.

2. Smittys Garage

3. The Lodge Eatery & Pub, Catoosa

4. The Stumbling Monkey

MEXICAN

1. Dos Bandidos, Bixby: Dont look for ground beef or chimichangas from Venezuelan-born Carlos Lopez and brother Luis. Their Mexican-style recipes contain none of either.

2. Border Bar & Grill

3. Casa Mexico

ETHNIC

1. Flavors of Louisiana

2. Kai Burmese Cuisine

3. Wirwar: A Belgian Honky-Tonk

4. Char Char

ASIAN

1. Sura Korean Japanese Restaurant: Jongsung Bae and wife Junghyun used to own a popular Bill & Ruths sandwich shop that also served sushi. Today, their south Tulsa restaurant offers a nice assortment of Korean and Japanese entrees. Son James is sushi chef.

2. Poke Bowl Love

3. SushiFork

BAKERY

1. Cherry Street Kitchen

2. Le Louvre French Cafe

3. Little Js Bakeshoppe & Coffee

PIZZA

1. Prairie Fire Pie

2. Jimmys New York Pizzeria

3. Pie Five Pizza

SALAD

1. Crushed Red: Chopped salads, personal pizzas, beer and wine selections, and niceties such as china, glassware and cloth napkins make it a popular newcomer on Cherry Street.

2. Salata: Fresh chopped salads at KingsPointe Village and on Cherry Street.

STEAKHOUSE

1. Ruths Chris Steak House

2. Beef Capital Steakhouse

AMERICAN

1. (tie) Amelias

2. (tie) Oren

3. olVine

4. Maryns Taphouse & Raw Bar

5. Ruths Chris Steak House

6. Bread & Butter Kitchen & Bakery

7. Table 20

8. Cotton Patch, Broken Arrow

9. Meltdown Diner

10. Rozays Wings & Things

11. The Cookhouse

MISC.

These dining spots are too diverse and/or unique to be rated against one another.

Andolinis Sliced: Combined a former STG Pizzeria with new styles of pizza, such as Roman square and New York.

Dust Bowl Lanes & Lounge: Rolled out a totally new and spicy menu in time for the holidays.

El Rancho Grande: Added second-floor cantina with dedicated menu, bar and impressive views.

Freezing Cow: Brings Thai rolled ice cream to Tulsa near Woodland Hills Mall.

Happy Plate, Broken Arrow: Build-your-own bowls with meats, veggies, fruits and sauces.

Ida Red General Store & Soda Fountain: An authentic soda fountain using old-fashioned ingredients in the heart of the Tulsa Arts District.

Living Kitchen Farm & Dairy: This has been around for some years, serving farm-to-table dinners in a log house on a working farm and ranch near Depew. This year was my first visit. Its memorable. Go to livingkitchenfarmanddairy.com to learn more.

Luckys: This fine-dining mainstay on Cherry Street got new owners and a freshened up menu.

Ludgers Bavarian Cakery: This popular bakery moved to a new location and added an assortment of deli lunch items.

Mr. Fantastic Rubicon BBQ: Tender, tasty barbecue in a tiny spot in near north Tulsa.

The Reserve @ Groggs Green Barn: Seasonal weekend farm-to-table dinners are a culinary treat.

WELCOME BACK

These restaurants were shut down, ranging from a few months to several years.

Desi Wok

New Royal Dragon

Rexs Chicken, Bixby

The Hamlet

EXPANSION MODE

Andolinis Pizzeria: Joined Riverwalk revival.

Burn Co. BBQ: Ditto.

Long Wolf Banh Mi: Great new spot in Tulsa Arts District.

Main Street Tavern: Opens on Cherry Street. Original is on Main Street in Broken Arrow.

Mr. Nice Guys: Takes over dining spot at Guthrie Green.

Oklahoma Joes Bar-B-Cue: Adds restaurant in Pythian Building downtown.

Sponz Jazz Cafe: Opens two new places at Warren Place buildings.

White River Fish Market: Puts second location in Broken Arrow.

WE HARDLY KNEW YA

These restaurants opened and closed in 2017.

La Casa

J. Bradleys

Native Grill & Wings

Route 66 BBQ

FAREWELL

Each year brings a wave of closings. Among the most notable ones this year were Florence Park Cafe, Wilsons BBQ, Dragonmoon Tea Co., The Pint on Cherry Street, Big Anthonys BBQ, Time Passages French Country Market (Broken Arrow), Applebees Grill & Bar (Owasso and Broken Arrow only), Joes Crab Shack, Tallgrass Prairie Table, Luckys on the Green, RoseRock Cafe, Dvina, Paddys Irish Restaurant, Mimis Cafe, La Madeleine French Bakery & Cafe (Cherry Street only), Mods Coffee & Crepes, Delta Cafe (both Tulsa locations) and Cafe Seville.

LOOKING AHEAD

These restaurants just opened or are due to open in the near future and will go on the 2018 roundup and rankings.

Dunkin Donuts, Broken Arrow

Joe Mommas Pizzeria

Levain Kitchen & Bakery

Lotus Sandwich Eatery & Bar

Nolas Creole & Cocktails

Sabores Authentic Mexican Cuisine

Tallys Good Food Cafe (second location)

Torchys Tacos

The Bramble at the Riverwalk

The Phoenix Cafe
While he waits for his asylum claim to be processed, Somali refugee Yusuf volunteers as a firefighter in the town of Furstenwalde, Germany. File image from October 2017.  UNHCR/Christian Mang

FURSTENWALDE, Germany  In the vehicle bay of Furstenwalde-Mitte fire station, a young volunteer checks the gears of a large fire engine. Yusuf Abdirahim, a 37-year-old asylum-seeker, knows what he is doing. He has been a member of this brigade for almost as long as he has been in Germany.

Volunteer firefighters like him come to the station in Furstenwalde, a small town an hours drive from Berlin, for training once a week. An instructor named Sebastian is asking each of them to explain how the equipment functions.

Yusuf has already completed a basic training course called Truppmann 1, but before he can go on his first real rescue or firefighting mission, he must pass more exams and improve his German. In emergency situations, knowing how to communicate effectively can mean the difference between life and death.

When people are in need of help... I am in the right place to provide it.

However, Yusuf is no stranger to danger, or to working in the service of others.

Born in Somalia, he and his family fled the conflict to Yemen when he was only 11. There, he attended school and started a family before joining the Yemen Red Crescent Society in 2011, for which he distributed medical aid.

When people are in need of help at a certain time and I am in the right place to provide it, this makes me happy, he said.

Yusuf listens to the team briefing. Before he can go on his first real rescue or firefighting mission, he must pass more exams and improve his German  UNHCR/Christian Mang

Yusuf dons the uniform at the fire station in the town of Furstenwalde, eastern Germany where he has recently joined as a volunteer.  UNHCR/Christian Mang

Yusuf checks the equipment on a fire truck. Volunteer firefighters like him come to the station in Furstenwalde for training once a week.  UNHCR/Christian Mang

Yusuf dons the uniform, a sturdy, sand-coloured protective suit that is an investment in those members of the brigade who have proven themselves.  UNHCR/Christian Mang

Yusuf, 37, stands in front of the fire station in the town of Furstenwalde, eastern Germany where he has recently joined as a volunteer.  UNHCR/Christian Mang

Then, in 2014, Yusuf was forced to flee again, this time to escape being forcibly recruited into Yemens own conflict. After a long journey, he arrived in Germany in July 2015  but his wife and two children are still trapped in Yemen.

With his experience as a volunteer, it seemed natural for Yusuf to put himself forward for service in Germany. When his German teacher suggested the idea of the volunteer fire brigade, he jumped at the chance. It has also helped Yusuf. Not a man who likes to sit still, the voluntary work challenges him and helps to ease his worries about his family for a few hours. Today, his German is better than his English and he can talk with his colleagues freely.

And he has already played a key role. Last year, the local fire brigade was repeatedly called to accommodation centres for asylum-seekers in Stahnsdorf and Oranienburg because residents were accidentally setting off the fire alarms. Yusuf was able to explain to them in Arabic and Somali how the alarm system worked, as well as where the assembly points and escape routes were in case of fire. In fact, he has made such a difference that the Ohne Blaulicht (Without the Blue Light) project, organized by the Brandenburg Fire Brigade Association with government funding, will now be extended to other accommodation centres.

We are grateful for their support.

Jorn Muller, fire chief in Furstenwalde, has been happy to welcome Yusuf and other newcomers into his brigade. We are grateful for their support, added Hans-Ulrich Hengst, Mayor of Furstenwalde.

Hartmut Ziebs, President of the German Fire Brigade Association, is also a strong supporter of Germanys 3,000 refugee firefighters and the positive impact they have had, calling such integration efforts important and meaningful.

See also: Syrians find outlet for sewing skills with German sailmaker

The countrys voluntary fire brigades, with their 1.1 million members, are deeply rooted in German society, especially in the countryside. They have the ability to form bonds between newcomers and locals unlike any other organization and are a place to learn German and establish contacts that can help new arrivals find work and become financially independent.

Yusuf will receive his new firefighters uniform, a sturdy, sand-coloured protective suit with red reflective strips that is tailored to his measurements. The firefighter in charge of allocating uniforms adds a helmet and safety boots to Yusuf's equipment  an investment in those members of the brigade who have proven themselves, he said and smiled.
"Against a backdrop of dreadful realities and grave concerns I travelled, at UNHCR's request, to South Sudan and Kenya in early December. Despite shocking levels of need, it has become a 'forgotten emergency'."

It was humbling, on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the outbreak of conflict in South Sudan, to meet with the people who are worst affected. Of the 2.1 million refugees forced to flee the violence, a staggering 85% are women and children.

A further 7 people million inside the country are in critical need of humanitarian assistance, including 2 million who are internally displaced.

Tragically, indications are that people will continue to flee into neighboring countries with refugee numbers approaching the three million mark by the end of 2018. Such a scenario will doubtless involve further internal displacement alongside increasing destitution across the country where peoples resilience is already grossly undermined by bloodshed, drought and growing food insecurity.

It is against the backdrop of these dreadful realities and grave concerns that I travelled to South Sudan and Kenya, at the request of UNHCR and in my capacity as an Advisor to the High Commissioner on Gender, Forced Displacement and Protection. South Sudan was chosen because, despite the shocking levels of need, it has become a forgotten emergency.

South Sudan ranks among the fastest growing refugee situations in the world, with numbers swelling by an average of 500,000 people per year since 2013. Yet humanitarian funding for the crisis has declined by 10 per cent per year during the same period.

The resulting dichotomy has left a majority of the refugees on the brink, barely able to survive without external aid. During my four-day visit, I was able to glimpse the devastating impact on the most vulnerablethe women, their newborns and children.

"Mere survival cannot be the objective; rather the beginning of a life of health, well-being, education, dignity and security should be the future for the citizens of the worlds newest nation."

VIEW PHOTO GALLERY

A small crowd of refugee children from South Sudan greeted Princess Sarah at Kakum camp in Kenya. About 65% of the 2.1 million South Sudanese refugees are aged under 18 years of age.  UNHCR/Teresa Ongaro

A recently arrived refugee mother at the Kakuma transit centre told Princess Sarah about the difficult journey fleeing conflict in South Sudan with very young children, including those of a woman who they disappeared on the way. "You've been very strong to get here and look after your children," the Princess told her. 85% of South Sudanese refugees are women and children.  UNHCR/Teresa Ongaro

Princess Sarah comforted a young woman whose premature baby died the night before at a maternity hospital in Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya. The facility lacked basic equipment and expertise which would have kept them alive, and saved their mother's from grief.  UNHCR/Teresa Ongaro

At the maternity hospital in Kakuma, Princess Sarah talked with Madina who is holding her first baby. The maternity facility has an average of 400 deliveries per month.  UNHCR/Teresa Ongaro

Princess Sarah with one of three premature babies who were born in the maternity hospital in Kakuma refuge camp the previous night. Tragically, the other two died because the facility lacked basic equipment and expertise which could have kept them alive,  UNHCR/Teresa Ongaro

Princess Sarah visited South Sudanese refugee, Elizabeth, in her house in Kakuma camp. The mother of three, still nursing her infant son, gets help with the household chores from fellow women in the refugee community.  UNHCR/Teresa Ongaro

In South Sudan, I visited refugees in Mabaan County, Upper Nile State. In the 24 hours before my visit to the Mabaan Hospital, seven sets of twins were born! The mothers and newborns were in good health because they had been able to access quality pre-natal and hospital delivery services. There was no explanation for the bounty of double births; it was twin season, I was told.

Meanwhile, in Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya a few days later, I visited a maternity hospital that has on average 400 deliveries per month. Tragically - unacceptably - the night before my arrival, two premature newborns died because the facility lacked basic equipment and expertise which would have kept them alive, and saved their mothers from grief.

While largely encouraged by the efforts and contributions making it possible for women to experience safe deliveries and high rates of infant survival, what future was ahead for these children and their mothers? Mere survival cannot be the objective; rather the beginning of a life of health, well-being, education, dignity and security should be the future for the citizens of the worlds newest nation.

"From the outset, the odds are stacked against refugee adolescents and youth. Chronic underfunding deprives the majority of their only chance to get past the harrowing experiences that brought them to exile."

Another generation of South Sudanese children is growing up in exile, condemned to the fringes of society and denied the basic ingredients needed to thrive in a modern world, like proper education, good nutrition, and training as well as job opportunities.

From the outset, the odds are stacked against refugee adolescents and youth. Chronic underfunding deprives the majority of their only chance to get past the harrowing experiences that brought them to exile. More than 50% of the 1.3 million South Sudanese refugee children were not in school in 2017, increasing their vulnerability to risks like forced recruitment, defilement, teenage pregnancy, child marriage, and recourse to survival sex. Primary schools are overcrowded and very few children and youth can access secondary education or find meaningful employment.

The demeanor of the older children  the adolescents and the youth that I met  brought home the hopelessness that characterizes exile. Even as they aspire to be doctors, pilots and teachers, and to provide for their families, they were keenly aware of the almost nonexistent opportunities for their success  for themselves, their families and their community.

A listless teenager with a drawn expressionless face and a timid voice, in response to my question about life in the camp, answered with a choked It is too hard.

"In the spirit of the New York Declaration, we must urgently address the drivers of the conflict and create conditions for women, men, girls and boys to live in dignity at home and in exile."

Though my visit was short, I came away with the strong and urgent conviction that much more can and must be done to alleviate the difficulties refugees are facing, and that no effort must be spared to end the conflict which has condemned them to adversity and exile.

The international community has an obligation to do everything we can to promote peace; protect and empower affected populations - both refugees and host communities; and partner with host governments, donor governments, regional institutions and the private sector.

Four years of conflict have left the worlds youngest nation in peril, with a destabilizing effect on the neighboring countries. In the spirit of the New York Declaration, we must urgently address the drivers of the conflict and create conditions for women, men, girls and boys to live in dignity at home and in exile.

South Sudan must not be forgotten. Every crisis is important, because every life is important.

HRH Princess Sarah Zeid is an Advisor to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees on Gender, Forced Displacement and Protection, and a Global maternal and newborn health advocate. Follow her on Twitter: @PrincessSarahZR

WATCH VIDEO
During a visit to a women's centre in Dadaab, Kenya Grandi reassured refugees of UNHCR's continued support.  UNHCR

NAIROBI, Kenya  UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi has expressed his gratitude to Kenya for continuing to host almost half a million refugees and keeping its borders open to people fleeing war.

In a meeting with President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday (Dec 20), Grandi received assurances that as the Somali refugee repatriation programme progresses, no refugee will be returned against his or her will.

At a time when many other countries are closing their borders and adopting restrictive measures, Kenya is continuing to host refugees, Grandi said. This commitment of Kenya must be matched by the international community with humanitarian and development funding as well as increased resettlement places, university scholarships and other opportunities.

This commitment of Kenya must be matched by the international community."

The Somali refugee crisis is now entering its 27th year and Grandi said that as long as Somalia remains fragile, many refugees will remain apprehensive about returning home. Nevertheless, he noted that a significant number of refugees are deciding to return.

Kenya: UNHCR chief calls for more support for Somali refugees (Arnold Temple, camera-editor / Dana Hughes, producer)

So far this year, over 35,000 refugees from Dadaab refugee camp have moved back to Somalia under UNHCRs voluntary repatriation programme, while over 18,000 have registered to leave. Since December 2014, over 73,000 refugees from Dadaab have returned voluntarily to Somalia.

These refugees are hopeful, and have made informed choices, Grandi said, pledging continued support from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency in providing them with reintegration assistance upon arrival in Somalia.

President @UKenyatta confirmed Kenyas hospitality to refugees & said that faster+bigger development support must be given to Kenyan communities hosting them. pic.twitter.com/zWG9eQ063y  Filippo Grandi (@RefugeesChief) December 20, 2017

On Monday, in Kismayo, Somalia, where most returning refugees from Dadaab have settled, Grandi met families who had lived in refugee camps in Kenya and Djibouti for two decades. Although the families were concerned about security, they expressed joy about shedding their refugee status and determination to contribute to rebuilding their country. UNHCR, together with the American Refugee Committee, is building simple settlements for returnees in greatest need of housing, and providing vocational training to help them find work or create businesses.

On a visit to Dadaab on Tuesday, together with Ahmed Hussen, the Canadian Minister for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Grandi spoke to refugees who were trying to decide whether to remain in Dadaab or return home to Somalia. Both Grandi and Hussen visited the repatriation help desk where UNHCR carefully verifies the voluntary nature of their decision. While meeting refugees, Grandi appealed for stronger international efforts towards stabilization.

Somalia continues to need international efforts to help rebuild infrastructure and to create security conditions for refugees to return, he said.

During his visit, Grandi heard from Somali refugees about their challenges and hopes for the future. He also met with local authorities and host community leaders.

Its useful for me to be here to learn and hear from you, even as we continue to do our best to support you, he said, at a meeting with women and girls who are survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in Dadaabs Hagadera camp.

The women and girls displayed artwork they had been trained to make through a UNHCR-funded programme, managed by the International Rescue Committee, that supports vulnerable women. The women, who receive counselling at the center, expressed gratitude for the support they received but asked for more sewing materials so they could sell their wares, citing a lack of sufficient income-generating activities in the camp.

I can assure you that UNHCR and our partners are doing our best to use the scarce resources available to meet the most basic needs, Grandi said. He expressed his regret that donor support is diminishing at a time when refugees here still require ongoing aid.

Receiving Grandi in her modest shelter with a tin roof and a dirt floor, Ladan, a mother of five, told Grandi that conditions were tough. She was relocated after her section of the camp was closed as people left for Somalia. I struggle to get enough food for my children as the food we used to receive was reduced by half, she said, referring to World Food Programmes ration cuts, a consequence of reduced donor funding.

In Dadaab, some refugees choose to return to Somalia but many others wait for security to improve. Donor support continues to be critical for their survival. pic.twitter.com/v8lkM90FSW  Filippo Grandi (@RefugeesChief) December 20, 2017

Her woes were echoed by other refugees, including community leaders who met with Grandi and outlined the challenges they face in the camps. The leaders cited high numbers of school dropouts and lack of higher education, decreasing opportunities to be resettled to third countries and lack of specialized services for people with special needs as some of their challenges.

Grandi listened carefully to their concerns, particularly the need for more university education scholarships and vocational training. He was inspired by 16 high achieving students whom he met with Minister Hussen and had been awarded university scholarships under the World University Service of Canada, but regretted that hundreds of other successful high school graduates would not have the means to continue their studies.

The High Commissioner said he would continue to appeal to international donors on their behalf and work with the government of Kenya in realizing President Kenyattas pledge to establish a vocational education center in Dadaab for both refugees and the host community.

Our appeal to donors and hosting countries is not to give up on Somali refugees, Grandi said, noting that the World Bank had allocated US$100 million in loans in recognition of Kenya as a major refugee hosting country. Much of that investment is planned for infrastructure development and environmental rehabilitation programmes in Dadaab.

Grandi called for a departure from a dependency model of enclosed camps like Dadaab. He said he was encouraged that Kenya had signed on to be one of the 13 countries that have adopted UNHCRs new Comprehensive Refugee Response model.

In the future, Grandi said, we will strive to adopt an approach that provides both refugees and the host community access to services, while promoting self-reliance and economic opportunities to improve their living conditions and avoid aid dependency.
When Miklos Beer, Bishop of Vac, feeds his pet sheep and donkey, the scene brings to mind the stable at Bethlehem. But there is plenty of room at the inn here. The bishop has personally accommodated refugees in his bishopric in northern Hungary.

If a person comes through the door, asking for asylum, how can you reject them? he asks.

The Roman Catholic bishop, 74 and six months from retirement, has spoken up loudly for refugees in a country with a xenophobic streak and a government proud to call itself illiberal. He is among a number of Hungarian church leaders who have started to question the governments approach and call for compassion towards asylum seekers.

Catholicism is the leading religion among those Hungarians who profess a faith. Over 37 per cent of citizens count themselves Catholic while 14 per cent are Protestants  Calvinists or Lutherans. Just under half say they are non-religious or do not declare their beliefs.

The Lutherans were relatively quick to help refugees when they began crossing into Hungary in their thousands in 2015.

Miklos Beer, 74, the Roman Catholic bishop of Vac, has personally accommodated refugees in his bishopric in northern Hungary  UNHCR/Andras D Hajdu

We have all kinds of people in our congregations, says Tamas Fabiny, 58, Bishop of the northern district of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hungary. When the refugees began arriving at the stations, I was pleased to see that many of our church people went out as volunteers. They were asking, what kind of water should we give the refugees, still or sparkling? And what kind of food do Muslims eat?.

The Catholics were more cautious. Bishop Beer admits that while he felt the building of a fence on the border with Serbia did not give out a good message, he was initially inclined to give the government the benefit of the doubt when it came to ensuring orderly migration.

But he was shocked by billboards and other propaganda that aimed to turn the population against refugees. In 2016, the government urged a no vote in a referendum on whether Hungary should take its EU quota of refugees. In the end, the vote was invalidated due to low turnout.

Who came up with the idea of playing on the negative instincts of the people, on their egoism and selfishness? the bishop asks. Without doubt, the government campaign has had an impact on the population and I am afraid that people have started to see enemies everywhere.

The bishop sighs and struggles to explain the negative attitudes he comes across. With a heavy heart, I must say it is rare when I meet churchgoers who understand (the need to help refugees) and this applies to priests too. Perhaps the roots are in the old dictatorship. We got rid of the Communists and now the general view is, just leave us alone.

Tamas Fabiny, 58, a Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, is among a number of Hungarian church leaders who have started to question the government's approach and call for compassion towards asylum seekers  UNHCR/Andras D Hajdu

Bishop Beer and Bishop Fabiny, who are friends, made a joint video with a message of welcome to refugees for World Refugee Day. Afterwards, they received hate mail and abusive comments on social media. Not from churchgoers but from the general public. It made me very sad, says Bishop Fabiny.

A particularly distressing incident in the village of Ocseny in September prompted the bishops to speak out again. Villagers attacked a guesthouse owner who had offered holiday accommodation to a group of refugees.

These refugees had actually been granted asylum by the government, says Bishop Beer. But this is what Hungarian society is like now. We do not care about others. There is just automatic rejection of outsiders.

He adds that rural Hungary is depopulated and many village houses are abandoned. I cannot live with the idea that it is better for these buildings to collapse than to let refugees live there, he says.

I am best serving the government if I speak the truth.

Religious leaders are aware that there could be some risk in challenging the government over refugees, not least because churches depend on the state for finance.

The government has not said it will cut funds and I dont raise the matter either, says Bishop Fabiny. But some of my pastors worry that we could be punished financially. I am responsible for the unity of my church. I have to hear their voices and I must be fair to the government too. It is a very narrow path.

For his part, Bishop Beer says: I am best serving the government if I speak the truth.

When it comes to giving practical support to refugees, the Lutheran Church runs a centre in Budapest where asylum seekers can get help with translations and legal advice. It also has an integration house in the northeastern town of Nyiregyhaza, offering refugee families temporary accommodation and help with employment.

Lutheran and Catholic bishops stand with refugees (Balazs Wizner, director)

Bishop Beer decided the best he could do for refugees was to take some of them into his own home during the severe cold earlier this year. The bishop, whose bourgeois family was exiled to the countryside during Communism, has extensive grounds. He loves farm animals and keeps sheep and a donkey in the paddock. Inside, the house is warm and magical. A toy train runs around a track on the floor of the study.

The Bishop accommodated two men from Africa, an Afghan, a Syrian and an Iraqi. The Iraqi man was an engineer, who spoke good English. I baptized him this Easter, he says.

However, when the Hungarian government introduced a new rule that asylum seekers must be kept in detention pending the outcome of their applications, there was nothing the bishop could do to prevent his guests from being taken into custody.

The two African men went to report to the police in the town of Gyor and did not return. They are now in detention, he says sadly. The other refugees left Hungary in the hope of finding a better reception elsewhere in Europe.
UNHCR and its partner registering newly arrived asylum seekers fleeing unrest in English-speaking areas of Cameroon.  UNHCR

UNHCR, the UN Refuge Agency, is stepping up its presence in south-eastern Nigeria, to provide life-saving support to thousands of people fleeing unrest in English-speaking areas of Cameroon.

Since tensions between security forces and pro-independence demonstrators in Cameroons restive Anglophone region intensified in October, joint UNHCR and government teams have registered some 7,204 arrivals in remote areas of Nigerias Cross River state. As they report, thousands more are awaiting registration.

Some 70 per cent of the registered asylum seekers come from the area of Akwaya in south-west Cameroon. Women and children in their majority, they are hosted by local communities near the border. But, as the unrest in Cameroon continues and more asylum seekers arrive, UNHCR is concerned that the local populations capacity will soon be stretched to its limits.

Heavy wet season rains have worsened the state of the road network in the remote region, hampering efforts to deliver aid. UNHCR and partners distribute food, basic relief items and medical aid. UNHCR is also deploying more staff in the region and coordinates with partners, national and local authorities to ensure that the needs of all affected people are met.

Additional resources will be necessary to support the arrivals and reinforce UNHCRs coordination and response efforts. Currently, UNHCR in Nigeria and partners have elaborated a contingency plan in the event of new arrivals.

For more information on this topic, please contact:
Never mind that any objective study of history proves the zero sum game to be utterly false never mind that economies expand based on the actions and choices of individual and groups, to the extent facilitated or restrained by the leviathan. Thousands of years of continually expanding economies are apparently not enough data for the Left to break from their core belief that for one to benefit, someone else must suffer. It is a religion for them.

This is logical in their zeitgeist  a world that operates under the zero sum game theory of the anti-capitalist mentality. They believe the economy is a pie, so if someone gets a bigger slice, then by definition someone elses slice must be shrinking.

The primary goal of the mainstream media and their puppets in Washington known as the Democratic Party (or is it the other way around? Its so hard to tell these days) is now to study the 2017 Tax Reform plan and identify who directly benefits most, and who directly benefits least, so that the program can be portrayed as a contest between winners and losers.

But we do know that economies expand, and in fact the whole design of this tax reform package is to enable our economy to expand at a much greater rate than it has in recent years. The USA should be producing GDP growth of at least four to five percent, and the current tax plan was designed to help get us there. It may not succeed as well as hoped, or it may even over-perform but whatever it does, the winners and losers vision of the Left is utterly inapplicable.

Fairness in Taxation

One great quest of government is to set taxes that are fair this is a fools errand. Its unattainable.

In a republic in which every adult non-felon citizen has one vote on election day, the only truly fair system of taxation would be to calculate the total cost of government, and divide it equally among those of voting age. Bill Gates and I each get one vote; is it fair for him to have to pay tens of thousands of times more in taxes than I do? Of course not.

Unfortunately, such a system is politically and economically impossible. Our government has grown so large, and our economy includes so many who live from hand to mouth, a truly equitable division of the cost of government would be beyond the reach of at least half the country. So we have to think of something else.

The goal of our politicians is therefore to identify a less terribly unfair method than the current one, and that at least is an attainable goal.

Businesses that turn a profit, plus well-paid individuals, have a top federal income tax rate of 39.6%, and thats before we even consider all the other taxes they pay. The employer-match or consultant-match of Social Security and Medicare is another seven or eight percent, for a total of about fifteen when you count both halves our property taxes are another five or ten thousand or more each year, much more, for many people almost everything we buy has sales tax on it most states have their own income tax too, on top of the federal one, even some big cities have their own so there are people in this country who pay three separate income taxes in addition to all these others.

While we must give up on an effort at true fairness, surely we can make a dent in that massive burden of unfairness.

The Joint Purposes of Tax Cuts

It would be a lie to deny that one goal of any tax cut measure is to win votes. Since lowering tax rates is a huge component of the Republican brand, it is certainly hoped that by lowering the tax rates of many voters, the bill will keep them in the Republican column on Election Day, and perhaps even win converts as well  as it did during the Reagan years, when the Kemp-Roth Tax Cut succeeded in highlighting this major difference between the parties. Just as Democrats never run out of creating ways to put their hands in our pockets, the Republican party is expected to find ways to install buttons, zippers, snaps, and every other possible closure to keep the Democrats hands out of them!

But in the end, the more important aspect of a tax cut is to create economic growth.

For decades, we have watched our manufacturing base erode as factories have fled to China, India, Malaysia, and every other country with lower taxes and simpler regulations than ours.

The activist Left will tell you its all about wage rates, but its not. Anyone whos worked for a manufacturer with plants in both the USA and a developing nation will tell you that the costs of flying engineers and managers and samples and expedited shipments back and forth often cancels out the lower wages paid out on the assembly line. Besides, as those countries succeed, the wages rise, so the wage advantage diminishes yearly.

The keys are the burdens of American regulations (which the president can lessen by executive order, temporarily at least and he has been) and American taxation, which this current bill tackles head-on.

Were competing against countries with lower tax burdens than our own. If we can match or beat their tax burdens  and theres no reason we cant  we will be able to both stop the erosion of manufacturing and even reignite growth again.

With this bill, job growth will boom. Existing companies will expand lines here, and even pull back lines that have been sent temporarily to other countries. And new startups  the absence of which has been such a source of economic pain for decades  will finally burst on the scene again.

The bill could be better it does have advantages for big businesses over small businesses, for example, but that just leaves us room for a phase two in 2019, when the GOP has a stronger senate majority. And the general tax rate on businesses is still too high but this is such a marked improvement over the status quo, theres no question that it will be a blessing to every American.

Direct and Indirect Effects

The press focuses  perhaps because they think Its how their audience thinks  on the direct result of a tax cut. This individual will pay a higher or lower rate, this other individual will save more or less, this company will pay a lower tax bill on the same profits than he did before. This approach enables people to make clear, easy dollar-for-dollar comparisons.

But it is deceptive, because again, its a zero-sum approach.

In fact, the whole beauty of a growth package is that we wont be comparing apples to apples, because the opportunities will arise to change the numbers so much for the better.

For example, consider a taxpayer who works as a buyer in a purchasing department, and because of this stubbornly flat economy, hes been stuck at the same salary, say, $75,000/year, for the past five years. As the tax cut takes effect, his employer will presumably do better, and be back to giving raises again, and more jobs will open up in his area. Maybe his boss will give him a decent raise, maybe he wont but either way, hell now have the opportunity to leave for a better-paying job at a competitors purchasing department, at say, $80K or $90K or maybe hell finally be able to move up to purchasing manager at $100K, because that job opens up for him.

The press wants us to analyze how has tax payment would change if he were still paid $75K, but in most cases, hell now be paid more. Even if his personal tax rate didnt go down at all, his personal financial situation will still have improved because hes making more money.

This is the case for almost everyone, in a boom economy. People who dont have jobs now will be able to get jobs people whove been stuck in a dead-end job will finally have promotion opportunities open up so the end result will be better than cold predictions on paper would indicate.

This even applies in cases where people lose some of the old deductions that are being eliminated As some of us in high-tax states lose the deductions that may have masked the pain of our high state income taxes or high local property taxes, the writers of the bill did try to look out for them in increased standard deductions and a lowering of rates. But still, they too will benefit from the improvement of the economy; they too will benefit from greater opportunities to get raises, promotions, and bonuses, as their employers benefit from the economic boom that has already begun, but will really take off only once this new tax code is in place.

Winners and Losers

In the final analysis, therefore, everyones a winner. Everyone quotes this line all the time, and I hate overusing cliches, but it really is true: as JFK said, a rising tide lifts all boats. This tax cut will create that rising tide, so investors, assembly line workers, clerks, middle managers, and everyone else will stand to benefit.

The only real losers will be those who have opposed tax cuts for so long  the ones who have fought to keep American tax rates high, out of class envy, social engineering, and other statist impulses.

If I were managing a political campaign in 2018, I know which candidates Id want on my slate.

The incumbents who opposed this tax cut  and especially the ones whove continued to champion high taxes and the whole anti-capitalist line  will be easier to defeat at the polls in November.

Politicians who stubbornly keep the lid on an economy, people who fight growth and prosperity, people who fight to keep you from job opportunities and new career paths THESE are the real losers.

Copyright 2017 John F Di Leo

John F Di Leo is a Chicagoland based trade compliance trainer, actor and writer. His columns are regularly found in Illinois Review.

Permission is hereby granted to forward freely, provided it is uncut and the byline and IR URL are included.
Hungary will veto EU decision against Poland - deputy PM tells state news agency

BUDAPEST, Dec 20 (Reuters) The launch of the European Commission's action against Poland over judicial reforms violates Poland's sovereignty and Hungary will veto it, Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen said on Wednesday.

Semjen told national news agency MTI that it was unacceptable that Brussels was exerting pressure on a sovereign member state.

"The Polish-Hungarian friendship and the Hungarian government's commitment to treaties obliges us to step up against the Commission's step in all forums," Semjen was quoted as saying. When asked if this could mean that Hungary would veto the proposed action against Poland, he said yes, MTI reported.
Vietnam to prosecute another former oil executive over mismanagement

HANOI, Dec 20 (Reuters) Vietnam police on Wednesday ordered the prosecution of a former executive at scandal-hit state energy company PetroVietnam over financial losses, the latest move in a high-level corruption crackdown that has seen a politburo member arrested.

Phung Dinh Thuc, a former chairman of PetroVietnam, will be prosecuted for alleged "violation of state regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences" while he was in charge of a PetroVietnam solar power plant project, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement posted online.

Thuc is one of two officials that Vietnamese state media had earlier this month reported would be prosecuted. Vietnam's state-run news agency later apologised for issuing what it said was a false report on the prosecution of the two.
1.From State Rep. Peter Breen, House Republican Floor Leader, "I personally observed him badly botch negotiations with the General Assembly on a variety of subjects, finally getting to the point where Governor Rauner couldnt even be in the same room as House Speaker Mike Madigan. Madigan is the one guy who Rauner promised to stand up to, but he cant or wont even enter the arena for that fight."2.From the man who said he had "no social agenda" Benedict Rauner told Illinois families he would veto the legislation. He committed to the GOP legislative caucuses that he would veto the legislation. Instead he became the first governor in U.S. history to initiate taxpayer funding for abortion on demand, all nine months of pregnancy. This creates a new, open-ended entitlement at a time when Illinois has $16 billion in unpaid bills to vendors and social service providers.3.From the man who said he had "no social agenda" Benedict Rauner joined leftist governors like California's Jerry Brown in designating Illinois a "sanctuary state" the effect of which is inhibiting the cooperation between local, state and federal law enforcement. This legislation make Illinois families less safe.4.From the man who said he had "no social agenda" Benedict Rauner signed legislation to allow individuals to change the sex listed on their birth certificate. Dr. Michelle Cretella, President of the American College of Pediatricians, recently wrote: No one is born transgender. If gender identity were hardwired in the brain before birth, identical twins would have the same gender identity 100 percent of the time. But they dont. Biological sex is not assigned. Sex is determined at conception by our DNA and is stamped into every cell of our bodies. An identity is not biological, it is psychological. It has to do with thinking and feeling. Thoughts and feelings are not biologically hardwired. Our thinking and feeling may be factually right or factually wrong. Rauner's legislation will put grown men in women's bathrooms with girls and boys in girls' locker rooms.5.Rauner negotiated a $2.35 billion bail out of a company that makes over $2 billion in profit a year - that doesn't make sense. Since Illinois produces 40% more electricity than we consume, our residents are subsidizing cheaper power to residents in other states. And the same crony subsidy Exelon argued for in IL, they argued against for their competition in Ohio.Benedict Rauner's $100K wine club buddy Rahm said of Rauner's bailout, Chicago Public Schools got everything he wanted "and more".7.. Instead, it's back up to Pat Quinn levels at 4.95%. Rauner saw 15 of his bought-and-paid for House Republicans vote with Mike Madigan to pass the 32% increase while he sat impotently by.8.Rauner won't answer questions about the dismissal of his former general counsel and a memo surfaced suggesting that Rauner was intent on using state resources for political purposes, one of the bases that sent two former governors to federal prison.9.In a 2014 campaign ad, Bruce Rauner blasted Pat Quinn for property tax rates that were the second highest, saying He just doesnt get it. Today, according to the Wall Street Journal, Property taxes in Cook County and Chicagos collar counties are the highest in the country outside of California and the Northeast. In 2014, Governor Rauner repeatedly said he would replace traditional pensions for public workers with 401(k)-style retirement plans. Three years later, Fitch Ratings reports that Illinoiss unfunded pension liabilities equaled 22.8% of residents personal income last year, compared to a median of 3.1% across all states and 1% in Florida.10Rauner ended the year with a Freudian slip, admitting that he has ceded control of Illinois to Mike Madigan and Chicago Democrats.

Is this the new face of the Illinois GOP? Will Republicans accept their thirty pieces of silver to continue backing Benedict Rauner, or will they reject him in advancement of their stated values and principles? On March 20, we will find out.
UW-Led Paper: Hunting of Bighorn Sheep Ewes Could Produce More Trophy Rams

UW Assistant Professor Kevin Monteith, right, and graduate student Tayler LaSharr release a bighorn sheep ram on Wyomings Wind River Indian Reservation last March. The two are among authors of a new paper that concludes that hunting of female bighorn sheep may well be one of the most effective ways to increase the number of trophy rams in North American bighorn sheep populations. (Kevin Monteith Photo)

Although contrary to prevailing notions, hunting of female bighorn sheep may well be one of the most effective ways to increase the number of trophy rams in North American bighorn sheep populations, according to researchers at the University of Wyoming and other institutions.

Thats because such harvests would make more forage available to growing rams and, importantly, their mothers -- boosting their nutritional levels, a factor that has been shown to be more important than genetics in producing rams with large horns, the researchers say.

Their conclusions are detailed in a paper that appears in a special section on management of mountain sheep in the Journal of Wildlife Management, a peer-reviewed, scientific journal devoted to the ecology of nondomesticated animal species and published by The Wildlife Society.

The papers lead author is Kevin Monteith, assistant professor in UWs Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Zoology and Physiology, and the Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit. Also contributing was UW masters degree student Tayler LaSharr, along with researchers from the University of Idaho, the University of Nevada-Reno, the University of Alaska-Fairbanks and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Unlike management of many other big-game species in the American West, there are few hunting opportunities for bighorn sheep ewes -- in part, because of tradition and public resistance to the idea. But, Monteith and his colleagues say that not only could hunting of females improve nutritional conditions, leading to rams with bigger horns; it also could help stabilize bighorn sheep populations, reduce the frequency and severity of die-offs from diseases, and increase opportunities for hunters.

We acknowledge and fully appreciate that initiating female harvest may conflict with hunting and management traditions, the paper reads. (However), if production of large, trophy males remains an important management objective, then we contend that management programs should integrate monitoring of nutritional status of populations and, where evidence indicates nutritional limitation through density dependence, seek to regulate abundance and per capita nutrition via harvest of females.

For decades, concerns about declines in the numbers of trophy rams have focused on the evolutionary effects of hunting such large males, as removing those animals from the gene pool could lead to fewer large-horned offspring. But, while horn size is known to be hereditary, a growing body of evidence shows that age and nutrition frequently override genetic contributions to the size of horns, the researchers say.

Given the hyperbole surrounding trophy management and big horns, we suggest the importance of females in the management of mountain sheep has been largely forgotten, the scientists wrote. Those impacts include the lifelong effects of the physical condition of ewes during and after pregnancy on growth of their male offspring, as well as the overall nutritional condition of sheep herds where their numbers exceed what available habitat can support.

Ultimately, we call for greater recognition of the pervasive role of females in the production of trophy males, and that, accordingly, females be better integrated into harvest and management programs, the researchers concluded.
Emegency crews work at the scene of a Amtrak train derailment on Dec 18, 2017 in DuPont, Washington. (Stephen Brashear/Getty Images/AFP)

DUPONT, Washington: An Amtrak passenger train travelling on a new route for the first time derailed on Monday (Dec 18) in Washington state, killing at least three people as cars plunged off a bridge onto a busy highway at the height of morning rush hour, officials said.

The train, which was carrying 77 passengers and seven crew, derailed in DuPont about halfway between Tacoma and the state capital Olympia on a curve that passes over busy Interstate 5 at about 7.40am (11.40pm Singapore time).

Several other carriages of the 14-car train also ended up on the highway, shutting down a key section of the busy artery that connects the greater Seattle metropolitan area to Olympia.

A spokeswoman for Washington State police, Brooke Bova, confirmed the death toll, adding that all train cars had been searched by emergency personnel.

But she cautioned that several of the roughly 100 people taken to area hospitals were in critical condition.

"We don't know if that number will change," Bova said of the death toll.

Officials gave no reason for the derailment of southbound Amtrak train 501, the inaugural run of a new service that promised faster connections between Seattle and Portland, Oregon.

Local officials had warned only weeks ago that the track still might not be safe enough to handle trains at higher speeds.

None of the people in vehicles traveling on the highway below the train were killed, according to Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff's Department.

Police said five vehicles and two trucks were hit on the highway.

Officials earlier confirmed several people had died in the crash, but had declined to provide precise numbers.

"There are multiple fatalities," said Ed Troyer, spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff's Department. "It's pretty horrific," he said.

Local television KOMO News reported six dead and several people in critical condition among the dozens sent to local hospitals for treatment.

Troyer said that it was too unsafe to check some of the cars but it was possible there were more bodies in them.

"We just don't know until they can shore up those train cars and get in there and search them," he said.

None of the people in vehicles travelling on the highway below the train were killed, according to Troyer.

The National Transportation Safety Board has sent a team of experts to investigate the incident.

'PEOPLE WERE SCREAMING'

Chris Karnes, a local transit official who was aboard the train, told local CBS News affiliate KIRO-TV that the accident took place while it was going around a curve.

"All of a sudden, we felt this rocking and creaking noise, and it felt like we were heading down a hill," he said.

"The next thing we know, we're being slammed into the front of our seats, windows are breaking, we stop, and there's water gushing out of the train. People were screaming."

A conductor in one of the two engines on the train placed the emergency call.

"Amtrak 501, emergency emergency emergency, we are on the ground," he said, according to an audio recording of the call.

"We were coming around the corner to take the bridge over I-5 there right north of Nisqually and we went on the ground."

"We got cars everywhere and down onto the highway," he said.

Amtrak president and co-chief executive Richard Anderson said he was "deeply saddened" by the crash.

"We will do everything in our power to support our passengers and crew and their families," Anderson said.

SAFETY CONCERNS

The accident marred the launch of faster services on the route after a US$181 million upgrade project that included improving the rails, the signalling technology and the locomotives.

Local officials had worried about trains going at higher speeds through the curves in the area. The trains were expected to reach speeds of 127 kilometres per hour through the densely populated area with the improved systems and track.

In early December, Don Anderson - the mayor of Lakewood, Washington, a Tacoma suburb just a few miles from the accident site - had warned that more needed to be done to ensure safety on the route.

"Come back when there is that accident, and try to justify not putting in those safety enhancements," he said, according to KOMO News.

Karnes said the tracks were supposed to have been upgraded to accommodate higher speeds.

"I'm not sure what happened," he said.

TRUMP: US NEEDS BETTER INFRASTRUCTURE

US President Donald Trump said the accident underscored the need to invest in infrastructure.

"Seven trillion dollars spent in the Middle East while our roads, bridges, tunnels, railways (and more) crumble! Not for long!" he tweeted.

The new Siemens Charger locomotives were equipped with "positive train control" safety systems, designed to automatically stop the train in dangerous situations and mandated for trains around the country.

But the technology was only expected to be used next year when it is activated on the entire rail corridor, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation.

In 2015, an Amtrak train going far over the designated speed for a stretch of curves in the track in Philadelphia derailed, killing eight.

At the time, analysts said positive train control technology could have prevented the accident.
US Speaker of the House Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) (centre) speaks during a news briefing after a House Republican Conference meeting at the Capitol in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images/AFP)

It is a controversial plan that Trump's party insists will provide tangible benefits for most American families and businesses, and give the economy a shot in the arm.

Comparative corporate tax rates. (AFP/Laurence CHU)

Democrats say the plan is a giveaway to the wealthy, and no lawmaker in the opposition minority is publicly supporting the legislation.

Here are five numbers that help explain the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which Trump aims to sign into law by Christmas.

21 PER CENT

The tax rate for US corporations under the new plan. Trump has argued that the current US business tax rate, 35 per cent, is the highest in the developed world, and that cutting the rate substantially would make America more competitive globally.

Earlier versions of the bill lowered the corporate rate to 20 per cent, but it was bumped to 21 in order to help defray the plan's high costs.

US$1.456 TRILLION

The amount that the bill will add to the national debt between 2018 and 2027.

Even accounting for increased economic growth brought about by the tax overhaul, an approach known as dynamic scoring, the Joint Committee on Taxation projects the bill will cost about US$1 trillion over the next decade.

US$2,059

The tax savings for a typical family of four earning US$73,000 in 2018 under the new law, according to House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Democrats say that wealthy Americans are slated to save dramatically more, while millions of working class and middle income families could eventually be hit with a tax hike. According to the Tax Policy Centre, more than half of taxpayers would pay more in 2027 than under current law.

2026

The year that most tax cut provisions for individuals expire under the new law. Sunsetting those provisions could save more than US$300 billion.

Democrats are angry because while the individual rate cuts are temporary, the corporate rate drop, and the international tax rules, will be made permanent.

37 PER CENT

The new highest tax rate for wealthy Americans.

In 11th hour closed-door talks, House and Senate negotiators agreed to reduce the top individual rate to well below the 39.6 per cent in the House bill (and the rate under current law), and even below the 38.5 per cent sought in the Senate version, providing a bigger boon to the rich.
In early 2017, the bank was reported to have its charter capital raised for the first time by 9 per cent via dividend-paying stocks.

On the basis of the plan to separately issue shares to strategic shareholders that was approved at the annual general meeting (AGM) on October 17, the board of directors (BOD) adopted the plan to separately issue 98.1 million shares in order to increase the banks charter capital on November 6.

Additionally, HDBank planned to offer 20 million shares for its staff at the price of VND10,000 ($0.44) per share. The deadline for the offering is no later than the first quarter of 2018.

This is the second time HDBank has raised its charter capital

Throughout October and November, the banks AGM green-lighted a series of resolutions authorising the BOD to step up the preparation process for the listing of HDBank.

On December 4, HDBank submitted the documents to list nearly 882.9 million shares on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HoSE) for approval. From December 14, the banks shares stopped trading on the over-the-counter market (OTC) to prepare for the listing.

Likewise, HDBank expects to register its depository on the Vietnam Securities Depository (VSD) and list its shares on HoSE by the end of 2017 or in early 2018.

As of the end of the third quarter, HDBank was estimated to have total assets of VND174.6 trillion ($7.7 billion), total mobilised capital of VND156.4 trillion ($6.8 billion), and total outstanding credit balance of VND104.2 trillion ($4.5 billion).

In addition, the bank kept the proportion of bad debts under control, with the ratio of merely 1.2 per cent, which was relatively low compared to other banks. As shown in the banks financial statement, its after-tax profit in the third quarter mounted up to VND825 billion ($36.2 million) and the accumulated profit of the first three quarters reached VND1.5 trillion ($66 million).
South Korea rode increasing HR quality to economic emergence

At last weeks South Korea-initiated Global HR Forum 2017, held in Vietnam for the first time, more than 300 Vietnamese and South Korean government officials, business leaders, startup entrepreneurs, and university representatives talked human resources (HR) exchanges and training co-operation between Vietnam and South Korea in the age of Industry 4.0.

During the two-day event, titled Miracle on the Han River to Miracle on the Red River, experience and lessons about the so-called Miracle on the Han River  which helped develop South Korea from a poor nation in the late 1950s into a leading Asian economy from the 1990s  were also shared.

As part of the forum, Vietnam and South Korea shared visions in co-operatively cultivating talents to serve the requirements of the Industry 4.0 era.

At the event, Vietnamese Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha said that HR plays a key role in a countrys socio-economic development. In the Industry 4.0 era, Vietnam is facing new challenges in its HR development.

Vietnam is hoping to gain from the experiences of developed countries, including South Korea, to improve our HR quality, Nha said. HR development is considered a breakthrough measure to leverage economic development and growth quality.

Korean Minister of Education, Kim Sang-kon, hoped that the forum would provide an opportunity for the two countries to discover measures to make education and training co-operation more practical, while strengthening ties in economy, culture, and society.

During last weeks Global HR Forum in Vietnam 2017, the nations jointly debuted a new educational platform, which enabled in-depth discussion of policy development in cultivating HR and exchanges.

According to Dr. Yoon Dae-Hee, former Minister of Policy Co-ordination of South Korea, Vietnam is facing challenges related to rising labour costs and an ageing population, as well as an insufficiently-skilled workforce. Workforce quality is becoming more important, and higher education is needed for the transition to a high-end economy.

Policy suggestions for the economic development of Vietnam are to increase overall labour productivity by matching skills and labour market needs, raising higher education completion rates, and introducing creativity-centred education programmes, he said.

For the Miracle on the Han River, South Korea gained ground thanks to various strategies that the country implemented in HR development. During this time, GDP per capita rose from $67 in 1953 to $20,795 in 2006, while export value ascended from $120 million in 1964 to $495.4 billion in 2016.

According to experts, to realise The Miracle on the Red River, training and improving the quality of HR must come with breakthrough changes and accelerated speed, with universities playing an important role.

The events presenters spoke on the impressive effects of a quality workforce  taking the stage were luminaries such as Nguyen Xuan Cuong, vice chairman of the Vietnam Digital Communications Association, Trinh Minh Giang, chairman of Venture Management Consulting Group, and Nguyen Thanh Nam, vice chairman of FPT University.

Jointly organised by Vietnams Ministry of Education and Training (MoET), the Ministry of Education of South Korea, and the Korea Economic Daily, the event marked the 25th anniversary of formal diplomatic relations between the two countries.

After establishing diplomatic ties in 1992, the connection between Vietnam and South Korea has strongly deepened, with a number of agreements signed since 2007, including several in education and training.

In the latest agreement signed between MoET and the Ministry of Education of South Korea in March 2017, Vietnam sent 26 teachers to South Korea from April to June, and South Korea sent 34 teachers to Vietnam from September to December.

By the end of February 2016, Vietnam had 8,293 students enrolled in schools in South Korea, making up 7.8 per cent of the countrys 96,357 overseas students, just behind China.

In addition, South Korea is now Vietnams biggest foreign investor, with $57.5 billion worth of registered capital as of November 2017.
This is the first phase of an up to $150-million financing package IFC is arranging for An Binh Bank (ABBank). At least one third of the funding will go to support women-owned enterprises.

With this funding, the bank aims to triple its SME portfolio and quadruple the size of its lending to women-owned SMEs over a five-year period. The outstanding SME portfolio is expected to reach more than $1 billion by 2021.

As Vietnams economic growth continues, long-term funding for SMEs is going to become critical. While SMEs account for more than 98 per cent of the countrys businesses and 50 per cent of employment, only 30 per cent of the registered SMEs have access to formal financial services.

Further, a new IFC study finds that it is even more difficult for women-owned SMEs to obtain bank loans, with an estimated credit gap of $1.2 billion per annum.

The much-needed syndicated funding from IFC and partner banks will help strengthen ABBanks SME and women-owned SME portfolios, thus positioning the bank to become one of the leaders in this segment, said an ABBank representative. In addition, this loan will provide the bank with a more diversified source of long-term funding from international lenders.

The signing ceremony of the syndicated loan between IFC and ABBank

This project will promote women-owned SMEs as a viable business opportunity by providing tailored products, appropriate offerings, and right marketing, said Kyle Kelhofer, IFC country manager for Vietnam, Cambodia, and Lao PDR. It will create a momentum for other lenders in Vietnam to expand their product offerings in this market segment. Subsequently, it will support the growth of women-owned SMEs, which will in turn create jobs and drive wage growth.

Of this $150 million financing package, IFC is contributing $40 million from its own account, while $70 million comes from Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited (ICBC), Bangkok Bank Public Company Limited, and Maybank International Ltd. The remaining $40 million will be committed by two other international lenders within this month.

Specifically, at least 30 per cent ($45 million) of the funding will be exclusively earmarked for women-owned SMEs, thanks to Women Entrepreneurs Opportunity Facility (WEOF), a global facility dedicated to expanding access to capital for women entrepreneurs, aiming to help close the estimated $285-billion credit gap for women-owned businesses around the world.

WEOF was launched in 2014 as a partnership between IFCs Banking on Women programme and the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women initiative to radically expand access to financing for women-owned businesses. Since then, it has made almost $900 million in commitments to financial institutions in 15 countries to spur lending to women entrepreneurs.

Goldman Sachs research shows that closing the credit gap for women-owned SMEs in emerging markets could push income per capita an average of 12 per cent higher by 2030, said Charlotte Keenan, head of Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women. Women entrepreneurs have real potential to impact Vietnams future growth as a result of this commitment. Through this partnership, we will help to build resilient women-owned businesses and enable women entrepreneurs to reach their full potential with the capital and support they need.

IFC provided ABBank with a trade line under its Global Trade Finance Programme in 2009 before it became the banks foreign investor with 10 per cent equity stake in 2013. Along with financing, IFC has helped ABBank strengthen its corporate governance and build up its SME banking capacity over the past five years. Going forward, IFC will continue advising the bank on segmenting, developing and strengthening its value proposition for women entrepreneurs.
The panelists answering questions from attendees

The three tax issue seminars provided participants with an update on recent changes in the Vietnamese tax system and their impact on the business community, as well as a comprehensive overview of the Vietnamese tax environment. Each of the seminars has attracted more than 500 representatives from leading firms.

The seminar in Danang saw great interest

At the seminars, KPMG experts emphasised the importance of being up-to-date on tax changes in Vietnam, as the country is signing trade deals with 40 countries, which includes agreements to lower taxes, duties, and tariffs.

The Vietnamese government is now facing budgetary problems as the need for public spending is increasing, while earnings from import duties are falling. This will lead to further tax adjustments in 2018, according to KPMG.

The event in Ho Chi Minh City

Participants have put various questions to the experts during the three seminars. The most prominent topics included corporate income tax, value-added tax, foreign contractor tax, and warehouse leasing tax.

The seminar in Hanoi

Related issues, such as transfer pricing and double taxation agreements between Vietnam and other countries, were also discussed.

In the near future, KPMG Vietnam is going to hold tailored tax seminars for companies from South Korea and Japan. A seminar in Mandarin, in collaboration with KPMG Taiwan, will also be organised for Chinese-speaking firms operating in Vietnam.

Not stopping here, the professional services firm is planning to organise specific tax discussions for firms in industrial parks and manufacturing parks.

KPMG Tax Institute is an annual event run by KPMG.
A bus carrying tourists from a US cruise ship to an archaeological site in Mexico crashed. (AFP Photo)

The crash, which left another 20 injured, happened on a highway in the state of Quintana Roo, located on the eastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula and well known as home to the resort city of Cancun.

The tourists had been on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship. Its port of origin was not immediately given.

Royal Caribbean's web site says its Caribbean cruises leave from the United States mainland or Puerto Rico.

The bus was carrying 31 passengers on a straight stretch of road with little traffic. The cause of the early morning accident was not immediately known.

The tourists were headed to visit the coastal resort town of Mahahual, which features Mayan archeological ruins. The specific site they were headed to is one called Chacchoben, the state government said.

The nationalities of the fatalities were not given but news reports said they included Italians and Canadians.

The company operating the bus, Costa Maya, said all the passengers on the bus were from the cruise ship, plus a tour guide and the driver.

A spokeswoman for Royal Caribbean declined to discuss the road accident.

On Twitter, the company expressed its condolences.
Panasonic Eco Solutions Vietnam Company Ltd workers at the opening ceremony of a new factory building at its existing plant in the southern province of Binh Duong. - VNS Photo

A second factory building has been built to double production capacity by 2020, enhancing its responsiveness to the rapid increase in demand for the products in Viet Nam.

The existing plant produces around 53 million wiring devices and 13 million circuit breakers annually.

With further expansion in the works, the company plans to sell its products in other Southeast Asian countries as well.

Masaaki Kobayashi, general director of Panasonic Vietnam, said: With our mission of making A better life, A better world and contributing further to the development of Viet Nam, the inauguration of the factory expresses our commitment to developing high Japan-quality made in Viet Nam, make for Viet Nam products.

As a brand built upon 100 years of reliability, Panasonic will continue to expand in different fields, invest in R&D, develop leading technologies, solutions and products, enhance customer service as well as contribute to society through different educational and environmental projects in Viet Nam.
Tropical Storm Kai-Tak's slow movement caused large volumes of rain to fall on the central Philippines. (Photo: AFP/Handout)

Tropical Storm Kai-Tak's slow movement caused large volumes of rain to fall on the central Philippines. (Photo: AFP/Handout)

Slow-moving Kai-Tak finally swept out to the South China Sea on Monday after inducing days of heavy rain that led to deadly floods and landslides as it sliced across the central islands last weekend.

The government's disaster monitoring agency listed 43 dead in an updated tally and said 45 other people were still missing, many of them feared buried by mud avalanches that struck the small island of Biliran.

"The retrieval operations are still ongoing but we are not finding anyone alive. We only find dead bodies," Sofronio Dacillo, a disaster monitoring officer, told AFP by telephone from Biliran.

"We still have not given up hope of finding someone alive but the chances are slim."

Bulldozers continued to dig for survivors in houses buried by landslides on Biliran, located about 500 kilometres southeast of Manila. The island accounted for 30 of the 43 deaths, with 31 residents missing, authorities said.

The storm's slow movement caused large volumes of rain to fall on the central Philippines, government weather forecaster Jun Galang told AFP.

"It stayed almost stationary so it dumped a lot of rain and caused a lot of landslides which caused many deaths," Galang said.

About half of the more than 100,000 people who fled their homes remained inside evacuation centres this week, the government said.

As rescue efforts continued, Philippine authorities monitored another low-pressure area in the Pacific Ocean that the state weather service said could develop into a storm and strike the archipelago over the Christmas weekend.

The Philippines is battered by 20 major storms each year on average, many of them deadly.
After six years of waiting, a special CBI court in Delhi is likely to announce its verdict on the 2G spectrum case today.

By Meetu Jain: In the end, it's going to be about 40 odd people and their families who would be awaiting the 2G verdict by a trial court with bated breath. Special CBI judge OP Saini will be pronouncing the verdict today, in two cases filed by the CBI and one by the Enforcement Directorate.

The big investigation is of the CBI and that is essentially the money trail of Rs 217-crore loan given by Swan Telecom to Kalaingar TV, the propaganda arm of the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam).

advertisement

Then telecom minister A Raja is the prime accused along with 14 others and in the dock are three companies as well, namely Swan Telecom, Reliance Telecommunications and Uninor.

DMK MP Kanimozhi, Raja's secretary RK Chandolia, ex-telecom secretary Siddharth Behura will also be in the dock.

Also, in the line of fire are promoters of Swan Telecom, Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka, Asif Balwa and director of Kusegaon Fruit and Vegetables, Balkrishan Agarwal and promoter of Cineyug and Bollywood producer, Karim Morani.

An employee of KTV and a 20 per cent shareholder, Sharat Kumar, is also an accused.

Reliance's three employees, Gautam Doshi, Surendra Pipara and Hari Nair are also amongst the accused.

Raja along with Kanomozhi is accused of playing a major role in facilitating the 217-crore bribe from Swan Telecom to KTV.

The CBI chargesheet says Swan telecom was actually a front for Reliance Telecom and that Reliance violated telecom policy to acquire more than 10 per cent share as allowed under the law. Raja is also accused of violating the First Come First Serve policy that was decided upon by the Cabinet.

On January 10, 2008, DOT issued a press release at 2:30 pm stating that licences would be issued between 3:30 pm-4:30 pm to those who came with a draft of Rs 1651 crore.

The catch in the FCFS policy was those who came first with the draft got the licence instead of those who applied first.

The CAG report says that all the demand drafts were actually backdated, thereby implying that the telecom operators had prior knowledge of the licences that were to be issued.

Sanjay Chandra, serving time behind bars on orders of the Supreme Court for failure to allocate flats to owners, was also the promoter of Uninor telecom. This company applied for a licence on October 1, much after the cut off date of September 25. Raja accommodated this company too in violation of the rules.

The irony isn't lost on anyone where the three Reliance Employees are concerned. The first petitioner in the case, Arun Agarwal, says, "While Anil and Tina Ambani were the promoters of Reliance Communication and Anil Ambani signed on the Rs 990 crore cheque with which preferential shares of Swan Telecom were purchased. Nevertheless, the CBI found that the three employees were the ultimate beneficiaries."

advertisement

What is interesting is the case of the ED where the list of the accused is similar to the CBI's except for one name. MK Dayalu, the 60 per cent share holder of Kalaingar TV is also an accused.

The wife of Karunanidhi, Dayalu Amma was not made an accused by the CBI. On the pretext that she didn't understand what was discussed since it was in English in the board meetings of KTV and signed where she was asked to.

Whereas, the ED found that MK Dayalu actually read and understood every document when she signed it.

The third case is of the Essar Telecom. The company is accused of getting two licences, the second in the name of Loop Telecom. RoC documents had nailed Essar's lie and had pointed out that Loop Telecom was indeed a front for Essar.

advertisement

Promoters Ravi Ruia, his son Anshuman Ruia, sister Kiran Khaitan and brother-in-law, IP Khaitan are accused along with a director of Loop telecom, Vikas Saraf.

ALSO WATCH | Those used to 2G, coal scam will face problems with legitimate tax, says Jaitley

--- ENDS ---
A land for sale advertisement in Phu Quoc Island. - VNA/VNS Photo Le Huy Hai

This consideration comes amidst a land price fever heating up in the island district over prospects that it would become a special administrative economic unit.

According to Huynh Quang Hung, deputy chairman of the Phu Quoc Peoples Committee, land prices in Phu Quoc rose by around 80-90 per cent in November.

The land prices were pushed up rapidly due to information that the island district would be developed into a special administrative economic unit with a casino going to be put into operation and a number of investors planning to pump money here.

Buyers were mainly from HCM City and Ha Noi.

Land prices in advantageous locations for the hotel or restaurant business in Dong Duong Town were reportedly traded at around VND50 billion (US$2.2 million) for 1,000sq.metres.

In the north of the island, such as Cua Duong, Cua Can, Bai Thom and Ganh Dau communes, land prices were traded at around VND3.5 billion for 1,000sq.metres, while in areas near the airport and beaches, the prices were around VND8-15 billion for 1,000sq.metres.

Le Quang Minh, head of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, was quoted by Lao Dong (Labourer) newspaper saying that there were land slots for which ownership was transferred dozens of times in a short period.

This pushed up land prices far beyond the real value, he said.

The district authorities said that buyers should think carefully before making any land purchase decision and should not chase after the land price fever, adding that many areas were included in the planning and might not be granted permits for building hotels or restaurants.

The Peoples Committee also said that it would introduce strict measures to better manage land transactions in the island to stabilise prices, prevent speculation and handle illegal land appropriation.
The decree will make sure less buyers get their fingers burnt

Among the big projects to be launched is An Khanh New City Developments sale of its first phase this quarter. The mega $2 billion project is developed by South Koreas Posco E&C and Vietnams Vinaconex, located in Hanois Hoai Duc district, along the Thang Long Boulevard.

Scheduled for completion in 2013, the city is expected to supply 6,440 apartments, equivalent to 392,319 square metres of accommodation, enough for 30,000 people.

Even though Hoa Phat Group, the investor in a more than 1,000 apartment Mandarin Garden in Cau Giay districts Tran Duy Hung road, refused to release its launching time, real estate experts predicted the project would be soon launched.

At the beginning of this month the CT7D, located in Le Van Luong street and invested by Nam Cuong Group and the FLC Landmark Tower of FLC Group will also be launched, with a total of 200 units and prices ranging from VND23 million ($1,200) to VND28 million ($1,470) per square metre.

In Gia Lam district, over the Red River, the second lot of Rung Co Residentials belonging to the Eco Park is also being launched, with around 1,500 apartment units.

In addition, Victoria Van Phu, Star City, Diamond Tower and Song Da City View will also add apartments to the mix.

Real estate consultant CBRE Vietnam expected that there would be 3,000 units in Hanoi launched this quarter, compared to 1,950 units in the third quarter. There were more than 4,600 units launched in the second quarter.

This decline, according to CBRE Vietnam, could be due to the Decree 71, effective on August 8, 2010 providing guidance on the Housing Law, which caps the proportion of units sold via capital contribution contracts at 20 per cent with the remaining 80 per cent sold on transaction floors.

This decree, CBRE Vietnam said, had put a pressure on developers with low financial capabilities and enhanced market transparency.

However, CBRE Vietnam executive director Richard Leech said new project launches would continue trending towards more affordable options.

With the opening and improvement of major infrastructure routes, the capitals western and southern districts are attracting new residents with easier access for commuting into the core urban districts, Leech said.

He said that the Decree 71 was expected to benefit the market by enhancing transparency, placing pressures on developers with low financial capabilities, lessening the threat of price bubbles and limiting speculative forces.

Tran Nhu Trung, Savills Vietnam associate director, said the Decree 71 had showed off its advantages to clearly regulate five types of mobilising capital investment. However, Trung said the procedures to implement Decree 71 were still complicated and wasted customers time and energy.

The more simple it [decree] regulates, the more it is practical in the real life, Trung said.
RoK imposes anti-dumping duties on Viet Nams alloy imports at 4.06 per cent. - Photo baocongthuong.com.vn

The anti-dumping duty rates applied for manufactures and exporters of Viet Nam, Ukraine and India are 4.06 per cent, 19.06 per cent and 7.4-19.06 per cent, respectively, for five years.

Previously, the Korean Trade Commission (KTC) on December 7, 2016, initiated the anti-dumping investigation on Ferro-Silico-Manganese alloys products imported from Viet Nam, Ukraine and India. The investigation was based on petitions filed by Dongbu Metal, Simpac Metal, Simpac Metalloy and Taekyung Industrial.

The investigation period for dumping is from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016. The injury investigation period is from January 1, 2013 to June 30, 2016.

On May 31, 2017, KTC applied the temporary anti-dumping duty at 7.48 per cent for Vietnamese manufactures and exporters.

On September 14, 2017, KTC announced the final results of the anti-dumping duty on this product imported from the three countries at rate ranging from 4.06 to 19.06 per cent.
Uber and Grab will have to play on a more even and regulated playing field

This was announced by Le Dinh Tho, Deputy Minister of Transport, at the meeting reviewing the implementation of the two-year pilot programme of ride-hailing services via technology application, organised on December 19 in Hanoi, according to newswire Vnexpress.

Tho said that during the past two years, Uber and Grab have expanded the transport market by bringing a larger variety of choices for customers. Besides, Uber and Grabs appearance created competition with traditional taxi brands, forcing traditional taxi companies to adjust fares as well as improve service quality.

However, Tho stated that the authorities management of Uber and Grab is still loose as the regulations on the enterprises operations have yet to be clarified, allowing them to take advantage of loopholes. Thus, Uber and Grab must have business registration certificates in order to create a fair playground for all stakeholders.

Tho added that the Ministry of Transport (MoT) will propose the government plans as well as adjustments to regulation to improve the authorities control over the operation of ride-hailing services.

In the framework of the meeting, a representative of MoT stated that Ubers operations in Vietnam lack transparency and the company has yet to complete its tax obligations. The representative of Uber Vietnam only gave general answers without addressing MoTs questions.

Uber has yet to receive any proposals, the company will listen to the authorities opinions and co-operate to ensure the transparency of Ubers operations in Vietnam, the representative said.

Previously, MoT issued Decision No.24/QD-BGTVT on the pilot scheme for ride-hailing services. The pilot duration was two years, lasting from January 2016 to January 2018.

The appearance of ride-hailing services, especially Uber and Grab, has impacted the operations of traditional taxi companies. Notably, Mai Linh Group released bleak business results in the first six months of this year. Accordingly, the number of Mai Linh employees decreased by approximately 6,000 to 24,000, falling 20 per cent on-year.

Besides, the companys net revenue was VND1.72 trillion ($75.4 million), down 5 per cent on-year. Profit from other activities decreased to VND29 billion ($1.29 million), only half of what it was in the first half of last year.

Furthermore, as of the end of June 2017, the company bore an accumulated loss of VND800 billion ($35.1 million), equalling 80 per cent of its charter capital. In the first six months alone, its net loss from business operations was VND47.5 billion ($2.08 million), doubling on-year due to a sharp increase in sales and management expenditures.

Similarly, in the second quarter of this year, Vinasuns net revenue reached VND810 billion ($35.7 million) only, a record low since 2014. Besides, quarterly after-tax profit fell by 50 per cent on-year, to VND16 billion ($706,299). The cumulative figure for the first six months was VND1.9 trillion ($706.29 million), signifying a decrease of 15 per cent.

Within the first six months of this year, the number of Vinasun employees decreased by approximately 8,000 to 9,179. According to a Vinasun representative, the companys business results may remain gloomy until the end of this year.
By PTI: (Eds: Adds details)

Jammu, Dec 20 (PTI) At least five labourers were killed today and eight others injured when an under-construction mud house collapsed in Jammu and Kashmirs Reasi district, police said.

The double-storey house collapsed when the labourers were covering the roof with mud and were about to complete their days work at the site in remote Thub Panassa village, a police official said.

advertisement

He said five labourers --AManzoor Ahmad, Ashiq Ali, Muzaffar Ahmad, Mohammad Gafoor and Gulzar Ahmad -? died on the spot, while the injured were admitted to a district hospital in Reasi.

The official said that a case has been registered in this regard and an investigation is underway. PTI TAS KJ

--- ENDS ---
Further Assurances from Prime Minister May Contrary to Spain & EUs Position

The Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister have been in direct contact overnight with UK Ministers, officials and Members of Parliament on the anticipated publication of the European Unions Recommendations for a Council Decision earlier today.

The Government therefore welcome the assurances given by the Prime Minister to the House of Commons, on Monday and today, about the inclusion of Gibraltar in the negotiations for both the transitional period and the future agreement as Gibraltar prepares to leave the European Union.

The Prime Minister gave these assurances both before and after the publication by the Commission of the new Recommendation for an EU Council Decision which set out their proposed negotiating directives for this new phase of the process.

The assurance today from the Prime Minister in relation to the negotiation must be read in conjunction with both the previous assurances as to the outcome of the negotiations contained in: (a) the unequivocal commitment given by Secretary of State David Davis, to the Chief Minister in April, that the UK will not do the deal with the EU on future trade if it does not include Gibraltar; and (b) the Prime Ministers own assurances on National Day this year to safeguard the Rock, its people and its economy.

Taken together, these assurances are a demonstration of the strength of the support for Gibraltar from the current British Government and all parties in the United Kingdom Parliament.

The directives relating to the transition are pending further discussion and adoption by the Council itself in January. The directives relating to the framework for a future relationship are up for further discussion and adoption in March.

The new negotiating directives restate Clause 24 of the April guidelines which say that after the United Kingdom has left the European Union, the application of any agreement to Gibraltar has to be agreed between the United Kingdom and Spain first. This purported to give Spain a veto over the application to Gibraltar of any agreement concluded after the United Kingdom is out of the EU.

The Deputy Chief Minister, Joseph Garcia, said: The Government of Gibraltar is not surprised by the reference to this clause in the documents which have been published today. It will be recalled that Spain originally intended that this clause should be applied to the Withdrawal Agreement as well, but that did not transpire. However, the negative motivation and outright bad faith that Madrid has shown by seeking a veto over the application of the transition agreement to Gibraltar is unfortunately characteristic. Spain has absolutely nothing to gain by this. Current and future Spanish workers have nothing to gain by this and the uncertainty created by THEIR government as a result. Indeed, the European Union itself have nothing to gain by this. All that they have done is slap in the face a small community that voted by 96% to remain in the European Union. Moreover, the purported veto is not even in the interests of Spain itself or of the many thousands of Spanish and other EU nationals who live in Spain and work in Gibraltar. The position of the Government is that a transitional period which largely extends the existing relationship of the Member State United Kingdom until the end of 2020 should similarly extend the existing relationship of Gibraltar with the EU until that time. We will continue to work with the United Kingdom to secure a Brexit that works for Gibraltar and for all sectors of our community and all nationalities represented in our labour market, despite Spains predatory attitude.
Photo: xxxtentacion/Youtube

The late rapper XXXTentacion (real name Jahseh Onfroy) experienced a tumultuous but relatively rapid rise to success, punctuated by serious legal issues and disturbing acts of violence. He signed a record deal rumored to be worth a whopping $6 million despite a video that surfaced showing XXX hitting a fan in the head with a microphone at the Rolling Loud Festival in Mountain View, California. At the time of his murder in June 2018, he was also awaiting trial for a 2016 domestic-abuse case, in which he was charged with aggravated battery of a pregnant woman, domestic battery by strangulation, false imprisonment, and witness tampering. Taking in the full scope of these events is difficult and overwhelming, so weve compiled a timeline to try to make sense of the situation.

Pre-2014

19982011: XXXTentacion grew up in Pompano Beach and Lauderhill in South Florida. He lived with his mother, who he said had it hard, and sometimes with his grandmother. My mom was just in situations where she couldnt take care of me, he said in an interview on the No Jumper podcast. From a very young age, he got involved in violent situations. Ive been fighting since I was a kid, he said. When he was 6, he tried to stab a man who was messing with his mother. He was also expelled from his first middle school for fighting.

In his early teenage years, he developed a passion for music. He was drawn to nu-metal and hard rock as well as rap, and tried to teach himself how to play the guitar and the piano. In middle school, he said his aunt and mother tried to encourage this interest by signing him up for chorus, but he eventually got kicked out of the program for punching a classmate.



20122014: XXXTentacion attends high school at Piper High School in Sunrise, Florida, before dropping out in the tenth grade. Around this time, he says, he recorded and released a song, but there is no record of it online.

Sometime in 20132014, XXXTtentacion spends around nine months to a year in a juvenile-detention center for a gun possession charge. During this time he meets fellow rapper Ski Mask the Slump God. After being released, the two go on to collaborate on several projects.

201415

March 2014: XXXTentacion uploads his first song to SoundCloud. The track is called Vice City.

February 3, 2015: He releases another EP called Heartbreak Hotel on SoundCloud.

Late 2014: XXXTentacion independently releases two EPs called The Fall and Ice House online. He later deletes them from SoundCloud.

April 20, 2015: XXXTentacion and Ski Mask the Slump God release a joint EP called Members Only Vol. 1

October 23, 2015: XXXTentacion and Ski Mask release another EP, Members Only Vol. 2

November 16, 2015: XXXTentacion is charged for committing home invasion, robbery, and aggravated battery, according to court documents.

December 31, 2015: Look at Me, XXXTentacions first big single, appears on SoundCloud.

2016

January 29: Look at Me gets an official release as a digital download. While its SoundCloud numbers continue to grow, the single doesnt enter the Billboard charts for another ten-and-a-half months.

April 24: XXXTentacion does his first long-form interview on the hip-hop podcast No Jumper (which Jon Caramanica of the New York Times has described as The Paris Review for the face-tattoo set). He discusses his troubled past and time in juvenile detention. He includes a very graphic story about beating up a cellmate, whom he refers to as a faggot, describing every violent act in gruesome detail. After mentioning that he wiped the mans blood on his face, Adam22, (full name Adam Grandmaison), the BMX rider and hip-hop podcast host, contributes an equally disturbing response  Warpaint. Thats tight, he says.

Mid-May: According to a testimony obtained by Pitchfork in September of this year, XXXTentacion and his (former) girlfriend (and alleged domestic-abuse victim) first met.

Late May: The first instance of domestic violence allegedly takes place. According to his ex-girlfriends testimony, XXXTentacion threatened to penetrate her vagina with a barbecue cleaner or a barbecue fork.

July: XXXTentacion and his then-girlfriend move to Orlando.

Mid-July (approximately): The second incident of alleged domestic violence occurs. XXXTentation allegedly kicked, punched, tackled, and stomped on his ex-girlfriend, because he heard her singing another artists song, the testimony in Pitchfork states. He also threatened to cut out, her tongue, the victim said.

August 9: XXXTentacion is arrested for his 2015 robbery and assault charges. He is held at Broward Regional Detention Center in Fort Lauderdale.

September 16: XXXTentacion agrees to house arrest, and is released from jail. Soon after, he allegedly assaults his ex-girlfriend again after she confesses to sleeping with another man. According to her testimony, he put a knife to her throat, strangled her a little bit, and threatened to hit her with a glass bottle.

Late September: XXXTentacion and his then-girlfriend move to Sweetwater, Florida. XXXTentacion is accused of strangling her on two occasions around this time, the testimony in Pitchfork states.

Early October: XXXTentactions ex-girlfriend finds out that she is pregnant with his child.

October 68: Over the course of two days, several instances of domestic violence allegedly take place. According to XXXTentacions ex-girlfriends testimony, he threatened to kill her and her unborn child before elbowing, punching, and kicking her. When she asked other residents of the pairs apartment to take her to the hospital, XXXTentacion refused to let her leave. She recalls him saying that she needed to wait until her face (which was severely beaten) had healed. XXXTentacion and his housemates then drive her to another apartment, where they leave her in a bedroom and confiscate her phone. She is trapped there for two days until, on October 8, she manages to escape and contact the police.

October 8: XXXTencacion is arrested in Miami-Dade County, and charged with aggravated battery of a pregnant woman, domestic battery by strangulation, false imprisonment, and witness tampering. He pleads not guilty, but is detained by Broward County for violating his house arrest agreement. A trial for the domestic-abuse charges is set for May 1 (this trial later gets pushed back to October 5, and then December 11).

2017

January 1: Adam22 announces that he is managing XXXTentacion. xxx is out in a couple weeks and im managing him, he tweets. Over the next few months, while XXXTentacion is in jail, Adam22 uses his own Twitter account to update fans on XXXTentacions status and well-being.

January 17: A$AP Rocky shares his support for XXXTentacion on Instagram live. Free my n***a X, I cant wait til you come home, he says.

January 28: Drake previews KMT at a show in Amsterdam. Fans compare it to Look at Me on social media. Pigeons and Planes posts a snippet of the two songs side by side.

Preview of Drake's new song vs. XXXTENTACION's "Look At Me" pic.twitter.com/Z4rhcwIw1b  Pigeons & Planes (@PigsAndPlans) January 29, 2017

February 1: Danny Brown quotes lyrics from XXXTentacion and Ski Mask the Slump Gods RIP Roach on Twitter.

Cocaine for my breakfast, hold that pistol ambidextrous  Danny Brown (@xdannyxbrownx) February 1, 2017

February 14: Look at Me enters the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 95.

February 18: In an interview with DJ Semtex aired on OVO Sound radio, Drake denies copying Look at Me. The other day, I dropped this song with Giggs and Im seeing all this shit on my IG under some random picture of people being like, Fuck you, you took this kids flow or whatever. Im like, Whats happening to me right now? So Im trying to read and figure out who theyre talking about.

March 26: XXXTentacion pleads no contest to the charges of armed home-invasion robbery and battery, and is released from jail on probation.

March 29: In an interview on Miamis 103.5 The Beat, XXXTentacion accuses Drake of stealing his flow. He is not a man. I think hes a bitch, thats a bitch move, he tells the interviewer.

April 7: XXXTentacion hosts a surprise show in Miami, which turns into a riot. Police intervene, shut down the show, and escort XXXTentacion out of the building.

April 22: Look at Me peaks at No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100.

May 12: XXXTentacion releases a song called Looking for a Star, which is produced by Diplo.

May 17: XXXTentacion releases his debut mixtape, Revenge, via Empire Distribution. It consists of eight songs which he had previously released on SoundCloud, and doesnt garner much press coverage on its own. Reviews by XXL, VIBE, and Revolt, present it as a collection of highlights rather than a new body of work. It peaks at No. 44 on the Billboard 200.

June 7: XXXTentacion is knocked out onstage at a show in San Diego. In the brawl that ensues, someone gets stabbed. Fans blame rapper Rob Stone for the incident.

June 13: XXXTentacion appears on XXLs 2017 Freshman Class cover as the 10th Spot winner  the only spot on the list that is fan-selected. According to XXL, His fans blew up our voting page, pushing him to the top slot by thousands of votes. In light of his domestic-violence charges, the decision to feature him on the list is met with significant resistance from XXL readers and other music publications.

June 14: XXXTentacion punches a fan at a show in Salt Lake City.

June 26: XXXTentacion and Ski Mask the Slump God release their Members Only Vol. 3 EP.

Early August: Look at Me is certified platinum. In a now-deleted Instagram post, XXXTentacion posts a picture of the RIAA certification with a caption saying: say what you want, but you will always be forced to accept that Im out here living my own life.

August 25: 17, XXXTentacions first album is released via Empire Distribution. It debuts at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart. One blog, DJ Booth (which is part of the Complex Network), refuses to review the album and posts an official statement, saying, We felt we could no longer stand on the sidelines, watching raps ugly embrace of sexual assault. Meaghan Garvey writes about the album for Pitchfork, and gives it a mixed review, attempting to articulate its merits and understand XXXTentacions fan base, while also acknowledging his troubling personal history. The reasons it is difficult to listen to can overshadow the need to listen to it, she says.

Kendrick Lamar cosigns the album on Twitter. Listen to this album if you feel anything, he writes. Raw thoughts.

https://t.co/ovjuQN8weO listen to this album if you feel anything. raw thoughts. https://t.co/ovjuQN8weO  Kendrick Lamar (@kendricklamar) August 26, 2017

September 2: XXXTencacions free show in Tampa gets canceled due to an overcrowding risk (2,000 people showed up to a 750 capacity venue, XXL reported). The crowd riots and chases XXXTentacions car. Police intervene.

September 8: Pitchfork releases excerpts from XXXTentacions ex-girlfriends testimony.

September 17: The Look at Me video is released. It includes a shot of XXXTentacion hanging from a noose.

September 28: XXXTentations October 5 domestic-abuse trial gets postponed.

October 5: A new trial date is set for December 11.

October 19: XXXTentacion signs a deal with Caroline, a subsidiary of Capitol Records, Billboard reports. One source says that the deal is worth $6 million.

October 20: XXXTentacion announces, via Instagram story, that he will donate over a 100 thousand dollars to domestic-violence-prevention programs.

October 21: During a his performance at the Rolling Loud festival in the Bay Area, XXXTentacion gets into another fight with a fan. A video of the incident shows XXXTentacion hitting the crowd member in the head with his microphone. In a video released on Twitter later that night, XXXTentacion argues that he was punched first and acted in self-defense.

October 26: XXXTentacion posts a message on his Instagram story stating that he is no longer signed to Capitol Records. Terminating my deal with capitol records, he writes in one message, followed by another saying If you can match my alleged previous contract, and add free international travel & free international stay I would be happy to be in business with you, I am currently a free agent, well, I always was. Soon after, a rep from XXXTentacions camp denies the claim, saying that XXXTentacion is signed to Caroline/Capitol Music Group.

October 27: In another Instagram story, XXXTentacion says that he will not be making or releasing any music. I am tired of being mentally abused for trying to help people, Im tired of the hate, Im done, he writes.

October 29: XXXTentacion says, via Instagram story, that he will return to music if Ski Mask The Slump God agrees to be his friend again. Tell Ski Mask to be my friend again and I will make music. Tell him to be my friend again, he said in the (now deleted) post. A couple days later, in a video, responded, I will always love that alien-looking n***a named XXX, but I have to distance myself because nobody would see me as an individual, and On top of that, that n***a crazy as hell. Then, he wrote on an Instagram story: This is a person who has before threaten[ed] my family, told me I was supposed to be sacrificed on some crazy shit,

November 2: XXXTentacion posts a snippet of a new song on Instagram, with a caption reading: said I was going to stop making music but I dont consider this music.

November 26: XXXTentacion announces that he plans to host an anti-rape event at this years Art Basel in Miami.

December 1: XXXtentacion and his lawyers submit a document, allegedly signed by his ex-girlfriend, to the DAs office in hopes of getting his domestic-assault case dropped. Accoring to TMZ, the document states that XXXtentacions accuser is refusing to cooperate with prosecutors and wants to drop the case.

December 15: XXXTentacion is jailed ahead of his abuse trial, with seven new charges added, including different degrees of witness tampering and witness harassment. According to TMZ, prosecutors believe the rapper coerced his ex-girlfriend into signing the previously submitted documents that claimed she wanted the charges dropped. His bail is denied. He now reportedly faces decades in prison, at minimum, if convicted.

December 20: TMZ reports that XXXTentacion will be released from jail and serve house arrest for two months ahead of his trial. His attorney David Bogenschutz told the site that the judge will allow the rapper to visit a local recording studio to fulfill his contractual obligations during this time.

2018 to death

January 10: According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, several anonymous sources with knowledge of XXXTentacions signing to Capitol Records in October, suggested that many staffers at the label opposed the deal. However, two of the Times sources said that in a staff meeting, Capitol president Steve Barnett told executives that Onfroys surging popularity would help the company have a bigger market share in hip-hop and acknowledged the controversy around the artist, encouraging those with concerns to voice them.

March 16: XXXtentacion releases his second studio album, ?, via his label Bad Vibes Forever. The album is distributed by Caroline Distribution, which is part of Capitol Records. It debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart, selling the equivalent of 131,000 units in its first week.

March 21: XXXtentacion is released from house arrest, so that he can go on tour, TMZ reports. According to the article, XXXs legal team argued that he would need touring income to stay afloat, because his earnings from record sales werent sufficient.

March 25: XXXTentacions sophomore album, ?, debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard charts, giving SoundCloud rap its first No. 1 album.

March 26: Sad, one of the two singles from ?, reaches No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming XXXtentacions first top-ten song.

May 10: Spotify removes XXXTentacions music from its playlists in accordance with a new Hate Content and Hateful Conduct policy. His reps issue a statement listing other artists accused of abuse, asking if they will also be penalized.

June 1: Spotify scraps its hate content policy following complaints from industry insiders. XXXTentacions music is reinstated on its playlists.

June 5: XXXTentacion is the subject of an extensive profile in the Miami New Times detailing his alleged abuse, including interviews with his accuser. In it, XXXTentacion dismisses feminism, saying Women may see or feel that theyre belittled, but youre only belittled if you want to be belittled. He uses Hillary Clinton as an example: She ran [for president] and she wasnt killed for it. That says everything. He says that, in the post-#MeToo era, allegations can go off hearsay and women are almost more powerful than men.

June 18: XXXTentacion, 20, is reported dead following an alleged drive-by shooting outside of a motorcycle shop in Deerfield Beach, Florida. He was awaiting trial at the time of the shooting.

Posthumous (201822)

June 19, 2018: SAD! earns 10.4 million global streams on Spotify in a single day, breaking the platforms record (previously set by Taylor Swifts Look What You Made Me Do with 10.1 million streams).

June 21, 2018: Trippie Redd releases the first posthumous XXXtentacion song, Ghost Busters, featuring Ski Mask the Slump God, to SoundCloud. A verse from Quavo is later added to the song.

June 25, 2018: XXXtentacion earns his first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for SAD! The track jumped from No. 52 after its posthumous streaming bump. Its the first solo song to top the chart posthumously in over 20 years, since the Notorious B.I.G.s Mo Money Mo Problems in 1997.

June 28, 2018: A music video for SAD! is released, depicting XXXtentacion attending his own funeral.

July 19, 2018: A Florida grand jury indicts four men  Michael Boatwright, Dedrick Williams, Robert Allen, and Trayvon Newsome  in XXXtentacions murder. Each is charged with first-degree murder and armed robbery after the men had individually been named suspects and two had been arrested. Police claim Boatwright was the one who shot XXXtentacion.

October 19, 2018: XXXtentacion is deemed ineligible to be nominated for Best New Artist at the Grammys, Hits Daily Double reports, because his album 17 was released before the nomination window.

October 23, 2018: Pitchfork reports on a secret recording of XXXtentacion from around October 2016, when he was arrested for domestic abuse. On the tape, from the Miami-Date County state attorneys office, the rapper confesses to abusing his ex-girlfriend. I started fucking her up because she made one mistake, he said. And from there, the whole cycle went down. Now shes scared. That girl is scared for her life. Per Pitchfork, prosecutors and XXXtentacions defense both took the tape as a confession. He also admitted to multiple stabbings.

November 9, 2018: The first posthumous album from XXXtentacion, titled Skins, is announced, alongside the single BAD! The album is set to be released December 7.

December 17, 2018: Skins debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 132,000 album equivalent units. Its the first posthumous No. 1 album since The Very Best of Prince in 2016.

February 10, 2019: XXXtentacion is not included in the In Memoriam segment of the Grammys. Variety later reports the rapper was snubbed because of his domestic-violence accusations.

June 18, 2019: On the anniversary of his death, XXXtentacions estate releases a trailer to a documentary. The documentary is teased as coming soon, alongside a new album, in a release from the estate.

November 21, 2019: The XXXtentacion estate announces the rappers final album, Bad Vibes Forever, out December 6.

December 11, 2019: Pitchfork reports that the documentary teased by XXXtentacions estate began as a project for Fader Films, initially featuring an interview with his ex-girlfriend and accuser, Geneva Ayala. The documentary was then shelved, with the rappers estate becoming involved after his death.

December 15, 2019: Bad Vibes Forever debuts at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 with 65,000 equivalent units, a fraction of XXXtentacions previous two releases.

May 6, 2021: The XXXtentacion estate announces it will release five of the rappers unpublished songs as NFTs on May 10, making him the first artist to posthumously release music as an NFT.

March 15, 2022: Hulu announces the documentary Look at Me: XXXtentacion. Directed by Sabaah Folayan, its producers include XXXtentacions mother, Cleopatra Bernard, and former manager Solomon Sobande. It premieres at South by Southwest that day.

May 23, 2022: The XXXtentacion estate announces a posthumous compilation album, Look at Me: The Album, to be released June 10. The album features old XXXtentacion songs and already released ones along with a much-awaited collaboration with Ye (formerly Kanye West), True Love.

May 26, 2022: Look at Me hits Hulu. It features pre-death interviews with XXXtentacion and an interview with Ayala along with footage of her meeting his mother.

This post has been updated throughout.
Michelle Williams in All the Money in the World. Photo: Courtesy of Sony Pictures

The kidnapping drama All the Money in the World is an elaborate demonstration of the idea that the very rich are not like you and me  and also that the oil magnate J. Paul Getty was barking mad. In 1973, when the movie is set, the octogenarian billionaire was regarded as the wealthiest man in the history of the world. He was also an infamous skinflint who installed a pay phone for his guests at his baronial English mansion. The film centers on Gettys apparent indifference to the life of his 16-year-old grandson and namesake, Paul III, kidnapped by Italian radicals who would, after several months, sell the boy to the Mafia. Getty was adamant in refusing to pay ransom or even to discuss the matter with his daughter-in-law Gail, who was divorced from Gettys alcoholic, drug-addicted son, Paul II, and had no funds of her own. The kidnappers spokesman  who phoned her regularly with demands and threats  was actually more courteous to her than was her billionaire former father-in-law.

Its impossible to divorce the film itself from its offscreen drama, which also turns on the abuse of wealth and privilege. As soon as the floodgates opened on stories of Kevin Spaceys alleged sexual predations, the director, Ridley Scott, made the unprecedented decision to expunge all traces of Spaceys Getty Sr. from what was an essentially finished film and replace him with (the more age-appropriate) Christopher Plummer. Youll want to know whether the seams show, and the answer is they dont, at all. But that shouldnt be a surprise. Gettys scenes are discrete entities  hes not directly involved in the main suspense plot. And even normal films involve outlandish artifice. Because of shooting schedules, an actor entering a doorway might well come out of it six weeks later on a different continent. The only hint of Spacey I could discern was in Plummers readings. The lines were clearly shaped for Spaceys icy, sneering intonations. His malevolent poltergeist hovers.

My guess is that there was one overriding factor in Scotts decision to rebuild sets and summon back his actors: The fear that Spaceys presence would distract the world (which includes Oscar voters) from the marvelous performance of Michelle Williams as Gail. Its a real transformation.

Ive never heard this diction from her before  sharp, with a hint of North Shore (i.e., old money) Long Island and perhaps a Kennedy or two. (The real Gail grew up in San Francisco but was well acquainted with the cadences of the East Coast rich.) Through the tension in her body and intensity of her voice, Williams conveys not just the terror of losing a son but the tragic absurdity of bearing the illustrious name Getty when family ties confer zero power. After Gail, desperate, attempts to sell a valuable gift from Getty Sr. given to her son, Williams sags to the stairs outside an Italian art museum and cant seem to settle on laughing or weeping. Her expression crystallizes the entire bizarre story.

The film needs her. Working from John Pearsons Getty-family saga, screenwriter David Scarpa adds a couple of shoot-outs that never happened and eliminates some fascinating nuances  one of which was the elder Gettys terror of the Italian Mafia. The movies Paul III is too much of a cipher. (I suspect scenes were cut.) The more disappointing change is in the nature of Gettys top security consultant, Fletcher Chace, whom the billionaire finally brought in to negotiate for the best possible deal (i.e., one that would involve no money). In Pearsons telling, Chace cocked things up, not only deducing that the kidnapping was contrived by the boy himself but also going to bed with a woman who turned out to be a carabinieri spy. The movie portrays some of Chaces lapses but doesnt milk them for mordant effect; and, as played by the reliably stolid Mark Wahlberg, hes not the wild card youd hope for. Wahlberg has a gentle presence, though, and partners well with Williams. But Williamss true counterweight is the French actor Romain Duris as the Italian kidnapper who calls himself Cinquanta and shows an unpredictable mix of decency and business sense. (Trouble is not his business.) Duris almost brings off the suspenseful but ridiculous climax  which is laughable not because it didnt happen in life but because it happens all the time in dumb kidnapping melodramas.

How is Plummer? Crafty, as he usually is. Sixty years ago, when he was a randy sexual adventurer and troublemaker (he confesses as much in his entertaining autobiography), he could hardly have dreamed hed be the venerable, wholesome alternative to an alleged predator. But J. Paul Getty  an avid philanderer  is right in his wheelhouse. Plummer knows how to segue from whimsical theatricality in long shot to dead-eyed mendacity in close-up. Holding forth on the immortal beauty and escalating value of art and sculpture in contrast to the instability of people, he suggests both the clarity and tragedy of Gettys tunnel vision. All the money in the world  to buy a life in a vacuum that corroded his soul.

*This article appears in the December 25, 2017, issue of New York Magazine.
Bookseller One Grand Books has asked celebrities to name the ten titles theyd take to a desert island, and theyve shared the results with Vulture. Below is Peaky Blinders star Cillian Murphys list.

The Ginger Man, by J.P. Donleavy

One of those books that you read as a young man and become intoxicated with, yet it is a book to be savored over the course of a life. It was written with great mischief and humor, but full of empathy for the outsider struggling to imagine a purpose in this world. Donleavy is a writer who will be dearly missed.

The Butcher Boy, by Patrick McCabe

An absolutely stunning achievement and one of the most heartbreaking books I have ever read. Dark, fiercely funny, compassionate, and unashamedly Irish. Its depiction of a young boys descent into isolation and madness in small-town Ireland has never left me 

Eclipse, by John Banville

Written by my other favorite Irish writer, this book couldnt be more different in tone than The Butcher Boy, but is no less captivating. In this beautifully meditative tale, Alexander Cleave is a celebrated actor who returns to live in his childhood home. The book seemingly has little or no plot but the sheer towering beauty of its language, atmosphere, and insight makes it impossible to put down or to forget.

The Sportswriter, by Richard Ford

Along with Updike, Ford has of course been the great chronicler of the modern American male. I relished the Bascombe trilogy, beginning with The Sportswriter. Frank Bascombe worked his way under my skin.

Rabbit Angstrom, by John Updike

A quartet of Rabbit novels in one edition. For me, it is essential reading  as essential yet entirely different to Fords achievement. An extraordinary study and description of humanity and life in America between the 50s and the 90s.

Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi, by Geoff Dyer

Geoff Dyer is an abundantly talented writer. His books can sometimes defy classification and this one is certainly a case in point. It is a book of thrillingly different halves, about middle age, art, and existence. And much more. I devoured it.

Grief Is the Thing With Feathers, by Max Porter

One of the most moving books I have read in recent years. It investigates a fathers suspended state of unexpected loss and grief with a gorgeously wry sense of humor. Captivating, poetic, and surprising.

The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway

Its always the beautiful simplicity of this story that transports me. Not a word is wasted. For such a short novel, it kind of approaches perfection in storytelling for me. Hemingway apparently said of the novel that it was the best I can write ever for all of my life.

The Grass Arena, by John Healy

I had heard about this book for many years before I read it. Ostensibly it is the autobiography of a former alcoholic who chronicles his struggles living rough on the streets of London in a vivid and unique style, but it is more than that. It is the story of determination and rebirth, the tale of a chess champion who overcomes a savage childhood to live again. A powerful book indeed.

Appointment in Samarra, by John OHara

This is a searing novel set in 1930s America, and the story unfolds in just over 36 hours. It is a book about sex, alcohol, class, and dreamers. Devastating in its conclusion, it completely drew me into the atmosphere and pressure of what it must have been like to alive in America at that time. All details are present  the cocktails, the cars, and in this book most overwhelmingly, the unhappiness.
In celebration of New York Magazines 50th anniversary, this weekly series, which will continue through October 2018, tells the stories behind key moments that shaped the citys culture.

In 1989, DJ Premier managed to get Charlie Parker, Big Daddy Kane, Brian Eno, and James Brown on the same record, without any lawyers  just by the virtue of having a good set of ears and a sampler that boasted extended memory. I saw [DJ] Marley [Marl] do an interview on the news while I was up here. They were talking about a new phenomenon called hip-hop, Premier tells me. Thats when he was at BLS [107.5] doing his radio show with Mr. Magic. When I saw the sampler he was using, converting the music into a beat, I was like, Im buying that. I still use it to this day.

That recording was Gang Starrs Manifest, which introduced us to the born Texan who transformed New York hip-hop in the 90s, working with a snippet of bebop written nearly half a century ago, and Guru, a rapper who wore impeccable notches in his eyebrows. A Night in Tunisia meets Word to the Mother (land), with James Browns voice encouraging, Gather round, taking part in a black music continuum that spanned eras in minutes. Premier occasioned the moment by donning a suit in the video. All we had to do was nod our heads.

A year and a Biz Markie lawsuit later, the rap-listening audience included a litigious demographic, and Premier  along with contemporaries like Large Professor and Pete Rock  was forced to obscure and disfigure the sources of his samples, a legal necessity that coincided with their collectors thirst for the unknown. Black holes for loopholes.

Though Premiers productions were initially misnomered as jazz rap, he would also sample Beatles covers, KRS-Ones impression of an Emergency Broadcast tone, and the sound of analog dirt on vinyl. The grit was real. Dismantling records into their components, Premier developed his signature sound from truncated bits of drums, piano, filtered bass lines, and scratched-in taunts and warnings, usually related to authenticity. From dusty record bins to bit-rate folders, its now instantly recognized as Real Hip-Hop, and was perfected in 1994 in Nass New York State of Mind, with Premiers double-bass sample shadowing a piano at every step.

But before that, growing up outside Houston, Premier learned to throw a punch, repair TVs, and watch professional wrestling. Appropriately, Texas is also where he heard his first 808-generated low end: the Beastie Boys playing through the subwoofer bed of a friends pick-up truck. What a way to outfit your fucking truck, Premier says. He was like, When this beat drops, I want you to duck. We were [like], Huh??

Premier eventually made it to New York. During the 77 blackouts, his grandfather drove him through Times Square in a vintage Ford. People would try to buy the car off them at stoplights. I was in the front seat looking at my grandad like he was a star, he says. The blackouts were also an opportune time for aspiring DJs in need of equipment. It was just everybody for themselves, cops not stopping people. Seeing everybody stealing electronics  I just wanted to be able to steal a color TV. And I definitely wanted to steal a record player.

Instead he ended up borrowing his moms records. Pretty much everything she told me not to take I took when I moved to New York, in 1988, Premier says. All my moms records say Pearl Martin. I look back at my old records and I wrote my name on mad shit! (The artist names, however, were blacked out, a cultural marker for DJs protecting their repertoire, and thus identity.) In the video for Mass Appeal, you can see the fingerprints and smudges all over Primos records. My mother wouldve whup my ass for that. Shed say, If I see a fingerprint on the top 

For Gang Starrs second album, 1990s Step Into the Arena, Premier sampled a French electronic composer for a song inspired by the time Guru got robbed, gave chase, and watched his assailants crash into an ambulance. By then, producers had begun outsourcing beats for other artists, leading to that career-making 1994 collaboration with Nas: New York State of Mind.

In New York State of Mind, a blown amp is pawned in service of an addiction that wrecked bodies, families, and entire blocks. The dead speaker cannot produce sound, but the crack victims hustle, replayed in Nass memory, is scored by a piano and double-bass that Premier borrowed from 1978. This couldve been an old-school tragedy, a composite of the early rappers and DJs whose moment didnt survive the cheap high. Back then, the amps that did function were juicing the power grid for parties.

Those classic Premier beats that once bumped inside the heads and hallways of Biggie, Jay-Z, and Nas now inhabit the city organism, as if New York always sounded like the 90s. (1984, arms folded, might disagree.) There ought to be some neural Black Mirror geo-implant that Venmos Premier a royalty for whenever the sight of a bridge, a Big L mural, or winter itself slips one of his moods into our daily ops. A mundane search for parking can easily turn your brain into an M.O.P. album.

Though he was born in Texas, DJ Premier changed how we listen to New York City itself, through brief, happenstance encounters. Delivered by a ruminating system in passing, those spidery keys from Unbelievable seem to hang in the air while Biggies next caper is already under way two blocks and one verse down the street. Whats taken permanent root is often heard adrift in pieces, as if youre eavesdropping on someone elses blunted, short-term reverie. They play more often in my memory, a reliably decaying format that attempts to recapture fragments that Premier once picked up himself from different lives and stabs of history. Its music suited for our ever-refiguring (and go-figuring) of the past. Tracks have long memories, and loops repeat themselves like foggy old timers. Jay-Zs Devils slips into its sampled incarnate, Allen Toussaints Go Back Home. The New Orleans soul ballad laments, Where is the love that I used to know. You dont hear Toussaints voice in Devils, only Jays betrayal: None of my friends speak.

The vocal hook in Devils comes from the late Prodigy of Mobb Deep, through a voice in his head with Illuminati concerns. Premiers scratched-in rap refrains appear as if theyve just come to mind, interjections from the present. At the time, he seemed to be paying homage to rap as it was happening. On Dwyck, Nice and Smooth are hearing their last album selves chiming in, before getting down to the business of being really high and rapping about rhinos and talking tubs of margarine. After all, these are records playing parts of records, quotes from the collectors memory. Sampling is taking a few seconds to think back, selective yore that has been manipulated within confined spaces and lifespans. As DJs we retain sounds, Premier says. All that is based off why I came here.

Though hes indelibly connected to this city, one of Premiers better New York moments actually took place in Oakland. More specifically In the Trunk, a remix in which Too Short lodges a complaint about New York rappers rapping too fast and exhausting the once indefatigable James Brown catalogue. Its basically the era that Premo would leave behind. Touring with DJ Quik and EPMD (early cultivators of Zapp) would inspire Gangstarrs lean fourth album, Hard to Earn, as the listening experience went from afoot in headphones to a low-end jeep crawl, part of Premiers Texas lineage  more boom for your bap. Im from the era that becomes the big trucks and jeeps. That added on to a whole new dimension. Putting the emphasis on the beats and the 808s [was] even more crazy, Premier says. The muffled bass line, another 90s signifier, is heard behind tinted windows or in the next room, filtered through walls  the ambience of New York apartment living. You can detect it in the subconscious winter bleeds of the rapper Ka, a middle-aged fire department chief whose music sounds half-dreamt under a pile of goose parkas left by the door. As we grow older and deafer, the high frequencies will depart with our hearing, leaving us with the lows. These filtered pulses are, in a sense, coming from your own twilit future.

Photo: Martyn Goodacre/Getty Images

Its a good feeling to be part of the era that really enhanced the city, says Premier. Before [hip-hop] got to the point of being more regional. Regional referring to when local scenes in Houston, New Orleans, and Memphis went internet. In New York State of Mind, Nas decides to bounce to Houston for a line (sample: Donald Byrds Flight Time) if only to lie low until the next hustle. In the 2000s, the rest of hip-hop would seemingly follow. Its fucked up right? says Jay-Z, his voice dropped into a super-chthonic realm in DJ Screws remix of Premiers remix of A Million and One Questions.

A lot of people say, Im older now, Im moving down South, says Premier. My dream was to be here and Im stayin. Im not official unless Im here. I love the road rage. The accent alone. I listen to my early Gang Starr interviews, Im like, damn I was really trying to sound like a New Yorker then. Im a country boy. My man from NYGz said, Anything outside of New York is country. It doesnt matter what state it is.

This is reassuring because New York is in a state of Mac mall box. A $3 bottle of organic tea called Steaz. A cafe whose walls were decorated with painted bullet holes. The new realness, being an appropriated fantasy. (Of note: The James Brown sample from Manifest is Bring It Up [Hipsters Ave].). Parts of the city are changing faster than an infant outsizing her Gang Starr onesie, now available on DJ Premiers website, premierwuzhere.com. Yet Premiers loyalty to his sound is a dedication to neighborhoods still living the same crisis narrative that played out in his music two decades ago. Nothing will ever displace Group Homes Livin Proof in a piercing January wind.

Premiers beats (and their sense of place in the citys memory) help retain a geography lost to developers and gentrification. In Gang Starrs Place Where We Dwell, the MC Lyte sample, in its original location (written when she was 12!), is a shout-out to Empire Skating Rink, which once occupied an Ebbets Field garage. Ebbets Field is the site condemnation of Chubb Rocks final words in Return of the Crooklyn Dodgers, taking it back as a matter of reclamation. Premier tings a triangle 90 times throughout the song as a reminder, in constant memory of nostalgia. (Easy for me to say, nostalgic for the nostalgia of listening to Return 22 years ago, blunted on a couch in North Carolina, counting triangle tings.) Rewind to the beginning of Crooklyn  before the piano my friend wants played at his funeral  and youre back at the Place Where We Dwell, if only for five seconds of Gurus voice. The familiarity feels like home. Then hes gone.

If only those neuro-acoustic mapping royalties could also go to Group Homes Melachi the Nutcracker for when he got out of prison, to schools, or to the Jackie Robinson Houses, which still stand in the old Ebbets lot. Everybody deserves a piece of where they live, in some type of fashion, says Premier. Music is just my way of preserving that.

Premiers best work provided breathing room in the citys conflict with personal boundaries and vertical density. Group Homes Supa Star becomes communal real estate, where housing, much less property, is unaffordable. Premiers backdrop is a sped-up arc of trill that drops 20 stories down into a playground  also known, in other parts, as Hanging Downtown, a Cameo song about longing and diminished optimism. Supa Star will always be compelling because Lil Dap and Melachi arent Nas. Its compelling because it doesnt matter. Theyre not lyrical assassins. What kills is the numbness, the every day (a refrain acquired from Isaac Hayes, 1969) pattern of cyclical violence. Youre always rooting for this teenager who had to watch his friends die and borrowed Gurus bronchial inhaler and his Timberlands.

Your relevance is the people who supported you from the get-go. Everything I do is in a New York state of mind. Im indebted to preserving the sound of the city, Premier says. A lot of parts of me is based off my passion for this city. We not all gonna make it. Like Jay-Z said, I refuse to be one of those old someones.

At 51, Premier is still unapologetically boom bap. He sees himself as a sort of Katzs Deli of hip-hop, doggedly, if not mathematically, loyal to his formula. After all these years everybody goes to Katzs, he says. Theres still these fucking long lines. Still busy. Cash only. Its still in the same location and still has an impact on every generation.

As parts of the city grow increasingly hard to recognize, the New York state of mind may be all that remains. For Premier, this includes complaining about the new benches in Times Square, parking his truck in his driveway facing out (you dont want to start the day backing out, looking over your shoulder), dressing for ice station McMurdo, and maybe not brawling like he did in the Gang Starr days. These days, Ill just hit em with a bat and keep it moving.

Order Highbrow, Lowbrow, Brilliant, Despicable: 50 Years of New York, a celebratory book chronicling the magazines history with powerful images and behind-the-scenes stories from staff and subjects.
Photo: John Phillips/Getty Images

Artemis Fowl is a series of eight science-fiction-slash-fantasy novels written by Irish author Eoin Colfer, which follow the tween criminal mastermind Artemis Fowl. Kenneth Branagh is directing a live-action adaptation of the first book, and Disney just announced some delightful casting news. In addition to Josh Gad in the role of a kleptomaniacal dwarf named Mulch Diggums, Oscar winner Dame Judi Dench will play Commander Root, the steely leader of the fairy police force. Consider now that Colfer once described the story as Die Hard with fairies, so if Dench is the head of the fairy police, does that basically make her the John McClane of the Artemis Fowl universe? An incredible possibility, indeed. Lara McDonnell will play the heroic elf Captain Holly Short (so maybe like the Argyle to Denchs John McClane), and Nonso Anozie will be Artemiss bodyguard, Butler (perhaps the Sgt. Al Powell?). Irish rookie actor Ferdia Shaw will assume the role of the titular hero in this movie we now refuse to see as anything other than a Die Hard update.
Photo-Illustration: Vulture and Getty Images

When writers used to ask if rock was dead, it wasnt actually a question of life or death. The real issue was power; what was meant by rock wasnt rock music, but the genres imperial stature relative to the rest of popular music. Rock was more than a genre. It was the genre of genres, a sound whose audience sprawled over social divides. Musicians and critics may have more catholic tastes, but its clear that the audiences for just about every genre of American music are overwhelmingly concentrated in a single demographic. Think of R&B, country, disco: the names operate at once as an aesthetic descriptor and as shorthand for a set of social allegiances, whether of region, race, gender, or class. For decades, rock was the exception to this nominalism. It was a mansion large enough and hospitable enough that everyone could fit within. When you pointed at it, you werent pointing at a fraction, but the whole.

Then, in roughly the space of a decade  from the mid-90s to the mid-aughts  the house flew apart. Rock as a mega-genre lived the knowledge its individual stars had already discovered: Once it peaked, there was only one direction left to go. Taken collectively, rock acts plummeted in commercial potency, aesthetic quality, and social resonance. The bands that still did huge sales were of middling quality at best. The bands that were good didnt sell well; they were trendy without being timely. It was time to jump ship. Writers who had risen during rocks reign began to debate the causes of its demise, as well as search for new stars to hitch themselves to. It was in this environment that a discovery was made. Pop, pure pop, was good, and it was acceptable and good to write seriously about it. There was a real fire behind all this smoke. Pop in the later 2000s and early 2010s had huge sales and serious talent, especially among women artists: Beyonce, M.I.A., Taylor Swift. And even if a given pop star didnt carry much of a message, so much the better for music writers, who had that much more room to imagine one for them.

The heyday of pop enthusiasm didnt correspond with a decline in raps innovation or popularity, but it did coincide with a serious fall in profits. Rising rappers flooded the web with free music, while more established rappers saw their sales drained by online file sharing; record executives, many of whom had never liked rap or rappers anyway, were ill inclined to seed much of the industrys declining profits in a fallow field. Commercial success for hip-hop, during this period, meant tacking toward pop. As in much else, Kanye led the way: His middle period albums Graduation (2007) and 808s & Heartbreak (2008) are decidedly less confrontational and more song-heavy than the albums preceding them. Drake, hearing 808s, got the message quiet and clear. Starting off where Kanye had arrived, he made himself a superstar by transmuting raps flagrant animus into hazier anxieties more compatible with radio play, music business validation, and middle-class mentalities. It was a compromise, albeit one deftly negotiated and exceedingly lucrative: From 2009 up to 2016, Drakes way was the swiftest path to mainstream saturation and tremendous wealth. Glum posturing pervaded Drakes lyrics, but his career was solid proof of the benefits that came with testing positive for pop.

Rap in 2017 wasnt marked by drastic change so much as by the patient extension of existing trends. Even the rise of South Florida punk rap, the years most abrupt development, is clearly the product of a convergence between Atlanta trap and the devilish eclecticism of Miami predecessors like SpaceGhostPurrp. The political turbulence that defined the year seems to have touched hip-hop only slightly. Kendrick Lamar summed it up best: The feeling of an apocalypse happening but nothing is awkward. Rap, in reference to itself, was a still point in a stormy world. But within the field of music at large a momentous shift occurred, or at the very least was recognized in full for the first time. Previously, file sharing had masked raps preeminence among young listeners, but the huge growth of music streaming services and Billboards factoring streams into its chart calculations have underlined a vague sense of dominance with hard numbers. Rap has been king for the better part of the past few decades  the younger the generation, the more total its immersion in rap  but only in 2017 do we see it officially crowned as musics most popular genre. Raps supremacy is more than just commercial. Its cadences, inflections, and tones are everywhere in new music: infiltrating country, swallowing R&B, and pervading pop. Beyonce and Rihanna now rap often and well, and even sectors of pop long cold to its influence have thrown up the white flag: Taylor Swift served bars on Reputation  or tried to.

The inverse is occurring as well; rap is absorbing other genres into itself. Rocks youthful spirit is being reformed by rappers in their own image, most visibly on XO Tour Llif3, a song (and Song of the Year) labeled by its artist Lil Uzi Vert on Soundcloud as alternative rock. I can guarantee you Lil Uzi Vert was listening to a lot of Green Day. Had to be, Vince Staples told us in an interview; everything from Uzis moments of nasally high-pitched distress to his strategy of building and releasing tension to his plain yet overwrought hook suggest perfect fluency in the fundamentals of pop-punk. Staples himself was busy integrating a different sound into his own art on Big Fish Theory, a sophomore LP calmly situated at the intersection of street rap and EDM. Only Staples would have thought to tap electronic producer Sophie for an ultra-synthetic beat over which to scoff at rappers empty boasts on Yeah Right while also securing an effortless gallop of a guest verse from Kendrick Lamar. Kendrick, meanwhile, had already stitched U2 neatly into the fabric of DAMN.

Few events more cleanly illustrated the narrative of rap overthrowing pop than DAMNs triumph over Drakes More Life. Kendrick had at last found a way to make uncut rap surpassing Drakes hybrid theory not only critically, but commercially as well. Yet even the greatest active rapper needed a little outside help to put him over the top: DNA and Humble, the two biggest hits on DAMN, also happen to be the first two K-Dot songs produced by Atlanta hitmaker Mike Will Made It. The rising status of the producer, in particular the broad loose collective of trap producers centered in Atlanta, is at least as notable as any development on the lyricists side. (Produced by TM88, XO Tour Llif3 is also an Atlanta product.) Its just as pertinent to register the years breakout beat-makers as it is to identify its breakout artists. In this context, the increasing prominence and originality of producer tags come as no surprise: Its a quick and efficient way for producers to build a brand. The bigger the producer, the more unforgettable the tag.

No tags are more memorable than those of Metro Boomin, who, despite being 24 and originally from St. Louis, is generally recognized as the dean of the current Atlanta school. Metro was already a marquee name last year, but 2017 proved to be his most brilliant yet, with Bad and Boujee crowning the Hot 100 early in the year, crucial production credits on Futures double album FUTURE/HNDRXX (Mask Off, Sorry), and four full collaborative albums with Gucci Mane (Droptopwop), Big Sean (Double or Nothing), 21 Savage and Offset (Without Warning), and Nav (Perfect Timing). Metro is more than a producer at this point. Hes a self-directed A&R whose co-sign is worth its weight in platinum. His anointing of Atlantas stern trap minimalist 21 Savage with Savage Mode was critical to Savages emergence in 2016 (and his continued ascension in 2017). Metro is the DJ Premier of his era: not just a great producer, but an entire movement in productions leader. Its easiest to gauge where a contemporary beat-maker is at by placing him in relation the shadowy, relaxed precision of Metros style; to take this years fastest-rising producers as an example, Pierre Bourne is jauntier and more colorful, Ronny J more abrasive and less layered.

Just as Metro has artists that are his artists (Future and 21), the new class of producers have artists whose aesthetics converge with their own. Pierres style is uniquely suited to the school of fashion rap, and to Playboy Carti in particular. Fashion rappers dont just dress well. They build a style exclusively around having style. (Ad libs have always been an element of rap, but Carti, who floated over a swanky, heavy, dreamy Pierre beat on Magnolia, had a successful year by proving that its okay for his ad libs have more presence than his lyrics. Pierre, with his melodious dynamism and runway pace, is their designer of choice. Ronny J, meanwhile, has laid much of the foundation for the insurgent scene of his native South Florida. His blunt, grindingly hypnotic beats make an impact and depart in record time, a paramount virtue in a streaming ecosystem where shorter songs count for more streams on loop. Ronny first emerged last year providing complements for the more considered lyricism of Denzel Currys Infinite, but he only fully arrived this year by dealing out fried, pummeling synth beats clocking in at roughly two minutes for punk rappers like Ski Mask the Slump God, the infamous XXXTentacion, Smokepurpp, and Lil Pump. (Even Danielle Bregoli, the Cash Me Outside 14-year-old, performed over Ronny J beats, briefly piercing the Hot 100 as Bhad Bhabie with These Heaux and Hi Bich.)

If Atlanta trap sounds the way relaxing in a clubs VIP lounge feels, Miami punk rap is a brawl between a bouncer and unwanted guests. Its not an opposition, just a difference in emphasis: As we recently noted, punk raps sound and most of its tropes can be traced back to certain scuzz-infused Future tracks produced by Metro Boomin circa 2015. Like his fellow pioneer Chief Keef, Futures moved on in 2017 by developing a distinctive fusion of hardcore realism with R&B tenderness, but the teens baptized by his lean-drenched lyrics have grown into slightly older teens reciting mantras about their own substance ingestion, precious accessories, and designer outfits on Soundcloud.

Concocted by Gucci Mane, elaborated by the Migos, and raised to its highest pitch by Future, modern Atlanta trap has prevailed to an extent hard to imagine even a year ago. Its success lies in its ability to compress itself into a portable, one-size-fits-all format: a rich, sleek, dance-friendly sound mating 808s to high keyboards, Auto-Tuned lyrics revolving around pills, fashion, cough syrup, money, and women. The formula can be evolved further (Future) or blended with others (Lil Uzi Vert) or further reduced (punk rap), but theres no doubt that its become central to rap in the same way, and at the same time, that rap has become central to music at large. If hip-hop were a body, Kendrick and the rest of the California brain trust would form its head. Narrative-centered street rappers like Birminghams YBN Nahmir, Sacramentos Mozzy, Bostons Cousin Stizz, Detroits Tee Grizzley, and Phillys Meek Mill (all of whom had superb showings in 2017) would be the limbs; punk rap would be the viscera, fashion rap the wardrobe, and Lil Uzi Vert the coiffure, perhaps. But the trunk of the body would have to be, without a doubt, the greater South centered on Atlanta artists and their battery of top-tier producers.

New York  since we can never forget New York  contains the nation in microcosm. Many sounds compete but none are dominant: A$AP Mob is the hub of fashion rap; the dramatic successes of Cardi B, emergence of A Boogie Wit da Hoodie, and continued presence of French Montana epitomize the Southern connection; Joey Bada$$ tends the same ideological flame on the East Coast that Kendrick and company do on the West; street artists like Don Q and A$AP Twelvyy (and the Wu-Tang Clan) continue the citys indigenous hardcore tradition; and 6ix9ine, a Bushwick punk rapper (and confessed sex criminal), had the top song on Soundcloud last week before being knocked off by a new batch of XXXTentacion tracks.

By blurring accents with vocoders, prioritizing instrumentals over lyrics, and focusing content on a narrow set of universal tropes, the recipe for trap becomes uncommonly available for copying by non-black artists. The burgeoning career of Rich Chigga shows how the formula is being adopted across color and national lines, but the ultimate exemplar of facsimile trap is Post Malone, whos maintained a strong chart presence all year despite a lack of critical enthusiasm: His December 2016 album Stoney has hovered in the upper reaches of the Billboard 200 for most of 2017, and his single Rockstar perched recently atop the Hot 100 for eight weeks before finally being dethroned by an Ed SheeranBeyonce duet.

Rockstar cites Jim Morrison and Bon Scott, but the rocker Post seems most reminiscent of is Presley; much like Elvis with rock music, Post seems to have cracked many of the protective codes that have maintained black centrality in hip-hop. Time will tell if others follow in his wake, but for now the forecast for gentrification looks doubtful. Rockstar is Posts song, one where he fucks hoes, pops pillies, cites shot-tas and homies, and quotes a gun going grr-ra-ta-ta-ta, but what anchors the song is 21 Savages presence; without 21s co-sign to lend the proceedings some measure of realness and shield Post from charges of culture theft, Post wouldnt have dared to take his mimicry so far.

21s style is curt, contemptuous, and quietly witty, and his reputation for honest violence remains a critical resource in a landscape where clothes, cash, and intoxicants take precedence. Efficient, locked in, and unshowy, hes the beating heart of contemporary rap; its impossible to pass as a serious artist without paying him (or someone like him) for an expensive and impermanent transfusion. Everyone can listen to rap and anyone can call themselves a rapper, but the arbiters of taste in rap remain younger artists, producers, and listeners from a black, economically disadvantaged background. The keenness of their judgment has been vital in raps rise to cultural primacy in the greater world, and though the day has yet to come when they themselves are honored as they deserve, the fact that raps ascendancy can no longer be denied is a rare encouraging sign in a year otherwise defined by deadlock and regression.
Photo: 20th Century Fox.

In 1971, top editors at the Washington Post published a series of stories about the Pentagon Papers, despite President Richard Nixons threats. Today, President Donald Trump calls almost all media fake news and has tweeted that major media organizations should lose their broadcasting licenses. One of his top aides introduced the world to alternative facts on a national news broadcast. So if youre Tom Hanks, who plays famed editor Ben Bradlee in Steven Spielbergs extremely timely new movie The Post  about the process of publishing stories about the Papers in 1971  do you take your movie to this White House if youre issued a screening invitation? According to a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the actor would probably opt out.

I dont think I would, Hanks told THR, because I think that at some point  look, I didnt think things were going to be this way last November. I would not have been able to imagine that we would be living in a country where neo-Nazis are doing torchlight parades in Charlottesville and jokes about Pocahontas are being made in front of the Navajo code talkers. And individually we have to decide when we take to the ramparts. Hanks knew Bradlee and met Post publisher Katharine Graham just before she died, and hes not here to support attacks on the First Amendment by a sitting U.S. president. This is the moment where, in some ways, our personal choices are going to have to reflect our opinions. We have to start voting, actually, before the election. So, I would probably vote not to go.
By PTI: New Delhi, Dec 20 (PTI) The stay on a Delhi government order cancelling the licence of Max hospital in Shalimar Bagh triggered a war of words between the AAP and the BJP with mutual allegations of "deals" with the healthcare group to protect it.

Ruling Aam Aadmi Party also dragged the Lieutenant Governor into the controversy, saying his role in "protecting" Max Hospital has "clearly been established".

advertisement

The order cancelling the licence of the hospital was stayed by the Court of Financial Commissioner, following which the facility resumed its operations today.

AAPs Delhi unit chief spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj told a press conference that the Finance Commissioner is appointed by the LG and exercises powers delegated to him.

"The role of the BJP Central government-appointed L-G in protecting Max Hospital, Shalimar Bagh, has clearly been established," he said.

AAPs national spokesperson Dilip Pandey alleged that the BJP leadership is "conniving" with the hospital "behind closed doors" and conspiring against the people of Delhi.

"What is the deal between Manoj Tiwari and Max Hospital," he asked.

The office of Lt Governor Anil Baijal said in a statement that a "misinformation campaign" was launched by "vested interests" over the issue.

"The office of Lt Governor at no stage is involved in this matter," it said.

Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari hit back at the AAP government, asking if there was any "deal" which was why cancellation of hospitals licence was stayed by its officer.

Tiwari said he was not surprised by the stay. "The Finance Commissioner who stayed the order comes under Delhis Finance minister Manish Sisodia. I am not surprised. It was a drama by the AAP government to strike a big deal. It is clear now with stay on cancellation of licence of the hospital."

"Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal should tell the people what was the deal that the licence cancellation order was stayed," he said.

The Delhi Congress alleged that the AAP government put up a "weak defence" before the appellate authority, resulting in the stay order.

"The government was not serious and ample loopholes were left for the hospital to get a stay over cancellation of its licence," Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken said.

The DGHS of the Delhi governments health department had cancelled licence of the hospital for multiple instances of alleged medical negligence, including a case in which one of the twins was found alive after being declared dead by the facility.

advertisement

The hospital group had on December 13 filed an appeal in the Financial Commissioners court against the cancellation of the licence. PTI VIT TIR

--- ENDS ---
In what may be a big push for Make in India, Air Force issues a tender for buying 83 more LCA Tejas fighter aircrafts to HAL.

By Manjeet Negi: In a major boost to Make in India, the Indian Air Force today issued a tender for buying 83 more LCA Tejas planes to the state owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

This would be the biggest contract to be awarded under the Make in India project by the Defence Ministry. The 83 Light Combat Aircrafts (LCA) would be procured from the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and would make for the Mark 1A version of the plane.

advertisement

The project cost is expected to be over Rs 60,000 crore, senior defence ministry sources told India Today. The IAF has already placed orders for 20 LCA Mark 1 aircrafts which would be more of technology demonstrators but the IAF was more interested in having the LCA Mark 2, which would be a more capable and upgraded version of the indigenous plane in the making for over two decades.

The HAL would first deliver the Mark 1 aircrafts to the IAF and then would produce the Mark 1A in the interim till the time it is ready with the Mark 2 version.

The project would give a strong push to the indigenous fighter aircraft industry as this would be the first major bulk production order for the planes, Defence Ministry sources said.

ALSO WATCH | India's indigenous fighter plane Tejas inducted in IAF

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 20 (PTI) The CPI(M)-led LDF government in Kerala today suspended DGP Jacob Thomas, the senior-most IPS officer in the state cadre, from service for his anti-government remarks.

Thomas, who was serving as the director of the Institute of Management in Government (IMG), for the last seven months was earlier removed from the position of the chief of vigilance and anti-corruption bureau by the ruling party. According to official sources, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had directed suspension of the officer under the relevant sections of All India Service Rules as some of his recent remarks had shown the state government in poor light.

advertisement

Recently during a seminar on International Anti- Corruption Day, Thomas had lashed out at the state government alleging that there was total breakdown of law and order situation in the state. He also accused the government of not "properly handling" the cyclone Ockhi situation. Stating that all "corrupt forces" were united in the state and were in positions of power, the official said that there was a conscious attempt to silence those who stood against corruption. However, reacting on his suspension order, Thomas said he had only talked about corruption on the Anti-Corruption Day and that he cannot be silenced with this action. "There has been a general trend worldwide to silence people when they talk about corruption. But, I am not prepared to remain silent," he told reporters here. "I am still swimming with big sharks. In this context, it is normal to face such action. But I will continue to swim," he added. Jacob Thomas was already facing disciplinary action for penning his bare-all autobiography "Sravukalkkoppam Neenthumpol" (Swimming Along With Sharks), which he wrote without seeking any permission from the prior government. Though a three-member panel had recommended to initiate criminal proceedings against the officer, the government had later decided to limit it to disciplinary action only for penning the book. Known for his strong stand against corruption, the IPS officer had earned the ruling CPI(M)s ire after he registered a vigilance case against the then industries minister E P Jayarajan over charges of nepotism following which he had to resign from the cabinet. Chief secretary, K M Abraham and Additional chief secretary, Tom Jose had lodged a complaint with the Chief Minister against Thomas after the vigilance department conducted raids on their residences over alleged disproportionate assets. PTI LGK UD ROH MG

--- ENDS ---
Magnolia Market at the Silos will become a testing site for Dallas-based AT&Ts 5G wireless system. The company says the test will drastically increase internet speeds for workers at Wacos most popular tourist attraction and the average of 5,000 people a day who visit from across the country.

AT&T is approaching other businesses in Waco about taking part in trials that will precede its 5G rollout late next year, but the company is starting with the Silos, said Marachel Knight, senior vice president for Wireless Network Architecture and Design, in a press release.

Technicians are installing almost a dozen access points around the Magnolia complex.

Waco will play host to about 2 million visitors in 2017, according to the Waco Convention and Visitors Bureau, with a sizable percentage bound for Magnolia Market.

At Magnolia, were always looking for opportunities to implement innovative solutions, Magnolias information technology manager David Washburn said in AT&Ts press release. Were excited to see how this technology enhances efficiencies for vendor partners and employees alike.

AT&T has also launched 5G pilot programs in South Bend, Indiana, Kalamazoo, Michigan, and in Austin, said Dave Wolter, assistant vice president of radio technology and strategy.

We looked at Waco as a good market, given that my technology team is located in Austin, and we can get up there easily, Wolter said. The ability to partner with a well-known brand was very attractive to us. Were looking at other cell sites, mostly around the downtown area, but we dont yet have specific locations. Were talking with other small business owners, and well be making more announcements.

Testing in Waco will involve millimeter wave spectrum and 5G radio and antenna prototypes, Wolter said. AT&T will use its network function virtualization platform, AT&T FlexWare, as the router for the 5G network, according to its press release.

Were hoping to have our first commercial deployment by the end of next year, Wolter said. Eventually we will offer it for both consumer and business use. Were anticipating speeds 10 times faster than those currently available, which is why there is so much interest.

Long-term, AT&T wants to test 5Gs use in applications such as virtual reality, long-distance control and long-range service, Wolter said. These could play a role in a massive number of devices, including sensors, street lights and water meters, whose use may overwhelm the speed and capacity available on the market today.

Connectivity is at the core of every companys digital transformation. 5G will have a significant impact on how businesses work and how they engage with their customers, AT&T chief marketing officer Mo Katibeh said in the press release. The trial with Magnolia helps drive a path for businesses of all sizes to have access to massive capacity via 5G to serve their employees and their customers in ways we couldnt have even dreamed of just a few years ago.
A former Baylor University student accused of sexual assault in a Title IX lawsuit against the school benefited from close ties to top administrators and helped develop a Baylor Title IX policy, according to a motion filed Tuesday on behalf of the lawsuits 10 unnamed plaintiffs.

The woman known as Jane Doe 3, who has alleged she was sexually harassed and assaulted by the fellow student between 2013 and 2015, also said a one-day investigation cleared him after he personally lobbied to Bethany McCraw, a Baylor student discipline officer.

The alleged assailant, a fellow staff member in her dormitory, got an undergraduate degree from Baylor and needed government security clearance to continue his career, according to the motion. After he was denied clearance because of a criminal history that includes four arrests on sexual misconduct-related charges, then-President Ken Starr and Vice President for Student Life Kevin Jackson allegedly intervened by writing a character recommendation, the motion alleges.

Jackson allegedly suggested to Starr they should write a qualifier at the beginning of the letter speaking to how he doesnt know anything about the alleged incidents earlier [which has prevented his clearance,] according to the motion.

The plaintiffs motion alleges Starr and Jackson knew why the clearance was denied and that McCraw had told Starrs assistant to read relevant background information on the situation.

After the matter involving the security clearance, the alleged assailant was admitted to Baylor as a graduate student, at Jacksons recommendation, according to the motion. The alleged victim reported that then-Title IX Coordinator Patty Crawford told her an investigation would be opened if the man returned to campus, but no investigation was opened when he returned as a graduate student, according to the filing.

The mans LinkedIn page touts his work with the universitys counseling center and Title IX office regarding sexual harassment and assault awareness and prevention, according to the filing.

Jim Dunnam, a Waco attorney who represents the plaintiffs, declined comment on his filing Tuesday. The motion comes in response to a sealed document Baylor filed in the lawsuit last week.

Baylor University will decline to comment in the media until legal counsel has an opportunity to thoroughly review the filing, the school said in a statement Tuesday evening. Any response will be provided to the court in the appropriate legal forum.

McCraw conducted an investigation into the matter involving another student between Jan. 14 and Jan. 15, 2014, after the assailant emailed McCraw the day the complaint was made, according to the motion filed Tuesday.

There is a very pressing issue I need to speak with you about, he allegedly wrote McCraw. Ive gotten myself into what may be a lot of trouble, and I would really appreciate your counsel on the matter. Do you have any openings today?

Dunnam and the plaintiffs allege Baylor mischaracterized details behind the case in its sealed motion last week.

Baylor lawyers have noted that FERPA, a federal privacy law preventing universities from disclosing certain information regarding students, does not apply to the plaintiffs personal communications. They have also charged that the plaintiffs have improperly redacted names of witnesses and entire conversations relevant to the case.

In a motion last week, the university alleged Doe 3 told her counselor she had been very attracted to the alleged assailant. In December 2015, she allegedly told the man that she was mad they did not have sex more often. She also apologized for hurt they caused each other and suggested she would leave him alone if that is what he wanted, according to the motion.

Baylors motion also alleges Doe 3 sent a text message to a friend saying the negative press against Baylor regarding its Title IX failures could mean theyd be more willing to let me win in a university investigation.

In the motion Tuesday, Dunnam accused Baylor of submitting out-of-context, incomplete, or demonstrably inaccurate assertions.

Baylor does not mince words with these selective quotes  the implication is clear  according to Baylor, Doe 3 asked for it. The full facts reveal otherwise, the Tuesday filing states.

The two sides have argued for months on discovery disputes. A ruling last week denied Baylors attempt to block student records related to sex or sexual conduct generally since 2003. The order affected about 6,200 current and former students, who will soon receive notice that their records are needed in the lawsuit.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to accurately reflect who was at the center of a one-day investigation by Bethany McCraw in 2014.
While there is room for more transparency in the way GPA calculations are handled at Rapoport Academy, external auditors say there are no overarching issues with the way scores are calculated, Superintendent Alexis Neumann announced Tuesday night at a school board meeting.

The announcement was part of an informal update on an $11,500 external audit Rapoport Academy officials paid for earlier this year. The audit was sparked by scrutiny from parents in September. They alleged GPAs had not been calculated consistently with the correct formula and suggested inaccurate numbers could interfere with their childrens ability to apply for scholarships. Both of the parents children graduated this week.

A formal report on the audit will be given to the school board in January, Neumann said.

The parents also filed a complaint at about the same time with the Texas Education Agency about the issue, but the complaint has since been closed and was considered non-jurisdictional, TEA spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson stated Tuesday afternoon.

What I found from the meeting was there were a few additional findings, versus what we initially presented to you guys with the seniors, Neumann said, acknowledging clerical errors. Similar things were found with the juniors, sophomores and freshmen. All in all, the auditors said there were no issues they found with the ill treatment of students. There were no discrepancies between students. You know, like one student got this and one student got that. We were very consistent with our policy in the way GPAs were calculated.

But because GPAs are calculated on actual averages for a class, not the rounded score printed on a transcript, auditors recommend Rapoport officials decide to go with one or the other, she said. The numbers should match, she said.

That was a pretty big one, as far as transparency, Neumann said. Its not wrong, its just a parent cant take the transcript and go calculate it themselves. On a few instances here or there, its not going to come out the same. But it is getting calculated consistently behind the scenes.

Auditors also noticed a few classes had been coded wrong for GPA calculations, which Rapoport officials acknowledged in September. Officials will do what Neumann called a specific cross-walk to make sure class codes are clearly defined, she said.

Right now, you have to do a little bit of research. Well, what does this class mean? Is it this class or is it this class? Neumann said. Just kind of clarifying that, so that in seventh, eighth, ninth, 10th, 11th and 12th, we have a very clear document we can give to families that says these are the classes this students going to take, this is what theyre called and this is how many credits they are.

Other recommendations will be given with the final report in January, she said.

Board resignation

Also Tuesday, the school board accepted the resignation of board member Audrey Bables, a retired teacher.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Ill no longer be in the position to continue to serve as a board member, Bables wrote in a letter to the board. Know that I have the highest personal regard and respect for the Rapoport Academy public school and our board members.  My wish is for you to continue to grow in success and excellence.

The board will bring nominations for a new member with similar expertise to the table at the January meeting, Board President Rhett Dawson said.

I contacted Ms. Bables, and unfortunately, she said she had a family situation arise, so thats why shes had to step off the board, Dawson said. I did thank her for her service, and I thought she had done a very good job.  Were sorry to see her go, and we will be looking to fill that position.

There is no indication her resignation has any relation to the GPA audit.
John Russell Tower

Aug. 21, 1912 - Dec. 16, 2017

John Russell Tower, a resident of Dallas for more than half a century, native to Weymouth Massachusetts, passed away the afternoon of December 16.Son of Josephine and Oscar Tower, John was born on August 21, 1912, one of two children. He was predeceased by his sister Eleanor, his son John Bernard Tower, his wife Grace Roos Tower and his dear friends Rafi Zeinelpour and Freeman Baldridge.

At high school he excelled on the track and set the state record for the mile run which remained for 25 years. He received a full scholarship to the Colorado School of Mines where he graduated in 1935 with a degree in Petroleum Engineering.

He served in the Army Air Corps from 1940 to 1948. Having wed his wife in June of 1941 whom he met whilst stationed in San Antonio, he recalled receiving the news of what happened that December and would go on to serve as a Transport Pilot in the Mediterranean. John and Grace stayed abroad after WWII as part of the Army of Occupation in Germany. There, they welcomed their first child Jane.

They returned home and settled in Texas, where they raised a further four children, John, Steve, Regan and Angela with the ever valued support of Lola Lee Bonner.

In Dallas, John continued his work as a Petroleum Engineer for the Energy Information Service, which he reluctantly retired from at the age of 97, after 37 years of faithful employment.

He had a love of reading both books and newspapers and much appreciated the writing of Jacquielynn Floyd of this newspaper. He shared a devotion to the arts with his wife, who both enjoyed the Dallas Opera season each year. His curiosity did not wane with age and he would always go to the literature when perplexed by the world. Answers and the pursuit of those answers was a lifelong commitment that earned him a reputation as not only an intellectual, but a talented conversationalist.

Known by many as 'Uncle Russ', his life and how he lived it is as a sterling example to the many friends and family members he embraced. He was ever caring for those he loved and for this and so much more, will be dearly missed.

The family would like to thank those who cared for our beloved John in his final years.

Visitation will be Thursday, December 21 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Sparkman/Hillcrest Funeral Home, 7405 W. Northwest Highway, Dallas. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 2 p.m., Thursday, December 21 at Holy Trinity Catholic Church, 3811 Oak Lawn Ave, Dallas. Burial will be 11:30 a.m., Saturday, December 23 at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, San Antonio, Texas.

Memorial contributions can be made to Catholic Relief Services at www.crs.org.

Sparkman/Hillcrest Funeral Home

Dallas, Texas 75225

(214) 363-5401
Back in 2011, former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore appeared on a far-right radio program. The programs host said he wanted an amendment to the Constitution that repealed all the current amendments from the 11th through the 27th. Moores response was revealing: That would eliminate many problems. You know, people dont understand how some of these amendments have completely tried to wreck the form of government that our forefathers intended.

We should not be surprised that Moore would pine for a bygone constitutional era. This is the man, lets not forget, who nostalgically cited the antebellum years as the last time America was great (a time when families were united, even though we had slavery, he said). In the wake of Moores failure to win his race for the Senate, however, its worth pointing out that he clearly understands the progressive arc of our Constitutions text and history and fears its strength. After all, the very amendments he would see repealed are at the root of his electoral downfall.

Moores defeat is a reminder to everyone in America and around the world that our Constitution  an imperfect work-in-progress since the very beginning  is an incredibly resilient document. Our founders designed a Constitution that enshrines enduring values, even as it can be amended to adapt to changes in our dynamic society.

Yale Law School Professor Akhil Amar once said that the three amendments ratified within five years of the Norths victory in the Civil War can only be described as a constitutional revolution. Given the cause of that war a bloody rebellion by the southern states to keep four million black people in slavery  such a revolution in our founding charter was essential. America ratified amendments, Amar wrote, that ended slavery [except as punishment for a crime], made every person born under the flag an equal citizen, guaranteed a host of civil rights to all Americans and extended equal political [i.e., voting] rights to black men.

In subsequent decades, the right to vote for more people was protected through additional amendments to our Constitution addressing women, people over age 18 and those blocked from the ballot box because of inability to pay poll taxes. We also extended the right to vote for a certain federal office  that of United States senator  placing that power in the hands of the people instead of state legislators so corrupt that, in some places, they were actually selling Senate seats to the highest corporate bidder.

Critically, these amendments took power away from states, which could not be trusted to protect the rights of all the people  especially, but not limited to, African Americans  and shifted that power to the federal government or the people directly. For example, the Fourteenth Amendment lists a series of actions that No State shall take, while succeeding generations ratified, over and over again, constitutional commands that explicitly state, Congress shall have power to enforce these amendments by appropriate legislation.

[S]ome of these amendments have completely tried to wreck the form of government that our forefathers intended, Moore said. If by wreck, he meant shifting power away from state institutions and state government officials to other institutions and officials more willing and able to protect our rights, fixing flaws in the founders original design, then Roy Moore was right. That was the entire point.

But those amendments  and the people who drafted and ratified them  didnt merely try to do this. Hundreds of thousands of men and women from the Civil War and Reconstruction era, the Progressive era, up through the womens suffrage and civil rights movements, toiled, bled and died to sweep aside many of the vicious inequities allowed by our original Constitution. There is still much more work to do, but their sacrifice made our nations founding charter more perfect.

Last weeks nail-biting election in Alabama proved this. To a degree almost no one predicted, Roy Moores nostalgia for Americas pre-Civil War constitutional past was repudiated. Hundreds of thousands of African Americans and women in Alabama flooded the polls, exercised their right to vote for U.S. senator and elected Moores opponent, Doug Jones. They did this in spite of a defective and dangerous ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, that flashed a green light to officials like those in Alabama who passed malicious laws to suppress their votes. It is no coincidence that the very people who Moores vision would exclude, once again, from participating in our democracy were the same people who sent him packing.

Our amended Constitution made this possible. Everyday Americans had the power to triumph last week because our Constitution is stronger than Roy Moore. Its even stronger than the Supreme Court. But it isnt certain to remain so. Only with the sustained, active commitment to the future of our country that we saw from the majority of voters in Alabama can We the People keep it that way.
For 90 years, bamboo was considered as tree. Its cutting and transporation was problematic. Modi government amended old law and categorised bamboo as grass.

By Balkrishna: Those who have seen Raj Kapoor-Waheeda Rehman starrer 'Teesri Kasam', based on Fanishwar Nath Renu's novel 'Maare Gaye Gulfam', would remember how Hiraman, played on screen by Raj Kapoor, lands into trouble for transporting bamboo on his bullock cart. It forces him to vow not to transport bamboo ever. This was one of his three vows.

Many would have considered it just as a film story. However, there was truth in the story as transporting bamboo from one place to another invited trouble.

advertisement

One had to seek the permission of the forest department of the state governments concerned. Getting this permission was not easy.

Scientifically speaking, bamboo is not tree but grass. However, the Indian Forest Act, 1927 considered it as tree. Accordingly, cutting bamboo from outside forests and transporting it was made unlawful.

As a result, farmers in the bamboo-growing states, particularly the North East, had to face harassment quite often because they could neither cut it nor transport it.

Despite India being the second largest grower of bamboo after China, it had to import bamboo from Taiwan even for sundry purposes such as making of 'agarbattis' (candlestick).

There was a long-pending demand to amend the obsolete law. Finally, the amendment has come about.

Is bamboo grass or tree? The Lok Sabha today finally amended a 90-year-old law and categorised bamboo as grass.

Following the amendment in the Indian Forest Act, 1927, bamboo has been removed from the category of tree. Now there is no prohibition on growing or cutting bamboo trees even outside the forests.

Earlier on November 23, the Narendra Modi government had promulgated an ordinance removing bamboo from the definition of tree. Today, the Lok Sabha passed the Indian Forest (Amendment) Bill, 2017 which would bring bamboo outside the definition of tree.

As bamboo was defined as a tree under the previous law, its inter-state movement required a permit. Consequent to the change brought in by the amended Act, felling or transportation of bamboos grown in non-forest areas will not require such permits.

Replying to a debate on the Bill, Environment, Forests, and Climate Change Minister Harsh Vardhan said the amended law will enable farmers to cut and transport bamboo grown on their land outside forest. He said that it would not only help increasing the income of farmers, but will also generate employment in big number.

Several industries including paper and furniture making ones will immensely benefit out of the amended law. An exponential increase in the growing and consumption of bamboo cannot be denied. It augurs a new era for the tribal areas as well.

--- ENDS ---

advertisement
Kevin Costner can comfortably boast of being television's biggest star right now. His Yellowstone returned for a fifth season on Sunday, and even though it was on a cable network, it was the most-watched episode of scripted television on TV this fall. The Paramount network Western reached 12.1 million viewers, when you count in simultaneous showings on other Viacom-owned cable networks. One expert called it the most appointment-friendly shows on television right now, in part because it appeals particularly to an older audience comfortable with watching television in a traditional way. It also proves the enduring popularity of the Western.
By PTI: Mumbai, Dec 20 (PTI) The ban on countrys shrimp exports to Thailand and Kuwait is expected to have a negligible impact on the frozen shrimp industry due to its increasing global demand, a report said.

The Department of Fishery (DoF), Thailand imposed a temporary suspension on five categories of shrimps including Penaeus Vannamai (vannamai) and Penaeus monodon (black tiger) from India due to a presence of virus - Infectious Myonecrosis (IMNV). The announcement of Thailands suspension has come within a fortnight of Kuwaits ban on the import of Indian shrimp, due to the suspected appearance of an acute disease.

advertisement

The ban on shrimp exports to Thailand and Kuwait is however, expected to have a negligible impact on the Indian frozen shrimp industry as they constitute only 0.3 per cent at Rs 43.5 crore during H1FY18 of the total frozen shrimp exports from the country, ICRA Ratings said in its report here.

"The majority of the Indian exports to Thailand are also for further re-processing and are in the medium count ranges of 31-40 counts. But closely following the Kuwait ban, the Thailand suspension could impact public perception of Indian shrimp quality; the same needs to be watched," ICRA Ratings vice president Pavethra Ponniah said.

During FY17, frozen shrimp exports from India witnessed a healthy growth of 25 per cent to Rs 24,370 crore in FY17 from Rs 19,492 crore in the previous year, supported by 19 per cent year-on-year volume growth and balance from growth in realization.

The robust volume growth was supported by increasing global demand for Indian shrimp and weak production in other major aquaculture regions such as Vietnam and Thailand. The growth trend continued during H1 FY18 with volumes rising by 33.6 per cent, the report said.

Indias exports to USA witnessed 24 per cent year on year growth supported by robust demand and relaxations in the regulatory regime in FY17.

Countrys exports to Vietnam also registered a 76 per cent year on year growth aided by the lower domestic production in Vietnam coupled with increasing demand from EU and USA.

Going forward, healthy growth in demand of Indian frozen shrimp exports is expected to continue despite the negative sentiments regarding the imposition of ban on Indian shrimps. The robust export growth is expected to be well supported by growth drivers in major export destinations, the report said. PTI AP DSK DSK

--- ENDS ---
Christmas is such an important time for family reunions, but there are many of us for whom Christmas is also a time when those...
Waterford Fine Gael Senator John Cummins has described the progress which has been made on the purchase of the former Waterford Crystal site for...
AS we count down the days, hours and minutes to Christmas, we at Waterford Today would like to make one appeal before the festivities...
Seven jobs at a Waterford charity look set to be lost after it was announced that it is to be wound down. The U-Casadh...
THIS June, Waterford will see its first Pride march in over a decade as part of the Pride of the Deise festival. Taking place over...
Homicide Squad detectives are calling for anyone who was inside McDonald's in Canning Vale when a violent youth brawl broke out on December 7 to contact police.

The brawl, which left two people with stab wounds, occurred around an hour before Perth teenager Jacob Cummins, 17, was killed when he and his friends were hit by a car as they walked along a nearby street.

Any one who can help identify this man is asked to contact police. Credit:WA Police.

Police are seeking the public's assistance to identify a man, pictured above at McDonald's at the Livingston shopping centre, who they believe can assist with their inquiries into an assault.

"Inquiries are ongoing and detectives would like to speak to anyone who was in the restaurant at the time of the altercation," a police spokeswoman said.
Perth barrister Lloyd Rayney has been awarded $1.7 million in damages to compensate for the substantial loss in salary he suffered after being named by police as the "prime" and "only" suspect in the murder of his wife Corryn.

The Supreme Court of WA ruling, handed down on Wednesday, brought to an end one of Western Australia's biggest defamation trials, with Mr Rayney's 10-year battle to restore his reputation finally over.

Lloyd Rayney arriving at Perth District Court on Wednesday morning for an unrelated case. Credit:AAP

The 55-year-old was named by WA Police as the "prime" and "only" suspect in his wife's murder at a press conference in 2007 after she failed to return home from a boot scooting class in Bentley on August 7.

Her body was found a week later in a shallow grave at Kings Park.
By India Today Web Desk: BB farm task will enter its second day tonight and the foes will join hands to target their common enemy.

Hina will get all aggressive after the egg bearing Vikas' name will come out. The two will have a heated argument after Vikas will accidentally fall on Hina. When she will ask him to not climb on people, he would said she's doing the same and taking advantage of the fact that she's a woman.

advertisement

Akash will all of a sudden pick Vikas' egg and throw it in the swimming pool, leaving Hina and Shilpa ecstatic. The three for a moment will forget their enmity and hug like old friends.

Akash on the other hand will make no effort to save his egg and let Puneesh pick it up. Puneesh will fling the egg across to Arshi who in turn will pass it on to Hina, who will give it back to Puneesh. He will eventually throw the egg into the swimming pool, destroying Akash's chances of captaincy.

Priyank and Luv's eggs will be fiercerly guarded by team Hina. Who will eventually be the final contenders for captaincy? Guess, we will have to wait and watch.

--- ENDS ---
By Parmita Uniyal: The journey of Luv Tyagi, the commoner who entered Bigg Boss 11 as one of the four padosi contestants, has been full of ups and downs. He started out with Sabyasachi, Lucinda and Mehjabi and was touted as the most promising padosi. The four padosis intially resided in the neighbourhood of the main house and conversed with the other housemates via phone.

advertisement

PADOSI WITH A UNIQUE ANDAAZ

"Main aapka padosi bol raha hun." His andaaz impressed viewers as well as the housemates, whenever he picked up the receiver to give aadesh to the other contestants. He also played a key role in scheming against the other housemates during his time in the padosi house. All the Bigg Boss fans were waiting for him to enter the main house and expected fireworks from him.

Then the day came when the four entered the Bigg Boss house posing as the relatives of a millionaire, a story Bigg Boss asked them to weave in order to gain entry in the house. The only condition for them to remain in the main house was to convince the other housemates of its veracity.

WHEN LUV'S STORY FOUND NO TAKERS

The most entertaining padosi Luv all of a sudden turned quiet and refused to come out of his cocoon, probably due to the fear of getting exposed by the other housemates--because of his inability to tell stories unlike his other padosi friends Sabya and Mehjabi. He probably found it hard to portray himself as gay (as instructed by Bigg Boss).

Naturally, it was Sabya and Mehjabi who were the master storytellers who spun a web of lies, which most of the housemates believed. The first person to catch their lie was obviously mastermind Vikas Gupta. He not only questioned Mehjabi's version of their story, but also exposed Luv's lie.

HOW HE SURVIVED EVICTION BY HOUSEMATES

The inevitable had to happen and Bigg Boss asked housemates to evict one of the padosis. While Luv and Lucinda were at an equal chance of elimination due to their reticence, Luv got advantage of knowing Hindi as he could convince the others to save him. Lucinda, who wasn't comfortable with the language as a result got evicted.

However, after the eviction, Luv changed his colours, showing his aggressive streak while not showing active involvement with the other housemates. Host Salman Khan termed him undeserving many a time, and the housemates took advantage of that jibe by targeting him. Except Hina Khan. She took an instant liking of Luv and she along with Priyank soon became Luv's friends and the three formed a group of a sort. While there are no loyal friends in the Bigg Boss house, the three are inseparable, barring a few occasions when they fought over trivial issues.

advertisement

THE RISE OF LUV

When Luv was in bottom 2 along with Jyoti Kumari, many thought he would be the one to be booted out. However, to everyone's surprise, he survived. His loyal friend Hina Khan once took a huge risk by putting herself, Priyanka and Sapna at the risk of elimination to save him. However, due to this, a strong contestant Sapna Chaudhary got evicted.

By this time, Luv had started to build a strong fan base. Also, he was getting more and more comfortable in the house and had started to open up. He proved himself to be a loyal friend, and someone who took stand for the right. When Priyank was body shaming Shilpa, Luv was the only one to have taken a stand for her, while Hina silently observed. Also, Luv gave her best to the tasks and put his heart and mind to it. Viewers started to like him more and more.

advertisement

BUT WILL HE WIN THE RACE?

This became clearer when Bandgi got evicted and Luv got more votes than Puneesh and Bandgi. It was truly surprising, however, when one of the strongest contestants Hiten Tejwani got eliminated last week while Luv got the second highest votes after Shilpa Shinde.

It is clear that with each passing week, this aam aadmi contestant is getting ahead in the race, much like the tortoise from the aesop's fable who won the race against a hare. As Salman joked in one of the weekend episodes that he could visualise Luv winning the trophy, with Hina by his side.

All said and done, it cannot be denied that Luv is one of the strongest contenders to win the show as of now. If not others, he's definitely more popular than the remaining commoners on the show--Akash, Arshi and Puneesh, if the voting trends online are to be believed.

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: (Eds: Updating with fresh details, political reactions)

Lucknow, Dec 20 (PTI) The Uttar Pradesh government today tabled in the state Assembly a stringent bill to curb organised crime and terror as well as to deal with those trying to dislodge the government forcibly or violently.

On the lines of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), the Uttar Pradesh Control of Organised Crime (UPCOC) Bill, 2017, will also sternly punish those using violence for anti-national acts.

advertisement

The bill, introduced by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, was sharply criticised by the opposition, which said it would target political adversaries, minorities and others.

The statement of object and reasons appended to the bill states that the existing legal framework of penal and procedural law and the adjudicatory system were found to be inadequate in controlling organised crime.

To combat organised crime, it was decided that a special law would be introduced, with stringent and deterrent provisions including attachment of properties, remand process, setting up of special courts and special prosecutors for speedy trials and modern investigation processes.

Under organised crime, it listed offences such as kidnapping or abduction, illegal or forcible bidding in government contracts, murdering anyone by taking money or getting someone killed, grabbing of government or individual land, purchase of land on forged documents and collection of protection money.

It included illegal mining or illegal extraction of forest produce or trade in wildlife, money laundering, human trafficking, spurious liquor manufacturing and trafficking in drugs and other banned items.

The bill envisages stringent punishment for convicts. Those causing loss of life can be sentenced to death or be imprisoned for life and pay a minimum fine of Rs 25 lakh. For other crimes, the punishment could vary between seven years and up to a life term in jail, with a minimum fine of Rs 15 lakh. The bill also provides for setting up special courts for speedy disposal of cases in consultation with the high court. The state Cabinet had recently approved the draft of the proposed legislation prepared in consultation with the Law Department for checking organised crime, mafia and white collared crime.

"The rule of law is the top priority of the government. For this, it is essential that those indulging in mafia and goonda activities are identified and a special drive is launched against them...The bill is being brought with this purpose in mind," senior minister Srikant Sharma had said after the Cabinet meet last week.

advertisement

The bill proposes setting up a state organised crime control authority headed by the principal secretary, home department, and including the ADG law and order, ADG crime and an officer of the law department nominated by the government.

Besides, a district-level Crime Control Authority will be set up under district magistrates. An appellate authority, headed by a retired high court judge and with two members from the state government, will hear petitions of the accused.

Sharma said there were 28 provisions in the bill which were not present in the existing Gangsters Act.

A committee was set up to examine the draft of the bill which took into account a similar act in Maharashtra.

Opposition leaders have said the bill could be misused to settle political scores and feared it might be used to suppress minorities and marginalised sections of the people.

BSP chief Mayawati demanded the withdrawal of the bill and claimed the Yogi Adityanath government was already misusing the law for communal and political reasons. The new bill, if passed, would only worsen the situation, she said. "Laws are grossly misused in the state to the extent that any BJP worker walks up to a police station and the police registers false cases against the people," Mayawati said in a statement here.

advertisement

"UPCOC will be used for suppression of the poor, Dalits, backwards and religious minorities," she said, adding that she wanted the bill to be withdrawn in public interest.

Congress Legislature Party leader Ajay Kumar Lallu expressed concern over the section dealing with those trying to foment terror or dislodge a government violently.

Lallu said it would be used against political foes.

The language used in the bill, especially in this regard, is a legal one but has all the scope of being misused against political persons and adversaries, he told PTI.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav had said the bill could be misused to settle political scores and feared it would be used to suppress minorities and other.

Sharma had told reporters that under the proposed Act, the government could take over properties amassed through organised crime, with the permission of the court.

Those found involved in organised crime and having security cover would no longer be extended government protection, the bill stated. PTI SAB NAV SMI BDS

--- ENDS ---

advertisement
By India Today Web Desk: Bipasha Basu and her husband Karan Singh Grover were clicked visiting the Hinduja Hospital in Khar, Mumbai, on Tuesday, sparking speculation that the actress is in the family way.

Photo: Yogen Shah

Photo: Yogen Shah

Hinduja Hospital is the choice for many B-Town celebs to deliver their babies, from Shahid Kapoor and Mira Rajput to the more recent Esha Deol.

advertisement

This is not the first time that Bipasha's rumoured pregnancy has made headlines. Earlier this year, she said that the "constant guessing game is tiring" and that when she and Karan are having a baby, she will announce it to the world herself.

Last year, as well, speculation was rife that Bipasha was expecting a visit from the stork, but she refuted them and requested people to "respectfully leave these major life decisions to us".

On the work front, Bipasha and Karan recently decided to endorse a condom brand, and shot a too-hot-to-handle commercial for the same. While Karan will be seen next in Ankoosh Bhatt's thriller Firrkie, Bipasha is yet to sign a film after Alone (2015).

ALSO WATCH: Karan and I are very happy for all the love you guys are giving us, says Bipasha

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: CBSE

New Delhi, Dec 20 (PTI) The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has warned schools against selling books from private publishers in their premises.

"The schools can open small outlets in their premises only to sell NCERT books and other stationery items. They are not allowed to sell any book from private publishers," the Board said in a communication to schools.

advertisement

"Selling books other than those from NCERT will be considered a violation and will attract action against the school. Parents are free to buy textbooks and stationery items from either the shop in school premises or vendors outside," it added.

Amending its earlier directive, the CBSE in August allowed schools to open shops in their premises to sell NCERT books, stationery and other material required by students.

The Board had earlier asked managements to not run schools as "commercial establishments" and stop selling books and uniforms in their premises. PTI GJS SMN

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Boston, Dec 20 (PTI) Brain lesions can make people prone to committing crimes if they occur within the network responsible for morality and value-based decision-making, a study has found.

The study, published in the journal PNAS, is the first systemic mapping of brain lesions associated with criminal behaviour - a medical phenomena referred to as acquired sociopathy.

advertisement

Famous cases of acquired sociopathy include Phineas Gage, a railroad worker who in 1848 exhibited anti-social behaviour after surviving an explosive blast that sent an iron rod through his brain, and Charles Whitman, the "Texas Tower Sniper," who had a brain tumour and murdered 16 people in 1966.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) in the US reviewed more recent cases of brain lesions associated with criminal behaviour, examining MRI and CT scans of those individuals.

One group of 17 cases had a definitive correlation between criminal behaviour and a brain lesion.

A second group of 23 cases had an implied correlation when researchers did not know whether the brain lesion occurred before or after the criminal behaviour.

In both groups, the lesions were at different areas of the brain.

The researchers used neuroimaging analyses - large datasets compiled from healthy volunteers organised into a connectome, similar to a map of brain activity.

While the lesions were in different brain areas, they were all connected to the same brain network.

"We looked at networks involved in morality as well as different psychological processes that researchers have thought might be involved - empathy, cognitive control and other processes that are important for decision making," said Ryan Darby, assistant professor at VUMC.

"We saw that it was really morality and value-based decision making - reward and punishment decision making - that the lesions were strongly connected to," said Darby, who did the research during a fellowship at Harvard Medical School in the US.

Lesions in patients with criminal behaviour were more strongly connected to this moral decision-making network than lesions in patients without criminal behaviour, suggesting that connectivity to this network was specific to criminal behaviour.

"This is a relatively new approach that we have developed," Darby said.

"We have previously used it to understand other disorders where it wasnt really clear why brain lesions in different locations caused hallucinations or delusions," said Darby.

"In those diseases, it was also found that it was a common brain network connected to the same areas. We were the first to apply this to looking at criminal behaviour," he said. PTI MHN SAR MHN

--- ENDS ---

advertisement
Advertisement

By West Kentucky Star Staff

Dec. 20, 2017 | PADUCAH, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Dec. 20, 2017 | 03:26 PM | PADUCAH, KY

Paducah City Manager Jeff Pederson has agreed to delay his resignation until May of next year, after city commissioners voted to approve an extension to his employment.



The board returned from closed session Tuesday evening and voted to extend Pederson's employment agreement through May 15, 2018. After discussing options for an interim city manager, the board decided that extending Pederson's contract through the budget season would be a good idea as the city deals with a $2.3 million pension burden.



"I am pleased to continue my service with the City of Paducah and am committed to working with the board and department directors in navigating through the upcoming budget challenges," Pederson said. "Even though we are facing a burden due to the pension crisis, we are dedicated to providing exemplary core services and organizational advancement."



Mayor Brandi Harless and a majority of commissioners asked Pederson to resign in November. Pederson had already agreed to stay on until January 12 to help with the transition period.
By Leah Long Dec. 19, 2017 | 10:25 PM | PADUCAH, KY

An ordinance that would have included gender identity and sexual orientation in the list of responsibilities of the Paducah Human Rights Commission was withdrawn by the City Commission last night.After hearing from citizens, as well as City Attorney David Denton, the original motion made by Commissioner Allen Rhodes and seconded by Commissioner Sandra Wilson, was withdrawn. Denton said he will draft a revised ordinance and circulate it to the commission to review before it is brought to the commission at its January 9th meeting.The proposed ordinance would have repealed and replaced chapter 58 in the Paducah Code of Ordinances, which outlines the Paducah Human Rights Commission. The new language would add age, gender identity and sexual orientation to the list of unlawful discriminatory practices outlined in the ordinance.The ordinance was first introduced at the Dec. 12 commission meeting.Richard Nelson, of Cadiz, executive director of the Commonwealth Policy Center, said he had a number of concerns. Nelson asked how many cases or complaints of gender identity or sexual orientation have been brought forward and questioned why the change in language is needed. He asked the commission if they have considered the downside to the ordinance one of which he explained is the conflict between rights of LGBTQ community and religious freedom."I see this as being a divisive proposed change something that as I mentioned earlier is not necessary. For that reason I'm asking the commission to table this and to consider the thoughts of the community and to consider the downside," said Nelson.Andy Wiggins, of Paducah also a member of the Paducah Human Rights commission spoke out with his individual opinions. He said the goal of the Human Rights Commission is a passive organization that is meant to be a conduit to the citizens of the community to seek justice when they have been discriminated against.Wiggins said as of 2014 the LGBTQ community is the highest targeted group for hate crimes and have an extremely high rate of suicide and homelessness. Wiggins explained, "The purpose of a human rights commission is to find demographics that are targeted, demographics that are under served, and demographics that encounter discrimination to protect them, even if it's not popular." Wiggins said he believes it is time the city stands up with these individuals in the community to provide them some protection.At one point in the meeting citizens mentioned the change to the ordinance as being done 'on a whim.' Paducah Mayor Brandi Harless clarified the ordinance change was not done on a whim.City Attorney David Denton addressed the commission and citizens and made clear nothing in the ordinance changes any state law regarding state statues. He also echoed Harless by saying the ordinance change has not been done on a whim.Denton said at the state level very little is done regarding discrimination against sexual orientation and gender identity. In those situations regarding discriminatory action agains sexual orientation and gender identity, the complaints would stay at the local level.The local Human Rights Commission would have the power to meet, file charges, subpena, hold hearings and determine if there has been a wrong committed.But, Denton explained, "It doesn't have any enforcement power by itself. It cannot go out and fine a somebody five thousand dollars. It cannot send a man to jail for 30 days. Instead enforcement has to be done through the circuit courts. So there is due process.You can't have an ordinance that's going to be sustained without due process," said Denton.After hearing from the citizens the commissioners took a moment to express their views on the issue. Commissioner Sarah Holland pointed out the national media coverage concerning the thousands of women who have faced sexual harassement and discrimination that did not come forward to file complaints. While the Paducah Human Rights Commission has not had any complaints regarding sexual orientation or gender identity, Holland emphasized, "The absence of claims does not mean the absence of a problem."Even though the ordinance does protect religious organizations, Commissioner Richard Abraham wanted the ordiance to also have language that would protect private business owners so they would not be pressured or mandated to do something that goes against their religious beliefs.To read more about tonight's meeting, click the link below.

On the Net:
By West Kentucky Star Staff Dec. 20, 2017 | 08:20 AM | MURRAY, KY

Kentucky State Police arrested a Calloway County man Tuesday night on child porn charges.

Just after 8:30 pm, the Kentucky State Police Electronic Crime Branch arrested 22-year-old Ronald C. Dieck on charges related to distribution of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor. Dieck was arrested after an undercover Internet Crimes Against Children investigation.

The KSP Electronic Crime Branch began the investigation after discovering Dieck sharing files of child sexual exploitation online. The investigation resulted in the execution of a search warrant at a home in Murray Tuesday night.

Equipment used to facilitate the crime was seized and taken to KSPs forensic laboratory for examination. The investigation is ongoing.

Dieck is currently charged with five counts of distribution of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor. Each charge is a Class-D felony punishable by one to five years in prison.

Dieck was lodged in the Calloway County Detention Center.
By PTI: By K J M Varma

Beijing, Dec 19 (PTI) China today said it is confident in ensuring the success of the USD 50 billion CPEC, a day after Pakistans security czar alleged that the US along with India is conspiring against the ambitious economic corridor.

The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project of Chinas prestigious One Belt One Road, passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The CPEC links Chinas restive Xinjiang region with Pakistans Balochistan province.

advertisement

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told reporters today that China hopes more countries to join the project.

"I want to reiterate that CPEC is a new type of framework for the long term cooperation in various areas between China and Pakistan," she said when asked about Pakistans claims.

The project is not only of positive significance for the development of the two countries but also conducive to the development of whole region, Hua said.

"We hope CPEC can receive more support and recognition of more countries and we are confident in ensuring the success of the building of CPEC with various parties including Pakistan," she added.

Pakistans National Security Advisor Lt Gen (retd.) Nasser Khan Janjua yesterday accused the US of conspiring against the multi-billion economic corridor with India.PTI KJV ZH

--- ENDS ---
Advertisement

By The Associated Press

Dec. 18, 2017 | TACOMA, WA

By The Associated Press Dec. 18, 2017 | 11:28 AM | TACOMA, WA

An Amtrak train derailed south of Seattle on Monday, and authorities reported injuries and casualties.



The train derailed about 40 miles south of Seattle before 8 a.m., spilling at least one train car on to busy Interstate 5.



The Pierce County Sheriffs office said in a tweet that the train was heading south and that there were injuries and casualties, but no numbers were immediately available.



All southbound lanes of Interstate 5 were closed south of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and motorists were being warned to avoid the area.Chris Karnes was on the train, three or four cars back from the front.



Im not sure what got hit. Im not sure what happened, Karnes said.



He was unhurt but near the medical tents set up in a median area between north- and sound-bound I-5, just south of DuPont.



The only car that is on the tracks is the rear locomotive. There are several cars that are hanging over the overpass, Karnes said.



In a statement Amtrak said the train that derailed was Train 501, offering service from Seattle to Portland.



Emergency services are on the scene and Amtrak management is responding. Some injuries are reported, Amtrak said.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Dec. 20, 2017 | 08:38 AM | WASHINGTON, DC



"Berea College has a huge endowment for a small college," Comer said. "Someone left them a huge amount of money several years ago, and anyone that goes to Berea goes tuition free. That's what the endowment is for."





Comer says another holdup was actually the name of the bill. Senate rules dictate that the name "The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act," has to be changed to "An Act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to titles II and V of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018."





Comer says he's confident the bill will pass the House again, and be signed by President Trump.

The big tax bill that the U.S. Senate passed last night, previously approved by the House, has to go back to the House to fix a few things. First District Congressman James Comer said one snag was language in the bill that would tax universities with large endowments, and that would mean trouble for a school in Kentucky.
By The Associated Press Dec. 19, 2017 | 06:20 PM | LEXINGTON, KY

The former speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives who resigned last month after acknowledging he secretly settled a sexual harassment claim could get his job back under a plan crafted by some allies in the state legislature.

Jeff Hoover denied sexual harassment but said he sent consensual but inappropriate text messages to a woman who worked for the House Republican Caucus. He kept his seat in the legislature.

But since then, lawmakers say attorneys for the Republican House Caucus have told them Hoover's resignation is not official because it has not been accepted by the House, which legally does not exist unless they are in session next month. GOP Rep. Richard Heath is gauging support among the caucus for bringing Hoover back.

Hoover did not respond to a request for comment.
LOCAL FIREFIGHTERS RECOGNIZED, HONORED

FROM THE HENDERSONVILLE FIRE DEPARTMENT

Two Hendersonville firefighters were recognized last week recently mfor their oustanding accomplishments.

Jacob Thompson was recognized as Firefighter of the Year, and Lt. Christian Miller was recognized with the inaugural Fire Officer of the Year Award, in what Chief Joseph Vindigni described as an honor recognizing their daily passion and dedication.

They were nominated by fellow HFD members for continually going above and beyond. Both were surprised by the honor  Miller at Saturdays department Christmas party and Thompson before he left town on a break.

Last year was the first time HFD recognized a Firefighter of the Year, and this is the first Fire Officer of the Year Award. Its an effort by HFD to recognize its men and women who do a fantastic job day in and day out, Vindigni said.

Both are wonderful and dedicated employees, he added, chosen from 33 members total. Thirteen were eligible for Fire Officer of the Year.

Fire Officer of the Year

Christian has done a fantastic job for our organization, Vindigni said, describing the nearly five-year HFD veteran as a positive employee with a great attitude who works hard every day.

Nominated by several coworkers, Miller has done a fantastic job, Vindigni said. Miller assisted with the fire departments recent rating process, which resulted in an improvement from a Class Four to a Class Three recognition by the Department of Insurance Office of the State Fire Marshal.

As the departments training officer, he also handles scheduling and setting up the departments trainings.
By Jitendra Bahadur Singh: After the diplomatic defeat in Doklam, China is on a 'spying mission' in the military encampment of Demchok in Leh. The village has been the site of frequent stand-offs between the Indian Army and the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

Ahead of the 20th round of India-China border talks between National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and China's State Councillor Yang Jiechi in New Delhi this week, intelligence sources told India Today that Beijing is using three Thuraya satellite phones, banned in India, to gather information about the Indian security apparatus in Ladakh.

advertisement

The satphones were found active around 35 km northwest of Demchok from 3.45 pm to 3.41 pm on November 15, the sources said. While one of the satphones was in contact with three Chinese numbers, another Thuraya contacted 13989****05, which too was active in China, the intelligence sources added. Security agencies in Ladakh are on high alert after the revelation.

Though the three phones were active several times in Tibet and once inside Arunachal Pradesh in 2015, 2016 and even this year, they were not operational in Demchok, the sources further added. According to Minister of State for Home Affairs Hansraj Ahir, it is not uncommon for neighbouring countries to spy on India. "Therefore, the Defence Ministry works in tandem with security and intelligence agencies to foil spying attempts. We won't let such spying missions succeed," he told India Today.

On the border talks with China, Ahir said, "NSA-level talks are routine to maintain relations with neighbouring countries. Such dialogues will continue."

Security expert and Major General (Retd.) GD Bakshi told India Today that China has been consolidating its military after President Xi Jinping became more powerful. General Bakshi too mentioned the satphone 'spying' incident. "Chinese troops are still in Doklam; India should not be complacent. China may intrude into some other sector and even Doklam to build pressure on India," he said.

General Bakshi suggested that India should strongly raise its concerns at the NSA-level talks without being dominated by the Chinese side. "Otherwise, China will continue with its domineering attitude."

ALSO WATCH | India, China agree to disengage on Doklam ending two-and-a-half-month-long standoff

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: New Delhi, Dec 20 (PTI) Chartered accountants apex body ICAI today said certain provisions in the proposed amendments to the companies law are "very important" for the accountancy profession.

On Tuesday, Parliament passed a bill to amend the Companies Act to strengthen corporate governance standards, initiate strict action against defaulting companies and help improve ease of doing business.

advertisement

The Rajya Sabha passed the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2017 by voice vote. It was cleared by the Lok Sabha in July this year.

"We are happy that some of the provisions that have been brought through this amendment are very important for the accountancy profession," the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) said in a statement.

These include provisions that auditors are now required to report on Internal Financial Control with reference to financial statements only and rationalisation of penalties such as fines for auditor default linked with audit fees. PTI RAM MR

--- ENDS ---
Karnan was arrested in June 2017 after he was charged with contempt for accusing 20 judges of corruption without providing any evidence.

By India Today Web Desk: Former Calcutta HC judge CS Karnan was released from jail today after serving a six-month sentence for contempt of court.

The sentence was awarded to Karnan by the Supreme Court of India. Karnan was arrested on June 20 from Coimbatore after he was missing for around a month.

Karnan's wife, Saraswati Karnan, arrived in Kolkata last evening to accompany Karnan back home. "He (Karnan) is scheduled to be released tomorrow. I am coming to Kolkata to accompany him back to Chennai," Saraswati Karnan told PTI over phone.

advertisement

At the time Karnan was charged for contempt of court and given a six-month sentence he was serving as a judge in the Calcutta High Court, thus making him the first sitting high court judge to be sentenced to jail.

In February 2017, contempt of court proceedings were initiated against Justice Karnan after he accused 20 judges of the high judiciary of corruption. He wrote a letter to PM Modi to take action against all the judges named by him but did not provide any evidence against them.

Karnan has been courting controversy since the past few years. He was transferred to the Calcutta High Court after his had frequent run-ins with fellow judges at the Madras High Court where he was serving earlier.

In February 2016, Karnan launched a tirade against Justice Kishan Kaul, the chief justice of Madras High Court. Karnan accused Kaul of corruption post which the Supreme Court of India transferred Karnan to Calcutta High Court.

Karnan responded to the transfer by ordering a stay on the SC's order. The matter was then heard by a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court which lifted the stay.

Karnan did not stop at that, he passed an order to register a case under the SC/SC atrocities law against the two SC judges. After a closed door meeting with the then CJI TS Thakur, Karnan agreed to move to Calcutta high Court.

--- ENDS ---
Welcome to The Independent Herald E-Edition! Check back each week on Tuesday to see our[Read More]
Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah assures action in the incident he termed 'inhuman and condemnable'

The boys gangraped the Dalit schoolgirl and murdered her to cover their tracks

By Nolan Pinto: A violent crime rocked the city of Vijayapura that saw a minor Dalit girl kidnapped and raped by 6 boys. The girl was murdered after the horrific incident.

The incident took place in Manjunatha Nagar area near Mallikarjun school.

The dalit girl studied in 9th standard.

The police have nabbed 2 suspects, Kailasa and Sagar More.

The 6 boys sexually assaulted the girl and then murdered her to cover their tracks.

advertisement

Parents of the victim as well as the locals thrashed the accused in front of the Adarsha Nagar police station

The family of the victim kept her body near Ambedkar circle in the city and protested throughout the night. There was some vandalism by the locals who set fire to tyres and vented their anger.

Minister MB Patil has given a compensation of Rs. 5 lakhs to the family. An addditional help of 8 lakhs might be given by the government.

Karnatka CM Siddaramaiah termed the incident 'inhuman and condemnable' and said 'Whoever is responsible for this, action will be taken'

BJP affiliated 'Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad' (ABVP) activists surrounded CM Siddaramaiah's car and demanded quick action in the case. They alleged that police did not investigate the matter properly as the accused have not been caught.

Former TV show host Suhaib Ilyasi gets life term for murdering wife

--- ENDS ---
Liberalised pension plan will support wounded or deceased soldier's family in a better way than existing pension schemes. Will this bring relief to army personnel demanding OROP?

By Manjeet Negi: Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman has taken a decision which is likely to benefit border troops and their families. The first full time female defence minister of India has decided to give liberalised family pension to army personnel working on the Line of Control (LoC) or international border along Pakistan.

The liberalised family pension covers accidental death or sustained injury due to natural calamities such as floods, avalanches, landslides, cyclone, fire and lightening or drowning in river while performing operational duties. It also covers death or injury sustained during movement against enemy forces and armed hostilities in operational area.

advertisement

The liberalised family pension provides for 100 per cent of last permissible emoluments in comparison to normal family pension which provides for 30 per cent of the last permissible emoluments.

The defence minister has approved that the same benefit of liberalised family pension be extended to army personnel deployed along Line of Actual Control (LAC) along India-China border.

Pension has been a hot topic among the armed forces. Army personnel have been demanding 'One Rank One Pension' (OROP) for many years. Still disparity exists in the pensions of army personnel even they are of the same rank. There was a major agitation by the army personnel in 2016 for the demand of One rank One Pension. Defence minister's latest move might allay the fears of large section of soldiers and senior army officials.

India seek China's response as pollution in Brahmaputra increases

--- ENDS ---
Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal has put a spoke in the wheels of the Arvind Kejriwal-led state govenrment, which had cancelled Max Hospital, Shalimar Bagh's licence after it declared a living new born dead.

By India Today Web Desk: Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal has stayed the Arivnd Kejriwal-led government's order that had revoked the licence of Max Hospital's Shalimar Bagh branch.

The government's move had come in the wake of the hospital declaring an alive newborn dead hours after delivery. The boy was found to be alive by his parents while they were on their way to the burial ground.

advertisement

Following the Kejriwal government's move, the hospital challenged the decision in front of Baijal, who as LG is the appellate authority in the matter. Baijal has had several run-ins with Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party government, and the latter has even dragged the Supreme Court, which has been asked to adjudicate who between the Lieutenant Governor and the Delhi government has final authority over governing the state.

The Max Hospital case pertains to one of the premature twins, wrongly declared dead on November 30 at the hospital in north-west Delhi where he was born, and who died during treatment at a nursing home in Pitampura a week later.

Both the babies were declared stillborn by the hospital and handed over to the family allegedly in a polythene bag. But to their utter horror, they found that the boy was still alive, while they were on way to do their final rites.

Last week, Max Healthcare had moved a "government authority" against the cancellation of licence of its hospital in Shalimar Bagh, even as it appealed to the Delhi government's Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) to "reconsider" its decision.

THE LONG KEJRIWAL VS DELHI LG WAR

The Max Hospital move may renew Kejriwal's long turf war with the Lieutenant Governor, who, the Delhi High Court said last year, is the main administrator in the national capital territory.

Baijal's predecessor Najib Jung was locked in a bitter battle with Kejriwal, with the AAP frequently calling him an "agent of the BJP" tasked with stalling the work of the Delhi government.

Jung became the Lt Governor on July 9, 2013 when the Congress-led UPA was in power. The Narendra Modi government retained him even as it replaced most Governors in the states. Jung resigned a year ago.

WATCH | Newborn declared dead at Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital, found alive hours before last rites

--- ENDS ---
Winona

Monday

4:26 p.m.  A man on the 300 block of Mankato Avenue reported being extorted for $200 by a subject on the internet after sending them nude pictures, which they threatened to post online.

9:14 p.m.  A St. Paul Park man on the 700 block of Terrace Heights reported that three of his vehicles tires were cut.

Tuesday

34 alternate side parking tickets were issued.

Winona County

Monday

8:29 a.m.  Luis Santiago Martinez, 35, Utica, was cited for inattentive driving after falling asleep and driving into the ditch, where his vehicle rolled, near County Roads 6 and 33.

12:14 p.m.  Charges of methamphetamine crimes involving children and fifth-degree possession of a controlled substance were referred against James Anthony Reed, 35, Stockton; Jason Michael Reed, 33, Stockton; and Tammi Jean Reed, 31, Stockton, following a warrant search of their residence on West Main Street in Stockton.

Deputies, along with Winona Police and the Southeast Minnesota Drug Task Force found several meth pipes with residue, 1 gram of methamphetamine, three hydrocodone pills, a scale, several marijuana pipes and 1 gram of marijuana between the house and a vehicle. Children had been present in the home.
Winona Senior High Schools Tech Nest program launched in 2012, marking the beginning of what has become an evolving and beneficial program for students in the district.

A few weeks ago, the program received a $5,000 Dare to Dream grant from the Foundation to Winona Area Public Schools to help fund a drone project and create new, innovative learning opportunities.

Whether its assisting staff or students with IT, capturing live video of a sporting event or recording a school ceremony, WSHS Tech Nest students are getting valuable experience in a field that interests them.

And theyre getting the experience before their college years, giving them a leg up when it comes to any technology related programs they embark on in their post-secondary endeavor.

Jeremy Graves, the districts media specialist, helped start the program five years ago. Although participation was low at the beginning, the number of students in the program has grown every year, and now the students are essentially propelling the class forward.

The drone project is a prime example of that.

Graves said he wouldnt be doing it if it wasnt for (the students) ... theyre the ones getting the spark to learn new things.

Last year, a Tech Nest student bought a drone on Black Friday and started experimenting with the equipment. Graves and the student brainstormed ways to utilize a drone for educational benefit.

At last years TIES Education Tech Conference, Graves saw a presentation from students in Jordan, Minn. They were using a drone to monitor farmers crops and learn about crop growth.

That piqued my interest, especially because we could do something like that here, Graves said. Things progressed to a point where it made sense to apply for a Dare to Dream grant.

This year, Graves took a few students to the TIES Education Tech Conference with him, where they had their own table and display showing what their program entails and what equipment theyre using.

The (TIES) tech conference was fun, senior Taylor Stanislawski said. We got to see what other schools are doing and people asked us questions about what were doing.

The eight students who attended had the opportunity to network and exchange ideas on ways to use modern technology, such as drones for educational purposes.

They received their new learner drone in the mail last Friday and have tentative plans to use it for school-related events, environmental studies and even to simply understand how to build and use a drone.

Given the fact that Graves allows the students to explore ventures theyre interested in, the more ideas they have to work with, the more experience and knowledge they gain from the program.

Its like an eye into our future, senior Ethan Larson said. Its really student driven, in terms of projects and tasks they handle.

Its more of an internship and not a class, junior Connor Sanvik said. Its cool to be able to provide different help services to staff and students.

Graves said hes loved the earnest interest students have shown with the program.

The kids really have a passion for this stuff, he said. We have a concentrated plan now that all the equipment is in.

In addition to the drone they received last Friday, Tech Nest students have built their own computer and turned an old storage room in the media center into their own studio with a green screen.

Graves plans to get his certification as a drone operator later this year so by next year he can teach drone classes to students.

We have a lot of ideas and proposals, a lot of ability to try different things, he said.

Though the program has been around for five years, theres still a lot of potential for growth moving forward. Graves said they wont keep anything out of the question and trusts the students ability to continue finding innovative ideas and propel the program even further.
WASHINGTON  A president with no concern for veracity or consistency has assured us he is not considering the firing of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. This does not make the prospect even marginally less remote. And it has done little to inhibit the attempt by some conservatives to discredit the investigation.

On a move against Mueller and his office, the wind is thick with straws. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, warns: We do not know the magnitude of insider bias on Mr. Muellers team. Senator John Cornyn urges Mueller to clean house of partisans and wonders if the Special Counsels final report will be legitimate. The Murdoch presslead in silly shrillness by Fox News personalitiescontinues to trash the reputations of Mueller and his associates.

At one level, this is whataboutism run amok. What about Bill and Hillary Clinton? Didnt they ruthlessly discredit Ken Starr and his investigation? Why should Republicans hobble themselves with scruples?

But here is a difference. Clinton and his defenders were accusing an investigator of being a power-mad prig. Some of Trumps defenders are claiming, in effect, that the FBI is engaged in a coup detat (the words of Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz)  a politically motivated attempt to reverse the results of the 2016 election. Their evidence? That some senior investigators donated to Democrats, supported Hillary Clinton and called Trump an idiot.

If that last charge were considered a disqualification, we would have the political equivalent of the Rapture (including, apparently, some of the Cabinet). But the larger point is this: Trump Republicans are willing to smear a man of genuine integrity, and undermine confidence in federal law enforcement, for reasons they must know are thin to the point of transparency. This is beyond cynicism. It is institutional arson. This is the profoundly anti-conservative strategy of Trump supporters against any institution (the courts, the media, law enforcement) that exposes the administrations deception and corruption: Burn, baby, burn.

Because Mueller is inexorable, the desperation in Trump world is palpable. We know that senior officials in the Trump campaign wanted to collude with the Russians in order to influence the election. (Donald Trump Jr. has admitted meeting with a Russian lawyer in June of 2016 to get damaging information on Hillary Clinton.) We know that Russian intelligence had the means to influence the election, hacked from a variety of sources. We know that Trump officials tried to conceal their contacts with the Russians, while seeking policy changes favorable to Russian interests. We know (on the credible testimony of a former FBI director) that President Trump tried to shut the investigation of these matters down. And it is a good bet that Mueller knows far more about all of this than we do.

As the investigation seems to be closing in on members of the Trump family, the president has a variety of options, all with serious risks. He might be able (it is debated among legal scholars) to fire Mueller directly. But unless he also abolishes the Special Counsels office, FBI officials would continue to investigate any crimes they have discovered. Other precedent would require Trump first to fire Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (to whom Mueller reports), then (probably after a cascade of Justice Department resignations) find a stooge willing to fire Mueller. This would be a direct assault on the autonomy and integrity of the FBI, which still has defenders on Capitol Hill.

Or Trump could do a preemptive pardon of individuals being investigated. This would look deeply corrupt  like an admission of guilt written in neon  and there are serious legal issues surrounding a presidential self-pardon. This option would put the tolerance of Hill Republicans for executive lawlessness to the test. Is there any limit to their capacity for servility? The frog is in the pot, and it nears a boil.

If Trump takes any of these aggressive actions, it will define his presidency, exaggerate social division and throw America public life into chaos. At that point, he will deserve impeachment, whether he is impeached or not. (That will be determined, not by the degree of the offenses, but by which party controls the House of Representatives.)

Behind all this is a nagging fear. Other presidents would be restrained by the prospect of social division and political chaos. For Trump, these may be incentives. He seems to thrive in bedlam. But the anarchy that sustains him damages the institutions around him  a cost for which he cares nothing.
I had been on leave at my parents home in Peterson for a few days when I began to notice something that seemed a little out of place. Every day at virtually the same time a fellow in new red Corvette drove by our house. There could have been all sorts of obvious reasons why he would drive by at a precise time. He could have been on his way to work or leaving the school or something else.

But that isnt what stuck out. The driver didnt belong in a Corvette. Or at least to me he didnt look like he did. He was well into his 70s or 80s and every year showed. He was gaunt and well-seasoned and wore bib overalls. He appeared to have been someone who had lived a challenging life, someone who had spent his life mostly outdoors. An old farmer I thought still farming or maybe retired.

This occurred over 30 years ago. Today though, with the prices of new Corvettes being what they are it seems the average owner looks more like this fellow. People who can afford these cars now are generally quite a bit older than years ago.

One day after he drove by, I asked my Dad about him. This is somewhat of a second or third-hand account and I am sure I that I didnt get it quite right.

There was an older doctor from out of state driving to the Mayo Clinic on Highway 52. It was winter and as nasty a winters day as can be. We are all familiar with those. Schools are closed and everyone is told to stay home, milk-haulers and deliverymen excepted. Snowing some, blowing like crazy, and way down near zero degrees.

The doctor had a flat tire. He was not dressed for this adventure. Bare-headed, wearing and suit and light coat he was not in a good position but he had an appointment and he needed to be there on time. He got out of his car and began to try change the tire.

A man in an old pick-up pulled up behind the doctors car as he was struggling, shivering, and freezing trying to change his flat. The man in the pick-up asked the doctor to get back in his car. He would change it for him. And he did.

When he finished the doctor asked him how much he owed. Nothing, said the man in the pick-up. The doctor insisted he pay him something. Nope. The pick-up driver absolutely refused anything. The doctor wouldnt take no for an answer. But he finally had to give up. Well, okay he said if I cant pay you anything could he at least have the pick-up drivers name and address. That didnt seem too unreasonable for the man in the pick-up so he gave it to him.

Not long thereafter, the doctor died. In his will he gave a few thousand dollars to the man who changed his tire. How much, I dont know but it was enough for a new Corvette. The man in the pick-up had always wanted one but never could afford such an expensive car. Now he could. He bought one.

And for some time thereafter, he took his Corvette out on a daily spin that seemed to include the same route. Which passed by my parents house at very much the same time everyday.

Who the pick-up driver was and what happened to him, I dont know. But some in the local readership area do know. I would be interested in more details.

A couple of years ago, I bought an old tractor at an estate auction in Wisconsin. I didnt have anything to haul it home on so I had to return to my farm to get a trailer. I arranged a pick-up time with a fellow who was handling some of the auction details.

The man who helped me had a farm adjacent to the farm where the old tractor was located. It is a green tractor by the way. In addition to his own work, he had helped the deceased farmer with his farmwork for a long, long time. Just days short of 40 years if I remember correctly.

Given the length of time he had worked for this farmer, I , being nosy, wondered if he had been given anything in the estate. He had. He was given the farm we were on. The rest of the estate had been divided up among the deceased farmers children.

I wondered if such a gift had been expected. No, the man told me. He said that he and the deceased farmer had always gotten along very well together but he never expected, or even considered, anything like this.

Two happy endings. But I cant help but wonder why progressives want to government to steal the property and wealth of someone who dies. Why not, if you like your assets, your heirs, and others designated, can keep what you spent a lifetime creating? Government shouldnt be profiting from our deaths. No by even a nickel. But if anything is done in this regard it would probably be akin to the honesty of the, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor promise.
I was happy to see my daughter Claire step into my shoes. Thank goodness she didnt have to wear my mustache.

Claire played the Stage Manager in her high schools production of Our Town last weekend. Its the same role her father played in his high schools production of the classic play some 26 or 27 or 28 years ago. Id figure out the exact number, but math never was my best subject. Just ask my high school algebra teacher.

I preferred English. But one reading assignment I didnt care for was Our Town. Its long, theres no action and this long-winded narrator named the Stage Manager just wont shut up. Couldnt the writer have thrown in a light saber duel or some fart jokes to liven things up?

When the director of our schools fall play chose Our Town my junior year, I was disappointed. That plays a snooze, I said. And theres no place in it for my latest fart jokes.

I auditioned anyway, and was cast as the Stage Manager. I got to wear a fedora and a salt-and-pepper mustache. By the end of the production, I came to appreciate not only the spirit gum remover that allowed me to shed the mustache after each performance, but Thornton Wilders subtly beautiful script. My affection for the piece only grew as I matured. (Not that Ive fully matured: I still love fart jokes.)

I split the Stage Manager role with a friend who would become Claires godfather. Claires mother played the female lead, Emily Webb. What can I tell you? Lancaster is a small town.

A generation earlier, my mother played Mrs. Gibbs in her high schools production of the play. Appearing in Our Town is, like being short-statured and delighting in ones own puns, something of a family tradition.

I doubt were the only family that has seen multiple generations play the residents of Grovers Corners, N.H. Our Town is a staple of high school theater programs because its sparse set is cheap and its large cast can accommodate dozens of aspiring actors. The trouble is that teenagers are ill-equipped to grasp the subject matter. Their life stories are pristine sheets of paper that, unlike my algebra homework, have not yet been irrevocably creased.

My fellow Stage Manager and I grilled our director about the plays message one night. Our take? The writer is saying everyones lives are basically the same, theres nothing special about any of it, and we might as well cue up Dust in the Wind. We were high school boys and complete morons. But I repeat myself.

Standing in for Wilder, who surely wouldve rather swallowed tacks than explain his Pulitzer Prize-winning script to a couple of numbskulls, our director said the play illustrates how every life, no matter how unremarkable, has meaning. That everyday occurrences are miracles. And that we dont take the time to appreciate any of it.

The sun comes up every day. Its a beautiful, marvelous wonder that we take for granted. People get married every day, no big deal, right? Except when you take a moment to think about people who are so filled with love for one another and hope for their future that they pledge the rest of their lives to one another. Its awe-inspiring. People die every day, too. That may seem like a matter of course until you lose someone close, and your life is never the same. In time the pristine sheet detailing your life story gets crumpled, and once its wrinkled theres no straightening it.

Did Claire and her castmates understand all this by the end of last weekends run? Probably not. As the Stage Manager says, the only people who appreciate life while they live it are saints and poets. I know when I was in high school, I was too preoccupied with rolling my jeans tight at the ankle to ruminate on common experiences that bind us as a species.

Its only years later that teens come to understand the wisdom in Wilders words, when theyre growing their own mustaches and silver hair. In Claires case, I hope she grows the latter, not the former.
Wildlife officials arent worried about voracious Asian carp invading the Wisconsin River north of Prairie du Sac because a large dam blocks their way.

A similar solution is needed in a shipping canal near Chicago so the invasive species doesnt infest Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes.

Specifically, the Brandon Road Lock near Joliet, Illinois, should be shut down to separate the Mississippi River Basin from the Great Lakes, as nature intended.

The attorneys general of three Great Lakes states  Republican Bill Schuette of Michigan, Democrat Lori Swanson of Minnesota and Democrat Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania  last week urged the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Chicago to close the lock and replace it with a concrete structure.

Thats the most effective, least expensive and quickest solution to stopping the Asian carp from advancing farther north, the attorneys general correctly stressed.

Wisconsin officials should add their voices and clout to this bipartisan effort to protect the Midwests precious waterways.

Wisconsin was previously part of a lawsuit against the federal government seeking permanent closure of the Chicago canal, and it shouldnt back down now.

Asian carp escaped decades ago from Southern fish farms and have been moving north ever since. In some northern Illinois waterways, Asian carp now make up 90 percent of the concentration of fish. With their large size and appetites, they crowd out and decimate the sport fish anglers love to catch, such as walleye and bass.

Even a relatively small number of Asian carp reaching Lake Michigan through the Chicago canal system could eventually spread across the Great Lakes. And the man-made canal leading from the Illinois River to Lake Michigan has shown vulnerabilities.

Electric shock barriers in the water have been breached by smaller fish, according to a federal study last year. And an adult bighead carp was caught last spring in the Chicago waterway well past the barriers and only 9 miles from Lake Michigan.

In the absence of more effective action, they will move through the Brandon Road Lock and the Chicago waterway in sufficient numbers to ultimately invade the Great Lakes, causing devastating ecological and economic damage, the attorneys general of Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania wrote last week to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Theyre right.

The Army Corps of Engineers has highlighted the potential cost to the shipping industry if products must travel over land rather than on barges in the canal. We understand that concern.

But the cost to the Great Lakes fishing and tourism industries would be much greater should Asian carp take over the worlds largest supply of fresh water.

The best solution is a permanent barrier that will stop the Asian carp for good.
JUNEAU  The Dodge County Board of Supervisors approved an agreement with the city of Beaver Dam to purchase parcels of vacant property in downtown Beaver Dam for the payment of the unpaid property taxes.

We are one step closer, but it will still not be finalized until the end of January, said Beaver Dam Mayor Becky Glewen, who also serves as a Dodge County supervisor and abstained from voting on the resolution.

The rest of the county board unanimously approved entering in the agreement with Beaver Dam for the conveyance of the delinquent property at the intersection of Ryan Cantafios Way and South Center Street.

Various auto dealerships and vehicle maintenance businesses have leased the property, but it has remained vacant for more than a decade.

What we are hoping for is a good improvement for downtown Beaver Dam, Glewen said. We will be looking at how to make an economic impact in the downtown as well as reducing blight as well.

As a result of the purchase, the city is liable for any environmental costs. The city will pay Dodge County only for the outstanding property taxes from 2006-2017.

As of Aug. 31, the total outstanding balance for the seven parcels amounts to more than $200,000. However, the city will pay Dodge County only for the outstanding property taxes from 2006-2017, which amounts to around $106,000.

The other roughly $100,000 is made up of interest and penalties that have accrued. The city would not be responsible to pay for the interest and penalties. The area was previously owned by MRS Visions LLC.

The Beaver Dam City Council approved a resolution and proposed agreement on Nov. 6. On Nov. 16, a report of the city councils approval was given to the Dodge County Taxation Committee, which approved the county resolution before passing it onto to county board.
The New Lisbon Common Council will be short one member for the beginning of 2018. Mark Toelles resigned from his position as the Ward Three Council Member. Toelle has recently moved to a residence outside the ward.

Though the home he moved to is nearby, Toelle is no longer eligible to represent ward three. Council member Marv Newlun made a motion to regretfully accept Toelles resignation, which was seconded by council member Karren Elsing.

Toelles position will have to be filled by appointment. We cant just leave it open until the election, New Lisbon Mayor Lloyd Chase said. The council plans to publicize the opening by posting notices in banks, the post office, city hall, and media. The council will be accepting applications until Jan. 15. Toelles position will be up for election in spring 2018.

Mayors veto not overridden

At the previous council meeting, Mayor Chase vetoed a proposal to move the New Lisbon Chamber of Commerce from its current building, which it shares with the New Lisbon Police Department. (The) council took action to direct the chamber of commerce to move out of the building that they have been occupying, Chase said. I decided to veto that to give the council an opportunity to reconsider.

The chamber of commerce had been reported to have an employee who was using the proximity and access to the police department to inform individuals on ongoing investigations. The chamber also holds meetings in a room with police equipment and evidence.

Chase said he believed there was not enough due process in the decision to move the chamber to a new location. Chase also said people are capable of informing one another on police matters from other locations.

Theyve finally gotten a chance to grow and be a service to the city, Chase said of the chamber. He believes the convenient location has played a key role in making the chamber more prominent.

Newlun said moving the chamber would be an opportunity to expand police department. In my opinion, I feel if we gave the chamber six months to find a new location, we could reorganize the police department and solve that security issue all at the same time, Newlun said.

When the city hall and fire department moved to a new building in New Lisbon, a space was made for the police department, but the police department stayed. The space that was planned for the police department is currently mostly being used for storage Chase says.

The new building did not have indoor parking for the squad cars, but the space created by the fire department vacating the building allowed the police department to park their squad cars in the garage.

Ultimately, no motion to override the mayors veto made. The councils proposal to move the chamber remained vetoed, but the council will be able to make another proposal in the future.

Formerly denied operator license approved

The council approved a formerly denied operators license for Erin Schultz. The license was initially denied because the application was not complete. Schultz also had a number of past citations involving alcohol. Its up for the council to reconsider it, Chase said.

I apologize for my mistake, Schultz said. I will pay more attention.

Elsing described the Schultz as having more citations than what we normally see on an application.

Shultz said she did have one citation as a server of alcohol, and several past OWIs, but it had been eight years since (the) last one.

Schutlz currently does fill-in work as a bartender in Sparta.

Ive been a bartender for thirteen years, Schultz said. Its been eight since the last OWI.

The operators license would be used by Schultz for selling alcohol over the counter, not as a bartender.

After deliberation, the council unanimously approved the operators license for Schultz.

Public Works Director retires

The council met jointly with the utility commission to discuss the replacement of Public Works Director Bob Anderson. Anderson is retiring later this year, saying it was time for a change of pace. As the city moves along here, it becomes more and more demanding, Anderson said. Im just ready.

The council hopes to find a replacement soon. Usually pay is based on experience, Chase said. So I would think it would be that way.

Feb 9 is deadline to accept applications.

Mayors Report

Chase chose to give the best overall award for Christmas decorations to the tree displayed by 4-H at Riverside Park. I think thats a great addition to the city, Chase said. I hope they do that again.

The award for best lights to Tammy and Jason Clark on the corner of Washington and Bridge Street. Since there were so many, I also sent out Christmas cards with a note in them thanking people for taking out the time to put out decorations, Chase said. I thought that might encourage people to do it again next year. Chase said he sent out a total of 62 cards.

The council will meet again on Jan. 15.
If you've been wondering how much a trip to the glitzy Dubai will cost you over New Year's Eve, we've broken it down for you.

By India Today Web Desk: Now that we are almost nearing the end of 2017, people have already started preparing for mega celebrations for New Year's Eve.

This season of merry-making is also ripe for ticking holiday destinations off your bucket list.

While some might stick to domestic tourist spots, a lot of Indians will also be eyeing international destinations to welcome the new year, thanks to an increase in the average tourist spending that is further complemented with attractive, discounted offers from destinations.

advertisement

Among the most popular international getaways for Indian tourists is Dubai.

With a fine mix of indigenous attractions and lots of opportunities for partying and feasting, Dubai, undoubtedly, makes for an ideal destination for celebrating New Year's Eve.

While there is no dearth of attractions in Dubai, it cannot exactly be deemed a budget destination, especially if you are visiting the place during New Year's Eve.

So, before you plan to see the light of 2018 in Dubai, let's give you a brief estimate of how much you might end up spending at the destination:

Cost of travelling from India to Dubai:

Flight tickets from Delhi to Dubai (round trip till January 3, 2018) start at Rs 21,244, if you are departing on December 30, 2017. You can also book flight tickets for December 31 that start at Rs 18,864.

Also Read:Planning a budget holiday this New Year? Keep these tips in mind

Cost of accommodation:

Hotel prices in Dubai start at Rs 4436, per night, and can go up to Rs 20,226, per night. You can also opt for an airbnb, where the cost of accommodation for a one bed-room starts at Rs 1309, per night.

Image for representational purposes only. Photo: Pexels

DJ and dancing:

Dubai is quite a hotspot for parties and nightclubs. The destination attracts some of the biggest names from the field of music and dance, who leave the audience in a trance with their compositions. This time too, one of the city's latest attractions, Inner City Zoo, in Jumeirah Beach Residences, is importing global entertainer Basement Jaxx for its party. And if you are planning to attend it, it will cost AED590 (Rs 10285.31) for early birds, as mentioned by the official website of Dubai Tourism.

Dining and partying:

Dubai hosts one of the most extravagant New Year's Eve parties at Atlantis, The Palm. Booking a table here will cost you AED 2900 (Rs 50594.39).

According to priceoftravel.com, hotels and restaurants in Dubai usually charge their highest rates during the months of December and January. There are plenty of sit-in restaurants in Dubai but the food can be quite expensive during this time. For instance, food at Jean-Georges or even a buffet at Ostro might cost you between DHS 250 (Rs 4362.10) to DHS 225 (Rs 3924.81), respectively.

advertisement

But you can always look for other cheaper food joints like Dubai Fish Hut Restuarant, Bu Qtair or Zaatar W. Zeit, to name a few.

Bollywood Theme Park. Picture courtesy: Facebook/Lakshya Bawankar

Cost of visiting theme parks:

A one day-one park entrance ticket to Bollywood Parks would cost you USD 47.69 (Rs 3055.26). The cost of other attractions at Dubai Parks and Resorts range between USD 64 (Rs 4100.16) to USD 77 (Rs 4932.24).

The cost of a 12-hour Dubai city tour, along with IMG World of Adventures Theme Park starts at USD 157 (10062.21).

Cost of a city tour in Dubai:

The average cost of a four-hour city tour starts at USD 38 (Rs 2435.51), for an adult.

Fireworks:

Dubai is known to celebrate New Year's Eve with the most extravagant show of fireworks, which draws a lot of tourists to the destination from across the world. This time, Burj Khalifa will be replacing its spectacular firework event with a light show. However, you can still enjoy the crackling sounds of fireworks at places at Atlantis, The Palm, Burj Al Arab or Dubai Festival City Mall, among others. And the best part is that you can watch it for free.

advertisement

So, taking everything into account, a trip to Dubai on New Year's Eve will cost you anywhere between Rs 30,000 and Rs 90,000 per day.

--- ENDS ---
For some Germantown residents, their neighborhood has become considerably larger since Dec. 13. The Germantown Town Board voted to combine the subdivisions of Rock Island Lake and Campfire Lake at a joint meeting with the Germantown Planning Commission. Both subdivisions were developed by Pavloski Development.

Pavloski said the main reason for the combination was to enable residents of both subdivisions to use the entire body of water they sit on.

Germantown Town Engineer Larry Koopman said the critical determination was whether the proposal is going to have a negative impact for neighboring properties.

Citizens were encouraged to voice support, questions and concerns. Though there were dozens who expressed support for the proposal through submitted comments, a few individuals made clear their opposition to it.

Germantown resident Joe Cavallaro said the board should set a tone of what it believes is an allowable land use and development on these lots.

Tim Abrahamson, who lives near the Pavloski developments says two gazebos were built by Pavloski Development within feet of his property.

Originally, the proposal included changes to the Marina area near the lake. But Pavloski had them removed before the meeting.

Abrahamson said removing them was not enough. (It is) already established in the minds of their customers that (the marina) is a common amenity, Abrahamson said. Simply taking it off doesnt cure the problem.

Germantown Supervisor Ray Feldman said he has had a mostly positive experience with Pavloski and his staff. They fulfill all the requirements of the planned unit development that theyre required to fill, Feldman said And the other thing is that theyve followed through with the landscaping thats been promised So to that extent, theyve followed through on everything that theyve been required to do.

For some Germantown residents, a change in the pace of life around Germantown has been a major concern.

A lot of people that bought up here 15-20 years ago, thought they were buying in the near wilderness conditions, Feldman said. And of course, things have changed drastically, with these Pavloski subdivisions.

Traditionally, Pavloski properties have sold to people that use the residences seasonally, with some moving in full-time as they get older. But recent sales have seen an increase in full-time residents.

Were not just getting weekenders/vacationers anymore, Pavloski said.

The recent flurry of development has led residents to be skeptical of the benefits of further expansion.

I know theres a lot of people that, basically, in the town here are just opposed to any more development Those folks have showed up at some of the meetings and especially the people who are next to the subdivisions that are being proposed,  Feldman said.

Feldman did note that the recent increase in traffic and population is due not just to Pavloski developments, but to several subdivisions.

There was a proposal to impose 100 foot lots for new properties being developed in the subdivisions rather than the initial 80 foot lots. 100 feet is so much, Pavloski said. People dont want to maintain it.

Germantown Supervisor Ken Jax made a motion to approve the combination of the subdivisions under the condition that the lots be 100 feet, but no second was made and the motion was retracted.

A motion was made by Keith Korbein to approve the 80 foot lots. The motion was seconded by Keith Specht and passed by the board.

Pavloski said the conditions passed for the new development was the same as our last subdivision. No additional requirements were made for the development.

The Germantown town board will meet again on Jan. 9.
An Oregon woman faces drug charges after a vehicle stop in Juneau County.

Kelly Lamb, 46, is charged with possession of methamphetamine, possession of narcotic drugs, possession of tetrahydrocannabinols and possession of drug paraphernalia. She faces up to three years imprisonment for the first charge.

According to the criminal complaint:

While on duty on Dec. 7, a Wisconsin state trooper observed a dark blue van come to a stop on the right shoulder of the road at mile marker 64 near the crossover on I-90/94. The driver activated the vans hazard lights and remained inside the vehicle.

The trooper pulled behind the van and activated the patrol vehicles emergency lights. The van driver, a woman later identified as Lamb, immediately stepped out of the vehicle and tried to wave (the trooper) away from the scene. When the trooper did not leave, Lamb said she had help on the way. The trooper stated she should remain in the vehicle.

The trooper approached the passengers side window and introduced himself, but Lamb spoke very fast, making it difficult to understand her. Lamb stated she had put oil in the vehicle but was now having engine problems and did not know what was wrong with the van. She stated her dad was coming to help.

The trooper asked for her drivers license and proof of insurance. Lamb stated she did not have proof of insurance because the van was not hers, and the driver kept proof of insurance with him. She handed the trooper her drivers license.

While speaking with Lamb, the trooper observed her speech continued at a rapid pace and her body, especially her arms, moved more than the average person. The trooper suspected this may be the result stimulant type drug use.

While running Lambs license, the Trooper discovered her license had been suspended for failure to pay a forfeiture and she had a non-extraditable warrant out of La Crosse County for failure to appear in court involving possession of paraphernalia.

The trooper requested the assistance of a Juneau County Deputy and a K9. The trooper reported he observed an unusual amount of movement inside Lambs vehicle while running the license check.

The trooper asked Lamb if she knew her license had been suspended. She replied she knew it was not a valid license but she had to drive because her mother was in the hospital.

The Juneau County deputy asked Lamb if there was anything illegal in her vehicle. She replied Yes, and explained she had a small amount of marijuana and a small pipe.

The trooper instructed Lamb to exit the vehicle. Lamb complied and the Trooper performed a search of Lambs person. Nothing of evidentiary value was found. She was then placed in the pack of the deputys squad car.

The trooper and deputy then performed a search of the vehicle. They found a green purse between the driver and front passenger seat. Inside the purse they found a black metal pipe with burnt marijuana residue inside (and) a clear plastic sandwich bag with marijuana in it. Additionally, the trooper and deputy found a small reddish clear gem bag containing whitish clear crystals, which were suspected to be methamphetamine, a small whitish clear glass pipe with burn marks on the bottom side, and prescription bottle prescribed to an individual other than Lamb containing 5 mg Oxycodone pills.

After the vehicle search, Lamb was arrested for possession of THC, possession of methamphetamine, and possession of paraphernalia. Lamb was then transported to Juneau County Jail.

The crystals were tested and presumptively confirmed the presence of methamphetamine. The bag of marijuana was found to be 1.6 grams, and the methamphetamine was found to be approximately .9 grams. A total of 44 5mg Oxycodone pills were found in the prescription bottle.

Kelly is not currently in Juneau County Jail. She is due in court on Jan. 8 at the Juneau County Justice Center.
Alarm: Tuesday at 2:48 a.m., police responded to an alarm in the 700 block of West Main Street.

Traffic Accident: Tuesday at 7:40 a.m., police responded to the 400 block of East Franklin Street for a traffic accident.

Traffic Accident: Tuesday at 9:34 a.m., police responded to the 800 block of East Lincoln Street for a traffic accident.

Traffic Accident: Tuesday at 11:57 a.m., police responded to the 900 block of East Main Street for a traffic accident.

Traffic Accident: Tuesday at 12:22 p.m., police responded to a 78-year-old female being struck in a crosswalk at North Mill Street and East Main Street. The 84-year-old male driver of the vehicle was cited for failure to yield right of way to pedestrian in a crosswalk.

Traffic Stop: Tuesday at 12:40 p.m., police made a traffic stop in the 400 block of West Main Street. The driver was cited for misdemeanor bail jumping and criminal operating after revocation. He was placed on a probation hold and was transported to the Dodge County Detention Facility.

Scam: Wednesday at 10:40 a.m. police responded to the 1100 block of Rock Avenue for telephone scam complaint. A 91-year-old woman was contacted by phone. Parties claimed they were from Publishers Clearing House and wanted her to send a check to them and in return she would get $5.5 million.
President Donald Trump's eldest son suggested Tuesday that the investigation around his father's campaign has been fueled by government higher-ups who have conspired to block the President's agenda.

"There is, and there are, people at the highest levels of government that don't want to let America be America," Donald Trump Jr. told a gathering of young conservative activists in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Trump Jr.'s freewheeling comments before the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit came after he spoke earlier this month before congressional investigators and as some on the right, including him, increasingly attack the Department of Justice's special counsel probe, alleging it is politically compromised.

In his remarks Tuesday, Trump Jr. railed against special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation and attacked the media's coverage of the Russia story, saying the ongoing probe was emblematic of the kind of "rigged system" the President had railed against during the campaign.

"My father talked about a rigged system throughout the campaign, and people were like, 'Oh, what are you talking about?' " Trump Jr. said. "But it is. And you're seeing it."

Earlier this month, CNN reported that former FBI Director Mueller had removed FBI agent Peter Strzok from the special counsel team after an investigation turned up anti-Trump text messages Strzok had exchanged during the presidential campaign. In one exchange in August 2016, Strzok wrote, "There's no way he gets elected -- but I'm afraid we can't take that risk. It's like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you're 40."

Trump Jr. asked those before him to "imagine what would happen if we rolled back the clock to 2008" and a politically compromised group of FBI officials sought to undermine a potential Obama presidency.

"What do you think would happen?" Trump Jr. asked. "Do you think the media would cover that? Yeah. Do you think it would be brushed under the rug like, 'Oh, it's nothing. It doesn't mean anything.' There'd be revolution in the streets. So I'm glad that this is coming out now, because it is good, because real people have to see this."
Mondays meeting of the Columbia County Economic Development Corporations Executive Committee wasnt called just to decide who would lead the organization.

The five participants also took a hard look at the mission and structure of the economic development entity, and ways to measure its success.

Two key factors motivated the self-examination.

The first is the imminent retirement of Nancy Elsing, who has been the organizations executive director for 25 years  and who, the committee decided, will stay on after her Dec. 31 retirement, but on a part-time basis, until her successor is in place.

The second is a decision of the County Boards Finance Committee, later rescinded, to put half the organizations 2018 funding in reserve. In overturning that decision in November, Finance Committee members cautioned there is no guarantee the county will fund the organization after next year.

Although the organization is not a Columbia County department, county property tax revenues constitute the sole source of its funding. The $121,070 allocated for next year goes mainly toward compensation for an executive director and a part-time administrative assistant. The administrative assistants post is vacant, and is expected to remain so until Elsings successor is chosen.

But, Executive Committee members asked on Monday, what qualities would they want in a new executive director? How would the committee measure whether economic development efforts are fruitful? And what governance changes for the groups board of directors would be likely to satisfy the County Boards desire for more oversight of the organization?

Elsing noted that, in 25 years on the job, she never had a written job description.

The panel voted to adapt the job description for the executive director of the Sauk County Development Corporation.

One of the points of discussion was whether the new executive director should be required to have at least a four-year college degree.

When committee member Carl Vander Galien said he thought requiring a bachelors degree would be a good idea, committee member Bob Becker replied, I dont necessarily agree wholeheartedly with that.

Work experience, Becker said, often is a better indicator of a persons ability than a college degree.

Executive Committee Chairman Andy Ross said  and the other members eventually agreed  that a bachelors degree should be described as a highly desirable attribute for a new executive director, and a masters degree, plus economic development accreditation, would be even better.

Committee members also discussed the extent to which an executive director candidates abilities and track record in fundraising should be considered.

But once Elsings successor is in place, Ross said, there should be some means to measure whether his or her efforts are resulting in more jobs and an improved business climate in Columbia County.

For example, Columbia County is a participant in a multi-county program for prospective new business owners, called the Innovation Challenge consortium. The consortium sponsored, in October, a business boot camp for people in Columbia, Marquette and Sauk counties who are considering starting a business.

Ross suggested that perhaps the participants in the boot camp should be contacted to determine how many of them actually started a business as a result of the event.

If (a CCEDC executive director) is going to spend time on something, it ought to be something that generates results, Ross said.

Committee member Jeffrey Clark said its not always that easy, especially in the short term, to quantify results of any economic development effort  and some efforts, like education for prospective entrepreneurs, should be seen as part of any economic development organization executive directors job.

I think we have to be careful of the expectations were creating, he said.

Clark also has been working on changes in the organizations bylaws to include more direct County Board involvement in the organizations decisions, especially those that involve spending county money.

Currently, the corporations board of directors is composed mostly of representatives of various business sectors. The only County Board members on the groups board are Ross, of Poynette, and Supervisor John Tramburg of Fall River, who is a non-voting member. Tramburg, the longest-serving County Board member, has declared he is not running for re-election in April.

County officials want at least three County Board members appointed as voting members of both the Board of Directors and on the Executive Committee.

Another key question was how much compensation to offer Elsings successor. Elsings current compensation, including her benefit package, runs about $67,000.

Ross noted that people in comparable positions elsewhere are paid much more  some of them get six-figure salaries  and its going to be difficult to find a qualified candidate willing to work at or near what Elsing has been paid.

To which Tramburg replied, Well cross that bridge when we come to it.
Information is taken from the records of the Portage Police Department and does not represent a comprehensive list of police activity. Each individual named in this report is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Between 9:40 a.m. Thursday and 7:59 a.m. Monday police responded to 122 calls.

West Slifer Street: Police on Thursday at 4:56 p.m. responded to a reported domestic disturbance where a 18-year-old DeForest man had allegedly assaulted another man. The suspect was later taken into custody by DeForest police and transferred to Columbia County Jail on suspicion of domestic battery and domestic disorderly conduct.

West Carroll Street: Police on Thursday at 5:49 p.m. responded to a domestic disturbance where a 20-year-old Portage woman was arrested on suspicion of domestic disorderly conduct.

East Howard Street: Police on Thursday at 9:23 p.m. were dispatched to a residence whereupon Damien Connor, 29, of Portage, was placed on a probation and parole hold, then issued a city ordinance citation for possession of drug paraphernalia.

West Carroll Street: Police on Friday at 3:48 p.m. were dispatched to a residence, where following a search of the premises Christina Hileman, 33, of Portage, was arrested for violation of probation and on suspicion of possession of heroin and contributing to truancy.

West Cook Street: Police on Saturday at 1:36 a.m. stopped Andrew Herrara, 19, of Lyndon Station, for driving with a defective headlight. Following a K9 search, he was arrested on suspicion of receiving stolen property and possession of drug paraphernalia, cited for operating a vehicle with a suspended license, driving a non-registered vehicle and driving without proof of insurance.
By PTI: (Recasting overnight story)

By Neelabh Srivastava

New Delhi, Dec 20 (PTI) The government is set to roll out a pan-India "faceless and nameless" e-assessment procedure for income tax payers from 2018 with the CBDT constituting a high-level committee to prepare a quick roadmap for the implementation of this ambitious proposal.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the policy- making body for the Income Tax Department, has notified a nine-member committee--headed by a Principal Chief Commissioner rank officer -- and set for it a deadline of February 28, 2018, for submitting its report.

advertisement

"The deadline of February end to the committee is an indication that the government and the CBDT want to usher in this new regime from the first half of the new year," a senior tax officer privy to the development said.

The committee is being constituted as the "department is embarking upon the concept of a faceless and nameless e- assessment procedure", said the CBDT order, issued late on Tuesday.

The CBDT has been running a pilot project in a few major cities and has been testing the feasibility of implementing this new regime of tax assessment for the last few years.

The initiative was launched to reduce visits by taxpayers to I-T offices and their interface with the taxman, thereby curbing corruption.

"As such, there is an imperative need to re-deploy the available manpower in the light of the proposed e-assessment," the CBDT order said.

PTI has accessed the CBDT order.

The terms of reference of the committee are to propose the new deployment of manpower in view of the implementation of e-assessment; to propose modalities and stages of re- deployment of manpower from existing stations and to recommend the requirements of additional manpower and infrastructure, if any, in the light of this new initiative.

The committee will also "recommend distribution of manpower between assessment units, investigation wing and DG Systems (the technical wing of the CBDT) in view of the new areas assigned to the investigation wings in matters related to Operation Clean Money", launched by the government to check black money post demonetisation.

A blueprint prepared by the CBDT earlier this year had said the number of income tax payers opting for paperless assessment, under the pilot project, rose by 78 per cent over the last three years.

An official CBDT statement issued at the conclusion of the two-day Rajaswa Gyan Sangam? conference (national meeting of top tax officers of the country), held here this year, had said the government wanted I-T assessing officers to "be encouraged to maximise e-assessment in a phased manner and to ensure that work be completed online so that there is complete transparency."

advertisement

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had inaugurated the conference, had also asked I-T employees to create an environment that instills confidence among honest taxpayers and uproots corruption.

PTI had first reported in April this year that all I-T department related proceedings would henceforth be conducted online.

A new link--e-proceeding-- was recently hosted by the department on the personal login of the taxpayer on the e- filing website (https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in).

The new regime of e-communication will, however, be voluntary and taxpayers can take a call on whether to conduct their dealing over the e-system or through the existing procedure of manual submissions of documents by visiting the tax office.

Once taxpayers register on the web portal, they will get a confirmation as a text message and an email on their registered mobile number and email ID, indicating success.

The functionality to conduct e-proceeding will be available for all types of notices, questionnaires and letters issued under various sections of the I-T Act, the CBDT had earlier said. PTI NES BDS

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: (Eds: Adding details and background)

Kolkata, Dec 20 (PTI) Former Calcutta High Court judge C S Karnan was released from jail today after the completion of his six-month sentence for contempt of court.

The sentence was awarded by the Supreme Court in May.

Karnan left the Presidency Correctional Home premises around 11 am, his wife Saraswati Karnan said.

advertisement

His wife and elder son, who arrived here last night from Chennai, accompanied him.

Karnan was arrested from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu on June 20 after he had evaded the police for over a month.

The apex court had sentenced him to six months in jail for contempt of court on May 9. Karnan was a serving judge of the Calcutta High Court at that time.

He is the first sitting high court judge to have been sentenced to jail.

Karnans lawyer Mathew J Nedampura said the former judge planned to write an autobiography.

The former Calcutta High Court judge will be in the city for a few days for pension and other retirement-related formalities, after which he will leave for Chennai.

Nedampura said Karnan, who had lost weight in these six months, would spend time with his family for a couple of weeks.

A seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by former chief justice of India J S Khehar, had asked the West Bengal director general of police (DGP) to take Karnan, who was on a warpath with the apex court for months, into custody.

The Supreme Court had earlier issued a bailable warrant against the judge to secure his presence before it in connection with the contempt case.

Karnan had appeared before the apex court on March 31, a first in the countrys judicial history, and asked for restoration of his powers as a pre-condition for his re appearance, but the plea was rejected.

Karnan, who had enrolled himself as an advocate with the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu in 1983, was appointed a judge of the Madras High Court in 2009. He was transferred to the Calcutta High Court on March 11, 2016.

He was transferred from the Madras High Court for his repeated allegations against and run-ins with the then chief justice and fellow judges of the court. PTI AMR KK RC

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Panaji, Dec 20 (PTI) Goa Congress chief Shantaram Naik termed today the proposed Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance (FRDI) Bill, 2017 as a "virtual dacoity" on the bank accounts of common man.

"The BJP government is going to commit a virtual dacoity on the bank accounts of common people through a legislation called Financial Resolution and Deposit Insurance Bill (FRDI) Bill 2017," Naik alleged.

advertisement

He was speaking to reporters here to register his protest against the bill.

"If the bill becomes a law, the government can take a standAdishonouring your cheques even if you have fundsAin your account and deny you your right to withdraw money from your hard-earned savings," Naik claimed.

"Your own fate and the fate of your children will be at riskAif the banks treat you as a pauper," he said.

He alleged that through this legislation, the BJP government seeks to financially help those banks and industrialists, who are under heavy debts.

"The government wants to rescue the financial institutions, banks and other such bodies andAfraudulently transfer the hard-earned money of farmers, labourers, small traders and salaried class to salvage these financial institutions," he alleged.

The FRDI Bill proposes to create a framework for overseeing financial institutions such as banks, insurance companies, non-banking financial services companies and stock exchanges in case of insolvency.

The Resolution Corporation, proposed in the draft bill, would look after the process and prevent the banks from going bankrupt. It would do this by "writing down of the liabilities", a phrase some have interpreted as a "bail-in".

The draft bill empowers Resolution Corporation to cancel the liability of a failing bank or convert the nature of the liability.

The so-called "bail-in" clause in the draft legislation has been commented upon by experts as of bringing potential harm to deposits, in the form of savings accounts. PTI RPS NP

--- ENDS ---
The accused attacked the minor girl as she drew water near her house at dawn.

By India Today Web Desk: Hunt is on for four youths who gangraped a minor at gunpoint in Shahpur in Muzaffarabad. Police is searching for Iqbal Azam, Mukarram Asjad, Ehsan Sadab and another youth who hasn't yet been identified.

The incident took place at dawn on Tuesday when the rape survivor came out of her house to draw water. As she drew water from a handpump, the gun toting accused attacked the minor girl and took turns to rape her.

advertisement

The girl's uncle Mohammed Salim who lives nearby was alerted by the commotion and attempted to rescue the girl from the rapists but wasn't successful as the rapists threatened to shoot him dead. The youths threatened to kill the girl if she reported the incident to the police.

With the help of her family members, the girl filed a police complaint at Shahpur police station on Wednesday. The police has launched an operation to nab the absconding accused.

According to reports, the accused are from the same village as the girl and after the deed, went on to attend a marriage ceremony in the village.

-With inputs from Sandeep Saini

Killed, tied to tree, beaten: This langur suffered the worst humankind can offer

--- ENDS ---




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
The US administration wants that Pakistan should not allow a UN-designated terrorist to run for office and has asked to "remind folks across Pakistan" that the US has put a bounty of $10 million on Hafiz Saeed.

By India Today Web Desk: Raising concerns over 26/11 Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed standing for elections in Pakistan, the United States today said that it hopes Pakistan "does the right thing".

Lashkar-e-Taiba is considered a foreign terror organization by the US Government for a reason and for a good reason. We would certainly have concerns about him running for office, said Heather Nauert, US Department of State spokesperson.

advertisement

The US administration wants that Pakistan should not allow a terrorist to run for office and has asked to "remind folks across Pakistan" that the US has put a bounty of $10 million on Hafiz Saeed.

We have had many conversations with the Government of Pakistan. We hope that they will do the right thing and remind folks across Pakistan that we have a reward of $10 million for him: Heather Nauert, US Department of State spokesperson on Hafiz Saeed's release pic.twitter.com/HmPZXq4Xsz- ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2017

Hafiz Saeed, chief of Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) and cofounder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, is a UN-designated terrorist and was released from house arrest last month. After his release, he said he will contest in Pakistan general elections 2018 on the National Assembly seat. However, he did not disclose any details about the constituency.

Saeed even tried launching a new political party Milli Muslim League (MML) but faced resistance from Pakistan's Interior Ministry and Election Commission.

Meanwhile, India and the US today concluded their first dialogue on designations of terrorist groups and individuals through domestic and international mechanisms.

The establishment of the India-US designations dialogue mechanism reflected shared Indian and American commitments to strengthen cooperation against terrorist threats, the ministry of external affairs said here at the end of the two-day meet.

"The Indian and US delegations exchanged information on procedures for pursuing designations against terrorist groups and individuals, through domestic and international mechanisms. They also discussed best practices for effective implementation of the designations," it said.

The dialogue comes amid China blocking the designation of Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) chief and Pathankot attack mastermind Masood Azhar as a terrorist by the UN.

The second round of the dialogue will be hosted by the United States in 2018.

--- ENDS ---
Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.
Horizon CEO says Hinkley model is a one-off

20 December 2017

Share

Duncan Hawthorne, CEO of Horizon Nuclear Power, says a consensus is forming across government and industry that the Hinkley financing model - which involved EDF and its Chinese partner CGN covering the entire cost of construction - will not be repeated, according to his comments to the Financial Times published yesterday. Horizon is the UK subsidiary of Hitachi-GE, which regulators informed last week had successfully completed the Generic Design Assessment (GDA) process for its UK Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (UK ABWR).

Horizon plans to build two ABWR units at Wylfa Newydd site on the island of Anglesey in north Wales and start them up in around 2025. Areva/EDF's UK EPR design became the first reactor design to complete the GDA process, in December 2012. The final agreements enabling construction of two EPRs at Hinkley Point C to proceed were signed in September last year by the UK government, EDF and CGN. These agreements included the contract-for-difference (CfD) - the ratepayer-backed guaranteed price for electricity generated by Hinkley Point C - that guarantees the plant will get GBP92.50 per MWh for its first 35 years of operation.

Yesterday's Financial Times article said constructive talks were under way between Horizon and the Treasury and the business department about alternative funding structures. Although Hawthorne declined to provide further details, the newspaper said options are thought to include the possibility of the UK and Japanese governments injecting equity "or using their financial muscle" to help lower debt financing costs.

The newspaper cited a report from the Commons public accounts select committee last month, which accused ministers of "grave strategic errors" in awarding EDF a contract "forecast to cost consumers GBP30 billion above market rates for electricity from Hinkley over 35 years".

Hawthorne told the newspaper that Treasury officials are "fully engaged" with Horizon and "committed to finding a solution" that will allow Wylfa to be built at a lower cost than Hinkley. But he warned that Hitachi, having so far invested about GBP2 billion before a shovel has been placed in the ground, needs to see firm progress in 2018.

"We need to see ... some agreement with government on heads of terms ... by the middle of next year," Hawthorne said. "There is definitely a point at which the Hitachi board is going to say, 'This is too much exposure'."

Hawthorne said there will have to be "daylight" between the strike price of Hinkley and Wylfa for the latter to be politically acceptable and economically competitive. But he said nuclear power merits a premium for its greater reliability compared with intermittent wind and solar.

"We are an insurance policy for long-term stable supply and there is a price for that certainty," he said.

Nuclear power has helped the UK cut emissions much faster than Germany, where the nuclear phase-out has left the country dependent on coal for 40%. Energiewende, or energy transition, was introduced after Germany's government decided to phase out nuclear power in reaction to the accident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March 2011. At the time, Germany was obtaining around a quarter of its electricity from 17 nuclear reactors.

"Germany is a basket case and it is only a matter of time until people realise [its energy policy] doesn't work," Hawthorne said.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

Related topics
Congress leader Ajay Maken filed a plea for multi-level bus parking depots in the Capital. Delhi High Court told the city government to consider building multi-storeyed bus parking depots.

By India Today Web Desk: The Delhi High Court asked the Delhi government on Wednesday to consider building multi-level parking depots for Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses.

According to the Delhi HC, the building of the multi-level bus parking would be important to increase the number of buses ferrying commuters on Delhi roads.

The HC issued notice to the city government and sought its response before January 22 next on a plea filed by Congress leader Ajay Maken for multi-level bus parking in Delhi.

advertisement

The court will next hear the matter on January 22, 2018.

THE PLEA AND EPCA

According to Ajay Maken, instead of building new bus depots around the city, the existing depots can be converted into multi-storeyed depots.

Senior advocate Vikas Singh, along with advocate Aman Panwar, appeared for Maken and told the court that the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) report of May 17, 2016, had recommended multi-storeyed depots.

The EPCA had further suggested that considering the money the Delhi government will spend on purchasing land pockets for new depots, investment should be made in converting the existing depots into multi-level depots, the plea said.

"The same will not only be more cost effective but also result in high dead mileage, due to the fact that the existing depots are centrally located compared with proposed depots outside city limits," it added.

"Hence, it will be in public interest that the existing land parcels of the Delhi Transport Corporation be converted into multi-level parking depots so that when more buses are purchased, there remains no shortage of parking space," said the Congress leader, who was the Transport Minister in Delhi in the erstwhile Sheila Dikshit government.

INCREASED METRO FARES AND MULTI-LEVEL BUS PARKING

Congress leader Maken also pleaded that the Centre and the Delhi government be directed to subsidise public transport so that people are not encouraged to shift to private transport in the wake of Metro fare hikes.

Raising concerns over increased Metro fares, Maken said that due to faulty government policies, Delhi residents were discouraged from using the Metro service and other means of public transport and the situation was bound to worsen.

AIR POLLUTION IN DELHI

The dangerous levels of air pollution in Delhi is perhaps a dreadful issue which affects the health of all persons, irrespective of their financial status.

The Centre and Delhi government, with their lukewarm attitude, are just putting and shifting the blame on each other and not performing their statutory functions even at this stage of an 'environmental emergency' at the cost of millions of lives in the national capital, said the plea.

advertisement

Maken has approached the court to seek impleadment in a pending writ petition that raised a similar issue.

DISABLED-FRIENDLY DELHI BUSES

The main petition was filed by Nipun Malhotra, who had challenged the Delhi government's move to procure 2,000 standard-floor buses at a cost of Rs 300 crore.

Malhotra had claimed that these were not equipped for wheelchair access and thus will directly and substantially affect about 2.34 lakh disabled people in the national capital.

The court had earlier refused to stay the procurement but fling shut the Delhi government for not buying low-floor disabled-friendly CNG buses due to high cost.

(With inputs from IANS)

--- ENDS ---
Controversial proposals to cut Wrexhams school music service up for scrutiny

This article is old - Published: Wednesday, Dec 20th, 2017

Controversial proposals to cut Wrexhams school music service will be up for debate tomorrow in the final budget related meeting of the year.

Members of the Lifelong Learning Committee will scrutinise the plans to axe the service and several other education and school related proposals from 2:30pm on Thursday afternoon.

The meeting features the last of five Difficult Decisions related scrutiny reports to be discussed by councillors this month.

Such budget meetings come as a result of calls for further clarity on some of the proposals in the Difficult Decisions consultation, with some criticism over the lack of extensive details in the document.

So far the two budget related scrutiny committees have taken place this month, with a further two due to take place this afternoon. You can read our reports from the meetings here and here.

There are only six Difficult Decisions proposals to fall within the remit of the committee  including arguably one of the more controversial suggestions to axe Wrexham Councils funding of the school music service.

Currently the local authority provides a music service to schools which :includes peripatetic instrument tuition (i.e. tutors visiting different schools), facilitating orchestras and youth choirs to a number of pupils.

However as this service is not a legal requirement, Wrexham Council are proposing the funding is withdrawn, saving approximately 300,000 in 2019/20.

Details within the Difficult Decisions document, state: This saving is due to be implemented with effect from September 2018 to ensure full realisation of the savings in the 2019-20 financial year.

Should the proposal proceed the department will explore options for an alternative delivery model. However, the authority would not be funding the tuition.

In October 2017 a petition opposing the proposed service cut was launched, with over 15,000 pledging their support to save Wrexhams music services.

Another proposal put forward is the amount of money allocated to schools for the next two years is frozen.

Wrexham Council say: For a number of years the council has protected school budgets as per Welsh Government requirements. This included providing an additional 1.2m for the 2017- 18 financial year.

Pressures on the council determine that this approach is not sustainable and therefore schools will be expected to meet growth pressures such as pay, NI and Pension costs from a standstill

delegated budget (taking into account variations due to pupil numbers.)

Other proposals up for discussion include reshaping the education enrichment and intervention services, ceasing transition budget to Schools Transition Cymru schools, maximising the use of grant funding and looking at driving more surpluses from iTEC.

The meeting will take place on Thursday 21st December at 2:30pm. The meeting will not be webcast, however those interested in listening to the discussion can sit in the public gallery.
Warning of increase of crime if Council cuts result in less PCSOs in Wrexham

This article is old - Published: Wednesday, Dec 20th, 2017

A number of Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) in the area could be cut if Wrexham Council decide to remove funding, a decision scrutinised by Councillors this afternoon.

The part funding arrangement for PCSOs between Wrexham Council and North Wales Police has been in place for several years. The funding agreement is in place until March 2019, however as part of the budget saving proposals it is recommended this will be scrapped over the next two years, saving 140k next year and 140k the year after.

The long titled Safeguarding, Communities and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee / Crime and Disorder Scrutiny Committee met late this afternoon to look at that, and 24 other savings proposals.

Lead Member Councillor Hugh Jones presented the brief report by giving a history lesson setting the scene to why Wrexham Council was funding PCSOs in the first place. Cllr Jones told the meeting how back in 2007 the Council part funded them to tackle anti social behaviour, and back then the role of the PCSO was just that  to support communities and wards, rather than the wider role they have today.

Bringing the story up to date Cllr Jones explained how the first Police in Crime Commissioner in North Wales oversaw a budget reduction meaning the 48 PCSOs in Wrexham was reduced to 36. Nine PCSOs are thought to be at risk of being scrapped if Wrexham Councils funding is removed and alternative funding is not found.

Various letters from the Chief Inspector and Police and Crime Commissioner were cited with Cllr Jones pointing out the main plea in them was to the UK Home Office for extra funding.

Cllr Jones said: The role of PCSOs has moved to mainstream policing, rather than community work that we funded from the outset. Their roles have changed over the years. So it is right we should consult and decide if, given the changing roles, if it is right to continue to fund them to level we have previously given that role has become more mainstream policing.

Wrexham is certainly unique in North Wales and possibly in Wales that we contribute to the funding of PCSOs. I think it is right to consult and consider if public want, and we want, the public to effectively to pay twice for this as they are paying police precept as well.

Cllr Brian Cameron kicked off the questions, asking if any assessment had been made on the effect any withdrawal of funding would have on Wrexham and the people of Wrexham.

Cllr Jones told the meeting North Wales Police were preparing a report into an alternative policing model with the revised PCSO numbers worked into it. Cllr Jones promised that any decisions would only be made after that report was produced.

Cllr Krista Childs enquired to Cllr Jones of his main concerns on reducing the PCSO numbers.

Cllr Jones replied: The question to us is what is right for Wrexham, and is it right for us to be funding PCSOs alone in North Wales. We all know about reduced visibility of PCSOs in many of our wards, but the original concept has changed. Is it right to continue to fund them when the role has changed and is somewhat different from when we first agreed to fund them?

To answer the question, any reduction of police resources is a matter of concern to the public. We have benefited from briefings from police which have told us the nature of criminality has changed, and there is a lot more behind the scenes police work, there are numbers there working to keep us safe. That does mean less people visible on the front line, that doesnt mean work is not being done.

Cllr Cameron came back to ask: Do you not think it is the wrong time to look at ending the agreement given that anti social behaviour and drug problems in the town centre? Speaking on the unique funding element on PCSOs compared to other authorities he added: For me, Im more concerned about Wrexham than North Wales. It is a tick in the box that we have been able to fund them. What happens if we end this agreement, are we going to see anti social behaviour reduce? I dont think so.

Cllr Jones spoke of the Gold Command in place to deal with substance misuse and issues in town centre, As a result significant work and resources are being put in to deal with the underlying causes. We are working in partnership with police, health, housing and third sector organisations and a significant number of agencies on the issues. If that is successful it will reduce demand on front line police resources.

Cllr Jones also pointed to recent significant arrests in the last two weeks tackling alleged drug dealing.

Cllr David Bithell enquired if Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board had started to attend such Gold Command meetings, after Cllr Jones himself hammered them for being absent. Cllr Jones explained the situation had changed from the previous disgrace, and now had full attendance.

Cllr Bates told the meeting that he had been told that if the council withdrew funding there wouldnt be a reduction in any PSCOs, adding he had concerns over A&E at the Maelor Hospital and Do we throw money to pay for doctors and nurses there, Wrexham Council should look after its own responsibilities. Where will it end?

Cllr Jones said he had not had any indication to that extent, and that in his discussions with senior officers such assurances had not been given.

The Chair of the meeting Derek Wright interjected giving clarity on the comment, stating the comment referred to by Cllr Bates was made in a workshop around Community Councils, and was about no cut to rural policing rather than PCSOs and was a Wrexham Rural specific comment.

Cllr Cameron pointed out that PCSOs do not grow on trees and someone has to pay for them adding, If we cut them we will not see a reduction in crime but an increase.

Cllr Nigel Williams said he had mixed feelings, I think we get good service from PCSOs, but I do understand not all councillors feel the same about that. Looking at the rising crime figures we want to see a police presence. If we are looking at a new model, what is their role going forward, will we see them walking around or driving around?

Cllr Jones replied to say the Council have asked for professional advice from North Wales Police on how the resulting 18 PCSOs would be deployed across Wrexham, When we went from 48 to 36 they went from being a regular presence in the ward. With the change in policing pressures there has been a further drift away from ward based PCSOs.

Cllr Carrie Harper confirmed to Cllr Bates that it is a case of if the PCSOs are cut they will not be replaced and that position was pretty clear. Cllr Harper pointed out that over the budget scrutiny meetings risk analysis had been requested, We have been told we cant have those. This is a perfect example of where it is beneficial to have had sight of that information. I would hope any risk assessment would cover the impact of cuts.

The further letter from the Chief Constable highlighted reduced visibility of policing if cut, and increased pressure on the remaining PCSOs. These are issues we have to take seriously. Can you assure us you have assessed risks and implications, and what discussions have taken place with North Wales Police on the cuts proposals?

Cllr Jones referred to his previous answers about working on a revised policing model with North Wales Police, adding No decisions have been made.

Cllr Bithell enquired if the discussion on the number of cut PCSOs should be in Part 2 as it referred to job loss figures, however was advised that was not the case as it was clearly public the entire funding was due to be removed, and therefore the impact was clear.

Cllr Davies pointed out It is in the public interest on what the council is paying for, and what it gets for that.

Cllr Davies carried on to make two further statements, pointing out she did not feel the other funding positions of councils in North Wales was relevant, I dont think the terminology is it right, we have responsibility on where the need is, and that is what Wrexham needs, not what is right compared to others. Wrexham has a greater need for community safety.

Referencing comments from Cllr Terry Evans she added: You have said the town centre will improve not deteriorate. I would question that. The Lead Member for Economy has raised concerns about lack of visibility of PCSOs in the town centre himself.

PCSOs do cross cutting work for Wrexham Council and that is not recognised. With regards to that work and vulnerable residents, has there been any work done to measure the impact if that taken away, as those residents will be responsiblity of the Council, often out of hours, and will come at cost.

Cllr Jones again referred to the policing model work being carried out, and reiterated comments about Wrexham being the only local authority that pays for PCSOs in North Wales. Regarding the latter comment he added: We have an increasing number of community agents who are taking on the work of protecting and supporting the most vulnerable people in our communities. It is not a question of abandoning people, but ensuring the right resources are deployed dealing with the right issues.

I will say again, no decision has been made until all assessments have been taken into account.

The Committee agreed to note the comments in the report, and requested an opportunity to conduct pre-decision scrutiny if and when required, if the proposed cut takes place.

Top pic: Archive image of a PCSO!
By PTI: Jaipur, Dec 20 (PTI) The Rajasthan High Court issued a notice to the central government today seeking to know the reasons behind its decision to bar airing of condom advertisements on TV channels between 6 am and 10 pm.

A bench of Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice D C Somani issued notice to the central government, hearing a petition filed by an NGO.

advertisement

In an advisory to all television channels on December 11, the information and broadcasting ministry asked them to restrict airing of condom advertisements to slots between 10 pm and 6 am, as these "could be indecent/inappropriate for viewing by children".

The NGO claimed that theAaction of theAministry was against the interest of public.

The NGO also claimed the move showed the "hypocritical approach" of the government, wherein it is on the one hand promoting family planning and awareness about AIDS and STD, but on the other, it is obstructing dissemination of condom advertisements that are crucial for family planning, reducing abortion deaths and awareness about HIV-AIDS and STD (sexually transmitted diseases).

The plea contends that kids andAadolescents must also know about safe sex and must be given sex education. "There is not an iota of reason as to how an advertisement for condom is an unhealthy practice," it noted.

Earlier, the ministry said that it was brought to its notice that some channels carried advertisements of condoms repeatedly which were alleged to be indecent, especially for children.

It referred to Rule 7 (7)Aof the Cable Television Networks Rules 1994, which says, "No advertisement which endangers the safety of children or create in them any interest in unhealthy practices or shows them begging or in an undignified or indecent manner shall not be carried in the cable service".

It also cited Rule 7 (8) which states that "indecent, vulgar, suggestive, repulsive or offensive themes or treatment shall be avoided in all advertisements", and asked TV channels not to telecast the advertisements of condoms. PTI CORR SMN SMN

--- ENDS ---
Actor Matt Damon came under vehement criticism this week for raising a few questions about the ongoing sexual misconduct campaign in the US.

In an interview for ABC News Popcorn With Peter Travers, after observing that were in this watershed and I think its wonderful that women feel empowered to tell their stories, the 47-year-old Damon noted that there was a spectrum of behavior.  Theres a difference between  patting someone on the butt and rape or child molestation, right?

Referring to comic Louis C.K., Damon argued that we live in this culture of outrage and injury, and, you know, that were going to have to correct enough to kind of go, Wait a minute. None of us came here perfect. The actor went on, I dont know Louis C.K.. Ive never met him. Im a fan of his, but I dont imagine hes going to do those things again. You know what I mean? I imagine the price that hes paid at this point is so beyond anything that he  I just think that we have to kind of start delineating between what these behaviors are.

Damon criticized the forced resignation of Minnesotas Sen. Al Franken, a Democrat, observing that he would have preferred an Ethics Committee investigation  [but] were so energized to kind of get retribution, I think. Later, he told Travers that Frankens posing for a photograph with the sleeping LeeAnne Tweeden, putting his hands on that womans flak jacket and mugging for the camera  that is just like a terrible joke, and its not funny.

A few days later, Damon told Business Insider during promotion for his new film, Downsizing (directed by Alexander Payne), that not all men in Hollywood were predators or despicable. I think one thing thats not being talked about is there are a whole s---load of guysthe preponderance of men Ive worked withwho dont do this kind of thing and whose lives arent going to be affected. He observed that he didnt commit sexual harassment, and most of the people I know dont do that.

Damons comments were mild, and, in fact, in the course of them, he endorsed the disgraceful and cowardly erasure of actor Kevin Spacey, one of the first victims of the recent sexual scandals, from Ridley Scotts new film All the Money in the World. The actor called Spaceys removal from the completed work, which involved replacing the latter with Christopher Plummer and refilming 22 scenes, smart and a total business decision by Ridley.  Nobody right now is in the mood to see a Kevin Spacey movie.

Nonetheless, for having suggested that the sexual harassment crusade had perhaps gone too far, Damon drew down upon himself the self-righteous wrath of the media and various Hollywood personalities.

In New York magazines The Cut, Madeleine Aggeler, for example, informed the actor What We Want From You. Aggeler suggested that while theres no way you can avoid journalists asking questions about the painful subject, you might want to try a different approach to answering them.

Aggeler grudgingly acknowledged that there was a difference between molesting a child and Frankens juvenile antics. However, she continued, Its important to understand, that though wildly different, these behaviors are part of the same systema system that allows powerful men to treat women like their sexual playthings, and then disproportionately punishes not the aggressor but the women brave enough to come forward. A system from which you, Matt Damon, have benefited immensely.

This insulting comment is a reference in part to the fact that Damon has worked with fellow actors Casey and Ben Affleck, neither of whom has been convicted of any impropriety.

Damons comments prompted one outraged commentator on Twitter to urge, Any woman that has any sexual harassment story on Matt Damon, I encourage you to speak up right now. We are all here to support you. Under the present conditions, this amounts to a serious threat.

Actress Alyssa Milano, best known for her roles on the inane Whos the Boss? and Charmed, and one of the inspirations behind the #MeToo movement, attacked Damon in a series of tweets. We are in a culture of outrage, she commented confusedly, because the magnitude of rage is, in fact, overtly outrageous. And it is righteous.

Referring to Damons comments about a spectrum of inappropriate behavior, Milano later tweeted, There are different stages of cancer. Some more treatable than others. But its still cancer. Someone might have pointed out to Milano that a better comparison might have been between a sore throat and cancer, but rational voices are few and far between in Hollywood at the moment.

Taking the cake for self-pitying and anti-democratic nonsense, however, was actress Minnie Driver, who performed with Damon in Good Will Hunting (1997) and had a personal relationship with the actor at the time.

Driver first tweeted, Gosh its so interesting (profoundly unsurprising) how men with all these opinions about womens differentiation between sexual misconduct, assault and rape reveal themselves to be utterly tone deaf and as a result, systemically part of the problem.

In an interview with the Guardian, Driver followed that up by suggesting that for most men, good men, the men that I love, there is a cut-off in their ability to understand. They simply cannot understand what abuse is like on a daily level.

Driver, with a reported net worth of $20 million, presented herself as one of the martyrs of sexual abuse, without offering any details. I honestly think that until we get on the same page, you cant tell a woman about their abuse. A man cannot do that. No one can. It is so individual and so personal, its galling when a powerful man steps up and starts dictating the terms, whether he intends it or not.

The actress suggested that men should not express any opinions about the sexual misconduct campaign: Its not your job to compartmentalise or judge what is worse and what is not. Let women do the speaking up right now. The time right now is for men just to listen and not have an opinion about it for once.

The reactionary witch-hunt continues.
There were 5,190 fatal workplace injuries recorded in the United States in 2016, up seven percent from the 4,836 workers killed on the job in 2015, according to figures released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics Tuesday.

The 2016 datathe most current made available by the US governmentmeans that annual workplace fatalities have increased three consecutive years since 2013. Last year was also the first year since 2008 in which more than 5,000 fatalities have been recorded by the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) since 2008. The fatal injury rate increased to 3.6 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers, up from 3.4 in 2015 and the highest rate since 2010.

The number of reported deaths is inching up towards the pre-Great Recession levels of 5,214 (2008) and 5,657 (2007). This suggests that the decline in fatalities in 2009 (4,551) and 2010 (4,693) was chiefly due to a sharp reduction in the number of employed workers and total hours worked after the 2008 economic crash. Total hours worked fell from 272 billion in 2008 to 255 billion in 2009, according to the BLS. The number has now surpassed pre-recession levels, rising to an estimated 277 billion in 2015 and 282 billion in 2016, with the number of workplace fatalities rising along with it.

The rising death toll in the final years of the Obama administration coincided with stagnating wages, the proliferation of low-paid, temporary and part-time jobs, and the shifting of health care and pension costs onto the backs of the working class. In other words, the doubling of the stock market, the record corporate profits and the historic transfer of wealth to the top during Obamas so-called economic recovery was achieved primarily through ramping up working-class exploitation and over the lives and bones of tens of thousands of workers.

This period coincided with the suppression of the class struggle by the trade unions, which virtually banned all strikes by workers who were determined to recover their lost wages and benefits and improve working conditions. The strikes that were called, including the 2015 oil refinery strike, when workers explicitly demanded an end to grueling work schedules and fatigue, were isolated and defeated by the unions. The period from 2007 to 2016 was the lowest decade on record for work stoppages involving 1,000 workers or more since the BLS began recording such figures in 1947.

In 2016, injuries involving transportation incidents remained the most common fatal event, accounting for 40 percent (2,083) of the fatalities. Deaths caused by exposure to harmful substances or environments, including electrocution, rose 22 percent in 2016.

Fatal work injuries from falls, slips, or trips continued a general upward trend that began in 2011, increasing six percent to 849 in 2016 and 25 percent overall since 2011. Falls increased more than 25 percent in 2016 for roofers, carpenters, tree trimmers and pruners, and heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers.

In a measure of the deep social crisis and the unions abandonment of the most elemental protections for workers, workplace suicides increased by 62 to 291 in 2016, the most suicides since the CFOI began reporting data in 1992. Overdoses from the nonmedical use of drugs or alcohol while on the job increased from 165 in 2015 to 217 in 2016, a 32-percent increase. Overdose fatalities have increased by at least 25 percent annually since 2012.

Workplace homicides also increased, by 83 cases to 500 in 2016, the highest homicide figure since 2010. Overall violence and other injuries by persons or animals increased 23 percent to become the second-most common fatal event in 2016.

The occupations with the highest rate of fatalities were:

 Farming, fishing and forestry occupations (24.9 fatalities per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers), with deaths among agricultural workers, which include migrant workers, accounting for more than half of the total. The number of fatalities among loggers increased from 67 in 2015 to 91.

 Transportation and material moving (15.5 per 100,000) accounted for more than a quarter of all work-related fatalities. The number of workers killed last year was up 7 percent to 1,388, the highest count since 2007.

 Construction and extraction (12.4 per 100,000) accounted for 970 deaths. This includes first-line supervisors of construction and extraction workers with 134 fatal injuries, and roofers with 101.

Occupations with increases greater than 10 percent in the number of fatal work injuries in 2016 include food preparation and serving-related occupations (64 percent); leisure and hospitality sector (32 percent); installation, maintenance, and repair occupations (20 percent); building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations (14 percent); and sales and related occupations (11 percent).

Foreign-born workers make up about one-fifth of the total fatal work injuries. Thirty-seven percent of these workers were born in Mexico, followed by 19 percent from Asian countries.

Asian workers accounted for 160 fatal injuries, up from 114 in 2015 and the highest percentage increase (40 percent) among any race or ethnic origin. There was a nominal decline in the number of reported deaths of Latino workers, from 903 in 2015 to 879 in 2016.

African-American workers had a large percentage increase (19 percent), with 587 fatal injuries compared to 495 in 2015.

The overwhelming majority of workers suffering fatal injuries (3,481) were white. Men of all races accounted for 4,803 deaths, while 387 women were killed at work in 2016.

Reflecting the trend of workers laboring for longer years due to the lack of any retirement security, workers age 55 years and over had 1,848 fatal injuries, the highest number for this cohort since CFOI began reporting national data in 1992. In 1992, workers age 55 and over accounted for 20 percent of fatalities; in 2016, they accounted for 36 percent. These workers also have a higher fatality rate than other age groups.

The raw data provides only a glimpse of the human suffering that the capitalist system visits upon workers and their families. Since the beginning of the month alone, reported fatal accidents have taken the lives of: Yesenia Espinoza, 31-year-old construction worker and a mother of two, at a Texas oil refinery; Bruce Biron, a 55-year-old employee at the Ethan Allen furniture plant in Beecher Falls, Vermont; construction worker Charles Jones, 57, of Shannon, North Carolina; Ivan Bridgewater, a 41-year-old electrician and father of a two-year-old child, who was killed at Fords Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville; Alfred Cadena, a 61-year-old steelworker at the ArcelorMittal mill in East Chicago, Illinois; William Stubbs, a 51-year-old United Parcel Service worker near Atlanta, Georgia; and 62-year-old Samuel Martinez, a Guatemalan native and a father who was killed at a meatpacking plant in Canton, Ohio.

The new report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics has been ignored by the corporate-controlled media, which is consumed instead by the campaign over alleged sexual misconduct. As of this writing, none of the major news outlets covered the report, with the exception of the Wall Street Journal, which focused its article on the rise in drug and alcohol deaths.

The media and politicians from both the Democratic and Republican parties sense that any broader awareness of this industrial carnage will only further incense workers who are already angered over Trumps massive tax giveaway to the rich, historically unprecedented levels of social inequality in America and the plans of the ruling class to gut whatever is left of safety and health regulations in order to further boost corporate profits.
The Pentagon faces renewed outrage this month over human rights abuses at Guantanamo Bay, after reports that the prison will prevent the release of, and possibly incinerate, detainees artwork.

While previously the prison allowed rigorously pre-screened artwork to leave with released detainees and to be given to lawyers and aid workers, Department of Defense officials have ordered Guantanamo to stop releasing cellblock art altogether, declaring it property of the U.S. government.

This new policy is a reaction to the international acclaim garnered by an ongoing exhibit of 36 paintings, three model ships and another sculpture, opened in early October at New York Citys John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The exhibit, titled Ode to the Sea: Art from Guantanamo, contains works from eight inmates, four of whom have been released, and only one of whom was charged with a crime.

The exhibit closed on December 11, after a threat was made to the exhibit on Snapchat, but has since reopened.

The artworks themselves are clearly a threat to the military and to the whole conduct of 16 years of the war on terror. The paintings focus on the theme of the seaalways within earshot of Guantanamo prisoners, but often blocked from view from prison cell windows. The sea, to these prisoners, represents the hope of escape and the daily isolation they face, chained to the floor, separated from their families by thousands of miles of ocean.

Guantanamo instituted its new policy in secret, with no public announcement or notice to legal counsel. Only after attorneys noticed that no new art was being released from the prison did a Pentagon spokesman state the reason: Questions remain on where the money for the sales was going. The statement refers to an email address on the exhibits web site where those interested could inquire about buying prints.

The extent of Guantanamos censorship is unclear. Earlier this month Ramzi Kassem, an attorney for several detainees, told the Miami Herald that if a captive is released, their art would not even be allowed out with them and would be incinerated instead. Attorney Beth Jacob said that the remaining detainees were told they could continue to make art. But the number of pieces each could have would be limited, and excess ones would be discarded.

The Ode to the Sea exhibit comes at an inconvenient time for the Department of Defense. On December 5, the pre-trial proceedings began against Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawasawi, who is being charged with aiding the September 11 attacks. His defense is attempting to argue that he is unfit for trial, due to the well-documented, years-long torture he endured at CIA black sites around the world and at Guantanamo.

The Pentagon has faced severe backlash from lawyers, civil rights groups, and arts advocacy groupsincluding PEN America, the College Art Association, the Media Freedom Foundation, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the National Coalition Against Censorship. In response to the threat to burn the artwork, the Center for Constitutional Rights compared the Pentagon to the Nazis, tweeting, Next it will be burning books, while detainee attorney Jay Wells Dixon highlighted the Pentagons hypocrisy in a tweet comparing it to ISIS: Lets see who can destroy works of art and culture faster.

Erin Thompson, a curator of the exhibit and professor of art crime, created a petition that, as of this writing, has received nearly 2,000 signatures. The petition declares that the burning of art is only something done by fascist and terrorist regimes.

In a statement from the Pentagon earlier this month, Army Col. Lisa Garcia of the US Southern Command told the Miami Herald that Southcom is recommending to the prison that the staff archive detainee artwork rather than discard it.

Still, Pentagon spokesman Maj Ben Sakrisson recently told the Guardian that the prison effectively eliminated transfer of detainee produced artwork from the detention facility, while attorneys for the detaineees revealed that finished artworks were being confiscated from their clients. Attorney Ramzi Kassem commented, If no one gets to see the art, they might as well be incinerating it.

The Pentagons drive to censor detainee art is an attack on one of the only ways these captiveswho are interned indefinitely, abused and unchargedcan communicate with the world. It is an attempt to cover up the human rights violations at Guantanamo, to remove the prisoners from public view and from public sympathy as human beings whose lives have been destroyed by US imperialism, which seeks to depict them as inhuman monsters.

The horrors of the Guantanamo Bay facility are the product of the 2002 decision by the Bush White House to create an extralegal detention center outside of American or international law, as a prison for those who were victims of the CIAs international program of abduction, torture and human experimentation, referred to by the euphemisms of extraordinary rendition and enhanced interrogation. At Guantanamo, detaineeslabeled alien enemy combatantsare held indefinitely, without hope of trial and often without being accused of a crime.

These enemy combatants have been fisherman, children, cooks, letter carriers, resistance fighters against US-backed dictatorships, and members of Al Qaeda (now a key ally in US military operations in Syria). High-value detainees (those believed to have been in the leadership of Al Qaeda or who allegedly pose a threat to American security), many of whom were known to US intelligence agencies before the 9/11 attacks, were often moved between the CIAs network of black site prisons and Guantanamo, to avoid their being tried by US courts.

According to a Miami Herald report, of the more than 780 people who have been detained at Guantanamo, 41 remain, 26 of whom are labeled forever prisoners (uncharged but too dangerous to be released). Only seven have been charged by a US military tribunal. Nine detainees have died at Guantanamo since it opened, and many remain on hunger strike.

Abu Zubaydah, for example, was the first prisoner on whom the CIA tested its torture methods. Like many other detainees, he was tortured for weeks, deprived of sleep, chained to a wall, made to sleep naked, barred from bathing, confined in a coffin-like box, waterboarded 83 times, and was subject to techniques such as walling, insects, mock-burial and stress positions. He lost an eye in CIA custody.

That the exhibit has garnered such attention despite a mandated lack of overt political content, is a testament to the resilience of the detainees, whose lives have been shattered by the duplicitous war on terror. That the Pentagon deems this art dangerous enough to erase it from public view reflects the cowardice and increasing instability of the American military-intelligence apparatus.
The economic update unveiled on Monday to the Australian governments 20172018 budget contains sweeping new attacks on higher education, welfare entitlements and childcare outlays, while maintaining previously announced increases in military spending.

The original budget, brought down by the Liberal-National Coalition government of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in May, projected a deficit of $29.4 billion for 20172018. Successive Labor and Coalition governments have presided over significant deficits every year since the 2008 financial crisis, while promising the money markets to return the budget to surplus.

Turnbulls first budget since the 2016 federal election was little different. Over the normal four-year projections used in treasury documents, it predicted a steady return to surplus by the 20202021 financial year. Like previous forecasts, it was based on what financial commentators labelled as fanciful expectations of global and Australian economic growth.

With this weeks Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO), Finance Minister Mathias Cormann painted an even rosier picture. It revised the deficit predication for 20172018 downward to $23.6 billion and increased the predicted budget surplus by 20202021 from $7.4 billion to $10.2 billion.

These purported improvements to the budget bottom line are the outcome of a range of contradictory factors.

A rise in commodity prices, particularly for iron oreAustralias largest exporthas resulted in higher-than-expected company tax payments, estimated to bring in an additional $7.4 billion in revenue by 2020-2021. This was entirely cancelled out, however, by slower than expected wages growth, as millions of workers suffer stagnant or even falling real incomes.

Personal income tax is projected to be $8 billion less because wage growth is running at barely 1.9 percent, compared with a forecast of 2.5 percent. The budget nevertheless predicts that wage growth will soar to 2.75 percent in 2018-2019, and even higher in the following years. In reality, it is most likely to fall even further (see: Australian wage growth continues downward trend).

Even though the MYEFO acknowledges that overall economic growth is 2.5 percent rather than the predicted 2.75 percent, it still forecasts the figure leaping to 3 percent in 2018-2019. Despite warning signs in financial markets, MYEFO assumes that highly indebted households will continue to meet ever-rising expenses and that Australias overheated housing market will continue to expand (see: Australian bank hearing reveals growing danger of interest-only housing loans).

The real improvement to the budget is coming from the ongoing assault on the living standards of the working class.

Draconian changes to welfare eligibility, introduced since 20132014 under both Labor and the Coalition, have already hit impoverished sections of the population. Now, over the four-year projections, the government expects to spend $1.5 billion less on disability support; $1.2 billion less on student allowances; and $755 million less on the aged pension. It is predicting that it will extract $405 million in welfare debts by direct deductions from Family Tax Benefits.

At the same time, the estimated funding for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Schemewhich subsidises medicationhas had to be increased by $2.1 billion over four years due to higher demand. This vital area will no doubt be a future target for funding cuts, compounding the health crisis affecting growing numbers of people.

Cormann announced a new raft of austerity policies, to make up for the fact that some measures contained in the May budget were blocked by the opposition parties in the Senate, the upper house of parliament. While posturing as opponents of austerity, Labor, backed by the Greens, is responsible for making deep cuts to social services.

Among the most significant new measures is an administrative freeze of university funding at 2017-2018 levels for the next two financial years. This will lower spending on the sector by $2.1 billion. The Senate blocked planned outright cuts of over $2.8 billion.

Universities have already warned that the freeze will mean they will have to limit enrolments and impose cost-cuttingmost likely deeper attacks on the wages and conditions of tertiary sector workers.

To gouge further savings from higher education, the government will attempt to place further burdens on students. From mid-2018, it will seek to lower the income threshold at which graduates must begin repaying their student debts from $52,000 to $45,000. It will also seek to impose a cap on student loans, preventing students borrowing more than $150,000 for medicalrelated degrees and $104,440 for all others.

In a particularly harsh policy, Cormann announced that the government will cut spending by $1.2 billion by forcing new migrants to Australia to wait three years before they can claim welfare, instead of the already punitive two-year waiting period. The social consequences of this measure will be severe.

The government will also seek to save another $1 billion through a crackdown on childcare providers who allegedly make excessive claims for state subsidies. This will most likely result in higher child-care costs for families.

While the MYEFO continues the process of slashing welfare programs and subsidies, it maintains unchanged the increases to military and national security spending. The defence budget will expand by over 6 percent per year to 20202021. Over the decade from 2017, close to $500 billion will be outlaid on the armed forces. The Federal Police and intelligence agencies are also receiving annual increases.

The aim of the austerity measures is to create sufficient structuralthat is, permanentreductions in budget spending to pave the way for cutting the corporate tax rate for all companies from 30 percent to 25 percent. The Coalition, with the backing of Labor opposition, is already progressively lowering the tax rate for businesses with revenue under $50 million.

Jennifer Westacott, the head of the Business Council of Australia, declared that delivering the remainder of the governments plan for a reduced company tax rate has to be the starting point for policy next year.

In corporate circles, however, even the planned 25 percent rate is considered woefully inadequate to maintain international competitiveness for Australian-based banks and other financial operations. In the United States, the rate is being cut to 21 percent. In Singapore, it is already 17 percent and in Hong Kong, 16.5 percent.

Demands for even deeper austerity by big business and the corporate media are inevitable in 2018.
On Friday, Israeli soldiers killed at least four Palestinians and injured hundreds more in clashes in East Jerusalem and the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including wheelchair-bound Ibrahim Abu Thurayeh, 29, who has no legs. It happened as thousands of Palestinians took to the streets after Friday prayers to protest the decision of US President Donald Trump to recognise Jerusalem as Israels capital.

Israeli security forces, which fired tear-gas, stun grenades and rubber-coated steel bullets against the protestors, have killed 10 Palestinians, injured 1,933 and arrested at least 260 since Trump announced his decision on December 6.

The move, overturning decades of official US policy, marks an end to the charade of the so-called two-state solution inaugurated under the 1993 Oslo Accords. It has precipitated a political crisis for the Palestinian Authority and all of the Arab regimes, which utilised endless negotiations on realising a truncated state as a cover for their betrayal of the Palestinian people.

The Oslo Accords established the Palestinian bourgeoisie as masters of a semi-state apparatus and a police force to be used against workers and poor farmers. In contrast, the wealth of a tiny layer of Palestinian businessmen soared, in large part thanks to handouts from the imperialist and regional powers.

The promise of a Palestinian stateon non-contiguous pieces of land to be negotiated under the auspices of US imperialismfacilitated the reality of expanding Israeli settlements and the decimation of the Palestinians social, economic and political conditions.

Trumps announcement has given the green light to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus coalition government to step up its suppression of the Palestinians and its ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from East Jerusalem.

Neither Fatah, the dominant faction in the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA), which has ruled the West Bank since 1994, nor its Islamist rival, Hamas, which has ruled the besieged Gaza Strip since 2006, commands significant popular support.

The 82-year-old Mahmoud Abbas assumed the presidency of the PA after Yasser Arafats death, under highly suspicious circumstances, in 2004. Abbas resurrected the peace talks that Arafat had rejected in 2000 as an abject surrender to Israel. However, there have been no genuine negotiations since then. Everyone now knows there never will be, thanks to Trump. A recent opinion poll found that 67 percent of Palestinians want Abbas to resign.

Saeb Erekat, a former Palestinian negotiator, squirmed in his efforts to cover the PAs exposed rear. Unfortunately, President Trump just destroyed any possibility of two states, he complained. The only alternative, he said, was a one-state solution with equal democratic rights for all. This is a pipedream within the framework of the existing imperialist carve-up of the Middle East and the political domination of the Palestinian and Arab bourgeoisie. In practical terms, it expresses the striving of the Palestinian bourgeoisie for a deal with the Zionist regime in Israel and Washington within which it would be guaranteed a share of the economic and political spoils.

Hamas too has sought the support of various regional powers to push for the creation of a Palestinian mini-state, but its room for manoeuvre has been severely curtailed by the defeat suffered by its parent organisation, the Muslim Brotherhood, in Egypt, its growing alienation from Iran and Syria over its support for the US-backed Islamist insurgency against the Assad regime in Syria, and the siege led by Saudi Arabia and Egypt against Hamass patron, Qatar.

Hamas has been backed by Turkey, but it is being pushed ever more firmly into the same orbit as Fataharound Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Trumps announcement on Jerusalem follows on the heels of Hamass announced reconciliation with the PA and its offer to share the governance of Gaza.

Hamas thus plays the same essential role as its secular rivalas a mechanism through which the Palestinians are policed and their plight utilised by the Arab regimes as part of their bargaining with Washington and other imperialist powers.

Following Trumps announcement on Jerusalem, Hamas made the pro-forma call for days of rage and a new intifada that would again pit an essentially defenceless people against the most powerful armed force in the region. But many within Palestine recognise the dead end into which they have been led after two failed intifadas and numerous military assaults that only increased their suffering.

The Arab regimes have issued the required statements opposing Trumps decision, but their chief concern is that it needlessly stirred more conflict in an already volatile region and focused opposition to their own rule.

Egypts military junta, headed by Abdul Fattah el-Sisi, made sure the media and the clerical establishment downplayed Trumps announcement so as not to further inflame tensions already running high due to soaring food prices, unemployment and poverty. El-Sisi has banned rallies, including one outside the Arab League headquarters in downtown Cairo on December 9, when an emergency meeting of foreign ministers met to coordinate the response to Washington.

El-Sisi withdrew his generals from the Gaza Strip, where they were trying to further the reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, to make it clear that Cairo did not support Hamass response to the announcement.

No less compromised is Saudi Arabia. The feudal monarchy is seeking to build an alliance with Israel in line with US imperialisms preparations for a regional war with Iran, their regional rival. Trump has spoken of the really good feeling towards Israel in Saudi Arabia following his visit to both countries in May. Crown Prince Muhammed Bin Salman told Trump that while Riyadh publicly objects to Washingtons recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital and the US embassys relocation to Jerusalem, neither is a bar to Saudi engagement with Israel or detrimental to Israels moves in the Middle East.

Salman summoned Abbas to Riyadh last month, where he dictated the terms of a US-Israeli peace that would leave Jerusalem and virtually all of the West Bank settlements in Israeli hands and deny Palestinian refugees the right of return to a state whose borders would remain under Israeli control. It followed a secret visit by the Saudi crown prince to Israel in September for discussions with Netanyahu, unprecedented Saudi calls for normalisation with Israel and an informal economic rapprochement with visits by Saudi businessmen.

Last month, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Gadi Eisenkot said that Israel was ready to share intelligence information with Saudi Arabia, as they both had a common interest in standing up to Iran. A few days later, Israeli Communications Minister Ayoub Kara issued an invitation to Saudi Arabias Grand Mufti Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh to visit Israel.

Last week, Israel received a 25-strong delegation from the interfaith group This is Bahrain, which was on a five-day tour of religious sites in Israel. Its mission to convey a message of peace to Israel apparently had the support of King Hamid of Bahrain, whose fragile control of his throne is dependent on Saudi Arabias armed forces. A delegation of Israeli business leaders is to visit Bahrain in January. Israel has backed Riyadhs blockade on Qatar.

Trumps announcement on Jerusalem points to the growing danger not only of renewed and bloody conflict between Israel and Palestine, but of a regional war, in which Arab, Jewish, Iranian and other national and ethnic groups will be pitted against each other.

The only way forward is the adoption of a perspective for the unification of the working class and poor peasants across all national divisions against their common enemythe imperialist powers and the corrupt bourgeois regimes through which they exercise ultimate control. The goal must be to bring an end to the division of the region into hostile nation states based on the brutal exploitation of its peoples and the forging of the United Socialist States of the Middle East.
A diverse cross-section of workers, students and young people attended Socialist Equality Party meetings in Sydney and in Wellington, New Zealand, last week, entitled 100 years on: The significance of the 1917 Russian Revolution for today. A number spoke to reporters from the WSWS.

Attending his first SEP meeting, Michael, a professional jazz/rock guitarist from Sydneys southwest, said: The main thing that was clarified for me at todays meeting was how Stalinism emerged and how it led to the corruption of the ideals and direction of the revolution. This underscores the importance of the international nature of the revolution. In isolation, the opportunity for corruption and nationalism is very strong and undermines any kind of revolutionary international workers movement.

Id heard about these issues before, but having them reinforced at this meeting made it much clearer for me. Its absolutely crucial to think about that now because the economy is so much more of a global concern and communication is so instant between everywhere in the world. Any kind of revolution that is isolated has even less chance of succeeding and being sustained. In this environment a revolutionary movement of workers has to come from all corners of the globe.

Commenting on the growing danger of war, he said: Theres always an enemy being promoted and here its currently the Chinese. But this is a massive distraction that serves the ruling class. Its not the bosses and the shareholders that are screwing you, its the Chinese, its the guys that will work for less, that are taking the money out of your pocket, they say. Not the people, the ruling class, who are willing to sell-out anyone for the sake of making a few more dollars.

Jude, an African international student attending a Sydney university, said he came to the meeting because he thought, Capitalism is the worst thing that happened. I believe in anything that can help the people of the world, who are suffering pain and deprivations, caused by less than one percent of the population. The Russian Revolution was the victory of the workmen. It saved the world from fascist Germany.

Jude had spoken during the meetings question and answer period about the social crisis in Africa. Afterwards, he expressed agreement with the response from Nick Beams, which stressed the responsibility of various African bourgeois-nationalist leaders.

In African politics, most of the people that gained power under the garb of socialism were really pseudo-socialists, Jude said. They were opportunistic. They manoeuvred between the Soviet Union and the United States to attain their own selfish ends.

I studied in South Africa, and I found that after the demise of political apartheid, there is now an economic apartheid. The conditions of ordinary people are far worse. In Nigeria, it is the same. The situation is worse today than when independence was granted.

Alex, a civil engineer from Iran, said, At the meeting, I realised that Bolshevism and Marxism are not Stalinism. Marxism is a world movement against injustice and capitalism.

Asked about the crisis in the Middle East, Alex commented: At the moment, many people in the region are struggling with religious fundamentalism, which is hostile to Marxism. Fundamentalists have been promoted by the major powers. Political Islamism was created by capitalism, not the people.

Their rise is also due to the global failure of what they claimed was socialism, but was in fact Stalinism. From what Ive read, many of the socialist groups in the Middle East were fans of Stalin. The Communist Party had a bad reputation.

Lance, a University of Newcastle media production student, said the Sydney meeting had underscored that the Russian Revolution is relevant because it shows that if the working class becomes conscious, it can overcome the distractions that are being fed by the capitalist system.

Lance explained that his interest in socialism was initially triggered by this years hurricane disaster in Puerto Rico. I saw how the US government was disregarding human life in that situation, and profiting from the disaster, he said. The WSWS articles on Puerto Rico had lots of statistics and showed clearly who was responsible for the crisis.

I think thats the main reason that I saw socialism as the best solution. I would rather see a world uniting to help people get on their feet, and through socialism I can see that happening.

Kunal, a 25-year-old international student, came to the meeting because the tensions between the US and other powers like China and Russia are too big, and the whole situation is leading to war. The prospect of World War III is very real.

The US is sending troops all over, including near Korea and the Middle East. They are trying to dominate other countries.

Kunal expressed his appreciation for the answers to questions from the audience and expressed his agreement with the need to build a movement of the working class. If all the people are united, then the government cant last, he said.

John, a building contractor from southeastern Sydney, said that the meeting, the first SEP event he had attended, was very interesting and thought provoking. There was a lot of good information.

What I learnt was that the international, socialist principles with which the Bolsheviks under the leadership of Lenin and Trotsky fought, were stopped by Stalin, Hohn said.

John said he came to the meeting because of his concerns over widespread corruption in business and finance. The manner in which the wealthy are getting wealthier at societys expense is very disturbing.

John also expressed agreement with the SEPs defence of democratic rights, in opposition to the current sexual misconduct witch-hunt now underway.

The speakers explained this point of view very well, he said. The speakers were for equality and so am I, however, its clear that feminism is being used exclusively to break the glass ceiling for a select few in the upper-middle class. It is not a social movement built from the bottom, with the concerns of working women in mind.

At the meeting in Wellington, New Zealand, Kenny, an IT support worker, said: I think socialism can make an important contribution to world peace, to humanity. It was great to see your passion, to see what youre trying to achieve. He was concerned about the danger of war and said the Trump administrations threat to use nuclear weapons against North Korea recalled the threats made against China during the Korean War.

He was upset about growing levels of social inequality. Why has this happened and what is the way around it? Coming here and being part of your discussion has helped me to think about how inequality might be minimised.

Jess and Tom, both unemployed, came to the meeting after becoming interested in socialism, and the Russian Revolution. They mentioned that they had recently read the Communist Manifesto.

Tom said he appreciated learning about Trotskyism, adding: Its difficult to find out what actually happened. Jess agreed, saying: Ive had a really hard time finding factual, unbiased history.

Explaining why she was attracted to socialism, Jess said she had seen a lot of poverty and homelessness in Porirua, where she lives. I struggle to eat healthily, she said, and I hate to think what it would be like for people who are worse off.

Tom said he initially had some hopes that a Labour-Green Party coalition government might make things a bit better. But this changed following the September election, when the two parties negotiated a coalition deal with the right-wing, anti-immigrant New Zealand First and the whole democratic process was twisted.
By PTI: New Delhi, Dec 20 (PTI) The Delhi High Court today upheld the decision of airport operator DIAL to partially shift the operations of Indigo, GoAir and Spicejet from Terminal 1 to T2 at the IGI Airport here.

A bench of Justice A K Chawla, however, extended till February 15 next year the January 4 deadline for the airlines to shift their operations.

advertisement

The high court had on December 4 reserved its verdict on low-cost carrier IndiGos plea against the decision of the Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) to partially shift its operations along with that of two other airlines, SpiceJet and GoAir, from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2.

In its plea, the airline had challenged DIALs communication of October 21, asking the three air carriers to shift their flights to and from Delhi to Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru, to T2 from January 4, 2018.

All other flights of the airlines shall continue to operate from T1, the airport operator had said.

IndiGo had challenged DIALs decision on the ground that partial shifting of its operations would inconvenience passengers, especially those on hopping flights emanating or ending at those sectors, as T1 and T2 are not connected.

Defending its decision, the DIAL had said that T1 has already exceeded its capacity and if airline operations were not shifted partially, it would lead to overcrowding of the airport.

It also contended that in case of a fire or a terror threat, an overcrowded airport would have serious consequences for which the DIAL alone would be answerable.

The airport operator said its decision was not unreasonable as it had given the airlines enough time to arrive at a consensus.

IndiGo was opposed to the shifting of its operations, saying if the decision of the DIAL was allowed, the airline would be spread across T1, T2 and T3.

The central government had supported DIALs move and contended that IndiGos plea was not maintainable. PTI HMP SKV RRT SC

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: (Eds: With additional details)

New Delhi, Dec 20 (PTI) HDFC Bank today said it plans to raise up to Rs 24,000 crore through a preferential issue of shares to promoter HDFC as also share issuance and depository receipts.

"The board of directors of the bank, at their meeting held on December 20, 2017, has approved raising of funds aggregating up to Rs 24,000 crore," the countrys second largest private sector lender said in a regulatory filing to the stock exchanges.

advertisement

An amount of up to Rs 8,500 crore will be raised through issuance of equity shares pursuant to a preferential issue to Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC).

The balance amount of about Rs 15,500 crore will be raised through issuance of shares, convertible securities, depository receipts pursuant to a qualified institutional placement (QIP)/American Depository Receipts (ADR)/Global Depository Receipts (GDR), it said.

HDFC Bank will seek approval of its shareholders in an extraordinary general meeting of the bank on January 19, 2018.

Yesterday, mortgage lender HDFC Ltd had announced a Rs 13,000-crore fund raising plan to be ploughed primarily into maintaining its holding in its banking arm and enter newer segments like stressed assets and health insurance.

This will be the first equity raising by the countrys largest mortgage lender in a decade and bulk of this will be used to maintain the parents stake in HDFC Bank at 21 per cent in an upcoming fund raising round.

Since the mortgage lender did not participate in the Rs 9,800-crore QIP issue of HDFC Bank in February 2015, the shareholding came down to 21.01 per cent from around 24 per cent then.

The HDFC Bank announcement comes within a month of bad- loans saddled Axis Bank announcing an over Rs 11,626 crore capital raise from private equity major Bain Capital and promoter LIC, which was completed recently.

HDFC Bank raised about Rs 10,000 crore in 2015 by selling American Depository Receipts and India-listed shares to qualified institutional investors.

As per a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the company has raised USD 1,270.72 million (about Rs 8,000 crore) by issuing 22 million ADS to global investors.

Besides, the bank has raised about Rs 2,000 crore from a QIP in the domestic market.

The issue price for QIP was Rs 1,067 per share. The bank used proceeds for enhancing solvency and capital adequacy ratio and general corporate purposes.

The stock of HDFC Bank closed at Rs 1868.05 per unit, down 0.91 per cent on the BSE. PTI SVK DP ABM

--- ENDS ---
The hospital, however, denies that there is any kind of negligence from their side.

By India Today Web Desk: The body of a 21-year-old woman, stored in the mortuary of Hyderabad's Osmania General Hospital, was allegedly chewed by rats.

Osmania General Hospital is run by government of Telangana. However, according to the hospital superintendent, there was no negligence from the hospital's side.

Dr B Narendher, said, "I went to forensic dept & found that all freezers are working in good conditions, no holes for rats to enter. Maybe they didn't properly close door while putting body in. It doesn't occur frequently. We are conducting departmental inquiry."

Photo: ANI/Twitter

advertisement

U Madhu, a 21-year-old woman had committed suicide on Monday night. Since, her suicide made the police a bit suspicious, her body was sent to Osmania General Hospital for a post-mortem procedure.

According to the police, Madhu was four months pregnant and paranoid about losing the child as she had lost her first one. There was no harassment or any such issues from the family, Habeebnagar Inspector P. Madhukar Swamy told Deccan Chronicle.

Photo: ANI/Twitter

The family of the deceased woman was informed by the hospital authorities that there is a rat infestation. Even though the family claims that they have approached the police, Afzalgunj police clearly denied of anybody approaching them.

"No case has been booked against the hospital management. Nobody has approached us for any complaint," said Inspector P Gnanendra Reddy told Deccan Chronicle.

The police are yet to book a case.

--- ENDS ---
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Tallahassee's Independent Ethics Board is going over plans for the upcoming year Tuesday night.

Members are meeting at city hall where they're taking a closer look at recommendations from mayor Andrew Gillum about updating the ethics code.

In its last meeting in November, the board decided to delegate each of the six suggestions to each member for them to deconstruct and present with more clarity.

They include bans on accepting certain funding, lobbying, and campaigning connections.

The board will also elect a new chair for the upcoming year and hash out goals for 2018.
PEMBROKE PINES, FL (CNN)  A Florida man faces murder charges after dragging a police officer with his vehicle for about a half-mile.

While Officer Jon Cusack with the Pembroke Pines Police Department was investigating a drug-related incident Tuesday at a retirement community, he reached inside the suspects car.

The suspect and driver, Thomas Cabrera, then hit the gas pedal as Cusack held on for his life.

Police say Cabrera drove at a high rate of speed and dragged Cusack for over half a mile while the officer was clinging to the car to avoid being run over.

Cabrera also attempted to crash into a Fire-Rescue vehicle that was approaching the scene in an effort to dislodge Cusack from the car, according to police.

When the suspect slowed down to exit the retirement community, Cusack let go of the vehicle and rolled away from its tires.

Authorities say Cusack has significant road rash injuries on his arms and legs but is expected to make a full recovery.

After Cusack let go of the car, Cabrera led police on a 20-mile chase before he was blocked by traffic and taken into custody. He confessed to taking cocaine and heroin shortly before the incident.

Cabrera is charged with attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, felony fleeing and eluding and reckless driving, among others.

Copyright 2017 CNN. All rights reserved. Raycom News Network contributed to this report.
GADSDEN COUNTY, Fla. (WTXL) - Gadsden County commissioners are looking to fill two positions for members on the Board of Tourism.

Commissioners say one needs to be filled by an elected official and the other can be someone who has experience in the tourism industry.

Applicants can apply online on the Gadsden County website.

Commissioner Brenda Holt says the person who fills the position will be a key part in building tourism in the county and showing that it is a worthy place to visit and live.

Security at the Edward J. Butler Building was also discussed Tuesday night.

Commissioners say that having a law enforcement presence will make visitors feel safe and that person will be able to assist those in need.

Commissioners agreed to vote on the issue in a later meeting.

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.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on the push in Congress to pass a sweeping tax cut bill (all times local):

4:50 p.m.

Democrats say three provisions in the Republican $1.5 trillion tax bill violate Senate rules and will likely be removed before that chamber votes on the measure.

The House approved the legislation Tuesday. But this means the House will have to vote again on the legislation once it's been amended and approved by the Senate.

Senate passage was expected Tuesday night or early Wednesday. GOP House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy's office says the House would reconsider the bill Wednesday morning and send it to President Donald Trump for his signature.

Democrats said the Senate parliamentarian had found three items that violated Senate rules.

These included one provision that would let families use tax-advantaged 529 accounts for home-schooling expenses.

The problem was revealed by Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden.

___

3:50 p.m.

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (skuh-LEES') says the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee should retain his position even though he voted against the GOP tax overhaul, the most important vote of the year to Republican leaders.

Scalise says New Jersey Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (FREE'-ling-hy-zehn) long ago informed GOP leaders that he opposed the bill because of its impact on high-tax states such as New Jersey. Frelinghuysen voted against the bill Tuesday, leading some House conservatives to say he should be replaced as Appropriations chair.

Scalise called that an overreaction, saying Frelinghuysen is "doing a really good job in a tough position" on Appropriations.

Scalise praised an emergency spending bill largely crafted by Frelinghuysen that will offer $81 billion in emergency aid to states hard-hit by hurricanes and wildfires.

___
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A Tallahassee man who told police he is a bartender at The Moon was arrested for possession of drugs and narcotic equipment while at the San Luis Mission Park.

Alfred J. Mears, 25, was booked into the Leon County Detention Center after a Tallahassee Police Department officer came upon him at San Luis Mission Park located at 1313 San Luis Road after midnight Monday.

Mears told the officer he had just gotten off work as a bartender at The Moon and was at the park "to hang out" with a female friend, the officer wrote in a probable cause affidavit.

The officer wrote that he found it suspicious that a car was parked in the rear corner of the parking lot with only its parking lights on and behind the bathroom building.

While speaking to Mears, the officer wrote, he smelled marijuana coming from him, and he asked Mears whether any drugs or weapons were on him or in the vehicle.

Mears said that he and his friend had just "smoked a joint" in the car and that in the car was a grinder, which the officer said was in "plain view from my position outside the vehicle."

Searching the car, the officer found what he described as "a large amount of green leafy substance" he believed to be cannabis.

Mears waived his Miranda Rights and claimed ownership of all items in the vehicle, the officer said, and "Mears admitted the substance was cannabis."

The female with Mears denied any ownership of any of the items, and she was released and left the scene.

Officers found in the car multiple items that the office wrote were evidence of criminal wrongdoing. The items included "32 individually packaged smaller bags of the green leafy substance" that weighed about 20 grams and a black scale of the kind, the officer wrote, commonly used to weigh cannabis.

Speaking to the officer, according to the court document, Mears said he bought the cannabis for himself but said "if a friend asks me for some weed, I'll sell it to them."

Mears said he does not usually sell marijuana but sometimes, for friends, sells individual baggies for $5 each.

He was released from jail on a $3,000 bond.

San Luis Mission Park is a City of Tallahassee park.

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.
By PTI: New Delhi, Dec 20 (PTI) Faced with depleting strength of its fighter squadron, the Indian Air Force today issued the the request for proposal (RFP) to state-run aerospace behemoth Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for the procurement of 83 Tejas light combat aircraft at a cost of over Rs 50,000 crore.

The IAF had earlier placed an order with the HAL for 40 Tejas aircraft.

advertisement

The RFP for 83 Tejas light combat aircraft has been issued today, setting the ball rolling for finalising the contract for the mega deal, official sources said.

The Defence Acquisition Council, the defence ministrys highest decision making body on procurement, had in November last year approved purchase of 83 Tejas Mark 1 A by IAF at a cost of Rs 50,025 crore.

The sources said the final deal for the procurement is likely to be inked within the next five months.

They said out of the 83 LCA, 10 will be used for training purposes.

According to official figures, 14 squadrons of the MiG 21, MiG 27 and MiG 29 are due for retirement in the next 10 years which will bring down the fighter squadron strength to 19 by 2027 from the current 33.

The strength may be further reduced to 16 by 2032.

In an interview to PTI, HAL Chairman and Managing Director T Suvarna Raju had said most of the 42 modifications in Tejas sought by the IAF, including weaponisation of the aircraft, had been carried out.

"Tejas is a four-and-half generation world class fighter jet. There is no doubt about it. We can improve its various parameters. We are proud of Tejas. Every Indian will be proud of it. We will ensure enhancement in its quality and performance," Raju had said.

There have been views in the IAF that the Tejas aircraft was not enough to maintain its combat readiness and it needed to quickly procure a fleet of foreign single engine fighters to deal with any possible security challenges faced by the country in the backdrop of the dwindling size of its fighter fleet.

The IAF believes that it has to have a wide mix of aircraft to maintain an operational edge over its adversaries.

The HAL CMD had said that the four-and-half generation Tejas would be able to deliver what is expected of it.

The lifespan of the jet would be a minimum of 30 years just like any other frontline combat aircraft, he had said.

advertisement

The combat jets are classified under various generations depending on their avionics, capability and weapons systems.

The current fleet of fighter jets with the IAF range from three-and-half generation to the fourth generation. PTI MPB ASK ASK

--- ENDS ---
Last week, Miguel Gonzales worked quickly to pluck apples from trees in an orchard north of Tieton before the snow season arrives.
New test results show that monitoring for airborne radioactive contamination has not protected Hanford nuclear reservation workers as the site
A apartment complex along South First Street has had several code violations and issues with bringing the property into compliance. The city has filed a lawsuit against property owner Steve Owens. (MASON TRINCA/Yakima Herald-Republic file)
Biman Bangladesh Airlines and Novo Air, a private airline based in Dhaka, will start a direct flight from Dhaka to Guwahati.

By Sahidul Hasan Khokon: Biman Bangladesh Airlines and Novo Air, a private airline based in Dhaka, will start a direct flight from Dhaka to Guwahati.

Guwahati is the capital of Indian Assam state that shares north-eastern border with Bangladesh.

The decision was made today when a delegation of Assam state, led by its finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma held a meeting with Aviation and Tourism Minister of Bangladesh Rashed Khan Menon at the secretariat in Dhaka.

advertisement

Expressing his gratitude over the decision of starting direct air connectivity between Dhaka and Guwahati, Sarma said the air connectivity will give a boost to the tourism industry of the region.

During the meeting, both sides agreed to sign an MoU for flourishing tourism in the region by exploiting natural beauty of hilly range of Assam state and rivers and sandy beaches of Bangladesh.

On behalf of Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, the Assam finance minister handed over an invitation to Menon to join Global Investment Summit to be held in Assam on February 3-4.

Assam's Public Works Minister Parimal Suklabadiya was also present as part of the delegation.

--- ENDS ---
Yuma News

Yuma, Arizona - The four City of Yuma Fire Department Firefighters sent to the California wildfires completed their two week deployment yesterday and have arrived back in Yuma. They were part of an Imperial Valley Task Force response to a mutual aid request back on December 5th. The Task Force itself remained in place at the Thomas fire with four additional YFD Firefighters leaving Yuma yesterday, arriving last night to take the place of those who came home.

The Task Force members from other agencies were also replaced by fresh personnel. It is not known at this time how long the Imperial Valley Task Force will remain out but those freshly deployed are prepared to be gone up to two weeks. Originally the Imperial Valley team worked on the Creek fire, but on December 10th were released and reassigned to the Thomas fire burning near Ventura, CA. At last report the Thomas fire had burned over 270,000 acres and was 50% contained, with more than 8,000 personnel involved in the firefighting efforts. Our personnel are currently assigned to structure protection duties.

The YFD personnel who returned today are Fire Captain Erik Lohman, Fire Engineer Juan Garcia, Firefighter Jose Huizar, and Firefighter Eric Mendivil. Captain Lohman shared that the 24 hour shifts locating and extinguishing hotspots left little time for breaks and rest. He and the others who returned today were all glad to be home and especially in time for Christmas.
Stiri pe aceeasi tema

- The exhibition called "The Convention regarding the world, cultural and natural heritage - 50 years" opened on Wednesday, in the lobby of the plenary hall of the Deputies' Chamber. Fii la curent cu cele mai noi stiri. Urmareste stiripesurse.ro pe Facebook stiripesurse.ro 

- The Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday passed slashing RON 0.50 off fuel prices throughout December 31, 2022, 157 to 91 and five abstentions, told Agerpres. Fii la curent cu cele mai noi stiri. Urmareste stiripesurse.ro pe Facebook stiripesurse.ro  Help your friends know

- Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca reiterated that the Government, through the relevant ministries, has been in permanent contact with the Polish authorities and was part of the entire analysis process, together with NATO partners, after the incident on Tuesday evening, when two missiles hit Poland's territory,

- The National Liberal Party (PNL) and the Social Democratic Party (PSD) have again rejected the Save Romania Union's (USR) request from the meeting of the joint Standing Bureaus regarding the inclusion on the agenda of the plenary session of Parliament of the bill on the abolition of parliamentary

- The plenary meeting of Parliament is set to gather on 14 November in order to commemorate the victims of the Anti-Communist Rebellion in Brasov of 15 November 1987, the Joint Standing Bureaus of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies decided on Wednesday, told Agerpres. Fii la curent cu cele

- The Chamber of Deputies passed on Wednesday the draft law of the National Plan to Prevent and Combat Cancer in Romania, cleared by 260 votes "in favour" and five abstentions. Fii la curent cu cele mai noi stiri. Urmareste stiripesurse.ro pe Facebook stiripesurse.ro  Help

- Consolidating the cultural dimension of bilateral relations Bucharest - Chisinau was the main topic addressed on Thursday, at the meeting between the president of the Joint permanent committee of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate for the relationship with UNESCO, deputy Ana-Maria Catauta, and

- Parliament will be illuminated, on Tuesday and Wednesday, in the colors of the Ukrainian flag - blue and yellow, to mark the National Flag Day and the Independence Day celebrated by the neighboring country, the Chamber of Deputies informed. Fii la curent cu cele mai noi stiri. Urmareste
Stiri pe aceeasi tema

- Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) Marcel Ciolacu underscored on Wednesday that Romania is one step closer to Schengen and the European Commission confirmed that our country "has done its homework and meets all the requirements for the accession." Fii la curent cu cele mai noi stiri.

- Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) Marcel Ciolacu said that it might come to snap elections in Romania if the rotation of prime ministers, agreed between PSD and the National Liberal Party (PNL) for May next year, is not observed, or President Klaus Iohannis does not nominate for the office

- The chairman of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), Marcel Ciolacu, declared that on December 31 this year the discussion on the subject of special pensions will be closed through a draft law initiated by the Ministry of Labour, approved by the Government and submitted for adoption in Parliament,

- The president of the Social Democratic Party, Marcel Ciolacu, declared on Wednesday that he supports a postponement of the increase in local taxes until 2025, when digitization would become functional. Fii la curent cu cele mai noi stiri. Urmareste stiripesurse.ro pe Facebook stiripesurse.ro

- The Prosecutors Section of the Superior Council of the Magistrates (CSM) warns that the decision delivered by the top court on the enforcement of the Constitutional Court rulings regarding the criminal statutes of limitation will result in the termination of criminal trials and the clearing of criminal

- The plenary meeting of Parliament is set to gather on 14 November in order to commemorate the victims of the Anti-Communist Rebellion in Brasov of 15 November 1987, the Joint Standing Bureaus of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies decided on Wednesday, told Agerpres. Fii la curent cu cele

- Lawmakers of the National Liberal Party (PNL), the Social Democratic Party (PSD), the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) and minorities have signed a legislative initiative submitted to Parliament that provides for making July 11, Day of Friendship between Romania and the United States

- MEP Dacian Ciolos stated on Wednesday related to Romania's accession to the Schengen area, that it is not his duty to explain to the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and National Liberal Party (PNL) leaders how the European mechanisms work, noting that they hold some positions that impose political
Stiri pe aceeasi tema

- The leader of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) deputies, Antonio Andrusceac, announced on Wednesday that he has taken procedural steps to request the convening of a plenary session of Parliament aimed at the adoption of a decision on the start of the legal formalities to verify the assets

- The Prime Minister of the Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, on a working visit to our country, arrived on Wednesday afternoon at the Getica National Combined Training Center in Cincu, central Brasov County, being accompanied by President Klaus Iohannis. Fii la curent

- Education is the foundation of the development of democratic societies, the essential premise for the modernization and evolution of nations towards an increasingly prosperous standard of living, President Klaus Iohannis said on Wednesday, in his message sent by the State Councilor Catalina Galer

- President Klaus Iohannis and visiting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Wednesday will call on the Getica National Joint Training Centre at Cincu, Brasov County. Fii la curent cu cele mai noi stiri. Urmareste stiripesurse.ro pe Facebook stiripesurse.ro  Help your friends

- The Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR) postponed for Wednesday, October 26, the debates on President Klaus Iohannis' notification on the Aquaculture Law. Fii la curent cu cele mai noi stiri. Urmareste stiripesurse.ro pe Facebook stiripesurse.ro  Help your friends know

- President Klaus Iohannis will lead the Romanian delegation that will participate in the high-level segment of the 77th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, on Tuesday and Wednesday, in New York, the Presidential Administration informs. Fii la curent cu cele mai noi stiri.

- The President of Hungary, Katalin Novak, was received, on Wednesday, at the Cotroceni Palace, by President Klaus Iohannis on the occasion of the official visit she is making to Romania at the invitation of her Romanian counterpart. Fii la curent cu cele mai noi stiri. Urmareste stiripesurse.ro

- The Bookfest Fair in Chisinau is an expression of the common cultural and linguistic space, a materialization of the European aspirations of the Romanians on both sides of the Prut River, President Klaus Iohannis said on Wednesday in the message sent on the occasion of the opening of the 5th edition
By PTI: Kolkata, Dec 19 (PTI) Bangladesh Transport Minister Obaidul Quader today expressed hope that New Delhi and Dhaka would find a solution to the Teesta water-sharing issue.

The emotive issue features prominently whenever the bilateral relations between India and Bangladesh are discussed.

"The signing of the Land Boundary Agreement was a historic step. We hope that through discussions, we (both the countries) will also work out the Teesta treaty. Everything can be solved through discussions," Quader told reporters here.

advertisement

The Teesta river originates in Sikkim, flows through the northern parts of West Bengal, before entering Bangladesh and joining the Brahmaputra river.

India and Bangladesh were set to ink a deal on Teesta water sharing during the then prime minister Manmohan Singhs Dhaka visit in 2011, but West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had declined to endorse it, citing scarcity of water in her state. PTI PNT RG RC

--- ENDS ---
Patna: Throwing a big challenge to the government, a group of heavily-armed Naxals attacked a railway station in Bihar and fled after vandalising the government property.

According to ANI, the Masudan Railway Station in Bihar was attacked by Naxals late on Tuesday.

#Bihar : Naxals attacked Masudan Railway Station, late last night & torched station property. pic.twitter.com/bzMlRbOqwE  ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2017

Two railways employees  an Assistant Station Master and one other railway staff  were abducted by Naxals as they fled from the scene after torching the station property.

#SpotVisuals: Naxals attacked Masudan Railway Station, late last night & torched station property. 2 officials, including Assistant Station Master, abducted. pic.twitter.com/PZ9oNsXPUh  ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2017

However, there are no reports of any casualties as yet.

The Assistant Station Master abducted by the Naxals later called up the Maldah Divisional Railway Manager, saying the Maoists had threatened to kill all of them if trains continue to ply on Masudan track.

As a precautionary measure, all passengers have been requested to explore other alternatives.

Eastern Railway has halted three trains in Kiul-Jamalpur-Bhagalpur section of the Malda Division in the light of Naxal attack at Masudan Railway Station.

''Rail services have once again been stopped at the Kiul point,'' Rajesh Kumar, CPRO Eastern Railway, said.

Naxals or home-grown rebels have routinely targeted trains, railway stations and mobile phone towers in the country's eastern states.

In August, the Naxals hijacked a train in the Lakhisarai district of Bihar.

Earlier in March, a group of 20 armed Naxalites had attacked a railway station - Doikallu - in Odisha with explosives.

They planted a small tiffin bomb in the station master's office and near the engine of a goods train halted at the station.
Mumbai: Actor Akshay Kumar today said with "Padman", about a man who develops low-cost sanitary pads, they are trying to reach out to a wider audience without looking at the commercial aspects of the movie.

"With 'Toilet: Ek Prem Katha' we had shown it (film) on Doordarshan channel, the government is also doing a good job by taking the film in a pen-drive and showing it in villages so that more people can see the film and understand it.

"We will do something similar for this film ('Padman'). Our aim is not to earn money through the film but it should reach more people, more places where it is needed. We will also take the help of the government," Akshay told reporters here at the song launch of "Padman".

Akshay's wife Twinkle, who is one of the producers of the film, said the team got in touch with various ministries about showing the film in schools in smaller towns and cities, to make more people aware about menstrual hygiene.

"We would want the film to be shown to school girls and principals, so it penetrates where it has to. At least we are hoping a conversation starts where the same girls, who can't afford a sanitary pad, would say to their parents that we don't need fairness creams, we need sanitary pads so that we can go to schools."

The makers today launched the song 'Aaj Se Teri' featuring Akshay and his on-screen wife Radhika Apte.

The national award-winning actor has been doing films like "Toilet: Ek Prem Katha" and "Padman", focusing on social issues, and he said it is a deliberate move to be associated with such kind of cinema.

"I do this (referring to social-real issue films) but at the same time, I am also enjoying doing commercial cinema. I am also doing a film like 'Houseful'. I have done all kinds of film, I love doing films. This (social issue) kind of cinema attracts me, it gives me satisfaction as an actor and as a human being."

Akshay is happy that people especially men have today openly started talking about sanitary pads, and hoped that post the release of "Padman", things would only get better.

"Three-four days back, I was sitting in a vanity van and while I was coming out, I saw seven-eight guys talking about sanitary pads. I was amazed. I am hopeful people will understand the importance of this subject.

He hoped the movie will help stop superstitions like not touching the pickle or entering the kitchen during one's period.

"Padman" is directed by R Balki and it also stars Sonam Kapoor in a pivotal role. It will open in cinema houses on January 26.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates took to social media to praise "Toilet: Ek Prem Katha" for promoting sanitation.

On this, the "Airlift" actor said, "I was on stage when I saw the name of Bill Gates. It is amazing. I feel more change... Improvement is needed. A year back, there were 54 per cent cases of open defecation and now not it has come down to 34 per cent, things are moving.

"With this subject (menstrual hygiene) we got to know that 82 per cent women don't use sanitary pads and with the help of everyone including the government, we hope the numbers come down."
Mumbai: Actress Rani Mukerji, who attended the trailer launch of her upcoming film Hichki on Tuesday, says that "speech impairment" is not a subject but a reality that most people live with in real life.

When asked if talking about the speech impairment issue with the movie will help bring awareness, she said: "First of all, I would like to say this isn't a subject but a part of many lives."

"The people who suffer from the syndrome are challenged in every part of their lives. During research for the role, I met many kids who suffered from it and their parents, they haven't been able to come out properly in India.

"If you look at America, where there are stand up comedians, who step forward and took their 'turrets' in their act, in their comic format. So now when we start talking about it in India, I am sure lot more people will come forward and talk about their experience," added Rani.

Rani Mukerji also informed that her performance in the movie also comes from a very personal space as she used to stammer in her childhood.

"I used to stammer when I was a kid and my mom was also facing the same thing. My elder brother still does. I have overcome the issue a lot because as an actress I have to say many dialogues, express many emotions and stammering usually takes place and is highly noticeable when you are emotionally affected," she said.

"I had to control it a lot and work a lot on it but the good thing is, if you can overcome it you can make your weakness your strength," added Rani.

Hichki traces the journey of a teacher who suffers from Turrets syndrome. Students make fun of the side-effects of her disease and schools do not agree to hire her.

Finally, she gets admitted to one of the schools but has to deal with a set of municipal students who no one wants to teach.

When asked if there were any other films offered to her after Mardaani, she said: "I don't remember as such but after pregnancy when I decided and said that I want to do a film, I was offered 'Hichki'."

Hichki is directed by Siddharth P Malhotra and produced by Maneesh Sharma under the banner of Yash Raj Films.

The film celebrates self-belief, the resilience of human spirit and hope. The film is about turning disadvantages into opportunities and staring down at challenges and ultimately winning over them.

It is slated for a February 23, 2018 release.
New Delhi: The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government on Wednesday began testing of anti-smog gun, a machine that sprays water into the air, amid concerns over the alarming level of air pollution in the national capital.

According to ANI, the test trial of anti-smog gun was done near Anand Vihar Bus Station, where air quality presently remained 'hazardous' at 414.

Delhi: Anti-smog gun being tested near Anand Vihar Bus Station. Anand Vihar's AQI presently 'Hazardous' at 414 (source AQICN) pic.twitter.com/crA2331tlk  ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2017

The trial run is being conducted by the Department of Environment and Delhi Pollution Control Committee.

Delhi Environment Minister Imran Hussain is believed to be monitoring the test trial of the anti-smog gun.

With Delhi grappling with deteriorating air quality, the AAP government had recently announced to begin a test trial of anti-smog gun.

Pollution levels in the national capital usually remain poor during winters primarily due to stubble burning from adjoining districts and rapid drop in temperature coupled with high moisture content, factors that trap particulates near the surface.

Anti-smog gun is a device which is used to sprays atomised water into the atmosphere to reduce air pollution.

Connected to a water tank and mounted on a vehicle, the device could be taken across the city to spray water to settle the dust and other suspended particles.

Besides this, the Delhi government is mulling a series of other measures such as conversion of two-wheelers to electric vehicles, and banning diesel generator sets as part of its air action plan.
New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the Consumer Protection Bill, 2017, paving the way for its introduction in Parliament.

Cabinet approves introduction of Consumer Protection Bill, 2017 and withdrawal of Consumer Protection Bill, 2015; to enlarge scope of the existing Consumer Protection Act and make it more effective and purposeful. ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2017

Once approved by Parliament, the new law will replace the current Consumer Protection Act, 1986. The main objective of the Bill remains establishment of the mechanism for consumer protection.

It proposes to have Consumer Dispute Redressal Commissions, which will be set up at the district, state and national levels. Also, it seeks the formation of Consumer Protection Authority to investigate consumer complaints.

The Bill, originally drafted in 2015 and tabled in the Lok Sabha last year, was subsequently sent to the Standing Committee on Food and Consumer Affairs.

Highlights of the Bill

-The Bill replaces the Consumer Protection Act, 1986. The Bill enforces consumer rights, and provides a mechanism for redressal of complaints regarding defect in goods and deficiency in services.

-Consumer Dispute Redressal Commissions will be set up at the district, state and national levels for adjudicating consumer complaints.

-The Bill establishes a Consumer Protection Authority to investigate into consumer complaints, issue safety notices for goods and services, and pass orders for recall of goods and against misleading advertisements.

-If a consumer suffers an injury from a defect in a good, he may file a claim of product liability against the manufacturer. The consumer must establish seven conditions in order to prove such a claim.

-The Bill classifies six contract terms as unfair. These cover terms such as (i) payment of excessive security deposits; (ii) disproportionate penalty for a breach ; (iii) unilateral termination without cause; (iv) one which puts the consumer at a disadvantage.
New Delhi: The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) revealed that a nest of the globally endangered Asian giant softshell turtle was discovered on a sandbar on the Mekong river in Cambodia.

This is the only remaining area in the country where these huge turtles still breed. This nest is now under the protection of native communities until all the eggs hatch and the hatchlings are released into the river.

The IUCN Red List has listed the Asian giant softshell turtle or Pelochelys cantorii as globally endangered.

Believed to have gone extinct in the Cambodian portion of the Mekong river, the species was rediscovered in 2007 in a 48-km river stretch in Kratie and Stung Treng provinces.

The Mekong Turtle Conservation Project, formerly managed by Conservation International, was transferred to the WCS this year, with collaboration from the Fisheries Administration and the Turtle Survival Alliance.

The community-based protection programme encourages the participation of the communities living in Kratie and Stung Treng provinces by hiring former nest collectors to search for and protect nests, instead of harvesting the eggs.

Since 2007, a total of 378 nests have been protected and 8,528 hatchlings released.

"From now until June is the breeding period of the Asian giant softshell turtle. This is the first nest we have found so far this year. We will work hard with the Fisheries Administration and local communities to find more nests along the Mekong river and protect them from egg collection," Som Sitha, WCS's Technical Advisor to the Turtle Conservation Project, said.

"The Asian giant softshell turtle is a very rare species that will become extinct in the near future if we do not take proper action to conserve them. There are not many individuals left. Everyone can help conserve the species by not buying or eating their meat or eggs."

(With IANS inputs)
Brussels: The European Commission said Wednesday that it wants a post-Brexit transition period, during which Britain must continue to obey EU rules, to finish at the end of 2020.

Chief EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said that "all EU policies will still apply" during the transition to a new relationship between London and Brussels after Britain leaves the bloc in March 2019.

British Prime Minister Theresa May, who headed off a new parliamentary rebellion over Brexit as Barnier spoke, faces a fresh row over the proposed EU timeline as she has called for a transition period that is three months longer.

The development comes after EU leaders signed off last week on the first stage of Brexit negotiations, ending more than a year of stalemate over Britain`s bill for leaving the bloc, as well as the fate of the Irish border and EU expatriates.

"From our point of view the logical end should be December 31, 2020," Barnier said at a press conference in Brussels as he presented the new Brexit negotiating guidelines produced by the commission, the EU`s executive arm.

This would coincide with the end of the EU`s seven-year budget for 2014 to 2020, he said, avoiding potentially thorny negotiations on how much Britain should pay for the extra few months in 2021 that would be necessary under May`s proposal.Talks on the post-Brexit transition period are to start in January, while negotiations on the future relationship between Britain and the EU, including steps towards an eventual trade deal, are due to begin in March.

The EU has said it wants to have a free trade deal with Britain ready to go at the start of 2021, as soon as the transition ends.

"The transition period is useful and will enable Britain to get prepared for the kind of challenges that they will have to face, and to prepare also for the complications of the new relationship," Barnier said.

But the veteran French politician warned that Britain would have to stick to EU laws throughout the transition period, even new ones passed after it had left the bloc, and obey rules on free movement.

"This cannot be an a la carte transition period -- all EU policies will still apply," Barnier said. "The UK will keep all of the benefits, but also all of the obligations and duties of the single market, the customs union and our common policies."

Eurosceptic hardliners in May`s Conservative party have insisted that Britain should take back control of its borders and no longer be subject to the European Court of Justice from March 2019 onwards.

Barnier appeared to throw the Brexiteers a bone on one of their key issues, however, saying that while Britain would be excluded from talks on fishing quotas during the transition, there would be "specific procedural arrangements" to give it a voice.The next phase comes as Barnier ruffled feathers in London on Tuesday with a warning that any ties after Brexit would inevitably result in Britain`s financial companies losing full rights to trade across the bloc.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde said in London on Wednesday that Britain`s economy was "losing out" as a result of last year`s vote to leave the EU, but that any post-Brexit trade deal could help ease the pain.

But May faces difficulties merely getting Brexit through parliament, after suffering a humiliating defeat last week by pro-European members of her own Conservative party, who voted to ensure parliament has the final say on any divorce deal with Brussels.

She looks set to avoid a second parliamentary rebellion over plans to enshrine Brexit day in law, by agreeing to another amendment giving some flexibility to move the date -- March 29, 2019 -- if negotiations with the EU go down to the wire.

May told parliament that any delay to Britain`s departure from the EU "would only be in extremely exceptional circumstances and it would only be for the shortest possible time."

May has already accepted in theory that the ECJ will continue to have jurisdiction and that London will have no legal basis to conclude its own trade deals during transition the period.

Influential pro-Brexit lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg criticised these conditions as "rather hostile", leaving the UK "no more than a vassal state, a colony, a serf of the European Union".
Ahmedabad: Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani, who emerged victorious in the assembly elections held in Gujarat, on Wednesday attacked the winning party BJP, saying its pride has been crushed despite being in power for several years in the western state.

''They were claiming they'll win 150 seats but that pride has been crushed,'' Mevani was quoted as saying by ANI.

Reacting to PM Narendra Modi's message to the party cadres to woo more voters and focus on the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Mevani said, ''Same will happen in 2019, it is a victory for our movement.''

Jignesh Mevani, who won from Gujarat's Vadgam assembly constituency, said, ''In the coming days, we will intensify our movement in the state assembly and on streets.''

Mevani further warned that the ruling BJP will be confronted again in the 2019 polls.

They were claiming they'll win 150 seats but that pride has been crushed, same will happen in 2019, it is a victory for our movement.In coming days, will intensify our movement in Assembly & on streets, will also corner them in 2019: Jignesh Mewani, who won from #Gujarat's Vadgam pic.twitter.com/DfJ3uCxCaM December 20, 2017

Mevani had contested the elections as an independent candidate from the Vadgam constituency.

The 36-year-old lawyer-activist is the head of the Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch and shot to prominence after the flogging incident in Una in July 2016.

Four Dalit men had been flogged on suspicion of having killed a cow.

(With ANI inputs)
New Delhi: The newly elected BJP MLAs of Gujarat are likely to meet in Gandhinagar on December 22 to elect their leader who would be the next chief minister of the key western state, party sources said on Wednesday.

Union Minister Arun Jaitley and party general secretary Saroj Pandey, who have been appointed central observers for the election, will hold consultations with the MLAs before the new chief minister is announced.

Though incumbent Vijay Rupani continues to be the favourite for the coveted job, there is speculation about his continuance given the BJP's narrow victory in its bastion.

The BJP has 99 seats in the 182-member Assembly, seven more than the 92 required for forming a government but its lowest in a long time. The Congress and its pre-poll allies have 80 seats, with the main opposition party having 77.

BJP chief Amit Shah had said during the campaign that the elections would be fought under Rupani. Since Modi was the face of the BJP in the keenly fought electoral battle, a last minute change cannot be completely ruled out, sources said.

Many in the party wonder if the top leadership would go for somebody from the Patidar community, as the party prepares for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Though the Patidars have traditionally backed the BJP, a section led by young community leader Hardik Patel turned against the party over the quota issue.

The BJP leadership's propensity for springing a surprise while making its choices for top positions, be it a chief minister or the president, has left many guessing if someone new will be chosen to helm the state.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and Manohar Lal Khattar and Trivendra Singh Rawat, his Haryana and Uttarakhand counterparts, were all surprise choices. So was President Ramnath Kovind.

Even Rupani was seen as a surprise choice when the party decided to replace Anandiben Patel last year. While many thought Nitin Patel was an obvious replacement of Anandiben, he was eventually made the deputy chief minister.

Rupani is known to be close to Amit Shah, has a clean image, and is seen as caste neutral, qualities which may finally tilt the scales in his favour.
Rakhine province of Myanmar is of strategic importance to India as India is involved in several infrastructure projects to counter Chinese influence.

Millions of Rohingya muslims have fled Myanmar after an operation by MyanmarAaas military in Rakhine province

By Geeta Mohan: India has stood by its commitment to help bring back normalcy in the crisis affected Rakhine province in Myanmar by signing a Memorandum of Undertaking (MoU) on Rakhine state development program. The MoU was signed by the Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and Myanmar's Deputy Minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement U Soe Aung.

"This MoU is the first Government to Government agreement signed by the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement of Myanmar with a cooperation partner focused on socio-economic development and livelihood initiatives in Rakhine State. This is intended to help the Government of Myanmar achieve its objective of restoration of normalcy in Rakhine State and enable the return of displaced persons", the MEA statement said.

advertisement

The meeting and the proposal comes at the back of massive exodus of the Rohingyas from the Rakhine State because of the military operation in the region. It led to colossal destruction of property, loss of lives and rendering over six lakh Rohingya population as refugees in Bangladesh.

The Rakhine State is of strategic importance to India since there are ongoing infrastructural projects that need to be completed and came up for discussions during the Foreign Secretary's meetings with various officials and the leadership.

"Issues regarding the operation and maintenance of Sittwe port and the road from Paletwa- Zorinpui were reviewed. Other key projects such as the Rhi- Tiddim road project, the Trilateral Highway road from Kalewa to Yargyi, the project to build 69 bridges on the Tamu-Kyigone-Kalewa road, the Yamethin Police Training Centre and hospital projects, etc., were also discussed", said the statement.

India has proposed "a project to build prefabricated housing in Rakhine State so as to meet the immediate needs of returning people."

Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar who was on a day's visit to Myanmar on December 20 held meetings with the top-most leadership of Myanmar as a follow up to the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the country in September this year.

During his visit Foreign Secretary called on the State Counsellor of Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi as well along with other top leaders of Myanmar.

India seeks China's response as pollution in Brahmaputra increases

--- ENDS ---
Dwarka: Prime Minister Narendra Modi brother's Prahlad visited Dwarkadhish Temple on Wednesday to offer prayers after BJP's win.

Surmounting the incumbency factor, attempted caste-based social engineering by the Congress and perceived anger over the GST, the BJP clinched the Gujarat Assembly polls sixth time in a row on December 18, winning 99 seats in the 182-member House.

The saffron party's tally, however, was 16 less than 115 in the previous election. It is also for the first time it has slipped below the 100 mark since the BJP formed its maiden government on its own in 1995. It was in a coalition government with the Janata Dal in 1990 but the two parted ways soon.

The Congress, which had won 61 seats in the previous elections, made handsome gains, adding 16 seats to its tally.

Reacting to the results, BJP chief Amit Shah said that though the BJP lost about 15 seats, its vote share rose by a little over 1 percent to 49.1 percent compared to the 2012 Assembly polls.

The Congress's vote share also went up to 41.4 percent - a two percent increase.

Though the number of seats won by the Congress and its vote share went up significantly with assistance from three young turks - Patidar, OBC and Dalit leaders Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mewani - it was not enough to unseat the BJP.

The BJP's strong showing in cities like Ahmedabad, Surat and Rajkot, having a large concentration of the trading community, can be seen as an endorsement of PM Modi's economic reform agenda.

There were a few setbacks for the BJP on its way to triumph, with five of its ministers, including two of the Cabinet rank - Chimanbhai Saparia and Atmaram Parmar losing.

Significantly, the ruling BJP lost Unjha seat of Mehsana district, a constituency which includes PM Modi's hometown Vadnagar.

A clutch of senior Congress leaders, including Shaktisinh Gohil, Arjun Modhvadia, Siddarth Patel and Tushar Chaudhary, also lost.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani retained the Rajkot West seat, defeating Congress' Indranil Rajyaguru by over 53,000 votes. Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel defeated Congress candidate Jivabhai Patel in Mehsana.

The BJP's tally of seats was the highest in the 2002 Assembly polls when the party had won 127 seats. It had clinched 121 in 1995, 117 in 1998, 117 in 2007 and 115 in 2012.

The seat tally of 77 this time is the Congress' highest since 1995 when it had won 45 seats. The party clinched 53 seats in 1998, 51 in 2002, 59 in 2007 and 61 in 2012.

(With PTI inputs)
Hyderabad: In a shocking incident, the dead body of a 21-year-old woman was chewed by rats at the Osmania General Hospital here.

According to ANI, the body of the young woman was kept in the mortuary of Osmania General Hospital where it was allegedly disfigured by rats.

Hyderabad: Body of a 21-year-old woman stored in mortuary of Osmania General Hospital allegedly chewed by rats pic.twitter.com/j9Gg8OVGoz  ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2017

As per a report published in a leading south Indian daily, the young woman, U Madhu, had committed suicide by hanging herself at her home in Mangaar Basti in Habeebnagar on Monday night.

She was taken to the hospital for post-mortem the same night by the police who registered a case of suspicious death.

After the post-mortem, her dead body was shifted to the hospital's mortuary.

In view of allegations of negligence b her close relatives, the hospital authorities said a probe into the matter has been launched.

''I went to the forensic department and found that all freezers are working in good conditions, no holes for rats to enter. Maybe they didn't properly close door while putting body in. It doesn't occur frequently,'' DR B Narendher, the hospital superintendent, was quoted as saying by ANI.

''We are conducting a departmental inquiry,'' he added.

I went to forensic dept & found that all freezers are working in good conditions, no holes for rats to enter. Maybe they didn't properly close door while putting body in. It doesn't occur frequently. We are conducting departmental inquiry: DR. B Narendher, hospital superintendent pic.twitter.com/MrlYiNelYv  ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2017

Interestingly, several other bodies were kept in the morgue, but only Madhus body was disfigured.

Osmania General Hospital is a prominent major government hospital in Hyderabad.

(With Agency inputs)
New Delhi: After a bitterly fought election campaign in Gujarat, where his party was emerged second to Bhartiya Janata Party, Congress President Rahul Gandhi will reach Ahmedabad on Wednesday for a three-day review meeting of the party. Several senior Congress leaders are expected to take part in the meeting as well.

The main objective of the meeting is expected to be scrutinising the results of the Gujarat assembly elections. Despite not being in power here for 22 years, Congress managed to put up a better show than most expected - even though the final outcome went against it. Congress won 80 seats as against BJP's 99 in the 182-seat assembly.

While BJP has termed the win a celebration of development in the state, Rahul Gandhi too may not be too perturbed. On Tuesday, he said his party had campaigned with dignity. "My Congress brothers and sisters, you have made me very proud. You are different than those you fought because you fought anger with dignity. You have demonstrated to everyone that the Congress's greatest strength is its decency and courage," he wrote on Twitter.

BJP though has accused Congress of taking the political discourse to new lows. Amit Shah, BJP chief, in particular attacked senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar for calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi neech. Others like Union Minister Smriti Irani said that the 'stunt' of visiting temples did not work for Rahul Gandhi.

Rahul Gandhi had taken part in 30 rallies across the state and had visited 11 temples in the run-up to the elections which were conducted in two phases. He began the campaign as the party's Vice-President before taking over the top post from his mother Sonia Gandhi. Now, the President is expected to take stock of all that went wrong in the Gujarat polls, and possibly assess what may have worked as well.
New Delhi: Ahead of Friday's crucial India-China border talks, Beijing has raked up the Dokalam stand-off issue, saying lessons should be learnt from it to avoid a similar "conflict" in the future.

''The Doklam border standoff posed a "major test" for the bilateral ties,'' Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying had said in a statement.

The remarks from Hua Chunying came ahead of the 20th round of India-China border talks which are expected to be held this week in New Delhi between National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and China's State Councillor Yang Jiechi who are designated as Special representatives.

Though the talks are scheduled for December 22, no official announcement has not been made in this regard as yet from both sides.

The two sides attach significance to this round of talks as it would be the first round of talks since the 73-day Doklam standoff in the Sikkim section which ended on August 28.

"This special representative meeting is not only a high- level channel for the border issue discussion but also the platform for strategic communication," Hua Chunying had said during a media briefing.

Chinas State Councillor and one of their top diplomats Yang Jiechi are expected to arrive in the national capital today for the meeting.

Asked about the impact of Doklam stand-off on the talks, Hua said the issue also figured in the recent visit of foreign minister Wang Yi to New Delhi to take part in the foreign ministers' meeting of Russia, India, China (RIC).

On its sidelines, Wang also held talks with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj and President Ram Nath Kovind.

Wang in his meeting with Indian counterpart also touched about the Doklam issue, Hua said.

Besides attempting to resolve the vexed border dispute, the format of the India-China Special Representatives talks covered the whole gamut of relations between the two countries including political, strategic, economic and trade issues.

The 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC) covers from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh. Of this, 220-km section falls in Sikkim. The two sides so far held 19 rounds of special representatives talks to resolve the dispute.

Officials say Wang's visit, the first by a top Chinese official after the Doklam standoff and the starting of the second term of Chinese President Xi Jinping in October facilitated a more candid and frank talks between the two countries to tide over most contentious between the two countries beyond the diplomatic niceties.

They said that though a solution to the border dispute still eludes the two countries, a lot of headway has been made in the 19th round of talks in terms of working out mechanisms to restore peace and tranquillity along the border to resolve tensions out of the aggressive patrolling by troops.

The Doklam standoff began on June 16 over PLA's plans to build a road in an area claimed by Bhutan after the Indian troops intervened to stop it as it posed a security risk to Chicken Neck, the narrow corridor connecting India with its North-eastern states.

India has pointed Sino-Indian differences over the tri-junction between India, China and Bhutan in the Sikkim section which is yet to be settled.

The standoff ended on August 28 following a mutual agreement between India and China.

China, which earlier opened the Nathu La route for Indian pilgrims to visit Kailash and Mansarovar, has closed it after the Doklam standoff and yet to open it.
New Delhi: Army personnel guarding the over 4,000 km-long Indo-China border will now get the benefit of the liberalised family pension, the defence ministry announced on Wednesday.

At present, the liberalised family pension is given to army personnel deployed along the Line of Control and International Border (IB) with Pakistan.

"Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has approved that the same benefit of Liberalised Family Pension be extended to Army Personnel working along Line of Actual Control (LAC) along India-China borders," the defence ministry said in a statement.

It said the Liberalised Family Pension provides for 100 per cent of last "reckonable" emoluments in comparison to normal family pension which provides for 30 per cent of the last "reckonable" emoluments.

The move comes months after Chinese and Indian troops were locked in a 73-day border standoff from June 16 when Indian soldiers stopped Chinese personnel from building a key road close to India's 'chicken's neck' corridor.

The ministry said Liberalised Family Pension covers accidental death or injury sustained due to natural calamities such as flood, avalanches, landslides, cyclone, fire and lightening or drowning in river while performing operational duties or movements in action against enemy forces and armed hostilities in operational area.
Islamabad: Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Wednesday backed Mumbai attack mastermind and JU(D) chief Hafiz Saeed and said that he can play an 'active' role in 'resolving' the 'Kashmir issue', as every other citizen of Pakistan.

Bajwa, speaking at an 'in-camera session' of the Senate Committee of the Whole in Islamabad, deliberated on a wide range of topics from politics to counter-terrorism operations and foreign policy.

When asked about Saeed's role in fighting for the country, especially the 'Kashmiri issue', Bajwa said, "Like every other Pakistani, Saeed can also take up the Kashmir cause," ANI reported.

His statement has come close on the heels of former Pakistan president General Parvez Musharraf declaring support for the terror outfit.

The 74-year-old retired general who is in self-exile in Dubai had said that Mumbai attack mastermind Saeed "is involved in Kashmir" and he supports their involvement.

"They (LeT) are the biggest force. India got them declared as terrorists after partnering with the US. Yes, they (LeT) are involved in Kashmir but in Kashmir, it is between us and India," Musharraf had said.

On the other hand, Saeed has said that his organisation will contest the 2018 general elections in Pakistan under the banner of the Milli Muslim League, which is yet to be registered with the Election Commission.

The JuD floated the MML in August 2017 to mark its entry into politics, promising to make Pakistan "a real Islamic and welfare state".

Saeed, who has a USD 10 million American bounty on his head for terror activities, was freed by Pakistan on November 24.

Meanwhile, India on November 24, 2017, had warned Saeed to be prepared for a "resounding response" as he pledged to continue "jihad" in Jammu and Kashmir after a Pakistani court ended house arrest.

The statement Saeed made after his release in Lahore was a "re-articulation of the agenda of terrorist constituency", a Home Ministry official had said, as per IANS.

"The principal and consistent stand of the government of India is that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India. Recent statements of Saeed are simply a re-articulation of the agenda of the terrorist constituency which thrives across the border," he had said.

"Such statements have been made repeatedly in the past and each time they have received an appropriate and resounding response on the ground from the people as well as law enforcement agencies," the official had added without elaborating.

(With Agency inputs)
New Delhi: In a statement which is not likely to go down well with majority Hindus and the saints and seers, Union Minister Satyapal Singh on Wednesday urged people to bury ashes in the grounds and plant saplings on it.

Talking to reporters, Singh said, ''As per present situation, I appeal to everyone, ashes must be buried in ground and saplings should be planted on it, so even coming generations can remember (the deceased).''

As per present situation, I appeal to everyone, ashes must be buried in ground & saplings should be planted on it, so even coming generations can remember (the deceased). I urge all priests, associated with rituals, to create awareness among ppl over it: Satyapal Singh,Union Min pic.twitter.com/EtQZdeKvhX  ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2017

''I urge all priests, associated with rituals, to create awareness among people over it,'' the minister said.

When asked to comment that his statement would trigger a controversy, Singh said, ''People have beliefs, but it is the demand of today's time to revisit them, we must not do anything that affects the purity of Ganga.''

The senior BJP minister, who was also a former Police Commissioner of Mumbai, had in past made several controversial statements, triggering a row.

Addressing a gathering of linguists, foreign students and local politicians at the Central Hindi Institute, Singh recently said, ''Only Hindi language can unite the country."

Singh had also raised many eyebrows by saying that "men will not want to marry women who wear jeans".

The statement from the Minister of State for Human Resource Development came during a meeting that was held in Gorakhpur last week.

The minister made the controversial remarks during the concluding ceremony of the foundation day of Maharana Pratap Siksha Parishad (MPSP), the academic venture of Gorakhnath temple.

The meeting was also attended by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who was sharing the stage with the minister.

No boy will be ready to marry a girl who comes to the mandap (wedding stage) in jeans, He added that no saint will be revered if he gives up his traditional attire and wears jeans.

The minister, with his comments, has joined a long list of politicians and institutions that have earlier come under the spotlight for their sexist comments.

Earlier, during the UP Assembly election campaign, BJP leader Vinay Katiyar had commented about Priyanka Gandhis electoral campaign by saying that his party also had 'more women campaigners who were more beautiful than Priyanka Gandhi'.

Another leader, Abu Azmi of Samajwadi Party had grabbed headlines after he blamed women who wore half dress while reacting about the mass molestation that occurred in Bengaluru during last year's New year eve celebrations.

(With Agency inputs)
NEW DELHI: A day after Bharatiya Janata Party's victory in the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Party chief Amit Shah will address party cadres at its parliamentary meet on Wednesday.

All elected lawmakers are present at the parliamentary meet, which began at around 10 am today.

One of the chief agendas to be picked up in this meeting is the Chief Ministerial faces of Gujarat and Himachal.

BJP managed to pull a landslide victory in the hill state, but Chief Ministerial candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal lost his Sujanpur constituency to Congress. State chief Satpal Singh Satti also lost his seat.

Their defeat has put a question mark on the face of the next chief minister.

Union minister JP Nadda, newly-elected BJP MLA Jairam Thakur have now emerged as the frontrunners of Himachal CM's post.

The BJP high command, on Monday evening, reportedly appointed Sitharaman and Tomar as Central observers for the hill state, with party chief Amit Shah briefed them.

Meanwhile in Gujarat, the BJP  which managed to retain power for a record sixth time  is mulling a course correction after losing several seats to arch-rivals Congress.

The party leadership is reportedly considering a new face to replace the incumbent Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, despite his victory from the Rajkot West seat.

Among the names floating around are Textiles and Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Minister Smriti Irani and Union Minister of State for Road Transport & Highways and Shipping Mansukh L Mandaviya.

Irani, however, has denied being a contender for the CM's post.

Senior party leader Nitin Patel and Vajubhai Vala, the incumbent governor of Karnataka and former Speaker of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly, are also among the frontrunners for the top job, according to sources.

The new BJP government in Gujarat is likely to be sworn in on December 25
NEW DELHI: A court has directed Jet Airways to pay a compensation of Rs 50,000 to a passenger who discovered a button in the in-flight meal.

The incident occurred in 2014 on a New Delhi- Ahmedabad flight.

The passenger identified as Hemant Desai filed a case in a consumer court after he found a button in the garlic bread while travelling in the business class.

The court also ordered the airline to pay Rs 50,000 as reimbursement to the passenger for his legal expenses.

Earlier in the day, a passenger took to Twitter to complain about a cockroach on a food plate at Air India's lounge for premium passengers at the Delhi airport, forcing the airline to apologise.

"Dear @airindiain cockroaches on food plates at your Delhi Lounge for business and first class passengers. Disgusting," Harinder Baweja, a journalist by profession, tweeted along with a picture of a roach on her plate.

The airline apologised for the incident on the micro blogging site and said the catering services provider had been asked to take corrective measures.

"We are sorry to hear this, Ms Harinder...We have alerted the agency managing lounge at T3 (Terminal 3). Necessary corrective measures are being taken immediately. We deeply apologise for this incident," it responded in a series of tweets.

An airline source said that Air India subsidiary Hotel Corporation of India, which manages Centaur group of hotels, provides catering services at its lounge.
MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court bench in Goa on Wednesday dismissed former Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpal's plea to acquit him of rape and other charges.

Tejpal has been accused of sexually assaulting his colleague in a five-star hotel during a "ThinkFest" event organised by the Tehelka magazine in Goa in 2013.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court gave a green light to the High Court to go ahead with the trial proceedings of Tejpal.

The journalist was charged with rape, sexual harassment and wrongful restraint by the court in September. He was charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code.

Tejpal had moved the Panaji bench of the Bombay High Court challenging the framing of charges against him by the trial court.
By PTI: with Oman

New Delhi, Dec 20 (PTI) The Indian Navy deployed a submarine and the P8I long-range maritime aircraft for the first time for a bilateral naval exercise with the Omani navy, according to an official statement here today.

The 11th edition of the exercise, Naseem Al Bahr or Sea Breeze, was held on December 17 off the coast of Oman.

advertisement

The exercise is a biennial feature since 1993.

The Indian Navy also deployed two naval ships - INS Trikand and INS Teg - for the exercise. The Indian ships entered Muscat on December 16 for the harbour phase.

"Delegations from the Royal Navy of Oman embarked on the Indian Naval Ship Teg on December 18 for a briefing on basic anti-submarine warfare procedures," the Indian Navy said in the statement.

The Indian Navy ships and four Royal Navy of Oman ships - Al Rasikh, Khassab, Al Mubashir and Al Bushra - sailed for the sea phase of the exercise, in which an Indian Navy submarine and the versatile P8I long-range maritime aircraft participated for the first time, according to the statement.

India has an ancient maritime tradition and maritime interaction with Oman dating back to more than 4,000 years.

Bilateral relations between Indian and Oman were formally established with the signing of the 1953 Indo-Oman Treaty of Friendship, Navigation and Commerce, a first between India and an Arab country.

Since then, naval exercises have contributed to strengthening bilateral ties between India and Oman. PTI PR ABH

--- ENDS ---
NEW DELHI: Reaching out to party cadres two days after BJP's victory in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked all party members to ignore negative criticism from Opposition and focus on future victories.

The Prime Minister was speaking at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s Parliamentary meet on Wednesday morning. The meeting was also attended by BJP chief Amit Shah and party MPs.

The Prime Minister, in an emotional victory speech, thanked all members for their victories in Gujarat and Himachal. Work on winning new millennial voters, he added.

Briefing the media about the meet, senior party member Ananth Kumar said that PM Modi asked party members not be distracted by Opposition.

PM said our booth level workers, with the support of people, must tread towards victory and should not be distracted by what opposition is saying about credibility and the low-level comments they are making, said Kumar after BJP Parliamentary Party Meeting.

He further added, PM Modi said that work should be done to bring youth forward on every platform. PM spoke about new millennium voters, those born after 2012, who will be 18 next year. He said new generation should be involved in services for country, society & development.

One of the chief agendas to be picked up in this meeting is the Chief Ministerial faces of Gujarat and Himachal. However, no information about the same was revealed.

BJP, which pulled a landslide victory in the hill state, managed to scrape through Gujarat while facing tough opposition from the Congress.

Last week, the Prime Minister kickstarted BJP's campaign in poll-bound Meghalaya and Mizoram with two massive public rallies in Aizwal and Shillong.
New Delhi: India has issued demarches to both Pakistan and China conveying its position on the construction of dams on the Indus river in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) by the Pakistani government with assistance committed to these projects by China, the government said on Wednesday.

Replying to a written question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh said India has a clear and consistent position that these territories are illegally occupied by Pakistan and that any collaborative activity there is in violation of India's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"Accordingly, we have made demarches to both Pakistan and China conveying the position. The government continues to maintain this position," Singh said.

Replying to a separate question on China's 'One Belt One Road' (OBOR) initiative, Singh said the government has clearly articulated its firm belief that connectivity initiatives must be "based on universally recognised international norms, good governance, rule of law...And must be pursued in a manner that respects sovereignty and territorial integrity".

He also asserted that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is being projected as a flagship project of OBOR initiative, passes through parts of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir which has been in illegal occupation of Pakistan since 1947.

"The government has conveyed to the Chinese side, including at the highest level, its concerns about China's activities in PoK and asked them to cease these activities," the minister added.

India has also strongly conveyed its position at multilateral and international fora where issues related to OBOR/CPEC have been raised.

Recently, Russia asked India to find a way out to join OBOR without compromising on its position.

Responding to yet another question, Singh said in view of the significance of the Sino-India relationship, both sides are working towards utilising their bilateral dialogue mechanisms to promote mutually beneficial cooperation, and enhancing communication at all levels in order to build greater trust and understanding.

He also said that both India and China agree that the progress in bilateral relations should be guided by the consensus reached between their leaders and that at a time of global uncertainty, India-China relations are a factor of stability and the two countries, in their relationship, must not allow differences to become disputes.
NEW DELHI: A city court on Wednesday sentenced former TV producer Suhaib Ilyasi to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife.

Ilyasi, the former television presenter of once popular criminal hunt show 'India's Most Wanted', was earlier convicted by the Karkardooma court in connection with the death of his wife, Anju Ilyasi, way back in the year 2000.

The order was passed by Additional Sessions Judge S K Malhotra. Suhaib was found guilty on the charge of murder under the Indian Penal Code.

Suhaib Ilyasi had been under scanner over his suspicious role in the murder of his wife for nearly seventeen years.

While deciding two separate pleas of Ilyasi and his mother-in-law, Rukma Singh, Justice Indermeet Kaur said, "The prima facie material collected by the prosecution justifies the framing of additional charge under Section 302 (murder) of IPC. The revision petition is disposed of with a direction to the trial court to frame an additional charge under Section 302 of IPC."

Ilyasi's mother-in-law Rukma Singh had sought inclusion of the additional charge of murder against him for her daughter's death on January 11, 2000.

Section 302 of Indian Penal Code entails death penalty as the maximum punishment.

Ilyasi was earlier charged under milder sections 304B (dowry death) of IPC and had moved the court against a decision of the police to form a fresh medical panel to ascertain the nature of his wife's death.

He had alleged that the formation of the medical board was illegal as it was being done after filing of a chargesheet and framing of charges for the offence of dowry death.

On January 11, 2000, Anju was rushed from Suhaib's east Delhi house to a hospital with fatal stab wounds.

Ilyasi, who had shot into limelight after hosting a TV crime show 'India's Most Wanted', was arrested on March 28, 2000.

Later, charges were framed against him in the case after his sister-in-law and mother-in-law alleged that he used to torture Anju for dowry.
New Delhi: Railways has received over 5,500 complaints over catering services in trains in the first seven months of the current financial year, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain said in Lok Sabha that 5,665 complaints were received by the railways between April 1-October 31 this year, over bad catering services.

According to the data provided by the minister, complaints regarding food have been on the up since 2014-2015. While only 7,055 complaints were received in 2014-2015, it rose to 8,708 in 2015-2016 and further to 10,437 the next year.

Complaints over the quality of food were the highest with 2,890 instances being registered with the national transporter, followed by complaints regarding over charging, misbehaviour, quantity of food, hygiene and other catering related issues.

"In its endeavour to provide quality and hygienic food to the passengers, railways have developed and operationalised and institutionalised mechanism for monitoring of quality and hygiene if catering services through regular inspections at various levels to address catering complaints", Gohain said.

The minister stated that railways has taken a slew of actions against offending caterers -- it has fined 2,505, warned 1,305, terminated the services of 12, suitably advised 440, initiated disciplinary action against four and reprimanded 1,005 more -- in 2017.
Islamabad: Pakistan on Wednesday issued visa to Kulbhushan Jadhav's wife and mother to visit Islamabad to meet the Indian prisoner on death row on Monday.

"Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi issued the visas to the mother and wife of Commander Jadhav to visit Islamabad to meet him, today," Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal tweeted.

Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi issued the visas to the mother and wife of Commander Jadhav to visit Islamabad to meet him, today.  Dr Mohammad Faisal (@ForeignOfficePk) December 20, 2017

On December 17, 2017, Pakistan had said that the visa applications of Jadhav's family had been received and were being "processed".

Faisal had tweeted then saying that the 47-year-old Jadhav's mother and wife had applied for visas.

Visa applications of mother and wife of Commander Jadhav received for their visit on humanitarian grounds. Being processed.  Dr Mohammad Faisal (@ForeignOfficePk) December 16, 2017

Earlier, Pakistan had rejected India's plea for consular access to Jadhav at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), claiming that New Delhi wants the access to get the information gathered by its 'spy'.

In its counter-memorial submitted to the ICJ, Pakistan had said that the provision of such an access under the Vienna Convention was only for legitimate visitors and not for spies.

Pakistan had added that Jadhav was not an ordinary person as he had entered the country with the intent of 'spying' and carrying out 'sabotage activities'.

Jadhav was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of 'espionage' and 'terrorism' in April 2017, following which India moved the ICJ in May.

The ICJ halted his execution on India's appeal pending the final verdict by it.

Pakistan claims its security forces arrested Jadhav alias Hussein Mubarak Patel from its restive Balochistan province on March 3 last year after he reportedly entered from Iran.

India, however, maintains that Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the Indian Navy.

(With PTI inputs)
Jammu: Shiv Sena workers on Wednesday carried out a demonstration against Pakistan here to protest against alleged forced conversions of the minority Hindus in the country.

Led by Shiv Sena's state president Dimpy Kohli, the protesters sloganeered against Pakistan and burnt its effigy as they demanded the security of minority Hindus.

"We are warning the government of Pakistan not to allow anyone to harass the people of minority community otherwise the outcome will be bad for Pakistan," said Kohli.

Shiv Sena's General Secretary Manish Sahni said the people of the minority communities were "unsafe" in Pakistan.

"Pakistan is just not a terrorist country but also a cruel country. With each passing day, anti-social elements in Pakistan are harassing the minorities and are forcing them to change their religion to Islam," Sahni said.

He said it was "unfortunate" that none is coming forward to rescue the people of minority communities of their plight and appealed the Indian government to approach the United Nations for the security of Sikhs in Pakistan.
New Delhi: A total of 649 Indian scientists returned to the country to work in Indian institutes and universities over the last five years as against 243 during 2007-12, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

Minister of State for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences YS Chowdary termed the rise in the number as "significant".

"There is a significant increase in the number of Indian scientists returning to work in India during the last five years...The number of Indian scientists returned to India in the last five years (2012-17) stands at 649 as against 243 in the period 2007-12," Chowdary said in written reply to a question.

The minister said that the Department of Science and Technology (DST) through the Ramanujan Fellowship Scheme and the Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) Faculty Scheme provide attractive avenues to Indian researchers of high calibre, who are residing in foreign countries, to work in Indian institutes/universities.

Similarly, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has been offering Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship to attract Indian scientists to the country.

He said that the ministry did not have a mechanism to keep track or estimate the number of Indian scientists who leave the country to work abroad.
NEW DELHI: A delegation of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) members will meet Pakistan High Commission officials at on Wednesday evening to discuss the issue of forcible conversion of Sikhs in Pakistan.

The members of Sikh community in Hangu district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan are allegedly being 'forced to convert to Islam' by a government official.

An issue of forcible conversion (of Sikhs) in Pakistan has surfaced, a delegation of Akali Dal will have a meeting at the Pakistan High Commission this evening, over the issue, said SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal.

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday requested External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to take up the matter with Pakistani authorities.

Request @SushmaSwaraj ji to take up this issue with Pakistan. We cannot allow the Sikh community to be victimised in such a manner. Its our duty to help protect the Sikh identity and the @MEAIndia should pursue the matter at the highest levels.https://t.co/sRFjV1pk5Q  Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) December 19, 2017

Responding to it, Swaraj later tweeted:

We will take this up at the highest level with Government of Pakistan. @IndiainPakistan

Sikh community in Hangu being forced to convert https://t.co/HiWuVmBzbj  Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) December 19, 2017

According to a report in Pakistani media, members of the Sikh community in Hangu district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province told deputy commissioner Shahid Mehmood that assistant commissioner Tehsil Tall Yaqoob Khan was allegedly forcing Sikhs to embrace Islam.

Farid Chand Singh, who filed the complaint, was quoted as saying that community members were living in the area since 1901 and peacefully with Muslims. He said residents of Hangu district had never harmed the Sikh people.
New Delhi: Border guarding force SSB on Wednesday said it is "more alert", is enhancing its strength and establishing new border posts in Sikkim along the Bhutan frontier, next to Doklam region that recently saw a standoff between Indian and Chinese forces.

The paramilitary force--tasked with guarding the 699 km- long open border with Bhutan--however, said its role is only "restricted" upto the Bhutan frontier and Doklam was along the Sino-India border which is the mandate of other security forces.

"We are (deployed) just below the tri-junction (India- Bhutan-Tibet), on the southern part of it," SSB Director General (DG) Rajni Kant Mishra told reporters here on the occasion of the forces' 54th Raising Day.

"On the Bhutan border, in Sikkim, we are more alert and there is going to be a slightly increased strength on that border. We are going to get some BoPs (border outposts) and a battalion headquarter is also coming up there," Mishra said.

He was asked about the Sashastra Seema Bal's (SSB) preparations in view of the 73 day-long military standoff between the India and China in Doklam in last summer.

Mishra added that the location and land for the new BoP that will come up in Yuksom in Sikkim were cleared by the government in the past and this should not be seen as a development coming in the aftermath of the Doklam standoff.

"We have the sanctions to establish a total of 734 BoPs along both Nepal and Bhutan borders and we have 635 now on the ground," the DG said.

The new one coming up in Sikkim is in the pursuit to reach to the 734 BoPs target, he said.

With the establishment of the battalion headquarter and the BoP here, almost 1,000 more troops would be deployed in the area.

The DG said while he had no authority to speak on the Indo-China border, the force keeps itself "informed" about all the developments happening in its area of responsibility.

Mishra said Bhutan "has not shared anything" with them vis-a-vis the Doklam dispute or the situation on the tri-junction border, which is ahead of their deployment in the Sikkim region.

Taking questions on the influence of China in Nepal and some of its study centres functioning in the Himalayan country, the DG said the force is only concerned about those developments in the neighbourhood which have ramifications on the 1,751-km long India-Nepal border that they guard.

"The impact of Chinese interference on crimes (along India-Nepal border) has not been noticed in the past," he said.

Of course, the SSB chief said, infiltration of terrorist elements of other countries happened in the past where they used this border (India-Nepal) to enter into India.

"Any development that is going to affect our border population and any impact on trans-border crime is what we keep a watch on. It is too early to say anything about the impact on border crimes with the changing political situation in Nepal," he said.

Our mandate, he said, is to be present at the border and secure and serve the border population and to act against trans-border crimes.

"We have a very limited mandate to go into political developments across the border," he said.

Chinese and Indian troops were locked in the Doklam border standoff from June 16 when Indian troops stopped Chinese personnel from building a key road close to India's 'chicken's neck' corridor.

On August 28, India had announced the "disengagement" between the soldiers of the two countries.

The road was being built by China in an area also claimed by Bhutan.
NEW DELHI: Union minister Krishna Raj falls ill while attending the ongoing BJP parliamentary party meeting on Wednesday.

The incident took place in the Parliament's Library Building in New Delhi, where BJP high command were party members after their victories in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly elections.

Raj was rushed to nearby Ram Manohar Lal Hospital for treatment. She was carried out on a stretcher.

Raj is longtime Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member and the current Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

Union Minister JP Nadda was reportedly monitoring the situation.

With ANI inputs
By PTI: Hyderabad, Dec 20 (PTI) The President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hassan Rouhani has expressed his interest to travel to India and the two countries are preparing grounds for the visit, said Mohammed Haghbin Ghomi, the Consul General of Iran in Hyderabad.

"A great deal of progress has been made between the leaders of both the countries. The visit of the President of Iran is in response to Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi?s visit to Iran recently," the Iranian envoy said in a press conference.

advertisement

"In the west Asia region, India and Iran are two decisive powers that can cooperate in various fields complementarily," he added.

As part of strengthening of bilateral relations, focus would be on economic and business relations besides cultural affairs, he said.

The CG also said that the Iranian Government is presently working on a proposal from a private airline to connect Hyderabad and Iran by a direct flight.

He condemned the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and termed it as "imprudent and provocative".

The CG called on the international community, Islamic states in particular, to intervene and "stop the implementation of the US decision because it only serves the Zionist regime?s interests". PTI GDK BNM

--- ENDS ---
Washington: The US has concerns about JuD chief Hafiz Saeed running for office in Pakistan in 2018, a senior Trump Administration official has said.

The Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) head and LeT founder had earlier confirmed that his organisation Jammat-ud-Dawah will contest the 2018 general elections in Pakistan under the banner of the Milli Muslim League, which is yet to be registered with the Election Commission.

"Saeed, who was released by Pakistan from house arrest last November resulting in angry reaction from the US, was the "mastermind" of the Mumbai terrorist attacks and is leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba," State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said.

"It's a group that the US government considers to be a terror organisation. We have many conversations with the government of Pakistan. One of the things that happened recently was that this guy was held on house arrest. Pakistan released him from house arrest, and now there's word that he may be running for some sort of office," she said reporters here.

Saeed, who has a USD 10 million American bounty on his head for terror activities, was freed by Pakistan on November 24.

He is a UN and US designated terrorist.

"I want to remind folks, we have a USD 10 million Reward for Justice programme that would reward for information that would bring him to justice. So I want to make that clear, so that everybody knows -- USD 10 million, out for this guy. And we would certainly have concerns about him running for office," Nauert said.

The US had also strongly condemned the release of the Lashkar-e-Taiba leader from house arrest and had called for his immediate re-arrest and prosecution.

However, top Pakistani diplomats based in the US have said that there is no evidence against Saeed.

"I can tell you his organisation that was responsible for those attacks is considered a foreign terror organisation. It's considered a foreign terror organisation by the US government for a reason, and for a good reason," Nauert said.

"I would imagine that, if we had any intelligence, and that's not an area that I can discuss anyway, but we would certainly share it with the Pakistani's on that front. I hope they'll do the right thing," Nauert said.

"I hope that they will do the right thing and remind folks across Pakistan, we have a USD 10 million reward for this guy," the spokesperson said.

The banned JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Taiba which carried out the 2008 Mumbai terror attack in which 166 people were killed.
New Delhi: The Rajasthan High Court on Wednesday issued notices to Information and Broadcasting Ministry, Principal Secretary to Central government and Union Health Secretary asking why condom ads have been banned from television between 0600hrs and 2200hrs.

Seeking a reply, the High Court questioned the move to ban condom commercials from being telecast anytime except at post 2200hrs.

Last Monday, the government strictly asked TV channels not to air advertisements selling and promoting condoms because these are "indecent especially for children" and can create "unhealthy practices" among them.

(Also read: UK company unveils 'Smart Condom')

The advisory invoked Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994, banning an "advertisement which endangers the safety of children or creates in them any interest in unhealthy practices or shows them begging or in an undignified or indecent manner".

"In view of the above, all TV channels are hereby advised not to telecast the advertisements of condoms which are for a particular age group and could be indecent/inappropriate for viewing by children. Indecent, vulgar, suggestive, repulsive or offensive themes or treatment shall be avoided in all advertisements.

The move has been criticised by many. "I do believe indecent is a subjective word. Society has a way of accepting more and more indecent as it progresses. There are bodies that can look into it (commercials) and point out indecent pieces of advertising and those ads can be taken off. But to go and put condom advertising into a slot to be aired beyond the night hours is very counterproductive for a country like India, Harish Bijoor, 'Brand Guru' told Zeebiz.

There were 156 lakh abortions in India in 2015, Lancet Global Health report showed. Data from National Family Health Survey in 2015-16 revealed 450 lakh women are not using modern contraceptives.

India is one of the few nations in the world that registered a drop in contraceptive use from 56.3% in 2005-06 to 53.5% in 2015-16, the report showed.



(With agency inputs)
New Delhi: The government on Wednesday said there was no proposal as of now for the abolition of articles 35A and 370 which give special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

The reply came in response to the question posed by Akali Dal MP Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa about the status of abolishing Article 35A and Article 370.

"No proposal regarding abolition of Article 35A and Article 370 in respect of Jammu and Kashmir is at present under consideration of the government," Union Minister of State for Home Hansraj Ahir said replying to a written question.

Abrogation of Article 370, that gives autonomous status to Jammu and Kashmir, continues to be a part of the core ideology of the ruling BJP, but the party maintains that it does not have enough numbers in Parliament to do away with it.

In case of Section 35A, a writ petition was filed in the Supreme Court by an NGO seeking its abrogation.

The PIL said the Jammu and Kashmir government, under the guise of articles 35A and 370, were discriminating against non-residents who are debarred from buying properties, getting a government job or voting in the local elections.

Article 35A was added to the Constitution by a presidential order in 1954 and it empowers the state legislature to define the state's "permanent residents" and their special rights and privileges.

While the Jammu and Kashmir government contested the petition saying the president had the power to incorporate a new provision in the Constitution by way of an order, the Centre had expressed its reservations.

It filed a reply and requested the apex court to refer the matter to a larger bench as constitutional issues were involved in the case.

The matter is currently sub-judice.
Kolkata: Retired Kolkata High Court judge Justice CS Karnan, who was arrested and jailed in connection with a contempt of court case, will be released from Presidency Jail on Wednesday.

Justice Karnan was arrested by the Kolkata Police in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu on June 20 in connection with a contempt of court case.

He was later lodged in Kolkata's Presidency Jail after the Supreme Court refused to grant him interim bail.

A vacation bench of the apex court, headed by Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, had refused to suspend the six-month prison sentence for Justice Karnan in the case.

Mathew J Nedumpara, a lawyer appearing for Justice Karnan, mentioned the matter before the vacation bench of the top court.

Nedumpara pleaded to the apex court seeking bail and suspension of the six months jail sentence, to which the court observed, "The seven-judge bench had passed the order. It binds everybody. It binds us also."

The apex court had on May 19 rejected Justice Karnan's plea for recall of the six-month jail term for contempt of court, stating that the petition was "not maintainable" in the court.

"I am constrained, but to hold that the present writ petition is not maintainable. The relief, if any, lies somewhere else. I, thus, see no reasonable cause to receive the present writ petition for registration under the provisions of order XV, rule (5) of the Supreme Court rules, 2013," the Supreme Court Registrar said in the order.

Justice Karnan had approached the apex court seeking the recall of its order in which he was convicted and was sentenced to six-month imprisonment.

The top court took suo motu cognizance of numerous letters written by him against judges of the Madras High Court and the apex court and restrained him from exercising administrative and judicial powers from February 8.

Karnan is the first ever sitting judge of a higher court in judicial history to be sentenced to jail term.

(With ANI inputs)
Kolkata: Police have recovered the body of the 19-year-old girl, who went missing from her Kalighat accommodation since December 10.

The body of Sushmita Roy was recovered from the banks of river Hooghly in North Port area on Monday, police said.

She was later identified by her mother from her clothes and the tattoo she had, a police officer said.

Roy was a resident of Ghatshila in Jharkhand and had come to the city to pursue studies and was staying in Kalighat area.

The search was initiated after Roy's family had lodged a complaint with the Kalighat Police Station.

Family members of the girl have alleged that she had been receiving "threat calls" from unknown persons, he said.

According to the officer, the girl was probably having an affair with an unknown person from Ghatshila who may have played a role in her death.

"We are going through the call details of the girl's number and trying to find out whether she was in touch with anybody before she went missing. We have to find out whether she went out to meet somebody or not," he said.
Nagpur: NCP MLA and former Maharashtra minister Jayant Patil on Wednesday attended the state Legislative Assembly session donning the traditional 'Dhangar' (shepherd) attire to draw the government's attention towards the issue of reservation for the community.

Speaking to reporters outside the Vidhan Bhavan here this morning, Patil, who wore yellow turban, carried a folded blanket on his shoulder and a stick in hand, said the state government has forgotten the promise of providing reservation to the Dhangar community, which it had given during the elections.

"The BJP, which had promised to provide reservation to the community in 2014, is doing injustice with the Dhangar community. Three and half years have passed since then and it seems the government has forgotten the community," he said.

The government is only misleading the Dhangar community by giving false assurances, Patil alleged.

"The NCP wants to remind the government about the promise it had made to the community, and draw the government's attention towards the issue," he said.

Patil, who attended the Assembly session in the Dhangar attire, told the House that he has chosen this way to draw the government's attention towards the Dhangar community's demands.
Mumbai: A 90-year-old woman was on Wednesday rescued from her flat after she suffered a fall in her house and was unable to move for the past three days, said a police official.

He said that Indira Shelar lived alone in her suburban Vile Parle flat and the fall had rendered her immobile and she was unable to come to the door and reach out for help.

The police were informed about the incident by neighbours who grew concerned after not seeing Shelar around for the past three days, the official said.

He said that fire brigade and police personnel who broke open the door to Shelar's flat found her lying near the bathroom door.

"The woman is very frail and has been admitted to a hospital for treatment," the official added.
New Delhi: Bringing holiday cheer to gadget enthusiasts, Xiaomi has announced its No.1 Mi Fan Sale for the Indian customers.

Xiaomi India has tweeted:

Mi Fans! Christmas is coming and so is the amazing #1MiFanSale. Keep your wish-lists ready to shop the best offers.



Check out the offers now - https://t.co/pefUnzs1dz pic.twitter.com/4I3Yls6XR7  Mi India (@XiaomiIndia) December 19, 2017

Customers can purchase a host of Xiaomi products on the two day sale that kicks off Wednesday.

Xiaomi will offer deals and discounts on Mi.com, Flipkart as well as on Amazon.in. The Chinese smartphone maker will also offer products for Re 1 flash sale at 2 PM on the two sale days that continues till Thursday (December 21).

Customers can purchase these Xiaomi products during Re 1 flash sale

Redmi 5A

Mi VR Play 2 headset

Mi Router 3C

Redmi Y1 Lite

Mi Wi-Fi Repeater 2

Mi Band-HRX Edition

Xiaomi fans can also get coupons at 10 am during the two day sale. Furthermore, MobiKwik mobile wallet users will get SuperCash up to Rs 4,000. They can also get three months subscription of Hungama play and 12 months of Hungama music.

5 smartphones at the ongoing sale

Mi MIX 2

35,999

Offer price: Rs 32,999

Mi Max 2

Rs 14,999

Offer price: Rs 12,999

Redmi Note 4

From  9,999

Redmi 4

9,499

Offer price: From Rs 8,499

Redmi Y1 Lite

7,999

Offer price: Rs 6,999
MUMBAI: A Mumbai court on Wednesday granted bail to the accused who was arrested in connection with the alleged molestation of a teen bollywood actress on board.

The bail has been granted on a surety of Rs 25,000.

The molestation case on December 10 stirred a storm after the actress alleged that she was molested by a co-passenger on board a Delhi-Mumbai flight.

In a live video, the actor had narrated her ordeal on Instagram.

Acting on the complaint, the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Directorate General of Civil Aviation had sought details from Vistara over the incident.

Accusing the airline of not coming to her help, the National Commission for Women had called the incident shocking. "Vistara hasn't sensitised their crew to take action against men torturing women on flight. I am taking suo moto cognizance of this and giving notice to Vistara. Also, a copy to DGP Maharashtra to act against Vistara Airlines," NCW Chairperson Rekha Sharma said.

Lashing out at the airline, she had asked: "if they have zero tolerance why they have not named this person till now. Naming them is very very important. We would like to tell her that we are there to help her out in any way we can," Sharma added.

"I just saw the video on Instagram. My heart goes out to her. I am really horrified the way this incident happened and after that the crew didn't help this girl. That was very shocking because Vistara claims that it has zero tolerance," Sharma said.

Responding to the allegations, Vistara had assured that they are carrying out a detailed investigation. They had claimed that they have "zero tolerance" for such behaviour.

"We are talking to our crew who were serving her to understand the incident at greater length, and reaching out to fellow passengers as well," Vistara said in a statement.

The incident came to light when the 17-year-old actress shared the ordeal she had to go through en route Mumbai in the flight in an Instagram story. Reportedly, the man was caressing her neck while she was asleep. She claimed that she tried to record what the man was doing, but failed due to dim lights.
New Delhi: Bollywood's quintessential girl-next-door Shraddha Kapoor has done varied roles in her career so far. She made her debut in 'Luv Ka The End' (2011) but it was 'Aashiqui 2' which released in 2013 that won her huge recognition.

It was a musical hit starring Shraddha and Aditya Roy Kapur in the lead. The actress has now a massive fan followingthanks to her gorgeous looks and acting prowess.

Recently, Shraddha conducted a chat session on Twitter #AskShraddha and received many questions from her fans. Some asked her about true love, and how she was like as a child others asked her about her favourite food.

However, a Twitter handle by the name of Deepika asked her who is her favourite actor in Bollywood to which the light-eyed beauty replied saying, Ranbir Kapoor. Hmm...so now we know it's Ranbir, who Shraddha likes as an actor in B-Town.

On the professional front, she will soon be seen opposite 'Baahubali' Prabhas in 'Saaho', and she also has a Saina Nehwal biopic keeping her busy.

Must say, Shraddha has some really meaty roles in her kitty for the coming year.
By PTI, PTI: Mumbai, Dec 19 (PTI) A CBI court here today heard the deposition of a scientific expert from the US via a video link in connection with the 2011 killing of journalist J Dey.

"Edward Burns, an expert, deposed before the court. He had compared the actual image of the bike used in the killing with its CCTV footage, and he told the court that both carried resemblance," special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat said.

advertisement

The image-comparison technology was being used for the first time to corroborate evidence, he added.

The prosecution today completed the examination of its witnesses. It examined a total of 154 witnesses.

Dey, a veteran crime journalist, was shot dead in suburban Powai on June 11, 2011, while he was on his way home.

The CBI court framed charges against gangster Chhota Rajan in the case last year.

The agency claimed that Rajan had the veteran crime reporter killed because he was miffed with some articles written by Dey, and also because a planned book of Dey portrayed Rajan as a chindi (petty) criminal.

Rajan was arrested at the Bali airport in Indonesia on October 25, 2015, and was later deported to India. PTI VI KRK ABH RDS

--- ENDS ---
Mumbai: Bollywood actress Sunny Leone, who had plans to attend a New Year bash in Bengaluru, has said that she will not take part in the event after the city police denied permission to the organisers.

The former Bigg Boss contestant took to Twitter citing reasons why she wouldnt be attending the event.

She tweeted:

Since the police of Bangalore have publicly said that they will not be able to ensure mine & all who attend safety for my New Years event,my team & I feel, safety of the people should always come first therefore I cannot attend. God bless & I wish everyone a safe & happy New Year!

Since the police of Bangalore have publicly said that they will not be able to ensure mine & all who attend safety for my New Years event,my team & I feel,safety of the people should always come first therefore I cannot attend.God bless & I wish everyone a safe & happy New Year!  Sunny Leone (@SunnyLeone) 19 December 2017

She also wrote: To all those who protested and to all those who supported, always remember, never allow others to speak and choose for you. Have your own voice and make your own choices. You are the youth and you are the NEW INDIA! Stand Proud and Stand together. I love you all dearly!

To all those who protested and to all those who supported, always remember,never allow others to speak and choose for you.Have your own voice and make your own choices. You are the youth and you are the NEW INDIA! Stand Proud and Stand together. I love you all dearly!  Sunny Leone (@SunnyLeone) 19 December 2017

Earlier on Saturday Bengaluru Police Commissioner T Suneel Kumar denied permission for a New Year bash in the city where Sunny was invited to perform.

"We are denying permission for Sunny Leone's musical show on December 31 night to maintain law and order and prevent any untoward incident in the city," Kumar told reporters here.

Sunny was supposed to perform at the Manyata Tech Park in the city suburbs. However, the city police chief said it would not be possible to provide enough security at the venue as the entire force would be on duty across the city on that night.

"In view of a directive from the Karnataka High Court on Friday to ensure peaceful New Year celebrations and prevent untoward incidents in the city, we will not be able to deploy enough force at one place at the risk of other areas," he said.

(With IANS inputs)
New Delhi: With NASA planning and preparing for deep space exploration missions, it is important for scientists to understand thoroughly how deep space will affect the human body.

To aid them in acquiring knowledge about the same, astronauts who spend time in zero gravity aboard the International Space Station (ISS) are subjected to tests upon their arrival on Earth for any changes that they might have gone through.

Now, in addition to that, NASA is for more research to understand how long-term experiences in space could affect the human body.

While typical missions to the International Space Station (ISS) last just six months, a round-trip mission to Mars could last three years.

"To draw any conclusions about the cumulative effects of exposure to space, we need to observe more astronauts spending larger amounts of time in the space environment," said John Charles of the Human Research Programme at NASA's Johnson Space Center.

Combined with ongoing NASA studies, the new research could enable safer and more effective travel to destinations beyond low-Earth orbit.

The US space agency hopes that such research will help it understand, prevent, diagnose, treat, mitigate and cure the potential health effects of prolonged spaceflight.

"Scientists can use the information to predict physical and behavioural health trends," Charles said.

Proposals are due by January 4, 2018, and NASA expects in late summer 2018 to select 15 to 18 proposals for grants with a maximum duration of seven years.

NASA said scientists submitting proposals should consider a robust programme that could include as many as 30 astronauts  10 to conduct shorter missions of up to two months, 10 as part of standard six-month missions, and 10 for one-year missions in space.

With information gained from the selected studies, NASA aims to address five hazards of human space travel  space radiation, isolation and confinement, distance from Earth, gravity fields (or lack thereof), and hostile/closed environments that pose great risks to the human mind and body in space.

"When the day comes for humans to launch on a journey to Mars, humanity will take another giant leap. The knowledge gained from this research could give NASA a running start," the US space agency said.

(With IANS inputs)
Chennai: The stage is set for the crucial by-election in the Radhakrishnan Nagar Assembly constituency on Thursday with 59 candidates in the fray.

According to the final list posted on the website of the Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer, a total of 72 nominations were accepted and out of it, 13 nominees withdrew, leaving 59 candidates, including a woman, in the contest.

The major contenders are AIADMK`s E Madhusudhanan, DMK`s N Marudhu Ganesh, sidelined AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran, contesting as an Independent and Bharatiya Janata Party`s K Nagarajan.

Elaborate security arrangements have been made for the smooth conduct of the poll, IANS reported.

The bypoll was necessitated following the death of AIADMK leader and Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa on December 5, 2016, who represented the seat. The counting of votes will be taken up on December 24.

Meanwhile, setting off a political controversy, a video purportedly showing Jayalalithaa in a hospital was released by Dhinakaran's loyalist on Wednesday.

Amid questions raised about the timing of the about 20-second video, aired by TV channels and later went viral on the social media, election officials asked channels to stop it's telecast, saying it was a violation of the model code of conduct.

The footage, showing a frail-looking Jayalalithaa in a nightdress was released by Vetrivel, disqualified AIADMK MLA and election agent of Dhinakaran.

A police complaint was lodged by Returning Officer of RK Nagar Assembly constituency against Vetrivel, who said he released it in view of doubts raised over the circumstances leading to Jayalalithaa's hospitalisation and death.

AIADMK hit out at Sasikala's family, saying the video release was a 'conspiracy' and a 'demeaning' act with an eye on bypoll.

Suspicions have been raised over circumstances leading to Jayalalithaa's demise by several persons, including now Deputy CM O Panneerselvam and his followers.

The state government has appointed a retired Madras High Court judge as the one-man commission of inquiry to look into the circumstances leading to her death.

DMK also alleged that the video had been released with an eye on the bypoll.

Defending the release of the video, Vetrivel said he did it on his own "out of mental agony. Later Dhinakaran called me and asked me why I did so," he told PTI.

Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh Lakhoni told reporters that TV channels were asked to immediately stop airing the clip, which they duly complied with.

He said telecast or display of any election-related material 48 hours before the conclusion of the poll was barred under election laws.

(With Agency inputs)
Violence broke out on Wednesday between police and protestors after a student leader was arrested. Banaras Hindu University (BHU) student leader Ashutosh was arrested on charges of obstructing an IIT-BHU programme.

The protestors set a school bus, belonging to Delhi Public School, Varanasi, on fire during the clashes with police. According to reports, the protesting students pelted stones on the bus even as small kids were sitting inside. It was set on fire after the kids inside the bus managed to run away.

They also pelted stones and damaged dozens of private vehicles. In one of the pictures, the windshield of a car was broken possibly after being hit by a stone.

Varanasi: Clashes between Police and protesters after BHU student leader Ashutosh was arrested on charges of obstructing an IIT-BHU program pic.twitter.com/pIWomG2ToN  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) December 20, 2017

The student leader was arrested following a confrontation over a DJ night in the campus.

Reports said that students of Birla hostel shut the main entrance  Lanka gate  of BHU. They even cut the connection of CCTV cameras installed at the gate.

The students also reportedly attacked police personnel with bricks and stones.
Muzaffarnagar: The hacked bodies of a Dalit woman and her 5-year-old nephew were found on Wednesday in a village here leading to a protest by locals who initially refused to hand the bodies over to the police, an official said.

Prachi (22), a college student, and Sandeep (5), residents of Luhari Khurd village, were missing since last evening, Superintendent of Police (City) Ombir Singh said, adding that they were hacked to death by unidentified people.

Villagers staged a protest after the bodies were found in a sugarcane field and refused to hand them over to the police for almost four hours, he added.

The police formed three special teams to trace the killers and launched an investigation, following which the protesters agreed the let go of the bodies, the SP said.

A case was registered and the bodies were sent for postmortem, Singh added.

Extra personnel have been deployed in the village to tighten security, he said.
LUCKNOW: Two sadhvis or female followers were allegedly gang-raped for over 10 days by a group of four mahants  self-appointed godmen and ashram chiefs  in Uttar Pradesh's Basti district.

The four accused mahants  Brajanand, Sachidanand, Parachetnand, Vishwasnand  had reportedly been pressurising the women for sexual relations for sometime.

The women, who repeatedly refused their advances, were later hostage inside the ashram premises by the four men.

Managing to escape from the ashram, the women filed a case against at Basti police station on Tuesday.

The women have been sent for a medical check-up, said the Basti SP.

Later, the police raided the ashram, following which all the four mahants fled.

The sadhvis have been living in the ashram since 2008.
VARANASI: Clashes erupted on Wednesday in Banaras Hindu University (BHU) following the arrest of a student leader.

The violence broke out between the police and protesters.

Varanasi: Clashes between Police and protesters after BHU student leader Ashutosh was arrested on charges of obstructing an IIT-BHU program pic.twitter.com/pIWomG2ToN  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) December 20, 2017

The student leader Ashutosh Singh is a member of the Samajwadi Party's student wing.

An empty school bus, an ATM cubicle, CCTV cameras and several shops inside the campus are damaged in the clash.

Singh was reportedly arrested for creating ruckus at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-BHU event a couple of months back.

The protesters also pelted stones and damaged dozens of private vehicles. They also attacked police officials with bricks and stones.

This is the second time in this year, the university witnessed a major law and order problem inside the campus.

In September, violent protests took place on the campus after women students were baton-charged.

(With ANI inputs)
Kolkata: Retired Kolkata High Court judge Justice CS Karnan, who was jailed in connection with a contempt of court case, was released from Kolkata's Presidency Jail on Wednesday.

The former Kolkata High Court judge was clicked smiling and talking to media minutes after he was released from the jail.

Kolkata: Former Calcutta HC Judge, CS Karnan, released from Presidency Jail. He was arrested on 20th June and was later found guilty of contempt of Court. pic.twitter.com/UzaHNBffUk  ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2017

Justice Karnan was arrested by the Kolkata Police in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu on June 20 in connection with a contempt of court case.

He was later lodged in Kolkata's Presidency Jail after the Supreme Court refused to grant him interim bail.

A vacation bench of the apex court, headed by Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, had refused to suspend the six-month prison sentence for Justice Karnan in the case.

Mathew J Nedumpara, a lawyer appearing for Justice Karnan, mentioned the matter before the vacation bench of the top court.

Nedumpara pleaded to the apex court seeking bail and suspension of the six months jail sentence, to which the court observed, "The seven-judge bench had passed the order. It binds everybody. It binds us also."

The apex court had on May 19 rejected Justice Karnan's plea for recall of the six-month jail term for contempt of court, stating that the petition was "not maintainable" in the court.

"I am constrained, but to hold that the present writ petition is not maintainable. The relief, if any, lies somewhere else. I, thus, see no reasonable cause to receive the present writ petition for registration under the provisions of the order XV, rule (5) of the Supreme Court rules, 2013," the Supreme Court Registrar said in the order.

Justice Karnan had approached the apex court seeking the recall of its order in which he was convicted and was sentenced to six-month imprisonment.

The top court took suo moto cognizance of numerous letters written by him against judges of the Madras High Court and the apex court and restrained him from exercising administrative and judicial powers from February 8.

Karnan is the first ever sitting judge of a higher court in judicial history to be sentenced to jail term.

(With ANI inputs)
Maarshurin: Overnight air strikes killed 19 civilians, seven of them children, in a residential district of a town in northwestern Syria, a monitor said on Wednesday.

"Suspected Russian air strikes targeted several houses in Maarshurin," a rebel-held town in Idlib province, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

He said 13 members of a single family were among the dead.

Residents of Maarshurin were still working on Wednesday morning to clear rubble from buildings hit in the bombardment, an AFP photographer reported.

One had been completely flattened and blood stained the rubble.

"These are all civilian homes," said resident Zahed Abu Abdo.

The Observatory said more than 25 people were wounded in the strikes, some of whom were in critical condition.

The Britain-based war monitor relies on a network of sources inside Syria and says it determines whose planes carry out raids according to type, location, flight patterns and munitions used.

Russia, which has been carrying out air strikes in support of President Bashar al-Assad`s government since 2015, denied responsiblity on Wednesday.

"Russian warplanes did not carry out sorties in this zone," its defence ministry said, according to the Interfax news agency.

Idlib province is one of four regions of Syria which are supposed to be safe areas under a deal agreed by Russia, fellow regime ally Iran, and rebel backer Turkey in May.

Maarshurin is jointly controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a rebel alliance dominated by Al-Qaeda`s former Syria affiliate, which is not covered by the deal.

More than 340,000 people have been killed since Syria`s conflict erupted with anti-government protests in 2011.

More than half the population have been forced out of their homes, including tens of thousands who have sought refuge in Idlib province.
Vienna: Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Wednesday his new coalition would focus on fighting anti-Semitism after Israel made it clear it would not work directly with any ministers from the far-right party now back in government.

Kurz, a 31-year-old conservative, was sworn in with the rest of his government on Monday after reaching a coalition deal that handed control of much of Austria`s security apparatus to the anti-Islam Freedom Party (FPO). The FPO came third in October`s parliamentary election with 26 percent of the vote.

Israel reacted to the inauguration by saying it would do business only with the "operational echelons" of government departments headed by an FPO minister. The FPO now controls the foreign, interior and defence ministries, though Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl is not officially a member of the party.

"Anti-Semitism has no place in Austria or Europe. We will fight all forms of anti-Semitism with full determination, both those that still exist and those that have been newly imported," said in a speech outlining the government`s goals to parliament. "That will be one of our government`s significant tasks."

The FPO, which was founded by former Nazis in the 1950s, says it has left its anti-Semitic past behind it, though it has still had to expel members each year for anti-Semitic or neo-Nazi comments.

It now openly courts Jewish voters, with limited success. Its leader, Heinz-Christian Strache, has also visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem.

"Israel wishes to underline its total commitment to fighting anti-Semitism and commemorating the Holocaust," the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a short statement on Monday in response to the Austrian government`s swearing in.

The European Jewish Congress has called on the new government to take concrete steps against anti-Semitism while taking a generally more inclusive approach.

"The Freedom Party cannot use the Jewish community as a fig leaf and must show tolerance and acceptance towards all communities and minorities," it said on Monday.

Austria, where Adolf Hitler was born, was annexed by Nazi Germany in March 1938. Next year will mark the 80th anniversary of that takeover as well as the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One, which led to the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Kurz said the events of 1938 were "shameful and sad".

His People`s Party (OVP) and the FPO published a 180-page coalition manifesto over the weekend, which includes plans to cut public spending, taxes and benefits for refugees.

The OVP won October`s election with a hard line on immigration that often overlapped with the FPO`s. The issue dominated the campaign after Austria took in large numbers of asylum seekers during Europe`s migration crisis, many of them from Muslim countries.

Austria`s Jewish community of just over 10,000 is tiny relative to the more than half a million Muslims who live in the nation of almost 9 million, many of whom are Turkish or of Turkish origin.

Both Kurz and Strache have warned of Muslim "parallel societies" they say are emerging in Austria, despite there being few obvious signs of sectarian tension.

Kurz flew to Brussels on Tuesday to dispel concerns that his alliance with the far right will undermine the European Union. In their speeches to parliament, both he and Strache said they opposed Turkey joining the European Union - a position that polls show a majority of Austrians support.

"Turkey is moving in the wrong direction, which means Turkey will certainly have no future in the European Union," said Kurz, who has criticised Ankara`s clampdown on dissent since a failed coup last year.

On Tuesday night during his first foreign visit as chancellor, to Brussels, Kurz told broadcaster ORF he would "soon" meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"I hope we will succeed in dispelling the concerns that exist regarding the FPO government members," Kurz said. "It would be in the interest of both our countries."
Two Christian missionaries were arrested. Organisers claimed they had received permission from the District Collector to conduct the event.

Amidst the chaos, some of the missionaries managed to flee. (Photo courtesy: ANI and Dev Ankur Wadhawan)

By Dev Ankur Wadhawan: Police arrested two Christian missionaries in Rajasthan's Pratapgarh after locals alleged that people were forcibly being converted at a pre-Christmas event.

The event was held by several Christian missionaries on Tuesday night and tribal people from nearby places were asked to visit. They were told that they could seek a cure for their ailments at the function.

Protests in Rajasthan's Pratapgarh during a #Christmas event, protesters alleged religious conversion was being done during the event. Two people arrested on charges of forceful conversion pic.twitter.com/AQjyKmjAQ1- ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2017

advertisement

At the venue, some religious functions were conducted apart from Christmas celebrations. After locals got wind of this, they gathered at the venue and disrupted the event.

They alleged that the missionaries were indulging in religious conversion. Amidst the chaos, some of the missionaries managed to flee.

The missionaries said they had received prior permission from the District Collector to hold the event at the Community centre in Pratapgarh.

Other media reports claimed that the programme was disrupted by Hindu activists who tried to prove to policemen that the event was indeed one of religious conversion since the organisers had hymn books with them.

The incident comes close on the heels of two Christian events that were disrupted by right-wing groups.

On December 14, a Christian prayer meeting was disrupted in Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi district following complaints received of religious conversion.

On December 19, the Hindu Jagran Manch asked schools in Aligarh not to celebrate Christmas as it was a ploy to lure and convert children to Christianity.

--- ENDS ---
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to cut off financial aid to countries that vote in favor of a draft United Nations resolution against his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel`s capital.

"They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us. Well, we`re watching those votes. Let them vote against us. We`ll save a lot. We don`t care," Trump told reporters at the White House.

The 193-member UN General Assembly will hold a rare emergency special session on Thursday at the request of Arab and Muslim countries on the controversial US decision.
United Nations: The United States is in talks with China on slapping new UN sanctions on North Korea and could put forward a draft Security Council resolution soon, UN diplomats said Wednesday.

The new measure is expected to target supplies of oil products to North Korea that are vital for military programs aimed at developing Pyongyang`s nuclear strike capacity with advanced missile technology.

The new sanctions would be in response to the November 28 test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that flew 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) before splashing down in Japan`s maritime economic exclusion zone.

Asked about the US-China negotiations, a council diplomat confirmed "there is definitely stuff going on" but said it was unclear whether China would agree to new sanctions targeting its Pyongyang ally.

"It`s a big ask to get the Chinese to agree to a further resolution," he said.

A diplomat said the draft resolution could be circulated to the council this week, but others were skeptical that a deal could be reached so quickly.

In negotiations on previous sanctions, the United States has first agreed with China on provisions of each resolution before presenting the text to the full 15-member council, which has then quickly voted.

Since last year, North Korea has carried out a nuclear test -- its sixth -- and a series of advanced missile launches.After the latest ICBM test, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called for "additional measures" against North Korea. And last week he told the council that the "pressure campaign must and will continue until denuclearization is achieved."

President Donald Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping last month to cut off oil supplies to North Korea, a move that would deal a crippling blow to its desperately struggling economy.

So far, the Security Council has imposed a full ban on supplies of condensates and natural gas liquids to North Korea, capped deliveries of refined oil products to two million barrels a year, and capped crude oil exports at current levels.

China supplies most of North Korea`s crude.

The council has also banned exports of North Korean coal, iron, lead, textiles and seafood, restricted joint ventures and ended the hiring of North Korean workers abroad.

The sanctions are aimed at choking off revenue to Pyongyang`s military programs and piling pressure on leader Kim Jong-Un to come to the negotiating table.

The United States has also asked the council to blacklist 10 ships, including two Hong Kong-flagged vessels, for carrying banned cargo from North Korea.

The UN sanctions committee has set a deadline of 3:00 pm (2000 GMT) Thursday for council members to raise any objections to a request to ban all 10 ships from ports worldwide.

Under UN resolutions, North Korea is barred from developing missiles and a nuclear weapons capability, but Pyongyang has argued that the arsenal is needed for self-defense against the "hostile" United States.
A day after the United States said that Pakistan is being urged to prove it's a 'responsible steward' of its nuclear missiles, the country has hit back at the Donald Trump administration and said accusations made in its first foreign policy are 'unfounded'.

Pakistan's Foreign Office late on Tuesday said that accusations made in the first foreign policy taken out by the Trump administration are 'unsubstantiated', 'unfounded', and far away from ground realities, reported Pakistani newspaper Dawn. "Pakistan rejects such unfounded accusations that belie facts on ground and trivialise Pakistans efforts for fighting terrorism," Foreign Office spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal was quoted as saying.

(Also read: Pakistan accuses India of stockpiling nuclear weapons)

A day earlier, Washington released Trump administration's first foreign policy which - among many other points - raised concern over safety of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. "The United States will also encourage Pakistan to continue demonstrating that it is a responsible steward of its nuclear assets," read the policy. "The prospect for an Indo-Pakistani military conflict that could lead to a nuclear exchange remains a key concern requiring consistent diplomatic attention."

(Also read: Pakistan buckles to pressure, to treat Chinese Yuan equal to US Dollar)

Pakistan countered with a two-pronged verbal attack - one targeting what it calls American agenda of propping up India in South Asia, and the other in which the country said it is doing enough to tackle the menace of terrorism. "Ironically, a country with a record of defiance of UNSC [United Nations Security Council] resolutions, introduction of nuclear weapons in South Asia and use of terrorism as a state policy is being projected as a regional leader," the Foreign Office statement said.

Recent times have seen differences crop up between Pakistan and the United States on the issue of terrorism. The United States wants Pakistan to crack down on home-grown terrorist outfits - especially the Haqqani Network. Pakistan says it is already doing all it can. Several leaders here have called for further strengthening of relations with China.
Malaysian lawmakers are thinking to replace stewardesses' uniforms deemed "too revealing" with a more Islamic fashion. One lawmaker even said that his wife is worried whenever he flies alone.

By India Today Web Desk: Lawmakers in Malaysia have a problem at hands. Well, they need to worry about passengers being turned on by 'alluring' stewardess' uniforms.

The aim of the Malaysian lawmakers is to replace the uniforms rated "too revealing" with a more Islamic fashion, so as to not misstate the country.

Malaysia's parliament debated the issue on Monday and discussed amendments to the Malaysian Aviation Commission (MAVCOM) Bill.

advertisement

The MAVCOM Bill is carved to empower the regulator and it allows them to impose charges on passengers.

But wait, the lawmakers, in spite of having the allowance to collect charges from passengers, steered off the main topic to exchange opinions and views on the "sexiness" of the uniforms donned by stewardesses on country's airlines.

MALAYSIA AND SENATORS

The all-red uniforms worn by the stewardesses of AirAsia, as well as the bright orange outfits of the Firefly airline, are "too revealing" and might "arouse" passengers, Senator Datuk Abdullah Mat Yasim said, as cited by the Straits Times newspaper.

Senator proclaimed that such "eye-catching outfits" did not represent the state religion of Islam, according to an RT report.

The MAVCOM "must really look into this," the official said.

Select and LIKE your most friendly and crushworthy Firefly cabin crew from our FB album! Photo with most likes will be crowned as FireflyA??s Orange Crush of The Year! Voting starts today until 5th December 2017. pic.twitter.com/s5i2h1wQq2- Firefly Airlines (@FireflyAirlines) November 22, 2017

Senator Datuk's assessment was supported by his fellow lawmaker Datuk Megat Zulkarnain Omardin, who affirmed that the designs of the uniforms should be changed.

MALINDO AILRLINE"S UNIFORM IS TOO "BODY HUGGING"

The official went on say the uniforms of the stewardess of Malindo airlines were inappropriate too.

"My wife is worried whenever I fly alone on Malindo or AirAsia," the lawmaker claimed. "This is a real hassle for me."

WE ARE HIRING! If you have a passion for aviation, come join us and be part of our growing family! pic.twitter.com/oMyfqavGfe- Malindo Air (@malindoair) March 22, 2017

Mat Yasim agreed with his colleague that the Malindo's partially-transparent uniforms might be too "body hugging," but said they were better than the outfits issued by the other companies since they at least covered "sensitive areas."

The lawmaker, however, did not shed light on which areas precisely he considered sensitive.

According to the same RT report, earlier this year, Malindo received flak over the recruiting practices, with reports claiming that the applicants were required to strip down to their underwear during the interview.

--- ENDS ---
December 17, 2017

Bahrain and Israels shared threat perception of Irans growing regional influence has driven Manamas quiet outreach to the Jewish state over the past year. However, the rage from populations across the greater Arab and Muslim world due to US President Donald Trumps decision to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital has hindered the prospects of formalized Bahraini-Israeli diplomatic relations.

Like the other five Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members, Bahrain, whose leadership frequently invokes the Palestinian cause, has never held formal diplomatic relations with Israel. While Bahrain, unlike Qatar and Oman, has never permitted Israel to open a trade office in their country, Manamas unofficial contacts with the Jewish state date back to the mid-1990s.

Earlier this year, Bahraini-Israeli ties reached a watershed when two American rabbis  Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper  spoke during an event at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in California, where they relayed the king of Bahrains opposition to the Arab boycott of Israel, as well as his call for Bahraini and Israeli citizens to have the right to travel freely between the two countries. Prince Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa was in attendance, leading pundits to speculate about Bahrain's soon becoming the first GCC member to establish official diplomatic and trade relations with Israel.

On Dec. 9, three days after Trump announced his recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, This is Bahrain, a 24-member Bahraini interfaith delegation, arrived in Israel to discuss normalizing Bahraini-Israeli relations. Bahraini political and religious figures  albeit none from the countrys small Jewish community  comprised the delegation, which sought to showcase the Arab Persian Gulf countrys commitments to religious tolerance and pluralism.

Indeed, the Bahraini government maintains a positive relationship with the countrys small Jewish community, tolerating the GCCs only synagogue. Until 2013, Manamas ambassador to Washington, Houda Ezra Ebrahim Nonoo, served as the first Jewish senior diplomat representing an Arab government. In recent years, officials in Manama have honored Hanukkah with ceremonies despite criticism from Hamas officials.

Trumps Jerusalem decision, however, has severely undermined the delegations efforts in Israel. Palestinian guards at Al-Aqsa Mosque expelled This is Bahrain from the holy site; later, protesters in the Gaza Strip thwarted the delegation from entering the besieged coastal enclave. The Palestinian National and Islamic Forces criticized This is Bahrain as shameless, saying, There is no place for people seeking to normalize relations with Israel in Gaza or in any other part of Palestine. In addition, the Palestinian Ministry of Education reportedly decided against meeting with This is Bahrain or receiving any of the delegations members in the occupied territories.

Bahrains state-owned media has attempted to distance itself from the delegation, maintaining that This is Bahrain does not represent official government policy. The delegations trip to Israel sparked controversy with the Bahraini public, underscored by the countrys social media landscape. The US Embassy in Manama went as far as to issue a warning to US citizens that Trumps Jerusalem recognition threatened to spark protests, some of which have the potential to become violent in Bahrain. In response to the crisis, officials in Manama condemned Trumps move, declaring that it "threatens the peace process in the Middle East."

Amid this backdrop of dilemmas and conflicting interests, a major question is whether Bahrain and Israel will establish official diplomatic ties in 2018.

In the next year, the future of Bahrains relationship with Israel will be heavily influenced by other GCC states response to the Jerusalem crisis. Given Bahrains increased dependence on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for internal security and financial support since the 2011 Arab Spring, Bahrains recent outreach to Israel likely received the Saudi leaderships approval.

Moreover, there is good reason to speculate that Riyadh directed Manama to take a lead in the Arab Persian Gulf states quiet yet significant overtures to Tel Aviv, as Bahrain often serves as the first GCC state to take action on behalf of the council, exemplified by Bahrain's severing diplomatic and economic relations with Qatar before other Arab states followed suit just over six months ago.

Although it is unclear how Bahrains leadership will assess the risks and potential benefits of reaching out to Israel, odds are good that other GCC capitals will look at Manamas engagement with Tel Aviv from the viewpoint that pushing back against Iran is a regional priority shared by Manama and Tel Aviv. Had the Trump administration sought to bring Bahrain and Israel closer to firm up the capacity of Americas abilities to collectively counter Tehran, the US presidents dangerous Jerusalem decision undermined any such efforts to promote the formalization of bilateral ties.

Yet even if the current climate throughout the Arab world gives Manama reason to avoid any appearance of being too open to improved ties with Tel Aviv, Bahrain and Israel will more often than not likely wind up in the same boat geopolitically because of Bahrain's and the Jewish states regional challenges in the aftermath of the Islamic States defeat in Iraq and Syria, the ongoing Qatar crisis and the further strengthening of Tehrans clout in the Middle East.
Select a Company to view Pudge Bros. Pizza - Eastdale Test Business Marble Brewery The Remedy Day Spa Gamers Anonymous Albuquerque Public Art Program Urban Enhancement Trust Fund The Ayurvedic Institute Flamenco Works, Inc. Chello Grill The Brew Grassburger La Bella Spa & Salon Tablao Flamenco Albuquerque Los Poblanos Historic Inn & Organic Farm Desert Rose Trading New Mexico PBS Peacock Myers Law My Vinyl Offer Rio Grande Hemp Company Milagro Herb School Intergalactic Cultural Relations Insitute McCollum Global LLC A New Millennium Spray Foam Roofing Brazilian Waxing Boutique Conchitas Creations Cafe Lush Ayurvedic Institute The Shop Pizza 9 Gamers Anonymous Fall River Botanicals Red Rock Roasters Brazilian Waxing Boutique Celina's Biscochitos Hip Stitch Casa Flamenca presents: Jesus Munoz Flamenco Thunderbird Supply Co. DRB Electric Grassburger Sandia Pet Products Assistance League of Albuquerque Jonas L Jensen Tile Amore Jonas L Jensen Tile Route 66 Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Center Slate Street Billiards City of Albuquerque Public Art Urban Enhancement Program Ninja Park Por Vida Route 66 Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Center Life Iz Short 55th Annual New Mexico Arts & Crafts Fair Cafe Lush The Dolls Red Horse Vineyard Bed and Breakfast City of Albuquerque Salam Academy Precision Heating and Cooling Slate Street Billiards The CBD Boutique Unite and Conquer Anatolia Turkish Mediterranean Grill Marley's Texas BBQ Torino's Excel Cryotherapy Douglas Gibbons, D.D.S., P.C. Calibers Shooters Sports Center Universal Therapeutic Massage Institute Taste Ruiz de la Torre Law Firm Ninja Park Southwest Capital Bank Gamers Anonymous Matrix School of Dental Assisting Los Poblanos Historic Inn & Organic Farm Rio Grande Arts and Crafts Festival The Shop KiMo Theatre Greater Albuquerque Association of REALTORS Vetco Morningside Antiques Griffin & Associates, Inc. Duke City Gladiators Pizza 9 Duel Brewing Ovations Film Actors Studio Deep Space Coffee New Mexico State Parks Equality New Mexico Keshet Dance UNM Art Museum Moji Studios Del Sol Aviation Long Leash On Life Krypton Blue Ruiz de la Torre Pascetti Steel Kennedy Kennedy & Ives Filling Philly's Bosque School RPC CPA Duke City Repertory Theater Department of Family & Community Services Sisters Paint and Wine Kadampa Center Corrales Bosque Gallery Instituto Cervantes of Albuquerque Classic Century Square Civic Plaza Presents City of Albuquerque Public Art Urban Enhancement Program The Candy Lady Calibers Shooters Sports Center CreateOptimum LLC Bernalillo County Clerk's Office Ayurvedic Institute Artisan Anita Briscoe, LLC Albuquerque Museum of Art and History Albuquerque Community Partnership The CBD Boutique 25th Anniversary 2016 Supernationals Custom Auto Show Down N Dirty Seafood Boil Distillery 365 Jesus Munoz Flamenco Pasion Latin Fusion Hip Stitch CG Corrigan Rio Bravo Brewing Company Natural CBD NM New Mexico Sinus Institute Test Business St. Martin's Hospitality Center ZS&T's Great Grub!! remax/ben levine Richie B's Pizza RICHIE B Greater Albuquerque Habitat for Humanity ReStore Waterwise Landscapes Incorporated Cafe Bien Villa Myriam Single Source Coffee The New Mexico School of Natural Therapeutics Urban Mattress Urban Fresh Cosmetics Zero Point Parkour & Fitness Academy Self Serve Toys Studio 23 Duggan's Coffee Peace Medical Marijuana Consultants W!ld Moon Couture Pizza 9 Shell Rapid Lube Spinn's Burger & Beer Ajiaco Colombian Bistro Elan Academy of Cosmetology & Barbering The Birds Song Art, Jewelry, Gifts & Books Bike-In Coffee at Old Town Farm Vintage Albuquerque Ninja Park Ponderosa Brewing Company Santa Ana Garden Center High Country Dental SWEAT Yoga Studio The Ayurvedic Institute National Museum of Nuclear Science & History Old Town Sweetheart Stroll CG Corrigan W!ld Moon Couture Inc. Central Grill and Coffee House Soul and Vine IMEC W!ld Moon Couture Kabob House Victor's Grape Arbor StreetFood Asia Left Turn Distilling W!ld Moon Boutique & W!ld Moon Leather Designs Ahmos Gyros and Deli Health City Massage Salon FX What Goes Around ... A Consignment Boutique Sacred Power King Kong Custom Audio & Accessories Romero Street Gallery Gold Street Caffe Sage Neuroscience Center Chavez for Governor Bricklight District Apartments test company two Test Company XPAC Fitness Center Monkey Vapes Big Bear T-Shirts and Tattoos W!ld Moon Boutique and W!ld Moon Leather Designs Allen Aragon Gallery W!ld Moon Boutique (tm) Where the W!ld WoMan Shops! D'Ambrosio Designs Hair Studio Rollin' Ro's Salon Ella Sol company_name Squeezed Juice Bar Live Nation Premium Seats Isleta Amphitheater PJ's Motorcycles Aldo's New York Style Pizzeria G*FAB - Great Face & Body Albuquerque Laser Lipo SOLE Art & Antiques Defined Fitness Quarters BBQ & Package Store AMP Concerts Thai Crystal Rumble Seat Music Southwest Universal Therapeutic Massage Institute Sushi King Nob Hill Fabrics Atkinson & Kelsey, P.A. New Mexico Pools And Spas Inc. Mi Casa Home Health Care, LLC Atelier Lucia & Gallery Shade Tree Custom Cycle Works & Cafe Por Vida Therapeutics La Bella Spa Salon Stay Gold Tattoo Women's Specialists of New Mexico, Ltd. U-Swirl Frozen Yogurt Brookline College Bath & Body BistroGloria Bs Collectibles & Curiosities Academy for the Love of Learning Building Futures & Foundations Mentoring Project Warehouse 508 New Mexico Xtreme Sports Association Michael J. Armijo DDS Christian Dimery Antiques & Oddities (formerly Morningside Antiques) Southwest Grape and Grain Abqspas.com Venezia's Pizzeria Sophia's Place / Ezra's Place Guthrie Speedway LLC The Natural Pet Nutrition Alliance Old Town Pizza Parlor Matchmaking Introductions, a Division of The New Mexico Relationship Center Hermosa Plastic Surgery Pudge Bros. Pizza AHL Year Round Garden Supply Nu Aura Medical Spa Eric Williams Photography Evolution Body Piercing Michael J. Armijo DDS Dollface Salon Boro Gallery Not Just Payroll EFFEX Albuquerque Baths The New Mexico Relationship Center Jack's Smoke Shop ABQ Dogtown Fullbars Cell Phone Repair Mama's Minerals From the Spirit Purple Pink Rhino Christian Dimery Antiques (formerly Morningside) Highland Pharmacy Hot Yoga Downtown Albuquerque Hookah Star Merle Norman Brazilian Waxing Boutique Annapurna's World Vegetarian Cafe EC*LEK*TIC Sophia's Place / Ezra's Place / Jo's Place Project PeacePal PJ's Motorcycles Old Town Pizza Parlor Hotel Andaluz New Mexico Sinus Institute W!ld Moon Couture Catherines Cache Catherine's Cache RE/MAX/Ben Levine W!ld Moon Couture N'awlins Mardi Gras Cafe Flying Star Cafe Kadampa Meditation Center New Mexico Griffin & Associates, Inc. The Gallery ABQ Reeve Medical Ghost Flame Eatery & Brew Brookline College Natural Rx old CG Corrigan The Brew MonkeyVapes ABQ Health Partners Women's Health Catherine's Cache Mannies Restaurant JoHanna C. Cox, Attorney at Law Anatolia Turkish & Mediterranean Grill NDI New Mexico's 16th Annual Tap Dance Jam Pop Fizz The Cottages of New Mexico Bernalillo County Gamers Anonymous Wolfe's Bagels New Mexico Health Connections The Shop Breakfast & Lunch High Desert Yoga Sergio's Bakery and Cafe ChocolateDude Duran Central Pharmacy Pop-A-Lock of Albuquerque Izzy Martin Shade Tree Customs & Cafe ABQ Olive Oil Company CoolWater Fusion Restaurant Nicky V's Neighborhood Pizzeria D'Ambrosio Designs Featuring Andrea Baca, Stylist New Mexican Kennels, Inc The Return of Harriet Tubman The New Mexico School of Natural Therapeutics The Village Mercantile Home & Farm Store Chips & Salsa Mexican Restaurant The PC Place II, Inc. W!ld Moon Boutique Where the W!ld WoMan Shops! The Village Mercantile Home & Farm Store W!ld Moon Leather Designs Design by Wine Will Ferguson and Associates Wasabi Japanese Cuisine Metalogic Computers Morningside Antiques A Celebration of Love Wedding Chapel The Village Mercantile Home & Farm Store Zia Pizzeria YMCA's Camp Shaver Bosque Brewing Co. Gamers Anonymous The Village Mercantile Home & Farm Store Accounting & Consulting Group, LLP Villa Myriam Single Source Coffee Affordable Antiques & Metal Art Cafe Lush No. 13 Boutique Sheila's Sweets The Rightz Stuff Leich Lathrop Gallery Door to Door Burritos, LLC Retro Revolution ABQ Buffet King Olo Yogurt Studio Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central New Mexico Anatolia Doner Kebab Restaurant Albuquerque Integrative Medicine, LLC The Powdrell's Barbeque Stitchology Rudy's "Country Store" and Bar-B-Q Wagon Mound Ranch Supply xxxKadampa Meditation Center New Mexico Fullbars Cell Phone Repair Matthew Legan Sanchez: Attorney at Law Plum Cafe Asian Grill Oak Street Clinic Barrett House Attic Stay Gold Tattoo Adorabella Beauty Academy Weekly Business Profile Homepage

Paid advertisements
PLEASE NOTE!

Due to the March 23, 2020 NM DOH Public Health Order, These Event Listings Are Not Accurate!

All non-essential businesses are closed, public gatherings are prohibited!

(One day some of these events will be rescheduled or will resume, but they are not happening now!)
The accused works as a labourer in Gujarat and is father of three children.

By PTI: In a shocking incident, a man set his two wives on fire allegedly for not keeping his mother happy. The incident took place in Jaipur.

The accused, Deepa Ram, yesterday took his two wives 25-year-old Daria Devi and 27-year-old Mali Devi in his car on the pretext of buying them jewellery. "In the moving car, he quarrelled with them. As the car lost balance, he stopped," Additional SP Jalore Binja Ram said.

advertisement

Meanwhile, one of his wives got out of the car seeking help of locals but he managed to push her inside and drove away again. After some distance, he came out of the car, locked it and set the vehicle on fire. Both his wives were charred to death.

The accused works as a labourer in Gujarat and is father of three children. He has confessed the crime and was arrested, the police said.

--- ENDS ---
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.
The Art of Christmas: New Mexico Style

PLEASE NOTE!

Due to the March 23, 2020 NM DOH Public Health Order, These Event Listings Are Not Accurate!

All non-essential businesses are closed, public gatherings are prohibited!

(One day some of these events will be rescheduled or will resume, but they are not happening now!)
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 20, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan addressed a congratulatory message on the National Security Officers Day, press service of the Presidential Office told Armenpress.

The message says:

Dear National Security Officers,

I congratulate you and the veterans on your professional day.

On behalf of our people and state I thank you for your dedicated work, your role in protecting our country from catastrophic evils and your professionalism.



Unfortunately, in the recent decades the situation in the region and the world is constantly accompanied by brutal harassments, especially by severe terrorist crimes. In such circumstances you are able to maintain the title of the guardian of our statehood, Constitutional order and security. You develop your work in accordance with time restraining the dangerous developments.

During 2017 the the National Security Service staff demonstrated a required preparedness while conducting their functions. Moreover, the NSS bodies, controlling the situation, didnt allow certain developments to cause harmful consequences for Armenias statehood and the Constitutional order.

At the same time, the leadership and staff of the national security agencies carried out a daily constant work aimed at ensuring the secure and normal process of implementation of constitutional reforms. Within the frames of these actions the status of the National Security Service will be clarified in the coming year.

Dear Generals and Officers,

Dear Veterans,

We are firmly determined to further develop the National Security Service of Armenia. Moreover, we will do our best to ensure that all the work performed in every single area be consistent with the standards applicable in the worlds most advanced special services.

Reiterating my congratulations, I wish you good health and ever new achievements to the benefit of our nation and for the sake of ensuring the security of the Republic of Armenia".
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 20, ARMENPRESS. President of the Artsakh Republic Bako Sahakyan on December 20 addressed a congratulatory message on the National Security Officers Day, press service of the Artsakh Presidential Office told Armenpress.

The message runs as follows:

"Respected servicemen and veterans of the National Security Service,

On behalf of the Artsakh Republic authorities and personally myself I convey my cordial congratulations on your professional holiday.

You carry out a significant service ensuring national security, protection of every member of the society. The interests of the state and the public also depend on the efficiency of your service. Your cooperation with the defense ministry aimed at the protection of the state borders is on a high level.

Citizens of Artsakh should be confident that they live in a secure and safe country. In this matter the role of national security system, professionalism and high moral qualities of its servicemen are of especial importance.

To ensure the successful implementation of your functions, the government carries out consistent work towards equipping the structure with modern technical means and improving the working and social conditions of the servicemen. This policy will be of an ongoing nature.

Dear friends,

Once again congratulating you I wish peace, robust health and greatest success in your responsible service".
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 20, ARMENPRESS. The Karabakh conflict has nothing to do with the religion, Armen Ashotyan, chairman of the Armenian parliamentary standing committee on foreign affairs, said during the 17th session of the EU-Armenia parliamentary cooperation committee, stating that Azerbaijan tries to present the conflict as a geopolitical or religious conflict, reports Armenpress.

Imagine how it would be dangerous if the Karabakh conflict was a religious conflict taking into account the uplift of the Islamic State. This will raise the hell by another degree. Such misunderstanding should be prevented. It would be very dangerous if the civilized world allows Ilham Aliyev to present this conflict as a religious conflict, he said.

He stated that thousands of people live in Artsakh who must enjoy the UN fundamental rights.

I dont talk about the political rights. They enjoy these rights. We should put more emphasis on the necessity to engage them in cultural, educational, environmental and other programs as they are deprived from this. This status quo doesnt enable the Artsakh people to participate for instance in the EU-funded projects. The Artsakh youth is deprived from the right to use Erasmus program, Ashotyan said.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 20, ARMENPRESS. Sajjad Karim, Co-Chair of the EU-Armenia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, doesnt predict any difficulty in ratifying the Armenia-EU new agreement from any member state at the national level, reports Armenpress.

When these processes are over and transferred to the European Parliament, I am convinced that the agreement will be ratified smoothly and will be finalized, he said after the end of the 17th session of the EU-Armenia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee.

Armenia and the EU signed the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in Brussels on November 24.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 20, ARMENPRESS. By signing a new agreement with the European Union Armenia shows that it is able to make its own decisions as a sovereign country, Sajjad Karim, Co-Chair of the EU-Armenia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, said after the 17th session of the EU-Armenia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, reports Armenpress.

Armenia is the first country which establishes deeper relations with the European Union while being a member of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). We do not see any contradiction with each other. By this Armenia shows that it can make its own decisions as a sovereign country having a clearly formed range of principles of its future ambitions, at the same time taking into account its geographical position, and in this sense Armenia really appears in a position of strength. We see the situation in this way, and we hope all those who are close to Armenia by geographical position, will be able to help this vector of journey and this process, he said.

Armenia and the EU signed the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in Brussels on November 24.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 20, ARMENPRESS. The European Union opposes any case of appearance of its MEPs in the Azerbaijani black list, Sajjad Karim, Co-Chair of the EU-Armenia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, said after the 17th session of the EU-Armenia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, stating that during each visit the status of MEPs must be clarified.

The MEPs freely conducted their parliamentary activity and assisted any principles which they support. We will resist the cases of appearance of our MEPs in the black list, but in line with this we need to understand the following: its necessary to clarify that they visit there on an official visit, on behalf of the EU or the European Parliament, rather than as an individual lawmaker. This will cause an unhealthy confusion, he said.

The 17 session of the EU-Armenia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee was held in the Armenian Parliament from December 19 to 20 during which issues relating to bilateral cooperation were discussed.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 20, ARMENPRESS. Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced in Baku that the Armenian-Turkish Protocols will not be ratified as long as the preconditions put forward by Turkey are not fulfilled. This stance once again confirmed the truthfulness of the December 16 statement of the Armenian foreign ministry which said: It is well known that right after the signing of the Protocols Ankara backtracked from the agreements. Turkey not only has rejected to ratify those Protocols, but has returned to the same language of preconditions that it had used before the launch of the process. Ankara doesnt shy away to voice once again its preconditions, linking the Armenian-Turkish relations to the the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement in favor of Azerbaijan, at the same time making redundant reference to the UN Security Council resolutions, which have nothing to do with the negotiation process of the NagornoKarabakh conflict resolution. It is well known, that there is no single word on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict or any precondition in the Protocols. By returning once again to the language of preconditions following the signing of Protocols, Turkey has opposed to the international community, which has always supported the normalization of the Armenian Turkish relations without preconditions and continues to do so now.

On December 20 Turkey again put forward preconditions in regard to the ratification of the Armenian-Turkish Protocols.

According to the Azerbaijani APA news agency, Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said during the joint press conference with the Iranian and Azerbaijani counterparts that from the very start the Turkish side signed the Protocols with certain preconditions. The Turkish FM said as long as their preconditions are not fulfilled, the implementation of these agreements is impossible.

Official Ankara, which recently was trying to accuse the Armenian side on the failure of the Armenian-Turkish Protocols, has begun to openly speak in the language of preconditions.

Speaking about the Armenian-Turkish relations in the Greek foreign ministry, Armenian FM Nalbandian reminded that it was the initiative of the President of Armenia to start the normalization process with Turkey that resulted in the conclusion of the Zurich Protocols in October 2009. However, the minister said up to now, those documents have not been ratified, since Turkey came up with groundless preconditions that run counter to the letter and spirit of the Protocols. These documents cannot be held hostage forever and that is why the President of Armenia declared in September from the rostrum of the UN General Assembly that Armenia will declare the Protocols null and void since they continuously lacked any positive progress towards their implementation and we will enter the spring of 2018 without those Protocols, Nalbandian said.

The Turkish foreign ministry commented on Nalbandians statement, accusing the Armenian side of not ratifying the Protocols.

Despite Armenias negative stance Turkey is committed to the main provisions of the protocols. The protocols remain in the agenda of the foreign affairs committee of the Turkish parliament, the existence of favorable political environment and peace in South Caucasus are important for ratifying them, the Turkish foreign ministry said, once again groundlessly linking the normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations with the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 20, ARMENPRESS. The kids of the N91 kindergarten of Yerevan attended the official opening ceremony of their renovated kindergarten on December 20, reports Armenpress.

The opening ceremony was conducted by First Lady Rita Sargsyan and Mayor of Yerevan Taron Margaryan.

From now on the kindergarten will be called Small Planet. At the moment 230 kids attend the kindergarten.

The Small Planet kindergarten has beautiful children corners, 7 groups. There are also plans to open the 8th group.

One of the kids of the kindergarten 5-year-old Yeva is very excited by the new look of the building. I like the kindergarten very much, we play here a lot of games. Besides the kindergarten, I also go to dance and I want to become a dancer in the future, she said.

The design of the kindergarten has been decided by the First Lady: she personally prepared the decorates. I want this fairy-tale we dedicated to the kids to accompany them during their whole life, the First Lady said.

She wished health and peaceful sky to all kids.

Director of the kindergarten Nelli Voskanyan said the old building was in a very poor condition.

The current look of the kindergarten has become warm, bright, perfect with fairy-tale corners, beautiful sites. After 5 months of work, we were again re-opened on November 1. This kindergarten is under the municipalitys control, it is free of charge and available for all children, the director said.
By PTI: (Eds: Adds a fresh para about resumption of traffic)

Munger (Bihar), Dec 20 (PTI) Maoist rebels abducted an Assistant Station Manager and a porter, and set ablaze a signal panel at Masudam station in Bihars Munger district in a midnight attack, disrupting movement of trains on Kiul- Jamalpur section through the day, police said today.

The abducted ASM and railway porter were released in a forest after spending several hours in captivity, SP (Railway), Jamalpur, Shankar Jha told PTI over phone.

advertisement

The naxalite group--CPI (Maoist)-- is observing a bandh in Bihar and Jharkhand today to protest police action against its cadre.

Chief Public Relations Officer of Eastern Railways, Ravi Mohapatra, however, said the railways had no official confirmation about the release of ASM Mukesh Kumar and porter Nirendra Mandal.

An armed squad of around 15 underground rebels that also had some women set ablaze the signalling panel before abducting the two.

The SP said the Maoists set free Kumar and Mandal in a nearby forest after they learnt about a "huge" contingent of security personnel combing the area and fled.

Kripasagar, the station house officer of Government Railway Police Station, Jamalpur, said the extremists threw some official documents they had snatched in the fire that engulfed the signalling panel.

Masudam railway station is under the Malda division of Eastern Railways.

The movement of trains was restored after the fire was doused around 5:30 a.m. but had to be suspended again at 6:40 a.m. following a phone call, apparently from Maoists, to the control room in Malda threatening to kill the captives if traffic was not stopped, Mohapatra said.

"The Maoists said they would kill the railway personnel they had abducted if trains are allowed to ply on the Kiul- Jamalpur section," Mohapatra said, adding it forced the authorities to divert or short terminate some trains.

Some trains were run through alternative routes via Jhajha and Barauni, while a few others short terminated, Rajesh Kumar, the CPRO of East Central Railway, headquartered in Bihars Hajipur, said.

He said traffic on the Kiul-Jamalpur section resumed at 7 in the evening. PTI CORR NAC KK RG SK SK

--- ENDS ---
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 20, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijani foreign minister Elmar Mammadyarov announced that there is an agreement on a meeting with Armenian foreign minister Edward Nalbandian in mid-January 2018, APA reports.

The meeting date will be announced by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. There is an agreement to hold a meeting in mid-January of the next year, the Azerbaijani FM said during a joint press conference with Iranian and Turkish counterparts.

He informed that the meeting will take place in one of the European countries. We have exchanged views in Vienna. The Co-Chairs will assess the discussions and make a decision. I even said that I am ready to hold talks for two days. The important is to have a result, he said.

The last meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani FMs was held in Vienna on December 6.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 20, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian, who is in Paris on a working visit, met with Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, Minister of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France, the Armenian ministry told Armenpress.

Welcoming the guest, Minister of State Lemoyne recalled with warmth the meeting with Minister Nalbandian within the framework of the Ministerial Conference of La Francophonie held in Paris on November 26. The officials discussed the preparatory works for the Summit of La Francophonie to be held in Yerevan in 2018.

Throughout the meeting the sides touched upon a wide range of issues of the agenda of Armenian-French privileged relations. Minister Nalbandian and Minister of State Lemoyne had a discussion on issues related to inter-parliamentary contacts, decentralized cooperation, expansion of trade and economic ties, and strengthening of scientific-educational collaboration.

In the context of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement signed with the EU, the sides touched upon Armenia-European Union relations.

Foreign Minister of Armenia briefed his interlocutor on the joint efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries aimed at the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

They also exchanged views on a number of urgent international and regional issues.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 20, ARMENPRESS. Armenian foreign minister Edward Nalbandian, who is in Paris on a working visit, had a meeting with around forty members of Senate and National Assembly of France, representing various political forces, the foreign ministry told Armenpress.

At the meeting, Edward Nalbandian touched upon the centuries-old relations between the Armenian and French peoples, the achievements registered over the past 25 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and France. The Armenian FM appreciated the important role of the parliaments of the two countries in deepening the Armenian-French cooperation.

In the light of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement signed with the EU, FM Nalbandian briefed on the Armenia-European Union relations.

Edward Nalbandian touched upon Armenia's leading role in the international efforts on the prevention of the crimes against humanity.

The foreign minister touched in a comprehensive manner upon the joint efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries aimed at the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, the latest developments in the settlement process.

Minister Nalbandian presented to French parliamentarians the approaches of Armenia on a number of regional issues and ways of their resolution.

Following the speech, the Armenian FM answered the numerous questions of the attendees.


YEREVAN, DECEMBER 20, ARMENPRESS. The Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Ara Babloyan received the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to Armenia Judith Margareth Farnworth on December 20.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the parliament of Armenia, the Head of the parliament highly assessed the implementation of the programme directed to the capacity building of the National Assembly of Armenia during the period of the transition to the parliamentary democracy. The parliament Speaker thanked the Government of the United Kingdom, as the programme is implemented by the International Center for Human Development with the financial support of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Ara Babloyan underlined the importance of the seminars being held for the development of the skills of the MPs and the Staff, noting that they would promote the efficiency of the work, the institutional strengthening of the parliament and the formation of the control culture.

The Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia gladly documented that the programme is carried out in Armenia with the support of a country with a big experience of many years of the parliamentary governance. In his opinion, there is a lot to do, but going forward step by step it will be possible to reach desirable result.

Ambassador Judith Margareth Farnworth has noted that the desire of implementing programmes directed to the capacity building of the parliament. Touching upon the programme promoting the development of the skills and capacity building of the Staff of the National Assembly of Armenia, the Ambassador opined that it would help the Staff work more effective and organize the activities. Mrs. Farnworth noted that the National Assembly of Armenia will face the same challenges years after what today the British Parliament faces. The Ambassador emphasized the works for the awareness raising, due to which the citizens have a picture what values are laid on the basis of this or that bill.

To Judith Margareth Farnworths assessment, the progress is evident in Armenia: there are positive impulses, and the rating of the country has risen.

At the end of the meeting the interlocutors also touched upon organizational issues concerning to the cooperation programme.
YEREVAN, 20 DECEMBER, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 20 December, USD exchange rate is down by 0.55 drams to 481.54 drams. EUR exchange rate is up by 0.94 drams to 570.05 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate is down by 0.01 drams to 8.21 drams. GBP exchange rate is up by 0.42 drams to 644.88 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price is down by 26.17 drams to 19512.57 drams. Silver price is up by 0.72 drams to 250.11 drams. Platinum price is up by 169.83 drams to 14150.43 drams.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 20, ARMENPRESS. Foreign Minister of Armenia, Chairman-in-Office of the Ministerial Conference of La Francophonie Edward Nalbandian, who is on a visit in Paris, had a meeting with Michaelle Jean, Secretary General of the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF), ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of MFA Armenia.

The results of the Ministerial Conference of La Francophonie held in Paris in the end of November were discussed at the meeting.

The Armenian Foreign Minister and the Secretary General of OIF had an extensive exchange of views over the issues of preparations for the summit of La Francophonie and the sessions of other statutory bodies of the organization to be held in Yerevan in 2018.



The interlocutors touched in a comprehensive manner upon the issues of content of the summit, such as the elaboration of the documents to be adopted, the main directions of discussions, the francophone business forum.

Edward Nalbandian and Michaelle Jean exchanged views on a number of directions of the OIF activities.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 20, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan received on December 20 the delegation of Armenia-EU Parliamentary Cooperation Committee headed by its Co-chairman Sajjad Karim. The delegation is in Armenia to participate in the regular 17th session of the Committee.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the Armenian Presidents Office, greeting the guests the President of the Republic documented with satisfaction that the relations of Armenia with the European parliament develop in a natural way and expand in both bilateral and multilateral formats.

The President highlighted the development of inter-parliamentary ties and dialogue in Armenia-EU relations, as well as the active mutual visits of the parliamentarians, attaching particular importance to the format of the Parliamentary Cooperation Committee.

Serzh Sargsyan noted that he is aware of the saturated agenda of the Yerevan session of the Committee and hoped that the decisions made during the session will further deepen the cooperation between Armenia and the EU. The President highlighted the Closing Statement adopted by the Committee  the high evaluation to the recent developments in Armenia-EU relations, including the signing of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement, as well as the balanced position on Nagorno Karabakh conflict that supports the mediation efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs.

The o-chairman of the Committee, Sajjad Karim thanked President Sargsyan on behalf of his delegation for the reception, assessment to the cooperation in inter-parliamentary format and the sincere and open dialogue during the meetings with them.

The interlocutors referred to the provisions of the CEPA and the statement adopted during the session, as well as the works underway in Armenia following the signing of the agreement aimed at reforms.

Serzh Sargsyan also answered the questions of the parliamentarians.
YEREVAN, DECEMBER 20, ARMENPRESS. Ambassador of the USA to Armenia Richard Mills assesses the current level of Armenian-U.S. relations as satisfying, ARMENPRESS reports the Ambassador told the reporters during the final event of the jubilee year of the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and the USA.

Armenian-U.S. relations are firm and we closely cooperate in many spheres. I am particularly satisfied with the economic and trade relations between the two states. Just recently we obtained data according to which trade turnover between the two states increased by 35% during the last 12 months. Trade creates opportunities both in Armenia and the USA, and also creates jobs. Besides, during the last 2 years FDIs from the USA to Armenia amounted to half a billion USD, and I am convinced the investments will rise, Richard Mills said, stressing that relations can always be strengthened in a number of spheres, such as defense.

Referring to his position in Armenia, the Ambassador said that he does not know yet for sure how long he will hold the position of the Ambassador of the USA to Armenia.

But when my tenure is over and whoever replaces me will continue the works in the directions that I assess priority, particularly deepening of investments and trade between the two states, fostering human rights, fight against corruption, collaboration with people who struggle against corruption and the works that are directed to making the relations between the two states and peoples closer, the Ambassador concluded.
LOS ANGELESiWantPhone, the mobile chat service from the acclaimed lifestyle brand iWantEmpire, is celebrating the holidays with Seven Days of Christmas Giveaways for its artists.

It has been a year of growth, inspiration and a great success for iWantPhone and our dedicated artists, said Jay Phillips, vice president of iWantEmpire, which operates iWantPhone. To reward their hard work, weve launched Seven Days of Christmas Giveaways. The promotion will award artists using the iWantPhone platform. We wish all participants continued success and best wishes for the holiday season and the year ahead.

The event kicks off today and runs through Dec. 25.

To participate, each artist may enter once per day. There is no limit to the number of wins, and the winners will be chosen at random on a daily basis.

The schedule of giveaways will be as follows:

 December 19  Any artist who completes a call will be entered to win a $50 Amazon gift card.

 December 20  Any artist who completes three-plus calls will be entered to win a Bluetooth headset.

 December 21  Any artist who receives a five-star review from a fan will be entered to win a $50 Amazon gift card.

 December 22  Any artist who completes a call will be entered to win a chance to be featured on iWantClips for one week.

 December 23  Any artist who tweets why they love iWantPhone, tags @iWantPhonechat and receives the most likes will win a $50 Amazon Gift Card.

 December 24  Any artist who completes a 10-plus minute call will be entered to win a promotional package that includes a customized Twitter header and promotional banner.

 December 25  Any artist who completes a 20-plus minute call will be entered to win a promotional package and a $100 Amazon gift card.

All winners will be notified via email and announced on iWantBlog and Twitter by Thursday, December 28. All prizes will be distributed by the first week of January.

For more on iWantEmpire, visit iWantEmpire.com.
Modern Baker has pledged to bring better baking to Britain by heading up a two-year research and development project into improving the nutritional quality of bread.

The Oxford-based bakery business has been awarded funding of 763,000 by innovation agency Innovate UK to conduct the research by using fermented sourdough and producing healthier loaves on a mass-market scale.

Modern Baker will work with Newcastle Universitys Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences to test the value of a given food on gut health using its model gut system, a lab version of the human digestive system. The brand will also work alongside food research technology agency Campden BRI.

Leo Campbell, co-founder of Modern Baker, said the funding was the best validation the business could have received.

Having access to some of the worlds leading food and medical research facilities in gut health will help us make the breakthrough the baking sector badly needs - the ability to move away from unhealthy fast carbs to slow-carb baking, said Campbell.

The findings on gut health will be published in an academic paper in 2019.

Gut health was recently flagged up as one of 2018s trends for the baking industry by food industry expert Jane Milton, chief inspiration officer at the Food & Drink Innovation Network.
Maoists have called for a taluka bandh in Gadchiroli to pretest an encounter which killed three commander-level Maoists.

By Divyesh Singh: Maoists have called for a taluka bandh in Gadchiroli, Maharashtra in protest against the December 6 encounter where seven Maoists including three commander-level cadres were killed.

The Area Committee Secretary of Aheri -- Commander Sunil -- said that the C-60 Commandos injured two of their cadres in an attack. Maoist Karan was killed and another was captured.The latter two had rewards on their heads.

advertisement

The C-60 force was constituted in 1992 to contain the Naxal menace and is Maharashtra's special Anti-Naxal force.

Photo Courtesy: Divyesh Singh

The aforementioned pamphlets are being circulated in Adivasi villages of Aheri and Sironcha taluka of Gadchiroli after the offensive which was launched by C-60 on December 20. It has put district police, CRPF and C-60 on high alert in the district.

Gadchiroli Police had said that after the December 6 operation, the Sironcha Tehsil was free of Maoist movement as all the members and commanders were killed. Since Tuesday evening, movement in areas of Etapally, Sironcha and Aheri would be restricted following the bandh call by Maoists.

Government buses and transport would only be allowed after conducting road-opening by C-60 Commandos or the district police.

But in the evening this would be very difficult in the interior areas. After the November 27 blast in Gadchiroli where a jawan was martyred, security forces learnt that Maoists were making use of RCIED (Remote Controlled Improvised Explosive Device).

This was alarming as RCIED could be triggered from a distance of up to 500 metres making it very dangerous and lethal.

According to Gadchiroli Police, they will remain on high alert till Thursday and every movement in and outside the forest area and villages will be monitored.

--- ENDS ---
We want to be wanted and we need to be needed. Call it the human condition or the need for dignity.Nearly all of us would agree that our lives feel fuller when we've done something we believe adds value to our family, our company, or our community. From small, unsolicited acts of kindness to the daily contribution at our place of employment, there is a satisfaction and contentment that comes from creating value.Yet, what about the millions of Americans that have seen very little opportunity in the land of opportunity?Despite government subsidies and benefits that might help offset material needs, there are millions of Americans that are craving one of life's most basic human necessities: the confidence that comes from gainful employment.Years ago I worked at an organization that helped provide men and women with sustenance and emergency financial assistance. Yet, aside from the homeless or new immigrants, most of the people that came in didn't need much in the way of food or clothing. It became immediately clear that most low-income Americans don't have the same basic needs as those in third world or developing nations. I realized that poverty was a more elusive term in America, with the real poverty being found in lack of opportunity and healthy incentive. It is a poverty of dignity.Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute, refers to this condition as the dignity deficit . He posits that for all America's material wealth and relative comforts, such as a food, clothing, housing, and electricity, our society and government have not sufficiently found ways to make people needed. Brooks urges government leaders to assess future welfare policy through this paradigm, asking,America's desire to help the marginalized and disenfranchised is exceptional. President Lyndon Johnson, well-aware of the significant cultural moment his presidency was a part of, sought to help alleviate the plight of the poor and bring justice to minorities. These endeavors were encapsulated in his Great Society vision.An integral part of the Great Society initiative was a national War on Poverty. Unfortunately, that war on poverty, which has lasted over fifty years and cost trillions of dollars, has actually led to a slight increase in poverty.Something isn't working. And it's obvious that this isn't a partisan problem. Americans have faced it under Democrat and Republican administrations. It's a worldview problem that is rooted in the many presuppositions about humans that policymakers bring to the table. From education to corporate tax rates to SNAP benefits, our lawmakers and bureaucrats are largely assuming that more money, more redistribution, and more food are the answers. In our 21st century context, they are not.What people need are opportunities to contribute to society. In honest work we find satisfaction, self-respect, and confidence to help others in need.I have little doubt that when President Lyndon Johnson embarked on our nation's decades-long War on Poverty, his intentions were noble. Very few can witness human suffering and defeat and not be moved to action. Johnson was touched by the stories of so many Americans that had struggled to make ends meet.So, he endeavored to change that. Yet, all actions are not created equal, and a good intention will always be most effective when it is married to wisdom. Again, America's poverty war has enabled the government to meet many material needs in society, so why hasn't the poverty rate dropped?Because in all of our central planning and wealth redistribution, we have forgotten that people need to feel needed and want to be wanted. Men and women carry their heads higher when they are able to provide for their children. The unemployed are prouder when they have finally found a steady job that enables them to not only put food on the table, but confidence in their step. The homeless are grateful for the free warm meal and the second-hand coat in the winter, but their self-esteem is lifted when they can finally be the one on the other side of the food distribution line, giving to their community.You can read Brooks' article and learn about some of the ways policymakers can address this deficit here
(Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

FBI National Academy  Quantico, Virginia  10:35 A.M. ESTThank you. Wow. (Applause.) Thank you very much, everybody. That's a lot of years since the last President, and we'll be back. (Laughter.) And thank you to Attorney General Sessions; thank you, Director Wray; Assistant Director Resch for hosting me here at the FBI National Academy to address our wonderful local police and sheriffs from all over America. A very special honor.And it's an honor to stand here today with the incredible men and women of law enforcement. Thank you. (Applause.)We're here to celebrate your graduation from the National Academy at Quantico. For over 80 years, this rigorous and world-renowned program has trained America's most dedicated local law enforcement officers from all across the country. So respected. Let me begin by saying to each member of the graduating class: Congratulations.You left home for 11 weeks to enroll in this program because you love your jobs, you love your communities, and you love your country.Earlier this week, you completed the harrowing 6-mile "Yellow Brick Road." Just signed that beautiful brick (Laughter.) I just signed that brick - designed for the Marines to push even the toughest to their limit.You endured muddy waters, barbed-wire fences, icy creeks, steep hills, and so much more, knowing that your elite training will help save lives. The training you received at Quantico will give you that extra edge you need to defuse a threat, to disarm a criminal, and to deliver a child safely to her mother's arms.I am here not only to congratulate you, but to honor you for your courage and for your devotion. And I want you to know that with me as your President, America's police will have a true friend and loyal champion in the White House - more loyal than anyone else can be, I tell you. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you.I also want to take a moment to speak to all of the law enforcement families here today. You make tremendous sacrifices. American families can sleep soundly at night because of the burden that you carry for all of us. So on behalf of all Americans, to every law enforcement family here today, and all across the nation: Thank you, thank you, thank you very much. (Applause.)And you do that under the most difficult conditions. You very rarely get the recognition you deserve, I can tell you that. But your families know what you deserve, and ultimately, that's the most important thing, isn't it?It's not a news story when our officers save a life, rescue a family, or stop a crime. It's just another day on the job. Yet, no matter the circumstances, you serve tirelessly, selflessly, and heroically. You do it because you really believe in doing your duty and doing it properly.Being a police officer is not just a career, it's a calling. And I've seen it. I have so many friends that are police officers - so many people in the FBI. These are great, great people. These are really heroes for all of us. So thank you very much. (Applause.) And as we, as a country, must do a better job showing our police officers the respect and gratitude that you have earned. And we will do that.So when you return home to your local precincts, I want you to deliver a message to your fellow officers: The President of the United States has your back 100 percent. (Applause.) I will fight for you, and I will never, ever let you down - ever. Now, more than ever, we must support the men and women in blue.In the last two years, America has seen a tragic rise in violent crime. In 2015 and 2016, we witnessed the steepest two-year consecutive increase in murders in nearly half a century.And you look at what's going on in Chicago. What the hell is going on in Chicago? (Laughter.) What the hell is happening there? (Applause.) For the second year in a row, a person was shot in Chicago every three hours. You don't think these people in this room can stop that? They'd stop that. They'd stop it.And just north of our nation's capital, in Baltimore, on average, someone was murdered nearly every day of this year.Police departments are overstretched, they're underfunded, and they're totally underappreciated - except by me. (Applause.) Instead of holding up our police as the role models and mentors they are, they have been subjected to malicious attacks on their character and integrity. This anti-police sentiment is wrong, and it's dangerous, and we will not stand for it.Most concerning of all, we have seen an alarming increase in violent assaults carried out against our police officers. Last year, an officer was assaulted in America, on average, every 10 minutes. In 2016, more than 140 officers lost their lives serving in the line of duty. These deaths fill our hearts with pain and with grief. Every drop of blood spilled from our men and women in blue is a wound inflicted on our nation. And when a brother or sister in uniform is hurt, on that day, all of America bleeds blue.I want to send a message today to those who threaten violence against our police: We will protect those who protect us. And we believe criminals who kill police officers should get the death penalty. (Applause.)One of my first executive orders as President instructed the Department of Justice to take all necessary steps and legal action to protect law enforcement from acts of violence against them.The Department of Justice has also announced more than $98 million in grant funding to help your local police departments hire desperately needed new officers. Also, just as I promised, we are allowing our local police to access surplus military equipment - something the previous administration, for some reason, refused to do. (Applause.) Explain that one. Explain it to me, please. Never understood that one. Somebody out there can explain. Anybody want to stand up and explain it? It'd be tough. (Laughter.)If we want to bring down violent crime, then we must stand up for our police. All of us gathered here today share a common goal. We want every child to be able to walk safely home from school, and we want every mother and father to know their children will be secure when they tuck them in at night.No family should have to worry about bullets flying through windows, or gangs recruiting on street corners. Every American child should be able to grow up in a safe community, surrounded by a loving family, and preparing to embark on a bright, beautiful future.As President, my greatest duty is to protect our nation and to protect our people. As we have witnessed recently, America faces grave threats. Terrorists have struck in the streets and subways of New York City twice in a few months. Both terrorists came to our country through the dysfunctional immigration system that we are correcting, and rapidly. And one came through chain migration - chain migration; the other, visa lottery.They have a lottery. You pick people. Do you think the country is giving us their best people? No. (Laughter.) What kind of a system is that? They come in by lottery. They give us their worst people, they put them in a bin, but in his hand, when he's picking them is, really, the worst of the worst. Congratulations, you're going to the United States. Okay. (Laughter.) What a system - lottery system.We're calling for Congress to end chain migration and to end the visa lottery system, and replace it with a merit-based system of immigration. (Applause.) We want a system that puts the needs of American families, taxpayers, and security first.That is why I have also directed the federal government law enforcement to work closely with our state and local police to destroy criminal cartels like the savages of MS-13. (Applause.)Already this year, the Department of Justice has worked with partners in Central America to arrest and charge roughly 4,000 MS-13 members. And the Department of Homeland Security has arrested nearly 800 MS-13 gang members and associates, an 83 percent increase from the previous year, and we're much higher this year than we were last year. And we'll get rid of them completely very soon, right? Right? They're working hard. (Applause.)Earlier this year, ICE officers conducted the largest crackdown on criminal gangs in the history of our country. In just six weeks, ICE - these are great people too; great people - and the Border Patrol agents - great people - and our law enforcement partners arrested nearly 1,400 suspects and seized more than 200 illegal firearms and nearly 600 rounds of narcotics - over 600 pounds. That's a lot of stuff. Recently, prosecutions of criminal firearm possessions were up 23 percent.To any member of MS-13 listening, I have a message for you: We will find you. We will arrest you. We will jail you. We will throw you the hell out of the country. (Laughter.) I mean, somehow, I like it better than jail. Jail we have to take care of them. Who the hell wants to take care of them? (Applause.) You know the jail stuff is wonderful but we have to pay for it, right? (Laughter.)But these are killers, these are people that are sadists in many cases. We don't want them. We don't want them. They're getting out of here.Our cities should not be sanctuaries for criminals; they should be sanctuaries for Americans. It is our duty to serve the hardworking citizens of our country who raise our families, cherish our values, salute our flag, and make this land our home. These are the citizens you represent, and these are the citizens you courageously protect.By the way, you are great people. You are incredible people. Just so you understand, you are great people doing an incredible job. But I hope your families know that. I'd say 90 percent of - probably 90 percent agree, right? (Laughter.) The other 10 percent, that's not working out so well. (Laughter.)We heard from one such hero among us earlier today, your class spokesperson, DEA Officer Craig Wiles. It is truly amazing to see Craig's father sitting in the very seat where Craig himself sat 40 years ago, when he was just 15 years old. Where is his father, by the way? Where is his father? Where is your father? There he is. (Applause.) He's better looking than you, by the way. (Laughter.) It's a great story though. It's fantastic. Thank you for being here. That's really nice. You proud of your son, right? Good. So am I.That day, Craig watched his father speak at this podium. When he listened to his father's words, he was filled with pride and such devotion that, at that moment, he too decided to become a law enforcement officer. Terrific.Today, it's incredible that his own children have joined us for this special moment. His daughter, Ashley, is carrying on the legacy of her father and grandfather. She now serves in law enforcement at the FBI. His son, Austin, is in college. And no matter what he chooses to do, I think we can confidently - and we really can, with great confidence - say that, this, he will always be better because of his father's lifelong example of selflessness and courage, and of love. So, thank you, Craig and your family. It's a terrific story and really is a great honor to be with you. Thank you very much. (Applause.)But as I look out in the audience today, I see many young, bright faces. To them, and to many other young Americans watching at home, of which there are many - you see, there's the fake news back there. Look, everybody. (Laughter.) Fake news. No, actually, some of them are fine people. (Laughter.) About - let's see, who's back there? Yeah, about 30 percent. (Laughter.)You are the men and women who teach them what it means to be a police officer. You are always there for us. The men and women in blue, in the dark of night, in the rush of danger, you break down doors, race down alleys, chase down suspects, and bring down criminals. And you do it with strength and skill and pride.There's a reason that your children look up to you with their eyes full of awe and full of wonder. There's a reason that they rush to the window just to catch a glimpse of your sirens flashing by. Because to them, and to all of us, and to me, you are the guardians who keep us safe, who ward off danger, and who confront evil so that the good will always prevail.You represent the best of America. And you leave us with a debt we can never hope to repay.Today, we honor you, we thank you, and we know that by your example, some of the children here today and watching at home will be inspired to fill your shoes, to continue your service, to follow in your footsteps, and to take the oath, to carry the badge, to wear the shield, and to join the ranks of heroes.Thank you to our police, thank you to our sheriffs, thank you to the FBI, and thank you to our law enforcement families. God bless you all. Thank you very much. (Applause.)END10:54 A.M. ESTWhite House 
Wednesday dawned to the horrifying cacophony of howling dogs mourning their dead masters - men, women and children killed in a mass slaughter by the Senate's passage of a rather ordinary tax bill from the Republicans. Yes, the Republicans had been warned that their plan would cause a symphony of darkness to play across the land. They'd been warned that the streets would be strewn with bodies. Worse, they'd been warned that those dead people would then move to Chicago and vote Democratic.But even Republicans, who are also dead, were shocked to find themselves inhabiting the bowels of Hell - in particular, inhabiting a special place therein reserved for women who did not vote for Hillary Clinton and voters who did not stand with Roy Moore.And all of this thanks to President Trump, who had pitched the tax cut by stating that he merely wanted what was best in life: to crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women.It is somewhat awkward writing this piece from the afterlife. It's even more awkward writing this for a news site that exists on the internet - you remember, the internet, that thing that used to exist before Republicans repealed net neutrality, resulting in the annihilation of entire populations and the end of the internet itself.And it's supremely awkward to write it from underwater, given that President Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris Accords doomed huge cities to the realm of Aquaman.What makes things even crazier is that everything is on fire despite being underwater, since Trump's decision to move the American embassy to Jerusalem angered the Arab street so much.By my count, I've died several dozen times since President Trump's election, according to the warnings issued by media and Democrats. Yet I've never been able to rest in peace, because dead Republicans just keep on passing legislation that affects dead Americans and dead Democrats and dead media members keep resisting dead Donald Trump.It turns out that the afterlife looks exactly like regular life.Except, of course, that Justin Bieber hasn't released any new songs in the Great Beyond. So that's nice.
University of North Carolina system president Margaret Spellings recently outlined her plans for higher education to drive economic prosperity in the News & Observer. Her "Two North Carolinas" class rhetoric was remarkably reminiscent of that of another North Carolina public figure with ties to the University of North Carolina. That is, failed (and disgraced) former presidential candidate John Edwards, whose campaign of class politics was entitled "Two Americas."Edwards tried to elevate himself to the White House by showing the nation how much he cared about the poor and working class. He even got the state's Democratic establishment, then in total control of the state government, to provide him with his own policy think tank-the Poverty Center at the UNC-Chapel Hill law school-from which to mount his crusade. During the Democratic Party 2008 primary, however, his personal failings brought him crashing down.Unfortunately, Spellings appears to have adopted Edwards's philosophy of "policy by virtue-signaling." Despite her grand schemes, it is not the university system's mission to eliminate "inequality" North Carolina. Trying to do so will inevitably result in failure, wastefulness, and missed opportunity.The UNC system has long tried to justify its budget requests by claiming a position at the center of North Carolina's economy, despite an absence of proof that this is the case. This way of thinking also betrays a misunderstanding of how an economy really functions. While higher education undoubtedly plays an important role in some aspects of the economy, more perceptive reasoning recognizes that the major solutions for poverty and economic malaise lay not just beyond the university system, but beyond the boundaries of the state. These cures include sensible trade policies that don't disadvantage U.S. industries, less onerous environmental and commercial regulations that don't strangle small businesses, and less burdensome tax policies that don't choke off investment and saving.But university involvement in the economy tends to introduce thinking that is detrimental to economic performance. Demographic bean-counting, such as Spellings' call for "aggressive but realistic targets, like a 31 percent increase in low-income graduates at North Carolina A&T and a 17 percent increase in rural graduates at Western Carolina University by 2022" smacks of the central-planning mindset that stifles rather than enhances economic growth.If rural North Carolina has lagged behind the rest of the state, it is not due to a lack of higher education. Public community colleges are located in 18 of North Carolina's 40 Tier 1 rural or economically distressed counties. Many more counties host remote campuses affiliated with the Community College system. All are open-admissions schools. Three UNC institutions-Elizabeth City State, Western Carolina, and UNC Pembroke-are also located in Tier 1 counties.Rural and small-town poverty has nothing to do with higher education; it is instead the result of real changes in the way goods and services are produced and with the aforementioned bad policies on a national level.Poverty in America, whether rural or urban, is also much more a cultural problem than it is a higher education problem. Much of it is caused by broken family structures, decaying cultural institutions, substance abuse, or negative attitudes toward work. The urban poor in Charlotte and Raleigh are surrounded by affluence and opportunity; they live amidst a wide range of colleges, some of them extremely low-cost. It is not a lack of higher education that prevents them from achieving a reasonably secure existence. Lots of people in these areas have comfortable, meaningful lives without college degrees; something other than the lack of opportunity-or higher education-is holding the impoverished back.Policies that call for drastically increasing college graduates from low-income or at-risk populations also fly in the face of scholastic reality. UNC policymakers seem to be in a state of denial that causes them to ignore the fact that not all students are equal in terms of effort and aptitude. The vast majority of talented high school students-no matter what their socio-economic background-are already going to college. In order to fill the "quotas" set by the university system, UNC schools must actively recruit students from lower in the talent pool.And the lower levels of the talent pool can be very fragile. Recent years have revealed the disastrous effects on many young people who either drop out of academic programs before earning a degree or who graduate by doing the bare minimum in easy majors. Many are mired in debt; others have a sense of failure with no appreciable increase in skills. There is also an opportunity cost to heading down the wrong path right out of high school, for there are more certain routes to getting a good start in life for those who are not academically inclined: the military, apprenticeships, vocational training, or even work experience.If there is an educational component to poverty, it is much more likely to be found at the K-12 level. It is in the early years of education that there is often a failure to acculturate low-income students to the norms of prosperity, as well as a failure to ensure they are solid on the basic skills and knowledge that they need to progress further.The UNC system administration should not consider itself as a social services agency that can make up for deficiencies in upbringing and culture on a broad scale. It exists to educate those who are capable of and receptive to education, and it already offers considerable help to lower-income students through several generous grant programs and by keeping tuition lower than almost all other state systems.Still, the university system can play an even greater major role in improving the lives of low-income North Carolinians that fits comfortably into its mission to educate. What the university system can do is promote a strong culture with high standards that will, in time, reduce young people's tendencies toward social pathologies, poor acculturation, and bad decision-making that leads to poverty.But that would require a drastic shift in the university system leadership's fundamental beliefs. It would require an active and passionate rejection of the relativistic, hedonistic, redistributive philosophy that has captured higher education and, from its beachhead in the universities, permeated throughout the rest of society. That mindset causes many young people to make bad choices, to underperform, to feel resentment where opportunity abounds, and to prolong adolescence.If Spellings really wants to help the unfortunate and aid the future economy of North Carolina, she should focus on getting UNC schools to re-emphasize the traditional culture of individual achievement and responsibility. This means starting the difficult process of beating back the assault on capitalism that is prevalent in the social sciences and humanities (as well as in many administrations).So enough of these failed policies of social engineering through increased university enrollment. There are not "Two North Carolinas" in the manner Spellings suggests. There are 10 million individual North Carolinians of vast diversity whose abilities, interests, backgrounds and work ethics form a seemingly infinite range. Let's have policies that reflect that reality instead of always trying to divide us into "two."
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.
Dozens of veterinarians from Puerto Rico and veterinary teams from around the world deployed to the island where we hosted 20 free spay/neuter and vaccine clinics and free horse wellness clinics. Pictured above, Dr. Adriana Silva with one of her patients. Photo by Thaisi Da Silva/The HSUS

643 shares







Our longstanding work in Puerto Rico was made all the more urgent when Hurricane Maria pummeled the islands and all but eliminated utilities, transportation, and other essential services for weeks and, in some parts, months.

Given our work on the ground, and our connections with so many key constituencies in Puerto Rico, we were in a position to respond and try to bring relief and help the people and animals get back on their feet. HSUS and Humane Society International teams arrived on the main island of Puerto Rico and Vieques as soon as aircraft were allowed in, to deliver aid to thousands of people and animals in disaster-stricken areas, many in low-income neighborhoods.

What touched our people on the ground was the amazing human-animal bond they saw in full bloom even in a time of distress and hardship. No matter the obstacles, and perhaps precisely because of them, the people of Puerto Rico were committed to helping their companion animals and caring for them.

Earlier this month, The HSUS and its partners collaborated on our latest on-the-ground operation there  Operation Viva Vieques, which included spay/neuter and vaccination clinics for cats, dogs, and horses, and medical care for injured and sick animals on the island, off the west coast of the main island.

Dozens of veterinarians from Puerto Rico and veterinary teams from around the world deployed to the island where we hosted 20 free spay/neuter and vaccine clinics. There were also free horse wellness clinics. Altogether, our teams treated 759 animals at our makeshift clinics. We also castrated horses, provided farrier care and lessons for locals on hoof health, and trained others in prophylactic dental care for horses. Its a remarkable horse culture on Vieques, and we were glad to put our shoulder into addressing the needs of the island for that set of animals.

We were supported in all of our work by our partners, including Our Big Fat Caribbean Rescue, Vieques Animal Clinic, the Vieques Humane Society, Wings of Rescue, and Two Mauds, Inc.

The program also has an educational aspect, and we engaged Viequenese youth on animal care and wellness. The week culminated with the Celebration of Vieques Animals a joyous festival where The HSUS and its partners celebrated locals and their love of animals.

We worked with our partners to transport shelter animals out of the island and they are now being placed with The HSUSs and The Sato Projects emergency placement partners.

Since Hurricane Maria, we have transported more than 2,000 dogs and cats in animal shelters to mainland United States. The HSUS, HSI, and our partners have also distributed more than 250,000 pounds of humanitarian aid, including diapers, food, water, batteries, solar lighting, and generators, in Puerto Rico. We have helped 1,000 households with pets, mainly in low-income neighborhoods, giving them food, water, and essential care items.

After Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, I promised that our work there would continue. With Operation Viva Vieques, we brought a little more hope and help to the islands long-suffering residents, human and animal. There is a long road ahead, but step by step we march.


The Getting to the Future First:

How Britain can lead the

Fourth Industrial Revolution report was created by Alan Mak, Conservative Member of Parliament for Havant, and it's a laughable compendium of trickle-down nonsense proposing that if all dividends from automation flow to capital, somehow everyone in the world will share in the benefits.



It hilariously characterises the Corbyn left  an incubator for utopian visions of "fully automated luxury Communism"  as technophobic luddites. This from a party whose policies promote the primacy of finance over the real economy, austerity over education and training, and mass internet surveillance and censorship, while dismantling the world-leading Government Data Service.

But really, the scene-stealer is that cover art. Man, oh man.
The Indiana Attorney General's office has filed a lawsuit against the Abbey Inn in Nashville, Indiana, "claiming the hotel's policy of levelling a charge against guests for negative reviews violated the state's Deceptive Consumer Sales Act," reports Southern Living magazine.

Katrina Arthur and her husband stayed in the Abbey Inn hotel in Brown County in March 2016. They said problems started as soon as they arrived. "The room was unkempt, and it looked like it hadn't been cleaned since the last people stayed there," Arthur told Call 6, the investigative arm of a local ABC news affiliate, the Indy Channel. "We checked the sheets and I found hairs and dirt," she said.

She said the hotel had no visible staff they could talk to at the time, and that calling the number on the front desk didn't work. "I actually had to clean the room myself," she said.

When Arthur received an email after her stay asking her to leave a review, she decided to be honest.

"I wanted people to know not to waste their money because I know people save their money for special occasions," Arthur told the Indy Channel.

However, soon after leaving the review, Arthur says she was charged $350 and threatened with legal action, prompting her to delete the review. She has not received the money back.
Business / Local

by Stephen Jakes

An employee with the National Railways of Zimbabwe has accused her employer of failing to settle her pay arrears for quite a long time saying this has seriously affected her family.Sinikiwe Ncube said she worked for NRZ for over 30 years and for the past four years now she walks to and from work everyday."Each and every day my children sit at home and watch other children go to school just because I cannot manage to pay their school fees. NRZ owes me thousands of dollars in unpaid salaries. Right now I am being paid a salary for the month of September 2016 15 months have been not been paid for. I am owed six months transport allowance," she said."I am owed three years bonus (2015, 2016 and 2017). I have approached the lawyers for human rights so that my basic rights can be restored. I was told that this is a labour issue I should go to the labour court and I was told that they do not interfere and I should go to the Railways employment council."She said since 2009 she have not been paid and its either its staggered or this slashed."All that the Railways Employment Council says is that the company does not have money to pay for wages. Can someone out thee please tell me how can I have a basic right restored. Can someone out there please tell me how I can get paid for what I have worked for," she said.
News / Africa

by Staff Reporter

THE Botswana Express Train has announced plans to resume the Francistown-Bulawayo route service on trial basis as it evaluates the business viability of the business.The train is expected to arrive from Francistown at about 7am today departing from Bulawayo at 2pm. Today's passenger trial run follows a successful one that was conducted by officials from Botswana Express Train and National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) on Monday. NRZ public relations manager Nyasha Maravanyika yesterday confirmed the move saying both parties were confident the trial run would yield positive results after the operators stopped services in the early 2000s."These are still trial runs from Francis Town to Bulawayo Railways Station. On Monday the railway trial run was just for NRZ and Botswana officials. The initiative is for Botswana Rails although working with the NRZ. They will start the passenger trial run tomorrow (today) but they say it will go for a couple of weeks or a month in trying to see how the train will be running," said Mr Maravanyika.He said NRZ was set to benefit from the partnership with Botswana as it will confirm to investors the capabilities of the parastatal to work with other partners. Mr Maravanyika said NRZ will also benefit from the partnership through sharing of expertise between the two parties."In terms of benefits, the NRZ are coming as a partner and the most important benefit that we have at the moment is gaining investor confidence that we are able to attract another train from another country. We are also looking at a situation where out teams benefit in terms of the partnership as they are going to gain expertise and competence," he said. Mr Maravanyika said if the trial run is successful, the public especially cross border traders will benefit from the Francis Town- Bulawayo rail connectivity."It is going to help in terms of tourism as some people will come to Francis Town and connect to Bulawayo and Victoria Falls. They can use the railway network as NRZ already has a running train connecting the areas. It will also be convenient for small and medium enterprises businesses or the cross border traders as they can use the train for convenience purposes especially at the Plumtree Border Post," said Mr Maravanyika.
Krishna Raj was rushed to the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital in New Delhi after she complained of dizziness during the BJP's parliamentary meeting in the national capital.

By India Today Web Desk: Union Minister of State for Agriculture Krishna Raj was rushed to a hospital in New Delhi after she took ill during the Bharatiya Janata Party's parliamentary party meeting in the national capital.

News agency ANI tweeted out a picture of what looked like security personnel rushing out of Parliament's Library Building with Raj in a stretcher. She was rushed out of the meeting after she complained about feeling dizzy.

advertisement

Raj was taken to the Ram Manohal Lohia hospital in Connaught Place, New Delhi in an ambulance. As of last updating this report, Raj's condition was unknown.

Delhi: MoS Agriculture Krishna Raj fell ill during BJP parliamentary party meeting at Parliament's Library Building, rushed to RML hospital for treatment. pic.twitter.com/lnINcuJNJw- ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2017

The 32-year-old Raj is a Member of Parliament from Uttar Pradesh's Shahjahanpur. Before becoming an MP in 2014, she served two terms as an Member of the Legislative Assembly in the Uttar Pradesh and before being inducted in the Narendra Modi cabinet, she served on various committees.

The parliamentary meeting is being held after the BJP's election victories in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. In the former, the party beat a 22-year anti-incumbency to retain PM Modi's home state, while in Himachal, the BJP wrested control from the Congress.

PM Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah were both felicitated at the meeting today. It remains to be seen who the party will appoint as chief ministers in the two states.

#WATCH: Earlier Visuals from BJP's Parliamentary Party meeting underway at Parliament Library Building in Delhi. pic.twitter.com/TZAX6OBw8h- ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2017

--- ENDS ---
News / National

by Staff Reporter

President Emmerson Mnangagwa is today set to deliver his inaugural State of the Nation Address (SONA) to a joint sitting of the National Assembly and Senate, where he will give his reflection on the country's performance for the year.The announcement was made yesterday by Speaker of the National Assembly Advocate Jacob Mudenda, while addressing legislators in the Chamber."I wish to inform the House that His Excellency the President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa will tomorrow, Wednesday 20 December 2017, deliver a State of the Nation Address to a joint sitting of Senate and National Assembly at the Harare International Conference Centre at 1430hours in the afternoon," said Adv Mudenda.Adv Mudenda rapped Kuwadzana East Member of Parliament Advocate Nelson Chamisa (MDC-T) for mixing issues after the backbencher asked if they will be given an opportunity to ask the Head of State and Government questions. Adv Mudenda said while the Constitution stipulated that the President might attend Parliament to respond to questions, the issue at hand, that of SONA, was provided for under a different section of the Constitution.In a related matter, Adv Mudenda said the President was empowered to deploy members of the security forces, in particular the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF). He said this while responding to an issue that had been raised by Mutare Central MP Mr Innocent Gonese (MDC-T) early this month, asking about the presence of soldiers, who were assisting police in the maintenance of law and order during Operation Restore Legacy.Adv Mudenda read out a response that had been made by the Minister of Defence, Security and War Veterans Kembo Mohadi, who said members of the ZDF might be deployed in the country in terms of Section 213 of the ConstitutionSection 213 (2) reads: "With the authority of the President, the Defence Forces may be deployed in Zimbabwe  (a) in defence of Zimbabwe; (b) in support of the Police Service in the maintenance of public order; or (c) in support of the Police Service and other civilian authorities in the event of an emergency or disaster."Meanwhile, Adv Mudenda had the House in stitches when he concurred with Musikavanhu MP Mr Prosper Mutseyami (MDC-T), that there was need to capacitate Parliament's health centre on stress management given events unfolding, where some ministers and deputy ministers were losing their jobs as Government realigned its structures. Mr Mutseyami had said several ex-ministers were finding it difficult to adjust to their new life as backbenchers, hence the need to administer counselling services.Adv Mudenda said he has a cousin relative who was going through serious depression after he lost a ministerial post due to the re-alignment of Government ministries as President Mnangagwa announced a leaner Cabinet. He did not, however, name the affected former minister. Adv Mudenda also announced that the Committee on Standing Rules and Orders had appointed new chairpersons of portfolio committees to match the new Government structure. This saw some chairpersons being dropped.Notable changes include that of Gokwe-Nembudziya MP Justice Mayor Wadyajena, who is now chairing the committee on Lands, Agriculture and Resettlement, replacing Muzarabani South MP Christopher Chitindi. Chitindi will now chair the committee on Transport and Infrastructural Development, replacing Chegutu West MP Dexter Nduna, who has been dropped.Norton MP Mr Temba Mliswa will now chair the Mines and Energy committee, replacing Masvingo Urban MP Dr Daniel Shumba, who has also been dropped. Other changes were meant to replace ministers who had been elevated, while others were retained.
Opinion / Columnist

Zanu PF is a party of ruthless thugs and time and time again when the party felt its hold on power was under threat it came out with all guns blazing, without a care in the world who was watching. Well the world was watching and the world is not going to be fooled by the party bare-faced attempts to portray itself as anything other than a party of ruthless thugs.No one will be fooled by President Mnangagwa's advisor, Chris Mutsvangwa's, pathetic attempts to deny the Zimbabwe National Army is nothing but a department within the political party Zanu PF; there to do the party's dirty bidding during elections and, like every other section of the party, was caught up in the factional war that has torn the party into shreds in the last three years!"Contrary to reports that were attributed to me, that the army would ensure an electoral victory for ZanuPF, its a lie," said Mutsvangwa."I said there was a team which helped to undo the dynastic tendencies of Mugabe. Then I promised the president that we would deliver an election victory to him and that specifically excludes the army because the army had played a role in the ascendancy to power of the new president."The army is a professional entity which doesn't get involved in election campaigns and I urge all journalists to report accurately."Mutsvangwa was trying to counter his statement at the Zanu PF Special Congress where he said the Army would help deliver an election victory for the party. People like Mutsvangwa have excellent memory, he remembers every detail of the liberation struggle, for example. But, like most other Zanu PF thugs, he also have a very selective memory in that he cannot remember the pivotal role ZNA has played in past Zanu PF's electoral victories. Former President Mugabe remembered and he thanked the Army generals, the other securocrats and the war veterans for "rescuing him and the party" from electoral defeat in 2008 in operation "Mavhotera papi!" (Whom did you vote for!).The Zanu PF dictatorship had deployed the Army, Police and CIO in much the same way it deployed the party loyalists war veterans to punish the civilians for daring to reject Mugabe and Zanu PF in the March 2008 vote. Mugabe had lost the vote to Tsvangirai's staggering 73%. The regime had connived to have the vote reduce to 47% to force a run-off and then use violence to overturn the Tsvangirai's 73% into an 84% Mugabe victory."What was accomplished by the bullet cannot be undone by the ballot!" Mugabe had boasted, encouraging the violence and thuggery.The Army and the other securocrats have played a major role helping Mugabe and Zanu PF remain in power but in 2008 they went the extra mile and staged what many agree was a coup to stop Tsvangirai and MDC ruling the country. What Mugabe did not realise at the time was this was not going to be their last coup much less that he himself will be the target of the next coup.The rogue war veterans under Chris Mutsvangwa and, before him, Jabulani Sibanda have been Zanu PF's storm troopers who have done the threatening and harassing of voters to ensure the party's electoral victories. The more systematic harassment, beatings and murderers have been carried out by ZNA, Police and CIO.The November 2008 coup; "Operation Restore Legacy", as one of the coup leaders, General Chiwenga, dubbed it; was about restoring State power back in the hands of the Join Operation Command (JOC), a Junta comprising the top brass in the Army, Police and CIO, Mugabe, Mnangagwa and one or two others. Mugabe had tried to handover power to his wife and her G40 faction and hence the need of the coup to force him to resign.After risking all to restore JOC's iron grip on power, some of the coup plotters have just secured for themselves cushy position in President Mnangagwa's administration, it will be naive of these individuals to then risk losing that power by holding free, fair and credible election. Mutsvangwa can say what he like but the whole world knows that the Army, Police, CIO and the war veterans will be out campaigning for Zanu PF in next year's elections.If Zanu PF's hold on power is threaten as happened in 2008, then the nation can be certain there will be operation "Mavhotera papi!" mark 2! Zanu PF is a party of thugs and they will stop at nothing to make sure the party does not lose power."Zanu PF ichatonga! Igotonga!" (Zanu PF will rule! And rule!) as President Mnangagwa has often said.What he and the rest in the party will be doing is deploy the Army, Police, CIO and the war veterans as before only this time the party must do everything possible to cover the thugs' tracks.Of course, Zanu PF is not just relying on the Army and other thugs to deliver election victory, it many other vote rigging activities such as the Chiefs and other traditional leaders who have already received their down payments for their contribution. The 226 Chiefs country wide will each get a new Isuzu twin cab truck and in return they will be expected to carol and herd villagers to vote for the party.The real challenge for Zanu PF is not so much how to rig next year's election but rather how to conceal all these vote rigging activities for the party to claim the election was free and fair and get away with it. If the international community, especially SADC, should dismiss the election as a sham, just as they did following the 2008 elections, then Zanu PF rule will come to a crashing end. While in 2008 the regime was given a lifeline by being allowed go into the GNU; the party will be given no such meaningful role this time. The world knows that Zanu PF is a party of ruthless thugs who cannot be trusted."The army is a professional entity," said Mutsvangwa. Yeah right! Since when has vote rigging and staging coups become the most highly priced relevant experience for soldiers!
Today we take a look at the Camacho Liberty 2016 edition. The Camacho Liberty series is an annual limited edition cigar and one that is consistently anticipated by cigar enthusiasts. While Camacho has done several limited edition releases, it is safe to say that the Liberty has remained the most popular of them. Each year for the Liberty Series, Camacho puts forward a different blend. There is a limited allocation of these cigars and once the cigars are gone, they are gone. One thing that distinguishes the Camacho Liberty series is that each cigar is packaged in an individual coffin-box. Camacho Liberty 2016 edition marked the 14th anniversary of the series. It was also the fourth edition of the Liberty to be released since the brand underwent a massive overhaul in 2016.

The Liberty Series made its debut in 2002, and for the most part, it has been one size, one vitola. The initial Liberty Series 2002 came in 5 sizes and the 2004 edition came in two sizes. Many of the releases have used Camachos signature 11/18 figurado size, including the Camacho Liberty 2016. What else is interesting about the Camacho Liberty 2016 is that it was the first Liberty to have some of its production allocated for the European market.

Without further ado, lets take a closer look at the Camacho Liberty 2016 and see what this cigar brings to the table.

Blend Profile

The Camacho Liberty 2016 features tobaccos from five countries: Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic

Wrapper: Habano 2000 Ecuador

Binder: Honduran Corojo

Filler: San Andres Ligero (Mexico), Esteli Ligero (Nicaragua), Ometepe Seco (Nicaragua), and San Vincente Seco (Dominican Republic)

Country of Origin: Honduras

Vitolas Available

As has been the tradition of the Camacho Liberty series, the blend is being released in one size  a figurado known as 11/18. The 11/18 name was established when Christian Eiroa owned Camacho  it refers to a unique figurado shape and was named for the date of Eiroas mothers birthday. The Camacho Liberty 2015s dimensions are 6 x 48/54/48.

Par for the course with the Camacho Liberty series, the Liberty 2015 is packaged 20 coffins in a box. The U.S. allotment is the normal 2,000 boxes of twenty for a total of 40,000 boxes. This year, an additional 1,000 boxes of twenty are being made for the European market.

Appearance

The Ecuadorian wrapper to the Camacho Liberty 2016 has a medium brown color. This was a wrapper that had a nice oily complexion. While there are some visible veins and visible wrapper seam, I consider this wrapper to be on the smooth side. The surface of the wrapper has a light coating of oil on it. The 11/18 figurado of the Camacho Liberty had its usual shape. It was a cigar that was widest in the middle. There is a gentle tapering toward both the cap and the tapering toward the footer is even more gradual.

The band of the Camacho Liberty 2015 had a black, silver, and white color scheme. The upper two-thirds of the band is black in color. On the center of the top section is a folded American flag in silver font. Below the flag is the text LIMITED EDITION 2016  also in silver font. In landscape mode on the right side is the text CAMACHO LIBERTY 2016 in bold silver font with the CAMACHO text keeping to the font of the brands logo. Below that text is the text LIMITED EDITION and HAND BUILT IN HONDURAS in a smaller silver font.

There is a white stripe just below the large black section. This section contains the text THE LAND OF THE FREE AND THE HOME OF THE BRAVE in black font. The lower portion of the band is also black with a series of silver stars.

Preparation for the Cigar Experience

Prior to lighting up the Camacho Liberty 2016, I used with a thin straight cut to remove the cap. This allowed me to maximize the amount of tapering effect I could get from the figurado. There was an interesting cinnamon-like aroma I got from the tobacco. From that point, I moved on to the pre-light draw. The cold draw delivered to mix of natural tobacco, black pepper, and a touch of cinnamon. Overall, I considered the Camacho Liberty 2016 to deliver an excellent pre-light experience. At this point, I was ready to light up the Camacho Liberty 2016 and see what the smoking experience would have in store.

Flavor Profile

The Camacho Liberty 2016 started out with a blast of black and red pepper. This was also followed by notes of natural tobacco flavors. As the Camacho Liberty moved through the early sections, I found the natural tobacco notes moved to the forefront. There was a nice sweetness to the natural tobacco as it delivered both caramel and sugar cane qualities. It didnt take long before some earthy notes also surfaced in the background. Meanwhile, the retro-hale delivered another dose of red and black pepper.

During the second third, I found the sugar cane qualities of the natural tobacco began to surface. While both the pepper and earth notes increased in intensity in the background, the earthy notes increased at a more rapid rate and eventually joined the natural tobacco in the forefront.

The last third didnt see much changes  except the natural tobacco notes remained in the forefront with less of the caramel and sugar cane qualities. There was a slight increase in the pepper, but it never overpowered the blend. This is the way the Camacho Liberty 2016 came to a close. The resulting nub was soft to the touch and cool in temperature.

Burn and Draw

In terms of burn, the Camacho Liberty 2016 delivered some excellent performance. There was a slight amount of curvature on the burn line, but this didnt warrant an excessive amount of touch-ups. The Liberty 2016 also had no problems maintaining a straight burn path. The ash of the Liberty 2016 wasnt overly firm, but it wasnt loose or flaky either. This was an ash with a light gray color to it. As for the burn temperature and burn rate  both were ideal.

The draw to the Camacho Liberty 2016 was open, but not loose. I found this was a low maintenance cigar to derive flavor from.

Strength and Body

From both a strength and body perspective, I found the Camacho Liberty 2016 to be in the medium to full range from start to finish. There actually was a slight dialing back of the strength and body in the first third while there was a slight increase in both attributes in the last third. Throughout the smoking experience, I found the strength and body pretty much balanced each other nicely.

While there was some variance in the intensity levels of the strength and body, overall I thought the Liberty 2016 did a good job at balancing strength and body with neither attribute overshadowing the other.

Final Thoughts

From 2013 through 2015, I had been underwhelmed by the Camacho Liberty releases. The 2016 release is a different story. Its one that I have enjoyed smoking, and now with nearly 17 months of age on it, I think it has responded nicely. While there was a bold sweetness from the natural tobacco, I found this was balanced out by the earth and pepper notes. The Camacho Liberty does not have an overly complex flavor profile, but it had just enough to keep me interested in this smoke from start to finish. Given this cigar has some boldness to it, I would recommend this to a more seasoned cigar enthusiast.

The Camacho Liberty is a pricy cigar  coming in at $18.00. Its one that I would easily smoke again, and its good enough where I would recommend to a cigar enthusiast to buy a few of these, smoke one or two now and put at least one away for further aging.

Summary

Key Flavors: Natural Tobacco, Caramel, Sugar Cane, Earth, Pepper.

Burn: Excellent

Draw: Excellent

Complexity: Medium

Strength: Medium to Full

Body: Medium to Full

Finish: Good

Rating

Value: Buy Multiples

Score: 90

References

News: Camacho Liberty 2016 Heading to U.S. and Europe

Price: $18.00

Source: Purchased

Brand Reference: Camacho

Photo Credits: Cigar Coop, except where noted
TUESDAY, Dec. 19, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Women with a relatively short cervix are at higher risk of preterm delivery, but new research shows that a cervical device may cut that risk substantially.

The Italian study included 300 women with a short cervix. Half of them used a small silicone ring called a cervical pessary, while the other half acted as a "control" group and did not use the device.

A cervical pessary is designed to keep the cervix closed and to change the inclination of the cervical canal. Previous findings about the effectiveness of the device have been contradictory, the researchers noted.

In this study, women who used the cervical device had about half the risk of preterm birth -- defined as delivery at less than 34 weeks of pregnancy -- compared to women in the control group.

Women who used the pessary also tended to deliver larger, healthier babies that did not require neonatal ICU care, the study found.

Use of the pessary did not cut down on the need for C-section delivery, infections or the risk of fetal or infant death.

The study was conducted at just one facility and the findings must be confirmed in larger clinical trials conducted at multiple sites, said a team led by Dr. Gabriele Saccone, of the University of Naples Federico II.

One U.S. obstetrician-gynecologist said the findings could be a boon for women.

"The pessary is a low-cost treatment with almost no risks and does not require anesthesia," said Dr. Jennifer Wu, of Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "It holds real promise for helping with shortened cervix patients, especially in low-resource areas."

Dr. James Ducey, director of maternal-fetal medicine at Staten Island University Hospital, in New York City, called the study "well done." However, he agreed that "more high-quality research is needed" to determine whether the pessary can "make an impact on the preterm birth rate."

The study was published Dec. 19 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on preterm birth.
Share this: Twitter

Facebook

WhatsApp

LinkedIn

Email

Telegram



Bogota, Colombia, December 19, 2017  Colombian authorities should immediately suspend the mayor of a town in northern Colombia, and undertake a swift and credible investigation into reports that he threatened and shot at a local radio journalist, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Luis Carlos Ortiz told CPJ that Mayor Wilson Gonzalez Reyes approached him in front of Ortizs home in Rionegro around 1 a.m. Sunday morning as the journalist was returning from a photo shoot. The journalist said Gonzalez berated him for his critical news coverage, grabbed him by the neck, and later fired a shot at the journalist with a 9mm pistol.

He said he was going to kill me, Ortiz told CPJ recalling his encounter with Gonzalez.

Ortiz said the mayors bullet barely missed him and that he reported the attack to police shortly after Gonzalez drove off.

The journalist said he now fears for his life and is considering leaving Rionegro.

It is unacceptable for a public official to interfere with a local journalist doing his job, much less openly threaten him with death, said CPJ Deputy Executive Director Robert Mahoney from New York City. Wilson Gonzalez Reyes should be immediately suspended as Rionegro mayor while authorities conduct a full investigation into his threats against Luis Carlos Ortiz.

CPJ was unable to reach Gonzalez or the police for comment. When CPJ called the town hall, the telephone was disconnected.

Ortiz, 27, works in Rionegro as a studio photographer and as host of a two-hour morning news program on La Voz de la Inmaculada, a community radio station operated by the local Catholic Church. He also writes for the Facebook page Ciudad Rionegro, which features local news and events. He told CPJ that he earlier this year posted stories, some original content and some from third parties, to the page about the poor condition of local roads, the towns public swimming pool and an article about the mayors controversial decision to close a Rionegro senior citizens center.

Ortiz told CPJ that the Facebook posts angered Gonzalez, and that on the night of the attack the mayor shouted: Im not afraid of what they say on social media.

Ortiz and the mayor had previously had altercations. The journalist told CPJ that in 2015 Gonzalez had punched with his fist both Ortiz and Ortizs mother after Ortiz had questioned the mayor about the Gonzalez campaign offering free lunches in exchange for votes.

Sebastian Salamanca of the Bogota-based Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP) told CPJ that his organization has asked the Attorney Generals office to investigate the incident. Salamanca added that on Sunday FLIP solicited emergency protection for Ortiz from the governments National Protection Unit, which had not responded to this request at the time of publication.
 



Our Divisions

Copyright  2022-23 DB Corp ltd., All Rights Reserved

This website follows the DNPA Code of Ethics.
Mumbai government's dream to connect the 3 employment hubs- Colaba, Bandra and SEEPZ is about to come true in 2 years.

By Mayuresh Ganapatye: Mumbai Metro Line 3's work is in full swing as its very ambitious project of Devendra Fadnavis government to connect Colaba, Bandra and SEEPZ. And India Today was the first channel to actually go into the underground Metro tunnel of the Line 3 at Mahim's Naya Nagar area.

Line 3 of the Mumbai Metro will run on a 33.5km long stretch which will be completely underground. After completion it will be Mumbai's first underground Metro rail line which will connect three employment venues- South Mumbai, Bandra (BKC) and SEEPZ.

advertisement

A month back tunnelling work started in Mahim's Naya Nagar area which was inaugurated by CM Devendra Fadnavis. Now the MMRCL teams have started excavation at the same spot where they have done 50 meters of excavation with the help of highly mechanised tunnel boring machines (TBM).

The TBM will drive through Shitaladevi Metro Station and will be retrieved at the proposed Dadar Metro station. The machine is expected to cover a distance of 2.5 km in a year. The TBM being used at the Naya Nagar launching site is one of the 17 TBMs which will be used to construct the 33.5-km-long twin tunnels.

Seven launching sites will be created for the Metro Line 3 project. The entire tunneling is expected to be done in two years. TBMs that which is being right now used at various sites are similar machines that are used worldwide for boring.

Barring a few technical changes that are done based on the geology of the areas; these machines are same or similar to what we see around the world. The total length of this tunnel drive is 2.5 kms for each tunnel. The TBM will take about 1 year to complete this drive.

At many places MMRCL had to face protest from locals as many people felt that their buildings are in danger due to this underground metro.

But speaking about safety and security Managing Director of MMRC, Ashwini Bhide said, "We have taken utmost care of safety and security. Even we have done extensive survey of all the building under which this line will go. All those staying in building which are in dilapidated state and falling on the way of Metro 3 we will provide them alternate accommodation."

The main problem which Mumbaikars face every year during monsoon is that all modes of transport get paralysed when the city gets flooded. Many feared that if the flood-like situation occurs again, it will hamper the underground metro.

Certainly not is the answer as all tunnels of Underground Metro 3 are water proof and MMRCL has taken a flood data of the last 100 years, and after analysing it they had made their final plan and design.

advertisement

Speaking about the project Ashwini Bhide said, "This project will be joining 3 major employment avenues which are not connected with each other by local railway lines. This project will certainly reduce the burden of road transport on western suburban."

MMRCL is confident of completing the tunnelling work by 2019 and simultaneously they have also started the process of tendering of other work related to station building, signalling etc.

A 20-km long metro line from Colaba to Bandra was announced in January 2014, as part of a master plan unveiled by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).

The plan encompassed a total of 146 kilometres (91 mi) of track, of which 32 kilometres (20 mi) was proposed to be underground. The MMRDA unveiled plans for an extended Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ metro line in 2011.

According to its earlier plans, a 20-km metro line from Colaba to Bandra was to be constructed, running underground for 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) from Colaba to Mahalaxmi, and then on an elevated track from Mahalaxmi to Bandra. The MMRDA decided to extend the line to the Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport to increase the ridership.

advertisement

The 33.5-km (20.8 mi) Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ line was estimated to cost Rs 21,000 crore (USD 3.3 billion), have 26 stations, and would be the city's first fully underground metro line at Nariman Point, BKC, MIDC, SEEPZ.

--- ENDS ---
The safety and security of Americans overseas is one of the United States' top priorities. That's why the U.S. has expressed its grave concern regarding the continued incarceration of Josh Holt by the Venezuelan government.

On December 12, U.S. citizen Josh Holt was charged after more than 17 months of detention and many court delays. U.S. Embassy personnel were denied access to Mr. Holts court hearing and to a visit scheduled that day.

"The United States remains extremely concerned for Mr. Holts health and welfare, which continues to deteriorate under the custody of SEBIN, the Venezuelan intelligence agency," said State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert.

Venezuela is legally obligated in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations to permit U.S. consular officers to visit U.S. citizens detained there. But "too often," said Ms. Nauert, "access is only belatedly granted, only to be canceled, withdrawn, or simply ignored, as was the case on December 12."

The United States calls on the Venezuelan government to grant immediate consular access to Mr. Holt. Pursuant to its international obligations, Venezuela must guarantee Mr. Holt a fair trial. His life should not be jeopardized under SEBINs custody.

During his time in prison, Holts mother, Laurie, says that her son has been forced to undergo extremely inhumane treatment.

Mr. Holt was arrested after traveling to Venezuela to marry Thamara Caleno, a fellow Mormon and Venezuelan citizen whom he had met on the internet. He had planned to spend several months in Caracas with her and her two daughters to secure visas for them so they could move to the U.S.

Mr. Holt was arrested under questionable circumstances and was held without charges for 17 months. We continue to call for his release on humanitarian grounds.

Spokesperson Nauert urged "the government of Venezuela to grant Mr. Holt immediate release and return him to the United States."
The feather fossilized in the amber and, above, a close up of the tick. NATURE COMMUNICATIONS/EPV

To stumble upon something as fragile as a dinosaurs feather from almost 100 million years ago is unusual. Even rarer is the discovery of a fossilized tick. But to find a tick on a feather trapped in fossilized tree resin dating back 99 million years has proved nothing short of a miracle for a group of researchers working in the field.

Its easy for dinosaurs with big hard bones to fossilize, says paleontologist Enrique Penalver from the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain (IGME), who is heading the research. But ticks are not very hard. All the ones that have been found are in amber. Where theres no amber, theres no fossil record of ticks.

These are the oldest ticks ever found, apart from the example discovered in Spanish amber

The feather in question was found in the north of Myanmar and donated to the American Natural History Museum by a private collector. It was there that curator and co-author of the research, Paul Nascimbene, discovered what he believed to be a tick. Nascimbene contacted Penalvers team and also Xavier Delclos, a professor at Barcelona University and a world expert on amber-preserved fossils.

The research, published in the journal Nature Communications, judges the Burmese amber to come from the middle of the Cretaceous period, around 99 million years ago. Leading on from the Jurassic Period, the Cretaceous Period ended around 65 million years ago with mass extinction, probably caused by a meteorite or asteroid colliding with the planet. This, then, is the oldest direct evidence of ticks feasting on dinosaurs. Identified as a hard tick, the specimen belongs to the Cornupalpatum burmanicum species. Apart from one yet-to-be-classified example preserved in Spanish amber, this is the oldest tick yet discovered.

However, according to Penalver, no one would know this was the case. If you could take it out of the amber and bring it back to life and gave it to tick specialists, they would never suspect that this was an animal from almost 100 million years ago, he explains. Although this exact species died out a long time ago, its lineage survives in one of the three groups of tick around today.

Three-dimensional model of theDeinocroton draculitick based on scan of amber. (Oscar Sanisidro, Kansas University).

The researchers have also identified and classified another four ticks from a previously unknown species, which they have christened Deinocroton draculi. All four, whose lineage has not survived to the present day, were found in Burmese amber while two  a male and a female  have been fossilized in the same piece of amber. The researchers also found clues suggesting that these four fed off feathered dinosaurs, though there is no evidence as decisive as the tick on the feather.

One such clue is in the marks on the abdomen of beetle larva, which can be found today in birds nests. But the possibility that the animals they fed from were birds as we know them has been dismissed as they didnt figure until 25 million years later. We know that it was a feathered dinosaur but we dont know if it flew or not, says Ricardo Perez de la Fuente, from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

The amber, which comes from the vegetable resin of coniferous tress and several other plants, is the preferred time machine for paleontologists. As Perez de la Fuente explains, It doesnt simply capture organisms almost instantaneously, it preserves the interaction between them forever. Such is the case not only of the tick on the feather, but also of the insects caught in the Spanish amber with recently collected pollen still evident on their legs. This also applies to one of the gang of four, which died well fed. It must have fallen into the resin just after sucking the blood from its host, as its abdomen was 8.5 times bigger than that of its companions.

Unfortunately we have not yet reached the point where we can open the amber and extract the DNA of the dinosaur on which the tick was feeding, as was done in the 1993 movie, Jurassic Park.

English version by Heather Galloway.
After rigorous election campaigning and sweet election wins in both Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, BJP leaders congratulated Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for their leadership during BJP Parliamentary Party meeting held today.

Amit Shah offering laddoo to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during BJP Parliamentary Party meeting to celebrate Gujarat, Himachal election wins

By India Today Web Desk: The Bharatiya Janata Party held its Parliamentary Party meeting today, the first after Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh election wins. Party MPs who attended the meeting welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Party chief Amit Shah with thunderous applause.

#WATCH: Earlier Visuals from BJP's Parliamentary Party meeting underway at Parliament Library Building in Delhi. pic.twitter.com/TZAX6OBw8h- ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2017

advertisement

BJP chief Amit Shah was seen congratulating Prime Minister Narendra Modi, offered him sweets to celebrate the sweet wins in both Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh elections.

Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad, Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and senior BJP leader LK Advani could be seen right beside Modi and Shah.

The Parliamentary Party meeting was held at Parliament Library Building.

Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Krishna Raj fell ill during the Parliamentary Party meeting and was rushed to RML hospital for treatment.

Photo: ANI

--- ENDS ---
The president of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, during his interview with EL PAIS. CRISTINA VEGA RHOR

Lenin Boltaire Moreno (born in Quito in 1953) has just completed his first six months as president of Ecuador after taking the reins from his charismatic but controversial predecessor Rafael Correa. Although both men are members of the left-wing PAIS Alliance, Moreno has followed his own path, incurring the ire of Correa who, from his new home in Brussels, has been engaged in a campaign to erode his successors prestige and has even threatened to return to the front lines of Ecuadorian politics.

Rafael Correa is just another opponent. Nothing more

Moreno, who has been on an official trip to Spain this week, recently received EL PAIS at the seat of government, Carondelet Palace in Quito. During the interview he spoke of his plans for Ecuador and his differences with Correa, as well as Wikileaks founder Julian Assanges involvement in the Catalan independence issue. Last week, vice president Jorge Glas was sentenced to six years in prison for his role in the Odebrecht corruption case which has implicated officials all across Latin America in a kickbacks scheme centered on the Brazilian construction giant.

Question. You have just completed your first six months in office. Has Correa become your greatest opponent during this time?

Assange does not have the right to intervene in Catalonia Q. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange interfered in the crisis in Catalonia from your embassy in London. Is this allowed? A. We are very respectful of the sovereignty of each country. Under no circumstances do we want to interfere in the situation in Catalonia. We hope the conflict will be resolved as soon as possible to the benefit of all Spaniards. We have reminded Assange that he cannot interfere in Ecuadorian politics because his status as a political refugee doesn't allow it. He does not have the right to interfere in Ecuadorian politics or the politics of the countries we are friends with, and he has pledged not to do this. Ecuador granted Assange asylum because we really believed his life was in danger. But now we have to remind him of this fact, that the generosity of the Ecuadorian people and its government under no circumstance gives him the right to intervene in the politics of our sister countries. Q. Is there a way out of the terrible crisis in Venezuela? A. Let me reiterate our respect for sovereignty and self-determination. I don't think intervention is an option. That would just polarize each side. Each country finds its own path to democracy. I see there is an eagerness to converse with the opposition sector and I welcome this. That said, I have not stopped expressing my concern for the many deaths that have occurred. Democracy must be expressed freely and by all that is why we have raised our concerns in international forums like the OAS, UNASUR and United Nations.

Answer. Those who can really judge the work we have done are not us, but the people of Ecuador, a majority of whom  almost 80% [according to the polls]  are in favor. We have taken a new approach to our relation with the professional sectors, the producers associations, with workers collectives, with politicians and with the population in general, as well as with the media  a new approach favoring dialogue, not imposition. Favoring agreements, reaching minimum agreements. Our main opposition is the lack of economic reactivation, the immense debt we were left with, the amount of uncompleted infrastructure. Our biggest opposition is poverty, unemployment, lack of motivation and confrontation. Rafael Correa is just another opponent. Nothing more.

Q. Ecuador has massive debt and its economic plan has been criticized for not being different from previous plans.

A. This is the project with which we won the elections. We have to keep that in mind. However, I believe that the final stages of the government of the economist Rafael Correa were short on self-criticism, renewal and innovation. Criticism allows us to establish honest criteria in relation to what we have done badly and what we can do as we go forward: and self-criticism even more so. We have a plan to reactivate the economy. The Assembly has sent us some changes. The president of Ecuador has the right to veto these changes and return them to the Assembly. Without doubt some aspects will be vetoed, they will be sent back to the Assembly, and at that moment we hope that everything will be approved and within that framework we can fully carry out our work.

Q. Jorge Glas [who has already been tried] was implicated in the Odebrecht case. Why was he still vice president?

A. When we put forward our plan, we spoke of facing corruption head on. This has many aspects. The first is the autonomy of public agencies: ensuring that the comptroller, public prosecutors and judicial power are totally independent. Orders are not issued by the executive. We did not want to run the risk of becoming like the previous government, where what the executive thought was a type of order for all the state agencies. I chose Glas as candidate without knowing what he had been doing. There has been corruption, a lot of corruption. It was wrongly said that this was Ecuadors most honest government. But it wasnt. That doesnt mean that previous governments were better. Corruption has been a prevailing theme in Ecuador's history.

Q. Correa had a tense relationship with the media. Do you plan to change the media law?

A. We are planning to review it, not withdraw it, because it has a lot of positive aspects. But there are other areas we are committed to changing, like the fact of having a governing communications body, which far from acting as a promoter of educational activities or an advisory organization, has acted as a sanctioning body. The relationship with the media, just like relationships with citizens, unions and political parties, is one of tolerance, respect and the understanding that whoever is engaged in a public activity should accept that they are going to be scrutinized. And that's the way it should be.

English version by George Mills and Melissa Kitson.
Although the Spanish government is investing a great deal of effort on winning the battle for internet security against the threat from bots, hackers and fake news during the Catalan election to be held tomorrow, there will be plenty of boots on the ground too.

The security presence on Thursday will comprise 13,000 officers, with an extra 2,000 reserve officers on hand to ensure the vote goes ahead without a hitch. That is 5,000 more officers than are usually on duty in regional elections in Catalonia.

Officers are also expected to man the border between Catalonia and France in case former president Puigdemont attempts to return

A total of 10,000 officers with Catalonias regional police force, the Mossos d'Esquadra, will take the lead role in ensuring security on Thursday. Those officers will get backup from 3,000 officers with Spains National Police and Civil Guard security forces, while a further 2,000 officers will be on reserve.

The larger-than-usual security presence comes in the context of high tension in the region. Thursdays election was called by Madrid after the central government made use of an obscure provision of the Spanish Constitution to enact emergency powers in the region. The Catalan government was also sacked using those powers, after the regional parliament voted through a unilateral declaration of independence on October 27.

Adding to the tension is the fact that several candidates in the election, including former premier Carles Puigdemont and his former deputy Oriol Junqueras, are facing charges that include rebellion and sedition for their role in the recent independence push.

For this reason, there will be a large security contingent on the streets of Catalonia on Thursday, although not as numerous as during the October 1 illegal referendum, when images of Spain's National Police and Civil Guard officers striking voters on their way to the polls were beamed around the world.

Several candidates in the election are facing charges that include rebellion and sedition

A certain number of officers are also expected to man the border between Catalonia and France in case former president Puigdemont  who is the current candidate with the new Junts per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia) formation  attempts to return from Belgium, where he fled in a bid to escape justice in Spain after the Catalan parliament passed the unilateral declaration of independence.

Puigdemont would be arrested as soon as he sets foot in Spain, according to police sources. The Spanish government is also banking on the support of France: the same sources say France would hand over the former premier to Spain in a matter of hours if he were arrested in that country.

English version by George Mills.
Marta Rovira of ERC, Jordi Turull of PDeCAT and Ines Arrimadas of Ciudadanos. JON NAZCA (REUTERS)

The Catalan campaign race that ended on Tuesday has seen a shift in the regions political landscape. The two parties that had enjoyed a predominant position for many years  Convergencia, now rebranded as the European Democratic Party of Catalonia or PDeCAT, and the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC)  have been upended by two traditionally smaller players, Ciudadanos and the Catalan Republican Left (ERC).

Surveys suggest that the reform-oriented, anti-independence Ciudadanos has replaced the Socialists in urban settings, while ERC has taken over from PDeCAT as the premier nationalist party in Catalonia.

The left and the bourgeoisie who thought they owned management rights over this country now have a rival to contend with

Marta Rovira, ERC

Gone are the days of two-party hegemony that PSC and Convergencia (as part of the CiU federation) enjoyed for years, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s when they collectively attracted 75% of the vote. And there is little indication that this situation is going to return any time soon.

In a regional assembly with seven parties, surveys are awarding Ciudadanos and ERC a sum of votes that does not quite reach 50%, meaning that neither one of them will be able to form a government without alliances with other parties.

Both frontrunners have made the most of their new status during the campaign race. At a party rally in LHospitalet, Ciudadanos leader Albert Rivera appealed to tactical voting, arguing that a victory over ERC will be decided by very few votes. He also addressed undecided voters, especially those hesitating between Ciudadanos and PSC.

PSC candidate Miquel Iceta (left) at a party rally. Massimiliano Minocri (EL PAIS)

If you vote for PSC, you dont know where your vote is going; but nobody doubts that a vote for Ciudadanos is going to stop the independence process in its tracks, he said, alluding to the fact that the Socialists might seek to form a leftist alliance with ERC and Catalunya en Comu or Commons, a group that includes Podemos.

The latter party has adopted a middle-of-the-road position on independence, saying they oppose unilateral secession but also the application of Article 155, which gave Madrid emergency powers to restore the law in the breakaway region. This snap election was called by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy as part of those measures.

Rise of ERC

Meanwhile, the ERC is styling itself as the central party of the Catalanist movement, as opposed to PDeCAT (running in this election under the name Junts per Catalunya), which has manifestly ceased to hold that position.

The Catalan Republicans also like to highlight the fact that the party was founded in 1931. Its important for ERC to head the government. It is not a party thats been cobbled together four days ago. This is a party with a long history, said former government official Carles Mundo.

Both frontrunners have made the most of their new status during the campaign race

Thats unlike its nationalist rival Junts per Catalunya, created just one week before the campaign race kicked off. And ERC leaders are also taking aim at PDeCATs origins as the party of the Catalan bourgeoisie.

The left and the bourgeoisie who thought they owned management rights over this country now have a rival to contend with, said ERC official Marta Rovira about the PSC and PDeCAT.

A reshuffle

Lluis Orriols, who teaches political science at Carlos III University, sees this battle as a reshuffle of the Catalan party system. He feels that Convergencias constant changes to its name, leadership and platform have made it postpone its homework, which is to seek a consolidated position with a midrange project. This has benefited ERC in a structural way.

However, Orriols is more skeptical about whether Ciudadanos lead over the PSC can be sustained in time. Ciudadanos has managed to become the focal party of non-secessionists at a regional election, but its voters tend to abandon it for other parties when general elections come around, he says. This space is still up for grabs.

English version by Susana Urra.
The eight "mayors of change" in Barcelona. Consuelo Bautista

If there is one thing that hasnt changed in the self-styled ayuntamientos of change  city councils in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Zaragoza and other places where Podemos has been in power with a variety of partners since the 2015 local elections  that is the turbulent relationships that have always defined the Spanish political left.

One of the consequences of Podemos speedy expansion across the Spanish geography is that it does not have the same influence, or the same room for political maneuvering, at the local level as it does at the regional and national levels.

The sheer number of partners that make up Zaragoza en Comun sums up the complexities that Mayor Pedro Santisteve faces every day

The crisis gripping the Ahora Madrid coalition headed by Madrid Mayor Manuela Carmena is just the latest chapter in a series of conflicts within the popular unity alliances headed by Podemos.

Each alliance is different, each organization is different and the actors are not the same, either, sums up a Podemos official with ties to the Madrid mayor, regarding that partys nationwide political partners.

The United Left (IU) and Podemos officials queried by this newspaper said that Mayor Carmenas decision to remove Carlos Sanchez Mato from his post as the municipal finance chief is an isolated matter that is limited to Madrid city politics. Mato was sacked when he refused to endorse the financial adjustment plan that he had himself presented to the city council.

Instead, Podemos likes to talk about the situation at the rest of the ayuntamientos of change, where economic management is being exquisite, and where the terms of an unfair and stringent spending rule are being observed, in a reference to demands for adjustment by the Spanish Finance Ministry.

This exquisite management is presumably on display in Barcelona, Cadiz, Zaragoza, Valencia and also Zamora, which is governed by IU. Yet the situation there is unstable as well, partly because the Socialist Party (PSOE) is absent from the governing teams.

Barcelona

Barring Madrid, Barcelona is a good illustration of the problems that leftist coalitions are encountering in their day-to-day governance.

In November, grassroot members of Barcelona en Comu, the party of Mayor Ada Colau  a former social activist who used to campaign against home evictions  decided to sever their alliance with the Catalan Socialists (PSC) over the Spanish governments application of Article 155 of the Constitution. This provision allowed Madrid to oust the secessionist government of Carles Puigdemont, and call a snap election to find new leaders for the region. The move was supported by the PSC but not by Colaus party.

Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau. Albert Garcia

The Socialists always defended that their local coalition in Barcelona was working well, and they were upset by a vote that yielded 54.18% support for breaking with the PSC. Many other members of Barcelona en Comu, in turn, were angry that Colau even organized the ballot in the first place. The PSC was contributing four councilors to Barcelona en Comus 11, out of a total of 41 seats in the city council.

The question now is whether these rarefied relations could influence any future negotiations if the outcome of the Catalan elections allows for a left-wing majority in the regional assembly. This is the kind of deal being sought by Catalunya En Comu-Podem, which could well find itself in the role of kingmaker if, as expected, no party or bloc secures enough seats for a majority on Thursday.

Cadiz: love and hate Jesus Canas The relationship between Por Cadiz Si Se Puede and the Socialist Party (PSOE) is an emotional, political and hyperbolic roller coaster. Following an 11th-hour agreement, Jose Maria Gonzalez Kichi of Podemos became mayor of this southern city despite having no more than eight councilors out of 27 seats in the council, where 10 seats are held by the Popular Party (PP). This was made possible through support from the five Socialist councilors. The alternative would have been to allow the PP's Teofila Martinez to get re-elected after a 20-year tenure. The relationship between Podemos and the PSOE could be defined as yes, but no according to a source close to the governing team. The Socialists have grudgingly backed a few key items such as the budget, but they have also teamed up with the PP and Ciudadanos to take the top positions away from Podemos at the Municipal Womens Foundation and the company that manages the local TV station Onda Cadiz. The mayor has complained that these moves were nothing more than an undercover, serialized no-confidence motion.

Valencia

The seeds of discord within Valencia en Comu, the Podemos-participated coalition that governs the city of Valencia together with the Socialists and the regional party Compromis, were sown early in the political term. After several crises, government spokesman and second deputy mayor Jordi Peris, an independent, resigned and went back to teaching at university. His reasons for quitting were the internal power struggles and scheming.

Podemos has a roadmap that I no longer feel a part of, he said. It has reproduced the vices of the left and of old-style politics.

The coalition advisor, Aurea Ortiz, walked away at the same time, noting that Podemos was a minefield.

Two years worth of political infighting has slowed down action on several key issues for Valencia, Spains third largest city. But the opposition is pointing the finger of blame at Mayor Joan Ribo, of Compromis, which has nine councilors compared to five for the Socialists and three for Valencia en Comu.

Zaragoza

The sheer number of partners that make up Zaragoza en Comun (IU, Podemos, Equo, Puyalon, Piratas de Aragon, Demos+ and Somos) sums up the complexities that Mayor Pedro Santisteve faces every day when he goes to work. Besides the internal balancing act within his own group, this lawyer and university professor also has to retain the support of the Socialist Party and the regional Chunta Aragonesista, both of which voted him into the mayors office although they are not part of the governing team. Their support is crucial if the city wants to get its 2018 budget approved. With negotiations underway, the Socialists have already walked out of the Public Services Committee in protest over disagreements with the commissioner in charge of this area.

English version by Susana Urra.
(Reuters) - Argentina's previous government never asked Interpol to drop arrest warrants against a group of Iranians accused of bombing a Jewish center, the ex-head of the police agency said on Wednesday, as the government proceeded with treason charges against the former president.

Former Interpol chief Ronald Noble said in an email on Wednesday that he wants to testify that the government of former President Cristina Fernandez did not ask to have the arrest warrants lifted as part of a "memorandum" she had with Iran.

If a judge allows Noble to testify, the treason case filed this month against Fernandez and 11 other top officials could crumble. She denies wrongdoing and calls the charge politically motivated.

The arrest warrants "were not affected in their validity by the approval of the memorandum," Noble said in an email to a federal appeals court that was seen by Reuters. The Fernandez administration "always expressed its belief that the warrants should remain in effect," the email said.

The accusation that the Fernandez government worked behind the scenes to clear the accused bombers of the AMIA Jewish community center in order to improve trade between Argentina and Iran is at the heart of a charge of treason brought against Fernandez.

She served as president for eight years before being succeeded by Mauricio Macri in 2015.

Others agreed that the treason charge against Fernandez appeared questionable.

"The indictment by Judge Claudio Bonadio of former President Fernandez, her Foreign Minister Hector Timerman, and 10 others, for 'treason' and 'concealment' points to no evidence that would seem to substantiate those charges," Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Tuesday.

The allegations against Fernandez drew international attention in January 2015, when the prosecutor who initially made them, Alberto Nisman, was found shot dead in the bathroom of his Buenos Aires apartment. An Argentine appeals court ordered the re-opening of the investigation a year ago.

Nisman's death was classified a suicide, though an official investigating the case has said the shooting appeared to be a homicide. Nisman's body was discovered hours before he was to brief Congress on the 1994 bombing of the AMIA center.

Nisman said Fernandez worked behind the scenes to clear Iran of any wrongdoing and normalize relations to clinch a grains-for-oil deal with Tehran that was signed in 2013. The "memorandum" agreement created a joint commission to investigate the AMIA bombing that critics said was really a means to absolve Iran.
(Reuters) - U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said a missile fired by Yemen's Houthi group toward Saudi Arabia on Tuesday "bears all the hallmarks of previous attacks using Iranian-provided weapons" as she pushed the U.N. Security Council to act.

Saudi air defenses shot down the ballistic missile and there were no reports of casualties or damage.

In contrast, a U.N. human rights spokesman said coalition air strikes had killed at least 136 noncombatants in war-torn Yemen since Dec. 6.

Saudi-led forces, backing Yemen's government, have fought the Iran-allied Houthis in Yemen's more than two-year-long war.

Iran has denied supplying the Houthis with weapons, saying the U.S. and Saudi allegations are "baseless and unfounded."

"We must all act cooperatively to expose the crimes of the Tehran regime and do whatever is needed to make sure they get the message. If we do not, then Iran will bring the world deeper into a broadening regional conflict," Haley told the council.

Haley said she was exploring, with some council colleagues, several options for pressuring Iran to "adjust their behavior."

However, Haley is likely to struggle to convince some members, like veto powers Russia and China, that U.N. action is needed. Russia's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov told council on Tuesday: "We need to abandon the language of threats and sanctions and to start using the instruments of dialogue and concentrate on broadening cooperation and mutual trust."

Most sanctions on Iran were lifted at the start of 2016 under the nuclear deal brokered by world powers and enshrined in a U.N. Security Council resolution.

The resolution still subjects Tehran to a U.N. arms embargo and other restrictions that are technically not part of the nuclear deal. Haley said the Security Council could strengthen the provisions in that resolution or adopt a new resolution banning Iran from all activities related to ballistic missiles.

Under the current resolution, Iran is "called upon" to refrain from work on ballistic missiles designed to deliver nuclear weapons for up to eight years.

Some states argue that the language of the resolution does not make it obligatory. "We could explore sanctions on Iran in response to its clear violations of the Yemen arms embargo," Haley said.

"We could hold the IRGC (Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) accountable for its violations of numerous Security Council resolutions." A separate U.N. resolution on Yemen bans the supply of weapons to Houthi leaders and "those acting on their behalf or at their direction."
Former President Mahmud Ahmadinejads 48-hour ultimatum for the head of the judiciary ended without any sensational disclosures.

Ahmadinejad had threatened on December 17 that if within 48 hours the judiciary did not produce the evidence behind the charges brought against him and his inner circle he would expose the illegalities of the judicial branch.

But by the deadline, all Ahmadinejad had done was repeat general accusations against Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani, the head of Irans judiciary, calling him a usurper who has repeatedly violated the law.

He also added that Larijani has lost his legitimacy and is not qualified for the job, insisting he must step down.

In the ongoing war of words between the two men, Larijani had asserted earlier that Ahmadinejad had been convicted in a court of law.

Setting a 48-hour ultimatum for the judiciary to publish the evidence behind his conviction, Ahmadinejad had warned, Otherwise, I will publicly present my findings on the judiciarys head and his performance during the past eight years.

Larijani, apparently ignoring the ultimatum, ordered his staff to publish details about the legal cases filed against Ahmadinejad.

As expected, that was not good enough for the former president.

In a new video clip published on December 19, Ahmadinejad reiterated, Today, we have the right to name the devious [ones] and the seditionists who have illegally used state assets for their own benefit.

However, the comments were limited to generalities without presenting solid evidence against Larijani.

Nevertheless, Ahmadinejad maintained, Though I have access to enough information against the head of the judiciary, as a person committed to ethics and laws I am not going to disclose the information for the moment.

I avoid commenting on the qualifications required, he said, but our chief justice openly and repeatedly commits the greatest sins, i.e. libelous remarks and false accusations against virtuous people.

Our chief of justice is devoid of justice, he continued. Its obvious what goes on in the department run by him. People are fed up with unjust and unfair decisions made by certain judicial staff.

He has shown obvious signs of incompetence and being illegitimate. Therefore, the continuation of his management is violating the rights of the supreme leader, the Islamic Republic, and the people who are the principle owners of the country and the revolution, Ahmadinejad concluded.

Larijanis senior aides and allies responded by branding the former president as a liar and a thug.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the sole authority to appoint or dismiss the head of the judiciary.

So far, Khamenei has done his best to distance himself from the ongoing war of words between Larijani and Ahmadinejad, who is one of his personal representatives on the influential Expediency Discernment Council.
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted its 64th Resolution on December 19 against human rights violations in Iran.

Sponsored by Canada, the resolution was adopted with 81 votes for, 30 against, and 70 abstentions.

Prominent Iranian human rights activist Hassan Nayeb Hashem tweeted, The resolution concerning the situation of human rights in Iran was adopted with a very high margin at the United Nations General Assembly.

A number of local news agencies in Iran have mentioned the resolution without elaboration, while Iranian officials have yet to respond to the news.

Reportedly, Syria is the only country that protested the adoption of the resolution.

Some paragraphs in the resolution addressed the human rights issues in Syria, North Korea, and the Crimean Peninsula. These parts were ratified along with the main body of the resolution.

A member of Irans delegation to the UN, Mohammad Hassan Nejad Pirkoohi, protested the condemnation of Syria and North Korea in the resolution, IRGC-run news agency Fars reported.

According to Irans TV and radio news agency, Pirkoohi described the adoption as regretful.

Through Canadas Foreign Policy page on Twitter, Ottawa has welcomed the adoption, promising to continue supporting human rights in Iran.

On November 24, the Third Committee of UNGA overwhelmingly approved the draft resolution criticizing Irans human rights record.

By a vote of 83 to 30, the UN body passed its draft resolution after a series of debates and submitted reports. Many countries abstained, some criticizing Iran but justifying their abstention by a desire to encourage Tehran to cooperate with the UN in protecting human rights.

During the session, Irans representatives did not directly respond to any of the issues mentioned in the draft resolution. But the Iranian representative attacked sponsor Canada and called the resolution a politicized document, signaling Iran may not cooperate with the UN on human rights.

A year ago, the committee passed a similar resolution, with an almost identical voting pattern.

The recent resolution welcomes what it calls progress of Irans record, especially new laws limiting the death penalty for drug offenses. Iran raised the bar on applying the death penalty just days before the UN vote.

However, the resolution expresses serious concern at the alarming number of death sentences handed down, including for minors, based on forced confessions.

Referring to dual nationals and foreigners imprisoned in Iran, the resolution urges Iran to uphold, in law and in practice procedural guarantees to ensure fair trial standards, including timely access to legal representation of ones choice from the time of arrest through all stages of trial and all appeals, the right not to be subjected to torture, cruel and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and consideration of bail and other reasonable terms for release from custody pending trial.

Resolutions adopted by UNGA are non-binding.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 20

By Nigar Guliyeva Trend:

The next meeting of the European Union - Azerbaijan Cooperation Council will be held in Brussels on Feb. 9, the EU said in a statement released on Dec.20.

The EU noted that Azerbaijan has renewed its engagement and dialogue with the Union, including through the launch of negotiations on a comprehensive new agreement to modernize and revitalize the EU-Azerbaijan partnership.

"Azerbaijan has also embarked on an important process to diversify its economy," the Union reported.

The EU further noted that the details of this process are highlighted in a Joint Report on Azerbaijan, released today by the European External Action Service and the European Commission. The report focuses on key developments and reform efforts, particularly in jointly agreed priority areas in the context of Azerbaijan's participation in the Eastern Partnership.

The report assesses that the launch of these negotiations in February 2017 has given new impetus to the cooperation between the EU and Azerbaijan.

"New areas of cooperation are being explored as the existing structured dialogue under the PCA has been reactivated. Azerbaijan's efforts to diversify its economy also provide a good basis for further cooperation in view of sustainable socio-economic development. World Trade Organization membership would represent a considerable step forward in this regard," the Union reported.

The EU further noted that it stands ready to cooperate with and support Azerbaijan in all areas of mutual interest, in full respect of values and commitments.

"The ambitious Southern Gas Corridor project is just one example of this cooperation in the interest of both Azerbaijan and the EU. Ongoing negotiations on an EU-Azerbaijan common civil aviation area agreement should also lead to a further significant step being taken in improving connectivity between Azerbaijan and the countries of the EU. The Partnership Priorities under discussion between the two sides also aim at providing focus for the broad cooperation between the EU and Azerbaijan and will guide the programming of EU financial assistance," the Union said.

The EU also reiterated that Azerbaijan is an important partner for the European Union, whose independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity the EU supports.

The EU is Azerbaijan's single largest economic partner representing 48.6 percent of its total trade and providing the largest share of foreign direct investment.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 20

Trend:

Normalization of relations is not possible unless Armenia fulfills Turkeys condition and leaves the occupied Azerbaijani territories, said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu at a press conference dedicated to the results of the fifth trilateral meeting of Azerbaijani, Turkish and Iranian foreign ministers held in Baku Dec. 20.

Cavusoglu reminded that Armenia occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijani territories and committed the Khojaly genocide.

We will accept each formula that Azerbaijan will accept. We have put a condition for the normalization of relations with Armenia that Armenia will leave the Azerbaijani territories and after that the relations can be normalized, noted the Turkish minister.
Naxals attacked the railway station late last night and torched station property as well.

By India Today Web Desk: A group of naxals attacked the Masudan Railway Station in Bihar last night. According to initial reports, naxals attacked the railway station late last night and torched the station property as well.

Reports also say that naxals abducted the Assistant Station master and one other railway staff.

No casualties have been reported from the spot.

advertisement

Divisional Railway Manager Maldah received a call from the abducted assistant station master. He said that the naxals have threatened to kill the two abducted people if trains continue plying on the Masudan track.

The authorities have advised the passengers to take alternative routes for precaution.

CPRO Eastern Railway Rajesh Kumar told news agency ANI, "Eastern Railway detains 3 trains in Kiul-Jamalpur-Bhagalpur section of Malda Division in the light of naxal attack at Masudan Railway Station, services have once again been stopped at Kiul point".

#SpotVisuals: Naxals attacked Masudan Railway Station, late last night & torched station property. 2 officials, including Assistant Station Master, abducted. pic.twitter.com/PZ9oNsXPUh- ANI (@ANI) December 20, 2017

Naxalites often attack railway stations, mobile phone towers and other such administrative offices.

Earlier this year, Naxals hijacked a train in Lakhisarai district of Bihar. Another incident was reported in October last year, where 20 naxals allegedly attacked a railway station in Odisha.

--- ENDS ---
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 20

By Elchin Mehdiyev  Trend:

The preliminary date of the next meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers has been announced.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said that it is difficult to name the exact date for the meeting.

It is still difficult to name the date of the next meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian Foreign Ministers . But it is planned to be held in mid January," the minister said.

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, Dec. 20

Trend:

Foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey, Elmar Mammadyarov, Mohammad Javad Zarif and Mevlut Cavusoglu have agreed to continue holding meetings in the trilateral format, expand cooperation and use the potential in energy, transport, tourism and other spheres, said the Azerbaijani foreign minister.

Mammadyarov made the remarks at a press conference dedicated to the results of the fifth trilateral meeting of Azerbaijani, Turkish and Iranian foreign ministers held in Baku Dec. 20.

The Azerbaijani official noted that the ministers also discussed the Palestine-Israel conflict.

As you know, a document will be adopted tomorrow on this issue at the UN General Assembly. We will vote in favor of that document, added Mammadyarov. Azerbaijans position on Al-Quds was voiced by President Ilham Aliyev at a summit in Istanbul. That's where we stand on this.

Touching upon the energy cooperation, the Azerbaijani minister said that the TANAP pipeline will be put into operation in 2018.

The energy cooperation between Azerbaijan and Iran is growing day by day, he said.

Moreover, electricity exchange is being expanded among the three countries, added Mammadyarov.

At our next meeting in Istanbul, we will invite people from both the private sector and the economic sector and discuss ways to further expand cooperation, noted the official.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 20

By Elchin Mehdiyev  Trend:

The next trilateral meeting of Azerbaijani, Iranian and Turkish foreign ministers will be held in Turkey.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu made remarks at a press conference following the 5th trilateral meeting of the foreign ministers of Iran, Azerbaijan, and Turkey in Baku on Dec.20.

"We discussed issues related to further expansion of cooperation. We will host the next summit, and also bring together businessmen. Maybe a business meeting will be held," he said.

Cavusoglu underlined that there are strong ties of friendship and brotherhood between the three countries.

"This trilateral format will be expanded, and today's meeting was very useful," he said.
Details added (first version posted on 10:24)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 20

Trend:

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received a delegation led by Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu extended President Recep Tayyip Erdogans greetings to President Ilham Aliyev.

The Turkish foreign minister underlined the importance of numerous reciprocal visits and meetings in strengthening bilateral relations between the two countries.

Cavusoglu recalled his recent meeting with President Aliyev and the launch of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway this year, expressing confidence that important projects will be implemented under the leadership of the heads of state in the years to come.

Pointing to the importance of the trilateral meeting of the Azerbaijani, Turkish, and Iranian foreign ministers, Cavusoglu expressed confidence that these meetings will continue.

President Aliyev described Azerbaijan-Turkey bilateral relations as excellent, emphasizing the significance of regular high-level reciprocal visits in strengthening ties between the two countries.

The head of state hailed the importance of the fact that the two countries continuously support and stand by each other.

President Aliyev noted that the Baku-hosted Azerbaijani, Turkish and Iranian foreign ministers trilateral meeting is of vital importance in terms of strengthening the bilateral cooperation.

Pointing to the launch of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, the head of state described the project not only as regionally, but also an internationally important event.

They noted the significance of successful implementation of the TANAP project.

President Aliyev thanked for the greetings of President Erdogan, and asked the foreign minister to extend his greetings to the Turkish president.
Details added, headline changed (first version posted on 15:23)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 20

Trend:

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received Senior Vice President of IBM Global Markets Erich Clementi.

Clementi hailed good cooperation between the IBM Global Markets and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR).

Vice President Clementi noted that prospects for cooperation with Azerbaijan were discussed during his visit, expressing IBM's keenness to establish long-term relationship with the country.

The president underlined ample opportunities for ensuring IBM's activities in Azerbaijan. President Aliyev emphasized that the ICT sector is among the key priorities in Azerbaijan, saying great strides have been made in this area.

The president pointed to the Bakutel-2017 exhibition, which was recently held in Azerbaijan, describing the exhibition as an important event in terms of strengthening cooperation.

President Aliyev hailed Azerbaijan's great economic potential and prospects, saying the country is very attractive for foreign companies.

The president expressed his hope that Azerbaijan and IBM will continue to successfully cooperate in the years ahead.
Details added (first version posted on 18:06)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 20

Trend:

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received Chairman of the US-based Foundation for Ethnic Understanding Marc Schneier.

President Aliyev's meeting with Schneier in New York City was recalled during their conversation.

They stressed the importance of the 2017  a Year of Islamic Solidarity: Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue international conference to be held in Baku in terms of bringing different peoples and nations closer to each other and expanding cooperation.

The sides noted that multiculturalism is one of the priorities of state policy in Azerbaijan, and underlined the fact that representatives of all religions and cultures, including the Jewish community live together in a friendly atmosphere in Azerbaijan.

They also hailed successful development of bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and the US.
Details added (first version posted on 12:54)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 20

Trend:

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has handed the "Heydar Aliyev Order" to People's Artist, sculptor Omar Eldarov Dec. 20.

President Aliyev congratulated Eldarov on the occasion of his forthcoming jubilee, wishing him new creative success.

Saying Eldarovs art for many decades has made people happy, the president noted the works he created have become samples of the Azerbaijani people's tangible culture.

President Aliyev noted that Eldarovs works are famous in Azerbaijan as well as in many former Soviet republics. Saying that national leader Heydar Aliyev always greatly appreciated Eldarovs art, the president described his works as samples of high arts.

President Aliyev said Eldarov, who made statues of national leader Heydar Aliyev, prominent scholar, Academician Zarifa Aliyeva, as well as many famous Azerbaijani culture figures, including Mahammad Fuzuli, Natavan, Huseyn Javid, Uzeyir Hajibayli, Niyazi and others, is recognized beyond the countrys borders too and that the monuments made by him were also installed in foreign countries.

Hailing Eldarovs activities as rector of the State Academy of Fine Arts, President Aliyev said he plays a vital role in preparing young professionals.

The president said Eldarov has served his motherland and people with dignity, stressing that his genius sparks great interest.

President Aliyev noted that Eldarovs activities and services have always been highly appreciated by the Azerbaijani government, saying he was awarded Istiglal Order" by the national leader in 1997, Heydar Aliyev Prize in 2009, Sharaf Order" in 2012 and is now honored with the highest award of Azerbaijan  Heydar Aliyev Order".

The Azerbaijani president wished Eldarov new success in his activities and handed him the order.

Eldarov thanked President Aliyev for recognizing his work and for honoring him with Heydar Aliyev Order", adding that he is proud of it.

Recalling his memories of great leader Heydar Aliyev, Omar Eldarov said he is honored to be the author of many statues of the national leader. Omar Eldarov noted that he will continue to serve his country and nation with his creative works.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 20

Trend:

Bakcell, The First Mobile Operator and Leading Mobile Internet Provider of Azerbaijan, together with the British Embassy in Azerbaijan have supported a conference on enhancing employability prospects for people with disabilities, organized by the British Council.

The conference held December 19, has brought together relevant decision-makers, stakeholders and representatives of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection and State Employment Centers to listen to presentations by local and international experts and to discuss the important issues. The event has drawn the attention of business companies to the issue of employment of people with disabilities and relevant steps that shall be made towards raising awareness on the matter as well as increasing employment opportunities for people with disabilities in Azerbaijan.

UK expert Mark Gray was invited to the conference to share the UK experience on this respective.

One of the main directions of our Bakcell Stars CSR program is to support the people and especially children with disabilities in getting good education and training, to help them improve their job readiness skills and employability. Bakcell is close to the children with physical and emotional disabilities and their families all over Azerbaijan and we are doing our best to ensure that they are becoming equal members of the society says Suheyla Jafarova, Head of PR and Corporate Communications of Bakcell.

British Councils work is centered on building meaningful, enduring and respectful relationships across different cultures. We cannot achieve this if we do not have a commitment to equality, inclusion and valuing diversity. Enhancing Employability Skills for People with Disabilities Programme will cover variety of activities that are targeted at improving employability skills of people with disabilities as well as positioning them amongst businesses as potential quality workforce. As a result of programme participation, young people with disabilities will enhance their skills and knowledge in certain disciplines that will allow them to become more employable, says Elizabeth White, Country Director British Council Azerbaijan.

Being one of the largest Azerbaijani businesses, Bakcell is proud to perform its functions as a responsible corporate citizen of the country. Within the frames of the companys extensive CSR strategy Bakcell has worked and continues to work together with well-known, successful charities that help children in need for special care and has been awarded many times for implementation of projects aimed at supporting children with a need for special care in their inclusion and integration to society. Bakcell actively supports organization of trainings for children with disabilities on such topics as interview skills, CV composition, career development, accounting and etc.

Bakcell, The First Mobile Operator and the Leading Mobile Internet Provider of Azerbaijan, offers a variety of products for modern mobile communications customers. Bakcell provides class leading 3G and 4G mobile internet experience in the country under the Su[email protected] brand name.

As one of the largest national non-oil investors, Bakcell today continues making large investments in the economy of Azerbaijan through its investments in state-of-the-art telecommunication technology and its people who service our customers.

For more information about Bakcell products and services, please visit www.bakcell.com or call 555. For press releases please see www.bakcell.com/az/news (or www.bakcell.com/en/news for press releases in English).

If you are not a Bakcell subscriber, but wish to find out about Bakcell and its services, please call 012 498 89 89.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 20

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

An exhibition of caricatures opened at the Turkish embassy in Baku Dec. 20.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu attended the event.

Addressing the event, Cavusoglu stressed that the relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey are at a high level and both countries will continue their further development.

Both countries will also continue to develop cultural relations, the minister said. "The relations with Azerbaijan are very important for us."
NOTA has secured the highest number of votes (6461) in Danta constituency in Gujarat, 1162 votes in Jogindernagar constituency of Himachal.

By Anand Patel: In the Gujarat Assembly Elections 2017, NOTA secured 551615 (1.83 per cent) votes whereas in Himachal Pradesh it secured 34232 (0.90 per cent) votes.

As per the data released by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) 30 constituencies polled more NOTA votes than the margin of elected candidate.

None of The Above (NOTA) option gives the voter the choice to reject all candidates in the election fray.

advertisement

As per ADR analysis on NOTA Performance in Gujarat Assembly Elections 2017, NOTA has secured the highest number of votes i.e. 6461 votes in Danta constituency. It secured more votes than 7 other contesting candidates. Lowest number (686) of NOTA votes were counted in Mahesana constituency. It secured more votes than 27 other contesting candidates.

In Kaprada constituency of Valsad District winning margin was just 170 but 3868 NOTA votes were polled. Similarly in Godhara constituency of Panchmahal District winning margin was only 258 votes while 3050 NOTA votes were counted.

In Himachal Assembly Elections, NOTA has secured the highest number of votes i.e. 1162 votes in Jogindernagar constituency. While lowest votes for NOTA (70) votes were polled in Lahual & Spiti constituency. In Kinnaur constituency victory margin was only 120 votes while 249 votes were polled for NOTA.

ALSO WATCH | Congress moves Supreme Court demanding scrapping of NOTA for Gujarat Rajya Sabha polls

--- ENDS ---
Bitcoin fell more than 10 percent on Wednesday to a one-week low of $15,800 at cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp BTC=BTSP, losing almost one- fifth of its value from a peak hit just three days ago, Reuters reported.

The digital currency has been sliding since it reached a record high of $19,666 on Sunday, when the exchange giant CME Group (CME.O) launched bitcoin futures, one week after its rival Cboe Global Markets (CBOE.O) listed the worlds first bitcoin futures.

The listing of two bitcoin futures makes it easier for institutional players to trade bitcoins. Futures also enable players to go short on bitcoins, which was difficult without liquid futures, said Makoto Sakuma, researcher at NLI Research Institute in Tokyo.

The bitcoins monumental gains this year - its price has soared about 19 times - have spurred caution and alarm among some policymakers.

Singapores central bank on Tuesday issued a warning against investment in cryptocurrencies, saying it considers the recent surge in their prices to be driven by speculation and that the risk of a sharp fall in prices is high.

South Koreas Financial Supervisory Service said on Tuesday it does not consider bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to be currencies of any kind.

Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Tuesday that bitcoin had not been proven as a credible currency.

Singapores central bank on Tuesday issued a warning against investment in cryptocurrencies, saying it considers the recent surge in their prices to be driven by speculation and that the risk of a sharp fall in prices is high.

South Koreas Financial Supervisory Service said on Tuesday it does not consider bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to be currencies of any kind.

Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Tuesday that bitcoin had not been proven as a credible currency.

Given that he has a lot of followers, his tweets could have had an impact on Japanese traders, which in turn could have moved the market, Sakuma said.

Bitcoin has since pared some of the losses and last traded at $16,939, down 4.3 percent for the day.

Its decline since Sunday is hardly a major correction for digital currency. In November, it tumbled almost 30 percent in four days from $7,888 to $5,555. In September, it fell 40 percent from $4,979 to $2,972.

Many financial professionals have said bitcoin, which now has market capitalisation of about $275 billion, slightly bigger than Visa Inc (V.N), is a typical bubble, given how small the actual number of transactions are.

The market is highly inefficient, with bitcoin futures BTCH8 XBTc1 trading much above cash bitcoins while the gaps of price quotes between various exchanges are also very large, they say.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 20

By Huseyn Valiyev  Trend:

Over the past two years, about 5,000 licenses have been issued through the centers of the ASAN Service, Chairman of the State Agency for Public Services and Social Innovations Inam Karimov said at the presentation of a new license issuance portal (lisenziya.gov.az) in Baku Dec. 20.

"In Baku the licenses are issued through the ASAN Service Center No. 5, and in the regions through the regional centers, said Karimov.

"Currently, there are five ASAN Service centers in Baku, and seven ASAN Service centers are functioning in the regions. Over 259 services of 10 state agencies and private companies are rendered by ASAN Service centers. The number of appeals to the centers has reached 19 million," said Karimov.

The presentation of a new portal for issuing licenses was held in Baku. The event was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Economy, the State Agency for Public Services and Social Innovations, entrepreneurs and representatives of government agencies involved in issuing licenses and permits.

Through the new portal, entrepreneurs will be able to send appeals for obtaining, liquidating or restoring a license.

The portal will also allow registering licenses and permits.
Details added (first version posted on 12:29)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 20

By Huseyn Valiyev  Trend:

Starting from 2018, entrepreneurs in Azerbaijan will be able to apply for business licenses online, Deputy Minister of Economy Sahib Mammadov said Dec. 20.

The ministry started to issue licenses through the ASAN Service centers Nov. 2, 2015, and for the past two years, 4,832 licenses have been issued, 2,676 of which were issued for the first time, and 2,156 were replaced by unlimited ones, he said.

He added that as a result of the reforms carried out, the number of licenses necessary for doing business decreased from 59 to 37, and the number of permits decreased four times and amounted to 86.

Employees of the Economy Ministry through the centers of the ASAN Service rendered consulting services to over 35,000 entrepreneurs, Mammadov said. At the next stage, we aim to ensure full digitization of licensing services, and it will be possible to achieve this by means of an online portal. This will allow entrepreneurs, without leaving their offices, to apply for licenses online.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 20

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim will arrive today in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan for a one-day official visit, Turkeys Cabinet of Ministers told Trend Dec. 20.

According to the Turkish Cabinet of Ministers, the main topic of discussion during the Turkish prime ministers visit to Azerbaijan will be the cooperation in economy.

Currently, Binali Yildirim is on a visit in Bangladesh.

Turkey is one of the main trade and economic partners of Azerbaijan. Both countries are actively boosting their economic cooperation, including in the Turkey-Nakhchivan format.

In October, Turkey exempted goods imported from the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic from customs duties.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Dec. 20

By Diana Aliyeva  Trend:

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Uzbekistan has offered the countrys businessmen to present their proposals on establishing business ties with Georgian business circles until Dec. 30, 2017, the chamber said in a message.

The chamber is ready to assist Uzbek entrepreneurs in creation of trade and investment houses in Georgia, distribution of commercial proposals regarding supply of Uzbek products through the Georgian Chamber of Commerce and Industry to interested local companies of the country.

The Uzbek chambers specialists will also help in the search for Georgian companies for implementation of joint investment projects in Uzbekistan, organization of participation of the country's businessmen in international exhibitions and fairs in Georgia.

The chamber will also support the search for business partners from Georgia and their involvement in joint cooperation on the conduct and expansion of business in Uzbekistan and Georgia.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 20

By Ali Mustafayev  Trend:

Fitch Ratings confirmed the long-term foreign and local currency issuer default rating (IDR) of Altyn Bank (a subsidiary of Peoples Bank of Kazakhstan) at "BB" and decided to leave the banks rating at RWP (Rating Watch Positive) with a positive outlook.

This decision reflects the position of Fitch that Peoples Bank of Kazakhstan, currently owning 100 percent of Altyn Bank's shares, will support the subsidiary, if necessary, taking into account the small size of the bank, as well as the planned sale of the majority of the banks shares to China's CITIC Bank Corporation Limited (CNCB).

Peoples Bank of Kazakhstan signed a memorandum of understanding with CNCB in November 2016. Completion of the deal for the sale of 60 percent of Altyn Banks shares is expected in 2018.

Peoples Bank of Kazakhstan JSC is a leading financial group and a leading retail bank in Kazakhstan with the largest customer base and distribution network. The bank is developing as a universal financial group, offering a wide range of services (banking, insurance services, leasing, brokerage and asset management services) to its retail customers, small and medium-sized businesses and corporate clients.

The bank also operates in Russia, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 20

By Azad Hasanli  Trend:

Russian Minister of Economic Development Maksim Oreshkin will pay a working visit to Baku on Dec. 25, said a message posted on the website of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development Dec. 20.

According to the message, during the visit, Oreshkin will meet with Azerbaijani Minister of Economy Shahin Mustafayev and take part in an expanded meeting of the Russian-Azerbaijani and Azerbaijani-Russian business councils and the opening ceremony of a representative office of the Russian Export Center JSC in Azerbaijan.

"The meeting will discuss the current relations and prospects of trade and economic relations between Russia and Azerbaijan in such important sectors as energy, industry, agriculture, transport, construction and tourism," the message said. Promotion of investment projects and initiatives as well as improvement of conditions for cooperation between the business circles of the two countries will be the key topics of the meeting."

Memorandums of intent are expected to be signed between Russian and Azerbaijani companies as part of the minister's visit. B2B meetings and an exchange of business contacts will also be held.

The data from the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee shows that trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Russia in January-October 2017 amounted to $1.89 billion, of which $528.97 million accounted for the export of Azerbaijani products to Russia.
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Dec. 20

By Diana Aliyeva Trend:

The penalties will be introduced towards importers who have not imported products into Uzbekistan in time, according to the www.norma.uz legal portal.

The new regulation is contained in the Uzbek Cabinet of Ministers decree #984 adopted Dec. 14, 2017. According to the decree, some of the government's decisions were amended.

The importers who have delayed the import of goods by more than 30 banking days will be fined, while small businesses and private businesses - 60 banking days.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 20

By Gulgiz Muradova  Trend:

For the European Union, the Trans-Caspian Pipeline (TCP) is an important, complementary element of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) in order to connect the significant gas reserves of Central Asia to the European markets, said Vice President for the Energy Union Maros Sefcovic.

Sefcovic was asked to comment on the developments around the Caspian Sea Legal Status, which is the main obstacle to realization of the TCP project that has been disused for more than 20 years.

"This is in both sides' interest, both for us here in Europe and for our partners in Turkmenistan. To this end, in 2015 I signed the Ashgabat Declaration with Turkmenistan, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia on the cooperation in the energy field," he said.

All sides, according to him, remain committed to the declaration and are in regular contact to explore possibilities of cooperation.

The EU, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan created a special working group in 2015 at the level of deputy ministers in charge of energy sphere. Earlier in 2014, Ashgabat and Ankara inked a framework agreement to supply gas to the Trans-Anatolian natural gas pipeline project (TANAP).

The TCP project has been around since mid-1990s. The idea was to build a pipeline across the bottom of the Caspian Sea to carry Turkmen gas to Azerbaijan, from there in pipelines through Georgia to Turkey and onward Europe. The pipeline is expected to carry 30 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas.

In early December, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that the draft convention on the status of the Caspian Sea is almost ready and will be approved by the presidents at the next summit in 2018.

Later Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov said that the draft convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea also includes the issue of pipelines construction, adding that the TCP issue will be coordinated with the countries through which the pipelines is to pass.

Previously, the European Commission told Trend that its engagement continues with Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, both in bilateral and multilateral format, towards enabling Turkmen gas deliveries to the European markets in view of the potential expansion of the SGC to Central Asia.

The SGC is one of the priority energy projects for the EU. It envisages the transportation of gas from the Caspian region to the European countries through Georgia and Turkey.

--

Follow the author on Twitter:@GulgizD
Details added (first version posted on 10:45)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 20

By Maksim Tsurkov  Trend:

Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR and Norways Statoil have signed two contracts on main principles of cooperation, SOCAR said in a message Dec. 20.

As a result of long discussions and consultations, specialists developed and agreed upon the main principles of prospective cooperation related to a Risk Service Contract (RSC) for the development of the Karabakh oil field, as well as a PSA (production sharing agreement) on various prospective structures, the message said.

President of SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev and Senior Vice President of Statoil Al Cook signed two agreements on the main principles of cooperation, the message noted. The first contract covers issues of exploration, development and main commercial principles and provisions of the PSA on some promising structures in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, while the second contract covers main commercial principles and provisions of the RSC regarding the Karabakh oil field.

At the signing ceremony, SOCAR president noted that specialists of both companies achieved positive results.

Signing the agreement on the main principles will create a reliable basis for the implementation of future projects that will positively affect Azerbaijans economy, he noted. It is necessary to take measures to complete the work in this direction in a short time.

The Karabakh field was discovered in 2000. Its initial oil reserves amount to 100 million tons. SOCAR operates Karabakh fields development.
In an exclusive interview with India Today managing editor Rahul Kanwal, senior Congress leader and former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said that the BJP's dream of a Congress-free India has been dashed and the Grand Old Party will be a formidable challenge to the saffron party in the 2019 general elections.

By Rahul Kanwal: Two days after the winner "limped across the finish line" in the crucial Assembly election in Gujarat with a "young sprinter close on his heels", Congress stalwart and former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram staunchly defended the party's performance saying the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) dream of a India without the Grand Old Party has been dashed.

advertisement

In an exclusive interview with India Today, Chidambaram said that the Congress will be a "formidable challenge to the BJP in the 2019 general election". The Gujarat performance clearly showed that the "BJP's dream of a Congress-free India has vanished", he added.

On D-Day, Chidambaram had tweeted: "There is an electoral victory and there is a political victory. Need I say who is the political victor in Gujarat." When asked that despite the Congress' "political victory" in Gujarat, it was the BJP, which was Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar, he shot back, "Why didn't you say Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar in Goa and Manipur, where the BJP stole the elections," referring to the BJP's claim to form governments despite the Congress emerging as the largest party.

Lauding the Congress' performance in Gujarat, Chidambaram said, "We were the underdog; no opinion poll gave us more than 6-65 seats. The BJP could not reach the 150 mark despite having several advantages like being the incumbent party, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah belonging to the state, and unlimited resources. The BJP crossed the line, but we were close on its heels with 80 seats."

On the BJP's vote share rising to 49.1 per cent from 47.85 per cent in the last polls and the party crossing the magical number of 92 despite being in power for the last 22 years, the Congress leader said, "Being the incumbent for 22 years was balanced by the fact that Gujarat is the home state of the PM and Amit Shah. I am not denying the BJP's win, but it could not reach the 150 mark."

When asked whether the Congress could have won Gujarat, the former FM said that "a little more luck, better organisation and pulling all party heavyweights together" would have done the job. "We may have not crossed the magical number of 92, but winning 80 is an achievement with all odds stacked against us."

advertisement

Chidambaram agreed that the BJP, under Modi, connected to Gujarat's urban areas in a better way than the Congress. Out of 55 urban seats, the BJP bagged 43 and the Congress only 12. "I agree, but in the 2009 general elections, we won all major cities despite being the incumbent with the BJP winning only Bengaluru."

But there was no Modi in 2009? "Don't attribute the Gujarat win to one person. The BJP did connect in a better way to urban voters, but that can't be the scenario in every election."

CHIDAMBARAM BLAMES NOTA FOR CONGRESS LOSS

Chidambaram countered the defeat of Congress stalwarts like Shaktisinh Gohil, Arjun Modhvadia, Tushar Chaudhary and Siddharth Patel by saying, "Half-a-dozen BJP ministers and the Speaker lost their seats."

The Gujarat polls saw the rise of outsiders in the Congress like Thakor community leader Alpesh Thakor and Dalit chief Jignesh Mevani who mobilised the masses and dented the BJP's prospects. Chidambaram agreed that these leaders had mobilised supporters, but said, "Ultimately, the Congress did the main organisational work carried the burden. Social mobilisation helped but only to a point."

advertisement

On the BJP overcoming the GST and demonetisation double whammy in the state, farmers' and traders' anger and the Patidar agitation to win the polls, Chidambaram quipped, "Why are you counting the GST and demonetisation as a negative for the BJP. It had boasted of winning the UP elections by moulding the demontisation narrative. Why has it become a burden in Gujarat?"

The Congress veteran blamed the Nota votes for the Congress' loss in cities like Surat where the business class was initially angry with the BJP over the GST, but finally voted for it. "I am not denying the BJP's win in such cities. If Nota votes came to us, we would have won."

Chidambaram batted for Rahul when asked whether the Gandhi scion will be able to sustain his energised and transformed avatar. "Of course. He has matured as vice-president. He is matured and more confident, and understands responsibilities of the high office. He will grow and be more assertive as president."

Rahul had received much flak for his 15-day New Year break after the Congress was routed in the 2014 general elections. Will he again jet to a foreign nation after the Gujarat loss? "Don't repeat irrelevant arguments given by antediluvian people. All political leaders take breaks. All I know is Rahul Gandhi will put his shoulder to the wheel and work as president. There is nothing wrong in going on holidays. Don't South Asian leaders take breaks?" Chidambaram shot back.

advertisement

Chidambaram also refuted reports that the Congress was trying to move towards "soft Hindutva" when asked why Congress president Rahul Gandhi's visited 28 temples during the hustings. "You don't understand the nature of campaigning in rural areas. I come from a rural constituency. Every village in Tamil Nadu has a temple or a mosque or church. Usually, when leaders campaign in villages, the voters request them to visit temples and mosques. But when Rahul Gandhi goes to temple, it makes news."

On pictures of Rahul brandishing his janeu, or the sacred thread, Chidambaram said, "He was just participating in rituals regarding his deceased father." He also denied reports on the AK Antony Committee findings which had claimed that the Congress was pro-minority. "I have not read it; I don't know."

Watch: Chidambaram on Gujarat verdict: Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar cliched

--- ENDS ---
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 20

By Nigar Guliyeva  Trend:

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev spoke on the phone with US President Donald Trump on Dec. 19, the Uzbek presidential press service said in a statement on Dec. 20.

The two presidents discussed the state and prospects of the Uzbek-US multifaceted cooperation.

Particular attention was paid to ensuring regional security, peaceful settlement of the situation in Afghanistan, fight against international terrorism, extremism and radicalism.

The sides stressed importance of broad international support for the economic recovery of Afghanistan. In this aspect, agreements on the implementation of specific projects reached during the visit of Afghan president to Uzbekistan this month were highly appreciated.

Also, an exchange of views took place on topical international and regional issues of mutual interest.

President Trump welcomed open and constructive foreign policy, active efforts of Uzbekistan to develop good-neighborly relations and strengthen cooperation with the countries of the region, which contribute to the strengthening of peace and stability in Central Asia.

The presidents of Uzbekistan and the US underscored their commitment to further strengthening bilateral relations of strategic partnership on the principles of mutual respect, trust and consideration of each others interests.

In order to jointly consider prospective plans of expansion of the bilateral cooperation, President Trump invited his counterpart to pay an official visit to the US.

At the end of the conversation, the two presidents exchanged their greetings and best wishes on the occasion of the upcoming New Year 2018.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 20

By Nigar Guliyeva  Trend:

The international airport of Tashkent named after Islam Karimov has resumed work on arrival and departure of aircrafts, Uzbekistan Airways said in a statement.

This morning the airport was closed due to unfavorable weather conditions. The visibility was below the minimum due to a thick fog.

Uzbekistan Airways said that the airport could not receive flights from Istanbul, Minsk, St. Petersburg, Tel Aviv, Bishkek and Rome.

The planes landed at Samarkand and Navoi airports. The airports also welcomed flights from Paris and London, as well as from Turkish Airlines.

Also, the plane with the speaker of the Kyrgyz Parliament Dastanbek Dzhumabekov and other members of the Kyrgyz parliament could not land at the airport in Tashkent due to thick fog.
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Dec. 20

By Diana Aliyeva  Trend:

President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev has recently received the head of the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA), Serdar Cam, who arrived in the country for a visit.

The Uzbek presidents press service said that during the meeting, President Mirziyoyev, warmly welcoming the guest, noted with satisfaction that the state visit to Turkey on October 25-26, 2017 brought relations between the two countries to the level of strategic partnership.

The implementation of joint programs with the Turkish partners in the fields of trade, industry, investment, transport, tourism, healthcare, education and others was positively assessed.

The importance of further expansion of TIKAs activity in Uzbekistan and bringing it to a new level was noted at the meeting.

The agency has already implemented about 700 grant projects worth $23.6 million in Uzbekistan.

Special attention was paid to the need to identify promising areas for bilateral cooperation, the systematic development of TIKA activities in Uzbekistan based on specific projects.

The parties also emphasized the importance of prompt development and implementation of the relevant road map, and an agreement was reached on a multiple increase in the number of projects and programs implemented in the spheres of economy, culture, education, healthcare, environmental protection, tourism and a number of other socially important areas.

Serdar Cam expressed his full support for the proposals and initiatives put forward by the leader of Uzbekistan, as well as the readiness of the Turkish side to exert maximum efforts for their timely and effective implementation.

TIKA was founded in 1992 in order to provide technical assistance to developing countries and to boost relations with them in the fields of economy, trade, technology, culture, education and social development through the projects and programs of the organization.
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Dec. 20

By Diana Aliyeva  Trend:

The listing commission of the UzEx JSC, the Uzbek Republican Commodity Exchange, last week (Dec. 11-15) launched 39 standard contracts for construction materials, oil and agricultural products, the UzEx JSC said in a message.

The list of goods put up for the auction included fittings, bitumen, petroleum oils, barley, cotton lint and others.

These goods were included in the exchange quotation list on the basis of applications of 29 traders (12 of them - small business entities), including Almalyk MMC JSC, Bukhara Oil Refinery LLC, Akbar Central Asia LLC, Smart Oil Trade LLC, Inter Auto Line LLC and Bahromjon Nur Savdo LLC.

Earlier, a stock exchange contract No. 9631 was launched at the UzEx for the export of first grade Urta-class cotton fiber of fourth type (2017 crop). Bukhara Seed Company JV was the trader of this product. One contract lot corresponds to one ton of cotton fiber with a starting price of $1,702. The product should be delivered on FCA (free carrier) terms to Bukhara Trans Terminal Production Trade Company LLC.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 20

By Nigar Guliyeva  Trend:

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has signed a decree On measures for scrap procurement, production and consumption of rolled ferrous metals for 2018.

In accordance with the decree, starting from 2018, rolled ferrous metals produced by Uzmetkombinat JSC will be supplied exclusively through exchange trading.

The document notes that the volumes of rolled ferrous metals that are not sold at the exchange trading must be put up for the auction again within a month and only after that period can be exported under direct contracts.

Physically and morally outdated equipment and metal structures, which are written off during bankruptcy, liquidation, reconstruction and modernization, must be handed over to Uzmetkombinat JSC as scrap and waste at a contractual price.

Also, metallurgical raw materials, imported by business entities to Uzbekistan for the production of rolled ferrous metals will be exempt from customs payments (except for customs clearance fees) until January 1, 2019.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 18

By Fatih Karimov  Trend:

Iranian administration in recent months has signed several agreements with foreign companies for establishing solar panels manufacturing plants in Iran, in a bid to increase the share of home-made photovoltaic panels in its growing solar energy sector.

The measures are important, given the fact that the country plans to increase the share of renewable energy from power output from current level of 0.41 percent (or 322 MW) to 10 percent by 2050.

In the most recent development, it is announced that Chinese investors will establish a production line in Irans north western Zanjan province for manufacturing photovoltaic cells.

The Chinese side will invest 1.2 billion rials (about $34,000) for establishing the industrial unit, Faramarz Nikseresht, a local official told IRNA Dec. 18, without unveiling the name of the Chinese company.

He further said that two Chinese companies also will build 20 MW and 500 MW solar power plants in the province jointly with cooperation of Iranian counterparts.

Over $550 million of investment will be made for construction of the power plants, Nikseresht, said.

Currently, seven industrial units producing solar panels are operating in Iran.

Earlier this month, Industrial Development & Renovation Organization of Iran (IDRO), a major government-owned conglomerate, signed a memorandum of understating (MoU) with Chinas Znshine and another energy company from Hong Kong, to form a joint company for manufacturing solar panels.

Previously, IDRO and Znshine signed a MoU for investment in construction of production line for 200-megawatt solar panels.

Last year, IDRO signed a similar deal with Germany's Schmid Group, worth 300 million euros based on which, a chain of industrial facilities from silica mining to solar cell production will be built in Iran.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 20

By Gulgiz Muradova  Trend:

The European Union has reiterated its support to the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, whom it regards as its important partner.

"Azerbaijan is an important partner for the European Union, whose independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity we support, " said an EU spokesperson, when asked to comment on inadequate approach of the EU delegation to the OSCE towards the conflicts in Europe.

The spokesperson reminded that the EU has reiterated its support to independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity quite specifically, among other occasions, by President Donald Tusk during the visit of President Ilham Aliyev in February 2017.

As for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the spokesperson stressed that there can be no doubting the EU's full and active commitment to facilitating the peaceful resolution of the conflict.

"We do this inter alia through our Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia, supporting and complementing the efforts of the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group to facilitate the resolution of the conflict," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson noted that the EU also promotes confidence- and peace-building activities across the conflict divide, notably through the implementation of the programme European Partnership for the peaceful settlement of the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh (EPNK).

Recently, the Azerbaijani mission to the OSCE has criticized the double-standard approach by the EU delegation to the OSCE regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The mission stressed that the EU Delegation for unknown reasons shies away from reiterating the position of its senior officials expressed in Baku and Brussels on numerous occasions, including at the highest political level, in support of sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Azerbaijan.

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.
The EU executive launched an unprecedented process on Wednesday to suspend Polands voting rights in the European Union after two years of dispute over judicial reforms that Brussels says undermine Polish courts independence, Reuters reported.

The European Commission, the guardian of EU law, will now ask the other EU governments to declare that Polands changes to the judiciary constitute a clear risk of a serious breach of EU values -- especially the rule of law.

However, it gave Warsaw, where a new prime minister took office only this month, three months to remedy the situation and said it could rescind its decision if it did so. Often referred to as the EUs nuclear option, the move carries the ultimate threat of sanctions but is in fact unlikely to result in that.

The Commission has today concluded that there is a clear risk of a serious breach of the rule of law in Poland, the Commission said in a statement.

Judicial reforms in Poland mean that the countrys judiciary is now under the political control of the ruling majority. In the absence of judicial independence, serious questions are raised about the effective application of EU law.

The Commissions deputy head, First Vice President Frans Timmermans, who has conducted talks with the Polish government dominated by Law and Justice Party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski for the past two years, said he was acting with a heavy heart but was obliged to take action to protect the Union as a whole.

We are open for dialogue 24/7, Timmermans said, saying that if Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who took office just this month, were to change tack, he would be ready to respond.

But Timmermans insisted: As guardians of the treaty, the Commission is under a strict responsibility to act ... If the application of the rule of law is left completely to the individual member states, then the whole of the EU will suffer.

This decision has no merit. It is in our opinion a purely political decision, Beata Mazurek, a spokeswoman for Polands ruling party, was quoted as saying by state news agency PAP.

Stung by Britains vote last year to leave the Union, the EU institutions are battling a rise in euroskeptic nationalism across the continent and particularly in the former Communist east, where Polands ally Hungary has also prompted previously the Commission to threaten sanctions over the rule of law.

Seeking to counter Warsaws accusations of an anti-Polish bias in Brussels and in his own behavior, Timmermans, who once worked in the Soviet bloc as a Dutch diplomat, praised Polands historic contribution to overcoming the Cold War divide of Europe but said Warsaw now bore a special responsibility to prevent new rifts opening up over democratic principles.

I want to stand by the Polish people in this time which is very difficult for them, and for us, he said, adding that the defending a separation of powers was of existential importance not just for the Polish nation but for the EU as a whole.

The next step in the process is that EU governments, meeting in the Council of the European Union, will hear Poland out and ask it to address their concerns.

But if 22 out of the EUs 28 countries and the European Parliament are not satisfied in the end, the process will move on to the next stages, which may mean sanctions.

The sanctions can involve the suspension of the rights deriving from the application of the Treaties to the Member State in question, including the voting rights.

This formulation leaves open the possibility also of suspending EU financial transfers to Poland, now the biggest beneficiary of European funds aimed at boosting living standards in the former communist country.

Sanctions can be imposed with the backing of a majority of countries representing a majority of the EUs citizens. But to get to that stage, EU governments have first to unanimously agree that what was initially just a risk of a serious breach of the rule of law has now become a reality.

This is unlikely to happen, because Hungary has already declared that it would not support such a motion against Poland.

But the mere threat of it underlines the sharp deterioration in ties between Warsaw and Brussels since the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party won power in late 2015.

The Commission and Council of Europe legal experts, known as the Venice Commission, say Polands judicial reforms undermine judges independence because they give the ruling party control over the sacking and the appointments of judges, as well as the option to end the terms of some Supreme Court judges early.

The Council of Europe, Europes human rights watchdog, has compared such measures to those of the Soviet system.

The PiS government rejects these accusations, saying the changes are needed because courts are slow, inefficient and steeped in a communist era-mentality. Polish President Andrzej Duda has until Jan. 5 to sign them into law.
U.K. Prime Minister Theresa Mays effective deputy, Damian Green, resigned after an official investigation found that hed made misleading statements about pornography on one of his parliamentary office computers, and left questions unanswered about his behavior towards a female activist, Bloomberg reports.

I am extremely sad to be writing this, May wrote in a letter to Green, released by her office, asking him to quit. We have been friends and colleagues throughout our whole political lives.

His departure strips her of one of the most loyal members of her government as she seeks to steer Britains path out of the European Union and rescue her struggling premiership. The 61-year-old and May knew each other since they were at Oxford University and he is one of her closest political allies - ushered into the Cabinet after her election debacle.

He is the third member of her cabinet to leave office since the start of November. Defence Secretary Michael Fallon quit over inappropriate sexual behavior while Priti Patel stepped down as international development secretary after she misled the premier over private meetings with Israeli officials.
President Trump spoke by phone Wednesday with King Salman of Saudi Arabia following a foiled ballistic missile attack against the kings palace, with both leaders agreeing on the need to hold Iran accountable for the attack, Washington Times reports.

The White House said the missile, which was intercepted Tuesday, was enabled by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that is backing Houthi rebels in neighboring Yemens civil war.

The leaders discussed the importance of engaging the United Nations to hold Iran accountable for its repeated violations of international law and agreed on the importance of reinvigorating a political process to end the war in Yemen, the statement said.

The king also briefed Mr. Trump on Saudi Arabias plan to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

The missile fired at the palace came on the same day that the king was due to announce the Saudi budget at a gathering of Saudi leaders.
By PTI: envoy to SAD

New Delhi, Dec 20 (PTI) The Pakistani government has formed an inquiry committee to probe reports of Sikhs being forced to convert to Islam in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, the countrys High Commissioner to India told a Shiromani Akali Dal delegation led by its chief Sukhbir Singh Badal.

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief and former deputy chief minister of Punjab Badal today met Pakistani High Commissioner Sohail Mahmood here along with members of the Sikh Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee (SGPC) over the issue of reports of forced conversions of Sikhs to Islam in the neighbouring country.

advertisement

The delegation impressed upon the High Commissioner that instead of forcing the Sikhs to convert to Islam, Pakistan should give credit to these brave Sikh families who have preferred to stay in Pakistan and not migrate to India in 1947, the SAD said in a statement.

Pakistans High Commissioner to India informed the delegation that an inquiry committee has been formed to probe the issue which will submit its report at the earliest, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, an SAD spokesperson, said.

"He also told the delegation that it can assure Sikhs residing in different nations that Sikhs of Pakistan are very much part of the country and they will never face any problem in this regard," the party said quoting the Pakistani envoy.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had yesterday said that India will take up at the highest level in the Pakistan government reports of Sikhs being forced to convert to Islam by a government official in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).

Meanwhile, Badal also suggested that the Pakistan government should take on board SGPC to resolve issues related to Sikh affairs in that country. PTI JTR ASK ASK

--- ENDS ---
Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 20

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

The United Arab Emirates is suspending flights between Abu Dhabi and Tehran, the UAE media outlets reported Dec.20.

The airline Etihad Airways (the national airline of the UAE) returned the passengers' money for tickets for flights after January 23, 2018.

It is also reported that in the period from December 25, 2017 to January 23, 2018, the number of flights from Abu Dhabi to Tehran will decrease from five to two per week.

Earlier, the UAE Foreign Ministry said that Iran seeks to spread chaos and instability in the region.

"The new American strategy will take the necessary steps to counteract negative and unacceptable Iranian actions in all its manifestations, including a missile program that poses a real threat to the region, as well as support for terrorist organizations," said the Foreign Ministry United Arab Emirates.
The support and sustainment services to be provided for Polands F-16s includes aircraft maintenance; system upgrades; engine support; spare and repair parts and support and test equipment, Sputnik reported.

"The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to Poland for follow-on support and sustainment services for its F-16 fleet for an estimated cost of $200 million," the statement said on Tuesday.

Poland currently operates a fleet of 36 F-16s built by Lockheed Martin.

In the end of 2016, Poland also signed a $200 million agreement with the United States to purchase new cruise and air-to-air missiles for its F-16 fighter jets.

"The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to Poland for follow-on support and sustainment services for its F-16 fleet for an estimated cost of $200 million," the statement said on Tuesday.

Poland currently operates a fleet of 36 F-16s built by Lockheed Martin.

In the end of 2016, Poland also signed a $200 million agreement with the United States to purchase new cruise and air-to-air missiles for its F-16 fighter jets.
Canada and the United States will co-host a Foreign Ministers' Meeting on Security and Stability on Korean Peninsula in Vancouver on Jan. 16, 2018, Xinhua reported.

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland announced the meeting alongside US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson who arrived here for his first visit to Canada for a series of meetings, including a sit-down with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

"The security threat posed by North Korea is a global challenge that affects us all. A diplomatic solution is both essential and possible, and we will continue to work with our allies and regional partners, including the United States, Japan and South Korea, in pursuing our common objective of a secure and stable Korean peninsula," said Freeland.

"We continue to find ways to advance the pressure campaign against North Korea, and send a unified message from the international community: We will not accept you as a nuclear weapons nation. We share one goal, full and complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Tillerson said.

He said this display of solidarity sends a message to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) that the rest of the world is prepared to talk. "We can't talk unless North Korea is ready to talk. We're waiting for them to indicate a readiness to talk -- this pressure campaign will not abate. We will not be rolling any of it back."

Most of the countries which joined in the 1950-1953 Korean War have been invited to participate in the Vancouver meeting.
The bodies of six men have been left hanging from three different bridges near the Mexican tourist resort of Los Cabos on the Baja California peninsula on Wednesday, local authorities said, The Guardian reports.

The authorities did not give details on what happened to the men, but drug gangs often hang the bodies of their murdered victims in public to intimidate rivals. Drug gang violence is set to make 2017 Mexicos deadliest year in modern history.

Two bodies were found on a bridge in Las Veredas, near Los Cabos International Airport, and two on a different bridge on the highway between Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo, local prosecutors said in a statement.

In a separate statement, the prosecutors said two further bodies were found on a third bridge near the airport.

An official from the prosecutors office, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the bodies of the men had been hung from the bridges.
The U.N. Security Council will soon begin discussing a possible United Nations peacekeeping force for Mali, an idea the world body had been uncomfortable with before France's recent military intervention, envoys said on Wednesday.



Last month, the 15-nation council approved an African-led force for Mali that likely would have been funded with voluntary contributions from U.N. member states and trained by the European Union. That force would not have begun operations until late this year against Islamist militants who took control of a vast region of northern Mali last year.



However, Frances military intervention this month against the militants in the West African nation rendered that plan moot, diplomats said.

There is increasing talk of moving straight to a U.N. peacekeeping operation," a senior Western diplomat said on condition of anonymity. Another diplomat and a U.N. official confirmed that, saying the discussions would begin within days.



It is an issue that U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice first mentioned last week during a Security Council meeting. Other council members are now warming to the idea, the diplomats and U.N. officials said.



Deployment of a U.N. peacekeeping force would require Security Council approval. Another option would be to send in an African Union force mandated by the council with logistical and other support from the United Nations, similar to the AU's Somalia mission.



Washington favors a U.N. mission rather than an AU force, diplomats said.



Details would have to be worked out but one idea floated was for a U.N. peacekeeping force of some 3,000 to 5,000 troops, diplomats said. They noted, however, that since the three-week-old conflict is continuing, it is still too early to deploy peacekeepers.



Theres no peace to keep yet, said one diplomat. "We're still in the peace-enforcement phase.



Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had been uncomfortable with direct U.N. involvement in the proposed African-led operation, diplomats said, because it would have been an offensive combat mission - not peacekeeping.



But now that the French-backed Malian army has retaken most of the desert nation's cities, the possibility of deploying U.N. peacekeepers has become less remote, the envoys said.



They said a U.N. peacekeeping force would offer certain advantages over the African-led force approved by the council last month. Funding would be clear, it would be easier to monitor human rights compliance and the United Nations could choose which national contingents to use in the force.



Many of the African troops already in Mali supporting the French and Malian militaries could theoretically remain and become part of a U.N. peacekeeping force, one diplomat said.



It is an idea France would likely support. Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said on Tuesday that Paris would favor a quick deployment of international monitors to Mali to ensure human rights are not abused.
City-Cost - PR | Dec 20, 2017 - 12:14 | Japan

Japan Airlines (JAL) is collaborating with expat community platform City-Cost, as the airline looks to foreigners living in Japan to provide travelers with the best advice on enjoying a smoother travel experience in the country.

One aspect of the collaboration project, which launched in November, features a campaign to collate travel blog posts created by users of City-Cost -- foreigners living in Japan who the airline believes are best placed as a source of advice for potential foreign travelers, particularly when it comes to the challenges of overcoming linguistic and cultural barriers.

"As the number of foreign residents in Japan continues to rise, we realize they have different travel needs from the average tourist visiting Japan. With the aim to be the most preferred airline in the world, we strive to provide seamless travel experiences, useful information and attractive promotions based on customers' voices," Stephanie Lau, a planning group supervisor in the airlines online sales department, explained about the background initiating the project.

Looking to identify gaps in Japans domestic tourism infrastructure, the collaboration also saw JAL conduct a survey through City-Cost targeting foreign travelers. Both the survey and blog campaign cover themes of travel across mainland Japan and Okinawa, where, in regards to the latter, additional support for the campaign is being provided by the Okinawa Convention & Visitors Bureau (OCVB).

"Through this project, we expect to get an in-depth understanding of foreigners' preferences, enjoyable experiences, even difficulties faced during their travel in Japan, and improve our promotions and services to accommodate our customers needs," said Lau.

All foreign residents of Japan are welcome to participate in the blog campaign by joining City-Cost. Those who submit posts will have a chance of winning prizes that include 20,000 JAL Mileage Bank (JMB) miles and a night for two at a beach resort in Okinawa. The blog campaign runs until February 28, 2018.

For more information about the campaign, prizes, and how to join visit www.city-cost.com
KYODO NEWS - Dec 20, 2017 - 14:46 | All, World

Eager to maintain its nuclear energy policy in the wake of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, Japan made sure concerns about the technology were downplayed at the Group of Seven summit it chaired in the days after the disaster, according to Japanese diplomatic records declassified Wednesday.

References to "radiation" and "concerns" about the nuclear accident in what is now Ukraine were deleted from a draft of the G-7 statement. The final statement instead dubbed nuclear power "an energy source that will be ever more widely used in the future."

The declassified records show that Japan worked to build an international consensus on retaining nuclear power even while little was known about the cause of the Chernobyl accident or the scale of the damage.

Missing a chance to thoroughly debate strengthening safety regulations, Japan went ahead with its nuclear power strategy until the March 2011 Fukushima accident, triggered by a huge earthquake and tsunami, exposed what government-appointed investigators and others have dubbed a "safety myth."

According to a Foreign Ministry official who was involved in the G-7 summit at the time, "There was no awareness in the government or the nuclear industry that Japan's nuclear plants might be dangerous too, or that we could learn a lesson from (Chernobyl)."

After the nuclear crisis on April 26, 1986, the Soviet Union first publically acknowledged it on April 29 Japan time, but released very few details as part of its tight control of information in the midst of the Cold War.

Among the declassified records is a Japanese government "plan to respond to the Soviet nuclear accident," dated May 1 and marked secret.

The plan centered on "reaffirming the necessity" of nuclear power, while also aiming to set up an international information-sharing system for nuclear accidents.

This plan guided the Japanese delegation at the G-7 summit in Tokyo, which began on May 4, and served as a springboard for the statement adopted there the following day.

According to a document dated May 3, then Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone had told senior Foreign Ministry officials that "there is great interest in Japan in the 'ashes of death (radioactive fallout).'"

The issue was a particularly sensitive one for the Japanese public due to the exposure of fishing boat Fukuryu Maru No. 5, also known as the Lucky Dragon, to radioactive fallout from a U.S. hydrogen bomb test in the Marshall Islands in 1954, as well as the 1945 U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II.

The ministry later described Nakasone as having "shown initiative" at the summit.

Once the G-7 adopted its statement, Japan's Agency for Natural Resources and Energy then wrote a memorandum to power companies and local authorities involved with nuclear plants on May 6, explaining that the government would "continue to promote (nuclear power) with a safety-first mindset."

A note in the margin warned the recipients not to release the contents of the memo to the press.

Earlier, the Foreign Ministry had ordered Japanese embassies across Europe to gather information on the Chernobyl accident, according to a ministry cable dated April 29 in which it was described as something that "could have a grave impact on Japan's nuclear energy policy."

The cable also indicates Tokyo was mindful of the accident's potential to stir up opposition to nuclear power within Japan, including in communities near power plants. It noted that "no marked protest activities have been observed."

The G-7 groups Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States.
A new dolphin species likely from the Oligocene was discovered and described in Ecuador, according to a study published December 20, 2017 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Yoshihiro Tanaka from the Osaka Museum of Natural History, Japan, and colleagues.

Many marine fossils described in previous research have been from long-recognized temperate regions such as South Carolina, off the coast of Oregon, Hokkaido and New Zealand. Few equatorial and polar fossils are currently known.

While in the tropical region of Santa Elena Province, Ecuador, the authors of this study found a small dolphin skull, which they identified as representing a new species, Urkudelphis chawpipacha, based on facial features. The dolphin skull had a bone crest front and center on its face, above the eye sockets. This species stands apart from other Oligocene dolphins with its shorter and wider frontal bones located near the top of the head and the parallel-sided posterior part of its jaw. The authors also conducted a phylogenetic analysis which revealed that the new species may be the ancestor of the nearly-extinct Platanistoidea, or river dolphin, and may have lived during the Oligocene era.

The fossil is one of the few fossil dolphins from the equator, and is a reminder that Oligocene cetaceans may have ranged widely in tropical waters.

###

In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS ONE: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0188380

Citation: Tanaka Y, Abella J, Aguirre-Fernandez G, Gregori M, Fordyce RE (2017) A new tropical Oligocene dolphin from Montanita/Olon, Santa Elena, Ecuador. PLoS ONE 12(12): e0188380. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0188380

Funding: This study was supported by an UPSE project IN-P5-2016-1 for equipment at UPSE, and YT thanks support of a trip to Ecuador. This work has also been supported by the Agencia Estatal de Investigacion (AEI) from Spain and the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union (CGL2016-76431-P) and the project CGL2015-68333 (MINECO/FEDER, UE).

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
By PTI: minister

Kolkata, Dec 20 (PTI) Bangladesh minister Obaidul Quader today accused Pakistan of hatching a conspiracy with Rohingya terror groups and criticised it for supporting the war criminals of his countrys Liberation War.

Pakistan did not leave any opportunity to "pin-prick" Bangladesh and Pakistani ministers spoke against the Bangladeshi government whenever there was an attempt to punish the 1971 Liberation War criminals, he said.

advertisement

"They (Pakistan) cannot tolerate anything good happening in our country. They are also hatching a conspiracy with the Rohingya terror elements," the Bangladesh transport minister told reporters here.

Quizzed about Pakistans "conspiracy" with Rohingya terror elements, he said, "We have reports that Pakistans ISI is hatching a conspiracy with the terror groups among the Rohingya people."

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) is a terror group of the Rohingya people.

Bangladesh, which had to deal with a huge influx of Rohingya migrants this year, following a crackdown by the army of Myanmar in the northern Rakhine province of that country, has called on the international community to intervene and put pressure on Myanmar to address the exodus.

Over 6,55,000 Rohingya people fled to Bangladesh since the crackdown began in August.

On the rights of the minorities in Bangladesh, Quader said the government had a zero-tolerance policy towards any atrocities on them and that it had asked the minorities to put up a resistance against any such attack.

"I tell my minority brothers that they are in no way inferior than our Muslim brothers. They should not suffer from an inferiority complex. I tell them that they are citizens of Bangladesh and have been part of the Liberation War," he added. PTI PNT KK RC

--- ENDS ---
JUPITER, Fla. - Dec. 19, 2017 - This holiday season, millions of people will gather at airports ready to board planes for destinations around the world. Depending on the environment at their destination, their suitcases may be filled with sunscreen and bathing suits, or heavy parkas and mittens.

Now, a new study from the lab of biologist Mark Sundrud, Ph.D., on the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), provides evidence that circulating immune cells may similarly adapt when they enter different tissues, which are like different environments in our bodies. Moreover, the researchers found that inability to adapt may lead to disease.

The scientists hope understanding how immune cells adapt as they enter different tissues will spur the design of better, more specific, medicines.

"We need therapeutic strategies that specifically target chronic inflammation in the gut, skin or other tissues," Sundrud says, "instead of just generally suppressing the entire immune system."

The research was published Dec. 19, 2017, in the journal Immunity.

Sundrud's laboratory is working to understand the characteristics and functions of TH17 cells, a subset of immune cells that circulate throughout the body. These cells protect many types of tissues from infection, but they can also promote chronic inflammatory conditions like Crohn's disease, which specifically targets the intestinal tract.

Knowing TH17 cells need to function in a variety of tissue environments throughout the body, Sundrud's team wondered if and how these cells might use different tools to behave normally in one environment--or tissue--than they'd use in another. Perhaps activating one gene could be useful in the lungs, while activating another would be useful in the gut, the same way you might bring a bathing suit on a trip to Florida and a jacket if you're headed to Canada.

This study built on previous research from the Sundrud lab, which showed that when TH17 cells entered the intestine in human tissue samples, they increased the expression of a gene called MDR1.

But MDR1 is only known to transport chemotherapeutic drugs out of tumor cells, so why would it be expressed in immune cells in the gut?

The new study suggests that MDR1 is responsible for protecting TH17 cells in the gut from bile acids--detergent-like molecules produced by the liver that break down fats. Normally, the liver secretes bile acids after we eat to aid digestion. As food moves through the digestive tract, these acids are reabsorbed when they reach the ileum--the final portion of the small intestine--and the site of ileal Crohn's disease, the most common form of Crohn's.

"T cells only see high levels of bile acids in the ileum. They know this, and they adapt once they get there," says Sundrud.

This discovery led the researchers to identify a mechanism where ileal Crohn's disease appears to be induced by bile acids when T cell adaptation does not occur the way it should.

The team used a genetically modified mouse model to observe the expression and function of MDR1 in mice. They found that the gene's expression increased when the cells entered the ileum. But, in mice where the gene couldn't be activated in the gut, TH17 cells that were exposed to bile acids suffered severe oxidative stress. This stress caused the TH17 cells to become overactive, leading to Crohn's disease-like intestinal inflammation in mice.

Using bile acid sequestrants, an FDA-approved class of drugs used in transplant patients that absorb bile acids like a sponge, scientists were able to restore normal T cell function in the ileum and attenuate Crohn's disease in mice.

To establish the relevance of their findings, the team tested blood samples from healthy humans, as well as those with a variety of inflammatory bowel diseases, including Crohn's. They found a subset of patients with ileal Crohn's disease had severely impaired MDR1 expression.

Not only does this suggest that the cause of Crohn's disease in these patients may be oxidative stress due to dysfunctional MDR1, but that for the subset of patients with this dysfunction, bile acid sequestrants may be an effective treatment. Together with his collaborators, Sundrud hopes to fund a clinical study to test exactly that.

###

In addition to Sundrud, co-authors of the study were Wei Cao, Mei Lan Chen, Amber Delmas, Erumbi S. Rangarajan, Kelly McKevitt, Cody B. Jackson, Tina Izard and Gogce Crynen, all of The Scripps Research Institute; Hisako Kayama and Kyoshi Takeda of Osaka University; Amy Sun, Sergei B. Koralov and Sang Yong Kim of New York University Medical Center; Amanda P. Beck of MD Anderson Cancer Center; Angelos Oikonomopoulos, Precious N. Lacey and Daniel W. Hommes of University of California, Los Angeles; Gustavo Martinez of Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science; Robin G. Lorenz of University of Alabama; Alex Rodriguez-Palacios and Fabio Cominelli of Case Western Reserve University; and Mari T. Abreu of the University of Miami.

This work was funded by TSRI Florida via the State of Florida, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (grant R21AI119728.), the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (5R01DK099076-07 andP01DK071176), the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America (#422515, #3786 and #26971), the Broad Medical Foundation (#IBD-0389R), and the Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology, Japan Science and Technology Agency; the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, a Lotte Research Promotion Grant and the Nagao Memorial Fund.

Mari T. Abreu and Daniel W. Hommes have received research grants and consultancy fees from: AbbVie, Amgen, Asana Medical, Inc., Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Focus Medical Communications, Genentech, Genova Diagnostics, GI Health Foundation, Gilead, GSK Holding Americas, Inc., Hospira, Inc., Janssen, Mucosal Health Board, Pfizer, Prometheus Laboratories, Prova Education, Inc., Sanofi Aventis, Shire, Takeda, UCB and WebMD Health.

About The Scripps Research Institute

The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) is one of the world's largest independent, not-for-profit organizations focusing on research in the biomedical sciences. TSRI is internationally recognized for its contributions to science and health, including its role in laying the foundation for new treatments for cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, hemophilia, and other diseases. An institution that evolved from the Scripps Metabolic Clinic founded by philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps in 1924, the institute now employs more than 2,500 people on its campuses in La Jolla, CA, and Jupiter, FL, where its renowned scientists--including two Nobel laureates and 20 members of the National Academies of Science, Engineering or Medicine--work toward their next discoveries. The institute's graduate program, which awards PhD degrees in biology and chemistry, ranks among the top ten of its kind in the nation. In October 2016, TSRI announced a strategic affiliation with the California Institute for Biomedical Research (Calibr), representing a renewed commitment to the discovery and development of new medicines to address unmet medical needs. For more information, see http://www.scripps.edu.
On Tuesday, U.S. banking regulators  the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC)  passed eight largest domestic banking organizations on their "living wills" after completing the evaluation of the resolution plans. These banks include Bank of America Corp. BAC, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. GS, Morgan Stanley MS, Wells Fargo & Co. WFC, The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. BK, Citigroup Inc. C, JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM and State Street Corp. STT.



However, both regulatory agencies have found some shortcomings in the plans of four banks out of the eight firms, which can be improved in the next resolution plan. These four globally important banks include BofA, Goldman, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo.



"While significant progress has been made... there are inherent challenges and uncertainties associated with the resolution of a systemically important financial institution," the regulators noted.



Notably, regulators demand improvement in four particular areas, including the management of derivatives, payment, clearing and settlement activities.



Previously, in April 2016, resolution plans of five banks out of these eight were deficient, per the agencies.



The plan, better known as living will, lays out the strategy for a companys fast resolution under bankruptcy in the event of failure of the company or severe financial stress. Under provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the banks (with total consolidated assets of $50 billion or more) are required to submit living wills. The main objective behind the submission of living will is to avoid re-run of the 2008 financial crisis and reduce risks of further bailouts.



A systemic resolution, maximizing the sale value of a failed bank and minimizing creditor losses would help in efficient handling of bank failures. Moreover, the FDIC will have the power to liquidate a bank if its collapse knocks down the countrys financial stability.



Notably, all eight firms require their next resolution plans to be submitted by July 1, 2019.



Among these banks, Morgan Stanley and Bank of New York Mellon carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.



The regulators are working to improvise the resolution planning process. Therefore, it is expected that the submissions of annual resolution plan can be modified to once in two years in order to extend the time to prepare and review the plans.



Bottom Line



Hypothetically, it is easy to say that resolution plans should be made in a way such that these do not adversely affect the overall financial system. However, in practice, it is difficult to mitigate the harm, as banks depend considerably on mutual businesses.



Nevertheless, we believe "Living Wills" will help the regulators wind up banks, in case of failures, to some extent. Most importantly, the advance precautions will surely entail into lesser involvement of taxpayers money for bailing out troubled financial institutions.



5 Medical Stocks to Buy Now



Zacks names 5 companies poised to ride a medical breakthrough that is targeting cures for leukemia, AIDS, muscular dystrophy, hemophilia and other conditions.



New products in this field are already generating substantial revenue and even more wondrous treatments are in the pipeline. Early investors could realize exceptional profits.



Click here to see the 5 stocks >>



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



J P Morgan Chase & Co (JPM) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Bank Of New York Mellon Corporation (The) (BK) : Free Stock Analysis Report



State Street Corporation (STT) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Wells Fargo & Company (WFC) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Citigroup Inc. (C) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Bank of America Corporation (BAC) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Morgan Stanley (MS) : Free Stock Analysis Report



Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (The) (GS) : Free Stock Analysis Report



To read this article on Zacks.com click here.



Zacks Investment Research
The largest ship Britain has ever built has a leak.

The HMS Queen Elizabeth, the first in a new class of aircraft carriers which took 3.1 billion pounds ($4.2 billion) and eight years to construct, has a faulty seal around one of its propellers.

This leak, which was discovered during sea trials, is not a serious  i.e. sinking  problem, but could be costly to repair. The faulty seal allows 200 liters of water (about the amount it takes to fill a standard bathtub) into the hull every hour that then has to be pumped back out of the 64,000 tonne craft.

Fascinating #infographic about the HMS Queen Elizabeth, the largest ever warship of the royal navy. It did cost over three billion pound, carries 38 aircraft and 66,000 sausages. https://t.co/VQ9B5BLqw8 pic.twitter.com/GooeSKGvqF  Simon Kuestenmacher (@simongerman600) December 19, 2017

The defect does not prevent the craft from sailing and will not affect further sea trials, according to a Royal Navy spokesman.

The Navy likely knew about the leak earlier, but held off on announcing repairs until after a visit from the Queen of England on December 7 to commission the vessel.

A picture shows the commissioning cake with figures and scenes on it made by David Duncan for the Commissioning Ceremony to be attended by Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Britain's Princess Anne, Princess Royal, to official commission the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth at HM Naval Base in Portsmouth, southern England on December 7, 2017. Her Majesty The Queen, accompanied by Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, attended the Commissioning Ceremony of the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, the largest warship ever built for the Royal Navy. Following the traditions of the Royal Navy, during the course of the ceremony the commissioning cake will be cut by the Captain's wife and the youngest member of the Ship's Company.

The HMS Queen Elizabeth was built by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, a grouping of British engineering companies BAE Systems and Babcock along with the United Kingdom division of the French Thales.

This will be completed prior to the nations flagship re-commencing her program at sea in 2018, BAE Systems said in a statement.

The cost of the repairs will be covered by the contractors who built the craft, British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson said.

This is the reason why we have the sea trials, he said, to make sure that everything is working absolutely perfectly. This is something that work is currently ongoing to deal with.
Bitcoin fell following the news - AFP

A South Korean digital currency exchange said it is filing for bankruptcy after it was hacked for the second time in a year.

North Korean hackers are believed to be behind a heist that lost an exchange called YouBit nearly 4,000 Bitcoins in April, according to South Korean reports.

YouBit - a small player in South Korea's cryptocurrency market - said this morning that hackers had stolen 17 per cent of its crypto assets at 04:35am local time on Tuesday. The price of Bitcoin fell from just under $19,000 (14,200) to just over $18,000.

Customers cryptocurrency assets will be marked down to 75pc, YouBit wrote in an apology note posted to its website.

The statement, signed from "all employees" at YouBit, said that it is calling in administrators and working on minimising customers losses.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is widely speculated have netted millions in cryptocurrency after a spate of cyber attacks Credit: AP

Details of the refund process will be confirmed in an "additional notice", it added.

YouBit said it had made "ever effort" to improve its security and hire more security staff following the hack in April, and despite a smaller loss, this attack was the final nail in the coffin.

South Korea's intelligence service, Korea Internet and Security Agency (KISA) is investigating. Recent cyber attacks have been linked to North Korea, which is believed to have netted millions in the virtual currency. More is expected as international sanctions limit Pyongyang's supply of cash.

KISA reported that 7.6 billion won (5.2 million) worth of cryptocurrencies were stolen in those previous attacks on multiple exchanges, according to South Koreas Chosun Ilbo newspaper.

Malicious code used in attacks over the summer was "virtually identical" to previous attacks connected to North Korea, researchers found.

The US this morning blamed Kim Jong-un's regime for the WannaCry ransomware that spread across 150 different countries in May this year, crippling several NHS clinics and hospitals.

The largest digital exchange in South Korea is Bithumb which accounts for 70pc of the country's cryptocurrency. Bitcoin exchanges and wallets are hot targets for hackers and it is feared they will become more vulnerable as valuations rise.
By Alwyn Scott and Alana Wise

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Boeing Co and Bombardier Inc traded barbs on Monday over the U.S. planemaker's claim that its Canadian rival benefited from billions of dollars in illegal government subsidies and dumped its newest jetliner in the United States at below cost.

At a contentious hearing of the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), Boeing accused Bombardier of harming its ability to sell 737s in the U.S. market, in one of the final stages of a bitter trade dispute due to conclude in February.

Bombardier argued Boeing's large 737 order book shows there has been no adverse impact from its CSeries jet and that the U.S. planemaker does not manufacture a jet that competes with the new model.

"Boeing is making money hand over fist. And with a backlog of 737 orders years into the future, there are no signs of difficulty on the horizon," Bombardier representative Peter Lichtenbaum said.

If the ITC sides with Boeing, as it has so far, it could effectively keep U.S. airlines from using Bombardier's CSeries jet by imposing duties of nearly 300 percent, one of the largest ever imposed for a market-based economy, Boeing said.

"These investigations have already established beyond question that Bombardier has taken billions of dollars in illegal government subsidies to prop up its C Series program. The C Series would not even exist at this point but for those subsidies," Boeing said in a statement emailed during Bombardier's panel remarks.

The U.S. Department of Commerce was due to finalize the proposed duties on Monday or Tuesday.

If Bombardier wins, Chicago-based Boeing says its smallest 737 model could face unfair competition from the CSeries for decades.

Canada's ambassador to the United States, David MacNaughton, warned that a positive finding of material harm to Boeing by the ITC could represent a possible violation of World Trade Organization agreements and prompt a more formal complaint with the global trade group.

Story continues

"Boeing's assertion that future imports from Canada threaten to cause material injury is necessarily based on just the type of 'speculation and conjecture' that is prohibited under both U.S. and international law," MacNaughton told the panel.

Canada earlier this month scrapped plans to buy 18 Boeing Super Hornet fighter jets, underlining Ottawa's anger over the trade challenge. Boeing has said it considered all potential risks before deciding to launch its trade case.

The case stems from an April 2016 sale of 75 CSeries jets to Delta Air Lines Inc. Boeing claims Delta paid $20 million per plane, well below an estimated cost of $33 million and what Bombardier charges in Canada.

"A single large order, like Bombardier's sale to Delta, takes years of demand out of the market. In this industry, if we lose a sale, its gone forever. That's years of lost production and deliveries for Boeing, years of lost work for our employees, and years of lost work for our U.S. suppliers," Boeing Executive Vice President Kevin McAllister said.

European planemaker Airbus SE, which is buying a controlling stake in the CSeries program and has a competing plane, has said it would add a second CSeries production line to a factory in Alabama, making it a U.S. product for domestic airlines.

Boeing says that should not negate the duties because Airbus and Bombardier would import fuselages and wings and merely be assembling in the United States.

But Bombardier argues that Boeing's case is against full imports of airplanes, not parts, so it does not apply to imports of wings, fuselages and other pieces. Bombardier says more than half of the value of CSeries content comes from the United States, including engines by Pratt & Whitney.

DEFINING DEAL

Boeing says the Delta deal was market defining because other airlines will demand the same low price and the planes will be in service for decades.

All jetliners are sold below cost initially because airlines are taking a risk on a new jet model and upfront development costs are high, Bombardier argues. The cost drops over time as the factory produces more planes and gets better at making them.

The U.S. planemaker said Bombardier failed to cooperate in a U.S. investigation providing pricing information to the United States.

Bombardier said it turned over the Delta sales contract but cannot accurately estimate the cost and price of those planes because they are being built and delivered in coming years.

Boeing says the CSeries benefited from hundreds of millions of dollars in launch aid from the governments of Canada and Britain and a $1 billion equity infusion from the province of Quebec.

Those subsidies are not prohibited because they are either market-based investments or repayable loans, Bombardier said.

Bombardier also argues that Boeing and Airbus do not compete with the CSeries because their planes are larger and have more range. The CSeries' more direct competitors are smaller jets made by Embraer Mitsubishi.

The CSeries poses no threat to the U.S. aerospace industry because building it at the Airbus factory in Alabama would create U.S. jobs and generate billions of dollars in business for U.S. aerospace companies, Bombardier said.

(Reporting by Alwyn Scott in New York and Alana Wise in Washington; Editing by Tom Brown)
By PTI: Islamabad, Dec 19 (PTI) Pakistans parliament today passed a constitutional amendment bill relating to delimitation of constituencies on the basis of population census carried out this year.

The 24th Constitutional Amendment Bill 2017 was moved in Senate, upper house of parliament, by Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab.

It was supported by 84 senators both form treasury and the Opposition benches while only one Senator from a small Opposition party opposed it.

advertisement

The bill was already passed by the National Assembly, the lower house, last month.

It seeks to carry out fresh delimitation of constituencies on the basis of officially published census results.

The bill has reduced nine seats for National Assembly from the Punjab province.

Out of them, five were allocated to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, three to Balochistan and one to federal capital territory.

The total number of seats for National Assembly remained unchanged at 342.

The move is aimed to fulfil a constitutional obligation to exercise delimitation of constituencies on the basis of census. PTI SH MRJ

--- ENDS ---
The trade spat between Boeing (BA) and Bombardier (Toronto Stock Exchange: BBD'B-CA) has entered a critical phase with a decision expected soon by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). Boeing has accused its Canadian rival of benefiting from government subsidies, allowing it to sell its new C-Series planes to U.S. buyers at below cost. The particular case arose from Bombardier's 2016 deal to sell 75 C-Series jets to Delta Air Lines. Boeing claims Delta (DAL) bought the planes at $20 million each, enjoying a hefty discount from the list price of $33 million. Those figures have not been confirmed by either Bombardier or Delta. At the hearing Monday, Boeing said that Bombardier's use of Canadian public cash had allowed it to discount its planes to the point that Boeing's new 737s were not as competitive in the U.S. Bombardier countered that Boeing's hefty order book suggested otherwise and that Boeing was making money "hand over fist." Some analysts have suggested Boeing was emboldened to take legal action after Washington laid out its "America First" ethos for trade. The U.S. Commerce Department has already ruled in Boeing's favor. In October, it slapped a 300 percent tariff on the Bombardier C-Series jets. Head of Aviation at IHS Markit, John Sneller, said Tuesday that the ITC findings should be revealed Tuesday and there is some chance that the tariff ruling could be overturned. "Discounting of airlines is not unusual. This is probably a little more aggressive than you would normally see. So up to 50 percent for a large order is not unusual. This is closer to 60 or 70 percent," he said. "Also the evidence isn't very strong that Boeing's order book has been affected adversely," Sneller told CNBC.

The situation has been further complicated by Boeing's traditional rival, Airbus (Euronext Paris: AIR-FR), who recently bought Bombardier's C-Series program for just one dollar. Sneller said the deal would allow Bombardier to build the C-Series jets at Airbus's Alabama plant in the United States which may, in turn, allow the program to escape punitive tariffs.



More From CNBC


OTTAWA (Reuters) - Boeing Co's allegation that future imports of Bombardier Inc aircraft threaten material injury is based on speculation that is prohibited under U.S. and international trade law, Canada's ambassador to the United States said on Monday.

In his statement before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), Ambassador David MacNaughton said that under World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements, the determination of threat of material injury "cannot be based on 'allegation, conjecture or remote possibility.'"

The U.S. Commerce Department earlier this year backed proposed trade duties on Bombardier CSeries jets of nearly 300 percent after Boeing claimed its Canadian rival used billions of dollars in illegal government subsidies and dumped its newest jetliner in the United States below cost.

The U.S. Department of Commerce is due to finalize the proposed duties this week. The ITC hearing is one of the final steps in the trade dispute due to conclude in February.

Trade lawyers and analysts have said that depending on the outcome, the row could shift to a larger stage as Canada ponders a complaint to the WTO or through the North American Free Trade Agreement.

"Positive evidence on the record does not show any actual or planned exports by Bombardier to any U.S. airline," MacNaughton said.

"Therefore, Boeing's assertion that future imports from Canada threaten to cause material injury is necessarily based on just the type of 'speculation and conjecture' that is prohibited under both U.S. and international law," he said.

MacNaughton also said that WTO agreements and U.S. law require the threat of injury to be based on evidence of imminent imports.

"Bombardier has not exported any of the aircraft that are the subject of this case to the United States. This is undisputed," he said.

Canada last week scrapped plans to buy 18 Boeing fighter jets and made clear the company had little chance of winning a larger contract unless it dropped the trade challenge against Bombardier.

(Reporting by Leah Schnurr; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)
Back in September, I penned on op-ed suggesting that a spat between Boeing Co (NYSE:BA) and Canadian plane maker Bombardier Inc (OTCMKTS:BDRBF) wasnt really about Boeing and Bombardier. It wasnt even of tremendous interest to current and would-be owners of BA stock. More than anything it was the manifestation of a political trade war that would get worse before it got better.

BA Stock: Boeing Co Shares May Tank After Trade Spat, But Don't Sweat the Stumble

Source: Phillip Capper via Flickr

It just got worse, and complicated  and particularly troubling for Boeing, if looking at nothing more than the headlines.

Ill reiterate what I explained three months ago though. That is, while Boeing is overbought and the BA stock price is due for a setback (a setback that doesnt appear to be anywhere on the horizon), dont mistake a short-term selloff as a sign the company is crumbling under the weight of political and financial pressures. Being is going to be just fine down the road, as its still the top name in aircraft.

InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips

Its Complicated

Just as a reminder in case you missed it, the hullabaloo reached a head in September when Boeing cried foul against Bombardier, claiming it sold passenger jets to U.S. air carrier Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) at a price below their market value. Boeings attorneys claimed the Canadian government unfairly and illegally subsidized the sale of those 75 C-Series jet, ultimately harming Boeing by crimping sales of its more expensive 737 Max 7 passenger jet that would theoretically be an alternative to Bombardiers product.

The U.S. Commerce Department listened, imposing a 219% tariff on the so-far-undelivered planes. The International Trade Commission will decide in early 2018 if the tariff is allowable.

Fast forward to last week. With the Bombardier/Boeing matter still up in the air  and clearly working in Boeings favor so far  the Canadian government backed out of a deal to purchase 18 new F-18 fighter jets from Boeing. Instead, its going to purchase 18 used F-18 jets from Australia, with Canadian government officials making it clear that the diversion of the purchase was just a taste of a much bigger decision in the works. Canada will need 88 new fighter jets within the next few years, and while Boeings F-18 were in the running, the country is now strongly considering other options including the expensive F-35 from Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT).

Story continues

This is the political war I warned would likely surface, and the ripple effect has already become palpable for BA stock owners. Not only has the UKs government, which has strong trade ties with Canada, cautioning that this posturing could escalate, but in the meantime Delta has chosen to purchase a new batch of planes from Airbus Grp/ADR (OTCMKTS:EADSY) rather than Boeing.

Its not exactly clear why Delta opted for the Airbus A321neo over the Boeings 737 Max. Its not unreasonable to assume, however, that Delta simply didnt want to get in the middle of the drama. Its also likely that Delta may be sending Boeing a message about the value and price of its planes.

Reality Check on Boeing

The headlines look and feel rather damning, and truth be told, Boeings legal position that it was harmed by Canadas (still unproven) subsidizing of Bombardier is a bit weak. Even Delta says so.

Of the matter in question, Deltas senior vice president and supply chain and fleet strategy Greg May commented Boeing did not lose this sale to Bombardier. When we chose to add the CS100 aircraft to our fleet, Boeing simply did not and does not have the right-sized aircraft.

Theres also the not-so-small reality that, not unlike patent wars within the world of technology, trade-rule wars within the world of aircraft are the norm  and the Word Trade Organization and other oversight bodies may be unimpressed by any arguments made anymore. As Brookings contributor Geoffrey Gertz explained in October:

The basic logic behind trade enforcement mechanisms, whether pursued unilaterally or multilaterally through the WTO, is an attempt to level the playing field, or to correct the market for the distortions of government interventions. The problem is, when it comes to aircraft manufacturing, theres never been anything close to a perfectly competitive, distortion-free market: Its politics and subsidies all the way down. Not only are there tons of subsidies on the production side, but governments are also the most important consumers of aircraft, buying both military planes and consumer planes for publicly-owned national airlines.

In other words, Boeings case is a bit pointless, and only serving to create enemies rather than partners. The good news is, enemies become friends again for monetary reasons.

Thats the subtle way of saying while the headlines are dramatic, historically speaking, this kind of rhetoric and posturing actually isnt all that unusual.

Looking Ahead for BA Stock

Dont misread the message. While the uproar is much ado about nothing, BA stock is still itching for a pullback after a 90% gain since the end of last year. Theres a wave of profit-taking on the horizon, sooner or later.

Just dont sweat it when it happens. Boeing is still the top name in passenger jets, and one of the top names in military aircraft. Were moving into an era where demand for new planes and the replacement of aging planes is going to keep Boeing as busy as it wants to be. BA stock still has a bright long-term future even if theres some short-term turbulence to fly through.

As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. You can follow him on Twitter, at @jbrumley.

More From InvestorPlace

Compare Brokers

The post Boeing Co Shares May Tank After Trade Spat, But Dont Sweat the Stumble appeared first on InvestorPlace.
(Repeats DEC. 19 story. No change to text.)

By Andy Home

LONDON, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Unionised workers at the Quebrada Blanca copper mine in Chile walked off the job last week after failing to agree on a new labour contract.

It's the third strike at a South American copper operation in almost as many weeks.

A three-week strike at Southern Copper's Peruvian operations has just ended, while one of the unions at the giant Escondida mine in Chile held a one-day "warning" strike on Nov. 23.

None of this labour strife has had much discernible impact on the copper price.

That's partly because any bullish enthusiasm about fundamentals has been overwhelmed by a mass exodus of fund money over the last couple of weeks.

Funds have slashed their collective net long positioning on the COMEX copper contract from over 125,000 contracts at the start of September to a current 48,384.

And in part it's because in all three cases only one of several unions has been involved, allowing operators to minimise the impact on production.

However, it's an early sign of what is likely to be a defining feature of the market next year as an unusually high number of labour contracts come up for renewal.

CRUNCH YEAR

According to analysts at Citi bank, there are over 30 labour contracts, covering around five million tonnes of mine supply, due to expire next year, most of them in Chile and Peru. ("Global Commodities Focus", December 2017).

Analysts at Barclays Capital come up with even more contracts, 38, covering even more production, over seven million tonnes, by including a batch of contracts expiring this month. ("Copper Disruption Tracker", Dec. 12, 2017).

The number of labour contracts due for renewal is the largest since 2010, according to Barclays.

"To give context, from 2011 to 2016, the average amount of supply at risk from contract renewal disputes averaged 1.69 million tonnes with an average of 12 contracts up for renewal," the bank notes.

The list of potential disruptions ahead includes some of the world's largest copper mines.

Story continues

Antamina and Cerro Verde in Peru, with output of 430,000 tonnes and 520,000 tonnes last year respectively, will see contracts expire in July and August.

In Chile, state-owned Codelco alone has 19 contracts up for renegotiation across its divisions, according to Barclays.

But looming largest of all is Escondida, where the deadline is the end of June.

SECOND TIME AROUND AT ESCONDIDA

Escondida experienced a 44-day strike in the first quarter of this year, cutting production by 214,000 tonnes, according to operator BHP Billiton.

This is the world's largest single mine and the walk-out depressed Chile's overall copper production profile.

National output fell by 14 percent in the first quarter and although the impact has since faded, Chilean production is still playing catch-up with cumulative output through October two percent off last year's pace.

The strike also affected broader market sentiment, refocusing attention on copper's notoriously disruption-prone supply chain and laying the foundations for London three-month metal's subsequent third-quarter ascent to the $7,000-per tonne level

Critically, however, the walk-out ended with absolutely zero resolution of the underlying differences between management and unions.

Unions invoked a rarely used provision of Chilean labour law, Article 369, to extend the old contract with its existing terms.

They did so because BHP Billiton wouldn't budge on any of the core points of dispute and because a new law, effective last April, tilts the playing field in the unions' favour by forcing companies to offer the minimum benefits of the previous contract in any new contract.

From the unions' perspective, the call to end the strike was no more than a strategic retreat ahead of renewed battle this year.

Indeed, skirmishing has already started, judging by the one-day walk-out to protest against 120 job cuts, which union leaders view as a "reprisal" for this year's stoppage.

The political climate in Chile has just changed again with the election of conservative Sebastian Pinera as the country's president.

But facing a divided Chilean Congress and a leftist coalition that has already pledged to defend the legacy of outgoing President Michelle Bachelet, the chances of Pinera revoking the new labour laws before Escondida's mid-year contract deadline look thin.

CUSHIONING THE BLOW

There may be one or two obvious flash-points on the labour contract horizon such as Escondida, but no-one is suggesting there will be 30 plus strikes next year.

However, the sheer number of contract renewals will at the very least generate a continuous stream of bullish media headlines and analysts are already adjusting their "disruption allowances" in calculating next year's copper market balance.

Which begs the question as to what sort of cushion exists against the possibility of production hits from strikes over the course of 2018.

A key offset to this year's lost output at Escondida was the simultaneous surge in scrap copper supply as higher prices incentivised the release of material accumulated during the price trough of 2015-2016.

That scrap surge is still in effect, albeit with fading momentum.

All other things being equal, there should be less scrap to cushion potential mine disruption next year.

The copper scrap sector, however, is itself in flux right now, with China threatening to tighten controls on imports of lower-grade material at the end of 2018.

The consensus is that scrap flows will over time adjust to the new rules, with affected material diverted to other Asian countries for preliminary treatment.

But in the shorter term, what Barclays terms "the temporary dislocations in the scrap supply chain" could generate both bear and bull outcomes, depending on how the Chinese ban plays out.

Copper supply, in other words, is next year facing two big "known unknowns" in the form of the potential disruption to both primary mine and secondary parts of the chain.

It is the former that will grab most of the headlines, a process that has already started.

Escondida, where union and management will lock horns for the second year running, looks the most at risk of strike action but there are at least 30 other potential candidates.

It would be a brave bear to bet on all of them rolling over smoothly. (Editing by Mark Potter)
FILE PHOTO: An Uber sign is seen in a car in New York, U.S. on June 30, 2015. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/File Photo

By Julia Fioretti

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A debate in Europe over whether ride-hailing app Uber [UBER.UL] is merely a digital company or one providing transport services will be decided when the top European Union court hands down its verdict on Wednesday in a highly anticipated case.

While a ruling that Uber is a transport company is unlikely immediately to change the way it operates, it will give local authorities in the EU a green light to regulate the U.S. start-up more like a traditional taxi company, with obligations ranging from licensing to insurance.

Uber - which has clashed with local and national regulators in Europe since its launch there six years ago - says it is simply a digital app which acts as an intermediary between drivers and customers looking for a ride.

Judges at the Luxembourg-based court will decide on Wednesday whether Uber - the world's second most valuable private venture-backed company - provides transport services, online services or a combination of both.

EU law protects online services from undue restrictions and national governments must notify the European Commission of any measures regulating them so it can ensure they are not discriminatory or disproportionate.

Transport services, on the other hand, are regulated at national and local level and there is no prior EU oversight of new rules.

"Any ruling will not change things in most EU countries where we already operate under transportation law," a spokeswoman for Uber said.

"As our new CEO (Dara Khosrowshahi) has said, it is appropriate to regulate services such as Uber. We want to partner with cities to ensure everyone can get a reliable ride at the tap of a button.

In May, an adviser to the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) said Uber should be considered a transport provider on the grounds it does much more than link supply and demand. Although his opinion is non-binding, the judges usually follow such advice.

The case stems from a complaint of unfair competition brought by a Barcelona taxi association against Uber's unlicensed ride-hailing service, UberPOP, which used amateur drivers to pick up riders and has since been suspended in most European cities.

Story continues

CHANGE OF FOCUS

Following protests from taxi drivers and multiple court fights, Uber has drastically cut back its use of unlicensed drivers in the EU and focused instead on its licensed services, such as UberX and UberBLACK.

Uber has suffered a torrid last few months. In September, London stripped it of its operating license - a decision Uber is appealing against.

It lost a bid last month to overturn a British tribunal's finding that its drivers deserved workers' rights such as the minimum wage. Soon afterwards, it disclosed it paid hackers $100,000 to keep secret a massive breach last year that exposed personal data from around 57 million accounts.

Khosrowshahi, who took the helm at Uber in August after the departure of founder Travis Kalanick following a slew of scandals, has taken a much more conciliatory approach with local authorities.

The company has for example paused its services in Finland and Norway so that it can re-launch under new transport regulations.

It now only operates unlicensed services in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania, although in the first two Uber is switching its drivers to operate under local transportation law.

The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), of which Uber is a member, said the ruling will "decide over the ability of the EU to ensure online services are not unduly restricted by member states.

"The judgment will either promote the digital single market or lead to more market fragmentation for online innovators," said Jakob Kucharczyk, vice president for competition and EU regulatory policy at the lobby group.

(Reporting by Julia Fioretti; Editing by Adrian Croft)
FILE PHOTO: Balloons are seen in front of a logo at Facebook's headquarters in London, Britain, December 4, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo

By Douglas Busvine

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's competition watchdog has found that Facebook (FB.O) abused its dominant market position, challenging the U.S. social network's model of monetizing the personal data of its 2 billion users worldwide through targeted advertising.

Presenting preliminary findings of its 20-month-old probe, the Federal Cartel Office said Facebook held a dominant position among social networks - a characterization the company dismissed as "inaccurate".

The case is being closely watched in Germany, where concerns over data privacy are strong due to a history of state surveillance under Nazi and Communist rule. Facebook has been running an ad campaign to try to allay those fears.

Separately, Berlin will introduce a law in the new year imposing fines of up to 50 million euros ($59 million) on social media platforms that fail quickly to remove posts that propagate hate speech - a crime in Germany.

The anti-trust authority objected to Facebook's requirement that it gain access to third-party data when an account is opened - including from its own WhatsApp and Instagram products - as well as how it tracks which sites its users access.

"Above all we see the collection of data outside the Facebook social network and its inclusion in the Facebook account as problematic," cartel office President Andreas Mundt said in a statement.

This happens when a Facebook user views a page with a Facebook 'Like' button embedded in it - even if they don't click on the button itself, he added.

On Monday, France's data privacy watchdog said it may fine WhatsApp, the encrypted messaging app, if it does not comply with an order to bring its sharing of user data with Facebook into line with French privacy law.

'INACCURATE PICTURE'

Responding, Facebook said the cartel office had "painted an inaccurate picture" but said it would cooperate with the German investigation.

"Although we are popular in Germany, we are not dominant," its head of data protection, Yvonne Cunnane, said in a blog post.

Story continues

About 41 percent of Germans have active Facebook accounts, below the 66 percent in the United States, 64 percent in Britain and 56 percent in France, according to a survey by social media agencies Hootsuite and We Are Social.

"A dominant company operates in a world where customers don't have alternatives," said Cunnane, adding that the average smartphone user now accesses seven different communications apps or services.

Facebook, founded by CEO Mark Zuckerberg and fellow Harvard students in 2004, has grown exponentially to become the world's top social network and is valued on the stock market at $525 billion.

It has done so by providing free access to users while analyzing their online behavior to target advertising, where its revenues rose by half in the third quarter to $10 billion.

The probe by the German cartel office has raised eyebrows because some European Union officials see it as encroaching into an area properly overseen by data-protection authorities under EU-wide rules.

One German data-protection official said the investigation was legitimate because data protection and preventing abusive competition were "two sides of the same coin" when it comes to social networks.

"Facebook has built up an intricate network for unlimited data collection and compilation that is totally opaque," said Johannes Caspar, data protection commissioner for the city-state of Hamburg.

"This fundamentally collides with the right to self-determination of those affected."

In her blog post, Cunnane noted that Facebook abided by European data-protection laws and would comply with a new General Data Protection Regulation when it comes into force in the EU in May 2018.

The cartel office, which said it was working closely with data- and consumer-protection bodies, expects to publish the final results of its investigation into Facebook in the early summer of 2018 at the earliest.

Although the probe will not result in a fine, it could lead to assurances being sought from Facebook, or certain of its practices being banned, a cartel office spokesman said by way of clarification.

(Reporting by Douglas Busvine; Additional reporting by Foo Yun Chee in Brussels; Editing by Maria Sheahan and Mark Potter)
The Senate passed a massive tax bill early on Wednesday morning, likely giving President Donald Trump a major legislative achievement that gives steep cuts to corporations and varied and uncertain relief for individuals.

The vote was 51-48, with all Republicans voting yes and all Democrats and independents voting no. Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), undergoing cancer treatment, was not present.

The legislation has significant implications for Hollywood, including a massive tax cut for media companies. But there is a lot of anxiety among a number of individuals in the industry, who worry about the loss of key deductions.

House Minority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke out against the legislation before the vote, but was irritated as some Republican colleagues talked during his speech.

We believe youre messing up America. You could pay attention for a couple of minutes, he said.

He cast doubt on the notion that a lower corporate tax cut will lead to more jobs, pointing to companies like AT&T that have paid a low effective rate yet have not added to their employment rolls.

A year from now Republicans will be running away from this bill in shame for voting for this bill, he added.

Protesters shouted Kill the bill, dont kill us, from the gallery during the vote before Vice President Mike Pence, presiding over the Senate, asked for order to have them removed.

Tuesday afternoon in the House, the vote on the tax bill was 227 for and 203 against. No Democrats voted in favor of the legislation, and 12 Republicans, primarily from New York and California, voted against.

Republicans broke out in cheers as the vote total was read, and many Democrats stood with their arms folded.

But the House ran into problems about an hour later, when it was announced that they would have to vote again on Wednesday. That is because the Senate had to remove provisions that violate procedural rules, requiring that the House vote on revised legislation before it goes to Trump.

Story continues

House Speaker Paul Ryan called the bill a generational defining moment for our whole nation, insisting that the legislation would benefit workers, put more money in middle class families pocketbooks, and return jobs to the United States.

As the vote passed 218, giving the GOP a majority, Ryan gave Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) a high five and then gave a hug to Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas).

Protesters in the gallery interrupted speakers on the floor at several points. As Ryan gave a floor speech and said, Today, we are giving people their money back, a woman shouted, Youre lying. Youre lying. Guards removed her. Some House Republicans shouted back at them.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi predicted that the GOP would pay for their votes in future elections.

This monster will come back to haunt them, she said in a floor speech in the hour before the vote.

Pelosi and other Democrats hammered Republicans on the legislation as a giveaway to major corporations and the wealthy at the expense of the poor. In her blistering speech, she even quoted from opposition to the bill coming from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Ryan was in the chamber as she spoke, chatting with a colleague.

Several analyses, including from official congressional scorekeepers, have put the cost of the legislation over its 10-year lifespan at $1 trillion to $1.4 trillion. But proponents of the bill, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, have insisted that the economic growth from the tax cuts will produce enough new government revenue that they pay for themselves.

Actors Equity has warned that the legislation could mean higher taxes, as it eliminates key deductions for employees to take unreimbursed work expenses. SAG-AFTRA also has expressed concerns over the impact of the bill on its members.

But House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Variety after the vote that they also will get the lower rate reduction, a more competitive corporate rate, a lot of them are pass throughs so they get a lower rate there. A lot of them are small businesses so they are going to have the lowest rate they have had in 40 years. So look at the entirety of the bill and I think they will be happy.

Actors Equity responded to McCarthys comment on Twitter. Yes, we do deal in fiction, but any actor who suggested this would be laughed off the stage.

Wrong, @GOPLeader. Yes, we do deal in fiction, but any actor who suggested this would be laughed off the stage. https://t.co/Ka74tlZqjx  Actors' Equity (@ActorsEquity) December 19, 2017

The legislation will, among other things:

For companies:

Drop the corporate tax rate. The rate will be set at 21%, a sharp drop from the previous 35%. Republicans say this will be a much more competitive rate that will encourage companies to stay in the United States. Studios, media companies, and broadcasters have long sought the lower rate.

Territorial tax system. Multinational corporations would be taxed only on income made within a countrys borders.

100% expensing. Movie, TV, and theatrical stage producers will be allowed to expense 100% of the cost of their project at the time of release or debut. The provision runs through the end of 2022, after which it falls on a sliding scale.

For individuals:

Set new brackets. There will still be seven brackets, but they will be set at 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, and 37%. A rundown of the rates is here.

Double the standard deduction. It will go from $6,350 to $12,000 for individuals, and from $12,700 to $24,000 for married couples. But the personal exemption  $4,050 for individuals, spouses, and dependents  will be eliminated. Its expected that many people will no longer itemize, as it also eliminates unreimbursed business expenses for employees.

State and local tax deduction capped. As a way to raise revenue, individuals will be limited in deductions for state and local taxes to $10,000.

Larger child tax credit. It will be doubled to $2,000. with children under 17 eligible.

Eliminates Affordable Healthcare Act mandate. Americans will no longer be required to buy health insurance, which was a key part of Obamacare in ensuring that a healthy population was part of insurance risk pools.

Estate tax exemption lifted. The amount of income that will not be taxes from estates that pass to another family member will increase, from $5.6 million to $11.2 million per individual. Earlier versions of the legislation eliminated the estate tax altogether.

Related stories

Paul Ryan: Sexual Harassment Claims Against John Conyers Are 'Extremely Troubling'

Democrats Warn FCC Chairman Against Waiving TV Ownership Cap

Paul Ryan Urges Lawmakers to Undergo Sexual Harassment Training

Subscribe to Variety Newsletters and Email Alerts!
Pakistan has finally issued visa to Kulbhushan Jadhav's mother and wife today, Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi confirmed.

By Geeta Mohan: Pakistan High Commission issued visas to family of Kulbhushan Jadhav on Wednesday.

India Today has learnt that they would cross over to Pakistan through Wagah border to meet the former Indian naval officer who has been kept captive by the Pakistani military since March 2016.

Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesperson, Dr. Mohammad Faisal, in a tweet said, "Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi issued the visas to the mother and wife of Commander Jadhav to visit Islamabad to meet him, today."

Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi issued the visas to the mother and wife of Commander Jadhav to visit Islamabad to meet him, today.- Dr Mohammad Faisal (@ForeignOfficePk) December 20, 2017

advertisement

Islamabad had decided to allow his family to visit Pakistan on "humanitarian grounds" after requests made by the family and by government of India.

Pakistan also agreed to conditions laid down by India of ensuring security for the family and that they would be accompanied by an official from the Indian High Commission in Islamabad.

This would be the first contact that Jadhav would have with anybody apart from the Pak military officials.

The Pakistan High Commission was directed to issue visas last week but waited for the green signal from headquarters of the day and time of issuance.

Dr. Faisal had said in his last briefing that visa applications of Jadhav's family had been received and were being "processed".

The External Affairs Minister had personally spoken to the wife of Kulbhushan Jadhav to convey the news.

In a tweet she had said, "Government of Pakistan has conveyed that they will give visa to the mother and wife of Kulbhushan Jadhav. I have spoken to Mrs. Avantika Jadhav mother of Kulbhushan Jadhav and informed her about this."

Government of Pakistan has conveyed that they will give visa to the mother and wife of Kulbhushan Jadhav. /1- Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) December 8, 2017

I have spoken to Mrs. Avantika Jadhav mother of Kulbhushan Jadhav and informed her about this. /2- Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) December 8, 2017

Jadhav, a retired Indian Navy officer, was according to Indian government 'abducted' by Pakistani military from foreign soil in March 2016.

Pakistan claims he was involved in subversive activities in Balochistan and Karachi. In April 2017, a Pakistan military court found him guilty of "espionage and sabotage" and sentenced him to death.

ALSO WATCH | India's full argument of Kulbhushan Jadhav's case in ICJ

--- ENDS ---
If the GOP tax bill passes as expected, the IRS could spend years trying to prevent people from gaming the new system, said Scott Hodge, president of the conservative-leaning Tax Foundation. Tax analysts worry that wealthy Americans could reap massive windfalls by simply reclassifying their incomes as so-called pass-through businesses. The compromise House and Senate Republican tax bill, likely up for a vote this week , includes a pass-through rate cut from 39.6 percent to as low as 29.6 percent, subject to some limitations. The pass-through provision would also provide a 20 percent deduction for the first$315,000 of qualified business income.Nonpublic pass-through businesses, such as sole proprietors, limited liability companies and partnerships, pay no income tax themselves. Instead their profits "pass through" directly to their owners, who pay tax on them at the individual tax rates. "The lawyers at the IRS are going to be very busy over the next couple years trying to write rules to prevent that kind of gaming," Hodge said Monday on CNBC's " Squawk Box ." Top Republicans said Sunday they expected the House and Senate to pass the tax package, which overhauls corporate and individual taxes, in time for President Donald Trump to sign it before Christmas. The GOP says the bill will spark business investment , hiring and wage growth, while Democrats claim it's a giveaway to corporations. Hodge, who spent 10 years at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank analyzing budget and tax policy, said the new tax bill has much more simplification, especially for low-income people."The whole point of tax reform is to remove a lot of these incentives that people build their lives around the tax code. And so that's going to happen," he said. "At the end of the day, this is a better tax system." But he admitted some economists believe the lower the pass-through rate was a mistake.Hodge also said the lower corporate tax rate, which stands at 21 percent in the new bill compared with the current federal 35 percent rate, will create more economic growth and make the U.S. more competitive. The Tax Foundation believes the bill could boost GDP 1.7 percent. Though, some argue the tax bill will be a much less stimulative force and lead to ballooning budget deficits and an increase in the national debt. If the GOP tax bill passes as expected, the IRS could spend years trying to prevent people from gaming the new system, said Scott Hodge, president of the conservative-leaning Tax Foundation. Tax analysts worry that wealthy Americans could reap massive windfalls by simply reclassifying their incomes as so-called pass-through businesses. The compromise House and Senate Republican tax bill, likely up for a vote this week , includes a pass-through rate cut from 39.6 percent to as low as 29.6 percent, subject to some limitations. The pass-through provision would also provide a 20 percent deduction for the first $315,000 of qualified business income. Nonpublic pass-through businesses, such as sole proprietors, limited liability companies and partnerships, pay no income tax themselves. Instead their profits "pass through" directly to their owners, who pay tax on them at the individual tax rates. "The lawyers at the IRS are going to be very busy over the next couple years trying to write rules to prevent that kind of gaming," Hodge said Monday on CNBC's " Squawk Box ." Top Republicans said Sunday they expected the House and Senate to pass the tax package, which overhauls corporate and individual taxes, in time for President Donald Trump to sign it before Christmas. The GOP says the bill will spark business investment , hiring and wage growth, while Democrats claim it's a giveaway to corporations. Hodge, who spent 10 years at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank analyzing budget and tax policy, said the new tax bill has much more simplification, especially for low-income people. "The whole point of tax reform is to remove a lot of these incentives that people build their lives around the tax code. And so that's going to happen," he said. "At the end of the day, this is a better tax system." But he admitted some economists believe the lower the pass-through rate was a mistake. Hodge also said the lower corporate tax rate, which stands at 21 percent in the new bill compared with the current federal 35 percent rate, will create more economic growth and make the U.S. more competitive. The Tax Foundation believes the bill could boost GDP 1.7 percent. Though, some argue the tax bill will be a much less stimulative force and lead to ballooning budget deficits and an increase in the national debt.



More From CNBC


FCC Chairman Ajit Pai does not have a fan in Star Wars actor Mark Hamill.

The actor, best known for playing Luke Skywalker, was less than amused by the video Pai released last week, in which he dressed up as Santa and explained the "seven things you can still do on the Internet after net neutrality."

In an attempt to resonate with young audiences, Pai reassured viewers that they could still "gram" their food, post photos of puppies, and binge watch their favorite shows, by hammily depicting himself partaking in those activities.

Read: Net Neutrality Explained: What It Means (and Why It Matters)

While Hamill took issue with the entire video and its support for repealing net neutrality, he particularly picked up on Pai's use of a lightsaber in the video. In a tweet, Hamill called the FCC chief "profoundly unworthy" of wielding a lightsaber, noting that "A Jedi acts selflessly for the common man-NOT lie 2 enrich giant corporations."

Cute video Ajit "Aren't I Precious?" Pai -but you are profoundly unworthy 2 wield a lightsaber-A Jedi acts selflessly for the common man-NOT lie 2 enrich giant corporations. Btw-did you pay John Williams his royalty? @AjitPaiFCCorpShill #AJediYouAreNOTpic.twitter.com/SpIcOEySUY  @HamillHimself (@HamillHimself) December 16, 2017

Hamill also questioned whether Pai had paid Star Wars theme song composer John the royalties for use of the song in his video. Fittingly, Hamill ended his tweet with the hashtag #AJediYouAreNOT.

At this point, Senator Ted Cruz entered the fray and responded to Hamill on Twitter, saying, "Luke, I know Hollywood can be confusing, but it was Vader who supported govt power over everything said & done on the Internet. Thats why giant corps (Google, , Netflix) supported the FCC power grab of net neutrality. Reject the dark side: Free the net!"

Story continues

.@HammillHimself Luke, I know Hollywood can be confusing, but it was Vader who supported govt power over everything said & done on the Internet. That's why giant corps (Google, Facebook, Netflix) supported the FCC power grab of net neutrality. Reject the dark side: Free the net! https://t.co/nARkMvIEYk  Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) December 17, 2017

Unfortunately, Cruz's tweet sparked a Twitter fight between actor and senator, who had misspelled Hamill's name. Despite the misspelling, Hamill saw the tweet and responded in kind, accusing Cruz of "smarm-splaining," and saying he would "have more credibility if you spelled my name correctly. I mean ITS RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF YOU!" He continued, "Maybe youre just distracted from watching porn at the office again."

Read: Net Neutrality: The FCC Chair Is Drunk on Ideology

Cruz then accused the actor of responding with anger rather than facts, snarkily asking, "Who was it that said, 'Fear is the path to the dark side...fear leads to anger...anger leads to hate'?" He then changed tack, sharing another tweet that suggested a "civil discussion of facts" rather than "insults."

Cruz is one of many conservatives who have defended the FCC's move repealing net neutrality as a way to decrease the power of big government and increase freedom. Those opposed to the decision fear that it will allow internet providers to control internet speeds and increase prices for services such as Netflix .

See original article on Fortune.com

More from Fortune.com
TOKYO, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Japanese government bond yields edged up on Wednesday, tracking U.S. Treasury yields on expectations of the biggest overhaul of the U.S. tax code in more than 30 years.

The 10-year JGB yield rose 1.5 basis point to 0.050 percent while the price of the benchmark 10-year JGB futures dropped 0.20 point, their biggest fall since their 0.32 point decline on Sept 28.

"Even the quiet JGB market had to react to the steepening in the U.S. market," said Naoya Oshikubo, yen rates strategist at Barclays.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose to a seven-week high as investors braced for the passage of the tax bills, which will cut tax on corporates and the wealthy and is also expected to add at least $1 trillion to the U.S. national debt.

The 20-year JGB yield rose 1.0 basis point to 0.570 percent while the 30-year yield was up 1.5 basis points at 0.810 percent, bouncing back from a one-month low of 0.800 percent touched on Tuesday.

Thirty-year bonds have been bought on expectations that the Ministry of Finance will reduce the issuance of that maturity.

Sources told Reuters on Tuesday that the MOF is set to reduce sales of 2-, 5-, 10-, 30-year and 40-year JGBs in fiscal 2018.

"I expect the JGB yield curve to start flattening again, given that we still have two more buying by the Bank of Japan by the end of month," said Barclays' Oshikubo.

Most market players expect the Bank of Japan to make no policy change at its two-day policy meeting that started on Wednesday. (Reporting by Tokyo Markets Team; Editing by Sunil Nair)
[caption id="attachment_3593" align="aligncenter" width="558"]

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan of the District of Columbia.

Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM.[/caption] The same federal district judge who blocked the government from interfering with a detained immigrant teenager's abortion in October did so again for two new minors in a ruling Monday. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan of the District of Columbia, issued a temporary restraining order requiring government employees to transport the two 17-year-olds, or allow them to be transported, to an abortion provider or to any pregnancy or abortion-related medical care, and forbids officials from interfering with or obstructing their access to abortion counseling or an abortion. The court filings do not indicate where the minors reside, though they are undocumented immigrants detained in federally funded shelters. Chutkan stayed her ruling for 24 hours, allowing the government time to appeal to the D.C. Circuit, which it has already done. The ruling comes after the D.C. Circuit ruled en banc to allow another immigrant minor to obtain an abortion earlier this year, overturning a three-judge panels decision declining to immediately allow her to get the procedure. After she did so, the government asked the U.S. Supreme Court to levy sanctions against her American Civil Liberties Union lawyers. U.S. Department of Justice lawyers said the ACLU deceived them about the timing of the girl's abortion, allowing her to get the procedure before the government could appeal the circuit court's ruling to the U.S Supreme Court. The ACLU has also sought class certification in the case, on behalf of similarly situated detained minor immigrants. Chutkan has yet to rule on the motion to certify the class, but she held an emergency hearing Monday on the two minors, known as J.R. and J.P., after the ACLU moved for a temporary restraining order last week. One of the teens is 22 weeks pregnant, and the other is 10 weeks pregnant. The Office of Refugee Resettlement, which oversees the detention of immigrant children, announced in March 2017 that federally funded immigration shelters would not facilitate abortions for minors without direct approval from the agency's director, Scott Lloyd. The ORR claims the teens can only get abortions if they are given a sponsor and thus taken out of custody, or if they voluntarily return to their home countries. The sponsorship process can take weeks, as the court found in the October case.Chutkan said in her order Monday that not much has changed since she handled the October case. She said she was issuing the TRO "in view of the need to preserve J.R. and J.P.s constitutional right to decide whether to carry their pregnancies to termincluding their right to change their minds regarding the same." She also cited the reasons given by Judge Patricia Millett of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in her dissent from the three-judge panel decision and those later adopted by the D.C. Circuit in the en banc opinion. The governments mere hope that an unaccompanied, abused child would make the problem go away for it by either (i) surrendering all of her legal rights and leaving the United States, or (ii) finding a sponsor the government itself could never find is not a remotely constitutionally sufficient reason for depriving J.D. of any control over this most intimate and life-altering decision, Millett wrote in her dissent from the panel decision.
Regulators in Massachusetts and New York State said on Monday they are probing MetLife (NYSE: MET) after the insurer revealed last week it had failed to pay pensions to potentially thousands of people. "Retirees cannot afford to have glitches with their pension checks," Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin, the state's top securities regulator, said in a statement announcing an investigation."I want to uncover why this occurred and how MetLife is going to rectify the problem for the retirees," Galvin said.The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), which regulates insurers and banks in the state, said on Monday that it is reviewing the matter.MetLife said on Friday that it believed the group missing out on the payments represented less than 5 percent of about 600,000 people who receive a type of annuity benefit from the company via its retirement business.Those affected generally have average benefits of less than $150 a month, MetLife said."We are deeply disappointed that we fell short of our own high standards," MetLife said. "Our customers deserve better. We are committed to making this right for our customers. We found the issue, we self-reported it, and we are committed to doing better."New York's regulator was aware of the issue prior to MetLife's disclosure, NYDFS Superintendent Maria Vullo said."The department is currently reviewing the matter and will work with MetLife to remediate the issue and ensure that all MetLife's outstanding pension obligations are fulfilled," Vullo said.MetLife, which pledged to fully cooperate with regulators, said the standard way for finding retirees who are owed benefits is no longer sufficient."While it is still difficult to track everyone down, we have not been as aggressive as we could have been," MetLife said in a statement."When we realized this was a significant issue, we launched an effort to do three things: figure out what happened, strengthen our processes so that we do a better job locating retirees, and promptly pay anyone we find  as we always do," the company said.MetLife said it is now using "enhanced techniques" to locate and promptly pay any those who may be entitled to benefits. Regulators in Massachusetts and New York State said on Monday they are probing MetLife (NYSE: MET) after the insurer revealed last week it had failed to pay pensions to potentially thousands of people. "Retirees cannot afford to have glitches with their pension checks," Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin, the state's top securities regulator, said in a statement announcing an investigation. "I want to uncover why this occurred and how MetLife is going to rectify the problem for the retirees," Galvin said. The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), which regulates insurers and banks in the state, said on Monday that it is reviewing the matter. MetLife said on Friday that it believed the group missing out on the payments represented less than 5 percent of about 600,000 people who receive a type of annuity benefit from the company via its retirement business. Those affected generally have average benefits of less than $150 a month, MetLife said. "We are deeply disappointed that we fell short of our own high standards," MetLife said. "Our customers deserve better. We are committed to making this right for our customers. We found the issue, we self-reported it, and we are committed to doing better." New York's regulator was aware of the issue prior to MetLife's disclosure, NYDFS Superintendent Maria Vullo said. "The department is currently reviewing the matter and will work with MetLife to remediate the issue and ensure that all MetLife's outstanding pension obligations are fulfilled," Vullo said. MetLife, which pledged to fully cooperate with regulators, said the standard way for finding retirees who are owed benefits is no longer sufficient. "While it is still difficult to track everyone down, we have not been as aggressive as we could have been," MetLife said in a statement. "When we realized this was a significant issue, we launched an effort to do three things: figure out what happened, strengthen our processes so that we do a better job locating retirees, and promptly pay anyone we find  as we always do," the company said. MetLife said it is now using "enhanced techniques" to locate and promptly pay any those who may be entitled to benefits.



More From CNBC



Top News and Analysis



Latest News Video



Personal Finance


If youre looking for a volcano theres a number of places youd probably check first, like Hawaii or even Yellowstone National Park, but new data suggests you might want to turn your attention to the northeastern United States. Researchers from Rutgers University just revealed that a large swelling of hot rock is bubbling up under New England, and it may be the first hints that a new volcano is forming under our feet.

The findings are incredibly interesting for a number of reasons, not least of which because the east coast of the United States isnt exactly a hotbed of potentially dangerous geological activity. Despite that, the data is undeniable, and it seems as though there is definitely something rising up from deep within the Earth in the region.

Don't Miss: VAVA VOOM 22 Wireless Bluetooth Speaker (30W Hi-Fi Sound, Bass EQ, Bluetooth or 3.5mm Connection)

The upwelling we detected is like a hot air balloon, and we infer that something is rising up through the deeper part of our planet under New England, lead author Vadim Levin of Rutgers Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences says. It is not Yellowstone (National Park)-like, but its a distant relative in the sense that something relatively small  no more than a couple hundred miles across  is happening.

The research, which was published in the journal Geology, utilized data from the EarthScope program. EarthScope gathers a wealth of information from thousands of different monitoring devices positioned all over the United States. Its the largest-scale seismic measurement system around, and it is proving its ability to provide scientists with incredible insights.

EarthScopes measurements show that the upwelling is occurring deep beneath parts of Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire. If a volcano were to eventually form, theres really no telling where it would would actually emerge, but the process would take a long, long time.

The would-be volcano growing under New England would take potentially millions of years to actually form, and because of that Levin says that theres no reason for current generations to worry about waking up to a neighborhood covered in lava. It will likely take millions of years for the upwelling to get where its going, Levin explains. The next step is to try to understand how exactly its happening.

Story continues

BGR Top Deals:

Trending Right Now:

See the original version of this article on BGR.com
By PTI: New Delhi, Dec 20 (PTI) A loan agreement for providing additional funding of euro 20 million was signed today for the project Pare Hydroelectric Plant under Indo-German Bilateral Development Cooperation, an official statement said.

The broad objective of the project is generation of hydroelectric power for socio-economic development of the North Eastern region, the statement said, adding, "The purpose of the project is efficient and ecological friendly generation of electric power."

advertisement

According to the statement, the project will contribute to the economic efficient generation of power and growth in the North East region and protection of global climate.

In 2008, the statement said Germany had signed a loan agreement with North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Limited (NEEPCO) for providing Euro 80 million with government of Indias Guarantee for the project Pare Hydroelectric Plant under Indo-German Bilateral Development Cooperation. In a separate statement, the finance ministry said that Japanese Grant Aid signed for Bengaluru Project for Advanced Traffic Information and Management. "The government of Japan has committed Grant Aid of an amount of JPY 1.276 billion (around Rs 72.86 crore) for the project," it said.

The statement further said project will install an Advanced Traffic Information and Management System, including signaling system and traffic congestion length measurement sensor Bengaluru. It is expected that this project will contribute to strengthening connectivity and industrial competitiveness of local economy by improving traffic congestion and urban environment, the statement added. PTI BKS MKJ

--- ENDS ---
Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim is going to cut his stake in New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT) , Bloomberg News reported. Bloomberg said Slim's company sold $250 million of trust securities to hedge funds earlier this month, which gives the buyers "a claim on" 9 percent position in the media company, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.The report said the trust securities will convert into New York Times shares in three years. Following the conversion, Slim will own 8 percent of the company."In essence, the billionaire created a trust, pledged New York Times shares to it, locked the shares up for three years, then sold rights to that stock to investors," the article said.Slim owned 17 percent of the company as of July 28, according to FactSet.A New York Times spokesperson sent the following statement when asked for comment for this story:"Carlos Slim became a shareholder of The New York Times Company at a critical time in the company's history. The company today has a strong balance sheet and strongly growing digital revenues. We are grateful for Mr. Slim's confidence and support of the company."CNBC has confirmed the transaction.New York Times' stock traded roughly flat Tuesday.See here for the full Bloomberg News report. CNBC's Michelle Caruso-Cabrera contributed to this report Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim is going to cut his stake in New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT) , Bloomberg News reported. Bloomberg said Slim's company sold $250 million of trust securities to hedge funds earlier this month, which gives the buyers "a claim on" 9 percent position in the media company, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The report said the trust securities will convert into New York Times shares in three years. Following the conversion, Slim will own 8 percent of the company. "In essence, the billionaire created a trust, pledged New York Times shares to it, locked the shares up for three years, then sold rights to that stock to investors," the article said. Slim owned 17 percent of the company as of July 28, according to FactSet. A New York Times spokesperson sent the following statement when asked for comment for this story: "Carlos Slim became a shareholder of The New York Times Company at a critical time in the company's history. The company today has a strong balance sheet and strongly growing digital revenues. We are grateful for Mr. Slim's confidence and support of the company." CNBC has confirmed the transaction. New York Times' stock traded roughly flat Tuesday. See here for the full Bloomberg News report.  CNBC's Michelle Caruso-Cabrera contributed to this report



More From CNBC


A bus carrying tourists from US cruise ships to an archeological site in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico, crashed after running off the road, killing at least 12 and injuring another 18 (AFP Photo/MANUEL JESUS ORTEGA CANCHE) (AFP)

Mexico City (AFP) - A bus carrying tourists from US cruise ships to an archeological site in Mexico crashed Tuesday after running off the road, killing at least 12 people including several foreigners, state authorities said.

The crash, which left another 18 injured, happened on a highway in the state of Quintana Roo, located on the eastern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula and well known as home to the Caribbean resort city of Cancun.

The dead and injured included "citizens of the United States, Sweden and Brazil," a brief statement said without further information on numbers from each country, or their ages.

The bus was carrying 31 passengers on a straight stretch of road with little traffic. The cause of the accident was not immediately known.

Twenty-three of the passengers had arrived on the ships Celebrity Equinox and Serenade of the Seas, cruise owner Royal Caribbean Cruises told AFP.

Mexican authorities said that they did not have further details of the nationalities of those killed.

A civil defense source told AFP privately however that most of the dead were Americans. Among the injured were eight Americans, three Brazilian and two Swedes, the source added.

The bus was headed for a resort town called Mahahual that features archeological ruins.

Quintana Roo is the Mexican state that receives the greatest number of international visitors, with many headed for Cancun's beaches and legendary Maya ruins.
Workers had cleared all the wrecked train cars blocking a major West Coast highway by Wednesday morning, two days after the Amtrak train derailed in Washington state while speeding onto a bridge, state transportation officials said. It took about a day longer than hoped, but crews had carted off the biggest chunk by the afternoon: the 270,000-pound locomotive involved in the Monday morning rush-hour crash in the city of Dupont, which killed three train passengers and sent about 100 people to hospitals. But the biggest chunk still remained: the 270,000-pound locomotive involved in the Monday morning rush-hour crash in the city of Dupont, which killed three train passengers and sent about 100 people to hospitals. The affected southbound stretch of Interstate 5 will remain closed indefinitely, the Washington State Department of Transportation has said. "Even once the locomotive is removed we will need to clear debris," the department said in a statement on Wednesday. The roadway may also need repairs, the agency said. The train was travelling 80 miles per hour in a 30 mph zone, when it careened off an overpass onto the highway below, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. NTSB member Bella Dinh-Zarr confirmed during a Tuesday evening press conference that the Amtrak Cascades 501 train, which was carrying 83 people when it derailed Monday, had not been outfitted with "positive train control." "Positive train control" is an overlay system designed to stop train derailment, collisions and speeding accidents by enforcing speed control. Congress mandated all major rail lines be outfitted with PCT in 2008, after two trains in Los Angeles collided head-on, NBCNews reported. The original deadline was the end of 2015, but Congress extended implementation until the end of 2-18, due to the up to $22.5 billion price tag and the complication. "Could that speed control have made a difference? We don't know that for sure," Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said during a conference. "None of us, including myself, should be making conclusions about the causes of this accident at the moment," he added. Dinh-Zarr, meanwhile, emphasized the NTSB will not release a cause of crash at least until completion of the on-site investigation. She did, however, detail some findings. Dinh-Zarr said the train's emergency brake had not been activated by the train's engineer, but was automatically activated during the accident. At the time of the accident, the engineer was not alone in the cab. A conductor familiarizing himself with the territory accompanied the engineer, while the train's conductor was intermingling with passengers. "Distraction is one of our most wanted on our list of priorities. It is protocol to look at all cell records of all crew members," Dinh-Zarr said. NTSB and the lead investigator plan to thoroughly interview all crew members once they are medically fit. In the coming days, NTSB will continue to collect information from data recorders, as well as two on-train cameras that have sustained heavy damage. The on-site investigation could last another seven to 10 days, after which point NTSB will likely still need more time before determining the cause of the crash. The derailment placed Amtrak, the country's main passenger rail service, under renewed scrutiny following a series of fatal incidents. At least two of the three people killed in the derailment were transit enthusiasts who wanted to ride the inaugural run along the new route. A medical examiner is still trying to identify the third victim through fingerprints, the Washington State Patrol said on Wednesday. --Reuters contributed to this report.



More From CNBC


House Speaker Paul Ryan on Wednesday said "nobody knows" whether the Republican tax cuts will spur enough growth to pay for themselves "because that's in the future." Ryan's comment came just hours before House Republicans were scheduled to hold a final vote to pass a bill containing massive, permanent corporate tax cuts, and temporary tax reductions for individuals.Appearing on NBC's "TODAY" show, Ryan, R-Wis., was asked if the tax cuts would add to the deficit at all because of the growth the GOP expects it to generate."Nobody knows the answer to that question because that's in the future," he replied, "but what we do know is that this will increase economic growth."This appears at odds with months of messaging from Republican leaders and the White House, however, who have argued that the tax cuts will act as "rocket fuel" for the economy, producing so much growth that the federal government will recoup any initial revenue losses. "Not only will this tax plan pay for itself, but it will pay down debt," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said earlier this year, as the tax plan was being negotiated. The Treasury Department even released a summary this month of exactly how the tax cuts would pay for themselves  a one page document that was quickly panned by economists. And while Ryan has largely deflected specific questions about economic growth figures, he has challenged the accuracy of some models that show the tax cuts would add more than a trillion dollars to the national debt over a decade. In recent weeks, the tax cuts have come under even more fire for making corporate tax cuts permanent, but individual tax cuts only temporary. To help counter backlash over this, Ryan adopted language that emphasizes the universal benefits of the tax cut bill."It's about faster growth and upward mobility. It's about a strong economy that makes all of us stronger and healthier." Ryan said Tuesday on the House floor. "Those are the effects, those are the benefits of tax reform." CNBC's Jacob Pramuk contributed reporting.Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of NBC and CNBC. House Speaker Paul Ryan on Wednesday said "nobody knows" whether the Republican tax cuts will spur enough growth to pay for themselves "because that's in the future." Ryan's comment came just hours before House Republicans were scheduled to hold a final vote to pass a bill containing massive, permanent corporate tax cuts, and temporary tax reductions for individuals. Appearing on NBC's "TODAY" show, Ryan, R-Wis., was asked if the tax cuts would add to the deficit at all because of the growth the GOP expects it to generate. "Nobody knows the answer to that question because that's in the future," he replied, "but what we do know is that this will increase economic growth." This appears at odds with months of messaging from Republican leaders and the White House, however, who have argued that the tax cuts will act as "rocket fuel" for the economy, producing so much growth that the federal government will recoup any initial revenue losses. "Not only will this tax plan pay for itself, but it will pay down debt," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said earlier this year, as the tax plan was being negotiated. The Treasury Department even released a summary this month of exactly how the tax cuts would pay for themselves  a one page document that was quickly panned by economists. And while Ryan has largely deflected specific questions about economic growth figures, he has challenged the accuracy of some models that show the tax cuts would add more than a trillion dollars to the national debt over a decade. In recent weeks, the tax cuts have come under even more fire for making corporate tax cuts permanent, but individual tax cuts only temporary. To help counter backlash over this, Ryan adopted language that emphasizes the universal benefits of the tax cut bill. "It's about faster growth and upward mobility. It's about a strong economy that makes all of us stronger and healthier." Ryan said Tuesday on the House floor. "Those are the effects, those are the benefits of tax reform."  CNBC's Jacob Pramuk contributed reporting. Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of NBC and CNBC.



More From CNBC


MANILA, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Philippine telecoms firm PLDT Inc will put aside a record high of at least 50 billion pesos ($994 million) for capital expenses next year as it braces for the arrival of a telco competitor, the company's chairman said on Wednesday.

The country's president, Rodrigo Duterte, wants a third telecommunications services provider to start operations by the first quarter of next year, in a bid to improve internet and mobile phone services across the archipelago.

"We will announce a historic capex next year, north of 50 billion pesos," PLDT Chairman Manuel Pangilinan told reporters. "We want to make sure we will future-proof our network."

The capital allotment, up by nearly a third from 38 billion pesos allocated this year, will fund PLDT's network expansion, and improve mobile and fixed-line services.

Duterte last month offered China the "privilege" of challenging the longstanding duopoly of PLDT and Globe Telecom Inc. Beijing has chosen China Telecom Corp Ltd to invest in the Philippines.

"China Telecom is currently having a preliminary study on the investment opportunity in the Philippines and no concrete plan has been determined yet," a company spokeswoman said.

The Philippines allows foreign firms to own up to 40 percent of domestic telecoms companies. The foreign ownership cap has kept interest from multinationals at bay in the market of more than 100 million people.

Among domestic firms, internet provider Philippine Telegraph & Telephone Corp has expressed interest in applying for a mobile telecommunications licence. ($1 = 50.2990 Philippine pesos) (Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales in MANILA and Sijia Jiang in HONG KONG; Editing by Martin Petty and Himani Sarkar)
For over a week, Parvathy has been shutting down trolls single-handedly after speaking against Mamootty's Kasaba. Will the superstar step in and pull up his fans?

By Janani K: Actress Parvathy, who is known for her commendable choice of films, has been on the receiving end of abuse and trolling online ever since she called out misogynistic lines in actor Mammootty's film, Kasaba. It has been over a week now, and the abuses hurled at the actress don't seem to die down.

What is more disappointing is that none of the stalwarts from the industry, including Mammootty, are trying to shut down the trolls who are continuously churning out death and rape threats just because Parvathy spoke against the superstar.

advertisement

WHAT HAPPENED?

At the International Film Festival of Kerala, Parvathy began her speech without the mention of Kasaba. She said that she was taken aback on seeing a Malayalam superstar mouthing cringe-worthy and misogynistic lines in one of his films. Fellow actress Geetu Mohandas, who was also part of the panel, encouraged her to name the film. She did. And all hell broke loose.

THE TROLLING

Mammootty's 'fans' and several industry insiders started issuing threats to Parvathy, proving that she isn't wrong. The trolling and abuse targeted at Parvathy proved a point: a fellow actor shouldn't speak her mind (especially if she a woman) and should always 'respect' the industry elders, regardless of their misogynistic actions.

Last we checked, our country boasts that we have the right to freedom of speech and expression. In the last couple of years, we have seen several female artists being abused, trolled and harassed by these so-called fans of male superstars. While many of them have stood their ground, the trolling does impact a person on an emotional level.

Probably, this is one of the main reasons why the actresses in Mollywood formed a Women in Cinema Collective: because the Malayalam industry actors would not stand with the women. And thereby, encourage fans to resort to such abusive actions again and again.

PARVATHY'S CLARIFICATION

Even after Parvathy issued a statement that she is not personally insulting the people who worked in the movie, the abuse continues. From calling her 'aunty' to 'monkey', to issuing rape and death threats, the industry people and 'fans' have stooped unbelievably low.

I never criticised him. Simply expressed my disappointment in the movie. Thanks for being respectful in the way you put across the comment here. Very rare it seems here.- Parvathy T K (@parvatweets) December 12, 2017

This isn't about curbing cinematic creativity. This is only about reassessing how negatives can be imitated in society. And therefore give it a better structure so we avoid glorification of violence and disrespect.- Parvathy T K (@parvatweets) December 12, 2017

THE PROBLEMATIC DIALOGUE

Still wondering what she spoke against? It was an excerpt from the dialogue by Mammootty in Kasaba: "I will f**k you (his woman superior) so hard that you'd find it extremely difficult to walk. I will hurt you so badly that your menstrual cycle would go for a toss."

advertisement

Cinema is a medium that has the capability to influence people on some level. The recent event of the abduction of a Malayali actress which was allegedly plotted by actor Dileep, is a fine example. And the industry actors, who are considered role models in life, choosing to remain silent (few are openly supporting Dileep), is setting another example as to how regressive we are as a society today.

MAMMOTTY'S SILENCE IS UNSETTLING

Though Parvathy is getting a lot of support from several activists and writers, it is extremely upsetting to see Mammootty staying mum about this whole incident. This is indirectly stating that he is endorsing his fans' views. In another similar incident, journalist Dhanya Rajendran, who compared the failure of Shah Rukh Khan's Jab Harry Met Sejal to an old film of Vijay (Sura, which failed to rake in profits), faced the wrath of Vijay fans. She terms the abuse as a planned attack and after multiple failed attempts in reaching out to the star, Vijay issued a statement asking his fans not to share hurtful and abusive views on women.

advertisement

Before Vijay could issue a statement, actor Ajith's legal counsel (on August 19) in a statement, said, "Our client unconditionally apologises for any hurt or harm caused by miscreants knowingly or unknowingly. Our client has not authorised any individuals, groups, associations or social media handles either to use our client's name and images or to make any statements or express social, political or personal views on his behalf."

NOT A ONE-OFF INCIDENT

Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Issac through his Facebook post sent out a message against abusers in cyber space. He also showered praises on the actress for having won an international award for her performance in Take Off. He said, "This is not the only incident where a woman has been attacked for voicing her opinion.This is condemnable. This also proves that the decision of women in the film industry to create a platform for upholding their rights has not been received well by the industry." He added that the attack directed towards Rima Kallingal, Sajitha Madathil and script writer Didi Damodaran have not been forgotten.

Gopinath Parayil, founder of the Blue Yonder and palliative care activist took to Facebook to share his thoughts. "I am not shocked that the police or home ministry that comes under the Chief Minister is quiet as well and haven't yet taken a suo moto case against the cyber attacks on Parvathy who made her observation in a diligent, respectful way in an open forum.I am shocked by the silence of Mammootty. I doubt his silence is because he hasn't noticed the open threats of murder and rape against Parvathy by his fans (from authentic as well as thousands of fake accounts ). If at all, he's not browsing through these rants and personal attacks of his fans, I doubt these aren't brought to his attention by his close circle of industry peers, family and friends, including his own son and actor Dulquer Salmaan. This is not the man some of us who were part of Kerala's palliative care movement know. This man was compassionate. This man was respectful, considerate and cared for people and didn't do anything for fame. (sic)"

advertisement

Writer Saradakutty also pointed out that it is not just Mammootty, but also stars like Mohanlal and Dileep who are part of misogynistic films.

Being hailed a superstar also comes with several responsibilities. After all, followers, fans and people look up to you and imbibe your personality. Mammootty's silence on this issue is surely sending out wrong signals. And glorifying abuse, harassment and trolling against women.

Much like the dialogue in his film Kasaba that is the rallying point of all the trouble.

ALSO WATCH: Mammootty may join Rajinikanth for Kaala Karikalan, SRK pranked on sets of TV show

--- ENDS ---
FILE PHOTO: Former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin speaks while campaigning for U.S. Senate candidate Judge Roy Moore at the Historic Union Station Train Shed in Montgomery, Alabama, U.S., September 21, 2017. REUTERS/Tami Chappell/File Photo

By Yereth Rosen

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - The elder son of former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has been charged with assault and burglary in a violent confrontation with his father in which the two men struggled over a handgun at his parents' Alaska home, court records showed on Monday.

According to the criminal complaint and supporting documents, Track Palin, 28, broke through a window of the house in Wasilla, Alaska, and scuffled with his father, Todd Palin, on Saturday night in a clash that stemmed from a family dispute over a truck.

The altercation left Todd Palin bloodied and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin visibly shaken, police said in an affidavit filed with the charging documents in state court.

The incident marked the latest in a string of run-ins with the law by the politician's elder son, a U.S. Army Reserve veteran who served a 2008 tour of duty in Iraq.

Track Palin, who is now barred by court order from further contact with his parents and two younger siblings who live with them, remained jailed on Monday in lieu of $5,000 bail.

He was charged with a felony count of burglary with attempted injury and a misdemeanor assault count, according to court records.

The family's attorney, John Tiemessen, was not available for comment on Monday, but he issued a statement on Sunday asking that the Palins' privacy be respected. Court records do not list a defense attorney of record in the case.

It was Sarah Palin who called police to report that her elder son was assaulting his father and "freaking out and was on some type of medication," the police affidavit stated.

Todd Palin later recounted the conflict started when his son called to say he was coming to the house to get a truck, and the father objected, prompting the son to threaten that he was en route "anyway to beat his ass," the affidavit said.

The father armed himself with a pistol as he waited for his son to arrive, but ultimately, the affidavit said, "Todd decided he was not going to shoot his son" and was disarmed by the younger Palin as the two struggled.

Story continues

Track Palin told police after his arrest, according to the affidavit, that his father had pointed the gun at him, and that the son goaded his father to shoot him. It said he admitted to drinking a few beers earlier that night.

Sarah Palin, who was Republican Senator John McCain's vice presidential running mate in his failed 2008 White House bid, has cited her son's past legal woes in publicly questioning the adequacy of support for military veterans who may suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

In 2016, her son faced several charges related to domestic violence, including using a weapon while intoxicated, court records show. The case was resolved in a special veterans' court with a conviction on a misconduct charge.

His involvement in a booze-fueled brawl at a family gathering in 2014 also drew wide attention. Authorities did not file criminal charges in the incident.

(Reporting by Yereth Rosen in Alaska; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and James Dalgleish)
Senate Republicans passed a dramatic overhaul of the American tax system early Wednesday morning, putting the plan another House vote away from President Donald Trump 's desk after Senate rules forced them to make last-minute changes . The chamber approved the proposal by a 51-48 party line vote, with every GOP senator voting for it except for the absent Sen. John McCain , R-Ariz. After approving a nearly identical bill earlier Tuesday, the House wants to pass the legislation that cleared the Senate on Wednesday morning. The plan, expected to get signed into law by Trump this week, would significantly remake the U.S. tax code. The bill would slash tax rates for businesses while temporarily trimming the tax burden on most, but not all, individuals. Trump cheered the bill's passage in a tweet early Wednesday, saying a news conference will take place in the afternoon if the House approves the plan.

Tweet The GOP contends that the more than $1.4 trillion in tax cuts contained in the bill will spark business investment, hiring and wage growth. Democrats call the Republican proposal a giveaway to corporations at the expense of the middle class, expressing concerns about the $1 trillion or more it is projected to add to federal budget deficits over a decade . The Senate GOP kept all of its members in line to approve the legislation after navigating party fractures and a member's absence in recent weeks. Republican leaders had to make policy changes or promises during the tax debate to appease at least five GOP senators who ended up supporting the bill. Republicans, facing a tight margin for error with only 52 seats in the Senate, could afford to lose only one vote on the plan this week as McCain fights brain cancer in his home state of Arizona. Tensions rose during the final vote, with protesters in the chamber's gallery chanting, "Kill the bill, don't kill us!" Multiple times during the vote, the presiding Vice President Mike Pence brought down his gavel and called for order over the sounds of protesters. Shortly before the vote, some GOP senators spoke in the chamber while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., made his closing remarks criticizing the bill as a giveaway to businesses and the wealthy. Schumer then snapped: "This is serious stuff. We believe you're messing up America. You could pay attention for a couple of minutes." Republicans are scrambling to accomplish their key legislative goal by the end of the year and notch an achievement to promote ahead of next year's midterm elections. Democrats have seized on dismal public opinion polling on the plan and the fact that most individual tax cuts would expire under it while a corporate tax decrease would be permanent. Speaking after the vote, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called passing the bill an "important accomplishment" that taxpayers will "value and appreciate." "If we can't sell this to the American people we ought to go into another line of work," the Kentucky Republican told reporters. He contended that focusing on the expiration of cuts "missed the point," adding that Democrats winning congressional majorities next year "would turn this into a very short tax bill." Unexpected procedural snafu The GOP still looks set to make the bill law this week despite the unexpected setback Tuesday. It came after the House passed its bill and the chamber's Republican leaders and Trump made celebratory statements about the legislation's passage. A Senate aide confirmed to CNBC that three provisions in the bill adopted by the House on Tuesday did not comply with Byrd rule requirements. The rule governs what types of provisions the Senate may consider under the procedural budget window known as reconciliation. One of these provisions would allow 529 college savings plans to be used for home-schooling expenses. Another is related to a tax exemption for a very narrow category of colleges. The third appears to be related to the bill's name, the "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act." Those measures got cut from the bill the Senate approved. A motion to waive the budget rules related to the bill  which needed 60 votes in the Senate  failed shortly before the final Senate vote. Big break for corporations The joint legislation would chop the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent. It would set a 20 percent business income deduction for the first $315,000 in income earned by pass-through businesses. The personal exemption would get scrapped under the bill. The plan would raise the standard deduction to $12,000 for an individual or $24,000 for a family, just short of double its current level. Seven individual income tax brackets would be maintained , with slight rate reductions for most income groups, including the wealthiest Americans. A larger proportion of income groups would see overall tax cuts in the early years of the plan, according to the nonpartisan congressional scorekeeper Joint Committee on Taxation. The benefits of those and other tax breaks on the individual side would fade over time, as many cuts expire after 2025. By 2027, millions of Americans could actually see a tax increase , if Republicans do not take steps to extend the cuts. Ryan said Tuesday after the House vote that "we have every intention of making those permanent." On Wednesday morning, McConnell closed his remarks by saying Democrats would push to reverse the cuts and making a case for Republicans in next year's midterm elections. Said McConnell: "Every single Democrat voted for this. They're all committed to repealing it and raising taxes on the American people. That's what's at stake in the fall of 2018."



More From CNBC


The SoftBank Group has finally made a good tech investment around real estate.

After investing $4.4 billion in what is essentially a bespoke office space rental business (WeWork) and another $450 million in Zillow for rich people (Compass), the gargantuan Japanese tech investor is leading a $120 million round of funding for Lemonade, a startup providing renters and homeowners insurance.

Additional investors in the round include previous backers Alphabet's investment firm, GV, General Catalyst and Sequoia Capital.

Insurance is a pretty tricky business that depends on a lot of data science to right-size coverage -- and Lemonade is one of the first completely new entrants in the market to design a soup-to-nuts insurance business for the smartphone era.

Much of what the company does is automated by chatbots or managed by algorithmically enhanced policy management tools (I hesitate to say AI-enabled, because these things aren't intelligent, they just process data well).

That can help keep costs down for the company, but Lemonade also depends on a business model innovation that purports to keep its customers more honest when filing claims. When they enroll, policyholders all select a charity through the app to which they will donate a portion of their unspent premiums at the end of a term.

The idea is that users won't file unnecessary claims if they know that the money isn't just going to be kept by a faceless corporate entity and will, instead, support a cause they care about.

The company said that it would use the money to become the first consumer-facing insurer to expand internationally and also would be launching new coverage products for its customers in 2018. One area where it won't be adding policies is in auto insurance, which, according to chief executive Daniel Schreiber, was facing too much headwind despite its size to be interesting to a new insurance company.

Lemonade already covers 90,000 policyholders for policies worth tens of billions of dollars, said Schreiber.

Story continues

Several other startups are making the jump to the formerly staid and sleepy insurance business. Trov, Cover, Hippo and Swyfft all offer services to make insuring possessions or property faster and easier.

By combining big data and AI with a seamless user experience, Lemonade is truly revolutionizing the insurance industry, said David Thevenon, a senior investment professional within the SoftBank Group, in a statement.

A spokesperson for SoftBank said the firm was passing on most inquiries until it closes its fund and that its investment professional responsible for the deal was traveling and would not be available for comment.
Telecom giant AT&T (NYSE:T) was quick to respond to news of U.S. tax reform, announcing it would give some employees bonuses once the legislation is signed into law. AT&T said in a press release Wednesday that it would give more than 200,000 of its U.S. workers who are union members a special bonus of $1,000. The company also increased its capital expenditures budget by $1 billion in the U.S. "Congress, working closely with the President, took a monumental step to bring taxes paid by U.S. businesses in line with the rest of the industrialized world," CEO Randall Stephenson said in a statement. "This tax reform will drive economic growth and create good-paying jobs. In fact, we will increase our U.S. investment and pay a special bonus to our U.S. employees." AT&T had previously said that it would invest $1 billion in the U.S. if "competitive" tax reform legislation was passed, and has said that the tax reform framework could increase demand for AT&T's services. The House of Representatives on Wednesday sent tax reform legislation to President Donald Trump , who is expected to sign it soon. Trump lauded the bill, calling it "an extraordinary victory for American families, workers, and businesses." The new tax law will drop the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from the current 35 percent and includes other measures that Republicans say will spur businesses to invest domestically. AT&T's effective tax rate was 32.7 percent in 2016, according to its annual report. As of the third quarter, AT&T had about $16.5 billion in capital expenditures in 2017. In Wednesday's announcement, AT&T noted its track record of creating U.S. jobs. Earlier this year, thousands of AT&T workers, members of the Communications Workers of America union, went on strike over issues like job security and outsourcing. Many AT&T workers already expected to receive 10 percent raises and $1,000 lump-sum back wages as a result of an agreement announced last week. AT&T told CNBC the bonuses announced on Wednesday are above and beyond any existing agreements, which means some workers would get two $1,000 allocations: One with a new contract, and one when the tax reform bill is signed. AT&T's tax reform announcement comes a month after the Justice Department challenged AT&T's pending merger with Time Warner. Trump has said the deal is " not good for the country " because it might make prices increase. On the other hand, AT&T stands to be a potential beneficiary of another recent move by the Trump administration: the FCC's repeal of net neutrality regulation. The new regulatory landscape will afford AT&T more flexibility to control the pricing and speed of content for its internet customers, although AT&T has said it will not make big changes to the way internet services are delivered. Stephenson is a longtime Republican donor, contributing to candidates, political action committees and the party for at least the last two decades. In 2016, he donated to candidates including Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Arizona Sen. John McCain. In June of this year, he donated to Trump, presumably for his re-election campaign, and sent almost $34,000 to the Republican National Committee, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Later in the day, cable and media company Comcast (CMCSA) made a similar move: it announced it would give special $1,000 bonuses "[b]ased on the passage of tax reform and the FCC's action on broadband." Those bonuses would apply to more than 100,000 employees that are eligible and not in executive roles. The company also made a big spending commitment to bolster its broadband plants, television and film production, and theme parks, pledging an outlay of at least $50 billion over the next five years.  CNBC's Sara Salinas and Jacob Pramuk contributed to this report. Disclosure: Comcast is the owner of NBCUniversal, parent company of CNBC and CNBC.com.



More From CNBC


att ceo randall stephenson

AP

AT&T says it will pay a $1,000 bonus to more than 200,000 US employees after the Republican tax bill is enacted.

The bill cuts corporate tax rates to 21% from 35%.

Meanwhile, AT&T has feuded with the Trump administration over its bid to acquire Time Warner, and the Department of Justice has sued to block the deal.



AT&T says it will pay a $1,000 bonus to more than 200,000 US employees after the GOP tax bill is enacted  an announcement sure to please Republican lawmakers who have been pitching corporate tax cuts as a boost for American workers.

The bill, which Congress passed this week, reduces the corporate tax rate to 21% from 35% while allowing a one-time repatriation of overseas cash. Companies are mostly expected to buy back stock or pay down debt with their savings.

Still, AT&T was quick to announce its plan after the House voted to pass the bill on Wednesday.

"Once tax reform is signed into law, AT&T plans to invest an additional $1 billion in the United States in 2018 and pay a special $1,000 bonus to more than 200,000 AT&T US employees  all union-represented, non-management and front-line managers," the company said in a press release. "If the president signs the bill before Christmas, employees will receive the bonus over the holidays."

At an event at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, President Donald Trump called AT&T's plan "pretty good."

Last month, Stephenson blasted the Department of Justice over its plans to sue to block his company's $84.5 billion takeover of Time Warner. At the time, Stephenson called the lawsuit "unprecedented" and said it "defies logic."

Throughout his presidential campaign, Trump blasted the AT&T-Time Warner merger, saying, "Deals like this destroy democracy." More recently, the president said he "always felt that was a deal that's not good for the country."

Story continues

Shares of AT&T were up 1.16% on Wednesday, to $38.49. Time Warner was up about 0.5%.

AT&T isn't alone in touting its plans to spend a portion of its windfall on workers  Boeing and Fifth-Third Bank have also released plans. Boeing announced what it described as a $300 million "employee-related and charitable investment" stemming from the tax bill, while Fifth Third said it would raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour and distribute a one-time bonus of $1,000 for more than 13,500 employees.

Related:

For more news videos visit Yahoo View.

NOW WATCH: Here's what Trump's tax plan means for people at every income level from $20,000 to $269,000 a year

See Also:
NEW YORK (Reuters) - AT&T Inc (T.N), Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) and Boeing Co (BA.N) were among American companies promising more pay for workers or more investment in training on Wednesday after the biggest overhaul of the U.S. tax code in 30 years.

The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives gave final approval to the tax bill on Wednesday, which cuts the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent, and sent it to U.S. President Donald Trump for his signature.

The companies' announcements gave at least some support to claims by Trump and fellow Republicans that their tax bill would lead to more investment by U.S. companies with the money they save.

AT&T, the No. 2 U.S. wireless carrier, said it will pay $1,000 bonuses to more than 200,000 employees and invest an additional $1 billion in the United States in 2018, once the tax reform bill is signed into law. An AT&T spokesman said the bonuses were unrelated to the $1,000 that 20,000 AT&T Mobility employees will receive as part of an agreement with the Communications Workers of America announced last week.

Employees eligible for the bonus are all "union-represented, non-management and front-line managers," AT&T said in a statement. The company has more than 250,000 employees in all. The bonuses will cost the company at least $200 million, but the precise amount is not yet known, the company said.

Cable provider Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O) also said it would give $1,000 bonuses to more than 100,000 employees and invest $50 billion over the next five years in its infrastructure. Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) said the bank will hike minimum hourly pay to $15 an hour in March, up 11 percent from its previous minimum. It will also offer new restricted stock awards to 250,000 employees.

Regional U.S. bank Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB.O) said it would raise the hourly wage for nearly 3,000 of its employees to $15 and give a one-time bonus of $1,000 to more than 13,500 employees, which its CEO said was made possible by the corporate tax cut.

Story continues

The company said it expected to distribute the bonuses by year-end, assuming Trump signs the bill by Christmas  which is not certain - and that the pay increases would go into effect once the bill became law.

Aerospace company Boeing Co (BA.N) also said on Wednesday it would invest $300 million in workforce training and facilities enhancements for employees as its CEO lauded the tax bill.

REPUBLICANS PRAISE, DEMOCRATS DON'T

Republican senators, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Trump praised the announcements.

Within hours of passing #taxreform, we're already seeing announcements that companies plan to give back to their employees and invest more at home," said Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia on Twitter. "Good news for workers and the economy!"

Democrats, who opposed the bill, offered no congratulations. Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer of New York criticized AT&T on the Senate floor.

"AT&T - big American company, fine American company  their tax rate over the last 10 years was a mere 8 percent, and they cut 80,000 jobs," he said. "That one statistic belies all this trickle-down bunk that our Republican colleagues still cling to even though its outdated and disproven."

AT&T is in the process of acquiring Time Warner Inc (TWX.N) for $85.4 billion, but the U.S. Department of Justice has sued AT&T to block the deal, saying it could raise prices for rivals and hamper development of online video.

(Reporting by Anjali Athavaley in New York and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by Bill Rigby)
Rahul Gandhi's smart moves in Gujarat election 2017 paid huge dividends. The BJP may find it tough in the 2018 Assembly polls and also the 2019 Lok Sabha elections if he replicates the Gujarat template there.

By Kumar Shakti Shekhar: Though the Congress lost the Gujarat Assembly election, it succeeded in substantially reducing the BJP's seat share and restricting it below 100, the first time for any incumbent party since 1990.

The credit for BJP's lacklustre performance can be attributed to Congress president Rahul Gandhi. He led the Opposition's attack on the BJP that was in turn led by "sons of the soil" Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah.

advertisement

While the BJP bagged 99 seats, down by 16 seats from its 2012 tally in the 182-member Gujarat Assembly. On the other hand, the Congress' tally rose from 61 in 2012 to 77. The party's vote share also jumped from 38.95 per cent in the last election to 41.4 per cent, an increase of a whopping 2.45 per cent.

The BJP and Congress will be pitched against each other in eight Assembly elections - Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Rajasthan and Tripura - in 2018 and Lok Sabha polls in 2019.

Having found his mojo in the Gujarat election, Rahul Gandhi may use the same template which would give the BJP some trying times in the forthcoming polls.

These are some of the political steps that Rahul Gandhi took and may be replicated in the future elections:

CASTE EQUATIONS

Rahul Gandhi stitched an alliance with Patidar pro-quota campaigner Hardik Patel and Dalit activist Jignesh Mevani and inducted OBC leader Alpesh Thakor in the Congress. This dealt a severe blow to the BJP. While the BJP candidates lost to Mevani and Thakor, the Patidars in the rural areas voted against the incumbent party in large numbers.

It'll be difficult for the BJP if the Congress stitches the right caste alliances in the poll-bound states and also at the national level.

SOFT HINDUTVA

Though Rahul Gandhi was attacked for playing the 'soft Hindutva' card in Gujarat and his visit to Somnath temple courted controversy, the move did harm the BJP. The Congress won 18 seats of the 27 temples which Rahul visited in the course of his campaign.

Rahul's temple run has been successful. It may click in the other states as well, particularly in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.

DEVELOPMENT

Rahul Gandhi broached development issues in Gujarat which seems to have been lapped up by the voters. Combined with anti-incumbency sentiments, the development, or lack of it, became a lethal weapon against the incumbent BJP.

The same tool, if adopted in the BJP-ruled states and ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, may prove to be a runaway success for the Congress.

advertisement

FARMERS

The farmers seem to have voted against the BJP in Gujarat. No wonder, the party fared poorly in the rural areas.

Rahul Gandhi raised the issue of agrarian distress and low price of produce to the farmers. This may touch a chord with farmers in other parts of the country. They will relate themselves to the Congress president taking up their cause, pushing the BJP to the defensive.

JOBS

Jobs, or the lack of them, have been a pan-Indian phenomenon. With 50 per cent of the country's population below the age of 25 and more than 65 per cent below 35, the government is at pains to find jobs for the youth.

The government has allegedly failed to deliver on this front. Instead of providing jobs, it talks of providing job opportunities.

Rahul Gandhi had aggressively attacked the ruling BJP on this front and even found support from the youths. He is likely to get the backing of the unemployed and the under-employed youths in the other poll-bound states and also in the next general elections.

AGGRESSION

There was an unprecedented aggresiveness in Rahul Gandhi. Whether it was on ground or on the social media, the Congress president raised issues which touched the chord of the people.

advertisement

He restricted himself to matters of development and questioned the BJP's performance on these fronts with gusto and confidence. He remained mindless of the attacks from PM Modi, Amit Shah or a battery of senior BJP leaders.

The BJP may find itself in deep trouble if Rahul Gandhi employs this template in the other elections. The Congress could not defeat the BJP in Gujarat. But it may succeed in trouncing the BJP in the other states and even at the Centre.

--- ENDS ---
The House of Representatives voted on the Tax Bill early Tuesday local time. The Tax Bill was passed by a margin of 24 votes, with 227 Yay and 203 Nay.

A procedural issue during the vote means the House has to vote on the Bill a second time, as the Bill passed by the house was in violation of Senate rules. Once these violations are amended the House will vote again, with this second vote believed to be only a formality. The Senate voted overnight and the Bill was passed by 51 to 48. The House should hold the second vote on the amended Bill early on Wednesday and President Trump has tweeted that he will hold a press conference subject to a successful outcome at 18.00 GMT.

German IFO business climate released by CESifo Group showed a slight drop to 117.2 from the consensus of 117.5. The previous reading was revised from 117.5 to 117.6. This measure of business morale has been trending strongly in 2017. Expectations came in at 109.5 from the consensus of 110.7 with the previous reading remaining unchanged. Current Assessment was 125.4, higher than the 124.7 figure expected. Prior reading was revised up to 124.5 from 124.4.

The US Census Bureau released Housing Starts (MoM) for November with the headline number coming in at 1.297M, against a consensus of 1.250M. Previous readings were revised to 1.256M from 1.290M. Building Permits (MoM) (Nov) was 1.298M, against the 1.273M expected. The prior number was raised to 1.316M from 1.297M.

Japan All Industry Activity Index (MoM) (Oct) was released earlier today with the number slightly softer at 0.3%, against the expected figure of 0.4%. The previous number was -0.5%.

EURUSD is little changed overnight, trading around 1.18353.

USDJPY is up 0.10% in early session trading at around 113.2.

GBPUSD has little changed, now trading around 1.3397.

Gold was 0.16% higher in early morning, trading at around $1,269.30

WTI is little changed, trading around $57.75.

Major data releases for today:

At 13:00 GMT German Buba President Weidmann will give a speech titled The euro area between short-term momentum and long-term challenges at the Analysis Forum in Milan.

Story continues

At 13:15 GMT Bank of England Governor Mark Carney will testify before the Treasury Select Committee in relation to the November Financial Stability Report. GBP pairs may see an impact from comments made.

At 15:30 GMT US EIA Crude Oil Stocks Change (Dec 15). The previous reading was -5.117M. The expected reading this time is in the region of -3.518M. A smaller draw on stocks would most likely be bullish for WTI prices.

This article is written by FxPro

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

More From FXEMPIRE:
Heres a look at some of the companies the Yahoo Finance team will be watching for you today.

Toyota (TM) is gaining traction worldwide. The Japanese automaker says it sold 10.35 million vehicles this year. That narrowly beats last years record holderVolkswagen. Toyota expects even stronger sales in 2018 thanks to growth in China and India.

Amazon (AMZN) is working to decrease its environmental impact. The e-commerce giant is testing new algorithms to decide which size box and how many items should be packed together in each shipment, according to the Wall Street Journal. Its not all to save the world, though. Amazon acknowledges the move increases brand loyalty and cuts down on shipping costs.

FedEx (FDX) is getting a nice pop this morning. The package delivery service raised its profit forecast after beating big on earnings and revenue for its second quarter. FedEx says while the peak holiday season helped boost profits, results were slightly impacted by a cyber attack at its Dutch unit.

Apple (AAPL) isnt feeling much love down under. Apples new store in Melbournes Federation Square has residents questioning how the city could cut a deal with a major corporation without public opinion. The Square has long been a public space and cultural hub for the community.
President Trump celebrated the passage of his tax bill at the White House on Wednesday along with Republican congressional leaders.

Its the largest tax cut in the history of our country, Trump said at a White House ceremony.

A vote of 224-201 in the House on Wednesday was the final hurdle before it was sent to Trump to become law. No Democrats voted for it, and they were joined in opposition by 12 Republicans.

It is unclear when Trump will actually sign the legislation.

The Senate passed the massive tax bill early on Wednesday morning, but the House, which had cleared it on Tuesday, had to vote on it again because of revisions made to the legislation.

The vote in the Senate was 51-48, with all Republicans voting yes and all Democrats and independents voting no. Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), undergoing cancer treatment, was not present.

In this bill, not only do we have massive tax cuts and tax reform, we have essentially repealed Obamacare, and we will come up with something that is much better, Trump told reporters on Wednesday. The legislation also repeals the individual mandate that required Americans to purchase health insurance.

The legislation has significant implications for Hollywood, including a massive tax cut for media companies. But there is a lot of anxiety among a number of individuals in the industry, who worry about the loss of key deductions. That will be especially true in states like California, New York, and New Jersey, where some taxpayers will face a higher liability.

Charles Rivkin, the chairman and CEO of the MPAA, said in a statement that the legislation will promote further economic growth across American industries, including the U.S. film and television sector, which supports two million jobs and a network of thousands of small businesses across all 50 states. This legislation will advance our nations global competitiveness and encourage additional investment at home.

Story continues

Before the vote, none of the member studios have made public commitments about how they will spend their tax savings, in line for most corporations that did not pledge to raise wages and add jobs with the lower corporate rate. That has added to criticism that the savings would be spent on shareholders, not employees.

AT&T did announce last month that it would invest an additional $1 billion in infrastructure if the corporate rate was dropped, and on Wednesday said that it would provide a $1,000 special bonus to its 200,000 employees. It is seeking approval for its merger with Time Warner, but the Justice Department is trying to block it in court.

Later on Wednesday, Comcast announced that it, too, would provide $1,000 bonuses to more than 100,000 employees. CEO Brian Roberts said that with these investments, we expect to add thousands of new direct and indirect jobs. The company also cited the repeal of most of the net neutrality rule last week as a reason for the bonuses.

The Writers Guild of America, West called the bill a disaster, saying that it will exacerbate inequality and lead to cuts in Social Security and Medicare.

Middle class writers are not immune to the forces of inequality. We will be doing our best to help writers understand the implications of this legislation for them. The WGAW stands with those who will resist.

House Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Wednesday that tax breaks dont lead to job creation. They lead to big CEO salaries and money for the very, very wealthy.

He also spoke out against the legislation before the Senate vote, but was irritated as some Republican colleagues talked during his speech.

We believe youre messing up America. You could pay attention for a couple of minutes, he said.

He cast doubt on the notion that a lower corporate tax cut will lead to more jobs, and he criticized AT&T for paying a low effective rate for years but not using that tax savings then to boost employment.

Schumer later issued a statement on AT&Ts announcement, saying, Leaving aside that AT&T has a merger pending before President Trumps Justice Department, its good that theyve worked with the Communications Workers of America to start making progress on the promised $4,000 raise for workers. However, their announcement today is the exception, not the rule, when it comes to the biggest corporations spending their windfall. His office provided a list of $83.7 billion in stock buybacks that have been announced by major companies since the Senate first passed the bill earlier this month.

The legislation will, among other things:

For companies:

Drop the corporate tax rate. The rate will be set at 21%, a sharp drop from the previous 35%. Republicans say this will be a much more competitive rate that will encourage companies to stay in the United States. Studios, media companies, and broadcasters have long sought the lower rate.

Territorial tax system. Multinational corporations would be taxed only on income made within a countrys borders.

100% expensing. Movie, TV, and theatrical stage producers will be allowed to expense 100% of the cost of their project at the time of release or debut. The provision runs through the end of 2022, after which it falls on a sliding scale.

For individuals:

Set new brackets. There will still be seven brackets, but they will be set at 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, and 37%. A rundown of the rates is here.

Double the standard deduction. It will go from $6,350 to $12,000 for individuals, and from $12,700 to $24,000 for married couples. But the personal exemption  $4,050 for individuals, spouses, and dependents  will be eliminated. Its expected that many people will no longer itemize, as it also eliminates unreimbursed business expenses for employees.

State and local tax deduction capped. As a way to raise revenue, individuals will be limited in deductions for state and local taxes to $10,000.

Larger child tax credit. It will be doubled to $2,000. with children under 17 eligible.

Eliminates Affordable Healthcare Act mandate. Americans will no longer be required to buy health insurance, which was a key part of Obamacare in ensuring that a healthy population was part of insurance risk pools.

Estate tax exemption lifted. The amount of income that will not be taxes from estates that pass to another family member will increase, from $5.6 million to $11.2 million per individual. Earlier versions of the legislation eliminated the estate tax altogether.

Related stories

Eminem Slams Donald Trump Again on New Song 'Like Home,' Featuring Alicia Keys (Listen)

Megyn Kelly Sees Ratings Lift With Donald Trump Accusers Interview

Donald Trump Is 'Mentally Unfit' to Be U.S. President, Rob Reiner Says

Subscribe to Variety Newsletters and Email Alerts!


The White House said Tuesday that President Trump would likely owe more in taxes under the bill that passed the House but declined to release his 2016 returns on the grounds they are being audited. Both claims are disputed by tax experts.

We expect that it likely will, on the personal side, could cost the president a lot of money, said press secretary Sarah Sanders when pushed on Trumps claim that the bill would cost him a fortune.

Multiple analyses have shown that one of the primary beneficiaries of the tax bill will be commercial real estate, the business from which Trump and his family members receive the majority of their income. An analysis done for NBC News based on Trumps leaked 2005 returns estimated he could personally save $22 million under the new bill. The Trump family would also save money from the doubling of the estate tax exemption.

An analysis from the Tax Policy Center found that a majority of the benefits in the tax bill would go to the top 5 percent of earners.

(via the Tax Policy Center)

When pressed on why Trump didnt simply release his tax returns as presidents had done for decades, Sanders said it wasnt possible while an audit was ongoing. Former President Richard Nixon released his tax returns while under audit and Trump could release his pre-2009 returns, which his attorney said are not under audit. Trump said during an interview in April that he might release them after his time in the White House ended, reneging on a promise to release them as soon as the audit was complete.

As president, Trump will be audited every year due to an IRS bylaw.

The House passed the Tax Cuts and Job Acts conference report on Tuesday afternoon prior to the briefing. The Senate is expected to pass the bill along party lines Tuesday evening.

Read more from Yahoo News:
LGBT and human rights groups groups have slammed Donald Trumps tax bill, the biggest overhaul to Americas tax system in decades, claiming it will detrimentally affect programmes and provisions in place to help marginalised communities, from access to healthcare to support for people on low incomes.

The sweeping legislation, which is expected to make around $1.5tn (1.1tn) in tax cuts, will be voted on later on Wednesday. Republicans argue it will deliver benefits to ordinary Americans, while Democrats say it will hit the middle classes while the rich get even richer.

David Stacy, director of government affairs at the Human Rights Commission, said on Tuesday that the tax bill threatens the healthcare of millions of Americans.

If the Trump-Pence tax scam becomes law, programmes crucial to the LGBTQ community like Medicare, Medicaid, global HIV and AIDS programmes, and the Ryan White Care Act will surely face future efforts to cut their benefits, he said.

The legislation will scrap the individual insurance mandate set out in Barack Obamas health care law, which calls for people to pay a tax penalty for not purchasing healthcare insurance.

The HRC said in a statement that repealing this provision could result in 13 million people leaving the insurance market, causing insurance premiums to soar and leave millions priced out of access to healthcare.

Ahead of Tuesdays vote, Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of LGBTQ media advocacy group GLAAD, said the bill would have serious consequences for Americas more marginalised communities by directly targeting access to affordable and inclusive healthcare.

She added: Congressional leaders rammed through a highly unpopular and dangerous bill under the false promise of a middle-class tax cut while intentionally ignoring the devastating effects this legislation will have on LGBTQ and low-income communities.

Newsweek reported that the individual mandate provision in the Affordable Care Act is used by people living with chronic health conditions, such as HIV/AIDS, citing census data showing that gay and bisexual men made up 67 per cent of all HIV diagnoses in 2015.

Story continues

According to health policy organisation the Kaiser Family Foundation, Medicare is now the single largest source of federal financing for HIV care and treatment.

The people set to potentially lose out under the new tax bill are those who rely on the social safety net, while House speaker Paul Ryan has made comments about reforming "entitlement" programmes to tackle the current deficit.

The Associated Press reports that the budget deficit, which registered $666bn (496bn) in the 2017 budget year, is set to soar even higher, fuelled by the tax cuts, a disaster relief total set to breach $130bn (97bn), and long-promised, record budget increases for the military.

Trillion-dollar deficits loom before the end of Mr Trump's term, which has Republicans already planning a pivot to long-promised curbs on government benefit programmes such as food stamps, Medicaid and Medicare.

"There is no way out," Mark Sanford, Republican representative for South Carolina, said on Tuesday. "The tax bill is in essence the nail in the coffin on driving the absolute mathematical necessity of reform to entitlement programmes. You can't have both."

Mr Ryan said in an interview that "even if we get the kind of growth we hope to get (from tax cuts), you still have to reform entitlements if you're going to get this debt under control. You cannot grow your way out of the entitlement problem we have coming."

Christopher Stoll, a senior staff attorney at the National Centre for Lesbian Rights, told Newsweek earlier this month: This bill is a disaster for everyone really, but especially for LGBT [people].

It will result in deep cuts in programmes that LGBT people depend on, he said, adding that LGBT people are more likely to be on middle- to low-incomes.

Members of the LGBT community are particularly economically vulnerable in American, according to the Williams Institute.

Research from the institute released in 2012 showed that 24 per cent of lesbians and bisexual women were considered poor, compared with 19 per cent of heterosexual women, while children of same-sex couples had poverty rates twice those of children in heterosexual married-couple households.

It also showed that transgender people are four times as likely to have a household income under $10,000 (7,462) and were twice as likely to be unemployed.

Statistics show that 14 per cent of Americans live in poverty.

Philip Alston, the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights told Reuters last week that the tax reform bill will create the single most dramatic increase in inequality that could be imagined.

Additional reporting by agencies
FILE PHOTO - A photo illustration shows the Uber app on a mobile telephone, as it is held up for a posed photograph, in London, Britain November 10, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson/File Photo

By Julia Fioretti

LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] should be classified as a transport service and regulated like other taxi operators, the European Union's top court said in a landmark ruling on Wednesday that could impact other online businesses in Europe.

Uber, which allows passengers to summon a ride through an app on their smartphones, has transformed the taxi industry since its launch in 2011 and now operates in more than 600 cities globally.

In the latest of a series of legal battles, Uber had argued it was simply a digital app that acted as an intermediary between drivers and customers looking for a ride and so should fall under lighter EU rules for online services.

"The service provided by Uber connecting individuals with non-professional drivers is covered by services in the field of transport," the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said.

"Member states can, therefore, regulate the conditions for providing that service," it said.

The case follows a complaint from a professional taxi drivers' association in Barcelona that Uber's activities in Spain amounted to misleading practices and unfair competition from Uber's use of non-professional drivers - a service Uber calls UberPOP and which has since been suspended in Spain and other countries.

GIG ECONOMY

Uber has taken the fight to regulators and established taxi and cab companies, expanding from a Silicon Valley startup to a business with a valuation of $68 billion. The company is planning an initial public offering in 2019.

The European case had been widely watched as an indicator of how the burgeoning gig economy, which also features the likes of food-delivery company Deliveroo, would be regulated in Europe.

The ECJ said Uber "exercises decisive influence over the conditions under which the drivers provide their service" and that without the Uber mobile app "persons who wish to make an urban journey would not use the services provided by those drivers."

Story continues

The decision is unlikely to have an immediate impact on Uber's operations in Europe, where it has cut back its use of unlicensed services such as UberPOP and adheres to local transportation laws.

"This ruling will not change things in most EU countries where we already operate under transportation law," an Uber spokeswoman said in a statement.

"As our new CEO has said, it is appropriate to regulate services such as Uber and so we will continue the dialogue with cities across Europe. This is the approach we'll take to ensure everyone can get a reliable ride at the tap of a button."

Following changes in top leadership and a series of legal battles, Uber recently adopted a more conciliatory approach under its new chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, who took the job in August.

In a tweet Wednesday, Khosrowshahi said that the ruling was "not a setback, since we've already changed our approach in the EU to follow transportation laws and work with professional drivers."

He said Uber will "keep talking with EU governments to enable affordable transportation services for millions more Europeans."

Khosrowshahi in October met with regulators in London, where Uber is in the middle of a legal battle over its right to operate in its most important European market.

Bernardine Adkins, head of EU, trade and competition law at Gowling WLG, said the ruling provided "vital clarity to its (Uber's) position within the marketplace."

"Uber's control over its drivers, its ability to set prices and the fact its electronic service is inseparable from its ultimate consumer experience means it is more than simply a platform connecting drivers to passengers."

TAXI LOBBY CHEERS

IRU, the world road transport organisation, which includes taxi associations, cheered the ruling as finally offering a level playing field for providers of the same service.

"In the area of mobility, the taxi and for-hire sector was one of the first to embrace innovation and new technologies," said Oleg Kamberski, head of passenger transport at IRU.

"Finding a solution that allows both traditional and new transport service providers to compete in a fair way while meeting the service quality standards became necessary."

EU law protects online services from undue restrictions and national governments must notify the European Commission of any measures regulating them so it can ensure they are not discriminatory or disproportionate.

Transport, however, is excluded from this.

The tech industry said the ruling would impact the next generation of startups more than Uber itself.

"We regret the judgment effectively threatens the application of harmonized EU rules to online intermediaries," said Jakob Kucharczyk, vice president of competition and EU regulatory policy at the Computer and Communications Industry Association.

"The purpose of those rules is to make sure online innovators can achieve greater scalability and competitiveness in the EU, unfettered from undue national restrictions," he added.

"This is a blow to the EU's ambition of building an integrated digital single market."

(Reporting by Julia Fioretti; Additional reporting by Heather Somerville in San Francisco.; Editing by David Evans and Lisa Shumaker)
Uber had argued it was an internet company - REUTERS

Uber has suffered a major blow in Europe with the EUs highest court declaring it a transport provider, and not an internet company as it had argued.

The European Court of Justice ruled on Wednesday that Uber is a service in the field of transport. It means that it has to abide by local laws governing taxi companies, rather than the much less stringent restrictions for tech firms.

The ruling will make it easier for hostile regulators to chase Uber out of cities. The service does not exist in major cities such as Copenhagen, Budapest and Barcelona, and has also lost its licence in London, although it continues to operate as it appeals the decision.

The company insisted the ruling would not affect it in most markets, including the UK, saying it already abides by local transport laws in many jurisdictions. However, if it had been classed as an information society service, the company would have been protected by EU freedoms on providing online services.

"In todays judgment, the Court declares that an intermediation service such as that at issue in the main proceedings... must be regarded as being inherently linked to a transport service and, accordingly, must be classified as a service in the field of transport," the ECJ said.

Uber controversies timeline

"Consequently, such a service must be excluded from the scope of the freedom to provide services in general." The decision pointed out that "Uber exercises decisive influence over the conditions under which the drivers provide their service".

The challenge was brought against Uber by a Barcelona taxi group, which said it had created unfair competition by launching in the city without a licence.

At a glance | Uber

The news is the latest blow to Uber, which has endured a year plagued by internal scandals, difficulties in major markets, and legal battles. It recently disclosed a hack that saw the data of 57m users stolen.

Story continues

An Uber spokesman said: "This ruling will not change things in most EU countries where we already operate under transportation law. However, millions of Europeans are still prevented from using apps like ours.

"As our new CEO has said, it is appropriate to regulate services such as Uber and so we will continue the dialogue with cities across Europe. This is the approach well take to ensure everyone can get a reliable ride at the tap of a button."

Separately, Uber has revealed that more than 1,000 of its drivers in the UK are working more than 70 hours a week. In a letter to the House of Commons business, energy and industrial strategy committee, it said almost a third of its drivers are logged in for more than 40 hours a week, 8pc for 60 hours a week and 2.6pc for 70 hours a week. This equates to 1,300 of its 50,000 UK drivers.

The company said it would introduce a limit on how long drivers can be logged in for, most likely in January.
Uber is a transportation company, according to a landmark ruling from Europe's highest court. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled Wednesday that the U.S. ride-hailing app is a transportation firm and not a digital company. The verdict is a long-awaited judgment expected to have major implications for how Uber is regulated throughout Europe."The service provided by Uber connecting individuals with non-professional drivers is covered by services in the field of transport," the ECJ said. "Member states can therefore regulate the conditions for providing that service," it added. Uber has long-considered itself an "information society service" which connects drivers and passengers through inter-mediation via their app. This subtle classification has helped to protect the multi-billion dollar start-up from national regulations and means it has been treated as a digital service operating across borders in the EU 's single market. However, several European governments have argued the U.S. company should be considered a taxi firm, and just like thousands of others, it should have to comply with European transport laws."This ruling will not change things in most EU countries where we already operate under transportation law. However, millions of Europeans are still prevented from using apps like ours," an Uber spokesperson said in an email shortly after the decision. The ECJ's decision means Uber now faces national regulation in up to 28 member states, forcing it to deal more closely with local governments that set transportation rules and licensing requirements. This particular case cannot be appealed, according to Reuters, but it can pursue legal challenges in other courts.

How did we get here? In 2014, a group called Elite Taxi in Barcelona asked a court in the city to impose penalties on Uber's operations in the country. The association claimed that Uber was engaging in unfair competition towards Elite Taxi's drivers, particularly with its UberPop service, which allowed non-licensed drivers to pick up passengers via the app. The case was escalated eventually to the European Union's highest court  the ECJ  for advice. Advocate General Maciej Szpunar said in May that, in his opinion, Uber is not an "information society service." To be considered such would mean the part of the service which is not made by electronic means is "economically independent" of the service. In Uber's case, the drivers would need to be "economically independent". Another factor to be considered is whether Uber provides the entire offering. For example, an online retailer has a website or app as well as shipping the goods it sells. In Uber's case, this would mean it essentially employs the drivers. Uber has said that its drivers do not work for the company and are independent. The ECJ advisor said that Uber does not meet either of these two conditions and is therefore a transportation company. The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), of which Uber is a member, said in a statement that the ECJ's ruling "effectively threatens the application of harmonized EU rules to online intermediaries." "After today's judgment innovators will increasingly be subject to divergent national and sectoral rules. This is a blow to the EU's ambition of building an integrated digital single market," said Jakob Kucharczyk, vice president for competition and EU regulatory policy at the lobby group.

Uber's European challenges Uber launched in Europe five years ago and has since had a number of clashes with regulators as well as traditional taxi companies which have protested against the U.S. firm, which is worth around $66 billion. In London, U.K., for example, Uber lost an appeal to a court which said that drivers on the platform must pass a strict English language test. In Italy, a court in Rome decided to suspend the app, but this injunction has been halted for now by a higher court. And in Denmark, Uber said in March it would shut down its operations in the country thanks to new rules.However, the company has made strides to work with regulators. It is still operating in most EU countries and last year relaunched UberX in both Berlin and Madrid after being banned in the country, after it complied with local laws. Greg Marsh, co-founder and CEO of onefinestay, told CNBC Wednesday that the majority of Uber drivers "really value" the company and the ride-hailing service was clearly "wildly popular" among consumers. "If the majority of people want to use it as consumers and if a large proportion of the people who want to participate in it as drivers want it to exist then it seems a bit illiberal to say that we should be preventing it from operating," he added.



More From CNBC


The U.S. Commerce Department on Wednesday finalized duties of nearly 300 percent on passenger jets made by Bombardier, a win for Boeing (BA), which lodged the complaint against its Canadian rival. The decision escalates the bitter trade dispute between the two air craft manufacturers, a battle that has ensnared one of the largest U.S. airlines and strained relations between the U.S. and Canada. The Commerce Department first recommended the duties on Bombardier's CSeries jets, earlier this autumn after Boeing complained that the planes were dumped in the U.S. below cost and that the company received unfair government subsidies in Canada. Bombardier (Toronto Stock Exchange: BBD.B-CA) said the Commerce Department did not consider a common practice of airplane manufacturers in which they offer discounts to launch customers. "Unfortunately, the Commerce Department decision is divorced from this reality and ignores long-standing business practices in the aerospace industry, including launch pricing and the financing of multibillion dollar aircraft programs," the company said in a statement. "Moreover, we are deeply disappointed that the Commerce Department did not take this opportunity to rectify its past errors." Delta Air Lines (DAL) in 2016 agreed to buy at least 75 of the some 100-seat planes from Bombardier. In October, European aerospace giant Airbus (Euronext Paris: AIR-FR), Boeing's chief rival, said it would take a majority stake in the CSeries program, in a twist. The U.S. International Trade Commission is scheduled to make a determination by Feb. 1 if Boeing was harmed by Bombardier's actions, a decision that will determine whether the investigation will be terminated. Delta CEO Ed Bastian has repeatedly said the airline won't pay the tariffs and called the duties "absurd." Spokesman Morgan Durrant reiterated the final say on the matter will come in early 2018 when the ITC makes its decision, but declined to comment further. The airline has not taken delivery of the C Series jets yet, so it has not been subjected to the tariffs. Delta, the second-largest U.S. airline, said it opted for the Bombardier jets because Boeing offered it no feasible alternative. Boeing cheered the Commerce Department's decision on Wednesday. "Today's decision validates Boeing's complaints regarding Bombardier's pricing in the United States, pricing that has harmed our workforce and U.S. industry," the company said in a statement. "We look forward to the conclusion of this matter when the International Trade Commission makes a final decision in early 2018." In an effort to escape what could be crippling import duties, Bombardier has said it intends to build the planes in Alabama, where its newfound partner Airbus produces single-aisle jets. But that arrangement didn't appear to be taken into account. The Commerce Department's statement on Wednesday said that Bombardier, petitioners and the government of Canada agreed that the proposed arrangement "does not impact these investigations." Earlier this month Canada's government ditched plans to buy 18 new Super Hornet fighter jets made by Boeing. In September, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had threatened not to buy the jets from Boeing unless it dropped its suit against Bombardier .



More From CNBC


The Rajasthan High Court issued a notice to the Centre seeking an explanation on why condom advertisements cannot be shown on TV between 6am and 10pm.

By India Today Web Desk: Why can't condom advertisements be telecast on television between 6am and 10pm? No, this is not a late reaction to the union government's recent move to ban TV condom ads between 6am and 10pm, but a question posed by the Rajasthan High Court to the Centre.

The high court has sent a notice to the union ministries of health as well as information and broadcasting, asking the departments to explain the reasoning behind the government's move restricting the telecast of condom ads.

advertisement

The Rajasthan High Court's move followed an NGO filing a public interest litigation challenging the government's move. While the ministries are likely to seek legal direction before filing their respective replies in the Rajasthan High Court, their explanations could possibly be derived from the advisory Ministry of Information and Broadcasting sent to television networks on December 12.

In the advisory, the I&B Ministry, which is led by Smriti Irani, said "some channels carry advertisements of condoms repeatedly which are alleged to be indecent especially for children..."

And so, the ministry advised "all TV channels... not to telecast the advertisements of condoms which are for a particular age group and could be indecent / inappropriate for viewing by children."

The advisory, which was derided on social media, saw support in some quarters and opposition in others.

The NGO Population Foundation Of India suggested that instead of an ouright ban, the advertisements should be graded by content and accordingly slotted for telecast.

"While the Health Ministry is trying to push contraceptive use with specific focus on spacing methods for family planning, the advisory by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry is poised to undo decades of progress on sexual and reproductive health," Poonam Muttreja, executive director, PFI, was quoted as saying in a PTI report from December 17.

V Sam Prasad, country programme director, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said at a time when they (the foundation) are trying to popularise condom use, having a blanket ban has "no point".

On the other hand, advertising sector watchdog ASCI said it welcomed the government's decision to ban condom ads on TV channels between 6am and 10pm.

"Some of the condom advertisements are detrimental to the children's sensibilities as they focus on sensationalising the act and play heavily on sexual content to grab eyeballs rather than being educative, informative and focused on the benefits of condom usage for audience of all age groups," ASCI was quoted as saying by PTI on December 15.

--- ENDS ---
EgyptAir's deal to buy Bombardier's single-aisle C Series aircraft could be worth a total of $2.2 billion if they purchase all 24 planes (AFP Photo/Clement Sabourin) (AFP/File)

Washington (AFP) - The US Commerce Department on Wednesday confirmed its decision to impose punitive tariffs of nearly 300 percent on airplanes manufactured by Canada's Bombardier in a trade dispute that has inflamed relations with Ottawa.

The ruling affirms a preliminary finding that Bombardier received unfair subsidies from the Canadian government that allowed it to sell planes at below the cost of production, and compete unfairly with American aerospace giant Boeing, which lodged the complaint.

Boeing filed the case against its Canadian rival after Delta Air Lines ordered 75 of the C-Series planes that can seat 100-150 passengers. The complaint found a receptive ear in President Donald Trump, whose "America First" agenda has included taking a tough line in matters of international commerce.

"This decision is based on a full and unbiased review of the facts in an open and transparent process," Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement.

"The United States is committed to a free, fair, and reciprocal trade and will always stand up for American workers and companies being harmed by unfair imports."

Commerce ruled that the planes -- none of which have been imported into the country yet -- should be subject to duties totaling 292.21 percent.

The decision is subject to final approval by the US International Trade Commission, a quasi-judicial agency, which is due February 1, though it rarely differs from Commerce.

Boeing argues that Bombardier signed a deal to sell its new single-aisle CS 100 planes with a price tag of just $19.6 million each, far below the $33.2 million construction cost, and a pittance compared with the list price of $79.5 million -- though that amount is almost never paid.

Bombardier calls Boeing's criticism an "unfounded assault on airlines, the flying public, and the US aerospace industry," saying the entire complaint has been overtaken by events.

In October, shortly after the preliminary tariffs were announced, Boeing's European archrival Airbus took a majority stake in the C-Series program, and announced the planes would be built at the Airbus plant in Mobile, Alabama.

Story continues

Bombardier also has argued that Boeing does not manufacture a direct competitor to the CS 100, and its robust order book of 737 planes proves it has not been adversely affected by unfair trade.

The criteria of material injury to a US company is the usual standard for Washington to launch a trade case and impose punitive duties on a particular import.

"The fact is that the CSeries simply does not threaten Boeing," Bombardier said in a statement.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland echoed Bombardier's lament, saying Ottawa is "deeply troubled by the protectionist nature of Boeings allegations."

Boeing, she said, is seeking to "advance its market dominance by excluding Bombardier's C Series aircraft from the US market.

"It is beyond all reason that Boeing could be threatened with injury in a market segment it exited over a decade ago."

Freeland also called the duties "highly punitive to aerospace workers on both sides of the border," pointing to "a highly integrated production and supply chain" that includes Bombardier parts suppliers in both Canada and the United States.
U.S. government debt yields rose on Wednesday after the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed a sweeping tax bill. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note (U.S.:US10Y) rose to 2.497 percent at 2:50 p.m. ET, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond (U.S.:US10Y) was up at 2.876 percent. Bond yields move inversely to prices. Earlier, the 10-year yield hit a high of 2.503 percent, its highest level since March 20 when the 10-year yielded as high as 2.513 percent. Washington remained the center of attention as Republicans drew even closer to clinching victory on sweeping tax cuts. Yields continued their trek upward Wednesday after both the Senate and the House of Representatives passed one of the largest tax bills in decades. The bill would slash tax rates for businesses while temporarily trimming the tax burden on most, but not all, individuals. "Now that tax reform is almost signed into law, people are looking at the $1.5 trillion increase in the deficit and what that will mean for yields," explained Craig Bishop, vice president of U.S. fixed income at RBC Wealth Management. "If you do get a pickup in growth: what does that mean for the Fed? Does it have to become more aggressive down the road?" But Bishop also stressed that recent moves in Treasury yields are likely due to activity in Germany after the country unveiled a plan to expand the amount of debt it will issue in 2018. German bund yields jumped higher after the news Tuesday, appearing to pull U.S. debt yields along for the ride. The 10-year German bund was last trading at 0.4 percent. "I think going into this move, I would point to the Treasurys' relationship to the bund," said Bishop. "Last summer when Draghi came out with something viewed as hawkish the bund moved upward and Treasurys moved in lockstep." While no major speeches are set to take place by the U.S. central bank, Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari told CNBC on Tuesday that it wasn't the Federal Reserve's duty to protect investors from stock market losses. CNBC's Jacob Pramuk, Patti Domm and Gina Francolla contributed to this report.



More From CNBC


LIVERMORE, Calif., U.S./ CAPELLE A/D IJSSEL, the Netherlands, Dec. 19, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Topcon Positioning Group and Bentley Systems announce the kick-off date of their collaborative Constructioneering Academy initiative. The first session is scheduled for February 13, 2018 in Livermore, California.

Topcon and Bentley have joined efforts to provide opportunities designed to allow construction industry professionals to learn best practices in constructioneering, a process of managing and integrating survey, engineering, and construction data, to streamline construction workflows and improve project delivery.

The courses are designed in a dialogue format to allow Topcon and Bentley personnel to interact directly with attendees to cater the experience for their specific questions and demands, said Ron Oberlander, senior director of Topcon Professional Services. The future of construction automation continues to move forward with constructioneering digital workflows, which make the work of surveyors, engineers, and construction professionals automated, continuous, and continuously more valuable, throughout project lifecycles and beyond completion.

Topcon and Bentleys federated constructioneering technologies enable firms to gain unprecedented digital visibility and insights into their project outcomes, as compared to traditional construction workflows. Attendees of our Constructioneering Academy will learn how their organizations can improve project delivery by leveraging constructioneering technology, methods, and best practices to execute their projects more efficiently, monitor construction performance and progress, and reduce project costs, said Vinayak Trivedi, Bentley Institute vice president.

The Constructioneering Academy will continue with additional sessions throughout learning centers located worldwide designed to reach industry professionals with hands-on training in real-world scenarios and workflows.

To register, visit constructioneering.com.

About Topcon Positioning Group

Topcon Positioning Group is headquartered in Livermore, California, U.S. (topconpositioning.com). Its European head office is in Capelle a/d IJssel, the Netherlands. Topcon Positioning Group designs, manufactures and distributes precision measurement and workflow solutions for the global construction, geospatial and agriculture markets. Its brands include Topcon, Sokkia, Tierra, Digi-Star, RDS Technology, and NORAC. Topcon Corporation (topcon.com), founded in 1932, is traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (7732).

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7824e394-cfa2-432c-9f86-0d95a13453df
Taipei, Taiwan, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Looking for an exceptional PhD program to accelerate your academic career? Academia Sinica, the preeminent research institution in Taiwan, announces that its Taiwan International Graduate Program (TIGP) 2018 fall semester is now open for applications.



TIGP, established with the support of Academia Sinica in 2002, offers highly specialized and interdisciplinary PhD programs in the domains of cutting-edge technologies and science. The program offers an English instruction and research environment, world-class faculty and state-of-the-art facilities. Also, TIGP offers students various benefits, including a monthly stipend of NT$34,000 (about USD $1,100) for the first year (For students who perform well, this stipend will be extended for an additional 2 to 3 years), free Mandarin language courses at the entry level and a convenient fully-furnished dormitory for first year students. Furthermore, through Academia Sinica's substantial connections with first-rate institutions around the world, the TIGP is able to make arrangements for students to visit and conduct research in renowned laboratories. Twelve (12) interdisciplinary programs, in cooperation with 10 top domestic universities, are open for application for the 2018 fall semester. These interdisciplinary programs include: Chemical Biology and Molecular Biophysics, Molecular Science and Technology, Molecular and Biological Agricultural Sciences, Molecular and Cell Biology, Bioinformatics, Nano Science and Technology, Molecular Medicine, Earth System Science, Biodiversity, Interdisciplinary Neuroscience, Sustainable Chemical Science and Technology, and Social Networks and Human-Centered Computing. The application deadline is the 31st of March, 2018, and no application fee is required.

TIGP reflects the enthusiasm and commitment of Academia Sinica to facilitate academic advancement of science and technology. During the current academic year, there are 537 students from 44 countries, making TIGP a truly international community. Every year, many students publish research papers in top scholarly journals and many alumni go on to take up positions in world-renowned institutions. To date, a total of 320 students have completed the TIGP program's rigorous requirements and have obtained PhD degrees.

About TIGP

TIGP, founded in 2002, is a joint-effort between Academia Sinica and leading research universities in Taiwan. TIGP integrates first-class facilities with outstanding faculty to offer interdisciplinary PhD programs across a wide range of disciplines. All courses are conducted in English. After completing the graduation requirements, students receive certificates from Academia Sinica and diplomas from the partner universities, which are all top academic universities in Taiwan.

About Academia Sinica

Funded by the Taiwan government, Academia Sinica is a leading research institution with a proud tradition and international recognition. Since its inception in 1928, Academia Sinica has established outstanding academic records in the domains of physical sciences, life sciences, social sciences and the humanities. Academia Sinicas record of excellence has been widely recognized by many international academic institutions around the world.

Apply online for TIGP before March 31, 2018 via the TIGP online system.

For any questions, please visit the TIGP official website or contact the TIGP Admission Office at: tigp@gate.sinica.edu.tw




QUESTION 7:

Quote:

7. Which of the following best describes the kind of error attributed to Glatthaar in lines 25-28 [In trying to demonstrate the magnitude of this attitudinal change, however, Glatthaar seems to exaggerate the prewar racism of the White men who became officers in Black regiments.]?



(A) Insisting on an unwarranted distinction between two groups of individuals in order to render an argument concerning them internally consistent

(B) Supporting an argument in favor of a given interpretation of a situation with evidence that is not particularly relevant to the situation

(C) Presenting a distorted view of the motives of certain individuals in order to provide grounds for a negative evaluation of their actions

(D) Describing the conditions prevailing before a given event in such a way that the contrast with those prevailing after the event appears more striking than it actually is

(E) Asserting that a given event is caused by another event merely because the other event occurred before the given event occurred

lichting wrote:

Can anyone please give me detail explaination of Q7?

I can locate the relevant information - the "exaggerate" part but still don't know the meaning of option D in Q7. Though I could choose it by eliminating the other options

as soldiers

Quote:

(D) Describing the conditions prevailing before a given event in such a way that the contrast with those prevailing after the event appears more striking than it actually is

First of all, great job using process of elimination! If you've found four wrong answers, then you've found the correct answerGlatthaar suggests that the white officers had "powerful racial prejudices" before the war and that fighting alongside black soldiers during the war changed those prejudices (the black soldiers "fought their way into the respect of all the army"). In other words, Glatthaar suggests that the white officers were very racist before the war and much less racist after the war.But the author suggests that Glatthaar is exaggerating this change. The author says that the pre-war racism of many white officers was not as "powerful" a Glatthaar suggests. Many of those white officers were abolitionists who spent years fighting AGAINST racial prejudice even before the war started. Those officers may have gained respect for the black units, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the officers went from being racist to not being racist. They may not have been very racist before the war even started.Thus, Glatthaar describes the conditions prevailing before the war (i.e. the prewar racism of white officers) in such a way that the contrast with their POST-war racism seems more striking (i.e. more noticeable) than it actually was.

QUESTION 1:

anish823 wrote:

How do we know that its referring to a scholarly study?

Quote:

1. The passage as a whole can best be characterized as which of the following?



(A) An evaluation of a scholarly study

(B) A description of an attitudinal change

(C) A discussion of an analytical defect

(D) An analysis of the causes of a phenomenon

(E) An argument in favor of revising a view

study

thesis

I assume you are referring to the first question...There are many clues from which we can infer that this is a scholarly study. For example, in the first sentence, the author refers to Glatthaar's work as an "excellentof Black soldiers and their White officers in the Civil War." Later in the first paragraph the author says that, "Glatthaars title expresses his" (a "thesis" could surely be the topic of a scholarly study).We are also told that Glatthaar's work "concentrates more intensely on Black-White relations in Black regiments than do any of its predecessors." So while the passage never explicitly refers to the work as a "scholarly study", it is clear that the work examines race relations in the Civil War era. This certainly sounds like a scholarly (or "academic") study.More importantly, choice (A) is better than any of the other choices, which you should try to eliminate using POE.

QUESTION 4:

oasis90 wrote:





4. The passage mentions which of the following as an important theme that receives special emphasis in Glatthaar's book?



(A) The attitudes of abolitionist officers in Black units

(B) The struggle of black units to get combat assignments

(C) The consequences of the poor medical care received by Black soldiers

(D) The motives of officers serving in Black units

(E) The discrimination that Black soldiers faced when trying for promotions



can you please explain why choice A is incorrect? I know why B is correct but I can't find enough grounds to eliminate A. After all, there is a whole parg dedicated to it.

Hi GMATNinja 4. The passage mentions which of the following as an important theme that receives special emphasis in Glatthaar's book?(A) The attitudes of abolitionist officers in Black units(B) The struggle of black units to get combat assignments(C) The consequences of the poor medical care received by Black soldiers(D) The motives of officers serving in Black units(E) The discrimination that Black soldiers faced when trying for promotions

soldiers

mentions

misrepresents

Choice (A) is tempting, but take a second look at the last two sentences in paragraph #2. A White officer is quoted, but these sentences are discussing the attitudes of White, not abolitionist officers. Then, to demonstrate this "attitudinal change..., Glatthaar seems to exaggerate the prewar racism of the White men who became officers in Black regiments."Yes, Glatthaarthe attitudes of abolitionist officers in Black units but only to make a broader point about the shift in attitudes. In doing so, Glatthaar "the attitudes of the many abolitionists who became officers in Black regiments." So the point of the 3rd paragraph is not that Glatthaar gives special emphasis to the attitudes of abolitionist officers. Instead, the point is that Glatthaar's description of their attitudes (i.e. 'virtually all of them held powerful racial prejudices') is misleading.Although Glatthaar certainly mentions the attitudes of these officers, were are not told that Glatthaar gives special emphasis to those attitudes. We are specifically told that Glatthaar appropriately emphasizes "the campaign by Black soldiers and their officers to get the opportunity to fight", so (B) is a much better answer.

QUESTION 5:

Nived wrote:

Can someone explain question 5. It says that Black units' disease mortality rates were especially high because of the nature of these units' usual duty assignments.



According to the passage, Black units served in rear-echelon assignments and worked in labor battalions. So, what exactly was the issue with the nature of "rear-echelon assignments and labor battalions"? I had the impression that the working conditions and hygiene issues were there, but this was not really related to "nature of duty", but more related to the living conditions. Where did I get it wrong.

csaluja wrote:





I was wondering could you please explain why Q5 OA is C? From the passage I was able to infer that Black units' disease mortality rates were high based on the following sentence from the passage "Thus, while their combat death rate was only one-third that of White units, their mortality rate from disease, a major killer in this war, was twice as great". My question is how can we infer the bold part in the following sentence: "Black units' disease mortality rates were especially high because of the nature of these units' usual duty assignments. . I was confused on this latter part and ended up picking the wrong option because I was not able to infer that their mortality rates were high because of the nature of their duty assignments. Could you please help in regards to this? Would greatly appreciate it! Hi GMATNinja I was wondering could you please explain why Q5 OA is C? From the passage I was able to infer that Black units' disease mortality rates were high based on the following sentence from the passage "Thus, while their combat death rate was only one-third that of White units, their mortality rate from disease, a major killer in this war, was twice as great". My question is how can we infer the bold part in the following sentence: "Black units' disease mortality rates were especially high. I was confused on this latter part and ended up picking the wrong option because I was not able to infer that their mortality rates were high because of the nature of their duty assignments. Could you please help in regards to this? Would greatly appreciate it!

Thus

because

because

something

why

something

inherent

nature

suggests

prove

nature

The author tells us that most Black units were kept serving "in rear-echelon assignments and working in labor battalions., while their combat death rate was only one-third that of White units, their mortality rate from disease, a major killer in this war, was twice as great."The use of the word "Thus" allows us to infer thatBlack units were kept in rear-echelon assignments and NOT given as many opportunities to fight (i.e. in the front), their combat death rate was lower. Furthermore,Black units were kept in rear-echelon assignments and working in labor battalions, their mortality rate from disease was twice as great.Even though we don't know what specifically caused the higher disease rates in those jobs, we can infer thatabout working in rear-echelon assignments and in labor battalions increased mortality rates from disease. In other words, we can infer that being assigned to these duties increased your chances of catching fatal diseases.We don't knowthat is true, but we can infer thatabout those duties (i.e. somethingto those duties... theof those duties) made units assigned to those duties more likely to contract fatal diseases. Thus, the passage(though it does not) that the disease mortality rates of Black units during the Civil War were especially high because of theof these units' usual duty assignments.Choice (C) is the best answer.I hope that helps!_________________
By India Today Web Desk: The 16-year-old boy detained by the Central Buearu of Investigation for allegedly killing seven-year-old Pradyuman Thakur at Gugaon's Ryan Internatioanl School will be tried as an adult, the Juvenile Justice Board ruled today.

The juvenile waws apprehended by the CBI on November 7 in a sensational twist to the murder case that made headlines across the country. The Gurgaon Police had earlier arrested a Ryan school bus conductor for Pradyuman's murder.

advertisement

But the CBI, which was handed the probe after immense pressure from Pradyuman's parents, completely junked the local police investigation and turned the case on its head with the arrest of the 16-year-old, who was Pradyuman's senior at Ryan.

Following the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder case in 2012, India's criminal justice laws were amended to allow for juveniles between the age of 16 and 18 to be tried as adults in particularly heinous crimes. The decision of whether a juvenile will be tried as an adult in a particular criminal case is taken by the Juvenile Justice Board after taking the views and reports of multiple agencies and parties.

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: New Delhi, Dec 20 (PTI) India and China will hold the next round of border talks here on Friday, the first after the 73-day-long military standoff between the two countries in Doklam in summer months.

Issuing a brief statement today, the external affairs ministry said at the invitation of Ajit Doval, the National Security Adviser and the Special Representative on the boundary question, Yang Jiechi, State Councillor and Chinas Special Representative on the issue will visit India on December 22 to hold the 20th SR-level meeting.

advertisement

Ahead of the talks, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing that this SR meeting is not only a high-level channel for the border issue discussion but also the platform for strategic communication.

"In 2017, China-India relations have maintained a good momentum generally but the Dokalam incident posed a major test for the two countries. We should learn lessons from this incident to avoid any further conflict of this kind in the future," Hua said.

Chinese and Indian troops were locked in the border standoff from June 16 when Indian soldiers stopped Chinese personnel from building a key road close to Indias chickens neck corridor.

On August 28, India announced the "disengagement" between the soldiers of the two countries.

The road was being built by China in an area also claimed by Bhutan. PTI PYK ZMN

--- ENDS ---
New Delhi, Dec 20 (IBNS): Indian Naval Ships Trikand and Teg are deployed to Oman for bilateral exercise Naseem Al Bahr or Sea Breeze. This exercise is the 11th edition and has been a biennial feature since 1993.

The Indian ships entered Muscat on 16 Dec 17 for the harbour phase.

A Pre-sail conference for the exercise chaired by Executive Officer of the base, Capt Aqeed Rukn Barry, was held at Said Bin Sultan Naval Base, Wudam on 17 Dec 17.

Delegations from Royal Navy of Oman embarked Indian Naval Ship Teg on 18 Dec 17 for briefing on basic Anti-submarine warfare procedures. The Indian Navy ships along with four Royal Navy of Oman ships Al Rasikh, Khassab, Al Mubashir and Al Bushra sailed for the sea phase of the exercise where, for the first time, an Indian Navy submarine as well as the versatile P8I, long range maritime aircraft are participating.

India has an ancient maritime tradition and maritime interaction with Oman dates back to over 4000 years B.C. Bilateral relation between Indian and Oman were formally established with signing of a 1953 Indo-Oman Treaty of friendship, Navigation and Commerce, a first between India and an Arab country. Since then, Naval exercises have contributed to strengthening of bilateral ties between India and Sultanate of Oman.

The first exercise Indian Navy with Royal Navy of Oman was conducted in 1993 and this year marks 24 years of Indian Navy -Royal Navy of Oman bilateral exercises. The signing of an MoU on Defence Cooperation in Dec 2005 and subsequent establishment of the Joint Military Cooperation in Mar 2006 has set the foundation for increased defence cooperation. The naval cooperation between the countries has gradually increased in scope and scale.

Vice Admiral Girish Luthra, PVSM, ASM, VSM, ADC, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Naval Command is visiting Oman from 21 Dec to 25 Dec 17 to witness the ongoing bilateral exercise.




2017 has seen a dramatic increase in violence. The previously unstable regions, such as the center and the north west, have remained very tense. In addition, the entire south-west that had previously been spared by the crisis, is now the worst-hit region, said Christine Muhigana, UNICEF Representative in the country, at the regular press briefing in Geneva.



Children and women are of course the first victims: half of the population in CAR is in need of humanitarian support, that is 2.5 million people, including 1.3 million children.



Currently, 20 per cent of the schools are closed because of insecurity, and those that are open have too many pupils and not enough teachers.



Reports of childrens rights violations are on the rise. In 2017, 50 per cent more documented incidents than the previous year, twice the number of children recruited into armed groups.



Immunization campaigns have been disrupted in several regions due to persistent insecurity, and basic healthcare needs are not met especially in regions where the NGOs are no longer able to operate.



As UNICEF Representative, I am very concerned about the lasting impact this crisis is having on children. We have a whole generation at risk of growing up traumatized, without proper education, without healthcare and constantly exposed to the most horrific violence, she said.



UNICEF has helped provide temporary learning spaces for over 50,000 children in 2017, and plans to do so for 85,000 children in 2018.



The agency also provided support for children released from armed groups to reintegrate into society.



Through a rapid response mechanism, UNICEF has been able to provide non-food items, such as mats, mosquito nets, blankets, and cooking supplies, to nearly 25,000 households and emergency water and sanitation interventions to almost 72,000 people.



At the same time, the agency received only 46 per cent of the funding needed to meet the humanitarian needs this year.



In 2018 the needs are growing: we are going to need every support we can get, if we do not want the children of CAR to be left to a terrible fate, she said.



Photo: OCHA/Yaye N. Sene.



Source: www.justearthnews.com












Toronto, Dec 20 (IBNS): Increased presence of fentanyl in the drugs supply is likely responsible for Canada's increased opioid-related fatalities, with the number of people dying from the cause expected to rise to 4,000 by the end of 2017, far above last year's total of 2,861 opioid-related fatalities, media reports said.

"It's such a toxic drug that there is no second chance," Dr. Theresa Tam, chief public health officer of Canada, was quoted by the media.

"People may die at the first exposure to fentanyl. This is a national public health crisis.First and foremost there is a very toxic drug supply. So we've seen the proportion of fentanyl as part of the opioid-related deaths go up 75 per cent now, and that's increased compared to last year," she was reported as saying.

Illicit fentanyl reportedly accounted for 53 percent of all opioid overdose deaths in 2016.

The hardest hit by fentanyl-related overdose deaths were British Columbia and Alberta but the presence of opioid in the street drug supplies in Ontario also is leading to fatalities.

Tam was reported to say that the fentanyl-contaminated drugs has affected all the provinces and territories and added, "it could hit all other areas of Canada and that's why it's so concerning."

Three-quarters of opioid-related deaths -- according to Public Health Agency of Canada report -- occurred among males, and the highest proportion (28 percent) Canadians aged 30 to 39 succumbed to fatalities..

In spite of the implementation of number of measures to counteract the overdose deaths, including operation of supervised injection sites for drug users with easy access to the rescue medication naloxone, Tam admiited it was too early for those programs to reduce the number of deaths.

Many safe-injection sites, for instance, had only recently begun operating.

"This crisis is really based on some very difficult societal challenges, including stigma to the persons who have problematic substance use and also some of the social economic factors such as homelessness and poverty," Tam said.

"So this is an extremely complex issue and as we move into 2018, we really need the whole of Canada to be prepared."

Collaboration among different levels of government, said Tam, with increased access to treat people struggling with drug abuse is the call of the hour.



(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)

Image: Dr Theresa Tam/Twitter
He added:

Second, have the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights create a special commission of inquiry.

Third, implore President Trump to pay attention to human rights violations by the Ayatollahs. But, we should not forget about their ballistic missiles tests, as a state sponsor of terrorism, and creation of an Iraq that is a virtual satrap of Iran.

Human Rights Day gave the commissioner an occasion to state that enshrined documents like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were and are under assault and must be defended by the major powers. It cannot be left to bodies like the ICC to carry out defense of human rights.

Where is Washington? We are missing in action, AWOL in defense of human rights. Instead, Trump believes national security interests are defined by hard power, instead of soft power, like human rights. This situation is intolerable.

The Ayatollahs regularly respond to disobedience  both when the offense occurs in public or by their so-called citizens, who are in the regimes detention facilities. One notorious one is Evin Prison in Tehran.

The Evidence: 1988 Massacre in Iran

Political prisoners were incarcerated, and eventually killed, at Evin Prison in the 1988 massacres. Some 30,000 dissidents were murdered across Iran, but particularly in Evin. Assassins carried out their deeds under direct orders of then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini. He instructed guards to execute all those who opposed the regime.

After the execution, corpses would be transported in the dead-of-night to one of the numerous mass graves, which came in the form of deeply dug channels, secretly excavated in various isolated locations across the country, areas dubbed by their executioners as The Place of the Damned.

But to this day, little has changed at Evin. Abuses still take place, while the words of human rights activists fall on deaf ears. Rather than denouncing the regime with harsh condemnations it rightly deserves, the world has virtually ignored abuses carried out in its prisons and streets; instead the major powers provide the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) lucrative transactions like the Iran Deal of 2015, rather than hard-hitting sanctions that cut deeply. Fortunately, in July 2017, the State Department designated the IRGC as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Tanter suggested steps for a solution:

First, Trump should revise the National Security Strategy to include human rights as a strategic national interest.

Second, the president should take heed of the words spoken in anticipation of Human Rights Day, on Dec. 7, by the Organization for Iranian-American Communities (OIACUS). It sponsored a session in the Kennedy Caucus Room the Russell Building of the U.S. Capitol. There were welcoming remarks in a video message from the National Council of Resistance of Iran, (NCRI), President-Elect Madame Maryam Rajavi. One of her themes was a need for regime change from within.

Former U.S. officials and sitting members of Congress  Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and John Bozeman (R-Ariz)  spoke against the Ayatollahs.

Another speaker, former speaker of the U.S. House Newt Gingrich, emphasized growing capabilities of the main opposition group in Iran, the NCRI. Its largest unit is the Peoples Mujahedeen of Iran, (PMOI), commonly known as the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq or MEK. Gingrich highlighted lack of moderation anticipated by President Obama and how President Trump needed to accelerate his pressure on the Iranian regime with new sanctions on Tehran.

Former National Security Advisor to President Obama Gen. Jim Jones echoed the remarks of others, in focusing on regime change from within. Jones decried that Obama had not authorized an attack against Assad in Syria, as Trump later did, and thus assisted moderate Syrian oppositionists before they could be defeated by Assad. But now even Trump has begun to turn his back on the dissidents by denying them arms Obama had authorized.

Amb. (Ret.) Lincoln Bloomfield, Jr., closed the briefing with a defense of regime change from within, new sanctions on Iran, and growing capabilities of the NCRI to bring about regime change from within.

Third, Trumps White House speech rolling out his Iran Policy Review does not target Tehrans human rights record and hence to expose the regimes intolerable abuses. A related State Department document only discusses topics, such as nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles, and Iran as a State Sponsor of International Terrorism.

For Trumps national security strategy to truly make a difference, we have no choice but to incorporate consideration for human rights.

Prof. Raymond Tanter served as a senior member on the Middle East Desk of the National Security Council staff in the Reagan-Bush administration, Personal Representative of the Secretary of Defense to international security and arms control talks in Europe, and is now Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan.
Based on the Saudi and American reactions to the previous incidents, the newest attempted strike will presumably be attributed in part to Iran, on the basis of its alleged smuggling of missile components into Yemen by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Iran-backed Lebanese paramilitary Hezbollah. These allegations were made concrete last week, when Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, gave a presentation at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, in Washington, D.C. Her speech was delivered in front of missile components that had been recovered from the previous attacks, and it showcased the evidence of Iranian design that was borne by that equipment.

Naturally, Iranian officials were quick to disregard the content of Haleys presentation. Although little effort was made to contradict the evidence, the Iranian government issued a statement on the same day as the presentation, describing Haleys remarks as baseless allegations. The effort to undermine the presentation and its effects has apparently continued on a daily basis since then.

The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that the Iranian Foreign Ministry had summoned the Swiss envoy to Tehran in order to lodge a protest against the American campaign for coordinated Western policies in opposition to Iranian missile activities. The US and Iran have not had diplomatic relations since the 1979-80 Iran hostage crisis, which developed soon after the Iranian Revolution. Consequently, consular affairs between the two countries are handled through the Swiss embassy.

The AP notes that this diplomatic protest used the phrase uncalculated and baseless to describe the allegations that Haley had presented as being based on undeniable evidence. The report adds that Iran is now demanding that the missile parts be turned over so Iran can subject them to its own investigation. The items used in Haleys presentation were on loan from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two Arab powers who are at the heart of the escalating tensions between Iran and its regional adversaries.

The Yemeni Civil War is a flash point in those tensions, in view of contributions to the war effort from both sides. Although the Iranians deny that their own involvement extends beyond political and spiritual support for the Houthi rebels, there is little international dispute about the transfer of Iranian weapons and other forms of assistance. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is at the head of an Arab coalition that is carrying out a bombing campaign aimed at pushing Iranian influence back out of the Arabian Peninsula.

In the first months after Donald Trump took office as the American president, the efforts to confront Iran in the region primarily consisted only of actions by this Arab coalition and by Israel, each with from the United States. But Haleys presentation represents an ongoing effort by the Trump administration to develop a broader global consensus about the danger that is still posed by Iranian missile activities and regional belligerence, nearly two years after the implementation of the Iran nuclear agreement.

There are growing signs that this public relations campaign is paying dividends in the form of cooperation or expressions of concern from European powers that had previously been eager to explore new trade relations with Iran and to preserve the nuclear deal at practically any cost. This can be seen both in statements from those countries own officials and in the responses from Iranian officials, urging Europeans to defy the US.

Even in dealing with traditional American partners, Iranian rhetoric is often couched in terms of anti-Americanism and a desire to undermine the perceived hegemony of the US and its closest allies. As World Net Daily pointed out on Sunday, a recent column in an Iranian newspaper that is considered close to the office of the supreme leader stated that Iran sees itself as the future head of a new world order to be built on the ruins of the Western world order.

As if to encourage potential European partners to turn away from the existing balance of power, Ali Akbar Velayati addressed the French government via Iranian media on Sunday, as reported by The Iranian. Velayati, a top advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, was quoted as saying, To sustain its international credibility, France should not blindly follow the Americans  The French president is now acting as Trumps lapdog.

This commentary came in the midst of an ongoing shift in tone from the French government, which was among the first countries to pursue new trade with Iran after the implementation of the nuclear agreement, but which is now leading the way in calling for European action to constrain Irans ballistic missile activities.

The issue of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles was not addressed in the text of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action itself, but the United Nations Security Council resolution that accompanied the deals implementation called upon Iran to avoid any work on such weapons. Nonetheless, more than a dozen ballistic missile tests have since been carried out by the Iranians, to say nothing of the Yemeni launches for which Iran seems to be partly to blame.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was in Washington on Monday, where he reiterated that France shares the US governments concerns about these issues, even if the two countries do not see eye-to-eye on the future of the JCPOA or the broader approach to Iran policy.

Le Drian did not limit his commentary to the ballistic missile issue, for which he said that enhanced pressure including the possibility of new economic sanctions would be appropriate. He also acknowledged the larger danger posed by Irans expansionism, as it effects Yemen and other countries in the region.

Irans hegemonic temptations in the region is a matter of urgency because its within the framework of getting peace in Iraq and Syria that we will stop this process, the foreign minister said, as quoted by Reuters.

On Monday, the White House unveiled a new National Security Strategy, which identifies Iran as a leading contributor to instability and insecurity in the Middle East. The document can be expected to further contribute to American efforts at securing European buy-in for policies aimed at pushing back against this and related threats. The effects of these efforts will help to determine where the US stands early in 2018, when the president is required to make a decision on American participation in the Iran nuclear deal.

Also early in 2018, Trumps National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster will unveil a National Military Strategy, which can be expected to provide more detail on how American objectives will be pursued in specific areas such as Iran and Yemen.
There is grounds for serious debate over whether this perception justifies an American pullout of the agreement, which Trump might order in the coming month. Following the decertification, Congress had 60 days to consider whether to re-impose nuclear-related sanctions that had been suspended. But that deadline lapsed last week without action, leaving the president in the position of deciding whether or not to extend the relevant sanction waivers.

Whatever position one takes in that debate, he or she must contend with apparent contradictions in the Iranian regimes own commentary on the JCPOA and its future. On one hand, numerous officials have insisted that they are living up to their bargain; but on the other hand, many have also boastfully suggested that the agreement had little to no impact on Irans nuclear capabilities.

Both of these narratives are used to similar effect in state propaganda. That is to say, they underscore the regimes hardline anti-Western self-image, simultaneously suggesting that the United States is being needlessly aggressive or unlawfully undermining the agreement, and that the agreement itself was a one-sided victory for the Islamic Republic. This latter position is, of course, shared by President Trump, who has called the JCPOA the worst deal ever negotiated.

The irony of this alignment is made more apparent when Iran makes an argument that is similar to that of the Trump administration insofar as it maintains that the other party can violate the spirit of the deal, even without violating its explicit terms. In particular, Tehran has repeatedly blamed the US for the slow pace of Irans economic recovery, asserting that American leaders are obstructing legitimate business relationships between other Western nations and Iran.

Although the US Congress has begun considering legislation that would block or place conditions on the transfers of American-made aircraft and related equipment to the Islamic Republic, the Iranian impulse to blame such measures for the absent recovery is arguably undermined by international assessments of the Iranian economy, including that which was recently released by the International Monetary Fund.

Reuters indicates that that report credited the Iranian economy with moderate growth. But it also noted that the future continuation of that growth is threatened by the absence of bank reform. Such reform is needed in part to bring the Iranian economy into line with the requirements of the Financial Action Task Force, which identifies the threats that are posed to investment by endemic money-laundering and financial crimes.

Tehran has until next month to bring the country in line with these requirements, and President Hassan Rouhani has claimed that it is committed to doing so, according to the same Reuters report.

But Rouhanis message on this point has been undermined by other officials who see such international standards as foreign infiltration of the Iranian economy. Such officials have also contradicted Rouhanis expressions of commitment to and compliance with the nuclear deal, viewed by many hardliners as a similar imposition in spite of its obvious financial benefits to the Islamic Republic.

On this point, Rouhani has even been contradicted by his own administration and by statements that he himself has made on other occasions and in different venues. A Reuters video report highlighted this trend on Tuesday when it quoted the Iranian president as condemning his American counterpart over the JCPOA. How many times have the Americans tried to scrap the deal? he asked in a televised address. We will continue our path, he added. But Reuters also noted that Tehran has said it will tear up the agreement if the US pulls out, regardless of the actions of the other five signatories.

Furthermore, Iranians representing every mainstream political faction have rejected the possibility of further negotiations with the West, which might help to preserve American participation in the JCPOA. As the Trump administration has continued to express its doubts about the agreement and its anxiety about that agreements impact on other Iranian behaviors, some of the JCPOAs defenders have begun to come forward to demand such supplementary negotiations. On Tuesday, a top advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei responded to this trend by describing French President Emmanuel Macron as Trumps lapdog.

Among European nations, France has taken a leading role in echoing the White Houses demands for constraints on the Iranian ballistic missile program. That issue was ignored in the JCPOA but tentatively addressed in a parallel United Nations Security Council resolution, the relevant provision of which Iran has disregarded, citing vague and non-binding language.

At the same time that Iran is both exploiting perceived holes in the nuclear deal and refusing all efforts to fill them, many regime officials also appear to be deliberately fueling the anxieties of Trump and other critics of an arguably weak agreement. For example, Irans Tasnim News Agency, which is affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, recently reported that one senior member of the Iranian Parliament had publicly bragged of the continued growth of Irans capacity for enriching nuclear material.

Our nuclear capability has not declined but, rather, we can continue on this path (of progress in peaceful nuclear technology) powerfully, said Alaeddin Borourjerdi, the chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, during a visit to the Isfahan Uranium Conversion Facility on Monday.

Directly alongside this quotation, Tasnim reiterated the claim that Iran is in full compliance with all its obligations. This claim was supplemented by the state media outlet Fars News Agency in a report that asserted there were no disagreements between the Iranian government and the IAEA over Section T of the nuclear deal, which broadly bars the Iranians from pursuing activities that could lead to the development of a nuclear explosive device, but which specifies no enforcement mechanisms.

The Fars report quotes the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi on this point, but it does not reference any explicit agreements or communications between the relevant parties. Neither does Fars directly acknowledge that IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano personally raised this issue of Section T and its apparent non-enforcement in September.

Taken together, the various Iranian statements on the JCPOA seem to explicitly deny any form of non-compliance while implicitly suggesting that the agreement is either being violated or not fulfilling its stated goals of halting Irans progress toward a nuclear weapon and enhancing regional stability. There is little doubt that these possible contradictions will continue to fuel the debate over the JCPOA in lead-up to Irans decision on sanctions waivers, and perhaps well beyond that point.
Nobody knows what happened to a Uyghur student after he returned to China from Egypt and was taken away by police. Not his neighbors, not his classmates, not even his mother.

Is he dead or alive? the mother asked when an Associated Press reporter visited her home and showed her a photo of her son. Tears ran down her face.

Friends of the student believe that he is one of thousands of people who have been taken away without trial into new re-education centers.

The disappearances began in the past year. They are part of efforts by Chinese officials to use detentions and electronic surveillance to create a police state over the Xinjiang area and its 10 million Uyghurs.

Uyghurs are a Turkic-speaking, mostly Muslim minority. The Chinese government says Uyghurs have been influenced by Islamic extremism.

Police are everywhere in Xinjiang. High-tech surveillance systems track where Uyghurs go, what they read, who they talk to and what they say.

Through rare interviews with Uyghurs who recently left China, government reports, and a visit to southern Xinjiang, the Associated Press reported on a campaign that is meant to remove terror, but is instead causing fear.

Most of the more than a dozen Uyghurs the AP interviewed asked to be unnamed because they feared that Chinese officials would punish them or their family. The AP did not name the Uyghur student or report other personal information in order to protect people from possible punishment.

Strike hard campaign

The Xinjiang government did not answer repeated requests for comment from the AP. The national government describes its Xinjiang security measures as a strike hard campaign. They say its actions are necessary, following a series of attacks in 2013 and 2014. Among them was a mass knife attack at a train station that killed 33 people.

An official from the city of Hotan told the AP, If we dont do this, it will be like several years ago - hundreds will die.

The Chinese government also notes its years of heavy economic investment in Xinjiang, cultural assimilation programs, and preferred college acceptance for Uyghurs.

Officials describe the mass detention programs as vocational training. The training centers on Mandarin, law, ethnic unity, de-radicalization, (and) patriotism. The programs can last from three months to two years.

The AP visited one such center in the southern city of Korla. A sign on the center called it a jail. Another one was along a street blocked off by police.

Southern Xinjiang is one of the most heavily policed places in the world. In Hotan, police stations are set up every 500 meters. Sometimes, groups of more than 40 armored police cars drive down city streets. Police checkpoints on every other city block stop cars to check identification. Police also check citizens smartphones for religious materials.

But much of the policing goes unseen.

Shoppers who enter the huge Hotan market must pass through metal detectors and place their national identification cards on a machine while their faces are scanned.

Police stopped AP reporters outside a hotel in Hotan. The officers said the public security office had been following the reporters movements by watching surveillance camera videos.

One government program appears to have three-dimensional pictures, voice data, genetic material and fingerprints, according to a public security document. The documents full contents remain a secret. However, the AP found at least three contracts that made note of purchase orders for equipment such as microphones and voice analyzers.

China has also used common surveillance methods, such as recruiting people to do the work of spying. A Uyghur businessman from Kashgar who fled China said his four brothers and father were in prison because of his escape. He said that families that were made to spy on one another in his community had also been punished. Members from each family were sent to re-education centers for three months, he told the AP.

Uyghurs now living in other countries say it is too risky to contact their families still in China.

When Salih Hudayar, an American Uyghur graduate student, last called his grandfather this summer, the man told him kindly not to call again. He later heard his grandfather had been sent to a re-education camp.

A Uyghur student who moved to Washington said that after his move, his wife -- a government worker still in Xinjiang -- sent him a message that said the police would show up at her home in 20 minutes. She had to say goodbye. After that, she would permanently remove him from her contacts list.

Later, he couldnt help but make one last call to his home. His daughter answered the phone.

Mom is sick but she doesnt want me to speak to you," she told him. "Goodbye."

Gerry Shih from the Associated Press reported this story. It was adapted by VOA Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.

_________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

surveillance - n. the act of carefully watching someone or something especially in order to prevent or detect a crime

interview - v. to question or talk with (someone) in order to get information or learn about that person

assimilation - n. the process of causing a person to belong to a different society, group, etc.

vocational - adj. relating to the special skills, training, etc., that you need for a particular job or occupation

scan - v. to look at all parts of (something) carefully in order to find some feature.

block - v. to be placed in front of (something, such as a road or path) so that people or things cannot pass through

analyzer - n. something that studies something closely and carefully

recruit - v. to persuade (someone) to join you in some activity or to help you
"They were forced to cross the border for saving their lives from ethnic cleansing," said Turkish PM while speaking of Rohingyas.

By Sahidul Hasan Khokon: Visiting Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildrim today said that the Rohingyas were forced to come to Bangladesh as they were victims of "ethnic cleansing" committed by the Myanmar military.

"They were forced to cross the border for saving their lives from ethnic cleansing," he told journalists after visiting Rohingya camps at Balukhali under Ukhiya upazila here.

advertisement

The Turkish Prime Minister said the international community must work together for ensuring safe return of the Rohingyas to Myanmar. He urged the Myanmar government to take back their nationals soon and ensure their security inside Rakhine state.

Praising the role of Bangladesh government for giving shelter to a large number of refugees on humanitarian ground, Yildrim said "Turkey will remain besides Rohingyas."

A special flight, carrying the Turkish PM, landed at Cox's Bazar Airport around 10:50am. Later, he started for the Balukhali Hakimpara camp.

The Turkish Prime Minister inaugurated a medical camp there and handed over two ambulances. Yildrim talked with Rohingya refugees at the camp.

The Turkish Prime Minister also visited Balukhali Moynarghona Rohingya camp. He was accompanaied by Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali.

Earlier, Turkish First Lady Emine Erdogan, and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu visited Rohingya camps in Bangladesh in September and witnessed the plight of the Rohingya people. Some 650,000 Rohingyas have crossed from Myanmar into Bangladesh since August 25, according to UN figures. Turkish Prime Minister left Bangladesh from Cox's Bazar this afternoon after completing his official visit to Dhaka.

During his visit, he held a bilateral meeting with his Bangladeshi counterpart Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

After the bilateral meeting, the two premiers reiterated their commitment to work closely and support each other on bilateral and international matters and issues of mutual concern including the crisis involving the forcibly displaced Rohingyas of Myanmar.

During his visit, Dhaka and Ankara today signed two memoranda of understanding (MoU) to strengthen economic cooperation between the two countries.

The Turkish Prime Minister also met President Abdul Hamid and reassured Ankara's continued support for Bangladesh in handling the Rohingya crisis and putting sustained pressures on Myanmar to ensure a safe and dignified repatriation of their forcibly displaced people.

ALSO WATCH | Myanmar Muslims a threat to national security: Should Rohingyas be deported?

--- ENDS ---


This is Whats Trending Today 

There is a saying in America that every vote counts. On Tuesday, in the U.S. state of Virginia, the saying appeared to come true.

There were 23,215 votes cast in the city of Newport News on Election Day last month. Voters were choosing between David Yancey and Shelly Simonds as their representative to the Virginia House of Delegates.

Yancey held a small lead of 10 votes going into the recount on Tuesday. After five hours of re-examining ballots, election officials announced the results: 11,608 votes for Simonds and 11,607 votes for Yancey.

By just one vote, Shelly Simonds, a Democrat, appeared to defeat a three-term Republican incumbent David Yancey. Simonds victory would mean Republicans and Democrats now have equal power in the Virginia House of Delegates. The Republican Party has controlled the house for the last 17 years.

Were now 50-50, Virginias Governor Terry McAuliffe told The Associated Press. And we won it by one vote. Dont tell me that every vote doesnt count.

Not so fast.

Virginia law requires the recount to be approved by a panel of judges. On Wednesday, the panel found that one questionable ballot should be counted for Republican David Yancey. That would mean both Yancey and Simonds had 11,608 votes each.

The court declares there is no winner in this election, Judge Bryant Sugg said.

In the case of a tie in a House race, Virginia law says the winner will be chosen by what is known as a coin toss.

And thats Whats Trending Today.

Hai Do wrote this story for Learning English based on AP news reports. Caty Weaver was the editor.

Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

incumbent - adj. holding an office or position

panel - n. group of people with skill, knowledge and experience to make decision

coin toss - n. a practice of throwing a coin in the air while calling "heads" or "tails" to decide on a winner or a decision
Manulife Financial Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides financial products and services in Asia, Canada, the United States, and internationally. The company operates through Wealth and Asset Management Businesses; Insurance and Annuity Products; And Corporate and Other segments. The Wealth and Asset Management Businesses segment provides mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, group retirement and savings products, and institutional asset management services through agents and brokers affiliated with the company, securities brokerage firms, and financial advisors pension plan consultants and banks. The Insurance and Annuity Products segment offers deposit and credit products; individual life, and individual and group long-term care insurance; and guaranteed and partially guaranteed annuity products through insurance agents, brokers, banks, financial planners, and direct marketing. The Corporate and Other segment is involved in property and casualty insurance and reinsurance businesses; and run-off reinsurance operations, including variable annuities, and accident and health. It also manages timberland and agricultural portfolios; and engages in insurance agency, portfolio and mutual fund management, mutual fund dealer, life, annuity, long-term care, and financial reinsurance; and fund management businesses. Additionally, the company holds and manages provides investment management, counseling, advisory, and dealer services. Manulife Financial Corporation was incorporated in 1887 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.
Bancolombia S.A. provides banking products and services in Colombia, Panama, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. The company operates through nine segments: Banking Colombia, Banking Panama, Banking El Salvador, Banking Guatemala, Trust, Investment Banking, Brokerage, International Banking, and All Other. It offers checking and savings accounts, fixed term deposits, and investment products; trade financing, loans funded by domestic development banks, working capital loans, credit cards, personal and vehicle loans, payroll loans, and overdrafts; financial support to real estate developers and mortgages for individuals and companies; factoring; and financial and operating leasing services. The company also provides hedging instruments, including futures, forwards, options, and swaps; and brokerage, investment advisory, and private banking services, including selling and distributing equities, futures, foreign currencies, fixed income securities, mutual funds, and structured products. In addition, it offers cash management services; foreign currency transaction services; life, auto, commercial, and homeowner's insurance products; and online and computer banking services. Further, the company provides project and acquisition finance, debt and equity capital markets, principal investments, M&A, hedging strategies, restructurings, and structured financing; money market accounts, mutual and pension funds, private equity funds, payment and corporate trust, and custody; internet-based trading platform; inter-bank lending and repurchase agreements; managing escrow accounts, and investment and real estate funds; and transportation, securities brokerage, maintenance and remodeling, and outsourcing services. As of December 31, 2021, it operated 1,015 branches; 28,676 banking correspondents; 529 PAMs; 210 kiosks in El Salvador and 187 in Colombia; and 6,094 ATMs. Bancolombia S.A. was incorporated in 1945 and is headquartered in Medellin, Colombia.
Oh man.

Goods news? She's normal.

Bad news? She's normal.

So, if a child is growing and developing in a healthy way, there is no way she is going to stay polite. NO WAY. That's not what humans do...children are messy and loud and very very impolite.

And she is a toddler...

I am going to give you this advice and just hang on to your hat....

Stop proceeding with life as usual (for now). Dinner needs to look like a soup or stew made at another time so that you can sit and play with her (for now). Chores may need to be pushed to another day or time (for now).

I keep writing for now because when I give this advice, everyone grasps pearls and says, "Meghan, I am going to make my child into a BRAT if I give into her..."

No, you won't.

Is your daughter going to cry and whine and will you still have to do other things, like pee and change the baby? Yes!

But I am asking you to zoom out and find a way to fulfill her needs (and change your routine...FOR NOW).

This WILL get better, but you are in an acutely tough time in your parenting life. Make a short list of what you can change (I ate rotisserie chicken for three years when the kids were little...it saved our lives).
According to the data released by Twitter India, between December 1 and 18, there were nearly two million mentions in relation to the Gujarat assembly elections. Find out the detailed list here.

By India Today Web Desk: The Gujarat assembly elections was a much talked about political event of 2017. From Congress President Rahul Gandhi's new innings to the anti-incumbency wave in PM Modi's home state, the conversation revolved around many political and developmental issues.

One could sense the electoral fever on Twitter as well with nearly two million mentions on Twitter in relation to the Gujarat assembly elections over the past 2.5 weeks. After measuring the activity on a few hashtags related to the state elections, Twitter India has come up with a list of people and topics that were the most talked about.

advertisement

Twitter India found out that between December 1 and 18, PM Modi was the top mentioned political figure and Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani was the most mentioned election candidate.

In the category of most mentioned political figure, Rahul Gandhi was the second most mentioned politician followed by BJP President Amit Shah and PAAS leader Hardik Patel.

Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani 's popularity was left unmatched as there was a 252 per cent increase in his followers in three months. From 11,815 followers in September, the number went up to 41,000.

Photo: Twitter@misskaulA??

Photo: Twitter@misskaul

In this election, Twitterati focused on the issue of 'development' as it was among the most talked about topics. The others include religion, Hindutva, demonetisation and GST . Users used the hashtag #GujaratElection2017 the most to tweet about the state elections.

Moreover, just like on the ground, it was a close fight between BJP and Congress on Twitter as well. While BJP's Twitter handle @BJP4India accounted for 38 percent mentions, Congress won this online battle with 42 percent of the conversations.

Photo: Twitter@misskaul

This active participation came not only from India but according to a "heatmap" of election tweets, users in south east Asia, southern Australia, east coast of the US, and UAE.

Photo: Twitter@misskaul

--- ENDS ---
The British navys newest and most expensive aircraft carrier needs repairs after a faulty shaft seal was identified during sea trials. Officials say the HMS Queen Elizabeth, which cost roughly 3 billion pounds (USD4 billion) to build, will be scheduled for repair at Portsmouth. Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson said yesterday the repairs wouldnt be paid for by taxpayers because contractors who built the ship would be responsible. A Royal Navy statement says the problem wont prevent the ship from sailing or interfere with the extensive sea trials program underway. Queen Elizabeth II earlier this month attended the commissioning ceremony of the carrier, which is named after the monarch.

Greece: Lawmakers to vote on 2018 austerity budget

Greek lawmakers are to vote on the countrys 2018 budget, which includes further austerity measures beyond the official end of Greeces third international bailout next summer. The budget promises Greeces international lenders continued belt-tightening measures and high primary budget surpluses  the budget balance before debt and interest payments are taken into account. Greeks will see new tax hikes and pension cuts over the next two years. Bailout lenders had demanded additional guarantees the Greek economy will be stabilized before considering measures to improve the debt repayment terms.

Germany: Survivors remember Berlin attack

Survivors and dignitaries are commemorating the anniversary of the attack on a Berlin Christmas market in which 12 people were killed and dozens injured. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leading figures joined relatives and victims for an interreligious service yesterday at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the heart of west Berlin. Berlins mayor Michael Mueller unveiled a memorial featuring the names of those killed by an Islamic extremist who drove a stolen truck into the crowded market on the Breitscheidplatz. The attacker was killed in a shootout with Italian police days after the Dec. 19, 2016, attack.
As part of Sands Chinas Local Small, Medium and Micro Suppliers Support Programme, two local SMEs contracted by Sands China are currently holding roadshows at the back-of-house areas of Sands Macao, The Venetian Macao, Sands Cotai Central, and The Parisian Macao.

The roadshows are part of Sands Chinas commitment to further support local procurement and SME growth by offering more business opportunities to local small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), micro-enterprises, young entrepreneurs, and Made-in-Macao enterprises.

Between December 18 and 29, local SME suppliers China Product & Special Production Co. and Pure New Zealand Product Shop are displaying close to 80 types of products to Sands Chinas 28,000 team members, offering them at a discounted price.

Roadshows like these are held regularly for Sands China team members.

They benefit SMEs by giving them access to potential customers, while giving Sands Chinas team members a chance to enjoy discounted offers.

Audi recalls over 52,000 cars; fuel lines can leak

Audi is recalling more than 52,000 luxury cars in the U.S. and Canada to fix fuel lines that can leak and increase the risk of a fire.

The recall covers certain A6 and A7 cars from the 2012 through 2014 model years.

The Volkswagen luxury brand said in government documents that the fuel lines have a compression point to make them easier to install. But over time, that point can weaken and may leak fuel.

The documents posted yesterday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration say the cars were made between Jan. 25, 2011 and Sept. 13, 2013. Audi says no fires or injuries have been reported.

Owners will be notified starting Feb. 5. Dealers will replace the faulty fuel lines.
China unveiled its plan for a national carbon market, creating the worlds biggest trading system for the climate-warming emissions.

The market will initially involve only the power sector, National Development and Reform Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Yong said yesterday at a briefing in Beijing. While thats a pullback from a previous plan to include eight industries, Chinas market will still be bigger than the European Unions system, encompassing 1,700 companies and about 3 billion metric tons of emissions. Zhang didnt give details on when trading will start.

The worlds biggest carbon emitter wants to use a market-based system to help it cap emissions by about 2030. The nation is also making big bets on clean-energy projects to help reach its goal of deriving 20 percent of its energy from sources other than fossil fuels by that year.

The introduction of carbon trading in China is yet another powerful sign that a global sustainability revolution is underway, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who has championed efforts to cut fossil-fuel use, said in a statement. With the top global polluter enacting policies to support the Paris Agreement and transition to a low carbon economy, it is clear that were at a tipping point in the climate crisis.

The Paris Agreement on climate change in 2015 brought together some 200 nations, including the U.S. and China, in calling for limits on fossil-fuel emissions worldwide. The goal was to help meet the UNs target of holding global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius. President Donald Trump has vowed to pull the U.S. out of the accord, and is pursuing policies to encourage burning more coal.

Chinas system will adopt a cap-

and-trade rule in which the biggest corporate polluters purchase credits from those that dont emit as much, and companies are encouraged to reduce their emissions so they can sell unused allocations. Companies that emit more than 26,000 tons of carbon annually will be included in the market, though that threshold might be lowered at some point, according to the NDRC.

The nation is pressing ahead with a trading plan as similar strategies in the European Union and elsewhere have struggled. The EU was the first to require carbon permits, in 2005, only to see the price plunge in part because participating nations handed out too many allowances for free.

Australia repealed its carbon tax in 2014 and scrapped plans for permit trading after the measures were blamed for destroying jobs. But carbon markets in various forms are in place in California, New Zealand and South Korea, where theyre attempting to learn from others mistakes.

China has been running pilot programs since 2013 in some regions, where transaction values totaled 4.5 billion yuan (USD680 million) as of September, Li Gao, an official of the climate-change department at the NDRC, said at a briefing in October. The agency said yesterday that companies that qualify for the national system will stop participating in the pilot projects.

The carbon market is expected to be fully functional by 2020, according to almost half of 260 industry participants in a survey conducted by China Carbon Forum, ICF International Inc. and SinoCarbon Innovation & Investment Co. between March and July. Forty-four percent anticipate that will happen between 2021 and 2025.

The average carbon price is forecast to be 74 yuan per metric ton in 2020, almost double the 38 yuan estimated in 2017, according to the survey. By 2025, the price may surge to 108 yuan a ton. Bloomberg
The Chinese government yesterday criticized U.S. President Donald Trumps decision to label Beijing a strategic rival and called on Washington to accept Chinas rise.

Trumps decision reflects a victory of hardliners in his administration, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It warned that U.S.-Chinese economic relations were likely to face even more pressure and challenges.

Trumps report yesterday (Macau time) hit a series of sore spots for Beijing. It affirmed ties with Taiwan, the self-ruled island the mainland claims as its territory, and pledged to re-energize our alliances with Southeast Asian governments, some of which have conflicts with China over claims to portions of the South China Sea.

The United States and China share one of the worlds biggest trading relationships and cooperate in areas from clean energy to public health. But Beijing sees Washington as an obstacle to its ambitions to be East Asias dominant power, and strains over Taiwan, trade, technology policy and the South China Sea are growing.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington called on the U.S. government to discard old thinking.

It is selfish to put your national interest above other countries interest and the mutual interest of the international community. It will lead the United States to isolationism, the embassy said in a statement.

The Chinese side is willing to have peaceful coexistence with all countries of the world including the United States on the basis of mutual respect, it said. The United States should also adapt and accept Chinas development.

U.S. officials are uneasy about Beijings rising military spending  already the worlds second-highest behind Washington. They see the Belt and Road Initiative, a multibillion-dollar project to build railways and other infrastructure across dozens of countries from Asia to Europe and Africa, as part of efforts to diminish American influence and nurture a China-centered political structure.

Especially sensitive is Taiwan, the democratic island Beijing has declared a core interest over which it will go to war, if necessary.

Trumps report promises to maintain our strong ties with Taiwan and provide for its legitimate defense needs.

China has taken a tougher stance toward Taiwan since last years election of President Tsai Ing-wen, who has refused to endorse Beijings contention that Taiwan is part of the Chinese nation. Chinese commentators speculate on the possible need for military steps to put pressure on Tsai.

After Trump signed a law this month that opened the way for U.S. Navy ships to visit Taiwan, a Chinese diplomat quoted by state media said the mainland would attack the day that happened.

Trumps report doesnt change Washingtons official stance but might aggravate tensions if Taiwanese who want formal independence see it as sign of U.S. support and want to take advantage of it, said Xiong Zhiyong, a U.S. relations expert at China Foreign Affairs University.

The Chinese government is also anxious, said Xiong, adding that the Chinese diplomats remark is a warning out of real worry that something may happen unexpectedly.

On Monday, Chinese warplanes flew around Taiwan in what the military said was a test of their ocean combat ability. Taiwans defense ministry said Japan launched fighter planes to track the Chinese aircraft, but the Japanese government would not confirm that.

Trumps report promises to re-energize our alliances with governments including the Philippines and Vietnam, which have conflicting territorial claims with Beijing in the South China Sea. It also pledges to expand military cooperation with India, a country Beijing sees as a rival.

The report emphasized economic security and repeated complaints that China steals technology and uses economic inducements to persuade other governments to serve its strategic interests.

It proposes restricting visas to prevent intellectual property theft by foreigners, particularly Chinese, who travel to the United States to study science, engineering, math and technology.

Foreign business groups in China report that companies are increasingly frustrated with market barriers and other restrictions they say violate Beijings free-trade promises.

The report is another abrupt turn in Trumps stance toward Beijing, which has veered between blistering criticism on trade and currency and optimism about cooperation on North Korea and other problems.

China seeks to displace the United States in the Indo-Pacific region, expand the reaches of its state-driven economic model, and reorder the region in its favor, the report says.

In April, Trump announced that he was setting aside complaints about trade and currency in hopes of winning Chinese cooperation on North Korea. U.S. officials resumed criticizing Beijing in July.

Trump switched back to friendly overtures during a visit to Beijing in November. He said the two sides could solve most of the worlds problems if they cooperated.

The Global Times, a newspaper published by Chinas ruling Communist Party, said the report reflects Washingtons reluctance to accept the reality of Chinas rise.

Given the huge size and strength China has formed, it is impossible for the United States to restrain China, said the newspaper, which is known for its nationalistic tone. As China continues to grow and its influence continues to spill over, this is the root cause of Washingtons anxiety. Joe McDonald, Beijing, AP
The new president of the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC), Cecilia Tse, took office yesterday, noting that one key element of her leadership will be the improvement of the ICs administrative transparency. Tse was previously the vice-president at the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO).

Give us some time. We will surely share with you [the public], regularly and frequently, details about our work regarding its progress and implementation, declared Tse.

Before she was sworn in yesterday, Tses ability to serve as the leader of IC was questioned, due to her lack of experience working within the organization.

In response Tse said, I understand that we all have different concerns. But I believe that all government departments have great protection measures towards Macaus cultural specificities. [] Even though I worked in a different department, I also defend Macaus cultural heritage.

Tse added that she has participated in works related to the promotion of Macaus cultural heritage.

I disagree with the idea that just because [someone] has always been working in the IC, [that person] has an inclination toward cultural protection and a passion for culture.

Regarding her work agenda, Tse noted that Lai Chi Vuns cultural heritage evaluation has already begun. Her department will report the results to the public once the evaluation has been concluded.

The evaluation is undergoing. It is being done in the same fashion as all of Macaus previous evaluations, explained Tse. However, she remarked that no schedule can be announced to the public at the present moment.

Tse disclosed yesterday that in 2018, a series of forums and exhibitions will be organized as measures to build Macau as a platform between China and Portuguese-speaking countries.

When talking about the ICs future recruitment, the cause of the recent post shuffle, Tse expects to simplify the administration.

The number of ICs employees is indeed not small. [] To assess whether we can have a bigger effect based on current human resources is a requirement I [have] assigned myself, said Tse, who also noted that after a review [of ICs recruitment], I will make a report on the ICs recruitment [methods].

When asked about the candidates for vice president of the IC, Tse asked the public to give the IC more time to make the decision. She then noted that the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Alexis Tam, has already confirmed that Leong Wai Man, head of the Department of Cultural Heritage of the IC, is one of the candidates.

Tse made a few remarks on Macaus cultural heritage protection, saying we will follow, as always, the instructions of the cultural heritage laws, and we will coordinate with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in order to perform well in terms of cultural heritage protection. There is a lot of work for us to do on how to establish a balance between cultural heritage protection and urban development.
The vice chairman of political party Third Side, Caspar Wong, was denied entry to Macau, Hong Kong media reported. According to RTHK, Wong has demanded an explanation from Macau authorities after he was barred at the ferry terminal.

Wong left Hong Kong for Macau yesterday to attend a financial forum on FinTech (see p8). But he said he was denied entry by immigration authorities who told him he posed a threat to the citys security.

Wong told HK Free Press that it was his first time to be barred from Macau and speculated that it could be related to the citys 18th Handover anniversary today. He said he was able to enter the city on September 28  a few days before Chinas National Day  and usually enters Macau a few times every year.

However, Wong said he was puzzled by the decision, as Third Side is a moderate political party.

Several members of Hong Kongs pro-democracy camp have been refused entry into Macau in recent months, ostensibly for the same reason, RTHK remarked.
Didi Chuxing, the ride-hailing giant that vanquished Uber Technologies Inc. in China, is turning to franchising in Taiwan as it expands its business beyond the mainland.

Didi plans to only operate as a taxi hailing platform in Taiwan and is seeking to work with existing drivers that its recruiting through its Facebook page. The recruitment is being done by LEDI Technology Co., which is the authorized franchisee in Taiwan, the company said in a statement.

While San Francisco-based Uber has taken its business around the world, Didi has been more cautious as it focused on shoring up its grip on ride-sharing in China. The Beijing-based company has a USD50 billion valuation and raised more than $5.5 billion earlier this year, giving it cash to compete aggressively in foreign markets as it also builds capabilities in artificial intelligence and driverless cars.

LEDI is conducting market research and exploring extensive community partnerships in Taiwan, Didi said in the statement yesterday. There is no definitive timeline at this moment.

Didi hasnt yet applied for a license for its Taiwan business, the Taipei-based Economic Daily News reported Tuesday, citing an unidentified official from the transport ministry.

The steps taken by the Chinese company are a contrast to Uber, which halted Taiwan operations in February amid opposition from the government and local operators. It later returned to the market after agreeing to work with taxi companies.

Taiwanese lawmakers and the taxi industry have been effective in getting the worlds most valuable startups to comply with local rules. Fines for illegally transporting passengers can be as much as NTD25 million ($834,000), among the highest penalties faced by the company anywhere in the world. Uber reportedly racked up NTD1.1 billion in fines in January alone.

Didi has only slowly expanded beyond its home market. In Hong Kong it offers some specialist services, such as sedans taking passengers across the border to Shenzhen. Bloomberg
A fire outbreak, believed to be arson, occurred yesterday at a hardware store located on R. de Martinho Montenegro.

The case was reported to the Fire Services Bureau (CB) at around 4:32 p.m.

After their arrival at the scene, the firefighters extinguished the fire within four minutes.

Two people  the female owner of the store and a male customer who had sustained severe injuries  were sent to the hospital.

One of the stores employees reported the case to the fire services.

According to the CB, the employee said that he had heard quarrels right before the fire outbreak occurred.

The CB said that the shop was closed when they arrived at the scene, and that the firefighters had to break in to rescue the people inside and put out the fire.

One of the firefighters sustained a light injury. JZ
A new study published in the Review of Economic Studies finds that Rhode Island's 6-year prostitution decriminalization policy increased the size of the sex market, but it also appears that during this period both rape offenses and female gonorrhea incidence declined dramatically.

Prostitution prohibition is mostly due to moral concerns, though disease transmission and victimization risks associated with sex markets are also policy concerns. For example, the 1992 National Health and Social Life Survey showed that 23% of female sex workers report they have ever had gonorrhea compared to 4.7% for females who have never been paid to have sex. Given the average sex worker sees 200-300 clients per year, and men have a 20% risk of getting the infection from a single act of vaginal intercourse with an infected woman, while women have a 60-80% risk of getting the infection from a single act of vaginal intercourse with an infected man, the spread of disease is a significant public health concern. Sex market related violence is also common. The incidence of rape and homicide victimization is extremely high for women engaged in prostitution.

Most governments around the world, including the United States, prohibit sex work; knowledge about the impact of decriminalizing sex work is largely conjectural. But between 2003 and 2009 Rhode Island unexpectedly decriminalized indoor sex work.

The aim of this paper was to provide quasi-experimental estimates of the causal effect of decriminalizing indoor prostitution on the composition of the sex market (supply and price), population sexually transmitted infection outcomes, and reported female rape offenses. The researchers focused on reported rape offenses and gonorrhea incidence due to the high association each has with prostitution.

All evidence suggests that a 2003 District Court judge's decision, which caused the de facto decriminalization of indoor sex work, was due to the court's discovery that a May 1980 amendment to the General Laws of Rhode Island had created an inadvertent legal loophole decriminalizing indoor sex work. But in rewriting the statute, the amendment removed certain key phrases that addressed the commission of the act of prostitution itself, rendering prostitution itself effectively legal in the state.

The de facto decriminalization of indoor prostitution became policy in late 2003 when District Court Judge Bucci dismissed charges against a group of massage parlor employees arrested and charged with "loitering for the purposes of street prostitution," arguing that Rhode Island's existing law did not apply to indoor prostitution in Rhode Island. Police became powerless to arrest prostitutes or their customers inside massage parlors.

Indoor prostitution was ultimately re-criminalized in November 2009, but for approximately six years, Rhode Island was the only state in the US with unbridled, decriminalized indoor prostitution, and prohibited street prostitution.

The study used six unique datasets: crime arrests and reported rape offenses from the Uniform Crime Reports; gonorrhea cases from the Centers for Disease Control'sGonorrhea Surveillance Program; data on sex worker and transaction characteristics from a popular website called The Erotic Review; weekly classified advertisements from the "adult services" section and restaurant advertisements from The Providence Phoenix ; sexual behavior outcomes from the 1992 National Health and Social Life Survey; and state level covariates from the Current Population Survey.

The outcomes of interest in this paper were not only prostitution relatedresearchers used population level sexually transmitted disease rate outcomes and reported rape offenses. This allowed the researchers to draw conclusions about the impacts of decriminalization as they relate to the population at large, not just sex workers. They estimate that approximately 5 to 50 percent of the decline in gonorrhea was from sex workers, with the rest coming from the general female population in Rhode Island.

The results of the study indicated that decriminalization reduced sexual violence by 30 percent. Decriminalization also improved public health outcomes by decreasing female gonorrhea incidence by more than 40 percent.

Researchers estimated that that approximately 5 to 50 percent of the decline in gonorrhea could be from female sex workers. The rest was likely from non-sex workers. While researchers could not perform similar estimates for rape offenses, they believe that some proportion of the decrease in rape offenses came from non-sex workers. Sex workers are more likely to report rape after decriminalization, so the fact that researchers discovered an overall decrease suggests that non-sex workers are part of this decrease.

More sex in the population, even among sex workers, may reduce a sexually transmitted disease epidemic if the marginal sex worker has lower background risk or engages in safe behaviors that dilute the risk in the sexual network.

The effect of decriminalization on rape is complex and unclear. Decriminalization will increase sexual violence if violence is an increasing function of the number of women employed in the market, but decriminalization could also result in safer work spaces since firms might be more willing to invest in security due to well-defined property rights after decriminalization. Sex workers may also be more willing to cooperate with police following decriminalization of prostitution.

"Recently big organizations like Amnesty International and the Lancet Board have come out in favor of decriminalizing sex work. This paper presents important causal evidence that doing so would improve public health outcomes and reduce violence against women," said one of the paper's authors, Manisha Shah, an associate professor of public policy at UCLA. "We think this is a big finding in a world where good empirical evidence has historically been limited."

More information: "Decriminalizing Indoor Prostitution: Implications for Sexual Violence and Public Health", Review of Economic Studies (2017). "Decriminalizing Indoor Prostitution: Implications for Sexual Violence and Public Health",(2017). DOI: 10.1093/restud/rdx065
Older people lack support from their communities towards the end of their lives, with many becoming progressively more socially isolated before their death. Both older people and their families and whanau require support which is tailored to match the diversity of our ageing population.

People living in aged residential care facilities are particularly at risk of being isolated from their communities, University of Auckland research by the School of Nursing has found. The results of the study, What is the role of community at the end of life for people dying in advanced age? A qualitative study with bereaved family carers, has recently been published in Palliative Medicine.

Lead author Professor Merryn Gott says the demand for end of life care is only going to increase, so it is important to explore the role community play, especially as we approach the festive New Year season.

"It is not health professionals, but rather family and friends, who provide the majority of care when someone is approaching the end of their lives. The support they require may be best found within 'compassionate communities' where we all have a role to play in supporting them.

"Our study shows there's a need to build social networks around people who are dying and their family carers. It also indicates that such strategies must be flexible. Many people in advanced age want to develop reciprocal relationships with their community. Like most of us, they want to give of their time and talents. They have so much to offer."

The research, a three-year study titled "Te Pakeketanga: Living and Dying in Advanced Age," was based around in-depth interviews with Maori and non-Maori. It was funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand and conducted by the Te Arai: Palliative Care and End of Life Research Group, which Professor Gott leads.

Following the interviews, the researchers found it varied how much the older people had been involved in their communities of place, interest and identity throughout their long lives. Some had been central figures who occupied leadership roles for different political, social and cultural groups. Others were described as 'not sociable' and their social networks did not appear to extend beyond their immediate family or whanau.

All the older people described in the study had smaller social networks at the end-of-life period.

"This was most poignantly described in accounts of funeral attendance," Professor Gott says. "Friends and peers had already died, so not many were left to mark their passing. As a result, some older people decided not to bother with having a funeral."

Dr. Tess Moeke-Maxwell, (Ngai Tai, Ngati Porou) lead field researcher for the project, added that older Maori who had maintained their tribal connections were more likely to have been given a tangihanga (customary funeral) by their whanau and iwi.

More information: Merryn Gott et al. What is the role of community at the end of life for people dying in advanced age? A qualitative study with bereaved family carers, Palliative Medicine (2017). Merryn Gott et al. What is the role of community at the end of life for people dying in advanced age? A qualitative study with bereaved family carers,(2017). DOI: 10.1177/0269216317735248
By PTI: By Lalit K Jha

Washington, Dec 20 (PTI) The US and Canada will next month co-host a meeting of foreign ministers from around the world, including India, to discuss North Koreas nuclear threat and ways to improve the effectiveness of the current pressure campaign against the reclusive nation.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and his Canadian counterpart Chrystia Freeland made the announcement during their meeting in Ottawa yesterday. The meeting will take place on January 16.

advertisement

"With the convening of what were calling the Vancouver Group in mid-January, this is a convening of foreign ministers from the original sending states that were involved in the original Korean conflict.

The Vancouver Group include Australia, Belgium, Britain, Colombia, Ethiopia, France, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand and Turkey.

"But we also obviously are including other important parties ? the Republic of Korea, Japan, India, Sweden, and others, who we think are important to have engaged in this meeting," Tillerson told reporters.

The participating countries at the level of foreign minister will be discussing how to improve the effectiveness of the current pressure campaign, Tillerson said.

"Are there other steps that could be taken to put additional pressure on the regime in North Korea, and how do we further take our diplomatic efforts forward?A And then how do we prepare for the prospects of talk?" he said.

North Korea this year increased the pace of its missile programme. Since February, Pyongyang has fired off 23 missiles. On November 29, the North Korean leader said that his country had achieved full nuclear statehood after what he said was the successful test of a new missile capable of striking anywhere in the United States.

Fears of a catastrophic conflict between the US and North Korea spiked as the leaders of the two nations taunted each other, with the US President Donald Trump calling North Korean leader Kim Jong-un Rocket Man.

The pressure campaign is intended to lead to talks, Tillerson said, adding that the US led international community cannot talk unless North Korea is ready to talk.

"And I think as weve indicated, were waiting for them to indicate a readiness to talk. But what?s important for North Korea to know is that this pressure campaign will not abate. We will not be rolling any of it back. It will only be intensified as time goes by. It will remain in place until they agree to give up their," Tillerson said.

Freeland said the meeting would demonstrate international solidarity against North Koreas dangerous and illegal actions.

advertisement

"We will use this gathering as an opportunity to advance our work on diplomatic efforts towards a more peaceful, prosperous, and nuclear-free future on the North Korean Peninsula and to demonstrate international solidarity in our condemnation of North Koreas actions," she said.

Freeland said the pressure on North Korea would increase until its behaviour changes.

"Were confident that this campaign of international pressure will lead to the best outcome for the whole world, I think the only outcome for the whole world, which is a diplomatic path to a resolution of this crisis, a diplomatic path to the outcome that I think we all believe in, which is a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula," she said in response to a question. PTI LKJ NSA

--- ENDS ---
Sticker shock may be leading many insured Americans with cancer to forego treatment with a wide range of oral cancer drugs, suggests a study published online this week in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, the findings point to high out-of-pocket costs as a barrier to potentially life-saving or life-prolonging treatments. As breakthroughs in cancer care continue, the study raises questions about whether patients will able to take advantage of new treatment options.

The study used a large database of prescription claims to track more than 38,000 people in the U.S. who received a new prescription for one of 38 oral cancer medications from 2014-2015, to see whether patients filled the prescription after it was approved by their insurance. All insurance types were included, including Medicare.

The researchers found that 10 percent of patients failed to pick up their prescription when they were required to pay less than $10, but this jumped to 32 percent among those who were charged $100-$500 and to nearly 50 percent among people whose out-of-pocket costs were more than $2,000. This was true even after taking other relevant factors into account, including type of insurance, pharmacy, and patient characteristics such as age and health status. There was no evidence that patients began treatment with the oral medications over the next three months, and so they were considered to have "abandoned" their prescription.

The relationship between high out-of-pocket costs and prescription abandonment remained consistent for all cancers, even for conditions where treatment can significantly extend life. When patients with higher out-of-pocket costs did fill their prescriptions, they were more likely to be delayed in doing so. Prior research has shown that insured people with other medical conditions often delay, interrupt, or discontinue their medications when faced with high out-of-pocket costs, but the authors say it's especially concerning to see this pattern with life-threatening cancers

"Patients in our study were facing a new cancer diagnosis or a change in their disease that required a new treatment. Imagine leaving your doctor's office with a plan, ready to start treatment, only to find you can't afford it," said lead author Jalpa A. Doshi, PhD, a professor of General Internal Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and director of Value-Based Insurance Design Initiatives at the Leonard Davis Institute's Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics. "It adds more stress at what is already a stressful and scary time."

The advantages of oral medications include simpler administration and convenience, since they do not require a visit to the hospital or doctor's office (as is the case with older, intravenous chemotherapies). Yet oral drugs are typically covered under a separate pharmacy benefit, with more of the medication's cost often passed on to the patient through coinsurance that requires patients to pay a percentage of the cost rather than a fixed copayment. Complete payment is also due up front, instead of patients receiving a bill after their treatment session. These factors increase the risk of delayed access or treatment abandonment, the researchers said.

The study also examined whether patients who abandoned their prescription went on to initiate any other cancer drug in the same drug class in the following three months, including intravenous therapies. They found that few did.

"This shows the importance of discussing financial barriers up front, during conversations about treatment options, even with patients who don't raise concerns," Doshi said. "Patients may not be aware of how expensive their prescriptions will be, and physicians may not realize that a patient has opted not to fill the prescription."

One in eight patients in the study had out-of-pocket costs higher than $2,000, but patient obligations at that level have become even more common in the years since the data were captured. The commercial insurance market continues to trend toward high deductible health plans and use of higher coinsurance. Such high out-of-pocket prescription costs are typical for most Medicare patients at the beginning of the year, unless they receive low-income subsidies.

In light of these trends, the researchers illustrated what would happen if study patients' out-of-pocket costs shifted to a higher cost category. They found that if patients currently responsible for $50-$100 per prescription were to be charged $100-$500 instead - all other things being equal - abandonment rates would be expected to double.

"Our results highlight the pressing need for all stakeholders - including manufactures, pharmacy benefit managers, payers, and policy makers - to identify fiscally sustainable strategies to improve patient access to cancer medications," the researchers wrote.
(HealthDay)More than one in three elderly Americans describe themselves as lonely, and the holidays can be especially isolating for them, geriatric experts warn.

"Loneliness is a significant issue among older adults, robbing them of their ability to live vibrant, independent lives as they age," said Dr. Sonja Rosen, chief of geriatric medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Group in Los Angeles. "But it doesn't have to be this way."

Rosen and her colleagues said health care providers often neglect to proactively raise the question of loneliness with their elderly patients. And such patients often fail to raise it themselves, either out of pride or embarrassment.

But younger family members can help break the ice and ease the isolation by making contact with their older relatives, stopping by to spend time, sharing a meal or engaging in any number of hobbies.

Getting seniors involved in accessible (and often free) local programs is another way to help reconnect them with their community. Libraries, museum outings, religious centers and exercise facilities are ideal venues for such efforts, Rosen's team suggested in a Cedars-Sinai news release.

Geriatricians are another resource waiting to be tapped, both for elderly medical advice and for tips on activity resources targeted to seniors.

One geriatrician, Dr. Elizabeth Whiteman, said in the news release, "We want our older adults to maintain mobility and have more momentum in their lives. We want them to preserve their independence and continue living where they want to live."

More information: There's more on aging at home at the There's more on aging at home at the U.S. National Institute on Aging

Copyright  2017 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Credit: Wikimedia Commons

In 1968, when there were no techniques to observe how the brain worked in vivo, the neurologist Norman Geschwind discovered that a region of the temporal lobe in deceased persons, the planum temporale, was larger in the left than in the right hemisphere. As in most of the population, language processing is located in that hemisphere, so the neurologist proposed that asymmetry was an indicator of the lateralization of that function.

Almost 50 years later, a team of researchers from the European MULTI-LATERAL project has used magnetic resonance imaging to study brain areas in vivo and has refuted that theory. The anatomical asymmetry of the planum temporale that hosts auditory functions is not a marker of the lateralization in the left hemisphere of language functions.

In the research, published in Brain Structure & Function, 287 adults, right-handed and left-handed, participated. "It is the first study with such a large sample of individuals and includes the entire range of language variability implemented in the brain," explains Nathalie Tzourio-Mazoyer, head of the Neurofunctional Imaging Group at the Institute of Neurodegenerative Diseases of the University of Bordeaux (France) and principal author of the work.

In most of the participants, the left hemisphere was specialized in language processing, but the opposite was true in a minority, in whom the right side was in charge of these functions. They all performed several tasks while the researchers analyzed their brain activitydescribing an image with a sentence and listening to phrases and lists of words. No evidence showed that this region of the left hemisphere was a marker of tasks related to language, but there was a local correlation between the anatomical asymmetry and the functional asymmetry during the auditory processing of speech.

"This study shows that the largest leftward asymmetry of the brain is not a marker of the leftward lateralization of language functions in humans," says the researcher.

In the few participants who processed language with the right hemisphere, the results were the same, not inverted as might be expected, which reinforces the hypothesis of the researchers. "The results of the study show that the planum temporale does not explain the rare but strong individual variability of the language domain that exists in humans and, therefore, cannot be considered as a marker of language asymmetry at individual level," they write.

The European MULTI-LATERAL project in which the study is framed tries to give answers to these and other questions related to the lateralization of language, a process that develops up to eleven years.

"MULTI-LATERAL has been in operation for about 18 months and for most of the time, different teams in Spain, France and the Netherlands have been collecting and processing data sets," explains Clyde Francks head of the Human Neurogenetic Group of the Max Planck Institute of Psycholinguistics and project coordinator to Sinc.

More information: Nathalie Tzourio-Mazoyer et al. Is the planum temporale surface area a marker of hemispheric or regional language lateralization?, Brain Structure and Function (2017). Journal information: Brain Structure and Function Nathalie Tzourio-Mazoyer et al. Is the planum temporale surface area a marker of hemispheric or regional language lateralization?,(2017). DOI: 10.1007/s00429-017-1551-7
Hydrocephalus, an abnormal build-up of cerebrospinal fluid within the brain, is typically treated by surgically placing a shunt to continually drain cerebrospinal fluid into the abdomen, protecting the brain from excess pressure. However, shunts nearly always fail over time and must be replaced, requiring emergency neurosurgerywhich is not readily available in many areas. A randomized trial in today's New England Journal of Medicine shows good results with an alternative, potentially one-time operation called endoscopic third ventriculostomy with choroid plexus cauterization (ETV/CPC).

"There are many advantages to avoiding lifelong dependence on a shunt," says neurosurgeon Benjamin Warf, MD, at Boston Children's Hospital, the study's senior author. "But one important unanswered question has been whether ETV/CPC is as good for infant brain development as placing a shunt."

ETV/CPC was pioneered by Warf 17 years ago while serving as a medical missionary in Uganda, where shunt failures often are fatal. It is a two-part procedure: ETV uses an endoscope to create an opening that allows trapped cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to escape from the brain cavities known as ventricles, while CPC uses an electrical current to burn off some of the fluid-producing tissue.

Cognitive outcomes: shunting versus ETV/CPC

The NIH-funded study randomized 100 infants at the CURE Children's Hospital of Uganda who had hydrocephalus as a result of a neonatal nervous-system infection. Fifty-one were randomized to ETV/CPC, and 49 to shunt placement. All were under 6 months of age (average age, 3.25 months).

At 12 months, the group randomized to receive a shunt had lower CSF volumes, as expected, but there was no significant difference between treatment arms in regard to brain volume or cognitive scores (measured by the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, administered by trained evaluators who were unaware of treatment assignment).

"Others have suggested that shunts are a better treatment in regard to neurologic development or brain growth, but we found this was not the case, despite the fact that shunts cause more of a decrease in the ventricle size," says Warf.

After one year, treatment had failed in 18 patients randomized to ETV/CPC and 12 patients randomized to shunts, which was not a statistically significant difference. The researchers will continue to follow the infants to learn their two- and five-year outcomes; previous studies suggest that after this early period, failures of ETV/CPC are uncommon.

"We were surprised that there was no significant difference in treatment failure at 12 months, because ETV/CPC is expected to have a higher short term failure rate, whereas shunts tend to fail more over time," says Warf. "We expect that there will be no further ETV/CPC failures, which nearly all occur within six months, but that the shunts will continue to fail as we follow this cohort."

Although this study was limited to infants with post-infectious hydrocephalus, prior research by Warf's group has shown that ETV/CPC can also prevent the need for a shunt in most infants with other causes of hydrocephalusincluding brain hemorrhage from prematurity, spina bifida, aqueduct stenosis, encephalocele and Dandy-Walker malformation.

The current study had some limitations: It was performed at a single center that has developed expertise in ETV/CPC, and it did not have enough statistical power to rule out small differences in outcomes aside from cognitive scores. Also, infants in both groups tended to have lower developmental scores due to the original brain infection.

"We will continue to follow these children, but the results further raise our level of confidence in recommending ETV/CPC as the initial treatment for most infants with hydrocephalus," says Warf. "In the hands of trained surgeons, the operation provides an opportunity to avoid a lifetime of shunt dependence."

Warf, a 2012 MacArthur Foundation fellow, spends much of his time training other surgeons in the ETV/CPC technique. The training will soon be aided by a highly sophisticated, anatomically accurate mannequin developed with the help of special effects artists.
Bacteriophages, or simply phages, are viruses that infect and replicate within bacteria, and they hold considerable potential for combatting antibiotic-resistance and other threats to human health. Timed with the hundredth anniversary of their discovery, a new review published in the British Journal of Pharmacology examines the challenges and opportunities of developing phages as health-promoting, commercially-viable biopharmaceuticals.

In the review, Amanda Forde, PhD, and Colin Hill, PhD, of the APC Microbiome Institute at University College Cork, in Ireland, note that phages have complex relationships with bacteria in the gut that could affect health and disease. "Through an intricate 'predator-prey' strategy, phages have the ability to alter the microbial balance within an ecosystem, and given that they are the most abundant biological entities on earth, it would be odd to ignore or underestimate their power and potential," said Dr. Forde. She explained that phages outnumber their bacterial prey by a factor of 10 to 1, and that they have been proposed as the agents of change in recipients of faecal microbiota transplantations used to treat resistant or recurring bowel disease.

"We tend to think of phages as nature's 'nano-machines', self-assembling complex biological survival machines capable of replicating faster than any other biological agent," said Dr. Hill. "They are highly diverse, highly dynamic, and highly specific to their targets, and as antibiotic-resistant 'superbugs' continue to emerge around the world, they may be among our best allies in the future."

Despite having been discovered a century ago, their use in clinical therapy continues to encounter several challenges. "One of the challenges lies in the fact that more than 90% of phage populations are as yet unidentified, and therefore considered to be the 'dark matter' of the biological world," said Dr. Hill. "Coupled with manufacturing challenges, regulatory hurdles and the need for clinical validation, the path to pharma may seem long, but researchers are heading in the right direction."

Phages were used for more than 75 years as therapy in Eastern Europe, but they fell out of favour in the western world when antibiotics were discovered. They are now becoming attractive again because of the rise in antibiotic resistance. A unique selling point is their host specificity, meaning little or no collateral damage to neighbouring ('good') bacteria, and they do not drive the development of resistance in non-target bacterial species.

"Whilst regulated phage therapy may take some time, it has been highly successful in recent 'compassionate' cases where patients' lives were on the line," said Dr. Forde. "But for regulated interventions, we need to play the waiting game as more genomic, physiological, pharmacological, and clinical data are gathered. And wait we will."

More information: Amanda Forde et al, Phages of life - the path to pharma, British Journal of Pharmacology (2017). Journal information: British Journal of Pharmacology Amanda Forde et al, Phages of life - the path to pharma,(2017). DOI: 10.1111/bph.14106
'We have shown that African teams in one of the poorest countries can eliminate human rabies through mass vaccination of dogs. What is needed next is additional funding and a concerted political will,' said Jakob Zinsstag from Swiss TPH, an epidemiologist and veterinary public health expert and first author of the proof-in-concept study on human and animal rabies by Swiss TPH in Science Translational Medicine. Credit: Swiss TPH, photograph by Christian Heuss

Rabies is a viral disease that kills tens of thousands of people every year, predominantly in Africa and Asia. The disease is transmitted through the bites of infected dogs and foxes. In West- and Central Europe, rabies was eliminated some 20 years ago. Switzerland was declared free of rabies in 1999 after implementing a strategy targeting foxes.

"If you want to prevent humans from dying from rabies in Africa and Asia, you need to eliminate dog rabies," said Jakob Zinsstag from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), first author and principal investigator of a study in Science Translational Medicine. Swiss TPH, together with collaborators in Europe and in Africa, demonstrated the proof-of-concept that elimination of rabies is feasible. "We have shown that African teams in one of the poorest countries can eliminate human rabies through mass vaccination of dogs. What is needed next is additional funding and a concerted political will," said Zinsstag, an epidemiologist and veterinary public health expert.

The investigation was carried out in N'Djamena, the capital of Chad where 1.1 million people live alongside some 30,000 dogs. In 2012 and 2013, 20,000 dogs were vaccinated each year against rabies. Hence, more than 65% of the city's estimated dog population participated in the intervention, "an excellent coverage rate," said Zinsstag. "We mobilised the neighbourhood chiefs and they in turn mobilised the people and their dogs."

A model African-European collaboration

Swiss TPH is a world-leading institute in the field of human and animal health - increasingly known as "One Health" - and maintains a productive collaboration with Chad dating back to the 1990s. Swiss TPH collaborated with a public-private partnership in Chad, namely the Centre de Support en Sante Internationale (CSSI) and the Institut de recherche en elevage pour le developpement (IRED). An additional player was the Laboratoire Central Veterinaire (LCV) in Bamako, Mali.

For the genetic analyses of collected rabies viruses, Swiss TPH was supported by the ETH Zurich in Basel, Switzerland, and by the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France. At Swiss TPH, an interdisciplinary team was estab-lished with expertise in molecular diagnostics, mathematical modelling and veterinary epidemiology. "The mathematical modelling shows that the reproductive number, that is the number of secondary infections for one rabies-infected dog, fell under one, hence transmission is interrupted, and a molecular analysis shows that the circulating strains disappear," said Zinsstag and Nakul Chitnis, a co-investigator at Swiss TPH.

Further insights through phylodynamics

The study is one of the first research projects to apply a rigorous phylodynamic method to dog rabies, and hence, it expands upon the normative phylogenetics (i.e. assessing the genetic relatedness of virus strains) with the dynamics of transmission over time. This made it possible to calculate the reproductive number of rabies among the dogs after the first mass dog vaccination in 2012.

"Dog rabies was likely re-introduced through the import of dogs by humans from outside N'Djamena after the rabies elimination had been achieved," Zinsstag explains.

The phylogenetic analysis supports this finding, since the sequence of nucleoprotein of the new viruses showed a different genetic structure. "The molecular method ascertained the results put forth by the mathematical model through an independent approach," said Zinsstag. "Therefore eliminating rabies is not a technical problem, but a matter of political will and sufficient financial resources."

The Swiss TPH study was financially supported by the UBS Optimus Foundation in Switzerland (vaccine, epidemiological field work and laboratory investigations). The Chadian government covered other costs (logistics and personnel).

Towards elimination of rabies in Central and West Africa

Eliminating dog mediated human rabies by 2030 is part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). "It will be a formidable challenge to reach this SDG goal by then, but we can prevent people from dying from dog-transmitted rabies," said Zinsstag. "Our study provides an important proof-of-concept for the Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC) and the Pan-african Rabies Control Network (PARACON) that rabies elimination in Africa indeed can be achieved."

As a next step, Swiss TPH and its partners plan to extend mass dog vaccination against rabies across Chad. "We have calculated that with 28 million euros, it would be possible to eliminate rabies throughout the country. However, an important challenge is migration: once Chad is free from rabies, the disease might be re-imported from neighbouring countries such as Cameroon and Sudan. We therefore need a concerted Pan Central and West African approach, led by the Economic Unity of West African States ECOWAS and the African Union.

This would bring along the additional benefit of promoting peace through cooperation." Zinsstag estimates that in order to free Central and West Africa from rabies, the costs would amount to around 1 billion euro over a 20-year period.

One Health rabies research at Swiss TPH

Swiss TPH maintains a West African research network in the field of human and animal health based on an excellent collaboration with many African partners, such as CSSI in Chad and the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Cote d'Ivoire (CSRS), among others. Swiss TPH pursues a two-pronged approach with the overall aim of eliminating rabies in humans: eliminating dog rabies and making post-exposition prophylaxis accessible to all people in West and Central Africa. For this last approach, Swiss TPH collaborates with the Global Vaccine Alliance (GAVI).

One Health is, in Zinsstag's own words, the "added value of a close collaboration of human and animal health. If medical experts and veterinarians work together more closely, they can improve health to a greater extent than they could alone."

The concept of One Health was instigated by the veterinary epidemiologist Calvin W. Schwabe in the 1960s. Swiss TPH has developed the scientific theory behind it as well as the associated teaching and training. For instance, Swiss TPH developed the first massive open online course (MOOC) in One Health, which is now being offered in its second year.

More information: J. Zinsstag el al., "Vaccination of dogs in an African city interrupts rabies transmission and reduces human exposure," Science Translational Medicine (2017). J. Zinsstag el al., "Vaccination of dogs in an African city interrupts rabies transmission and reduces human exposure,"(2017). stm.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/  scitranslmed.aaf6984 Monique Lechenne et al. Operational performance and analysis of two rabies vaccination campaigns in N'Djamena, Chad, Vaccine (2015). DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2015.11.033 Journal information: Science Translational Medicine , Vaccine
(HealthDay)Patients with various rheumatic diseases have an increased risk of dementia, according to a study published online Dec. 15 in the International Journal of Rheumatic Diseases.

Kuan-Ting Chen, from Chung Shan Medical University in Taichung, Taiwan, and colleagues extracted data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database to examine the correlation between rheumatic diseases and dementia. A total of 10,180 cases with dementia and 61,080 controls were recruited during 2000 to 2010 and matched by age, gender, and index date.

The researchers found that among females, there was a significantly higher risk of dementia in Sjogren's syndrome (SS), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and osteoarthritis (OA); for males, there was a significantly higher risk of dementia in SS, psoriatic arthritis (PsA), and OA. A significant difference was demonstrated in SLE and OA among the younger group (aged 40 to 64 years) and in SS and OA among the older group (aged 65 years).

"In this population-based case-control study, we found that patients with rheumatoid arthritis, SS, SLE, PsA, and OA are significantly associated with a higher risk of dementia than those without rheumatic diseases," the authors write. "We hypothesized that inflammation and medications are two possible mechanisms."

Copyright  2017 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Cisplatin (appearing in green) in the stria vascularis of a mouse inner ear. Credit: National Institutes of Health

Scientists have found a new way to explain the hearing loss caused by cisplatin, a powerful drug used to treat many forms of cancer. Using a highly sensitive technique to measure and map cisplatin in mouse and human inner ear tissues, researchers found that forms of cisplatin build up in the inner ear. They also found a region in the inner ear that could be targeted for efforts to prevent hearing loss from cisplatin. The study is published in Nature Communications, and was supported by the National Institute on Deafness and other Communications Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes of Health.

Cisplatin and similar platinum-based drugs are prescribed for an estimated 10 to 20 percent of all cancer patients. The NIH's National Cancer Institute supported research that led to the 1965 discovery of cisplatin and continued development leading to its success as an essential weapon in the battle against cancer. The drugs cause permanent hearing loss in 40 to 80 percent of adult patients and at least half of children who receive the drug. The new findings help explain why cisplatin is so toxic to the inner ear, and why hearing loss gets worse after each treatment, can occur long after treatment, and is more severe in children than adults.

"Hearing loss can have a major impact on a person's life," said James F. Battey, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., director of NIDCD. "Many adults with hearing loss struggle with social isolation and depression, among other conditions. Children who lose their hearing often have problems with social development and keeping up at school. Helping to preserve hearing in cancer patients who benefit from these drugs would be a major contribution to the quality of their lives."

Lisa L. Cunningham, Ph.D., chief of the NIDCD Section on Sensory Cell Biology, led the research team, which included scientists from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). Support for data analysis was provided by Electro Scientific Industries, Inc., of Bozeman, Montana.

In most areas of the body, cisplatin is eliminated within days or weeks after treatment, but in the inner ear, the drug remains much longer. Previous research focused on why the inner ear is more sensitive than other parts of the body to cisplatin-induced damage. The NIH team pursued a new angle on the problem: What if the inner ear is not able to get rid of cisplatin, and cells in the inner ear important for hearing die because they are exposed to the drug for a long time?

The team developed a mouse model that represents cisplatin-induced hearing loss seen in human patients. By looking at inner ear tissue of mice after the first, second, and third cisplatin treatment, researchers saw that cisplatin remained in the mouse inner ear much longer than in most other body tissues, and that it builds up with each successive treatment. They also studied inner ear tissue donated by deceased adult patients who had been treated with cisplatin, and observed that cisplatin is retained in the inner ear many months or years after treatment. In addition, when they examined inner ear tissue from one child, they found cisplatin buildup that was even higher than seen in adults. These results suggest that the inner ear readily takes up cisplatin, but it has very little ability to remove the drug.

In mice and human tissues, the research team saw the highest buildup of cisplatin in a part of the inner ear called the stria vascularis, which helps maintain the positive electrical charge in inner ear fluid that certain cells need to detect sound. The research team determined that the accumulation of cisplatin in the stria vascularis portion of the inner ear contributed to cisplatin-related hearing loss.

"Our findings suggest that if we can prevent cisplatin from entering the stria vascularis in the inner ear during treatment, we may be able to protect cancer patients from developing cisplatin-induced hearing loss," said Cunningham.

More information: Andrew M. Breglio et al, Cisplatin is retained in the cochlea indefinitely following chemotherapy, Nature Communications (2017). Journal information: Nature Communications Andrew M. Breglio et al, Cisplatin is retained in the cochlea indefinitely following chemotherapy,(2017). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01837-1
As many as 88 percent of human trafficking victims in the United States interact with a health care professional while they are being exploited. These professionals' ability to recognize the signs of human trafficking and intervene appropriately, however, is lacking due to an absence of training.

A new medical school curriculum to fill this training gap has been proposed and tested by researchers from the University of Louisville, Harvard University and the University of South Florida. Their research is published this month in Medical Education Online.

The paper, "Medical education and human trafficking: using simulation," explores the use of a patient simulation training module incorporated into the third year of medical school.

Human trafficking is a public health crisis in the U S, and victims are consistently under-recognized by health care providers (HCPs), the authors write. The National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline documented 8,042 cases of reported trafficking in 2016. U.S. studies of trafficking survivors show that anywhere from 25 to 88 percent of these victims interact with an HCP during the time they are being exploited by traffickers.

"One survey shows that 63 percent of HCPs - including physicians, nurses, social workers and physician assistants - did not have training on how to identify and intervene in human trafficking situations," said Olivia F. Mittel, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics at UofL and Norton Children's Hospital who is a co-author of the paper. "Providers must be educated about the issue of trafficking, including how to recognize it in the clinical setting."

To meet this need, the UofL School of Medicine created a simulation-based medical education curriculum to prepare students to recognize victims and intervene on their behalf. Known as the Medical Student Instruction in Global Human Trafficking, or M-SIGHT, the program utilizes online learning, medical documentation and standardized patient-based simulation to prepare students to see the signs of human trafficking.

"We want to ensure that all students receive the training," Carrie A. Bohnert, M.P.A., director of the standardized patient program at UofL, said. "Every medical student, regardless of their chosen specialty, must be able see human trafficking when it presents and intervene for the victim."

M-SIGHT begins with a forensic medicine lecture to impart basic facts about human trafficking, among other topics, Mittel said. Later, students have a standardized patient simulation case in which an adolescent female patient presents with classic symptoms of a sexually transmitted disease as well as common characteristics of victims of human trafficking: poor eye contact, reluctance to communicate with the physician, inconsistencies in what she communicates, tattoos that could suggest branding and evidence of physical abuse.

The goal of the simulation is not to force intervention on the patient but rather to build trust. "We want the students to exercise the principles of adolescent communication that are taught as part of the medical school curriculum," Bohnert said.

Mittel outlined these principles: "They are trauma-informed care - which is health care delivered with an understanding of what patients experiencing trauma need - and ensuring confidentiality, asking non-judgmental and open-ended questions, and gradually progressing from the less invasive questions to more direct questions."

The simulation concludes with feedback from the standardized patient participant and documentation by the learner. The students then complete an online module developed by the authors that assesses knowledge gained and re-introduces definitions of human trafficking and trauma-informed communication techniques.

The initial project was implemented over a 16-month period and the authors are now evaluating the data collected from the students. They intend to share an analysis of the curriculum's efficacy in the future. For now, they want to encourage other medical schools to implement anti-trafficking education and training.

"There is a wide array of methods for creating human trafficking simulations, and it is our hope that the description of our process will inspire others to create similar interactive educational programs," Mittel said. "The ultimate goal, of course, is to help human trafficking victims receive both the health care they need and interventions that stop their exploitation."

More information: Hanni Stoklosa et al, Medical education and human trafficking: using simulation, Medical Education Online (2017). Hanni Stoklosa et al, Medical education and human trafficking: using simulation,(2017). DOI: 10.1080/10872981.2017.1412746
In Germany 62 percent of those who have been subjected to domestic violence are migrants, among them migrants of Russian and Turkish origin, editor-in-chief of the Berlin-based der Freitag newspaper Simone Schmollack said during a meeting with Armenian journalists in Berlin.

According to the German police statistics, 127,500 cases of domestic violence were registered in 2015 and 133,000 last year. Eighty percent of the victims are women, and 20 percent are men. Meanwhile, 89 percent of those who committed violence were men.

Simone Schmollack said the issue of domestic violence was silenced in the past, but now it has more media coverage. Violence may also apply to men, but women are more involved, the newspapers editor said.

Talking about the nature of violence against women, Schmollack says that there is a myth in the German society as if a woman is guilty of everything: her behavior, the clothes she is wearing are provoking violence.

Prejudices are deeply rooted in the society, she said.

Editor of the German newspaper wrote a book about domestic violence and recorded that immigrant women more often become a victim.

Nevertheless, according to German experts, violence is not linked to social conditions, finances, education. There are cases when act of violence was registered in a family of a professor.

It's always connected with the desire to rule, there is no equality in such relationships, she added.

Women's Council Berlin chairperson Isabel Merculen notes that 80 percent of those detained for domestic violence in Berlin are men. They may face a fine or an imprisonment for up to one year.

According to German lawyer Anna Katrina Wolfe, there are calls in the society to toughen the punishment. A particularly difficult problem is the accuracy of the evidence. Both the perpetrator and the victim are called to the court so that the judge could listen to their opinions.

Asked by the Armenian News-NEWS.am correspondent, whether the evidence could be falsified, the lawyer replied that the evidence should be recorded to keep the information in order to appeal to the court.

Tempelhof-Kreuzberg Regional Court is the largest institution in Germany to investigate family relationships. About 20,000 cases are examined in this court yearly. Judge Ulrich Nordhoff emphasized that the prospect of becoming a temporary homeless is diminishing domestic violence.

The trial usually lasts three weeks, in emergency cases it can be immediately decided if a woman's life is in danger, he added.

A judge in family affairs cannot make a judgment on criminal cases.

According to the judge, huge responsibility falls on the police, there is an authorized officer in every department who is undergoing a special training.

In practice, the deported men are sheltered by their friends, and in many cases women welcomes her partner back.
By PTI: (Eds: Recasts overnight story)

By Lalit K Jha

Washington, Dec 20 (PTI) The US cannot tolerate a nuclear armed North Korea, Americas national security advisor has said, asserting that such a development would pose a grave security threat to the countries in the region and the world.

President Donald Trump last month declared North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism, a move that allows the US administration to impose additional sanctions on Pyongyang over its nuclear and missile programmes.

advertisement

North Korea had launched an intercontinental ballistic missile which travelled about 1,000 km before splashing down in the Sea of Japan, within Japans exclusive economic zone.

"I dont think we can tolerate that risk. The world cant tolerate that risk. I mean, if North Korea has a nuclear weapon, I mean, who are you going to try to prevent getting one? Look at the behaviour of this regime, the hostility of this regime to the whole world," US National Security Advisor Lieutenant General H R McMaster told CBS News yesterday.

The United States, he said, is applying maximum pressure to North Korea to convince Kim Jong-Un that this is a dead end, this pursuit of nuclear weapons and an intercontinental ballistic missile -- long range ballistic missile which of course poses a grave danger to the whole world.

"So what youve seen is an effort led by the President worldwide really though to isolate that regime, to cut off not just what is restricted by the current national -- the current UN Security Council resolutions but to do more," he said.

Trump has asked all nations to cut off all trade with this rogue regime which has never met a weapon it didnt use or proliferate or sell to somebody else, the NSA said.

"You saw that with the cyber attacks you just discussed and you saw it with the murder of Kim Jong Uns brother in a public airport with a banned nerve agent. So this is a regime that cant get this - this destructive capability," he said.

McMaster said Trump wants all nations to do more. It just doesnt make sense that Russia would increase trade and alleviate any pressure on the North Korean regime.

"Of course, North Korea poses a grave direct threat to all nations including China and Russia, but what happens when North Korea gets this capability?

"What if other nations in the region arm in this way and thats going to be even more destabilising and of course, as I mentioned, North Korea has never met a weapon it didnt try to sell to somebody else," McMaster said.

advertisement

Responding to a question, McMaster said this is not the time to hold talks with the North Koreans.

"What he means is, there cant be negotiations under these current conditions. The north has to show initial steps toward denuclearisation and the reason for this is previous approaches to negotiating with North Korea have failed miserably," he said.

"What the regime does is they enter into negotiations, all the while they continue these very destructive programmes, these talks often times end in a weak agreement and then North Korea immediately violates that agreement.

"The problem is now that their programmes have advanced so far we dont have time to do that again and so we cant repeat the failed pattern of the past," the top official said.

McMaster said Russia and the US should cooperate on North Korea.

"Theres no way that a nuclear armed North Korea is in Russias interest and the President made that clear to President (Vladimir) Putin on the phone call," he added. PTI LKJ ZH CPS

--- ENDS ---

advertisement
YEREVAN.  The flow of information presented by Yavar Jamalov, the Minister of Defense Industry of Azerbaijan, was intended for the domestic audience.

Armenian military analyst Arkadi Grigoryan expressed such a view commentingat the request of Armenian News-NEWS.amon the aforesaid Azerbaijani ministers recent statements in an interview with media outlets.

At first glance, the volume of the numbers voiced by the Azerbaijani minister is impressive, said Grigoryan. However, in essence, all this information is nothing new.

Most likely, by giving such a flow of sincerity to readers, the minister had an objective of choking the reader, to make an impression with quantity, not quality.

Probably, the ministers objective was to show how well he works. And the target is the Azerbaijani authorities and society, correspondingly, since there was talk before that they are dissatisfied with him, that he did not justify hopes.

And when asked about the attempts by Azerbaijan to create its own drone, the analyst noted that this topic is not new either.

In fact, its no secret that Azerbaijan doesnt produce drones by itself, but purchases [them] from Israel, he explained. They only assemble [them] in Azerbaijan.
Prime Minister of Finland: Europe is now too reliant on Chinese technology

Turkey to require insurance from oil tankers when passing through its waters

EU to provide Ukraine with generators and kits to repair power grids

Turkey sentences sect founder to 8,658 years in prison

Xi Jinping urges world to abandon any Cold War mentality

Aliyev rules out talks with Artsakh State Minister

FP: Ukraine's appetite for weapons depletes Western stocks

Putin and Aliyev discuss energy cooperation

Armenian financial technologies to enter international market: VISA and Idram sign memorandum in Yerevan

Incident in Poland causes disagreement between Kyiv and West

Mark Milley urges Kyiv and Moscow to find political solution: Chances of military victory are unlikely

New NATO Secretary General to be announced at Vilnius summit in 2023

Finnish Defense Ministry announces largest batch of military aid to Ukraine

Pashinyan receives Ukrainian businessmen of Armenian origin

Armenian soldier wounded in Azerbaijani shooting

Erdogan: Turkey-Israel relations entered a new phase of development

Mishustin: Cooperation between Moscow and Baku has become truly strategic and allied

Igor Khovaev to visit Baku

Mishustin arrives in Baku

Russian Foreign Ministry: South Caucasus is a strategic transport hub for Eurasia

U.S. general lays flowers at eternal flame at Armenian Genocide memorial

Republicans stand for same-sex marriage rights

Pallone says US State Department should not hesitate to speak about Azerbaijani aggression

Aliyev refuses to discuss Nagorno-Karabakh and threatens Armenia with new aggression

Greek minister doesn't get off plane to meet head of Libya's presidential council

Sergey Lavrov to visit Yerevan

Lebanese parliament fails to elect president of country

Kremlin on Zelenskyy's proposal to hold 'public' talks

National Assembly Speaker: Armenia is extremely interested in establishing strategic relations with Georgia

Canada provides additional military aid to Ukraine

Representatives of defense agencies of CSTO countries discuss crisis response issues

Armenian Defense Minister and American General discuss defense cooperation

Tehran accuses Israel and West of trying to organize civil war in Iran

Oppositionist: No guarantees that war with Azerbaijan can be avoided

Issue of biometric passports to Armenian citizens is temporarily suspended

Armenia-Azerbaijan peace agreement to be signed till end of year? Pashinyan's associate voices conditions

Erdogan says Russia and US agreed to refrain from using nuclear weapons

Azerbaijani oppositionist complains of torture by police

Kyaram Sloyan and Andranik Zohrabyan posthumously bestowed 'Hero of Artsakh' title

UN Secretary General Guterres welcomes parties' agreement on renewal of food deal

Eurasian Development Bank: Armenia is the leader among EEU countries in terms of economic growth

Greece promises to continue military support to Ukraine

Number of appeals from Azerbaijan to ECHR is growing

Pashinyan: The wheel of processes related to confiscation of illegal property is spinning

Fire hits Baghdad airport

North Korea fires ballistic missile towards Sea of Japan

Istanbul agrees to extend 'grain initiative' for another 120 days

'Hayastan' Fund to build 6 residential houses in Nerkin Khndzoresk village

Vocal as Russophobic propaganda: Azerbaijani singer sings about 'disgusting peacekeepers'

Biden congratulates Republicans on winning majority in House of Representatives

14 freight cars derailed in Kazakhstan, train traffic suspended

Newspaper: Ruben Vardanyan does not hurry to make changes in composition of Karabakh government

Russia attacks Ukraine with missiles in morning: Explosions heard in Dnieper, air defense works in Kyiv region

U.S. National Security Council: It is clear that the party ultimately responsible for this tragic incident is Russia

Gold prices decline

Russian Trade Representative to Armenia: Situation at Upper Lars checkpoint is not related to geopolitical issues

Trade Representative of Russia: Trade turnover with Armenia sets new record

Copper falls in price

Gas explodes in Fatih district of Istanbul, 10 people injured

Oil prices go down

Meteorite that fell in Britain contains key information about how oceans and life formed on Earth

Gamer drinks 12 energy drinks in ten minutes and ends up in hospital

Chinese customs officers accidentally find cockroach unknown to science

Man removes cobra's teeth with manicure pliers and gets arrested

Sweden to provide Ukraine with new military aid worth $287 million

Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania meet conditions for joining Schengen zone

Oil prices may reach $120 a barrel and stay at this level for 2 years

Zelenskyy receives 'signals' that Putin wants direct talks

Security Service of Ukraine puts Ramzan Kadyrov on wanted list

Unidentified men open fire at market in Izeh city in southwestern Iran

Karen Donfried tries to explain State Department's decision to exempt Azerbaijan from 907th Amendment

Philip Reeker says U.S. administration representatives have no access to Nagorno-Karabakh

Rimac Nevera sets speed record for production electric cars

Reeker: Pace and depth of current talks between Yerevan and Baku demonstrate potential to resolve conflict

FBI director considers TikTok threat to US National Security

Bob Menendez says Ukraine supplies Azerbaijan with phosphorus bombs it used in Karabakh

Delegation headed by Speaker of Armenian Parliament is in Tbilisi

Austin: U.S. intends to continue supplying weapons and aid to Ukraine during winter

Armenian politician charged with abuse of office, money laundering

Donfried says Armenia and Azerbaijan have historic opportunity to establish lasting peace

Bob Menendez: How on earth can we justify sending any support, security or otherwise, to the regime in Baku?

Azerbaijan fires at residents of Sarushen village of Artsakh

Head of Portugal's Finance Ministry: EU countries must work faster on energy intervention

Kuwait executes 7 prisoners

Czech Republic plans to train up to 4,000 Ukrainian servicemen next year

Ukraine once again asks US for powerful drones

Belarusian border guards shoot down drone intruding into airspace from Ukraine

Armenian Deputy PM: Regional electricity export opportunities significantly increased

Greek authorities temporarily ban export of firewood from country

Azerbaijan protests to France in connection with Senate resolution

Blinken calls on Aliyev to observe ceasefire and limit provocations

Pashinyan: We're advancing rights of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Pashinyan: Armenia invites Azerbaijan to sign framework agreement on peace

Pashinyan: Most of the arable land of 4 villages in Tavush Province is occupied by Azerbaijanis

Armenian Prime Minister: Let the opposition loudly reject Russia's proposals

Pashinyan: 2023 budget growth in social protection compared to 2018 is 56%

Inflation in UK up to 41-year high of 11.1% in October

Pashinyan: We don't want to provoke war between CSTO and Azerbaijan

Pashinyan's explanation: How should we fight inflation?

Pashinyan: Armenia submitted its proposals for peace treaty to Azerbaijan, we are waiting for a response
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu will personally attend the December 21 session of the UN General Assembly (GA) during which the resolution on Jerusalem, earlier rejected by the Security Council due to the U.S. veto, will be considered. This is reported by TASS with reference to the newspaper Milliyet.

According to it, the head of the Palestinian Foreign Ministry, Riyad Al-Maliki, will also leave for New York.

On December 6, President Donald Trump said that it is time to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of a Jewish state and ordered to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. On December 18, the United States vetoed a resolution that pointed to the unlawful nature of any decisions that change or imply a change in the character, status or demographic composition of Jerusalem. The text called on all states to refrain from creating diplomatic missions in Jerusalem" and "not to recognize any actions or measures contradicting to UN decisions.

The United States was the only one of the 15 member countries of the Security Council to vote against the document.

According to the rules existing in the UN, the General Assembly can take measures in cases of threat to peace, violation of peace or an act of aggression, if the Security Council is unable to act because of the position of one of the permanent members voting against, the official website of the General Assembly notes. In such cases, an emergency special session is arranged under the formula Unity for Peace, drawn up in 1950, at which member states can be recommended collective measures to maintain or restore international peace and security.
A state in the US was in a fix when the race for a seat ended in a 112-112 vote tie. To fix the fix, they decided to toss a coin to declare the winner of the election.

By India Today Web Desk: It looks like every nation has a task at hands when it comes to elections and results.

Earlier this week, during Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections, ahead of the counting of votes in both the sates, Chief Election Commissioner AK Joti assured the politicians and the voters by claiming the EVMs cannot be tampered with.

advertisement

However, the story in the US is different. Over there, coins are flipped to decide the winners of an election, sometimes.

According to an Associated Press report, a recount for a local election in southern Idaho has overturned a win that was decided by a coin toss last month.

Dick Galbraith and Glen Loveland ran against each other for a seat on the city council in the small southern city of Heyburn.

Officials said that the race ended in a 112-112 vote tie, The Times-News reported .

To select the winner, a coin toss was held in mid-November.

FLIP OF THE COIN

When Galbraith lost, he requested a recount as it is allowed under state election laws.

"I had a nagging feeling that it wasn't right," Galbraith said. "And honestly, I just had too much heartburn over losing to a coin toss."

Minidoka County Sheriff Eric Snarr delivered the bags of ballots to county officials on Monday, and the county clerk showed the bags' contents to candidates before the count began.

About 45 minutes later, the ballots were sorted with 113 votes for Galbraith and 112 votes for Loveland.

The discrepancy between the original count performed by a machine and the recount by hand could have happened due to voter error with a ballot incorrectly marked, said Tim Hurst, chief deputy for the Idaho Secretary of State.

However, a flip of a coin to decide upon things in India is a far fetched thought and impossible to believe.

--- ENDS ---
YEREVAN.  A joint summary document was adopted Wednesday, as a result of the Seventeenth Meeting of the EU-Armenia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee.

Committee co-chair Armen Ashotyanwho is also Chairman of the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations of the National Assembly (NA) of Armeniatold reporters at the NA that the final document refers not solely to the present, but it also points to the priorities for development.

We succeeded in giving substance to the CEPA [(Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement)], Ashotyan noted, in particular. I believe we succeeded in ensuring CEPAs first enforcement, in this very hall.

He added that the aforesaid meeting was historic.

In turn, committee co-chair Sajjad Karim, a Member of the European Parliament, stressed that relations have improved and developed not solely between Armenia and the EU, but also among the parliaments, and that the both of them play a vital part in further deepening of relations.

Karim added that their objective is to achieve tangible improvements in the lives of all citizens, and that they have called on the Armenian authorities to very clearly present to the public the basis of bilateral relations.
The European Commission on Wednesday took the unprecedented step of triggering Article 7 of the EU Treaty against Poland, stepping up pressure on Warsaw over controversial changes to the judicial system by the countrys ruling conservatives, radiopolsha.pl reported.

Thus, the European Commissioners supported the proposal of the Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans.

Timmermans referred to the legal expertise of the EC, as well as the negative conclusion of the Venetian commission concerning reform of judicial system in Poland and earlier changes in work of the Constitutional court.

The move means that the EUs executive wants the blocs member states to declare whether the rule of law in Poland is under threat.

Under the procedure, a majority of four-fifths of EU members -- 22 countries -- can now determine there is a clear risk of a serious breach of the blocs fundamental values.

The move does not mean that sanctions will be imposed on Poland. Penalties on Warsaw would have to be backed unanimously by EU member states, while Hungary has said it would not support sanctions.
YEREVAN.- Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan received on December 20 the delegation of Armenia-EU Parliamentary Cooperation Committee headed by its Co-chairman Sajjad Karim. The delegation is in Armenia to participate in the regular 17th session of the Committee, the press service of the Armenian Presidents Office reported.

Greeting the guests, the President of the Republic documented with satisfaction that the relations of Armenia with the European parliament develop in a natural way and expand in both bilateral and multilateral formats.

The President highlighted the development of inter-parliamentary ties and dialogue in Armenia-EU relations, as well as the active mutual visits of the parliamentarians, attaching particular importance to the format of the Parliamentary Cooperation Committee. Serzh Sargsyan noted that he is aware of the saturated agenda of the

Yerevan session of the Committee and hoped that the decisions made during the session will further deepen the cooperation between Armenia and the EU. The President highlighted the Closing Statement adopted by the Committee  the high evaluation to the recent developments in Armenia-EU relations, including the signing of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement, as well as the balanced position on Karabakh conflict that supports the mediation efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs.

The co-chairman of the Committee, Sajjad Karim thanked President Sargsyan on behalf of his delegation for the reception, assessment to the cooperation in inter-parliamentary format and the sincere and open dialogue during the meetings with them.

The interlocutors referred to the provisions of the CEPA and the statement adopted during the session, as well as the works underway in Armenia following the signing of the agreement aimed at reforms. Serzh Sargsyan also answered the questions of the parliamentarians.
By PTI: Mumbai, Dec 20 (PTI) Even as the tariff competitiveness of wind energy has improved as against the conventional energy sources, its viability continues to be a challenge, says ICRA.

According to the rating agency, while the governments wind power bidding programme provides visibility to support capacity additions over the next four years, the renegotiation or cancellation of power purchase agreements (PPAs) by few states will be a major challenge.

advertisement

The ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) proposes to issue bids for 5,000 MW by March next year followed by 10,000 MW each in FY 2019 and FY 2020, so as to achieve the cumulative wind capacity target of 60,000 MW by FY2022.

The tariff discovered in the reverse auction under the second MNRE scheme conducted by SECI in October this year declined by 24 per cent to Rs 2.64 per unit as against Rs 3.46 per unit discovered in the first MNRE scheme.

While this significantly improves the tariff competitiveness of wind energy as against conventional energy sources, the viability of such tariffs remains a challenge, ICRA explained.

"This would depend upon the availability of long-tenure debt at cost competitive rates, capital cost, plant load factor (PLF) level and ability of the developer to identity locations with high generation potential," ICRA Ratings sector head and Vice President Girishkumar Kadam said.

Apart from the credit quality of the state-owned discoms, weak compliance of renewable purchase obligation (RPO) target and transmission constraints in few regions, the renegotiation or cancellation of PPAs has emerged as a key challenge, he said.

"This is following the significant decline in wind energy tariffs discovered through the competitive bidding route," Kadam added.

ICRA further said the advisory issued by the MNRE to the state utilities against such actions as well as the orders issued by some state governments in this regard, are favourable for the developers.

"However, many of the feed-in tariff-based PPAs with relatively high tariffs as against the average power purchase cost of the state-owned discoms in the wind energy sector may remain exposed to a risk of forced back-down or grid curtailment as observed in few states in the past," ICRA said.

This is also in view of the fact that these PPAs do not have any deemed generation clause or termination payment clause, it noted. PTI PSK DSK DSK BAS

--- ENDS ---
Insurance Back GENERALI: ANCHUSTEGUI appointed new Group Chief Operations & Insurance Office

Assicurazioni GENERALI has appointed Jaime ANCHUSTEGUI MELGAREJO, currently head of the EMEA area, as Group Chief Operations & Insurance Officer, a position newly created as proposed by Group CEO, Philippe DONNET.



The new role combines the activities of the "operations" area with those of the "Insurance Officer" and will report directly to the Group CEO. MELGAREJO's new position will be effective 1 January 2018, with the approval of the Appointments and Remuneration Committee. He will consequently join the Group Management Committee (GMC) starting in 2018.



ANCHUSTEGUI, 55, is a graduate of Madrid's Universidad Politecnica and has been CEO of GENERALI Espana. He has also held important positions in Peru, Mexico and other Latin American countries.



The GENERALI Group CEO Philippe DONNET stated: "The creation of this new role is another important step towards simplifying our management structure and streamlining GENERALI's operations. In particular, we will be faster and more effective in facing the challenges posed by new digital technologies, which are a key way to meet customer needs through increasingly personalised solutions. The appointment of Jaime Anchustegui, who has extensive international experience thanks to his previous positions in Europe and Latin America, once again shows how the Group is capable of fostering the development of our staff, drawing on the best talent in our industry."



The decision means a single function will be in charge of transformation and technical performance improvements in the insurance business, operations, IT infrastructure and digitalisation. The new position will also manage and monitor initiatives to control operating costs and improve productivity, reinforcing the timely completion of the strategic plan, which has already produced important results.



Consequent to the decisions taken by the Board of Directors, the Company has decided to make a number of organisational changes to its geographical areas.



Specifically, the EMEA area has been eliminated, with responsibility for EMEA countries reallocated to the CEO of Global Business Lines & International, Frederic de COURTOIS.



The only exception is Austria, which has been integrated into the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) area, headed by Luciano CIRINA, strengthening GENERALI's presence in markets where it already posts strong results.





Author: Daniela GHETU on 20.12.2017





Archive



Comment this article

0 comments



Atention! "Comment" and "E-mail" are mandatory

Name:



If you are logged on and you do not fill in your name, will be used the name that you used when you registered If you are not logged on, your name will appear preceded by '(Anonymous)'. For authentication, click here If you are logged on and you do not fill in your name, will be used the name that you used when you registered E-mail:

Comment:

< 10.000 car.

Fill in the code from the image:








Of course he does.

Reply

Thread

Link

i have no hope in the senate :(

Reply

Thread

Link

the bill is over 1000 pages long you guys.



WHAT THE FUCK IS ACTUALLY IN IT.



we need a mellie from scandal fillibuster moment where someone goes through and reads it page by page.

Reply

Thread

Link

But I thought it was suppose to be simplified!!!

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

It's just the words "fuck the poor" copied and pasted 100,000 times.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

didn't turtle get rid of the filibuster tho? 

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

It's gonna pass, I can't handle it.

Reply

Thread

Link

Me neither. I'm terrified of losing my medical supplies because of this fuckery.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link





And in other news...ONE. VOTE. I hope people realize it isn't just a cliche when they hear "every vote matters"



BREAKING: Democrat Shelly Simonds appears to win Virginia House seat by A SINGLE VOTE, according to preliminary unofficial recount results.



Would mean 50-50 split of House.

Judge panel must certify results. Legal challenge probably coming.  Jordan Pascale (@JWPascale) December 19, 2017







Democrats will have erased a more than 30-seat advantage by Republicans in the Virginia House of Delegates if this race is certified as it currently stands, and will now likely share power with Republicans.https://t.co/N40heTQzqE  Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 19, 2017



Of course he does. lol @ Collins calling the criticism of her supporting this bill as sexist.And in other news...ONE. VOTE. I hope people realize it isn't just a cliche when they hear "every vote matters"

Reply

Thread

Link

Why is my homestate literally becoming dramatic af? This feels like payback for all the dumb stuff VA brought on this country?

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Collins is such a dumbass. She's just as fraudulent as Flake and Corker

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

I can't @ some people making her out as some moderate hero.

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

shocking

Reply

Thread

Link

"Accuses Seth Rogen of bashing free speech for cancelling interviews on SIRIUS XM radio after Steven Bannon was given a show on the network"



lol

Reply

Thread

Link

lol people are SO dumb. people think free speech = i can say whatever gross bigoted things i want, and you can't tell me i'm wrong or protest me!

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

people think that facing repercussions from private citizens and businesses is ~violating their first amendment rights~ because they cannot read.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

We had someone kicked out of the theater I worked at for using homophobic slurs and they sent an email to corporate that was like "I'M A MARINE MUH FIRST AMENDMENT WAAAH" and I reeeeally wanted my GM to let me respond with a civics lesson.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

honestly. they really are

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link





https://youtu.be/LkruDthHl0I?t=3m10s Trevor Noah said it best:

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

i thought the house will have to vote again tomorrow

Reply

Thread

Link

Yes they do but its still going to pass

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Im so incredibly nervous and sick to my stomach regarding tonight. I know its going to pass but the entire process of waiting to hear the news is killing me. I just cannot not fathom how heartless, soulless youd have to be to throw so many struggle people under the bus for money. If there is a Hell, may is shallow everyone okaying this bill whole

Reply

Thread

Link

They keep having to vote and NO ONE is having a change of heart. And they claim to believe in God and his "signs"? I guess they'll sleep well with their piles of money.

Reply

Thread

Link

Lol this is going to pass. Collins/Flake/Corker are frauds but thats nothing new.

Reply

Thread

Link

People are such fucking chumps thinking that all thats gonna trickle down. These assholes are saying in no uncertain terms that they intend to hoard all that cash for them and their shareholders yet we have 30% of the population thinking this bills a good idea.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

They all deserve to die. History shows that corporations that receive tax cuts never regenerate it back into the economy or the population

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

i personally can't wait to die from lack of medical care and be turned into a fuel source for the rich!!



Edited at 2017-12-20 12:20 am (UTC)

Reply

Thread

Link
its been 84 years...

Reply

Thread

Link

Gaston, and ?

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

And in "Marshall"

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

He took Jack Black's career, tbh.

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

This is like 15 years late. I only read the first two books when I was kid, though.

I remember when Cameron Diaz was supposed to play Holly.

Reply

Thread

Link

a kid is playing holly? I haven't read these books since they were age appropriate for me but isn't holly an elf cop or whatever...and therefore an adult??? v interesting

Reply

Thread

Link

a white kid to boot

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

yes, but there's like ~tension~ between Holly and Artemis, and honest to god, it's really for the best for this character to be played by a child/child team and not a child/adult team.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

omw....glad I didn't make it that far in the books

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

oh god i read these books when i was like 10--i did not realize at the time how creepy it was that there was romantic tension between a 12-year old character and a fully mature character. it's sort of like twilight if bella was 12

Reply

Parent

Thread

Expand

Link

She is! And I think there was some kind of ~romantic tension~ between her and Artemis towards the end, although it's been a while since I read them so might be mis-remembering that

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

I hated Murder on the Orient Express, and most of that was due to the director, like it actively ruined the film for me. But I liked the first Thor movie that he also directed so idk maybe I'll give it a chance.

Reply

Thread

Link

Exactly, Brannagh had no sense of the book, so I have little faith he will get these books right. *sigh*

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Ya'll know Fat Weinstein, although removed from the credits, is still gonna get a piece of the this films revenue.

Reply

Thread

Link

This would have been very exciting news to me in 2002.

Reply

Thread

Link

and the author probably could've gotten his wish of having nic hoult play artemis too

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

yep

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

mte

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

Basically. I remember when Nicholas Hoult was rumoured to be Artemis and he was age appropriate - hes like 27 now!

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

I remember loving this book when I was a wee child. I hope it holds up for a re-read.

Reply

Thread

Link

Idec that it's been forever, I'm excited. The books have always given off the feel of "this would make an excellent movie".

Reply

Thread

Link

holly has brown skin in the books, lmfao BYE



i knew this movie wouldn't be able to do these books justice, I KNEW IT



Edited at 2017-12-20 07:48 pm (UTC)

Reply

Thread

Link

How 2003 of them.



Artemis Fowl was such a smug little Gary-Stu fuck. I wanted to slap him several times per book. I would hope that kind of House/BBC Sherlock character type wouldn't be popular nowadays, but alas, it probably is.

Reply

Thread

Link

playing Holly Short will apparently be a child(???), actress Lara McDonnell

Should be a brown child, and but it's good that it is a child. This is Disney, they're not trying for a fantasy call me by your name considering what happens to Artemis and Holly's relationship later on.

Reply

Thread

Link

omg what happens? i never got that far in the books

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

they're not trying for a fantasy call me by your name



lmao, but artemis did age like 3-4 years in one of the final books because of some space-time continuum bullshit so i think he was an adult by the end? it's been a fucking decade so i don't remember at all

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

holly is like a teenager too at the time paradox, but it's still ridiculous, she's still 80-whatever.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

I remember when I first started reading Harry Potter books, it was when Rowling had written up to the 5th one, Order of the Phoenix. I read all 5 in a week. I was left with a gaping crater of addiction! I tried to fill it with other young adult fantasy lit, Artemis Fowl was one of the ones I tried.



It didn't work.

Reply

Thread

Link

Cute kid to play Artemis...but side-eyeing Holly tbh. Nothing against the little girl, she is cute though. Side eyeing for skin tone options as per usual with adaptations...

Reply

Thread

Link
I love this movie sfm

Reply

Thread

Link

I can't believe this movie actually has a shot at winning Best Picture. What a crazy year.

Reply

Thread

Link

yesss i love that this movie came out almost a year ago and it's still killing it



i would love to move beyond ~oscar season and just see good movies all throughout the year get a shot

Reply

Thread

Link

Yes about ending Oscar Season. I have to cram in all the serious dramas in a month and a half and the rest of the year there's blockbusters and horror films.

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

yeah its wild, i wish we could space shit out

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

oh god, i still crack up at the scene where rose calls rodney and he puts on her mute to freak out over her lying ass



i need a new jordan peele film

Reply

Thread

Link

Rod was amazing

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

I spent most of the movie wondering who the Victorian Painting brother was and then I realized it was fucking Banshee from X-Men First Class lmao.



I still dislike Allison Williams tremendously but she was good.



Jordan deserves the Oscar.

Reply

Thread

Link

Awesome

Reply

Thread

Link

omg your icon lmao, i guess the screener really did leak

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

lmao nooo ugh elio

Reply

Parent

Thread



Link

The cinematography for this film was so gorgeous and so well thought out. I feel like a few movies have tried a similar style but it them it just looks forced.



The cast was also pretty good. Allison Williams impressed me so much, how she always felt "off" from the very first scene and to the whole phone scene was the best part for me.



This movie just deserve all the awards tbh (even with that horrible ending)



Edited at 2017-12-20 10:24 pm (UTC)

Reply

Thread

Link

Stanley Kramer was an A+ director, I didn't know there was an award in his name but it's fitting that Get Out will get. We need more movies that have something to say about the society we live in.

Reply

Thread

Link

My life will be made if this gets Best Picture.

Reply

Thread

Link

May it win EVERY SINGLE AWARD and I hope he makes A LOT more like this.

Reply

Thread

Link
BAE Systems Receives Kentucky Award

"Congratulations to BAE Systems in Louisville on earning its third Governor's Safety and Health Award," Labor Secretary Derrick Ramsey said. "Working more than two million hours without a lost-time injury is a great accomplishment, and I appreciate its dedication to keeping its employees safe and healthy."

Kentucky Labor Cabinet Deputy Secretary Mike Nemes visited BAE Systems in Louisville on Dec. 12 to present a Governor's Safety and Health Award for the 2,058,198 production hours employees there worked without a lost-time incident. "Congratulations to BAE Systems in Louisville on earning its third Governor's Safety and Health Award," Labor Secretary Derrick Ramsey said. "Working more than two million hours without a lost-time injury is a great accomplishment, and I appreciate its dedication to keeping its employees safe and healthy. On behalf of Governor Bevin and all of us at the Labor Cabinet, thank you for all of your hard work and your dedication to workplace safety."

Founded in 1999, BAE Systems' Naval Center of Excellence in Louisville is dedicated to the overhaul, manufacture, and repair of major caliber guns and other naval systems for the U.S. and its allies. The plant has about 640,000 square feet of manufacturing, assembly, and test space and is the only commercial producer of medium to major caliber gun barrels in North America, according to the Labor Cabinet's announcement.

"Our talented and dedicated workers are our biggest asset, and it's our responsibility to ensure they go home to their family and loved ones safe and healthy every day," said Director of Operations Mike Viscosi. "BAE Systems is committed to providing a safe and healthy work environment."

The state agency presents the Governor's Safety and Health Award to highlight outstanding safety and health performance in Kentucky workplaces. A business may qualify for the award if its employees achieve a required number of hours worked without experiencing a lost-time injury or illness; the required number of hours depends on the number of employees.
Central Pattana Plc (CPN) has made a major move to welcome the opening of Central Phuket, a world-class megaproject. CPN has spent 100 million baht to turn Phuket into a world kitchen, with the opening of Public House, a magnificent international food and drinks hub in a casual dining environment. Located at CentralFestival Phuket, Public Houses design takes inspiration from a beach hut style. It features live music and exciting performances every night, making Phuket come alive and stay true to its designation as a world-class beach holiday destination just in time for the high season for Phuket tourism and the year-end festive season. The dining hub will open daily from 19th December 2017 onward, from 10 a.m. to midnight.

Pakorn Partanapat, Chief Operating Officer at Central Pattana Plc, said: Phuket is a city with excellent potential as a world-class tourist destination. This major change for CentralFestival Phuket will make customers find the shopping center more accessible. It is also in line with global dining trends. Public House will be like a kitchen of the world offering a combination of foods from different countries and in different styles, in a casual dining environment. Residents of Phuket and tourists from all over the world will get to experience culinary delights and meet up with their acquaintances in an environment that is unlike any other. Public House will be a magnet that helps give a boost to Phukets tourism and lifestyle. It will be a landmark for international tourists, attracting visitors from all corners of the world to come and spend their money and explore new experiences.

Phuket was voted as second among the top must-visit island destinations in Asia for 2017 by readers of Destination ASEAN magazine, and is also one of the eight island destinations recommended by TripAdvisor. Phuket helps generate more than 300 billion baht in revenue for the country annually. It welcomes as many as 13 million tourists each year, more than 70% of whom are foreigners. The majority are Chinese, Korean, Australian, Russian, European, and Middle Eastern.

Public House is located on the first floor of CentralFestival Phuket. The highlight is the international foods and drinks, ranging from fusion to original styles  all available for casual dining experiences. There are popular menu items by renowned restaurants like Chicken Tandoori by Bamboo Bar & Grill, Red Hot by Kenny Rogers Roasters, Ice Cream Mix-Ins by Phuket Coffee, Piadina Romagnola by Piadina and Traditional Pad Thai by Pint Factory. Diners will get to enjoy live music and performances every night, with different styles of music in a relaxed atmosphere. Opening hours are from 10.30 p.m. to midnight. The target groups are tourists, local workers in the middle and higher income brackets, and people who love to hang out.

CentralFestival Phuket is one of the buildings in Central Phuket, CPNs world-class megaproject and 33rd shopping center project. It comprises a high-end hotel, an international conference center and a wide range of attractions. The 20-billion-baht megaproject is located in the heart of Phuket, at Tainan Intersection, which is the best business district in Phuket and also the connection point of major roads running from all directions. It is located near the International Airport and easy to access. CPN is determined to develop this space into the perfect business and lifestyle district in Phuket.
Label Insight, the Chicago-based company that helps stores tell customers what's in food and other goods, has raised $21 million in new funding, the company announced this week.

The company started by using its technology to scan food packaging. It collects facts like nutritional information and marketing claims, providing the data to retailers or consumer packaged-goods manufacturers.

The end result: Someone with an allergy can ask a store rep and quickly figure out what products to avoid. Retailers get a tool to help customers understand what they're buying, while companies can offer more information to sway ingredient-conscious shoppers.

The company says it works with brands like Unilever, Conagra, L'Oreal and Ocean Spray, and its database has information on more than 400,000 products. It provides that information to retailers like Albertsons, Meijer and Raley's.

Earlier this year, Label Insight announced it was expanding into products like pet food, over-the-counter medicine, vitamins and supplements, and personal care items. CEO Paul Schaut said Label Insight plans on building its database to 1 million items with the new funding.

"The consumer's mandate for more information doesn't stop with what they eatit includes what they put on their bodies, personal care; it includes what they feed their pets, pet food; or their babies, baby food," Schaut said. "It's not going to stop at what they buy at the grocery store. You get on a plane, you go to a restaurant, you're going to want to know more about what you're eating. Our business is just to support the industry any place the consumer is asking for more information."

Schaut said Label Insight currently employs about 115 people, split evenly between its Chicago and St. Louis offices. With the funding, it plans to bring that number to 170 in the next 12 months. The hires will be focused on the company's data science teams as well as its sales and marketing teams, he said.

The series C round brings the company's total funding to roughly $35 million; the company closed its last round in January 2016. Delta-v Capital led the round alongside River Cities Capital Funds. Delta-v managing partner David Schaller joins Label Insight's board along with the deal.

2017 Chicago Tribune

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
At a time when many companies are feeling pressured to report on and improve gender inequality within the workforce, a Stanford sociologist is finding success with a new method for reducing the kind of bias that leads to these inequalities.

In a recently published paper in Gender & Society, Shelley Correll, director of the Clayman Institute for Gender Research, explains the method, which she and her team piloted and found successful while working with several technology companies over the last three years.

The method, which Correll dubs "a small wins model," focuses on educating managers and workers about bias, diagnosing where gender bias could enter their company's hiring, promotion or other evaluation practices and working with the company's leaders to develop tools that help measurably reduce bias and inequality.

"The change we can realistically expect to produce in any one instance will be small, imperfect and incomplete," Correll wrote. "Step by step, I believe that these small wins are the path to achieving our larger goal, which is the transformation of our organizations."

Methods of recruitment, evaluation

Over the past 30 years, research has shown that stereotypes about what men and women are capable of and how they should behave cause people to evaluate men and women differently, especially when the criteria for evaluation are ambiguous. This bias puts women at a disadvantage in workplaces, where they get hired and promoted at lower rates than men.

Women are usually subjected to a higher bar, requiring more evidence than men to be seen as qualified. In addition, if people judge a woman to be competent, they often judge her as less likeable, a correlation that is not true for men.

Because of this research, many companies in recent years have invested resources into reducing the kinds of bias that lead to gender imbalance. The two most common approaches have been unconscious bias training and formalizing of methods for hiring and evaluating employees so that they are based on achievement-related criteria.

Correll said that although the two approaches help companies with diversity, they are not complete solutions.

While unconscious bias training is important and helps improve short-term behavior during hiring and promotion decisions, the effects wear off over time and can be threatening to people in power, leading to more bias rather than less, Correll said.

Formal procedures for hiring and promotions also haven't been entirely successful. For example, Correll wrote, fire departments previously used height as a criterion for screening applicants. Despite height being an objective benchmark, its requirement screens out more women than men and a person's height isn't directly related to one's ability to perform the job of a firefighter.

"Bias training can backfire, increasing bias; and formal procedures can be misused by decision makers or, worse, have gender biases built into their design," Correll wrote. "In spite of these limitations, I argue that educating about stereotyping and bias and formalizing evaluation processes are two key building blocks crucial for producing sustainable change."

Small wins add up

Although neither approach alone has been entirely successful, Correll argues for combining the two in a way that also includes measuring small incremental changes within the organization.

In this model, a company would provide workers with bias training and experts would analyze the company's procedures to understand where bias might be creeping in. The experts would then work with managers of the company to develop better procedures or tools, implement them and evaluate what changes they produce.

The entire process focuses on creating objective performance checklists and other tools that eliminate ambiguity and the chance for bias from people using them.

"To create sustainable change, we need to shift the target of change from the individual decision maker to organizational processes," Correll wrote.

Correll and her team tried this model with several companies over the past three years as part of Stanford's Center for the Advancement of Women's Leadership. They found measurable improvements in gender inequalities at those companies.

For example, at a mid-size technology company in the Western U.S., Correll said her research showed that after putting in place a new employee scorecard, managers were less likely to discuss an employee's personality rather than his or her work. Before the new scorecard, comments during these discussions criticized 14 percent of women for being "too aggressive" and 8 percent of men for being "too soft." A year later, after rolling out the new scorecard, those figures dropped to zero percent and 1 percent, respectively.

"The small-wins approach gives people results and something small they can do daily," Correll said. "Those small wins start to add up. They are the building blocks to larger change."

Correll said she has been inspired by the number of managers and leaders dedicated to equality in the workplace whom she has met over the past three years. Although reducing bias and inequality completely will take a long time, Correll said she feels optimistic.

"It's encouraging to see that many people genuinely want to be more inclusive," Correll said. "These companies didn't have to open up to us researchers. And I can't stress enough how valuable working with them and evaluating their data has been."

More information: Shelley J. Correll. SWS 2016 Feminist Lecture: Reducing Gender Biases In Modern Workplaces: A Small Wins Approach to Organizational Change, Gender & Society (2017). DOI: 10.1177/0891243217738518 Journal information: Gender & Society
Biofilms are generally seen as a problem to be eradicated due to the hazards they pose for humans and materials. However, these communities of algae, fungi or bacteria possess interesting properties both from a scientific and a technical standpoint. A team from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) describes processes from the field of biology that utilize biofilms to create structural templates for new materials that possess the properties of natural materials. In the past, this was only possible to a limited extent.

Over millions of years, natural materials as wood, bone and mother of pearl have been optimized via evolution according to the principle of adapted stability with the lowest possible weight. Nature has inspired many technical developments. Examples include airplane wings, zippers and surface sealants using a lotus effect. However, reverse engineering cannot reproduce the structural complexity of the original in nature.

"In nature, we find many materials with properties that artificial materials are unable to replicate in the exact same fashion," said Professor Cordt Zollfrank, who performs research on basic principles for the development of new materials together with his team at the Chair of Biogenic Polymers at the TUM Campus Straubing for Biotechnology and Sustainability.

Biggest Problems at the Smallest Level

As the interface between biology and technology, bionics utilizes methods and systems found in nature to provide solutions to technical problems. When it was still limited to using natural shapes, e.g. as templates for development in the design of airplane wings or ship hulls, the problems remained manageable. However, imitating the material properties of natural construction materials is an entirely different story. This is because they are found in the inner structures, where fibers are linked to each other over several orders of magnitude and across various hierarchical levels.

"Usually, the main sources of mechanical material properties such as elasticity, strength and toughness are found at the smallest level of these hierarchies, especially at the nanometer scale," explained Dr. Daniel Van Opdenbosch, a team leader at Zollfrank's chair and one of the authors of the article, describing the main problem when attempting to translate them to technical solutions. However, when the microorganisms themselves or their secretions create the material, the technically sophisticated complex networks already come fully formed.

The Future of Bionics

In an article for the journal Advanced Materials, the researchers at TUM present a series of procedures from the field of biology that utilize light, heat, specially prepared substrates, and other stimuli to guide the direction of movement of microorganisms along very specific paths. "These biological findings for controlling microbes via targeted stimuli will shape the future of material research," said Professor Cordt Zollfrank. This is because they make it possible to create tailor-made templates for new materials with natural structures from the microbes themselves or their secretions. "With our article, we want to show the direction this journey will take us in the field of biologically inspired material science," said the professor.

Contact-Free Modeling

Daniel Van Opdenbosch and his group are already successfully utilizing some of these methods in Straubing. As part of a Reinhart Koselleck project of the German Research Foundation (DFG), the researchers are taking advantage of the special properties of red algae, whose direction of movement depends on exposure to light, and which secrete chains from sugar molecules. By projecting light patterns which change over time into the growing medium of the algae, the researchers use them to create long, fine polymer threads, which serve as custom templates for the manufacture of functional ceramics.

With the help of the algae, any number of templates can be created for a wide variety of applications, ranging from battery electrodes to new screen and display technologies to applications in medicine, such as replacement bone and tissue. Although the ability to grow complex microstructures such as entire components and other hierarchically structured materials is still a long way off in the future, it could soon become a tangible reality thanks to the basic research performed by the researchers at Straubing.

More information: Steffi Deuerling et al, A Perspective on Bio-Mediated Material Structuring, Advanced Materials (2017). DOI: 10.1002/adma.201703656 Journal information: Advanced Materials
Arina P Habich / shutterstock

The soaring value of bitcoin is encouraging more and more companies and individuals to engage in "mining". Mining is actually a process which secures the distributed bitcoin network, and processes all of its transactions. Historically anyone could do this using a standard PC, but these days hardware that is purpose-built for more energy-efficient mining is a necessity to mine profitably. Every ten minutes miners across the globe compete to the be the first to solve a mathematical puzzle. The winner gets the "block reward", which is currently 12.5 bitcoins (at the time of writing worth more than US$200,000).

As the amount of mining activity increases, earlier concerns about bitcoin's global energy consumption have become all the more prescient. However, it's difficult to accurately estimate just how much energy is used, what the unit cost of that energy is, or whether its source was renewable. Nonetheless, one ongoing estimate says the total energy consumption of bitcoin adds up to almost 4GW (Gigawatts). That means the digital currency uses roughly as much energy as bulgaria.

Yet even this is likely to be too small a figure, given such estimates focus on the electricity used for mining and ignore the energy (and associated carbon emissions) that go into building and transporting new mining hardware, and then replacing it with the latest models every six months to a year.

Assuming bitcoin consumes about 4GW, then this would equate to about 1% of the electricity demand that goes into digital services and devices globally, or about 0.1% of total global electricity demand.

Comparing coins with kettles

Headlines about bitcoin's energy footprint tell us how many kettles we can boil or how many miles we can drive per transaction. Whichever way we look at it, the answer is "a lot". But while these figures help us relate the network and its transactions to everyday experiences, they don't unpack why bitcoin is so energy intensive, whether using all this energy is "worth it", nor do they point to future possibilities or alternatives.

To illustrate the problem with comparisons, consider iPads. To manufacture and transport an iPad to a customer has roughly the same carbon footprint as 225 sausages. Intuitively this seems like an excessively large pile of sausage, but it says nothing about the iPads' share in overall consumer electronics sales, the typical useful lifetime of an iPad, how many sausages might be consumed in that time, nor the meaning and utility that people derive from iPads, relative to sausages.

We have to put bitcoin's energy consumption into context: how much it consumes compared to other uses of computing power, what value or benefit mining creates (and for whom), and consequently what the appropriate alternatives might be.

Don't compare bitcoin 'per transaction'

Bitcoin is often compared to rivals like Visa, which manages far more transactions each of which uses much less energy. However, such "per transaction" comparisons are more complex than they might appear. Yes, it's true that the computers required to "mine" digital coins actually use more energy, and ultimately create more carbon emissions, per unit of value created than the machines and resources used to print and mint traditional currency. When viewed like this bitcoin still seems wasteful.

However, bitcoin advocates would argue that's an inevitable result of what makes cryptocurrency different. Unlike other forms of currency (say, the British pound) there is no central issuing authority. And unlike payment processors (say, Visa) there is no corporate core. The bitcoin network is designed to be distributed but secure, and is agnostic to energy consumption. In a world where bitcoin is considered a valuable asset, as it currently is, a significant  and growing  burden on global energy consumption is inevitable.

One alternative to the computationally (and electrically) expensive puzzles that underpin the mining process is a technology called proof-of-stake. Although technically viable, such a change would be controversial given that expensive bitcoin mining hardware would almost certainly be made redundant.

Bitcoin's pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto is estimated to hold 1m coins (more than US$19 billion at today's prices), while the overall network has "created" more than US$310 billion for miners. In wealth creation terms the digital currency experiment therefore appears to have been a success. Such success is a double edged sword though, as it has led three quarters of global mining being controlled by as few as five organisations (arguably undermining bitcion's aim of decentralisation) and the environmental impact of the network's unavoidable energy consumption is clearly problematic.

Unless bitcoin changes to proof-of-stake the bubble is likely to end either in a financial or environmental catastrophe.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Cliff retreat hot spots and high cliff top hazard locations identified by the study. Credit: Adam Young, 2017

The yellow warning signs that pepper coastal cliffs from northern California to the US-Mexico border may seem overly dramatic to the casual observer. But actively eroding cliffs make up the majority of the California coastline, and sudden landslides and collapses have caused injuries and several fatalities in recent years. In addition, eroding cliffs currently threaten highways, houses, businesses, military bases, parks, power plants, and other critical facilitiesall in all billions of dollars of development.

Research suggests that erosion rates will increase as sea level rises, further exacerbating these problems. "It is critical we study current and historical cliff retreat so we can better plan for the future," says Adam Young, a researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego who recently published a unique large-scale analysis of coastal cliff erosion in California.

The study, published in the journal Geomorphology, and funded by California Sea Grant, provides accurate erosion rates for 680 miles of the California coast, from the US-Mexico border to Bodega Head in Sonoma County. It identifies areas that have eroded faster than others, and introduces a new experimental hazard scale to identify areas that may be at greater risk of impending collapse. It is the first such large-scale study in California using LiDAR datalaser elevation data recorded in aerial surveyswhich were used to create detailed 3D elevation maps.

Existing cliff erosion studies are often small scale, use a variety of techniques, and often rely on lower quality data sources, providing a patchwork across the state. "What's unique about this study is that it applies a consistent methodology across a very large area using accurate high-resolution laser data," says Young.

While some of the basic causes of coastal cliff erosionsuch as rainfall and wavesare clear, this has not translated into a simple way to predict future erosion rates or identify areas at risk. Variation in cliff geology, beach protection, exposure to weather, and other factors also complicate predicting erosion rates.

Previous research has identified clear correlations between rainfall and coastal erosion in southern California, but the impact of storms waves has been more elusive. "It's difficult to measure," explains Young, "We lack field observations because with powerful waves crashing against the cliff, it is not an easy place to make measurements." Variation in cliff geology, beach protection, exposure to weather, and other factors also complicate predicting erosion rates.

Understanding erosion, preventing disaster

To create a consistent analysis of recent cliff changes, Young compared two massive LiDAR data sets, three-dimensional maps of the California coastline, recorded eleven years apart. The highest cliff erosion rates were found in San Onofre, Portuguese Bend, Palos Verdes, Big Sur, Martins Beach, Daly City, Double Point, and Point Reyes (see map). Young then compared the recent cliff erosion maps to historical records from 1932 and 1934. By comparing the different maps, he built an analysis for the majority of the state's coastline, showing both recent and historical erosion rates.

Adam Young, a researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, recently published a new large-scale analysis of coastal cliff erosion from San Diego to San Francisco. To analyze the data, Young compared two massive LiDAR data sets, three-dimensional maps of the California coastline, recorded eleven years apart. This video highlights one of the areas he identified with high erosion rates, near San Francisco. Credit: Adam Young, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego

The study shows that the historical cliff erosion rate does not always provide a good prediction of future rates. "The results show that if a cliff experienced a large of amount of erosion during one time period, it was followed by a time period with very little erosion, and the cliff could be relatively stabilized for a time," explains Young. "It will mobilize again, but we don't know when and more research is needed to better understand the time cycles involved."

Young also found that cliffs with high erosion rates in recent times were often preceded by time periods with very little erosion. These are key findings, because models predicting future cliff retreat are often based on projecting the historical rates.

Young also introduced a new experimental measure to identify the riskiest precipices. Previous research had suggested that the difference between erosion rates of the cliff face compared to the cliff top could indicate instabilityin short, the cliff steepness. When he applied this hazard index, Young identified worrisome spots along the California coast, including San Onofre State Beach, Big Sur, Martin's Beach, and Daly City.

A reality check for planners

Young is currently working on a set of maps to be made available to the public, and he has presented the work at scientific conferences. He says, "I hope that this study will help improve models that predict erosion, help identify hazardous areas, and assist policymakers who are working to protect our coast."

The research has already caught the attention of planners at the California Coastal Commission, a state agency charged with preserving and protecting the coastline for current and future generations.

"The study could be particularly useful for local governments looking to update their local coastal programs in light of climate change and sea level rise," says Lesley Ewing, a senior coastal engineer for the commission. While the study does not provide projections for future erosion rates, researchers expect that sea-level rise will contribute to faster erosion rates and greater risk to public and private coastal property, and governments are working to plan for the impacts.

"The coast of California is stacked with very expensive real estatenot to mention power plants, wastewater treatment facilities, and highways," she says. Some of this is already at riskover 100 miles of shoreline armory has been built to protect it, and more will be at risk in the future.

"There's so much opportunity to use this researchthis could serve as a reality check for planners who often focus on specific regions and smaller scales," adds Ewing.

More information: Adam P. Young, Decadal-scale coastal cliff retreat in southern and central California, Geomorphology (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.geomorph.2017.10.010 Journal information: Geomorphology
In an effort to jump-start innovation in the agriculture industry, Cargill Inc. and Ecolab said Monday they will launch a program to fund entrepreneurs and startup companies in early 2018.

The companies are working with Techstars on an initiative called the Farm to Fork Accelerator. The focus will include business ideas with potential to impact all areas of the food system, including food security, ag tech and consumer goods.

The first round of the three-year program will fund 10 of what Minnetonka-based Cargill called "the world's most promising startups" through an application process that begins in January.

"It's going to bring a level of idea infusion and talent infusion into our ecosystem," said Justin Kershaw, Wayzata-based Cargill's chief information officer. "We're already doing this internally at Cargill. This is going to help us bring the outside in a little more."

Those selected will take part in a 13-week boot camp in the Twin Cities through Techstars, a Boulder, Colo.-based company that helps get promising ideas more rapidly into the marketplace.

Entrepreneurs will learn how to build their businesses, develop technology and secure capital.

Executives from Cargill and St. Paul-based Ecolab will serve as mentors as well as provide access to their companies' market expertise, global connections and investment capital.

Techstars also will support the budding companies through its own network of entrepreneurs, mentors, investors and other partners. This is the first project in the food and agriculture industry for Techstars, which has done the bulk of its investing in the retail space, including partnerships with Target Corp. and Amazon.

"Minnesota was literally built by food entrepreneurs more than 150 years ago, and entrepreneurs continue to thrive in the state's quickly expanding, yet supportive ecosystem," Brett Brohl, the Techstars Farm to Fork accelerator managing director, said in a statement. "The Farm to Fork Accelerator will build on this rich history, leveraging Cargill's reach and leadership in food and agriculture as well as Ecolab's expertise in safe food, water and environments."

Cargill officials declined to say how much capital the privately held global food conglomerate planned to invest in the effort. But Kershaw said the company was dedicating significant and dedicated staff to make sure the brightest ideas have a chance to flourish.

2017 Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

New research from the University of Waterloo finds that lower class populations are wiser than their middle-class counterparts in their ability to reason about interpersonal matters.

The study measures wisdom as the ability to be open-minded, intellectually humble and integrate different perspectives on the issue people reflect on.

In comparing social classes and their associated wisdom, the study reveals that more affluent regions and individuals, as well as situations reflecting higher social standing are linked with diminished ability to reason wisely.

"This is not surprising when we consider our cultural emphasis on intelligence such as IQ, competency to accomplish tasks independently and the focus on self as opposed to the considerations of others, in the reach for success," said Igor Grossmann, associate professor of psychology who led the Waterloo research. "As we continue to focus as a society on independence and entitlement among the middle class, we are also inadvertently eroding wisdom and reasoning in favour of a more self-centered population."

Using large-scale surveys and lab studies, Grossmann and co-author Justin Brienza, who was PhD candidate at Waterloo at the time of the research, were able to build on previous studies that determined that individuals with a lower income are often more sensitive to their environments.

Driven by economic scarcity, these individuals will consider the impact of their decisions on those around them and those with whom they have interdependent relationships. Characteristics of open-mindedness and integrating different perspectives are necessary in order to coordinate with others and share resources.

The present study of social class differences in wise reasoning is specific to interpersonal conflicts and does not suggest class-related differences in the domain of intergroup reasoning, such as within social or political debates.

"Seeing self in the context of interpersonal relationships can be prosperous, as evident in other societies such as China, Korea or Japan" said Grossmann. "To increase cultural prosperity Canadian law and policy makers have the opportunity integrate the wisdom and learning from resilience with which people approach economic adversity."

Grossmann and Brienza's study appears in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

More information: Social class and wise reasoning about interpersonal conflicts across regions, persons and situations, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, rspb.royalsocietypublishing.or  .1098/rspb.2017.1870 Journal information: Proceedings of the Royal Society B
Credit: AlexanderAlUS/Wikipedia/CC BY-SA 3.0

A study conducted at the University of Sao Paulo's Physics Institute (IF-USP), Brazil, has resolved a longstanding controversy regarding defects in graphene. The controversy is related to the calculation of the overall electronic structure of defects. This configuration, which comprises many variables, was described in different ways depending on the researcher and the model used. The solution, which is identical for all models and compatible with experimental findings, was obtained by Chilean Ana Maria Valencia Garcia and her PhD supervisor, Marilia Junqueira Caldas, Full Professor at IF-USP.

An article authored by both researchers has been published in the journal Physical Review B, titled "Single vacancy defect in graphene: Insights into its magnetic properties from theoretical modeling."

"There were divergences in the community regarding whether the vacancy formed by removing a single carbon atom from a graphene sheet's crystal lattice causes a weak or strong magnetic moment, and regarding the strength of the magnetic interaction between vacancies," Caldas said. The vacancy prompts the surrounding atoms to rearrange themselves into new combinations to accommodate the absence of an atom, forming electron clusters known as "floating orbitals" at the vacant site.

Three important variables are associated with the phenomenon: electron density, i.e., how the electrons are distributed; electron levels, i.e., the energy levels occupied by the electrons; and magnetic moment, i.e., the torque produced in the electrons by an external magnetic field.

First-hand use of hybrid method in graphene

"There are two ways to calculate the overall electron structure of the vacancy region, both derived from quantum mechanics: the Hartree-Fock (HF) method, and density functional theory (DFT). In DFT, the calculation is performed by making each electron interact with average electron density, which includes the electron in question. In HF, the operator used excludes the electron and considers only its interaction with the others. HF produces more precise results for electron structure but the calculation is far more laborious," Caldas said.

"The two methods are often combined by means of hybrid functionals, which have been mentioned in the scientific literature since the end of the 20th century. I worked with them myself some time ago in a study on polymers, but they had never been used in the case of graphene. What Ana Maria Valencia Garcia and I did was discover the hybrid functional that best describes the material. Applied to several models using computer simulation, our hybrid functional produced the same result for them all and this result matched the experimental data."

Besides resolving the controversy, which had lasted years, another interesting aspect of this research is the problem that motivated it. "We came to it via the interest aroused by a material known as anthropogenic dark earth or ADE," Caldas explained. "ADE is a kind of very dark, fertile soil found in several parts of the world, including the Amazon. It retains moisture even at high temperatures, and remains fertile even under heavy rain. It's called anthropogenic because its composition derives from middens and cultivation by indigenous populations in the pre-Columbian period at least two millennia ago. This intriguing material was known to have resulted from multi-stacked layers of graphene nanoflakes. It was our interest in ADE that led us to study the phenomenon of vacancy in graphene sheets."

In conclusion, it should be noted that there are potential applications of vacancy in graphene sheets, since information can be encoded in the defect and not in the entire structure. Much more research will be needed before applications can be developed, however.

More information: A. M. Valencia et al, Single vacancy defect in graphene: Insights into its magnetic properties from theoretical modeling, Physical Review B (2017). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.96.125431 Journal information: Physical Review B

Provided by FAPESP
A conidiophore of A. flavus. Credit: Medmyco/Wikipedia

A team of researchers from Cornell and North Carolina State University has conducted a study examining a possible connection between a toxin produced by a crop-damaging fungus and insects that may attempt to feed on it. In their paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the group describes their study and what they found.

Aspergillus flavus is a type of fungus that lives on plants, many of which are crops. Prior research has shown that many types of A. flavus also produce a toxin called aflatoxin that is harmful to crops such as corn, cereals, nuts and rice. Even worse is the impact the toxin has on animals and humans that consume itdoing so can cause stunted growth in children and liver cancer in adults. If consumed in high enough concentrations, it can kill directly. One of the ways that farmers try to combat the fungus is by spreading variants of A. flavus that do not produce the toxin, hoping it will crowd out the kind that does. In this new effort, the researchers believe they may have found a new approachgetting rid of the bugs that feed on the fungus.

Because just two-thirds of A. flavus produce the toxin, the researchers considered that there was likely something that caused them to produce the toxinin its absence, they would not need it, so they would not produce it. The researchers guessed that the cause might be insects that either eat the fungus or compete with it for food. To find out if this might be the case, the group collected A. flavus samples and a group of fruit flies and brought them into their lab for study. They started out by noting that the fruit flies and fungus do eat the same foods and that the larvae sometimes actually ate the fungus. After running several experiments, the researchers found that the toxin produced by the fungus protected them from being eaten by the larvae. They also found that the types of fungus that produced the toxin grew more when the flies were present than when they were not. They found, too, that the fungus that made the toxin produced more of it when there were larvae in the vicinity.

Taken together, the researchers suggest, the evidence indicates that the reason the fungus makes the toxin is to defend itself from fruit fliesthis finding suggests that a way to combat the fungus on the farm would be to combat the insects that are causing it to produce the toxin.

More information: Milton T. Drott et al. Balancing selection for aflatoxin in Aspergillus flavus is maintained through interference competition with, and fungivory by insects, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2017). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2017.2408 Abstract

The role of microbial secondary metabolites in the ecology of the organisms that produce them remains poorly understood. Variation in aflatoxin production by Aspergillus flavus is maintained by balancing selection, but the ecological function and impact on fungal fitness of this compound are unknown. We hypothesize that balancing selection for aflatoxin production in A. flavus is driven by interaction with insects. To test this, we competed naturally occurring aflatoxigenic and non-aflatoxigenic fungal isolates against Drosophila larvae on medium containing 01750 ppb aflatoxin, using quantitative PCR to quantify A. flavus DNA as a proxy for fungal fitness. The addition of aflatoxin across this range resulted in a 26-fold increase in fungal fitness. With no added toxin, aflatoxigenic isolates caused higher mortality of Drosophila larvae and had slightly higher fitness than non-aflatoxigenic isolates. Additionally, aflatoxin production increased an average of 1.5-fold in the presence of a single larva and nearly threefold when the fungus was mechanically damaged. We argue that the role of aflatoxin in protection from fungivory is inextricably linked to its role in interference competition. Our results, to our knowledge, provide the first clear evidence of a fitness advantage conferred to A. flavus by aflatoxin when interacting with insects. Journal information: Proceedings of the Royal Society B

 2017 Phys.org
The first national survey of public attitudes on allowing businesses to deny service to same-sex couples reveals that Americans who support service refusal do so regardless of whether the denial is for religious or nonreligious reasons. Credit: Carla Schaffer/ AAAS

Americans are evenly divided on whether a business should be able to deny service to same-sex couples, according to a study by Indiana University Bloomington sociologists. It is the first national survey to use an experimental approach to examine views on refusing service to sexual minorities.

But people who support denying service don't necessarily see it as a matter of religious freedom, the study finds. They are as likely to support a business that denies service for reasons unrelated to religion as one that does so because of religious beliefs.

"The finding challenges the idea that denial of service to same-sex couples is all about religious freedom," said Brian Powell, the James H. Rudy Professor of Sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences and the lead author of the study. "People may oppose same-sex marriage because of their beliefs, but their views about denial of service have nothing to do with whether the denial is for religious reasons.

In other findings:

There was surprisingly strong support for the idea that businesses should be able to deny services to interracial couples, even though laws prohibit racial discrimination. Researchers asked about interracial couples to compare with findings for same-sex couples.

Respondents made a clear distinction between self-employed individuals and corporations. They were twice as likely to say a self-employed person could deny service as they were to support a business chain whose owners objected to serving same-sex or interracial couples.

Percent of Republicans, Independents and Democrats who support business service refusal to gay and interracial couples. Credit: Brian Powell, Indiana University

The study is published in Science Advances, a publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Co-authors are Landon Schnabel, a doctoral student in sociology; and Lauren Apgar, a recent Ph.D. graduate in sociology.

A representative sample of over 2,000 people were asked to respond to vignettes in which a photographer refused to take wedding pictures. In random versions of the vignette, the photographer was self-employed or worked for a chain business, the couple was same-sex or interracial, and the reason for denying service was religious or nonreligious.

Powell said it was striking that two in five respondents supported denying service to an interracial couple. Over half said a self-employed photographer should be able to refuse service to an interracial couple, while fewer than one-fourth said a corporation should be allowed to do so.

Percent of respondents who support business service refusal by experimental manipulations. Credit: Powell, Schnabel, Apgar, Sci. Adv. 2017;3: eaao5834

"Race is a protected category, and despite that, many people say you can deny service," Powell said.

Also, while 61 percent of respondents said a self-employed photographer could deny service to a same-sex couple or interracial couple, only 31 percent said a corporation could deny service. Powell said the result suggests public views are not aligned with the Supreme Court's 2014 Hobby Lobby decision, which said that closely held corporations had the same rights as individuals to deny their employees contraceptive insurance coverage because of the owners' religious objections.

"Americans don't believe that," he said. "They make a clear distinction between corporations and self-employed people."

Percent of respondents who support business service refusal by each experimental condition. Credit: Powell, Schnabel, Apgar, Sci. Adv. 2017;3: eaao5834

In the study, respondents didn't favor religious reasons for denying service over other reasons. In open-ended questions, Powell said, many took a libertarian view that a self-employed individual should be able to deny service to anyone for any reason. In contrast, others viewed denial of service as discrimination and said businesses should serve everyone.

The study examines public views on the conflict between anti-discrimination laws and legal protections for speech and religion, a topic under debate by courts and legislatures. The Supreme Court heard recent arguments in a Colorado case in which a baker refusedon religious groundsto make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. The court is expected to rule by June 2018.

More information: B. Powell el al., "Denial of service to same-sex and interracial couples: Evidence from a national survey experiment," Science Advances (2017). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aao5834 , advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/12/eaao5834 Journal information: Science Advances
Pukao are large, cylindrical stones made from a volcanic rock known as 'red scoria.' Weighing multiple tons, they were placed on the heads of the moai during prehistoric times, consistent with the Polynesian traditions of honoring their ancestors. Credit: Carl LIpo

Analysis of giant stone hats found on Rapa Nui, Chile (Easter Island) provides evidence contrary to the widely held belief that the ancient civilization had a warrior culture. According to a new study conducted by a team of researchers, including a professor at Binghamton University, State University of New York, these stone hats suggest that the people of Rapa Nui were part of a supportive and inclusive community.

Carl Lipo, anthropology professor and director of the Environmental Studies Program at Binghamton University, and a team of researchers studied the monumental statues (moai) on Rapa Nui, and the previously unacknowledged giant stone hats (pukao) that were placed atop them. Pukao are large, cylindrical stones made from a volcanic rock known as 'red scoria.' Weighing multiple tons, they were placed on the heads of the moai during prehistoric times, consistent with the Polynesian traditions of honoring their ancestors.

The researchers produced the first study analyzing the pukao and their significance, examining the 70 multi-ton giant hats scattered around the island that have gradually eroded over time. Using photography to produce 3D computer models, the researchers were able to study the pukao in greater detail and discovered that there are far more drawings carved into the hats than was previously thought.

"With the building mitigating any sense of conflict, the moai construction and pukao placement were key parts to the success of the island," said Lipo. "In our analysis of the archaeological records, we see evidence that demonstrates the prehistoric communities repeatedly worked together to build monuments. The action of cooperation had a benefit to the community by enabling sharing of information and resources."

While Easter Island is famous, the archaeological record of the island is not well-documented, said Lipo. He believes that scientists can learn a great deal from the pukao by examining this new information.

"Every time we look at the archaeological record of the island, we are surprised by what we find. There is much more to be learned from this remarkable placeimportant answers that shed light on the abilities of our ancestors, as well as potential ideas for contemporary society about what it takes to survive on a tiny and remote island," said Lipo.

More information: Sean W. Hixon et al, Using Structure from Motion Mapping to Record and Analyze Details of the Colossal Hats (Pukao) of Monumental Statues on Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Advances in Archaeological Practice (2017). DOI: 10.1017/aap.2017.28
There are concerns about the negative environmental and social impact of fracking in the Karoo. Credit: Martin Heigan/Flickr

The South African government is looking into fracking to reduce the country's huge reliance on coal for energy. Fracking involves pumping high pressured fluids into rock formations to release reserves of oil and gas.

Estimates for gas deposits in the main Karoo region of South Africa range widely. A few studies have been done for government on the potential for shale gas in the country. These include a report on the technical readiness for a shale gas industry, a strategic environmental assessment on shale gas and a multi-authored academic book on hydraulic fracturing in the Karoo. Government must now integrate this information into policy and develop regulations for the fracking industry.

Environmental groups and landowners are concerned about the negative environmental and the social impact of fracking. They say that it could have an impact on water quality and quantity, and could also cause habitat fragmentation and loss. They are also worried about possible increased seismicity associated with deep well waste water injection and fracking operations.

Our research set out to look at the link between earthquakes and fracking. It formed part of the vulnerability mapping for fracking in South Africa. We found that the areas with the highest vulnerability for seismicity linked to fracking were in the parts of Western Cape, Gauteng, North West Province, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and one of South Africa's neighbours, Swaziland. Even though no gas is expected to be found in many of these areas, they would still be prone to the seismic effects of fracking in the Karoo basin, the site of what is assumed to be the country's biggest gas deposits.

Seismic hazards in South Africa are not high by international norms. But there could be significant damage to infrastructure if seismicity increases.

Fracking and earthquakes

During fracking a mixture of water, sand and chemicals  known as fracking fluid  is pumped under high pressure into a well to fracture rock and release hydrocarbons. These hydrocarbons are extracted at the wellhead together with wastewater that contains a mixture of fracking fluid and formation water. The wastewater can be disposed of by injecting it underground through deep wells.

Both extraction and underground injection of fluids have been shown to cause earthquakes. But the size of these events are unclear; ranging from relatively small earthquakes such as the magnitude 2.3 in Blackpool, England to the 5.7 magnitude earthquake in Prague, Oklahoma in November 2011.

There have been at least two seismic events of concern with magnitudes equal or larger than 7.0, both in Gazli in Uzbekistan where gas is withdrawn. Although they could not be linked directly to fracking, they showed some features associated with fracking-induced earthquakes.

The connection between waste water pumping and seismicity is unquestionable. Scientists believe, that three factors are responsible for fracking induced or triggered seismic events:

the presence and orientation of tectonic faults,

state of stresses in the fault subsurface, and

the depth and relation between the faults and the fracking process as a whole.

Map of seismic hazard for South Africa showing the expected PGA with a 10 % probability of being exceeded at least once in a 50 year period. Credit: Esterhuyse et al., 2014

Seismic activity in South Africa

Seismic data of past events in South Africa are incomplete because the South African National Seismograph Network primarily monitors areas of mine-related seismicity in the country's central and northern parts.

The first seismic records were started in 1620, but these contain significant data gaps. Information about active faults that can cause earthquakes is limited; that's why information from similar tectonic areas like central and eastern US is normally used.

What we do know is that large seismic events  or earthquakes  are rare in South Africa. This is because the country is positioned on the interior of a tectonic plate, a relatively rigid area that's more stable compared with other plate boundaries.

The country has experienced several large mining-related earthquakes in the past. One occurred in Stilfontein on 9 March 2005; another near Orkney on 5 August 2014. Both earthquakes, with magnitudes 5.3 and 5.5 respectively, were powerful enough to damage the surrounding infrastructure.

South Africa's most devastating tectonic-origin earthquake, measuring magnitude 6.3, occurred of the Cape at St Lucia on 31 December 1932. On September 29 1969 an earthquake measuring 6.3 hit towns in the Western Cape, killing 12 people and causing extensive damage.

Seismic hazard in South Africa

The effect of fracking on the local seismic region can be measured by analysing the seismicity before, during, and after the fracking process.

But there is little knowledge on geological information for the Karoo region where fracking has been proposed. Figure one shows the distribution of seismic hazard in South Africa. This means that potentially dangerous faults in the region may go undetected. It's important to get more geological and tectonic information as well as data about the degree and depths of the proposed fracking process in the region. This could tell us what seismic effect to expect as a result of fracking.

It is extremely important to monitor local seismic activity before fracking starts to create a baseline for the specific site and surrounding areas. Seismic monitoring before exploration will aid in identifying the location of faults and the stress field nature in areas where it is currently unknown. This, linked with seismic monitoring during and after fracking, can help scientists perform reliable risk assessments to assist with proper regulation.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Credit: Astronomie.nl

It is theoretically possible that habitable planets exist around pulsars. Such planets must have an enormous atmosphere that convert the deadly X-rays and high energy particles of the pulsar into heat. This is the conclusion of a paper by astronomers Alessandro Patruno and Mihkel Kama, working in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The paper appears today in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Pulsars are known for their extreme conditions. They are neutron stars of only 10 to 30 kilometers in diameter. They have enormous magnetic fields, they accrete matter and they regularly burst out large amounts of X-rays and other energetic particles. Alessandro Patruno (Leiden University and ASTRON) and Mihkel Kama (Leiden University and Cambridge University) suggest that there could nonetheless be life in the vicinity of these stars.

It is the first time that astronomers have tried to calculate so-called habitable zones near neutron stars. The calculations show that the habitable zone around a neutron star can be as large as the distance from Earth to the sun. An important premise is that the planet must be a super-Earth with a mass between one and 10 times that of the Earth. A smaller planet will lose its atmosphere within a few thousand years. Furthermore, the atmosphere must be a million times as thick as that of the Earth. The conditions on the pulsar planet surface might resemble those of the deep sea.

The astronomers studied the pulsar PSR B1257+12 about 2300 light-years away in the constellation Virgo. They used the Chandra Space Telescope, which is specially made to observe X-rays. Three planets orbit the pulsar. Two of them are super-Earths with a mass of four to five times the Earth. The planets orbit close enough around the pulsar to warm up. Patruno says, "According to our calculations, the temperature of the planets might be suitable for the presence of liquid water on their surface. Though we don't know yet if the two super-Earths have the right, extremely dense atmosphere."

In the future, the astronomers would love to observe the pulsar in more detail and compare it with other pulsars. The ALMA telescope of the European Southern Observatory would be able to show dust discs around neutron stars. Such disks are good predictors of planets.

The Milky Way contains an estimated 1 billion neutron stars, of which about 200,000 are pulsars. So far, 3000 pulsars have been studied and only 5 pulsar planets have been found. PSR B1257+12 is a much-studied pulsar. In 1992, the first exoplanets ever were discovered around this object.

More information: A. Patruno et al. Neutron star planets: Atmospheric processes and irradiation, Astronomy & Astrophysics (2017). DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201731102 Journal information: Astronomy & Astrophysics
Artists impression of the Halloween asteroid 2015 TB145, which resembles a human skull in certain light conditions. Credit: J. A. Penas/SINC

There is one year to go until asteroid 2015 TB145 approaches Earth once again, just as it did in 2015 around the night of Halloween, during which astronomers studied its characteristics. This dark object measures between 625 and 700 metres; its rotation period is around three hours. In certain lighting conditions, the asteroid resembles a human skull.

It zipped past on 31 October 2015, relatively close to Earth, just 486,000 km away, 1.3 times the distance to the moon. The asteroid was discovered a few days earlier, on 10 October using the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii.

Different teams of astronomers pointed their instruments towards 2015 TB145, including NASA, which captured it using the Green Bank Radio Telescope in West Virginia and Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico. In some of the images, the rotating asteroid was seen at times to resemble a human skull due to the lighting conditions at particular moments during its rotation.

European scientists, including the researcher Pablo Santos-Sanz from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC), also organised observing campaigns of the Halloween asteroid to discover its characteristics. The results have been published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

"It is an Apollo-type near-Earth asteroid (NEA)," Santos-Sanz explains. "The proximity of this small object meant greater brightness, so we decided to study it using various observation techniques: on the one hand, we used optical telescopes from the Sierra Nevada Observatory in Granada, the Calar Alto Observatory in Almeria and the La Hita Observatory in Toledo; and on the other, we analysed it in the mid-infrared using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) VISIR instrument at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Cerro Paranal, Chile."

This image of asteroid 2015 TB145 was generated using radar data collected by the National Science Foundation's Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. Credit: NAIC-Arecibo/NSF

"From the observations from Spain, we discovered that this object's most likely rotation period is 2.94 hours, in other words, this is the approximate length of its day, although we cannot rule out another possibility: 4.78 hours, another solution which is consistent with our optical data," the expert points out.

Thanks to the observations in the mid-infrared made from the VLT, the authors were able to detect the thermal emission of the object. Using this information and a thermophysical model, various properties of 2015 TB145 could be discerned.

Santos-Sanz mentions a few of these: "The object measures between 625 m and 700 m, its shape is a slightly flattened ellipsoid, and its rotation axis was roughly perpendicular to the Earth at the time of its closest proximity. Furthermore, its thermal inertia (the amount of heat which it retains and the speed at which it absorbs or transfers heat) is consistent with that of similar sized asteroids."

The reflectivity or albedo of the surface of this asteroid is around 5 or 6 percent, which means that it reflects approximately 5 to 6 percent of sunlight. "This means that it is very dark, only slightly more reflective than charcoal," the Spanish astrophysicist explains.

Orbit diagram of 2015 TB145 and current position. Credit: JPL-NASA

Next approach: November 2018

Researchers are confident of obtaining more data on 2015 TB145 the next time it approaches our planet, which will happen in November 2018, although this time it will zip past much further away than the last, at a distance 105 times the average lunar distance. "Although this approach shall not be so favourable, we will be able to obtain new data which could help improve our knowledge of this mass and other similar masses that come close to our planet," Santos-Sanz says.

"It is currently 3.7 astronomical units away from Earth, that is 3.7 times the average distance from the Earth to the Sun," he points out. "It has a magnitude of 26.5, which means it is only visible from Earth using very large telescopes or space telescopes."

Thomas G. Muller, researcher from the Max-Planck-Institut fur extraterrestrische Physik (Germany) and co-author of the study, says, "The next slightly more exciting encounter will be around Halloween's day in the year 2088, when the object approaches Earth to a distance of about 20 lunar distances. The encounter on Halloween's day 2015 was the closest approach of an object of that size since 2006, and the next known similar event is the passage of 137108 (1999 AN10) on August 7, 2027. Later, 99942 Apophis will follow on April 13, 2029 with an Earth passage at approximately 0.1 lunar distances."

Scientists think that the Halloween asteroid could, in fact, be an extinct comet that lost its volatile compounds after orbiting the sun numerous times. In general, asteroids and comets are distinguished by their composition (the former being more rocky and metallic, while the latter have a higher proportion of ice and rock) and type of orbit around the sun, but at times it is not easy to tell them apart. The boundaries between them are becoming increasingly diffuse. In any case, both were formed and witnessed the first stages of our solar system, which was born around 4,600 million years ago.

More information: T. G. Muller et al. Large Halloween asteroid at lunar distance, Astronomy & Astrophysics (2016). DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201629584 Journal information: Astronomy & Astrophysics
NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough is seen executing the SPHERES-RINGS experiment aboard the International Space Station. The investigation uses two small, self-contained satellites (SPHERES) fitted with donut-like rings (RINGS) to test wireless power transfer and formation flight using electromagnetic fields. Credit: NASA

Astronaut crew time on the International Space Station is a precious commodity. By developing floating assistant robots, researchers on the ground are freeing astronauts to focus on completing tasks only humans can do. For more than 15 years, robotic helpers have been a consistent and evolving presence on our orbiting laboratory.

The first of these projects is called SPHERES  Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites. Originally the product of a professor's challenge to his students to recreate the lightsaber training droid used by Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode IV  A New Hope, these devices have now operated on the space station for over a decade, first arriving to the station in 2003.

There are three SPHERES  colored red, blue and orange. By using AA batteries and bottles of carbon dioxide as propulsion in a microgravity environment, these volleyball-sized satellites can examine materials, conduct experiments, connect to smartphones, and test new hardware. They've even been a platform for student robotics competitions.

Astrobee: The Next Generation

The future of astronauts' robotic helpers lies with Astrobee, a compact one-foot-cube of a robot in development at NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. This robot is designed to work autonomously without astronaut supervision, or to be remotely operated by mission controllers.

Equipped with various cameras, a speaker and a microphone, an RFID scanner, a laser pointer and more, Astrobee can do a variety of tasks, from testing cutting-edge technology to mundane chores such as taking inventory  freeing more time for astronauts to accomplish more science research activities in space. For controllers in Houston, Astrobee is an extra pair of eyes and ears on the station. For scientists and engineers, it's a new experimental platform. For astronauts, it's an assistant and part of the team, capable of contributing and taking on tasks independently.

SPHERES continue to operate on the space station, and Astrobee is almost ready to join them, scheduled to launch in 2018.

Provided by NASA
The Amazonian sardine. Credit: Queiroz et al. (2013). Peixes do Rio Madeira. Dialeto.

The Amazon River harbors the largest biodiversity of freshwater fish in the world. What is the origin of this abundance of species? Researchers at the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, have integrated a range of potential factors into a single statistical model to study the genesis of genetic diversity within a typical species, the Amazonian sardine. Published in the journal PLOS ONE, their study describes the contribution of each factor and the synergies at work. This approach, which can easily be used for any species, could be integrated into the study of the impact of various planned projects, such as the creation of new dams on the Amazon, as well as any human large-scale alteration in various ecosystems.

The immense network of tributaries and the diversity of the environments drained by the Amazon River may explain the frequent appearance of new species. Being able to identify the many factors of diversification involved, their respective contribution and their interactions is essential for our understanding of the origin of new species, the preservation of species and for anticipating the consequences of human activities. "We used a method of analysis that combines genetic and mathematical techniques, which compares the different factors in search of correlations," says Juan Montoya-Burgos, researcher at the Department of Genetics and Evolution of the UNIGE Faculty of Science.

The Amazon cut in two during glaciations

In collaboration with researchers from the Universities of Sao Paulo and Rondonia, in Brazil, the scientists have selected the Amazonian sardine as a representative species of the entire basin, which covers more than 7 million square kilometers, and collected samples from many tributaries of the Amazon. They discovered that this species contains three genetically very different populations, with variations within the same population. "Multiple factors, such as floodplain vegetation or the chemical composition of water, previously proposed as individual factors of divergence, have in fact acted together and often synergistically, to divide this species into three distinct lineages," adds Luiz Jardim de Queiroz, researcher at UNIGE and first author of the study.

One of these factors dates back to a recent geological time, the late Pleistocene (500'000 to 12'000 years ago). During the dry climatic periods of this epoch, the white waters of the Upper Amazon were temporarily disconnected from the dark waters of the Lower Amazon. The isolation of sardines in both regions has led to an adaptive specialization to both types of water, whose chemical composition differs - particularly in acidity and amount of silt - to the extent that fish no longer mix when these waters join.

This is the first time that the contribution of each factor, either alone or combined, is revealed using a statistical model which makes it possible to identify, among all the factors proposed and measured, which ones explain the changes in the variable of interest, in this case the genetic diversity within a species. "In the case of sardines, the interaction of the impact of waterfalls and of the geographical distance between sardine populations is responsible for 38% of their genetic differentiation. The effect of the floodplain size alone accounts for 23% of this differentiation. This effect, much more important than previously thought, pushes back the role of the chemistry of the water, whose incidence has been much emphasized, to only 3%", says Luiz Jardim de Queiroz.

Develop appropriate conservation strategies

Human modifications of the Amazon landscape, such as the new dams planned in major Amazon tributaries, will also have an impact on the genetic differentiation processes of aquatic organisms and threaten their diversity: "To develop conservation strategies in these areas, assessments should be made to determine the diversity of species and the role played by landscape peculiarities, such as waterfalls, water composition, floodplain size and vegetation composition," explains Juan Montoya-Burgos.

The results obtained with this complex analysis of multiple correlations exemplify the power of the methodology applied, for the first time, in the study of Amazonian biodiversity. This approach, which may include as many factors as desired, leads to a more accurate estimate of the impact of human intervention in various terrestrial or aquatic ecosystems, as it can be easily implemented for any species.
Credit: University of Chicago Medical Center

In the early 1900s, the U.S. Department of Agriculture recognized a problem. The United States relied heavily on fertilizer to grow crops and support its burgeoning economy, yet a crucial ingredient for fertilizerpotash, a mixture of potassium and saltswas mined almost exclusively in Germany. German mines supplied nearly the entire world's supply of potash, and at the time the U.S. used about a fifth of its output, half of the amount exported from Germany.

"It is obviously undesirable that the United States should be dependent upon any other nation for its supply of a necessity," wrote Frank Cameron, an officer "in charge of chemical, physical and fertilizer investigations" for the USDA, in a 1915 report.

Seeking ways to ease this dependency, the USDA commissioned several surveys of an alternative source of potash: kelp beds in the Pacific Northwest. The large, hardy seaweed is a natural source of potassium, nitrogen and salts, and had been used as fertilizer for years by Native Americans and settlers. If kelp could be harvested and processed in large enough quantities, it could be a viable source of potash to offset German imports.

So, the USDA sent surveyorsincluding George Rigg, an ecologist from the University of Washingtonto map the kelp beds along the coast of California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska. Rigg set out in a yacht with a 40-horsepower motor and mapped the coastline around Puget Sound in 1911-12. More than 100 years later, scientists at the University of Chicago used these maps to track historical changes in the kelp forests of the Pacific Northwest.

As it turned out, the original maps from the kelp surveys ended up at the University of Chicago Library, where Cathy Pfister, PhD, professor in the department of ecology and evolution, discovered them. She worked with the library's preservation staff to digitize the maps, and compared them to modern surveys conducted by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources over the past 26 years.

What they found is a relatively rare positive story when it comes to ecological studies in a time of accelerating climate change. The abundance of most modern kelp beds along the Washington coast has remained constant over the last century despite a seawater temperature increase of 0.72 degrees Celsius. The few exceptions are kelp beds closest to Puget Sound, Seattle and Tacoma.

"Kelp are a robust and resilient structure. You can see that in the data, as long as they have access to good water quality and waves flush through them, then they persist," Pfister said.

Pfister and her team also studied the competition among kelp species in the area. While the kelp beds were persistent over the decades, their populations could fluctuate greatly from year to year. There are two dominant speciesthe annual bull kelp and the perennial giant kelpand they fluctuated similarly, meaning that if one was abundant in a given year, so was the other. And good years, it turns out, are associated with colder seawater temperatures, an unfortunate preference for kelp as ocean temperatures continue to rise.

Understanding how changes in the ocean affect kelp is important because they're what's called a "foundation species," a crucial source of food and habitat for organisms.

"Kelp are a natural feature that generates habitat for hundreds, probably thousands of species of fish, invertebrates and microbes," Pfister said. "They're really a locus for biodiversity along these shores, so it's important to understand how they respond to climate change."

UChicago ecologist Cathy Pfister uses maps produced before World War I, which have quite a history of their own, to track the growth of kelp beds in the Pacific Northwest over the last century. Credit: Matt Wood, UChicago

While Cameron's 1915 report delves into the chemistry of potassium salts, nitrogen and fertilizer, it's vague on exactly what the U.S. government wanted do with a new kelp-based source of potash. But given that the world's supply of potash came from an increasingly belligerent German Empire just before World War I broke out, one could read between the lines and look to another industry that sprung up around the same time in California. These outfits focused on harvesting kelp and extracting chemicals from it, one of which, potassium nitrate or saltpeter, is a major ingredient of gunpowder.

Ultimately, kelp never became a major source of potash for the U.S. agricultural industry. Following the war, harvesting kelp for nitrogen became far more costly than a new commercial process invented by Fritz Haber in Germany to pull nitrogen from the atmosphere. For the benefit of the many species that depend upon them, the kelp beds (and the historic maps) remain.

More information: Catherine A. Pfister et al, The dynamics of Kelp Forests in the Northeast Pacific Ocean and the relationship with environmental drivers, Journal of Ecology (2017). DOI: 10.1111/1365-2745.12908 Journal information: Journal of Ecology
XSEDE supercomputers Stampede at TACC and Comet at SDSC helped study authors simulate the head piece domain of the cell membrane protein receptor integrin in solution, based on molecular dynamics modeling. Credit: Davoud Ebrahimi

Some secrets to repair our skeletons might be found in the silky webs of spiders, according to recent experiments guided by supercomputers. Scientists involved say their results will help understand the details of osteoregeneration, or how bones regenerate.

A study found that genes could be activated in human stem cells that initiate biomineralization, a key step in bone formation. Scientists achieved these results with engineered silk derived from the dragline of golden orb weaver spider webs, which they combined with silica. The study appeared September 2017 in the journal Advanced Functional Materials and has been the result of the combined effort from three institutions: Tufts University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Nottingham Trent University.

Study authors used the supercomputers Stampede1 at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) of the University of Texas at Austin and Comet at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) of the University of California San Diego through an allocation from XSEDE, the eXtreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment, funded by the National Science Foundation. The supercomputers helped scientists model how the cell membrane protein receptor called integrin folds and activates the intracellular pathways that lead to bone formation. The research will help larger efforts to cure bone growth diseases such as osteoporosis or calcific aortic valve disease.

"This work demonstrates a direct link between silk-silica-based biomaterials and intracellular pathways leading to osteogenesis," said study co-author Zaira Martin-Moldes, a post-doctoral scholar at the Kaplan Lab of Tufts University. She researches the development of new biomaterials based on silk. "The hybrid material promoted the differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells, the progenitor cells from the bone marrow, to osteoblasts as an indicator of osteogenesis, or bone-like tissue formation," Martin-Moldes said.

"Silk has been shown to be a suitable scaffold for tissue regeneration, due to its outstanding mechanical properties," Martin-Moldes explained. It's biodegradable. It's biocompatible. And it's fine-tunable through bioengineering modifications. The experimental team at Tufts University modified the genetic sequence of silk from golden orb weaver spiders (Nephila clavipes) and fused the silica-promoting peptide R5 derived from a gene of the diatom Cylindrotheca fusiformis silaffin.

Audio interview with Zaira Martin-Moldes (Tufts University) and Davoud Ebrahimi (MIT), hosted by Jorge Salazar (TACC). Credit: Texas Advanced Computing Center

The bone formation study targeted biomineralization, a critical process in materials biology. "We would love to generate a model that helps us predict and modulate these responses both in terms of preventing the mineralization and also to promote it," Martin-Moldes said.

"High performance supercomputing simulations are utilized along with experimental approaches to develop a model for the integrin activation, which is the first step in the bone formation process," said study co-author Davoud Ebrahimi, a postdoctoral associate at the Laboratory for Atomistic and Molecular Mechanics of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Integrin embeds itself in the cell membrane and mediates signals between the inside and the outside of cells. In its dormant state, the head unit sticking out of the membrane is bent over like a nodding sleeper. This inactive state prevents cellular adhesion. In its activated state, the head unit straightens out and is available for chemical binding at its exposed ligand region.

"Sampling different states of the conformation of integrins in contact with silicified or non-silicified surfaces could predict activation of the pathway," Ebrahimi explained. Sampling the folding of proteins remains a classically computationally expensive problem, despite recent and large efforts in developing new algorithms.

The derived silk-silica chimera they studied weighed in around a hefty 40 kilodaltons. "In this research, what we did in order to reduce the computational costs, we have only modeled the head piece of the protein, which is getting in contact with the surface that we're modeling," Ebrahimi said. "But again, it's a big system to simulate and can't be done on an ordinary system or ordinary computers."

Proposed mechanism for hMSC osteogenesis induction on silica surfaces. The binding of integrin V3 to the silica surface promotes its activation, that triggers an activation cascade that involves the three MAPK pathways, ERK, p38, but mainly JNK (reflected as wider arrow), which promotes AP-1 activation and translocation to the nucleus to activate Runx2 transcription factor. Runx2 is the finally responsible for the induction of bone extracellular matrix proteins and other osteoblast differentiation genes. B) In the presence of a neutralizing antibody against V3, there is no activation and induction of MAPK cascades, thus no induction of bone extracellular matrix genes and hence, no differentiation. Credit: Davoud Ebrahimi

The Computational team at MIT used the molecular dynamics package called Gromacs, a software for chemical simulation available on both the Stampede1 and Comet supercomputing systems. "We could perform those large simulations by having access to XSEDE computational clusters," he said.

"I have a very long-standing positive experience using XSEDE resources," said Ebrahimi. "I've been using them for almost 10 years now for my projects during my graduate and post-doctoral experiences. And the staff at XSEDE are really helpful if you encounter any problems. If you need software that should be installed and it's not available, they help and guide you through the process of doing your research. I remember exchanging a lot of emails the first time I was trying to use the clusters, and I was not so familiar. I got a lot of help from XSEDE resources and people at XSEDE. I really appreciate the time and effort that they put in order to solve computational problems that we usually encounter during our simulation," Ebrahimi reflected.

Computation combined with experimentation helped advance work in developing a model of osteoregeneration. "We propose a mechanism in our work," explained Martin-Moldes, "that starts with the silica-silk surface activating a specific cell membrane protein receptor, in this case integrin V3." She said this activation triggers a cascade in the cell through three mitogen-activated protein kinsase (MAPK) pathways, the main one being the c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) cascade.

She added that other factors are also involved in this process such as Runx2, the main transcription factor related to osteogenesis. According to the study, the control system did not show any response, and neither did the blockage of integrin using an antibody, confirming its involvement in this process. "Another important outcome was the correlation between the amount of silica deposited in the film and the level of induction of the genes that we analyzed," Martin-Moldes said. "These factors also provide an important feature to control in future material design for bone-forming biomaterials."

"We are doing a basic research here with our silk-silica systems," Martin-Moldes explained. "But we are helping in building the pathway to generate biomaterials that could be used in the future. The mineralization is a critical process. The final goal is to develop these models that help design the biomaterials to optimize the bone regeneration process, when the bone is required to regenerate or to minimize it when we need to reduce the bone formation."

These results help advance the research and are useful in larger efforts to help cure and treat bone diseases. "We could help in curing disease related to bone formation, such as calcific aortic valve disease or osteoporosis, which we need to know the pathway to control the amount of bone formed, to either reduce or increase it, Ebrahimi said.

More information: Zaira Martin-Moldes et al, Intracellular Pathways Involved in Bone Regeneration Triggered by Recombinant Silk-Silica Chimeras, Advanced Functional Materials (2017). DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201702570 Journal information: Advanced Functional Materials
(WASHINGTON  December 20, 2017) Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) journalists have been targeted in no fewer than 38 incidents in at least 12 of the countries they cover in 2017, in what the company has called relentless pressure on its journalistic mission.

We report on local politics, social issues, corruption, wars, and extremist movements in places where both governments and nonstate actors would prefer to control the media, said RFE/RL President Thomas Kent. Our reporters take enormous risks because they believe their work matters and that free societies need a free press.

The number of incidents represents an increase over previous years, and coincides with a recent report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that says the record number of journalists jailed worldwide this year is indicative of a global crisis in freedom of the press." RFE/RL reporters work in many of the countries where CPJ documented imprisoned journalists, including Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan.

Among the most serious cases, RFE/RL contributor Mykola Semena is serving a 2.5 year suspended sentence following a conviction on separatism charges in Russia-annexed Crimea. On December 18, the peninsulas Supreme Court let stand Semenas conviction and sentence, but reduced a ban on his public activities from three years to two. Blogger Stanislav Aseyev is being held virtually incommunicado by Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. Contributor Saparmamed Nepeskuliev is serving the last year of a three-year sentence in Turkmenistan. Aziz Yusupov, the brother of an RFE/RL journalist based in Prague, is serving a five-year sentence in Uzbekistan.

Our colleagues and family members should be released immediately and allowed to do their work, said Kent, adding that international rights groups have condemned each of the cases as politically motivated.

In most of the incidents documented this year, RFE/RL journalists have been summoned or detained by authorities for questioning, or faced warnings by law enforcement officials and persons in plainclothes while on assignment. Reporters with RFE/RLs investigative Schemes team in Ukraine have been roughed up on numerous occasions, and their equipment has been confiscated or broken. In Pakistan, correspondents have been vilified, threatened, and kidnapped by militant groups, state security agencies, and criminal gangs. Correspondents have been harassed and threatened with the loss of accreditation in connection with their reporting in Belarus, Russias Tatarstan region, and Tajikistan. Family members of reporters working for Current Time TV and RFE/RLs Iran, Uzbek, Turkmen, Azerbaijani, and Russian services have been threatened.

Online attacks have further threatened the security of RFE/RL journalists in 2017. The implications for RFE/RL journalists of Russias December 5, 2017 designation of RFE/RL and several affiliated news services as foreign agents remain unclear.

About RFE/RL

RFE/RL relies on its networks of local reporters to provide accurate news and information to 26 million people in 25 languages and 23 countries where media freedom is restricted, or where a professional press has not fully developed. Its videos have been viewed over 1 billion times on social networks and YouTube in 2017. RFE/RL is an editorially independent media company funded by a grant from the U.S. Congress through the Broadcasting Board of Governors.
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
" " The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor plant in Saint-Paul-Lez-Durance, France, is 50 percent complete. ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT/Getty Images

The sprawling landscape of construction cranes and partially completed buildings, along with a massive metal-and-steel ring, was described as looking like a "modern-day Stonehenge" by The New York Times in March 2017. It's been a decade since construction began on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor plant, known as ITER. The project, which involves 35 nations including the U.S., aims to demonstrate that nuclear fusion  the combining of hydrogen isotopes to form helium, the same process by which stars generate light and heat  could be a viable future source of power generation for an energy-hungry world.

The project has been dogged by delays and seen its projected cost nearly quadruple over the years to 18 billion euros ($22 billion), and even a 2016 U.S. Department of Energy report supporting the project expressed uncertainty about whether it ultimately will be successful. In early December 2017, ITER officials announced that they had reached an important milestone, by completing 50 percent of the total construction work needed to reach "First Plasma." That initial stage of operation, in which hydrogen will be turned into a hot, electrically-charged gas, currently is scheduled to occur in 2025. (It will take another decade of work after that for ITER to generate energy.)

Advertisement

"When we prove that fusion is a viable energy source, it will eventually replace burning fossil fuels, which are non-renewable and non-sustainable," Bernard Bigot, ITER's director general, explained in a statement on the project's website. "Fusion will be complementary with wind, solar, and other renewable energies. ... By demonstrating the feasibility of fusion as a clean, safe, and nearly limitless source of energy, we can leave a strong legacy for future generations."

In an email, Columbia University professor Gerald A. Navratil, a leading fusion energy researcher whose work influenced ITER's design, describes the construction milestone as a "significant event in the development of practical fusion energy."

ITER will contain the world's largest tokamak, a magnetic device first developed by Soviet researchers in the late 1960s, which essentially simulates the intense heat and pressure inside the internal furnace of a star. According to an explanation on the ITER website, the device uses a powerful electrical current to break down hydrogen gas, stripping away electrons from the nuclei to form plasma  a hot, electrically-charged gas. As the plasma particles become energized and collide, they heat up, eventually reaching a temperature between 100 and 300 million degrees Celsius (about 180 million to 360 million degrees Fahrenheit). At that point, the hydrogen nuclei are so energized that they can overcome their natural tendency to repel one another, so that they can fuse to form helium. In the process, they release enormous amounts of energy.

As this article from World Nuclear Association details, experimental tokamaks have been generating energy for decades. But so far, they've required more energy to operate than the fusion generates. But ITER hopes to overcome that limitation, in part, with sheer size. The March 2017 New York Times article on the project describes the tokamak as standing 100 feet (30.5 meters) tall and stretching another 100 feet in diameter, and a description on the ITER website says it will weigh more than 25,000 pounds (23 metric tons), with a volume of 30,000 cubic feet (840 cubic meters). That's 10 times the capacity of any previous device.
White House Blames North Korea for WannaCry Attacks

The White House has publicly blamed North Korea for the WannaCry ransomware attack earlier this year that locked more than 300,000 computers in 150 countries.

The White House has publicly blamed North Korea for the WannaCry ransomware attack earlier this year that locked more than 300,000 computers in 150 countries. White House Homeland Security Advisor Tom Bossert said Tuesday that the attack was ordered by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Bossert formally announced the blame in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Monday night and followed the statement with a White House press conference Tuesday. At the press conference, Bossert said that other nations, including Australia, Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom as well as private sector partners including Microsoft had agreed with the U.S. assessment that North Korea was responsible for the attack, which was widespread and cost billions.

We do not make this allegation lightly. We do this with evidence. We do so with partners, Bossert said.

The WannaCry attack was considered unprecedented in scale at the time, locking computers at hospitals, universities and businesses and demanding ransom payments and deletion of victims data if they didnt pay. The ransomware was made possible by a flaw in Windows software that was discovered by the U.S. National Security Agency and made publicly available online in an NSA security breach.

Security researchers believe the notorious North Korean hacking entity known as Lazarus Group carried out the attack on behalf of the North Korean government. Bossert said the goal of the announcement was to name and shame the North Korean actors.

North Korea has acted especially badly, largely unchecked, for more than a decade, and its malicious behavior is growing more egregious, Bossert said. WannaCry was indiscriminately reckless.

The attribution represents a move by the Trump administration to work against malicious cyber activity. Last month, the White House published a document about its Vulnerabilities Equities Process in an effort to increase transparency about how it decides whether and when to disclose cybersecurity flaws.

Stopping malicious behavior like this starts with accountability, Bossert said. It also requires governments and businesses to cooperate to mitigate cyber risk and increase the cost to hackers. The U.S. must lead this effort, rallying allies and responsible tech companies throughout the free world to increase the security and resilience of the internet.

North Korea has repeatedly denied responsibility for WannaCry and called other allegations about cyberattacks a smear campaign. The White Houses accusation comes as worries increase about North Koreas hacking abilities and nuclear weapons program.
Serious Adult and GCS present Gachi Otona, a video by George Booth-Cole, Graham Davies and Tom Delion (filming the super 8 segments) shot in Tokyo, Osaka and Kobe. A proper visual feast, this one sees plenty of night cruising through the streets and lesser seen spots perfectly encapsulating the vibes of exploring unfamiliar streets on four wheels and a plank of wood.

Cameos from Dal, Daisuke Kagoshima and more complete the experience, press play then start looking at flight prices

This one was posted up on Vague with accompanying photos and words from the crew, which we can highly recommend going and checking out.
Vans put on a dope weekend of skate jams, tattooing, live music and much more for the House of Vans Paris warehouse takeover on the 16th and 17th of December. Check out a photographic and written recap of what went down and keep an eye out for the next time one of these is happening!

Over the 16th and 17th December, House of Vans descended on Paris to transform a defunct indoor carpark in the heart of the city. Over 3,500 revellers attended the celebration of creativity that took place over the two days. This unique space played host to everything from tattoo workshops, to a best trick contest plus live music sets including performances from some of the biggest artists in Grime & French Hip Hop. Over the weekend, the House of Vans welcomed guests from all over France reasserting the Vans commitment to theOff The Wall spirit of free and untethered creative self-expression.

Saturday kicked off with various workshop programs including a flash tattoo pop up presented by kicked off with various workshop programs including a flash tattoo pop up presented by LEncrerie with the surprise addition of Skate legend Eric Dressen joining them. Running in conjunction, Vans Customs Artists Agathe Toman (French painter) and Alex Jenkins (London Illustrator) were on hand to host a workshop that ignited everyones imagination through their unique drawings, which would eventually turn into exclusive customs designs uploaded to Vans new Customs platform. Furthermore, the Lovenskate crew who have been making zines, printed boards and grip in East London since 2001, offered up four grip tape designs celebrating Vans and its history for the attendees to print and choose from. If that wasnt enough the Vans European Skate team were joined by Lizzia Armanto for a full throttle demo in Cosnostras custom built park, hand painted by Vans favourite Nairone . Continuing the skateboarding theme, the best trick jam saw a host of competitors take to the custom built stair set where Sam Partaix was on hand to dish out the cash. Finally, in amongst all the excitement a place of tranquility was made possible on the ground floor of the venue with Michael Burnetts (Thrasher Magazine) exhibition taking centre stage with nearly 20 years worth of gnarly skate photography on display.

After the daytime activities wrapped up, fans moved over to the main music stage for evening performances from both local and European acts. Renowned artists Giggs and Romeo Elvis kept the atmosphere electric throughout the evening playing a host of classics from their respective playlists. Local acts including Hony Zuka and Supa! supported ably on the night.
Our current cultural moment has provoked an unprecedented excavation of the female memory. Recollections of violations large and small, thoroughly traumatizing and mildly annoying, top-of-mind and all but forgotten, have poured onto the internet like a million leaks from an ancient, overfilled vessel. Many have seen themselves in the stories of alleged abuse by Harvey Weinstein, Louis C.K., Brett Ratner, John Besh, James Toback, Jesse Lacey, or any of the dozens of other men whove been accused of sexual exploitation in recent weeks. Some of these women had already recognized certain incidents from their past as harassment or abuse. Others have been forced by this interminable news cycle to relive, reconsider, and reclassify some of the things men have done to them against their will or to search for boundaries in the mess of human interaction.

Advertisement

To anyone bearing witness, #MeToo is writing an alternate history of the workplace, the classroom, the corner store, the dance club, the sidewalk, the friends party, and the intimate confines of the romantic relationship. To people whove experienced harassment and abuse, its also an alternate history of our own lives. Before, we were everyday women dealing with everyday creeps. Now, we must contend with the knowledge that the everyday woman, by virtue of existing in the public sphere, has endured untold violations. Actions that once seemed playful or relatively harmless now seem sinister, invisible grease for the wheels of an orchestrated system of humiliation designed to instill self-doubt and fear into women who might have otherwise posed a threat to male control. What happened to me was something that was so casual, I almost didnt even consider it sexual harassment, even though it was beyond my desire, wrote the Roots Danielle Young in a recent piece about the moment the Rev. Jesse Jackson grabbed her thigh during a photo-op.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Of course, not every uncomfortable experience is harassment, and not every woman is redefining these experiences as abuse. Though the lines between acceptable behavior and harassment feel in some ways clearer today than ever, there still isnt anything close to broad agreement about where all these lines should be drawn.

This is why the current moment has both women and men reassessing interactions from their past, wondering if they were on either end of a troubling encounter. Its not just that our collective understanding of the prevalence of harassment has changed; its that our understanding of the very definition of harassment has been called into question. The definition will grow more capacious as we retrain our antennae to categorize certain male behavior as threatening that wed previously been conditioned to dismiss or ignore. Both the #MeToo hashtag and the Shitty Media Men spreadsheet place accounts of one-off verbal come-ons next to dire accusations of sustained sexual abuse, which made some feminist critics (including, when the spreadsheet first circulated, me) queasy. As Rebecca Traister wrote in New York magazine last week, the rage that many of us are feeling doesnt necessarily correspond with the severity of the trespass: Lots of us are on some level as incensed about the guy who looked down our shirt at a company retreat as we are about Weinstein.  Part of it is the decades weve spent being pressured to underreact.

Advertisement

The specter of sexual harassment has been weighing heavily on many of the men in my life. Male friends have contacted me out of the blue to ask me to be honest, to tell them if I think theyve ever done anything to earn them a spot on one of the many semi-secret lists of sexists and creeps bouncing around the internet. When I told a Lyft driver in Detroit that I was in town for the Womens Convention in late October, he asked if I was a #MeToo, too. A friends father, who Ive known for years and hugged at least a dozen times, paused and asked for consent before putting an arm around me at a party this month. Its justyou never know how people will feel about being touched these days, he said with a laugh.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

By legal definition, sexual harassment is unwelcome or unwanted; if its welcome or wanted, its not harassment. The baked-in subjectivity of this definition, combined with the large-scale recalibration of this moment, has allowed space for some people to wonder whether cracking down on sexual harassment will put an end to all friendly flirtation. One male director of a design firm told the New York Times that companies should cancel the holiday party until, as the Times paraphrased, it has been figured out how men and women should interact.

But the rules of interaction havent changedits just that, for the first time, women are publicly calling foul en masse. Sexual harassment has moved from the realm of cheesy office training videos to the real world, where harassers are not only Donald Trumps and anonymous subway masturbators, but also our friends, lovers, fathers, and work buddies. Theyre the bad guys, yes, and theyre a fair number of good guys, too. If men are worried that they are constantly on the verge of unwittingly violating someone in the post-#MeToo erawhich, good, they should beits because, in a society that rarely takes claims of clear-cut sexual assault seriously, theres usually little room for open discussion about the more nuanced social norms that define the boundaries of sexual harassment.

Advertisement

Now theres finally room. Room for survivors to dig up and display the rotting garbage theyve been toting around for years, to explain aloud, for the whole world to hear, where they draw the line between right and wrong. To get a handle on how people define, or are redefining, the borders of sexual misconduct, Slate distributed a survey asking people a series of questions about their experiences as targets or perpetrators. We solicited anecdotes about encounters that didnt seem like harassment at the time but upon later reflection looked like more serious transgressions. We also asked our respondents to offer examples of incidents that, for them, fell into a gray areaa category of behavior that isnt unequivocally harassment, whether because of the intent of the perpetrator, the reception of the target, or the severity of the offense. They classified each anecdote as in a gray area but ultimately OK or in a gray area but ultimately not OK.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

There are a few visible patterns in the stories from our 56 respondents. People who felt flattered as teenagers or young adults by sexual advances from older authority figures grew to see such pursuits as gross or an abuse of power as they aged. Survivors of verbal harassment were sometimes wary of naming it as such if it never escalated into anything physical. Both male and female victims reported feeling pressure to be chill when physical touch or sex acts were forced on them. Women are reconsidering sexual contact theyve had with gay menboth as targets and culprits of misconductand contemplating when a compliment becomes street harassment. To these survey respondents, sexual violations in the context of romantic relationships have been some of the hardest examples to recognize as assault in the moment, but theyve also done some of the deepest and most lasting damage to both survivor and perpetrator.

Advertisement

The variety of behaviors people corralled into the two gray areas identified hereborderline but ultimately OK and borderline but ultimately not OKis telling, too. What seems like a gray area to one person is outright harassment to another. Many of the anecdotes that respondents described, especially those that involved unwanted physical touch, could easily be filed under the graver labels of sexual abuse or assault. The diversity of reactions to similar behaviors reveals both the personal nature of these experiences and a widespread lack of practical know-how when it comes to recognizing sexual harassment in the real world. It also illustrates how difficult it can be to attach any of these labelsharassment, assault, coercion, abuseto people we know, trust, or love, or to ourselves, even when they might seem to objectively apply.

Advertisement

These stories, which have been lightly edited for clarity, are not presented to caution readers about any sort of slippery slope about naming harassment or to argue that the borders of harassment are hopelessly blurry. Theyre not: If people paid closer attention to, and heeded, the desires of their sexual partners and women in general, there would surely be far fewer unwanted advances. Instead, we hope the following anecdotes will illustrate the diversity of human reactions to one set of similar behaviors and the barriers that prevent people from recognizing harassment when it happens to themor when they perpetrate it against someone else. Those perceptions will continue to shift as people absorb the mass of new data points that were currently sifting through as a culture. If we can subject the nuances of the gray areas to close examination instead of running away from them, that shift might become a sea change.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

At Work

Harassment is perhaps easiest to identify when it occurs in the workplace. There are laws on the books defining and prohibiting it; since the 1990s, most companies have set policies about it. But Slates respondents were split on certain specific actionsdiscussing an employees appearance, hugging subordinates, making weird comments about a workers pregnancyand there are still barriers to recognizing textbook harassment when it happens, many of which are represented in the stories below. Young people often dont have the confidence or institutional experience to know when managers cross lines, and many employees subconsciously make excuses for inappropriate behavior to avoid confrontation or being disillusioned by mentors.

Describe a situation that was in a gray area but ultimately OK.

When I was around 30, I lived in Hong Kong and worked as a reporter. I frequently interviewed highly successful business people. It wasnt uncommon for men I interviewed to be keenly aware that I didnt have kids, went out a lot, and basically didnt conform to feminine norms. They would invite me to visit them at their second home in Shanghai or to go to Macau for the weekend to gamble with them. One guy  would send six- or seven-dozen roses to my desk at the paper for seemingly no reason at all.  There did seem to be an awareness to not physically threaten or touch me. Moreover, their gestures were more romantic in nature verses crude. I actually believe that these advances were really a form of wooing me to become their mistress, which is not generally unusual for men of that level of success to have in Asia. L., 39, consultant, Houston

Advertisement

I was an intern on Capitol Hill when I was 19. I eventually learned that all of the interns had nicknames among the staff, and my nickname was hot-tern.  I honestly thought it was hilarious when I found out and most importantly, I never felt disrespected by any of the staff or held back from any experiences because they werent taking me seriously or anything of the like. Alycia, 30, finance professional, Boston

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

I was pregnant but hadnt told anyone. My male boss brought me into his office to ask if I had anything to tell him because my boobs seemed much larger than usual. Elise, 47, lawyer, New York

[I have] an older colleague who works in a different office. When he visits he gives me a hug, and I find it friendly and fatherly, but another of my colleagues has told me she would not like that (he hasnt hugged her, so maybe he accurately reads the room). Emma, 36, charity grant assessor, United Kingdom

Hanging out with someone from work at a bar when he lunged forward and stuck his tongue down my throat. I made several excuses to leave, but he insisted on walking me home. I didnt think it was a date, but I could see how he might read the situation as such. I told him the next week that I wasnt interested, and he was very nice about it, but I felt uncomfortable at work after that. I dont blame that on him, though. Sharon, 24, assistant, New York

My boss discussing blow jobs in front of or with me, in vague terms. Vivi, 30, analyst, Idaho

I used to have a male colleague who would use penis analogies to discuss completely nonsexual things. If a politician self-sabotaged, my colleague would say so-and-so tied a brick to his dick and stuck it off the edge of a bridge. If two people were fighting on Twitter, my colleague would say they were measuring their dicks against one another. It wasnt exactly harassment, but it made me uncomfortablelike, why is he making me think about penises in the middle of my workday when penises are absolutely not germane to what were discussing? I ultimately found it OK, though, because he wasnt targeting me specifically and never talked about his colleagues genitals. Natasha, 29, journalist, D.C.

Describe a situation that was in a gray area but ultimately not OK.

[A much older manager] would often talk about how cute I was and was fixated on my love life. He always wanted details about the guy I was dating. At the time I just thought he was a silly, older man. Looking back on it, I realize now that it was the buildup to when he pinned me against a counter with his boner. Lauren, 39, consultant, Houston

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

My husband and I were both sent on a company trip to France. I got pregnant while on the trip. My male boss said, I knew if we sent you on a trip like that you would end up pregnant. To this day I still want to defend myself by saying, But I am going on maternity leave and will come back to work, like I need to justify my behavior. Madeleine, 61, retired, Redmond, Washington

I had a temporary Christmas job in retail. When I was stocking the shelves an older woman would come up behind me and  press herself against me. She had worked there a long time, and I was new, so I would not have been taken seriously if I had complained. Also people didnt have a conception of her as being a sexual person at all, let alone attracted to women. Emma, 36, charity grant assessor, United Kingdom

In the restaurant world: I was told I was hired because the manager likes cute girls. A different restaurant manager laughed with me privately about a chef who was being reprimanded (lightly) for sexual harassment, and chef said, But thats why we work in restaurants! Because we can say and do those things, and its OK! The manager expected me to laugh? I even might have. Cora, 29, copywriter, D.C.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

At my grad school internship, I worked at a small think tank. I have a tattoo on my back and was wearing a shirt that mostly covered it but there was a bit peeking out. The company president walked up behind me and pulled down the back of my shirt in order to see my full tattoo. Jamie, 33, data scientist, Chicago

I was in the first year of my first job out of college at age 22. I was on a work trip with basically all my co-workers, and it was very late (maybe 3 a.m.) after a fancy event we were all staffing. We were drunk and giddy and sharing a bottle of prosecco in an empty hotel ballroom. One older married guy (far higher up the professional ladder than me, but not in my direct chain of command) was talking and flirting with me. When the group finally dispersed, the man asked me if I wanted to see his room, since it was much bigger and nicer than mine. I did, and we hung out for another hour or two while he packed for his early morning flight. Nothing happened, and when he left for his flight at 6 a.m., we parted ways. But I always thought it was weird that an older married dude invited a very young subordinate to his hotel room at 4 a.m. after flirting with her. I think it made him feel good just to prove to himself that he could get a 22-year-old to come back his hotel room or something. I always felt weird around him after that and lost a lot of respect for him, even though at the time, it made me feel flattered to have been chosen. Natasha, 29, journalist, D.C.

Describe a situation that seemed OK at the time but now seems like harassment.

When I was in college, I worked part-time in a local restaurant. My boss would make frequent remarks about my physique. At the time, and considering how hard I would train, I thought it was a compliment that he thought I had a tight little body.  I realize now that he was assessing my body, similar to how I would imagine people talk about racehorses or a well-bred dog. Lauren, 39, consultant, Houston

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

When I was 20 years old at my first job of less than a year, my co-worker told me that our 70-year-old boss had been commenting on the size of my breasts and laughing about what a nice rack I have. The same co-worker later told me about a sex dream he had about me. I thought these things were funny at the time and laughed them off, but theyve always stuck with me. Julia, 30, administrative professional, Philadelphia

When I was 18  my job consisted of organizing, retrieving, and delivering records to the hundreds of attorneys in the building. One attorney started personally requesting me to be the one to bring him his files. Eventually, one day when I brought him his files, he came right up and hugged me, saying, We know each other well enough. We can hug. Then he would email me to ask if I wanted to watch movies at his place. I could borrow a pair of pajamas from him if I wanted. I declined, not knowing what to do, even rationalizing it with odd things like maybe hes gay and just legit wants a girlfriends pajama party? At the time I was 18 and didnt know what was normal, but now as a 30-year-old woman, I look back and see a man in his 40s trying to have a sleepover with an 18-year-old intern. Alycia, 30, finance professional, Boston

1973, job interview in a hotel room with a group of men. One invited me to come down to the newsstand with him to buy cigarettes. I ended up in his hotel room where I gave him consensual oral sex. I got the job. Sandra, 71, retired college professor, New York

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

At work, I explained to a new team member the history of a client. I said, This is a new client that we recently brought inwell, actually I brought them in, because I did. The other colleague in the meeting, male, said, Ooohh. That was saucy. I didnt like the feeling at the time, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized he would never have said that to a man, and saucy has very sexual connotations. Cora, 29, copywriter, D.C.

When I was a teenager, I worked at a small bar and grill. In the kitchen, most nights, it was just me and the chef. The chef never really creeped me out, but he hugged me a lot and would run his hands along my waist and ribs, and he would kiss my neck. Looking back on it, I can see that it was completely inappropriate (given that I was 15-22 years old while holding this job and that he was 25 years my senior), though I dont really feel traumatized by it. I actually kind of liked the attention as an insecure teenage girl. Lindsay, 35, higher education, Wisconsin

A couple months after graduating college, I was starting my first job with a consulting company. They had gathered all the new analysts from around country in a hotel in Dallas. There were a number of social engagements that you were kind of expected to go to, and theres a lot of drinking. A couple nights in, I went to the restroom and was standing at a urinal. Someone comes up next to me, and I know hes a manager because they wear different nametags. He glances over at me, ostensibly looking at my penis, and he makes this comment about me having a tiny white dick and that it didnt measure up at all to his dick, which he described as so low it was hanging into the urinal. [At the time], I think I was thinking of it like, Oh, its just guys saying shit to each other when theyre drunk. Ben, 32, Oakland

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Dating

When physical intimacy or mutual romantic interest has already been established, it can be especially hard to entertain the possibility that a sexual experience, in that context, might constitute harassment. Also, the legacy of woman as property and sex as her duty creeps into contemporary relationships in insidious ways, sometimes in the form of relentless pestering for sex or willful disregard for a partners desires. These anecdotes show that, in cases where there is romantic or sexual history between the partners, recognizing misconduct by either party can be incredibly painful.

Describe a situation that was in a gray area but ultimately OK.

I once was in a relationship with a woman who clearly saw me as a long-term partner, when I considered us to be less serious. I never misrepresented my feelings about us out loud, but whenever she would bring it up I would dodge the question. I didnt want us to break up and stop having sex, so I let her continue to believe that we might be long-term partners. I think I could have acted in a way that was more considerate of her feelings and lessened the eventual emotional hardship she suffered when we broke up, but I dont believe what I did was sexual harassment. Roger, 29, lawyer, D.C.

Describe a situation that was in a gray area but ultimately not OK.

Ive had many experiences of men with whom I was intimate having an expectation of getting off or finishing even if we were not having sex. Ive been yelled at for giving a guy blue balls. Ive had many experiences where I was intimate with a man and then slowed down before anything moved toward intercourse, and Ive received a lot of well, you implied that we were going to have sex or now Im worked up, and it causes me pain if I dont get off or why would you invite me over if you werent planning on having sex with me? I have many times finished a guy (hand job usually) even if we were done hooking up because I didnt want to have sex but he implied that I owed him that. I still find it horrifying and inappropriate, but whenever Im in that situation, I still feel obligated to do it. Keisha, 23, graduate student and State Department employee, D.C.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

There was a time in college where I felt a lot of pressure around fitting in, particularly with other men, particularly straight men, and sort of the culture of hooking up that I felt was floating around in my social circles. I hooked up with someone. She and I had met at a party, and we had both been drinking. We were making out, and we were talking, so I felt like it was a situation where we were both present for it and that it was consensual. But I saw her a few days later, and Id left some hickeys on her shoulder and her neck. She wasnt upset by it and kind of laughed about it as a sort of joke. But its a memory I look back on, and I dont feel good about, in part because I felt like the whole point of the hookup was me sort of trying to prove something or had a connection to my own insecurity. Ben, 32, Oakland

My first girlfriend would allow me to hide in her room at night after I became homeless at 18. We were very sexually active during the beginning of our relationship, but near the end she wanted to slow down. I didnt want to and continued to make advances consistently. I thought at the time that since we were in a relationship it was OK. I allowed myself to stay ignorant until after we had broken up and I read some of the blog posts that she wrote about that time in her life. The way she described how she felt used, harassed, and worthless after my consistent advances tore me apart. Roy, 28, musician and activist, Salt Lake City

I was with a man who resisted condom use with such intensity that eventually I gave up on the idea of using them. We started using the withdrawal method. One day, he unilaterally decided that if we were having sex for the second time in a day that it was OK not to withdraw, because his friend had told him so. Id told him so many times that we were risking an unwanted pregnancy, and he would just brush aside all my concerns as if I were being hysterical or paranoid. So some part of me just gave up in that moment, lying there in bed feeling helpless, feeling as if my body wasnt really my own, as if what I needed or wanted wasnt even a part of the equation. Unsurprisingly, I got pregnant, and went through the seven most miserable weeks of my life waiting to get an abortion. It was one of the most awful things Ive ever gone through, and its so depressing that I valued myself so little. Yosia, 31, business owner and writer, California

Describe a situation that seemed OK at the time but now seems like harassment.

I was at a local show and ended up getting [a womans] phone number. A while later we went out to dinner and went back to her house to watch a movie. There was some intoxication involved. She asked if I wanted to go to her room for the night. At the time I didnt feel the desire to go any further than that and didnt make any advances. After we began [having sex] she [said] she didnt know if she was clean and that she didnt have protection, but by that point I wasnt in a mind frame to consider the consequences. After the first round there was a small break before she got back on top. This continued multiple times. I remember thinking that this is what it felt like to be used. It wasnt until after that I decided that this was something that I didnt want to happen again. Roy, 28, musician and activist, Salt Lake City

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

I was out at a club with some friends when I was reintroduced to a friend of those friends, and he and I ended up going back to my apartment at the end of the night. When we got there, we consensually moved from kissing and touching to oral sex, but I wasnt interested in having anal sex with him. He did want to have anal sex and asked me multiple times if we could, including while laying on top of me with his dick rubbing against my ass. I gave a variation of no, Im sorry, not tonight each time.  Finally, after about five or six times, he did stop asking and left abruptly. At the time, I didnt think much of it since (1) he never penetrated me, (2) we did enjoy some consensual sexual moments that night, and (3) he was living in another city. I now think he probably committed some form of harassment and/or assault against me. But in the back of my mind, I still hold doubts about that assertion, and I sometimes wonder whether those interactions actually live up to the rather serious definitions of assault and harassment. Jordan, 27, analyst, D.C.

In my early 20s  I took someone home and started having sex with him. Halfway through, my bedroom door opened and in walked a guy I had been on a couple of dates with. Hed come back with my housemates. I looked at him in shock and then said, OK, take your clothes off and join us. We had a threesome, and for years it was a funny and outrageous storybut I realized recently that he had no right to follow me home and walk in on me like that. And I wonder what would have happened if I had said no. Emma, 36, charity grant assessor, United Kingdom

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

I went on a first date with a guy I met on Tinder, and he kept touching mea little at first, things that seemed normal, like one of those playful hits on the shoulder, and it kept getting weirder, like when he put his hand on my lower back and touched my thigh. It ended with him walking me out to my car, putting me in a playful headlock on the way, and making me hug him goodbye and he wouldnt let go. I jumped in my car and sped away as quickly as I could and didnt process how weird it all was until halfway home when I just started crying. Chelsea, 26, editor, Ohio

I was in a long-distance relationship at age 21 and went to visit my girlfriend for a long weekend after several months apart. When I arrived, she was warm and caring as usual and wanted me to sleep in her bed with her but suddenly not interested in having sex. I was confused and extremely disappointed, and on the second night, I was so horny in bed with her that I told her that if she didnt want to have sex that was her decision but that I really needed to jerk off. She reluctantly agreed that was OK, but after I put on some porn and started, I wanted her even more and begged her to have sex. She finally said OK. During intercourse, she was visibly sad and at one point started crying. I asked if I should stop, but she weepily told me it was OK to keep going, and I finished. When the trip was over, we broke up. About a year later when learning about sexual harassment for a job, I came to terms with the fact that the way I pressured her and continued when she was clearly not enjoying it was harassment. Roger, 29, lawyer, D.C.

In Public Spaces

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Since the invention of streets, women have debated how we should feel about street harassment. Some people enjoy the phantom adulation screamed at them from across the block; others wish men would stop making unsolicited assessments of their bodies. The stories in this category explore womens desires to draw a line between objectifying or threatening harassment and harmless, or at least harm-lite, compliments.

Describe a situation that was in a gray area but ultimately OK.

I was in London. As I crossed a street, I noticed a man noticing me. He smiled at mebut it seemed more a smile of recognition rather than a sleazy smile. He walked to his car, threw his gym gear in the boot, and got in his car. I continued walking. Within a few minutes, the guy in the car came around the corner. As he drove by, he had his window down, and he called out, Youre really very beautiful. I wasnt sure how I should have felt. I was taken aback. When I thought about it, though, I think it was probably OK. He didnt curb-crawl. He didnt wait for me around the corner. He didnt try to engage me in conversation when we were both on the footpath. He didnt say anything offensive. Heessentiallypaid me a compliment. Hazel, 44, writer and Ph.D. candidate, Dublin

Im a heavily tattooed woman, and  sometimes its hard to even go to the grocery store without someone asking me a question about my skin. I understand that it might seem friendly to strike up a conversation about tattoos, but it also doesnt feel good to have strange men alert me to the fact that theyre interested in my legs or looking at my chest. Probably my least favorite is when men ask to look at my tattoos, which usually means they want me to stand still for them to ogle or that they want me to lift part of my clothing to reveal more skin.  However, if its another heavily tattooed person and they make a small comment, such as complimenting the art or asking who the artist is, that ultimately feels OK. Hannah, 30, animal rescuer, D.C.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Great outfit! or other mention of attire, either low-cut or not. I do believe that people ought to lighten up a bit when folks give compliments or slightly off-color jokes, and they take offense. This world is too uptight as it is without intentionally interpreting every compliment as having sexual overtones! My definition of harassment is something that makes the listener uncomfortable, whether sexual or not. If I am not uncomfortable with the remark or wink or whatever, I do not think of that as harassment! Joyce, 74, university professor, New Haven, Connecticut

Man I pass on my pedestrian commute every day says, Good morning. What a beautiful smile you have! Have a great day. Every day he says this and I dont find it menacing or inappropriate. Kate, 38, nurse, Philadelphia

Describe a situation that was in a gray area but ultimately not OK.

I used to live in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and went to pubs quite frequently. I cant remember a Saturday night where going up to the bar to get a drink did not include getting my ass grabbed or boob tweaked (or on one particularly disgusting occasion, gotten my ear licked). This is considered the price women pay to drink in public, and we all dealt with it. It was termed a bit of banter and did not matter how I was dressed. Kristen, 34, chief operating officer, Philadelphia

Describe a situation that seemed OK at the time but now seems like harassment.

In my latter teen years I was at a skate rink with a friend, and some girl I had met maybe an hour before came up behind me and did the hug-from-behind thing and whispered stuff in my ear. I think she may have kissed me in the cheek too. I remember being very uncomfortable with this, but also I didnt want to make her feel rejected or undesirable. I put on a brave face at first. I wanted to be the guy who was chill with a random woman showing me physical affection. But I wasnt. Paul, 33, journalist, Florida

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

A man at grocery store comments on cuteness of my infant baby boy and asks if hes my first. I tell him I have a preschool boy also. He says, You know what they call moms who have boys? Red hot mamas. Kate, 38, nurse, Philadelphia

With Friends

Because friendships foster intimacy, harassment can persist under the guise of playful ribbing or buddy-chats about sex. Because friendships foster forgiveness, targets are often inclined to give perpetrators the benefit of the doubt. And when one party to a friendship wants to make the relationship sexual, existing bonds may mute consent-seeking alarms that would go off in an encounter with a stranger. These anecdotes clarify some internal struggles friends face when their ideas of appropriate boundaries conflict.

Describe a situation that was in a gray area but ultimately OK.

[As a teenager,] a close friend told me that he often enjoyed masturbation. We talked about what it would feel like to have someone else jack us off and agreed that we would try it even though we didnt find each other attractive. One night we took turns. After a few minutes of this I told him that I wasnt comfortable with it and that I wanted to stop. He agreed, and we never considered that possibility again. Roy, 28, musician/activist, Salt Lake City

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Ive had groups of friends who were very free to surprise-share their genitals with me and each other. At the time I grimaced but laughed it off. There was something about it that gave me a sense of intimacy with them, like I was in the club and it was cool, it made me tough. Eventually their immaturity got to me, and I moved on to better friends, but I wonder if I should have dumped them sooner due to this. I wouldnt condone this behavior happening to me now. But it didnt really bother me too much at the time, and I still dont feel like it was really that bad. Colleen, 38, artist, California

Describe a situation that was in a gray area but ultimately not OK.

I was driving in a car with a friend from high school (we were in college at the time). He pulled over into an empty parking lot late at night and began to feel me up out of the blue. I told him I did not want to do anything with him, and he tried to convince me for a bit before backing off and driving me home. He made me feel extremely on edge, and I kept my phone at the ready the whole ride home in case he changed his mind. I gave him a kiss when he dropped me off because I felt horrible and like I had to please him somehow (we had never had any sort of romantic relationship prior to this). Sometimes I wonder if my fear was dramatic or unnecessary given that he stopped. But another part of me says that he shouldnt have pulled into a dark, empty parking lot, feeling me up without checking to see if I was interested. Sharon, 24, assistant, New York

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

I was at a party with a friend who pulled my bra strap down to my elbow in front of another man, and it felt like a lesson plan for this other mans benefit. I had long wanted to sleep with this friend, so my response was muted. Molly, 31, microbiologist, Colorado

Describe a situation that seemed OK at the time but now seems like harassment.

Im a queer woman, and when I was in college, I used to make out on occasion with one of my gay male friends. I think we both found each other attractive but obviously werent into each other romantically. One night, we were drunk at a party and snuck into someones bedroom to make out. I remember asking him several times to have sex with me while we were making out, and he said no every time. I think I felt like, If I could just seduce him enough, hell have sex with me. I should have taken him at his word. At the time, it felt like we were just playing around, and since he was a lot bigger than me and a dude, I felt like he still had the power in the situation. Now, I feel horrible, like I harassed him. Natasha, 29, journalist, D.C.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

One co-worker and friend of mine made me feel very weird when he kept telling me about the sexual details of his marriage, and also when he sent me a bunch of pictures hed taken at Burning Man without giving me a heads up that there were TONS of shots that were literally just close-ups of his penis. Yosia, 31, business owner and writer, California

In high school, two of my guy friends would touch my thighs under the desk in class. It was like a joke we were all in on, but it made me vaguely uncomfortable. I would push them away and laugh but never stood up for myself overtly because I didnt want to be not chill. Megan, 30, lawyer, D.C.

Elsewhere

No matter where harassment takes place, power dynamics play a major role in how its perceived. A doctor, professor, or older family friend generally has a greater responsibility to police the appropriateness of his own behavior than a patient, student, or teenager. But if the person in a position of power respectfully accepts a rejection of his advance, is it still harassment? When the power dynamics are less clearas with a developmentally disabled man who wants to hug a nonconsenting womantargets may wonder about the appropriate response.

Describe a situation that was in a gray area but ultimately OK.

One time, when visiting my grad school adviser in his office, I was wearing a fairly low-cut dress. I was also wearing feather earrings (so very light), one of which had fallen out of my ear while I was sitting in his office and landed between my breasts. After several minutes of conversation, he asked me somewhat awkwardly after a lot of shifting glances, Why is that there? while looking at the fallen earringand thus my cleavage. Lindsay, 35, higher education, Wisconsin

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

I was about 15 or 16. A family friend, a professor in his 50s who lived in an apartment in a college dorm as a resident faculty resource for the students, let me come and whine my teenage anxieties, pouring me wine and maybe sharing some marijuana. He made a pass at me a couple of times. I said no. He continued to be a gentleman and a family friend. Later I learned that this was his regular M.O., so I assume college boys in crises probably fell into his net. I have no idea how they fared, but I hope he was good to them. David, 60, law, San Francisco

Describe a situation that was in a gray area but ultimately not OK.

A man at my local church apparently likes to greet people by giving hugs. I dont like physical contact like that with strangers and tried to get by with a handshake. He may have had a developmental disability, but I felt completely alone in rejecting this unwanted attention. Julia, 30, administrative professional, Philadelphia

I graduated from drama school recently. As the culmination of two years of hard work, we put on a full-scale theatrical production. I played a sex worker, a young woman who was a victim of human trafficking. At one point during rehearsals, our director became angry with me for not sexing the part up enough. In the scene, this woman was asking a doctor for help, but a language barrier made some amount of physical storytelling necessary. The director became frustrated and in front of my scene partner and the stage manager said I should just grab my breasts and gestured the way in which he thought I should shove my breasts up into my face. He accused me of being afraid to go there, treated me like a bad actor, and acted as though I was just being difficult because I insisted that was wrong for the character and unnecessary. C., 25, actor, New York

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

A college professor took his students out to a local bar several times during the semester (all age 21-plus). He would sit next to me at the bar and make comments like, Youre different than other students. Youre more mature.  It always felt creepy. Kate, 38, nurse, Philadelphia

Describe a situation that seemed OK at the time but now seems like harassment.

Having my butt grabbed or my boobs honked by someone whose sexual orientation excludes me as a love interest. Molly, 31, microbiologist, Colorado

Years ago, I had an OB-GYN who, when he realized I had left my husband, used to kiss me every time I went to his office, hold my hand across his desk, refer to my unborn child as the baby weve waited for for so long, and call me pet names. I thought my discomfort was unreasonable; there was usually a nurse in the room, so I thought if it was unprofessional, they would have reacted. Hazel, 44, writer and Ph.D. candidate, Dublin

Back when I was 22 and about to graduate college, I was looking for a job in the nonprofit or government sector. There was a man I knew through my university fundraising work who ran a local foundation; I emailed him to ask if we could meet for a networking meeting where I could discuss what I wanted from my future career and maybe he could give me advice or job leads. We ended up having brunch, but he didnt want to talk about my career. Instead he asked me prying personal questions about my dating life and implied that he wanted to date me. At the time, I thought I might have inadvertently made him think I was flirting with him and felt it was a misunderstanding that was my fault. Jamie, 33, data scientist, Chicago
Citizens of the Banska Bystrica Region surprisingly express higher tolerance

Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled

Slovaks are still more often labeling people of a different race, nationality or religion as undesirable neighbours. This is one of the results of this years survey of European values, which scientists from the Sociological Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV) carry out in nine-year cycles. They declared the results of the latest survey on December 18.

Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement

Roma are undesirable neighbours for 62 percent of respondents, while immigrants and foreign workers are up to 43 percent, Muslims 54 percent and homosexuals 37 percent. These figures were significantly lower in 2008. For example, only 21 percent of respondents did not want Muslims as neighbours, while immigrants and foreign workers were unwanted neighbours at 16 percent.

This is a result of the anti-immigrant rhetoric from most current politicians, said SAVs Marianna Mrva, as cited by the TASR newswire. Peoples fear of the unknown and the current political climate only deepen these feelings.

People in western Slovakia, especially those living in the Bratislava region, in villages with a population less than 1,000 and people older than 65, maintain a relatively great distance from people of a different race and Muslims (41 percent).

Meanwhile, the lowest share was in the Nitra region, at 15 percent, said Mrva.

The differences based on education or gender are negligible.

Foreign workers and immigrants are undesirable neighbours chiefly for people from the Bratislava Region (65 percent of respondents). The least negative stances in this regard were expressed by people in the Nitra and Presov regions (31 percent and 30 percent, respectively).

There are no differences based on education or gender in this opinion, either, said Mrva. However, respondents older than 65 years (52 percent) and unbelievers (52 percent) labelled this category as undesirable neighbours much more often.

The lowest share of respondents who do not wish Roma people as neighbours was posted in the Trencin and Banska Bystrica regions (51 percent and 49 percent, respectively), among people with basic education (43 percent).

Residents of the Banska Bystrica Region (24 percent) and people with university education (29 percent) were the ones least likely to reject homosexuals as neighbours.

The relatively low figures in the Banska Bystrica Region deserve a discussion, since the previous regional councillor [LSNS leader Marian Kotleba] was known by his hostile rhetoric in this regard, believe the scientists. In their opinion, just the direct confrontation of people in the region with this style of communication opened their eyes and turned them into its opponents, i.e. started to express higher tolerance.

The survey was carried out on a sample of 1,435 respondents between September 27 and November 30. It is the oldest comparative research of value orientations in Europe. Slovakia joined in 1991.
Company wants to employ mostly people with university education

Font size: A - | A +

The Swiss company Optotune plans to establish a technology centre in Trnava focusing on the development of innovative products and improvements of existing ones. The company plans to invest 520,000 into machinery and technologies and 3.8 million into wage costs within the project. Based on data published by the Economy Ministry, it plans to employ 50 people, mostly with university education, the SITA newswire reported.

Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement

The investor has already asked the state for investment aid amounting to 1.2 million. The company could receive 130,000 in the form of a subsidy to acquire tangible and intangible fixed assets, and a tax credit of 632,000. The investor is also requesting a contribution for the new created jobs amounting to 500,000.

The Economy Ministry recommends the government to greenlight the investment aid.

Among obligations the investor should have to meet is the obligation to spend more than 3.8 million on remuneration until 2022.

The centre will focus on software, firmware, electronic, machinery and process engineering. It will be connected to academic, scientific and research facilities of the Faculty of Materials Science and Technology in Trnava and other universities in Bratislava, especially the faculties of the Slovak Technical University.

Optotune Holding AG is a manufacturer of opto-electronic components.
Franciscan monastery displays more than 40 nativity scenes

Font size: A - | A +

Nativity scenes have been a popular Advent and Christmas decoration in Slovakia. The tradition of creating nativity scenes goes back to St Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscan order.

St Francis recreated a live scene of Christs birth with Maria and Joseph in Greccio, Italy, in 1223, explained Brother Frantisek to The Slovak Spectator, from the monastery of the Order of Friars Minor, commonly known as the Franciscans, in Bratislava. He wanted to see and experience the birth of the Messiah and mediate this experience for other people. With this he also wanted to point out that he was born into the world in a state of poverty, humility, and simplicity.

Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement

Afterwards the creation of nativity scenes, which in Slovakia are commonly known as Bethlehems according to the place where Jesus Christ was born, has become part of the Franciscan tradition and spread around the world. Splendid, life-size nativity scenes in churches started to be created. However, Emperor Joseph II did not like how much money was spent on the scenes and he banned them from churches in the late 18th century.

Maybe it was this ban that led to the popularity of people creating small nativity scenes on their own, said Brother Frantisek.

Opening hours The exhibition is open in the cloister on Frantiskanske Square prior, during and after each mass until the end of January. During Christmas holiday(from December 25 until January 1) it will be open throughout the day. The entry is free.

The tradition of creating nativity scenes has lasted until today. It is proven by the fifth edition of the nativity scene exhibition organised by the Franciscans. This year, in the cloister of their monastery in the Old Town, they are exhibiting 44 nativity scenes from various parts of the world.

From wood, nacre and felt

Here we exhibit nativity scenes from our gradually growing collection as well as nativity scenes collectors or other orders lent us, said Brother Frantisek, one organiser of the exhibition.
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.
Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A. produces and distributes specialty plant nutrients, iodine and its derivatives, lithium and its derivatives, potassium chloride and sulfate, industrial chemicals, and other products and services. The company offers specialty plant nutrients, including potassium nitrate, sodium nitrate, sodium potassium nitrate, specialty blends, and other specialty fertilizers. It also provides iodine and its derivatives for use in medical, pharmaceutical, agricultural, and industrial applications comprising x-ray contrast media, polarizing films for LCD and LED, antiseptics, biocides and disinfectants, pharmaceutical synthesis, electronics, pigments, and dye components. In addition, the company offers lithium carbonates for various applications that include electrochemical materials for batteries, frits for the ceramic and enamel industries, heat-resistant glass, air conditioning chemicals, continuous casting powder for steel extrusion, primary aluminum smelting process, pharmaceuticals, and lithium derivatives, as well as ingredient in manufacturing of gunpowder. Further, it supplies lithium hydroxide for the lubricating greases industry, as well as cathodes for batteries. Additionally, it offers potassium chloride and potassium sulfate for various crops, including corn, rice, sugar, soybean, and wheat; industrial chemicals, including sodium nitrate, potassium nitrate, potassium chloride, and solar salts; and other fertilizers and blends. The company operates in Chile, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, North America, Asia, and internationally. Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A. was incorporated in 1968 and is headquartered in Santiago, Chile.
Banco Santander-Chile, together with its subsidiaries, provides commercial and retail banking products and services in Chile. It operates through Retail Banking, Middle-Market, Corporate Investment Banking, and Corporate Activities segments. The company offers debit and credit cards, checking accounts, and savings products; consumer, automobile, commercial, mortgage, and government-guaranteed loans; and Chilean peso and foreign currency denominated loans to finance various commercial transactions, trade, foreign currency forward contracts, and credit lines, as well as mortgage financing services. It also provides mutual funds, insurance and securities brokerage, foreign exchange, financial leasing, factoring, financial consulting and advisory, investment management, foreign trade, treasury, and transactional services, as well as specialized services to finance projects for the real estate industry. In addition, the company offers short-term financing and fund raising, and brokerage services, as well as derivatives, securitization, and other tailor-made products. It serves individuals, small to middle-sized entities, companies, and large corporations, as well as universities, government entities, and local and regional governments. As of December 31, 2021, the company operated 326 branches, which include 220 under the Santander brand name, 14 under the Select brand name, 7 specialized branches for the middle market, and 22 as auxiliary and payment centers, as well as 1,338 ATMs, including depository ATMs. Banco Santander-Chile was incorporated in 1977 and is headquartered in Santiago, Chile.
As 2017 ends Congo faces the same problem it faced in 2016: President Joseph Kabila illegally remaining in office. The December Accord of December 31, 2016 (also called the Saint Sylvester agreement) was supposed to create a peaceful political path for Kabila's exit. Congo's Catholic bishops mediated the negotiations that led to the December Accord. New elections were to be held in 2017 -- that was stipulated. Kabila would leave office after the elections and civil war would be avoided. Despite the February 2017 death of opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, the Congolese opposition coalition Rassemblement continued to demand elections in December 2017 and stage occasional national strikes. UN officials in Congo and the Catholic Church supported the coalition's demand for new elections. However, no national elections are occurring in December 2017. Though Rassemblement still confronts him, Kabila remains in office. He has managed to subvert the December Accord just like he subverted the constitution. Meanwhile, the odd tribal and political war in the southwest (the Kasai region) continues. In early December UN officials estimated that the Kasai conflict has displaced 1.4 million people and very few have returned to their homes. The Kasai region, however, isn't the only war zone within Congo. Rogue militias continue to savage eastern Congo (North and South Kivu provinces). Conflicts (plural) have erupted in the southeast (Katanga province) and the Atlantic coast (Bas Congo province). Angola is dealing with refugees from the Kasai region and is increasingly concerned Bas Congo's violence will also spill across borders. In the last six months fighting has erupted in at least ten of Congo's 26 provinces. At the moment these internal wars are discrete. However, the Kasai conflict has an anti-Kabila dimension. At least one tribe in Katanga has accused the Kabila government of exacerbating the conflict. (Austin Bay)

December 16, 2017: In northeastern Congo (Tshopo province) locals report a militia loyal to Thomas Mesandu has taken control of fifteen villages. Mesandu and his fighters staunchly oppose President Joseph Kabila but they also have a reputation for committing theft and rape. Mesandu began taking control of the villages in early October and appears ready to keep control for as long as he can.

December 14, 2017: A Congolese court has sentenced 11 militiamen to life in prison for raping 37 girls (18 months to 12 years old) in South Kivu province between 2013 and 2016.

December 13, 2017: Russia has asked the UN Security Council for an exemption to the weapons embargo imposed on the Central African Republic (CAR). Russian wants to provide weapons for 1,300 CAR soldiers recently trained by the EU. The soldiers would receive light infantry weapons and ammunition for the weapons-- assault rifles, pistols and sniper rifles. These weapons would arrive by February 1, 2018. Eventually Russia proposes to supply the CAR with 5,200 assault rifles as well as mortars, rocket propelled grenade launchers and 22 anti-aircraft guns.

The U.S. has imposed individual economic sanctions on two men, a Ugandan and a Sudanese, who are accused of helping the Ugandan LRA (Lords Resistance Army) rebels smuggle illegal elephant ivory. The LRA survives on the money it makes from smuggling ivory, wood, minerals and outright robbery. The U.S. believes the two men now under sanction were part of an LRA "support network." The Ugandan was identified as an LRA intelligence officer.

Burundian president Pierre Nkurunziza is at it again. He has begun a campaign to make further constitutional changes that will let him remain in office until 2034. His bid to change the constitution in April 2015 started Burundi's internal crisis. That bid was successful. He amended the constitution and was elected to a third term.

December 12, 2017: Uganda announced it will conduct "hot pursuit" operations against the Islamic terrorist ADF (Allied Democratic Forces) rebels if they attack Uganda from their bases in Congo. The warning comes after ADF fighters killed 15 Tanzanian peacekeepers on December 7.

December 10, 2017: Angola, Congo Republic-Brazzaville and Congo have asked the UN and international community to declare the ADF to be a terrorist group.

In southwest Congo (the Kasai region) international investigators continue to find more evidence of government-committed war crimes. Though the government has opposed foreign investigators, both UN and international NGO (non-governmental organization) teams are have deployed in the area. The alleged crimes include beheadings of civilians by the pro-government Bana Mura militia and attacks on Catholic churches. The Catholic bishops helped negotiate the December Accord of 2016 that was supposed to end Congo's constitutional crisis and remove Kabila from office. In early 2017 the Catholic Church reported a sharp increase in attacks and vandalism on Catholic facilities throughout the country.

December 9, 2017: In southwest Congo (the Kasai region) nearly 1.4 million people (60 percent of them children) has been displaced by fighting so far.

December 7, 2017: In eastern Congo (North Kivu province) 19 peacekeepers and soldiers were killed (and 53 wounded) when their base was attacked by ADF rebels. The base was described as a "remote" facility and was apparently the the deadliest attack on UN peacekeepers since 24 Pakistani peacekeepers were killed in Somalia in 1994.

Uganda announced that it has begun a planned withdrawal of its 6,000 troops serving with the UN peacekeepers in Somalia. The first 281 soldiers left today and another 700 will be withdrawn by January 1, 2018.

December 5, 2017: Zambia reported a "surge" of Congolese refugees. An estimated 13,000 Congolese fled into Zambia in the least week of November. Most of the refugees were women and children. They reported they were fleeing fighting by tribal militias in south-eastern Congo.

December 4, 2017: In eastern CAR a Christian anti-balaka (anti-machete) militia attacked UN peacekeepers killing one and wounding three others.

In Congo opposition political groups have accused the government of recruiting former M23 rebels to serve as political enforcers. The opposition claims security officials recruited at least 200 former M23 gunmen in late 2016 and sent them to areas (Kinshasa, Goma and Lubumbashi) where government opposition was most active. The government said the claims were ridiculous.
The Real Marigold on Tour is back tonight on BBC One for a trip to Thailand.

Marigold On Tour veteran Rosemary Shrager is joined by new cast members Sheila Ferguson, Paul Nicholas and Dennis Taylor, as they head off to the retirement Mecca of Thailand.

The group travel to the northern city of Chiang Mai, the cultural heart of the country, famous for its historic temples and laid back way of life. Once theyve settled into their homestay, they venture out into the steamy 35 degrees heat.

Their second day in Chiang Mai starts with one of Thailands most popular activities  Tai-Chi. Surprisingly for Sheila, who normally thrives on a fast-paced lifestyle, she loves the gentle form of exercise. In Thailand, local retirees all over the country can attend free schools once a week, so our four famous faces put on school uniforms for the first time in 50 years and head back to class.

Their first meal dining out is also an eye opener. Paul struggles with the spicy food but opens up about his youth. Sheila and Rosemary are keen to explore Buddhist Meditation, but the two chatterboxes must cope with a silent retreat. Paul and Dennis try some traditional Thai medicine. Dennis, Paul and Sheila look into buying an apartment, whilst Rosemary is keen to take advantage of some cheap dental work and looks into teeth whitening.

To mark the end of their time in the city, the group decide to take in a show. Thailands Ladyboys, among the countrys most popular entertainers, are joined on stage by Paul and Dennis.

The Real Marigold on Tour airs at 9PM on BBC One tonight (December 31).

The Real Marigold on Tour cast

Here are the celebrities on the cast for the 2017 The Real Marigold on Tours four episodes this year.

China: Miriam Margolyes, Wayne Sleep, Rosemary Shrager and Bobby George

Cuba: Miriam Margoyles, Wayne Sleep, Bobby George and Jan Leeming

Iceland: Sheila Ferguson, Rustie Lee, Paul Nicholas and Dennis Taylor

Thailand: Rosemary Shrager, Sheila Ferguson, Paul Nicholas and Dennis Taylor
EFFINGHAM -- Harmony Playground volunteers raised $80,264 on Nov. 28, known internationally as Giving Tuesday.

We are blown away by the response from Effingham and its surrounding communities, Aaron Myers, chair of the Harmony Playground fundraising committee, said in a press release. I know that we live in a generous community, but I did not know what to expect from a community that has already given so much in support of our fundraising efforts.

Southeastern Illinois Community Foundation, Harmony Playground, and the Effingham Park District would like to thank everyone who contributed to the Giving Tuesday fundraiser, including these sponsors: WXEF/KJ Country, Panera Bread, Martins IGA, Smoothie King, Midland States Bank, Cromwell Radio, Effingham Performance Center, and Bruce LeMoine of Armstrong Teasdale in St. Louis.

The Harmony Playground Fund is a fund of Southeastern Illinois Community Foundation, a regional 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that manages more than 130 funds that serve the immediate and long-term needs of southeastern Illinois. For more information, contact Joedy Hightower, President/CEO, at 217-342-4988 or visit www.enrichingourcommunity.org.
Back in January, I made 10 predictions for 2017. Lets see how near or off the mark they were:

The FinTech buzz continues, but not in the USA (look East)

WRONG.

According to KPMGs Pulse of FinTech report, Q3 2017, Im wrong. Asia was doing ok but nowhere near as strong as 2016, whilst America had the strongest year, recovering from the dip of 2016.

Ant Financial gets global applause (these guys arent staying in China)

RIGHT.

Maybe its just me, but I think this holds true, especially as Ive blogged about them so much this year:

A FinTech unicorn stumbles (this market is still nascent)

RIGHT.

Well, I didnt expect it to be this one: SoFi. Having met Mike Cagney and been impressed with their $1 billion funding round of 2015  we only asked for $200 million, Mike told me  I was amazed to see an Uber-style culture shock hit the firm, with Mike being forced to resign over claims of sexually harassing employees. Ah well, I guess 2017 has been that year of telling abusive men like it is, as in youre all predatory misogynistic assholes.

RegTech moves deeper into bank infrastructure (and demands real-time access)

RIGHT.

Artificial intelligence (AI), robo advisory and regtech remained hot in more mature fintech markets, according to KPMG, and it is noteworthy that a report was just released by Greenwich Associates stating that in fixed-income markets alone, traders are spending over $20 billion a year on RegTech.

Regulators compete to innovate more (2016 bubbled, 2017 steams)

HMMMM.

I could claim this is half-right as major financial centres are definitely in a race for innovation focus, but 2017 saw more co-operation between regulators rather than competition. Hong Kong signed a number of FinTech co-operation deals with Singapore, the UK and Dubai; Australia has teamed up with Switzerland; and everywhere from Malta to Mauritius has a FinTech start-up focus, so its been a pretty immense year for FinTech and travel (as I well know).

A major global bank gets broken into pieces (systemically important with systemic issues)

RIGHT.

This was a cheat as I knew that Deutsche Bank was going to reorganise and reorganise they are. The investment bank was shaken up in July, separating sales and trading. This followed a major announcement in March stating that the bank plans to combine Postbank and Deutsche Banks Private & Commercial clients business, float a minority stake of Deutsche Asset Management and create an integrated corporate and investment bank. All this from the hugely motivational John Cryan, CEO, who said at a conference I attended in September: If you take an accountant in our bank, theyre basically an abacus, following it up by announcing half of the banks staff would be laid off in the next few years. Boo, hoo, hoo!

SWIFT gets hacked again (how many times can this happen?)

RIGHT.

Yep. In October, hackers managed to pinch $60 million from the Far Eastern International Bank in Taiwan by placing malware on its PCs and servers in order to gain access to its SWIFT terminal. So OK, this was not SWIFT being hacked, but a bank attached to SWIFT. Similarly in November, a Nepalese bank  NIC Asia Bank based in Kathmandu  was hacked and $4.4 million lost through fraudulent SWIFT messages. For these reasons, Im going to claim this as true.

A blockchain proof of concept goes mainstream (how long can we test the technology?)

RIGHT.

This one finally came true in December, just last week, as the Australian Stock Exchange announced that it was going mainstream with Digital Asset for clearing and settlement. Woo-hoo!

Banks get chatty (chatbots are all the rage)

RIGHT.

I suppose this was a bit of dodge, as it was pretty obvious this would come true. What I didnt expect was that a chatbot could be used to overcome scammers, so the next time a fake prince emails you asking for money to access his trust fund, you can recruit a chatbot to mess with the scammer. Netsafe created a program called Re:scam that will engage digital conmen in an interminable conversation.

The way it works is when you get a scam email, forward it to me@rescam.org. After verifying that the email is indeed duplicitous, the service employs a proxy email address to begin conversing with the fraudster. The bot, which uses AI to imitate the email habits of an actual person, pretends to fall for the swindle in the most annoying way possible.

I LOVE THIS!!!

Machine learning and artificial intelligence are all the rage (related to above, but data wars begin)

RIGHT.

Certainly this has been up there for me most of the year, as I talk about JP Morgan laying off the lawyers and UBS automating their wealthy customers requests. But just watch out, as hackers are going to start doubling down on AI for criminal intent in 2018.

OK, so Im giving myself 8 1/2 out of 10 for my 2017 predictions. 2018 perspective will be released early next year. See you then.
Romanian police have arrested five individuals suspected of infecting tens of thousands of computers across Europe and the United States in recent years by spreading two infamous ransomware familiesCerber and CTB Locker.Undera major global police operation conducted by Europol, the FBI and law enforcement agencies from Romanian, Dutch, and the UKraided six houses in East Romania and made five arrests, Europol said on Wednesday.Authorities have seized a significant amount of hard drives, external storage, laptops, cryptocurrency mining devices, numerous documents and hundreds of SIM cards during the raid.One thing to note is that all of the five suspects were not arrested for developing or maintaining the infamous ransomware strains, but for allegedly spreading CTB Locker and Cerber.Based on CryptoLocker, CTB Locker , aka Critroni, was the most widely spread ransomware families in 2016 and was the first ransomware to use the Tor anonymizing network to hide its command and control servers.Emerged in March 2016, Cerber ransomware works on ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) model that helped it to gain widespread distribution, allowing any would-be hacker to spread the malware in exchange for 40% of each ransom amount paid.While CTB Locker helped criminals made $27 million in ransom, Cerber was ranked by Google as the most criminally profitable ransomware that helped them earned $6.9 million up in July 2017.As with most ransomware, CTB Locker and Cerber distributors were using the most common attack vectors, such as phishing emails and exploit kits."In early 2017, the Romanian authorities received detailed information from the Dutch High Tech Crime Unit and other authorities that a group of Romanian nationals was involved in sending spam messages," Europol said in its press release."The spam messages intended to infect computer systems and encrypt their data with the CTB-Locker ransomware aka Critroni. Each email had an attachment, often in the form of an archived invoice, which contained a malicious file. Once this attachment was opened on a Windows system, the malware encrypted files on the infected device."Although the authorities did not release the actual identities of the arrested individuals yet, Europol released a dramatic video of the arrests, where you can see how armed officers stormed the suspects' residence.
MATTOON -- The City Council heard Tuesday evening that the strong taste and odor of Mattoon's drinking water in recent weeks has begun improving due to measures taken by the city and due to colder weather.

In addition, the council unanimously approved the city's annual property tax levy and voted 4-1 to hire two new officers to fill vacancies in the Mattoon Police Department. Council member Preston Owen, who cast the "no" votes for the two hiring proposals, voiced concerns about the city's rising pension costs and the prospects for a 2018-19 city budget that will be tough to balance.

Regarding water, Public Works Director Dean Barber said strong taste and odor can be a problem in the late fall due to algae having grown in lakes Mattoon and Paradise during the preceding warmer months. He said the algae gives off a bad taste and odor when the water is chlorinated. He said the problem has been compounded this fall by Mattoon having not received a significant rainfall for three to four months now.

"There is no fresh water running through them," Barber said, adding that the lake water is more difficult to treat during these conditions.

Barber said the city has begun drawing water from Lake Mattoon, which has better taste and odor than Lake Paradise, and has switched to its winter water treatment chemicals. He said these are the city's main tools for improving taste and odor. He said the taste has started improving with these measures and with the advent of colder weather, which causes the algae to stop growing and settle out of the water.

Barber said he has received numerous complaints from Mattoon residents about the poor taste of the water.

Regarding the levy, the city will seek $4.4 million in property tax revenue to help fund its operations. This figure is 4.9 percent more than the $4.2 million collected by the previous levy. The Property Tax Extension Limitation Law (PTELL) in Coles County limits the increase in tax revenue to the Consumer Price Index or 5 percent, whichever is less.

City officials have estimated that the new levy will cause the city's share of the annual tax bill for a $100,000 house, for example, to increase by $11 per yer. City officials have said that the majority of the increased property tax revenue will go to helping meet police and firefighter pension costs.

Council member Owen cited his concerns about the city having trouble meeting its pension costs and balancing its budget when he voted "no" against hiring the two new police officers. Owen emphasized that his votes were not a reflection on the quality of the two officers and said he knows the police department needs to fill vacancies.

Police Chief Jason Taylor said the department is operating at minimum staffing levels. He said the department is handling more calls for service, 30,000-35,000 per year, with fewer officers, 37-38, than he has seen before during his 20 years with the department.

The council voted to employ Luke Wilson and Tyler Poland as probationary police officers. Wilson will fill a vacancy that was created by the series of promotions that followed the recent retirement of Chief Jeff Branson. Poland will fill a vacancy that will be created by the planned transfer of a police officer to duty as a second school resource officer, a position that will be funded by the Mattoon school district.

Wilson and Poland are both Mattoon natives and Lake Land College graduates. Wilson has been working as an emergency room nurse. Poland has been working as the second-shift supervisor at Lender Bagels.

In addition, the council heard a presentation about the Mattoon Middle School's 2017-18 Read Across Mattoon book -- "I Will Always Write Back: How One Letter Changed Two Lives written by Caitlin Alifirenka and Martin Ganda with Liz Welch. The presentation was given by Student Reading Committee members Josie Auer, Greta Ballinger, Jenaya Carter, and Lance Chaney. Copies of the book are available at the school.
"A little fill here and there may seem to be nothing to become excited about. But one fill, though comparatively inconsequential, may lead to another, and another, and before long a great body may be eaten away until it may no longer exist.

Our navigable waters are a precious natural heritage, once gone, they disappear forever," wrote the Wisconsin Supreme Court in its 1960 opinion resolving Hixon v. PSC and buttressing The Public Trust Doctrine, Article IX of the Wisconsin State Constitution.
Vietnam is on track to post its highest ever annual import-export turnover figure of US$410 billion by the end of the year.

With total import-export revenue already eclipsing $400 billion as of mid-December, a ceremony was held on Tuesday to mark the new milestone, with Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue delivering a keynote speech.

Vietnams import and export value has reached $400 billion and will certainly increase to $410 billion by year-end, which enhances Vietnams position in the world, the deputy premier said.

Hue said the $400 billion milestone illustrates Vietnams impressive performance since it joined the World Trade Organization in 2007.

In 2007, Vietnam achieved $100 billion in foreign trade value for the first time, then doubled the figure in 2011, before it increased to $300 billion by 2015.

The $400 billion figure in total import and export value represents a fourfold increase in ten years, the deputy premier said.

Hue attributed the outcome to concerted efforts by the entire nation and praised the customs sector for its hard work in administrative reform.

This has also helped significantly increase Vietnams rankings in the WTOs trade profile, according to the deputy premier. During its first year of WTO membership, Vietnam stood in 50th place in export and 41st for imports. By 2016 those rankings were 26th and 25th respectively.

As the country looks to set a new goal of $500 billion in the next two years, Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung said his ministry was committed to working with relevant agencies and provincial authorities to remove barriers facing the business community.

In the Jan-Nov period of this year, Vietnam logged total import and export value of $385.77 billion, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs.

During this period, Vietnams exports topped $194.47 billion, up 21.5 percent year on year, while imports stood at $191.3 billion, meaning the country had achieved its highest-ever trade surplus of $3.17 billion.

The 11-month total also represents an increase of $67.93 billion on the same period in 2016, the highest annual increase to date.
Vietnam and Laos have agreed to enhance their special relationship, marking a successful year in the two nations bilateral cooperation.

State President and General Secretary of the Lao Party Bounnhang Vorachith joined talks with Vietnamese Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong in Hanoi on Tuesday morning, as part of his official visit to Vietnam from December 19 to 21.

General Secretary Trong considered the trip a historic milestone, following a successful year of the two countries friendship and solidarity as well as the 55th anniversary of their diplomatic relationship.

The special relations between Vietnamese and Lao Parties and States hold the key to peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world, the two leaders remarked.

They agreed on the effective realization of agreements signed between the two countries Parties and States and the Vietnam-Laos Joint Statement.

More efforts will be exerted to deepen the two nations political ties and to boost socio-economic development and international integration.

Focus will be directed on personnel training at all levels, promoting the spirit of the friendship solidarity year, and raising public awareness of the traditional friendship and special relations between Vietnam and Laos, especially among the younger generation.

Both sides consented on cementing mutual support at regional and international forums, namely the United Nations (UN), Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS).

The two countries will also strengthen coordination with Cambodia to implement the trilateral agreement of the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle Area (CLV).

Regarding the East Vietnam Sea issue, the two leaders stressed the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security, safety and freedom of navigation and overflight in the maritime area.

All disputes must be settled via peaceful means in accordance with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Following the talks, they witnessed the signing of several significant documents and agreements.

General Secretary Bounnhang Vorachith met with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan on the same day, and is scheduled to talk with State President Tran Dai Quang on Wednesday.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Rumors spreading on social media that it was snowing in Da Lat are groundless and the person responsible for the false information will be penalized, local authorities said Wednesday.

On Tuesday night, a Facebook profile named H.H. uploaded two videos and some photos, claiming to capture snow falling in Da Lat, the capital of Vietnams Central Highlands province of Lam Dong.

So it was snowing for the first time in Da Lat and I am freezing now having failed to take warm clothes with me to work, the caption in Vietnamese reads.

The post immediately went viral on Facebook, particularly reposted by tourism-themed Facebook Pages, duping many into believing that it was really snowy in Da Lat.

Some even planned to book a trip to the Central Highlands city to enjoy the rare weather condition in tropical Vietnam.

The fake video of 'snowy Da Lat'

However, the Lam Dong Department of Information and Communications asserted on Wednesday morning that any information that it was snowing in Da Lat is groundless.

The department will send its inspectors to look into the rumor mill and handle any individual or organization that spread the false information, according to Saigon Giai Phong (Liberated Saigon) newspaper.

The snow as seen in the videos and photos are in fact artificial foam.

It is against the Vietnamese law to share false and inaccurate information on the Internet, according to lawyer Tran Duy Hung, from the Hanoi Bar Association.

The offense may be subject to civil fines between VND10 million (US$440) and VND20 million ($880), or even criminally charged.

The post has attracted numerous shares and likes from local Facebook users.

Provinces and cities across Vietnam are in fact experiencing the coldest period of the year, with temperatures in the nothern region dropping to eight degrees Celsius, and below five degrees in mountainous areas.

As of Wedneday afternoon, tempetarure in Da Lat was round 15 degrees Celsius, which is impossible for a snow fall to happen.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Upon being downloaded the malware can turn the victims computer into a bitcoin mining machine without their knowledge.

Vu Ngoc Son, vice president of Hanoi-based cyber security firm Bkav, said the malware spreads by sending a .zip file through Messenger to all friends of an infected account.

The compressed file contains a fake video-format file that when opened will infect the victims computer with the malicious program.

In case the victim uses Google Chrome as their web browser, the malware will silently install an extension to continue spreading the .zip file through Messenger to everybody in the persons Facebook friend list.

Once infected, the computer in question will experience slow performance as the malware exploits its resources to mine digital coins known as cryptocurrency.

Cyber security experts advise against opening suspicious files received via the messaging app to avoid contracting the malware, which goes by the name of CoinMiner.

Son recommends upgrading antivirus software to defend their devices against the new threat.

Last month, internet users in Vietnam were warned of a similarly malicious program hiding on websites that steal the computing resources of visitors devices in order to mine the cryptocurrency Monero for hackers.

The program, known as CoinHive, also exploited devices computing power to solve puzzles and problems in a crytocurrencys systems and mine the digital coins.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!
Vietnamese conglomerate TTC Corp expects to start construction work on the countrys first three solar power projects in the first half of 2018, its chairman said on Tuesday.

Vietnam has been mostly reliant on coal-fired and hydro power plants to meet demand for electrical energy, which is growing at around 11 percent a year, but wants to boost its renewable energy output.

Investing in renewable energy is truly a very great opportunity as Vietnam is close to the equator, so the (solar) radiation is good, and we also have a more than 3,600-km long coastline, TTCs chairman Dang Van Thanh told Reuters in an interview.

The three projects in central and southern provinces of Vietnam will have a total capacity of around 150 megawatts (MW), with a combined investment of about 3 trillion dong ($132 million), Thanh said.

He expects construction on two of the projects in central Thua Thien Hue province and the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai to start in the first quarter of 2018, while work could get underway on the other project in Tay Ninh province in the second quarter.

TTC has a long-term plan for renewable energy, aiming to bring its overall capacity from solar power plants to 600 to 700 MW by 2020 and to 1,000 MW by 2025 when total invest would sum up to around $1 billion.

The company has signed a strategic partnership with Armstrong South East Asia Clean Energy Fund and the International Financial Corporation (IFC), which have a combined 36 percent ownership in TTCs energy unit.

The partnership with Armstrong, one of Southeast Asias biggest renewable energy developers and asset managers of $164 million in commitments, marks a significant step for Vietnam, which is seen to have much potential in this sector but so far has fallen short behind other countries in the region, especially Thailand.

Earlier this year Vietnams Dak Lak province granted licences and signed memorandums of understanding for the development of several solar power projects, separate from TTCs, worth a combined $3.3 billion.

Technology and equipments about a decade ago were not approachable (for Vietnam) but now their prices have fallen to an acceptable level for Vietnam, Thanh said.

Clean energy is the inevitable trend.

Thanh said TTC is open to investing in solar power projects overseas, potentially in Laos.
University of North Georgia (UNG) senior Lyric Jones had her heart set on studying the Chinese language in China in her quest to become a translator. The Augusta, Georgia, native has done just that.

Jones, a 22-year-old majoring in Chinese, received the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship for a full academic year of study in China.

"I was drowning in happiness," Jones said after receiving the news last summer.

She left for China in August with plans to return for her July 2018 graduation.

Jones is not the only UNG student who received Gilman scholarship this year. Monica Pizano of Jefferson, Georgia, won a scholarship for the spring 2018 semester to study abroad in Spain.

Monica Pizano of Jefferson, Georgia, won the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship for the spring 2018 semester to study abroad in Spain.

"I was jumping up and down and really excited," Pizano said after learning she got the scholarship. "I messaged my mom and she said 'Hard works pays off.'"

Jones and Pizano are two out of 1,000 American undergraduates to receive a Gilman scholarship. Dr. Anastasia Lin, assistant vice president of Research and Engagement at UNG, explained the scholarship is unique because it is geared toward supporting students who are underrepresented in study abroad programs.

"The scholarship is interested in diversifying the types of students who study abroad, including those who do not have the economic resources to do so," she said.

In the past five years, 22 UNG students have received Gilman Scholarships, including a record nine students in the 2016-17 academic year.

UNGs Center for Global Engagement, Financial Aid office and many academic departments collaborate to find opportunities for students to travel overseas and thrive while learning in a new culture.

Jones can attest to that. She received the Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) to study abroad for eight weeks in China during summer 2016 after being overseas a year earlier.

"It was an intensive program similar to what we have at the UNG Summer Language Institute, but it is at a higher level," said Jones, who is part of UNG's Chinese Language Flagship program.

She also encourages others try the study abroad experience.

"It will help your career  because it will make your resume more competitive," she said. "And you will have the opportunity to meet different types of people."

Pizano, a junior majoring in Spanish, is looking forward to immersing herself in the culture and language. She said she grew up speaking Spanish with her parents, who are from Mexico, but it was not encouraged.

"I didn't want to be bilingual," she said.

Now, Pizano will have to speak Spanish for five months. She hopes it will help overcome her mental barrier of speaking the language fluently, which will be required of her as she plans to teach Spanish.

"I think my study aboard will give me the confidence I need to speak Spanish in front of people," she said.

Jones and Pizano are not the only two UNG students who applied for the Gilman scholarship for the 2017-18 academic year. Kathryn Boniol from Gray, Georgia, applied and was named as an alternate for the spring semester. If another recipient declines the scholarship, she is in line to receive it.

"There is hope someone will change his or her mind, but I don't know how often it happens," Boniol said.

The 24-year-old junior majoring in Spanish still plans to study in Peru this spring and is working to raise the funds herself.

"In order for me to be fluent in Spanish, I have to live in a country that where the people speak primarily Spanish," she said. "I have to learn things that I won't learn in a normal classroom, like slang. And I will be able to gain a new perspective and adapt to new culture and speak in Spanish fluently."

The Gilman program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of States Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and is supported in its implementation by the Institute of International Education.
Airbnb had a big 2017 in Nebraska.

The online lodging rental company said Tuesday that its Nebraska users hosted about 46,000 guests this year and made $4.3 million.

That was up 107 percent over last year, Airbnb said in a news release.

The vast majority of the activity was in Omaha, which accounted for more than half of the stays (nearly 27,000) and income (more than $2.7 million).

Lincoln Airbnb hosts accounted for more than 6,100 stays and more than $480,000 in income.

Bellevue was third, Gretna fourth and Kearney fifth.

Airbnb also said that statewide data it has collected indicates that it is complementing hotels, drawing in users who wouldn't otherwise stay in a hotel, rather than siphoning business away from hotels.
Three charged in connection to missing Aberdeen man

As the Aberdeen Police Department continues to investigate the disappearance of Simon Deng in Aberdeen, three people now face charges.
Allo Communications has signed up its first customer outside of Nebraska.

Officials from Fort Morgan, Colorado, announced Wednesday that the Lincoln-based company will provide high-speed internet, as well as TV and phone services, to every home and business in the city of more than 11,000 that's about 100 miles southwest of the Nebraska border.

The Fort Morgan City Council on Tuesday approved a plan to build a fiber network throughout the city and lease it to Allo.

Allo will have an initial lease term of 20 years, with two 10-year renewal options. It will take on responsibility for all costs beyond construction of the fiber network. After the initial 20-year lease, and again after each renewal period, Fort Morgan has the option to buy out Allo and take over management of the entire system.

Allo was the best choice, because they were willing to work with the city to develop an agreement that is a partnership, which fits in with the citys long-term goals for the fiber network and also allows Allo to be successful, Fort Morgan Mayor Ron Shaver said in a news release.

The city completed the backbone portion of the fiber project this year, and construction of the access network is expected to begin early next year and continue for several months. Allo said it expects to start providing service in Fort Morgan by late 2018.

Allo, which got its start in Imperial in 2003, was bought by financial services company Nelnet in 2015 and currently is building a similar fiber network in Lincoln.

As of Sept. 30, Allo had more than 16,000 customers in Lincoln and six other Nebraska cities, a nearly 90 percent increase over the previous year. The company now has about 500 employees, the vast majority of those in Lincoln.
A lawyer tapped to be Mayor Tim Kellers deputy city attorney focusing on immigrant rights protection, refugee affairs, environmental justice and civil rights has opted not to take the job after all.

Oriana Sandovals appointment to the newly created position had been announced in a news release by Kellers transition team in the days before he took over as mayor. But Sandoval ended up not taking the job, telling the Journal she has a young family and she didnt think she could fully execute the position given the demands on her time.

It was a fantastic opportunity and great position, she said.

Alicia Manzano, Kellers interim communications director, said the mayor remains committed to the position that Sandoval was going to fill.

We are completely supportive of her decision, and we look forward to collaborating with her in the future, she said.

TAB FOR CEREMONY: The tally is in on expenses for the Dec. 1 swearing-in ceremony for Keller and the five councilors who prevailed in the October and November municipal elections.

The invitation-only gathering  held at the Albuquerque Convention Center and featuring a string quartet and hors doeuvres  cost the city a little more than $15,800. About 1,200 people attended the event.

The bulk of the money, $10,354, went to the Convention Center for food and beverages. The Giovanni String Quartet cost $1,929, audiovisual equipment was just over $1,500 and the invitations cost just over $1,000. The rest of the money went to Kim Jew Photography, a pianist and Peoples Flowers.

UPBEAT COUNTY AUDIT: The results of Bernalillo Countys latest independent audit are in, and county officials have a lot to be happy about.

The county has received an unmodified audit opinion for its financial statements, meaning the county is providing reliable financial information to the public. Auditors also gave the county an unmodified opinion on its federal awards programs.

While there were a few findings, the audit noted no material weaknesses, nor were any significant deficiencies found. The audit was done by CliftonLarsonAllen LLP.

GIFTS FOR KIDS: Bernalillo County employees donated gifts for 408 disadvantaged Albuquerque Public Schools students recently. The gifts went to ABC Community School affiliate schools.

Once again, county employees have been extremely generous in giving to those less fortunate in our community, County Manager Julie Morgas Baca said in a news release. Every year, more children are in need, and as public servants, we always want to be able to make their holidays a little brighter for those we serve.

Martin Salazar: msalazar@abqjournal.com
Copyright  2017 Albuquerque Journal

Swimming in public records requests, the University of New Mexico recently turned to an outside attorney for advice on how to handle them  and perhaps how to change the states public records law.

But a university spokeswoman said in a statement Tuesday that UNM does not plan to pursue any legislative changes to the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act  though it has started asking employees to track how long they spend searching for and pulling the records.

UNM sought IPRA advice from the Albuquerque law firm Modrall Sperling, according to a Nov. 9 proposal letter Modrall attorney Zachary McCormick wrote to university counsel Elsa Cole, which recently was obtained and published on Daniel Libits watchdog website, NMFishbowl.com.

McCormick described the proposed scope of work to include advising in connection with questions concerning compliance with and possible amendemtns (sic) to IPRA.

University spokeswoman Cinnamon Blair said Tuesday that UNM has no plans to pursue any legislative changes to IPRA and described the engagement as a one-time outside legal opinion to advise on our policies and fulfillment of requirements of the law, given the uptick in public records requests.

McCormick did not respond to Journal voice or email messages.

UNM has received more than 630 requests in 2017, up from 387 in 2016.

Interim President Chaouki Abdallah earlier this year said the volume is grinding. UNM has a single public records custodian to manage the flow, distributing the requests across campus for fulfillment by the appropriate departments and individuals.

We have seen a significant increase in IPRA requests this year, many of which were quite broad, and we are actively looking for ways to improve our response process, Blair wrote. Recently, we have included in our initial call for responses a request to respondents to track the amount of time that is spent in locating and providing the responsive documents.

IPRA does not allow agencies to charge fees to produce records based on how long employees spend fulfilling requests, but Blair said UNM can use the information to make internal decisions.

While there is no explicit plan for using the data, once we do have it, it may be helpful to departments which have a large number of hours dedicated to IPRA to evaluate staff assignments to make operations more efficient, or to demonstrate to requesters why a request will take more time to fulfill, Blair said in a written statement.

She could not immediately provide the expense UNM incurred for the outside legal work. McCormicks letter cited he would charge UNM $350 per hour, though rates could vary if the work included other members of the firm.

New Mexico Foundation for Open Government Executive Director Peter St. Cyr said he would prefer UNM devote resources toward creating an online records repository.

Well have online, on-demand transparency, and it wont be a burden on a records custodian, he said.

UNM helped draft an IPRA bill that Sen. Jacob Candelaria, D-Albuquerque, introduced during the 2017 Legislature that would have added a new exemption to the law.

The bill, which was not specific to higher education, would have exempted from disclosure victim and witness names in certain crimes.

The legislation ultimately was pocket vetoed by Gov. Susana Martinez, and Blair said the Modrall Sperling consultation was unrelated.
Dallin Maybee, chief operating officer of the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts, the nonprofit that organizes Santa Fes annual Indian Market, is stepping down at the end of the year.

Maybee, a Northern Arapaho and Seneca artist and former prosecutor, took on SWAIAs top job on an interim level in 2014, with the interim tag removed soon after. He told the Journal he isnt seeking to renew his contract ending Dec. 31 in order to be with his family.

Maybee said his wife and two young daughters, ages 4 and 7, moved to Phoenix last year after his wife found a job there.

SWAIA allowed him to take off Fridays often to travel to Phoenix, but the cost and time of the trips were taking their toll. It was just too difficult, he said, adding he officially made his decision over Thanksgiving. He added that he also resigned to get back into law and plans to take bar exams in Arizona and California.

Elizabeth Kirk, SWAIAs board chair, said the board plans to choose Maybees successor by mid-January. Whoever is chosen can shadow him through February while he sticks around to help manage the 2018 markets vendor application and jurying process. Hes leaving us in fantastic shape, said Kirk. He ensured we would be on stable ground before he left.

A board member since 2012 and an award-winning market artist, Maybee came into leadership at what Kirk called a shaky time for the nonprofit. Former COO John Torres Nez left in 2014 and founded the competing Indigenous Fine Arts Market that same year. He was later charged with embezzling money from a SWAIA fundraiser. A deal with the DAs office required him to admit fault.

One controversial move during Maybees tenure was elimination of Indian Markets tenure policy earlier this year. The removal of the policy, which allowed for some veteran vendors to automatically earn Market spots without going through jurying, stirred up controversy, with critics saying it unfairly edged out older artists. Maybee said decades-long policy was initially made to be temporary, adding without it there is no incentive for artists to evolve or create their best work.

I believe in fundamental fairness, he said. If its going to be fair, its going to be fair for all of us.

Maybe said artists confidence in the organization has been restored. He also listed development of a solid staff and fundraising improvements during his tenure as accomplishments.

The 2018 Indian Market is scheduled for Aug. 18 and 19.
For hundreds of years, ranching has been part of the economy and culture of New Mexico.

Coming from across the state, our families have been blessed to experience the best that New Mexico has to offer, and are privileged to serve as stewards of our public lands. In some parts of our state, ranching is the predominant industry, while in other areas we operate on the same lands as the oil and gas industry, solar and wind power, national monuments and wilderness areas.

Our public lands not only sustain our industry, but also provide clean water and a home to wildlife that we all deeply value as New Mexicans. These lands are also important for other activities we value, such as hunting, camping, fishing and horseback riding.

We are fortunate to have an abundance of federal public land in New Mexico to provide us these opportunities and ensure all New Mexicans, including ranchers, can maintain our connection to the land and outdoor heritage for many more generations to come.

For all users of public lands in New Mexico, the largest and most significant federal agency is the Bureau of Land Management. The BLM serves as the managing authority of some 13 million acres of land and is the largest land manager in the state. BLMs management of our public lands, as stated in the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, is to be on the basis of multiple use and sustained yield.

FLPMA mandates that multiple use management be conducted in a manner that will protect the quality of scientific, scenic, historical, ecological, environmental, air and atmospheric, water resource, and archeological values; that, where appropriate, will preserve and protect certain public lands in the natural condition; that will provide food and habitat for fish and wildlife and domestic animals; and that will provide for outdoor recreation and human occupancy and use.

As President Trump considers his pick to lead this agency as its director, it is critical that whoever he selects is committed to preserving the balanced policies that all New Mexicans count on.

The BLMs actions have a direct bearing on the success of our ranching operations, as well the preservation of the land and recreational activities that we treasure.

New Mexicans draw both sustenance from our public land and benefits from the sustainable economic opportunities that they provide.

In a state that has far too much poverty and young people moving away to seek employment, the BLM plays an important role in working with and balancing the needs of stakeholders who want to create new jobs and opportunities on our public lands.

The outdoor recreation industry, for example, generates nearly $10 billion per year in direct spending in New Mexico and approximately 65 percent of New Mexicans enjoy outdoor recreation activities.

Local communities have enjoyed increased tourism from the BLMs new Rio Grande del Norte National Monument up north and Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument down south. And New Mexicos iconic True marketing program has increased tourism and rural economic development in all corners of the state by promoting the recreational and historic wonders found on BLM and other public lands.

The BLM also plays a vital role in public lands stewardship through fostering collaborative partnerships like the Restore New Mexico program, which has helped improve rangelands and habitats vital to ranchers, sportsmen and wildlife enthusiasts, and through the multi-state initiative to help to recover the sagebrush grouse.

These success stories are helped along by the BLM understanding and balancing the needs of diverse stakeholders.

To serve in this role, the BLM needs a director who will support its staff in the field, make sure they have the resources they need to be good land stewards and adhere to our public land laws.

While federal, state, and local administrations come and go, our public lands remain one of our states most important and enduring resources.

We hope and expect that President Trump and his future BLM director will work to understand the diverse needs that New Mexicos public lands serve. Only by respecting these varied needs and attributes can we ensure the preservation of benefits we all derive from them.

This will require balanced land management leadership moving forward.

We will be watching President Trumps choice for Bureau of Land Management director closely. Our way of life and that of many other users of public land across New Mexico depend on it.
Contact information is out of date. Financial data is missing. Entire categories of contracts are empty. Six years in, the online database that was supposed to be the states searchable sunshine portal, shedding light on how the state of New Mexico does the publics business, is obscured by the clouds of underfunding and overwhelming data.

But state law dictates that state government get its transparency act together.

Sen. Sander Rue, R-Albuquerque, a co-sponsor of the portal, says a lot of its information is outdated, missing or incorrect and needs to be made current and properly maintained. This is law. This is supposed to be done. Its not a wish list, he says. As it stands, the current portal is an embarrassment.

A spokesman for Republican Gov. Susana Martinez blames part of the problem on a contractor, and Darryl Ackley, Cabinet secretary for information technology, told lawmakers last week that his staff is doing the best it can with limited resources.

The amount of data we have as a state is staggering, Ackley said during a meeting of the Legislative Finance Committee. But I agree theres a lot more we can do.

Regardless of the excuses, the database needs to stay current and accurate to meet its mission of bringing critical transparency to state government. Especially given the scandals that have put more than one state official in federal prison, taxpayers are entitled to nothing less.

When the searchable portal went live in 2011, it listed all state expenditures and contracts of $20,000 or more for the previous fiscal year. It has been expanded over the years to include things like capital outlay projects and expenditures; open meetings by date or governmental body; salaries of exempt state employees; state statutes and regulations; information about public schools; and raw data from various state agencies.

So yes, the portals mission has grown. But having an up-to-date portal should dramatically slash the number of public records requests and the time state employees spend tracking them down, assembling and then disseminating them. As Peter St. Cyr, executive director of the government watchdog organization New Mexico Foundation for Open Government points out, We support the publics ability to search for records and information online at their own convenience  because too often their records requests are delayed, deferred or denied, and this is a great way to take the burden off of records custodians.

Anyone who has tried to find something on the portal understands what Rue is talking about when he says it is less than user-friendly. Perhaps the contractor charged with maintaining the website could look into that  or be replaced by a more efficient competitor.

Legislative staff and NMFOG are reviewing the sunshine portal to determine what is required by law to be available on the website, whether its all there, and how accurate the information is. St. Cyr says the review should be completed soon. That should provide a good indication of just how much sunshine the portal is actually letting in.

Then, the funding should be appropriated to ensure that it truly is a Sunshine Portal.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
Copyright  2017 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  With New Mexico finally emerging from its economic doldrums, a key legislative committee will recommend salary increases in the coming year for all state workers and teachers, the panels chairwoman said Tuesday.

However, that could put the Democratic-controlled Legislature on a collision course  once again  with Gov. Susana Martinez, who has opposed across-the-board pay hikes in past years and will soon be entering her final year as governor.

Rep. Patricia Lundstrom, D-Gallup, chairwoman of the Legislative Finance Committee, said Tuesday that the panel will recommend 1.5 percent pay raises for state employees and teachers for the budget year starting in July 2018, although state agencies would be able to decide how to dole out the raises.

They could use it as they see fit, Lundstrom told the Journal.

She mentioned the proposed raises during a New Mexico Tax Research Institute conference in Albuquerque, saying that in addition to salary hikes the committee would also propose using $199 million in projected new money to bolster spending on Medicaid, early childhood programs and the states court system.

The roughly 17,000 rank-and-file state employees have not received pay raises since 2014  although targeted salary increases have been approved more recently for State Police officers and corrections officers  as lawmakers have enacted spending cuts, drawn down the states cash reserves and used other cost-saving measures in response to several years of lower-than-expected revenue collections.

The average annual salary for a rank-and-file state employee was $45,324 as of this year, according to a recent State Personnel Office report. Nearly half of the workers make less than $40,000 per year.

For an employee making the average salary, a 1.5 percent pay raise would amount to a bump of roughly $680 a year.

Dan Secrist, executive vice president of the local Communications Workers of America union, said an across-the-board salary increase is long overdue.

Every year since 2008 weve had to do more with less, Secrist said, citing high vacancy and turnover rates in many state agencies. Youve got a whole state full of really tired, overworked and disgruntled employees.

Meanwhile, the cost of providing 1.5 percent pay raises for state workers and teachers in the coming fiscal year would be about $47.9 million, Lundstrom said.

That would represent roughly one-fourth of the $199 million in new money  or dollars in excess of the current $6.1 billion budget  thats projected to be available, based on recent state revenue estimates.

Lundstrom acknowledged there are many pressing needs across state government, saying, We drained a lot of budgets last year  we took away a lot of funding that we have to replace.

Rep. Jimmie Hall, R-Albuquerque, said hes not opposed to giving salary increases to state employees. He also acknowledged most workers have gone years without a raise.

But he questioned whether the proposal would end up being largely symbolic, saying, To me, quite honestly, a 1 percent compensation increase is not a lot of money.

The Legislative Finance Committee, a bipartisan group of lawmakers, will release its official budget recommendation next month. The governor will also unveil her own spending plan.

A Martinez spokesman declined to comment Tuesday on the proposed salary increases for state workers and teachers.

Approving a new budget for the coming year will be lawmakers top task in the coming 30-day legislative session, which begins Jan. 16.
VATICAN CITY  Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston whose failure to stop child molesters in the priesthood triggered the worst crisis in American Catholicism, died Wednesday in Rome at age 86.

Law, who spent the final years of his career leading an important basilica in Rome and continued to wield considerable influence inside the Vatican, had been sick and was recently hospitalized.

Law was once one of the most important figures in the U.S. church, serving in one of its most visible and storied posts. From 1984 until he resigned under pressure 18 years later, he was spiritual leader in Boston, the nations fourth-largest archdiocese, with 1.8 million Catholics.

In 2002, though, The Boston Globe began a series of stories that revealed that Law and his predecessors had transferred child-molesting priests from parish to parish without alerting parents or police  a scandal later chronicled in the Oscar-winning film Spotlight.

Within months, Catholics around the country demanded to know whether their bishops had done the same. And the scandal quickly spread overseas, to Ireland, Belgium, Chile, Australia and beyond.

In Boston, Laws death was met with anger and bitterness among some.

I hope the gates of hell are swinging wide to allow him entrance, said Alexa MacPherson, who says she was abused for six years as a child. I wont shed a tear for him. I might shed a tear for everyone whos been a victim under him.

Robert Costello called Law a cruel, selfish bastard, while fellow abuse victim Phil Saviano wondered: How is he going to explain this when he comes face to face with his maker?

Laws successor as archbishop, Cardinal Sean OMalley, said it was a sad reality that Laws legacy will forever be tied to the abuse scandal, when the church seriously failed to care for its flock and protect children.

Pope Francis, who is being watched closely by the faithful over his handling of bishops who shield pedophiles, is set to preside over Laws funeral rites at a Mass on Thursday at St. Peters Basilica, an honor accorded to all Rome-based cardinals.

The pope said nothing about Laws death during his weekly general audience Wednesday, and in a condolence letter he made no direct mention of the cardinals tenure in Boston.

I raise prayers for the repose of his soul, that the Lord God, who is rich in mercy, may welcome him in His eternal peace, and I send my apostolic blessing to those who share in mourning the passing of the cardinal, Francis wrote.

Since 1950, more than 6,500 of the nations priests, or about 6 percent, have been accused of molesting children, and the American church has paid over $3 billion in settlements, according to news reports and studies commissioned by the U.S. bishops.

As the leader of the archdiocese at the epicenter of the scandal, Law became a powerful symbol of the crisis. His fall from grace was swift.

Law tried to manage the scandal at first by refusing to comment, then by apologizing and promising reform. But the release of thousands more church records exposed additional cases in which Law and others expressed more concern for accused priests than for victims.

Amid a groundswell against him, including rare public rebukes from some of his own priests, Law asked to resign and the pope said yes.

To all those who have suffered from my shortcomings and mistakes, I both apologize and from them beg forgiveness, Law said in stepping down in 2002.

Still, Law retained some support in the Vatican. In 2004, he was appointed archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major, one of four principal basilicas in Rome. When Pope John Paul II died the next year, Law was among the bishops who presided at a Mass for the pontiff in St. Peters.

Law also continued to serve on Vatican policy-making committees, including one that recommends bishops appointments to the pope, before retiring in 2011 from his church assignments.

Victims advocates saw his continued influence in Rome as a slap in the face from an unrepentant church.

Cardinal Laws soft landing in Rome, after his Boston disgrace, reminds us that prelate privilege remains the rule in Catholicism, said Terence McKiernan of BishopAccountability.org, a database of the global scandal in the church.

Mitchell Garabedian, a Boston lawyer who has represented dozens of people who say they were abused by priests, said Law turned his back on innocent children and allowed them to be sexually abused and then received a promotion in Rome.

Fifteen years after the scandal broke, holding bishops accountable remains a fraught issue for the church. Francis had promised to go after bishops but backed off a proposed Vatican tribunal to prosecute them and opted instead to use existing measures.

SNAP, the main U.S. advocacy group for those who were abused, urged Francis to keep the victims in mind during the funeral and said Law doesnt deserve the pomp.

This celebratory focus on abuse enablers like Law must end, said SNAPs Joelle Casteix.

Law is expected to be buried in Rome, OMalley said. The location hasnt been disclosed, but Law would be entitled to burial at St. Mary Major.

Born Nov. 4, 1931, in Torreon, Mexico, Law was the only child of a U.S. Air Force colonel and a mother who was a Presbyterian convert to Catholicism. He graduated from Harvard University in 1953. He was ordained in 1961 and campaigned for civil rights in Mississippi, sometimes traveling in the trunks of cars for safety.

He was named bishop of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau in Missouri, then archbishop of Boston, one of the most prominent and important posts in the U.S.

He broadly influenced Vatican appointments to American dioceses, served as a representative of the church to presidents and was favored by Pope John Paul.

Law publicly challenged public officials over their support for abortion rights and joined other bishops in criticizing Geraldine Ferraro, the 1984 Democratic vice-presidential candidate and a Catholic, over the issue. He was a regular visitor to the White House under President George W. Bush.

He was devoted to building Catholic-Jewish relations, leading a delegation on a 1986 visit to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland. He worked closely with church leaders in Latin America, acting as an unofficial envoy of the pope to Fidel Castros Cuba.

The scandal in Boston broke when the Globe reported that Law and two predecessors as archbishop had transferred former priest John Geoghan to various assignments despite knowing he molested children.

More than 130 people eventually came forward to say Geoghan abused them. The archdiocese paid $10 million in settlements with 86 of his victims and their relatives as Law clung to his job.

___

Rachel Zoll reported from New York. Rodrique Ngowi in Holbrook, Massachusetts, contributed to this report.
A Lincoln-based bank has agreed to buy a small southeast Nebraska Bank.

First State Holding Co., the holding company for First State Bank Nebraska, announced last week that it has agreed to purchase Wallco Inc. and its subsidiary, The Nehawka Bank, which has locations in Nehawka and Union. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

First State Bank Nebraska, based in Lincoln, has $475 million in assets and more than a dozen locations throughout eastern Nebraska, including about a half dozen in Lancaster County.

Nehawka Bank is one of the state's smallest, with about $15 million in assets.

This acquisition continues a tradition we started in 2001 of sustainable growth through acquiring banks in markets new and complementary to our First State family," Thomas G. Damkroger, chairman, president and CEO of First State, said in a news release. "This marks our entry into markets further east with additional locations in Cass County.

Both companies' boards have approved the deal, and it is expected to close in the first quarter.
FARMINGTON, N.M.  Authorities are seeking information that might help solve the mystery of what happened to an 83-year-old man from Washington state who disappeared while in New Mexico.

Detectives with the Farmington Police Department say Lynn Goldin left his home in Vancouver, Washington, in August 2016 to search for treasure in the area of Hogback, New Mexico.

Goldin hasnt been seen since. His vehicle hasnt been found and theres been no activity on his credit card.

Goldins son says his father loved to travel to different states and prospect for unclaimed treasures and that it wasnt his first trip to the area. Authorities say Goldin wasnt searching for any specific treasure, just that he liked to explore.

Authorities say Goldin was driving a grey 2006 Hummer H2 with a personalized Washington license plate, GOLDIN2.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.  A Colorado man landed in jail after offering to trade illegal homegrown marijuana for an SUV listed on Craigslist  a vehicle that happened to be owned by a sheriff.

The Gazette reports that Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell recently received a text from a 39-year-old Vail man offering to buy his SUV.

The man sent photos of the product, and Mikesell says he showed the texts to detectives. A meet up was scheduled in Woodland Park in late November.

The man and a 41-year-old woman arrived for the swap and were arrested. Authorities say they found about 4 pounds (2 kilograms) of illegal marijuana in the duos car.

The man and woman were charged with possession with intent to sell.

Mikesell says he wont relist the SUV on Craigslist.

___

Information from: The Gazette, http://www.gazette.com
DETROIT  A former Michigan State Police trooper was charged Wednesday with second-degree murder in the death of a Detroit teenager who crashed an all-terrain vehicle after being shot with a stun gun.

Mark Bessner had no legal justification to fire his Taser from a moving patrol car while trying to stop Damon Grimes from driving an ATV on a city street, said Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy.

He created a very high risk of death, Worthy said, explaining the second-degree murder charge. He may not have meant to kill him.

Damon, 15, was driving an ATV at 35 to 40 mph when he crashed on Aug. 26. An autopsy revealed remnants of a stun gun were in the boys hair. He died from multiples injuries.

Bessner, 43, will appear in court Thursday. His lawyer, Richard Convertino, didnt return a message seeking comment, although he said in August that the officer was forced to make a split-second decision to use a Taser when Damon refused to stop. Bessner resigned from the state police.

Besides murder, he also is charged with involuntary manslaughter. Since the teens death, state police no longer conduct high-speed chases in Detroit unless theyre investigating a major crime.

State police spokesman Lt. Mike Shaw said: We fully support the charges.

I want to apologize on behalf of my department, the Michigan State Police, to the Grimes family, Shaw said. We dont teach this type of thing in our department. Bessner acted totally on his own.

Damons mother, Monique Grimes, said Bessners partner that day also should be charged.

They both stand for the state police. One could have prevented the other.  I just want justice for Damon, Grimes said.

Detroit Police Chief James Craig said a Taser typically would not be fired from a moving car and would be used only when an officer believes a suspect is resisting. He acknowledged that hes had to ease concerns in the community after Damons death, although the case involved the state police.

These things cause a lot of public angst.  I am the face of policing in the city of Detroit, Craig told reporters.

The teens family has filed a $50 million lawsuit.

___

Follow Ed White at http://twitter.com/edwhiteap
Copyright  2017 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  No one said a campaign for governor of New Mexico would be a walk in the park, but the early phase of the 2018 contest is getting downright ugly for two of the four Democratic candidates.

Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat currently

serving in Congress, and Jeff Apodaca, a former television executive and son of a former New Mexico governor, are both running for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2018. And both have both been accused of improprieties in recent days.

They have each denied wrongdoing, and Apodacas campaign has accused Lujan Grisham of being behind the allegations against him.

Lujan Grishams office came under fire first, when a transgender former intern, Riley Del Rey, alleged earlier this month that she was discriminated against and fired from a 2015 Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute internship in Lujan Grishams Capitol Hill office. Apodaca this week called on House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to investigate the accusation.

Apodacas turn on the campaign hot seat came late Tuesday when Marianna Anaya, a staffer with the Albuquerque Teachers Federation, said in a Facebook post that Apodaca tried to kiss her while smelling of beer during a whiffle ball game in Santa Fe earlier this year between staffers from the state Democratic Party and union members.

He denied the claim  describing it as absolutely false  and his campaign alleged the accusation was orchestrated by Lujan Grisham. Anaya previously worked as a staffer in Lujan Grishams congressional office.

However, Anaya stood by her claim Wednesday, telling the Journal that Jeff Apodaca cannot pretend to stand with some women while calling others, like me, liars.

Apodacas denial also prompted the teachers unions president to criticize Apodaca, saying his remarks set a negative tone for women who might be considering coming forward with stories of unwanted attention or abuse.

The dueling allegations come at a time when the issue of sexual misconduct has come under heightened scrutiny  both in New Mexico and nationally  amid a wave of allegations levied against prominent politicians, actors and media figures.

Both CHCI and Lujan Grishams office deny that Del Reys being transgender had anything to do with her dismissal, and they insist they did not even know she was transgender before she was let go. CHCI told the Journal this week that Del Rey has been dishonest with the media about both the reason for and the handling of her dismissal.

On Monday, Del Rey accused Lujan Grishams office of presenting the media with a fake letter from her dated March 24, 2015, around the time she was fired. In the letter, Del Rey apologizes for unprofessional and unacceptable behavior during the 2015 internship. The Journal obtained a copy of the letter, which was not signed by Del Rey, last week.

I was never presented this letter in person, nor over the phone, Del Rey told the Journal on Wednesday.

Del Rey said she did submit a draft letter but it did not apologize for unprofessional behavior. She said a CHCI supervisor told her over the phone that he would make minor edits to her letter or remove certain comments but would keep the essence of her draft letter intact. She said the supervisor told her that if she didnt acquiesce to a revised letter she wont be able to work in this town again.

In an email to a CHCI official provided to the Journal, Del Rey eventually agreed that a final letter revised by CHCI was in my best interest, although she repeated that she had never seen the final letter.

I was under a lot of duress, Del Rey said Wednesday. He (the official) never read me the version of the letter that was sent in and later published.

CHCI officials sent the Journal a statement late Tuesday accusing Del Riley of having repeatedly been dishonest with the press about the matter.

Ms. Del Rey was not terminated by Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, but rather by CHCI, and the apology letter sent to Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham following Ms. Del Reys unprofessional behavior was indeed from Ms. Del Rey and fully warranted given the situation, the CHCI statement said. CHCI does not discriminate based upon, or even inquire about sexual orientation, contrary to Ms. Del Reys false allegations.

With 2018 rapidly approaching, Lujan Grisham and Apodaca are two of four Democratic candidates seeking the partys nomination for governor. State Sen. Joseph Cervantes of Las Cruces and alcohol awareness advocate Peter DeBenedittis are the others.

U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce is the Republican candidate. Gov. Susana Martinez is constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term in office.

Michael Coleman reported from Washington, D.C., and Dan Boyd reported from Santa Fe.
Its been 18 years since the Santa Fe-born Sergio Ita left New Mexico for the U.S. Marine Corps college, and graduate school. Now, hes thinking about coming home.

Its always been in the back of my mind, said Ita, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Diego who researches drug resistance. But it really comes down to finding the right position.

Ita is one of about 100 individuals who participated in the first full day of the

New Mexico Educated Workforce in STEM Symposium, an event hosted by the University of New Mexicos Initiative for Maximizing Student Development. Maggie Werner-Washburne, the initiatives director, said the event was aimed at two groups: the states young science, technology, engineering, and mathematics professionals, and those STEM professionals who live elsewhere.

This is all about bringing you back to New Mexico or finding reasons for you to stay, she told a full auditorium at UNMs Science and Math Learning Center.

To that end, she said she reached out to her personal database of over 500 former students who have left the state to encourage them to attend the symposium, the agenda for which includes networking events, a job fair and panels on various New Mexican industries.

Ita said he was one of those on Werner-Washburnes list.

She listened to what I was looking for, and helped me identify people I should speak with (at the symposium), said Ita. I have a couple of informal interviews set up.

Eighteen organizations were scheduled to participate at the event, including Sandia National Laboratories, Johnson & Johnsons Ethicon division and software company Lavu.

The symposium also attracted Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller and his wife Liz Kistin Keller, a principal systems analyst at Sandia Labs who spoke about how her career path led her to New Mexico.

In his remarks to participants, Mayor Keller acknowledged that companies based in cities like Albuquerque often have difficulty competing in areas with higher average wages.

We want to change that, but we also want to be realistic about the fact that being here often means sacrificing some of that monetary award, said Keller.

What New Mexico can offer to its homegrown professionals, said Keller, is something many other places cant: low cost of living, a diverse community and the opportunity to be near family.
WASHINGTON  Hours after landing a massive tax windfall, AT&T, Comcast, Wells Fargo and Boeing  among other major companies  announced plans Wednesday to share a fraction of their bounty with workers.

The moves pleased President Donald Trump, who has claimed his $1.5 trillion in tax cuts that largely favor the wealthy and businesses would ultimately help the middle class.

But Democratic lawmakers and corporate watchdogs say the move is a public relations stunt that pales in comparison to the profits the companies shareholders and executives will reap because of the lower tax rates. The stock market, as well, has risen on the belief the savings will largely go to investors, rather than workers.

Trump was quick to celebrate an announcement by Dallas-based AT&T that it would pay a $1,000 bonus to 200,000 workers once the tax bill passed Wednesday is signed into law. His praise came as the Justice Department is suing to block a proposed $85 billion merger between communications company and Time Warner, a deal Trump has objected to as not good for the country.

Outside the White House, Republican lawmakers clapped and cheered as Trump highlighted AT&Ts planned bonus payments.

Thats because of what we did, Trump said. So thats pretty good. Thats pretty good.

The president suggested that other companies would be making similar announcements, saying Were going to see something thats very special.

Comcast said later on Wednesday that it will give $1,000 bonuses to more than 100,000 employees. Wells Fargo said it will boost its minimum wage to $15 an hour, as well as donate $400 million to nonprofit and community organizations. Major government contractor Boeing said it will provide an additional $300 million for job-training, facility upgrades and charitable giving.

A White House official said the companies did not coordinate these announcements with Trumps economics team. The official insisted on anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Trump has had an uneven relationship with corporate America since his election. He simultaneously met with CEOs for job announcements that enhanced his reputation as a dealmaker, but he also deployed a populist anger on Twitter to berate companies that crossed him.

The business community initially embraced and courted Trump, only to back away after his failure to strongly condemn white nationalists whose August rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, lead to the death of a counter-protester.

The tax overhaul permanently reduces the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent, while also moving to a system that would exclude many foreign profits from taxation. The savings would generate billions of dollars in profits for companies, with economists generally estimating that roughly 75 percent would go to investors and 25 percent to workers.

When it came to the tax overhaul, top White House economics aide Gary Cohn said at Wednesday event with the media outlet Axios that the president cared a lot about the business rate.

The stock market has soared in anticipation of the cuts with the expectation that they will lead to higher profits, bigger dividend payments and share buybacks.

Shortly after the company announcements, the office of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement that the bonuses and higher minimum wages were the exception, not the rule, when it comes to the biggest corporations spending their windfall.

Since the Senate passed their initial tax overhaul, 32 companies have announced share buybacks totaling $83.7 billion, Schumers office said.

Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow at the liberal Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said companies have been sitting on large cash holdings for years that easily could have gone to workers before the tax cuts. Chicago-based Boeing, for example, had $8.8 billion at the end of 2016.

If these companies had wanted to make these investments in their workforce, they could have done it before now, Gardner said. Theyre trying to make an unpopular tax bill a little less unpopular.

The bill has polled poorly with voters in part because it would appear to help major companies and concentrate much of its tax cuts with the top 5 percent of earners.

The possibility of money going to workers helps to insulate Republicans against a possible backlash, although, so far, the bonuses are a far cry from the $4,000 in additional income each year that White House economists said would go to an average family because of the corporate rate cuts.

Wells Fargo, the San Francisco-based bank, would be a major beneficiary from the lower rates. Analysts at Goldman Sachs estimate that the tax cuts would add $3.7 billion to its annual net income.

The bank has also been in Trumps sights after employees created fraudulent customer accounts that led to a $100 million fine by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Wells Fargo is facing an additional inquiry for wrongly charging fees to secure low mortgage rates. Trump said on Twitter this month that fines and penalties against the bank will be pursued and, if anything, substantially increased.

In addition to these companies, Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bancorp said it will pay a $1,000 bonus to more than 13,500 employees, as well as raise the minimum wage for 3,000 of its workers to $15 an hour.

___

AP writer Jill Colvin contributed to this report.
State Police arrested a man in Cuba, NM, on Saturday when they found him drunk in a car with a bloody bat and a gun, only to book him for murder two days later after a rancher he lived with was discovered bludgeoned to death.

Officer Ray Wilson said Kimsey Barboan, 33, beat 61-year-old Anthony Martinez to death during a dispute at Martinezs home.

Kimsey is charged with an open count of murder and tampering with evidence.

Wilson said State Police found Barboan in a truck, drunk and bleeding from the head, at a Circle K in Cuba on Sunday.

Barboan told officers he had been beat up by a group of men, he said.

During the interaction officers noticed a baseball bat with blood on it as well as a rifle in the pickup, Wilson said.

At that time, Barboan was arrested for felon in possession of a firearm, DWI, driving on revoked license, and Open Container. He also had two felony warrants for aggravated battery.

On Monday, locals found Martinez dead inside his home, Wilson said.

Deputies noticed that a struggle appeared to have taken place inside the home, he said.

Barboan told State Police that Mr. Martinez hit him with a bat when the two got into a fight on Saturday night, Wilson said.

Barboan said he then took the bat from Mr. Martinez and began to strike him, he said. When he left the residence, Mr. Martinez was on the ground making groaning noises.

Wilson said Barboan took the bat and left the house, making no attempt to get Martinez medical help.
The Midas Awards for the Worlds Best Financial Advertising announced the shortlist for the 2017 competition. Worldwide since 2001, the Midas Awards is the only awards show to recognise excellence in financial advertising and marketing on a global scale.

In this years Midas Awards competition, the US took the lead with 103 entries shortlisted. South Africa saw 40 entries shortlisted, the UK advanced with 24, followed by Australia with 14, Brazil with 13, Canada with 12, Germany with 10, and Lebanon with 7. Agencies from Singapore and Turkey each saw 5 entries shortlisted, Myanmar and the Netherlands advanced with 3, and India and Japan each had 1 entry shortlisted. J. Walter Thompson Mumbai is the sole agency from India to secure a shortlist for its work titled Mutual Funds Sahi Hai done for Association of Mutual Funds in India.

The 2017 Midas Awards Grand Jury, comprised of international executives from financial and creative marketing disciplines, shortlisted 242 entries showcasing creative excellence submitted from 21 countries around the globe. The competition expanded its global footprint with entries from Myanmar moving on to the Medal round.

The spotlight was on global agencies competing for the number one spot on the Midas Report. The following agencies are top forerunners for the 2017 annual ranking: McCann New York with 31 entries achieving shortlist status; Cullinan, South Africa with 23 entries shortlisted; OneTeam with 19, McCann London with 12 entries moving on the medal round; and R/GA Sao Paulo and MRM // McCann New York each with 10 entries; Havas Dusseldorf and Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney each advanced with 8; and MullenLowe Boston, Fp7/MENA, and McCann Canada moved ahead with 7 entries shortlisted.

Strategic sponsorships provided opportunities for brands to target specific demographics while increasing awareness and consumer engagement. Entries shortlisted from the Sponsorship category include: Playmaker South Africa with The Ready to Work Absa Premiership campaign for Absa; Quicken Loans Detroit moved forward with Rickie Fowler campaign for Quicken Loans; MRM // McCann New York advanced with A Focus on Optimism - Forbes Womens Summit for OppenheimerFunds; and OneTeam moved to the trophy round with Citi | Proud Global Partner of the Presidents Cup, Proud Sponsor of Progress for Citi. In addition, FCB Africa (Pty) Ltd South Africa advanced with Absa Premiership Rivalry for Absa; Cullinan South Africa moved to the trophy round with Conquer as One Absa and Give Art Life for Absa/Barclays; McCann Worldgroup London BRIT Awards 2017 and UEFA Champion's League Women's Final were shortlisted for client Mastercard; McCann New York advanced with #ArnieWould and Sound of Priceless for Mastercard; and McCann Worldgroup EMEA London moved ahead with Buffon Priceless Surprise Mastercard.

International agencies from around the world utilised high-profile event marketing to gain market share on behalf of prominent brands. Entries advancing submitted into the Events category include: Zulu Alpha Kilo Canadas Flash Box for client Interac Association; Havas Dusseldorf Evil Zero for DWS Investments; Etiket South Africa Harmonograph for FNB - First National Bank; McCann New York for Fearless Girl, Eclipse 2017: Through the Eyes of a Child and My First Purchase Exhibit all for MasterCard; McCann Canada Priceless Tables for MasterCard; and Factory Detroit, Inc. Pop Up Dinner for Invite for First Citizens Bank.

Mastercard saw a staggering 57 entries achieve shortlist status from global agencies in 8 countries. McCann New York advanced with an impressive 22 entries shortlisted for client Mastercard. McCann Worldgroup London advanced with 14; McCann Canada saw 7 entries advance; McCann Worldgroup EMEA UK moved forward with 4; McCann Brazil with 3; McCann Worldgroup Australia and McCann Worldgroup Singapore each advanced with 2; Publicis Turkey moved forward with 2 entries; and McCann Worldgroup Japan saw 1 entry advance.

McCann New York moved forward with 9 shortlisted entries for Fearless Girl for their campaign designed to promote State Street Global Advisors SHE fund: an investment fund for companies with more women in leadership. The statue of a young girl standing up to Wall Streets iconic Charging Bull became a powerful piece of city art and a social media phenomenon. In just 12 weeks the campaign achieved 4.6 billion Twitter impressions in 12 weeks, 745 billion Instagram impressions, a 379 per cent increase in State Street share of voice, and a 384 per cent increase in SHE funds traded daily.

Cullinan South Africas Give Art Life had 22 entries advance for client Absa/Barclays. The campaign was launched to inspire young artists in Africa and to create awareness for the Annual LAtelier Art Competition. Cullinan created art pieces employed art and human canvasses to give art life. The results  awareness of the LAtelier was raised substantially with an earned media valued at R13.5 million and young artists were given the power to change the world. Conquer as One for Absa also moved forward.

OneTeam had an impressive 19 entries shortlisted for campaigns created for client Citi, including: 2 entries for The Citi Double Cash Card: Holiday Cards That Say What They Mean, 2 for The Citi Double Cash Card: Means What It Says, and The Citi Double Cash Card: "Means What It Says" Campaign - Neighborhood :30, The Citi Double Cash Card: "Means What It Says" Mets Campaign, The Citi Double Cash Card: "Means What It Says" Snapchat Campaign, and The Citi Double Cash Card: Holiday Cards That each advanced. Additional entries shortlisted: 2 for Citi Emotion Campaign - Integrated Campaign, 2 for Citi Emotion Campaign - TV Campaign and 1 for Emotion Campaign - Progressive Blue Wave. In addition, ThankYou Rewards Points-illism saw 2 entries advance and Citi | Proud Global Partner of the Presidents Cup, Proud Sponsor of Progress, Citi / AAdvantage 30 Years Of Wow, Dine & Do Good, and Taste of The Nation were each shortlisted.

Global agencies employed a variety of strategic initiatives to engage consumers on behalf of the brand. R/GA Sao Paulo saw 10 entries shortlisted for Next Bank, their campaign for client Bradesco Bank. The campaign promoted the brands entirely new mobile-only bank that empowers digital-savvy millennials while seamlessly integrating into their lifestyle. Fp7/MENAs saw 7 entries advance for their emotional campaign for Byblos Bank, Theres No Home Like Home. The campaign tackled the decline in home loans in Lebanon by targeting Lebanese ex-pats abroad to introduce The Expat Housing Loans. Havas Dusseldorfs saw 8 entries shortlisted for Evil Zero for DWS Investments, the campaign utilized, TV and print, online, promotions, an augmented reality app, giveaways, interactive installations, and guerrilla marketing to attract the attention of potential investors.

Shortlisted entries will move on to the secondary trophy round and will be judged by the Executive Jury, who will award Gold and Silver Ingots to the highest scoring entries and determine the winner for the Midas Award for Innovation and the Grand Midas Award. The results of the juries are parsed in an annual rankings brief, The Midas Report, a veritable whos-who in the world of financial services advertising that includes the 3 individual reports: Agency, Brand and Network.

Prominent international brands in position to be included in the Midas Brand Report, an annual ranking report based on points earned within the Midas Awards competition and celebrates advertisers performance in elevating the financial advertising industry include: Mastercard, Citi, Absa / Barclays, Bradesco Bank, DWS Investments, Byblos Bank, OppenheimerFunds, E*Trade, and State Street Global Advisors.

Click here to view the 2017 Midas Awards Shortlist.
A special legislative task force has targeted construction of a cellular tower and an alcohol treatment-and-detox center as key objectives in meeting the emergency needs stemming from the long history of alcohol sales to Native Americans in Whiteclay.

Also on its priority list is construction of a Whiteclay memorial intended to "ensure that future generations never forget the suffering perpetrated on the Oglala Lakota people at Whiteclay."

The four liquor stores that had been located in Whiteclay, within walking distance of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, sold 3.5 million cans of beer and high-alcohol malt liquor annually before they were closed earlier this year.

In April, the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission voted to deny extension of liquor licenses to the four establishments.

A legislative task force comprised of Sens. Tom Brewer of Gordon, Patty Pansing Brooks of Lincoln, Brett Lindstrom of Omaha, Mark Kolterman of Seward and Tony Vargas of Omaha was created at about the same time to assess the public health implications resulting from that history of voluminous alcohol sales.

"Nebraska's actions and inactions in Whiteclay have had devastating consequences for the people on the Pine Ridge Reservation, which linger to this day," the committee stated in a report released Wednesday.

While alcohol is banned on the reservation, more than one in four babies born there suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome, the committee stated, while noting that other studies have pegged the alcoholism rate as high as 80 percent and pointing to high percentages of infant mortality and teen suicide.

Construction of a cellular tower in or near Whiteclay would "greatly enhance public safety in the region, help facilitate distance learning and give individuals access to telehealth services," the committee noted. The tower would replace one that was recently destroyed.

A treatment-and-detox center in the Whiteclay area is a high priority, the senators said, and the task force pledged to work with the Oglala Lakota Nation, local officials, nonprofits and others to achieve that goal.

"One possible idea is a treatment center being located somewhere on certain tribal land that crosses the South Dakota border and sits to the west of Whiteclay within the boundaries of the State of Nebraska," the committee said.

Those will be among the goals that the task force will prioritize in 2018, the report stated.

In addition, the senators said, they will continue to work with Natives and local Nebraska officials to spur economic development in the region.
APPLY TO PURDUE - NON-DEGREE 

NOTE: International citizens in the United States on F-2 visas must visit the Office of International Students and Scholars before applying as Purdue Online students. Failure to do so may result in revocation of your visa and possible deportation.

West Lafayette campus and Purdue Polytechnic Statewide locations

Local residents who want to take a class for personal enrichment, guest college students attending another institution who want to transfer the credit back to their college, high school students who are taking a Purdue course while still in high school.

If you have recently been denied admission to Purdue, you cannot be admitted as a non-degree student.

For 50000- or 60000-level classes, you should apply through the Purdue Graduate School.

Spring 2023

Summer 2023

Fall 2023

Dual Credit

Students at high schools that participate in Purdue's dual-credit program have the opportunity to take select Purdue courses at their school  earning both high school and Purdue credit. For more information, visit the Purdue Dual Credit webpage.

Spring 2023

Fall 2023

Purdue Online - ANSC 22100 Online or ANSC 10100 Online

Purdue Online at Purdue provides continuing education, professional development and workforce training, mostly through online programs. For more information, visit the Purdue Online website..

International citizens in the United States on F-2 visas must visit the Office of International Students and Scholars before applying as Purdue Online students. Failure to do so may result in revocation of your visa and possible deportation.

Spring 2023

Summer 2023

Fall 2023
The Nebraska Court of Appeals on Tuesday reversed a Lincoln man's conviction, saying police didn't have probable cause to arrest him when they surrounded him near a light pole and drew a Taser on him last year.

"These circumstances would have made a reasonable person believe that he was not free to leave," Judge Michael W. Pirtle wrote.

Tuesday's order directed Kirk Botts' case back to Lancaster County District Court for a judge to vacate his conviction for possession of a knife by a felon for a machete later found in his car.

The state is expected, however, to ask for further review before that happens.

In August 2016, a jury found Botts guilty based on evidence the appeals court now says jurors never should have seen. He got a year in prison on the charge and appealed.

According to court records, at about 2:30 a.m. March 10, 2016, Lincoln Officer Jason Drager saw a car partially blocking the road and stopped, thinking there may have been an accident.

Drager saw a man, who turned out to be Botts, near the car and asked what was wrong. Botts told Drager to mind his own business, but when the officer asked again, he said he had run out of gas and was trying to push the car to the side of the road.

He asked for help, but Drager said he couldn't, based on department policy. He stood back near his cruiser and watched.

That's when Botts became "verbally abusive," prompting Drager to call for backup for safety purposes.

Three officers responded. One, Officer Phillip Tran, had stopped Botts at about midnight for traffic violations and smelled a slight odor of alcohol on him then; so Tran and Drager decided to ask if he had been drinking.

When they did, Botts became defensive and the situation quickly escalated, according to the order.

Botts started yelling. The four officers followed him as he backed across the street until he stopped against a light pole. They surrounded him, telling Botts to put his hands behind his back. One drew a Taser.

Drager testified Botts' demeanor led him to believe Botts was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

"However, Botts' demeanor could also be attributed to Drager's telling Botts he could not help him push the vehicle," Pirtle said in Tuesday's order.

The three-judge panel concluded the officers had seized Botts without having seen Botts inside the vehicle or having smelled alcohol on him.

Without probable cause, the knife later found in Botts' car should have been suppressed from trial, the court ruled.

Last month on an unrelated charge, Botts was sentenced to two years in prison for attempted delivery of marijuana.
December 19, 2017

Tensions between Iranian former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and conservative judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadegh Amoli Larijani are reaching a climax, with both of them trading barbs against each other publicly.

On Dec. 13, at a summit with students, Larijani accused Ahmadinejad of trying to create turmoil and sedition.

Hitting directly at Ahmadinejad, Larijani said, The actions of those who are making [different] kinds of accusations against the judiciary are a type of sedition. Because whoever undermines [Irans] political system is actually committing sedition.

Of note, it has been claimed recently that the daughter of the judiciary chief has been arrested on spying charges, an accusation that has been repeatedly denied by officials.

Larijani said, In [a recent] Expediency Council meeting, [Ahmadinejad] asked the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council [Ali Shamkhani] about whats new about the spying case of the daughter of [the judiciary chief]. [Shamkhani] replied that this story is completely a lie. [Ahmadinejad then] said, You are not aware, yet we have exact information that she is in custody and we know her detention place, too. How is it possible that a human lies this much and has gotten so far away from the path of fairness and piety?

Larijani also accused Ahmadinejad and his entourage of supporting jailed billionaire Babak Zanjani, who has been said to be a middleman for bypassing Irans sanctions.

On Dec. 17, Ahmadinejad reacted to Larijanis remark by threatening to disclose a number of issues about the performance of the judiciary chief.

In a video released on Ahmadinejads Instagram account, the former president of Iran addressed Larijani, asking him to deliver to him any documents and proof for his accusations. He [Larijani] attributed charges to me and my colleagues. He described us as seditionist, deviant and a supporter of Mr. Babak Zanjani, and accused us of these charges. However, Mr. Babak Zanjani has been in jail for almost four years and has been put on trial in closed sessions, and we dont know what has been going on in there, said Ahmadinejad.

The former president then set a 48-hour ultimatum for the judiciary chief to give him proof of their charges of sedition.

In response to Ahmadinejads threat, Iranian Prosecutor General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, who was appointed by Larijani, vowed to give Ahmadinejad what he asked for. On Dec. 18, Montazeri said, I will answer him in the next one or two days.

Meanwhile, a former conservative member of parliament said Ahmadinejads team may be in contact with spying agencies of Western countries. Ebrahim Aqa-Mohammadi said Dec. 19, [The issue that] they are influenced by a number of Western countries is undeniable, and this may be in the form of having ties with foreign intelligence services [of these countries].

Hassan Ghaffouri-Fard, a prominent moderate-conservative figure, analyzed Ahmadinejads recent activities and said Ahmadinejad is seeking to stop the judiciary from studying his case.

Ghaffouri-Fard said Dec. 19, The judiciary is planning to review his case, and he is attempting to affect his case by [resorting] to illogical tools. He also may think that he can make the judiciary retreat and influence the process of reviewing his case by giving one or two speeches.

On Dec. 19, Ahmadinejad released a video in which he asked the judiciary chief to resign; however, he didnt reveal anything against Larijani.

Now, [Larijani] lacks legitimacy due to frequent violations of the constitution, laws and the emergence of signs of his inadequacy. The continuance of his [responsibility as the judiciary chief] violates the rights of the Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei], the Islamic Republic and the people as the main owners of the country and the revolution, and that is why he is a usurper, Ahmadinejad said.

Minutes later, the judiciary answered Ahmadinejad by saying he should be responding to them instead of threatening others. The judiciary also said Ahmadinejads threats are a known method for trying to escape trial and punishment.

On the same day, the judiciary announced that the verdict of Hamid Baghaei, Ahmadinejads vice president in charge of executive affairs, has been delivered to him. However, according to the judiciary, the verdict is not definitive and can be objected to.
December 19, 2017

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced Dec. 15 that his government had begun implementing its policy to bring all weapons in the country under state control, following a statement by the premier days earlier declaring the "end of the war" against the Islamic State (IS).

Abadi's announcement came just hours after the speech that Abdul Mahdi al-Karbalai  spokesman of Iraq's Supreme Shiite leader Ali al-Sistani  gave on the same day, in which he called for the need to integrate "volunteers"  in reference to fighters of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU)  into the constitutional and legal framework that limits [the possession of] weapons to the state so that the PMU fighters "are not exploited for political objectives.

Abadi welcomed Sistanis call to not use PMU volunteers and fighters politically, adding, The government is working to organize the PMU in accordance with the states legal framework.

PMU factions had already begun to disengage from their internal organization and hand over their fighters and weapons to the prime minister as commander in chief of the armed forces.

The leader of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Sheikh Qais al-Khazali, said Dec. 13 that his forces were under the direct control of Abadi. Prior to that, Al-Abbas Combat Division had dissolved itself and handed over its fighters and weapons to the Iraqi government.

The Iran-backed Badr Organization, the largest PMU faction, followed suit, handing over its troops and weapons to the Iraqi government. Badr leader Hadi al-Amiri told his fighters Dec. 14 to follow the orders of the commander of the armed forces and cut off all contacts with the group's political wing.

Amiri also called on his fighters to withdraw from the cities under their control and asked other factions to do the same. I also call upon all my brothers, the leaders of the different factions, to remove all signs of militarization from the cities, he said, and indeed other PMU factions are expected to follow Amiris example.

This development raises several questions: Why are PMU factions putting their entire power under the control of the Iraqi government? Does this mean an end to illegal militias? Does this indicate the end of Iranian influence on some militias that declared allegiance to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei?

It seems the opposite is true since the political wings of PMU factions are preparing to participate in upcoming elections expected in May. So the recent action of PMU leaders in handing over their militias to the Iraqi government seems a preparation for the election, while they will keep their influence among their militias even if they have formally come under control of the Iraqi government.

Hassan Salem, the head of the Sadikun parliamentary bloc, affiliated with Asaib Ahl al-Haq, said Dec. 6 that his bloc intends to join forces with a larger alliance that would also include the PMU-affiliated Mujahedeen bloc.

Some military commanders began to resign from the PMU in order to prepare for elections within the future alliance. The first was PMU spokesman Ahmed al-Asadi, who resigned Nov. 28, saying, The PMU will remain an Iraqi security institution that has nothing to do with the elections, and those who want to run should first resign.

Meanwhile, Iraqi Vice President and former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said that it was his idea for the PMU to form a single list for the elections. He also noted that the State of Law Coalition, which he heads, will ally with the PMU bloc after the elections for the purpose of forming the largest bloc and thus lead the Iraqi government.

It has become very clear that Abadi and Sistani do not want the factions to maintain their independence but rather want to integrate them into the security system to avoid the possibility of their being exploited in future political projects. This has previously been confirmed by both Abadi and Sistani on several occasions, in addition to this being reiterated in the victory statement issued following the defeat of IS.

This raised concerns among PMU leaders about a confrontation with Abadi and Sistani, which could lead to the loss of their social balance and eliminate them from the political scene  especially since the PMU was originally founded based on a fatwa from Sistani.

Sistani said earlier this year that his aforementioned fatwa is still in force because its objective is still valid. This means he can invalidate this fatwa after IS is eliminated in Iraq, and thus the religious legitimacy of the PMU and all its factions will be nullified.

Abadi also succeeded last year in passing the PMU law, which clearly states that PMU forces must be fully subject to the Iraqi government and that PMU leaders and members should be prevented from participating in the elections.

However, the recent initiative of some factions to dissociate themselves from their political wings and put their troops under the leadership of the prime minister does not mean that this will necessarily happen in real terms. There are networks of influence and loyal relations within these factions for their political wings and sometimes for Khamenei directly.

Some factions, such as Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, which the US Congress considered adding to its list of terrorist organizations a few weeks ago, strongly criticized the initiative of its counterparts, retaining its independence from the Iraqi government. In addition, Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba still has forces fighting in Syria to this day.

The main PMU factions have indeed taken positive steps to comply with the Iraqi law, integrate their forces into the official security system and refrain from participating in the elections so long as they are still part of the PMU. Yet it is still challenging for Abadi to implement the plan for integrating these forces and turn their political loyalties into national ones. This would be the first and biggest challenge for Abadi in 2018 if he is to serve once again as prime minister of Iraq.
December 20, 2017

Egypt sponsored a UN Security Council resolution on Dec. 18 rejecting the proclamation made by President Donald Trump on Dec. 6 recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The United States vetoed the measure. As a result, the Palestinians are now preparing for a full-scale diplomatic offensive. On Dec. 21, a similar vote will be brought before the UN General Assembly, where the United States has no veto power. More than 100 of the United Nations' 193 member states are likely to support the resolution, to be submitted by Turkey and Yemen.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has instructed Israeli representatives in the world's capitals to reduce the potential damage to Israel's image by waging a public diplomacy campaign against the upcoming resolution and by recruiting nations other than the United States to oppose it. Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas feels humiliated and hurt by Trump's decision.

Abbas has instructed senior Palestinian officials, as well as the Palestinian ambassador in Washington, Husam Zomlot, and his ambassador to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, to act boldly and use every means at their disposal to ensure that the UN resolution passes. They are to do this even if the consequences include the closing of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) mission in Washington, which Secretary of State Rex Tillerson threatened to do a month ago, or expedited congressional passage of the Taylor Force Act, which would dramatically cut American aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) because of its support for the families of imprisoned Palestinians convicted of terrorism.

Abbas no longer has anything to lose. It is clear as day to him that the diplomatic activities that he is planning are more than a declaration of war against the State of Israel. He is also going up against the world's greatest superpower, the United States. As I wrote in Al-Monitor Dec. 18, the Trump declaration made clear to the Palestinians that there is no diplomatic solution mediated by the Americans on the horizon. As a result, most Palestinians want to see Abbas exit the political stage and hand his role over to someone who can lead them along a different path from the one Abbas has followed for the past few years. This path now appears to them to be naive and failing.

The Palestinians have been encouraged by the European states and every member of the Security Council (except the United States) who supported the Dec. 18 resolution to overturn Trump's declaration. They believe that even if the vote in the General Assembly is only of symbolic value, it would be a major victory for their image. With the backing of the international community, they would be able to lift their heads and follow a new path, without the involvement of Trump and the United States.

After the Americans vetoed the Security Council resolution, Abbas delivered a bellicose speech in Ramallah in which he declared, We will [try] once again, and many times, to get full membership. Abbas also said that the Palestinian leadership plans to submit applications to join 22 international organizations to which Palestinians have a right to full membership. Abbas' remarks were also in response to harsh comments by US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. Haley said that if she could, she would counter the Barack Obama administration's abstention in the Security Council in December 2016 and veto UN Resolution 2334, which called the settlements an obstacle to peace.

Senior members of the Palestinian leadership received a direct message from Abbas that they were to treat the Trump administration as hostile and challenge its decisions in any and every international forum, whatever the cost. A senior Palestinian official told Al-Monitor that Abbas was deeply offended by the American administration, which said one thing to him but did another. Abbas feels that Trump's envoys, Jason Greenblatt and Jared Kushner, intentionally deceived him. According to the official, Abbas may be acting on his gut response, but he still has no choice but to fight the decision with every diplomatic means at his disposal, instead of turning the other cheek. He added that the support of the other 14 members of the Security Council encouraged the Palestinians and offered them a sense of hope in their struggle.

Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, praised the 14 nations for their support. She promised that the entire Palestinian leadership would respond with a single voice in the international arena, particularly at the United Nations, to ensure that justice prevails and that these Israeli and American violations will not challenge the peace and stability of the world.

If an overwhelming majority at the UN General Assembly rejects Trump's declaration, it would be interpreted by the Palestinian delegation as a sign of international support for the path that Abbas has chosen. Such a vote would demonstrate to the public back home that apart from Trump and the United States, the rest of the international community backs Abbas. Widespread support in the United Nations would also be a green light for the kinds of moves that Abbas has been planning for the next few weeks to request that the Palestinians be granted membership in various UN committees and international bodies, including full membership to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

When the Palestinians received observer status at the ICC three years ago, Israel imposed economic sanctions. Since then, Israel has pulled out its economic sanctions card every time Abbas has threatened to join UN committees or the ICC as a full member. Israel has a proven weapon against any diplomatic measures taken by Abbas. It can freeze the transfer of tariffs that it collects for the PA for business conducted by Palestinians with Israel and the rest of the world. This would make it impossible for the PA to pay the salaries of its employees and effectively bring about its economic collapse.

Abbas is determined to submit these requests right after the vote at the General Assembly. When he does, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman will compete, for their own political reasons, over who can come up with the most creative and extreme sanctions against the PA, which could lead to Abbas' fall. On Dec. 15, Liberman boasted that the only reason Abbas remains in power is because he maintains security coordination with Israel and hinted that the Palestinian president would not dare abandon the arrangement, even if once again subjected to the kinds of sanctions that would strangle the PA.

Abbas is taking into consideration the same type of Israeli measures that he has experienced in the past. Given his current situation, this time it looks like he has no other choice but to take a fateful step.
December 20, 2017

President Donald Trumps Dec. 6 recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel has not set off a regional conflagration, for now, but it dealt a serious blow to efforts to revive the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process. This assessment is only valid for the moment, because at any given time, something could go wrong and prompt a new wave of violence. That said, predictions of unrest throughout the Middle East in response to Trump's move were clearly overblown, whereas the declarations impact on the diplomatic front may have been underrated.

As of now, the Palestinians have abandoned the diplomatic arena. They are standing behind their rejection of the United States as an honest broker in the conflict, while enjoying sweeping support in most regional capitals. US Vice President Mike Pence was forced to delay a December visit to the region to possibly next month. Trumps two envoys to the region, Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, are persona non grata in the Palestinian territories.

The Palestinians are acting like the diplomatic option is dead. The White House believes this to be a passing emotional storm. According to Israeli military intelligence assessments, everything will go back to normal within several weeks. One intelligence official told Al-Monitor on the condition of anonymity, [Palestinian President] Mahmoud Abbas has no alternative to the US. For now, he has to contain his peoples rage  but in the near future, it will be business as usual.

There are also warnings amid such soothing assessments. Abbas is on his last lap around the stadium, a senior Israeli security official told Al-Monitor on the condition of anonymity. In recent months, weve been seeing a different Abbas. More daring, more determined, someone who understands that there will be no more opportunities and has nothing to lose.

Abbas' behavior is mostly reflected in his approach to Hamas in Gaza. He has refused to cut Hamas any slack and has not hesitated to humiliate the movement. As for his attitude toward Israel, Abbas appears committed to a diplomatic approach and opposing violence.

The question is whether he will stay on this course. Will he be tempted, in the waning days of his leadership, to adopt the tactics of his predecessor, PLO leader Yasser Arafat, when the second intifada broke out in 2000, by hinting by way of omission or commission that he no longer opposes violence? Israel is convinced that at this point in time, Abbas will not shift course. He wont stain his legacy at the last minute, the security source said. Time will tell.

Meanwhile, the Ramallah-Washington axis has been shattered, and contacts between the United States and the Palestinians are mostly conducted through public declarations and angry speeches. A senior Palestinian source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity about a phone conversation between Trump and Abbas, during which Trump informed the Palestinian leader of his plan to recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital. According to the Palestinian source, Trump told Abbas, Im a strong president. Unlike my predecessors who made promises, I make good on my promises. But Im also about to offer some good proposals to you, too. Abbas asked Trump to elaborate, but Trump declined to say. Youll see, he told Abbas. It turns out that this promise was insufficient to limit the damage incurred by his declaration. Abbas is an old hand. He has had his fill of promises and disappointments.

In the days prior to the presidential announcement, two top Palestinian officials were visiting Washington: the head of the Palestinian negotiating team, Saeb Erekat, who was there recovering from a lung transplant, and Palestinian intelligence chief Majid Faraj. The two were dealing with the crisis over the threatened closure of the PLO office in the US capital and preparing a planned White House visit by Abbas, during which he was supposed to get information from the president regarding his soon-to-be-announced peace initiative. Erekat and Faraj met with Kusher and Greenblatt two days before the news about the expected declaration by the president, said the Palestinian source, but the Americans did not bother to update the Palestinians about the planned announcement. This was a serious blow to the trust between the sides. If something like that is in the cards and about to happen, youre supposed to give your partners some warning so that they can protest, present their views, try to convince you.

It is now abundantly clear that the Americans did not prepare the ground properly for the presidents Jerusalem declaration, failed to mobilize international support or at least a measure of international understanding, did not explain to the Palestinians that the declaration does hold practical meaning, and did not understand the complications the declaration could generate.

Shortly before the declaration, a top Israeli defense official was asked by his American colleague about the importance of the upcoming American declaration and its point. The Israeli was not wild about the idea. In Israel, said the official (according to another Israeli source), everyone knows Jerusalem is the capital.

The president made his controversial announcement against the advice of some of his advisers in the face of domestic political pressure from his evangelical constituency and his constant desire to signal power. The greatest concern, a source familiar with the contacts between Washington, Israel and the Palestinians told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, is that the Americans will learn the wrong lesson. The fact that a third intifada has not broken out as a result of the declaration could make the Americans even cockier than they are, and Trump will be more certain than ever that he understands things much better than the professionals. This could be very dangerous.

According to information reaching Jerusalem, Trump does not regret his decision. To the contrary, Trump is thrilled by the declaration, a senior Israeli minister, a member of the security Cabinet, told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. Its a brilliant political move that eased the pressure on him by his electoral base and will save him the embarrassment of having to sign the famous waiver [against the relocation of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem] every six months. Asked whether Trumps actions would undermine his Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative, the Israeli minister answered, I wish.

The keys are now in Abbas hands. He understands that hes in a bind, and he is using the Trump declaration to create an evacuation route should the US initiative portray Israel as a lover of peace and him as a rejectionist. In other words, the question is what his final lap will look like. Will it be a victory lap or a march of defeat? Will the aging Palestinian leader manage in the waning days of his leadership to achieve a breakthrough to peace or will he end his term in war? Everyone knows the Palestinian president will not live to sign a final status agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. The question is whether he is still committed to being the one who will lay the foundations for such peace.
December 19, 2017

The US State Department announced Dec. 18 that the visit of Vice President Mike Pence in Israel has been delayed until mid-January. This delay constitutes the only ray of light in the darkness that has surrounded Jerusalem ever since President Donald Trump recognized the city as the capital of Israel on Dec. 6. So far, Pence has only contributed to the flames ignited by his boss and the poisonous Christmas gifts sent from America; senior officials in the Trump administration said Dec. 15 that the Western Wall would forever remain under Israeli sovereignty. More so, Pence has decided to visit the holy site himself. In fact, as governor of Indiana, the fervent evangelist was the first state leader to pass legislation boycotting companies that support BDS  the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. If Trump was the rosy dream of the Israeli right, Pence is the dream come true.

Were the declaration on Jerusalem a preview to an honest and logical plan by the Trump administration for Israeli-Palestinian peace, the failing Palestinian leadership might have swallowed the bitter pill. However, that was not the reason Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas lost what was left of his trust in American mediation. He knows what lies behind the much-touted Trump administration peace plan, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned during his Dec. 11 visit to Brussels. As far as Abbas is concerned, this diplomatic blueprint is the final and absolute nail in the coffin of the 1993 Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Accord and its two-state vision.

According to a Dec. 3 New York Times report, the new US plan gives the Palestinians a state of their own but only in noncontiguous parts of the West Bank (Area A, under Palestinian control, and Area B, under Palestinian civil control), the vast majority of Israeli settlements in the West Bank would remain intact, East Jerusalem would not become the Palestinian capital and there would be no right of return for Palestinian refugees. The report went on to say that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman presented outlines of the plan to Abbas last month.

Middle East scholar Geoffrey Aronson, the co-founder and chairman of the Mortons Group, reported Dec. 12, citing Arab and European sources, that at the heart of the Trump plan is a proposal to expand the Gaza Strip and establish the State of Palestine there. According to the report, to sweeten the pot, the Saudi prince offered Abbas a $10 billion grant.

The State of Gaza idea is not new. More than three years ago, the diplomatic affairs correspondent of Israel Army Radio, Ilil Shahar, reported on a similar proposal presented to Abbas by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. The Obama administration and Netanyahu were in on the proposed deal. As compensation for giving up claims of sovereignty to the West Bank, the Egyptian president proposed giving Abbas 1,600 square kilometers (618 square miles) of land in the Sinai Peninsula, adjacent to Gaza. Abbas rejected the idea out of hand. He refuses to consider it now, too, as far as we know.

The White House and Saudi palace both denied all reports on the matter, but in February of this year, Ayoub Kara, the Israeli Druze communications minister and Netanyahu henchman, reported on a similar plan. President Trump and Netanyahu are about to adopt the Egyptian presidents plan  a Palestinian state in Gaza and Sinai instead of in the West Bank, he tweeted. The plan will pave the way for a comprehensive peace with the Sunni coalition [in the Middle East]. Is this not reminiscent of the ultimate deal Trump promised before walking like a bull into the china shop called Jerusalem?

Its time for Israeli and Palestinian believers in the two-state solution to abandon their illusion that Washington will salvage the peace process. It was not accomplished under Presidents Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush or Barack Obama. There is no reason to believe that the current residents of the White House will supply the goods. For them, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a domestic policy issue and not another regional crisis that requires conflict-resolution tools. For years, US partisan electoral interests and personal considerations have pushed aside strategic interests and diplomatic considerations. The one and only time a US administration leveraged its influence to advance the peace process was 25 years ago. President George H.W. Bush refused to grant Israel $10 billion in loan guarantees unless it stopped its settlement activity, paving the ruling Likud Partys road to the opposition and clearing the path to the Oslo Accord.

The gaps between the sides cannot be bridged absent an active mediator equipped with sticks and carrots and willing to pay the price for using them. The Quartet on the Middle East, made up of the United States, the United Nations, Russia and the European Union, is no longer relevant; the automatic US veto of any resolutions critical of Israels occupation has rendered the UN toothless. Russia is more interested in arms buyers than in the consumers of peace. We are left with the EU.

With a barely veiled hint at the Gaza state plan, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini directed a biting question at Netanyahu during their news conference Dec. 11. You want three states, four, five, ten? The senior European diplomat then reiterated the mantra that two states are the only viable and realistic option. In the same breath Mogherini made clear that in the foreseeable future, the EU has no intention of stepping into the shoes of the limping American mediator in order to achieve such a desired result. Leaders who have been burned once are twice shy.

Dec. 16 marked four years since the European Councils decision to upgrade ties with Israel and a future Palestinian state to the status of a special privileged partnership. This is the top level of recognition granted to countries that are not members of the EU. In addition to a package of incentives estimated at billions of euros annually, the EU offered Israel security guarantees on central strategic issues such as the Iranian nuclear program and intelligence cooperation in the fight against terrorism, in addition to closer scientific research links and a deeper diplomatic dialogue.

Netanyahu, an expert at generating headlines out of every critical comment by the EU against Israeli settlements in the West Bank, reacted to the sweet deal as if it were a bitter pill. The European package is gathering dust. Its sponsors were left embarrassed and Israeli and Palestinian peace lovers were left without a shepherd. The only light they can see at the end of the tunnel is being generated by flames of fire and sulfur  the endless regional cycle of bloodshed.
December 20, 2017

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq  The Kurdistan region of Iraq is fast descending into chaos, with protests continuing for the third day in some parts of Sulaimaniyah province and security forces using live ammunition to disperse them. Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has threatened to intervene militarily.

Thousands of angry protesters including students, teachers and government employees across the province called for the resignation of the entire Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the main two ruling parties for not being able to run the semi-autonomous region effectively.

Some of the protesters fought the security forces, a local journalist from the town of Raniya told Al-Monitor Dec. 19 on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. Six people were killed, but the protesters are in charge of the city tonight.

The KRG has been unable to pay the salaries of its civil servants for over two months following the ill-fated referendum for independence in September that brought on crippling punitive measures from Baghdad, Iran and Turkey.

In Sulaimaniyah city, for the second day, the police, the peshmerga and the security force known as Asayish internal police battled protesters with tear gas and water cannons in the main bazaar. Around a dozen people were wounded, and Al-Monitor observed a man being punched in the face by a member of the Asayish.

In a worrying development Dec. 19 that could have serious consequences for the regions stability, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which controls Sulaimaniyah province, appeared to call on vigilantes to maintain order and support the democratic and patriotic path of their party against "troublemakers." The party shared a warning with the press. It is not acceptable for some  media outlets to provoke protesters to cause trouble in the name of freedom of press.  These channels and their backers  are responsible for the blood of those who become victims.

Hours before the PUK statement was released, 100 members of Asayish raided the offices of the semi-independent NRT channel in Sulaimaniyah, ransacking the office, confining the staff in the building for hours and taking all three channels of the Nalia Corporation off the air.

The security forces have conducted a wave of arrests of activists and organizers on Dec. 19 across the three provinces in the region after six protesters were killed and over 100 wounded, including members of the security forces. Offices of other political parties that share power with the two main ruling parties were torched by protesters in towns across Sulaimaniyah province and the Kurdish areas in Diyala.

The Kurdistan Region was plunged into a financial crisis in early 2014, when Baghdad and Erbil failed to reach an agreement on sharing the oil wealth of the country. Erbil, backed by the Turkish and Iranian governments, defied the central government and started exporting oil through the Turkish port of Ceyhan and to Imam Khomeini port in southern Iran.

The KRG managed to add another 300,000 barrels per day to its oil exports when the peshmerga took over several oil fields in Kirkuk as the Islamic State (IS) swooped across Iraq in the summer of 2014, sending thousands of Iraqi soldiers fleeing for their lives. But after defeating IS, Iraqi forces backed by Iranian advisers turned on the Kurds in the disputed areas and retook Kirkuk from the peshmerga on Oct. 16, leaving a hole in the coffers of the KRG. For the last two months, its 1.4 million civil servants have not received their salaries, causing wide resentment and anger.

While the protesters maintain that their anger is due to the mismanagement of the economy and widespread corruption, Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) officials maintained in interviews across their affiliated media channels that there is a regional conspiracy against the unity of Kurdistan.

Dilshad Shahab, an adviser to KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, said that the government is doing everything in its power to overcome the crisis and has not stopped its efforts despite the  plots and hostile hands that want to disrupt the peace and stability of the Kurdistan Region.

Barzani, accompanied by his deputy Qubad Talabani, is in Germany meeting officials, including Chancellor Angela Merkel. He called for calm on Dec. 19 and asked the protesters to refrain from using violence.

Following the independence referendum, a power struggle broke out between various political parties in Kurdistan with some calling on the KRG to step down and a new transitional government to replace it. Iran is said to be pushing for change in the region and is in favor of deposing those officials who pushed for the referendum and replacing them with more friendly figures.

While the KRG maintains that it is a unified government, the reality on the ground is different, as the PUK and the KDP control their own security forces and run their finances more or less independently of each other. As activists and organizers call for further peaceful protest, there are voices calling for the possible division of the Kurdistan Region. What has happened since yesterday is not peaceful coexistence. We should not torture our people anymore  because we have proved that we cannot live together, Ari Harsin, the head of the Peshmerga Committee in Kurdistan's parliament and who is close to the KDP, said Tuesday night. If the PUK, KDP and Gorran cannot guarantee a peaceful coexistence,  they should divide [Kurdistan] into two stable administrations.
December 19, 2017

One legacy of photographer Karimeh Abbud lies in the unique way she captured daily life in the 1920s and 1930s. Known as the Lady Photographer, she was the first known Palestinian or Arab women to have set up a photography studio catering to the public. Images depicting the lives and the era she saw through her lens are currently on view at Darat al Funun (House of the Arts) in the Jabal al-Webde neighborhood, in Amman. Self-titled, the show is the first comprehensive exhibition of photographs from the collection of Ahmad Mrowat that only came to light in 2006.

Abbud's photos are testimony to a slice of the 20th century, bearing witness to life in British Mandate Palestine and Lebanon. Unlike her contemporary male photographers, Abbud had access to the private lives of women. With such entree, she photographed Palestinian women from different classes inside their homes, some preferring traditional dress and others sporting more modern styles and occasionally professional attire, like a nurses uniform. Along with capturing the character of the women photographed, Abbud's lens also recorded interior lifestyles of the time, secondarily documenting furniture and interior design.

I was impressed by the details she brings to her pictures and her portrayal of various professions, leisure activities and family unity, Susan Ibrawesh, a visitor to the exhibition, told Al-Monitor. We  as Jordanians of Palestinian origin  can imagine our grandparents everyday life only through photos, she added, looking at the young athletes and the families Abbud photographed.

A regional and international center, Darat al Funun presents traveling and permanent exhibitions and organizes lectures and gallery talks, publications, conferences and film screenings. The center has a print and video library and offers fellowships, art residencies and exchanges.

Darat al Funun dedicated its 2017 program, Falastin al Hadara (Palestinian Civilization), to marking the centenary of the 1917 Balfour Declaration, 70 years since the 1947 United Nations resolution for the partition of Palestine, and 50 years since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and occupation of the West Bank, Golan Heights and Gaza Strip.

We organized 10 exhibitions on the art and culture of Palestine: early music, architecture, cinema, design and photography, Luma Hamdan, Darat al Funun's managing director, told Al-Monitor. We also wanted to shed light on the modernism of pre-Nakba Palestine. The pioneering Abbud, indeed, symbolizes the modernity of the time.

Born in Bethlehem in 1893, Abbud came from a family that valued education for girls. She studied Arabic literature at the American University of Beirut, while her cousin, Shafika, studied medicine. According to Mrowat, Abbud came into possession of her first camera as a gift on her 17th birthday. She began working as a photographer in the 1920s, in her home, taking pictures of women and children and to commemorate special events, such as weddings and other ceremonies.

In 1932 in Al-Karmel, a local newspaper, she advertised herself as the only national female photographer. She printed her photographs in postcard format, with Lady Photographer stamped on the back in Arabic and English, a branding strategy that would make a modern marketer smile. During her career, she would open studios in Nazareth, Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

Although Abbud was primarily known for her portraits, as Mrowat's collection attests, she also had an eye for social and geographical landscapes that she documented while traveling around pre-1948 Palestine. As the widely respected street photographer Josef Koudelka said at a public event during the Festival of Photography in Amman last April, The pictures are not made with the hands, but also with the feet.

Abbud channeled modern documentary and freelance photographers, traveling around pre-1948 Palestine portraying life along the way, such as women working in the fields. In many of her social landscapes, it is possible to recognize her approach to photography as craft and art and the professional's quest for the best image through the use of composition and light.

Several female pioneers stand firmly behind the scenes of Abbuds first exhibition in Jordan. The space hosting Abbuds work, Darat al Funun, was founded by Soha Shoman, a patron of the arts in the region and an artist in her own right. Shoman began renovating the historical building housing Darat al Funun in the 1990s and opened all the buildings in the complex by 2013. Near the complex stands Darat al Tasweer, a center for the research and practice of photography in Amman, founded by Linda Khoury, another pioneer of the arts in the Arab world.

Thanks to this exhibition, I learned that a Palestinian woman of that era got married at 35! Ibrawesh told Al-Monitor, laughing about herself still being single and 32. This is encouraging to me to continue my work, while still hoping to get married! I now consider the Lady Photographer an inspirational figure for her time and for our generation as well.

The exhibition Karimeh Abbud runs through Jan. 11, 2018.
December 20, 2017

The extraordinary summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Dec. 13 exposed a major rift within the Arab world and reflected for the first time a division between the Arab League and the OIC.

The OIC, which was established in response to the arson attack on Al-Aqsa Mosque in 1969, was again meeting to discuss the issue of occupied Jerusalem in the aftermath of the Dec. 6 announcement by US President Donald Trump recognizing Jerusalem as Israels capital.

The OIC summit convoked by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan did not fulfill the hopes of many in terms of level of representation of leaders from the 57 countries that make up the organization. Four days earlier, the Dec. 9 emergency meeting of the Arab League witnessed 100% attendance by Arab foreign ministers.

Only 16 heads of state attended the Istanbul summit and only 30 of the 57 members of the OIC showed up.

Jordanian social media influencer Ehsan Fakeeh summed up the situation with a scathing tweet Dec. 12 comparing the 16 heads of state in Istanbul to the 52 heads of state that Trump attracted in his meeting in Riyadh back in May. On Trumps first visit outside the United States after becoming president, he met in the Saudi capital with dozens of heads of state from Arab and majority Muslim countries.

Perhaps the most telling problem that was exposed in Istanbul was the absence of key leaders of the Gulf states, including Saudi King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, who holds the title of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. The absence of the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt was highlighted in an opinion column written by David Hearst in Middle East Eye on Dec. 14.

Hearst said Egypt and Saudi Arabia put tremendous pressure on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordans King Abdullah not to attend. I am told by well-informed sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi put pressure on Abbas so as not to head the Palestinian delegation to Istanbul and thus downgrade the importance of the conference, Hearst wrote.

Hearst said pressure was placed on Abbas by the spread of fake news "that Abbas had had a stroke. Abbas ignored this, Hearst said. Meanwhile King Abdullah was summoned to Riyadh, and there again I am informed, he was told not to attend Istanbul. King Abdullah stayed for a few hours in Riyadh and then left for Istanbul, he continued.

The Gulf media was full of attacks against Erdogan, trying to downgrade the value and realistic accomplishments of the Istanbul summit. The summit resolved to recognize East Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Palestine.

In an article on the Alhramain website Dec. 18, Islam al-Rajihi listed most of the Saudi and Emirati media attacks and the various positions that were published in opposition to Erdogan.

Faisal Assaf, writing in the Saudi-owned London-based Al-Hayat on Dec. 18, described Erdogans calls fake promises. While Emirati writer Omar Hamadi wrote for the UAE-owned site 24.ae that Turkey might have made the loudest sounds, it has not bothered to stop its expanding relations with Israel and with its sister Iran.

Pierre Abi Saab, writing for pro-Syrian Al-Akhbar site Dec. 14 under the title The summit that delivered Jerusalem, essentially said that the only thing such summits are good for is the collective photo of the leaders.

While the Istanbul summit exposed Arab differences and Arab-Islamic tensions, the reactions to both the OIC summit and the Arab League meetings were similarly pessimistic.

Jordanian-Palestinian columnist Oraib al-Rantawi said Dec. 13 that in order to turn the Trump-created crisis into a beneficial act, leaders must have the courage to force the United States to pay a price. At the very least, those meeting in Istanbul should decide to withdraw their ambassadors from Washington for six months or a year.

Similarly, not expecting any tangible accomplishments, Ali Abunimah, the co-founder of the Electronic Intifada, lashed out at Arab leaders for wasting everyones time. Abunimah told Al Jazeera that meetings at the level of Arab League foreign ministers or summits will amount to nothing, arguing that all the statements being made are strictly for public consumption.

Both the Arab League foreign ministers meeting and Istanbuls OIC summit did bring attention to the issue of Jerusalem and its sensitivity to Arabs and Muslims. Whether directly as a result of these summits or because of the popular response, the world took notice. Fourteen members of the United Nations Security Council voted in favor of the Egyptian resolution, which the United States had to veto Dec. 18  a veto the United States used for the first time in six years  to stop the resolution from being approved. And while other reasons were given, the fact is that US Vice President Mike Pence had to postpone  for the second time  his visit to the region because of the refusal of Palestinian, Muslim and Christian leaders to meet with him.

While inter-Arab and Arab-Muslim differences have surfaced in the form of attendance at the Istanbul summit, it might be hard to assess the results of these meetings and whether they will have a long-term impact or if they are nothing more than a storm in a tea cup that will quickly evaporate.
The 17-year-old girl braces against the winter wind. Having lived in the tropical climate of Cambodia, she shunned the idea of a bulky coat. Now, as she marches from her apartment at 14th and F streets to Lincoln High School, Channy Chhi Laux wishes she had one.

But as she pushes past the green doors that mark the halfway point in her journey, hot air flushes her face. Inside she walks under stone archways of a building that has come to symbolize the people of her new home and the hope of her new life.

This is my statue of liberty, she says more than 35 years later, gesturing to a picture of the state Capitol.

In the book-lined library at Lincoln High, about 70 English language learner students lean forward in their chairs, listening to her share experiences of surviving genocide, living as a refugee in Lincoln and finding strength to make good on her second chance at life.

Event organizers hoped Chhi Lauxs story would be a signal to students, many of them immigrants and refugees themselves, about the possibilities they too could achieve.

That theme is on display in Chhi Lauxs new book, Short Hair Detention. Across 545 pages, she details how she survived the communist Khmer Rouge  a military organization that starved and executed 1.7 million Cambodian people, roughly Nebraskas present population, from 1974 to 1979. Chhi Laux was only 13 when the killing began.

She escaped with her mother and sister in 1979. After arriving in Lincoln, she graduated from high school and college here before moving to California, where she engineered fighter jet cockpits and state-of-the-art biotech software.

Paula McClung, library media specialist at Lincoln High, said sometimes its easy to take education for granted. Speakers such as Chhi Laux show its importance, as well as whats possible with a tenacious approach to life.

Its an inspiration, she said.

Its a message Principal Mark Larson thinks will resonate deeply with students at Lincoln High.

I was hoping that our kids could in some way see themselves in her, Larson said.

Because, while Lincoln High students come from 51 different countries and speak 34 different languages, Chhi Lauxs story isnt unlike many of their own.

Chhi Laux cemented those connections as she shared stories from the genocide. As she starved in a Cambodian work camp, she told herself many times not to die yet.

Wait until you can feel the comfort of your mother, she remembered telling herself.

A few rows from the front, a girl lets out a broken sob. Fingers with long, maroon-painted nails wipe tears from her eyes.

I know how she feels about that, said LHS student Tania Rameriez.

Rameriez moved here three years ago from Mexico. Her mother stayed behind with family, though, and the 16-year-old said its made life harder in her new home.

Other students have left war-torn countries to start over in Lincoln. Sharing these stories can only strengthen the community, and McClung said they hope to have Chhi Laux back sometime in the spring for a school-wide assembly.

Its a powerful story, considering Chhi Laux had to make her way on her own, said Thomas Christie, multicultural school/community administrator with Lincoln Public Schools who also taught Chhi Laux in the early 80s. When there are few people who look like you and have had success, setting and achieving goals can be an intimidating process, he said.

Hopefully, seeing how someone such as Chhi Laux endured and thrived will encourage students that they can do the same.

To Chhi Laux, its also about finding strength in each other. Family pushed her through starvation and family motivated her to succeed as she started life over in Lincoln.

But a different kind of family began to motivate her in America.

She sees them in the faces of this crowded library where students speak different languages and have different stories, but know too well what it means to struggle, sacrifice and survive.

You guys are the America I grew up with, she said.
December 20, 2017

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  US President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel on Dec. 6. In a matter of days, Iran voiced its rejection.

On Dec. 11, for the first time ever, Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran's Quds Force, called the leaders of the military wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to offer military support. Some saw this move as an Iranian message of defiance to the United States and Israel in response to Trump's decision.

Also on Dec. 11, the Beirut-based pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen News reported that in the telephone call, Soleimani stated that all the Arab resistance movements, such as Hezbollah and other groups that emerged during the Syrian war, are prepared to defend Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque. He expressed Iran's full support for the Palestinian resistance forces.

The call came a few hours before a speech by Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah urging the axis of resistance to develop a unified strategy to confront Israel. Meanwhile, Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh also called Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to discuss Trumps decision. In a statement by Hamas, Haniyeh described the US decision as an act of aggression against the Palestinian people and the Islamic world.

Commenting on these phone conversations to Al-Monitor, Hamas' representative in Iran, Khaled al-Qaddumi, emphasized the ties between the resistance factions and the Iranian Republic. He explained that Soleimanis phone call to military leaders in Gaza comes in the context of an ongoing partnership against the common enemy, Israel.

Qaddumi further asserted that the Iranian people, represented by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Rouhani, reject Trump's decision. Emphasizing Jerusalems Arab and Muslim identity, he said Iran fears the move will further inflame the Middle East region.

In turn, Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza Khader Habib denied news reported by some Israeli media outlets that Soleimani ordered the Palestinian factions to escalate militarily against Israel. Iran never ordered resistance activities or interfered in the resistances field activities, he told Al-Monitor. Notably, the rocket fire from the Gaza Strip targeting the Gaza envelope settlements increased in the wake of the decision.

Habib noted that the Iranian position comes within its framework of military and political support and encouragement of the Palestinian resistance, emphasizing that Iran shares these factions opinions and positions on the dangers of Israel to the Arab and Islamic region.

Qaddumi also denied that there had been any military escalation request by Soleimani, saying, Hamas is one of the main protagonists of the Palestinian cause and we have the right to respond as hard as we can, taking into account the interests of our people. At the same time, we respect all countries and do not interfere in their affairs. We support the states that support us and they never ordered any military escalation. The resistance and its institutions are to decide the time of escalation. Defending the Palestinian people is a right conferred to us by international law.

Meanwhile, Mojtaba Rahmandost, an adviser to former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a professor of Palestinian studies at Tehran University, told Al-Monitor that the Iranian Republic is ready for military action should the United States move its embassy to Jerusalem.

The Jerusalem decision was not the first major mistake committed by Trump, but it is the most dangerous so far, opined Rahmandost. He expects Iran to increase its financial, military and political support for the Palestinian resistance after the declaration, which he described as a hostile act by the United States and Israel toward Muslims.

These contacts made by a prominent figure such as Maj. Gen. Soleimani prove the Iranian military presence in the region and carry several messages, he continued. Iran is ready to militarily defend its allies and will not content itself with political reactions.

On Dec. 13, the Kuwaiti al-Jarida newspaper reported that an unnamed Soleimani adviser said that Soleimani had asked the military leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad to start recruiting Palestinian members in the West Bank, as arming the West Bank has become an Iranian priority. The newspaper also reported that with the intent of opening an armed front against Israel, Iran will supply these factions with weapons as soon as they affirm their readiness to receive them and secure places to store them. It also claimed that Soleimani met with Iranian agents in Syria and Lebanon to discuss smuggling arms into Syria and Lebanon and asked them to find ways to deliver high-quality weapons to the Palestinians in the West Bank.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad both declined to comment.

Soleimani wanted to deliver several messages to several parties, Iranian political analyst Saber Kol Anbari told Al-Monitor, He sought to assert his support to Palestinians, reassuring them that they do not face the Jerusalem issue alone. He also wanted to say that Iran pays no attention to the fuss Israel is making about the Iranian support for the resistance in the Palestinian territories, Lebanon or Syria. He also sought to embarrass Saudi Arabia and the Arab axis [for] normalizing ties with Israel in front of their people.  Soleimani wanted to assert to Trump that Iran will strengthen the Palestinian resistance in response to his decision.

For his part, retired Palestinian Maj. Gen. Wasef Erekat told Al-Monitor that by revealing the contacts made by Soleimani, Iran wanted to send messages of defiance in the wake of Trump's decision. He expects Iran to increase its military and political support for the Palestinians in the next stage.

Meanwhile, on Dec. 17, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas  who headed to Qatar on Dec. 16  received an official invitation from Rouhani to visit Iran at the end of this week. Abbas visit to Tehran, if it happens, could be interpreted as a sign of dissatisfaction by the Palestinian Authority with Saudi Arabias position on Trumps Jerusalem announcement, in light of some media reports about Saudi Arabias alleged involvement in the US move.

It should be noted that after Palestinian media outlets reported Irans invitation to Abbas, Saudi Arabia summoned him urgently on Dec. 17 to discuss Jerusalem with the Saudi leadership.
December 19, 2017

A Republican maneuver affecting the nuclear deal with Iran could complicate efforts to avert a US government shutdown Friday.

The House of Representatives is taking up spending legislation this week that would keep the government open until early next year. The bill incorporates measures agreed to in the House earlier this summer, including a provision that stipulates that no US funds may be used to purchase heavy water from Iran.

The measure is but the latest example of US policymakers undermining some of the financial benefits Tehran hoped to derive from the 2015 agreement. The provision also gives Democrats additional incentive to kill the spending bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), in the Senate, where many lawmakers already have objections because it only funds nondefense programs through January.

"I dont think we should be doing much in the way of legislating in the CR unless its something thats had some serious consideration, Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, who caucuses with the Democrats, told Al-Monitor.

The Barack Obama administration generated considerable congressional backlash when the Department of Energy purchased 32 metric tons of Iranian heavy water for $8.6 million last year. Republicans argue that buying Irans stockpile incentivizes the country's nuclear program.

The United States should not use taxpayer money to subsidize Irans dangerous nuclear activities through the purchase of heavy water, Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., said in a July statement after the House passed his measure. We must ensure that we do not repeat the mistakes of the Obama administration by enabling this Islamist regime."

While a heavy water purchasing ban would not violate the Iran nuclear accord, Democrats have previously opposed similar Republican efforts in previous spending bills.

Obamas heavy water purchase prompted Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., to try to attach a similar amendment to a Senate spending bill last year. Cotton did not garner enough Democratic support to clear the Senates 60-vote threshold, and his amendment failed 57-42.

Defenders of the deal say Republican concerns are overblown.

That was a one-time deal and it was told to the Iranians that it was a one-time deal, said Corey Hinderstein, who served on the Iran Task Force at the Department of Energy until this month.

Iran continues to produce heavy water for industrial and medicinal applications, such as the production of medical isotopes. The nuclear accord required Iran to fill the core of its Arak heavy water reactor with concrete to cease its plutonium production.

The deal allows Tehran to stockpile up to 130 metric tons of heavy water. Iran exceeded that limit by less than one metric ton in both February and November of last year.

To remain in compliance with the deals limits, Iran has transported excessive heavy water to Oman, hoping to sell it to other countries for research and development. The United States and other countries use heavy water for research, as well as in industrial activities such as pharmaceuticals and electronics.

"There's a large market, but the United States is actually approximately 70% of the market for heavy water for non-nuclear use, said Hinderstein, who currently serves as vice president of the Nuclear Threat Initiative. The Iranians see this as a potential economically viable pursuit. I would argue it probably hasnt proven to be so far.

Regardless of congressional attempts to outlaw such sales, the right-wing Washington Free Beacon reported last month that President Donald Trump has already decided not to pursue any additional heavy water purchases from Iran.

Despite US demand for heavy water, Iran is also trying to sell its surplus reserves to other countries. Shortly after the US sale, Tehran entered into talks with Russia to sell 40 metric tons of heavy water to Moscow. Neither Tehran nor Moscow have publicly confirmed that any transaction resulted from the talks.

Iran is actively marketing their heavy water, Hinderstein told Al-Monitor. They have had events in Vienna around the International Atomic Energy Agency where they have talked about the heavy water they have for sale.

Nonetheless, the Trump administrations criticism of the nuclear deal has complicated Irans efforts to use its heavy water to generate additional income.

There are a lot of concerns about the future of the Iran deal and there are probably concerns on the part of countries and companies whether they want to engage in long-term business arrangements with Iran, said Hinderstein. I think some stability with regard to [the Iran deal] would help with Iranian markets but we just havent seen that right now.

Kelsey Davenport, the director of nonproliferation policy at the pro-deal Arms Control Association, agreed that the Trump administrations repeated threats to leave or alter the deal have had a chilling effect on potential buyers.

The nuclear deal with Iran does not require states to purchase heavy water to keep Iran in compliance with the deal, but the United States did commit not to engage in any policies that would obstruct states from engaging in legitimate business transactions, Davenport told Al-Monitor. So the risks and the uncertainty surrounding the future of the deal, if that is an impediment to countries purchasing heavy water, thats problematic.
December 20, 2017

WASHINGTON  The White House today welcomed the announcement by Saudi Arabia that the kingdom would lift a blockade on a key Yemen port; the decision followed mounting pressure from the US administration over the past month.

Even as it condemned a second Houthi ballistic missile launch that attempted to target the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Tuesday, the Donald Trump administration has been stepping up pressure on the Saudi-led coalition to lift its blockade to allow critically needed food and fuel into Yemen to alleviate one of the biggest humanitarian calamities in the world.

We have engaged closely with Saudi leadership to encourage them to take steps to improve humanitarian conditions and improve their defenses. Saudi Arabias announcement today that the coalition is opening the port of Hodeidah is one of the steps we had encouraged, as were previous coalition actions like permitting aid ships to unload and flights to land in Yemen, a National Security Council (NSC) spokesperson told Al-Monitor today.

It is important to note the Saudi response to yesterdays attack  which appears to have targeted Saudi leadership during a Cabinet meeting  was to follow through with opening Hodeidah, the NSC official said. We expect the Saudis to turn to the UN Security Council for assistance in holding Iran accountable for its clear violations.  These are exactly the productive steps we are encouraging by the Saudis.

In a series of high-level public statements and private consultations, the Trump administration is signaling to its Gulf ally that it considers the 2-year-old military campaign broadly a failure and that it is time to move toward a cease-fire and talks for a political solution.

A political solution is the only way to advance long-term stability in Yemen and end the suffering of the Yemeni people, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a statement Tuesday condemning the Houthi missile attack on Riyadh. We urge all parties to immediately cease hostilities, avoid retaliatory measures and return to political negotiations under the auspices of the United Nations.

Three-quarters of Yemens population  some 22 million people  need humanitarian assistance to survive, a coalition of humanitarian aid groups said in a letter this week marking 1,000 days since the Saudi-led coalition began conducting a campaign of punishing airstrikes in Yemen that is estimated to have killed over 5,000 civilians. The airstrikes and violence targeting civilians have escalated this month, the United Nations and Yemen experts said.

We are now seeing an escalation, Iona Craig, spokesperson for the Yemen data project and a journalist who has covered Yemen for seven years, told Al-Monitor on Tuesday. In the last month, according to the projects data, there have been a larger number of airstrikes that have hit nonmilitary targets, she said. Its a worrying change; whether it is a temporary one or not, I dont know.

More than two years into the Saudi-led campaign, there is no sign that the US-supported military intervention has managed to advance its aims of dislodging the Houthi rebels from their 2014 seizure of the Yemeni capital of Sanaa and restoring the government of Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to power. There also has been no reduction in the threat to the Saudi homeland posed by Houthi missiles, as Tuesday's and the Nov. 4 Houthi ballistic missile strikes aimed at Riyadh starkly demonstrate. A spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition said that it had intercepted Tuesday's missile.

The Trump administration harshly condemned the attempted Houthi missile attacks on Riyadh, and has alleged that the longer-range missile fired at Riyadh in November was likely produced by Iran, which is prohibited by UN Security Council Resolution 2231 from receiving or transferring ballistic missile technology. The Iranians have angrily rejected the charge.

But even as Washington has accused Iran of supplying weapons and missile technology to the Houthis, it has increasingly made public its impatience with the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen as it has pressed the Saudis to lift their blockade. The White House and State Department have issued four increasingly pointed statements this month alone calling on the Saudis to immediately allow desperately needed food and fuel into Yemen, most notably in a statement from Trump himself.

I have directed officials in my administration to call the leadership of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to request that they completely allow food, fuel, water and medicine to reach the Yemeni people who desperately need it, Trump said in a statement from the White House on Dec. 6. This must be done for humanitarian reasons immediately.

That was followed up by a more lengthy statement from the White House on Dec. 8 expressing grave concern about escalating violence and the humanitarian situation in Yemen and urging a cease-fire and renewed talks.

Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May, another close Saudi ally, also discussed the urgency of the Saudis' lifting their blockade in a phone call Dec. 19. In the call, May and Trump agreed on the vital importance of reopening humanitarian and commercial access to prevent famine and alleviate the suffering of innocent Yemenis, a spokesman for Downing Street said in a readout of the call.

The uptick in US pressure on the Saudis to lift the blockade may be a result of Trump administration alarm at Saudi actions in the aftermath of the Nov. 4 Houthi missile strike targeting Riyadhs airport, former US Ambassador to Yemen Gerald Feierstein said.

What seems to have triggered it all is  that kind of harsh response in November to the first missile strike, Feierstein, now with the Middle East Institute, told Al-Monitor today. I think that really kind of got peoples backs up a little bit. It looked like collective punishment.

After the first missile strike on Riyadh, Saudi Arabia imposed a broad embargo on humanitarian goods, which arguably kind of crosses the line into something illegal, Feierstein said. It is after that, that the administration started pushing harder on the Saudis to back off.

On Friday, Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan and US Agency for International Development (USAID) administrator Mark Green met with a group of US and international humanitarian groups and nongovernmental organizations in Sullivans seventh-floor suite to discuss the Yemen situation.

I was really impressed by just the level of the presence there on the US government side, an NGO officer who attended the meeting and who spoke not for attribution told Al-Monitor. From my point of view, they were as tough as they can possibly be within the framework of a reasonably cozy relationship with the Saudis, the officer added.

According to the NGO attendee, Green told the group that the United States would not be reacting to Saudi statements about lifting the blockade, but was waiting to see actions.

Humanitarian groups believe the United States could do more to help re-energize the UN political process to try to find a political resolution to the Yemen war. The Houthis have said they no longer want to negotiate with UN Yemen envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, whose contract ends in February. There is talk of possibly resuming the UN Yemen political talks process, possibly with a new envoy, early next year, aid officials who work on Yemen said.

The US has the leverage and influence, Scott Paul, the humanitarian policy lead for Oxfam America, told Al-Monitor. It could use it to try to advance momentum in the UN process.

Feierstein said US officials had also been concerned that the Saudis were mulling possibly escalating their military campaign in Yemen, in the wake of the Houthi missile strikes targeting Riyadh as well as the Houthis killing of former Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Dec. 4 after he switched sides to oppose them.

There may be [US] nervousness that, following the events beginning in December, including the death of Saleh,  that there is going to be some kind of push for a military solution to this, Feierstein said. There could be a [Saudi] inclination to step up the air campaign or a push on the ground.

From the perspective of the US government, a military escalation wont succeed, Feierstein said.

It all adds up to less than anything that you would think is fundamentally changing the stalemate in the fighting, he said.

The NSC official contrasted the Saudi decision to lift the blockade on the port even after the Dec. 19 Houthi missile strike on Riyadh with Iranian behavior.

The IRGC  continues to supply the Houthis with the weapons and wherewithal to continue these reckless and dangerous attacks that could spark a broader regional conflict, the NSC official said, referring to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

We will work closely with the Saudi-led coalition, international NGOs, the United Nations and our partner countries to follow through on the coalitions announcement earlier today on Hodeidah and ensure it is implemented in a way that improves conditions on the ground and alleviates suffering, the NSC official said. At the same time, we hope the Houthis will stop harassing aid workers and shipments of humanitarian supplies and diverting assistance to fill their own coffers.

We have encouraged the Saudis and our other regional partners to re-energize political negotiations, which, as we have said repeatedly, are the only way to resolve the conflict, the NSC official said. Those negotiations will take time, but we must remain focused to ensure we are making progress and preventing spoilers like Houthi hard-liners from derailing political negotiations by launching ballistic missiles at civilian facilities in Saudi Arabia, as they did yet again on Dec. 19.
December 19, 2017

An undeclared number of senior officers from Turkeys National Intelligence Organization (MIT) have been held by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) for more than three months, but the government continues to refuse to respond to opposition requests for information on the situation. The refusal of intelligence chief Hakan Fidan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim to appear before the legislature or otherwise provide answers to parliamentary inquiries has led the opposition to conclude that the government is trying to avoid acknowledging that the MIT has been engaged in activities exceeding its mission.

Alican Unlu, a representative from the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) who has filed a parliamentary query, told Al-Monitor that the abducted MIT personnel had been tasked with assassinations, which is why the government is maintaining its silence.

According to the PKK, its forces captured two senior MIT officers on Aug. 3 near Sulaimaniyah, in Iraqi Kurdistan, where they were preparing for an operation against senior PKK leader Cemil Bayik. The PKK went public about the abductions on Aug. 30. Pro-government media reported that the MIT officers had been dispatched to capture Bayik, while Kurdish media and PKK publications claimed the goal was to assassinate Bayik.

The prime minister is not responding to our queries to avoid exposing MIT operations in that region, Unlu told Al-Monitor. The PKK had earlier claimed several times that the MIT had attempted assassinations. It said the culprits were caught by the PKK and exposed. This is the first time that MITs officials were themselves being used in such an operation instead of freelancers.

Unlu has asked of the prime minister, Why were these two senior MIT officials sent to the region? What is the legal basis for sending MIT officials with diplomatic passports to the Kurdistan federal region to carry out such an operation in another country?

The main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) is also interested in the affair and has submitted several queries.

How many MIT officials are hostages? What are their names and duties? We are not told anything, CHP lawmaker Musa Cam told Al-Monitor. The MIT chief is not informing the parliament. He has to give an account, but his boss, the president, is not letting him. The MIT chief has instructions from the president to totally ignore the parliament.

At the moment, the parliament does not even know how many MIT personnel are actually missing. The ANF news agency, which is close to the PKK and first reported on the situation, said only that two MIT personnel with diplomatic passports had been seized.

Al-Monitor broke the first and only official statement, from Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, confirming the abductions. We have no contacts with the PKK to secure the return of those two persons, Cavusoglu said in an exclusive interview in September.

In an address to the parliament, another CHP lawmaker, Tuncay Ozkan, asserted that the PKK is holding four MIT personnel captive. Reiterating his claim, Ozkan told Al-Monitor, The PKK is holding four MIT personnel, two department heads and two senior officials. They are holding a total of 22 people. Also included in the total are military personnel and village guards.

The missing personnel are on the agenda of the parliament's Security and Intelligence Commission, which has oversight over MIT and whose meetings are behind closed doors. Ozkan said the commission had requested Fidan to testify about the missing personnel, but he has so far refused to do so.

Senior MIT personnel are held captive. How can we be denied information about this affair? Ozkan told Al-Monitor. We want to learn how our personnel were abducted. Does anyone know why MIT is launching such operations and refusing to discuss it?

An emergency decree issued under the state of emergency, and thus with the power of law, was passed immediately after the abductions to move MIT from under the authority of the Prime Ministry to the presidency. In corridors in Ankara, rumor has it that the abortive Bayik operation had prompted the move. If the operation had succeeded, however, it would have been presented as a success for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and certainly would have been exploited in campaigns for next year's local, general and presidential elections.

The failure of the operation has instead made life difficult for Erdogan. Ozkan explained, You catch Ocalan abroad and bring him to Turkey. Then you lose the department heads who had been fighting [his] organization for 16 years. This is not something you can sweep under the carpet.

According to the CHP, the MIT's recent failures stem from security policies implemented by Erdogan. The CHP's Cam stated in his parliamentary query, Developments that followed putting MIT under the AKP [Justice and Development Party] chairman [Erdogan] signal changes in the structure and policies of the organization.

That Erdogan, through the emergency decree, would be deciding on exchanges of detainees and prisoners also sparked controversy. The CHP's Ozkan asked in his parliamentary questions, Why did you authorize President Erdogan to decide on such exchanges? Is this authorization aimed at securing the release of department heads held by the PKK?
December 18, 2017

If I were asked what has been the outstanding conventional warfare feature of the Syrian conflict, my response would be the deep-strike capability demonstrated by US Tomahawk and Russian Kalibr-NK cruise missiles. The war in Syria demonstrated the importance of the deep-strike capability of cruise missiles, which are more accurate at long distances than the more risky and expensive warplane strikes.

Ankara has decided it urgently needs deep-strike capability to hit critical targets hundreds of miles from its borders. Officials realize armed factions affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party (the PKK, which Turkey considers a terrorist group) will exist for years to come in Iraq and Syria. Long-range capability is a vital component of Turkeys strategy to confront threats beyond its frontier.

This strategy explains why engineers in Ankara are striving to manufacture a locally made turbojet engine. Turkey's Defense Industries Research and Development Institute is doing engineering work for Ankara-based missile-maker Roketsan to manufacture an engine for the standoff missile (SOM) with a 300-kilometer (186-mile) range. The turbojet engine is similar to those for Gezgin and Atmaca missiles.

The SOM-A and SOM-B1 have been mounted on Turkish air force and F-4 2020 jets since 2013, equipped with French-made TR-40 turbojet engines.

Then why is Turkey working so hard to manufacture a complete, locally made turbojet engine for the SOM? Since 1987, Turkey has been a party to the Missile Technology Control Regime, which restricts nuclear warhead platforms other than airplanes. The regime was created to control exports to curb the spread of unmanned delivery systems for nuclear weapons, specifically systems that could carry a minimum payload of some 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) a minimum of 300 kilometers.

Turkey wants to develop the SOM-B2 model to bypass production and export restrictions, and the SOM-J model, which can be mounted on F-35 warplanes with fully Turkish-made Kale turbojet engines. According to media reports last week, the made in Turkey turbojet engines will be ready in the second half of 2018.

Also in 2018, the Network Enabled Weapon-Kement project will be available for SOM munitions. The Kement project will boost the attack power, survival and flexibility of the cruise missiles with a data network that enables images to be transferred from a single target to multiple targets in air-to-air and air-to-ground systems. This will allow the SOM to alter a target in flight and acquire a new one with its low-altitude flight capability and small radar signature.

Turkey is about to free itself from some restrictions by manufacturing its own weapons and delivery platforms and has been developing 500- to 800-kilometer ballistic missiles. It's now aiming for missiles with a range of 1,500- to 2,500 kilometers that will maintain their guidance and precise targeting capabilities.

Moreover, a nationally made turbojet engine means lifting restrictions on the sale of missiles using this engine. Azerbaijan is strongly interested in the SOM missiles and is waiting for the Turkish-made turbojet engine to buy them.

Turkey is planning the first flight test of the SOM-J missile for 2018. Ankara intends to develop shorter and thinner missiles with stealth features that will be compatible with the F-35 and Turkeys national warplane project TFX fuselages.

Today the only competition to the SOM-J in the world market is the Norwegian-made Penguin missile.

Given the enormous market for F-35s, no doubt the SOM-J has impressive export potential. Australia is already said to be very interested in the SOM-J.

Turkeys 500-kilometer-plus cruise-missile project is the 1,500-kilogram Gezgin missile. Because of its size and weight, this missile will meet specifications close to the US Tomahawk delivered by Turkish air force planes. It will be launched from submarines, ships and the ground. This missile, which will initially have a 300-kilometer range, will eventually be modified for longer distances.

Turkey is also working on the Atmaca anti-ship missile, developed for its navy by Turkeys defense giant Aselsan, with Roketsan as the contractor. The missile successfully completed its first firing tests last year and is expected to replace the current Harpoon missiles.

Until the SOM was procured for Turkey's arsenal in the cruise missile category, Turkey relied on the Israeli-made Popeye, which has a range of less than 300 kilometers, and the US-made AGM 84H/K SLAM-ER (standoff land attack missile), with a range of 270 kilometers.

Ballistic missile expert Hakan Kilic said that the Popeye, which can only be used by the F4-2020 warplane, will be obsolete when those planes are grounded in two or three years. This is what's compelling Turkey to develop SOM missiles as a matter of urgency. Turkey is increasingly uncomfortable with the restrictions it faces on ballistic missiles, Kilic told Al-Monitor.

In a well-known incident, Turkey became extremely upset when the United States did not allow testing of the US-made SLAM-ER in Turkey. Ankara had to send an F-16 to Fort Worth, Texas, and do the testing under the watchful eyes of US officials.

So to answer the earlier question, Ankara's urgency in developing the SOM is the desire to eliminate foreign dependence, to acquire cross-border deep-strike capability and then to develop export markets. Turkey expects to make major strides toward these goals next year.

Then cruise missile traffic, which already congests Middle East air space, will only get heavier.
December 18, 2017

The recent death of deposed Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh at the hands of his one-time allies, the Houthi rebels, marks a new stage for Yemen and gives rise to an important question: In this country ravaged by civil war, who will inherit Saleh's social, political and military power?

Saleh was killed Dec. 4, just two days after his accord of convenience with the Houthi rebels collapsed. The break led to clashes between the Iranian-backed Shiite Houthis and Saleh, who wound up being backed by the Sunnis and the Saudi-led international coalition. The Houthis bombed Saleh's home and office in Sanaa. Details of his death are contested; some say he was killed in his home, others say he died while trying to flee the city.

Yet Saleh's remaining power far exceeds the Houthis'. Despite his dismal human rights record, the popular support he enjoyed will wind up being divided based on sectarian and geographical factors. The Houthis will only inherit a limited part of this support as they continue to alienate the public by forcible recruiting, including of women and children.

Saleh was Yemen's president for decades, but after months of protests he agreed in late 2011 to step down and transfer power to Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, his former deputy, who was officially elected in February 2012 as the only candidate. Houthis boycotted the election.

The Iranian-backed Shiite Houthis persecuted their Saudi-backed Sunni opponents in Sanaa during the times they controlled the capital, with arrests, executions, vast "inspections" of homes and crackdowns on protesters, in addition to bombing houses and blocking the internet and social media sites. These measures align with the Houthis' religious extremist ideology and strict security and military measures. The Houthis realized that the number of Salehs supporters had increased in recent years, as people saw him as an alternative to them.

The General Peoples Congress, which was headed by Saleh, is already divided, with a small group in Saudi Arabia affiliated with Hadi, who is living there in exile, and a larger component inside Yemen loyal to Saleh. This latter component has divided again into two groups: one that is being persecuted and pressured by the Houthis to surrender and another based abroad that is thought to be affiliated with Salehs son, Ahmed Saleh, who now resides in Abu Dhabi. Ahmed Saleh issued a statement after his fathers killing in which he announced his willingness to return to the political arena.

On the military level, with Salehs killing, it seems his already-divided forces might have been dealt a final defeat. The fate of Tarek Saleh, the nephew of the former president and commander of his troops, remains unknown. Some reports say he fled the country after Salehs killing, while Houthis continue to search houses and locations in Sanaa in search of him.

The Saudi-led coalition forces  taking advantage of the public's anger in Sanaa against the Houthis since Salehs killing  have escalated their military operations on the northwestern coast in an attempt to take over the Houthi-controlled Hodeidah port, which is northern Yemens only outlet to the world. But even if the coalition manages to seize the port, the advance will most likely not put political pressure on the Houthis. Instead it will exacerbate the suffering of Yemenis and further embarrass the coalition at the international level  as it already faces widespread criticism for its blockade and accusations of targeting civilians. Also, even with control of the port, it would be difficult for the coalition to recapture Sanaa, as it is far from Hodeidah and surrounded by mountains.

Even though the Houthis had accused Saleh of treason for saying he would turn over a new leaf with neighbors, the Houthis now say they are willing to open dialogue with the coalition countries. This might herald a political settlement between the Houthis and the coalition-backed, internationally recognized government in exile.

Such a settlement, if achieved, would have to recognize Houthi control over the larger part of northern Yemen, where the majority of the Yemeni population resides and where the capital lies. However, legitimizing the Houthis control will not make people forget the violent nature of the Houthis and their policies.

Otherwise, with the Houthis in control as a sectarian militia, the country will divide into groups and the civil war will continue. Houthi cohesion is expected to collapse, since the extremist group rose from an isolated area where opportunists compete over power. The groups slogans about governance, fighting corruption and facing aggression will keep falling now that they have killed Saleh, their only political ally.

When the Houthi group initially emerged, it claimed it was fighting persecution against it and was seeking revenge as a counter to military oppression. Now the group has given rise to similar feelings of anger among Yemenis regardless of their political inclinations, tribes or groups. Saleh was killed like Houthi leader Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi was killed, and the same vicious circle of revenge will take its toll on Houthis and their many opponents.
Jen Higgins Grant for Young Women

Promoting alpine-related outdoor pursuits for young women The ACC is dedicated to helping young women pursue their adventure dreams with annual cash grants from the Jen Higgins Fund. Teams must include a young woman who is central to conceiving, developing and leading the trip. Jen Higgins was a woman with a passion for the outdoors; her love of adventure, kindled at an early age through trips with her family, took her from her home province of Ontario to live in the mountains of BC. Jen spent many days sharing her knowledge and enthusiasm for the outdoors with friends who hadnt had the privilege of knowing the mountain life as she did. She touched many people in this way, and shared her joy of living and exploring. It was on her way to the Rockies to introduce a friend to one of her favourite spots  the ACCs Stanley Mitchell Hut in Little Yoho Valley  that she was involved in a fatal car accident. The Jen Higgins Fund was established by friends and family to honour Jen Higgins after her death in 1997. Jens enthusiasm and generous spirit continue to live on by supporting young women in creative, self-propelled mountain adventures with this grant. The Alpine Club of Canada is honoured to be able to continue Jens legacy of sharing knowledge and enthusiasm with others  the legacy of a truly adventurous and generous spirit.

Information Package Apply Now Annual deadline for applications is January 31 Donate to the Jen Higgins Fund The ACC is dedicated to helping young women pursue their adventure dreams and your donation to the Jen Higgins Fund helps us support them. Donate Now

Jim Colpitts Memorial Scholarship

Facilitating learning experiences that change lives The financial costs of learning, developing and certifying mountaineering skills can be substantial, particularly for young people. Through the Jim Colpitts Memorial Scholarhip, we aim to help out with those financial costs. Each year, the ACC awards a scholarship (approximately $500) to an Albertan between 17 and 24 years old to dedicate toward an avalanche, wilderness first aid, mountain leadership, ACMG training or other mountain course. Jim Colpitts spent much of his youth in the mountain parks of Alberta where he participated as both a student and instructor in the Wilderness Groups of the YMCA. Jim rose to the physical and mental challenges of the mountains and became an avid skier, climber and hiker. He would be pleased with his legacy of providing opportunities for other young men and women to pursue the experiences that shaped his life. Information Package Apply Now Annual deadline for applications is January 31 Donate to the Jim Colpitts Fund The financial costs of learning, developing and certifying mountaineering skills can be substantial, particularly for young people. Your donation to the Jim Colpitts Fund helps young mountain professionals take the next step. Donate Now

Karl Nagy Memorial Scholarship

Developing skills in the next generation of guides and Club leaders For aspirant guides and volunteer leaders, finding opportunities to hone their guiding skills in a controlled and mentoring environment can be a big challenge. The ACCs General Mountaineering Camp is the ideal location for leaders to build skills and the Karl Nagy Memorial Scholarship can help it happen. This scholarship was established in 2001 to assist aspirant guides and volunteer leaders in the development of their skills. Until his death in 2000, Karl set an outstanding example as a mentor in the mountains and was well known for his leadership, safety and success. Karl was admired and loved for his exuberant attitude in the mountain environment that he played and worked in. The recipient will be scheduled as an amateur leader for one week of the GMC and gain invaluable experience guiding and leading under the supervision of the Camp staff. There is no monetary value to the award. ACC volunteer leaders and ACMG aspirant guides will be given priority for the award in alternating years. Priority will be given to ACC volunteer leaders for 2022.

Apply Now Annual deadline for applications is January 31. The winner of the 2020 Karl Nagy Award will carry over to 2021. Any applications received for 2021 will be carried over to 2022. Donate to the Karl Nagy Fund Your donation helps young guides gain invaluable experience guiding and leading under the supervision of the GMC staff. Donate Now

Philippe Delesalle Memorial Grant

Making Mountain Experiences accessible to the Underprivileged Mountain experiences and mountain culture teach life skills and benefit people of all ages. But there are significant barriers to these experiences, particularly for youth, disadvantaged individuals and to those in places removed from the mountains. The Philippe Delesalle Grant, given annually to underprivileged youth from across Canada aims to expand access to alpine experiences, knowledge and culture to more Canadians.



The Bugaboos Teens program is a tuition-free mountaineering camp held annually in Bugaboo Provincial Park in BC. It is aimed at students from grades 10 through 12 with the goal of introducing youth to the mountains and giving them the opportunity to forge strong relationships with the natural world. Canadian youth can apply for inclusion on the camp through this grant.



Philippe Delesalle shared the ACCs deep belief in the value of mountain regions, sports and culture to the human spirit. He was a father, mountain lover, adventurer and architect who resided in Canmore until his passing in 2020. The ACC is honoured to help build a legacy of exposing youth to the alpine in Philippes name.

Annual deadline for applications is January 31 Donate to the Philippe Delesalle Fund Your contribution will permanently increase the impact of the Philippe Delesalle Grant for young, underprivileged Canadians. Donate Now

John Lauchlan Memorial Award

Promoting mountain experiences that challenge the human spirit. Do you have a dream of a few buddies climbing in the great ranges on a small trip without the hoopla and circus of the big expeditions? The John Lauchlan Memorial Award is a cash award that exists to perpetuate the bold and adventurous spirit that John Lauchlan exemplified in his mountain exploits. It strives to promote the development of Canadian mountaineers at an international level with financial support that non-commercial expeditions have difficulty accessing. John Lauchlan (1954-1982) was a pioneer in setting new standards in climbing both in Canada and internationally. At home he made numerous first ascents of alpine routes and ice climbs, including the southwest buttress of Mt. Logan, the North Face of Mt. Kitchner, Takakkaw Falls and Slipstream. In 1980, John led a four-man expedition to Nepal to climb a technical new route on the south face of Gangapurna (7454m), which is still considered one of the most difficult climbs done by Canadians in the Himalayas. John inspired everyone he met, as a climber, a teacher and a leader of his generation. The John Lauchlan Award is awarded annually to a lightweight Canadian team pursuing an innovative, bold, exploratory, environmentally sensitive, non-commercial objective. More information:

Sample application:



Apply Now More information: JohnLauchlanAward.com Sample application: 2017 Application Annual deadline for applications is September 30 Donate to the John Lauchlan Memorial Award Your donation helps Canadian mountaineers pursue their dreams. Donate Now

ACC Environment Grant

Contributing to the protection and preservation of mountain and climbing environments The ACC Environment Grant is issued annually from a permanent fund to be used to create a legacy of environmental improvement. Wilderness is a diminishing and irreplaceable resource of great intrinsic value not only to those who recreate in its spaces, but to everyone on our planet. The focus of the Environment Grant is wilderness conservation rather than recreation enhancement. It is the ACCs goal to be able to act quickly and decisively in order to protect our wild spaces from being lost. The purpose of the grant is to provide support that contributes to the protection and preservation of mountain and climbing environments, including the preservation of alpine flora and fauna in their natural habitat. Funding priority will be given to projects related to the alpine and arctic environments and climbing areas in Canada in recognition of our members unique appreciation of these areas. As funds permit, projects in other mountainous and polar regions of the world may be supported. Priority will be given to projects initiated by the Alpine Club of Canada and its members. However, outside agencies and individuals may be supported if their projects meet the mandate of the fund. Since 2002 the ACC has given out over $30,000 through the Environmental Grant. Information Package

Apply Now Annual deadline for applications is January 31 Donate to the ACC Environment Fund Your donation helps us help those who are fighting to preserve Canadian alpine areas. Donate Now

Eric Brooks Memorial Fund

Preserve the Canadian Alpine Journal legacy Established in 2001, the Eric Brooks Memorial Fund supports the publication of the Canadian Alpine Journal  the flagship publication of the ACC for over 100 years. Eric Brooks joined the ACC in 1929 and continued to devote much of his energy to the Club until his death in 2001. He served as Manager of the General Mountaineering Camp for many years, was elected President of the ACC in 1941 and named Honorary President from 1954 to 1964. He was awarded the Silver Rope for Leadership Award in 1937 and the A.O. Wheeler Legacy Award in 1995. In 2005 an ACC volunteer award for commitment to learning and leading was renamed the Eric Brooks Leader Award in his honour. Your donation to the Eric Brooks Memorial Fund will help ensure the enduring legacy of the Canadian Alpine Journal. Donate Now

Bev Bendell Library Conservation Fund

Preserve the history of the ACC The Bev Bendell Library Conservation Fund is committed to the growth and enhancement of the Clubs library collection. Long-time member and A.O. Wheeler Legacy Award recipient, Bev Bendell donated $100,000 to the Club in 2007. Since Bev was a professional librarian and also the Clubs volunteer librarian for several years, the donation was used to create a permanent library fund. This fund is administered by the Mountain Culture Committee, who use the annual investment income from the fund to purchase books for the ACC library, restore older library books, publish new books and other library-related projects. Donate Now

Louise Guy Commemorative Fund
The State of the Mountains Report is a commitment by the ACC to provide accessible, current and accurate information about the forces that affect Canadian mountain places, ecosystems and communities.

Please visit our State of the Mountains microsite for complete reports, news, downloads and more.



Visit Microsite
Today, there are still some great last minute deals still available, including the Fujifilm Instax Mini 7s Instant Film Camera, which is just $39.99. Amazon also has a sweet Gold Box available, full of deals on speakers, headphones and really anything else you can think of to fill a stocking this holiday season.

Now over at B&H Photo, they also have some pretty sweet deals going on right now, including a 2-pack of the TP-Link HS105 WiFi Smart Plugs, which are available for just $36.99. Thats a great price, considering just one is normally on sale for around $30 (with the regular price being around $35-40). So if youre looking for some smart plugs for yourself or someone on your list, this is definitely the time to pick up a pair and start outfitting your house to be smarter. B&H Photo does also offer quite a few other items on sale today, and of course, if you order today, they will ship in time for the holidays, as B&H Photo is still doing next-day shipping on almost everything in its store.

All of the deals listed in this post are good through midnight PT on the date noted, unless otherwise noted. So youll want to take advantage of them before they are sold out.
According to a new rumor that just surfaced, Meizus CEO, Huang Zhang, will personally lead the companys Blue Charm division. Earlier this year, the company announced that its splitting into three divisions, Meizu, Blue Charm and Flyme. The first division remained in charge of the companys flagship handset, and is lead by the companys CEO, while the companys VP, Li Nan, was supposed to lead the Blue Charm division, but if this new rumor is to be believed, the companys CEO will personally handle the companys Blue Charm division as well.

The companys Blue Charm division is in charge of releasing entry-level and mid-range smartphones, and also accessories for the companys handsets, along with some other gadgets. This rumor claims that the companys CEO will be directly involved in the product planning and building in the Blue Charm division. It is currently not known what this means for Li Nan, as he was named the President of the Blue Charm division earlier this year. In any case, the company is expected to release a couple of smartphones in the coming months, namely the Meizu M6s and the Meizu M15 Plus, while one additional, mysterious phone leaked recently as well. The Meizu M6s had surfaced a couple of times thus far, and this is the device which will probably be released by the Blue Charm division, as one of the companys mBlu devices. The Meizu M15 Plus, on the other hand, is expected to become the companys flagship smartphone, and it was already confirmed that it will be announced in the Sprint. The Meizu M15 Plus will probably ship with very thin bezels, and its design also leaked already.

Having said that, the companys Head of Global Marketing, Ard Boudeling, revealed recently that the company managed to grow 50 percent on a global scale, even if its market share dropped in China. Judging by recent reports and restructuring within the company, Meizu has big plans for next year, and it will be interesting to see if it can improve its position in the market even further, even though the competition in the smartphone market is quite fierce at the moment, especially in China and India.

Advertisement

Buy the Meizu MX6
This story was published on Jan. 4, 2006

Justin Cornish spent the last days of 2005 fighting for his life. Now, thanks to a heart donor, the 16-year-old from Lincoln can spend 2006 looking toward his future.

The teenager underwent a heart transplant Friday evening and was doing well Tuesday, said Cherie Lytle, spokeswoman for The Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

The Lincoln North Star sophomore suffers from Danon's disease, a rare form of muscular dystrophy that attacks the heart. In mid-December, he was hospitalized and moved to the top of the donor list. He received word Friday of a donor, whom hospital officials would not identify for privacy reasons.

Dr. Mohammed Quader, lead heart surgeon at The Nebraska Medical Center, said Tuesday that Justin's body showed no signs of rejection, and he should be able to go home in two to three weeks.

Until then, he'll be getting used to a new set of medications and rebuilding his overall strength, Quader said. Justin will continue to make regular visits to the hospital to monitor his progress.

"Justin's been asking me the last two to three days when he can go home," Quader said. "He's so happy to be given a second chance."

Before the transplant, Justin had become bed-bound, uninterested in eating and depressed, Quader said. The morning after surgery, he gave his doctor two thumbs up.

Through it all, friend and cousin Tasha Luedtke said Justin kept his faith and sense of humor. As he sat in a hospital bed, he joked and made her laugh, she said.

Justin even spoke Thursday, the day before he heard of a donor, of how his new heart was coming.

"I don't know how he knew, but he knew," said Juliet Andersen, Justin's cousin, of Lincoln.

The teenager has started to talk about his dreams and goals and wants to do all he can because his brothers would want him to, said his mother, Vickie Cornish. The same disease killed two of his brothers, Richard, 18, in 2002, and Everett, 13, in 2004.

At the time of her other sons' illnesses, Vickie Cornish, 40, said the family didn't know the exact form of the disease was Danon's disease, so they were unsure whether a heart transplant would be an option.

Vickie Cornish also has a daughter and a son who haven't been diagnosed with the disease. She, meanwhile, has experienced adult onset of the disease and uses a pacemaker and defibrillator.

"I'm so grateful my son is alive," Vickie Cornish said. "I want to thank all of the doctors who have given him such wonderful care."

A single mom, Vickie Cornish hasn't been able to work for about a year and a half because of her and her children's health problems.

She said she now spends her time talking to people about the disease, raising awareness for organ donation and muscular dystrophy.

"I tell you, I've had a lot of faith in God," she said. "I do a lot of praying. Ireally believe that gets me by, along with family and friends that are supportive."

Now, she's hoping the blessing that is her son's new heart will work well with his body.

"We have a lot to go through first, but we're hoping for the best."
Uber on Wednesday named the first Chief Operating Officer in its history, having given that honor to former Orbitz CEO Barney Harford. The San Francisco, California-based company started its search for a COO in late spring but suspended its efforts following the resignation of Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick who was essentially ousted from whats still believed to be the worlds most valuable startup by several investors amid a series of controversies ranging from clashes with various regulators to accusations of a predatory corporate culture. The COO search resumed immediately after Dara Khosrowshahi took over the startup in late summer, with the companys new chief personally vetting top candidates for the position, sources previously said.

Mr. Harford will start his work at Uber on January 2nd and is already familiar with the ride-hailing service provider who originally hired him as an advisor in October. While the specifics of his previous role remain unclear, it appears to have been a mutually evaluatory one, with Ubers top management being given the opportunity to witness Mr. Harfords methods firsthand while the industry veteran was also provided with enough time to inspect the companys operations and decide whether he wants to join its ranks on a more permanent and better defined basis. The new COO already drafted some ideas in regards to how Uber would be able to operate more efficiently going forward but no concrete details on the matter have yet been disclosed by the company. Mr. Harford is understood to be CEOs personal pick as he and Mr. Khosrowshahi already have a working history at Expedia which Ubers current chief headed when it purchased Orbitz.

The British national who arrived to the United States in 1999 will remain on the boards of United Airlines and RealSelf which he chairs. His appointment is the latest step in Mr. Khosrowshahis effort to repair Ubers heavily damaged image and allow the company to move away from the controversies that have been surrounding it in recent years, with the endeavor itself starting from the top. Ubers short-term goals include alleviating its strained relations with regulators, controlling its costs, continuing the growth of its key business metrics such as gross bookings, and ultimately preparing for a healthy IPO in 2019.
BARCELONAOn Wednesday, a hundred Members of the European Parliament from several countries called for the Catalan elections to be held "in a democratic manner, free from undue interference from the Spanish government". They also expressed a wish for an end to the use of "excessive force", with reference to the imprisonment of the ministers and the leaders of the ANC and Omnium. The MPs from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Estonia, Sweden, Belgium, Slovenia and Finland, among others also called for the release of the sacked ministers who remain behind bars, Oriol Junqueras and Joaquim Forn, as well as grassroots leaders Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Cuixart, and urged the Spanish government to "engage in a political dialogue with the Catalan government chosen by the Catalan people".

The lawmakers have signed the manifesto "European Call for Democracy in Catalonia", initiated by two Danish MPs Magni Arge and Nikolak Villumsen. In the text, the members of the European parliaments expressed their "deepest concern regarding the current situation in Catalonia".

In mid-September of this year, fifteen days before the 1 October referendum, seven Danish MPs including Magni Arge and Nikolaj Villumsen representing different political groups, urged the Spanish government to play a "constructive role" and called for Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to hold "immediate" talks with the Catalan authorities. The parliamentarians expressed their "deepest concern" with the situation in Catalonia, declaring that it had reached a "critical point".

The MPs have sent copies of the letter to the Spanish parliament, the Rajoy Government, the Parliament and the Government of Catalonia and the Parliament and the Government of Denmark.
GironaThe Deputy Prime Minister of the Spanish government, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, has defended the decisions taken by Mariano Rajoy with an angry, even cocky tone at a rally in the Catalan city of Girona. Who has left ERC and the PDECat leaderless after decapitating both parties? Mariano Rajoy and the PP. Who put an end to the law being flouted? Mariano Rajoy and the PP. Who closed the Catalan embassies? Do you know what Diplocat is called now? Its called Diplocat in liquidation. So, who deserves the votes to continue liquidating separatism? Mariano Rajoy and the PP", Saenz de Santamaria declared.

Indeed, the Deputy PM began her talk with a quip about the application of Article 155. "We havent come to lunch in Girona until now, since, as were running the vice presidency of the government and also the Catalan government, we dont have much time to eat", she declared, to howls of laughter from those attending the event. Rajoys second-in-command boasted of having "put a stop" to the independence movements ambitions thanks to the application of the Constitution. "Did they think that the rule of law wouldnt work?", she asked.

Santamaria also assured those present that the independence movements electoral program was in Josep Maria Joves Moleskine notebook". In reference to the PP, Santamaria declared that her party doesnt take decisions based on "electoral considerations". Instead, "our only consideration is Spains best interests and of the Catalans. Catalonia, its freedom and its rights are the number one priority for the PP," she said.

While insisting that the PP are the ones who took all the decisions to stop the pro-independence parties, the Partido Popular also claim to be the party of government ahead of Ciutadans, who they often criticize for lack of experience. Santamaria took a sideways swipe at them when she stated that "the PP not only knows how to make speeches, but also how to act. The PP knows exactly how to govern".

Stop the CUP from taking the PPs seats

With the elections a few days away, and with opinion polls currently suggesting that the PP wont do so well, Santamaria also called for people to vote for her party because "those who vote for the PP know that their vote goes to the PP". "Anyone who doesnt put the PP voting slip in the envelope wont know if in the end it means the seat goes to the CUP", she declared. The PP repeated this same message on multiple occasions this Saturday in Girona. "Our vote is worth double in Girona: once so the PP win and twice so the CUP lose. Thats a great incentive", said the vice president.

In their speeches, the PPs candidate for 21-D, Xavier Garcia Albiol, and the representative of the Spanish government in Catalonia, Enric Millo, both continued in the same vein. Albiol declared that "the PP is the party that can best represent Girona, the land of Puigdemont" while Millo went further, asking for an end to the pro-independence parties, stating that "one more PP MP means one less ERC or CUP MP". Millo also accused Carles de Puigdemonts government of being the government of "tyranny and dictatorship" for trying to "impose its ideas". A "nightmare" that can come to an end, he declared, if there is "a strong PP" in the Catalan parliament.
MadridLawyer Josep Asensio i Serqueda has started a campaign to raise money in order to bring charges against the investigating judge of the National Court Carmen Lamela, who first sent Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Cuixart to prison and subsequently remanded seven Catalan government ministers.

However, before the Supreme Court decides whether it will hear the charges of neglect of duty against Lamela, resulting from the investigations she has made into the case against the pro-independence leaders, it insists the lawyer first pay a deposit of 6,000 euros.

Manuel Marchena, Luciano Varela and Andres Martinez Arrieta, the three magistrates that are to consider the matter, have demanded the payment before deciding whether to accept the charges, while also requiring the lawyer to first submit a report. Nevertheless, payment of the 6,000-euro deposit in no way means the court will end up ruling in the complainants favour. According to the interlocutory judgment "a preliminary question that must be resolved before entering into a decision as to the merits of the case has to do with the legal nature of the action carried out by the complainant".

With regard to the amount of the deposit, the law specifies that it must be "proportionate and equitable so that it does not prevent anyone from having access to the judicial process for financial reasons". The High Court argues that the sum of 6,000 euros that it demands meet this prerequisite.
On Wednesday, December 20, 2017, Norways defence ministry has announced the purchase of the K9 155 artillery self-propelled howitzers designed and manufactured by the South Korean Company Hanwha Land Systems. The contract that includes also the artillery howitzer K9, ammunition and transport vehicles will reach an ammount of $383 million.



South Korean K9 155mm tracked self-propelled howitzer during trial tests in Norway (Picture source Video Print Screen Mogens Rasmus Mogensen YouTube account)

In January 2017, the K9 155mm tracked self-propelled howitzer was tested in winter conditions in Finland. The contract will include the purchase of 24 K9, with an option for an additionnal order of 24 K9s. The first artillery howitzers will be delivered to the Norwegian army in 2019 and should be completed between 2020 and 2021.

This is the second Scandinav country after Finland that will purchased the South Korean K9 155mm tracked self-propelled howitzer. In February 2017, the Finnish defence minister Jussi Niinisto has announced the purchase of 48 South Korean K9s artillery howitzers for a total amount of 146 million ($155 million).



In late 2001, Turkey has signed a contract with Samsung TechWin for the delivery of K9 Thunder, designated Firtina in the Turkish army. A first batch of eight Firtina howitzers was delivered to Turkey in 2004. Currently, Turkish army has a total 150 K9 artikllery howitzers in service.

The development program of the K9 nicknamed Thunder in South Korea development began in 1989, followed by a first trial tests of prototype in 1996. The final design was completed in 1998 and the mass production of the K9 started in 1999.

The K9 Thunder is based on a tracked armoured chassis with the combat turret in the middle. The main armament consists of a 155 mm/52 caliber ordnance with a maximum firing range of 40 km. The K9 Thunder has a maximum rate of fire of 6 rounds per minute and is capable of multiple-round simultaneous-impact firing.
New employee housing is soon to come on line in the desirable Lift 1A neighborhood. It was built by Bald Mountain Development as part of mitigation for about 65,000 square feet of luxury homes and townhouses.
Free newsletter

Subscribe to our FREE newsletter service and well keep you up-to-date with the latest breaking news, cutting edge opinion, and expert analysis affecting both your business and the industry as whole.

Please enter your email address below and click on Sign Up for daily newsletters from Australasian Lawyer.
Australias top lawyer organisations have welcomed the appointment of the Hon. Christian Porter MP as the countrys 37th attorney-general.On behalf of the legal profession, I congratulate Mr Porter on his appointment, said Fiona McLeod SC, Law Council of Australia president.McLeod said that Porter holds a key critical appointment within the government.The attorney-general, as chief law officer of the Commonwealth, is charged with defending and promoting the system of law and justice, she said. As the guardian of the public interest, the attorney fulfils a critical role in upholding the rule of law  seeking to ensure equality before the law, access to justice, the right to a fair trial and the right to review executive decision making by a strong independent judiciary.The council is confident Porter would do well in his new position.As a former senior prosecutor for the Western Australian DPP, and later state attorney-general, Mr Porter well understands the importance of the rule of law and the steps, which are not always popular, that need to be taken in its defence, McLeod said. We look forward to engaging constructively with Mr Porter on a myriad of issues in 2018, from legal aid and court resourcing to the careful balancing of important human rights and freedoms.The Australian Bar Association said it welcomes the new appointment, and looks forward to working with Porter on many important issues, including consideration of the implementation of recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory and the current review of the family law system.The Law Council president also thanked the Hon. George Brandis QC for his work as attorney-general."We are grateful for the constructive and productive relationship we have enjoyed with Senator Brandis and his staff. He has been an advocate for a strong rule of law in his term and supported the calls of the Law Council for the reversal of funding cuts this year to the legal assistance sector. He has commissioned a number of important reviews, including referrals to the Australian law Reform Commission on Indigenous Incarceration and Family Law, McLeod said.I was particularly moved by the eloquence and the authenticity of Senator Brandis's advocacy around marriage equality. On behalf of the Australian legal profession I wish Senator Brandis all the very best, she said.The Bar said it is grateful to the senator for his work, particularly in relation to marriage equality, national security legislation, the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory, and defending the rule of law and the separation of powers and the independence of the legal profession.
The Singapore International Mediation Centre (SIMC) signed earlier this month a memorandum of understanding with the Japan Association of Arbitrators (JAA) to help Japan build expertise in international commercial mediation.According to the Singapore Ministry of Law, SIMC will help JAA set up a new international mediation centre in Kyoto, Japan. It will be Japans first and only dedicated international commercial mediation centre, and is projected to begin operations by early 2018.SIMCs MOU with JAA is a strong endorsement of Singapores capability in international commercial dispute resolution. It is also a good example of how Singapore can work with other dispute resolution centres in Asia to build up international expertise, so that we can better serve the needs of businesses, said Singapore Senior Minister of State for Law and Finance Indranee Rajah.The ministry said JAA chose to establish the centre in Kyoto because of its popularity with international travellers and good travel infrastructure. Seeking privately negotiated settlements is a fundamental characteristic of the Japanese culture and Kyoto, being the centre of Japanese culture, is a natural choice for the centre. In fact, many such private negotiations were conducted at temples in Kyoto in the old days.Figures from SIMC show that Japan firms are among its top five foreign users. The total value of disputes mediated by SIMC involving Japanese companies stands at over S$20m in the last two years.
As part of efforts to reform US antitrust laws, the countrys House Democrats are seeking to determine whether inappropriate non-compete clauses should be prohibited.In a speech before the Open Markets Institute earlier this month, Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline said the use of non-compete clauses in everyday employment contracts was a fundamental threat to workers economic freedom and mobility.These clauses are widespread, even among workers who do not possess trade secrets, such as workers in the fast-food industry, he said.According to a report by the US Treasury Department released last year, close to 30 million Americans across all employment levels are covered by non-compete clauses. Less than a quarter said their jobs involve trade secrets, while less than half of non-compete agreements involve work subject to trade secrets.And yet, the report added that these clauses prevent workers from finding new employment even after being fired without cause.[I]n many cases, workers have already accepted a job before they even see the text of an employment contract or are simply unaware that they have agreed not to work for a competing business, Cicilline said. When combined with forced arbitration clauses, which immunize unscrupulous employers from virtually any legal accountability, non-compete clauses lock in workers, even when they are in a harmful, discriminatory workplace.
SUV

AMG

No, Spartanburg isn't ready to make the X7 yet, at least not for the public. This is just a dry run of pre-production models. These details we keep talking about include the all-LED headlights and a re-shaped gear selector that looks like it's made from some crystal.You'd think that this project was all about the 7-seat configuration that BMW lacked for so many years. But it looks like they are stepping up their luxury game at the same time.This is a very special vehicle, and our employees are looking forward to yet a further member of the X family, said Knudt Flor, head of the BMW Group Spartanburg plant. Together with the BMW X7, a total of five BMW X models will be exported from Spartanburg to all four corners of the globe.BMW built these pre-production X7 models for homologation and registration. They are also undergoing extreme weather testing in Death Valley or Scandinavia to ensure the parts are up to standards. Meanwhile, the factory gets a dry run and can iron out most of the production hiccups.The X7 is one of fivemodels which the Spartanburg factory will export globally. They also include the X3, as well as next generations of the X4, X5, and X6.The weird timing of the prototypes being revealed suggests BMW might not show the X7 iPerformance concept in Detroit, as previously stated, but the real thing. Updated versions of the 3-liter turbo engine will power it, and an M50i variant has also been confirmed. However, we don't yet know if there will also be a rival for the GLS 63 from Mercedes-
SUV

PHEV

More specifically, the Ghibli and Quattroporte sedans will stop being made between December 15 to January 15. Meanwhile, the Levante, which is doing slightly better, will be out of production from December 20 to January 15. And as for the GranTurismo and GranCabrio, they will be out from December 15 to January 8th, according to Automotive New Europe. "It is clear that production is slowing down and investment in new models are on hold," union boss Federico Bellono told the publication.On paper at least, adding anto the roster seemed like the perfect solution to Maserati's slow sales. However, competition is harsher than ever, and the V6 engine just couldn't do a good enough job to hide the Levante's flaws.About a year after the Quattroporte was launched, it because clear that Maserati was going to continue struggling, as production was slowed. In 2017 alone, the automaker shut down the line on two other occasions.Problems with the Chinese economy are mostly to blame now. However, the country, which is now the world's largest producer of solar energy, has also become unwelcoming for gas guzzling cars. Meanwhile, the Levanteis nowhere to be seen.It's important to understand just how small the Trident brand is right now. Back in April, it delivered its 100,000 cars. So there are fewer Maseratis in the world then there are W222 Mercedes S-Class sedans. In 2016, Maserati's sales volume in China broke 12,000, which marks an increase of 120 times over the 100 sales made in 2004, the company's first year operating there. Today, Maserati has around 30,000 customers in China, 38 percent of whom are women. So there's still room to grow. But we're not sure the new coupe models being planned are what people want.
DCT

The additional ratio is there to help with fuel economy on the motorway, but thats just the tip of the iceberg. Enabling acceleration without torque interruption, a higher degree of shift comfort, and a reshaped gear lever, these are all upgrades from the preceding six-speed of the torque-converter type. And in addition to those, enhanced driving fun is on the menu too.As its the case with any other DCT , the Steptronic in the MINI uses two clutches. Oil-cooled for greater shift comfort, one clutch is responsible for the even forward ratios (2, 4, 6) and the second clutch takes care of reverse and uneven gears (1, 3, 5, 7). At any point during driving, one of the clutches is engaged and the other remains open in preparation for the next upshift or downshift.With MINI being part of the BMW Group, the automaker couldnt help but boast about the all-new transmission, claiming that the control system always knows which is the right gear. The electronic brain of theanalyzes the drivers style, intentions, and road conditions, making automatic changes to shifting behavior according to those circumstances.Beyond D for Drive and S for Sport Mode, the seven-speed transmission offers manual shifting in M Mode. Being a dual-clutch, gear changes are sequential, and changing gears is done by moving the selector lever forward (downshift) or backward (upshift). For models equipped with the MINI navigation system, the transmission draws navigation data to adapt its shift strategy. Case in point: a downshift is made early when approaching a shard bend, therefore decelerating through engine braking.Last, but certainly not least, the DCT offers a coasting mode and a crawl function. The latter is of utmost importance, for it enables smooth set-off without pressing the accelerator. This ensures no shuddering in stop-and-go traffic or when maneuvering.
Despite showing it off to whoever was willing to test it and had the money to sponsor the company or the public presence to boost its image, and despite all climbing off the FF 91 smiling, the cash wasn't as easy to come by for the U.S. car manufacturer wannabe backed by Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting.Why isn't Yueting investing the money, if he's such a big shot businessman, you might ask. Well, the truth he's seen better days, and so has his LeEco empire. The Chinese entrepreneur bit off a little more than he could chew, and his startups started crashing down one by one. Things in China aren't exactly great either as he's just been added to the government's blacklist of defaulters, so he'd be forgiven if Faraday Future's fate wasn't exactly at the top of his mind.And yet it seems like it is. According to Securities Daily , Jia held a meeting with the (remaining) employees of Faraday Future in which he announced he had secured an investment of one billion dollars, and that he would also become the company's new Chief Executive Officer.A lot of people told me that you have no money, you can not even support your family and must give up, he addressed to his staff, quoted by Chinese outlet The Paper . But obviously these people do not understand me. Even if it is a failure, I can accept it. But I can not give up, especially not on such a great dream.Just when we were getting ready to forget all about Faraday Future, it seems like the company refuses to die. Just like the main protagonist in an action movie that's taken a lot of battering and yet still manages to get up, Faraday Future essentially tells us we'll be hearing from it in 2018 as well.The end of next year is when the production version of the FF 91 electric crossover should have its official launch, but the company is lacking any production capabilities as well. If what Yueting says is true, we might be looking at some serious delays. If it's not, we're looking at a dead company only kept alive by periodic electric shocks.
OMAHA  Federal authorities say two motel managers enslaved an Indian immigrant for more than a year, forcing him to work without pay and abusing him.

Vishnumbhai Chaudhari, 50, and Leelabahen Chaudhari, 44, pleaded guilty in federal court on Monday to conspiracy and alien harboring for financial gain.

The two were managers of the Super 8 in Kimball near the Wyoming border.

The unidentified man was taken into immigration custody in Texas after entering the U.S. illegally in 2011. The Chaudharis, who also were living in the U.S. illegally, arranged to pay his bond in October of that year, then set up his transportation to Kimball, court documents and authorities said. The pair then forced the man to clean rooms, wash clothes and do other chores for them seven days a week, investigators said.

The Chaudharis isolated the man from guests at the motel and hid him from police officers in the area. Leelabahen Chaudhari assaulted the victim on a regular basis and Vishnumbhai Chaudhari threatened to find the man if he were to escape, the U.S. Justice Department said.

"Human trafficking is the modern world's version of enslaving another person for profit," said Alex Khu, special agent in charge with U.S. Homeland Security Investigations. "That is what these individuals have done to this victim."

Acting U.S. Attorney Robert C. Stuart of the District of Nebraska said: "This case is a reminder that forced labor occurs in the United States, not just overseas."

A motel guest and local law enforcement helped the man escape, the Justice Department said. The department declined to say what happened to the victim, citing privacy concerns.

The Chaudharis will be sentenced March 19. They've paid the man $40,000 in restitution.
A cool $1 million is the asking price for the S7 Le Mans, and Saleen announced that its building seven examples of the rarefied breed. The Le Mans is the first S7 in a long, long while. As a matter of fact, the year was 2009 when the last S7 of the twin-turbo type rolled off the assembly line.Why would Saleen bring the S7 back from the dead and with that name? First of all, the Le Mans commemorates the automakers seven-year run of motorsport success made possible by the S7R. The racing version of the all-American mid-engine supercar has won at major circuits including the Sarthe , Nurburgring, Sebring, and Daytona. As for the road-going version, the S7 was driven by God in the Hollywood blockbuster Bruce Almighty.The S7 LM, which made its real-world premiere at the L.A. Auto Show , gets its mojo from a 7.0-liter V8 with a couple of turbos strapped onto it for good measure. Rated at 1,300 horsepower and connected to a six-speed all-synchromesh transmission complemented with a limited-slip diff, the S7 Le Mans if offered exclusively with a black/silver exterior paint combo.Forged five-spoke, Le Mans-style wheels with center locking wheel nuts are on the menu, measuring 19x9.5 inches at the front and 20x12-inch at the rear. The aesthetic presence of the limited-edition model is furthered by all the aerodynamic trickery developed in the wind tunnel, though Saleen hasnt forgotten that the driver spends most of its time inside the car.Here, youll find creature comforts that include air conditioning, rearview parking camera, tilt and telescoping steering column, power windows and locks, as well as something thats as sensible as wearing shorts on a winters day: a 240-mph speedometer.True to our form, we are bringing back Americas only true supercar, commented Steve Saleen, the chief executive officer of Saleen Automotive. We are celebrating our winning heritage and advancing the performance DNA that Saleen was built around.
The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) heard opening arguments this week in Boeings complaint against Bombardier for allegedly dumping the narrow-body C Series jets on the U.S. market below cost. The Commerce Department entered a preliminary ruling on Boeings behalf assessing a nearly 300% tariff on the 108- to 133-seat CS100s that Bombardier had planned to sell to U.S. launch customer Delta. The ITC will determine whether the preliminary tariff should be made permanent. To win, Boeing will have to convince the Commission that it will suffer a material economic injury as a result of Bombardiers pricing.

Boeing, in a statement on the proceedings, says, The C Series would not even exist at this point but for [government] subsidies  Bombardier used these government funds to dump aircraft into the U.S. market at absurdly low prices, millions below their cost of production and millions below the price of the same aircraft in Canada. Bombardiers conduct is flatly inconsistent with U.S. trade law, and it has caused severe harm to Boeing, its employees, and its suppliers.

Bombardier and Delta point out that Boeing does not sell any aircraft that compete with the CS100. Boeing did not lose this sale to Bombardier, Greg May, Deltas senior vice president for supply chain management and fleet strategy, told the ITC. When we chose to add the CS100 aircraft to our fleet, Boeing simply did not and does not have the right-sized aircraft. The smallest 737 variant in production, the MAX 7, seats between 138 and 172 passengers.

Boeings real interest may be in killing the C Series project before Bombardier starts selling the CS300. Early sales of the CS100 will improve economies of scale for Bombardier on the CS100 and the larger CS300, which will compete directly with the 737 MAX 7. Our Max 7 is at extreme risk, Kevin McAllister, head of Boeings commercial airplanes division, told the ITC. If you dont level the playing field now, it will be too late.

The entire dispute may be made moot by the C Series new project backer, Airbus. The European aerospace giant recently took a 50% interest in the project and has said it will produce C-Series aircraft for the U.S. market in Alabama, which may allow Bombardier to escape the tariffs.
When an Amtrak express train on its inaugural run from Seattle to Portland (ironically as competition to the dozens of daily flights between the two cities) piled onto a freeway on Monday it was known within hours that the train lacked critical safety equipment and was going 50 mph faster than the limit for the section of track it was on. CNN was littered with train experts who knew exactly what had happened and why and provided some diversion from the political tawdriness.

Although trains have come a long way since they were supplanted by aviation as the preferred method of long-distance transport, they are relatively simple devices compared to the Q400s, RJs and E175s flying overhead that this particular train was trying to lure some market share from. Yet the key information that paints a basic picture of the chain of events was both instantly available and, perhaps more important, publicly available.

In an age where we can find our phones, track everything from our pets to our suitcases in foot-by-foot detail and watch as people ring the doorbell no matter where we are, it seems strange that we dont have the faintest idea where MH370 went. And, although they flew the same plane the next day, we dont have a recording of what a couple of confused Air Canada pilots said to each other as they firewalled the engines on their A320 and sailed over the lineup of widebodies waiting on a taxiway for the runway the Airbus should have been aiming for.

The cockpit voice recorder uses digital media that records over itself in a two-hour loop. You cant even buy a digital media storage device that small at a convenience store these days. Theres no reason for that limit other than it meets current regulations adopted when the recorders used magnetic tape loops. As such, modern recorders store their information inside expensive devices that have to withstand a crash.

Meanwhile, the same aircraft is capable of radiating all manner of systems management and diagnostic information to satellites, ground stations and company receivers in real time, with no need for hardened devices that need shielding from the effects of a catastrophic event.

So, it seems like a no-brainer that CVRs become CVTs, for Cockpit Voice Transmitters, and that the sounds they absorb be available instantly and virtually forever. Since there would be no need for them to survive a crash, they shouldnt be costly. Amazon is offering devices that will record your every utterance at home to its database for $29 this Christmas.

The point is that aviation gets so hidebound by rules necessitated by technology that no longer has any application (CVRs were originally wire recording devices, the predecessor of magnetic tape) that applying the old nonsensical rules becomes easier than allowing new technology to do a better job.

So, while we think Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, of San Francisco, should be commended for his push to ensure that CVR data be preserved whenever theres a significant safety incident, it doesnt go far enough.

There is no technical reason that we cant store the cockpit audio of every flight until the end of time but there may be some political hitches.

CVRs are not system or safety influencing devices. They operate independently without any impact on the aircraft or its crew and theyre already an accepted part of cockpit culture. Scrapping the ancient technology and ethic it represents should be easy.

Maybe we should ask Alexa how to do it.
If Gary Cohn could change one thing in the tax bill, it would be to have closed the carried interest loophole, he told Mike Allen at an Axios event on Wednesday. Cohn believes it is fundamentally unfair, and adds that President Trump agrees with him. "We probably tried 25 times... The President asked just this past Monday if we could still get rid of it."

As for why the loophole wasn't closed, Cohn was more cagey. He blamed Congress but, when pressed, would only cite unidentified GOP House members from blue states.

Other highlights from Cohn's Axios interview:
Last night the Human Rights Campaign, which advocates for LGBTQ equality, projected the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) banned words  including "transgender" and "fetus"  on the Trump International Hotel in Washington.
Julia Rendleman for The Washington Post via Getty Images"

A three-judge panel counted a disputed ballot in 94th House District race and awarded a vote to Republican incumbent Del. David Yancey, which caused a tie with his Democrat opponent, the Virginia Pilot reports.

Why it matters: Yesterday, Democrat Shelly Simonds took the Virginia House of Delegates seat from Yancey after a recount had her in the lead by a single vote. With today's development, the legislature now has a rare 50-50 split.

What's next: The local electoral board in Virginia will determine "by lot which of the candidates shall be declared elected."

This is a breaking news story. More details will be provided soon.
Democrats probably won't force a government shutdown this month over immigration legislation, the Washington Post reports. This highlights a "rift" between Democrats and immigration activists who wanted a deal on the Dream Act, which lets immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children stay in the country.

Sound smart: The Post says "vulnerable Democrats facing reelection in conservative states" next year will keep the Democrats from getting enough votes to block Republican plans to fund the government into next year.
Indian ride-hail company Ola is acquiring Foodpanda's Indian food delivery business from Germany's Delivery Hero for $50 million in stock, and has committed to invest an additional $200 million.

Why it matters: Ola wants to complete with Uber's food delivery business, UberEats.

Bottom line: The move almost feels overdue. For the last couple of yearsand especially after Uber sold its Chinese operations to Didi Chuxingit's become clear that India is the next battleground for transportation giants. And, as the Economic Times notes, this isn't Ola's first foray into food delivery. In 2015, it debuted Ola Cafe, although the service didn't gain enough traction as customers preferred competitors, including Foodpanda.
A senior member of the European Parliament on Wednesday stressed the significance of Armenias new agreement with the European Union, saying that it will help to put the country in a real position of strength.

Sajjad Karim, the co-chairman of the EU-Armenia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, described the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) signed last month as a historic milestone in Armenias relations with the EU. He said it laid the groundwork for deepening those ties.

The CEPA also set Armenians on a really fantastic journey in developing and moving forward with a vision of the sort of country they wish to develop for themselves, Karim told a news conference in Yerevan. And we will support that, he said after a regular session of the committee comprising European and Armenian lawmakers.

What we are witnessing here with the CEPA is that Armenia doing something completely new, Karim said, arguing that it is the first member of the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) to have negotiated such a deal with the EU.

Armenia is showing that it is able to make its own decisions as a sovereign state through a very clear recognition of its future aspirations whilst also accommodating its own geography as well. And this places Armenia in a real position of strength, added the British parliamentarian affiliated with Britains ruling Conservative Party.

Citing common values shared by Armenia and the EU, the CEPA commits the Armenian government to implementing political reforms and approximating national economic laws and regulations to those of the EU. Yerevan will regularly report to Brussels on the progress made with regard to approximation specified by several annexes to the agreement. This regulatory harmonization will cover business regulation, agriculture, transport, environment, consumer protection and even energy.

Armenia will need to demonstrate that it has made progress in the areas where we have jointly reached agreements, stressed Karim. That would pave the way for more EU assistance to Yerevan, he said.
A judge Tuesday sentenced a North Loup woman to 60 to 70 years in prison for child abuse resulting in the death of her 4-week-old daughter last year.

Jocelyn Nordin, 26, pleaded no contest to the charge in a deal with prosecutors.

Valley County District Judge Karin Noakes could have given her up to a life sentence on the charge.

Prosecutors say Nordin called 911 on May 2, 2016, and reported her baby wasn't breathing. The baby eventually was flown to an Omaha hospital, where she died seven days later.

According to court records, the baby had multiple skull fractures and bleeding on her brain.

In an affidavit to arrest Nordin, Valley County Sheriff Casey Hurlburt said Nordin told him and another investigator that she had accidentally dropped her daughter on her head twice and shook her when she wouldn't stop crying.
20 December 2017 10:06 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Over the past 24 hours, Armenias armed forces have 124 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said on December 20.

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.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
20 December 2017 10:40 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Properties of four banks liquidated in Azerbaijan will be put up for auction on January 16, 2018, the Azerbaijan Deposit Insurance Fund (ADIF) said in a message on December 19.

Cars on the balance sheet of Bank Standard and Atrabank, a non-residential area on the balance sheet of Kredobank, and a country house on the balance sheet of Texnikabank will be put up for the auction.

Two ATMs on the balance sheet of Atrabank and three embossers (one on the balance sheet of Atrabank and two on the balance sheet of Kredobank) will be also put up for the auction.

The auction will be held Jan. 16, 2018 at 11:00 (GMT +4) at: Republican Commodity and Raw Materials Exchange, 156 (20A), Hidayatzade Str.

Licenses of the four banks were revoked in 2016 as they didnt meet the minimum capital requirement of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (50 million manats) and did not fulfill obligations to creditors.

The Azerbaijan Deposit Insurance Fund has been operating since August 13, 2007.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
20 December 2017 12:33 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

The Parliament of Kazakhstan approved the ratification of the Agreement between the Governments of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan on international road transportation at the plenary meeting on December 20.

Speaking at the event, Kazakh Minister for Investments and Development, Zhenis Kasymbek, said that thanks to the advantageous geographical position of Kazakhstan, the agreement with Azerbaijan contributes to the development of the countrys transit potential and attraction of cargo flows with a view to create a large logistics hub in Central Asia.

Today, road agreements have been concluded with 41 countries and this work is underway. In 2016, the volume of cargo transportation by road between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan increased by 16 percent and amounted to 6,200 tons, he said.

The minister noted that the implementation of this agreement contributes to the further development of road transport between the two countries.

The purpose of the agreement, which was signed on April 3, 2017, is the development of international road transport between the two states, as well as the formation of a mutually beneficial transportation market.

Also, it is envisaged to establish an authorization system for bilateral, transit and transportation to/from a third country. The signed document will give a positive impetus to the further development of cooperation and will contribute to an increase in the volume of freight transported by road transport between the two countries.

Diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in August, 1992. Both countries are full members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Turkic Council, Joint Administration of Turkic Arts and Culture, Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

The two countries have already signed over 100 agreements, which constitute legal basis for negotiations between the countries. More than 20 of those are in the field of economy.

Both Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan attach great importance to the development of bilateral trade and economic ties. There is a successfully operating Intergovernmental Commission, and business forums are held regularly.

For Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan the most important points of cooperation appear to be the contacts on energy issues, oil transportation, agriculture, and the use of the Caspian Sea as an important international traffic artery.

Now the two countries are working on promotion of a joint transport project - the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), which involves cargo transportation from China via Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and further via Turkey and Ukraine to Europe.

The trade turnover between the countries increased by 3.7 percent and amounted to $102.5 million over the three quarters of this year.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
20 December 2017 17:12 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

Over the past two years, about 5,000 licenses have been issued through the centers of the ASAN Service, Chairman of the State Agency for Public Services and Social Innovations Inam Karimov said at the presentation of a new license portal (lisenziya.gov.az) on December 20.

In Baku, the licenses are issued through the ASAN Service Center No. 5, and in the regions through the regional centers, said Karimov.

He added that currently, there are five ASAN Service centers in Baku, and seven in Azerbaijans regions.

Over 250 services of 10 state agencies and private companies of the country are rendered by ASAN Service centers. The number of appeals to the centers reached 19 million, Karimov said.

Representatives of the Ministry of Economy, the State Agency for Services to Citizens and Social Innovations, entrepreneurs and representatives of government agencies involved in issuing licenses and permits attended the presentation of the portal for issuing licenses and permits held in Baku. Through the new portal, entrepreneurs will be able to send appeals for obtaining, liquidating or restoring a license. The portal will also allow for a single register of licenses and permits.

Deputy Minister of Economy Sahib Mammadov, who also addressed the event, said that state structures will fully integrate their licensing services with the new portal until March 2018.

Noting that it is necessary to amend the relevant legislation to ensure the operation of the portal, he said proposals have already been sent to the government and their adoption is expected in the near future.

Mammadov further noted the portal for issuing licenses will also have a mobile version.

The licenses issued to entrepreneurs in Azerbaijan mainly cover such areas as pharmaceutics, construction, veterinary, plant growing, agricultural chemistry, metallurgy, transport and other activities. Encouraging local entrepreneurship is one of the priorities for the Azerbaijani government, which supports entrepreneurs through creating necessary conditions for the development of a healthy business environment in the country.

---

Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
20 December 2017 12:45 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijan's prominent theater and film actor, director, and honored art worker Jahangir Novruzov has won the "XVII Direkleraras Seyirci Odulleri" theater prize in Turkey.

The actor was awarded for directing "Ah, bu evlilik..." play, consisting of A.P. Chekhov's small dramatic works, staged at the Adana Metropolitan Municipality Theater. The prize was presented to Novruzov at a ceremony in Adana, Trend Life reported.

The son of deceased folk artist Nasiba Zeynalova was born on July 31, 1954 in Baku.

He entered the Institute of Arts named after M.A. Aliyeva. He studied in the class of People's Artist of the USSR Mekhdi Mammadov. His thesis was defended on the stage of the Theater of Musical Comedy. He staged the operetta "My Mother-in-law" by Georgy Khugayev. Further, he began to work in this theater.

In 1985, Novruzov was appointed the chief director of the Sheki State Drama Theater. During the years of work in theater, he went on tour to Kazan, Tashkent, Samarkand, Moscow, and Prague.

Novruzov's play "Muscovy Jordan and the Dervish Mastalishah", based on the play by Mirza Fatali Akhundov was awarded the first prize.

In 1990, he was appointed chief director of the Russian branch of the Young Spectator Theater.

His play "To be or not to be", based on Shakespeare's Hamlet, was awarded to the first place at the festival organized by Azerbaijan Union of Theater Workers.

In 2011, by decree of the President Ilham Aliyev, Jahangir Novruzov was awarded the title of Honored Artist of Azerbaijan for achievements in the field of art and merit in the development of the Azerbaijani diaspora.

Notably, he was awarded the "Tiyatro icin Emek Odulu" in the past theater season.

Novruzov, who has been living in Turkey since 1995, works at the State Conservatory Theater Department at Cukurova University in Adana for 20 years. He is also deputy chairman of Azerbaijan Association of Culture and Solidarity in Adana.

---

Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
20 December 2017 16:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

The policy of resettlement of Syrian refugees of Armenian origin to the occupied Azerbaijani lands is a serious violation of international humanitarian law and this is objectively outlined in the statement of the Azerbaijani delegation to the UN.

Azerbaijani political scientist Fikret Sadikhov made the remarks in his recent interview with Day.az.

Last week, the Azerbaijani delegation to the UN made a statement noting that the process of resettling Syrian refugees of Armenian origin to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan is a grave breach of international humanitarian law. The document stated that as a result of the ongoing military aggression of Armenia and the occupation of Azerbaijani lands, Azerbaijan hosts one of the largest internally displaced populations per capita in the world.

Sadikhov recalled that there are periodic news about the exodus of Syrian Armenians from Armenia, and noted that this fact already heralds the critical situation in this half-ruined country.

The state of the Armenian economy is extremely depressing, the standard of living in Yerevan, let alone in the occupied Karabakh, is very low. Therefore, it is hardly worth talking about some mass resettlement of Armenians there, the expert said.

He noted that it is clear that the ruling regime has such a desire. Armenian authorities continue attempts to drum up their compatriots to the occupied Azerbaijani lands in order to promote their provocative plans.

Although the fact was suppressed previously, now local media periodically write about this in Armenia, Sadikhov said.

In order to increase the small population of Armenia as well as to artificially expand the presence of Armenians in the occupied Azerbaijani lands, the desperate Armenian government tries to attract ethnic Armenians who have fled the war in Syria. However, majority of Syrian Armenians reject this proposal  they do not agree to live in the undeveloped regions of Armenia and in the occupied Karabakh, where living conditions are getting worse daily.

Sadikhov noted that under international law, Armenia-pursued policy of illegal settlement is a war crime.

Armenia encourages the resettlement of Armenians living in Syria and Lebanon to the occupied territories of a foreign state, which is absolutely contrary to the principles of international law, the expert added. Consequently, this serious political adventure of Armenia should be given a serious international assessment.

Meanwhile, more than a million of Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons, who were expelled from their lands by Armenians during the Nagorno-Karabakh war, are awaiting for the day when all of them will return to their native places.

---

Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
20 December 2017 15:09 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

The tentative dates of the next meeting between the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers have been announced.

The [OSCE Minsk Group] co-chairs will announce the date of the meeting. There is an agreement to hold the meeting in mid-January next year, Azerbaijani FM Elmar Mammadyarov said at a joint press conference in Baku on December 20 after meeting with his Iranian and Turkish counterparts.

The minister said the meeting will take place in one of the European countries.

The last meeting between the Azerbaijani and Armenian FM was held in Vienna on December 6. During the meeting, the sides held intensive and concrete discussions on the existing proposals in connection with the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

We exchanged views in Vienna. The co-chairs will evaluate the discussions and make a decision. I even said I agree to negotiate two days  the main thing is to have a result, Mammadyarov added.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

While the OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, the occupation of the territory of the sovereign state with its internationally recognized boundaries has been left out of due attention of the international community for years.

Until now, Armenia ignores four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thus keeping tension high in the region.

---

Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
20 December 2017 17:37 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

Armenia occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijans territory and its fault is undeniable, Turkish Foreign Minister Movlut Cavusoglu said on December 20.

He made the remarks at the press conference in Baku after meeting with his Azerbaijani and Iranian counterparts, APA reports.

Cavusoglu noted that everybody is aware of the Khojaly tragedy and reiterated that Turkey supports the formula of the conflict settlement adopted by Azerbaijan.

Armenia broke out a lengthy war against Azerbaijan by laying territorial claims on the country. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

To this day, Armenia has not implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts.

Cavusoglu also noted that Armenia should know how to behave with its neighbors: We have put condition before Armenia to return the occupied territories. Only after this, our relations can be normalized.

Answering the question about the protocols signed between Turkey and Armenia in Switzerland in 2009, the FM reminded that Armenia submitted them to its Constitutional Court, which, in turn, excluded some important articles from the documents.

Until our condition is met, the implementation of this agreement is impossible, Cavusoglu added.

The Armenian leadership has recently said it is going to cancel the protocols signed with Turkey until spring 2018.

Turkey and Armenia severed diplomatic relations in 1993 due to occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenian Armed Forces and Yerevans claims over recognition of the so-called Armenian genocide. Borders between Turkey and Armenia are still closed.

Turkey has always supported the resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict based on Azerbaijans territorial integrity, sovereignty and inviolability of the country's internationally recognized borders.

---

Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
20 December 2017 09:54 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

President Ilham Aliyev has received a delegation led by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who today arrived in Baku.

Azerbaijani president expressed satisfaction with the level of cooperation between the two countries and noted that good results were achieved in implementation of joint projects. Recalling his brief talk with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Istanbul, President Ilham Aliyev said they exchanged views on the successful development of Azerbaijan-Iran bilateral relations.

Ilham Aliyev noted that the Iranian foreign ministers visit to Azerbaijan for the second time in a month indicates to high level of relations, adding that the visit creates good opportunity for discussing the agenda of the two countries bilateral relations.

Touching upon the trilateral meeting of the Azerbaijani, Turkish and Iranian foreign ministers, President Ilham Aliyev stressed the importance of holding these meetings on a regular basis, and assessed the meeting of the ministers of the neighbor states as a good initiative.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif conveyed greetings of President Hassan Rouhani to the Azerbaijani president.

The Iranian foreign minister stressed the importance of his visit to Azerbaijan for the second time this month and meeting Azerbaijani president in terms of development of the two countries relations. He said the Iranian side is very pleased with the fact that Azerbaijan-Iran relations have been at a very high level during Hassan Rouhani's presidency.

Touching upon the trilateral meeting of the Azerbaijani, Turkish and Iranian foreign ministers in Baku, Mohammad Javad Zarif stressed the importance of holding the meetings in this format and expressed confidence that they would continue in the future.

During the meeting, the sides exchanged views on the prospects of bilateral relations in the banking, energy, transportation, trade and investment spheres.

The Azerbaijani president expressed gratitude for the greetings of Hassan Rouhani and asked to convey his greetings to the Iranian president.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
20 December 2017 11:55 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

About 91.4 percent of respondents support the foreign policy of President Ilham Aliyev, according to a survey conducted by the public association ELS Independent Research Center.

The public association ELS Independent Research Center conducted a sociological survey on the eve of the 2018 presidential election in Azerbaijan to assess the current socio-political situation, voter turnout, and the populations attitudes to the current issues.

A survey of the countrys population was conducted as part of this study.

At a press conference held on Dec. 20 to announce the results of the survey, Irada Yagubova, chairman of the public association ELS Independent Research Center, noted that the regular holding of such surveys allows monitoring processes, assessing them and determining trends of change, making forecasts and preparing proposals.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
The page may have moved, you may have mistyped the address, or followed a bad link.

Visit our homepage, or search for whatever you were looking for
20 December 2017 12:41 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

The next trilateral meeting of Azerbaijani, Iranian and Turkish foreign ministers will be held in Turkey.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu made remarks at a press conference following the 5th trilateral meeting of the foreign ministers of Iran, Azerbaijan, and Turkey in Baku on December 20.

"We discussed issues related to further expansion of cooperation. We will host the next summit, and also bring together businessmen. Maybe a business meeting will be held," he said.

Cavusoglu underlined that there are strong ties of friendship and brotherhood between the three countries.

"This trilateral format will be expanded, and today's meeting was very useful," he said.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
20 December 2017 12:42 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey, Elmar Mammadyarov, Mohammad Javad Zarif and Mevlut Cavusoglu have agreed to continue holding meetings in the trilateral format, expand cooperation and use the potential in energy, transport, tourism and other spheres, said the Azerbaijani foreign minister.

Mammadyarov made the remarks at a press conference dedicated to the results of the fifth trilateral meeting of Azerbaijani, Turkish and Iranian foreign ministers held in Baku on December 20.

The Azerbaijani official noted that the ministers also discussed the Palestine-Israel conflict.

As you know, a document will be adopted tomorrow on this issue at the UN General Assembly. We will vote in favor of that document, added Mammadyarov. Azerbaijans position on Jerusalem was voiced by President Ilham Aliyev at a summit in Istanbul. That's where we stand on this.

Touching upon the energy cooperation, the Azerbaijani minister said that the TANAP pipeline will be put into operation in 2018.

The energy cooperation between Azerbaijan and Iran is growing day by day, he said.

Moreover, electricity exchange is being expanded among the three countries, added Mammadyarov.

At our next meeting in Istanbul, we will invite people from both the private sector and the economic sector and discuss ways to further expand cooperation, noted the official.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
20 December 2017 13:04 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Azerbaijan, Turkey and Iran intend to expand energy cooperation, said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu at a press conference following the 5th trilateral meeting of the foreign ministers of Iran, Azerbaijan, and Turkey in Baku on December 20.

Cavusoglu said that Azerbaijan and Iran are important countries for Turkey in terms of energy cooperation.

Turkey imports natural gas from Iran and intends to increase the volume of purchases, he noted.

Currently, Turkey is the biggest gas customer of Iran and imports 30 million cubic meters per day from its eastern neighbor.

One of the most important energy projects  construction project of the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP)  is currently being implemented between Turkey and Azerbaijan, said Cavusoglu.

TANAP project envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijans Shah Deniz field to the western borders of Turkey. The gas will be delivered to Turkey in 2018 and after completion of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline's construction natural gas will be delivered to Europe in early 2020.

The length of TANAP is 1,850 kilometers, with an initial capacity of 16 billion cubic meters of gas. Around six billion cubic meters of this gas is meant to be delivered to Turkey, with the remaining volume to be supplied to Europe.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
20 December 2017 14:45 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Turkey and Iran welcome the candidature of Baku for hosting World EXPO-2025 in the Republic of Azerbaijan, according to the Baku Statement signed following the 5th trilateral meeting of foreign ministers of Iran, Turkey and Azerbaijan, Mohammad Javad Zarif, Mevlut Cavusoglu and Elmar Mammadyarov in Baku on December 20.

According to the Baku Statement, the three ministers emphasized their commitment to the Urumieh, Nakhchivan, Van and Ramsar Statements adopted in the previous trilateral meetings of the ministers of foreign affairs.

They reaffirmed commitment to further enhance solidarity and cooperation among the peoples of the three countries based on deep-rooted historical, religious and cultural commonalities and shared values that will serve to strengthen peace, stability, prosperity and cooperation in the region.

The officials underlined their commitment to further expand cooperation particularly in the areas that would contribute to economic progress and sustainable development, and emphasized their common interest to strengthen peace and stability in the region and stressed in this context their commitment to principles of international law, including in particular, respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity, inviolability of internationally recognized borders and peaceful settlement of all disputes.

In this regard, they reiterated the importance of the earliest resolution of Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the basis of the above-mentioned principles.

Mammadyarov, Zarif and Cavusoglu agreed to continue close consultations on regional and global issues of common interest at different levels and platforms and within the framework of international and regional organizations such as the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, and the Economic Cooperation Organization, with a view to enhancing regional and international peace, security and stability.

The ministers welcomed the declaration and final communique adopted at the OIC Extraordinary Summit on December 13, 2017 in Istanbul, with regard to Al-Quds Al-Sharif.

They also agreed to strengthen economic-trade cooperation, to use the existing potential for promotion of investments and trade, as well as to support promotion of cooperation by implementing of the joint projects and programs in the field of energy, transport, banking, telecommunication, industry, agriculture, tourism and environment.

Underlining the significant steps taken to increase the transit potential of the three countries situated on international transit corridors and geographically favourably located as well as to integrate to the international transit system, the three ministers stressed upon the importance of further enhancement of cooperation for implementation of the new projects for development of transport infrastructure and increase of transit potential.

Underlining the significance of participation of the three countries in large-scale international transport projects, which are strategically important for increase of the quantity and quality of the competitive transit transportation between the Asia and Europe, for socio-economic development, the three officials welcomed the launching of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway which creates favorable conditions to use the transit potential of the three countries on East-West, South-West, North-South routes, stressed the importance to take necessary steps for earliest completion of Rasht-Astara railway.

Mammadyarov, Zarif and Cavusoglu underlined the importance of strengthening cooperation in the field of civil aviation to reach the high potential, as well as to further benefit from the geographical advantages of the three countries and expressed their willingness to enhance commercial collaborations in the petroleum, gas and petrochemical fields.

They agreed to develop and enhance relations among the banking networks of the three countries and to share experience and information on international banking procedures as well as on combating money-laundering and financing terrorism.

The ministers stressed the importance of continued cooperation among three countries to build and run information infrastructures in order to bridge the digital divide in the region.

They also underlined the importance to cooperate within the framework of global and regional economic organizations, to attract the attention of these organizations to the priority spheres, such as trade, transport, tourism, agriculture, communication and energy, as well as to promote and support implementation of the projects in the common interest of the three countries by these institutions.

The ministers emphasized the importance of strengthening cooperation to mitigate and prevent environmental degradation, with a view to attaining the relevant goals of 2030 sustainable development agenda adopted by the United Nations in September 2015.

Condemning all forms of intolerance and discrimination based on ethnicity, race, religion and belief and underlining the importance of nurturing tolerance, respect, dialogue and cooperation among different cultures, civilizations and peoples, Mammadyarov, Cavusoglu and Zarif emphasized the significance of the 7th Global Forum of the Alliance of Civilizations of the United Nations held in Baku, Azerbaijan on April 25-27, 2016.

The three ministers underlined the importance to further strengthen cooperation in the fight against terrorism, separatism and violent extremism in all their forms and manifestations, transnational organized crime and illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and their precursors, and arms, human trafficking, crimes against cultural and historical heritage, cybercrimes and illegal migration; took note of the UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/68/127, entitled A World against Violence and Violent Extremism (WAVE) initiated by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

They stressed their determination not to allow their territories to be used by any people or group of individuals, under any circumstances, for any threat and activity against each other; strongly condemned foreign support to separatism, and emphasized their commitment to promote and protect human rights at the national and international level, and declared that the promotion and protection of the rights of all human beings in the world can better be achieved through cooperation and dialogue.

The ministers underscored yje significance of Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) which reflects the success of the multilateral negotiations and diplomacy; acknowledged that the successful implementation of JCPOA requires the complete fulfilment of the stipulated obligations by all the parties for allowing them to fully enjoy benefits provided in JCPOA; taking into account the Islamic Republic of Irans adherence to its obligations under JCPOA as confirmed by the International Atomic Energy Agency which is a part of the Resolution 2231 (2015) of the UN Security Council, recalled the commitments of all the UN members to contribute to the implementation of JCPOA.

They also underlined the importance of promoting Islamic solidarity to confront challenges facing the Islamic World and stressed intention for more active and effective cooperation to strengthen Islamic fraternity, understanding and tolerance, and in this respect, noted the significance of the 4th Islamic Solidarity Games for promotion of Islamic culture and moral values around the world held in high level in Baku on May 12-22, 2017.

Cavusoglu, Zarif and Mammadyarov stressed on importance to follow up of the decisions taken during the previous meetings, as well as the Trilateral Sectoral Cooperation Action Plan for 2016-2018.

The three ministers reiterated the importance of holding regular meetings in the trilateral format to continue coordination and cooperation on regional and global issues.

The parties agreed to hold the next meeting in Turkey.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
20 December 2017 14:44 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim will arrive today in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan for a one-day official visit, Turkeys Cabinet of Ministers told Trend on December 20.

According to the Turkish Cabinet of Ministers, the main topic of discussion during the Turkish prime ministers visit to Azerbaijan will be the cooperation in economy.

Currently, Binali Yildirim is on a visit in Bangladesh.

Turkey is one of the main trade and economic partners of Azerbaijan. Both countries are actively boosting their economic cooperation, including in the Turkey-Nakhchivan format.

In October, Turkey exempted goods imported from the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic from customs duties.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
20 December 2017 15:56 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Azerbaijani Presidents Assistant for Public and Political Affairs Ali Hasanov has commented on a number of claims made against Azerbaijan in an edition of The Financial Times.

Hasanov said the claims made against Azerbaijan in the article titled Is the Council of Europe giving up on human rights? are subjective, biased and serve the nefarious interests of certain external anti-Azerbaijan circles.

"It can only be a source of regret that the FT and other such well-known publications, joining the smear campaign artificially organized by known circles, have made Azerbaijan a target and successively make unfounded accusations," said Hasanov.

The presidential assistant noted that Azerbaijan is known in the world as a country developing on the path of democracy, as a country possessing a strong economy, high international authority and providing all the freedoms, and as an area of stability, security and tolerance.

"The policy pursued by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev serves the national interests of the Azerbaijani people and has received the full support of the society. This is once again confirmed by studies conducted in Azerbaijan both by local companies and companies from the EU countries."

"It is no coincidence that according to the results of a survey conducted by the Dutch humanitarian partner organization ACT LLC at an order by the EU Eastern Partnership Program, 81 percent of Azerbaijani citizens support the policy pursued by the government," said the official.

"Naturally, this factor seriously worries Armenia, the Armenian lobby and its foreign patrons. These forces, using all possible means, try to tarnish the image of Azerbaijan, to form a negative opinion about it in the international community. The fact that such publications as the FT have become a tool in the hands of these circles is a serious drawback, which harms the independence of transnational media."

Hasanov added that such campaigns, organized against Azerbaijan at various intervals, have already been proven as futile and they are met with irony in the Azerbaijani society.

"The earlier the organizers and executors of these discrediting campaigns understand this reality, the more they will retain the limit of their authority," noted the Azerbaijani top official.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
20 December 2017 17:13 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

The next meeting of the European Union - Azerbaijan Cooperation Council will be held in Brussels on Feb. 9, the European Commission said in a statement released on December 20.

The Commission noted that Azerbaijan has renewed its engagement and dialogue with the EU, including through the launch of negotiations on a comprehensive new agreement to modernize and revitalize the EU-Azerbaijan partnership.

"Azerbaijan has also embarked on an important process to diversify its economy," the EC reported.

The Commission further noted that the details of this process are highlighted in a Joint Report on Azerbaijan, released today by the European External Action Service and the European Commission. The report focuses on key developments and reform efforts, particularly in jointly agreed priority areas in the context of Azerbaijan's participation in the Eastern Partnership.

The report assesses that the launch of these negotiations in February 2017 has given new impetus to the cooperation between the EU and Azerbaijan.

"New areas of cooperation are being explored as the existing structured dialogue under the PCA has been reactivated. Azerbaijan's efforts to diversify its economy also provide a good basis for further cooperation in view of sustainable socio-economic development. World Trade Organization membership would represent a considerable step forward in this regard," the EC reported.

The EC further noted that it stands ready to cooperate with and support Azerbaijan in all areas of mutual interest, in full respect of values and commitments.

"The ambitious Southern Gas Corridor project is just one example of this cooperation in the interest of both Azerbaijan and the EU. Ongoing negotiations on an EU-Azerbaijan common civil aviation area agreement should also lead to a further significant step being taken in improving connectivity between Azerbaijan and the countries of the EU. The Partnership Priorities under discussion between the two sides also aim at providing focus for the broad cooperation between the EU and Azerbaijan and will guide the programming of EU financial assistance," the EC said.

The EC also reiterated that Azerbaijan is an important partner for the European Union, whose independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity the EU supports.

The EU is Azerbaijan's single largest economic partner representing 48.6 percent of its total trade and providing the largest share of foreign direct investment.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
20 December 2017 13:26 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR has signed an EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contract with Spanish engineering company Tecnicas Reunidas on December 19 for reconstruction of units at the Heydar Aliyev Baku Oil Refinery as part of its modernization, according to the company.

SOCAR-KBR LLC, a contractor for management of the modernization project, has selected the Spanish company Tecnicas Reunidas as a winner of a tender on an EPC contract for reconstruction of units and general production facilities.

The signing ceremony was attended by SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev, Vice President for Strategic Development Tofig Gahramanov, Vice President for Refining David Mammadov, Vice President for Economic Issues Suleyman Gasimov, Director General of the Heydar Aliyev Baku Oil Refinery Elman Ismayilov, First Executive Vice Chairman of the Board and CEO at Tecnicas Reunidas Juan Llado Arburua, Tecnicas Reunidas Director General for Corporate Development Enrique Ruben Alsina Massana and others.

The contract was signed by Director General of the Heydar Aliyev Baku Oil Refinery Elman Ismayilov and Director General for Corporate Development at Tecnicas Reunidas Enrique Ruben Alsina Massana.



Today, SOCAR is implementing a number of major investment projects not only in the extractive but also processing industries, contributing to the diversification of its business portfolio and the country's economy. The reconstruction project of the Baku Oil Refinery occupies a special place. We are on the verge of producing gasoline and diesel fuel corresponding to ecological standard Euro-5, Abdullayev said.

SOCAR announced the liquidation of the Azneftyag refinery and its merger with the Baku Oil Refinery named after Heydar Aliyev, in 2015. This decision was made in the framework of works to improve and optimize the structure of SOCAR.

The company plans to produce high-quality oil products as part of the next stage of the reconstruction work to be carried out at the Heydar Aliyev Baku Oil Refinery. Under the program, the oil refinery will produce Euro-5 standard diesel in 2019 and the Euro 5 standard petrol in 2020.

The cost of modernization of the refinery is estimated at about $1.5-1.7 billion.

By the construction of a new bitumen production facility, the current infrastructure of former Azerneftyag oil refinery will be fully decommissioned and the coastal areas will be emptied and handed over for the realization of White City project. Furthermore running costs of Heydar Aliyev Baku Oil Refinery will be optimized and the country will be provided with high-quality bitumen.

The modernization of the Heydar Aliyev Baku Oil Refinery will be completed by 2021. The production capacity of the refinery will be increased from 6 million to 7.5 million tons per year as a result.

Moreover, SOCAR signed agreements on main principles of cooperation with Norways Statoil on December 20.

The company reported that as a result of long discussions and consultations, specialists developed and agreed upon the main principles of prospective cooperation related to a Risk Service Contract (RSC) for the development of the Karabakh oil field, as well as a PSA (production sharing agreement) on various prospective structures.

President of SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev and Senior Vice President of Statoil Al Cook signed two agreements on the main principles of cooperation. The first contract covers issues of exploration, development and main commercial principles and provisions of the PSA on some promising structures in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, while the second contract covers main commercial principles and provisions of the RSC regarding the Karabakh oil field.

At the signing ceremony, SOCAR president noted that specialists of both companies achieved positive results.

Signing the agreement on the main principles will create a reliable basis for the implementation of future projects that will positively affect Azerbaijans economy, he noted. It is necessary to take measures to complete the work in this direction in a short time.

The Karabakh field was discovered in 2000. Its initial oil reserves amount to 100 million tons. SOCAR operates Karabakh fields development.

SOCAR is wholly owned by the government of Azerbaijan. SOCAR participates in joint ventures (including ventures in Georgia and Turkey), consortia, and operating companies established with SOCARs participation.

The company includes such production associations as Azneft (the enterprises producing oil and gas onshore and offshore), Azerikimya (the chemical enterprises) and Azerigas (distributor of gas produced in the country), as well as oil and gas processing plants, service companies, and the facilities involved in geophysical and drilling operations.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
20 December 2017 17:43 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

World prices for black gold are increasing on December 20 during the trading in Asia on expectations of further reduction of fuel stocks in the U.S., and also because of the still inoperative pipeline in the North Sea.

Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $63.81 a barrel up 1 cent from their previous close, U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 21 cents at $57.77 a barrel, Reuters reported.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported that during the week ended December 15, gasoline stocks in the U.S. fell by 5.2 million barrels - to 437.8 million barrels. Although analysts predicted a smaller decline in the figure-only 3.8 million barrels. At the same time, distillate stocks fell by 2.9 million barrels. Oil reserves at the country's largest terminal in Cushing have grown by only 70,000 barrels.

The API is the reason why the energy complex is slightly up this morning, said Tamas Varga, analyst with PVM Oil Associates.

Prices for Brent crude oil remain under pressure of news about the repair of part of the Forties pipeline. Earlier, production at the Forties field was stopped due to unplanned repairs of part of the pipeline. It provides delivery of raw materials from 85 fields in the North Sea and pumps about 450,000 barrels per day. Deliveries of oil from Forties have been delayed for at least two weeks.

On the eve of the petrochemical company Ineos, which owns the pipeline, informed that soon the parts needed for repairing the pipeline will be delivered.

In December 2016, OPEC and non-OPEC producers reached their first deal since 2001 to curtail oil output jointly and ease a global glut after more than two years of low prices. OPEC agreed to slash the output by 1.2 million barrels per day from January 1.

Non-OPEC oil producers such as Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Sudan, and South Sudan agreed to reduce oil output by 558,000 barrels per day, including Russia by 300,000 barrels per day, starting from January 1, 2017 for six months, extendable for another six months.

OPEC and its allies reached an agreement on prolongation of the deal until the end of 2018 on November 30 in Vienna.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
20 December 2017 11:50 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Turkey has condemned Tuesday's firing of a ballistic missile by Yemen's Houthi militia toward the Saudi capital Riyadh, Anadolu reported.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said: "We condemn this attack and we are pleased that it did not cause any casualties or material damage in friendly and brotherly Saudi Arabia thanks to its interception by the Saudi air defense systems."

According to the Houthi-run Al-Masira television channel, the missile reportedly targeted Riyadh's Yamama Royal Palace, which houses the office of King Salman bin Abdulaziz.

"The missile targeted a large meeting of Saudi regime officials that was being held at the palace," the broadcaster reported.

But while Al-Masira said the missile had "found its target", a Saudi-led Arab coalition -- which has been fighting the Houthis since 2015 -- said the missile was intercepted before it could cause any damage.

It was the second missile to be fired at Riyadh from Yemeni territory within the last two months.

On November 4, the Saudi-led coalition announced it had successfully intercepted a Houthi missile fired at Riyadhs King Khalid International Airport.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
The Republican tax plan to be voted on this week is likely to pass.

"The American people have waited 31 long years to see our broken tax code overhauled," the leaders of the Koch brothers' political network insisted in a letter to members of Congress that urged swift approval. They added that the time has come to put "more money in the pockets of American families."

Please. The Koch network doesn't care a fig about the pockets of American families. It cares about the pockets of the Koch network. It has poured money into almost every state in an effort to convince Americans that the tax cut will be good for them. Yet most Americans don't believe it.

Polls show that only about a third of Americans favor the tax plan. The vast majority feel it's heavily skewed toward the rich and big businesses -- which it is.

In counties that Donald Trump won in 2016 but Barack Obama carried in 2012, only 17 percent expect to pay less in taxes if the tax plan becomes law, according to a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. Another 25 percent expect that their family would actually pay more in taxes.

Most Americans know that the tax plan is payback for major Republican donors. Gary Cohn, Trump's lead economic adviser, even conceded in an interview that "the most excited group out there are big CEOs, about our tax plan."

Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) admitted "my donors are basically saying, 'Get it done or don't ever call me again.'" Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) warned that if Republicans failed to pass the tax plan, "the financial contributions will stop."

By passing it, Republican donors will save billions -- paying a lower top tax rate, doubling the amount their heirs can receive tax-free, and treating themselves as "pass-through" businesses able to deduct 20 percent of their income (effectively allowing Trump to cut his tax rate in half, if and when he pays taxes).

They'll make billions more as their stock portfolios soar because corporate taxes are slashed.

These oligarchs are the richest of the richest 1 percent. They've poured hundreds of millions into the GOP and Trump. About 40 percent of all contributions for the entire federal election came from the richest 0.01 percent of the American population.

The giant tax cut has been their core demand from the start. They also want to slash regulations, repeal the Affordable Care Act and cut everything else government does except for national defense -- including Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.

In return, they have agreed to finance Trump and the GOP and mount expensive public relations campaigns that magnify their lies.

Trump has fulfilled his end of the bargain. He's blinded much of his white, working-class base to the reality of what's happening by means of his racist, xenophobic rants and policies.

The American oligarchs couldn't care less about what all of this will cost America. Within their gated estates and private jets, they're well insulated from the hatefulness and divisiveness.

They don't worry about whether Social Security or Medicare will be there for them in their retirement because they've put away huge fortunes. Climate change doesn't concern them because their estates are fully insured against hurricanes, floods and wildfires.

They don't care about public schools because their families don't attend them. They don't care about public transportation because they don't use it. They don't care about the poor because they don't see them. They don't worry about the rising budget deficit because they borrow directly from global capital markets.

Truth to tell, they don't even care that much about America because their personal and financial interests are global.

They are living in their own separate society, and they want Congress and the president to represent them, not the rest of us.

The Republican Party is their vehicle. Fox News is their voice. Trump is their champion. The new tax plan is their triumph. But if polls showing most Americans against the tax cut are any guide, that triumph may be short-lived. Americans are catching on. The recent electoral results in Virginia and Alabama offer further evidence.

A tidal wave of public loathing is growing across the land -- toward Trump, the GOP and the oligarchs they serve; and toward the deception, the wealth and the power that underlies them.

That wave could crash in the midterm elections of 2018. If so, the current triumph of the oligarchs will be the start of their undoing.
20 December 2017 12:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Ashgabat hosted a seminar on the issues of international water law, the Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper reported.

The event was dedicated to the sphere of international legal regulation of transboundary water resources in Central Asia.

The event was organized by the Regional Environmental Center for Central Asia (CAREC) and the Executive Committee of the International Fund for saving the Aral Sea (EC IFAS).

International experts familiarized the participants with the provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses and the UN Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes.

Construction of new and increasing capacities of the existing reservoirs on small rivers and watercourses continues in Turkmenistan, said the report. In particular, considerable funds were invested in the construction project of man-made Altyn Asyr Lake in the Karakum desert.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
19 December 2017 15:12 (UTC+04:00)

By Aygul Salmanova

Lankaran, one of the most picturesque corners of Azerbaijan distinguished from other cities by its excellent climate and unforgettable delicacies, holds an amazing tea, paddy, and citrus fruits festival.

At the festival held at the Heydar Aliyev Memorial Park and organized by the Lankaran City Executive Power, the delicacies of the city are being exhibited in the pavilions such as "Our tea has a name", "Lankarani sweets - our taste", "We gather beauty drop by drop", "Build new Lankaran", "Who wants to live in paradise, come to Lankaran" and other.

Participants of the festival have the opportunity to get acquainted with the varieties of tea in Lankaran, learn how to breed the true natural tea, taste dishes made of more than 50 varieties of rice such as "Hashimi", "Sadri", "Campo", as well as other delicious dishes of Lankaran cuisine - poultry and fish dishes.

Other products produced in Lankaran and folk art samples are exhibited at the pavilions opened along the park.

A concert with famous masters performance will be held at the end of the festival.

If you ask an Azerbaijani about the most fruitful region of his country, he/she will probably name Lankaran. The agriculture of the region is mostly known for its citrus and subtropical fruit-growing, and it is no coincidence that Lankaran is called the land of citrus plants, such as oranges, tangerines, lemons, and others.

True miracles of nature are waiting for everyone who will visit this part of Azerbaijan. Most people would think: what is unusual about the bushes of tea? This is how many of the guests of the country think until they step on the ground of Lankaran and see the endless plantations of tea bushes.

Tea plantations in the valleys of Lankaran await guests who can enjoy the magnificent scenery, the beauty of the mountains and valleys, the cordiality and hospitality of the locals. And be sure to taste Azerbaijani tea, which will give cheerfulness and health.

Lankaran is still famous for its paddy production. The fragrant Lankaran rice has been the most valuable food for locals for centuries. Rice products of Sadri, Anbarbu, Hashemi, Hasani, Akulya and other sorts of rice are distinguished with their aroma, taste and abundance.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
20 December 2017 17:58 (UTC+04:00)

By Aygul Salmanova

Direct flights between Etihad Airways, considered to be one of the top ten world airlines, and Azerbaijan will be opened soon.

In the meeting held between Vice President of Etihad Airways Amer Khan and Azerbaijans Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates Dashgin Shikarov, Khan has once again pointed out that the decision of Etihad Airways, which predominantly prolongs long-haul flights, to open Abu Dhabi-Baku flight from March 2, 2018, is a result of the initiative and numerous efforts of the embassy.

Shikarov touched upon the work done and the meetings held in connection with the opening of the flight, saying that previously the company was not interested in this direction. He said that it was a very pleasant event to discuss the raising of the attractiveness of flights to be carried out.

He noted that the day before the meeting, the embassy official had met with the company's government official and discussed the consulate and other issues that the embassy can provide.

Additional measures related to the opening of Abu Dhabi-Baku flights, the ceremonies to be held in Abu Dhabi and Baku on the day of the first flight and other issues were discussed at the meeting.

Etihad Airways, set up by Royal Decree in July 2003, commenced commercial operations in November 2003, and has gone on to become the fastest growing airline in the history of commercial aviation.

Etihads fleet of 66 aircraft operates more than 1,000 flights per week, serving an international network of 84 passenger and cargo destinations in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia and North America. Etihad Airways also owns nearly 30 percent of Air Berlin, Europes sixth largest carrier and 40 percent of Air Seychelles.

The UAE is one of the first Muslim countries which recognized Azerbaijan's independence in December 1992, and after a short time diplomatic relations were established between the two countries.

Azerbaijan and the UAE enjoy fruitful cooperation in various fields and their mutual relations are developing both in the political, economic and cultural fields with ascending line. The two countries have a lot of similarities. In particular, Azerbaijan is the most stable and liberal country in the South Caucasus region, while the UAE - in the Middle East region.

Recently, the two countries agreed to establish a joint investment fund to facilitate the implementation of joint investment in mutually beneficial projects. The sides eye invest making in the areas that stimulate the growth of mutual investments and increase trade, particularly in agriculture, food processing, logistics and transport systems.

The overall trade turnover between Azerbaijan and the UAE for the past two or three years amounted to approximately $70 million, while the export from Azerbaijan to the Emirates increased by more than twice to $11.6 million.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Sen. Rand Paul's November assault by anesthesiologist Rene Boucher, MD, information and statistics related to the specialty and breaking news captured the attention of Becker's ASC Review anesthesia readers in 2017.

The following are the most popular anesthesia stories from Becker's ASC Review this year:

1. Dr. Rene Boucher allegedly attacks Sen. Rand Paul

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., MD, was allegedly assaulted by his neighbor, former anesthesiologist Rene Boucher, DO, Nov. 3. Dr. Paul fractured five ribs and suffered a lung contusion in the attack. An advisor to Dr. Paul said the pain could persist for several months. Dr. Paul eventually returned to the Senate.

2. Anesthesiologist charged with murder after allegedly giving lethal dose of Demerol to California ASC patient

Stephen Kyosung Kim, MD, an anesthesiologist, was charged with murder after allegedly administering a lethal dose of Demerol to a patient postoperatively. Dr. Kim was the anesthesiologist during a procedure at Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Rodeo Drive Plastic Surgery Center performed on another physician, Mark Greenspan, MD. Dr. Kim allegedly administered sedatives before surgery and then Demerol while Dr. Greenspan was in the recovery room. Dr. Greenspan suffered cardiac arrest soon after receiving the Demerol.

3. 17 facts and concepts for anesthesiologists and ASCs in 2017

For 17 facts on workforce size, average salary and demographic information, click here.

4. What 20 healthcare practices pay their anesthesiologists

Glassdoor collects and compiles self-reported salary data. For anesthesiologists, the national average salary is $294,811. For anesthesiologist salary data from 20 healthcare practices, click here.

5. Anesthesia returns as a most in-demand specialty after seven-year lay off

Anesthesia made its triumphant return to Merritt Hawkins' 2017 Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives report after falling off the list for seven years.

6. Forest Park Medical Center anesthesiologist pleads guilty to $40M kickback scheme

Dallas-based Forest Park Medical Center founder and anesthesiologist Richard F. Toussaint, MD, pled guilty to a count of conspiracy to pay healthcare bribes and kickbacks and a count of offering or paying illegal remuneration and aiding and abetting under the Travel Act March 17, according to a press release from The United States' Attorney Office of the Northern District of Texas. The Travel Act prohibits the use of U.S. mail, interstate or foreign travel for criminal acts.

7. New York pain management clinic to pay $1.9M for improper billing practices

Syracuse-based New York Spine & Wellness Center agreed to pay the U.S. government $1.9 million for improperly billing patients and payers for "moderate sedation."

8. 3 key thoughts from American Association of Nurse Anesthetists incoming president Bruce Weiner

Bruce Weiner, a certified registered nurse anesthetist, took office as American Association of Nurse Anesthetists' president-elect in 2016 and assumed the role of president in September. He shared his thoughts on how CRNAs can impact the healthcare industry.

9. NY State Society of Anesthesiologists call on legislators to oppose nurse anesthetists bill

In May, the New York State Society of Anesthesiologists called upon legislators to oppose a bill that would allow nurse anesthetists to conduct anesthesia services. The New York State Association of Nurse Anesthetists responded to the claims. For everything you need to know, click here.

10. Solving the impending anesthesiologist shortage

Anesthesiology is facing a physician shortage as the workforce ages and surgical demand increases. Anesthesia Business Consultants CEO Tony Mira penned a column suggesting practices use anesthesiologist assistants to help meet needs in August.
Here are 54 surgery center partnerships, acquisitions and new joint ventures over the past 12 months.

Acquisitions

Houston-based Nobilis Health acquired 50.1 percent ownership in Elite Surgical Affiliates' three ASCs and one surgical hospital to complete an integration of the company.

Buffalo, N.Y.-based Catholic Health received the first approval required to acquire a 40 percent stake in Orchard Park, N.Y.-based Sterling Surgical Center.

Coral Gables-based Baptist Health South Florida acquired a majority interest in Boca Raton, Fla.-based South Palm Ambulatory Surgery Center.

Parker, Colo.-based InSight Vision Group purchased Lone Tree, Colo.-based Renewal Surgery Center.

Carter Validus Mission Critical REIT II acquired a medical campus in Silverdale, Wash., with two surgery centers for $9.6 million.

Dallas-based Baylor Scott & White teamed up with United Surgical Partners International to purchase majority ownership in Tyler-based Texas Spine & Joint Hospital.

Private equity firm KKR acquired Covenant Surgical Partners from previous owners and shareholders.

Easton-based University of Maryland Community Medical Group acquired Easton-based Digestive Health Associates.

Hays (Kan.) Medical Center bought Centennial, Colo.-based Centura Health's shares in the Great Bend, Kan.-based St. Rose Health Center, an ASC.

Medical group Derby (Kan.) MedCenter sold its ASC operations to Southlake, Texas-based Candor Healthcare.

Montecito Medical Real Estate acquired Flowood, Miss.-based NewSouth NeuroSpine Building, which includes a surgery center.

Global Medical REIT made a series of acquisitions between March 31 and May 26, including Flower Mound, Texas-based Lone Star Endoscopy Center.

St. Paul, Minn.-based HealthEast and Minneapolis, Minn.-based Summit Orthopedics formed a deal that gave HealthEast a minority interest in Summit's Vadnais Heights (Minn.) Surgery Center.

After facing competition from Minneapolis-based Fairview Health Services, Duluth, Minn.-based Essentia Health opted to invest $14 million into expansion. With part of the investment, Essential Health will buy a minority ownership stake in Grand Rapids, Minn.-based Lakewood Surgery Center.

Surgical Care Affiliates made an equity investment in Danbury-based Western Connecticut Orthopedic Surgery Center, effective May 1. The addition expands SCA's network to seven surgery centers.

Miami-based Baptist Health South Florida acquired a controlling interest in Sunset, Fla.-based Galloway Surgery Center and in Kendall (Fla.) Endoscopy Center.

Alabama-based The Sanders Trust acquired Hagerstown, Md.-based Parkway Professional Center, which includes Parkway Surgery Center, a Surgical Care Affiliates facility.

Great Neck, N.Y.-based Northwell Health formed a clinical affiliation with Syracuse, N.Y.-based Crouse Health. Northwell is acquiring two ASCs through the action.

Providence, R.I-based Prospect CharterCare purchased Johnston, R.I.-based Blackstone Valley Surgicare, Rhode Island's largest freestanding ASC.

Tifton, Ga.-based Tift Regional Health System purchased Tiftarea Urology and its ASC in Tifton.

Lafayette, Ind.-based Unity Healthcare repurchased ownership of the Unity Surgical Center in Lafayette, Ind., from Indianapolis-based Franciscan Health.

Great Neck, N.Y.-based Northwell Health is buying a 20 percent stake in Harrison, N.Y.-based Surgical Specialty Center of Westchester.

Roanoke, Va.-based Vistar Eye Center acquired Rocky Mount, Va.-based Saxon Angle and Associates.

Jamison, Pa.-based Physicians Endoscopy is partnering with St. Mary Medical Center, the Gastroenterology Group PA and Center for Colon and Rectal Health physicians, all based in Langhorne, Pa., to acquire a minority interest in Langhorne-based The Endoscopy Center at St. Mary.

Joint ventures

The New York State Department of Health approved the partnership between pain management physician Frank Adipietro, MD, gastroenterologist Dhiren Mehta, MD, and Greenport, N.Y.-based Eastern Long Island Hospital to construct a new surgery center.

Hartford (Conn.) HealthCare and Avon, Conn.-based Constitution Surgery Alliance opened the Constitution Surgery Center East in Waterford, Conn., Nov. 16.

Compass Surgical Partners teamed up with Stuart, Fla.-based Martin Health System and local physicians to open Port Lucie, Fla.-based Tradition Surgery Center.

Bozeman (Mont.) Health is opening a new $20 million clinic through a partnership with United Surgical Partners International.

Carle and Christie Clinic physicians broke ground on a new joint venture surgery center in Champaign, Ill. Both groups are based in Champaign.

Lake Charles-based Christus Health Southwestern Louisiana entered into a joint venture with Prien, La.-based Imperiale Calcasieu Surgical Center.

Abilene, Texas-based Hendrick Health System dedicated its new surgery center in Brownwood, Texas, on May 12. The center is a joint venture between the health system and Abilene and Brownwood physicians.

Rice Memorial Hospital and Affiliated Community Medical Centers teamed up to open a new $11 million ASC. Wilmar Medical Services is building the facility, which is its largest investment to date.

SurgCenter Development and physician investors opened a new surgery center in Zeeland, Mich. The ASC costs $4.5 million.

SurgCenter Development teamed up with Miami Surgical Suites' physicians to open its 13th operational center in Florida. Ten surgeons specializing in orthopedics, pain, podiatry and otorhinolaryngology practice out of the center.

Pismo Beach, Calif.-based SurgCenter Development teamed up with Miami Surgical Suites to open its 13th operational center in Florida.

Florida-based Axis Health Partners joint-ventured with Davie, Fla.-based ANF Group on Cypress Creek Medical Pavilion, which will include an ASC, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

OrthoSports Athens (Ala.) and Athens-Limestone Hospital started construction on a new facility featuring an ASC and medical office building.

MidMichigan Health, local physicians and Regent Surgical Health opened a multispecialty ASC in Isabella County, Mich.

Elgin, Ill.-based Advocate Sherman Hospital, 13 physician investors and Deerfield, Ill.-based Surgical Care Affiliates received Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board approval to build a $12.7 million ASC.

Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center partnered with Surgical Care Affiliates to open Wake Forest Baptist Health Outpatient SurgeryClemmons.

Partnerships

United Surgical Partners International entered into a partnership with Santa Barbara (Calif.) Surgery Center.

Phoenix-based The CORE Institute partnered with Arizona's largest health system, Banner Health, on a new orthopedic-driven ASC, Banner CORE Union Hills Surgery Center, also in Phoenix.

The 7,086-square-foot Genoa City, Wis.-based Geneva Surgical Suites opened on July 24 through a partnership with area physicians and SurgCenter Development.

Atlanta Orthopaedic Institute Surgery Center partnered with Practice Partners in Healthcare, a surgical services provider, to develop and manage an ASC.

Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Health Network and Highmark, an insurance company, partnered to create a 23,000-square-foot surgical center.

Physicians Endoscopy signed a strategic agreement with Digestive Healthcare Center physicians on the company's 58th partnered center  Central Jersey Ambulatory Surgical Center in Hillsborough Township, N.J.

Sheridan Capital Partners portfolio company Dermatologists of Central States entered into a partnership with Battle Creek, Mich.-based Dermatology and Skin Surgery Center.

Cleveland Clinic and Jupiter, Fla.-based Rendina Healthcare Real Estate partnered to construct a $32 million, 72,000-square-foot health center in Coral Springs, Fla. The center will include an ASC.

Sheridan (Wyo.) Memorial Hospital and Sheridan (Wyo.) Surgical Center signed a business and real estate purchasing agreement that will give the hospital's orthopedic patients access to the surgery center.

New York City-based Hospital for Specialty Surgery and Stamford (Conn.) Health are partnering to open at ASC at Stamford-based Tully Health Center.

SurgCenter of Lucie (Fla.) opened its doors after partnering with Pismo Beach, Calif.-based SurgCenter Development.

Ortho Montana, St. Vincent Healthcare and Yellowstone Surgery Center, all based in Billings, Va., are expanding their services through Montana Ambulatory Care Campus in Billings. Montana Ambulatory Care Campus providers performed its first procedure early in January 2017.

Frontier Healthcare Holdings and Liberty Endoscopy Center partnered to open a gastroenterology-facing ASC in New York, where the two companies are located.

SurgCenter Development plans to open Advanced Surgical Center of Sunset Hills in the St. Louis market next year in partnership with local physicians.
Mark Gittins, DO, of Columbus, Ohio-based OrthoNeuro, completed the first robotics-assisted bicruciate-retaining total knee replacement procedure in Ohio at New Albany (Ohio) Surgery Center.

Here's what you should know:

1. Dr. Gittins performed the procedure, among the first in the world, Nov. 28. He used the Navio Surgical System to perform the CT-free, robotics-assisted bicruciate total knee arthroplasty procedure.

2. The Navio system assists providers in implanting the Journey II XR implant, which allows patients to retain their anterior cruciate ligament.

3. Dr. Gittins said, "Having used robotics-assisted technology for partial knee arthroplasty before, it was easy to understand how the same benefits could translate to total knee arthroplasty. I'm excited for the future of this technology and what it means for my patients."

4. New Albany Surgery Center and Dr. Gittins were among the first in the world to use the Navio system for robotics-assisted total knee arthroplasty as well, performing that procedure in August 2016.

https://www.beckersasc.com/asc-turnarounds-ideas-to-improve-performance/new-albany-surgery-center-uses-navio-surgical-system-for-robotics-assisted-tka-5-things-to-know.html

5. The Navio Surgical System is manufactured by Smith & Nephew.
Connecticut plans to end its HUSKY B children's health coverage Jan. 31 unless additional federal funding becomes available, according to The Hill.

The news comes as Congress has not restored federal funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program. unding expired Sept. 30.

"Connecticut has been able to continue offering HUSKY B  by using leftover federal funding. However, these funds are expected to run out on Jan. 31, 2018," state officials wrote online.

"As a result, we must plan to close the HUSKY B program. Unless additional federal funding becomes available, HUSKY B services and coverage for eligible children and teenagers will end on Jan. 31, 2018."

Affected households are slated to receive notifications about the decision via mail.

Connecticut is one of multiple states taking measures amid congressional inaction on CHIP. Alabama plans to stop enrolling children in its ALL Kids health insurance program Jan. 1. Additionally, Colorado warned residents last month that their children may lose their insurance by Jan. 31 without action from lawmakers.
A 60 bed-unit at Osawatomie (Kan.) State Hospital, after working for two years to address patient safety concerns, regained its Medicare contract and funding, according to KCUR.

CMS revoked the state psychiatric hospital's certification December 2015 after a staff member reported a sexual assault and a subsequent investigation exposed security concerns and staffing shortages. Another recertification inspection May 2017 revealed additional problems at the hospital, including issues with infection control, proper sanitation and fire safety.

The terminated Medicare contract cost the state hospital up to $1 million a month in federal funds. Now, the hospital can once again bill Medicare.

To help regain certification the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services the entity that oversees Osawatomie State Hospital  implemented a plan of correction which included increasing staffing levels improve employee and patient safety.

"This is a big leap for us from where we started, and it's really good news for all the hard work folks at Osawatomie did," said KDADS Secretary Tim Keck, according to KCUR.
All who walk in the main entrance to the Nebraska State Capitol enter beneath the following words, forever etched in stone: The salvation of the state is watchfulness of the citizen.

However, Hartley Burr Alexander, from whom that quote originates, gave no suggestion for what to do when the state opposes the justified watchfulness of its citizenry. In the most recent case, regarding state officials incorrect insistence that information about its lethal injection drugs are exempted from public records laws, Nebraskans were forced to turn to a lawsuit in pursuit of answers.

The American Civil Liberties Union has sued the state, hoping to obtain details surrounding the substances scheduled to be used in the execution of convicted killer Jose Sandoval. A cadre of media outlets, including the Journal Star, has petitioned to join this fight for transparency. And though the Journal Star editorial board was not involved in the newspapers decision, it wholeheartedly endorses this effort.

Nowhere in those three sections  or anywhere in the states sprawling, 13-volume legal code  is anything that expressly bars the release of information related to the execution drugs. Invoking those exemptions via a blanket denial to all inquests, rather than the justifiable use of redacting legally protected details, is nothing more than a smokescreen to keep secret public records that may be inconvenient.

Worse yet is that a bill allowing information related to the states lethal injection drugs to remain private is pending before the Nebraska Legislature. LB661, introduced and prioritized by Sen. John Kuehn of Heartwell, advanced out of committee last year and will almost surely be debated again when senators reconvene in January.

Until and unless this affront to Nebraskans right to know about their governments actions passes, no public records exemption exists regarding the substances used to carry out capital punishment. If the state is merely stalling, waiting for this measure to pass before trotting it out as a defense, that willful ignorance to the obligation it owes Nebraskans is unconscionable.

Particularly in light of the states previous high-profile embarrassments to obtain execution drugs from India, in which officials never received what they bought, Nebraskans deserve answers. Nebraska code notes that open records laws shall be liberally construed on fiscal matters, including invoices, purchase orders and requisitions involving public funds.

The state officials opposing this transparency need only look at the Capitols north door to remember to whom it is they are accountable  the very citizens being denied information to which theyre entitled under the law.
Millinocket (Maine) Regional Hospital was placed on lockdown Tuesday night around 8 p.m. after the hospital received two gunshot victims, according to WCSH.

The lockdown was lifted at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday morning and the two shooting victims were transported to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

The lockdown was imposed to control the flow of people entering and leaving the building and it did not affect hospital operations.

Local police are still investigating the shooting incident.
John Moseley, MD, a retired Billings, Mont.-based St. Vincent Healthcare neurosurgeon, and his wife donated $1 million to the hospitals St. Vincent Healthcare Foundation, according to the Billings Gazette.

Here are five insights:

1. The donation will go toward supporting St. Vincent Healthcares Healing Beyond Medicine Campaign, which provides spiritual care to patients and staff.

2. The foundation has been working throughout the past year to raise $3 million to endow the campaign. Earlier this year, the hospitals foundation collected $1 million to benefit the campaign.

3. Dr. Moseley practiced for more than 45 years, specializing in treating hemorrhages, spinal cord trauma and spinal disc herniations.

4. Board certified in neurosurgery, Dr. Moseley practice in both Montana and California.

5. Dr. Moseley earned his medical degree from University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle and completed his residency at UC Los Angeles Medical Center.
Piracy has always been a big threat to Tamil cinema and the whole of Kollywood has constantly been raising voice against sites like Tamilrockers, Tamilgun, etc. Now, the director of the recently released Chennai 2 Singapore, Abbas Akbar, has released a video statement, placing a request to the admin of Tamilrockers.



Abbas stated, "Hello, I am Abbas Akbar, the director of Chennai 2 Singapore. I'd like to talk directly to the admins of Tamilrockers, Tamilgun, and other piracy sites, through this video. First of all, Chennai 2 Singapore, was started six years back. We have put our hard work and sweat on this film, for the past six years. The entire budget of the movie, from shooting costs, till marketing, will be around Rs 8 crore. We can't recover that amount within one week, and we need a minimum of four weeks for the word of mouth to spread among the public and pick up. But now, all our hard work, sweat, and pain are on Tamilrockers site. We shouldn't say we worked so hard, because, it was something that we wanted to do.





We knew the work was going to be huge, and knowingly only, we started to film it. When we finished the film, no distributor was ready to release the film. But thankfully, SPI Cinemas came forward to help us and release the film on minimum screens. The film has picked up from 60 screens to around 80-90 screens now. The film is slowly starting to do well, with positive word of mouth. You have the film now with you, watch the film. There is no reason for the film to not succeed.





As a friend, I request you, people, to take down Chennai 2 Singapore, from your site for the next 30 days. On the 31st day, you can re-upload the film and host it on your site. That will be my humble request and you will have a good sign of support from me. Please do that for me."





On this same issue, Aruvi's producer S.R.Prabhu, tweeted, "Life time work of youngsters go wasted by these thieves! Requesting the audience to not support Piracy"



*tweet is not spell-checked
Around a quarter of the Belfast workforce make wings for the C Series jet

Workers at the Bombardier factory in Belfast were last night waiting to find out if a US government department would stick with its decision to impose punishing import tariffs on the plane manufacturer.

The US Department of Commerce has already made a preliminary decision to impose tariffs totalling 300% on American sales of Canadian company Bombardier's C Series jet, which is part-made in Belfast.

It followed a complaint from rival aerospace manufacturer Boeing that Bombardier received unfair State subsidies which enabled it to sell its C Series jets in the UK much more cheaply than it should have.

The move by Boeing was in response to a deal for up to 75 C Series passenger planes with Delta Airlines in the US.

But Bombardier then announced a tie-in with European aviation giant Airbus, meaning that the narrow-bodied C Series jet would be assembled in the US.

Bombardier argues that it would not be classed as an import when its planes rolled of a US production line.

The Department of Commerce was last night due to issue its final determination on Bombardier, which employs 4,000 people in Northern Ireland, although another body could overrule that.

Around 25% of the workforce carries out manufacture of the C Series wings.

Meanwhile, the body that will make the ultimate decision - the US International Trade Commission - has heard evidence from Bombardier and Boeing in its investigation.

And while staff at Bombardier in Belfast were closely watching developments last night, it's understood the ITC ruling will be regarded as the make-or-break decision.

Bombardier has this week presented evidence to the commission, defending accusations that the C Series has benefited from unfair subsidies. Mike Nadolksi from Bombardier said evidence presented to the commission showed that Boeing's petition was "an unfounded assault on airlines, the flying public and the US aerospace industry".

And he said that a new assembly line to be built by Bombardier and Airbus in Alabama would create 400 to 500 jobs. He said the firm had presented evidence that the C Series "simply does not threaten Boeing".

But according to the BBC report on the ITC hearing, Boeing believes it has "established beyond question that Bombardier has taken billions of dollars in illegal government subsidies to prop up its C Series programme. The C Series would not even exist at this point but for those subsidies".

The ITC will issue its finding at the end of January or early February and could set aside the findings of the US Department of Commerce.
Troubled infrastructure giant Carillion has parachuted its new chief executive into the firm earlier than previously planned.

The group, which is embroiled in an ongoing crisis that has involved a string of profits warnings, said on Wednesday that Andrew Davies start date will now be January 22, rather than April 2.

Interim boss Keith Cochrane will step down from his role in January but will remain with Carillion in an advisory capacity to ensure an orderly transition, the firm added.

Mr Davies is currently the chief executive of Wates Group, where he has held the role since 2014.

Prior to that, he was in a series of senior roles with BAE Systems over a 28-year period and he is also non-executive director at Chemring.

Carillion chairman Philip Green said: We are very grateful to the board of Wates, and to James Wates CBE, their chairman, for their facilitation of Andrews earlier appointment.

It is a demonstration of how the sector is willing to co-operate and collaborate to ensure the long-term sustainability of UK industry.

In November, the HS2 contractor issued its latest profit warning and said it will breach its debt covenants, which resulted in another share price collapse.

The firm said at the time that annual profits are set to be materially lower than current market expectations as it grapples with a string of delays and smaller-than-expected improvements to margins on certain contracts.

Despite efforts to drive down costs, haul in cash and push through disposals, the group said it would fail to hit its net debt to earnings ratio of 1 to 1.5 times by the end of 2018.

It came after the firm, which has about 43,000 staff worldwide, posted half-year losses of 1.15 billion.
Co Down actor Jamie Dornan has been voted the local celebrity that people in Northern Ireland would most like to kiss under the mistletoe this Christmas, according to a new survey.

Forget about 'mommy kissing Santa Claus', Fifty Shades of Grey star Jamie is the star with whom the public here would most like to share a cheeky festive snog after receiving a huge 40% of the vote

He was well ahead of fellow actor James Nesbitt, who finished a not-so-close second with 8%, according to Boost energy drink's poll.

Local radio presenter Rebecca McKinney also received 8% of the public vote to finish narrowly ahead of TV personality Christine Lampard (nee Bleakley) as our most kissable female celeb.

Northern Ireland folk certainly have diverse tastes, with Christmas panto 'dame' May McFettridge and former Blue Peter presenter Zoe Salmon each polling 6% of the vote, ahead of Girls Aloud's Nadine Coyle and current Miss Northern Ireland Anna Henry, who each amassed 5% of the vote, with actor Charlie Lawson and broadcaster Julian Simmons on 1.67%.

Some others who received a handful of votes included broadcaster Pamela Ballantine, DUP leader Arlene Foster, TV weather presenters Cecilia Daly and Barra Best and DUP MP Emma Little Pengelly.

The survey also asked what people here really wanted for Christmas, with some interesting results.

If you're still not sure what to buy your loved one, the survey reveals that the perfect Christmas gift is a holiday or short break, with 38% of votes.

And if you don't have time to shop around, then 15% of survey participants would be happiest just to receive cash.

Cooking and cleaning equipment is what the people of Northern Ireland would least like to receive, so be sure to avoid any vacuum cleaners, pots or pans.

This unpopular option topped the poll with 20% of the vote, closely followed by 'something to help you at work', which clocked in with 17% of the vote. Deodorant sets, socks and handkerchiefs also ranked highly on the least desirable list.

The survey also revealed the province's number one Christmas song and movie.

Topping the music charts, a whopping 40% of people in Northern Ireland voted Fairytale of New York by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl as their favourite Christmas song, with Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas coming in second with 13% and Wham's Last Christmas (10%) in third place.

Christmas just isn't the same without sitting down to watch a festive movie, and Home Alone starring Macaulay Culkin was voted our all-time favourite with 26% of the vote, ahead of Will Ferrell's hilarious Elf which came a close second with 23%.
Northern Ireland poet Paul Muldoon has won the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry 2017.

Muldoon has produced 12 major collections, as well as children's books and song lyrics.

Poet Laureate Dame Carol Ann Duffy paid tribute to the Co Armagh man as a contemporary of Seamus Heaney.

"Paul Muldoon is widely acclaimed as the most original and influential poet of the past 50 years and is rightly celebrated alongside Seamus Heaney," she said.

"His poetry displays a restless, playful brilliance, forever searching for new ways to channel his ideas and new language to dress them in."

Muldoon was born in Portadown in 1951.

He published his first collection of poetry in 1973.

In 1981 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

He has lived chiefly in the United States for the last 30 years, teaching at Princeton University and more recently editing poetry for The New Yorker magazine, before giving that up earlier this year.

Duffy added: "He is ambitious, erudite, witty and musical.

"He can experiment with form and stand tradition on its head, craft a tender elegy or intimate love poem with equal skill.

"His work is of major significance internationally - poetry of clarity, invention, purpose and importance which has raised the bar of what's possible in poetry to new heights."

Muldoon is the youngest of a famous group of poets from Northern Ireland, including Heaney and Michael Longley, centred around Queen's University in Belfast, who gained prominence in the 1970s.

Mr Longley also won the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, in 2001.

Muldoon, who delivered a tribute to Heaney at the Nobel Prize winner's 2013 funeral in Dublin, is set to be presented with his medal by the Queen next year.

He previously paid tribute to the place he grew up, a farm on the Armagh side of The Moy area, which he described as a "beautiful part of the world".

He said in 2001: "It's still the place that's 'burned into the retina', and although I haven't been back there since I left for university 30 years ago, it's the place I consider to be my home."

Muldoon worked for the BBC in Belfast during the late 1970s and early 1980s, before moving to England to teach at the University of East Anglia and at Caius College and Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.

He emigrated to the United States in 1987.

He now lives in New York City with his wife, the novelist Jean Hanff Korelitz, and their two children.

Muldoon has won a number of awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2003.
Recently, a debate has risen again over the term "social justice." Some evangelical Christians apparently deride the very idea. Yet, as supported in both the Old and New testaments, a more accurate term is "biblical social justice."

Jesus of Nazareth announced his public ministry aims by quoting the prophet Isaiah: "to preach good news to the poor ... to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed."

In other words, stand up for those who are disenfranchised and marginalized, especially the poor. In a seething world of selfishness and lies, act with countercultural kindness and integrity.

For those in the public spotlight who claim to be followers of God but reject, by word or action, God's biblical social justice, Jesus himself often used a descriptive term.

He called them hypocrites.

J. Christopher Blake, Lincoln
She might be up at 5am for work, or heading to Richmond Park - no two mornings are identical for vegan cookbook writer and former Made In Chelsea star Lucy Watson.

From avocado fixes to walking the dog, here's how the style influencer starts her day...

Are you a morning person?

No! Not at all. I get up 8.30am.

What do you usually have for breakfast?

I normally have tofu scramble with avocado on toast, or I'll just have avocado on toast and hummus with tomatoes. Sometimes I'll cook pancakes - it depends how much time I have.

What time do you start work?

Every single day is different, I could be up at 5am going to a shoot or I could be up a bit later or doing something on the evenings or weekends - it's really hard to say, I have no structure whatsoever.

If given the choice what would your ideal morning be like?

I love to get up and go for a dog walk. I like to go somewhere like Richmond Park or Wimbledon Common and take Digby (her German Spitz Klein) for a really long walk to get some fresh air, and go for breakfast somewhere. I love Le Pain Quotidien, they have really good breakfast options for vegans.

Are you a shower or bath person?

I love baths, but I do have showers for time's sake. If I'm feeling really cold, I love to sit in the bath and warm up.

Do you ever sing when you're in the shower?

No! I used to when I was younger though.

Do you organise your clothes the night before?

I have a stylist, so she organises all my clothes. I have a rail in my wardrobe which is basically just outfits that have been organised for me, which is a massive luxury in life - but my organisation levels are terrible, so it really does save me time.

Feed Me Vegan by Lucy Watson, photography Mike English, is published by Sphere, priced 16.99. Available now
A search costing 1,000 for a west Belfast cat has hit "a standstill" despite an investigation by a pet detective.

Spencer, a one-year-old ginger Tom, has been missing from his home near the Springfield Road for just over a month despite a desperate search by his owners Michael McGrath (47) and his fiancee Marta Larkin (36).

The distraught couple have spent the money so far on posters and advertising, and have also sought the advice from Dublin-based pet sleuth Robert Kenny of Happy Tails pet detective agency. With no sightings so far, the Poirot of the pet world told the Belfast Telegraph last week it was likely he had been taken out of the area or had gained access to someone's property without their knowledge.

With no evidence Spencer has been hurt or killed, Mr Kenny said he had to presume he was still alive.

A house cat, Spencer had wandered off when a gate was briefly left open during a bin collection.

Yesterday, Ms Larkin said she was growing increasingly anxious for a breakthrough.

"The search is more or less at a standstill, we've had no calls or sightings," she said.

"Even though we've had no luck yet the members of the public have been great. There's been ladies from Ballymena and Omagh who contacted me to say they've been in similar situations."

She continued: "The fact that no one knows worries me. Has he passed away and no one wants to tell us or is he with another family?"

Spencer and brother Feidhelm were adopted as kittens in Londonderry last September after their mother died.

The separation, Ms Larkin said, has been keenly felt at home.

"Feidhelm has definitely noticed, he had a very close bond with Spencer so he's got very vocal and needy.

"You can sense all the cats around the house are more stressed now. Maybe they're picking up on how upset we are."

As the search continues, Ms Larkin said she would be happy to exceed a current 100 reward.
'The Department for Infrastructure paid out more than 75 claims a month on average for damage due to road surface defects' (stock photo)

A Stormont department paid out close to 440,000 to motorists for damage caused by potholes in just under two and a half years, figures have revealed.

The Department for Infrastructure paid out more than 75 claims a month on average for damage due to road surface defects.

Figures released following a Freedom of Information request show that between April 2015 and August 2017 some 3,891 claims were made, with 2,198 of these being successful. The average award paid out was 200.

During that period, the department repaired 193,721 surface defects, at a cost of more than 24m.

The department said expenditure on road repairs does not reflect the cash paid to contractors, but is an engineer's assessment of what the value of the work completed was each month.

The district that saw the most repairs was Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council, with 30,230 repairs in the period.

High numbers were also recorded in Newry, Mourne and Down District Council (29,155), Fermanagh and Omagh District Council (22,162) and Belfast (20,368). Ards and North Down had the least surface repairs, with 5,961 over the period.

AA spokesman Luke Bosdet said: "We are not just talking about c ars getting broken and compensation, we are talking about the possibility of cyclists getting killed."

He pointed to the case of Roger Hamer, an 83-year-old cyclist who was killed last year in Bury, England after falling from his bicycle. In the coroner's report, it was concluded that Mr Hamer's death "had probably" involved a pothole, with three recorded in the carriageway near to where he fell.

"It shows it is not just a matter of busted wheels, tyres and suspension. It does threaten people's lives," Mr Bosdet said.

A Department for Infrastructure spokeswoman said: "Despite a challenging budgetary situation, the department has delivered a significant programme of resurfacing and surface dressing this year and continues to carry out a programme of routine maintenance, including pothole repairs and street lighting repairs, to meet all essential public safety requirements."
The UK Government was called to step up to the plate or Bombardier jobs in Belfast would be crushed after a devastating US tariff on the company's C-Series planes was upheld.

Commerce officials in Washington found the Canadian aerospace manufacturer sold its C-Series passenger jet at almost 80% under their value in a 5billion deal to Delta Airlines as well as benefiting from massive government subsidies. However, in its final ruling it reduced an initial 299% tariff to 292%.

Read More

It also ruled that a deal with Airbus - which would see the plane part built on US soil - would not allow it to circumvent the tariffs.

However, the ultimate decision to introduce the punitive tariffs will not be finalised until the US International Trade Commission (ITC) determines if Boeing, which lodged the initial complaint, was harmed by the subsidies and the price dumping. It will rule at the beginning of February.

Boeing complained after a deal for up to 75 of the C Series jets were sold to Delta Airlines in a dispute that has drawn in Prime Minister Theresa May, US President Donald Trump and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau. The EU also waded into the dispute backing Bombardier.

The planes wings are built in Belfast and the company has said its future operations in the city are crucial to the success of the narrow-bodied jet.

Bombardier said Boeings actions represented an unfounded assault on airlines, the flying public, and the U.S. aerospace industry, following the ruling.

The Commerce Department decision is divorced from this reality and ignores long-standing business practices in the aerospace industry, said Bombardiers Vice President Mike Nadolski.

We are deeply disappointed it did not take this opportunity to rectify its past errors.

Mr Nadolski said they were confident the ITC would overturn the decision.

The fact is the C Series simply does not threaten Boeing. Boeing did not compete in the Delta campaign. It has not made a plane sized to Deltas needs for many years.

Assistant general secretary of the trade union Unite Steve Turner described the decision as nakedly political with the potential to crush jobs, not only in Northern Ireland but also in the US.

More than 50% of C Series components are sourced from the US, where the supply chain sustains 22,000 US jobs. The economic impact of these tariffs would be felt in communities on both sides of the Atlantic."

He added: "The UK government, despite handing out defence contracts to Boeing amounting to more than 4.6bn, have provided no answers to the threat hanging over workers.

Ministers have not even hinted at challenging future contracts with Boeing. When we asked what action they had taken to defend jobs, we were lamely told that Theresa May had rang Donald Trump.

The UK government has to start forcefully backing Bombardier workers.

Unite travelled to the US in the past week to lobby for the decision, first made in September, to be overturned. While the ruling was expected, local workers were said to be disappointed but hopeful Februarys decision would go their way.

If we are given a fair and equitable hearing at the ITC then the tariff will be overturned, there has been no damage done to Boeing, regional organiser Davy Thompson said.

This has come from Trumps 'America first' policy and we would hope the British Government would step up to the plate and help fight our cause.

He added: It has been a demoralising time for Bombardier workers. It is going through a redundancy phase on separate matters but its hoped the link-up with Airbus will be a game-changer. While the US represents a third of the market there is still scope for the plane to be sold.

Boeing welcomed the ruling saying its aim was for business to be on a level playing field across the industry.

US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross added: This decision is based on a full and unbiased review of the facts in an open and transparent process.

The United States is committed to a free, fair, and reciprocal trade and will always stand up for American workers and companies being harmed by unfair imports.

A Government spokesman said: "This decision by the Department of Commerce is disappointing and damages the global aerospace industry. Though this judgment was widely anticipated given the initial action also found in favour of Boeing, we fundamentally disagree that this determination is justified by the facts.

"The next step is for the US International Trade Commission to decide on the impact, if any. We will continue to work alongside our counterparts in Northern Ireland and Canada, Bombardier and Airbus to resolve this matter."
In February, Unite and the US ITC will discuss whether Boeing has suffered injury or loss as a result of Delta Airlines' order of C Series jets

Union leaders are warning jobs could be "crushed" after the United States commerce department confirmed plans to impose duties on imports of Bombardier C Series commercial jets.

In its final determination, the department said it will impose duties of 292%.

Unite called on the US International Trade Commission (ITC) to set aside the decision when it meets in February to discuss whether Boeing has suffered injury or loss as a result of Delta Airlines' order of C Series jets.

If the ITC finds in Boeing's favour the tariffs will be applied.

Describing Wednesday's commerce department decision as "nakedly political", Unite warned that in addition to Northern Ireland jobs, as many as 22,000 US jobs could be under threat if the US ITC decided to impose tariffs.

Assistant general secretary Steve Turner said: "Today's decision by the US Commerce Department on C Series tariffs is nakedly political and has the potential to crush jobs, not only in Northern Ireland but in the US too.

"More than 50% of C Series components are sourced from the US, where the supply chain sustains 22,000 US jobs. The economic impact of these tariffs would be felt in communities on both sides of the Atlantic.

"Boeing does not produce an aircraft in the same class as Bombardier's C Series and didn't even bid for the Delta contract it is complaining about, which leaves its complaint totally without merit.

"Boeing is using its meritless complaint as cover to close the US market, which is one of the biggest in the world, to new entrants such as Bombardier's C Series aircraft."

He added: "We would urge the US International Trade Commission to do the right thing for fair trade and jobs by finding against Boeing and setting aside the commerce department's determination when it makes its final decision in the New Year.

"The UK government, despite handing out defence contracts to Boeing amounting to more than 4.6 billion, have provided no answers to the threat hanging over workers.

"Ministers have not even hinted at challenging future contracts with Boeing. When we asked what action they had taken to defend jobs, we were lamely told that Theresa May had rang Donald Trump.

"The UK government has to start forcefully backing Bombardier workers."

Unite regional officer for Bombardier in Northern Ireland, Susan Fitzgerald, said: "This decision poses a devastating risk for the Northern Ireland economy.

"Tariffs on the scale proposed by the US Commerce Department in the world's largest airline market, threaten to undermine the long-term economics of Bombardier's presence in Northern Ireland.

"Not only is it a threat to the economy, it poses a significant threat to stability in Northern Ireland. Unite is very conscious that workplaces are the largest integrated environments in our society."

She added: "We cannot lose thousands more jobs on top of what's already gone and expect hopelessness and instability not to feature.

"There is no need for one single job loss, in fact, the potential exists for the creation of jobs in Northern Ireland, the US, Canada and elsewhere.

"The C Series represents a tremendous opportunity for further growth in the sector."

Mike Nadolski, Bombardier's Vice President Communications and Public Affairs, said evidence presented by Boeing earlier this week at the US International Trade Commission demonstrated an "unfounded assault" on airlines, the flying public, and the US aerospace industry.

He added: "That has been true since the start of the investigation, and recent developments make it even clearer, particularly the Bombardier and Airbus partnership, which will include the construction of a new U.S.manufacturing facility in Alabama.

"This facility will provide US airlines with a US-built plane thereby eliminating any possibility of harm due to imports.

"Unfortunately, the Commerce Department decision is divorced from this reality and ignores long-standing business practices in the aerospace industry, including launch pricing and the financing of multibillion dollar aircraft programs.

"Moreover, we are deeply disappointed that the Commerce Department did not take this opportunity to rectify its past errors.

"We remain confident that at the end of the process, the United States International Trade Commission will reach the right conclusion, which is that the C Series benefits the US aerospace industry, US airlines, and the US flying public.

"The fact is that the C Series simply does not threaten Boeing."

A Government spokesman said: "This decision by the Department of Commerce is disappointing and damages the global aerospace industry. Though this judgment was widely anticipated given the initial action also found in favour of Boeing, we fundamentally disagree that this determination is justified by the facts.

"The next step is for the US International Trade Commission to decide on the impact, if any. We will continue to work alongside our counterparts in Northern Ireland and Canada, Bombardier and Airbus to resolve this matter."
A joint visit by the Pope and the Queen to Northern Ireland next year would be "wonderful", a senior cleric has said.

The Vatican is expected to make an official announcement early in the new year regarding a visit by Pope Francis to the Republic.

It is likely that any trip over the border will be made known within the next few weeks.

The possibility of the pontiff making an official visit here gathered pace yesterday when Archbishop Richard Clarke was responding to the suggestion in an interview with Q Radio that the leader of the Catholic Church could even be accompanied by the Queen.

The Church of Ireland Primate said that any joint visit would be "remarkable and wonderful".

He said: "The Church of Ireland bishops and archbishops made it very clear they would be very happy to see the Pope in Ireland, north or south.

"I suppose for them both to be seen together would be a momentous occasion, but it would not be the first time the Pope and Queen have met together."

The monarch had a private meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican in 2014.

Fr Tim Bartlett, one of the organisers of the World Meeting of Families, to be held in Dublin next August, said: "There is a very real possibility that Pope Francis will be joining us in August next year.

"I know he wants to be with us and we look forward to an announcement in January or February."

Officials say that the pontiff's schedule is never confirmed until a few months prior to any event.

The Irish Catholic reported Vatican sources as saying the Pope chose Ireland to host the conference in the hope he could make a visit. An invitation was extended to Pope Francis by the Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference to visit the World Meeting of Families.

Last November former Taoiseach Enda Kenny held a private meeting at the Vatican with the Pope.

The last time there was a papal visit to Ireland was in 1979, when Pope John Paul II made the trip to the Republic, where there were events in Dublin, Drogheda, Clonmacnoise, Galway, Knock, Limerick and Maynooth.

Commenting on a joint visit, retired Free Presbyterian minister Rev David McIlveen said: "It is an interesting suggestion in that if he is coming as the leader of state and the Queen is coming as the leader of state, in terms of her position as Queen, then it is a political visit, but if she is coming as head of the Church of England and he is coming as the (head of the) Church of Rome, it would certainly be one of the most ecumenical presentations we have ever witnessed in Northern Ireland."

The DUP said: "Any potential visit to Northern Ireland by the Pope is a matter for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London.

"The party leader previously indicated that she would respect his position as head of state."
Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Paul Clark MBE, President of NI Hospice at the candlelit procession. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Members of the public take part in the candlelit procession. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Members of the Salvation Army play at the service. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Members of the public at the service Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Members of the public take part in the candlelit procession. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Members of the public take part in the candlelit procession. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Members of the public take part in the candlelit procession. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Members of the public take part in the candlelit procession. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. General View of the Christmas tree at the Hospice. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Members of the public take part in the candlelit procession. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. General View of the Christmas tree at the Hospice. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Members of the public take part in the candlelit procession. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. General View of the Christmas tree at the Hospice. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Members of the public take part in the candlelit procession. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Members of the public take part in the candlelit procession. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Members of the public at the Hospice. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Members of the Dominican College Senior Choir perform at the event. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Members of the Dominican College Senior Choir perform at the event. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Paul Clark MBE, President of NI Hospice switches on the Christmas tree lights with Chloe Beck and Kevin Donnelly at the Hospice. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Paul Clark MBE, President of NI Hospice at the event. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Regina OOCallaghan, Catholic Chaplain at the service Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Members of the Dominican College Senior Choir perform at the event. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Paul Clark MBE, President of NI Hospice at the event. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Regina OOCallaghan, Catholic Chaplain at the service Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Niamh Kavanagh sings at the event. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Niamh Kavanagh sings at the event. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Doreen Draffin, Presbyterian Chaplain at the service Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Members of the Salvation Army play at the service. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Members of the Salvation Army play at the service. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Members of the public at the service Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Niamh Kavanagh sings at the event. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Paul Clark MBE, President of NI Hospice switches on the Christmas tree lights with Kevin Donnelly, Chloe Beck and Kevin Donnelly jnr at the Hospice. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Paul Clark MBE, President of NI Hospice switches on the Christmas tree lights with Kevin Donnelly, Chloe Beck and Kevin Donnelly jnr at the Hospice. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Press Eye - Belfast - 19th December 2017 - Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public joined together to remember and celebrate the lives of those who were, and still are, so special. Following a service at Dominican College, members fo the public took part in a candlelight procession up Fortwilliam Park to the Hospice Grounds to switch on the Christmas Tree lights. Members of the public at the Hospice. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Northern Ireland Hospice Lights to Remember celebration at Dominican College. Members of the public take part in the candlelit procession. Photo by Kelvin Boyes / Press Eye

Families from across Belfast and beyond gathered last night at the Northern Ireland Hospice to celebrate and remember the lives of their loved ones.

Around 1,400 people gathered in north Belfast at the poignant annual Lights To Remember event.

Following an emotive service at Dominican College Fortwilliam hosted by Hospice President Paul Clarke, the crowd followed a candlelit procession to the grounds of the new Hospice facility on Somerton Road.

Thousands of lights of remembrance on the Hospice tree were switched on as people came together to reflect and shine a light in memory of their loved one.

Those who attended the moving event also enjoyed renditions by Eurovision winner Niamh Kavanagh.

The NI Hospice offers this free event every year to all people across the whole of Northern Ireland - whether or not they or their family has been supported by its care services.

"It's a place to remember and share the grief we all feel at the loss of our most dearly loved ones," a Hospice spokesperson said. "A time when we can come together to share our thoughts and emotions with many others who have known the same experience."

Funds raised in this year's appeal will ensure NI Hospice provides care for more than 3,000 adults with life-limiting illnesses.
Northern Ireland's MLAs should have their pay cut by almost 14,000 because of the ongoing political deadlock a review has recommended.

It also says that Assembly Speaker Robin Newton, who continues to collect his 87,500 salary, should have his cut by up to 31,000. And MLAs should put their staff on notice that they may have to be laid off in July.

Read More

The report also recommends pay rises are stopped. As revealed by the Belfast Telegraph in April, MLAs were to receive another 500 rise in the coming months. It also recommends any temporary reduction in salaries, however, should not disadvantage MLAs' pensions.

Not since a 45 minute Assembly sitting following the March election, have MLAs met. Since then Northern Ireland Secretary of State James Brokenshire has been under increasing pressure to act on salaries given the political deadlock.

Responding he commissioned former Assembly chief executive Trevor Reaney to examine the issue. In his wide-ranging report he considered the work of the elected representatives between their time in the chamber and on constituency work. He also considered how pay was cut during the 2002 to 2007 suspension of the devolved administrations as well as the level of "value for money" the public gets from its elected representatives.

He recommended MLAs continued to be paid a portion of their salary until at least the end of the year, when another review of the situation should be undertaken. And for the Secretary of State to consider the possibility of operating some form of transitional interim Assembly should the suspension be prolonged with members paid 90% of their salary.

"It is inevitable that public frustration with a non-functioning Assembly will continue to increase," he said.

"The impact of any salary reduction on MLAs' personal circumstances is also acknowledged. Therefore, it is judged that a 'stepped' approach to salary reduction is warranted."

In his extensive report he has made 18 recommendations. They include:

MLA pay cut from 49,500 to 42,075 now and be followed by a decrease to 35,888 three months later.

Speakers pay cut from 87,500 to 62,035 now and then to 55,848 in three months time.

Stopping MLA pay increases until power sharing restored.

No further staff recruitment for MLAs.

Staffing allowance cut from 50,000 to 37,500 and implemented not later than July.

A further review before end of 2018 if political situation remains unchanged.

The report also highlights the "anomaly" of members of the Assembly Commission continuing to receive a 55,000 pay despite losing their seat. The Belfast Telegraph revealed earlier this year the SDLP's Alex Attwood continued to receive his salary after losing his seat. The report states he had returned the MLA portion of the payment and goes on to recommend paying those members not elected only 4,800.

Stormont has been left in limbo since January after relations between the DUP and Sinn Fein broke down leading to the late Martin McGuinness resigning. The Renewable Heating Incentive and former first minister Arlene Foster's refusal to stand down to allow for an investigation brought matters to a head.

However, Sinn Fein, as well as calling for the DUP leader to excuse herself from the Executive to allow for the ongoing inquiry into the botched green energy scheme has also called for past agreements to be fulfilled, such as an Irish language act and funding for legacy issues. In the interim a snap election saw unionism lose its overall majority for the first time and months of talks yield no breakthrough.

James Brokenshire said he would carefully consider the review.

I would like to thank Trevor Reaney for his thoughtful advice on the approach to the salaries and allowances of MLAs in the continued absence of an Executive or sitting Assembly," he said.

This is a matter of significant public concern and it is right to take a considered approach. This is why I asked Mr Reaney to provide me with this advice, which I will consider carefully before responding. "
An angry father has slammed last weekend's Winter Wonderland NI event at Clandeboye Estate as a "disaster" after claiming that the plastic ice rink used by families was "covered in bleach".

Limavady father-of-three Paul Taylor, who attended the Bangor event with his daughters aged four and six and son aged eight, shared pictures of large white stains on the youngsters' dark clothing which he believes were caused by bleach coating the rink's plastic surface.

And the Belfast Telegraph can also reveal that event organiser Emma McKnight posted a Facebook message in September appealing for "any old tat" to stage the event, which has been criticised for its poor decorations, lack of cleanliness and disorganisation.

In the message, Ms McKnight stated: "I'm on the scrounge... Anyone got any old bits of tat and furniture they don't want can they please donate to me.

"I am creating Mother and Father Christmas's house for the Winter Wonderland Grotto!

"Bits of furniture, rugs, ornaments, anything really."

Paul described the 55 he spent taking his family to the event as a "horrendous waste of money".

He added that he and his wife Lisa had also been concerned over the apparent presence of bleach on the plastic ice rink's surface, fearing that their children could have suffered burns.

"The main reason we took the kids to that event was that they had advertised an ice rink, but when we got there it was sheets of plastic with a liquid on it which we believe was bleach," Paul said.

"Their mum went on to the rink with them as there were no attendants there to keep an eye on the kids. It wasn't slippy enough to skate, and the kids kept falling over and hitting their faces on the little plastic penguins used to balance.

"When we got home we thought the light patches on the knees of their dark clothes were just dust, but they smelled like bleach and it had taken all the colour out of large parts of their clothes.

"We were completely flabbergasted and we woke the children up in the early hours to check their knees for burns and marks.

"Thankfully they seemed all right, but we were terrified for their safety, and all of the new clothes they were wearing, worth about 400, have been ruined."

The event was held at the Clandeboye Estate but was not organised by or associated with the estate.

In a statement on its website, Winter NI apologised for the event, which it said "has fallen way short of our expectations".

Holders of tickets for December 18-23 were promised a full refund. However, Paul says that despite being told he had been refunded, no money has yet been transferred into his account.

He is now considering legal action.

When asked by the Belfast Telegraph to confirm the presence of bleach on the ice rink and explain why there were no attendants to monitor the children, event organiser Emma McKnight said that they had "already issued statements to the press" and claimed that the ice rink had been provided by a third party.

However, the company she named told this newspaper that it had not supplied an ice rink to the event.
'It emerged that across Northern Ireland between April and September of this year, some 566 unwanted dogs were collected by staff working for local councils' (stock photo)

Those considering buying a puppy for Christmas have been urged to wait until the New Year and instead rehome an animal that has been rescued.

The call came as it emerged that across Northern Ireland between April and September of this year, some 566 unwanted dogs were collected by staff working for local councils.

Heartbreakingly, 106 of these animals were not able to be rehomed and were destroyed.

In Belfast alone, council figures show that 19 unwanted dogs were collected between the same dates - five of which were put to sleep. Of the others, eleven were sent to shelters or animal organisations and three were sold.

East Belfast Green Party councillor Georgina Milne urged members of the public to consider rehoming previously unwanted pets as she handed over gifts and toys collected by members of her party for the animals of Assisi Animal Sanctuary near Bangor.

"Many people are aware of the slew of unwanted pets that fill animal shelters after the Christmas rush. However, the message still needs repeating - if you're thinking of getting a pet, consider waiting until a less emotional time of year and consider adopting from somewhere like Assisi, who have lots of pets who haven't been as lucky in finding a home and are patiently waiting to be taken home and loved," Ms Milne said.

"We've also recently been alerted to the surge in people buying puppies which have been illegally imported. These animals often have suffered terribly in the journey here, and many end up sick, dead or abandoned. Assisi always needs the help of volunteers and donations of money and food. If you want to give some four-legged friends a gift, contact them at 028 9181 2622."
The US Department of Commerce has upheld a decision to impose tariffs totalling almost 300% on American imports of Bombardiers C Series jet, which is part-made in Belfast.

The department issued preliminary findings in September, imposing tariffs of 300% on imports of the jet after a complaint from rival manufacturer Boeing that Bombardier received unfair subsidies.

Wednesday's ruling represented a slight decrease, down from 299% to 292%.

Boeing complained over the sale of up to 75 C Series jets from Delta Airlines in the US.

But Canadian company Bombardier then announced a tie-in with European aviation giant Airbus, meaning that the narrow-bodied C Series passenger jet would be assembled in the US and so, it was hoped, would not be classed as an import.

Now the department has issued its final determination on Bombardier, which employs 4,000 people in Northern Ireland. Around 25% of the workforce carries out manufacture of the C Series wings. Bombardier has said its Belfast operations were crucial to the 125-seater passenger jet's success.

On Wednesday US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said a 5billion deal to sell the Bombardier planes to American airline Delta was 79.82% less than fair value and Canada was providing unfair subsidies a rate of 212.39%.

This decision is based on a full and unbiased review of the facts in an open and transparent process. said Secretary Ross. The United States is committed to a free, fair, and reciprocal trade and will always stand up for American workers and companies being harmed by unfair imports."

The ruling on Wednesday notes that Bombardier and Airbus have struck a deal to build the C-Series in America, although it has not been finalised. However, it states that the tariff will apply to aircraft regardless of whether they are imported or part-assembled in the US ending hopes the arrangement could circumvent the charges.

However, the decision on introducing the tariffs will not be finalised until the US International Trade Commission determines Boeing was harmed by the subsidies and the price dumping.

It has heard evidence from Bombardier and Boeing in its investigation and will rule on the matter in February.
Bob Geldof donated the archive to the National Library of Ireland in Dublin

A young married couple from Scotland sold their house and tried to give the proceeds to the Band Aid famine relief effort, Bob Geldof said.

Old women donated their wedding rings as part of an unprecedented outpouring of Western support for millions starving in Ethiopia in 1984 and 1985, the musician and songwriter said.

The Crown Prince of Kuwait gifted 1 million during Live Aid concerts in the UK and US while 95% of those with television sets tuned in.

Geldof is giving the Irish state a Band Aid archive of hundreds of letters, artwork, poetry and musical recordings after it was accumulated in a warehouse in London.

Much of it will be digitalised and put on display for the world to see at the National Library of Ireland in Dublin.

Geldof said: "Eight miles south of the richest continent in the world, eight miles, that is all the gap there is between Europe and Africa, eight miles between the richest continent and the poorest, there were 30 million people dying of want in a world of surplus.

"That isn't only intellectually absurd, it is economically illiterate and it is, of course, morally repulsive."

The Boomtown Rats front man and co-writer Midge Ure's first version of Do They Know It's Christmas? raised 8 million for famine relief in Ethiopia.

They gathered a group of musicians together in 1984 for the charity single. It featured Geldof's fellow Irishman Bono, George Michael, Duran Duran and Bananarama, among others.

It helped inspire Live Aid concerts in London and Philadelphia, which raised millions more.

The archive will be transported from London, where it had been in storage, to Dublin. It will be catalogued, preserved, selectively digitalised and exhibited.

Geldof said: "This then is our thanks and gratitude to Ireland and the Irish.

"We want you to use this gift for the benefit of those in whose name we too will continue to work."

Organisers felt unable to take the money from the couple who sold their house, Geldof said.

But many others gave 100 and the archive reveals the enormous level of organisation behind Band Aid.

The trove of documents, many on fading fax paper, captures the work of those who looked after fleets of ships and trucks which distributed relief.

It was the era of strikes in Britain but many workers suspended their industrial action to help, Geldof said.

Revealing letters from public figures will be among those disclosed as well as reports on projects helped in Africa since 1985.

Despite his desire to help, Mr Geldof said he knew the Boomtown Rats were not having hits.

His collaboration with other artists on Band Aid helped him get his confidence back, saying: "This required something of the self.

"It was not enough that you simply allowed 30 million sentient human beings to die of want in this bizarre world of surplus."

He said it was a "bizarre" social phenomenon linked to the dawn of globalised media and the celebrity status of pop.

Mr Geldof added: "We agreed on a common proposition that extreme poverty was useless and eradicable and it can be done very easily and it was not in our interests to maintain this, as we see in the Mediterranean right this second as more people drown."
The Oireachtas Finance Committee heard evidence on the tracker mortgage scandal earlier this year

The number of people caught up in the tracker mortgage scandal has soared to 33,700, official figures have shown.

The Central Bank said close to 300 million euro was being paid out to affected consumers by KBC Bank Ireland, AIB, Bank of Ireland, Ulster Bank and Permanent TSB, with more to be paid.

Governor Philip Lane said the review had thrown up evidence of the devastating impact on families and individuals who were denied a lower-cost tracker mortgage in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

"Many lenders publicly state that they put customers first. The evidence of the examination that we have seen suggests otherwise," he said.

The Central Bank said the majority of customers identified at the end of September have been paid redress and compensation and others can bank their offer, with the guarantee that even if they appeal the money is theirs.

Mr Lane said: 'It is important to note that customers can accept the redress and compensation offered and still make an appeal - they can "cash the cheque" safe in the knowledge that what they have, they hold.

"Redress and compensation offers cannot be reduced if a customer makes an appeal."

KBC said its total for affected customers has increased to 3,545 as the reviews progressed.

Bank of Ireland confirmed in November that it identified another 6,000 borrowers who had been overcharged, bringing its total to 14,500, including 5,000 who had been addressed in 2010.

AIB's number of affected customers is up to 5,402.

Ulster Bank had 3,500 customers on the wrong rates and Permanent TSB 1,980.

In a statement KBC said it apologised again.

"These mistakes should not have happened, and we acknowledge that they have caused significant detriment to some of the bank's customers," it said.

"We cannot undo the past, but we can provide remediation and learn from mistakes."

Francesca McDonagh, Bank of Ireland chief executive, said: "We are working hard to make things right for all impacted customers and are continuing to work closely with them to ensure that we can fix this issue, as sensitively as we can, in all cases."

Fianna Fail finance spokesman Michael McGrath said: "The real story behind today's update is that the lenders did not voluntarily reveal the full extent of the tracker mortgage scandal."

Sinn Fein's finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said: "Put bluntly the banks have been dragged to this point by pressure from their victims and their representatives. Their actions have not matched their words.

"They have cried crocodile tears in public while working behind the scenes to prevent these cases being accepted as legitimate."
The committee also called for all pregnant woman to be given access to scans between the 18th and 22nd week of the pregnancy

The chairman of a cross-party committee which called for the constitutional ban on abortion to be repealed has warned about misinformation and opportunism in the referendum debate.

The Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment found Article 40.3.3, which gives the mother and unborn child equal right to life, is not fit for purpose.

Senator Catherine Noone said the referendum on the proposed repeal, expected in May next year, would lead to an open season for campaigners.

"There will be a lot of misinformation. It will be difficult to keep it factual. It will be a difficult process," she said.

"Anyone can get on the airwaves, essentially, and people will be opportunistic."

In a 40-page report the committee recommended that abortion should be available up to 12 weeks of pregnancy without a woman having to explain her decision, and that the procedure should be allowed if the life or health of the woman was at risk.

It called for expectant mothers to be allowed an abortion at any stage of the pregnancy if doctors diagnosed a foetal abnormality that was likely to result in death before or shortly after birth.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said earlier this week that ministers would be free to oppose the Government on the referendum even though the Cabinet would have a "collective position" on the issue.

He also emphasised the importance of a referendum commission in informing the public objectively " to refute perhaps things that aren't true".

The committee found that the current laws which allow for a pregnancy to be terminated if a woman's life was at risk have created significant difficulties.

It also called for gestational limits for abortion to be guided by the best available medical evidence and be provided for in legislation.

It said at least two specialist doctors should be asked for assessments in relation to the termination of pregnancy where the life or the health of the woman was at risk.

The committee also called for all pregnant woman to be given access to scans between the 18th and 22nd week of the pregnancy.

Early next year, before a referendum is held, the Government is expected to outline how laws will be changed if the public votes in favour of repealing the constitutional ban.

Three members of the committee did not put their names to the final report - Senator Ronan Mullen, Independent TD Mattie McGrath and Fine Gael TD Peter Fitzpatrick.

They described the committee's work as an "unacceptably flawed process" and said it led inevitably to cruel and unjust recommendations.

Orla O'Connor, director of the National Women's Council of Ireland, said the committee's findings were a historic opportunity.

"The protected period during the first 12 weeks will be crucial to provide timely access to early abortion for all women and girls who need it, including those who have become pregnant as a result of rape," she said.

"Where a pregnancy becomes a crisis pregnancy at a later stage our doctors must be able to continue to provide care for the pregnant woman in a safe, regulated and non-judgmental environment."

As it stands, the 1983 Eighth Amendment of the Constitution affords equal rights to pregnant women and unborn children.

Terminations are only allowed when the life of the mother is at risk and the maximum penalty for accessing an illegal abortion is 14 years in prison.

Some 3,265 women gave Irish addresses at clinics and hospitals in England and Wales last year, a drop of almost 200 on the previous year and down from 6,673 in 2001.

Amid increasing access to abortion pills online, the Health Service Executive (HSE) said one internet supplier reported 1,438 contacts from women in 2015.

The committee's work was based on the outcome of the Citizens' Assembly, which voted for legal abortion without restriction as to the reasons, with just under half of those who voted preferring that the procedure be allowed up to 22 weeks gestation.

Twenty-five pregnancies were terminated under the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act last year.

Ms Noone said that the committee recommended abortion up to 12 weeks because of complexities in legislating to deal with cases of rape and incest and the increasing availability of abortion pills.

She said other issues highlighted were the need for better sex education and access to free contraception.

Health Minister Simon Harris said proposed laws would be drafted based on the committee's recommendations.

"T his is an issue that, as a nation, we need to deal with definitively," he said.

"I am determined that we will prove ourselves capable of addressing these issues in a respectful way."
Police and the Bomb Disposal Unit outside a property in Chesterfield, Derbyshire (Aaron Chown/PA)

Officers have been granted until Christmas Day to decide whether to charge four men held as part of an operation to foil a suspected Christmas atrocity.

Chip shop owner Andy Sami Star, 31, as well as three other men, aged 22, 36 and 41, are being questioned by police after raids on Tuesday morning.

Specialist teams returned to the scene in Chesterfield, Derbyshire on Wednesday to assist with ongoing searches, North East Counter Terrorism Unit said.

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 force have asked residents to be alert but not alarmed after the raid on Mermaid Tradition Fish Bar on Sheffield Road.

In Sheffield, a mosque and community centre in Brunswick Road, Burngreave, was sealed off, with local people telling stories of being woken at 6am by a series of loud bangs and camouflaged officers with guns.

According to witnesses a man was later taken from the property.

An Army bomb squad was deployed in Chesterfield, where armed officers and investigators focused on the fish and chip shop.

Expand Close Police vans parked up outside a fish and chip shop in Chesterfield (Josh Payne/PA) PA / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Police vans parked up outside a fish and chip shop in Chesterfield (Josh Payne/PA)

A close friend of Star, from the Kurdish community, who did not want to be named, said: I cant believe it to be honest. I knew him, he was my friend.

I dont know what happened, he was a nice guy. All I can think is that someone has taken advantage of him. I am sure he is innocent.

I dont know the three other guys involved, but they must have used him, taken advantage. I was so shocked when I was told he had been arrested.

It is very sad. I cant say anymore than that.

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

Superintendent Michelle Shooter of Derbyshire Police said: I would like to thank the people of Chesterfield for their patience and understanding during the unavoidable disruption.

Wed ask that people are calm, resilient and measured in what they say and how they act during what is a difficult and concerning time for local communities.

We are continuing to support officers from Counter Terrorism Policing North East as the investigation continues.

Our officers are patrolling the area to offer reassurance to the public.

Expand Close Police near a property in Chesterfield (Aaron Chown/PA) PA / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Police near a property in Chesterfield (Aaron Chown/PA)

South Yorkshire Police Assistant Chief Constable David Hartley said: Id like to thank everyone for their support and patience over the last 24 hours, which has understandably caused some concern within our communities

We are continuing to support the investigation and as planned throughout the festive period you will see an increased visibility of both unarmed and armed patrols right across the county.
Lee McVicker has been playing piano since he was a child

A pianist who touched hearts with his musical tribute to his late mother last week has been convicted of being drunk and disorderly on a flight.

Lee McVicker (23) was arrested at Manchester Airport on Sunday following a row with staff, who accused him of smoking. The musician, from Bushmills, had been travelling to York to play at a wedding yesterday.

Read More

McVicker, a former Irish Guard, appeared before Manchester Magistrates Court on Monday.

The court heard how he had been drinking with an old friend before the flight. He was arrested in the terminal building at Manchester after arriving for being drunk and for swearing.

Prosecutor Risha Seth told the court: "It was 5.10pm on December 17, 2017. Officers on patrol at Manchester Airport were called to attend at Terminal 1 to reports of a male on an easyJet flight from Belfast.

"A member of cabin crew reported that he was drunk and disorderly on board. Alcohol could be smelled on his breath.

"There were reports that a male had been suspected of smoking on board and being argumentative with the crew. Police arrived and the drunken male was found and spoken to. He was identified by way of his passport. It became apparent McVicker was extremely intoxicated. He was slurring his words and unsteady on his feet. He was consistently swearing, which he was advised not to do.

"He said: "Well I'm f****** sorry, you know what f*** it, f*** off I'm an honours student you f***'.

"Because of his behaviour within the terminal building and disruption he was arrested for being drunk and disorderly."

McVicker pleaded guilty to the offence and was fined 200 as well as being ordered to pay 85 prosecution costs and a 30 victim surcharge.

Magistrate Andrew Jeffay said: "This incident was in an airport and on an airplane.

"You were abusive to the police who, to be fair, have got better things to be doing keeping other people safe rather than dealing with this misbehaviour.

"We have a range of things we can do.

"We do feel this incident is unacceptable to a lot of people.

"The fine will be for 200 - and that represents an expensive drink."

But speaking to the Belfast Telegraph yesterday, McVicker disputed how the scenario was recalled in court, saying he did not claim to be an honours student, as he didn't know what one was.

Expand Close Lee McVicker / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Lee McVicker

He also refutes that he was swearing profusely or smoking on the plane.

"I am sickened that it's all been exaggerated, to be honest," McVicker said.

"I met up with someone at the airport who I hadn't seen in years. We had a few pints.

"I didn't even realise that we were on the same flight.

"We were mid-flight when the air hostess approached us and said that she thought that one of us was smoking on the plane.

"But it wasn't me who was smoking, so I said so - it wasn't anything major.

"I wasn't swearing and saying those things.

"I don't know what an honour's student is, it wasn't me who said it."

The talented pianist, who has fans all over the world, received acclaim just last week when he composed an emotional tribute called Final Goodbye to his mother Denise McGrotty (42), who died suddenly in 2014.

He was only made aware of her funeral two hours before and did not get a chance to say goodbye.

Despite spending a night in the cells, McVicker was released in time to play at the wedding he had been booked for.
The Morning Walk, on display at the National Gallery in London after it was repaired (PA)

A man who damaged a 24 million painting by one of Britains most celebrated artists while in the throes of a psychotic illness has been cleared of criminal damage by reason of insanity.

Keith Gregory, 63, left two deep slash marks in an X shape on The Morning Walk by Thomas Gainsborough when he attacked it with a drill bit in front of horrified art lovers browsing a collection of old masters on the afternoon of March 18.

Mr Gregory, of Kettering in Northamptonshire, caused more than 10,000 of damage before he was dragged away by security guards, shouting that he had just been released from prison and was going to trigger a bomb.

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

A jury at Southwark Crown Court took just over two hours to unanimously clear him of criminal damage.

Recorder Timothy Fancourt made a hospital order for Mr Gregory to return to a low security unit at Berrywood psychiatric hospital in Northampton where he has been receiving care since March 31.

The court heard from three psychologists on Tuesday who unanimously agreed he had been suffering severe symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia when he slashed the painting.

Mr Fancourt added: The defendant has significantly improved in his mental health since that time but it is necessary for him to remain as a patient in hospital and to have continuing treatment.

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Fancourt advised the jury to consider whether as a result of that disease it is more likely than not that he either did not know what he was doing when he slashed the painting or that he did not know that what he was doing was wrong.

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

If he did not know what he was doing or he did not know what he was doing was wrong then you must find him not guilty by reason of insanity, he added.

The defendant, wearing a green polo neck T-shirt, stood at the back of courtroom as the panel cleared him.

The court heard he felt that people were closing in on him when he went to the National Gallery, before damaging the artwork with a drill bit he had been using to remove tape from the cardboard boxes he was using to sleep in.

Mr Gregory, who had spent four months travelling the UK and sleeping rough after absconding from a mental health unit, slashed the painting after hearing a voice which said put a mark on the painting and your family will find you.

He was suffering paranoid delusions and auditory hallucinations, according to Steffan Davies, a psychologist who has been treating Mr Gregory since March 31.

The doctor said Mr Gregory thought he was being monitored by people with laptops and backpacks and that a chip had been implanted in him.

He also believed police were after him for the rape of 30 women, the court heard.

These ideas, Mr Davies said, he absolutely believed, adding that he was a man with a perfectly good house, and wife, but because of his illness was homeless and travelling around the country for four months.
Tributes have been paid to two men who died in a blaze at a luxury hotel.

Simon Midgley and Richard Dyson, from London, were guests at the five-star Cameron House Hotel on the banks of Loch Lomond when flames took hold on Monday morning.

More than 70 firefighters fought the blaze at the resort but one of the men died at the scene and the other died at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley.

Expand Close Cameron House Hotel fire Press Association Images / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Cameron House Hotel fire

Mr Midgley was a freelance journalist at the London Evening Standard and ran his own PR company.

Evening Standard editor George Osborne said: The team here at the Standard are very sad to hear the awful news about Simon and Richard.

We will miss Simons adventurous spirit. Everyone sends our thoughts and prayers to his family at this impossible time.

Expand Close Cameron House Hotel fire PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Cameron House Hotel fire

Digital director David Tomchak added: Simon was a talented writer with a natural charm and curiosity. The Evening Standard will miss him sorely.

Mr Midgley had posted pictures from around Glasgow on social media over the weekend and on Sunday added an image of Cameron House to Instagram with the comment home for the weekend!

Expand Close Cameron House Hotel fire PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Cameron House Hotel fire

John Payne, of Hope Church in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, said Mr Dysons parents had asked their local church to pray for the family.

He wrote on Facebook: As you can imagine both Roger and Val are devastated. They have asked us to pray for them and the family.

Please pray for them, for the God of all comfort to make his presence so powerfully known in the midst of their pain.

Our hearts go out to them and Im sure theyd welcome your love and support at this awful 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

An online fundraising page has been set up to support the families of both men.

It has been organised by their neighbour Gary Steel who wrote: Both Simon and Dickie were a fantastic couple who brought joy to many of their friends and family and taken far too early in this accident.

Simon and Richard were very quick to open their arms when we first became neighbours and a friendship that we will cherish forever.

The boys were so keen to explore the west coast of Scotland and were asking away only a few nights ago about all the things they should do in the beautiful city of Glasgow.

Three other people  a family of two adults and a child  were rescued by ladder from the fire and taken to hospital in Glasgow but have since been discharged.
Gary Lineker has pulled some strings to get a whole bunch of Walkers crisps delivered to homeless charity Crisis, following an appeal on Twitter.

The former England striker is the face of the crisps brand and was out in South Africa filming for them when he was asked if he could support Crisis in its search for snacks this Christmas.

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

Before long the presenter had been tagged into the conversation, and responded in no time at all to say he was working on it.

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

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

Walkers confirmed that it would be sending 3,200 bags to Crisis  35 cases of cheese and onion, 35 ready salted, 10 salt and vinegar, and 20 prawn cocktail.

The act of generosity comes as a cross-party report described homelessness as a national crisis  and the Governments response to it an abject failure.

More than 9,000 people are sleeping rough on the streets and over 78,000 households, including 120,000 children, are homeless and living in temporary accommodation, often of a poor standard, said the Public Accounts Committee.

Its report said the Department for Communities and Local Governments attitude to reducing homelessness has been unacceptably complacent, with limited action that has lacked urgency.

Expand Close Graphic showing the rise in homelessness since 2010 Press Association Images / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Graphic showing the rise in homelessness since 2010

The number of people sleeping rough has increased by 134% since 2011, while there has been a 60% rise in the number of households in temporary accommodation since 2010, said the report.

The Governments commitment to eliminate rough sleeping by 2027 will only address the tip of the iceberg, said the MPs, adding that there was an unacceptable shortage of realistic housing options for the homeless or those at risk of homelessness.

But while the official statistics are shocking, they were also described as wildly out of touch  because they ignore single homeless households and focus too heavily on rough sleepers, a charity said.

Figures uncovered by Justlife through a Freedom of Information request showed that 51,467 people are living hidden and homeless in short-term bed and breakfast accommodation across England.

The number is based on responses from 253 local authorities and is eight times higher than Government figures and 16 times higher than official rough sleeping figures, said the charity.

Meg Hillier, who chairs the Public Accounts Committee, said: The latest official figures hammer home the shameful state of homelessness in England and the abject failure of the Governments approach to addressing the misery suffered by many thousands of families and individuals.

As we approach Christmas there are thousands of children in temporary accommodation  a salutary reminder of the human cost of policy failure.

The Government must do more to understand and measure the real-world costs and causes of homelessness and put in place the joined-up strategy that is so desperately needed.

That means properly addressing the shortage of realistic housing options for those at risk of homelessness or already in temporary accommodation. More fundamentally, it means getting a grip on the markets failure to provide genuinely affordable homes, both to rent and to buy.

There are practical steps it can take now  for example, targeting financial support on local authorities with acute shortages of suitable housing, rather than those councils which are simply ready to spend  that would make a real difference to peoples lives.

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

A Government spokesman said: Tackling homelessness is a complex issue with no single solution, but we are determined to help the most vulnerable in society.

Thats why we are providing over 1 billion up to 2020 to reduce all forms of homelessness and rough sleeping and we are bringing in the Homelessness Reduction Act, which is the most ambitious reform in decades, to ensure people get support sooner.

In addition, we have established a Rough Sleeping and Homelessness Reduction Taskforce across Government, with support from experts, so we can respond as effectively as possible.
A Sri Lankan minister said the beetle was not native to his country

Sri Lanka's plantation minister has denied that the country's agricultural products, including its famous Ceylon tea, are dangerous, days after Russia imposed a temporary ban on such goods.

Russian safety watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor banned all imports of agricultural products from Sri Lanka starting on December 18, after an insect known as the Khapra beetle was found in the packaging of a consignment of Sri Lankan tea.

The beetle is known as one of the most destructive pests in the grain products and seeds industry.

Plantation minister Navin Dissanayake said the insect is not common in Sri Lanka and there is less than a 5% chance that it came from the island nation.

He said the insect could have entered the container when the ship stopped in other ports on its way to Russia.

Tea production is one of the main exports for Sri Lanka.

In 2015, Russia was the top buyer of Ceylon tea, purchasing a total of 116 million.

Mr Dissanayake said a team of officials and scientists from Sri Lanka may visit Russia next week to call for the ban to be lifted.
'Given the attitude of parties here to threats or deadlines, it is unlikely that even a cut in wages will work the oracle in getting agreement between the DUP and Sinn Fein'

Few members of the public are likely to be sympathetic to Northern Ireland's MLAs following a recommendation that their salaries be severely pruned.

After all, it is almost a year since they were elected with the primary task of restoring devolution, a task they have singularly failed to achieve and, it would seem at times, to seriously contemplate.

Advice given to Secretary of State James Brokenshire recommends a two-stage cut to the basic salaries of MLAs with other recommendations affecting office bearers in the collapsed Assembly and adjustments to staffing allowances, an embargo on further employment of staff, and deferment of the annual increment due to MLAs each April.

This is waving a stick, since all attempts to cajole the politicians back onto the benches at Stormont have failed.

Given the attitude of parties here to threats or deadlines, it is unlikely that even a cut in wages will work the oracle in getting agreement between the DUP and Sinn Fein.

Both may be playing different agendas which do not necessarily put a return to devolution at the top of their priorities. After all, the DUP sees itself at the centre of national government - and therefore possibly more influential than ever - while Sinn Fein is looking increasingly over the border for the party's next political project.

There is no doubt that if the Secretary of State takes the advice given to him - and what would be the point of seeking it and then ignoring it? - MLAs would see a serious reduction in their income, down a total of 13,612 to 35,888 on the standard salary. Given that many people tend to live to the standard of the income they enjoy, that could mean a severe tightening of the belt for some of our politicians.

Mr Brokenshire has to bear in mind that any cut in salary he makes is proportionate to the job the MLAs do. While they may not be legislating, they still run constituency offices and handle the problems brought to them. They may be accused of doing nothing, but that is unfair - it is a case of not doing enough.

It should be noted that the average wage in Northern Ireland is 24,800, 11,000 below what the politicians would get if these recommendations are implemented. And we all face the threat of rates increases, prescription charges and other revenue-raising measures to bail out the economy. We have more reason to feel sorry for ourselves than our politicians.
Professor Phil Scraton and 199 co-signatories have written a letter that is the cry of a people in exile and bondage. The letter alleges a deprivation of equality, respect and human rights suffered by much of the population of Northern Ireland that is so serious and appalling that they felt the need to write to the political head of the neighbouring state.

Perhaps Professor Scraton, or Niall Murphy, a solicitor, as high-profile signatories among the 200 "key" nationalists, as the Belfast Telegraph called them, could particularise the inequality, disrespect and withholding of human rights they suffer from professionally, publicly or privately.

Both enjoy the freedom to vote, freedom of worship, freedom of movement, freedom of speech, freedom to work, freedom to learn and speak the Irish language. Both enjoy professional respect, as evidenced by their career standings.

Only two inflictions come to my mind. In the democratically conducted EU referendum in the United Kingdom, I presume they cast their vote for the losing side, but I cannot be sure of that since the anonymous ballot is a keystone of Western democracy.

Yet they retain the freedom to attempt to impede, amend or reverse the complex ramifications of that democratic vote and to persuade Leave voters that they have made a mistake and should lobby for a second referendum. Indeed, the freedom to sign a contentious letter addressed publicly to a political figure outside the jurisdiction. So, the "human rights" withheld wholesale from them escape me, though I cudgel my brains.

Professor Scraton is quoted as identifying Brexit as the instigating motive for his signature below a letter to the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar.

But if that were the sum of the matter, surely he can exercise the freedom I have identified. Other Remainers in the UK are doing so, vigorously.

And should that fail, is anyone sure in this period of adjustment that an Irish passport-holder in the UK will be deprived of the benefits of EU membership?

And surely if Brexit were the nub, pro-Union Remainers would have been lobbied to sign the letter. Were they? Or was Mr Murphy concerned exclusively with the perceived plight of northern nationalists, knowing that few - if any - unionists who voted Remain were indirectly voting for a more unified Ireland in the event of Brexit?

To interpret a Remain vote as invariably that, to co-opt unionist Remainers as sleeping co-signatories of the letter ("a majority of voters in the north of Ireland voted to remain within the EU"), is surely a sleight of hand.

Moreover, the professor's quoted use, in the Irish News, of yesteryear's provocative code-phrase "Six Counties" suggests that the letter has another fish to fry, does it not? Which brings us to the other infliction and the heart of the matter. The signatories refrain from locating "Northern Ireland" even as the venue of their exile. They choose, instead, to use the more familiar code-phrase "the north of Ireland" and so signal their non-recognition of the constitutional status of Northern Ireland - indeed, even of the regional autonomy of the Six Counties (so, lower-case "n", upper-case "I").

That interpretation comes unbidden when Mr Murphy, attempting, rightly, to be specific on the BBC, repeats planks in Sinn Fein's platform: language equality, marriage equality and the failure to fund inquests into certain killings during what are euphemistically called "the Troubles". Chances are, Sinn Fein are "the others" merely alluded to in the letter who are calling for this trio of rights.

This invites us to see the letter to the Taoiseach (below) as a new form of pan-nationalism, this one social and cultural, rather than party political.

But Newton Emerson's suggestion, in the Irish Times, that the letter instantly sidelines Sinn Fein appears wishful thinking.

The one right (and, as far as I understand, the only right) the signatories are deprived of as UK citizens (and the signatories are entitled to dual citizenship) is the right to live on the island of Ireland entirely outside the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom.

However, the only way that right could be fully honoured, in the short term, is for my own right to live in the United Kingdom while dwelling in Ireland to be removed. Unsurprisingly, there is a limit to one's genuine sympathy when one's citizenship is in the balance.

This is a complexity, perhaps even a tragedy, of almost a century's standing.

I remember a northern Catholic artist telling me (before the ceasefires and Belfast Agreement) that she hated the Republic because it deserted her and hers in 1922. I felt her sincere pain. The sadness of an abandoned people is there in the stories of Michael McLaverty. But that was then and this is now.

Mr Emerson refers to Mr Murphy's despairing nationalists. I suspect, alas, that those nationalists would not even wish to hear about despairing unionists, who sincerely believe that they have given much ground in the past 45 years, yet are harried without let-up by Sinn Fein to this day.

Yet try as I might, I cannot fathom nationalist despair. For since 1973 I have witnessed alterations in the governance and constitutional status of Northern Ireland that, rather than copper-fastening the Union and dissing the Irish "cultural traditions" to which the letter refers, have, in fact, increasingly admitted those once-excluded traditions into the Northern Ireland public sphere in ways that once would have been unthinkable.

If this sounds like condescending reluctance, remember the context.

My memories of Northern Ireland go back to the 1950s.

Northern Ireland has sea-changed and in terms of social class, education, religion and political representation, the changes have happily been, on the whole, predominantly in one direction - towards the very equality and respect the signatories claim to be absent, towards (outside enclaves on each side) a greater inclusivity and harmony.

The claim that it is otherwise can surely only be justified in diehard political terms and hardly at all in cultural terms. As for the symbolic heart of Irish cultural tradition, the Irish language (the letter begins "A Thaoisigh, a chara"), are Catholics (or Protestants for that matter) prevented, or even dissuaded, from learning, speaking or writing the language?

As a cultural historian, I am happy to recount the extraordinary alterations in Northern Ireland. They seem to me to have been more often colour-coded green than blue.

Surely, statistics would show that Catholics are firmly and proportionately represented in the professions and the public sector (and in some cases, as in the student bodies of the two universities, over-represented)? Can the signatories point to continuing, systemic anti-Catholic discrimination in the civic and public spheres?

If not, then the only discrimination they can justifiably point to is discrimination against those who wish, without qualification, to live in the north of Ireland absolutely free of the UK.

That is discrimination not against Catholics, but against republicans and, for the foreseeable future, it seems, with all the will in the world, unavoidable.

But, since Northern Ireland might be regarded optimistically as a work in progress, who knows what the long haul might yield? I say "Catholics" reluctantly, for I am uneasy with ethnic-religious categories, as distinct from political categories.

But we are required by the law in the public sphere to headcount using these categories. And this conflates Catholic with nationalist and, by doing so, distorts the picture of our society.

I know Catholics who are happy to live in the UK and don't particularly wish to live in a unified Ireland. They are a forgotten constituency. I assume none signed the letter to the Taoiseach.

I find the letter needlessly alarmist and provocative. It assumes a fightback posture almost entirely unrelated to the actual threat.

If in the matter of Brexit, it is, shall we say, a bit previous, then beyond Brexit, surely it obstructs our ongoing communal attempt to fashion a liveable society.

John Foster is Emeritus Professor, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
South Shore Battalion Chief Jon Keiser said crews arrived on the scene at 3:36 p.m. and remained there for about 50 minutes. No injuries were reported.

Mount Pleasant police said that after an initial investigation, it appears that the cause of the fire was due to mechanical issues in the engine area of the Nissan Altima. According to Sgt. Eric Relich of the Mount Pleasant Police Department, eastbound traffic was congested for about 45 minutes. The road had to be swept and cleared of hazardous materials, Relich said.
In 1849, activities of Northern abolitionists became a matter of grave concern to people in Berkeley County, as well as all sections of the South. Because of ever increasing agitations against the way of life in the South at many meetings, hints about seceding from the Union were voiced by s Read moreAgitation From the North, Development of Dennis Redoubt
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.
Is AMR Modern-day FRANKENSTEINS MONSTER?

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) continues to pose a significant public health problem in terms of mortality and economic loss. The rising AMR is a matter of huge concern that needs to be tactfully handled and health authorities of several countries, including India, have formulated action plans for its containment. Significant efforts by the government, an active involvement of startups and diagnostic players is a good start. The question remains, whether this will be enough.

For Feedback, please email us at: communications@mmactiv.com
Company Will Have Six Fully Operational Sites in India to Meet Growing Demand

Marken made an announcement that it is going to open new branch in Ahmedabad and expand into larger spaces in Hyderabad and Delhi.

Both offices will be operational in the first quarter, 2018.

The opening of office will beneficial to fulfill client demand and also enables further expansion of its transportation network in the country.

Marken will have six fully equipped locations in India, including its 24/7 Global Control Center in Mumbai.

The Indian biotech industry holds a 2% share of the global biotech market, but is growing fast.

This growth is still continuing due to growing demand, rigorous R&D and various government initiatives.

India is among the top 12 biotech destinations in the world and ranks third in the Asia-Pacific region.

India has the second-highest number of US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA)approved manufacturing plants, after the USA.

India has emerged as a leading source of drug manufacturing but is also a growing destination for clinical trials and contract research.
RACINE  Police responded Tuesday to a report of a wanted person in the area near McKinley Middle School, 2340 Mohr Ave. Racine police were assisting another jurisdiction regarding the suspect.

Extra precautions were put in place at the school while police were in the area, according to Stacy Tapp, chief of communication and community engagement for the Racine Unified School District. As of 1:15 p.m., Tapp said police had notified school officials that the situation was cleared. No additional information was immediately available on Tuesday.
RACINE  Two Racine residents have been charged in connection with a reported home invasion early Monday morning on the citys north side.

Janasia L. Kirby, 20, of the 600 block of 18th Street, has been charged with a felony count of attempted armed robbery, and Naython Bergeron-Davila, 26, of the 1100 block of Yout Street, has been charged with felony counts of attempted armed robbery and possession of a firearm by a felon.

According to the criminal complaints:

Racine police were dispatched to 1207 Romayne Ave. at about 4:11 a.m. Monday for a report of a man with a gun. One resident, who resides at the address, said he was awakened by the sound of banging from the stairs leading to his apartment and then observed Bergeron-Davila standing in his bedroom door holding a shotgun and asking, Wheres the money? Wheres the weed?

The two then struggled over the shotgun until the residents brother assisted by grabbing a bat and hitting Bergeron-Davila until they could get the gun away from him.

During the struggle, a woman who was with Bergeron-Davila reportedly told the resident, Were going to get you, too. That woman was later identified as Kirby.

After getting the gun away from Bergeron-Davila, the resident and his brother forced the two down the stairs from the apartment. At that point Kirby reportedly got out the door, but the two brothers held Bergeron-Davila until police arrived.

Police later made contact with Bergeron-Davila at the Ascension All Saints Hospital emergency room, where he was transferred due to injuries in the struggle. He denied trying to rob the residents. While police were at the hospital, Kirby reportedly showed up with clothing matching those that the victims had described and she was later taken into custody and charged in connection to the incident.

Kirby and Bergeron-Davila both have Dec. 27 preliminary hearings scheduled in Racine County Circuit Court. Both were reported in custody as of Monday night at the County Jail.
RACINE  Just before the holiday weekend, Democratic primary voters gave Greta Neubauer a gift with their votes on Tuesday, giving her a victory to likely become the next state representative for the 66th District.

Neubauer defeated 3rd District Racine Alderman John Tate II with 1,518 votes to Tates 1,301, according to unofficial results from the County Clerks Office.

The official election to the seat will be on Jan. 16, but with no Republican or other party candidates on the ballot, Neubauer will likely be running unopposed.

The previous representative, Racine Mayor Cory Mason, is stepping down from the seat to give full attention to his city duties.

Neubauer walked into the primary election day with nearly $38,000 contributed to her campaign to Tates $7,000.

Im still a little bit in shock, Neubauer said Tuesday night. Im grateful to all the voters that opened their doors when I knocked on them in the cold, in the dark and were willing to share their stories with me.

About 50 supporters packed the second floor of Vero International Cuisine, 211 Sixth St., and cheered and clapped when Neubauer entered the room.

I love Racine, Neubauer said. This community is also very hurting and politicians at the state level and national level are not representing Racine right now and this is a critical movement for us to say very clearly and definitively that we deserve better.

Neubauer, 26, previously worked as a director for the nonprofit the Fossil Fuel Divestment Student Network, now called the Sunrise Movement, focusing on environmental issues. She is the daughter of former state Rep. Jeff Neubauer and Lisa Neubauer, a judge on the Wisconsin Court of Appeals.

Before the campaign, Neubauer worked with Mason in Madison first as an intern, then later as an aide. She said Mason he was a mentor to her in the workings of politics.

Ive always looked up to Cory (Mason), Neubauer said. I interned for him when I was 16 in his office in the capitol. I have always been inspired by the way he fought for working families, for public schools, for our environment for generations to come. I certainly hope to continue those fights.

During her time with Mason, Neubauer worked closely on the state budget and had a front row seat to the debate on the $2.85 billion incentive package to lure the Foxconn Technology Group to Mount Pleasant.

Neubauer said shes not sure at the moment about what Legislative committees she wants to work on, but shes looking forward to representing the district, which includes the lions share of the City of Racine.

Tate congratulates opponent

Tate conceded the race at about 9:30 p.m. and called to congratulate Neubauer.

This campaign was fast and furious, said Tates campaign manager, Fabi Maldonado. We worked really, really, really hard.

At The Branch, 1501 Washington Ave. in Uptown, Tate addressed the roughly 50 people who were there to support his campaign, mentioned his working-class roots and thanked his family for their support.

Working hard is in my DNA, its in my blood, Tate said.

Tate congratulated his opponent and said she ran a good race.

I wish her all the best, Tate said. I hope that she continues to learn the people of this community and get to know the people of this community so that she can actually represent this community.

Despite being beaten in fundraising, Tate said this campaign  was never about money, was never about privilege, it was never about power and influence but it was about people.

Serve the people of Racine

Mason was present at Neubauers party at Vero International Cuisine and congratulated his former aide.

Im looking forward to serving with her as a colleague and I think shell do a great job for Racine, Mason said. Shes got a real depth of knowledge around sustainability and the environment that is going to serve her and the people of Racine very well.

Mason said Neubauer understands the structure of state government which will be an advantage for her.

Shes worked in the building, she knows what shes getting into, Mason said. For her, shell be able to hit the ground running, which will be a real asset to the people of the 66th (Assembly District).
2.8m worth of drugs have been seized in Dublin.

Gardai from the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau seized the drugs and arrested two men in the operation today.

The seizure was part of ongoing investigations targeting serious organised criminal activity in the Dublin region.

Two cars were stopped in the Drumcondra area this morning and officers seized about 5kgs of cannabis herb after searching the cars.

Two men, aged 25 and 30 respectively, were arrested at the scene and are being held at Finglas garda station under the provisions of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act 1996.

In a follow-up operation, a search was carried out at an address in Drumcondra where a significant amount of drugs was seized including cocaine, heroin, cannabis herb, cannabis resin and ecstasy tablets, along with drug packaging and mixing paraphernalia.

The total amount of drugs seized was in excess of 2.8m, gardai confirmed.
Bitkow and Hua sell mostly online, but also sell at a market in Brisbane on Saturday mornings, rising at 3.30am to set up. Sarah Hua and Emily Bitkow's turnover is about $50,000. The pair have their sights firmly set on the health and activewear market, which was worth $3.05 billion in 2016 and is forecasted to grow an average of 6 per cent a year over the coming five years, reaching $4.1 billion by 2021, according to Euromonitor. Lean operation They operate lean, and apart from the assistance from occasional part-time consultants, both are completely involved in all facets of the business, including design, production, marketing, sales and distribution.

Bitkow admits that navigating the manufacturing side of things was difficult. "Having ruled out both China and Vietnam after much initial research, I came across Fiji, which proved to be a good place to manufacture." She travelled to Fiji and stood by while the factory produced the first few prototypes. She returned home to Australia and waited for the first shipment of 500 to arrive. I sold about half of the wonky ones to family and friends. The rest don't exist anymore. But that support at such a distressing time for me was pivotal to my success. "It was a disaster. The zips were wonky, the inside seams were coming apart, the printing was back to front, meaning $6000 down the drain." Not one to be defeated, Bitkow put on her bravest smile and sold the wonky VIVRA bags anyway, admitting she needed the money to plough back into the next order.

"I sold about half of the wonky ones to family and friends and at the market, explaining that it still works well. The other half were chucked out. That support at such a distressing time for me was pivotal to my success." Bitkow realised she needed to work more closely with the manufacturer, explaining the quality wasn't up to scratch. Subsequent orders have been far better. Failing first But the VIVRA isn't Bitkow's first attempt at making the bum bag a fashion statement. She has a failed business attempt under her belt after launching Be Bitko (which had a similar aesthetic) and selling at markets in 2009 But the label was unable to achieve growth, so she folded the business in 2013. The failed business left her $25,000 in debt, prompting her to get a job as a personal assistant.

"My family were worried about me, because I was pouring everything I had into the business, which was leaving me pretty destitute. I'd refinance my life and instead of paying off my debt, I'd be ordering more product with my manufacturer again." It wasn't until she met Sarah Hua, who believed in her friend's idea to such an extent that she ploughed an initial investment sum of $90,000 into the business, that VIVRA was born in October last year. Hua has made further smaller investments since. "Sarah believed in what I was doing and wanted to get involved." Hua was working as a sonographer, and was looking for a creative path in life when she fell in love with Bitkow's products and wanted to help. "Every time we caught up, I was really interested to hear how the business was going. I could see that she was struggling in those early days, financially, physically and emotionally, as she was doing all this on her own and I really admired her bravery. I offered to help from the financial and operational side of the business," Hua says. She admits she's hoping to attain a healthy profit and a swift return on her $90,000-plus investment. "However, unlike most other investors, this isn't purely a financial investment as I work full-time in the business. This allows me to come along on the rollercoaster ride that has been the VIVRA journey, which I've found immensely enjoyable."
YORKVILLE  The Racine County Board Tuesday night unanimously voted to join dozens of Wisconsin counties in a lawsuit against opioid drug manufacturers over their alleged deceptive and fraudulent marketing of painkillers.

The suit specifically names Purdue Pharma (the maker of the painkiller Oxycontin), Johnson & Johnson, Endo Health Solutions, their subsidiaries and individual physicians as defendants. At least 10 states have filed similar lawsuits.

The basic premise of this suit is that the manufacturers deceived the public by omitting and/or misrepresenting critical information about opioids addictive qualities and other risks associated with prolonged use, said Racine County Corporation Counsel Michael Lanzdorf. It also alleges they misrepresented the benefits and superiority of opioids all in the strategy to increase profit margins.

County Supervisor Monte Osterman of Racine called the resolution one of the most important statements we could be making.

This falls right in our county executives wheelhouse for trying to improve the mental health of all of Racine County, he said.

In a press release issued Tuesday night, County Executive Jonathan Delagrave said the lawsuit is about accountability.

By filing this lawsuit, Racing County seeks to hold these companies accountable for their role in the scourge thats infiltrated our community, he said. Opioid addiction has caused incredible damage for families across Racine County and county resources are stretched thin trying to address this devastating crisis.

Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling was quoted in the release as saying the lawsuit would hold these companies responsible for the crisis his office is facing.

The Sheriffs Office sees firsthand how the opioid epidemic impacts our community on a nearly everyday basis, Schmaling said. The manufacturers of these highly addictive medications have played a significant part in the epidemic and this lawsuit is an important step toward holding them responsible.

At least 35 dead

According to the release, the Racine County Medical Examiners Office reported 35 confirmed deaths related to drug overdoses in 2017 as of Tuesday with another six pending cases that are likely overdoses. Medical Examiner Michael Payne said if the plaintiffs win, it could provide valuable resources for the fight against opioid addiction.

We will never be able to bring back those who lost their lives because of this epidemic, said Payne. The lawsuit is one way for the county to not only recoup some of the money expended in battling this epidemic but stem the tide in our fight and, ultimately, save lives.
I enjoyed reading about the release of Year 12 results this week. Kudos to students (and the parents supporting them) who took their studies seriously, worked hard and got the result they deserved. You rock.

It's inspiring watching students chase their university dream. Then depressing watching too many students squander the opportunity when they get to uni, by skipping lectures and tutorials and ignoring university life.

What causes some students to go from dedicated, motivated learners at school to university slackers? Credit:SMH

What causes some students to go from dedicated, motivated learners at school to university slackers who waste tens of thousands of dollars on a degree and whinge when there is no job at the end?

Of course, not all students are like this. Some work harder at university than they did at school, attending every lecture and immersing themselves in campus life. They come to campus each day, join student associations, make new friends and live uni life to the full.
Mothers have to put up with a lot, not least of which is a society where terms such as "baby brain" and "mumpreneur" can cut down as many women as they empower or emancipate.

But one Australian magazine is seeking to smash the stereotypes around "juggling" motherhood with other pursuits in a feature about mothers who are making their mark.

RUSSH magazine contributor Anna Harrison was spurred to write "New Dawn" after her own conflict around how having a child would impact her work.

"Mothers are badass, this much is clear," Harrison writes. "[But] the overriding message is clear: motherhood is akin to a vice that constricts a woman's potential to grow and prosper in most other areas, namely professional and creative."
It was on Father's Day when Stephen Phillip Playford made the decision to kill himself and his family - starting with six-year-old daughter Sidney.

Stephen Playford has been jailed for life for murdering his daughter Sidney.

When his plan to gas her failed, he held a cushion against the little girl's face and ignored her screams as he told her "daddy would be with her soon".

The financially ruined father had been stockpiling nitrogen cylinders in the family's home in Kedron, in Brisbane's north, as part of a plan to painlessly end all of their lives while they slept - because he believed his family could not cope without him if he only killed himself.

But when the gas didn't work on Sidney, he smothered her.
Police are searching for an 81-year-old man went missing on his way to Adelaide from Hervey Bay.

Brian Williams was last seen boarding a bus at the Hervey Bay terminal in the early hours of Monday morning, bound for Adelaide.

Brian Williams was last seen on Monday at Hervey Bay. Credit:Queensland Police Service.

He had intended to catch a number of buses and trains from Maryborough, Brisbane and New South Wales on his way further south.

Police said he was due to meet with family in Melbourne on Wednesday, but failed to show up.
Madrid: Having already been "decapitated" by the Spanish government, Catalonia's independence movement goes to the polls on Thursday reeling also from infighting.

Its leaders, Carles Puigdemont - the ousted Catalan regional president who fled to Belgium to avoid arrest following October's illegal referendum - and Oriol Junqueras, his former vice president, who stayed and has spent the past six weeks in prison - ran together on a pro-independence ticket in 2015 but are now competing to become the region's next president. And the barbs are flying.

People walk past a poster of the No. 2 on the Republican Left's list, Marta Rovira, next to an independence flag, ahead of the Catalan regional election in Barcelona. Credit:Emilio Morenatti

In an interview recorded by the RAC1 radio station at the Estremera jail near Madrid on Tuesday, Junqueras said: "I went to prison because I do not hide and I am consistent with my actions."

Puigdemont in response, said: "I am in Belgium because we don't hide, because we are consistent and because the wishes and will of Catalans are a mandate we consider valid."
Physically, it's pretty obvious. Bending over a phone all day ruins your posture. Staring at a small screen damages your eyesight. Watching videos until two in the morning upsets your sleep. And posting a photo of your cat having a bad hair day and waiting for the clicks to come works by exactly the same system of action and reward that you see practised in casinos and crack dens. We are hooked, folks. This is an addiction.

But just because change is inevitable doesn't mean that we should be morally ambivalent about it. After all, the invention of the motor car made human existence a lot easier, but it also led to accidents. So, we rolled out seat belts, traffic lights etc. And while some seem to think that the larger the technological change, the more we should be willing to nod it through, logic dictates the opposite. The internet has revolutionised our society so dramatically, so quickly, that it has become a matter of self-preservation to stop and ask what its effects might be.

For too long it's been taken as read that criticising social media is like trying to hold back the tide: change comes in, tradition goes out, deal with it. We used to worry that TV would rot your brain; before that radio, before that cinema. Doubtless, cavemothers once shouted at their little Troglodytes: "Stop staring at that fire, it'll ruin your eyes!"

London: Facebook has finally acknowledged the academic studies that say social media is bad for your health. I should know: I've just gone cold turkey. It's been two weeks since I last tweeted and Tim Stanley feels great. I've lost weight, spoken to my family for the first time in years and have started work on a book called Hey Loser, Put Down That iPhone! There's a photo of me on the front cover in a leotard, throttling the Twitter bird.

It's an addiction with some good side effects. Social media has made it easier to advertise, sell, run for office and stay in touch. It means that the grandma who lives hundreds of miles away can see all the photos of her family's holiday to Egypt on Facebook. Although, if I was that grandma, I'd be inclined to type: "Looks fun. How about inviting me next time?"

And that's where the physical problems tip into the existential: the gap between reality and online fantasy. Social media is for many an alternative to being social: it means you don't have to speak to granny in person. Moreover, we can choose precisely what grandma gets to see of our lives; not quite the whole picture, a collage of approved angles. In the Seventies, Susan Sontag wrote perceptively of how human beings use cameras to control our experience of things: the tourist sees the pyramids, he photographs the pyramids, the pyramids have been put in their place.

In the old days he would then bore us all with a slide show: Giza shot out of focus, the heads chopped off the camels. Social media now accentuates the theatrical power of the camera by allowing the tourist to airbrush and disseminate said images, to give the impression of the perfect holiday to a boundless audience. The internet isn't just a lens into our lives, it's also a stage for us to perform on, and the effects, particularly on young girls obsessed with body image and the scrutiny of peers, can be devastating. One sad inquiry into the death of a teenager who had been bullied at school and online found that some of the hate mail she received may have been posted by herself.

Social media encourages us to push the extreme version of ourselves: beautiful and ugly, victim and sadist. Few people, I'm convinced, are as ghastly in real life as they are on Twitter: the anonymous person who calls me a "big haired Nazi" is probably a sweet old lady who is just frustrated that her grandchildren won't call.

The opposite to this rule is true, too: no one is as virtuous in real life as they appear online. And yet the thing that has probably driven me off Twitter - more than the abuse or the name-calling or the demands that I get a haircut - are the people who seem to be shocked and appalled by the most banal things. If a newspaper publishes the headline "MP Leers at Woman on Bus", within seconds there is a chorus of "filthy beast", "sack the pervert" and "this is exactly why men shouldn't be allowed on buses". The Prime Minister will call for an inquiry into the male libido; the Six O'Clock News will announce that public outrage has forced the MP to flee abroad.
MADISON  A state senator running for U.S. Senate said Tuesday someone should go to jail for an ethics investigation by the former Government Accountability Board that involved the review of her private emails and resulted in no charges.

Sen. Leah Vukmir, R-Brookfield, said many people should be held accountable for her emails being obtained by Milwaukee County investigators and passed on to the GABs ethics investigators, including Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, a Democrat.

I believe some of the things that were done, people should go to jail for this, Vukmir said Tuesday at a Wispolitics.com luncheon.

But when asked whether retired Judge Neal Nettesheim, who oversaw and approved warrants in the Milwaukee County investigation, or Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel, who first revealed two weeks ago that Vukmir had been investigated, should be held accountable Vukmir said shes looking at all of her legal options and was really not at liberty to talk about it.

Asked why her anger has been directed at the GAB, which authorized the investigation in December 2011 and closed it in March 2013 with no charges filed, Vukmir said it was because her private emails with her daughter, some containing medical information, were found in an electronic folder marked opposition research, a term that refers to dirt collected on political opponents.

Thats not careless, thats showing intent, Vukmir said. Personal emails between my daughter and me. Thats just beyond the pale. Its wrong.

Chisholm did not respond to a request for comment. John Doe and ethics investigators are prohibited by state law from discussing their investigations. Vukmir also backed a call by Senate and Assembly Republican leadership to oust the current heads of the state ethics and elections commissions, and she agreed nine individuals recommended by Attorney General Brad Schimel for contempt of court proceedings should be held accountable. She didnt rule out a civil lawsuit could be filed.

Im not going to leave any stone left unturned, Vukmir said. Government should not be overreaching into our lives.

The Wisconsin State Journal reported Sunday that Schimel was the first to reveal that Vukmir had been investigated by the states former ethics agency as part of a previously unknown ethics investigation into whether Republican state employees were campaigning on taxpayer-funded time. A judge who authorized the release of Schimels report said Monday that he shouldnt have done so because state law requires that subjects of state investigations that dont result in charges should have their confidentiality maintained.

The ethics investigation was authorized by the Government Accountability Boards six-member panel of retired judges in December 2011 and closed in March 2013 with no charges recommended. The emails were obtained by warrant as part of the John Doe I investigation into Gov. Scott Walkers Milwaukee County office  which investigators sought to expand 18 times based on evidence collected.

Schimel issued a report two weeks ago that identified Vukmir as one of 35 people who had their private emails obtained as part of that investigation. The Milwaukee County District Attorneys Office forwarded those emails to the GAB as part of its ethics investigation.
Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams

These young performers did not toy around!

Dozens of up-and-coming dancers broke out their best moves for a local theater companys near flawless production of The Nutcracker at a Windsor Terrace high school on Dec. 17, which the shows director cheered as the smoothest in five years.

The music, the lighting, the kids going on and off, the costume changes  everything was smooth, said Dana Senisi, who runs the Bensonhurst-based Triple Threat Performing Arts Company.

The troupe of 4-to-20-year-old jitterbugs prepared for their rendition of the Tchaikovsky-scored Christmas classic with practices five nights a week, and their training showed, according to the mom of two youngsters who performed.

It was amazing, said Bensonhurst local Dominique DOnofrio, whose kids Penelope and Giovanni pranced in the show. They worked really hard.

Experienced dancers also graced the stage at Bishop Ford High Schools theater in the production, including Senisis sister, who worked with the aspiring performers and gave them a taste of life as a professional ballerina, the director said.

A lot of these kids want to be pro dancers, and its good to have working dancers around so they can see how they work, she said.
Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams

Hes Brooklyn Papers biggest fan!

Mayor DeBlasio, lauded by this newspaper as the citys largest chief executive, promised to sit down with its reporters at a recent meeting with their one-time competitors from Gothamist and DNA Info, during which the 6-foot-5 former Park Slope pol recognized the Papers integral role in his early political career.

I lived and died by the Brooklyn Paper for a substantial piece of my life, because I was a school board member and a city council member, Hizzoner said during the Friday session at City Hall.

The last time one of our reporters talked one-on-one with DeBlasio, born Warren Whilhem, was in 2013, around the time the then-public advocate threw his hat into the ring to become New York Citys next  and tallest  mayor.

But the Paper has covered the outer-borough working dad  a moniker DeBlasio received from his wife at the onset of his mayoral campaign  since his humble political beginning as a local councilman back in 2002.

Among Hizzoners notable achievements in that time was his generous purchase of former Brooklyn Paper editor Gersh Kuntzmans ankle cast signed by then-borough president Marty Markowitz, which DeBlasio bought as part of a fund-raiser for Markowitzs Camp Brooklyn charity.

It was meaningful to have Martys signature, given that I want to be borough president, but it was far more important to have Kuntzmans daughters doodles  which, I believe, include a heart and a picture of a brownie with a cherry on top, DeBlasio said of his swag at the time.

In 2009, the Paper broke the news that then-Councilman DeBlasio made a neighborhood eatery near his 11th Street townhouse, Purity Diner on Seventh Avenue, an unofficial headquarters for his public-advocate campaign, inviting other electeds, reporters, and constituents to schmooze while he chowed down on a BLT and an egg cream.

But after voters elected him mayor a little more than four years later, DeBlasio with his wife and kids packed up and left their Park Slope nabe for government housing in Gracie Mansion on the distant isle of Manhattan  and this newspaper was there to bid them farewell.

Hizzoners cross-river move did not go without controversy, and the Papers reporters were also there when angry neighbors complained about the mini-police fortress erected outside his Brooklyn home to protect the family before it settled into its mansion in the outer borough.

And our newsmen and women are there to report on Hizzoners frequent returns to his former home, including the times his diesel-fueled motorcade shuttles him the 11 miles from his Manhattan residence to his beloved Park Slope gym.

The Paper has covered DeBlasio at his worst, including when he ran out of patience at a Brooklyn Heights town hall this October, and his best, such as his landslide mayoral victory in the 2013 election.

And its reporters look forward to covering whatever comes next  as soon as the mayor confirms a date for his promised meeting.
Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams

88th Precinct

Fort GreeneClinton Hill

Cashed out

A scoundrel broke into a guys Washington Avenue apartment on Dec. 12 and stole his cash and electronics, police said.

The 28-year-old victim told police he left his apartment near Dekalb Avenue at about 2:30 pm and when he got back at about 7 pm saw his Apple monitor display was gone, along with its keyboard and a wad of cash, according to authorities.

Jewel thief

A nogoodnik broke into a womans Clermont Avenue apartment and swiped her jewelry on Dec. 12, police said.

The knave got into her apartment through the front door between Greene Avenue and Fulton Street sometime between 7:15 am and 7:50 pm and ran out with diamond earrings, pearl earrings, a pearl necklace, watch, and bracelet, officials said.

Bay play

A punk swiped a guys playstation from his Downing Street apartment on Dec. 14, police said.

The good-for-nothing broke into the 27-year-olds apartment near Gates Avenue sometime between 11:15 am and 7:15 pm and stole his PlayStation 4, according to authorities.

Stoop scofflaw

A baddie swiped a bunch of delivered packages and others waiting to be picked up outside a womans Washington Avenue apartment sometime overnight on Dec. 12, police said.

The victim told police she had left out some boxes for pick up alongside others that had just been delivered to her stoop near Gates Avenue at about 9:30 am, and when she walked outside the next morning, saw they were all gone, according to authorities.

Dude, wheres my car?

A marauder drove off with a guys car he had parked near S. Oxford Street sometime between Dec. 11 and Dec. 14, police said.

The 43-year-old victim left his 2009 Toyota Corolla near Dekalb Avenue at about 8:30 pm on Dec. 11, and when he went to get it three days later, it was gone, officials said.

Purse snatcher

Some sneak swiped a womans purse inside a Waverly Avenue building on Dec. 15, officials said.

The thief took the womans bag containing $450, her Social Security card, other personal identification cards, and a credit card while she was inside the commercial building between Atlantic Avenue and Fulton Street sometime between 1 and 3 pm, according to authorities. The woman told police she wanted to go back and check the buildings cameras.

 Julianne Cuba
Big foreign investment banks face a tougher regulatory regime in the European Union under proposals made on Wednesday by the European Commission to bring them under the direct control of the European Central Bank, already the main regulator for top euro zone lenders.

Investment banks trade stocks, bonds, currencies and derivatives on behalf of customers, activities that have traditionally been supervised by market regulators rather than a central bank.

But the Commission is proposing to bring big investment banks with assets of over 30 billion euros under the tougher supervision faced by lenders who take deposits, while easing the regulatory burden on small investment firms, which account for the bulk of 6,000 investment firms currently authorised.

"The new rules will support well-functioning capital markets, while ensuring financial stability," European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said in a statement.

"At the same time, larger firms posing similar risks as banks should be regulated and supervised like banks."

The big investment banks are largely concentrated in Britain, but are shifting parts of their operations to elsewhere in the EU in order to maintain links with customers there after the UK leaves the bloc in March 2019.

The ECB, which will be their new regulator, has been vocal in warning that foreign banks in London won't get away with setting up "letter box" or thinly staffed operations in the bloc.

The banks are hoping, however, to continue serving EU customers from London to some extent after Brexit.

The EU has existing powers to grant such market access to non-EU financial firms if their home rules are "equivalent" or as robust as the rules in force in the bloc.

It is a test solely in the gift of Brussels, and it looks set to become tougher.

"As the proposals change the prudential rules for investment firms, the equivalence test must also be adjusted to include these new rules," the European Comission said in a statement.

"It is proposed to set out in greater detail some of the requirements for equivalence."

Any equivalence assessment done by Brussels will have to be "very detailed and granular", it added.

To remain equivalent, a non-EU country like Britain after Brexit has to avoid diverging from the bloc's rules, which could turn Britain into a "rule taker", a step which some advocates for Brexit fiercely oppose.

Separately on Wednesday the BBC reported that the Bank of England would not force branches of EU banks in London to convert themselves into subsidiaries after Brexit, which would have been a costly undertaking.

The BoE announcement could help persuade Brussels to soften the plans it announced on Wednesday.

The proposals need the approval of EU states and the European Parliament, a process that will take many months and often results in changes. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie
Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O'Leary said on Tuesday he was serious about his decision to recognize trade unions, but the airline would retain the right to move planes to different countries if unions made unreasonable demands.

Ryanair shocked investors on Friday by recognizing trade unions for the first time in 32-years to try to avoid its first-ever strike later that day.

"The unions want to know there isn't some kind of curveball. There isn't," O'Leary told Reuters in an interview hours ahead of his airline's first meeting with Ireland's pilot union.

"But if someone is being unreasonable and we are being completely messed around by a union, we will still move aircraft away from that base or country," he said. "That's not the plan. The plan is to work with unions."

Ryanair will move on to meetings with cabin crew unions "in due course," it said on Tuesday, following its surprise shift to talk with pilot unions and after criticism from a German cabin crew union.

The carrier has agreed to first meetings with pilot unions from Ireland, Portugal and Germany this week.

"It will lead on in the New Year to meetings with other EU pilot unions and cabin crew unions in due course as well," Ryanair said in an emailed statement.

Earlier, German cabin crew union UFO said it had asked Ryanair for negotiations on pay and conditions in October, but the carrier refused.

"Workers' rights should not stop at the cockpit door," Nicoley Baublies, UFO board member for pay policy said in a statement on Tuesday, adding cabin crew would also consider industrial action if Ryanair did not negotiate with them too. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie
It was announced yesterday that Beckman Coulter is expanding the companys development and manufacturing facility at Lismeehan, County Clare, creating 70 jobs over the next two to three years.

The company develops, manufactures and markets products that simplify, automate and innovate complex biomedical testing. The expansion will provide capacity for two new product streams at the Clare site. It will also provide for the ongoing growth of the current product streams. Construction is expected to commence in the first quarter of 2018.

Welcoming yesterdays announcement, Minister of State for Employment and Small Business, Pat Breen said, "Beckman Coulters expansion is a great win for County Clare, the Irish Government and the IDA. As Minister for Employment I warmly welcome the creation of 70 additional jobs over the next two to three years. This is a great boost for Clare and the Mid West Region. This expansion now places Beckman Coulter to the forefront of the biomedical testing industry and the investment made by the company also allows for ongoing growth of current product streams."

Source: www.businessworld.ie
French telecoms entrepreneur Xavier Niel is to buy a majority stake in eir, Ireland's former state telecoms monopoly, in a 650 million-euro deal that takes his listed company Iliad into its second foreign market.

The complicated structure of the deal involves both Iliad and Niel's private holding company NJJ buying stakes from a group of investment funds, which analysts said reconciles his expansionary ambitions with a need to keep Iliad's debt down in readiness for further consolidation in the French market.

It also comes as Iliad, which disrupted the French mobile telecoms market five years ago with the launch of its Free service, prepares to launch a service next year in Italy, where it is building a new network.

Clearly we want to keep our balance sheet flexibility for our network rollout and for Italy which is a very interesting geographical diversification," Chief Financial Officer Thomas Reynaud said during a call with analysts on Wednesday.

Under the terms of the transaction, which values eir at about 3.5 billion euros including debt, Iliad will buy a 31.6% stake for 320 million euros, while NJJ will buy 32.9%.

In addition Iliad has an option to buy 80% of NJJ's stake in eir in 2024, giving it a further 26.3% of the Irish company, according to a statement.

Until then, NJJ will have control over eir's management and Iliad's involvement will be limited to eir's board of directors, Niel said. Richard Moat, eir's chief executive, announced his intention to step down upon completion of the transaction.

A full acquisition of eir by Iliad alone would have compelled the telecoms operator to consolidate eir's net debt of 2.1 billion euros into the French company's accounts, thus limiting its capacity to make a larger acquisition, Niel said.

The prospect of a potential new round of talks to cut the number of operators in the fiercely competitive French market weighed in that decision.

"The surprise is to see Iliad involved in the deal structure," said Nicolas Didio, an analyst Berenberg.

"Ultimately, we believe Iliad will take full control of this asset, but the launch in Italy and the high level of capital expenditure in France mean a full consolidation would tie down too much of Iliads balance sheet," he added.

For eir, the deal represents the seventh change of ownership since 1999, a turbulent period during which it got listed and delisted twice and reached the brink of bankruptcy.

The company, originally known as Telecom Eireann, is currently building Irelands largest fiber broadband network with the aim of reaching 1.9 million homes and businesses by the end of 2018.

It had earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization of 520 million euros on revenue of 1.3 billion in the year to June 30.

The deal is due to complete in first half of 2018, subject to EU Commission Competition clearance.

Before the deal the firm's largest stakeholders were U.S. hedge fund Anchorage Capital Group with 42%, Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC with 20.6% and U.S. investment firm Davidson Kempner with 14%.

Anchorage and Davidson Kempner will retain stakes of 26.6% and 8.9%, respectively. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie
The European Union wants a transition period after Brexit to end no later than the last day of 2020, according to the European Commission's negotiating directives agreed on Wednesday.

That date, coinciding with the end of the EU's seven-year budget period and 21 months after Britain departs the EU, had long been expected as the target end point of the transition.

But this was the first official confirmation that it is the goal of the Union's negotiators.

British Prime Minister Theresa May had sought a transition lasting around two years. EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier, speaking at a news conference after the EU executive had agreed the terms, said the 2020 deadline was logical and would avoid complications in the next 2021-2027 EU budget period.

The four pages of new directives for Barnier were in line with guidelines issued by EU leaders at a summit on Friday and will form the basis of talks on the transition that he hopes to start next month. He has said in the past he hopes a free trade pact could be ready to take effect in January 2021.

The directives spell out that Britain will effectively remain in EU institutions, bound by all their rules including new ones, while not having a say in their making.

The EU will also offer Britain a non-voting place at some meetings where decisions may affect specific issues and will set up special arrangements for a UK role in setting annual EU fishing quotas.

The directives also spell out more clearly that EU treaties with other countries and international organizations will no longer apply to Britain during the transition period.

However, the document adds: "Where it is in the interest of the Union, the Union may consider whether and how arrangements can be agreed that would maintain the effects of the agreements as regards the United Kingdom during the transition period."

This has been important to Britain since it could mean that it no longer benefits automatically from free trade agreements which the EU has with, say, Canada or South Korea, while it would still have to apply EU trade policy -- for example collecting EU customs duty at UK ports.

Barnier said he understood that Britain was working with other countries to try to retain the advantages of some of the nearly 750 international agreements to which London is currently party as an EU member.

Among elements spelled out more in the directives than in the leaders' guidelines last week was a repetition of a previously agreed EU position that everything applying to Brexit for Britain would also apply to other British territories.

Brussels has said the Spanish government must agree any future arrangements with Britain that affect the British territory of Gibraltar on Spain's southern coast.

Asked about his previously expressed view that a future trade deal may offer little automatic access for the City of London's financial services firms to the EU market, Barnier repeated that free access would be unprecedented as far as he was aware.

"I remind you that I'm not aware of any free-trade deal in the past between the European Union and third countries that would have allowed privileged access for financial services," he told a news conference.

British negotiators have said Britain's size and proximity give it the leverage to negotiate a more ambitious relationship with the EU than any other state.

During the transition, Britain will maintain access to the European single market, Barnier added. "Britain will keep all the benefits, but also all the obligations of the single market, the customs union and the common policies," he said, ruling out "a la carte" terms.

Barnier welcomed agreements made earlier this month on issues such as the Irish border, citizens' rights and the divorce settlement.

"We are not at the end of the road," he said. "But it is an important stage of this road towards an orderly withdrawal rather than a disorderly one." (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie
Chinas power plants release about 3.5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide every year  about 40% of the countrys annual greenhouse-gas emissions. Photo: Visual China

China is moving closer to launching the worlds biggest carbon-trading market.

The nationwide expansion of a cap and trade system from a pilot program comes as China ramps up its battle against choking air pollution. Its unclear when the trading in the power sector will actually begin. But when it does, China will overtake the European Union in operating the largest market in terms of the total amount of carbon traded.

The National Development and Reform Commission  the countrys top economic planner  on Tuesday laid out a detailed roadmap to build a nationwide carbon-trading system. Initially it will cover 1,700 power plants, but will be expanded to more industries, the commission said. It delivers on a pledge by President Xi Jinping to get a carbon-trading system rolling in 2017.

Cap-and-trade uses market incentives to try to reduce overall carbon emissions. The government will set an overall cap for releases and tell companies their pollution allowance. Those who pollute less can sell their leftover quota to big polluters.

Power plants that discharge more than 26,000 tons of carbon annually will qualify to be in the trading system, the NDRC said. It means the cap-and-trade market will cover almost all of the countrys power generators, dealing with more than 3 billion metric tons of carbon-dioxide emissions per year.

A report by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), a non-profit environmental-protection organization based in the U.S., estimates that Chinas power sector releases about 3.5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide every year  about 40% of the countrys annual greenhouse-gas emissions.

That would make China the worlds largest carbon market, overtaking the European Union, whose annual cap-and-trade transactions are valued at around 14 billion euros ($16.5 billion).

If the Chinese government expands carbon trading to industries like cement and aluminum, the countrys total carbon trade may exceed 5 billion metric tons by 2020, according to the EDF. That would be almost as much as the entire worlds carbon trade in 2015, when it totaled 6 billion metric tons.

China tests carbon trading

In 1997, nearly 200 countries and areas of the world came together in the Kyoto Protocol to agree on the need to reduce greenhouse gases tied to human activities, such as electricity generation, transportation and agriculture. The idea of emission trading was written into the protocol.

The European Union broke ground in 2005 as the first of the international treatys parties to roll out a carbon market. Several other countries and areas followed, including New Zealand, South Korea and the U.S. state of California.

Since 2013, China has run pilot carbon-trading programs in seven regions, including Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai, covering 3,000 companies. As of September, cap-and-trade transactions in the pilot program reached a total of 4.5 billion yuan ($680 million).

The Paris summit on climate change was held in 2015. Shortly before, in a meeting with then-U.S. President Barack Obama, President Xi promised to roll out a nationwide carbon market in China by 2017, as part of the two countries commitment to cooperate in the battle against global warming.

Under an initial plan by the NDRC last year, the carbon-trading market would have begun with eight industries, including power, petrochemical, steel and aviation. Any company that consumed more than 10,000 tons of coal in a year between 2013 and 2015 would have been required to participate in the program.

The new plan is more targeted, zeroing in solely at first on the power industry. Zhang Yong, an NDRC vice chairman, said the power sector is the most obvious choice to start with because it holds comprehensive emission data and is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

We want to start from the power industry and put in place the structures and supportive mechanisms necessary for the operation of the system, before fully launching the trading, Zhang said.

The NDRC aims to build carbon-emission data collection, registration and trading systems for the market. Shanghai, Eastern Chinas financial hub, and the central province of Hubei will kick off the work on the construction of the national emission permit-registration and trading system.

It is unclear when the trading will start and how the emission allowances will be allocated. The NDRC said the quota allocated to the power industry will use a reference-line method and look to companies historical emission-reduction records for reference. Companies that have better management and lower emissions will be given higher emissions quotas.

For companies that meet the emissions target, the more they produce, the more they benefit from the quota. While those cant meet the targets will be burdened to buy the quota, said Jiang Zhaoli, deputy director of the climate-change division at the NDRC.

How will carbon prices be set?

After the national market is fully functional, companies qualified to be in the national system will no longer trade in regional markets. Smaller emitters will remain at the local platforms, according to Li Gao, director of the climate-change department at the NDRC. Li said the threshold of carbon trading will be lowered in the future to expand the coverage of the market.

Li said the carbon-trading price will be fully decided by the market, reflecting the demands of the quota and costs of emission reduction.

That means accurate and transparent pollution and emission data will be crucial for the carbon-price setting, said Chen Bo, a financial and environmental policy expert at the Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing.

The quality of the data is most important because any uncertainty may lead to price fluctuation, Chen said.

Environmental activists have called for better disclosure of pollution information.

Ma Jun, director of non-profit Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE), said that as China nears the rollout of a national carbon market, it should speed up public access of data on greenhouse-gas emissions, as promised last year by the State Council  Chinas cabinet  in a key emission-reduction policy for the 2016-2020.

Liu Shuang, a director at Energy Foundation China, said the carbon price will be affected by government intervention in power supplies and prices setting. For instance, some power plants were told by the government to halt operations due to a shortage of gas to heat homes. Therefore, she said, China will need to coordinate energy and environmental reforms with the carbon-trading system in order for the system to work.

Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com)
Liu Han, chairman of Hanlong Group in Sichuan province, was sentenced to death in May 2014 after being convicted of organized crime and murder. Authorities shut down Lius business and seized his personal assets, even though only 20% were linked to his crimes, according to his lawyer. Photo: IC

Beijing has pledged to better protect the personal assets of people being investigated or prosecuted for economic crimes in order to ease private sector fears over a lack of safeguards for personal security and wealth.

Police mustnt dispose of assets owned by individuals who are under investigation or facing trial before they are convicted of business-related crimes such as embezzlement, bribery and fraud, according to a set of guidelines released Tuesday by the top prosecutors office and the Ministry of Public Security.

Investigators should also draw a clear line dividing ill-gotten gains and wealth amassed through legitimate means and differentiate between assets owned by suspects and those belonging to their families, according to the joint guidelines.

The document was drafted in accordance with a series of resolutions and recommendations from the ruling Communist Party issued over the past five years aimed at strengthening legal protections to support economic reform and entrepreneurship, according to JCRB.com, a news site affiliated with the top prosecutors office.

The guidelines came less than a week after the top prosecutors office, or the Supreme Peoples Procuratorate, called for leniency toward those who passively pay bribes.

In a directive aimed at strengthening a sense of personal and wealth security among entrepreneurs, the top prosecutors office last week proposed lighter sentences for business owners who are forced to involuntarily bribe public officials who demand money in return for favors.

Prosecutors should also take into account whether those under investigation for alleged economic crimes have actively cooperated with corruption investigations, according to the directive. It calls upon prosecutors to play a role in creating a proper environment for legitimate rights of businesspeople and their entrepreneurial innovations.

The new guidelines and directives reemphasize principals that are already embedded in Chinese law, but may have been overlooked by law enforcement officials in the past.

The top prosecutors office didnt offer any specific examples of cases linked to alleged economic crimes where due process wasnt carried out.

However, several high-profile cases in which law enforcement authorities seized individual assets or forced businesses to dissolve prior to a guilty verdict have rattled the business community in recent years.

Yuan Chengjia, sentenced to 20 years in prison for mafia-style crimes in 2014, has been demanding 3.73 billion yuan ($564.3 million) in compensation from the local government for losses linked to asset seizures by police prior to the conviction. Police took away property and funds belonging to more than a dozen family-run businesses in the northern province of Liaoning, as well as bank savings and more than 30 vehicles before the guilty verdict, according to Yuan.

In September, the public security department of Liaoning awarded him 679 million yuan in state compensation for the losses, China Radio International reported.

In another high-profile case, Liu Han, owner of Hanlong Group that was once the biggest private enterprise in southwestern Sichuan province, had his business closed and all his assets confiscated, even though only 20% of them were linked to his crimes, according to his lawyer. Liu was executed in 2015 for engaging in organized crime.

Contact reporter Li Rongde (rongdeli@caixin.com)
Take a look at a list of organizations that failed to notify the public of contaminated drinking water in Wisconsin using data from the EPA.
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.
The nursery admission process will begin from December 27, 2017. A total of 1,13,991 students applied for the admission in the entry-level classes and 31,269 students got selected through computerized lots of draw in 2017.

The Delhi government had raised the upper age limit for admission to entry-level classes under the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and Disadvantaged Group (DG) category, by a year.

The government had in 2015 fixed upper age limit for admissions to pre-school (nursery), pre-primary (KG) and class I as 4 years, 5 years and 6 years, respectively. But the Directorate of Education (DoE) had raised it to 5 years, 6 years and 7 years, respectively.

Important dates for Delhi Nursery admissions:

Start of Applications: December 27, 2017

Declaration of all entry-level seats on DoE website: December 30, 2017

Last Date to submit Applications: January 17, 2018

Uploading details of the applications: February 1, 2018

Uploading of the allotted marks: February 8, 2018

Release of First Allotment List: February 15, 2018

Release of Second Allotment List: February 26, 2018

Grievance Redressal: March 1, 2018 - March 7, 2018

The schools have also been notified to make sure that the number of seats offered should not be less than the highest number of seats offered for admissions in the three preceding years. The entire allotment process must be declared on the official website of the directorate.



While the private unaided schools have the autonomy to decide the criteria for admissions, the DoE has directed the schools to ensure that none of the 62 abolished criteria is included in the point based system implemented by the schools.



The criteria include the status of the child, parent's education, first-time admission, etc. Also, the allotment has to be done on the basis of a draw of lots and in front of the parents. The schools are also required to record the same. Schools have also been strictly warned against accepting any capitation or donation fee.

Note:
An official employment notification has been released by the South Indian Bank, calling out for interested and eligible candidates to apply for recruitment to the post of probationary clerks.

Vacancy Availability

Name of the post

Clerk

Number of posts

468

Job locations

The posts are open for recruitment for the branches/offices in

Kerala

Tamil Nadu

Andhra Pradesh

Telangana

Delhi NCR

Vijaya Bank Recruitment for Advisory Post: Apply Now!

South Indian Bank Recruitment Exam date

The online test will be held in January 2018.

Eligibility

Age

Candidates must be 'less than 26 years as on 31.12.2017. Candidate should be born not earlier than 01.01.1992 and not later than 31.12.1997 (both days inclusive). Upper age limit will be relaxed by 5 years in the case of SC/ST candidates,' reads the advertisement about the age limit criteria.

Other requirement

Those having a permanent address in the respective state or those who have been residing in the same state continuously for the last 5 years and are proficient in a local language apart from English only are eligible to apply.

Language skills

Language proficiency in any of Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi is essential apart from English.

Educational qualification

'Candidate should have passed X, XII and Graduation under regular course (full time course) from a recognised University/ Institute recognised by the Govt. of India. Educational qualification by mode of distance education will not be considered.'

How to apply for the South Indian Bank Recruitment 2018?

In order to apply for the South Indian Bank Recruitment 2018, follow the steps given here:

Log on to the bank's official website

On the homepage, click on the link that reads, 'Recruitment of Probationary Clerks'

A new page will open with the vacancy details. Click on the link that reads Apply Online

You will be directed to IBPS website. On the new page, click on the link that reads, 'register as a new user' on the right top corner

Fill in the necessary details and pay the fees

Click to submit

Complete the registration process

Application fees

Candidates shall have to apply online along with application fee of Rs. 600 (Rs. 150 for SC/ ST category).

Recruitment advertisement

Official recruitment advertisement is available here

Deadline

The last date to apply online for the post is 30 December 2017.

Central Bank of India Recruitment for Chief Information Security Officer
The answer keys of SSC constables (executive) - male and female in Delhi Police- 2016 exam has been released by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC).

SSC Delhi Police Constable exam date

The Computer Based Examination for recruitment of Constables (Executive) - Male and Female in Delhi Police- 2016 was held from December 5, 2017 to December 8, 2017.

Answer Key Objections

Candidates can also raise objections in the answer keys by applying it to the commission.

How to download SSC Delhi Police Constables Exam Answer Key?

In order to download SSC Delhi Police Constables Exam Answer Key, follow the steps given here:

Log on to the official website ssc.nic.in

Enter your details on the login page

Click to submit

The answer keys will be displayed in a PDF

Save it to your computer and take a print out of it for future reference

Also Read: JEE Advanced 2018 Mock Test Published: Take it Now!

The candidates' response sheet along with the tentative answer keys are now available on the link given on the official website of SSC. The candidates may log-in as per the procedure mentioned in the link provided on the official SSC website.

Deadline to challenge SSC answer keys

Representation in respect of the tentative answer keys, if any, may be submitted on line from December 19 (5.30 PM) to December 22, 2017 (5.30 PM).

Fees to challenge SSC answer keys

Payment of Rs. 100/- per question/answer challenged is required.

Note:

Representations received after 5.30 PM on 22-12-2017 will not be entertained under any circumstances, said a statement from SSC.

SSC CHSL Exam date extended

In another update yesterday, SSC has extended the last date for registering for the SSC CHSL 2017 examination. Now the last date for SSC CHSL application is extended to December 20.

SSC CHSL Exam 2017 Registration Date Extended: Apply Now!
If you have just started your journey in an online casino or are looking for a new site to play,...
Junk Science: "Surge" of Accidental

Gun Deaths After Sandy Hook

By Dean Weingarten. December 20th, 2017

Article Source

A recent study from Wellesley College economists, published in Science magazine is a good example of how to torture data until you get the result you want.

The mass murder at Sandy Hook took place on December 14, 2012. President Obama talked of the need for more gun control on 19 December. He talked about specific restrictions on 16 January, 2013. The events are so close to the end of the year, that an increase in accidental deaths should show in the annual data.

WISQARS CDC data base:

The article in Science makes the following claim. From sciencemag.org:

About 60 additional unintended shooting deaths, roughly 20 of them in children, occurred in the 5 months after the shooting, conclude the study's authors, economists Phillip Levine and Robin McKnight of Wellesley College in Massachusetts. For all of the 2012 calendar year, there were 545 accidental shooting deaths, or about 45 per month, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So a 60-death bump in a 5-month period is a considerable one.

Look at the actual numbers as shown by the CDC. 2011 had 591 deaths from firearm accidents, a rate of .19 per 100,000. .......

Another look at how some data presentations resort to omissions to help make their point and skew the results. This is one of the favorite methods employed by the anti-freedom groups, along sometimes with various other ploys, such as actual misinformation based on factual ignorance. It is more than unfortunate that reports of this type too often get taken as gospel by the media and disseminated to the masses.

"You don't have to be Jewish to fight by our side."

 2016 JPFO All rights reserved.

jpfo@jpfo.org

1-800-869-1884

Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership

12500 NE 10th Pl.

Bellevue, WA 98005 USA

"America's most aggressive defender of civil rights"

We make the NRA look like moderates

Join JPFO

Back to Top


Raxaul residents challenge clinker exports to Nepal

ICR Newsroom By 20 December 2017

Indian clinker exports to Nepal are facing a challenge from the residents of the border town of Raxaul. They have threatened to prevent Nepal-bound cargo trucks from passing through the customs point from 25 December unless the authorities find a solution to reduce the pollution caused by the transport of clinker.



Most of the Nepali cement factories located in the Bara-Parsa industrial corridor, near Birgunj customs point, import 80-85 per cent of their clinker requirement from India. Clinker imports via Birgunj have been growing rapidly in recent months due to the surging requirement for cement as post-earthquake reconstruction works are accelerating.

Published under
DEC. 20, 2017  Idaho was the nations fastest-growing state over the last year. Its population increased 2.2 percent to 1.7 million from July 1, 2016, to July 1, 2017, according to the U.S. Census Bureaus national and state population estimates released today.

Following Idaho for the largest percentage increases in population were: Nevada (2.0 percent), Utah (1.9 percent), Washington (1.7 percent), and Florida along with Arizona (1.6 percent).

Domestic migration drove change in the two fastest-growing states, Idaho and Nevada, while an excess of births over deaths played a major part in the growth of the third fastest-growing state, Utah, said Luke Rogers, Chief of the Population Estimates Branch.

The U.S. population grew by 2.3 million between July 1, 2016, and July 1, 2017, representing a 0.72 percent increase to 325.7 million. Furthermore, the population of voting-age residents (adults age 18 and over) grew to 252.1 million (77.4 percent of the 2017 total population), an increase of 0.93 percent from 2016 (249.5 million). Net international migration decreased 1.8 percent between 2016 and 2017, making it the first drop since 2012-2013. However, net international migration continues to be a significant factor in the population growth of the United States, adding just over 1.1 million people in the last year.

Eight states lost population between July 1, 2016, and July 1, 2017. Illinois had the largest numeric decline, losing 33,703 people (this was a relatively small percentage change compared to its population of 12.8 million). Wyoming had the largest percentage decline (1.0 percent). Three states that had been losing population in the previous year, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Vermont, saw slight increases.

States in the South and West continued to lead in population growth. In 2017, 38.0 percent of the nations population lived in the South and 23.8 percent lived in the West.

In addition to the population estimates for the 50 states and the District of Columbia, the new estimates show that Puerto Rico had an estimated population of 3.3 million, a decline from 3.4 million in 2016.

The estimates for Puerto Rico are as of July 1, 2017, and therefore do not reflect the effects of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in September 2017. The estimates for Gulf states affected by Hurricane Harvey in August 2017 and Hurricane Irma in September 2017 are also not reflected in the July 1, 2017, estimates.

Also released today were national-and state-level estimates of the components of population change, which include tables on births, deaths and migration.
The world Telugu Conference was held at Hyderabad grandly and all talented actors were grandly felicitated by the Telangana Government. Telangana and Andhra Pradesh state Governor ESL Narasimhan has felicitated the movie actors and actress with shawl and memento.

Speaking at the event Chiranjeevi had said that Telangana CM KCR is working hard to revive the Telugu language. He had spoken about the importance of language and said that everyone should speak Telugu as it is mother tongue. He added that we dont why Telugu people dont speak Telugu language and I am ensuring that all my grandsons and granddaughters speak in Telugu.

During his speech, Chiru also narrated the incident when he apologized to KTR. When KTR invited me for this event, I immediately agreed to attend. During our conversation, I congratulated him on winning a prestigious award recently. To that, he said, Anna..(Brother), how pertinent it is to wish me in English when I came to invite you for Telugu mahasabhalu. Although he just joked, I realized that we knowingly or unknowingly neglect our mother tongue. I apologized to him then and there.

How heartening it will be to talk in pure Telugu instead of English or any other convoluted language when two Telugu persons meet. I wish every Telugu person strive for the preservation of our language, the Megastar concluded his speech.
Some 230,000 security personnel will guard Christmas celebrations in Egypt next week after a string of church and mosque bombings in the country.

"Holidays and vacations were canceled for security personnel and officers at all security directorates across the country," security sources told Middle East News Agency.

"Security forces are also planned to intensify proactive hits against terrorist organizations, as well as tightening security measures at border crossings between North Sinai and other governorates, to prevent any infiltration from terrorist elements into the cities," sources told MENA.

Security officers and employees will be stationed to the 2,626 churches in Egypt. Authorities are also monitoring public parks and tourist sites.

Churches are beefing up security with CCTV and metal detector systems after an uptick in terror attacks at Egyptian churches.

Last December, police said 29 people were killed during a suicide bombing in Cairos St. Peter and St. Paul Church.

In April, on Palm Sunday, 47 people were killed in twin bombings at the St. George Cathedral in Tanta and St. Marks Cathedral in Alexandria.

Then in November, the Islamic State terror group claimed responsibility for an attack on a mosque in Bir Al-Abed where more than 300 Muslims were killed.

The attacks started after Islamist President Mohamed Morsi was ousted by the Egyptian military in 2013 from his position.

Photo courtesy: Thinkstockphotos.com

Publication date: December 20, 2017
Handel'sand Jennens's"Messiah" You know the composerHandel. But do you know the author?

"Messiah" may be the greatest work in the canon of Western music. You know the composerHandel. But do you know the author?

As one wag put it, "In the orchestra world, George Frideric Handel's Messiah is just as much an annual Christmas tradition as eggnog and overworked shopping mall Santas."

Handel's magnum opus is one of the supreme wonders of human genius, especially if you keep in mind that the genius on display is not only Handel's.

We're so used to calling the work "Handel's Messiah" that we fail to notice that he only wrote the music. And as good as the music is, what's being said, or in this case, sung, is every bit as inspired and inspiring.

The text, or "libretto," as it's properly called, was written by Charles Jennens. Chances are you've never heard of him. And you're not alone. Even in his lifetime Jennens was "utterly unknown" to most of his contemporaries.

But obviously not to Handel, who, in a letter to Jennens, referred to their collaboration as "your Messiah." As the director of the Handel House said a few years ago, "Without Jennens there would be no Messiah."

That being the case, it's worth knowing more about Jennens. He was an English landowner and patron of the arts. He wasn't only a patron: He collaborated with Handel on other works such as "Saul," "Israel in Egypt," and "Belshazzar." As with "Messiah," his contributions were anonymous.

As these titles suggest, Jennens's specialty was librettos based on biblical subjects. This was the direct result of his devout Christian faith. And that brings me back to "Messiah." Jennens was concerned with the emergence of Deism within the Church of England. Deism rejected the idea of God's intervention in human affairs and, with it, the inspiration of scripture.

His response to the threat was what he called a "scripture collection" that demonstrated that the Scriptures had predicted the coming of the Messiah, which he desired Handel to set to music. Unlike his other "scripture collections," every word in the Messiah's libretto is taken directly from scripture. As Albert Mohlerwrote a few years ago, "Jennens understood the Bible to reveal a comprehensive and unitary story of God's salvation of his people."

But Jennens knew that it would take more than a pamphlet to combat Deism. He had to appeal to people's emotions and imaginations, as well as their intellect. In other words, he needed art.

Thankfully, he knew just the right man to undertake the challenge. In July 1741, he wrote a friend saying "Handel says he will do nothing next winter, but I hope I shall persuade him to set another Scripture collection I have made for him . . . I hope he will lay out his whole genius and skill upon it, that the composition may excel all his former compositions, as the subject excels every other subject. The subject is Messiah."

A month later, Handel began work on the music and finished it in only twenty-four days. At the end of the manuscript, he wrote the initials "SDG," Soli Deo Gloria, "To God alone be (the) Glory."

Since its first performance in Dublin in 1742, Jennens' exercise in what can accurately be called scriptural apologetics has become the most beloved choral work in history. No one knows how many times it has been performed. Counting the recordings alone is exhausting.

And every time we listen, we are told "For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." And that, as Mohler reminds us, was what Jennens wanted us to understand: God has spoken.

Originally posted at BreakPoint.
Junk Science: "Surge" of Accidental

Gun Deaths After Sandy Hook

By Dean Weingarten. December 20th, 2017

Article Source

A recent study from Wellesley College economists, published in Science magazine is a good example of how to torture data until you get the result you want.

The mass murder at Sandy Hook took place on December 14, 2012. President Obama talked of the need for more gun control on 19 December. He talked about specific restrictions on 16 January, 2013. The events are so close to the end of the year, that an increase in accidental deaths should show in the annual data.

WISQARS CDC data base:

The article in Science makes the following claim. From sciencemag.org:

About 60 additional unintended shooting deaths, roughly 20 of them in children, occurred in the 5 months after the shooting, conclude the study's authors, economists Phillip Levine and Robin McKnight of Wellesley College in Massachusetts. For all of the 2012 calendar year, there were 545 accidental shooting deaths, or about 45 per month, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So a 60-death bump in a 5-month period is a considerable one.

Look at the actual numbers as shown by the CDC. 2011 had 591 deaths from firearm accidents, a rate of .19 per 100,000.

2012 had 545 deaths from firearm accidents, significantly lower than 2011. The rate was .17 per 100,000. Sandy Hook happened at the very end of 2012.

According to Science, an increase of about 60 accidental firearms then occurred. Those 60 did not occur in 2012, because 2012 had 43 fewer number accidental firearm fatalities than in 2011.

In 2013, the number of fatalities from firearm accidents was 505. That is 40 deaths lower than the number in 2012. Where are the supposed 60 fatality increase? They do not exist. It is a made up number based on extremely short term statistical trends tortured out of very limited data.

Between 1945, (the earliest figure available for per capita firearms, Kleck) to 2014 ( the latest figure, using BATFE numbers and Kleck's methodology), the number of per capita firearms has risen from .351 to 1.176. That is more than a three-fold increase.

During the same period, the per capita rate of fatal firearm accidents has declined from 1.84 per 100,000 to .15 per 100,000, over a 91% drop.

Using the earliest number for fatal firearm accidents, in 1933, the drop has been nearly 94%.

A clue to the torture of the data are the significant findings the authors refused to publish in their paper. Good science publishes findings both for and against a thesis. Junk science only publishes findings that are in favor of their thesis.

The authors tested the data against homicides and suicides. They found that their was no "systematic effect". They chose not to publish that information in the abstract, or to make charts or tables about it. They mention it briefly in a paragraph near the end of the paper. From the study at sciencemag.org:

A third limitation is that our reported analysis has focused only on accidental firearm deaths, ignoring the potential impact on firearm-related suicides and homicides. Individuals who responded to concerns about gun control by purchasing or handling a firearm are unlikely to be motivated by an intention to kill themselves or others with those guns. We have also examined these mortality outcomes and found no systematic effect of the spike in gun sales. This finding is consistent with prior research that analyzed the short-term impact of increased firearm purchases due to local gun shows on homicides and suicides and found no evidence of impacts on those outcomes (19).

They misstate the results of the gun show study. That paper found homicides were decreased in a statistically significant way, with increased purchases at gun shows. The authors of the gun show study downplayed the effect, but they published it. From the gun show study:

"But our results provide little evidence of a gun show-induced increase in mortality in Texas. In fact, we find that in the two weeks following a gun show, the average number of gun homicides declines in the area surrounding the gun show. Aggregating across all gun shows in the state, we find that there are approximately 16 fewer gun homicides resulting from the 200 gun shows in the average year. In the sections below, we discuss several possible explanations for this counterintuitive finding. However, it is important to keep in mind that while these results are statistically significant, they are quite small - representing just one percent of all homicides in Texas in the average year."

The Wellesley study published in Science has many red flags that indicate junk science. It uses a very abbreviated data set, only looking at one event, while there are several events that show jumps in gun purchases.

The authors include all of December in their post Sand Hook period, when December was half way through when the Sandy Hook event took place. The authors focus on rates of very small numbers, but do not show us the actual numbers.

Finally, the authors ignore significant results of their own studies, choosing to publicize fatal gun accidents while ignoring homicides and suicides.

There are about 9,000 annual homicides with guns. A bump up of guns after Sandy Hook did not result in any increase.

There are about 18,000 suicides with guns annually. The bump up of guns after Sandy Hook did not result in any increase.

There are about 550 fatal gun accidents with guns annually, trending downward. The authors were able to torture the data to show an imaginary increase (fatal accidents were actually reduced) over the next year. That is what they publicized, and what was blared out over the world media.

The Science article was picked up by at least 83 news outlets.

2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included. Gun Watch

Back to Top


How a Couple Who Lost 9 Family Members Will Celebrate Christmas Christmas reminds us that we serve an incarnational God.

Joe and Claryce Holcombe are preparing for Christmas in Sutherland Springs, Texas. However, there will be nine people missing from their home.

The Holcombes, age eighty-six and eight-five, lost family members spanning three generations when a gunman opened fire at First Baptist Church on Nov. 5. Their son, Bryan, was killed. So was their daughter-in-law, Karla; their grandson, Danny; their granddaughter-in-law, Crystal, and her unborn child; and four great-grandchildren: Noah, Greg, Emily, and Megan. How are they coping?

Joe Holcombe, who goes by "Papa Joe," told a Time reporter: "Everybody always wants us to be whimpering and crying because we lost some of our family. That's not the way we are. It happened and it hurt. But we don't look at death as separation. We look at it as just another event in our life."

How can "Papa Joe" face tragedy with such hope? Because he believes in heaven: "It won't be long until we'll be there with the rest of the family. I miss my family. We don't see them coming down the sidewalk at the front door anymore. But I won't miss them long."

"Blue Christmas" services

My father died ten days before Christmas in 1979. I miss him all year, but especially at this time of year.

Many churches are holding "Blue Christmas" services for people like me. Such services provide those in grief at Christmas an opportunity to pray, worship, and seek comfort in Christ. "The most wonderful time of the year" is less wonderful for those who mourn loved ones or suffer in other ways. Watching others celebrate the holiday season makes people in pain feel even more alone.

According to Psychology Today, a high incidence of depression is associated with the Christmas season. Suicide rates go up. One survey reported that 45 percent of respondents dread the holidays.

Loneliness among older adults is such an epidemic that there is even a campaign to end it. But new research indicates that millennials are twice as likely as the elderly to have no one with whom to spend Christmas.

We may feel lonely during the holidays, but we're never alone.

Valley Forge and Christmas

Yesterday marked an auspicious anniversary in American history. Two hundred and forty years ago, 12,000 retreating American soldiers set up camp at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Over 2,500 of them would freeze to death or die from starvation or various diseases. Governor Morris of New York later described them as a "skeleton of an army . . . in a naked, starving condition, out of health, out of spirits."

An eyewitness named Isaac Potts reportedly saw General Washington praying on his knees in the snow, a now-iconic image. Few then would have believed that this rag-tag army would go on to defeat the world's greatest superpower.

But what we cannot see is more powerful than what we can see.

Start with simple physics: the matter you can see with your eyes is composed of molecules you cannot see. Move to the relational: you cannot see love or friendship, but can their value be overstated? Then consider the eternal: "No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9).

Alfred Lord Tennyson was right: "Nothing worth proving can be proven, Nor yet disproven."

God's Son was born in Bethlehem, just five miles from the homes of the Jewish high priest and other Sanhedrin members in Jerusalem. Jesus attended Passover in the Jerusalem temple every year from the age of 12 until he began his public ministry at the age of thirty. But the religious authorities missed what they couldn't see.

Let's not repeat their mistake this Christmas.

In one of his sermons, Frederick Buechner observes: "Those who believe in God can never in a way be sure of him again. Once they have seen him in a stable, they can never be sure where he will appear or to what lengths he will go or to what ludicrous depths of self-humiliation he will descend in his wild pursuit of humankind.

"If holiness and the awful power and majesty of God were present in this least auspicious of all events, this birth of a peasant's child, then there is no place or time so lowly and earthbound but that holiness can be present there too."

Christmas reminds us that we serve an incarnational God. When we trust our pain to his unseen presence, our materialistic culture sees our faith and courage. Like Joe Holcombe, we are given opportunity to bear witness to our sustaining Lord.

And Jesus becomes as real to us as if we were part of the first Christmas, because his stable is now our heart.

Where do you need the joy of his presence today?

Originally posted at the Denison Forum.
We Need to Be Praying for Trump Rather Than Constantly Criticizing Him I think one of the major problems with modern Christianity in America is our quick reaction to criticize someone rather than praying for them.

I think one of the major problems with modern Christianity in America is our quick reaction to criticize someone rather than praying for them. Most Americans don't know and will likely never personally meet President Trump, yet so many are quick to judge him solely because of what the media filters to our TVs, smart phones and social media newsfeeds. I dare say, we need to be praying for Trump rather than constantly criticizing him.

The Bible says in Romans 13:1b, "for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God." The Apostle Paul, who wrote the Book of Romans, also writes in 1 Timothy 2:1-2, "I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all peoplefor kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness."

When was the last time you prayed for Trump, interceded for Trump, or thanked God for Trump? You don't have to align with everything President Trump believes or does. The Bible doesn't say to not pray for your leader if they don't believe exactly the way that you do. Scripture says to pray for them, to intercede for them and to be thankful for them.

I know it would be harder to do so if President Trump was like North Korea's dictator Kim Jong-un. But, let's be honest, he's not. Trump isn't a ruthless ruler bent on being a dictator or making Americans hate living in the United States of America. I'm not going to go into detail about what to do if your leader is like, for example, Kim Jong-un, because that's not the reason for this article. I only bring Kim Jong-un up to make a statement: Trump isn't a ruthless dictator. Regardless of who you voted for, Trump was elected as the 45th President of the United States of America. And he's going to be our President for the next four years. Is Trump perfect? Absolutely not. Are you and I? Far from it. Let's stop judging President Trump as if he's the worst sinner on planet earth.

The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Timothy 1:15b, "...Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinnersof whom I am the worst." Until we come to the realization that we are the worst sinner we know we won't stop judging Trump as if he's worse than us. Here's the thing: Paul was a murderer, yet God's grace was able to redeem him. I'm not going to say I know for a fact that Trump knows the Lord. The Bible does say in Matthew 7:20, "Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them." This section of Scripture is talking about false prophets, but the same can be said of anyone who claims to follow Jesus. Fruit of such a conversion will be evident in the life of a believer. Nonetheless, we need to be praying for President Trump.

Don't know if Trump is really a Christian? Pray for his salvation. It's better to pray for someone to come to know the Lord than to judge them, hate them and wish horrible things upon them.

Don't agree with Trump? That's okay. The Bible doesn't say you have to agree with everyone. But it does say we should be praying for our leaders.

Pray for Trump to make wise decisions.

Pray for Trump to not lash out on Twitter. Let's be honest, we can all be short tempered. Some of us post to social media things we shouldn't just like Trump. Again, none of us does everything perfectly. No one is immune from making a mistake. President Trump is included in that "no one."

Pray for Trump's safety.

Pray for Trump's family.

Pray for Trump's health.

Pray for Trump to listen to his "spiritual advisors."

Pray for Trump to hear God's voice.

Pray for Trump to yield to the Holy Spirit daily.

The time many of us spend criticizing President Trump could better be spent praying for our President. Regardless of how you view Trump, we are blessed to be in America. We have the right to vote, the right to worship without the government interfering, the right to voice our opinions, the right to pray publically. Count your blessings and pray for your President, because that honors God. God honors those who honor those he's placed in authority. If we want to "live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness" (see 1 Timothy 2:1-2) then we need to pray often for President Trump, intercede on his behalf, and thank God for him.

This article first appeared on Aaron's blog: AaronHallBooks.com/pray-for-trump

Aaron Hall is the youth pastor at More 2 Life Ministries (More2Life.tv) in Okeechobee, Florida. You can follow his personal blog here: AaronHallBooks.com or connect with him on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright  1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.  Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
You Don't Need to Be Surprised by Darkness Who will you trust today?

Years after becoming a Christian, C.S. Lewis wrote a book entitled, "Surprised by Joy." If someone traveling through Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta this past Sunday wrote a book about their experience, it could be called, "Surprised by Darkness."

No one that day expected to be sitting in a dark airport for 11 hours due to a power outage. One traveler lamented, "Inside the terminal there were thousands of people, and children crying. The air conditioning wasn't working and it was very hot inside."

Now imagine going back in time to this past Sunday and selecting between two options. You could either sit in the dark Atlanta airport, or instead, attend the Jingle Rock Run in Honolulu, Hawaii, while spending the rest of the day at the beach. The decision would be a no-brainer, right? After all, it was a beautiful day for the 4th Annual Jingle Rock Run, with all proceeds benefiting Make-a-Wish Hawaii.

But now fast forward to the end of your life, and imagine choosing between landing in heaven, or landing in hell? A pretty easy decision, right? I wonder then why so many people pay such little attention to what Jesus said about the only two eternal destinations available to man.

Jesus told the parable of the wedding banquet in which a king said to his servants, "Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find." (Matthew 22:9) The parable ends with a man who attempted to attend the banquet without "wedding clothes," and "the king told the attendants, 'Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'" (Matthew 22:13)

What a horrible surprise for everyone who is thrown into the darkness! And what a stark contrast between enjoying the wedding banquet, as compared to suffering eternal agony.

There certainly is no weeping or pain in heaven, but one must be clothed in Christ in order to attend the eternal party God is throwing in paradise. The "wedding clothes" point to a robe of righteousness that gets placed on every believer. (Romans 3:22) You are covered in God's grace and forgiveness the moment you repent of your sin and believe in Jesus as your Savior. Without these "wedding clothes," a person cannot get into heaven.

The events from this past Sunday are now behind us. Meanwhile, people in heaven and hell are still in those places. In fact, they will never leave. But everyone who is alive today still has the opportunity to put on the appropriate "wedding clothes" in order to get into heaven when they die rather than being sent to hell.

I am guessing you might say, "But very few people actually go to hell." While that sentiment is typical of how we all tend to perceive eternity, it actually contradicts the words of Christ.

Jesus said, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." (Matthew 7:13,14)

In other words, when it comes to eternity, it sure sounds like the number of people landing at "Hartsfield" will be greater than the number of those arriving in "Honolulu." And while that outcome certainly goes against our natural assumptions, it lines up perfectly with what the Lord said about these two extreme destinations.

By the way, this would be a perfect time for you to spend a few minutes contemplating the literal words of Christ regarding the wide road and the narrow road.

Those who found themselves at Hartsfield on Sunday were stuck there for a relatively short period of time. Meanwhile, those who go to hell are stuck there forever. The lights never come back on and the pain never ends. And lost souls are locked away in a prison that is far worse than we can even imagine.

This is why the message of the cross is so critical for everyone today. You see, it's what we do with Jesus while we are here on earth that determines where we will spend eternity. "How do you know this is true?" you may ask. I know it is true because Jesus said so, and He always tells the truth, even when it goes against man's natural way of looking at things.

Jesus tell us the way things are, rather than the way we might hope they would be. In addition to being a realist, Christ is also the Creator of the world. "By Him all things were created." (Colossians 1:16) And that means the Lord created not only heaven and earth, but also hell.

Jesus revealed the original purpose for hell when He said, "Then He will say to those on His left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." (Matt. 25:41)

In other words, God created hell for the devil and his demons. The only reason man goes there is because he has followed in the rebellious footsteps of the devil by his sin and by rejecting the Lordship of Jesus Christ in his life. Sin lands people in hell, whereas the blood of Jesus cleanses the soul and covers people for heaven as they trust the Savior to wash away their sins.

Thankfully, "God wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." (1 Timothy 2:4) And yet, there is something God desires even more than having everyone go to heaven. He wants people to take Him at His Word. And if you refuse to take God at His Word and refuse to "repent and believe the good news," (Mark 1:15) the end result of rejecting Christ is that the Lord will reject you and send you away from His presence forever.

No wonder Scripture declares: "Without faith it is impossible to please God." (Heb. 11:6) And if you think about it, why would God want anyone in heaven who is unwilling to please Him?

When describing heaven in the book of Revelation, John wrote, "The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp." (Rev. 21:23) Meanwhile, demons and unbelievers will be in a very dark place. Jude wrote, "And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home - these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day." (Jude 6) What a surprise it must have been for those fallen angels when they were cast into utter darkness!

Light or darkness; eternal ecstasy or eternal agony; belief or unbelief; heaven or hell; the Lord or the devil; truth or falsehood. There is still time for you to get right with God if you have not yet bowed your knee to Jesus Christ and received Him as your Lord and Savior. (John 1:12)

Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is just as real as Honolulu, Hawaii, and people are in both of those locations right now. Likewise, heaven and hell are real places, and millions of people are in both of those places at this very moment as well. Do you ever stop to think about what they must be experiencing? You would be wise to consider it regularly.

You can choose today whether or not you are going to rely upon the cross of Christ and the blood of Jesus to wash away your sins. It is the only way your soul can be "clothed with Christ" in preparation for entering heaven the moment your body dies.

Make-a-Wish Hawaii is a great name with an even better cause. This foundation grants wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions. But when it comes to heaven, no one can wish their way into paradise. You can only believe your way into Christ's kingdom as you take Jesus at His Word and accept Christ as your Savior. (John 3:16)

Do you realize why the Messiah was born in Bethlehem; suffered and died on the cross; and rose from the dead on the third day? The Lord willingly accepted this path of excruciating pain and suffering because God wanted to spare you and I from suffering the punishment we deserve to pay in hell.

God's eternal punishment for unbelievers is far greater than you and I would hand out, just as God's eternal salvation for believers is far greater than you and I would give to those who don't deserve it. Let's face it: God is far greater than us, and so why shouldn't His punishment for sin and His grace for His children seem extreme to us?

With that being said, what will you do with Christ? And what will you do with the cross where Jesus suffered and died for your sins? You can either humble yourself before the Lord and receive the free gift of eternal life in heaven, or you can dig in your heels and tell yourself that you of all people could never end up in hell. After all, you're not "bad enough" to go there, right?

The truth is that you and I have no clue about eternity apart from what God has revealed in Scripture. It's way above our head, and it runs contrary to what we naturally assume about destinations as extreme as heaven and hell.

There were plenty of folks in Atlanta who never imagined that their travel day last weekend would instantly be plunged into darkness. Fortunately for them, the power outage was repaired by midnight. I assure you that everyone in hell right now would be thrilled to hear that they get to leave that place in a matter of hours. But that's not how it works. And no one knows more about these eternal realities than the Lord who created heaven, earth, and even hell itself.

It's your call, and so choose wisely. Everything hinges on how you respond to God's gracious offer of everlasting life in heaven.

If you would like to receive God's free gift of salvation and the guarantee of spending eternity with the Lord in paradise, then I invite you to pray this prayer from your heart:

Lord Jesus, I am a sinner and I cannot save myself. But I believe that you left heaven and came to earth to suffer and die for my sins. Come into my life and my heart today. Wash away my sins with your blood. I now trust you to be my Savior, and I want to follow you as the Lord of my life. Fill me with the Holy Spirit, and help me become connected to a Christ-centered church with Christians who encourage one another in their faith and life. I need you Lord, and I am thrilled to accept you today as my Lord and Savior. I believe your promise that I am forgiven of my sins and that I have been given the free gift of eternal life in heaven. Amen.
Can the secular media ever understand religion? Why it's harder than it looks

One of the most doughty campaigners for religious broadcasting has made a significant admission about the culture at the BBC out of which it's expected to emerge. It's liberal and secular, says senior broadcasting figure Roger Bolton, and editors and journalists need educating about how religion works.

Perhaps the changes announced today will help.

However, there's perhaps a more subtle point to make. This process of education has to involve more than media types learning the names of a few of the 36 million Hindu gods, what the five pillars of Islam are and that it's Maundy Thursday not Maunday. Anyone can crib that from Wikipedia. But what often seems to be lacking in how religion is spoken about in the secular media is any sense of how it's actually experienced in the lives of believers. If you aren't one, you don't get that unless you've lived alongside and listened respectfully to those whose worldview is entirely different from your own.

When that happens, a much more nuanced and textured view of faith emerges. You discover, for instance, that a faithful Christian might not have much knowledge of the Christian doctrines you have informed yourself about, or care very much. An evangelical  that's right, the swivel-eyed fundamentalist who would have voted for Trump if he'd been an American  might well read the Guardian and help out at a food bank. Most Christians  and Hindus, and Muslims  are just normal people, getting through the day, dealing with family and financial worries like everyone else, and feeling no need whatsoever to shove their faith down anyone's throat.

This isn't because faith isn't important. It matters profoundly, but it's intertwined with the rest of life so intricately and delicately that it is inseparable from it. That's why so many religious people find it hard to talk about their faith, particularly when they feel what they say is going to be scoffed at. It isn't that it means so little to them, but that it means so much.

It's this sort of understanding that would prevent journalists asking unanswerable questions of religious people  unanswerable because incomprehensible. For instance, of a Christian who's experienced a personal tragedy: 'Did you find your faith helped you?' Like what, an overcoat on a cold day? It's a meaningless question, but I've heard it, or variations of it, very often. Or there are the assumptions that because someone professes a faith they will hold particular views on ethical questions like abortion or euthanasia. They may, but if they are genuinely people of faith they will be secure enough in that faith to reach their own conclusions, thank you very much.

And it's necessary, too, to understand how religious people are often squeezed by authority figures from their own traditions. There are plenty of conservative Christians who are sure of what a Christian worldview is and anxious to inculcate it in their congregations. Many want to see doctrine rigorously defined and imposed, to make  as they see it  Christians battle-fit for the culture war. And the same impulse is at work in other faiths too; Islam we all know about, but in Hinduism too there's the rise of the religious right, seeking to tighten up the homely and domesticated version of that faith practised by most Indian Hindus. The risk then for outsider journalists is that these are the voices they listen to. But for most people, it just isn't like that.

What's needed if religion is to be accurately represented, not just on the BBC but elsewhere too, is a recovery of a sense of its normality.

And Christians should welcome this. Yes, we want to stress our difference from 'the world'. But that fundamental otherness is expressed in the context of relationships with the people, institutions and culture that are just  normal. When we witness to Christ and call to conversion, we don't ask people to withdraw from the world; we ask them to be in it in a richer and deeper way.

That doesn't lend itself to soundbites  and that's why the BBC and others need to learn about real faith and start talking to people.

Follow Mark Woods on Twitter: @RevMarkWoods
'In Christ Alone': Keith and Kristyn Getty sing hymns and carols for Vice President Mike Pence

Thousands of people in Washington DC have been singing traditional Christmas carols this week, courtesy of Keith Getty OBE and Kristyn Getty, the preeminent writers and performers of modern hymns including In Christ Alone.

In June this year, Keith was honoured as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The award, which commemorates Getty's contribution to 'Music and Modern Hymn Writing,' marked the first occasion that the award has been given to an individual involved in the world of contemporary church music.

On Tuesday night, Keith and Kristyn performed for Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen, as well as their guests, at a holiday reception at the Vice President's residence. The Gettys, along with some of their touring band, performed their modern hymns and led the group in traditional carol singing.

On Wednesday night, Keith and Kristyn brought their annual Christmas tour to The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Opera House for a sold-out performance of Sing! An Irish Christmas. Together with special guests including classical violinist David Kim and jazz bassist John Patitucci, the Gettys again led the capacity-crowd of thousands  including Vice President Pence and his wife again  in the singing of traditional carols.

Earlier this year, the duo launched a major global initiative named, Sing!, to revive the essential act of congregational singing. This initiative coincides with the 500th anniversary year of the Reformation, in which Martin Luther placed a strong emphasis on singing hymns together.

Sing! An Irish Christmas is currently touring 15 cities across the US, making stops at some of the best-known concert venues, including Washington DC (The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Opera House), New York City (Carnegie Hall), Atlanta (The Fox Theatre), Cleveland (KeyBank State Theatre), Colorado Springs (Broadmoor Hotel), and more.

Sing! An Irish Christmas caps a wonderful 2017 for the Gettys. Following the OBE award, the Gettys published their first book, Sing!  How and Why We Worship (B&H Publishing Group), and also hosted a Sing! conference in Nashvillle in September that was attended by thousands from around the world and featured a 5,000-person hymn-sing at the famed Grand Ole Opry House.
'Knightfall' season 1 episode 3 spoilers: Landry gets clue to find missing grail

In the next episode of "Knightfall," Landry (Tom Cullen) receives the clue from his fellow Templar in order to find the missing Holy Grail.

The trailer for the upcoming installment titled "The Black Wolf and the White Wolf" was just released, and it showed Landry getting instructions along with a vital clue to the whereabouts of the lost grail. "Godfrey [Sam Hazeldine] left you and you alone the way to find the grail and keep it safe," the custodian tells him.

Apparently, the gem found in the special compartment of Godfrey's sword reveals the map to the lost cup of Christ. When the precious stone is placed in the lantern, the light shining through it reflects clues to the location of the grail. Landry is astonished by the new revelation, but he is also determined to go on the quest.

"How could you protect the cup that wields the power God when you don't know what that power is?" the custodian asks Landry. With this, it appears the Templar has a lot to think about before he searches for the grail. Meanwhile, Guillaume de Nogaret (Julian Ovenden) has his own plans in mind in order to secure the power of the French. It remains to be seen what he has in store for the Templars and their quest for the Holy Grail.

In the last episode, Landry and Parsifal (Bobby Schofield) avenged the death of the young man's wife who was killed by robbers. In the process, the Templar was also able to retrieve the body of Godfrey, which was previously stolen. Apparently, they wanted the body because there was a key hidden in the stomach. The purpose of the key was not yet revealed, and what it is supposed to open remains unknown.

"Knightfall" season 1 episode 3 will hit the airwaves on Wednesday, Dec. 20, at 10 p.m. EST on the History channel.
Pixel 2 XL users experience slow fingerprint sensor performance after Android 8.1 Oreo update

Users of the Google Pixel 2 XL device are experiencing problems with their devices. Google Pixel 2 XL's fingerprint scanner is reportedly responding much slower after the Android 8.1 "Oreo" update that was released for the device earlier this December.

According to Android Central, owners of the said devices took their complaints to Google's official support forum. Users of the Google Pixel 2 XL complained that the fingerprint sensor performance of the device has slowed down after Android released their 8.1 update for the "Oreo."

Most users claim that it takes the Pixel 2 XL a second to recognize a finger on the sensor. Additionally, the screen turns on quite slow when pressing the power button to get to the lock screen. These users also noticed that the said issues go away when they enable the Pixel 2 XL's "Always On" feature for the display. The solution, however, is not favored by users who are quite particular with battery saving.

A Google employee has already responded and said that he will be "reaching out privately for bug reports and other information." There is no news so far if the problem has been already fixed.

In other news, the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL are currently discounted at the Google Store. Consumers who are looking the buy the device can expect up to $75 off when buying the devices. As reported by Android Authority, an unlocked version of the Pixel 2 6-gigabyte (GB) version retails for $599, and the 128 GB version goes for $699. These discounts allow consumers to save $50.

The Google Pixel 2 XL 64 GB version, on the other hand, retails for $774, and the 128 GB version is up for grabs for only $874. These give the consumers $75 in savings. As such, interested buyers are advised to grab the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL now as this discount is only available for a limited time.
The politics of Christmas: How to listen to the unheard story

There is a recurring hilarious/facepalm (delete according to opinion) scenario in my marriage. I start to tell a story and fairly quickly my wife Jen detects a slight change in the tone of my voice that few else in the room would detect. She then bites her tongue and squirms with visible waves of tension coursing through her body, as she awaits the inevitable. She knows that even though everyone else thinks I am telling a worthy, important story, I am about to reveal that the whole (often lengthy) preamble has been the set-up for a particularly brilliant/excruciating (delete according to...you get the idea) pun.

How you hear a story depends on what type of story you think you are hearing. You might also say that how you hear it depends on what you are looking for from the story.

If all you are looking for is a bit of cheer at the end of a hard year, then that is probably all you will hear. Or if your only context for the Christmas story is that we are sinners and desperately need someone to sort out our sin, then whatever happens within the story will be fitted into that frame. If that is all you are looking for, that is all you will find. Where and when the story happens, and what else is going on at the time, is interesting, but to be honest just serves as Christmas decoration on the set of the central theatre.

But the spectacular and subtle entrance of Jesus into time and space did happen at a particular time and in a particular space. The first person mentioned in Luke's telling of the great story is not Mary. It is King Herod. My dear friend and church leader John Good recently did a great job of sketching Herod's 'backstory'. This was no shy, retiring bureaucrat. On his father's death, with the skill of a politican, he secured an appointment from Rome to be the ruler of Judea. Yes, his ultimate authority came from Rome, but he ruled with an iron grip. He flexed his military muscle with pleasure, expanding his territory into modern-day Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. He built great aqueducts and ampitheatres, earning the moniker 'Herod the Great'. In fact his mantra was 'Make Judea great again' (delete #fakenews as appropriate).

However, none of his epic projects or conquests compared to the Herodium. This is a man who built a mountain to underline his greatness. Yes  a mountain. Built by slaves, with an artificial lake perched on top, no less, to commemorate his most famous victory against the Parthians. What type of man builds a pointless structure to massage their own fragile ego? I can't imagine it happening today.

Herod is a man who knows that appearance is everything, and if he looks powerful, he will be powerful. Herod's grip on this power was enforced by remarkable cruelty, and his paranoia vented this cruelty even on his own family. There are few things more ugly than the combination of power and paranoia, and Herod lived right at their nexus, always fearing where the next challenge to his rule would come from.

So what's the one thing you don't ask this this all-powerful, near-psychopathic King?

'Er, excuse us, your majesty. May you reign forever...and do you happen to know where the new King is?'

Have they a death wish? These men are not 'wise'. They are unhinged. Suicidal. Or maybe just gloriously, worshipfully naive.

The wise men thought they knew what power looked like. That's why they headed to Herod's palace. But then along comes a baby who looks the absolute opposite of powerful. Here comes a different kind of kingdom. Here comes a different kind of leadership. Here comes a different kind of politics.

Herod's reign is a huge part of the context that Jesus steps into. Our world is not uncontested territory. This is not a pleasant story, set in a neutral space, to make everything a bit more colourful and kind. This is not just chaplaincy to power. This is a direct challenge to the status quo, and although the story is of course so much more than just political, that doesn't stop it being very political. Herod is not thinking, 'Ah  no challenge to me  that's fine, another spiritual guru  another religious service provider  a more interesting player in the "faith sector".' He senses the cosmic scale of what is happening.

And he wasn't the only one. When Mary, the poor, shunned member of an oppressed people, told her cousin Elizabeth that God was 'turning the world upside down', she didn't just mean the religious world. She meant the world. And boy do we still need that as 2018 beckons.

But Herod's genocidal response to the news of Jesus shows how far people will go to cling to power. We must realise this is a battle. Not against flesh and blood, of course, but a battle nonetheless. There is nothing more scary to those who hold power than those who know where ultimate power resides.

Those who will not serve two masters,

Those who will choose kingdom over tribe,

Those who are not ashamed of the gospel,

Those who will speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.

Those who will choose his glory over self-promotion,

Those who will choose truth over expediency,

Those who will listen to the still, small voice more than the megaphone of the media,

Those who will care for the least of these, rather than genuflect to the greatest.

So this Christmas, could we emulate my wonderful and mildly persecuted wife? Could we incline and train our ears to hear the political tone in the voice of the Christmas story? And moreover, could we refuse the easy answers of either abusing or eschewing power and instead walk the more complicated path of channelling it well? Much like the paradox of God as a baby.

Politics is dirty. So was that manger. The challenge awaits.

Andy Flannagan is the executive director of Christians in Politics.
Tim Keller: Evangelicals are viewed with 'fury' and 'disgust' because of taint of Trump and Moore

Tim Keller, the prominent megachurch leader in New York, is claiming there is a future for evangelicalism in the US despite the label becoming 'synonymous with "hypocrite"'.

In an op-ed for the New Yorker Keller, who has become a spokesman for conservative Christian thought, admitted evangelicals are regarded with 'fury and incredulity' as well as 'disgust' because of their association with Donald Trump and now Roy Moore.

Pointing out the meaning has 'changed drastically' since he founded Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York in 1989, he wrote: 'People who once called themselves the "Moral Majority" are now seemingly willing to vote for anyone, however immoral, who supports their political positions.'

'"Evangelical" used to denote people who claimed the high moral ground; now, in popular usage, the word is nearly synonymous with "hypocrite." When I used the word to describe myself in the 1970s, it meant I was not a fundamentalist. If I use the name today, however, it means to hearers that I am.'

In a subtle dig at fellow evangelical leaders he said: 'The conservative leaders who have come to be most identified with the movement have largely driven this redefinition.'

Keller distinguished between capital-E Evangelicalism used by political pollsters who ask people whether they identify as evangelical without any reference to their theological beliefs, and small-e evangelicalism. He said this was a much larger group of Christians, separate from the 'white-evangelicals' voter bloc identified by pollters, who were racially diverse and did not subscribe to a political party.

'While white Evangelicalism is aging and declining, evangelicalism over all is not,' he wrote.

'In my view, these churches tend to be much more committed to racial justice and care for the poor than is commonly seen in white Evangelicalism. In this way, they might be called liberal. On the other hand, these multicultural churches remain avowedly conservative on issues like sex outside of marriage. They look, to most eyes, like a strange mixture of liberal and conservative viewpoints, although they themselves see a strong inner consistency between these views. They resist the contemporary ethical package deals that today's progressivism and conservatism seek to impose on adherents, insisting that true believers must toe the line on every one of a host of issues. But these younger evangelical churches simply won't play by those rules.'

He added: 'The movement may abandon, or at least demote, the prominence of the name, yet be more committed to its theology and historic impulses than ever.'
New Yorks city council is winding down its term, and Melissa Mark-Viveritos speakership will end with it. At her final press conference yesterday, she displayed her usual peremptory attitude, snapping at a fellow council member to shut a window because music from a group of street dancers next to City Hall Park was annoying her. The outgoing speaker, who led the charge to decriminalize quality-of-life offenses and whose primary legislative legacy has been the weakening of the NYPD as a force for proactive policing, did not seem to recognize any irony.

Some 40 bills were passed at yesterdays meeting, but the most contentious was the Right to Know Act, a two-part measure that will complicate and hamper police interactions with the public. One provision will require officers to obtain formal permission from subjects whom they wish to stop and searchand inform them that they are under no obligation to consent. The other compels officers to carry business cards and hand them out to virtually anyone they speak with in an investigative capacity. Mayor de Blasio will sign the act into law.

The Right to Know Act continues Mark-Viveritos efforts to depolice New York Citypublic urination, subway-fare evasion, hanging out in parks all night, drinking in public, smoking pot, and other victimless crimes now merit little more than a civil citation. In the past, if a low-level miscreant ignored a summons to appear before a judge, the city would issue a warrant; outstanding warrants could lead to arrest the next time that the scofflaw misbehaved. This was unfair, Mark-Viverito believed. We are a City that believes in justice, she declaimed in her most recent State of the City speech, not in supporting a broken summons system. This is who we are.

The speakers definition of who we are includes illegal aliens. Her views go well beyond standard municipal sanctuary policy of dont-ask-dont-tell, extending to active protection and sheltering of unlawful residents. She pushed for and passed laws forbidding the city from offering assistance to federal immigration officers; had ICE removed from Rikers Island; and stopped the police, the Department of Correction, and the Department of Probation from detaining illegal aliens on ICEs behalf without a judicial warrant. The city now pays lawyers to defend illegal-alien convicted criminals in immigration court removal proceedings. In 2014, the city authorized the issuance of municipal identification cards to all residentson the grounds that the undocumented lacked, well, documents. Following Donald Trumps election last year, in order to protect illegal aliens from potential enforcement of immigration law, Mark-Viverito joined de Blasio in seeking to destroy documentation and records pertaining to the IDNYC programan effort that remains tied up in the courts.

Mark-Viverito has expanded protections for workers in ways that put heavy burdens on employers. Almost all city businesses must now provide employees with five days of paid sick leave. New rules on shift scheduling for the highly competitive retail and fast-food industries, which operate on paper-thin profit margins, give employers minimal flexibility in designing schedules; they face stiff penalties for making schedule changes with less than two weeks notice. Celebrating themselves as progressive heroes, activist politicians like Mark-Viverito impose their social agenda on small businesses without bearing any of the economic costs.

No evaluation of Mark-Viveritos speakership would be complete without mentioning her idee fixe: freedom for the terrorist Oscar Lopez Rivera. Lopez Rivera, a leader of the Puerto Rican Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN), was convicted in 1981 for seditious conspiracy following a long series of bombings in New York and Chicago. FALN was responsible for bombing Fraunces Tavern, killing four people. Lopez Rivera refused to participate in his trial, claiming he was a prisoner of war, but did not deny any of the charges.

Mark-Viverito, who delivered formal addresses with a Puerto Rican flag nearby, waged a long campaign for Lopez Riveras freedom. She used her few minutes meeting Pope Francis to plead Lopez Riveras case. She visited the terrorist in federal prison several times a year, and exulted when President Obama, a few weeks before leaving office, commuted his sentence. Mark-Viverito even got the National Puerto Rican Day parade to invite Lopez Rivera to march down Fifth Avenue this year as a National Freedom Heroin the very city where he had murdered and mutilated New Yorkers, including a police officer. Despite a massive boycott by corporate sponsors, the NYPD, and most elected officials (but not the mayor), Mark-Viverito paraded beside her hero, who shook his revolutionary fist at the crowd.

I am a Stoic person, the outgoing speakerwhose Twitter feed is littered with exclamation points and vulgar imprecationssaid yesterday, before the last council meeting, and I think where I get emotional . . . is when I think of people that are so humble and have so little, that thank me, and literally give of themselves in a way that just takes your breath away, they feel so much that you brought them some dignity. Whats really breathtaking is Mark-Viveritos grandiosity and sense of her own righteousness. New York City is losing her not a moment too soon.

Photo by William Alatriste/NYC Council
Under an Obama-era directive and the threat of federal civil rights investigation, thousands of American schools changed their discipline policies in an attempt to reduce out-of-school suspensions. Last year, education-policy researchers Matthew Steinberg and Joanna Lacoe reviewed the arguments for and against discipline reform in Education Next, concluding that little was known about the effects of the recent changes. But this year, the picture is becoming clearer: discipline reform has caused a school-climate catastrophe.

Philadelphia is the latest city to fall into crisis, according to a new study conducted by Lacoe and Steinberg. The Philly school district serves 134,000 students, about 70 percent of whom are black or Latino. In the 201213 school year, Philadelphia banned suspensions for non-violent classroom misbehavior. Steinberg and Lacoe estimate that, compared with other districts, discipline reform reduced academic achievement by 3 percent in math and nearly 7 percent in reading by 2016. The authors do report that, among students with previous suspensions, achievement increased by 0.2 percent. But this only demonstrates that well-behaved students bore the brunt of the academic damage.

Lacoe and Steinberg report another small improvement among previously suspended students: their attendance rose by 1.43 days a year. But again, this development was more than offset by the negative trend in the broader student body. Truancy in Philadelphia schools had been declining steadily before the reform, but then rose at an astonishing rate afterward, from about 25 percent to over 40 percent.

Perhaps students were staying at home because they were scared to be at school. Suspensions for non-violent classroom misbehavior dropped after the ban, but suspensions for serious incidents rose substantially. The effort to reduce the racial suspension gap actually increased it; African-American kids spent an extra .15 days out of school.

What in the world was going on inside these schools? Fortunately, Steinberg and Lacoes quantitative studies are complemented by qualitative research from the University of Pennsylvanias Consortium for Policy Research in Education. The researchers conclusions are bleak: the district has taken away a disciplinary tool that teachers believe in, and made meager efforts at training teachers in an approach that they dont find credible. Despite five years of hearing from their overseers that suspensions dont work, more than 80 percent of teachers believe that suspensions are essential to send a message to parents about the seriousness of their childs misbehavior, ensure a safe school environment, and encourage other students to follow the rules. About two-thirds of teachers believe that suspensions deter further student misbehavior.

Early in 2014, Arne Duncan, President Obamas education secretary, accused teachers who suspended unruly kids of racial discrimination and threatened their superintendents with federal investigation if their districts didnt reduce suspensions. Duncan declared that schools needed to shift to evidence-based discipline, such as the Department of Educationbacked Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS.) PBIS is a multi-tier, whole-school approach to instilling socially appropriate behavioral norms. Regarding discipline, the emphasis is on the use of the most effective and most positive approach to addressing even the most severe problem behaviors. Most students will succeed when a positive school culture is promoted, informative corrective feedback is provided, academic success is maximized, and use of prosocial skills is acknowledged. PBIS deemphasizes punishment, instead encouraging schools to remove antecedents and consequences that trigger and maintain problem behavior.

Some evidence suggests that PBIS can work, if schools have extra funding, training, and deep teacher buy-in. But those conditions dont hold in major urban school districts. In Philadelphia, three years after banning suspensions for bad behavior, only 30 schools had received extra funding from the district to implement PBIS. According to the consortiums study, many teachers harbor doubts about policies that they see as too soft; teachers at one school set up a shadow disciplinary system to circumvent the principal and do what they think works. Teachers reported feeling unsupported by administrators and were no more likely than teachers at non-PBIS schools to report that their principals handled discipline effectively. Even administrators dedicated to PBIS have their doubts. I feel its kind of like banging your head against the wall, one said. So, all the things that I want to do are just not working.

Remarkably, teachers at schools using suspension-averse policies proved no less likely to suspend kids than teachers at schools practicing traditional disciplinethe ostensible point of the whole reform in the first place. Teachers in the reformist schools were, however, less likely to hold student-teacher conferences. Thats a disheartening finding, because the professed intention of the new policies is to encourage teachers to engage students before reporting misbehavior directly to the principal. Teachers report that principals have turned a blind eye to misbehavior and left it up to teachers to handle discipline. But principals are mirroring central office administrators, who have ordered schools to stop suspending students, while offering little in the way of workable alternatives.

Philadelphias story is the story of discipline reform nationwide. Philadelphia did this to itself, before Arne Duncan used the threat of a federal civil-rights investigation to make other districts follow suit. Last year, we knew next to nothing about the consequences of discipline reform. But the more we learn, the more reason we have to fear that Duncans deeply misguided federal guidance has put at-risk children at far greater risk. Current education secretary Betsy DeVos should rescind Duncans guidance on discipline, and parents should press their teachers and principals about whats happening in their childrens schools.

Photo by Jon Helgason/iStock
In One Beacon America Insurance Co. v. Celanese Corp., 94 Mass. App. Ct. 382, 84 N.E.3d 867 (Mass. App. 2017), the Massachusetts Court of Appeals held that insurance companies have the right to control the defense of the insured after offering to defend the insured without a reservation of rights. If an insured refuses to accept the insurance companys defense, it loses the right to obtain reimbursement for defense costs unless it can show a sufficient conflict of interest existed.

The insured, Celanese Corporation, had been subjected to various lawsuits over a span of years involving bodily injury claims arising from asbestos and chemicals contained in Celaneses products or disbursed at Celaneses facilities. These lawsuits had been defended under an existing defense cost-sharing agreement which superseded the defense costs provisions of One Beacons policy and provided that One Beacon would pay a specific percentage of Celaneses defense costs for specified claims. In April 2009 Celanese sent a letter to One Beacon, notifying One Beacon that it was terminating the parties existing defense cost-sharing agreements and was, therefore, demanding that One Beacon defend the ongoing asbestos and chemical product lawsuits. One Beacon then agreed to defend Celanese in the underlying cases without a reservation of rights. One Beacon then sought to assume full control of Celaneses defense of those claims. However, Celanese refused to cede its control of the defense to One Beacon. Additionally, Celanese refused to replace the counsel it had employed for the past 14 years with the representation from counsel selected by One Beacon. The basis upon which Celanese refused to yield control of its defense was a demonstrated conflict of interest that Celanese alleged existed between Celanese and One Beacon.

One Beacon filed a declaratory judgment action seeking to establish its control over the defense of the underlying asbestos and chemical claims. One Beacon also sought a judicial ruling that One Beacon was not liable to Celanese for the defense costs that Celanese had incurred from April 13, 2009 (when Celanese elected to revert to a defense under One Beacons general policies as opposed to the cost-sharing agreement) through May 27, 2011 (when the trial court ruled that One Beacon had the right to control Celaneses defense). Although the trial court did rule that One Beacon had the right to control the defense, the judge also ruled that One Beacon remained liable for reasonable and necessary defense costs incurred by Celanese during the questioned time period. The attorney fee issue was referred to a special master who eventually awarded Celanese $2,435,921.49 in attorneys fees plus prejudgment interest. An appeal followed.

The Court of Appeals began its analysis by asking four questions: (1) does One Beacon have the right to control Celaneses defense if One Beacon has offered to defend without a reservation of rights?; (2) does Celanese have the right to refuse One Beacons control of the defense if a sufficient conflict of interest exists?; (3) does a sufficient conflict of interest exist?; and (4) is One Beacon liable for defense costs where Celanese has refused One Beacons control of the defense?

Turning to the first question, the court held that One Beacon had the right to control Celaneses defense because One Beacon had offered to defend Celanese against the remaining asbestos and chemical product injury claims without a reservation of rights. The right to control the defense included the authority to choose the counsel who would defend the claims, as well as to make other decisions related to the control of the defense that would traditionally be vested in the insured, as a named party in the case.

Turning to the second question, the court noted that One Beacons right to control the defense was not absolute. If a relevant conflict of interest existed, then One Beacon might not have the right to control Celaneses defense. Citing to other authorities, the Court of Appeals noted that a conflict of interest could arise between the insured and the insurance company (other than a dispute over the scope of coverage): (1) when the defense tendered is not a complete defense under circumstances of which it should have been; (2) when the attorney hired by the carrier acts unethically and, at the insurers direction, advances the insurers interests at the expense of the insureds; (3) when the defense would not, under the governing law, satisfy the insurers duty to defend; and (4) when, though the defense is otherwise proper, the insurer attempts to obtain some type of concession from the insured before it will defend. 84 N.E.3d at 873 citing Northern County Mut. Ins. Co. v. Davalos, 140 S.W.3d 685, 689 (Tex. 2004). The court also noted that another type of conflict of interest could arise in situations where the defense provided by the insurance companys appointed defense counsel was materially inadequate. Under the foregoing circumstances, an insured could be justified in refusing the insurance companys control of the defense. Under those circumstances the insured would be entitled to coverage for the costs it incurred in hiring its own independent counsel to defend the claims. Having resolved that a conflict of interest could displace the insurers right to control the defense, the court then moved to the issue of whether there was a sufficient conflict between Celanese and One Beacon to justify Celaneses rejection.

The court rejected Celaneses argument that One Beacons offer to defend Celanese was only a conditional offer because One Beacon required Celanese to terminate its current counsel that had been representing Celanese in the asbestos and chemical cases for the past 14 years. The court rejected this argument because the insurance company had the right to appoint its own selected counsel and this right was an inherent right in the insurers control of the defense as part of its duty to defend.

Celanese argued that a conflict of interest existed because One Beacon had demonstrated through a prior case involving Celanese that it would put its own interests before Celaneses interests in controlling the defense. The prior case involved a jury verdict finding that One Beacon and its third-party administrator were liable for unfair and deceptive practices in relationship to the parties prior cost-sharing agreement. However, this issue was a very finite issue concerning only the delayed payments on certain claims and did not concern the manner in which One Beacon would conduct its defense and did not lead to an inescapable conclusion that One Beacon could not fairly evaluate and defend the underlying claims on their merits. The nexus to a potential conflict of interest was further attenuated, according to the court, because Celanese had terminated the cost-sharing agreement that One Beacon was found to have breached by the previous verdict. Currently, Celanese had requested One Beacon to provide a defense under its general liability policies and not any type of cost-sharing agreement.

Celanese argued that One Beacon had a corporate policy of exhausting its liability limits rapidly in order to avoid paying defense costs. This argument came from statements that were made by One Beacon in the prior litigation. However, the court found that Celaneses concern did not create a sufficient conflict of interest to justify the refusal of One Beacons control of the defense. The court noted that a conflict of interest did not exist merely because the insured and the insurer had a different view as to the insureds potential liability because the parties still had a common interest in defense counsel providing a vigorous defense. The court also rejected Celaneses argument that One Beacon and Celanese had disparate viewpoints as to how to defend the case. Celanese wanted to emphasize in the defense its right to protect its reputation in the ongoing asbestos and chemical product litigation. However, the opposing tactics of defense did not give rise to a sufficient conflict of interest to justify Celaneses refusal to allow One Beacon to control the defense.

Finally, turning to the last question involving Celaneses refusal of One Beacons control of the defense, the court found that because Celanese failed to demonstrate that there was a sufficient conflict of interest, the trial courts ruling that One Beacon was liable to pay for defense costs required a reversal of the ruling. Absent a sufficient conflict of interest on the part of One Beacon, Celanese lost its right to obtain reimbursement for defense costs when it refused to accept One Beacons defense, which was offered without a reservation of rights.

Note: OneBeacon America was sold to Armour Group Holdings in 2014. After the acquisition, Armour renamed the company Lamorak Insurance Company.
A Washington community along the new rail line where an Amtrak train derailed in a deadly crash had tried to stop the project on grounds higher-speed passenger trains would endanger pedestrians and motorists.

The city of Lakewood, several miles north of the crash site, went to court in 2013 to stop the Point Defiance Bypass project, which redirected passenger trains from a curvy route along Puget Sound that competes with freight traffic and squeezes through single-track tunnels where only one train can go through at a time.

Opponents said the route, which shortened the trip between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle would expose car and pedestrian traffic to faster trains at more than a half-dozen street-level crossings in Lakewood. City officials asserted the state transportation departments environmental review of the new route was inadequate and failed to consider traffic, neighborhood and other impacts.

In March 2014, a judge dismissed the lawsuit and the $181 million track upgrade moved forward. Until now, the route was used by freight trains.

Early Monday, during the first run of the new passenger service, 13 of the 14 cars went off the tracks at an overpass, some tumbling onto Interstate 5.

Even people who tried to stop the new route on safety grounds said a derailment wasnt a concern.

These are new, upgraded tracks  thats what is so surprising about this, said John Niles with the Coalition for Effective Transportation Alternatives, which joined local elected officials in opposing the project. They werent worried about a train derailing.

At least three people on board were killed, local authorities said, contradicting a U.S. official briefed on the investigation who earlier told The Associated Press that at least six were dead. No additional briefings were provided by late afternoon, and the official said he had no new information to explain the discrepancy in the numbers.

The U.S. official was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

The track is owned by Sound Transit, the public transit system for the Seattle area, which oversaw the upgrades and did extensive testing prior to Mondays public opening, agency spokeswoman Kimberly Reason said.

While it will take investigators months to determine the precise cause, speed may have been a factor.

Moments before the derailment the train was going 81.1 mph (130.5 kph), according to transitdocs.com, which maps train speeds using data from Amtraks train tracker app.

The maximum speed drops from 79 mph (127 kph) to 30 mph (48 kph) for passenger trains just before the tracks curve to cross Interstate 5, according to a track chart prepared by the Washington State Department of Transportation.

Another Sound Transit spokeswoman, Rachelle Cunningham, confirmed the maximum allowable speed was 30 mph (48 kph) at the derailment point but could not say where that lower limit began.

(Brown reported from Billings, Montana. Michael Sisak in Philadelphia and Michael Balsamo and Justin Pritchard in Los Angeles contributed to this report.)

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Fire at Birgunj gas factory contained after nine hours

Firemen and security personnel managed to put out the massive fire at a gas factory in Sukhasaina, Birgunj, after nine hours on Wednesday.
CEC Yadav asks major parties to clear hurdles

Chief Election Commissioner Ayodhee Prasad Yadav has urged the political parties to resolve constitutional hurdles and the differences over electing the National Assembly.
Bitcoin plunged more than $1,000 in less than an hour Tuesday.

The digital currency fell from $17,929 to a low of $16,912 between 3:30 and 4:30 p.m. ET, according to Coinbase, the leading U.S. platform for buying and selling major cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin had traded near $19,800 on Sunday.

The slump came just around the close of the U.S. stock market.

Tuesday was a wild day for stock traders focused on cryptocurrencies as signs emerged bitcoin mania is getting a bit out of control. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission temporarily suspended trading in shares of The Crypto Company , partly on concerns of stock manipulation, while a tiny company called Future FinTech with no apparent connection to cryptocurrencies briefly soared more than 200 percent.

Bitcoin performance Tuesday afternoon

Source: Coinbase

The CME bitcoin futures expiring in January settled 4.7 percent lower at $18,200 in their second day of trading ever. The Cboe bitcoin futures contract settled 7.9 percent lower at $17,555. Trading volume on both exchanges was roughly the same.

Bitcoin's rival offshoot, bitcoin cash, surged for a second day, up 24.5 percent to a record high of $2,735.58, according to CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin cash traded about 20 percent higher, near $2,625 as of 4:35 p.m. ET.

Bitcoin cash split off from bitcoin in August in a debate over how best to improve the digital currency's transaction efficiency.

The gains in bitcoin cash followed news in the last few days that bitcoin payments processor BitPay and major cryptocurrency storage company Blockchain added support for bitcoin cash. Coinbase is set to add support for bitcoin cash by January.

With Tuesday's price moves, bitcoin had roughly 48 percent of the total market cap of all cryptocurrencies, while bitcoin cash had about 7 percent, according to CoinMarketCap.
When two callers asked CNBC's Jim Cramer about the stock of Penumbra , he told them that it was for speculation only and they should wait for a better entry point to buy.

But there's one problem: "Penumbra hasn't given you many entry points," the "Mad Money" host said.

The first time Cramer was asked about Penumbra's stock was Nov. 2016, when it was at $65. The second time was in March 2017, when the stock was at $82. By Nov. 2017, it had run up to $116, where it peaked. Since then, shares of Penumbra have pulled back roughly 20 percent.

"Given that this is an audience name that's made some of our viewers a lot of mula, I think we've got to figure out whether we're dealing with a buyable dip or if this is just the beginning of a larger, more painful decline," Cramer said. "It's not always easy to tell."

It's worth understanding the business to understand the dip, Cramer said. Penumbra makes medical devices that treat neurovascular conditions like strokes and aneurysms. The company's products help doctors do minimally invasive procedures to remove blood clots.

Part of the reason why Cramer and his callers were so taken by Penumbra's stock was because the company kept reporting strong earnings, hitting Wall Street with beat after beat.

Since May, the company has reported several earnings losses, but the Street didn't seem to care. Revenues  one of the few metrics that matter to small, high-growth companies like Penumbra  were still growing, and management remained bullish, driving shares higher.

But since Penumbra's peak in November, its shares have backtracked, sliding to $94.40 as of Tuesday's close.

"And you know what the worst part is? Sometimes, you've got to own this: I can't really tell you why it went down," Cramer said. "To my admittedly unrefined eye, all of the news seems to have been good news. But that's obviously not how the market saw things."

Still, Cramer tried to break it down. The first leg down came just after the post-earnings rally, which could have been run-of-the-mill profit-taking after a big earnings win, he said.

The second leg could have been attributed to the New England Journal of Medicine, which published a positive piece on Stryker, one of Penumbra's competitors.

But it was positive for Penumbra, too: the gist of the piece was that patients can wait up to 24 hours (instead of the widely accepted six hours) after having a stroke to remove the blood clot, theoretically raising demand for both Stryker's and Penumbra's devices.

Penumbra's stock initially rallied, but gave up its gains within a few days. The last leg lower came after BMO analysts downgraded Penumbra to "hold" from "buy" because of its valuation.

All in all, it seemed to Cramer that Penumbra's decline was a textbook example of investors bowing out of a stock after seeing a reasonable amount of success.

Even though Penumbra would not be a huge beneficiary of the GOP tax overhaul, which would justify some selling, most of it was probably shifty investors worried about the decline, he said.

"The bottom line? I've been telling you to watch out for a pullback in Penumbra since last year. Am I going to run from it now that we got one?" Cramer said. "I think it's a broken stock, not a broken company, and the ax in this name  a fellow by the name of Larry Biegelsen of Wells Fargo  remains pretty darned bullish. And you know what? So am I. The recent weakness in Penumbra, I think, is a gift, and for those who like these high-growth super stocks, I'd take it!"
"but they're nice and juicy, and Riot's one of them right now,"

watch now

Short-seller Andrew Left can't find enough ways to short, or bet against, bitcoin . "If you're a short-seller right now and you're cautious and you want to short something that's related to bitcoin and not bitcoin, you have limited opportunities," the Citron Research founder said Tuesday on CNBC's "Fast Money." "But they're nice and juicy, and Riot's one of them right now," he said. Citron Research tweeted Monday afternoon that it was shorting Riot Blockchain , a biotech company that added "blockchain" to its name in October and saw its shares surge. The stock is now up more than 900 percent this year and has a market cap of about $372 million. Riot turned down a CNBC request to appear on "Fast Money." "No one at the company has been able to get in touch with the CEO," a Riot spokesperson said. Based on his "sum of parts" analysis, Left said on CNBC the stock is worth $9 a share, down nearly 77 percent from where it closed on Tuesday. Shares fell 6 percent in after-hours trading after rising 5.8 percent to $38.60 a share Tuesday.

Andrew Left, Citron Research Michael Newberg | CNBC

Riot Blockchain announced Tuesday it raised $37 million in gross proceeds from subscription agreements with accredited investors for Riot shares, with Canaccord Genuity as financial advisor. The proceeds will be used for bitcoin mining and other investments, Riot said. Left said he is using options to bet against Riot. He said the company is "even worse" than the initial coin offerings that have raised millions of dollars each based primarily on plans laid out in online whitepapers. Riot has just enough blockchain-related investments to announce them publicly, "the whole time really misrepresenting the fact that nothing they have is a real player in the crypto industry," Left said. The company used to focus on blood testing and animal health care. While Riot says on its website that it maintains its Bioptix business, the company intends to "gain exposure to the blockchain ecosystem through targeted investments in the sector, with a primary focus on the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains."

Challenges for betting against crypto stocks
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich told employees on Tuesday that the company will take more risks going forward and he said change will be the "new normal."

In an internal memo that was sent to CNBC, Krzanich acknowledged "innovation" inside Intel's client computing business -- its biggest segment -- but said the biggest opportunities are in the company's growth areas like connected devices, artificial intelligence and autonomous driving.

"It's almost impossible to perfectly predict the future, but if there's one thing about the future I am 100 percent sure of, it is the role of data," Krzanich wrote. "Anything that produces data, anything that requires a lot of computing, the vision is, we're there."

Krzanich, who was promoted to CEO in 2013, has been aggressively acquiring against that thesis. Intel's purchases include Altera, Mobileye, Movidius and Nervana. The company also recently announced plans for a graphics processor that could make it more competitive with Nvidia , whose silicon is popular among AI researchers.

Additionally this year Intel discontinued some do-it-yourself "maker" products, and that the chipmaker had closed its health wearables group.

The memo also underscores the dramatic change in the nature of Intel's business as it approaches its 50th anniversary in July 2018.

"We're just inches away from being a 50/50 company, meaning that half our revenue comes from the PC and half from new growth markets," Krzanich wrote. Key partners include cloud infrastructure providers like , and .

Here's the entirety of Krzanich's memo:
Earlier this year, Juul Labs quietly spun out of vaping company Pax Labs and quickly catapulted up the charts to become the top e-cigarette producer on the market. Now, the San Francisco-based company is raising $150 million in its first financing as an independent company.

The separation allowed Juul to focus on people seeking an alternative to cigarettes, while Pax, which lets users pack their own loose leaves, exists in a hybrid world between nicotine and various sorts of plants.

Last week, Juul hired Kevin Burns from Chobani to be CEO.

And now the company is raising money. It's already reeled in $111.5 million from 23 investors, according to a filing with the SEC on Tuesday. In what's described as a convertible note, the company still has $38.5 million left to raise.

A Juul spokesperson confirmed the filing but declined to provide additional details.

While they've formally separated, the relationship between Pax and Juul is complicated. Tyler Goldman became CEO of Pax in August 2016 and held the top position at both companies after the split. With the Burns announcement on Dec. 11, Juul said that Goldman "intends to pursue new entrepreneurial opportunities."

Goldman has also left Pax. That company, which expects to announce a new CEO soon, declined to comment for this story.

James Monsees and Adam Bowen, the co-founders of Pax, have left that company as well: Monsees' LinkedIn page says he left Pax in July, while Bowen's profile indicates he left a month earlier. Both are are now top executives and board members at Juul.
CIAA drags ex-DoFE chief to court

The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) on Tuesday filed a corruption case at the Special Court against former director general of Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE) Bishow Raj Pandey and other two DoFE staffers.
Online styling service Stitch Fix 's shares plunged more than 10 percent after it reported its first earnings as a publicly traded company Tuesday afternoon.

While earnings and sales just slightly surpassed analysts' expectations, gross margins were hampered by investments into new categories, falling nearly 3 percentage points. In the near term, Stitch Fix said it continues to expect profit margins to decline as those investments ramp up.

On a call with analysts and investors, CEO Katrina Lake said Stitch Fix plans to grow with existing clients in its core women's business, and the company aims to acquire new customers as marketing efforts are accelerated.

Here's what Stitch Fix reported, compared with what analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting:

Earnings of 4 cents a share, compared with a forecast of 3 cents per share.

Revenue was $296 million, versus an estimate of $295 million.

The company said its number of active clients in the first quarter mushroomed to 2.4 million users, up nearly 30 percent from a year ago. An active client, according to Stitch Fix, is one who "checked out a Fix" in the preceding 12-month period, indicating which fashion items he or she is keeping either through the mobile app or website.

Total sales climbed 25 percent, to $296 million, boosted by growth in the company's recently launched men's and plus categories. In the women's category, Stitch Fix has been adding new price points, including a premium line and more lower-priced options.

Net income for the fiscal first quarter was $13.5 million, or 4 cents a share, compared with earnings of $13.2 million, or 14 cents per share, one year ago.

Excluding the one-time impact of a revaluation of its preferred stock options, Stitch Fix said it earned $4.4 million on a non-GAAP basis.

Looking ahead, Stitch Fix said it expects to post sales between $287 million and $294 million in the second quarter, and fiscal 2018 revenue could be as much as $1.22 billion.

"Seasonality in our business does not follow that of traditional retailers, such as typical concentration of revenue in the holiday quarter," the company added in a statement.

Stitch Fix also said its margins were hurt by "higher shrink," which in the retail world refers to loss of inventory attributed to factors such as employee theft, shoplifting, damage in transit or cashier errors.

The company said in a statement Tuesday: "We are actively working on various strategies to reduce shrink, including using technology to help manage client behavior and improve our carrier claims process."

Just last month, San Francisco-based Stitch Fix raised $120 million in a downsized IPO that priced below its indicated range of $18 to $20. The stock, which began trading on Nov. 17, has wavered ever since, with investors wary of Blue Apron 's and Snap 's not-so-successful public offerings, leaving a cloud hanging over the start-up industry.

Against a backdrop of consumers rapidly changing their preferences for apparel and other fashion accessories, Stitch Fix hopes its more personalized online service will appeal to a broader swath of people.

"Stitch Fix is revolutionizing fashion through direct shipments of apparel that has been selected through the combination of data science and personal stylists," RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney wrote in a recent note to clients.

"We believe if the company executes well and ramps their category expansion, they should be able to at least double that [active client] figure to 4 [million] over the next 3 years," Mahaney added.

Using the Stitch Fix platform, customers submit size, budget and style preferences before receiving a box of five apparel and accessories items, which can either be purchased or returned. This model can be attractive because companies can forecast revenue streams, but many have struggled to balance those sales against steep marketing costs.
Choosing furnishings to decorate a room can be a time-consuming, expensive and haphazard task. Just because a mirror, table or chair looks nice in the store doesn't necessarily mean it will fit in your front room or go with the wallpaper.

roOomy, which has offices in the U.S., the Netherlands and China, is using augmented reality (AR), virtual reality and 3-D technology to change the way people visualize homes and spaces.

Enrico Rosa, vice-president of development and global operations at roOomy, which was founded in 2010, told CNBC that the idea behind the company originated a few years ago. The idea was to develop technology that allowed users to visualize and experience pieces of furniture in their own home.



"Back then, we didn't have the benefit of AR technologies and hardware at our disposal," Rosa said. "So we developed a bespoke render engine that allowed us to convert a 2-D image, a standard 2-D image taken with a camera, into a 3-D space with a few simple measurements."

Within that 3-D space, which is displayed on a handheld device, users can undertake a host of actions. Rosa said that this ranged from removing old furniture and curtains to changing flooring and putting in completely new furniture to see how it looks.



roOomy is not the only business using this kind of technology to transform the way we view interiors and homes. Helsinki and London-based Sayduck, for example, also uses technology to place 3-D models of products on top of the camera view of a smart device.



roOomy's Rosa said that technology would help to change the way consumers behave.



"I think it's massive if you look at the old fashioned way of shopping for these things it was very much based on trial and error." Previously, customers would have to imagine what an item would look like in a different material or whether it would even fit in a room, he said.



"Now, with this technology all of that just disappears. You can do it all in your house  you can look at the entire range of that sofa and all of its different materials and colors in your own space, size and all."

Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook.
Sen. Al Franken will resign Jan. 2 and be succeeded by Minnesota Lt. Gov. Tina Smith a day later, NBC News reported Wednesday.

Earlier this month, the Minnesota Democrat announced he would step down amid sexual misconduct accusations, but had not set a specific time to leave the Senate. Most of the Senate Democratic caucus pushed Franken to resign, but at least two of his party's senators  Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Patrick Leahy of Vermont  said recently that Franken got pushed out too quickly, according to Politico.

Days after Franken said he planned to step down, Minnesota Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton chose Smith as his successor.

Franken faced a Senate Ethics Committee investigation into multiple accusations of sexual misconduct and said he could no longer be "an effective senator" while it was ongoing. At the time, the senator said that "some of the allegations" against him "are simply not true," while he remembers others "very differently."

Democrats urged Franken to resign amid a heated special election for a Senate seat from Alabama. The Republican candidate, Roy Moore, was accused of pursuing relationships with teenage girls when he was in his 30s decades ago.

Moore, who denied the allegations, eventually lost the race to Democratic Sen.-elect Doug Jones.
Pedestrians walk past the Bank of England (BOE) in the City of London, U.K.

The Bank of England will on Wednesday unveil plans to allow European banks to operate in UK as normal post-Brexit, even in a "no deal" scenario, the BBC reported.

European banks offering wholesale finance, money and services provided to businesses and each other, would be able to continue operating through branches without having to go through the expensive process of creating subsidiaries, the BBC said, without citing sources.

The BOE could not immediately be reached for comment.

The BOE has come under pressure from bankers and financial lobbyists to fast-track licensing of European banks that want to continue doing business in London after Brexit to avoid cutting off customers and disrupting markets.

Over a hundred banks in London, which are branches of lenders headquartered elsewhere in the EU, operate under EU "passporting" rules and are uncertain whether they can still do business in Britain after it exits the bloc in March 2019.
watch now

Catalonia, the rebel region of Spain that declared itself independent, is holding parliamentary elections on Thursday which are seen as a major test for pro-independence politicians and parties. Polls show the contest between pro-secessionist and unionist (also known as constitutionalist, pro-Spain) parties is too close to call, leading to a possible hung parliament where no one party has a majority. "It's crucial to look at who will have a majority and it looks like no one will have a proper majority," Borja Lasheras, policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations and the director of the Madrid Office, told CNBC Tuesday. "You see a very divided society in Catalonia with extremely competing narratives and Catalonia will remain deeply fractured (whatever the result)." The election comes after a period of quiet following the chaotic and fast-moving scenes in October when the regional government declared independence following a referendum, held in defiance of Spain's attempts to ban the vote, at the start of October. Political crisis ensued with the Spanish government imposing direct rule on Catalonia, ousting the Catalan president and government and calling fresh elections. What's more, several pro-independence politicians including Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, fled to Belgium when Spain issued a warrant for their arrest on serious sedition charges. Puigdemont remains in self-imposed exile in Belgium where he has campaigned ahead of the vote. His former deputy, Oriol Junqueras, is contesting the election (as leader of the alliance between the Catalan Republican Left party - the ERC) from prison as he too faces sedition charges and has been refused bail by a judge who feared he would repeat his secessionist activities.

Moroccan Rif activists carry a Catalan independence flag during a demonstration outside the Catalan Government building, the Palau de la Generalitat on October 28, 2017 in Barcelona, Spain. The Spanish government stripped Catalonia of its autonomy after the Catalan parliament voted yesterday to declare independence. Jack Taylor | Getty Images

What could happen either way?

Polls currently suggest that the three pro-independence parties will attain around 67 or 68 seats (the number needed for a majority) in the 135 seat parliament, meaning that they are at the point where a majority hangs in the balance. This pro-independence coalition, Junts pel Catalonia, led by Puigdemont is a pro-secession force in the election race but there has been considerable fragmentation within the movement with several pro-independence parties and politicians running against Puigdemont, including his former deputy Junqueras. Meantime, the secessionist movement is facing stiff competition from Ciudadanos, a key ally of Spain's ruling Popular Party led by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, and a party that is strongly opposed to independence.

watch now

Polls suggest that voters will be broadly split between the pro-unity and pro-independence camp, however. The two parties expected to gain the most seats individually are the pro-unity Ciudadanos and Junqueras' pro-independence ERC, seen level-pegging in polls with each potentially gaining 32 or 33 seats. Lasheras at the European Council on Foreign Relations said that the last election in 2015 was a lot clearer in terms of political narrative and policies but that fragmentation had now made things unclear. "In the last 2015 elections, the secessionists had a parliamentary majority but not a popular vote majority," Lasheras said. "(Now) you have Puigdemont in Belgium, you've got Junqueras (Catalonia's deposed vice-president) in prison so it's unclear as they've lost the narrative in a way" he said.

watch now

Wolfango Piccoli, vice president at risk consultancy Teneo Intelligence, agreed that the regional election is likely to lead to a hung parliament with no one party gaining a majority. "Even if pro-independence parties obtain a majority of seats, it is not a foregone conclusion that they will be able to quickly form a government," he noted. "The separatist movement remains divided on who should be the next first minister and whether the next government should continue to push for independence unilaterally. Government-formation negotiations will likely be protracted," he added. Piccoli said that, all being well, an investiture vote would take place early next year, triggering the two-month deadline for parliament to elect a first minister. "If parties fail to do so, parliament would be automatically dissolved and new elections would be held within 40-60 days following the date of the dissolution," he said.

watch now

Economic impact?
China was labeled a competitor of the U.S. in the first national security strategy document based on President Donald Trump's "America First" vision

Beijing says U.S. should stop "distorting China's strategic intentions" and abandon its "Cold War mentality"

watch now

watch now

President Xi Jinping said at the opening of the 19th Communist Party Congress in October that although China's influence is growing, it will not be a threat to any country. China, he said, will not seek hegemony. While there are suspicions about the Communist Party's political interference in countries where there is significant Chinese foreign direct investment, Beijing has repeatedly rejected such claims. On Tuesday, the Chinese foreign ministry's Hua once again cited misinterpretation of the country's intentions. "We urge the U.S. side to stop deliberately distorting China's strategic intentions, and abandon such outdated concepts as the Cold War mentality and the zero-sum game, otherwise it will only end up harming itself as well as others," said Hua. China instead is urging collaboration. "Cooperation is the only right choice for China and the United States and win-win cooperation can lead to a better future," Hua said. "As two major countries, it is not surprising for China and the United States to have some disagreements. It is advisable for our two countries to properly handle them in a constructive way on the basis of respecting each other's core interests and major concerns," she added. The Chinese embassy in the U.S. also issued a response on its website on Tuesday, saying cooperation between the world's two largest economies will lead to a win-win outcome for both sides, but confrontation will result in mutual losses.

watch now
A number of customers self-reported symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea and nausea to the website iwaspoisoned.com after eating at a Chipotle on West Pico Boulevard in LA. This website allows patrons to anonymously report incidents in which they believe they have gotten food poisoning at a restaurant.

"Public Health routinely monitors for and investigates reports of foodborne illness and communicable diseases in response to health concerns," the Acute Communicable Disease Control unit of the Los Angeles Department of Public Health, told CNBC via email.

Public health officials in Los Angeles are investigating a possible foodborne illness outbreak at a local Chipotle restaurant. The news was first reported by Business Insider .

Shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill fell more than 3 percent on Wednesday after reports surfaced that the fast-casual chain's food safety woes are still not behind it.

"We take any report of illness very seriously. We are aware of a few reports (two of which appear to be the same) on user generated reporting sites but there is no clinical validation associated with those reports, and we have not been contacted by customers directly to substantiate these claims," Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold told CNBC via email.

Arnold told CNBC that the company is not aware of any reports made to local health officials, but noted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had reported that influenza was widespread in California.

He also said that several employees that had been ill were "being held out of work," as per Chipotle's sick policy.

"So all of this is happening against a backdrop of widespread illness throughout the state," Arnold said.

Even if Chipotle is not to blame for these incidences, the report once again puts the company's food safety polices under scrutiny.

It has been two years since a string of food safety incidents first battered sales and scared away diners. While the chain has been able to battle back and return to profitability, its successes have been overshadowed by more recent incidents.

A number of reports have surfaced in the last year pointing to a lax sick policy and some food safety procedures that were not being followed. Chipotle has implemented a paid sick-leave policy to ensure employees stay home when they are ill and has held several meetings with its entire staff of restaurant employees to reiterate food preparation practices.
White House chief economic advisor Gary Cohn said the administration failed in its attempt to cut a hedge fund tax loophole even though it was a key campaign promise.

Axios co-founder Mike Allen asked Cohn what was the one change he would make to the tax reform bill.

"We would have cut carried interest," Cohn said Wednesday. "We probably tried 25 times."

He blamed resistance on Capitol Hill. "We hit opposition in that big white building with the dome at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue every time we tried," he said in the interview. "It is just the reality of the political system."

The Republican tax plan keeps the so-called carried-interest loophole that benefits managers of hedge funds and private equity funds. Carried interest is the money manager's cut of the fund's profit. It is taxed at the lower capital gains tax rate, while profit in other professions is taxed at the higher ordinary income rate.

President Donald Trump promised during his campaign that he would eliminate this loophole, saying hedge fund managers were "getting away with murder."

But Cohn told Axios that the hedge fund and private equity lobby was too strong to overcome. "The reality of this town is that constituency [hedge funds and private equity] has a very large presence in the House and the Senate. They have really strong relationships on both sides of the aisle," he said. "We just didn't have the support on carried interest."

Cohn, formerly the No. 2 executive at , claimed Trump was exasperated over the loophole remaining in the bill as recently as this week.

"We had a conversation on carried interest [on] Monday," Cohn said. "He wanted to know if we can take it out of the bill. He said 'how does this keep surviving?'"

 CNBC's Liz Moyer contributed to this report.
Dozens of lawmakers stand to reap a tax windfall thanks to a loophole inserted in the sweeping GOP tax overhaul bill, according to a review of federal financial disclosures.



The provision, which gives favorable tax treatment to a common form of real estate income, would also create generous tax saving for President Donald Trump, who derives much of his personal fortune from real estate.



The measure  added late Friday to the $1.5 trillion package of tax cuts  reduces the tax rate on "pass-through" income derived from real estate. Owners of such businesses are allowed to "pass through" the profits from these enterprises to their individual tax returns, which lowers the amount of tax they owe.



Those benefits will now go to roughly four dozen Republican House and Senate members who voted for the bill, according to an analysis of personal financial disclosures for CNBC by the Center for Responsive Politics. They include Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Bob Corker of Tennessee and James Inhofe of Oklahoma and Reps. Diane Black of Tennessee and Vern Buchanan of Florida.



Under federal financial disclosure rules, members of Congress are only required to report their assets in a range of dollar amounts, so a full accounting of lawmakers' holdings isn't available. But GOP lawmakers who voted for the bill had combined real estate assets eligible for pass-through treatment of as much as $390 million in 2015, according to the center's analysis.

The following and other charts in this story show the range of lawmakers' real estate holdings that could benefit from the tax break.
Concrete wall around Rani Pokhari draws flak

A year after coming under fire for allowing the use of concrete in the reconstruction of Bal Gopaleshwor Temple at Rani Pokhari, the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) is in the eye of another storm.
When Grace Kim was in high school, she wrote a college application essay that landed her a full ride to Princeton University. Kim went on to become an admissions officer at Stanford University and today, she is a university programs specialist for Google and helps students with their college admissions process for LogicPrep. But the college essay that opened these doors for her is not one she would ever suggest that students emulate. "Its funny, because I think my application essay is something I would advise students not to write about now," she tells CNBC Make It. "Often times we see essays about service trips that people do abroad and mine actually was about a trip that I took to Costa Rica with my church." Kim explains that essays about a short but rewarding service trips are often overdone by students and have become a cliche in the college admissions community.

Grace Kim at her Princeton Graduation

"I tell students to avoid writing about it just because it's often times a sort of cliche," says Kim. "If there's anything else that a student can highlight about themselves outside of that experience I would recommend they write about that instead." Rather than write something that college admissions officers have seen before, Kim says that students should write about something that is deeply personal to them. "We always said when I was an admissions officer, we want it to be so personal to the student that you couldn't put anyone else's name on that essay and have it still be true about that other student," she says. "Make sure that whatever story you decide to tell really highlights the adjectives you want the admissions officer to know about you."
The French prime minister has defended his decision to charter a private aircraft at a cost of 350,000 euros ($415,000) when a government plane was also available.

The office of Edouard Philippe hired an Airbus A340 to fly him and his delegation first class back to Paris from Tokyo, Japan, on December 6.

However, it later transpired that a French A340 army transport plane was flying the same route only a couple of hours later.

"It's complicated to move the prime minister around and it's expensive," Philippe told France's RTL radio Wednesday. "I understand both the surprise and the questions that French people are asking themselves."

Asked to justify the decision, the prime minister replied: "I take responsibility for this decision completely, I take responsibility to such an extent that I want to explain it."

The army plane landed in Paris two hours after his plane and was almost completely empty. But Phillipe argued that this time difference was a crucial factor.

"We knew that there wasn't a commercial flight at that time and that we needed to get back. We knew we needed to get back for something vital which is that the president (Emmanuel Macron) was leaving on the Wednesday morning of our return," Philippe added.

The leader described prime ministerial travel as complicated and expensive and added that if he was moving around as a citizen he would "come in the metro which would have cost me 1.90 or 2 euros."

Philippe, who is a member of The Republicans political party, was appointed as prime minister by Macron in May.
watch now

After the many twists and turns that the Republican tax-overhaul legislation has taken thus far, it might be unclear to homeowners what's in store for them. In a nutshell, not much that will help them save more on taxes. The bill, expected to receive final approval by lawmakers on Wednesday, includes some changes that could make homeownership a more costly proposition for some taxpayers. On top of making modifications to the mortgage interest deduction, the bill limits the deductibility of property taxes and state and local income taxes to a combined $10,000. In states such as New York and California where home prices and property taxes are high, this change means some homeowners could face bigger tax bills beginning next year.

And if you were thinking about prepaying some of your 2018 state and local income taxes to take advantage of current law, which is more generous, forget about it. The bill specifically disallows it. However, it does not specifically ban early payment of property taxes. In New Rochelle, New York, for example, where the average property tax bill tops $18,000, the city's 80,000 residents have been alerted that they can prepay the portion due in January (along with prepaying school district taxes due in April). While the city's residents have been able to prepay in past years as well, the reminder this year is specifically due to the changes in the GOP tax bill. "What we're telling residents is that we'll accept these prepayments but they should check with a financial advisor first," said Charles Strome, city manager for New Rochelle.

fStop Images | Getty Images

Aside from limiting the deductibility of property taxes, below are other aspects of the tax bill that impact homeowners. Keep in mind that the only way to take advantage of deductions related to homeownership is to itemize your tax returns. And because the GOP tax bill roughly doubles the standard deduction for all taxpayers  i.e., it goes to $24,000 from $12,700 for married couples  the combined value of all your available deductions would need to exceed that new amount for itemizing to make sense.

Mortgage debt

If you already own a pricey home and it's your primary residence, you're in luck. Under the bill, homeowners who purchased a house before Dec. 15 of this year will be able to continue deducting the interest they pay on mortgage debt of up to $1 million. For purchases after that date, the cap drops to $750,000. That amount of mortgage debt can be for a primary or secondary residence (i.e., a vacation house). Earlier versions of the bill would have eliminated the tax break for second homes. The cap on mortgage interest reverts back to $1 million in 2026 regardless of when the home was purchased.

Home-equity debt

Interest paid on home-equity loans will no longer be deductible beginning in 2018, with no grandfathering in. In other words, if you already have a home-equity loan or line of credit, this is the last year you can write off the interest paid on it for a while. (The exception is if you have a home-equity loan or second mortgage whose funds are used to substantially improve your home. In that case, according to the Tax Policy Center, the interest may still be deductible.) In 2026, this provision will revert to current law, which allows a deduction for interest paid on up to $100,000 of home-equity debt.

Capital gains exclusion
Renewable energy in India is set to get a $400 million boost through a joint initiative backed by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and India's Yes Bank.

In an announcement Tuesday, the EIB said that Yes Bank would manage the co-financing program for the development of new solar and wind facilities in India.



The EIB said that "eligible solar projects" had been identified in the states of Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. More wind and solar projects were currently being examined, it added. In 2016, the EIB provided 19.6 billion euros ($23.20 billion) for climate related investment across the globe.



"India and the European Union are committed to the Paris Agreement and tackling climate change," Andrew McDowell, the EIB's vice president, said in a statement.



"This new $400 million initiative demonstrates the shared vision and commitment of both the European Investment Bank and Yes Bank to increasing renewable energy power generation across India," he added.
Magic Leap unveiled a new "creator edition" product on Wednesday, lifting the veil of secrecy around one of the most mysterious unicorn start-ups.

The product, called "Magic Leap One: Creator Edition," appears to be a stand-alone mixed-reality headset called "Lightwear" with a portable power and processing pack (which looks somewhat like a Discman player) and remote. The portal is coming early in 2018, according to the company's website.

There doesn't appear to be a way to preorder yet  the website prompts users to sign up for an email list.
New Jersey Gov.-elect Phil Murphy told CNBC on Wednesday that the GOP tax plan making its way to President Donald Trump is an "awful bill for America."

Murphy, a Democrat, said on "Squawk on the Street" that New Jersey may seek to challenge in court the "legality and constitutionality" of the Republican package. In claiming "everything is on the table" to mitigate the impact of the bill, he also said state property taxes may go up.

"New Jersey has taken a backseat over the past number of years in challenging what's coming at us out of Washington," said Murphy, who takes over in January for the state's two-term Republican governor, Chris Christie. "New Jersey will ... look at all available means  both legal and otherwise  to challenge this [bill] or compensate for it."

Murphy said he's not a constitutional attorney, but questioned whether amendments to the bill, "a lot of them handwritten," to win over Republican votes will hold up.

"My going-in bias is there are going to be flaws. There are going to be holes. And if there are we will exploit them; I hope with other like-minded states," said Murphy, who like a number of Trump administration officials previously worked at Goldman Sachs. The governor-elect also was U.S. ambassador to Germany under former President Barack Obama.

Murphy also railed against the severe limit in the final GOP tax bill concerning how much state and local taxes Americans can deduct from their federal returns.

Asked about the impact on average New Jersey residents, he said, "It's many thousands of dollars." Though he did not point to any study or hard numbers to back up that claim.

Under current law for federal returns, the state and local tax deduction, better known as SALT, is unlimited. The House wanted to put a ceiling of $10,000 on property taxes alone. But the final Republican bill capped the combined state, local and property tax deduction at $10,000 for both single filers and married couples.

GOP tax writers were aiming to make up for curtailing SALT by lowering overall federal tax rates and doubling the standard deduction. But those measures may not be enough of an offset for the wealthy in high-tax states on the East Coast like New Jersey and New York and on the West Coast like California.

Opponents of the SALT deduction argue that wealthier Americans who face higher tax bills will move to lower-tax states.

"New Jersey was never a low-cost state to live in. We were always on our best day, the good-value-for-money state," Murphy said. "You pay a premium to live in a state like ours, but you get a lot back for that. Our job is to make folks feel like ... that premium was worth it."

Murphy said other high-cost, good-value states  such as California and Massachusetts  are seeing "humming" economies. That's the goal in New Jersey as well, he said.
Andrew McCabe, Acting Director of the FBI after President Trump fired James Comey, speaks during a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing in Washington, on May 11, 2017.

Embattled FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe will sit for a transcribed interview on Thursday with two House committees investigating the bureau's handling of the Clinton email investigation last year.

The Justice Department confirmed the interview in a letter after two top Republicans requested McCabe be made available. McCabe will not be permitted to discuss special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.



The requests on Tuesday from House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia and Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy of South Carolina followed McCabe's seven-hour grilling from the House Intelligence Committee. He also faces heightening calls for his ouster.



The lawmakers also requested interviews with FBI chief of staff Jim Rybicki and Lisa Page, the FBI lawyer whose texts calling Trump an "idiot" made headlines earlier in December.



"Among other things, the Committees are investigating the circumstances surrounding the FBI's decision to publicly announce the investigation into former Secretary Clinton's handling of classified information, but not to publicly announce the investigation into campaign associates of then-candidate Donald Trump," the congressmen wrote in their letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

Gowdy has predicted that McCabe will soon be dismissed.

"I will be a little bit surprised if he's still an employee of the FBI this time next week," Gowdy said last week on Fox News.



The Judiciary and Oversight committees opened a joint investigation into the Justice Department in October. Goodlatte has repeatedly called for the appointment of a special counsel to look into the department's decisions during the 2016 election, including the probe of Hillary Clinton's email.



The revelation of anti-Trump text messages exchanged by Page and Peter Strzok provided new life to Republican criticisms of the Justice Department. Mueller removed Strzok from his probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and Page left before Mueller reported seeing the texts.

"These text messages prove what we all suspected: High-ranking FBI officials involved in the Clinton investigation were personally invested in the outcome of the election, and clearly let their strong political opinions cloud their professional judgment," Goodlatte said at a House hearing with Rosenstein in December.

President Donald Trump has long been suspicious of McCabe, an ally of former FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump fired in May.

In July, the president posted a message to his Twitter account suggesting that Sessions should have fired McCabe, "a Comey friend who was in charge of the Clinton investigation."



The president has also criticized McCabe over donations his wife received during a 2015 campaign for Virginia state senate.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a close friend of Hillary Clinton, donated almost half a million dollars to Jill McCabe through his political organization. Later, McCabe would help oversee the Clinton email investigation.



Reuters contributed to this article.


Delayed reporting, lack of diagnostic tools key challenge for RRT

Delayed reporting by patients and lack of adequate diagnostic tools still remain a major challenge for efficient functioning of Rapid Response Teams (RRT) who work as primary responder during any epidemics or disasters.
Saudi Arabia's 2018 budget may be its largest ever but the government must focus on the quality of spending, not just the quantity, according to experts. The Kingdom is prepared to increase spending to record levels next year  978 billion riyals ($261 billion)  as it looks to diversify its economy away from energy as part of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman's bold reform agenda. This expansionary budget comes at a time of economic struggle  the country entered into recession this year, contracting 0.5 percent  but the government is optimistic, estimating growth to rebound to 2.7 percent in 2018. Redesigning the economy is a crucial component of Vision 2030, a wide-ranging plan to make Saudi Arabia less dependent on oil, reduce subsidies and increase employment. The jobless rate among Saudi citizens stands around 12.8 percent.

A man holds a nozzle at a petrol station in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia October 8, 2017. Faisal Al Nasser | Reuters

According to analysts, a key feature of the budget was the explicit focus on structural reforms accompanying the increased spending. "The key is to look at what they're spending the money on and how effectively they spend it," Khatija Haque, head of Middle East and North Africa research at U.A.E-based bank Emirates NBD, told CNBC on Wednesday. The government intends to cut energy subsidies next year, with the move widely expected to free up funds for other parts of the economy such as infrastructure. "It's really now about the effectiveness of spending rather than just throwing money at the problem and having it disappear into private hands without actually delivering what was promised  that's a process that needs to change," Haque said. The introduction of a value added tax next year in addition to new excise taxes on tobacco and soft drinks, as well as recent levies on expatriates are widely expected to strengthen non-oil revenues next year. Riyadh forecasts non-oil income at 291 billion riyals in 2018, up from 256 billion riyals this year.

watch now
Recent changes in the dynamics of Yemen's civil conflict  widely seen as a proxy war between rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran  are making it very hard to predict what could happen next in the Middle East.

Tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran ramped up Tuesday following another missile launch from Houthi rebels in Yemen aimed at the Kingdom. Saudi Arabia said the blame for the missile, reportedly intercepted on its way to Riyadh, lay directly with Iran.

"This hostile and indiscriminate act by the Iran-back Houthi armed group proves the continued involvement of the Iranian regime in supporting (the) Houthi armed group with qualitative capabilities," a Saudi spokesman said Tuesday, according to the country's press agency. Iran has denied the allegations.

An expert in Middle East affairs told CNBC .

"We don't know where it's going and we can't really talk about it like an established dynamic with established norms. This is a totally new situation for the region and I really struggle to predict what's going to happen next," Marcus Chenevix, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) analyst at TS Lombard, said Wednesday.

"The thing to remember with Saudi Arabia and Iran is that this is very new. People act like Sunni and Shia (rivalry) is ancient but it's not actually. What's going on is that this is the first time who basically defines everyone's diplomatic relationships," he said.

"For a long time it was America and Russia, then it was just America and now there's no one. So there's a power vacuum and that power vacuum is pretty recent  the Iranians saw it first and Saudi Arabia has only really been engaging in this kind of rivalry for the last five years."
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (2nd R), alongside US Senator John Barrasso (L), Republican of Wyoming; and US Senator Orrin Hatch (2nd L), Republican of Utah, speaks after a meeting between US President Donald Trump and the Republican Senate Caucus at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, November 28, 2017.

Senate Republicans passed a dramatic overhaul of the American tax system early Wednesday morning, putting the plan another House vote away from President Donald Trump's desk after Senate rules forced them to make last-minute changes.

The chamber approved the proposal by a 51-48 party line vote, with every GOP senator voting for it except for the absent Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. After approving a nearly identical bill earlier Tuesday, the House wants to pass the legislation that cleared the Senate on Wednesday morning.

The plan, expected to get signed into law by Trump this week, would significantly remake the U.S. tax code. The bill would slash tax rates for businesses while temporarily trimming the tax burden on most, but not all, individuals.

Trump cheered the bill's passage in a tweet early Wednesday, saying a news conference will take place in the afternoon if the House approves the plan.

Tweet

The GOP contends that the more than $1.4 trillion in tax cuts contained in the bill will spark business investment, hiring and wage growth. Democrats call the Republican proposal a giveaway to corporations at the expense of the middle class, expressing concerns about the $1 trillion or more it is projected to add to federal budget deficits over a decade.

The Senate GOP kept all of its members in line to approve the legislation after navigating party fractures and a member's absence in recent weeks. Republican leaders had to make policy changes or promises during the tax debate to appease at least five GOP senators who ended up supporting the bill.

Republicans, facing a tight margin for error with only 52 seats in the Senate, could afford to lose only one vote on the plan this week as McCain fights brain cancer in his home state of Arizona.

Tensions rose during the final vote, with protesters in the chamber's gallery chanting, "Kill the bill, don't kill us!" Multiple times during the vote, the presiding Vice President Mike Pence brought down his gavel and called for order over the sounds of protesters.

Shortly before the vote, some GOP senators spoke in the chamber while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., made his closing remarks criticizing the bill as a giveaway to businesses and the wealthy. Schumer then snapped: "This is serious stuff. We believe you're messing up America. You could pay attention for a couple of minutes."

Republicans are scrambling to accomplish their key legislative goal by the end of the year and notch an achievement to promote ahead of next year's midterm elections. Democrats have seized on dismal public opinion polling on the plan and the fact that most individual tax cuts would expire under it while a corporate tax decrease would be permanent.

Speaking after the vote, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called passing the bill an "important accomplishment" that taxpayers will "value and appreciate."

"If we can't sell this to the American people we ought to go into another line of work," the Kentucky Republican told reporters.

He contended that focusing on the expiration of cuts "missed the point," adding that Democrats winning congressional majorities next year "would turn this into a very short tax bill."
eam is expected to be launched next year and could be "a game changer in warfare."

watch now

South Korea's army is preparing a special unit that would use drone swarms in combat, and it is expected to become operational next year and could target the North's missile, nuclear and other military activities. Experts say the small weaponized drones could potentially fly into North Korea to attack rocket launchers, radar installations or communications infrastructure. They also believe the drone swarms could be effective in targeting ground forces and convoys of vehicles, among other things. "Drones are capable of doing some amount of surveillance and attacks against very soft targets," said Dean Cheng, a defense expert and senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based conservative think tank "There's a pretty reasonable chance they can escape detection." According to South Korea's Yonhap news agency, the country's army envisions what it calls a "dronebot" force that would utilize drone and robot technology. Besides armed drones, the unmanned aircraft also could be used in reconnaissance and surveillance missions.

watch now

"We will launch a dronebot combat unit next year and use it as a 'game changer' in warfare," a South Korean army official told Yonhap. Also, the news agency said the special dronebot unit could use the weapons "against such core North Korean targets as nuclear and missile sites. In case of a contingency, swarms of dronebots will be mobilized to launch attacks." Drone swarms of hundreds of small unmanned aircraft can potentially overwhelm forces on the ground and would also be difficult to entirely shoot down but could be vulnerable to enemy jamming. The drones likely would be able to communicate with each other and have flights preprogrammed and rely on satellite guidance, although they could carry sensors that would allow them to recognize specific features on the ground or moving targets.

watch now

At the same time, North Korea also has been developing its own drone weapons. A North Korean defector claimed earlier this year that Pyongyang may have hundreds of attack drones capable of unleashing biological and chemical weapons. Analysts say the drone swarms by South Korea could be used to target a leadership convoy or limousine, including one carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The swarms also could utilize "kamikaze" style, meaning the weapon self-destructs when hitting targets. Indeed, there were rumblings in September that South Korea was forming a "decapitation unit" to target the hermit regime's leadership, according to The New York Times. The report followed the North's sixth nuclear test. "You could use them for assassination strikes or you could use them for preventative strikes," said Harry Kazianis, director of defense studies at the Center for the National Interest, a U.S think tank. Added Kazianis, "If you build them cheap enough and build enough of them you almost have a situation like it's the 'Terminator'  basically having drones and robotic weapon systems. So this is why the United States and countries like South Korea, who have the money and the R&D capabilities, are investing in them." Still, the dronebots probably wouldn't have weapons as powerful as large unmanned aerial vehicles, such as the U.S.-made Predator or Reaper. That said, they could conduct surveillance and then disable the North's ballistic missiles on transporter-launcher vehicles or take out rocket or artillery batteries. "North Korea is believed to have hundreds if not more well-defended artillery units," said John Schaus, a defense expert and fellow in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. Schaus said the North's military has artillery placements that are sometimes dug into mountains so they can retreat back for protection. However, with a swarm of drones the South Koreans could identify those units as they come out and strike them. "What we're hearing about is still notional," said Cheng. "We don't have any evidence they've created it yet. But we've seen what drones can do." For one, the U.S. has been conducting research and development on drone swarms for many years. One project the Pentagon is planning to test is "aircraft carriers in the sky" that would launch and retrieve swarms of drones using a transport aircraft. China and Israel also have their own programs focused on drone swarm technology. Experts say the drone swarms also would be more difficult to detect than most combat aircraft. For many years, drones from North Korea have penetrated South Korean airspace and conducted surveillance on sensitive government and military facilities. In 2014, a drone believed to be from the North was found in the Seoul area and believed to have flown over the so-called Blue House, or the president's official residence. Also, a North Korean drone was recovered earlier this year near the border after it had reportedly taken photographs more than 100 miles away of the U.S.-supplied THAAD missile defense system.

WATCH: Here's what a land war with North Korea could look like
A new lawsuit claims a supervisor at one of Lululemon 's stores in California raped an employee after the workout garb company "created the perfect environment for a sexual predator."

The suit alleges that Lululemon was long aware that supervisor Phillip Silva had a history of being "sexually inappropriate" with female employees  and actually transferred him from one store to another because of that  before he allegedly raped a female worker at his home in April 2016.

"They knew about this guy, and they should have done something about it, and they didn't," said Adam Zaffos, the lawyer for Silva's accuser, Shayla Famouri.

Zaffos said Famouri, 28, is suing because "she really wants to prevent this from happening to other people."

Famouri's suit claims that before she was attacked, she was "ostracized" by supervisors and co-workers for not wearing "revealing enough clothes," and heard "rampant" gossip about "dating and hook ups" among Lululemon staff.

Famouri for several weeks witnessed co-workers slapping "each other's asses as much as possible" to mock a video they had been recently shown illustrating sexual harassment, according to her complaint. "The Store Manager, Assistant Managers and Key Leaders were not only aware of the 'game,' they encouraged it and participated," the suit said.

Lululemon, known for its stretch yoga pants, also allegedly allowed male workers to proposition female co-workers during work hours, according to Famouri's lawsuit against the company and Silva, which was filed Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

And after Famouri reported being raped by Silva, her suit says, Lululemon's human resources department repeatedly pressured her to resign and to accept a payout. Instead of doing so, she just never returned to work, her lawyer said.

The suit seeks unspecified damages for sexual assault and battery, sexual harassment, retaliation and other claims.

Silva did not respond to a request for comment. He has made his social media accounts private.

A Lululemon spokesman said, in response to questions about the suit, "In 2016, Shayla Famouri raised serious allegations regarding the behavior of another employee."

"Upon learning of these allegations, the company initiated a comprehensive and in-depth investigation. The accused employee was immediately suspended; and then resigned," the spokesman said in a prepared statement. "Nevertheless, the company saw the investigation through to completion, ultimately finding that the accused employee did engage in behavior that was not in line with our standards of conduct.

"At lululemon, harassment and discrimination have no place in our community," the spokesman said. "Our culture is founded on us all positively contributing to an environment rooted in our values, which includes a commitment to working with integrity and a collective dedication to creating a respectful workplace. We are committed to doing everything we can to ensure that employees come to work each day in safe environments where they are empowered to speak up."

When CNBC asked whether Lululemon had investigated Famouri's claims about inappropriate conduct among other store employees, and what, if anything was done in response to such a probe's findings, the spokesman declined to comment.

A source at the company said Lululemon was unaware of any complaints about Silva by other workers before Famouri complained.

Famouri's suit says she was hired as a sales representative in Lululemon's store in Santa Monica in November 2014.

The next year, around September 2015, Silva was transferred from the El Segundo store to Santa Monica.

The suit says that Lululemon transferred Silva because it wanted to promote him from "Educator to Key Leader, but too many of the female employees at the El Segundo store felt uncomfortable with Silva as he had been sexually inappropriate with them."

Silva was given the promotion after his transfer to the other store, the suit claims.

The suit goes on to say that Silva, in March 2016, began to repeatedly ask Famouri to work out with him as part of a competition among Lululemon stores. After eventually agreeing to do so on one occasion, Silva during a breakfast after their workout "steered the conversation to his own sex life," the suit said.

Silva, on another occasion, began making out with Famouri at his house after inviting her to work out, the suit says. After she protested at his advances he "promised Famouri that it was fine, and said that nobody cared and that everybody did it," according to the suit.

"Given his supervisory position, Famouri allowed the make-out session to continue, but felt uneasy thereafter," the suit says. "Famouri and Silva did not have intercourse at this time."

Not long afterward, the suit says, Famouri "decided to end Silva's continued attempts to advance a relationship with her."

On April 22, 2016, according to the suit, Famouri had dinner at a restaurant with Silva, where he insulted her. When she drove him back to his house, the suit says, Silva began apologizing for his behavior and asked her to talk to him inside his house.

After entering the residence, Silva "was all over" Famouri, kissing her and groping her," the suit said. The suit says that Silva then raped Famouri as she struggled unsuccessfully to get away, and after she said "no, stop."

Famouri reported the incident to her store supervisor on June 6 and was contacted by human resources two days later. She reported the attack to police on June 10.

Her suit said that during a call she then made to Silva, which was recorded by police, "Silva admitted that he heard Famouri say that she did not want to have sex before going into the house, and that he heard Famouri say no throughout and to stop."

"Eventually, Famouri asked: 'what did I need to do to get you to stop," the suit said.

"Silva's response: 'roll over,'" the suit claimed.

Famouri's lawyer said Hermosa police believed they had enough evidence to charge Silva with attacking Famouri. But the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office decided not to prosecute Silva for rape.

A spokesman for the DA told CNBC that prosecutors in December 2016 declined to bring charges "due to insufficient evidence."

A report provided to CNBC by the DA's office further explained the decision.

"[Silva] and [Famouri] had prior sexual relationship. One night after going out to dinner, [Silva] attempts to have sex with her," the document said. "[Famouri] reports she told [Silva] no but he persisted and she 'just laid on the bed thinking this is going to be over with and it's easier if I just lay there.' Two months after the incident and talking with her friends, she decided to report to law enforcement. A pretext call was done but no incriminating statements were made by [Silva]. Case rejected because no corroboration to [Famouri's] account that the sex was not consensual."
Residential neighborhoods near the Interstate 10 sit in floodwater in the wake of Hurricane Harvey on August 29, 2017 in Houston, Texas.

Disasters in 2017 caused an estimated $306 billion in total economic losses and produced global insured losses that made it the third-most expensive year for the industry, according to figures released Wednesday by Sigma.

The report by the research arm of reinsurance giant Swiss Re said the U.S. felt the biggest impact, reflecting devastation from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. It said 2017 produced the second-costliest hurricane season, after 2005, the year of Hurricane Katrina. The second half of the year was especially high for economic and insured losses, coming after the three major hurricanes and wildfires in California.

The estimated global economic losses of $306 billion from natural and man-made disasters in 2017 represents a 63 percent jump from $188 billion in 2016. Natural disasters represented about $300 billion of the total, while man-made disasters another $6 billion.

The report also estimated that global insured losses from disaster events in 2017 totaled about $136 billion, or more than double than $65 billion tallied last year.

Overall, 2017 ranks as the third-most expensive year for insured losses. The most expensive year on record remains 2011, when the Japanese earthquake and tsunami disaster struck. It is followed by 2005, reflecting three devastating hurricanes  Katrina, Rita and Wilma.

According to Swiss Re, this year's global insured losses exceeded the industry's 10-year annual average of $58 billion.

"In recent years, annual insurance losses from disaster events have exceeded $100 billion a few times", said Martin Bertogg, head of catastrophe perils at Swiss Re. "The insurance industry has demonstrated that it can cope very well with such high losses. However, significant protection gaps remain, and if the industry is able to extend its reach, many more people and businesses can become better equipped to withstand the fallout from disaster events."

This year's Harvey, Irma and Maria hurricanes together caused insured losses estimated to be roughly $93 billion, the report said. Devastation included the impact of Harvey in Texas, the devastation in Puerto Rico after Maria and losses after Irma made landfall in Florida.

"There has been a lull in hurricane activity in the U.S. for several years", said Kurt Karl, Swiss Re's group chief economist. "Irrespective, there has been a significant rise in the number of residents and new homes in coastal communities since Katrina, Rita and Wilma in 2005, so when a hurricane strikes, the loss potential in some places is now much higher than it was previously."

Swiss Re also said five separate thunderstorms in the U.S. from February to June caused losses totaling more than $1 billion each.

A Swiss Re spokesperson said it had no estimate for total U.S. catastrophe losses in 2017, noting that the devastating wildfires in Southern California are still ongoing and are also not yet included in the year's estimated losses.

The so-called Thomas fire in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties has already destroyed more than 1,000 structures and claimed at least two lives, including a firefighter. The massive fire, which already ranks as the second-largest wildfire in California history, is 60 percent contained and expected to burn into January, according to Cal Fire.

Earlier this month, the California insurance commissioner reported that the wine country wildfires in October resulted in residential and commercial claims that top $9.4 billion. Those wildfires in Napa, Sonoma and several other Northern California counties caused damage to more than 21,000 homes, 2,800 businesses and more than 6,100 vehicles. There were also 44 fatalities in the wine country wildfires.

According to Swiss Re, more than 11,000 people died or left missing in catastrophe events this year. That includes about 8,250 people from natural catastrophes and 3,078 fatalities in man-made disasters.

Besides the hurricanes and wildfires, two major earthquakes in Mexico in September killed more than 100 people and monsoon flooding in South Asia caused at least 1,200 deaths this summer. Also, mudslides in Sierra Leone killed more than 1,000 people.
The Vatican wants to bring its communications into the modern world and consolidate its websites into one portal, it has announced.

Vatican News will be its "single new portal," according to an online statement, and will be put together by a multilingual editorial team. Currently, there are a number of sites with different designs published in several languages. The new site will be designed by Accenture Interactive.

"The move is part of the Vatican reform aimed at finding new ways to communicate with and engage all people in today's digital world," according to a statement on the Accenture website.

"The transformation will enable the Vatican media team to have a defined online identity, one voice, and a richer, digital source of multi-media content to reach people all over the world" it continued.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday called the massive Republican tax cut bill "an amazing experience," and a boon to American companies and workers.

"We are making America great again," he said, echoing his campaign slogan.

"I campaigned on the fact that we're not going to lose our companies anymore," Trump said. "We are going to see at least $4 trillion come back into this country."

Trump spoke flanked by Republican congressional leaders at a special White House lawn event to mark the passage of the tax bill. "We had a lot of fun," Trump said of negotiations between the White House and Congress on the $1.5 trillion legislation.

After the president's remarks, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., took the stage and praised Trump's "exquisite presidential leadership."

Then Vice President Mike Pence weighed in: "Merry Christmas, America."

Trump also invited Alaska's two Republican senators, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, to the podium, where they praised the tax bill's inclusion of a provision to open up the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to increased energy exploration.

Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch called Trump "one heck of a leader."

The tax reform package passed the House and Senate this week, but will likely not be signed by the president until next year. The bill consists of massive, permanent tax cuts for corporations, and more moderate, temporary tax cuts for individuals.
The U.S. Commerce Department on Wednesday finalized duties of nearly 300 percent on passenger jets made by Bombardier, a win for Boeing , which lodged the complaint against its Canadian rival.

The decision escalates the bitter trade dispute between the two air craft manufacturers, a battle that has ensnared one of the largest U.S. airlines and strained relations between the U.S. and Canada.

The Commerce Department first recommended the duties on Bombardier's CSeries jets, earlier this autumn after Boeing complained that the planes were dumped in the U.S. below cost and that the company received unfair government subsidies in Canada.

Bombardier said the Commerce Department did not consider a common practice of airplane manufacturers in which they offer discounts to launch customers.

"Unfortunately, the Commerce Department decision is divorced from this reality and ignores long-standing business practices in the aerospace industry, including launch pricing and the financing of multibillion dollar aircraft programs," the company said in a statement. "Moreover, we are deeply disappointed that the Commerce Department did not take this opportunity to rectify its past errors."

Delta Air Lines in 2016 agreed to buy at least 75 of the some 100-seat planes from Bombardier.

In October, European aerospace giant Airbus , Boeing's chief rival, said it would take a majority stake in the CSeries program, in a twist.

The U.S. International Trade Commission is scheduled to make a determination by Feb. 1 if Boeing was harmed by Bombardier's actions, a decision that will determine whether the investigation will be terminated.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian has repeatedly said the airline won't pay the tariffs and called the duties "absurd." Spokesman Morgan Durrant reiterated the final say on the matter will come in early 2018 when the ITC makes its decision, but declined to comment further.

The airline has not taken delivery of the C Series jets yet, so it has not been subjected to the tariffs. Delta, the second-largest U.S. airline, said it opted for the Bombardier jets because Boeing offered it no feasible alternative.

Boeing cheered the Commerce Department's decision on Wednesday.

"Today's decision validates Boeing's complaints regarding Bombardier's pricing in the United States, pricing that has harmed our workforce and U.S. industry," the company said in a statement. "We look forward to the conclusion of this matter when the International Trade Commission makes a final decision in early 2018."

In an effort to escape what could be crippling import duties, Bombardier has said it intends to build the planes in Alabama, where its newfound partner Airbus produces single-aisle jets.

But that arrangement didn't appear to be taken into account. The Commerce Department's statement on Wednesday said that Bombardier, petitioners and the government of Canada agreed that the proposed arrangement "does not impact these investigations."

Earlier this month Canada's government ditched plans to buy 18 new Super Hornet fighter jets made by Boeing. In September, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had threatened not to buy the jets from Boeing unless it dropped its suit against Bombardier.
CNBC recently spoke with college students at City Tap House, referred to simply as "Tap" by University of Pennsylvania students, to find out how they feel about 2017's most controversial currency. Many students admitted they saw the appeal in bitcoin. "My cousin invested in bitcoin and he's made a lot of money," said one student. "It's something that a lot of people could have bought into early on, like maybe five to 10 years ago, and now the value is skyrocketing," said another. Even though the students seemed to appreciate the potential gain from investing in bitcoin, most said they were either unable or unwilling to make the jump.

University of Pennsylvania campus Ann Hermes | The Christian Science Monitor | Getty Images

"A decentralized currency is a pretty incredible thing," said one student. "I don't have the money to buy bitcoin right now, absolutely not. But if I could, I would." Another student, dressed in a full suit, explained why he thought bitcoin was a bubble bound to burst: "I'm a bitcoin skeptic. I think it's sort of a fraud," he said. "I mean, there's a history of bubbles in all sorts of different assets it's not exclusive to bitcoin. It's not the first bubble and I don't think it's going to be the last." "Its an overvalued asset that's bound to burst sooner or later," said similarly professional student. History seemed to be informing many of the skeptical student's views about the cryptocurrency. "I mean just the history of the stock market, the longevity of it," said one young man. "It's definitely more favorable than just buying an actual bitcoin or anything like that.
Fire guts APF storeroom in Halchowk

A fire broke out in a storeroom of the Armed Police Force (APF) headquarters in Halchowk, Kathmandu, gutting official papers and books in the wee hour of Tuesday.
Failure is never an easy feeling to cope with. Even the idea of being defeated can leave a bad taste in a person's mouth  making anyone hesitant to undertake risks. Yet some of the world's most successful people have dealt with failure and while each person's experience may differ, many understand that if you learn from your mistakes, it can make you stronger. Just take it from these guys:

Richard Branson

Today, Richard Branson may be flying high with his multinational conglomerate Virgin Group, yet that's not to say business wasn't "topsy-turvy" as it was gaining ground. "The first fifteen years of Virgin Atlantic had been a topsy-turvy tale of excitement, innovation and survival," the Virgin Group founder wrote Tuesday, debuting an excerpt from his autobiography.

Kelly Sullivan | Getty Images

After taking on British Airways in a libel case which the billionaire described as part of a "challenging" period, Branson had the opportunity to explore new prospects for his brand. Since Virgin's inception in the 1970s, the group has seen a number of businesses emerge  many of which thrived. Not every business idea lived to tell the tale today, however, with Branson citing Virgin Cars and Virgin Clothing as examples. Yet the billionaire admits that these "failures didn't put me off at all. They had all been fun to get stuck into, and we'd learned a lot of important lessons." "If the odd business didn't work out, I was confident there would be another on the way," Branson wrote, adding that the brand wasn't derailed by smaller failures, as core firms remained robust. "We were beginning to see which core areas we could expand the brand into, but it was still taking time for me to understand how flexible the Virgin brand was, the areas it could bend successfully, and the areas it would break." "We were still a long way from creating the more structured strategy we have today, but it was one hell of a ride finding out what worked."

Christine Lagarde

She's seen as one of the most powerful women in the world today, yet International Monetary Fund (IMF) Manager Director Christine Lagarde didn't always have as much success.

Christine Lagarde Getty Images

At a young age, Lagarde wanted to have a career in the senior civil service, so she applied for a place at Ecole Nationale d'Administration (ENA), a prestigious French college. Yet after failing to get in on reportedly more than one occasion, Lagarde joined Baker & McKenzie as an associate. In an episode of "Life Hacks Live", the IMF boss told CNBC that if she had ended up pursuing a career in civil service, it "might have been very boring". "I was ashamed (that I didn't get into ENA), but then I decided to just take it in and move on to something different," said Lagarde. "There is a period of time for regretting and very soon you have to get out of that moment and look at this strength, and just get on with it. And do something different."

Trinny Woodall

In the 2000s, Trinny Woodall was renowned for her fashion and makeover expertise, helped by her co-presenting role on the "What Not to Wear" U.K. television series. Fast forward and the advisor has transformed herself into a social media icon and founder of versatile makeup brand "Trinny London".

Trinny Woodall attends The Elephant Parade auction in aid of The Elephant Family at Royal Hospital Chelsea on June 30, 2010 in London Mike Marsland | WireImage | Getty Images

However it wasn't always easy for Woodall, who told "Life Hacks Live" how she dealt with difficult conversations with potential investors, lived in rentals and kept herself funded at times by selling her clothes. In fact, Woodall explained that "failure is important because it's the only time I really learn"  seeing each challenge as a learning curve. And the same goes for taking risks. "We have to look for opportunities and sometimes you think 'Where can that opportunity be?' But what I've learnt is that we never know when the door's going to open," Woodall said. She added that the best advice she'd received was "99 percent of everything that you worry about, never happens."

Heston Blumenthal

He may be one of the world's most renowned celebrity chefs, yet to become a multi award-winning Michelin-star chef, Heston Blumenthal is likely to have dealt with a number of life challenges to succeed in the profession he now works in.




If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^] Bastard Programmer from Hell



how to rectify class not support error in vb6 at win 7







Quote: Mainstream Support for Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 ended on March 31, 2005. Extended support ended in March 2008.









"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."

- Homer







i m using this code to print crystal report with out priview ,Some Time Load Report Faild Error Show ,when i close and reopen application again report will printed,how can i resolve this error please guide me,my code is

VB <pre> Dim crtableLogoninfo As New TableLogOnInfo Dim crConnectionInfo As New ConnectionInfo Dim CrTables As Tables Dim TableCounter Dim crReportDocument As New ReportDocument Dim crParameterDiscreteValue As ParameterDiscreteValue Dim crParameterFieldDefinitions As ParameterFieldDefinitions Dim crParameterFieldLocation As ParameterFieldDefinition Dim crParameterValues As ParameterValues Dim billno As New InfoGeneration Dim sname As ConfigurationSettings crReportDocument.Load(Application.StartupPath & " \Reports\rptsinv.rpt" ) With crConnectionInfo .ServerName = sname.AppSettings( " servername" ) .DatabaseName = sname.AppSettings( " dbname" ) .UserID = sname.AppSettings( " username" ) .Password = sname.AppSettings( " password" ) End With CrTables = crReportDocument.Database.Tables For Each CrTable In CrTables crtableLogoninfo = CrTable.LogOnInfo crtableLogoninfo.ConnectionInfo = crConnectionInfo CrTable.ApplyLogOnInfo(crtableLogoninfo) Next crParameterFieldDefinitions = crReportDocument.DataDefinition.ParameterFields crParameterFieldLocation = crParameterFieldDefinitions.Item( " s_id" ) crParameterValues = crParameterFieldLocation.CurrentValues crParameterDiscreteValue = New CrystalDecisions. Shared .ParameterDiscreteValue crParameterDiscreteValue.Value = txts_id.Text crParameterValues.Add(crParameterDiscreteValue) crParameterFieldLocation.ApplyCurrentValues(crParameterValues) crReportDocument.PrintToPrinter(txtcopies.Text, False , 0 , 0 )



I need to be able to search through the data I have displayed in a datagrid view/textbox using the surname of a customer ( I have used Textfiles NOT SQL)



How to convert a string to code 128 witch code vba?



This is an update. This question is no longer an issue. I found information

about implementing the Verbs() function of the ControlDesigner. Sorry

for the inconvenience. Did not know if I should delete this question or not.



Hello,

The code below adds an action to select 1 of 2 panel configurations:

"SelectPanel2Type" or "SelectPanel3Type".

The controls action list displays the current 'PanelType' selection.

When you click on the current item, the current item text changes to the second panel

text:

Example: If "SelectPanel2Type" is displayed, clicking on it changes to "SelectPanel3Type"

and visa versa.

This functions as expected.



The problem:

The action is also displayed and can be selected from the attributes panel of the Properties window, but when I click on the action in the attributes panel, the text in the attributes

panel does not change to the opposite panel and I cannot select the opposite configuration.

Example:

If "Select Panel2Type" is displayed, when I click on it, the action is performed in

the control, but the text in the attributes panel does not change to "Select Panel3Type".

If I deselect the control and reselect it, the attributes panel will be updated

to "Select Panel3Type".



Is there something that I am not doing to update the attributes panel correctly?

Thank you.



Friend Class SPCActionList

Inherits System.ComponentModel.Design.DesignerActionList



' Host object

Private HostControl As SplitPanelCtrl = Nothing



' Cache a reference to the DesignerActionUIService host.

Private _DesignerActionUIService As DesignerActionUIService



Public Sub New(ByVal component As IComponent)

MyBase.New(component)



' Cache a reference to the control.

HostControl = DirectCast(component, SplitPanelCtrl)



' Cache a reference to update action

_DesignerActionUIService = CType(GetService(GetType(DesignerActionUIService)), DesignerActionUIService)



End Sub



Public Overrides Function GetSortedActionItems() As DesignerActionItemCollection

Dim items As New DesignerActionItemCollection()



items.Add(New DesignerActionHeaderItem("Panel Type Selection"))

items.Add(New DesignerActionMethodItem(Me, _

IIf(Me.HostControl.PanelType = enumPanelType.PanelType2, "SelectPanel3Type", "SelectPanel2Type"), _

IIf(Me.HostControl.PanelType = enumPanelType.PanelType2, "Select Panel3Type", "Select Panel2Type"), _

IIf(Me.HostControl.PanelType = enumPanelType.PanelType2, "Select Panel3Type", "Select Panel2Type"), _

IIf(Me.HostControl.PanelType = enumPanelType.PanelType2, "Select Panel3Type", "Select Panel2Type"), _

True))

Return items

End Function



Private Sub SelectPanel2Type()

TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(HostControl)("PanelType").SetValue(MyBase.Component, enumPanelType.PanelType2)

Me._DesignerActionUIService.Refresh(HostControl)

End Sub



Private Sub SelectPanel3Type()

TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(HostControl)("PanelType").SetValue(MyBase.Component, enumPanelType.PanelType3)

Me._DesignerActionUIService.Refresh(HostControl)

End Sub

End Class



-- modified 19-Dec-17 12:14pm.



I am working on a project where an access database calls a batch file that then calls a .vbs file. Within the .vbs file my code is to open a telnet session, connect to my companies warehouse management system, login, call a specific program, enter some information on the screen which executes the program, then logout.



This is where it gets interesting. If I manually run the batch file which is on my local C:\ drive the batch file calls the .vbs script and the .vbs script executes flawlessly. Keep in mind that the point of this is to automate and not have a person manually run the batch file or do everything that the .vbs script is setup to do. When I use a Microsoft Access macro to open the same exact batch file which then calls the .vbs script I run into problems. The batch file executes as expected, the .vbs script opens the command prompt however I get a message that telnet does not exist. How is this possible? The access database is on my local C:\ drive along with the batch file and .vbs script.



Here is my .vbs code which I know is not the problem since it will work when I run it manually. Does using a program to call telnet interact differently or cause security issues within Microsoft windows?



My .vbs file code (for security purposes I changed/put server, username, password, program name,file name instead of real values):



Dim objShell

Set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

objShell.Run "C:\windows\system32\cmd.exe"

Wscript.Sleep 5000

objShell.SendKeys "telnet server"

objShell.SendKeys "{ENTER}"

Wscript.Sleep 3000

objShell.SendKeys "username"

objShell.SendKeys "{ENTER}"

Wscript.Sleep 3000

objShell.SendKeys "password"

objShell.SendKeys "{ENTER}"

Wscript.Sleep 300

objShell.SendKeys "{ENTER}"

Wscript.Sleep 3000

objShell.SendKeys "1"

objShell.SendKeys "{ENTER}"

Wscript.Sleep 3000

objShell.SendKeys "call programname "

objShell.SendKeys "{ENTER}"

Wscript.Sleep 3000

objShell.SendKeys "filename"

objShell.SendKeys "{ENTER}"

Wscript.Sleep 3000

objShell.SendKeys "{F6}"

Wscript.Sleep 3000

objShell.SendKeys "{F3}"

Wscript.Sleep 3000

objShell.SendKeys "exit"

objShell.SendKeys "{ENTER}"

Wscript.Sleep 3000

bjShell.SendKeys "exit"

objShell.SendKeys "{ENTER}"

Set objShell = Nothing





My batch file simply calls the .vbs file



the full directory path to telnet.exe.



modified 18-Dec-17 16:40pm.





C:\windows\system32\cmd.exe and get same result.



Why would the script work when running it manually via a double click of the .vbs file however when using a program such as outlook or access to run the same exact .vbs file results in an error "telnet not recognized".....error







I guess I dont understand the direction you are giving.



The bigger issue is what I outlined about executing manually vs with another program. Is cmd.exe and telnet limited in how its used for security reasons?



Thanks







Also, using SendKeys is not recommended. What if the user clicks another window or the system pops up a dialog from something else in the middle of all those key strokes you're sending? Bad things will happen.



The better way to do it would be to redirect the Input stream of the CMD Process you launched and write your data to the stream instead.



System.ItDidntWorkException: Something didn't work as expected.



C# - How to debug code[

Seriously, go read these articles.



Dave Kreskowiak System.ItDidntWorkException: Something didn't work as expected. ^ ].Seriously, go read these articles.







Im not concerned with the sendkeys because this script will be running at a time when no one will be accessing the pc.



Sounds more and more like a security issue.







If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^] Bastard Programmer from Hell



Please I need help with this



So i have a dictionary of words and their corresponding Part Of Speech in my data base...



I want a user to enter a text in a text box then after clicking a button..



My code should determine if the text is valid or not using my dictionary of words



Onuche Abraham DaCatalyst wrote: My code should determine if the text is valid or not using my dictionary of words So what are the rules that your code needs to implement?



I have created a control similar to the SplitContainer with a host control

and 2 custom panels. All controls inherit ParentControlDesigner. I have a

custom splitter control to separate the panels.



Problem: When I resize the panels using the splitter control, the 'designer border'

that surrounds the selected panel does not resize for the selected control.

This border is drawn by the designer; not my code. Is there a way to refresh

the designer so it will redraw the border of the selected control?



Thank you


Sources

Twitter, Senator Bob Onder, Oct. 12, 2017

Planned Parenthood and ACLU challenge Missouri abortion waiting period, Kansas City Star, Oct. 10, 2017

New abortion restrictions just took effect in Missouri. Heres what that means, Kansas City Star, Oct. 24, 2017

With no court order stopping it, Missouri's new abortion law set to take effect Tuesday, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Oct. 23, 2017

PPFA/ACLU Target Missouris pro-life SB5, National Right to Life News, Oct. 12, 2017

Senate Bill 793, Missouri State Senate, Accessed Nov. 29, 2017

Second Special Session Senate Bill 5, Missouri State Senate, Accessed Nov. 29, 2017

Email correspondence with Bob Onder, Missouri State Senator, Oct. 26, 2017 and Dec. 6, 2017

Email correspondence with Jesse Lawder, Vice President of Marketing and Communications for Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, Nov., 28, 2017

Petition for Temporary Restraining Order, Arthur Benson & Associates, Attorneys for Planned Parenthood and other Plaintiffs, Oct. 10, 2017
Govt revenue growth likely to fall to 3.7pc next year

The revenue growth of the central government, which has stood at an average of 22 percent per year for the last one decade, is likely to decelerate to 3.7 percent in the next fiscal year under the business-as-usual scenario,
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
October 2020 brought a lighter-than-usual crop of patches. For the first time in recent memory, there were none at all for Internet Explorer or the (Chromium-based) Edge browser. The cumulative updates went in with few reports of problems, although there were many complaints about printers not working after the update.

Strange things happened, though, outside the usual monthly patching schedule. The day after Patch Tuesday, Microsoft announced a(nother) fix for a security hole in the HEVC codec  CVE-2020-17022  distributed, once again, only through the Microsoft Store.

HPs Secure Click Enterprise started falling over immediately after installing this months Windows cumulative updates. HP released a Win10 update-friendly version a couple of days later. It continues to astound me that a mainstream product from a major manufacturer isnt tested before the cumulative updates roll out.

There was a security hole plug specifically for Visual Studio programmers, CVE-2020-17023.

Then theres the security patch for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce, CVE-2020-16943, that was announced but never appeared. Its still missing in action. Something in there about counting chickens before theyre hatched.

As usual, we had dire warnings galore from the usual patch-right-now sources (Microsoft warns beeeelions of customers to patch immediately!). As usual, we havent seen any immediately exploited security holes, with the possible exception of SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019.

The usual grab-bag of bugs

Every month for the past year or two, weve seen a big accumulation of bugs arrive on the heels of Patch Tuesday. This months no exception. You can see a motley collection of blocked update error messages, error codes, blue screens, crashes, and peripheral problems in Mayank Parmars article in Windows Latest, Lawrence Abrams piece for BleepingComputer, Venkats rundown in Techdows, Gunter Borns post in Borns Tech and Windows World, and countless parrot sites around the web.

I dont see any particular pattern to any of it, which has become increasingly common. New patches just seem to bring along a trove of unrelated bugs, any one of which can be hugely frustrating  but none of which seem to be particularly widespread.

The one exception: Ive seen many reports of printers that stop working after the latest cumulative update gets installed. In every case Ive seen, pulling the plug on the printer and plugging it back in solves the problem  an easy task for individuals, not so much for admins.

'Windows cant verify the publisher of this driver software'

Some people are reporting an unexpected error when installing certain drivers. Microsoft describes the situation in the Resolved issues portion of the Windows Release Information Status page:

When installing a third-party driver, you might receive the error, Windows cant verify the publisher of this driver software." You may also see the error No signature was present in the subject when attempting to view the signature properties using Windows Explorer.

This issue occurs when one or more of the following is present in a driver package:

An improperly formatted catalog file is identified during validation by Windows. Starting with this release, Windows will require the validity of DER encoded PKCS#7 content in catalog files. Catalogs files must be signed per section 11.6 of describing DER-encoding for SET OF members in X.690.

A driver catalog file extension is not one of the supported extensions.

Thats a feature, not a bug. Microsoft suggests that you contact the driver manufacturer and ask for an update. If your hardware vendor isnt real interested in keeping up with Windows 10, well, jokes on you. Gunter Born puts it succinctly: Windows is a huge hardware exterminator, rendering still working devices as electronic waste, because drivers can no longer be installed.

'Optional' .NET previews arent optional any more

Weve seen this problem for several months, and it still hasnt been fixed.

Windows Update doesnt handle the .NET Preview monthly rollups the way you (or at least, I) would expect. Cumulative Update previews have to be manually approved by clicking a Download and install link. .NET Previews dont even offer the option.

Theres a convoluted set of rules about Windows automatically installing .NET Previews. @abbodi86 has unrolled the behavior this way:

The new .NET Previews are nothing different from all previous non-security .NET cumulative updates. They just have the term Preview in label.

If youre a seeker (click Check for updates in Windows Update), the .NET Preview update will be installed regardless of your other settings.

If you arent a seeker, when a normal update scan takes place, one of two things will happen. (1) If the previous .NET Security update is not yet installed, the .NET Preview update will be flagged as potentially superseded, and Windows Update will not offer it. (2) If the latest .NET Security update is already installed, the .NET Preview update will be installed.

If that isnt confusing enough for you, @abbodi86 has full details here.

I have no idea why Microsoft thinks that its preview (i.e., not-yet-ready-for-prime-time) patches should be installed on machines without any warning or opt-out capability. But there you have it.

Microsoft pulls back on potentially unwanted PWA apps

When is a PUP installer not a PUP installer? When its a Windows beta, of course.

Somebody at Microsoft decided it would be a good idea to jury-rig some beta test versions of Windows 10 so they automatically installed the new PWA (progressive web app) versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote. Several beta testers took umbrage at an operating system that cavalierly installed potentially unwanted programs. A couple days later, Microsoft changed course, claiming that the pushy behavior was a bug.

Right. Sean Hollister at The Verge has details.

Office 2010 and Exchange Server 2010 hit end of life

As of Oct. 13, both Office 2010 and Exchange 2010 fell off the support cycle. You wont get any more patches. A pity, really, because Office 2010 (in spite of its interface peculiarities) was a real workhorse. Patch Lady Susan Bradley has details.

Version 20H2 (or is it 2009?) rolling out

Microsoft is starting to make Win10 version 20H2 available for the masses  although you have to click Download and install to get it. At least, thats the theory.

Considering version 2004 had almost no new worthwhile features, and 20H2 has fewer still (theme-related shading on Start tiles? Alt+Tab switching Edge tabs? Puh-lease), the push to 20H2 is now under way. Think of it as yet another cumulative update, except it doesnt plug any new security holes.

If you ever needed a concrete example of why twice-a-year upgrades for Win10 make absolutely no sense at all, now you have it.

Patching problems? Hit us on AskWoody.com.
Google yesterday announced that it will start blocking ads in its Chrome browser on Feb. 15.

Websites that want to avoid the Chrome hammer can either shed several broad categories of online ads or pay a consortium of advertisers, advertising trade associations and technology companies, including Google, Microsoft and Facebook, to become "certified."

"Starting on February 15, in line with the Coalition's guidelines, Chrome will remove all ads from sites that have a 'failing' status," Google said on its website, referring to the Coalition for Better Ads (CBA), a group that's promised to scour the web of the most annoying advertisements.

[ Further reading: Best Google Chrome extensions of 2017 ]

Chrome's ad-blocking timeline matches what Google said six months ago, when it confirmed that it would launch the controversial effort in early 2018. At the middle of February, most users will be running Chrome 64, now slated to release the week of Jan. 21-26. The current version of the browser is Chrome 63.

On the desktop, Chrome will block four types of advertisements (out of six considered), while on mobile - iOS and Android - the browser will bar eight kinds of ads (out of a dozen scrutinized): These categories were identified by the CBA and its consumer panel as the least acceptable.

The four ad classes to get the ax on the desktop include pop-ups, ones that automatically play video and audio, "prestitial" ads accompanied by a countdown clock, and those dubbed "large sticky ads," which blanket more than 30% of the screen and remain in place no matter how furiously the user scrolls.

Rather than block those ad types on all sites - as most ad-blocking browser add-ons do - Chrome will take a different tack.

The browser will rely on a whitelist generated by the the CBA. Site publishers will be able to start the certification process, and thus secure a spot on the list, next month, when more details will be made available. Certified websites must meet certain standards, the most important being a low ratio of unacceptable ad types.

In the first two months of the project - the start date will be revealed in January, the CBA said - disreputable ads must not account for more than 7.5% of all page views on a certified site. The cutoff falls after that, so that after six months, ads can comprise just 2.5% of a site's page views. In effect, the CBA will let certified sites ease into the blockade, with a smaller quota of "bad" ads over time.

[ To comment on this story, visit Computerworld's Facebook page. ]

Sites that do not "volunteer" to become certified by the CBA, or are judged by the organization to be non-compliant - effectively all sites but those on the whitelist - will have ads in the banned categories blocked. Even a single objectionable ad will trigger a block by Chrome.

Although the CBA revealed some specifics about the standards, the whitelist and how sites can contest the ad blocking decision, much of the program remains a black box. It was unclear, for instance, how often sites would be re-evaluated for violations, or how long it might take to appeal a ruling.

Nor is there information about fees.

Brendan McCormick, a spokesman for the CBA, said that payments would be required from most sites that seek certification. Although he stressed that there is much "to be worked out" between now and the January launch of the program, McCormick confirmed what AdAge reported Tuesday. Quoting an unnamed coalition spokesperson, the publication said that the CBA would charge the largest publishers up to $5,000 using a sliding scale. Some "very small publishers" may be certified at no charge.

"A lot has not been finalized," McCormick told Computerworld. "There's still much to be worked out. The essential part is to make this affordable [to site publishers]." He declined to say whether fees would be one-time only, or assessed annually.

Evaluations and certifications will begin in January, McCormick said, but he would not specify a timetable.

Past attempts to craft a working definition of annoying online ads, and barring those from the web, or even subsets of the ad ecology, like the "Do Not Track" push nearly 10 years ago, have usually come to naught because of the competing interests of the major players. What's different about the CBA?

"First, the Coalition has global support," said McCormick, "with membership of the leading companies and trade associations in every aspect of the [ad] supply train. Second, is the approach [the CBA] took to do extensive research about what consumers found below the threshold of acceptability.

"Intuitively, people knew, but now we have a coherent and consistent view [of what an unacceptable ad is]," McCormick added.

What he left unsaid was the participation of Google, and the massive stick that it will wield with Chrome. The browser will be the enforcer of the CPA's rules.

Because Chrome is the most popular browser on the planet - the contest is not even close - publishers cannot afford to dismiss the ad-blocking project, as they have done others before, if site revenue relies on advertising. According to U.S. analytics vendor Net Applications, Chrome accounted for 61% of the world's desktop browser user share last month, meaning that more than 6 out of every 10 people who went online during November used Chrome to do so. Irish metrics company StatCounter said that 55% of the desktop browser usage share, an estimate of activity rather than the user base, came from Chrome in the same month.

If Chrome shuts off the spigot, even if it blocks only the unacceptable ad categories, site owners will see a substantial drop in revenue. But it's questionable that Chrome will be able to narrowly target its blocking at only some ads on a non-compliant website.

"We would like to be able to filter out only the non-compliant ad experiences, but this is technically very challenging," said someone identified as Brandon_L and a Google employee on a support thread devoted to the upcoming ad blocking. "The Chrome team is assessing the best way to approach this challenge. We are working with the Coalition for Better Ads on the enforcement details for annoying ad experiences and expect to have additional details and dates soon."

In other words, Chrome's ad blocking may end up being implemented on a site-wide basis. A non-compliant website may have all its advertisements filtered from what users see in the browser.

Computerworld will continue to follow the Chrome ad-blocking story - the bulk of enterprise users now run that browser as well - as more details become available.
Rebecca Lowe Coulson was Parliamentary Candidate for the City of Durham at the 2015 General Election.

Eighteen-degree sunshine, no need to queue for the museums, and hardly a fluorescent Santa Claus in sight. You should be in Athens right now. I say that thinking not only of your benefit, however  surely its true in a bigger sense, too.

The main reason I voted for Brexit was awareness of the EUs effects on Europe. Its an understatement to say that Southern Europe hasnt flourished under the euro; theres no time here to repeat, yet again, why an economic union between an array of economically disparate and non-politically-aligned partners was always doomed to failure. Normally, Id go into details at this point  the latest stats, unemployment rates; maybe Id even make a few graphs. Instead, because its almost Christmas and Im here in Greece on holiday, heres an attempt at some objective quick-take observations about the current state of affairs.

The attitude in Athens feels a little like this years Labour Party conference: people of varying views banding together, showing pleasant surprise that things might (only) be getting better. Theres even a sightseeing enterprise called the Happy Train. To continue the Labour analogy, however, we could also consider the anger emanating from those continuing to struggle towards those sitting easy at the top

And the Happy Train also represents the way in which the city remains clearly dependent on tourism and the wider service industry  with all the knock-on problems that brings. Then, there are the shuttered shops, the aged cars, more graffiti than expected even for a protest nation, and endless people performing various forms of low-level street art for money (a lady in an ornate dress made of plastic bags; another singing two-note refrains while hitting a metal pot). Sure, there are growing signs of construction work (most emblematic is the crane on top of the Acropolis, though that marks the continuation of renovations that have been ongoing for much of the past century), but strikes remain common. And Mark Twain would certainly have written something neat about the number of stray cats.

In general, however, the central historic section, at least, is putting on an excellent face for the tourists on whom it depends. It has to, of course  but that alone is a great reason for you to visit, and to support the local economy by doing so.

But if you believe in Brexit, theres a stronger case to be made to you for supporting Greece. Sure, remoaners may think weve abdicated all responsibility and opportunity to improve the way the EU treats its members. Sure, they may think we now have, for instance, less beef to band with Thomas Piketty in calling for the EU to mutualise debt. But thats missing my point.

Which country aside from Britain had the economic and political power to take the potential short-term hit of leaving the EU, in order to send a powerful message that its actions must face repercussions? The very fact that leaving is proving so complicated shows the unions deep flaws. As does the way in which people are willing to put up with so much (how can the non-Corbynite old left even pretend to bear Juncker et al trampling on democracy?), because they see how hard it is to disentangle.

Sure, its not just about disentanglement. Many continue to believe in the EU because they believe in European cooperation  because they think we should support our neighbours. But that should be our choice, not the forced result of supranational coercion. Surely, the primary aim of the directed European cooperation that flourished following the Second World War was to prevent such conflicts in future: to protect the individuated nature of nations.

Lately, the EU has stood against that aim. But Brexit Britain should not. For many, Brexit was a vote about exactly that  about who should determine the future of a country, and why that is something much more important than short-term concerns such as immediate net costs and benefits. As Ive written here before, its hard to see a better unit for democratic decision-making than the nation state  and the failures of the EU prop that position up well.

As we leave the EU, we must remember that we can now choose to support our neighbours in the best ways we can. And to support people in places further afield  whether thats by lowering tariffs to offer much-needed trade opportunities to those in developing nations, or by offering military strength through our continuing alliances, such as NATO.

Theres something else we could do now, however. Its something more specific and powerfully symbolic, which being here in Athens has brought to my mind. One of the reasons this place has stayed strong through the past difficult decades is its proud history. Every nation has that  in different ways  whether its thanks to Shakespeare or Aristotle, crabapples or olives, a big navy or famed military tactics. And that, of course, is part of why we might want to support the individuated nature of nations.

Athens history can be seen everywhere here, from the little shops selling Greek philosopher calendars, to the bespoke jewellers making cufflinks based on ancient coins. And at the heart of it is the Acropolis  towering up, at the centre of the city, surrounded by bone-coloured buildings, as far as the mountains. Its Parthenon stands strong, having beaten off attacks, looting, and conversions by the Romans, the Ottomans, the Venetians, and more  and having had a swastika raised from it during the German occupation, against the heroic attempts of Manolis Glezos, among others (while Greece stood with Britain against the Nazi regime). The Acropolis places Athens at the heart of human accomplishment, not least as the mother of democracy.

But something is still missing. Just over two hundred years on, the Parthenon marbles remain in Russell Square, the result of Lord Elgins looting at the start of the nineteenth century. The wonderful new Acropolis Museum was clearly built to prove that Athens is the best place for the marbles in terms of their upkeep. But, standing as it does at the very foot of the hill, it is also their rightful home. Rising above legal difficulties and practical considerations, Brexit Britain should prove its commitment to democracy and the individuated nature of nations by promising now to return the marbles. That would make for an ideal Christmas offering  and much more besides.
Michael Fallon seems in practice to have been fired, but on paper he resigned, in order to make his departure from the Cabinet easier for Theresa May. Damian Green has been less accommodating.

I regret that Ive been asked to resign from the Government, he wrote to the Prime Minister yesterday, thereby making it clear that in his view he should have been able to continue in post. He accepts that he made misleading statements about pornography discovered on his Parliamentary computers (though he continues to deny downloading or viewing it) and apologises to Kate Maltby for making her feel uncomfortable (though he does not recognise the events that she described).

May will desparately have wanted to avoid a Green resignation, let alone a sacking. As her reply to his letter says, they are colleagues whose relationship reaches back to their Oxford days as party members and aspiring politicians. Unlike Fallon, whose presence in Cabinet the Prime Minister inherited, Green was her own creation at the top  first as Work and Pensions Secretary, then as First Secretary of State. She brought him back to government after David Cameron had let him go. Both her external and internal opponents will pounce on Greens original appointment, his sacking, or both to accuse her of dire judgement. They will also ask why the Cabinet Secretary was asked to rule on claims made about Green before he became a Minister.

Some will not believe Greens denials about his computers, and say that since viewing pornography at work can be a sacking offence elsewhere, the same should apply in this case. They may also take Maltbys part. Others will not, and claim that putting ones hand on someone elses knee should not result in dismissal. They may also accept Greens account, or say that watching pornography in the office shouldnt force a resignation  and add that an almost-decade-long vendetta by former policemen shouldnt be allowed to succeed.

Either way, there sometimes comes a point when a senior politician must resign not because he originally acted wrongly, but because his continued presence in government becomes unsustainable. Fairly or unfairly, this had become Greens direction of travel  speeded and confirmed by his confessed lack of candour. If he had stayed in office following the Cabinet Secretarys report, the newspaper trawl over his past would have redoubled and his media appearances would have become hazardous. It is hard to believe that his effectiveness as a Minister would not have suffered  and as the chairman of a mass of Cabinet committees, such a development would have hit the Government hard. Perhaps he would have been able to fight his way back to political full health; perhaps not.

That we can believe he could perhaps have survived his own admissions of fault is a tribute to his skills as a politician. He is an operator of the first rank  acute, witty, hard-working, loyal, gifted and with a clear set of left-of-Tory-centre beliefs (one of which, devotion to EU membership, is certainly not ours). The Government will miss him. None the less, May had little choice but to act as she has done, given the contents of the Cabinet Secretarys report. David Davis appears to have drawn the same bleak conclusion.

It is being briefed that there will be no immediate reshuffle. We have previously suggested that if May insists on a new First Secretary of State, David Lidington or Jeremy Hunt would fit the bill. However, there is no particular need for one. The previous Cabinet Office Minister, Ben Gummer, wasnt a full Cabinet member at all, let alone deputy in effect to the Prime Minister. The departure of his successor leaves May a little more vulnerable, more friendless at the top, and a bit more exposed. First Nick Timothy goes, and Fiona Hill too; now Green is gone.
Govt urges President to pass ordinance pronto

Amid calls from the CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre), whose left alliance has registered an impressive electoral victory, to clear the way, the government has reiterated that the prime minister was waiting for the President to authenticate the ordinance on National Assembly election before he makes any significant move.
CORNWALL, Ontario  Alex Tourangeau, a Cornwall survivor of childhood cancer, served as an Ambassador for the Ottawa Senators Foundation at 24h Tremblant

24h Tremblant is a weekend long fundraiser and sporting event that supports three charities dedicated to finding a cure fore and supporting those with cancer. The three charities supported by 24h Tremblant this year were the Tremblant Foundation, the Ottawa Senators Foundation and the Charles Bruneau Foundation.

The event itself is a 24hr relay race. Teams of six to 12 individuals race from Saturday to Sunday on a route on the Mount Tremblant ski resort. Pariticipants can ski, walk or run.

There were around 3, 300 participants with about 33, 000 people attending according to Tourangeau, which he said was announced as a record breaking level of attendance by the events organizers.

Tourangeau was one of 9 child ambassadors at the event and said he did his job to the fullest and cheered on the participants.

Its important to raise awareness for childhood cancer and to encourage people to donate, he said.

In total, the weekend raised $3.9 million for the three charities. Some of the money will go to programs like Camp Quality, a one-week summer camp for kids who have cancer at no cost to the families. Tourangeau has gone to camp quality for the past four years.

Tourangeau said that 24h Tremblant was an exciting weekend which included live music that played throughout the night. One of the acts that took the stage at Tremblant was Simple Plan, who were capping of their world tour with a performance at the charity event.

Tourangeau hopes to one day attend 24h Tremblant as a participant.
CORNWALL, Ontario  The City of Cornwall is pleased to announce that Kevin Lajoie has been appointed the Citys new Tourism Co-ordinator.

The Tourism Coordinator oversees efforts to market Cornwall to tourists as well as manage the delivery of information to visitors. As such, Mr. Lajoie will be working closely with community partners to build upon a successful year of events and activities that attracted thousands of people to Cornwall in 2017.

Mr. Lajoie has considerable experience in working with Cornwall businesses and community organizations. He has held the position of Public Information Coordinator with the City since 2011, where he has been responsible for the delivery of information on municipal programs and services to local residents. Prior to working for the City, he was the Project Coordinator for Heart of the City following time spent as a Journalist with the Standard Freeholder.

Mr. Lajoie will be replacing Linda Wilson, who is leaving the position after guiding the transition of tourism services to a new model of service delivery. The City of Cornwall would like to thank Ms. Wilson for her expertise and efforts over the past year.

Mr. Lajoie will assume his new responsibilities in January 2018.
In the debate over an all-in-one cyber security platform versus best of breed solutions, theres only one answer: best of breed. The questions are: How many tools can you afford, and is the software in your stack designed for security?

Traditionally, best of breed means buying multiple security programs, each a separate tool thats best at the individual problem it solves. For example, you might use Forum Systems to secure your API gateway, Splunk for log correlation, and Okta to manage who accesses what data when. Each vendor brings something different to your stack, leaving IT to piece the platforms together like a Jenga tower, hoping there are no holes in the plan to keep company data safe.

The alternative to best of breed is to buy or build an inclusive, all-in-one platform, but no single software, whether you call it all-in-one or not, can really keep all company data safe. Why? Culture and money.

The trouble with all-in-one security platforms

Michael Cook, a senior security consultant at Indianapolis-based advisory Pondurance, says all-in-one platforms are generally made up of about 15 applications or modules around that platform. Each module addresses a different need, such as securing that API gateway. Cook cautions that not every module is equally strong and that with a single platform you risk a Jack of all trades, master of none scenario.

Say, for example, the platform you use offers gateway security but isnt great at it. Good luck getting management to approve a Forum Systems purchase. When youre using a platform versus best of breed, if theres something you dont like in one of the modules in the platform youre kind of, Well, weve gotta use it because we bought the whole thing, he says.

Of course, just because a specialized tool might work better doesnt mean all-in-one doesnt offer any protection at all. The module is there. The real hole in platform security is SaaS, and SaaS is everywhere.

Why SaaS drives a best-of-breed approach to security

For over a decade, SaaS vendors have promised buyers that their softwares so easy to use, theres no need for IT to even know. The rogue software spend that results means rogue data: Every time a sales rep circumnavigates IT, all-in-one protection becomes less inclusive. If platform security providers want to survive, Cook says, Theyre going to have to be integrated with other applications that share information.

As Centre College, a liberal arts institution in Danville, Kentucky, moves into its own best-of-breed reality, Senior Systems and Networks Coordinator Shane Wilson centralizes control by overseeing every software purchase that the college makes, whether its for the IT department or not. From Moodle for learning management to Jenzabar enterprise resource planning software to Microsoft 365 for email, the college has its share of SaaS providers. Wilson vets these enterprise vendors just as thoroughly as he would security tech. They dont care about my data like I do, he explains.

Questions Wilson asks include: How do you store data? How often do you patch your operating system? How are other security best practices followed? If he doesnt get answers, Centre doesnt buy no matter how fantastic a SaaS platform is at its core business offering. If you go back through the big publicized breaches over the last five years and you look at the details of why they got breached, they were almost always [caused by not following best practice]. Some system didnt get updated, some default passwords were left in. They were all relatively simple things, he says. Havent we learned that lesson?

SaaS isnt going away, and neither are sales reps who try to get around your department. Their dont tell IT approach is also making inroads in how chatbots are sold. Thats todays vendor culture and, even if it werent  even if purchasing is centralized through IT like at Centre  as long as SaaS exists, company data will flow through the capillaries of the cloud, bleeding everywhere. If we want to prevent breaches everywhere they can happen, maybe its time to consider the security features in individual SaaS programs part of our security stack, too. There is no true all-in-one platform anymore.

Best-of-breed security tools maximize resources

Another pro to best of breed: Wilson says outside providers are essential to the college making the most out of limited resources: Were a small liberal arts institution. We dont have the kind of money that a large research institution is going to have to do security. He then mentions that a colleague at a bigger university in a neighboring state spends $10 million a year. Centres IT department employs 12 people. (For perspective: during the academic year 2016/2017, 1,425 students were enrolled at Centre.)

Still, Wilson makes use of what he has, using individual security tools to do a lot of monitoring of the traffic on our network, looking for anomalies in logs, employing certain technologies  firewall technologies, other technologies, intrusion detection systems, and so forth  to try to detect unusual events that might indicate a security problem. Thats what we can do with the resources we have. Its a lot about resources. Basically, most people, whether theyre big or small, do everything they can with the resources they have. For Centre, thats best of breed.

Cook says, It goes back to core competency and what is your business. Anything thats rather fungible, my personal belief is you can probably outsource it, use an application for it. If youre running a company  if youre running Centre College  you dont need [to build out all-in-one to protect] an HR app system, you dont need [to for] a payroll system. What you need is to manage data in a safe and effective manner.

To make this happen, Wilson says, I have to look for technologies that help with heavy lifting so it doesnt take as many person hours. A lot of times, I can buy technologies or I can buy services, but I cant get additional people. So I need technologies that do a lot of the correlation for me before a human has to look at it and go, Yes, thats odd based on their experience and education. The technology can only take you so far.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

Connecticuts population had a slight gain over the past year, with 499 new residents calling the Constitution State home.

States prison population lowest in more than two decades

On Wednesday, the U.S. Census Bureau released the latest national and state population estimates.

It showed Connecticuts population in 2017 estimated at 3,588,184, up from 3,587,685.

While Connecticuts population gain is small, it reversed a population decline of 14,434 measured between 2015 and 2016.

Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Vermont, which all lost population in 2016, all made slight population gains this year. Pennsylvania had a 0.1 percent increase with 18,452. Vermont  the least populated state with 623,354 residents, gained 303.

Population growth in Connecticut and Fairfield County is sluggish, but some communities  Stamford, Shelton and Danbury  are enjoying a growth spurt, according to census figures released earlier this year.

Danburys population of 84,922 posted the fastest growth, gaining 335 residents between 2015 and 2016, and growing by 5.1 percent since 2010.

Stamford, with 129,113 people, gained 239 residents and its population grew by 5.3 percent since 2010. Bridgeport, despite a one-year loss, grew by 1.2 percent since 2010.

Norwalk, with 88,438 residents, lost a handful of people between 2015 and 2016, but its population grew by 3.3 percent since 2010, the numbers show.

Shelton, with a population of 41,334, gained 108 residents and is up 4.5 percent since 2010.

The figures released Wednesday showed the U.S. population grew 0.72 percent to 325.7 million. Net international migration decreased 1.8 percent between 2016 and 2017, making it the first drop since 2012-2013. However, net international migration continues to be a significant factor in the population growth of the United States, adding just over 1.1 million people in the past year.

Nationally, eight states lost population between July 1, 2016, and July 1, 2017. Illinois had the largest decline, losing 33,703 people  a relatively small percentage change compared to its population of 12.8 million. Wyoming had the largest percentage decline with 1 percent.

Idaho was the nations fastest-growing state over the past year. Its population increased 2.2 percent to 1.7 million from July 1, 2016, to July 1, 2017.

Following Idaho for the largest percentage increases in population were: Nevada, 2 percent; Utah, 1.9 percent; Washington, 1.7 percent, and Florida and Arizona, 1.6 percent.

States in the South and West continued to lead in population growth. In 2017, 38.0 percent of the nations population lived in the South and 23.8 percent lived in the West.

In addition to the population estimates for the 50 states and the District of Columbia, the new estimates show that Puerto Rico had an estimated population of 3.3 million, a decline from 3.4 million in 2016.
Nita Rae Nirschl, the former president/CEO of the $13.3 million Parsons Pittsburg Credit Union, pleaded guilty to embezzling at least $5 million in U.S. District Court in Wichita, Kan. on Monday.

Although initially charged with 81 felony counts, the 66-year-old former executive pleaded guilty to only three felony counts of embezzlement, money laundering and tax evasion, according to a plea agreement. She also agreed to serve up to five years in federal prison, five years of supervised release and to pay a to-be-determined amount in restitution.

Nirschls final sentence, however, will be decided in March by a federal judge who is under no obligation to accept the terms of the plea agreement.
Left bloc leaders ask PM Deuba to resign

Left alliance leaders from the CPN-UML and the CPN (Maoist Centre) have demanded immediate resignation of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba.
Nancy Pelosi's legacy: From passing Obamacare to impeaching Trump

Congressional scholars and modern politicians rate Speaker Nancy Pelosi as one of the most consequential legislative leaders in U.S. and House history.
Lost without recourse

More than two years since the implementation of the free visa, free ticket policy for out-migrant workers by the government, this scheme has been largely ignored by recruiting agencies.
United Parcel Service, Inc. provides letter and package delivery, transportation, logistics, and related services. It operates through two segments, U.S. Domestic Package and International Package. The U.S. Domestic Package segment offers time-definite delivery of letters, documents, small packages, and palletized freight through air and ground services in the United States. The International Package segment provides guaranteed day and time-definite international shipping services in Europe, the Asia Pacific, Canada and Latin America, the Indian sub-continent, the Middle East, and Africa. This segment offers guaranteed time-definite express options. The company also provides international air and ocean freight forwarding, customs brokerage, distribution and post-sales, and mail and consulting services in approximately 200 countries and territories. In addition, it offers truckload brokerage services; supply chain solutions to the healthcare and life sciences industry; shipping, visibility, and billing technologies; and financial and insurance services. The company operates a fleet of approximately 121,000 package cars, vans, tractors, and motorcycles; and owns 59,000 containers that are used to transport cargo in its aircraft. United Parcel Service, Inc. was founded in 1907 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
BorgWarner Inc. provides solutions for combustion, hybrid, and electric vehicles worldwide. The company operates through four segments: Air Management, E-Propulsion & Drivetrain, Fuel Injection, and Aftermarket. The Air Management segment offers turbochargers, eBoosters, eTurbos, timing systems, emissions systems, thermal systems, gasoline ignition technology, smart remote actuators, powertrain sensors, canisters, cabin heaters, battery modules and systems, battery packs, battery heaters, and battery charging. The E-Propulsion & Drivetrain segment provides rotating electrical components, power electronics, control modules, software, friction, and mechanical products for automatic transmissions and torque-management products. The Fuel Injection segment develops and manufactures gasoline and diesel fuel injection components and systems. The Aftermarket segment sells products and services to independent aftermarket customers and original equipment service customers. This segment provides a range of solutions, including fuel injection, electronics and engine management, maintenance, and test equipment and vehicle diagnostics. The company sells its products to original equipment manufacturers of light vehicles, which comprise passenger cars, sport-utility vehicles, vans, and light trucks; commercial vehicles, including medium-duty and heavy-duty trucks, and buses; and off-highway vehicles, such as agricultural and construction machinery, and marine applications, as well as to tier one vehicle systems suppliers and the aftermarket for light, commercial, and off-highway vehicles. The company was formerly known as Borg-Warner Automotive, Inc. BorgWarner Inc. was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan.
Blackstone Inc. is an alternative asset management firm specializing in real estate, private equity, hedge fund solutions, credit, secondary funds of funds, public debt and equity and multi-asset class strategies. The firm typically invests in early-stage companies. It also provide capital markets services. The real estate segment specializes in opportunistic, core+ investments as well as debt investment opportunities collateralized by commercial real estate, and stabilized income-oriented commercial real estate across North America, Europe and Asia. The firm's corporate private equity business pursues transactions throughout the world across a variety of transaction types, including large buyouts,special situations, distressed mortgage loans, mid-cap buyouts, buy and build platforms, which involves multiple acquisitions behind a single management team and platform, and growth equity/development projects involving significant majority stakes in portfolio companies and minority investments in operating companies, shipping, real estate, corporate or consumer loans, and alternative energy greenfield development projects in energy and power, property, dislocated markets, shipping opportunities, financial institution breakups, re-insurance, and improving freight mobility, financial services, healthcare, life sciences, enterprise tech and consumer, as well as consumer technologies. The firm considers investment in Asia and Latin America. It has a three year investment period. Its hedge fund business manages a broad range of commingled and customized fund solutions and its credit business focuses on loans, and securities of non-investment grade companies spread across the capital structure including senior debt, subordinated debt, preferred stock and common equity. Blackstone Inc. was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in New York, New York with additional offices across Asia, Europe and North America.
The following companies are subsidiares of Dover: APM Grundstucksverwaltungsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, Accelerated Production Systems, Acme Cryo Intermediate Inc., Acme Cryogenics, Acme Cryogenics Inc., Acme Elevator, Advansor A/S, Advansor Dover International (Poland) sp. z o.o., Advansor Germany GmbH, Alfred Fueling Systems Holdco Ltd., Alfred Fueling Systems Inc., Alfred Fueling Systems Intermediate Holdco Ltd., All-Flo Pump Company, Anman LLC, Anthony Equity Holdings Inc., Anthony Holdings Inc., Anthony Inc., Anthony International, Anthony International Foreign Sales Corp., Anthony International Holding Company, Anthony Mexico Holdings LLC, Anthony North Holdco Inc., Anthony Specialty Glass LLC, Anthony TemperBent GP LLC, Audax ECII Blocker Inc., Auto Glanz Solutions LLC, AvaLAN Wireless Systems Incorporated, BELVAC CR spol s r.o., BSC Filters Limited, Belanger, Belanger Inc., Belvac Middle East FZE, Belvac Production Machinery Inc., Blackmer, BlitzRotary GmbH, Blue Bite LLC, Blue Bite LLC, Butler Engineering and Marketing S.P.A., CDS Visual, CDS Visual Inc., CEP Liquidation LLC, CP Formation LLC, CPC Europe Inc., CPI Products Inc., Caldera, Canada Organization & Development LLC, Chief Automotive Technologies (Shanghai) Trading Company Ltd., Chippewa Square Captive Insurance Company, Colder Products Company, Colder Products Company GmbH, Colder Products Company LTD, Cook Compression LLC, Cook Compression Limited, Cook-MFS Inc., Cryogenic Experts LLC, DD1 Inc., DDI Properties Inc., DE-STA-CO Benelux B.V., DE-STA-CO FRANCE, DE-STA-CO Shanghai Co. Ltd., DESTACO UK Limited, DFH Corporation, DFS Netherlands B.V., Datamax International Corp, De Sta Co (Asia) Company Limited, De-Sta-Co Cylinders Inc., DeStaCo Europe GmbH, Delaware Capital Formation Inc., Delaware Capital Holdings Inc., Dositec Sistemas SL, Dosmatic U.S.A. Inc., Dover (China) Investment Co. Ltd., Dover (Schweiz) Holding GmbH, Dover (Shanghai) Industrial Co. Ltd., Dover (Shenzhen) Industrial Equipment Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Dover (Suzhou) Industrial Equipment Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Dover Asia Trading Private Ltd., Dover Australia Holdings Pty Limited, Dover Business Services EMEA Limited, Dover Business Services Europe S.R.L., Dover Business Services LLC, Dover Business Services Philippines Corporation, Dover CLP Formation Limited Partnership, Dover Canada Holdings ULC, Dover Canada Operations ULC, Dover Corporation Regional Headquarters, Dover DEI Services Inc., Dover Denmark Holdings ApS, Dover EMEA FZCO, Dover Energy UK Ltd, Dover Engineered Products Segment Inc., Dover Europe Inc., Dover Europe Sarl, Dover Fluids UK Ltd, Dover France Holdings, Dover France Participations, Dover France Technologies, Dover Fueling Solutions Segment Inc., Dover Fueling Solutions UK Limited, Dover Germany GmbH, Dover Global Holdings LLC, Dover Holdings de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Dover Imaging & Identification Segment Inc., Dover India Pvt. Ltd., Dover Intercompany Services UK Limited, Dover International B.V., Dover International Operations Inc., Dover International Ventures Inc., Dover International ithalat ihracat ve Pazarlama Limited Sirketi, Dover Italy Holdings S.r.l., Dover Luxembourg Finance Sarl, Dover Luxembourg Participations Sarl, Dover Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Dover Luxembourg Services Sarl, Dover Operations South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Dover Overseas Ventures Inc., Dover Pumps & Process Solutions Segment Inc., Dover Refrigeration & Food Equipment Segment Inc., Dover Refrigeration & Food Equipment UK Ltd, Dover Resources International de Mexico S. de R.L. C.V., Dover Solutions Colombia SAS, Dover Southeast Asia (Thailand) Ltd., Dover Spain Holdings S.L., Dover Switzerland Participations GmbH, Dover UK Pensions Limited, Dover WSCR Holding LLC, Dover WSCR LLC, Dover do Brasil Ltda., Dow-Key Microwave Corporation, Dresser Wayne Data Technology (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Dresser Wayne Fuel Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., ECI - IGT Holdings LLC, ECI Holding Company LLC, ECI RegO S. de R.L. de C.V, ECI RegO Servicios S. de R.L. de C.V., ECII (Mexico) LLC, EOA Systems Inc., Ebs-Ray Holdings Pty Ltd, Ebs-Ray Industries Pty Ltd, Ebs-Ray Pumps Pty Ltd, Em-Tec, Engineered Controls International LLC, Espy, Ettlinger, Ettlinger Kunststoffmaschinen GmbH, Fairbanks Environmental Limited, Fibrelite Composites Limited, Fibresec Holdings Limited, Fibresec Limited, Finder, GAL LLC, GIIER LLC, Gala Industries, Guangdong Tokheim LIYUAN Oil Industry Technology Limited Company, Highland Park Insurance Company, Hill PHOENIX Inc., Hill PHOENIX WIC LLC, Hill Phoenix Costa Rica Sociedad De Responsabilidad Limitada, Hill Phoenix El Salvador Limitada de Capital Variable, Hill Phoenix Guatemala Sociedad Anonima, Hill Phoenix Honduras Sociedad Anonima, Hill Phoenix Nicaragua Sociedad Anonima, Hill Phoenix de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Hiltap Fittings Ltd., Hydro Systems Company, Hydro Systems Europe Ltd., Industrial Motion Control LLC, Innovative Control Systems, Innovative Control Systems Inc., Inpro/Seal LLC, JK Group, JK Group S.P.A., JK Group USA Inc., K S Boca Inc., K&L Microwave DR Inc., K&L Microwave Inc., KPS (Beijing) Petroleum Equipment Trading Co Ltd., KPS Fueling Solutions Sdn. Bhd., KPS Hong Kong Holding Limited, KPS UK Limited, KS Formation Inc., KS Liquidation Inc., KSLP Liquidation L.P., Kiian Digital (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Knappco LLC, Knowles Electronics, LIQAL, LIQAL B.V., Liquip, Liquip, Liquip International Pty Limited, MAAG, MARKEM FZ SA, MARKEM-IMAJE Corporation, MIP Holdings Inc., MS Printing Solutions, MS Printing Solutions S.R.L., Maag, Maag Automatik Plastics Machinery (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Maag Gala Inc., Maag Germany GmbH, Maag Italy S.R.L., Maag Pump Systems, Maag Pump Systems (US) Inc., Maag Pump Systems AG, Maag Reduction Inc., Maag Service (Malaysia) Sdn. Bdn., Maag Service (Taiwan) Ltd., Maag Systems (Thailand) Limited, Macro Technologies LLC, Malema, Marathon Equipment Company (Delaware), Markem Imaje Center of Competencies Spain S.L.U., Markem-Imaje, Markem-Imaje (China) Co. Limited, Markem-Imaje - Unipessoal Lda, Markem-Imaje A/S, Markem-Imaje AB, Markem-Imaje AG, Markem-Imaje AS, Markem-Imaje B.V., Markem-Imaje CSAT GmbH, Markem-Imaje Co. Ltd., Markem-Imaje GmbH, Markem-Imaje Holding, Markem-Imaje Identificacao de Produtos Ltda., Markem-Imaje Inc., Markem-Imaje India Private Limited, Markem-Imaje Industries, Markem-Imaje Industries Limited, Markem-Imaje KK, Markem-Imaje LLC, Markem-Imaje Limited, Markem-Imaje Ltd., Markem-Imaje N.V., Markem-Imaje Oy, Markem-Imaje Philippines Corporation, Markem-Imaje Pty. Ltd., Markem-Imaje S.A., Markem-Imaje S.A. de C.V., Markem-Imaje S.r.l., Markem-Imaje SAS, Markem-Imaje Sdn. Bhd., Markem-Imaje Singapore Pte. Ltd., Markem-Imaje Spain S.A., Markpoint Holding AB, Midland Manufacturing LLC, Midwest Cryogenics Inc., Mouvex, Northeast Services Inc., Northern Lights (Nevada) Inc., Northern Lights Funding LP, Northern Lights Investments LLC, Nova Controls Inc., OK International, OK International Holdings Inc., OK International Inc., OK International Ltd., OPW Engineered Systems LLC, OPW Fluid Transfer Group Europe B.V., OPW Fluid Transfer Solutions (Jiang Su) Co. Ltd., OPW Fluids Group Inc., OPW Fuel Management Systems Inc., OPW Fueling Components (SuZhou) Co. Ltd., OPW Fueling Components LLC, OPW Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., OPW Slovakia s.r.o., OPW Sweden AB, Officine Meccaniche Sirio S.R.L., PDQ Manufacturing, PDQ Manufacturing Inc., PISCES by OPW Inc., PSD Codax Holdings Limited, PSD Codax Limited, PSG (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., PSG (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., PSG California LLC, PSG Germany GmbH, Petro Vend Sp. z o.o., Pike Machine Products Inc., Pole/Zero Acquisition Inc., Precision Brasil Equipamentos E Servicos Para Postos De Combustiveis Ltda., Precision Service - Servicos De Manutencao E Instalacao De Postos De Abastecimento De Combustivel Ltda., Production Control Services, Pump Management Services Co. LLC, Quantex Arc Limited, Quantex Patents Limited, RAV France, Ravaglioli S.P.A., Reduction Engineering GmbH, RegO (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., RegO Holding GmbH, RegO Products, RegO Valve (Shanghai) Company Ltd., Rego GmbH, Revod Corporation, Revod Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Revod Sweden AB, Robohand Inc., Rosario, Rosario Handel B.V., Rotary Lift Consolidated (Haimen) Co. Ltd., SE Liquidation LLC, SWEP France, SWEP Germany GmbH, SWEP Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., SWEP North America Inc., SWEP Slovakia s.r.o., SWEP Technology (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Seabiscuit Motorsports Inc., Shanghai RegO Flow Technology Company Ltd., Shine Bloom - ECI A Blocker Corp., Shine Bloom - ECI Blocker Corp., Shine Bloom - ECI S Blocker Corp., Simmons Sirvey Corporation, So. Cal. Soft-Pak, So. Cal. Soft-Pak Incorporated, Soft-Pak, Solaris Laser, Solaris Laser S.A., Somero Enterprises, Sound Solutions, Sound Solutions, Space S.R.L., Spirit, Start Italiana S.R.L., Superior Holding LLC, Superior Products LLC, Swep Energy Oy, Swep International A.B., Swep Japan K.K., Sys-Tech Solutions, Sys-Tech Solutions Inc., Systech, TQC Quantium Quality S.A. de C.V., TTSI III Inc., TWG Canada Consolidated Inc., TXHI LLC, Tartan Textile Services Inc., The Espy Corporation, The Heil Co., Tokheim, Tokheim Belgium, Tokheim China Company Limited, Tokheim GmbH, Tokheim Group, Tokheim Hengshan Technologies (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd., Tokheim Holding B.V., Tokheim India Private Limited, Tokheim Sofitam Applications, Triton Systems, Tulsa Winch Inc., UPCO Inc., US Synthetic, Unattended Payment Solutions LLC, Unified Brands, Val TemperBent Glass L.P., Vectron Frequency Devices (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Vehicle Service Group LLC, Vehicle Service Group UK Limited, Vos Food Store Equipment Ltd., WSCR Corp., Warn Automotive LLC, Warn Industries, Waukesha Bearings, Waukesha Bearings Corporation, Waukesha Bearings Limited, Waukesha Bearings Russia LLC, Wayne Fueling Systems, Wayne Fueling Systems (Rus) Limited Liability Company, Wayne Fueling Systems Australia Pty Ltd, Wayne Fueling Systems Canada ULC, Wayne Fueling Systems Italia S.R.L., Wayne Fueling Systems LLC, Wayne Fueling Systems Ltd., Wayne Fueling Systems Sweden AB, Wayne Fueling Systems UK Holdco Ltd., Wayne Industria e Comercio Ltda., WellMark, WellMark, and em-tec GmbH.

Read More
Many investors understand the reasons for having a diversified portfolio. One way to accomplish this is to diversify within an asset class. For equity investors in the United States this can mean investing in both growth and value stocks.

It can also mean investing in international stocks. And when investors want to do this, they need look no further than our neighbor to the north. Canada has a range of stocks for investors to consider. This article will focus on strategies that investors can use when looking to invest in Canadian stocks.

Why Buy Canadian Stocks? There are a few reasons for investors to consider Canadian stocks as part of their diversification strategy: A Large Natural Resources Sector  The sheer size of the country and its location lets investors know that it is an area rich in natural resources. This also means that the country has a source of current and future wealth. An Advanced Skills-Based Economy  In this regard, Canada is similar to other western nations. The difference is that it is not as common to find these skill-based professions in a country with so many natural resources. Stability  Canada is not exempt from any problems that impact the global economy. However, the country is known for stable financial and business policies that have kept the economy relatively stable. This Goldilocks economy has meant that many Canadian stocks havent enjoyed the outsized growth of some U.S. equities. However, it also comes with a bit of protection against downside risk.

How Have Canadian Stocks Performed? According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, there was a time when U.S. stocks and Canadian stocks performed nearly identically. Heres a graph that shows the performance of the S&P 500 Index vs. the TSX Index

Source: S&P Global Market Intelligence You can see that with a couple of exceptions, the two indexes performed remarkably similar. That all changed around 2012 and Canadian stocks became less attractive. Source: S&P Global Market Intelligence This disparity is widely due to one sector, technology. However, Canadian technology stocks have been on the rise. And in 2022, the country is benefiting from renewed interest in materials stocks as well as a spike in commodity prices.

What Are the Best Sectors of Canadian Stocks? For different reasons finance, materials, and energy stocks are among the best performing stocks as of September 2022. Heres a brief overview of each sector and some of the top names for investors to consider. Financial  Similar to the United States, Canada has a strong banking industry. Many Canadian banks have a track record of solid performance that can provide long-term value to a portfolio. And several of these stocks pay dividends with attractive yields for investors. This sector makes up the largest percentage of the TSX at roughly 30%. And the Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE:RY)is the top-weighted constituent in the TSX. Beyond the Royal Bank of Canada some of the other top-performing Canadian financial stocks include: National Bank of Canada ( OTCMKTS: NTIOF )

Toronto-Dominion Bank ( NYSE: TD )

Bank of Nova Scotia ( NYSE: BNS )

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce ( NYSE: CM )

Bank of Montreal (NYSE: BMO) Materials and Mining  Canadian stocks can be an ideal choice for investors looking to diversify into gold and precious metals without owning the physical metal. Canada has a large natural resources sector. So, its not surprising that there are a number of gold mining companies with Canadian origins. This sector also gives investors exposure to other components in the mining and agriculture sectors. This sector makes up approximately 11.5% of the TSX. Some of the top Canadian materials and mining stocks include: B2Gold ( NYSE: BTG )

Nutrien (NYSE: NTR) Energy  Canadian stocks offer both traditional fossil fuel-based energy stocks as well as some renewable energy stocks. This sector makes up approximately 18.5% of the TSX. Some of the top Canadian energy stocks include: Suncor Energy ( NYSE: SU )

Enbridge ( NYSE: ENB )

Algonquin Power & Utilities (NYSE: AQN) Technology  As mentioned earlier, technology stocks have largely been the domain of the United States. As evidence of this, information technology stocks make up only about 5.5% of the TSX. However, there are a few Canadian companies that have become stars in the new economy being created. Some of the more popular names include: Shopify ( NYSE: SHOP )

Constellation Software ( OTCMKTS: CNSWF )

Lightspeed Commerce ( NYSE: LSPD )

Kinaxis ( NYSE: KXS )

Blackberry (NYSE: BB)

What Are the Risks of Investing in Canadian Stocks? One concern about investing in Canadian stocks is that they can be heavily weighted towards cyclical industries. For example, as of February 2022 financials (33.5%), energy (14.8%) and industrials (11.7%) made up nearly 60% of the index. That may be too much for some investors particularly because those sectors all tend to correlate roughly the same way as the economic cycle. But as a long-term play, Canadian stocks are worth considering with a small part of your portfolio.

How to Buy Canadian Stocks

Buy Individual Stocks on a Stock Exchange

Hundreds of Canadian stocks have dual listings on either the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or the NASDAQ. This is the most convenient way to get exposure to Canadian stocks because there are no barriers to stock ownership. These shares can be purchased in U.S. dollars directly from the exchange just like purchasing a U.S. stock.

However, for a full list of the best Canadian stocks, investors should look at the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). The TSX is one of the oldest stock exchanges having been founded in 1852. Its also the third largest stock exchange in North America in terms of market capitalization.

The Toronto Stock Exchange includes approximately 1,500 companies. It allows investors to trade stocks, investment trusts, exchange-traded products, bonds, commodities, futures, options, and other derivative products. All transactions on the TSX are executed in Canadian dollars.

Invest in a Mutual Fund or ETF

There are many mutual funds and exchange-traded funds that supply exposure to Canadian stocks. Some funds supply exposure to both U.S. and Canadian stocks. Other funds hold just Canadian stocks. Some examples of those include:

BMO S&P/TSX Capped Composite Index ETF

Horizons S&P/TSX 60 Index ETF

Vanguard FTSE Canada All Cap ETF

As with investing in any asset class, investors need to consider their investment objective, time horizon and risk tolerance before choosing a fund that fits their needs. Investors will also want to pay attention to the funds fee structure to ensure youre making the most efficient use of your capital.

The Final Word on Investing in Canadian Stocks

Investing in Canadian stocks is one way for investors to add diversification to their portfolio. MarketBeat provides a list of the top Canadian stocks that trade on the TSX. This is Canadas version of the NYSE or NASDAQ in the United States and includes many of the same stocks.

Thats one advantage of investing in Canadian stocks is that many have a dual listing which removes many of the obstacles that can come with investing in international stocks.

However, investors should be aware that many of the best Canadian stocks are in highly cyclical industries which can lead to underperformance when those sectors are out of favor. Still, due to their relative stability and in some cases an impressive dividend, Canadian stocks may have a place in an investors portfolio.
Installed Building Products, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the installation of insulation, waterproofing, fire-stopping, fireproofing, garage doors, rain gutters, window blinds, shower doors, closet shelving and mirrors, and other products in the continental United States. The company offers a range of insulation materials, such as fiberglass and cellulose, and spray foam insulation materials. It is also involved in the installation of insulation and sealant materials in various areas of a structure, which includes basement and crawl space, building envelope, attic, and acoustical applications. In addition, the company installs a range of caulk and sealant products that control air infiltration in residential and commercial buildings; and waterproofing options, including sheet and hot applied waterproofing membranes, as well as deck coating, bentonite, and air and vapor systems. It serves homebuilders, multi-family and commercial construction firms, individual homeowners, and repair and remodeling contractors through a network of approximately 210 branch locations. The company was formerly known as CCIB Holdco, Inc. Installed Building Products, Inc. was founded in 1977 and is based in Columbus, Ohio.
Birgunj gas factory fire: Fire engine engulfed, 2 missing; nearby settlements evacuated

A massive fire broke out at a gas factory in Sukhasaina, Birgunj, on Wednesday morning.
Louisiana-Pacific Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets building products primarily for use in new home construction, repair and remodeling, and outdoor structure markets. It operates through four segments: Siding; Oriented Strand Board (OSB); Engineered Wood Products (EWP); and South America. The Siding segment offers LP SmartSide trim and siding products, LP SmartSide ExpertFinish trim and siding products, LP BuilderSeries lap siding products, and LP Outdoor Building Solutions; and engineered wood siding, trim, soffit, and fascia products. The OSB segment manufactures and distributes OSB structural panel products comprising LP TechShield radiant barriers, LP WeatherLogic air and water barriers, LP Legacy premium sub-flooring products, LP FlameBlock fire-rated sheathing products, and LP TopNotch sub-flooring products. The EWP segment provides laminated veneer lumber and other related products; and LP SolidStart I-joists, which are primarily used in residential and commercial floorings, roofing systems, and other structural applications. The South America segment manufactures and distributes OSB structural panel and siding products. This segment also distributes and sells related products for the region's transition to wood frame construction. It also offers timber and timberlands and other products and services. The company sells its products primarily to retailers, wholesalers, and homebuilding and industrial businesses in North America and South America, Asia, Australia, and Europe. Louisiana-Pacific Corporation was incorporated in 1972 and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.
The following companies are subsidiares of Select Medical: ACC Capital, AbsoluteCVO, Actra Rehabilitation Associates, Advantage Rehabilitation Clinics, Alexandria Sports, Allevant Solutions, Ambulatory Care Solutions, Ambulatory Care Solutions of Arkansas LLC, Ambulatory Care Solutions of Ohio LLC, American Current Care, American Current Care of Arizona, American Current Care of Arkansas, American Current Care of California, American Current Care of Delaware, American Current Care of Hawaii, American Current Care of Illinois, American Current Care of Kansas, American Current Care of Massachusetts, American Current Care of Michigan, American Current Care of Missouri, American Current Care of Nebraska, American Current Care of New Jersey PA, American Current Care of North Carolina, American Current Care of Ohio, American Transitional Hospitals, Archer Rehabilitation, Argosy Health, BHSM ES, Benchmark Acquisition Corp., Benchmark Medical Management Company, Benchmark O&P Holdings, Benchmark Orthotics & Prosthetics, Blue Hen Physical Therapy, CM Occupational Health, CRI ES, California Rehab Institute Medical Group, California Rehabilitation Institute, Cape Prosthetics-Orthotics, Caritas Rehab Services, Carrollton Physical Therapy Clinic, Central Iowa Physio, Cleveland Clinic Rehabilitation Hospitals, Coastal Virginia ES, Concentra Akron, Concentra Arkansas, Concentra Group Holdings, Concentra Group Holdings Parent, Concentra Health Services, Concentra Holdings, Concentra Inc., Concentra Integrated Services, Concentra Laboratory, Concentra Occupational Health Research Institute, Concentra Occupational Healthcare Harrisburg, Concentra Operating Corporation, Concentra Primary Care, Concentra Primary Care of New Jersey PA, Concentra Primary Care of Ohio, Concentra Solutions, Concentra South Carolina, Concentra St. Louis, Concentra-UPMC, Concentramark, Connecticut Physical Therapy, Crowley Physical Therapy Clinic, DG Physical Therapy, Dignity Select Nevada, Douglas Avery & Associates, ES LTACH, Eagle Rehab Corporation, Eden Sports, Elizabethtown Physical Therapy, FC Select, FC Select II, Frederick Orthopedic Rehabilitation, Freedom Management Services, GH General, GH General-San Antonio, GP Therapy, GR General-Scottsdale, GRSH ES, Georgia Physical Therapy, GlobalRehab, GlobalRehab  Fort Worth, GlobalRehab  San Antonio, Great Lakes Specialty HospitalHackley, Great Lakes Specialty HospitalOak, Gulf Breeze Physical Therapy, Hand Therapy Associates, Hospital Holdings Corporation, Hudson Physical Therapy Services, Indiana Rehabilitation Services, Indianapolis Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine, Integrity Physical Therapy, Intensiva Healthcare Corporation, Intensiva Hospital of Greater St. Louis, Jeffersontown Physical Therapy, Johnson Physical Therapy, Joyner Sportsmedicine Institute, KORT Rehabilitation at Home, Kentucky Orthopedic Rehabilitation, Kentucky Rehabilitation Services, Kessler Hudson County Rehabilitation, Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation, Kessler Orthotic & Prosthetic Services, Kessler Professional Services, Kessler Rehab Centers, Kessler Rehabilitation Corporation, Kessler Rehabilitation Services, Keystone Rehabilitation Associates of Warren, Keystone Rehabilitation Systems, Keystone Rehabilitation Systems of McMurray, LTACH @ Riverside, Leesburg Sports, LifeBridge Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, LifeSigns Management, Louisville Physical Therapy, Madison Rehabilitation Center, Matrix Healthcare Services, Matrix Rehabilitation, Matrix Rehabilitation-Delaware, Matrix Rehabilitation-Georgia, Matrix Rehabilitation-Ohio, Matrix Rehabilitation-South Carolina, Matrix Rehabilitation-Texas, Metro Rehabilitation Services, Morris Area Rehabilitation Association, National Healthcare Resources, North Dallas Physical Therapy Associates, Northstar Health Service, NovaCare Occupational Health Services, NovaCare Outpatient Rehabilitation, NovaCare Outpatient Rehabilitation East, NovaCare Rehabilitation of Ohio, OHC of Hawaii, OHR/Baystate, OHR/MMC, OHRH, OHRH ES, OMP Insurance Company, OSR Louisiana, OSR Property Ventures, Occspecialists Corp., Occupational Health + Rehabilitation LLC, Occupational Health Centers Of Kansas, Occupational Health Centers of Arkansas, Occupational Health Centers of California, Occupational Health Centers of Delaware, Occupational Health Centers of Georgia, Occupational Health Centers of Illinois, Occupational Health Centers of Louisiana, Occupational Health Centers of Michigan, Occupational Health Centers of Nebraska, Occupational Health Centers of New Jersey, Occupational Health Centers of New York, Occupational Health Centers of North Carolina, Occupational Health Centers of Ohio, Occupational Health Centers of The Southwest, OnSite OccMed, Orthopaedic Services of Paducah, PHS Physical Therapy, PR Acquisition Corporation, PSHR Physical Therapy, PTSMA, Pacific Rehabilitation & Sports Medicine, Penn State Hershey Rehabilitation, Philadelphia Occupational Health, Physio at Hammonds Centre, PhysioKids, PhysioLink Corporation, Physiotherapy Associates, Physiotherapy Associates Holdings, Physiotherapy Associates NRH Rehab, Physiotherapy Associates Union Rehab, Physiotherapy Corporation, Physiotherapy-BMHI Holdings, Physiotherapy-BMI, Pinnacle Health Select Rehabilitation, Pro Active Therapy, Pro Active Therapy of North Carolina, Pro Active Therapy of South Carolina, Pro Active Therapy of Virginia, Professional Rehab Associates, Professional Therapeutic Services, Professional Therapy Systems, Progressive Therapy, R.S. Network, RCI (Michigan), RCI (WRS), RPN of NC, RUSHWINC Properties, Rebound Oklahoma, Regency Hospital Company, Regency Hospital Company of Macon, Regency Hospital Company of Meridian, Regency Hospital Company of South Atlanta, Regency Hospital Company of South Carolina, Regency Hospital of Atlanta, Regency Hospital of Columbus, Regency Hospital of Fort Worth, Regency Hospital of Fort Worth Holdings, Regency Hospital of Greenville, Regency Hospital of Jackson, Regency Hospital of Kansas City, Regency Hospital of Minneapolis, Regency Hospital of North Central Ohio, Regency Hospital of North Dallas Holdings, Regency Hospital of North Dallas II, Regency Hospital of Northwest Arkansas, Regency Hospital of Northwest Indiana, Regency Hospital of Portland, Regency Hospital of Rhode Island, Regency Hospital of Rockford, Regency Hospital of Southern Mississippi, Regency Hospital of Toledo, Regency Hospitals, Regency Management Company, Rehab Associates, Rehab Associates of Jackson Hospital, Rehab Colorado, Rehab Missouri, Rehab Provider Network of Colorado, Rehab Provider Network of New Mexico, Rehab Provider Network of North Carolina, Rehab Provider Network of South Carolina, Rehab Provider Network of Texas, Rehab Provider Network of Virginia, Rehab Provider NetworkEast I, Rehab Provider NetworkEast II, Rehab Provider NetworkIndiana, Rehab Provider NetworkMichigan, Rehab Provider NetworkNew Jersey, Rehab Provider NetworkOhio, Rehab Provider NetworkPennsylvania, Rehab Xcel, RehabClinics, RehabClinics (PTA), RehabClinics (SPT), Rehabilitation Center of Washington, Rehabilitation Consultants, Rehabilitation Hospital of Vancouver, Rehabilitation Institute of Denton, Rehabilitation Institute of North Texas, S.T.A.R.T., SLMC Finance Corporation, SMR Banyan Tree, SSM Select Rehab St. Louis, Saco Bay Orthopedic and Sports Physical Therapy, Select Air II, Select Employment Services, Select Hospital Investors, Select LifeCare Western Michigan, Select Medical International (US), Select Medical International Limited, Select Medical Property Ventures, Select Medical Rehabilitation Clinics, Select Medical of Kentucky, Select Medical of Maryland, Select Medical of New York, Select NovaCareKOP, Select NovaCarePBG, Select NovaCarePIT, Select Physical Therapy Holdings, Select Physical Therapy Network Services, Select Physical Therapy Orthopedic Services, Select Physical Therapy Texas Limited Partnership, Select Physical Therapy of Albuquerque, Select Physical Therapy of Chicago, Select Physical Therapy of Colorado Springs Limited Partnership, Select Physical Therapy of Connecticut Limited Partnership, Select Physical Therapy of Denver, Select Physical Therapy of Illinois Limited Partnership, Select Physical Therapy of Kendall, Select Physical Therapy of Las Vegas Limited Partnership, Select Physical Therapy of Lorain Limited Partnership, Select Physical Therapy of Louisville, Select Physical Therapy of Ohio Limited Partnership, Select Physical Therapy of Portola Valley Limited Partnership, Select Physical Therapy of Scottsdale Limited Partnership, Select Physical Therapy of St. Louis Limited Partnership, Select Physical Therapy of West Denver Limited Partnership, Select Provider Networks, Select Rehabilitation HospitalHershey, Select Software Ventures, Select Specialty Hospitals, Select Specialty HospitalAkron, Select Specialty HospitalAnn Arbor, Select Specialty HospitalArizona, Select Specialty HospitalAugusta, Select Specialty HospitalBeech Grove, Select Specialty HospitalBelhaven, Select Specialty HospitalBroward, Select Specialty HospitalCentral Pennsylvania, Select Specialty HospitalCharleston, Select Specialty HospitalCincinnati, Select Specialty HospitalCleveland, Select Specialty HospitalColorado Springs, Select Specialty HospitalColumbus, Select Specialty HospitalDallas, Select Specialty HospitalDanville, Select Specialty HospitalDaytona Beach, Select Specialty HospitalDenver, Select Specialty HospitalDes Moines, Select Specialty HospitalDurham, Select Specialty HospitalErie, Select Specialty HospitalEvansville, Select Specialty HospitalFlint, Select Specialty HospitalFort Smith, Select Specialty HospitalFort Wayne, Select Specialty HospitalGainesville, Select Specialty HospitalGreensboro, Select Specialty HospitalGrosse Pointe, Select Specialty HospitalGulf Coast, Select Specialty HospitalHouston, Select Specialty HospitalJackson, Select Specialty HospitalJohnstown, Select Specialty HospitalKalamazoo, Select Specialty HospitalKansas City, Select Specialty HospitalKnoxville, Select Specialty HospitalLaurel Highlands, Select Specialty HospitalLexington, Select Specialty HospitalLincoln, Select Specialty HospitalLittle Rock, Select Specialty HospitalLongview, Select Specialty HospitalMacomb County, Select Specialty HospitalMadison, Select Specialty HospitalMcKeesport, Select Specialty HospitalMemphis, Select Specialty HospitalMilwaukee, Select Specialty HospitalNashville, Select Specialty HospitalNorth Atlanta, Select Specialty HospitalNorth Knoxville, Select Specialty HospitalNortheast New Jersey, Select Specialty HospitalNortheast Ohio, Select Specialty HospitalNorthern Indiana, Select Specialty HospitalNorthern Kentucky, Select Specialty HospitalNorthwest Detroit, Select Specialty HospitalOklahoma City, Select Specialty HospitalOmaha, Select Specialty HospitalOrlando, Select Specialty HospitalOshkosh, Select Specialty HospitalPalm Beach, Select Specialty HospitalPanama City, Select Specialty HospitalPensacola, Select Specialty HospitalPhoenix, Select Specialty HospitalPittsburgh/UPMC, Select Specialty HospitalQuad Cities, Select Specialty HospitalSaginaw, Select Specialty HospitalSan Antonio, Select Specialty HospitalSavannah, Select Specialty HospitalSioux Falls, Select Specialty HospitalSouth Dallas, Select Specialty HospitalSpringfield, Select Specialty HospitalTallahassee, Select Specialty HospitalTopeka, Select Specialty HospitalTriCities, Select Specialty HospitalTulsa, Select Specialty HospitalTulsa/Midtown, Select Specialty HospitalWestern Michigan, Select Specialty HospitalWichita, Select Specialty HospitalWilmington, Select Specialty HospitalWinston-Salem, Select Specialty HospitalYoungstown, Select Specialty HospitalZanesville, Select SpecialtyDownriver, Select Subsidiaries, Select Synergos, Select Transport, Select Unit Management, SelectMark, SemperCare, Special Care Hospital, Sports Orthopedic Rehabilitation Services, St. Marys Medical Park Pharmacy, Susquehanna Physical Therapy Associates, Swanson Orthotic and Prosthetic Center, TJ Corporation I, The Parks Physical Therapy and Work Hardening Center, The Rehab Center, The Rehab Group, The Rehab Group-Murfreesboro, TheraWorks, Theraphysics Partners of Colorado, Theraphysics Partners of Texas, Therapy Associates of Martinsville, Therapy Centers of South Carolina, Therapy Centers of The Southwest I, TriHealth Rehabilitation, Trumbull P.T. Corp., U.S. HealthWorks, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Alaska, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Arizona, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Florida, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Georgia, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Illinois, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Indiana, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Kansas City, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Kentucky, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Maine, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Minnesota, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of New Jersey, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of North Carolina, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Ohio, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Pennsylvania, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Tennessee, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Texas, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Washington, U.S. HealthWorks Medical Group of Wisconsin, U.S. HealthWorks Provider Network of Colorado, U.S. HealthWorks of Colorado, U.S. HealthWorks of Illinois, U.S. HealthWorks of Indiana, U.S. HealthWorks of Kansas City, U.S. HealthWorks of Minnesota, U.S. HealthWorks of New Jersey, U.S. HealthWorks of North Carolina, U.S. HealthWorks of Pennsylvania, U.S. HealthWorks of Tennessee, U.S. HealthWorks of Washington, U.S. HealthWorks of Wisconsin, U.S. Medgroup, U.S. Medgroup Of Kansas, U.S. Medgroup of Arkansas, U.S. Medgroup of Delaware, U.S. Medgroup of Illinois, U.S. Medgroup of Massachusetts, U.S. Medgroup of Michigan, U.S. Medgroup of New Jersey, U.S. Medgroup of North Carolina, U.S. Medgroup of Ohio, U.S. Regional Occupational Health II, U.S. Regional Occupational Health II of NJ, USHW of California, USHW of Texas, Valor Healthcare, Victoria Healthcare, WWLTACH, West Gables Rehabilitation Hospital, and Wisconsin Prosthetics & Orthotics.

Read More
Multistoried parking lot at New Road planned

The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) is planning to construct a multistoried car parking facility at New Road to address the problem of parking in the area.
American Homes 4 Rent is a real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on the US rental industry. The company is a leader in the single-family home rental industry and "American Homes 4 Rent" is fast becoming a nationally recognized brand. The company is known for high-quality rental homes, providing good value and tenant satisfaction while generating profits for investors. The primary investment objective is to provide attractive risk-adjusted returns through dividends and capital appreciation.

The company plans to achieve its objective through the disciplined acquisition of new properties, by expanding its own construction and neighborhood building efforts, growing its geographically diverse portfolio, efficient property management, building a strong brand, and maintaining a sound capital structure.

The company was founded in 2011 by David Singelyn and his partner. Mr. Singelyn has served as a Trustee and CEO since 2012. The company began by acquiring homes in underserved areas and remodeling them to modern standards. The firm has since expanded its operations to construction and now builds planned communities tailored to different lifestyles as well. The company went public in 2013 and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

American Homes 4 Rent is an internally managed Maryland real estate investment trust focused on acquiring, developing, renovating, leasing, and operating attractive, single-family homes as rental properties. The company operates through a network of offices and the website AH4R.com. The company owns more than 55,000 properties across 22 states featuring move-in-ready and pet-friendly homes for individuals and families of all sizes.

All previously used properties have been renovated to a high Certified Property standard that brings them to a like-new condition. Interested parties can view listings by area on the website and even use the site to fill out applications and sign leases. Properties are located in communities that fit a variety of lifestyle needs including fences, marble countertops, and even attached 2 and 3-car garages. The communities are located in hand-picked neighborhoods with features including access to commerce, schools, and amenities like lawn care, pools, trails, and fitness centers.

Tenants are afforded many benefits by renting through American Homes 4 Rent. The first and most obvious is the freedom and flexibility of a mortgage-free lifestyle. On top of that, tenants can pay rent or schedule maintenance on their homes through the website, and dedicated service representatives are available 24/7.
AAR Corp. provides products and services to commercial aviation, government, and defense markets worldwide. The Aviation Services segment offers aftermarket support and services; inventory management and distribution services; and maintenance, repair, and overhaul, as well as engineering services. This segment also sells and leases new, overhauled, and repaired engine and airframe parts, and components; and provides inventory and repair programs, warranty claim management, and outsourcing programs for engine and airframe parts and components, as well as performance-based supply chain logistics programs in support of the U.S. department of defense and foreign governments. In addition, it offers airframe inspection, maintenance, repair and overhaul, painting, line maintenance, airframe modification, structural repair, avionic and installation, exterior and interior refurbishment, and engineering and support services; and repairs and overhauls components, landing gears, wheels, and brakes. The Expeditionary Services segment provides products and services supporting the movement of equipment and personnel by the U.S. and foreign governments, and non-governmental organizations. This segment also designs, manufactures, and repairs transportation pallets, and various containers and shelters; and provides engineering, design, and system integration services for command and control systems. The company serves domestic and foreign passenger airlines; domestic and foreign cargo airlines; regional and commuter airlines; business and general aviation operators; original equipment manufacturers; aircraft leasing companies; aftermarket aviation support companies; and domestic and foreign military customers. It primarily markets and sells products and services through its employees and foreign sales representatives. AAR Corp. was founded in 1951 and is headquartered in Wood Dale, Illinois.
The following companies are subsidiares of Quanta Services: (De) Lazy Q Ranch LLC, 1 Diamond LLC, 1Diamond AS, 618232 Alberta Ltd., 8246408 Canada Inc., Advanced Electric Systems, Advanced Electric Systems LLC, Advanced Utility Testing & Maintenance LLC, Alexander Publications LLC, Allteck GP Ltd., Allteck Limited Partnership, Apprenticeship Programs Inc., Arby Construction, Arcanum Chemicals LLC, Arnett & Burgess Oil Field Construction Limited, Arnett & Burgess Pipeliners (Rockies) LLC, Arnett & Burgess Pipeliners Ltd., B&N Clearing and Environmental LLC, Banister Pipelines Constructors Corp., Banister Pipelines Constructors GP Ltd., Banister Pipelines Limited Partnership, Brent Woodward Inc., Brink Constructors Inc., Brink Constructors Inc. A Corporation Of South Dakota, Brown Engineering and Testing, CAT SPEC Ltd., CAT-SPEC Limited Partnership, CAT-SPEC Limited Partnership (Regd Name) CAT SPEC Ltd., CAT-Spec Limited Partnership, Canadian Utility Construction Corp., Cat Spec Limited LP, Cat Spec Ltd, Cat Spec Ltd. L.P., Cat Spec Ltd. LP, Cat Spec. Ltd. LP, Cat-Spec Ltd (A Domestic limited Partnership), Cat-Spec Ltd LP, Cat-Spec Ltd., Cat-Spec Ltd. L.P., Cat-Spec Ltd. LP, Cat-Spec Ltd. Limited Partnership, Catalyst Changers Inc., Chatham Electric, Citadel Industrial Services L.P., Citadel Industrial Services Ltd., Citadel Industrial Services Ltd. L.P., Citadel Industrial Services Ltd. Limited Partnership, Coe Drilling Pty Ltd., Computapole, Conam Construction Co., Consolidated Power Projects Australia Pty Ltd, Conti Communications Inc., Crux Subsurface Canada Ltd., Crux Subsurface Inc., Cutting Technology - 1 Diamond LLC, DB Utilities Inc., DE Lazy Q Ranch LLC, DNR Pressure Welding Ltd., Dacon Corporation, Dashiell (DE) Corporation (Dashiell Corporation), Dashiell Corporation, Dashiell Corporation DBA Dashiell (DE) Corporation, De Mears Group, De Mears Group Inc., Delaware Quanta Technology LLC, Delaware Underground Construction Co., Didado Utility Company Inc., Digco Utility Construction L.P. Digco Utility Construction Limited Partnership, Dorado Specialty Services L.P., Dorado Specialty Services Ltd., Dorado Specialty Services Ltd. L.P., Dorado Specialty Services Ltd. Limited Partnership, Dorado Specialty Services. Ltd. L.P., Driftwood Electrical Contractors, EHV Power ULC, ELITE PIPING & CIVIL L.P., ELITE TURNAROUND SPECIALISTS LTD, Elite Fabrication Ltd. Elite Fabrication LP, Elite Piping & Civil Limited Partnership, Elite Piping & Civil Limited Partnership, Elite Piping & Civil Lp, Elite Piping & Civil Ltd L.P., Elite Piping & Civil Ltd., Elite Piping & Civil Ltd. L.P., Elite Piping & Civil Ltd. Limited Partnership, Elite Piping and Civil L.P., Elite Turnaround Specialists L.p., Elite Turnaround Specialists Limited Lp, Elite Turnaround Specialists Limited Partnership, Elite Turnaround Specialists Limited Partnership, Elite Turnaround Specialists Ltd Lp, Elite Turnaround Specialists Ltd., Elite Turnaround Specialists Ltd. L.P., Elite Turnaround Specialists Ltd. LP, Elite Turnaround Specialists Ltd. Limited Partnership, Energy Consulting Group LLC, Enscope, Enscope Pty Ltd, FIC GP LLC, Field Personnel Services LLC, First Infrastructure Capital Advisors LLC, First Infrastructure Capital GP L.P., Five Points Construction Co., G-Tek, G-Vac, GEM Engineering Co., Grand Electric Inc., Great Lakes Line Builders, Grid Creative Inc., Grid Manufacturing Corporation, Grid Training Corporation, H.L. Chapman Pipeline Construction Inc., Haverfield Aviation, Haverfield Aviation Inc., Haverfield International Incorporated, Heritage Midstream LLC, IM Electric Inc., IUC ILLINOIS LLC, IUC Nebraska LLC, InfraSource Construction LLC, InfraSource Field Services LLC, InfraSource Services LLC, InfraSources Construction LLC, Infraestructura ETP de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V, Infrasource Engineering Company PC, Infrasource Iowa Underground LLC, Infrasource Of Pa LLC, Integracion Tecnologica del Peru SAC, Intermountain Electric Inc., Intermountain Electric Inc. A Corporation of Colorado, IonEarth LLC, Irby Construction Company, Irby Construction Company Inc., Iron Mountain M.J. Electric LLC, Island Mechanical Corporation, J.C.R. Construction Co. Inc., J.C.R. Utility Construction Co., J.W. Didado Electric Inc., J.W. Didado Electric LLC, J.w. Didado Electric, JBT Electric LLC, Kingston Contracting Inc., Lazy Q Ranch LLC, Lazy Q Training Center LLC The Lazy Q Lineman School, Legend Foundation Services, Lex Engineering Ltd., Lindsey Electric L.P., Logical Link, Longfellow Drilling, M. G. Dyess Inc., M. J. ELECTRIC LLC IRON MOUNTAIN, M. J. Electric LLC, M. J. Electric LLC - Iron Mountain, M. J. Electric LLC DBA M. J. Electric Iron Mountain LLC, M.J. Electric LLC DBA M.J. Electric Iron Mountain, M.J. Electric LLC Iron Mountain, MTS Field Services, MTS Field Services (Richmond Co), MTS Quanta LLC, Manuel Bros. Inc., Marathon Construction Services, Mears Canada Corp., Mears Equipment Services LLC, Mears Group Inc., Mears Group Pty Ltd, Mears Installation LLC, Mearsmex S. de R.L. de C.V., Mejia Personnel Services LLC, Mercer Technical Services, Microline Technology Corporation, Mid America Energy Services Inc., NACAP Niugini Ltd., NC Northstar Energy Services Inc, NGI Construction, NGI Construction Inc., NGI Construction Inc. (FN), NLC CA. Inc., NLC FL. Inc. Northwest Lineman Center, NLC ID. Inc. Northwest Lineman College, NLC TX. Inc., NPC Energy Services LLC, Nacap Australia, Nacap PNG Limited, Network Communication Services, North Houston Pole Line L.P., North Houston Pole Line Limited Partnership, North Sky Communications, NorthStar Energy Services Inc., Northern Powerline Constructors Inc., Northstar Energy Solutions LLC, Northwest Lineman Center, Northwest Lineman College, Northwest Lineman Training Center, Northwest Lineman Training Center Inc., Nova Constructors LLC, Nova Constructors LTD, Nova Equipment Leasing LLC, Nova Group Inc, Nova Group Inc (CA), Nova Group Inc., Nova Group Inc. DBA NGI Construction, Nova NextGen Solutions LLC, O. J. Pipelines Canada Corporation, O. J. Pipelines Canada Limited Partnership, O.J. Industrial Maintenance, O.J. Pipelines Canada, One Call Locators Canada Ltd., P.D.G. Electric, PAR Electrical Contractors Inc., PDG Electric Co., Par Internacional S. de R.L. de C.V., Performance Energy Services Guyana Ltd., Performance Energy Services L.L.C., Phasor Engineering Inc., Phoenix North Constructors Inc., Phoenix Power Group Inc., Potelco Inc., Potelco Incorporated, Power Delivery Program Inc., Price Gregory International Inc., Price Gregory Services LLC, Probst Construction Inc., Probst Electric Inc., QEPC, QEPC Power Solutions LLC, QES GP LLC, QP Energy Services LLC, QPS Engineering LLC, QPS Engineering LTD., QPS Engineering PLLC, QPS Environmental, QPS Flint Construction, QPS Flint Tank Services, QPS Global, QPS Global Services, QPS Global Services (Richmond Ci), QPS Professional Services, QPSE, QS Mats, QSI Engineering Inc., QSI Finance (Australia) Pty Ltd., QSI Finance (Cayman) Pvt. Ltd., QSI Finance Canada ULC, QSI Finance GP (US) LLC, QSI Finance I (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., QSI Finance I (US) LP, QSI Finance II (Australia) Pty Ltd., QSI Finance II (Lux) S.a r.l, QSI Finance II (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., QSI Finance III (Canada) ULC, QSI Finance III (Lux) SARL, QSI Finance IV (Canada) ULC, QSI Finance IX (Canada) Limited Partnership, QSI Finance V (US) L.P., QSI Finance VI (Canada) ULC, QSI Finance VII (Canada) Limited Partnership, QSI Finance VIII (Canada) ULC, QSI Finance X (Canada) ULC, QSI Inc., QSN Lux Holdings I SCSp, QSN Lux Holdings II SCSp, QSN Lux Holdings III SCSp, QSN Lux Holdings IV SCSp, QTSL LLC, QUANTA FOUNDATION SERVICES, Quanta APL GP II Ltd., Quanta Asset Management LLC, Quanta Associates L.P., Quanta Aviation Services LLC, Quanta Canada GP ULC, Quanta Canada Holdings III Limited Partnership, Quanta Canada Holdings LP, Quanta Canada III GP Ltd., Quanta Capital GP LLC, Quanta Capital LP L.P., Quanta Capital Solutions Inc., Quanta Cares, Quanta EPC Services, Quanta Electric Power Construction LLC, Quanta Electric Power Construction Management Inc., Quanta Electric Power Services LLC, Quanta Electric Power Services West LLC, Quanta Energized Innovations Ltd., Quanta Energized Services U.S. LLC, Quanta Energized Services of Canada Ltd., Quanta Energy Services LLC, Quanta Environmental Solutions, Quanta Equipment Company LLC, Quanta Government Solutions Inc., Quanta Holdings I (Netherlands) B.V., Quanta Holdings II (Netherlands) B.V., Quanta Infraestructura de Chile SpA, Quanta Infrastructure Services LLC, Quanta Infrastructure Services S. de R.L. de C.V., Quanta Inline Devices LLC, Quanta Inspection Services, Quanta Insurance Company Inc., Quanta International Holdings (US) LLC, Quanta International Holdings II Ltd., Quanta International Holdings Ltd., Quanta International Limited, Quanta Kingsvale LP Ltd., Quanta Lines Pty Ltd., Quanta Maine Services LLC, Quanta Middle East LLC, Quanta Pipeline Services Inc., Quanta Power Australia Pty Ltd, Quanta Power Generation Inc., Quanta Power Inc., Quanta Power Solutions India Private Limited, Quanta Resource Development, Quanta Services Africa (PTY) Ltd., Quanta Services Australia Pty Ltd., Quanta Services Chile SpA, Quanta Services Colombia S.A.S., Quanta Services Costa Rica Ltda., Quanta Services Guatemala Ltda., Quanta Services International Holdings II LP, Quanta Services International Holdings LP, Quanta Services Management Partnership L.P., Quanta Services Netherlands B.V., Quanta Services Panama S. de R.L., Quanta Services Peru S.A.C., Quanta Services Puerto Rico LLC, Quanta Services of Canada Ltd., Quanta Subsurface Canada Ltd., Quanta Subsurface LLC, Quanta Tank Services, Quanta Technology Canada ULC, Quanta Technology LLC, Quanta Technology UK Ltd., Quanta Tecnologia do Brasil Ltda., Quanta Telecom, Quanta Telecom Services, Quanta Telecommunication Services, Quanta Telecommunication Services LLC, Quanta Telecommunications Services LLC, Quanta Underground Services, Quanta Underground Services (Culpeper Co), Quanta Underground Services (Spotsylvania Co), Quanta Underground Services Inc., Quanta Utility Engineering Services Inc., Quanta Utility Installation Company Inc., Quanta Utility Operation LLC, Quanta West LLC, Quantecua Cia. Ltda., R. R. Cassidy Inc., RMS Holdings LLC, RMS Holdings LLC (Delaware), RMS Welding Systems, RMS Welding Systems LLC, Ranger Directional, Realtime Engineers Inc., Realtime Utility Engineers Inc., Redes Andinas de Comunicaciones S.R.L., Riggin & Diggin Line Construction, Rms Welding LLC, Rms Welding Systems LLC, Road Bore Corporation, Ryan Company Inc. The, Ryan Company Inc. of Massachusetts, Ryan Company Inc.(The), Seaward, Seaward Corp, Seaward Corporation, Service EC (DE) Inc., Service Electric Company (DE), Service Electric Company Inc., Service Electric Company of Delaware, Servicios Par Electric S. de R.L. de C.V., Servicios de Infraestructura del Peru S.A.C., Southwest Trenching Company Inc., Specialty Tank Services L.P., Specialty Tank Services LP, Specialty Tank Services Limited Partnership, Specialty Tank Services Limited Partnership, Specialty Tank Services Ltd., Specialty Tank Services Ltd. (LP), Specialty Tank Services Ltd. L.P., Specialty Tank Services Ltd. LP, Specialty Tank Services Ltd. LP, Specialty Tank Services Ltd. Limited Partnership, Stronghold General LLC, Stronghold Holdings (BVI) Limited, Stronghold Inspection L.P., Stronghold Inspection Limited Partnership, Stronghold Inspection Limited Partnership, Stronghold Inspection Lp, Stronghold Inspection Ltd L.P., Stronghold Inspection Ltd., Stronghold Inspection Ltd. L.P., Stronghold Inspection Ltd. Limited Partnership, Stronghold Limited Partnership, Stronghold Ltd., Stronghold Ltd. Limited Partnership, Stronghold Management Holdings LP, Stronghold Specialty General LLC, Stronghold Specialty Ltd., Stronghold Specialty Ltd., Stronghold Specialty Ltd. Limited Partnership, Stronghold Tower Group LP, Stronghold Tower Group Ltd LP, Stronghold Tower Group Ltd., Stronghold Tower Group Ltd. LP, Stronghold VI LLC, Subterra Damage Prevention Specialists Ltd., Summit Line Construction, Sumter Utilities Inc., T. G. Mercer Consulting Services Inc., TA Construction, TC Infrastructure Services Ltd., Taylor Built, Texas Specialty Tank Services Ltd. LP, The Aspen Utility Company LLC, The ComTran Group Inc., The Hallen Construction Co. Inc., The Massachusetts Ryan Company Inc., The Ryan Company Inc Of Massachusetts, The Ryan Company Inc., The Ryan Company Inc. (Massachusetts), The Ryan Company Inc. of Massachusetts, The Ryan Company Incorporated of Massachusetts, The Ryan Company Of Massachusetts Inc., The Ryan Company of Massachusetts, The Ryan Company of Massachusetts (FN), Tom Allen Construction Company Inc., Tom Allen Construction Company of Delaware, Trans Tech Electric, TurnKey Automation Limited Partnership, TurnKey Automation Limited Partnership, TurnKey Automation Ltd., TurnKey Automation Ltd. Limited Partnership, TurnKey Automation Ltd. Limited Partnership, TurnKey I&E Ltd., Turnkey Automation Ltd. L.P., Turnkey Automation Ltd. LP., UCC Underground Construction Co. Inc., Ucc - Underground Construction Co., Underground Construction Co. Inc., Underground Construction Co. Inc. (Delaware), Underground Electric Construction Company LLC, Utilco Inc., Utility Fleet Services, Utility Line Management Services Inc., Utility Testing & Maintenance LLC, Utility Training Services Corporation, VALARD Polska sp. Z o.o., Valard, Valard, Valard Construction (Ontario) Ltd., Valard Construction (Quebec) Inc., Valard Construction 2008 Ltd., Valard Construction Australia Pty Ltd, Valard Construction LLC, Valard Equipment (AB) Ltd., Valard Equipment GP Ltd., Valard Equipment Limited Partnership, Valard Geomatics (Ontario) Ltd., Valard Geomatics BC Ltd., Valard Geomatics Ltd., Valard Mechanical Ltd., Valard Norway AS, Valard Sweden AB, Valard Zagreb d. o. o., Wade D. Taylor Inc., West Coast Communications, Winco Helicopters, Winco Inc., Winco Inc. an Oregon Based Corporation, Winco Powerline Services, Winco Powerline Services Inc., Winco Powerline Services Inc., Winco Services Inc., World Fiber Inc., and mmit Line Construction Inc..

Read More
Brunswick Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets recreation products worldwide. It operates through Propulsion; Parts & Accessories; and Boat segments. The Propulsion segment provides outboard, sterndrive, and inboard engines for independent boat builders and governments through marine dealers and distributors, specialty marine retailers, and marine service centers; and propulsion-related controls, rigging, and propellers to original equipment manufacturers and aftermarket retailers, distributors, and distribution businesses. This segment offers its products under the Mercury, Mercury MerCruiser, Mariner, Mercury Racing, and Mercury Diesel brands. The Parts & Accessories segment provides engine parts and consumables, electrical products, boat parts and systems, engine oils and lubricants, marine electronics and control systems, instruments, trolling motors, fuel systems, and electrical systems, as well as specialty vehicle, mobile, and transportation aftermarket products for aftermarket retailers, distributors, and distribution businesses, as well for as for the original equipment manufacturers in marine and non-marine markets; and supplies parts and accessories. This segment offers its products under the under the Mercury, Mercury Precision Parts, Quicksilver, and Seachoice brands. The Boat segment provides Sea Ray sport boats and cruisers; Bayliner sport cruisers, runabouts and Heyday wake; Boston Whaler fiberglass offshore boats; Lund fiberglass fishing boats; Crestliner, Cypress Cay, Harris, Lowe, Lund, Princecraft aluminum fishing, utility, pontoon, and deck boats; and Thunder Jet heavy-gauge aluminum boats, as well as the freedom boat club, dealer services, and technology to the marine industry through dealers and distributors. Brunswick Corporation was founded in 1845 and is headquartered in Mettawa, Illinois.
Oli and co visit Rasuwagadhi border point

CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli accompanied by his party leaders visited Nepal-China border point in Rasuwagadhi on Tuesday.
Deutsche Telekom AG, together with its subsidiaries, provides integrated telecommunication services. The company operates through five segments: Germany, United States, Europe, Systems Solutions, and Group Development. It offers fixed-network services, including voice and data communication services based on fixed-network and broadband technology; and sells terminal equipment and other hardware products, as well as services to resellers. The company also provides mobile voice and data services to consumers and business customers; sells mobile devices and other hardware products; and sells mobile services to resellers and to companies that purchases and markets network services to third parties, such as mobile virtual network operators. In addition, it offers internet services; internet-based TV products and services; and information and communication technology systems for multinational corporations and public sector institutions with an infrastructure of data centers and networks under the T-Systems brand, as well as call center services. The company has 242 million mobile customers and 22 million broadband customers, as well as 27 million fixed-network lines. Deutsche Telekom AG has a collaboration with VMware, Inc. on cloud-based open and intelligent virtual RAN platform to bring agility to radio access networks for existing LTE and future 5G networks; and partnership with Microsoft to deliver high-performance cloud computing experiences. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Bonn, Germany.
The following companies are subsidiares of Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft: ABFS I Incorporated, ABS MB Ltd., Alex. Brown Financial Services Incorporated, Alex. Brown Investments Incorporated, Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft mbH, Ambidexter GmbH i.L., Argent Incorporated, BHW - Gesellschaft fur Wohnungswirtschaft mbH, BHW Bausparkasse Aktiengesellschaft, BHW Holding GmbH, BT Globenet Nominees Limited, Bainpro Nominees Pty Ltd, Baldur Mortgages Limited, Bankers Trust Investments Limited, Bayan Delinquent Loan Recovery 1 (SPV-AMC) Inc., Berkshire Mortgage Finance, Betriebs-Center fur Banken AG, Better Financial Services GmbH, Better Payment Germany GmbH, Borfield Sociedad Anonima, Breaking Wave DB Limited, Cardales UK Limited, Cardea Real Estate S.r.l., Cathay Advisory (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Cathay Asset Management Company Limited, Cathay Capital Company (No 2) Limited, Cedar (Luxembourg) S.a. r.l., Chapel Funding, China Recovery Fund LLC, Consumo Srl in Liquidazione, D B Investments (GB) Limited, D&M Turnaround Partners Godo Kaisha, DB (Barbados) SRL, DB (Malaysia) Nominee (Asing) Sdn. Bhd., DB (Malaysia) Nominee (Tempatan) Sendirian Berhad, DB Alex. Brown Holdings Incorporated, DB Aotearoa Investments Limited, DB Beteiligungs-Holding GmbH, DB Boracay LLC, DB Capital Markets (Deutschland) GmbH, DB Cartera de lnmuebles 1 S.A.U., DB Chestnut Holdings Limited, DB Corporate Advisory (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., DB Delaware Holdings (Europe) Limited, DB Direkt GmbH, DB Elara LLC, DB Energy Trading LLC, DB Equipment Leasing Inc., DB Equity Limited, DB Finance (Delaware) LLC, DB Global Technology Inc., DB Global Technology SRL, DB Group Services (UK) Limited, DB HR Solutions GmbH, DB Holdings (New York) Inc., DB IROC Leasing Corp., DB Impact Investment Fund I. LP., DB Industrial Holdings Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG, DB Industrial Holdings GmbH, DB Intermezzo LLC, DB International (Asia) Limited, DB International Investments Limited, DB International Trust (Singapore) Limited, DB Investment Managers Inc., DB Investment Partners Inc., DB Investment Partners Limited, DB Investment Resources (US) Corporation, DB Investment Resources Holdings Corp., DB Investment Services GmbH, DB London (Investor Services) Nominees Limited, DB Management Support GmbH, DB Nominees (Hong Kong) Limited, DB Nominees (Jersey) Limited, DB Nominees (Singapore) Pte Ltd, DB Omega BTV S.C.S., DB Omega Holdings LLC, DB Omega Ltd., DB Omega S.C.S., DB Operaciones y Servicios lnteractivos Agrupacicm de lnteres Econemico, DB Overseas Finance Delaware Inc., DB Overseas Holdings Limited, DB Print GmbH, DB Private Clients Corp., DB Private Wealth Mortgage Ltd., DB Re S.A., DB Service Centre Limited, DB Service Uruguay S.A., DB Services (Jersey) Limited, DB Services Americas. Inc., DB Servizi Amministrativi S.r.l., DB Strategic Advisors Inc., DB Structured Derivative Products LLC, DB Structured Products Inc., DB Trustee Services Limited, DB Trustees (Hong Kong) Limited, DB UK Bank Limited, DB UK Holdings Limited, DB UK PCAM Holdings Limited, DB US Financial Markets Holding Corporation, DB USA Core Corporation, DB USA Corporation, DB Valoren S.a. r.l., DB Value S.a.r.l., DB VersicherungsManager GmbH, DB Vita SA., DB lmmobilienfonds 5 Wieland KG i.L., DB lo LP, DBAH Capital. LLC, DBCIBZ1, DBFIC Inc., DBNZ Overseas Investments (No.1) Limited, DBOI Global Services (UK) Limited, DBR Investments Co. Limited, DBRE Global Real Estate Management 18 Ltd., DBRMS4, DBRMSGP1, DBUK PCAM Limited, DBUSBZ1 LLC, DBUSBZ2 S.a. r.l., DBX Advisers LLC, DEBEKO lmmobilien GmbH & Co Grundbesitz OHG, DEE Deutsche Erneuerbare Energien GmbH, DEUKONA Versicherungs-Vermittlungs-GmbH, DEUTSCHE BANK AS., DI Deutsche lmmobilien Treuhandgesellschaft mbH, DISCA Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, DWS Alternatives France, DWS Alternatives Global Limited, DWS Alternatives GmbH, DWS Asset Management (Korea) Company Limited, DWS Beteiligungs GmbH, DWS CH AG, DWS Distributors Inc., DWS Far Eastern Investments Limited, DWS Group GmbH & Co. KGaA, DWS Group Services UK Limited, DWS Grundbesitz GmbH, DWS International GmbH, DWS Investment GmbH, DWS Investment Management Americas Inc., DWS Investment S.A., DWS Investments Australia Limited, DWS Investments Hong Kong Limited, DWS Investments Japan Limited, DWS Investments Shanghai Limited, DWS Investments Singapore Limited, DWS Investments UK Limited, DWS Management GmbH, DWS Real Estate GmbH, DWS Service Company, DWS Shanghai Private Equity Fund Management Limited, DWS Trust Company, DWS USA Corporation, Deposit Solutions, Deutsche (Aotearoa) Capital Holdings New Zealand, Deutsche (Aotearoa) Foreign Investments New Zealand, Deutsche (New Munster) Holdings New Zealand Limited, Deutsche Access Investments Limited, Deutsche Aeolia Power Production Societe Anonyme, Deutsche Alternative Asset Management (UK) Limited, Deutsche Asia Pacific Holdings Pte Ltd, Deutsche Asset Management (India) Private Limited, Deutsche Australia Limited, Deutsche Bank (Cayman) Limited, Deutsche Bank (China) Co. Ltd., Deutsche Bank (Malaysia) Berhad, Deutsche Bank (Suisse) SA, Deutsche Bank (Uruguay) Sociedad Anenima lnstitucien Financiera Externa, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft, Deutsche Bank Americas Holding Corp., Deutsche Bank Europe GmbH, Deutsche Bank Financial Company, Deutsche Bank Holdings Inc., Deutsche Bank Insurance Agency Incorporated, Deutsche Bank Luxembourg S.A., Deutsche Bank Mutui S.p.A., Deutsche Bank Mexico. S.A., Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, Deutsche Bank Polska Spelka Akcyjna, Deutsche Bank Representative Office Nigeria Limited, Deutsche Bank S.A, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Deutsche Bank Securities Limited, Deutsche Bank Societe per Azioni, Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, Deutsche Bank Trust Company Delaware, Deutsche Bank Trust Company National Association, Deutsche Bank Trust Corporation, Deutsche Bank. Sociedad Anenima Espanola, Deutsche CIB Centre Private Limited, Deutsche Capital Finance (2000) Limited, Deutsche Capital Hong Kong Limited, Deutsche Capital Markets Australia Limited, Deutsche Capital Partners China Limited, Deutsche Cayman Ltd., Deutsche Custody N.V., Deutsche Domus New Zealand Limited, Deutsche Equities India Private Limited, Deutsche Finance No. 2 Limited, Deutsche Foras New Zealand Limited, Deutsche Gesellschaft fur lmmobilien-Leasing mit beschrenkter Haftung, Deutsche Global Markets Limited, Deutsche Group Holdings (SA) Proprietary Limited, Deutsche Group Services Pty Limited, Deutsche Grundbesitz Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH i.L., Deutsche Grundbesitz-Anlagegesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Deutsche Holdings (BTI) Limited, Deutsche Holdings (Grand Duchy), Deutsche Holdings (Luxembourg) S.El r.l., Deutsche Holdings Limited, Deutsche Holdings No. 2 Limited, Deutsche Holdings No. 3 Limited, Deutsche Holdings No. 4 Limited, Deutsche India Holdings Private Limited, Deutsche India Private Limited, Deutsche International Corporate Services (Ireland) Limited, Deutsche International Corporate Services Limited, Deutsche International Custodial Services Limited, Deutsche Investments (Netherlands) N.V., Deutsche Investments India Private Limited, Deutsche Investor Services Private Limited, Deutsche Knowledge Services Pte. Ltd., Deutsche Leasing New York Corp., Deutsche Mexico Holdings S.a. r.|., Deutsche Morgan Grenfell Group Limited, Deutsche Mortgage & Asset Receiving Corporation, Deutsche Nederland N.V., Deutsche New Zealand Limited, Deutsche Nominees Limited, Deutsche Oppenheim Family Office AG, Deutsche Overseas Issuance New Zealand Limited, Deutsche Postbank, Deutsche Postbank Finance Center Objekt GmbH, Deutsche Private Asset Management Limited, Deutsche Securities (India) Private Limited, Deutsche Securities (Proprietary) Limited, Deutsche Securities (SA) (Proprietary) Limited, Deutsche Securities Asia Limited, Deutsche Securities Australia Limited, Deutsche Securities Inc., Deutsche Securities Israel Ltd., Deutsche Securities Korea Co., Deutsche Securities Mauritius Limited, Deutsche Securities SA. de C.V.. Casla de Bolsa, Deutsche Securities Saudi Arabia, Deutsche Services (Cl) Limited, Deutsche Services Polska Sp. z o.o., Deutsche StiftungsTrust GmbH, Deutsche Strategic Investment Holdings Yugen Kaisha, Deutsche Trustee Company Limited, Deutsche Trustee Services (India) Private Limited, Deutsche Trustees Malaysia Berhad, Deutsche Wealth Management S.G.I.I.C. SA., Deutsche lmmobilien Leasing GmbH, Deutsches lnstitut fur Altersvorsorge GmbH, Durian (Luxembourg) S.a. r.l., EC EUROPA IMMOBILIEN FONDS NR. 3 GmbH & CO. KG i.l., Elizabethan Holdings Limited, Elizabethan Management Limited, European Value Added I (Alternate GP.) LLP, Fiduciaria Sant Andrea S.r.l., Finanzberatungsgesellschaft mbH der Deutschen Bank, Funfte SAB Treuhand und Verwaltung GmbH & Co. Suhl "Rimbachzentrum" KG, G Finance Holding Corp., German American Capital Corporation, Grundstucksgesellschaft Frankfurt Bockenheimer LandstraBe GbR, Grundstucksgesellschaft Miesbaden LuisenstraBe/Kirchgasse GbR, Hollandsche Bank-Unie, ISTRON Beteiligungs- und Verwaltungs-GmbH, IVAF l Manager S.a.r.l., Immobilienfonds Buro-Center Erfurt am Flughafen Bindersleben I GbR, J R Nominees (Pty) Ltd, Joint Stock Company Deutsche Bank DBU, Jyogashima Godo Kaisha, KEBA Gesellschaft fur interne Services mbH, Kidson Pte Ltd, Konsul lnkasso GmbH, LA Water Holdings Limited, LAWL Pte. Ltd., Leasing Verwaltungsgesellschaft Waltersdorf mbH, Leonardo lll Initial GP Limited, MEF I Manager. S. a r.|., MIT Holdings Inc., Maher Terminals Holdings (Toronto) Limited, Morgan Grenfell & Company, MortgageIT, MortgagelT Inc., MortgagelT Securities Corp., OOO "Deutsche Bank TechCentIe", OOO "Deutsche Bank", OPB Verwaltungs- und Treuhand GmbH, OPB-Oktava GmbH, OPB-Quarta GmbH, OPPENHEIM Capital Advisory GmbH, OPPENHEIM PRIVATE EQUITY Manager GmbH, OPPENHEIM PRIVATE EQUITY Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, PADUS Grundstcks-VermietungsgeseIlschaft mbH, PB Factoring GmbH, PB Spezial-lnvestmentaktiengesellschatt mit Teilgesellschaftsvermogen, PCC Services GmbH der Deutschen Bank, PT Deutsche Sekuritas Indonesia, Pan Australian Nominees Pty Ltd, Plantation Bay. Inc., Postbank Akademie und Service GmbH, Postbank Beteiligungen GmbH, Postbank Direkt GmbH, Postbank Filialvertrieb AG, Postbank Finanzberatung AG, Postbank Leasing GmbH, Postbank lmmobilien GmbH, Quantiguous, R.B.M. Nominees Pty Ltd, RREEF, RREEF America LLC., RREEF China REIT Management Limited, RREEF European Value Added I (G.P.) Limited, RREEF Fund Holding Co., RREEF India Advisers Private Limited, RREEF Management LLC., RoPro U.S. Holding Inc., Route 28 Receivables. LLC, SAB Real Estate Verwaltungs GmbH, SAGITA Grundstucks-Vermielungsgesellschaft mbH, SAPIO Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH, Sal. Oppenheim, Sal. Oppenheim jr. & Cie. Beteiligungs GmbH, Sharps SP l LLC, Stelvio lmmobiliare S.r.l., Suddeutsche Vermeigensvewvaitung Gesellschaft mit beschrenkter Haftung, TELO Beleiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Tempurrite Leasing Limited, Thai Asset Enforcement and Recovery Asset Management Company Limited, Treuinvest Service GmbH, Triplereason Umited, VOB-ZVD Processing GmbH, WEPLA Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Wealthspur Investment Ltd., World Trading (Delaware) Inc., lmmobilienfonds BuroCenter Erfurt am Flughafen Bindersleben II GbR, lmmobilienfonds Wohn- und Gescheftshaus Koln-Blumenberg V GbR, and norisbank GmbH.

Read More
Resolve stand-off over ordinance through talks, Prez tells Oli, Dahal

President Bidhya Devi Bhandari has urged the top leaders of left alliance to resolve the stand-off over ordinance on the National Assembly (NA) election through political consensus.
The following companies are subsidiares of General Motors: 2140879 Ontario Inc., ACAR Leasing Ltd., ACF Investment Corp., AFS SenSub Corp., APGO Trust, Adam Opel GmbH, AmeriCredit, AmeriCredit Financial Services Inc., Annunciata Corporation, Argonaut Holdings LLC, Astyx Inc., BOCO (Proprietary) Limited, Banco GM S.A., Boco Trust, BrightDrop LLC, BrightDrop Solutions LLC, BrightDrop Vehicle Distribution LLC, CHEVYPLAN S.A. Sociedad Administradora de Planes de Autofinanciamiento Comercial, Cadillac, Cadillac Europe GmbH, Carve-Out Ownership Cooperative LLC, Chevrolet Deutschland GmbH, Chevrolet Otomotiv Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Chevrolet Sales (Thailand) Limited, Chevrolet Sales India Private Ltd., Chevrolet Sociedad Anonima de Ahorro para Fines Determinados, Controladora General Motors S. de R.L. de C.V., Cruise, Cruise LLC, Cruise Munich GmbH, DCJ1 LLC, DMAX Ltd., Dealership Liquidations Inc., Delphi Energy and Engine Management Systems UK Overseas Corporation, EDS (Electronic Data Systems), GCAR Titling Ltd., GM (UK) Pension Trustees Limited, GM Administradora de Bens Ltda., GM Asia Pacific Regional Headquarters Ltd., GM Components Holdings LLC, GM Corretora de Seguros Ltda., GM Cruise Holdings LLC, GM Defense LLC, GM Eurometals Inc., GM Finance Co. Holdings LLC, GM Financial, GM Financial Bank, GM Financial Canada Leasing Ltd., GM Financial Colombia Holdings LLC, GM Financial Colombia S.A. Compania de Financiamiento, GM Financial Consumer Discount Company, GM Financial Holdings LLC, GM Financial Insurance Company, GM Financial Mexico Holdings LLC, GM Financial de Mexico S.A. de C.V. SOFOM E.R., GM Financial del Peru S.A.C, GM Global Technology Operations LLC, GM Global Tooling Company LLC, GM Global Treasury Centre Limited, GM Holdings Australia Pty Ltd, GM Holdings U.K. No.1 Limited, GM Inversiones Santiago Limitada, GM Investment Trustees Limited, GM Korea Company, GM LAAM Holdings LLC, GM Mobility Europe GmbH, GM Personnel Services Inc., GM Philippines Inc., GM Protections LLC, GM Regional Holdings LLC, GM Retirees Pension Trustees Limited, GM Speciality Vehicles UK Limited, GM Subsystems Manufacturing LLC, GM Technical Center Korea Ltd., GM-DI Leasing LLC, GMAC Administradora de Consorcios Ltda., GMAC Prestadora de Servicios de Mao de Obra Ltda., GMCH&SP Private Equity II L.P., GMF Funding Corp., GMF Global Assignment LLC, GMF International LLC, GMF Leasing LLC, GMF Wholesale Receivables LLC, General Motors (China) Investment Company Limited, General Motors - Colmotores S.A., General Motors Advisory Services LLC, General Motors Africa and Middle East FZE, General Motors Asia LLC, General Motors Asia Pacific Holdings LLC, General Motors Asset Management Corporation, General Motors Australia Pty Ltd., General Motors Australia and New Zealand Pty Ltd., General Motors Auto LLC, General Motors Automobiles Philippines Inc., General Motors Automotive Holdings S.L., General Motors Belgique Automobile NV, General Motors Chile Industria Automotriz Limitada, General Motors China LLC, General Motors Daewoo Auto and Technology CIS LLC, General Motors Egypt S.A.E., General Motors Europe Limited, General Motors Financial Chile Limitada, General Motors Financial Chile S.A., General Motors Financial Company Inc., General Motors Financial of Canada Ltd., General Motors Global Service Operations Inc., General Motors Holden Australia NSC Pty Ltd., General Motors Holdings LLC, General Motors IT Services (Ireland) Limited, General Motors India Private Limited, General Motors International Holdings LLC, General Motors International Operations Pte. Ltd., General Motors International Services Company SAS, General Motors International Services LLC, General Motors Investment Limited, General Motors Investment Management Corporation, General Motors Investment Participacoes Ltda., General Motors Investments Pty. Ltd., General Motors Israel Ltd., General Motors Japan Limited, General Motors LLC, General Motors Limited, General Motors New Zealand Limited, General Motors New Zealand Pensions Limited, General Motors Overseas Commercial Vehicle Corporation, General Motors Overseas Corporation, General Motors Overseas Distribution LLC, General Motors Peru S.A., General Motors Research Corporation, General Motors South Africa (Pty) Limited, General Motors Taiwan Ltd., General Motors Technical Centre India Private Limited, General Motors Treasury Center LLC, General Motors Uruguay S.A., General Motors Ventures LLC, General Motors Warehousing and Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., General Motors de Argentina S.r.l., General Motors de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., General Motors del Ecuador S.A., General Motors do Brasil Ltda., General Motors of Canada Company, General Motors-Holden's Sales Pty. Limited, Global Services Detroit LLC, Grand Pointe Holdings Inc., Grand Pointe Park Condominium Association, IBC Pension Trustees Limited, Lease Ownership Cooperative LLC, Lidlington Engineering Company Ltd., Limited Liability Company "General Motors CIS", Maven Drive LLC, Millbrook Pension Management Limited, Monetization of Carve-Out LLC, Motors Holding LLC, Multi-Use Lease Entity Trust, North American New Cars LLC, Omnibus BB Transportes S. A., OnStar Connected Services Srl, OnStar Egypt Limited, OnStar Europe Ltd., OnStar Global Services Corporation, OnStar LLC, OnStar de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., P.T. G M AutoWorld Indonesia, P.T. General Motors Indonesia, PIMS Co., PT. General Motors Indonesia Manufacturing, Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center Company Ltd., Prestadora de Servicios GMF Colombia S.A.S., Rapid Motor Vehicle Company, Reliance Motor Car Company, Riverfront Holdings III Inc., Riverfront Holdings Inc., Riverfront Holdings Phase II Inc., SAIC GM (Shenyang) Norsom Motors Co. Ltd., SAIC GM Dong Yue Motors Company Limited, SAIC GM Dong Yue Powertrain Company Limited, SAIC GM Wuling Automobile Company Limited, SAIC General Motors Corporation Limited, SAIC General Motors Sales Company Limited, SAIC-GMAC Automotive Finance Company Limited, SAIC-GMF Leasing Co. Ltd., Servicios GMAC S.A. de C.V., Shanghai OnStar Telematics Co. Ltd., Sidecar Technologies, Ultium Cells LLC, Vehicle Asset Universal Leasing Trust, WRE Inc., and Zona Franca Industrial Colmotores SAS.

Read More
The following companies are subsidiares of Pfizer: AH Robins LLC, AHP Holdings B.V., AHP Manufacturing B.V., Agouron Pharmaceuticals LLC, Alacer, Alpharma Holdings LLC, Alpharma Pharmaceuticals LLC, Alpharma Specialty Pharma LLC, Alpharma USHP LLC, American Food Industries LLC, Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Anacor Pharmaceuticals Inc., Angiosyn, Array BioPharma, Ayerst-Wyeth Pharmaceuticals LLC, BIND Therapeutics Inc., BINESA 2002 S.L., Bamboo Therapeutics, Bamboo Therapeutics Inc., Baxter International - Marketed Vaccines, BioRexis, Bioren, Bioren LLC, Blue Whale Re Ltd., C.E. Commercial Holdings C.V., C.E. Commercial Investments C.V., C.P. Pharmaceuticals International C.V., CICL Corporation, COC I Corporation, Catapult Genetics, Coley Pharmaceutical GmbH, Coley Pharmaceutical Group, Coley Pharmaceutical Group Inc., Continental Pharma Inc., Covx, Covx Technologies Ireland Limited, Cyanamid Inter-American Corporation, Cyanamid de Argentina S.A., Cyanamid de Colombia S.A., Distribuidora Mercantil Centro Americana S.A., Encysive Pharmaceuticals, Encysive Pharmaceuticals Inc., Esperion LUV Development Inc., Esperion Therapeutics, Excaliard Pharmaceuticals, Excaliard Pharmaceuticals Inc., Farminova Produtos Farmaceuticos de Inovacao Lda., Farmogene Productos Farmaceuticos Lda, Ferrosan A/S, Ferrosan International A/S, Ferrosan S.R.L., FoldRx Pharmaceuticals Inc., Foldrx Pharmaceuticals, Fort Dodge Manufatura Ltda., G. D. Searle & Co. Limited, G. D. Searle International Capital LLC, G. D. Searle LLC, GI Europe Inc., GI Japan Inc., GenTrac Inc., Genetics Institute LLC, Greenstone LLC, Haptogen Limited, Hospira, Hospira (China) Enterprise Management Co. Ltd., Hospira Adelaide Pty Ltd, Hospira Aseptic Services Limited, Hospira Australia Pty Ltd, Hospira Benelux BVBA, Hospira Chile Limitada, Hospira Deutschland GmbH, Hospira Enterprises B.V., Hospira France SAS, Hospira Healthcare B.V., Hospira Healthcare Corporation, Hospira Healthcare India Private Limited, Hospira Holdings (S.A.) Pty Ltd, Hospira Inc., Hospira Invicta S.A., Hospira Ireland Holdings Unlimited Company, Hospira Ireland Sales Limited, Hospira Japan G.K., Hospira Limited, Hospira Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Hospira NZ Limited, Hospira Nordic AB, Hospira Philippines Inc., Hospira Portugal LDA, Hospira Produtos Hospitalares Ltda., Hospira Pte. Ltd., Hospira Pty Limited, Hospira Puerto Rico LLC, Hospira Singapore Pte Ltd, Hospira UK Limited, Hospira Worldwide LLC, Hospira Zagreb d.o.o., ICAgen, Idun Pharmaceuticals, Industrial Santa Agape S.A., InnoPharma, InnoPharma Inc., International Affiliated Corporation LLC, JMI-Daniels Pharmaceuticals Inc., John Wyeth & Brother Limited, Kiinteisto oy Espoon Pellavaniementie 14, King Pharmaceuticals Holdings LLC, King Pharmaceuticals LLC, King Pharmaceuticals Research and Development LLC, Korea Pharma Holding Company Limited, Laboratoires Pfizer S.A., Laboratorios Parke Davis S.L., Laboratorios Pfizer Ltda., Laboratorios Wyeth LLC, Laboratorios Wyeth S.A., Laboratorios Pfizer Lda., MTG Divestitures LLC, Mayne Pharma IP Holdings (Euro) Pty Ltd, Medivation, Medivation Field Solutions LLC, Medivation LLC, Medivation Neurology LLC, Medivation Prostate Therapeutics LLC, Medivation Services LLC, Medivation Technologies LLC, Meridian Medical Technologies Inc., Meridian Medical Technologies Limited, Monarch Pharmaceuticals LLC, Neusentis Limited, NextWave Pharmaceuticals, NextWave Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, P-D Co. LLC, PAH USA IN8 LLC, PF Americas Holding C.V., PF Asia Manufacturing B.V., PF PR Holdings C.V., PF PRISM C.V., PF PRISM Holdings S.a.r.l., PF Prism S.a.r.l., PFE Holdings G.K., PFE PHAC Holdings 1 LLC, PFE Pfizer Holdings 1 LLC, PFE Wyeth Holdings LLC, PFE Wyeth-Ayerst (Asia) LLC, PHILCO Holdings S.a r.l., PHIVCO Corp., PHIVCO Holdco S.a r.l., PHIVCO Luxembourg S.a r.l., PN Mexico LLC, PT. Pfizer Parke Davis, Parke Davis & Company LLC, Parke Davis Limited, Parke Davis Productos Farmaceuticos Lda, Parke-Davis Manufacturing Corp., Parkedale Pharmaceuticals Inc., Peak Enterprises LLC, Pfizer, Pfizer (China) Research and Development Co. Ltd., Pfizer (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Pfizer (Perth) Pty Limited, Pfizer (Thailand) Limited, Pfizer (Wuhan) Research and Development Co. Ltd., Pfizer AB, Pfizer AG, Pfizer AS, Pfizer Africa & Middle East for Pharmaceuticals Veterinarian Products & Chemicals S.A.E., Pfizer Anti-Infectives AB, Pfizer ApS, Pfizer Asia Manufacturing Pte. Ltd., Pfizer Asia Pacific Pte Ltd., Pfizer Atlantic Holdings S.a.r.l., Pfizer Australia Holdings B.V., Pfizer Australia Holdings Pty Limited, Pfizer Australia Investments Pty. Ltd., Pfizer Australia Pty Limited, Pfizer B.V., Pfizer BH D.o.o., Pfizer Baltic Holdings B.V., Pfizer Biofarmaceutica Sociedade Unipessoal Lda, Pfizer Biologics (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd, Pfizer Biologics Ireland Holdings Limited, Pfizer Biotech Corporation, Pfizer Bolivia S.A., Pfizer Canada Inc., Pfizer CentreSource Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Pfizer Chile S.A., Pfizer Cia. Ltda., Pfizer Colombia Spinco I LLC, Pfizer Commercial Holdings Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer Commercial Holdings TRAE Kft., Pfizer Commercial TRAE Trading Kft., Pfizer Consumer Healthcare AB, Pfizer Consumer Healthcare GmbH, Pfizer Consumer Healthcare Ltd., Pfizer Consumer Manufacturing Italy S.r.l., Pfizer Corporation, Pfizer Corporation Austria Gesellschaft m.b.H., Pfizer Corporation Hong Kong Limited, Pfizer Croatia d.o.o., Pfizer Deutschland GmbH, Pfizer Development LP, Pfizer Development Services (UK) Limited, Pfizer Domestic Ventures Limited, Pfizer Dominicana S.R.L, Pfizer ESP Pty Ltd, Pfizer East India B.V., Pfizer Eastern Investments B.V., Pfizer Egypt S.A.E., Pfizer Enterprise Holdings B.V., Pfizer Enterprises LLC, Pfizer Enterprises SARL, Pfizer Europe Finance B.V., Pfizer Export B.V., Pfizer Export Company, Pfizer Export Holding Company B.V, Pfizer Finance Share Service (Dalian) Co. Ltd., Pfizer Financial Services N.V./S.A., Pfizer France International Investments, Pfizer Free Zone Panama S. de R.L., Pfizer GEP S.L., Pfizer Global Holdings B.V., Pfizer Global Supply Japan Inc., Pfizer Global Trading, Pfizer Group Luxembourg Sarl, Pfizer Gulf FZ-LLC, Pfizer H.C.P. Corporation, Pfizer HK Service Company Limited, Pfizer Health AB, Pfizer Health Solutions Inc., Pfizer Healthcare Ireland, Pfizer Hellas A.E., Pfizer Himalaya Holdings Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer Holding France, Pfizer Holding Ventures, Pfizer Holdings Corporation, Pfizer Holdings Europe Unlimited Company, Pfizer Holdings G.K., Pfizer Holdings International Corporation, Pfizer Holdings International Luxembourg (PHIL) Sarl, Pfizer Holdings North America SARL, Pfizer Hungary Holdings TRAE Kft., Pfizer Inc., Pfizer Innovations AB, Pfizer Innovations LLC, Pfizer Innovative Supply Point International BVBA, Pfizer International LLC, Pfizer International Markets Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer International Operations, Pfizer International S. de R.L., Pfizer International Trading (Shanghai) Limited, Pfizer Investment Capital Unlimited Company, Pfizer Investment Co. Ltd., Pfizer Investment Holdings S.a.r.l., Pfizer Ireland Investments Limited, Pfizer Ireland PFE Holding 1 LLC, Pfizer Ireland PFE Holding 2 LLC, Pfizer Ireland Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer Ireland Ventures Unlimited Company, Pfizer Italia S.r.l., Pfizer Italy Group Holding S.r.l., Pfizer Japan Inc., Pfizer LLC, Pfizer Laboratories (Pty) Limited, Pfizer Laboratories Limited, Pfizer Laboratories PFE (Pty) Ltd, Pfizer Leasing Ireland Limited, Pfizer Leasing UK Limited, Pfizer Limitada, Pfizer Limited, Pfizer Luxco Holdings SARL, Pfizer Luxembourg Global Holdings S.a r.l., Pfizer Luxembourg SARL, Pfizer MAP Holding Inc., Pfizer Manufacturing Austria G.m.b.H., Pfizer Manufacturing Belgium N.V., Pfizer Manufacturing Deutschland GmbH, Pfizer Manufacturing Deutschland Grundbesitz GmbH & Co. KG, Pfizer Manufacturing Holdings LLC, Pfizer Manufacturing Ireland Unlimited Company, Pfizer Manufacturing LLC, Pfizer Manufacturing Services, Pfizer Medical Technology Group (Belgium) N.V., Pfizer Medicamentos Genericos e Participacoes Ltda., Pfizer Mexico Luxco SARL, Pfizer Mexico S.A. de C.V., Pfizer Middle East for Pharmaceuticals Animal Health and Chemicals S.A.E., Pfizer New Zealand Limited, Pfizer Norge AS, Pfizer North American Holdings Inc., Pfizer OTC B.V., Pfizer Overseas LLC, Pfizer Oy, Pfizer PFE ApS, Pfizer PFE AsiaPac Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Australia Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Australia Pty Ltd, Pfizer PFE B.V., Pfizer PFE Baltic Holdings B.V., Pfizer PFE Belgium SPRL, Pfizer PFE Brazil Holding S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE CIA. Ltda., Pfizer PFE Chile Holding LLC, Pfizer PFE Colombia Holding Corp., Pfizer PFE Colombia S.A.S, Pfizer PFE Commercial Holdings LLC, Pfizer PFE Croatia Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Eastern Investments B.V., Pfizer PFE Finland Oy, Pfizer PFE France, Pfizer PFE Global Holdings B.V., Pfizer PFE Ireland Pharmaceuticals Holding 1 B.V., Pfizer PFE Italy Holdco 2 S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE Italy Holdco S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Pfizer PFE Limited, Pfizer PFE Luxembourg S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE Mexico Holding 3 LLC, Pfizer PFE Netherlands Holding 1 C.V., Pfizer PFE New Zealand, Pfizer PFE New Zealand Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Norway Holding S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE PILSA Holdco S.a r.l., Pfizer PFE Peru Holding LLC, Pfizer PFE Peru S.R.L., Pfizer PFE Pharmaceuticals Israel Holding LLC, Pfizer PFE Pharmaceuticals Israel Ltd., Pfizer PFE Private Limited, Pfizer PFE S.R.L, Pfizer PFE Service Company Holding Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer PFE Singapore Holding B.V., Pfizer PFE Singapore Pte. Ltd., Pfizer PFE Spain B.V., Pfizer PFE Spain Holding S.L., Pfizer PFE Sweden Holding 2 S.a.r.l., Pfizer PFE Sweden Holding S.a.r.l., Pfizer PFE Switzerland GmbH, Pfizer PFE Turkey Holding 1 B.V., Pfizer PFE Turkey Holding 2 B.V., Pfizer PFE UK Holding 4 LP, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 1 LLC, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 2 LLC, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 3 LLC, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 4 LLC, Pfizer PFE US Holdings 5 LLC, Pfizer PFE spol. s r.o., Pfizer PFE Ilaclar Anonim Sirketi, Pfizer Pakistan Limited, Pfizer Parke Davis (Thailand) Ltd., Pfizer Parke Davis Inc., Pfizer Parke Davis Sdn. Bhd., Pfizer Pharm Algerie, Pfizer Pharma GmbH, Pfizer Pharma PFE GmbH, Pfizer Pharmaceutical (Wuxi) Co. Ltd., Pfizer Pharmaceutical Trading Limited Liability Company (a/k/a Pfizer Kft. or Pfizer LLC), Pfizer Pharmaceuticals B.V., Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Global B.V., Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Israel Ltd., Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Korea Limited, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals LLC, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Pfizer Pigments Inc., Pfizer Polska Sp. z.o.o., Pfizer Private Limited, Pfizer Production LLC, Pfizer Products Inc., Pfizer Products India Private Limited, Pfizer Research (NC) Inc., Pfizer Romania SRL, Pfizer S.A., Pfizer S.A., Pfizer S.A. (Belgium), Pfizer S.A. de C.V., Pfizer S.A.S., Pfizer S.G.P.S. Lda., Pfizer S.L., Pfizer S.R.L., Pfizer SRB d.o.o., Pfizer Saidal Manufacturing, Pfizer Sante Familiale, Pfizer Saudi Limited, Pfizer Seiyaku K.K., Pfizer Service Company BVBA, Pfizer Service Company Ireland Unlimited Company, Pfizer Services 1, Pfizer Services LLC, Pfizer Shared Services Unlimited Company, Pfizer Shareholdings Intermediate SARL, Pfizer Singapore Holding Pte. Ltd., Pfizer Singapore Trading Pte. Ltd., Pfizer Spain Holdings Cooperatief U.A., Pfizer Specialties Limited, Pfizer Strategic Investment Holdings LLC, Pfizer Sweden Partnership KB, Pfizer TRAE Holdings Kft., Pfizer Trading Polska sp.z.o.o., Pfizer Transactions Ireland Unlimited Company, Pfizer Transactions LLC, Pfizer Transactions Luxembourg SARL, Pfizer Transport LLC, Pfizer Ukraine LLC, Pfizer Vaccines LLC, Pfizer Venezuela S.A., Pfizer Venture Investments LLC, Pfizer Ventures LLC, Pfizer Worldwide Services Unlimited Company, Pfizer Zona Franca S.A., Pfizer spol. s r.o., Pharmacia, Pharmacia & Upjohn Company Inc., Pharmacia & Upjohn Company LLC, Pharmacia & Upjohn LLC, Pharmacia & Upjohn S.A. de C.V., Pharmacia Brasil Ltda., Pharmacia Hepar LLC, Pharmacia Holding AB, Pharmacia Inter-American LLC, Pharmacia International B.V., Pharmacia LLC, Pharmacia Limited, Pharmacia Nostrum S.A., Pharmacia South Africa (Pty) Ltd, PowderJect Research Limited, PowderMed, Purepac Pharmaceutical Holdings LLC, Redvax, Renrall LLC, Rinat Neuroscience, Rinat Neuroscience Corp., Roerig Produtos Farmaceuticos Lda., Roerig S.A., Sao Cristovao Participacoes Ltda., Searle Laboratorios Lda., Serenex, Servicios P&U S. de R.L. de C.V., Shiley LLC, Sinergis Farma-Produtos Farmaceuticos Lda., Site Realty Inc., Solinor LLC, Sugen LLC, Tabor LLC, The Pfizer Incubator LLC, Therachon, Thiakis Limited, Treerly Health Co. Ltd, US Oral Pharmaceuticals Pty Ltd, Upjohn Laboratorios Lda., Vesteralens Naturprodukter A/S, Vesteralens Naturprodukter AB, Vesteralens Naturprodukter AS, Vesteralens Naturprodukter OY, Vicuron Holdings LLC, Vinci Farma S.A., W-L LLC, Warner Lambert, Warner Lambert Ilac Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Warner Lambert del Uruguay S.A., Warner-Lambert (Thailand) Limited, Warner-Lambert Company AG, Warner-Lambert Company LLC, Warner-Lambert Guatemala Sociedad Anonima, Warner-Lambert S.A., Whitehall International Inc., Whitehall Laboratories Inc., Wyeth (Thailand) Ltd., Wyeth AB, Wyeth Australia Pty. Limited, Wyeth Ayerst Inc., Wyeth Ayerst S.a r.l., Wyeth Biopharma, Wyeth Canada ULC, Wyeth Consumer Healthcare LLC, Wyeth Europa Limited, Wyeth Farma S.A., Wyeth Holdings LLC, Wyeth Industria Farmaceutica Ltda., Wyeth KFT., Wyeth LLC, Wyeth Lederle S.r.l., Wyeth Lederle Vaccines S.A., Wyeth Pakistan Limited, Wyeth Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Company, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals FZ-LLC, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals LLC, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Limited, Wyeth Puerto Rico Inc., Wyeth S.A.S, Wyeth Subsidiary Illinois Corporation, Wyeth Whitehall Export GmbH, Wyeth Whitehall SARL, Wyeth-Ayerst (Asia) Limited, Wyeth-Ayerst International LLC, and Wyeth-Ayerst Promotions Limited.

Read More
Duke Energy Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an energy company in the United States. It operates through three segments: Electric Utilities and Infrastructure, Gas Utilities and Infrastructure, and Commercial Renewables. The Electric Utilities and Infrastructure segment generates, transmits, distributes, and sells electricity in the Carolinas, Florida, and the Midwest; and uses coal, hydroelectric, natural gas, oil, renewable generation, and nuclear fuel to generate electricity. It also engages in the wholesale of electricity to municipalities, electric cooperative utilities, and load-serving entities. This segment serves approximately 8.2 million customers in 6 states in the Southeast and Midwest regions of the United States covering a service territory of approximately 91,000 square miles; and owns approximately 50,259 megawatts (MW) of generation capacity. The Gas Utilities and Infrastructure segment distributes natural gas to residential, commercial, industrial, and power generation natural gas customers; and owns, operates, and invests in pipeline transmission and natural gas storage facilities. It has approximately 1.6 million customers, including 1.1 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, as well as 550,000 customers in southwestern Ohio and northern Kentucky. The Commercial Renewables segment acquires, owns, develops, builds, and operates wind and solar renewable generation projects, including nonregulated renewable energy and energy storage services to utilities, electric cooperatives, municipalities, and corporate customers. It has 23 wind, 178 solar, and 2 battery storage facilities, as well as 71 fuel cell locations with a capacity of 3,554 MW across 22 states. The company was formerly known as Duke Energy Holding Corp. and changed its name to Duke Energy Corporation in April 2005. The company was founded in 1904 and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Poudel bags Integrity Idol-2017

Shesh Narayan Poudel, the assistant chief district officer of Morang, has been named Integrity Idol-2017. He was awarded in the Capital on Monday.
KAR Auction Services, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides used vehicle auctions and related vehicle remarketing services for the automotive industry in the United States, Europe, Canada, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. The company operates through two segments, ADESA Auctions and AFC. The ADESA Auctions segment offers whole car auctions and related services to the vehicle remarketing industry through online auctions and auction facilities. It also provides value-added services, such as auction related, transportation, reconditioning, inspection, title and repossession administration and remarketing, vehicle research, and analytical services, as well as data as a service. This segment sells its products and services through vehicle manufacturers, fleet companies, rental car companies, finance companies, and others. As of December 31, 2021, this segment had a network of approximately 70 vehicle logistics center locations in North America. The AFC segment offers floorplan financing, a short-term inventory-secured financing to independent used vehicle dealers; and sells vehicle service contracts. The company provides wheel repair and hail catastrophe response services. It serves vehicle manufacturers, vehicle rental companies, financial institutions, commercial fleets and fleet management companies, and dealer customers. The company was formerly known as KAR Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to KAR Auction Services, Inc. in November 2009. KAR Auction Services, Inc. was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Carmel, Indiana.
The 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
The following companies are subsidiares of CVS Health: ACS ACQCO CORP., ADMINCO Inc., AE Fourteen Incorporated, AHP Holdings Inc., AMC - Tennessee LLC, APS Acquisition LLC, ASCO HealthCare LLC, ASI Wings LLC, AUSHC Holdings Inc., Accendo Insurance Company, Accordant Health Services L.L.C., Active Health Management Inc., Administrative Enterprises Inc., AdvancePCS SpecialtyRx LLC, AdvanceRx.com L.L.C., Advanced Care Scripts Inc., Aetna, Aetna (Beijing) Enterprise Management Services Co. Ltd., Aetna (Shanghai) Enterprise Services Co. Ltd., Aetna ACO Holdings Inc., Aetna Asset Advisors LLC, Aetna Behavioral Health LLC, Aetna Better Health Inc., Aetna Better Health Inc., Aetna Better Health Premier Plan MMAI Inc., Aetna Better Health of California Inc., Aetna Better Health of Florida Inc., Aetna Better Health of Illinois Inc., Aetna Better Health of Indiana Inc., Aetna Better Health of Kansas Inc., Aetna Better Health of Missouri LLC, Aetna Better Health of Nevada Inc., Aetna Better Health of North Carolina Inc., Aetna Better Health of Oklahoma Inc., Aetna Better Health of Tennessee Inc., Aetna Better Health of Texas Inc., Aetna Better Health of Washington Inc., Aetna Capital Management LLC, Aetna Card Solutions LLC, Aetna Corporate Services LLC, Aetna Dental Inc., Aetna Dental of California Inc., Aetna Financial Holdings LLC, Aetna Florida Inc., Aetna Global Benefits (Asia Pacific) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits (Bermuda) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits (Europe) Limited, Aetna Global Benefits (Middle East) LLC, Aetna Global Benefits (Singapore) PTE. LTD., Aetna Health Holdings LLC, Aetna Health Insurance (Thailand) Public Company Limited, Aetna Health Insurance Company, Aetna Health Insurance Company of Europe DAC, Aetna Health Insurance Company of New York, Aetna Health Management LLC, Aetna Health and Life Insurance Company, Aetna Health of California Inc., Aetna Health of Iowa Inc., Aetna Health of Michigan Inc., Aetna Health of Ohio Inc., Aetna Health of Utah Inc., Aetna HealthAssurance Pennsylvania Inc., Aetna Holdco (UK) Limited, Aetna Holdings (Thailand) Limited, Aetna Inc., Aetna Insurance (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Aetna Insurance Company Limited, Aetna Insurance Company of Connecticut, Aetna Integrated Informatics Inc., Aetna International Ex Pat LLC, Aetna International LLC, Aetna Ireland Inc., Aetna Life & Casualty (Bermuda) Ltd., Aetna Life Assignment Company, Aetna Life Insurance Company, Aetna Medicaid Administrators LLC, Aetna Network Services LLC, Aetna Partners Diversified Fund LLC, Aetna Pharmacy Management Services LLC, Aetna Resources LLC, Aetna Risk Assurance Company of Connecticut Inc., Aetna Rx Home Delivery LLC, Aetna Services (Thailand) Limited, Aetna Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Aetna Student Health Agency Inc., Aetna Ventures LLC, Aetna Workers Comp Access LLC, Alabama CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Alaska CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Allina Health and Aetna Health Plan Inc., Allina Health and Aetna Insurance Company, Allina Health and Aetna Insurance Holding Company LLC, American Drug Stores Delaware L.L.C., Arbor Drugs, Arizona CVS Stores L.L.C., Arkansas CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Badger Acquisition LLC, Badger Acquisition of Kentucky LLC, Badger Acquisition of Minnesota LLC, Badger Acquisition of Ohio LLC, Banner Health and Aetna Health Insurance Company, Banner Health and Aetna Health Insurance Holding Company LLC, Banner Health and Aetna Health Plan Inc., Beauty Holdings L.L.C., Best Care LTC Acquisition Company LLC, Busse CVS L.L.C., CCI Foreign S.a R.L., CCRx Holdings LLC, CCRx of North Carolina LLC, CHP Acquisition LLC, CP Acquisition LLC, CVS 2948 Henderson L.L.C., CVS 3268 Gilbert L.L.C., CVS 3745 Peoria L.L.C., CVS AL Distribution L.L.C., CVS AOC Corporation, CVS AOC Services L.L.C., CVS Albany L.L.C., CVS Bellmore Avenue L.L.C., CVS Cabot Holdings Inc., CVS Cabot Holdings Inc.  Coram Clinical Trials Inc. 99.72%/Aetna Inc. .28%, CVS Care Concierge LLC, CVS Caremark Advanced Technology Pharmacy L.L.C., CVS Caremark Indemnity Ltd., CVS Caremark Part D Services L.L.C., CVS Caremark TN SUTA LLC, CVS Foreign Inc., CVS Gilbert 3272 L.L.C., CVS Health Applications LLC, CVS Health Solutions LLC, CVS Health Ventures Fund GP LLC, CVS Health Ventures Fund LP, CVS Health Ventures Management LLC, CVS Indiana L.L.C., CVS International L.L.C., CVS Kidney Care Advanced Technologies LLC, CVS Kidney Care Health Services LLC, CVS Kidney Care Home Dialysis LLC, CVS Kidney Care LLC, CVS Management Support LLC, CVS Manchester NH L.L.C., CVS Media Exchange LLC, CVS Michigan L.L.C., CVS Orlando FL Distribution L.L.C., CVS PA Distribution L.L.C., CVS PR Center Inc., CVS Pharmacy Inc., CVS Pharmacy Overseas Online LLC, CVS RS Arizona L.L.C., CVS Rx Services Inc., CVS SC Distribution L.L.C., CVS Shaw Holdings Inc., CVS Shaw Holdings Inc.  Coram Clinical Trials Inc. 99.72%/Aetna Inc. .28%, CVS State Capital L.L.C., CVS TN Distribution L.L.C., CVS Transportation L.L.C., CVS Vero FL Distribution L.L.C., CVS-SHC Kidney Care Home Dialysis of Austin LLC, CVS-SHC Kidney Care Home Dialysis of Los Angeles LLC, CVS-SHC Kidney Care Home Dialysis of Philadelphia LLC, CVS-SHC Renal Holdings LLC, Campos Medical Pharmacy LLC, Canal Place LLC, Care Pharmaceutical Services LP, CareCenter Pharmacy L.L.C., Carefree Insurance Services Inc., Caremark Arizona Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Arizona Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark California Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Florida Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Florida Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Hawaii Mail Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Hawaii Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark IPA L.L.C., Caremark Illinois Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Illinois Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Irving Resource Center LLC, Caremark Kansas Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark L.L.C., Caremark Logistics LLC, Caremark Louisiana Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Maryland Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Massachusetts Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Michigan Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Minnesota Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark New Jersey Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark North Carolina Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Ohio Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Pennsylvania Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark PhC L.L.C., Caremark Puerto Rico L.L.C., Caremark Puerto Rico Specialty Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Redlands Pharmacy L.L.C., Caremark Repack LLC, Caremark Rx L.L.C., Caremark Tennessee Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Texas Mail Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Texas Specialty Pharmacy LLC, Caremark Ulysses Holding Corp., Caremark Washington Specialty Pharmacy LLC, CaremarkPCS Alabama Mail Pharmacy LLC, CaremarkPCS Health L.L.C., CaremarkPCS L.L.C., Central Rx Services LLC, Cofinity Inc., Compscript LLC, Connecticut CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Continental Life Insurance Company of Brentwood Tennessee, Continuing Care Rx LLC, Coram Alternate Site Services Inc., Coram Clinical Trials Inc., Coram Clinical Trials Inc.  CVS Pharmacy Inc. 75%/Aetna Life Insurance Company 25%, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Alabama, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Florida, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Greater D.C., Coram Healthcare Corporation of Greater New York, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Indiana, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Massachusetts, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Mississippi, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Nevada, Coram Healthcare Corporation of North Texas, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Northern California, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Southern California, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Southern Florida, Coram Healthcare Corporation of Utah, Coram LLC, Coram Rx LLC, Coram Specialty Infusion, Coram Specialty Infusion Services L.L.C., Coventry Consumer Advantage Inc., Coventry Health Care National Accounts Inc., Coventry Health Care National Network Inc., Coventry Health Care of Illinois Inc., Coventry Health Care of Kansas Inc., Coventry Health Care of Missouri Inc., Coventry Health Care of Nebraska Inc., Coventry Health Care of Virginia Inc., Coventry Health Care of West Virginia Inc., Coventry Health Plan of Florida Inc., Coventry Health and Life Insurance Company, Coventry HealthCare Management Corporation, Coventry Prescription Management Services Inc., Coventry Transplant Network Inc., Credentials Inc., D & R Pharmaceutical Services LLC, D.A.W. LLC, Delaware CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Delaware Physicians Care Incorporated, District of Columbia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., E.T.B. INC., Echo Merger Sub Inc., Eckerd Corporation of Florida Inc., Employee Assistance Services LLC, Enloe Drugs LLC, Enterprise Patient Safety Organization LLC, EntrustRX, Evergreen Pharmaceutical LLC, Evergreen Pharmaceutical of California LLC, Express Pharmacy Services of PA L.L.C., First Choice of the Midwest LLC, First Health Group Corp., First Health Life & Health Insurance Company, Florida Health Plan Administrators LLC, Garfield Beach CVS L.L.C., Generation Health L.L.C., Geneva Woods Health Services LLC, Geneva Woods LTC Pharmacy LLC, Geneva Woods Management LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy Alaska LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy Washington LLC, Geneva Woods Pharmacy Wyoming LLC, Geneva Woods Retail Pharmacy LLC, Georgia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., German Dobson CVS L.L.C., Goodhealth Worldwide (Asia) Limited, Goodhealth Worldwide (Global) Limited, Goodyear CVS L.L.C., Grand St. Paul CVS L.L.C., Grandview Pharmacy LLC, Group Dental Service Inc., Health Care Management Co. Ltd., Health Data & Management Solutions Inc., Health Re Inc., Health and Human Resource Center Inc., HealthAssurance Pennsylvania Inc., Highland Park CVS L.L.C., Holiday CVS L.L.C., Home Care Pharmacy LLC, Home Pharmacy Services LLC, Hook-SupeRx L.L.C., Horizon Behavioral Services LLC, Idaho CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., IlliniCare Health, Indian Health Organisation Private Limited, Innovation Health Holdings LLC, Innovation Health Insurance Company, Innovation Health Plan Inc., Interlock Pharmacy Systems LLC, Iowa CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., JHC Acquisition LLC, Kansas CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Kentucky CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., LCPS Acquisition LLC, Langsam Health Services LLC, Lo-Med Prescription Services LLC, Lobos Acquisition LLC, Longs Drug Stores, Longs Drug Stores California L.L.C., Louisiana CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., MHHP Acquisition Company LLC, MHNet Specialty Services LLC, MHNet of Florida Inc., Main Street Pharmacy L.L.C., Managed Care Coordinators Inc., Managed Healthcare LLC, Martin Health Services LLC, Maryland CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Med World Acquisition Corp., Medical Arts Health Care LLC, Medical Examinations of New York P.C., Melville Realty Company Inc., MemberHealth LLC, Mental Health Associates Inc., Mental Health Network of New York IPA Inc., Meritain Health Inc., Merwin Long Term Care LLC, Minor Health Enterprise Co Ltd., MinuteClinic, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Alabama L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Arizona LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Arkansas LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Colorado LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Florida LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Georgia LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Hawaii L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Illinois LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Kentucky L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Louisiana L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Maine L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Maryland LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Massachusetts LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Nebraska L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of New Hampshire L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of New Mexico L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Ohio LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Oklahoma LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Oregon LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Pennsylvania LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Rhode Island LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of South Carolina L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Texas LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Utah L.L.C., MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Virginia LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Washington LLC, MinuteClinic Diagnostic of Wisconsin L.L.C., MinuteClinic L.L.C., MinuteClinic Online Diagnostic Services LLC, MinuteClinic Physician Practice of Texas, MinuteClinic Telehealth Services LLC, MinuteClinic Telehealth Services of Texas Association, Mississippi CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Missouri CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Montana CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., NCS Healthcare of Illinois LLC, NCS Healthcare of Iowa LLC, NCS Healthcare of Kansas LLC, NCS Healthcare of Kentucky LLC, NCS Healthcare of Montana LLC, NCS Healthcare of New Mexico LLC, NCS Healthcare of Ohio LLC, NCS Healthcare of South Carolina LLC, NCS Healthcare of Tennessee LLC, NCS Healthcare of Wisconsin LLC, NIV Acquisition LLC, Navarro Discount Pharmacy, Nebraska CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., NeighborCare Pharmacy Services LLC, NeighborCare of Indiana LLC, NeighborCare of Virginia LLC, New Jersey CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Niagara Re Inc., North Carolina CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., North Shore Pharmacy Services LLC, NovoLogix LLC, OCR Services LLC, Ocean Acquisition Sub L.L.C., Ohio CVS Stores L.L.C., Oklahoma CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Omnicare, Omnicare Indiana Partnership Holding Company LLC, Omnicare LLC, Omnicare LLC  Aetna Inc 0.28%/CVS Cabot Holdings Inc. 49.86%/CVS Shaw Holdings Inc. 49.86%, Omnicare Pharmacies of Pennsylvania West LLC, Omnicare Pharmacies of the Great Plains Holding LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy and Supply Services LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy of Tennessee LLC, Omnicare Pharmacy of the Midwest LLC, Omnicare Property Management LLC, Omnicare of Nebraska LLC, Omnicare of Nevada LLC, Omnicare of New York LLC, Oregon CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., PE Holdings LLC, PHPSNE Parent Corporation, PP Acquisition Company LLC, PRN Pharmaceutical Services LP, PT Aetna Management Consulting, Pamplona Saude e Beleza LTDA, Part D Holding Company L.L.C., PayFlex Systems USA Inc., Pennsylvania CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Performax Inc., Pharmacy Associates of Glenn Falls LLC, Pharmacy Consultants LLC, Phoenix Data Solutions LLC, Precision Benefit Services Inc., Prime Net Inc., ProCare Pharmacy Direct L.L.C., ProCare Pharmacy L.L.C., Prodigy Health Group Inc., Professional Risk Management Inc., Puerto Rico CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Red Oak Sourcing LLC, Resources for Living LLC, Rhode Island CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Roeschens Healthcare LLC, RxAmerica, Schaller Anderson Medical Administrators Incorporated, Scrip World LLC, Sheffield Avenue CVS L.L.C., Shore Pharmaceutical Providers LLC, Silverscript Insurance Company, Soma Intimates, South Carolina CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., South Wabash CVS L.L.C., Specialized Pharmacy Services LLC, Stadtlander Drug Company, Stadtlander Pharmacy, Sterling Healthcare Services LLC, Superior Care Pharmacy LLC, Sutter Health and Aetna Administrative Services LLC, Sutter Health and Aetna Insurance Company, Sutter Health and Aetna Insurance Holding Company LLC, T2 Medical Inc., TCPI Acquisition LLC, TargetPharmacy, Tennessee CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Texas Health + Aetna Health Insurance Company, Texas Health + Aetna Health Insurance Holding Company LLC, Texas Health + Aetna Health Plan Inc., The Vasquez Group Inc., Thomas Phoenix CVS L.L.C., Three Forks Apothecary LLC, U.S Healthcare Holdings LLC, U.S. Healthcare Properties Inc., UAC Holding Inc., UC Acquisition LLC, UNI-Care Health Services of Maine LLC, Universal American - Medicare Part D Business, Utah CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., VAPS Acquisition Company LLC, Value Health Care Services LLC, Vermont CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Virginia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Virtual Home Healthcare LLC, Warm Springs Road CVS L.L.C., Washington CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Washington Lamb CVS L.L.C., Weber Medical Systems LLC, Wellpartner LLC, West Virginia CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Westhaven Services Co LLC, Williamson Drug Company LLC, Wisconsin CVS Pharmacy L.L.C., Woodward Detroit CVS L.L.C., Work and Family Benefits Inc., ZS Acquisition Company LLC, Zinc Health Services LLC, Zinc Health Ventures LLC, bSwift LLC, and iTriage LLC.

Read More
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
Power imports from India likely to jump 26pc

Nepals electricity imports from India are likely to jump 26 percent this winter as production has fallen at domestic hydropower plants with water levels in the rivers dropping sharply.
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.
Province 5 plans new security arrangement

A special security plan is being prepared for the safety and protection of state parliament, state government agencies, state ministers and senior officials in Province 5.
Rout to revival

Elites in the power corridors of Kathmandu are baffled more by the unexpected rout of the Nepali Congress (NC) in the recently concluded parliamentary polls than by the emphatic win of the UML-Maoist communist alliance by almost a two-thirds majority.
Binod Ghimire covers parliamentary affairs and human rights for The Kathmandu Post. Since joining the Post in 2010, he has reported primarily on social issues, focusing on education and transitional justice.
Police recovered 270 grams jewellery 555 grams of silver articles and a bike all worth Rs 9 lakh from the possession of Shaik Rafi. (Representational image)

Hyderabad: A bike mechanic turned interstate burglar was arrested by the Rachakonda police at Ibrahimpatnam on Tuesday. Police recovered 270 grams jewellery 555 grams of silver articles and a bike all worth Rs 9 lakh from the possession of Shaik Rafi .

According to police, Rafi, 28, is working as a bike mechanic and started committing thefts to earn easy money. Based on technical evidence, he was nabbed on Tuesday. On inquiry, confessed that in the year 2017 alone, he was involved in seven burglary cases.

Shaik Rafi was earlier associated with notorious criminals in separate cases. All of them are out of jail now. He was produced before the court on Tuesday.
Karnan had earned the dubious distinction of becoming the first sitting high court judge to have been sentenced to jail. (Photo: PTI/File)

Kolkata: Former Calcutta High Court judge CS Karnan is set to be released on Wednesday after serving a six-month jail sentence, which was handed out to him by the Supreme Court for contempt.

Karnan was arrested from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu on June 20 after he evaded the police for over a month.

His wife, Saraswati Karnan, who resides in Chennai, is scheduled to arrive in the city this evening, along with her elder son.

"He (Karnan) is scheduled to be released tomorrow. I am coming to Kolkata to accompany him back to Chennai," Saraswati Karnan said on Tuesday.

Saraswati Karnan, a professor of economics in a Chennai college, said she had last met her husband at the Presidency Correctional Home here a month-and-a-half ago.

"I found him in good spirits and health," she said.

Karnan had earned the dubious distinction of becoming the first sitting high court judge to have been sentenced to jail.

The apex court had sentenced him to six months in jail for contempt of court on May 9. Karnan was a serving judge of the Calcutta High Court at that time.

A seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice of India J S Khehar, had asked the West Bengal director general of police (DGP) to take Karnan, who was on a warpath with the apex court for months, into custody.

The Supreme Court had earlier issued a bailable warrant against the judge to secure his presence before it in connection with the contempt case.

Karnan had appeared before the apex court on March 31, a first in the country's judicial history, and asked for restoration of his powers as a pre-condition for his re- appearance, but the plea was rejected.

Karnan, who had enrolled as an advocate with the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu in 1983, was appointed a judge of the Madras High Court in 2009. He was transferred to the Calcutta High Court on March 11, 2016.

He was transferred from the Madras High Court for his repeated allegations against and run-ins with the then chief justice and fellow judges of the court.
KOLLAM: The judicial commission headed by Justice P.S. Gopinathan on Tuesday began examining the witnesses in connection with the Puttingal temple tragedy at the Ashramam government guest house here. The commission examined eight witnesses, including a police officer who was on duty at the time of the temple tragedy on April 10, 2016. The commission, along with lawyers of respondents, also visited the blast site. On the following days, the examination of each witness will take place, Mr K. Vasudeven, retired sub-judge and secretary to Justice P.S. Gopinathan inquiry commission, told DC. Nearly 100 persons, including those associated with the temple, social workers, the injured and the local residents gave statements and petitions. The three-day sitting will conclude on Thursday.

The commission had earlier examined the official witnesses at the commissions headquarters at GCDA building at Marine Drive in Kochi. The judicial probe into the tragedy was announced by the former government on the fateful day by appointing retired justice N. Krishnan Nair as the commission. But he later resigned on personal grounds in December. The LDF government in February 2017 appointed Justice P.S. Gopinathan as the new commission.

Even as the Crime Branch police was about to submit its investigation report on the disaster in January this year, the Kerala High Court directed an investigation into the extraneous influence to procure sanction to conduct the competitive fireworks at the temple. There are a total of 59 accused in the cases registered, out of whom seven persons died during the course of the investigation. The competitive fireworks held during the temple festival had claimed 110 lives and left over 700 injured.
Suzuki Celerio facelift launched in Nepal

CG Motocorp, authorised distributor of Suzuki cars has launched the latest update to their popular passenger car Celerio in Nepal. The new Celerio is being introduced as the perfect family car.
Veerendra Kumar announced his decision to resign from the Upper House after sending a resignation letter to Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu. (File photo)

New Delhi: Janata Dal (United) leader MP Veerendra Kumar on Wednesday resigned from the Rajya Sabha, saying he did not agree with his party chief and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's decision to join the NDA fold.

Veerendra Kumar announced his decision to resign from the Upper House after sending a resignation letter to Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu.

"Legally, I'm in Rajya Sabha as a member of Nitish Kumar's party. I don't agree with his stand dumping the 'Mahagathbandhan' and aligning with the Sangh Parivar and the BJP," he said in a press conference in Delhi.

On the recent Gujarat state elections, Veerendra Kumar said what happened in Gujarat was not a victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"The Gujarat election results were not a victory for Modi but, if anything, it suggests otherwise," he said, adding that the opposition parties must evaluate the result in the coming days.

The rebellion in the JD(U) started after Nitish Kumar, the Bihar chief minister, decided to break ranks with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress in Bihar and join the NDA in July.

Veerendra Kumar, a media baron from Kerala and the JD(U) state unit president, had last month announced his decision to relinquish his Rajya Sabha membership amid the political crisis gripping the party at the state-level.

JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav was recently disqualified as a member of the Upper House after Naidu agreed to his party's plea that he had "voluntarily given up" his membership by joining a rally of opposition parties in Patna in August.
The 21-year-old deceased woman who was attacked by rats were asked to visit DME in Koti to provide copies of the complaint.

Hyderabad: The State Human Rights Commission took a suo motu cognisance on the rat incident against Osmania General Hospital after reading reports published in newspapers. It has ordered an inquiry and asked for the report to be submitted by December 28.

The notice was issued to the superintendent of Osmania Hospital and the principal secretary of medical and health department.

Meanwhile, relatives of the 21-year-old deceased woman who was attacked by rats were asked to visit DME in Koti to provide copies of the complaint.

Afzalgunj police saw to it that the postmortem examination was done and the body was handed over to us, N. Karan, a relative of deceased U. Madhu said.

Hospital Superintendent Dr B. Nagender said a departmental inquiry into the incident has been initiated. Hospital officials claimed that the incident took place due to the negligence of workers, who failed to lock the storage unit properly.

Talking about why Madhu had committed suicide, police said Madhu had married a GHMC worker four years ago and lived in Mangaar Basti. She had been showing signs of mental instability after she lost her first child.

Madhu committed suicide by hanging herself at her house on Monday.

Police said there was no complaint of harassment or any such issue by the family.

The hospital superintendents office said the authorities were renovating the R&D ward for now with the funds it had received.
BENGALURU: Six-month-old James and John are back to their playful self after a corrective surgery at Narayana Health City. From Nigeria, the two were conjoined omphalopagus twins, that is they were joined at the upper part of their abdomen. Doctors at Narayana Health City have successfully separated them.

Elaborating on the challenges, Dr Ashley DCruz, Director & Senior Consultant, Paediatric Surgeon & Urologist, said, Separation of conjoined twins calls for a detailed and complex intervention. First, medication had to be calculated and distributed to both babies in an optimum manner for both. Sedation and anaesthesia had to be provided. It was challenging as they lay on their sides and not their backs. Also, due to potential for cross circulation, careful administration of drugs had to be ensured.

The paediatric surgery team at Narayana Health evaluated their condition. The family had cared for the babies well. Besides detailed clinical examination, detailed imaging studies were also done. All aspects of their anatomy were detailed and a well charted out plan made for the separation operation. Barring liver, all other organs were separate. The liver was carefully divided along anatomical planes and the twins were separated. The babies required use of a mesh to ensure closure of their abdomen and that was also done successfully. Post operation, they have made a rapid recovery, but are also in a position to live independent lives.
'On Afghanistan, the US will continue to partner with it to promote peace and security in the region,' says White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders. (Photo AFP)

Washington: US President Donald Trump has asked Pakistan to take "decisive action" against terror groups operating on its soil, as he unveiled America's new National Security Strategy.

The US will also encourage Pakistan to continue demonstrating that it is a responsible steward of its nuclear assets, the National Security Strategy (NSS) said.

Mandated by the Congress, Trump on Monday released his first NSS, according to which the US has asked Pakistan to intensify its counterterrorism efforts.

"We have made clear to Pakistan that while we desire continued partnership, we must see decisive action against terrorist groups operating on their territory. And we make massive payments every year to Pakistan. They have to help," Trump said in his remarks as he announced the NSS.

Pakistan has received more than USD 33 billion from US since the 9/11 terror attacks.

"We will press Pakistan to intensify its counterterrorism efforts, since no partnership can survive a country's support for militants and terrorists who target a partner's own service members and officials," it said.

The NSS links its efforts to build trade and investment ties with Pakistan with improvement in security.

The Trump administration has been talking tough with Pakistan after it came to power, but has stopped short of taking any action against it even though the Pakistani leadership have shown reluctance in taking decisive actions against terrorist groups.

On November 25, the White House asked Pakistan to immediately re-arrest and prosecute Hafiz Saeed, leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba.

"If Pakistan does not take action to lawfully detain Saeed and charge him for his crimes, its inaction will have repercussions for bilateral relations and for Pakistans global reputation," the White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders had said.

On Afghanistan, the US will continue to partner with it to promote peace and security in the region, it said.

"We will continue to promote anti-corruption reform in Afghanistan to increase the legitimacy of its government and reduce the appeal of violent extremist organisations," it added.

In his South Asia speech on August 21, Trump became the first US president to publicly point out for its support to terrorist outfits and leaders.

"For its part, Pakistan often gives safe haven to agents of chaos, violence, and terror," he said and asked Pakistan to "demonstrate" its commitment to civilisation, order, and to peace.

The US, Trump then said, can no longer be silent about Pakistan's safe havens for terrorist organisations, the Taliban, and other groups that pose a threat to the region and beyond.

Since then top US leadership, including the Defence Secretary Jim Mattis and the Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, have visited Pakistan to press the latter.

Mattis has refused to give necessary certification to Pakistan that it is taking action against Haqqani network, as a result of which blocking several hundred million coalition support funds to Islamabad.
The UNGA will hold an emergency session Thursday to vote on the proposed measure that the US vetoed at the Security Council. (Photo: Twitter/@nikkihaley)

United Nations: US Ambassador Nikki Haley on Tuesday warned countries that she will report back to President Donald Trump with the names of those who support a draft resolution rejecting the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The UN General Assembly will hold an emergency session Thursday to vote on the proposed measure that the United States vetoed at the Security Council.

"The president will be watching this vote carefully and has requested I report back on those countries who voted against us," said the letter from Haley seen by AFP.

"We will take note of each and every vote on this issue," she wrote to several UN ambassadors.

Haley posted on Twitter, "the US will be taking names" during the vote on Thursday at the 193-nation assembly.

At the UN we're always asked to do more & give more. So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl, abt where to locate OUR embassy, we don't expect those we've helped to target us. On Thurs there'll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names. pic.twitter.com/ZsusB8Hqt4  Nikki Haley (@nikkihaley) December 19, 2017

Turkey and Yemen requested the urgent meeting on behalf of the Arab group of countries and the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

The two countries circulated a draft resolution on Tuesday that mirrors the vetoed measure, reaffirming that any decision on the status of Jerusalem has no legal effect and must be rescinded.

Egypt had put forward the draft at the council which was backed by all 14 other Security Council members in the vote on Monday.

Like the Egyptian draft, the text before the assembly does not mention Trump's decision but expresses "deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem."

Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour said he expected "overwhelming support" for the measure stating that Jerusalem is an issue "to be resolved through negotiations" between Israel and the Palestinians.

"The General Assembly will say, without the fear of the veto, that the international community is refusing to accept the unilateral position of the United States," Mansour told reporters.

No country has veto powers in the General Assembly, contrary to the council where the United States, along with Britain, China, France and Russia, can block any resolution.

Trump's December 6 decision to recognise Jerusalem broke with international consensus, triggering protests across the Muslim world and drawing strong condemnation.

Key US allies Britain, France, Italy, Japan and Ukraine were among the 14 countries in the 15-member council that voted in favour of the measure.

After that vote, Haley described the 14-1 vote "an insult" and warned "it won't be forgotten."

She went further on Tuesday, warning in her Twitter post: "At the UN we're always asked to do more & give more. So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl, abt where to locate OUR embassy, we don't expect those we've helped to target us.

"On Thurs there'll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names."

After the clash at the top UN body, the White House announced that US Vice

Israel seized control of the eastern part of the city in the 1967 Middle East war and sees all of Jerusalem as its undivided capital. The Palestinians view the east as the capital of their future state.

Several UN resolutions call on Israel to withdraw from territory seized during the 1967 war.
The people of Maldives and its business community are alarmed on the implications of the FTA and view it as an aggressive act by China to pursue its own agenda. (Photo: ANI)

Hong Kong: President Abdulla Yameen's rush to sign a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China during his recent visit to Beijing without following constitutional/legal norms has generated considerable anti-China sentiment in the Maldives.

The lopsided nature of the FTA, loaded as it is heavily in favour of the Chinese, would adversely impact on virtually every segment of Maldivian economy.

The people of Maldives and its business community are alarmed on the implications of the FTA and view it as an aggressive act by China to pursue its own agenda.

The opposition parties in Maldives and the business community attribute the deal also to President Yameen's underhand dealings in award of contracts to Chinese companies and an effort by Yameen and the China to protect the latter's investments in the Maldives.

There is no doubt that Yameen has rushed into signing the FTA, a document that has neither been thoroughly reviewed, nor feasibility studies done or discussions held with stakeholders.

According to sources within the Maldives government, there was pressure from China on signing of the FTA, the first by Maldives with any other country.

It appears that the Chinese embassy in Male had made it clear to the Maldives that in future all financial assistance to the country would be linked to the signing of the FTA.

A cursory study of the FTA document will be enough to understand that the FTA is Beijing driven, with little in it for Male.

The preamble of the document includes 'strengthening cooperation on jointly building the 21st century Maritime Silk Road', one of the key goals of the Chinese government under President Xi Jinping.

The FTA gives Maldives full market access in China for fish and fishery products, coconut, cotton seeds, processed cheese, eggs, soyabean, etc. at zero duty. In return, Maldives will open up to China its construction, tourism and travel, education, waste management, water management, insurance, traditional medicine, transport including maritime transport services.

The FTA is unlikely to boost Maldives exports to China, given its narrow export base.

However, the inclusion of trade in services, especially mode 3 (commercial presence) and mode 4 (movement of natural persons) would enable China to open tour and travel related representative offices in the Maldives, operate cruise/line-abroad tourist accommodation vessels with 40 bed capacity or more.

Opening of the tourism sector to the Chinese would result in loss to Maldivian tourism revenues apart from cutting employment opportunities for locals.

The FTA would further open the floodgates for Chinese imports adversely affecting Maldives' fragile balance of payments situation. In its entirety, the FTA would make Maldives an offshore hub for China.

The opposition parties in the Maldives have united in their opposition on the FTA. In this regard, they handed over (Dec 6, 2017) a signed letter to the Chinese Ambassador in Male Zhang Lizhong, where they expressed deep concern over the signing of FTA.

The opposition leaders highlighted that the Maldivian government followed unconstitutional and illegal process in the Parliament to approve the FTA and as such Members of Parliament of the opposition could not recognize the FTA in its current form.

The letter was signed by MDP Parliamentary Group (PG) leader Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, Abdulla Riyaz, Deputy PG leader of JP; Mohamed Musthafa, PG member of PPM (Gayoom faction) and Anara Naeem, PG leader of Adhaalat Party.

The FTA and similar other steps taken by the Abdulla Yameen government that has blatantly favoured China has generated anti-Chinese sentiments in the country. It is to be seen, as to how far the Yameen government is ready to play with local sentiments in his efforts to placate China.
The retrieval operations are still ongoing but we are not finding anyone alive. We only find dead bodies, Sofronio Dacillo, a disaster monitoring officer said. (Photo: AFP)

Manila: The death toll from a tropical storm that pummelled the central Philippines rose to 43 with hopes fading for dozens of others still missing after massive landslides, authorities said on Tuesday.

Slow-moving Kai-Tak finally swept out to the South China Sea on Monday after inducing days of heavy rain that led to deadly floods and landslides as it sliced across the central islands last weekend.

The government's disaster monitoring agency listed 43 dead in an updated tally and said 45 other people were still missing, many of them feared buried by mud avalanches that struck the small island of Biliran.

"The retrieval operations are still ongoing but we are not finding anyone alive. We only find dead bodies," Sofronio Dacillo, a disaster monitoring officer informed over a phone call from Biliran.

"We still have not given up hope of finding someone alive but the chances are slim."

Bulldozers continued to dig for survivors in houses buried by landslides on Biliran, located about 500 kilometres (310 miles) southeast of Manila. The island accounted for 30 of the 43 deaths, with 31 residents missing, authorities said.

The storm's slow movement caused large volumes of rain to fall on the central Philippines, government weather forecaster Jun Galang said.

"It stayed almost stationary so it dumped a lot of rain and caused a lot of landslides which caused many deaths," Galang said.

About half of the more than 1,00,000 people who fled their homes remained inside evacuation centres this week, the government said.

As rescue efforts continued, Philippine authorities monitored another low-pressure area in the Pacific Ocean that the state weather service said could develop into a storm and strike the archipelago over the Christmas weekend.

The Philippines is battered by 20 major storms each year on average, many of them deadly.
Two firemen injured in Birgunj gas factory inferno airlifted to Kathmandu

Two fire fighters, who were injured when they went to douse fire at Sukhasaina-based Super gas factory in Birgunj, have been airlifted to Kathmandu for treatment by Nepal Army helicopter.
NEC Corporation is supplying a wide-area disaster prevention system to the Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysical Agency of the Republic of Indonesia (Indonesia).

A grant aid from the Japanese government program for improving equipment for disaster risk management will be used for this system, which is scheduled to commence operation in the first half of 2018.

Indonesia is a country with an extremely high risk of earthquakes, as seen by the significant damage caused by the Great Sumatra Earthquake in December 2004. Forecast and warning systems for earthquakes and tsunamis have already been established and operated, but there is demand to improve the accuracy of epicentre analysis and magnitude estimation.

This wide-area disaster prevention system will gather seismic intensity and waveform information obtained from seismometers newly installed at 93 sites across Indonesia. The data will be provided to a server at the headquarters of the Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysical Agency in Jakarta on a real-time basis via a satellite-based communication system (VSAT).

The operation will enable the Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysical Agency to monitor seismic activity constantly and improve the accuracy of epicentre analysis and magnitude estimation.

"NEC's system will contribute to efforts in Indonesia to reduce damage caused by disasters and increase the capacity to cope with them by quickly and accurately grasping and sharing seismological observation data," said Minoru Hirata, General Manager, Smart Infrastructure Division, NEC Corporation. "Moreover, NEC aims to reinforce these efforts by proposing systems that are capable of detecting earthquakes and providing early warnings about related tremors, as well as systems that detect tsunami waves."
Specialist independent financial advisor and asset manager Frenkel Topping provided a strategic update for the group on Wednesday.

The AIM-traded company said that, since the changes to the executive team during the last few months, the board had undertaken a detailed review of the company's activities and competitive advantages.

As a result of that, the directors of the company believed that the potential addressable market available to the firm ws broader than that which the it had historically targeted, being a focus on medical negligence or personal injury cases.

As a result, the board had made investments in the company's cost base to reflect a restructuring along a number of core business lines.

The board said Frenkel Topping would continue to offer expert witness and independent financial advice to clients who had suffered personal injury or medical negligence claims as an established market leader.

Frenkel Topping Investment Management would continue to offer low-risk investment products that were designed to preserve client assets, but also offers higher return products that were more exposed to equities.

The company would continue to seek to expand FTIM's offering beyond the current three core portfolios offered, the board said, and would seek to expand FTIM's services to a wider audience.

A recently-launched new business, Obiter Wealth Management, would offer financial advice to clients who were in receipt of large lump sums that they had a need to invest.

Frenkel Topping said those clients could include the former owners of family businesses that they had recently sold, divorcees, retirees who were in receipt of a large lump sum or may need to invest their pension pot to provide income in retirement, and charities who needed to invest in very safe assets.

In order to permit the growth in the company's existing business and the new activities referred to above, the company has increased its cost base slightly this year and will continue to do so in 2018 and beyond, the board explained in its statement,

This will allow investments in information technology, compliance, marketing and additional hiring.

Adding to the current infrastructure was expected to deliver disproportionate growth in operating profit in the medium term, the board added, as the company was able to significantly increase the amount of assets under management that it was able to target and potentially with shorter sales cycles than was currently the case, as it moves into targeting new end clients through Obiter.

As part of the changes to its strategy, the firm would have a lesser focus on utilising its cash resources to drive investment profits - including property revaluations - which had assisted it to trade broadly in line with its market expectations, as announced on 14 November.

The group also announced that it has accepted the first intake into its graduate development scheme, who - over a two year training programme - would gain experience in all aspects of the business and would obtain the initial qualifications they needed to become the investment advisors of the future.

Frenkel Topping said most of those selected for the programme were existing employees, adding that the expectation that existing personnel would be considered for new positions helped staff morale.

In addition, the improved workplace offered in its new offices, improved information systems provided by its investment in technology and attractive employment terms all helped staff retention, which the board said it believed was important in driving the long term success of the company.

Since the new executive team has been put in place, we have thoroughly reviewed the company's strengths and the best way to leverage Frenkel Topping's competitive advantage in servicing vulnerable clients, said executive chairman Paul Richardson.

The company benefits from a high proportion of recurring revenue, which provides us with the confidence to make additional investments in Frenkel Topping's infrastructure.

Whilst this will result in some increased costs, we believe that the addressable market will be greatly increased and we expect that these investments will drive significant additional revenue growth and drive a significant increase in shareholder value.
Charlie Lee the software engineer, founder of Litecoin has said in a reddit post that he has sold and donated all of his coins during following a 75-fold rally this year.

In the post, he said he sold because in the past he had been accused every time he tweeted about Litecoin of trying to influence the price and that he might be doing so for personal benefit.

"I have always refrained from buying/selling LTC before or after my major tweets, but this is something only I know. And there will always be a doubt on whether any of my actions were to further my own personal wealth above the success of Litecoin and crypto-currency in general."

He also assured that he was not quitting Litecoin, explaining that when the company succeeded he would still be rewarded in other ways (not just directly via ownership of coins). For him, that was the best way to contribute to Litecoin's growth.

He did not comment on how many coins were sold and at what price, opting instead only to point out that the sale had not crashed the market.

Litecoin has climbed more than 9% in the last week to $330.07, according to coinmarketcap.com, but it slumped 7% on Wednesday - like most digital currencies - in the wake of reports about a hacking incident laid low a South Korean exchange.

Lee insisted in his post that he hadn't sold his coins because he had lost faith in his cryptocurrency.

Lee created Litecoin in 2011 as a cheaper and quicker alternative to bitcoin, turning it into the 5th largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of over $17bn, according to CoinMarketCap.com.
The US Senate has passed Trumps tax reform bill entailing the most drastic changes in US taxation since the 1980s, including a permanent tax cut for corporations but temporary tax relief for individuals.

The $1.5trn tax reform was first voted on in the House of Representatives and approved by a vote of 227 to 203, followed by a vote of 51-48 in the Senate, with all republicans in the upper chamber of Congress voting in favour and all democrats against it.

However, the House would have to vote on it again on Wednesday before having President Donald Trump sign it into law because the original bill, which was modified by the Senate, included three provisions contravening the so-called Byrd rule.

But in any case, the second house ballot was considered almost a formality, meaning Trump had clinched the first significant legislative victory of his presidency, although some reactions to the bill were quite tepid.

Nancy Pelosi, House minority leader said it is "the worst bill in history. An all-out looting of America, a wholesale robbery of the middle class." She also went on to describe it as one of the most scandalous acts of plutocracy in our history.

"There may also be some belated realisation that this bill wont necessarily boost the US economy that much but will cause the US budget deficit to ballon. Of course, that could be USD-positive if it pushes US bond yields higher, but at what cost? Higher bond yields stemming from faster economic activity are a plus for a currency, but are higher bond yields stemming from government profligacy really a positive?," chipped in Marshall Glitter, head of strategy at ACLS Global.

Trump on the other hand, praised the Senate for passing the bill and repealing the terrible individual mandate (ObamaCare). He wants to give the American people a big beautiful Christmas present.

The United States Senate just passed the biggest in history Tax Cut and Reform Bill. Terrible Individual Mandate (ObamaCare)Repealed. Goes to the House tomorrow morning for final vote. If approved, there will be a News Conference at The White House at approximately 1:00 P.M.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 20 de diciembre de 2017

The bill would cut the top rate individual tax from 39.6% to 37% and lower the main corporate tax rate down to 21% (from 35%), but higher earning individuals were expected to benefit the most, although American companies' position relative to other industrialized economies - that have an average corporate rate of 22.5% - was set to improve.

On the negative side of the ledger, the new legislation was harshly criticised because it would limit tax deductions for home mortgages and local taxes and add over a trillion dollars to the government's debt pile.

The bill also attacked the heart of the Affordable Care Act, which required Americans get health insurance or pay a fine. It was expected that 13m Americans would drop their insurance as they would now no longer face a penalty.

Republicans have also added a measure to the bill allowing drilling for oil in parts of the Arctic that had been protected since the 1960s.

Chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, Michael Hewson said that the reform could be seen as transformative or unfair: "There is no doubt that the US tax system needs some measure of reform, however that is where the consensus would appear to start and end.

"The wider debate is over whether the US economy needs this sort of fiscal stimulus at a time when economic growth is already trending above 2.5% and unemployment is at a multi-year low of 4.1%," he added.

"The big question now is whether having seen stocks rise in anticipation of legislation being passed, that the current momentum is maintained or we see a case of 'buy the rumour, sell the news' as we head towards the Christmas break," he concluded.
Stocks on the Continent dropped as traders booked profits following approval of US Republicans' tax cut plans the day before and amid year-end book squaring.

By the closing bell, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was off by 0.68% or 2.65 points at 388.37, alongside a retreat of 1.11% or 146.62 points to 13,069.17 on the German Dax and a drop of 0.74% or 165.32 points for the FTSE Mibtel to 22,109.65.

In related price-action in other asset classes, euro/dollar was climbing 0.36% to 1.1886 as the yield on the benchmark 10-year Bund gained three basis points to 0.41%, with the latter extending the prior day's upward move.

Overnight, both chambers of the US Congress passed Republicans' tax cut proposals, although the lower House would be forced to repeat its vote on Wednesday because its version of the bill hit a procedural snag.

"European stocks have slid into the red as the bullish momentum has evaporated. Last night, the US House of Representatives voted in favour of introducing the new tax reforms, but due to a procedural snag, they will have to vote on it again today.

"Investors have been looking forward to this day Donald Trump won the Presidential election, and now that it has arrived, traders are unwinding down their positions. Dealers are squaring up this books ahead of Christmas and some of the froth is being taken off of the top of the equity markets," said David Madden at CMC Markets UK.

To take note of, following their meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Conservatives and Social Democratic Party leaders said they would begin talks aimed at creating a 'grand coalition' on 7 January.

On the macroeconomic front, producer prices in the euro area's largest economy slipped last month.

The rate of advance in German factory gate prices slowed from a 2.7% year-on-year clip in October to 2.5% for November (consensus: 2.5%), according to the country's Ministry of Finance.

Elsewhere, the European Central bank reported that the currency bloc's current account surplus shrank by 8.4bn in October to reach 30.8bn last month, mainly as a result of a large drop in the euro area's positive balance on foreign trade.

German energy group Engie's chairman Peter Terium announced he would step down with immediate effect following what some market commentary said was a clash in the company's top ranks over the company's strategy.

Three consortia, including France's Engie, Australian outfit Macquarie Group and the UAE's sovereign wealth fund, Mubdala Development, presented proposals for a Brazilian gas pipeline network that was owned by Petrobras, three persons with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
Value of life

With tearful eyes Rama from Nawalparasi district shares My husbands contractual period in Malaysia was coming to an end.
Embattled Carillion has negotiated an earlier start date for new chief executive, Andrew Davies, who will now begin work more than two months before he was expected.

The construction and outsourcing company, which last month released its third profit warning this year, had anticipated the former BAE Systems executive would start work on 2 April when his appointment was announced in late October.

But Davies, who since 2014 has been boss of construction group Wates, will now take up the role at Carillion on 22 January after some sweet-talking by chairman Philip Green.

Keith Cochrane, who was appointed as interim CEO after former boss Richard Howson resigned in the summer alongside a massive profit warning, will step down from his role but will stay on in an advisory capacity for a while to help smooth the transition.

Looking to reassure investors after seeing its shares fall more than 90% since July, Carillion highlighted that Davies "brings executive, strategic, turn around and leadership skills to the company as well as experience of complex public sector contracting in projects, support services and construction".

Chairman Green, who is an adviser to the Prime Minister on corporate responsibility, added: "We are very grateful to the board of Wates Group Ltd, and to James Wates CBE, their chairman, for their facilitation of Andrew's earlier appointment. It is a demonstration of how the sector is willing to cooperate and collaborate to ensure the long term sustainability of UK industry."

Last month's profit warning also revealed that the company expects to breach its debt covenants.

A combination of delays to certain public private partnership disposals, a slippage in the start date of a significant Middle East project and lower-than-expected margin improvements across a number of UK support services contracts have hit profits for the calendar year. While management have been focused on reducing costs, collecting cash, carrying out disposals and implementing the new operating model, average net debt is coming down slowly but not sufficiently to reach the target net debt to EBITDA ratio of between 1.0 to 1.5 times by the end of next year.

As a result, the board and lenders have agreed that "some form of recapitalisation" is needed, possibly involving a restructuring of the balance sheet. Discussions with lenders have led to amendments to the relevant agreements to defer the test date for both the company's financial covenants from 31 December 2017 to 30 April 2018, by which time the new recapitalisation plan should be in place.
Micro Focus International said John Schultz had left its board and would be replaced by an independent non-executive director.

The business software company said Schultz had stepped down immediately. After his recent appointment as chief legal officer at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) he needs to concentrate on his new job and Micro Focus requires a more independent director, Micro Focus said.

Micro Focus became Britain's biggest technology company in September when it bought HPE's software business for $8.8bn (6.6bn). The deal, which coincided with Micro Focus joining the FTSE 100, gave HPE shareholders 50.1% of the combined company and HPE installed Schultz on the board as a nominated director.

Micro Focus said: "Micro Focus and HPE have agreed that HPE should nominate an independent non-executive to replace John Schultz on the Micro Focus board. This will enable John Schultz to focus on his new responsibilities and enable Micro Focus to increase the mix of independent directors on the board."
The Competition & Markets Authority said it considered the implications of Britain's biggest supermarket buying the country's largest wholesaler but that it concluded consumers would not be harmed by the deal.

The takeover was announced in January and took the retail market by surprise. Rival wholesalers called for the deal to be blocked and argued it threatened the survival of independent retailers by giving Tesco too much power over grocery buying. A combined Tesco and Booker would be able to drive other operators out of business, they said.

The CMA started investigating the deal in May and in the summer intensified its scrutiny of how the combination might affect Booker's customers, such as Budgen, Londis and Premier, and harm competition in more than 350 areas.

But the regulator decided these shops could choose where to buy products and that competition in the retail sector made it unlikely Tesco would use the merger to raise prices or cut service levels. Most shops use more than one wholesaler and they switch frequently.

Many retailers surveyed said they might ditch Booker if it raised prices, the CMA said. Booker's share of the wholesale market, which is less than 20%, is not big enough for it to force rivals out of business by using Tesco's buying power to purchase more cheaply.

Simon Polito, who chaired the inquiry group, said: We have carefully listened to feedback from retailers and wholesalers who operate in what are highly competitive UK retail and wholesale sectors. Retailers have told us that they shop around for the best prices and service from their wholesaler, and we are confident that this will continue after Tesco buys Booker.

This has been an important investigation for us. Millions of people use their local supermarket or convenience store to buy their groceries or essentials, so it is vital that they have enough choice to secure the best deal for them. Having examined the evidence in depth, we are satisfied this will remain the case following the merger.

The CMA's decision is likely to face criticism from retailers, wholesalers and consumer groups. It is also the second long and costly inquiry into a retail merger with no action taken. The CMA cleared Poundland's takeover of 99p Stores in 2015 after changing its mind about the likely effect on competition.

Nick Bubb, an independent retail analyst, said: "Christmas has come early for Tesco and Booker. The wretched CMA has finally and unconditionally cleared the merger on the somewhat surprising grounds that it does not raise any competition concerns."

Tesco said it expected shareholder meetings for both companies would probably take place in February with the deal set to complete in March.
The member States have built an original multipolar system, but does this guarantee consistency ? The multipolarity of the EU is a product of history that can yield significant results and serious contradictions.

Begun during the Cold War, the construction of the European community was not the product of a pre-scripted scenario but the result of a number of convergent internal and external motivating factors. It has been a construction process, ideologically quite vague, built as a sort of exercise in inventive DIY and based on constant negotiation and compromise rather than conflict. Anyone simply visiting World War I and II cemeteries, looking at the crosses and monuments and reading off the names of those who died, can understand that the European project is an instrument for peace that commands respect. Its failings should not mask the fact that the European community is probably the most successful outcome of the United Nations Organisation (UNO) charter, since a war be-tween EU members has now become highly improbable. The accession process requires each candidate to pacify its relations with its neighbours. Beyond this, the EU exerts positive external influence on law and peace in its immediate environment and world-wide. This is why the EU can be qualified as an international organization for the public good.

The member States have built an original multipolar system, but does this guarantee consistency ?

I. The multipolarity of the EU is a product of history

The EU is a multipolar system in the sense that it is an organized set of entities combing several poles. The system is the result of countless negotiations in which the players include member States and European institutions.

States with highly differentiated characteristics

Since July 1 2013, and at this writing, the EU has been made up of 28 member States. Often opposed and indeed sometimes at war in the past, they are all marked by unique histories, have varied structures and singular approaches to geopolitics. France is a centralised state, while Germany is comfortable in its federalism and would be more than happy to see its blueprint reproduced, one way or another, in the EU.

Each countrys history cannot be applied to others. France perceives itself as a millenary nation state, while the Czech Republic and Slovakia are, to some extent, youthful, since they were born in 1993 with the peaceful division of the former Czechoslovakia. This of course does not prevent both countries from having a long previous history. Each member State forms a pole within the EU configuration, having its own capital city and calculating what is best for it and when. Note how we always say Paris and Berlin think that. The political capitals are here synonymous with executive power. These States do not have friends ; they have allies, partners and rivals. For them, the key question remains : how we can maximise our gains, and  relinquish as little sovereignty as possible ? Around common interests  some regular, others short-lived  member countries form and revive alliances.

Thus, the EUs social policy is often presented as a weak aspect of European policy. It is true that the rule of unanimity that applies here makes it difficult to define ambitious goals. Some member countries do not have a minimum wage and others have few qualms about making social dumping an attractive argument for their domestic labour market. To some extent, the populations of the EU member states have never been so fiercely in competition for jobs. Faced with rising unemployment, the Commission felt that it was important to give the impression that it was doing something about it. This led to the 2012 employment package, a set of recommendations to member states to reinvigorate the job market. The commissioners took up the cause of minimum wages, differentiated by sector and negotiated between social partners. In June 2013, the European Council introduced a global approach to reduce unemployment among young people, an age group that is particularly exposed and whose support for European construction has been waning.

A transversal study of a wide range of social issues has shown significant differences across the member states. If we take for example the practice of imprisonment, it is immediately obvious that incarceration rates are not systematically proportional to crime rates, but correspond to a vision of delinquency and crime and how these should be treated. The member States making the most extensive use of imprisonment are by decreasing order : Estonia (302 people imprisoned for a population of 100,000) ; Latvia (293) ; Lithuania (232) ; Poland (228) ; the Czech Republic (185) and Slovakia (162). It will not have escaped the readers attention that these are all former USSR Soviet Republics or satellites. With an incarceration rate of 95 per 100,000 inhabitants, France lies below the EU average (123), between the Netherlands and Germany. The countries that have the least recourse to jail are from the highest downwards : Cyprus (79) ; Sweden (77) ; Ireland (75) ; Denmark (71) ; Finland (68) and Slovenia (60). This shows that in an emblematic area of social culture like imprisonment, results are very disparate across the EU member countries, Estonia making five times more use of imprisonment than Slovenia.

 and unidentified institutions

From the institutional angle, the EU also looks like a multipolar organisation. Article 13 of the EU treaty revised by the Treaty of Lisbon lists the following institutions : the European Council, the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, the European Court of Auditors, the Court of Justice of the European Union and the Central European Bank. It is worth noting that in recent years, the European Council has increasingly tended to marginalize the Council of Ministers and the European Commission.

Moreover, since the Treaty of Lisbon entered force, the function of EU Presidency has been split into two entities. On one hand, the President of the European Council [with a renewable two and a half year mandate] and the six-month revolving Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers. The Treaty of Lisbon thus maintains the six-monthly presidency of the EU Council that works in cooperation with the President of the European Council, initially the Belgian, Herman Van Rompuy and, since December 1 2014, the Pole, Donald Tusk. The Treaty of Lisbon also created the position of High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, appointed for five years. The first incumbent was Britains Lady Catherine Ashton. The change of European Commission (2014) re-dealt the pack, and Ashton was succeeded by Federica Mogherini, former Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, a position that she had held for six months. In addition to the European texts are affairs involving persons and contexts inside and outside the EU.

We have often heard about the EUs institutional triangle, but what exactly is it ? Christian Lequesne and Yves Doutriaux have this to say :

Under the method, the European Commission is alone in making proposals and, where appropriate, executes the decisions taken by the Parliament and the Council, while the Council and the Parliament  since the Treaty of Maastricht  make decisions jointly, based on the Commissions proposals.

To describe the European institutions as complex is at best a euphemism. The complexity is a product of history and the 2005 stalemate did nothing to help. This does not facilitate communication on European affairs. Mediators  whether journalists, publishers or academics  often fear that it will be off-putting. Experience does, however, show that it is possible to take an interest in European matters, provided that real subjects are addressed, cutting out the cliches and cant, something that institutional communication does not dare to do, at risk of weakening the foundations of the European construction process.

Finally, we should not forget that 22 of the 28 EU member countries are also members of NATO. The planned enlargements would further increase the number of member states that are also members of NATO. We have already seen that relations between NATO and the EU are more important than the media tends to indicate, notably when it comes to enlargements.

II.  that can yield significant results 

Flawed though they may be, the internal market, commercial policy and enlargements count among the positives of European construction.

The construction of the internal market

The internal market is one of the most fundamental acquis of European construction. Its most ardent advocates uphold this Common Market as the preamble to a political Union. A sign of its success was the way the expression entered everyday language as early as the nineteen sixties and seventies as a synonym for the EEC. It does, however, seem today to have lost currency, even sounding dated. The 1986 Single European Act consecrated the concept of Internal Market, intended to supersede Common Market, even though the latter did not formally disappear, at least from official documents. The borderless Internal Market officially came into effect on January 1 1993.

Article 26 (ex-14 TCE) of the Treaty on the EU says this :

The internal market shall comprise an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured in accordance with the provisions of the Treaties. The Council, on a proposal from the Commission, shall determine the guidelines and conditions necessary to ensure balanced progress in all the sectors concerned.



This then is an area shared by the EU countries and by a population of half a billion. It should however be noted that the advantages of this big market cannot all be extended to a new member State before the expiry of transitory periods that can last up to seven years. On January 1 2014, Bulgaria and Romania were admitted from the antechamber, but Croatia is waiting. Meanwhile, non-member States including Norway and Iceland still enjoy the advantages of the EUs free trade regime, the European Economic Area (EEA).

In the broad sense, the interior market also covers the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) as well as ambitious integration policies, for example in the fields of transportation and energy. By opening up national markets, the Interior Market has first and foremost contributed to increasing intra-community trade, which now generally accounts for nearly 70% of the member countries foreign trade. The Single Market opens opportunities for businesses, notably in the form of outlets for their products.

For consumers, competition can bring price reductions, a broader range of products on the shelves and services, including, for example, better health protection and food safety. A number of cases of illegal meat trafficking have nonetheless shown that crime networks can sometimes steal a march on the authorities.

Despite its success, the Interior Market has, since the turn of the century, been suffering from an erosion of political and social support for the integration of the European markets, illustrated in 2005 by the so-called Polish plumber affair and the 2013 controversy about posted workers. There are also residual tax, regulatory and technical distortions that facilitate, for example, fiscal dumping. Services, moreover, remain poorly integrated into the big Single Market.

The economic and financial crisis has laid bare the structural weaknesses of the internal market. Between 2008 and 2009, the EUs GDP regressed by 700 bn euros, the number of unemployed rose significantly, public deficit worsened, and intra-European trade of goods fell by 15% in value while exports to other countries fell by 12%. Above all, the crisis has revealed the fragility of certain member States and of the European system. It has exposed a major contradiction in the Interior Market : when growth becomes atonic among the key EU protagonists, the member countries start to asphyxiate each other, such is their propensity towards intra-zone commerce.

The relaunch of the Single Market is embodied in the Europe 2020 strategy as a means of reinvigorating economic growth and re-establishing trust in the advantages of economic integration among Europeans. Having adopted the Single Market Act in April 2011, the European Commission came up with a second package of measures : the Single Market Act II. This lays plans notably for new actions to develop transport and energy networks, as well as encouraging social entrepreneurship and consumer confidence.

Another aspect of the Internal Market is the way it has been structured around standards that have also been a means of exerting external influence.

Common commercial policy

The consolidation of the Internal Market initially gave EEC and then EU standards considerable global influence, notably via commercial policy. This reflected the communitys intention to build through law rather than force, exporting its standards beyond the confines of the EU in soft power mode. The EU has for long been a prime mover in the furthering of commercial, social and environmental standards, notably via initiatives involving the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The EUs commercial policy has led it to assume a role as an international player, while engaging in a form of federalism without quite saying so, the Commissions role in negotiations taking precedence here over that of the Member states. Since the mid 1990s, cooperation and coordination between governments and the Commission appears to have been becoming more difficult to implement, creating new road blocks.

EU action theoretically makes use of two assets : power of constraint  via the conditions with which countries wishing to do business with the EU must comply  and power to convince by showing the efficiency of a development model based on trade. Currently, the EU is increasingly at pains to persuade the WTO to factor in its conception of international regulation.

French Senate advisor, Philippe Delivet explained on Diploweb.com :

Through its commercial policy, the EU has taken up a clear position in favour of international trade. It has for long favoured a multilateral approach, notably by championing the creation of the WTO in 1995. As the negotiation cycle in Doha (opened in 2001 and suspended in 2006) became bogged down, the EU decided to allow more room for bilateral negotiation. Here, it very widely opened its markets to products coming in from other countries. Under the effect of commercial negotiations, the community preference that expressed itself via the Common External Tariff was gradually weakened. However, conversely, European exporters have benefitted from the dismantling of tariff barriers among non-EU countries. It remains for the EU to address the challenge of reciprocity. It cannot admit a very broad opening up of its market if, at the same time, non-EU countries openly or surreptitiously hang on to or re-establish entry barriers for European products. [] The EU is still very dependent for raw materials and fuel. In addition to which it has to face up to the new international trade environment created by globalisation. It records very good results especially in high-end market segments. Its exports are robust in the industrialised countries but far less efficient on fast growing markets like Asia. This is therefore a real challenge to competitiveness, implying, in particular, a sustained effort in research and innovation.

The common trade policy must address three big questions. How can the EU stay wide open to the outside market while at the same time truly guaranteeing that the imported products and services comply with the social, sanitary and environmental demands of the member countries ? Lowered with each fresh negotiation cycle, has the common external tariff  around 3% fallen below the threshold of economic efficiency ? How is the EU to defend its interests in the framework of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the USA (see Chapter 11) ? To retake the initiative on the planetary scale, the EU should take a positive, prospective approach and adopt a real strategy combining policies on trade, industry, competition and bringing a new dynamic back to research.

No fewer than seven enlargements

The Federal Republic of Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands formed the Europe of Six from 1957 to 1973. The initial configuration united a population of 163 million with a relatively homogeneous standard of living, on a total area of 1.3 million km2. General de Gaulles France twice slapped its veto on the UKs candidature. His successor, Georges Pompidou, adopted a new stance. In 1973, the United Kingdom became a member, London honing its lobbying techniques in the corridors of Brussels, and militating for a market-style Europe, combating the Federal model.

Had European construction not been in many ways a success, would we have seen its membership multiplied by 4.6 from 6 to 28 ? This very sensible observation is a good advert for the EU but should not conceal the fact that Switzerland and Norway have refused to join.

EU. European construction : an enlargement timeline

It should also be noted that, in addition to the seven official enlargements, the integration of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) into Federal Germany as part of the unification process of 1990 was an enlargement in everything but name, the EU  and NATO  thereby swallowing a former satellite of the USSR. This was a remarkably discrete enlargement, perhaps because it in fact embodied a major strategic revolution.

Let us now focus on the EU enlargements of 2004, 2007 and 2013, with a total of 13 new entrants. In all, they amounted to a total area of over one million km2, and in 2013 counted a population of 107 million. Apart from the two Mediterranean islands, Cyprus  still divided  and Malta, the 11 other States that joined the EU with these enlargements had experienced communist regimes with various flavours of planned, collectivist economies. The failures of the doctrine and the practical implementation ended with the fall of the iron curtain (1989), the implosion of the USSR (1991, and the countries candidatures for the EU. In 2004, with the biggest of the European community enlargements, the President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Jean Lemierre analysed their transition towards the market economy for the magazine Politique internationale in these terms :

The balance sheet is positive. Ten years ago, nobody would have thought they would have joined the EU so quickly and in such favourable conditions. Their economies have been integrated into the European economies. They have a high export capacity towards the EU and far-reaching changes have been made. The last fifteen years bode well for the future. The transition has not, however, been easy. Each country has advanced in its own way, but progress has been made, thanks to the European cause. The prospect of joining the EU provided tremendous leverage, greatly speeding up reform. However, the transition is not yet complete, nor is the effective convergence of the economies.

Subjecting accession to conditions, the EU has produced the effect of an external constraint that has been accepted because of the prospect of integration. The adoption of the community acquis  more than 80,000 pages of regulations  imposes a form of compliance with standards. In this respect, the enlargements are a major work of foreign policy, as they ultimately amount to exporting a modus operandi from the member countries to the others. All that remains is to put these standards into practice, an ideal that is, rightly or wrongly, tacitly accepted to be very ambitious.

The result of these enlargements in the early years of the twenty first century is an EU more extensive but more heterogeneous than ever, even though the process of economic catch-up is continuing in most of the new member countries, in spite of the crisis. For several years, opinion surveys have been indicating enlargement fatigue across broad swathes of public opinion in the senior member States. It is true that the national and European authorities kept a particularly low profile on January 1 2007 and July 1 2013 when it came to justifying the new accessions. However the lack of political debate produced damaging effects : the successive enlargements of the EU have not only made it bigger, they have also made it different. The demographic, economic, political and strategic changes have changed the ball game, without any real democratic debate. The combined effects of the enlargements and the economic crisis are reshaping the EU, and the resulting contradictions are grist to the anti-European mill.

III.  and serious contradictions

As the old adage goes, nations have no friends, but only interests, and capitals often play ambiguous games. There are occasions where geopolitical realities set them face to face with their inadequacies.

When member states play (petty) games

Contradictions and ambiguities  sometimes constructive in the case studied here  are inherent to all human organisations. While there is no reason to dramatise, it is important to shed some light on these issues. We shall focus here firstly on those that relate to the nature of European construction, and then turn our attention to those that diminish the scope of common policies.

Should the EU be a gathering of nation states or should it be aiming for a form of federalism ? This is an old question, partly already answered de facto, but rarely exposed to objective public debate. This is unsurprising as the political leaders of the member countries have all been wont to political calculations about the European community, and outcomes have not always lived up to expectations. Why too would the generations in power today have to pay the political price for misjudgements by leaders who are no longer around to shoulder the blame ? It is better to leave the picture blurred and say as little as possible.

The bottom line is that those who govern the member countries are caught up in a contradiction : using European construction to offload constraints  in order to foist what they think are good decisions on to the electorate without paying the price at the next elections  while at the same time keeping as much national sovereignty as possible to build their own political edifice. In a sense, for national rulers, building the EU is tantamount to sawing off the branch they are sitting on, namely their prerogatives in the national arena.

This is why most of the political decisions have for long remained in the hands of individual countries. An essentially inter-governmental framework propitious for conserving the sovereignty of the member countries has been maintained for the key issues. Jean-Louis Bourlanges, French MEP, puts it this way :

[] everything has been designed and organised to ensure that heads of State of government reign with majestic powers, unshared, within the framework of a European Council ; itself bound by the rule of common agreement.

These contradictions feed the inadequacies of the Internal Market, commercial policy and the life of democracy. Despite the success stories we mentioned earlier, the Internal Market still has significant failings because of the range of national regulations. 28 regulations co-exist, notably in the following areas : tax policy, financial services, innovation and research. Likewise, the covert federalism of the European community appears to have reached its limit, as two simultaneous trends have emerged : the growing difficulty for the EU to make its voice heard in major international negotiations and the resurgence of protectionist temptations in some fringes of the EUs public opinion. Finally, Professor Vivien A. Schmidt shows that the EU is globally destructive for democracy as a result of the effects of its mere presence on the traditional functioning of the national democracies.

These ambiguities contribute to reducing the scope of the policies conceived and implemented by the EU and even to undermining the basis provided by the electorates trust in the European project.

The wars in the Balkans reveal the weakness of the European community

During the 1990s, the powerlessness of the European community to address the wars in the Balkans was shared by the UNs Security Council. Hungary, a non-permanent of the Security Council in 1992 and 1993, only recently released from the orbit of the USSR, had tried to draw the attention of the permanent members to the risks of genocide and the urgent need for intervention.

In June 1991, the proclamations of Croatian and Slovenian independence were milestones in the breakup of the Federative Republic of Yugoslavia, notably via armed conflict between Serbs and Croats. Despite imposing an arms embargo, the EEC proved incapable of finding a political solution to a crisis that was taking place less than a three-hour flight from Brussels. The member States were divided in their interpretation of the crisis and condemned themselves to impotence.

The Hungarian ambassador to the UN, Andre Erdos, brought an illuminating testimony. It is worth remembering that the country was, at this stage, a member of neither NATO nor the EU. He told Diploweb.com :

It was amazing and extremely frustrating for us to be confronted day after day by the powerlessness and lack of political will to act at the right time that was going to characterize the behaviour of the international community, and more specifically the Euro-Atlantic world, throughout the crisis. The influential countries, individually or in groups, all took as their starting point the idea that the crisis did not imperil their basic strategic interests. Moreover, they made a point of treating the conflict with a considerable lack of the knowledge required to understand the region. Thus, during the debates, the ambassador of a Western nation to the UN Security Council, and a permanent member  echoing Serbian propaganda  thought that Bosnia had been invented by Tito (sic !) [] We realised, even at the early stage of the conflict (late 1991- early 1992), that the political leaders from the oldest generations  perhaps as a result of the still vivid memories of the history of World War II or still under the effect of propaganda from the Milosevic clan  considered the Serbs ipso facto as freedom fighters, whereas the Croats were bizarrely perceived as Ustase collaborators. [] During a debate at the General Assembly of the UN on December 14 1992, we [Hungary] declared : "the tragedy of Bosnia-Herzegovina is a stain on the honour of Europe and the whole world.

The power games of the local players, the impotence of the EU and the serious failings of the UN in the implementation of its own decisions and resolutions were the causes of the tragedy of Srebrenica, in which some 8,000 Bosnian men were massacred by Serbs in July 1995.

Much drama later, the United States and NATO took military action on the doorstep of an EU that appeared divided, weak, indeed non-existent. It was the USA that hosted and led the Dayton Agreement that put an end to the conflict in December 1995.

The EU hardly gave a better account of itself in 1998-1999 during the Kosovo War in which the Albanese nationalists of the Kosovo Liberation Army fought Serbian troops under the regime of Slobodan Milosevic. The EU, impotent yet again, lined up once more behind the USA that chose NATOs option of an aerial bombardment of Serbia between March and June 1999. Bombardments that have left traces in the memory of Serbians and their Russian allies.

It should, however, be noted that, having been found wanting on two separate occasions, the EU has become aware of the need to develop European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP), declared operational by the European Council in Laeken in December 2001. A declaration followed by uneven effects to which we shall return in Chapter 8.

The paradoxical balance sheet of the EUs development aid policy

In its publications, the European Commission willingly presents the EU as a model for development aid. The EU is claimed to be by far the worlds leading provider of official development assistance (ODA), accounting for nearly 60% of the global total, far ahead of the US, Japan and the emerging countries. Furthermore, Brussels willingly presents itself as exemplary in the monitoring and control of funds that benefit 140 countries, also announcing that the EU plans to raise its ODA from 0.56% of GDI in 2010 to 0.7% in 2015, in line with UN objectives.

The Global Europe section accounts for around 6% of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2014-2020, and theoretically covers all EU external action (foreign policy) in ODA and humanitarian aid. The European Development Fund however also provides financial resources to EU as a Global Player, but is not part of the EU budget and is not therefore covered by the MFF.

Everything would be just fine were the EU not rife with contradictions.

Firstly, the European Commission casts itself in an advantageous light, using money that is not its own. Indeed, the member States fund directly from their own domestic budgets more than three quarters of public aid to the development of the EU zone. The Commission stumps up less than a quarter of its funds. In other words we are looking at a system with 28+1 policies, namely the bilateral policies of the member countries plus that of the European Commission.

Secondly, the policy implemented by the European Commission is a host of interleaved programs, which comes down to artificially swelling development aid-related statistics, according to the European Parliament.

Thirdly, the dispersal of European aid reduces its efficiency. Multiplying the number of budgetary lines makes it hard for the European citizens to understand. The trompe-loeil champions of development aid, the member countries and the EU institutions implementing disparate policies without succeeding in drawing political benefit on a level with the investment. In reality, the EUs development aid can be considered politically blind, for want of being clearly pinned to political objectives. For example, even though European Funds are allocated to the United Nations Development Program, the European flag is not clearly flown in the places where the money is spent.

This means that contradictions between individual nations and the EU reduce the political benefit from the development assistance and illustrate the ambiguous relationship these players entertain with power. Furthermore, the economic crisis generally leads countries to cut back their national development aid budget ; this makes it unlikely that the EU will reach its 2015 goal of devoting 0.7% of GDI to ODA. Meanwhile, the emerging nations are carving out a space for themselves in the developing countries, and the fact that they are more willing than the European Commission to close their eyes to corruption enhances their appeal in the eyes of leaders of some beneficiary nations.

It is important to resist the  easy  temptation to throw out the baby with the bathwater. So it is true that, while the EU has inadequacies, these are first and foremost the product of history and, secondly, the result of sometimes inconsequential decisions by governments and citizens alike. Instead of seeing conspiracies at every street corner or falling into facile criticism, it would be better for each country to sweep in front of its own door, and acknowledge its contradictions, indeed its inadequacies. This way, new paths might be explored.

There is, however, a problem : as the years go by, new generations seem less and less sensitive to the Europe equals peace argument. History lessons, media anniversary specials and commemorations can do nothing to prevent the passing of time. The EU thus has to make a new case for itself, and, this, in itself, is no mean task !

Manuscrit clos en 2015.

Gerard-Francois Dumont, Pierre Verluise, The Geopolitics of Europe. From the Atlantic to the Urals, (translation Alan Fell), Diploweb.com 2016-2017. ISBN : 979-10-92676-09-9.

Copyright 2015-Dumont-Verluise/Diploweb.


Woman injured in Tokha shooting

A woman was injured when unknown gunmen opened fire at Tokha Municipality-1 on the northern outskirt of Kathmandu on Wednesday.
Buyers can bag an affordable home in Bedford at De Montfort Place

Bedfordshire has been crowned the best region in the UK for purchasing a property through the Governments Help to Buy scheme. Recent research from Totally Money examined each district across the country to generate a list of hotspots for the scheme; Central Bedfordshire offered the highest number of Help to Buy loans with 1,710 per individual, making buyers first step on the property ladder far more achievable . Storey Homes has contributed to the countys selection of affordable homes with De Montfort Place in Bedford, which is ideal for buyers looking to get more for their money through the Help to Buy scheme.

Potential buyers can also feel confident in the quality of properties available with Storey Homes, as the Federation of Master Builders confirms buyers are twice as likely to be happy with their new build home if purchased from a small or medium sized house builder.

Katy Jordan, Managing Director of Storey Homes, comments: We understand the challenges that come with buying a new property, and we are thrilled to provide a beautiful selection of quality homes with the special offer of Help to Buy. Bedford offers a great place for travelling into the capital, and a range of leisure activities that residents can do locally. Whether purchasers are looking for the perfect family home or a stylish apartment with an easy commute, De Montfort Place is designed for a range of personal styles at an affordable price.

De Montfort Place offers a selection of 152 houses and apartments, most of which come with the governments Help to Buy equity loan that provides movers with the chance to purchase with as little as a 5% deposit and an additional 25 affordable homes. The development is designed to meet the needs of families, downsizers and first-time buyers. Set along tree-lined streets, apartments benefit from open-plan interiors, separate utility cupboards and allocated secure parking. Similarly, the outstanding houses are great for families, with a large amount of living space inside and out, and secure parking for two cars.

The attractive market town of Bedford provides a range of retail and leisure opportunities for local residents, including shops, restaurants, cafes and bars. Bedford also hosts the annual International Kite Festival and bi-annual River Festival  the second largest outdoor event in the UK. Fans of the outdoors can enjoy 360 acres of lakes, meadows and woodland at the award-winning Priory Country Park, just a 12-minute drive from De Montfort Place. Renowned for having the finest riverside settings, home owners can also spend time along the River Great Ouse and explore its many parks.

De Montfort Place offers excellent transport connections, with a convenient 11-minute walk to Bedford train station. From there, residents will benefit from frequent links into London St Pancras, with a fast train journey time of just 39 minutes. For travelling by car, major roads are easily accessible from the development, with the M1 within a five mile drive, and Luton Airport approximately 40 minutes away.



Ideal for families, Bedford is home to a number of well-regarded schools, including independent school Polam School only a short five-minute walk from the development. For further education, Bedford College is a 12-minute drive away.

Prices at De Montfort Place currently start at 190,000 for a one-bedroom apartment, 247,500 for a two-bedroom apartment, 475,000 for a four-bedroom house and new five-bedroom houses released in January from 535,000. For more details, visit storey-homes.co.uk.
Youth leaders press NC brass for reforms in party

Nepali Congress youth leaders are preparing to exert collective pressures on the NC leadership to take immediate measures to revamp the party structure.
By Diane Regas

China has announced the launch of a national emissions trading system that will become the worlds largest and most consequential environmental program, fulfilling a commitment of President Xi Jinping and setting up China to meet or even exceed its commitment to the Paris climate agreement.

The nation is moving deliberately, gradually phasing in and ramping up this carbon market, a proven way to limit and reduce climate pollution. Its expected to eventually be 10 times larger than the successful emissions trading system in California, which took more than six years to develop and launch.

China is stepping into a leadership void after the Trump administration decided to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord. There is still much to be done in the coming months to ensure Chinas program succeeds, including synchronizing it with other needed policies. But if it does, it could position the country of 1.4 billion to exceed its goalsand bring the rest of the world along.

When the first phase of the system is fully implemented, its expected to cover 3.5 billion metric tons of carbon pollution from more than 1,700 companies in the power sector. That is roughly 39 percent of Chinas total emissions, making it the largest carbon market in the world.

Here are five things you should know about Chinas market, and why its such a huge deal for our climate.

1. China is Motivated

Chinas current Five-Year Plan, which guides the countrys economic and social development between 2016 and 2020, specifically calls for this carbon market. It also sets new targets for carbon and energy intensity for the economyas well as the first-ever targets for total energy consumption.

By planning for moderate economic growth and by shifting the economy away from heavy industrywhile at the same time capping greenhouse gasesChina may, in fact, be able to peak emissions well ahead of its 2030 goal if it continues to ramp up these efforts.

The country is also motivated by a crippling air pollution problem. In addition to cutting climate pollution, the carbon trading system will reduce particulate matter and other pollutants that contribute to 1.6 million deaths annually.

2. China is Learning From Earlier Markets Abroad

With several large carbon markets already up and running in other countries, China is taking good notes. The nations leaders understand that safeguards designed to protect market integrity must be in place for the market to perform, something Europes now-successful market had to learn the hard way.

It must be functional, transparent, efficient and subject to strict oversight. But China also still needs to nail down a host of specific program design elements.

A partial list of the most pressing questions include the geographic scope of the market, which sectors will be covered, how the allocations will be made, the nature of the monitoring and verification system, the role of offsets and the nature of the enforcement mechanisms.

In our effort to support the Chinese government, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) will continue to offer practical recommendations on how China can harvest the lessons, seize opportunities and overcome challenges associated with the new marketall while slowing energy demand and accelerating the transition to cleaner energy sources.

We bring insights from our decades of work helping to design, implement and evaluate emissions trading systems in the U.S. and the European Unionas well as from our 25-plus years on the ground in China.

By taking advantage of best practices, China will have a leg up as it designs its own, unique market.

3. Chinas Pilot Markets Gave Nation a Jumpstart

Chinas seven carbon trading pilots, which EDF continues to assist, are in full operation. These markets are already capping more than a billion tons of carbon dioxide in areas covering 250 million people.

Pilot participants have been learning from each others experiences in anticipation of the national roll-out. The pilots experiences will help inform the development of an innovative and efficient national system, for example when it comes to guiding government intervention to manage price volatility.

4. China Understands That Enforcement is Key

Strengthening enforcement and transparency is critical for building confidence in the market and in the countrys ambitious climate goals. Thats why EDF has helped train more than 39,000 Chinese environmental enforcement officers in recent years.

We have mounted an accelerated effort on the ground in China. Our mission: to provide technical assistance, analysis, training and support to those who will build, administer and manage the new carbon market.

We are also working with the Chinese government to improve the regulatory enforceability of market regulations

5. China Will Hold Polluters Accountable

An effective trading system offers enterprises flexibility on how to comply. It also makes it abundantly clear that violations will result in penalties that make non-compliance cost-prohibitive.

When these signals are clear, financial and environmental objectives come into alignmentprompting industry to minimize fines, invest in reduction measures and monetize green investments.

Our China team is working with Chinese partners to evaluate the effectiveness of penalties under the nations new environmental law and translate those lessons to the new carbon market.

Notwithstanding the work that remains to be done, we are confident this new mechanism can reduce emissions from the worlds most populous nation, delivering on and surpassing its commitments under the Paris climate accord.

China is showing positive actionand the rest of the world is watching.
By Mary Mazzoni

More than 97 percent of climate scientists agree the planet is warming and that human activity is largely responsible. For perspective, thats as conclusive as the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer.

This scientific consensus is accepted by people and their governments in virtually every corner of the world, with one notable exception. In the U.S., a small subset of the population continues to sow doubt about accepted climate science. This includes groups of so-called climate skeptics, think tanks largely funded by the fossil fuel industry, and yes, politicians.

From Republican Sen. James Inhofes infamous snowball demonstration to House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smiths claim that federal scientists falsified climate data, American politicians are among the leading voices spreading easily debunked misinformation about climate change. Rather than rallying with other countries in pursuit of a low-carbon economy, and devising ways to transition workers from dirty energy jobs to healthier and better-paying options, these individuals continue to perpetuate a nonexistent debate.

Unfortunately for the American public, this trend has only accelerated in the Trump administration. Even as Americans become increasingly concerned about climate change, Trump stacked his administration with one climate denier after another. Weve already seen the effects, from the U.S. pulling out of the Paris climate agreement to the dismantling of the Clean Power Plan, and the nominees are still coming in. Here are 10 for the wall of shame.

In Office:

1. Scott Pruitt, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Scott Pruitt sued the EPA 14 times as Oklahoma attorney general, and now hes tasked with running itthough critics say hes running it into the ground.

In August, the New York Times described a covert effort to roll back regulations, close offices and eliminate staff at the agency. Mr. Pruitt is taking extraordinary measures to conceal his actions, wrote Coral Davenport and Eric Lipton of the Times, citing interviews with more than 20 current and former agency employees.

While privately dismantling the EPA, Pruitt continues to publicly cast doubt on climate science. Most recently, he questioned whether the EPA had engaged in a robust, meaningful discussion before releasing a 2009 document linking manmade climate change to human health risks that now heavily influences U.S environmental policy.

2. Rick Perry, Secretary of the Energy Department

Perry consistently denied the existence of manmade climate change during his 15 years as governor of Texas. Some hoped he might have turned the corner when he acknowledged humanitys role in our changing climate during his Senate confirmation hearing, but it appears he will keep the same tone as head of the department he once vowed to eliminate.

In June, Perry told CNBC he does not believe carbon dioxide emissions are the main driver of climate change, instead putting the blame on ocean waters. He has also continued his outspoken support for fossil fuels, arguing last week that they are the only way to electrify the developing world and even saying fossil fuels can help combat sexual assault (seriously).

3. Sonny Perdue, Secretary of the Agriculture Department

Perdues USDA suggested that staffers find alternatives to the term climate change, according to a string of emails obtained by the Guardian. The agency pushed back on these reports, saying: These emails, sent in the first days of the new administration to a small number of agency staff, did not reflect the direction of senior agency leadership.

But it seems Perdue didnt get the memo: He praised Trumps decision to exit the Paris climate agreement and supported the nomination of talk radio host and non-scientist Sam Clovis for the USDAs top science spot, before Clovis pulled out over ties to the Russia probe.

4. Ryan Zinke, Secretary of the Interior Department

Interior Sec. Zinke downplayed global temperature rise and its contribution to glacial melting during a budget hearing in June. When pressed by Sen. Al Franken about melting in his states Glacier National Park, Zinke said its a consistent melt that began right after the end of the Ice Ageadding that he watched glaciers melt while eating lunch.

This bizarre conclusion flies in the face of data from the U.S. Geological Survey, which shows that the parks glaciers have shrunk by an average of 39 percent since 1966. A USGS research ecologist told the Huffington Post that the glaciers are already at the point of no return and will all but disappear within 20 years. But Zinke appears unconcerned by such findings and later proposed reducing the size of several national monuments and opening them up to drilling and mining.

5. David Bernhardt, Deputy Administrator of the Interior Department

Bernhardt drew criticism for his former lobbying work on behalf of energy interests, and senators drilled him on climate change during his confirmation hearing in June. While Bernhardt acknowledged the existence of climate change and said the contribution of science was very significant, he noted that policy decisions would be made according to the administrations agenda as much as allowed under the law, Science magazine reported.

6: Jeff Sessions, Attorney General

As attorney general, Sessions duties include enforcing U.S. environmental laws. Too bad he called the scientific consensus behind manmade climate change deliberate misinformation and said carbon dioxide is really not a pollutant because its a plant food.

7. Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State

As the CEO of ExxonMobil, Tillerson acknowledged mans role in climate change and even called for a carbon tax. But critics often point to his penchant for downplaying climate science and calling for a slower approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

[Tillerson] comes across as very responsible because hes not accusing scientists of cooking up a one-world government, Stephen Lewandowsky, a psychologist at the University of Bristol who has studied efforts to sow doubt on climate science, told InsideClimateNews. People breathe a sigh of reliefHes not crazybut people dont follow through to see what hes saying is complete nonsense.

On Deck:

8. Jim Bridenstine, Nominee for NASA Administrator

If Republican Congressman Jim Bridenstine seems like an odd pick to head the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, thats because he is. Bridenstine is a former Navy pilot, but unlike prior administrators, he has no scientific background. He regularly denies basic climate science and even introduced legislation to scrap NASAs earth sciences division altogether. While Bridenstine tried to take a softer stance during his confirmation hearing last week, some senators appeared unconvinced.

9. Kathleen Hartnett White, Nominee for Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality

The Council on Environmental Quality, a key White House office that coordinates policy approaches around energy and the environment, may soon be in the hands of Kathleen Hartnett White. White opposed regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant in her role as chairman of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, calling CO2 an odorless, invisible, beneficial and natural gas. She also takes issue with international climate panels convened by the United Nations, dismissing their findings as not validated and politically corrupt.

10. Robert Phalen, Nominee for EPA Scientific Advisory Board

Earlier this month, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt fired a handful of university researchers from the EPAs Scientific Advisory board and apparently forgot to tell themat least two told the Huffington Post they learned about their dismissal from reporters. This came after Pruitt released new rules barring scientists who receive EPA research funding from sitting on the board and suggesting how their research be applied, opening the door for more industry-friendly advisers. University of Minnesota professor Deborah Swackhamer, a former chair of the board and one of those recently let go, called the move scientific censorship.

The 17 new appointees named for the board include red-state regulators and industry representatives. Robert Phalen, one of the only academics nominated, frequently spoke in opposition to air pollution-related regulations as a researcher with the University of California, Irvine, and in 2012 asserted, Modern air is a little too clean for optimum health.

Former Vice President Al Gore, one of the leading voices fighting for action on climate change, met with President Trump during the transition to try to influence his thinking. I havent had any conversations with [Trump] since his speech to withdraw from Paris, Gore told the Guardian last month. I tried my best and thought hed come to his senses but Ive been proven wrong.

Reposted with permission from our media associate AlterNet.
By Gulrez Shah Azhar

Wildfires tearing across Southern California have forced thousands of residents to evacuate from their homes. Even more people fled ahead of the hurricanes that slammed into Texas and Florida earlier this year, jamming highways and filling hotels. A viral social media post showed a flight-radar picture of people trying to escape Florida and posed a provocative question: What if the adjoining states were countries and didnt grant escaping migrants refuge?

By the middle of this century, experts estimate that climate change is likely to displace between 150 and 300 million people. If this group formed a country, it would be the fourth-largest in the world, with a population nearly as large as that of the U.S.

Yet neither individual countries nor the global community are completely prepared to support a whole new class of climate migrants. As a physician and public health researcher in India, I learned the value of surveillance and early warning systems for managing infectious disease outbreaks. Based on my current research on health impacts of heat waves in developing countries, I believe much needs to be done at the national, regional and global level to deal with climate migrants.

Millions Displaced Yearly

Climate migration is already happening. Every year desertification in Mexicos drylands forces 700,000 people to relocate. Cyclones have displaced thousands from Tuvalu in the South Pacific and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean. Experts agree that a prolonged drought may have catalyzed Syrias civil war and resulting migration.

Between 2008 and 2015, an average of 26.4 million people per year were displaced by climate- or weather-related disasters, according to the United Nations. And the science of climate change indicates that these trends are likely to get worse. With each one-degree increase in temperature, the airs moisture-carrying capacity increases by 7 percent, fueling increasingly severe storms. Sea levels may rise by as much as three feet by the year 2100, submerging coastal areas and inhabited islands.

The Pacific islands are extremely vulnerable, as are more than 410 U.S. cities and others around the globe, including Amsterdam, Hamburg, Lisbon and Mumbai. Rising temperatures could make parts of west Asia inhospitable to human life. On the same day that Hurricane Irma roared over Florida in September, heavy rains on the other side of the world submerged one-third of Bangladesh and eastern parts of India, killing thousands.

Climate change will affect most everyone on the planet to some degree, but poor people in developing nations will be affected most severely. Extreme weather events and tropical diseases wreak the heaviest damage in these regions. Undernourished people who have few resources and inadequate housing are especially at risk and likely to be displaced.



People displaced by drought in Somalia queue to register at a refugee camp in neighboring Ethiopia, July 26, 2011. UK Department for International Development / Flickr

Recognize and Plan for Climate Migrants Now

Today the global community has not universally acknowledged the existence of climate migrants, much less agreed on how to define them. According to international refugee law, climate migrants are not legally considered refugees. Therefore, they have none of the protections officially accorded to refugees, who are technically defined as people fleeing persecution. No global agreements exist to help millions of people who are displaced by natural disasters every year.

Refugees rights, and nations legal obligation to defend them, were first defined under the 1951 Refugee Convention, which was expanded in 1967. This work took place well before it was apparent that climate change would become a major force driving migrations and creating refugee crises.

Under the convention, a refugee is defined as someone unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion. The convention legally binds nations to provide access to courts, identity papers and travel documents, and to offer possible naturalization. It also bars discriminating against refugees, penalizing them, expelling them or forcibly returning them to their countries of origin. Refugees are entitled to practice their religions, attain education and access public assistance.

In my view, governments and organizations such as the United Nations should consider modifying international law to provide legal status to environmental refugees and establish protections and rights for them. Reforms could factor in the concept of climate justice, the notion that climate change is an ethical and social concern. After all, richer countries have contributed the most to cause warming, while poor countries will bear the most disastrous consequences.



The low-lying Pacific island nation of Kiribati is extremely vulnerable to climate-driven sea level rise and storm surges. UK Department for International Development / Flickr

Some observers have suggested that countries that bear major responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions should take in more refugees. Alternatively, the worlds largest carbon polluters could contribute to a fund that would pay for refugee care and resettlement for those temporarily and permanently displaced.

The Paris climate agreement does not mention climate refugees. However, there have been some consultations and initiatives by various organizations and governments. They include efforts to create a climate change displacement coordination facility and a U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Climate Change.

It is tough to define a climate refugee or migrant. This could be one of the biggest challenges in developing policies.

As history has shown, destination countries respond to waves of migration in various ways, ranging from welcoming immigrants to placing them in detention camps or denying them assistance. Some countries may be selective in whom they allow in, favoring only the young and productive while leaving children, the elderly and infirm behind. A guiding global policy could help prevent confusion and outline some minimum standards.

Short-Term Actions

Negotiating international agreements on these issues could take many years. For now, major G20 powers such as the U.S., the European Union, China, Russia, India, Canada, Australia and Brazil should consider intermediate steps. The U.S. could offer temporary protected status to climate migrants who are already on its soil. Government aid programs and nongovernment organizations should ramp up support to refugee relief organizations and ensure that aid reaches refugees from climate disasters.

In addition, all countries that have not signed the United Nations refugee conventions could consider joining them. This includes many developing countries in South Asia and the Middle East that are highly vulnerable to climate change and that already have large refugee populations. Since most of the affected people in these countries will likely move to neighboring nations, it is crucial that all countries in these regions abide by a common set of policies for handling and assisting refugees.

The scale of this challenge is unlike anything humanity has ever faced. By midcentury, climate change is likely to uproot far more people than World War II, which displaced some 60 million across Europe, or the Partition of India, which affected approximately 15 million. The migration crisis that has gripped Europe since 2015 has involved something over one million refugees and migrants. It is daunting to envision much larger flows of people, but that is why the global community should start doing so now.

Reposted with permission from our media associate The Conversation.
Many students have vowed to ramp up their divestment campaigns at universities across America this spring. One group who has garnered much media attention is Divest Harvard, which is wrapping up a week-long campaign known as Harvard Heat Week. Harvard has the largest endowment of any university in the world at $36.4 billion, and hundreds of alumni including Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, and former Colorado Senator Tim Wirth are participating in the groups efforts this week.

Shout out from Harvard Yard to brave students arrested yesterday @DivestUMW pic.twitter.com/HpXm6FYJQo  Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) April 16, 2015

After a week of sit-ins that have shut down administration offices at Massachusetts Hall, President Faust finally reached out directly to students with Divest Harvard. I would be happy to meet with you and a representative group of your student colleagues when you have ceased disrupting university operations, wrote President Faust in an email.

The students however were not pleased with the offer for another closed door meeting and called for a more open process on divestment that schools like MIT have convened. Divest Harvard has made multiple requests for a more transparent process involving the entire student body, faculty and alumni. The group knows there is strong support for divestment because the student body voted 72 percent in favor of divestment and hundreds of faculty and thousands of alumni signed a letter supporting the initiative.

Divest Harvard has agreed to the meeting with the president, but explained that they would not stop protesting as long as Harvard continued to invest in fossil fuel companies. Recent SEC filings revealed that the university septupled its investments in oil and gas companies last fall, says Divest Harvard.
The Trump administration last week proposed to indefinitely delay proposed bans of high-risk uses of three toxic chemicals: Methylene chloride and N-Methylpyrrolidone, or NMP, in paint strippers and trichloroethylene, or TCE, in degreasing.

The proposed chemical bans and restrictions were stripped from the administrations Unified Agendaand are among hundreds of deregulatory actions that put the health and safety of Americans at risk by weakening protections.

Methylene chloride, an acutely toxic likely carcinogen that is also toxic to the brain and liver, has been linked to more than 50 deaths. CBS recently featured the tragic story of Kevin Hartley, a 21-year-old who died while using it to strip a bathtub.

This latest action is one more move by this EPA to undermine implementation of the bipartisan reforms to TSCA enacted last year, said Dr. Richard Denison, lead senior scientist at Environmental Defense Fund. Among those reforms, Congress specifically authorized EPA to take action on these chemicals to address high-risk uses. Instead, EPA is once again kowtowing to the chemical industry.

EPAs callous decision to continue to allow the use of methylene chloride in paint strippers will lead to more needless deaths of Americans who are simply refinishing a door or renovating a bathroom, said Scott Faber, senior vice president at Environmental Working Group. Once again, this administration would rather pander to chemical industry lobbyists than save American lives.

EPA has found that TCE is carcinogenic to humans by all routes of exposure and causes developmental and reproductive harms. NMP is also a reproductive toxicant.

EPA under the last administration had proposed banning TCE in vapor degreasing, aerosol degreasing and spot cleaning. EPA had also proposed to ban methylene chloride, and was considering either a ban or restrictions on NMP, in paint strippers.

All three bans were proposed in December 2016 or January 2017, and were the first bans proposed under the Toxic Substances Control Act in more than 25 years. They were set to be finalized within months.

But Trump has now removed all of them from his Unified Agenda, released last week, and moved the proposed rules to long-term action after pressure from chemical companies.

More information can be found here:

TCE Rule #1 covering aerosol degreasing and spot cleaners (moved to long-term action in Spring 2017): https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaViewRule?pubId=201710&RIN=2070-AK03

TCE Rule #2: covering vapor degreasing https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaViewRule?pubId=201710&RIN=2070-AK11

NMP/MC: covering paint and coating removers https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaViewRule?pubId=201710&RIN=2070-AK07

The administrations decision to indefinitely postpone the bans comes just months after EPA reversed a scheduled ban of the pesticide chlorpyrifos, which has been linked to cancer and infertility, over the recommendations of EPA scientists.
The Republican tax bill, which is likely headed to President Donald Trumps desk in the next few days, has major repercussions for our precious environment.

While the electric vehicle industry and the wind and solar sector can breathe a little easier that the sweeping legislation preserves their tax credits, fossil fuel producers are likely cheering the opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil and gas drilling.

The controversial provision, a proposal from Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), would auction off an area known as the biological heart of the Arctic Refuge thats home to crucial wildlife habitats, including one-third of all polar bear denning habitat in the U.S. and one-third of the migratory birds that come to the Arctic Refuge. It is also considered sacred to the indigenous Gwichin people, who sustain themselves from the caribou that migrate there.

Oil drilling in the refuge has been sought by conservative lawmakers for decades despite opposition from 70 percent of Americans.

Congress has committed the ultimate sellout of Americas public lands with such a devious and shortsighted action in one of the wildest places left in the world, said Jamie Rappaport Clark, president and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife. Shame on those who supported this abhorrent assault on our natural legacy.

Proponents of arctic drilling say the plan would help pay for the massive tax cuts, with Murkowski insisting that her rider would raise more than $1 billion within 10 years and it will likely raise over $100 billion for the federal Treasury over time.

But critics contend that with oil prices below $60 a barrel, its not even certain that oil companies would want to open up one of Earths most remote and harshest areas, nor would drilling raise enough revenue to offset the massive deficit forecasts created by the tax bill.

Notably, the renewable energy sector did not escape the widely unpopular bills effects scot-free, as it includes the Base Erosion Anti-Abuse Tax (BEAT) program that would undermine our capacity to use renewable energy tax credits, which have value only if they can be monetized, according to a letter addressed to the Senate from clean energy trade groups.

Greentech Media delved further:

That problem is the Base Erosion Anti-Abuse Tax (BEAT) provision, which targets earnings strippings, where large companies with foreign operations reduce their tax bills through cross-border payments they can then deduct in the U.S. The BEAT provision aims to circumvent that stripping with a minimum tax of 10 percent of taxable income.

BEAT would require every company to do two calculations: one quantifying 10 percent of a companys taxable income, including cross-border payments, and another quantifying the corporations tax liability, excluding any tax credits the company received from tax equity investments.

The BEAT provision applies to all but R&D; credits. If a company has invested in renewables, the second number could be lower than the first. If thats the case, the company would have to pay the difference in taxes.

The environment is the clear loser, with calamitous consequences for all Americans, Anna Aurilio, Environment Americas D.C. Office Director said about the tax bill.

Environment America noted that the bill continues massive incentives for fossil fuel production amounting to tens of billions of dollars over the next decade.

Aurilio continued, After months of global warming-fueled extreme weather and wildfires, and decades of air and water pollution from burning coal, oil and gas, it has never been more important to shift our countrywholesale and quicklytoward renewable energy. This bill takes us in the wrong direction.

Kirin Kennedy, associate legislative director for lands and wildlife at the Sierra Club, told Public News Service that eliminating $1 trillion or more of revenue over ten years will have a huge impact on government agencies like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Interior Department.

Theyre going to be basically facing massive cuts in their budgets to help pay for the tax cuts that will go toward the richest one percent and the top one percent corporations in the country, Kennedy said.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) issued a strong condemnation after passage of the bill, especially blasting billionaire fossil fuel barons and major GOP donors Charles and David Koch, who have long pushed for tax reform.

House Republicans just passed their disastrous tax bill, Sanders said in a video posted to social media. Congratulations to the Koch brothers, massive corporations and billionaire campaign contributors on looting the Treasury and working families.

The deep-pocketed Koch network has spent more than $88 million in traceable funding to groups attacking climate change science, policy and regulation.

Sanders continued about how the tax bill will be bad for public health.

I hope every American is listening, he said, about what [Speaker of the House] Paul Ryan and other Republicans are saying about how theyre going to offset the $1.5 trillion in deficits they have created. And that is, theyre going to come back in the very near future for entitlement reformwhich, in real language, means massive cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Thats what Speaker Ryan is saying and we should take him at his word because, as we all know, the Republican budget that passed a few months ago included a trillion-dollar cut in Medicaid and a nearly $500 billion cut to Medicare over the next decade.

Another loser in the health bill? The whole of Puerto Rico.

Under the new legislation, the hurricane-ravaged U.S. territory would be considered a foreign jurisdiction for tax purposes, even though its 3.4 million residents are American citizens, Reuters reported.

Puerto Rico was already $72 billion in debt, even before the Sept. 20 Category 4 storm devastated the island. The bill would make the already-painstaking recovery process even harder.

There is an opportunity to set things straight, to give Puerto Rico an opportunity and to eliminate this just weird application of the base-erosion provision to a jurisdiction of the United States, Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello said.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer released separate plans on Tuesday to

divest state and city pension funds from coal, oil and gas companies.

Environmentalists are celebrating this major win in the

global movement for fossil fuel divestment, as the state and citys public pension funds are among the largest in the world, representing a combined $390 billion.

Gov. Cuomo

said Tuesday he was working with state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli to study how the $200 billion Common Fund can stop significant investment in fossil fuels and reinvest in renewable energy and a low-carbon economy.

New Yorks pension fund holds shares in more than 50 oil and gas companies, including oil giant

ExxonMobil. Divesting from such polluting entities, Cuomo said, would lead to a more secure retirement fund for countless New Yorkers while also helping to achieve the states clean energy goals.

Cuomo cited recent examples such as Norways intention to divest its $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund in oil and gas holdings, as well as the World Bank announcement that it will stop financing oil and gas exploration after 2019.

New York State's $200 billion Common Fund will take responsible steps to divest from its fossil fuel holdings, leading to a more secure retirement fund for countless New Yorkers while also helping to achieve the state's clean energy goals.  Archive: Governor Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) December 20, 2017

That same day, Comptroller Stringer separately announced that New York City would also explore a plan to de-carbonize its portfolio.

Today, Im announcing that my office will bring a proposal to the trustees of the NYC pension funds in the coming weeks to examine ways to de-carbonize the portfolios, including the feasibility of ceasing additional investments in fossil fuels, divesting current holdings in fossil fuel companies, and increasing investments in clean energy, Stringer said.

The state and citys moves follows five years of powerful advocacy from thousands of climate activists.

The dam has broken: after years of great activism, New York has taken a massive step towards divesting from fossil fuels, said Bill McKibben, the

350.org co-founder who helped launch the growing divest movement. Coming from the capital of world finance, this will resonate loud and clear all over the planet. Its a crucial sign of how fast the financial pendulum is swinging away from fossil fuels.

To date, more than 800 institutions representing more than $5.2 trillion in assets have committed to divest. Other New York institutions that have cut ties with fossil fuel companies include Cooperstown, Barnard College, Columbia University, Syracuse University and the American Museum of Natural History.

Impossible to overstate how big today's divestment wins are. New York won't divest overnight but the signal Cuomo and Stringer have sent change the game. New investments in fossil fuels are now clearly irresponsible for institutions  Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) December 20, 2017

Rachel Rivera, a member of New York Communities for Change, also praised her lawmakers for their proposals.

During Sandy, the water took everything from me in a storm supercharged by climate change. My family back in Puerto Rico is still without power and resources due to a devastating hurricane. This did not happen by chance, I know this is caused by corporations like ExxonMobil that continue to profit from a business model that destroys the planet,Rivera said.

Today, I am happy to congratulate Governor Cuomo and Comptroller DiNapoli for making New York the leading state in the country fighting against climate change. Its both morally bankrupt and bad finance to invest our public funds in climate destruction. Now at the city level, [Public Advocate Tish James, who urged divestment], has pointed the way, and Comptroller Stringer has rightly responded by moving forward with fossil fuel divestment to protect all New Yorkers and the planet.
A rainbow-headed snake resembling David Bowies Ziggy Stardust character, a dragon-like lizard and a newt that looks like a Klingon from the movie Star Trek are three of the 163 new species discovered recently in the Greater Mekong region, according to a report released today by World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

The report, Species Oddity, documents the work of hundreds of scientists who discovered nine amphibians, 11 fish, 14 reptiles, 126 plants and three mammals in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

The discoveries also include a rare banana species from Thailand, a tiny frog from Cambodia and a gecko with pale blue spotted skin and piercing dark eyes that was found hiding among the remote mountains of Laos. This brings the total new species of plants, birds, mammals, reptiles, fish and amphibians discovered in the region to 2,409 since WWF began compiling new species reports in 1997.

The Greater Mekong region is a magnet for the worlds conservation scientists because of the incredible diversity of species that continue to be discovered here, said Jimmy Borah, Wildlife Programme manager for WWF-Greater Mekong. These scientists, the unsung heroes of conservation, know they are racing against time to ensure that these newly discovered species are protected.

Heres are six of the 163 new species:

1. Orange-Eyed Litter Frog, Leptolalax isos, Cambodia & Vietnam

 Jodi Rowley / Australian Museum

A new species of frog which is less than 3 cm long, lives in forest from ~6501100 m elevation and breeds in small rocky streams of northeastern Cambodia and adjacent Vietnam. Its distinctive markings, toe webbing and call set this frog apart from the thousands of species that call Southeast Asia home.

2. Ziggy Stardust Snake, Parafimbrios lao, Laos

 Alexandre Teynie

Rainbow-headed snake native to Laos that some at WWF have likened to David Bowies Ziggy Stardust character. The 111th snake species recorded in the country. Distinct from close relatives because of the unique coloration pattern and different number of scale rows and upper teeth.

3. Wooly-Headed Bat, Murina kontumensis, Vietnam

 Nguyen Truong Son

Medium-sized bat found in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. Vietnam is home to some of the worlds highest species diversity within this family of bats, which are known for the thick and woolly fur on their heads and forearms.

4. Klingon Newt, Tylototriton anguliceps, Thailand

 Nguyen Quang Truong

A newt between 6 and 7 cm long, distinguished by a dorsal ridge and unique red markings. Only the fourth newt species found to exist in Thailand.

5. Phuket Horned Tree Agamid, Acanthosaura phuketensis, Thailand

 Montri Sumontha

Lowland forest dwelling lizard species native to Phuket Island and the Phuket mountain range in Southwest Thailand. This medium-sized species is distinct from its mainland relatives based on unique coloration, placement and size of its many threatening-looking horns on its head and down its spine.

6. Gekko Bonkowskii, Laos

 Thomas Calame

With its pale blue spotted skin and piercing dark eyes, this species was found hiding among the remote karst massifs of Laos. Because of the incredibly high diversity of the Gekko family, it took sophisticated DNA analysis to differentiate this individual as a new species.

The Greater Mekong region is under intense development pressure from mines to roads to dams, threatening the survival of the natural landscapes that make it so unique. Poaching for bushmeat or the multi-billion dollar illegal wildlife trade puts additional pressure on the regions wildlife, meaning many species could be lost before they are even discovered.

Many collectors are willing to pay thousands of dollars or more for the rarest, most unique and most endangered species, often buying them at the regions illegal wildlife markets, especially in the Golden Triangle region where China, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar meet, Borah said. To save them, its crucial that we improve enforcement against poaching and close illegal wildlife markets as well as the tiger and bear farms that openly flaunt wildlife laws.

WWF recently launched an ambitious project to disrupt the trade by closing down the biggest markets in the Greater Mekong region. Working with partners and across borders, WWF will attempt to significantly reduce illegal trade in key threatened species such as elephants, tigers and rhinos by promoting species protection legislation, supporting effective transboundary cooperation and improving law enforcement effectiveness at key border crossings.
Change is hardparticularly for teachers, who are generally taking dozens of students along for the ride.

Yet the majority of teachers say theyve faced major changesrelated to what and how they teach, as well as how theyre evaluatedover the last couple of years in their schools and districts, according to a recent survey by the Education Week Research Center.

And while theres agreement that the upheaval has been a bit much, teachers have tended to stay positive about the reforms theyre experiencing.

The change feels thick and fast, said Alisa Myles, a reading specialist at Eleanor Roosevelt Elementary School in Morrisville, Pa., who answered the survey. But Ill tell you, teachers are so resilient. Teachers are incredible. They keep up with it because they have to.

The Education Week Research Center administered its online survey to a nationally representative sample of more than 500 K-12 teachers in September. (The margin of error for the results is plus or minus 4 percent.)

Nearly all respondents86 percentsaid they had experienced new changes or reforms in the past two school years.

The teachers surveyed were most likely to say theyd had changes to their teacher-evaluation systems. Other common areas for reform were curriculum, professional development, and state testing.

Teachers were much less likely to say theyd experienced changes to personalized learning, graduation requirements, or school choice options in their districts.

Weariness Setting In

There are signs teachers are starting to feel reform fatigue: More than half of teachers (58 percent) surveyed said theyve experienced way too much or too much change in the last couple of years.

We are a little overwhelmed, said Patty Hill, a veteran math teacher at Kealing Middle School in Austin, Texas. She said her school system changed all our bookkeeping systems at the same time they changed our appraisal [i.e., evaluation] system. At the same time they want us to do project-based learning. Its all happening at once.

But about a third of respondents said the amount of reform was just about right.

Most teachers (84 percent) agreed that as soon as they get a handle on a new reform, it changes.

James Clifford, a family and consumer sciences teacher at John F. Kennedy Middle School in Southington, Conn., said he recently helped write a new curriculum for his school, which was a positive change. But the frequent modifications to the schedule for special classeswhich dictate, for instance, whether he sees students every few days all year or every day for a few weeksare more bewildering.

Ive got a new schedule every year, he said. Its really not a big deal to change schedules, but Im old enough as a professional to say, Wow, why is scheduling so hard?

When asked what kind of effect a notable classroom reform has had on their instruction, 39 percent said it was positive. Another 36 percent said the effect was neutral. Only about a quarter said classroom reform has had a negative impact on their instruction.

Additionally, more than half of teachers (58 percent) said education reform has helped them change their practice so that students learn better.

I actually like most of the changes [to the district evaluation system] because its trying to get teachers to make their classes more student-driven, said Hill, the Austin teacher. [Evaluators] are looking for student engagement, student buy-in, differentiationall the things weve been supposed to be doing all along.

The majority of teachers (68 percent) also said that new education reforms or changes arent really newthat theyve all been tried before.

The idea of gritstick-to-it, high expectationsIve seen different iterations of that exact same thing every year that Ive been here, said Hill. Theres a new name for it, but its the same thing.

When asked where the reforms originated, 36 percent of respondents said they were state-based, and 41 percent cited their districts. Nineteen percent said the change only involved their school. Fewer than 5 percent of respondents pointed to the federal government.
WASHINGTON D.C. -- New research shows algae growing on the Greenland ice sheet, the Earth's second-largest ice sheet, significantly reduce the surface reflectivity of the ice sheet's bare ice area and contribute more to its melting than dust or black carbon. The new findings could influence scientists' understanding of ice sheet melting and projections of future sea level rise, according to the study's authors.

Glaciologists have long known materials such as mineral dust and black carbon can darken the surface of large ice sheets. Scientists study these impurities because they reduce the sheet's albedo, or the extent to which it reflects light, which increases melting of the ice and affects projections of sea level rise. But few studies had examined the darkening effect of algal cells, which naturally grow on the ice sheet.

The new study quantitatively assessed how surface ice algae contribute to darkening of the ice sheet, and found the algae reduce the ice sheet's albedo significantly more than non-algal materials, like mineral particles and black carbon. Algal darkening is responsible for 5 percent to 10 percent of the total ice sheet melt each summer, according to the new research published in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.

The findings sharpen the way glaciologists think about melting of ice sheets and how ice reflects light, according to Marek Stibal, a cryosphere ecologist at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic and one of the lead authors of the new study. A warming climate could also increase algal growth in the future, potentially boosting algae's influence on ice sheet melting, he said.

"The novel aspect of our study is that we discover biological processes play an important role in ice sheet behavior," Stibal said. "Glaciologists usually only look at inorganic materials when studying light reflectance and ice melt because biological processes are often too complicated to capture. But we find organisms can have a large-scale effect on a system that was previously studied in an abiotic context."

Studying algae in the field

Previous studies suggested impurities such as black carbon and dust drive melting of bare ice on the lower part of the ice sheet. Impurities darken the surface of the sheet, reducing its albedo and allow it to absorb more light. The increased absorption of solar radiation raises the temperature of the ice sheet and accelerates the melting process.

Absorption of sunlight is responsible for most of the ice melt in Greenland, according to Jason Box, a climatologist at The Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland and the other lead author of the new study.

Microbes such as algal cells colonize the ice and can accumulate over time given enough sunlight, water and nutrients. Surface ice algae produce dark pigments to protect themselves from high intensity radiation, further darkening the sheet surface, Stibal said.

The authors of the new study headed into the Greenland ice sheet in the summer of 2014 to quantify the contribution of algae to the darkening effect. Several members of their team camped at a study site in the southwestern region of the ice sheet for 56 days while gathering data on the sheet's reflectivity and algal population.

Stibal and his colleagues used portable spectrometers and albedometers to measure the reflectivity spectrum of the bare ice surface each day. They also collected samples of surface ice and used a field microscope to characterize the algae and count the number of algal cells in each sample. They analyzed the relationship between the growth of the algae and the amount of light being reflected by the ice sheet surface.

The authors found the ice sheet reflected significantly less light as the algal population grew. They calculated algal growth accounted for approximately 70 percent of the variation in the light reflectance data, making it the dominant contributor to the phenomenon. The rest of the variation was due to rain and how much time had passed, and non-algal impurities weren't significant in their analysis.

The new study didn't estimate how much more ice could melt in the future due to algal darkening. But the results can lay the groundwork to devise more accurate projections of sea level rise scenarios due to melting ice from Greenland and other ice sheets, Stibal said. Algae grow on other ice surfaces in areas such as the Himalayas, where they reside on water-producing glaciers.

He also believes a warming climate could be a boon to algal populations, potentially increasing their darkening influence.

"As the climate warms, the area that the algae can grow in will expand, so they'll colonize more of the ice sheet," he said. "Additionally, the growing season will lengthen, so the contribution of algae to melting of the ice will probably increase over time."

Nozomu Takeuchi, professor of earth sciences at Chiba University in Japan, said the new research highlights the importance of accounting for biological processes in the cryosphere, and believes the study will have an impact on glaciological research of the Greenland ice sheet.

"The major implication of their findings is that the ice sheet is not a simple abiotic system of snow and ice, but rather an ecosystem," he said. "Understanding this biological process more quantitatively could induce a new perspective on other climate cycles of the Earth, such as glacial-interglacial cycles."

###

The American Geophysical Union is dedicated to advancing the Earth and space sciences for the benefit of humanity through its scholarly publications, conferences, and outreach programs. AGU is a not-for-profit, professional, scientific organization representing 60,000 members in 137 countries. Join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and our other social media channels.

AGU Press Contact:

Joseph Cariz

1-202-777-7442

jcariz@agu.org
BINGHAMTON, NY- Analysis of giant stone hats found on Rapa Nui, Chile (Easter Island) provides evidence contrary to the widely held belief that the ancient civilization had a warrior culture. According to a new study conducted by a team of researchers, including a professor at Binghamton University, State University of New York, these stone hats suggest that the people of Rapa Nui were part of a supportive and inclusive community.

Carl Lipo, anthropology professor and director of the Environmental Studies Program at Binghamton University, and a team of researchers studied the monumental statues (moai) on Rapa Nui, and the previously unacknowledged giant stone hats (pukao) that were placed atop them. Pukao are large, cylindrical stones made from a volcanic rock known as 'red scoria.' Weighing multiple tons, they were placed on the heads of the moai during prehistoric times, consistent with the Polynesian traditions of honoring their ancestors.

The researchers produced the first study analyzing the pukao and their significance, examining the 70 multi-ton giant hats scattered around the island that have gradually eroded over time. Using photography to produce 3D computer models, the researchers were able to study the pukao in greater detail and discovered that there are far more drawings carved into the hats than was previously thought.

"With the building mitigating any sense of conflict, the moai construction and pukao placement were key parts to the success of the island," said Lipo. "In our analysis of the archaeological records, we see evidence that demonstrates the prehistoric communities repeatedly worked together to build monuments. The action of cooperation had a benefit to the community by enabling sharing of information and resources."

While Easter Island is famous, the archaeological record of the island is not well-documented, said Lipo. He believes that scientists can learn a great deal from the pukao by examining this new information.

"Every time we look at the archaeological record of the island, we are surprised by what we find. There is much more to be learned from this remarkable place -- important answers that shed light on the abilities of our ancestors, as well as potential ideas for contemporary society about what it takes to survive on a tiny and remote island," said Lipo.

###

The paper "Using Structure from Motion Mapping to Record and Analyze Details of the Colossal Hats (Pukao) of Monumental Statues on Rapa Nui (Easter Island)," was published in the October issue of Advances in Archaeological Progress.
Current plans, which focus on collaborations between Western and Middle Eastern countries, are outlined in the current edition of the journal Neuron*. During their medieval 'Golden Age', the Arab and Persian cultures were a vibrant hub of fruitful intellectual exchange. A brief overview of this history is discussed as part of a recent article which represents a collaborative effort involving a total of 122 authors from 80 research institutes and 22 different countries. The authors, all researchers involved in 'The Science Bridge' project, suggest that this historical model of tolerance and free exchange could serve as an inspiration for future endeavors aimed at fostering research collaborations between different cultures from Western, Middle Eastern and South Asian countries. Prof. Dr. Mazahir T. Hasan, a neuroscientist at Charite's NeuroCure Cluster of Excellence and Ikerbasque Professor at the Achucarro-Basque Center for Neuroscience in Spain, and founder of the initiative, explains: "As seekers of truth, researchers are ambassadors with the power to unite the world through science. They can achieve this by harnessing the creative power of different cultures and international collaborations to find new ways to treat and cure diseases."

'The Science Bridge' project follows a two-stage strategy. Stage 1 of the initiative will involve scientific conferences, exchange programs and joint funding bids, and will be aimed at promoting cooperative projects in the field of neuroscience and the medical sciences in general. Stage 2 will involve the development of 'Twin Institutes', i.e. the partnering of two complementary institutes, one of which will be located in a Western country, and the other in a Middle Eastern or South-Asian country. Both institutes will be created in such a way as to ensure they foster the free exchange of ideas. Prof. Dr. Torsten Wiesel, a Nobel Laureate at the Rockefeller University in New York, says: "Researchers from different cultures and nations working together in the 'Twin Institutes', an innovative concept devised by 'The Science Bridge' initiative, could make important contributions to both science and human relations."

Modern science is based on reason and logic. The initiative's founders are therefore hopeful that scientific thinking may also be capable of counteracting ideas aligned with fundamentalism, extreme nationalism and censorship. "Scientific research is closely linked with humanitarian thinking; as such, it is a perfect platform for bringing together people from across the globe," says Dr. Philipp Boehm-Sturm, a neuroscientist at Charite and an active member of 'The Science Bridge' project. Results from scientific research are usually beneficial to society, with innovations in science and technology often linked directly to both increased wealth and improvements in health. Therefore, in order to achieve and maintain competitiveness within modern global markets, countries need to encourage creativity within the research sector. According to the project's vision, cooperative endeavors will promote positive developments to benefit the common good. All along the way, The Science Bridge plans to continuously engage the public by communicating and discussing the results of the research so that people will have direct access to novel knowledge and so that they can stand testament to the cultures working side-by-side.

###
According to a study by scientists of the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) and the University of Bonn now published in the journal "Nature", inflammatory mechanisms caused by the brain's immune system drive the progression of Alzheimer's disease. These findings, which rely on a series of laboratory experiments, provide new insights into pathogenetic mechanisms that are believed to hold potential for tackling Alzheimer's before symptoms manifest. The researchers envision that one day this may lead to new ways of treatment. Further institutions both from Europe and the US also contributed to the current results.

Alzheimer's disease is a devastating neurodegenerative condition ultimately leading to dementia. An effective treatment does not yet exist. The disease is associated with the aberrant aggregation of small proteins called "Amyloid-beta" (Abeta) that accumulate in the brain and appear to harm neurons. In recent years, studies revealed that deposits of Abeta, known as "plaques", trigger inflammatory mechanisms by the brain's innate immune system. However, the precise processes that lead to neurodegeneration and progression of pathology have thus far not been fully understood.

"Deposition and spreading of Abeta pathology likely precede the appearance of clinical symptoms such as memory problems by decades. Therefore, a better understanding of these processes might be a key for novel therapeutic approaches. Such treatments would target Alzheimer's at an early stage, before cognitive deficits manifest," says Prof. Michael Heneka, a senior researcher at the DZNE and Director of the Department of Neurodegenerative Diseases and Gerontopsychiatry at the University of Bonn.

An Inflammatory Cascade

Prof. Heneka, who is also involved in the cluster of excellence "ImmunoSensation" at the University of Bonn, and coworkers have been investigating the role of the brain's immune response in the progression of Abeta pathology for some time already. Previous work by the group that was published in Nature in 2013, had established that the molecular complex NLRP3, which is an innate immune sensor, is activated in brains of Alzheimer's patients and contributes to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's in the murine model. NLRP3 is a so-called inflammasome that triggers production of highly pro-inflammatory cytokines. Furthermore, upon activation, NLRP3 forms large signaling complexes with the adapter protein ASC, which are called "ASC specks" that can be released from cells. "The release of ASC specks from activated cells has so far only been documented in macrophages and their relevance in disease processes has so far remained a mystery," says Prof. Eicke Latz, director of the Institute of Innate Immunity and member of the cluster of excellence "ImmunoSensation" at the University of Bonn

Connection between Inflammation and Neurodegeneration

In the current study, it was demonstrated that ASC specks are also released from activated immune cells in the brain, the "microglia". Moreover, the findings provide a direct molecular link to classical hallmarks of neurodegeneration. "We found that ASC specks bind to Abeta in the extracellular space and promote aggregation of Abeta, thus directly linking innate immune activation with the progression of pathology," Heneka says.

Novel Approach for Therapy?

This view is supported by a series of experiments in mouse models of Alzheimer's disease. In these, the researchers investigated the effects of ASC specks and its component, the ACS protein, on the spreading of Abeta deposits in the brain.

"Additionally, analysis of human brain material indicates at several levels that inflammation and Abeta pathology may interact in a similar fashion in humans. Together our findings suggest that brain inflammation is not just a bystander phenomenon, but a strong contributor to disease progression," Heneka says. "Therefore, targeting this immune response will be a novel treatment modality for Alzheimer's."

###

Original Publication

"Microglia-derived ASC specks crossseed amyloid-beta in Alzheimer's disease", Carmen Venegas, Sathish Kumar et al., Nature (2017) DOI: 10.1038/nature25158
Located 530 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Grus (The Crane), 1 Gruis is a cool red giant. It has about the same mass as our Sun, but is 700 times larger and several thousand times as bright [1]. Our Sun will swell to become a similar red giant star in about five billion years.

An international team of astronomers led by Claudia Paladini (ESO) used the PIONIER instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope to observe 1 Gruis in greater detail than ever before. They found that the surface of this red giant has just a few convective cells, or granules, that are each about 120 million kilometres across -- about a quarter of the star's diameter [2]. Just one of these granules would extend from the Sun to beyond Venus. The surfaces -- known as photospheres -- of many giant stars are obscured by dust, which hinders observations. However, in the case of 1 Gruis, although dust is present far from the star, it does not have a significant effect on the new infrared observations [3].

When 1 Gruis ran out of hydrogen to burn long ago, this ancient star ceased the first stage of its nuclear fusion programme. It shrank as it ran out of energy, causing it to heat up to over 100 million degrees. These extreme temperatures fueled the star's next phase as it began to fuse helium into heavier atoms such as carbon and oxygen. This intensely hot core then expelled the star's outer layers, causing it to balloon to hundreds of times larger than its original size. The star we see today is a variable red giant. Until now, the surface of one of these stars has never before been imaged in detail.

By comparison, the Sun's photosphere contains about two million convective cells, with typical diameters of just 1500 kilometres. The vast size differences in the convective cells of these two stars can be explained in part by their varying surface gravities. 1 Gruis is just 1.5 times the mass of the Sun but much larger, resulting in a much lower surface gravity and just a few, extremely large, granules.

While stars more massive than eight solar masses end their lives in dramatic supernovae explosions, less massive stars like this one gradually expel their outer layers, resulting in beautiful planetary nebulae. Previous studies of 1 Gruis found a shell of material 0.9 light-years away from the central star, thought to have been ejected around 20 000 years ago. This relatively short period in a star's life lasts just a few tens of thousands of years - compared to the overall lifetime of several billion - and these observations reveal a new method for probing this fleeting red giant phase.

Notes

[1] 1 Gruis is named following the Bayer designation system. In 1603 the German astronomer Johann Bayer classified 1564 stars, naming them by a Greek letter followed by the name of their parent constellation. Generally, stars were assigned Greek letters in rough order of how bright they appeared from Earth, with the brightest designated Alpha (). The brightest star of the Grus constellation is therefore Alpha Gruis.

1 Gruis is one of an attractive pair of stars of contrasting colours that appear close together in the sky, the other one naturally being named 2 Gruis. They are bright enough to be well seen in a pair of binoculars. Thomas Brisbane realised in the 1830s that 1 Gruis was itself also a much closer binary star system. Annie Jump Cannon, credited with the creation of the Harvard Classification Scheme, was the first to report the unusual spectrum of 1 Gruis in 1895.

[2] Granules are patterns of convection currents in the plasma of a star. As plasma heats up at the centre of the star it expands and rises to the surface, then cools at the outer edges, becoming darker and more dense, and descends back to the centre. This process continues for billions of years and plays a major role in many astrophysical processes including energy transport, pulsation, stellar wind and dust clouds on brown dwarfs.

[3] 1 Gruis is one of the brightest members of the rare S class of stars that was first defined by the American astronomer Paul W. Merrill to group together stars with similarly unusual spectra. 1 Gruis, R Andromedae and R Cygni became prototypes of this type. Their unusual spectra is now known to be the result of the "s-process" - or "slow neutron capture process" -- responsible for the creation of half the elements heavier than iron.

###

More information

This research was presented in a paper "Large granulation cells on the surface of the giant star 1 Gruis", by C. Paladini et al., published in the journal Nature on 21 December 2017.

The team is composed of C. Paladini (Institut d'Astronomie et d'Astrophysique, Universite libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium; ESO, Santiago, Chile), F. Baron (Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA), A. Jorissen (Institut d'Astronomie et d'Astrophysique, Universite libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium), J.-B. Le Bouquin (Universite Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IPAG, Grenoble, France), B. Freytag (Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden), S. Van Eck (Institut d'Astronomie et d'Astrophysique, Universite libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium), M. Wittkowski (ESO, Garching, Germany), J. Hron (University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria), A. Chiavassa (Laboratoire Lagrange, Universite de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, CNRS, Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur, Nice, France), J.-P. Berger (Universite Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IPAG, Grenoble, France), C. Siopis (Institut d'Astronomie et d'Astrophysique, Universite libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium), A. Mayer (University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria), G. Sadowski (Institut d'Astronomie et d'Astrophysique, Universite libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium), K. Kravchenko (Institut d'Astronomie et d'Astrophysique, Universite libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium), S. Shetye (Institut d'Astronomie et d'Astrophysique, Universite libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium), F. Kerschbaum (University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria), J. Kluska (University of Exeter, Exeter, UK) and S. Ramstedt (Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden).

ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world's most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It is supported by 16 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with the host state of Chile and by Australia as a strategic partner. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope and its world-leading Very Large Telescope Interferometer as well as two survey telescopes, VISTA working in the infrared and the visible-light VLT Survey Telescope. ESO is also a major partner in two facilities on Chajnantor, APEX and ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, close to Paranal, ESO is building the 39-metre Extremely Large Telescope, the ELT, which will become "the world's biggest eye on the sky".

Links

* Research paper in Nature - https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1741/eso1741a.pdf

* Photos of the VLT - http://www.eso.org/public/images/archive/category/paranal/

* Further information about the VLTI - https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/technology/interferometry/

Contacts

Claudia Paladini

ESO

Santiago, Chile

Email: cpaladin@eso.org

Richard Hook

ESO Public Information Officer

Garching bei Munchen, Germany

Tel: +49 89 3200 6655

Cell: +49 151 1537 3591

Email: rhook@eso.org
Philadelphia, Dec. 20, 2017 - How society regards the use of genetic modification and genome editing can have a significant influence on how these technologies are regulated by authorities and on the pace of technological advancement. In a review published in the Journal of Dairy Science authors from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences discuss potential applications of genetic modification and genome editing of cattle for food production, considering both the breeding program and its ethical aspects. The authors concluded that an active role by all those involved is necessary to support scientific developments.

"It is important that clear and honest information about different methods and their potential use and consequences be provided by researchers. Discussion of ethical dimensions with stakeholders and awareness of possible controversies may decrease the risk of miscommunication," lead author Susanne Eriksson, PhD, said. "To leave the ethical discussions and decisions about genetic modification or genome editing to those with less insight in genetics and animal breeding would be an unfortunate scenario."

In their study, three geneticists and one ethicist focused on two potential applications within cattle; namely, genome editing to create dairy cows without horns ("polled" dairy cows) and genetic modification to improve udder health. Both approaches could be seen as beneficial for animal welfare, but in the former case, a genetic variant already present within the species is introduced, whereas in the latter case, a gene not found in cattle is inserted into the bovine genome.

"It is no longer a question of whether gene editing and genetic modification of farm animals can be done, but, rather, should it be done and who decides what is acceptable. There is the need for international cooperation because dairy genetics are distributed throughout the world in the form of frozen semen used for artificial insemination," commented Matt Lucy, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Dairy Science.

Potential drawbacks include unexpected abnormalities in embryos or calves that arise from the use of advanced reproduction techniques in the gene editing and genetic modification procedures. Ethical questions also exist regarding the "naturalness" of either method, maintenance of the bovine genome, and respect for the cow's life and well-being. Addressing these issues will help shape public perceptions and advance the science of genetic modification and genome editing.

"As pointed out by Professor Henner Simianer (University of Gottingen, Germany), to become quickly adopted and implemented, novel technologies must be suitable for daily use, benefit the breeding program, and be cost efficient, but they also have to be accepted by society," Professor Eriksson said. "However, it is an open question when or if general societal acceptance of food items produced by genetic modification will be achieved."

###
Technology designed by Brazilian startup compares photos of pets registered by owners with snaps of animals found in the street by volunteers. The app is now being used by local government in a Brazilian city in a census of abandoned animals

SciPet, a company incubated at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Sao Paulo State, Brazil, and formed in 2016, uses computer vision and artificial intelligence to identify animals.

The smartphone app "Crowdpet" is a result of a research carried out by SciPet with support from the Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), through its Innovative Research in Small Business Program (PIPE). The product is designed to combine two data sources: photographs of lost animals registered by their owners and photographs of animals sighted in the street by volunteers.

"The app establishes a match between two images using computational visual recognition, and pinpoints by geolocation the place where the picture of the lost animal was taken," says Fabio Rogerio Piva, who is the CEO of SciPet and has a PhD in computer science from UNICAMP.

"Crowdpet" is already in use by the municipality of Vinhedo, a city in the surroundings of Campinas. With the aid of the app, identification and registration are being performed by the city's Center for Animal Disease Control. The initiative, part of a census of animals reached by vaccination campaigns started in July, has the purpose of maintaining an up-to-date registry, above all for control of lost and abandoned animals in the streets.

At the end of Stage 1 of the PIPE project, during which its feasibility was analyzed, SciPet completed a prototype capable of distinguishing cats and dogs from all other images with a 99% success rate. "Even if a user photographs people or objects, the system will register only photos of animals," Piva explains.

The researcher explains that the SciPet studies stand as one of the first attempts to apply biometry to animals. "It showed that human facial biometry methods aren't very effective to identify dogs. Using a method specially developed for animals, they achieved 89% accuracy, equivalent to the success rate obtained by a human observer who specializes in dogs."

Accurate and single recognition

The research project, which was selected among finalists for the 2017 awards of UNICAMP's incubator agency (the Inova UNICAMP Prize), is preparing itself for an even more complex challenge - obtaining the accurate identification of each animal.

Piva states it still takes a long way until the prototype is able to satisfy all the real conditions for use of the CrowdPet app. He refers to the project called "Where is my puppy? Retrieving lost dogs by facial features", which form the basis for the firm's first studies. The project was conducted by researchers at UNICAMP's Reasoning for Complex Data Laboratory (ReCoD Lab), with Professor Eduardo Valle as principal investigator. Valle is currently working with SciPet.

"The study was based on photos taken with the animal always in the same position and at the same distance, i.e., centered. We have to work with photos taken in the street, in different positions, and with varying lighting conditions," Piva says.

Moreover, the state of the lost animal may also influence visual recognition, as it may be dirty or injured. It will, therefore, be necessary to have several photos of the same animal - and not just of its head but of the whole body, given that a characteristic mark on any part of the body could be decisive for recognition.

"The next step will be to reproduce the experiments described in the article 'Where is my puppy?' using photos taken in the wild. This is our biggest challenge," Piva says. To surmount it, SciPet will be assisted by Professor Anderson Rocha as an associate researcher. Rocha is a specialist in machine learning for image recognition.

Redirecting the business plan

The first version of SciPet's business plan for CrowdPet chose people who wanted to find missing pets, connected in a kind of "social network", as its sole target clientele. However, before completing Stage 1 of PIPE, SciPet was selected to take part in the Fourth Edition of FAPESP's Training Program for High-Tech Entrepreneurs between July 31 and September 19, 2017.

During the training program, the SciPet team interviewed over 100 prospective customers. This listening and market prospection exercise showed that city governments needed to conduct a census before they could control the population of abandoned animals. "This is an unsolved problem. It's hard to avoid double counting. Some cities use microchips, but the process involved is costly," Piva says.

At that point, the firm made the strategic decision of offering the app to local government so that cities could provide a street animal monitoring service. "Besides Vinhedo, we're also in touch with several other cities that are setting up animal welfare departments," Piva says.

Cities are now considered the main partners for the project. "CrowdPet can be offered free of charge to the public through local government," he explains. "We refined the concept and realized we wouldn't be able to make a 'pet solution' work."

Piva plans to add more functionality in future, including registration of volunteers and animal protection associations, lists of animals available for adoption, and rewards for people who find lost animals.

###

About Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)

The Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration. For more information: http://www.fapesp.br/en.
A new study in Nature Genetics identifies a specific population of pluripotent embryonic stem cells that can reprogram to totipotent-like cells in culture. Moreover, the scientists of Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen (LMU) have identified bottlenecks and drivers of this reprogramming.

Cellular plasticity is the ability of a cell to make different cell types. At the early stages of life, the fertilized single-cell coming from the mother's egg and the father's sperm is highly plastic - it will give rise to all of the cell types of the body. Cellular plasticity is therefore essential for multicellular organisms like humans to exist.

The single fertilized cell first divides into two cells (referred to as the 2-cell stage of development). The single cell and the two cells resulting from it, have the highest level of cellular plasticity: They are totipotent, which means they can make a full organism, including the extra-embryonic placental tissue. In contrast, embryonic stem cells are pluripotent which means they can make all the cells of the organism, but typically not the extra-embryonic tissue.

In a culture of embryonic stem (ES) cells, a small population (around 1%) spontaneously turns into cells that are similar to the totipotent cells of the 2-cell stage embryo. These cells are called 2-cell-like cells (2CLCs). In this study, Prof. Dr. Maria Elena Torres-Padilla's team set out to determine the specific molecular nature of these cells and find out how they come to be. Torres-Padilla is director of the Institute of Epigenetics and Stem Cells (IES) at Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen and professor of Stem Cell Biology at the LMU. The aim of the team was to gain insights in to the molecular features of totipotency and to work out how changes in cellular plasticity may occur. Their ultimate goal is to understand how these totipotent-like cells 'behave' so that they can manipulate them, and generate them in vitro.

The team began by comparing the genes expressed in ES cells to those expressed in 2CLCs. To do this they used ES cells which express a green fluorescent protein when cells start expressing the MERVL gene. "MERVL is a retrotransposon expressed in 2-cell-like cells" explains Diego Rodriguez-Terrones, a PhD student in the Torres-Padilla lab and co-first author of the paper. "Using this cell line allows us to separate 2-cell-like cells from the ES cells in the culture by collecting the green cells which have entered the 2-cell like state. We then compare the genes expressed in both cell types" he adds. This single cell transcriptome analysis followed by computational analyses enabled the team to identify the gene expression profiles of cells in the process of changing from ES cells to 2CLCs.

They found that during the transition period, cells expressed increasing amounts of a gene encoding the transcription factor Zscan4. They developed their reporter line to also be able to express a red fluorescent protein when Zscan4 is expressed. Live cell imaging confirmed that the majority of cells became red (Zscan4 positive) before becoming green (MERVL positive 2-cell-like cells). "This observation, combined with the transcriptomic data, told us that cells transition through an intermediate state before becoming 2-cell-like cells" said Maria Elena Torres-Padilla. "Based on these seemingly ordered changes in gene expression, we wanted to find out what might be driving the emergence of the 2-cell-like state. This information would be crucial for furthering our knowledge concerning key regulators of cellular plasticity".

With the goal of identifying chromatin regulators that can promote cellular reprogramming, the team performed an siRNA screen, in which the expression of over 1000 genes was impaired to see how the appearance of 2CLCs was affected. "The results of this screen were extraordinary, because we identified many novel proteins that regulate the emergence of 2CLCs" said Dr. Xavier Gaume, co-first author of the paper and postdoc in the Torres-Padilla lab. Of particular interest was the observation that reducing levels of a specific chromatin factor (Ep400/Tip60), results in more 2CLCs. As Ep400/Tip60 is involved in chromatin compaction, this observation identifies an interesting link between chromatin 'openness' with increased potency.

###

Further Information

Background:

Recently, the same Torres-Padilla team published another study in Nature Genetics demonstrating that the expression of retrotransposons plays an important role in embryonic development. Since this is also depending on the chromatin 'openness', this might support the new observations: https://www.helmholtz-muenchen.de/en/press-media/press-releases/all-press-releases/press-release/article/41249/index.html

The doctoral student Diego Rodriguez-Terrones participates in the Helmholtz Graduate School for Environmental Health (HELENA).

Original Publication:

Rodriguez-Terrones, D. & Gaume, X. et al. (2017): A molecular roadmap for the emergence of early-embryonic-like cells in culture. Nature Genetics, DOI: 10.1038/s41588-017-0016-5

The Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen, the German Research Center for Environmental Health, pursues the goal of developing personalized medical approaches for the prevention and therapy of major common diseases such as diabetes and lung diseases. To achieve this, it investigates the interaction of genetics, environmental factors and lifestyle. The Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen is headquartered in Neuherberg in the north of Munich and has about 2,300 staff members. It is a member of the Helmholtz Association, a community of 18 scientific-technical and medical-biological research centers with a total of about 37,000 staff members. http://www.helmholtz-muenchen.de/en

The research of the Institute of Epigenetics and Stem Cells (IES) is focused on the characterization of early events in mammalian embryos. The scientists are especially interested in the totipotency of cells which is lost during development. Moreover, they want to elucidate who this loss is caused by changes in the nucleus. Their main goal is to understand the underlying molecular mechanisms which might lead to the development of new therapeutic approaches. http://www.helmholtz-muenchen.de/ies

As one of Europe's leading research universities, LMU Munich is committed to the highest international standards of excellence in research and teaching. Building on its 500-year-tradition of scholarship, LMU covers a broad spectrum of disciplines, ranging from the humanities and cultural studies through law, economics and social studies to medicine and the sciences. 15 percent of LMU's 50,000 students come from abroad, originating from 130 countries worldwide. The know-how and creativity of LMU's academics form the foundation of the University's outstanding research record. This is also reflected in LMU's designation of as a "university of excellence" in the context of the Excellence Initiative, a nationwide competition to promote top-level university research. http://www.en.lmu.de

Contact for the media:

Department of Communication, Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen - German Research Center for Environmental Health (GmbH), Ingolstadter Landstr. 1, 85764 Neuherberg - Phone: +49 89 3187 2238 - Fax: +49 89 3187 3324 - E-mail: presse@helmholtz-muenchen.de

Scientific contact at Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen:

Prof. Dr. Maria Elena Torres-Padilla, Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen - German Research Center for Environmental Health (GmbH), Institute of Epigenetics and Stem Cells, Marchioninistrae 25, 81377 Munchen - Tel. +49 89 3187 3317 - E-mail: torres-padilla@helmholtz-muenchen.de
Digital video cameras have the capability to record in incredible detail, but saving all that data would take up a huge amount of space: how can we compress a video--that is, remove information--in such a way that we can't see the difference when it is played back? Similarly, as we go about our daily lives, our eyes are flooded with visual information, but the neurons in our eyes have certain constraints -- just like data engineers. Thus, given this rich set of stimuli, how do neurons select what to extract and send on to the brain? Neuroscientists have been asking this question for decades, and had previously used several different theories to explain and predict what neurons will do in certain situations. Now, Matthew Chalk (a former postdoc at IST Austria, currently at the Vision Institute in Paris), IST Austria Professor Gasper Tkacik, and Olivier Marre, who heads a retinal research lab at the Vision Institute, have developed a framework that unites the previous theories as special cases, and enables them to make predictions about types of neurons not previously described by any theory.

One of the main goals of sensory neuroscience is to predict neural responses using mathematical models. Previously, these predictions were based on three main theories, each of which had a different area of applicability, corresponding to varying assumptions about the neurons' internal constraints, the type of signal, and the purpose of the gathered information. In general, a neural code is essentially a function that predicts when a neuron should "fire", that is, emit an action potential signal much like a digital "1" in the binary alphabet that our computers use. Collections of one or more neurons firing at particular times can thus encode information. Efficient coding assumes that the neurons encode as much information as possible, given their internal constraints (noise, metabolism, etc.). Predictive coding, on the other hand, assumes that only the information relevant to predicting the future (e.g. which way an insect will fly) is encoded. Finally, sparse coding assumes that only a few neurons are active at any one time. One problem with this situation was that it was unclear how these theories were related, and if they were even consistent with each other. These latest developments bring order to the theoretical landscape: "Before, there was no clear notion of how to connect or compare these theories. Our framework overcomes this by fitting them together within an overarching structure," says Gasper Tkacik.

In the context of the team's framework, a neural code can be interpreted as the code that maximizes a certain mathematical function. This function--and thus, the neural code maximizing it--depends on three parameters: the noise in the signal, the goal or task (i.e. if the signal will be used to predict the future), and the complexity of the signal being encoded. The theories described above are valid only for specific ranges of values for these parameters and do not cover the entire possible parameter space, which presents problems when trying to test them experimentally. Gasper Tkacik explains: "When you design stimuli to present to the neurons to test your model, it is extremely difficult to distinguish between a neuron that is not fully consistent with your favorite theory or the alternative where your favorite theory is simply incomplete. Our unified framework can now give concrete predictions for parameter values that fall in between the previously studied cases."

The team's unified theory overcomes earlier limitations by allowing the neurons to have "mixed" coding objectives; they don't have to fall into one clear, previously studied category. For example, the new theory can cover the case where neurons are individually very noisy but still should efficiently encode sparse stimuli. More generally, optimal neural codes can be placed on a continuum according the parameter values that define constraints to optimality, which explains phenomena that were previously observed, but not explained by any of the existing models. For first author Matthew Chalk, this is one of the most exciting contributions of their paper: "A lot of the theories that give predictions tend to be inflexible when tested: either it predicted the correct outcome or it didn't. What we need more of, and what our paper provides, are frameworks that can generate hypotheses for a variety of situations and assumptions."

In addition to endowing the theory with greater flexibility, their framework gives concrete predictions for types of neural encoding that were previously unexplored, for example encoding that is both sparse and predictive. To follow up on the theory developed in their paper, Matthew Chalk is designing experiments to test these predictions and help categorize neurons as efficient, predictive, or sparse--or as a combination of these coding objectives. In Olivier Marre's lab at the Institut de la Vision in Paris, he focuses on the retina, and is developing visual stimuli that will activate retinal neurons so as to best reveal their coding objectives.

And the framework can also be applied more broadly: "You don't necessarily need to think about neurons," adds Gasper Tkacik. "The idea of framing this problem in terms of optimization can be used in any sort of signal processing system, and the approximation allows us to study systems that would normally have computationally intractable functions." The three scientists laid the groundwork for further applications in a previous paper published in Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS).

###

IST Austria

The Institute of Science and Technology (IST Austria) is a PhD granting research institution located in Klosterneuburg, 18 km from the center of Vienna, Austria. Inaugurated in 2009, the Institute is dedicated to basic research in the natural and mathematical sciences. IST Austria employs professors on a tenure-track system, postdoctoral fellows, and doctoral students. While dedicated to the principle of curiosity-driven research, the Institute owns the rights to all scientific discoveries and is committed to promote their use. The first president of IST Austria is Thomas A. Henzinger, a leading computer scientist and former professor at the University of California in Berkeley, USA, and the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland. The graduate school of IST Austria offers fully-funded PhD positions to highly qualified candidates with a bachelor's or master's degree in biology, neuroscience, mathematics, computer science, physics, and related areas. See http://www.ist.ac.at

Sources:

Matthew Chalk, Olivier Marre, and Gasper Tkacik: "Towards a unified theory of efficient, predictive and sparse coding", PNAS 2017, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1711114115 http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/12/18/1711114115.abstract

Previous paper in NIPS: Matthew Chalk, Olivier Marre, and Gasper Tkacik: "Relevant sparse codes with variational information bottleneck", NIPS 2016

https://papers.nips.cc/paper/6101-relevant-sparse-codes-with-variational-information-bottleneck
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Americans are evenly divided on whether a business should be able to deny service to same-sex couples, according to a study by Indiana University Bloomington sociologists. It is the first national survey to use an experimental approach to examine views on refusing service to sexual minorities.

But people who support denying service don't necessarily see it as a matter of religious freedom, the study finds. They are as likely to support a business that denies service for reasons unrelated to religion as one that does so because of religious beliefs.

"The finding challenges the idea that denial of service to same-sex couples is all about religious freedom," said Brian Powell, the James H. Rudy Professor of Sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences and the lead author of the study. "People may oppose same-sex marriage because of their beliefs, but their views about denial of service have nothing to do with whether the denial is for religious reasons.

In other findings:

There was surprisingly strong support for the idea that businesses should be able to deny services to interracial couples, even though laws prohibit racial discrimination. Researchers asked about interracial couples to compare with findings for same-sex couples.

Respondents made a clear distinction between self-employed individuals and corporations. They were twice as likely to say a self-employed person could deny service as they were to support a business chain whose owners objected to serving same-sex or interracial couples.

The study is published in Science Advances, a publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Co-authors are Landon Schnabel, a doctoral student in sociology; and Lauren Apgar, a recent Ph.D. graduate in sociology.

A representative sample of over 2,000 people were asked to respond to vignettes in which a photographer refused to take wedding pictures. In random versions of the vignette, the photographer was self-employed or worked for a chain business, the couple was same-sex or interracial, and the reason for denying service was religious or nonreligious.

Powell said it was striking that two in five respondents supported denying service to an interracial couple. Over half said a self-employed photographer should be able to refuse service to an interracial couple, while fewer than one-fourth said a corporation should be allowed to do so.

"Race is a protected category, and despite that, many people say you can deny service," Powell said.

Also, while 61 percent of respondents said a self-employed photographer could deny service to a same-sex couple or interracial couple, only 31 percent said a corporation could deny service. Powell said the result suggests public views are not aligned with the Supreme Court's 2014 Hobby Lobby decision, which said that closely held corporations had the same rights as individuals to deny their employees contraceptive insurance coverage because of the owners' religious objections.

"Americans don't believe that," he said. "They make a clear distinction between corporations and self-employed people."

In the study, respondents didn't favor religious reasons for denying service over other reasons. In open-ended questions, Powell said, many took a libertarian view that a self-employed individual should be able to deny service to anyone for any reason. In contrast, others viewed denial of service as discrimination and said businesses should serve everyone.

The study examines public views on the conflict between anti-discrimination laws and legal protections for speech and religion, a topic under debate by courts and legislatures. The Supreme Court heard recent arguments in a Colorado case in which a baker refused -- on religious grounds -- to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. The court is expected to rule by June 2018.

###

More information, including a copy of the paper, can be found online at the Science Advances press package at http://www.eurekalert.org/jrnls/sciadvances/.
Biophysicists have shown that following low-dose exposure to X-rays (at 80 milligrays), stem cells remain healthy, proliferate, and do not accumulate DNA damage to be passed on to their progeny. The paper was published in the journal Aging.

"The 80-milligray dose is equivalent to the radiation exposure during a medical diagnostic imaging procedure such as a CT scan, which is routinely used in conjunction with stem cell therapy," explains Sergey Leonov, director of the Phystech School of Biological and Medical Physics at MIPT, who also heads the institute's Laboratory for the Development of Innovative Drugs. "Our research helps predict the side effects and health risks for patients, who are increasingly often undergoing both stem cell therapy and diagnostic X-ray procedures at the same time."

The field of regenerative medicine, which is now making rapid advances, holds the promise of using stem cells to replace or restore damaged human tissues and organs. Stem cells have a high potential for division and self-renewal, and are capable of differentiating into various cell types. They are present in most organs and tissues in an adult organism and can identify damage sites, migrate toward them, replace damaged cells, and promote healing. However, stem cells are believed to be harmed by frequent medical diagnostic procedures involving the use of ionizing radiation, such as CT scans and mammography. According to this view, X-rays cause damage that is accumulated in stem cells and passed on to their progeny. This supposedly leads to cell death, accelerated cellular aging, and malignant transformations.

The international research team, including Andreyan Osipov from Burnasyan Federal Medical Biophysical Center and MIPT's Sergey Leonov and Anastasia Tsvetkova, ran a series of experiments aimed at obtaining the much needed data on the delayed effects of low-dose radiation exposure. They showed that low-dose X-ray exposure does not induce genome instability, premature aging, or the accumulation of DNA damage in the progeny of irradiated cells.

Cellular response to X-ray irradiation

During a regular X-ray exam, a dose of about 0.001-10 milligrays -- depending on the procedure -- is delivered to the patient. Receiving 100 mGy is considered low-dose exposure, while 1,000 mGy is regarded as an intermediate dose. The effects of larger-dose exposure have been studied extensively. It is known to cause a dose-dependent increase in the incidence of DNA lesions, including the so-called double-strand breaks in which both strands of the double helix are severed. These breaks can lead to cell death, oncogene activation, and anti-oncogene inactivation.

In contrast, the effects of low-dose radiation exposure during routine X-ray exams are still poorly understood. The regulatory agencies responsible for radiation protection currently use the so-called linear no-threshold model to estimate radiation risks. Under this model, ionizing radiation is harmful to living cells, no matter how low the dose. However, this crude assumption does not reflect the actual state of affairs: We are regularly exposed to natural background radiation, and its absence even has adverse effects on the ability of cells to repair DNA damage.

Criteria for assessing the effects of low-dose exposure

Among the various types of DNA lesions caused by ionizing radiation, double-strand breaks get most of the attention of researchers, because their long-term effects on cells are the most pronounced. Their repair takes long, and uncorrected double-strand breaks lead to serious cytogenetic abnormalities, tumor suppressor gene inactivation, oncogene activation, and cell death.

For a long time, no method was available for evaluating the generation of DNA double-strand breaks due to low-dose radiation exposure. The classical methods could only describe the effects of large-dose exposure. Now, advances in immunocytochemistry, have given biophysicists the tools needed to quantify double-strand breaks caused by low-dose X-ray exposure and look into how they are distributed in the nucleus and repaired by the cell.

As proteins involved in the correction of DNA damage accumulate at the site of a double-strand break, they can be observed with a microscope thanks to immunofluorescence staining -- a technique that involves treating antibodies with fluorescent dyes. This enables scientists to visualize DNA lesions as bright dots called foci. One of the proteins widely used as a DNA damage marker is the histone variant called H2AX.

Effects on progeny cells

The cell has two main mechanisms for repairing double-strand breaks. The first one, called homologous recombination, is a slow but virtually error-free way of restoring the lost information in a damaged DNA sequence. The other one, nonhomologous end joining, may lead to a loss of genetic information, resulting in errors and mutations. And yet it is this faster but inaccurate mechanism that is used to repair eight out of 10 breaks occurring in an irradiated cell.

The researchers found that 24 hours after low-dose X-ray treatment, more H2AX foci are observed in stem cells, compared to those exposed to an intermediate dose of radiation. However, this was only true for cells undergoing division and not for quiescent cells (see fig. 2). DNA double-strand breaks are known to occur naturally during cell division. Such breaks are usually mended correctly via homologous recombination. When the progeny of the cells were examined 11 passages, or "cellular generations," after the exposure to low-dose radiation, the researchers found them to be no different from the progeny of the control cells, which were not treated with X-rays. Furthermore, the progeny of the cells that received low-dose irradiation did not exhibit genome instability, proliferation abnormalities, or accelerated senescence (see figs. 2 and 3).

Andreyan Osipov, professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the head of the Experimental Radiobiology and Radiation Medicine Department at Federal Medical Biophysical Center, comments on the team's findings: "Our research suggests that the presence of H2AX foci in cultured human stem cells 24 hours after low-dose X-ray irradiation is associated with cell division processes and does not lead to delayed effects related to aging. This is an important conclusion to draw, because H2AX foci are now actively used in biodosimetry. Misunderstanding the biological significance of residual foci might lead to a severe overestimation of the risks associated with low-dose exposure."

###

The research was partially supported by a grant of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and was conducted with the financial support of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.
The latest generation of cancer treatments spring from the discovery that the human immune system is able to beat the disease. Like Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz," what research teams around the world have spent decades searching for was right in their own backyard all along.

Adoptive cell transfer, or ACT, is one of these new immune-based treatments. For ACT, doctors draw a sample of blood from a cancer patient, sift out naturally occurring immune system T cells and re-engineer them in a laboratory, turning them into super-charged, cancer fighters. Then, billions of these killer T cells are put back into the patient's bloodstream, where they hunt down and destroy the cancer.

ACT is now one of the most effective treatments for melanoma and many blood-based cancers. Unfortunately, it is not very effective against aggressive solid tumors, such as pancreatic cancer. The problem is there are hundreds of types of T cells in the body, and not all of them make good cancer fighters. It is very difficult to identify and sift out the exact T cells needed to fight highly malignant tumors. The T cells must be able to both navigate their way to the tumor and survive long enough in the harsh cancer environment to kill all of the cancer.

Luckily, identifying these resilient, cancer-killing T cells just got a lot easier, thanks to a team of Hollings Cancer Center researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), led by Chrystal Paulos, Ph.D., associate professor of Microbiology and Immunology and the Cecilia and Vincent Peng Endowed Chair in Melanoma and Cutaneous Oncology. Their breakthrough discovery, published in the December 2017 issue of Nature Communications, finds that T cells with a protein called CD26 on their surface have the best cancer-fighting potential.

The road to this discovery began when the team started looking at a group of T cells that are not widely used for ACT. There are many different T cell 'families,' and most ACT treatments use T cells from the CD8 family. But the Paulos team chose to focus on the CD4 family.

Stefanie Bailey, a graduate student on Paulos' team and lead author on the article, explains. "CD4 T cells get overlooked in cancer immunotherapy. There's a bias in the field to study CD8 T cells, because they're known to have strong anti-cancer abilities," she says. "CD4 T cells are mostly known for helping other cells function -- in fact, CD4 T cells are called 'T-helper cells.' But studies show that CD4 T cells can also clear cancer."

Last spring, the team discovered that a particular type of CD4 T cells, called Th17 cells, were highly effective against aggressive solid tumors. But they needed a way to identify Th17 cells in a blood sample, so they could sift them out and use them for ACT therapy. Then, a new study caught Bailey's attention. It showed that T cells with a protein called CD26 on their surface carried markers for Th17.

"We were looking for a way to get Th17 cells directly from patients' blood to get around having to generate them in the lab, which is a very complex process," says Bailey. "We needed a simple way to identify Th17 cells. So, when we saw that Th17 cells express high levels of CD26, we wanted to explore it. CD26 is a multi-functional protein that's on the surface of the cell. It's actually pretty well-known in the immunology field."

Although CD26 was well known, Paulos' team was the first to study its role in fighting cancer. The first thing they found was that all CD4 T cells did not have the same amount of CD26 on the surface. Some had little or no CD26, some had intermediate levels and others had high CD26. In addition, these three T cell groups had very different abilities to fight cancer.

The team expected T cells with high CD26 levels to perform worst against cancer, because initial tests showed that high-CD26 T cells had many hallmarks of being weak immune cells. To their surprise, closer study showed quite the opposite.

"We were really shocked to see that these cells could not only kill multiple solid tumors but also could survive for a long time in the patient," says Bailey. "When you look at high-CD26 T cells, they look exhausted. They appear incapable of mounting a long-term response to cancer. They don't look at all like the kind of T cells we would want for therapy," she explains.

Despite their appearance, high-CD26 T cells had two critical characteristics the other two types lacked. First, they could resist apoptosis (processes that lead to cell death) and survive in the hostile tumor environment. Second, they had stem cell-like properties, allowing them to repopulate and keep growing after being infused into the patient.

"One of the beauties of ACT is that it's a living therapy," says Bailey. "After the T cells kill the tumor, they keep living inside the patient. So, if the tumor comes back, you already have T cells there that can kill it again." Theoretically, ACT-infused T cells can last a lifetime. Viable, re-infused T cells have been found over twenty years later in ACT patients.

The team's discovery that T cells with high levels of CD26 are excellent cancer fighters will help advance the use of T cell-based immunotherapies for cancer and other autoimmune diseases. Until now, researchers looked for multiple markers to identify the best T cells for ACT. This breakthrough suggests that the long list of markers can be shortened to just one: CD26.

"There are two really exciting things here," says Bailey. "First, you can identify T cells with superior therapeutic potential by how much CD26 they have. So, you can maximize the chance that ACT will succeed in killing the cancer. Second, in the solid tumors we looked at, having T cells with CD26 at the tumor site produced a better therapeutic response, suggesting that having CD26 expression on tumor-infiltrating T cells directly correlates with the patient's response."

The study specifically looked at melanoma, mesothelioma and pancreatic cancer. Animal models bearing these types of tumors experienced a better treatment outcome when a heightened percentage of CD26 donor T cells infiltrated the tumor. There was a 50 percent curative rate in melanoma and 95 percent for mesothelioma. There was not a curative response for pancreatic cancer, but it did reduce tumor size by two-thirds and extend survival in the preclinical model. These findings suggest that it may work well in combination therapies, she says.

"We're excited about the broader clinical implications of this discovery," adds Paulos. "Targeting T cells with CD26 will not only benefit ACT therapy but will also help bolster the effectiveness of other cancer immunotherapies, such as checkpoint modulators, vaccines and cytokine therapies." Paulos explained that human CD4 T cells expressing various amounts of CD26 could also be manipulated in treating patients with infectious diseases and autoimmune manifestations.

Now the Paulos laboratory is collaborating with investigators at MUSC and around the world to further explore the role of CD4 T cells with different CD26 levels in different types of cancer and autoimmune diseases. Beyond providing more effective treatments, it also offers other benefits. "If you get the right types of cells, maybe you don't need as many. It could cut down on a lot of expenses and the time patients would need to get the treatment" says Paulos.

###

About Hollings Cancer Center

The Hollings Cancer Center at the Medical University of South Carolina is a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center and the largest academic-based cancer research program in South Carolina. The cancer center is comprised of more than 120 faculty cancer scientists with a research funding portfolio of $44 million and a dedication to reducing the cancer burden in South Carolina. Hollings offers state-of-the-art diagnostic capabilities, therapies and surgical techniques within multidisciplinary clinics that include surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation therapists, radiologists, pathologists, psychologists and other specialists equipped for the full range of cancer care, including more than 200 clinical trials. For more information, please visit http://www.hollingscancercenter.org.
A new study published in the Review of Economic Studies finds that Rhode Island's 6-year prostitution decriminalization policy increased the size of the sex market, but it also appears that during this period both rape offenses and female gonorrhea incidence declined dramatically.

Prostitution prohibition is mostly due to moral concerns, though disease transmission and victimization risks associated with sex markets are also policy concerns. For example, the 1992 National Health and Social Life Survey showed that 23% of female sex workers report they have ever had gonorrhea compared to 4.7% for females who have never been paid to have sex. Given the average sex worker sees 200-300 clients per year, and men have a 20% risk of getting the infection from a single act of vaginal intercourse with an infected woman, while women have a 60-80% risk of getting the infection from a single act of vaginal intercourse with an infected man, the spread of disease is a significant public health concern. Sex market related violence is also common. The incidence of rape and homicide victimization is extremely high for women engaged in prostitution.

Most governments around the world, including the United States, prohibit sex work; knowledge about the impact of decriminalizing sex work is largely conjectural. But between 2003 and 2009 Rhode Island unexpectedly decriminalized indoor sex work.

The aim of this paper was to provide quasi-experimental estimates of the causal effect of decriminalizing indoor prostitution on the composition of the sex market (supply and price), population sexually transmitted infection outcomes, and reported female rape offenses. The researchers focused on reported rape offenses and gonorrhea incidence due to the high association each has with prostitution.

All evidence suggests that a 2003 District Court judge's decision, which caused the de facto decriminalization of indoor sex work, was due to the court's discovery that a May 1980 amendment to the General Laws of Rhode Island had created an inadvertent legal loophole decriminalizing indoor sex work. But in rewriting the statute, the amendment removed certain key phrases that addressed the commission of the act of prostitution itself, rendering prostitution itself effectively legal in the state.

The de facto decriminalization of indoor prostitution became policy in late 2003 when District Court Judge Bucci dismissed charges against a group of massage parlor employees arrested and charged with "loitering for the purposes of street prostitution," arguing that Rhode Island's existing law did not apply to indoor prostitution in Rhode Island. Police became powerless to arrest prostitutes or their customers inside massage parlors.

Indoor prostitution was ultimately re-criminalized in November 2009, but for approximately six years, Rhode Island was the only state in the US with unbridled, decriminalized indoor prostitution, and prohibited street prostitution.

The study used six unique datasets: crime arrests and reported rape offenses from the Uniform Crime Reports; gonorrhea cases from the Centers for Disease Control's Gonorrhea Surveillance Program; data on sex worker and transaction characteristics from a popular website called The Erotic Review; weekly classified advertisements from the "adult services" section and restaurant advertisements from The Providence Phoenix ; sexual behavior outcomes from the 1992 National Health and Social Life Survey; and state level covariates from the Current Population Survey.

The outcomes of interest in this paper were not only prostitution related--researchers used population level sexually transmitted disease rate outcomes and reported rape offenses. This allowed the researchers to draw conclusions about the impacts of decriminalization as they relate to the population at large, not just sex workers. They estimate that approximately 5 to 50 percent of the decline in gonorrhea was from sex workers, with the rest coming from the general female population in Rhode Island.

The results of the study indicated that decriminalization reduced sexual violence by 30 percent. Decriminalization also improved public health outcomes by decreasing female gonorrhea incidence by more than 40 percent.

Researchers estimated that that approximately 5 to 50 percent of the decline in gonorrhea could be from female sex workers. The rest was likely from non-sex workers. While researchers could not perform similar estimates for rape offenses, they believe that some proportion of the decrease in rape offenses came from non-sex workers. Sex workers are more likely to report rape after decriminalization, so the fact that researchers discovered an overall decrease suggests that non-sex workers are part of this decrease.

More sex in the population, even among sex workers, may reduce a sexually transmitted disease epidemic if the marginal sex worker has lower background risk or engages in safe behaviors that dilute the risk in the sexual network.

The effect of decriminalization on rape is complex and unclear. Decriminalization will increase sexual violence if violence is an increasing function of the number of women employed in the market, but decriminalization could also result in safer work spaces since firms might be more willing to invest in security due to well-defined property rights after decriminalization. Sex workers may also be more willing to cooperate with police following decriminalization of prostitution.

"Recently big organizations like Amnesty International and the Lancet Board have come out in favor of decriminalizing sex work. This paper presents important causal evidence that doing so would improve public health outcomes and reduce violence against women," said one of the paper's authors, Manisha Shah, an associate professor of public policy at UCLA. "We think this is a big finding in a world where good empirical evidence has historically been limited."

###

"Decriminalizing Indoor Prostitution: Implications for Sexual Violence and Public Health" is available at https://academic.oup.com/restud/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/restud/rdx065

Direct correspondence to:

Scott Cunningham

Department of Economics, Baylor University

Waco, Texas 76798-8003

Scott_Cunningham@Baylor.edu

or

Manisha Shah

Department of Public Policy, UCLA

Luskin School of Public Affairs

Los Angeles, CA 90095

ManishaShah@UCLA.edu

To request a copy of the study, please contact:

Daniel Luzer

daniel.luzer@oup.com

Sharing on social media? Find Oxford Journals online at @OxfordJournals
Researchers at the Center for Lighting Enabled Systems & Applications at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, University of New Mexico, and ABB awarded over $2 million from ARPA-E for Transformational Energy Technology

Troy, NY - Recently, the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) announced $20 million in funding for 15 projects that will develop a new class of sensor systems to enable significant energy savings via reduced demand for heating and cooling in residential and commercial buildings. The Center for Lighting Enabled Systems & Applications (LESA) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, along with the University of New Mexico (UNM) and LESA industry partner ABB, are working to create a low-cost, privacy-preserving sensor technology for counting, locating, and tracking occupants in any commercial space that will be developed and tested. Funding for the entire project is $2.375 million over three years.

Today, about 13 percent of all energy produced in the United States is used to heat, cool, and ventilate buildings, according to ARPA-E. Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) is the largest consumer of energy in commercial buildings, totaling 37 percent of all energy used in this sector. Much of this energy is wasted by heating, cooling, and over-ventilating unoccupied or partially occupied spaces. Due to a lack of accurate and reliable occupancy information, existing building automation and control systems are limited in their ability to substantially reduce HVAC energy use.

ARPA-E's Saving Energy Nationwide in Structures with Occupancy Recognition (SENSOR) program supports innovative and highly accurate presence sensors and occupant counters that optimize heating, cooling, and ventilation (HVAC) of buildings while reducing cost and slashing energy use.

"The award from ARPA-E allows LESA to build on its fundamental research showing the power of digitized light, which, when reflected from any object in the space, generates privacy-preserving occupancy and activity data," said Robert F. Karlicek Jr., LESA director, who also serves as a professor in the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering at Rensselaer. "In this program, the LESA team will apply its lighting toolkit concepts to achieving better energy efficiency in buildings, but this is only the start of how digitized illumination will become an essential part of any Internet of Things (IoT) platform for smart buildings, healthcare, horticulture, new 5G wireless communications, and cognitive environments. We are honored to work with our partners from the University of New Mexico and ABB to take our game-changing energy technology research to the next level."

The technology uses only high-efficiency, low-power infrared LEDs and photodiodes for distance mapping, and with privacy preserved, can be used anywhere in the building. Studies of prototype occupancy sensing using this technology suggest that energy costs of heating and cooling can be reduced by up to 30 percent by training the building management system to deliver the right temperature air when and where it is needed. The data will also be invaluable for building utilization and security managers, simplifying the installation of new, energy efficient, smart building systems, and services.

According to Karlicek, the sensor significantly extends infrared (IR)-based time of flight (ToF) distance measurement technology previously developed by LESA. The new TOF sensor system will use a patented plenoptic (a light field that captures information about the light field emanating from a scene)detector technology developed by LESA academic partner UNM and will integrate additional sensor signal processing circuitry developed by the LESA optoelectronic illumination and communication (IC) team at Rensselaer.

"The miniature, low-cost TOF sensor array can then be built into lighting fixtures or installed in the ceiling," Karlicek said. "In addition, several sensors distributed throughout the space will form a sparse network, scanning the entire space for distance information to map the precise number, location, and movement of occupants. In terms of identifying individuals, the sensors only register people's presence in the space, thus preserving personal privacy."

UNM will work on the development of a sensor array that provides multiple spatially separated time of flight signals using a unique integrated optical technology developed at UNM, which was recently awarded U.S. Patent 9,766,123 through STC.UNM. The UNM technology uses a grating coupled waveguide as a spectral and angular filter. The input coupling region is displaced from the silicon detection region to provide a unique plenoptic sensor that provides unparalleled spectral and angular resolution while being fully compatible with mature silicon integrated circuit manufacturing technology to ensure low cost.

"It is exciting to see the ideas of digital light that LESA pioneered as aspirational targets become real products that will have a significant societal impact; this is very much a goal of the NSF ERCs, to drive multidisciplinary projects that go from fundamental science to practical application," said Steven R.J. Brueck, Ph.D., UNM Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Electrical and Computer Engineering, UNM lead for LESA, and emeritus director of the Center for High Technology Materials.

According to the researchers, the data from the sensor network uses the motion and position information to maintain an extremely accurate count of the number of people in the space, and uses a specialized algorithm to track people who may be temporarily lost when moving between sensors, thus reducing the number of sensors needed. The new ToF image processing algorithms will extend the current ToF sensing technology developed previously by LESA's image processing and controls group at Rensselaer in order to take advantage of the new capabilities of the plenoptic ToF IC that will be developed by the combined Rensselaer and UNM teams.

Occupancy data is then sent to the building control system to manage heating, cooling, and air conditioning (HVAC) energy consumption in order to maximize building efficiency, according to LESA industry member ABB. The goal is to provide optimal human comfort at reasonable cost. ABB, through its U.S. Corporate Research organization in Raleigh, North Carolina, will work closely with the Rensselaer team to validate sensor performance via EnergyPlus modeling and hardware-in-the-loop tests to document energy savings for several types of office settings. The ABB team will also support commercialization efforts, a key deliverable of the DOE's ARPA-e SENSOR program.

LESA's vision is focused on creating digitized illumination for new applications in lighting, healthcare, building management, horticulture, and advanced 5G wireless communications platforms. The collaboration with the University of New Mexico and LESA industry partner ABB exemplifies The New Polytechnic, an emerging paradigm for teaching, learning, and research at Rensselaer. The New Polytechnic emphasizes and supports collaboration across disciplines, sectors, and regions to address the great global challenges of our day, using the most advanced tools and technologies, many of which are developed at Rensselaer. Research at Rensselaer addresses some of the world's most pressing technological challenges--from energy security and sustainable development to biotechnology and human health. The New Polytechnic is transformative in the global impact of research, in its innovative pedagogy, and in the lives of students at Rensselaer.

###

About the Center for Lighting Enabled Systems & Applications (LESA) ERC

Funded primarily by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the LESA ERC is an interdisciplinary, multi-university center developing "Smart Lighting Systems that See and ThinkTM". The Center engages faculty members, graduate students, research staff, and undergraduates to work on research leading to smart lighting systems with adaptive and controllable properties that will change the way society uses lighting. The Center joins academia, industry, and government in partnership to produce transformational engineered systems, along with engineering graduates who are adept at innovation and primed for leadership in the global economy. The LESA ERC is headquartered at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, and partners with Boston University, The University of New Mexico, and Thomas Jefferson University to achieve its objectives. http://lesa.rpi.edu

About Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1824, is America's first technological research university. For nearly 200 years, Rensselaer has been defining the scientific and technological advances of our world. Rensselaer faculty and alumni represent 85 members of the National Academy of Engineering, 17 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 25 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 8 members of the National Academy of Medicine, 9 members of the National Academy of Inventors, and 5 members of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, as well as 6 National Medal of Technology winners, 5 National Medal of Science winners, and a Nobel Prize winner in Physics. With 7,000 students and nearly 100,000 living alumni, Rensselaer is addressing the global challenges facing the 21st century--to change lives, to advance society, and to change the world. To learn more, go to http://www.rpi.edu.

About the Center for High Technology Materials (CHTM)

CHTM is a research and education center of excellence in photonics and microelectronics established at UNM by the state of New Mexico in 1983. Major funding from CHTM has come from a variety of government and industry sources including the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Defense Advanced Projects Agency, NSF, SEMATECH and many others. Over its history, CHTM has published over 2500 refereed scientific papers, been awarded 204 US patents (through STC.UNM), has received over $200M in research funding, and has initiated 16 companies and worked with many more small companies in New Mexico.

About The University of New Mexico

Founded in 1889 as New Mexico's flagship institution, The University of New Mexico now occupies nearly 800 acres near old Route 66 in the heart of Albuquerque, a metropolitan area of more than 500,000 people. From the magnificent mesas to the west, past the banks of the historic Rio Grande to the Sandia Mountains to the east, Albuquerque is a blend of culture and cuisine, styles and stories, people, pursuits and panoramas. Offering a distinctive campus environment with a Pueblo Revival architectural theme, the campus buildings echo nearby Pueblo Indian villages. The nationally recognized campus arboretum and the popular duck pond offer an outstanding botanical experience in the midst of one of New Mexico's great public open spaces.

About ABB

ABB is a pioneering technology leader in electrification products, robotics and motion, industrial automation and power grids, serving customers in utilities, industry and transport & infrastructure globally. Continuing more than a 125-year history of innovation, ABB today is writing the future of industrial digitalization and driving the Energy and Fourth Industrial Revolutions. ABB operates in more than 100 countries with about 136,000 employees. http://www.abb.com

Contacts

The University of New Mexico

Vanessa Tan

Communication & Outreach Specialist

Office of the Vice President for Research

505-277-2500

vtan@unm.edu

The University of New Mexico

Rachel Whitt

Communications Specialist

Office: 505-277-5627

Mobile: 505-433-7425

rwhitt@unm.edu

ABB Inc.

Bob Fesmire

Strategic Communications Manager

305 Gregson Drive

Cary, NC 27511

Phone: 919-807-5715

Mobile: 408-857-1394

bob.fesmire@us.abb.com

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Email: newsmedia@rpi.edu

Jessica Otitigbe

News and Editorial Services

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Office: 518-276-6050

Mobile: 518-466-3907

otitij@rpi.edu

Follow Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/RPInews

For more story ideas, visit the Rensselaer research and discovery blog at: http://approach.rpi.edu
HOUSTON - (Dec. 20, 2017) - Gene editing could someday help people at risk of hearing loss from genetic mutations, according to research by a new Rice University faculty member.

Xue (Sherry) Gao, who joined Rice in the fall as the Ted N. Law Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, is co-lead author of a new Nature paper that reports on the promise of gene editing to treat autosomal dominant hearing diseases.

Gao performed the research while a postdoctoral associate under the guidance of David Liu at Harvard University. She said that while hearing diseases are typically not life-threatening, hearing loss is the most common human sensory impairment and has a substantial impact on individuals and society.

Many genetic mutations affect the sensory hair cells that amplify acoustic vibrations and translate them into electrical nerve signals. Gao said humans are born with about 12,000 hair cells that do not regenerate spontaneously if damaged. It has been reported that one in every 1,000 infants born in the United States has genetic mutations that contribute to deafness. Nevertheless, she said, few treatments are available to slow or reverse genetic deafness.

The researchers used rodent models of human genetic disease since a rodent cochlea -- the organ in the inner ear that sends sounds to the brain -- is strikingly similar to that of humans, Gao said. They focused on editing hair cells inside the cochlea, which they found suitable for the delivery of one-time, nonreplicable edits through Cas9/single-guide RNA. The RNA is a ribonucleotide (RNP) protein complex designed to specifically disrupt genes associated with hearing loss.

"Delivering the RNP complex instead of DNA into the cochleae showed significantly fewer off-target effects," Gao said. This enabled the researchers to effectively disrupt one genomic site containing a single point mutation and avoid the billions of other sites available for modification.

Eight weeks after injecting the protein complex into the cochleae of rodents with progressive, genetic hearing loss, the researchers observed higher hair cell survival rates compared with those in a control group that did not receive the injection.

Tests that measured brain waves in response to audio cues showed the treatment significantly preserves the animals' hearing compared with the control group. The treatment also helped preserve the injected animals' acoustic behavioral reflexes, according to the researchers. "We believe this is a leading study on using Crispr-Cas9 genome editing technology to treat genetic hearing diseases," said Gao, whose lab is at Rice's BioScience Research Collaborative. "We hope to develop more advanced genome-editing tools and test them on other animal species to demonstrate their safety and effectiveness as we move them toward humans.

"I'm definitely looking for collaborators at Rice, the Texas Medical Center and in Houston who also are interested in developing genome-editing technology," she said.

Gao's primary collaborators on the Nature paper were co-lead author Yong Tao and Zheng-Yi Chen of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Institutes of Health supported the research.

###

Editor's note: Links to high-resolution images for download appear at the end of this release.

David Ruth

713-348-6327

david@rice.edu

Mike Williams

713-348-6728

mikewilliams@rice.edu

Read the abstract at http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature25164

Read Nature's News & Views "An ode to gene edits that prevent deafness": http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/d41586-017-08645-z

This news release can be found online at http://news.rice.edu/2017/12/20/hearing-is-believing-in-gene-therapys-promise/

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews

Related materials:

The Gao Laboratory: http://gaolab.rice.edu

Liu Group: http://evolve.harvard.edu

Rice Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: https://chbe.rice.edu/

Images for download:

http://news.rice.edu/files/2017/12/0108_HEARING-2-WEB-2n7kobu.jpg

In a new Nature paper, a Rice University professor outlines a strategy that uses gene editing to slow the progression of a genetic hearing disease. (Credit: Illustration by Xue (Sherry) Gao)

http://news.rice.edu/files/2017/12/0108_HEARING-1-WEB-27t0xep.jpg

Xue (Sherry) Gao. (Credit: Tommy LaVergne/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.
Washington, DC - From job applications to being in line at the DMV, instructions, and the expectations that we follow them, are everywhere. Recent research found people with a greater sense of entitlement are less likely to follow instructions than less entitled people are, because they view the instructions as an unfair imposition on them. The results appear in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

Scientists already know entitled people - technically, individuals with a higher sense of entitlement - are more likely to believe they deserve preferences and resources that others don't and that they are less concerned about what is socially acceptable or beneficial. For authors Emily Zitek (Cornell University) and Alexander Jordan (Harvard Medical School), understanding the reasons for their behavior could lead to solutions as well.

"The fact that there are a lot of complaints these days about having to deal with entitled students and entitled employees," says Zitek, "suggests the need for a solution."

Zitek and Jordan conducted a series of studies, first to see who was more likely to avoid following instructions in a word search. After establishing that people who scored high on measures of entitled personality were less likely to follow instructions, they provided a set of scenarios to try to understand why the entitled individuals ignore the instructions: selfishness, control, or punishment. But none of these affected the outcomes; entitled people still wouldn't follow instructions.

The researchers were surprised that it was so hard to get entitled individuals to follow instructions.

"We thought that everyone would follow instructions when we told people that they would definitely get punished for not doing so, but entitled individuals still were less likely to follow instructions than less entitled individuals," said Zitek.

A final set of experiments, exploring fairness, finally got to the reason: "Entitled people do not follow instructions because they would rather take a loss themselves than agree to something unfair," wrote the authors.

"A challenge for managers, professors, and anyone else who needs to get people with a sense of entitlement to follow instructions is to think about how to frame the instructions to make them seem fairer or more legitimate," said Zitek.

Zitek and Jordan write that organizations and societies run more smoothly when people are willing to follow instructions.

###
This system was developed using three technological elements: a microphone array technology[2] for the "robot ears," an interface for visualization of invisible sounds, and a microphone array that is easily connected to a drone, even in rainy weather.

Background

"Robot audition" is a research area that was proposed to the world by Adjunct Professor Kazuhiro Nakadai of Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) and Professor Hiroshi G. Okuno of Waseda University in 2000. Until then, robots had not been able to recognize voices unless a microphone was near a person's mouth. Research to construct "robot ears" began advancing under the idea that robots, like humans, should hear sound with their own ears. The entry barrier for this research area was high since it involves a combination of signal processing, robotics, and artificial intelligence. However, vigorous activities since its proposal, including the publication of open source software, culminated in its official registration as a research area in 2014 by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS), the largest community for robot research.

The three keys for making "robot ears" a reality are (1) sound source localization technology to estimate where sound is coming from, (2) sound source separation technology to extract the direction from which the sound originates, and (3) automatic speech recognition technology to recognize separated sounds from background noise, similar to how humans can recognize speech from across a noisy lot. The research team pursued techniques to implement these keys in real environments and in real-time. They developed the technology that, like the legendary Japanese Prince Shotoku[3], could distinguish simultaneous speech from multiple people. They have, among other projects, demonstrated simultaneous meal ordering by 11 people and created a robot game show host that can handle multiple contestants answering simultaneously.

Overview of research achievements

This technology is the result of extreme audition research performed as a research challenge from the Japanese Cabinet Office initiative ImPACT Tough Robotics Challenge and led by Program Manager Satoshi Tadokoro of Tohoku University. A system that can detect voices, mobile device sounds, and other sounds from disaster victims through the background noise of a drone has been developed to assist in faster victim recovery.

Assistant Professor Taro Suzuki of Waseda University provided the high-accuracy point cloud map data, an outcome of his research on high-performance GPS. The group performing the extreme audition research, Nakadai, Okuno, and Associate Professor Makoto Kumon of Kumamoto University, were central in developing this system, the first of its kind worldwide.

This system is made up of three main technical elements. The first is the microphone array technology based on the robot audition open source software HARK (HRI-JP Audition for Robots with Kyoto University)[4]. HARK has been updated every year since its 2008 release, and exceeded 120,000 total downloads as of December 2017. The software was extended to support embedded use while also maintaining its noise robustness. Researchers then embedded this version of HARK on a drone to decrease its weight and take advantage of high-speed data processing. They realized that microphone array processing could be performed inside a microphone array device attached to the drone--it is not necessary to send all of the captured signals to a base station wirelessly. The total data transmission volume was dramatically reduced to less than 1/100. This made it possible to detect sound sources even through the noise generated by the drone itself.

The second element is a three-dimensional sound source location estimation technology with map display. This made it possible to construct an easily understood visual user interface out of invisible sound sources.

The final element is an all-weather microphone array consisting of 16 microphones all connected by one cable for easy installation on a drone. This makes it possible to perform a search and rescue even in adverse weather.

It is generally accepted that the survival probability is drastically reduced for victims that are not rescued within the first 72 hours after a disaster. Establishing technology for a swift search and rescue has been a pressing issue.

Most existing technologies using drones to search for disaster victims make use of cameras or similar devices. Not being able to use them when victims are difficult to find or are in areas where cameras are ineffective, such as when victims are buried or are in the dark, has been a major impediment in search and rescue operations. Since this technology detects sounds made by disaster victims, it may be able to mitigate such problems. It is expected to become promising tools for rescue teams in the near future as drones for finding victims needing rescue in disaster areas become widely available.

Future development

The research group will continue to work toward improving the system to make it even easier to use and more robust by continuing to perform demonstrations and experiments in simulated disaster conditions. One goal is to add a functionality for classifying sound source types, instead of simply detecting them, so that relevant sound sources from victims can be distinguished from irrelevant sources. Another goal is to develop the system as a package of intelligent sensors that can be connected to various types of drones.

###

Explanation of Technical Terms

[1] ImPACT Tough Robotics Challenge (TRC): an R&D Program from the Japanese Cabinet Office's Impulsing Paradigm Change through Disruptive Technologies Program.

[2] Microphone array technology: a technology that uses a microphone array to estimate the direction of sound or to isolate and extract specific sounds; can be effective even in noisy conditions.

[3] Prince Shotoku: a member of the imperial family of Japan in the seventh century. Legend has it that when ten people vying for him to hear their petitions all talked at once, he understood all the words uttered by each person and was able to give an appropriate reply to each.

[4] HARK: the abbreviated name for Honda Research Institute Japan Audition for Robots with Kyoto University. It is open source software for robot audition developed by Honda Research Institute Japan Co., Ltd. (HRI-JP) and Kyoto University. "Hark" is a Middle English word for "listen."

Reference

Impulsing Paradigm Change through Disruptive Technologies Program

(ImPACT) by the Cabinet Office http://www.jst.go.jp/impact/en/index.html

Program Manager: Satoshi Tadokoro

R&D Program: Tough Robotics Challenge

R&D Challenge: Search and identification of sound sources using microphone arrays installed on UAV (R&D Manager: Kazuhiro Nakadai, Research period: 2014-2018)

* Corresponding researcher's mail : nakadai@ra.sc.e.titech.ac.jp

Contacts for press

Emiko Kawaguchi

Public Relations Section,

Tokyo Institute of Technology

E-mail: media@jim.titech.ac.jp

Tel:+81-3-5734-2975

Naoko Fukuda

URA Promotion Office,

Kumamoto University

E-mail: research-coordinator@jimu.kumamoto-u.ac.jp

Tel:+81-96-342-3307

Office of Information & Public Relations

Waseda University

Tel: +81-3-3202-5454

Fax: +81-3-3202-9435

E-Mail: koho@list.waseda.jp

Contact for ImPACT R&D and Program Managers

Office for the Impulsing Paradigm Change through Disruptive Technologies Program (ImPACT)

Japan Science and Technology Agency

Tokyo Headquarters 2 K's Gobancho

7, Gobancho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0076 Japan

E-mail : impact@jst.go.jp

Tel : +81-3-6380-9012

About Tokyo Institute of Technology

Tokyo Institute of Technology stands at the forefront of research and higher education as the leading university for science and technology in Japan. Tokyo Tech researchers excel in a variety of fields, such as material science, biology, computer science and physics. Founded in 1881, Tokyo Tech has grown to host 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students who become principled leaders of their fields and some of the most sought-after scientists and engineers at top companies. Embodying the Japanese philosophy of "monotsukuri," meaning technical ingenuity and innovation, the Tokyo Tech community strives to make significant contributions to society through high-impact research. http://www.titech.ac.jp/english/

About Kumamoto University

Kumamoto University is a globally active research university with roots in local communities. We are one of the oldest universities in Japan and now have nearly 8000 undergraduate students and 1300 graduate students, including 500 international students from 49 countries. We were recently selected by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) for three projects; the Program for Promoting the Enhancement of Research Universities, the Top Global University Project and the Center of Community Project. Consequently, we have increased international exchange and collaboration programs with top universities from around the world. We strive to contribute to the harmonious coexistence of humans and the environment with sustainable societal development.

About Waseda University

Waseda University is a leading private, non-profit institution of higher education based in central Tokyo, with over 50,000 students in 13 undergraduate and 20 graduate schools. Founded in 1882, Waseda cherishes three guiding principles: academic independence, practical innovation and the education of enlightened citizens. Established to mold future leaders, Waseda continues to fulfill this mission, counting among its alumni seven prime ministers and countless other politicians, business leaders, journalists, diplomats, scholars, scientists, actors, writers, athletes and artists. Waseda is number one in Japan in international activities, including number of incoming and outgoing study abroad students, with the broadest range of degree programs taught fully in English, and exchange partnerships with over 600 top institutions in 84 countries.

About JST

Japan Science & Technology Agency (JST), an advanced network-based research institute that promotes the state-of-the-art R&D projects, will boldly lead the way for co-creation of innovation for
BUFFALO, N.Y. - For years, research has shown that female Somali Bantu refugees may be hesitant to use hormonal birth control and other methods of family planning.

However, a new University at Buffalo study revealed that the women are open to family planning when methods help to space births of future children, rather than preventing new additions to their families.

In most Western cultures, family planning is often used to stop future pregnancies, however, in Somali Bantu culture, the thought of not wanting more children is considered taboo and carries a negative connotation, says Kafuli Agbemenu, PhD, lead investigator and assistant professor in the UB School of Nursing.

"The way in which health care providers frame the conversation around family planning dramatically influences uptake," says Agbemenu.

The research, recently published in the Journal of Clinical Nursing, highlights the importance of culture and perspective in health care.

The findings will be particularly useful to clinicians in Buffalo. The city is home to nearly 2,000 Somali Bantu refugees.

Additional authors include late UB School of Nursing assistant professor Ellen Volpe, PhD, and Ervin Dyer, PhD, an investigator at the University of Pittsburgh.

When reviewing literature on the population, Agbemenu found reports of Somali Bantu refugee women being distrustful of birth control and other methods of family planning. However, few studies examined how these women made their decisions.

The UB-led study surveyed 30 Bantu adult female refugees in Western New York. Participants were asked about their attitudes toward family planning in the U.S. - including hormonal birth control, extended breast feeding and counting days between menstrual cycles - and their previous experiences with it in other countries.

Results found that previous reports of adverseness to health care by the women were likely caused by the assumption of health care providers that the women approached family planning with Western values.

Typically, says Agbemenu, when a woman goes to the doctor, they are asked if they want to be pregnant within the next year. If the answer is no, family planning is recommended. For the Bantu women, the question can be misunderstood due to their cultural background.

"Health care providers carry the perspective that once you reach a certain age, you don't want to be pregnant anymore. That perspective influences their approach to patient care," says Agbemenu. "In this community, all the way to menopause, there is no saying that they don't want more children."

These decisions are tied to cultural norms, and potentially life experiences as well, she says. Having endured refugee camps where the child mortality rate is high, many of the women live with the understanding that their child's survival to adulthood is not guaranteed.

Due to these norms, Bantu refugee families are usually larger than American families. But despite their reluctance to forego having children, the women are open to the use of family planning.

"If you reframe the question to how much space do you want between your children, you will have a more positive environment for communication," says Agbemenu.

The results highlight the need for health care practitioners to gain a more nuanced understanding of the decision factors driving the populations they treat, she says.

###
Calcium phosphate is a typical component of teeth and bones. It has recently been shown that plants of the rock nettle family also use this very hard mineral in their teeth" to defend themselves against their animal enemies. Botanists of Bonn University have now demonstrated that calcium phosphate is a lot more widespread in plants than previously suspected. Even thal cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) uses trichomes hardened with an incrustation of this biomineral to defend itself against enemies such as aphids. The results have now been published online first in the scientific journal Planta". The print version will be published in January.

In agriculture unspectacular thal cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) is simply considered as a weed. In science, however, the plant has for decades been the modell organism in studies on genetics, molecular biology and physiology. It is certainly the most well investigated plant of all", says Prof. Dr. Maximilian Weigend of the Nees-Institut for Plant Biodiversity of Bonn University. The more surprising, that calcium phosphate in the tips of the trichomes of Arabidopsis was discovered only now." The team around Prof. Weigend identified the hard-as-teeth substance with the help of the electron microskope and Raman-spectroscopy.

The fact that teeth" are not restricted to animals, but also found in plants, had been previously demonstrated by the Bonn botanists with the help of Hans-Jurgen Ensikat in the rock nettle family (Losaceae). Subsequently, the scientists expanded their studies onto various other plant orders. They could demonstrate the presence of calcium phosphate biomineralization in several dozens plant species, e.g., the orders Rosales, Boraginales and Brassicales - thal cress belongs to the latter.

Deceptively soft hairs are sharp weapons

It has long been known that many plants use glass-like silica or calcium carbonate to stiffen their trichomes", reports Adeel Mustafa of the Weigend working group. The surprising thing was that very hard calcium phosphate is also used by a whole range of species and has yet been overlooked completely until recently." However, thal cress lacks spectacular spines or stinging hairs like stinging nettles - that use them to defend themselves against browsing mammals such as cows. In Arabidopsis the trichomes are small and comparatively soft - only the tiny tips are incrusted with the particularly hard substance calcium phosphate. The biomineral is apparently deposited in precisely the place where maximum mechanical stability is required", explains Weigend.

Microscopic image shows impaled aphids

Thal cress uses its hairs to defend itself mostly against small insects such as aphids. Microscopic images demonstrate how the mineralized trichomes represent unsurmountable obstacle. Like an iron maiden, the medieval instrument of torture, the particularly hardened hairs impale the aphids. We are dealing with a microscale defense weapon, deterring many types of insects from damaging these plants", says Weigend.

In some way it is surprising that not all plants use calcium phosphate in structural biomineralization," concludes Mustafa. Calcium and phosphate are nearly universally present in plants in the form of other chemical compounds, but the use as a biomineral is not universal. Silica and calcium phosphate are far superior to calcium carbonate - the most common biomineral overall - due to their much higher hardness. The ability to harden hairs with calcium phosphate appears to have a genetic basis. Weigend outlines possible future search topics: Unravelling the genetic basis for the productions of these defense weapons would be the next logical step. This would enable us to use these self-defending plants as models for breeding more insect resistant crops."

###

Publication: Maximilian Weigend, Adeel Mustafa, Hans-Jurgen Ensikat: Calcium phosphate in plant trichomes: the overlooked biomineral, Planta, DOI: 10.1007/s00425-017-2826-1

Contact fur media:

Prof. Dr. Maximilian Weigend

Nees-Institut for Plant Biodiversity

Bonn University

Tel.49-0-228-732121

E-mail: mweigend@uni-bonn.de
Rabies is a viral disease that kills tens of thousands of people every year, predominantly in Africa and Asia. The disease is transmitted through the bites of infected dogs and foxes. In West- and Central Europe, rabies was eliminated some 20 years ago. Switzerland was declared free of rabies in 1999 after implementing a strategy targeting foxes.

"If you want to prevent humans from dying from rabies in Africa and Asia, you need to eliminate dog rabies," said Jakob Zinsstag from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), first author and principal investigator of a study in Science Translational Medicine. Swiss TPH, together with collaborators in Europe and in Africa, demonstrated the proof-of-concept that elimination of rabies is feasible. "We have shown that African teams in one of the poorest countries can eliminate human rabies through mass vaccination of dogs. What is needed next is additional funding and a concerted political will," said Zinsstag, an epidemiologist and veterinary public health expert.

The investigation was carried out in N'Djamena, the capital of Chad where 1.1 million people live alongside some 30,000 dogs. In 2012 and 2013, 20,000 dogs were vaccinated each year against rabies. Hence, more than 65% of the city's estimated dog population participated in the intervention, "an excellent coverage rate," said Zinsstag. "We mobilised the neighbourhood chiefs and they in turn mobilised the people and their dogs."

A model African-European collaboration

Swiss TPH is a world-leading institute in the field of human and animal health - increasingly known as "One Health" - and maintains a productive collaboration with Chad dating back to the 1990s. Swiss TPH collaborated with a public-private partnership in Chad, namely the Centre de Support en Sante Internationale (CSSI) and the Institut de recherche en elevage pour le developpement (IRED). An additional player was the Laboratoire Central Veterinaire (LCV) in Bamako, Mali.

For the genetic analyses of collected rabies viruses, Swiss TPH was supported by the ETH Zurich in Basel, Switzerland, and by the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France. At Swiss TPH, an interdisciplinary team was estab-lished with expertise in molecular diagnostics, mathematical modelling and veterinary epidemiology. "The mathematical modelling shows that the reproductive number, that is the number of secondary infections for one rabies-infected dog, fell under one, hence transmission is interrupted, and a molecular analysis shows that the circulating strains disappear," said Zinsstag and Nakul Chitnis, a co-investigator at Swiss TPH.

Further insights through phylodynamics

The study is one of the first research projects to apply a rigorous phylodynamic method to dog rabies, and hence, it expands upon the normative phylogenetics (i.e. assessing the genetic relatedness of virus strains) with the dynamics of transmission over time. This made it possible to calculate the reproductive number of rabies among the dogs after the first mass dog vaccination in 2012.

"Dog rabies was likely re-introduced through the import of dogs by humans from outside N'Djamena after the rabies elimination had been achieved," Zinsstag explains.

The phylogenetic analysis supports this finding, since the sequence of nucleoprotein of the new viruses showed a different genetic structure. "The molecular method ascertained the results put forth by the mathematical model through an independent approach," said Zinsstag. "Therefore eliminating rabies is not a technical problem, but a matter of political will and sufficient financial resources."

The Swiss TPH study was financially supported by the UBS Optimus Foundation in Switzerland (vaccine, epidemiological field work and laboratory investigations). The Chadian government covered other costs (logistics and personnel).

Towards elimination of rabies in Central and West Africa

Eliminating dog mediated human rabies by 2030 is part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). "It will be a formidable challenge to reach this SDG goal by then, but we can prevent people from dying from dog-transmitted rabies," said Zinsstag. "Our study provides an important proof-of-concept for the Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC) and the Pan-african Rabies Control Network (PARACON) that rabies elimination in Africa indeed can be achieved."

As a next step, Swiss TPH and its partners plan to extend mass dog vaccination against rabies across Chad. "We have calculated that with 28 million euros, it would be possible to eliminate rabies throughout the country. However, an important challenge is migration: once Chad is free from rabies, the disease might be re-imported from neighbouring countries such as Cameroon and Sudan. We therefore need a concerted Pan Central and West African approach, led by the Economic Unity of West African States ECOWAS and the African Union.

This would bring along the additional benefit of promoting peace through cooperation." Zinsstag estimates that in order to free Central and West Africa from rabies, the costs would amount to around 1 billion euro over a 20-year period.

One Health rabies research at Swiss TPH

Swiss TPH maintains a West African research network in the field of human and animal health based on an excellent collaboration with many African partners, such as CSSI in Chad and the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Cote d'Ivoire (CSRS), among others. Swiss TPH pursues a two-pronged approach with the overall aim of eliminating rabies in humans: eliminating dog rabies and making post-exposition prophylaxis accessible to all people in West and Central Africa. For this last approach, Swiss TPH collaborates with the Global Vaccine Alliance (GAVI).

One Health is, in Zinsstag's own words, the "added value of a close collaboration of human and animal health. If medical experts and veterinarians work together more closely, they can improve health to a greater extent than they could alone."

The concept of One Health was instigated by the veterinary epidemiologist Calvin W. Schwabe in the 1960s. Swiss TPH has developed the scientific theory behind it as well as the associated teaching and training. For instance, Swiss TPH developed the first massive open online course (MOOC) in One Health, which is now being offered in its second year.

###

Link to original paper active from Wednesday, 20 December 2017, 08:00 p.m. CET: http://stm.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.aaf6984

Related study: Lechenne M, Oussiguere A, Naissengar K, Mindekem R, Mosimann L, Rives G, Hattendorf J, Moto D.D, Alfaroukh I.O, Zinsstag J. Operational performance and analysis of two rabies vaccination cam-paigns in N'Djamena, Chad. Vaccine. 2016;34(4):571-577. DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2015.11.033 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26631415

Human and animal health: https://www.swisstph.ch/en/about/eph/human-and-animal-health/

MOOC online course in One Health: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/one-health/2/

Book on One Health - theory and practice: https://www.cabi.org/openresources/43410/

On rabies: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs099/en/
Danger - Unstable Cliffs - Stay Back: The yellow warning signs that pepper coastal cliffs from northern California to the US-Mexico border may seem overly dramatic to the casual observer. But actively eroding cliffs make up the majority of the California coastline, and sudden landslides and collapses have caused injuries and several fatalities in recent years. In addition, eroding cliffs currently threaten highways, houses, businesses, military bases, parks, power plants, and other critical facilities--all in all billions of dollars of development.

Research suggests that erosion rates will increase as sea level rises, further exacerbating these problems. "It is critical we study current and historical cliff retreat so we can better plan for the future," says Adam Young, a researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego who recently published a unique large-scale analysis of coastal cliff erosion in California.

The study, published in the journal Geomorphology, and funded by California Sea Grant, provides accurate erosion rates for 680 miles of the California coast, from the US-Mexico border to Bodega Head in Sonoma County. It identifies areas that have eroded faster than others, and introduces a new experimental hazard scale to identify areas that may be at greater risk of impending collapse. It is the first such large-scale study in California using LiDAR data--laser elevation data recorded in aerial surveys--which were used to create detailed 3D elevation maps.

Existing cliff erosion studies are often small scale, use a variety of techniques, and often rely on lower quality data sources, providing a patchwork across the state. "What's unique about this study is that it applies a consistent methodology across a very large area using accurate high-resolution laser data," says Young.

While some of the basic causes of coastal cliff erosion--such as rainfall and waves--are clear, this has not translated into a simple way to predict future erosion rates or identify areas at risk. Variation in cliff geology, beach protection, exposure to weather, and other factors also complicate predicting erosion rates.

Previous research has identified clear correlations between rainfall and coastal erosion in southern California, but the impact of storms waves has been more elusive. "It's difficult to measure," explains Young, "We lack field observations because with powerful waves crashing against the cliff, it is not an easy place to make measurements." Variation in cliff geology, beach protection, exposure to weather, and other factors also complicate predicting erosion rates.

Understanding erosion, preventing disaster

To create a consistent analysis of recent cliff changes, Young compared two massive LiDAR data sets, three-dimensional maps of the California coastline, recorded eleven years apart. The highest cliff erosion rates were found in San Onofre, Portuguese Bend, Palos Verdes, Big Sur, Martins Beach, Daly City, Double Point, and Point Reyes (see map). Young then compared the recent cliff erosion maps to historical records from 1932 and 1934. By comparing the different maps, he built an analysis for the majority of the state's coastline, showing both recent and historical erosion rates.

The study shows that the historical cliff erosion rate does not always provide a good prediction of future rates. "The results show that if a cliff experienced a large of amount of erosion during one time period, it was followed by a time period with very little erosion, and the cliff could be relatively stabilized for a time," explains Young. "It will mobilize again, but we don't know when and more research is needed to better understand the time cycles involved."

Young also found that cliffs with high erosion rates in recent times were often preceded by time periods with very little erosion. These are key findings, because models predicting future cliff retreat are often based on projecting the historical rates.

Young also introduced a new experimental measure to identify the riskiest precipices. Previous research had suggested that the difference between erosion rates of the cliff face compared to the cliff top could indicate instability--in short, the cliff steepness. When he applied this hazard index, Young identified worrisome spots along the California coast, including San Onofre State Beach, Big Sur, Martin's Beach, and Daly City.

A reality check for planners

Young is currently working on a set of maps to be made available to the public, and he has presented the work at scientific conferences. He says, "I hope that this study will help improve models that predict erosion, help identify hazardous areas, and assist policymakers who are working to protect our coast."

The research has already caught the attention of planners at the California Coastal Commission, a state agency charged with preserving and protecting the coastline for current and future generations.

"The study could be particularly useful for local governments looking to update their local coastal programs in light of climate change and sea level rise," says Lesley Ewing, a senior coastal engineer for the commission. While the study does not provide projections for future erosion rates, researchers expect that sea-level rise will contribute to faster erosion rates and greater risk to public and private coastal property, and governments are working to plan for the impacts.

"The coast of California is stacked with very expensive real estate--not to mention power plants, wastewater treatment facilities, and highways," she says. Some of this is already at risk--over 100 miles of shoreline armory has been built to protect it, and more will be at risk in the future.

"There's so much opportunity to use this research--this could serve as a reality check for planners who often focus on specific regions and smaller scales," adds Ewing.

###

The research was also supported by the California Department of Parks and Recreation, Division of Boating and Waterways.

About California Sea Grant

NOAA's California Sea Grant College Program funds marine research, education and outreach throughout California. Our headquarters is at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego; we are one of 33 Sea Grant programs in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Department of Commerce.
Ecologist uses maps produced before World War I, which have quite a history of their own, to track the growth of kelp beds in the Pacific Northwest over the last century

In the early 1900s, the U.S. Department of Agriculture recognized a problem. The United States relied heavily on fertilizer to grow crops and support its burgeoning economy, yet a crucial ingredient for fertilizer -- potash, a mixture of potassium and salts -- was mined almost exclusively in Germany. German mines supplied nearly the entire world's supply of potash, and at the time the U.S. used about a fifth of its output, half of the amount exported from Germany.

"It is obviously undesirable that the United States should be dependent upon any other nation for its supply of a necessity," wrote Frank Cameron, an officer "in charge of chemical, physical and fertilizer investigations" for the USDA, in a 1915 report.

Seeking ways to ease this dependency, the USDA commissioned several surveys of an alternative source of potash: kelp beds in the Pacific Northwest. The large, hardy seaweed is a natural source of potassium, nitrogen and salts, and had been used as fertilizer for years by Native Americans and settlers. If kelp could be harvested and processed in large enough quantities, it could be a viable source of potash to offset German imports.

So, the USDA sent surveyors -- including George Rigg, an ecologist from the University of Washington -- to map the kelp beds along the coast of California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska. Rigg set out in a yacht with a 40-horsepower motor and mapped the coastline around Puget Sound in 1911-12. More than 100 years later, scientists at the University of Chicago used these maps to track historical changes in the kelp forests of the Pacific Northwest.

As it turned out, the original maps from the kelp surveys ended up at the University of Chicago Library, where Cathy Pfister, PhD, professor in the department of ecology and evolution, discovered them. She worked with the library's preservation staff to digitize the maps, and compared them to modern surveys conducted by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources over the past 26 years.

What they found is a relatively rare positive story when it comes to ecological studies in a time of accelerating climate change. The abundance of most modern kelp beds along the Washington coast has remained constant over the last century despite a seawater temperature increase of 0.72 degrees Celsius. The few exceptions are kelp beds closest to Puget Sound, Seattle and Tacoma.

"Kelp are a robust and resilient structure. You can see that in the data, as long as they have access to good water quality and waves flush through them, then they persist," Pfister said.

Pfister and her team also studied the competition among kelp species in the area. While the kelp beds were persistent over the decades, their populations could fluctuate greatly from year to year. There are two dominant species -- the annual bull kelp and the perennial giant kelp -- and they fluctuated similarly, meaning that if one was abundant in a given year, so was the other. And good years, it turns out, are associated with colder seawater temperatures, an unfortunate preference for kelp as ocean temperatures continue to rise.

Understanding how changes in the ocean affect kelp is important because they're what's called a "foundation species," a crucial source of food and habitat for organisms.

"Kelp are a natural feature that generates habitat for hundreds, probably thousands of species of fish, invertebrates and microbes," Pfister said. "They're really a locus for biodiversity along these shores, so it's important to understand how they respond to climate change."

While Cameron's 1915 report delves into the chemistry of potassium salts, nitrogen and fertilizer, it's vague on exactly what the U.S. government wanted do with a new kelp-based source of potash. But given that the world's supply of potash came from an increasingly belligerent German Empire just before World War I broke out, one could read between the lines and look to another industry that sprung up around the same time in California. These outfits focused on harvesting kelp and extracting chemicals from it, one of which, potassium nitrate or saltpeter, is a major ingredient of gunpowder.

Ultimately, kelp never became a major source of potash for the U.S. agricultural industry. Following the war, harvesting kelp for nitrogen became far more costly than a new commercial process invented by Fritz Haber in Germany to pull nitrogen from the atmosphere. For the benefit of the many species that depend upon them, the kelp beds (and the historic maps) remain.

###

The study, "The dynamics of Kelp Forests in the Northeast Pacific Ocean and the relationship with environmental drivers," was published Dec. 18, 2017 in the Journal of Ecology. Additional authors include Helen Barry from the Washington State Department of Natural Resources and Thomas Mumford from Marine Agronomics LLC.
As many as 88 percent of human trafficking victims in the United States interact with a health care professional while they are being exploited. These professionals' ability to recognize the signs of human trafficking and intervene appropriately, however, is lacking due to an absence of training.

A new medical school curriculum to fill this training gap has been proposed and tested by researchers from the University of Louisville, Harvard University and the University of South Florida. Their research is published this month in Medical Education Online.

The paper, "Medical education and human trafficking: using simulation," explores the use of a patient simulation training module incorporated into the third year of medical school.

Human trafficking is a public health crisis in the U S, and victims are consistently under-recognized by health care providers (HCPs), the authors write. The National Human Trafficking Resource Center Hotline documented 8,042 cases of reported trafficking in 2016. U.S. studies of trafficking survivors show that anywhere from 25 to 88 percent of these victims interact with an HCP during the time they are being exploited by traffickers.

One survey shows that 63 percent of HCPs  including physicians, nurses, social workers and physician assistants  did not have training on how to identify and intervene in human trafficking situations, said Olivia F. Mittel, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics at UofL and Norton Children's Hospital who is a co-author of the paper. Providers must be educated about the issue of trafficking, including how to recognize it in the clinical setting.

To meet this need, the UofL School of Medicine created a simulation-based medical education curriculum to prepare students to recognize victims and intervene on their behalf. Known as the Medical Student Instruction in Global Human Trafficking, or M-SIGHT, the program utilizes online learning, medical documentation and standardized patient-based simulation to prepare students to see the signs of human trafficking.

"We want to ensure that all students receive the training," Carrie A. Bohnert, M.P.A., director of the standardized patient program at UofL, said. "Every medical student, regardless of their chosen specialty, must be able see human trafficking when it presents and intervene for the victim."

M-SIGHT begins with a forensic medicine lecture to impart basic facts about human trafficking, among other topics, Mittel said. Later, students have a standardized patient simulation case in which an adolescent female patient presents with classic symptoms of a sexually transmitted disease as well as common characteristics of victims of human trafficking: poor eye contact, reluctance to communicate with the physician, inconsistencies in what she communicates, tattoos that could suggest branding and evidence of physical abuse.

The goal of the simulation is not to force intervention on the patient but rather to build trust. "We want the students to exercise the principles of adolescent communication that are taught as part of the medical school curriculum," Bohnert said.

Mittel outlined these principles: "They are trauma-informed care - which is health care delivered with an understanding of what patients experiencing trauma need - and ensuring confidentiality, asking non-judgmental and open-ended questions, and gradually progressing from the less invasive questions to more direct questions."

The simulation concludes with feedback from the standardized patient participant and documentation by the learner. The students then complete an online module developed by the authors that assesses knowledge gained and re-introduces definitions of human trafficking and trauma-informed communication techniques.

The initial project was implemented over a 16-month period and the authors are now evaluating the data collected from the students. They intend to share an analysis of the curriculum's efficacy in the future. For now, they want to encourage other medical schools to implement anti-trafficking education and training.

"There is a wide array of methods for creating human trafficking simulations, and it is our hope that the description of our process will inspire others to create similar interactive educational programs," Mittel said. "The ultimate goal, of course, is to help human trafficking victims receive both the health care they need and interventions that stop their exploitation."

###

Along with Mittel and Bohnert, the other authors on the paper were Hanni Stoklosa, M.D., of Harvard University and Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Michelle Lyman, a student at the University of South Florida's Morsani College of Medicine.
PHILADELPHIA - Sticker shock may be leading many insured Americans with cancer to forego treatment with a wide range of oral cancer drugs, suggests a study published online this week in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, the findings point to high out-of-pocket costs as a barrier to potentially life-saving or life-prolonging treatments. As breakthroughs in cancer care continue, the study raises questions about whether patients will able to take advantage of new treatment options.

The study used a large database of prescription claims to track more than 38,000 people in the U.S. who received a new prescription for one of 38 oral cancer medications from 2014-2015, to see whether patients filled the prescription after it was approved by their insurance. All insurance types were included, including Medicare.

The researchers found that 10 percent of patients failed to pick up their prescription when they were required to pay less than $10, but this jumped to 32 percent among those who were charged $100-$500 and to nearly 50 percent among people whose out-of-pocket costs were more than $2,000. This was true even after taking other relevant factors into account, including type of insurance, pharmacy, and patient characteristics such as age and health status. There was no evidence that patients began treatment with the oral medications over the next three months, and so they were considered to have "abandoned" their prescription.

The relationship between high out-of-pocket costs and prescription abandonment remained consistent for all cancers, even for conditions where treatment can significantly extend life. When patients with higher out-of-pocket costs did fill their prescriptions, they were more likely to be delayed in doing so. Prior research has shown that insured people with other medical conditions often delay, interrupt, or discontinue their medications when faced with high out-of-pocket costs, but the authors say it's especially concerning to see this pattern with life-threatening cancers

"Patients in our study were facing a new cancer diagnosis or a change in their disease that required a new treatment. Imagine leaving your doctor's office with a plan, ready to start treatment, only to find you can't afford it," said lead author Jalpa A. Doshi, PhD, a professor of General Internal Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and director of Value-Based Insurance Design Initiatives at the Leonard Davis Institute's Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics. "It adds more stress at what is already a stressful and scary time."

The advantages of oral medications include simpler administration and convenience, since they do not require a visit to the hospital or doctor's office (as is the case with older, intravenous chemotherapies). Yet oral drugs are typically covered under a separate pharmacy benefit, with more of the medication's cost often passed on to the patient through coinsurance that requires patients to pay a percentage of the cost rather than a fixed copayment. Complete payment is also due up front, instead of patients receiving a bill after their treatment session. These factors increase the risk of delayed access or treatment abandonment, the researchers said.

The study also examined whether patients who abandoned their prescription went on to initiate any other cancer drug in the same drug class in the following three months, including intravenous therapies. They found that few did.

"This shows the importance of discussing financial barriers up front, during conversations about treatment options, even with patients who don't raise concerns," Doshi said. "Patients may not be aware of how expensive their prescriptions will be, and physicians may not realize that a patient has opted not to fill the prescription."

One in eight patients in the study had out-of-pocket costs higher than $2,000, but patient obligations at that level have become even more common in the years since the data were captured. The commercial insurance market continues to trend toward high deductible health plans and use of higher coinsurance. Such high out-of-pocket prescription costs are typical for most Medicare patients at the beginning of the year, unless they receive low-income subsidies.

In light of these trends, the researchers illustrated what would happen if study patients' out-of-pocket costs shifted to a higher cost category. They found that if patients currently responsible for $50-$100 per prescription were to be charged $100-$500 instead - all other things being equal - abandonment rates would be expected to double.

"Our results highlight the pressing need for all stakeholders - including manufactures, pharmacy benefit managers, payers, and policy makers - to identify fiscally sustainable strategies to improve patient access to cancer medications," the researchers wrote.

###

Co-authors on the study included Penn's Pengxiang Li, PhD, Hairong Huo, PhD, and Amy R. Pettit, PhD, and senior author Katrina A. Armstrong, MD, MSCE, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

This study was supported by Pfizer, and University of Pennsylvania's Center for Pharmacoepidemiology Research and Training and the Automated Claims and Medical Record Databases core of the Clinical and Translational Research Award at Penn.

Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $6.7 billion enterprise.

The Perelman School of Medicine has been ranked among the top five medical schools in the United States for the past 20 years, according to U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $392 million awarded in the 2016 fiscal year.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center -- which are recognized as one of the nation's top "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S. News & World Report -- Chester County Hospital; Lancaster General Health; Penn Wissahickon Hospice; and Pennsylvania Hospital -- the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional affiliated inpatient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, a partnership between Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network and Penn Medicine.

Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2016, Penn Medicine provided $393 million to benefit our community.
PITTSBURGH, Dec. 20, 2017 - Cancer patients receiving chemotherapy can be remotely monitored using their smartphone sensors and an algorithm that detects worsening symptoms based on objective changes in patient behavior, according to a new study from the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Hillman Cancer Center.

The findings, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, indicate that worsening symptoms during cancer treatments can be detected using smartphones that patients likely already own and use. Real-time estimation of symptoms and side effects could provide an opportunity for doctors to intervene earlier between clinic visits, preventing unnecessary physician or hospital visits and improving patient quality of life.

The study enrolled 14 patients who were undergoing chemotherapy treatment for gastrointestinal cancer at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. They were asked to carry a smartphone for four weeks as they went about their daily lives. Smartphone software developed by the researchers passively and continuously collected data on behavior patterns, such as the number of calls or texts sent and received, smartphone apps used, and the movement and location of the phone.

As part of the study, the patients were asked to rate the severity of 12 common symptoms, such as fatigue and nausea, at least once a day. They would classify each day as either a "higher-than-average burden," "average burden," or "low burden" day. Researchers then used the data collected from the smartphone to develop an algorithm that could identify and correlate the patient's "high-symptom," "average-symptom" and "low-symptom" days with 88 percent accuracy.

"We found that on days when the patients reported worse-than-average symptoms, they tended to spend more time being sedentary, moved the phone more slowly, and spent more minutes using apps on the phone," said Carissa Low, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine and psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, and lead author of the study. "Collecting these objective behavioral measures from smartphone sensors requires no additional effort from patients, and they could prove beneficial for long-term monitoring of those undergoing arduous cancer treatments or those with other chronic illnesses."

The researchers are conducting follow-up studies to determine whether the same passive sensing approach can be used to identify complications following cancer surgery. They also are working with health care providers to understand how to integrate this data into the workflow of clinical care.

###

This research was funded by research grants from the National Cancer Institute (K07CA204380) and by a Manners Faculty Development Award from the University of Pittsburgh Center for Social and Urban Research.

About the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

As one of the nation's leading academic centers for biomedical research, the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine integrates advanced technology with basic science across a broad range of disciplines in a continuous quest to harness the power of new knowledge and improve the human condition. Driven mainly by the School of Medicine and its affiliates, Pitt has ranked among the top 10 recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health since 1998. In rankings recently released by the National Science Foundation, Pitt ranked fifth among all American universities in total federal science and engineering research and development support.

Likewise, the School of Medicine is equally committed to advancing the quality and strength of its medical and graduate education programs, for which it is recognized as an innovative leader, and to training highly skilled, compassionate clinicians and creative scientists well-equipped to engage in world-class research. The School of Medicine is the academic partner of UPMC, which has collaborated with the University to raise the standard of medical excellence in Pittsburgh and to position health care as a driving force behind the region's economy. For more information about the School of Medicine, see http://www.medschool.pitt.edu.

About UPMC Hillman Cancer Center

UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, the region's only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, is one of the largest integrated community cancer networks in the United States. Backed by the collective strength of UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center has more than 60 locations throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland and New York, with seven international cancer centers and partnerships. Consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report for excellence in cancer care, the more than 2,000 physicians, researchers and staff are leaders in molecular and cellular cancer biology, cancer immunology, cancer virology, biobehavioral oncology, and cancer epidemiology, prevention, and therapeutics. UPMC Hillman Cancer Center is transforming cancer research, care, and prevention -- one patient at a time.

http://www.upmc.com/media

Cyndy Patton

Office: 412-586-9773

Mobile: 412-415-6085

E-mail: PattonC4@upmc.edu

Contact: Wendy Zellner

Office: 412-586-9777

Mobile: 412-973-7266

E-mail: ZellnerWL@upmc.edu
Collision that produced gravitational waves raises questions about the source of short gamma-ray bursts

The neutron-star merger announced in October has solved one mystery - where gold comes from - but has also raised other questions, an international team reports today in the journal Nature.

The merger, dubbed GW170817, took place 130 million light-years away and was detected in August by the gravitational waves it created. Astronomers then followed it up with conventional telescopes.

The collision's glowing wreckage generated radio waves, detected by international teams including an Australian one led by Associate Professor Tara Murphy (The University of Sydney and the ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics).

Astronomers from the University of Sydney, Caltech, CSIRO and institutions around the world have monitored the merger site for months with three radio telescopes - the CSIRO Australia Telescope Compact Array, the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array in the USA and the Giant Meter-wave Radio Telescope in India.

"We expected to find evidence that merging neutron stars create something we've never found the cause of - short gamma-ray bursts," Associate Professor Murphy said.

These bursts go off every few weeks, in any part of the sky. Each lasts less than two seconds.

"Theorists argued they were caused by colliding neutron stars," said team member Associate Professor David Kaplan of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Neutron stars are the cores of regular stars that have exploded and contain about 1.4 times the mass of the Sun.

NASA's Fermi space telescope detected a burst of gamma rays from GW170817.

To make a short gamma-ray burst you need an 'ultrarelativistic' (fast-moving) jet of radio-emitting particles, theoretical models said.

So the astronomers monitored the merger site with their radio telescopes for signs of such a jet.

"But we haven't seen them," said team member Dr Gregg Hallinan of Caltech.

"We haven't seen a jet, so from the radio data we can't say there's a definite link between merging neutron star mergers and short gamma-ray bursts. The jury is still out."

The astronomers saw the radio glow continuing to brighten more than 100 days after the cosmic crash detected in August. This suggests not an extremely fast jet but a slower, broader outflow of radio-emitting material - a 'cocoon' - probably matter thrown out by the explosion that's been powered up by a jet hidden inside it.

"The cocoon scenario can explain the radio light curve of GW170817 as well as the gamma rays and Xrays. It's the one most consistent with the data," Associate Professor Murphy said.

But the jet might later emerge from its hiding place and rescue the model, she added.

While they continue to monitor the source the astronomers are puzzling over the 'cocoon' they've found.

"Cocoons may be a common outcome of neutron star mergers," said Dr Keith Bannister from CSIRO.

"Now we know their tell-tale signs we can go looking for them."

Dr Adam Deller (Swinburne University of Technology and OzGrav) predicts a bright future for the new field of gravitational-wave astronomy.

"By tying the information we gather across the electromagnetic spectrum to that gained from the gravitational wave detection, we can learn an enormous amount of detail about events like this one," he said.

###

The ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO) is a collaboration between The University of Sydney, The Australian National University, The University of Melbourne, Swinburne University of Technology, The University of Queensland, The University of Western Australia and Curtin University, the last two participating together as the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR). CAASTRO is funded under the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence program, with additional funding from the seven participating universities and from the NSW State Government's Science Leveraging Fund.

Notes for editors

CSIRO is the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia's national science agency.

The ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics is abbreviated as CAASTRO.

OzGrav is the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery.

Publication

Kunal Mooley et al., "A mildly relativistic wide-angle outflow in the neutron-star merger event GW170817", Nature 20 December 2017, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature25452.

Open access: https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.11573

Images https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ahejf7hr84zn3p1/AADnStCLxrIE53mAHSAAWW1ua?dl=0

Animation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2Ab26gnQ1g&feature=youtu.be

More information

Associate Professor Tara Murphy (ARC Future Fellow, The University of Sydney and Dynamic Theme Leader, ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO)) - Sydney, Australia

Office: 61-2-9351-3041

Mob: 61-402-183-685

Tara.Murphy@sydney.edu.au

Dr Keith Bannister (Principal Research Engineer, CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science) - Sydney, Australia

Mob: 61-2-416-321-348

Keith.Bannister@csiro.au

Dr Adam Deller (ARC Future Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology and Associate Investigator, ARC Centre of Excellence for

Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav)) - Melbourne, Australia

Office: 61-3-9214-5307

adeller@swin.edu.au

Associate Professor David Kaplan (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)

kaplan@uwm.edu

Dr Gregg Hallinan (Caltech)

gh@astro.caltech.edu
New research from the University of Waterloo finds that lower class populations are wiser than their middle-class counterparts in their ability to reason about interpersonal matters.

The study measures wisdom as the ability to be open-minded, intellectually humble and integrate different perspectives on the issue people reflect on.

In comparing social classes and their associated wisdom, the study reveals that more affluent regions and individuals, as well as situations reflecting higher social standing are linked with diminished ability to reason wisely.

"This is not surprising when we consider our cultural emphasis on intelligence such as IQ, competency to accomplish tasks independently and the focus on self as opposed to the considerations of others, in the reach for success," said Igor Grossmann, associate professor of psychology who led the Waterloo research. "As we continue to focus as a society on independence and entitlement among the middle class, we are also inadvertently eroding wisdom and reasoning in favour of a more self-centered population."

Using large-scale surveys and lab studies, Grossmann and co-author Justin Brienza, who was PhD candidate at Waterloo at the time of the research, were able to build on previous studies that determined that individuals with a lower income are often more sensitive to their environments.

Driven by economic scarcity, these individuals will consider the impact of their decisions on those around them and those with whom they have interdependent relationships. Characteristics of open-mindedness and integrating different perspectives are necessary in order to coordinate with others and share resources.

The present study of social class differences in wise reasoning is specific to interpersonal conflicts and does not suggest class-related differences in the domain of intergroup reasoning, such as within social or political debates.

"Seeing self in the context of interpersonal relationships can be prosperous, as evident in other societies such as China, Korea or Japan" said Grossmann. "To increase cultural prosperity Canadian law and policy makers have the opportunity integrate the wisdom and learning from resilience with which people approach economic adversity."

Grossmann and Brienza's study appears in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

###
From: Joyce L. Gioia, CMC, CSP -- The Herman Group Austin , TX Wednesday, December 20, 2017

The Herman Trend Alert December 20, 2017 Advancing Technology and the Future of Work Not long ago, the United States Department of Labor released its Draft Fiscal Years 2018 to 2022 Strategic Plan. Sadly, it contained no references to Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics, or other automated systems. Not only are these technological advances driving some of the global economy's fastest-growing industries, but they will also play important roles in the economy and labor market of the future. When Littler Mendelson, the largest employment law firm in the world, saw this omission, they teamed up with Prime Policy Group, the Washington, DC government relations firm, to provide a 15-page comment, detailing the developments they see coming and their recommendations. This Herman Trend Alert is an overview of that comprehensive comment. Science fiction no more



The use of robotics, AI, and automation in the workplace is no longer relegated to science fiction. Spending on Robotics and AI will reach USD$250 Billion during 2020, over a Trillion dollars during 2025, and sometime thereafter, Robotics and AI will become the largest industry in the world. It is projected that by as early as 2025, half of the jobs in the US could be performed by self-learning machines and software. According to Littler, recent advances in the technologies of AI and robotics have led to a sharp increase in the capabilities and cost-effectiveness of automated systems. Already revolutionizing the global economy



The effects these technologies have already had on the global economy are extensive and far-reaching. From healthcare to eldercare to rehab to social media to intelligent transportation systems, these automated applications are affecting every sector to one degree or another. Even the US Department of Defense last year spent more than $1.5 billion on AI projects. As if that weren't enough, 80 million smart home devices were sold in the same year; and that number is expected to double in 2017. China and other countries have invested heavily in automated systems



China has a plan is to establish itself as the world leader in AI by 2030 and they are well on their way. The country is training workers who can build, operate, and maintain these automated systems as well. Every year, Chinese tech companies invest billions of dollars to challenge Silicon Valley's AI establishment. China, Japan, and Germany are challenging the US' AI dominance and will surpass its performance, unless there is a concerted effort to meet those challenges. Driving job growth



Rather than effecting the reduction of jobs, automated systems drive job growth. Interestingly, a recent survey revealed that most of the aggressively adopting companies have either maintained or increased their number of human workers. Thus, the most forward-thinking companies have used robotics and AI to increase productivity and position themselves competitively for the future without losing their tribal knowledge. Workforce development advice



Here, Littler and Prime offer some of the same suggestions we have been promoting for years: Talk to employers, then gear programs to their needs. Use MOOCs* and self-paced training to upskill workers. "Close the skills gap through training, education, and apprenticeships relevant to AI and robotics." Taking this action can also help stem the rising TIDE (Technology-Induced Displacement of Employees) Create a sustainable pipeline of workers trained in automated systems. What to expect in the future



With the current political climate in Washington, DC, we suspect there is little appetite for establishing the "Future Workforce Bureau", suggested in the document; however, once that climate changes, we see that move as an excellent one for the country. Organizations will need to get ahead of this technological wave or expect to be swamped by it. Wise employers will create their own cross-functional teams to look at how these technologies can and must be applied in their businesses. They will begin now to plan for the future. Like it or not, our automated future is here and advancing quickly. In the words of the late Roger Herman, "You're either on the train or under it". * Massive Open Online Courses ******** The Herman Group is a firm of Strategic Business Futurists concentrating on workforce and workplace issues. We forecast the future and advise clients regarding relevant trends and how those trends may affect their lives. Applying our expertise as Certified Management Consultants, we advise corporate leaders regarding employee retention and organizational development to help them build workforce stability. We help organizations become Employers of Choice. We also work with Employer of Choice, Inc. to formally recognize employers that meet the stringent standards dictated by the labor marketplace. As authors of management books and as active professional speakers, we inform and inspire people to make a positive difference in the world of work. You did really get the ball rolling with our retention presentation, overall we have seen a move in the right direction with our turnover. In practice since 1980, we have served a wide variety of clients throughout the United States and in other countries. Our global affiliates assist us in sharing our expertise and advice with clients internationally. Our team of professional consultants and trainers is supported by an administrative staff that gets things done. We also have consultants certified to deliver our programs in your local area. Delivering to both small and large groups across 100 industries, The Herman Group has provided over 2,500 educational and informative keynote speeches and training seminars worldwide. Based in Greensboro, North Carolina, we travel extensively to meet the needs of our clients. We can always be reached through the support team in our office at (800) 227-3566. Overseas callers may reach us through 336-210-3547. Should you have any questions after touring our website, please call or e-mail us at info@hermangroup.com. Get started now on improving the stability and performance of your workforce and increase your chances for success in the future.


From: American Evaluation Association (AEA) For Immediate Release: Dateline: Washington , DC Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Ashaki M. Jackson, MFA, Ph.D. with a few notes on firming fellowships designed to increase the number of new, competent evaluators who begin their formal training during graduate studies.

During the six years that the

We were equipped with what we needed (a library of publications; supportive AEA community members; funding to send scholars to annual meetings, conferences and seminars; etc.), but what more could we use? What does any evaluation training program need to successfully onboard and retain scholars to the evaluation pipeline?

Academic Credit Options. Scholars, who are in the last years of their masters and doctoral programs, complete fundamental coursework (offered by both the Claremont Evaluation Center and AEA) during the program year. Paths for academic credit can boost scholars portfolios and formally recognize AEA-based training.

Extended AEA Membership. Scholars memberships are sponsored or subsidized for the program year, however funding is steep the year following. Waived membership would ease scholars into continued AEA participation.

Paths into AEA. Ongoing ties to the association could be useful to program alumnis growth in evaluation. Purposefully selected roles as executive board support, annual meeting design support, volunteer readers for association publications and the like can further root scholars in evaluative thinking and citizenship. HOT TIP: AEA topical interest groups are a great way to explore evaluation, build networks and stay abreast of new developments in the field.

As the program transitions to a capable George Mason University team, we offer these tools for program scholars and alumni:

Rad Resources: Visit Southern California!

Claremont Evaluation Center Professional Development Workshops in Evaluation

Keep learning!

We are big fans of the

Root!

Join a

The American Evaluation Association is celebrating Graduate Education Diversity Internship (GEDI) Program week. The contributions all this week to aea365 come from AEAs GEDI Program and its interns. For more information on GEDI, see their webpage here:

About AEA The American Evaluation Association is an international professional association and the largest in its field. Evaluation involves assessing the strengths and weaknesses of programs, policies, personnel, products and organizations to improve their effectiveness. AEAs mission is to improve evaluation practices and methods worldwide, to increase evaluation use, promote evaluation as a profession and support the contribution of evaluation to the generation of theory and knowledge about effective human action. For more information about AEA, visit www.eval.org. Greetings from Los Angeles! I am AEA member and former GEDI Program Co-Directorwith a few notes on firming fellowships designed to increase the number of new, competent evaluators who begin their formal training during graduate studies.During the six years that the Graduate Education Diversity Internship (GEDI) program has been in Claremont Graduate Universitys care, we began each year with fundamental courses to launch graduate students on their 9-month immersion. Our goals with each cohort were to provide a sufficient introduction to evaluation theory and practice with a focus on culturally responsive methods; support scholars as they navigated an evaluation internship; make connections between classroom and field learning; link scholars with theorists, mentors and practitioners with sustained curiosity in the field; and help scholars create a useful set of products to begin a career portfolio. In sum, we wanted to engender enthusiasm for the field while infusing culturally responsive evaluation across the landscape.We were equipped with what we needed (a library of publications; supportive AEA community members; funding to send scholars to annual meetings, conferences and seminars; etc.), but what more could we use? What does any evaluation training program need to successfully onboard and retain scholars to the evaluation pipeline?Scholars, who are in the last years of their masters and doctoral programs, complete fundamental coursework (offered by both the Claremont Evaluation Center and AEA) during the program year. Paths for academic credit can boost scholars portfolios and formally recognize AEA-based training.Scholars memberships are sponsored or subsidized for the program year, however funding is steep the year following. Waived membership would ease scholars into continued AEA participation.Ongoing ties to the association could be useful to program alumnis growth in evaluation. Purposefully selected roles as executive board support, annual meeting design support, volunteer readers for association publications and the like can further root scholars in evaluative thinking and citizenship.AEA topical interest groups are a great way to explore evaluation, build networks and stay abreast of new developments in the field.As the program transitions to a capable George Mason University team, we offer these tools for program scholars and alumni:Visit Southern California!Keep learning!We are big fans of the University of Illinoiss Center for Culturally Responsive Evaluation and Assessment and its conference, founded by AEA members.Root!Join a AEA Topical Interest Group The American Evaluation Association is celebrating Graduate Education Diversity Internship (GEDI) Program week. The contributions all this week to aea365 come from AEAs GEDI Program and its interns. For more information on GEDI, see their webpage here: http://www.eval.org/GEDI Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org . aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.


COLUMBUS  After another year of tight margins, grain farmers could use some good news. And theres a chance they will get some, if the U.S. can work out trade deals with other nations.

Trade was a hot topic at this years Ohio Grain Farmer Symposium, held Dec. 19 at the Ohio Farm Bureau and 4-H Center in Columbus.

The U.S. is currently re-negotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico, and there is fear in the industry that President Donald Trump may pull the U.S. out of the deal.

Days after Trump took office in January, he pulled the U.S. out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal that would have boosted U.S. ag exports to Asian countries, including Japan.

Its hard to overstate the importance of exports for the people in this room, said Kirk Merritt, executive director of the Ohio Soybean Association and Council.

Trade matters

Its (NAFTA) been a huge benefit for Ohio corn and soybean farmers and livestock producers as well, he said. Our advocacy, at both the state and national level, has been to keep whats good, as youre moving forward.

Merritt said that in 2016, 62 percent of the U.S. soybean crop, and about 30 percent of U.S. corn, was exported, along with a large portion of the wheat crop.

Related: Traders blame Trump for lower grain prices.

Tadd Nicholson, executive director of Ohio Corn & Wheat Growers Association, said when the U.S. pulled out of the Trans-Pacific deal, other countries continued to negotiate with Japan, without the U.S.

Were sitting on the outside looking in on that, and that really gives me a great deal of fear, said Nicholson.

He also said there have been positive gains with U.S. ethanol exports, and that the Marion, Ohio, ethanol plant expanded this year, in anticipation of a strong export market.

Preserving trade

Jon Doggett, executive vice president of the National Corn Growers Association, traveled from Washington to talk about the importance of trade, and to encourage individual farmers to reach out to their state and national leaders.

Doggett said he is concerned about the future of NAFTA.

Im very worried, he said. Mexico is our biggest customer and we need to have that customer there buying our corn products.

Doggett said the Trump administration seems receptive to NCGA members, but he said there has to be a reconciliation between the administration and the Presidents goals.

They give us a lot of assurances, but then you have the presidents rhetoric on the other hand, he said.

Related: Pa. Farm Bureau talks NAFTA concerns.

Doggett said trade negotiators need to have a give-and-take approach, and not expect to take without giving.

You cant have a one-sided trade agreement, he said. NAFTA has been tremendous for agriculture and were hoping to hang onto it.

Farm bill

During a talk on the 2018 farm bill, OSU Professor Emeritus Carl Zulauf shared his expertise and opinions about what the new bill might look like.

He said the new farm bill will be similar in many ways to the 2014 farm bill, with some important differences.

Two of the biggest commodity concerns are with cotton and dairy, he said, with dairy farmers feeling like the past farm bill and its margin protection program was not sufficient.

He said the dairy protection program in the 2014 farm bill was mostly unused, and therefore there is no baseline data for the next bill.

The big challenge with dairy, he said, is that production costs vary widely, based on the size and scale of the operation, and its hard to form a policy that protects everyone.

Other concerns deal with conservation and a potential expansion of the Conservation Reserve Program, and crop insurance and crop protection.

Zulauf said there is a lot of discussion about raising the CRP acreage cap from 24 million acres, to roughly 30 million acres.

Because CRP takes land out of crop production, commodity prices would likely increase, but that couple potentially negatively impact agribusinesses and the export market.

One possible compromise to increasing CRP land, he said, is if the additional acres would be tied to specific water quality goals across the nation.

I think the next farm bill will get really serious about the water quality issues in this country, he said.

Crop insurance

As for crop insurance, he said farmers should be prepared to defend their 62 percent federal subsidy, if they want to keep it in place. While he doesnt expect a significant cut, he said its possible, especially in future farm bills.

He said farmers also need to make sure theyre enrolling in the correct price loss program. The Agricultural Risk Coverage program, or ARC, protects against revenue declines or low revenue situations, while the Price Loss Coverage is a price-only protection program.

These are not the same program and if you pick the wrong program and the other program makes lots of payments, you will get nothing, he said.

He also reminded farmers that they need to be advocating for both crop insurance and ARC or PLC, because the ARC and PLC deal with multi-year price declines, while crop insurance deals only with single-year protection.
The Autumn Show and the South of England International Horse Trials are coming together in 2022 as one fantastic event. This will truly be a jam packed and perfect autumnal day out for all ages (and their canine companions).



The Autumn Show & International Horse Trials will feature a plethora of countryside sports, displays and have-a-go activities all designed to celebrate the joys of countryside and equestrian pursuits.



New for this year, the show will incorporate the long-established South of England International CCI*** and CCI** (Concours Complet International) Horse Trials affiliated with the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI) and including British Eventing national classes. This event is in its 15th year and attracts some of the top riders in the sport with over ten countries being represented over the weekend.



And as well as experiencing the thrill of watching riders at the top of their profession in the showjumping, dressage and cross-country phases. Visitors can try their hand at fly casting, archery, axe throwing and more, while dog lovers can be wowed by the terrier racing, long dog displays, rare breed gundogs, skilled gundog displays and exciting scurries where their dogs can have a go! Children will love the farm animals, falconry, funfair, pony rides and more. Plus, there will be mouth-watering food and drink stalls and superb shopping opportunities.



Tickets cost 12.60 for adults, 10.80 for senior citizens/students (inclusive of 10% online discount until 16.9.21)  under 16s go free (suggested donation of 2 for children aged 5-15).



Discounted tickets for British Eventing members will be available online soon.

Map
The European Innovation Partnership Wales has approved 8 agricultural projects to date since being awarded the major Welsh Government Project.

With a budget of up to 40,000 funding per project, EIP Wales encourages people to work together to solve common agricultural and forestry problems with the use of new and sustainable technology.

The 8 innovative and unique projects which have been approved are looking to address a range of issues within both the agricultural and forestry sectors in Wales.

The 'potato blight project' aims to apply current research to develop an effective, natural and potentially low-cost bio-pesticide to common potato blight using a chemical (Saponin) sourced from the chemical structure of common Ivy.

The 'Cambrian Mountains beef group' incorporates the use of relevant technical experts to expand the resources available to primary producers within rural areas.

The aim is to identify and address the needs of farming businesses with regards to direct marketing of produce in order to secure long term, short supply chains.

Pollinators

'Pasture for pollinators' hopes to explore how forage resources on dairy farms can be managed to conserve and enhance populations of bumblebees and other pollinators.

The aim is to increasing the number and diversity of food plants, and period over in which they are in flower, and maximise the productivity and financial performance of farms.

'Reducing antibiotic at lambing time' is developing the research of how changes in flock management through improved nutrition and hygiene, can reduce the need for antibiotics, and at the same time increase production while maintaining high standards of animal health and welfare.

'Low impact machinery in small scale farm woodlands' aims to illustrate the relative merits of the different types of management with a view to highlighting the most appropriate methods of minimising environmental disturbance.

Squill

'Squill Production in North Wales' aims to establish the demands of the plant including agronomy, harvesting and extraction techniques and their costs when grown in Wales.

Squill is used in a number of anti-cough preparations, and is traditionally sourced from the wild in India and Northern Africa.

'Robotic weeder in small scale horticulture' aims to determine the savings in terms of labour cost and time when using computerised inter-row weeder in small scale, organically managed, horticultural systems.

'Genomic testing of dairy heifers' is a 3-year project aimed at maximising the opportunity of genomic testing heifers to accelerate the breeding progress of dairy herds.

The eight farms have listed the traits theyre aiming to improve within their herd and progress towards these will be assessed over 3 lactation periods.
Defra Secretary Michael Gove has suggested that MPs will be able to block certain parts of a US trade deal with the UK post-Brexit.

Mr Gove told the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (EFRA) that certain parts of a post-Brexit US trade deal could be blocked if it included allowing the import of chlorine-washed chickens.

The question of whether the UK would import chlorine-washed meat after Brexit was raised when US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross warned that a post-Brexit UK-US trade deal would require that the UK abandoned EU standards.

But on Tuesday (18 December), food safety experts warned that British consumers could be eating dirty chlorinated turkey at Christmas if the UK agrees a post-Brexit trade deal with the USA.

They warn that British shoppers would be safer if the UK kept European Union standards and say future controls should be stricter, not weaker.

'No compromise'

However, Mr Gove signalled: I think if Parliament wanted to, it could stop the Government signing a trade deal.

The Cabinet is agreed that there should be no compromise on high animal welfare and environmental standards.

In America they cannot guarantee the same high standards in terms of how chickens are reared that we insist on here.

Unless there is a change in the American side we would say that those animal welfare rules are things on which we will not compromise.

The whole point about trade deals is that you have got to be assertive in defence of your own interests.

'No health reasons'

Earlier this year, Trade Secretary Liam Fox appeared to open up a Cabinet split when he said there are "no health reasons" why British consumers could not eat chlorinated poultry.

Speaking about a possible trade deal with the US, Mr Fox said: There are no health reasons why you shouldnt eat chickens that have been washed in chlorinated water.

He added that most salads in our supermarkets are washed in chlorinated water already.

In the US, the government permits such practices as chlorinated chicken, which consists of dipping meat into chlorinated water to prevent microbial contamination.

The UK farming industry has said a possible trade deal with the US could allow lower-standard produce to be imported into the UK.

Indeed, a report has warned of the potential increase in cheaper, lower standard food imports to the UK which could put British farmers at a competitive disadvantage.
The public have been warned of a potential health risk if they eat turkeys which have been stolen from a Hertfordshire farm.

A farmer, who rears turkeys at Church Farm in Ardeley, warned that someone has stolen nine Norfolk Black turkeys from his farm, which are "tainted" and carry a health-risk.

The incidents happened during two separate break-ins on Friday and Saturday (15/16 December).

Tim Waygood warned on Twitter: "They were Norfolk Black Turkeys kept for breeding and recently wormed. Were taken away alive, probably in a van.

Mr Waygood explained that the animals have recently been wormed, and were not for eating.

"If they have been killed, culprits will be eating or selling tainted food. They will be ill," he said.

Hertfordshire Police have urged for any witnesses.
Efforts have been ramped up to rid the countryside of hare coursing, as thirty-one police forces join farmers in stamping the practice out.

Thirty-one police forces, representing over 90% of forces facing issues with hare coursing in England and Wales, and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have joined the NFU to highlight the illegal activity.

Hare coursing has increased steadily in recent years. Cambridgeshire, one of the worst counties affected, reported nearly a 40 per cent rise in reported incidents from 1184 cases in 2016 to 1634 in 2017.

And more than 300 incidents of hare coursing has been recorded in the space of one month in Lincolnshire, severely impacting local farmers and their livelihoods.

In a meeting on Tuesday (19 December), the NFU stressed the need for a dedicated rural police team in each force to better tackle rural crime.

It also called for the Government to form a cross-departmental rural crime task force to address the failures in dealing with rural crime.

More consistent policing and sentencing can avoid criminal tourism where perpetrators often travel considerable distances to target rural businesses.

Intimidation

Representatives from the police and CPS were told how hare coursing, which some police forces have linked to organised crime, sees farmers facing threatening behaviour, violence and intimidation.

The NFU has found that this threatening behaviour has led to a culture of underreporting to police, meaning the true scale of hare coursing in rural areas may not be known.

NFU Deputy President Minette Batters said: The NFU is hearing from farmers that there have been dramatic increases in all rural crime, but hare coursing in particular is causing incredible cost and damage to farm businesses.

In our recent Rural Crime Report, we laid out how important a joined up approach is from all aspects of the Government, police and justice system to tackle these issues.

Six months on, this remains the case. It is critical for farm businesses that there is consistency in both policing and sentencing and the NFU will continue to push for this as the path forward.

There needs to be robust action against hare coursers to end this blight on our countryside and ensure that farmers do not continue to be targeted by criminals.
The Government has confirmed today that universal high speed broadband will be delivered by a regulatory Universal Service Obligation (USO).

An offer from BT to deliver a universal service on its own terms was rejected by the Government.

BT Openreach, the largest provider of fixed line broadband infrastructure, consistently opposed the USO to give every household or business premises the right to an internet connection of a legally set speed of at least 10 megabits per second (Mbps).

The CLA which represents landowners, farmers and rural businesses welcomed the regulation.

CLA Senior Rural Business Adviser Dr Charles Trotman said: The challenges of rolling out fast, reliable and affordable rural broadband are well known but have been recognised by the Government with the commitment to provide a universal service obligation of at least 10 Mbps from 2020.

Back of the queue

Rural areas have been at the back of the queue when it comes to investment in infrastructure, and that is why today's announcement has been welcomed by rural businesses.

Mr Trotman added: Rural areas now stand a better chance of receiving a decent broadband service without BT monopolising the market and deciding its own terms for connection.

It is vital for the Government to move as swiftly as possible towards meeting its objective of universal coverage in 2020 and to ensure legal guarantees are set for any future universal obligation.

Ten Mbps is only a benchmark minimum speed which is sufficient now but as technology advances could be too slow in just five years time.

Unreliable signal

This week, the National Farmers Union held talks over the issue of poor mobile coverage and broadband connectivity many people in rural areas receive.

According to an NFU survey from 2016, 85% of farmers have an unreliable outdoor mobile phone signal, 82% of farmers have an unreliable indoor mobile phone signal and only 6% of farmers have access to superfast download speeds.

And Ofcoms Connected Nations 2017 Report released on 15 December states that 1.1m premises still dont have access to decent broadband.
Sunny Leone

Sunny Leone's New Year bash became the centre of controversy as pro-Kannada activists protested against the event.

Police Protection

The protests went on for a few days and even the Bangalore city police withdrew their security.

Tweet Tweet

"To all those who protested and to all those who supported, always remember, never allow others to speak and choose for you. Have your own voice and make your own choices. You are the youth and you are the NEW INDIA! Stand Proud and Stand together. I love you all dearly!" tweeted Sunny Leone.

Backing Off

As soon as the Bangalore city police announced that they'll withdraw security to the event, Sunny Leone called off the bash.

Withdrawing Security

Sunny Leone also retweeted a few people who poked fun at the Bangalore police for withdrawing security.

In Grace

Thankfully, Sunny Leone gracefully bowed out of the New Year bash gracefully.

But Where?

We wonder where Sunny Leone would perform her New Year party this year.

Getting Support

Sunny Leone has received a lot of support from Twitteratis already.
It has not been exactly a smooth patch for actor Simbu of late having embroiled himself in a clutch of controversies. The talented actor with substantial star power endured a rather rough patch after the much publicised issue of AAA producer's complaint against him to the producers' council.

Things seemed to be getting out of hand for the maverick actor, producer and director after reports emerged that he may very well get a red notice, which would have barred him from acting in upcoming projects.

But now it looks like that the tide has turned and Simbu seems to be getting back into his groove. His meeting with the legendary director Mani Rathnam on Tuesday has made film buffs interested. It is heard that Simbu is gearing up to attend a workshop for his next film with the ace director.

Simbu reportedly sought the blessings before the release of his upcoming biggie Sakka Podu Podu Raja. The film incidentally marks Simbu's foray into composing as he will be debuting as a musical composer. Sakka Podu Podu Raja will have actor Santhanam as the hero.

The yet untitled Mani Rathnam project is expected to get off the blocks from January 2018. The film is already causing a huge flutter in industry circles as it has an extremely meaty star cast and apart from Simbu, the film has such big names like Aravind Swami, Jyothika, Vijay Sethupathi, Fahadh Faasil and Aishwarya Rajesh.

The film will have music by none other than the Oscar laureate legend AR Rahman. The camera will be handled by ace cinematographer Santhosh Sivan. Interestingly this film will mark Mani Rathnam's 6th association with Santhosh Sivan.

An Action Thriller The movie is touted to be an action thriller, which will be interesting given the fact Maniratnam hasn't done too many out and out action movies in his stellar career. The movie is expected to hit the big screens by summer of 2018. Sakka Podu Raja & Simbu Sakka Podu Podu Raja a Tamil comedy film directed by Sethuraman and produced by VTV Ganesh. Interestingly Simbu is not part of the cast of the film and the film features Santhanam, Vaibhavi Shandilya and Vivek in the leading roles. Cinematography is by noted Malayalam talent Abinandhan Ramanujam and the editing is by Anthony.The film began production in October 2016.The movie is a remake of Telugu movie Loukyam. Simbu-Dhanush Camraderie The audio launch of Santhanam's Sakka Podu Podu Raja which took place recently had got everyone's interest. The grandiose affair had noted film personalities and the presence of national award winning actor Dhanush was particularly noted. Dhanush launched the album of the movie which sees Simbu making his debut as music composer in Tamil cinema. Dhanush On Simbu Simbu returned the compliment and he said that Dhanush deserves a huge loud round of applause for being in the event despite his extremely busy schedule. Simbu About His Foray Into Music Direction Speaking about his debut as music composer the multifaceted Simbu said, "I thank God, industry, media friends and my fans. I am very happy to stand here as a music director. Music is something I really enjoy. I agreed to this film for Santhanam. I didn't introduce Santhanam. I thought he is a good talent and wanted him to do well. He has proved that today. I'm very happy." Maniratnam Ace director Maniratnam is not going through the best phase in his illustrious career with his recent films not exactly living up to the huge expectations. Having already worked with Arvind Swami in Roja, Thalapathi, Bombay and Kadal, this will be Maniratnam's maiden collaboration with the big names like Vijay Sethupathi, Simbu and Fahadh Faasil.

Dhanush About Simbu

Speaking at the event a rather beaming Dhanush had said, "When had finished recording the songs for the Sakka Podu Podu Raja album and Simbu invited me to attend the audio launch. And with an invite from my friend, I just couldn't refuse.Though Simbu is acting from his childhood, he and I made our debut as hero in 2002. In fifteen years, we have shared our failures and success."

"He is multi-talented, I cannot dance like him. I used to go to the sets of Thulluvatho Ilamai without interest. At that point, I couldn't dance well. The dance master used to quote Simbu's dance as reference, Anyone can come to this industry and they can also taste success but staying on the top is difficult, Simbu has been here for fifteen years".

Simbu And Recent Controversies:

Simbu during the musical launch of Santhanam project said that people are expectedly curious to know what transpired from his perspective as far as the recent controversy is concerned. He admitted his fault and said, "I agree my film AAA did not do well. For fans, we did a jolly film which did not work. It should have been a 1 part film, but due to the budget issue, we had to make it a 2 part film", as quoted by an online portal.

Simbu divulged that there were issues but according to him the producer could have taken the initiative to speak to him.He added that there was no reason whatsoever to create a major issue six months after the film's release.

Recently, Michael Rayappan made allegations about Simbu's unprofessional behaviour during the making of their AAA. Michael Rayappan had said that he suffered massive losses due to Simbu's unprofessionalism.

Simbu was not forthcoming with his reply at the outset and had said that he was not responsible for anyone post a film's release and stated that the producer was yet to clear his pending salary of Rs 3.5 Crore.

As things seemed getting out of hand with the Tamil Nadu Producers Council raking up the issue against Simbu, the fiery actor backtracked. His next film is with ace director Maniratnam and his apparent attempts at truce seems to be springing out of his worries about the project getting affected.
Keerthi Suresh

The happening actress of K-town opened up her speech with her cute and amateurish Telugu diction. She shared an anecdote that her mother had the opportunity to act with Megastar Chiranjeevi while she was blessed to share the screen space with his brother, Pawan Kalyan. She even complimented Anirudh, the music director of the movie, in a comical and lighter note.

Anu Emmanuel

The Kerala Ammayi, who had the privilege of working in such a huge project, thanked both the actor and director profusely. Anu thanked and wished the entire team of Agnyaathavaasi.

Rao Ramesh

Ramesh conveyed wishes from actor Nithiin to both the actor and director. The versatile actor was ecstatic with his role as his role in Agnyaathavaasi was more a detailed one and had quite a good number of combination scenes with Pawan Kalyan.

Boman Irani

The Bollywood legend will be seen in Telugu cinema once again after his debut movie, Attarintiki Daredi, which was incidentally with Trivikram and Pawan Kalyan.

Boman Irani had no inhibitions in accepting the offer to act in Agnyaathavaasi, after he learnt that Trivikram would be wielding the megaphone and Pawan Kalyan would be playing the role of the protagonist.

Aadhi Pinisetty

The young and handsome actor who is a known personnel in both Tamil & Telugu languages is wearing the grease paint as an antagonist in Agnyaathavaasi. In a short and crisp speech, Aadhi thanked Trivikram and Kalyan for the opportunity.

Khushbu Sundar

Veteran actress, Khushbu, who was last seen 10 years ago in Telugu is making a grand comeback. Though she was last seen in NTR's Yamadonga in a cameo role, it was Stalin, which had offered her a meaty role the last time.

It is once again a Mega hero's movie which has presented her a substantial role which she claims it powerful. Khushbu was all praises for Pawan Kalyan for his humility and grounded nature.

Trivikram Srinivas

The charismatic and vibrant director shared his insights in a detailed and riveting speech. He instructed fans of Powerstar to be safe while heading back from the audio launch event as one's safety is a care of concern to the respective family members and Pawan Kalyan himself.

Guruji requested the fans to maintain their composure while he addresses the cinema crew and cast members as he felt they deserve every bit of the respect.

Trivikram Srinivas thanked Anirudh Ravichander for his foot tapping tunes and heaped praises for his fearlessness in his work. The duo were supposed to collaborate for A..Aa, but did not materialize due to date issues.

Trivikram opened up that he was unable to work with legendary actor Rao Gopal Rao, but his wish was fulfilled when he had the chance of directing his son, Rao Ramesh.

The Maatalu Mantrikudu commended the dedication of both the leading ladies for their involvement in dubbing their own voice for Agnyathavaasi as both of them are non-native actors.

Trivikram had some great words for his leading hero. He said that the story of Agnyathavaasi was narrated to Pawan Kalyan and the same was Okayed by the latter within the first two minutes without any disputes. Trivikram sent the fans into tizzy by stating that the audience would witness Kalyan's Nata Vishwaroopam in Agnyathavaasi.

Pawan Kalyan

The dynamic actor who is celebrating his silver jubilee film was welcomed with a rousing reception from the audience and fans. In a 20-minute-long speech, Pawan Kalyan was seen to be more focussed on his political journey than confining himself to Agnyaathavaasi. He expressed his gratitude to his fans who stood by his side during his failure.

Kalyan had some distinctive words for his friend turned director, Trivikram Srinivas, for his positive impact and contribution to the actor's life. The Gabbar Singh actor reminisced the way Trivikram celebrated and motivated him during his thick and thin respectively.

While Powerstar has an unimaginable legion of fan following, the actor claimed that he was a fan of music director, Anirudh, for the appealing rendition of Kolaveri Di song.
If you like roaring, full-throttle hardcore punk, the new album by Columbias Longshot Odds has plenty of that. Stress Marks, is the album in question and the bands first in two years. Read moreColumbia's Longshot Odds offer roaring, full-throttle punk on latest album
Motorola accepts import duty hike on mobile handsets: Says it will lead to more job creation News oi -Samden Sherpa Motorola has said that this move [on import duty] by the government will lead to more job creation and further enhance the manufacturing sector.

Motorola Mobility India has now willingly accepted the government's decision to hike customs duty from 10 percent to 15 percent on mobile handsets.

"We welcome the government's decision as it will provide further impetus to the 'Make in India' initiative," Sudhin Mathur, Managing Director, Motorola Mobility India, told IANS. "As a brand, Motorola's journey of 'Make in India' began three years ago and we are well on our way to being fully locally manufactured," Mathur added.

Currently, the Lenovo owned brand, makes and assembles smartphones at its manufacturing unit in Sriperumbudur near Chennai through global contract manufacturing partner Flextronics. It seems the hike has affected the company not so much as it done Apple. The Cupertino based company has increased the prices of almost all the iPhones series in India recently. The only device that has not received the price hike is the iPhone SE which is being manufactured in India.

Meanwhile, with a combined market share at nine percent, Lenovo-Motorola became the third top smartphone brand in India in the third quarter this year, according to IDC. And now with the competition shifting to the retail market, Motorola has realigned its focus on opening "Moto Hubs" in the country.

Besides the company is planning to open "Moto Hubs" in 250 Poorvika Stores across 43 cities in Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, and Karnataka. The company currently has six "Moto Hubs" (without the partnership) in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai and opened three such stores in Kolkata. Motorola has also announced the first-ever experiential store in south India.

"This move [on import duty] by the government will lead to more job creation and further enhance the manufacturing sector," Mathur told IANS.

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 9 render leaked online: Reveals the design of the handset News oi -Samden Sherpa Nokia 9 comes with an all-new impressive edge-to-edge design with minimum bezels all around the display.

We have been hearing a lot about HMD Global's upcoming flagship, the Nokia 9. While the device has been a subject of several leaks and rumors, we now have some idea about the handset and what to expect from it.

Just this morning the smartphone was also spotted on FCC database and the listing revealed some of the key details about the upcoming handset. While we were just speculating this leaked information, now alleged render of the Nokia 9 has been leaked online further detailing the design and some features of the smartphone. Nokia 9 has been spotted on Chinese networking website Weibo.

On analyzing the image that has surfaced online, the smartphone comes with an all-new impressive edge-to-edge design with minimum bezels all around the display. So it looks Nokia too is adopting the full-screen trend and will seemingly introduce it with the Nokia 9.

Further, at the front on the top bezel, the smartphone seems to sport a dual camera setup. But from what we have heard so far, the smartphone is said to come with a dual-camera setup at the rear with 12MP + 13 MP lens from Carl Zeiss for photography and video recording. With this render, there could be a dual 12MP front-facing camera for selfies and video calling as well.

Looking at the image, the fingerprint sensor will likely be shifted to the back of the device. Notably, the Nokia branding seems to be missing from the front of the handset. Interestingly, we do not see the power button or the volume rockers at the sides. So we are somewhat skeptical about this image. We should be seeing some more renders of the smartphone in the coming days.

Considering what we have heard so far about the device, Nokia 9 is expected to come with a glass and metal sandwich design along with a 5.5-inch Super AMOLED display bearing a Quad-HD+ (2K+) resolution and 18:9 aspect ratio.

The handset is said to be powered by Qualcomm's flagship SoC, the Snapdragon 835, mated to 4GB or 6GB of RAM. The storage variants of the device are expected to be 64GB and 128GB, which could also sport a microSD card slot for further expansion.

In addition, Nokia 9 is rumored to boot Android Oreo out of the box and it will be backed by a 3250 mAh battery with support for fast charging. The connectivity features on board are expected to be 4G LTE, single and dual-SIM variants, VoLTE (voice over LTE), dual-band Wi-Fi, NFC, USB Type-C, and A-GPS.

The date for the launch is still a mystery though. It could happen in early 2018.

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
Russia Holding Norwegian Man On Suspicion Of Spying

RFE/RL's Russian Service December 19, 2017

Russia is holding a Norwegian man on suspicion of spying after he allegedly received classified documents from a Russian man who is also under arrest, an official said on December 19.

Frode Berg was ordered held in custody by Moscow's Lefortovo District Court on December 6, the Interfax news agency quoted court spokeswoman Yekaterina Krasnova as saying.

Berg has appealed the decision but a date for the hearing on his appeal has not yet been set, Krasnova said.

Russian media reports cited unnamed sources as saying that Berg was caught receiving classified material about the Russian Navy that he allegedly planned to hand over to Norwegian and U.S. intelligence agencies.

According to Interfax, Russian authorities allege that Berg was given the classified material by Aleksei Zhitnyuk, a Russian man who was arrested in late November on suspicion of treason.

Norwegian media reports said that Berg, 62, is a former border inspector and that the Norwegian Foreign Ministry was working to provide him with assistance.

Some reports suggested his arrest could be linked to what they said was his opposition to the construction of a fence along a small part of Norway's short border with Russia.

Norway built the 200-meter fence in 2016 after thousands of asylum seekers, many of them from Syria, crossed from Russia into Norway at the border post.

The reports come eight days after a Moscow court convicted an Estonian businessman of espionage and sentenced him to 12 years in prison.

Russia has imprisoned several people from neighboring countries including Estonia, Lithuania, and Ukraine on espionage charges, with tension rising over Moscow's seizure of Crimea in 2014 and involvement in a war against Kyiv's forces in eastern Ukraine.

Kremlin critics say Russia uses spy claims as a tool in geopolitcal competition.

Russian courts usually hold espionage trials behind closed doors, citing what they say is the need to protect classified information and state secrets.

With reporting by Interfax, Rosbalt, RIA, NRK, BBC, and vg.no

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-norway-spying/28926555.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






Military branches come together for combat training

By Airman 1st Class Jeremy D. Wolff, 366th Fighter Wing Public Affairs / Published December 19, 2017

MOUNTAIN HOME AIR FORCE BASE, Idaho (AFNS) -- The 366th Fighter Wing is located in the middle of nowhere in southern Idaho, nearly an hour away from a large city. Not exactly the description of a place one would expect military forces from every U.S. service and foreign allies would be excited to visit.



In reality, Mountain Home AFB's 110,000-acre range provides an ideal training setting with one of the biggest air spaces in the country, for exercises like Gunfighter Flag that accommodate joint-service combat training to simulate deployed situations.



"It's fully aimed at building and maintaining interoperability," said Air Force Lt. Col. David Och, 389th Fighter Squadron commander. "We realize that within the Air Force and in the other services, we need to be ready to deploy and employ at a moment's notice. That's what we're practicing and that's what we train to do. We assess our capability and make sure we're better at the completion of the exercise than when we began."

Gunfighter Flag is one of the bigger exercises Mountain Home AFB hosts, with members of the Air National Guard, Army National Guard, Navy and Marines accounting for over eight different airframes in play. Gunflighter Flag 18-1 took place Dec. 11-15, 2017.



"Participating in this exercise gives us important feedback of how effective our jamming is in relation to keeping all friendly aircraft from being shot down," said Navy Lt. Benjamin M. Watters, Electronic Attack Squadron 138 personnel officer. "More importantly, we get great practice in rehearsing how we will best work alongside the Air Force in order to be as successful as we can in case we have to execute real world."



Mountain Home AFB's air space isn't the only attraction, but the threat emitters the 266th Range Squadron offers puts Gunfighter Flag on a variety of military radars.



"We coordinate with all the different air traffic control agencies that are around us for all the aircraft from different bases and locations that are coming in and out," said Air Force Lt. Col. Jody Wolfley, 266th RANS Cowboy Control commander. "We manage all the ground movement if necessary for people down range to make sure there isn't anybody where they're not supposed to be."



The terrain also gives a similar feel of what might be encountered in a deployed environment, which is paramount for both the aircrew above and ground forces operating below.



Light snow and thick fog enveloped the area each day during the most recent Gunfighter Flag, but participants did what they could to improvise, adapt and overcome. Even in the rough weather when flying was delayed, training was conducted on the ground to sharpen survival, evasion, resistance and escape tactics.



"We're focused on the isolated personnel on the ground, figuring out where they're going to be and how they're going to incorporate into the greater scenario that's happening for the air players," said Staff Sgt. Cassidy Steffen, 366th Operations Support Squadron SERE specialist.



SERE trains to whatever scenario is happening in the air, linking mock downed aircrew in contact with their counterparts above while avoiding threats such as enemy scouts and dog teams.



Air Force First Lt. Mike Shufeldt, 190th Fighter Squadron A-10 pilot, expressed belief in practicing how you play. He said Gunfighter Flag created a perfect setting to learn the different languages and tactics of each branch, allowing them to work better as a total force.



"We live pretty close to the surface, but it's a good eye opener to see what that fight above the Army's responsibility looks like as far as the whole picture of the battlefield," said Army Chief Warrant Officer Nathan Spaulding, Gowen Field UH-60 Black Hawk training pilot.



To ensure all training is met for downrange missions, Gunfighter Flag hits on every facet of needed warfighting skills to ensure safety, for not only the U.S. but its allies as well.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






End of an era for the 879th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron

By Lt. Col. Jason W. Hull, 379th Expeditionary Mission Support Group / Published December 19, 2017

AL UDEID AIR BASE, Qatar (AFNS) -- It's the end of an era for the U.S. Air Force, as the 879th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron Military Working Dog Teams departed Eskan Village Compound, Saudi Arabia, in December 2017.

After more than 12 years of enduring operations, the Air Force transferred the authority of one of its most unique force protection missions to the U.S. Army during a ceremony at Eskan Village, Sept. 25, 2017.

Col. Thomas Bongiovi, 379th Expeditionary Mission Support Group commander, officiated the transfer of authority for the force protection mission from Lt. Col. Nathan M. Murray, 879th ESFS commander, to Capt. Filipe Marquez, 341st Military Police Company commander.

This transition was originally planned to happen nearly a decade earlier.

On Sept. 5, 2005, the Air Force activated the 64th Air Expeditionary Group and accepted responsibility of providing force protection and operational support from the Army at an undisclosed location. For nearly eight years, the 64th AEG continued the force protection and operations support mission.

In 2014, the 64th AEG was inactivated and replaced by the 879th ESFS.

While the size of the unit and scope of operational support were substantially decreased, the overall mission of force protection and self-sustainment as a geographically separated unit was upheld.

Charged with the unique mission of providing force protection for 25 percent of the U.S. government's foreign military sales, training and advisory missions, supporting government agencies in executing short-notice security for the president and other distinguished visitors and ensuring the expedited diplomatic clearance of U.S. and England air missions transitioning through Saudi air space, the 879th ESFS exceeded all expectations.

With the force protection mission successfully transitioned to the Army, and the diplomatic clearance mission being absorbed by U.S. Air Forces Central Command, the 879th ESFS was inactivated during the transfer of authority ceremony.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Coalition Removes ISIS Leaders From Battlefield

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, Dec. 19, 2017  In Iraq and Syria, coalition airstrikes killed three senior Islamic State of Iraq and Syria leaders in the past three weeks, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials announced today.

The removal of these key terrorists disrupts ISIS' leadership and information dissemination activities, reducing the terrorist group's ability to plan and conduct terrorist attacks both within Syria and Iraq, and abroad, officials said.

Abu Faysal, a senior ISIS leader, and his deputy, Abu Qudamah al-Iraqi, were killed in a coalition strike Dec. 1 in the middle Euphrates River valley region of Syria.

Mustafa Kamal Jasim Muhammad al-Zawi, an ISIS senior leader courier, was killed Nov. 28 near Sharqat, Iraq.

"The coalition will continue to exert pressure on ISIS senior leaders and associates across multiple networks in order to degrade, disrupt, and dismantle ISIS structures and remove the extremist terrorists throughout Iraq and Syria," task force officials said in a statement announcing the ISIS leaders' deaths.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Syrian Democratic Forces Continue to Drive Out ISIS, OIR Spokesman Says

By Terri Moon Cronk DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19, 2017  The Syrian Democratic Forces continue their momentum to drive the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria out of Syria in their advance against the enemy in the Khabur River area of the Middle Euphrates River Valley, Army Col. Ryan S. Dillon, spokesman for the Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve, told Pentagon reporters today.

Speaking to reporters via teleconference from Kuwait, Dillon noted that the SDF have "deliberately and meticulously" cleared about 1,700 square miles of former ISIS territory since the beginning of operations in September.

"Despite recent claims from Russia that Syria is free from ISIS terror, the SDF are still meeting resistance from ISIS fighters in the region," he said. "ISIS is putting up a stiff defense in remaining territories in the [Middle Euphrates River Valley], likely as a delaying action to allow other elements to displace to Southwest and Northwest Syria to seek sanctuary or continue to fight."

He noted Syrian regime commanders in Eastern Syria suggest ISIS fighters from the valley might have slipped through porous Syrian and Russian defenses to arrive in areas near Damascus.

"We've also seen a recent ISIS attempt to transit westward through the [Tanf] area, albeit unsuccessfully, because of our partners' actions to interdict," Dillon said, adding the SDF remains "steadfast," making progress in the Middle Euphrates River Valley.

SDF, ISF Milestone

A milestone was met Dec. 11, when the SDF reached the border of Iraq and linked up with Iraqi forces who were completing their clearance of ISIS' final pockets in Iraq, the colonel said. "Our two defeat-ISIS partners are working together to reestablish a secure international border," he added.

Just as the coalition has been committed to the military defeat of ISIS, "we are equally committed to securing the gains on the battlefield and preventing the return of this terrorist group," Dillon said. The broader efforts of the global coalition are also focused on the stabilization of areas cleared of ISIS, he added.

"The civilian-led efforts addressing vital needs, such as restoring essential services and fostering education and employment, stabilization and humanitarian efforts, go hand-in-hand with our military campaign and all these efforts lead to lasting security and help people return to their homes and get on with their lives," the colonel said.

And the coalition continues to put pressure on ISIS senior leaders and associates across multiple networks to degrade, disrupt and dismantle remaining ISIS structures and remove the terrorists throughout Iraq and Syria, he said.

Coalition Congratulates Abadi

Dillon congratulated Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and the Iraqi people on achieving full liberation from ISIS.

"We honor the sacrifices of all elements of the Iraqi security forces that fought ISIS for the last three years," he said. "The military parade in Baghdad was well-received and other celebrations were well-attended and highlighted the professionalism of the Iraqi security forces. Prime Minister Abadi said in his liberation announcement that 'Iraq must wipe out any ISIS remaining relics and never allow terrorism to return.'"

The Way Ahead

A high-level committee of the Iraqi Defense Ministry and CJTF leaders met Dec. 5 to discuss the way forward for the coalition's continued support of Iraq, Dillon said.

"The meeting prepared for the future transition of the defeat of ISIS campaign," he said, adding, "The campaign will tailor our support based on Iraqi requirements with a particular emphasis on the capabilities needed to hold and secure liberated areas."

As an example, the coalition began training with 60 members of the Iraqi border guard force, the colonel said. The border guard project, he added, will instruct the forces in deployments on the border to control movements and deny passage of terrorist infiltrations.

Dillon said the focus in Iraq is increasingly on long-term stabilization so life can return to normal and the Iraqi people can look forward to a brighter future.

"We have made it clear that the defeat of ISIS will not occur on the battlefield alone and that is why we are working with many governments and non-governmental partners around the world to counter the terrorist group's efforts to radicalize, recruit and inspire people to violence," he said.

ISIS' Virtual Domain

"Although ISIS' physical caliphate has crumbled, we fully expect the enemy to make a concerted effort to maintain their presence and influence in the virtual domain," the colonel said. "While ISIS has been defeated as a conventional force, we cannot forget their terrorist roots."

Dillon said ISIS has not regained any of the liberated territory across Iraq and Syria, and more than 7.7 million people are now free from the enemy.

But the campaign to defeat ISIS is not over, he said.

"We know this enemy is adaptive and savvy as it is cruel and evil," the colonel said. "We will continue to support our partners and keep pressure on ISIS to deliver a lasting defeat so that these terrorists in Iraq and Syria cannot return."

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Poland - F-16 Follow-on Support

Media/Public Contact: pm-cpa@state.gov

Transmittal No: 17-68

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19, 2017 -- The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to Poland for follow-on support and sustainment services for its F-16 fleet for an estimated cost of $200 million. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale today.

The Government of Poland has requested to purchase follow-on support and sustainment services for its F-16 fleet to include aircraft maintenance; system and overhauls and upgrades; engine support; spare and repair parts; support and test equipment; publications and technical documentation; U.S. Government and contractor engineering, technical, and logistical support; and other related elements of program support. The estimated cost is $200 million.

This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by helping to improve the security of a NATO ally. Poland continues to be an important force for political stability and economic progress in Central Europe.

This potential sale will continue the sustainment of Poland's F-16 capability. Poland will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment and support into its armed forces.

The proposed sale of this equipment and support will not alter the basic military balance in the region.

Contracts will be awarded when necessary to provide the defense articles ordered if items ordered are not available from U.S. stock or are to be purchased further in the future. The potential prime contractors will be Harris Corporation of Melbourne, Florida; Boeing of Arlington, Virginia; UTC Aerospace Systems, ISR Systems of Charlotte, North Carolina; Lockheed Martin Missile and Fire Control of Orlando, Florida; Cubic Defense Applications of San Diego, California; L-3 Communications of New York, New York; Lockheed Martin Aero of Fort Worth, Texas; Exelis Electronic of Clifton, New Jersey; Northrop Grumman Corporation of Falls Church, Virginia; Raytheon of Waltham, Massachusetts; Honeywell of Morris Plains, New Jersey; Booz Allen Hamilton of McLean, Virginia; and BAE Systems of Arlington, Virginia. There are no known offset agreements proposed in connection with this potential sale.

Implementation of this proposed sale will not require the assignment of any additional U.S. Government or contractor representatives to Poland.

There will be no adverse impact on U.S. defense readiness as a result of this proposed sale.

This notice of a potential sale is required by law and does not mean the sale has been concluded.

All questions regarding this proposed Foreign Military Sale should be directed to the State Department's Bureau of Political Military Affairs, Office of Congressional and Public Affairs, pm-cpa@state.gov.



-30-

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






NATO Secretary General discusses Alliance's continued adaptation with President Macron

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

19 Dec. 2017

NATO Secretary General met with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris today (19 December) to discuss the Alliance's continued adaptation to a challenging security environment, and preparations for next year's NATO Summit in Brussels.

At a joint press conference with President Macron, the Secretary General praised France's significant contribution to NATO's collective defence, remarking on the "committed, professional" French troops he had met during his visit to the NATO battlegroup in Estonia. He also commended France's efforts in the fight against terrorism, noting that it plays "a very important role in the Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh".

Welcoming efforts to strengthen European defence, Mr. Stoltenberg said such efforts would mean a stronger NATO because they would result in "more defence spending, more capabilities and fairer transatlantic burden-sharing within the Alliance". He also acknowledged President Macron's "strong personal commitment to multinational institutions, to international cooperation, and to NATO as a transatlantic Alliance".

Later in the day, the Secretary General addressed an audience at the Ecole Militaire in Paris, the original seat of the NATO Defense College, and a place of study not just for French military officers but officers from many NATO Allies and partner countries too. During his speech, he congratulated France for "playing a crucial role in helping to modernise NATO" and stressed that the Alliance's "ability to adapt is crucial to our success". He also highlighted the importance of continuing to expand cooperation between NATO and the European Union, noting that "we are natural partners".

The Secretary General is on a two-day visit to France during which he is also holding talks with Jean-Yves Le Drian (Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs), Francois de Rugy (President of the Assemblee Nationale) and General Francois Lecointre (Chief of Defence), among others. On Monday, Mr. Stoltenberg met Florence Parly (Minister for the Armed Forces).

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Two anti-India fighters, woman killed in India-controlled Kashmir

Iran Press TV

Tue Dec 19, 2017 01:54PM

New Delhi forces have shot dead at least two suspected fighters in Indian-controlled Kashmir in fierce clashes that also killed a young woman.

Munir Ahmed Khan, inspector general of police said on Tuesday that two suspected militants were killed in a firefight that began Monday evening in the southern district of Shopian. He added that a young woman was killed in crossfire.

"One young woman died in the crossfire when one of the militants came out of a house today (Tuesday) and started firing at the security forces," the official said.

Hundreds of Kashmiri people rushed to the scene, chanting anti-India slogans and hurling stones at the troops in protests that continued raging Tuesday morning.

Police opened fire with pellet guns, hospitalizing a dozen people.

A police officer and a soldier were also injured during the violent clashes.

Some witnesses claimed the woman was killed by police during the demonstrations, not in crossfire.

Tensions were already high in the Muslim-majority region after a taxi driver was gunned down during a military operation Saturday evening.

At least 210 anti-Indian fighters have been killed this year amid a military campaign to rout armed groups resisting Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan region.

According to police officials and watchdogs, nearly 80 security personnel and about 60 civilians have also lost their lives in violence across the violence-hit valley.

More than half a million Indian soldiers are deployed in Kashmir since 1989 when popular calls grew for independence or a merger of the territory with Muslim-majority Pakistan.

A former British colony, Kashmir was divided between India and Pakistan in 1947.

Tens of thousands of people, most of them civilians, have been killed in decades of fighting in Kashmir while the neighbors continue to blame each other for the protracted violence.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Yemeni forces fire retaliatory ballistic missile at Saudi capital: Report

Iran Press TV

Tue Dec 19, 2017 11:18AM

Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah movement says its forces have fired a ballistic missile towards the official residence of Saudi King Salman in the Saudi capital city, Riyadh, in retaliation for the regime's deadly attacks, al-Masirah TV reported.

Mohammed Abdulsalam, a Houthi spokesman, said the Burkan (Volcano) H-2 missile, which has a range of 800 km, was fired toward al-Yamamah Palace in the western suburbs of the capital where the monarch receives visiting foreign dignitaries and top Saudi officials.

Yemen's al-Masirah TV channel, citing military sources, said the missile targeted a large gathering of Saudi leaders without providing further details.

The Saudi-led coalition targeting Yemen, however, claimed that the missile had been intercepted in southern Riyadh.

"Ballistic missile intercepted over Riyadh," the coalition said in a statement.

Saudi media claim that that there have been no reports of damage so far.

Reuters reporters, however, say they have heard a blast and seen a plume of smoke rising above the Saudi capital.

An AFP correspondent also heard a loud explosion at 1050 GMT shortly before the scheduled unveiling of the Saudi budget, which is usually announced from Yamamah Palace by the king.

Al-Alam news network cited informed Yemeni sources as saying that the explosion took place 1.5 km away from the US embassy in Riyadh.

Deputy spokesman of the Yemeni army warned that after the Saudi-led coalition targeted the country's presidential palace in the capital city of Sana'a on December 5, none of the Saudi palaces would be safe.

The missile unit of Yemen's Defense Ministry also said that the missile attack targeted the meeting of Saudi officials at al-Yamamah Palace, adding that all the Saudi palaces as well as the kingdom's military and oil facilities are completely within the range of Yemeni missiles.

It was the second Houthi missile attack against Riyadh over the past two months. The first attack targeted Riyadh international airport on November 4, but Riyadh claimed that it managed to intercept the projectile.

Contrary to the claim by the Saudi military, a report by The New York Times suggested that the ballistic missile was actually not intercepted.

The second missile attack on Riyadh came on the same day that the UN human rights office verified the killings of 136 Yemeni civilians and other non-combatants in the Saudi-led airstrikes over 11 days.

The UN human rights office spokesman, Rupert Colville, said the casualties occurred between December 6-16 in four northern provinces, stressing that UN officials are "deeply concerned" over the rising number of civilian casualties in the impoverished country.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Hamas blasts US for vetoing UN resolution on Jerusalem al-Quds

Iran Press TV

Tue Dec 19, 2017 08:34AM

The Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, has blasted Washington for vetoing a UN Security Council resolution aimed at voiding US President Donald Trump's move on Jerusalem al-Quds, saying the Israeli-occupied city is the "eternal capital" of the state of Palestine.

Earlier this month, Trump said the US was recognizing Jerusalem al-Quds as the "capital" of Israel, and said he had tasked the State Department with making preparations for the relocation of the embassy from Tel Aviv to the city.

The move has sparked international outrage and pro-Palestinian protests.

The White House used its veto power for the first time at the UN Security council on Monday to torpedo an Egypt-drafted resolution critical of Washington's unilateral recognition, which had the backing of the other 14 members of the council, several of them the US and Israel's key allies.

In response, Hamas issued a statement, saying Jerusalem al-Quds is the "eternal capital" of the state of Palestine, and that such American or Israeli decisions cannot change this fixed reality.

The statement said the resistance movement would use all means at its disposal to prevent Trump's decision from taking effect.

The movement further called on the international community to take action against any measure aimed at changing the status quo of Jerusalem al-Quds.

Hamas warned that the Tel Aviv regime would pay the price for taking any step against Jerusalem al-Quds and Muslims' sanctities.

Along with Hamas, officials of the Ramallah-based Fatah movement also censured the US for blocking the resolution.

The Palestinian president's spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said in an official statement that the US veto "violates the legitimate international resolutions and the resolutions of the Security Council. It's a full bias to the occupation and to the aggression."

He said the veto "leads to more isolation of the United States and will provoke the international community," adding "we will carry on with our moves in the UN and all other international agencies to defend our people's rights."

'US veto emboldens Israel'

Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour also said the US "missed an opportunity to rectify its illegal decision from December 6."

He said that Washington "remains on the wrong side of history" and that the Palestinians "reiterate that [Trump's] decision has no legal effect on the status of Jerusalem."

"The US decision encourages Israel to persist in its crimes against the Palestinian people and to continue its occupation of our territory. No rhetoric will hide this complacency in prolonging the occupation," he said.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Bassam al-Agha, said President Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to travel to Saudi Arabia Tuesday to discuss the US decision on Jerusalem al-Quds with Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The trip comes as Riyadh has showed a weak response to Trump's move.

The Saudis refused to send a high-level representative to the emergency summit of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) in Turkey last week that was chaired by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and attended by Abbas and Jordan's King Abdullah and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

Erdogan, May call for 'intense efforts'

In a telephone conversation on Monday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and British Prime Minister Theresa May called on the international community to make "intense efforts" to solve the issue of Jerusalem al-Quds.

Al-Quds remains at the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with Palestinians hoping that the eastern part of the city would eventually serve as the capital of a future independent Palestinian state.

'UNSC vote proof of US isolation'

Brutz Katz, the co-president of Palestinian and Jewish Unity, believes that the UNSC's meeting on Monday once again revealed that the United States is largely isolated within the Security Council, especially when it comes to its policy towards Israel.

Basically, the entire question of moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem al-Quds has been pushed by extremist elements both within and outside the Trump administration, Katz told Press TV.

He said Washington's move has proved to be counterproductive and "contrary to the wishes of both Tel Aviv and Riyadh" because it has unified countries on the question of the international status of Jerusalem al-Quds and put the question on the very top of the Islamic agenda.

Also talking to Press TV, Joe Lombardo, with the United National Antiwar Coalition, described the outcome of the UNSC's meeting as a "political defeat" for President Trump, stressing that the yes votes cast by other members of the council were the result of growing popular pressure in those countries following Trump's al-Quds decision.

Lombardo pointed out at the reluctance of former US administrations to act on the highly controversial issue. "This is really a bipartisan issue and several presidents prior to Trump had also pushed forward this idea. They never acted on it. There is a kind of trigger in the United States where every six months they have to decide whether they are going to act on the resolution that calls for Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel and for the US embassy to be moved to Jerusalem and they have not acted on it because they understood the political implications."

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Arab League condemns US veto of UNSC resolution on al-Quds

Iran Press TV

Tue Dec 19, 2017 06:23PM

The Arab League has lashed out at the US for vetoing a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution which called for annulment of Washington's controversial recognition of Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel's capital.

On Tuesday, Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Abul Gheit expressed discontent over the US veto against the draft, saying the measure will lead to isolation of the US.

Abul Gheit noted that using the veto right against other 14 UNSC member states reveals Washington's flagrant defiance of a clear international consensus over the issue.

He said the Arab countries will present the draft resolution to the United Nations General Assembly under the article 377, "Uniting for Peace," to make it mandatory for all member states.

Under the Uniting for Peace resolution, if the permanent members of the UN Security Council fail to take the required actions to maintain international peace and security due to a lack of unanimity, the General Assembly should immediately consider the matter and issue the necessary recommendations.

On Monday, US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley vetoed a UN Security Council's resolution which called for annulment of Trump's controversial decision regarding Jerusalem al-Quds.

Fourteen members of the 15-member council voted in favor of the Egyptian-drafted resolution, which did not specifically name the US or US President Donald Trump but expressed "deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem" al-Quds, while US Ambassador Nikki Haley wielded Washington's veto against the call.

Hezbollah slams US bullying

Lebanon's Hezbollah resistance movement also condemned the US "bullying" at the Security Council, calling it a "slap" in the face of the global community.

In a statement on Tuesday, Hezbollah called on the global community not to surrender to the US policies and urged the Palestinians to continue their "successful uprising."

On December 6, Trump announced his decision to recognize Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel's capital and relocate the US embassy in occupied lands from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem al-Quds.

The dramatic shift in Washington's Jerusalem al-Quds policy drew fierce criticism from the international community, including the United States' Western allies, and triggered demonstrations against the US and Israel worldwide.

Jerusalem al-Quds remains at the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with Palestinians hoping that the eastern part of the city would eventually serve as the capital of a future independent Palestinian state.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Powerful Afghan Governor Vows To Fight His Disputed Ouster

RFE/RL December 19, 2017

One of Afghanistan's most powerful regional politicians has vowed to fight his ouster as governor of the northern province of Balkh, posing a potential threat to the shaky, Western-backed governing coalition of President Ashraf Ghani.

The presidential palace said on December 18 that it had approved the resignation of Atta Mohammad Noor, who goes by the nickname "King of the North" and is a leading figure in Jamiat-e Islami, a party which represents Afghanistan's Tajik ethnic group.

Noor had used his position in Balkh, on the northern border of the country, as a power base to push for a major role on the national stage and was seen as a top rival of Ghani.

While Kabul portrayed Noor's departure as a "resignation," he called it a "dismissal" and said he will fight the move.

"My dismissal has no legal or legitimate basis," Noor said on Afghan national television. "For now, we are only resorting to civil action, but if this atrocity continues, there are many other options."

Noor's Jamiat-e Islami party in a statement on social media strongly condemned what it called a "one-sided decision," saying it was "hasty, irresponsible, against the security...and in contradiction of the principles of the national unity government."

A Jamiat spokesman in an interview with the German news agency dpa said it is possible party members will withdraw from their posts in the unity government, potentially destabilizing the government. He said the party would decide at a meeting on December 19.

Noor is one of several powerful regional and ethnic leaders whom Ghani has struggled to control since he took office after a disputed election in 2014. Ghani, a Pashtun, has tried previously to remove Noor, but has also discussed a possible role in the government for him.

Ghani's office said Noor submitted his resignation several months ago, but the move did not take effect until Ghani approved it on December 18, when he announced that Mohammad Daoud, also from Jamiat, will become the next governor of Balkh Province.

Noor, who has demanded senior positions in the government for some of his allies, said his resignation had been offered with conditions attached, but those conditions were not respected.

"Since they didn't meet their responsibilities, I don't accept it," he said.

Ghani's national unity government, formed after the 2014 election forced him into an uneasy power-sharing arrangement with his former rival Abdullah Abdullah from Jamiat, retains the support of the United States and other Western nations.

But it has faced mounting criticism from a growing array of opposition groups.

Parliamentary elections originally due to be held next year are in doubt and former President Hamid Karzai has called for a loya jirga, or traditional grand council of political leaders and elders, to decide the future of the government.

Noor's removal also comes at a time when tensions between Tajiks and Pashtuns, Afghanistan's two biggest ethnic groups, have been rising.

It heightens uncertainty ahead of a presidential election in 2019. Noor has previously hinted that he may run for the presidency, while Ghani has not yet said whether he will run again.

The confrontation with Noor comes several months after Vice President Rashid Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek, fled to Turkey after he was accused of arranging the rape and torture of a political rival in 2016.

Noor recently called for Dostum's return. Earlier this year, he met in Turkey with Dostum as well as Deputy Chief Executive Mohammad Mohaqiq, a senior figure in the mainly Shi'ite Hazara ethnic community, to form what they called the "Coalition for the Salvation of Afghanistan."

With reporting by AFP, dpa, RFE/RL's Afghan Service, and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/afghan-kabul-ghani- government-ousts-powerful-governor-noor-vows-fight- jamiat-e-islami/28926040.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






Afghan Governor's Dismissal Highlights Rift In Party, Risks To Unity Government

Ron Synovitz, Mujib Rahman Habibzai December 19, 2017

MAZAR-E SHARIF, Afghanistan -- Jawid, an ethnic Tajik shopkeeper in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif, has been building up his small business during the past decade within a pocket of relative stability.

Now, with President Ashraf Ghani's removal of the governor of Balkh Province, Atta Mohammad Noor, Jawid says he fears the kind of lawlessness and conflict that has hindered reconstruction in many other parts of Afghanistan.

"The security situation in Mazar-e Sharif has been good and we are happy about it," Jawid told RFE/RL. "We do not want Atta Mohammad to be replaced."

Despite his reputation as a strongman who refuses to tolerate opposition and a history of alleged human rights abuses, Noor has been credited and praised by Western officials for bringing criminal groups and rival militia factions under control since he was appointed as Balkh's governor in 2004 by then-President Hamid Karzai.

While Taliban fighters and other Islamic militants have destabilized much of Afghanistan, relative security in Balkh allowed reconstruction programs to move forward and additional international aid to be disbursed in the province.

Major infrastructure development in the provincial capital, Mazar-e Sharif, brought an economic boom that often benefited Noor's political patrons.

That allowed Noor, a former anti-Soviet and anti-Taliban militia commander from the largely ethnic Tajik Jamiat-e Islami party, to become the main source of political power in Balkh Province.

Over time, Noor expanded his political base into other parts of northern Afghanistan.

Preelection Positioning?

Thomas Ruttig, a co-founder of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, is convinced that Noor has aspirations to run for the Afghan presidency in an election scheduled for 2019.

That appears to have prompted an internal power struggle with other Jamiat-e Islami leaders who have presidential aspirations and currently hold positions in Afghanistan's national-unity government, including Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah.

Thus, Ruttig says, Noor's removal from the Balkh governor's post represents "positioning before the presidential elections" and positioning within Jamiat-e Islami.

"It is very clear that Atta Mohammad became one of the alternative power centers in Afghanistan using a regional base, which makes the Afghan state unstable," Ruttig says. "From the point of view of the president, Ghani has done something trying to stabilize" the country.

Ruttig says Noor has "come out as the most powerful" of the party's leaders "because he controls the most territory of all the Jamiat-e Islami leaders in the north and the northeast."

"He has consolidated himself there also, of course, by profiting from economic development," Ruttig says.

Immediately after the fall of the Taliban regime after the U.S.-led invasion in late 2001, Noor was not such a big player in Jamiat-e Islami, Ruttig says. "At least five other people were considered first for powerful positions in Afghanistan's [post-Taliban] central government."

Those include former Jamiat-e Islami militia commanders or their close associates, such as former Defense Minister Mohammad Qasim Fahim, who died in 2014; former Herat Province Governor Mohammad Ismail Khan; former Vice President Yunus Qanuni; former Vice President Ahmad Zia Masud, the brother of the anti-Soviet and anti-Taliban resistance leader Ahmad Shah Masud; Rabbani, the son of the late Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani; and Abdullah.

"Atta Mohammad is actually a later generation of those bigger commanders," Ruttig notes. "His rise was after 2001 while the others were already" in strong positions within Jamiat-e Islami when the Tailban regime collapsed in late 2001.

Resisting The Lure Of Kabul

Ruttig says Noor also learned from watching other powerful regional leaders removed from power or "tempted to go to Kabul" to take posts in the central government.

"He resisted this and that's why he also has tried not to be removed from his base in Mazar-e Sharif because he knows that will erode his grip on that area, very clearly," Ruttig says.

Ghani, an ethnic Pashtun, had vowed to replace all of Afghanistan's provincial governors and tried to dismiss Noor in the past -- notably, after Noor went to Turkey in mid-2017 and announced the formation of an opposition alliance in Turkey with exiled Afghan Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek, and Deputy Chief Executive Mohammad Mohaqiq, a leading figure in the mainly Shi'ite Hazara community.

With Noor's removal, Ghani has now replaced all of Afghanistan's provincial governors.

But Noor can still challenge the decision in court or mobilize his supporters to carry out protests against his removal from office.

"My dismissal has no legal or legitimate basis," Noor said on Afghan national television after Ghani's decision was announced on December 18. "For now, we are only resorting to civil action, but if this atrocity continues, there are many other options."

Noor's Jamiat-e Islami party in a statement on social media strongly condemned what it called a "one-sided decision," saying it was "hasty, irresponsible, against the security...and in contradiction of the principles of the national-unity government."

One Jamiat spokesman said it is possible party members will withdraw from their posts in the unity government, potentially destabilizing the administration.

But Ruttig says he doesn't expect Rabbani or Abdullah to resign from their posts in protest because those positions in government put them in a better position if they choose to become candidates in the next presidential election.

Kabul-based political analyst Nasir Shafiq tells RFE/RL that Noor's dismissal will create security problems in northern Afghanistan, where Islamic State (IS) militants have emerged in the neighboring province of Jawzjan.

"If we lose a part of the government such as Jamiat-e Islami of Afghanistan, whose chief executive is [Noor], we will lose a very important element that the government has against the armed oppositions," Shafiq says. "This will result in a lack of confidence and disbelief on the part of people toward the government."

Written and reported by Ron Synovitz with reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan correspondent Mujib Rahman Habibzai in Mazar-e Sharif

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/caucasus- report-georgia-kvirikashvili-gachechiladze- corruption-allegations/28927058.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






Locked and Loaded: Global Defense Spending Hits Record $1.62 Trillion - Report

Sputnik News

17:24 19.12.2017

The unprecedented growth in global military spending is an alarming sign that the dark days of the Cold War may be back, according to the annual Jane's Defense Budgets Report.

Jane's Information Group is a British publishing company specializing in military, aerospace and transportation topics. If the report is correct, global defense outlays will continue their five-year consecutive growth into next year to hit a post-Cold War record of a whopping $1.67 trillion.

US

According to the report, released on Monday, the 3.3 percent projected growth in 2018, the fastest in a decade, is driven by the burgeoning US defense budget which jumped from $636.2 billion in 2016 to $642.9 billion in 2017.

With around $10 trillion spent on arms since the 9/11 attacks in 2011, US military spending accounts for a hefty 40 percent of the global figure, and impacts trends worldwide.

According to Jane's analyst Guy Eastman, Washington will be spending more on "ballistic missile defense, shipbuilding, missiles and munitions, space-based systems, and C4ISR [Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance] systems."

Middle East

In the Middle East, defense spending is trending upward again after a brief letup last year. Iran slightly outspends Israel, but both are dwarfed by Saudi Arabia, which has ramped up its defense budget to a very impressive $50.9 billion.

Europe

In Europe, nine NATO member-states, whose military budgets have been growing since 2015, will meet the 2-percent-of-GDP benchmark for defense outlays in 2018.

East European countries will be the fastest growing region in the world in 2018, as several countries try to increase their defense outlays to 2 percent of GDP. Growth has been particularly evident in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which plan to more than double their defense spending compared to 2014.

They already meet NATO's benchmark for defense outlays.

Asia and the Pacific

Countries in the Asia-Pacific region have been spending less on defense in 2017 due, among other things, to smaller increases in China and India.

After the US, China and India are the second and third ranked countries in defense spending with $192.5 billion and $52.4 billion respectively.

The Jane's Annual Defense Budgets Report tracks 99 percent of global defense expenditures from 105 of the world's largest defense budgets.

It was released by global information analyzer and distributor IHS Markit.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Indian Troops Gun Down Two Militants, One Civilian in Anti Insurgency Operation

Sputnik News

17:12 19.12.2017(updated 17:13 19.12.2017)

The separatist leaders of Jammu and Kashmir have called for a complete shutdown on Wednesday to protest the killing of the civilians. Forty civilians have been killed during protests against security forces in the state since the beginning of 2017.

New Delhi (Sputnik)  In yet another bloody clash between civilians and the military on the Indian side of Kashmir, one woman has died and several other people have been injured in the Shopian district. According to local reports, Tuesday's protest by locals was triggered after the killing of two alleged terrorists by the security forces who were alerted by the intelligence agencies about their presence in the area.

According to the Jammu and Kashmir police, two terrorists were trying to escape with the help of some locals, but security forces opened fire on them during which the terrorist duo along with a civilian was killed.

This prompted the locals to organize violent protests. The security forces had to fire shotgun pellets and tear gas shells to contain the violent mob during the course of which at least a dozen civilians and a minor sustained serious injuries.

Jammu and Kashmir have witnessed a rise in civilian casualties this year. According to an official estimate, at least 40 civilians were killed and 321 were seriously injured in clashes with the security forces. Last year, 15 civilians were killed and 285 were injured in similar events. Meanwhile, 2017 has been the deadliest year for terrorists as well with security forces eliminating 209 terrorists since the beginning of the year.

Earlier, the Indian Army Chief Bipin Rawat had warned civilian protesters of "tough action" if they created trouble during counterinsurgency operations.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Saudi-Led Coalition Strikes in Yemen Led to Over 110 Civilian Casualties - UN

Sputnik News

14:48 19.12.2017(updated 14:53 19.12.2017)

GENEVA (Sputnik)  As many as 115 civilians were killed and 83 people were injured after the Saudi-led coalition intensified its airstrikes in Yemen on December 6-16, Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said Tuesday.

According to Colville, the strikes took place in Sanaa, Saada, Hudaydah and Taiz provinces.

"We are deeply concerned at the recent surge in civilian casualties in Yemen as a result of intensified airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition, following the killing of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sana'a on 4 December  Our Office in Yemen verified that 136 civilians and non-combatants were killed and some 87 injured as a result of airstrikes in Sana'a, Sa'ada, Al Hudaydah and Taizz governorates in the period from 6 to 16 December," Colville said as quoted on the UN OHCHR website.

The Saudi-led coalition has been participating in the Yemeni military conflict since March 2015 upon the request of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, fighting against the Houthi rebels, who previously allied with forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Since late November the conflict has further escalated after Saleh had cut ties with the Houthis forces and urged to start a "new page" with the Saudi-lead coalition forces. The move resulted in intensified clashes between the rebels and Saleh's forces, resulting in the Houthis' killing of the former Yemeni president.

Amid the recent escalation of the years-long conflict, Yemeni authorities have urged humanitarian organizations to relocate their personnel to the temporary capital of Aden amid the agencies' recent decision to evacuate personnel from Sanaa that is currently controlled by the Houthi movement.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Saudi Arabia Intercepts Ballistic Missile Fired by Houthis Toward Riyadh

Sputnik News

14:04 19.12.2017(updated 17:52 19.12.2017)

Yemeni Houthi rebels have announced the launch of a ballistic missile targeting Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh, according to a statement by the movement's spokesman on Twitter.

"[Saudi-led] Coalition forces confirm intercepting an Iranian-Houthi missile targeting south of Riyadh. There are no reported casualties at this time," the state-run Center for International Communication wrote on its Twitter account.

The Volcano 2-H missile launched by the Yemeni rebels allegedly targeted the al-Yamama royal palace, according to a statement of the Houthis' spokesperson, Mohammed Abdussalam, on Twitter. At the same time, Houthi-controlled television has claimed that the missile targeted a meeting of Saudi leaders in the palace, while the coalition said that the attack targeted residential areas in the city, adding that there have been no reports of any damages so far.

The Saudi-led coalition has accused the Yemeni rebels of using humanitarian entry points to smuggle "Iranian missiles," while Tehran has not yet issued a response to the statement.

According to Reuters citing Houthi-run TV, the rebels' attack targeting Riyadh signals a new stage of confrontation with Saudi Arabia.

According to Al Arabiya broadcaster, the Saudi-led coalition struck a post operated by the Houthi rebel movement south of the Yemeni capital of Sanaa after the Patriot missile defense system had intercepted the Houthi missile.

The reports of a missile launch followed tweets by witnesses suggesting that a blast had been heard in the Saudi capital. While the information could not be immediately verified, the possible connection to the Houthis' firing a missile remains unclear.

Saudi Arabia's air defenses intercepted two ballistic missiles launched by the Houthis in November. The first missile was shot down on November 4 near the Riyadh international airport, while the second was intercepted on November 30 in the south of the country.

Following the Houthis' missile launch targeting Riyadh, the Saudi-led coalition which has been fighting in the country since 2015 at the request of the country's internationally recognized leadership, imposed a temporary blockade on all Yemeni ports and airports in order to prevent the delivery of arms to the rebels.

While the Saudi Crown Prince has blamed

Tehran for the Houthis' missile launch, the Iranian leadership has strongly denied arms supplies to the Yemeni rebels, yet has repeatedly admitted political support for the Shiite movement.

Responding to Riyadh's accusations which have been echoed by the US president and Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley blaming Iran for alleged arms supplies, President Hassan Rouhani warned Saudi Arabia of the Islamic Republic's "might," emphasizing that the Kingdom is wrong to consider Tehran its enemy.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Kremlin: New US Strategy Has 'Imperial Nature'

Sputnik News

12:07 19.12.2017(updated 15:11 19.12.2017)

The Kremlin has commented on the new US national security strategy, announced by Donald Trump on Monday.

"A brief reading of [the strategy], especially the sections, mentioning our country, and as a whole [demonstrates] the imperial nature of the document, there is no desire to refute the unipolar world, there is a persistent unwillingness, rejection of a multipolar world," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has stated, commenting on the document.

The spokesman has stated that Russia couldn't agree with the US stance, claiming that the country poses a threat to US security, but has pointed out the positive aspects of the document, such as the readiness for cooperation with Russia in areas of interest for the US side.

"This [position] is absolutely in line with our approach, voiced by the president [of Russia Vladimir Putin], because Moscow is also looking for cooperation with the US where it is beneficial to us, and as far as our American colleagues are ready to go," Peskov said.

As an example of such cooperation Peskov has mentioned the joint work in the fight against terrorism, which helped to prevent terrorist attacks in St. Petersburg.

"Once again I want to recall an ideal example of such cooperation  the exchange of information through special services, which, I repeat, really helped save many lives," Peskov said.

He went to say that Moscow will study the new US national security strategy, noting that the document is large enough and "certainly needs to be studied carefully," pointing out "quite impressive" statements, which "yet to be comprehended."

The new US National Security Strategy, announced by Donald Trump on Monday, reflects the president's "America first" position and is aimed at returning the country to "unrivaled power," with four main principles: protecting the US populace and the homeland; promoting US prosperity; preserving "peace through strength" and a strong military; and increasing US influence abroad.

Russia's and China's Role in Document

Whereupon, the document calls Russia a "revisionist power" that "wants to shape a world antithetical to US values and interests," with the country's alleged ambition and growing military capabilities, which are claimed create an unstable frontier in Eurasia and increase the risk of conflict.

China also doesn't go unnoticed in the text, together with Moscow it was called a "revisionist power", aiming to change status-quo in the Asian region and having "unfair trading practices."

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying has commented on this stance, urging for mutual trust and saying that US-China trade is a win-win situation for both parties.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Planning Gaffe Leaves Norway's New Fighter Jets Without Due Air Defense

Sputnik News

11:28 19.12.2017

Although the first F-35 fighters destined to become the backbone of Norway's air force have already arrived in the Nordic country, it will take eight years until they receive proper protection from air defense systems.

The update of the Norwegian air force with F-35 fighter jets has been riddled with problems. First, a painful lack of hangars at rland airbase was discovered forcing the pricey aircraft to be stored in tents. Now, a perhaps even more dramatic lack of ground protection for the country's largest ever defense investment has been uncovered.

In early November, the first batch of three F-35 arrived in Norway with great pomp. Next year, the aircraft will become fully operational, gradually replacing the current fleet of F-16s by 2022. The planning of the acquisition of long-range, ground-based protection for the 52 F-35s worth close to $10 billion has not even started yet, Norwegian broadcaster NRK reported.

Senior Adviser Lars Gjemble at the Ministry of Defense informed NRK in an e-mail that the new long-range air defense will be delivered to the Armed Forces around 2025. A preliminary study for the acquisition of long-range air protection will only commence following the plan next year, Gjemble informed.

"This is absurd, really. It is a tangible expression of how little money is being put into defense. The air defense system should have been in place the day before yesterday," former commodore Jacob Brresen said, stressing the importance of having a ground-based air defense for Norway's protection.

NRK listed the following three options for Norway's future air defense: Lockheed Martin's THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense), currently used in South Korea, Lockheed Martin's Aegis, which is already used on Norwegian frigates, and Raytheon's Patriot, which Norway's neighbor Sweden recently agreed to buy.

Researcher Stale Ulriksen of the Norwegian Naval Academy admitted bad planning on the part of the defense authorities, who failed to foresee the strategic implications. According to Ulriksen, a new long-range air defense for Norway's fighter jets will cost least NOK 10 billion ($1.2 billion).

Ulriksen stressed the paramount importance of having an efficient air defense in place due the mounting tensions between Russia and NATO. Ulriksen also emphasized that Russia's rich arsenal of long-range missiles, including the Iskander, the Kalibr and the KH-101, which could potentially hit strategic targets all across Norway.

Norway's recently appointed Defense Minister Frank Bakke-Jensen, however, has repeatedly stressed that Russia is not a military threat. Most recently, he reiterated this claim during his last week's visit to the Sr-Varanger garrison, which will be reinforced with a heavy company of 200 men. Frank Bakke-Jensen ascribed this development to rising international instability, NRK reported.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






US Senate Probes Green Party as Part of Russiagate - Reports

Sputnik News

05:39 19.12.2017(updated 13:39 19.12.2017)

The Senate Intelligence Committee has requested Green Party candidate Jill Stein's campaign to comply with a document search as a part of the ongoing investigation into alleged ties between US President Donald Trump's campaign team and Moscow, US media reported Monday citing a former campaign staffer.

Dennis Trainor Jr., who worked for the Stein campaign in 2015, told the Buzzfeed media outlet that he was contacted by Stein last Friday regarding the request. He added that Green Party's ex-candidate was ready to cooperate with the committee and planned to comply with request.

Trainor said he believed that the committee was primarily interested in the circumstances of a dinner hosted by RT in Moscow in 2015, which Stein attended, as well as her appearances on the broadcaster. He stressed that the committee was "vilifying anyone who's ever appeared on or talked with anyone on the RT network."

In January, the US Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and National Security Agency released a report accusing Russia of meddling in last year's US elections and labeling RT

as "propaganda outlet." On November 13, RT America registered as a "foreign agent" in the United States as demanded by the US Justice Department.

The US Congress is currently investigating Russia's alleged meddling in last year's elections as well as possible collusion between Trump's campaign team and the Kremlin. Another investigation into the purported interference is being conducted by the FBI and the Department of Justice under Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Russian officials have repeatedly denied the claims of alleged interference, stressing that no evidence has been offered to substantiate the allegations.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Over 130 civilians killed in 11 days in airstrikes in Yemen, reports UN rights office

19 December 2017  Voicing deep concern over the surge in civilian casualties in Yemen in airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition, following the killing of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh earlier this month, the United Nations rights office has urged all parties to the conflict to ensure that civilians are protected.

According to Rupert Colville, the spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), 136 civilians and non-combatants  including women and children  have been killed and another 87 injured in airstrikes in Sana'a, Sa'ada, Al Hudaydah and Taizz governorates in the period from 6 to 16 December.

"We urge all parties to the conflict to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law, including their obligation to respect the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution," Mr. Colville told the press at a regular media briefing in Geneva Tuesday.

"They should take all feasible precautions to avoid, and in any event to minimise, the impact of violence on civilians," he stressed.

Among the incidents verify by OHCHR, four civilians were killed and four injured on 9 December when coalition airstrikes hit the official Yemen TV channel, Qanat Al Yemen, which has been under the Houthis control since September 2014.

At least another seven civilians were killed when airstrikes struck a hospital in Al Hudaydah on 10 December. Some Houthi military vehicles were reported to be next to the hospital compound at the time of the airstrikes.

On 13 December, coalition airstrikes struck a prison building and a prison yard at a military police compound in the Shaub district of Sana'a, killing at least 45 people and injuring 53. All victims were reported to be detainees and said to belong to resistance forces loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The airstrikes also claimed the lives of a number of children.

On 16 December, nine children and one woman  returning home from a wedding party  were killed in coalition airstrikes in Marib governorate and another 14 children died when airstrikes hit a farmhouse in Al Hudaydah governorate.

OHCHR 'greatly concerned' over reported violations by Houthis

Also at the briefing, the OHCHR spokesperson expressed concern over reported recent violations by Houthis against members of former President Saleh's political party, the General People's Congress (GPC) including attacks and arbitrary detentions.

"There have also been unconfirmed reports of summary killings and detention of people affiliated to the GPC, although verification of these reports by our Office has been difficult as witnesses fear possible repercussion from the Houthis," said Mr. Colville.

Since the eruption of violence in Yemen in March 2015 and as of 14 December, the UN rights office has documented total of 5558 civilians killed and 9,065 injured.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Somalia: Up to 30 Percent of Soldiers Unarmed

By Harun Maruf December 19, 2017

Since September 2017, al-Shabab militants have overrun four Somali government military bases, killing more than 60 soldiers and seizing large quantities of weapons. Now, a military assessment by the Somali government found some of the troops manning these bases are completely unarmed.

The "Operational Readiness Assessment" conducted by the government found that approximately 30 percent of the soldiers in the bases do not have weapons. The evaluators said some units also lack medium and heavy weaponry, and some are "undermanned."

On Tuesday, Somali Defense Minister Mohamed Mursal Sheikh Abdirahman acknowledged the army's shortcomings.

"There are some who are not armed. We are working to complete their equipment but a majority of them have weapons," he said in an exclusive interview with VOA's Somali service.

He also admitted "gaps" in the number of soldiers in military bases.

"When we were conducting this assessment we did not announce and say people have to report for this assessment, we only went there and assessed those ready in their bases, their training and equipment," he said. "There are gaps, there are brigades which are undermanned."

Abdirahman said the number of soldiers on the payroll of the Somali National Army is 26,000 but added that number includes retired and older soldiers, the disabled and orphans.

Reliable military sources told VOA that the actual number of soldiers on duty is far lower, possibly fewer than 10,000.

The assessment commissioned by Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire was conducted between August and September and was submitted to government leaders in November.

Al-Shabab gains

Al-Shabab overran government bases in the towns of Bulogudud, Beled Hawo, El-Wak and Barire in September. Abdirahman said government soldiers didn't have the artillery, heavy machine guns and shoulder-fired missiles to push back Shabab fighters as they stormed the bases.

He said infantry units need artillery, some mounted on trucks, others pulled by trucks and shoulder missiles to enable soldiers to fight from a long distance before the enemy comes into close proximity.

"An army needs to be able to defend itself from 4-5 kilometers away from the base," he said. "We don't have that type of weapons of artillery and missiles. Likewise, we don't have helicopters that can provide air support that can fire missiles at enemy positions to prevent attack and destroy threats at its place."

Abdirahman blamed the United Nations arms embargo on Somalia for the lack of these weapons, saying the embargo is tying the hands of Somali soldiers.

"[T]he international community must allow Somalia to have this weaponry," he said. "They don't have to lift it in one day but gradually; there has to be a mechanism for Somalia to acquire and buy these weapons and to arm its soldiers."

The assessment also found the SNA constrained by a lack of communication, vehicles and shelter, with some soldiers living in bush perimeters with no sentry positions.

Aid suspension

Last week, the United States said it is suspending aid for much of Somalia's armed forces over corruption concerns. A State Department official said the "pause" in aid is being made "to ensure that U.S. assistance is being used effectively and for its intended purpose."

The current Somali government, which blame previous administrations, said the fact it conducted an assessment shows its commitment to improving accountability as well as conditions for the soldiers.

The government has announced plans to build a force of 22,000 soldiers that can take over security responsibilities from the African Union Mission in Somalia, AMISOM, which has begun to draw down its troops.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Saudi Air Defenses Shoot Down Missile Fired by Yemen's Houthis

By Edward Yeranian December 19, 2017

Saudi air defenses have shot down a ballistic missile fired at Riyadh by Yemen's Houthi militia group. Saudi Arabia and the United States have accused Iran of supplying ballistic missile technology to the Houthis.

Amateur video showed a salvo of the fourth-generation Saudi Patriot missiles being launched at the approaching ballistic missile, before blowing it up in a cloud of smoke over the skies of the capital, Riyadh. Debris from another missile fired from Yemen landed close to Riyadh's international airport in November.

The Houthis' Al-Masirah TV said the missile was meant to strike a gathering of top Saudi leaders at the al-Yamama royal palace in Riyadh. Saudi King Salman and his ministers were meeting Monday to discuss the kingdom's finances.

Saudi-owned al-Arabiya TV reported that the Patriots, capable of monitoring 50 threats at once, could detect the approaching missiles from a distance of 80 kilometers.

Regional analyst Mustapha al-A'ani of the Gulf Research Center told al-Arabiya the Houthis have "neither the expertise to put the missile stages together, nor the expertise to fire them." He alleged that 250 Iranian experts are helping the Houthis with their missile program.

Arab media have repeatedly accused Iran of smuggling weapons to the Houthis from its port of Bandar Abbas, across the Persian Gulf. Mustapha al A'ani accused the Houthis of using Iranian-built "Zilzal 3," and "Qiam 1," missiles to attack Saudi Arabia.

American University of Beirut professor Hilal Khashan tells VOA he questions whether the ballistic missiles being used in the recent attacks were from Iran.

"The Iranians support the Houthis to the best of their ability, but the Houthis were able to seize the military arsenal of [former Yemeni President] Ali Abdallah Saleh, especially after the fall of Sanaa and the failure of his [recent] coup. They seized huge amounts of weapons that include SCUD missiles."

Khashan said he thinks it "likely that the Iranians may have upgraded the missiles," and that he believes the Houthis could have "up to 500 SCUD missiles in their arsenal." The Houthis have fired close to 100 ballistic missiles at Saudi territory during the past year, according to al-Arabiya.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






South Sudan Forum Aims to Restore Peace

By Jill Craig December 19, 2017

A high-level forum to revive South Sudan's 2015 peace agreement is underway in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia  and the stakes could not be higher.

The internal conflict that began four years ago has driven two million people from the country and left more than a million others a step away from famine, according to the United Nations.

The peace agreement signed in Addis two and half years ago fell apart in July 2016 after clashes between supporters of President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar left hundreds dead in the capital, Juba.

International Crisis Group senior analyst Casie Copeland says power-sharing and security arrangements will be the key objectives of this meeting. Copeland notes that East African bloc IGAD has made it clear the forum is not a mediation or a new round of peace talks, although the parties all want something different.

"Rebel groups and most Western countries want the forum to be a new mediation. The goal for them is to create a new power-sharing arrangement, which significantly weakens the government's hand in favor of different opposition groups," Copeland tells VOA.

"The government, on the other hand, is quite keen that the existing arrangements are only slightly modified and that they remain in a powerful position. Their argument being that they are the militarily dominant party in-country, so why should they give power-sharing to rebels that have not been particularly successful?"

Copeland says IGAD is put in the middle, trying to balance these demands.

Cease-fire possibility

Part of revitalizing the 2015 peace deal is having the parties agree to a cessation of hostilities. But Aly Verjee, a visiting expert at the United States Institute of Peace, is skeptical that will happen.

"Conventional cessation of hostilities agreements have been repeatedly attempted in South Sudan, and similar arrangement is unlikely to succeed where others have failed," said Verjee. "Merely incorporating the new armed actors in a cessation of hostilities is insufficient for violence to end... Let's not forget the government declared a unilateral cease-fire in May of this year, which was extended in November, and yet violence perpetrated by government forces continued."

South Sudan analyst Alan Boswell notes that the peace deal was signed between two parties, but since that time, the opposition has fragmented, making the task of the peace mediators even more challenging.

"It is not just that all the opposition groups want to take power themselves; they actually have different positions, in as much as the SPLA-IO under Riek Machar has been primarily interested in sort of taking power through elections after the rebellion failed in Juba," said Boswell. "Whereas some of these other groups are more interested in sort of forcing a restructuring of South Sudan and gaining more local autonomy, away from Juba."

Copeland says the forum is focused on conflict prevention as well as resolution, but warns that an election scheduled for next year could present new problems.

"If it is held next year, none of the groundwork has been done for it, and we may see competition within the government or amongst groups that have made a peace agreement with the government over who is going to stand as candidates in different places," she says. " And so the election itself poses a set of conflict risks that do not exist right now."

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






India - Himachal Pradesh

Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh on Monday 18 December 2017 threw up the most unexpected result. With 44 seats, the BJP has won almost a two-thirds majority in the 68-member Himachal assembly, besides raising its tally of states to 14. Voters gave BJP a huge victory, but rejected the saffron party's entire top leadership, including the chief ministerial candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal. Riding a wave of anti-incumbency against Congress, BJP won 44 of the 68 seats in the assembly and even increased its vote share substantially, from 38.7% in 2012 to 48.7% in 2017, making the loss of its top leaders even more shocking. Congress mustered only 21 seats, even as its vote share fell from 42.8% in 2012 to 41.8% this time.

After sweeping Himachal Pradesh, the BJP found itself looking for a new man for the top job. Prem Kumar Dhumal, the rare Chief Ministerial face projected by the BJP before the polls, lost in his seat. Dhumal, a two-time Chief Minister, was two years short of the BJP's "retirement age". He was chosen to help the party gain the support of the upper castes - Brahmins and Rajputs - but he lost.

Dhumal did not win even though the BJP was racing to an emphatic victory. A veteran lawmaker offered a way out. Virender Kumar, elected for the fourth time from the Kutlehar constituency, offered to vacate his seat for Dhumal. Dhumal counted around 26 of the BJP's 44 lawmakers as his supporters. The party weighed two more options; one involves sending a central leader to Himachal Pradesh and would require a by-election within six months. Union health minister JP Nadda, 57, and Mr Dhumal's 43-year-old son Anurag Thakur, are the two names reportedly being discussed for this option.

Dhumal had played a crucial role in ensuring the consolidation of the dominant Thakur community, that comprises 28 percent of the population of this hilly state. The Thakur vote is reported to have helped propel the BJP to its outstanding victory in the state (winning 32 and leading in 12 of the 68 seats at last count) ensuring their victory in over ten seats.

Congress' Rajinder Singh Rana emerged as the giant killer of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections after defeating BJP's chief ministerial candidate Prem Kumar Dhumal from the Sujanpur constituency. It is not that Dhumal and Rana had any personal enmity. Rana subsequently quit the BJP and fought and won the election as an Independent and then went on to join the Congress party. He has carefully nurtured the Sujanpur constituency, where he is known as the 'billionaire' candidate. Ratna Devi, a resident of Sujanpur, said: "He genuinely cares for the poor. In the last five years, he has spent lakhs of rupees in the marriages of poor girls from lower socio-economic backgrounds. He gives scholarships running into thousands of rupees to poor students and if anyone falls seriously ill, he arranges for their treatment in the PGI hospital in Chandigarh. He has been with us for the last 15 years."

The Left made a comeback in Himachal Pradesh after a gap of 24 years, winning Theog assembly seat, which is considered a Congress stronghold. Rakesh Singha of the CPI (M), won the seat by a margin of 1,983 seats. BJPs Rakesh Verma came second, while the Congress finished a distant third. In Theog, CPI (M) had led many movements including on law and order following rape and murder of a teenager in the area. In 1993, Singha won from Shimla. This was the fourth time that CPI (M) has managed to send a legislator to the Shimla assembly  1967, 1977 and 1993 being the last three.

Other than Theog, the party had little reason to cheer. It was hoping to put a strong fight in seven seats but it has managed to get only 1.5 per cent of total voteshare. In 2012, the CPI (M) had created a buzz by winning both Mayor and Deputy Mayor posts in Shimla Municipality. However, in Shimla, former mayor Sanjay Chauhan got a little over 3,000 votes, trailing on third position behind Congress rebel. The seat has been won by the BJP over 2,000 votes.

Himachal Pradesh has a tradition of change in government after every election and after defeating the Congress, the BJP is all set to form the government in the hill state. The BJP ousted the Congress in 1990 and the Congress avenged defeat in 1993. The BJP formed the government with the help of Himachal Vikas Congress in 1998 and the Congress was back in power in 2003. The BJP then made a comeback in 2007.

Himachal Pradesh has the reputation of being stable, inclusive, cohesive and well-governed and it stands apart in many respects from its neighbors in northern India. It has additionally, achieved remarkable growth, especially in the last two decades, which has been accompanied by very good human development outcomes.

The formation of the Pradesh as the first entirely hill province inculcated in the paharias (of the mountains), a term used to be employed pejoratively for hillmen by the people of the plains, a sense of distinct personality and identity. Besides this great gain, the political awakening found a matching beat in the economic and social cultures as well. Of substance, however, the democratisation of administration was missing. It was this lack of administrative control over their own affairs, which unquestionably spurred them on to achieve the ultimate goal of statehood.

The decision of the Government of India to create Himachal Pradesh as a separate administrative unit was largely influenced by the sentiments of the local people. The financial ramifications were kept out of this decision. While the process of political and administrative democratisation set in with the emergence of the State, no heed was paid to assess the financial resources of the State. Budgetary and financial controls rested with the Central Government till Himachal attained the status of a full-fledged State of the Indian Union.

It was natural for Himachal Pradesh to rely almost entirely on the Central Government for financial support mainly because of two reasons. First, it was necessary to maintain the administrative set up and the wage structure of the employees at the level that existed at the time, and secondly, the State had a poor resource endowment as compared to other States. In Himachal Pradesh, the Government of India did not hesitate in accepting the level of services and wages at the level prevailing in the neighbouring State of Punjab. This was done without going into the imbalances in terms of resource availability in the two States.

Hence, Himachal Pradesh inherited a heavy financial burden in terms of huge spending on maintaining the infrastructure left by the Central Government at the time of getting full-fledged Statehood. There was no resource availability commensurate with the inherited liabilities or of their future implications  both political as well as administrative.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






US publicly blames North Korea for 'WannaCry' cyberattack

Iran Press TV

Tue Dec 19, 2017 02:09PM

The Trump administration has blamed North Korea for spreading the so-called "WannaCry" cyberattack that impaired hospitals, banks and other companies worldwide earlier this year.

"The attack was widespread and cost billions, and North Korea is directly responsible," the White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert wrote in an opinion piece published on Monday online by the Wall Street Journal.

Bossert said anyone who harmed the United States would be held accountable, adding it would continue to pursue a "maximum pressure strategy."

"North Korea has acted especially badly, largely unchecked, for more than a decade, and its malicious behavior is growing more egregious," Bossert wrote.

A senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that "WannaCry was indiscriminately reckless," adding the White House was expected to follow up on Tuesday with a more formal statement blaming Pyongyang.

The official explained that the US government has assessed with a "very high level of confidence" that a hacking entity known as Lazarus Group, which works on behalf of the North Korean government, carried out the WannaCry attack.

Washington's public announcement does not include any indictments or name specific individuals, the administration official said, adding the shaming was designed to hold Pyongyang accountable for its actions and "erode and undercut their ability to launch attacks."

The accusation comes as worries mount about North Korea's hacking capabilities and its nuclear weapons program.

Back in May, a third of Britain's public hospitals were affected by the WannaCry virus, which spread through devices across the world and locked them in exchange for cash.

The ransomware attack hit up to 300,000 computers in 150 countries.

Some experts said at the time that they had detected signs of a possible North Korean links, saying the code used had been similar to past hacks attributed to Pyongyang.

North Korea has denounced allegation that Pyongyang has been involved in a global ransomware attack.

The country has already been under United Nations sanctions over its nuclear and missile programs.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






North Africa Braces for Impact as Islamic State Fighters Return

By Jamie Dettmer December 19, 2017

North African officials say a large number of foreign recruits who joined the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq have returned to their countries and remain loyal to the extremist organization. They fear the returnees are planning to unleash terrorist attacks in the coming months, adding to a jihadist menace that includes well-entrenched al-Qaida affiliates.

African Union officials estimate about 6,000 Africans who fought for IS either have returned home already or are en route.

Not all will continue with their militancy or engage in insurgency  a large number may have become disillusioned or exhausted by conflict, say analysts. Nonetheless, many will re-engage, adding to alarm over a burgeoning security challenge that was underlined last month in Egypt with a mass bomb-and-gun attack on a mosque in North Sinai that left more than 300 people dead.

Analysts say North African governments have had some success in containing extremist threats. Without better coordination between them, however, they risk merely shifting the danger and allowing militants, who view their insurgency as regional rather than country-specific, to use national borders, over which there are weak state controls, to their advantage.

The states whose territory jihadists operate in need "to become more formidable in governing their vast swaths of land and securing their borders," an analysis by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based think tank, argued this month.

But securing coordination between governments that are suspicious of each other and frequently feud is another matter.

Egypt

Egypt has seen increased militant activity in the western desert, with arms and fighters easily crossing into the country from strife-torn neighboring Libya. The western desert has become yet another front for Egyptian security forces, already hard-pressed to contain an IS affiliate in the Sinai, which according to Beverley Milton-Edwards, an analyst with the Brookings Doha Center  a think tank  is an ungovernable space.

"Sinai has been unmanageable for years, if not decades," she said.

So-called ungovernable spaces provide a place from which to generate myriad illicit income streams for the jihadists, allowing them to raise funds from extortion and kidnappings for ransom, along with human trafficking and contraband smuggling.

The FDD in a recent analysis calculated that AQIM has reaped about $100 million through a combination of ransom, drug smuggling, taxes on locals and donations from rich Gulf supporters.

Libya

And across North Africa, a series of ungovernable spaces have created a jihadist corridor for the movement of fighters and weapons, the biggest of which is Libya, a boat ride from the southern shores of Europe and riven by rival governments and militias, where IS fighters also have been flocking.

"The foreign fighters are fleeing and heading home under their own steam," warned Italy's Interior Minister Marco Minniti in a speech last month at Rome's advanced police training academy.

He added, "The danger exists that North Africa can become a refuge [for terrorists] and not just a transit point but a base from which to launch attacks."

Ties to North Africa have linked several of the recent terror attacks seen in Europe, and European counter-terror officials say they are perturbed by the increasing number of attacks that feature links to North African jihadists or affiliates of either IS or al-Qaida.

The suicide bombing earlier this year at a Manchester concert was mounted by British-born Salman Abedi, whose parents are Libyan. He traveled frequently to Tripoli to visit relatives and may have had terrorist training there.

Two of the three London Bridge attackers in June also were from North Africa. Rachid Redouane claimed variously to be Libyan or Moroccan, and Youssef Zaghba was born in Morocco.

It was a Tunisian, whose asylum application had been declined, who drove a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin in December last year, an act of terrorism that left 12 dead.

And the assailants in the attacks in Barcelona in August that left 14 people dead, the worst act of jihadist terrorism in Spain since 2004, had North African links.

Last week, testifying before a U.S. Senate panel, the U.S. coordinator for counterterrorism, Nathan Sales, warned that jihadists are developing networks across North Africa in the wake of the collapse of IS in Syria and Iraq, posing a threat not only to the region, but to nearby Europe.

He argued that the brutal and long insurgency waged in Algeria by the Groupe Islamique Arme (GIA) in the "black decade" of the 1990s underscored the risks posed by returning terrorist fighters.

"We also remain concerned about al-Qaida's affiliates in the region, especially al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb [AQIM], and their growing reach into other parts of Africa", Sales told the panel.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Japan approves deployment of new US missile system

Iran Press TV

Tue Dec 19, 2017 06:38AM

Japan's cabinet has approved the deployment of the US military's ground-based Aegis missile interceptor system in an attempt to counter perceived threats from North Korea.

"North Korea's nuclear and missile development has become a greater and more imminent threat for Japan's national security, and we need to drastically improve our ballistic missile defense capability to protect Japan continuously and sustainably," the government said in a statement on Tuesday.

North Korea fired two missiles over Japan this year, which Tokyo could not shoot down because of constitutional restraints. Pyongyang has also formerly threatened to "sink" Japan in the event of war.

Japan, along with its main ally, the United States, has been opposed to North Korea over its weapons programs. It has been dependent on the US for protection. The new missile system would be added to Japan's current missile systems consisting of US land-based Patriot missiles and Aegis-equipped destroyers.

The deployment of the new Aegis missile, which is planned for 2023, will reportedly cost about 200 billion yen (1.8 billion dollars).

"Naval vessels need to return to their ports regularly for rest and refueling, but if it's ground deployment, we will be able to operate almost 24-7," a Japanese military official said. "We can be on permanent vigilance even when signs (of missile firing) are hard to detect."

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pledged to bolster his country's military capabilities and amend the country's pacifist constitution.

Japan's military spending has increased steadily since Abe took office in 2012, with the government saying it plans to buy more American weapons.

The North Korean missile program, along with its nuclear activities, has alarmed regional and other countries. Pyongyang says the programs are needed to counter potential hostility by its adversaries.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Japan Approves Deployment of US Aegis Ashore Missile Defense Systems - Reports

Sputnik News

09:50 19.12.2017(updated 09:56 19.12.2017)

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Japanese government has approved the deployment of two land-based US missile defense systems Aegis Ashore systems in order to enhance the country's defense capability amid North Korea's nuclear and missile tests, local media reported.

The relevant decision was made during the Cabinet's meeting, the NHK broadcaster reported.

These Aegis Ashore systems are supposed to be equipped with a new type of interceptor missiles developed jointly by Japan and the United States. The two systems, which will be deployed at the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force facilities in northern Akita and southwestern Yamaguchi prefectures, will be capable of covering the entire country, according to the broadcaster.

The media outlet noted that the purchase price of each system will be less than 100 billion yen ($888 million), and the government is planning to include an additional 2.8 billion yen ($25 million) and 700 million yen ($6.2 million) in its draft budget for the 2018 fiscal year to cover the cost of technical assistance from the United States and the systems' basic design. The government hopes that the systems will become operable by the 2023 fiscal year.

Japan is currently protected by destroyers equipped with US Aegis missile defense systems as well as surface-to-air Modernized Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC-3) ballistic missile interceptors.

Meanwhile, Japan is reportedly mulling over the introduction of the so-called Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) system, capable of intercepting both ballistic and cruise missiles, which, however, if integrated, may trigger a breach of Article 9 of the country's Constitution, forbidding the use of force in a manner integrated with other countries.

The enhancement of the defense sector has been the new trend in Japan over the last several years because of the heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula being escalated by North Korea's missile tests.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Japan to Buy Two US-Built Anti-Missile Systems

By VOA News December 19, 2017

Japan will purchase a U.S.-built, land-based missile defense system in response to what it considers the rapidly growing threat from North Korea.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet approved a plan Tuesday to buy two Aegis Ashore missile interceptor systems at a cost of nearly $2 billion. The new Aegis Ashore system, which duplicates the sea-based version deployed on Japanese warships, likely will not be fully operational until 2023.

Japanese defense officials also considered purchasing the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, another U.S.-built anti-missile system, but chose the Aegis Ashore due to its cost-effectiveness.

A statement issued by the cabinet shortly after approving the plan said it was urgent for Japan to upgrade its ballistic missile defense capabilities in light of the "imminent" threat posed by Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. North Korea test fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile late last month that could potentially reach the eastern United States.

Tokyo is also planning to purchase U.S.-built long-range cruise missiles, a decision that would prove controversial since Japan's post-World War Two pacifist constitution renounces war.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






PLA reports interference from foreign warplanes during high-seas drills: spokesperson

People's Daily Online

(Global Times) 08:15, December 19, 2017

Several Chinese bombers, fighters and surveillance aircraft encountered and dealt with interference from foreign warplanes while conducting a training mission over the Tsushima Strait on Monday, according to a Chinese military spokesperson.

This is the first time that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force has flown over the Tsushima Strait, Shen Jinke, spokesman for the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force, was quoted as saying in a statement released on the organization's official Sina Weibo account.

The Tsushima Strait, which lies between South Korea and Japan, belongs to international waters and the training, routinely conducted by the PLA Air Force annually during this time of the year, is in line with international law and practice and did not target any specific country, region or target, the statement said.

Various types of military aircraft, including H-6K strategic bombers and Su-30 fighter jets were taking part in a high-seas training exercise when they had to deal with interference from foreign military aircraft, the statement said.

According to a report from South Korea's Yonhap News Agency citing Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), the South Korean Air force dispatched F-15K fighters in an emergent patrol mission on Monday after five Chinese military aircraft allegedly entered the Korean Air Defense Identification Zone (KADIZ) that morning.

According to the JCS, two H-6K bombers, two Su-30 fighter jets and a single TU-154 aircraft from China entered the KADIZ after flying through a Japanese air defense identification zone.

This is the second time this month that a training mission involving bombers and fighters from PLA Air Force has been made public. The previously announced mission involved a regular patrol exercise that passed over the Bashi Channel and Miyako Strait near the island of Taiwan last week.

As an important force for managing crisis and winning wars, the PLA Air Force is proactively taking steps to accomplish its mission for a new era, said Shen, adding that the Air Force has "flown new routes that it has never flown before and gone to places it has never been to before."

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






China's Response to US National Security Report: Cooperation

By Bill Ide December 19, 2017

Beijing has rejected criticisms outlined in President Donald Trump's national security strategy report, a document that lists China as a strategic competitor and challenge to American values.

The outline of the Trump administration's national security concerns and plans, is critical of the ambitions of China's Communist Party leaders, accusing them of seeking to spread the features of the country's authoritarian system, stealing intellectual property and expanding the reach of its state-led economic model.

The report lists three sets of challengers to peace and American values. In addition to Iran, North Korea, and terrorist groups, China and Russia are listed as "revisionist powers" that want to shape the world with different values and interests.

"These are fundamentally political contests between those who favor repressive systems and those who favor free societies," the report said.

The report also accuses China of challenging international norms, and expresses concern that decades of effort by the United States to allow China time to integrate in the international order and liberalize have failed.

"Contrary to our hopes, China expanded its power at the expense of the sovereignty of others. China gathers and exploits data on an unrivaled scale and spreads features of its authoritarian system, including corruption and the use of surveillance," the report said.



Speaking at a regular press briefing Tuesday, China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying called the report's characterization of China a "futile effort to distort reality".

"The people of China have full confidence in the development path of socialism with Chinese characteristics that they have chosen," Hua said, noting that the country accounts for more than 30 percent of the world's economic growth.

She also said the United States and China, as the world's two biggest economies have a responsibility to work together.

"Cooperation is the only correct choice for the U.S. and China, a win-win approach will lead to a better future," Hua said.

Beijing's response and state media have been somewhat muted in their coverage of the report, trying to focus largely on a positive way forward and the risks of rocking the status-quo.

Online, few seemed surprised. As one put it, "Of course the U.S.'s biggest strategic enemies are China and Russia; this is an open secret, it's just that filter-less Trump is directly speaking that out loud."

Others called attention to the difference between competitor and enemy, or as the Foreign Ministry did, calling for cooperation. Some said competition was a good thing, "No competition means no progress, this is how it is between countries!"

Some state media articles have argued it is unlikely Trump will follow through and take action to address the concerns raised in the report.

Analysts who VOA spoke with, however, said the release of the document marks the beginning of a colder period in relations.

"To me it is cold peace, we are not going to war, the tensions are there, the contradictions are there and even more than competition is the power rivalry is there," said Hong Kong Baptist University Professor Jean-Pierre Cabestan.

"Reading the report, you feel that the U.S. is worried that this may be the end of American supremacy in a number of areas, but also the fact that the liberal view of economic development, international relations is not working, that China is not becoming more liberal," Cabestan said.

Alexander Huang, a strategic studies professor at Taiwan's Tamkang University said the report makes it clear that while China and the United States can compete, infringement of intellectual property and theft of such technologies will no longer be tolerated.

"The Trump approach to China will be more forceful, more eye to eye," Huang said. "I think Trump and his company believe that China has been taking advantage of an open economy and taking advantage of free trade to promote its own nationalistic economic growth."

William Choong, a senior fellow with the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Singapore, said the report could mark the beginning of colder phase in relations, but Trump continues to be someone who is hard to predict.

"One should look beyond what he is saying and see what Washington is actually doing on the ground in the Asia Pacific," Choong said.

One key thing that the report brings up, Choong said is the emphasis on rule of law. He said while the term has been bandied about for quite some time it is likely to be a key focus with China going forward, be it disputes in the South China Sea or economic differences.

"Essentially they are going to talk about principles and how reasonable states adhere to such principles and the Chinese are already very irritated by this approach and the values because it is an approach that is shared and advocated by four major powers in the Pacific - the U.S., Japan, India and Australia," Choong said.

Joyce Huang contributed to this report

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






North Korea against idea of talks without preconditions with US

Iran Press TV

Tue Dec 19, 2017 05:58PM

The North Korean government is absolutely not interested in the idea of talks without preconditions proposed by the US authorities, saying the final aim of any such initiative would be for North Korea to abandon its nuclear program.

An editorial published on Tuesday on North Korea's state newspaper Rodong Sinmun said Pyongyang was aware of Washington's intention in proposing talks, and it was not an issue whether such initiative would come with or without preconditions.

"The question is what the US is aimed at," said the editorial in a clear response to a recent proposal by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who said Washington was ready to launch talks with Pyongyang without imposing conditions in the beginning.

"Let's just meet. And we can talk about the weather if you want. We can talk about whether it's going to be a square table or a round table if that's what you're excited about," Tillerson had said on December 12, adding, "But can we at least sit down and see each other face to face. It's not realistic to say we are only going to talk if you come to the table ready to give up your program."

Tillerson revised his comments after the White House insisted that US policy in dealing with North Korea's weapons program had not changed. The US has led international efforts to pile unprecedented economic pressures on North Korea over the country's recent testing of missiles and nuclear bombs.

North Korea, however, accuses the US and its allies of seeking a nuclear confrontation in the region, citing repeated threats by US President Donald Trump.

Rodong Sinmun said the White House was pursuing a duplicitous policy in dealing with the country's weapons program.

"Saying our nation is to be 'utterly destroyed' on the one hand, whilst saying 'talk without precondition' on the other hand is the Trump administration's execution of the maximum pressure and interruption policy aimed at leading the North to the table for denuclearization," said the newspaper.

The US authorities reiterated again that they would use force if necessary to compel Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program.

Trump's national security adviser General HR McMaster said Monday that Washington was ready to forcefully "denuclearize North Korea."

"We're not committed to a peaceful resolution - we're committed to a resolution," McMaster said, adding, "We want the resolution to be peaceful, but as the President said, all options are on the table. We have to be prepared, if necessary, to compel the denuclearization of North Korea without the cooperation of that regime."

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






McMaster: U.S. Must Be Prepared To 'Compel' Denuclearization Of North Korea

RFE/RL December 19, 2017

White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster says that the United States "must be prepared, if necessary, to compel the denuclearization of North Korea."

McMaster's comments, in an interview with the BBC that was posted on the Internet on December 19, were the latest indication that the United States is ready to use force at some point to remove the threat posed by Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs.

Asked whether the United States is committed to a peaceful solution to the standoff with North Korea, McMaster said: "We're committed to a resolution. We want the resolution to be peaceful, but as [President Donald Trump] has said, all options are on the table.

"And we have to be prepared, if necessary, to compel the denuclearization of North Korea without the cooperation of that regime," he said, referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's government.

McMaster called North Korea "a grave threat to all civilized people across the globe."

North Korea has carried out repeated nuclear and missile tests, violating UN Security Council resolutions and drawing international condemnation. It has boasted of developing a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and reaching the mainland United States.

Trump has threatened that the United States will destroy North Korea if provoked.

With reporting by BBC and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/mcmaster-compel-the- denuclearization-of-north-korea/28926658.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






North Korea Rejects US Proposal to Discuss Nuclear Program - State Media

Sputnik News

18:16 19.12.2017(updated 18:24 19.12.2017)

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - North Korea does not intend to discuss its nuclear program with the United States since it sees Washington's initiative as an attempt to advance a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution on new sanctions against Pyongyang, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the North Korean Workers' Party said on Tuesday.

"The US is trying to shift responsibility for tensions on the Korean Peninsula to us with its offensive dialogue. The move is seen as being intended to set the tone for manipulating new UN Security Council resolutions that may include a maritime blockade if we do not accept dialogue aimed at discussing the abandonment of our nuclear weapons There is no change in our stance that we will not budge an inch in our march toward strengthening our nuclear force," the Rodong Sinmun newspaper stated.

The statement comes a week after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced that Washington was "ready to talk anytime" with North Korea "without precondition," but emphasized that "the diplomatic effort has to be backed up by a very credible military alternative."

Speaking at the UNSC later that week, Tillerson said that the United States would continue pressuring Pyongyang, urging Russia and China to join the move in order to bring North Korea to the negotiating table to suspend its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The possibility of a naval blockade of North Korea was brought forward by Washington during the discussion of sanctions at the UNSC in September, but the provision was not included in the resolution, since China and Russia opposed such measures.

It its turn, North Korea's Foreign Ministry said the country would consider a naval blockade against it an act of war and take "harsh retaliatory measures."

The situation on the Korean Peninsula has escalated since this summer as Pyongyang conducted a nuclear test and several missile tests, with the latest taking place on November 28, when the DPRK tested its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)

yet, known as the Hwasong-15, capable of reaching any target within the mainland United States.

Most recently, US National Security Adviser Herbert Raymond McMaster said that the while Washington has been trying to settle the crisis on tbhe Korean Peninsula by peaceful means, this path to settlement was not the only option on the agenda.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






McMaster on 'Chances of War' With N Korea: 'All Options Are on the Table'

Sputnik News

13:21 19.12.2017(updated 14:40 19.12.2017)

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The chance of a military conflict happening between the United States and North Korea is dependent upon the activities of all sides involved in the crisis on the Korean Peninsula, US National Security Adviser Herbert Raymond McMaster told the BBC broadcaster in an interview released on Tuesday.

"The chances of war, who knows what they are. They could go up or down, I think, based on what we all decide to do. North Korea is a great threat to all civilized people across the globe," McMaster said in response to a question about the possibility of an armed conflict between the United States and North Korea.

The US official added that while Washington had been exerting efforts to settle the crisis by peaceful means, this path to settlement was not the only option on the agenda.

"We are not committed to a peaceful [resolution], we a committed to a resolution [in general]. We want the resolution to be peaceful, but as [US] President [Donald Trump] said, you know all options are on the table, and we have to be prepared if necessary to compel the denuclearization of North Korea without the cooperation of that regime," he added.

The situation on the Korean Peninsula has escalated since this summer as Pyongyang conducted a nuclear test and several missile tests, with the latest taking place on November 28, when the DPRK tested its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) yet, known as the Hwasong-15, capable of reaching any target within the mainland United States.

The United States and its allies have, in turn, amassed troops and military equipment in close proximity to North Korea, where they have also engaged in military exercises.

While the US president and his national security adviser have been hinting at a possible "military option" with regard to the crisis on the Korean Peninsula, the senior administration members have emphasized that currently Washington relies on diplomatic means, with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announcing last week that Washington is ready to start direct talks with North Korea without preconditions despite Donald Trump's earlier statements voicing skepticism about negotiating with Pyongyang.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Modi Government Faces Opposition's Ire on Rafale Deal in Parliament

Sputnik News

13:50 19.12.2017(updated 13:59 19.12.2017)

The Indian Air Force is to receive 36 Rafale fighter jets from France beginning 2019 as part of an intergovernmental agreement. The opposition has attacked the Narendra Modi-led government for aborting a similar deal that could have fetched transfer of technology apart from saving cost.

New Delhi (Sputnik)  The Indian government that has been facing strong criticism from opposition parties for clinching an "exorbitantly costly" intergovernmental deal for 36 Rafale fighter jets after aborting a global tender for 126 such aircrafts, has put up a brave face and insisted that the deal in hand is far better than the aborted deal.

The Indian government, in 2000, had initiated a procurement of 126 Mirage-2000 aircraft to replace the existing MiG-21 fleet of the Indian Air Force. The process was later converted into a global tender for procurement of 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) in which Dassault Aviation's Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon had emerged as primary contenders.

However, in 2016, India and France clinched an intergovernmental agreement for the procurement of 36 Rafale jets at the cost of $8.7 billion. The opposition has since been questioning the government's intent behind aborting the global tender without citing reasons for not procuring the 126 MMRCA from either Dassault or Eurofighter, which the opposition claims could have been available at a cost way lower than that of the later contracted 36 Rafale fighters.

Indian defense minister Nirmala Sitharaman has now clarified before the Parliament that the 126 MMRCA deal and the contract for 36 Rafale fighters are not to be compared and that there have been no "procedural lapses" in the latter deal, as it was signed with France only after following the approval of Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS). She also claimed that the contract for 36 Rafale has been negotiated on far better terms.

"The cost of the 36 Rafale Aircraft cannot be directly compared to the cost of the original MMRCA proposal as the deliverables are significantly different. Though there is no Transfer of Technology (ToT) in the procurement of the 36 Rafale aircraft, the provision of 50% offsets has been retained," Nirmala Sitharaman said in the Parliament on Monday.

India and France had signed an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) on September 23, 2016, for the procurement of 36 Rafale aircraft, including weapons like advanced beyond visual range air to air METEOR missiles, short and medium range MICA air to air missiles and precision-guided air to ground SCALP missiles. The contract also includes five-year performance based logistics with options for an additional seven-year extension and 50 years' worth of product support from the manufacturer.

"In the IGA, better terms have been achieved in terms of better pricing, better maintenance terms and better delivery schedule. There is no increase in the cost. Instead, a better price has been ensured," Sitharaman assured the Parliament.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






US president can't cause Iran deal to collapse: President Rouhani

Iran Press TV

Tue Dec 19, 2017 10:35AM

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the United States will not be able to kill the 2015 multinational nuclear deal, emphasizing that the landmark pact will remain in place.

"Two years have passed since the [implementation] of the JCPOA," Rouhani said on Tuesday, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the nuclear accord is officially called.

"The Americans have made several attempts to destroy the JCPOA, but they have failed to this day, and I believe that they will not be able to do so until the end," he added.

The Iranian president also urged the opponents of the Iran nuclear deal not to pin hopes on Trump, saying "he would do nothing for you."

"The JCPOA remains in place, and we will continue on this path," Rouhani pointed out.

The JCPOA was reached between Iran and the P5+1 countries  namely the US, Russia, China, France, Britain, and Germany  in July 2015 and took effect in January 2016.

Under the agreement, Iran undertook to apply certain limits to its nuclear program in exchange for the termination of all nuclear-related sanctions against Tehran.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly confirmed Iran's full commitment to its side of the bargain.

However, Trump refused in October to certify that Iran was complying with the JCPOA under a domestic US law and warned that he might ultimately "terminate" the deal.

He also directed his administration "to work closely with Congress and our allies to address the deal's many serious flaws."

Last week, the US Congress missed a deadline to reimpose sanctions on Iran that were lifted under the JCPOA.

Now, Trump has until mid-January to decide whether to waive the anti-Iran sanctions or risk terminating the nuclear pact by imposing new measures.

Other signatories have, however, firmly defended the accord, saying it is working well and requires no amendment. They also called on Washington to stay committed to the international document.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Former Iranian President Ahmadinejad Battling With Powerful Judiciary

RFE/RL December 19, 2017

Iran's chief prosecutor says authorities will soon issue an "appropriate" response to an ultimatum made by former President Mahmud Ahmadinejad to the country's powerful judiciary.

Prosecutor-General Hojatoleslam Mohammad Jafar Montazeri said on December 18 that the judiciary will issue its response to Ahmadinejad "within a day or two."

Ahmadinejad issued a 48-hour deadline for the judiciary on December 17, calling on it to issue documents proving that the former president and his close allies have been convicted of "sedition" and other crimes.

In an online video message, Ahmadinejad suggested that the ultimatum was a reaction to recent comments by judiciary head Sadegh Amoli Larijani, who had accused Ahmadinejad of damaging the Islamic establishment in Iran and involvement in "seditious acts."

"I call on the head of the judiciary to publish within 48 hours documents proving that we've been convicted of sedition, deviation, or supporting [jailed businessman Babak Zadjani, who has been sentenced to death for corruption]," Ahmadinejad said.

"Otherwise, I will tell the people my views about you and your performance in the past eight years and I would defend my rights through the appropriate venues," the former president added.

Montazeri has described Ahmadinejad's presidency as a period of "lawlessness and lies."

Ahmadinejad, who was president from 2005-13, has become increasingly isolated for challenging Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his powerful allies, namely the judiciary.

In his video message, Ahmadinejad said that "if the judiciary is reformed, then the whole country would be reformed."

Last month, the former president accused the judiciary of "dictatorship" and said that it is more powerful than Khamenei.

Earlier this year, the Guardians Council -- which vets presidential candidates -- prevented Ahmadinejad and one of his top aides from running in the May election in which President Hassan Rohani was reelected.

Khamenei had suggested before the decision by the Guardians Council that Ahmadinejad's candidacy would not be in the best interest of the country.

With reporting by ISNA, Dolatebahar.com, ILNA, and RFE/RL's Radio Farda

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-ahmadinejad-judiciary-battle/28926718.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






Two years on, Iran nuclear accord at a 'critical crossroads,' UN Security Council told

19 December 2017  The United Nations political chief told the Security Council Tuesday that the UN Secretariat is not yet in a position to confirm whether the ballistic missiles launched at the Saudi cities of Yanbu and Riyadh were Iranian Qiam-1 missiles, as assessed by Saudi authorities.

"Almost two years after Implementation Day of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), we are at a critical crossroads," Under-Secretary-General Jeffrey Feltman told the Council.

On 20 July 2015, the Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 2231 (2015) endorsing the JCPOA. The action plan, between the Council's 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.

Mr. Feltman recalled that since January 2016 the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had reported to the Council nine times that Iran is adhering to its nuclear-related obligations. At the same time, in October 2017 the President of the United States decided not to certify to Congress that Iran was complying with the agreement.

"This decision has regrettably created considerable uncertainty about the future of the JCPOA," he said, noting that the UN the Secretary-General is reassured that the US, during the recent 7th meeting of the Joint Commission, together with other participants, expressed its continued adherence to its commitments.

"Today's meeting is an important opportunity to reflect carefully on what has been achieved and the challenges that lay ahead," Mr. Feltman continued, presenting the main findings of the UN Secretary-General's fourth report on the implementation of the provisions contained in annex B to resolution 2231.

Regarding the supply, sale or transfer to Iran of nuclear-related items undertaken in violation of the provisions of resolution 2231, Mr. Feltman said that the Secretary-General has again not received any report of such flows.

As for the implementation of ballistic missile-related provisions, Mr. Feltman said the report contained preliminary observations indicating that the two missiles launched at the Saudi cities of Yanbu and Riyadh had similar features which suggested a common origin, and are consistent with missiles of the Scud family and had features known to be consistent with the Qiam-1 missile.

One of the missiles bore castings similar to that of an Iranian entity on the list maintained pursuant to resolution 2231, he added.

In terms of restrictions on arms-related transfers, the Secretariat is confident that close to 900 of the assault rifles seized by the United States in March 2016 are identical to those seized by France also in the same month, which the Secretariat had assessed were of Iranian origin and shipped from Iran, Mr. Feltman said.

The Secretariat is also confident that half of the 200 rocket propelled grenade launchers had characteristics similar to Iranian-produced RPG launchers.

Further, the Secretariat had received information on an unmanned surface vessel (USV) laden with explosives allegedly used against the Saudi-led coalition and had the opportunity to examine parts of its guidance and detonation systems, which included a computer terminal with a dual English/Farsi keyboard and characteristics similar to those of Iranian-produced terminals.

The Secretariat was also requested to examine two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), reportedly recovered in Yemen after Implementation Day. One of the UAVs  which Saudi authorities ascertain was similar to that of the Iranian-made Ababil-II  is similar to other drones reportedly seized in Yemen brought to our attention by the United Arab Emirates, Mr. Feltman said.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Anti-government protesters clash with police in Iraq's Kurdistan

Iran Press TV

Tue Dec 19, 2017 11:12AM

Security forces in Iraq's Kurdistan region have clashed with demonstrators protesting corruption and unpaid salaries for a second day.

The demonstrators, including state employees, protested in several areas in the provinces of Sulaymaniyah and Halabja on Tuesday.

They accuse the regional government of corruption, calling for its resignation and for better life conditions.

Kurdish media outlets reported that security forces fired live ammunition into the air to disperse the demonstrators who had gathered in the Bardarki Sara Square in Sulaymaniyah.

Media reports said people in Sulaymaniyah called for the dissolution of the government and asked Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Iraq's parliament to interfere.

Clashes erupted in Halabja between local police and protesters who tried to attack the office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan political party.

Meanwhile, angry protesters torched the mayor's building in Koya in Erbil Province on Tuesday.

Angry protesters had reportedly set fire to the offices of the five main Kurdish political parties on Monday.

At least 3,000 protesters, angered by years of austerity and unpaid public sector salaries, took part in a Monday protest. Teachers, hospital workers and other public sector employees demanded their wages from the KRG, with some saying they had not been paid in over three years.

Tensions have soared in Iraqi Kurdistan since an independence referendum vote on September 25, which had been opposed by the central government in Baghdad.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Bangladesh indicates Rohingya repatriation could be delayed

Iran Press TV

Tue Dec 19, 2017 02:10PM

A deal signed between Bangladesh and Myanmar for the repatriation of Rohingya Muslim refugees into their homeland in Myanmar's state of Rakhine may not be implemented soon, authorities in Bangladesh have suggested.

A Bangladeshi Foreign Ministry official said Tuesday that the January 21 deadline set as the date for the start of repatriation process may not be met and that the return process could start a few weeks later or so.

The official made the comments after attending a meeting of the representatives of Bangladesh and Myanmar in Dhaka, where authorities agreed to set up a joint working group to oversee the repatriation of Rohingya Muslims who fled violence in Myanmar.

More than 630,000 have arrived in Bangladesh since August when a renewed crackdown began on members of the community. Many villages and towns populated by the Muslims were torched and looted after suspected Rohingya militants attacked police and border posts in Rakhine.

Under immense international pressure, Myanmar accepted to a repatriation process last month and said it would guarantee a halt in outflow of refugees and restore peace to Rakhine. The government also pledged as part of the November agreement with Bangladesh to encourage refugees to return voluntarily and safely to their original places of residence or places they deem appropriate.

The United Nations and rights groups have warned that hasty return of refugees may expose them to similar violence.

The repatriation mechanism agreed between Myanmar and Bangladesh follows a formula set in a 1992 when Muslims were forced out of their homes. Rohingyas have suffered prosecution and violence in Myanmar over the years as the Buddhist-dominated military and the government refuse to grant them their right to citizenship, even though the minority group has existed in the country for generations.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






UN agencies scale up work in Bangladesh as Rohingya refugee crisis enters fourth month

19 December 2017  As the Rohingya refugee emergency in Bangladesh enters its fourth month, United Nations agencies are scaling up their relief work to respond to a range of issues, including outbreak of diphtheria, lack of access to sanitation and sexual violence.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has released $1.5 million from its contingency fund to deploy additional staff and resources to combat a rapidly spreading outbreak of diphtheria among Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazar. The disease has killed 21, with more than 1,500 probable cases reported.

"The Rohingya refugees are an extremely vulnerable population, with low routine vaccination coverage," said Roderico Ofrin, Regional Emergency Director, WHO South-East Asia Regional Office. "The funds released will be crucial to sustaining our efforts until we receive more support from donors for this response."

For 2018, the health sector will request additional funding to help 1.2 million people living in refugee camps and temporary settlements.

Meanwhile, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), people are continuing to arrive in Bangladesh from Myanmar.

However, the agency reports that the pace of the influx has now slowed, with estimated average arrival rates having dropped from 745 per day in November to 100 per day so far this month.

In a UNHCR-supported quick assessment survey, refugees expressed numerous worries, including feeling unsafe at night given weak shelters and a lack of lighting, and concerns about general safety.

Access to sanitation is still insufficient, leading sometimes to long queues for latrines. Women and girls are anxious about the shortage of private bathing spaces, forcing some to wash outside their shelters in the early morning hours.

The survey also found that some children have to walk longer distances to fetch water and bring firewood. Parents and children want access to education and more safe places for children to play.

Health services are also a wide concern. Increased mental health support for those who have witnessed the killings or suffered torture or rape remains crucially needed.

Refugees cite continued feelings of depression and rejection, especially among the elderly and disabled. Many young people are worried about their uncertain future.

Some refugees said that irregular food distributions and long queues had meant going hungry for days.

Drawing upon the findings of this latest assessment, UNHCR will further refine and reinforce its protection and assistance.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Russia Calls U.S. Security Strategy 'Imperial,' China Denounces 'Cold War' Thinking

RFE/RL December 19, 2017

Russia and China have lambasted U.S. President Donald Trump's new national security strategy, which refers to them as rivals of Washington that are seeking to undermine U.S. power and interests.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on December 19 that the new strategy has an "imperial character" and accused Washington of clinging to a "unipolar world."

Moscow "cannot accept that the country is treated as a threat to the security of the United States," Peskov told reporters.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry urged Washington to abandon what it called a "Cold War mentality," saying that China has always been a contributor to global development and a protector of the international order.

"Cooperation is the only correct choice for China and the United States," ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.

The U.S. national security strategy unveiled on December 18 says that China and Russia "challenge American power, influence, and interests, attempting to erode American security and prosperity."

"They are determined to make economies less free and less fair, to grow their militaries, and to control information and data to repress their societies and expand their influence," it says.

The document comes as U.S. relations with Russia have been driven to a post-Cold War low by disagreements over issues including Russia's aggression in Ukraine, its role in the war in Syria, and its alleged interference in the U.S. presidential election in 2016.

Since taking office in January, Trump has accused China of unfair trade practices, criticized the "militarization" of the disputed South China Sea, and asked Beijing to do more to pressure North Korea over its nuclear and ballistic-missile programs.

In a speech after the White House released the 68-page strategy, Trump said that Russia and China are "rival powers" of the United States but that Washington would seek a "great partnership" with them in a way that "always protects our national interest."

He touted bilateral cooperation with Moscow that both the Kremlin and the White House said helped prevent a series of planned terrorist attacks in St. Petersburg.

Putin a day earlier phoned Trump and thanked him for a tip-off from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency that the Russian leader said resulted in the arrests of seven suspected terrorists plotting to carry out bombings in Russia's second city.

"Many people -- perhaps in the thousands -- could have been killed. They were able to apprehend these terrorists before the event, with no loss of life, and that's a great thing, and the way it's supposed to work," Trump said.

Peskov said that the new U.S. strategy contains some "modest positive aspects, including the readiness to cooperate with Russia in areas where it is in the interests of Americans."

"This absolutely corresponds with our approach," he said. "Moscow likewise seeks cooperation with the U.S. where it is beneficial for us and as much as our American colleagues are ready to do so."

The U.S. security strategy also states that "the dictatorships" of North Korea and Iran "are determined to destabilize regions, threaten Americans and our allies, and brutalize their own people."

It also warns that transnational "jihadist terrorists" and criminal groups are "actively trying to harm Americans."

In his speech, Trump portrayed additional sanctions the United States slapped on Iran earlier this year as a strong message to Tehran.

He repeated his harsh assessment of the deal between Iran and major world powers to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions in exchange for some sanctions relief.

In a speech broadcast live on state TV, Iranian President Hassan Rohani said on December 19 that "the nuclear deal will not collapse."

"Those who hope that Trump will cause its collapse are wrong," he added.

Trump also praised the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria and said that Pakistan must be more decisive in battling extremism.

The security strategy is a formal document that each U.S. president since Ronald Reagan has produced, usually every four years.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, AP, TASS, and dpa

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/trump-security-strategy-russia-china -reactions-cold-war-mentality/28926630.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






McMaster Says Russia's 'Destabilizing Behavior' Needs To Be Countered

RFE/RL December 19, 2017

White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster says Western countries need to counter Russia's "destabilizing behavior," saying that Moscow is running "a very sophisticated campaign of subversion" to undermine free and open societies.

In an interview with the BBC that was posted online on December 19, McMaster also said Russia's alleged meddling in the U.S. presidential election last year was "certainly" a national security threat.

U.S. President Donald Trump's new national security strategy, released a day earlier, labeled Russia and China "rival powers" that are seeking to "challenge American power, influence, and interests, attempting to erode American security and prosperity."

"Of course, we have to counter Russia's destabilizing behavior and the sophisticated campaigns of propaganda and disinformation," McMaster said.

Those were "efforts to polarize communities and pit them against each other, especially in the democratic world and free and open societies," he said, adding that the objective was to "weaken their popular will and their resolve."

"I believe that Russia is engaged in a very sophisticated campaign of subversion to affect our confidence in democratic institutions, in democratic processes, including elections," he said.

Trump's national security adviser said that the Russian campaign was targeting both sides of the U.S. political landscape during the 2016 election campaign.

"They'll support very left groups; they'll support very right groups," he said. "What they want to do is create the kind of tension, the kind of vitriol that undermines our confidence in who we are.

"One of the most important things is to pull the curtain back on this activity and to expose it," he added.

Russia denies it meddled in the election, despite what U.S. intelligence officials say is powerful evidence.

Responding to the new U.S. national security policy on December 19, the Kremlin denounced the "imperialist character" of the document and said it "cannot accept that the country is treated as a threat to the security of the United States."

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/mcmaster-russia -destabilizing-behavior/28926736.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






Launching Campaign, Putin Says Russia's 'Stability' Crucial

RFE/RL December 19, 2017

President Vladimir Putin has kicked off his reelection campaign by calling for the protection of Russia's "freedom" and "stability," suggesting the country needs to ward off influence from abroad and attempts by the domestic opposition to shake up politics.

Putin's remarks came in a speech to a loyal support group on December 19, a day after the formal start of the campaign for the March 18 election.

As he has in past campaigns, Putin painted a picture of a strong and self-reliant Russia pursuing its path from hardship to success -- with him at the helm.

"Following the breakup of the Soviet Union we heard a lot of sweet talk and nice speeches, but nobody actually helped us," Putin told the All-Russia Popular Front (ONF). "And we have never counted on anyone's help as we do not need any outside assistance."

Putin also suggested he inherited a country that was on its knees and turned it around after he came to power 18 years ago, asserting that in 2000 "many forecast the collapse and death of Russia."

"Indeed, the situation was very difficult -- even critical at times -- but we not only preserved Russia's territorial integrity and sovereignty, not only successfully passed through the renovation stage, but took real breakthrough steps in the most important directions of our development," Putin said.

"Today we must protect our statehood and freedom, and stability and harmony in society," he said. The words echoed past statements in which Putin has portrayed Russia as facing threats to its sovereignty from outside, particularly from the United States and the West, as well as dangers from domestic opponents he frequently says are out to cause chaos.

At an annual press conference he held on December 14, Putin accused opposition politician Aleksei Navalny -- a vocal Kremlin critic who has staged demonstrations and published reports alleging corruption among Putin's closest allies -- of "attempts to destabilize the country and foment social discord."

Navalny has been campaigning for the presidency since December 2016, but election officials said in June that he was ineligible to run due to a financial-crimes conviction that he contends was politically motivated and baseless. Supporters are planning rallies in 20 Russian cities including Moscow on December 24.

Putin announced his decision to run for a fourth term on December 6. His high approval ratings and control over the levers of power make his victory a foregone conclusion in Russia, where government critics say election campaigns and results are manipulated by the authorities.

Analysts say Putin is eager to score a strong win in a vote with a high turnout in order to make his mandate as strong as possible in what could be his final term as the constitution bars presidents from serving more than two consecutive terms.

The ONF was created in 2011, before Putin announced he would seek to return to the Kremlin after a stint as prime minister, and provides Putin with a pillar of support that is separate from the ruling United Russia party. At the press conference, Putin said that he would run as an independent candidate rather than being nominated by United Russia.

Putin and his allies say he brought stability to Russia in the wake of an economic crisis in the late 1990s and two devastating wars against separatists in the Chechnya region from 1994 to the early 2000s.

Critics say he has rolled back the advances in democracy and human rights that were made after the Soviet collapse. Detractors also say that the longtime former KGB officer has returned to Soviet-style methods of stifling dissent and has needlessly stoked confrontation with Washington and the West.

Putin was first elected in March 2000, after President Boris Yeltsin stepped down on the last day of 1999 and put him in charge as acting president.

More than 20 people have declared their intention to run in the March election, including Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, liberal Grigory Yavlinsky, business ombudsman Boris Titov, and journalist and TV personality Ksenia Sobchak.

Presidential hopefuls have 20 days from December 18 to register for the election, and the Central Election Commission will later decide who gets on the ballot.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-putin-launches- campaign-stability-crucial/28927223.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






U.S. Hits Russian Missile Designer With Export Restrictions Over Treaty Dispute

RFE/RL December 19, 2017

The United States has announced new licensing and export restrictions on Russian missile designer Novator and a military research company, charging both with involvement in a missile that Washington says violates a key Cold War arms-control treaty.

In its December 19 announcement, the Commerce Department said Novator and Titan-Barrikady were responsible for producing the cruise missile prohibited by the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

The decisions tightens license and exports requirements for U.S. or other companies that might do business with either company.

"Specifically, these entities produced, for the Russian Federation's Ministry of Defense, a ground-launched cruise-missile system, and associated transporter-erector-launcher, with a range prohibited by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty," the department said in its listing.

"Therefore, there is reasonable cause to believe, based on specific and articulable facts, that [the companies] have been involved in actions contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States," it said.

Russia has repeatedly denied Washington's accusations, beginning publicly in 2014, that it had developed, and later deployed, a ground-launched cruise missile in violation of the treaty. The INF agreement eliminated an entire class of missiles in Europe, and is considered a bedrock treaty of U.S.-Russian arms control.

In Moscow, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement criticizing the decision and accusing the United States of moving to dismantle the treaty.

"The United States has been fascinated with introducing sanctions against us for almost four years, and yet Russia's economy and military might are only increasing," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.

"The illusions of some American politicians that we can be intimidated only demonstrates their complete ignorance of Russia and their dangerous short-sightedness."

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-us-sanctions-missile- designer-inf-violations/28927654.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






What A Difference A Year Makes: Russian Lawmakers Pan Trump's Security Doctrine, Kremlin Sees Silver Lining

Tom Balmforth December 19, 2017

MOSCOW -- Just over a year ago, some Russian lawmakers raised a glass of bubbly to celebrate the victory of Donald Trump and his "America first" pledges in the U.S. presidential election.

But as President Trump announced his new national-security doctrine on December 18, there were accusations from parliament in Moscow that it promotes U.S. global hegemony.

The security-strategy document unveiled by Trump takes a sober line on Russia and China, declaring them threatening "revisionist" powers with which Washington will seek a "great partnership" while maintaining a guiding principle of "America First."

The document was decried by a raft of Russian lawmakers who said the United States is foolishly pursuing an outdated Pax Americana strategy in a fundamentally changed multipolar world, although the Kremlin -- while objecting to its designation as a threat -- identified what it described as "modest positive moments."

"Of course, we cannot agree with the view of our country as a threat to U.S. national security," President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said in comments carried by TASS.

"But that said, there are some modest positive moments, including in particular the readiness to cooperate in fields that correlate to American interests. This absolutely corresponds with our approach, as expressed by the president. Because Moscow also seeks partnership with the U.S. when it is beneficial to us and when our American colleagues are prepared."

Shared Intelligence

Peskov said the "exemplary" model of such cooperation was a purported tip-off by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) that was said to have helped foil a terrorist attack in St. Petersburg. In a phone call, Putin on December 17 reportedly thanked Trump for the intelligence sharing that led to several arrests.

Here, Peskov echoed Trump, who also hailed the shared intelligence, which he said may have saved thousands of lives, as he announced the national-security document.

Russian lawmakers, however, were more uniform in their dismay over the document.

Leonid Slutsky, head of the State Duma international affairs committee, told TASS that "the new national-security strategy is oriented exclusively toward the revival of American hegemony and...building a unipolar world." Slutsky claimed the security document marks "effectively a continuation of the demonizing of Russia in the world pushed by the [former President Barack] Obama administration."

Russia's relations with the West have been at a post-Cold War low since 2014, when pro-Western unrest in Kyiv toppled a Moscow-backed Ukrainian president before Russia annexed Ukraine's strategically important Crimean Peninsula and backed armed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

The election of Donald Trump in November 2016 was widely touted in Russia as an opportunity for closer relations with Washington after eight years of Obama, who was vilified on Russian state TV.

'Do It Yourselves!'

Trump has repeatedly praised Putin and spoken in favor of closer relations with Moscow, both before and since taking office. But U.S. intelligence-agency assertions that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election and multiple investigations into possible contacts between Trump campaign officials and Russians -- combined with bipartisan efforts in Congress to maintain a comparatively hard line on Russia -- have reduced Trump's political options with respect to Russia.

Hopes in Russia of a rapid improvement in relations with Washington have faded, perhaps most markedly in August, when Trump reluctantly signed new sanctions against Russia "for the sake of national unity." The Kremlin has occasionally publicly praised Trump, while state television has cast him as hamstrung by a fundamentally anti-Russian establishment.

Aleksei Pushkov, a lawmaker in the Federation Council, wrote on Twitter: "The U.S. thinks Russia and China are the main threats. Well then there is no need to ask for help on North Korea and Afghanistan. Proudly carry the U.S. flag! Do it yourselves!"

In a follow-up tweet, Pushkov continued: "Announcing Russia and China the main opponents promises nothing good for the U.S. global role. It's a strong tandem -- the US won't cope with it."

Writing on Facebook, Konstantin Kosachev, a senior member of the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament, said he believes Trump's national security doctrine indicates the United States wants to deploy more troops to Eastern Europe in violation, he said, of troop deployment regulations.

"The tone of the document leaves no doubt that the U.S. is not satisfied with the changes in the world over the past years and intends to wrap them back, having returned Pax Americana as the apparently fair world order," wrote Kosachev.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-reaction-us- security-doctrine-trump-putin/28927351.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






US Blacklists 2 Russian Companies Over Alleged INF Treaty Violations

Sputnik News

20:56 19.12.2017(updated 21:36 19.12.2017)

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The United States has blacklisted two Russian defense companies, Novator and Titan-Barrikady, by placing them onto the Entity List for alleged violations of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, the US Department of Commerce said in a document on Tuesday.

"This rule amends the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) by adding two entities to the Entity List," the document said. "The two entities being added to the Entity List have been determined by the US government to be acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States. These two entities will be listed on the Entity List under the destination of Russia."

The companies added to the Entity List are Joint Stock Company Experimental Design Bureau Novator and Joint Stock Company Federal Scientific and Production Center Titan-Barrikady.

The Commerce Department said the two companies allegely produced for the Russian Ministry of Defense a ground-launched cruise missile system and associated transporter-erector-launcher "with a range prohibited by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces [INF] treaty."

"Therefore, there is reasonable cause to believe, based on specific and articulable facts, that Joint Stock Company Experimental Design Bureau Novator, and Joint Stock Company Federal Scientific and Production Center Titan-Barrikady have been involved in actions contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States," the document reads.

The Commerce Department stated in the document that the Export Administration Regulations impose additional license requirements and limit the availability of most license exceptions for exports, re-exports and in-country transfers for the listed companies.

During the annual press conference on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the United States had de facto withdrawn from the INF treaty by deploying missile launching systems in Romania. He explained that the United States accused Russia of violating the INF treaty and used the accusations as a reason to withdraw from the accord, adding that Russia had no intention of withdrawing from any treaty that shapes international security.

The statement was made in wake of the approval of new sanctions against Russia by US President Donald Trump earlier this month over the alleged violations of the INF deal. The move followed the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's accusations made in September, regarding the alleged violations of the treaty, a claim which has been repeatedly denied and called groundless by the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The 1987 INF treaty prohibits the development, deployment and testing of ground-launched ballistic or cruise missiles with ranges between 300 and 3,400 miles. The United States and Russia have repeatedly accused each other of violating the treaty.

 Sputnik

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Security Council renews Syrian cross-border relief convoys amid ongoing challenges for aid workers

19 December 2017  The Security Council today renewed the authorization for United Nations relief agencies and their partners to use routes across conflict lines and border crossings to deliver lifesaving assistance to millions in north-west and southern Syria through Turkey and Jordan.

In a resolution adopted by a recorded vote of 12 in favour and three abstentions (Bolivia, China and Russia), the 15-member Council called on Syrian authorities "to expeditiously respond to all requests for cross-line deliveries submitted by the UN and its implementing partners and to give such requests positive consideration."

Also in the resolution, the Council underscored the need for a political solution to the conflict in Syria and urged all concerned stakeholders to facilitate a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political transition to end the conflict.

"The Syrian people will decide the future of Syria," stressed the Council.

The use of cross-line routes was first authorized by the Council in July 2014 through a resolution that also tasked the UN with monitoring the loading of the aid consignments as well as their openings, such as by customs officials, to confirm the humanitarian nature of these relief consignments.

The renewal today authorizes the cross-border aid deliveries as well as the monitoring of consignments until 10 January 2019.

Aid workers face overwhelming access challenges

Also today, Mark Lowcock, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator told the Council that the situation for close to 400,000 Syrians trapped in in eastern Ghouta, an area designated as a "de-escalation zone," remains unbearable with intensive air and ground-based strikes reported daily  except for a two-day pause  since mid-November.

The situation is particularly dire for more than 500 individuals in need of urgent medical evacuation, of whom over 420 are women, children and the elderly.

"There have already been 16 civilian deaths among those waiting for permission to leave eastern Ghouta for medical reason [...] all that is needed is the green light from the Syrian authorities for these people to go to hospitals just a few miles outside of eastern Ghouta," said Mr. Lowcock.

In his briefing, the top UN relief official also outlined the continuing challenges humanitarians face in delivering vital assistance to the millions in need across the war-torn country, including in places which have not seen any relief supplies in months.

No real progress from the Geneva talks, UN Special Envoy says

Also during the same meeting, the UN Special Envoy for Syria told Council members the latest round of intra-Syrian talks between the Government and opposition, which wrapped up last week in Geneva, failed to achieve any real progress.

"The opportunity to begin a real discussion or negation was not seized," said Staffan De Mistura.

"A golden opportunity was missed for many reasons: psychological, because we are at the end of the year; political, because we are at the end, we want to believe, of a major military operation; and from a human point of view because most Syrians have been asking and waiting for this in order to see the situation changing for them," he said.

Speaking to the press last Thursday, Mr. De Mistura had expressed disappointment at the Syrian Government's lack of engagement on any issue other than counter-terrorism, before adding that he intended to call a new round of talks in January.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






UN Extends Authorization for Cross-border Aid Deliveries in Syria

By Margaret Besheer December 19, 2017

The U.N. Security Council approved cross-border aid deliveries to Syria for another year Tuesday, despite some concerns from Russia.

The renewed authorization will help the United Nations and its partners get life-saving aid to more than three million people in northern and southern parts of the war-torn country.

The resolution was adopted with a vote of 13 in favor and three abstentions - Russia, China and Bolivia.

The Russian envoy, Vladimir Safronkov, said when the council mandated cross-border deliveries in 2014, it was intended as a temporary measure, implemented during a heightened phase of the armed conflict.

"Today the situation in the country has changed radically and the mechanism for cross-border deliveries remains a legacy of the past," he told council members. "We think it is important to gradually roll down this rudimentary scheme which has worked for Syria's division."

U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock welcomed the continuation of the measure in place since 2014, saying cross-border deliveries are a vital part of the humanitarian response in Syria, where 13 million people are in need of assistance.

"More than 650 trucks have this month delivered food assistance to over 900,000 people through cross-border operations, as well as health assistance for nearly one million treatments," Lowcock told the council.

Sweden, which along with Egypt and Japan co-sponsored the resolution, said the extended mandate would save lives and alleviate suffering.

"It is not every day that this council takes decisions that have a direct impact on the people affected by conflict," Swedish ambassador Oloof Skoog said. "Today is such a day."

But as the council heard Tuesday, aid access continues to be problematic, erratic and insufficient, particularly in areas classified as besieged and hard to reach.

"In November, only five cross-line convoys were able to deploy, reaching 200,250 people in hard-to-reach locations and 28,700 people in besieged locations out of a total besieged population of more than 400,000 people," the humanitarian chief reported. "So far in December, none  none  of our convoys have made it to any of the besieged locations."

"Who can seriously argue that the humanitarian situation in Syria has improved?" French envoy Francois Delattre noted to reporters. "When we renewed this resolution last year, 10 million people in Syria needed humanitarian aid. Today they are 13 million."

Eastern Ghouta

The situation is particularly dire in Eastern Ghouta, which lies about 15 kilometers east of Damascus. Despite being designated as one of four de-escalation zones where hostilities were to be suspended for six months, the U.N. says that except for a pause of two days, there have been intensive air and ground-based strikes daily since mid-November.

Government forces are besieging nearly 400,000 people in the rebel-controlled enclave and only tiny amounts of aid have been allowed in. The U.N. says that acute malnutrition rates among children in Eastern Ghouta are the highest recorded in Syria since the start of the conflict seven years ago.

Aid chief Lowcock said 500 people require urgent medical evacuation, including 137 children. Sixteen civilians have died waiting for the government to authorize their transfer to a Damascus hospital, just a 30-minute drive away.

"The Syrian government's 'starve-or-surrender' tactics aimed at besieged civilians across the country are not only war crimes but are like a nightmare from the Middle Ages," Louis Charbonneau, U.N. director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Taiwan able to respond as Chinese military activity rises

ROC Central News Agency

2017/12/19 16:35:43

Taipei, Dec. 19 (CNA) Taiwan will scramble jets armed with missiles if necessary in response to China's increased military activity near Taiwan, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said Tuesday.

MND spokesman Chen Chung-ji () made the remarks in the wake of Chinese fighter jets being observed crossing the "first island chain" into the Western Pacific on a regular basis.

The "first island chain" refers to the major archipelagos off the East Asian continental mainland, including the Japanese archipelago, the Ryukyu islands, Taiwan and the northern Philippines.

In the latest Chinese military exercise, a Chinese Shaanxi Y-8 transport plane was spotted Monday flying over the Bashi Channel -- the waterway that separates Taiwan from the Philippines -- then passing over the Miyako Strait that lies between two Japanese islands, before returning to its base in China.

It was the second consecutive day Chinese military aircraft were seen undertaking a similar mission over the Western Pacific.

A day earlier, several Chinese reconnaissance and electronic warfare aircraft were observed flying on the same route over the Western Pacific Ocean from south to north.

According to data released by the MND, Chinese military aircraft carried out nine drills near Taiwan after the conclusion of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in October.

Photos posted online by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force even show its fighters armed with missiles.

In response, Chen said that Taiwan's military has measures in place and will respond appropriately to any developments by integrating ground troops, sea and air forces, based on a standard operating procedure.

Asked whether the PLA's frequent deployment of bombers and aircraft through international airspace near Taiwan on long-range training missions is aimed at collecting intelligence concerning Taiwan's military, Chen said that such PLA training missions might in fact help Taiwan's military test its combat readiness.

In a similar vein, Taiwan's military could also collect important intelligence concerning the PLA through the response process, such as whether Chinese aircraft are armed or not, their flight zones and routes, Chen added.

He urged the public not panic, saying that the armed forces have the confidence and ability to safeguard national security.

(By Lu Hsin-hui and Evelyn Kao)

Enditem/J

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Taiwan received prior briefing on U.S. national security strategy

ROC Central News Agency

2017/12/19 15:57:42

Taipei, Dec. 19 (CNA) The Presidential Office on Tuesday expressed thanks to the United States for briefing Taiwan in advance on its latest national security strategy report and for reiterating its commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act in the document.

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration unveiled the report Monday morning in Washington D.C. in which Taiwan is mentioned in the Indo-Pacific section.

"We will maintain our strong ties with Taiwan in accordance with our 'One China' policy, including our commitments under the Taiwan Relations Act to provide for Taiwan's legitimate defense needs and deter coercion," the U.S. states in the context of its cooperation with the region on military and security fronts.

In a statement Tuesday morning Taiwan time, Presidential Office spokesperson Sidney Lin () said the U.S. briefed Taiwan on the report in Taipei on Monday afternoon.

The guiding principles outlined in the U.S. report as part of a strategy to bring about a free and open Indo-Pacific, including promotion of free and fair trade, and joining forces with its allies to deter threats, are "in line with our policy to pursue peace and stability in the region," Lin said.

"We thanked the U.S. for its prior briefing and its firm commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act," Lin added.

Securing continuity and a friendly relationship with the U.S. is of paramount importance to maintain security and stability in the East Asia region, Lin said. "We value very much the support the U.S. has long extended to Taiwan and cooperation between U.S. and Taiwan on all fronts."

As a member of the international community, Taiwan is committed to deepening cooperation and relationships with regional partners to contribute to the peace, stability, and welfare of the region, Lin added.

Meanwhile, Chen Li-kuo (), head of the Department of North American Affairs under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that the U.S. reaffirmation of its security commitment to Taiwan is "a positive step in the development of the Taiwan-U.S. relationship."

The fact that the Trump administration mentioned its cooperative security relationship with Taiwan in its first national security strategy report "is a testimony to its appreciation of Taiwan being a key security and economic partner in Asia Pacific region," Chen said.

Taiwan is highly interested in cooperating with the U.S. in advancing the Indo-Pacific strategy proposed by Trump during his trip to Asia last month, Chen said at a regular press briefing Tuesday morning.

Asked about possible roles for Taiwan under that initiative, Chen said that Taiwan "cannot afford to stand on the sidelines" of the emerging strategy because it occupies a strategic position in East Asia and is a contributor to regional security and stability.

(By Shih Hsiu-chuan and Elaine Hou)

Enditem/AW

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






U.S. reaffirms Taiwan Relations Act in national security strategy

ROC Central News Agency

2017/12/19 14:52:42

Washington, Dec. 18 (CNA) The United States reaffirmed its commitment to providing defensive weapons to Taiwan under the Taiwan Relations Act, in a new national security strategy (NSS) unveiled on Monday by U.S. President Donald Trump.

"We will maintain our strong ties with Taiwan in accordance with our 'One China' policy, including our commitments under the Taiwan Relations Act to provide for Taiwan's legitimate defense needs and deter coercion," according to the NSS report.

The report identifies China and Russia as revisionist powers that are among challengers actively competing against the United States, its allies and partners.

It says China seeks to displace the United States in the Indo-Pacific region, expand the reach of its state-driven economic model and reorder the region in its favor.

China's efforts to build and militarize outposts in the South China Sea endanger the free flow of trade, threaten the sovereignty of other nations, and undermine regional stability, the report notes.

China is using economic inducements and penalties, influence operations, and implied military threats to persuade other states to heed its political and security agenda, according to the NSS report.

Asked to comment on the report, American experts on Asia said it shows U.S. policy toward Taiwan has not changed and that arms sales to Taiwan will continue.

"I don't see anything new in Trump's position since receiving President Tsai's congratulatory phone call and then speaking with President Xi," said Douglas H. Paal, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who served as the director of the American Institute in Taiwan from 2002 to 2006.

Tsai refers to Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen () and Xi to China's President Xi Jinping ().

The NSS has no clear implications for arms sales, but the general policy statement will certainly be interpreted in America as authorizing future sales, Paal said in an e-mail response to CNA.

The NSS is pretty clear that it means the U.S. will resist expansion of Chinese influence in the region, whether or not it can change the trajectory of China's accumulation of power, Paal said.

Meanwhile, Bonnie S. Glaser, a senior adviser for Asia and the director of the China Power Project at CSIS, said the new NSS will not have any impact on any specific decision regarding U.S. policy toward Taiwan.

"It is just a reiteration of U.S. policy. Nothing new," she said.

Noting that the U.S.-China relationship has been characterized by competition and cooperation for at least a decade, Glaser said she expects the two will continue to work together where interests converge.

The U.S. cannot stop China from developing its military capabilities, but it can try to influence how China uses them, Glaser said.

In the South China Sea, a strategy is needed that persuades the Chinese that the cost is too high to use their newly created islands to impair freedom of navigation or to challenge others' sovereignty claims, she added.

However, she admitted it could be a very difficult challenge because China has made a lot of headway in this area.

(By Rita Cheng, Chiang Chin-yeh and Evelyn Kao)

Enditem/AW

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






U.S. Envoy Says 2017 Deadliest Year In Ukraine Conflict, Warns Of Spiking Violence

RFE/RL December 19, 2017

The U.S. special envoy for the Ukraine conflict has said 2017 was the deadliest year in the region since the outbreak of violence three years ago, and warned that hostilities are again ratcheting up.

Kurt Volker's comments on December 19 came as international monitors reported intense shelling overnight near the town of Novoluhanske, part of the eastern Ukrainian region known as the Donbas.

UN officials reported eight civilians injured and dozens of homes damaged, with winter temperatures complicating matters.

"A lot of people think that this has somehow turned into a sleepy, frozen conflict and it's stable and now we have...a cease-fire. It's a problem but it's not a crisis," Volker said in a speech at the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank.

"That's completely wrong. It is a crisis. This has been the most violent year, 2017, and frankly last night was one of the most violent nights, certainly since February, and possibly this year," he said.

Volker later posted several messages to Twitter, suggesting that just before the "massive escalation" in cease-fire violations, Russia had withdrawn its officers from a coordinating body run jointly with Ukraine that is helping to implement the cease-fire.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation's (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine later confirmed the Russian side's withdrawal from the Joint Center for Coordination and Control (JCCC), the OSCE said in a statement valid as of December 18 and published on December 19.

Russia's withdrawal from the body undermines the OSCE's operations and is an attempt by the Kremlin to force Kyiv into talks with representatives of the breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine, according to Vadym Chernysh, Ukraine's minister for temporarily occupied territories and internally displaced persons.

"The presence of Russian officers in the JCCC guaranteed, among other things, the safety of the OSCE mission's staff," Chernysh said.

Volker also warned that Russia-backed forces were close to seizing a water-treatment plant in the city of Donetsk, and he called for the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the area.

The chief monitor for the OSCE mission said a sharp deterioration in the security situation had seen cease-fire violations reaching levels not recorded since February.

Chief monitor Ertugrul Apakan said on December 19 that the latest escalation showed an established trend "in which a recommitment to the cease-fire by the sides was followed by a steady increase in the level of violence, culminating in fierce fighting."

His comments came on the heels of warnings from aid agencies over the humanitarian situation in the eastern Donbas region, particularly given a December 18 attack on the government-controlled village of Novoluhanske.

More than 10,300 people have been killed, and more than 1 million displaced, since the conflict erupted in April 2014, pitting Russia-backed separatist fighters against government forces.

Volker was appointed earlier this year to try and push forward an agreement reached between Ukraine and Russia, along with France and Germany in February 2015 in the capital of Belarus, Minsk, to end the conflict. But the agreement has gone unfulfilled.

The United States and European Union have pushed Moscow to allow a United Nations peacekeeping force to be deployed in eastern Ukraine, but there are disputes over where the force would be located, and whether it would be allowed to patrol Ukraine's border with Russia.

Volker indicated that no progress had been made in negotiations with Moscow.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-russia-volker-2017-deadliest- year-spiking-violence/28927525.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






Ukraine: UN agencies stepping up aid to most vulnerable as temperatures plummet

19 December 2017  As temperatures plummet across Ukraine, the United Nations refugee and migration agencies said Tuesday that they are stepping up assistance to the most vulnerable people affected by the conflict in the country's east.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is increasing distributions of aid to the displaced.

"Winter brings additional hardship to the population," UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic said at a press briefing in Geneva, noting that temperatures can plummet to minus 10 degrees Celsius, or 14 Fahrenheit, in December and minus 20 C, or minus 4 F, in January.

"Most live in poorly insulated homes and a smaller number in collective centers, and are unable to cover the rising utility costs," he said.

The aid comprises clothes, warm jackets and boots, coal for heating and cash grants to cover winter expenses. Recipients include some 15,300 people, who are mainly single parents, elderly, families with many children, and people with disabilities or chronic illnesses.

Most have been displaced from their homes in eastern Ukraine by the conflict in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, which is now well into its fourth year. Near the line of contact between the Government and the non-Government controlled areas, houses are frequently damaged by shelling.

In some villages, gas pipes have been damaged by shelling and, as a result, coal and firewood represent the sole means of heating homes. UNHCR staff report that people are often forced to make a choice between buying food and medicines, or fuel to heat their dwellings.

In the non-Government controlled areas, where 40 per cent of the households need heating fuel and nearly 90 per cent need winter clothes and insulation, UNHCR is providing 9,000 tonnes of coal to 3,000 households and more than 7,500 pieces of winter clothing.

In Government-controlled areas, UNHCR provides unconditional cash grants to 1,000 households, and winter jackets to more than 4,700 children.

Dire humanitarian situation on Europe's doorstep

For its part, the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) has started distributing coal to people in need.

"Some 3.4 million men, women and children are locked in a dire humanitarian situation right on Europe's doorstep," said Thomas Weiss, IOM Ukraine Chief of Mission, during his recent visit to the field.

About 3,800 vulnerable low-income households in non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk will each receive three tons of high quality anthracite coal, which should be sufficient to cover their heating needs for the entire winter.

The planned assistance in these areas also includes the rehabilitation of the heating systems in up to 20 social and medical institutions, as well as the distribution of 200 cast-iron stoves to families located in least accessible areas, where wood is the only available heating fuel.

In parallel, IOM will in a few weeks transfer a first round of multipurpose cash to 4,000 vulnerable individuals in the government-controlled area, living close to the contact line in both Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

Families told IOM that they used 31 per cent of the funds they received to cover their medical expenses, and spent 23 per cent of the funds on fuel, winter clothing, as well as paying their bills for heating.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Trump signals US may expand use of nuclear weapons

Iran Press TV

Tue Dec 19, 2017 05:09PM

The administration of US President Donald Trump has signaled that it could expand the use of nuclear weapons as part of a new security strategy.

The White House released the National Security Strategy (NSS) on Monday, calling nuclear weapons "the foundation of our strategy to preserve peace and stability by deterring aggression against the United States."

The policy document criticizes previous US administrations for minimizing the role of nuclear weapons since the end of the Cold War as a key to American defense.

The new strategy suggests downgrading nuclear weapons had not prevented nuclear-armed adversaries expanding their arsenals and delivery systems.

The wider role for nuclear weapons is one of several ways in which Trump's approach has differed from his predecessor, Barack Obama.

"While nuclear deterrence strategies cannot prevent all conflict, they are essential to prevent nuclear attack, non-nuclear strategic attacks, and large-scale conventional aggression," the document said.

Trump's strategy contains more than a few hints of a return to a Cold War view of the world and is likely a strong predictor of future action.

"This is a very strong hint. It matches a lot of rumors we have heard over the past few weeks," said Hans Kristensen, the director of the nuclear information project at the Federation of American Scientists.

"It's a taste of what will come in the Nuclear Posture Review. What is interesting is the broadening of the nuclear weapons mission against non-nuclear attacks. The question is  are we creating more pathways to potential nuclear war?"

Outlining a national security strategy is mandated by Congress. It outlines the major national security concerns of the United States and how the administration plans to deal with them.

After the 68-page strategy report was released, Trump appeared at the Ronald Reagan Building in downtown Washington for a speech laying out his so-called "America First" vision.

Much of Trump's speech launching the strategy was devoted to denigrating his predecessors, who he portrayed as having let their country down.

"They lost sight of America's destiny. And they lost their belief in American greatness. As a result, our citizens lost something as well. The people lost confidence in their government and, eventually, even lost confidence in their future," the president said.

The report also criticized Russia and China as "revisionist powers" determined to threaten US interests.

Moscow and Beijing are seeking to challenge "American power, influence, and interests, attempting to erode American security and prosperity," it said.

The Kremlin denounced the "imperialist character" of the American report, accusing Washington of clinging to a "unipolar world."

"The imperialist character of this document is obvious, as is the refusal to renounce a unipolar world, an insistent refusal," President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address






Google announced an initiative to begin blocking ads with its Chrome browser back in June. This announcement entailed that the usage of ad blocker extensions on Chrome has been on the rise and continues to do so. Since Google is a company that makes the majority of its money on advertising, it wants to make sure that web surfers can have a pleasant, unobtrusive experience without overly annoying ads.

Google will begin to block all ads from websites seen with the Chrome browser (including its own ads) starting on February 15, but only on one condition: the website doesnt pass Googles Better Ads Standards. This means that any website that displays ads that might be overly annoying wont show any ads when the viewer uses Chrome.

Youve seen these annoying ads before: full page ads, ads that flash, or ads that unexpectedly play sound or video. These types of ads taint an otherwise pleasant surfing experience. In turn, users might flock to Chrome to get away from those kinds of ads, and websites are pressured to get rid of obnoxious ads.

Website admins can use Googles Ad Experience Report to identify which ads dont comply with Better Ads Standards. If the website has a passing status, ads will show business as usual. If the status is failing for 30 days or more, Chrome will stop displaying ads on that website. The website will need to use the Ad Experience Report to request a revision of the website before it can start showing ads again.

This strategy does two things: it keeps people who care about their surfing experience on Chrome, and it encourages websites to serve more acceptable ads for everyone. Lets see if Googles initiative pays off.

Source




Haiti - Politic : Statement by President Moise at the 34th ACP-EU session





Monday, at the Karibe Convention Center Hotel, President Jovenel Moise, accompanied by Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant, participated in the opening of the 34th session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly which is taking place in Port-au-Prince until December 20th 2017 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23016-haiti-politic-parliamentarians-from-more-than-106-countries-gather-in-port-au-prince.html



In his speech to the Assembly of Parliamentarians of 106 countries, Moise said "[...] The Haitian government and people, strongly engaged in a phase of political transition dotted with pitfalls, but carrying of expectations, have gladly agreed to host the 40th Session of the ACP Assembly and the 34th Session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly to mark Haiti's commitment to strengthening and sustaining of the partnership between the European Union and European Union and the ACP Group (Africa, Caribbean, Pacific)



I congratulate the ACP-EU parliamentarians for the resolutions taken during the previous meetings to meet the expectations of our people but also to give new impetus to our efforts to face the challenges and issues related to climate change.



[...]



I promise you that Haiti will never miss an opportunity to work tirelessly in platforms and international assemblies in which development issues and issues that threaten the future of our planet will be discussed



[...]



Apart from the problems that we have not been able to solve since the Lome Convention, the ACP countries are facing today, to the negative effects of climate change, experiencing repeated natural disasters which are destroying development efforts.



These meetings will have to discuss topics of great importance for each of our States and populations, as well as for the future of relations between the EU and the ACP Group [...]"



The President also took the opportunity to clarify, the 3 strategic axes which constitute, according to the Head of State, the fundamental pillars of the growth and the sustainable development of Haiti namely: the fight against corruption, the transparency and accountability, the fight against injustice.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23016-haiti-politic-parliamentarians-from-more-than-106-countries-gather-in-port-au-prince.html



HL/ SL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Security : Graduation of the 28th Promotion of the PNH





Monday at the National Police School, President Jovenel Moise, accompanied by Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant, participated in the graduation ceremony of the 28th promotion of the National Police of Haiti.



In the presence of the presidents of the two chambers, Senator Youri Latortue and Deputy Cholzer Chancy, Heidi Fortune, Minister of Justice and Public Security, Michel-Ange Gedeon Director General of the National Police of Haiti (PNH) and several representatives of the senior staff of the PNH and members of the diplomatic corps, the Head of State above all, wished to present his sympathies to the families of the police officers who were victims during the year 2017 in the performance of their duties while pointing out the importance of the role of the PNH in the development project of the country and renewed the commitment of his administration to create favorable conditions to allow the police to fulfill their mission effectively.



President Jovenel Moise in his speech urged the 1,022 new police officers including the 125 women who make up this 28th Promotion to make the law their only compass and to act with professionalism.



"To you police police officers from this 28th promotion of the National Police, I came to say that by integrating the PNH, you chose the most beautiful job that is to protect and serve. A job certainly demanding and difficult but oh so exhilarating.



In the name of the Nation, I say thank you. By opting for police science training, you have chosen to act as guardians of the law and become vigilant players in the safety of our fellow citizens."



Prime Minister Lafontant encouraged police officers "Police officers of the 28th, You have made the choice to be men of duty and justice in choosing to protect and serve the Haitian nation. Remain worthy of the arms you guard in the name of the general interest. I wish you courage !



For his part, Michel-Ange Gedeon speaking to the new police officers said them Do not delude yourself. You did not choose an easy job. You have not chosen a job that makes you rich, you have not chosen a job that will make you super leaders. Nobody is above the law. Above all, you must always act according to the law and regulations of the police institution, because the defeats of the law do not last long while the life of the disorder and anarchy should be very limited. Starting today, you have your destiny in hand. Being a police officer is a whole priesthood. It requires a lot of devotion for its community, dedication and a sense of sacrifice for its country.



The work of the police faces major challenges that raise various concerns. Today, being a good officer does not just mean putting his hand to the necks of bandits, it also means neutralizing these thugs, but respecting their rights. ou must know that all citizens have rights regardless of the classification of the offense committed. This is one of the reasons you received training on the law and the use of force. In other words, even if you are attacked, you must be aware of the proportion of forces involved and quickly assess the threats to react sensitively and professionally. In the same way, 'nou pa pitimi san gado', you have rights too. And I will know how to enforce them.



[...]



You will be agents of the order and guarantors of freedom. According to Eugene Marbeau, 'freedom is respect for everyone's rights, order is respect for the rights of all. You are therefore bound to everyone for the guarantee of rights.'



Always be firm and vigilant but always respect the rights of the human person. This is among other things what will differentiate you from any armed band. A weapon will be given to you after swearing, know that it is not a toy that is displayed to impress or ransom, it is rather a useful tool that can only serve to protect your person and that of the honest citizens weakened by bandits of all kinds [...]"



HL/ TB/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - ALERT : The Facebook account of the PM hacked





The Directorate of Communication of the Primature informs the general population that malicious individuals hacked the official Facebook account of Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant.



The first elements of the investigation report a network of crooks who try to abuse the trust of citizens by seeking to extract money.



The Primature announces that steps have already been taken to remedy this situation of piracy and that severe legal measures will not fail to reach soon, this network of crooks.



Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant is asking people to be vigilant and not give in to this network. He asks them to continue to talk to him via Facebook.



The Direction of Communication of the Primature specifies for the Internet users uninformed that "the real Facebook account of the Prime Minister is authenticated by a blue arrow".



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Social : Monthly allowance for disadvantaged people





As Christmas and the New Year approach, some fifty disadvantaged people, including seniors and people with reduced mobility, will benefit from a monthly allowance of 1,500 Gourdes from the Caisse Assistance Sociale (CAS) through its Regional Office in the department, the beneficiaries will no longer have to go to the Haitian capital to recover this aid from the State.



At a press conference, Pierre Jean Michelet, the Head of the Regional Office of the CAS, said that this grant currently affects three communes in the Southeast out of 10, namely Jacmel, Cayes-Jacmel and Belle-Anse.



Pierre Jean Michelet, while reiterating his commitment and that of the Administration Moise-Lafontant to continue to work for the improvement of the living conditions of the population, informed that a registration register is open to the Regional Office of the CAS located in the offices of Social Affairs and Labor (MAST) of Jacmel, to integrate about a hundred new beneficiaries under this social assistance program.



HaitiLibre / Pierre Myrthel Esther (Correspondante Jacmel)






















Haiti - FLASH : Long delays to obtain a Dominican visa





For over a month Dominican consular missions in Haiti (Petion-ville, Ouanaminthe, Cap Haitien, Belladeres and Anse a Pitre) have a lot of delay to issue visas on passports while we are in high season of visa application (early November to Carnival) which causes many problems for travel agencies, which have sometimes had to recover passports by clients for more than 2 weeks, but also in the programming of some binational activities that have been forced to re-program certain activities...



Let's stress that a multiple-year visa, the category most requested by Haitians costs 230 US dollars a very high price compared to a US visa valid for 5 years that costs 160 dollars.



Note that by the end of this year nearly 200,000 people are expected to use one of the land border points to enter Dominican territory, 98% of whom are Haitian nationals, according to projections by the Dominican General Directorate of Immigration.



Despite the fact that visas generate nearly 50 million receipts a year to the Dominican State, nothing is done to improve the speed of service and avoid disrupting the movement of Haitians between the two countries. In addition, no official statement has been issued by the Dominican consular authorities to explain the long delays and apologize with visa applicants...



Remember that all Haitian citizens holding a US, Canadian or Schengen visa (Europe) are not affected by these delays, since they can travel freely in the Dominican Republic by paying only a tourist card of 20 US dollars.



PI/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - News : Zapping...





Meeting between the 3 powers, postponed

Monday the meeting planned by the Head of State at the National Palace, between the 3 powers of the State around the functioning of the judicial system did not take place due to the absence of the representatives of the Superior Council of the Judiciary.



Tribute to the Champions of the Diaspora

Monday, Prime Minister Lafontant participated in the official Diaspora Champions tribute ceremony on the occasion of the International Migrants Day. "The Champions of the Diaspora" is defined in the government's action plan as a program-repertoire of Haitians in the Diaspora who have shone in a scientific, professional or artistic field or who have contributed to the development of the country.



Tourism : potential for growth and development

As part of the 2017 ACP, https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23016-haiti-politic-parliamentarians-from-more-than-106-countries-gather-in-port-au-prince.html Isabelle Durant Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) advocated for a sustainable tourism in an interconnected world where the economic weight of revenues in this sector is comparable to or even greater than that of oil and gas exports and of foodstuffs. A sector that in many countries including Haiti, has potential for economic growth and development while promoting environmentally friendly development."



The GAAR writes to Parliament

The Support Group for Haitian Returnees and Refugees (GARR) has sent a letter to Parliament to explain the need for Haiti to ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of Migrant Workers and their Families.



Rehabilitation of the control tower of the AAN

Monday, in the context of Monday's press, Olivier Jean the Director General of the National Office of Civil Aviation (OFNAC) announced that "The rehabilitation of the control tower of the National Airport Authority (AAN) will be finalized in April 2018 [...] In Cap-Haitien, the new control tower will also be functional with another technical block for better control of airspace."



3 appointments to the EPPLS of Nippes

Yvon Buissereth, the Director General of the Public Enterprise for the Promotion of Social Housing (EPPLS) proceeded Friday, December 15 to the installation of Ms. Fiderl-Ange Noel as epartmental Director, Guirlaine Gaspard as Deputy Director and Guerline Rubin as administrator of the Nippes EPPLS office. This ceremony took place in the presence of a team from the Departmental Delegation of Nippes including Gina Auguste, representative of the Departmental Delegate.



HL/ HaitiLibre


















Login or sign up to follow actresses, movies & dramas and get specific updates and news

Login Sign Up

 New Ad-free Subscriber Login

Email

Password

Password Username Your E-mail will only be used to retrieve a lost password.

Stay logged in

Help
Any financial wellbeing or education initiative must aim towards changing behaviour to address short-term needs and to plan for the future. Therefore, the programs that Your Financial Wellness implements adapt to the life situation of the user based on their inputs to the platform and reflect each employees situation. Hanly says his company can confidently take each employee on a personalised journey to financial wellness in the form of interactive learning modules. There are also modules on offer relating to aged-care costs, which are particularly useful to people who are faced with the prospect of parents entering a nursing home.

Based on the responses and inputs of each employee, Your Financial Wellness delivers content that is relevant to the individuals situation. For example:

Millennials will likely be focused on lifestyle and ensuring they can balance everything life throws at them. There is a concern about getting into the housing market and having a better understanding of the process for buying their first house, but they also want guidance on how to save and at the same time spend their hard-earned cash responsibly. Credit card debt can easily mount up after that overseas holiday and they need advice on paying that down without enduring a significantly reduced lifestyle.

will likely be focused on lifestyle and ensuring they can balance everything life throws at them. There is a concern about getting into the housing market and having a better understanding of the process for buying their first house, but they also want guidance on how to save and at the same time spend their hard-earned cash responsibly. Credit card debt can easily mount up after that overseas holiday and they need advice on paying that down without enduring a significantly reduced lifestyle. Gen X are generally already in the housing market, so its a conversation about investments  be it property or shares. Family planning comes into the equation: how can they drop back to one wage with kids on the horizon? Spending can be a lot tighter, so smart decisions are critical to making ends meet.

are generally already in the housing market, so its a conversation about investments  be it property or shares. Family planning comes into the equation: how can they drop back to one wage with kids on the horizon? Spending can be a lot tighter, so smart decisions are critical to making ends meet. Late Gen Xers might be seeking advice on the finances involved in raising a blended family or preparing for retirement; or now being empty nesters, they may be revisiting some of their life goals that have been on hold. People are still taking on significant amounts of debt, so there are also concerns about how long people will be working for. The stability of the kids is important: Gen Xers want to ensure the whole family is on the right path.

might be seeking advice on the finances involved in raising a blended family or preparing for retirement; or now being empty nesters, they may be revisiting some of their life goals that have been on hold. People are still taking on significant amounts of debt, so there are also concerns about how long people will be working for. The stability of the kids is important: Gen Xers want to ensure the whole family is on the right path. Baby boomers  for 65 year olds and three years either side, its about making sure they have enough money in super to fund the lifestyle they want into retirement.

Helping  but not overstepping the mark

Of course, employers must also tread a fine line between caring enough about employees to offer services that will help with their financial wellbeing, and offering advice on anything relating to personal finance. There are limits and restrictions on the type of advice employers can offer, especially when it comes to superannuation. That line is crossed as soon as an employer gives an opinion around what someone should do with their finances. Its advisable to instead guide employees towards where they can get help. Employers are urged to always advise employees to seek the assistance of qualified financial advisors as early as possible.

Importantly, through the Your Financial Wellness service, the employer is able to offer employees a secure and private platform for the employees to explore all things financial. While employers may offer employees participation in the program, no private employee information is ever made available to employers. This gives employees confidence that they may use the platform without judgment, while taking advantage of all the features of the service to create their own household finance system.



YOUR FINANCIAL WELLNESS

Australians are not taught about the world of personal finance at school, university or in the workplace. YourFinancialWellness.com.au was created to fill this gap by providing education, content and online tools to help households and individuals make more informed choices regarding their financial futures. Employers sponsoring the program for their employees will benefit from a more productive and engaged workforce.



For further information email [email protected]
A bookkeeper, who claimed she always intended to pay back 14,000 stolen from a creche, has avoided a prison sentence.

Elizabeth Ingram (61), of The Drumlins, Virginia, Co Cavan, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to stealing from Ballyfermot Resource Centre in Dublin on dates in 2011 and 2012.

Judge Melanie Greally yesterday ordered that she undertake 240 hours of community service in lieu of a one-year prison sentence.

She said that the theft was serious and was a significant breach of trust.

However, she also noted that the defendant was under financial pressure at the time.

"This appears to have been an 'out of character' episode in the life of an otherwise law-abiding and decent woman who reared four children as a single parent," she said.

Accounts

The court heard Ingram had been in charge of book-keeping for the resource centre, which includes a creche, a restaurant and a sweet shop, for eight years prior to the incident.

Garda Lisa Duffy told Pieter Le Vert BL, prosecuting, that the thefts came to light when the centre received Government funding and was required to perform a yearly audit.

An auditor noticed discrepancies in the accounts and Ingram was called to a meeting with the chairperson of the board of management.

At the meeting on June 15, 2012, the defendant admitted to taking the money. She said that she had the money but did not know how to give it back.

The centre received a bank draft from Ingram to repay the full 14,000 and the matter was reported to gardai on July 3, 2012.
Dublin criminal Brian Rattigan has been given a date in June to appeal his conviction for directing the supply of drugs from prison.

Rattigan (38), formerly of Cooley Road, Drimnagh, had pleaded not guilty at the non-jury Special Criminal Court to possession of heroin and two counts of possession of the drug for sale or supply on Hughes Road South, Walkinstown, Dublin 12, on May 21, 2008.

The three-judge court agreed with the prosecution case that Rattigan was the director of a drugs gang conducting a 1m heroin deal.

Frightening

He became the first drug dealer to be found guilty of charges connected to directing the supply of drugs while in prison.

At the Court of Appeal yesterday, Mr Justice John Edwards fixed June 5, 2018, as the date for the hearing of Rattigan's appeal against the conviction for drugs offences. It is an appeal against conviction only.

Counsel for Rattigan, Brendan Grehan SC, said the case would finish in under a day.

Rattigan was not in court for the procedural matter.

Sentencing Rattigan to 17 years in prison on March 20, 2013, Mr Justice Paul Butler, presiding, had said the Special Criminal Court had regard to the "very frightening" evidence of drugs expert Detective Sergeant Brian Roberts.

Det Sgt Roberts had told the court of the effect heroin had on society, as well as the "alarming" 3,972 drug-related deaths in Ireland between 2004 and 2010.

The sentence, backdated to June 2008, was directed to run in tandem with a life sentence he was then serving for the murder of Declan Gavin (21).

Rattigan had been found guilty by a jury in December 2009 of stabbing Gavin to death outside a fast-food restaurant in Crumlin on August 25, 2001.

However, earlier this month the Supreme Court quashed Rattigan's conviction for the murder of Gavin, over closing remarks made by the trial judge to the jury which, a majority found, had gone further than was desirable.

The 2013 Special Criminal Court trial of Rattigan heard that gardai who raided the house on Hughes Road South discovered five kilos of heroin, valued at more than 1m, while a search of a bedroom yielded just over 36,000 in cash.
The grandmother of a protesting inmate was lifted up in a hoist to try to talk him down from a prison roof, a court has heard.

Eric Harcourt (22) climbed onto the roof of Cloverhill Prison, using clothing that other prisoners had tossed up to prevent himself being injured by the razor wire.

He remained on the roof for hours with another inmate, Dean Byrne (25).

Both inmates refused attempts from the prison negotiator and both their grandmothers to persuade them to come down.

Harcourt, of Belcamp Grove, Priorswood, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to violent disorder at Cloverhill Prison, Clondalkin, Dublin, on July 29, 2015.

Judge Martin Nolan imposed a six-month sentence consecutive to Harcourt's current jail term, which is due to expire in April 2019.

Harcourt has 74 previous convictions and was on remand at the time for an offence of endangerment, for which he received a four-and-a-half-year jail term.

Detective Garda Donal Daly told Roisin Lacey, prosecuting, that the riot had broken out in the prison yard after up to 64 inmates had been "expressing disgruntlement" about disciplinary matters.

He said a prison officer saw Harcourt helping to carry one of the yard's goal posts to a nearby observational hub, where it was used to smash the windows and rip razor wire off the roof.

Prison officers then saw Harcourt climb onto the roof and smash windows with a long metal pole. Water hoses were deployed to prevent other prisoners climbing up.

Debris

Det Gda Daly said Harcourt was seen throwing "debris" onto prison officers below and that he smashed an aerial that had been connected to a pipe.

Prison officers used hoists to get the negotiator and Harcourt's grandmother up to roof level in a bid to get him to come down once the violent disorder had abated.

Harcourt eventually descended at 1.30am. The riot had begun at around 11am the previous day.

Ronan Munro, defending, asked the judge not to "close the door completely" on his client when passing the mandatory consecutive sentence.
Emily Logan (left), chief of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, with Dermot Kavanagh and Niamh Randall of Simon Communities at the launch of Simons annual report. Photo Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

Standards of living have improved for most people in Ireland, according to a new study showing decreased deprivation levels and a rise in disposable income.

The findings were contained in the Central Statistics Office (CSO) Survey on Income and Living Conditions for 2016.

However, as the housing crisis continues, homelessness charity Simon Communities separately reported a 33pc increase in people seeking their help during 2017.

Overall, the CSO study found rates of deprivation dropped by 4.5pc and median disposable income was up almost 600 to 20,597 per household.

That's based on a calculation that takes into account household income, size and the number of dependants. It represents a 3pc rise on 2015.

In total just over one-in-five (21pc) experienced some level of deprivation in 2016.

Deprivation

Among issues considered when determining the deprivation rates were instances of people going without heating at some stage in the year (9.2pc); those unable to afford to replace worn-out furniture (21.1pc), and people unable to afford to buy presents for family or friends at least once a year (4.4pc).

People who experience two or more of 11 listed categories are considered to be experiencing enforced deprivation.

In 2016, 16.5pc were at risk of poverty, slightly down on the 2015 rate of 16.9pc.

The consistent poverty rate nationwide was 8.3pc, which the CSO said was not a statistically significant change on the 2015 figure of 8.7pc. It found no significant change to income distribution between 2015 and 2016.

Social Protection minister Regina Doherty welcomed the downward trend in poverty rates, saying basic deprivation is down from more than 30pc at its peak in 2013 to 21pc in 2016.

She put rises in incomes down to increased employment and higher earnings for people in work and said the economic recovery is reflected in the figures.

She also said that despite the improvements, the release of the data so close to Christmas is a reminder of the "difficult challenges and financial choices that many families and individuals continue to face".

Elsewhere, Simon Communities launched their annual report and said they worked with more than 11,000 people who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness across the country.

Spokeswoman Niamh Randall said 2017 has seen the housing and homelessness crisis continue to worsen, pointing to the 33pc increase in those seeking their help this year.

"This Christmas there will be at least 8,500 men, women and children trapped in emergency accommodation and many thousands more living with housing insecurity," she added.

The government has plans to ramp up the building of social housing units in 2018.
A visually impaired, retired farmer was pinned to the floor, beaten with a stick and threatened with a knife, when three masked men ransacked his home for his life savings.

Joseph Waters, a 77-year-old bachelor, was sitting at his kitchen table in his rural bungalow in the Kildangan area of Durrow, Co Offaly, when the gang broke in at around 8pm on Monday.

He was struck a number of times on the body, suffering a particularly severe hit to his head.

The attack came just months after another farmer, 54-year-old Richie McKelvey, was attacked by a gang in his house near Birr. Local man PJ Gorman said Mr Waters was alone when the attackers climbed through a window they had smashed at the back of the house.

"His little kitchen is in the corner of his home, and after getting inside, they made their way down the hall," he said.

"Joe was looking at a book at the time when they attacked.

"I don't know how he'd be reading it because his sight is bad - and the lighting in the kitchen isn't great."

Shouting

"They started shouting 'we want the money, we want the money, we'll kill you, we'll kill you'.

"They then pinned him to the floor," he added.

Mr Gorman said two of the men went into another room, searching and pulling the place apart.

"The other lad held Joe in the kitchen, took out a knife, and held it to his throat," he said.

"Each of them also had sticks about an inch-and-a-half thick, and three-feet long.

"They belted him with their weapons, and pulled him around the yard to try and loosen him up."

He added that, thankfully, Joe wasn't cut when they put the knife to his throat.

"He has a mark on the side of his head, but he had a scan in hospital, and thanks be to God is OK.

"They think his shoulder was dislocated, and he may have broken a bone. I don't think they got anything in the end."

When the attackers fled, Joe stayed in the house for about half an hour because he was "afraid" he'd be attacked again if the men were still outside.

Gardai have appealed for witnesses who may have been in the area or travelling on the Tullamore to Clara road, between 7.30pm and 8.30pm, and noticed anything suspicious.
Celebrity chef Donal Skehan has said he and his wife Sofie have felt "like zombies" since welcoming their first baby over two weeks ago.

The Howth-born cook, who's now based in LA, said they're getting no sleep as they look after newborn Noah Ziggy, but that they're loving every minute of it.

Sleep

In a post about how he's finding fatherhood, he revealed the sleep deprivation has hit him hard.

"Feel like you all warned us about the lack of sleep but did we listen? Of course not. Have been like zombies most of the first 14 days but clambering back little bits of sleep where we can," he said.

"Little Noah makes up for every minute though."

He said that he's "so in awe" of his little son as he looks ahead to his first Christmas as a dad.

The young family will celebrate December 25 in their new home of LA and have invited both sets of parents over to spend the holiday in the sunshine.

The chef even made sure to stock the freezer full of meals in an effort to be super-prepared during the early stages of their baby's life.

Their new arrival certainly kept them waiting and was more than a week overdue when Sofie gave birth on December 2.

Proud father Donal said that his other half "rocked it with Swedish Viking strength, for a natural birth".

World

He said he was now ready for a "whole new world of adventures".

The pair moved to Los Angeles last year to build Donal's profile in America as he flies the flag for Ireland in the culinary world.

Donal first met Sofie in 2006 when she was visiting his home town of Howth and the pair married in Lisnavagh House, Co Carlow, in June 2015.
How good are these two guys, Penn State fans? It may surprise you ...
Gabon  A Nigerien man stabbed two Danish journalists in Gabon, allegedly saying it was a revenge attack against the United States for recognizing Jerusalem as Israels capital.

The assailant wounded the reporters for the National Geographic channel at a market popular with tourists in Libreville, the capital of the central African country, according to the Gabon defense minister, Etienne Kabinda Makaga. During the attack, the man shouted Allahu Akbar, Arabic for God is great, Makaga said.

Speaking Saturday on Gabonese television, Makaga said the attacker  a 53-year-old man from Niger who has lived in Gabon for the past two decades  acted in retaliation for U.S. attacks against Muslims and Americas recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital.

As of Sunday afternoon, the attack had yet to be classified as an act of terrorism.

On Sunday, police in Gabon arrested dozens of people in connection with the attack. The detained men were mostly traders and sellers from West Africa who work in the market, the French news agency AFP reported. The market was shut down after the attack and did not reopen, according to AFP.

Source : JTA
4:24pm: Asked today about the situation, Kanter called Erdogan a maniac and indicated that the threat of jail wont stop him from speaking out against the current regime in Turkey, per Zach Braziller of The New York Post. The Knicks center also joked that he had expected Turkish prosecutors to pursue a stronger sentence.

I was like, Thats it? Only four years? Kanter said. All the trash Ive been talking?

Although he downplayed the indictment, Kanter expressed concern for his family still in Turkey, noting that he cant communicate with them because of the repercussions they would face.

10:08am: Turkish prosecutors are seeking more than four years in prison for Knicks center Enes Kanter for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to a report from The Associated Press.

Kanter, who was detained in Romania in May after his Turkish passport was canceled, has been extremely critical of Erdogan in the past, comparing him to Adolf Hitler. The APs report notes that the indictment prepared by the Istanbul chief prosecutors office cites a series of tweets published by Kanter in May and June of 2016.

Kanter was eventually able to return to the United States after being detained in May, at which point he expressed a desire to become a U.S. citizen. Shortly after that incident, Turkey issued a warrant for Kanters arrest.

Assuming prosecutors move forward with this case, Kanter would be tried in absentia, per The AP. No matter what the outcome is, the 25-year-old is extremely unlikely to return to Turkey anytime soon. Kanters family has disowned him as a result of his support for Fethullah Gulen, who was blamed by Turkey for last years attempted military coup.
Movenpick Hotels & Resorts has signed a new property in Manila, expanding its portfolio in the Philippines to three properties strong and marking another milestone in the company"s Asian expansion strategy.

Due to open in Q4 2021, Movenpick Hotel & Residences Quezon City will feature a combination of 350 contemporary hotel rooms and suites and 250 stylish residences. All 600 units will offer state-of-the-art technology and upscale amenities, making the hotel ideal for both short and extended stays in Quezon City.

Located in Metro Manila, and featuring a business centre and extensive meeting space, the modern hotel is expected to appeal to leisure and corporate guests, as well as groups.

Movenpick Hotel & Residences Quezon City will feature two upscale restaurants serving Chinese and international cuisine respectively, plus a chic rooftop restaurant and bar boasting panoramic views, which is tipped to become one of Quezon City"s most popular nightspots.

Property highlights also include a swimming pool and fitness centre, plus four function rooms and a large pillar-free ballroom, all fitted with the latest audio-visual technology and designed to host sucessful conferences, conventions, product launches or social events.
New York, NY  ALICE, the hospitality industry's leading operations technology, welcomes Rafael Lozada, as Director of Customer Implementations.

Rafael joins ALICE at a time of rapid growth for the company, following its $26M Series B funding in August, and the company's acquisition of concierge technology rival GoConcierge in September. A versatile leader with 15+ years of service delivery experience in technology-based companies, Rafael will help ALICE scale customer activation and ensure excellent service. Rafael's fluency in both English and Spanish will also allow ALICE to accelerate product implementation in Mexico and the greater Central America region, where company sales have increased in recent months.

Rafael comes to ALICE from TravelClick, where as Director of Implementations Americas, he managed a team of 40+ Implementation Managers across three businesses and seven product lines, representing 35% of all new sales implementations. Prior to joining TravelClick, Rafael was Practice Director, Midsize Solutions at Hubbard One, where he led a team of Project Managers responsible for the implementation of websites for mid-sized law firms, a new segment of product he helped create. Rafael has also held Senior and Manager positions at Accenture, Stericycle, and Consorcio Credicard, where he began his career. Rafael has a B.S. in Systems Engineering from Universidad Metropolitana in Caracas, Venezuela, and a M.B.A in Corporate Finance from The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business.

"We are excited to have Rafael lead our next stage of growth," said Scott Bieker, ALICE's VP, Business Operations. "Rafael's experience and exemplary customer knowledge will provide a solid foundation for our customers and Customer Success team."

ABOUT ALICE:

By joining all the departments of your hotel onto a single operations platform for internal communication and task management, ALICE helps your staff act as a team to provide consistently excellent service.

Since the company was founded in 2013, ALICE has gained serious traction in the industry working many of the world's leading hotel brands, including Two Roads Hospitality, Dream Hotel Group, Grupo Posadas, SIXTY Hotels, NYLO Hotels, and Leading Hotels of the World. The company acquired concierge technology provider GoConcierge in 2017. For more information, visit https://info.aliceapp.com.

ALICE is hiring Spanish-speaking Sales and Implementation specialists to help us expand our presence in Central and South America. Please visit https://info.aliceapp.com/careers to learn more.

Lola Feiger

Marketing Lead
Minister of tourism in Algeria announced his plan to substantially increase the number of tourists. 4.4 million international tourists are expected in Algeria by 2027, in contrast to 2.4 million today.

The Minister of Tourism and Handicrafts, Hacene Mermouri, has been quoted by the Oxford Business Group (OBG), an international consulting firm, saying that 1,812 new hotel infrastructure projects have been approved by the Ministry. This series of projects is expected to increase the capacity to 240,000 beds, in contrast to the current 100,000, and create 99,000 jobs.

The Minister of Tourism and Handicrafts, Hacene Mermouri, has been quoted by the Oxford Business Group (OBG), an international consulting firm, saying that 1,812 new hotel infrastructure projects have been approved by the Ministry. This series of projects is expected to increase the capacity to 240,000 beds, in contrast to the current 100,000, and create 99,000 jobs.

582 of the approved projects are already under construction, with an additional 75,300 beds at hand and the creation of about 36,000 direct jobs, according to Mr. Mermouri. All in all, 110 projects are expected to be completed by the end of the year.

The announcement of the Ministry represents a considerable advance for the tourism in Algeria, the new beds making it possible not only to strengthen the general reception capacity but also to lower prices and diversify the hotel offering.

Low hotel capacity has long been a major obstacle to the development of the sector. According to estimates published in the report "Competitiveness in the tourism and travel sector 2017" of the Global Economic Forum, Algeria has 0.1 hotel room per 100 inhabitants, which placed it in this category on the 111th place out of 136 countries.

Read the full article at tourism-review.com
HENDERSONVILLE, Tennessee  The U.S. hotel industry reported positive results in the three key performance metrics during November 2017, according to data from STR.

In a year-over-year comparison with November 2016, the industry posted the following:

Occupancy: +1.6% to 61.5%

Average daily rate (ADR): +2.3% to US$122.64

Revenue per available room (RevPAR): +3.9% to US$75.48

"Much like October, performance for November was stronger than expected due to residual business in hurricane-affected areas in Texas and Florida," said Jan Freitag, STR's senior VP of lodging analysis. "We saw another occupancy record, and ADR grew more than 2% for the second month in a row. When removing those two states from the equation, we saw muted growth that fell more in line with our forecasts for the year. Either way, the industry in on track to wrap up another record year even as supply has grown at its strongest rate since 2009. Just like last month, there was not much year-over-year growth in rooms In Construction, which bodes well for the supply picture in the next few years."

Freitag also noted that RevPAR has now increased year over year for 93 consecutive months in the U.S.

Among the Top 25 Markets, Houston, Texas, reported the largest increase in RevPAR (+40.1% to US$80.74), due primarily to the largest rise in occupancy (+26.5% to 73.2%).

San Francisco/San Mateo, California, posted the largest lift in ADR (+17.5% to US$237.81), which drove the month's second-highest jump in RevPAR (+15.6% to US$183.34).

Two additional Top 25 Markets reported double-digit increases in RevPAR: Orlando, Florida (+12.3% to US$91.62), and Miami/Hialeah, Florida (+10.8% to US$141.64).

"The Top 25 Markets (RevPAR: +4.6%) significantly outperformed all other markets (RevPAR: +3.1%) with the Transient segment driving growth much more than Group business," Freitag said.

Chicago, Illinois, reported the steepest decline in RevPAR (-4.7% to US$102.16), due primarily to the largest decrease in ADR (-3.6% to US$150.76). Occupancy in the market dropped 1.2% to 67.8%.

Seattle, Washington, experienced the largest decrease in occupancy (-2.4% to 69.0%) and the second-largest drop in RevPAR (-2.4% to US$96.25).

About STR

STR provides premium data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights for the global hospitality industry. Founded in 1985, STR maintains a presence in 15 countries with a corporate North American headquarters in Hendersonville, Tennessee, an international headquarters in London, and an Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore. STR was acquired in October 2019 by CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSGP), the leading provider of commercial real estate information, analytics and online marketplaces. For more information, please visit str.com and costargroup.com.

Nick Minerd

Public Relations Coordinator

+1 (615) 824 8664 ext. 3305

STR
T.J. Miller faces new accusations of sexual harassment from an unlikely source, adult film star Dana DeArmond. The actress recently took to Twitter to claim that she had been harassed by both Miller and director Jordan Vogt-Roberts on the set of Comedy Centrals Mash Up. Read the pair of tweets below:

DeArmond notes how this alleged interaction happened more than five years ago, with all of this sexual misconduct happening on set. However, DeArmond isnt the first woman to speak out against Miller, as the actor was most recently accused of punching and sexually assaulting a woman he went to college with, a claim the actor and his wife adamantly deny.

Furthermore, Comedy Central has now pulled the plug on Millers The Gorburger Show after only one season. Page Six notes that the company had plans to cancel the show during the summer, with these new allegations acting as the final nail in the coffin.
Its been a huge year for French Montana. Between multi platinum singles, a gold album and taking his talents across the globe, hes made himself a household name for the most part. His success this year can be credited to his successful run in 2016. Singles like No Shopping and Lockjaw helped him put everyone on notice. However, it turns out that the latter of those songs has sparked some legal drama more than a year later.

French Montana is being sued for his Kodak Black-assisted single, Lockjaw, according to Bossip. The rapper is accused of stealing the Lockjaw beat from Morrocon-born producer, Yo Asel. The producer claims that French used and flipped his production for the song and did not give him any proper credit, profit or compensation for it. In the court papers, it says that Asel sent French beats in 2015 via e-mail. After French replied Send more, Asel assumed French was going to help him get his career off the ground. However, he claims French slightly altered his copyrighted beat before releasing it and Asel says he was shocked to hear it.

The report says he confronted French on social media but French just ended up blocking him. Named in the lawsuit are Frenchs collaborator, Kodak Black, Sony, producer Ben Billions, Bad Boy Records and Cocaine City Records. Asel is asking for money damages, a percentage of profits from the song and an injunction on its distribution for the damages French and co. costed him.

French nor anyone else related to the case has made comment on the suit.
Fans of Insane Clown Posse a.k.a Juggalos have been trying their hardest to be removed from the FBIs gang list for quite some time now. While the majority of them are simply down with face paint and Faygo soft drink, theyve also been clumped together with some of the violent members of the community. The groups members, Shaggy 2 Dope and Violent J, tried to fight against it in a lawsuit that said the FBIs classification of Juggalos goes against their First and Fifth Amendment rights. Today, the Juggalos have lost their fight to be removed from the FBIs gang list.

Insane Clown Posse lost their battle to be removed from the FBIs gang list, The Washington Post reports. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled classifying Juggalos as a gang couldnt be disputed due to the fact that it doesnt have any straight forward legal consequences. The report was described in the 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment as a loosely-organized hybrid gang.

Juggalos are saying that being classified as a gang is not only inaccurate but has created issues of discrimination and harassment from legal authorities. While the court accepted that it may have caused issues for individuals, they stand by the fact that the FBI holds no weight in how municipal governments view the report.

The various reputational and personal harms suffered by Appellants in the present case may be the practical consequences of the Juggalo gang designation, the court said, but they are not a direct or appreciable legal consequence of the Juggalo gang designation. They continued further by saying government officials arent required to consider or abide by the gang designation.

At this point, unless ICP decide to appeal the courts ruling and bring it to the Supreme Court, theyll be continue to be considered a national gang by the FBI.
That feeling you get when your favourite song plays, where you kind of zone out and really take in the lyrics and the beat  especially with the musical genre that is hip-hop  now has doctors saying it has the power to heal neurological disorders.

Researchers from Cambridge University studied the brains of a number of rappers proving just how much hip hop contributes to all areas of human psychology. Music can still very well impact victims of stroke or neurological disorders in ways that language and memory ability cannot.

The research proved that when rappers are freestyling, it puts their brains into a flow state that stimulates parts of the brain responsible for emotion, language, motivation, motor function and processing. Similar studies have come from experiments where jazz musicians are asked to improvise, showing they go to an alternate state of mind.

We do believe that this is a movement and a new culture. With people being able to open up with hip-hop, it will heal them. They can walk away with this and it provides a new form of therapeutic release, Dr. Inkster says, via Mashable.

Its no surprise that hip hop is seriously being looked at as a means of mental release. Last year a number of schools in New York started Hip-Hop Therapy programs to teach students healthy ways to express themselves.

When I leave my feelings inside, the only way youre going to hear it is if I throw a punch, a student named Ellis McBethat told the New York Times. Now I make songs about them. I write verses that cool me down.
Amazon has met senior Government officials to discuss the possible impact of Brexit on small and medium-sized businesses selling cross-border.

Lesley Smith of Amazon UK's public policy section recently met officials from the Department of the Taoiseach to brief them on Irish businesses using Amazon to sell their produce.

Ms Smith met with Helen Blake, an assistant secretary at the Department, and fellow official Cathal O'Regan, according to a filing to the Lobbying Register.

They spoke about Brexit and the possible impact on cross-border transactions by Irish small businesses who sell on Amazon.

"We wanted to understand the Irish Government's concerns on the impact of Brexit on cross-border transactions by Irish small businesses and brief them on Irish businesses selling on Amazon," the filing on the register noted.

Ms Smith declined to comment further when contacted by the Irish Independent.

When asked about the outcome of the discussion, and how many Irish firms use Amazon UK to sell their produce, a spokeswoman for Amazon did not respond.

Meanwhile, insurer Travelers Europe announced yesterday that it will apply to the Central Bank for authorisation of a new, wholly owned insurance subsidiary incorporated in Ireland.

Based in Dublin, the company said the new subsidiary will enable Travelers to continue to "seamlessly serve its customers and broking partners in Ireland and across Europe when the UK exits the European Union".

"Ireland is a natural choice for Travelers to establish its EU-based subsidiary," said Matthew Wilson, chief executive of Travelers Europe.

"We have been present in the Irish general insurance market for more than 20 years," he added.
The sale of The Chancery office building in Dublin 8 will allow Hibernia to recycle the capital into new projects

Hibernia REIT has sold the Chancery building in Dublin 8 for 23.8m.

The sale equates to a blended net initial yield of 5.9pc and a capital value of 645 per sq ft. for the office accommodation.

Hibernia purchased The Chancery together with a 0.05-acre site just three years ago for 16m via a secured loan acquisition, and at the time the price represented a blended net initial yield of 6.8pc and a capital value of 445 per sq ft.

Since then Hibernia has extended the weighted average unexpired lease term of the office tenants from two years to eight years.

The sale price is over 1.3pc ahead of the September 2017 valuation. The Chancery, close to Dublin Castle, comprises 35,000 sq ft of offices and four two-bed apartments. Current tenants include the Office of Public Works, Wella and Analytic Partners, and provides an annual rent of 1.5m.

"The Chancery was one of our early purchases in 2014 via a secured loan acquisition. Since then the building has performed strongly due to the attractive purchase price, our leasing activity and the market recovery.

" This sale allows us to recycle our capital into new projects," Richard Ball, chief investment officer of Hibernia, said.

Meanwhile, Castleknock Hotel, part of FBD Hotels and Resorts, has completed a 7m development,

It includes 52 additional bedrooms, a spa, and two new restaurants. The development has increased capacity at the four-star hotel from 138 rooms to 190.

FBD Hotel and Resorts CEO David Kelly said the completion of the development is a landmark moment for the company.
Thousands of farmers have been warned that they are legally obliged to register leases online as part of a move to bring more transparency into the letting market.

However, concerns have been raised that the "excessive" level of detail required will mean people will be able to pinpoint what individual farmers are paying for their leased land.

A large-scale awareness campaign has been launched by the Property Services Regulatory Authority (PSRA) to warn farmers who have taken out a lease on land that they must register it online within 30 days.

"The aim of the registration of these leases is to give transparency to what the real price of leases is, not only in agriculture but in businesses across the board," said the IFA's business chair Martin Stapleton.

"The difficulty that we have is there is no need to name the townland to give transparency.

"We would have liked it identified at district electoral division or even better county level," he added, saying this would protect personal information for individual farmers.

It is expected that there will be keen interest in the prices being paid for leased land in the key dairy farming areas, where competition among farmers for land has seen prices soar.

Details of all the leases, including addresses, rent, date and term of the lease, will be available for public viewing on the commercial leases register on the PSRA website.

The name of the farmer leasing the land is not included on the website, but farm bodies warn that the property will be easily identifiable from the address and key information.

Campaign

Over 13,000 out of 22,000 letters have been issued by the PSRA so far to all commercial lease tenants, including on land, buildings and shop units.

A spokesman said they are carrying out an awareness campaign to make tenants aware of their obligations to register a commercial lease.

The PSRA also intend to pursue the logging of expired leases that were taken out since 2012.

A PSRA spokesman said it ensures transparency in the area.

"Widespread compliance will ensure there is more accurate published information which will in turn provide a more level playing field for existing and prospective commercial tenants," he said.

"Sensitive information such as the personal details of the tenant and the landlord are not included in the published register and there is no charge for submitting the form."

Over 8,300 leases have been registered since 2012 - with 1,406 returned by tenants so far this year.

Many farmers who have taken out leases on land were unaware of their legal requirements under the 2011 Property Services (Regulation) Act, with a penalty of up to 5,000 upon conviction in the district court.

Blarney auctioneer Dan Fleming believes that landowners and tenants won't like it as it makes public what was agreed privately.

"Farmers are very private people," he added.

Auctioneer Stephen Barry feels that putting the details of land leases online is releasing commercially sensitive material into the public arena and questions the benefits of it.

"If a tenant has 1,000ac of tillage leased, his competitors and/or his bank or merchant will be able to put all that information together and make a business call on what should be private information," he said.

ICMSA deputy president Lorcan McCabe questioned the need for the reporting of such detail, describing it as "clearly excessive".

Mr McCabe said: We would question the need for revealing this level of private and personal information regarding the people involved.

While we accept that peoples names are not published, the reality is that in a rural locality people will know the individuals and parties involved. Cork land agent Mike Brady said they have offered to register the leases for lessees for some time and he feels it will bring clarity on leases.

It is only transparency  it will sort out a lot of the pub talk on what places are renting for.

Letters are being sent out to farmers by the PSRA which is cross checking records with the e-stamping section of the Revenue Commissioners. It warns the lease must be registered by the person who took the lease out on the land from the landlord within 30 days of receiving the letter.

All tenants who have entered into leases since April 2012 are required to complete the return online and provide the authority with details including liability for insurance, rent reviews and any break clauses in the lease.
A meat factory production manager who claims he was unfairly suspended by his employer has made a protective disclosure about alleged food safety breaches to Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), the High Court heard.

The claims have been made by Alvaro Carvalho who works for Carrolls Cuisine Unlimited Company, based in Tullamore, Co Offaly which processes and packages beef, chicken, pork, ham, and turkey products for sale in Ireland and abroad expanded production.

Mr Carvalho, of Harbour Drive, Tullamore, seeks various orders and declarations from including an injunction restraining his employer from continuing with any disciplinary process against him into alleged misconduct.

He also seeks orders restraining the company from penalizing, demoting or victimising him and that the company deal with grievances he has raised.

In opposing the application, the company "strenuously denies" all allegations it has breached food safety standards.

It says it takes its obligations "very seriously." It has been in contact with the FSAI and the Department of Agriculture about the allegations.

Mr Carvalho who has worked in the industry for 20 years commenced work with Carrolls Cuisine in 2013.

Last October he was suspended allegedly for having a lack of respect and empathy for fellow employees.

In a sworn statement to the court he said there is "no substance" to the claims and says he was not given a chance to deal with the allegations. The suspension was a way to force him to resign.

Following his suspension he says a senior manager told him there was one way to stop this and that was for him to make an offer and he would get an excellent reference.

He said earlier this year the company began to expand production at the plant.

He said the pressure to increase production "got out of control" last September when senior management instructed staff to increase production to "an inordinate degree."

This placed an "intolerable burden" on both him and staff at the plant.

In order to meet those targets "food safety standards were blatantly ignored and normal cleaning and hygiene protocols were compromised, he said.

He said he was unhappy with this pressure to increase production and was unwilling to be a party to these dangerous practices and resisted them. He said he believes he was targeted by senior management as he had become "an obstacle to their business ambitions. "

Following his suspension, an investigation found the allegations against him did not merit any further investigation at this stage.

Mr Carvalho said he was upset to read comments by the investigator that inter personal issues involving Mr Carvalho at the work place would be best dealt with by counselling and mediation between the parties.

The report also said it appeared Mr Carvalho had shouted at colleagues acted in an aggressive manner towards him.

He said those findings were damaging to him, and in his proceedings seeks to have them quashed.

In early December his suspension was lifted but on his return to work he said "drastic changes" were imposed on him without his consent including that his shifts were changed from eight hours to 12 hours in length, he was moved to a smaller office, and that he was demoted.

In a sworn statement opposing the injunction application the company's managing Director Kieran Carolan said the application is misconceived, and there was no basis for the injunctions sought.

He also denied any breaches of food safety standards.

The application for an injunction, pending the outcome of the full hearing of Mr Carvalho's action, was heard by Ms Justice Eileen Creedon who has reserved judgment.
A shortage of good Continental stock has seen the price of British Friesian bullocks increase by at least 120/hd over the last three months.

George Candler of Kilkenny Marts said the absence of Continental bullocks had resulted in an improved market for Hereford and Angus cattle, and British Friesian stock.

Mr Candler said good square Friesian bullocks were generally making 1.70-1.80/kg three months ago but were now tipping 2/kg.

This equates to an increase of around 120/hd on a 600kg animal.

The pre-Christmas surge in beef demand is continuing to underpin the cattle trade, with strong factory prices driving lively mart sales.

Tighter supplies in the sales rings has resulted in a stronger trade for plainer cattle, out-of-spec bullocks and heifers, and cows, as the factories and wholesale butchers seek to hoover up the available stock.

Factory buyers attributed the lively trade to the continuing strong demand for manufacturing beef. However, they claimed the market for high-value steak cuts remained slow.

A fall-off in the number of good-quality Continental bullocks in the marts has resulted in 2.50-2.60/kg being paid for any fancy lots that come into sales rings.

David Quinn of Carnew Mart said competition between wholesalers, factories and beef finishers saw good-quality Hereford and Angus cattle sell for 1.90-2.15/kg.

Best return

However, the Carnew Mart manager claimed the best return for farmers was in selling 'out of spec' and over-age animals.

While the factories are generally paying 3.95-4.10/kg for bullocks and heifers, Mr Quinn said out-of-spec cattle could be discounted by 25-30c/kg if sold directly to slaughter plants.

But he maintained that competition at ringside for these cattle was delivering a definite bonus for the sellers.

The strong market for manufacturing beef has helped keep a floor on the cow trade this year, and a shortage of Continental fat cows has delivered a premium for any that come on the market.

Jim Bushe of New Ross Mart said the small numbers of finished Continental cows coming through the sales rings were making up to 2/kg. He said big numbers of dairy cull cows were still coming out, with 650kg animals making a base of 750.

Lighter 550kg cows were making around the 1/kg.

Meanwhile, the IFA's Angus Woods said the buoyant Irish cattle trade mirrored high prices in Britain and Europe.

Mr Woods said British prices are equivalent to 4.53./kg including VAT, at an exchange rate of 88p to the euro.

"Cattle prices in our main European export markets are up 30c to 40c/kg on last year's levels," he said.

"In France young bulls are making 4.20/kg including 5.4pc flat rate VAT.

"In Germany young bulls are at 4.35/kg, and in Italy young bulls have moved up to 4.46/kg."
Up to 800 dairy farmers may be facing rejection of their milk supply in 2018 for failing to supply quality assurance certification for their herds to the processors.

Farmers who have not yet applied for audit despite a deadline of the end of 2017 are now facing penalties and ultimately rejection of milk supplies from their herds.

The scale of non-QA suppliers varies between co-op regions but all processors are now increasing pressure with an end of season target to achieve 100pc compliance.

An update on SDAS from Bord Bia shows that 15,643 suppliers have been fully certified, representing 87.9pc of all suppliers.

A further 1,100 suppliers are in the process of being audited and 240 have applied to the scheme.

Kerry Co-Op is the only manufacturing milk processor with 100pc of suppliers certified.

Producers have been coming under increasing pressure from their processors to have cetification by the end of 2017.

Many of the 820 suppliers who have yet to apply for certification are understood to be in the older generation and the expectation is that a majority of them are likely to cease production over the coming months.

Advisory staff from the processors have been in constant contact with farmers to assist them in meeting the standards required to qualify for certification.

The Bord Bia SDAS was developed in co-operation with milk producers, farm organisations, processors and regulatory authorities.

It has been designed to assist in securing new and existing markets for Irish dairy produce as farmers look to increase milk production in a post quota era.

It can therefore provide the necessary proof to customers of dairy products that milk has been produced under both Sustainability and Quality Assurance criteria.

The scheme is open to all milk producers with a valid herd registration, supplying milk processors in the Republic of Ireland.

To apply for membership the producer will complete an application form which can be returned to Bord Bia via their milk purchaser or directly to Bord Bia.

The application will then be evaluated and, as appropriate, a full independent audit of the milk producer may be carried out to evaluate the capability of the applicant to meet all the requirements of the Standard.

When the producer is deemed to have complied with the requirements of the Standard, the herd will be considered for certification under the Scheme.

When certified, the producer will be issued with a certificate for the herd which will be listed on the Bord Bia register/database.
The prices unveiled in the latest tranche of the deal between IFA and Boortmalt will not halt the slide of growers exiting malting barley, it was claimed.

The malting barley package negotiated with Boortmalt was set out as farmers at a Dairygold suppliers meeting in Cork questioned prices paid for the key ingredient for the distilling industry.

Farmers say the co-op referenced the prices agreed between the IFA and Boortmalt, saying they could not go against those.

The IFA confirmed that the package negotiated with Boortmalt for next year included an initial price offer of 167.50/t excluding VAT for contract green brewing malting barley.

The seed price has been reduced to 520/t delivered for all varieties, and free haulage will be offered ex-yard for growers' grain where branches were closed in recent years.

It states the split of the brewing/distilling contract will remain the same.

However, Bobby Miller from the Irish Grain Growers' Association said the prices on offer would not halt the "slide of growers" leaving the malting barley industry.

"Distilleries and breweries may wake up to the fact that more needs to be paid for malting barley if they want to keep an Irish raw material," he said, adding better prices were being paid for animal feed.

However, IFA deputy president Richard Kennedy said it was a "very positive improvement" for growers.

"The fixed-price offer is currently ahead of that offered for new crop dried feeding barley for harvest 2018 collection," he said.
The Gefion fountain in Copenhagen  Ireland has repaid Denmark, ahead of schedule, a 400m loan provided as part of the bailout

Ireland's remaining IMF bailout debt is expected to be repaid by the end of the week.

The Government announced in September that it was seeking the early repayment of 5.5bn of loans taken out as part of its 2010 international bailout, which will clear the final portion of the loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

That included paying off 4.5bn to the IMF as well as covering the bilateral loans from both Sweden, (0.6bn), and Denmark (0.4bn).

The Danish government said yesterday that the Irish Government had repaid, ahead of schedule, a 400m loan provided as part of the bailout. The Ministry of Finance in Denmark said the loan did not fall due until the period between 2019 and 2021. Ireland reduced the cost of its debt through the early repayment of its more expensive IMF bailout loans in 2014 and 2015, replacing the debt with funds raised at cheaper market rates to save around 1.5bn.

The NTMA previously paid back 18bn of IMF loans ahead of time, but the EU insisted at the time that some of the IMF rescue loans be kept so that the rescue fund remained part of the Troika overseeing the Irish bailout. Agreement was to be sought from the European lenders for the early repayment.

The Department of Finance said that all of the IMF debt is now expected to be repaid by the end of the week. In a statement, the Danish Ministry of Finance said Ireland had been hit hard by the financial crisis. Finance Minister Kristian Jensen said he was glad his country was able to provide a helping hand.

Meanwhile, former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and German politician Fabio De Masi want the European Central Bank to open up about its 2015 decision to freeze funding for Greek banks. Mr Varoufakis and Mr De Masi have asked the General Court of the European Union in Luxembourg to force the ECB to disclose the legal opinion that underpinned its decision to stop increasing the funds available in the emergency liquidity assistance programme for Greek banks.

The ECB refused, saying it preceded the freeze of the cap on ELA by two months. It also didn't discuss the Greek case or any other specific ECB decision.

"The opinion was meant for internal deliberations and disclosing the opinion would undermine the ECB's legitimate interest in receiving frank, objective and comprehensive legal advice, especially because of the general nature of the legal advice and its validity for future deliberations," an ECB spokesman said.

The move heralded one of the most traumatic episodes of the Greek debt crisis, forcing the government to close banks for three weeks and impose capital controls. (Additional reporting Bloomberg)
Danske Bank has transferred 335m of its Irish defined benefit pension liabilities to Irish Life in the largest deal of its kind in the local market.

The deal is part of a worldwide trend that has led to corporations insuring vast amounts of pension liabilities as they attempt to ease headaches caused by unpredictable returns and longer lifespans.

Structured as a so-called 'buy-in' - meaning Irish Life agrees to pay benefits under the scheme every month in return for an upfront payment - the move allows Danske to effectively de-risk its Irish defined benefit pension scheme. The transaction mirrors mega-deals struck in the UK, the biggest market for these types of creative strategies, as corporations rush to escape costly pension liabilities.

According to a report by the consultancy firm, Hymans Robertson, about 700bn of defined benefit pension liabilities could be handed over to insurance companies by 2032.

So far, the large-scale transactions witnessed in the UK and US have proved thin on the ground in Ireland.

But that may change as experts point to improving financial conditions for DB schemes, which sank into deep deficits in the wake of the crash, as well as the persistently cheap valuations of bulk annuities, compared to other low-risk assets.

John O'Brien, a partner at Mercer, who advised the Trustee of Danske's Irish DB scheme, described the buy-in deal as a "ground-breaking transaction" that "represents a significant step forward for the Irish defined benefit market". He claimed it sets "a precedent for using insurance solutions strategically as part of the ongoing risk management toolkit of well-funded schemes, rather than just those facing wind-up".

Tony Lawless, the managing director of Irish Life Corporate Business, described the Danske transaction as "another example of how Irish Life, through our knowledge of and expertise in the challenges currently being faced by Irish pension schemes, can provide unique de-risking solutions to clients as they manage their way through their pension life cycles".

"We hope to build on this platform to partner with other clients facing similar de-risking challenges," he said.

Danske closed its DB scheme to National Irish Bank staff in 2008, three years after it waded into the Irish market, snapping up NIB and Northern Bank in Northern Ireland for about 1.57bn (US$1.85bn).

The scheme had 1,500 members when it was shuttered but its financial performance in recent years is difficult to gauge as the Danske unit running the pension assets does not file fully accessible accounts.

Dankse completed its retreat from the Irish retail banking sector earlier this year, offloading a 1.8bn portfolio of performing loans to Goldman Sachs and Pimco, the US funds giant.

A spokesperson for the Danske scheme said the buy-in marked "another step on our journey plan to further de-risk the scheme and provide even greater security to our members".

Matheson acted as the main legal adviser to the Danske scheme's trustee.

Meanwhile, Maples and Calder, the international law firm, has been named top legal adviser to Irish-serviced funds for the fifth year in a row.

The ranking was revealed in the latest Monterey Insight Report, which provides a thorough analysis of the funds sector. Maples was also credited as a market leader in the establishment of new Irish domiciled funds with a 21pc share of new business and was ranked the number one listing sponsor for ISE-listed funds.
Richard Moat took over as Eirs chief executive in 2014

A consortium controlled by billionaire French telecoms investor Xavier Niel has agreed to purchase 64.5pc of eir for an enterprise value of approximately 3.5bn.

The sale of a majority stake will benefit eir's top managers and the group's lenders who will benefit up to 100m.

It is understood that eir's top management, led by CEO Richard Moat, who will step down upon completion of the deal, will receive the lion's share.

The Irish Independent revealed earlier this year that the 45 top executives and managers would have potentially split a stake in the business worth around 180m - 200m, if the company refloated on the stock market or was sold. That was based on a 1.29bn valuation for eir then.

The transaction is expected to be completed in the first half of next year.

The consortium acquiring eir consists of NJJ, the investment vehicle of Mr Niel, which will own 32.9pc of eir, and Iliad SA, a French telecommunications company, which will own 31.6pc.

Mr Niel is the founder of and owns 52pc of Iliad, where he serves as deputy chairman and chief strategy officer.

Shareholders Anchorage Capital group and Davidson Kempner will retain a combined 35.5pc share in the company, at 26.6pc and 8.9pc respectively.

"We are a long-term investor in the telecoms sector and bring global knowhow to eir. In our businesses in France, Monaco and Switzerland we have consistently delivered investment in infrastructure, while driving down prices for consumers," Mr Niel said.

In the 12 months to 30 June, eir had revenue of 1.3bn and earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation of 520m.

Describing the deal as a "milestone for eir, our customers and indeed for Ireland itself," Carl Leaver, chairman of Eircom Holdings, said that Iliad and NJJ Telecom Europe will bring a wealth of global telecommunications experience which will be of huge benefit to eir and its customers.

"Coupled with the continued involvement of our existing shareholders, Anchorage Capital and Davidson Kempner, the company is well positioned to continue its operational transformation, underpinned by sustained investment, innovative products and services and improved financial performance," Mr Leaver said.
Ryanair's confirmation that it will now recognise cabin crew unions is the latest development in a dramatic four days at the airline.

It had been anticipated that the airline would be forced to acknowledge that it would recognise cabin-crew unions after agreeing to meet pilot unions. Last week, international union groups had urged the airline to recognise unions representing all staff within the carrier.

An unprecedented first meeting between trade union Impact and Ryanair executives got under way yesterday evening at a hotel near Dublin Airport. A series of meetings will eventually see them thrash out a framework for pilot-union recognition.

"Ryanair is moving to recognise unions, starting this week with meetings with Irish, German and Portuguese pilot unions," the airline said in a statement.

"It will lead on in the new year to meetings with other EU pilot unions and cabin crew unions in due course as well," the company said.

A spokesman for the British Airline Pilots' Association said the union would meet Ryanair management in early January.

Ryanair has about 4,200 pilots, and almost 8,000 cabin crew, most of whom are supplied by third-party agencies to the airline, and who generate a large part of their pay from commission on in-flight sales.

Ryanair said that in its last financial year, flight attendants earned approximately 40pc of their average pay from sales commission. Crews get 10pc of everything they sell on board, according to one agency that supplies the airline with flight attendants.

But they're put under enormous pressure by the agencies that contract them out to Ryanair to hit targets.

Last month, a widely circulated document from an agency that supplies Ryanair with cabin crew, warned a flight attendant that they could face "disciplinary proceedings" by the agency and have their working hours unilaterally altered, unless they hit sales targets.

The flight attendant was told that between April and November this year, they had flown 251 flights, but that their "average spend performance" was 48pc below budget.

It provided a detailed list of the percentage of flights on which the flight attendant had sold no items such as gifts, scratchcards, cosmetics, snacks and a number of other items.

"This performance is not acceptable and it is clear that you are simply not doing your job on board," the letter stated.

The worker was told that on a high percentage of the flights they had flown, they generated less than 50 in revenue on each of those flights.

The agency warned: "I might also add your performance will be closely monitored over the next two months. If there is no significant and sustained improvement, then further action will be taken and you may be subject to disciplinary proceedings."

At the time the letters from agencies were published in newspapers last month, Ryanair said it expected under-performers to improve, "and they will be given time and training to do so".

Ryanair's decision last week to recognise pilot unions was inevitably opening the floodgates. Already, baggage handlers in Spain are set to enter talks with the carrier.

But striking deals with unions representing cabin crew could be much more difficult than sealing them with relatively well-paid pilots. Ryanair has opened a can of worms.
A framework has been set up to fast-track negotiations between Ryanair and IMPACT but the union is 'disappointed' at the lack of written collective agreement by management recognising the union.

Eddie Wilson, Chief People Officer for Ryanair said today's negotiations have ended on a positive note.

He also denied allegations of victimisation and said the atmosphere today between both sides was "very good."

However, IMPACT Head of Communications Bernard Harbor, said the union was disappointed that it did not receive written guarantees of recognition from Ryanair.

Mr Harbor told RTE News that the union needed something concrete from management to show Ryanair pilots and the wider public that they really do mean business.

He added that today was not the day to talk about industrial action.

Mr Harbor said that a conclusion would need to be met before noon on Thursday.

Talks between Ryanair and the Impact union on a new working relationship began at 5pm today at Dublin Airport.

Initial talks between the airline and the trade union in coming weeks will seek to establish a framework for union representation at the carrier. Only once this has been agreed on will talks begin in earnest about pilot demands.

Talks will continue tomorrow and Thursday between the airline and trade union members from Germany and Portugal.

Impacts negotiating team includes national secretary Angela Kirk, assistant general secretary Ashley Connolly, as well as about half a dozen Ryanair pilots.

Ryanairs team includes chief operations officer Peter Bellew and its chief people officer, Eddie Wilson.

While tomorrows strike has been called off, preventing future industrial action will depend on todays talks securing meaningful dialogue between both sides.

Earlier today, Ryanair moved to clarify that it will recognise cabin crew unions and other EU pilot unions in 2018.

In a statement the company said that as per their historic decision to recognise unions for the first time, which was announced last Friday, they will look to meet with other unions "in due course".

"Ryanair is moving to recognise unions, starting this week with meetings with Irish, German and Portuguese pilot unions. It will lead on in the New Year to meetings with other EU pilot unions and cabin crew unions in due course as well," the company said today.
It's a magical time of year and for one Irish toddler the excitement was almost too much when she encountered 'Santa' in a Donegal hotel.

Molly Keogh, who is just 18-months old,couldn't contain her excitement when a white bearded man walked into the Caislean Oir hotel in Annagry on Sunday.

"We were out for lunch in Caislean Oir in Annagry, Donegal and I was filming her as she was messing with a bowl of sugar," Molly's aunt Megan told Independent.ie.

"Then a couple walked in and she casually says 'oh Santa' and keeps repeating it, and it just so happens hes wearing a Christmas jumper"

The Santa look-alike took it in his stride and responded in the best way.

"He can be heard saying 'ho ho ho' back to her and he was very good with her."
Saoirse Ronan poses with her award at the 2017 Gotham Awards in New York City Photo by Bennett Raglin/Getty

Saoirse Ronan's trophy cabinet must be heaving with silverware.

The two-time Oscar nominee has picked up another accolade after winning the prestigious Vancouver Film Critics Circle award for her leading role in new movie Lady Bird.

The 23-year-old was named best actress for her part in Greta Gerwig's coming-of-age tale of a 17-year-old girl, rebelling against her mum.

The movie was also named best film of 2017 at the Canadian film festival.

Expand Close Saoirse Ronan in Lady Bird / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Saoirse Ronan in Lady Bird

The honour comes just a week after the star got a Golden Globe nomination for the same part, amid a storm of speculation that she could get another Academy Award nod.

It's been a whirlwind year for Saoirse, who was nominated for an Oscar in her role in Brooklyn at the 2017 event and has been tipped for big things stateside.

She also bought her first house after splashing out on a sprawling property in the Wicklow town of Greystones.

In a clear sign she intends staying close to home, the actress said that despite all the plaudits, she has ruled out ever moving to Hollywood permanently.

"You can come here [Los Angeles] if, you know yourself, you've got your friends, you've got your group of people," she said. "But I think it's very important for me just to physically have separation from this world.

"It means when I'm not doing this, I'm very much somewhere else in every way."

Although Lady Bird won't be officially released in Ireland until February 2018, some film fans got a sneak peak of the movie at a recent VIP event attended by Ronan herself, where she took part in a Q&A session afterwards.

She said what she liked about the movie, which is set in a Catholic school in the pre-social media era of 2002, is that it shows Catholicism in a mainly positive light.

Video of the Day

"I went to a Catholic school and I had a lovely experience. Greta also did as well.

"She's not Catholic but she went to a Catholic high-school and she had relationships with incredible teachers that taught her so much," she said.

"I think it's just really nice to see someone like Lois Smith's character (of a nun) be so cool.

"She's really cool and funny and she has great stories."

Read More

She said what she related to most when it came to her character of Lady Bird was when she packed her bags and left home for the first time.

"I didn't apply to university or go through that. But going to New York and experiencing it on my own as a young adult, that shaped who I am," she said.

"The first time you leave your parents is the worst and it doesn't get easier. I was really affected."

She said that she's now looking forward to a relaxing Christmas at home with her family in Ireland.

The star said she'll keep her plans simple, namely not getting out of her pyjamas and "eating some turkey".
Actress Charlie Murphy is winning rave reviews from her colleagues for her role in the BBC hit series Peaky Blinders.

The Wexford star has taken on the role of feisty union boss Jessie Eden in the fourth series of the fast-paced show about a Birmingham crime gang led by Thomas Shelby (Cillian Murphy).

It seems the 29-year-old, who now lives in London, has sparked no shortage of interest abroad after becoming Shelby's latest love interest, as seen by viewers last week.

In the series finale, which airs tonight, fans of the show will see how the real-life character's budding romance with the menacing crime boss pans out.

She's one of a number of Irish actors and production crew who have been drafted in by Irish director David Caffrey, who worked with her on RTE's Love/Hate, in addition to Aidan Gillen, who plays a gypsy hitman.

Director of photography Cathal Watters, who's also Irish, paid tribute to Charlie's talents and said that in a stellar cast, which includes Adrien Brody and Tom Hardy, she's holding her own. "Charlie was just amazing," he said.

Expand Close Cillian Murphy as Tommy Shelby on 'Peaky Blinders' / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Cillian Murphy as Tommy Shelby on 'Peaky Blinders'

"One of her first scenes was this incredible stand-off as Jessie Eden, who was instrumental in looking for women's rights in the 1926 general strike in the UK.

"But she comes in and plays against Cillian and that cannot be easy, as Cillian's such an amazing actor.

"But Charlie's just awesome. The first time they meet in his office, she's completely a match for him, so it will be interesting to see where it goes."

Speaking about the impact of Gillen's intriguing character Aberama Gold, he said the former Game of Thrones star under-played the part very well.

Expand Close Adrien Brody in Peaky Blinders / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Adrien Brody in Peaky Blinders

"Aidan is incredible, he does it all so subtly - it's more what he doesn't say," he said.

"There was a scene last week with Helen McCrory [Polly] and it was just incredible. It was this bizarre sort of scene, you don't know where it's going to go."

Video of the Day

The show has gathered huge momentum around the globe.

Among its fans is rapper Snoop Dogg, while the late David Bowie had also said he enjoyed the drama.

Read More

Watters told RTE's Ryan Tubridy there's speculation of a movie after the next season is wrapped, which he said would be "incredible".

He also confirmed that the chain-smoking characters aren't actually inhaling real cigarette smoke.

"There is a lot of cigarette smoking in it. It's herbal cigarettes, they're not real cigarettes," he said.

"I think Cillian would be on a stretcher now if he was smoking all those cigarettes."

The last in the series of season four of Peaky Blinders is on BBC Two tonight at 9pm
The Supreme Court has dismissed a challenge by a Romanian man who argued his drink driving prosecution could not proceed because he was not supplied with a breath alcohol statement in Irish as well as in English.

The five judge court's unanimous judgment has implications for an estimated 1,000 drink driving prosecutions, many of which were on hold pending its decision.

Giving the Supreme Court judgment today, Ms Justice Iseult O'Malley stressed the issues to be decided did not relate to any asserted constitutional entitlement to an Irish language version of the statement relied upon to prove the breath alcohol level but rather its evidential status.

She found, while the relevant regulations require a single bilingual form, to be provided in two identical versions, Section 12 of the Interpretation Act applied because the deviation from the prescribed form did not materially affect the substance of the form and no right of Mihai Avadenei's was breached.

The substance of the form was the information intended to be proved in evidence, all information required under the regulations was present, that information was "in no way misleading, confusing or unfair" and no right of Mr Avadenei's was violated by the form being admitted into evidence, she said.

Mr Avadenei, of Swords, Co Dublin, was stopped by a Garda when he was doing 80kmh in a 50kmh zone in the early hours of April 21st 2014.

He was breathalysed at Store Street Garda Station but the intoxilyser apparatus printed out the results in English only.

Mr Avadenei, represented by solicitor Michael Staines, later successfully argued in the District Court and the High Court the form was invalid as it was not also printed in Irish and his prosecution was halted.

The case centred on interpretation of Sections 13 and Section of the Road Traffic Act 2010 and whether or not a print-out is a "duly completed" document for use in evidence if it is not printed in both English and Irish.

After the Court of Appeal overturned the High Court ruling following an appeal by the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal by Mr Avadenei against the Court of Appeal judgment.

Giving the Supreme Court judgment, Ms Justice O'Malley said two issues arose.

The first was whether the breath alcohol statement was in the form required by the relevant law - the Road Traffic Act 2010 and the Regulations made in 2011 under that Act.

The Court of Appeal had agreed with the District and High Courts the statement was defective but, unlike the two lower courts, went on to find the defect - the omission of the Irish part - did not materially affect the substance of the document and it was not misleading in content or effect.

In those circumstances, the appeal court said Section 12 of the Interpretation Act 2005 could be applied, the statement was not invalidated and was to be considered as complying with the prescribed form.

Ms Justice O'Malley said she agreed with the appeal court's analysis and finding.

She noted, under the 2010 Act, a "duly completed" breath alcohol statement "shall, until the contrary is shown, be sufficient evidence in any proceedings under the Road Traffic Acts 1961 to 2010 of the facts stated in it.."

A "straightforward literal reading" of the regulations indicated the form should have contained the Irish language version, she said.

Notwithstanding that defect, she agreed with the Court of Appeal that Section 12 of the 2005 Act could be applied.

The "substance" of the prescribed form is the information intended to be proved in evidence by means of the statutory status accorded to the form, all of the required information was present, no right of Mr Avandei was infringed and the form was admissible in evidence, she ruled.
A man who was convicted of kidnapping a child in London has been jailed for the abuse and rape of a teenage boy here in the mid-90s.

The 42-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the anonymity of the victim, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to rape and sexual assault of the boy at a location in Dublin on dates between June and September 1994. The victim was aged 13 at the time and the man was 19.

Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy imposed a sentence of seven years imprisonment. He also ordered that the man be subject to five years of post release supervision.

He said he was taking the man's guilty plea and genuine remorse into consideration.

The man has 28 previous convictions including a conviction at the Old Bailey in London for kidnapping a male under the age of 14.

Detective Garda Gabriel Duffy told Patrick McGrath SC, prosecuting, that the accused moved into the same house as the boy and became friends with the boy's mother.

During a visit by the boy to the man's room he asked the boy to pull him off. After molesting the boy he gave him money and warned him not to tell anyone what happened.

The man raped the boy twice during two subsequent incidents. He threatened to tell his mother that the child was smoking hash if he reported the abuse.

During the third attack the boy protested and the man punched him in the head.

While this evidence was given in court the man shouted: I talked him into it, there was no violence used. He repeated several times that there had not been any violence.

The court heard that the man, who has a former address in Co Wexford, was abused himself as a child and later went on to work as a rent boy.

Justice Patrick McCarthy said that the fact that he found himself working as a prostitute was a matter of great sadness.

He was arrested for the offences after the victim made a complaint to gardai. He initially denied all allegations but he later showed genuine remorse for his actions, the court heard.

In a victim impact statement, the boy said that the emotional trauma of the event had plagued him throughout his life. He said he was unable to be a father figure to his own children and had given up on life.

Sean Gillane SC, defending, said that his client had been effectively homeless since his teenage years and had suffered from chronic alcoholism.

Mr Justice McCarthy said that the fact that the man was a victim of child abuse himself did not excuse his actions but it was a factor in assessing his moral culpability. He said the abuse he suffered may have dulled his understanding.

He ordered the man be registered as a sex offender.
The Court of Appeal has reserved judgment on Mark Nash's appeal against his conviction for the cold-case killing of two women in Dublin, known as the 'Grangegorman murders'.

Nash was found guilty in 2015 of murdering the two women, whose mutilated bodies were found in sheltered accommodation in Grangegorman 20 years ago.

The 44-year-old, who is originally from England but has last addresses at Prussia Street and Clonliffe Road in Dublin, had pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to the murder of Sylvia Sheils (59) and Mary Callanan (61) between March 6 and March 7, 1997.

A Central Criminal Court jury found Nash unanimously guilty after deliberating for four hours following a 48-day trial and he was accordingly given the mandatory life sentence by Mr Justice Carroll Moran on April 20, 2015.

Expand Close The house in Grangegorman where Sylvia Sheils and Mary Callinan died / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp The house in Grangegorman where Sylvia Sheils and Mary Callinan died

Nash had already been serving life since October 1998 for murdering two people in Ballintober, Castlerea in Roscommon and leaving a woman seriously injured in mid-August 1997. The four murders were committed within the space of five months.

Opening an appeal against his conviction for the Grangegorman murders, Nash's lead senior counsel, Hugh Hartnett SC, told the Court of Appeal that it was an extraordinary and unusual case because another man, the late Dean Lyons, had confessed.

Expand Close Mark Nash at a table quiz just hours before brutal double murder (Photo: Prime Time) / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Mark Nash at a table quiz just hours before brutal double murder (Photo: Prime Time)

A short time later, while Nash was in detention on foot of the Roscommon double killing, he admitted to having carried out the Grangegorman murders five months earlier.

This sent a tremor through Garda Headquarters, the court heard, and various senior officers were tasked with examining how two people were confessing to the same double murder.

Dean Lyons died in 2000 and a jacket, which had been seized from Nash's home during the investigation in the 1990s, was tested and nothing of probative value was found. Nearly 10 years later, and with advances in science, DNA was found around the button threads of Nash's jacket and the DPP decided to prosecute.

Mr Hartnett said the two main planks to the prosecution's case were the admissions made by Nash and the DNA evidence.

He said scientists from the State's Forensic Science Laboratory agreed that there was a risk of contamination but that it was low. Their opinion that the risk was low was based on the absence of other profiles or mixed profiles on the jacket. But we established that there were other profiles, Mr Hartnett said.

He said precautions taken by the State's Forensic Science Laboratory in 1997 were not as acute as they were today and it emerged during cross examination that the victims' bed clothing had been brushed down in the same room the jacket was forensically examined six weeks later.

Mr Hartnett said today/yesterday(WEDNESDAY) that the scientists, on behalf of the State, were obliged to be entirely straight down the middle but they operated a catch me if you can approach to the scientific evidence.

He said the defence were inhibited in the case they wished to make because material was only received two-thirds of the way through cross examination.

Mr Hartnett submitted that the trial judge failed to charge the jury appropriately or at all on the scientific evidence.

He further submitted that it was unfair to allow the prosecution to proceed in view of the delay, the death and loss of various witnesses and in particular, the death of Dean Lyons.

He said the trial judge effectively asked the jury to speculate about certain matters in Dean Lyons' statement.

Also representing Nash, Patrick McGrath SC, submitted that his client's detention in respect of the Grangegorman murders was unlawful, that he did not have proper access to his solicitor at the time and that no warrant was obtained to permit the search of Nash's premise where the jacket was recovered.

The prosecution contended that that Nash had given oral consent for the search, the court heard.

Counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions, Brendan Grehan SC, told the court that contamination could only be explained by a mind boggling series of coincidences and a double contamination event from two separate examinations of the bed clothing on two separate dates, both ending up on the same part of the jacket, both in relatively protected places on the jacket.

Mr Grehan said the contamination issue was talked into the case because the defence didn't have anything else.

He said the defence adopted a scatter gun approach. The gardai were attacked on the basis they had been inept. Many of the scientists were put to the pin of their collar, up hill and down dale that they were involved in some sort of grand conspiracy up in the Forensic Science Laboratory to do down Mr Nash.

Mr Grehan said the whole point about the mixed profile was that it could not be identified. The profiles were not reportable and it was entirely wrong and misleading to suggest it was the DNA of other persons.

Despite attacks of every conceivable kind by the defence, Mr Grehan said the case against Nash was strong when it went to the jury. It wasn't just a stateable case, it was coercive and compelling.

If Nash hadn't committed these murders, Mr Grehan said the Englishman was the most unfortunate person to have lived around the corner, to have been alone on the night in question and to have made admissions combined with maps and plans. He was unlucky to have owned a pair of Caterpillar boots with the same footprint found at the scene, unlucky that his jacket was found to have the DNA of one of the deceased women and doubly unlucky to have had the DNA of the second deceased woman on it.

Mr Grehan said the rulings of the trial judge were careful and reasoned and Nash's lawyers failed to address his findings of fact and to explain why they were wrong and unsupported.

He said there was a generalised complaint about late disclosure but disclosure began in 2009 and the first response of the defence was to go to the High Court for a judicial review on everything under the sun. What was missing in all of the complaints about late disclosure was a nexus to prove some unfairness.

Mr Grehan said it was true that the member in charge's decision to extend the detention of Nash was not recorded but it was crystal clear that questioning in relation to the Roscommon murders had concluded and the gardai were duty bound to investigate the Grangegorman murders.

He said it was Nash's solicitor who told the gardai that his client wished to admit to the Grangegorman murders. The interviewing Garda asked the solicitor whether he wished to stay for this and the solicitor said his client, Nash, hadn't asked him to do so.

Mr Justice Alan Mahon, who sat with Mr Justice John Edwards and Mr Justice Michael White, said the court would reserve judgment.
A father and son appeared in court in relation to an aggravated burglary which resulted in two victims being hospitalised.

Two men living at a house at Highfield Grove in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, suffered injuries during a break-in which occurred at their home at about 3am on Sunday.
RTE has agreed to pay the former presidential election candidate Sean Gallagher "substantial damages", believed to be in the region of 130,000, to settle his 'Tweetgate' action against the broadcaster.

The former 'Dragons' Den' investor also received a lengthy apology over the incident on the 'Frontline' presidential debate programme, which he alleged contributed to his loss of the 2011 election to Michael D Higgins.

The settlement is also believed to involve RTE paying some of his legal costs.

In a statement read to the High Court, RTE said the production of the programme "fell significantly short of the standards expected by the public and required by law".

The settlement brought an end to protracted proceedings initiated by Mr Gallagher in 2013. At a scheduled pre-trial hearing yesterday, Mr Justice David Keane was told by Jim O'Callaghan SC, for Mr Gallagher, that the matter had been resolved.

The size of the settlement was not disclosed in court.

Expand Close Political duel: Sean Gallagher and Martin McGuinness during the controversial 2011 presidential debate. / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Political duel: Sean Gallagher and Martin McGuinness during the controversial 2011 presidential debate.

Mr Gallagher sued the broadcaster for damages over a tweet read out by presenter Pat Kenny during the debate, which was broadcast three days before the election.

A Twitter account with a user name similar to that of the official Martin McGuinness campaign, but not actually linked to Mr McGuinness, said a man who claimed he had given a 5,000 cheque to Mr Gallagher would appear at a press conference the next day.

Mr Gallagher, who was seen as the frontrunner at that time, lost the election.

He successfully complained to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland about the reading out of the tweet, with the BAI finding it had been "unfair" to him.

Mr Gallagher had sought a declaration that the programme was unfairly edited, presented and directed by RTE in order to damage his electoral prospects. RTE rejected the claims.

However, a statement read to the court by a barrister for RTE apologised to Mr Gallagher and acknowledged that it had made mistakes and failed to comply with section 39 of the Broadcasting Act, which imposes a duty to ensure the broadcast treatment of current affairs is fair to all interests concerned.

"RTE acknowledges that it should have verified the origin of a tweet to which reference was made during that broadcast and that the tweet should not have been erroneously attributed to another candidate's Twitter account," the apology said.

"RTE acknowledges that it should not have broadcast the tweet and, when it became apparent during the programme that it was false, it should have immediately corrected the fact that the provenance of the tweet was mistaken. As a result, RTE failed in its obligations to Mr Gallagher."

Mr Gallagher was not in court, but his solicitor said that his client was satisfied RTE had acknowledged it had failed to show him fairness and impartiality - and that this acknowledgement had been "supported by the payment of substantial damages".

He added: "Sean Gallagher's motivation in taking this case has not just been about addressing the unfairness done to him, but also about protecting the integrity of the democratic process, ensuring that what happened to him will not be allowed happen again," he added.
A High Court action brought by convicted murderer Graham Dwyer against the Garda Commissioner and State over the use of mobile phone records could be heard by a three judge divisional court.

Dwyer was charged in October 2013 with the murder of Elaine OHara and was convicted by a jury following a lengthy trial at the Central Criminal Court in March 2015.

In his High Court proceedings commenced in 2015 Dwyer claims certain provisions of the Communications (Retention of Data) Act 2011 breach his rights to privacy under the Constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

The Directive underlying the 2011 Act was struck down by the European Court of Justice in 2015.

The matter, which is due to commence on February 20, was briefly mentioned before Ms Justice Caroline Costello at the High Court on Wednesday.

Sean Guerin SC for the state defendants, said the case raised a number of important legal issues, and one of the things that High Court may want to consider is that the case be heard by a divisional or three judge court.

Ms Justice Costello agreed to adjourn the matter to early January when pretrial issues between the parties can be addressed.

The hearing of Dwyer's case is expected to last for several weeks.

In his action, which is opposed by the State, Dwyer claims the ECJ ruling means that Irish legislation implementing the directive was illegal and that data collected on his phone was also therefore invalid.

Many requests for disclosure of mobile phone records were made under the relevant provisions of the 2011 Act by gardai investigating Ms OHara's murder and were granted by the relevant service providers. Phone data was also admitted into evidence during the trial.

During Dwyers criminal trial, his lawyers argued the mobile phone data was inadmissible as evidence but those arguments were rejected by the trial judge.

The High Court proceedings are against the Garda Commissioner, Director of Public prosecutions, Ministers for Justice and Communications, Ireland and the Attorney General.

In his action, Cork born Dwyer with an address in Foxrock in South Co Dublin seeks, if appropriate, damages and, if necessary, a reference of issues to the European Court of Justice.

Following his conviction Dwyer for the murder of Ms O'Hara in August 2012 the married architect was jailed for life and his appeal against conviction has yet to be heard.
Dublin man who stored over 150,000 of prescription and illegal drugs at his home was found drinking a glass of orange juice in the kitchen while the building was on fire, a court has heard.

Garda Neill McGrath was responding to a call about the house fire when he discovered Jason Kearney (37) in the kitchen of the smoke filled premises drinking orange.

Gda McGrath revealed he had to shout at Kearney several times to get out of the house because he kept walking back into the kitchen.

Once the fire brigade had extinguished the flames, the garda saw tablets on a kitchen countertop and later got a warrant to search the home for drugs.

During the raid he found 104,604 of phenazepam tablets and 41,180 of zopiclone pills, which are both prescription only, as well as 7,400 of the illegal trifluoromethylphenylpiperazine (TFMPP) in ziplock bags in the tumble dyer.

Kearney, a father-of-three of Foxborough Rise, Lucan, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possessing TFMPP for sale or supply at his home on May 27, 2015.

Kearney has 15 previous convictions and is in custody until 2023 for another serious drugs offence after being sentenced last month.

Today Judge Martin Nolan imposed a three year sentence to run concurrently to the jail term he is currently serving.

Gda McGrath told Gerardine Small BL, prosecuting, that Kearney made admissions in interview after his arrest and revealed he was to receive 1,000 for storing the tablets.

The garda agreed with Michael Bowman SC, defending, that his client had been clearly on some type of intoxicant when he was walking around with a glass of orange while his house was on fire.

Gda McGrath accepted that Kearney was unsure what type of drugs he was holding and that he had put them in the tumble dryer because it was the handiest place.

He further agreed Kearney had a significant history with drug abuse and drug offending.

Judge Nolan noted that the defendant was a man who has been addicted all his life to drugs.

He accepted that Kearney was to get a reward for holding the tablets, but said it was unjust to impose a consecutive element to the sentence he was already serving.
The mother of a 23 year-old man who was murdered by a teenager said her son was a soft-natured boy who loved Christmas.

Graham McEvoy (19) of Captain's Road in Crumlin was found guilty on Monday of the murder of Paul "Paulie" Curran (23) at Seagull House on Crumlin Road in Dublin on July 16, 2016. McEvoy pleaded guilty to manslaughter but his plea was rejected and he underwent a week-long trial at the Central Criminal Court.

Yesterday, Justice Patrick McCarthy sentenced McEvoy to life imprisonment. Mr Curran's mother, Elizabeth Curran, was not present in court but wrote a statement which was read by prosecution counsel Conor Devally SC. She said she has suffered mental health issues as a result of her son's death and is often afraid to leave her home in case she meets friends or family of her son's murderer.

She said her son was kind and well-loved and loved Christmas and giving presents. "Christmas will never be the same again," she added.

Describing him as soft-natured, she said he would console anyone who was upset and if a person cried he was so gentle he would cry with them.

During garda interviews McEvoy described Mr Curran as his "best friend" but the deceased's mother said McEvoy was no friend of her son and that he was a bully.

She has difficulty knowing that her son called out for her as he was dying but she was not there to take care of him when he needed her most. She also said she could not believe that her son would have carried a knife, as was stated by McEvoy who told gardai that Mr Curran pulled a knife on him and tried to slash him.

Defence counsel Barry White SC told the court that his client's education ceased when he was 14 and that he had a drug problem. He was living a chaotic lifestyle at the time and, although he had previous for drugs and motor offences, he had no convictions for violent offences prior to this.

Det Sgt Dan Kelly agreed with Mr White that McEvoy appeared genuinely distressed when talking about the stabbing during interviews with gardai. Mr White also asked the court to note that when McEvoy told members of his family, following delivery of the jury verdict: "Don't worry, it's only a few more years," that this was not bravado. He said his client's family was "extremely distressed" and he was trying to dispel their distress. Mr White also indicated an intention to appeal the verdict.

Evidence

The trial heard from Deputy State Pathologist Dr Linda Mulligan that Mr Curran was stabbed at least six times with the fatal wound entering under the left armpit and going through the upper lobe of the left lung. This wound, at a depth of nine or ten centimetres, caused significant bleeding and collapse of the left lung leading to respiratory collapse and death.

Blood loss through other wounds to the backs of his legs contributed to his death while an incised wound to his left forearm was most likely a defensive injury. The injuries to his legs appeared to travel in an upward direction, suggesting that the deceased was at a higher level, such as on a stairs, when those wounds were inflicted.

During garda interviews, McEvoy said he met the deceased at Seagull House to sell him half an ounce of cocaine, but when he asked for his money Mr Curran pulled a knife and tried to slash him. In the scuffle that followed they slipped to the floor and McEvoy said he took the knife from Mr Curran and stabbed him.

His barrister Barry White SC argued that McEvoy was acting in self defence but used excessive force and should therefore be convicted of manslaughter and not murder.

The prosecution said the three knife wounds to the backs of Mr Curran's legs, that the pathologist said went in an upward direction, showed that the deceased was trying to get away rather than scuffling on the ground. The prosecution also pointed to the evidence of a teenage girl who said McEvoy called her earlier that day looking for Mr Curran and said something about "nearly getting a stripe" on his face and that he "got it over Paulie".

In his charge to the jury Justice McCarthy explained that McEvoy's plea to the lesser charge meant that he accepted responsibility for the killing but that at the time he did not intend to kill or cause serious injury.

Justice McCarthy said any person is entitled to defend themselves in a way that is proportionate with the threat. But in circumstances in which the level of force used is not reasonable, the person might still not be guilty of murder.

He said the prosecution would still have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused man knew that the force used was excessive. If the prosecution had failed to prove this then the accused man should be found not guilty of murder, guilty of manslaughter.

However, if the jury was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that he knew at the time that the force he was using was excessive, Justice McCarthy said they should find him guilty of murder.
An appeal over a challenge to a woman's will, which was drawn up a week before she died and left her estate to her best friend, has been dismissed.

Hairstylist Celine Murphy (50), who died of cancer on March 15, 2011, left her 283,000 estate - primarily her apartment in Brownsbarn Court, Clondalkin, Dublin - to her best friend Mary Butler, from Straffan in Co Kildare.

The will was drawn up when she arrived at Ms Butler's home on March 8, the day before Ms Murphy was admitted to St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin, where she died a week later.

While Ms Butler was not in her home that evening, her daughter Johanna was there, along with Latin Tridentine Bishop Michael Cox. He became the executor and Johanna was asked to be a witness.

Subsequently, Ms Murphy's sisters, Majella Rippington and Edel Banahan, along with Ms Rippington's husband, Shaun Rippington, asked the High Court to declare the will invalid. Ms Murphy was unmarried and had no children.

Mary Butler and Bishop Cox counter-claimed, seeking to have the will declared valid.

Ms Rippington, who represented herself, her sister and her husband, asserted invalidity on grounds of alleged duress and undue influence on her late sister.

In July 2015, Mr Justice Seamus Noonan declared the will to be valid and also ordered that the costs of the case should not be borne by the estate but should be paid by the Rippington/Banahan side.

The judge said he did this because of the outrageous and unsubstantiated allegations made by Majella Rippington.

He described Ms Rippington as "domineering, manipulative and an utterly unreliable witness, who was prepared to say anything she felt might serve her purpose".

He was satisfied that Ms Butler was a close and valued friend of Ms Murphy. There was nothing irrational about the contents of her will and Ms Murphy's treating doctor said that she was of sound mind.

Not "a single shred of evidence" had been produced by the Rippington side to support "of any of these extremely serious and scandalous allegations", he said.

Ms Rippington had, in her evidence to the court, engaged "in what can only be described as an attempt to assassinate the character of Ms Butler", the judge said.

The Rippington/Banahan side appealed and yesterday a three-judge court dismissed their appeal.

However, Ms Justice Maire Whelan, on behalf of the appeal court, set aside the High Court costs order and said the appellants should pay the Butler/Cox costs.

Ms Justice Whelan rejected Ms Rippington's claims of bias by the High Court judge and that he had erred in his findings. She also rejected a claim that the High Court failed to take into account and give consideration to the facts and evidence which the appellants had presented.

Merely because a litigant disagrees with a judge's determination, based on evidence, can never in and of itself constitute a basis for asserting bias, Ms Justice Whelan said.

She rejected the Rippington claim that Ms Murphy never actually went to the Butler home.

The judge was satisfied that there was cogent evidence before the trial judge which entitled him to come to the conclusions that he did, including his evaluation of the respective witness.
A student has pleaded guilty to the murder of a man who was stabbed to death at a Dublin flat in October 2016.

Charles Cleary (24), of no fixed abode but from the Rathfarnham area of Dublin, pleaded guilty today at the Central Criminal Court to the murder of Leo Carolan (25) at a flat on the South Circular Road, Dublin 8 on October 4 2016.
A UK lotto millionaire accused of defilement and rape of an under-age Irish teenage girl has been served with a book of evidence and returned for trial to the Central Criminal Court.

The British man was arrested in Dublin in July after he travelled to Ireland to speak to the teens mother about his relationship with her daughter whom he allegedly met through an internet chat-room.

The businessman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was originally charged with four counts of defilement by engaging in a sexual act with a child under the age of 17 years on dates in 2016 and this year. That charge carries a five-year sentence.

However, 44 additional charges were later brought against him in connection with the investigation and bail was refused.

Some 35 of the new charges were for defilement of the girl, there were four counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault, one allegation of assault causing harm to the girl and one charge of possessing child pornography.

He appeared again before Judge Victor Blake at Cloverhill District Court and was served with a book of evidence.

Judge Blake noted that the Director of Public Prosecutions had directed trial on indictment and he made an order sending the man, who is in his late twenties, forward for trial to the Central Criminal Court where he will face his next hearing in the New Year.

Earlier, Garda Stephen Faulkner had objected to bail on the grounds the accused was a man of considerable wealth, a flight risk and some of the charges carried life sentences.

Garda Faulkner alleged the man frequently travelled over from the UK by ferry to meet the girl and gardai have recovered videos of sexual activity between them from the defendants phone. However, it was alleged she told gardai she felt she was not in control of the situation.

He said a complaint was made by the teens mother in January.

The girl outlined that she met him through a named online chat-room, the bail hearing was told. Garda Faulkner said the girl was subscribed to the under-17s category of the website.

They exchanged details and communicated through Snapchat and WhatsApp, he alleged.

Garda Faulkner said it was alleged the man first came to Ireland to meet her last year.

It was alleged they stayed in a hotel in Dublin and had sexual intercourse. She was aged 15 at the time and had told the accused, the court has heard.

Garda Faulkner alleged that the man came back by ferry every four to six weeks.

Last year he bought her a designer ring worth 2,500 telling the shop assistant it was an engagement ring, the judge was told.

Bank records showed he won a substantial amount in the UK lotto, the garda had told the hearing. The defence said the man, who has not yet indicated how he will plead, could face a two-year wait until his trial was reached.
Lee McVicker (23) was arrested at Manchester Airport on Sunday following a row with staff,

A pianist who touched hearts with his musical tribute to his late mother last week has been convicted of being drunk and disorderly on a flight.

Lee McVicker (23) was arrested at Manchester Airport on Sunday following a row with staff, who accused him of smoking. The musician, from Bushmills, Co Antrim had been travelling to York to play at a wedding yesterday.

McVicker, a former Irish Guard, appeared before Manchester Magistrates Court on Monday.

The court heard how he had been drinking with an old friend before the flight. He was arrested in the terminal building at Manchester after arriving for being drunk and for swearing.

Prosecutor Risha Seth told the court: "It was 5.10pm on December 17, 2017. Officers on patrol at Manchester Airport were called to attend at Terminal 1 to reports of a male on an easyJet flight from Belfast.

"A member of cabin crew reported that he was drunk and disorderly on board. Alcohol could be smelled on his breath.

Expand Close Lee McVicker (23) was arrested at Manchester Airport on Sunday following a row with staff, / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Lee McVicker (23) was arrested at Manchester Airport on Sunday following a row with staff,

"There were reports that a male had been suspected of smoking on board and being argumentative with the crew. Police arrived and the drunken male was found and spoken to. He was identified by way of his passport. It became apparent McVicker was extremely intoxicated. He was slurring his words and unsteady on his feet. He was consistently swearing, which he was advised not to do.

"He said: "Well I'm f****** sorry, you know what f*** it, f*** off I'm an honours student you f***'.

"Because of his behaviour within the terminal building and disruption he was arrested for being drunk and disorderly."

McVicker pleaded guilty to the offence and was fined 200 as well as being ordered to pay 85 prosecution costs and a 30 victim surcharge.

Magistrate Andrew Jeffay said: "This incident was in an airport and on an airplane.

"You were abusive to the police who, to be fair, have got better things to be doing keeping other people safe rather than dealing with this misbehaviour.

"We have a range of things we can do.

"We do feel this incident is unacceptable to a lot of people.

"The fine will be for 200 - and that represents an expensive drink."

But speaking to the Belfast Telegraph yesterday, McVicker disputed how the scenario was recalled in court, saying he did not claim to be an honours student, as he didn't know what one was.

He also refutes that he was swearing profusely or smoking on the plane.

"I am sickened that it's all been exaggerated, to be honest," McVicker said.

"I met up with someone at the airport who I hadn't seen in years. We had a few pints.

"I didn't even realise that we were on the same flight.

"We were mid-flight when the air hostess approached us and said that she thought that one of us was smoking on the plane.

"But it wasn't me who was smoking, so I said so - it wasn't anything major.

"I wasn't swearing and saying those things.

"I don't know what an honour's student is, it wasn't me who said it."

The talented pianist, who has fans all over the world, received acclaim just last week when he composed an emotional tribute called Final Goodbye to his mother Denise McGrotty (42), who died suddenly in 2014.

He was only made aware of her funeral two hours before and did not get a chance to say goodbye.

Despite spending a night in the cells, McVicker was released in time to play at the wedding he had been booked for.
A housing campaigner died as a result of an accidental fall down stairs and the position in which he then found himself lying.

A post-mortem examination by Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster is understood to have indicated that Leo Owens (48) had injuries consistent with an accidental fall in his Cork apartment complex.

Gardai are now satisfied that there was no foul play involved in Mr Owens death which is now being treated as a tragic accident.

One critical element of Mr Owens' death is believed to be how he was left lying in the stairwell after the fall which left him vulnerable to positional asphyxia or the restriction of his ability to breath properly.

Mr Owens was also of a bulky build which may have exacerbated the impact of the fall down the stairs.

The discovery was made at 5pm on Tuesday by neighbours at the Harbour Hill complex in Cobh who immediately alerted Gardai.

Mr Owens, the son of a former Workers Party councillor in Cobh, was pronounced dead at the scene before he could be transferred to Cork

University Hospital (CUH) by paramedics.

Gardai immediately sealed off the area to allow for a full forensic examination.

The Office of the State Pathologist was notified.

A full post mortem examination was conducted at CUH by Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster.

It is understood it determined that Mr Owens injuries were consistent with having been sustained in an accidental fall.

Mr Owens made headlines earlier this year when he was part of a campaign over the rights of tenants in private rented accommodation.

He was also the focus of a submission to the Residential Tenancy Board (RTB).

He also featured in an RTE programme on the rights of tenants in private rented accommodation across Ireland.

Mr Owens was single and did not have children.

Tributes were paid to him in his native Cobh today.

Councillor Cathal Rasmussen described the incident as a terrible tragedy.

"It is very tragic particularly at this time of year. It is very, very sad for his family," he said.

Mr Owens is believed to have also been suffering from a number of health issues over recent times.
An Irish campaigner who has fought for better services for Cystic Fibrosis patients is on life support in New York, awaiting a vital double lung transplant.

Orla Tinsley (30), a Kildare-born journalist who now lives in New York, has been too unwell to travel home and is currently in New York-Presbyterian Hospital awaiting news of a potential a lung transplant.

The young woman has campaigned tirelessly to raise awareness of Cystic Fibrosis and has written extensively on the subject.

From hospital this week Orla urged people to carry an organ donor card and told her well-wishers she is "fighting intensely".

Expand Close Orla Tinsley. PIC: Go Fund ME / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Orla Tinsley. PIC: Go Fund 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

The young woman said she is hopeful of a transplant this time around, having been called for a transplant on six other occasions only to discover that they were not a match.

A number of people in Ireland have sent well-wishes to Orla, as she awaits news.

She also uploaded a picture of her oxygen mask to social media site Instagram and said her "entire focus now is on breathing".

"I am struggling a lot but I am strong and hopeful," she said.

"Im a ninja. They dont quit and they are adaptable to all situations. They karate chop their way with stealth, fancy foot work and a determined mind.

"I have an incredible team @nyphospital who are working intensely around the clock to keep me alive. We are hopeful that lungs are coming. My family are with me and we just need those lungs to come," she added.

Orla relocated to New York in 2014 to study at Colombia University but her health deteriorated when she developed respiratory failure and she has been unable to travel home to Ireland as a result.

Previously a friend of Orla began a fundraising campaign to help Orla cover the cost of her after-care in the event of a transplant, which can be found HERE.
Flowers and candles at the house of the late Rosie Hanrahan in Limerick. Photo: Liam Burke

The twinkling Christmas lights of Limerick's city centre stand in stark contrast across the River Shannon to the darkness that has enveloped the suburb of Thomondgate.

In this tight-knit, working-class community, many locals have either taken down their Christmas lights or simply aren't turning them on as a mark of respect to the kind-hearted pensioner who was brutally murdered in her own home.

The cruel death of Rosie Hanrahan (78) during a suspected botched burglary hasn't just shocked a suburb where the population is largely middle-aged or elderly. It has left many genuinely frightened in their own homes.

Few are feeling festive as they come to grips with the knowledge that a killer, willing to take the life of an elderly widow, still remains at large in Limerick. For many, the brutal killing was a reminder of the dark days that Limerick thought it had left behind when its local gangland feud earned the city unwanted headlines worldwide.

In Thomondgate, the memories of other tragedies are also all too fresh and painful.

Limerick teen Chloe Kinsella was found by a stretch of the Shannon in October 2013, almost a week after she went missing, which was less than 100 metres from New Road, where Mrs Hanrahan's home of 40 years is located. That tragedy left locals reeling.

The murder of Mrs Hanrahan, just over a week before Christmas, has had a similarly seismic impact on the communities of Thomondgate and Kileely.

Local TD Willie O'Dea, a friend of Mrs Hanrahan, said people were struggling to come to terms with the horror of the widow's murder last Friday. He has been inundated with requests from elderly locals for advice and assistance about house alarms and emergency personal alert systems. Private security firms have already called to a number of properties in the area in the wake of Friday's horror.

Incredibly, Ireland's support grant scheme for such personal alarms was under-claimed last year.

"It is terrible, just terrible - you can see how people are shocked and frightened," said Mr O'Dea.

Age Action Ireland's Justin Moran said the fear was perfectly understandable.

"A strong community is the best support people who feel they are vulnerable can have. The best way to deter these vicious thugs that carried out the attack on Rose Hanrahan is to have an active, strong community that is looking out for each other and is working closely with gardai."

Mr Moran said the murder underlined the fact that while all the headlines over recent months might focus on rural crime, elderly people living in urban areas were also being targeted.
A garda outside the home of Joseph Waters in Kildangan, Co Offaly

A visually impaired farmer was pinned to the floor, viciously beaten with sticks and threatened with a knife as three masked men ransacked his home for his life savings.

Joseph Waters, a 77-year-old bachelor, was sitting at his kitchen table in his rural bungalow in the Kildangan area of Durrow, Co Offaly, when the gang broke in at around 8pm on Monday.

He was struck a number of times on the body, suffering a particularly severe "belt" to his head.

The attack comes just months after another farmer, 54-year-old Richie McKelvey, was attacked by a gang in his house near Birr.

Expand Close PJ Gorman, a neighbour of Joseph Waters / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp PJ Gorman, a neighbour of Joseph Waters

Neighbour PJ Gorman said Mr Waters was alone when the attackers climbed through a window they had smashed at the back of the house.

"His little kitchen is in the corner of his home, and after getting inside, they made their way down the hall.

"Joe was looking at a book at the time when they attacked.

"I don't know how he'd be reading it because his sight is bad - and the lighting in the kitchen isn't great.

"They started shouting, 'We want the money, we want the money, we'll kill you, we'll kill you'.

"They then pegged him to the floor.

Expand Close Gardai search the road outside Joseph Waters' home / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Gardai search the road outside Joseph Waters' home

"Two of them went into another room, searching and pulling the place apart.

"The other lad held Joe in the kitchen, took out a knife, and held it to his throat," said Mr Gorman.

"Each of them also had sticks about an inch-and-a-half thick, and three foot long.

"They belted him with their weapons, and pulled him around the yard to try and loosen him up.

"Thankfully, Joe wasn't cut when they put the knife to his throat.

"He has a mark on the side of his head, but he had a scan in hospital, and thanks be to God is ok.

"They think his shoulder was dislocated, and he may have broken a bone.

"I don't think they got anything in the end."

When the attackers fled, Mr Waters stayed in the house for about half an hour because he was afraid he'd be attacked again if the men were still outside.

"He eventually rummaged his way to my son's house across the road," said Mr Gorman. "His eyesight is very bad, and usually my son has a light on, but he didn't have it on at the time.

"Joe was afraid he'd trip over children's toys because his eyesight is so poor.

"He can't remember how long the ordeal lasted."

Speaking to Independent.ie, Mr Gorman described his elderly neighbour as a "decent and helpful man".

"He's been a lifelong friend and is an absolute gentleman. He never hurt anyone.

"It's not going to be easy for him to get over this, living on his own in his little house.

"But he's determined to get on with his life. He's a strong-willed person.

"His parents built the house when he was a youngster and he's been living there ever since.

"He's sociable and visits me every Tuesday night. I'd always make sure he got home ok because of his sight issues.

"He's a man of simple tastes."

His three attackers are described as 5ft 6in in height, in their 20s, and with local accents.

Gardai are appealing for witnesses who may have been in the area or travelling on the Tullamore to Clara road, between 7.30pm and 8.30pm, and noticed anything suspicious.
Leading Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage will be in Dublin in early 2018 to promote Irexit.

The former Ukip leader will be in Ireland to promote the idea that Ireland would be better off outside the European Union.

Irexit: Free to Prosper is set to take place in the RDS on September 3, 2018.

It will be led by a panel of speakers which include Farage, journalist John Waters, Independent councillor James Charity, Sunday Times columnist Cormac Lucey and a special guest moderator who has yet to be announced.

The event is being organised by Farage's parliamentary group, Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD).

The talk hopes to promote the belief that Ireland leaving the EU will solve the "looming border crisis, protect out trade with the UK, restore our fishing rights and protect the All Ireland peace process".
A record number of children and families will be spending this Christmas without a home.

For the first time ever, the number of homeless children hit 3,333 last month, up from a previous high of 3,194 in October, according to the latest figures from the Department of Housing.

The figures, released by Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy last night, reveal that 1,530 families were officially homeless during the period of November 22 to 26.

The total number of homeless adults is also at a record high of 5,524. The figures include 2,437 people living in private emergency accommodation, such as hotels and B&Bs, as well as 2,974 in temporary accommodation.

The bulk of the homeless are in Dublin, in which 3,691 people were recorded accessing homeless services by the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive.

Mike Allen, director of advocacy for the homeless charity Focus Ireland, said the figures were "depressing" but "not surprising".

"We're continuing to see a large number of people coming into homelessness," he told the Irish Independent last night.

However, what is surprising is that the temporary lull in evictions that typically occurs in the run-up to Christmas didn't happen this year and the number of those facing a bleak Christmas is growing, he warned.

Meanwhile, President Michael D Higgins paid tribute to those working with the homeless as he spoke about the housing crisis in his annual Christmas message.

"This Christmas, once again, the burden of homelessness will overshadow the festive season for those deprived of a secure and permanent shelter," he said.

"We are challenged, I suggest, to turn this time of celebration into a sustained commitment of awareness and care for those for whom each day is an act of survival," he said.

"May I thank those who work so tirelessly to support those in our society who are vulnerable.

"I have been fortunate to meet with so many groups and volunteers who have shone, and continue to shine, a light of hope into the lives of some of our most marginalised people.

"Their work is an inspiring example and an uplifting reminder of the real will and capacity that exists among the people of Ireland, to re-imagine our society, and achieve an inclusive republic for all."
Six garda stations including the controversial Stepaside location in Shane Ross's constituency have been nominated for reopening within months under a government pilot scheme.

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan has briefed the Cabinet on the final report on bringing six stations back into use years after they were shut down.

Acting Commissioner Donall O Cualain has ordered the Office of Public Works to begin work to reopen the stations at Stepaside and Rush, Co Dublin, as well as Bawnboy, Co Cavan; Ballinspittle, Co Cork; Donard, Co Wicklow; and Leighlinbridge, Co Carlow.

Opposition TDs have claimed the criteria set out by Government for the reopening of stations was designed to result in Stepaside reopening.

There have been accusations of 'stroke politics' over the plan to reopen the station as Independent Alliance minister Shane Ross had been campaigning for it to happen.

Both he and the Government have denied the allegations.

Despite the controversy, Culture Minister and TD for Dublin Rathdown Josepha Madigan last night described the moves to reopen Stepaside as "a Christmas wish come true" for the area. She said the decision was a "major victory" for local residents.

An interim report on the pilot programme submitted to the Government in June recommended Stepaside for reopening.

Garda Assistant Commissioner John O'Driscoll's final report - completed in November - cited population growth as a reason to reopen Stepaside.

Mr O'Driscoll said the impact of Brexit on Ireland from a law enforcement perspective was as yet unknown, and it appeared advisable to use the pilot project to send extra personnel close to what will become the land Border between the EU and the UK.

Ballinspittle was chosen as the Census 2016 showed that the largest rural population increase took place in Co Cork.

Population increases in Wicklow were also cited for the recommendation of Donard.

Meanwhile, Leighlinbridge was selected in part because the town is vulnerable to mobile criminals using the nearby M9 motorway.

No Garda station in the western region was recommended for reopening amid a reduction in the number of property-related crimes between 2011 and 2017.
The Citizens Assembly was tasked with examining the Eighth Amendment. Photo: Damien Eagers

There should be no time limit on abortions in cases of fatal foetal abnormality, a major Oireachtas report recommends today.

The report, from the Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment, says that based on "compassionate" grounds for the women and families involved, applying a gestational limit would not be "appropriate".

This is due to the fact that ultrasound anomaly scans are normally not provided before the 20th week of pregnancy.

Further scanning and testing may be also be necessary after the initial diagnosis.

The committee is also calling for abnormality scans to be made "available to all pregnant woman" between the 18th and 22nd week.

In addition, the report says it is necessary to provide equal healthcare for women who decide to terminate a "much-wanted pregnancy" as for those who decide not to do so.

It recommends that post-mortems should be conducted in all cases of this kind, "irrespective" of whether a termination takes place.

In its final report, released today following months of expert testimony, the committee is recommending profound changes to Ireland's Constitution.

Twenty-one TDs and senators from all political parties heard the evidence and considered the recommendations made by the Citizens Assembly, which took place earlier in the year.

However, it refused to endorse the assembly's call for lawful access to abortion in cases of foetal abnormality which does not result in death.

The committee said that while it acknowledged the "burden" placed on families in these situations, there was a "concern" that legislation in this area would "unavoidably stigmatise the vulnerable".

In particular, this relates to evidence heard about requests for abortion based on discovery of Down syndrome.

The Citizens Assembly also recommended that termination of a pregnancy as a result of rape should be lawful up to a 22-week gestational limit.

However, the committee report also differs from this position. The difficulty in proving that rape has occurred, as well as concerns over adding further trauma to a victim, makes this scenario "unworkable", it finds.

The joint-party committee is calling for "repeal simpliciter" of Article 40.3.3, otherwise known as The Eighth Amendment, meaning that it would be removed fully from the Constitution.

The Oireachtas would then be the sole source of regulation on the issue of abortion.

It recommends permitting termination of pregnancy with no restriction as to reason with a gestational limit of 12 weeks.

This would be in conjunction with a GP-led service allowing for the provision of abortion tablets, which would only apply to the termination of pregnancies up to 10 or 12 weeks.

Contraception

Alongside changes to the Constitution and law, the committee is also calling for improvements in sexual health and relationship education, including in the areas of contraception and consent, in primary and post-primary schools, colleges, youth clubs and other organisations involved in education and interactions with young people.

It also recommends the provision of better reproductive healthcare services for all women, including in the areas of family planning, contraception, perinatal hospice care and termination of pregnancy.

The entire Oireachtas is due to consider today's findings and will vote on them in the new year.

A referendum on the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution is due to take place in May.
Standards of living have improved for most Irish people, according to a new study showing decreased deprivation levels and a rise in disposable income.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) 'Survey on Income and Living Conditions' for 2016 found that rates of deprivation dropped by 4.5pc and median disposable income was up almost 600 to 20,597 per household.

That's based on a calculation that takes into account household income, size, and the number of dependants. It represents a 3pc rise on 2015.

In total, just over one in five people (21pc) experienced some level of deprivation in 2016.

Among issues considered when determining the deprivation rates were instances of people going without heating at some stage in the year (9.2pc); those unable to afford to replace worn-out furniture (21.1pc); and people unable to afford to buy presents for family or friends at least once a year (4.4pc).

People who experience two or more of 11 listed categories are considered to be experiencing enforced deprivation.

In 2016, 16.5pc were at risk of poverty, slightly down on the 2015 rate of 16.9pc.

One part of the country where the risk of poverty actually increased last year - by 1.5pc to 22.3pc - was in the Border, Midland and Western (BMW) region.

CSO officials said the reason for this needed further examination but pointed to a 9pc fall in farmers' incomes in 2016 as one factor that might have affected the BMW area more. The corresponding risk of poverty rate in the southern and eastern region stood at 14.4pc last year.

The consistent poverty rate nationwide was 8.3pc, which the CSO said was not a statistically significant change on the 2015 figure of 8.7pc.

Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty welcomed the general downward trend in poverty rates, saying that basic deprivation is down from more than 30pc at its peak in 2013 to 21pc in 2016. She put rises in incomes down to increased employment and higher earnings for people in work and said the economic recovery was reflected in the figures.

She also said that despite the improvements the release of the data so close to Christmas was a reminder of the "difficult challenges and financial choices that many families and individuals continue to face". She said there was "still some way to go" but she was "confident" there would be further reductions in the number of people experiencing poverty or deprivation.
Pope Francis and Britain's Queen Elizabeth could visit Northern Ireland together next year, it has been reported.

The Pope is expected to visit Ireland in August for the 2018 World Meeting of Families.

The Vatican is expected to make an official announcement early in the new year regarding a visit by the Pope.

It is likely that any trip to Northern Ireland will also be made known within the next few weeks.

The possibility of the Pontiff making an official visit to the North gathered pace yesterday. Archbishop Richard Clarke made the suggestion in an interview with Q Radio that the leader of the Catholic Church could even be accompanied by the British monarch. The archbishop said that a joint visit by the Pope and the queen to Northern Ireland would be "remarkable and wonderful".

"The Church of Ireland bishops and archbishops made it very clear they would be very happy to see the Pope in Ireland, North or South," he said.

"I suppose for them both to be seen together would be a momentous occasion but it would not be the first time the Pope and queen have met together."

The queen had a private meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican in 2014.

Fr Tim Bartlett, one of the organisers of the World Meeting of Families, to be held in Dublin next August, said: "There is a very real possibility that Pope Francis will be joining us in August next year.

"I know he wants to be with us and we look forward to an announcement in January or February."

Officials say that the Pope's schedule is not confirmed until a few months prior to any event.

Last November, former Taoiseach Enda Kenny held a private meeting at the Vatican with the head of the Catholic Church.

The last time there was a Papal visit to Ireland was in 1979, when Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass at the Phoenix Park in Dublin.

Asked about the prospect of a Papal visit in the North, a DUP spokesperson said: "Any potential visit to Northern Ireland by the Pope is a matter for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London.

"The party leader [Arlene Foster] previously indicated that she would respect his position as head of state."
Impact representatives Ashley Connolly, Bernard Harbor and Angela Kirk arrive for talks with Ryanair at the Carlton Hotel in Dublin. Photo: Stephen Collins

Ryanair pilots were forced to stay at "dumps" when overnighting away from their home bases, while giving pilots a "hard time" appeared to be the goal of the airline's administrative staff, its executives have admitted.

"I've got pictures of some of the dumps," Ryanair's chief operations officer, Peter Bellew, told pilots at London Stansted when he met them last week.

Mr Bellew reiterated that staff retention was important for the carrier, adding that pilots who were leaving had been told: "There's the door, Foxtrot Oscar" - a euphemism for "f*** off".

"With the anger there is around the place, if we don't manage to turn that around, we're going to lose more people, so we need to change that. I'm convinced we will do it," he said.

Expand Close Ryanair chief operations officer Peter Bellew / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Ryanair chief operations officer Peter Bellew

Yesterday, the Irish Independent first revealed the content of last Thursday's meeting, as Mr Bellew and Ryanair's chief people officer, Eddie Wilson, unmasked a broken culture and creaking operations that had been key ingredients in the genesis of the airline's September pilot-rostering fiasco.

"Part of the problem is that some of the people who were doing these jobs in the past, there was no training whatsoever," Mr Bellew admitted during the meeting.

He admitted that some of the airline's administrative staff saw it as their job to give pilots "a hard time".

"There is certain basic administrative and simple stuff that made this flight operations department work in the previous 25 years that was removed," he conceded, adding that pilots, management and other staff would have to work together to fix the problems.

Mr Bellew rejoined Ryanair earlier this month from Malaysia Airlines. He previously said rejoining Ryanair, where he worked until 2014, was a form of "national service".

Read More

Mr Bellew has told pilots that he now wants to make Ryanair a "tremendous" place to work again. "This generally was a very pleasant place to work, people were happy," he told the pilots in Stansted. "It's not like that any more. We need to change the tone dramatically."

The Irish Independent reported yesterday that Mr Bellew described the tone in Ryanair as "miserable" following the intense scrutiny it had been under since the rostering failure.

Yesterday evening, Mr Bellew and Mr Wilson met representatives from the trade union Impact as they started unprecedented talks aimed at recognising unions.

Following the conclusion of the talks, Impact's Bernard Harbor was asked by reporters whether the threat of industrial action had increased or receded. He replied: "The ball is in Ryanair's court."

He said Ryanair has until noon tomorrow to respond to proposals it has put forward on recognising Impact/Ialpa for collective bargaining purposes.

Meanwhile, Mr Wilson was more upbeat is his assessment of the talks, saying they had ended on a "positive note" and will continue today and tomorrow with unions from Germany and Portugal. However, he sounded a note of caution to employees, warning that in a "unionised environment" there might be "more modest pay increases going forward".
Gardai were granted an extra 48 hours by the courts today to continue to examine the home of a murdered pensioner a crime scene

Gardai believe the home of murdered pensioner Rosie Hanrahan (78) was under surveillance by thieves in the days before her death.

The primary theory now being examined by detectives under Limerick's Supt Derek Smart is that the thief or thieves mistakenly thought the pensioner had left her Thomondgate house when they broke in through a back window late on Thursday or early last Friday.

Ms Hanrahan was a regular shopper and also attended Mass at St Munchin's Church.

The frail woman, on hearing noises in her home, is thought to have surprised the intruder.

While gardai have refused to comment on the cause of Ms Hanrahan's death for operational reasons, it is believed she was tied up and strangled.

Her body was discovered lying in the hallway by her shocked sister, Evelyn, who called with her husband, Jim Kenny, to the property on Friday afternoon.

Expand Close Murder victim Rosie Hanrahan was killed after confronting a burglar in her home. Photo: Liam Burke Press 22 / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Murder victim Rosie Hanrahan was killed after confronting a burglar in her home. Photo: Liam Burke Press 22

The brutality of her killing has led gardai to suspect that the panicked intruder was determined to protect their identity - and that they may have been ransacking the house without even wearing a mask.

Detectives are now trying to trace the movements of known burglars in the Limerick area over last Thursday and Friday.

A Garda source confirmed that forensics and CCTV footage is now expected to play a critical role in directing the investigation.

Hundreds of hours of CCTV footage is now being studied by gardai.

Gardai have also urged anyone with dash cameras fitted to cars or vans and who were in the Thomondgate area last week to contact them.

Garda Technical Bureau officers continued a painstaking examination of the property which backs onto the River Shannon.

Officers also examined an area of waste ground near an industrial park - amid speculation it may have been used to maintain surveillance on Ms Hanrahan's home.

Read More

Her late husband, Michael, was a fisherman who operated on the River Shannon.

One source said gardai already had fingerprint and DNA data and were trying to determine whether it was connected in any way to the person responsible for Ms Hanrahan's murder.

Gardai have been given until this evening by Limerick District Court to treat the house at New Road, Thomondgate, as a crime scene.

Funeral details for Ms Hanrahan are also expected to be confirmed today.

Parish priest Fr Donal McNamara is now liaising with elderly residents of Thomondgate who want to stage a prayer vigil in memory of Ms Hanrahan.

"She had tremendous faith and was always so appreciative and grateful for anything that was done for her," Fr McNamara said.

Limerick Mayor Councillor Sean Lynch, a former garda, was confident that detectives will identify the killer.

"With DNA profiling there is no way out for these people - they will eventually be caught," he said. "It probably wasn't their intention to do harm to this person.

"But there will now be behavioural changes in the person or persons responsible.

"I would appeal to anyone who has information to do the right thing and contact gardai."

Cllr Lynch said he believed the tightknit, hard-working Thomondgate community may well hold the key to solving the murder investigation.

"People had to see something - anyone who has private CCTV cameras or dash cams should let gardai know - that might help solve this for gardai. The smallest little thing might just be what gardai need."

Gardai continued door-to-door inquires around Thomondgate.

Locals said the community was doing everything possible to assist the investigation while mourning the loss of a kind-hearted lady.

Local man Andrew O'Halloran said people couldn't believe such an horrific crime could occur in such a quiet area.

"She was a lovely, lovely lady. I used to meet her at Mass.

"I'm hoping and praying that the guards get whoever did this awful thing," he said.

Rose's sister, Helen, said everyone was still reeling from the killing. "She was so good to everybody," she said.

"You would wonder why? She has never done anything to anybody. It is very strange."

Rose had been scheduled to spend Christmas with Helen.
The three brothers - Ryan, Niall and Liam - celebrate a birthday at the family home in Castlerahan, near Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan. and inset Clodagh Hawe

ALAN HAWE apologised for brutally murdering his wife and their three kids in a note he wrote after killing them - but claimed he had no other choice.

The assistant school principal (40), his schoolteacher wife, Clodagh (39), and their three children Liam (13) Niall (11) and Ryan (6), were found dead in their home near Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan, on the morning of Monday August 29, 2016.

"I am sorry for how I murdered them all but I simply had not other way," he wrote in a note found at the family home.

The note was addressed to his parents and siblings, and to Clodagh's mother and sister.

Expand Close Clodagh Hawe with her sons Niall, Ryan and Liam on a holiday in Venice / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Clodagh Hawe with her sons Niall, Ryan and Liam on a holiday in Venice

An inquest into the deaths of the five people found that Clodagh and her three children were unlawfully killed, and that Hawe took his own life.

Read More

Speaking outside the courtroom yesterday, his wife's relatives said Hawe faced the prospect of his marriage breaking up.

The father-of-three was also facing a "fall" from his position as a pillar of the community, his wife's family said.

The inquest into their deaths in Cavan courthouse heard Hawe was troubled, depressed and severely mentally ill in the months before the deaths.

However, while details of the lengthy letter he left after the brutal killings were given to the jury and some of the expert medical witnesses, they were not read out in court.

The five-page letter was just one of a number of written items left by Hawe, including a note he taped on the back door of the house that read: "Please do not come in. Please call the gardai."

Details of the five-page letter have been obtained by today's Irish Daily Star newspaper.

They include that Hawe

*Did not want to leave his three boys as orphans

*Felt he was suffering from a form of psychosis

*Insisted that "Please believe me that on this day Clodagh and the boys were happy".

Expand Close Alan Hawe killed his wife Clodagh and their children Liam, 13, Niall, 11 and Ryan, six / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Alan Hawe killed his wife Clodagh and their children Liam, 13, Niall, 11 and Ryan, six

The note also refer to Hawe's anxieties over his work performance as a teacher - while the inquest heard yesterday that he had told his doctor he was stressed following a conflict with a colleague.

The details of the letter have emerged after a solicitor for Mary Coll and Jacqueline Connolly, Mrs Hawe's mother and sister, yesterday said Mr Hawe targeted his wife and eldest son first for fear they may fight back.

Expand Close Clodagh Hawe's mother Mary Coll and sister Jacqueline Connolly leaving the inquest on Tuesday. Photo: Mark Condren / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Clodagh Hawe's mother Mary Coll and sister Jacqueline Connolly leaving the inquest on Tuesday. Photo: Mark Condren

On the steps of the courthouse, lawyer Liam Keane said the killings were premeditated and calculated.

Flanked by the grief-stricken Mrs Coll and her surviving daughter Jacqueline Connolly, he said: "It is clear from the evidence presented at the inquest that Clodagh and her boys were killed in a sequence that ensured that the eldest and most likely to provide effective resistance were killed first, and they were executed in a manner that rendered them unable to cry out for help."

Mr Keane said the two-day hearing, which included harrowing evidence examining how the school teacher mother and her sons died, does not address why Alan Hawe "committed this savagery".

The solicitor referred to the psychotherapist David McConnell who held counselling sessions with Mr Hawe from March 15 to June 21 2016.

"His counsellor has said that he was concerned about his position as a pillar of the community," Mr Keane said.

"We are aware that he was concerned at his imminent fall from that position and the breakdown of his marriage."

It is understood that the five-page letter by Hawe illustrates his inner turmoil, but does not give any reason for the horrific killings he carried out.

The letter is understood to be disjointed and rambling.

The bodies of the Hawe family were discovered after Mrs Coll called to their home in Oakdene Downs, Barconey, near Ballyjmesduff, and saw the envelope on the back door warning for gardai to be called.

Expand Close Jacqueline Connolly, a sister of Clodagh Hawe, and their mother, Mary Coll, at the inquest in Cavan Coroners Court. Photo: Tony Gavin / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Jacqueline Connolly, a sister of Clodagh Hawe, and their mother, Mary Coll, at the inquest in Cavan Coroners Court. Photo: Tony Gavin

The jury of six women and one man returned verdicts of unlawful killing of Mrs Hawe and her three boys and suicide in the death of Hawe.

The inquest was told the vice-principal last visited the psychotherapist and his GP on June 21 2016.

Mr McConnell said Mr Hawe gave no indication that he would harm himself or others. Dr Paula McKevitt said Mr Hawe attended her surgery complaining about a sore toenail.

He also told her he had washed his feet in bleach.

The GP said he was a little stressed about work and had not been sleeping.

Professor Harry Kennedy, clinical director at the Central Mental Hospital, was asked by Coroner Dr Mary Flanagan to review Mr Hawe's suicide note and reports from his therapist and GP.

Expand Close Prof Harry Kennedy at the Inquest into the deaths of Hawe family at Cavan Court House. Pic: Mark Condren. / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Prof Harry Kennedy at the Inquest into the deaths of Hawe family at Cavan Court House. Pic: Mark Condren.

He said: "The counselling notes from March to June last year indicate that Alan Hawe was troubled."

Professor Kennedy told the hearing that he believed that at the time Mr Hawe carried out the murder-suicide he had progressed from long-term depression to a severe depressive episode with psychotic symptoms.

"When people act in the course of severe mental illness, such as very severe psychotic mental illness, their judgment is severely impaired," Professor Kennedy said.

Referring to his review of the suicide note and the GP's and therapist's reports, Prof Kennedy said: "Hindsight is always a very unfair advantage."

Mr Keane praised the work of gardai in the case.

He also extended thanks to family, friends and neighbours in Virginia, Co Meath and Mrs Hawe's friends, colleagues and community where she taught in Oristown, Co Meath.

"We are aware of all those affected by these killings, especially the friends of Liam, Ryan and Niall and their parents," he said.

Meanwhile, speaking after the conclusion of the inquest solicitor for the sister and mother of Clodagh Hawe asked for the family to be given privacy to grieve with dignity.

At the close of the hearing, coroner Dr Mary Flanagan said she had never been at an inquest before where the foreman of the jury was almost brought to tears while trying to deliver the verdicts.

"I just want to express my deepest sympathies with the Colls and the Hawe families on this dreadful chain of events," she said.

"There are no words to describe the upset that befell your family."

Dr Flanagan said there was nothing she could say that could adequately sympathise with them.

"It's unimaginable what you have had to endure," she said.

The foreman of the jury added: "We have no words either, other than to say that we are absolutely so sorry."

Anyone affected by issues raised in this article can contact Samaritans on 116 123, Pieta House on 1800 247 247, Childline on 1800 66 66 66, or text "support" to 50101, and Women's Aid on 1800 341 900.
The Late Late show host Ryan Tubridy brought cheer to the childrens' hospital today with a special visit to mark the Christmas season.

Mr Tubridy, who is an ambassador for the Children's Medical & Research Foundation (CMRF), paid a visit to Our Ladys Children's Hospital, Crumlin to raise awareness of vital supports for sick children.

Expand Close Ryan Tubridy paid a visit to Our Ladys Children's Hospital, Crumlin / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Ryan Tubridy paid a visit to Our Ladys Children's Hospital, Crumlin

According to CMRF, one in 100 children in Ireland are born with a structural heart defect, and one in 19 people in Ireland carry the Cystic Fibrosis gene.

With so many children battling with childhood illness and disease day in day out, hundreds of Irish children will spend Christmas in hospital.

"For lots of children, they get a laugh out of meeting the 'Toy Man' when they are staying in any hospital, especially at Christmas time," said Mr Tubridy.

"Its important we remember that while most families are enjoying Christmas Day surrounded by loved ones at home, not everyone is so lucky. Some children will be spending the day here, at Our Ladys Childrens Hospital, Crumlin having treatment.

"CMRF are asking people to think about these kids over the next few days and where possible, help make their experience a little bit easier by donating much needed funds to the foundation.

CMRF Crumlin provides funding for Our Ladys Childrens Hospital Crumlin who provide critical care for more than 120,000 sick children each year.

It is also the primary funder of the NCRC (National Childrens Research Centre), which invests in vital research into childhood illness and disease, into new treatments and new insights that can change outcomes and care for children.

Lisa-Nicole Dunne, CEO of the CMRF Crumlin, said. Its great to have Ryan on board to highlight the urgency of our Toughest Journey Christmas appeal. Christmas is a time for sitting by the fire with family and opening crackers, but some of Irelands sickest children will be spending Christmas in hospital. CMRF needs urgent funding to help support children and their families when they are facing really tough times.
Vera Bahdanava, from Belarus, is greeted by Lorna White, from Malahide, Co Dublin, as she arrived with 29 others at Dublin Airport in a trip organised by the Chernobyl Children International charity. Photo: Colin Keegan

Cheers and tears greeted 30 young people with special needs as their journey from Belarus to Ireland ended at Dublin Airport.

Irish families rushed forward to embrace the young arrivals who will celebrate Christmas in their homes in urban and rural areas across the country.

"This is what Christmas is all about - opening hearts and homes to these wonderful young people," said a smiling and tearful Adi Roche, chief executive of the Chernobyl Children International charity.

The young people live in institutions in Belarus but are enveloped in the love of Irish families for a much-needed break at Christmas and in the summer.

Trina Gilchriest and Peter Rooney, who live on the family farm at Oldtown, Co Dublin, welcomed Maryna Malinovskaya (14) back to Ireland. She has been coming to visit the couple for the past five years.

Also at the airport was Damien Meaney (38) from Bray. He works full-time for the Haven Partnership charity in Haiti but he comes home at Christmas and during the summer to host two young men, both in wheelchairs, who look forward to coming to Ireland to spend time with him and his extended family and friends.
'Toyota is certainly immersing itself quite dramatically in the electric car race' (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

Soon there will be a World Car Person of the Year.

Due to be introduced in 2018, it will honour someone who's excelled over the year or is recognised for a lifetime achievement in the automotive industry.

And the World Green Car Award is now to become the World Car Innovation of the Year in 2019.

That is to reflect the level of change in the business: electric powertrains, autonomous driving, connectivity and safety systems etc.

Meantime, the awards are joined by Gordon Murray and Shiro Nakamura.

South-African born Murray is well-known as a designer of Grand Prix-winning F1 cars and the man behind the phenomenal McLaren F1 road car.

Mr Nakamura was appointed by Carlos Ghosn to revitalise Nissan design until he retired in early 2017. Exciting times indeed.

* Toyota is certainly immersing itself quite dramatically in the electric car race.

It announced on Monday that it is planning to introduce more than 10 electric vehicles across the world by the early 2020s.

The scale of that ambition can be gauged by the fact it doesn't have one 'pure' electric commercially manufactured car at the moment.

The first market to get the new EV will be China, which will be followed, gradually, by Japan, India, the US and Europe.

Under the plan, it expects to be selling more than 10 different BEVs (battery-powered models) worldwide by the early 2020s and electrified versions of every model in the Toyota and Lexus line-ups by 2025.

It also has plans to sell around 5.5 million conventional petrol-electric hybrids, plug-in hybrids, EVs and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles by 2030.

It remains heavily committed to the fuel cell concept and expects to be in a position to sell one million EVs or fuel cell vehicles alone a year.

* Suzuki has announced Agnelli Motor Park is a new franchise for it in Dublin. The state-of-the-art 128sq/m, six-car showroom on Greenhills Road is the fourth Suzuki retail location in the city.

* BMW is to build a test track for self-driving and electric cars in the Czech Republic.
Inside the chamber at the Winter Solstice at Newgrange yesterday morning. Picture Steve Humphreys

Rebecca Smyth with an Irish Wolfhound at Newgrange in Co Meath in 2016 Photo: Mark Condren

Sean Nicholston, Dublin, and Siobhan Carroll, Roscommon, in the chamber at Newgrange. Photo: Damien Eagers

For the first time ever, people all over the world can watch sunlight creep into Newgrange passage tomb on winter solstice.

Weather-permitting, of course (clouds are forecast).

A live stream organised by the OPW and Failte Ireland will broadcast the moment when the 5,000-year-old tomb's internal chamber is lit up (#Solstice2017).

You can watch it live (below) from 8.30am on Thursday, December 21.

The annual event, which sees sunlight enter the roofbox of the Co. Meath tomb and light up its inner chamber over the course of around 17 minutes, is simulated for all visitors to Newgrange - but only a lucky few get to see the real deal.

Each year, the OPW runs a Winter Solstice Lottery - in 2017, it says, over 33,000 people applied from as far afield as Austria, Italy and the US.

Just a handful are ever successful in entering the chamber itself.

Newgrange is believed to be older than Stonehenge (below) and the Egyptian pyramids, and its "alignment" is considered a marvel of Neolithic engineering.

The live stream comes on a notable anniversary, too.

50 years ago, on December 21, 1967, Irish archaeologist Dr. Michael J. OKelly stood inside the famous passage tomb as the light from the rising sun travelled 19m up the corridor to illuminate the central chamber.

Dr O'Kelly is believed to have been the first human to witness the winter solstice from inside Newgrange in millennia.

Today, Bru na Boinne is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and key Ireland's Ancient East attraction visited by over 207,000 people a year.

Winter solstice is the shortest day of the year.

See more on irelandsancienteast.com.

Read more:
The Giant's Causeway has become the first Northern Ireland tourist attraction to hit one million visitors.

The National Trust site has seen numbers increase by a third since 2013, with 70pc of visitors drawn in from overseas.

The North Coast region, along with Belfast, was recently hailed as the top region in the world to visit in 2018 by Lonely Planet.

By comparison, Titanic Belfast - which opened in 2012 - has welcomed 717,585 visitors through its doors to date in 2017.

Northern Ireland's first UNESCO World Heritage site was also named the best UK heritage attraction at the British Travel Awards for the third consecutive time earlier this month.

Heather McLachlan, director of the National Trust Northern Ireland said:

"At the National Trust we are committed to delivering a responsible and sustainable tourism offering that minimises social, economic and environmental impacts whilst generating greater economic benefits for local people and enhancing the wellbeing of the local community.

"Situated between the famous Walled City of Derry and Titanic Port of Belfast, the Giants Causeway offers visitors the opportunity to marvel at this area of outstanding beauty whilst unlocking the stories of the stunning rock formation."

Aubrey Irwin, head of Northern Ireland at Tourism Ireland (the government body that works to promote tourism on both sides of the border) said it was a "remarkable achievement" and a "testament to the hard work of the National Trust and Giants Causeway staff".

"Overseas visitors regularly tell us that their holiday in Northern Ireland has surpassed their expectations and a visit to Giants Causeway is certainly a must see now on everyones itinerary," she said.

Read more:
New York City from the Rockefeller Center at Christmas. Photo: Pol O Conghaile

Christmas windows in New York... no expense is spared.

New York at Christmas: 20 images of an American winter wonderland Close

New York is the greatest three-day town on earth. When those days coincide with the holiday season, that's true with bells on.

There's simply nothing like the Big Apple at Christmas. From grown adults giggling on ice-rinks to glittering windows, Broadway shows and (if you're lucky) snow in Central Park, it's a guaranteed mood-lifter.

New Yorkers may grit their teeth and push through the out-of-towners, but even they know that there's magic in the air.

Heck, even the skyscapers look like giant Christmas trees. Feast your eyes on our gallery (above), or get stuck in with these highlights...

The Rink at Rockefeller Center

Expand Close Rockefeller Center, Manhattan. Photo: Marley White/NYC & Company / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Rockefeller Center, Manhattan. Photo: Marley White/NYC & Company

 Skating at New York's iconic rink starts from $27/$15. Its surprisingly small, but brilliantly atmospheric (therinkatrockcenter.com).

 Fancy a splash? A VIP tent (from $60pp) has private seating, hot chocolates, cookies and a little bit more instruction on hand if you're into an upgrade.

 I hadnt skated in ages, but ramped up with a few tips (lean forward, bend the knees, take small steps...) and soon got up and running.

 Don't forget to look up. 'Scrapers soar, Stars & Stripes flutter and the plaza's 30m tree is a beacon in the Big Apple. It's a Norway Spruce trucked in from Pennsylvania, with decorations including a modest 50,000 LED lights...

 The tree has a rich history. During the Great Depression, workers lined up beneath it as the Rockefeller Center was being built, and you may remember it featuring on TV as a focal point for the city in the days after 9/11.

Read More

Wow Factor: Window displays

Expand Close Bloomingdale's Christmas windows, an homage to PT Barnum. Photo: Pol O Conghaile / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Bloomingdale's Christmas windows, an homage to PT Barnum. Photo: Pol O Conghaile

 Department store windows are a holiday tradition in NYC, kicking off after Thanksgiving. People travel from all over the US (and beyond) to put their noses up against the glass no expense is spared.

 Last year, Bloomingdales has a display based on PT Barnums circus and freak shows (above) you could take photos of yourself and see them whirl around the windows. For 2018, the luxury retailer is taking inspiration from Dr. Seuss' The Grinch.

 Macys 2018 displays are titled 'Believe in the Wonder of Giving, with a brand new character in Sunny the Snowpal. Don't forget to step inside, either - the world's biggest store offers a 10pc discount if you produce your passport.

 Tiffany & Co. has displays based on its workshops, but the pick of the bunch is Saks Fifth Avenue, where a music and light show illuminates the whole facade of like a Disney fireworks display... 'Theater of Dreams' is the window display theme.

Score with seasonal shopping

Expand Close Macy's Herald Square, Midtown, Manhattan. Photo: Joe Buglewicz/ NYC & Company / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Macy's Herald Square, Midtown, Manhattan. Photo: Joe Buglewicz/ NYC & Company

 There are Holiday Markets all over Manhattan  including huts at Columbus Circle, Times Square, and upmarket little booths at the Occulus, the new transport hub near World Trade Center. They're high on atmosphere (and generally, prices).

 FAO Schwarz has a new flagship store at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, with over 20,000 square feet of toys and gifts... and yes, the dance-on piano from Big.

 New York is the best shopping city on the planet... think of The Strand Bookstore, the MoMA gift shop, the Union Square market, the Brooklyn Flea... and that's not even starting on the boutiques and department stores.

 Outlet villages of course offer rich pickings at any time of year  Woodbury Common is an hour from Port Authority by bus ($42 return).

 Next year, a huge new Empire Outlets will open on Staten Island, so you can combine a visit with the free ferry and skyline views.

Central Park in the snow

Expand Close Pol O Conghaile soaks up Central Park in the snow... / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Pol O Conghaile soaks up Central Park in the snow...

 Boom! This is an iconic NYC sight; count your lucky stars if you catch it.

 The Wollman rink offers a cheaper (and larger) ice-skating alternative to the Rockefeller Center, with rates from $12/$6 (wollmanskatingrink.com).

 Yes, it's touristy, but if you abandon yourself to a carriage ride, the romance soon seeps in. Expect to pay around $55 (+tips) for 20 minutes.

 Central Park is enormous, so dont try to see it comprehensively on foot. Rent a bike, or grab a pedal-cab and pick your stops  they range from Strawberry Fields (the John Lennon memorial) to Gapstow Bridge and the Central Park Zoo.

 See centralpark.com and centralparknyc.org for more.

Christmas Shows & Events

Expand Close Times Square, New York / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Times Square, New York

 The city's perennial Christmas staple is The Nutcracker, performed by NYC Ballet since 1954, at the Lincoln Center. Despite its longevity, the show wasn't an immediate success, but a televised version in 1958 brought the magic into peoples homes... and a classic was born (lincolncenter.org).

 Family shows on Broadway include Frozen and Wikced, with perennial favourites including The Lion King, School of Rock - The Musical and Aladdin. Expect to pat from $59 or so for tickets.

 For same-day discounts, see the TKTS booth (tdf.org) on Times Square.

Christmas movies in NYC

Expand Close Will Ferrell says this encounter in Elf was improvised with a random member of the public / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Will Ferrell says this encounter in Elf was improvised with a random member of the public

 Before you travel, watch a classic. You'll be chomping at the bit.

 If Elf (2003) isn't your No.1 Christmas movie, then you're a cotton-headed ninny muggins. It sees Will Ferrell save the Christmas spirit with adventures in the Empire State Building, Rockefeller rink and Central Park. Elf now plays as a musical at the New York City Theatre (newyorkcitytheatre.com).

 Miracle on 34th Street (1947) is a Macys staple in monochrome. Santa always rides at the end of the Thanksgiving Parade.

 Home Alone 2 (1992)... Macaulay Culkin is New York during Holiday Season. What could possibly go wrong? A young(ish) Donald Trump makes a cameo.

New York Christmas Travel Tips

Expand Close Macy's of New York at Christmas. / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Macy's of New York at Christmas.

 NYC aint cheap. The exchange rate isn't doing the euro any favours as I write (1=$1.13), there's an 8.875pc sales tax on most purchases, and you need to factor tips of 15-20pc into any meals you eat, taxis you take or services you avail of.

It adds up, so have your budget worked out in advance.

 Dont underestimate the size of Manhattan  get to grips with the Subway as early as possible, and use a metro card (7 days unlimited travel, $32).

 The CityPASS (citypass.com/new-york; $122) offers a 42pc discount on six of the Big Apples biggest attractions, including the Met and 9/11 Memorial & Museum.

 I travelled with American Holidays ( americanholidays.com) on this trip, staying at the Hotel Metro (hotelmetronyc.com). It has winter breaks including flights and three nights in a 3-star hotel from 579pp in January - by my reckoning the cheapest time of year to visit new York.

Read More

 See nycgo.com/holiday for more New York Christmas tips.

Read more:
Arriving in India feels like passing through the birth canal all over again. First there is the expectant 24 hours leading up to the arrival and then: bam!

We are torn from our amniotic fluid lives and into the raw reality that awaits us. I'm hardly ready to open my eyes as we pass through the torn hems of broken suburbs and towns south of Delhi. Our taxi driver is taking us through the back door of the capital on our search for Krishna.

Vrindavan and Mathura are rural towns that lie along the Yamuna River - the birthplace and stomping ground of Lord Krishna and the epicentre for Holi. The Yamuna is the spiritual spinal cord which links Delhi, Vrindavan and Agra. Immediately we get stuck in 'playing Holi', as the Indians call it. It's a feast of colour and prayer and offerings at the hundreds of temples in the area; we get swept along with the joy and fun of colour-bombing each other.

Inside the walls of the Bankey Bihari Temple, Donal captures his first shimmering glimpse of Krishna. Among the frenzy of raised arms and clouds of powders that hang in the half-light, the sheer energy and distorted kaleidoscope of colours is enough to make many weep openly and honestly. Yet despite all the festivities, I am unable to find Krishna in the temples or on the streets with the throngs of followers and their free-roaming cows, goats, pigs, dogs and monkeys.

Expand Close A saffron sunset on the Yamuna river in Vrindavan / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp A saffron sunset on the Yamuna river in Vrindavan

I am beginning to feel like a spiritual tourist, a gatecrasher at the feast of Holi. But they say miracles can be found in the most unexpected places. For me, it was on the banks of the Yamuna River. It's early evening and we take a tip from another visiting photographer to go and see Kesi Ghat, crumbling steps leading down to the holy river which have been left abandoned by all except the hordes of monkeys and Sadhus, India's wandering holy men.

The energy here feels very different, as little groups of worshippers have gathered far from the madding crowd. Outside on the steps, the devotees perform their own peaceful, melancholic rituals at the water's edge. Looking out across the river, I am suddenly moved. This is the after-party, where Krishna chooses to reveal himself to me.

Here we are, two in a billion among this mayhem yet the people we meet make us feel so special "Ma'am, I come from a very small town. We never see people like you. I am just so nervous talking to you that I am shaking right now," I am told.

Others, slowly and quietly, sit in the splendour of the setting sun. Orange and gold. Saffron and turmeric. The colours of India. The colours of Krishna. Hare Krishna.

Expand Close One of the many colourful jewels in Agra, home of the Taj Mahal / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp One of the many colourful jewels in Agra, home of the Taj Mahal

The first two days in Vrindavan are like nursery school - weaning us in for Mathura, the Senior School of the Holi experience. Fast, crowded, harsh. It's a free-for-all and survival of the fittest. A railway track runs straight through a busy junction, and along the route we meet hordes of children who live and play here. Survival-savvy youngsters who will gently try to hustle a few rupees from tourists like ourselves.

One overzealous young lad of about 10 catches the attention of the local guard who unashamedly hits him one almighty wallop with a large wooden stick. So hard that the young lad limps down the road. And it is this scene that affects us more than anything we have seen in the previous few days. More than the cripples and the beggars who line up outside the temples. More than our view of the daily toil and hardships that we watch from a moving car. This is a child being punished for doing what he has to do to survive. An adult and figure of authority beating down on one of their own.

Lesson one: We do not choose where and when we are born. It chooses us. This is India and it moves to its own beat. Even if we don't agree with the way things are, we owe it to them to remain courteous and respectful. We are visitors. We are not here to change it.

Before you set off on a journey, your destination is just somewhere on a map. A name you probably can't pronounce, that your search engine explains by way of its proximity to some familiar landmarks. Leaving Vrindavan and Mathura behind after four days, felt like we had been in the trenches. A total immersion in an augmented Indian reality. The colours of Holi are still ingrained in the creases of our skin and stained in our hair as we arrive at our modern, upmarket hotel in Agra. We look like new-age travellers. Even our luggage has a fine dusting of pink and purple and blue. I'm hoping that we haven't swapped a full-fat, extra-sugar, overflowing cup of India for a watered-down version: India Light.

Expand Close Bringing in the harvest on Yamuma highway / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Bringing in the harvest on Yamuma highway

First thing I do is get to the gym and run. This is not something that is practical to do outdoors in this part of India for a variety of reasons, so it's great to get the opportunity. I start to think about microbes; those billions of microscopic organisms that can kill or cure us. How, for example, do I remain symptom-free for the whole trip, while my travel companion does the Indian shuffle from the bedroom to the bathroom for two days? Microbes, the gift of Mother Nature, which on this occasion give me the advantage. Similar microbes protect the local population who quite obviously live in poor hygiene and safety conditions. Open sewers, discarded waste and faeces of all kinds flank the roadsides. But, as Sebastian Barry writes in On Canaan's Side: "Its filthiness has only been a humorous coat to hide it gemlike brilliance." This is the Indian experience in all is charm, chaos and colour.

As I run, I'm also trying to find the union between the sanitised version of yoga that I practise back home with the origins of its birthplace. My cherry-picked postures and philosophies stretched out on a deluxe yoga mat that could not be any further from the realities of India. I practice my designer yoga, hoping that by showing up once a week, I'm cooling down my karma and getting closer to enlightenment. So it's a hybrid, I reason. A practice that has mutated as it gets handed down from one teacher to the next. And I'm happy to align myself to this new DNA, and it's OK that it's not perfect.

It's OK to go with the flow and anything that values our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual growth is worth pursuing. What we need to do is remove the need for specific outcomes and for perfection.

Donal is, once again, eager to get stuck into photographic action, so it's off to the train station in Agra. The brightly coloured dust of Holi is replaced by the dust of marble and industry and urban urgency. It's bedlam and a great spot for people-watching.

Expand Close The girl on the train, Agra / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp The girl on the train, Agra

Many look as if they are camped here in the hope that their train will soon come in.

Schedules are not always the most reliable. It's humbling to see the reaction of people when Donal stops to take photos of them. Suddenly they have become the centre of attention. Perhaps they are seeing themselves through the eyes of a stranger for the first time and wondering: what is so special about me?

Their reserved nature and feigned obscurity is refreshing compared to the overexposed world that we inhabit, in which visibility and profile is everything. Yet those big brown eyes, when they look at us, they really look at us. They look inside us, they connect with us on a level that we as westerners have difficulty reciprocating. It takes practice.

Lesson two: Variety is the spice of life and a little bit of dirt and disorder is healthy.

Lesson three: Our bodies and our minds are the gateways to our temple. Visit often, stay open.

It takes a village to raise a child but a woman to build a city. We meet women in Agra carrying bricks five high on their head on building sites, mixing mortar and crouched by the side of the road in tented encampments making the daily bread.

This is India. And of course no trip to Agra would be complete without visiting the Taj Mahal, the pearl in India's crown. But somehow this ancient wonder is of little consequence to the litters of pigs that jostle for space around the laneways that lead to its grand entrance. Pearls before swine.

Delhi is our final stop and thankfully the Metro allows us to travel in and out without too much trauma. This is the second biggest city in the world and feels every bit of it. Traffic is chaotic and it can be frustrating to get around. Tuk-tuks fly about erratically and it's hard to feel a connection to anywhere or anything. Not a good option if you are looking for a leisurely stroll through the sprawling markets. Once again, the whole dynamic has changed. The people are more cosmopolitan and less traditional in their dress and behaviours. But as our mission has already been accomplished in our search for Krishna, we are only passing through. We bid farewell to a country that has welcomed us with open arms, albeit briefly, and leave with a knowledge and gratitude that can only be gained by experiencing it. This is India and we vow to return.

Photography by Donal Moloney
Ancient Roman soldiers parade in front of the Colosseum during celebrations of the birth of Rome. For Italy, as for many other countries, the euro has been a disaster. Photo: Getty

The Bangladeshi selfie-stick hawkers are doing a brisk trade outside the Colosseum. Local chain-smoking lads dressed as gladiators prey on vulnerable tourists, while portly priests on their annual visit to Catholicism's corporate HQ take time out from soul-searching.

Even the heavily armed soldiers, there to protect against a potential Italian Bataclan, are smiling in the Mediterranean sunshine. And as it is midday in Italy, everyone is checking out everyone else.

All looks quite normal, chilled out and as it should be.

But it is not. Italy is a country going through what could be described as a nervous breakdown.

After a decade of almost no economic growth, in two weeks Italians will vote in a referendum which will determine what direction this huge country of nearly 60 million people will take. The result will profoundly affect the EU.

Although the referendum is technically about the way Italy is governed, the country is split down the middle in a plebiscite that has come to symbolise something much bigger. Once again, like the Brexit vote and the Trump election, this referendum is about insiders against outsiders. It is about those who are the victims of inequality and globalisation and those who uphold the status quo.

On one side, you have the Italian political elite - the insiders embodied by Matteo Renzi, the youthful prime minister. He represents the people and institutions that have ruled Italy for decades.

On the other side, you have an unusual anti-EU coalition, the Left and the Right - the 'Outsiders' - who are united by a common belief that, after 10 years of economic stagnation, there must be another way.

We have the same picture we saw in the UK in June and in the US last week, where an elite is desperately trying to connect with the people and large swathes of the population are saying they have had enough.

In terms of the big picture, the Italian election can be seen as yet another domino in a year of falling dominos. First we had Brexit, then Trump, and the next big one for Europe after Italy is the potential rise of Le Pen in France.

Italy is the triplet in a quartet that will culminate in France, and, in my opinion, if the Italian elite loses on December 4, Marine Le Pen will win in France.

This is a global phenomenon that can't be seen in national terms but only in international terms. This is what happens in politics; what starts as a feeling becomes a reality at the ballot box, not least because every election that goes against the elite gives "permission" for the next bunch of popular 'Outsiders' to scent victory.

Ms Le Pen has said she will pull out of the euro the morning after she wins. There's no delaying Article 50 in her book. The Front National's policy is an immediate withdrawal from the euro for France. In Italy, the two main parties backing a No vote in the referendum, the left-wing Five Star Movement and the right-wing Northern League, both want Italy to leave the euro and reinstate the lira. Right now, the only consolation for the elite is that they are behind in the polls; anyone who wants to win an election may be better off trailing in the polls!

But the reality for Italy (as for many countries, including Ireland) is that the euro has been a disaster. For years Italy, the eurozone's third largest economy, was pre-eminent in fashion, design, sophisticated manufacturing and car-making. All this was predicated on periodic devaluations of the lira against the deutsche mark, which allowed Italy to compete. This was the deal and everyone broadly understood it.

Once Italy joined the euro, this traditional avenue was closed off to Italian industry and it started to become uncompetitive. Italian industry couldn't compete with Germany and, as Europe's biggest debtor, Italy began to lose control over its own destiny. Following the last euro crisis, Italy has become, from a macroeconomic point of view, little more than a protectorate of Germany. And it hurts.

Young Italians have less chance of getting a job than almost any other nationality in Europe. Unemployment for the under thirties is running at a staggering 35pc. Seven out of 10 Italians under the age of 36 live with their parents and 100,000 educated Italians left the country in search of work last year.

Real wages have stagnated and corporate Italy is not investing. All the while, the debt-to-GDP ratio - the highest in Europe - is going in the wrong direction.

Is it any wonder, with this sort of economic performance, that people want an alternative?

Could Italy turn its back on the EU? Of course it could. In fact, why wouldn't it? Any country that can change sides in a world war is politically capable of changing its currency, don't you think?

It's clear when you are in Rome that something serious is going on. Behind the designer sunglasses, the impeccable three-day stubble, and the beautifully coiffed hair, Italy is deeply divided. Italy is experiencing, as was the case in Britain and in America, a popular insurgency.

Far-off Brussels is firmly in ostrich mode, head stuck in the ground, planning a hard Brexit to teach other "deplorables" a lesson. But what it doesn't understand is that 'Deplorable Lives Matter'!

And - worse for the EU that has proved itself to be electorally tone deaf time and again - deplorables vote too.

Mr Renzi, the EU's man, asked for looser fiscal rules, but Germany vetoed it. Mr Renzi asked to be allowed to bail out his bust banks, but Germany refused.

Now Italy is about to embolden Ms Le Pen in France, and who is to blame?

Clearly not the Italians who are expressing their democratic wish, but the EU officials who didn't listen to Mr Renzi, their Roman legate, when he looked for help.

As I marvel at the Colosseum, I can't help thinking that Vespasian, the Roman Emperor who built the Colosseum and conquered Britain in the west and Judea in the east, would never have left one of his own with so little ammunition to fight a popular insurrection.
A teen reads from the Koran during a pro-government protest against the attempted coup in Istanbul. Picture Credit: AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis

Last Friday night my Ryanair flight arrived into Zadar airport in Croatia just before midnight. The plane was full of young Irish people pretty well tanked up on their way to the Ultra Music Festival in Split.

Everyone was in good spirits despite the rocky descent. The unexpected Adriatic storm is part and parcel of summer in this part of the world. The storms are both violent and swift. The burst of applause as we slammed, rather than touched, down was tinged more with relief than celebration.

My phone immediately started to beep with WhatsApp messages from a dear friend in Turkey. She was distraught.

"What are you hearing outside?"

"What?"

"There's been a coup here. We don't know what to do."

"I'm so afraid for us."

This woman is a very successful businesswoman in Istanbul. She doesn't particularly like President Erdogan. Her hero is the remarkable Kemal Ataturk, the man who modernised Turkey and made it secular.

Even though the Turkish army regards itself as the upholder of the Kemalist tradition, and although she would normally side with anything secular against the increasingly Islamist government of Erdogan, she realised that once a country falls into the hands of the military, a civil war isn't far off. And a religious civil war is part, but not all, of the awful story of Syria.

The news of the coup and the realisation that it had failed - but only just - is a huge shock to anyone who has experienced modern Turkey, especially those of us who have worked in Istanbul in recent years.

Last year, I had the opportunity to work there for a large international company and was beguiled by the place. Istanbul is one of the world's great cities and there is evidence everywhere that this place has been at the centre of the world for close to 2,000 years, stretching down the ages from the Roman Eastern Empire to the days of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans were eventually deposed and replaced by Ataturk and his extraordinary secular vision in the early 20th century. He fashioned the new Republic out of the twin ingredients of science and nationalism.

Over the years, the city has been home to Jews, Greeks, Slavs, Armenians and Georgians, as well as the Muslim Turk population.

It has been one of the three great Muslim caliphates, the centre of the flourishing sophistication of the Christian Orthodox Church at a time when Rome was home to barbarians, and it was also the site of Judaism's finest synagogues.

You can see the imprint of all these great tribes in the architecture, the places of worship and the markets. You can feel the 19th-century European aspirations of the Ottoman merchant class in the wide, French-designed boulevards, but its narrow, higgledy-piggledly lanes tell you this isn't Paris, London or Berlin. It smells of the Orient, yet large parts look like the West. This is the echo of all who have passed through, set up home and then moved on again.

Most of the Greeks, Jews and Armenians left in the 20th century.

However, one constant has been the Bosporus Strait, linking the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. For thousands of years, this was the single most important trading route in the world, and even today it still feels like this. Every morning from my hotel, I looked out over the strait watching massive Russian cargo ships relentlessly ploughing through it, heading from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.

This is where East meets West.

Is it any wonder that the coup plotters' first move was to close the Strait?

The congestion on the Strait is amazing to see. Just outside its mouth, close to the Dardanelles, where thousands of Irish troops died 100 years ago this year, there is a daily queue of ships waiting to get through.

The Irish were the first troops who landed in Gallipoli. To put the futility and slaughter in context, the Royal Dublin Fusiliers and the Royal Munster Fusiliers were the first to attack the Turks from the SS River Clyde. Of the first 200 men to leave the ship, 149 were killed and 30 wounded immediately.

This was always a strategic spot.

From that point in Gallipoli to the far side in the Black Sea, there is a constant flow of enormous, laden-down hulls carving slowly through the waters, reinforcing the proximity of the eastern part of Europe and the West. All sorts of Russian, Ukrainian, Crimean and, of course, Romanian and Bulgarian cargo ships use the Black Sea. And coming the other way are all sorts of manufactured products from southern Europe and North Africa.

Here you appreciate that this massive country of 80 million people is a huge regional power. Istanbul is Europe's largest city, home to close to 17 million people. Turkey's military is the largest in the region and there will be no settlement in Syria and Iraq without Ankara's imprimatur.

Under Erdogan, the economy grew strongly, inequality shrank and Turkish companies became regional powerhouses. Erdogan has restructured the economy and attracted more foreign investment in a decade than in the entire 90-year history of the Turkish Republic.

But two years ago, the Turkish economic miracle came to an abrupt end with political violence in the streets of Istanbul, Izmir and Ankara. The currency went into free-fall, as did the stock market.

Once the economy fractured, old alliances went the same way.

For years, Erdogan had as an ally an Islamist power base known as Gulenists - followers of a cleric called Fathullah Gulen, who is in self-imposed-exile. To the outsider, it seems a bit like an Islamic version of Opus Dei.

Originally, Gulen set up an educational system of strict religious schools, which taught a mixture of self-discipline, Islam and societal responsibility.

Many thousands of graduates of these schools - Gulenists - are now in powerful positions. Until recently, they were in cahoots with Erdogan in his 'soft Islam' project. This is the aspiration to combine an Islamic society living side-by-side with democracy and the constitutional protection of secularism.

Like all aspirations, the success of such a venture depends in significant measure on the economy being strong, offering opportunity and generating wealth.

As the economy turned down, this alliance turned sour.

Many believe that Gulen was behind the coup, signalling to his fifth column of supporters in the military to rise up. Others think it was a set-up by the government to bolster its own position. Whatever the real cause, Turkey won't be the same again. Turkey is the key country in the region. The US and the EU should be worried because if Turkey fractures, so too does the West's biggest regional ally, which stands between Russia, Iran and the unravelling Middle East.

The stakes couldn't be higher.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arriving for the Queen's Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace, London

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arriving for the Queen's Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace, London

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend a Christmas lunch for the extended Royal Family at Buckingham Palace on December 20, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images)

Meghan Markle joined fiance Prince Harry for the annual royal Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace today.

Much has been made of the fact that the American actress (36) is the first royal other half to be invited to the festive celebrations before a wedding and we'll see more of her over the festive season as she slowly dips her toe into getting to know her new home since moving to London from Toronto, Canada. It marks Markle's first public appearance since the week she and Harry announced their engagement in November.

Expand Close Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arriving for the Queen's Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace, London / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arriving for the Queen's Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace, London

After much speculation of how the newly engaged pair would celebrate Christmas, a spokesperson for Kensington Palace confirmed they will all be at Queen Elizabeth's Sandringham Estate, which requires a black tie dress code and no exchanging of gifts. Harry has marked most Christmases there alongside his father Prince Charles, while Prince William has alternated between there and the Middleton family home in Berkshire to be with his in-laws.

On Wednesday, Harry and Meghan, arrived via Range Rover, were pictured joining other members of the family to celebrate with their grandmother and Prince Philip. William and Kate were also spotted making their way into the palace, with their nanny Maria Borrallo in the backseat, with Prince George and Princess Charlotte out of view.

Expand Close Meghan Markle arriving for the Queen's Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace, London / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Meghan Markle arriving for the Queen's Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace, London

It's believed Meghan was given special permission to attend the festivities this year because her family are based in the US and would otherwise be alone for the day.

"You can expect to see the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Harry and Ms Markle at Sandringham on Christmas Day," a palace spokesperson said last week after much speculation.

Expand Close Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arriving for the Queen's Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace, London / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Prince Harry and Meghan Markle arriving for the Queen's Christmas lunch at Buckingham Palace, London

Also spotted at today's lunch were Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice, Autumn Phillips, Prince Michael of Kent and his daughter Gabriella of Windsor, Prince Charles and Camilla and Princess Alexandra.

Meanwhile, it's full steam ahead for wedding planning with Harry and Meghan set to exchange vows on May 19 at Windsor Castle.
The Chinese government has attacked US President Donald Trump's decision to label Beijing a strategic rival and called on Washington to "abandon a Cold War mentality" and accept China's rise.

Mr Trump's decision reflects a "victory of hardliners" in his administration, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It warned US-Chinese economic relations were likely to face "even more pressure and challenges".

"We urge the United States to stop deliberately distorting China's strategic intentions and abandon a Cold War mentality," said foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying. "Otherwise it will injure others and damage itself."

Mr Trump's report hit a series of sore spots for Beijing. It affirmed ties with Taiwan, the self-ruled island the mainland government claims as its territory, and pledged to "re-energise our alliances" with south-east Asian governments, some of which have conflicts with China over claims to portions of the South China Sea.

The United States and China share one of the world's biggest trading relationships and co-operate in areas from clean energy to public health.

But Beijing sees Washington as an obstacle to its ambitions to be East Asia's dominant power, and strains over Taiwan, trade, technology policy and the South China Sea are growing.

"It is selfish to put your national interest above other countries' interest and the mutual interest of the international community," the Chinese Embassy in Washington said.

"The Chinese side is willing to have peaceful coexistence with all countries," said the embassy statement. "The United States should also adapt and accept China's development."

US officials are uneasy about Beijing's rising military spending - already the second-highest behind Washington. They see President Xi Jinping's "belt and road initiative", a project to build railways and other infrastructure across countries from Asia to Europe and Africa, as part of efforts to erode American influence and nurture a China-centred political structure.

Especially sensitive is Taiwan, the democratic island Beijing has declared a "core interest" over which it will go to war, if necessary.

Mr Trump's report promises to "maintain our strong ties with Taiwan" and provide for its "legitimate defence needs".

China has taken a tougher stance toward Taiwan since last year's election of President Tsai Ing-wen, who has refused to endorse Beijing's contention that Taiwan is part of China. Chinese commentators speculate on the possible need for military steps to put pressure on Ms Tsai.

After Mr Trump signed a law that opened the way for US navy ships to visit Taiwan, a Chinese diplomat quoted by state media said the mainland would attack the day that happened.

Mr Trump's report doesn't change Washington's official stance but might aggravate tensions if Taiwanese, who want formal independence, see it as sign of US support and "want to take advantage of it," said Xiong Zhiyong, a US relations expert at China Foreign Affairs University. "The Chinese government is also anxious," said Mr Xiong. He said the Chinese diplomat's remark was a "warning out of real worry that something may happen unexpectedly".

Ms Hua, the foreign ministry spokeswoman, urged the US to stick to diplomatic commitments on how to handle Taiwan. On Monday, Chinese warplanes flew around Taiwan in what the military said was a test of "ocean combat ability". Taiwan's defence ministry said Japan launched fighter planes to track them, but the Japanese government would not confirm that.

Mr Trump's report promises to "re-energise our alliances" with governments including the Philippines and Vietnam, which have conflicting territorial claims with Beijing in the South China Sea.

It also pledges to expand military co-operation with India, which Beijing sees as a rival. The report emphasised economic security and repeated complaints that China steals technology and uses "economic inducements" to persuade other governments to serve its strategic interests.

It proposes restricting visas to prevent intellectual property theft by foreigners, particularly Chinese, who travel to the US to study science, engineering, maths and technology.

Foreign business groups in China report that companies are increasingly frustrated with market barriers and other restrictions they say violate Beijing's free-trade promises.

The report is another abrupt turn in Mr Trump's stance toward Beijing, which has veered between blistering criticism on trade and currency, and optimism about co-operation on North Korea and other issues.

"China seeks to displace the United States in the Indo-Pacific region, expand the reaches of its state-driven economic model, and reorder the region in its favour," the report says. In April, Mr Trump announced he was setting aside complaints about trade and currency in hopes of winning Chinese co-operation on North Korea.

 Daily Telegraph, London
Burma's military says a forensic investigation has begun after 10 bodies were found in a mass grave in Rakhine state, where security forces have carried out a brutal crackdown against the Rohingya Muslim minority.

Local officials said they were investigating the 10 unidentified bodies found on Monday near a cemetery in Inn Din village.

More than 630,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since security forces in neighboring Burma launched a violent crackdown against them on August 25, turning it into Asia's worst refugee crisis in decades.

The United Nations and the US accuse Burma's military of human rights violations against Rohingya in Rakhine, including killings, rapes and the burning of homes. The UN has condemned the violence as ethnic cleansing.

International aid group Doctors Without Borders said last week that a field survey had found at least 6,700 Rohingya Muslims were killed between August and September in the crackdown.

Rights groups blame the government and military for being unwilling to investigate possible wrongdoing by officials and have urged the government to accept the assistance of international investigators.

"It's critical they (the government) accept the assistance of impartial, independent investigators and allow them to immediately travel to Inn Din to probe what happened and make a full report," said Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia Division.

The military said in a statement that legal action would be taken against the perpetrators.

Burma's government has informed UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee that it is denying her all access to the country for the rest of her tenure, the UN's human rights agency said.

Ms Lee had been due to visit in January to look into alleged human rights abuses against Rohingya in Rakhine.

She said in a statement: "This declaration of non-co-operation with my mandate can only be viewed as a strong indication that there must be something terribly awful happening in Rakhine, as well as in the rest of the country."

Ms Lee adding that she hopes the government will reconsider.
Balconies are seen decorated with Spanish, independence and Catalan flags in Girona as voters prepare to return to the polls (AP)

Voters are returning to the polls in Catalonia on Thursday in a regional election called by the Spanish government as a way out of the area's political crisis.

In Barcelona, the region's cosmopolitan capital, there is no sign of the independent country that Catalonia's former leaders proclaimed with great fanfare nearly two months ago.

The Catalan independence movement's leaders are in jail or have fled the country after staging a brazen October 1 referendum on secession which was declared illegal by Spain's government and highest court.

Catalonia has been left deeply polarised by this autumn's dramatic events.

Friendships have been broken and families split. Many Catalans who had mixed feelings about independence, or did not care about the issue much, now feel compelled to take a position.

Gabriel Brau, a 50-year-old photographer with little interest in politics, said he will vote for the first time since the 1980s, and it will be for one of the parties that favours independence. Or rather, it will be against those who do not, because he finds them complicit in Spain's crackdown.

During the October referendum, Spanish police using rubber bullets and truncheons against voters and formed human barriers to keep them out of polling stations.

Mr Brau said: "What happened on October 1 affected me in a powerful way.

"I was thinking: 'What if they did that to my son?' That is not democracy. ... I don't want these people to govern my country."

The other side has also been galvanised.

Catalans who oppose independence previously kept a low profile. Coming out as a unionist, they said, would have resulted in scorn, insults and even accusations of treason from pro-independence friends and neighbours.

But in the aftermath of the referendum they gathered for the first time in mass rallies similar in size to those achieved by the independence movement.

Cristina Calaco, 51, said she was so appalled by the way the secessionist leaders unilaterally pushed through the referendum, "I wanted to pack my bags and leave Catalonia".

After seeing unionists with Spanish flags on the streets, she was emboldened to publicly display her allegiance to Spain.

These days, when pro-independence neighbours bang pots and pans in noisy balcony protests, she said she opens her window and shouts "Viva Espana" - long live Spain.

Spain's heavy-handed response may have raised eyebrows in Europe, but it did not lead to any significant support for Catalan secession.

No European Union country has recognised the declaration of independence that Catalonia's parliament adopted on October 27.

On the surface, independence now seems further away than before the referendum. The Spanish government applied never-before-used constitutional powers take direct control of the region. The plan is to restore autonomy after Thursday's election produces a new regional government.

However, the Catalans supporting a total break-up with Spain now seem more committed than ever, saying the government's tough response showed the true nature of the Spanish state.

"They don't realise how many people they converted," said Ana Pousa, 38, who was born in the north-western Galicia region but grew up in Catalonia and now hesitates to call herself Spanish.

The movement for secession to a large extent is driven by the notion that Catalonia's history, culture and language make it separate from Spain. It is also a matter of economics: Wealthy Catalonia pays more taxes to Madrid than it gets back in government handouts, something that frustrated many Catalans during the deep recession which started in 2008.

But there is also a sense of victimhood that can be hard to grasp for outsiders.

Independence activists say they are being repressed by the Spanish government, drawing parallels to the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, when Catalans were banned from speaking their language in public.

On a square in Barcelona this week, some activists even made comparisons to the struggle against apartheid in South Africa.
Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced former archbishop of Boston, has died at the age of 86, an official with the Catholic Church said.

He had recently been hospitalised in Rome after falling ill.

Law was once one of the most important leaders in the US church, helping to set priorities for the nation's bishops, and was favoured by Pope John Paul II.

But in January 2002, The Boston Globe began a series of reports that used church records to reveal that Law had transferred abusive clergy among parishes for years, without alerting parents or police.

Within months, Catholics around the country demanded to know whether their bishops had done the same.

Law tried to manage the mushrooming scandal in his own archdiocese by first refusing to comment, then apologising and promising reform.

But thousands more church records were released describing new cases of how Law and others expressed more care for accused priests than for victims.

Amid a groundswell against the cardinal, including rare public rebukes from some of his own priests, Law asked to resign and the pope said yes.

"It is my fervent prayer that this action may help the archdiocese of Boston to experience the healing, reconciliation and unity which are so desperately needed," Law said when he stepped down as head of the Boston archdiocese in December of that year.

"To all those who have suffered from my shortcomings and mistakes, I both apologise and from them beg forgiveness."

It was a stunning fall from grace for Law and a rare step for the church, which deeply resists public pressure but could no longer do so given the scope of the crisis.

Since 1950, more than 6,500, or about 6% of US priests, have been accused of molesting children, and the American church has paid more than 3 billion US dollars (2.3billion) in settlements to victims, according to studies commissioned by the US bishops and media reports.

Law still retained some support in the Vatican. In 2004, he was appointed archpriest of the Basilica of St Mary Major, one of four principal basilicas in Rome.

When John Paul died the next year, Law was among bishops who presided at a memorial Mass for the pontiff in St Peter's Basilica. Law also continued for several years to serve in Vatican dicasteries, or policy-making committees, including the Congregation for Bishops, which recommends appointments to the pope.

Advocates for victims saw the posts as a sign of favour for Law by church officials unrepentant about abused children.

In the notorious case that started the 2002 crisis, as recounted in the film Spotlight, the Globe reported that Law and two of his predecessors as Boston archbishop had transferred former priest John Geoghan among parish assignments despite knowing he molested children.

More than 130 people eventually came forward to say Geoghan abused them. The archdiocese paid 10 million US dollars (7.5million) in settlements with 86 of his victims and their relatives as Law was clinging to his job. It was nowhere near enough to ease the growing anger.

As he announced he would leave, Law asked Boston Catholics: "Please keep me in your prayers."

AP
The move could lead to Poland losing voting rights in the bloc

The European Union's executive arm has triggered proceedings against Poland over Warsaw's contentious overhaul of its justice system - a move that could lead to unprecedented sanctions.

The European Commission's decision to trigger what is known as Article 7 is in response to several laws enacted by the right-wing Law and Justice party during its two years in power to give it greater control over the justice system.

Two of those laws - one on the Constitutional Tribunal and another giving the justice minister power to name the presidents of all ordinary courts - have already taken effect.

Only the next stage of Article 7 would involve sanctions, including the loss of voting rights in the Council.

This step, however, is considered unlikely to happen because it requires the unanimity of all EU countries, and Hungary's government has vowed to block any such move.

EU Commissioner Franz Timmermans said the move was being carried out "for Poland, for Polish citizens", so they can rely on a fully independent judiciary in their nation - a key underpinning of EU principles.

Poland's government, which has carried on with an overhaul of its court system despite two years of warnings from the EU, took the decision in stride.

Zbigniew Ziobro, who is both justice minister and prosecutor general as part of the legal changes, which have hugely strengthened his powers, said he received the news with "calm" and said Poland's government "must continue the reforms".

He insisted the provisions were drawn from the justice systems of western EU members.

Two additional laws have been passed by parliament and still await the signature of the president.

The Commission must now submit a request to the EU member states to declare "a clear risk of serious breach of the rule of law" in Poland.

That is essentially a warning, or in EU terms, a "preventative" measure, that will require that acceptance of 22 EU countries.

European Council president Donald Tusk said the decision stems from what he says are Polish government policies which place authorities "above the law".

He said the conservative government has "practically liquidated judicial independence in Poland".

For Mr Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, the worst thing for Poland has already taken place.

He said the ruling Law and Justice party's policy had "in a conscious way placed Poland across, and maybe even outside" the EU.

A spokeswoman for Poland's ruling party called the EU's decision "political," and said it has nothing to do with the facts about the steps that Poland is taking.
Police outside a property in the Meersbrook area of Sheffield as four men have been arrested on suspicion plotting terror attacks. Photo: Dave Higgens/PA Wire

Police and the Bomb Disposal Unit outside a property in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, after four men were arrested on suspicion of plotting terror attacks. Photo: Aaron Chown/PA Wire

Police near a property in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, after four men were arrested on suspicion of plotting terror attacks. Photo: Aaron Chown/PA Wire

A Bomb Disposal Unit leaving the scene of a property in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, after four men were arrested on suspicion of plotting terror attacks. Photo: Aaron Chown/PA Wire

Armed police in the UK have swooped on a number of properties in an operation to foil a suspected Christmas terror plot.

An Army bomb squad was deployed following a raid in Chesterfield and officers also conducted early morning operations in three parts of Sheffield.

Expand Close Police outside a property in the Meersbrook area of Sheffield as four men have been arrested on suspicion plotting terror attacks. Photo: Dave Higgens/PA Wire / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Police outside a property in the Meersbrook area of Sheffield as four men have been arrested on suspicion plotting terror attacks. Photo: Dave Higgens/PA Wire

Counter-terror police said three men, aged 22, 36 and 41, were detained at different addresses in Sheffield, and a 31-year-old was held in Chesterfield.

An area of the north Derbyshire town was sealed off for much of Tuesday as the bomb disposal team worked with large numbers of police behind a cordon.

Expand Close Police and the Bomb Disposal Unit outside a property in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, after four men were arrested on suspicion of plotting terror attacks. Photo: Aaron Chown/PA Wire / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Police and the Bomb Disposal Unit outside a property in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, after four men were arrested on suspicion of plotting terror attacks. Photo: Aaron Chown/PA Wire

In the Meersbrook area of Sheffield, residents said they were woken by police blowing open the door of a run-down terraced house as their street was swamped by heavily armed officers in protective gear.

A few miles further north, in the Burngreave area, a mosque and community centre was sealed off with local people telling similar stories of being woken at 6am by a series of loud bangs and camouflaged officers with guns.

Expand Close Police near a property in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, after four men were arrested on suspicion of plotting terror attacks. Photo: Aaron Chown/PA Wire / Facebook

Twitter

Email

Whatsapp Police near a property in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, after four men were arrested on suspicion of plotting terror attacks. Photo: Aaron Chown/PA Wire

Two other raids are understood to have happened at a flat a short distance from the centre in Burngreave and a property in the town of Stocksbridge, just north of Sheffield.

The operation was mounted as police and MI5 tackle a terror threat seen as unprecedented.

In addition to five attacks in London and Manchester, Home Secretary Amber Rudd revealed earlier this month that security agencies have foiled nine plots since the Westminster atrocity in March.

Counter-terror teams are running about 500 live investigations involving 3,000 individuals at any one time, while there is also a wider pool of 20,000 subjects of previous probes.

In Chesterfield, Simon Fox, 22, of Shaw Street, said: "We have seen Army, police from all over, we have seen a couple of packages being removed by the bomb disposal unit. You just don't expect this to happen in such a small town."

One person said the police arrived in the street at 4.30am.

A woman, who did not wish to be named and lives opposite the property that was raided on Kings Road North, said: "I was watching telly and saw police knocking on a neighbour's door.

"The next minute they were banging on my door and shouted, 'you have 10 minutes to get out, we're evacuating'. I was really panicking.

"It's a Syrian family who lives there, they didn't speak much.

"He definitely had children, he had a beard, and he dressed trendy. He had two little kids, one was in a pushchair. His wife had a headscarf, they kept themselves to themselves, really."

In Meersbrook, retired Joan Miller, 63, said she was woken by a loud bang at 5.30am and looked out of her window to see plain-clothed armed officers in the street.

Ms Miller said: "It was a very loud bang. It shook the house. I pulled the curtains and saw lots of armed men in the street, so I kept watching because that was quite extraordinary."

Ms Miller and others in the street said they did not know who lived in the house opposite, which is in a dilapidated state.

She said: "All sorts of different people have been living there."

A man living near the Fatima Community Centre, on Brunswick Road, said he was woken by a three louds bangs in quick succession and then saw at least six men with rifles in camouflage and body armour.

He said he saw them bring out one man and put him in a police van.

The man said the building used to be the local Irish club but was taken over about 10 years ago and is now used as a mosque and community centre.

He said: "There are people in there all hours of the day and night."

Asked if he was surprised this had happened on his doorstep, he said: "No".

All four of the arrested men were taken to a police station in West Yorkshire for questioning. They were arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism under Section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

Police said the arrests were "intelligence-led and pre-planned" as part of an investigation by Counter Terrorism Policing North East (CTPNE).

A CTPNE statement said: "The Army's bomb disposal unit is currently attending the address in Chesterfield.

"As a precautionary measure and in the interest of public safety, the immediate area has been cordoned off and local residents evacuated while a thorough search is carried out."

Derbyshire Constabulary Assistant Chief Constable Bill McWilliam said: "We of course understand that police activity of this nature can be unsettling.

"However, please be reassured, the arrest we wanted to make has been made."
Dr Nicklas Berild Lundblad of Google, Sinead McSweeney of Twitter and Simon Milner of Facebook, at the Commons committee

Social media companies have been accused of profiting from hatred, as they were taken to task by politicians in the UK for inaction over hate speech.

Senior executives from Twitter, Facebook and Google, which owns YouTube, were strongly criticised for failing to remove offensive content.

Yvette Cooper, the chairwoman of the UK's Home Affairs Select Committee, said algorithms used by the companies to suggest relevant content were helping to radicalise and groom users.

She said: "The reason we are pressing you so hard about this is because it is so important. Because in the end this is about the kinds of extremism - whether that be Islamic extremism or far-right extremism - that can lead to very violent incidents.

"It is about the kinds of hate crime that destroys lives. It is about the kind of harassment and abuse that can undermine political debate and undermine democracy and you are some of the richest companies in the world. And that is why we need you to accelerate and do more."

Ms Cooper said that algorithms used by social media firms were leading people to extremist material.

"The police have said very clearly to us that they are extremely worried about online radicalisation and online grooming," she said.

"Isn't the real truth that your algorithms... are doing that grooming and that radicalisation?"

Ms Cooper said she found it hard to believe that enough was being done to tackle hate crime, after it emerged that anti-Semitic and abusive tweets flagged by MPs at an earlier committee hearing had still not been removed.

Addressing Dublin-based Sinead McSweeney, who is Twitter's vice-president of public policy and communication for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Ms Cooper said: "I'm kind of wondering what we have to do. We sat in this committee in a public hearing and raised a clearly vile anti-Semitic tweet with your organisation.

"It was discussed and it is still there and everybody accepted - you've accepted, your predecessor accepted - that it was unacceptable. But it is still there on the platform. What is it that we have got to do to get you to take it down?"

The hearing took place the day after Twitter suspended a number of accounts, including that of Britain First's deputy leader Jayda Fransen, who gained notoriety when three anti-Muslim videos she posted were retweeted by US President Donald Trump.

Facebook's director of public policy Simon Milner told the committee that Britain First's page on its platform was under review.

He said: "We are reviewing it but we are very, very cautious about political speech."

Ms McSweeney said there were "balances and risks" in how content was flagged for recommendation to avoid censoring items, while Mr Milner said Facebook was actively working with communities to tackle radicalisation online.

But Tory MP Tim Loughton said tech giants were inciting violence through inaction. He added: "You are profiting from the fact that people are using your platforms to further the ills of society and you're allowing them to do it and doing very little, proactively, to prevent them."
Supernovae are now being linked to the Medieval Warm Period

Cosmic rays flung out from exploding stars have an impact on our weather, a study has shown for the first time.

New research from the Technical University of Denmark has found that supernovae release ions which rain down through our atmosphere, seeding clouds.

As more clouds form, the climate cools, which can have a major impact on the long-term weather.

The researchers claim that cosmic rays, coupled with the activity of the Sun, were linked to the Medieval Warm Period around 1,000AD and the Little Ice Age between the 13th and 19th centuries, when Londons River Thames regularly froze over during the winter, allowing frost fairs to be held.

Finally, we have the last piece of the puzzle explaining how particles from space affect climate on Earth, said Dr Henrik Svensmark, lead author of the study. It gives an understanding of how changes caused by solar activity or by supernova activity can change climate.

The study involved two years of observations into the effects of cosmic rays on a simulation of Earths atmosphere, which was recreated inside a cloud chamber  a sealed lab which mirrors the pressure and moisture of the upper atmosphere.

It showed that the high energy particles emitted from exploding stars knock electrons off air molecules to produce ions  positively or negatively charged particles.

The charged particles draw water and sulphuric acid together to form clusters in such a way that they do not evaporate, a process known as nucleation. As the clusters grow, they attract more water, and if they get large enough, will form clouds.

The study also showed that the Suns magnetic activity alters the influx of cosmic rays on to Earth. When the Sun is quiet  like at present  more cosmic rays can enter the atmosphere and the planet cools. When it is active, its magnetic emissions prevent so many rays reaching Earth, causing fewer clouds, and allowing the climate to warm.

Dr Hamish Gordon, from the Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science at the University of Leeds, UK, said: This is an interesting and plausible result, and if it stands up to more detailed scrutiny it may prove an important contribution to aerosol microphysics.

The research was published in Nature Communications.

 Daily Telegraph, London
A man walks through a cloud of tear gas fired by police during political turmoil in August (AP)

Kenya's economy has suffered after months of political turmoil that saw a presidential election nullified and a repeat vote boycotted by the opposition.

The Kenya Private Sector Alliance said businesses had lost about 5.2 billion by November as a result of the instability that also left dozens killed.

The World Bank this month lowered Kenya's growth forecast for this year to 4.9%, the worst in five years.

Tourism in East Africa's economic hub has been hurt.

Simon Kabu, chief executive officer of Bonfire Adventures, said financial losses have been huge. Instead of seeing tens of thousands of foreign tourists in recent months, they have had fewer than 100.

Financial analyst Aly Satchu Khan said the slowdown has led to lay-offs in manufacturing as well.
The Pentagon has reportedly recovered metal alloys from unidentified flying objects that scientists "do not recognise.

Materials, which are alleged to have amazing properties, are being stored in modified buildings in Las Vegas, the New York Times reports.

The US Department of Defence (DoD) has admitted to a secret $22m (17m) programme, which ran between 2007 and 2012, that was tasked with investigating reports of UFOs.

They have some material from these objects that is being studied, so that scientists can try to figure out what accounts for their amazing properties, Ralf Blumenthal, one of the authors of the New York Times report, told MSNBC.

Mr Blumenthal said the DoD do not know what the materials are made of.

Its some sort of compound they do not recognise, he added.

The Pentagon refused to comment when contacted by The Independent.

Researchers also studied people who claimed they had experienced physical effects from encounters with unidentified aerial phenomena, according to the New York Times.

A previously classified video released by the DoD shows Navy pilots reacting with astonishment after being sent to investigate a mysterious flying object as it hovered off the coast of San Diego.

The recently released footage shows a 2014 encounter between an apparent object, roughly the size of a commercial plane, and two Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets, from the aircraft carrier Nimitz.

Commander David Fravor and Lieutenant Commander Jim Slaight were on a routine training mission 100 miles out into the Pacific when they were asked to investigate the object.

Commander Fravor told The New York Times the object was about 40ft long, had no plumes, wings or rotors, and outpaced their F-18s. It was big enough to churn the sea 50ft below it, he said.

No one knows what they are to this day, Mr Blumenthal told MSNBC.

Research went into trying to identify their strange means of propulsion, their phenomenal aerodynamics which represent nothing on the face of this earth by any country."

Experts warn there is usually a worldly explanation for apparent UFO sightings and caution that an absence of an explanation is not proof of extraterrestrial life.
Two friends and train enthusiasts who had advocated for better rail access were among the three victims of the Amtrak crash south of Seattle, it has emerged.

Jim Hamre, 61, and Zack Willhoite, 35, became some of the first passengers to take the maiden voyage of a faster route between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle.

The two friends had a passion for public transportation and had eagerly awaited the day higher-speed trains could zip through their home turf.

They were among the three people killed when the train, which travelled at 80mph in a 30mph zone, derailed south of Seattle and toppled some cars on a busy road below. Dozens of others were hurt, some seriously.

The Pierce County coroner's office said both men died of severe injuries suffered on the train. Their deaths were ruled as accidents.

The identity of the third man killed in the accident has not yet been released.

Family and friends said they were devastated by the deaths, describing Mr Hamre and Mr Willhoite as devoted rail advocates who were loved by many.

They were both knowledgeable about the technical aspects of trains and had spent their lives backing the Cascade route.

"Yesterday was a moment of great happiness for them, which makes this so heartbreaking," said Carl Fowler, a friend who has worked with Hamre and Willhoite in rail advocacy for years.

He added: "Despite yesterday's tragedy, the Cascade corridor that they built will be their monument."
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan after passing the Republican tax reform bill (AP)

President Donald Trump speaking during a cabinet meeting at the White House (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Donald Trump celebrated an epic overhaul of US tax laws after Republicans in Congress voted in favour of the reforms for a second time.

The revamp will bring generous tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest Americans while providing smaller cuts for middle- and low-income families.

In a re-vote due to a last-minute hiccup, the House passed the massive 1.5 trillion dollar (1.2 trillion) package that affects everyone's taxes but is dominated by breaks for business and higher earners.

Democrats call the legislation a boon to the rich that leaves middle-class and working Americans behind.

The vote was 224-201 and came hours after the Senate's early morning passage along party lines.

Republicans cheered when the vote tally hit the magic number for passage, and again when the final vote was announced.

It is the first major overhaul of the nation's tax laws since 1986.

President Trump hailed the outcome, tweeting: "Our team will go onto many more VICTORIES!"
Between 9,000 and 11,000 civilians died in the final battle to drive Islamic State extremists out of the Iraqi city of Mosul, according to an Associated Press investigation.

The civilian casualty rate is nearly 10 times higher than what has been previously reported.

The deaths are not acknowledged by the coalition, the Iraqi government or the Islamic State group's self-styled caliphate.

Iraqi or coalition forces were responsible for at least 3,200 civilian deaths between October 2016 and the fall of IS in July this year.

The AP investigation cross-referenced morgue lists and multiple databases from non-governmental organisations. Most of the victims are simply described as "crushed" in health ministry reports.

The coalition, which has not sent anyone into Mosul to investigate, acknowledges responsibility for only 326 deaths.

"It was the biggest assault on a city in a couple of generations, all told. And thousands died," said Chris Woods, head of Airwars, an independent organisation that documents air and artillery strikes in Iraq and Syria and shared its database with AP.

"Understanding how those civilians died, and obviously Isis played a big part in that as well, could help save a lot of lives the next time something like this has to happen. And the disinterest in any sort of investigation is very disheartening," Mr Woods said.

In addition to the Airwars database, AP analysed information from Amnesty International, Iraq Body Count and a United Nations report. AP also obtained a list of 9,606 names of people killed during the operation from Mosul's morgue. Hundreds of dead civilians are believed to still be buried in the rubble.

Of the deaths the AP found, around a third died in bombardments by the US-led coalition or Iraqi forces. Another third were killed in IS's final frenzy of violence, and it could not be determined which side was responsible for the deaths of the remainder.

But the morgue total would be many times higher than official tolls.

Iraqi prime minister Haidar al-Abadi told the AP that 1,260 civilians were killed in the fighting. The US-led coalition has not offered an overall figure. The coalition relies on drone footage, video from cameras mounted on weapons systems and pilot observations for investigations.

The Americans say they do not have the resources to send a team into Mosul. Because of what the coalition considers insufficient information, the majority of civilian casualty allegations are deemed "not credible" before an investigation ever begins.

The coalition has defended its operational choices, saying it was Islamic State that put civilians in danger as it clung to power.

What is clear from the tallies is that as coalition and Iraqi government forces increased their pace, civilians were dying in ever higher numbers at the hands of their liberators.

Mosul was home to more than a million civilians before the fight to retake it from IS.

Fearing a massive humanitarian crisis, the Iraqi government dropped leaflets or had soldiers tell families to stay put as the final battle loomed in late 2016. As the battle crossed the Tigris River to the west last winter, IS fighters took thousands of civilians with them in their retreat. They packed hundreds of families into schools and government buildings.

They expected the tactic would dissuade air strikes and artillery. They were wrong.

When Iraqi forces became bogged down in late December, the Pentagon adjusted the rules regarding the use of air power, allowing air strikes to be called in by more ground commanders with less chain-of-command oversight.

AP
The US ambassador to the United Nations has said President Donald Trump will take a General Assembly vote on a resolution criticising his decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital "personally".

Nikki Haley also said in a letter to many of the UN's 193 member states that the Trump administration is "simply asking that you acknowledge the historical friendship, partnership, and support we have extended and respect our decision about our own embassy".

The letter drew sharp criticism from the Turkish and Palestinian foreign ministers, who accused the US of intimidation.

Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki and Turkey's Mevlut Cavusoglu, who are travelling to New York for Thursday's vote on the non-binding resolution, said they believe UN member countries will ignore "pressure" from Ms Haley.
New Delhi, Dec 20 (IBNS): The Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) held its 3rd meeting on Wednesday under the chairmanship of Dr Bibek Debroy, Chairman, EAC-PM & Member, NITI Aayog.



To continue the ongoing discussion on employment and growth, two presentations were made.

Dr Ramesh Chand, Member, NITI Aayog made a presentation on Strategic options for enhancing agricultural productivity, income and pro-employment growth in Agriculture and Allied Sectors.

Amarjeet Sinha, Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development made a presentation on the Mission Antyodaya for Poverty Free Panchayats.

On the trade related issues, Kishore Desai, OSD in the EAC-PM has made a presentation to the Council.

Dr Rathin Roy and Dr Surjit Bhalla, both Part Time Members of the Council presented an update on the Economy Track Monitor. The EAC-PM deliberated on these topics during its meeting.
Guna, Dec 20 (IBNS): Madhya Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Panna Lal Shakya on Tuesday attacked Indian captain Virat Kohli for marrying Bollywood actor Anushka Sharma abroad, calling the skipper "not a patriot", media reports said.

The comment, which derived both criticisms and trolls, has been passed by Shakya while inaugurating a 'Skill India Center'. in Guna.

Addressing the gathering, the BJP MLA said: "Virat earned money in India... But he didn't find any place to marry in the country. Is Hindustan untouchable?"

"Lord Rama, Lord Krishna, Vikramaditya, Yudhishthir got married on this land. You all must have got married here. None of us goes to a foreign country to get married ... (Kohli) earned money here and spent billions there (Italy)... (he) doesn't have any respect for the country. This proves he is not a patriot," he further added.

Shakya's comment was however disowned by the BJP which condemned their Madhya Pradesh leader.

Virat and Anushka got married in a private ceremony in Tuscany, Italy on Dec 11. Post marriage, the newly wed-couple shared their pictures on social media.

Twitter was fast to react on the MLA's comment.

Dhruv Rathee took a dig at the BJP and said: "Welcome to the Anti-National Gang, @imVkohli "

In a sarcastic tweet, Chikoo said: "To prove his real patriotism, virat kohli has cancelled is [sic] honeymoon and is now on Chaar Dhaam ki Yaatra."

To prove his real patriotism, virat kohli has cancelled is honeymoon and is now on Chaar Dhaam ki Yaatra. pic.twitter.com/kbmTwIixmG  Chikoo (@TweetErrant) December 20, 2017

Asking the BJP MLA to concentrate on his own work, Tajinder Bagga tweeted: "Mr Panna Lal,Virat Kohli is Country's pride & this is his personal life. He can marry anywhere in world, its not your work to tell him. Better you keep your mouth shut."

Mr Panna Lal,Virat Kohli is Country's pride & this is his personal life. He can marry anywhere in world, its not your work to tell him. Better you keep your mouth shut https://t.co/Pt42NQKl4q  Tajinder Bagga (@TajinderBagga) December 19, 2017

Prajakta Bhawsar even called Shakya "stupid". She said: "BJP MLA questioning Virat Kohli's patriotism for him getting married in Italy & not in India. This shows how stupid a person can be!"

BJP MLA questioning Virat Kohli's patriotism for him getting married in Italy & not in India.



This shows how stupid a person can be!  Prajakta Bhawsar (@ViratsFangirl18) December 19, 2017

Image: twitter.com/imVkohli
Srinagar, Dec 20 (IBNS) : Jammu Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday expressed grief over the killing of a young woman in South Kashmir during an encounter and said innocent civilians are being caught in violence.

"Anguished over the killing of a young girl during a gunfight in Batmurran village of Shopian district. Its unfortunate that a web of violence has been cast in which the local & innocent civilians of the state have been caught," Mehbooba tweeted.

Two militants and a woman, Rubeena Jan, were killed in a fierce gun fight and post enounter clashes with local people on Tuesday. She was the third civilian . This was the third civilian killed in firing by security forces in the valley in the past nine days.

Meanwhile, the Kashmir Valley is observing a shutdown against the killing of civilians.

The shutdown call has been given by the Joint Resistance Leadership comprising Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik.

Authorities have imposed restrictions in parts of Srinagar city and Shopian district while internet service is off in the twin n districts of South Kashmir including Pulwama and Shopian.

(Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri)
New Delhi, Dec 20 (IBNS): After retaining Gujarat and sweeping Himachal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi turned emotional at BJP Parliamentary meet on Wednesday as he boasted on the saffron rule in 19 states, more than what Congress had under Indira Gandhi's regime , media reports said.

Modi, who met his BJP MPs for the first time after twin victories, reportedly told: "This is a big victory, we are now ruling 19 states. Even Indira Gandhi, when she was in power, was in 18 states."

The PM, who was given a standing ovation by his colleagues and greeted by BJP President Amit Shah, made the MPs cautious about complacency.

Riding on Modi's charismatic rhetoric, BJP snatched Himachal Pradesh from Congress by winning 44 seats in 68-member Assembly.

Resisting the Congress scare, BJP could manage to retain Modi's home turf Gujarat by winning one short of 100 seats to return to power for the sixth term in the state.

The entire 2017 was a fruitful year for the BJP. The Modi wave started off the year by a landslide victory in Uttar Pradesh bagging 325 seats in a huge Assembly of 403 members.

BJP, despite coming second in Goa and Manipur, formed the state government with the support of smaller parties.

Bihar, which was lost to grand alliance in 2015, also came under the belt of Modi-Shah rule as JD(U) leader and CM Nitish Kumar ditched RJD and Congress to forge alliance with the BJP.
Chandigarh, Dec 20 (IBNS): The Juvenile Justice Board on Wednesday declared the Class XI student, who has been accused of killing Pradyuman Thakur in Ryan International School, will be tried as an adult, media reports said.

Pradyuman was found in a pool of blood inside the washroom of the school with his throat slit open in early September.

A civic court also granted bail to bus conductor Ashoke, who was arrested earlier for allegedly murdering the class 2 student, on Nov. 21.

Ashoke earlier confessed that he was the one who killed Pradyuman.

Apart from Ashoke, the police has suspected a class 11 student of the same school to have committed the crime.

Though Ashoke had confessed his act of murdering the seven-year old boy, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) apprehended a class XI student of the same school in connection with the murder. The senior student eventually was arrested.

Being a juvenile, his name was not disclosed.

After a CBI probe it appeared Ashoke was possibly framed for a crime he did not commit.

The CBI has revealed that Gurgaon police had planted the murder weapon, a knife, that was used to kill seven-year old Pradyuman Thakur in Ryan International School, on bus conductor Ashok Kumar.

According to the CBI, the weapon belonged to the class XI student.

The teenager allegedly wanted to impede the approaching exams and parent teacher meeting and hence killed the boy.
Patna, Dec 20 (IBNS) : Suspected Maoists abducted five railway employees, including an assistant station master (ASM) and a porter, from Masudan railway station in Lakhisarai district of east Bihar and set on fire the signalling panel on Wednesday morning, media reports said.

According to reports, Railway traffic on Kiul-Jamalpur section has been disrupted.

About 25 Maoists, including women, attacked the Masudan railway station, 180 km from state capital Patna, in the wee hours.

Maoists had called for a 48-hour bandh, starting Tuesday midnight, across Bihar and neighbouring Jharkhand in protest against the Operation Greenhunt launched by security forces.

According to reports, the Maoists later freed three of the abducted people, but kept custody ASM Mukesh Kumar Paswan and porter Nirendra Mandal .

The reports said the Maoists also threatened the Divisional Railway Manager to kill all the employees if the railway authorities continued train services on the section.

A high alert has been sounded in the state following the incident and security forces, including the elite Kobra, have been alerted.
New Delhi, Dec 20 (IBNS): The Opposition in Parliament stalled proceedings and forced adjournment in both houses demanding an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his remark against . Manmohan Singh over an alleged secret meeting with Pakistan to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the recently conclude Gujarat election, media reports said.

The Opposition, with the Congress in front, protested against Modi's remark during the Gujarat campaign and insisted that the PM apologise.

However, Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu turned down any such possibility, saying "no one will apologise".

Naidu said: "This is not the way. No one will apologise. (Because) Nothing has happened in the House."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's allegation during his Gujarat poll campaign -- that Pakistan was trying to meddle in Gujarat elections -- has given rise to a lot of debate.

PM Modi raised the issue of the dinner thrown by Mani Shankar Aiyar and suggested that the Congress was conspiring with Pakistani leaders to prevent the BJP from winning the election in Gujarat, where the party has been in power for 22 years, media reported.

Mani Shankar Aiyar, now suspended by his party for his 'neech aadmi' remark, hosted a dinner weeks ago for former Pakistan Foreign Affairs Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri's visit, where former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Vice President Hamid Ansari, Pakistan High Commissioner, former foreign minister K Natwar Singh, former Army Chief Deepak Kapoor, former diplomats Salman Haider, Satinder Lambah, TCA Raghavan, Sharat Sabharwal, Chinmaya Gharekhan and senior journalists including Prem Shankar Jha and Rahul Khushwant Singh were among the invitees present.

Singh counter-attacked Modi and accused him of spreading "falsehood and canards" in a bid to win the Gujarat Assembly polls.

He had asked Modi to 'apologise' to the nation.

In a statement released by the ex-PM, he has denied all allegations made by Modi that he and others were invited to a dinner at Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar's residence with Pakistani diplomats and discussed the Gujarat election.

"I am deeply pained and anguished by the falsehood and canards being spread to score political points in a lost cause by none less than Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi," Singh said in his statement.

"Sadly and regrettably, Modi is setting a dangerous precedent by his insatiable desire to tarnish every Constitutional office including that of a former Prime Minister and Army Chief," Singh said.
Guwahati, Dec 20 (IBNS): An ally party legislator of the BJP-led Assam government accused that, the state government is failed to meet public aspirations.

Utpal Dutta, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) MLA representing Lakhimpur assembly constitution on Wednesday said that, the state government is facing huge fund crunch while BJP in power in both the centre and state.

It is very interesting that, the state is facing fund crisis while the BJP is in power both at the Centre and state, Utpal Dutta said.

The AGP MLA also said that, maximum departments of the state government have not completed development schemes in the state due to fund crisis.

The BJP-led state government failed to fulfill public aspirations in past 18 months. AGP is one of the partner of the government, but we are not getting a partner's respect, Dutta said.

Utpal Dutta criticized Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal over his failure to reshuffle his cabinet.

On the other hand, BJPs Assam unit president Ranjit Kumar Das denied the fund crisis issue and said that, the centre has released adequate development fund to the state regularly.

But, some departments of the state government have not submitted their utilization certificates, Das said.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Guwahati, Dec 20 (IBNS): The special court of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Guwahati on Wednesday sent the principal of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Khanapara in Assam to two-day police remand, who was arrested by the prime investigating agency in a graft case.

Rajesh Dhawan, principal of KV Khanapara in Guwahati, was arrested by a CBI team on Tuesday evening, while Dhawan was taking bribe from a contractor at his official residence.

A top CBI official said that, a CBI team arrested the principal red handed while he taking a bribe of Rs 30,000 in cash from a contractor for awarding a painting and electrical work.

On Wednesday, Dhawan was produced before the special court of CBI and the court had sent him to two-day police custody.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Image: Screengrab from YouTube

Chetumal, Dec 20 (IBNS): At least 12 people died after a Chacchoben bound bus from US' Florida flipped over a highway in Mexico's Quintana Roo state on Tuesday, reports said.

Though the deceased have not been identified, the bus was carrying seven Americans and two Swedish citizens, the Associated Press quoted Quintana Roo state civil defense spokesman Vicente Martin as saying.

According to government officials, the bus was carrying 31 passengers, 18 of whom suffered injuries.

Among the 12 deceased, one was a minor girl.

"The bus belonging to the company Turismo de Aventura carried 31 passengers, of which 12 people unfortunately died, among them, a minor, 18 injured are reported, who have been channeled and treated in hospitals in the area," the statement read.

The commuters were heading towards the Chacchoben site, 177 kilometres (110 miles) south of Tulum, famous for its Mayan ruins.

Condoling the loss, a US Embassy spokesperson said, "We express our condolences to all those affected by this tragedy."

The cause of the accident is presently being investigated.



Image: Screengrab from YouTube


Image: twitter.com/metpoliceuk

London, Dec 20 (IBNS): Four people have been arrested in connection with an Islamist terror plot in the United Kingdom, according to British counter terrorism agencies.

The perpetrators, who were planning to carry out the plan during Christmas, have been identified as aged 41, 36, 31 and 22.

The 31-year old was picked up from Chesterfield.

The others were arrested from Sheffield.



An Army bomb disposal squad also sealed off a road in Chesterfield and evacuated nearby homes while the arrest was made.

The cordon was later removed.

The detainees are currently in a West Yorkshire police station, where they will undergo police quizzing.

According to the BBC, a neighbour in Shirebrook Road, Sheffield, heard a loud bang, which the person said felt like 'an earthquake'.

However, counter terrorism experts have ruled out the possibility of it being an explosion.

According to a spokeswoman from Counter Terrorism Policing North East: "The public may have heard a loud bang at the time as police entered one of the properties, but it was not an explosion."

The spokesperson stated that it part of 'the method to gain entry to the property'.

Image: twitter.com/metpoliceuk
New York, Dec 20(Just Earth News): The United Nations expert on the human rights situation in Myanmar on Wednesday expressed disappointment at the Governments decision to deny her all access to the country and withdraw cooperation for the duration of her tenure.

I am puzzled and disappointed by this decision by the Myanmar Government, said UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee Lee. This declaration of non-cooperation with my mandate can only be viewed as a strong indication that there must be something terribly awful happening in Rakhine, as well as in the rest of the country.

Lee had been due to visit Myanmar in January to assess the state of human rights countrywide, including the human rights abuses against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State.

The Special Rapporteur said she hoped Myanmar would revisit the decision.

Only two weeks ago, Myanmars Permanent Representative informed the Human Rights Council of its continuing cooperation with the UN, referencing the relationship with my role as Special Rapporteur, she said.

Now I am being told that this decision to no longer cooperate with me is based on the statement I made after I visited the country in July.

Lee had previously been afforded cooperation and access to Myanmar, and had maintained a relationship of mutual respect with the Government. The Government has now claimed that her end-of-mission statement in July was biased and unfair.

The Special Rapporteurs mandate requires two visits to Myanmar a year, in order to report to the Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly. Since taking up the mandate in June 2014, she has visited six times.

While the Government had responded positively to past requests to visit, access to some areas had been consistently refused, with the authorities citing security concerns.

The Government is also not cooperating with the Human Rights Council independent international fact-finding mission on Myanmar, established in March 2017.

It is a shame that Myanmar has decided to take this route, said Lee.

The Government has repeatedly denied violations of human rights are occurring throughout Myanmar, particularly in Rakhine state. They have said that they have nothing to hide, but their lack of cooperation with my mandate and the fact-finding mission suggests otherwise, said the expert.

UN Photo/Kim Haughton

Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, Dec 20(Just Earth News): The United Nations political chief told the Security Council on Tuesday that the UN Secretariat is not yet in a position to confirm whether the ballistic missiles launched at the Saudi cities of Yanbu and Riyadh were Iranian Qiam-1 missiles, as assessed by Saudi authorities.

Almost two years after Implementation Day of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), we are at a critical crossroads, Under-Secretary-General Jeffrey Feltman told the Council.

On 20 July 2015, the Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 2231 (2015) endorsing the JCPOA. The action plan, between the Councils 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 Irans nuclear programme, while paving the way for lifting UN sanctions against the country.

Feltman recalled that since January 2016 the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had reported to the Council nine times that Iran is adhering to its nuclear-related obligations. At the same time, in October 2017 the President of the United States decided not to certify to Congress that Iran was complying with the agreement.

This decision has regrettably created considerable uncertainty about the future of the JCPOA, he said, noting that the UN the Secretary-General is reassured that the US, during the recent 7th meeting of the Joint Commission, together with other participants, expressed its continued adherence to its commitments.

Todays meeting is an important opportunity to reflect carefully on what has been achieved and the challenges that lay ahead, Feltman continued, presenting the main findings of the UN Secretary-Generals fourth report on the implementation of the provisions contained in annex B to resolution 2231.

Regarding the supply, sale or transfer to Iran of nuclear-related items undertaken in violation of the provisions of resolution 2231 Feltman said that the Secretary-General has again not received any report of such flows.

As for the implementation of ballistic missile-related provisions, Feltman said the report contained preliminary observations indicating that the two missiles launched at the Saudi cities of Yanbu and Riyadh had similar features which suggested a common origin, and are consistent with missiles of the Scud family and had features known to be consistent with the Qiam-1 missile.

One of the missiles bore castings similar to that of an Iranian entity on the list maintained pursuant to resolution 2231, he added.

In terms of restrictions on arms-related transfers, the Secretariat is confident that close to 900 of the assault rifles seized by the United States in March 2016 are identical to those seized by France also in the same month, which the Secretariat had assessed were of Iranian origin and shipped from Iran, Feltman said.

The Secretariat is also confident that half of the 200 rocket propelled grenade launchers had characteristics similar to Iranian-produced RPG launchers.

Further, the Secretariat had received information on an unmanned surface vessel (USV) laden with explosives allegedly used against the Saudi-led coalition and had the opportunity to examine parts of its guidance and detonation systems, which included a computer terminal with a dual English/Farsi keyboard and characteristics similar to those of Iranian-produced terminals.

The Secretariat was also requested to examine two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), reportedly recovered in Yemen after Implementation Day. One of the UAVs  which Saudi authorities ascertain was similar to that of the Iranian-made Ababil-II  is similar to other drones reportedly seized in Yemen brought to our attention by the United Arab Emirates, Feltman said.

Photo: IAEA/Paolo Contri

Source: www.justearthnews.com
Kabul, Dec 19 (IBNS): The Afghanistan government has welcomed US President Donald Trump's new national security strategy and said it affirmed the enduring U.S.  Afghanistan strategic partnership.

"The NSS and the U.S. South Asia strategy are the cornerstones upon which our shared efforts to defeat terrorism and bring stability to Afghanistan are built. Our partnership, which reflects a renewed U.S. commitment, will set the conditions to end the war and finally bringing peace to Afghanistan," read a statement issued by Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani's Office.

"We welcome that the strategy aims to strengthen peace and stability in the region especially through diplomatic means," read the statement.

"The National Unity Government is committed to the principle of mutual respect and cooperation among states in the region. We have always worked and shall continue to do so for a peaceful region with increased connectivity for the shared economic development of our people in this region. To this end, we will continue to work with our neighbors close and far in the region," it said.

US President Donald Trump has shared new national security strategy on Monday.

The newly unveiled strategy asked Pakistan to take decisive action against terrorist groups operating on their territory.
Kabul, Dec 20 (IBNS): At least one civilian was killed during a joint night raid conducted by Afghan and foreign troops in Parwan province.

The incident took place in the province's Bagram district on Tuesday night.

Protesting the death, an angry mob approached the provincial governor, who eventually promised an investigation.

Two other people were also injured during the raid.

The governor even said that the motive of the operation wasn't clear to him too.
Washington, Dec 20 (IBNS): The US government has expressed concern over Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed's decision of running for office during the upcoming general election in Pakistan.

During a press briefing, US State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert, said: "We have many conversations with the Government of Pakistan. One of the things that happened recently is that this guy was held on house arrest. Pakistan released him from house arrest, and now there is word that he may be running for some sort of office."

"I want to remind folks we have a $10 million Reward for Justice program that would reward for information that would bring him to justice. So I want to make that clear so that everybody knows, $10 million out for this guy, and we would certainly have concerns about him running for office. So Im glad you highlighted that," he said.

Hafiz was recently released from 300-day house arrest in Pakistan.

Saeed had been put under house arrest since Jan 31.

He was initially put under house arrest for 90 days but the period was later extended more than one time.

Saeed is suspected of masterminding the attack Mumbai in 2008 that killed 166 people.
Ottawa/Washington, Dec 20 (IBNS): Canada and the US will hold a joint meeting in Vancouver over an unpredictable behaviour of North Korea, media reports said.

The announcement has been made by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland.

The meeting will be held on Jan 16, 2018.

The top diplomats of both the US and Canada told media that most of the nations who fought in 1950-1953 Korean war have been invited to be present in the meeting.

Tillerson was quoted by CBC News: "We continue to find ways to advance the pressure campaign against North Korea, and send a unified message from the international community: 'We will not accept you as a nuclear weapons nations.

"We share one goal, full and complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula," he added.

Tillerson even said the meeting will be a way of giving North Korea a message that other nations are prepared to participate in discussions. "We can't talk unless North Korea is ready to talk. We're waiting for them to indicate a readiness to talk  this pressure campaign will not abate. We will not be rolling any of it back."

Canada is aiming to start the dialogue between six nations- South Korea, North Korea, the U.S., China, Japan, Russia- through this meet.

Freeland told reporters: "This is another visible sign that the international community is acting in concert to speak to the government of North Korea and to say this is threatening us all and the pressure will increase until the behaviour changes."

However, the US' approach to North Korea was much different as President Donald Trump had earlier threatened to launch military strikes on North Korea if behaviour doesn't improve.

On the difference in approach between the US and Canada, Tillerson said he is presenting a united front along with the White House.



(Reporting by Suman Das)

Image: twitter.com/cafreeland
Ottawa, Dec 20 (IBNS): Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has recently said his US counterpart Donald Trump is a deal-maker and negotiator while commenting on the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) deal, media reports said.

In an interview with CTV News, Trudeau said: "Donald Trump has demonstrated that hes a bit of a disruptive force. He does unpredictable things. Trudeau said. He's a deal-maker. He's a negotiator."

Trudeau even said he is optimistic about his relationship with Trump.

"The thing that reassures me fundamentally is he got elected on a commitment to help people, to make America great again."

He said: "The way to help those people is to bring in trade deals and jobs and economic growth that is going to help."

Trudeau's comments came at a time Canada is negotiating with the US over NAFTA deal.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently, early in this month, faced heat from US President Donald Trump, who acclaimed the former saying "a nice guy" but also has hit out at his counterpart over their differences on "trade deficit" discussions, media reports said.

Referring to Trudeau, Trump on Thursday said: "I like the prime minister very much. Prime Minister Trudeau. Nice guy. Good guy. No, I like him. But we had a meeting... He said, 'No, no, you have a trade surplus.' I said, 'No we don't.' He said, 'No, no you have a trade surplus."

Canada is presently negotiating with the US regarding the NAFTA, an agreement which came into force from January 1994 by Canada, Mexico and United States creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America.

For almost two years, US President Trump criticised the agreement and also hinted to take some serious steps being in the administration or at least send some ultimatums.

Both Canada and the US differ in the climate change.

The US has already announced their withdrawal from the Paris Climate and the process of coming out from it is underway.

On the other hand, Canada wants a new NAFTA with a reference to the global climate issues and make necessary steps to tackle them.

In the negotiations, Canada is working for a better labour and environmental provisions.

Both Canada and the US are in favour of making an environment agreement in the new NAFTA instead of designing a separate deal.

The two nations also want to make certain provisions to prevent NAFTA nations from violating the rules for the sake of drawing investments.

Amid the ongoing negotiations in the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, in November, said the country can't agree to extreme proposals put forward by the US, media reports said.

After the fifth round of talk in Mexico city, Freeland told media: "There are some areas where some extreme proposals have been put forward, and these are proposals that we simply cannot agree to."

Freeland even said certain proposals could become detrimental to the Canadian auto-industry.

When asked about whether the country should look forward to have a future without NAFTA, Freeland told media, "..hope for the best and prepare for the worst and Canada is prepared for every eventuality".



(Reporting by Suman Das)

Image: Facebook/@POTUS
Markets end the day in red It was a day in red for Indian equity markets, today. Nifty 50 ended, down by 65.75 points. Sensex ended, down by 230.12 points. Top Gainers today were Tata Consumer, Adani Enterprises and L&am... November 17, 2022 | 17-11-2022 3:42 pm

Bangalore Airport IPO could be valued at ~$3.7 Billion As per the reports of various news publications, Fairfax India Holdings Limited is considering the initial public offer for Bangalore International Airport. It could value the asset of the airp... November 17, 2022 | 17-11-2022 2:59 pm

Timken India to set up new manufacturing facility at Bharuch, Gujarat; Stock hits 52-week high Timken India Ltd stock hits 52-week high on Thursday after it has announced that new manufacturing facility will be set up at Bharuch, Gujarat to manufacture Spherical Roller Bearings ('SR... November 17, 2022 | 17-11-2022 2:41 pm

Tata Motors bags supply order of 1,000 buses to Haryana Roadways Tata Motors on Thursday has announced that it has bagged a prestigious order of 1000 buses from Haryana Roadways. The Company will supply the 52-seater fully built BS6 diesel buses i... November 17, 2022 | 17-11-2022 1:55 pm

Ind Ra assigns Biocon credit rating at 'IND AA+' with Stable outlook India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has assigned Biocon Ltd a Long-Term Issuer Rating of IND AA+. The Outlook is Stable. Further, the proposed commercial paper ratings ass... November 17, 2022 | 17-11-2022 1:07 pm
A 16-year-old boy, whom the CBI say is the main culprit in the shocking murder of Pradyuman Thakur, a Class II student of Ryan International School Gurugram will be tried as an adult.

The Juvenile Justice Board on Wednesday transferred the case to the senior court, under the revised Juvenile Justice Act, which allows minors to be tried as adults based on the nature of their crime.

BCCL

The Class XI student was mature enough to know the consequences of his actions and hence should not be treated as a juvenile delinquent, the JJB noted while transferring the case to the regular court.

As per reports, the juvenile will be produced in court soon and his trial could start as early as Friday.

If convicted, he will stay in a correctional home till he is 21 years old and then be transferred to a jail. Welcoming the order the Varun Thakur, the father of the slain boy said the family is hopeful of getting justice.

BCCL

The 16-year-old boy was arrested last month by the CBI on charges of murdering the Class II student.

The CBI said the teeanger targetted Pradyuman randomly in the school toilet on September 8, to get the school exams postponed as he did not want to appear for it.

The boy was found brutally murdered, with his throat slashed with a sharp object, which the CBI said was a knife.

BCCL

A day after the murder came to light the Gurugram police, which had come under fire for its investigation had arrested the conductor of the school bus for the murder.

The cops had claimed that the conductor had admitted of the crime, which he later told the court that he was tortured into making the confession.
If it wasn't for the terror looming over homes in Delhi and the neighbouring districts of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, the whole affair could be dismissed as people having a bad hair day.

But the unexplained experience of women finding themselves shorn of their tresses - the latest being the wife of a policeman in Dwarka on Saturday - has the people trying everything from divine invocations and the biocidal properties of neem to the absurd proposition of sleeping with helmets on to deny scissor-happy demons access to their hair.

Facebook/Representational Image

In the absence of any leads linking humans to these mysterious acts, residents of the affected localities are blaming malicious spirits. So, they are resorting to the usual anti-demonic precautions of sprinkling Ganga water in and around the house and stringing up the seven green chillies and a lemon at significant spots.

ALSO READ: 65-YO Dalit Woman Accused Of Being 'Hair Chopping Witch' Lynched By A Mob In Agra

Pods of garlic -thank God, its price hasn't spiked like the onion's -have also become a big comfort, hung from the eaves or as a bodily adornment. In many places Hindu women are relying on henna handprints at the entrances to ward off evil, while Muslims in Mewat are burying strands of their hair over which the local maulvi has read the protective aayat prayer. Aklima, a housewife in Nuh, clarified why: "We are offering the hair to the evil being to prevent it attacking us."

And covered hair is a new trend, whether awake or in bed. Mohammad Ijaz, a resident of Punhana in Haryana, reasoned, "If the ghost can't see the hair, it cannot chop it either." In Ghaziabad too, the matronly Hasina Khatun, 60, claimed to have instructed all women in the locality to cover their head tightly with a scarf, even when sleeping.

BCCL/Representational Image

ALSO READ: Mysterious Hair Chopping Incidents Continue In Delhi NCR, Four New Cases Reported In 12 Hours

In Laxmi Nagar, a puja was offered to Goddess Kali, though several people privately asserted that only 1,008 hair choppings would sate the spirits. Houses in Chhawla, where the first incident was reported earlier this week, today are festooned with garlands of neem leaves. "Some women have also begun tying garlic on their arms or on their plaited hair," disclosed Santosh Yadav. A woman at Bijwasan had another take: "Black magic is behind these incidents. A magician probably needs women's hair."

Most people simply laugh away police conjectures about pranksters and psychologically propelled selfdeeds. "This is surely the work of an evil force," declared Sahana of Roop Nagar in Ghaziabad. Her friend, 33year-old Mofida, had found herself without her braids on Friday afternoon.

AP

ALSO READ: After Mewat, Mystery Hair Chopper Moves To NCR, Scared People Approach Cops In Delhi, Gurugram

A rumour, which has not been endorsed by police, has it that the perpetrators of the insidious act are members of a gang from Gurgaon, though no one can explain why the targets are hapless, though suitably long-haired women.

Villages in western and south-western regions of Delhi have instituted night patrolling. In Chhawla, Ashok Gupta said, "Groups of boys are keeping vigil, but we haven't caught anyone yet."

In Mewat, women only move in the groups or if accompanied by men, whether it is a trip to fetch firewood, to relieve themselves or to get fodder from the fields.

AP

After the attack on Mofida in Roop Nagar on Friday, the neighbourhood didn't sleep the whole night. The terror was almost unbearable during a power cut at night. Unwilling to doze off, teenager Rizvana kept fingering her ponytail for hours before finally giving in to sleep -but in her parents' bed.

Except for one case in Ambedkar Nagar in south Delhi in which a girl's mischievous brothers proved to be the hair clippers, police have struggled to get to the bottom of what is increasingly become an urban legend of the magnitude of Delhi's "monkey man" of 2001. That case of an ape-like creature attacking people has remained unresolved. The antics of 2017's ghostly barber look likely to follow suit.
Bikers are often associated with chain snatching, eve teasing, burglary and what not. The incidents involving bikers generally keep them in a bad light. But Mondays incident in Delhi where a group of biker chased down car in which three men had abducted a woman brought it to peoples notice to sweeping statements and opinions about anything doesnt help anybody.

Apart from the bikers who travel to their work, India has thousands of bikers who travel long distances for fun and adventure and there are hundreds of examples where the bikers to broken the notions attached to them and help of people by going out of the way.

Here are five examples of bikers who helped people on road without giving a second thought to what can happen to them.



1. Ambulance Dada

Karimul Haque isnt an unknown name anymore. He is known as Bike Ambulance Dadain West Bengal because the 52-year-old Karimul uses his bike as ambulance and transport the needy to the hospital. Karimul Haques act of bonhomie has a story behind it and the story is quite emotional.

Karimuls mother had died because she couldnt reach the hospital in time due to the non-availability of the ambulance when his mother suffered a heart attack. Karimul has been running this bike ambulance for the last eight years and serves nearly 20 villages with his bike. For his generosity and service to humanity, he has been awarded highest civilian award Padma Shri.

2. Aman Yadav, a young biker who helped accident victims

PTI

A young student In Varanasi who studies in college runs also runs a bike ambulance to help the accident victims. According to a story done by HT earlier this year, Aman also carries medicines, water and biscuits with him to calm down the frightened victims. Amans service isnt linked with any phone number and he gets information about the accidents through friends and rushes to the spot.

Some prominent locals also fund Amans initiative.

3. 50 Bikers helped Mumbai police nab criminals

According to a story done by HT in May 2017, 50 bikers from different bikers groups are helping police nab criminals who commit crimes like snatching and then flee the spot on bike. The youngsters dont get anything for their work as they just do it for free.

4. 66-year-old good samaritan

The 66-year-old former Taxi driver from Delhi, Surya Prakash Vaid, is indeed an inspiration as he helps the accident victims and takes them to the hospital on his scooter. Vaid has been rescuing people for the last 24 years on his scooter.

5. Biker helped police nab snatcher

Indian Express

In 2012, a biker helped traffic cops nab a 17-year-old snatcher in east Delhi after he chased him on his bike. The good samaritan, however, did not want to be identified, and quietly left the scene. There have been several other incidents where bikers have come forward to help the people, sometimes even by putting their lives at stake.
With pollution levels in Delhi showing no signs of improvement and the city having smog as one of the main issues faced, the state government has introduced its latest weapon to combat the deadly smog.

The Delhi government has tested 'anti-smog guns in the capital to deal with the winter smog.

AAP Delhi/ Twitter

The device was tested on Wednesday in Delhi's Anand Vihar area, one of the most polluted areas in the national capital. Earlier on Monday, it was tested at the Delhi Secretariat in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Environment Minister Imran Hussain.

AAP Delhi/ Twitter

The anti-smog gun is a canon that sprays atomized water 50 metres into the air to bring down suspended pollutants. The device is connected to a water tank and it can be taken to different parts of the city on a vehicle.

The atomised water sprayed from the gun will help in bringing down the minute particles, which constitute the PM 2.5, the main pollutant.

AAP Delhi/ Twitter

The Anti-Sog gun is said to cost around Rs 20 lakhs and the government is yet to finalise the procurement of them.

This is not the first time the Delhi government has used such a measure.

In November the government had resorted to using water cannons and fire engines to bring down pollutants after the request for helicopter spraying was turned down.
Four new cases of women's hair being mysteriously chopped off while they were either asleep or unconscious have come up in the past 12 hours.

While two of the victims refused to register a police complaint, the other two have lodged an FIR at police stations in Rohini district.

ap

"We received two calls from Begum Pur and Prashant Vihar. The woman from Begum Pur claimed that about three inches of her hair was cut off while she was sleeping in her room.

Also Read: From Cat Woman To A Witch, Here Are The Rumours Doing Rounds About Mysterious Hair Chopper

Initially, she hesitated in informing the police, but later called the PCR on her friend's insistence after which a case for causing hurt and molestation was registered," said DCP (Rohini) Rishipal.

bccl

An inquiry was conducted into the incident reported by a woman at Prashant Vihar police station, but she refused to register a complaint, said an officer.

Also Read: 65-YO Dalit Woman Accused Of Being 'Hair Chopping Witch' Lynched By A Mob In Agra

Two other incidents were reported from Fatehpur Beri and Maidan Garhi. These two women were unaware of their hair being cut off until someone pointed it out to them.

Police said the inquiries have been ordered in all cases, but they have not been able to reach a logical conclusion. Cops said it is unlikely that the women chopped off their hair on their own and suspicion has fallen on their family members.

ap

Meanwhile, cops have appealed to some communities to install CCTVs in their areas on the suspicion that a group of miscreants has been creating panic.

Also Read: After Mewat, Mystery Hair Chopper Moves To NCR, Scared People Approach Cops In Delhi, Gurugram

It is also being suspected that some people are trying to spread panic similar to the "monkey man" menace highlighted in the media a few years ago.
2017 was mostly about the rotting healthcare system in India. Remember the Gorakhpur Hospital tragedy?

In yet another case of negligence by hospital authorities, the body of a 21-year-old woman stored in the morgue at Osmania General Hospital was chewed by rats, which seems to be a common state of affairs in the neglected morgue of this major public hospital.

representational image

The deceased, U Madhu, had committed suicide by hanging herself at her home in Mangaar Basti in Habeebnagar, was taken to the hospital for post-mortem by the police who registered a case of suspicious death, reports Deccan Chronicle.

N Birju, a relative of Madhu said, We shifted the body to the morgue for post-mortem on Monday night. When we went to check on Tuesday, we noticed that the nose and neck parts were missing and it looked like someone had scraped it off her face. Upon asking the duty doctor present, we were told that they have a rats problem and that must be the reason.

wikipedia

Workers in the morgue informed us that there is a rat infestation in the premise. We approached the Afzalgunj police to register a case against the negligent management, but were told to come on Wednesday to register the case, added Birju, the report said.

No case has been registered against the hospital yet.
Days after Hindu Jagran Manch (HJM) a fringe Hindutva group warned Christian management schools in Uttar Pradesh's Aligarh against celebrating Christmas in their institutions, the police have swung into action.

Aligarh district authorities have issues notices to HJM under CrPC's preventive sections 107/116 (apprehension of breach of peace and tranquility of an area) asking them to fill guarantee bonds of Rs 10 lakh declaring that they will not indulge in any disruptive activities targeting schools.

BCCL/ Representational Image

"Besides the notices, we have directed all district police chiefs of the state to ensure that the freedom of practising one's religion, as enshrined in the Constitution, is protected at all costs and appropriate action is taken if anyone tries to violate it," Additional director general (law and order) Anand Kumar said.

HJM issued a circular warning the managements of all Aligarh schools against celebrating Christmas and threatened, if they did so, it would be "at their own risk".

BCCL/ Representational Image

The outfit had a bizarre logic for banning the celebration in schools. According to HJM Christmas was a way to lure non-Christian students to Christianity and to convert them.

"Hindu students studying in Christian schools are being asked to bring toys, gifts and celebrate Christmas," Sonu Savita, a local leader of the HJM alleged.

Many parents and students rubbished the HJM's claim and said the schools celebrate festivals of all religions.

BCCL/ Representational Image

"Our schools have been playing an important role in helping students acquire knowledge of different religions and this helps them when they move out to different countries," a parent said.

The HJM, which is said to be founded by hardline BJP MP Vinay Katiyar, and is said to have mass support across parts of UP.
Fed official suggests substantial rate hikes may be needed AP - Thu Nov 17, 5:16PM CST The Federal Reserve may have to raise its benchmark interest rate much higher than many people expect to get inflation under control, That's according to James Bullard, who leads the Federal Reserve Bank... $SPX : 3,946.56 (-0.31%) $DOWI : 33,546.32 (-0.02%) $IUXX : 11,676.86 (-0.19%)

Red Thursday for Cotton Barchart - Thu Nov 17, 4:47PM CST Cotton futures closed off their lows on Thursday, but still gave back 122 to 148 points across the front months. New crop cotton ended the day firmer with only 25 to 33 point losses. Cotton bookings from... CTZ22 : 86.76 (-0.32%) CTH23 : 84.60 (-0.80%) CTK23 : 83.65 (-0.88%)

Cattle Rally on Strong Feeder Market Barchart - Thu Nov 17, 4:47PM CST Front month feeder cattle futures finished the day with $0.95 to $1.17 gains. Cash trade picked up on Thursday; the USDA confirmed $148 to $156 sales on Thursday, citing $152 as the bulk of business in... LEZ22 : 152.750s (+0.63%) LEG23 : 155.400s (+0.75%) LEJ23 : 158.900s (+0.74%) GFX22 : 175.850s (+0.09%) GFF23 : 179.975s (+1.41%)

Hogs Gain on Thursday Barchart - Thu Nov 17, 4:47PM CST The lean hog market continued to work higher through the Thursday session, save for the Dec contract which gave back 60 cents. The other nearbys added 5 to 12 cents to the move. The USDA National Average... HEZ22 : 84.975s (-0.70%) HEJ23 : 96.000s (+0.39%) KMZ22 : 95.500s (-0.42%)

Soy Futures Continue Lower, Beans Down Double Digits Barchart - Thu Nov 17, 4:47PM CST Soybean futures ended the day 11 3/4 to 12 3/4 cents in the red, as Jan printed a 25 cent range on the day. Meal stayed weaker as well with $0.90 to $1.50/ton losses to close. BO futures closed off their... ZSF23 : 1420-4 (+0.25%) ZSPAUS.CM : 13.9182 (-0.86%) ZSH23 : 1425-6 (+0.25%) ZSK23 : 1435-0 (+0.46%)

Red Thursday for Wheat Futures Barchart - Thu Nov 17, 4:47PM CST Domestic wheat prices ended the day with 10 3/4 to 12 cent pullbacks in the SRW market. KC futures faded by 11 1/4 to 17 1/2 cents in the front months. Spring wheat futures were down 11 3/4 to 13 1/2 cents... ZWZ22 : 811-0 (+0.53%) ZWH23 : 829-0 (+0.48%) ZWPAES.CM : 7.4110 (-1.43%) KEZ22 : 938-6 (unch) KEPAWS.CM : 8.9632 (-1.92%) MWZ22 : 953-2 (unch)

Corn Pushes Into Positive Territory Late Barchart - Thu Nov 17, 4:47PM CST After trading lower through midday on Thursday, the corn market rebounded and closed fractionally to 2 1/4 cents in the black. New crop prices stayed 1 1/4 to 3 cents lower, which widened the Dec-Dec inverse... ZCZ22 : 670-4 (+0.45%) ZCPAUS.CM : 6.7075 (+0.52%) ZCH23 : 671-4 (+0.37%) ZCK23 : 670-0 (+0.41%)
Heres a pro tip: If youre looking for a hitman to kill your spouse, and you actually find one, that person will always be working for the FBI. Thats a lesson a woman who went by the online handle Mz. Feisty learned the hard way last week, when she was arrested on federal charges when she allegedly attempted to arrange for her boyfriends murder in order to pocket an insurance payout.Rasheeda Johnson Turner, 37, of California, was charged with the use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder for hire. Prosecutors said that Turner contracted an FBI informant to kill her boyfriend in exchange for a portion of his life insurance payout.Turner allegedly told the informant that she was the beneficiary of her boyfriends $150,000 life insurance policy. She offered to pay the informant $50,000 to kill the boyfriend. During a series of conversations that took place over two weeks, Turner allegedly told the informant that she had initially planned to kill her boyfriend herself, but worried that shed be discovered.During a December 08 meeting, Turner allegedly told the informant that she wanted him to kill her boyfriend soon, before he could remove her from the policy and cut off her access to his bank account. Turner, who called the plot Operation Dumbo, told the informant she wanted the boyfriend killed that week.Turner had allegedly showed the informant an app on her phone that allowed her to track her boyfriends telephone. On December 13, the informant called her and asked where the boyfriend was. Turner allegedly told him the intended victims location and confirmed that she would pay the informant for the murder. The FBI then contacted the boyfriend and arrested Turner.If convicted of the murder-for-hire charge, Turner faces a maximum of 10 years in federal prison.
New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed Assembly Bill No. 1620 into law yesterday, requiring insurance companies to notify employers in advance of some workers compensation insurance premium increases.

The law was written by Big I New York, the states oldest insurance producer trade association, to protect New Yorks businesses. It applies to all policies issued or renewed on and after April 17, 2018.

Assembly Bill 1620 requires insurers to give businesses written notice of when their workers comp policy premiums will rise by more than ten percent upon renewal by an affiliated insurer.

They must send the notice at least 30 days before the existing policies expire. The requirement applies only to premium components within the insurers control. Insurers will not have to send a notice when the increase results from changes in factors that are related to the risk, such as an increase in the business payroll, or surcharges or discounts based on the business loss history.

A 1986 law requires insurers to notify businesses in advance when premiums increase more than ten percent. However, it exempts workers comp insurance from its requirements. As a result, businesses would often learn of large workers comp premium increases days before their policies were to renew, according to Big I New York in a press release announcing the bills signing.

The new law Big I New York wrote will give businesses fair warning of premium increases within the insurance companys control, said Big I New York Chair of the Board Richard E. MacDonald in the release. They will have time to respond that they did not have before. This law will allow agents to help their business customers better manage their workers compensation costs while still permitting insurance companies to obtain premium increases when necessary.

In his signing message, Cuomo called on the State Legislature to make some technical amendments to the new law in the upcoming session.

We intend to work closely with lawmakers on a bill to make the governors requested changes, MacDonald added in the release.

Source: Big I New York

Topics Carriers Legislation Agencies Workers' Compensation New York Pricing Trends
A.M. Best has upgraded the Financial Strength Rating of Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Marble, Penn., to A (Excellent) from A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating to a from a-. The outlooks of these Credit Ratings have also been revised to stable from positive, according to a press release issued by A.M. Best.

The ratings reflect Farmers Mutuals balance sheet strength, which A.M. Best categorizes as very strong, as well as its strong operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management.

The press release stated that the rating actions also reflect Farmers Mutuals increased balance sheet strength, driven by its risk-adjusted capitalization being at the strongest level and significant growth in policyholders surplus over the past five years.

This is primarily a result of strong operating earnings, stable loss reserving trends, a comprehensive reinsurance program with strong partners and a high-quality investment portfolio comprised of a diverse blend of fixed-income securities and equity holdings. These positive rating attributes are offset somewhat by the companys limited financial flexibility and scale, the press release said.

Source: A.M. Best

Topics Agribusiness AM Best Pennsylvania
Fire officials say a Maryland woman has been charged with setting a fire that destroyed her trailer home and injured her adult son.

The Office of the State Fire Marshal says in a news release that fire marshals served a summons Monday on 54-year-old Debra Sue Turner. She is charged with arson and numerous other offenses.

Investigators say the fire at Turners trailer home in Hagerstown was reported on Nov. 18. Authorities say nearly 50 firefighters battled the blaze, which destroyed the home. Damage was estimated at $85,000.

Fire marshals say Turner set combustible materials in the living room on fire while she was inside the trailer with her two adults. One son suffered minor injuries.

Online court records do not list a lawyer for Turner.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Maryland
U.S. insurer Travelers Cos. Inc. said on Tuesday its European arm will create a subsidiary in Dublin in response to Britains vote to leave the European Union.

The company said it would apply for authorisation of a new, wholly owned insurance subsidiary incorporated in the Republic of Ireland.

Insurers are making contingency plans after Britains vote to leave the bloc means they risk losing passporting rights that allow UK financial services firms to trade in Europe without the need for locally regulated entities.

This new subsidiary will enable Travelers to continue to seamlessly serve its customers and broking partners in Ireland and across Europe when the UK exits the European Union, as currently planned in March 2019, Travelers said.

The plan will not affect Travelers British operations, it said.

Ireland is a natural choice for Travelers to establish its EU-based subsidiary, Matthew Wilson, CEO of Travelers Europe, said.

Dublin has emerged as the EU location for a number of players in the wider insurance market including specialist insurance groups Chaucer, part of Hanover Insurance Group , and Beazley.L.

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)

Topics Europe Uk
Below are insurers plans for EU subsidiaries (in alphabetical order) in case Britain does not have access to the single market after Brexit:

ADMIRAL. British motor insurer Admiral Group said last year that it could move its European business to Ireland or another country and said in March that it was looking at a large number of locations.

ADVENT CLAIMS. Advent Claims said it had partnered with pan-European claims specialist Van Ameyde, helping the company establish European operations to sell its services in the EU, in one of the first examples of a claims firm planning post-Brexit operations.

AIG. U.S. insurer AIG will set up a European subsidiary in Luxembourg, in addition to its European headquarters in London, it said in March.

AIOI NISSAY DOWA. Japanese insurer Aioi Nissay Dowa, part of MS&AD Insurance , said it would set up a European subsidiary in Luxembourg after Britain decided to leave the EU. (http://bit.ly/2zY62ZA)

AVIVA. Aviva is converting its Irish life and general insurance branches to regulated subsidiaries to meet the needs of its Irish insurance customers after Brexit.

BEAZLEY. Specialist insurer Beazley said it had received approval to convert its Dublin-based reinsurance company into an insurance company. The firm had said in February that it would hire additional staff in Ireland.

BRITANNIA. British ship insurer Britannia plans to set up a subsidiary in Luxembourg as a result of Britains decision to leave the European Union, to ensure it can continue to trade in Europe.

CHAUCER. Specialist insurance group Chaucer, part of Hanover Insurance Group, said the Central Bank of Ireland has approved the formation of a Dublin-based company that will trade as Chaucer Dublin to write international speciality insurance and reinsurance business. (http://bit.ly/2tXaJ2i)

CHESNARA. UK insurer Chesnara could move its headquarters to the Netherlands or Sweden if required, depending on the regulatory situation after Britain leaves the European Union, the company said.

CHUBB. U.S. insurer Chubb plans to put its European Union headquarters in Paris if Britain leaves the EU as expected in March 2019, it said on Sept. 11.

CNA HARDY. CNA Hardy, part of CNA Financial Corp, will set up a new European subsidiary in Luxembourg to allow it to operate across the EU after Britain leaves the bloc, the specialist commercial insurer said.

EVEREST RE. Everest Re Group Ltd said its Dublin-based unit had received approval from the Central Bank of Ireland to become a non-life insurer, allowing it to operate in the European Union under a single regulatory framework.

FM GLOBAL. U.S. commercial property insurer FM Global is planning a European hub in Luxembourg following Britains decision to leave the bloc, it said in April.

GLOBAL AEROSPACE. UK insurer Global Aerospace is setting up a European Union subsidiary in Paris to make sure it can continue to serve customers after Britain leaves the bloc, the firms chief executive told Reuters.

HISCOX. Lloyds of London underwriter Hiscox will establish a new subsidiary in Luxembourg to underwrite its retail business in Europe, it said in May.

JLT. Insurance broker Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group said it would continue to invest and expand on the ground in Europe so that it remains fully equipped to serve its clients.

It said its acquisition of Belgian specialty broker Belgibo NV would provide it with a larger continental European presence, ensuring that its clients in the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway can access its services after Britain leaves the bloc.

LANCASHIRE. Lancashire said in May that it has options to write EU business out of its Bermuda headquarters or via Lloyds of Londons Brussels base. The insurer added it was in no hurry to set up an EU base and saw itself staying in Britain for the foreseeable future.

LEGAL & GENERAL. British insurer Legal & General said in May that it would move some of its investment management operations to Ireland to ensure it can continue to serve its customers after Brexit.

LIBERTY SPECIALTY MARKETS. Liberty Specialty Markets, part of U.S. insurer Liberty Mutual, which had revenues of $38 billion last year, and one of the largest U.S. property and casualty insurers, said it was switching the domicile of its insurance company to Luxembourg from London. It announced its intention for a Luxembourg hub in July.

LLOYDS OF LONDON. Lloyds of London, an integral part of the British business scene since the 17th century, has chosen Brussels as the site for its EU subsidiary, it said in March. CEO Inga Beale said in December that the insurance market was pressing ahead with plans for the subsidiary.

MARKEL. U.S. insurer Markel plans to apply for regulatory approval to set up a European Union subsidiary in Munich, it said in May.

MS AMLIN. Japanese-owned insurer and reinsurer MS Amlin said it would move its European business to Belgium to make sure it can continue to serve customers after Britain leaves the European Union.

NEON. Neon Underwriting could set up a Dublin business to sell insurance policies throughout the EU if Britain loses access to the single market, chief executive of the specialist Lloyds of London insurer said in December.

NORTH. British ship insurer North is setting up a subsidiary in Dublin in case Britain loses access to the single market after Brexit, becoming the first of these specialized providers to announce such a move.

QBE. QBE Insurance Group will set up a subsidiary in Brussels to preserve its ability to operate across the EU, the Australian business insurer said.

ROYAL LONDON. British life insurer Royal London Mutual Insurance Society plans to turn its Irish business into a regulated subsidiary, it said in March.

RSA. RSA is planning a subsidiary in Luxembourg to act as the headquarters of its EU operations after Britains decision to leave the bloc. It said it chose Luxembourg because it has multinational expertise, is strategically located within RSAs existing EU branch network and has an experienced regulator.

SOMPO. Sompo International Holdings, a Bermuda-based unit of Japanese insurer Sompo, is to set up a subsidiary in Luxembourg following Britains vote to leave the European Union.

STANDARD CLUB. British ship insurer Standard Club is setting up a new European Union subsidiary in Dublin in case Britain loses access to the single market after Brexit, becoming the second of these specialized providers to opt for Ireland.

STANDARD LIFE. British insurer and asset manager Standard Life said in May that it was likely to choose Dublin for its EU hub.

TOKIO MARINE. Tokio Marine is applying for regulatory approval to set up an insurance company in Luxembourg to continue servicing European clients after Brexit, it said on Sept. 6.

TRAVELERS. Travelers said on Dec. 19 its European arm will create a subsidiary in Dublin since Britains vote to leave the European Union meant it risked losing passporting rights that allow UK financial services firms to trade elsewhere in Europe.

UK P&I CLUB. Specialist ship insurer UK P&I Club plans to set up a subsidiary in the Netherlands as a result of Britains decision to leave the European Union.

XL GROUP. Bermuda-domiciled insurer XL Group said it would move its European Union insurance company from Britain to Ireland in 2018.

(Compiled by Noor Zainab Hussain and Carolyn Cohn; editing by David Evans and Susan Fenton)

Topics Carriers USA Legislation Excess Surplus Europe Lloyd's London Uk
Hedge funds and other managers of catastrophe bond funds racked up some of the worst losses in more than a decade from this years hurricanes and wildfires.

But a year that is shaping up to be the costliest on record for insurance losses from natural disasters is nonetheless clearing a path for new fund launches.

Credit Suisse Asset Management, Securis Investment Partners and Stone Ridge Asset Management are all launching new funds in insurance-linked securities (ILS) such as catastrophe bonds, sources say.

Reinsurance rates are expected to rise up to 20 percent at key Jan. 1 renewals due to greater demand for cover after three major hurricanes in the United States and Caribbean, earthquakes in Mexico and wildfires still raging in California.

That should translate into higher ILS yields, potentially drawing in new return-seeking investors, industry specialists say.

We are seeing (investors) take a fresh look. Its a good addition to a portfolio in the long run and good now from a tactical perspective  an attractive entry point, said Chris Walvoord, partner, global head of hedge fund research at Aon Hewitt.

That entry point comes after hedge fund-run ILS funds lost 6.6 percent in the year to end-November, data from industry tracker Eurekahedge showed.

Right now, these funds are just estimating their losses, but by the first quarter of 2018 the full extent of the losses will be clear which could usher in fund closures, said Mohammad Hassan, head of hedge-fund analysis at Eurekahedge.

This year was the ILSs version of GFC (global financial crisis) 2008  the steepest losses on record for ILS hedge funds in more than a decade.

Across the industry, hurricanes alone could lead to losses of $100 billion this year, according to risk modeling agencies and reinsurers.

That compares with losses of about $74 billion caused by Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans in 2005.

Catastrophe bonds and other ILS package insurance risk in debt form. They offer high yields but default if a specified natural disaster or series of natural disasters takes place.

Several bonds have already been marked down sharply, particularly in Florida, industry sources say, on expectations that losses will be severe enough to trigger non-payment to investors.

ILS loss estimates in the secondary market range from $1 billion to $2.5 billion, according to specialist consultancy Lane Financial.

We can already see who went swimming without bathing trunks and a few who were clearly out of their depth in the storms and wildfires of 2017, said Christine Farquhar, head of fixed income research for EMEA at Cambridge Associates.

The ILS alternative to reinsurance is growing. It totalled $89 billion in June 2017, compared with $516 billion in traditional reinsurance, according to broker Aon Benfield.

Once the preserve of risk-taking investors, ILS have appealed in recent years to mainstream investors such as pension funds, family offices and high net worth individuals, due to their relatively high yield and lack of correlation to financial markets.

Chris Rule, chief investment officer of Local Pensions Partnership, made up of two large UK local government pension schemes, said one of the schemes had invested this year in ILS fund Aeolus Capital Management, backed by hedge fund Elliott, and could make further ILS bets.

The discussion we are having now is whether premiums have expanded sufficiently to warrant a larger allocation, he said.

Credit Suisse is in the process of launching two new ILS funds, according to two sources close to the firm.

ILS hedge fund manager Securis and asset management firm Stone Ridge are also launching new funds, sources said.

A spokeswoman at Credit Suisse declined to comment while Securis and Stone Ridge did not respond to requests.

Other ILS managers have enjoyed an injection of investor cash.

ILS assets at hedge fund manager Leadenhall Capital Partners grew to $4.5 billion in December, from $3.5 billion at the start of the year, a spokesman for the firm told Reuters.

Markel CatCo Investment Management has also raised over $1.8 billion for its private ILS fund.

Yields have risen and business is getting done on much better terms than we have seen since 2013, said Farquhar at Cambridge. Its the only credit-like market where yields are rising and wont be round historic lows going into next year.

However, some industry watchers are doubtful reinsurance rates will rise so much, given strong competition which has contributed to several years of falling rates.

UBS analysts said they expected reinsurance price rises to be localized to those areas hit by the disasters.

Versus initial post-loss commentary, companies are now more measured, they said in a note.

(Reporting by Maiya Keidan and Carolyn Cohn, additional reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain, editing by David Evans)

Related:

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Profit Loss Wildfire Hurricane Reinsurance
Insurtech company, Lemonade, has received a Certificate of Authority to do business in Arkansas.

Lemonade Insurance Co. has been approved to sell property, casualty and marine products in Arkansas with an initial limit to renters insurance. A New York-domiciled property/casualty insurance company offering renters and home insurance policies, Lemonade was created in 2016 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lemonade Inc., a Delaware corporation.

Lemonade offers renters insurance through a mobile application.

In a statement Arkansas Insurance Commissioner Allen Kerr said Lemonade is a company focused on using technology, artificial intelligence, and bots to innovate the insurance industry while promoting nonprofit giving through its annual Giveback program of underwriting profits. I am proud to welcome Lemonade to the renters market in Arkansas.

Lemonade is also a Certified B-Corp, where underwriting profits are contributed to nonprofits. The company receives a flat 20 percent fee, treating premiums as belonging to the policyholders. Lemonade returns unclaimed money during its annual Giveback. Giveback is a feature of Lemonade in which undistributed profits each year are donated to causes that customers elect. Lemonade is currently writing business in five other states and seeking to expand operations.

Kerr has granted authority to 28 new companies so far in 2017. Since becoming commissioner in 2015, Kerr has welcomed 63 new companies to Arkansas.

Source: Arkansas Insurance Department

Topics Oklahoma Arkansas
One of the owners of a company that abandoned thousands of tons of potentially explosive artillery propellant in Louisiana has admitted lying in order to be awarded federal contracts to demilitarize the smokeless powder, known as M6.

Explo Systems co-owner David Alan Smith, 62, of Winchester, Kentucky, has filed a plea bargain in federal court pleading guilty to one count each of conspiracy and making false statements. Smith also admitted lying about selling demilitarized powder to another company. As part of the conspiracy plea, he admitted preventing authorities from properly monitoring Explos operations at Camp Minden, a 15,000-acre (6,100-hectare) industrial site owned by the Louisiana National Guard in north Louisiana.

The maximum penalty for each count would be five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Under the plea agreement, he could also be required to compensate the federal government for $35.4 million, including $8.7 million in contract losses plus cleanup costs after an October 2012 explosion at Camp Minden, Acting U.S. Attorney Alexander Van Hook said in an emailed statement.

The judge could order other defendants to pay all or part of the restitution.

Federal prosecutors agreed to drop most charges against Smith: 21 counts of making false statements and six of wire fraud.

The magistrate before whom he appeared last week filed papers recommending that U.S. District Judge Elizabeth E. Foote approve the agreement.

A second owner of the company and four company executives are scheduled for trial April 26 on similar federal charges. They are: co-owner David Perry Fincher, 70, of Burns, Tennessee; William Terry Wright, 64, of Bossier City, the operations manager at Camp Minden; Kenneth Lampkin, 65, and Lionel Koons, 58, both of Haughton; and Charles Callihan, 68, of Shreveport.

Callihan faces only one count each of conspiracy and false statements; the others were indicted on at least as many charges as Smith.

Fincher, Smith, and Wright also face state charges. Fincher and Smith have pleaded not guilty to 10 state counts of unlawful storage and reckless use of explosives. Prosecutors have been waiting until federal charges are resolved to deal with those.

Explo Systems left 7,800 tons (7,100 metric tons) of M6 and 160 tons (145 metric tons) of clean-burning igniter at Camp Minden when the company went bankrupt in 2013.

Louisiana State Police had begun investigating the company in 2012, after the explosion in one of Explos leased bunkers and a nearby trailer shattered windows 4 miles (6 kilometers) away in Minden and created a 7,000-foot (2,130-meter) mushroom cloud and derailed 11 rail cars near the bunker.

The bunker had held about 62 tons (56 metric tons) of smokeless powder and the trailer had held about 12 tons (11 metric tons) of demilitarized M6, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office.

Much of the remaining material was in bags out in the open, state police said.

Related:

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics USA Louisiana
The Alabama Department of Insurance has announced Jerry Workman as Deputy Commissioner. Workman will succeed Deputy Commissioner and Chief Actuary Charles Angell, who is retiring in July of 2018. He will lead the departments Rates and Forms, Consumer Services and Strengthen Alabama Homes divisions.

We are delighted to have Jerry join us at the Alabama Department of Insurance, Commissioner Jim Ridling said. We know that Jerry will make a significant contribution to the work of the Department and to the people of the State of Alabama.

Workman will work closely with Charles Angell until Angells retirement.

Workman brings to the department three decades of experience in the insurance industry, most recently serving for 11 years as director of Government Affairs at Farmers Insurance. His experience includes orchestrating legislative projects and managing teams across 21 east coast and southern states, as well as holding executive management positions in claims and governmental affairs.

Workman has served in leadership positions on numerous insurance industry groups including as chairman of the board of the Alabama Insurance Underwriting Association. He also has worked with the Alabama Center for Insurance Information and Research, the Alabama Insurance Council, the Georgia Insurance Information Service and the Mississippi Insurance Council.

He also served as a board member of the South Carolina Insurance Underwriting Association. Additionally, Workman is a former member of the Alabaster, Ala., City Council.

Topics Alabama
Federal officials confirmed an Amtrak train was hurtling 50 mph over the speed limit when it careened off an overpass south of Seattle, spilling cars onto the highway below and killing at least three people.

Bella Dinh-Zarr, a National Transportation Safety Board member, said at a Monday night news conference that information from the event data recorder in the rear locomotive showed the train was traveling at 80 mph in a 30 mph zone when it derailed at 7:34 a.m. Mangled train cars ended up on top of each other  and one hung precariously over the freeway.

When the clanging of metal and screeching stopped at first it was quiet. Then came the screams.

After the crash, the injured called out as rescuers, including people who had been in cars on their morning freeway commute, rushed to help. One of the train passengers was Emma Shafer, who found herself at a 45-degree angle staring at the seats in front of her that had dislodged and swung around.

It felt oddly silent after the actual crashing, Shafer said. Then there was people screaming because their leg was messed up  I dont know if I actually heard the sirens, but they were there. A guy was like, `Hey, Im Robert. Well get you out of here.

Dinh-Zarr said its not yet known what caused the train to derail and that its too early to tell why it was going so fast.

Positive train control, the technology that can slow or stop a speeding train, wasnt in use on this stretch of track, according to Amtrak President Richard Anderson.

In 2015, an Amtrak train in Philadelphia was traveling at twice the 50 mph speed limit as it entered a sharp curve and derailed. Eight people were killed and more than 200 were injured when the locomotive and four of the trains seven passenger cars jumped the tracks. Several cars overturned and ripped apart.

A track chart prepared by the Washington State Department of Transportation shows the maximum speed drops from 79 mph to 30 mph for passenger trains just before the tracks curve to cross Interstate 5, which is where the train went off the tracks.

The chart, dated Feb. 7, was submitted to the Federal Railroad Administration in anticipation of the start of passenger service along a new bypass route that shaves off 10 minutes for the trip between Seattle and Portland, Oregon.

Kimberly Reason with Sound Transit, the Seattle-area transit agency that owns the tracks, said speed signs are posted 2 miles before the speed zone changes and just before the speed zone approaching the curve.

Eric Corp, a councilman for the small city of DuPont near the derailment, said he rode the train with about 30 or so dignitaries and others on a special trip Friday before the service opened to the public Monday.

Once we were coming up on that curve, the train slowed down considerably, he said, adding that in no way did it make me feel like we were going too fast.

The train was not full. Authorities said there were 80 passengers and five on-duty crew members on board when it derailed and pulled 13 cars off the tracks. Authorities said there were three confirmed deaths. More than 70 people were taken for medical care, including 10 with serious injuries.

About two hours after the accident, a U.S. official who was briefed on the investigation said he was told at least six people were killed. The official said he had no new information to explain the discrepancy in the numbers. The official was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

In a statement, the FBI said local police were the primary responders and there was no information suggesting an elevated risk to Washington residents.

In a radio transmission immediately after the accident, the conductor can be heard saying the train was coming around a corner and was crossing a bridge that passed over Interstate 5 when it derailed.

Dispatch audio also indicated that the engineer survived with bleeding from the head and both eyes swollen shut.

Im still figuring that out. Weve got cars everywhere and down onto the highway, he tells the dispatcher, who asks if everyone is OK.

Aleksander Kristiansen, a 24-year-old exchange student at the University of Washington from Copenhagen, was going to Portland to visit the city for the day.

I was just coming out of the bathroom when the accident happened. My car just started shaking really, really badly, he said.

The back of his train car was wide open because it had separated from the rest of the train, so he and others were able to jump out to safety.

The train was making the inaugural run on the new route as part of a $180.7 million project designed to speed up service by removing passenger trains from a route along Puget Sound thats bogged down by curves, single-track tunnels and freight traffic.

The new bypass was built on an existing inland rail line that runs along Interstate 5 from Tacoma to DuPont, near where Train 501 derailed.

Flaccus reported from Portland and Sisak reported from Philadelphia. Associated Press staffers Manuel Valdes in Dupont, Sally Ho and Phuong Le in Seattle and Michael Balsamo in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Related:

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Washington
If you are interested in finance and think that managing other peoples money may be your bag, then you may be cut out to become a stockbroker. Becoming this type of investment consultant isn't easy, and the process can be quite intense and stressful at times. Still, many individuals coming out of school want to join their ranks. As a result, many people have questions and require greater insight into this alluring career, which now offers more options than have previously been available.

Desire and Skills

Working as a stockbroker sounds like a glamorous career, but the fact is that many first-year brokers drop out of the business because the job usually requires long hours, can be overly stressful, and the business requires a substantial amount of dedication.

Key Takeaways Stockbrokers buy and sell investment securities on behalf of their customers.

There are no specific education requirements for becoming a stockbroker, but many firms require that the applicant holds a college degree.

The Series 7 and Series 63 licensing exams are required to become a stockbroker.

While some brokers work at full-service firms and cater to high net worth clients, others work at discount brokers and serve all types of individual investors.

The ultimate goal of many brokers is to build a clientele, which is their book of business.

While no particular personality traits are required to become a broker, generally speaking, the successful ones have an inner drive to succeed, and they can take rejection. These are important qualities to have, given that most of a broker's day is likely to be spent on the phone, pitching stock ideas to prospective or existing clients. Other key skills that can come in handy include:

An ability to sell

An ability to communicate effectively

An ability to explain complex ideas without seeming condescending

Although classes and seminars are offered to improve communications ability and salesmanship, that takes time and money. Therefore, it's usually best if you already possess these skills before entering the field.

1:46 Is A Stockbroker Career For You?

Education Requirements

A college education is generally a must these days, as the competition to get into certain firms and training programs can be quite intense. However, it is not unheard of to meet successful salespeople who have no formal training other than studying for the licensing exams.

While there are no formal educational requirements for becoming a broker, (as there are to become a CPA or financial analyst), many firms seek candidates who have at least a bachelors degree, preferably focused on some aspect of business or finance; individuals who major in these subjects probably will have a leg up on the competition. In addition, a master's degree helps a candidate stand out from the crowd, as it implies additional skills in communication and finance that can be helpful on the job.

Licensing Requirements

To become a registered representativeand actually practiceall stockbrokers are required to obtain the same standard securities licenses. One must pass the Series 7 and Series 63 exams administered by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).  These certifications authorize representatives to buy and sell stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and other types of securities, as well as legally advise their clients.

The Series 7 exam is traditionally taken by beginning brokers. It is a general securities license that enables an individual to sell securities such as stocks, while the Series 63 exam focuses on state laws and regulations. 

Would-be brokers should understand that these exams are not easy. In addition, you must be sponsored by a legitimate brokerage to take them, and the firm sponsoring you for the exam expects you to pass.

Many stockbrokers are then required by their employer (or choose) to obtain other licenses as well, such as the Series 3 or Series 31 licenses for commodities and managed futures, a Series 65 or Series 66 to become a Registered Investment Adviser, or a life and/or health insurance license to sell life, disability, and long-term care products, as well as fixed and variable annuity contracts.  

It is also becoming increasingly important to pass a strict background check that will examine both the prospective brokers criminal and financial history. Those with recent bankruptcies, tax liens, or repossessions will likely be discarded from the list of potential candidates just as quickly as those who have been in any type of mentionable legal trouble.

Deciding Between Competing Brokerage Firms

How to get into a sponsoring firm? Be on the lookout for companies that have reputable and structured training programs. These companies can be extremely helpful in teaching certain sales techniques, time-management skills, and the ins and outs of the industry.To find this information, conduct a search on the internet, search job ads, and, more specifically, on the websites of individual firms.

Beyond that, consider firms that match your personality and preferences. For example, as a would-be broker, consider whether you want to work for a large, internationally known financial supermarket or a smaller specialty firm.

Sometimes brokers who start off at larger firms feel like small fish in a seemingly endless pond. However, the downside to a smaller firm is that landing customers or ensuring confidence in your firm might be harder because of its lesser-known name.

Types of Stockbrokers

There are three different kinds of stockbrokers, and which one you become will largely depend on your personal preference, as well as your ability to deftly handle clientele.

Full-Service Broker: Working at a full-service firm or wirehouses such as Bank of America/Merrill Lynch (NYSE: BAC) or Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) is still the most traditional approach to selling investments. Brokers who work for these firms will be provided with a comprehensive training package that includes sales and product training as well as education in administrative procedures and compliance regulations. They will also typically be provided with office space (or at least a desk), business cards, a guaranteed salary or draw against commission, and a high sales quota that they must meet within a relatively short period of time if they want to remain employed.

Some firms have changed their models and allow their reps longer periods of time with bigger starting salaries so that they have a better chance of succeeding. But a relatively large percentage of each class of trainees will wash out of these programs because they are not able to generate enough business to meet their quotas.

Many successful brokers eventually leave these full-service firms and move on to independent broker-dealers such as Raymond James (NYSE: RJF) or Linsco Private Ledger. These firms typically offer a wider array of products and services and do not require their reps to sell proprietary products of any kind. They also usually offer much higher payouts on commission than full-service firms, and sometimes a warmer and friendlier atmosphere. However, they are usually only capable of giving back-office administrative support and do not provide amenities such as office space. Those who work for these firms must pay for all of their own expenses and overhead.

Those without prior training or licensure might be wise to start at a full-service firm that will provide these things at no cost; even if this sort of outfit is ultimately where they want to be, they will acquire skills that make them much more marketable when they leave.

Discount Brokers: If you are not a super salesman by nature but would still like to try your hand at managing investments, a discount broker, such as Charles Schwab (NYSE: SCHW) or Fidelity (NYSE: FNF) might be the place for you. These firms are geared toward providing effective service for walk-in clients and usually pay their brokers a flat salary (albeit with some minor bonuses or other incentives).

Many brokers who dont make it at full-service firms end up at discount firms where they have a chance to really learn the business and get a feel for the markets. Some brokers can eventually build up enough of an informal clientele that they can eventually move back to a full-service or independent broker-dealer and make a living there.

Discount brokers are likely to gain a much broader base of experience than many full-service brokers, who generally specialize in certain areas such as IRA rollovers or employee stock options. A rep who works at a firm such as Schwab or Fidelity is expected to be able to provide a broad array of research and services, including basic technical and fundamental analysis, rollovers, stock options, margin accounting, derivatives, bond ladders, mutual funds, closed-end funds, exchange traded funds, partnerships, charitable gifting, 1035 exchanges, and many other areas of investment, retirement, and estate planning.

Reps are often required to perform administrative duties such as cashiering, opening new accounts, processing stock certificates, and other paperwork. But they are not subject to the kind of sales pressure as their full-service counterparts and, generally, have either very low or no production quotas of any kind.

Bank Brokers: Being a broker at a bank is an entirely different proposition than working at Merrill Lynch or Fidelity. Like most discount firms, many banks also look for licensed brokers with previous experience, but the banking system is so unlike the brokerage world that it usually takes newcomers a while to get their bearings.

Brokers who work at banks are full-service brokers in a technical sense, but they are often given a lower payout on their commissions in return for having access to the banks customer base. Bank brokerage positions were once viewed as dead-end jobs that were only for brokers who failed elsewhere, but this perception has largely disappeared with the growth of this segment of the brokerage industry.

Most banks and credit unions now employ in-house investment consultants who can offer non-FDIC insured products and services. A growing number of banks also expect their reps to cultivate a clientele from outside the bank, however, and have worked to develop a system that rewards bank employees for referring customers to them as well as some sort of prospecting platform to bring in new business.

Experienced brokers understand that they need to be visible and present to the bank staff and work to educate them on what they do, but also be able to stay out of their way when they get busy with their banking duties. Many of them will invite wholesalers and other product vendors to bring lunch for the staff and then explain how their products can benefit bank customers.

Brokers within a banking environment often have to make an extra effort to get their clients to understand that what they offerunlike the regular bank accountsis not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

Bank brokers can also expect to work with a more conservative clientele than they will encounter elsewhere, and many of them rely heavily upon fixed annuities and other low-risk products to build their businesses. But bank brokers usually escape the high sales quotas and pressure to sell products that those who work at other full-service firms face.

Building Clientele

Wherever a fledgling broker lands, the core of their effort is on building a book of business. There are many ways to seek clients, including:

A phone book and an order to "smile and dial," which means to make cold calls in order to open accounts.

A list of pre-qualified prospects from which to start contacting to drum up business (These may be given to you by your firm or bought from marketing firms.)

Tapping relatives or friends to obtain referrals

Organization memberships, such as the local chamber of commerce to network and meet prospective clients.

The Bottom Line

There is more opportunity than ever in the financial industry today for those who are willing to work hard and deal with the negatives aspects (long hours, high stress) that accompany the initial stages of a career in the field. The modern stockbroker has several major areas in which to build a business, but must acquire necessary licenses before practicing. This entire process can be a time-consuming and costly adventure, but many find the financial rewards worth the initial struggle.
What Is BDT (Bangladesh Taka)?

BDT is the currency abbreviation or currency symbol for the Bangladesh taka (BDT), the currency for Bangladesh. The Bangladesh taka is made up of 100 poisha and is often presented with the symbol o, o, or Tk.

The word "taka" originated from ancient denominations of silver coins called tanka.

Key Takeaways BDT is the currency symbol used for the Bangladesh Taka in forex quotes

The exchange rate between taka and U.S. Dollars or euros has stabilized in recent years compared to previous decades

The central bank of Bangladesh controls larger banknotes, while the country's Ministry of Finance controls the smaller denominations of the currency.

How BDT (Bangladesh Taka) is Used

BDT as the currency symbol for the Bangladesh taka is used in foreign exchange markets (forex) to exchange taka for units of other currency such as U.S. Dollars. The exchange rate between these two currencies is expressed as a ratio and often written that way (USD/BDT). Obtaining quotes for the exchange rate of the taka compared to any other currency would include using BDT as part of the quoted ratio. For example EUR/BDT specifies the quoted rate for exchanging taka to euros.

The exchange rate for BDT to major currencies had historically shown a declining trend reflecting the weakening of that currency. However in the decade from 2010 to 2020, the trend stabilized into a range between 74 and 84 BDT to 1 USD, and 83 to 108 BDT to 1 EUR. The predictability of these ranges has undoubtedly helped the country improve its chances for foreign investment. Which in turn has greatly increased the productivity of the garment and pharmaceutical industries operating in the country.

These industries account for a large number of jobs that include a substantial proportion of the 82 percent participation rate of men in the workforce and 36 percent of women. During that decade the GDP grew by 5 to 8 percent a year, outpacing local inflation and increasing local purchasing power for most of the decade.

Large Bangladesh banknotes are controlled by the Bangladesh Bank, the central bank of Bangladesh, while the smaller denominations are the responsibility of the Ministry of Finance.

The Bangladesh taka was first seen in 1972 after Bangladesh won its independence in the Bangladesh Liberation War. It replaced the Pakistan rupee with an exchange of one for one. Between inception and 1987 there was reduction in value relative to the U.S. dollar. In 1974, in an attempt to offset this, the Bangladesh government started using the International Monetary Fund's compensatory financing facility. By 1987 the devaluation was relatively under control.

In 2011, the Bangladesh Bank introduced a 40 BDT note to commemorate the Victory Anniversary of Bangladesh. The notes featured the first prime minister and first president of Bangladesh Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

History of BDT

Prior to independence, State Bank of Pakistan banknotes circulated throughout Bangladesh, and continued to be used for about three months until the official introduction of the BDT. During the war, it was an unofficial practice of some Bengali nationalists to protest Pakistani rule by stamping banknotes with " " and "BANGLA DESH" as two words in either Bangla or English. These locally produced stamps are known to exist in several varieties, as are forgeries. On 8 June 1971, the Pakistani government declared that all banknotes bearing such stamps ceased to be legal tender.

Despite its plight against the U.S. dollar, its value has remained steady against the neighboring Indian Rupee (INR).
New figures show 80% of Irish people are optimistic about the future of the European Union, according to Eurobar.

The Irish rate of optimism is the highest in the EU, with the average at just 57%.
By Ann OLoughlin

A meat factory production manager who claims he was unfairly suspended by his employer has made a protected disclosure about alleged food safety breaches to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, the High Court has heard.

Alvaro Carvalho works for Carrolls Cuisine Unlimited Company, based in Tullamore, Co Offaly which processes and packages beef, chicken, pork, ham, and turkey products for sale in Ireland and abroad.

In his High Court proceedings, Mr Carvalho, of Harbour Drive, Tullamore, Offaly wants various orders and declarations, including an injunction restraining his employer continuing with any disciplinary process against him into alleged misconduct.

He also seeks orders restraining the company demoting or victimising him and requiring it deal with grievances he has raised.

In opposing the application, the company "strenuously denies" all allegations it has breached food safety standards and says it takes its obligations in that regards "very seriously." It has been in contact with the FSAI and the Department of Agriculture about the allegations.

Mr Carvalho has worked in the industry for 20 years and began work with Carrolls Cuisine in 2013. He was suspended last October allegedly for having a lack of respect and empathy for fellow employees.

In a sworn statement, he said there is "no substance" to those allegations, he was not given a chance to deal with them and the suspension was a way to force him to resign.

Following his suspension, he says a senior manager told him there was one way to stop this and that was for him to make an offer and he would get an excellent reference.

The company earlier this year began to expand production at the plant and the pressure to increase production "got out of control" last September when senior management instructed staff to increase production to "an inordinate degree", he said.

This placed an "intolerable burden" on staff at the plant and, in order to meet targets, "food safety standards were blatantly ignored and normal cleaning and hygiene protocols were compromised", he said.

He said he was unhappy with this pressure to increase production and was unwilling to be a party to these dangerous practices and resisted them. He said he believes he was targeted by senior management as he had become "an obstacle to their business ambitions. "

Following his suspension investigation, which he says he was denied fair procedures, was carried out in November which found the allegations against him did not merit any further investigation at this stage.

Mr Carvalho said he was upset to read comments by the investigator that inter personal issues involving Mr Carvalho at the work place would be best dealt with by counselling and mediation between the parties.

The report also said it appeared Mr Carvalho had shouted at colleagues acted in an aggressive manner towards him.

He said those findings were damaging to him, and in his proceedings seeks to have them quashed.

In late November he made a disclosure to FSAI because concerns he had raised had not been dealt with by management.

In early December his suspension was lifted but on his return to work he said "drastic changes" were imposed on him without his consent including that his shifts were changed from eight hours to 12 hours in length, he was moved to a smaller office, and that he was demoted.

He also claims that his job was advertised by the defendant.

This he says was done to humiliate him and undermine him because of his health and safety protest. He has been off work for some weeks and is on holiday leave.

In a sworn statement opposing the injunction application the companys Managing Director Kieran Carolan said the application is misconceived, and there was no basis for the injunctions sought.

He also denied any breaches of food safety standards.

He said Mr Carvalho is not subject to any disciplinary process and there are no adverse findings on his personnel record. He denied that any work changes had been imposed on Mr Carvalho following his return to work.

There had been no changes to his terms and conditions, but there are proposals to change production structures at the plant.

Mr Carolan said Mr Carvalho did not raise any issues about food safety or hygiene with senior management prior to his suspension.

He said when the company eventually got details of the complaints it made contact with the relevant veterinary officials at the Dept of Agriculture and with the FSAI.

He said that food safety standards at the plant are regularly audited and checked by bodies including the Dept of Agriculture and by its customers.

The plant was audited by the British Retail Consortium in November.

Mr Carolan said the consortium had verbally confirmed that following the audit the plant will continue to hold the A grade status awarded by the body.

Mr Carolan said that while the business is expanding and current employs 230 people it was unfair and incorrect by Mr Carvalho to say an intolerable burden has been placed on him.

He rejects allegations management instructed staff to increase production to levels where food safety standards were compromised .

Mr Carvalho was not targeted by senior management, he said.

The application for an injunction, pending the outcome of the full hearing of Mr Carvalhos action, was heard by Ms Justice Eileen Creedon who has reserved judgment.
The recommendations:

It recommends allowing terminations without restriction up to 12 weeks into the pregnancy.

The report calls for a repeal of the Eighth Amendment and that abortions should be decriminalised.

It also says abortion should be allowed in the cases of fatal foetal abnormality without term limits.

Other recommendations include access to free contraception, improvements to counselling and support services and there should be more sexual education in schools.

The committee's recommendations will be considered by the Oireachtas when it reconvenes in mid-January.

Update 3.55pm: A splinter group of the Oireachtas Committee on abortion says the process for discussing the issue was "unacceptably flawed".

Earlier the committee's final report recommended repealing the 8th Amendment and allowing abortion without restriction for 12 weeks.

Three members have called for a fresh Citizens' Assembly to examine alternatives to abortion, such as adoption.

Fine Gael TD Peter Fitzpatrick said the process had been flawed, and hit out at his party leader Leo Varadkar.

He said: "We're talking about a human being's lifeand I dont think that should go to a referendumI'm disappointed that the Taoiseach of this country stated there should be a referendum even before the committee sat down."

Chairperson of the committee Catherine Noone said that despite the misgivings of some members, they had reached a majority view.

"They're quite entitled (to disagree)," she said. "This report has the majority support of the committee (and) the committee was representative of the members of the Oireachtas overall.

"It is my view that the view we have come to is representative of what the Irish people think too."

Update 3.35pm: The Pro Life Campaign have slammed the Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment for presenting their report and recommendations "as though they exhaustively and thoroughly examined the Eighth Amendment".

The campaign have suggested, however, that the the reality is very different and said "this committee will be remembered as one of the most biased official groups ever to convene in Leinster House.

Cora Sherlock of the Pro Life Campaign made her remarks outside the Dail following the publication of the Oireachtas committee report recommending the dismantling of the Eighth Amendment.

At the event outside the Dail hosted by the Love Both Project, where a paper chain representing people saved by the Eighth Amendment was displayed, Ms Sherlock went on: To take one example  the Oireachtas Committee never heard from a single parent or family who say that their child is alive today as a direct result of the Eighth Amendment.

"There are thousands of families like this throughout Ireland but the committee showed no curiosity or interest in listening to any real life stories like this that challenged the case for doing away with the Eighth Amendment. Any committee that would behave in this manner cannot claim to be impartial or fair minded.

Ms Sherlock went on to say that in many European and western countries one in five pregnancies end in abortion mainly for social reasons.

"The abortion rate for Irish women (carried out mainly in the Britain) is a small fraction of that, thanks to the Eighth Amendment. There are many stories of mothers who initially contemplated abortion, only to change their minds. Today, they cannot believe they ever entertained the idea of ending the life of the child who now means the world to them.

She continued: The paper chain of people on display here today represent the 5,000+ children born each year, thanks to the Eighth Amendment. It is a conservative estimate based on the actuarial analysis of comparative abortion rates in culturally similar European countries. This independently produced report, commissioned by the Pro Life Campaign, was published in 2016.

The 5,000+ saved annually include children whose parents are given more time to reflect; children diagnosed with disabilities that routinely lead to abortion in other countries; children with life limiting conditions who are welcomed into the world, however briefly; children whose fathers have a say and were given time to offer real support; children of mothers who are persuaded of the value of adoption.

Laws change our attitudes and beliefs. When you legalise something you make it normal. And when you make something normal, you get more of it. Thats why the abortion rate in other countries is so surprisingly high. And thats why there is no such thing as restrictive abortion."

Ms Sherlock wnet on to claim there were lots of other areas that the Oireachtas committee never bothered to examine.

"Ignoring the evidence of lives saved by the Eighth Amendment is just one of them. There is no excusing this omission and it rightly leaves the committee open to the charge of extreme bias and of having a predetermined outcome long before they ever concluded their work.

Update 2pm: Amnesty describes Committee's recommendations on Eighth Amendment as 'important end to a momentous year'

The Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment has recommended repeal.

They have issued their final report this afternoon.

The main recommendations are: repeal the eighth amendment, allow abortion without restriction for up to 12 weeks into the pregnancy, and allow abortion in the cases of fatal foetal abnormality without any term restrictions.

The recommendations also say abortion should be decriminalised and should be allowed in circumstances supervised by a medical practitioner.

Committee member Brid Smith said the news is a big step forward.

"I think it is a historic moment to have an opportunity after all of these years to give more than two generations of men and women a say on this constitutional amendment," she said

There have been questions about whether these recommendations would be agreed to in the Dail.

Committee Chair Catherine Noone said it is time to get over divisions and let people have their say.

"I think it is important for the members of the Oireachtas to re-engage with the evidence. I don't think it is helpful to anyone to say 'I'm pro-choice or pro-life'," she said.

"I don't know what that means anymore because I don't know how you could say that somebody who is pro-choice isn't pro-life, or someone who is pro-life isn't pro-choice," she added.

Not all the committee members agree on the report.

Mattie McGrath, Ronan Mullen and Peter Fitzpatrick refused to sign off on it and will issue their own minority report this afternoon.

Labour TD Jan O'Sullivan said their view is very much in the minority.

Welcoming the recommendation of a straight repeal, she added that the she believed "the current situation is simply untenable".

This simpliciter recommendation, which I put forward on behalf of the Labour Party and was accepted by the Committee, recognises that the issue of abortion does not belong in the Constitution," she said.

As someone who campaigned to oppose the amendment in 1983, I believe that the Irish people deserve to have their say on the issue next year.

Government must move quickly and give clarity as to when a referendum will be held, setting a clear roadmap for the New Year regarding the preparatory work that will need to be done.

We in the Labour Party will campaign in a dignified way, respectful of all views, and with womens healthcare needs at the centre," she added.

The committee's report will be debated by the Oireachtas when they return from the Christmas holidays, with a referendum on the Eighth Amendment likely in May or June next year

The move has been welcomed by Amnesty International.

Todays report is an important end to a momentous year. With this Committee and the Citizens Assembly, we have finally had a meaningful consideration on how to reform Irelands harsh abortion laws," said Executive Director Colm O'Gorman.

"Once again, we have seen that when people have an opportunity to examine abortion in detail, guided by the evidence of legal and medical experts from around the world, expanding access to abortion services in Ireland is the logical, compassionate conclusion."

TAs the Committees report notes, anything other than simple repeal could have a profound, and relatively unprecedented, effect. Therefore anything less than its full repeal could cast serious doubt over future legislations compliance with Irelands obligations under international human rights law.

"Some gaps remain, including in how to address pregnancies with a diagnosis of severe rather than fatal foetal impairment. However, the Department of Health now has a clear blueprint for a new legal framework for access to abortion. It must ensure that these recommendations are reflected in the legislation due to be published early next year, he added.

Update 12pm: Committee recommends allowing terminations without restriction up to 12 weeks into pregnancy

The Oireachtas has published the final report of the abortion Committee.

It recommends allowing terminations without restriction up to 12 weeks into the pregnancy.

The report calls for a repeal of the Eighth Amendment and that abortions should be decriminalised.

Other recommendations include access to free contraception, improvements to counselling and support services and there should be more sexual education in schools.

Earlier: Eighth Amendment Committee to present final recommendations today

The Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment will present its final report today.

The report will recommend allowing abortion without restriction for up to 12 weeks into the pregnancy.

The final report of the committee will outline the recommendations they voted on last week.

They will say the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, which recognises the equal right to life of the mother and the unborn child, should be repealed.

The main recommendation was that abortion without restriction be allowed for 12 weeks into the pregnancy.

They voted it should also be allowed in the case of fatal foetal abnormalities and when there is a serious risk to the health of the mother.

Not all the committee members agreed and a minority report will be issued by TDs Mattie McGrath and Peter Fitzpatrick, along with Senator Ronan Mullen this morning.

The Taoiseach says he wants a referendum on the issue in May, but despite the restrictions of collective Cabinet responsibility, he will allow individual Ministers to vote against holding a referendum if they so choose.

The report is being launched at noon and will be debated by the Oireachtas when they return from Christmas holidays on January 16.
WARNING: Graphic images below

A victim of Arthur Collinss brutal nightclub acid attack has said she hopes his 20-year jail sentence will serve as a warning to others.

Phoebe Georgiou, 23, was left permanently scarred when 25-year-old Collins hurled the corrosive substance over a crowd on the dancefloor at Mangle E8 nightclub in Dalston, east London.

Collins, the ex-boyfriend of reality TV star Ferne McCann, was handed the two decades-long prison term on Tuesday, after a judge described his actions as "a deliberate and calculated attack".

Ms Georgiou told the Sun: "When I heard the sentence I felt that justice had been done and I hope this gives the message to people that carry acid that there will be serious consequences."

Sixteen people suffered chemical burn injuries in the incident and three people were temporarily blinded - one of whom still suffers from blurred vision in one eye - of which 14 were the subject of charges.

Collins, the father of Ms McCanns baby daughter Sunday, had told his trial he did not know the bottle contained acid, believing it to contain a liquid date rape drug, which he had snatched from two men after overhearing them planning to spike a girls drink.

But the jury at Londons Wood Green Crown Court convicted him of five counts of grievous bodily harm with intent and nine counts of actual bodily harm last month.

Judge Noel Lucas ordered that as well as his 20-year prison term, Collins, of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, will additionally be subject to five further years on extended licence.

Ms Georgiou was one of three victims to read statements in court during the sentencing hearing, and described lying in a hospital bed for weeks after the attack without being able to move for fear of rupturing her scars.

"You couldnt find a shred of human decency to admit what you have done. I have been given a life sentence by you," she said.

She later told the Sun she felt "violated" that Collinss defence lawyer, George Carter-Stephenson QC, had produced posts taken from hers and other victims social media accounts, apparently showing their lives had returned to some kind of normality.

Among the snaps were photos of her doing yoga and spending time with family in Greece.

She said: "I felt quite violated when they brought up the yoga because thats been the main thing getting me through this.

"What you put out on social media is you trying to be that confident girl."

Twenty-two people reported injuries to the police after the acid attack at the club on April 17, which was packed with bank holiday revellers.

Collins told his trial he had been out celebrating the news of Ms McCanns pregnancy, which they had announced to her family the previous day.

At his sentencing hearing on Tuesday, the court heard Collins had threatened a similar attack on a former partners mother.

He received a caution for racially aggravated harassment for ringing the woman in the middle of the night and threatening her with an acid attack and to have her raped.

He has six previous convictions including threatening words, possession of cocaine, drunk driving and assault.

He was still subject to a suspended sentence for punching a man at a nightclub when he carried out the attack at Mangle.

- PA
Ryanair, Europes most successful airline, has just entered an area of heavy chop and underestimating its consequences would be a grave mistake.

Once Ryanair said it would recognise trade unions, which it did last week, its share price fell by 15% and wiped 2.5 billion off the stock market value of the company. That was not a knee-jerk reaction by small shareholders but instead was a fundamental decision to divest by some institutional asset managers because of the potential consequences of union recognition.

So, what are those consequences? There are three layers to that answer. The first relates to how Ryanairs share price trades on the stock exchange. The second is connected to how profit forecasts for the airline will evolve and the third layer assesses what implications union recognition has for the management and culture of Ryanair.

Investors value companies using a metric known as the price earnings ratio (PER) which is the share price divided by the profit per share. Companies that investors believe can generate high profit margins and returns on capital attract higher PERs than those with lower margins.

For more than 20 years investors have traded Ryanair shares at a significant premium to all other airlines in Europe because it had a business model which was hyper efficient and flexible, allowing continued growth as it expanded across Europe.

Part of its formula relied on the flexibility to expand and contract unfettered in whatever geography it chose. In the fast moving airline industry that flexibility was a key element in sustained growth. With union recognition some investors question the ability of the company to grow as fast and as profitably in future and, accordingly, will pay a lower PER for the shares.

Financial forecasts are comprised of estimated revenues and costs. Union recognition, and the earlier decision to raise pilot pay amid a rostering failure, has an impact on Ryanairs costs. It would be natural to have analysts paring their estimates of future profits as they build in the effect of higher-than-anticipated labour costs on the business. This, too, can drag on a share price.

The third issue relates to culture and management. Ryanair has been a buccaneering dogfighter in the European airline industry for decades. Its combative approach to regulators, airports, aircraft manufacturers and labour laid the foundations for industry low air fares that created a revolution in air travel. If the business is now moving away from that approach investors are debating if this will change the way it is managed and how that could alter the companys performance.

Whatever way you analyse this Ryanair will continue to be a major airline in Europe. It continues, even with organised labour, to have the lowest per passenger costs in the European market. Its share of short-haul air travel leaves a lot of headroom to grow, despite passenger volumes of over 120 million, and an order for competitively priced new jets will fuel that expansion.

In that process it may transition from the highly dynamic business it has been to something more nuanced, a journey its peer in the US  Southwest Airlines  has already undertaken.

Southwest shares trade at a PER broadly similar to that of Ryanair after last weeks share price decline, it grows more slowly and delivers lower after tax margins. It, however, is a behemoth in the American airline industry, has a strong balance sheet and is valued at $38bn (32.2bn) on the stock market. This image, perhaps, is where Ryanair will settle in investors and consumers minds.

Joe Gill is director of corporate broking with Goodbody Stockbrokers. His views are personal.
In Person Activist Says its Critical that More Women Participate in Myanmars Peace Process

Katherine Ronderos at the Jasmine Palace Hotel in Yangon on Friday. / Thet Htun Naing / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  Katherine Ronderos, director of LIMPAL Colombia, was invited by the Norwegian Embassy to participate in a Women, Peace and Security workshop in Yangon on Dec. 14-15, conducted in collaboration with Myanmars Alliance for Gender Inclusion in the Peace Process.

LIMPAL Colombia is a branch of the Womens International League for Peace and Freedom and a member of the National Women and Peace Summit. It is also one of the leading organizations working to monitor implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which provides a framework for improving womens participation in the peace process.

She spoke with The Irrawaddy on Friday about her views on Myanmars peace process and womens movement and about how important it is to include women in the peace process.

What do you think about the womens rights movement in Myanmar?

I am sure there are very strong movements and I am sure they are reaching a lot of women at grass-root level, and I think thats important to have. We discussed today how we reach thosewomen and men from other sectors that probably are not interested in the peace agreement or that are not interested in the political issues. But we need to get them interested because its also important for them and for everybody.

How important is it for the peace process to be all-inclusive?

We need to include everybody because sometimes when people are in the cities they dont know much about what is happening in the conflict. That is related to them as well because its [about the] future of the country. We need to get them involved, to get them interested in the political issues, to participate, to debate, because I am sure the differences here make a very rich country. But also we need to manage those differences in the different way.

What is important is to talk about reconciliation. Its about compromising, its about tolerance, its about respect, its about inclusion and how we make our voices heard, how we dialogue with others who are different [from] us, how we resolve the problems in a very positive way without violence, without arms. So, understanding the other, recognizing the other.

Why is it important for women to participate in the peace process?

Womens participation is very important because we are citizens of this country. We have the right to participate. Nobody should discriminate [against] our participation just because we are women. Secondly, women are the center of the family, are the center of the society, are the ones holding families together, are the ones holding communities together, and they are the ones who know how to reconstruct the social fabric of the society.

Researches show when women participate in peace negotiations there is a better chance that peace is sustainable, that it will last longer. So we need to make sure that every effort has womens voices and womens participation to make sure that it will be sustainable. Because they know the risk society faces when conflicts happen, and we have the right to decide what we want for our country.

What differences do you see between the peace processes in Colombia and in Myanmar?

I think there are a lot of differences. Because although we have been in conflict for sixty years, similar [to] Myanmar, but here in Myanmar it is ethnic-based conflict. Its been about exclusion [of] some groups to decide and to participate. In Columbia we dont have [a] variety of ethnic groups. But the conflict is about exclusion of the poor, of the rural people, no opportunity for them, no health, no education, and no job. Thats why, for example, the armed actors and the armed groups in Colombia are requesting political participation. And I guess that could be a similar issue here. We need to start talking about political representation for those representatives of ethnic groups.

You may know that Myanmar has not yet met the target of 30 percent female participation in the peace process, as called for by womens rights groups. The share has increased slightly but its still only 17 percent. How would you suggest raising it further?

There are many ways. One is preparing women to access political spaces. For example, we dont feel like we are ready to participate politically. You will need to get them education. We need to get prepared to get them knowledge. Two is to have other womens support. We need our constituency, we need our support groups for women to decide to do that step, to enter the political arena. Three, we need also generous support. We need to break that mindset that women are only able to be in the house, to cook, to look after the children. We need to break that in the society and to tell the society that women are intelligent.

What advice do you have for men?

I think it is important for men to understand that it is important for the society as a whole to talk about gender equality because in the end the beneficiaries are the [societies] in general. We need men to stop thinking women are not good, women are useless, and start thinking women bring new ideas and new perspectives and new views on how to resolve the problems. Then they will have [a] better society, better family, and children with better education. So we need to start with the family as well.
Burma Myanmar, Bangladesh to Begin Repatriating Refugees in January

Rohingya refugees rest at a port in Teknaf, Bangladesh, after crossing the Bangladesh-Myanmar border on Oct, 25, 2017. / Reuters

YANGON  Social Welfare Union Minister U Win Myat Aye told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that Myanmar and Bangladesh have agreed to start repatriating Rohingya refugees before the end of January.

Bangladeshi news outlets reported that the countrys foreign affairs minister, M Sahidul Haque, and U Myint, permanent secretary of Myanmars own Foreign Affairs Ministry, signed off on the terms of reference for a Joint Working Group (JWG) in Dhaka. Each country will have at least 15 members on the JWG.

In late November, the two countries inked a memorandum of understanding and agreed to form the JWG within three weeks to work on repatriating the more than 620,000 Rohingya who have fled to Bangladesh since the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacked several police posts and an army base in northern Rakhine State in late August. The UN has called the clearance operations the Myanmar Army launched in response a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.

According to a Dhaka Tribune report, the agreed terms of reference recognize the Rohingya refugees as displaced Myanmar residents and say official transfers will begin by Jan. 23.

The news reports say the Bangladeshi foreign minister will lead the JWC and that the body will include representatives from several government agencies from both Bangladesh and Myanmar, including disaster management, home affairs, immigration and national intelligence.

Minister U Win Myat Aye, who also chairs a special committee charged with overseeing implementation of recommendations by the Kofi Annan-led Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, said he did not know the composition of the JWC because he did not join Myanmars delegation to Bangladesh for the signing.

The minister said Myanmar has already handed out application forms for the refugees to fill out with their background information. He said each completed form will be examined for accuracy and, once approved, sent back to Bangladesh to allow the refugees return.

We dont have a specific number of refugees [to repatriate] because it is voluntary repatriation. We told them to prioritize displaced Hindus but it needs official recognition by the Joint Working Group, U Win Myat Aye said.

Although Myanmar has been planning to resettle Rohingya refugees in Maungdaw Township, exactly where remains unclear. U Win Myat Aye suggested that the location of some Muslim villages might change.

We re-drafted town plans and some things have changed. For instance, if a road expands a village will be located near where it used to be [before the clearance operations]. But some villages will be located in the same place, he said.

The international community and human rights groups have urged Myanmar to let the refugees return safely to their original home sites.
Burma Myanmar to Bid to Add 88 Uprising to UNESCO Memory of the World Register

The 8888 Memorial Hall showcases photos, publications and more related to the popular 8888 Uprising. August 2017. / Tin Htet Paing / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  Myanmar will make a bid for the inclusion of the 1988 pro-democracy uprising in the Memory of the World Register, according to the committee for the establishment of the 8888 historical museum.

The committee has asked the Union minister for religious affairs and culture by letter in the last week of November to coordinate with UNESCO for the nomination.

We committee members have agreed in principle to nominate it for inscription. The ministry however has not made an official reply. But the minister said that it would be better if we had made preparations. So, we are making preparations, U Ye Naing Aung, the spokesperson for the committee, told The Irrawaddy.

The committee is set to meet this week after consultation with historian Dr. Kyaw Win for the nomination, he said.

The1988 pro-democracy uprising was a series of nationwide protests that peaked on August 8, 1988 against the military dictatorship. The protests began as a student movement, but later were joined by people from all walks of life across the country.

If the uprising is inscribed in the Memory of the World Register, it will be an honor to all of the people who joined the 1988 pro-democracy movement, said U Ye Naing Aung.

In addition, we can then get technical assistance from UNESCO to build the 8888 museum, he added.

We want the world to recognize this movement so that no future governments can erase the history recorded in this museum, said one of the committee members U Ant Bwe Kyaw.

The nomination for the register has to be submitted to UNSECO before March, and will be put forward to the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture around the last week of January or first week of February.

In November, Yangon Region Chief Minister U Phyo Min Thein, the 88-Generation Peace and Open Society, and the organizing committee for the 8888 museum had a meeting, however, they were unable to reach an agreement regarding land acquisition for the museum.

The temporary 8888 Memorial Hall opened on Aug. 8, 2015 in Yangons Thingangyun Township on the 27th anniversary of the uprising.

So far, Myanmar has four tangible objects inscribed in UNESCOs Memory of the World Registerthe Kuthodaw Inscription Shrines in 2013, the Myazedi Quadrilingual Stone Inscription and the Golden Letter of King Alaungpaya to King George II of Great Britain in 2015, and the King Bayinnaung Bell Inscriptions in 2017.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.
Burma Myanmar Ends Cooperation with UN Rights Rapporteur

Yanghee Lee speaks at a press conference in Yangon in July this year.

The government of Myanmar has informed UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee that she has been barred from returning to the country and that cooperation will be withdrawn for the duration of her tenure, the UN reported today.

Ms. Lee had been due to visit Myanmar in January to assess the state of human rights countrywide, including reports of abuses against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State.

I am puzzled and disappointed by this decision by the Myanmar government, Ms. Lee said. This declaration of non-cooperation with my mandate can only be viewed as a strong indication that there must be something terribly awful happening in Rakhine, as well as in the rest of the country.

The special rapporteur said she sincerely hoped Myanmar would revisit the decision.

However, U Zaw Htay, director of the Myanmar Presidents Office, said in a text message to the Irrawaddy that Ms. Lee was not impartial nor objective in her work.

There is no trust on her. Therefore, we informed through Myanmar Permanent Mission in NY and Geneva UNSG Office in NY and OHCHR in Geneva, U Zaw Htay wrote in his text message.

Ms. Lee had previously been afforded cooperation and access to Myanmar, and had maintained a relationship of mutual respect with the government, according to the UN statement. But the government said it views her end-of-mission statement in July as biased and unfair.

The special rapporteurs mandate requires two visits to Myanmar a year, in order to report to the Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly. Since taking up the mandate in June 2014, Ms. Lee has visited Myanmar six times.

It is a shame that Myanmar has decided to take this route, Ms. Lee said.

The government has repeatedly denied human rights violations are occurring throughout Myanmar, particularly in Rakhine State. They have said that they have nothing to hide, but their lack of cooperation with my mandate and the fact-finding mission suggests otherwise, Ms. Lee said in a statement.
Burma Press Council Offers to Mediate in Case of Arrested Reuters Reporters

A reporter wears an armband in support of two recently arrested Reuters reporters at a press conference in Yangon on Wednesday. / Thet Htun Naing / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  The Myanmar Press Council (MPC) said today that it would like to mediate in the case of two Reuters reporters who have now spent more than a week in state custody without word of their location or contact with family or lawyers.

The MPC made the offer in a statement it released at the press conference in Yangon on Wednesday.

The council added that it would like to serve as an expert witness should the case go to trial and if the court allowed it. The MPC said it was also prepared to provide the reporters with legal assistance to ensure that justice was served.

The two Reuters journalists, Ko Wa Lone and Ko Kyaw Soe Oo, have been detained at an undisclosed location since their arrest on Dec. 12 in Yangon, allegedly for possessing police reports containing detailed information about the fighting between government troops and the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army in late August. Two policemen were also arrested for allegedly providing the documents to the reporters.

The police opened the case under the colonial-era Official Secrets Acts Article 3, which allows for prison sentences of up to 14 years. The policemen were charged under both the Official Secrets Act and the Myanmar Police Force Maintenance of Discipline Law.

Reuters reported on Wednesday that Presidents Office spokesman U Zaw Htay said the police had nearly completed their investigation of the two journalists and that their case would head to court soon afterward.

At the press conference on Wednesday, local reporters criticized the MPC for not doing more to protect the Reuters journalists or denounce their arrest.

We couldnt take to the streets or shout as soon as we knew about the arrest because we are not activists, countered U Aung Hla Tun, a vice chairman of the MPC.

He said the council has resolved more than 300 disputes in recent years, 97 percent of them before they went to court.

We are not a journalists network or association. We have laws, but we arent satisfied with them. But as a council we have to act in accordance with the existing laws, said U Thiha Saw, an MPC secretary. He added that the council was working to amend the countrys News Media Law and encourage passage of a draft Right to Information Law so that journalists have more protection.

The council said that its chairman was an expert witness in the Unity Journal case in 2014.

Despite its intervention, the Union Journals chief executive and four of its reporters were sentenced to 10-year jail terms with hard labor that July under the Official Secrets Act for reporting on a military chemical weapons factory in Magwe Region. The court reduced their sentence to seven years in October 2014 and released them courtesy of a presidential pardon in April 2016.

In 2017, 11 journalists were arrested and taken to court by either the military, police or nationalists on defamation charges or under various laws including the Official Secrets Act and the Unlawful Associations Act.
News Shanni Businessman Fatally Shot in Hpakant

An ambulance at the crime scene. / Zaw Moe Htet

YANGON  The chairman of the Hpakant Motor Vehicles Supervisory Committee in Kachin States Hpakant Township was shot dead by a group of unidentified gunmen on Tuesday around noon.

Police from Hpakant Township police station confirmed the death but said they were still collecting information to identify the suspects, a police officer on duty told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday.

U Khin Soe, who is also the owner of the Chan Myay Si Bus Line, was sitting at his own bus station in the ward of Mashi Kataung in Hpakant when four bikers came on two bikes and fatally shot him. He was shot one time in his head and three times in his abdomen, according to locals.

He is an ethnic Shanni man. He was shot dead while he was at his bus station. I dont know why he was shot, said Hpakant local U Khin Maung Lwin, who was at the crime scene.

There have been frequent shootings in Hpakant, mostly targeted at ethnic Shanni (also known as Red Shan) politicians and businesspeople since 2015, according to locals. Five Shanni people were killed from the start of 2015 to Dec. 19, 2017, and the victims were either members of political parties or businesspeople.
Sunday, Jul 30th, 2017 (8:18 am) - Score 5,177

After a lot of negotiation the Government and BT have today proposed a deal that could see the operator fund a new Universal Service Obligation (USO), which will aim to ensure that everybody can request a broadband download speed of at least 10Mbps by 2020. Now for the caveats.

At present fixed line superfast broadband (24Mbps+) connections are already estimated to cover around 93% of homes and businesses in the United Kingdom and the Governments Broadband Delivery UK programme predicts that this could reach 97% by 2020, which leaves around 3% of premises in predominantly rural areas (plus some disadvantaged urban spots) to suffer from slow connectivity; this is where the USO will focus.

Catering for the final 3% by delivering universal fixed line coverage of superfast broadband would be hugely expensive (the BSG estimated up to 1.4bn) and so the cash-strapped Government initially proposed a slower Universal Service Obligation (USO) to fill the gap, which pledged to provide an affordable connection that can deliver Internet speeds of at least 10Mbps (estimated to cost anything from 180m and up to 1bn).

The proposal was a significant step up from the current USO, which is delivered exclusively via fixed lines and only requires KCOM (Hull only) or BT (Openreach) to deliver, following the reasonable request of any End-user (i.e. demand-led), a telephone service that includes the ability to offer data rates that are sufficient to permit functional internet access (here); this was such a low bar that even slow dial-up lines could hit it.

The new rule forms part of the Governments Digital Economy Act 2017 and weve included an extract from that below.

DEAct 2017 Extract (2A) The provision made under subsection (1) is referred to as the universal service order. (2B) The universal service order may in particular say that broadband connections and services must be provided to any extent, but may not do so unless  (a) it specifies the minimum download speed that must be provided by those connections and services, and  (b) the speed so specified is at least 10 megabits per second. (2C) The universal service order may contain  (a) guidance about matters relating to the speed or other characteristics of broadband connections or services that it says must be provided (as well as or, except in the case of the minimum download speed, instead of setting out any of those characteristics); and  (b) guidance about any other matters relating to those connections or services.

Oddly the Government has chosen Sunday to launch a major consultation on the USO design, which is perhaps a reaction to yesterdays cross-party Broadbad 2.0 report from Grant Shapps MP (here). As part of todays announcement the Government has also confirmed that BT have offered to voluntarily fund the 10Mbps USO and the operator claims this would involve an estimated investment of 450m  600m (depending on the final technology solution).

The new USO would be considered a minimum performance level that BT, upon request from an end-user, must deliver (i.e. most properties will get much faster speeds than 10Mbps). BT proposes that they would fund this investment and recover its costs through the charges for products providing access to its local access networks, albeit only if Ofcom factors this in when setting future regulation (i.e. Ofcoms plan to cut the cost of Openreachs 40Mbps [10Mbps upload] FTTC product (here) may need to be softened).

Gavin Patterson, BTs CEO, said: We are pleased to make a voluntary offer to deliver the Governments goal for universal broadband access at minimum speeds of 10Mbps. This would involve an estimated investment of 450m  600m depending on the final technology solution. This investment will reinforce the UKs status as the leading digital economy in the G20. We already expect 95% of homes and businesses to have access to superfast broadband speeds of 24Mbps or faster by the end of 2017. Our latest initiative aims to ensure that all UK premises can get faster broadband, even in the hardest to reach parts of the UK.

BT is expected to reach most of those in the final 3% by using their modified Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC / VDSL2) technology, which is called Long Reach VDSL (details here, here and here); this would be sold like normal FTTC packages via ISPs. Other technology solutions like FTTP, FTTrN, WTTC and G.fast may also have a role to play.

Openreach has previously indicated that LR-VDSL could enable their fibre broadband network to cover 99%+ of homes in the United Kingdom by the end of 2020 (i.e. the 99% figure is likely to support speeds of 24Mbps+), but that would still leave a question mark over the final 1% and this is where the deal includes a few caveats.

The USO Caveats * BT expects to complete the build of this fixed network by either December 2021 or December 2022 depending on the mix of technologies used, some of which are subject to trial and industry consultation. This is obviously later than the 2020 date and so a few changes are required (see below). * BT plans to launch the fixed wireless broadband service so that the UK will have 10Mbps coverage to around 99% by the end of 2020. Fixed wireless will be made available at an affordable price for hard to reach premises. At this stage its unclear whether BT will harness EEs 4G network for this (makes the most sense) or adopt a different approach, such as White Space wireless (they trialled it some years ago). * The expectation is that around 0.3% of UK premises will still be un-served by a 10Mbps fixed line USO come 2022 and so inferior Satellite technology will be used to cater for these, which is unlikely to go down well with those affected. * All of these technologies will come with quality standards and requirements to minimise delays from contention and latency, although sadly upload speeds would only be required to deliver a minimum performance of 1Mbps and that is already starting to look very slow by modern standards. * The Government also appears to be considering data cap of at least 100GB per month for their USO (Ofcoms data from 2016 suggested that the average broadband connection already uses 153GB and this will no doubt be a lot higher by 2020).

The other catch is that Openreachs LR-VDSL technology works best when older ADSL broadband services are disabled, which complicates the roll-out because ISPs then need to be convinced to play ball and vested interests can make that tricky. Encouraging consumers to swap from ADSL to LR-VDSL lines could also be made more difficult if Ofcom is required to soften their proposal for a cheaper 40Mbps FTTC tier (see our earlier comment).

On the upside the new deal wont require the Government to commit any additional public investment towards the USO and they wont need to force a complicated industry levy upon fixed line connections, which are already suffering under a weight of new regulations and associated implementation costs.

However the Government are keen to stress that they have yet to make a decision on whether or not to adopt BTs voluntary USO proposal or enforce one of their own and they promise to work with BT to develop its proposal over the coming months, which suggests that they have yet to reach full agreement on some details (this may be a reference to the demands that BT are making of Ofcom and / or other issues).

Karen Bradley MP, UK Culture Secretary, said: The government is taking action to ensure that people everywhere in the UK can get a decent broadband connection as soon as possible. We warmly welcome BTs offer and now will look at whether this or a regulatory approach works better for homes and businesses. Whichever of the two approaches we go with in the end, the driving force behind our decision making will be making sure we get the best deal for consumers.

We should point out that what the Government are proposing broadly appears to reflect Scenario 2 in Ofcoms earlier USO cost analysis (here). The cost of serving the most expensive premises is estimated to be around 45,000 in all three of their scenarios and as a result Ofcom suggested that a Reasonable Cost Threshold (RCT) be introduced to limit the upper bound of the costs.

The Governments consultation notes that the final USO proposal will include a cost threshold of 3,400 per premise. We note that the existing USO, which only caters for basic copper telephone lines, already has a cost threshold of 3,400 but this should not be used as a comparison because, as the Broadband Stakeholders Group said, the benefits derived from network use for voice and for broadband are different.

Whatever the decision, the Government has confirmed that in all cases they will expect that costs should be met by industry through a cost- sharing mechanism which will be established by Ofcom once the specification for the USO has been set in secondary legislation. The cost threshold will also support demand aggregation, which means that several home owners could demand the USO and the cost threshold would have to adapt (rise) accordingly (this creates more flexibility to deploy better infrastructure).

The new USO is also expected to include a review clause, which would enable the performance level to be revised in the future as networks improve. At this point its worth remembering that USOs are intended to define the minimum level of service, not a maximum. Critics of todays proposal will no doubt call for a faster minimum than 10Mbps (Labour and the Liberal Democrats both wanted a 30Mbps USO), although this would cost significantly more.

The closing date for responses is 9th October 2017.

UPDATE 31st July 2017 (8am)



Weve had a few emails asking (i.e. raising concern) about a related report in one of the newspapers, which suggests that broadband bills could rise by 20 if the proposed USO were introduced. However the figure of 20 appears to be an oversimplification with regards to how the cost of BTs USO might be apportioned or managed and it doesnt consider a time-scale for balancing that cost.

Assuming the figure of 20 is even correct (looks like a rough guesstimate) then its obviously not a monthly increase and instead the cost is more likely to be recouped over a number of years, which could easily be conducted via one-off setup fees for new services or smaller increases / changes in any number of different areas at wholesale.

By the sounds of it BT appear to be using their proposal as more of a bargaining chip to reduce the expected impact from some of Ofcoms recent proposals, such as the forthcoming reduction (charge control) to 40Mbps FTTC prices at wholesale (see above). Assuming the regulator were to compromise then its conceivable that end-users may not see any increase above the usual level of annual price rises.

UPDATE 31st July 2017 (11:01am)

The Country Land and Business Association, which represents 30,000+ land owners and rural businesses from across England and Wales, has vowed to fight any attempt to water down the USO by BT and the Government. However so far the USO is still in a design stage and so technically nothing has been watered down, yet.

Ross Murray, CLA President, said: We will fight any attempt to water down the hard won legal right to broadband for rural homes and businesses. For too long, rural areas have been at the back of the queue when it comes to investment in infrastructure and that is why this legal principle is not something to compromise on. The Universal Service Obligation is necessary because it creates an inalienable right that can be enforced by the premise owner. It cannot be replaced by a cosy deal with just one company allowing it to deliver connection how it sees fit. Accountability for delivering the rollout of broadband has been a closed shop discussion between the industry and the regulator for too long. It is this that the USO would end, making the consumer the enforcer. Its no wonder BT Group doesnt want that.

The CLA suggests that the USO cannot be replaced by a cosy deal with just one company allowing it to deliver connection how it sees fit. On the other hand Ofcoms earlier consultation found that nobody else (ISPs) wanted to take on the financial and legal responsibility of a USO and indeed Openreach controls the biggest national network, so there isnt a magic multi-operator fix for this one.

On top of that the USO deal proposed by BT probably wouldnt cover the Hull area of East Yorkshire, where wed expect KCOM to continue holding responsibility unless Openreach plan to over-build their network.
Wednesday, Dec 20th, 2017 (12:22 pm) - Score 5,801

Ofcoms planned auction of 4G and 5G friendly radio spectrum in the 2.3GHz and 3.4GHz bands might soon proceed after the High Court rejected an appeal by Three UK, which had demanded that the regulator impose a 30% spectrum cap in order to stop EE (BT) from bidding.

At present EE holds about 42% of all mobile spectrum, while Vodafone has 29%, O2 14% and Three UK 15%. Often the more spectrum you own, the better your services. Ofcom proposed to tackle this by tweaking their forthcoming auction to introduce a cap of 255MHz on the immediately useable spectrum (i.e. EE wouldnt be able to bid on the 2.3GHz band).

On top of that the regulator also proposed a total cap of 340MHz on the overall amount of mobile spectrum that a single operator can hold as a result of the auction (i.e. 37% of all the mobile spectrum expected to be useable in 2020, including the 700MHz band), which meant that EE would still be able to bid on a slice of the 3.4GHz band.

Ofcom reasoned that EE should still be allowed to bid on 3.4GHz because its needed to help Mobile Network Operators (MNO) launch very fast Mobile Broadband (4G and 5G) services by 2020. Preventing the operator from using the band would have damaged their ability to compete with early 5G deployments.

Meanwhile Three UK (CK Hutchison Holdings) has long been campaigning for a punitive 30% cap and earlier this month they began a legal challenge of the auction in order to get it, which if successful could have completely blocked EE from bidding. On top of that such a cap could also reduce the money earning potential of the auction itself, which would have upset the Government.

In the end Ofcom, EE and Three UK all went to court and the High Court of Justice (Queens Bench Division) has today handed down their decision, which rejected all the challenges to Ofcoms Decision. The outcome came a lot sooner than even the early 2018 date previously forecast by Three UK.

Mr Justice Green, High Court of Justice, said: In the light of my review of the evidence I am clear that the approach taken by Ofcom was comprehensive, coherent and logical. Ofcoms findings are evidence based and justified. To arrive at its Decision Ofcom engaged in a detailed predictive analysis of how the market would work in the future under a series of different assumptions and scenarios. It consulted upon its economic and econometric analysis and modelling. In the Decision it sought to strike a delicate balance between protecting competition and consumers, on the one hand, and setting restrictive caps which were not disproportionate to BT/EE. The balancing exercise was sound. I therefore reject the argument of H3G that the balance struck was too generous to BT/EE and I also reject the argument of BT/EE that it was too tight and rigid.

Rivals have previously argued that Three UKs parent company (CK Hutchison Holdings) has more than enough money to buy a good chunk of spectrum and indeed theyve had plenty of opportunities to do so in the past, but havent.

Some critics also point to Three UKs recent purchase 5G friendly spectrum via their 250m acquisition of UK Broadband Ltd. (here), which they claim might give the operator an incentive to delay the auction for as long as possible, although this is denied.

Never the less Ofcom has been quick to welcome todays ruling and said they planned to proceed with the auction as quickly as possible, while a spokesperson for Three UK expressed disappointment at the initial ruling and warned that they would be seeking permission to appeal. Meanwhile EE said they didnt really like the spectrum caps much but were pleased that a decision had been reached so quickly.
Wednesday, Dec 20th, 2017 (8:03 am) - Score 4,457

After a final consultation (here) the Government has today revealed its chosen path for implementing a new legally-binding Universal Service Obligation (USO), which promises a minimum broadband download speed of 10Mbps (1Mbps upload) for all by 2020 and rejects BTs 600m voluntary proposal.

Fixed line superfast broadband (24Mbps+) connections are currently estimated to cover around 95% of homes and businesses in the United Kingdom and the Governments Broadband Delivery UK programme predicts that this could reach 98% by around 2020, which will sadly leave 2% of premises in predominantly rural areas (plus some disadvantaged urban spots) to suffer from slower speeds. This is where the Universal Service Obligation, which is part of the wider Digital Economy Act 2017, should focus.

Ofcom recently estimated that 4% of the UK (1.1 million premises) still cannot receive speeds of 10Mbps+ (here), although the on-going BDUK deployment means that come 2020 this gap should have been reduced to somewhere around 500,000 premises (depending upon chosen USO design).

Catering for the final 2% by delivering universal fixed line superfast broadband coverage would be expensive (estimated at up to 1.4bn) and so our austerity minded Government proposed a slower USO to fill the gap, which pledged to provide an affordable connection that can deliver line speeds of at least 10Mbps (i.e. most will get much faster speeds).

Draft 10Mbps USO Design (Subject to Change)

* A minimum download speed of 10Mbps (Megabits per second) and 1Mbps for uploads. The download speed was chosen by Ofcom as being the level needed to meet the requirements of an average family. * Additional quality parameters with minimum standards for latency, a maximum sharing between customers (contention ratio of 50:1) and a data cap of at least 100GB per month. * Most of the USO will be delivered via existing FTTP and FTTC (VDSL2) based technologies, while fixed wireless and mobile broadband will also likely have a role to play. BTs original voluntary proposal also indicated that Satellite may have a role for the final 0.3% of extremely remote premises, although the Government has yet to decide. * A proposed cost threshold of 3,400 per eligible property will continue to apply, although it can now be aggregated so that communities can work together when requesting a better connection (i.e. raising the total aggregated cost threshold to cover an installation of better infrastructure). The old USO also included this cost threshold, which meant that if a deployment cost more than this then BT or KCOM could require the customer to pay any excess costs plus a standard connection charge (this is all necessary to stop the deployment costs from getting out of control). In that sense no USO will ever be truly universal. * The costs could be met by industry through a cost-sharing mechanism (levy on subscribers?), which will be established by Ofcom once the specification for the USO has been set in secondary legislation. * The USO will adopt uniform pricing for upfront and ongoing charges. This will aim to ensure that those in areas not currently served would pay no more than those in the rest of the UK.

The current plan is an improvement from the existing USO, which is offered exclusively via fixed lines and only requires KCOM (Hull only) and BT (Openreach) to deliver, following the reasonable request of any End-user (i.e. demand-led), a telephone service that includes the ability to offer data rates that are sufficient to permit functional internet access (here); even slow dial-up lines qualify for this.

Originally the Government considered adopting BTs voluntary proposal for a soft USO (closer to a Universal Service Commitment), which would have seen the operator spend up to 600m on the service (here). However Sky Broadband and TalkTalk helped to scupper that idea by threatening a Judicial Review over the fact that BT would seek to recoup their investment by raising wholesale charges, which the ISPs said would force all of their customers to pay more even though only a few would actually benefit.

Elsewhere alternative full fibre networks, such as Hyperoptic and Gigaclear, were concerned because it would make their investment case for building new networks into poorly served areas more difficult by allowing BT to reinforce their market position (this is arguably true of both the voluntary BT and mandatory USO options). The Scottish Government also had concerns (here).

Instead the Government has today chosen to impose a regulatory USO, which will give everybody the legal right to request a 10Mbps+ service.

Advantages of a Regulatory USO (Government Points) * The minimum speed of connection can be increased over time as consumers connectivity requirements evolve; * It provides for greater enforcement to help ensure households and businesses do get connected. * The scheme will maximise the provision of fixed line connections in the hardest to reach areas. * Places a legal requirement for high speed broadband to be provided to anyone requesting it, subject to a cost threshold (in the same way the universal service right to a landline telephone works).

A spokesperson for the Government (DCMS) said that, We did not feel the [BT] proposal was strong enough for us to take the regulatory USO off the table, and have therefore decided not to pursue BTs proposal in favour of providing a legal right to broadband  the government has decided that regulation is the best way of making sure everyone in the UK can get a decent broadband connection of at least 10Mbps as soon as possible.

The obvious problem here is that none of the other ISPs have shown any interest in helping to deliver a USO (example) and thus much of it is still likely to fall upon Openreach (BT) across the UK, as well as KCOM in Hull. In practice Openreach may still have to conduct a similar network roll-out to their rejected voluntary proposal in order to meet the expectations, but theres now a big question mark over funding for it all.

Karen Bradley MP, UK Culture Secretary, said: We know how important broadband is to homes and businesses and we want everyone to benefit from a fast and reliable connection. We are grateful to BT for their proposal but have decided that only a regulatory approach will make high speed broadband a reality for everyone in the UK, regardless of where they live or work. This is all part of our work on ensuring that Britains telecoms infrastructure is fit for the future and will continue to deliver the connectivity that consumers need in the digital age.

A BT Spokesperson said: We respect the Governments decision. BT and Openreach want to get on with the job of making decent broadband available to everyone in the UK so well continue to explore the commercial options for bringing faster speeds to those parts of the country which are hardest-to-reach. Alongside this, well work closely with Government, Ofcom and industry to help deliver the regulatory USO. We look forward to receiving more details from the Government outlining its approach to defining the regulatory USO, including the proposed funding mechanism.

The regulatory implementation is expected to take up to two years from when the Government lays its Order to complete (secondary legislation is now required  due in early 2018 alongside the final design), which is one of the reasons why it wont be formally enforced until 2020. On top of that its important to remember that the UK is a diverse and competitive market with many different suppliers, networks and ISPs, which means that the USO wont equate to a free and automatic upgrade.

Instead the 10Mbps USO will adopt the same on request approach as the original one, which means that users who want a faster than sub-10Mbps connection will need to upgrade to a relevant USO supporting service in order to benefit (note: faster services tend to cost a little more but then theres no such thing as a free lunch). The competitive market also means that an on request approach is largely unavoidable.

Elsewhere the Digital Economy Act provides a power for the Governments Secretary of State to direct Ofcom to review the USO at any time, after consulting the regulator, and for a specific requirement that once 75% of all premises take-up 30Mbps broadband the minimum speed would be reviewed.

In other words it could be a very long time before the USO speed of 10Mbps is reviewed and raised again, although opposition parties have signalled their desire for a 30Mbps USO and so future governments may enhance this approach. As hinted early, the main challenge to a 30Mbps+ USO approach reflects issues of both cost and competition.

Setting the USO, which is supposed to define a minimum not maximum performance level, too high might risk damaging competition by effectively handing one operator a distinct advantage over many smaller rivals (e.g. rebuilding BTs monopoly at a time when Ofcom and the Government are trying to foster alternative networks). Suffice to say that, for now, 10Mbps is more acceptable.

We should add that the proposed minimum data cap for related connections of 100GB per month may seem like a lot, but its not. Ofcoms data revealed (here) that the average broadband connection already uses 190GB and this will be even higher by 2020. The modern thirst for HD video streaming and related services makes it easy to gobble 100GB, which for those stuck on Satellite could quickly become an expensive roadblock.

Finally, its worth pointing out that other EU countries which have adopted a similar USO do not go as high as 10Mbps (e.g. Spain, Belgium and Croatia use 1Mbps, while Finland opted for 2Mbps and Malta is on 4Mbps) and many dont even have one for broadband, although that could change with future policy (here).

We look forward to seeing the final design and funding arrangements early next year.

UPDATE 10:10am

Some comments have come in.

Dr Charles Trotman, CLA Senior Rural Business Adviser, said: The challenges of rolling out fast, reliable and affordable rural broadband are well known but have been recognised by the Government with the commitment to provide a universal service obligation of at least 10 Mbps from 2020. For too long, rural areas have been at the back of the queue when it comes to investment in infrastructure and that is why this legal principle is not something to compromise on. Rural areas now stand a better chance of receiving a decent broadband service without BT monopolising the market and deciding its own terms for connection. It is vital for the Government to move as swiftly as possible towards meeting its objective of universal coverage in 2020 and to ensure legal guarantees are set for any future universal obligation. Ten Mbps is only a benchmark minimum speed which is sufficient now but as technology advances could be too slow in just five years time.

Tristia Harrison, TalkTalk CEO, said: The Government has made the right decision for consumers. Broadband is increasingly a utility and it is critical that all of society has fast, affordable access. By opting for formal regulation rather than weaker promises, ministers are guaranteeing consumers will get the minimum speeds they need at a price they can afford. The whole industry now needs to work together to ensure customers see the benefits as quickly as possible.

Matthew Hare, CEO of Gigaclear, said: We welcome this decision from the Government to reject BTs private proposal. The UK needs great broadband  in fact full fibre  for all. To get there, the UK needs a competitive market in fibre networks. As a full fibre provider delivering 1,000Mbps to every property, we know homes and businesses want access to reliable speeds. We believe that the 10Mbps is a sensible basic threshold, but providers should be given the opportunity to provide faster speeds. We look forward to working with Ofcom and the wider industry in the coming months to design a competitive process that gets the best result for the UK.

UPDATE 11:25am

Added a comment from BT above.
One of the most frightening of the many scary things in the modern world of telecommunications and IT is the infiltration of critical infrastructure (CI) by hackers.

An attack on high-level industrial systems was reported last week. In an advisory issued on Thursday, security firm FireEye said that malware was found that aims to manipulate a system that could have shut down industrial processes, according to the firm.

The firm labeled the initiative TRITON. It did not identify the attacker or the attacked, but did say that the perpetrators likely were from a nation state preparing for an attack, according to FireEye. The statement from FireEye is even a bit scarier due to its mundane wording:

The targeted systems provided emergency shutdown capability for industrial processes. We assess with moderate confidence that the attacker was developing the capability to cause physical damage and inadvertently shutdown operations.

In other words, the enemy nation wanted to play havoc with the targets systems. eWeek reports that some experts think that the target was Saudi Arabian and the attackers Iranian.

Though the targets in many cases may be the enemies of the west, it is clear that the tools being developed likely will be aimed at the United States and allies and, indeed, likely have already. Folks not worried about CI hacking in general and the Iranians in particular should consider this from Wired:

FireEye researchers tracked 34 of the groups attacks on institutions in seven Middle Eastern countries between 2015 and mid-2017, but say APT 34 has been operational since at least 2014. The group appears to target financial, energy, telecommunications, and chemical companies, and FireEye says it has moderate confidence that its hackers are Iranians. They log into VPNs from Iranian IP addresses, adhere to normal Iranian business hours, their work has occasionally leaked Iranian addresses and phone numbers, and their efforts align with Iranian interests. Namely, targeting the countrys adversaries.

Its interesting that CI, which is a growing sector, is largely in private industry. Indeed, Karl Steinkamp, the director of Cloud and Tech, Payments Advisory & Assessments for Coalfire, wrote that the vast majority of the 16 critical infrastructure sectors are private. Their protection is undertaken in partnership with the government.

He writes that the landscape is changing and that private industry and the security of organizations more central to the immediate health and well-being of the public  be they private or public  are converging, and that the steps taken to protect it are converging as well:

Like all public and private sector organizations, CI entities have increasingly digitized their business models and become reliant on interconnected networks and complex IT infrastructures for efficiency and cost controls. CI companies have seeped out of the safety zone of their private perimeters, venturing into public clouds and hybrid WANs. They have vendor supply chains that must be carefully vetted and managed. As in every organization, IT complexity and employee insider risks increase threat vectors, which need more sophisticated security management.

The fragmentary news about TRITON points to a bigger reality: CI is vulnerable and in many cases haphazardly protected. The fact that there are tremendous vulnerabilities in these systems shouldnt be forgotten.

Carl Weinschenk covers telecom for IT Business Edge. He writes about wireless technology, disaster recovery/business continuity, cellular services, the Internet of Things, machine-to-machine communications and other emerging technologies and platforms. He also covers net neutrality and related regulatory issues. Weinschenk has written about the phone companies, cable operators and related companies for decades and is senior editor of Broadband Technology Report. He can be reached at [email protected] and via twitter at @DailyMusicBrk.
In mid-2015, Google search requests from mobile devices passed those from desktops. About a year later, Google said that it was testing mobile-first indexing. It was a bit of a no-brainer: Since mobile searches predominate, it makes sense to prioritize search approaches that work best for tablets and smartphones.

The project is ongoing and the switchover will be gradual. On Monday, Gary Illyes, Googles Chief Webmaster, posted at the companys site on the status of the project.

An important point is that sites that use responsive web design and dynamic serving dont have to worry. Illyes then offered six ideas on how to ensure that a site indeed is mobile ready. They are to ensure that the mobile version of the site has the most important, high-quality content; that structured data and metadata be included on both the mobile and desktop versions of the site; and that the hosting services have sufficient capacity to handle an increased crawl rate.

Two other suggestions are technical: That no changes be made for interlining with separate mobile URLs and to check hreflang links on separate mobile URLs.

Glenn Gabe at G-Squared Interactive provides an in-depth overview of the changes. For the most part, his comments are aimed at experts. He does, however, capture the mobile-first dynamic at the beginning:

The move to a mobile-first index can be especially concerning for sites using separate mobile URLs (like m-dot subdomains). And thats one of the reasons Google has been pushing responsive design as the cleanest approach for handling mobile. When using responsive design, the same HTML is delivered to all users, including structured data, hreflang tags and so on. CSS is used to change the rendering of the page based on viewport size. Since the same HTML is delivered for both desktop and mobile users, the move to a mobile-first index shouldnt impact sites using responsive design at all.

In a significant but less fundamental change, Google said earlier this month that it has updated its SEO Starter Guide to aid marketers and webmasters to make their sites friendlier to search engines. The new version, which is published in nine languages, adds sections on the need for search engine optimization, the addition of structured data markup and building sites that are mobile friendly, according to Media Post.

The transition to mobile-first indexing is very important. Its importance, however, is somewhat obscured by the fact that it is highly technical and occurs on a gradual basis. But corporate webmasters and the people to whom they report should be very cognizant of these changes. How well they are implemented will impact how an organization fares when a customer or prospect is looking for goods and services  or just trying to find its phone number. Any customer contact is important, however, and not paying attention to an important way in which Google manages this process should not be an option.

Carl Weinschenk covers telecom for IT Business Edge. He writes about wireless technology, disaster recovery/business continuity, cellular services, the Internet of Things, machine-to-machine communications and other emerging technologies and platforms. He also covers net neutrality and related regulatory issues. Weinschenk has written about the phone companies, cable operators and related companies for decades and is senior editor of Broadband Technology Report. He can be reached at [email protected] and via twitter at @DailyMusicBrk.
Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu GNU/Linux distribution, has disabled downloads of its latest version, 17.10, released in October, due to reports of it corrupting the BIOS on some laptops, mainly Lenovo models.

In a statement on its website, Canonical said downloads of version 17.10, otherwise known as Artful Aardvark, were being discouraged due to an issue on certain Lenovo laptops.

It said the downloads would be enabled again as soon as a fix was available.

A bug report said, "Many users are reporting issues with BIOS corruption with 17.10. This seems to stem from enabling the Intel-SPI-* drivers in the kernel, which don't appear to be ready for use on end-user machines."

The following Lenovo machines which were affected were listed:

Lenovo B40-70

Lenovo B50-70

Lenovo B50-80

Lenovo Flex-3

Lenovo Flex-10

Lenovo G40-30

Lenovo G50-70

Lenovo G50-80

Lenovo S20-30

Lenovo U31-70

Lenovo Y50-70

Lenovo Y70-70

Lenovo Yoga Thinkpad (20C0)

Lenovo Yoga 2 11" - 20332

Lenovo Z50-70

Lenovo Z51-70

Lenovo ideapad 100-15IBY

Also listed as affected were:

Acer Aspire E5-771G

Acer TravelMate B113

Toshiba Satellite S55T-B5233

One user has outlined a workaround for the problem but it appears to be for more technical users.
Android malware is common these days but security vendor Kaspersky Lab says it has encountered one which stands out for the range of activities it can carry out once it has infected a device: mining digital currencies, annoying users with constant ads, launching DDoS attacks from the affected device and more.

In one case, due to the load caused by mining activity, the battery of a mobile phone, on which Loapi was installed as a test case, began to bulge and deformed the phone cover.

Called Loapi, the malware infects devices when users visit a malicious website to which they are redirected. Kaspersky said it had found about 20 such websites, with the domain names referring to well-known anti-virus apps and also one famous porn site.

After installing itself, the malware keeps asking for administrator permissions, nagging the user into submission through persistence. While it checks to see if the infected device is rooted, it never used root privileges, Kaspersky said, adding that it was possible that these permissions would be used in some new module added to the malware later.

Once admin privileges were obtained, Loapi either hid its icon in the menu or else simulated anti-virus apps, depending on the type of application it was masquerading as.

If a user tried to revoke the admin permissions which Loapi had gained, the app locked the device and closed the screen which had the device manager settings.

Some of the icons that Loapi uses.

The malware also had what Kaspersky called an interesting way of protecting itself.

"(It) is capable of receiving from its C&C (command and control) server a list of apps that pose a danger," Kaspersky researchers Nikita Buchka, Anton Kivva and Dmitry Galov wrote.

"This list is used to monitor the installation and launch of those dangerous apps. If one of the apps is installed or launched, then the trojan shows a fake message claiming it has detected some malware and, of course, prompts the user to delete it."

And as with the method used to obtain admin permissions, the malware repeatedly showed such prompts to nag the user into deleting software that could pose a danger to its existence on the device.

The nag screen that Loapi displays when an app that could be dangerous to its existence is installed on an infected device.

Loapi had modules to show ads to the user, send and receive SMS messages depending on what instructions it received from its command and control server, subscribe the user to various services, act as a proxy for denial of service attacks, and also mine for the digital currency monero.

"Loapi is an interesting representative from the world of malicious Android apps," Buchka, Kivva and Galov wrote.

"Its creators have implemented almost the entire spectrum of techniques for attacking devices.

"The only thing missing is user espionage, but the modular architecture of this trojan means its possible to add this sort of functionality at any time."

Screenshots: courtesy Kaspersky Lab
A British teenager has been given a 16-month suspended sentence for his "substantial" role in launching a number of distrubuted denial of service attacks on a number of well-known UK and US websites in 2015 and 2016.

Jack Chappell, 19 of Cheshire, was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court on Tuesday, after entering a guilty plea during an earlier hearing, according to the Crown Prosecution Service.

He was initially under investigation for offences under the Computer Misuse Act for launching a number of DDoS attacks on Manchester College. Police seized his computer and found that he was selling DDoS packages.

The security firm Sophos said that among the sites Chappell attacked were Netflix, Amazon, Verizon, Sprint, Vodafone, O2, Virgin Media, NatWest Bank, Pornhub, the BBC, MIT, the University of California San Diego, and Britains National Crime Agency.

Chappell was a front for an operation known as vDOS, run by two Israeli teenagers who werein August. The two Israelis, Yarden applej4ck Bidani and Itay p1st Huri, took most of the fees that Chappell collected when he sold DDoS attacks.

One of the arguments mounted by Chappell's defence was that he received only 1500 for his role in the DDoS sales, which meant he deserved to be viewed as another victim.

Hannah Sidaway, senior crown prosecutor for the West Midlands, said: As cyber crime has evolved, people with specialist skills and knowledge are working to enable hackers to commit attacks, by providing the tools for the job.

They are as responsible for the loss and damage caused as the individuals pressing the buttons. These attacks are not victimless and cause financial and reputational harm to both businesses and their customers.
Apple will open its first global flagship store in the southern hemisphere at Melbourne's Federation Square in 2020.

Construction is expected to begin in mid-2019 with an opening date likely to be towards the end of 2020. Similar flagship stores are functioning in New York, London and Singapore.

In Australia, Apple opened its first store in Sydney in 2008. There are two stores in Melbourne, one at the ShoppingTown in Doncaster, and a more recent one at Chadstone Shpping Centre.

Were thrilled to move forward in the planning process for our new home in Melbournes Federation Square and would be honoured to call the world-class galleries and museums of Melbourne our neighbours, Angela Ahrendts, Apples senior vice president, Retail, said in a statement.

"Apple Federation Square respects the original vision for the plaza, with a bespoke design concept and extensive landscaping bringing increased opportunities for the community to enjoy this renowned cultural hub.

A post on the Federation Square blog said the project would create nearly 500 square metres of new public space in Federation Square and connect Federation Square with the Yarra River and Birrarung Marr through the construction of a building which takes up less space than the current Yarra building it will replace.

Victoria's Tourism and Major Events Minister John Eren said the new flagship store would be a major drawcard for visitors and locals, breathing new life into one of Melbournes most iconic landmarks.

The store will replace the existing Yarra Building and the Koorie Heritage Trust will relocate within the Alfred Deakin building at the Square.

Victoria's Trade and Investment Minister Philip Dalidakis said: Apples new Australian flagship reinforces Melbournes reputation as the undisputed tech capital of Australia and creates hundreds of ongoing jobs in the process.

The original Federation Square architect Professor Donald Bates said: Apple Federation Square respects and expands on the original vision for the site, with more public space, extensive landscaping and better access to the river allowing more people to enjoy this renowned civic, cultural and commercial hub.

Photos: courtesy Apple
The impending introduction of a new Universal Service Obligation, aimed at improving regional telecoms delivery in Australia, has been welcomed by telco Optus and the peak body representing consumer interests in telecommunications, the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network.

The thumbs up for the USO comes after the federal government announced a programme of work to implement a new Universal Service Guarantee, with the USO designed to ensure all Australians have access to voice and broadband services, regardless of where they live.

ACCAN says it welcomes the governments response to the Productivity Commission report into the existing USO, and is pleased that the response acknowledges that existing arrangements are out of date and in need of reform.

We welcome the governments commitment to provide universal access to voice and broadband services through a new USG once the NBN rollout is complete, ACCAN chief executive Teresa Corbin said.

All consumers need access to reliable and affordable voice and internet services. Guarantees underpinning access to vital voice and internet services are fundamentally important for areas where the market is not delivering adequately.

We look forward to working with the government on this in 2018 and beyond.

Corbin said ACCAN would work to ensure the new USG addressed the need for assurances that any new service delivery arrangements will take account of:

 The costs that may be borne by consumers themselves (for example, upfront equipment changes required or ongoing costs to use the proposed alternative voice services);

 The quality of voice services delivered by alternate technologies, which must be capable of supporting any to any voice calls;

 The reliability of services in terms of expected and acceptable levels of outages and repair timeframes; and

 Fall back services in case one network is out, particularly for remote areas where there are no close neighbours, that are more vulnerable to adverse weather conditions and service disruption.

Also welcoming the plans for an USO, Andrew Sheridan, Optus vice-president of Regulatory and Public Affairs, said the company recognised the importance of a safeguard that ensures all Australians have access to voice and broadband services, regardless of where they live.

However, as todays announcement recognises there is a clear opportunity to develop a more targeted scheme that is better suited to todays dynamic digital environment, Sheridan said.

He said Optus would continue to invest in regional infrastructure and provide commercial solutions that will meet the needs of the vast majority of Australian consumers.

We also look forward to working with government on a modern USG that can better meet consumer needs where commercial solutions are not available.
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
Reddit Email 69 Shares

By Danny Sjursen | ( Tomdispatch.com) |  

I remember the day President Obama let me down.

It was December 1, 2009, and as soon as the young president took the podium at West Point and  calm and cool as ever  announced a new troop surge in Afghanistan, I knew. There wasnt a doubt in my mind. In that instant, George W. Bushs wars had become Barack Obamas.

But where Bush had seemed, however foolishly, to believe his own rhetoric about Americas glorious military mission in the world, you always sensed that Obamas heart just wasnt in it. Hed been steamrolled by ambitious generals who pioneered generational warfare and hawkish cabinet members like Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Bush-holdover Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Then again, what choice did he have, given the way hed run his presidential campaign on the idea that Afghanistan was a war of necessity and so the foil for Iraq, the dumb war? Now he was stuck with that landlocked, inhospitable little war, come what may. As we all know (and as I had little doubt then), it didnt work out. Not at all.

Like many other idealistic Americans, Id bet big on Obama. The madness and futility of my own 15 months in Iraq as a scout platoon leader  you know, one of those warriors youre obligated to thank endlessly for his service  had forever soured me on nation-building crusades in faraway lands. And the young, inspiring senator from Illinois seemed to have some authentic anti-war chops. Unlike Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden, he was untarnished by the October 2002 Iraq War resolution vote that gave the Bush administration the right to shock and awe the hell out of Saddam Hussein. Looking back, I suppose I should have known better. Obama had only been a state senator with an essentially nonexistent record on foreign policy when he first criticized Operation Iraqi Freedom. Still, after so many years of Bushs messianic adventures, anyone seemed preferable.

That was more than eight years ago and somehow the United States military is still slogging along in Iraq and Afghanistan. Whats more, Bushs wars have only expanded in breadth, if not in depth, to Syria, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, and Niger, among other places. Yes, ISIS as a caliphate has been defeated. As a now-global franchise, however, anything but, and victory  whatever that might mean at this point  couldnt be further off as our next president, Donald Trump, approaches his one year mark in office and he and his military only ratchet up those wars further.

Good Instincts?

The Trump-Clinton election fiasco of 2016 was, to say the least, disturbing. And while I was no fan of Mr. Trumps language, demeanor, or (however vague) policies, when it came to our wars he did seem to demonstrate some redeeming qualities. Running against Hillary the hawk presented him with genuine opportunities. She, after all, had been wrong about every major foreign policy decision for more than a decade. Iraq? She voted for it. Afghanistan? She wanted another surge. Libya? She was all in and had a fine chuckle when autocrat Muammar Gaddafi was killed.

Mr. Trump, on the other hand, while visibly ill informed and anything but polished on such subjects, occasionally sounded strangely rational and ready to topple more than a few sacred cows of the foreign policy establishment. He called both the Iraq and Afghan wars stupid, criticized the poorly planned and executed Libyan operation that had indeed loosed chaos and weaponry from Gaddafis looted arsenals across North Africa, and had even questioned whether military escalation, supposedly to balance Russian moves in Eastern Europe, was necessary. Whether he really believed any of that stuff or was just being an effective attack dog by pouncing on Hillarys grim record we may never know.

What already seems clear, however, is that Trumps version of global strategy  to the extent that he even has one  is turning out to be yet more of more of the same. He did, of course, quickly surround himself with three generals from Americas losing wars clearly convinced that they could surge their way out of anything. More troublesome yet, it seems to have registered on him that military escalation, air strikes of various sorts, special operations raids, and general bellicosity all look presidential and so play well with the American people.

In constant need of positive reinforcement, Trump has seemed to revel in the role of war president. When he simply led a round of applause for a widow whose husband had died in a botched raid in Yemen early in his presidency, CNN commentator Van Jones typically gushed that he just became president of the United States, period. After he ordered the launching of a few dozen cruise missiles targeting one of Bashar al-Assads air bases in Syria, even Washington Post columnist and CNN host Fareed Zakaria lauded him for acting presidential. War sells, as does fear, especially in the America of 2017, a country filled with outsized fears of Islamic terrorism that no one knows how to stoke better than Donald Trump. So expect more, much more, of each next year.

A Brief Tour of Trumps Wars

Where exactly does that leave us? Like Obama before him, and Bush before him, President Trump has opted for continuing, even escalating, Americas war for the Greater Middle East. Long gone are the critiques of stupid interventions. As he announced a new mini-surge in Afghanistan, he did admit that his instinct had been to end Americas longest war, but it wasnt an instinct that stood tall in the face of his war-fighting generals.

Now, after nearly a year in office, those instincts of his seem limited to whatever his generals tell him. An ever-so-brief tour of his wars suggests  to give you a little preview of whats to come (should Americans even care)  two things: first, that on the horizon is more of more of the same; second, that the result is likely to be, as it has largely been in these last years, some version of stalemate verging on defeat.

* Afghanistan is a true mess. Now entering its 17th year, the war in that infamous graveyard of empires has left the U.S. military short on answers.

Afghan Security Forces (ASF), the foundation of American strategy there, are being killed and wounded at an unsustainable rate. And all that sacrifice  to the tune of perhaps 20,000 ASF casualties annually  has delivered precious little in the way of stability. More Afghan provinces and districts are contested or under direct Taliban control today than at any time in these years of American intervention. Corruption is still endemic in the government and the military and few rural Afghans seem to consider the regime in Kabul legitimate.

Its all been so futile that it borders on the absurd. Without an indefinite influx of Western money, training, and logistical support, the Afghan government simply cannot hold out. Despite the efforts of hundreds of thousands of American troops and countless bureaucrats, Washington has never been able to deal with or alter the essential quandary that lies at the heart of the Afghan mission: the Taliban still counts on sanctuary in the tribal borderlands of Pakistan and so long as thats available  and it seems it will be in perpetuity  there is no way to militarily defeat them. Besides, the Taliban harbor no discernible transnational aspirations and most al-Qaeda operatives have long since left Afghanistans mountains for other locales throughout the Greater Middle East.

Mr. Trumps generals and their troops on the ground have no answers to these confounding challenges. One thing is guaranteed: 3,000, or even 50,000 more troops wont break the stalemate, nor will loosing some of the last Vietnam-era B-52s to bomb the countryside. When I last surged into Afghanistan myself in 2011-2012, I was joined by more than 100,000 fellow Americans. It didnt matter. We achieved about as much as this current strategy will: stasis.

* Iraq is rarely in the headlines anymore, except maybe as an offshoot of Americas anti-ISIS campaign in Syria. Nonetheless, with more than 5,200 U.S. troops on the ground (and dont forget the private contractors also in-country), youve not heard the last of Washingtons 14-year-old campaign there. What exactly is the U.S. charter in Iraq these days anyway? To defeat ISIS? Thats (mostly) done, in a conventional sense anyway. The so-called caliphate has fallen, though ISIS as a global brand is thriving. To stabilize the country in order to avoid ISIS 2.0 or block the growth and spread of well-armed Shia militias? Dont count on a few thousand troops succeeding where 150,000 servicemen failed at similar tasks the last time around.

Iraq remains divided and ultimately unstable. In the north, the Kurds want autonomy, which the Shia-dominated Baghdad regime will have none of. In the north and west, Sunnis, living in the rubble of their unreconstructed cities, remain distrustful of Baghdad. (A year after its liberation from ISIS, for instance, significant parts of Fallujah still lack water or electricity.) Unless they are somehow integrated more equitably into the Shia-controlled political heartland, they will predictably support the next iteration of Islamist extremists.

The only real winner in the Iraq War was Iran. A mostly friendly, Shia-heavy government in Baghdad suits Tehran just fine. In fact, by toppling Saddam Hussein, the United States all but ensured that Iran would gain increased regional influence. The bottom line is that Iraq has many challenges ahead and Washington doesnt have a hope in hell of meaningfully solving any of them.

How will Baghdad divide power between its various sects and factions? How will it demobilize and/or integrate those Shia militia units that checked ISISs expansion in 2014-2015 into its military or will it? How much autonomy will President Haider al-Abadi allow the Kurds?

The all but perpetual American military presence in that country seems unlikely to help with any of Iraqs countless problems. And given that, like just about anyone else on this planet, Arabs dont take kindly to even the most minimalist of occupations, whatever they may officially be called, expect those U.S. troops to end up in someones line of fire sooner or later. (Recent history suggests that sooner is more likely.)

* When it comes to Syria, can anyone articulate a coherent strategy in the devastated ruins of that country amid a byzantine network of factions, terror groups, and the once again ascendant government and military of Bashar al-Assad? It seems like another formula for certain disaster. Somehow, Syria makes even the situation in Iraq seem simple. Perhaps 2,000 U.S. troops are on the ground in north and southeast Syria. Getting in was the easy part, getting out may be all but impossible.

U.S.-sponsored, mainly Kurdish forces, backed by American air power and artillery, seized ISISs self-proclaimed capital, Raqqa, and helped turn the militants of the Islamic State back into a guerilla force. Now what? Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Syrian President Assad, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the Iranians all loathe the Kurds and are none-too-keen to allow them any form of long-term autonomy. A tenuous stalemate has developed between Assads army and his foreign backers on one side and the small U.S. force with its allied Kurdish fighters on the other. Sooner or later, however, its a recipe for disaster as the possibilities of accidental conflict abound. The Trump team, like Obamas before them, appears to have no consistent vision for Syrias future. Can Assad stay in power? Does the U.S. even have a say in that question any longer? Assad, Putin, and Hezbollah appear to hold a far stronger hand in that countrys six-year civil war.

In addition to yet more destruction, division, and chaos, its unclear what the U.S. stands to achieve in Syria. Nevertheless, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and the Pentagon recently announced that, just as in Iraq, U.S. troops would stay in Syria after the final defeat of ISIS. On the subject, a Pentagon spokesperson was quite emphatic: We are going to maintain our commitment on the ground as long as we need to, to support our partners and prevent the return of terrorist groups. In other words, the U.S. military will remain there until when exactly? Long enough for the civil war to end and liberal democracy to burst forth in the Syrian countryside?

That country is hardly a vital national security interest of the United States and the Trump teams plans seem as vague as they are foolish. Nonetheless, on the intervention goes and where it ends nobody knows. Its not, however, likely to end well.

* Yemen, Niger, Somalia, Libya, and various other smaller conflicts round out the exhausting list of what are now Trumps wars. U.S. troops still occasionally die in those places, which few Americans could find on a map. Even hawkish wonks like Senator Lindsey Graham seem unclear about how many troops the U.S. has in Africa. Fear not, however, Senator Graham assures us that Americans should expect more, not less intervention on that continent in the years to come and, given what were learning about the Pentagons latest plans for places like Somalia suggests that he couldnt be more accurate and that the American version of what retired general and ex-CIA Director David Petraeus has termed (in relation to Afghanistan) generational warfare is now spreading from the Greater Middle East to Africa.

Washingtons efforts in Yemen and North Africa have been and continue to be nothing if not counterproductive. In Yemen, the United States is complicit in the Saudi blockading and terror bombing of the poorest Arab state and a resultant famine and cholera outbreak that could affect millions, especially children. This campaign isnt winning America any friends on the Arab street and only seems to have empowered al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

In Africa, from Nigeria to Somalia, infusions of U.S. troops have not measurably improved regional stability. Quite the opposite, despite the protestations of U.S. Africa Command. In fact, there are now more radical Islamist groups than ever before and terrorist attacks have all but exploded on that continent.

All these wars, once Obamas, are now Trumps. The only differences, it seems, are of form rather than substance. Unlike Obama, Trump delegates troop-level decisions to his secretary of defense and the generals. Furthermore, when it comes to what the public can know, there appears to be even less transparency about the exact number of soldiers being deployed across the Middle East and North Africa than had previously been the case. And that seems to suit most Americans just fine. A warrior caste of professionals fights the countrys various undeclared wars, taxes remain low, and little is asked of the populace.

Call me a pessimist but I have no doubt that the United States is in for at least three more years of perpetual war  and it probably wont end there either. Theres no silver bullet for such conflicts, so the military wont be able to end them in any reasonably easy way or it would have done so years ago. And thats assuming that far worse in the way of war isnt in store for us in the Koreas or Iran.

Trump will not be impeached. He may even win a second term. Crazier things have happened, like, well, his election in 2016. And even if he were gone, Americas wars like the Pentagons budget have proven remarkably bipartisan affairs. As the Obama years make clear, dont count on a Democratic president to end them.

Children born after 9/11 will vote in 2020. In that sense, at least, General Petraeus is right. These wars truly are generational.

Major Danny Sjursen, a TomDispatch regular, is a U.S. Army strategist and former history instructor at West Point. He served tours with reconnaissance units in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has written a memoir and critical analysis of the Iraq War, Ghost Riders of Baghdad: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Myth of the Surge. He lives with his wife and four sons in Lawrence, Kansas. Follow him on Twitter at @SkepticalVet.

[Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author, expressed in an unofficial capacity, and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. government.]

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 2017 Danny Sjursen

Via Tomdispatch.com
Reddit Email 429 Shares

TeleSur |  

Egypt introduced a draft resolution to the Security Council to reject a decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

The adviser to Palestinian President for Foreign Affairs, Nabil Shaath, informed on Tuesday that his country will request full UN membership in January 2018.

We will present the request again to the UN Security Council, Shaath told reporters. Palestine participates in the organization with non-member observer status, according to resolution 67/19 of the 2012 General Assembly.

For his part, President Mahmoud Abbas indicated that he will shortly ask for the recognition of Palestine as a full member of the UN, after the president of the United States, Donald Trump, recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

In addition, Trump announced the transfer of his embassy from the city of Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. This measure has been condemned by the majority of the international community and criticized by multilateral organizations.

The delegation from Egypt introduced on Monday a draft resolution before the UN Security Council to reject the U.S. decision and reiterate that Jerusalems status must be resolved through negotiations between Israel and Palestine.

Via TeleSur



Related video added by Juan Cole:

United Nations: Briefing on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question  Security Council
Reddit Email 21 Shares

Middle East Monitor |  

Air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen have killed at least 136 civilians since 6 December, Reuters reported.

The UN verified that 87 civilians across the capital Sanaa, Saada and Hudaydah were injured.

We are deeply concerned at the recent surge in civilian casualties in Yemen as a result of intensified air strikes by the coalition, following the killing of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sanaa on Dec. 4, Rupert Colville, human rights spokesman said.

Seven air strikes hit a prison in the Shaub district of Sanaa, killing some 45 detainees thought to be loyal to internationally recognised President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. While 14 children and six adults were killed in a farmhouse in Huydaydah on 15 December. Two children and eight women who were returning from a wedding party in Marib governorate early this week were also killed.

One thousand days on from the Saudi-led coalitions offensive in Yemen, the Houthi group executed a missile into the capital of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, today. The missile was travelling towards Al-Yamama royal palace. No injuries were reported and the missile attack was intercepted by the Saudi defence forces.

Social media activists spread news that a loud blast has been heard in Riyadh, using the hashtag sound of an explosion in Riyadh.

The Saudi-led coalition entered the Yemen war in March 2015 following a request by Hadi to assist in neutralising territorial threats posed to Yemen by the Iranian-backed Houthi and Saleh alliance in March 2015. Conflict dynamics have changed since Saleh severed relations with the Houthis and was killed in early December. The remaining forces who are loyal to Saleh joined Hadis national army in a new alliance to fight the Houthis and recapture Sanaa.

Saudi-led coalition air strikes have continued in densely populated areas in Yemen, supporting the newly formed alliance against the Houthis.

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Via Middle East Monitor



Related video added by Juan Cole:

CNN: Clarissa Ward: Reflections from Yemens humanitarian crisis
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sabina Gold & Silver Corp (TSX:SBB) (Sabina or the Company) is pleased to announce that the Nunavut Impact Review Board (the NIRB) has issued the final Project Certificate for the Back River Project (the Project or Back River).

As announced on December 6, 2017, the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, on behalf of the five responsible federal Ministers, accepted the NIRBs recommendation for the Project to proceed to the regulatory and licensing phase. Following the completion of a Project Certificate workshop held on December 14, 2017 the NIRB has issued the final Project Certificate pursuant to Section 12.5.12 of Article 12 of the Nunavut Agreement.

The Project Certificate contains terms and conditions, the majority of which were agreed upon during the environmental assessment process. The Project Certificate allows Sabina to advance through the final licensing and permitting stage.

After a multi-year environmental assessment process, we are very pleased to end the year with the issuance of the final Project Certificate for Back River, said Bruce McLeod, President & CEO. As reported, we have recently submitted our Type B and Type A water license applications and will proceed with other necessary permit applications in due course. The Project Certificate is another milestone for Sabina shareholders. This has been an overall positive year, and we are looking forward to reporting on activities for 2018.

Sabina Gold & Silver Corp

Sabina Gold & Silver Corp. is a well-financed, emerging precious metals company with district scale, world class undeveloped assets in one of the worlds newest, politically stable mining jurisdictions: Nunavut, Canada.

In September 2015, Sabina released a Feasibility Study on its 100% owned Back River Gold Project which presents a project that has been designed on a fit-for purpose basis, with the potential to produce ~200,000 ounces a year for ~11 years with a rapid payback of 2.9 years. At a US$1,150 gold price and a 0.80 exchange rate, the Study delivers a potential after tax internal rate of return of approximately 24.2% with an initial CAPEX of $415 million.

The Project received its final Project Certificate on December 19, 2017. The Project is now in the final regulatory and licensing phase.

In addition to Back River, Sabina also owns a significant silver royalty on Glencores Hackett River Project. The silver royalty on Hackett Rivers silver production is comprised of 22.5% of the first 190 million ounces produced and 12.5% of all the silver produced thereafter.

The Company had cash and equivalents of C$38.5m at September 30, 2017. In addition the Company announced a strategic investment financing by Zhaojin International Mining Company of approximately C$66m. The financing is scheduled to close in the new year.
VANCOUVER, Dec. 20, 2017 /CNW/ - GREAT PANTHER SILVER LIMITED (TSX: GPR; NYSE American: GPL) ("Great Panther"; the "Company") announces that it has completed an updated Mineral Resource Estimate in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 for the Company's 100% owned Coricancha Mine located approximately 90 kilometres east of Lima, Peru. This estimate was prepared by Ronald Turner, P.Geo., of Golder Associates S.A., the Qualified Person.

"This resource update confirms the potential in the Coricancha Mine area and allows the Company to initiate additional engineering studies required to support a positive production decision", stated James Bannantine, President & CEO. "We are all very excited about the prospects for the Coricancha Mine and look forward to taking the next step in Great Panther's growth strategy by adding a base of operations in Peru."

The Measured and Indicated tonnes and grades in this Mineral Resource Estimate compare well with those from the Historical Resource Estimate of 2012, providing a high degree of confidence in the results (see below). The tonnes in the Inferred category are now lower due to the different search parameters used but it may be possible to replace these tonnages with additional drilling.

Great Panther is completing optimization studies and is evaluating alternative mining methods to reduce costs and project risk. The Company plans to release additional technical studies for the project in the second quarter of 2018.

Updated 2017 Mineral Resource Estimate for the Coricancha Mine, Peru

Measured Mine Tonnes Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) Pb (%) Zn (%) Cu (%) Ag eq gpt Aq eq oz (M) Constancia 270,336 6.2 219 2.36 3.44 0.43 1,064 9.24 Wellington 92,328 6.1 184 1.69 3.95 0.51 1,028 3.05 Escondida 15,362 0.9 279 0.28 1.35 3.20 832 0.41 Constancia East 16,315 6.0 143 1.97 2.16 0.11 836 0.44 San Jose 6,922 5.8 212 4.49 2.94 0.30 1,078 0.24 Colquipallana 2,944 3.4 220 3.67 5.26 0.21 995 0.09 Total Measured 404,205 5.9 210 2.16 3.43 0.54 1,037 13.49

Indicated Mine Tonnes Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) Pb (%) Zn (%) Cu (%) Ag eq gpt Aq eq oz (M) Constancia 218,545 6.0 188 2.09 3.08 0.34 968 6.80 Wellington 77,080 6.0 186 1.68 3.66 0.52 1,004 2.49 Escondida 21,406 1.0 238 0.24 1.08 2.84 733 0.50 Constancia East 18,636 5.8 137 1.93 1.95 0.11 798 0.48 San Jose 7,673 5.7 217 4.76 2.93 0.30 1,084 0.27 Colquipallana 5,215 3.4 207 3.31 5.14 0.19 953 0.16 Total Indicated 348,554 5.6 189 1.95 3.05 0.52 955 10.71

Measured & Indicated Mine Tonnes Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) Pb (%) Zn (%) Cu (%) Ag eq gpt Aq eq oz (M) Constancia 488,881 6.1 205 2.24 3.28 0.39 1,021 16.05 Wellington 169,408 6.0 185 1.69 3.82 0.51 1,017 5.54 Escondida 36,767 1.0 255 0.26 1.19 2.99 775 0.92 Constancia East 34,950 5.9 139 1.95 2.05 0.11 816 0.92 San Jose 14,594 5.7 215 4.63 2.93 0.30 1,081 0.51 Colquipallana 8,159 3.4 212 3.44 5.18 0.20 968 0.25 Total M & I 752,759 5.8 200 2.06 3.26 0.53 999 24.20

Inferred Mine Tonnes Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) Pb (%) Zn (%) Cu (%) Ag eq gpt Aq eq oz (M) Constancia 532,422 5.3 215 1.71 3.29 0.40 950 16.25 Wellington 238,811 5.4 219 1.06 3.95 0.78 1,014 7.78 Escondida 96,926 2.2 208 0.26 2.24 1.90 751 2.34 Constancia East 49,234 5.7 125 1.66 1.57 0.21 760 1.20 San Jose 14,174 5.7 213 4.34 2.78 0.28 1,049 0.48 Colquipallana 11,592 3.7 117 2.98 3.15 0.15 743 0.28 Total Inferred 943,160 5.0 209 1.45 3.25 0.64 934 28.36

Notes for Mineral Resource Estimates

1. Cut-offs are based on an estimated $140 Net Smelter Return (NSR)/tonne.

2. Metal prices used to calculate NSR: $1,300 per ounce (oz) Au, $17/oz Ag, $1.15 per pound (lb) Pb, $1.50/lb Zn, $3.00/lb Cu

3. Block model grades converted to United States Dollar (US$) value using plant recoveries of 92.1% Ag, 80.2% Au, 77.3% Pb, 82.6% Zn, 52.7% Cu.

4. Rock Density for Constancia: 3.3 tonnes per cubic meter (t/m), Wellington, Constancia East, Escondida, San Jose: 3.2 t/m, Colquipallana: 2.9 t/m.

5. Totals may not agree due to rounding.

6. Grades in metric units.

7. All currencies US dollars.

8. Ag equivalent ounces (eq oz) million (M) is calculated from gpt data

9. AgEq g/t = Ag g/t + (Pb grade x ((Pb price per lb/Ag price per oz) x 0.0685714 lbs per Troy Ounce x 10000 g per %)) +(Zn grade x ((Zn price per lb/Ag price per oz) x 0.0685714 lbs per Troy Ounce x 10000 g per %)) + (Cu grade x ((Cu price per lb/Ag price per oz) x 0.0685714 lbs per Troy Ounce x 10000 g per %)) + (Au grade x (Au price per oz/Ag price per oz)).

The last published Resource Estimate for the Coricancha Mine has an effective date of December 31, 2012 (see Nyrstar news release February 7, 2013 and table below). Great Panther considers this estimate historical in nature and is referenced for historical purposes only and should not be relied upon.

Coricancha Mine Historical Mineral Resources (December 31, 2012) *

Category Tonnes Au g/t Ag g/t Pb % Zn % Cu % Ag eq gpt Ag eq oz (M) Measured 630,000 5.18 169.85 2.10 2.97 0.38 1070 15.56 Indicated 260,000 4.72 186.07 1.66 3.45 0.54 1090 6.43 Total M&I 890,000 5.04 174.62 1.97 3.11 0.42 1075 21.96 Inferred 4,880,000 4.91 224.54 1.57 2.98 0.48 1078 124.6

* see Nyrstar news release February 7, 2013

The above updated resource estimates included in this news release were classified per the CIM Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves and, as such, are consistent with the requirements of NI 43-101. The Mineral Resource Estimate was constructed under supervision of Ronald Turner, P.Geo. of Golder Associates S.A., the Qualified Person. The Mineral Resource Estimate was completed using MicroMine 3D geological software, and the inverse distance cubed estimation technique was utilized in the estimation of grade to each of the blocks in the block models. A Company-proprietary Net Smelter Return ("NSR") calculator, considering mill recoveries, smelter terms, and designated metal prices converted block grades into NSR (US$) values.

The Company's QA/QC program includes the regular insertion of blanks, duplicates, and standards into the sample shipments; diligent monitoring of assay results; and necessary remedial actions. Sample assaying was completed at the independent SGS-Lima lab in Lima, Peru. The gold was analyzed by fusion with 30 g fire assay and atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) finish, with the resulting values reported in parts per million (code FAA313). The remaining 52 elements were analyzed by mass spectrometry of inductively coupled plasma (ICPMS) and the resulting values were reported in parts per million (code IMC12B). Any gold results that exceeded the limit of detection were re-analyzed by fire assay with a gravimetric finish (code FAG303). Any silver results that exceeded the limit of detection (>10g/t) were re-analyzed by fire assay with a gravimetric finish (code FAG313). Any other metals that exceeded the limit of detection were re-analyzed by ICP-AAS (code AAS11B).

The technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Matthew Wunder, P. Geo., Vice-President Exploration for the Company and the Qualified Person (QP) for the Coricancha Mine Complex under the meaning of NI 43-101. Aspects relating to mining and metallurgy are overseen by Ali Soltani, Chief Operating Officer for Great Panther.

ABOUT GREAT PANTHER

Great Panther Silver Limited is a primary silver mining and exploration company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange trading under the symbol GPR, and on the NYSE American under the symbol GPL. Great Panther's current activities are focused on the mining of precious metals from its two wholly-owned operating mines in Mexico: the Guanajuato Mine Complex and the Topia Mine in Durango. The Company is also evaluating the restart of the Coricancha Mine in Peru, which it acquired earlier this year, and continues to pursue the acquisition of additional mining operations or projects in the Americas.
TORONTO, Dec. 19, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gran Colombia Gold Corp. (TSX:GCM) announced today that it produced a total of 15,841 ounces of gold in the month of November bringing the year-to-date total to 154,959 ounces. The trailing 12 months total gold production as of the end of November 2017 now stands at 169,777 ounces, up 13% over 2016s annual gold production. With one month remaining in 2017, the Company remains on track with its recently revised production guidance for the full year of 165,000 to 170,000 ounces of gold.

The Segovia Operations produced 13,797 ounces of gold in the month of November bringing the 11-months year-to-date total to 131,729 ounces. Company-operated production at the Providencia mine continued in line with the trend this year and the Company also benefitted from additional material from contract miners under new operating contracts entered into since August under which Gran Colombia is retaining between 10% and 60% of the spot price for each ounce of gold produced. The trailing 12 months total gold production as of the end of November 2017 at Segovia was 144,512 ounces, up 14% over 2016s annual gold production and within the Companys revised production guidance range for the 2017 calendar year at Segovia of 140,000 to 145,000 ounces.

At the Marmato Operations, gold production amounted to 2,044 ounces in the month of November bringing the 11-months year-to-date total to 23,230 ounces. Marmatos trailing 12 months gold production at the end of November 2017 was 25,265 ounces, up 8% over its 2016 annual production. The Company continues to expect Marmatos annual gold production for 2017 will range between 24,000 and 26,000 ounces.

About Gran Colombia Gold Corp.

Gran Colombia is a Canadian-based gold and silver exploration, development and production company with its primary focus in Colombia. Gran Colombia is currently the largest underground gold and silver producer in Colombia with several underground mines in operation at its Segovia and Marmato Operations. Gran Colombia is continuing its expansion and modernization activities at its high-grade Segovia Operations.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Panoro Minerals Ltd. (TSXV:PML) (Lima:PML) (Frankfurt:PZM) ("Panoro", the "Company") is pleased to provide additional assay results from its drill program at Maria Jose Target at Cluster 1 of its 100% owned Cotabambas Cu/Au/Ag Project in Peru.

Drill hole CB-183 intersected a 127.6m interval of hypogene copper mineralization in a quartz monzonite porphyry intruding andesite volcanics beginning at 199.6m and averaging 0.41% Cu, 0.06 g/t Au and 2.0 g/t Ag, including 37.0m grading 0.56% Cu, 0.10 g/t Au and 2.8 g/t Ag and 52.9m averaging 0.46% Cu, 0.07g/t Au and 2.1 g/t Ag.

Drill hole CB-183 also intersected an 18.8m thick blanket of oxide copper mineralization beginning at 56.3m and averaging 0.28% Cu, 0.04g/t Au and 2.1 g/t Ag. A deeper 38.9m interval of hypogene copper mineralization beginning at 450.5m and grading 0.27% Cu, 0.03g/t Au and 1.7g/t Ag was intersected in andesitic volcanics. Mineralization is still open at depth.

Drill hole CB-183 is located 300 m to the east of previously published drill holes CB-157 and CB-161. These results indicate significant expansion potential for both oxide and hypogene copper mineralization to the east of the Maria Jose 2 target.

Drill hole CB-168 is located 500 m to the west of drill hole CB-183, and intersected a 46.7m interval of oxide copper mineralization in andesitic volcanics, beginning at 2.0m and averaging 0.20% Cu, 0.02 g/t Au, 1.0 g/t Ag, including 11.0m grading 0.31% Cu, 0.03 Au g/t, 1.5 g/t Ag.

The 2017 drill program has been successful in delineating near surface oxide mineralization at both the Petra-David and Maria Jose Targets, commented Luquman Shaheen, CEO and President of Panoro. The exploration has also identified hypogene mineralization at the Maria Jose Target. In 2018, Panoro will continue drilling these targets where the 2017 results will help guide drill targetting of higher grade and near surface zones of both oxides and sulphides at both the Petra-David and Maria Jose Targets in Cluster 1. Panoro is also planning to commence drilling at the Chaupec Target at Cluster 2 in 2018.

Except for an intersection of 2.1m grading 1.51 g/t Au, drill holes CB-166 and CB-169 did not intersect significant mineralization, but did enhance our understanding of the Maria Jose 2 Target in guiding its continuing exploration.

A location plan can be found at the Companys website, www.panoro.com

Drillhole From (m) To

(m) Intersections (m) Cu

% Au

g/t Ag

g/t Mo

% Zone CB-166 100.9 102.9 2.1 0.06 1.51 0.8 0.0063 Mixed " " 197.3 203.2 5.9 0.24 0.01 1.2 0.0128 Hypogene CB-168 2.0 48.7 46.7 0.20 0.02 1.0 0.0010 Oxides Including 26.0 37.0 11.0 0.31 0.03 1.5 0.0009 Oxides CB-169 No significant intersections CB-183 56.3 75.1 18.8 0.28 0.04 2.1 0.0008 Oxides Including 68.2 75.1 6.9 0.52 0.09 3.7 0.0004 Oxides " " 199.6 327.2 127.6 0.41 0.06 2.0 0.0008 Hypogene Including 215.4 252.4 37.0 0.56 0.10 2.8 0.0007 Hypogene Including 216.9 222.1 5.2 0.67 0.06 2.8 0.0012 Hypogene Including 239.3 252.4 13.1 0.74 0.15 3.7 0.0006 Hypogene Including 270.4 323.2 52.9 0.46 0.07 2.1 0.0008 Hypogene Including 272.4 292.9 20.5 0.55 0.10 2.3 0.0004 Hypogene " " 450.5 489.3 38.9 0.27 0.03 1.7 0.0007 Hypogene Including 457.7 476.6 18.9 0.36 0.03 1.9 0.0005 Hypogene

About Panoro

Panoro Minerals is a uniquely positioned Peru focused copper exploration and development company. The Company is advancing its flagship project, Cotabambas Copper-Gold-Silver Project and its Antilla Copper-Molybdenum Projects located in the strategically important area of southern Peru. The Company is well financed to expand, enhance and advance its projects in the region where infrastructure such as railway, roads, ports, water supply, power generation and transmission are readily available and expanding quickly. The region boasts the recent investment of over $US 15 billion into the construction or expansion of four large open pit copper mines.
VANCOUVER, Dec. 20, 2017 /CNW/ - Atlantic Gold Corporation (TSX-V: AGB) ("Atlantic" or the "Company") is pleased to report the first assay results received from the Phase 3 Resource Expansion drilling program at the Fifteen Mile Stream gold deposit.

Fifteen Mile Stream is located approximately 57km northeast of the central processing facility at Touquoy and is readily accessible by highway. Fifteen Mile Stream's current measured and indicated mineral resources stand at 10.59 million tonnes at 1.33 g/t Au for 452,000 oz. at 0.35g/t cut-off grade. Inferred mineral resources amount to 6.64 million tonnes at 1.12 g/t Au for 240,000 oz. at 0.35g/t cut-off grade (see Company announcement July 21, 20171).

The objectives of the Phase 3 Resource Expansion drilling program are to:

i. identify additional gold resources immediately peripheral to those resources previously defined at Fifteen Mile Stream and Cochrane Hill;

ii. at Cochrane Hill and at Fifteen Mile Stream  particularly at the Hudson and Plenty zones, upgrade previously defined inferred resources to measured and indicated categories; and

iii. seek additional new resources within the 350m gap between the Plenty and Egerton MacLean zones at Fifteen Mile Stream.

1 The Mineral Resource estimate for Fifteen Mile Stream is quoted at a cut-off grade of 0.35g/t. It has an effective date of July 20, 2017 and was prepared as part of a technical report in accordance with NI 43-101 by Mr. Neil Schofield, a principal of FSSI (Australia) Pty Ltd, released on September 1, 2017 on SEDAR.

At the present time a total of 178 holes for 20,053m have been drilled at Fifteen Mile Stream and 44 holes for 6,903m have been drilled at Cochrane Hill. While the planned program at Cochrane Hill has been completed, some 6,000m of planned and likely follow-up drilling remains to be undertaken at Fifteen Mile Stream, mainly on the Plenty zone. Holes are nominally drilled on 25m x 20m centres, though as first-pass drilling along the 350m gap between Plenty and Egerton MacLean holes have been drilled on 50m-spaced sections.

Assay results have now been received from 28 holes, all from Fifteen Mile Stream, and representing about 13% of all assays expected; no assays have yet been returned for Cochrane Hill. Although these assayed holes are widely distributed along the trend of the mineralized anticline it appears that:

a) the Egerton MacLean zone remains open eastwards where FMS-17-200 on the easternmost section (13675E) cut 14m @ 1.79g/t flanked by supporting mineralization in adjacent holes

b) initial infill on 25m-spaced sections at the western end of Egerton MacLean suggests continuity of shallow mineralization (eg. 4m @ 7.27g/t from 19m); and

c) results from a 25m infill section on the eastern side of Hudson similarly indicates continuity of mineralization between the existing 50m-spaced sections (eg. 17m @ 1.12g/t from 80m).

Assay results are tabulated below:

Hole id Easting Northing Dip Az. Depth (m) Significant Intervals (0.5g/t Au and up to 3m internal dilution) From (m) To (m) Width (m) Grade (g/t Au) EGERTON MACLEAN FMS-17-192 13475 10280 -60 175 302 151 158 7 1.15 and 169 172 3 2.78 and 200 201 1 8.45 and 209 210 1 33.2 FMS-17-193 13500 10320 -60 175 260 180 193 13 0.98 and 233 234 1 5.20 FMS-17-194 13475 10280 -70 175 251 158 173 15 0.78 and 194 206 12 1.44 and 218 222 4 3.22 FMS-17-195 13225 10040 -45 175 82 35 40 5 0.63 and 50 51 1 3.95 FMS-17-196 13675 10220 -60 175 140 101 105 4 0.55 and 109 113 4 3.10 and 117 123 6 0.95 FMS-17-197 13225 10060 -45 175 121 NSA FMS-17-198 13675 10200 -60 175 122 91 105 14 0.77 FMS-17-199^ 13225 10080 -45 175 142 130 131 1 9.44 FMS-17-200^ 13675 10180 -60 175 110 77 91 14 1.79 FMS-17-201^ 13675 10160 -60 175 92 62 70 8 0.79 FMS-17-202^ 13225 10020 -45 175 61 43 44 1 3.93 and 49 50 1 11.55 FMS-17-203^ 13675 10140 -60 175 80 51 54 3 1.14 FMS-17-204^ 13225 10000 -45 175 52 19 23 4 7.27 Incl. 20 21 1 23.4 FMS-17-205^ 13650 10220 -60 175 140 102 124 22 0.65 FMS-17-207^ 13250 9980 -45 175 100 91 92 1 3.12 FMS-17-208^ 13200 9940 -45 175 100 31 36 5 0.95 FMS-17-209^ 13625 10220 -60 175 140 88 89 1 3.52 FMS-17-211^ 13600 10220 -60 175 140 91 98 7 0.48 and 130 131 1 19.4 HUDSON FMS-17-210^ 12475 10020 -45 175 52 18 19 1 12.50 FMS-17-212^ 12475 10040 -45 175 70 7 8 1 9.27 FMS-17-213^ 12475 10060 -45 175 82 60 65 5 2.25 FMS-17-214^ 12375 10140 -45 175 172 47 49 2 1.59 and 92 114 22 0.78 FMS-17-220^ 12300 10120 -45 175 170 114 120 6 1.60 125 130 5 0.70 138 145 7 0.63 FMS-17-224^ 12375 10120 -45 175 151 48 49 1 3.94 and 79 83 4 1.82 and 87 91 4 1.74 and 103 106 3 5.96 and 116 120 4 1.29 FMS-17-230^ 12300 10040 -45 175 80 NSA FMS-17-235^ 12300 10140 -45 175 190 68 69 1 12.65 and 125 126 1 13.80 FMS-17-240^ 12475 10100 -45 175 122 7 8 1 8.79 and 62 63 1 3.88 and 80 97 17 1.12 FMS-17-242^ 12475 10080 -45 175 101 58 63 5 1.65 and 78 81 3 2.08

NSA: No significant assays; that is, no intervals  3.0g/t x m.

^ Fire assays of half NQ core, otherwise whole NQ core (see Technical Disclosure below)

True width of the mineralization varies according to the dip of the host stratigraphy and declination of the relevant drill hole. For intersections quoted above true width averages 90% of the down-hole width.

Nature of the mineralization:

Mineralization occurs within argillites, greywackes and bedding-parallel quartz veins across the hinge zone and limbs of the E-W trending Fifteen Mile Stream (FMS) Anticline. The northern limb of the anticline dips moderately north, with the southern limb overturned (generally steeply north dipping). All holes are therefore declined to the south. Highest grades so far encountered occur within the hinge zone of the anticline. Free gold is commonly observed, and in association with pyrrhotite and arsenopyrite.

Technical Disclosure

At Fifteen Mile Stream all assays by default are 50g charge fire assays of 1kg pulverized sub-sample split from -2mm crushed parent of whole 1m NQ core, with 1-in-10 duplicate assays of the same pulp, and 1-in-10 assays of a second 1kg pulverized sub-sample split from the same crushed parent. Where otherwise noted (^) assays are 50g charge fire assays of 1kg pulverized sub-sample split from -2mm crushed parent of sawn half 1m NQ core, with 1-in-10 duplicate assays of the same pulp. Standards and blind blanks are routinely inserted. Sample preparation and assaying is conducted at the Sudbury and Vancouver laboratories of ALS Canada Ltd, an entity having no other relationship with the Company. Core recovery is estimated for each metre and averages >97%, excluding occasional voids, usually <2m, representing historic underground workings. Wing samples to voids may be less than 1m to re-establish routine sampling on 1m intervals. Drill core in the hangingwall of the northern limb of the anticline where adjacent historic holes very clearly indicate this upper stratigraphy to be barren may not be sampled and assayed. Standards, blanks and duplicate assay results are acceptable.

Results and updates from this drilling program will be reported progressively.

Phase 2 Expansion Life of Mine Plan Scheduled for January 2018

The Company has now scheduled the release of the Phase 2 Expansion Life of Mine Plan and supporting Pre-Feasibility Study for January 2018 due to un-anticipated delays in respect of receipt of engineering inputs.

Wally Bucknell, Director of Exploration to the Company and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Dec. 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alio Gold Inc (TSX:ALO) (NYSE MKT:ALO) (Alio Gold or the Company), is pleased to provide the final drill results from the 2,000 metre drill program to twin previous drill holes within the pre-feasibility pit for metallurgical test work samples at its Ana Paula project in Guerrero, Mexico.

Highlights

Final drill results received from the 2,000m drill program for metallurgical sampling, confirm high-grade mineralization and lithology in the Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) dated May 16, 2017 as per the NI 43-101 Preliminary Feasibility Study

Drill hole 17-13 intersected 112.0m (from 8.0m to 120.0m) of 3.85 g/t gold

Drill hole 17-14 intersected 33.1m (from 116.9m to 150.0m) of 7.07 g/t gold

Drill hole 17-15 intersected 54.6m (from 11.6m to 66.2m) of 7.19 g/t gold

These final results of the drill program are again a reminder of the high-grade nature of the breccia mineralization within the proposed open pit at Ana Paula and give us further confidence in our existing block model, said Greg McCunn, Chief Executive Officer. We are excited to be turning our attention to testing the extension of the breccia zone below the proposed pre-feasibility study pit with a 6 hole, 4,000 metre program that is expected to begin in early January. This surface drill program will be undertaken in parallel to the construction of the underground decline which is being driven into the mineralized area to allow further drill testing from underground.

Twin hole drilling program for metallurgical samples

This program which is now completed, was intended to provide sufficient material within the proposed open pit for metallurgical testing. Drill results for hole APM-17-04 and APM-17-05 were previously announced on October 24th, 2017 and drill hole APM-17-06 through APM-17-10 were previously announced on December 4th, 2017.

Hole NB Material Azimuth Dip Depth

From Depth To Au (gpt) Interval length

(m) Estimated

True Width APM-17-11 HALO 90 -60 124.0 136.0 6.84 12.0 N/A including 129.6 130.5 20.90 0.9 and including 133.3 134.7 37.50 1.4 APM-17-11 HALO 153.2 180.0 2.67 26.8 N/A including 155.1 156.4 20.80 1.3 APM-17-11 HALO 210.0 232.0 3.37 22.0 N/A APM-17-12 HALO 90 -50 71.1 76.0 2.55 5.0 N/A HALO 161.2 164.8 2.03 3.7 N/A APM-17-13 HALO 90 -45 8.0 120.0 3.85 112.0 N/A Including 31.5 33.0 39.10 1.5 and including 93.5 95.3 52.70 1.8 APM-17-14 HALO 90 -50 53.5 63.0 0.76 9.5 N/A HALO 116.9 150.0 7.07 33.1 Including 125.4 126.9 34.40 1.6 APM-17-15 HALO 90 -75 11.6 66.2 7.19 54.6 N/A APM-17-16 HALO 90 -50 22.0 34.0 1.09 12.0 N/A APM-17-17 INTRS 90 -80 78.8 84.8 0.76 6.0 3.7

Note on true width calculation:

For the complex breccia and surrounding halo mineralization and in the monolithic breccia (MBX), the calculation of a true width is inappropriate since these units are not tabular. For the mineralization outside of these units (i.e. sediments (SED) and intrusive (INTRS)) the true width can be estimated since the mineralization is likely following the stratigraphy.

About Alio Gold

Alio Gold is a growth oriented gold mining company, focused on exploration, development and production in Mexico. Its principal assets include its 100%-owned and operating San Francisco Mine in Sonora, Mexico and its 100%-owned development stage Ana Paula Project in Guerrero, Mexico. Located within the highly prospective Guerrero Gold Belt on 56,000 hectares of underexplored land the Ana Paula Project is a high-grade, high margin project currently in the definitive feasibility stage. An underground decline to provide access for an exploration drill program has been initiated targeting the continuation of the high-grade gold mineralization below the proposed pit which has the potential to significantly enhance the robust economics of the project. The Company also has a portfolio of other exploration properties, all of which are located in Mexico.

Qualified Person

The scientific and technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by Pierre Desautels, P. Geo, a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects who is an independent consultant to the company.
40 Shares Share

What would medical education that is relevant for the here and now  for America in the early 21st century  address? It is impossible to teach the content relevant for an entire career. It is important to educate practitioners able to adapt to the changing landscape of medicine. We must consider what the future might hold.

Watching science fiction may serve to prompt future physicians to practice preventive medicine for the planet. She must be capable of recognizing changes in disease epidemiology, which will hinge on large-scale social, political economic and ecological forces  including economic inequality, climate change and war and peace. One needs to know what is coming in order to retool appropriately.

Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffet own more assets than the bottom half of the U.S. population. The eight richest billionaires in the world own as much assets as half of humanity. We are not too distant from the world depicted in Elysium where the elites live far away from the rabble on a massive space station. We are witnessing levels of inequality unseen since the Gilded Age. What shall it be for the up-and-coming doctor? Join the elites in making as much money from the current health care system while the scam lasts? Work for an insurance company and deny your fellow doctors attempts to care for their patients? Work for a pharmaceutical corporation and help your CEO figure out which drug patent to buy so he can jack up the price a hundred-fold?

In Elysium, Matt Damon plays a public health hero. From a car thief (lumpen) to an assembly line worker at a robot factory (an ordinary prole), he becomes a guerrilla fighter for health as a human right. In this world, we could sorely use a hero of that sort.

Back in this world, the elites and the politicians in their pay seek to further shrink the social commons of health care as a publicly shared resource. Thus, the majority party has sought to decimate Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, even though it has served to extend corporate health insurance to the uninsured.

In present-day America, we have watched drug overdoses overtake motor vehicle crashes as the number one cause of accidental death. Drug overdoses are now the number one cause of death in under-50 Americans. The economists Case and Deaton point out that mortality rate for non-Hispanic whites in the U.S. has been rising this century and that the rise has been higher in the lower socioeconomic classes. They call excess deaths from suicide, alcohol or drugs deaths of despair.

During the latter part of the 20th century, working classes had experienced rising incomes as a result of industrial jobs with wages and benefits defended by labor unions. Under the neoliberal transformation of the global economy, multinational corporations have moved their manufacturing operations to places such as China and Mexico where wages are low, environmental protections are lacking, and carbon is emitted to produce goods shipped or trucked to U.S. consumers. While Wall Street executives came through the Great Recession with their earnings intact or enhanced, American workers found themselves with their houses underwater, their manufacturing jobs exported elsewhere and left with low-paying service jobs. Furthermore, the use of artificial intelligence and robotics will mean that the factory of the future will employ fewer and fewer humans.

While seeking to shrink the social commons, the majority party also denies scientific consensus on climate change. Physicians of the future must prepare for the health consequences of climate change. The great climate change sci-fi film has yet to be made. But Interstellar, in its early scenes, makes an attempt. We await the television adaptation of Margaret Atwoods MaddAddam trilogy. David Mitchells The Bone Clocks concludes with a portrayal of a post-climate change, post-Ebola world. One could argue that Mad Max: Fury Road depicts a parched, globally warmed future, but the backstory in The Road Warrior was a nuclear exchange.

Post-apocalyptic, post-nuclear war sci-fi is commonplace. They include A Canticle for Leibowitz, A Boy, and His Dog, and The Road. The escalation of tensions in the Korean peninsula brings the world perilously close to nuclear Armageddon. As North Korea tests nuclear devices and delivery systems, the U.S. conducts military exercises and draws up plans for pre-emptive strikes. As adversaries go on hair-trigger alert, the potential for and mistakenly launched nuclear exchange increases. The probability of nuclear war thus approaches the probabilities that during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Noam Chomsky points out that the standoffs at the Russian border and in Syria are other reasons why the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists have placed the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock at two-and-a-half minutes to midnight. There was a time that many in medicine deemed the continued existence of human civilization important enough to include the prevention of nuclear war in the Hippocratic Oath. How quaint that feels these days.

Seiji Yamada is a family physician.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
210 Shares Share

Until very recently, the pantheons of the worlds religions swelled with gods and divine beings to ward off calamities. And none loomed so large as smallpox. From the inky beginnings of civilization, the disfiguring disease slowly spread over the entire Eurasian continent and North Africa. In the last millennium, smallpox alone has caused 10 percent of all human deaths, including half a billion in the 20th century.

In China, the goddess Tou-Shen Niang-Niang was feared; her capricious whim could disfigure or kill. She especially loved a pretty face, and during her festival nights, children would wear ugly masks to bed in hopes of fooling her. In India, Shitala Mata not only caused smallpox but was also its healer, using cool food and drink dyed red. This association with the color red would spread throughout the world. And erythrotherapy, as it was later known, was the subject of randomized controlled trials in the early 20th century. In Western Africa, the Yoruba worshipped Shapona, who would express his displeasure with outbreaks of smallpox. In Europe, St. Nicaise, the bishop of Rheims, recovered from the disease just as the invading Huns fell ill. They managed to conquer anyway, and beheaded the saint. From thereafter, his prayer could cure the disease, with the implicit threat of also being able to spread it to your enemies. And when the Europeans did just that to the New World, sometimes intentionally, new gods took root in a land previously without smallpox, like Obaluaye the King of the Earth. His worshippers would double over in their dancing, mimicking the pain of its sufferers.

But the gods sowed the seeds of their own undoing. The ancients had noticed long ago that those who were pockmarked could never again be infected. In China, it was noted that those were infected from a cut in their arm or through their mucous membranes would suffer a far milder version of the disease and still be immune. By the 10th century, the cult of Tou-Shen Niang-Niang was performing secret rituals where smallpox scabs were ground up and inhaled to protect children. In India as well, a needle covered with smallpox pus would be introduced into the skin to cause a local reaction. The modern word for this is variolation to differentiate it from vaccination, though at the time physicians used horticultural terms like transplanting or engrafting. By the 18th century, the colonial British had taken note. Only six years after variolation was introduced at the Royal Society in London, the royal princesses had the procedure, and by 1746 the London Smallpox and Inoculation Hospital offered free variolation to all. Variolation never caught on in a larger scale outside of British territory. The death rate was up to two percent, and this was a live virus fully capable of causing an outbreak. In any event, by the 1790s, the British had drawn up plans to variolate the entire population of the British Isles.

The plan never came to fruition because of Edward Jenner and the invention of vaccination. Starting in the 1760s, a series of physicians in England noted that milkmaids were not pockmarked, and that they would not take to variolation  they would not form skin lesions when inoculated with smallpox. These doctors also correctly presumed this was due to cowpox, a similar disease that only caused mild symptoms in humans. Edward Jenner took these observations and sampled the pus from the cowpox of Sarah Nelmes, a local milkmaid. He then used this pus to inoculate his eight-year-old neighbor James Phipps. Six weeks later, he performed variolation on Phipps, inoculating a smallpox-infected needle into the boy. And just like the milkmaids, he would not respond he too was immune to the disease. Jenner called this new process vaccination, from the Latin root vacca, meaning cow. The cow in question, by the way, was named Blossom, and her hide and horns are preserved to this day.

Even in 1796, Jenner realized that his new vaccine would give humanity a way to end smallpox forever. And in the latter half of the 20th century, as the World Health Organization set about to finally end smallpox, its field workers ran into the diseases last bastions of defense  the gods themselves. In West Africa and rural India, the worshippers of Shapona and Shitala Mata did what they could to disrupt the vaccination programs, convinced that it would displease their gods and lead to greater outbreaks. In China as well, religious adherence to variolation delayed adoption of universal vaccination. But the gods could only delay medicine, and in 1977 the last natural case was recorded in Somalia, and by 1979  183 years after Jenners discovery  the WHO finally declared smallpox eliminated.

The eradication of smallpox is one of the greatest moments in human history. But great threats still remain. We thought there were only two known samples of smallpox remaining in the world, locked away in the U.S. and Russia, but at least twice in the last few years, samples of the disease have been found in old storage closets. And as the permafrost covering our northern environs melts, theres concern that ancient viruses, including smallpox, could again be unleashed. Terrorists dream of biological warfare, and a 2001 military simulation showed how unprepared the United States is for an outbreak. It turns out that the old gods are only sleeping, ready to awake at any moment.

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




By Bahk Eun-ji







North Korea may have executed the officer in charge of nuclear facility construction over a delay in a weapons test and the collapse of a tunnel in Punggye-ri, Hampyung Province, Asahi Shimbun reported Tuesday.







The Japanese daily quoted an unnamed source as saying the sixth nuclear test was originally scheduled for the spring, but was postponed to September due to the tunnel construction delay.







The executed officer was head of North Korea's 131 Training Unit Guidance Bureau (TUGB), which is responsible for building major military facilities such as the tunnel in Punggye-ri and the missile launch site in Dongchang-ri.







Asahi reported that Hwang Byong-seo, North Korea's former director-general of the General Political Bureau, may also have been executed. Hwang was recently demoted.







He would be the highest ranking official to be executed after Kim Jong-un had his uncle Jang Seong-taek killed in 2013.




Chinese aircraft intrusion



China is going too far in its relations with the Republic of Korea despite President Moon Jae-in's state visit to Beijing last week, as proved by its five military airplanes' intrusion into the air defense identification zones of Korea and Japan, Monday.



The unexpected flight of two Chinese H-6 bombers, two J-11 fighter jets and a TU-154 reconnaissance plane into the zones of the two neighboring countries is certainly a provocative act, though China claimed over a hotline that the flight was part of a routine exercise and it had no intention of infringing on Korea's territorial airspace.



An air defense identification zone is airspace that a country sets to identify and control possibly hostile aircraft, different from territorial airspace. But it is an international practice for a country to notify in advance of its flight over the zones of other countries.



For instance, Japan entered the Korean zone as many as 444 times last year, but always with prior notification. However, China did the same thing without any prior notice again this time as it has done so in the past, prompting Korea and Japan to scramble their fighter jets against China's aircraft for an unnecessary tension in the air.



Deplorable is the Chinese state-run news outlets' reports that the Chinese military airplanes flew in formation over Japan's Tsushima Straits (the very life line connecting Korea and Japan), for the first time.



It is regrettable that China made such a provocation immediately after Moon's summit with Xi Jinping in Beijing, humiliating Korea's ardent move to help restore the uncomfortable relations between the two countries caused by Seoul's deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system and Beijing's retaliatory measures, including the ban of Chinese group tours to Korea.



What Beijing is doing against Seoul of late, highlighted by the flight, will only result in deepening anti-China sentiment among South Koreans, thus further worsening bilateral relations and the security situation in the region amid North Korea's mounting nuclear threats.



For its part, the Moon administration has to review its China policy without further hurting the alliance with the United States and Japan, listening to public voices that it is taking a too submissive attitude toward China.




The Government needs to do more to address poverty in the Border region that's according to Fianna Fail TD for Cavan-Monaghan Brendan Smith.

He was commenting following the publication of CSO figures, which reveal that more than 790,000 people are living in poverty in Ireland  over 250,000 of those are children.

Deputy Brendan Smith explained, While nationally the CSO figures point to slight improvements in deprivation rates, the situation in the Border area is very different. Poverty in this region is over 50% higher per capita compared to the Southern and Eastern region, mostly as a result of Fine Gaels failure to create a balanced recovery.

Over the past 6 years Fine Gael has presided over a two-tier recovery with new employment opportunities focussed heavily on Dublin and the commuter counties. Other areas, like here along the Border have been left behind  as is evidenced by this latest data from the CSO.

While unemployment has eased, there is a marked contrast in the figures for the Greater Dublin Area, which stand at around 5-6% and the Border, which is up at 8%. The recovery is just not being felt by people living here. Fine Gael is simply not stepping up to the mark in creating balanced regional development, preferring instead to focus its energy on Dublin and large urban areas.

Fianna Fail wants to help rural and regional towns recover. We want to see more people employed locally and give small businesses the opportunity to grow. Rather than concentrating solely on FDI, we want to nurture local businesses and entrepreneurs, as these are the backbone of the economy and of vibrant communities.

Through strategies such as the Empty Shops Initiative, combined with a revamp of the commercial rates system and new laws to encourage town centre development, we want to invest in our rural towns and villages and bring them back to the busy hubs they once were. Only when this happens will we see employment levels improve and poverty levels fall.
Mount Vesuvius, on the west coast of Italy, is the only active volcano on mainland Europe. It is best known because of the eruption in A.D. 79 that destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, but Vesuvius has erupted more than 50 times.

Mount Vesuvius facts

Vesuvius in 2013 was 4,203 feet (1,281 meters) tall. After each eruption, the size of the cone changes, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. The volcano also has a semicircular ridge called Mount Somma that rises to 3,714 feet (1,132 m). The valley between the cone and Mount Somma is called Valle del Gigante or Giant's Valley.

Mount Vesuvius is considered to be one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world because of its proximity to the city of Naples and the surrounding towns on the nearby slopes.

The volcano is classed as a complex stratovolcano because its eruptions typically involve explosive eruptions as well as pyroclastic flows. A pyroclastic flow is a high-density mix of hot lava blocks, pumice, ash and volcanic gas, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Vesuvius and other Italian volcanoes, such as Campi Flegrei and Stromboli, are part of the Campanian volcanic arc. The Campanian arc sits on a tectonic boundary where the African plate is being subducted beneath the Eurasian plate.

Under Vesuvius, scientists have detected a tear in the African plate. This "slab window" allows heat from the Earth's mantle layer to melt the rock of the African plate building up pressure that causes violent explosive eruptions. In the past, Mount Vesuvius has had a roughly 20-year eruption cycle, but the last serious eruption was in 1944.

Pompeii

Mount Vesuvius destroyed the city of Pompeii, a city south of Rome, in A.D. 79 in about 25 hours, according to History. Because the city was buried so quickly by volcanic ash, the site is a well-preserved snapshot of life in a Roman city. There is also a detailed account of the disaster recorded by Pliny the Younger, who interviewed survivors and recorded events in a letter to his friend Tacitus. [Related: Pompeii 'Wall Posts' Reveal Ancient Social Networks]

Ruins at Herculaneum (opens in new tab) Shutterstock (opens in new tab) ) (Image credit: deepblue-photographer

Pompeii was established in 600 B.C. and was slowly recovering from a major earthquake that rocked the city in February of A.D. 62. The shallow quake, originating beneath Mount Vesuvius, had caused major damage to the springs and piping that provided the city's water. Reconstruction was being carried out on several temples and public buildings. Seneca, a historian, recorded that the quakes lasted for several days and also heavily damaged the town of Herculaneum and did minor damage to the city of Naples before subsiding. The major quake was followed by several minor shakes throughout the following years. [Image Gallery: Pompeii's Toilets]

Because seismic activity was so common in the area, citizens paid little attention in early August of 79 when several quakes shook the earth beneath Herculaneum and Pompeii. People were unprepared for the explosion that took place shortly after noon on the 24th of August. Around 2,000 residents survived the first blast.

Bodies preserved in ash at Pompeii. (opens in new tab) Shutterstock (opens in new tab) ) (Image credit: Alessandro Colle

Pliny the Elder, a Roman author, described the massive debris cloud. "It resembled a (Mediterranean) pine more than any other tree. Like a very high tree the cloud went high and expanded in different branches  sometimes white, sometimes dark and stained by the sustained sand and ashes." In Pompeii, ash blocked the sun by 1 p.m. and the people tried to clear heavy ash from rooftops as it fell at a rate of about 6 inches (15 centimeters) an hour. [Image Gallery: Preserved Pompeii  Photos Reveal City in Ash]

Shortly after midnight, a wall of volcanic mud engulfed the town of Herculaneum, obliterating the town as its citizens fled toward Pompeii. About 6:30 a.m. on the following morning, a glowing cloud of volcanic gases and debris rolled down Vesuvius' slopes and enveloped the city of Pompeii. Most victims died instantly as the superheated air burned their lungs and contracted their muscles, leaving the bodies in a semi-curled position to be quickly buried in ash and thus preserved in detail for hundreds of years.

Far away in Misenum, approximately 13 miles (21 kilometers) from Pompeii, Pliny the Younger, the 18-year-old nephew of Pliny the Elder, and his mother joined other refugees escaping the earthquakes rocking their city. They observed, "the sea retreating as if pushed by the earthquakes." This was probably caused by a tsunami at the climax of the eruption, which gives us the time frame for historical record. Pliny writes of "black and horrible clouds, broken by sinuous shapes of flaming wind." He describes people wheezing and gasping because of that wind; the same wind that doomed the people of Pompeii.

It is believed that around 30,000 people died from the eruption of Vesuvius in 79.

WWII eruption

On March 17, 1944, a two-week-long eruption began with lava from the summit of Mount Vesuvius. In an article by Life Magazine, Giuseppe Imbo, director of the Mt. Vesuvius Observatory, is quoted as saying, "A marvelous thing, my Vesuvius. It covers land with precious ash that makes the earth fertile and grapes grow, and wine. That's why, after every eruption, people rebuild their homes on the slopes of the volcano. That is why they call the slopes of Vesuvius the compania felix  the happy land."

During the eruption, soldiers and airmen of the 340th Bomber Group were stationed at the Pompeii Airfield just a few miles from the base of the volcano. Diaries record the awesome sights and sounds they witnessed in this latest major eruption. Guards wore leather jackets and "steel pot" helmets to protect themselves from rains of hot ash and small rocks. Tents collapsed or caught fire when hot cinders were blown over them.

Sgt. Robert F. McRae wrote in his diary on March 20, 1944, according to the American Geosciences Institute, "As I sit in my tent  I can hear at four- to 10-second intervals the loud rumbling of the volcano on the third day of its present eruption. The noise is like that of bowling balls slapping into the pins on a giant bowling alley. To look above the mountain tonight, one would think that the world was on fire. The thickly clouded sky glows like that above a huge forest fire. Glowing brighter as new spouts of flame and lava are spewn from the crater. As the clouds pass from across the top of the mountain, the flame and lava can be seen shooting high into the sky to spill over the sides and run in red streams down the slopes. ... Today it is estimated that a path of molten lava 1 mile long, half a mile wide, and 8 feet deep is rolling down the mountain. Towns on the slopes are preparing to evacuate. Our location is, apparently, safe. At any rate no one here, civilian or Army authorities, seems too much worried. Lava has not started to flow down this side of the mountain as yet but is flowing on the other side toward Naples."

On March 22, they were forced to evacuate, leaving behind 88 Allied aircraft. After the volcano subsided, they returned on the 30th to find the planes were a total loss. Engines were clogged by ash, control panels were useless tangles of fused wire, canopies had holes from flying rock or were etched to opacity by wind driven ash.

One airman of the 489th Bomber Squadron complained in his diary when Axis Sally broadcast a radio show dedicated to the "survivors" of the Vesuvius eruption (actually the most severe human casualty was a wrist sprained during the evacuation). She told all of Europe that "Colonel Vesuvius" had destroyed all of them. The diarist was justifiably proud of the work he did with his fellows in recovery. By April 15, the planes had been replaced and the 340th Bomber Group was back to full strength and ready to fly missions from their new base.

Though no soldiers were killed, 26 Italian civilians died and nearly 12,000 were displaced by the 1944 eruption, according to the American Geosciences Institute.

Current status

Since 1944, there have been hundreds of minor earthquakes in the region around Mount Vesuvius. The most serious earthquake rocked Naples in October 1999. The magnitude-3.6 quake was felt as far as 15 miles (24 km) from the base of the volcano and was of the same magnitude as a quake that occurred 17 years prior to the last truly major explosion that devastated Naples in 1631.

In 2016, excavations on the outskirts of Pompeii revealed more victims of the volcanic eruption. Archaeologists discovered the remains of four people, including one teenage girl, in the ruins of a shop, according to a statement from the Soprintendenza Pompei, the Italian authority in charge of managing the ancient site.

Additional reporting by Alina Bradford, Live Science contributor

Additional resources
A <i>Cebrennus rechenbergi</i> emerges from its burrow. It carries a load of dry sand (left) and disperses the sand load close to the burrow entrance (right), where the seemingly compact ball of sand disintegrates into single grains.

Beachgoing sandcastle builders know the exquisite frustration of tunneling into sand that's too dry. The tunnel simply won't hold its shape and quickly collapses.

But some types of desert spiders have mastered the technique of working with dry sand, excavating subterranean burrows  a few grains of sand at a time  that somehow retain their form and withstand pressures from wind and the shifting weight of the sand around them.

In a new study, scientists closely observed four species of desert spiders known to excavate vertical sand tunnels for hiding, resting and breeding, in order to dig up their engineering secrets. Unexpectedly, the researchers discovered that the arachnids used different yet equally effective methods for collecting and moving sand while they worked, and they strengthened the tunnels as they dug with carefully laid supporting layers of silk webbing. [Photos: Modeling Scorpions' Lairs in 3D]

Burrow-dwelling spiders like those in the study are strictly nocturnal. For the scientists, that meant spending long hours crouched in sandy environments with a flashlight, the study's lead author Rainer Foelix, an arachnologist at the Neue Kantonsschule Aarau in Switzerland, told Live Science in an email.

One of the spider species  Cebrennus rechenbergi, which is native to the deserts of northern Morocco  is also known as the cartwheeling spider for the unusual rolling locomotion that it uses when threatened. It has a body length of about 0.8 inches (2 centimeters), and digs burrows measuring about 10 inches (25 cm) deep and around 0.8 inches in diameter. When study co-author Ingo Rechenberg, a professor at the Technische Universitat Berlin (Technical University of Berlin) and the scientist who discovered and named the spider, observed how these spiders worked, he noted that they built their tunnels "like people build a well," Foelix told Live Science.

First, the C. rechenbergi spider excavated a hole on the surface; then it added a stabilizing ring of silk, in the same way a human well builder would add a tin sheet to hold the walls of the hole in place. Once the walls of a tunnel section were secured, the spider would remove another layer of sand and soil, moving farther down and reinforcing the walls as it went, the study authors reported.

Vertical burrow of the C. rechenbergi, which extends about 10 inches (25 centimeters) into dry sand and is covered by a thin lid. (Image credit: Courtesy of Rainer Foelix)

"Rechenberg watched carefully and noticed that a spider has to make about 800 runs to carry a small load of sand aboveground"  a task that took the spider about 2 hours to finish, Foelix said.

But how did the spiders remove so much sand? It turned out that different species of burrow-digging spiders used very different methods, according to the study.

C. rechenbergi relied on long bristles fringing its pedipalps and chelicerae  appendages that frame its head and mouth  to carry sand out of its growing tunnel. Some of the bristles grow at right angles to other tiny hairs, forming a type of mesh basket that contains arid sand even when there's nothing else holding grains together. In fact, the tiny piles of sand that the spider discarded from these "baskets" disintegrated immediately once the arachnid released them, the scientists wrote in the study.

(Left) On a desert spider's isolated palp, long bristles are visible on the femur and tibia. A few sand grains are pictured on the upper left for size comparison. (Right) Femoral bristles (blue) overlap with tibial bristles (red), forming a narrow mesh, imaged with polarized light microscopy. (Image credit: Courtesy of Rainer Foelix)

However, the wolf spider Evippomma rechenbergi  also discovered and named by Rechenberg  which inhabits the same desert environment as C. rechenbergi, lacks the specialized bristles of its neighbor. When the scientists carefully inspected clumps of sand left at the mouth of the wolf spider's burrow, they detected strands of silk binding the sand together, to make it easier to carry.

Another type of wolf spider, Geolycosa missouriensis, found in North America, was known from prior research to transport solid pellets of sand. But it did not appear to bind them with silk, perhaps relying on surface moisture to hold the sand grains together. However, as the researchers gathered their data about this spider from previous studies, they could not say for sure what technique the spiders used to consolidate their sand bundles.

The variety of sand-moving methods demonstrated by the spiders  using a hairy "carrying basket," blending sand with silk or clumping sand grains together  showed that these tiny builders are capable of finding unique construction solutions to address similar environmental challenges, Foelix told Live Science.

In fact, the researchers were surprised to see that spiders living in the same ecosystem practiced such diverse techniques for achieving the same goal, he said. And considering there are other types of tunnel-digging spiders  as well as ants and wasps  there are likely even more practices that these industrious insect engineers are putting to work, which are yet to be discovered, Foelix said.

"Certainly, many more species need to be inspected," he added.

The findings were published online Dec. 11 in the Journal of Arachnology.

Original article on Live Science.
After a woman in Virginia was reportedly mauled to death by her own dogs, some of her friends had trouble believing the story, because the woman had a strong bond with her dogs.

But what could cause a dog to turn on its owner?

The 22-year-old woman, Bethany Lynn Stephens, was found dead in the woods last week, with her two dogs apparently "guarding" her body, according to the Washington Post. Authorities who found the body described a gruesome scene: the damage to the body was so extensive that there was nothing left to compare bite marks to," Jim Agnew, the Goochland County sheriff, said in a news conference. Bite marks on the body confirmed that the dogs attacked Stephens, and Agnew also said he and the other officers observed the dogs eating Stephens' body. Family and friends said Stephens had raised the dogs since they were puppies and that they were affectionate.

Experts say there's no way to know for sure what caused this attack.

"It's a difficult incident to understand. It certainly is horrible," said Richard Polsky, an animal behavior and dog-bite expert in Los Angeles. "We just don't have enough information to understand why these two dogs turned on this owner," Polsky said. [Infographic: Dog Bite Incidents]

Redirected aggression

But in general, for dogs to act aggressively, there needs to be some kind of external "trigger," Polsky said. One possibility is that, while Stephens was walking the dogs, something out of the ordinary happened; for instance, the dogs sensed "prey," like a rabbit or squirrel, and tried to go after it. If Stephens interfered with the dogs while they were going after prey, they may have redirected their aggression toward Stephens, Polsky said. "The dogs may have been thwarted in doing something, got frustrated and turned around and attacked the owner," Polsky told Live Science.

Ron Berman, a dog-bite expert and certified forensic consultant, agreed that this could be a scenario in which dogs attack their owner. "Usually, you have some initial aggression, the human tries to stop the aggression, the dog reacts to that," Berman told Live Science.

Berman added that it's possible Stephens' dogs were not fed well, because dogs don't typically try to eat a human body after an attack, unless they haven't been getting enough food.

Officials noted that lately, Stephens' dogs had been living with her father, who kept the dogs in a kennel outside; and the animals had little human contact besides occasional visits from Stephens.

Pack animals

Rather than both dogs attacking Stephens at once, it's more likely that one dog initiated the attack, and the other joined in, Polsky said. It's also possible that the dogs had shown signs of hostility before, but these signs were overlooked, he said.

There are about 5 million dog-bite cases annually in the U.S., Polsky estimated. Around 30 to 40 people die each year from their injuries, and an estimated 100,000 are injured badly enough to require plastic surgery or extensive suturing, according to Polsky.

Most fatal dog attacks involve pit bulls. (Officials identified Stephens' dogs as pit bulls.)

But Polsky stressed that this doesn't mean all pit bulls are inherently aggressive. Some pit bulls have been bred for fighting or intimidation, and so they may have more aggressive traits. But studies show that Chihuahuas and Jack Russell terriers are actually the most aggressive breeds, but their size and physical limitations prevent them from killing people, Polsky said.

"Unfortunately, an incident like this just reinforces people's beliefs," that all pit bulls are dangerous, Polsky said. "It's just not fair. I come across a lot of pit bull dogs that are just the sweetest dogs in the world," he said.

To help prevent attacks, Polsky recommends educating children not to run up to a dog they don't know. (Most dog-attack victims are children, and most dog attacks are caused by males, Berman said.)

If someone wants to own a pit bull or Rottweiler, they should go to a reputable breeder who has "bred their dog for docility rather than just looks," Polsky said.

Editor's Note: Live Science editor Tia Ghose contributed reporting to this article.

Original article on Live Science.
This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Your brain is an organ of two halves  the left side and the right side. And there are many brain functions, such as language skills or which hand you write with, which are organised mostly in one side of the brain or the other.

Simple behavioural tests have now allowed us to see how this organisation is revealed through biases in how we see and interact with the world  and each other  often without us being aware of it.

Examining how people perceive a diagram of variously orientated lines and angles provided clues that people typically have a subconscious bias for seeing things set out in clockwise orientations.

We then realised that this might also be related to a number of physical instincts that people have, such as which way they turn their heads. After looking at recent research in visual psychophysics and visual neuroscience, we saw various perceptual and behavioral phenomena in which humans can have a directional bias.

Many of these turning behaviours are seen early in life. For example, infants have an initial bias for turning the head to the right (and consequently extending the left arm outward to compensate for that movement).

Some previous research (opens in new tab) found that such an instinctive turn to the right extends to adulthood  when an adult kisses another on the lips, their heads tend to automatically lean to the right. But is this an extension of the bias that humans are born with, or do people simply learn to kiss that way?

In Western societies it is commonplace to see people kiss in public, on television, and in films. But are these screen kisses reflecting society, or do they influence how people behave? The prior research on the subject was all conducted with kissing in what are known as "W.E.I.R.D."  Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic  societies. So the conclusions might not reflect what humans naturally do in the absence of learning through observation.

Bangladesh seemed like an interesting non-W.E.I.R.D. country to examine this. It is a conservative Muslim country where kissing is prohibited in public, and even censored from television or films. So, whereas similar results from the W.E.I.R.D. countries could be attributed to social learning or socio-cultural factors, the same cannot as easily be said in Bangladesh.

In our study, we asked a number of married couples in Bangladesh to kiss privately in their own homes. They then went into separate rooms to report on various aspects of the kiss independently of each partner.

A kiss is still a kiss

The results (opens in new tab) showed that more than two thirds of the kissing individuals had a bias for turning their heads to the right. When initiating a kissing "move" (men were 15 times more likely to initiate the kiss), right-handed people leaned right and left-handed people leaned left.

The person being kissed, regardless of whether they were left or right handed, responded by matching the partners' head leaning direction. It felt awkward to go the other way as reported by most of the kiss recipients and kiss initiators in our study.

It turns out that humans are similar, even if our social values, and the habits we are exposed to, differ. This bias in the act of kissing is likely innate and determined by the brain splitting up tasks to its different hemispheres, similar to being either right- or left-handed. It is perhaps specifically concerned with the functions in the left cerebral hemisphere, located in the emotion and decision-related areas of the brain.

Different hormone levels (such as testosterone) in each hemisphere and neurotransmitters might be unevenly distributed to each hemisphere (such as dopamine, involved in reward behaviours) and give rise to a bias to turn right.

If you do lean in for a kiss to the left, you may be in the minority. But don't worry  if the person you are kissing wants to be kissed, they will likely go left, too.

Michael J. Proulx, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, University of Bath; A.K.M. Rezaul Karim, Professor of Psychology, University of Dhaka, and Alexandra de Sousa, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Bath Spa University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates  and become part of the discussion  on Facebook, Twitter and Google +. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This version of the article was originally published on Live Science.
See more

Crashes in Roswell, New Mexico, and flashing lights over New Jersey  for decades, people around the world have looked up at the skies and reported mysterious unidentified objects (UFOs).

But are these sightings signs of alien visitation? And are they truly unexplained?

A recent New York Times investigation found that the Pentagon had, for years, funded a program to answer just that question. The program found several reports of aircraft that seemed to travel at high speeds and have no signs of propulsion, the Times reported.

While the vast majority of UFO sightings, when investigated, have turned out to be the result of ordinary Earthly phenomena, such as weather balloons, flares or rockets, some still leave experts scratching their heads  and looking to the skies for little green men. From white Tic Tacs to flashing lights, here are some of the most mysterious UFO sightings out there. [7 Things Most Often Mistaken for UFOs]

Fighter pilot encounter

The Times investigation highlighted one of the most intriguing UFO sightings, which was captured on video. In 2004, two Navy F/A-18F fighter jets (also called Super Hornet or Hornet) encountered a mysterious flying object near San Diego, The New York Times reported. The object seemed to be traveling at high speeds, was surrounded by a glowing halo and was rotating as it moved. According to audio from the event, one of the fighter pilots exclaimed, "There's a whole fleet of them," the Times reported.

One of the Navy pilots who witnessed the bizarre event, Cmdr. David Fravor, recalled that the object looked like "a white Tic Tac, about the same size as a Hornet, 40 feet [12 meters] long with no wings," Fravor told The Washington Post. As his plane approached the UFO, the mysterious object accelerated "faster than I'd ever seen anything in my life," Fravor said.

Fravor, for his part, is convinced that the source of the object was extraterrestrial, he told The Washington Post.

French encounter

In 1981, a 55-year-old farmer in Trans-en-Provence, France, reported hearing a strange, high-pitched sound before seeing a flying saucer nearby. The lead-colored UFO took off almost immediately, he said.

What makes this sighting unique is that the farmer immediately contacted local police, who took soil and plant samples, according to a report of the incident. Experts from France's UFO-investigating body, formerly called Groupe d'Etudes et d'Informations sur les Phenomenes Aerospatiaux Non-identifies (GEPAN), said the chemical evidence was consistent with heating of the soil and pressure from a heavy object. They also found traces of zinc and phosphate and evidence of abnormalities in the plants nearby.

However, skeptics said the smooshed plants could have been caused by tires, and cars had been heard traveling in the area around the same time as the farmer's sighting. Because there was a military base nearby, another explanation is that the French military was testing an experimental craft.

Sighting by retired astronaut

In general, some of the most reputable or credible sightings come from those who are in the skies all day long: pilots and members of the military. The National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) logged one such sighting in 2013, Vice reported. Late in the evening in 2013, the man, a former commercial pilot, fighter pilot and astronaut, was looking at the sky with his family in Athens, Texas, when he noticed what looked like an orange, glowing fireball.

"When I looked up into the sky, I saw a fairly large, orange, glowing orb moving rapidly overhead [at] right about 90 degrees of elevation," the man reported to the NUFORC.

After a few minutes, a group of three similar objects followed the same flight path. Three minutes later, two more objects flew along that same route. The objects gave off no sound and seemed to glow from atmospheric heating, the man reported. He and his family attempted to record the objects using their iPhones, though the grainy, dark video was difficult to decipher, he said.

"They moved much faster than orbital satellites (International Space Station, for example) or airplanes, but much slower than meteors and did not change brightness as a meteor would upon entering the atmosphere," the man said in his call. "I have no explanation for what we saw."

Lights over Mount Shasta

Another report from the NUFORC came from an airline captain who was flying between Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, when he noticed glowing blue lights over Mount Shasta in California that appeared much brighter than the stars typically do in the area.

"The two lights were approximately an inch apart in the windscreen and the size of normal stars," the captain noted in a report. Then, "one of the 'stars' just dimmed out over about a 10-second time span followed by the other one dimming out completely in about 10 seconds also."

The lights were stationary, so they were not falling stars or satellites, he said. [UFO Quiz: What's Really Out There]

"We were flying in crystal-clear skies and were not flying though any clouds whatsoever. These two lights were not following the typical west-to-east orbital path as most satellites do and were just sitting there kind of like ships hiding in plain sight," the captain reported to the NUFORC.

The lights also appeared to be far above the level of the plane, which was flying at 38,000 feet (11,580 m).

Not so U-FOs

For every unexplained sighting, there are dozens that turn out to be military flares, weird cloud formations, weather phenomena or elaborate hoaxes. For instance, GEPAN's database suggests that only 7 percent of all supposed UFO sightings are truly unexplained.

In the 1940s, the U.S. Air Force began investigating UFO sightings, and that program, called Project Blue Book, logged more than 12,000 reported sightings before it was shuttered in 1969. Most of those Project Blue Book sightings were ultimately explained. While a few remained unexplained, the people involved in the program were skeptical that these cases were true alien sightings or completely unknown physical phenomena.

"If more immediate, detailed, objective data on the unknowns had been available, probably these, too, could have been explained," a report in the Project Blue Book archive noted. However, the fact that human factors are involved  in particular, personal impressions and interpretations, rather than accurate scientific data  it's likely impossible to eliminate all unidentified sightings, the report noted.

Originally published on Live Science.
By Long Island News & PR Published: December 20 2017

Assemblyman Ra: "With this new plan in action, so many doors will open for students to continue to better their future after graduation."

Long Island, NY - December 20, 2017 - Assemblyman Ed Ra (R- Assemblyman Ed Ra (R- Franklin Square ) is excited to announce that New Yorks Board of Regents has voted unanimously on a plan which would offer an alternative route for students to earn high school diplomas. Ra and Assemblyman Dean Murray (R,C,I-East Patchogue) introduced similar legislation in 2016 following a regional forum where they discussed the issue with parents and educators.

With this new plan in action, so many doors will open for students to continue to better their future after graduation, said Ra. Many employers require potential employees to have a high school diploma in order to obtain a positon and some do not recognize the Career Development and Occupational Studies Commencement Credential (CDOS) as valid proof of a persons completion of high school. A CDOS is earned either through the completion of 216 hours of occupational coursework or by passing one of the four national work-readiness assessments. Now, as long as they meet these requirements and their district superintendent deems they are skilled enough in academic subjects such as English and math, these students can earn their full diplomas. I am so glad we are finally giving an equal opportunity to all students to earn their high school degree.

The new plan would allow students to earn a local diploma for completing the CDOS, which could open up a variety of employment opportunities to students after high school.

New Yorks preconceived one-size-fits-all approach to educational success has become outdated and it is important that we continue to offer alternative approaches to passing high school Regents Exams for graduation. Denying students with disabilities the chance to get a real diploma simply because they could not reach a certain score on Regents tests and ignoring all the hard work that they did put forward was just wrong. I believe this is a positive change that brings about a much-needed sense of fairness and well-deserved proof of accomplishment. Congratulations to all the parents and educators who fought so hard for this change. As the incoming Ranking Republican Member of the Assemblys Education Committee, I look forward to working on methods that will increase high school graduation rates and provide a better experience for all of our students, said Murray.
Local News, Crime, Politics

By Long Island News & PR Published: December 20 2017

Nurse Aides Allegedly Failed To Monitor Dementia Resident; Aide Falsely Recorded Required Safety Checks.

White Plains, NY - December 20, 2017 - Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced the arrest today of Certified Nurse Aides (CNAs) Janet Rose, 62, of Mt. Vernon, and Verlanda Paulma, 25, of White Plains, for Endangering the Welfare of an Incompetent or Physically Disabled Person in the First Degree and additional related charges. Both Rose and Paulma, who were employed as CNAs at the White Plains Center for Nursing Care (White Plains Center), allegedly failed on May 26, 2017 to perform monitoring checks of an at-risk resident with dementia who eloped and wandered from the facility.

Video surveillance recovered from White Plains Center captured the resident leaving the home through an unlocked rear door at approximately 7:54 p.m. It is alleged that after the resident left the facility, Rose and Paulma failed to perform required fifteen-minute checks that would have alerted the home that the resident was missing, and that Rose falsely recorded that the safety checks were performed.

Nursing home residents and their families place the highest level of trust in staff to protect residents, said Attorney General Schneiderman. These arrests serve as a reminder of the serious consequences for neglecting nursing home residents -- and even more for trying to cover it up.

Court papers allege that between 8:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., after the resident left the facility, Rose and Paulma failed to perform 15-minute safety checks of the resident. It is also alleged that Rose falsely recorded in White Plains Center medical records that she and Paulma performed the safety checks and that the resident was still in the home at each of the seven fifteen minute intervals between 8:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. After the facility learned that the resident was missing at approximately 10:00 p.m., 911 was called and, at approximately 3:00 a.m. on May 27, the White Plains Police found the resident uninjured and wandering alone almost two miles from the facility.

The complaint, filed in White Plains City Court, charges Rose and Paulma with Endangering the Welfare of an Incompetent or Physically Disabled Person in the First Degree, a class E felony, and Willful Violation of Health Laws, a class A misdemeanor. Rose is also charged with Falsifying Business Records in the First Degree, a class E felony. Both Defendants face up to four years in state prison if convicted on the top count.

The Attorney General thanks the White Plains Police Department for its diligence and professionalism in finding the resident and for its cooperation in this investigation.

The Attorney Generals Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) Investigator Kerie Elias conducted the investigation with assistance from Supervising Special Investigator Peter Markiewicz. Kenneth Morgan is the MFCU Deputy Chief Investigator-Downstate.

Special Assistant Attorney General William McClarnon is prosecuting this case with the assistance of Regional Director Anne Jardine. Special Assistant Attorney General Thomas OHanlon is the MFCU Chief of Criminal Investigations-Downstate. MFCU is led by Director Amy Held and Assistant Deputy Attorney General Paul J. Mahoney. The Attorney Generals Criminal Justice Division is led by Executive Deputy Attorney General Margaret Garnett.
Suffolk DA: Five Arrested In Alleged MS-13 Gang Kidnap-Murder Plot To Be Arraigned Today

Local News, Crime

By Long Island News & PR Published: December 20 2017

The suspects were indicted by a grand jury last Friday, December 15.

SCPD reports the arrests of MS-13 gang members (L to R): Jorge Bermudez Cedillos, Lilliana Villanueva, Miguel Rivera, Oscar Fuentes, and Vidal Ortiz Contreras.

Suffolk County, NY - December 20, 2017 - Five suspects with alleged ties to the MS-13 street gang Five suspects with alleged ties to the MS-13 street gang who were arrested December 6 in Brentwood for trying to coerce a teenage male into a van will be arraigned on an indictment in the First District Courthouse in Central Islip today (Wed. Dec. 20) before State Supreme Court Justice Fernando Camacho.

Defendants Miguel Rivera, 20, Oscar Fuentes, 18, 17-year old Lilliana Villaneuva, 18-year-old Vidal Contrera-Ortiz and Jorge Bermudez-Cedillos, 18, were indicted by a grand jury last Friday, December 15.

Suffolk police charged each defendant with conspiracy in the second degree after the attempted abduction.

Other than Miguel Rivera, the defendants are Brentwood High School students.

Justice Camacho will call the court calendar at 9:30 am.
by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, December 19, 2017

Privacy regulators in France have ordered messaging service WhatsApp to stop sharing users' data with Facebook.

The move, announced this week by the chair of France's National Data Protection Commission, marks the latest in a series of actions by EU authorities stemming from Facebook's decision to mesh data with WhatsApp.

Last year, WhatsApp announced plans to share users' phone numbers and other information with Facebook. Facebook, which acquired WhatsApp in 2014, said it would draw on those numbers to make friend suggestions to WhatsApp users, and also send them ads, based on Facebook data. The company also will use phone numbers for other purposes, including analytics and fighting spam.

advertisement advertisement

WhatsApp promised to let people opt out of receiving targeted ads (and receiving friend suggestions) based on phone numbers. But the company refused to allow people to avoid having their phone numbers shared with Facebook.

France's top privacy regulator said this week that WhatsApp's data transfers to Facebook violate the French Data Protection Act, writing that users didn't validly consent to share information about themselves. One reason for the decision was that WhatsApp users had to agree to WhatsApp's new terms in order to continue using the messaging service.

"This transfer does not provide adequate guarantees ... to preserve the interest or the fundamental freedoms of users since there is no mechanism whereby they can refuse it while continuing to use the application," the regulator's decision says.

Earlier this year, regulators in Europe's Article 29 Working Party raised a similar concern. The European Commission also fined Facebook $122 million for misleading officials about its ability to automatically combine data about its users with those of the messaging service WhatsApp.

Prior to merging with Facebook, WhatsApp was famous for its stringent privacy policies, including a promise to never share users' personally identifiable information for ad purposes.

The French authorities told WhatsApp to stop transferring data to Facebook within one month or risk sanctions.
Reuters, Wednesday, December 20, 2017 12:30 AM

on Monday

within one month

French authorities are threatening to fine WhatsApp if it doesnt comply with an order to bring its sharing of user data with parent company Facebook into line with French privacy law, Reuters reports. The French data protection authority - CNIL - saidit had told WhatsApp to comply with the order, and pay particular attention to obtaining users consent.

Read the whole story at Reuters 
by Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, December 20, 2017

It is a simple grassroots message paid for by local citizens expressing their concern about the Presidency.

Thats what the citizens of a neighborhood in Youngstown, Ohio, say about the ad they kicked in to buy on a local billboard. The content is a one-word message: "IMPEACH."

"It's certainly not a political ad. It's just one word, and it could be any word in the English language. It just happens to be a word that has impact in this day in age and just about everyone who sees it knows exactly what it means," asserted Richard Hahn, owner and founder of Youngstown-based Keynote Media Group, in an interview broadcast by local NBC affiliate WFMJ.

advertisement advertisement

While the Youngstown neighbors who paid for the billboard message on South Avenue near Route 224 declined to be interviewed, Hahn said the ad was not subject to conventional political-advertising regulations.

Though its unclear how many grassroots citizen efforts are paying to advertise similar messages, billionaire Tom Steyer has been inundating the airwaves with his Need To Impeach campaign, mainly on TV and digital. But his efforts also include at least one billboard ad in New York Citys Times Square.
by Sara Guaglione , December 20, 2017

Since its launch in June, the paid product of The New York Times Cooking vertical has gained 23,000 digital subscribers.

Thats over 20,000 people paying $5 a month for access to NYT Cooking, which provides over 18,000 recipes and 40 guides on cooking basics, available on its website and app.

While advertising revenue have dipped for the legacy publisher, the Times has focused on new ways to make revenue from subscriptions and merchandise.

In November, it launched its first hard-copy cookbook, The New Essentials of French Cooking, available exclusively at The New York Times Store, which the company relaunched this summer to sell branded merchandise.

It also introduced gift subscriptions for NYT Cooking, offering one year of unlimited access for $40.

advertisement advertisement

The Cooking site experienced about 10% growth in traffic year over year in November 2017  and up 12.5% on the day of Thanksgiving year-over-year. In June, Cooking had a monthly audience of about 10 million unique users.

NYT Cooking was formed in 2014 as part of NYT Beta, the company's product development group. Beta has also launched Watching, the publishers TV and movie guide, as well as Real Estate, Well, Smarter Living and Crosswords.

NYT Cooking was free until June, though for now, existing New York Times print and digital subscribers get unlimited access to the Cooking product.

The Times has 3.5 million paid subscribers, with nearly 2.5 million digital subscribers, which includes News, Crossword and Cooking products.
by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, December 20, 2017

A Massachusetts resident who sued Twitter for allegedly sending her unwanted text messages is now seeking to drop her case.

Beverly Nunes of Taunton, Massachusetts didn't provide a reason for her decision, which was presented last week to U.S. District Court Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco.

The move -- assuming that it is accepted -- ends what was once a high-stakes suit over Twitter's liability for allegedly sending robotexts to people using recycled phone numbers.

Nunes alleged in a 2014 class-action complaint that Twitter violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by sending text messages to her after she purchased a cell phone with a recycled number. That law prohibits companies from using automated dialing systems to send SMS ads to people without their consent. Companies that violate the measure face damages of up to $1,500 per message.

advertisement advertisement

Nunes alleged that she received text messages from Twitter in November of 2013, immediately after purchasing the cell phone. At one point, Nunes allegedly received up to six messages a day, all from Twitter's short code. Many of those texts appeared to promote an online coupon site. For example, one message allegedly included the phrase Theres a new Swagcode out, and directed her to click on a link.

Last year, Twitter unsuccessfully argued that it didn't make the phone calls. Instead, according to Twitter, the "maker" was either the user who posted the tweet, or alternatively, the consumer who signed up for text notifications.

Chhabria rejected the company's stance, writing its interpretation was too far afield of the law's wording.

Twitter then asked Chhabria to allow the company to immediately appeal his decision to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Chhabria turned down that request in August of 2016.
The driver of a vehicle that was fired upon Monday by U.S. security personnel at Royal Air Force Base Mildenhall is being held under Britain's Mental Health Act for criminal trespass, police said Tuesday.

The 44-year-old man, who has not been further identified, reportedly rammed a security gate and drove to a spot near the tarmac where a U.S. Air Force Special Operations CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft was parked.

The driver suffered minor cuts and bruises, and is in the custody of local authorities.

The base, about 90 miles northeast of London, is home to the U.S. Air Force's 100th Air Refueling Wing, which is responsible for refueling operations across Europe.

Other Air Force units at Mildenhall include the 501st Combat Support Wing, the 352nd Special Operations Wing and the 95th Reconnaissance Squadron.

Related content:

Mildenhall was temporarily put on lockdown after the incident, but flight operations quickly resumed.

"We've concluded our combined U.S.-U.K. [United Kingdom] response to this incident, and we are continuing to support local authorities in the ongoing investigation," a U.S. military spokesman said.

Superintendent Kim Warner of the Suffolk police told the BBC that the driver was arrested after a "short pursuit" that ended when the vehicle was stopped by U.S. security.

He said: "Shots were fired by U.S. security -- I don't know how many, but I do know that shots were fired."

Warner added that there was "no obvious motive at this stage" for the incident. He said there was no wider threat to the public or the base, and police were not looking for accomplices.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.
Officials say the device was known as an "unexploded ordnance," or an explosive weapon that did not explode and still posed a...
DYESS AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- The Lancers are coming back.

B-1B bomber aircrews anticipate returning to the Middle East in coming months and have been training for the evolving battlespaces in Iraq and Syria, as well as Afghanistan, according to officials here.

"We're working real hard inside of our training network," said Col. Karl Fischbach, commander of the 7th Operations Group. "The ranges that we have were set up really well to simulate the environment, and we're going to attend the next Red Flag [in January] and Green Flag [exercises] in the [upcoming] year, and really focus on what we need to get ready for the CentCom operation."

Military.com sat down with a variety of leaders from Air Force Global Strike Command's 7th Bomb Wing -- responsible for producing combat ready aircrews in the Air Force's only B-1B formal training unit -- during a trip to the base, and took a ride Tuesday in the B-1B over training ranges in New Mexico.

"We've always had a pivotal role in what our Air Force is doing -- Dyess Air Force Base has always been right there," Col. Brandon Parker, 7th Bomb Wing commander, said during a roundtable interview.

Related content:

The non-nuclear-capable aircraft, known as the "Bone," left the Central Command area of responsibility in early 2016, and was replaced by B-52 Stratofortress bombers at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, that April.

Officials at the time said the B-1B's return stateside was crucial to upgrade the fleet with the latest Integrated Battle Station, known as the IBS upgrade, which so far has been incorporated into more than half of the 62 total aircraft.

Specifically, the 9th Bomb Squadron here hasn't been back to CentCom since February 2015, according to Lt. Col. Erick Lord, the squadron's commander.

Rotations for the long-range, large payload bomber between the Pacific and Middle East could be fluid: Bomber units from Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, (currently assigned to Pacific Command) may rotate into the Middle East, while crews from Dyess take over their mission in the Pacific, or vice versa.

It would also mark a significant shift in having a single platform in two theaters, spreading the Lancer fleet during a time when the Air Force finds itself busier than ever.

"Every one squadron, they live to go do what we're going to do even if it means being away from home -- they want to deploy. It's what we do, especially if you're in a fighter or bomber [unit]," Lord said. "We're the smallest Air Force we've ever been, and the demand for airpower continues to increase, and the two don't match."

Officials would not speak to how this changes, or splits the mission, for the B-52 -- capable of carrying nuclear weapons -- going forward.

Prepare for Every Unknown

Even as the air campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria steadily winds down, it still requires "surgical strikes," or precision-guided bombs on target as the battlespace continues to shrink, said Maj. Charles "Astro" Kilchrist, chief of training for the 9th.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has increased airstrikes in Afghanistan.

Empowered with more independence and authority under the Trump administration, the U.S. military this year has turned to a number of technologies for the war in Afghanistan, from the largest conventional bomb to the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter.

It's also given ground commanders more authority to execute missions beyond self-defense against Taliban fighters.

For B-1 crews, being involved in both Operations Inherent Resolve and Freedom's Sentinel means they prepare for everything and anything, even the unexpected call of a bomb run.

"It's always really difficult to get into the fog and friction of war," Fischbach said. "But our instructors built some pretty varsity scenarios to get our experience level and prep ready to go."

Lord added, "We'll train to the most stringent [rules of engagement] and then we'll develop training scenarios that walk people down the rabbit hole, that force them to make mistakes" so they can be identified before they're made.

"Because busting ROE will get you sent home," he said.

Kilchrist, also a B-1B pilot, said that aside from the experiences acquired at Red Flag -- an integrated, multi-force training game within a simulated combat environment -- and Green Flag -- a coalition exercise consisting of close-air support and air-to-surface training -- programs to get prepped and ready for combat have been upgraded and modified.

"We're tailoring our training to accomplish those things  and we're integrating more than ever with F-16 units out of Fort Worth ... to do mission commander upgrades, with [Joint Terminal Attack Controllers] from all around the country," he said.

"We're really bringing all these things into the fold to increase our aperture for training and give us the best possible simulation of what combat in different theaters are going to be like," Kilchrist said.

That includes the Pacific, he noted, where B-1s took over for the B-52s in 2016, marking the first time the B-1B has been housed at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, since 2006.

"What my job is to show the new guys, 'Hey, we can go to Afghanistan tomorrow, or we can go to PaCoM tomorrow, but you've got to be ready for both,' " he said.

Parker, speaking broadly to the Bone's mission set, added, "At the end of the day, we got to be able to range targets, and do it in a way that's very lethal. Variety of weapons, different sort of battlespaces ... we're making sure we're ready."

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com.
VAERNES GARRISON, NORWAY -- As the U.S. nears the completion of nearly two decades of combat in the Middle East, the commandant of the Marine Corps said the service is looking beyond the region and working to focus more on other parts of the world where new threats are emerging.

During a brief visit to the new Marine Corps rotational force in Norway as part of a multi-country Christmas tour of deployed Marine units, Gen. Robert Neller held a town hall forum and took questions from a handful of Marines from the 300-troop rotation. Addressing a question about where the Marine Corps saw itself fighting in the near future, Neller spoke plainly.

"I think probably the focus, the intended focus is not on the Middle East," Neller said. "The focus is more on the Pacific and Russia."

The commandant acknowledged that who and where to fight is not always a unilateral choice.

"The problem is, we may not be interested in the Middle East, but they seem to be fascinated with us," he said. "And as long as there are groups there that threaten the United States, there will have to be some presence."

The current Marine Corps deployed presence in the Middle East is robust.

More than 450 Marines are now deployed to Afghanistan in advisory and training capacities as local troops continue to battle the Taliban. Hundreds more are in Iraq, staffing two ground bases supporting the fight against ISIS and reinforcing the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. An artillery detachment in Syria recently departed for home after being credited with helping to achieve victory in the assault on the self-proclaimed ISIS caliphate in Raqqa.

And elsewhere in the Middle East, elements of the Marines' crisis response force for the region are distributed in various countries, ready to respond to a regional crisis, provide aid to an embassy, or rescue a downed aircraft.

Traditionally, multiple stops on Neller's annual Christmas visit are to deployed Marine units in the Middle East.

Neller asked the enlisted Marine who asked the question how old he was when the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks occurred. Eight, the Marine responded.

"If you look at the security situation in that part of the world, is it any better than it was at 9/11?" Neller said. "We've been there for 17 years next September. So we keep doing the same thing, getting the same result, and we're still unhappy. Maybe we need to change something."

He predicted "a slight pullback" from the Middle East in favor of presence in and focus on the Pacific and Eastern Europe, where North Korea and Russia pose regional and global threats.

The Pacific, in particular, houses three of the five threats in the Pentagon's "4+1" framework, Neller said: North Korea, China, and global terrorism. (The other two threats are Russia and Iran).

"So I believe we'll turn our attention there," Neller said. "We're going back to the Pacific."

-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.
Joseph V. Micallef is a best-selling military history and world affairs author, and keynote speaker.

On Monday, Dec. 11, Russian President Vladimir Putin turned a previously scheduled trip to Egypt into a whirlwind, one day, three nations, victory lap around the Middle East.

The Russian president made an unscheduled stop at the Russian Air Base at Hmeymim, in Syria, and after his meeting in Cairo with Egyptian President al Sisi stopped for a brief meeting with Turkish President Erdogan on his return trip to Moscow.

In a series of brief remarks addressed primarily to Russian troops stationed at the Hmeymim Air Base in Latakia, Putin announced the Russian mission in Syria had been successful and that he was ordering a partial pullout of Russian forces in Syria.

He was clear, however, that some Russian military, especially air forces, would remain in Syria and that Moscow would retain both its air base and its naval base in Tartous, Syria.

This was not the first time that Putin had announced a pullout of Russian troops in Syria. He made a similar announcement in March 2016, although no troops were ever withdrawn. Significantly, he did not offer a timetable for the pullout.

Moscow's Syrian Objectives

The Kremlin's intervention in Syria has resulted in hundreds of Russia casualties and is deeply unpopular back in Russia. Officially, the Kremlin has claimed that 38 Russian soldiers have been killed in Syria.

Many of the Russian military personnel in Syria, however, are there in the guise of third party contractors. Their casualties are not part of the official casualty count. The announcement of a troop pullout may have more to do with placating public opinion for the forthcoming March 2018 presidential election than Moscow's Syrian plans.

Following his comments, Putin met with Syrian President Bashar Assad. This was the first time that a foreign head of state has traveled to Syria since the start of the civil war almost seven years ago.

Moscow's Syrian strategy has been very clear from the start. The Russian intervention was prompted by the aim of keeping Bashar Assad in power. The Assad family have been a long-standing Russian, and before that, a Soviet, client. Putin has made it equally clear that notwithstanding the defeat of the Islamic State, Russia intends to keep its bases in Syria for the foreseeable future.

Equally significant, Moscow has made it clear that unlike the United States, that poured hundreds of billions of dollars in reconstruction aid into Iraq and Afghanistan, it does not intend to finance or contribute to the reconstruction of Syria.

Given that the U.S. and its NATO allies are equally opposed to any assistance to the Syrian government if Assad is in power, it is likely that Syrian reconstruction will take decades.

Instead the Kremlin has positioned itself as the ultimate power broker in any eventual Syrian settlement. It has taken the lead in organizing Syrian peace talks between Damascus and the Syrian rebels in Astana, under the supervision of the three "guarantor states" of Russia, Iran and Turkey.

The U.S. and its NATO allies have been conspicuously left out of those talks. In the meantime, the peace talks being held under UN supervision in Geneva, which have been supported by the U.S. and the EU, have gone nowhere. The Syrian government has refused to discuss any matter with its Syrian opposition beyond the issue of terrorism.

Russia has also positioned itself as the main interlocutor between Turkey and the Syrian Kurds. Moscow quickly announced that it would provide air support and assistance to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a largely Kurdish based militia, which has played a key role in defeating Islamic State forces in Syria when the White House announced that it would be ending its support of the SDF.

Anywhere you look across all the Syrian fault lines, Kurds versus Turkey, Erdogan versus Assad, Syrian rebels versus Damascus, Moscow has positioned itself as a key player on which one or both sides are dependent. In the process, it has made the U.S. and NATO largely irrelevant in the Syrian peace process and to the eventual outcome of the conflict there.

Warming Russian-Egyptian Relations

Following his meeting with Syrian president Assad, Putin traveled to Cairo for a meeting with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. The meeting, which had been previously scheduled, underscores the deepening ties between Moscow and Cairo.

After the meeting, the two men announced that Russia had agreed to resume civilian flights between Russia and Egypt. Those flights had been suspended more than two years ago when a jihadist group in the Sinai, affiliated with Islamic State, placed a bomb in a Russian Metrojet plane.

While in Cairo, Egyptian and Russian officials signed a $30 billion agreement to begin construction on Egypt's Dabaa nuclear energy plant. The complex, which will be partially funded by Russia, will host four nuclear reactors and is Egypt's first nuclear power facility.

Under the agreement, Russia's Rosatom will be responsible for the construction of the 4,800 MW plant as well as providing training, nuclear fuel, disposing of spent fuel and the operations and maintenance of the facility, as well as other services.

Rosatom has been implicated in the alleged Uranium One scandal involving the sale of approximately 20% of America's uranium reserves. Nuclear power plant financing, construction and operations has emerged as a key component of Russian foreign policy in the Middle East.

The company recently opened an office in Dubai and has announced nuclear power development projects with Egypt, Iran, Jordan and Turkey, and has signed a "program of cooperation" regarding the peaceful uses of nuclear energy with Saudi Arabia.

Following their meeting, Putin and el-Sisi issued a statement denouncing the Trump Administration's announcement that it would recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and that it would move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Significantly, neither of the two presidents made any reference to Russian military bases in Egypt. In November, Moscow had released a draft agreement between Russia and Egypt permitting either country's military aircraft to use their respective airspace and air bases.

Egypt has been the second largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid, after Israel, since the signing of the Camp David accords in 1978. U.S.-Egyptian relations have been strained, however, ever since the Obama White House's criticism of the military coup led by al-Sisi and the subsequent crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

Relations have remained tense, especially after the U.S. government denied Cairo $95.7 million in previously agreed upon aid and delayed another $195 million in the summer of 2017.

Ankara and Moscow in the Middle East

Following his meeting in Cairo, Vladimir Putin traveled to Ankara for a meeting with Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan. This was Putin's third meeting with Erdogan in the last 30 days and the seventh in 2017. That means Erdogan has met more times with Vladimir Putin than he has with all the leaders of his NATO allies combined.

In Ankara, Putin and Erdogan confirmed that Turkey would be purchasing a Russian made S-400 air defense system. The Russian made surface to air missiles cannot be integrated into NATO defense infrastructure and the purchase was interpreted as a slap to Ankara's NATO allies. The $2.5-billion deal will be financed in part by Moscow.

Russian technicians will help operate the air defense system raising questions about who the missiles are designed to deter. Presumably, Russian technicians would not participate in any attempt to use the missiles to shoot down Russian aircraft. Who does that leave? The virtually nonexistent Syrian air force or perhaps Turkey's NATO partners?

Both men described the Trump Administration's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital as destabilizing to the Middle East. On Syria, both expressed support for the Syrian peace negotiations that had been going on in Astana and most recently in Sochi.

On Sunday, December 17, Erdogan issued a statement that Turkey would open an embassy to the Palestinian Authority in East Jerusalem.

Since the downing of a Russian jet by the Turkish military two years ago, Russian-Turkish relations have steadily improved. Russian-Turkish trade is up 30% in 2017. More than 4.5 million Russians visited Turkey this year. Russia is now the single largest source of tourism in Turkey, slightly ahead of Germany.

Long-term, Russian and Turkish interests are at odds with one another. Turkey's desire for more influence in the Caucasus and with the Turkic speaking people of Central Asia run counter to Moscow's desire to retain its influence there.

Likewise, Erdogan's ambition to play a larger role in both the Middle East and the Islamic world runs counter to the interests of Russia and will bring him into conflict with Russia's principal Mideast ally Iran.

Turkey's alignment with Russia, however, allows Ankara to project a measure of independence and Mideast leadership and to emerge from what it sees as its treatment as a junior partner by both NATO and the European Union. Ankara's claims on historic Ottoman territories also creates new fault lines in the region, ones that create additional opportunities for projecting Russian influence.

Under Erdogan, Turkish foreign policy has become increasingly nationalistic and revisionist. In July 2016 for example, he criticized the Treaty of Lausanne, claiming that "in Lausanne we gave away the islands that you could shout across to." The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne was the peace agreement that formally ended the conflict between the Ottoman Empire and the Allied powers in World War I.

The treaty, considered the founding document of the Turkish Republic, also largely settled Turkey's post World War I borders. The islands refer to the Dodecanese Islands which were ceded to Italy after the war and then to Greece after the Second World War.

During the battle for Mosul, a conflict that Erdogan had insisted Turkish forces should play a part, he made numerous claims that Mosul was Turkish territory and that it had been illegally seized by British forces after the Armistice of Mudros and added to what eventually became the state of Iraq.

He has also made frequent references to the fact that the Treaty of Lausanne expires in 2023 and that Turkey will enter a "new era" that among other things, he claims, will allow it to begin collecting transit fees from ships travelling through the Bosporus and the Dardanelles.

On December 7, 2017, during a state visit to Athens, the first such visit by a Turkish president in 65 years, Erdogan stunned his Greek hosts by declaring that the Treaty of Lausanne "needs to be modernized."

Several Turkish scholars have tried to draw parallels between the 1842 Treaty of Nanking, which ended the First Opium War between Great Britain and China and which led to the establishment of the British colony on Hong Kong Island, and the Treaty of Lausanne.

Noting that the territories seized by Britain were subsequently returned to China following the expiration of the treaty and its various extensions, they have suggested that historic Ottoman territories that were technically under the Caliphate's control at the end of the war should also be returned to Turkey.

Ankara has not endorsed this position, but Erdogan's public comments are consistent with it. Such aims would amount to nothing less than a redrawing of the Middle East's frontiers and a de facto partial revival of the historic Ottoman Empire. While such an outcome is unlikely, it may be an indication of Erdogan's mind set or at the very least an indication of a negotiating stance.

US Foreign Policy in the Middle East

Putin's victory lap was a well-earned tribute to the success of Russian foreign policy in the Middle East. Notwithstanding the plunge in oil prices, the imposition of crippling economic sanctions and a moribund economy, Moscow has clearly demonstrated that it is a player in Middle East affairs.

Russian troops preformed credibly in Syria and were successful in turning the tide of the Syrian civil war in Assad's favor. In the meantime, Moscow has strengthened its strategic alliance with Tehran and secured long-term access to military bases in the region.

It has also clearly demonstrated that it will stick with its clients and ensure their survival at a time when the reliability of American security guarantees is being called into question.

The success of Russian foreign policy in the Middle East is less an indication of Russian strength or the revival of Russian power than it is a measure of the success of a highly focused and cleverly executed strategy in an environment where American policy, the dominant power in the Middle East for the last 40-odd years, has lacked coherence and purpose.

The Obama Administration's on again and off again strategy of disengagement from the Middle East opened the door not only to the expansion of Islamic State, admittedly aided by the incompetence of the Iraqi military at the time, but also for an expanded Russian role.

Eventually, the atrocities committed by Islamic State and the destabilizing impact of its expansion on the rest of the Middle East, forced the Obama administration to intervene again in the region. That intervention, however, proved half-hearted and was constrained by rules of engagement that severely hampered the American military effort.

To its credit, the Trump Administration gave the Pentagon much more leeway in deciding how to conduct the military campaign against Islamic State. That is an important reason why the pace of operations and their success increased markedly over the last year. On the other hand, the Trump White House has failed to articulate a coherent policy in the Middle East.

It has reversed the Obama Administration's accommodation of Tehran and has been more vocal in support of Saudi Arabia and its Sunni allies.

On the other hand, all too often its actions, for example, the decertification of Iranian compliance with the nuclear agreement or the decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, seem little more than grand gestures; publicity stunts that are devoid of any policy direction or logic.

Indeed, at a time when the Palestinian Authority is being pressured by its Sunni Arab benefactors to support the White House's peace initiative, the sudden and unexpected recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, a recognition that elements in the Israeli military and intelligence communities urged the White House to defer, torpedoed what could have been the administration's crowning foreign policy achievement.

It's hard to shake the feeling that American foreign policy in the Middle East is being orchestrated like a reality television show, complete with dramatic moments, unexpected developments and unforeseen twists and turns.

That may make for a highly entertaining drama, but it often leads to policy inconsistency, confusion and incoherence. In the meantime, at the Kremlin they are counting their winnings.

-- The opinions expressed in this op-ed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Military.com. If you would like to submit your own commentary, please send your article to opinions@military.com for consideration.
China and Russia called President Donald Trump's "America First" national security strategy Tuesday an "imperialist" throwback to the Cold War era of dangerous superpower rivalry.

Dmitry Peskov, chief spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said that Trump's emphasis on "strategic competition" and a dominant U.S. military revealed "an imperialist character" in the administration's approach to world affairs.

Trump's address Tuesday outlining the strategy and the 68-page National Security Council paper supporting it also showed "an unwillingness to give up the idea of a unipolar world" led by an aggressive United States that demanded compliance from other states, Peskov said.

"We cannot agree with an attitude that sees our country as a threat to the United States," Peskov said. "At the same time, there are some modestly positive aspects, in particular, the readiness to cooperate in areas that correspond to American interests."

In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying echoed Russia in rejecting the U.S. charge that China was bullying its neighbors and acquiring a "blue water" navy in a drive to dominate the Far East.

"We urge the United States to stop intentionally distorting China's strategic intentions and to abandon outdated notions such as the Cold War mentality and zero-sum game, otherwise it will only harm itself or others," Hua said.

The 68-page strategy paper prepared by the NSC charged that China was seeking to displace the U.S. as the leading power in the region while spreading "features of its authoritarian system" through intimidation to emerging democracies.

However, "China will never pursue its own development at the expense of other countries' interests," Hua said at a news briefing. "At the same time we will never give up our legitimate rights and interests."

On North Korea, Trump called on China to do more in reining in its neighbor while China continued to press a "suspension for suspension" policy as a precondition to negotiations -- meaning that North Korea would suspend its missile and nuclear tests in return for the U.S. suspending military exercises with South Korea.

In South Korea, President Moon Jae-in held out the possibility that the U.S. and South Korea would postpone military exercises during the Winter Olympics scheduled to begin in Pyeongchang, South Korea, in February. Moon also said it was possible that North Korea would agree to participate.

"The International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee are working closely to encourage North Korea's participation," Moon said.

"Given past examples, I think North Korea will confirm its participation at the very last minute. We'll continue to persuade them until then," Moon said.

The North Korean figure skating pairs team of Ryom Tae-ok and Kim Ju-sik qualified for Pyeongchang in September but the North missed the Oct. 30 deadline to submit papers for their entry.

In a CBS interview Tuesday, Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, the White House National Security Advisor, said that talks with North Korea were not currently an option for the administration.

"The President has made very clear that on North Korea, for example, now is not the time to talk," McMaster said.

"And what he means is, there can't be negotiations under these current conditions" as North Korea continues to test intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of hitting the U.S. mainland, McMaster said.

"The problem is now that their programs have advanced so far we don't have time to do that again and so we can't repeat the failed pattern of the past," he said.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.
Savage, one of the world's largest makers of sporting rifles, has released a new product chambered for the .224 Valkyrie round, the company has announced.

The Westfield, Massachusetts-based company, part of Vista Outdoor Operations LLC, a closely held corporation that also owns such brands as CamelBak and Bushnell, on Thursday introduced the Savage MSR 15 Valkyrie chambered for Federal Premium Ammunition'' 224 Valkyrie.

"Together, rifle and cartridge take the popular MSR 15 platform to unheard of heights in long-range precision and ballistic performance," according to a press release.

With only half the recoil of larger cartridges needed to achieve similar results, the 224 Valkyrie -- recently unveiled by Federal Premium -- produces flat trajectories, supersonic velocities up to 1,300 yards downrange and match-grade accuracy, according to the release.

John Snow, a writer for Outdoor Life, recently tested the new rounds on a successful deer hunt in Texas. "The round will also be hell on wheels for coyotes, prairie dogs and other predators and vermin," he wrote in an article on the website.

Retailing for about $1,500, the rifle features an MSR 15 Recon platform built around the new 224 Valkyrie, which offers the best performance of any MSR 15 cartridge; Elite Series Cerakote upper and lower; two-stage trigger; Hogue pistol grip; UBR Gen 2 buttstock; forward assist; muzzle brake with 1/2x28, Class 3 barrel thread; adjustable gas block; 18-inch barrel with 5R rifling; and a mid-length gas system, according to the statement.

Savage plans to show off the rifle at next month's SHOT Show, the world's largest gun show, set to take place Jan. 23 through Jan. 26 at the Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas. This year's speakers at the event include Allen West, the former U.S. lawmaker and retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, who plans to deliver the keynote address at a management seminar.

Military.com plans to send a three-person reporting team to SHOT, including range day. Let us know what kind of new kit and products we should be testing and looking out for.

-- Brendan McGarry can be reached at brendan.mcgarry@military.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Brendan_McGarry.
Radio presenter, event promoter and a master of ceremonies plus actor Francis Frempong Manson, popularly called Nkosuohene, has made some remarks about KABA.

Nkosuohene was amongst the many others who thronged the funeral ceremony of the late Ekosii Sen presenter, KABA.

Nkosuohene flew all the from Germany to Ghana to attend KABA funeral.

He has revealed that the late KABA was the first person to put him on TV.

And added that he's grateful for the opportunity to finally see him laid to a peaceful rest.

He also said that he couldn't have missed the funeral knowing KABA as a brother and friend.

The final funeral rites of Multimedias broadcaster Kwadwo Asare Baffour Acheampong popularly called KABA came off last weekend, December 16 at the forecourt of State House, Accra.

KABA died in the early hours of Saturday, November 18, 2017, at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital following a short illness.

Until his sudden demise, KABA, married to Valentina Ofori Afriyie, was the host of popular late afternoon political talk show, Ekosii Sen on Asempa 94.7 FM.

Several sympathisers ranging from Political, opinion and spiritual leaders turn up at the funeral of the late popular broadcaster.

In the wake of others who also attended the final funeral rites included showbiz personalities, colleagues in the media among many others.

KABAs mortal remains were conveyed to his former workplace at Multimedia as a final trip before he was eventually taken to the State Banquet House in Accra last Saturday.

Watch the video here:


The Electoral Commission that monitored the elections of Arts and Tourism Writers Association of Ghana on 16th December 2017 has set Saturday, 23rd December, 2017 for Public Relations Officer Position.

Arts and Tourism Writers Association of Ghana (ATWAG) elected its new executives on Saturday, 16th December, 2017.

However, the candidates for the office of the public relations officer position had the same number of votes therefore the Association decided on a re-run for the two contestants.

The Commission (EC) was made up of Mr. Arnold Asamoah-Baidoo (Chairperson), Mr. Halifax Ansah-Addo, and Mr. Osafo-Anthony,

In a statement signed by Arnold Asamoah-Baidoo the EC appreciates the professionalism and enthusiasm shown by voters.

"On behalf of ATWAG, the EC is also thankful to Director for Creative Arts, Programmes and Projects at the National Commission on Culture, Mr. Socrate Safo, who was present to observe the election, and promised of his outfits ever readiness to support the association whenever we call on them, the statement reads.

Mr. Baidoo announced that the official voting rules and regulations still stand.

He called on members to avail themselves for voting come Saturday, 23rd December, 2017.

The first election which was held last Saturday saw executives being elected for the positions of President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Organiser, Public Relations Officer and Research Officer.

William Asiedu, the Managing Editor of the Daily Heritage, William Asiedu who contested for the position of President unopposed, was unanimously okayed by the members for the position.

Columnist for Graphic Showbiz, Francis Doku was elected as vice president.

Mic Yamoah of Flex newspaper, Frank Kwabena Owusu of Hitz FM, who also stood unopposed as Secretary and Treasurer respectively, were given the nod.

Ghanacreativearts.coms Mustapha Ayinde Nii Okai Inusah popularly known as "Attractive" won the organizer position

David Mawuli of Pulse.com.gh also won the Research Officer position with
The famous Nigerian comedian, Klint Da Drunk arrived in Ghana yesterday for the Corporate Golden Comedy and Dinner Dance scheduled for this Saturday, 23rd December 2017 at the plush poolside of Golden Tulip; Ghanas number one 4 Star Rated Hotel.

Speaking to the press at the Kotoka International airport, the internationally acclaimed rip cracking comedian expressed his gratitude to be part of this historic event.

" love Ghana, and will always Love Ghana. Thats why I am here to bring you the funniest night ever in your lives. My friends Mr. Ibu, A. Y, Shortcut, Gordons, McAbbey (the Prof) and Khemical are all joining me on Saturday to fool whiles entertaining you" he said.

The event promises to be a special night to remember as Golden Tulips kitchen will serve delicious dinner whiles the most celebrated live band group, the Naked Truth Band administers souls awakening melodies of Ghanaian music retrieved from the old diaries of our forebears

Tickets are currently on sale at Golden Tulips Front Desk, Silverbird Cinemas, Airport Shell and Baatsona Filling Station, Koala - Osu, Marina Mall and Spices Restaurant, Dansoman Roundabout. Regular ticket is GHC350, and VIP is GHC450.
Actress Matilda Adjoa Densu, known in showbiz circles as AJ Pounds, has mentioned that Ghanaian actors are not overly rich because of the countrys economy.

She thinks Ghana as a country is not rich and so no-one expects actors to make huge sums from their work.

AJ, who was speaking in an interview with NEWS-ONE, believes that if the country has a buoyant economy the effect will trickle down to movie industry and, thereby, aid actors to make more money.

A developed economy with comfortable citizenry, she is sure, will engage in activities that will inure to the benefit of its movie industry.

The movie industry, she insisted, can't develop in isolation. It is supported by general economic development.

Financial resources in the country, I stand to be corrected, are limited and this affect the industry. There are gains, yes but who gets fully satisfied with earnings? You earn this and you want more, she added.

The 27-year-old actress comes from Osino in the Eastern Region of Ghana. She has featured in a number of Kumawood movies.

Right from childhood I loved acting and dancing so after senior high school, I joined HM Films in 2009. From there, I took part in the Ghanas Most Beautiful pageant by TV3 which took me off acting for a while.

That was in 2011 and I represented the Eastern Region, she explained her stint with the movies.

She described herself as a passionate and spirited lady who enjoys nature.

When NEWS-ONE asked her if she sees herself as being successful in an economy like Ghana's, she added, Success is a journey that never ends. For now Im on the best train on that journey and success already engulfs me.
20.12.2017 LISTEN

30-year-old Jane Fara Fauzzier Afia Boafowaa Yahaya Awindor better known by her stage name Efya shares different opinion Ghanaians who constantly speak against dancehall artiste Ebony concerning her dressing.

The Best In Me songstress who bows out of Girl Talk concert on December 27 at the National Theater this year believes Ebonys recent lifestyle is a youthful exuberance and it is normal.

Therefore, the public should allow her because she will change as she grows, Efya added.

Efya opined in a conversation with Zionfelix that young and energetic musicians like Priscilla Opoku-Kwarteng should be allowed to enjoy life at their early stages because most artistes including her, Efya were little crazy when growing in Ghana.

She appreciated Ebonys talent and advised critics of her dressing to focus on the musicians talent instead of always tarnishing her image.

The April 10 born songstress on Celebrity Ride With Zionfelix show further asked Ghanaians to support Ebony so that she can grow to become a legend in the country.

The afro-soul artiste continued that critics should not make the Poison hitmaker feel she is doing something so wrong.

To her, there are many prostitutes on the streets of Ghana who have not been arrested so why waste our breath on a talent who is doing something good for the music industry.

The last Girl Talk concert for Efya comes off on December 27 this year and tickets are fast selling at Gh100 and Gh150 for regular and VIP respectively.

Watch Efya speak here


The case involving the three teenagers who were arrested in connection with the alleged sexual assault of a young girl at Bantama, in the Ashanti Region, will be heard by a Juvenile Court on Wednesday, December 19, 2017.

According to the prosecution, the case, which was supposed to have been heard today [Tuesday], had to be postponed due to the absence of some relevant stakeholders expected to be in the at the in-camera sitting.

Proceedings will be in-camera because the suspects are juveniles.

Relatives of some of the suspects trooped to the Asokwa District Court One to witness proceedings, which could not come off.

The suspects were in a somber mood when they were brought into the courtroom, and have since been taken back into police custody.

The three boys were arrested on Saturday after a video, which allegedly showed them and four others, sexually assaulting a girl, went viral, and was met with widespread criticism from the Ghanaian public.

The Police confirmed the arrests at a press conference stating that, the suspects are Junior High School and Senior High School students, but refused to reveal their ages.

The whereabouts of the four accomplices are still unknown.

The command has arrested 3 suspects. The arrest of these suspects was made on Saturday, 16th December 2017 at their various homes at Bantama. The three suspects and their 4 accomplices who are currently at large are all students.Two of the 3 arrested are in SHS 1 and the other in JHS 3, she said.

Care for the victim

Citi News sources say the victim is currently at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital undergoing a medical examination.

ASP Juliana Obeng said the victim is cooperating with the Police in its investigation into the matter.



By: Hafiz Tijani & Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Bantama sexual assault suspects to face Juvenile Court appeared first on Ghana News .
The country director for non-governmental organisation Plan International Ghana, Fadimata Alainchar, says her outfit will employ about six thousand Ghanaians to work under the NGOs Green Skills project.

The project, which was launched today [Tuesday] is aimed at inculcating in youths and women, the habit of conserving the environment by planting more and appropriately using the resources the environment provides.

The project will run in the Greater Accra and Brong Ahafo regions.

6000 women and youth will be the beneficiaries with three years. The aim of the program is to provide green skills for youth and women and also help them understand and protect the environment,Madam Alaincha said.

The program which is set to run for three years will be funded by the European Union (EU) and implemented by Plan Ghana, in partnership with the District Assemblies and the Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations.

Its objective is to seek the collaboration of some micro finances to provide money for the employers.

The program would also combine micro-finance activities, savings and loan for youth and women, and some skill training for employment. And it has village savings and loan component.

Fadimata Alainchar was also optimistic if the project was a success after the three years run, it could be extended to the other regions of the country.

Maybe after the three years and if the evolution is done, we would be able to extend it to all the communities. It is gradual, she added.

The Deputy Minister of Employment and Labor Relations, Bright Wireko Brobbey who launched the program, expressed his joy, stating the project would complement some of the Governments flagship programs to provide employment in the country.

Employment creation is a key priority of this government. In this perspective, a number of flagship programs are being rolled in every part of the country to create a sustainable livelihood for youths, he said.

The implementation of the Green Skills for Ghana Project is therefore expected to complement these flagship employment interventions. It is in this view that I welcome your program which is geared towards the delivery of the same objective.



By: Ann-Shirley Ziwu/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Plan Ghana to employ 6,000 Ghanaian youth appeared first on Ghana News .
About thirty-six thousand indigenes are expected to be engaged in employment for the re-development of the Marine Drive Tourism Project in Accra.

According to the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Catherine Afeku, as part of the agreement with the project managers, the recruitment for jobs will be heavily concentrated on local lucent participation.

She made the disclosure in an interview with JoyBusiness after a short ceremony to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Project Financiers, in Accra.

The 1.5 million dollar marine drive tourism investment project is being facilitated by the government to develop the entire stretch of the land containing the marine drive into a world-class, beachfront tourism enclave.

Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Catherine Afeku explaining how the project intends to create employment for the youth noted, every significant part of the entire project is being handled by Ghanaians.

The project is anchored on the vision of changing the face of Tourism in Ghana. When completed it will feature hotels, a Cultural Village, Malls, and Recreational Centers among others. The first phase is expected to be completed within three years.

Kofi Bio Head of Project Management at Adjaye Associates, the Lead Consultant and Financier of the Project is optimistic that it is going to change the face of the city.
The new capital requirement for insurance companies is likely to be pegged at GH50 million. This is according to the Commissioner of Insurance, Justice Yaw Ofori.

Insurance companies are currently required to have GH15 million before they can do business in the country.

The proposed increments according to the regulator have been influenced by current developments in the economy and it is also to help insurance companies to absorb industry risk.

The National Insurance Commission is considering second quarter of next year as the possible implementation date.

Speaking to JoyBusiness after the maiden NIC Chairmans cocktail with insurance companies, Mr. Ofori however said this would happen after discussions with all the players.

Sponsored Article Robbing the Assemblies - The Full Story (Video)

Manasseh Azure Awuni's investigative Documentary, Robbing the Assemblies, which features the GHc 320 milion shady landfills management contract with Waste Landfills Company Limited, a subsidiary of the Jospong Group.

Non-Payment of Claims

As part of measures to boost confidence in the insurance sector, the National Insurance Commission has pledged its commitment to crack the whip on insurance companies which fail to pay claims.

Failure on the part of some insurance companies to pay claims is one of the major reasons some individuals are not motivated to purchase insurance products.

Board Chairman of the National Insurance Commission, Ray Ankrah said his outfit would ensure that claims are not only paid but paid promptly.

He said, We will weed out bad nuts, those insurance companies who are not doing the right thing, you are on notice. The National Insurance Commission would not hesitate to crack the whip when we find out that where we find that companies are not doing the right thing and are not complying with the rules.

He said,  for those insurance companies who do not pay claims, who do not do the right thing, we are serving you notice now because we are coming up to you, well make sure that you do the right thing and if you do not do the right thing, you must as well get out of the industry.

Micro and Agric Insurance

Mr Ofori said plans to provide insurance for farmers and financiers of agriculture and as well promote access to insurance for the under-served and the low-income earner.

He said, A very effective way to increase penetration in Ghana is through inclusive insurance promoting. We therefore ask the insurance industry to commit time and money to researching and creating useful and affordable insurance products aimed at the right market.

The Commissioner said, In Ghana, about 70% of the population is directly or indirectly involved with agriculture. Majority of these people depend on natural elements, which we all know is highly unpredictable. He says, Crop insurance and weather index insurance are therefore goldmines that the insurance industry can take advantage of.

The Commission is looking at collaborating with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technological Innovation and NADMO in this endeavor.

Insurance App

Mr. Ofori adds that the commission is also working on a database to check insured vehicles in circulation. He says there will be checks put in place to provide assurance to the public through a Motor database which will be accessible via a mobile phone, to curb fake insurance. He added that the input of the DVLA and the MTTD will be solicited, since their involvement is key to its success.

New Insurance Act

Meanwhile, Deputy Finance Minister, Charles Adu-Boahen, urges the insurance commission to work with the ministry to develop a new Act next year to strengthen the insurance sector.

Mr Adu-Boahen said, I expect the NIC to work with the Ministry of Finance in 2018 to pass a new Act.

He said, The Act should adequately address minimum capital needs, risk-based capital needs, corporate governance, consumer protection and transparency.

He added, The Act when passed should provide the needed legal environment for the implementation of the best regulatory practices to ensure a safe and sound insurance market that is able to support the governments economic transformation agenda.
This year's Oxford Summit of Leaders has opened in the United Kingdom with the Chief Executive of Ghanas First Sky Group delivering a powerful speech in which he made a compelling case for foreign investors to stream into Ghana to form partnerships with indigenous Ghanaian business leaders.

Opening the summit in the city of Oxford in Britain, Eric Seddy Kutortse, an indigenous Ghanaian entrepreneur who has won many local and international awards, used his keynote speech to project Ghana as a-must-visit business and investment destination that the world should wholeheartedly embrace through partnerships with Ghanaian entrepreneurs.

As a sign that he believes in robust partnerships with credible foreign investors, Mr. Kutortse said Tuesday that he has signed an MOU with European investors to help First Sky Cocoa Processing, a new subsidiary of the First Sky Group, to establish a truly modern cocoa processing factory in the Western Region of Ghana.

He said Ghana continues to develop the right legal and institutional frameworks necessary for businesses to emerge, grow, and flourish exponentially in ways that positively impact host communities and populations.

It is on this note that I invite business leaders and investors gathered here to visit Ghana to take full advantage of the endless business opportunities emerging, by entering into mutually rewarding partnerships with local business owners and investors, he told his audience at the packed event at the Oxford Town Hall.

Mr. Kutortse continued, A mix of factors, including a growing national economy, and the business friendly policies of the State, have created the right climate for businesses to emerge, grow and expand.

Recent official figures show that, Ghana's Gross Domestic Product  the total value of goods and services produced in the country ending June this year alone  has expanded significantly. Released in September by the Ghana Statistical Service, the figures put the year-on-year GDP growth at 9 percent, the biggest in the last two years. The figures also suggest that, the main drivers of Ghana's GDP growth are industry, services and agriculture.

In his speech in Oxford, Mr. Kutortse said beyond the fine economic figures billowing from Ghana, there are other important factors contributing to the positive business climate in the former British colony.

Also, available legal regimes and prevailing institutional frameworks combine to create the right environment for wealth creation for businesses, their owners, workers and the local population, he said.

The celebrated entrepreneur's comments have come at a time the Government of Ghana  through the Ghana Investment Promotion Council  has stepped up local and international drives aimed at attracting foreign investors to the country.

Additionally, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo continues to push his 'Ghana Beyond Aid' campaign at various international and local platforms. The idea is to whip up global acceptance for his ambitious economic development agenda, which seeks to use strategic industrialization and value-addition for Ghana's agricultural output and mineral resources, to reposition the country away from decades of heavy dependence on foreign donors.

We have to find a way out to be able to connect the raw materials to the finished products, the President said in an interview with Bloomberg in September this year.

Speaking in Oxford, Mr. Kutortse could not agree more with the President on the need for Ghana to become self-sufficient through strategic industrialization. Already the owner of a string of high-performing and award-winning local businesses, Mr. Kutortse gave hints that, he intends to, pretty soon, contribute further to the vision of transforming Ghana into an industrial and economic powerhouse.

The First Sky Group boss announced that, he intends to expand his business empire to reach sectors in general insurance and cocoa processing. The vision, he explained, is to diversify and expand the Group through the incorporation of Serene Insurance Limited, which will run the Group's interest in general insurance, and First Sky Cocoa Processing Limited, which will  in partnership with European investors  establish a 55 million Euro cocoa processing factory in the Western Region of Ghana.

Traditionally organized in collaboration with regional partners, the Summits of Leaders are a permanent interactive platform for international economic, academic and intercultural cooperation.

Over the last seventeen years, more than 8,000 delegates globally have visited Summits of Leaders during which hundreds of innovative projects were presented, and specialized working meetings held for experience sharing and negotiations. The summits also serve as networking events for rectors of higher educational institutions.

First Sky Group of Ghana and Vinski Tower of Indonesia are the two official partners for this year's Summit of Leaders at Oxford.

While urging participants at this year's summit to take full advantage of the opportunities that the events offer, Mr. Kutortse also called on business leaders and investors to make the world a brighter place for the needy, and the less privileged in society through individual and corporate policies and programmes.

The official brochure for the summit describes Mr. Kutortse as One individual whose kindness has made his country and the world brighter for the needy and the less privileged in society. His support for social and religious courses had benefited and continues to benefit many individuals and organizations.

It adds that, Mr. Kutortse, aside being a renowned Entrepreneur and a successful Businessman, can in no doubt be described as a great Philanthropist.

The brochure also extolled him as a devoted Christian and the Board Chairman of Evangelism Expansion-Ghana, a worldwide organization that aims at spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ across nations.

Later on Tuesday, Mr. Kutortse will add a new plaque to his collection of international awards, as he is expected to be decorated at the Socrates Award Ceremony to round off this year's Summit of Leaders.



By: Richard Sky/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post First Sky Group CEO speaks at Oxford Summit of Leaders, woos investments to Ghana appeared first on Ghana News .
The Communication Director of the Electoral Commission (EC) says they welcome the Accra High Court's ruling to allow Ghanaians abroad to vote.

Eric Kofi Dzapkasu said the ruling only reinforces an existing law and strengthens the plans of the Commission towards the execution of the Representation of the Peoples Amendment Law (ROPAL) process.

The EC already has its strategic plans in place in 2020 and one of the main goals in that plan is to ensure that ROPAL can be part of our electoral process, he told Evans Mensah on Newsnight Tuesday.

He said that it is the vision of the EC to roll out ROPAL just like other major electoral reforms they are considering.

Mr Dzakpasu added that they will need the input of the major stakeholders; the political parties, civil society, and government to succeed.

Sponsored Article Robbing the Assemblies - The Full Story (Video)

Manasseh Azure Awuni's investigative Documentary, Robbing the Assemblies, which features the GHc 320 milion shady landfills management contract with Waste Landfills Company Limited, a subsidiary of the Jospong Group.

His comment is in response to the Accra High Court ruling directing the Commission to operationalise the law in 2020 following a suit by some five Ghanaians living abroad.

Although the law was passed in 2006, the EC has given several excuses why it was impossible to implement at the time.

But the Director of Communication assured that the challenges with finances will be dealt with when all stakeholders agree on the model to be implemented.

When we have all the fine details of the blueprint and it is approved by everybody, then we will come to the issue of finance. It is a law which has been there which came with a caveat, which has run all this period.

Now the court has ruled and the law has been reinforced and it has also strengthened our position and coincided with the plans of the EC to make sure it works out, he said.

Mr Kofi Dzakpasu said just like any major electoral reform, the Commission needs the consensus of everyone to get it going.

Story by Ghana| Myjoyonline.com |Abubakar Ibrahim
The Progressive Peoples Party is asking the three embattled Commissioners at Ghanas election organizing body to step aside as the Judicial Council begins a prima facie hearing into allegations of misconduct by the three.

Kofi Asamoah Siaw who speaks for the party says the three cannot hold on to their jobs while this all important investigation continues.

He said the three have made public pronouncement of gross electoral violations and must not be allowed to keep occupying such a high position.

He described as unfortunate the leadership crisis at the Electoral Commission and called for an imaging redeeming exercise at the Commission.

The entire commissioners must go for fresh air to be breathed into the institution, he said.

Kofi Siaw Asamoah

The three must appear before the committee to exonerate themselves from the allegations.

But Kofi Siaw believes until the investigation is concluded, the three must not be allowed to head the Commission.

The Executive Director of the Africa Center for International Law and Accountability (ACILA) William Nyarko said it will be unwise to suspend all the three.

Quoting Article 146 (10) of the Constitution, he said it is the duty of the Judicial Council to counsel the president on whether or not to step aside and until that decision is made it will not be appropriate to ask them to step aside.

Even though he believes in the principle to allow people who are being investigated to step aside so they do not contaminate the investigation, he also believes due process must be followed.

Speaking on the same matter, a private legal practitioner Samson Lardy Anyenini who led the removal of the Commissioner at CHRAJ said they requested for Lauretta Lamptey to step aside until after the prima facie investigation.

He told Joy News it was necessary to have the commissioner to be step aside because they had witness from CHRAJ who were uncomfortable appearing before a Committee to testify against their boss.

He said they also needed documents for evidence which they would ordinarily be unable to access if Lauretta Lamptey were still at post.

Story by Ghana|Myjoyonline.com|Nathan Gadugah
Berlin, 18.12.2017 - The Stiftung Preuischer Kulturbesitz (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation) is going to return nine objects from the collection of the Ethnologisches Museum (Ethnological Museum) of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (National Museums in Berlin) to the Chugach Alaska Corporation. The Foundation Board approved a proposal to this effect from the President today.

Adrian Jacobsen, who traveled along the American northwest coast and in Alaska between 1882 and 1884 on behalf of the Konigliches Museum fur Volkerkunde (Royal Museum of Ethnology), which was the forerunner of the Ethnologisches Museum.

Hermann Parzinger, the SPK's President, stated: "At the time, these objects were taken without the consent of the Alaska Natives and were therefore removed unlawfully from the graves of their deceased, so they do not belong in our museums. We will now be returning them to the Chugach Alaska Corporation, with whom we have been working to re-examine our collection since 2015."

The objects are grave goods from Chenega Island and a place named as Sanradna, whose location is no longer known. Among them are two broken masks and a childs cradle, as well as a wooden idol. Masks were usually burned after use or laid in graves, which is why not many masks of the Chugach people exist today. The red color on these ones indicates a funereal context. The wooden idol is probably a shamanic figure, meant to protect people from danger and death.

In November 2015, a delegation from the Chugach Alaska Corporation visited the Ethnologisches Museum with the aim of initiating cooperation on future projects. One of the reasons for this was their interest in creating a virtual presentation of all the Chugach objects around the world. Following the visit, the Corporation asked the Ethnologisches Museum for assistance in repatriating any grave goods that had come from the region. The Chugach Alaska Corporation (www.chugach-ak.com), created in 1972, is an organization representing the interests of the indigenous peoples of the Chugach region of Alaska. Among other activities, it works to preserve the cultural heritage of these groups. The US federal government presented a diplomatic note in support of the request for return.

The SPK diligently investigated the original context of the grave goods identified in the Ethnologisches Museum, doing so in accordance with its general policy on dealing with its non-European collections and on research into their provenance. In the present case, all the indications are that the objects were obtained through grave robbery and not by an approved archaeological excavation. From Adrian Jacobsen's travel journals, it is clear that the graves were opened solely for the purpose of removing their contents. There were no government or local authority permits to do so, nor was there any documentation to show that consent had been granted by the community of origin. In view of these facts, it was decided to return the objects.

General policy of the SPK on dealing with its non-European collections and researching their provenances: www.preussischer-kulturbesitz.de/newsroom/mediathek/dokumente/ dokument -detail/news/2015/06/09/grundpositionen-der-spk- zum - umgangmit - ihren - aussereuropaeischen - sammlungen -und- zur - erforschung -derpr.html

Johan Adrian Jacobsen traveled along the American northwest coast and in Alaska at the end of the nineteenth century. He did so on behalf of the Konigliches Museum fur Volkerkunde (Royal Museum of Ethnology) in Berlin. The director of the museum at the time, Adolf Bastian, had commissioned him to collect objects that were as "original" as possible, untainted by European culture, with the aim of building up a collection. Jacobsen returned to Berlin with around three thousand objects from the northwest coast and around four thousand objects from Alaska. His account of the journey is an impressive historical document. It is characterized, however, less by accurate ethnographic observations than by tales of derring-do, told by a hard-nosed adventurer. With this in mind, the travels of the self-proclaimed "captain" will also be at the center of an exhibition module in the Humboldt Forum, serving as a critical examination of the history of the collection from today's perspective
The Asamankese Ghana branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the Eastern Region has been upgraded to a Stake status under the Africa West Area.

Formerly the branch was Asamankese District under the Ghana Accra West Mission, but now under the Africa West Area, which include; Ghana, Congo, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia and Gambia.

Mr Richard Adu, the President of the First Counsellor for the Stake Presidency told the Ghana News Agency that the creation of the Stake enhanced activities among the branches and the wards of the church.

He urged members of the church to abide by the ethics of Christianity and that of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in order to be exalted.

The President also urged them to resist all kinds of temptation to ensure spiritual growth exercised everywhere.

'May we follow the Prince of peace who literally showed the way for us to follow, For by doing so, we will survive these turbulent times. His divine plan can save us from the dangers that surround us from every side.'

He said the Asamankese has 10 units comprising four branches and six wards with a total membership of 2,377.

Elder Marcus B. Nash, a member of the Quorum of the Seventy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints urged members to be law-abiding as they observed their covenant to God.

He said for members and leaders of the church to win God's favour, they needed to keep their baptismal, priesthood and temple covenant as well as obeying the laws of the country as good citizens.

Mr Solomon Agyeman Tsenadu, the President of the Asamankese Ghana Stake urged the members to strive hard to set good ambition for themselves because great achievements were not attained on silver platter.

The church was founded by Joseph Smith in April 6, 1830 in Western New York and they believe in pre-earthly existence with God and their mortal lives are a test to be able to rejoin him in the after life.

GNA
20.12.2017 LISTEN

Accra, Dec 18, GNA - Thirty-seven year old Abena Anokye who shared her story with a youth group at a church sometime ago said by the time she was 19 years in the secondary school, she had aborted five pregnancies, all, except one, through the hands of a quack doctor.

She narrated with much regret that if she had access to contraceptive information and usage at that time, she would not have gone through that 'unfortunate and regretful ordeal' that have made her infertile now that she was married to a much loveable husband.

She continued that her first abortion at age 16 was done in collaboration with her mother and her boy friend, who took her to a medical centre for it to be carried out.

Subsequently, her four other abortions were done behind her mother's back by a quack doctor with the consent of her boyfriend.

'After my first experience, nobody gave me any information on contraceptive use that will protect me from getting pregnant, neither by my mother nor by the health professionals. My mom just told me to be careful not to get myself in such a mess again.

'I don't blame my mom at all because those were the taboo days to talk about sex with children. Besides, I'm sure my mom didn't have any information to give me apart from cautioning me to stay away from sex, which finally landed me in trouble,' Abena said regrettably.

Abena, is therefore advising all young people, especially, the adolescent girls to seek and look for information on contraception to prevent unwanted pregnancies or better still, they should as much as possible stay away from pre-marital sex until they were ready to take responsibilities of their lives in their advanced ages.

But all of society's adults know how the adolescence stage is critical and delicate, especially when one is exposed to the wrong environment, the wrong friends, and with less information and access, and restrictive right to reproductive health services.

Reproductive health relates to the ability of women or girls to control their own fertility which is fundamental to women's empowerment and equality.

When a woman can plan her family, she can plan the rest of her life. Protecting and promoting her reproductive rights - including the right to decide the number, timing and spacing of her children - is essential to ensuring her freedom to participate more fully and equally in society.

A universal right, including reproductive health right, is the one that applies to everyone, everywhere, regardless of income, ethnicity and place of residence or any other characteristics.

Therefore, failure to provide information, services and conditions to help the adolescent girl protect their reproductive health constitutes gender-based discrimination and is a violation of women's rights to health and life.

However, the reality was that, today, across the developing countries, and in Ghana as well, reproductive health right was far from being universally realised, with hundred millions of women and girls still struggling to obtain information, services and supplies to either prevent pregnancy or to give birth, the State of the World Population 2017 Report has revealed.

'Whether a woman is able to exercise her reproductive rights depends in part on whether she lives in a city or a rural area, how much education she has and whether she is affluent or poor,' says the report.

The report, launched in Accra recently by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), has indicated that an educated woman in an affluent household in a city for instance, was likely to have access to a full range of modern contraceptive choices, to have the power to decide whether, when, and how often to become pregnant, and if she chose to become pregnant, to give birth safely in a hospital or a clinic under the care of a health professional.

The 136-page Report, titled: 'World Apart: Reproductive, Health and Rights in an age of inequality', has noted that comparatively, a poor woman with little education in a rural setting was likely to have few options for preventing pregnancies, staying healthy during the pregnancy or delivering with the assistance of a skilled birth attendants.

And in seeking to exercise her reproductive rights, she may face social and institutional obstacles that her affluent and educated counterparts may never encounter or may easily overcome.

The report said inequalities in sexual and reproductive health correlated with economic inequality and that within most developing countries today, access to critical sexual and reproductive health care was generally lowest among the poorest 20 per cent of households, and the highest among the richest 20 per cent.

One measure of access to sexual and reproductive health services was the extent to which a woman or a girl who wanted to use modern method of contraception services had access to it.

Access to family planning services had also been noted as a fundamental element, not just of reproductive health, but of social and economic equality, since unintended pregnancies constrained opportunities that girls and women would otherwise have had for education, civic participation and economic advancement.

The World Report indicated that in the developing countries, 12.8 million adolescent girls have an unmet demand for family planning, while 43 per cent of pregnancies were unplanned.

Besides, adolescents, especially those who were not married or in a union, face more obstacles than adults in obtaining contraceptives because of restrictive laws and policies, concerns about confidentiality or stigma associated with sex at an early age.

In many parts of the developing world, adolescent girls are often forced into marriage, usually to men much older than themselves, of which the age difference alone could mean that such girls have less power in decisions about conceptive use.

A UNFPA report indicated that in 2015 there were estimated 14.5 million births to adolescents in 156 developing countries, territories and other areas, which was a recipe for higher complications and maternal death as well as a major cause of school dropout rate.

The adolescent girls typically have less access to contraception than adolescent boys, because of the discriminate prevailing attitudes about what is acceptable behaviour for girls.

Again, adolescents face additional reproductive risks because they have less access than adults to services, particularly, contraception and HIV prevention, and the girls are at greater risk than the boys.

Also regrettably, each year in the developing countries, 89 million unintended pregnancies were recorded, 48 million abortions were carried out, 10 million miscarriages occurred, with a million stillbirths recorded according to the report.

Girls under age 15 accounted for 1.1 million of the 7.3 million births among adolescent girls under age 18 every year in developing countries while 95 per cent of the world's births to adolescents occurred in developing countries, with nine in 10 births occurring within marriage or a union.

Meanwhile, for both physiological and social reasons, women were more vulnerable than men to reproductive health problems, since collectively, complications of pregnancy or childbirth were the number two killer of women of reproductive age.

Thankfully, the UNFPA is working with countries to respond to the needs of the most marginalized and vulnerable - including adolescent girls, people living with disabilities, indigenous peoples, disabilities, indigenous peoples, migrants, women refugees, female heads of households and those living in extreme poverty.

The 2017 world report therefore, emphasised on the requirement to meet all unmet needs for family planning by prioritising women in the poorest 40 per cent of households; reach the poorest women with essential, life-saving antenatal and maternal health care.

It called on nations to tear down barriers that prevented adolescent girls and young women from accessing sexual and reproductive health information and services.

It also promised a universal social protection floored by offering basic income security and cover essential services, including maternity-related benefits and supports.

Speaking at the launching of the World Report, Mr O.B Amoah, a Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, said there was the need for governments to acknowledge the benefits of improved sexual reproductive health and work towards achieving the goals.

He said in Ghana, the sector Ministry had been working on programmes aimed at improving sexual reproductive health, especially maternal mortality at the district and regional levels.

Mr Amoah, therefore, called on the need to eliminate all manner of socio-cultural barriers, that mitigated against women and girls in the society.

Mr. Niyi Ojuolape, the Country Representative of UNFPA Ghana, said it was regrettable that the world continued to remain unequal, and that inequality was not only about money, but human rights, happiness, sexual reproductive health and childcare.

Also, African Parliamentarians who recently attended the International Conference of the Network of African Parliamentary Committees of Health in Uganda called on governments to allocate more resources to reproductive health and family planning programmes.

Among other things, the legislators also resolved to support the drive against early marriages and teenage pregnancy and to advocate for initiatives to keep the girl-child in school.

In their draft resolutions termed 'Kampala Call for Action', adopted after the two-day conference, the legislators agreed to participate in monitoring and evaluating reproductive health and family planning programmes.

They also noted that reproductive health and family planning programmes remained critically important for sustainable development of the African continent.

'It is essential to continue positioning reproductive health and family planning programmes high on the continent's development agenda,' the resolution stated.

Aside these calls, there is also the need for governments, particularly, the Government of Ghana, to support laws and policies that operationalise task sharing for improved service delivery of reproductive health and family planning programmes for the adolescent girl.

The Government must also collaborate with the legislature, judiciary, development partners, the civil society partners, and health care professionals, to work towards ensuring access to sexual and reproductive health care for the adolescent girls in school and out of school.

That will ensure that, the adolescent girl is well informed to take the right decisions, and make the best life choices, thereby increasing her ability to stay in school, increase her production and earnings, increase her autonomy and self esteem, as well as increase equity for her.
The Executive Director of the National Vocation Training Institute (NVTI), Mrs Mawusi Nudekor Awitey has stressed the need for Ghana to make a paradigm shift in its economic structure towards one that hinged on expanding value addition to its natural resources.

This, she said had become necessary because of the current global trends and the quest of government to achieve rapid economic growth.

Mrs Awitey made the call when she addressed the 5th graduation and 2nd best staff award ceremony of the Biriwa Vocational Training and Rehabilitation Institute (VTRI) in the Central Region on Saturday.

The day, which was celebrated on the theme "Quality TVET: a tool for Ghana's rapid industrialisation growth' offered the graduands the opportunity to showcase some of their products to the general public.

A total of 153 students, some of who did four years of training in Block Laying and Concreting, Carpentry and joinery, General Electrical, Catering, Dressmaking, Leather Works, Welding and Fabrications, Motor Vehicle Mechanics, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning as well as Generic Skills for sustainable livelihood graduated.

According to her, massive industrialisation engendered varied processing efforts to create spiral effect in various sectors of the economy, thereby leading the transformation that would enhance industrial growth.

Mrs Awitey emphasised that a skilled workforce was needed at all sectors of the economy as it remained a pre-condition for the economic growth of the country and urged the government to make skills development a priority.

'The skills so developed, shall lead to self-reliance in the absence of wage employment and enhance the industrialisation process' she added.

Mrs Awitey said it was urgent for TVET providers to have the needed tools and equipment, adequate training materials and well qualified trainers to be able to provide relevant skills necessary for enhancing economic performance.

She also stressed the need for TVET institutions to ensure constant engagement with industry for trainees to have practical attachment to be abreast with the fast changing World of technology and industry.

She said the NVTI was working hard to re-tool the institute in that direction.

Mr Samuel Kwashie Amegbor, the Institute Manager said the institute since its establishment in 1974 had trained more than 6,500 local and international students in various vocation and technical disciplines who were excelling in their field of specialty globally.

He advocated a strong TVET front in Ghana as the job market had huge deficit of high and semi-skilled labour needed to be filled by TVET.

Mr Amegbor called on the government and other stakeholders to help the Institute address its problem of inadequate residential accommodation for students and teaching staff and inadequate infrastructure and obsolete tools and machines.

He mentioned other challenges facing the institute to include; absence of official vehicles, poor road network on campus and absence of power plant and an assembly hall.

The challenges, he said hindered the mandate of the Institute in training the youth with quality employable TVET skills to meet the demands of 21st century job market.
20.12.2017 LISTEN

The National Insurance Commission (NIC) in collaboration with its partners have commenced a six-day training workshop for players in the insurance industry in Kumasi.

The workshop, which is in partnership with the Programme for Sustainable Economic Development (PSED) of the German Development Co-operation (GIZ), is to boost the capacity of insurance agents in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions.

The event, which started on Monday, December 18, will end on Saturday December 23, 2017.

A statement from the organisers said the event would see both life and non-life insurance agents, insurance brokers, Bancassurance and micro-insurance agents build their capacity on principles governing insurance, knowledge of the insurance industry, selling techniques, principles of customer knowledge, complaints handling techniques, and other relevant areas.

It said 250 agents from 30 life insurance companies; 27 non-life insurance companies; 45 insurance brokers; six micro-insurance companies, and three Bancassurance companies would participate.

It said insurance penetration in Ghana was very low and some of the major causes of the low patronage of insurance was inadequate public education on the benefits and general negative perception the public has of insurance industry.

It said according to the NIC, the current insurance penetration (the number of the population who own an insurance policy) was less than two per cent.

The statement said this figure was very low compared to the risk factors that Ghanaians were exposed to on a daily basis.

The statement said this year alone, various fires in many markets have seen traders losing millions of Ghana cedis. Unfortunately some of these market traders did not insure their wares.

It said the training was to help build the capacity of the agents and officers in the insurance distribution channel to enable them boost insurance coverage in their respective areas of operation to cushion clients, who face emergencies like fire.

The statement said the capacity building project would be rolled in phases to cover the entire country.

The statement said Laine Services Limited were the Project Consultants, whilst GIZ were the Project partners and sponsors.

Meanwhile, Mr Kingsley Kwesi Kwabahson, Acting CEO of the Ghana Insurance Association (GIA) and Mr Wilson Tei of the Ghana Insurance Awareness Coordinators Group (IACG) would be the Project Managers for the capacity training programme.

Mr Isaac Agyapong, Technical Advisor at the GIZ, said 'As a development partner, the GIZ works to promote sustainable economic development in the countries in which they operate."

He said Insurance was important to providing a safety net especially for the poorer segments of society, "naturally, you may not know when a disaster will occur, so it is better to have some form of insurance policy in place for that unfortunate disaster and have some protection, hence the reason GIZ is part of the programme.'

Other partners are GIA, The Ghana Insurance Brokers Association (GIBA), and (IACG)

GNA
20.12.2017 LISTEN

The Conference of Heads of Basic Schools (COHBS) under the umbrella of the Ghana Education Service (GES) has honoured 15 senior citizens who have served the district in promoting quality education.

In a short ceremony, Mr. Augustine Ekor, the Chairman of COHBS praised them for their hard work, commitment and team work they demonstrated during their years of service in their respective public schools.

He said, despite the challenges they went through during their period of service, they were able to endure it till date and entreated the other teachers to emulate their disciplinary attitude to enable them succeed in life.

He urged them to venture into agriculture to enable them fend for themselves and their families to better their standard of living and advised them to desist from indecent behaviours such as alcoholism and fornication in order to stay strong and healthy.

He also entreated them to do regular checkups and exercise frequently to make them active.

Mr Raymond Nana Damptey, the District Chief Executive (DCE) applauded the GES staff for the strides it was making in promoting education in the district and urged them to do more even if obstacles occur.

He said government had put in place measures to enhance effective education delivery in the district and the country at large and entreated them to help execute it, but warned against levies on parents.

He hinted that the Assembly would be providing furniture for every public school in the district next academic year to help promote effective teaching and learning.

Nana Osei Agyemang Prempeh II, Chief of Hweakwae said communities in the district would continue to liaise with the Newmont Akyem Mine to construct more school structures in their catchment areas to promote quality education and that plans were far advanced to construct teachers' village in the district to enable teachers have access to accommodation at affordable prices.

He therefore entreated the upcoming teachers to upgrade themselves to prepare them adequately for the job market.

Mr. Joseph Bebaako, the District Director of the GES commended COHBS for initiating the programme and urged other GES institutions to emulate the gesture.
The Kwabenya Community Senior High School (SHS) at the weekend held its maiden anniversary in Accra. The School, which was commissioned on November 11, 2016, was a World Bank and the Government sponsored project, to improve the quality and accessibility of education in the Dome-Kwabenya Constituency.

Speaking on the theme: "Quality Education - The Role of Stakeholders in this Cyber World," Lawyer Anthony Boateng, the Acting Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), said quality education should be the type of education that produced individuals who would think critically and find solutions to issues that retarded societal progress and development.

He said in the enterprise of providing quality education, all members of the community should see themselves as stakeholders, since the type and nature of education the society provided had a direct bearing on society's development and purpose.

"Stakeholders have a critical role to play in the provision of quality education especially in this cyber world. The world today is now controlled and manipulated by cyber, this development has forced the world to become a global village and no community can afford to live in isolation for the rest of their lives," he said.

Lawyer Boateng noted that with this development, students of the educational system now faced explosion of knowledge, some very positive but unfortunately, others very dangerous and inimical to individual and societal development.

"It is under this circumstance that all stakeholders of our educational system find themselves today, and they must therefore be conscious of their respective roles in ensuring that this current development is managed to reap positive impact for the benefits of the students and the society as a whole; whilst at the same time being conscious of its negative effects," he said.

He bemoaned the development where whether or not students were allowed to use mobile phones in schools saying, "Such acts were part of the dilemma society face as part of developments in the cyber world".

The Deputy Director General of GES therefore called on teachers to adopt strategies that would ensure that they remained relevant to the students in this cyber world.

He also urged parents and guidance to be conscious in the event their wards found themselves in this cyber world, adding; "Parents and teachers must corporate and work with students to ensure that students receive quality education and for the benefit of society as a whole".

"Society must also appreciate the fact that the education of students is not the sole responsibility of the teachers or the parent or guardian, but a shared responsibility and should be seen as a collective societal effort to build its own future," he advised.

Professor Benjamin J. B. Nyarko, the Director General of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, advised the students to work hard on their academics and be disciplined.

Giving the history of the school, Ms Elizabeth A. Sam, the Headmistress, said currently the school could boost of 66 staff where 54 represented teaching staff with the remaining 12 being non-teaching staff.

On enrolment, she mentioned that the student population stood at 1,105, representing 548 boys and 557 girls.

"Thirty-nine of the form two students are beneficiaries of the Secondary Education Improvement Plan Scholarship, whilst 474 first-year-students are benefiting from the Free Senior High School policy," she said.

Ms Sam identified General Science, General Arts, Business, Home Economics, Visual Arts and Technical Skills as among the programmes the School offered.

She noted the School runs on the principle of discipline and that, students had been made to understand that discipline had a distance relationship with academic performance, and also the bedrock of every successful venture, so they had to be disciplined in all endeavours.

Ms Kpentey Tiffany Adikie, the Head Prefect of the School, presenting her report, called for an extension work on the School's Assembly Hall, as their current population had outlived the facility.

Prizes and awards were presented to students who excelled in academics and other extra-curricular activities during the 2016/2017 academic year.
20.12.2017 LISTEN

Escof Zinnia Foundation, a non-governmental organisation has given educational support to school going children of Nkyenoa Community in the Eastern Region as part of its activities slated for the last quarter of the year.

The Foundation gave out scholarship to some students; stationery as well as bags, footwears, lunch boxes, and edible items to the schools in the community.

The outreach which included; motivational talk, fun competitions and awards, quizzes among the school children also had bags of clothes shared among members of the community.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview, Ms Esther Coffie, Founder of the Foundation said they embarked on the outreach to impact the essence of basic education to rural communities and establish good parent teacher relationships.

'We intend to reach out to students in rural communities and provide educational support and materials to needy but brilliant students. By this, we would motivate and encourage students to take up challenges that will help them become good future leaders to help in nation building', she said.

She explained that the Community was selected among many deprived communities because there were a good number of students who could not get access to basic educational materials, yet tried hard with support from their parents and teachers to get the best out of their limited resources.

Clarifying the scholarship opportunities given to some students, Ms Coffie said: 'There is no impact if we just go there to share items, motivate them and come back to mind our own business. To be able to achieve our intentions, we had to choose some students who are brave and intelligent and sponsor them with fees and educational materials till they complete Junior High School'.

She stressed that this would help other students to emulate the attitude of being serious with their studies disclosing that the support given to the community were contributions from volunteers, families, and friends.

Mr Baffour Ofori-Atta Kena, a member of the Foundation advised parents not to discourage their children from taking up leadership roles or from being assertive.

'Even though it is understandable that you punish your children when they go wrong, it is important that you allow them to state their opinions on matters and also give them courage to tell you their problems always', he said.

He also advised parents to desist from acts that would put the education of their wards at stake such as going for the children from class to support them in farm or hunting during studies hours.

Madam Elizabeth Larteibea, Women Organiser of the Community addressing the children asked them to take their studies seriously to become better persons in future.

She said: 'Because I didn't get support in my education and also had less interest in studying, here I am surviving only on tiresome farming even at my older age. Therefore, don't study hard if you want to stress yourself much just to survive at an age like mine'.

She expressed gratitude to the members of the Foundation for their enormous support and encouraged them not to stop their generosity since they would surely be repaid one day.

Esof Zinnia Foundation has a vision to become a global instrument of community transformation and therefore committed to empowering deprived individuals and communities to re-establish their lives through education, good health, provision of basic social amenities and opportunities for self-sufficiency.
20.12.2017 LISTEN

'Ghana's waters have become a safe waiting area for ships calling in ports in neighbouring countries,' Rear Admiral Moses Kwadwo Beick-Baffour, the Chief of staff at the General Headquarters of the Ghana Armed Forces, has said.

He said the Ghana Navy now had a crop of special force operatives who could handle asymmetric threats such as hostage rescue onboard ships and maritime interdiction operations.

Rear Admiral Beick-Baffour was addressing officers and men at the Ghana Navy's West Africa Security Services Association (WASSA) get together, which also took account of their achievements for 2017.

He said everything that the Service had achieved was a collective effort of the High Command, Officers, Ratings, Civilian Employees and stakeholders within and outside, adding, '0ur teamwork has held the anchor firm during the stormy times in 2017'.

Rear Admiral Beick-Baffour said the Ghana Navy had experienced a very successful year looking back to many achievements worth celebrating, explaining, 'We have had our challenges but we choose to celebrate the success as we learn from the shortfalls'.

He said the Navy continued to improve its maritime domain awareness capabilities with the installations of new surveillance equipment in all maritime operations centres at the Naval Headquarters.

Two new State of the Art surveillance equipment, he said, were also mounted at the Western and Eastern borders at Newtown and Aflao.

Rear Admiral Beick-Baffour said the Navy was able to for the first time in many years, put an unprecedented number of ships to sea with the aim of assessing their performances, which were found to be outstanding.

He said: 'The Navy was, therefore, ready when called upon to protect the nation's assets at sea and ensure the integrity of our exclusive economic zone following the ruling of the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea.'

Its goal of improving its presence at sea was overwhelmingly, achieved resulting in no recorded piracy incident in the waters of Ghana, he said.

Deserving Officers and civilian employees at the Naval Headquarters were awarded for exceptional delivery of their duties at the event, which was interspersed with music and dance.

Admiral Arthur Sampah Randy Nuno, a former Chief of Naval Staff commended the Ghana Navy for the success chalked during the year.

He urged them not to drift away from the rules of the Service and advised the awarded Officers to do more because the award placed on them, a higher responsibility.

He told the Officers to take extra care of themselves in the festive season and be generous. GNA

By Julius K. Satsi, GNA
20.12.2017 LISTEN

Colonel William Agyapong, out-going Commander of 'Operation Vanguard', has called for everybody to find space to contribute to the fight against illegal mining.

'The fight to halt the environmentally unsustainable mining is for everybody - all of us.'

He added that the destruction of water bodies, forests, farmlands and farms could not continue.

He was speaking at a ceremony held in the gold mining town of Obuasi to hand over the administration of the operation to a new Commander, Col Michael Amoah-Ayisi.

Col Agyepong expressed admiration for the strong support and cooperation the joint military/police taskforce assigned the job of stopping the illegal mining had been receiving from the political leadership in the Ashanti Region.

He said the backing from the Regional Minister, Mr. Simon Osei-Mensah, and his deputy, Madam Elizabeth Agyemang, had been wonderful.

Col Amoah-Ayisi, reminded the officers and men to ensure teamwork, maintain high level of discipline and loyalty.

It was the way forward to sustain and build on the success achieved since the start of the operation.

"The menace, illegal mining is posing to the nation is so huge and the taskforce has the onerous responsibility to deal with and remove this threat."

Col Amoah-Ayisi noted that there would be temptations, threats and provocations but said he had no doubt that through professionalism, these would be surmounted.

Brigadier General C.B. Alhassan, the General Officer Commanding of the Central Command, applauded the media for the vital role it had been playing in the illegal mining fight.
20.12.2017 LISTEN

A two-day training workshop to build the capacity of insurance agents for efficient performance, to increase insurance penetration has been held at Fumesua in the Ejisu-Juaben Municipality.

It was organized jointly by the Insurance Awareness Coordinators Group (IACP), Ghana Insurers Association (GIA), Ghana Insurance Brokers Association (GIBA), National Insurance Commission (NIC) and Ghana Insurance Agents Association.

The programme, sponsored by the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) brought together insurance agents from Ashanti and the Brong-Ahafo Regions.

It provided the platform to discuss the role of the agents in insurance penetration and risk-management.

Mr. Wilson Quartey Tei, the Chairman of IACG, said they needed to strengthen and intensify their efforts to meet the needs of the market.

For this to happen - to drive the growth of the insurance business, it was important for the agents to understand the pulse and concerns of the market.

He said it was against this background that capacity building had become urgent and 'a must-do-exercise' to enhance product development, delivery channels and sales as well as customer satisfaction.

Mr. Tei expressed discomfort with the low insurance penetration in the country and said that needed to radically change.

A research conducted by the NIC and the GIZ show that there is inadequate knowledge about insurance.

Mr. Tei said he was confident that with increased public education, the situation would improve.

He encouraged the insurance agents to do more to get more people to take insurance policies.

GNA

By Florence Afriyie Mensah, GNA
20.12.2017 LISTEN

Mr. Gabriel Sam Arthur, a member of the Effutu Municipal Assembly, suggested to government and other stakeholders to establish training villages for prisoners in all prisons across the country.

The villages he said could serve as major technical training camps for prisoners, particularly hardened criminals serving long term sentences to acquire technical knowledge and skills to make them useful to society after completing their sentences.

Mr.Arthur, who gave the suggestion at Winneba during an interaction with pressmen to share his ideas and views on the country's prisons and how the state could transform them called for decongestion inall the prisons.

He said inmates could be used for the establishment of large tracts farms to feed the various senior high schools to support the government's flagship free SHS policy and also generate funds for the nation.

He said that the proposed prisoners villages must be equipped with highly qualified technical training and agricultural science tutors who would impart the requisite knowledge and skills to prisoners.

Mr. Sam Arthur said that prisoners who would prove to be exceptionally good in technical knowledge and skills after their training could be used for the execution of minor road, health, and school building projects.

He further suggested that parts of funds earmarked for such projects or contracts could be paid to the qualified prison artisans as an allowance while serving their terms.

According to Mr. Sam Arthur, the current system whereby hardened criminals were made to share the same prison camps with those serving short term sentences was not the best as the hardened criminals could negatively influence less fortunate citizens who had found their way to the prisons due to some minor offences.

To Mr. Sam Arthur, the present system had contributed immensely to the mounting number of hardened criminals in the county and the proposed prisoners training villages could boost the government's one district one factory programme.

GNA
20.12.2017 LISTEN

The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has launched a Fire Free Christmas Campaign to educate the public on fire safety measures to prevent fire during and after the festive season.

Divisional Officer Grade II (DOII) Naomi Ofori-Adubea, the Commander in charge of the Ministries Fire Station launched the campaign on the theme: 'Fire Free Christmas' at Tema Station in Accra.

DOII Ofori-Adubea urged the public to attempt controlling a fire outbreak before it gets out of hand since it becomes difficult to manage when it's out of control, adding that, the public should not allow fire to get the upper hand.

She said the core mandate of the GNFS was to prevent and manage 'undesired fire' saying that, 'the GNFS is to be proactive by not waiting for fire to rage before we extinguish, but to prevent fires from occurring'.

She said the GNFS has the mandate to create and sustain awareness of hazards of fire, provide technical advice for building plans, inspect and offer technical advice on fire extinguishers as well as to train and organise fire volunteer squads.

The Commander said a research carried out on the causes of fire outbreaks revealed that, illegal connections, cooking in the markets, usage of candles and coils, unattended coal pots and gas stoves were the common causes of fire outbreaks in the market places in Ghana.

She classified all the aforementioned causes as negligence, adding that, there were other minimal causes such as accidents, arson, and acts of God.

DOII Ofori-Adubea urged the public to desist from any act of negligence that could cause fire outbreak, especially as the Harmattan season approaches.

She said the public must shun acts such as smoking, illegal connection, burning of rubbish, leaving gas stoves and coal pots unattended to after cooking in the market place among others.

She said: 'Should fire occur, call 192 first but not a radio station because the GNFS personnel may not be listening to the radio at the time of incidence. Other contact numbers are 0299340732, 0299340680, or 0299340643.'

GNA

By Julius K. Satsi, GNA
20.12.2017 LISTEN

Former Deputy Ashanti Regional Minister, Andy Osei Okrah, has encouraged Ghanaian universities to include leadership training in their courses of study.

Leaders, he indicated 'are made and not born', and therefore the need to take deliberate steps to harness the leadership potentials in the young people.

Mr. Okrah, who was addressing a leadership development summit in Kumasi, said the greatest challenge to Africa's progress was leadership.

'Our continent is poor because in most cases, we lack the kind of quality leaders required to advance the cause of the people.'

He added that the time had come to raise a new breed of generational thinkers capable of changing the fortunes of the people.

The programme was organized jointly by the Young Professionals and Youth Coalition (YPYC) - a network of young professionals dedicated to youth development, and the Students' Representative Council (SRC) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

'Become an effective transformational leader', was the theme.

The goal was to inspire the participants, mostly university students, to aspire for excellence and to be more creative to drive the development of their communities.

Mr. Okrah said nations that invested in quality leadership training tended to produce transformational leaders.

It was the secret behind the success story of the developed countries.

He used the platform to rally students to lead efforts at helping to change the people's attitude towards environmental sanitation.

GNA

By Stephen Asante, GNA
20.12.2017 LISTEN

Silver Star Towers and the Japan Motors Group on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Koforidua Technical University for collaboration between industry and academia.

The MoU, which is being facilitated by Eastern and Volta Regional branch of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), aims to bridge the gap between academia and industry by recruiting students for the University for 'hands on training' and national service with Silver Star.

Mr Salah K. Kalmoni said the Silver Star had thought of this idea because sometimes it was difficult recruiting graduates from the National Service Secretariat, so they decided to relate directly with the various universities and institutions.

He said Koforidua Technical University was the first university that Silver Star had signed on for the initiative.

The company has informally been doing recruitments from the Accra Technical University, and other universities.

'We already recruit 10 national service personnel for silver Star Tower, Lake Side Estate and Advanced Construction, all part of the Japan Motors group. So we are looking forward to doing more.'

Mr Kalmoni noted that it was their corporate social responsibility, to recruit national service personnel, give them the necessary training and later if need be employed by them to work for their companies.

Professor Mrs Smile Dzisi, Vice Chancellor, Koforidua Technical University, said their biggest mandate was to have a very good relationship with industry, as they cannot develop their human resource without the support of industry.

She said 'for us to deliver on our mandate we need to have a strong collaboration with industry. Our mandate is to train graduates who would easily fit into the job market.'

She said the partnership with Silver Star Tower would help their students to get easy industrial exposure, to come for industrial attachment, have opportunity for staff to impact practical skills to students, and opportunity for the graduates to get easy employment.

'We want to develop a strong linkage with the industry to easily fit our students into the job market. We are working closely with AGI, especially with the Volta and Eastern Regional branch to link up with the industry.'

Professor Dzisi noted that the industries would help them in the development of curriculum, practical skills training, so that the students would be ready for the job market to contribute effectively to the development of the country.

Mr Dela Gadzanku said if the universities were able to produce the required human capital for industry, then we would have a serious constrains to militate against the current trend.

Mr Gadzanku said 'we thought it wise upon ourselves to collaborate with some of the key technical universities in the Volta and Eastern Regions to get the required human capital for industry'.

He commended Silver Star for leading that drive and urged other industries to emulate the examples, saying they looked forward to having students from the university come and do attachments, national service and for possible employment.

GNA

By Hafsa Obeng, GNA
Mrs. Samira Bawumia, wife of Vice President Bawumia has organised a stakeholders meeting with key players in the fashion industry to see how best to enroll the 'Needles 4 girls' project in Accra.

The project, Network for Enterprise Development through Sewing for Girls, dubbed 'Needles 4 girls' (N4G) is aimed at taking young women from deprived areas who have genuine interest in learning fashion design, to equip them with fashion related employable skills.

It is also to empower them to be self-sufficient and fend for their families.

Mrs Bawumia said the project would also transform the lives of at 1,500 deprived girls combining a variety of methodologies to pick, groom, train, equip, and set up vibrant fashion related business across the country.

She said the meeting was aimed at engaging the minds of stakeholders on the 'Needles for girls' project which is a project to be rolled out by the Samira Empowerment and Humanitarian Projects, (SEHP).

SEHP is a non-profit organisation that has four core mandates, education, health, women empowerment as well as entrepreneurial development, with its mission to facilitate self-sufficiency in women and break the cycle of poverty through diverse social interventions.

She noted that the fashion industry in Ghana over the years continued to experience flourishing growth owning in part to the demand for quality products by the lower, expanding middle and upper classes.

Mrs Bawumia noted that high unemployment among the youth with girls being the most affected and vulnerable had culminated in the idea to roll out the Needles 4 girls project to give the girls the opportunity to convert their talents and interest into viable fashion businesses.

She commended the GIZ for their commitment of 450,000 Euros to the project, expressing the hope that by the end of the project, they would have positively impacted, affected and transformed the lives of families through empowering the girls.

Mrs Bawumia urged the participants who were carefully selected from the industry to bring out their best throughout the deliberations in order to be able to structure the project to achieve the desired results.

The 'Needles for girls' project seeks to combine various methodologies to train, teach and groom deprived girls in the fashion related profession so that in the end they could either set up their own business or belong to a supply chain in the fashion related businesses in existence.

It intends to apply 80 percent hands on training, and 20 percent theory sections as well as adopt a tailor made cut out curriculum.

The project, expected to start in April 2018 would capture 1500 young girls, engaged in fashion and its related businesses, by reaching out to 400 young girls within the first year, 200 for tailoring and dress making, and another 200 for other fashion businesses, as well as 500 girls in year two and 600 in year three.

At the outcome level, at least 700 of these girls are expected to be in new or improved employment and job opportunities, and another 800 within the same number having improved their income.

It would also explore the existence of already existing credit unions to provide a startup and enterprise support programmes needed for their businesses.

Three fashion training centres would be created for the training of the girls.

The northern zone comprising of Upper East, Upper West and Northern Regions, the middle zone comprising of Brong Ahafo, Ashanti, Volta and the Eastern Regions and the Coastal zones comprising of Greater Accra, Western and Central Regions.

The three-year training courses would cover areas in dress making and tailoring, beads making, shoe making, entrepreneurship, personal grooming, business ethics, sexual reproductive health, health insurance, occupational health and safety among others.

GNA

By Hafsa Obeng, GNA
Authorities in Ghana are in talks with their Ivorian counterparts over measures to sanitise the two major water bodies, the Tano and Bia Rivers, which have been polluted by the activities of Ghanaian illegal miners.

'The Ministries involved - Environment and Mines of both sides have met on three occasions; once in Abidjan and then twice in Ghana.

'We have drafted an MOU and have outlined all the steps that we are going to take to sanitise the water bodies,' Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, announced in Accra.

He was answering a question posed by the GNA about what Ghana was doing to address the water pollution fracas that had popped up between Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire.

The Minister gave the response at a meeting in Accra, involving a delegation of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), and other stakeholders to discuss how to reduce mercury usage in artisanal mining.

The meeting, also attended by members of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), representatives of Small-Scale miners and other stakeholders, also briefed participants on a UNIDO collaborative project aimed at supporting Ghana to gradually eliminate mercury usage in the country.

The Tano takes its source from the forest in Pooyemin, near Techiman, and flows 400 kilometres from Techiman to Ehy Lagoon, Tendo Lagoon and finally Aby Lagoon in Ivory Coast, from where it enters the Atlantic Ocean.

The Tano River System has a total catchment area of about 15,000 Km2 shared between Ghana and Cote D'Ivoire. About 93% of the drainage area is within Ghana, whilst the remaining 7% is in the Cote D'Ivoire.

The Bia also flows through Ivory Coast and empties into the Aby Lagoon.

Giving more information on the issue, Prof Frimpong-Boateng explained that the Ivorians got their water supply from the Bia and Tano rivers and that the polluted Tano was also polluting the Abidjan lagoon, which had become a big problem for the people.

'So we have taken steps that include the deployment of 400 security personnel to deal with this water pollution. And the good thing is that the artisanal miners themselves have also formed a taskforce and they are very helpful because those doing the right things don't pollute the waters,' he explained.

'This is because they have the impression that the polluters of the waters have brought this calamity of the ban on mining on them. So they are helping us in addressing the issues.

'As we go on the situation will improve. It will take some time but the Ivorians know that we, in Ghana, are doing something about it.'

He also sounded a caution to those illegal miners who were still engaging in the illegal mining activities in the Atewa range and other mining centres, despite the ban, that they would be dealt with soon.

He said the Ivorian authorities started complaining about the pollution of their water bodies by the activities of galamsey operations in Ghana which had polluted two of major rivers in their country long time ago.

'And so I believe that things are going to be better, we've had a big problem on our hands with the artisanal gold mining, and illegal mining and we want to take advantage of this unfortunate situation to create something that is better for our nation and especially for the miners,' Prof Frimpong-Boateng stated.

The Technical Experts Sub-committee set up by Ghana and CAte d'Ivoire to come up with measures to tackle the pollution of the Tano-Bia River Basin and its impact on CAte d'Ivoire in June this year presented its first report to a ministerial ad hoc committee in Accra.

The report, among others, recommended that both countries had to adopt a programme of activities to deal with illegal mining in the Tano-Bia basins shared by both countries, with clear timelines.

In March 2017 an Ivorian newspaper article, titled 'The 'Gold Rush' polluting Cote d'Ivoire's drinking water,' reported how galamsey in Ghana was impacting on water supply in that country.

The report described the Bia River as a vital source of water for the residents of Bianouan in eastern Cote d'Ivoire.

'They drink the river water, and they bathe, fish and wash their clothes in it. But all that changed about a month ago, when the river turned a murky brown. Our observers suspect that illegal gold mining is behind the contamination,'

It said the people in Bianouan could no longer use the river for drinking or washing, because it is so polluted, and fishing had come to a standstill.

GNA

By Lydia Kukua Asamoah, GNA
The second batch of 205 Forestry Commission's (FC) field staff had ended a three-week intensive training session at the Military Training Camp at Asutuare.

The training is to equip them to help in the fight against the increasing wave of forest and wildlife crimes and to tackle illegal activities in protected forest reserves.

In all, the Forestry Commission plans to train about 1,000 field staff, made up of forest guards and range supervisors.

Already, 210 staff, made up of 200 forest guards and 10 range supervisors, participated in the first training session, bringing the number so far trained to 415.

Mr John Allotey, the Deputy Chief Executive of the Forestry Commission, speaking at the closing ceremony of the capacity building and teamwork training for range supervisors and forest guards, urged the participants to apply the knowledge gained to enhance performance.

He said the field staffs were the pivot around which effective forest protection revolves and assured them of management's commitment to equip them with the necessary accoutrement to ensure effective delivery.

Mr Allotey said the training was aimed at improving the physical and mental strength of the participants and to update their skills in weapon handling, saying that, he was happy with the drills and discipline that was demonstrated.

In recent times, there have been several reported cases of poachers, illegal loggers and miners, either maiming or killing field staff of the Commission on patrol duties.

The field staff went through weapon handling and jungle military training, general forestry management, effective patrols, offence detection, mapping, physical training, intelligence work and information gathering, among others.

He pledged the Commission's commitment to provide all frontline staff with the necessary training and equipment to enable them to carry out their mandated duties effectively.

Mr Allotey expressed the hope that the skills they had acquired would put them on higher pedestal for effective forest protection.

He cautioned the personnel against acts that could bring the name of the Commission into disrepute and urged them not to apply the skills acquired to bully the members of the public.

He expressed his appreciation to the Ghana Armed Forces for the collaboration to ensure that the Commission achieved its vision to leave the future generations with more valuable forest and wildlife resources.

Lt Colonel Fifii Deegbe, Commanding Officer of the 64 Infantry Regiment, said the participants performed creditably during the training and urged them to give good account of themselves when they go back to work.

He urged the team to use the skills acquired to enhance performance in order to justify the huge investment made in them.

The Participants were presented with certificates.

Present at the closing session was Brigadier General Oppong-Peprah, General Officer Commanding the Southern Command and executives of the Forestry Commission.

GNA
20.12.2017 LISTEN

A report launched by the African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) on Tuesday urged government to complement the free Senior High School Policy with more investment in infrastructure at the second-cycle level.

The report noted that, while the free SHS policy comes with equality of opportunity for qualified persons to attain second-cycle education, foreseeable pressure on existing school infrastructure makes the policy a self-defeating one.

'Unless more investment is made in infrastructure provision, qualified candidates may be denied entry. Educational quality is also likely to be affected,' the report noted.

The report titled 'Leveraging Ghana's Oil Resources Wealth for Economic and Human Development,' carried out by ACEP in partnership with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), was undertaken to access the impact of oil revenue investment in education in Ghana.

It was launched alongside a second report titled: 'A Value for Money Analysis of Annual Budget Funding Amount', that was also conducted in fulfillment of ACEP's oversight role for the transparent, efficient and equitable use and management of Ghana's petroleum revenues.

According to the report on 'Leveraging Ghana's Oil Resources Wealth for Economic and Human Development', education had been found to remain a critical input and dimension of human development and economic growth.

However, current educational attainment in Ghana does not significantly impact the country's economic growth.

It also revealed that basic education in Ghana was near universal and that nearly all persons of 25 years and above had achieved 6 years and 8 months of mean years of schooling.

This means that more efforts needs to be invested in helping Ghanaian children advance to second-cycle level and beyond, the report noted.

It said, revenues from Ghana's oil resources, definitely, have a role to play in financing education.

Ms Dorcas Koomson, an Educationist, who launched the two reports, noted that, the importance of education to the socio-economic development was evidenced in how every government prioritised education and make it more accessible to all.

She said, when education was prioritised, 'then we can rub shoulders with other countries and even manage our God-given resources that we are endowed with.'

She commended successive governments for working to ensure a universal basic education for almost every child in the country, expressing the hope that, with more prudent measures, tertiary education could also be made free in future.

Mr Benjamin Boakye, the Executive Director of ACEP, explained that the two reports assessed the extent to which oil revenue was invested in education between 2011 and 2017, and how the report marched with the policy objectives set out in the country's education strategy plans.

The plans are: Ghana Education Strategy Plan (2010 - 2020), Education Sector Medium Term Plan (2014-2017) and the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (2011) (Act 815) as amended.

He noted that the findings emphasized the need to critically monitor oil revenue and make judicious use of it to enhance equality of opportunities for all Ghanaians.

He said Ghana should learn from the good examples of Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brazil, who had invested petroleum resources into education and reaping the benefits in terms of higher literacy rate, high human development achievement and high gross domestic product per capita.

Mr Fritz Kopseiker, the Country Director of FES, said the effective management of oil revenue was important to ensure value for money.

He, therefore, urged Ghanaians, especially the media, to continue to hold the state institutions and politicians in check to ensure that they made judicious use of the country's natural resources.

GNA

By Lydia Asamoah/ Julius K. Satsi, GNA
The Executive Director of the African Center for Energy Policy (ACEP), Ben Boakye, has warned government's Free Senior High School programme might fail if allocated funds to the programme are not tracked.

According to him, there must be transparency and accountability to ensure that such allocations truly benefit the programme.

It is not just about raising revenue to say we are supporting free SHS, but which specific items are receiving the fund for the sectors, and how can we track it as a people to ensure that the monies are not sipping or diverted into pockets, but rather going to finance education or infrastructure. If we don't do that, we continue to spend and the outcome will not be the way we want. We are spending so much on education, and yet the challenges are not going away, it means that we need to track how revenue is spent and how the monies that are allocated to ministry of education are performing, and that is the only way we can guarantee real success in the education service he said

A research report by ACEP launched on Tuesday revealed that there was no value for money in oil revenue-funded educational projects in three Senior High Schools. The report noted the projects had no impact on student performance nor welfare.

Contracts for all three projects were awarded through selective tendering with only one complete.

Others incurred budget overruns to the tune of GhC1million, and he reprimanded the Ministries for what he calls centralized corruption.

According to the 2015 report on the petroleum Holding Funds, an amount of GHC 61,006.75 was disbursed for the rehabilitation of the science resource center at Nalerigu SHS, but since 2015 when ABFA was disbursed to date, no rehabilitation work has happened on the science resource center in Nalerigu SHS.

In 2015, a sum of GHC243,805.49 from oil revenues was disbursed to Swedru school of business (SWESBU) for the construction of 2,500 seater capacity assembly dining hall with an attached kitchen. The project was assessed to provide an evidence-based evaluation of the progress of work done, and how efficiently the funds have been spent on the project since it was awarded. The project has currently been stalled due to non-disbursement of funds to complete it.

We are centralizing corruption in our country, the Ministry of Education and all the other ministries, they want to spend in Accra so that they can control the money. If you have a project all the way in Nalerigu, why would want to award the contract in Accra when there are local contractors, the community members are there, the district assembly is there, who can engage the contractors and supervise them, so they send these projects to the community, they keep the money in Accra, and projects don't get done and yet they get paidBen Boakye said.

The only recent rehabilitation was completed in 2012; after the Ministry of Education had awarded a contract in 2011, through multiple sole-sourcing to Messr Zidra Fisheries & Enterprise limited to renovate the science resource center at a contract sum of about GHC104,659.53.

The project was however executed and completed in 2012 by AL RAS ENT, a sub-contractor who is based in Bolgatanga.

Why would someone register a company as a fishery, and later become a construction company. These are interesting prompts that demand that we continue to track how people get contracts, and how they deliver them. For all you know, these are politicians, who are setting up companies and they can move them to any project anywhere they find across the country, so need to begin to track who are behind these companies and how they get contracts in the first place he said.



By:Farida Yusif/Citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Free SHS may collapse without tracking of funds  ACEP appeared first on Ghana News .
A member of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC), Steve Manteaw, is urging government to sanction persons found to have misused the country's petroleum revenue.

According to him, successive governments have failed to track the use of the country's petroleum receipts.

Speaking on Eyewitness News, Dr. Manteaw, who is also a policy analyst with the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC), said the Minister of Finance must be compelled to provide a regular update on the use of the country's oil receipt.

His comment comes on the back of a call by the African Centre for Energy Policy for government to put in place mechanisms to track spending on the Free SHS programme.

Free SHS may collapse without tracking of funds  ACEP

The Executive Director of ACEP, Ben Boakye in a Citi News interview said,  it is not just about raising revenue to say we are supporting free SHS, but which specific items are receiving the fund for the sectors, and how can we track as a people to ensure that the monies are not sipping or diverted into pockets, but rather going to finance education or infrastructure.

If we don't do that, we continue to spend and the outcome will not be the way we want. We are spending so much on education and yet the challenges are not going away, it means that we need to track how revenue is spent, he said.

Steve Manteaw, who backed ACEP's call, lamented that successive governments were funding almost all educational projects in the country, without the needed accountability.

While calling for sanctions against persons who abuse the petroleum receipts, he said, we need to take steps to sanction people who are found culpable in terms of abusing petroleum revenue in this country. The abuses have happened largely because the minister of finance, including this very one, have violated section 38 of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA), which requires that in their annual reconciliation report, they actually indicate the stage of completion of oil-funded projects, so if we were getting regular updates in terms of the utilizations and outcome of these revenues as they are used, then there is a way it limits opportunities for abuse because you are invariably accounting.

'Gov't tracking Free SHS for accountability'

Meanwhile, a deputy Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has assured that government is effectively tracking the implementation of the flagship Free SHS programme to ensure that funds allocated for its implementation are judiciously used.

This administration has beyond the PIAC report that tracks ABFA utilization, set up a Ministry for Monitoring and Evaluation which goes into detail of what is being spent on which project. What timelines have been given, and who is within budget. That gives a fair sense of how we are working to track general government programs and projects, but also specifically the free SHS because it is a flagship program of this government. There is a tracking mechanism, he said.



By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Sanction those misusing petroleum revenue  Manteaw to Govt appeared first on Ghana News .
The Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) plans to raise $750 million from a consortium of banks to help finance a massive cocoa rehabilitation programme, which will result in the replacement of almost half of the countrys total tree stock.

The world second largest producer of the beans wants to cut down more than 400,000 hectares (988,431 acres) of trees which are non-productive because they are either diseased or over aged, Chief Executive Officer of the Board, Mr Joseph Boahen Aidoo said in an interview.

We will cut nothing less than 45 percent of total tress stock, but we will do it in phases over a period of between five to eight years, he said, adding that, about 20 percent of Ghanas cocoa trees have been affected by the Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease, a virus which reduces yields and kills a plant within three to four years, while another 25 percent of trees are old and unproductive.

The spread of the disease is disturbing and alarming, even young farms, which are just about to get to their peak production levels have been affected by the virus, and the sad part of this development is that there is nothing to be done about those trees than to hew them down, a development that will leave cocoa farmers very miserable, he said.

This is why we are seeking to raise this short-term facility to finance our rehabilitation programme as well as incentivise farmers to cut the old and diseased trees and replant with the new high yielding hybrid seedlings, Mr Aidoo said.

This will be in addition to an expected borrowing of $600 million from the African Development Bank for the building of warehouses and other measures to improve storage and distribution of the crop.

Part of the loans will also be used to train more extension officers, who will work in the cocoa growing communities and help educate the farmers on best agronomic practices that will boost crop yields.

The industry regulator is also seeking to improve yields and incomes of hundreds of thousands of small-holder farmers, who dominate the industry in Ghana.
The Northern Regional Depot Manager of the Metro Mass Transit Company Limited, Malik Ibrahim, has denied reports suggesting that some New Patriotic Party (NPP) youth on Monday, December 18, 2017, ransacked the companys stores and bolted with spare parts.

Reports that went viral on both mainstream and social media alleged that some suspected NPP youth, during an auction, broke into the MMT stores and left the premises with spare parts.

But the MMTs Northern Regional Depot Manager, Malik Ibrahim, rubbished the reports in a Citi News interview.

He admitted that the auction took place, but insisted that none of the bidders in the crowd had attacked the companys stores.

It is true that we did some auction, and there was a crowd in our yard, but actually nothing of that sort happened, he said.

I am putting it on record that none of my parts in the stores were stolen. All our properties are intact.

He urged the media to desist from politicizing the auction, saying, the general public came because it is an open auction. People came from all walks of life and so we dont know which political partys members were there.



By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com

The post Northern MMT denies attack on their office by NPP youth appeared first on Ghana News .
20.12.2017 LISTEN

Ghana is facing suspension from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, (E.I.T.I), the global benchmark for the transparent and accountable management of extractive resources such as mining and oil.

This is despite a brilliant start in the programme as well as two international awards so far - one as recent as October 2017.

According to a source close to the Multi-Stakeholder Group, which serves as the governing body of the Ghana EITI, the risk of suspension is as a result of the countrys inability to produce a report since 2014.

This was reportedly disclosed last week during a familiarization visit by the Chairman of the EITI international board, former Swedish Prime Minister, Fredrick Reinfeldt.

In 2016, at the EITI Global Conference in Peru, Ghana was adjudged an exemplary country for using the EITI for wide ranging reforms in the mining, oil and gas sectors. There however appears to be some suspicion among the global EITI fraternity that Ghanas commitment to transparency and the fight against corruption in the countrys extractive sector is waning.

Sponsored Article Robbing the Assemblies - The Full Story (Video)

Manasseh Azure Awuni's investigative Documentary, Robbing the Assemblies, which features the GHc 320 milion shady landfills management contract with Waste Landfills Company Limited, a subsidiary of the Jospong Group.

Some stakeholders suspect the visit by the chairman of the EITI international board to Ghana was ostensibly to confirm the level of political commitment to the initiative, especially against the backdrop that reporting appears to have stalled.

Suspension will be bad news for Ghana said Dr Manteaw. It will dent Ghanas international image and affects its goodwill among development partners. Above all it will affect investment attractiveness of the country he adds.

Governments commitment not in doubt

But the Co-Chair of the Ghana EITI said the commitment of the government is not in doubt. He explained in an exclusive interview that, Ghana signed on to the initiative in 2003 under an NPP government, and even though the World Bank withheld funding from Ghana following disagreement over the countrys choice of EITI administrator, the government, through Dr Akoto Osei, then Deputy Finance Minister, went out of its way to find money outside the budget to finance Ghanas first EITI report,

Dr Manteaw notes again that the factors that have contributed to the delay in reporting are purely financial and drawbacks associated with the countrys transitional process. Ghana, he disclosed, went through a similar lull in reporting in 2009 following the political transition of the time. The problem is, our transitions are too often characterized by mistrust and a certain pre-occupation with sorting out the governments finances before making any new financial commitments. These processes take time and affects the rollout of projects and programmes to which this country is already committed.

Section 1.6 (a) of the EITI Standard, dealing with reporting and Validation deadlines provides as follows:

The EITI requires timely publication of EITI Reports (Requirement 2). If the EITI report is not published by the required deadline, the country will be suspended.

The suspension will be lifted if the EITI Board is satisfied that the outstanding EITI report is published within six months of the deadline. If the outstanding reports are not published within six months of the deadline, the suspension will remain in force until the EITI Board is satisfied that the country has published an EITI report that covers data no older than the second to last complete accounting period (requirement 2).

If the suspension is in effect for more than one year the, EITI Board will delist the country. As to how a country organises itself to ensure an uninterrupted reporting even in times of political transition is something that implementing countries have to find ways of dealing with.

For now, however, its a race against time, as Ghana has to produce a report by close of year or face suspension.

Extension

The GHEITI secretariat at the Ministry of Finance has however indicated that Ghana has reasonable grounds to seek extension, as the World Bank, which had earlier pledged funds for the reporting failed to honour its side of the bargain late in the year, prompting government to quickly find the money to finance the reports from its own resources.

The Ghana Oil and Gas for Inclusive Growth (GOGIG), a DFID support programme for the oil and gas sector has come to the governments aid by offering to pay for the oil and gas component of the GHEITI reporting.

The EITI Theory of Change

The EITI is premised on a theory of change which supposes that if citizens are provided with accurate and timely information on the extractive sector they will be empowered to demand accountability from duty-bearers and that will invariably lead to a more responsible and accountable management of the extractive sector.
20.12.2017 LISTEN

The Assembly member for the Bantama electoral area in the Ashanti region, Kwaku Ofori, has revealed that gang rape is rife among the youth in the community.

According to him, the young boys in the area often gang rape girls in the neighbourhood and several attempts by him to stop the practice has been met with little or no support from the security agencies and parents.

His comments come on the back of three boys who have been arrested by the Bantama Police for gang raping a young woman and filming the ordeal.

The Police is still hunting for four other boys.

Speaking to Ultimate FMs Isaac Bediako Justice, Mr. Ofori expressed delight that the bad deeds of the boys in Bantama has caught public attention.

Gang rape happens often in BantamaInfact I have done everything possible to ensure that the boys who gang rape girls are caught but I have not been successful.

But today this has become public by Gods graceI am sure God wants the world to know what has been happening in Bantamaso in a way I am happy this has happened, Mr. Ofori said.

The video has sparked massive outrage in the country with majority of Ghanaians calling on the Police to ensure that the boys are prosecuted.

The about five minutes video shows an underage girl pinned to a mattress by one of her abusers while his accomplices take turns to perform sexual acts on her.

The victim who was resisting her attackers all-through the ordeal was restrained from escaping by her abusers who appeared to be having fun with the torture.
The Ghana Chamber of Mines yesterday presented a cheque for $100,000 to the Minister of Environment, Science and Technology Innovation (MESTI) to help transform scientific research and technological innovation in Ghana.

The gesture was in response to a request by Prof Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, this year to the Chamber to support an initiative on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) training programme to empower the next generation of researchers, problem solvers and leaders.

Kwame Addo Kufuor, President of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, who presented the cheque to Prof Frimpong Boateng, noted: Our presence here today is to affirm our commitment to the STEM training programme due to its potential of making Ghana a reference point for scientific and technological advancement on the continent. As a Chamber, we are aware that the contribution of mining to Ghana's economic progress transcends the direct fiscal contributions. It has always been our fervent belief that effective integration of the non-mineral sector must begin with proper training of our young ones to take advantage of the opportunities in the value chain of the mining industry.

He said globally progressive nations achieve accelerated economic transformation on the back of the minerals and mining industry.

We have at various times taken voluntary initiatives to promote in-country expenditure on mining inputs such as fabrication of critical components of plant, machinery & equipment and engineering services.

We are currently collaborating with the faculty of University of Mines and Technology to develop key inputs in commercial quantities for the industry. The realisation of our local content goals can be possible if only the right investors are paired with local professionals with the right skills and expertise to produce the inputs.

Prof Frimpong Boateng commended the Chamber for the support and expressed optimism that the donation would inspire other corporate organisations and donor agencies to support the STEM Project.

He reiterated the importance of Science and Technology in training people for the job market and indicated that the government was concerned with aligning the requirements of the job market with skills development and capacity building.

That, he opined, would go a long way to boost the quality of Ghana's human resources.
The minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) Members of Parliament (MPs) on Monday vehemently opposed the passage of the National Fiscal Stabilisation Levy (Amendment) Bill, 2017 because they said it is their brainchild which the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) wants to unduly benefit from.

The National Fiscal Stabilisation Levy (Amendment) Bill was first introduced in 2013 by the then NDC government  which became an Act to help raise funds for the government to stabilize the economy that was suffering from external shocks.

At the consideration stage of the Amendment for 2017 at the committee level, the minority members on the Finance Committee refused to approve the Levy.

During the second reading of the Bill on Monday, the deputy minority leader, James Klutse Avedzi and the minority chief whip, Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka, strongly opposed the debate, raising questions about lack of quorum to debate such an important bill.

The first deputy speaker, Joseph Osei-Owusu, however, allowed the debate to continue, with the members of the majority NPP accusing the minority of intentionally trying to stifle business of the government.

The ranking member on the Finance Committee, Cassiel Ato Forson, argued during the debate that extending the life of the National Fiscal Stabilisation Levy (Amendment) Bill, 2017 to 2019  which might have yielded GH263.2 million to the state over the period  is like imposing a new tax that would further increase the corporate tax for companies.

According to him, the NPP promised during the 2016 electioneering campaign that it would reduce the corporate income tax from 25% to 20% when it came to power; but up till now nothing had been done to that effect.

Mr Ato Forson, who is the NDC MP for Ajumako/Enyan/Essiam in the Central Region, claimed that the minority could not be part of the passage of the bill because it is detrimental to the growth of businesses in the country. He recalled also that the NPP said in opposition that it was going to reduce corporate income tax to help distressed companies.

Mr James Klutse Avedzi remarked that the passage of the bill did not meet the requirement of Section 100 of the Public Financial Management Act because it did not come to parliament with impact analysis.

The Minister for Monitoring and Evaluation and MP for Tafo in the Ashanti Region, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei, stressed that the conditions considered for introducing the bill in 2013 by the NDC are still prevailing and therefore it is important that after the NDC had completely destroyed the economy, the life of the Levy is prolonged to help raise more funds to help stabilize the economy.

Dr Anthony Akoto Osei noted, You people destroyed the economy so much so that you had to run to the IMF for bailout; and when the NPP took over the economy it had been completely destabilized by the NDC government's bad policies so we are now doing our best to stabilise the economy.

By Thomas Fosu Jnr
Ghana Mineworkers Union (GMWU) has urged government to stop mining firm, Gold Fields Limited from implementing its proposed contract mining at its Tarkwa Mine in the Western Region.

The call was contained in a resolution passed by the National Executive Council of GMWU of Trades Union Congress (TUC) on December 14, 2017.

Gold Fields Limited is reportedly planning to lay off a total of 1,700 workers from its Tarkwa Mine in the Western Region.

The move to lay off workers is due to a scheduled shift from owner mining to contractual mining at Gold Fields Tarkwa Mine.

But the National Executive Council of the Ghana Mineworkers Union, which held a meeting in Accra from December 13-14, 201, resolved among other things that government and the industry stakeholders must as a matter of urgency take immediate actions to halt the implementation of Gold Fields Ghana Limited's contract mining decision because there is no logical business case to warrant such a model at this time, considering the potential socio-economic consequences on workers and their families, the Tarkwa community and the nation as a whole.

According to the Union, There is a creeping phenomenon of unconventional methods of mining that support short term profiteering motives of multinationals in the mining industry but with long term ramifications on the Life of Mine and future of the stakeholders, particularly workers, host communities and the nation as a whole.

The Union said that government and its regulatory agencies, together with the industry's stakeholders, must re-examine the implementation of the Stability Agreement with the view to eliminating the 'non-compete clause', which has given an unfair competitive advantage to a few large-scale companies at the expense of others. We believe that an equal playing field is the way to go.

Furthermore, the Union commented: Government and its regulatory agencies must, as a matter of priority, subject Gold Fields Ghana Limited's assertions and factual inaccuracies to critical scrutiny and where falsehood is established, the necessary sanctions and penalties duly applied to serve as a deterrent to multinationals who operate in the industry.

Government and its regulatory agencies, together with the industry's stakeholders, must re examine the implementation of the Stability Agreement with the view to eliminating the 'non-compete clause,' which has given an unfair competitive advantage to a few large scale companies at the expense of others. We believe that an equal playing field is the way to go, it said.

By Melvin Tarlue
Security forces and an army-backed militia planned massacres in an opposition stronghold in the Democratic Republic of Congo, human rights activists charged Wednesday, calling the killings "crimes against humanity".

The southern Kasai region suffered "one of the worst human rights crises in the world" between March and July, the Paris-based International Human Rights Federation (FIDH) said in a report compiled with partner rights groups in the country.

It includes heart-rending testimony such as that of a 27-year-old woman who described soldiers attacking her village and burning down houses. As she fled, she "saw a lot of corpses... of children, of villagers."

The FIDH said the atrocities "were perpetrated mainly by elements of the Bana Mura militia at the instigation and with the support of security forces... against civilians of the Luba ethnic group."

The Luba are seen as supporting the anti-government Kamwina Nsapu militia, while other ethnic groups make up the Bana Mura militia active in Kasai.

In one of the worst attacks blamed on Bana Mura, the remote village of Cinq was "totally destroyed" and several female survivors said they were raped or sexually mutilated.

Several of their children were killed by militiamen with machetes, the 100-page report said.

Kabila anniversary

The Catholic Church has said the violence claimed more than 3,300 lives. The United Nations for its part has counted 87 mass graves and documented some 1.4 million displaced people.

The conflict erupted in September 2016 after government forces killed a tribal chieftain, known as the Kamwina Nsapu, who rebelled against President Joseph Kabila's regime in Kinshasa and its local representatives.

The release of the report comes a year to the day since Kabila refused to step down at the end of his second term, sparking a political crisis in the vast former Belgian colony.

The Catholic Church brokered a deal on New Year's Eve 2016 enabling Kabila to stay in office pending elections to be held in 2017. Those elections, in turn, were postponed to December 23, 2018.

The opposition has insisted that Kabila leave by the end of this year.

The FIDH said Lubas were "massacred in several dozen villages... because of their ethnicity, their supposed political affiliation with the opposition and their supposed support or membership" of Kamwina Nsapu.

"The crimes perpetrated... were planned, ordered and led by agents of the Congolese state" and the Bana Mura militia, it said, adding that the atrocities should be considered crimes against humanity.

The FIDH compiled witness testimony in July at a refugee camp in neighbouring Angola, speaking to 64 people, most of them Lubas, some with amputated limbs, permanent disfigurations or severe burns.

Atrocities on both sides

The report said anti-government Kamwina Nsapu militiamen earlier carried out "summary executions, often in the form of decapitations", after which they displayed the severed heads in the villages.

Two United Nations experts were killed in March while investigating the violence, of whom one was decapitated.

The atrocities led Congolese "defence and security forces to carry out disproportionate acts of reprisal" including against civilians, the FIDH said.

The UN, in a report released in August, also blamed state agents for more than 250 "extrajudicial or targeted killings" of civilians in the Kasai region from mid-March to mid-June.

Like the FIDH, UN investigators interviewed refugees in Angola who described atrocities at the hands of government troops and the Bana Mura as well as the anti-government Kamwina Nsapu militia.

The Congolese government questioned the "impartiality" of the probe, saying it was based "on testimony lacking in credibility".

The FIDH said it has the names of "at least 50" suspected perpetrators of atrocities which it could hand over to the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague if Kinshasa fails to mount a serious investigation.
Italian giant Eni and fellow petroleum company Shell will stand trial in Italy over allegations of bribery and corruption in the 2011 purchase of an offshore oil block in Nigeria.

A judge in Milan ordered Eni, Shell and key figures such as Eni chief Claudio Descalzi and his predecessor Paolo Scaroni to stand trial in proceedings to begin March 5.

The companies are accused of corruption in the 2011 purchase of OPL245, an offshore oil block estimated to hold 9 billion barrels of crude, for $1.3 billion.

"Eni's Board of Directors has reaffirmed its confidence that the company was not involved in alleged corrupt activities in relation to the transaction," the Italian firm said in a statement Wednesday.

"Eni expresses its full confidence in the judicial process and that the trial will ascertain and confirm the correctness and integrity of its conduct," it said.

It insisted in particular that "chief executive Claudio Descalzi was not involved in the alleged illegal conduct".

Both companies are charged with corruption in Nigeria over the accord, which allegedly saw Nigeria's former president Goodluck Jonathan and his oil minister pocket bribes.

The deal saw the Nigerian government act as an intermediary between the oil majors and Malabu Oil and Gas, a Nigerian company allegedly controlled by former petroleum minister Dan Etete.

Allegations of corruption and bribery have mounted in the years since, forcing Shell and Eni to repeatedly maintain that they acquired the rights to the lucrative block in line with Nigerian law.

But email exchanges between Shell management cited in a report by corruption watchdog Global Witness, and seen by AFP, suggest that Shell was aware the money was likely to be funnelled to individuals, including Etete and Jonathan.

Etete was also ordered to stand trial by the Milan court.

Nigeria's anti-graft agency filed corruption charges against Shell and Eni in March, accusing 11 defendants, including Etete, of "official corruption" in connection with the oil block deal.

Jonathan has denied receiving kickbacks, saying in January that he has not been "accused, indicted or charged for corruptly collecting monies" linked to the deal.

The OPL245 oil block has been a source of contention for almost two decades.

In 1998, the block was awarded by then-petroleum minister Dan Etete to Malabu Oil and Gas.

Years of legal wrangling between Malabu, the Nigerian government and Shell ensued, with Shell ultimately winning rights to the block in a partnership with Eni.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who has promised to fight corruption in Nigeria's oil sector, has said "mind-boggling" sums have been stolen from the public purse.
Uber is officially a transport company and not a digital service, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled.

The ride-hailing firm argued it was an information society service  helping people to make contact with each other electronically  and not a cab firm.

The case arose after Uber was told to obey local taxi rules in Barcelona.

Uber said the verdict would make little difference to the way it operated in Europe, but experts say the case could have implications for the gig economy.

An Uber spokesperson said: This ruling will not change things in most EU countries where we already operate under transportation law.

However, millions of Europeans are still prevented from using apps like ours. As our new CEO has said, it is appropriate to regulate services such as Uber and so we will continue the dialogue with cities across Europe. This is the approach well take to ensure everyone can get a reliable ride at the tap of a button.

In its ruling, the ECJ said that a service whose purpose was to connect, by means of a smartphone application and for remuneration, non-professional drivers using their own vehicle with persons who wish to make urban journeys must be classified as a service in the field of transport in EU law.

It added: As EU law currently stands, it is for the member states to regulate the conditions under which such services are to be provided in conformity with the general rules of the treaty on the functioning of the EU.

This ruling is another example of how the courts and regulators are struggling to make sense of the phenomenon known as the gig economy.

Since Uber was first launched less than a decade ago, it has repeatedly fallen foul of regulators in different countries  and has frequently been forced to change its business model as a result.

This ruling sets out clearly that Uber is, in legal terms at least, a transport company. Uber itself insists that there wont be a huge immediate impact on its business, but it could still affect how it operates in future and how it liaises with national governments.

Uber itself has previously said this will undermine the reform of what it calls outdated laws.

On a wider basis, it could have implications for other gig economy businesses that try to portray themselves as little more than an app on a phone, connecting providers with customers; it appears the courts, so far, are taking a different view.

That could ultimately have an impact, not just on ride-hailing services, but on other gig economy services  such as couriers and accommodation providers  who operate a similar model.

TUC general secretary Frances OGrady said the verdict meant Uber must play by the same rules as everybody else.

She added: Their drivers are not commodities. They deserve at the very least the minimum wage and holiday pay.

Advances in technology should be used to make work better, not to return to the type of working practices we thought wed seen the back of decades ago.

The verdict comes after Uber was told last month that the appeal to renew its licence in London could take years, according to Mayor Sadiq Khan.

Benefits

Ubers presence around the world has often been controversial, with protests staged against it in various cities.

However, Rohan Silva, a tech entrepreneur and former adviser to David Cameron, says the firm has made competitors up their game.

Millions of people use these ride-hailing apps every day  not just Uber, but dozens of others too. They have brought real benefits, making it cheaper, easier and more convenient to get around the city, he told Radio 4s Today programme.

There has also been a benefit in incumbent London taxi cabs, which are now taking credit cards, which they resisted for years. That is a response to competition.

He added that similar services could soon face regulation as a result of the ECJ ruling.

There could be big implications for a sharing economy service like Airbnb, which will probably be regulated by the EU, he said.

What is fascinating about this right now is that different countries are taking very different views. Portugal has legalised Uber and Airbnb, whereas France is clamping down.

Prof Andre Spicer, from the Cass Business School, welcomed the ruling. He told Today: Many people see the EU is actually leading the way in pushing back the almost unlimited power of tech firms and beginning to provide some limits around that.

We also claim this fosters competition, but what Ubers model is based on is pricing, so much that they basically drove everyone else out of the market.

This judgement will allow normal competition, so what we will see is lots of other smaller apps appearing around Europe.
Sorry, we can't find the content you're looking for at this URL.
20.12.2017 LISTEN

President Nana Akufo-Addo has summoned the Trade and Industry Minister, Alan Kyeremanten, over the allegations that his ministry charged expatriates between $25,000 and $100,000 to enable them to sit close to the President at an awards ceremony.

The President is seeking full disclosure on the matter and has given the Minister until 5 pm today [Wednesday] to report to him.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry has already dissociated itself from these allegations which first came from the Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mubarak.

Mr. Mubarak said the fees charged at the Ghana Expatriate Business Awards (GEBA) were not approved by Parliament, adding that the monies were also not accounted for in the Internally Generated Funds [IGF] of the Ministry's accounts.

The Trade Ministry, in a statement , said it played no role in determining prices for seats at the event and clarified that it only facilitated the implementation of a new initiative by the Millennium Excellence Foundation.

It also said the foundation was to take that responsibility for the organisation of the event.



By: citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Nana Addo summons Alan over alleged Trade Ministry extortion appeared first on Ghana News .
Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul, has told Parliament that government is aiming at completing the construction of a military training school on the disputed Nkonya-Alavanyo land in 2018.

According to him, structures for the establishment of a military school on the disputed Alavanyo and Nkonya lands, are about 70 percent complete.

Speaking on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday during the debate over the Ministrys 2018 budgetary allocation, Dominic Nitiwul said the disputed land was suitable for a jungle training school for the military, but lack of funds had resulted in the stalling of the project.

In view of the fact that the structures are not fully completed, the School is not functioning currently as proposed. It is however envisaged that, when funds become available in 2018, the Training School would be completed for commissioning and operationalization. In the meantime, it is envisaged that occasionally, some Jungle Welfare exercises from Akim Achiase Jungle Welfare School will be conducted on the disputed land.

Dominic Nitiwul told Parliament in July 2017 that the government had decided to take over the land to serve as a military base.

He told the House that he believes the move will help resolve the over a century old conflict between Nkonya and Alavanyo that has resulted in the loss of many lives.

We on our part the security we'll start training in that particular area, the structures have already been put there, to ensure that the security is permanently present there because we need land to train so if people have land and they give to us to train and they are disputing over it, we will go and use that place to train, he said.

The Volta Regional Minister, Archibald Letsa, had earlier hinted of government's plan to take over the land, adding that both factions; Nkonya and Alavanyo had agreed to the takeover.

Mr. Letsa on a visit to the area after a shooting incident, said government was determined to ensure that lasting peace prevails in the area to pave way for accelerated development, but lamented that the two feuding factions are not giving peace a chance, a situation that has virtually turned the two traditional areas into ghost areas, starving them of the needed investment to stimulate growth.

He however assured them that as soon as sanity returns to the area, he will do whatever it takes to move investments there.



By: Fred Djabanor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Nkonya-Alavanyo military school to be completed in 2018  Nitiwul appeared first on Ghana News .
20.12.2017 LISTEN

Before I delve deeply and fully into the subject of this column, which is road infrastructure development, I would like to take this prime opportunity to remind President Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the imperative need for him to ensure that the Potroasi-Nsutam section of the Accra-Kumasi Highway is reconstructed in order to prevent major historic towns like Kyebi, his own hometown, and Asiakwa, my own, from becoming ghost towns. From what I have learned from quite a number of relatives who visited the area recently, car-jacking by armed robbers appear to have effectively taken over this section of the Kumasi-Accra Highway that used to be a first-class road by international standards, primarily due to official neglect.

That was during the short-lived era of the Progress Party (PP) government of Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia, when Nana Akufo-Addos own father was Ghanas Ceremonial President. What we obviously need over the Potroasi Ravine is a suspension and double-leveled bridge. I also hope that this government is seriously considering the construction of all major new roads in the country with concrete, for cost-effective durability. I highlight the towns of Kyebi and Asiakwa because these two major towns have played a significant historic role in the development of the Great Akan States of Asante, Adansi/Adanse and Denkyira, among a host of others. And, in fact, reading the article captioned Road Infrastructure: Was I Sleeping or Mahama Misled Ghanaians? Akufo-Addo Asks MyJoyOnline.com / Ghanaweb.com 10/3/17), I could not help but recognize the fact that historically Kyebi was the nodal resettlement center for migrants and immigrants of Asante-Kokofu and Adanse descent.

And for those of our readers who may not know this, Asante-Kokofu is the original home of the Asantehemaa, which also means that it is the birthplace of the legendary Asante Empire, as we presently know it. And, of course, Kokofu is historically one of the major settlements of the Adanse State, and the Adanse are also known to have been the first of the Akan States to have constructed houses made of stone architecture. It is also the home of the Okyenhemaa. Indeed, as I read the afore-referenced article in which the reporter described the Upper-East, Upper-West and the Northern Region Proper as The Three Northern Regions, I could not help but wonder why the Eastern, Central, Western, Brong-Ahafo and Asante regions are not called The Five Akan Regions. For, the latter regions are even more ethnically and culturally homogeneous and cohesive than the so-called Three Northern Regions, which politically divisive leaders like former President John Dramani Mahama mischievously used in his two presidential election campaigns to remarkable effect.

Indeed, we could actually speak of The Six Akan Regions, especially when one reckons the fact that linguistically and population-wise, the Greater-Accra Region is more predominantly Akan than it is anything else. I have often observed in the past that the Akan and the Ga are inextricably a twin culture. Of course, I fully recognize the psychological threat that such categorization poses to nonethnic Akan-Ga/Ga-Akan people. And so maybe to ease such unnecessary tension, we need to envisage the Upper-East, Upper-West and the Northern regions as the disparate or distinct administrative entities that they are officially supposed to be.

At any rate, it is quite interesting that President Akufo-Addo, on a recent tour of the so-called Three Northern Regions, wondered aloud where the much-touted Mahama-constructed roads had gone to, in view of the fact that former Mahama appointees like Messrs. Felix Ofosu-Kwakye, Edward Omane-Boamah, and even former Vice-President Kwesi BekoeAmissah-Arthur, had vigorously campaigned on the supposedly massive construction of roadways across the length and breadth of the country. Paradoxically, on October 3, when Nana Akufo-Addo paid a courtesy call on the Paramount Chief and people of Lawra, in the Upper-West Region, the first request put to the President was the need for the construction of motorable roads in their township and its environs.

I also vividly recall during one of his electioneering campaign tours of the Western Region, when Nana Akufo-Addo bitterly complained that there were only an insignificantly few stretches of motorable roads in this natural-resource rich part of the country, then-President Mahama sneeringly shot back by retorting that had the then-72-year-old CandidateAkufo-Addo not been sleeping at the wheel during most of his tour of the region, he would have noticed the very impressive network of roads constructed by his National Democratic Congress government.

Of course, now we know that it was Mr. Mahama who had been literally sleeping at the wheel during most of the four years that he was Chief Resident of the Flagstaff House. The man left a humongous debt of GH 122 billion, half of which he claimed to have gone into building the longest stretch of motorable roads since 1957. Go figure!

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs
Berlin, 18/12/2017

Dear Dr. Angela Merkel, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany,

With great interest we have noted the speech given on 28 November 2017 in Ouagadougou by the French President Emmanuel Macron, in which he stated that he was no longer able to accept that a large part of the cultural heritage of several African countries is in France. We welcome the fact that the French Government, in cooperation with the African countries concerned, wants to enable a temporary or permanent restitution of the African heritage within the next five years. We also pay tribute to Emmanuel Macron's announcement of restoring human remains from a colonial context of injustice to Algeria.

France is responding to the intensifying and critical debate on colonial heritage, which concerns the other countries of the Global North as well. After all, it is not only French museums and private collections that have come into possession of hundreds of thousands of cultural objects and tens of thousands of human remains from all regions of Africa as a result of colonisation. The number of African artifacts in the major ethnological museums of North America and Europe is so high that more than 90% of all cultural treasures have never been shown. The amount of human remains from Africa is so great that, according to the museums, even 100 years after their acquisition, it has still not been possible to determine where and how they came into the collections.

At the same time, especially the ritual objects and the remains of their ancestors are sorely missed by members of the African source communities.

Germany has a key role to play in this situation. For it is not only here that the greatest number of museums with cultural treasures and human remains from all parts of the African continent can be found. In 1884/85, at the invitation of the French Republic and the German Reich, the infamous Africa or Congo Conference took place in its capital Berlin. The rules for the almost complete division of Africa among the European colonial powers were negotiated, thus creating the preconditions for the systematic appropriation of African cultural objects and human remains.

At the beginning of the European Cultural Heritage Year 2018, which will be entitled Sharing Heritage, we would, therefore, like to ask you, in your capacity as German Head of Government, to take a stance on the historic initiative of the French President. In the 100th year after the end of German colonialism in Africa, the Federal Government must not remain silent on the subject of restitution of ritual objects and ancestral remains from a colonial context of injustice.

Without a transparent, transnational and critical examination of the colonial heritage, trustful cooperation between people of African and European origin will continue to be impossible.

With kind regards

Mnyaka Sururu Mboro & Christian Kopp

Berlin Postkolonial

[email protected]

Mobile: 01799 100 976

Further Signatories:
Members of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, Ghana, Wednesday, went on a peaceful march to protest United States recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital.

They believe President Donald Trumps decision will further plunge the conflict-laden region into instability.

Earlier this month, President of USA, Mr. Trump announced that he will officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel by moving the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

His decision has been unpopular with other bigwigs like the United Kingdom and France.

Speaking to Joy News Emefa Dzradosi, the Spokesperson for the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, Ras Mubarak who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kumbungu says Ghanaians should boycott the use of American and Israeli products in solidarity with Palestine.

Sponsored Article Robbing the Assemblies - The Full Story (Video)

Manasseh Azure Awuni's investigative Documentary, Robbing the Assemblies, which features the GHc 320 milion shady landfills management contract with Waste Landfills Company Limited, a subsidiary of the Jospong Group.

this is our way of imposing sanctions on the USA because when they are not happy with a certain country they impose sanctions on it as well, he said.

According to him, Ghana will be directly affected if Mr. Trump does not rescind his decision, hence the Palestinian solidarity Campaign.

What Trump has done will not bring peace in Palestine let alone the globe, he stated.

we will be affected as well because if theres instability there, it will affect crude prices, he said.

He believes a two-state solution is the way forward.

Security Analyst Irbid Ibrahim who also took part in the march said it is a Human Rights abuse situation and that Palestinians are suffering.

We are not anti-Jews, for us this isnt a religious issue but a human rights issue. Death has to end and the bombardment that prevents children from going to school has to end, he stated.

We call on the people of conscience to bring the needed diplomatic pressure on Trump to rescind his decision because moving the USA embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem will only exacerbate an already deplorable situation, he added.

The government of Ghana, like most countries in the international community has however taken a neutral stance on the Middle-East crisis.
20.12.2017 LISTEN

It is such a pity that Flt. Lt. J. J. Rawlings did not realise the environmental disaster that would eventually befall Mother Ghana, when his regime was bamboozled by canny World Bank officials, and went ahead to agree to permit surface gold mining mining in this country, in the 1980s.

With the benefit of hindsight, that clearly cynical and self-serving advice from the World Bank to the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) military regime in the early 80s, for the then governme to allow foreign investors to engage in surface gold mining in Ghana, was criminal and a glaring crime against humanity case.

Furthermore, it ought to be pointed out that all the governments which since then allowed that abomination to continue, are complicit in that egregious environmental crime.

And it beggers belief that today, some of our political leaders apparently think it is terribly clever to allow forests to be destroyed by surface mining companies. It illustrates perfectly how bereft of creative nation-building ideas they actually are.

The question is: Is it not curious that some politicians in Ghana today, actually think that forests that could anchor community-based ecotourism, and attract tens of millions of visitors to Ghana annually, and earn our country tens of billions of dollars - monies that will remain in Ghana incidentally, whiles creating jobs galore for our younger generations - should be done away with so that well-connected Chinese mining companies will come and mine bauxite here for export to China? Amazing.

The question then is: How many of our nation's politicians are even aware that last year, 2016, Thailand made a staggering U.S.$72 billion from the 31 million visitors it hosted that year? What has Thailand got by way of tourist attractions that Ghana does not have, I ask?

And, most outrageous of all, is that pure nonsense about tearing down the Atewa upland evegreen rainforest to mine bauxite, so that Ghana can finally develop an integrated aluminium industry, at a time when global climate change is impacting Ghana negatively. Amazing.

At this juncture, the point ought to be made that one day, all those super-clever politicians will regret ever taking part in the daft decision to go ahead with such short-term rent-seeking dubious industralisation plans, cloaked as creative nation-building.

And, although one is not a betting man one's self, as sure as day follows night, future generations will curse all of those genuises without exception, for allowing that needless and preventable catastrophe (especially when God Almighty stopped President Nkrumah from going ahead to do so by allowing his overthrow in 1966), before he could implement that particular economic policy of his Convention People's Party (CPP) government.

Finally, the irony in all this, is that precisely because he was such a fantastic lateral thinker, President Nkrumah would never have gone ahead to create a vertically integrated aluminium industry in our country, if he had had the slightest inkling in the 1960s that global climate change would threaten his beloved Mother Ghana in 2017. Pity
Sole authorized dealer of Renault vehicles in Ghana, Premium Motors Limited has donated assorted clothing to the Dzorwulu Special School in Accra.

The items included ladies and gents underwears, dresses, blouses, shorts, shirts and cardigans.

The gesture forms part of the car dealers Corporate Social Responsibility aimed at reaching out to the vulnerable in the society.

The items were handed to the school headmistress, Veronica Sackey by Premium Motors Marketing Manager, Shirry Borketey Manison and Administrator, Lilian Augusto.

He explained the donation is part of a bigger initiative by the company to alleviate the plight of the poor.

We identified clothing as a special need and as part of the passion for help initiative we saw the school as our first point of call, Mr Manison added.

An elated Veronica Sackey thanked the representatives of Premium Motors for the bronya clothes donation.

I am happy to say that although our needs were requested late, you have been able to fulfil your promise, she said.

She implored other corporate institutions to emulate the initiative of Premium Motors.

After the donation, the representatives of automobile company spent time with children of the school.
The Supreme Court today [Wednesday], overturned the ruling of a High Court against the University of Education Winneba (UEW) and two of its Principal Officers; the Vice Chancellor Professor Mawutor Avoke, and the Finance Officer, Dr. Theopholus Senyo Ackolier.

The High Court last week ruled that, the two officers of the University are guilty of procurement offences and other financial irregularities.

It subsequently ordered that the two to vacate their offices for a forensic audit into the University's award of road projects.

It also awarded eight thousand cedis in damages against the University, and ordered the retrieval of monies paid to one Paa Nii Lamptey.

But the Supreme Court today [Wednesday], hearing an application for certiorari by the UTAG Winneba branch, took the view that the High Court did not have the jurisdiction to hear the matter.

A Former UTAG President, Samuel Bekoe, who made this known Citi News said : Today at the Supreme Court, our application for certiorari and passion for the ruling has been granted by the Supreme Court which therefore means the ruling given by the High Court on the 14th of July , which is the injunction application, and then the 14th of December, the ruling on the substantive case, no longer holds because the very roots of the case is what has been quashed, and so technically there was no case before the judge for the judge to rule on it. We are very excited about the ruling. This is all that we were seeking to do . We wanted the right thing to be done and today the Supreme Court has upheld our argument.

He was however quick to add that, the case had not ended yet, as the University Council based on this issue and the High Court issue, has also come out with some decisions that should be taken.

Background

In a 23rd May 2017 writ issued, the plaintiff [Supi Kwayera] adduced that the university's council's mandate had expired in November 2013, but the Education Ministry failed to constitute a new Governing Council for the university, and rather allowed and permitted the defunct Governing Council which had no mandate whatsoever to continue the functions of a properly constituted Governing Council as if same had been properly constituted.

This Mr. Kwayera insisted was unlawful, and hence his legal action against the University of Education, Winneba.

However, before the substantive claims were looked into, the University, through its counsel, applied to the court to dismiss the suit on the three counts, but the application was dismissed .

The University's branch of the University Teachers' Association of Ghana (UTAG) as a respondent subsequently applied to join the application.

In June this year, the plaintiff prayed the to effect an interlocutory injunction restraining the 1st Respondent, its assigns, agents, officers and all other persons acting through the 1st Respondent or claiming to be the lawful representatives of the 1st Respondent from authorizing any payment to any contractor or supplier whose contract is the subject matter of the substantive application before the court.

Again,the injunction was to restrain the 2nd Respondent from recognizing any supposed Principal Officer or any person whose mandate as an officer of the 1st Respondent emanated from the defunct Governing Council as the lawful representative(s) of the 1st Respondent until the final determination of the substantive application.

The injunction also sought to restrain the 1st Respondent and its lawful representatives from making any payment to Ghana Highway Authority or any third party entity including Larmas Construction (GH) Ltd in respect of a Memorandum of Understanding with Ghana Highway Authority for road maintenance until the final determination of the substantive application.



By: Sixtus Dong Ullo & Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Supreme Court quashes High Court ruling against UEW, 2 officials appeared first on Ghana News .
The Deputy Minister of Communication, George Andah has said the introduction of MTNs fibre broadband services to households in Ghana will in a much better way change peoples way of doing business in the country.

We are optimistic that MTN Fibre Broadband initiative will eventually help take Ghana closer to its journey of transforming the economy and society into a fully-fledged information and knowledge-based society and economy in the foreseeable future, he stated.

The Deputy Minister indicated that globally, the role of broadband is increasingly becoming the emphasis for unlocking and accelerating knowledge and technology based economies, as well as enabling GDP growth.

Going by research conducted on the economic impacts of broadband in other countries, it is today widely accepted that broadband penetration unlocks an additional GDP growth for every 10% broadband penetration achieved, which is a significant contribution by any measure, he intimated.

Mr. George Andah noted that the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has thrown a Broadband Challenge, to all Governments, industry and civil society to work together to ensure that at least 40% of households use broadband Internet.

According to him, several governments over the past few years have embarked on a path where national targets are being set for connecting the vast majority of households with optic fibre broadband networks e.g. Australia, the UK, India, South Korea, Singapore, New Zealand, Brazil and China.

He indicated that the Government of Ghana recognizing the enormous benefit of ICT to the Ghanaian Citizenry has over the years put measures in place to ensure that we develop our ICT infrastructure to meet emerging technological trends.

The Deputy Minister added that the journey started with the adoption of the national ICT for Accelerated Development Policy (ICT4AD) in 2003 and in 2013, the Ministry of Communications facilitated the review of the scope of the Ghana ICT4AD Policy Statement to include some new thematic policy areas, notable amongst them being Broadband.

The government cannot do it all. That is why as a Ministry, we are always excited to see private sector stakeholders like MTN take such giant steps in pursuit of initiatives which will ultimately serve as a foundation for the achievement of not only individual but our national goals i.e. broadband access for all, he emphasized.

The Chief Executive of MTN, Ebenezer Twum Asante stressed that MTN Fibre Broadband brings diverse solutions to their clientele including high-speed internet access, live streaming of online TV channels or Video on Demand, home and office automation including security services and so much more.

He added that opportunity also exists to drive innovations like remote office (work from home), telemedicine, e-learning and IoT solutions all via MTN Fibre broadband.

Mr. Asante indicated that they are constantly seeking avenues to realize their vision of leading the delivery of a bold new digital world and their mission to make our customers lives a whole lot brighter and the introduction of Fibre Broadband is no exception.

He said MTN is very confident of the enormous benefits that Fibre Broadband presents both to the individual and nation and therefore cannot afford to have anyone left behind in the connected world.

The digital revolution, as some people refer to it, has significantly changed the way we experience our environment and MTN is committed to ensuring that every Ghanaian has an opportunity to be digitally connected through MTN Fibre Broadband, the CEO posited.

According to him, MTN since 2015 has set the pace by investing heavily in the deployment of Fibre Broadband and related services in line with their belief that everyone deserves the benefits of a modern connected world.

Mr. Ebenezer Twum Asante noted that MTN has provided broadband solutions to homes in some parts of Greater Accra Region (Airport, Community 25, Cantonments, Amamasman, Spintex, Afienya & Adjiringano), Central Region (Kasoa and Budumburam), Eastern Region (parts of Koforidua) with ongoing deployments in Ashanti (Kumasi) and Western (Takoradi). Eventually they plan to cover all the key cities in the country.
20.12.2017 LISTEN

More often than not, we speak of how authorities bully us, how we are being cheated and so on yet, we virtually do nothing about it.

In reality, students today don't have a say, we really don't have a "mouth" as one may put it.

The few who are committed to advocating on behalf of students are targeted, intimidated and tamed with threats of sanctions and withholding of academic qualifications. If you're strong enough, you're asked to follow due process and exhaust internal mechanisms when in fact, those mechanisms are mere masquerades.

The fear of being expelled has evidently made even the "stronger ones" weak. Student activists have lost their erection.

I write this in pain and sadness, not because we are being cheated but because fellow activists have kowtowed to threats by the holders of power. Fellow students feel reluctant to build a sufficiently strong coalition and rally behind fighters. Why?

Must our mouths be cold? No! History must be our source of strength, posterity must impose on us a great sense of responsibility. We owe it to future generations to secure a more just and fairer society, those who will come after us should have things easier, be able to enjoy the fruits of trees we plant today.

Today, in the University of Ghana, some charges are imposed without questions, fees are increased without justification. We do not know the breakdown of our hall fees yet, we're happy to pay, government pays for our utility yet some halls charge "fridge user fee". Why are we all quiet?

Our forefathers might be weeping in their graves by now. We must continue the fight they started. Our generation is watching with careless abandon while authorities do what pleases them without a cough.

Enough is enough!!! I call on all activists to rise up, take their pens and papers, read, learn, know and report. No rest!!! We have had it.

With or without support, I am not resting, I'll serve at the behest of the people, my resolution is result oriented activism. No rest until results. Watch out...it's coming and it's something big.

I'll see you on the other side of the axle if you disagree.

General Sammie

+233576608837
The Chairman of the Millennium Excellence Foundation, Victor Gbeho, has confirmed that expatriate businesses were charged monies at the recently held expatriate business awards to sit close to President Akufo-Addo.

He however added that the event was meant for fundraising.

News of the charges has sparked public outrage with some Ghanaians including the minority in parliament calling for a parliamentary probe.

Speaking to the media in Accra Wednesday, Mr. Gbeho said: The truth in the matter must come out. The figures charged were for fund raising and sponsorship but some of the companies have not even paid.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has summoned the Minister for Trade and Industry Alan Kyerematen over some monies charged before some expats were allowed to sit beside him on a table at a recent awards event held in Accra.

Eugene Arhin, Director of Communications at the Presidency told Starr News that the Trade Minister has until 5pm Wednesday, December 20, to fully furnish the presidency with all the details concerning how and why the monies were charged.

According to Arhin, the president would not have attended the event if he was aware that monies were being charged from the expatriates.

If he [Akufo-Addo) wasnt concerned about this issue he would not have called the minister for Trade and Industry to furnish him with details of what happened, Arhin told Kwaku Obeng Adjei Wednesday.
State employees of the Democratic Republic of Congo helped organise the mission trip of two UN experts to the central Kasai region where they were killed, according to a Reuters and Radio France Internationale (RFI) report.

The revelation that "four state agents and associates" may have been involved in the murders appears to contradict the official account by Congolese government officials, who have maintained that no state employees were involved.

Officials have also said they did not know the pair were in the area.

Zaida Catalan, a Swedish-Chilean national and American Michael Sharp were killed in March while investigating reports of more than 40 mass graves in the war-torn Kasai region.

Kasai has been in turmoil since tribal chieftain Jean-Prince Mpandi -- known as the Kamwina Nsapu -- was killed in August last year after rebelling against President Joseph Kabila's regime in Kinshasa.

More than 3,000 people have died and 1.4 million have been displaced, according to the Catholic Church.

The pair were "meeting members of the Kamwina Nsapu, a local clan, on the sidelines of peace talks with the government in the city of Kananga," Reuters's Aaron Ross and RFI's Sonia Rolley reported on Tuesday.

According to their report, Catalan and Sharp left the city of Kananga on March 12. Their bodies were found 15 days later. Catalan had been decapitated.

A UN report released in June described their murder as a "premeditated setup" in which state security may have been involved.

Congolese authorities have said the experts, along with four Congolese nationals accompanying them, were killed by militia members of Kamwina Nsapu.

DR Congo has charged 26 suspected members of the militia for the double murders. They are currently on trial in a military court in Kananga.

According to the media report, the prosecutor's case file included elements on a militia chief, two opposition lawmakers, and four Congolese state agents and associates.

"Three of the state agents and associates were directly involved in the mission that cost the lives of the two experts," the report said.

'Proven, nor excluded'

The journalists highlighted one person who helped organise the trip, Jose Tshibuabua, who they said worked for DR Congo's intelligence services, Agence Nationale de Renseignements (ANR), at the time.

RFI had previously reported that Bruno Tshibuabua and an interpreter had not correctly translated into French a warning by a Kamwina Nsapu healer that the two UN experts were not safe to travel to Bunkonde, where they were supposed to continue their investigation.

"It is again Jose Tshibuabua who provided the motorcycle taxis and the drivers, still reported missing, who drove the experts to Bunkonde," they reported.

Top ANR official in Congo, Kalev Mutond, told Reuters and RFI that "Tshibuabua was working as a 'volunteer informant' for the agency at the time of the meeting, but did not inform ANR officials about his contacts with the two experts".

The ANR chief also denied knowing anything about the experts' planned trip to Bunkonde.

If the investigators "had contact with informants, it was not reported to the government," government spokesman Lambert Mende told the journalists.

"If there is a state agent who was involved, he will be pursued and judged," he added.

But according to Reuters and RFI, Tshibuabua and his ties to the ANR were not included in a UN board of inquiry's confidential report to the UN Security Council or in the trial.

Meanwhile, the United Nations said Wednesday that its own investigation shows that authorities' involvement "has been neither proven, nor excluded".
The European Union called Wednesday for an independent probe into clashes between two of Ethiopia's largest ethnic groups, which officials say left at least 61 dead last week alone.

There have been a string of recent clashes over the border between the two ethnically demarcated Somali and Oromia federal regions, "causing many casualties and the destruction of properties", said the EU.

The cause of the latest violence is not clear but it has raised concerns of growing ethnic divisions in Africa's second most-populous country.

In a statement the EU called for "independent investigations (into) all acts of violence."

On Thursday and Friday last week, scores lost their lives in the West Hararghe region near the border between the Somali and Oromia states -- with both sides giving different death tolls.

On Sunday, the spokesman for the Oromia state government Addisu Arega Kitessa said armed men had attacked Oromos on Thursday, killing 29 people and burning down hundreds of homes.

A day later 32 Somalis living nearby were killed in retaliation, he wrote on his personal Facebook account.

An open letter from Somali elders to the government and international rights groups mentioned "200 killed" on Friday in an "ethnic cleansing campaign" which they say has been under way since 2004, but has intensified in the past three years.

The letter recalled that the "Ethiopian Somali community... traditionally lived in western Hararghe of Ethiopia for many centuries. Because of this, more than 90 percent of us speak Oromia and not the Somali language."

Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn addressed the nation on state television on Sunday, offering his condolences for what he referred to as a "mass killing".

The EU said the clashes were "deeply worrying, in particular as regards their increasingly ethnic nature" and welcomed a decision by Hailemariam to set up a task force to probe the killings.

For over two years Ethiopia's government has faced unprecedented social, economic and political protests, leaving hundreds dead and prompting government to install a 10-month state of emergency that was lifted in August.
Ugandan lawmakers voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to remove presidential age limits, paving the way for President Yoweri Museveni to serve a sixth term in office.

The highly controversial bill passed with 315 votes for, 62 against and two abstentions, after three days of chaotic debates in which some opposition MPs were suspended, while others walked out.

The bill will pass into law once it is signed by Museveni.

Under current laws Museveni, 73, would not be eligible to run for office again in 2021 as candidates over 75 are not allowed.

The new bill re-introduces presidential term limits, which were scrapped with the introduction of multi-party politics in 2005, however this will only come into force following the next election -- meaning Museveni could serve two more terms.

And in a move widely viewed as a quid pro quo for lawmakers backing the unpopular age limit bill, the terms of MPs and local government officials were extended from five to seven years, pushing parliamentary elections to 2023.

Human rights lawyer Nicholas Opiyo told AFP the moves were "a reversal of Uganda's democratic process".

"To remove the age limit -- one of the most important safe guards -- will entrench a dictatorial and autocratic regime in Uganda, " Opiyo said.

"In a country where -- according to international observers -- elections do not represent the free will of the people... the age limit was the only safety valve left which will allow the peaceful transfer of power from Museveni."

Opiyo called the move to reintroduce term limits a "facade".

"It's not being made in good faith -- it's being made to mask a broader scheme to remove the age limits."

Spokesman for the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party Rogers Mulindwa denied that the law was designed to benefit Museveni personally.

"The NRM can choose President Museveni or someone else to stand in the next elections. If he happens to be one of the first beneficiaries then there is no problem. We have also seen that people above 75 are celebrating," Mulindwa said.

"Lifting the age limit opens opportunities to all ages -- young, middle aged and old ones so they can contest the presidency. It should not be limited to 35 to 75 year olds -- that's discriminatory."

On the move to extend parliamentary term Mulindwa said that would benefit everyone "even the opposition."
What happened with BTC?

Bitcoins cryptocurrency cousin Bitcoin Cash [BCH], surged 17.9292% this week. Its market cap now stands at $48.88 billion, with a volume of $3.68 million.

The crypto has been steadily rising throughout the year. Bitcoin cash has gone from $740 in July, to $3,180 in December, demonstrating strong growth.

It comes as no surprise that cryptos continue to soar as we enter the New Year. Clearly, bitcoin is still the crypto titan. But others, including bitcoin cash, are also riding this new e-currency trend. Especially as investors look to diversify their crypto holdings.

What was the cause?

Pairs trading also played a huge part in its increase. As BTC is similar to bitcoin, it has benefited from recognition amongst traders. This novelty has resulted in an increased purchase rate.

Bitcoin cash has been displaying price surges throughout the year. Back in November its price rose to $1,611, growing by 2.5%, roughly $300. And it shows no signs of slowing down.

Despite all this, financial experts speculate that cryptocurrencies have no underlying rate of return  arguing that there is nothing that supports bitcoin and its crypto relatives.

Whats in store for Bitcoin Cash?

As a counter point, people in countries such as Argentina have turned to cryptos to escape tight currency controls and various issues with their national currencies. Since 2014, Argentinian peer-to-peer trading has increased, so new cryptocurrencies like BTC have newfound relevance.

Bitcoin cash shows no signs of pulling the reigns towards their target goal of $2,387. No signs of growth resistance have been shown either. It created a new blockchain with bitcoins transaction history, but identified it as their own.

Many suggest bitcoin cash has very little value in the crypto market. Riding off bitcoin is a novelty that may wear off during the New Year. However, any rise in BTC will potentially contribute to other forms of cryptos rising in the future.

Cheers,

Nathan Frangoulis,

Junior Analyst, Money Morning
Im sure youve heard this story before.

The legend that Coca Cola invented modern day Santa Claus back in the 1930s as part of a grand advertising campaign.

As part of the theory, Coke chose Santas red and white colours to promote their brand.

Its a good yarn, thats for sure. Our premier Christmas image created by an American marketing machine.

But its not completely true.

According to snopes.com

Although some versions of the Santa Claus figure still had him attired in various colours of outfits past the beginning of the 20th century, the jolly, ruddy, sack-carrying Santa with a red suit and flowing white whiskers had become the standard image of Santa Claus by the 1920s, several years before Sundlom drew his first Santa illustration for Coca-Cola.

What is true is that Coca Cola did use this now standardised notion of jolly old Saint Nick to shift some product.

And to great effect.

At the beginning of the 1930s, the burgeoning Coca-Cola company was looking for ways to increase sales of their product during winter. This was traditionally a slow time of year for the soft drink market.

And dont forget, the US was in the middle of an economic Depression as well.

So, how to lift sales?

They ended up turning to a talented illustrator named Haddon Sundblom. He came up with a series of memorable drawings inspired in large part by an 1822 poem A Visit from St. Nicholas.

That associated the figure of a larger than life, red-and-white garbed Santa Claus with Coca-Cola and the slogan The Pause That Refreshes.



Source: The Secret Life of the Greeting Card

[Click to enlarge]



Its one of the greatest marketing ideas of all time, running still eight decades later.

But the tale had grown tall.

It was more a case of Coca Cola taking Santas image than them creating it. The colour match wasnt driven by Coca Cola. Thats a red herring.

It was probably one of the inspirations for the marketing campaign in the first place. The legend simply got the order of causality the wrong way around.

This happens a lot in life. And particularly in investing.

This tendency to mix up cause and effect.

But when you are investing, understanding this can be crucial to understanding the difference between a bubble and a boom.

Heres the weird thing that most people dont get

The crypto conundrum

Take a look at the US$600 billion cryptocurrency market right now.

Its grown six-fold this year alone.

But has it changed anything in your everyday life yet to justify such a rise?

The honest answer is probably not yet. Unless you are a Venezuelan trying to keep your wealth away from shaky government backed currency.

The promise of the technology  a world of data run on decentralised blockchains  is still a few years away from reality. Theres still numerous technical challenges to overcome.

Thats not stopping the prices from going nuts though

The legend of bitcoin is preceding any sort of practical use case. And prices are rising in anticipation.

Which makes the sceptics think the cryptocurrency market is a bubble right now.

But heres what they dont get.

Changes in prices can sometimes create changes in fundamental reality.

Thats not me saying that. Thats the famous investor, George Soros. He calls this process reflexivity. And he traded his way to a sizeable fortune using its principles.

In his theory of reflexivity, he states that:

Imperfect views can influence the situation to which they relate through the actions of the participants. For example, if investors believe that markets are efficient then that belief will change the way they invest, which in turn will change the nature of the markets in which they are participating (though not necessarily making them more efficient).

So, in cryptos case, if people think cryptocurrencies are going to change the world through decentralisation, maybe the price rises will inspire certain people to achieve this very goal.

In a practical sense the frenzy of ICOs has created huge fund flow into this very research. Funds that would never have made it here without the buzz and the hype.

Hyped up prices have actually supported the fundamental path crypto technology is taking.

Myths, legends and reality

Which brings me back to Santa.

The legend of Coca Cola creating Santa is wrong. But in some way, its also right.

You see, once theyd assumed the brand, they took control of Santas future image.

They didnt create it from scratch, but they did mould it over time. The legend became true after the fact.

The legend of cryptos may become true after the fact, too.

Or not.

Regardless, the theory of reflexivity makes certain investing situations more complex than a simple linear process.

But if thats the true reality of human behaviour, then you have to acknowledge it. And deal with it.

People who are waiting on crypto use cases to spring up before investing, may miss the point that its the price rises that will bring the use cases.

In a weird way, the higher the prices, the more likely the blockchain revolution is to succeed.

Ryan Dinse,

Editor, Money Morning
Dr. Hartley of a Professor in the School of Business at the College of Charleston. He is also Area Chairman of East Cooper Ducks Unlimited.
A New York federal credit union has taken President Donald Trump and acting Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chief Mick Mulvaney to court over what it believes to be an illegal takeover of the watchdog.The CFPB has been embroiled in a succession dispute since its former chief Richard Cordray resigned last month. Before stepping down, he appointed Leandra English as deputy director to ensure a smooth transition. But the Trump administration disagreed with the move and instead appointed Mick Mulvaney as acting CFPB director.Lawyers of the Lower East Side Peoples Federal Credit Union filed the suit in a federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday. The union has blasted Trumps decision to appoint Mulvaney, as the latter is an at-will White House employee. Mulvaney has also been a harsh critic of the CFPB, and once called it a sad, sick joke.This is a naked, illegal power grab by Donald Trump to destroy an agency that helps and protects millions of ordinary Americans, said Ilann Maazel, lead counsel for the credit union.Opponents of Trumps move faced a major setback last week after a judge declined to issuer a restraining order against it and instead upheld Mulvaneys appointment.We support the CFPB as a protector of our low-income members financial rights, and fear that the appointment of an acting director beholden to the White House could result in upheaval and ultimate dissolution of this critical agency, said Linda Levy, CEO of the credit union. Having experienced the devastation that the 2008 mortgage crisis wreaked on our low-income members, we need the CFPB to protect communities targeted by financial predators.
I stuck to what the coaches ...
Mother Lode Congressman Tom McClintock View Photos

Washington, DC  District Four Congressman Tom McClintock praised the final version of the GOPs Tax Cuts and Jobs Act bill on the House floor before todays 227 to 203 party line vote to pass it.

As reported here earlier this month, McClintock originally voted no on the House version of the tax reform bill, but today thanked party leaders for heeding concerns regarding the loss of broad-based deductions like state and local taxes. He noted, The final product exceeds my expectations, and on behalf of California taxpayers I can now offer my enthusiastic support.

McClintock backed up his decision to switch his vote using this example:

A couple earning $60,000 with a $300,000 home and three adult dependents would have paid $200 more in taxes under the old bill  but under the new version they will SAVE $340. A couple earning $150,000 with a $750,000 home and one child would have paid $1,200 of additional taxes under the old House bill. In the new bill, that same family will SAVE $720.

Below is McClintocks entire speech:

Mr. Speaker:

I opposed the House version of the tax reform bill because the loss of broad-based deductions like state and local taxes would have caused significant tax increases on many of my middle-class constituents in the high-tax, high-cost state of California. It increased the marginal tax rate on high income earners and abolished life-line deductions such as casualty loss, medical expenses and student interest. I urged that we should leave no taxpayer behind.

I want to thank Chairman Brady, the Republican Leadership and the conference committee for heeding these concerns. Their final product exceeds my expectations, and on behalf of California taxpayers I can now offer my enthusiastic support.

The new version leaves the casualty loss, medical expense and student interest deductions intact. No family needs to fear being ruined by taxes after a major declared disaster or illness, and graduates can continue to plan their lives knowing interest on their student loans will not be taxed. The new bill eases the proposed limit on mortgage interest deductions and allows up to $10,000 of state and local taxes to be deducted  all important improvements for Californians.

Most importantly, the lower tax rates in this bill now more than compensate in almost every case for the remaining limits on state and local tax and mortgage interest deductions. Even taxpayers who lose tens of thousands of dollars of deductions will still pay lower taxes than they do today.

For example, a couple earning $60,000 with a $300,000 home and three adult dependents would have paid $200 more in taxes under the old bill  but under the new version they will SAVE $340. A couple earning $150,000 with a $750,000 home and one child would have paid $1,200 of additional taxes under the old House bill. In the new bill, that same family will SAVE $720.

The business tax provisions are especially important, because they will restore American workers to an internationally competitive position. According to economists ranging from Martin Feldstein to Arthur Laffer, these provisions alone will produce $5 trillion of new economic activity over the next decade  thats $40,000 per household  including $2 trillion of new tax revenues to all levels of government.

Last Friday I toured AMPAC, a local company making the active ingredient in several cancer and epilepsy drugs. Their product is then shipped to Ireland to make the actual medicine because the corporate tax in the United States is 35 percent and in Ireland its just 12  percent. Their CEO, Aslam Malik, told me that if they gave their product away for free, the final medicine could still not be competitively manufactured in the United States  solely because of our taxes. He expects their local company will grow dramatically because of this tax reform  employing hundreds more families both directly and indirectly as they expand everything from payroll to infrastructure.

Thats what the Marxists just dont understand. Businesses dont pay business taxes. Businesses collect business taxes from just three sources: from consumers through higher prices; from employees through lower wages, and from investors through lower earnings  usually pension plans and IRAs. We have the highest corporate tax in the industrialized world, and commerce and capital simply move around it  leaving our workers behind. Thats one of the reasons why we averaged 1  percent under Obama  worse than any President since Herbert Hoover  and lost an entire decade of prosperity.

The Marxists tell us that this is just trickle-down economics and it has never worked. In fact, it has ALWAYS worked. It worked when Warren Harding did it in the 1920s; when John F. Kennedy did it in the 1960s, when Ronald Reagan did it in the 1980s and lest we forget, when Bill Clinton approved the biggest capital gains tax cut in American history.

Concerns over the deficit are legitimate and must be addressed by spending reforms this coming year. We must always remember that both taxes and debt are driven by spending.

The proof of these policies will manifest itself over the coming year  and every American will be able to decide for themselves if this has made them better off. Thats probably why the left has pulled out all the stops to defeat it. Their arguments are the same economically illiterate attacks filled with class-envy that they made against Reagan. When the American people awakened one day to find it was morning again in America, the left was discredited for a generation.

Let history repeat itself beginning today, with this vote.
Yesterday, Congressman Tom McClintock delivered a speech on the U.S. House floor regarding the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

McClintock was Wednesdays KVML Newsmaker of the Day. Here are his words:

Mr. Speaker:

I opposed the House version of the tax reform bill because the loss of broad-based deductions like state and local taxes would have caused significant tax increases on many of my middle-class constituents in the high-tax, high-cost state of California. It increased the marginal tax rate on high income earners and abolished life-line deductions such as casualty loss, medical expenses and student interest. I urged that we should leave no taxpayer behind.

I want to thank Chairman Brady, the Republican Leadership and the conference committee for heeding these concerns. Their final product exceeds my expectations, and on behalf of California taxpayers I can now offer my enthusiastic support.

The new version leaves the casualty loss, medical expense and student interest deductions intact. No family needs to fear being ruined by taxes after a major declared disaster or illness, and graduates can continue to plan their lives knowing interest on their student loans will not be taxed. The new bill eases the proposed limit on mortgage interest deductions and allows up to $10,000 of state and local taxes to be deducted  all important improvements for Californians.

Most importantly, the lower tax rates in this bill now more than compensate in almost every case for the remaining limits on state and local tax and mortgage interest deductions. Even taxpayers who lose tens of thousands of dollars of deductions will still pay lower taxes than they do today.

For example, a couple earning $60,000 with a $300,000 home and three adult dependents would have paid $200 more in taxes under the old bill  but under the new version they will SAVE $340. A couple earning $150,000 with a $750,000 home and one child would have paid $1,200 of additional taxes under the old House bill. In the new bill, that same family will SAVE $720.

The business tax provisions are especially important, because they will restore American workers to an internationally competitive position. According to economists ranging from Martin Feldstein to Arthur Laffer, these provisions alone will produce $5 trillion of new economic activity over the next decade  thats $40,000 per household  including $2 trillion of new tax revenues to all levels of government.

Last Friday I toured AMPAC, a local company making the active ingredient in several cancer and epilepsy drugs. Their product is then shipped to Ireland to make the actual medicine because the corporate tax in the United States is 35 percent and in Ireland its just 12  percent. Their CEO, Aslam Malik, told me that if they gave their product away for free, the final medicine could still not be competitively manufactured in the United States  solely because of our taxes. He expects their local company will grow dramatically because of this tax reform  employing hundreds more families both directly and indirectly as they expand everything from payroll to infrastructure.

Thats what the Marxists just dont understand. Businesses dont pay business taxes. Businesses collect business taxes from just three sources: from consumers through higher prices; from employees through lower wages, and from investors through lower earnings  usually pension plans and IRAs. We have the highest corporate tax in the industrialized world, and commerce and capital simply move around it  leaving our workers behind. Thats one of the reasons why we averaged 1  percent under Obama  worse than any President since Herbert Hoover  and lost an entire decade of prosperity.

The Marxists tell us that this is just trickle-down economics and it has never worked. In fact, it has ALWAYS worked. It worked when Warren Harding did it in the 1920s; when John F. Kennedy did it in the 1960s, when Ronald Reagan did it in the 1980s and lest we forget, when Bill Clinton approved the biggest capital gains tax cut in American history.

Concerns over the deficit are legitimate and must be addressed by spending reforms this coming year. We must always remember that both taxes and debt are driven by spending.

The proof of these policies will manifest itself over the coming year  and every American will be able to decide for themselves if this has made them better off. Thats probably why the left has pulled out all the stops to defeat it. Their arguments are the same economically illiterate attacks filled with class-envy that they made against Reagan. When the American people awakened one day to find it was morning again in America, the left was discredited for a generation.

Let history repeat itself beginning today, with this vote.

The Newsmaker of the Day is heard every weekday morning at 6:45, 7:45 and 8:45 on AM 1450 and FM 102.7 KVML.
Derailed US train lacked automatic safety system BBC. Only in America

Bitcoin Tumbles From Record in Biggest Slump Since Futures Bloomberg

Bitcoin: The Most Impressive Speculative Bubble In Modern History American Conservative (Marshall). Note Whalen is a hard core libertarian. Key sentence: Bitcoin is an old fashioned fraud clothed in the new age wonder of technology.

The bitcoin premonition Ed Chancellor, Breaking Views (Scott)

Restoring research that could make deadly viruses more transmissible NPR. Chuck L: Criminal.

China?

China shows its green roots on road to contradictions Pepe Escobar, Asia Times (J-LS)

North Korea

ECB sued over decision to freeze help to Greek banks during crisis Reuters. As I said at via e-mail to Chuck L:

Not gonna go anywhere. As we wrote at the time, the ECB was violating its own rules in supporting the Greek banks. The facility it was using was ONLY a two week facility, to be used ONLY for solvent banks on a short term basis, and was reapproved every 2 weeks by the ECB board. The ECB stopping doing the Greek banks a favor they never should have done is not illegal.And I dimly recall that they did have justification for deeming the banks not to be solvent when they had pretended that they had been solvent. The hard part the ECB has legally is defending its former position of keeping the Greek banks on life support for so long, not for cutting them off.

Brexit

Syraqistan

Imperial Collapse Watch

Tax Reform

Dwayne The Rock Johnson says hes seriously thinking about running for US president in 2020 Associated Press

The Misguided GOP Attack on Government Bureaucrats Washington Monthly

Abortion fight threatens Collins deal, risks shutdown The Hill

Koch Brothers Are Cities New Obstacle to Building Broadband Wired (resilc)

Democrats Tie Virginia House After Recount Decided by Single Vote Daily Beast (resilc). After this, you can never say an individual vote doesnt matter.

Sex in PoliticsNot!

TKO by Cornel Westhttps://t.co/XGkRooOkFZ  Jeffrey St. Clair (@JSCCounterPunch) December 19, 2017

Wall Street Returns To U.S. Shale With A Bang OilPrice

How Basel rule changes could trump tax reform as driver of US bank payouts Risky Finance (Richard Smith)

The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of the U.S. Antitrust Movement Harvard Business Review (resilc)

Retiring Early Just Might Kill You, Says New Research Bloomberg

Class Warfare

Antidote du jour. From the National Geographic wildlife photographs of the year winners, this by Melissa Stevens (hat tip Lawrence R):

See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here
Habitable planets could exist around pulsars

(Nanowerk News) It is theoretically possible that habitable planets exist around pulsars - spinning neutron stars that emit short, quick pulses of radiation. According to new research, such planets must have an enormous atmosphere that converts the deadly x-rays and high energy particles of the pulsar into heat. The results, from astronomers at the University of Cambridge and Leiden University, are reported in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics ("Neutron Star Planets: Atmospheric processes and habitability").

Pulsars are known for their extreme conditions. Each is a fast-spinning neutron star - the collapsed core of a massive star that has gone supernova at the end of its life. Only 10 to 30 kilometres across, a pulsar possesses enormous magnetic fields, accretes matter, and regularly gives out large bursts of X-rays and highly energetic particles.

Artistic impression of a habitable planet near a pulsar (right). (Image: Amanda Smith, University of Cambridge)

Surprisingly, despite this hostile environment, neutron stars are known to host exoplanets. The first exoplanets ever discovered were around the pulsar PSR B1257+12 - but whether these planets were originally in orbit around the precursor massive star and survived the supernova explosion, or formed in the system later remains an open question. Such planets would receive little visible light but would be continually blasted by the energetic radiation and stellar wind from the host. Could such planets ever host life?

For the first time, astronomers have tried to calculate the habitable zones near neutron stars - the range of orbits around a star where a planetary surface could possibly support water in a liquid form. Their calculations show that the habitable zone around a neutron star can be as large as the distance from our Earth to our Sun. An important premise is that the planet must be a super-Earth, with a mass between one and ten times our Earth. A smaller planet will lose its atmosphere within a few thousand years under the onslaught of the pulsar winds. To survive this barrage, a planets atmosphere must be a million times thicker than ours - the conditions on a pulsar planet surface might resemble those of the deep ocean floor on Earth.

The astronomers studied the pulsar PSR B1257+12 about 2300 light-years away as a test case, using the X-ray Chandra space telescope. Of the three planets in orbit around the pulsar, two are super-Earths with a mass of four to five times our Earth, and orbit close enough to the pulsar to warm up. According to co-author Alessandro Patruno from Leiden University, The temperature of the planets might be suitable for the presence of liquid water on their surface. Though, we don't know yet if the two super-Earths have the right, extremely dense atmosphere.
(Natural News) California is about to impose new limits on CBD products, including edibles, based on newly-proposed manufacturing regulations detailed in an official document. Once these changes come into effect, they will affect mainly businesses that make marijuana-infused edibles. But as you can imagine, these will ultimately end up affecting the lives of people who use edible marijuana products.

The new limits will also be applied to medical marijuana products, according to a report on the new regulations. To be more specific, their potency will have to be limited to just 100mg. This means that stronger products that exceed the 100mg limit will need to be taken off the market. Medical marijuana dispensaries have until July 1, 2018 to do so.

The new rules also dictate that all cannabis edibles that can be bought from adult-use dispensaries need to be divided into clearly identifiable servings that dont exceed 10mg in strength each. California will launch its own adult-use market on January 1.

The new rules

The implementation of these new rules will actually change quite a number of things. First and foremost, it involves cannabis gummy bears, candies, cookies and other kinds of edibles. The new rules go so far as to say that the state of California can outright ban any future product that doesnt abide by them.

Starting January 1, edibles resembling fruits, animals or humans will be prohibited, and so will any product that resembles or is referred to as candy. The use of cartoons, imagery or any kind of messaging that could potentially appeal to children will also be prohibited from appearing on labels, and they may not include any kind of health guarantee or promise without scientific proof.

But apart from these surfaces changes, the new rules also dictate a change on the THC potency in edible products. This will affect many edible manufacturers like Santa Rosa-based Cannacraft, which is known for producing an extensive line-up of cannabis brands. Its founder, Dennis Hunter, now says that some products on their menu will have to be discontinued.

The most popular edibles were higher-potency edibles, says Hunter. So since the new regulations limit the potency to only 100mg, many popular products cant be sold any longer.

In the meantime, cannabis patients and consumers will still be able to access and consume products stronger than 100mg of THC. Recreational dispensaries will still be able to offer concentrates and tinctures with up to 1,000mg of THC, and medical outlets can still offer products with up to 2,000mg of THC.

For now, all the changes remain part of emergency regulations that could be changed again any time from now until late spring, before they get locked in. But the limit on THC in particular is reportedly unlikely to change any time soon.

Major consequences

Californias approach to rule-making as far as CBD products are concerned appears to be a cautious one. They seem well aware of the dangers of legalization and its impact on children, so a lot of the changes can seem child-centric. Of course, any imposed rules will affect people of all age groups, not just children. But even within the marijuana industry, there are some who support THC limits.

Speaking about the limit on higher-potency CBD products on the market, Kevin Reed, CEO and founder of The Green Cross, states: There is no medical necessity that requires that kind of dose. The Green Cross is one of the oldest legal medical marijuana dispensaries in San Francisco.

Rules and regulations can be helpful, but there is a possibility that they cause unintended negative effects. As Dennis Hunter of Cannacraft says, The regulated market is banning something people want. The black market will absolutely go take care of that demand.

Read more about CBDs at CBDs.news.

Sources include:

Leafly.com

CDPH.ca.gov [PDF]
(Natural News) There is a lot of finger-pointing going on when it comes to the cause of the opioid epidemic. The pharmaceutical companies making these drugs often get the bulk of the blame, with the doctors who prescribe them following closely behind in the culpability leaderboard. To be fair, some opioid addictions start out fairly innocently, with doctors trying to help alleviate their patients pain. However, a new clinical trial is showing just how unnecessary these dangerous drugs are for relieving certain types of pain.

In the study, researchers from Northwestern Universitys Feinberg School of Medicine looked at 416 people between the ages of 21 and 64 who visited New York emergency rooms with moderate to severe pain in their arms or legs due to fracture, sprain or strain. Around a fifth of them had bone fractures, while others had problems like dislocated shoulders or sprained ankles. Opioid analgesics are a first-line method of treatment for this type of pain in ERs, and the researchers wanted to see if there were safer alternatives that would work just as well.

The patients were asked to assess their pain on a scale from 0 to 10. In the randomized clinical trial, the patients were assigned to one of four groups to receive either 400 mg ibuprofen and 1,000 mg acetaminophen; 5 mg hydrocodone and 300 mg acetaminophen; 5 mg oxycodone and 325 mg acetaminophen; or 30 mg codeine and 300 mg acetaminophen.

After two hours, the pain in each patient was measured to determine how much it had dropped. The scientists found that there was no important difference in the pain reduction noted after two hours between those who took the ibuprofen-acetaminophen combinations and those who took the opioid-acetaminophen combinations. This would suggest that ibuprofen-acetaminophen combo pills are acceptable alternatives to opioids when it comes to managing the acute pain in extremities that can be caused by strains, fractures, and sprains.

The studys lead author, Dr. Andrew K. Chang, said: Some docs will reflexively give an opioid to anyone with a fracture. But if we can give the non-opioid and show the patient that it works, we can help with this ongoing opioid problem.

Could the opioid epidemic have been prevented?

The Los Angeles Times reports that the opioid epidemic is now claiming an average of 91 lives every day, and many people start down this deadly path after experiencing the types of injuries studied in the trial and receiving narcotics in the emergency room. According to the CDC, more than 183,000 people have died since 1999 at the hands of these painkillers, and around two million Americans are believed to be addicted.

During the time period from 2001 to 2010, the percentage of ER visits in the nation that resulted in an opioid prescription rose by almost half from 21 percent to 31 percent. While not everyone will become addicted, at least eight percent will go on to develop what is known as opioid use disorder and as many as 26 percent will show signs of becoming dependent.

A study carried out in 2015 found that 17 percent of ER patients in Colorado who were given opioids for the first time to treat short-term pain conditions were still taking the drugs one year later.

Its disheartening to think that this tragic epidemic could have been avoided to some extent by giving patients a combination of Advil and Tylenol. While these painkillers are not without their set of side effects, they are not addictive. How many lives could potentially be saved by such a simple change in practice?

Follow more news on the opioid epidemic at Opioids.news.

Sources include:

Media.JAMANetwork.com

JAMANetwork.com

NYTimes.com

LATimes.com
(Natural News) Most people never thought they would see the day that the FBI would become so politicized that many of its members actively lie and commit treason in an attempt to bring down the President of the United States, but alas, here we are.

While our criminal justice system was originally established to give all Americans, regardless of their background and political ideology, fair and equal treatment under the law, that all changed when Barack Obama became the 44th president of the United States. With the Department of Justice under his control, Obama was able to appoint radical leftists like Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch to do his bidding, which mostly consisted of race-baiting and using the law to specifically target conservative Americans. In this way, the justice system became not only entangled in rampant corruption, but also a weapon used by the left to destroy their political enemies.

Today, even though Donald Trump has taken over Barack Obamas seat inside the Oval Office, rogue Obama appointees that still reside in the Department of Justice are doing what theyve always done; the only difference is that now they have the advantage of working to dismantle the conservative movement from within.

Perhaps one of the most outrageous and desperate allegations made by the left in recent history is the idea that President Trump and various members of his team colluded with the Russians throughout the 2016 presidential election, which ultimately helped Trump defeat Hillary Clinton last November. Despite no concrete evidence whatsoever, the liberals, including and especially leftists within the mainstream media, have been hellbent on convincing the American people that something illegal occurred. Eventually, they were rewarded for their efforts with the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who has gone on to conduct one of the most biased and politicized FBI investigations in American history.

To give just one example, it was recently revealed that a top FBI agent at the center of the investigation into the so-called Russia collusion scandal, Peter Strzok, exchanged several anti-Trump text messages with FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who was also appointed to Muellers investigative team. Although Strzok was suspended from the investigation for his overwhelming bias, it goes to show that Robert Mueller really didnt take enough time to ensure that his team was fair and honest in the first place. (Related: The bogus Trump-Russia collusion story is nothing but a political hatchet job cooked up by Obama loyalist John Brennan.)

Its also worth noting that Peter Strzok was the FBIs lead investigator on the investigation into Hillary Clintons mishandling of classified emails during her time as Secretary of State. Strzok even interviewed Clinton on July 2, 2016, just days before then-FBI Director James Comey announced that he would not be recommending any charges. If Peter Strzok is this biased and this willing to defend liberal Democrats, why would Robert Mueller recruit him for his team?

Of course, Peter Strzok is only one of many individuals on Robert Muellers team that has an obvious left-wing slant. FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, for example, was involved in both the investigation into Hillary Clintons email server and the investigation into the uranium one sale, neither of which conveniently resulted in legal consequences for Clinton. McCabes wife also received roughly $675,000 from Clinton supporters and left-wing organizations during her campaign for Virginia state senate. Other people on Muellers team with liberal biases include Andrew Weissmann, Justin Cooper, Jeannie Rhee, Bruce Ohr, and others.

If all of this isnt enough to convince you that this entire investigation into Russias role in the 2016 presidential election is just a politicized witch hunt designed to destroy President Trump and his administration, then what is?

Sources Included:

FrontPageMag.com

DailyCaller.com

FoxNews.com
(Natural News) This past year has been a whirlwind as far as news cycles go, with stories breaking daily exposing crimes, corruption and generally despicable behavior among Hollywood elites, academics, politicians and agents and officials of some of the countrys once-highly-respected institutions.

So to commemorate (not celebrate) some of those people, we thought it would be appropriate to close out the year with special mentions of the worst of the worst. Without further ado and in no particular order, we bring you the top TEN Most Despicable People (and Institutions and Movements) of the Year:

1. Harvey Weinstein: Okay, I said that this list would not be in any particular order, but you have to admit that when asked for their own most despicable list, Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein would be at the top of most peoples lists. As you know, Weinstein has been accused of sexual assault and harassment by multiple women regarding behavior that allegedly occurred over the course of decades. Whats also true is that Weinstein hasnt really denied any of them. Rather, hes merely said he needs help and that hes trying to do better.

But Weinstein also tops this list because, in addition to being a lecherous so-and-so, he just wasnt a good person to begin with. He has been known to abuse staff, acquaintances and others verbally and physically as well.

Heres a dishonorable mention in the Weinstein category: Anyone and everyone who long knew of Weinsteins behavior, sexually and otherwise, but neglected to call him out for it or go public long before now.

2. Peter Strzok: Hes not the first agent to bring disgrace and dishonor to the FBI, but hes certainly the latest and he may be the most despicable. Strzok, for those of you who dont yet know his name, exchanged text messages with his mistress, FBI lawyer Lisa Page, seemingly discussing a plot to keep then-GOP nominee Donald J. Trump from beating Hillary Clinton, and then undermining President Donald J. Trump after taking office. He referred to the scheme as an insurance policy in case Trump won. For brownie points, Strzok also assisted former FBI Director James Comey in clearing Hillary Clinton of obvious violations of statutes governing the handling of classified materials, likely because they believed theyd be working for her instead of Trump.

3. Andrew McCabe: Strzok mentioned in his texts discussing the insurance policy in Andys office  politicos believe that to be FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who, if true, is in on the plot to undermine and subjugate the duly-elected president of the United States.

This is treason, nothing less.

4. James Comey: This Deep State insider decided months in advance he was going to clear Hillary of wrongdoing, despite her obvious guilt, and long before anyone from his bureau even interviewed her. Whats more, he intentionally dialed back language in a statement he read to the press in July 2016 exonerating Clinton so it would not contain legally actionable language.

Comey, too, believed that hed be working for a President Hillary Clinton, as he and the others in this little FBI cabal believed that Trump didnt have a prayer at winning.

5. President Barack Obama: The one person who could have put an end to all of this scheming was very likely involved in it to some degree, as everyone who was involved in the plot to undermine and sabotage Trump worked for him: That would be Obama, the least-mentioned figure in all of this mess. Obama orchestrated the greatest political espionage scandal in our history and yet hes gotten off scot-free.

Obama did much more than this while in office but again, were just limiting this list to 2017.

6. Kelly Oakes: A science editor for the far-Left website Buzzfeed, Kelly Oakes made waves just recently by tweeting  and then removing  her No. 1 Christmas wish: Full-on communism in America. Now mind you, anyone living under Western-style democracy has no freaking idea what life is like under the shackles of authoritarian communism. Equality under this failed economic system goes something like this: Everyone is equally miserable (and poor  did I mention poverty?). Plus, let us never forget that during the 20th century, communism was responsible for the deaths of more than 100 million in places like China, the former Soviet Union, Cuba, and a few others, according to the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.

Dishonorable mention: Oakes is the second Buzzfeed staffer to pine for communism: Blake Montgomery, the sites tech and protest reporter, pined for it in November.

7. Buzzfeed: Lets just stay put. Buzzfeeds editor, Ben Smith, decided in January to publish in full the now-infamous Trump dossier, none of which could be verified despite the fact that it had circulated in Washington media circles for months before the election. Smith fell back on the old media excuse that the public has a right to know, even though publication of the document came with repeated statements about how nothing has been verified.

For Smiths lame attempt at providing us a public service, this despicable is getting sued.

8. Jimmy Kimmel: The not-so-funny funnyman and late-night host has decided that trashing Trump and Republicans by spreading lies about their agenda is better than actually entertaining people.

What makes him so despicable is the fact that hes so obviously and intentionally wrong about what hes pushing. Hes also a self-righteous hypocrite and a jerk who shockingly made fun of vaccine-injured kids (though he ginned up plenty of sympathy for his own sick child).

9. Antifa: Under the false guise of battling fascism the idiot Leftists who identify with this movement have beaten people, destroyed public and private property, and may even be responsible for the derailment of trains. In fact, this group is so despicable even the politicized FBI and Department of Homeland Security under Obama designated it a domestic terrorist group.

10. University of Michigan social justice warriors: Everyone responsible for white-shaming at the University of Michigan and any other American college or institution of higher learning who expects Caucasian students to kneel before the altar of political correctness and apologize for their whiteness. (Related: U of Michigan student activists demand No Whites Allowed space.)

J.D. Heyes is also editor-in-chief of The National Sentinel.

Sources include:

TheNationalSentinel.com

Uprising.news

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Health freedom? What health freedom?

According to BMJ.com, a total of 69 staff members at Essentia Health have been fired for refusing to get the flu vaccination. As for hundreds of other Essentia workers, getting the flu shot was the only real option that they had, considering the fact that they were warned that they would lose their jobs if they failed to be vaccinated before a November 20 deadline.

Essentia Health operates 15 hospitals and 75 clinics in the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota and Idaho, and employs roughly 14,000 people.

There are multiple issues with this that need to be addressed. First and foremost, even though companies have the final say over the standards employees must meet in order to continue working there, Essentia Health could have perhaps been more understanding and accommodating to those who refused to get the flu vaccines because of legitimate medical concerns. Strongly recommending that employees get the vaccine instead of threatening to fire them if they dont, for example, may have been a better approach. The United States was founded on the principles of self-governance and individual liberty, and all companies, regardless of whether or not they are in the medical industry, should respect that.

Second, its important to note that flu vaccinations may not be as safe and as effective as most people think they are. At the very least, there is a vigorous and ongoing debate in this country over the safety of flu vaccines, and Essentia Health should have taken that into account as well before threatening to fire employees who refused to get vaccinated.

A few months ago, Natural News founder Mike Adams reported on a groundbreaking study conducted by the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, which found that women who receive the flu vaccine end up developing a weaker immune system in subsequent years. The studies lead researcher, Lisa Christian, Ph.D., concluded, Growing evidence shows that those who received a flu shot in the prior year have lower antibody responses in the current year.

Mike Adams went on to provide further commentary on the Ohio State University study, arguing that there is a substantial amount of evidence that suggests that flu vaccines actually make people less safe rather than more safe, even though much of the country believes otherwise. Far from offering bulletproof protection, flu shots actually make people more vulnerable to influenza infections, which of course contributes to more people catching the flu and then falsely thinking they need more flu shots for more protection, he explained. (Related: Here are four rational and legitimate reasons to avoid getting the flu shot and what you can do instead to protect your health.)

Never one to leave Natural News readers without the facts, the Health Ranger listed off some significant and eye-opening statistics regarding just how unsafe flu vaccinations can be, including the fact that those who got the flu shot in 2008 had a 250 percent increase in influenza infections in subsequent years, and the fact that mercury-laced flu vaccines resulted in a 4,259 percent increase in fetal deaths throughout the 2009 flu season. As a result of the flu vaccines ability to weaken the immune system, Adams also noted that people who get flu shots will be the first to die in an actual global pandemic.

Even though Essentia Health may legally be allowed to fire employees for not complying with the companys medical standards and vaccine requirements, it doesnt make it right, especially when one considers the fact that there is a substantial amount of evidence that suggests that the flu vaccine isnt very safe in the first place.

Sources include:

BMJ.com

NaturalNews.com
The chorus of former students who say they were sexually abused or harassed at a prestigious San Jose Catholic school for girls grew louder Monday. They accuse school administrators of violating California mandated reporter laws by not alerting police or Child Protective Services when the school was made aware of multiple sexual misconduct allegations going back decades.

School administrators released a statement Tuesday saying theyve handled all reports of sexual harassment in the appropriate manner, but an ongoing NBC Bay Area investigation has found that in multiple instances, school staff failed to report allegations of sexual assault or harassment to police, in possible violation of state law.

At a news conference held by attorney Robert Allard, his team said theyre investigating accusations against eight teachers involving at least 17 victims.

These predators have a disease, Allard said in a prepared statement. And when an organization sweeps notice of it under the rug, it allows that disease to spread further.

The mother of a recent Presentation High School graduate said her daughter was one of those victims.

Dina Leonis said her daughter was sexually assaulted by a teacher while she was a student in 2013-14. The teacher, Leonis said, sent daily text messages and photos to her daughter, many of which were sexual in nature. Leonis said multiple students reported witnessing the inappropriate conduct by that teacher to school administrators, but police were never notified.

This failure led to multiple sexual assaults upon my daughter, causing her to suffer extreme emotional damage, Leonis said.

Leonis said shes sharing her daughters story in hopes of preventing future students from being victimized.

I am here for future children, so horrible things dont happen to anybody else, Leonis said.

Leonis was joined by former student Katherine Magana, who graduated from Presentation in 2010 and says she was sexually harassed by one of her teachers.

Hed relocate me to sit in the back of the class, and he would press his leg up against mine and rest his hand on my hand, Magana said.

She said the teacher regularly made inappropriate comments about her appearance. Magana said she was let down by school officials when she reported the harassing behavior.

When I made my report, I was shocked to hear my counselor say that I wasnt the first person to share these complaints about him, Magana said. That they had been aware of his behavior since early in the school year. Her attitude was flippant, unsupportive and unconcerned.

Magana later said the counselor warned her against publicly discussing the allegations and that she should keep that under my hat.

Maganas accusations were supported by the account of another former student. Shelby Rusconi did not attend Tuesday's news conference in person, but she wrote a letter accusing that same teacher of making sexually suggestive comments and inappropriate physical contact.

My parents found the teachers behavior concerning as well, Rusconi wrote in the letter. My mother reported his misconduct to the administration, but she felt her concerns were dismissed. Nothing appeared to have been done  the sexually suggestive comments and inappropriate behavior continued the rest of the semester.

Although Presentation High School Principal Mary Miller has declined multiple interview requests from NBC Bay Area, the school released a statement Tuesday, saying in part: All reports of sexual harassment that have come to Presentation High School have been handled properly by the school administration. Some of the other claims made today we are hearing for the first time.

But NBC Bay Areas Investigative Unit has confirmed that multiple accusations of sexual assault dating back to the early 1990s against a former Spanish teacher were not reported to police by former Principal Marian Stuckey and current Principal Miller.

The investigation also found that several allegations against multiple teachers since then, including at least one involving a current teacher, were also not reported to police when brought to the schools attention.

Allard called on Miller to step down or be removed from her role as principal.

There is a significant problem at this school which has surfaced repeatedly over the course of the last 30 years due to a mindset that this administration is above the law and is allowed to take matters into its own hands, Allard said. This has to change. Right here. Right now.

Miller is scheduled to transition into her new role as president of Presentation High School next year, the first in the schools history.

In a letter sent to alumni last week, the schools Board of Directors reiterated its unwavering support for the embattled principal.

Marys dedicated leadership at PHS has been essential to the schools growth and success, the board wrote. In the role of President, Mary will continue to direct the vision and mission of Presentation into the future.

NBC Bay Area will continue to update the story as we learn more.
As San Francisco continues to mourn the death of Mayor Ed Lee, the city is also beginning the political process of figuring out who might succeed him in office.

The field of candidates is starting to take shape, with at least six people already filing paperwork, according to the city's website.

On Wednesday, Supervisor Jane Kim pulled nominating papers for the June election.

Our city and our next mayor will be confronted with the question of what kind of San Francisco we want to be, not just for the next two years but for the next generation," Kim said in a statement. "Mayor Lee began the process of shepherding us through a period of great transition, and it's important we continue that work and make the needed changes to address income inequality, housing costs, affordable child care and homelessness."

On Monday, Angela Alioto formally announced her candidacy and said she is preparing to file later this week. Many more are sure to follow, possibly including Acting Mayor London Breed.

Breed on Tuesday presided over a groundbreaking in Hayes Valley for 100 affordable housing units. But she didn't reveal any new information regarding her possible mayoral candidacy.

"I have never shied away from a challenge," she said. "So, Im not deterred by candidates. Again, Im more focused on doing the job."

Former Mayor Willie Brown backed Breed as recently as Friday, comparing her responsibility to that of Diane Feinsteins in 1978. Feinstein, now a U.S senator, became mayor immediately after the assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.

"It was very clear that the city followed her leadership, and we have the opportunity to do exactly the same thing with London Breed," Brown said.

While Breed holds the office, the intrigue over who else might make a run at the post heightens.

"I would say in the last 5-7 years, the tents around this city are just absolutely unacceptable in such a rich society," said Alioto, a former city supervisor whose father Joe Alioto was the 36th mayor of San Francisco.

Sitting at a desk once used by her father, Alioto said the homeless crisis has spurred her to run.

"Have we ever before had block after block after block of tents?" she continued. "Not in my life here. And Im acutely aware of the homeless situation."

Former state Sen. Mark Leno already has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for a mayoral run, and while he wasnt expecting to run so soon, hes in.

Assemblyman David Chiu is weighing a run, and City Attorney Dennis Herrera is reportedly courting money and support.

As for the Board of Supervisors, several have been rumored as candidates, including Mark Farrell, who calls it a "family decision."

"We have three small children that I care about more than anything else, and so were working through that as a family," Farrell said. "So no decisions have been made, but obviously talking about it and thinking through it right now."

Asked if theres going to be a vote on the acting mayor first, Farrell said theres a lot of "wood to chop" between now and early January, when the board's next scheduled meeting takes place.
Dunkin' Donuts is brewing more than coffee for the shortest and darkest day of the year.

The Canton, Massachusetts-based coffee and doughnut chain said Monday it has teamed up with Wormtown Brewery to launch DDark Roasted Brew. The beer's release is being timed to coincide exactly with the winter solstice at 11:28 a.m. Thursday.

The curious will be able to taste it on draft at Wormtown's tap room at 72 Shrewsbury St. in Worcester. Guests will even be able to sample donut and beer pairings.

Cheers to our partnership with @WormtownBrewery! Join us this Thursday (12/21) in Worcester at 11:28am to enjoy the first sips of our DDark Roasted Brew. #DunkinDarker pic.twitter.com/jyqcTgAIjK  Dunkin' Boston (@DunkinBoston) December 18, 2017

Dunkin' Donuts says the stout-style suds feature "full-roasted coffee flavor reminiscent of freshly ground beans with a creamy mouthfeel."

The two businesses say they'll mark the launch by donating $11,500 to the Worcester Food Bank.



"We couldn't be more excited to partner with Dunkin' Donuts on our latest beer," said Scott Drake, head brewer at Wormtown Brewery. "We're confident this beer is going to be an instant favorite for New Englanders this holiday season, and the fact that we're able to give back to Worcester-area families through this partnership just makes it that much better."

Check Out These Classic Boston Dive Bars
A Northern California mother filed a civil rights lawsuit Tuesday alleging a San Francisco police rookie wrongfully shot and killed her unarmed son as he fled from a stolen van he was driving earlier this month.

Lawyers for the mother of Keita O'Neil, 42, filed the lawsuit in federal court in San Francisco.

The lawsuit alleges that poor police training led to O'Neil's death. The officer who shot O'Neil graduated from the police academy four days earlier and was a passenger in a patrol car driven by a training officer.

Body-worn cameras captured officer Christopher Samayoa firing through the closed passenger-side window of the police car he was riding in, the bullet shattering glass before it hit O'Neil in the head.

The lawsuit alleges that Samayoa opened fire when O'Neil jumped from the slow-moving van he was driving and was fleeing on foot. The van belonged to the California Lottery and was reported carjacked earlier in the day.

"At the time of the fatal shot, Mr. O'Neil was unarmed and did not present an immediate threat to the officers or anyone else," the lawsuit alleged.

It seeks unspecified monetary damages.

San Francisco police did not immediately return phone and email inquiries Tuesday. The San Francisco Police Officers Association Union also did not return a telephone message seeking comment.

Police have not released the name of the training officer. Samayoa was placed on paid administrative leave after the shooting while it was investigated.
Mountain View city leaders late Tuesday unanimously approved a housing plan that would add nearly 10,000 new homes to the city's North Bayshore neighborhood.

The new plan has the support of tech behemoths, including Google, which is headquartered in North Bayshore. Looking to expand its footprint in Mountain View, Google wants housing as part of the future development.

Tuesday night's vote has paved the way for a massive redevelopment, including a campus of offices and roughly 2,000 affordable housing units.

Many community groups say this plan could serve as a blueprint for addressing the Bay Areas housing crisis.

"Its a precise plan, and its a land use policy change that is unlike almost anything that has ever been done before," Mountain View Mayor Ken Rosenberg said.

In 2015, Mountain View began to re-examine its land use policy in its North Bayshore neighborhood. The area may be home to some of techs global giants, like Google, but there was no mandate for actual housing.

The new project changes that.

"It will be more than, well, about 30 percent more housing in Mountain View," said Carl Guardino, chief executive of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. "So, thats another reason why its getting so much attention."

The group's report found that between 2010 and 2015 the region created about 367,000 jobs but added only 57,000 new homes. Guardino said California tax laws actually penalize cities for adding homes.

Pilar Lorenzana, of Silicon Valley at Home, said Tuesday's vote was critical because it "shows that even our small to mid-size cities know that they have a responsibility and a role in helping our region address our collective housing crisis."

A broad coalition of private and community groups, even the school district, have advised the city on the plan.

"Its going to really be critical in offering a more affordable housing choice for people who work not just in Silicon Valley, but the Bay Area," Lorenzana added.

A lot has to hapen before any ground is broken, however.

Developers will now work with the city and Google to come up with a master plan, which may involve more public hearings.

NBC Bay Area's Rhea Mahbubani contributed to this report.
A possible robbery suspect died Tuesday afternoon after a security guard shot him Monday night at a San Jose Walgreens store, police said.

The suspect's name was not available this afternoon but he suffered life-threatening injuries when he was shot at Walgreens at 5 S. First St. before officers went there at 8:23 p.m.

When police arrived, they found a man suffering from one gunshot wound. The man was taken to a hospital.

Police said the security guard is cooperating with police in the investigation.
Federal investigators in the deadly Amtrak wreck want to know whether the engineer was distracted by a second person in his cab as his train hurtled into a curve at more than twice the speed limit.

Three people were killed Monday when the train barreled into a 30 mph zone at 80 mph and plunged off an overpass, sending rail cars plummeting onto a busy interstate highway south of Seattle.

A conductor in training was in the locomotive with the engineer at the time, investigators said. A federal official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity said authorities want to know whether the engineer lost "situational awareness"  didn't realize where he was  because of that.

On Tuesday, National Transportation Safety Board member Bella Dinh-Zarr said preliminary information indicated the train's emergency brake went off automatically and was not manually activated by the engineer. That could mean he did not realize the danger.

The engineer, whose name was not released, was bleeding from the head after the derailment and his eyes were swollen shut, according to radio transmissions from a crew member. The transmissions mentioned a second person in the front of the train who was also hurt.

In some previous wrecks, train operators were found to have been seriously fatigued or distracted by a cellphone or something else.

Investigators in Monday's accident also confirmed that technology that can automatically slow or stop a speeding train, known as positive train control, was not in use on that stretch of track. Track sensors and other PTC components have been installed, but the system is not expected to be completed until the spring.

Regulators have been pressing railroads for years to install such technology, and some have done so, but the deadline has been extended repeatedly at the industry's request and is now set for the end of 2018.

Dinh-Zarr said it is too early in the investigation to say whether positive train control would have prevented Monday's tragedy but noted that a mandate to install the system on tracks nationwide by 2015 had been pushed back by Congress.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal said on Capitol Hill on Tuesday that failing to enforce the new deadline would be a "moral failure."

"If we do nothing else in this Congress, let us insist that that deadline without additional delay," the Connecticut Democrat said.

Investigators will talk to the engineer and other crew members and review the data recorders from the lead locomotive and the rear engine. They are also trying to extract data from inward- and outward-facing on-board cameras that were damaged in the crash, Dinh-Zarr said.

The train, with 85 passengers and crew members, was making the inaugural run along a fast, new 15-mile bypass route. Investigators are looking into what training was required of the engineer and other crew members to operate on the new stretch of track, said Ted Turpin, the lead NTSB investigator of the crash.

"Under Amtrak policy he couldn't run this train without being qualified and running this train previously," Turpin said of the engineer.

At least some of the crew had been doing runs on the route for two weeks before the crash, including a Friday ride-along for local dignitaries, Dinh-Zarr added.

The conductor training in the cab was familiarizing himself with the new route, which is expected of conductors before they start work on a new itinerary, she said. A second conductor was in the passenger sections of the train at the time.

In an accident with strong similarities, an Amtrak train traveling at twice the 50 mph (80 kph) speed limit ran off the rails along a sharp curve in Philadelphia in 2015, killing eight people. Investigators concluded the engineer was distracted by reports over the radio of another train getting hit by a rock.

In September, a judge threw out charges of involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment against the engineer, saying the crash did not appear to rise to a crime. Prosecutors are trying to get the case reinstated.

Amtrak agreed to pay $265 million to settle claims filed by the victims and their families. It has also installed positive train control on all its track between Boston and Washington.

Associated Press writers Phuong Le, Sally Ho, Michael Sisak, Gillian Flaccus, Rachel La Corte and Manuel Valdes contributed to this report.
Pawtucket's mayor is warning that losing the city's beloved Red Sox minor league team to Worcester is a very real threat.

Democratic Mayor Donald Grebien called a press conference Tuesday to urge Rhode Island lawmakers to immediately approve state funding for a new stadium for the Triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox.

He said the central Massachusetts city's deal is potentially more enticing than the $45 million Rhode Island and Pawtucket are collectively offering toward a new, $97 million facility to replace McCoy Stadium.

Worcester City Manager Edward Augustus told the Worcester Telegram & Gazette Tuesday the city hasn't finalized its proposal but acknowledged it continues to have "regular conversations" with the team.

Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo has warned she's not interested in a bidding war with Massachusetts over the PawSox.
Police in Indiana found a bloody butcher knife under a Christmas tree after, they say, a man stabbed his friend during an argument in a home decorated for the holidays.

Allen M. Orange, 23, was charged with attempted murer and felony battery Tuesday, the Times of Northwest Indiana reported.

Lake Station police arrived at a home in the 2500 block of Riverside Drive about 3 a.m. Thursday after a reported stabbing, the paper reported.

A man with a BB gun met officers outside the home and brought them to the victim who was soaked in blood on a couch in the home. He was treated for stab wounds in the tomach, neck and shoulder, according to the newspaper.

Police were told by a witness that a 12-inch, bloody butcher knife was thrown by the assailant under a Christmas tree in the home. The weapon was recovered by officers under the tree, the Times reports, citing court records.

Orange was denied bond and had been previously convicted of assisting a criminal in 2014, the paper reported.
A 6-year-old girl taken by her mother on Saturday during a court-supervised visit in Oak Park has been found safe in Michigan.

Zoe Stegmeyer was taken by her mom, Wendy Elizabeth Jarvis, during a court-supervised visit at a restaurant in the west suburb about 11:15 a.m. Saturday, according to a statement from village of Oak Park Communications Director David M. Powers and Illinois State Police.

Jarvis got away from the court appointed monitor and left with her daughter without permission or legal authority, state police said.

The girl and her mom were found by members of the U.S. Marshals Task Force about 6 p.m. Tuesday at a hotel in Farmington Hills, Michigan, according to Oak Park police.

Police said Jarvis was being held at the Oakland County Jail in Michigan ahead of her extradition to Illinois. The girls father was on his way to Michigan to be reunited with his daughter.
A school resource officer was captured on video using a stun gun on a female student involved in a fight outside a Florida middle school.

According to the Pinellas Park police, a fight broke out Thursday between two girls in the bus circle at Morgan Fitzgerald Middle School in Pinellas Park, near Tampa.

The officer, who was not identified, tried to break up the fight, but one of the students refused orders to stop, police said, according to NBC affiliate WFLA.

Cellphone video recorded by a bystander shows the students yelling "get off of me" as she appears to try to escape from the officer's grip.

The officer is then heard yelling "get on the ground" before firing his Taser. The student can be heard screaming as she falls on the sidewalk and other students look on.

"She also threatened the officer himself, to strike him, if he didnt let her go. So [he] ended up, after giving her multiple commands, ended up deploying a Taser against her, Sgt. Michael Lynch of the Pinellas Park Police Department told WFLA.

The student was treated for injuries sustained during the fight and released to her mother, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

Officials did not identify the student and said the state attorney's office will determine what charges she could face. The school resource officer is working with the school to decide what disciplinary action or charges the other female student involved in the fight could face, police said.
Rail safety is top of mind for passengers at New Havens Union Station a day after the deadly train derailment in Washington state.

Its very uneasy knowing that a train crashed yesterday and Im going on the train today, said Armani Boutros, a University of New Haven student taking the train back home to Boston for the holiday break.

This latest tragedy on the tracks is similar to what happened in May 2015 near Philadelphia. Eight people died when a train traveling more than 100 miles per hour derailed on a curve with a posted speed limit of more than 50 miles per hour.

Since then, Amtrak said it has fully installed Positive Train Control along the 603 miles of the Northeast Corridor from Washington D.C. through Connecticut to Boston.

Positive Train Control, or PTC, was not installed where the train flew off the tracks in Washington, NTSB investigators said. PTC is meant to automatically stop trains when they are going to fast or entering dangerous conditions.

Congress passed a law requiring railroads to install PTC after the 2008 head on train collision killing 25 people near Los Angeles. The original deadline lawmakers set was the end of 2015, but Congress later gave railroads three more years until Dec. 31, 2018.

We are moving heaven and earth to meet the Positive Train Control deadline by the end of 2018, Chairman of the MTA Joseph Lhota said Tuesday. We are well on our way there with both Metro North and the Long Island Railroad.

A few years back, MTA spokesperson Aaron Donavan said the company installed something known as automatic civil speed enforcement, which makes sure trains slow down before critical curves like in Bridgeport on the New Haven Line.

What happened yesterday in Washington state would not happen on either Metro North or the Long Island Railroad because weve put civilian speed control in place, Lhota said. It would have prevented what happened there happening in any one of our facilities.

Terry Griesing rides Metro-North daily in New York, but Tuesday her trip was on an Amtrak Acela train from New Haven to Boston.

Its still a bit alarming to me, she said. I feel like our congressmen and government needs to take this more seriously to protect the safety of the millions of people who travel on trains every year.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal called it a moral obligation for Congress to make sure PTC implementation is fulfilled by the end of 2018.

If we do nothing else in this Congress, let us insist that that deadline be met without additional delay, Sen. Blumenthal said on the Senate floor.

PTC could have prevented the fatalities from the Washington state derailment and other recent tragedies on the tracks, Blumenthal said.

Eighty miles an hour in a 30 mile per hour zone, that fact is absolutely stunning and scandalous, he said.

Before boarding her train, Griesing was pleased to learn that Amtrak already activated PTC between New Haven and Boston back in 2000.

That makes me feel a lot safer traveling today, she said. I have four children so Im sure theyll be happy to know as well.
Ivanka Trump's unannounced visit to a Norwalk, Connecticut, high school sparked backlash from some parents who said they were given little information about the trip.

Some parents pulled their children from class on Monday, saying they were troubled they were not told in advance that President Donald Trump's daughter and senior White House adviser was paying a visit to Norwalk Early College Academy at Norwalk High School.



Karey Fitzgerald, of Norwalk, told News 12 Connecticut, that she thinks parents should have had the choice of whether to send their child to school when Trump was there.

[NATL] 2017 in Photos: Attacks, Protests, Tragedies and Hope

Ivanka Trump and IBM CEO Ginni Rometty spoke with a handful of students at the academy. It runs on a program developed by IBM to allow students to simultaneously earn a high school diploma, associate degree and develop technical skills.



"NECAs first class of students is set to graduate this spring at an accelerated pace  completing the program within four years, not the typical six. Ms. Rometty and Ms. Trump had the opportunity to meet these students and engage in a panel conversation during this visit," the academy wrote in a Facebook post.
Troopers from State Police Troop H delivered toys to dozens of patients at Connecticut Childrens Medical Center Tuesday.

Melissa Mack is back at Connecticut Childrens with her daughter Elizabeth, but this time, shes not a patient.

"Ten years ago our daughter was diagnosed with a rare form of pediatric brain cancer that only 30 children in the united states get every year," Mack said.

She remembers 10 years ago, troopers from State Police Troop H brought Elizabeth a gift.

"It meant so much to us because its one thing to be in the hospital, but its very isolating to be in the hospital during the holidays," she said. "So it was very comforting to know that people care."

Troopers went room to room bringing toys to children undergoing treatment right now, like Madison St. Helaire from Putnam.

"Ive had scoliosis since I was two and I wear a brace," St. Helaire said. And I got this giant huskie."

Its a tradition that goes back 21 years. Police bring cheer and allow children to forget about sick and just be kids for the holidays.

"A lot of sick kids having tough days, so to see the look on their face when they walk in, its just indescribable," Trooper Sean Mahar said.
With a tap of the finger, Sandy Cellini sent United Illuminating a payment of $1,111.74.

"The bill was actually $111.74, so I overpaid my bill by $1,000," Cellini said.

Cellini realized the error right away. In a panic, she made a second mistake by hitting the back arrow on her browser. She thought that would cancel the transaction, but it didnt.

"I said, 'Oh my God, where am I going to come up with this extra $1,000?' Its a few weeks before Christmas so it was very stressful," Cellini said.

Cellini called the power company to ask about reversing the charge. She even had a representative from her bank join the call.

But Cellini said a customer service agent told her United Illuminating could only apply a credit to her account.

"I paid $1,100. The bill was $111. Its pretty obvious I made a mistake," Cellini said.

She called United Illuminating several more times over the next few weeks trying to plead her case. Cellini said she spoke to nine different customer service agents and had to explain the situation to each one.

In a moment of desperation, Cellini even considered canceling her account.

NBC Connecticut's consumer team reached out to United Illuminating on Cellinis behalf and asked the company to investigate.

Within a day, Cellini received a call that her refund was approved and the check arrived to her on Dec. 15.

"That was my spending money for gifts. It made all the difference receiving it back," she said.

A spokesman for United Illuminating told NBC Connecticut Responds he is unable to comment on the specifics of customer accounts.

"I can confirm that we have stayed in communication with the customer and followed our standard processes and procedures. We now believe the matter is resolved to the customers satisfaction," the spokesman said.

To avoid an accidental overpayment, double check the payment amount before you authorize the transaction.

If you do make a mistake, see if you can edit or cancel the transaction through your banks website or directly through the companys website.

A third option is to set up automatic payments so that the correct amount is withdrawn from your account each billing cycle.
Dramatic police body camera video shows a Florida officer being dragged for over half a mile through the streets of a retirement community after he tried to stop a fleeing driver suspected to be under the influence of drugs.

Pembroke Pine Police Officer Jon Cusack responded to Century Village early Tuesday after residents called to report two people that appeared unconscious in a parked car.

In the video, Cusack, a 19-year veteran, approaches a black Honda and discovers a man and woman, unresponsive or asleep, inside. A baggie with an unknown substance was visible in the car, police said.

As Cusack tries to wake them up, the male driver, later identified as Thomas Cabrera, places the car into drive and the officer reaches inside the car to stop him. Cabrera takes off dragging Cusack as he holds on to the door's frame.

At one point, the car's speedometer can be seen in the video reaching more than 60 mph before Cusack let's go and falls on the ground. His uniform and shoes "were shredded from being dragged along the roadway," according to a police report.

Cabrera then led police on a chase through Broward County, reaching speeds of over 100 mph, before the Honda was slowed by commuter traffic on I-595 and boxed in by several squad cars. Officers approached the car with guns drawn and took Cabrera and the female passenger into custody.



Cabrera was charged with attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, reckless driving and driving with a suspended license.

According to a police report, Cabrera told officers he and his fiancee were doing cocaine and heroin prior to Cusack arriving.

Cusacks injuries were serious but not life-threatening. He was taken to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood where he will undergo surgery for "significant road rash injuries to his arms and legs," police said.


A deadly deputy-involved shooting had civil rights protesters taking their message right to the front doors of San Diego Sheriff's Headquarters Tuesday.

It was in response to a shooting that happened in Bankers Hill back in August.

"This kind of police brutality has got to stop," said Walter and Gina Cameron. "The more of us that can come out and support these families, the better."



On August 4, two deputies were serving a search warrant to James Lacy at his apartment on Second Avenue in Banker's Hill when things quickly went wrong.

Investigators said Lacy threatened deputies, saying he would arm himself with a handgun. He then ran into his bedroom and returned with what appeared to be a semi-automatic handgun.

As he pointed what later was discovered to be a BB gun at them, both deputies fired several rounds.

Lacy died moments later.

Lacy had a long criminal history. In 2001, he was sentenced to three years in state prison for brandishing a firearm at law enforcement officers.

His family told NBC 7 the situation should have been handled differently.

"They could have come to the door and did everything they could've to calm the situation down," said Lacys son, James Lacy Jr., "Instead of walking through the door and doing what they did."

The two deputies involved in the shooting had been with the department for 17 years and 9 years.

The San Diego Police Department has been in charge of the investigation.

NBC 7 reached out to the sheriff's department for more on its de-escalation training.

Lieutenant Karen Stubkjaer provided the following statement from the department:

Our best tactic is our ability to communicate. For that reason, crisis intervention and tactical communication techniques are an important part of the six-month Law Enforcement Academy. In addition, the Sheriff's Department makes sure our deputies receive four hours of Tactical Communications training every two years as well as Psychiatric Emergency Response Team (PERT) training.
What to Know A Broward Sheriffs Office deputy is behind bars after being accused of helping drug traffickers move large amounts of cocaine and heroin.

The 18-year-veteran of the agency is now suspended without pay and is facing a total of 10 charges, including racketeering.

A Broward Sheriffs Office deputy is behind bars after being accused of helping drug traffickers move large amounts of cocaine and heroin through South Florida.

Investigators arrested 47-year-old Albury Burrows while he was on duty at the Port Everglades district, where officials say he gave a drug organization advice, on how to avoid detection and prosecution.

The 18-year-veteran of the agency is now suspended without pay and is facing a total of 10 charges, including racketeering. Bail has been set at $261,000.

Everyone who wears our uniform swore to serve and protect the residents of Broward County, not abuse their power for a self-serving purpose, Sheriff Scott Israel said in a statement. I promised to instill a culture of efficiency and transparency."

"Although disappointing, this arrest is yet another example of how the professionals in our agency will follow leads wherever they take them, even if that means arresting a fellow deputy who has done wrong," Israel added.

In 2011, a jury found Burrows not guilty of grand theft after prosecutors said he stole thousands of dollars in cash that was seized in a drug bust.
What to Know Family members told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that 78-year-old Fanya Shamis was on the bus carrying cruise ship passengers.

Family members also said that one of Shamiss grandchildren may have been among those killed.

One South Florida family is grieving the news that their beloved mother and grandmother was one of at least 12 people killed when a bus filled with tourists crashed in Mexico on Tuesday.

Officials confirmed the names of three people killed, including 78-year-old Fanya Shamis of Coconut Creek, who were on the bus carrying cruise ship passengers on a site-seeing trip when the crash occurred. The U.S. State Department confirmed earlier Wednesday that American citizens were among those killed and injured.

Two others that were killed, Anna Behar and Daniel Behar of Virginia, are believed to be relatives of Shamis. Moises Behar, Anna's husband and Daniel's father, as well as another son, David, are among those injured.

Outside her home, neighbors expressed their sympathy upon hearing the news.

"That's terrible, I can't believe that, said family friend Richard Weinstein. I know she lost her husband recently, and now it's another issue for the family, it's terrible, really sad."

Late Wednesday, the North Mason School District in Washington state said Sand Hill assistant principal Jody Fritz was also killed in the crash.



A total of eight Americans, two Swedes and a Canadian were among those killed when the bus taking them from their cruise ships- which departed from South Florida - to visit Mayan ruins crashed in southeastern Mexico, officials said Wednesday. A tour guide was the 12th fatality.

The Quintana Roo state government said the injured also included three Canadians, four Brazilians and four Americans. Two Swedes were transported to the United States for treatment. Seven others slightly injured in Tuesday's accident have returned to their cruise ship, officials said.

Quintana Roo state prosecutor Miguel Angel Pech Cen said at a news conference that a preliminary investigation indicates that the bus driver's negligence led him to lose control, and when he tried to return back to a narrow highway, the bus flipped, struck a tree and landed in vegetation along the roadside.

"Due to a lack of care the driver lost control of the bus' steering to the right, leaving the asphalt," Pech Cen said. He said signs found at the scene indicate the driver was going too fast.

The injured bus driver was taken into custody, the government statement said. The cause of the crash was under investigation.

"We express our heartfelt condolences to all those affected by this tragedy," said State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert.

The bus flipped on a narrow highway in Quintana Roo state while carrying tourists to Mayan ruins.

Chris Brawley, of Haslet, Texas, was on one of the two cruise ships that had passengers on the crashed bus and was taking a different bus to the ruins. He said his bus passed by just minutes after the accident and he observed skid marks on the dry pavement.

Brawley said the ship he was sailing on, the Serenade of the Seas, sailed out of Mahahual Tuesday around 5:30 p.m., a couple hours after its scheduled departure. It was docked Wednesday up the coast in Cozumel.

"Captain informed us this morning one of our passengers passed overnight," Brawley said.

"She was always out in the morning and taking walks in the community and taking care of their relatives' dogs and walking them around, Weinstein said.
President Donald Trump threatened Wednesday to cut off U.S. funding to countries that support a resolution criticizing his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

"We'll save a lot. We don't care," he said, alluding to U.S. aid.

The president strongly supported U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley who said Tuesday that the United States "will be taking names" of countries that vote in favor of a General Assembly resolution Thursday declaring that Jerusalem's status can be changed only by direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

"For all these nations, they take our money and then vote against us. They take hundreds of millions of dollars, even billions of dollars and then they vote against us," Trump told reporters at a Cabinet meeting in Washington with Haley sitting nearby. "We're watching those votes. Let them vote against us."

In a letter to over 180 of the 193 U.N. member states and an even tougher tweet Tuesday, Haley hinted at possible U.S. retaliation but Trump's comments made clear to recipients of U.S. assistance that billions of dollars could be at stake.

Haley's threat drew sharp criticism from the Palestinian and Turkish foreign ministers before they flew to New York for the General Assembly vote. They accused the U.S. of intimidation.

Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, tweeted after Trump's comments: "Our government should not use its leadership at the UN to bully/blackmail other nations that stand for religious liberty and justice in Jerusalem. Justice is a core value of Christianity, Judaism and Islam."

Ambassador Rhonda King of the tiny Caribbean nation of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines sent Haley a letter saying that her country treasures the United States "as an enduring ally" but will vote against Trump's action.

"Sometimes, friends differ; on Jerusalem, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines respectfully differs from the USA; and so, too, do many of the staunchest friends and allies of the USA," King wrote. "We gently urge yet again that the government of the USA rethink its position and approach on this entire matter."

Before Haley's letter and tweet, Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Riyad Mansour told The Associated Press he expected "massive support" for the resolution in the General Assembly.

What impact the threats from Trump and Haley will have remains to be seen.

Israel has also been conducting a global lobbying campaign against the resolution, government officials said Wednesday. The vote will show whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has succeeded in his efforts to drum up new pockets of support in the developing world.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport before flying to New York that they believe U.N. member countries will ignore "pressure" from Haley.

Al-Maliki said he believes that countries will vote their conscience Thursday, and "they will vote for justice, and they will vote in favor of that resolution."

"No honorable state would bow to such pressure," Cavusoglu said. "The world has changed. The belief that 'I am strong therefore I am right' has changed. The world today is revolting against injustices."

The Palestinians sought the General Assembly vote after the United States on Monday vetoed a resolution supported by the 14 other U.N. Security Council members that would have required Trump to rescind his declaration on Jerusalem as Israel's capital and not move the U.S. Embassy there.

Unlike the Security Council, assembly resolutions are not legally binding but they do reflect world opinion.

In Wednesday's letter, reportedly sent to over 180 countries, Haley said the Trump administration is "simply asking that you acknowledge the historical friendship, partnership, and support we have extended and respect our decision about our own embassy."

She said the U.S. Congress decided 22 years ago that Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of Israel and Trump followed through on that decision.

"The president will be watching this vote carefully and has requested I report back on those countries who voted against us," she wrote in the letter obtained by AP. "We will take note of each and every vote on this issue."

Her tweet was sharper: "At the UN we're always asked to do more & give more. So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl, abt where to locate OUR embassy, we don't expect those we've helped to target us. On Thurs there'll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names."

This was not the first time that Haley threatened to keep track of U.S. opponents.

On Jan. 27, the day she arrived at the United Nations as ambassador, Haley announced a new way the United States would be doing business. The Trump administration's goal is to show U.S. strength, speak out and defend its allies  and as for countries opposing America, "We're taking names," she said.

The letter on the Jerusalem vote was the first time since then that Haley vowed to compile a list.

Her action recalled to some veteran U.N. diplomats the run-up to the Iraq war in 2002 when then U.S. President George W. Bush launched a campaign against France and other opponents of military action who refused to support a Security Council resolution to authorize war. The resolution, which former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was pressing for and the U.S. backed, was withdrawn by Britain because it was certain to be defeated as a result of strong council opposition.

The resolution being voted on Thursday is co-sponsored by Turkey, chair of the summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and Yemen, chair of the Arab Group at the U.N.

It is very similar to the defeated Security Council resolution.

The draft resolution says Jerusalem "is a final status issue" and reaffirms 10 Security Council resolutions on Jerusalem, dating back to 1967, including requirements that the city's final status must be decided in direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

It "affirms that any decisions and actions which purport to have altered, the character, status or demographic composition of the holy city of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded."

The draft resolution "demands that all states comply with Security Council resolutions regarding the holy city of Jerusalem, and not to recognize any actions or measures contrary to those resolutions."
A man convicted of leading an ISIS-inspired plot to behead a conservative blogger who upset Muslims when she organized a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest was sentenced on Tuesday to 28 years in prison.

David Wright sobbed as he apologized to blogger Pamela Geller, law enforcement and his family and denounced the terror group, whose horrific acts he used to celebrate online.

"Nothing I can say can fix the hurt I caused," the 28-year-old Wright said. "I sincerely hope that I can be given the opportunity to help others avoid the mistakes I made."

Wright was convicted in October of conspiracy to provide material support to the ISIS, conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries and other crimes. He said in court that he just wanted attention online.

Prosecutors had sought a life sentence for Wright, arguing it would send a strong message to others considering terror attacks in the U.S. But Judge William G. Young said he was uncomfortable with sending Wright away for life, telling him: "You are not a monster, yet you embraced a monstrous evil."

Prosecutors portrayed Wright, who's from Everett, just north of Boston, as the ringleader of the conspiracy to kill Geller, who has spearheaded scores of events across the nation to decry Islamic extremism. The cartoon contest Geller organized in Garland, Texas, in 2015 ended in gunfire, with two Muslim gunmen shot to death by police.

The plot to behead Geller, of New York, was never carried out. Instead, Wright's uncle Ussamah Rahim told Wright on a recorded phone call that he decided to go after "those boys in blue," referring to police. Wright told his uncle that was "beautiful" and encouraged him to delete all the data from his computer before carrying out his attack.

Hours later, Rahim was fatally shot by authorities after he lunged at them with a knife when they approached him in Boston.

Geller, who spoke at Wright's sentencing, urged the judge to sentence him to life and said it was "impossible to overstate the devastation" he had brought to her life. Geller said she had been forced to live in fear and spend tens of thousands of dollars on security.

"There is no assurance that anyone can give me that he would not resume his quest to kill me and my relatives," she said.

Wright's attorneys had asked for a 16-year sentence, saying he should be given the chance to redeem himself after serving his time. Wright insisted he never really wanted to hurt anyone but pretended to support the ISIS to get attention online.

Geller told the judge at sentencing Wright should serve life behind bars.

No, not satisfied with the sentence, but he will be in jail for the rest of my natural life so thats good," she said.

Prosecutors said Wright collected dozens of gruesome ISIS videos and documents that encouraged violence against Americans, including a manifesto that said America's days are "numbered." In court documents, they accused him of trying to "deceive" the court into believing that he never meant any harm.

"His actions gravely threatened the lives of innocent Americans," Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Siegmann said.

Wright, who weighed more than 500 pounds when he was arrested, testified during the trial that he started sharing ISIS propaganda because he was desperate for attention and an escape. But he said the plan to kill Geller was just "trash talk" and claimed he never believed his uncle was serious about attacking police.

The third man charged, Nicholas Rovinski, of Warwick, Rhode Island, pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy, testified against Wright and is scheduled to be sentenced on Wednesday. Prosecutors and Rovinski's defense attorney have asked the judge to sentence him to 15 years in prison.
A Philadelphia judge scheduled arguments for February in an appeal by the Pennsylvania attorney general to reinstate criminal charges against the engineer in the deadly 2015 Amtrak 188 derailment.

Eight people died and hundreds of other passengers were injured when an Amtrak train derailed just north of 30th Street Station. The train was traveling at more than 100 miles an hour in a 50 mile-an-hour zone.

A judge previously ruled that involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerman charges against the train's engineer, Brandon Bostian, be dismissed. Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board ruled that Bostian was distracted by radio traffic and lost his bearings.

The new hearing will be Feb. 6. Attorneys for the state and Bostian will present arguments then.

The attorney general's office appealed the ruling after the Philadelphia district attorney's office declined.

A civil lawsuit filed by one of the people killed was dismissed by another judge in September on the grounds that the crash was accidental.
A key figure of the child sexual abuse scandal that marred the Catholic Church in Boston has died.

Cardinal Bernard Law, who resigned in disgrace as archbishop in 2002 amid the investigation into the abuse of children in the Boston archdiocese, died at 86, according to a high-ranking source within the Catholic Church. He passed away at a hospital in Rome early Wednesday morning after an illness.

Following his resignation, Law remained with the church. Facing potential criminal charges in the U.S., in 2004, Law was called to Rome and given a parish to lead, which he did until his retirement in 2011.

"The cardinal had many defenders at the time. I think his passing will be greeted, by most people, with a bit of the shrug of the shoulders," Walter Robinson, the former head of the Boston Globe Spotlight team that uncovered the depth of the scandal, told NBC Boston. "The announcement of his death, inevitably, is going to remind people of a terribly horrific, sad moment in the history of the American church, of which he became the emblematic figure."



Law was criticized heavily for protecting priests accused of molesting children. Rev. John Geoghan, ultimately convicted of abusing more than 130 boys, was allowed to transfer to a new parish, the allegations against him and other priests kept in secret files.

The archbishop admitted that he was aware of the allegations aginst Geoghan, but still approved his transfer. He apologized publicly a year later to Geoghan's victims.

Geoghan was removed from the priesthood in 1998. In 2002, he was sentenced to nine to 10 years in prison. One year in, he was murdered behind bars.

Before the scandal came to light, Law climbed through the ranks of the church, working across the country. He was born in Mexico in 1931, the son of a U.S. Air Force colonel. He graduated from Harvard University in 1953 with a degree in medieval history.

After being ordained as a priest in 1961, he became involved in civil rights work in Mississippi, landing on a hit list assembled by segregationists. He became a bishop in Missouri in 1973, returning to Boston in 1984 and becoming cardinal the following year.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
Nine years after California voters approved the high-speed "Bullet Train," the project still isn't close to completion.

For starters, the original price tag for the project was a hefty $64 billion.

As challenges multiply, more and more lawmakers and taxpayer advocates are saying the money would be better spent on freeway improvements.

"It's so easy to get in an airplane and fly anywhere you want to, [to] any of the big cities around the state, said San Diego City Councilman Mark Kersey. This is really, I think, a solution in search of a problem. And it's a very expensive solution at that. And it's not at all clear that Californians are going to utilize it."

The Bullet Train looks great in animation, touting a trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco in three hours, but it has been plagued with delays, and the state auditor hasn't done a report on the project in five years.

During that time, the project's finances, ridership estimates and management issues have come into serious question.

While construction is finally underway on some tracks in the Central Valley, environmental impact studies on eight other sections have been bumped back from this year to 2020.

The target completion date for the project is 2029, and critics say the plug should be pulled.

"It's hard to think of a worse investment, one that provides lower return, said Richard Rider, chairman of San Diego Tax Fighters. If we poured money into the Pacific Ocean, at least then we wouldn't have to pay for it again every year. And that's a big difference. The high-speed rail program is unnecessary."

In response to all this, a spokeswoman for the High-Speed Rail Authority issued a statement saying that the agency is advancing its program on all fronts. She said recruitment is in progress for several key management positions, including the chief executive officer.
The elections in Virginia.

The re-emerging #MeToo movement.

Oh, and those little marches here and around the country that surprised the nation in their intensity last January.

There has been a lot of pain to get to this point, but most anyone who is paying attention should realize we are in a significant moment in history.

Although Hillary Clinton failed to shatter the ultimate glass ceiling in American politics in 2016, the role of women in our politics and life shifted dramatically in 2017.

Any year-end look back helps tell the tale. And fair warning to the misogynists of any stripe, gender or position. You can be sure whatever roadblocks lie ahead, "Nevertheless, she persisted" will be the mantra.

The Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University has the numbers.

As the 2018 midterm elections begin taking shape here in the final months of 2017, there are 374 women preparing to run campaigns for the House. For the Senate, there are 42 women doing so. Thats four times the number of women who were eyeing the House in 2015  and 10 times those in Senate races for 2012 and 2014. In both cases, Democratic women dominate.

On "CBS Sunday Morning" last weekend, host John Dickerson showed those numbers and said, "The door is closing on the era that protected powerful men in Washington ... and another door is opening."

Many women are seeking office at the state and local levels, inspired both by the policies and comments of President Donald Trump and what they say is a concerted attack on women in state legislatures.

In a November issue of The Nation, national correspondent Joan Walsh wrote that women in Virginia were inspired to seek office for many reasons, from the election of Donald Trump to the real and perceived attack on women in the state legislature. But she also noted that the magnitude and number of victories surprised friends and foes alike and that no one predicted the sweep of election victories in Virginia.

Politico and others are reporting that Virginia Republican Rep. Barbara Comstock is benefiting from her outspokenness against harassment. Comstock, an establishment Republican who has been cool to Trump, is trying to fend off Democrats who hope to tie her to the president.

"The struggle lies in the fact that [sexual harassment] is coming out in races across the country  in legislative bodies, in federal bodies and in both parties," Luke Macias, a Texas Republican consultant, said to Politico. "Every time it happens, even in some other state, it affects the mindset of voters."

These election rumblings could affect Maryland races this coming year. The deep blue state has no elected women in statewide office and no female members in Congress. Incumbent Sen. Ben Cardin, 74, is rated "Safe Democrat" by Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia. A popular elected official for 50 years (previously the State House and U.S. House of Representatives), he is not expected to have serious opposition.

Two of eight Democrats running for governor are women: Maya Rockeymoore Cummings and Krishanti Vignarajah. Both are first-time candidates, although both have held national political jobs. Cummings  as an added bonus, some say  is the wife of powerful Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings.

Former NAACP president Ben Jealous also is a first-time candidate. He picked as his running mate state party insider Susan Turnbull, who likewise has never run for office. Turnbull is from Montgomery County, a key to any Democratic victory. She says she was inspired to be a candidate, like many women and men, by Trumps win.

(A political aside: It was a mystery and missed opportunity this past week for the Jealous-Turnbull ticket. The eight Democrats appeared before a crowd of 900 business, community and political leaders at the nonpartisan Committee for Montgomery breakfast in North Bethesda. Jealous was on stage for more than an hour but never once mentioned Turnbull, who was circulating in the room.)

It will be interesting to see how the other Democrats in the race pair up with lieutenant governor running mates before the February deadline. But some think this field of eight could shrink by then, and one or two of them could wind up as prospective running mates for someone else. As weve said, Maryland politics are in a historic shakeup even if Hogan wins re-election.

Here in the District, Mayor Muriel Bowser leads the city but only four of 13 council members are women. They have been a slim majority in some other years. The first majority-female council was in 1979, with women holding seven of 13 seats. And, of course, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton has represented the city in the House since her 1990 election.

In January 2015, newly elected Mayor Bowser appeared on NBCs "Meet the Press with then-Police Chief Cathy Lanier and then-Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson as the women who run Washington." Lanier and Henderson since have been replaced by men.

"People dont quite realize how influential, how involved women are in this city," your Notebook told the Washington City Paper after that "Meet the Press" appearance. "But then, remember that the city itself is not respected."

 A so-so final word. As some of you may have heard, we are stepping away from NBC4 after 28 years. Your Notebook may occasionally appear on future broadcasts, but well be focusing on WAMUs Politics Hour with Kojo Nnamdi at noon on Fridays, which weve done since 2009. Your Notebook looks forward to exploring the politics of our entire region without the daily grind of TV. And, of course, check back here for the Notebook in The Currents next issue.

Tom Sherwood, a Southwest resident, is a political reporter for News 4.
A man wanted in the stabbing death of a Virginia man was captured in New Hampshire, Fairfax County police said.

Endless Taylor, 24, is charged with robbing and killing Luis Ernesto Bonilla.

An officer on routine patrol found Bonilla's body in a wooded area near the 7100 block of Fairchild Drive. The officer tried to help Bonilla, but he was unable to revive him.

Investigators later recovered Bonilla's phone, which had been taken during the robbery. Police say the phone helped them identify Taylor as a suspect. According to investigators, the two were acquaintances and had a disagreement in the weeks leading up to Bonilla's death.

During their investigation, police received a tip that Taylor was possibly in the Lowell, Massachusetts area. Police in that jurisdiction acted on the lead, and their investigation led them to an apartment complex in Hudson, New Hampshire.

Fairfax County police say Taylor was taken into custody Tuesday night and faces a fugitive from justice charge, according to police. His next court date is scheduled for Jan. 4.
For most, a trip to the police department means trouble, but for an 8-year-old girl from Plainville, Massachusetts, it is all part of a plan to say "thank you."

Dakota Matthews is on a mission to visit every police department in the Bay State. She has 351 on her list, and in a few short months, she has been able to stop by close to three dozen.

"I usually tell them, 'Thank you for what you're doing, and keep it up,'" Matthews said.

In return, the officers she meets often give her swag. Her room is filled with hats, pins and a growing collection of police patches. The items have become the third grader's most prized possessions. It is no surprise to her family she wants to be a police officer when she grows up.

Her mom documents her travels on a Facebook page called "She Loves Police," and she says there is a special reason why her daughter is so determined to thank them.

"Four years ago, she fell," her mom, Cherie Boisvert, recalled. "It was an accident, but she fell and she had a seizure and what she remembers is being surrounded by police officers when she woke up. They were the first ones there."

Since then, her mom says she has been obsessed with police officers, always stopping to say hello or take a picture. When her daughter came up with the idea to visit every department, she was all in.

On Tuesday, Matthews visited the Rehoboth Police Department where she was greeted by Lt. James Medeiros and a number of officers who gave her swag and a tour of the department.

"Good luck to you," Lt. Medieros told Matthews as he gave her a hug before walking out. "You keep us happy. We're all smiling now."

Rehoboth marked number 35 for Matthews. She still has 316 to go and hopes to accomplish her goal by her 13th birthday.
A Rhode Island man was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison Wednesday after admitting to participating in a plot to behead a conservative blogger on behalf of the Islamic State group.

The sentencing of Nicholas Rovinski, of Warwick, came one day after David Wright, of Everett, Massachusetts, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Boston to 28 years in prison in connection with the same plot.

Rovinski testified against Wright after pleading guilty to conspiracy for his role in the plot to kill Pamela Geller, who organized a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in Garland, Texas, in 2015.

Prosecutors deemed Wright the "mastermind" of the plot.

The Providence Journal reported that Judge William Young accepted recommendations from both the prosecution and defense that Rovinski receive a 15-year sentence, the minimum allowable under federal law.

Speaking at his sentencing, an emotional Rovinski -- who has cerebral palsy -- condemned terrorism and his own actions, adding he was thankful to be given a "second chance" after the completion of his sentence.

"As for my future, I hope to contribute to my country in a meaningful way," he said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Siegmann said prosecutors took into account Rovinski's cooperation in Wrights' trial. The two men met via Facebook in 2014.

"It is clear he was a mere follower as compared to Mr. Wright," she said.

The plot to behead Geller, of New York, was never carried out. Instead, Wright's uncle Ussamah Rahim told Wright on a recorded phone call that he decided to go after "those boys in blue," referring to police. Wright told his uncle that was "beautiful" and encouraged him to delete all the data from his computer before carrying out his attack.

Hours later, Rahim was fatally shot by authorities after he lunged at them with a knife when they approached him in Boston.

On Tuesday, Geller urged the judge to impose a life sentenced on Wright and said it was "impossible to overstate the devastation" he had brought to her life.

Wright apologized to Geller and denounced the Islamic State group that he had once supported.
A Maine hospital was put on partial lockdown Tuesday night after receiving two shooting victims at their emergency room.

WCSH-TV reported that the lockdown at Millinocket Regional Hospital was lifted at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday.

The hospital's Vice President of Human Resources, Lisa Arsenault, said she did not have the names of the victims who had been taken to the hospital or their conditions. The victims, however, had been transported to a different hospital.

Meanwhile, police had been at the scene of a shooting at a home on Main Street in Millinocket where several neighbors told WCSH-TV that a couple who lived at the home was going through a divorce.

Authorities would not say if anyone was in custody in connection with the shooting. Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland would only confirm that there had been some sort of incident.
The body found in a burning car in a Worcester cemetery a week ago has been identified as Cynthia Webb, 59, of Sterling, Massachusetts, according to the Worcester County District Attorney on Wednesday.

Police arrested a suspect in the incident on Tuesday.



Firefighters made the grisly discovery in Hope Cemetery on the morning of Dec. 12. When the flames were extinguished, an unidentified body was discovered in a burned-out sedan.

Police released surveillance images of a 2004 red/maroon Buick LeSabre. After an investigation, 56-year-old Steven Foley of Northboro was arrested in Peabody on an outstanding warrant; Worcester District Court also issued a warrant for the charge of burning a motor vehicle.

Police previously had said they knew who owns the car in which the body was found.

John Dirsa, whose son is buried at the cemetery, told NBC Boston last week that the incident was highly unusual.

"Today, with the way the forensics are and stuff, I can't imagine whoever did this will get away with it," he said.
Officials investigating a house fire in Griswold, where two people were found dead, said that fire is connected to a car fire 40 miles away in Glastonbury and they have developed a person on interest in the case.

Firefighters responded to 70 Kenwood Estates in Griswold around 5:15 a.m. Wednesday after a neighbor called 911 to report a fire and crews found one body in the charred remains of the home.

Later in the day, state police found a second body in the house.

What caused the two deaths is not known and the office of the medical examiner will conduct an autopsy to determine that and identify the two victims.

Griswold Volunteer Fire Chief Tom Holowaty said three adults lived in the house and it is not immediately clear if any of the victims were the homes residents. Some of the residents have not been accounted for, police said.

On Wednesday afternoon, police said there was a link between the house fire and the abandoned car found in flames at the Glastonbury Luxury Apartments in Glastonbury Wednesday morning.

State police said the cars VIN number was connected to the Griswold home, but did not provide any details of how they were linked.

State police said Thursday morning that they have identified a person of interest in the Griswold house fire, but they are withholding the persons name as detectives continue their investigation.

Detectives from the Connecticut State Police Fire and Explosion Unit and Eastern District Major Crimes Unit are assisting with the investigation in Griswold.
A friend of Cardinal Bernard Law, the disgraced ex-archbishop of Boston, asked Catholics for mercy and prayer following his death at age 86.

"I consider him a friend," said Bishop Christopher Coyne of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, Vermont. "He was a friend, but like all of us with our friends, we recognize the good and the bad in them."

Under Law's watch, it was discovered the Archdiocese of Boston failed to stop pedophile priests from hurting kids. Law was forced to resign 15 years ago, after the Boston Globe uncovered evidence Law shuffled offending priests between parishes without notifying the public or taking steps to seek justice for survivors.

Prior to the revelations, Law ordained Coyne. During the fallout from the priest abuse scandal, Coyne was working closely with Law and served as the spokesman for the Archdiocese of Boston.

"I would see him at least once a day  he was a man of patient virtue," Coyne recalled of the time he spent working with Law. "I didn't see him angry  not in any vindictive way."

Bishop Coyne now leads the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington. He said he last saw Law 14 months ago in Rome, when his memory, heart and mobility were failing.

Coyne told necn Law never stopped saying he was sorry for betraying children's safety, the trust of families, and for harming the Church.

"When we discovered the real brokenness and sin that was in the Church, and his part of that, he paid the price," Coyne recalled.

Jerry O'Neill, a prominent Vermont attorney who represented roughly four dozen survivors of priest abuse in the Burlington diocese, said Wednesday that Cardinal Law deserves to be condemned.

Jerry ONeill, a lawyer for survivors of clergy sex abuse, remains highly critical of Cardinal Bernard Law.

O'Neill helped secure multi-million dollar settlements for clients who were victimized by priests in the Burlington diocese 35 or more years ago.

The attorney highlighted in court hearings evidence that that those priests would get moved around to different parishes to cover their crimes. O'Neill said that many of his clients thought of Cardinal Law as arrogant and terrible, adding he believes Law enabled abuse of children by taking steps that would protect offenders.

Many of those clients laid blame at Law's feet for some of the hurt caused to children, their families, and the church's reputation, O'Neill said.

"I think that they felt a substantial injustice for a long time, because he was permitted to go to Rome and be given a very plum assignment over there," O'Neill said. "I think a lot of people will say as to him, good riddance.'"

Bishop Coyne acknowledged the considerable hurt many across New England still feel, including toward Law.

"I know that there are many out there who have different opinions of the man, and hold much different views of him than I, and I understand that completely," Coyne said. "But I would ask all of us to kind of walk forward in mercy and prayer for the repose of his soul  as we pray for everyone's souls when they pass on to God."

Coyne said he is confident the Catholic Church today is one of the safest places in the country, because of policies put in place following the crisis that unfolded with Cardinal Law at its center. Among those new policies are rules on background checks for church staff and volunteers, and making personnel mandated reporters  requiring that they tell authorities about evidence of victimization.

Coyne also said he welcomes the news that Law will be buried quickly, saying it's the time to close this chapter, while maintaining a focus on healing in the church.

Advocates for survivors of priest sexual abuse called on the Vatican to resist celebrating Cardinal Law's life.

Coyne said he expects the funeral will be relatively quiet compared to other services for Catholic cardinals. There were no tributes to Law made at Wednesday Masses in Vermont following his death, Coyne noted.

O'Neill praised the current leadership of the Burlington diocese for taking safety very seriously. He said he believes if a problem were to be detected in the diocese today, he is confident it would be reported and that strong legal action would be taken.
Norwich Youth for Christ launch nativity film

Young people from Norwich Youth for Christ hosted the Big Christmas Jam on December 21 when they launched their Christmas film Na Na Nativity  the nativity as youve never seen before!

The film, based around the nativity story and a parody of hollywood blockbuster La La Land was mastermined and executed by young people with the support of local Christian charity Norwich Youth for Christ.



The event at Wroxham Road Methodist Church was attended by the young people, their families, friends and supporters of Norwich YFC. The youth band led some carols, there were some Bible readings and musicians Alice Quarterman and Liam Anthony gave live performances. The Wise Men entertained the crowd with their best cracker jokes! Everybody gathered enjoyed the big reveal of Na Na Nativity  which was the first time the finished film had been shown.



Youthworker Sarah Ballard said, "The team of young people have been involved all the way through the project from initial ideas to final edits. They've been committed in every way - even when we were filming scenes outside in freezing temperatures!

We think they should be really proud of their work - we're really proud of them!"



NYFC director, Nick Blanch, said: "I opened Facebook this morning and the first thing to hit me was a Facebook message wishing me a Happy Winter. Im struck again by how the real message behind Christmas is increasingly sidelined as Jesus becomes a forgotten prop rather than the main character. My hope and prayer is that this film can do its part to raise awareness of the first Christmas and show that He wasnt just any other Son.



"Can you help us make a bigger impact? Watch the film and then share it on whatever social media channels you have, the more the better and if possible within the next 24 hours!"



The synopsis of the five-minute film is:



Three stargazers follow a mysterious star in the east

A teenager is told she is pregnant with God's son

And four angels prepare to find a special shepherd!

Here's to The Nativity as you've never seen!



It is hoped that the film will have a big impact online following the success of last yearss film which has been viewed over 2,500 times.



Click above to view the film
The concept of intent-based networks has received a lot of attention from media and networking professionals since Cisco launched its Network Intuitive earlier this year.

Cisco has certainly made the term intent-based a household term, but that wasnt the first time I had heard a vendor talk about this vision. Years ago, I was at an event held by Juniper Networks where its founder and CTO at the time, Pradeep Sindhu, talked about the death of Moores Law and how that would drive us towards this thing called intent-based networking.

Since then, Juniper has been somewhat quiet regarding its role in the evolution of the market, although it has been quite aggressive in the area of software-defined networking (SDN) through the evolution of its Contrail platform. Last week at its NXTWORK 2017 Customer event, Juniper tied its innovation with Contrail to the vision of a self-driving network with the release of Juniper Bots designed to translate intent into automated workflows.

Also on Network World: What is intent-based networking?

Its fair to say that all the great advancements the industry has seen in networking over the past few years  which includes the shift to software, increased adoption of white boxes, new operating systems, and the shift to software models  have enabled us to do so much more with our networks. But they have also increased the complexity of running a network.

The shift to the cloud has also raised the importance of the network, as we are now literally connecting everything to the network. Businesses have had to hire more people with new skill sets just to maintain the status quo.

Automation is something that network professionals seem more open to today than they did just a few years ago, but what to automate and how remains somewhat of a mystery. At the event, Juniper provided a data point from its research that found 43 percent of respondents said a lack of internal education and skills are preventing the use of network automation.

Juniper Bots help automate network tasks

Juniper Bots were designed to address that lack of skills. The solution consists of Contrail Intent Bots and AppFormix Analytics Bots, which facilitate automation by making it easier for people to interact with their network. Details of the Juniper Bots are as follows:

Contrail PeerBot automates the process of network peering. This makes it easier to manage multiple Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) domains, simplifies policy enforcement and enables on-demand scaling.

automates the process of network peering. This makes it easier to manage multiple Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) domains, simplifies policy enforcement and enables on-demand scaling. Contrail TestBot enables network professionals to shift to a DevOps approach for continuous integration/continuous deployment of network resources. The Bots can be used to automate auditing and provisioning modifications of the network. Humans simply cant do these tasks fast enough to apply DevOps principals to the network.

enables network professionals to shift to a DevOps approach for continuous integration/continuous deployment of network resources. The Bots can be used to automate auditing and provisioning modifications of the network. Humans simply cant do these tasks fast enough to apply DevOps principals to the network. AppFormix HealthBot is like a Fitbit for the network. It uses machine learning to track the fitness and health of the network by leveraging AppFormix to collect real-time network data that can be used to discover new insights. The HealthBot translates the data into actionable information that can be used to troubleshoot and maintain the network.

Juniper Extension Toolkit updates

In addition to the Bots, Juniper also announced several updates to its Juniper Extension Toolkit (JET). The enhancements extend the management and control API framework to the data plane, allowing developers to create applications that directly interface with the data plane on Junipers vMX and MX Series 3D Universal Edge Routers.

Juniper's plans for AI and machine learning

I had a chance to talk with Junipers current CTO, Bikash Koley, who came from Google and has been in the CTO role since July when Sindhu stepped down. I asked about Junipers plans for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. He said most of AI that is in use today is whats known as broad AI, like Amazons Alexa. This can tell people the weather, what time a meeting is and who is playing a certain song. This requires a broad knowledge base but doesnt require much depth.

Zeus Kerravala Juniper CTO Bikash Koley speaks at NXTWORK 2017

However, those types of tools dont have the necessary information or smarts to run a network. That requires narrow AI where the data behind it is extremely deep but the functionality of the tool, like a Bot, is well defined and narrowly focused. Koley said over time we should expect Juniper to roll out more narrow AI Bots that solve the big problems plaguing network operations today. Long term, Juniper may venture into being a broad AI vendor, but the immediate focus is on simplifying network operations.

Another good point Koley made was that making something simple actually requires a tremendous amount of engineering and innovation. Juniper will be applying its R&D efforts into masking the complexity of the network so its customers can do more, faster.

Fulfilling on the vision of a self-driving network is still likely to be years away, and vendors will need to help its customers crawl, walk and then run to a fully automated environment. The Juniper Bots are a great starting point, as they let engineers leverage AI without putting the business at risk.
Newbury MP caught using a phone behind the wheel

NEWBURY MP Richard Benyon has been banned from driving after being caught using a mobile phone behind the wheel.

Magistrates at Willesden, north London, heard this morning (Wednesday) that Mr Benyon was caught by a police officer using his phone while sitting in stationary traffic.

Magistrates' heard the MP continued to use the phone after the light turned green and he moved 'five to seven metres' forward.

Speaking to NewburyToday Mr Benyon said: "I deeply regret my actions and entirely accept the verdict of the court.

"There is no excuse for texting while driving even in stationary and heavy traffic, which was the situation in my case.

Prosecuting, Beata Murphy told the court that Mr Benyon was spotted by a police motorcyclist in a queue of traffic in Islington, at 9.59am on Friday, April 21.

"Mr Benyon had his mobile phone in his lap and was using his thumb to send a text message," the court heard.

When the traffic light went green, the former Defra minister was said to have carried on looking at the phone and 'manipulating' the screen with his hand, the court heard.

Mr Benyon was pulled over and admitted to using the phone saying: 'I thought I was allowed to use it when I'm not moving'.

Magistrates' heard Mr Benyon already had six points on his licence, three from a speeding offence in October 2014, and three for another speeding offence from September 2015.

Changes in law over the number of points that can be issued for using a mobile phone while driving was increased from three points to six points in March this year.

Magistrates' ordered Mr Benyon be issued six points, which puts him over the maximum number of twelve points allowed before a driver is disqualified.

Thomas Daniel, defending, pleaded with the bench to use its discretionary powers to hand Mr Benyon a shorter disqualification period.

Mr Daniel said that if the offence had taken place six weeks prior, the MP would have been automatically issued three points and would not be over the point limit under the 'totting up' system.

He said: "As of March of this year this offence was increased from three to six penalty points. The court of course still do have a discretion to pass a sentence on any matter, grave or not.

"You have a discretion to pass a short discretionary ban.

"12 points has the effect of bringing about a disqualification and wipes the licence clean.

"From the witness statement the officer said he was sympathetic to Mr Benyon's position to sending that text message. The reason is because the road was completely gridlocked.

"He would have exercised his own discretion. He was sympathetic to drivers as meetings would be missed, appointments would not be kept.

"This is the lowest end of this type of offence. He moved only five to seven metres. And that is at about walking pace.'

Chair of the bench Nigel Wildish said: "With regard to disqualification, we have heard on Mr Benyon's behalf that he should suffer a short term disqualification as opposed to points on the totter.

"He should receive the six points as Parliament intended to be in effect as of 6 March and which anyone else would, which makes him a totter with a total of 12 points.

"Having become a totter he will be disqualified for a period of six months and that will reduce his points back to zero.'

Mr Benyon admitted one count of using a handheld mobile phone while driving.

He was also fined 306 and ordered to pay 85 in prosecution costs and a victim surcharge fee, making a total of 421.

The offence of using a mobile phone while driving now attracts an automatic six penalty points since the introduction of new legislation.
This holiday season, millions of people will gather at airports ready to board planes for destinations around the world. Depending on the environment at their destination, their suitcases may be filled with sunscreen and bathing suits, or heavy parkas and mittens.

Now, a new study from the lab of biologist Mark Sundrud, Ph.D., on the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), provides evidence that circulating immune cells may similarly adapt when they enter different tissues, which are like different environments in our bodies. Moreover, the researchers found that inability to adapt may lead to disease.

The scientists hope understanding how immune cells adapt as they enter different tissues will spur the design of better, more specific, medicines.

"We need therapeutic strategies that specifically target chronic inflammation in the gut, skin or other tissues," Sundrud says, "instead of just generally suppressing the entire immune system."

The research was published Dec. 19, 2017, in the journal Immunity .

Sundrud's laboratory is working to understand the characteristics and functions of TH17 cells, a subset of immune cells that circulate throughout the body. These cells protect many types of tissues from infection, but they can also promote chronic inflammatory conditions like Crohn's disease, which specifically targets the intestinal tract.

Knowing TH17 cells need to function in a variety of tissue environments throughout the body, Sundrud's team wondered if and how these cells might use different tools to behave normally in one environment-;or tissue-;than they'd use in another. Perhaps activating one gene could be useful in the lungs, while activating another would be useful in the gut, the same way you might bring a bathing suit on a trip to Florida and a jacket if you're headed to Canada.

This study built on previous research from the Sundrud lab, which showed that when TH17 cells entered the intestine in human tissue samples, they increased the expression of a gene called MDR1.

But MDR1 is only known to transport chemotherapeutic drugs out of tumor cells, so why would it be expressed in immune cells in the gut?

The new study suggests that MDR1 is responsible for protecting TH17 cells in the gut from bile acids-;detergent-like molecules produced by the liver that break down fats. Normally, the liver secretes bile acids after we eat to aid digestion. As food moves through the digestive tract, these acids are reabsorbed when they reach the ileum-;the final portion of the small intestine-;and the site of ileal Crohn's disease, the most common form of Crohn's.

"T cells only see high levels of bile acids in the ileum. They know this, and they adapt once they get there," says Sundrud.

This discovery led the researchers to identify a mechanism where ileal Crohn's disease appears to be induced by bile acids when T cell adaptation does not occur the way it should.

The team used a genetically modified mouse model to observe the expression and function of MDR1 in mice. They found that the gene's expression increased when the cells entered the ileum. But, in mice where the gene couldn't be activated in the gut, TH17 cells that were exposed to bile acids suffered severe oxidative stress. This stress caused the TH17 cells to become overactive, leading to Crohn's disease-like intestinal inflammation in mice.

Using bile acid sequestrants, an FDA-approved class of drugs used in transplant patients that absorb bile acids like a sponge, scientists were able to restore normal T cell function in the ileum and attenuate Crohn's disease in mice.

To establish the relevance of their findings, the team tested blood samples from healthy humans, as well as those with a variety of inflammatory bowel diseases, including Crohn's. They found a subset of patients with ileal Crohn's disease had severely impaired MDR1 expression.

Not only does this suggest that the cause of Crohn's disease in these patients may be oxidative stress due to dysfunctional MDR1, but that for the subset of patients with this dysfunction, bile acid sequestrants may be an effective treatment. Together with his collaborators, Sundrud hopes to fund a clinical study to test exactly that.
By Steven Ariong.

The governments of Kenya and Uganda have agreed to have a joint intelligence team to monitor security at the border between Karamoja region and Turkana County.

The two countries reached the agreement during a peace dialogue organized by Turkana County government held in Moroto district.

The meeting followed the resumption of cattle raids between the Karimojong and the Turkana pastoralists.

Joseph Opio Osot the Resident District Commissioner says government spent a lot time and resources pacifying Karamoja and so it will not look while the region slips into chaos.

He has also appealed to the Turkana country government to emulate Uganda by removing all guns that are in the hands of the Turkana.
For years, scientists and clinicians have been documenting the significant psychological effects on child victims of sexual abuse, but what about the physical impact on their sexual health? Pascale Vezina-Gagnon, a Ph.D. student researcher at the Department of Psychology of Universite de Montreal, has examined the issue as part of her doctoral thesis. Her conclusions have just been published in The Journal of Pediatrics.

In her research, Vezina-Gagnon looked at two groups: a cohort of 882 children who were sexually abused, and a comparison group of 882 other children from the general population. She found that up to 12 years after being the victim of one or several assaults, girls in the victims' group received 2.1 times more medical diagnoses for urinary health problems and 1.4 times more diagnoses for genital health problems than girls from the general population. In the case of boys, no difference was observed in the number of diagnoses between boys who had been victims of sexual abuse and those from the general population. Also, there was no significant difference in the number of diagnoses for sexually transmitted infections among girls or among boys.

"This study has significant clinical implications," said Vezina-Gagnon. "Up until now, we knew very little about the effects of sexual abuse on the physical health of young victims, and more specifically on their genitourinary health, which in general is directly affected in cases of sexual abuse. In view of these findings, it is vital to put certain response and prevention protocols in place to limit the chronicization of these health problems into adulthood."

Study based on government data

The study was conducted under the supervision of UdeM psychology professor Isabelle Daigneault, a specialist in child sexual abuse. It also involved Dr. Jean-Yves Frappier, a pediatric professor at UdeM and specialist in sexual abuse at CHU Sainte-Justine, and Sophie Bergeron, a psychology professor and specialist in the treatment of gynecological pain.

The research team used medical administrative data from the Regie de l'assurance maladie du Quebec (Quebec Health Insurance Board) and the Ministere de la Sante et des Services sociaux (Quebec Department of Health and Social Services) to compare diagnoses of sexually transmitted infections, genital problems and urinary problems in two groups: 882 child victims of sexual abuse ranging in ages from 1 to 17, with an average age of 11 when sexual abuse was corroborated by the Director of Youth Protection; and 882 children from the general population of the same age and of the same socio-economic status.

The most frequently reported problems were urinary infections and bacterial infections in the kidneys for urinary health problems. Whereas for genital problems, the most frequently diagnoses were penile disorders; inflammation of the cervix, the uterus, the vagina and the vulva; vaginitis; ovarian cysts and menstrual problems.

Although the nature of sexual abuse was not specified in the databases supplied to the researchers, a study of cases of abuse handled by the Director of Youth Protection estimated that 46 per cent of assaults involved molestation, 17 per cent involved penetration or attempted penetration, and 9 per cent involved oral sex.

Why girls and not boys?

One of the main findings of this study is that, in boys who've been sexually abused at least once, diagnoses of genitourinary health problems remain unchanged. "It is also possible that the effects of sexual abuse on boys' physical health emerge as other health issues, such as gastrointestinal disorders or other somatic symptoms," said Vezina-Gagnon. "A recent study has also revealed that boys who have been sexually abused have a higher frequency of more serious health issues requiring hospitalization."

Some surprises with STIs

The study revealed surprising results regarding diagnoses of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). For both girls and boys, there was no difference in the number of diagnoses for STIs between the victims and the comparison group, which contradicts the findings of previous studies. "This could be explained by the relatively young age of participants at the end of the study in 2013," said Vezina-Gagnon. "Although participants' sexual activity wasn't documented in this study, we can assume that some participants were not yet sexually active or had only recently become sexually active. Also, as STIs are frequently asymptomatic, they will not be recorded in the Regie de l'assurance maladie du Quebec database as the main reason for the medical consultation."

A follow-up is coming

"It may come as a surprise that a psychology researcher is interested in physical health rather than mental health, but one of the aspects that challenges me about the effects of sexual abuse is the link between body and mind," the researcher added. "It is from this perspective that I've been studying how some traumatic experiences such as sexual abuse could have more long-term effects on physical health."

In upcoming research, Vezina-Gagnon will look at how sexual abuse can affect the incidence of genitourinary health problems in girls, by testing an affective model. "My hypothesis is that, among girls who have been victim of sexual abuse, those who suffered more from mental health problems will also be those who are most at risk of having urinary and genital health problems in the years following the abuse."
Although targeted therapies have produced dramatic advances in our ability to control some types of advanced lung cancer, growth of the disease in the brain remains a major problem. Radiation is often used to treat deposits in the brain, but the best technique to deliver radiation can be controversial. Whole-brain radiation therapy, as its name suggest, treats the entire brain but can be associated with notable cognitive side effects. Another strategy, radiosurgery, directs highly-focused radiation only to the sites of metastasis, largely sparing the normal brain.

The challenge has been to define in which circumstances each technique is best. The debate has centered on the number of brain metastases, with the field generally agreeing that with three or fewer deposits, radiosurgery is the preferred approach, and then switching to the use of whole-brain radiation to treat four or more deposits.

A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published today in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology explores the use of radiosurgery in advanced lung cancer patients with four or more brain lesions  in some cases, dramatically more than four lesions  and shows that in a subset of patients, radiosurgery may be the best choice even when the number of brain lesions far exceeds the established three-lesion threshold.

In addition to discovering if radiosurgery could be effective in patients with greater than four brain lesions, the study hoped to answer two more important questions, namely, if you use radiosurgery to treat only the known sites of disease, might you be missing smaller deposits that would have been treated as a byproduct of whole-brain radiation, leading to worse long-term outcomes? And if you treat multiple sites with radiosurgery, at some point does the radiation dose to the normal parts of the brain become equivalent to that from whole-brain radiotherapy?

"It used to be that once lung cancer metastasized to the brain, the prognosis was poor. Whole brain radiation therapy decreases the risk of death from neurologic causes, but at a steep cost. This study suggests that for lung cancer patients on targeted therapies whose cancer has spread to the brain, the use of radiosurgery makes it rare to die of causes related to brain metastases," says Tyler Robin, MD, PhD, senior resident in radiation oncology at the CU School of Medicine and the paper's first author. Robin collaborated with senior author, Chad G. Rusthoven, MD, assistant professor in Radiation Oncology at the University of Colorado Cancer Center.

"Despite the fact that patients on this study had multiple brain metastases, the outcomes were excellent with radiosurgery alone, with overall survival measured on the order of years," says Rusthoven.

The study also asked whether radiosurgery to multiple lesions is likely to subject patients to the same cognitive risks as whole-brain radiation therapy  in other words, if you are using radiosurgery to treat 5, 10, 15 or 20 brain lesions, at some point are you effectively irradiating the whole brain?

"Even when we treated over ten brain metastases in one session, the dose to the whole brain was phenomenally lower than with whole-brain radiotherapy," Robin says.

The group measured radiation dose in two ways  to the whole brain and also specifically to the hippocampus, the brain structure responsible for processing new memories, which has been blamed for the cognitive side effects associated with brain radiation.

Whole-brain radiation delivers a radiation dose of approximately 30 gray (Gy) to the entire brain. A technique known as "hippocampal-sparing" or "hippocampal-avoidance" radiation delivers the same dose of radiation to the bulk of the brain, but only about 10 Gy to the hippocampus. The maximum radiation dose experienced with radiosurgery, even with many metastases, was 1.2 Gy in the hippocampus and 0.8 Gy across the whole brain.

"The very low doses of radiation to the normal brain observed with radiosurgery compared to whole-brain radiation has the potential to dramatically alter the risk of cognitive side effects," says Rusthoven. "As the field of oncology evolves, we have to evolve with it. Patients with cancer who are eligible for targeted therapies are living longer than ever before, making treatment strategies that support long term quality of life even more important."
People with rare diseases are at high risk for experiencing poor quality of life, including increased levels of anxiety, depression, pain, fatigue and limited ability to participate in society, a new study from an Oregon State University shows.

The study is believed to be the first large-scale study of adults living in the U.S. that are diagnosed with a rare disease or disorder, said Kathleen Bogart, an assistant professor of psychology in the College of Liberal Arts at OSU.

"These findings suggest that the quality of life needs of people with rare diseases are not being met and that more work is needed to provide psychosocial support for this group," said Bogart, whose work focuses on the psychosocial implications of disability. "There is a disparity here and intervention is needed."

The findings were published this month in Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases. Veronica Irvin, an assistant professor in OSU's College of Public Health and Human Sciences, co-authored the paper.

About 350 million people worldwide live with at least one rare disease, and there are about 7,000 diseases classified as rare because they affect small numbers of people. Rare is defined in the U.S. as fewer 200,000 Americans at one time; in Europe, fewer than 1 in 2,000 people.

The new paper is part of a larger, multi-part study, the Adults with Rare Disorders Support project, to assess the psychosocial support needs of people with a variety of rare diseases and disorders.

While each disease may have its own set of characteristics and health impacts, researchers have found that people with rare diseases often share similar characteristics and experiences - including little information or treatment, lengthy times to diagnosis and isolation. Because of this shared experience, they may also benefit from similar types of psychosocial supports, Bogart said.

"Even though their diseases are different, their experience is similar," Bogart said. "There is some benefit to looking at this group collectively, rather than trying to work with each small rare disease group independently."

For the study, researchers surveyed more than 1,200 U.S. residents with rare diseases, asking them to complete questionnaires about their disease and their quality of life.

The survey group represented 232 different rare diseases, including ataxia, Bell's palsy, Ehlers Danlos syndrome, mast cell disorders and narcolepsy, and 13 percent of the group had more than one rare disease. The researchers also found that study participants waited on average nine years before receiving a correct diagnosis.

Compared to a representative sample of U.S. residents, people with rare diseases experienced worse anxiety than 75 percent of the population; worse depression than 70 percent of the population; worse fatigue than 85 percent of the population; worse pain than 75 percent of the population; worse physical functioning than 85 percent of the population and worse ability to participate in society than 80 percent of the population.

Those with rare diseases also had poorer quality of life than U.S. residents with common chronic conditions such as heart disease, diabetes or arthritis, Bogart said.

"There is something specific about having a 'rare' disease that contributes to poorer quality of life," she said. "Many people struggle with getting an accurate diagnosis, which also can lead to a constant de-legitimization of their experience, with people wondering if it is 'all in your head.'"

Study participants with systematic and rheumatic diseases had the poorest quality of life profiles, and those with neurological diseases also had very poor quality of life. People with developmental anomalies experienced fewer quality of life problems than the other groups.

The findings suggest that quality of life issues such as psychosocial support should receive more priority from organizations and funding agencies that support people with rare diseases and disorders, Bogart said. Supporting quality of life is especially important for people living with one of the 95 percent of rare disorders that have no effective treatments.

Including psychosocial support in organizational mission statements, providing psychosocial support through support groups or conferences and making funding for psychosocial support a priority could help address quality of life issues for people with rare diseases, in part by helping reduce stigma and isolation and improving access to information and treatments.

"Some people with rare diseases may never meet another person with that disease," Bogart said. "That can be very isolating. Conferences are one way to bring people with similar experiences together to share. It helps them feel connected, normalized and validated."

People with rare diseases who are experiencing poor quality of life also should seek support from a mental health professional, a rare disease group and/or peers with rare disorders, she said.

"The beauty of these quality of life of findings is that they are not disease-specific," Bogart said. "There are already umbrella groups that can provide this kind of support to people with rare diseases, regardless of their individual diseases."

Next, the researchers plan to meet with focus groups of participants from the first phase of the study to further explore quality of life issues. The goal is to identify effective supports and develop interventions that could help people with rare diseases improve their quality of life.

"We'd like to come up with a blueprint of ways for these support organizations to provide help," Bogart said. "This is something we could do on a very broad level to help a lot of people and maximize the use of very limited resources."
The antidepressant clomipramine may also alleviate symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS), specifically in its progressive form, i.e. when it occurs without relapses or remissions. As yet, drugs for this type of MS have been virtually non-existent. Researchers collaborating with Prof V. Wee Yong, PhD, from the University of Calgary and Dr Simon Faissner from Ruhr-Universitat Bochum screened 1,040 generic therapeutics and, based on preclinical studies, identified one that is suitable for the treatment of multiple sclerosis. They published their results in the journal "Nature Communications" from December 19, 2017.

Today, twelve drugs have been approved for the treatment of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis; for the progressive types, on the other hand, only a few therapy approaches exist. "The mechanisms causing damage in progressive MS are not always the same as in relapsing-remitting MS. This is why the latter requires different therapeutic approaches," says Simon Faissner. As postdoctoral researcher of the Department of Neurology at St Josef-Hospital in Bochum, he contributed to a study carried out at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary as a visiting scholar, funded by the grant for medical research awarded by the Ruhr-Universitat's Faculty of Medicine.

Potential side effects already well-documented

The team worked with approved drugs, the side effects of which have already been amply documented. From among those drugs, the researchers selected 249 well-tolerated therapeutics that enter the nervous system safely; this is where chronic inflammation occurs in progressive MS. Using cell cultures, they tested which of the 249 substances are capable of protecting nerve cells from the damaging influence of iron. In MS patients, iron is released due to cell damage, damaging nerve cells in turn.

Following those tests, 35 potential candidates were identified; the researchers subsequently analyzed them with regard to additional properties: investigating, for example, if they can reduce damage to mitochondria - the powerhouses of the cells - or if they minimise the activity of leucocytes that attack the insulation of nerve cells in MS patients. In the process, the drug clomipramine proved promising.

Neuroscience eBook Compilation of the top interviews, articles, and news in the last year. Download a copy today

Positive results in preclinical studies

In the next step, the researchers analyzed the substance in mice suffering from a disease comparable with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis in humans. The therapy suppressed the neurological disturbances completely; as a result, damages to the nerve cells and inflammation were minimised.

In a subsequent test, they treated mice with a disease that resembles progressive MS in humans. Here, too, the therapy proved effective, provided the researchers applied it immediately after the first clinical symptoms became apparent. Symptoms such as paralysis were thus reduced - unlike in control animals that were treated with placebo drugs.

Clinical studies planned

Simon Faissner returned from Canada to Bochum in January 2017. As a member of Prof Dr Ralf Gold's research group, he is continuously striving to identify new drugs with the potential of protecting from MS and to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the progressive type of the disease.

"Based on promising preclinical data, our long-term objective is to study clomipramine as well as other therapeutics selected in the screening process on patients in clinical studies," explains Faissner. "An advantage of generic drugs is the fact that there is ample clinical experience regarding their potential side effects." Accordingly, there is no need to perform phase-1 trials to study the tolerance of the drug in healthy volunteers. "The funding of such studies always poses a considerable challenge," concludes Faissner.

Progressive multiple sclerosis

In the Western world, multiple sclerosis is the most common cause of neurological disabilities in young people. In MS patients, leukocytes damage the layer surrounding nerve cells, the so-called myelin sheath. This results in neurological disturbances; in 85 percent of patients, the disease is characterized by clearly defined relapses and may cause e.g. visual impairment, paralysis or numbness. The majority of patients experience gradual deterioration after 15 to 20 years, which is referred to as progression. In ten percent of the patients, the disease is progressive from the outset, without any relapses along the way.
Elena Altemus is 89 and has dementia. She often forgets her children's names, and sometimes can't recall whether she lives in Maryland or Italy.

Yet Elena, who entered a nursing home in November, was screened for breast cancer as recently as this summer. "If the screening is not too invasive, why not?" asked her daughter, Dorothy Altemus. "I want her to have the best quality of life possible."

But a growing chorus of geriatricians, cancer specialists and health system analysts are coming forth with a host of reasons: Such testing in the nation's oldest patients is highly unlikely to detect lethal disease, hugely expensive and more likely to harm than help since any follow-up testing and treatment is often invasive.

And yet such screening  some have labeled it "overdiagnosis"  is epidemic in the United States, the result of medical culture, aggressive awareness campaigns and financial incentives to doctors.

By looking for cancers in people who are unlikely to benefit, "we find something that wasn't going to hurt the patient, and then we hurt the patient," said Dr. Sei Lee, an associate professor of geriatrics at the University of California-San Francisco.

Nearly 1 in 5 women with severe cognitive impairment  including older patients like Elena Altemus  are still getting regular mammograms, according to the American Journal of Public Health  even though they're not recommended for people with a limited life expectancy. And 55 percent of older men with a high risk of death over the next decade still get PSA tests for prostate cancer, according to a 2014 study in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Among people in their 70s and 80s, cancer screenings often detect slow-growing tumors that are unlikely to cause problems in patients' lifetimes. These patients often die of something else  from dementia to heart disease or pneumonia  long before their cancers would ever have become a threat, said Dr. Deborah Korenstein, chief of general internal medicine at New York's Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Prostate cancers, in particular, are often harmless.

Patients with dementia, for example, rarely live longer than a few years.

"It generally takes about 10 years to see benefit from cancer screening, at least in terms of a mortality benefit," Korenstein said.

Enthusiasm for cancer screenings runs high among patients and doctors, both of whom tend to overestimate the benefits but underappreciate the risks, medical research shows.

In some cases, women are being screened for tumors in organs they no longer have. In a study of women over 30, nearly two-thirds who had undergone a hysterectomy got at least one cervical cancer screening, including one-third who had been screened in the past year, according to a 2014 study in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Even some patients with terminal cancers continue to be screened for other malignancies.

Nine percent of women with advanced cancers  including tumors of the lung, colon or pancreas  received a mammogram and 6 percent received a cervical cancer screen, according to a 2010 study of Medicare recipients over age 65. Among men on Medicare with incurable cancer, 15 percent were screened for prostate cancer.

Although screenings can extend and improve lives for healthy, younger adults, they tend to inflict more harm than good in people who are old and frail, Korenstein said. Testing can lead to anxiety, invasive follow-up procedures and harsh treatments.

"In patients well into their 80s, with other chronic conditions, it's highly unlikely that they will receive any benefit from screening, and more likely that the harms will outweigh the benefits," said Dr. Cary Gross, a professor at the Yale School of Medicine.

By screening patients near the end of life, doctors often detect tumors that don't need to be found and treated. Researchers estimate that up to two-thirds of prostate cancers are overdiagnosed, along with one-third of breast tumors.

"Overdiagnosis is serious," Gross said. "It's a tremendous harm that screening has imposed.  It's something we're only beginning to reckon with."

A variety of medical specialties  from the American College of Surgeons to the Society of General Internal Medicine  have advised doctors against screening patients with limited time left. For example, the American Cancer Society recommends prostate and breast cancer screenings only in patients expected to live 10 years or more.

In November, a coalition of patient advocates, employers and others included prostate screenings in men over age 75 in its list of the top five "low-value" medical procedures. Dr. A. Mark Fendrick, co-director of the coalition, referred to the five procedures as "no-brainers," arguing that health plans should consider refusing to pay for them.

Prostate cancer screening in men over 75 cost Medicare at least $145 million a year, according to a 2014 study in the journal Cancer. Mammograms in this age group cost the federal health plan for seniors more than $410 million a year, according to a 2013 study in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Taxpayers usually foot the bill for these tests, because most seniors are covered by Medicare.

And while cancer screenings generally aren't expensive  a mammogram averages about $100  they can launch a cascade of follow-up tests and treatments that add to the total cost of care.

Most spending on unnecessary medical care stems not from rare, big-ticket items, such as heart surgeries, but cheaper services that are performed much too often, according to an October study in Health Affairs.

A Hard Habit To Break

Many older patients expect to continue getting screened, said Dr. Mara Schonberg, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

"It's jarring for someone who's been told every year to get screened and then at age 75 you tell them to stop," she said.

John Randall, 78, says he plans to live into his 90s. He sees no reason to skip cancer screening.

"I, for one, do not like to hear what my life expectancy is," said Randall, who lives near Madison, Wis. He plans to have his next colonoscopy in January. He feels healthy and walks 2 miles at a stretch several days a week. "No one knows when I am going to die."

Decades of public awareness campaigns have convinced patients that cancer screenings are essential, said Dr. Lisa Schwartz, a professor at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. Her research found that many people see cancer screening as a moral obligation and can't imagine a day when they would stop getting screened.

Such campaigns have convinced many women that "mammograms saves lives."

But those campaigns don't mention that doctors need to screen 1,000 women for a decade in order to prevent one death from breast cancer, said Schonberg.

Yet screenings can have dire consequences. Medical complications during colonoscopies  such as intestinal tears  are almost twice as common in patients ages 75 to 79 compared with those 70 to 74, according to a study published in January in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Colonoscopies, which require extensive bowel cleansing before the procedure, also can leave many older people dehydrated and prone to fainting.

PSA tests can lead to prostate biopsies  in which doctors use needles to sample tissue  that cause infections in about 6 percent of men. These infections send about 1 in 100 men who undergo the procedure to the hospital, according to a 2014 study in the Journal of Urology.

Even removing nonfatal skin cancers can cause problems for older patients, said Dr. Eleni Linos, an associate professor at the University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine. Frail patients can struggle to care for surgical wounds and change dressings; their wounds are also less likely to heal well, Linos said. More than 1 in 4 patients with nonfatal skin cancers report a complication of treatment, Linos' research shows.

Yet most of the 2.5 million slowest-growing skin cancers found each year are diagnosed in people over 65, according to Linos' 2014 study. More than 100,000 of these nonfatal skin cancers are treated in patients who die within one year.

Screenings, follow-up tests and treatments can cause emotional trauma as well.

"For a woman of that generation who doesn't have the cognitive ability to understand what's going on, having private parts of their body exposed and pressed against a machine can be very agitating and upsetting," Lee said.

Among older women, about 70 percent report significant stress at the time of a biopsy, Schonberg said. Simply lying on a table for a 45-minute biopsy can cause pain for women with significant arthritis, she said.

Instead of spending time and effort on things that are hurtful and never going to help them, why not direct time and energy on things that will help them live longer and better? Dr. Louise Walter

Virtually all older women with breast cancer wind up getting surgery, which poses additional hardships, Schonberg said. Many are prescribed hormonal therapies that can cause bone pain, fatigue and increase the risk of stroke.

With prostate cancer, doctors today try to reduce the harm from overdiagnosis by offering men with early-stage disease "active surveillance" instead of immediate treatment. A study published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine found that men are just as likely to survive 10 years whether they choose to be treated or monitored.

Jay Schleifer, 74, of Wellington, Fla., was diagnosed with a low-risk prostate cancer last year. Since then, his doctor has monitored him with additional tests. He'll be treated only if tests suggest his cancer has become more aggressive.

This less aggressive approach aims to spare Schleifer from long-term side effects.

Among men who have had prostate cancer surgery, 14 percent lose control of their bladders and 14 percent develop erectile dysfunction, according to a 2013 study in JAMA Internal Medicine.

In a study published in July in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Dr. Richard Hoffman found 15 percent of prostate cancer survivors regretted their treatment decision. Those treated with surgery and radiation were about twice as likely to regret their choice compared with those who opted to monitor their disease.

Men are more likely to regret their prostate cancer treatment decisions if they don't understand the risks beforehand, said Hoffman, director of general internal medicine at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine/Iowa City VA Medical Center.

Harold Honeyfield, 87, said he didn't fully understand the risks when he had prostate cancer surgery 12 years ago. Although he is glad he was treated, the surgery caused irreversible erectile dysfunction, which has caused stress and sadness for him and his wife of 47 years.

"When a man has no erections, that is paralysis," said Honeyfield, of Davis, Calif., who started a support group for other men dealing with prostate cancer. "You've lost the ability to be a man."

A Tough Sell

Doctors have a number of incentives to continue ordering screening tests as people age.

"It's a lot easier to say, 'Fine, get your regular mammogram this year,' than to have the much more difficult conversation that it's not helpful when life expectancy is limited," Gross said.

Schonberg said she tries to be diplomatic when talking to patients about halting screening.

In patients well into their 80s, with other chronic conditions, it's highly unlikely that they will receive any benefit from screening. Dr. Cary Gross

"It's hard to tell people, 'You're not going to live long enough to benefit,'" Schonberg said. "That doesn't go over well."

Many physicians continue screening older people because they're afraid they'll be sued if they miss a cancer, Schonberg said. And she notes that some health systems award bonuses to clinicians whose patients have high screening rates.

In addition, "doing less can be perceived as a lack of caring or as ageism," Schonberg said. "It can be uncomfortable for a physician to explain why doing less is more."

Doctors should prioritize what they can do to help patients be healthier, said Dr. Louise Walter, chief of geriatrics at the University of California-San Francisco and a geriatrician at the San Francisco VA Medical Center. For many older patients, screening for cancer is not their most pressing need.

"Instead of spending time and effort on things that are hurtful and never going to help them, why not direct time and energy on things that will help them live longer and better?" Walter asked.

For example, Walter might tell a patient, "'Right now, you have really bad heart failure and we need to get that under control,'" Walter said.

Other key issues for many older people include preventing falls, treating depression and alleviating stress in their caregivers, Walter said. Gross said he urges patients to take steps shown to improve their health, such as getting a flu shot or exercising at least 15 minutes a day.

"These are things that can help them feel better very quickly," Walter said. "Screenings can take years to have a benefit, if at all."

KHN's coverage related to aging and improving care of older adults is supported in part by The John A. Hartford Foundation.
Scientists have found a new way to explain the hearing loss caused by cisplatin, a powerful drug used to treat many forms of cancer. Using a highly sensitive technique to measure and map cisplatin in mouse and human inner ear tissues, researchers found that forms of cisplatin build up in the inner ear. They also found a region in the inner ear that could be targeted for efforts to prevent hearing loss from cisplatin. The study is published in Nature Communications, and was supported by the National Institute on Deafness and other Communications Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes of Health.

Cisplatin and similar platinum-based drugs are prescribed for an estimated 10 to 20 percent of all cancer patients. The NIH's National Cancer Institute supported research that led to the 1965 discovery of cisplatin and continued development leading to its success as an essential weapon in the battle against cancer. The drugs cause permanent hearing loss in 40 to 80 percent of adult patients and at least half of children who receive the drug. The new findings help explain why cisplatin is so toxic to the inner ear, and why hearing loss gets worse after each treatment, can occur long after treatment, and is more severe in children than adults.

"Hearing loss can have a major impact on a person's life," said James F. Battey, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., director of NIDCD. "Many adults with hearing loss struggle with social isolation and depression, among other conditions. Children who lose their hearing often have problems with social development and keeping up at school. Helping to preserve hearing in cancer patients who benefit from these drugs would be a major contribution to the quality of their lives."

Lisa L. Cunningham, Ph.D., chief of the NIDCD Section on Sensory Cell Biology, led the research team, which included scientists from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). Support for data analysis was provided by Electro Scientific Industries, Inc., of Bozeman, Montana.

In most areas of the body, cisplatin is eliminated within days or weeks after treatment, but in the inner ear, the drug remains much longer. Previous research focused on why the inner ear is more sensitive than other parts of the body to cisplatin-induced damage. The NIH team pursued a new angle on the problem: What if the inner ear is not able to get rid of cisplatin, and cells in the inner ear important for hearing die because they are exposed to the drug for a long time?

The team developed a mouse model that represents cisplatin-induced hearing loss seen in human patients. By looking at inner ear tissue of mice after the first, second, and third cisplatin treatment, researchers saw that cisplatin remained in the mouse inner ear much longer than in most other body tissues, and that it builds up with each successive treatment. They also studied inner ear tissue donated by deceased adult patients who had been treated with cisplatin, and observed that cisplatin is retained in the inner ear many months or years after treatment. In addition, when they examined inner ear tissue from one child, they found cisplatin buildup that was even higher than seen in adults. These results suggest that the inner ear readily takes up cisplatin, but it has very little ability to remove the drug.

In mice and human tissues, the research team saw the highest buildup of cisplatin in a part of the inner ear called the stria vascularis, which helps maintain the positive electrical charge in inner ear fluid that certain cells need to detect sound. The research team determined that the accumulation of cisplatin in the stria vascularis portion of the inner ear contributed to cisplatin-related hearing loss.

"Our findings suggest that if we can prevent cisplatin from entering the stria vascularis in the inner ear during treatment, we may be able to protect cancer patients from developing cisplatin-induced hearing loss," said Cunningham.
Varenicline, one of the most commonly prescribed drugs for helping people quit smoking, may put them at higher risk for a cardiovascular event, according to new research published online in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

In "www.thoracic.org="">Cardiovascular and Neuropsychiatric Events Following Varenicline Use for Smoking Cessation," researchers in Canada report that in an observational, self-controlled trial, patients prescribed varenicline (Chantix in the U.S.; Champix in Canada and Europe) were 34 percent more likely to have an emergency department visit or hospitalization for a cardiovascular event while taking the drug. Among those patients who had not previously experienced a cardiovascular event, the increased incidence was only 12 percent.

The researchers estimated that among all patients, there were 3.95 adverse cardiovascular events per 1,000 varenicline users that could be attributed to the drug. "This is a figure that physicians can quote to their patients," the authors wrote.

The researchers also found a small increase in emergency department visits and hospitalizations for neuropsychiatric symptoms, but they wrote the findings were not robust and did not appear to be clinically meaningful.

"Previous studies regarding the safety of varenicline have been conflicting and most examined people with relatively similar characteristics and backgrounds in highly controlled settings," said lead study author Andrea S. Gershon, MD, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and a scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Ontario, Canada. "We wanted to study varenicline among all kinds of people in the real world. "

The researchers analyzed the medical records of 56,851 new users of varenicline between Sept. 2011 and Feb. 2015 living in Ontario. The records were studied from a year prior to the year following the date when varenicline was prescribed. During that time, 4,185 and 4,720 patients experienced one or more cardiovascular or neuropsychiatric events, respectively, that resulted in an ER visit or hospitalization.

Patients served as their own controls. Varenicline is usually taken for 12 weeks. Those weeks were considered the risk interval and were compared to the weeks before initiation of treatment and after treatment should have ended. (The researchers excluded from the control period the six weeks before varenicline was prescribed to avoid biasing results by including patients who had just suffered a cardiovascular event and started varenicline to reduce their risk of another event.)

Cardiovascular events included heart attack, stroke, arrhythmias, unstable angina and peripheral vascular disease, among others. Among neuropsychiatric events, the researchers included depression, anxiety, psychosis, hallucinations, insomnia and self-harm.

Because the study is observational, it cannot determine cause and effect. The authors said the study was limited by a number of other factors, including not having information about whether the patients quit smoking, whether they took other medications to help quit smoking and whether nicotine withdrawal accounted for some of the neuropsychiatric events reported.

According to the authors, other studies have found that varenicline triples the odds of a person quitting smoking. That long-term health benefit has to be taken into account when considering the potential risks of taking varenicline for 12 weeks, the authors wrote.

"Quitting smoking greatly reduces a person's chances of developing heart disease and cancer and has many other health benefits," Dr. Gershon said. "Our findings should not be used to suggest people not take varenicline. The findings should be used to help people make an informed decision about whether they should take varenicline based on accurate information about its risks as well as its benefits." Dr. Gershon added that the study finding also suggests that physicians should monitor patients taking varenicline more closely to catch adverse events early if they do occur.
Anita Willis says the social worker offered her a painful choice: She could either leave the San Jose, Calif., nursing home where she'd spent a month recovering from a stroke  or come up with $336 a day to stay on.

She had until midnight to decide.

Willis' Medicaid managed-care plan had told the home that it was cutting off payment because she no longer qualified for such a high level of care. If Willis, 58, stayed and paid the daily rate, her Social Security disability money would run out in three days. But if she left, she had nowhere to go. She'd recently become homeless after a breakup and said she couldn't even afford a room-and-board setting.

In tears, she said, she agreed to leave. Thus began a months-long odyssey from budget motels to acquaintances' couches to hospital ERs  at least five emergency visits in all, she said. Sometimes, her 25-year-old daughter drove down from Sacramento, and Willis slept in her daughter's car.

"They kicked me out in the cold," said Willis, a former Head Start teacher.

Complaints about allegedly improper evictions and discharges from nursing homes are on the rise in California, Illinois and other states, according to government data. These concerns are echoed in lawsuits and by ombudsmen and consumer advocates.

In California alone, such complaints have jumped 70 percent in five years, reaching 1,504 last year, said Joseph Rodrigues, the state-employed Long-Term Care Ombudsman, who for 15 years has overseen local ombudsman programs, which are responsible for resolving consumer complaints.

Around the country, ombudsmen say many patients like Willis end up with no permanent housing or regular medical care after being discharged. Even when the discharges are deemed legal, these ombudsmen say, they often are unethical.

"Absolutely, it's a growing problem," said Leza Coleman, executive director of the California Long-Term Care Ombudsman Association. Coleman says the practice stems from skilled nursing facilities' desire for better compensation for their services and from the shortage of other affordable long-term care options that might absorb less severe cases.

In Willis' case, she ultimately lost her appeal to return to the nursing home, Courtyard Care Center. A state hearing judge determined that she had left the home voluntarily because she refused the opportunity to pay to remain there.

Top administrators at Sava Senior Care, which owns Courtyard, did not return repeated calls for comment.

Among other recent cases of allegedly improper discharges:

In October, California's attorney general moved to prevent a Bakersfield nursing home administrator from working with elderly and disabled people, while he awaits trial on charges of elder abuse and wrongful discharge. State prosecutors said one patient was falsely informed that she owed the home money, then sent to an independent living center even though she could not "walk or toilet on her own." The administrator did not return messages left at the nursing home.

A pending lawsuit by Maryland's attorney general alleges a nursing home chain, Neiswanger Management Services (NMS), illegally evicted residents, sending them to homeless shelters or other inadequate facilities to free up bed space for higher-paying patients. NMS countersued state regulators, alleging they are trying to drive the chain out of business.

Last month, a 73-year-old woman with diabetes and heart failure sued a Fresno, Calif., nursing home for allegedly leaving her with an open wound on a sidewalk in front of a relative's home. The suit said conditions in the residence were unsafe and a family member refused to allow her inside. The state cited the home in July and issued a $20,000 fine.

Of course, not all complaints or lawsuits are well-founded. Federal law allows a nursing home to discharge or evict a patient when it cannot meet the resident's needs or the person no longer requires services; if the resident endangers the health and safety of other individuals; or if the patient has failed, after reasonable and appropriate notice, to pay.

The law also generally requires a home to provide 30 days' notice before discharging a patient involuntarily and requires all discharges be safe and orderly.

Deborah Pacyna, spokeswoman for the California Association of Health Facilities, a trade organization that represents nursing homes, questions why nursing homes should be responsible for providing a safety net for the indigent and homeless.

"Nursing home residents reflect society," she said in a written statement. "Some nursing home residents live in homeless shelters or hotels. They may request that they go back 'home,' or to their local shelter or hotel upon discharge. We must honor their choices as long as their needs are met."

Pacyna also noted that eviction and discharge complaints represent a tiny fraction of the hundreds of thousands of residents released from the state's nursing homes each year.

Nationally, discharge and eviction complaints have remained more or less steady in recent years after rising significantly between 2000 and 2007, according to data collected by the federal government. Still, these complaints remain the top grievance reported to nursing home ombudsmen as the number of overall complaints about everything from abuse to access to information has dropped in the past decade.

The rate of complaints can vary considerably by state. Jamie Freschi, the Illinois state ombudsman, says discharge and eviction complaints have more than doubled in her state since 2011.

She recalled one wheelchair-bound nursing resident who was in severe pain from osteoarthritis, scoliosis and fibromyalgia when she was discharged from a nursing home and sent to a homeless shelter. After the shelter rejected her because it could not accommodate her wheelchair, the resident went to a motel, which kicked her out when she ran out of money. She has since cycled between the emergency room and the streets, Freschi said.

"It's an example of a really, really broken system, all the way around," Freschi said.

Advocates say such decisions are often money-driven: Medicare covers patients for just a short time after they are released from hospitals. After that, these critics say, many nursing homes don't want to accept the lower rates paid by Medicaid, the public insurance program for low-income residents.

Even when they appeal and win, advocates say, it doesn't always help the patient. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has advised California on two occasions  including this past summer  that it must enforce decisions from appeals hearings. (The state contends that it uses a variety of strategies to enforce the law.)

Last month, the California Long-Term Care Ombudsman Association joined with the legal wing of the AARP Foundation to sue a Sacramento nursing home, alleging it had improperly discharged an 83-year-old woman with Alzheimer's  requiring the nursing home to readmit her.

"The facilities are getting the message that they don't have to follow the rules here, so they're emboldened," said Matt Borden, a San Francisco attorney helping with the lawsuit.

Willis and her advocates were convinced that Courtyard Care Center broke the rules in her case.

Willis "did not leave Courtyard 'voluntarily' in just about any sense of the word," said Tony Chicotel, a staff attorney with California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform.

At a hearing in April, held at the nursing home and attended by a reporter, Chicotel and an ombudsman argued that Willis' discharge violated legal requirements, including lack of written notice. They asked that she be immediately readmitted.

According to hearing documents, Willis' documented medical problems were many: an aneurysm, an ulcer, difficulty walking, muscle weakness, gastritis, anemia and heart and kidney disease. During her stay at the nursing home, she said, she'd fallen and hit her head while visiting the doctor, resulting in a severe concussion.

For their part, Courtyard staffers explained that Medicaid wouldn't cover Willis anymore based on their assessment of her condition. They said she had "almost returned to her prior level of functioning."

During the hearing, Willis repeatedly told those in attendance that she felt dizzy and nauseated. Her head pounded. "I'm not good," she said. Afterward, she begged for a ride to the emergency room, where she was admitted with a torn aorta and bleeding ulcer.

She was still in the hospital when the hearing officer issued her decision a few days later. Eventually, she was released to another nursing home, which also discharged her after a month, she said. Then she resumed sleeping on friends' couches. She chose not to file another appeal.

"This time in my life," Willis said, "it's very discouraging."

This story was produced by Kaiser Health News, which publishes California Healthline, a service of the California Health Care Foundation.
GamesRadar+ is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Heres why you can trust us.
Who is Silk - the powers, enemies, and comic history of the Korean America Spider-hero

Spider-hero Silk is about to headline her own streaming series. Here's what you need to know
By Benjamin Jumbe

President Yoweri Museveni and his Kenyan Counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta have reiterated their commitment to strengthening bilateral cooperation between the two countries as well as deepening regional integration for development and prosperity.

This was during a bilateral meeting held at State House Nairobi.

The two leaders also exchanged views on the situation in Somalia and the AU mission, the peace process in South Sudan and the situation in Burundi.

President Museveni and his host also held official discussions on a review of progress being made in the EAC Integration projects including the multi-billion dollar Standard Gauge Railway Project and the Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and EAC.

President Museveni as EAC chairman recently led a regional delegation to Brussels, the seat of the European Union, to discuss the issues of the EPAs and sanctions on Burundi.
Aditya-L1: ISRO reveals first Indian mission to study Sun by 2020

New Delhi : With an aim to reach a new milestone, Indian Space Research Organisation ( ISRO) will be launching India's first solar mission - Aditya L1 - by 2020.

The approval for solar mission has come and the satellite will be launched during 2019  2020 timeframe by PSLV-XL from Sriharikota, ISRO mentioned on its website.

Aditya-L1 solar mission will be aimed at studying the Sun from an orbit around the Sun-Earth Lagrangian point 1 (L1) which is about 1.5 million kilometres from the Earth.

During its course, it will be observing the photosphere, chromosphere and the outermost layers of the Sun, the corona in different wavebands.

The other prime focus of the mission will be to do coronal and near UV studies of the sun and help resolve some unanswered questions in solar physics.

National Institutions like Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru, Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune, are developing the Solar Ultraviolet Imager (SUIT) payload for the Aditya-L1 mission.

Before this NASA-ESA mission SOHO was launched in 1995 to study Sun. But, after the mission was commenced, there have been no satellite imaging the sun from space. Aditya-L1 will be filling the void.
Here is a link to the 68 page US National Security Strategy. The National Security Strategy indicates that it puts America first.

What seems to be different

* US will be more aggressive in litigating and responding to trade and economic treaty violations

Nextbigfuture interpretation  Just of Trump has used lawsuits to enforce the terms of his business contracts he will have the US use more treaty resolution methods to enforce treaties to the advantage of the USA

* US will build anti-missile defense systems

* China specific bits

 US will try to stop China from cheating on trade or economic deals

 US will try to work with Europe to stop China from using unfair trade practices

 US will try to work with Europe to secure intellectual property and to try to block China from getting sensitive IP.

Nextbigfuture notes that Trump said similar things when he was a candidate.

What international deals have been re-opened or removed in the first year ?

USA left the Paris climate agreement

USA stopped participating the Transpacific Partnership Treaty Talks

USA has tried renegotiate parts of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

USA has decertified the Iran Nuclear Agreement

USA did not declare China a currency manipulator

There was a new $250 billion US-China Trade deal.

Ian Bremmer reviewed what happened with 5 trade deals during 2017.

 Transpacific Partnership was agreed by 11 members. TPP-11.

 China is a driving force behind a 16-country trade deal called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)

 On September 21, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) struck between Canada and the E.U. provisionally entered into force, though its full implementation still requires ratification from parliaments of individual E.U. countries. The deal was crafted to eliminate 98 percent of tariffs between the two parties, inching up to 99 percent over the next seven years. Just as notable is the fact that the deal now allows Canadian firms to bid on European government projects, and vice versa

 Press reports suggest the NAFTA talks are not going well. Negotiating trade deals is a difficult, years-long process under the best of circumstances

 Whats the alternative to multilateral deals under America First? According to Trump, the answer is more bilateral agreements. The U.S. currently has 12 of those, but the one getting the most press in recent months is KORUS, the free trade agreement between the U.S. and South Korea.

A Competitive World

The United States will respond to the growing political, economic, and military competitions we face around the world.

China and Russia challenge American power, influence, and interests, attempting to erode American security and prosperity. They are determined to make economies less free and less fair, to grow their militaries, and to control information and data to repress their societies and expand their influence. At the same time, the dictatorships of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea and the Islamic Republic of Iran are determined to destabilize regions, threaten Americans and our allies, and brutalize their own people.

Transnational threat groups, from jihadist terrorists to transnational criminal organizations, are actively trying to harm Americans. While these challenges differ in nature and magnitude, they are fundamentally contests between those who value human dignity and freedom and those who oppress individuals and enforce uniformity.



Competition does not always mean hostility, nor does it inevitably lead to conflictalthough none should doubt our commitment to defend our interests. An America that successfully competes is the best way to prevent conflict. Just as American weakness invites challenge, American strength and confidence deters war and promotes peace.

1. Protect the American people, the homeland, and the American way of life.

2. Promote American prosperity.

3. Preserve peace through strength by rebuilding our military so that it remains preeminent, deters our adversaries, and if necessary, is able to fight and win.

4. Advance American influence because a world that supports American interests and reflects our values makes America more secure and prosperous.

Secure U.S. Borders and Territory

Defend Against Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Priority Actions

ENHANCE MISSILE DEFENSE: The United States is deploying a layered missile defense system focused on North Korea and Iran to defend our homeland against missile attacks. This system will include the ability to defeat missile threats prior to launch. Enhanced missile defense is not intended to undermine strategic stability or disrupt longstanding strategic relationships with Russia or China.

DETECT AND DISRUPT WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION:

At our borders and within our territory, we will bolster efforts to detect nuclear, chemical, radiological, and biological agents and keep them from being used against us. We will also better integrate intelligence, law enforcement, and emergency management

operations to ensure that frontline defenders have the right information and capabilities to respond to WMD threats from state and non-state actors.

ENHANCE COUNTERPROLIFERATION MEASURES: Building on decades of initiatives, we will augment measures to secure, eliminate and prevent the spread of WMD and related materials, their delivery systems, technologies, and knowledge to reduce the chance that they might fall into the hands of hostile actors. We will hold state and nonstate actors accountable for the use of WMD.

TARGET WMD TERRORISTS: We will direct counterterrorism operations against terrorist WMD specialists, financiers, administrators, and facilitators. We will work with allies and partners to detect and disrupt plots.

DETECT AND CONTAIN BIOTHREATS AT THEIR SOURCE

SUPPORT BIOMEDICAL INNOVATION

IMPROVE EMERGENCY RESPONSE

Strengthen Border Control and Immigration Policy

ENHANCE BORDER SECURITY

ENHANCE VETTING

ENFORCE IMMIGRATION LAWS

BOLSTER TRANSPORTATION SECURITY

Defeat Jihadist Terrorists

DISRUPT TERROR PLOTS

TAKE DIRECT ACTION

ELIMINATE TERRORIST SAFE HAVENS

SEVER SOURCES OF STRENGTH

SHARE RESPONSIBILITY

COMBAT RADICALIZATION AND RECRUITMENT IN COMMUNITIES

Dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations

Keep America Safe in the Cyber Era

Promote American Resilience

Promote American Prosperity

For 70 years, the United States has embraced a strategy premised on the belief that leadership of a stable international economic system rooted in American principles of reciprocity, free markets, and free trade served our economic and security interests.

That economic system continues to serve our interests, but it must be reformed to help American workers pros per, protect our innovation, and reflect the principles upon which that system was founded.

Today, American prosperity and security are challenged by an economic competition playing out in a broader strategic context. The United States helped expand the liberal economic trading system to countries that did not share our values, in the hopes that these states would liberalize their economic and political practices and provide commensurate benefits to the United States. Experience shows that these countries distorted and undermined key economic institutions without undertaking significant reform of their economies or politics. They espouse free trade rhetoric and exploit its benefits, but only adhere selectively to the rules and agreements.

We welcome all economic relationships rooted in fairness, reciprocity, and faithful adherence to the rules. Those who join this pursuit will be our closest economic partners. But the United States will no longer turn a blind eye to violations, cheating, or economic aggression.

* REDUCE REGULATORY BURDENS

* PROMOTE TAX REFORM

* IMPROVE AMERICAN INFRASTRUCTURE (especially 5G)

* REDUCE THE DEBT THROUGH FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY

* Support Education and Apprenticeship programs

Promote Free, Fair, and Reciprocal Economic Relationships

* ADOPT NEW TRADE AND INVESTMENT AGREEMENTS AND MODERNIZE EXISTING ONES

* COUNTER UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICES

* COUNTER FOREIGN CORRUPTION

* WORK WITH LIKE-MINDED PARTNERS

* FACILITATE NEW MARKET OPPORTUNITIES

Lead in Research, Technology, Invention, and Innovation

United States will prioritize emerging technologies critical to economic growth and security, such as data science, encryption, autonomous technologies, gene editing, new materials, nanotechnology, advanced computing technologies, and artificial intelligence. From self-driving cars to autonomous weapons, the field of artificial intelligence, in particular, is progressing rapidly.

The United States must continue to attract the innovative and the inventive, the brilliant and the bold. We will encourage scientists in government, academia, and the private sector to achieve advancements across the full spectrum of discovery, from incremental improvements to game-changing breakthroughs. We will nurture a healthy innovation economy that collaborates with allies and partners, improves STEM education, draws on an advanced technical workforce, and invests in early-stage research and development (R&D).

Embrace Energy Dominance

REDUCE BARRIERS

PROMOTE EXPORTS

ENSURE ENERGY SECURITY

ATTAIN UNIVERSAL ENERGY ACCESS

FURTHER AMERICAS TECHNOLOGICAL EDGE
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.
ANGOLA  Career education is an important part of the offerings at Angola High School, Principal Travis Heavin says.

Heavins goal is to look at all different pathways for students other than college after high school and eliminate gray-collar workers, which is when students go to college for a specific career path then realize they may lack certain skills for that career.

To address this, Heavin has spoken with business leaders in the community to discuss what type of skills they look for in employees and tries to implement those skills into career education classes at Angola.

Were fortunate because other schools dont offer these types of classes, Heavin said.

Some career education classes include nutrition and wellness, Entrepreneurial Academy, adult roles and responsibilities, accounting, web design, business math, marketing, manufacturing, construction and many more including courses offered through Impact Institute, Kendallville.

Donna Thrasher, who teaches classes such as sewing, adult roles and responsibilities, Entrepreneurial Academy and Interdisciplinary Cooperative Education said that career education classes are important because they give students the opportunity to experience the line of work they may want to go into while learning different life skills such as teamwork, responsibility, proper dress for work and interviews, etc.

Thrashers classes as well as other career education classes focus on allowing students to expand their options in terms of potential careers to see what they are the most interested in and make sure they know what kind of skills and knowledge they may need to go into that career.

Teagan Marquardt, who is a part of the the health occupations education program through Impact Institute said, What I have learned so far has helped me understand more about myself and what I like and dislike in different health careers Im still in search of what exactly I want to do in my future but I have learned that I want to work in a facility that doesnt have a set routine and is different everyday.

Marquardt continued, saying that she enjoyed places like the Emergency Room and Emergency Medical Service because they never know what to expect on a day to day basis.

Without taking HOE, I would have never learned that they would have been my favorite rotations and possibly where I may want to end up as my career for the future, she said.

These are just some of the offerings available at Angola High School. For further information contact the school at 665-2186.
Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Snow this evening will give way to partly cloudy conditions late. Low 22F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of snow 80%..

Tonight

Snow this evening will give way to partly cloudy conditions late. Low 22F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of snow 80%.
Republicans are staring at a mid-term electoral disaster in 2018, both here in Indiana and across Americas amber waves of grain. After a hostile takeover by Donald Trump in 2016, this president has spent the year assaulting an array of institutions ranging from the Republican Party, congressional leadership, U.S. intelligence agencies, American allies abroad, to the judiciary and the news media.

On Tuesday, the voters of crimson-red Alabama rebuked him and top political adviser Steve Bannon by sending Democrat Doug Jones to the U.S. Senate. It came in the most Republican state in the nation where Trump won with a 28 percent plurality in 2016, even more than the 19 percent plurality he rolled up in Indiana. Trump had backed Roy Moore despite allegations ranging from pedophilia to sexual assault and harassment. The Republican National Committee also backed Moore.

We watched as U.S. Rep. Todd Rokita, a Republican U.S. Senate candidate, tell Fox59 last weekend, Id be comfortable with Roy Moore. The rationale? A number of Republicans, evangelicals and Rokita cited abortion. This is a man whos 100 percent pro-life like myself, Rokita said. Moore just dated 14-year-old girls as a 32-year-old man.

To which conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks observed: What shall it profit a man, Jesus asked, if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul? The current Republican Party seems to not understand that question. Donald Trump seems to have made gaining the world at the cost of his soul his entire lifes motto. The rot afflicting the G.O.P. is comprehensive  moral, intellectual, political and reputational.

NBC News exit polling revealed Trumps approval/disapproval rating in Alabama stood at 48/48 percent. That compares to Trumps Indiana approval of 47/51 percent in a Public Opinion Strategies Poll for the Indiana Realtors in November. A Monmouth Poll on the congressional generic has Democrats leading by an unprecedented 51-36 percent margin, while Quinnpiac puts it at 49-37 percent.

The Indiana GOP establishment has not only acqiuesced to Trumpism, perhaps out of blind loyalty to Vice President Mike Pence, it has refused to criticize his often boorish, untruthful and offensive rhetoric.

There will likely be a price to pay. It is a similar to a fateful scenario in 2012 when Hoosier Republicans jettisoned its leading vote-getter in history, U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, for the firebrand Treasurer Richard Mourdock in the primary, only to watch that Senate seat end up in the hands of Democrat Joe Donnelly.

Indiana Democratic Chairman John Zody, who announced the party has candidates in 57 of 100 House districts lined up and more in the pipeline, told me on Tuesday of Roy Moore, The president of the United States has campaigned for him. The RNC has invested in him. Its not just about Alabama any more. This is about a moral direction of one of the major political parties in the United States and it is not going in the right direction.

Former Republican congressman Mark Souder added, It is really clear what happened in Alabama and it should cause great worry to Republicans. Mobile, Tuscaloosa and Huntsville are Republican areas that showed some swing potential in the past. They went Democrat. The rural areas  core Trump country  stayed with Moore overwhelmingly. This is another warning sign of internal wars ahead. A Republican must win both the higher-educated suburbs and the rural areas to win in most areas that have potential of swinging.

Souder added, The fight ahead looks much tougher for Republicans, but, honestly, had Judge Moore prevailed, he might have been a millstone that took everyone down with him. Democrats were just deprived of a huge potential asset.

Perhaps. But it isnt just Alabama where Democrats are out-performing. In special elections this year in Kansas, Georgia, Montana, South Carolina, New Jersey and Virginia, Democratic congressional and gubernatorial candidates all did far better. In the 4th District of Kansas, CIA Director Mike Pompeo won in 2016 with a 31 percent margin; his replacement won by just 7 percent. In OMB Director Mick Mulvaneys South Carolina seat which he won by 20 percent last year, his replacement won by 3 percent.

Trumps Gallup approval/disapproval stands at a disaster-making 35/60 percent on Dec. 8-10. Running with Trump fuming above them, Republicans up and down the ballot are facing fallout.

Looking back at modern Indiana mid-term elections with a first-term president, in 1990 with President George H.W. Bush at 58 percent approval, Democrat Secretary of State Joe Hogsett defeated popular Indianapolis Mayor Bill Hudnut and Democrats retook the Indiana House. In 1994 with President Clinton at 52 percent approval after the failed HillaryCare and passage of gun reforms, Republicans picked up three congressional seats and the Indiana House. In 2002 with President George W. Bush at 62 percent approval, Republican Chris Chocola won an open congressional seat but Democrats won the Indiana House.

And in 2010, with Obama approval at 44 percent, Republican Dan Coats picked up Evan Bayhs Senate seat, Todd Young won in the 9th CD and the Indiana House went from a 52-seat Democrat majority to 60 seats for the GOP.

In the Trump presidency with his toxic job approval and reckless rhetoric, suburbanites, women and African-Americans are rekindling the kind of coalition that fuels Democrat victory.

Twitter that one, Mr. President.

 Brian Howey is publisher of Howey Politics Indiana at www.howeypolitics.com. Find him on Facebook and Twitter @hwypol.
ONALASKA -- Owners of the former Gander Mountain store in Onalaska are hiring employees and remodeling the space in preparation for reopening this winter.

Gander Outdoors is holding a recruitment event this week at the Workforce Development Center on East Avenue in La Crosse, and Onalaskas DBS Group has announced it is remodeling the store for a mid-February opening.

In April, recreational vehicle dealer Camping World Holdings Inc. won a bankruptcy auction for sporting goods retailer Gander Mountain Co. and said it would continue operating at least 70 of the 162 stores, including the Onalaska location, as Gander Outdoors. Camping World did not purchase the inventory, which was sold off by a liquidation firm.

The Onalaska store closed in September, and 32 employees were laid off, according to a notice from the state

Last week Gander Outdoors opened its first store in Lakeville, Minn.

Camping World CEO Marcus Lemonis in November told investors he plans to open the initial 15 to 20 Gander Outdoors stores by the end of the first quarter of 2018, and an additional 40 stores during the second and third quarters of 2018.

Lemonis did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

The 57,120-square-foot store, which opened in 2011, was built on a former Walmart store site and replaced a 33,000-square-foot Gander Mountain that had been in business since 1995 on Hwy. 16 in Onalaska.
The Bangor Village Board passed a resolution of support for La Crosse Countys proposed Premier Area Resort Tax at a meeting last week.

In a 6-1 vote, the board approved the resolution with Village President Gary Althoff casting the only vote of opposition.

The tax, which received strong support in a county-wide advisory referendum in April, would add half-a-percent to the sales tax for tourism-related businesses.

However, because the county does not meet the state requirements for a resort tax, it must first receive approval from the legislature.

To be eligible for the tax, at least 40 percent of a municipalitys equalized property value must be tourism related businesses. La Crosse county falls far short of that with 5 percent of equalized property value related to tourism.

If approved, the tax could raise more than $6.5 million a year, of which the county plans to use $5 million for road and infrastructure projects. Municipalities would receive a portion of the tax revenues based on street mileage. For Bangor, this would mean roughly $17,000 in additional funding for village streets.

I know that the need is there; I wont argue that, Althoff said. I didnt like the idea of putting a tax on 5 percent of the businesses in the county.

He said he felt the state should be doing more to address deteriorating road conditions across Wisconsin.

Board member John McCue, who spoke in support of the resolution, said anything that gets the legislatures attention is worth considering.

I want to help Madison make up its mind to deal with this horrible transpiration situation weve got, he said. I dont think Madison is going to do it without a little prodding.

McCue doubted the tax would be approved, but hoped the resolution would send a message to the legislature that communities like Bangor are grasping for straws.

We better do something about this, he said.
Local senior citizens gathered at the La Crescent Community Center last Wednesday for the Young at Heart Christmas Party.

The party was organized by the Blandin Seniors Group, which works in La Crescent to enrich and lives of local seniors. Group members Ruth and Jerry Berns, Abby Dean, Cheryl Jostad and Susan Oddsen took turns emceeing the festivities on Wednesday.

The party opened with some rounds of bingo and cups of coffee, as seniors filled the tables that lined the room. Food for the party came from decorated tables covered with Christmas treats. Pass the Parcel, a musical gift unwrapping game, was played by attendees in between chatting and snacking.

Were so glad that we could have all of you here today, said Jerry Berns, who dressed as Santa for the event.

The seniors in this community are truly wonderful people, and its so nice to just be together, talk to each other, share experiences, and have some fun.

Thats what Christmas is all about, being together, sharing and having a little fun, said Berns, before leading the group in a Christmas carol.

Ruth Berns, dressed as Mrs. Claus, took time to recognize some of the most helpful contributors to the party. Berns thanked Lenora Stoehr Jorstad, manager of senior dining, for transforming the community center room into a Christmas-themed spectacle. Also thanked was the afternoons pianist, Jane Welch. Ninety-year old Dora Albrecht, a regular to the weekly exercise class for seniors, was honored as the oldest person in the room.

Dean handed out homemade holiday gift bags to each senior on their way out the door

We just wanted to do something fun for everybody, and our Blandin group decided this would be a perfect opportunity to bring everybody together, and actually have fun, instead of working, she said. Thank you all for letting us do this, and for actually showing up. Its the most important part.
The Senate voted 51-48 on Wednesday to pass the Republicans tax overhaul bill in a party-line vote.

Majority needed to pass Yes No Not voting Republicans 51 0 1 Democrats 0 48 0 Total 51 48 1

Senator John McCain of Arizona, who is battling brain cancer, was absent. The House passed the bill on Tuesday, but will have to vote again because some of the bills provisions violated Senate rules. If the bill passes both chambers, it will go to President Trump, who has said he will sign it into law.

The bill was able to pass with a simple majority of votes because of a Senate mechanism known as budget reconciliation, which forced Republicans to keep the cost of the bill under $1.5 trillion over 10 years. To see how the bill would affect you, try our tax calculator.

Votes by Party

All 48 Democrats were expected to vote no, so at least 50 Republicans needed to vote yes for the vote to pass.
The film and television writer Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network, The West Wing) has directed his first film, Mollys Game (Dec. 25), his adaptation of the memoir by Molly Bloom, who was convicted for her role in a high-stakes gambling ring. The film stars Jessica Chastain as a professional skier who becomes the organizer of a clandestine poker game. As the client list for that game grows, it gets the attention of the Russian mafia and, ultimately, the F.B.I. In the excerpt below, Molly is in court awaiting arraignment with Charlie Jaffey (Idris Elba), the lawyer she has approached about taking her case. Mr. Sorkin has annotated descriptions and dialogue, discussing some of the decisions behind his choices.
Republican lawmakers say that one of the largest tax cuts in their tax bill, a 20 percent deduction for pass-through income, is for small businesses and job creators. But there are also millions of other tax filers  many at the highest income levels  who would benefit significantly.

Taxpayers with pass-through income 40m Businesses 19m Non-business entities 21m Small businesses 17m Large businesses 2m Non-employers 14m Employers 4m Taxpayers with pass-through income 40m Businesses 19m Non-business entities 21m Small businesses 17m Large businesses 2m Non- employers 14m Employers 4m Source: U.S. Treasury, Office of Tax Analysis, 2014 I.R.S. data | Note: Numbers may not add up because of rounding.

Pass-through income is business income that is taxed once at the individual rates of the business owner, instead of through the corporate tax structure. Nearly 40 million taxpayers claimed pass-through income on their individual tax returns for 2014.

Some Republicans pushed to include the cuts in the bill so that pass-throughs, which make up more than 95 percent of business tax filings, will get similar tax relief as corporations, which are receiving a large rate cut. Here are some examples of taxpayers who might claim pass-through income:

IT specialist Law firm partner Real estate investor House painter Pizza shop owner

While pass-throughs is a term often used to refer to small businesses, a Treasury Department analysis found that many are not actually businesses at all. And 69 percent of pass-through income goes to the top one percent of households.

Pass-throughs 40m Non-businesses 21m Businesses 19m Pass-throughs 40m Non-businesses 21m Businesses 19m Note: To qualify as a business in the data shown above, entities were required to claim more than $5,000 in deductions and more than $10,000 in either income or deductions or more than $15,000 in income and deductions combined.

Less than half of all people who claim pass-through business income on their tax returns conduct traditional business activity, according to the Treasury analysis.

Some non-business pass-throughs claim a small amount of income or losses, indicating that they may be claiming earnings from hobbies or vacation home rentals, for example. Others deduct a small amount of expenses and are most likely to be independent contractors who solely provide labor services, like an IT specialist who operates as a sole proprietor and contracts with another company.

IT specialist Independent contractor Would be able to deduct 20% of business income Would be able to deduct 20% of business income

Because pass-through rates will be lower than rates for individual income taxes, the bill would provide an incentive for people to find ways to classify their earnings as business income to take advantage of the lower rates.

For example, a journalist could cease to be a direct employee of a company and then contract as a sole proprietor with that same company to benefit from the pass-through tax deduction (though, they would have to pay for their benefits and more of their own payroll taxes).

The bill includes some limits on who can take the deduction, but they would begin to kick in at $157,500 in taxable income for singles and $315,000 for couples. Most non-business pass-through filers make less than that and would qualify for the full 20 percent deduction.

Pass-throughs 40m Large businesses 2m Small businesses 17m Pass-throughs 40m Large businesses 2m Small businesses 17m

The vast majority of pass-through businesses are small, defined as having total income and total deductions of less than $10 million each. But there are a handful of very large pass-throughs, including law firms, hedge funds and multibillion-dollar businesses like Georgia-Pacific (a Koch Industries subsidiary) and Fidelity Investments, that claim an outsized share of pass-through income.

The bill sets limits for how much people with high incomes can deduct. People in professional service industries, like partners in law firms, are the most restricted; the deduction would begin to phase out for those people who earn more than $315,000 for couples and $157,500 for singles.

High-earning law firm partner Large business Would not be eligible for a pass-through deduction Would not be eligible for a pass-through deduction

For high-earners in other industries, the bill would use a calculation to cap their deduction. The limit would be set at whichever was higher  50 percent of total wages paid or 25 percent of wages plus 2.5 percent of cost of tangible depreciable property.

High-earning real estate investor Large business Would be eligible for a deduction limited to 25% of wages paid plus 2.5% of depreciable property assets Would be eligible for a deduction limited to 25% of wages paid plus 2.5% of depreciable property assets

This means that a pass-through that pays a large amount of employee wages would be able to take more of a deduction than one that pays a small amount. Pass-throughs in capital intensive industries like real estate, including the companies that make up the Trump Organization, would also be able to deduct more, and would benefit significantly from the bill.

Pass-throughs 40m Non- employers 14m Employers 4m Pass-throughs 40m Non- employers 14m Employers 4m

Of the pass-through businesses that are considered small, most are self-employed individuals with no employees. More than three quarters were categorized as non-employers in the Treasury analysis because they claimed less than $10,000 in deductions for labor.

Examples of these businesses include a small-town accountant or a house painter who does not employ anyone else but meets the analysis definition of a business owner because he deducts a large amount of expenses for things like office space and supplies.

House painter Small-business owner, no employees Would be able to deduct 20% of business income Would be able to deduct 20% of business income

Ultimately, 10 percent of all individuals claiming pass-through income were considered small-business employers in the Treasury analysis. Examples include a local dry cleaner who employs a few family members or a pizza shop owner with a dozen employees.

More than 70 percent of small-business employers had adjusted gross income below $200,000, so many of them would be eligible for the full 20 percent deduction for pass-through income.

Pizza shop owner Small-business employer Would be able to deduct 20% of business income Would be able to deduct 20% of business income

Some Republican lawmakers argued that the tax bill should reduce rates for pass-through entities as it reduces corporate tax rates. But many economists say that pass-throughs already have a preferential tax structure.
108-foot Hanuman statue in Karol Bagh: Delhi HC orders CBI probe

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the CBI to probe as to how the prominent 108-foot Lord Hanuman statue, located in Karol Bagh area of the national capital, was constructed on the encroached land.

The massive Hanuman statue is located close to a major traffic intersection near Jhandewalan where roads leading to Patel Nagar, Dhaula Kuan, Rohtak and Central Delhi meet. The intersection can always be seen crowded.

While Hearing a plea on unauthorised constructions and encroachments in Delhi's Karol Bagh area last month, the Delhi High Court had asked whether the prominent

Hanuman statue be relocated to decongest the traffic.

Stating that when entire skyscrapers have been relocated in the United States, the bench, comprising of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar, had in November asked if the airlifting of the statue could be considered.

[Can prominent Hanuman statue in Delhi's Karol Bagh be relocated, asks High Court]

The court was hearing a PIL filed by an NGO that has sought removal of unauthorised constructions and encroachments in Karol Bagh. The HC also came down hard at the municipal corporations over the law enforcement and said that if the civic bodies show that the law is being enforced, then "the mindset of the people of Delhi would change".

The HC has earlier sought to know as to who were the people responsible for erecting such a massive idol at an important traffic intersection. The issue of other buildings in the vicinity and illegal floor being constructed also came up during the hearing.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, December 20, 2017, 17:57 [IST]
After two year of COVID-19 delay, China plans to issue visas for stranded Indian students

Now, IT dept going into 'new areas' to check tax evasion

Kartavya Path: Not just Indians, it struck a chord with French too

In regular touch, trying for consular access: MEA on detention of 8 Indians in Qatar

527 Indians languishing in Pakistan jails: Report

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

There are 527 Indians, mostly fishermen who are lodged in the various jails in Pakistan.

The Interior Ministry said there were a total of 996 foreign nationals, including 527 Indians, in Pakistani jails for allegedly being involved in various crimes, including terrorism, murder, drug smuggling, and for illegally entering into the country.

Most of the Indian prisoner are fishermen who have been arrested for fishing illegally in Pakistan's territorial waters in the Arabian Sea, it said.

Fishermen from Pakistan and India are frequently taken into custody for illegally fishing in each other's territorial waters since the Arabian Sea does not have a clearly defined marine border and the wooden boats, used by them, lack the technology to avoid them from drifting away.

Last month, 55 Indian fishermen were arrested by the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency for fishing in the country's territorial waters.

Among the other foreign prisoners are, a Saudi national and two Chinese, the ministry said.

On the other hand, a total of 9,476 Pakistani nationals were in prisons in 100 countries, a Foreign Ministry official told the Lahore High Court yesterday.

While hearing a plea by families of prisoners incarcerated in the Gulf countries, the official said, a majority of Pakistani prisoners abroad are in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The high court then ordered the government to place before it within two months the country's consular protection policy.

Under the policy, Pakistani missions abroad would be tasked with providing consular access to Pakistani citizens in foreign jails.

OneIndia News
Ahmed Patel wants Congress to put extra efforts in urban Gujarat

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Incumbent BJP once again took over the reigns of Gujarat. BJP which boasted of winning 150 seats, failed to cross 100. On the other hand, Congress with the support of Alpesh Thakor, Hardik Patel and Jignesh Mevani troika improved won 77 seats. Despite the good show senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel is not happy with party's performance in urban areas.

The 77-seat tally this time is the highest for Congress since 1995 when it had won 45 seats. The party clinched 53 seats in 1998, 51 in 2002 and 59 in 2007. However, Congress won 12 seats and BJP 43 seats out of 55 urban seats. Also, overall Congress vote share also went up to 41.4 percent, a two percent increase since 2012.

Gujarat election result 2017: Congress is king among rural electorates

In an exclusive interview with India today, Patel admitted that the Congress could have done more ahead of the elections. He said there should have been better booth management and door-to-door campaigning adding that party work could have been started much earlier.

On the Congress performance in urban Gujarat, Patel said, "We tried our level best; Congress meetings in urban areas were very successful. Unfortunately, we cannot understand why we won only one seat in Surat and four in Ahmedabad. Rahul Gandhi interacted a lot with urban youths, but we need to make extra efforts to get urban votes."

OneIndia News
Bombay HC dismisses Tarun Tejpal plea to quash rape charges

India

oi-Madhuri

The Panaji bench of the Bombay High Court on Wednesday dismissed former Tehelka editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal's petition challenging trial in the rape case against him.

Tejpal faces charges under Sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 342 (wrongful confinement), and 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code -- endorsed by the court -- while an additional Section 354 (b) (criminal assault with intent to disrobe) had been added.

The former editor-in-chief of the magazine has been accused of sexually assaulting a junior female colleague in the elevator of a hotel in north Goa during an event in November 2013. Tejpal was subsequently arrested but is now out on bail.

OneIndia News
Condom Ad row: Rajasthan High Court issues notice to I&B Ministry

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

Rajasthan High Court on Wednesday issued notice to I&B Ministry asking why can't the condom ads be telecast outside the currently affixed hours between 10 PM- 6 AM. The Court also sought a reply on the same.

A division Bench of Rajasthan High Court comprising Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Dinesh Chandra Somani, has issued notice to Centre on a petition challenging the advisory issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting banning television ads for condoms during prime time hours.

The Petition has been filed by an NGO, Global Alliance for Human Rights, which has been working for the welfare of HIV +ve patients since 2012.

On December 12, The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had issued a directive asking broadcasters to telecast condom ads only between 10 PM and 6 AM.

The ministry took the decision after the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has approached the ministry of Information and broadcasting (I&B) for withdrawing condom ads that are telecasted during prime time or 'family viewing time'. The council received several complaints on the kind of content condom brands show in ads, which may not be suitable for kids and teenagers.

The ASCI, in its letter to the ministry, has specifically stated that ads that are explicit and vulgar in nature should be aired only from 10 PM to 6 AM. "All TV channels are hereby advised not to telecast the advertisements of condoms which are for a particular age group and could be indecent or inappropriate for viewing by children. Therefore, such advertisements may be telecast between 10 PM and 6 AM to avoid exposure of such material to children," said the advisory.

The advisory cited various sections of the Cable TV Network Rules, 1994, which states that no advertisement endangering the safety of children or that creates in them "any interest in unhealthy practices or shows them begging or in an undignified or indecent manner" shall be carried in a cable service. In September, trader body CAIT had complained to the government against outdoor ads featuring Sunny Leone during the Navratri festival.

OneIndia News
Congress snatches all 4 Zila Parishad seats from BJP in Rajasthan

India

oi-PTI

Close on the heels of an improved performance in Gujarat, the Congress on Tuesday won all the four zila parishad seats and also 16 of the 27 panchayat samiti seats and six nagar palika seats, for which bypolls were held.

The ruling BJP had to remain content with 10 panchayat samiti seats although it won seven nagar palika wards.

The saffron party could not even retain even a single of the four zila parishad seats that it held, according to the State Election Commission.

The bypolls for 27 panchayat samitis of 19 districts, 14 nagar palikas of 12 districts and four zila parishads were held on December 17.

"The results of the local bodies bypoll has proved that the countdown for the BJP in Rajasthan has begun. Congress has expressed the feelings of the people in the last four years and they have trust in the party," Congress state president Sachin Pilot said.

He predicted a similar result in the upcoming bypolls for the two parliamentary seats of Alwar and Ajmer and Mandalgarh Assembly seat.

Bypolls on all the three seats have been necessitated due to the sudden demise of two of the ruling BJP's parliamentarians and a BJP legislator.

The civic by-election results are a setback for the BJP as it lost two nagar palika wards in Baran district, which is a stronghold of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's MP son Dushyant Singh.

However, state BJP spokesperson, Anand Sharma said that the result was good for the party as it has grabbed several seats earlier held by the Congress.

In August, opposition Congress had won 19 out of the total 37 seats in bypolls to urban local bodies and panchayati raj institutions while the ruling BJP had got ten.

PTI
We have done nothing wrong: Centre for Policy Research reacts to tax raids

ITR Filing 2022: How to check your income tax refund status if you havent received it yet

Faceless and nameless e-assessment for IT payers from 2018

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

A pan India, "faceless and nameless," e-assessment for income taxpayers is set for a 2018 rollout.

The CBDT on Tuesday constituted a high-level committee to prepare a quick roadmap for the implementation of this ambitious proposal.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the policy-making body for the Income Tax Department, notified a nine-member committee - headed by a principal chief commissioner rank officer - and has set for it a deadline of February 28, 2018, for submitting its report.

"The deadline of February end to the committee is an indication that the government and the CBDT want to usher in this new regime from the first half of the new year," a senior tax officer privy to the development said.

The committee is being constituted as the "department is embarking upon the concept of a faceless and nameless e-assessment procedure", the CBDT order, issued late evening, said.

The CBDT has been running a pilot project in a few major cities and has been testing the feasibility of implementing this new regime of tax assessment for the last few years.

The initiative was launched to reduce visits by taxpayers to I-T offices and their interface with the taxman, thereby curbing corruption.

"As such, there is an imperative need to re-deploy the available manpower in the light of the proposed e-assessment," the CBDT order said.

The terms of reference of the committee are to propose the new deployment of manpower in view of the implementation of e-assessment; to propose modalities and stages of redeployment of manpower from existing stations and to recommend the requirements of additional manpower and infrastructure, if any, in the light of this new initiative.

The committee will also "recommend distribution of manpower between assessment units, investigation wing and DG Systems (the technical wing of the CBDT) in view of the new areas assigned to the investigation wings in matters related to Operation Clean Money", launched by the government to check black money post demonetisation.

A blueprint prepared by the CBDT earlier this year had said the number of income taxpayers opting for paperless assessment, under the pilot project, rose by 78 per cent over the last three years.

An official CBDT statement issued at the conclusion of the two-day 'Rajaswa Gyan Sangam' conference (national meeting of top tax officers of the country), held here this year, had said the government wanted I-T assessing officers to "be encouraged to maximise e-assessment in a phased manner and to ensure that work be completed online so that there is complete transparency."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had inaugurated the conference, had also asked I-T employees to create an environment that instils confidence among honest taxpayers and uproots corruption.

PTI had reported in April this year that all I-T department related proceedings would henceforth be conducted online.

A new link - e-proceeding - was recently hosted by the department on the personal login of the taxpayer on the e- filing website (https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in).

The new regime of e-communication will, however, be voluntary and taxpayers can take a call on whether to conduct their dealing over the e-system or through the existing procedure of manual submissions of documents by visiting the tax office.

Once taxpayers register on the web portal, they will get a confirmation as a text message and an email on their registered mobile number and email ID, indicating success.

The functionality to conduct e-proceeding will be available for all types of notices, questionnaires and letters issued under various sections of the I-T Act, the CBDT had earlier said.

OneIndia News
Gold worth Rs 49 lakhs seized at IGI airport, three arrested

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Three persons were arrested and gold worth around Rs 49 lakhs were seized from them by Customs Preventive and Air Intelligence Unit at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport on Wednesday.

On December 15, gold chains and bar valued at over Rs 20 lakh have been seized in separate incidents at the international airport near in Kochi. Customs Commissioner Sumit Kumar had said that two crude gold chains, weighing 310 grams and valued at Rs 9.14 lakh, were seized after it was found concealed inside the undergarments of a passenger, who arrived by a Spice Jet flight from Dubai.

On December 10, fifteen kg gold, pegged worth Rs 4.5 crore, was seized from an Air India flight which arrived from Dubai at the international airport in Amritsar. Taranjit Singh and his wife Satinder Kaur, residents of district Tarn Taran, who arrived in the flight from Dubai were detained in connection with the joint probe by the DRI and the Customs, the officials said.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, December 20, 2017, 20:33 [IST]
Fact Check: This image of huge crowds in Gujarat is not from the AAP roadshow

Gujarat election: NCP says Congress did not respond to its poll tie-up call

India

pti-PTI

Nagpur, December 20: NCP leader Dhananjay Munde Wednesday blamed the Congress for his party going solo in the just-concluded Gujarat polls, but did not rule out an alliance with it for the general elections in 2019. He said the NCP had demanded six seats in Gujarat, but the Congress did not agree to it.

"The NCP had demanded six seats in Gujarat. As per my information, (NCP chief) Sharad Pawar and (then Congress president) Sonia Gandhi had agreed on seat-sharing.But on the next day, the Congress announced its list of the seats, which we were going to contest," Munde told reporters here ahead of the state's Legislature's sitting for the day.

"This is how the Congress treated us and the NCP decided to go ahead.Now they should not blame us," he said.

The Leader of Opposition in the state Legislative Council was responding to a question about the NCP playing 'spoiler' in the Gujarat elections.

In the 182-member Gujarat assembly, the BJP retained power by bagging 99 seats, while the Congress got 77 seats. The NCP emerged victorious on one seat. Asked if the NCP and the Congress will join hands for the next general and Maharashtra assembly polls, Munde said, "My hunch is that the BJP will hold the assembly elections along with general elections, which will be held in the summer of 2019."

"The workers of both the parties (Congress and NCP) are talking about the possibility of alliance before the elections. Top leaders of both the parties are aware of such expectations. It will take some time to decide on the alliance," he said.

Commenting on the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, Munde said it is clear that the two parties are not very comfortable with each other.

"The way the BJP is treating the Sena, I don't think they will contest together. Whereas both the Congress and the NCP are likely to contest general and assembly elections together," he said.

PTI
Thick layer of smog with 'very poor' air continues to choke Delhi

Curbs under stage 3 of anti-pollution plan to continue in Delhi-NCR: CAQM

Handloom industry in crisis, politicians address the issue

India

oi-Shreya

By Shreya

Senior Politicians D Raja, Ali Anwar Ansari on December 20 attended a conference on the crisis being faced by the handloom weavers on after the implementation of GST.

The meet stressed on the recent economic and policy-level developments and changes by the Government which allegedly have been inconsiderate of the weavers' needs and basic requirements for survival.

The demands that were asked for in the meet were that concerned offices should take responsibility of the community to relieve them of the crisis and daily deprivation.

The factors that led to the crisis as presented in the round table conference:

1. Budget cut - budget allocation for handloom reduced from Rs 710 cr in 2016-17 to Rs 604 cr in 2017-18

2. Poor implementation of Handloom Reservation Act. Annual report of the Ministry of Textile states 0.001% conviction in violation of Handloom Reservation Act. Question - If that is so then how come the reality of the weavers is so dire?

3. No employees State Insurance for occupational diseases

4. Constant levying of GST at every level of production - yarn, dies, chemicals, final product.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, December 20, 2017, 20:45 [IST]
Hes fired! Elon Musk sacks Android app developer; What else did he say?

Twitter's blue tick subscription to be relaunched on Nov 29th: What else did Musk say?

How Gujarat election was fought on Twitter

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

Bengaluru, Dec 20: In Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "Digital India", the Gujarat Assembly elections 2017 was well-fought on Twitter too.

Gone are the days when elections were only about public rallies, door-to-door campaigning and day old news about political developments to be scanned through newspapers during breakfast times.

Social media has changed the way we look, understand and analyse elections. With Twitter, elections have become more personal affairs as everyone can be a part of the democratic process even while staying miles away from the scene of action.

This time, during the Gujarat Assembly elections, the results of which were declared on Monday, Twitter was the main platform where the all-important polls were virtually fought by politicians, political parties and the public. The voting for the state elections was held on December 9 and 14.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was declared as the winner of the elections as it bagged 99 seats in the 182-member state Legislative Assembly-seven seats more than the magic number 92 to form the government in Gujarat.

According to @TwitterIndia, the official Twitter India account, over 1.9 million tweets related to the elections in the home state of PM Modi were posted on the social media platform from December 1 to December 18.

"Over 1.9 million Tweets in relation to the #GujaratElection since Dec 1. How Twitter reacted," tweeted @TwitterIndia on Tuesday.

Over 1.9 million Tweets in relation to the #GujaratElection since Dec 1. How Twitter reacted: https://t.co/xcPvAS4IfG  Twitter India (@TwitterIndia) December 19, 2017

Right from Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi regularly updating their supporters about their Gujarat-related rallies and events on the micro-blogging site to common man's reactions on political developments in the western state, nobody brings election so "up close and personal" for any news junkie like Twitter does.

From breaking news to live streaming, Twitter turned Gujarat elections into a big fat Indian wedding where all were invited, even if the person shares no relationship with either the bride or the groom.

Writing about the kind of attention the Gujarat polls garnered on Twitter, Mahima Kaul, head of public policy, Twitter India, wrote, "With more than 1.9 million mentions on Twitter in relation to the #GujaratElection over the past 2.5 weeks (from Dec 1 - 18, 2017), Twitter is the best place to see what's happening in the political scene in India and to talk about it."

"From breaking news to behind the scenes action, political parties, candidates and citizens sparring over hot election topics, this was the first time that Twitter introduced live streaming of the elections in India, adding more ways for people to watch the #GujaratElection unfold in real-time," Kaul added.

Stressing on the pan-India popularity of Twitter as the favourite medium to disseminate information about elections which in turn shapes public opinion and generates discussions on politics, Kaul wrote, "Despite the fact that the elections occurred in one State of India, i.e. Gujarat, discussions on Twitter were vibrant all over the country and even worldwide, especially on final results day."

"People all over the world leveraged Twitter to see what's happening in India as the nation develops as a cultural, economic and political force to be reckoned with," the official of Twitter India added.

According to Twitter India, Modi emerged as the most mentioned personality during the course of Gujarat elections on the micro-blogging site, while Vijay Rupani emerged as the most mentioned candidate.

"Between the parties, it was a close fight as the BJP garnered 53 per cent of the share of voice on Twitter while the Congress took 47 per cent," informed Kaul.

Apart from focusing on political parties and leaders, Twitter users highlighted issues important for voters during the elections.

"Development, Religion and Hindutva, and GST emerged among the most talked about topics during the elections. The most mentioned hashtag was #GujaratElection2017. Among the top 10 retweeted tweets, 5 of them were Hindi Tweets, suggesting rising interest in local language conversations on Twitter," as per Twitter India data.

Thus next time, you want to know about any elections and political events in the country, Twitter promises to bring you the "real picture".

However, the critics warned that excessive use of social media has turned Indian politics more poisonous.

"Twitter is a good medium to exchange information and learn about various developments across the world. However, a lot of things on Twitter are lies. The users should be careful before retweeting anything, these days," said a social media strategist from Bengaluru.

OneIndia News
If Dawood aide Chhota Shakeel is dead, then who has been speaking to the media

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

There are reports doing the rounds that Dawood Ibrahim's closest aide Chhota Shakeel is dead. A report in the Hindustan Times said that Shakeel had died in January and there were two versions to the story.

While one version says that he had died of a heart attack, the other states the ISI ordered a hit considering he was becoming too hard to handle. Incidentally this news comes in the backdrop of a recent Intelligence Bureau report that suggested that Shakeel had broken away from the Dawood gang.

There are some points that one needs to ponder over. A few months back there were reports that surfaced that Dawood Ibrahim had died in Karachi. Later it was reported that he had not died, but was in a very critical condition.

Following both reports of a split and also the death of Dawood, Shakeel was quoted by many media houses to deny the information. Shakeel had said that Dawood was in the pink of health and reports of him dying or even being in hospital were false.

When the news of the split emerged, Shakeel again called the media and said that this was false. His exact words were, " I am with bhai and will be there till my death."

To begin with is the news of Shakeel's death true. Sources in New Delhi say that they can't confirm this as yet and they are still checking on the same. Let us assume that Shakeel is indeed dead. If that is the case, then who has been calling the media?

Shakeel had a close aide in Pakistan who goes by the name Rahim Merchant. It is said that he had trained Merchant to mimic his voice and also make calls on his behalf. Merchant has not been calling just the media, but businessmen as well to carry forwards the extortion business. Shakeel has never made calls directly to anyone ever since he was facilitated an entry by the ISI into Pakistan from the UAE.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, December 20, 2017, 16:31 [IST]
Karnataka: Bomb scare in Mysuru, suspicious material sent to forensic laboratory

India

oi-Anusha

By Anusha Ravi

Bomb hoax threat panicked the people of Mysore and bought the city to stand still on Wednesday. An anonymous call to police control room on the threat of bomb was received by control room received a call at 8 am. The news created panic amongst the people in the city.

Mysore Commissioner Dr. A.Subrahmayeshwar Rao ruled out the news of bomb threat and claimed that it was just a power bank. Sixty battery cells and wires detected in the box.

With the help of Dog squad, the Police detected a suspicious object near the rural bus station in Mysore. Bomb Squad had cordoned the area and found the suspicious object. The suspicious object was immediately taken to People's Park behind Mysore City Bus Station and examined. Later, the suspicious material was taken to FSL Laboratory of Mysore.

But still people are apprehensive and unable to trust at the kind of suspicious object was passed and it is bigger in size and doesn't look like power Bank. Police are also trying to trace the anonymous person who called the control room.

OneIndia News
Man confined to wheelchair alleges harassment by Air India, airlines rejects charges

India

oi-Anusha

By Anusha Ravi

Kaushik Majumdar, a professor in Bengaluru, has alleged that he was harassed and stopped from boarding a flight by Air India staff. The differently-abled man who is confined to a wheelchair was to board a flight from Bengaluru international airport. Air India, however, has rejected his accusations.

Majumdar is confined to a wheelchair with 85 per cent orthopaedic disability. He uses an electronic wheelchair that is battery operated- the crux of the tiff between Majumdar and the airline's staff. "When I was about to board the flight, ground staff asked me to disconnect the battery of my wheelchair. I did as asked but Air India staff was not satisfied and asked me to remove the wiring connected to the battery. I told them I can't remove that since this is a complex mechanism and I can't reconnect them," Majumdar said recalling the incident. He went on to allege that the staff remained adamant and refused to let him board the flight.

Air India, however, has rejected Majumdar's allegations. In a press statement issued after Majumdar approached the media, the airline has accused the passenger of refusing to conform to safety guidelines. "The passenger was informed by the counter staff at the check-in counter that the battery operated wheelchair is not permitted inside the aircraft and accordingly offered a wheelchair.

At that time the passenger agreed to remove the battery at the boarding gate. After reaching the boarding gate AI official spoke to him about the need to remove the battery, however, the passenger refused to disconnect the battery. The same was informed to the commander of the flight and since the passenger was not agreeing to disconnect the battery he could not be accommodated on the flight. Air India strictly follows the laid down procedures and regulations regarding passenger safety," a statement from Air India read.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, December 20, 2017, 11:03 [IST]
Mayawati demands withdrawal of UPCOCA bill

India

pti-PTI

Lucknow, Dec 20: Asserting that the ruling BJP government might misuse it to suppress dalits and religious minorities, BSP chief Mayawati has demanded the withdrawal of the UPCOCA bill, which was introduced in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Wednesday.

The state government introduced the bill to enact a stringent law on the lines of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) to combat land mafia, mining mafia and organised crimes in the state.

Mayawati said the Adityanath government is already misusing various laws for communal and political reasons, and the UPCOCA bill, if passed, will only worsen the situation.

"Laws are grossly misused in the state to the extent that any BJP worker walks up to a police station and the police registers false cases against people," Mayawati said in a statement here.

"The UPCOCA will be used for suppression of poor, dalits, backwards and the religious minorities," she said, adding that the she wanted the bill be withdrawn in public interest.

PTI
New Consumer Protection Bill approved by Union Cabinet

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, Dec 20: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a new Consumer Protection Bill that seeks to establish an authority to safeguard consumers' rights and has provisions for penalty and jail terms in case of adulteration and misleading ads by companies.

Celebrities endorsing misleading ads are also liable for fine and ban of up to three years. According to sources, the Cabinet has approved introduction of the Consumer Protection Bill, 2017, which will result in withdrawal of a bill brought in 2015.

In August 2015, the Centre had introduced the Consumer Protection Bill in the Lok Sabha to repeal the 30-year-old Consumer Protection Act, 1986. A Parliamentary Standing Committee had also submitted its recommendations in April last year. The consumer affairs ministry has brought this bill as there were many amendments to the bill introduced in 2015.

On misleading ads, the bill provides for fine and ban on celebrities. In case of first offence, the fine will be up to Rs 10 lakh and a one-year ban on any endorsement. For the second offence, the fine will be up to Rs 50 lakh and up to three years' ban. However, for manufacturers and companies, penalty is up to Rs 10 lakh and up to two years' jail for the first offence. The fine will be up to Rs 50 lakh and five years' jail for subsequent offence. The bill also provides for penalty and up to life term jail sentence in case of adulteration.

"The Bill has provisions for misleading ads and e-commerce trade," Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan had recently said.

Sources said the new bill seeks to enlarge scope of the existing law and make it more effective and purposeful. It seeks to establish a Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) to protect consumer rights. It has provisions for post-litigation stage mediation as an alternate dispute resolution mechanism. The bill also provides for product liability action. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently said that consumer protection is the government's priority.

"We are in the process of bringing a new law on consumer protection keeping in mind the need of the country and business practices here," he had said.

He had announced that a Consumer Protection Authority would be formed with executive powers for immediate redressal. The stress is being given on consumer empowerment. Strict provisions are being contemplated against misleading advertisements, Modi had said.

PTI
Pakistan issues visas to Kulbhushan Jadhav's wife and mother

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

The Pakistan High Commission on Wednesday issued visas to Kulbhushan Jadhav's wife and mother to visit Islamabad to meet him. Jadhav has been in the Pakistani jail since April over allegations of being an Indian spy.

India had earlier refused to send wife of Kulbhushan Jadhav, alone to visit the Indian navy officer in Pakistan, requesting Islamabad to grant travel permit to his mother also. Pakistan in November said it is "considering" India's request to let Kulbhushan Jadhav's mother meet him, apart from his wife who has already received permission to visit the Indian death row prisoner.

On December 17, Pakistan said the visa applications of Kulbhushan Jadhav's wife and mother had been received and were being "processed", days after it again rejected India's plea for consular access to the death row prisoner.

Jadhav, 47, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of espionage and terrorism in April, following which India moved the ICJ in May. The ICJ halted his execution on India's appeal pending the final verdict by it. Pakistan claims its security forces arrested Jadhav alias Hussein Mubarak Patel from its restive Balochistan province on March 3 last year after he reportedly entered from Iran. India, however, maintains that Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the Indian Navy.

Earlier, Pakistan had agreed to facilitate a meeting of Jadhav with his mother and wife in Islamabad on December 25. It also agreed to India's demand that they be accompanied by an official of the Indian High Commission here.

On Thursday, Pakistan directed its High Commission in New Delhi to issue visas to Jadhav's wife and mother.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Wednesday, December 20, 2017, 19:30 [IST]
Ex-HC judge Karnan walks out of jail after serving 6-month in jail

India

oi-Madhuri

Justice CS Karnan, former judge of Calcutta High Court was released from Presidency Jail on Wednesday. He was arrested on 20th June and later found guilty of contempt of Court.

Justice Karnan was arrested by the Kolkata police in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.

Earlier on May 19, Justice Karnan had requested the apex court to recall the seven-judge bench order. He was sentenced to six months' imprisonment for contempt of court by a seven-judge bench of the SC, headed by Chief Justice of India J S Khehar, on May 9.

The top court took suo moto cognizance of numerous letters written by him against judges of the Madras High Court and the apex court and restrained him from exercising administrative and judicial powers from February 8.

Karnan is the first ever sitting judge of a higher court in judicial history to be sentenced to jail term

OneIndia News
Suhaib Ilyasi's mother-in-law hails court verdict

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, Dec 20: Anju Singh's mother on Wednesday expressed satisfaction over the life term awarded to Suhaib Ilyasi for killing her daughter after a 17-year-long battle. The former TV anchor and producer was awarded the sentence by a Delhi court which said that he "committed murder and gave it a colour of suicide".

Rukma Singh, who arrived from Patna to attend today's proceedings, said, "I'm satisfied with the verdict. As long as he is convicted I'm fine."

She told the reporters that she had spoken to her granddaughter, who was three-year-old at the time of the incident, and had seen her.

"She resembles Anju a lot," she said.

Her lawyer Satender Sharma said that Rukma had met her granddaughter, currently in Ilyasi's custody, in 2008 on her birthday, adding that she had visiting rights and used to meet her on special occasions like birthdays. Rukma had earlier alleged that Ilyasi used to torture his wife for dowry and later moved the Delhi High Court for adding the charge of murder against him.

The high court had allowed her plea and in August 2014 it ruled that the TV producer would be tried under Section 302 of the IPC for the offence of murder.

PTI
Sunny Leones tweet on New Year event in Bengaluru being cancelled takes Twitter by storm

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Sunny Leone has taken Twitter by storm. Her tweet expressing her inability to attend a New Year event in Bengaluru triggered a major outpouring of support.

"Since the police of Bangalore have publicly said that they will not be able to ensure mine & all who attend safety for my New Years event, my team & I feel,safety of the people should always come first therefore I cannot attend. God bless & I wish everyone a safe & happy New Year!"

The tweet was an instant hit and in no time earned over 3,700 likes and 700 plus re-tweets. There was huge debate on law and order in Bengaluru. Many even wondered how a progressive government surrendered to the threats of fringe elements.

Kunal Kamra, standup comedian said in a tweet, "Shameful that you guys criticize law and order in UP but can't even manage an event in Bangalore, Chodo yeh double standards & get your act together on this one."

Writer and blogger Sandip Ghose tweeted, "More power to you. Surprised that a government under the progressive #CongressPresidentRahulGandhi not able to provide security. Stay strong. The youth and the young at heart are with you."

"This is the failure of the system in which we live today..moral policing by a bunch of goons.. and shocking that a police machinery of a state cannot ensure security," Suresh said in a tweet.

OneIndia News
Only women to walk with Rahul Gandhi in Bharat Jodo Yatra on Indira Gandhi Jayanti

Why Rahul Gandhis movie outing is none of anyones business

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, Dec 20: Love them or hate them, public figures lead enormously stressful life because of regular scrutiny on them. As the spotlight is always on them, from politicians, actors to sportspersons, lives of celebrities/public personalities are no less than reality television shows.

On Monday, when the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Assembly election results were out, Rahul Gandhi reportedly went and watched the latest Hollywood blockbuster, Star Wars, at a theatre in the national capital.

Apparently, his simple act of visiting a theatre and watching the film with a couple of friends was captured on camera by members of a television crew and became fodder for debate about the new Congress president's "suitability as a politician".

On Tuesday evening, TV news channel, Times Now, aired a news programme detailing why the 47-year-old politician is not serious about his job-politics-because on a day when the Congress lost elections in both Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, the scion of the Gandhi family went for a movie outing.

The news channel not only infringed on Rahul's privacy by airing details about his personal life, but the news anchor hosting the programme also gave Rahul "gyaan" (knowledge) about how he should be a 24X7 politician like Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

As soon as the news debate started, simultaneously, the hashtag----#AreYouSeriousRahul--trended on Twitter.

The new Congress president once again found himself in the dock. From political opponents to common man, several people on the micro-blogging site raised questions about Rahul's commitment to politics and public work.

The heated debate surrounding Rahul's report card as a politician started because the Congress president (probably a movie buff like Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal) decided to have some "me time" enjoying the fantasy-science fiction.

Without mentioning in which theatre Rahul enjoyed the film (citing security concerns), the Times Now report stated that during his movie outing, Rahul was accompanied by a few friends.

The news report took a dig that on a day when Rahul was supposed to analyse what went wrong for the Congress in the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh elections, the new Congress president was caught enjoying a film.

Watch .@RShivshankar give out the HARD FACTS on Congress President Rahul Gandhi's suitability as a politician #AreYouSeriousRahul pic.twitter.com/BmPkAWV2LQ TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) December 19, 2017

Many also lambasted the news channel stating that the story reeks of nervousness and desperation of Rahul's opponents.

An attempt to dilute Rahul Gandhi's growing image as the most deserving Prime Ministerial candidate for 2019. Opposition's nervousness and desperation at full display. RaGa's public appearance are self-evident. And so is #TimesNow journalistic standards. #AreYouSeriousRahul Sanjukta Basu (@sanjukta) December 19, 2017

Over the years, Rahul has built a reputation of being a reluctant and seasonal politician, who often leaves his party abandoned in the midst of important political events to go for long vacations.

This election season, however, the Congress presented an energetic, committed and matured politician, Rahul, who campaigned extensively in Gujarat for several months.

In fact, the Congress is giving Rahul all the credit for winning 77 seats in the Gujarat elections and thus restricted the BJP to only 99 seats (just seven seats more than the majority mark) in the 182-member state Legislative Assembly.

It is not that Rahul went missing after the election results were out like in the past.

Accepting the defeat and showering credit to the supporters of the Congress for getting a fairly good deal in the Gujarat polls by winning 77 seats, Rahul tweeted on Monday, "The Congress party accepts the verdict of the people and congratulates the new governments in both states. I thank the people of Gujarat and Himachal with all my heart for the love they showed me."

"My Congress brothers and sisters, you have made me very proud. You are different than those you fought because you fought anger with dignity. You have demonstrated to everyone that the Congress's greatest strength is its decency and courage," he added.

A day after the Gujarat result, Congress president said the polls had delivered BJP a "zabardast jhatka (terrific shock)" that exposed PM Modi's credibility crisis.

Reports say that the Congress president will visit Ahmedabad on Wednesday for a three-day-long review meeting of the party. Several senior Congress leaders are expected to take part in the meeting as well.

"The main objective of the meeting is to scrutinise the results of Gujarat assembly elections," stated a Congress leader.

So, next time Rahul watches a movie in a theatre or enjoys a meal outside (which he often does), photographers should either stop filming the politician (as those are his private moments) or news anchors should stop picking up such mundane details about anybody to keep the standards of journalism high.

OneIndia News
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Wednesday public employees who are victims of sexual harassment should be able to receive taxpayer-funded settlements  and those settlements should be public  but does not support notifying taxpayers of the settlements' existence.

Vos, R-Rochester, said in an interview with the Wisconsin State Journal that the public and members of the media should be able to have access to settlement records but he does not want to proactively release the details of the agreements in an effort to help preserve victims' privacy.

"I would never support keeping those ultimate settlements secret. I dont agree with that at all," Vos said. "I certainly think that maybe you guys now, in the press, will look every month at the settlements the (Equal Rights Division) has and more power to you. But I dont think it should be incumbent upon us to promote an embarrassing situation."

Settlements reached through the Department of Workforce Development's Equal Rights Division's process to litigate complaints of sexual harassment or discrimination are public documents and may be obtained through requests made under the state's open records law.

In 2015, Senate leaders approved a $75,000 settlement to be paid to a former female staff member of former Sen. Spencer Coggs, D-Milwaukee, who was fired after she complained Coggs sexually harassed her. An administrative law judge found probable cause to believe Coggs sexually harassed Harris and discriminated against her before the Legislature settled with Harris.

Vos said Wednesday he never knew about the settlement before the Wisconsin State Journal reported it on Dec. 5, "and I shouldnt know. It doesnt matter to me."

The state Legislature's handling of sexual harassment has been under fresh scrutiny following an October New York Times story on Hollywood movie producer Harvey Weinstein's systematic harassment and assault of female actresses.

Since the report, more women have come forward with stories of sexual harassment, misconduct and assault involving powerful men in media and involving lawmakers in state Legislatures and Congress. The women making the accusations say they feel now more confident that their stories will be believed.

Vos said Wednesday that he feels the Wisconsin State Legislature's process for handling sexual harassment allegations is fair because victims can report harassment to any Legislative leader, each house's chief clerks and to the Legislature human resources office.
Will Modi clarify his conspiracy with Pak remark against Manmohan in Parliament?

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

New Delhi, Dec 20: The Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections are over. Even the results are out. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the polls in both the states after the results were declared on Monday.

However, the shadow of elections is looming large over the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament which is likely to cause disruptions and adjournments in the proceedings of both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha in the coming days.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remark against former PM Manmohan Singh of hatching a "conspiracy with Pakistan" during one of his election rallies in Gujarat earlier has become a bone of contention between the ruling BJP and the Opposition.

While opposition parties, including the Congress, want Modi to clarify his controversial remark against his predecessor in Parliament, the ruling BJP is showing no signs to take up the matter seriously.

On Tuesday, top leaders of the BJP and the opposition parties held meetings to resolve the impasse in Rajya Sabha over Modi's "conspiracy with Pakistan" remark against Singh during the Gujarat poll campaign, but the stalemate on the issue continued.

Opposition leaders met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar and his deputy Vijay Goel in Parliament and sought a resolution of the issue.

They demanded that the PM should clarify his remarks in the Rajya Sabha. The half-an-hour meeting in Jaitley's chamber was attended by Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma, besides opposition leaders Ramgopal Yadav, Satish Misra, D Raja and others.

After the meeting, Jaitley separately met Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Azad in the latter's chamber. Earlier, before the House commenced, the Congress leaders had also met Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu for the resolution of the issue with the Vice President suggesting that the matter is resolved between the opposition parties and the government sitting across the table.

Azad also raised the issue in the House after which Naidu suggested that the two sides sit together and resolve the issue. The leader of the House Jaitley agreed to do so and the two meetings with the opposition parties followed.

"The meeting has been held. Opposition leaders have given their proposition to the government," Congress leader Anand Sharma told reporters.

"We are still waiting whether the justifiable demand of the opposition parties is acceptable to the PM so that we can bring a closure to the controversy which was painful, which was of his creation and was entirely avoidable," he said.

Sharma said the PM has said something which in their view is a constitutional transgression because he holds the office of the PM.

"To say anything that casts aspersions which are insidious on the former PM who held his office with distinction for 10 years, former VP, former Army chief and distinguished diplomats, they all are deeply anguished and they cannot speak for themselves," he said.

Sharma said the Opposition has been asking the government and the PM to clarify and restore the dignity of both his office and of the political narrative of the country.

"We can request him, we can demand, but it is up to him whether to redeem what he should believe or not...," he said. The Rajya Sabha, however, functioned on Tuesday after the Chairman said the issue would be resolved.

Opposition members raised slogans and sought an apology. Azad said the PM should come to the House and clarify what he said, as his charges that his predecessor was "conspiring" with Pakistan was "a big issue".

Azad said allegations are levelled during elections but some are not good for democracy, politics and the country. "Such allegations are deadly for those against whom they are made," he said, adding that Singh's integrity and loyalty to the country have been questioned.

"Is he the person who is conspiring against the Indian state? Are the former PM and former VP not loyal to the country? These allegations are made by no less than the PM.

"The PM of India should come to the House and explain his remarks and if the former PM and others are proved wrong, then action should be taken against them," he told the House amid vociferous protests by Congress members, who raised slogans of "maafi mango" (apologise).

Naidu, while talking about his morning meeting with Congress leaders, said, "My suggestion was (that) it is not good for the country to see that the House is not running properly."

"All things can be internally discussed...and dignity of Parliament should be maintained," he said. Azad said, "It is a matter of privilege. It should also be to the satisfaction of Singh."

Earlier, Singh had met Naidu and expressed his concerns to him. "I have talked to him and have understood what he meant. I have also received a note of what exactly he said and also what was said about the PM by others...calling names," Naidu said, adding that the PM is the PM of the country and that has to be kept in mind by everybody.

Sharma said, "He is the PM and we are conscious of the dignity of the office of PM, which we want him to restore."

"We are waiting in what manner the PM seeks to address because it is not in the interest of the country or Indian democracy that a serving PM casts insidious aspersions on his immediate predecessor," he said.

Earlier, the former PM issued a statement against Modi asking him to apologise to the nation for his controversial remarks. However, the BJP rejected the demand reiterating that the PM was not wrong.

The PM and other BJP leaders alleged that during a dinner party at the house of now-suspended Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar in the national capital a few weeks ago, senior Congress leaders, including Singh, and others along with Pakistani diplomats hatched a conspiracy to influence the Gujarat polls.

Now, it has to be seen whether the PM in Parliament clarifies his controversial remarks to bring a closure to the issue which otherwise could prove costly for the smooth functioning of both the Houses in the coming days.

OneIndia News
What is NATO and why was it created ?

Former US President Donald Trump announces his bid for 2024 presidency post

US: Republicans win control of the House with slim majority; Biden sends congratulatory message

BJP, Congress supporters celebrate Gujarat election result in US

International

pti-PTI

Washington, Dec 20: BJP supporters celebrated the party's victory in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly polls and asserted that the people of the two states have voted for development and rejected caste-based politics and corruption.

On the other hand, members of the Indian National Overseas Congress (USA) too celebrated the outcome of Gujarat polls for what they say is a "moral victory" for the party.

People of Gujarat and Himachal have rejected the politics of casteism and voted for development, Jagdish Sewhani, the president of the American-India Public Affairs Committee, said at an event in New York yesterday to celebrate BJP's victory.

"The victory shows that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is still a tall leader in Indian politics," said prominent Indian-American Dr Sudhir Parikh from New Jersey.

But for the Congress supporters, the Gujarat election results have come as an occasion to celebrate.

"In Gujarat, Congress party scored a moral victory... Despite tremendous odds, Congress increased its legislative seats and vote share," said George Abraham, vice-chairman of the newly reconstituted Indian Overseas Congress, USA.

PTI
India a leading global power, says new US security policy

International

oi-PTI

Describing India as a "leading global power" in its new National Security Strategy, the Donald Trump administration has said it will deepen US' strategic partnership with India and support its leadership role in maintaining security in the Indo-Pacific region.

The document said the United States will seek to increase quadrilateral cooperation with India, Japan, Australia.

"We welcome India's emergence as a leading global power and stronger strategic and defence partner," said the National Security Strategy unveiled by President Trump.

"We will expand our defence and security cooperation with India, a Major Defence Partner of the United States, and support India's growing relationships throughout the region," the document said speaking about the Indo-Pacific region.

The 68-page document referred to the India-US defence relationship in the context of Indo-Pacific region, and gave a very prominent role to India in South and Central Asia.

"We will deepen our strategic partnership with India and support its leadership role in Indian Ocean security and throughout the broader region," according to the NSS which the White House said sets a positive strategic direction for the US.

On China's One Belt One Road or OBOR and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the US administration said it will help South Asian countries "maintain their sovereignty" as China increases its influence in the region. India has protested the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor as it passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The US described India as a "leading global power" in its newly unveiled National Security Strategy.

New Delhi: Describing India as a "leading global power" in its new National Security Strategy, the Donald Trump administration has said it will deepen US' strategic partnership with India and support its leadership role in maintaining security in the Indo-Pacific region.

The document said the United States will seek to increase quadrilateral cooperation with India, Japan, Australia.

"We welcome India's emergence as a leading global power and stronger strategic and defence partner," said the National Security Strategy unveiled by President Trump yesterday.

"We will expand our defence and security cooperation with India, a Major Defence Partner of the United States, and support India's growing relationships throughout the region," the document said speaking about the Indo-Pacific region.

The 68-page document referred to the India-US defence relationship in the context of Indo-Pacific region, and gave a very prominent role to India in South and Central Asia.

"We will deepen our strategic partnership with India and support its leadership role in Indian Ocean security and throughout the broader region," according to the NSS which the White House said sets a positive strategic direction for the US.

On China's One Belt One Road or OBOR and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the US administration said it will help South Asian countries "maintain their sovereignty" as China increases its influence in the region. India has protested the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor as it passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

"We will help South Asian nations maintain their sovereignty as China increases its influence in the region," it said.

The recent Chinese move in Sri Lanka and the Maldives is seen as a planned effort by China to encroach their territory and eat into their sovereignty, with similar fears for Pakistan, as China looks to trap them in form of debt.

Apart from freedom of navigation, US interests in the region include countering terrorist threats that impact the security of the US homeland and its allies, preventing cross-border terrorism that raises the prospect of military and nuclear tensions, and preventing nuclear weapons, technology, and materials from falling into the hands of terrorists, it said.

India said it appreciated the strategic importance given by the US to bilateral ties.

"As two responsible democracies, India and the US share common objectives, including combating terrorism and promoting peace and security throughout the world," said Raveesh Kumar, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs.

"A close partnership between India and the US contributes to peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region as well as to the economic progress of the two countries," he added.

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

Is it a PR stunt by Bdesh, Myanmar to send Rohingya refugees back home?

International

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

Dhaka, Dec 20: The politics over the plight of Rohingya refugees is refusing to die down easily. This year, beginning from August, the world witnessed one of its worst refugee crises when thousands of Rohingyas left their homes in the Rakhine State of Myanmar to Bangladesh to avoid violence and persecution at the hands of the country's army.

Till now, more than six lakh Rohingyas have fled Myanmar and have taken shelter in Bangladesh. Bangladesh, on its part, has clearly stated that it can't take care of food, shelter and healthcare of millions of refugees because of its limited resources.

However, the Bangladesh government clarified that since it is a humanitarian issue involving millions of people it has given temporary shelter to the Rohingyas.

Initially, the Myanmar government was reluctant to take back its own people, but because of the international pressure, it has now "officially" agreed for the repatriation of Rohingyas.

On Tuesday, Bangladesh and Myanmar reaffirmed their commitment to begin repatriating Rohingya refugees in January, despite rights groups warning that their safety is still not assured should they return.

The foreign secretaries of Bangladesh and Myanmar met in Dhaka to finalise the agreement signed on November 23 for the voluntary return of nearly three-quarters of a million stateless Rohingya living in refugee camps along the border.

A new working group would "ensure commencement of repatriation within two months" by developing a timetable for the verification of refugee identities and logistics of their return, Bangladesh's foreign ministry said in a statement.

"Now, we will start the next step of our work," Bangladesh foreign minister AH Mahmood Ali told reporters after the meeting.

The reaffirmation comes a day after Human Rights Watch, citing the analysis of satellite imagery, said Myanmar's army burned down dozens of Rohingya homes within days of signing the repatriation deal with Bangladesh.

The watchdog said the deal was "a public relations stunt" and warned it contained no guarantee the Rohingya would be safe should they return to Myanmar's conflict-wracked Rakhine state.

An estimated 655,000 refugees from the stateless minority group have poured across the border into Bangladesh since August, fleeing what the United States (US) and United Nations (UN) have described as ethnic cleansing.

Last week the group Doctors Without Borders released a survey which found that nearly 7,000 Rohingya had been killed in the first month of the Rakhine violence.

The military has put the number in the hundreds and denied targeting civilians or committing atrocities, while Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi said major security operations stopped in early September.

Responding to international pressure, Suu Kyi's civilian government signed an agreement with Bangladesh to start the repatriation of the stateless Muslim refugees within two months.

The agreement promises the "safe and voluntary return" of displaced Rohingya in Bangladesh -- not just the latest 655,000 new arrivals but more than 70,000 from a separate influx in October 2016.

Testimonies gathered by AFP from displaced Rohingya in Bangladesh suggest few refugees wish to return to Myanmar, where many saw their villages burned to ashes and loved ones killed.

Activists admit that it is the right of Rohingyas to return to their homeland, however, warn both the Bangladesh and Myanmar governments not to take any hasty steps in regard to the repatriation of refugees as the situation in the Rakhine State is still not conducive.

OneIndia News
Doklam: One motorable road complete, second to be constructed by March 2021

Don't allow next Doklam in Arunachal, says BJP MP; claims China has encroached upon 60 km of state

'Lessons have to be learnt from Doklam', says China

International

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Ahead of the India-China border talks expected to be held this week, China has said that the Doklam standoff posed a major test for bi-lateral ties. China also said that lessons should be learnt from the episode to avoid a similar situation.

The 20th round of the India-China border talks is expected to be held this week in New Delhi between National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and China's State Councillor Yang Jiechi who are designated Special Representatives.

Though the talks are scheduled for December 22, an official announcement has not been made yet from both sides.

The two sides attach significance to this round of talks as it would be the first round of talks since the 73-day Doklam standoff in the Sikkim section which ended on August 28.

"This Special Representative meeting is not only a high-level channel for the border issue discussion but also the platform for strategic communication," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing in Beijing on Tuesday.

This also allows the two sides to exchange views on the international and regional issues of major concern, she said.

"In 2017, China-India relations have maintained a good momentum generally but the Doklam incident posed a major test for the two countries. We should learn lessons from this incident to avoid any further conflict of this kind in the future," Hua said.

"We should follow our historical conventions on the border to uphold the tranquillity and peace in the border region as well as safeguard the larger picture of the India-China relations," she said, adding that is in the best interest of both the countries.

Asked about the Doklam standoff's impact on the talks, Hua said the issue also figured in the recent visit of Foreign Minister Wang Yi to New Delhi to take part in the foreign ministers' meeting of Russia, India, China (RIC).

On its sidelines, Wang also held talks with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj and President Ram Nath Kovind.

Wang in his meeting with Indian counterpart also touched about the Doklam issue, Hua said.

Besides attempting to resolve the vexed border dispute, the format of the India-China Special Representatives talks covered the whole gamut of relations between the two countries including political, strategic, economic and trade issues.

The 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC) covers from Jammu and Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh. Of this, 220-km section falls in Sikkim.

The two sides so far held 19 rounds of Special Representatives talks to resolve the dispute.

Officials say Wang's visit, the first by a top Chinese official after the Dokalam standoff and the starting of the second term of Chinese President Xi Jinping in October facilitated a more candid and frank talks between the two countries to tide over most contentious between the two countries beyond the diplomatic niceties.

They said through a solution to the border dispute still eludes the two countries, a lot of headway has been made in the 19th round of talks in terms of working out mechanisms to restore peace and tranquillity along the border to resolve tensions out of the aggressive patrolling by troops.

The Doklam standoff began on June 16 over PLA's plans to build a road in area claimed by Bhutan after the Indian troops intervened to stop it as it posed a security risk to Chicken

Neck, the narrow corridor connecting India with its North-eastern states.

India pointed Sino-Indian differences over the tri-junction between India, China, and Bhutan in the Sikkim section which is yet to be settled.

The standoff ended on August 28 following a mutual agreement between India and China.

China, which earlier opened the Nathu La route for Indian pilgrims to visit Kailash and Manasarovar, has closed it after the Doklam standoff and yet to open it.

OneIndia News
Leaders of Israel and Turkey hold first meeting since 2008

UNHRC slams 'shocking' killing of disabled Palestinian protester

International

oi-PTI

Geneva, December 19: The UN's human rights chief demanded an "independent and impartial investigation", saying he was "truly shocked" by Israeli troops' killing of a wheelchair-bound Palestinian protester in Gaza.

Ibrahim Abu Thurayeh, a 29-year-old who lost his legs after an Israeli attack a decade ago, was among five Palestinians killed on Friday during protests against US President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

In a statement, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein slammed Trump's decision as "dangerously provocative" and blamed it for the violence.

The UN human rights office said Abu Thurayeh was among hundreds of Palestinians who marched across farmland towards the fence separating Gaza from Israel, and appeared to have been shot in the head when he was 20 metres (yards) from the barrier.

"The facts gathered so far by my staff in Gaza strongly suggest that the force used against Ibrahim Abu Thurayeh was excessive," Zeid said.

"As far as we can see, there is nothing whatsoever to suggest that Ibrahim Abu Thurayeh was posing an imminent threat of death or serious injury when he was killed.

"Given his severe disability, which must have been clearly visible to those who shot him, his killing is incomprehensible - a truly shocking and wanton act."

In video footage recorded early on Friday, Abu Thurayeh could be seen carrying the Palestinian flag and waving the victory sign at Israeli soldiers across the border.

Palestinians consider at least part of Jerusalem, which is under full Israeli control, as the capital of their future state and have been infuriated by the decision.

"Israeli security forces have responded with firearms, including live-ammunition, to disperse the protesters," the rights office said.

"These events, including the loss of five irreplaceable human lives, can sadly be traced directly back to the unilateral US announcement on the status of Jerusalem, which breaks international consensus and was dangerously provocative."

While the Israeli army has reportedly conducted a preliminary internal probe into the events, Zeid urged "an independent and impartial investigation" to ensure perpetrators are held accountable.

PTI
With the number of anonymous rogues from Pak rising, here's how BSF is beating down the drones

Will there be a nuclear war in South Asia: Pakistan says yes

International

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Pakistan which sponsors terror unabated has warned of a possible nuclear war in South Asia. The comments come from Pakistan's top security official Lt Gen (Retd) Naseer Jung Januja who is also the National Security Advisor.

Addressing a seminar on issues of national security in Islamabad, Lt Gen (Retd.) Janjua claimed that India has been stockpiling a range of dangerous weapons and it threatens Pakistan continuously of conventional warfare. "The stability of the South Asian region hangs in a delicate balance, and the possibility of nuclear war cannot be ruled out," he claimed.

The NSA stressed that supporting US forces in the region had given birth to the rise of terrorism inside the country. "As the Taleban grows stronger in Afghanistan, America has started to shift the blame for its failures in the country onto Pakistan," he said.

He also alleged that as part of its policy to counter Chinese influence in South Asia, the US is conspiring against the CPEC along with India. "The US has given India a role in Afghanistan's political process, giving New Delhi priority over Islamabad, and has opposed the CPEC," he said.

He said Pakistan encountered the menace of terrorism only after it started supporting the operations of US-led forces in Afghanistan. "Pakistan has been battling with security problems for the past forty years. Peace in Afghanistan remains our top priority," he said.

OneIndia News
 2008-2022 One News Page Ltd.

All rights reserved.

One News is a registered trademark

of One News Page Ltd.
Aaron Sorkin has told stories about presidents, dedicated news people and some of modern history's greatest technology innovators.

Molly Bloom, an Olympic-hopeful turned high-stakes poker maven, is none of those. But she is person with "a romantic and idealistic sense of integrity and character," and in that, Sorkin saw the opportunity to bring to the big screen "a unique movie heroine that we hadn't seen before."

"It was an irresistible story to me and I badly wanted to write it," Sorkin told CNN in a recent interview.

In "Molly's Game," Sorkin tracks the real-life story of Bloom, who at the start of the movie has fallen far from grace and is in big legal trouble, having been arrested for her role in a gambling ring.

What unfolds is a story about a woman who seizes power in a world dominated by wealthy and powerful men and fights the patriarchy in all aspects of her life, according to Jessica Chastain, who plays Bloom in the film. From her complicated relationship with her controlling father, to her battle with the government, "she's trying to navigate how to survive in some way," Chastain told CNN.

"I find it very current, very timely, not just in Hollywood but in all industries," she said.

For Sorkin, who marks his directorial debut with the film, the challenge of writing the script was ignoring the "natural gravitational pull toward the shiny objects in the movie" -- the glamor of high-stakes gambling, the money, the sex, the celebrities.

Though some of the characters in the film can be speculatively matched with their real-life counterparts, Sorkin chose not to emphasize that aspect.

"I said yes to directing it because I wanted to be sure that that initial feeling that I had after meeting [the real] Molly, the reason why I wanted to write it in the first place, the more emotional version of the story in which all those shiny objects, were simply the backdrop against which the story was set," he said. "I wanted to do everything I could to ensure that that happened."

The result is a film that is in contention for Oscar accolades.

Sorkin, meanwhile, was merely happy to have gotten through his first time pulling writer/director duty on a film with a result that may subvert expectations.

"I think people are going to be surprised that at the end of the movie you feel something that you are that you're actually uplifted by a movie that was about a woman runs a poker game," he said.
Rumble 11 Aug 2022

Bible prophecy is being fulfilled before the eyes of the world, but most are blind to it. The Trump raid was a scripted left vs...
Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a nationality by its Statute of Autonomy.
BANG Showbiz 01 Aug 2022

Actress Eva Longoria has admitted she felt jealous in her previous relationships but has a much more relaxed attitude in her third..
Rumble 02 Mar 2022

President Biden delivers his first State of the Union address, and speaks about the American Rescue Plan and the 2017 GOP Tax Cuts.
A Sparta man was referred to the Monroe County District Attorney in connection to a theft in the town of LaFayette. Jonathon D. Wilson, 29, is accused of stealing three chainsaws and selling at least one of them for $200.

Police responded to a May 3 report of a shed visible from the road with its door wide open. A Monroe County Sheriffs Office deputy observed signs of forced entry and evidence of an unsuccessful attempt to pry open a camper inside the shed.

Police contacted the property owner, who lives in southeastern Wisconsin. He returned to the property and reported three chainsaws were missing, along with a handsaw and five-gallon gas can.

On Nov. 13, a chainsaw matching the description of one reported missing May 3 was recovered from a rural Millston residence in Jackson County. Police linked the suspect in the Jackson County case with Wilson, and police went to Wilsons Sparta residence Nov. 15. Police observed numerous chainsaws and other power tools at the residence and questioned Wilson about other thefts in the area.

Wilson was referred for burglary and theft.

In other Monroe County Sheriffs Office news:

Two 17-year-old boys were referred to the district attorney for engaging in sexual intercourse with a child between the ages of 16 and 17 years old and transmitting sexually explicit photos over the internet.

According to the report, the two 17-year-olds recorded a sexual encounter with a 17-year-old girl in a Tomah apartment and posted photos on social media. The girl told police that 45 males have attempted to add her to their Instagram accounts since the incident.

The girl told police she had consumed 10 drinks and said had been taken advantage of. However, the two male juveniles and another witness said the sex was consensual, and the report contained text messages indicating the girl was seeking a sexual encounter. The girl was referred for two counts of having sexual intercourse with a child between the ages of 16 and 17,

Jay Isaac Wolman, 36, Coon Valley, was referred to the district attorney for multiple charges after a Nov. 15 incident in the town of Portland.

Police were called to a Hwy. X residence, where a woman said Wolman had attempted to run her over before fleeing the scene. She led police to her vehicle, where several lug nuts were removed from two of the tires. She told police she believed Wolman removed them in an attempt to make her car crash.

Police caught up with Wolman later in the day and recovered the lug nuts, according the report. He was referred for theft, endangering safety and disorderly conduct.

Percy J. Miner, 43, and William A. Miner III, 47, both of Wyeville, were referred to the district attorney after a Nov. 12 incident in the village of Wyeville.

William Miner called police shortly before 8 p.m. and said he had been assaulted by Percy Miner at the residence of the latter. William Miner said Percy Miner punched him in the side of the head and then locked him outside the house. The report said William Miner re-entered the residence after police arrived and another disturbance ensued.

William Miner recorded a blood-alcohol level of .15 and Percy Miller recorded .26. Both were referred for disorderly conduct, and Percy Miller was referred for battery.

Kristen L. Swenson, 40, Sparta, was referred to the district attorney for disorderly conduct. She is accused of pushing another woman and causing a disturbance Nov. 14 at a town of Sparta residence.

Meghan Joyce Downs, 32, Camp Douglas, and Marriah L. Seekamp, 34, Sparta, were referred to the district attorney for disorderly conduct after a Nov. 16 incident in the town of Clifton.

The report says the two got into an altercation that resulted in Seekamp getting a bloody nose. Downs told police she was hit and scratched by Seekamp.

Downs had an active arrest warrant and was also referred for bail jumping.
Rumble 15 Nov 2022

CNN's John King and Wolf Blitzer analyze the latest numbers from the Nevada Senate race and how it could determine control..
Norway Addresses Unwanted Foreign Operator Activity

Published December 20, 2017 by Lee R

Protecting the citizenry and redistributing revenues effectively is easier within the jurisdiction.

Foreign online gaming operators facing Norway remains problematic in Norway. As evinced by the shutdown of two online payment processors.

Transactions Blocked

National regulator Lotteritilsynet has ordered all Norwegian banks to cease payments to and from two payment processors after finding evidence that they changed their account numbers to mask continued transaction acceptance amongst Norwegian players and unlicensed operators.

Marketing Limits

Lotteritilsynet is further cracking down on a regulation loophole allowing foreign gambling operators to advertise on Norwegian television unchecked.

Unwanted EU-based Advertisement

Minister of Culture Linda Hofstad Helleland says that a host of EU broadcasters including channels TV3, Viasat4, Max and Eurosport Norway are circumventing a Norwegian advertising ban against foreign gambling companies.

Remedy

Helleland called for corrective legislation in the Norwegian Parliamentary before Easter next year in the hopes of remedying the loophole by next summer.

Formal Support

Gambling addiction activist group ActisRusfelt welcomed the proposed legislation as an effective remedy for the 120,000 problem gamblers in Norway and vulnerable underage net surfers.

Actis-Rusfelt Position Statement

ActisRusfelt acting secretary general Pernille Huseby praised the proposed measures by calling it gratifying that the government now wants to ensure that foreign gambling companies cannot continue to bypass Norwegian law and send illegal advertising on Norwegian television screens.

Advertising Rates of Concern

Further figures that alarm Husebys organisation include the 62 commercials per hour of Norwegian language gaming advertising that the EU-based channels are running, and the estimated total investment of $866m (644m) per year by foreign gambling companies in advertisement marketing to Norwegian consumers representing a 17% year-on-year jump in advertising investment.

In Comparison...

Local gaming advertising expenditures of a relatively modest NOK 178m by Norwegian gaming monopolies Norsk Tipping and Norsk Rikstot.

Effective Model in Place

The benefits of local regulation extend beyond just attempting to increase market share revenues, but ultimately seek to more effectively distribute gambling revenues for social benefits. Local (and locally regulated) income from Norsk Tipping of NOK 165m in the previous year was effectively distributed to 44 different socially beneficial and humanitarian organizations, with the value of these funds increasing an estimated improving 42% year-on-year due to a larger profit at the state-owned monopoly.

Getting Things In Order

The Norwegian governments targeting of payment processors exerts further direct influence over funds used for gambling by Norwegian players, and thus does the government seek to check advertising and foreign operator financial activity.

Outlook

With the social benefits of regulated monies clear, this looks like a case where government-owned monopolies helps the people in a country where online gambling revenues within the jurisdiction are being used for what one might call ideal purposes under a leading regulation model.
Governor Scott Walker recently announced that $15 million in grant funding is available for rural school districts to upgrade their technology.

The Tomah Area School District is eligible to receive up to $60,000 in Technology for Education Achievement funding.

These TEACH funds were part of the considerable funding increase for K-12 schools included in this years biennial budget, said state Rep. Nancy VanderMeer, R-Tomah.  Ive fought for these funding increases since I started in the legislature, and obtaining these increases is one of the primary reasons I chose to support this years state budget. I hope that our local school districts are able to apply for and obtain these grants to help them improve their technological infrastructure and most importantly, enhance their students educational experience.

The 2017-19 biennial budget, 2017 Wisconsin Act 59, provided for $22.5 million in grant money. The grants can be used for infrastructure equipment and services such as access points, antennas, maintenance of internal connections, cabling, caching equipment and services, LAN controllers, routers, switches, UPS/battery backup and wireless controllers.

The grants are available to rural school districts with fewer than 16 students per square mile.
There are not many things that at my age, I can put on a Christmas wish list. I really do not need anything. And my wants are few. I think back to my childhood Christmases and remember that my old grandmother always got a nightgown each year. When she died in bed, wearing a washed-out flannel nightgown, still good, though with paper-thin elbows; we found seven brand-new nightgowns in her dresser drawer. She did not need or want a nightgown every year. So, let that be a lesson, friends.

What I did think I needed for Christmas this year, though, was a bottle of vanilla. Pure vanilla. Pure Mexican vanilla or pure Madagascar vanilla. Thats because I bake almost every day, obsessive behavior I cannot seem to squelch. And when I am not baking, I watch baking shows on television. And always, these renowned bakers, the Barefoot Contessa, among others, shame me into using, not just pure vanilla, but good pure vanilla. (I noticed Ina measuring a teaspoon out of a Penzeys bottle. Penzeys is the premier vanilla seller.)

Pure vanilla, of the Mexican or Madagascan variety, is very expensive. It costs more, per ounce, than some popular perfumes, per dab, spray or teaspoon. A two-ounce bottle from Penzeys goes for $12. Two ounces of vanilla equates to 12 teaspoons, or one dollar per teaspoon. Most recipes call for just one teaspoon, but some, like vanilla ice cream, call for a tablespoon. So one small bottle will make only four quarts of ice cream. I dont make ice cream every day, but I do bake almost every day. And everything I bake, except bread or coconut cream pie, calls for at least one teaspoon of vanilla. Even my Christmas fudge recipe calls for a teaspoon. (I used my last teaspoon in that batch last week.) So Im hovering on the brink of depletion every few weeks throughout the year.

Why is pure vanilla so expensive? It is not because it contains 35 percent alcohol. It is because the beans are very labor-intensive to cultivate and harvest. One two-ounce bottle of pure vanilla contains 200 vanilla beans. (And three whole vanilla beans sold by Penzeys cost $19.95.)

I am not in the poor house. Although on a limited budget, I could certainly go on-line to Penzeys or King Arthur Flour (where I actually run a tab) and buy a pint bottle of pure vanilla for $69 or $89, respectively. (Actually KAF is running a sale: the $89 bottle is marked down to $54, but still a lot of money!) But something is holding me back. Is it my secret wish for a bottle of the worlds most popular flavoring in my Christmas stocking? Wishful thinking?

I decided to do a little more research on the whole subject of vanilla, because it does play an important and budget-zapping role in my life.

As a noun, vanilla refers to our most fragrant and complex flavor, the one we use to improve everything going in and out of the oven. But as an adjective, it is a pejorative, used to describe anything plain, generic, common or bland. (When Prince Charles married his much-maligned sweetheart, a British newspaper branded her Plain Vanilla Camilla. A bit harsh, I think.)

But as for vanilla extract, it made sense for me to look a little deeper into the matter. Cooks Illustrated, a magazine offshoot of Americas Test Kitchen, the most trusted arbiter of all things culinary, tested pure vanilla against artificial vanilla, which contains vanillin, made from wood pulp. Yes, vanillin is a vanilla extract alternative made from wood pulp. (Oaks or maples, maybe?) The kitchen ran several taste tests pitting vanilla against vanillin in baked goods and other applications, and to the consternation of the magazine editors, tasters could not differentiate the flavor of vanillin from vanilla. So! I can cancel my request for pure vanilla as a Christmas gift because I have an 11-ounce bottle of Watkins naturally and artificially flavored Vanilla extract that I received for Christmas last year. (I thanked the giver, but took the Barefoot Contessa too literally at her word and relegated the bottle to the back of my spice shelf.)

Christmas is again upon us, and its time to rethink my wish list. I do not want or need pure vanilla for Christmas. (I wont turn it down, though, if its given.) I do not need a new nightgown. So, what would make a happy Christmas for me? Not the receiving of gifts, but the giving. (It truly is more blessed to give than to receive.) I made so many Christmas family favorites this year, including my never fail fudge, all with at least a teaspoon of pure vanilla in them. I am giving these treats as gifts to my friends. My wish is that they do not think them common or bland, but relish the flavor that vanilla extract brings to their goodness.

All in all, I think I will have a merry, very vanilla Christmas this year. And what do I wish for, most of all? A very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!

Sandra Humphrey is a resident of Tomah.


pop life

(Image by frankieleon) Details DMCA



The opioid epidemic rages onward. The statistics of death from an overdose of drugs continue to increase yearly. Everybody in North America has a family member, friend or neighbor that is affected from the misuse of drugs. Our President has declared the "opioid crisis a public emergency."

Pharmacists have a history of being one of the "most trusted professions." Before today's modern day 21st century opioid epidemic began about twenty years ago, that was an accurate summation of your neighborhood pharmacist.

Like the guards of Auschwitz in the concentration camps of Germany eighty years ago who didn't actually pull the final lever, the pharmacists have disengaged themselves from the death and destruction of the epidemic. The damage starts from the complicity of the pharmacist personally handing out tens of millions of lethal pills without a second thought or a look in the eye of the person who has moved from originally having a real medical need for pain relief to a shallow and forlorn soul and prisoner who will become violently ill without their next dose of an opioid. The fury of withdrawal parallels to the abuse and neglect many endured in the concentration camps during WWII.

The pharmacist has lost all conscience and responsibility to our communities as they dispense large quantities of narcotics to a young person who they suspect is either addicted or will be selling the drugs on the street corner.

I am sure the camp guards never looked into the eyes of a future victim of the gas chamber and pharmacists have followed suit. It is my contention most retail pharmacists have had a patient who died from an overdose and few have given it a second thought before they count out their next prescription of 120 to 180 oxycodone or hydrocodone. For some, it is from the rationalization that if they don't count out the pills, the drug store chain will find someone who will. However, I believe most pharmacists don't care.

The doctors are the generals; the pharmacists the soldiers, the drug chains supply the lethal weapons and the insurance payers finance the operation. While six million people were tortured and murdered during Hitler's reign, a country remained silent. A collective conscience finally put an end to the destruction and accomplices to the terror were brought to justice. Adolf Eichmann was hanged and many guards went to prison. After dispensing thousands of deadly pills, today's pharmacist blissfully goes to dinner, much like the prison guards prior to the revelation of the truth.

I have been a pharmacist for forty years. I used to praise our profession and encourage young people to explore my profession. In most of my professional years, morphine was a respected drug and used judiciously. My last ten years have been spent sharing information about morphine's analogs and encouraging patients that "less is better." I have NEVER had a person disagree with me that they wish they could stop taking the opioid and an honest conversation always brings out the truth. I make it clear that the culprit is the drug and not the patient.

I no longer encourage people to become a retail pharmacist unless they want to be the middle man or woman for the drug deal. Today's pharmacist can be replaced by a vending machine. A machine has the same moral and ethical principles as today's pharmacist who counts out the narcotics in the same robotic fashion.

I worked for Eckerd Drug for ten years before CVS took over the Eckerd chain ten years ago. During my tenure with CVS I have been outspoken about the opioid crisis. For the last ten years CVS respected my position on the opioids and allowed me to do a radio show for over seven years, counsel and give advice. I self-published my book "Not Safe As Prescribed" without any immediate repercussions from CVS. The reviews on Amazon have remained phenomenal. Opednews ran an interview.

CVS adopted many new policies in recent years to help reduce their opioid output. Whether it was the multi-million dollar fines they paid to the DEA or a moral awakening is up to the reader's discretion. Most of my fellow pharmacists remained disengaged. I attempted to remain true to my principles and fight the epidemic from behind the counter. It was a losing battle, but from a personal standpoint, I felt I could help more people. To the credit of CVS management, I was left alone. I am proud that I attempted to dispense the CII class of drugs judiciously; never refusing a prescription that met the new CVS guidelines.

I was recently fired from CVS. There were no moral or ethical issues. There were no company losses. Whether it was some lone supervisors acting independently or CVS changing their policy of not allowing the pharmacist the discretion to help a patient remains for discussion. At this point, it appears CVS has re-entered the wild west of pill distribution. I am surmising that my firing has sent a message to my former fellow pharmacists.

I have documentation of my supervisors questioning why I didn't dispense more opioids. After my firing, a fabricated letter referring to my character was sent to the St. Petersburg, FL police department. I was issued a "no trespass" from CVS management. My final termination paper had lies in it.

CVS has policies in place to prevent the over distribution of the opioids. It appears the supervisors are not required to follow those policies and if a pharmacist is not filling enough opioids, a methodical effort to terminate them is accepted by CVS. Not only terminate the pharmacist, but destroy an illustrious 40 year career. It appears the public statements and policies from CVS have become shallow proclamations while the supervisors quietly put the hammer down.

The opioid epidemic is going to rage forward. CVS has made a decision to allow the reprimand and/or firing of a pharmacist who is attempting to follow the CDC guidelines on the dispensing of an opioid.

It will be interesting what the future of the Aetna and CVS merger will bring to the opioid crisis. A vertical business that combines the general, soldier, supplier and the financier will bring more destruction to our communities.
See original here

By Lorraine Chow



Caribou graze on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

(Image by USFWS Headquarters) Details DMCA



The Republican tax bill, which is likely headed to President Donald Trump's desk in the next few days, has major repercussions for our precious environment.

While the electric vehicle industry and the wind and solar sector can breathe a little easier that the sweeping legislation preserves their tax credits, fossil fuel producers are likely cheering the opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil and gas drilling.

The controversial provision, a proposal from Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), would auction off an area known as the "biological heart" of the Arctic Refuge that's home to crucial wildlife habitats, including one-third of all polar bear denning habitat in the U.S. and one-third of the migratory birds that come to the Arctic Refuge. It is also considered sacred to the indigenous Gwich'in people, who sustain themselves from the caribou that migrate there.

Oil drilling in the refuge has been sought by conservative lawmakers for decades despite opposition from 70 percent of Americans.

"Congress has committed the ultimate sellout of America's public lands with such a devious and shortsighted action in one of the wildest places left in the world," said Jamie Rappaport Clark, president and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife. "Shame on those who supported this abhorrent assault on our natural legacy."

Proponents of arctic drilling say the plan would help pay for the massive tax cuts, with Murkowski insisting that her rider would raise "more than $1 billion within 10 years and it will likely raise over $100 billion for the federal Treasury" over time.

But critics contend that with oil prices below $60 a barrel, it's not even certain that oil companies would want to open up one of Earth's most remote and harshest areas, nor would drilling raise enough revenue to offset the massive deficit forecasts created by the tax bill.

Notably, the renewable energy sector did not escape the widely unpopular bill's effects scot-free, as it includes the Base Erosion Anti-Abuse Tax (BEAT) program that would "undermine our capacity to use renewable energy tax credits, which have value only if they can be monetized," according to a letter addressed to the Senate from clean energy trade groups.

Greentech Media delved further:

"That problem is the Base Erosion Anti-Abuse Tax (BEAT) provision, which targets 'earnings strippings,' where large companies with foreign operations reduce their tax bills through cross-border payments they can then deduct in the U.S. The BEAT provision aims to circumvent that stripping with a minimum tax of 10 percent of taxable income. "BEAT would require every company to do two calculations: one quantifying 10 percent of a company's taxable income, including cross-border payments, and another quantifying the corporation's tax liability, excluding any tax credits the company received from tax equity investments. "The BEAT provision applies to all but R&D; credits. If a company has invested in renewables, the second number could be lower than the first. If that's the case, the company would have to pay the difference in taxes."

"The environment is the clear loser, with calamitous consequences for all Americans," Anna Aurilio, Environment America's D.C. Office Director said about the tax bill.

Environment America noted that the bill continues massive incentives for fossil fuel production amounting to tens of billions of dollars over the next decade.

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 piece was reprinted by OpEd News with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.

From Alternet

The former Green Party candidate calls the inquiry evidence of a "new McCarthyism."

This late November, the Senate Intelligence Committee delivered a request for internal communications and documents to Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein. According to former members of Stein's 2016 presidential campaign, the request arrived through intelligence committee chairs Sen's Richard Burr and Mark Warner, who are seeking information for the ongoing Russiagate investigation. While the Senate Intelligence Committee has yet to make the details of its inquiry into Stein's campaign public, Republican Sen. Richard Burr told reporter Emma Loop that he is looking for evidence of Stein's "collusion with the Russians."

In recent weeks, the bipartisan investigation into Russian meddling has strayed from its focus on Trump and begun targeting left-wing political figures. Last month, the House Intelligence Committee sent a subpoena to Randy Credico, a retired comedian, noted prison reform activist and local New York political gadfly, seeking information on rumors that he had served as a go-between for right-wing operative Roger Stone and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. And now, Senate investigators have trained their sights on Stein, a veteran anti-war activist and pediatrician despised by Hillary Clinton partisans, who blame her for throwing the election to Trump.

I spoke to Stein immediately after the news from BuzzFeed leaked of the Senate inquiry into her campaign. She characterized the demand for Green Party documents as clear evidence of a "new McCarthyism, which is the flip side of a military madness that is stronger than ever in this country."

"This is the continuing focus of empire and austerity and the assault on democracy that goes with it," she continued. "The silver lining is we will get a chance at the microphone. A lot of people will be screaming at us but some people will hear us."

Since news broke of the congressional inquiry into Stein's campaign, she has been a punching bag for hardcore Democrat partisans. Zac Petnacas, the former rapid response director for Hillary Clinton's campaign, proclaimed, "Jill Stein is a Russian agent" eight times in one tweet until he reached the maximum character limit.

Click Here to Read Whole Article
The Goldwater-Nichols Act requires the president to submit a "National Security Strategy" report each year. Every president since Ronald Reagan has failed to comply with the law in one or more years of his administration, but on December 17 Donald Trump issued his report.

Unfortunately, Trump's offering is of a piece with his prior displays of economic illiteracy and foreign policy jingoism. It's a dog's breakfast of policy pronouncements that couldn't be more opposed to real "national security" if that had been the author's intention.

The document reiterates Trump's commitment to economic protectionism in the guise of "fair and reciprocal" trade, rattles sabers at Russia, China, and North Korea, and commits to extending decades of disastrous US military adventurism in the Middle East.

Trump's distant predecessors showed us what a real "National Security Strategy" would look like.

At the end of his two terms as president, George Washington warned in his farewell address that "[t]he great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible."

Thomas Jefferson echoed that sentiment in his first inaugural address, announcing a doctrine of "peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations -- entangling alliances with none."

While serving as US Secretary of State, future president John Quincy Adams observed that America "goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own."

Those principles served the US well to the extent that they were followed -- with a few exceptions, throughout the 19th century. But since the Spanish-American War of 1898, the US has increasingly styled itself an imperial power, attempting to dictate to the world at a cost of hundreds of thousands of American lives and millions more abroad, as well as trillions of dollars redirected from productive endeavors to paying the butcher's bill. The 20th century was a near-continuous orgy of bloodshed which, for the US, was entirely optional.

A real "National Security Strategy" comes down to two things: Free trade, and minding our own business.

Early in his presidential campaign, Trump hinted at the latter, but quickly reverted to business as usual. He's clearly never grasped the former at all. Unfortunate, as the two are also the elements of a great presidency, if such a thing is even possible.


HR McMaster: Threat from North Korea increases every day National security adviser speaks out at the Reagan National Security Forum.

(Image by YouTube, Channel: Fox News) Details DMCA



President Trump's National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster

War with North Korea could very well be imminent but from general observations it doesn't seem to be registering with the American people. It's almost eerie.

One writer put it, "the broader public debate has been far more muted". [1] Muted? As far as I can tell a public debate is not more muted it seems nonexistent.

Of course the corporate MSM is no help. It's focused on domestic issues as in the "tax reform" package making its way through Congress and sure to be on Trump's desk by the end of the week. Then there's the issue of women being sexually harassed by men in positions of power then compounded by male celebrities making comments and female celebs decrying what the men said.

So domestic issues aplenty dominate the airwaves but not so the imminent threat of war with North Korea.

It's only through insightful articles on a few select internet sites that reveal how war with North Korea is becoming more imminent.

From the Trump administration there are so many mixed messages it's almost impossible to tell whether Trumps threat "to totally destroy North Korea" is real or just bombast.

One day Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says the administration is open to talks with North Korea without pre-conditions and the next day he's retracting that saying North Korea has to 'earn the right" for talks. Then there's Trump saying Tillerson is wasting his time about talking with North Korea.

A month ago the US and South Korea expanded military exercises off the Korean Peninsula to include three carrier groups, eleven Aegis ships that can track missiles along with B-52 as well as B-1 and B-2 bombers flying over the peninsula. [2]

Now we get this, "The United States Military has conducted joint training operations with South Korean forces to practice removing nuclear weapons from North Korea in the event of war, according to reports".

"South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported that 'Warrior Strike' exercise took place north of Seoul between Tuesday and Friday. Hundreds of soldiers from both sides took part in the training to remove weapons of mass destruction from the North." [3]

This from Trump's National Security advisor H.R. McMaster on PBS when asked if the chance of war was increasing "everyday", "I think it is the case. We're out of time with this problem. Not out of time completely but we have a very short amount of time to be able to address the problem of North Korea." Then on BBC News he said, "The US is ready to compel the denuclearization of North Korea" and "without the cooperation of that regime."

Now if you're North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un as well as other military leaders around him how could they not conclude the US is readying to invade the country? It's hard to believe otherwise.

As I see it, North Korea is on hair trigger alert. Any move, even a small surprise attack by US special ops commandos anywhere north of the 38th parallel is going to compel North Korea to respond militarily. Only a fool would think otherwise. And if Kim were to believe he wouldn't survive the US assault he could unleash the unthinkable.

Let's not mince words. What's coming from the Trump crowd regarding North Korea is simply madness.

Next Page 1 | 2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
Winter seems to have settled in, and the museums exhibit halls are turning a little chilly. But exhibits located on the first floor can be viewed in heated comfort, including a small case in the conference room that now contains an interesting piece of World War I trench art.

First to deal with the idea of trench art. The National World War I Museum in Kansas City, MO, provides an article on its website that explains, The image of the bored soldier, sitting in his trench, twisting and hammering brass shell casings into vases, is one of the longest-running snippets of folklore from World War I. It is true that American and other soldiers wanted souvenirs of all typesbut the front-line soldier had neither the tools nor the time to create many of the fantastic decorations.

The 1914-1918-Online International Encyclopedia of the First World War, an excellent resource, also provides an article about trench art, with a useful definition: Trench Art is a genre of folk art comprised of items created in wartime, or from war materiel. It may be made by servicemen and women or by civilians, and is particularly associated with the First World War, which witnessed its greatest flowering. So, trench art refers not only to simple items made by soldiers in the trenches but also to any artwork made by untrained artists during a war, or after a war using military items.

Now to look at what we have: a World War I U.S. steel helmet decorated with a colored outline map of France, Belgium and Luxembourg, and the words, 1917 Worlds War, Army of Occupation, Co. G 4th Inf., U.S.S. Henderson.

Company G of the 4th Infantry Regiment was in the 3rd Division, and that divisions insignia, a blue square with three diagonal white stripes, is also painted on the helmet. The 3rd Division was engaged in fierce fighting in France, including at Chateau Thierry and the Meuse-Argonne. The U.S.S. Henderson was a transport ship commissioned in May 1917, just one month after the U.S. entered World War I.

The National World War I Museums article tells us more about helmets: During the war the steel helmets worn by the Doughboys were unadorned. Unit insignia were the first objects painted on helmets, but this was rare before the cessation of hostilities due to the concern that the enemy would gain information from seeing the insignia. But after the guns were silenced, the Doughboy artists got busy with painted insignia, itinerary, maps, pseudo-camouflage, and battle scenes. Some painted helmets were done on commission for American soldiers by German prisoners of war.

How did the museum come to have this helmet? It was obtained by William Rood, and donated to the museum by his daughter, June (Rood) Zalewski Pedretti. William Rood served in World War I but with the 127th Infantry Regiment of the 32nd Division, not with the 4th Inf. Reg. of the 3rd Div., so this was not his helmet. Rood worked as a wagoner, driving a horse-drawn ammunition wagon. He served overseas from February 1918 to May 1919, and would have been familiar with the places on the helmets map. Somehow he came by this souvenir, and kept it to the end of his life as a reminder of his wartime experiences.
From Palestine Chronicle



Students, Deah Barakat (R), his wife, Yusor Abu-Salha, and her sister, Razan Abu-Salha (not pictured) were killed by Craig Hicks on Feb 10, 2015.

(Image by (Photo: via Social Media)) Details DMCA



Within hours after Akayed Ullah, a Bangladeshi immigrant, allegedly detonated a pipe bomb in New York City on December 11, severely injuring himself and wounding four others, a most comprehensive official and media narrative emerged.

The formulation of the narrative concerning Ullah's motives, radicalization and assumed hate for the US was so immaculate, one would have thought it took authorities months, not hours to compile such demanding evidence.

Strangely, Ullah's own family was surprised by the accusation concerning their son.

However, the exact nature of what truly happened matters little. Not only was Ullah instantly found guilty by the media, all Muslims and immigrants, in fact, were.

Following each attack of this nature, Muslims in the US mobilize to fend off accusations concerning their faith, their values and their allegiance to the country in which they live.

But it is not an easy fight to win. When President Donald Trump is constantly tweeting anti-Muslim propaganda, while his administration exploits every opportunity to advance anti-immigrant initiatives, the beleaguered small community of Muslims in the US can do little to stop the rising tide of Islamophobia.

The media has played a major role in propagating the negative attitudes towards Muslims and Islam, which, in turn, provide the much-needed public support for the government to continue with its anti-Muslim measures.

Compare such attitudes with the way in which mass shootings carried out by white American men is communicated by the government and media alike.

Although mass killings by white males have proven to be the deadliest in the US, the discussion generated in the media and official discourses are centered mostly on mental illness of white attackers. In other words, there is consensus that violence perpetrated by members of the white community is not inherent to that community's race, culture or religion.

Five years after Adam Lazna killed 20 first graders and six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, many are still at work trying to analyze Lanza's supposed mental illness that drove him to commit such a reprehensible act.

The fact that Lanza was carrying more than 30 pounds of weapons seemed superfluous. Many pundits and politicians still refuse to engage in a discussion about guns.

The "mental health" argument in also championed by Trump himself.

"Mental health is your problem here," Trump said in a statement in response to a mass shooting by Devin Kelly, a white male who killed more than two dozen people in a Texas church last November.

Resorting to easy answers when white men kill is now the norm. Killers of other races, skin colors and nationalities, however, get entirely different treatment.

Next Page 1 | 2

(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.
See original here

As Congress prepares to vote on the controversial tax bill, the United Nations has issued a scathing report on poverty in the United States that found the Trump administration and Republicans are turning the U.S. into the "world champion of extreme inequality." Philip Alston, the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, announced his findings after conducting a two-week fact-finding mission across the country, including visits to California, Alabama, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Alston also warned that the Republican tax bill will transfer vast amounts of wealth to the richest earners while making life harder for the 41 million Americans living in poverty. Among other startling findings in Alston's report, the U.S. ranks 36th in the world in terms of access to water and sanitation. We speak with Philip Alston, who is also a professor at NYULaw School.

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I'm Amy Goodman, with Juan Gonza'lez.

JUAN GONZALEZ: We turn now to a scathing new report on poverty in the United States that found the Trump administration and Republicans are turning the U.S. into the, quote, "world champion of extreme inequality." Philip Alston, the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, announced his findings after conducting a two-week fact-finding mission across the country, including visits to California, Alabama, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Alston also warned the Republican tax bill would transfer vast amounts of wealth to the richest earners while making life harder for the 41 million Americans living in poverty.

AMY GOODMAN: Among other startling findings in Alston's report, the U.S. ranks 36th in the world in terms of access to water and sanitation. Alston discussed the report's findings Friday with independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who focused on economic inequality during his presidential campaign.

Well, for more, Philip Alston joins us here in our New York studio. He's the United Nations rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. He is also a professor at NYU Law School, New York University.

Welcome to Democracy Now!, Professor Alston. So you just came back from this tour. Congress is poised to vote on this tax bill. Your assessment and why you're weighing in as the U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty?

PHILIP ALSTON: Well, my job is to try to highlight the extent to which people -- to which the civil rights of people who are living in extreme poverty are jeopardized by government policies. What I see in the United States now is not just a tax reform bill, but a very clear indication by government officials with whom I met, by the Treasury, in their analysis, that this is going to be funded in part by cuts to welfare, to Medicare, Medicaid. And so what you've got is a huge effort to enrich the richest and to impoverish the poorest. That is going to have very dramatic consequences.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And from what you saw, how did race and poverty overlap on this issue?

PHILIP ALSTON: There's a very complex relationship, actually, between race and poverty. First, it is true that if you are African-American, if you're Hispanic, your situation, in terms of poverty, is often going to be pretty bad. But there's also a racialized discourse, where if you speak to policymakers, they will say, "Yes, we've got to cut back on welfare, because those black families out there are really ripping off the system." And so what they do is to try to get some sort of race warfare going almost, that white voters think, "Yeah, I'm not going to be ripped off by the blacks and the Hispanics." But, of course, the terrible thing is that the cuts are actually nondiscriminatory. In other words, they impact the poor whites every bit as much as the poor people of color. So, the race dimension is deeply problematic.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn to Benita Garner, a mother living in poverty, who's participating in a program through a nonprofit called LIFT. She landed seasonal work with UPS, but worries what will happen when the job ends.

BENITA GARNER: It's scary. It's stuff that you don't really think about, but it's scary. It's just that I know it can happen. I'm like really not looking forward to the end of the month, because I'm like, ahh, you know, right now you're getting money, but then it's like it's going to shut down again. So, you always have to constantly think every day, "What's my next move?"

AMY GOODMAN: She spoke at your launch of your report. Talk about why Benita is so important.

PHILIP ALSTON: Well, because there are millions of people in exactly that position. One of the things that the current administration is pushing is that we need to get people off welfare and into work. First of all, it's not clear that there are the jobs for people with those sort of skills. But secondly, those who do get the jobs that are available are going to end up in Benita's situation. I spoke with a lot of Walmart employees who are working full-time, but who are still eligible for and totally dependent upon food stamps. So, working 35 hours a week at Walmart is not enough to make a living out of. And there's a much bigger problem in the U.S., of course: The precariousness of employment, as we move to the gig economy and so on, means that there are going to be ever more people in Benita's situation, where, yes, you get a job; yes, the benefits are cut; but you can't survive.

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).
Private Branch Exchange (PBX) 2017 Global Industry Key Players - 3CX , Twilio , Veritas Technologies , Voicent , CallFire , Symantec Market Analysis And Forecast To 2022

Global Private Branch Exchange (PBX) Market

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/2644600-global-private-branch-exchange-pbx-market-size-status-and-forecast-2022

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/2644600-global-private-branch-exchange-pbx-market-size-status-and-forecast-2022

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=2644600

Global Private Branch Exchange (PBX) MarketThis report studies the global Private Branch Exchange (PBX) market, analyzes and researches the Private Branch Exchange (PBX) development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, like3CXTwilioVeritas TechnologiesVoicentCallFireSymantecMicrosoft (Skype)NextivaRingCentralVonageRequest a Sample Report @Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEUJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaMarket segment by Type, the product can be split intoMobile PBXIP-PBXOthersMarket segment by Application, Private Branch Exchange (PBX) can be split intoSMEsLarge EnterpriseOthersTo enquire about this report visit @Table of Contents-Key Points CoveredGlobal Private Branch Exchange (PBX) Market Size, Status and Forecast 20221 Industry Overview of Private Branch Exchange (PBX)1.1 Private Branch Exchange (PBX) Market Overview1.1.1 Private Branch Exchange (PBX) Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Private Branch Exchange (PBX) Market Size and Analysis by Regions1.2.1 United States1.2.2 EU1.2.3 Japan1.2.4 China1.2.5 India1.2.6 Southeast Asia1.3 Private Branch Exchange (PBX) Market by Type1.3.1 Mobile PBX1.3.2 IP-PBX1.3.3 Others1.4 Private Branch Exchange (PBX) Market by End Users/Application1.4.1 SMEs1.4.2 Large Enterprise1.4.3 Others2 Global Private Branch Exchange (PBX) Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Private Branch Exchange (PBX) Market Size (Value) by Players (2016 and 2017)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in Future3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 3CX3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Private Branch Exchange (PBX) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 Twilio3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 Private Branch Exchange (PBX) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.2.5 Recent Developments3.3 Veritas Technologies3.3.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.3.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.3.4 Private Branch Exchange (PBX) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.3.5 Recent Developments3.4 Voicent3.4.1 Company Profile3.4.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.4.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.4.4 Private Branch Exchange (PBX) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.4.5 Recent Developments3.5 CallFire3.5.1 Company Profile3.5.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.5.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.5.4 Private Branch Exchange (PBX) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.5.5 Recent Developments3.6 Symantec3.6.1 Company Profile3.6.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.6.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.6.4 Private Branch Exchange (PBX) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.6.5 Recent Developments3.7 Microsoft (Skype)3.7.1 Company Profile3.7.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.7.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.7.4 Private Branch Exchange (PBX) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.7.5 Recent Developments3.8 Nextiva3.8.1 Company Profile3.8.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.8.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.8.4 Private Branch Exchange (PBX) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.8.5 Recent Developments3.9 RingCentral3.9.1 Company Profile3.9.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.9.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.9.4 Private Branch Exchange (PBX) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.9.5 Recent Developments3.10 Vonage3.10.1 Company Profile3.10.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.10.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.10.4 Private Branch Exchange (PBX) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.10.5 Recent DevelopmentsContinuedBuy Report@Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt LtdOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Global Functional Printing Market 2017 Industry Trend and Forecast 2022

Global Functional Printing Industry

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/999571-global-functional-printing-market-research-report-2017

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/999571-global-functional-printing-market-research-report-2017

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/999571-global-functional-printing-market-research-report-2017

https://www.linkedin.com/company/wise-guy-research-consultants-pvt-ltd-?trk=biz-companies-cym

https://www.wiseguyreports.com

Global Functional Printing IndustryIn this report, the global Functional Printing market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Global Functional Printing market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingAvery Dennison CorporationBlue Spark TechnologiesBASF SEMark AndyXennia TechnologyNovaled AGXaar PLCPalo Alto Research Center IncorporatedE Ink HoldingsCeradrop-MGI GroupFUJIFILM DimatixGSI TechnologiesGWENT CorporationKroenert GroupNovacentrixTHINFILM Electronics ASAToppan PrintingXAAR PLCTry Sample Report @Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Functional Printing in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoSubstratesInkConductorsOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate of Functional Printing for each application, includingSmart TagsSmart CardsDiagnostic LabelsFunctional PackagingSignageSmart TextilesFor Detailed Reading Please visit WiseGuy Reports @Some Major Points from Table of content:Global Functional Printing Market Research Report 20171 Functional Printing Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Functional Printing1.2 Functional Printing Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Functional Printing Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category) (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Functional Printing Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Substrates1.2.4 Ink1.2.5 Conductors1.3 Global Functional Printing Segment by Application1.3.1 Functional Printing Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Smart Tags1.3.3 Smart Cards1.3.4 Diagnostic Labels1.3.5 Functional Packaging1.3.6 Signage1.3.7 Smart Textiles1.4 Global Functional Printing Market by Region (2012-2022)1.4.1 Global Functional Printing Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 India Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Functional Printing (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Functional Printing Revenue Status and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Functional Printing Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2012-2022)If you have any enquiry before buying a copy of this report @2 Global Functional Printing Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Functional Printing Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.1 Global Functional Printing Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Functional Printing Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Functional Printing Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.3 Global Functional Printing Average Price by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.4 Manufacturers Functional Printing Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Functional Printing Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Functional Printing Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Functional Printing Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion3 Global Functional Printing Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)3.1 Global Functional Printing Capacity and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.2 Global Functional Printing Production and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.3 Global Functional Printing Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.4 Global Functional Printing Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.5 North America Functional Printing Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.6 Europe Functional Printing Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.7 China Functional Printing Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.8 Japan Functional Printing Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.9 Southeast Asia Functional Printing Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.10 India Functional Printing Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)Continued..For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comAbout UsWise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports understand how essential statistical surveying information is for your organization or association. Therefore, we have associated with the top publishers and research firms all specialized in specific domains, ensuring you will receive the most reliable and up to date research data available.Contact Us:Norah Trent+1 646 845 9349 / +44 208 133 9349Follow on LinkedIn:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt LtdPune  411028Maharashtra, GlobalPh: +91 841 198 5042
Biobanks Market -Technological Advancement ,Growth, and Forecast 2017 - 2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=2321

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=2321

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=D&rep_id=2321

Global Biobanks Market: OverviewThe global biobanks market owes its conception to the rising need for replacement organs and the steady advancement in the replacement and transfusion technologies regarding a number of bodily substances. Though the technology and need to store organs and other bio-entities had been available for a long time, the global biobanks market took on a more important role in the healthcare sector following the increasing research in genomics. In the new millennium, the development of the personalized medicine field has been the vital driver for the global biobanks market. The likely advancement of the latter, thanks to helpful government regulations, is likely to make the crucial difference for the global biobanks market in the near future.The steady technological advancement in the healthcare sector in the last few decades has now led to a scenario where the full potential of biobanks can be harnessed. As a result, the global biobanks market is projected to exhibit steady growth over the coming years.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Biobanks Market: Key TrendsThe rising interest in personalized medicine is the prime driver for the global biobanks market. Personalized medicine has only become a viable branch of modern medicine after steady research in genomics and the way various patients react to various medicines. The biobanks market has thus come into the spotlight thanks to their role as a steady supplier of human biomaterials for research as well as direct application. The increasing research in genomics following the findings of the Human Genome Project is thus likely to remain a key driver for the global biobanks market in the coming years.The utilization of biobanks in stem cell research has been hampered in several regions by ethical concerns regarding the origin of stem cells. Nevertheless, the potential of stem cells in the healthcare sector is immense, and is likely to have a decisive impact on the trajectory of the global biobanks market in the coming years. Many countries have, in recent years, adopted a supportive stance towards stem cell research, aiding the growth of the biobanks market. Continued government support is thus likely to remain vital for the global biobanks market in the coming years.Request TOC of the Report @Global Biobanks Market: Market PotentialThe leading role of the U.S. in the global biobanks market is unlikely to change in the coming years. The easy availability of government-supported healthcare infrastructure and the presence of several industry giants in the region has driven the biobanks market in the U.S.Northwell Health, the largest healthcare provider in New York State, earlier in 2017 initiated a new biobank aimed at creating precision therapies against various types of cancer. Launched in collaboration with Indivumed, the biobank will provide catalogued biomaterials for research into lung, colorectal, breast, and pancreatic cancer. This would enable targeted, gene-specific studies of a variety of cancer samples, leading to a more comprehensive understanding of cancer. Such well-funded collaboration efforts are crucial for the developing biobanks market.Global Biobanks Market: Geographical DynamicsLed by the fertile healthcare research scenario in the U.S., North America is likely to retain a dominant share in the global biobanks market in the coming years. Steady support from institutes such as the NIH is likely to be vital for the North America biobanks market.Get Discount @Emerging Asia Pacific economies such as India and China could emerge with a significant share in the global biobanks market in the coming years. The healthcare sector in both countries has received steady public or private funding in the last few years. India is also a global leader in medical tourism and is likely to receive an increasing number of patients in the coming years, leading to promising prospects for the global biobanks market in the region.Global Biobanks Market: Competitive DynamicsDue to the dynamic nature of the global biobanks market, with advancements in diagnostic fields often determining the direction of the market, the market is heavily fragmented. It is likely to retain a significant degree of fragmentation in the coming years thanks to the diversity in the application segments of the biobanks market. The leading players in the global biobanks market include BioCision, Tecan Group, VWR, Beckman Coulter Inc., and Thermo Fisher Scientific.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Shower Glass Door Market: Sales Channel, Type, Growth and Demand Forecast to 2023

https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/shower-glass-door-market

https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/shower-glass-door-market/report-sample

https://www.psmarketresearch.com/send-enquiry?enquiry-url=shower-glass-door-market

https://www.psmarketresearch.com

The global shower glass door market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.2% forecast to 2023.Explore report at:The global shower glass door market has been thriving mainly due to increasing urbanization, that is creating demand for not-so necessary products, such as shower glass doors. Owing to this, the market for both types of shower glass doors  frameless and framed, has been growing. Frameless heavy shower glass doors are a contemporary design trend, since they give the bathroom spacious and luxury spa-like feeling that homeowners want. This trend has increased the demand for frameless shower glass doors globally.Geographically, Asia-Pacific stands as the fastest growing shower glass door market. Increase in brand awareness and preference for high-end products are the key factors propelling the growth of shower glass door market in APAC. Moreover, APAC is likely to register the highest growth in terms of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs), during the forecast period.Request for a free sample of this research report:An improving economy with rising disposable incomes among the population, directly results in increased spending on luxury items, including bathroom fittings and decor. In addition, some of the factors including growing need for optimization of space in bathroom, coupled with burgeoning hotel construction to cater to the requirements of increased tourist inflow are expected to boost the demand of frameless shower glass doors in APAC.Rising consumer interest in home decoration is a major driver for the increased demand of shower glass doors. In a study by Joint Centre for Housing Studies (JCHS) of Harvard University, it is predicted that over the coming years, real spending on home improvements is expected to grow at a 3.5% average annual pace. This growth is primarily a result of people willingness to make their homes more stylish. The JCHS study also confirms that the home decoration industry has a bright future.Make Enquiry before buying the report:The global shower glass door market is highly fragmented, where top five players accounted for less than 35% revenue. All the five major players Kohler Co., American Standard Brands, Basco Corporation, Guardian Industries and MAAX Bath Inc. are based in North America. The other players who have good presence in global shower glass door market include Vigo Industries, Coastal Shower Doors, Aston Global Inc. and Jaquar & Company. New product launches have been the key strategies of these major players to expand their presence in this market.About P&S Market ResearchP&S Market Research is a global market research and consulting company. We provide market research reports, industry reports, business intelligence and research based consulting services across a range of industries.With the help of our professional corporate relations with various companies, our market research offers the most accurate market forecasting. Our analysts and consultants interact with leading companies of the concerned domain to substantiate every single data presented in our publication. Our research assists our client in identifying new and different windows of opportunity and frame informed and customized strategies for expansion in different regions.Contact:P&S Market Research347, 5th Ave. #1402New York City, NY - 10016Toll-free: +1-888-778-7886 (USA/Canada)Email: enquiry@psmarketresearch.comWeb:
Global Life Science Microscopy Devices Market: Segment Snapshot and Table of Content (2016-2024)

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/life-science-microscopy-devices.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=4017

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/report-toc/4017

Global Life Science Microscopy Devices Market: Competitive Landscape Consolidated, detects TMRAs per the estimations provided by the report, the demand in the global life science microscopy devices market will continue to increment at a strong CAGR of 6.5% during the forecast period of 2016 to 2024, reaching a valuation of US$2.0 bn by the end of 2024, significantly up from its evaluated worth of US$1.1 bn in 2015.Read Report Overview @The Global Life Science Microscopy Devices Market is segmented on the basis of Device Type, Application and Geography.Based on device type, the TMR report segments the global market for life science microscopy devices into electron microscopes, optical microscopes, and scanning probe microscopes. Electron microscopes segment has been sub-segmented into invested, stereo, phase contrast, fluorescence, near field scanning, and confocal scanning. While electron microscopes segment is categorized into transmission electron and scanning electron, the scanning probe microscopes segment has been bifurcated into atomic force and scanning tunneling. Among these, the optical microscopes segment served the maximum demand at 51.9% of the overall market in 2015, and is projected to remain most profitable throughout the forecast period, gaining traction from the growing demand for several types of optical microscopes such as fluorescence and inverted microscopes.Region-wise, the report gauges the potential of life science microscope devices in North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East and Africa, and rates North America are most lucrative region, evaluating its demand at 47.3% of the overall requirement in 2015, and anticipates it to remain most successful regional market for these devices. This high demand from North America is a reflection of the presence of a large number of leading companies in the country of the U.S. and favorable government policies for the research and developed activities pertaining to biotechnology and drug discovery. The report also expects Asia Pacific to emerge as a bankable regional market with several global companies outsourcing their R&D to countries such as Japan, India, and China.Request Sample Report @Summary of Table of Content1 Preface2 Assumptions and Research Methodology3 Executive Summary4 Market Overview5 Market Dynamics6 Global Life Science Microscopy Devices Market Analysis, by Device Type7 Global Life Science Microscopy Devices Market Analysis, by Application8 Global Life Science Microscopy Devices Market Analysis, by Region9 North America Life Science Microscopy Devices Market Analysis10 Europe Life Science Microscopy Devices Market Analysis11 Asia Pacific Life Science Microscopy Devices Market Analysis12 Latin America Life Science Microscopy Devices Market Analysis13 Middle East & Africa Life Science Microscopy Devices Market Analysis14 Company ProfilesRequest to Browse Full Table of Content, figure and Tables @ABOUT US:Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.CONTACT:Transparency Market ResearchState Tower90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-345
Smart City Market Size, Competitors Strategy, Regional Analysis and Growth by Forecast to 2022

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2624

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/smart-city-market-2624

Market Highlights:Internet of Things plays a vital role in various fields apart from communication networks, such as sanitation, healthcare, transport and energy use. Internet of things refers to a technology that connects all devices to a network. Internet ready and connective devices are achieved by IoT technology. This enables the flow of data creating a network of objects. Internet of Things leads to advanced use of internet which would result in developing device to device relationship. Internet of Things when applied to smart cities it adds more technology into everyones life and also enables a new and fully integrated approach to the designing and developing of the smart cities. There are tremendous ways in which internet of things help in the development of smart cities. Higher the adoption of internet of things; easier would be the implementation of smart city solutions.The Global Smart City Market is growing rapidly over 27% of CAGR and is expected to reach at USD 1,900 billion by the end of forecast period 2022.Taste the market data and market information presented through more than 51 market data tables and figures spread over 103 numbers of pages of the project report. Avail the in-depth table of content TOC & market synopsis on Smart City Market Research Report - Forecast to 2022.Major Key Players: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd. (China) IBM Corporation (U.S.) Cisco Systems, Inc.(U.S.) AT&T Inc. AG (U.S) Siemens AG (Germany) Oracle Corporation (U.S.) Microsoft Corporation (U.S.) Schneider Electric SE (France) Hitachi Corporation (U.S.) Ericsson (Sweden)Request a Sample Report @Global Smart City Market SegmentationThe global Smart City Market has been segmented on the basis of component, application and region. On the basis of component, the market is segmented into hardware, software and service. On the basis of application, the market is classified into utility, transport, government, residential, education, healthcare and others.Regional Analysis of Smart City Market:The global smart city market is expected to grow at a promising rate during the forecast period, 2016-2022. North America is projected to have the largest market in Smart City Market. High adoption of internet of things, growth in high end infrastructure and focus towards energy saving and availability of efficient network connectivity is driving market in North America region.Followed by Europe region would hold a large share in the market. Asia-Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing region in smart city market due to the increasing initiatives and high investment by government.Intended Audience National/ State Government Real Estate Developers Research & consultant organization IT Solution Providers System Integrators Networking Solution Providers Telecom Service Providers Transportation Service Providers Utility CompaniesMarket Research Analysis:Regional analysis for global Smart City Market is studied in different geographic regions as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of world. The study reveals that North America region would evolve as a leader in global Smart City Market. North America is the most technically advanced region and is growing with high end-infrastructure and focused towards energy savings which thereby has developed high growth for smart city market. Europe is expected to be the second highest market in terms of revenue generation. Whereas, Asia-Pacific is expected to witness high growth in the forecast period and projected to grow with approximately 25% CAGR during the forecast period. Technological and industrial growth in Asian countries, such as China and Japan, is giving boost to the Smart City Market in the coming years. Further, Increasing technological advancements and increasing disposable income in also supporting market growth of smart city components in Asia-Pacific region However, privacy issues is expected to hinder the growth of the market in the region.Access Report Details @Table of Contents1 Market Introduction2 Research Methodologies2.1 Research Process2.2 Primary Research2.3 Secondary Research2.4 Forecast Model2.4.1 Market Size EstimationContinuedList of TablesTable 1 Global Smart City Market By Component, 2016-2022 (Usd Billion)Table 2 Smart City Market Of Hardware Segment By Region, 2016-2022 (Usd Billion)Table 3 Global Smart City Market Of Software By Region, 2016 - 2022 (Usd Billion)ContinuedList of FiguresFigure 1 Mrfr Researh ProcessFigure 2 Forecast ModelFigure 3 Global Smart City Market: Drivers & ChallengesContinuedAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 524/528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Connected Home Security System Market - Detailed Qualitative Analysis,Growth,Forecast 2017 - 2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=2324

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=2324

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=D&rep_id=2324

Global Connected Home Security System Market: OverviewConnected home security systems are networks of integrated electronic devices that work together with a control panel that arms and disarms security systems to protect home against burglars and other potential intruders. The global market for connected home security systems will expand at a brisk pace, especially with internet service and cable TV providers introducing their own products. These systems consist of alarms, cameras, locks and sensors, monitoring devices, and detectors. The systems can be installed by professionals or self.Global Connected Home Security System Market: Key TrendsThe increasing incidents of theft and house robbery are translating into the greater demand for enhanced security and safety solutions with effective monitoring technology, thereby augmenting the global market for connected home security systems. The proliferation of smart devices is also working in favor of the market. Moreover, the market is largely benefitting from the emergence of cloud technology. Home cloud solutions offer ubiquitous and collaborative advantages, which are stirring up their demand. Furthermore, the presence of home insurance policies that cover installation of monitored security systems is stoking the growth of the market. However, the low awareness regarding these systems, especially in developing and less developed regions, is hampering the growth prospects of the market.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Connected Home Security System Market: Market PotentialConnected home security systems are networks of integrated electronic devices that work together with a control panel that arms and disarms security systems to protect home against burglars and other potential intruders. The global market for connected home security systems will expand at a brisk pace, especially with internet service and cable TV providers introducing their own products. These systems consist of alarms, cameras, locks and sensors, monitoring devices, and detectors. The systems can be installed by professionals or self.Home cloud solutions offer ubiquitous and collaborative advantages, which are stirring up their demand. Furthermore, the presence of home insurance policies that cover installation of monitored security systems is stoking the growth of the market. However, the low awareness regarding these systems, especially in developing and less developed regions, is hampering the growth prospects of the market.Request TOC of the Report @Global Connected Home Security System Market: Geographical SegmentationThe key segments analyzed in the report on the basis of geography are North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East and Africa. North America will hold a prominent position in the global market throughout the forecast period, owing to the soaring need for energy management solutions. The availability of low-cost devices and the high adoption of wireless home security DIY installations are contributing to the growth of the region. Besides these factors, the large-scale adoption of cloud-based technologies for the effective monitoring of home security systems is also fuelling the North America market. The U.S. will be at the forefront of the region, due to high acceptance of technologically advanced products.Get Discount @Global Connected Home Security System Market: Competitive LandscapeThe global connected home security system market features a high degree of competition and concentration. The tremendous growth potential of the market is attracting new companies to venture into the market, which is likely to intensify the competition in the near future. New entrants are focusing towards capitalizing on DIY trend and therefore, introducing products in line with the trend. Large organizations and small companies are competing with each other in terms of pricing and product offerings. Some of the prominent players operating in the global connected home security system market are AT&T, Honeywell Total Connect, Comcast, ADT, Verizon, Cocoon, Lifeshield, Samsung, Panasonic, Petzi, Xfinity, Kuna, August, Kwikset, and Control4.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
WESTBY  Suzanne Bernita Christine Hanson (Dregne), 80, died Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017, after exhausting all possible life from a body challenged with health issues, including 28 years of various cancers.

Suzanne was one of the first babies born at the new Viroqua Hospital in Vernon County, Wis., to Clarence and Clara Kelly (Solverson) Dregne of Liberty Pole, May 2, 1937. Suzanne was the beloved wife of Russell Hanson for 53 years and the mother of three children, Linda Hoff, Jill Servais (Scott), David Elgstuen (Kelly). She was also the grandmother to seven, Joshua and Lauren Hoff (father-Kevin Hoff), Tyler, Jacqueline, and Victoria Servais, and Matthew and Amelia Elgstuen. She was the oldest of three siblings, and is survived by Helen (Bill) Urban and their children, Janet, John and Julie and David (Jana) Dregne and their children, Chris and Kathy.

Despite the hard work, Suzanne spoke fondly of her upbringing down on the farm near Liberty Pole. The only student in her grade in the one-room Hinkst schoolhouse, she later attended Viroqua High School, Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, Swedish Nursing School in Minneapolis, and the University of WisconsinMadison. Russ and Suzannes first three years together were very busy, as they lived in Racine, La Crosse and Madison, had three children, and Suzanne worked as a registered nurse.

After moving to Westby in 1971, Suzanne became busy with civic organizations. Forty years ago, she worked tirelessly for approval for the Norseland Nursing home, which would eventually become the home of her mother and then her home. Besides serving on the Norseland Board, she was also a member of the Snowflake Ski Club, initiating and leading the celebrity auction for two decades. She was a member of the Sons of Norway, and worked in the 1970s to change the liquor laws in Westby so restaurants could be established.

Suzanne loved music, travel, and entertaining. Any occasion was worthy of a party, which included live music and enough food to feed five times the crowd. Suzanne was a serious fisher-woman, dropping a line wherever her travels took her and was rewarded with several trophy catches. Some of her best days were spent at their beloved cabin at Sandy Point on the Chippewa Flowage.

Suzannes family would like to thank the many friends and family who visited her often, hospice workers, and Norseland Nursing Home staff who provided incredible support and comfort during her difficult journey.

Services will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 30, at Westby Coon-Prairie Lutheran Church, with a luncheon to follow at Borgens Cafe at 3 p.m. Undesignated memorials will go to the Westby Fine Arts Foundation and Walleyes For Tomorrow.

God bless her memory.

The Thorson Funeral Home of Viroqua is proudly serving the family. Online condolences may be left at www.thorsonfuneralhome.com.
Wi-Fi Hotspot Global Market 2017: Key Players  Nokia Networks, Ubiquiti Networks, Boingo Wireless, Ericsson, Motorola Solutions, Cisco Systems

Wi-Fi Hotspot Market

www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1946111-global-wi-f

www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/1946111-global-wi-fi-hotsp

www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&rep

Wi-Fi Hotspot Market 2017Wiseguyreports.Com adds Wi-Fi Hotspot Market Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities, Analysis of Top Key Players and Forecast to 2022 To Its Research Database.Report Details:This report provides in depth study of Wi-Fi Hotspot Market using SWOT analysis i.e. Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threat to the organization. The Wi-Fi Hotspot Market report also provides an in-depth survey of key players in the market which is based on the various objectives of an organization such as profiling, the product outline, the quantity of production, required raw material, and the financial health of the organization.This report mainly introduces volume and value market share by players, by regions, by product type, by consumers and also their price change details. As a Detailed Analysis report, it covers all details inside analysis and opinion in Wi-Fi Hotspot industry.This report splits Wi-Fi Hotspot market By Component, By Software, By Service, By Vertical, which covers the history data information from 2012 to 2016 and forecast from 2017 to 2022.This report focuses Global market, it covers details as following:Major CompaniesUbiquiti Networks (USA)Nokia Networks (Netherlands)Boingo Wireless (USA)Netgear (USA)Ericsson (USA)Motorola Solutions (USA)Cisco Systems (USA)Ruckus Wireless (USA)Alcatel-Lucent (China)Aptilo Networks (Sweden)Aruba Networks (USA)Request a Sample Report @...Key RegionsNorth AmericaUnited StatesCanadaLatin AmericaMexicoBrazilArgentinaOthersEuropeGermanyUnited KingdomFranceItalySpainRussiaNetherlandOthersAsia & PacificChinaJapanIndiaKoreaAustraliaSoutheast AsiaIndonesiaThailandPhilippinesVietnamSingaporeMalaysiaOthersAfrica & Middle EastSouth AfricaEgyptTurkeySaudi ArabiaIranOthersMain types of productsWi-Fi Hotspot Market, by ComponentWireless hotspot gatewaysWireless hotspot controllersMobile hotspot devicesWi-Fi Hotspot Market, by SoftwareCentralized hotspot managementWi-Fi security softwareWi-Fi hotspot billing softwareCloud based hotspot managementWi-Fi Hotspot Market, by ServiceProfessional serviceInstallation and integration servicesConsulting servicesManaged servicesWi-Fi Hotspot Market, by VerticalTelecom and ITFinancial servicesEducationHealthcareHospitalityWi-Fi Hotspot Market, by Key ConsumerCommunication service providers & network operatorsEnterprisesGovernmentComplete Report Details@...Major Key Points in Table of Content:Global Wi-Fi Hotspot Market Research Report 2017-2022 by Players, Regions, Product Types & ApplicationsChapter One Wi-Fi Hotspot Market Overview1.1 Global Wi-Fi Hotspot Market Sales Volume Revenue and Price 2012-20221.2 Wi-Fi Hotspot, By Component 2012-20221.2.1 Global Wi-Fi Hotspot Sales Market Share by Component 2012-20221.2.2 Global Wi-Fi Hotspot Revenue Market Share by Component 2012-20221.2.3 Global Wi-Fi Hotspot Price by Component 2012-20221.2.4 Wireless hotspot gateways1.2.5 Wireless hotspot controllers1.2.6 Mobile hotspot devices1.3 Wi-Fi Hotspot, by Software 2012-20221.3.1 Global Wi-Fi Hotspot Sales Market Share by Software 2012-20221.3.2 Global Wi-Fi Hotspot Revenue Market Share by Software 2012-20221.3.3 Global Wi-Fi Hotspot Price by Software 2012-20221.3.4 Centralized hotspot management1.3.5 Wi-Fi security software1.3.6 Wi-Fi hotspot billing software1.3.7 Cloud based hotspot management1.4 Wi-Fi Hotspot, by Service 2012-20221.4.1 Global Wi-Fi Hotspot Sales Market Share by Service 2012-20221.4.2 Global Wi-Fi Hotspot Revenue Market Share by Service 2012-20221.4.3 Global Wi-Fi Hotspot Price by Service 2012-20221.4.4 Professional service1.4.5 Installation and integration services1.4.6 Consulting services1.4.7 Managed services1.5 Wi-Fi Hotspot, by Vertical 2012-20221.5.1 Global Wi-Fi Hotspot Sales Market Share by Vertical 2012-20221.5.2 Global Wi-Fi Hotspot Revenue Market Share by Vertical 2012-20221.5.3 Global Wi-Fi Hotspot Price by Vertical 2012-20221.5.4 Telecom and IT1.5.5 Financial services1.5.6 Education1.5.7 Healthcare1.5.8 Hospitality.Chapter Five Global Top Players Profile5.1 Ubiquiti Networks (USA)5.1.1 Ubiquiti Networks (USA) Company Details and Competitors5.1.2 Ubiquiti Networks (USA) Key Wi-Fi Hotspot Models and Performance5.1.3 Ubiquiti Networks (USA) Wi-Fi Hotspot Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast5.1.4 Ubiquiti Networks (USA) Wi-Fi Hotspot Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin5.2 Nokia Networks (Netherlands)5.2.1 Nokia Networks (Netherlands) Company Details and Competitors5.2.2 Nokia Networks (Netherlands) Key Wi-Fi Hotspot Models and Performance5.2.3 Nokia Networks (Netherlands) Wi-Fi Hotspot Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast5.2.4 Nokia Networks (Netherlands) Wi-Fi Hotspot Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin5.3 Boingo Wireless (USA)5.3.1 Boingo Wireless (USA) Company Details and Competitors5.3.2 Boingo Wireless (USA) Key Wi-Fi Hotspot Models and Performance5.3.3 Boingo Wireless (USA) Wi-Fi Hotspot Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast5.3.4 Boingo Wireless (USA) Wi-Fi Hotspot Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin5.4 Netgear (USA)5.4.1 Netgear (USA) Company Details and Competitors5.4.2 Netgear (USA) Key Wi-Fi Hotspot Models and Performance5.4.3 Netgear (USA) Wi-Fi Hotspot Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast5.4.4 Netgear (USA) Wi-Fi Hotspot Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin5.5 Ericsson (USA)5.5.1 Ericsson (USA) Company Details and Competitors5.5.2 Ericsson (USA) Key Wi-Fi Hotspot Models and Performance5.5.3 Ericsson (USA) Wi-Fi Hotspot Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast5.5.4 Ericsson (USA) Wi-Fi Hotspot Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin5.6 Motorola Solutions (USA)5.6.1 Motorola Solutions (USA) Company Details and Competitors5.6.2 Motorola Solutions (USA) Key Wi-Fi Hotspot Models and Performance5.6.3 Motorola Solutions (USA) Wi-Fi Hotspot Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast5.6.4 Motorola Solutions (USA) Wi-Fi Hotspot Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin5.7 Cisco Systems (USA)5.7.1 Cisco Systems (USA) Company Details and Competitors5.7.2 Cisco Systems (USA) Key Wi-Fi Hotspot Models and Performance5.7.3 Cisco Systems (USA) Wi-Fi Hotspot Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast5.7.4 Cisco Systems (USA) Wi-Fi Hotspot Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin5.8 Ruckus Wireless (USA)5.9 Alcatel-Lucent (China)5.10 Aptilo Networks (Sweden)Continued.Buy now @...Contact Us:NORAH TRENTPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Sales@Wiseguyreports.ComPh: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)ABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.ADDRES:WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Global Thin Film Drug Manufacturing Market: Segmental Highlights and Table of Content (2016-2024)

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/thin-film-drug-manufacturing-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=11525

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/report-toc/11525

Global Thin Film Drug Manufacturing Market: Keen Players Coming up with Sophisticated Products to Beat Competition, finds TMRA report by Transparency Market Research predicts the global market for thin film manufacturing to rise at a healthy CAGR of 9.0%. At this rate, the market, which was worth US$7.338 bn in 2015 is expected to become worth US$15.984 bn by 2024.Read Report Overview @The Global Thin Film Drug Manufacturing Market is segmented on the basis of Product Type, Disease Indication and Geography.On the basis of product type, the global thin film drug manufacturing market is segmented into oral thin film, transdermal thin film, and others such as ocular thin film among others. The report indicates that the oral thin film segment will be the most promising one as it comes with maximum advantages. These films deliver drugs through the oral mucosa and are known for ease of transportation, skipping the hepatic first pass effect, convenience of handling, and quick onset of action. In light of these benefits, the oral thin film segment is likely to surge at a significant CAGR of 18.3% between 2016 and 2024. Soaring revenue of this segment is attributable to the growing number of clinical trials and higher number of prescription products. On the other hand, the transdermal thin film segment is also poised to emerge with a substantial share in the global market by the end of the forecast period.Request Sample Report @By geography, global thin film drug manufacturing market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, the and Middle East and Africa. In 2016, North America and Europe accounted for the largest share of the thin film drug manufacturing market. The U.S. dominated the thin film drug manufacturing market in North America, accounting for around 85.3% share in 2016. This dominance is majorly due factors such technological advancements in pharmaceutical research with rising demand of novel drug delivery. The extensive investments in research and development are also likely to benefit the regional market. However, Europe is saturated and growing at slow steady rate while Asia Pacific is anticipated to witness the fast growth during the forecast period with major contribution of countries such as India, Japan and China. New product launches with broaden applications, favorable regulations, and growing awareness are likely to drive the market in Asia Pacific during the forecast period.Summary of Table of Content1. Preface2. Assumptions and Research Methodology3. Executive Summary4. Market Overview5. Global Thin Film Drug Manufacturing Analysis and Forecasts, By Product6. Global Thin Film Drug Manufacturing Analysis and Forecasts, By Distribution Channel7. Global Thin Film Drug Manufacturing Analysis and Forecasts, By Disease Indication8. Global Thin Film Drug Manufacturing Analysis and Forecasts, By Region9. North America Thin Film Drug Manufacturing Analysis and Forecast10. Latin America Thin Film Drug Manufacturing Analysis and Forecast11. Asia Pacific Thin Film Drug Manufacturing Analysis and Forecast12. Europe Thin Film Drug Manufacturing Analysis and Forecast13. Middle East & Africa Thin Film Drug Manufacturing Analysis and Forecast14. Competition LandscapeRequest to Browse Full Table of Content, figure and Tables @ABOUT US:Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.CONTACT:Transparency Market ResearchState Tower90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-345
Consumer Billing Management Software Market - Present Scenario,Growth,Forecast 2017 - 2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=2327

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=2327

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=D&rep_id=2327

Global Consumer Billing Management Software Market: OverviewConsumer billing management (CBM) software help in the realization of efficient business operations by assisting end users to securely manage customer account data, including statements and bills. Enterprises such as those functioning in the pharmacy sector that work around diverse business processes, high data volumes, and customers are the top users of CBM software. Along with self-service capabilities across a host of channels, CBM solutions help consumers with significantly personalized online account data. However, generally, CBM software are used to perform recurring bill payment processes.Global Consumer Billing Management Software Market: Key TrendsThe international CBM software market is anticipated to be driven by an inflating adoption of cloud-based products. The factoring out of licensing expenses, meagre hardware infrastructure, checked maintenance costs, pay-per-use facility, and cost-effectiveness are some of the advantageous features expected to raise the adoption of CBM software based on the cloud. Canceling the need to install an application software, cloud-based products are predicted to make a statement in the international CBM software market. Cloud-based CBM software allow organizations to simply utilize web browsers for remotely accessing services and data.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The demand in the international CBM software market is envisioned to propel on the back of the need to conduct automated billing procedures and latest technological developments. Although on-premises CBM software are envisaged to currently dominate the market owing to high data security and customization features, cloud-based offerings could take precedence during the forecast years. This could be due to the crucial advantages of using the cloud, including efficiency, agility, and flexibility in business operations and decreased expenses. Revenue cycle management processes performed using billing management software in the pharmacy sector are envisaged to raise the hopes of vendors in the international CBM software market.Global Consumer Billing Management Software Market: Market PotentialAmdocs is making the cut in the customer and revenue management systems industry with three recent wins in the form of contracts from Biznet, Vodafone India, and Three Ireland. Amdocs would be providing an all-embracing billing and customer care solution to bolster the subscriber and business growth of Biznet. The company would also be offering support to the postpaid billing systems of Vodafone India. As for Three Ireland, Amdocs would be sharing its proficiency for IT digital transformation. Consequently, Amdocs has been announced a leader in the customer and revenue management systems sector.Request TOC of the Report @Global Consumer Billing Management Software Market: Regional OutlookThe world CBM software market in the Americas is foreseen to record a handsome growth while riding on important factors such as swelling investments in CBM solutions and elevating application of digital technology. In the near future, the growth of the Americas CBM software market could be augmented by more factors, which include the heightening adoption of cloud-based products in large and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Europe, the Middle East and Africa and Asia Pacific could be other key regions of the world CBM software market.Get Discount @Global Consumer Billing Management Software Market: Competitive LandscapeLarger players in the worldwide CBM software market are prophesied to swell their shares and widen their product portfolio through the acquisition of smaller companies during the forecast period. Due to the presence of local and large multinational companies, the worldwide CBM software market could be characterized by a highly competitive nature. Inclusion of more product features and alteration of current services are prognosticated to be witnessed with a rising incidence of mergers and acquisitions. Huawei, Healthpac, Harris ERP, EnergyCAP, and Amdocs are some of the leading companies in the worldwide CBM software market.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Driver Assistance System Market 2016-2027: Key Findings, Regional Analysis, Key Players Profiles and Future Prospects

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/794

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/driver-assistance-system-market-794

Market Scenario:Globally the market for driver assistance system is increasing rapidly. The major factor that drives the growth of driver assistance system market is growing demand for new and improved technologies for providing safety features in automobile, increasing purchasing power of buyers, and government initiatives of mandating regulations over usage of driver assistance system into automobiles among others.Globally the market for Driver Assistance system is expected to grow at the rate of about 22.90% from 2016 to 2027.Request a Sample Report @Major Key Players: Delphi Automotive Plc. (UK) Gentex Corporation (US) Autoliv Inc. (Sweden) Continental AG (Germany) Hitachi Ltd (Japan) Magna International (Canada) Robert Bosch Gmbh (Germany) Hella Kgaa Hueck & Co. (Germany) Texas Instruments Inc. (US) Renesas Electronics Corporation (Japan)Objective of Driver Assistance System Market Study: To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 10 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the global driver assistance system market. To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth. To analyze the driver assistance system market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW). To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective To provide country level analysis of the market for segment by type, technologies and sub-segments. To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the global driver assistance system market .Target Audience: Research Organizations Automotive industries Investment firms Corporate Cloud service vendors Government Agencies OEMsKey Finding: The global Driver Assistance System Market is expected to reach $112.69 billion by 2027. Adaptive cruise control (ACC) has accounted for the largest market share registering 18.34% of market share in 2015. Regionally, Europe holds the largest market share 23.67% of global driver assistance system market and is expected to reach 45.16 billion by 2027 from 3.39 billion in 2015. Asia Pacific market is expected to be the fastest growing market, and expected to grow at a CAGR of 22.35% from 2016 to 2027 On the basis of technologies, Ultrasonic Sensors is growing with a CAGR of 23.62% from 2016 to 2027.SegmentsGlobal Driver Assistance System Market has been segmented on the basis of types which include Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), Lane Departure Warning (LDW) system, Park Assist Drowsiness Monitoring System, Blind Spot Detection (BSD) System, Night Vision, Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS), and Adaptive Front Lighting. Furthermore, based on technologies the market is segmented into Ultrasonic sensors, Image sensors, Radar sensors, Lidar sensors, and IR sensors among others.Regional Analysis of Driver Assistance System Market:Asia-pacific dominated the Global Driver Assistance System Market with the largest market share due to improving lifestyle and infrastructure in the regional countries, and therefore accounting for 2.51 billion and is expected to grow over 23.12 billion by 2027.Driver assistance system market in European market is expected to grow at CAGR of 23.67% from 4.36 billion in 2016 to 45.16 billion by 2027. The North-America market for Driver Assistance System Market is expected to grow at 22.81% CAGR (2016-2027).Access Report Details @Table of Content:1 Market Introduction1.1 Introduction1.2 Scope of Study1.2.1 Research Objective1.2.2 Assumptions1.2.3 Limitations1.3 Market StructureContinued..About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Solutions, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 524/528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Digital Multimeter Market Share 2017 Global Key Players: Fluke, Innova Electronics, Klein Tools, Amprobe, Mastech Digital, Kaito Electronics, Etekcity

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/4470

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/digital-multimeter-market-4470

Market Research Future published a research report on Digital Multimeter Market Research Report- Global Forecast 2023  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Market HighlightsThe study reveals that digital multimeter is trending in North America region. The growing requirement of digital multimeter by the industries due to its high accuracy and dual display for selecting primary measurement value. There are certain limitation of digital multimeter as digital multimeter is not ideal for measuring values that are changing constantly. The digital multimeter can integrated with the circuit technologies which measures capacitance, temperature, frequency, buzzer, and others. The digital multimeter also enables direct current voltage readings can be measure either positive or negative, that analog multimeter does not provide these reading. It has the ability to 'freeze' the meter to a particular range and others.In North America region, the digital multimeter demand are growing with huge demand among various verticals such as commercial, residential, industrial and others. The prominent companies such as Kaito Electronics, Inc. (U.S), Etekcity Corporation (U.S.), Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Co KG (Germany), are manufacturing digital multimeter that can improve the performance at reduced cost. Due to the changing market trends & emerging opportunities, Digital Multimeter Market are estimated to grow with huge demand in the market.The global digital multimeter market is growing rapidly over ~3% of CAGR and is expected to reach at USD ~ 1 Billion by the end of forecast period.Taste the market data and market information presented through more than 30 market data tables and figures spread over 100 numbers of pages of the project report. Avail the in-depth table of content TOC & market synopsis on The Global Digital Multimeter Market Research Report -Forecast to 2023.Get Sample of Report @Key Players:The prominent players in the global digital multimeter market are  Fluke Corporation (U.S.), Innova Electronics Corporation (U.S.), Klein Tools (U.S.), Amprobe (U.S), Mastech Digital (U.S.), Extech Instrument (U.S.), UNI-T (China), Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Co KG (Germany), Kaito Electronics, Inc. (U.S), Etekcity Corporation (U.S.) and among others.Segments:The global digital multimeter market has been segmented on the basis of types, digital types, end users and region.Global Digital multimeter Market By Type: Handheld Bench-top Mounted OthersGlobal Digital multimeter Market By digital Types: Auto ranging Clamp Digital Fluke Digital OthersGlobal Digital multimeter Market By End Users: Automotive Manufacturing Energy Residential Commercial OthersGlobal Digital multimeter Market By Regions: North America Europe APAC Rest Of The WorldRegional Analysis:The regional analysis of digital multimeter market is being studied for region such as Asia pacific, North America, Europe and Rest of the World. North America is one of the leading region across the world in terms of market share in digital multimeter market as it has huge demand as it is widely used in the electronics industry for electronic measurement. The digital multimeter market in Europe region is expected to witness rapid growth in the forthcoming period. Whereas, Asia-Pacific countries like China, Japan and India is an emerging market for digital multimeter market and expected to be the highest CAGR in the coming years as the companies are taking interest in targeting the digital multimeter in these market to meet the requirement of customers need.Get Complete Report @Intended Audience Digital multimeter companies Digital multimeter providers Professional service providers Digital multimeter providers Research and development companies Market research and consulting firms Solution providers Technology standards organizations Technology investors System IntegratorsAbout Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Global Single-use Bioprocessing Sensors and Probes Market: Segment Snapshot and Table of Content (2017-2025)

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/single-use-bioprocessing-sensors-probes-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=27011

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/report-toc/27011

Global Single-use Bioprocessing Sensors and Probes Market: Prominent Players Boost Growth through Collaborations and Acquisitions, finds TMRAs per a report by Transparency Market Research, the global single-use bioprocessing sensors and probes market will likely expand at a robust 13.4% CAGR between 2017 and 2025. Rising at this rate, the market which was worth US$418.3 mn in 2016, will grow to US$1281 mn by 2025.Read Report Overview @The Global Single-use Bioprocessing Sensors and Probes Market is segmented on the basis of Product Type, Application Type and Geography.Based on the product type, the single-use bioprocessing sensors and probes market has been segmented into: pH Sensor, valve, bench top control system, spectroscopy, optochemical DO, temperature, pressure, and others. Each of the market segments have been extensively analyzed based on the market related factors such as increasing demand of single-use bioprocessing sensors and probes worldwide, and technological advancement. Moreover, historical year-on-year growth have been taken into consideration while estimating the market size. The market size and forecast in terms of US$ million for each segment has been provided for the period from 2015 to 2025. The report also provides the compound annual growth rate (CAGR %) for each market segment for the forecast period from 2017 to 2025, considering 2016 as the base year.Request Sample Report @Geographically, single-use bioprocessing sensors and probes market has been segmented into five major regions: North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. The market size and forecast for each of these regions has been provided for the period from 2015 to 2025, along with their respective CAGRs for the forecast period from 2017 to 2025, considering 2016 as the base year. The report also provides with market size and forecast for major countries in the respective regions. A detailed qualitative analysis of factors responsible for driving and restraining the market growth and future opportunities has been provided in the market overview section. This section of the report also provides with market attractiveness analysis, Porters five forces analysis, and market share analysis by key players, thus presenting a thorough analysis of the overall competitive scenario in the global single-use bioprocessing sensors and probes market.Summary of Table of Content1. Preface2. Assumptions and Research Methodology3. Executive Summary4. Market Overview5. Market Dynamics6. Global Single-use bioprocessing sensors and probes Market Analysis, by Application Type7. Global Single-use bioprocessing sensors and probes Market Analysis, by Product8. Global Single-use bioprocessing sensors and probes Market Analysis, by Region9. North America Single-use bioprocessing sensors and probes Market Analysis10. Europe Single-use bioprocessing sensors and probes Market Analysis11. Asia Pacific Single-use bioprocessing sensors and probes Market Analysis12. Latin America Single-use bioprocessing sensors and probes Market Analysis13. Middle East & Africa Single-use bioprocessing sensors and probes Market Analysis14. Competition LandscapeRequest to Browse Full Table of Content, figure and Tables @ABOUT US:Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.CONTACT:Transparency Market ResearchState Tower90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-345
Metamaterial Technologies Market to Soar at 20% CAGR to 2024 Alight Technologies, Applied EM Inc., Colossal Storage Corporation, Fractal Antenna Systems, Fianium, Inframat Corporation

https://www.marketstudyreport.com/request-a-sample/448854/?utm_source=OPR-AN

https://www.marketstudyreport.com/check-for-discount/448854/?utm_source=OPR-AN

https://www.marketstudyreport.com/securecheckout/paymenta/448854?msfpaycode=sumsf?utm_source=OPR-AN

https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/global-silver-paste-market-by-manufacturers-countries-type-and-application-forecast-to-2022

https://www.marketstudyreport.com

https://www.marketstudyreport.com/category/news-releases/

Market Study Report adds a new report Metamaterial Technologies Market Research Report for the period of 2017-2024 that shows the growth of the market is rising at a Steady CAGR to 2024. The report spread across 85 pages with 105 table and figures in it.Metamaterial Technologies Market size will surpass USD 2.5 billion by 2024; according to a new research report.Growing need to improve the efficiency of solar photovoltaic (PV) cells is expected to drive the metamaterial technologies market in the forecast timeframe as the product has the ability to enhance the absorption capacity of solar cells. Rising demand for clean energy sources such as solar, wind, hydro, and tidal have led to a mounting necessity to increase the efficiency of solar cells. Many companies and research institutes have developed metamaterial products that can collect and absorb light from all angles and useful spectrums.Get Sample Copy of This Research Report:The price of solar electricity is almost five times higher than that of coal generated electricity. Most of this cost can be attributed to the silicon layers in the solar cells. Adding a metamaterial thin film coating can reduce the price significantly and will make solar cells more affordable. Global solar PV cell revenue was more than USD 110 billion and is projected to increase at a healthy rate driving the overall metamaterial technologies market in the forecast timeframe.The products ability to control the path of light and achieve negative refractive index has been used by the University of Central Florida (UCF) to create the first successful large-area invisibility cloak in 2014. Military and aerospace industries are on a look out for these types of cloaks and this may provide an incredible opportunity for metamaterial technologies market in future.Get Discount on This Market Research Report:Technical challenges pertaining to development of practical metamaterial products is a major challenge for manufacturers. A product based on these materials can only be successful if it is smaller and more closely packed than the target radiation wavelength. This requires manufactures to invest on technologies that can dynamically change the properties of such materials. Hence, it may take a few years before prototype products based on these materials are fully commercialized for large scale applications and this may hinder the metamaterial technologies market growth slightly in the forecast timeframe.Metamaterial technologies market product segmentation has five categories including radio & microwave, photonic, terahertz, acoustic, and others. Terahertz segment will likely generate revenue above USD 500 million by 2024. This segment will grow at a healthy rate in the forecast years owing to the product usage in security applications and medical imaging. Acoustic segment is anticipated to gain by a CAGR above 20% till 2024. Product demand for applications in audio systems, soundproofing coatings, thermal insulators, heat exchangers, vibration dampers, sonar technologies, etc. will drive the growth of this segment in the forecast timeframe.Buy Now:Acoustic devices, imaging, communication & radar, and solar are the four major applications in the metamaterial technologies market. Acoustic devices application segment is anticipated to gain by a CAGR above 20% in the forecast years. The segments growth will be augmented by their use in sonar avoidance, architectural acoustics, stealth technology, acoustic hyper lenses, etc. Imaging application segment market share is anticipated to cross one fifth of the total market and it will likely grow by CAGR above 21%. The segments growth will be driven due to its advantages over other materials in medical and industrial imaging.Europe metamaterial technologies market size will likely exceed USD 600 million by the end of 2024. The regional market will be augmented by increased funding by the European Commission on development and research on metamaterial technologies, mostly in solar and optics applications. Latin America metamaterials market will experience gains due to growing information & technology and telecommunications sector. The region will likely generate revenue above USD 30 million by the end of 2024.Metamaterial technologies market is dominated by American companies like Echodyne, Metamagnetics Inc., Kymeta Corporation, and Evolv Technologies. Other key manufacturers include Alight Technologies, Applied EM Inc., Colossal Storage Corporation, Fractal Antenna Systems, Fianium, Inframat Corporation, Medical Wireless Sensing Ltd., Luminus Devices Inc, Nanosteel Company, Sandvik Materials Technology, and Opalux.Related Reports: -Global Silver Paste Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022Silver paste is commonly used to form contact. Factors related to paste chemistry, process conditions and the solar cell wafers influence the contact quality.Marketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management.Market Study ReportThe Green Suite #4594,Dover, DE 19901United StatesPhone: 1-201-355-0868US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email: sales@marketstudyreport.comWebsite:News:
Managed DNS Services Market Trends, Size, Sales, Supply, Demand and Analysis by Forecast to 2027

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/883

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/managed-dns-services-market-883

Market Scenario:The major growth driver of Managed DNS Services Market includes growing e-businesses which also developing need for largest domain name registry, rising competition in enterprise market and growing DNS infrastructure in the organizations to improve performance and streamline management among others.Hence the market for Managed DNS Services Market is expected to grow at 11.8% CAGR (2016-2027).However, managing growing traffic in DNS and lack of skilled professionals are the factors which are hindering the growth of Managed DNS Services Market.Request a Sample @Major Key Players: VeriSign Inc. Dyn Inc. Neustar ultraDNS Akamai Cloud flare DNS made easy Easy DNS AWS route 53 Cotendo Advanced DNSKey Market Findings: Global Managed DNS Services market has reached USD 593.85 million in 2016 and is projected to exhibit USD 2019.07 million by the end of 2027 with a growing CAGR of 11.8%. By server segment, the Virtual Private segment among all is growing with a highest revenue value of USD 178.77 million in 2016 and it is estimated to reach USD 711.43 million by the end of 2027 and the Managed DNS segment is estimated to grow with CAGR of 8.71% as the fastest growing sever segment. By service provider segment, the Enterprises segment is estimated to show highest revenue of USD 1,296.96 million in 2027 from USD 317.39 million in 2016, with growing CAGR of 12.3% as the fastest growing segment during the forecast period 2016 to 2027. By Application segment, Industries segment is showing highest revenue of USD 227.96 million in 2016 and is projected to exhibit USD 893.15 million by 2027. The internet segment is estimated to be the fastest growing segment with highest CAGR of 12.7% during forecast period 2016-2027. By region, in 2016, North America is estimated to generate the largest revenue of 192.80 million followed by Europe with $165.80 million. Asia-Pacific is predicted to show a high revenue growth at a CAGR of 13.0% from 2016 to 2027.Objective Study of Managed DNS Services Market: To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 10 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the global Managed DNS Services Market. To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth. To Analyze the Managed DNS Services Market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW). To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective To provide country level analysis of the market for segment by Server type, services, applications and sub-segments. To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the global Managed DNS Services Market .Segments:Global Managed DNS Services Market can be segmented as follows: Segmentation by Server Type: Primary and Secondary Segmentation by Services:Enterprise services and Self-services among others. Segmentation by Applications: Industries (Private, Public), Institutes, and internet applications (routing management, customer portal, record management, others), among others.Regional Analysis of Managed DNS Services Market:North America dominated the Global Managed DNS Services Market with the largest market share due to simple and affordable bandwidth and strong connectivity, and therefore accounting for 169.49 million and is expected to grow over 691.24 million by 2027.Managed DNS Services Market in Asia-Pacific market is expected to grow at CAGR of 13.0% from $ 128.52 million in 2016 to $562.88 million by 2027. The European market for Managed DNS Services Market is expected to grow at 11.2% CAGR (2016-2027).AmericasNorth America US CanadaLatin AmericaBrowse Full Report Details @EuropeWestern Europe Germany France Italy Spain U.K. Rest of Western EuropeEastern EuropeAsia Pacific China India Japan South Korea Rest of Asia PacificTable of Contents1 Market Introduction1.1 Introduction1.2 Scope of Study1.2.1 Research objective1.2.2 Assumptions1.2.3 Limitations1.3 Market StructureContinuedAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.ContactMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Hemodialysis Catheter Market - Top Industry Analysis,Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=2345

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=2345

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=D&rep_id=2345

Global Hemodialysis Catheter Market: OverviewHemodialysis catheters are being extensively used to meet the growing demand of hemodialysis, apheresis, infusion, and monitoring of central venous pressure along with high-pressure contrast injection patients. It is predominantly used for maintaining effective blood flow rate, which is estimated at 400 ml/min for at least 3 hours. The growing number of patients suffering from end-stage renal disease (ESRD) have increased the demand for hemodialysis to avert liver damage. The various types of hemodialysis catheters available in the global market are tunneled and non-tunneled catheters.Global Hemodialysis Catheter Market: Key TrendsThe growing prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) among the global population is expected to be the primary growth driver for the global hemodialysis catheter market. According to the American Kidney Fund, about 31 million people in the U.S. were suffering from kidney diseases, which is about 10% of the overall adult population in the country. The growing pool of geriatrics and increasing number of patients suffering from diabetes and hypertension are expected to drive the global market in the coming years. The hemodialysis market is also expected to be favored by the lack of kidney donors for transplantation across the globe.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The growing awareness about blood infections (BSI) across the globe has also triggered a significant demand for hemodialysis catheters market as intravascular devices are known to cause infections. On the downside, the global hemodialysis catheter market is likely to be negatively affected by high chances of blood thrombosis and infections.Global Hemodialysis Catheter Market: Market PotentialThe global hemodialysis catheter market is gradually overcoming its challenges of averting infections as related companies are investing in developing simple solutions. Pursuit Vascular has been developing small plastic screw caps for hemodialysis catheters that are known to reduce the chances of infection by about 69%. The company has been quietly testing the ClearGuard HD Antimicrobial Barrier Caps that are being designed to prevent the waste material from moving out of the catheter or into in when not in use.Supportive measurements such as these are likely to benefit the growth of the global hemodialysis catheter market. The strong possibility of preventing infections that are prove to be detrimental to life is expected to bring in a positive sentiment in the overall market.Request TOC of the Report @Global Hemodialysis Catheter Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, the global hemodialysis catheter market is segmented into North America, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, and Europe. Of these, the North America hemodialysis catheter market is expected to lead during the forecast period. This regional market is likely to be driven by the well-established healthcare sector in the region along with high awareness about kidney-related diseases. Improved access to healthcare facilities and supportive government policies in the region are also expected to propel the North America hemodialysis catheter market in the near future.On the other hand, Asia Pacific hemodialysis catheter market also shows promise of growth. The huge pool of unmet medical needs along with booming medical tourism industry is expected to propel the growth of this regional market.Get Discount @Key Players Mentioned in this Report are:The important players operating in the global hemodialysis catheter market are Asahi Kasei Medical Co., Ltd., Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA, Baxter International Inc., NIKKISO CO., LTD, B. Braun Melsungen AG, NIPRO Medical Corporation, NxStage Medical, Inc., Toray Medical Co., Ltd., Outset Medical, Inc., ALLMED MEDICAL CORP, and Shenzhen Landwind Industry Co., Ltd.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Animal Health Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Market : Segment Snapshot and Table of Content (2017-2025)

Animal Health Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Market

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/animal-health-active-pharmaceutical-ingredients-market.asp

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/16972

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/animal-health-active-pharmaceutical-ingredients-market/toc

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com

The global animal health active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) market is projected to register an impressive expansion at 7.3% CAGR during the forecast period 2017 to 2025, according to a recent study by Persistence Market Research (PMR). PMRs study estimates the market to increase from revenues worth US$ 5,216.1 Mn in 2017 to reach US$ 9,162.2 Mn by 2025-end.Asia Pacific (APAC) will continue to be the most lucrative region in the global animal health active pharmaceutical ingredient market, with sales exhibiting the second highest CAGR through 2025. APAC has remained one of the largest API suppliers, at affordable costs. Governments across APAC have been making investments and focusing on local manufacturing facilities of APIs. Favorable policies offered by these governments have been shifting the focus of API manufacturers in moving their production bases to APAC countries, such as India and China. In addition, limited insurance or government intervention provides smooth flow to market growth in these regions.However, animal health API products manufactured in APAC countries do not meet regulatory standards, and there has been increasing concerns pertaining to the quality of APIs, especially those produced in China and India. Western regulatory bodies are becoming stricter in the inspection of APIs produced in these regions. Manufacturers are further facing challenges in bridging the gap between the cost and quality of APIs. These factors will inhibit growth of the market in APAC.Get Full Report @The global Animal Health Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Market is segmented on the basis of API Type, product type, end user and region.Europe will remain the second largest market for animal health active pharmaceutical ingredients. Leading healthcare companies are located in the Europe, which in turn has boosted requirement for veterinary APIs in the region. Consumption of veterinary drugs in Europe has surged substantially over the past few years. Spain has been witnessed to be the largest consumer of veterinary antimicrobial APIs in the EU. In addition, rising improvements in the animal productivity has driven growth of the animal health industry in this region. These incidences are expected to augment growth of the animal health API market in Europe.However, the pharmaceutical industry in Europe has been concerned with potential short-term impacts of REACH regulations. This is likely to result in decreased supply of materials, or reagents, which are not preregistered by EU suppliers. In addition, dynamic changes in Europes macro-economic environment, such as the Brexit, has been impacting the intra-European trade and overall pharmaceutical sector. These factors might curb growth of the animal health API market in Europe.Antiparasitics will continue to be the largest adopted API in the market, followed by anti-infectives. Sales of Antiparasitics are expected to register the fastest expansion, to account for the largest revenues by 2025-end. In contrast, revenues from sales of anesthetics and NSAIDs will remain comparatively lower than antiparasitics and anti-infectives.Key market players profiled in PMRs report include Glenmark Pharmaceutical Limited., Zoetis, Inc., Eli Lilly & Co., Sanofi Winthrop Industrie (CEPiA), Indukern, S.A., Ofichem BV, P&R S.p.A (Olon S.p.A), Lonza Group AG, Huvepharma AD, Ourofino Saude Animal, Blanver Farmoquimica E Farmaceutica S.A., Zhejiang Hisun Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, Changzhou Yabang-Qh Pharmachem Co., Ltd., Shanghai Pharmtech Co., Ltd., Ningxia Tairui Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Shaanxi Hanjiang Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd., Sequent Scientific Ltd., NGL Fine-Chem Ltd., Omkar Speciality Chemicals Ltd., Excel Industries Ltd.Request A Sample Report @Summary of Table of Content1. Executive Summary2. Market Introduction3. Animal Health Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Market View Point4. North America Animal Health Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Market Analysis 20122016 and Forecast 201720255. Latin America Animal Health Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Market Analysis 20122016 and Forecast 201720256. Europe Animal Health Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Market Analysis 20122016 and Forecast 201720257. Asia Pacific (APAC) Animal Health Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Market Analysis 20122016 and Forecast 201720258. Middle East and Africa (MEA) Animal Health Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Market Analysis 20122016 and Forecast 201720259. Competition Landscape10. Global Animal Health Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Market Analysis 20122016 and Forecast 20172025, By Region11. Global Animal Health Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Market Analysis 20122016 and Forecast 20172025, By API Type12. Global Animal Health Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Market Analysis 20122016 and Forecast 2017202513. Market Size and Y-o-Y Growth14. Assumptions and Acronyms UsedRequest to Browse Full Table of Content, figure and Tables @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Blog Archive Nov 17 (1) Nov 16 (3) Nov 15 (5) Nov 14 (2) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (3) Nov 11 (4) Nov 10 (3) Nov 09 (3) Nov 08 (3) Nov 07 (3) Nov 06 (3) Nov 05 (3) Nov 04 (4) Nov 03 (3) Nov 02 (3) Nov 01 (3) Oct 31 (3) Oct 30 (3) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (3) Oct 27 (4) Oct 26 (3) Oct 25 (3) Oct 24 (3) Oct 23 (3) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (3) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (3) Oct 18 (3) Oct 17 (4) Oct 16 (4) Oct 15 (2) Oct 14 (3) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (4) Oct 11 (3) Oct 10 (3) Oct 09 (3) Oct 08 (3) Oct 07 (3) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (3) Oct 04 (3) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (4) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (4) Sep 29 (3) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (4) Sep 26 (3) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (5) Sep 23 (3) Sep 22 (3) Sep 21 (3) Sep 20 (4) Sep 19 (3) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (3) Sep 16 (3) Sep 15 (3) Sep 14 (4) Sep 13 (3) Sep 12 (4) Sep 11 (4) Sep 10 (2) Sep 09 (4) Sep 08 (4) Sep 07 (4) Sep 06 (3) Sep 05 (3) Sep 04 (3) Sep 03 (4) Sep 02 (3) Sep 01 (4) Aug 31 (4) Aug 30 (4) Aug 29 (4) Aug 28 (4) Aug 27 (4) Aug 26 (3) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (3) Aug 23 (3) Aug 22 (3) Aug 21 (3) Aug 20 (3) Aug 19 (3) Aug 18 (3) Aug 17 (4) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (4) Aug 13 (3) Aug 12 (3) Aug 11 (3) Aug 10 (3) Aug 09 (3) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (4) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (3) Aug 03 (4) Aug 02 (3) Aug 01 (3) Jul 31 (4) Jul 30 (3) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (4) Jul 27 (4) Jul 26 (5) Jul 25 (3) Jul 24 (4) Jul 23 (3) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (4) Jul 20 (3) Jul 19 (5) Jul 18 (2) Jul 17 (3) Jul 16 (4) Jul 15 (3) Jul 14 (4) Jul 13 (3) Jul 12 (3) Jul 11 (3) Jul 10 (3) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (4) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (3) Jul 05 (3) Jul 04 (3) Jul 03 (5) Jul 02 (2) Jul 01 (3) Jun 30 (4) Jun 29 (4) Jun 28 (4) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (3) Jun 25 (3) Jun 24 (5) Jun 23 (3) Jun 22 (3) Jun 21 (3) Jun 20 (4) Jun 19 (3) Jun 18 (4) Jun 17 (2) Jun 16 (3) Jun 15 (3) Jun 14 (4) Jun 13 (5) Jun 12 (4) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (4) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (4) Jun 07 (5) Jun 06 (3) Jun 05 (3) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (4) Jun 02 (4) Jun 01 (3) May 31 (3) May 30 (3) May 29 (3) May 28 (3) May 27 (1) May 26 (4) May 25 (2) May 24 (3) May 23 (4) May 22 (3) May 21 (3) May 20 (3) May 19 (5) May 18 (4) May 17 (4) May 16 (3) May 15 (3) May 14 (3) May 13 (4) May 12 (3) May 11 (3) May 10 (3) May 09 (4) May 08 (2) May 07 (3) May 06 (4) May 05 (4) May 04 (4) May 03 (3) May 02 (4) May 01 (1) Apr 30 (5) Apr 29 (4) Apr 28 (4) Apr 27 (4) Apr 26 (4) Apr 25 (3) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (3) Apr 22 (4) Apr 21 (3) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (4) Apr 18 (4) Apr 17 (3) Apr 16 (4) Apr 15 (5) Apr 14 (3) Apr 13 (4) Apr 12 (3) Apr 11 (5) Apr 10 (3) Apr 09 (3) Apr 08 (4) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (4) Apr 05 (6) Apr 04 (4) Apr 03 (3) Apr 02 (3) Apr 01 (3) Mar 31 (3) Mar 30 (4) Mar 29 (3) Mar 28 (4) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (4) Mar 25 (5) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (3) Mar 22 (3) Mar 21 (5) Mar 20 (3) Mar 19 (3) Mar 18 (3) Mar 17 (4) Mar 16 (3) Mar 15 (4) Mar 14 (4) Mar 13 (3) Mar 12 (3) Mar 11 (4) Mar 10 (4) Mar 09 (4) Mar 08 (6) Mar 07 (5) Mar 06 (5) Mar 05 (4) Mar 04 (5) Mar 03 (3) Mar 02 (4) Mar 01 (4) Feb 28 (3) Feb 27 (4) Feb 26 (4) Feb 25 (5) Feb 24 (6) Feb 23 (3) Feb 22 (7) Feb 21 (6) Feb 20 (6) Feb 19 (3) Feb 18 (5) Feb 17 (5) Feb 16 (3) Feb 15 (3) Feb 14 (5) Feb 13 (3) Feb 12 (5) Feb 11 (3) Feb 10 (4) Feb 09 (4) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (3) Feb 06 (3) Feb 05 (3) Feb 04 (3) Feb 03 (5) Feb 02 (3) Feb 01 (4) Jan 31 (3) Jan 30 (3) Jan 29 (4) Jan 28 (4) Jan 27 (3) Jan 26 (6) Jan 25 (3) Jan 24 (6) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (5) Jan 21 (4) Jan 20 (3) Jan 19 (3) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (3) Jan 16 (3) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (3) Jan 13 (4) Jan 12 (3) Jan 11 (3) Jan 10 (3) Jan 09 (3) Jan 08 (4) Jan 07 (3) Jan 06 (4) Jan 05 (5) Jan 04 (4) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (3) Jan 01 (4) Dec 31 (4) Dec 30 (3) Dec 29 (3) Dec 28 (3) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (4) Dec 24 (4) Dec 23 (3) Dec 22 (3) Dec 21 (5) Dec 20 (2) Dec 19 (3) Dec 18 (4) Dec 17 (3) Dec 16 (5) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (4) Dec 12 (3) Dec 11 (3) Dec 10 (4) Dec 09 (4) Dec 08 (5) Dec 07 (4) Dec 06 (5) Dec 05 (4) Dec 04 (3) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (3) Nov 30 (3) Nov 29 (3) Nov 28 (3) Nov 27 (3) Nov 26 (4) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (3) Nov 23 (3) Nov 22 (3) Nov 21 (3) Nov 20 (3) Nov 19 (4) Nov 18 (3) Nov 17 (3) Nov 16 (3) Nov 15 (2) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (4) Nov 12 (5) Nov 11 (4) Nov 10 (3) Nov 09 (3) Nov 08 (4) Nov 07 (3) Nov 06 (3) Nov 05 (3) Nov 04 (3) Nov 03 (3) Nov 02 (3) Nov 01 (4) Oct 31 (4) Oct 30 (4) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (3) Oct 27 (3) Oct 26 (3) Oct 25 (5) Oct 24 (2) Oct 23 (3) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (3) Oct 20 (4) Oct 19 (3) Oct 18 (5) Oct 17 (2) Oct 16 (3) Oct 15 (4) Oct 14 (4) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (3) Oct 11 (3) Oct 10 (4) Oct 09 (3) Oct 08 (4) Oct 07 (3) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (5) Oct 04 (3) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (3) Oct 01 (4) Sep 30 (4) Sep 29 (5) Sep 28 (5) Sep 27 (2) Sep 26 (3) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (3) Sep 23 (4) Sep 22 (4) Sep 21 (5) Sep 20 (3) Sep 19 (3) Sep 18 (4) Sep 17 (4) Sep 16 (5) Sep 15 (4) Sep 14 (5) Sep 13 (5) Sep 12 (4) Sep 11 (3) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (4) Sep 08 (3) Sep 07 (4) Sep 06 (5) Sep 05 (4) Sep 04 (3) Sep 03 (3) Sep 02 (3) Sep 01 (3) Aug 31 (4) Aug 30 (3) Aug 29 (4) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (3) Aug 26 (6) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (4) Aug 23 (3) Aug 22 (3) Aug 21 (3) Aug 20 (5) Aug 19 (4) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (5) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (4) Aug 13 (3) Aug 12 (3) Aug 11 (3) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (4) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (3) Aug 06 (3) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (2) Aug 03 (3) Aug 02 (4) Aug 01 (3) Jul 31 (4) Jul 30 (3) Jul 29 (4) Jul 28 (3) Jul 27 (4) Jul 26 (3) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (4) Jul 23 (5) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (3) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (3) Jul 18 (3) Jul 17 (3) Jul 16 (3) Jul 15 (3) Jul 14 (3) Jul 13 (5) Jul 12 (5) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (3) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (2) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (4) Jul 05 (3) Jul 04 (3) Jul 03 (3) Jul 02 (5) Jul 01 (3) Jun 30 (4) Jun 29 (5) Jun 28 (2) Jun 27 (3) Jun 26 (3) Jun 25 (3) Jun 24 (3) Jun 23 (6) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (3) Jun 20 (3) Jun 19 (3) Jun 18 (3) Jun 17 (3) Jun 16 (3) Jun 15 (4) Jun 14 (5) Jun 13 (3) Jun 12 (4) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (3) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (5) Jun 07 (3) Jun 06 (3) Jun 05 (3) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (3) Jun 02 (3) Jun 01 (3) May 31 (4) May 30 (3) May 29 (4) May 28 (4) May 27 (3) May 26 (5) May 25 (4) May 24 (4) May 23 (4) May 22 (3) May 21 (5) May 20 (4) May 19 (3) May 18 (3) May 17 (4) May 16 (3) May 15 (6) May 14 (3) May 13 (3) May 12 (5) May 11 (4) May 10 (3) May 09 (3) May 08 (3) May 07 (4) May 06 (3) May 05 (4) May 04 (4) May 03 (3) May 02 (3) May 01 (3) Apr 30 (4) Apr 29 (3) Apr 28 (3) Apr 27 (5) Apr 26 (4) Apr 25 (3) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (4) Apr 22 (3) Apr 21 (5) Apr 20 (6) Apr 19 (5) Apr 18 (5) Apr 17 (4) Apr 16 (5) Apr 15 (6) Apr 14 (3) Apr 13 (3) Apr 12 (5) Apr 11 (4) Apr 10 (4) Apr 09 (5) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (4) Apr 05 (4) Apr 04 (4) Apr 03 (3) Apr 02 (6) Apr 01 (4) Mar 31 (4) Mar 30 (4) Mar 29 (4) Mar 28 (3) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (5) Mar 25 (3) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (5) Mar 22 (5) Mar 21 (5) Mar 20 (6) Mar 19 (6) Mar 18 (4) Mar 17 (4) Mar 16 (5) Mar 15 (3) Mar 14 (7) Mar 13 (5) Mar 12 (8) Mar 11 (6) Mar 10 (4) Mar 09 (6) Mar 08 (5) Mar 07 (3) Mar 06 (5) Mar 05 (5) Mar 04 (5) Mar 03 (7) Mar 02 (4) Mar 01 (5) Feb 28 (3) Feb 27 (5) Feb 26 (6) Feb 25 (7) Feb 24 (4) Feb 23 (4) Feb 22 (7) Feb 21 (4) Feb 20 (3) Feb 19 (6) Feb 18 (5) Feb 17 (4) Feb 16 (4) Feb 15 (6) Feb 14 (6) Feb 13 (6) Feb 12 (4) Feb 11 (5) Feb 10 (4) Feb 09 (3) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (4) Feb 06 (7) Feb 05 (7) Feb 04 (7) Feb 03 (9) Feb 02 (7) Feb 01 (9) Jan 31 (5) Jan 30 (6) Jan 29 (5) Jan 28 (6) Jan 27 (6) Jan 26 (5) Jan 25 (6) Jan 24 (5) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (6) Jan 21 (6) Jan 20 (8) Jan 19 (4) Jan 18 (9) Jan 17 (5) Jan 16 (5) Jan 15 (6) Jan 14 (7) Jan 13 (7) Jan 12 (5) Jan 11 (7) Jan 10 (8) Jan 09 (7) Jan 08 (8) Jan 07 (11) Jan 06 (9) Jan 05 (5) Jan 04 (7) Jan 03 (6) Jan 02 (8) Jan 01 (8) Dec 31 (6) Dec 30 (6) Dec 29 (4) Dec 28 (7) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (5) Dec 25 (5) Dec 24 (5) Dec 23 (7) Dec 22 (5) Dec 21 (5) Dec 20 (5) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (6) Dec 17 (6) Dec 16 (4) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (5) Dec 13 (4) Dec 12 (5) Dec 11 (4) Dec 10 (4) Dec 09 (5) Dec 08 (6) Dec 07 (5) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (5) Dec 04 (5) Dec 03 (6) Dec 02 (4) Dec 01 (5) Nov 30 (4) Nov 29 (6) Nov 28 (3) Nov 27 (4) Nov 26 (4) Nov 25 (4) Nov 24 (4) Nov 23 (5) Nov 22 (7) Nov 21 (5) Nov 20 (6) Nov 19 (4) Nov 18 (3) Nov 17 (5) Nov 16 (5) Nov 15 (4) Nov 14 (5) Nov 13 (6) Nov 12 (6) Nov 11 (6) Nov 10 (8) Nov 09 (8) Nov 08 (7) Nov 07 (5) Nov 06 (5) Nov 05 (4) Nov 04 (6) Nov 03 (5) Nov 02 (3) Nov 01 (5) Oct 31 (4) Oct 30 (3) Oct 29 (5) Oct 28 (5) Oct 27 (3) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (6) Oct 24 (2) Oct 23 (3) Oct 22 (5) Oct 21 (4) Oct 20 (6) Oct 19 (3) Oct 18 (4) Oct 17 (3) Oct 16 (5) Oct 15 (2) Oct 14 (5) Oct 13 (2) Oct 12 (3) Oct 11 (7) Oct 10 (3) Oct 09 (3) Oct 08 (2) Oct 07 (7) Oct 06 (2) Oct 05 (6) Oct 04 (5) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (8) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (6) Sep 29 (3) Sep 28 (6) Sep 27 (4) Sep 26 (4) Sep 25 (4) Sep 24 (1) Sep 23 (5) Sep 22 (3) Sep 21 (2) Sep 20 (5) Sep 19 (3) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (5) Sep 16 (3) Sep 15 (4) Sep 14 (4) Sep 13 (4) Sep 12 (3) Sep 11 (3) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (4) Sep 07 (4) Sep 06 (4) Sep 05 (5) Sep 04 (2) Sep 03 (4) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (3) Aug 31 (3) Aug 30 (3) Aug 29 (2) Aug 28 (4) Aug 27 (4) Aug 26 (4) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (3) Aug 23 (2) Aug 22 (3) Aug 21 (4) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (4) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (3) Aug 16 (4) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (5) Aug 12 (5) Aug 11 (3) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (3) Aug 08 (4) Aug 07 (3) Aug 06 (3) Aug 05 (3) Aug 04 (4) Aug 03 (4) Aug 02 (4) Aug 01 (3) Jul 31 (4) Jul 30 (5) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (3) Jul 27 (3) Jul 26 (4) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (3) Jul 23 (3) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (4) Jul 20 (5) Jul 19 (4) Jul 18 (4) Jul 17 (3) Jul 16 (4) Jul 15 (3) Jul 14 (3) Jul 13 (4) Jul 12 (3) Jul 11 (3) Jul 10 (3) Jul 09 (4) Jul 08 (4) Jul 07 (4) Jul 06 (3) Jul 05 (5) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (4) Jul 02 (4) Jul 01 (4) Jun 30 (3) Jun 29 (4) Jun 28 (4) Jun 27 (3) Jun 26 (3) Jun 25 (4) Jun 24 (5) Jun 23 (5) Jun 22 (5) Jun 21 (3) Jun 20 (4) Jun 19 (3) Jun 18 (3) Jun 17 (4) Jun 16 (4) Jun 15 (4) Jun 14 (4) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (6) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (4) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (5) Jun 07 (3) Jun 06 (3) Jun 05 (5) Jun 04 (5) Jun 03 (3) Jun 02 (5) Jun 01 (6) May 31 (3) May 30 (5) May 29 (3) May 28 (4) May 27 (5) May 26 (7) May 25 (4) May 24 (4) May 23 (4) May 22 (6) May 21 (4) May 20 (3) May 19 (5) May 18 (4) May 17 (4) May 16 (5) May 15 (4) May 14 (4) May 13 (5) May 12 (4) May 11 (5) May 10 (6) May 09 (7) May 08 (3) May 07 (6) May 06 (4) May 05 (6) May 04 (6) May 03 (4) May 02 (4) May 01 (4) Apr 30 (4) Apr 29 (3) Apr 28 (4) Apr 27 (4) Apr 26 (3) Apr 25 (6) Apr 24 (4) Apr 23 (5) Apr 22 (5) Apr 21 (7) Apr 20 (6) Apr 19 (5) Apr 18 (5) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (4) Apr 15 (6) Apr 14 (5) Apr 13 (5) Apr 12 (5) Apr 11 (4) Apr 10 (6) Apr 09 (7) Apr 08 (7) Apr 07 (4) Apr 06 (7) Apr 05 (6) Apr 04 (5) Apr 03 (6) Apr 02 (5) Apr 01 (6) Mar 31 (4) Mar 30 (5) Mar 29 (5) Mar 28 (5) Mar 27 (6) Mar 26 (6) Mar 25 (7) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (4) Mar 22 (5) Mar 21 (5) Mar 20 (5) Mar 19 (4) Mar 18 (4) Mar 17 (4) Mar 16 (3) Mar 15 (4) Mar 14 (5) Mar 13 (5) Mar 12 (5) Mar 11 (5) Mar 10 (5) Mar 09 (5) Mar 08 (4) Mar 07 (4) Mar 06 (5) Mar 05 (6) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (5) Mar 02 (4) Mar 01 (3) Feb 29 (4) Feb 28 (4) Feb 27 (5) Feb 26 (5) Feb 25 (4) Feb 24 (5) Feb 23 (4) Feb 22 (5) Feb 21 (3) Feb 20 (4) Feb 19 (2) Feb 18 (5) Feb 17 (4) Feb 16 (4) Feb 15 (4) Feb 14 (4) Feb 13 (6) Feb 12 (5) Feb 11 (3) Feb 10 (5) Feb 09 (4) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (5) Feb 06 (5) Feb 05 (5) Feb 04 (4) Feb 03 (4) Feb 02 (3) Feb 01 (2) Jan 31 (5) Jan 30 (4) Jan 29 (3) Jan 28 (5) Jan 27 (6) Jan 26 (4) Jan 25 (3) Jan 24 (4) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (3) Jan 21 (3) Jan 20 (3) Jan 19 (4) Jan 18 (3) Jan 17 (3) Jan 16 (3) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (3) Jan 13 (3) Jan 12 (5) Jan 11 (4) Jan 10 (3) Jan 09 (4) Jan 08 (5) Jan 07 (5) Jan 06 (3) Jan 05 (5) Jan 04 (3) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (1) Jan 01 (3) Dec 31 (3) Dec 30 (5) Dec 29 (4) Dec 28 (4) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (3) Dec 25 (3) Dec 24 (3) Dec 23 (3) Dec 22 (3) Dec 21 (3) Dec 20 (4) Dec 19 (3) Dec 18 (4) Dec 17 (3) Dec 16 (5) Dec 15 (5) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (3) Dec 11 (3) Dec 10 (4) Dec 09 (4) Dec 08 (3) Dec 07 (3) Dec 06 (5) Dec 05 (3) Dec 04 (3) Dec 03 (3) Dec 02 (4) Dec 01 (5) Nov 30 (3) Nov 29 (4) Nov 28 (3) Nov 27 (5) Nov 26 (3) Nov 25 (5) Nov 24 (3) Nov 23 (3) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (3) Nov 20 (3) Nov 19 (3) Nov 18 (3) Nov 17 (4) Nov 16 (3) Nov 15 (4) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (5) Nov 12 (4) Nov 11 (5) Nov 10 (2) Nov 09 (3) Nov 08 (3) Nov 07 (3) Nov 06 (1) Nov 05 (4) Nov 04 (3) Nov 03 (3) Nov 02 (3) Nov 01 (4) Oct 31 (3) Oct 30 (3) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (3) Oct 27 (3) Oct 26 (3) Oct 25 (3) Oct 24 (3) Oct 23 (4) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (3) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (3) Oct 18 (3) Oct 17 (3) Oct 16 (4) Oct 15 (4) Oct 14 (3) Oct 13 (4) Oct 12 (4) Oct 11 (4) Oct 10 (3) Oct 09 (3) Oct 08 (3) Oct 07 (4) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (3) Oct 04 (4) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (3) Oct 01 (4) Sep 30 (3) Sep 29 (4) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (4) Sep 26 (3) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (3) Sep 23 (3) Sep 22 (3) Sep 21 (5) Sep 20 (3) Sep 19 (3) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (3) Sep 16 (4) Sep 15 (5) Sep 14 (3) Sep 13 (5) Sep 12 (5) Sep 11 (5) Sep 10 (5) Sep 09 (4) Sep 08 (3) Sep 07 (3) Sep 06 (3) Sep 05 (5) Sep 04 (3) Sep 03 (4) Sep 02 (3) Sep 01 (4) Aug 31 (3) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (3) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (4) Aug 26 (3) Aug 25 (4) Aug 24 (3) Aug 23 (4) Aug 22 (3) Aug 21 (3) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (4) Aug 18 (3) Aug 17 (3) Aug 16 (4) Aug 15 (3) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (3) Aug 12 (4) Aug 11 (3) Aug 10 (3) Aug 09 (3) Aug 08 (4) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (3) Aug 05 (5) Aug 04 (3) Aug 03 (4) Aug 02 (3) Aug 01 (3) Jul 31 (4) Jul 30 (3) Jul 29 (4) Jul 28 (3) Jul 27 (3) Jul 26 (3) Jul 25 (3) Jul 24 (4) Jul 23 (3) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (3) Jul 20 (3) Jul 19 (3) Jul 18 (3) Jul 17 (3) Jul 16 (3) Jul 15 (4) Jul 14 (3) Jul 13 (3) Jul 12 (3) Jul 11 (3) Jul 10 (4) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (3) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (4) Jul 05 (3) Jul 04 (3) Jul 03 (4) Jul 02 (3) Jul 01 (5) Jun 30 (4) Jun 29 (4) Jun 28 (4) Jun 27 (1) Jun 26 (5) Jun 25 (5) Jun 24 (4) Jun 23 (4) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (5) Jun 19 (3) Jun 18 (3) Jun 17 (3) Jun 16 (3) Jun 15 (3) Jun 14 (3) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (3) Jun 11 (4) Jun 10 (3) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (3) Jun 07 (3) Jun 06 (4) Jun 05 (3) Jun 04 (4) Jun 03 (4) Jun 02 (3) Jun 01 (4) May 31 (3) May 30 (3) May 29 (3) May 28 (4) May 27 (6) May 26 (3) May 25 (3) May 24 (3) May 23 (3) May 22 (5) May 21 (3) May 20 (3) May 19 (3) May 18 (4) May 17 (3) May 16 (3) May 15 (4) May 14 (4) May 13 (4) May 12 (5) May 11 (2) May 10 (3) May 09 (3) May 08 (3) May 07 (3) May 06 (3) May 05 (4) May 04 (3) May 03 (3) May 02 (4) May 01 (5) Apr 30 (4) Apr 29 (4) Apr 28 (4) Apr 27 (3) Apr 26 (5) Apr 25 (3) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (5) Apr 22 (3) Apr 21 (4) Apr 20 (1) Apr 19 (3) Apr 18 (4) Apr 17 (3) Apr 16 (4) Apr 15 (3) Apr 14 (3) Apr 13 (3) Apr 12 (4) Apr 11 (5) Apr 10 (4) Apr 09 (3) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (2) Apr 06 (3) Apr 05 (5) Apr 04 (3) Apr 03 (4) Apr 02 (3) Apr 01 (7) Mar 31 (2) Mar 30 (2) Mar 29 (1) Mar 28 (6) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (4) Mar 25 (4) Mar 24 (6) Mar 23 (3) Mar 22 (5) Mar 21 (4) Mar 20 (3) Mar 19 (3) Mar 18 (5) Mar 17 (3) Mar 16 (3) Mar 15 (4) Mar 14 (4) Mar 13 (6) Mar 12 (7) Mar 11 (4) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (4) Mar 08 (3) Mar 07 (5) Mar 06 (3) Mar 05 (3) Mar 04 (3) Mar 03 (3) Mar 02 (4) Mar 01 (4) Feb 28 (5) Feb 27 (5) Feb 26 (4) Feb 25 (4) Feb 24 (3) Feb 23 (3) Feb 22 (5) Feb 21 (5) Feb 20 (5) Feb 19 (4) Feb 18 (3) Feb 17 (3) Feb 16 (4) Feb 15 (3) Feb 14 (6) Feb 13 (4) Feb 12 (3) Feb 11 (6) Feb 10 (5) Feb 09 (3) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (6) Feb 06 (3) Feb 05 (6) Feb 04 (5) Feb 03 (3) Feb 02 (3) Feb 01 (4) Jan 31 (4) Jan 30 (6) Jan 29 (3) Jan 28 (4) Jan 27 (5) Jan 26 (4) Jan 25 (6) Jan 24 (3) Jan 23 (3) Jan 22 (4) Jan 21 (3) Jan 20 (4) Jan 19 (3) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (3) Jan 16 (3) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (4) Jan 13 (4) Jan 12 (3) Jan 11 (4) Jan 10 (5) Jan 09 (3) Jan 08 (4) Jan 07 (4) Jan 06 (3) Jan 05 (3) Jan 04 (3) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (3) Jan 01 (3) Dec 31 (5) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (3) Dec 28 (5) Dec 27 (3) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (5) Dec 24 (3) Dec 23 (4) Dec 22 (7) Dec 21 (4) Dec 20 (5) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (6) Dec 17 (5) Dec 16 (3) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (3) Dec 11 (7) Dec 10 (7) Dec 09 (4) Dec 08 (3) Dec 07 (4) Dec 06 (4) Dec 05 (4) Dec 04 (4) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (5) Nov 30 (3) Nov 29 (5) Nov 28 (4) Nov 27 (5) Nov 26 (3) Nov 25 (4) Nov 24 (4) Nov 23 (3) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (5) Nov 20 (3) Nov 19 (5) Nov 18 (3) Nov 17 (4) Nov 16 (5) Nov 15 (3) Nov 14 (4) Nov 13 (5) Nov 12 (7) Nov 11 (4) Nov 10 (6) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (4) Nov 07 (4) Nov 06 (3) Nov 05 (4) Nov 04 (4) Nov 03 (3) Nov 02 (4) Nov 01 (4) Oct 31 (3) Oct 30 (4) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (4) Oct 27 (4) Oct 26 (4) Oct 25 (4) Oct 24 (5) Oct 23 (4) Oct 22 (4) Oct 21 (3) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (4) Oct 18 (3) Oct 17 (3) Oct 16 (4) Oct 15 (4) Oct 14 (4) Oct 13 (4) Oct 12 (5) Oct 11 (3) Oct 10 (5) Oct 09 (5) Oct 08 (5) Oct 07 (6) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (3) Oct 04 (5) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (4) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (4) Sep 29 (4) Sep 28 (5) Sep 27 (5) Sep 26 (5) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (5) Sep 23 (5) Sep 22 (3) Sep 21 (4) Sep 20 (4) Sep 19 (3) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (4) Sep 16 (4) Sep 15 (3) Sep 14 (4) Sep 13 (4) Sep 12 (5) Sep 11 (4) Sep 10 (3) Sep 09 (4) Sep 08 (5) Sep 07 (4) Sep 06 (4) Sep 05 (5) Sep 04 (4) Sep 03 (3) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (3) Aug 31 (5) Aug 30 (4) Aug 29 (6) Aug 28 (6) Aug 27 (6) Aug 26 (5) Aug 25 (4) Aug 24 (4) Aug 23 (7) Aug 22 (4) Aug 21 (6) Aug 20 (3) Aug 19 (7) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (3) Aug 16 (4) Aug 15 (3) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (6) Aug 12 (6) Aug 11 (4) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (3) Aug 08 (5) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (3) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (4) Aug 03 (6) Aug 02 (3) Aug 01 (3) Jul 31 (3) Jul 30 (3) Jul 29 (5) Jul 28 (5) Jul 27 (4) Jul 26 (6) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (3) Jul 23 (5) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (5) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (3) Jul 18 (3) Jul 17 (4) Jul 16 (6) Jul 15 (4) Jul 14 (4) Jul 13 (4) Jul 12 (4) Jul 11 (3) Jul 10 (5) Jul 09 (4) Jul 08 (3) Jul 07 (4) Jul 06 (3) Jul 05 (3) Jul 04 (3) Jul 03 (3) Jul 02 (4) Jul 01 (4) Jun 30 (4) Jun 29 (3) Jun 28 (4) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (3) Jun 25 (4) Jun 24 (5) Jun 23 (6) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (3) Jun 19 (4) Jun 18 (3) Jun 17 (4) Jun 16 (4) Jun 15 (4) Jun 14 (4) Jun 13 (3) Jun 12 (5) Jun 11 (5) Jun 10 (6) Jun 09 (5) Jun 08 (4) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (4) Jun 05 (3) Jun 04 (5) Jun 03 (3) Jun 02 (3) Jun 01 (4) May 31 (4) May 30 (3) May 29 (3) May 28 (5) May 27 (3) May 26 (4) May 25 (3) May 24 (6) May 23 (4) May 22 (5) May 21 (5) May 20 (4) May 19 (5) May 18 (6) May 17 (6) May 16 (4) May 15 (4) May 14 (5) May 13 (4) May 12 (3) May 11 (4) May 10 (5) May 09 (2) May 08 (4) May 07 (4) May 06 (4) May 05 (4) May 04 (4) May 03 (3) May 02 (3) May 01 (4) Apr 30 (4) Apr 29 (6) Apr 28 (6) Apr 27 (5) Apr 26 (5) Apr 25 (4) Apr 24 (6) Apr 23 (6) Apr 22 (5) Apr 21 (6) Apr 20 (4) Apr 19 (4) Apr 18 (4) Apr 17 (7) Apr 16 (5) Apr 15 (4) Apr 14 (8) Apr 13 (5) Apr 12 (3) Apr 11 (3) Apr 10 (4) Apr 09 (6) Apr 08 (6) Apr 07 (5) Apr 06 (4) Apr 05 (3) Apr 04 (4) Apr 03 (6) Apr 02 (6) Apr 01 (3) Mar 31 (7) Mar 30 (6) Mar 29 (8) Mar 28 (5) Mar 27 (6) Mar 26 (8) Mar 25 (5) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (8) Mar 22 (5) Mar 21 (6) Mar 20 (5) Mar 19 (5) Mar 18 (4) Mar 17 (4) Mar 16 (5) Mar 15 (6) Mar 14 (5) Mar 13 (6) Mar 12 (4) Mar 11 (4) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (7) Mar 08 (4) Mar 07 (4) Mar 06 (4) Mar 05 (3) Mar 04 (4) Mar 03 (6) Mar 02 (3) Mar 01 (5) Feb 28 (7) Feb 27 (6) Feb 26 (8) Feb 25 (5) Feb 24 (8) Feb 23 (7) Feb 22 (8) Feb 21 (7) Feb 20 (7) Feb 19 (7) Feb 18 (5) Feb 17 (4) Feb 16 (6) Feb 15 (6) Feb 14 (5) Feb 13 (5) Feb 12 (7) Feb 11 (6) Feb 10 (7) Feb 09 (4) Feb 08 (6) Feb 07 (5) Feb 06 (5) Feb 05 (4) Feb 04 (4) Feb 03 (4) Feb 02 (5) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (5) Jan 30 (3) Jan 29 (6) Jan 28 (4) Jan 27 (3) Jan 26 (5) Jan 25 (4) Jan 24 (4) Jan 23 (5) Jan 22 (7) Jan 21 (6) Jan 20 (6) Jan 19 (3) Jan 18 (6) Jan 17 (5) Jan 16 (7) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (7) Jan 13 (5) Jan 12 (7) Jan 11 (5) Jan 10 (4) Jan 09 (4) Jan 08 (7) Jan 07 (3) Jan 06 (5) Jan 05 (5) Jan 04 (4) Jan 03 (4) Jan 02 (3) Jan 01 (6) Dec 31 (5) Dec 30 (3) Dec 29 (4) Dec 28 (7) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (6) Dec 24 (5) Dec 23 (5) Dec 22 (5) Dec 21 (3) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (4) Dec 17 (6) Dec 16 (5) Dec 15 (4) Dec 14 (5) Dec 13 (4) Dec 12 (5) Dec 11 (7) Dec 10 (4) Dec 09 (3) Dec 08 (5) Dec 07 (6) Dec 06 (4) Dec 05 (4) Dec 04 (7) Dec 03 (6) Dec 02 (4) Dec 01 (4) Nov 30 (6) Nov 29 (4) Nov 28 (4) Nov 27 (7) Nov 26 (3) Nov 25 (5) Nov 24 (4) Nov 23 (4) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (7) Nov 20 (5) Nov 19 (4) Nov 18 (5) Nov 17 (6) Nov 16 (7) Nov 15 (5) Nov 14 (5) Nov 13 (5) Nov 12 (4) Nov 11 (7) Nov 10 (6) Nov 09 (7) Nov 08 (4) Nov 07 (9) Nov 06 (7) Nov 05 (7) Nov 04 (7) Nov 03 (5) Nov 02 (6) Nov 01 (6) Oct 31 (7) Oct 30 (6) Oct 29 (7) Oct 28 (4) Oct 27 (7) Oct 26 (4) Oct 25 (3) Oct 24 (6) Oct 23 (10) Oct 22 (6) Oct 21 (5) Oct 20 (5) Oct 19 (5) Oct 18 (4) Oct 17 (6) Oct 16 (5) Oct 15 (6) Oct 14 (7) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (5) Oct 11 (5) Oct 10 (6) Oct 09 (8) Oct 08 (6) Oct 07 (5) Oct 06 (4) Oct 05 (4) Oct 04 (3) Oct 03 (4) Oct 02 (5) Oct 01 (5) Sep 30 (6) Sep 29 (5) Sep 28 (5) Sep 27 (6) Sep 26 (7) Sep 25 (6) Sep 24 (6) Sep 23 (6) Sep 22 (7) Sep 21 (5) Sep 20 (8) Sep 19 (6) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (5) Sep 16 (5) Sep 15 (5) Sep 14 (7) Sep 13 (5) Sep 12 (7) Sep 11 (5) Sep 10 (7) Sep 09 (7) Sep 08 (7) Sep 07 (6) Sep 06 (5) Sep 05 (3) Sep 04 (6) Sep 03 (7) Sep 02 (6) Sep 01 (6) Aug 31 (5) Aug 30 (5) Aug 29 (4) Aug 28 (5) Aug 27 (5) Aug 26 (3) Aug 25 (8) Aug 24 (5) Aug 23 (6) Aug 22 (7) Aug 21 (7) Aug 20 (6) Aug 19 (7) Aug 18 (5) Aug 17 (4) Aug 16 (6) Aug 15 (6) Aug 14 (6) Aug 13 (7) Aug 12 (6) Aug 11 (5) Aug 10 (6) Aug 09 (6) Aug 08 (5) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (4) Aug 05 (5) Aug 04 (6) Aug 03 (6) Aug 02 (5) Aug 01 (5) Jul 31 (7) Jul 30 (7) Jul 29 (4) Jul 28 (7) Jul 27 (6) Jul 26 (4) Jul 25 (3) Jul 24 (5) Jul 23 (4) Jul 22 (4) Jul 21 (4) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (5) Jul 18 (5) Jul 17 (5) Jul 16 (4) Jul 15 (3) Jul 14 (4) Jul 13 (5) Jul 12 (6) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (4) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (4) Jul 07 (7) Jul 06 (5) Jul 05 (6) Jul 04 (3) Jul 03 (5) Jul 02 (4) Jul 01 (4) Jun 30 (3) Jun 29 (5) Jun 28 (4) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (3) Jun 25 (4) Jun 24 (3) Jun 23 (4) Jun 22 (3) Jun 21 (3) Jun 20 (5) Jun 19 (3) Jun 18 (4) Jun 17 (5) Jun 16 (4) Jun 15 (4) Jun 14 (7) Jun 13 (5) Jun 12 (5) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (6) Jun 09 (4) Jun 08 (6) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (5) Jun 05 (4) Jun 04 (5) Jun 03 (5) Jun 02 (5) Jun 01 (5) May 31 (4) May 30 (5) May 29 (5) May 28 (5) May 27 (8) May 26 (7) May 25 (7) May 24 (5) May 23 (2) May 22 (5) May 21 (4) May 20 (5) May 19 (5) May 18 (5) May 17 (5) May 16 (7) May 15 (7) May 14 (7) May 13 (5) May 12 (6) May 11 (8) May 10 (4) May 09 (6) May 08 (10) May 07 (8) May 06 (5) May 05 (6) May 04 (7) May 03 (7) May 02 (8) May 01 (6) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (6) Apr 28 (9) Apr 27 (6) Apr 26 (5) Apr 25 (8) Apr 24 (7) Apr 23 (8) Apr 22 (6) Apr 21 (5) Apr 20 (10) Apr 19 (7) Apr 18 (7) Apr 17 (8) Apr 16 (5) Apr 15 (6) Apr 14 (9) Apr 13 (11) Apr 12 (8) Apr 11 (5) Apr 10 (10) Apr 09 (7) Apr 08 (5) Apr 07 (9) Apr 06 (10) Apr 05 (5) Apr 04 (5) Apr 03 (7) Apr 02 (6) Apr 01 (5) Mar 31 (3) Mar 30 (3) Mar 29 (1) Mar 28 (5) Mar 27 (7) Mar 26 (8) Mar 25 (4) Mar 24 (8) Mar 23 (5) Mar 22 (4) Mar 21 (5) Mar 20 (7) Mar 19 (5) Mar 18 (8) Mar 17 (8) Mar 16 (3) Mar 15 (6) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (6) Mar 12 (6) Mar 11 (7) Mar 10 (6) Mar 09 (8) Mar 08 (5) Mar 07 (5) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (9) Mar 04 (7) Mar 03 (6) Mar 02 (5) Mar 01 (7) Feb 28 (8) Feb 27 (7) Feb 26 (4) Feb 25 (9) Feb 24 (6) Feb 23 (6) Feb 22 (7) Feb 21 (3) Feb 20 (6) Feb 19 (5) Feb 18 (5) Feb 17 (4) Feb 16 (4) Feb 15 (5) Feb 14 (8) Feb 13 (6) Feb 12 (4) Feb 11 (5) Feb 10 (6) Feb 09 (7) Feb 08 (6) Feb 07 (6) Feb 06 (6) Feb 05 (5) Feb 04 (5) Feb 03 (10) Feb 02 (9) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (8) Jan 30 (4) Jan 29 (9) Jan 28 (6) Jan 27 (5) Jan 26 (6) Jan 25 (7) Jan 24 (6) Jan 23 (6) Jan 22 (5) Jan 21 (7) Jan 20 (8) Jan 19 (5) Jan 18 (5) Jan 17 (5) Jan 16 (5) Jan 15 (5) Jan 14 (3) Jan 13 (5) Jan 12 (6) Jan 11 (5) Jan 10 (5) Jan 09 (4) Jan 08 (3) Jan 07 (5) Jan 06 (5) Jan 05 (6) Jan 04 (5) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (3) Jan 01 (3) Dec 31 (3) Dec 30 (3) Dec 29 (3) Dec 28 (4) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (5) Dec 25 (6) Dec 24 (7) Dec 23 (7) Dec 22 (4) Dec 21 (5) Dec 20 (6) Dec 19 (10) Dec 18 (9) Dec 17 (10) Dec 16 (8) Dec 15 (4) Dec 14 (6) Dec 13 (10) Dec 12 (6) Dec 11 (5) Dec 10 (6) Dec 09 (5) Dec 08 (8) Dec 07 (5) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (6) Dec 04 (7) Dec 03 (7) Dec 02 (6) Dec 01 (9) Nov 30 (5) Nov 29 (9) Nov 28 (7) Nov 27 (6) Nov 26 (7) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (4) Nov 23 (4) Nov 22 (7) Nov 21 (7) Nov 20 (4) Nov 19 (8) Nov 18 (12) Nov 17 (8) Nov 16 (6) Nov 15 (4) Nov 14 (11) Nov 13 (11) Nov 12 (9) Nov 11 (6) Nov 10 (9) Nov 09 (9) Nov 08 (7) Nov 07 (7) Nov 06 (8) Nov 05 (8) Nov 04 (6) Nov 03 (4) Nov 02 (7) Nov 01 (5) Oct 31 (7) Oct 30 (6) Oct 29 (7) Oct 28 (4) Oct 27 (7) Oct 26 (4) Oct 25 (7) Oct 24 (4) Oct 23 (7) Oct 22 (7) Oct 21 (6) Oct 20 (8) Oct 19 (7) Oct 18 (6) Oct 17 (6) Oct 16 (8) Oct 15 (5) Oct 14 (6) Oct 13 (7) Oct 12 (5) Oct 11 (5) Oct 10 (8) Oct 09 (8) Oct 08 (7) Oct 07 (7) Oct 06 (7) Oct 05 (8) Oct 04 (6) Oct 03 (8) Oct 02 (3) Oct 01 (6) Sep 30 (10) Sep 29 (7) Sep 28 (10) Sep 27 (10) Sep 26 (11) Sep 25 (5) Sep 24 (6) Sep 23 (5) Sep 22 (5) Sep 21 (8) Sep 20 (8) Sep 19 (6) Sep 18 (6) Sep 17 (7) Sep 16 (5) Sep 15 (6) Sep 14 (5) Sep 13 (6) Sep 12 (5) Sep 11 (10) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (3) Sep 08 (8) Sep 07 (4) Sep 06 (7) Sep 05 (8) Sep 04 (7) Sep 03 (6) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (3) Aug 31 (6) Aug 30 (3) Aug 29 (4) Aug 28 (5) Aug 27 (6) Aug 26 (5) Aug 25 (9) Aug 24 (7) Aug 23 (8) Aug 22 (5) Aug 21 (9) Aug 20 (8) Aug 19 (7) Aug 18 (6) Aug 17 (5) Aug 16 (8) Aug 15 (6) Aug 14 (5) Aug 13 (6) Aug 12 (5) Aug 11 (7) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (9) Aug 08 (9) Aug 07 (5) Aug 06 (5) Aug 05 (6) Aug 04 (6) Aug 03 (7) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (3) Jul 31 (6) Jul 30 (7) Jul 29 (8) Jul 28 (8) Jul 27 (6) Jul 26 (9) Jul 25 (9) Jul 24 (7) Jul 23 (3) Jul 22 (7) Jul 21 (9) Jul 20 (6) Jul 19 (9) Jul 18 (7) Jul 17 (2) Jul 16 (5) Jul 15 (7) Jul 14 (7) Jul 13 (8) Jul 12 (4) Jul 11 (4) Jul 10 (7) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (6) Jul 07 (4) Jul 06 (4) Jul 05 (6) Jul 04 (8) Jul 03 (3) Jul 02 (7) Jul 01 (6) Jun 30 (4) Jun 29 (6) Jun 28 (5) Jun 27 (6) Jun 26 (6) Jun 25 (7) Jun 24 (4) Jun 23 (5) Jun 22 (7) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (6) Jun 19 (4) Jun 18 (6) Jun 17 (5) Jun 16 (6) Jun 15 (4) Jun 14 (5) Jun 13 (7) Jun 12 (8) Jun 11 (5) Jun 10 (4) Jun 09 (7) Jun 08 (6) Jun 07 (5) Jun 06 (7) Jun 05 (5) Jun 04 (6) Jun 03 (5) Jun 02 (8) Jun 01 (6) May 31 (7) May 30 (4) May 29 (5) May 28 (1) May 27 (5) May 26 (8) May 25 (5) May 24 (8) May 23 (8) May 22 (7) May 21 (5) May 20 (6) May 19 (9) May 18 (5) May 17 (9) May 16 (7) May 15 (5) May 14 (11) May 13 (6) May 12 (13) May 11 (5) May 10 (7) May 09 (6) May 08 (8) May 07 (9) May 06 (6) May 05 (5) May 04 (2) May 03 (6) May 02 (7) May 01 (4) Apr 30 (5) Apr 29 (7) Apr 28 (6) Apr 27 (6) Apr 26 (10) Apr 25 (7) Apr 24 (5) Apr 23 (4) Apr 22 (7) Apr 21 (3) Apr 20 (6) Apr 19 (6) Apr 18 (3) Apr 17 (10) Apr 16 (6) Apr 15 (6) Apr 14 (5) Apr 13 (4) Apr 12 (5) Apr 11 (10) Apr 10 (6) Apr 09 (6) Apr 08 (10) Apr 07 (6) Apr 06 (6) Apr 05 (5) Apr 04 (4) Apr 03 (5) Apr 02 (5) Apr 01 (6) Mar 31 (5) Mar 30 (9) Mar 29 (8) Mar 28 (8) Mar 27 (7) Mar 26 (9) Mar 25 (11) Mar 24 (10) Mar 23 (6) Mar 22 (8) Mar 21 (3) Mar 20 (6) Mar 19 (2) Mar 18 (9) Mar 17 (7) Mar 16 (6) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (6) Mar 13 (6) Mar 12 (10) Mar 11 (7) Mar 10 (8) Mar 09 (6) Mar 08 (5) Mar 07 (6) Mar 06 (7) Mar 05 (6) Mar 04 (10) Mar 03 (2) Mar 02 (8) Mar 01 (9) Feb 29 (11) Feb 28 (8) Feb 27 (6) Feb 26 (8) Feb 25 (8) Feb 24 (9) Feb 23 (12) Feb 22 (10) Feb 21 (11) Feb 20 (6) Feb 19 (5) Feb 18 (9) Feb 17 (9) Feb 16 (10) Feb 15 (8) Feb 14 (9) Feb 13 (8) Feb 12 (8) Feb 11 (7) Feb 10 (7) Feb 09 (7) Feb 08 (9) Feb 07 (7) Feb 06 (10) Feb 05 (10) Feb 04 (6) Feb 03 (8) Feb 02 (7) Feb 01 (6) Jan 31 (10) Jan 30 (4) Jan 29 (6) Jan 28 (9) Jan 27 (7) Jan 26 (8) Jan 25 (8) Jan 24 (7) Jan 23 (6) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (6) Jan 20 (10) Jan 19 (8) Jan 18 (6) Jan 17 (7) Jan 16 (4) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (8) Jan 13 (8) Jan 12 (6) Jan 11 (4) Jan 10 (6) Jan 09 (8) Jan 08 (4) Jan 07 (5) Jan 06 (6) Jan 05 (9) Jan 04 (4) Jan 03 (7) Jan 02 (6) Jan 01 (3) Dec 31 (6) Dec 30 (9) Dec 29 (6) Dec 28 (2) Dec 27 (8) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (6) Dec 24 (5) Dec 23 (6) Dec 22 (8) Dec 21 (8) Dec 20 (4) Dec 19 (8) Dec 18 (6) Dec 17 (8) Dec 16 (7) Dec 15 (9) Dec 14 (7) Dec 13 (4) Dec 12 (4) Dec 11 (5) Dec 10 (6) Dec 09 (4) Dec 08 (5) Dec 07 (4) Dec 06 (4) Dec 05 (5) Dec 04 (4) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (7) Dec 01 (7) Nov 30 (5) Nov 29 (5) Nov 28 (6) Nov 27 (3) Nov 26 (3) Nov 25 (5) Nov 24 (8) Nov 23 (2) Nov 22 (6) Nov 21 (5) Nov 20 (5) Nov 19 (4) Nov 18 (4) Nov 17 (4) Nov 16 (6) Nov 15 (5) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (6) Nov 12 (5) Nov 11 (4) Nov 10 (4) Nov 09 (2) Nov 08 (5) Nov 07 (4) Nov 06 (8) Nov 05 (5) Nov 04 (6) Nov 03 (6) Nov 02 (5) Nov 01 (5) Oct 31 (6) Oct 30 (6) Oct 29 (5) Oct 28 (5) Oct 27 (3) Oct 26 (5) Oct 25 (8) Oct 24 (7) Oct 23 (4) Oct 22 (7) Oct 21 (5) Oct 20 (5) Oct 19 (5) Oct 18 (6) Oct 17 (3) Oct 16 (2) Oct 15 (2) Oct 14 (2) Oct 13 (6) Oct 12 (9) Oct 11 (3) Oct 10 (6) Oct 09 (4) Oct 08 (5) Oct 07 (6) Oct 06 (6) Oct 05 (7) Oct 04 (5) Oct 03 (4) Oct 02 (5) Oct 01 (8) Sep 30 (3) Sep 29 (6) Sep 28 (6) Sep 27 (9) Sep 26 (4) Sep 25 (4) Sep 24 (5) Sep 23 (3) Sep 22 (6) Sep 21 (4) Sep 20 (4) Sep 19 (5) Sep 18 (7) Sep 17 (6) Sep 16 (7) Sep 15 (4) Sep 14 (8) Sep 13 (3) Sep 12 (7) Sep 11 (8) Sep 10 (5) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (8) Sep 07 (5) Sep 06 (6) Sep 05 (4) Sep 04 (7) Sep 03 (5) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (4) Aug 31 (5) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (5) Aug 28 (5) Aug 27 (4) Aug 26 (3) Aug 25 (7) Aug 24 (6) Aug 23 (6) Aug 22 (6) Aug 21 (5) Aug 20 (5) Aug 19 (5) Aug 18 (5) Aug 17 (5) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (7) Aug 14 (8) Aug 13 (8) Aug 12 (4) Aug 11 (6) Aug 10 (5) Aug 09 (4) Aug 08 (9) Aug 07 (6) Aug 06 (7) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (4) Aug 03 (6) Aug 02 (6) Aug 01 (6) Jul 31 (4) Jul 30 (5) Jul 29 (4) Jul 28 (6) Jul 27 (4) Jul 26 (3) Jul 25 (5) Jul 24 (4) Jul 23 (4) Jul 22 (5) Jul 21 (4) Jul 20 (2) Jul 19 (4) Jul 18 (7) Jul 17 (8) Jul 16 (5) Jul 15 (5) Jul 14 (4) Jul 13 (5) Jul 12 (4) Jul 11 (7) Jul 10 (5) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (2) Jul 07 (4) Jul 06 (4) Jul 05 (6) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (10) Jul 02 (4) Jul 01 (2) Jun 30 (3) Jun 29 (3) Jun 28 (4) Jun 27 (3) Jun 26 (6) Jun 25 (3) Jun 24 (3) Jun 23 (3) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (4) Jun 19 (3) Jun 18 (3) Jun 17 (3) Jun 16 (4) Jun 15 (3) Jun 14 (4) Jun 13 (3) Jun 12 (4) Jun 11 (2) Jun 10 (2) Jun 09 (2) Jun 08 (3) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (3) Jun 05 (1) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (2) Jun 02 (2) Jun 01 (2) May 31 (2) May 30 (3) May 29 (3) May 28 (5) May 27 (1) May 26 (1) May 25 (2) May 24 (2) May 23 (1) May 22 (2) May 21 (2) May 20 (3) May 19 (3) May 18 (2) May 17 (2) May 16 (2) May 15 (3) May 14 (2) May 13 (2) May 12 (2) May 11 (3) May 10 (3) May 09 (2) May 08 (3) May 07 (2) May 06 (2) May 05 (2) May 04 (2) May 03 (3) May 02 (2) May 01 (2) Apr 30 (1) Apr 29 (2) Apr 28 (3) Apr 27 (2) Apr 26 (2) Apr 25 (2) Apr 24 (2) Apr 23 (3) Apr 22 (4) Apr 21 (4) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (3) Apr 18 (2) Apr 17 (2) Apr 16 (2) Apr 15 (2) Apr 14 (2) Apr 13 (2) Apr 12 (2) Apr 11 (3) Apr 10 (3) Apr 09 (2) Apr 08 (2) Apr 07 (2) Apr 06 (2) Apr 05 (3) Apr 04 (2) Apr 03 (2) Apr 02 (2) Apr 01 (2) Mar 31 (1) Mar 30 (1) Mar 29 (2) Mar 28 (2) Mar 27 (2) Mar 26 (3) Mar 25 (3) Mar 24 (2) Mar 23 (2) Mar 22 (1) Mar 21 (1) Mar 20 (2) Mar 19 (2) Mar 18 (2) Mar 17 (2) Mar 16 (4) Mar 15 (2) Mar 14 (2) Mar 13 (2) Mar 12 (2) Mar 11 (3) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (3) Mar 08 (2) Mar 07 (1) Mar 06 (2) Mar 05 (3) Mar 04 (3) Mar 03 (8) Mar 02 (2) Mar 01 (1) Feb 28 (2) Feb 27 (4) Feb 26 (1) Feb 25 (1) Feb 24 (2) Feb 23 (2) Feb 22 (4) Feb 21 (2) Feb 20 (2) Feb 19 (2) Feb 18 (2) Feb 17 (2) Feb 16 (2) Feb 15 (1) Feb 14 (1) Feb 13 (1) Feb 12 (2) Feb 11 (1) Feb 10 (2) Feb 09 (1) Feb 08 (1) Feb 07 (1) Feb 06 (1) Feb 05 (5) Feb 03 (1) Feb 02 (1) Feb 01 (1) Jan 31 (4) Jan 30 (4) Jan 29 (4) Jan 28 (2) Jan 27 (5) Jan 26 (5) Jan 25 (5) Jan 24 (3) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (4) Jan 21 (3) Jan 20 (3) Jan 19 (4) Jan 18 (3) Jan 17 (2) Jan 16 (4) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (5) Jan 13 (5) Jan 12 (5) Jan 11 (4) Jan 10 (3) Jan 09 (5) Jan 08 (5) Jan 07 (4) Jan 06 (3) Jan 05 (4) Jan 04 (4) Jan 03 (6) Jan 02 (3) Jan 01 (4) Dec 31 (4) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (5) Dec 28 (5) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (4) Dec 24 (1) Dec 23 (4) Dec 22 (3) Dec 21 (5) Dec 20 (5) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (4) Dec 17 (5) Dec 16 (4) Dec 15 (6) Dec 14 (4) Dec 13 (4) Dec 12 (5) Dec 11 (5) Dec 10 (4) Dec 09 (5) Dec 08 (4) Dec 07 (4) Dec 06 (5) Dec 05 (4) Dec 04 (4) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (3) Nov 30 (4) Nov 29 (4) Nov 28 (5) Nov 27 (4) Nov 26 (4) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (5) Nov 23 (4) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (4) Nov 20 (4) Nov 19 (5) Nov 18 (4) Nov 17 (4) Nov 16 (3) Nov 15 (5) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (4) Nov 12 (4) Nov 11 (4) Nov 10 (3) Nov 09 (3) Nov 08 (3) Nov 07 (4) Nov 06 (4) Nov 05 (4) Nov 04 (3) Nov 03 (2) Nov 02 (3) Nov 01 (4) Oct 31 (3) Oct 30 (4) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (4) Oct 27 (3) Oct 26 (3) Oct 25 (3) Oct 24 (3) Oct 23 (3) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (3) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (3) Oct 18 (3) Oct 17 (3) Oct 16 (4) Oct 15 (5) Oct 14 (3) Oct 13 (6) Oct 12 (4) Oct 11 (4) Oct 10 (3) Oct 09 (3) Oct 08 (3) Oct 07 (3) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (4) Oct 04 (3) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (3) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (3) Sep 29 (3) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (3) Sep 26 (5) Sep 25 (5) Sep 24 (4) Sep 23 (5) Sep 22 (4) Sep 21 (4) Sep 20 (5) Sep 19 (4) Sep 18 (5) Sep 17 (5) Sep 16 (4) Sep 15 (5) Sep 14 (4) Sep 13 (3) Sep 12 (6) Sep 11 (6) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (4) Sep 08 (3) Sep 07 (3) Sep 06 (3) Sep 05 (4) Sep 04 (4) Sep 03 (3) Sep 02 (3) Sep 01 (4) Aug 31 (3) Aug 30 (3) Aug 29 (4) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (4) Aug 26 (3) Aug 25 (4) Aug 24 (4) Aug 23 (3) Aug 22 (3) Aug 21 (3) Aug 20 (5) Aug 19 (4) Aug 18 (3) Aug 17 (3) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (5) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (3) Aug 12 (4) Aug 11 (3) Aug 10 (3) Aug 09 (4) Aug 08 (2) Aug 07 (2) Aug 06 (2) Aug 05 (2) Aug 04 (2) Aug 03 (3) Aug 02 (4) Aug 01 (3) Jul 31 (2) Jul 30 (5) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (3) Jul 27 (3) Jul 26 (3) Jul 25 (6) Jul 24 (3) Jul 23 (4) Jul 22 (4) Jul 21 (4) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (4) Jul 18 (4) Jul 17 (4) Jul 16 (4) Jul 15 (5) Jul 14 (3) Jul 13 (4) Jul 12 (4) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (5) Jul 09 (2) Jul 08 (2) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (2) Jul 05 (2) Jul 04 (3) Jul 03 (4) Jul 02 (5) Jul 01 (3) Jun 30 (2) Jun 29 (3) Jun 28 (4) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (5) Jun 25 (4) Jun 24 (5) Jun 23 (3) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (2) Jun 20 (4) Jun 19 (3) Jun 18 (3) Jun 17 (1) Jun 16 (5) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (2) Jun 13 (5) Jun 12 (4) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (2) Jun 09 (2) Jun 08 (2) Jun 07 (2) Jun 06 (2) Jun 05 (2) Jun 04 (2) Jun 03 (2) Jun 02 (4) Jun 01 (3) May 31 (4) May 30 (5) May 29 (3) May 28 (3) May 27 (3) May 26 (4) May 25 (4) May 24 (2) May 23 (4) May 22 (4) May 21 (5) May 20 (6) May 19 (4) May 18 (3) May 17 (4) May 16 (5) May 15 (6) May 14 (4) May 13 (9) May 12 (4) May 11 (5) May 10 (5) May 09 (4) May 08 (3) May 07 (5) May 06 (3) May 05 (4) May 04 (5) May 03 (1) May 02 (5) May 01 (7) Apr 30 (4) Apr 29 (5) Apr 28 (4) Apr 27 (1) Apr 26 (4) Apr 25 (4) Apr 24 (4) Apr 23 (4) Apr 22 (3) Apr 21 (4) Apr 20 (4) Apr 19 (3) Apr 18 (4) Apr 17 (3) Apr 16 (4) Apr 15 (3) Apr 14 (4) Apr 13 (3) Apr 12 (5) Apr 11 (6) Apr 10 (1) Apr 09 (4) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (4) Apr 05 (5) Apr 04 (1) Apr 03 (3) Apr 02 (4) Apr 01 (3) Mar 31 (1) Mar 30 (3) Mar 29 (4) Mar 28 (3) Mar 27 (4) Mar 26 (2) Mar 25 (4) Mar 24 (6) Mar 23 (5) Mar 22 (5) Mar 21 (4) Mar 20 (6) Mar 19 (5) Mar 18 (4) Mar 17 (4) Mar 16 (4) Mar 15 (4) Mar 14 (3) Mar 13 (4) Mar 12 (4) Mar 11 (5) Mar 10 (4) Mar 09 (5) Mar 08 (5) Mar 07 (5) Mar 06 (3) Mar 05 (4) Mar 04 (3) Mar 03 (3) Mar 02 (5) Mar 01 (4) Feb 28 (2) Feb 27 (3) Feb 26 (3) Feb 25 (3) Feb 24 (4) Feb 23 (4) Feb 22 (3) Feb 21 (4) Feb 20 (4) Feb 19 (3) Feb 18 (3) Feb 17 (3) Feb 16 (5) Feb 15 (4) Feb 14 (3) Feb 13 (4) Feb 12 (3) Feb 11 (3) Feb 10 (4) Feb 09 (4) Feb 08 (3) Feb 07 (4) Feb 06 (3) Feb 05 (3) Feb 04 (3) Feb 03 (5) Feb 02 (4) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (3) Jan 30 (3) Jan 29 (4) Jan 28 (3) Jan 27 (2) Jan 26 (4) Jan 25 (3) Jan 24 (5) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (4) Jan 21 (3) Jan 20 (3) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (3) Jan 16 (4) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (4) Jan 13 (3) Jan 12 (6) Jan 11 (4) Jan 10 (4) Jan 09 (3) Jan 08 (4) Jan 07 (3) Jan 06 (4) Jan 05 (3) Jan 04 (4) Jan 03 (5) Jan 02 (4) Jan 01 (3) Dec 31 (2) Dec 30 (2) Dec 29 (2) Dec 28 (3) Dec 27 (3) Dec 26 (2) Dec 25 (2) Dec 24 (3) Dec 23 (3) Dec 22 (3) Dec 21 (3) Dec 20 (4) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (5) Dec 17 (3) Dec 16 (3) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (2) Dec 11 (6) Dec 10 (4) Dec 09 (4) Dec 08 (6) Dec 07 (5) Dec 06 (3) Dec 05 (3) Dec 04 (4) Dec 03 (3) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (4) Nov 30 (2) Nov 29 (3) Nov 28 (3) Nov 27 (2) Nov 26 (3) Nov 25 (5) Nov 24 (4) Nov 23 (6) Nov 22 (5) Nov 21 (4) Nov 20 (2) Nov 19 (5) Nov 18 (7) Nov 17 (5) Nov 16 (4) Nov 15 (6) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (4) Nov 11 (3) Nov 10 (3) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (3) Nov 07 (2) Nov 06 (2) Nov 05 (2) Nov 04 (4) Nov 03 (4) Nov 02 (4) Nov 01 (2) Oct 31 (3) Oct 30 (4) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (2) Oct 27 (3) Oct 26 (3) Oct 25 (2) Oct 24 (2) Oct 23 (2) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (2) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (3) Oct 18 (2) Oct 17 (2) Oct 16 (2) Oct 15 (2) Oct 14 (4) Oct 13 (2) Oct 12 (3) Oct 11 (2) Oct 10 (2) Oct 09 (4) Oct 08 (4) Oct 07 (4) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (4) Oct 04 (5) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (6) Oct 01 (6) Sep 30 (5) Sep 29 (3) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (7) Sep 26 (4) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (5) Sep 23 (8) Sep 22 (3) Sep 21 (3) Sep 20 (6) Sep 19 (3) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (5) Sep 16 (7) Sep 15 (3) Sep 14 (4) Sep 13 (3) Sep 12 (5) Sep 11 (5) Sep 10 (5) Sep 09 (7) Sep 08 (5) Sep 07 (2) Sep 06 (7) Sep 05 (4) Sep 04 (4) Sep 03 (2) Sep 02 (2) Sep 01 (2) Aug 31 (3) Aug 30 (3) Aug 29 (3) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (3) Aug 26 (4) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (3) Aug 23 (3) Aug 22 (4) Aug 21 (4) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (4) Aug 18 (3) Aug 17 (2) Aug 16 (2) Aug 15 (5) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (5) Aug 12 (10) Aug 11 (5) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (5) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (6) Aug 05 (5) Aug 04 (5) Aug 03 (3) Aug 02 (5) Aug 01 (7) Jul 31 (5) Jul 30 (4) Jul 29 (4) Jul 28 (3) Jul 27 (3) Jul 26 (5) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (5) Jul 23 (5) Jul 22 (7) Jul 21 (5) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (5) Jul 18 (6) Jul 17 (5) Jul 16 (5) Jul 15 (6) Jul 14 (4) Jul 13 (3) Jul 12 (2) Jul 11 (2) Jul 10 (2) Jul 09 (2) Jul 08 (2) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (2) Jul 05 (2) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (3) Jul 02 (2) Jul 01 (8) Jun 30 (6) Jun 29 (4) Jun 28 (6) Jun 27 (6) Jun 26 (6) Jun 25 (6) Jun 24 (6) Jun 23 (4) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (4) Jun 19 (5) Jun 18 (8) Jun 17 (6) Jun 16 (5) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (5) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (4) Jun 11 (6) Jun 10 (4) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (5) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (3) Jun 05 (3) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (3) Jun 02 (3) Jun 01 (4) May 31 (2) May 30 (2) May 29 (2) May 28 (2) May 27 (4) May 26 (4) May 25 (3) May 24 (2) May 23 (2) May 22 (3) May 21 (5) May 20 (4) May 19 (2) May 18 (3) May 17 (3) May 16 (3) May 15 (4) May 14 (5) May 13 (3) May 12 (4) May 11 (3) May 10 (4) May 09 (4) May 08 (4) May 07 (3) May 06 (2) May 05 (3) May 04 (4) May 03 (2) May 02 (3) May 01 (3) Apr 30 (3) Apr 29 (4) Apr 28 (2) Apr 27 (3) Apr 26 (4) Apr 25 (2) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (2) Apr 22 (2) Apr 21 (4) Apr 20 (4) Apr 19 (5) Apr 18 (7) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (10) Apr 15 (5) Apr 14 (3) Apr 13 (4) Apr 12 (5) Apr 11 (4) Apr 10 (4) Apr 09 (7) Apr 08 (4) Apr 07 (7) Apr 06 (4) Apr 05 (7) Apr 04 (5) Apr 03 (4) Apr 02 (5) Apr 01 (5) Mar 31 (5) Mar 30 (5) Mar 29 (7) Mar 28 (6) Mar 27 (5) Mar 26 (5) Mar 25 (6) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (5) Mar 22 (5) Mar 21 (4) Mar 20 (3) Mar 19 (6) Mar 18 (6) Mar 17 (2) Mar 16 (4) Mar 15 (5) Mar 14 (4) Mar 13 (5) Mar 12 (5) Mar 11 (4) Mar 10 (4) Mar 09 (2) Mar 08 (5) Mar 07 (4) Mar 06 (3) Mar 05 (4) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (4) Mar 02 (4) Mar 01 (5) Feb 28 (6) Feb 27 (4) Feb 26 (4) Feb 25 (6) Feb 24 (2) Feb 23 (3) Feb 22 (4) Feb 21 (6) Feb 20 (2) Feb 19 (6) Feb 18 (4) Feb 17 (2) Feb 16 (3) Feb 15 (6) Feb 14 (6) Feb 13 (6) Feb 12 (9) Feb 11 (5) Feb 10 (3) Feb 09 (4) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (7) Feb 06 (3) Feb 05 (4) Feb 04 (5) Feb 03 (4) Feb 02 (3) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (4) Jan 30 (4) Jan 29 (3) Jan 28 (2) Jan 27 (2) Jan 26 (3) Jan 25 (4) Jan 24 (4) Jan 23 (2) Jan 22 (2) Jan 21 (5) Jan 20 (4) Jan 19 (5) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (4) Jan 16 (3) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (3) Jan 13 (3) Jan 12 (3) Jan 11 (2) Jan 10 (8) Jan 09 (6) Jan 08 (2) Jan 07 (2) Jan 06 (3) Jan 05 (2) Jan 04 (2) Jan 03 (2) Jan 02 (2) Jan 01 (2) Dec 31 (2) Dec 30 (3) Dec 29 (3) Dec 28 (3) Dec 27 (2) Dec 26 (2) Dec 25 (2) Dec 24 (2) Dec 23 (2) Dec 22 (2) Dec 21 (2) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (2) Dec 18 (3) Dec 17 (2) Dec 16 (2) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (2) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (3) Dec 11 (3) Dec 10 (5) Dec 09 (3) Dec 08 (3) Dec 07 (2) Dec 06 (3) Dec 05 (3) Dec 04 (5) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (3) Nov 30 (4) Nov 29 (4) Nov 28 (2) Nov 27 (2) Nov 26 (2) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (2) Nov 23 (2) Nov 22 (2) Nov 21 (2) Nov 20 (3) Nov 19 (3) Nov 18 (2) Nov 17 (2) Nov 16 (5) Nov 15 (5) Nov 14 (4) Nov 13 (2) Nov 12 (2) Nov 11 (2) Nov 10 (2) Nov 09 (2) Nov 08 (2) Nov 07 (3) Nov 06 (6) Nov 05 (4) Nov 04 (5) Nov 03 (5) Nov 02 (3) Nov 01 (5) Oct 31 (7) Oct 30 (5) Oct 29 (4) Oct 28 (3) Oct 27 (2) Oct 26 (4) Oct 25 (4) Oct 24 (4) Oct 23 (4) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (2) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (2) Oct 18 (2) Oct 17 (3) Oct 16 (5) Oct 15 (4) Oct 14 (2) Oct 13 (2) Oct 12 (4) Oct 11 (5) Oct 10 (4) Oct 09 (3) Oct 08 (3) Oct 07 (3) Oct 06 (2) Oct 05 (5) Oct 04 (5) Oct 03 (4) Oct 02 (4) Oct 01 (5) Sep 30 (2) Sep 29 (2) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (6) Sep 26 (2) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (3) Sep 23 (2) Sep 22 (2) Sep 21 (2) Sep 20 (2) Sep 19 (3) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (3) Sep 16 (2) Sep 15 (4) Sep 14 (3) Sep 13 (5) Sep 12 (4) Sep 11 (6) Sep 10 (2) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (5) Sep 07 (5) Sep 06 (4) Sep 05 (4) Sep 04 (3) Sep 03 (2) Sep 02 (3) Sep 01 (3) Aug 31 (2) Aug 30 (2) Aug 29 (3) Aug 28 (6) Aug 27 (3) Aug 26 (2) Aug 25 (2) Aug 24 (3) Aug 23 (2) Aug 22 (3) Aug 21 (5) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (3) Aug 18 (2) Aug 17 (5) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (5) Aug 13 (2) Aug 12 (2) Aug 11 (2) Aug 10 (2) Aug 09 (2) Aug 08 (5) Aug 07 (5) Aug 06 (6) Aug 05 (2) Aug 04 (5) Aug 03 (2) Aug 02 (3) Aug 01 (2) Jul 31 (4) Jul 30 (2) Jul 29 (2) Jul 28 (2) Jul 27 (2) Jul 26 (3) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (2) Jul 23 (3) Jul 22 (2) Jul 21 (3) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (2) Jul 18 (3) Jul 17 (4) Jul 16 (5) Jul 15 (2) Jul 14 (3) Jul 13 (2) Jul 12 (3) Jul 11 (2) Jul 10 (2) Jul 09 (2) Jul 08 (2) Jul 07 (2) Jul 06 (2) Jul 05 (2) Jul 04 (2) Jul 03 (2) Jul 02 (2) Jul 01 (3) Jun 30 (3) Jun 29 (7) Jun 28 (3) Jun 27 (2) Jun 26 (3) Jun 25 (1) Jun 24 (2) Jun 23 (3) Jun 22 (5) Jun 21 (3) Jun 20 (2) Jun 19 (2) Jun 18 (2) Jun 17 (2) Jun 16 (2) Jun 15 (2) Jun 14 (2) Jun 13 (3) Jun 12 (3) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (2) Jun 09 (4) Jun 08 (2) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (5) Jun 05 (3) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (2) Jun 02 (2) Jun 01 (4) May 31 (2) May 30 (3) May 29 (3) May 28 (3) May 27 (2) May 26 (2) May 25 (2) May 24 (2) May 23 (2) May 22 (3) May 21 (3) May 20 (2) May 19 (2) May 18 (4) May 17 (7) May 16 (2) May 15 (2) May 14 (4) May 13 (3) May 12 (4) May 11 (4) May 10 (4) May 09 (3) May 08 (2) May 07 (2) May 06 (2) May 05 (1) May 04 (2) May 03 (4) May 02 (3) May 01 (4) Apr 30 (1) Apr 29 (3) Apr 28 (2) Apr 27 (3) Apr 26 (2) Apr 25 (2) Apr 24 (4) Apr 23 (2) Apr 22 (2) Apr 21 (2) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (3) Apr 18 (4) Apr 17 (5) Apr 16 (4) Apr 15 (4) Apr 14 (3) Apr 13 (3) Apr 12 (3) Apr 11 (3) Apr 10 (4) Apr 09 (4) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (2) Apr 06 (3) Apr 05 (3) Apr 04 (1) Apr 03 (1) Apr 02 (1) Apr 01 (2) Mar 31 (2) Mar 30 (3) Mar 29 (2) Mar 28 (3) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (3) Mar 25 (3) Mar 24 (2) Mar 23 (3) Mar 22 (3) Mar 21 (4) Mar 20 (2) Mar 19 (3) Mar 18 (1) Mar 17 (2) Mar 16 (2) Mar 15 (1) Mar 14 (3) Mar 13 (1) Mar 12 (2) Mar 11 (1) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (2) Mar 08 (1) Mar 07 (1) Mar 04 (2) Mar 02 (2) Feb 28 (1) Feb 24 (1) Dec 31 (4) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (4) Dec 28 (5) Dec 27 (3) Dec 26 (3) Dec 25 (4) Dec 24 (3) Dec 23 (3) Dec 22 (4) Dec 21 (3) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (3) Dec 18 (3) Dec 17 (3) Dec 16 (3) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (3) Dec 11 (3) Dec 10 (3) Dec 09 (3) Dec 08 (3) Dec 07 (3) Dec 06 (3) Dec 05 (3) Dec 04 (3) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (3) Nov 30 (3) Nov 29 (3) Nov 28 (3) Nov 27 (3) Nov 26 (3) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (3) Nov 23 (3) Nov 22 (3) Nov 21 (3) Nov 20 (3) Nov 19 (3) Nov 18 (3) Nov 17 (3) Nov 16 (2) Nov 15 (3) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (4) Nov 11 (3) Nov 10 (4) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (4) Nov 07 (3) Nov 06 (3) Nov 05 (5) Nov 04 (4) Nov 03 (3) Nov 02 (4) Nov 01 (4) Oct 31 (4) Oct 30 (3) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (2) Oct 27 (4) Oct 26 (4) Oct 25 (4) Oct 24 (3) Oct 23 (3) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (4) Oct 20 (4) Oct 19 (3) Oct 18 (4) Oct 17 (4) Oct 16 (3) Oct 15 (3) Oct 14 (3) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (3) Oct 11 (3) Oct 10 (4) Oct 09 (3) Oct 08 (3) Oct 07 (4) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (4) Oct 04 (3) Oct 03 (4) Oct 02 (5) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (4) Sep 29 (3) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (4) Sep 26 (3) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (3) Sep 23 (3) Sep 22 (3) Sep 21 (3) Sep 20 (3) Sep 19 (4) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (3) Sep 16 (4) Sep 15 (3) Sep 14 (3) Sep 13 (3) Sep 12 (4) Sep 11 (4) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (4) Sep 08 (4) Sep 07 (3) Sep 06 (3) Sep 05 (3) Sep 04 (3) Sep 03 (3) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (3) Aug 31 (3) Aug 30 (4) Aug 29 (3) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (3) Aug 26 (3) Aug 25 (4) Aug 24 (4) Aug 23 (5) Aug 22 (3) Aug 21 (3) Aug 20 (3) Aug 19 (3) Aug 18 (3) Aug 17 (3) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (3) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (3) Aug 12 (3) Aug 11 (4) Aug 10 (5) Aug 09 (3) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (5) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (3) Aug 03 (3) Aug 02 (3) Aug 01 (3) Jul 31 (3) Jul 30 (4) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (5) Jul 27 (3) Jul 26 (3) Jul 25 (3) Jul 24 (3) Jul 23 (4) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (4) Jul 20 (3) Jul 19 (3) Jul 18 (4) Jul 17 (4) Jul 16 (4) Jul 15 (3) Jul 14 (3) Jul 13 (4) Jul 12 (5) Jul 11 (4) Jul 10 (4) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (3) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (5) Jul 05 (3) Jul 04 (3) Jul 03 (4) Jul 02 (3) Jul 01 (6) Jun 30 (4) Jun 29 (4) Jun 28 (3) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (4) Jun 25 (5) Jun 24 (4) Jun 23 (3) Jun 22 (5) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (4) Jun 19 (4) Jun 18 (5) Jun 17 (4) Jun 16 (5) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (3) Jun 13 (3) Jun 12 (3) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (5) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (4) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (5) Jun 05 (4) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (4) Jun 02 (5) Jun 01 (3) May 31 (4) May 30 (3) May 29 (3) May 28 (3) May 27 (3) May 26 (4) May 25 (4) May 24 (4) May 23 (4) May 22 (3) May 21 (3) May 20 (4) May 19 (3) May 18 (3) May 17 (4) May 16 (3) May 15 (4) May 14 (3) May 13 (4) May 12 (1) May 11 (3) May 10 (3) May 09 (3) May 08 (3) May 07 (4) May 06 (3) May 05 (4) May 04 (4) May 03 (3) May 02 (3) May 01 (6) Apr 30 (3) Apr 29 (3) Apr 28 (3) Apr 27 (5) Apr 26 (3) Apr 25 (3) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (3) Apr 22 (3) Apr 21 (3) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (3) Apr 18 (3) Apr 17 (4) Apr 16 (3) Apr 15 (4) Apr 14 (3) Apr 13 (3) Apr 12 (3) Apr 11 (3) Apr 10 (3) Apr 09 (3) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (3) Apr 05 (3) Apr 04 (3) Apr 03 (3) Apr 02 (3) Apr 01 (3) Mar 31 (3) Mar 30 (3) Mar 29 (3) Mar 28 (4) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (3) Mar 25 (3) Mar 24 (3) Mar 23 (3) Mar 22 (3) Mar 21 (3) Mar 20 (3) Mar 19 (3) Mar 18 (3) Mar 17 (3) Mar 16 (4) Mar 15 (3) Mar 14 (3) Mar 13 (3) Mar 12 (4) Mar 11 (3) Mar 10 (4) Mar 09 (4) Mar 08 (3) Mar 07 (3) Mar 06 (4) Mar 05 (4) Mar 04 (3) Mar 03 (3) Mar 02 (3) Mar 01 (3) Feb 28 (3) Feb 27 (3) Feb 26 (3) Feb 25 (3) Feb 24 (2) Feb 23 (3) Feb 22 (3) Feb 21 (3) Feb 20 (3) Feb 19 (3) Feb 18 (3) Feb 17 (3) Feb 16 (3) Feb 15 (3) Feb 14 (3) Feb 13 (3) Feb 12 (3) Feb 11 (4) Feb 10 (3) Feb 09 (3) Feb 08 (3) Feb 07 (4) Feb 06 (3) Feb 05 (3) Feb 04 (4) Feb 03 (4) Feb 02 (4) Feb 01 (4) Jan 31 (3) Jan 30 (3) Jan 29 (3) Jan 28 (5) Jan 27 (4) Jan 26 (5) Jan 25 (5) Jan 24 (5) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (3) Jan 21 (4) Jan 20 (3) Jan 19 (5) Jan 18 (5) Jan 17 (4) Jan 16 (3) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (3) Jan 13 (5) Jan 12 (5) Jan 11 (4) Jan 10 (4) Jan 09 (3) Jan 08 (3) Jan 07 (3) Jan 06 (3) Jan 05 (3) Jan 04 (4) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (3) Jan 01 (4) Dec 31 (3) Dec 30 (3) Dec 29 (3) Dec 28 (3) Dec 27 (3) Dec 26 (3) Dec 25 (3) Dec 24 (3) Dec 23 (4) Dec 22 (3) Dec 21 (3) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (3) Dec 18 (3) Dec 17 (3) Dec 16 (4) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (3) Dec 11 (4) Dec 10 (3) Dec 09 (3) Dec 08 (3) Dec 07 (3) Dec 06 (4) Dec 05 (3) Dec 04 (3) Dec 03 (3) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (3) Nov 30 (3) Nov 29 (3) Nov 28 (3) Nov 27 (3) Nov 26 (3) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (4) Nov 23 (6) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (5) Nov 20 (4) Nov 19 (4) Nov 18 (4) Nov 17 (4) Nov 16 (3) Nov 15 (2) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (2) Nov 11 (3) Nov 10 (2) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (5) Nov 07 (3) Nov 06 (2) Nov 05 (2) Nov 04 (3) Nov 03 (2) Nov 02 (4) Nov 01 (4) Oct 31 (2) Oct 30 (6) Oct 29 (5) Oct 28 (3) Oct 27 (5) Oct 26 (3) Oct 25 (4) Oct 24 (3) Oct 23 (4) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (5) Oct 20 (4) Oct 19 (4) Oct 18 (4) Oct 17 (3) Oct 16 (2) Oct 15 (3) Oct 14 (3) Oct 13 (2) Oct 12 (2) Oct 11 (2) Oct 10 (3) Oct 09 (4) Oct 08 (2) Oct 07 (2) Oct 06 (2) Oct 05 (3) Oct 04 (2) Oct 03 (4) Oct 02 (3) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (3) Sep 29 (4) Sep 28 (3) Sep 27 (2) Sep 26 (2) Sep 25 (2) Sep 24 (1) Sep 23 (1) Sep 22 (2) Sep 21 (2) Sep 20 (1) Sep 19 (1) Sep 18 (1) Sep 17 (2) Sep 16 (1) Sep 15 (2) Sep 14 (2) Sep 13 (1) Sep 12 (1) Sep 11 (2) Sep 10 (2) Sep 09 (1) Sep 08 (1) Sep 07 (2) Sep 06 (1) Sep 05 (1) Sep 04 (2) Sep 03 (1) Sep 02 (1) Sep 01 (1) Aug 31 (2) Aug 30 (1) Aug 29 (1) Aug 28 (1) Aug 27 (1) Aug 26 (1) Aug 25 (1) Aug 24 (1) Aug 23 (2) Aug 22 (1) Aug 21 (1) Aug 20 (2) Aug 19 (1) Aug 18 (1) Aug 17 (2) Aug 16 (2) Aug 15 (1) Aug 14 (1) Aug 12 (1) Aug 09 (1) Aug 08 (1) Aug 07 (1) Aug 05 (1) Aug 04 (1) Jul 31 (1) Jul 30 (3) Jul 29 (5) Jul 28 (2) Jul 27 (3) Jul 26 (3) Jul 25 (3) Jul 24 (3) Jul 23 (3) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (4) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (3) Jul 18 (4) Jul 17 (6) Jul 16 (5) Jul 15 (3) Jul 14 (4) Jul 13 (4) Jul 12 (4) Jul 11 (3) Jul 10 (4) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (4) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (5) Jul 05 (4) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (4) Jul 02 (5) Jul 01 (3) Jun 30 (4) Jun 29 (6) Jun 28 (4) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (4) Jun 25 (4) Jun 24 (4) Jun 23 (4) Jun 22 (6) Jun 21 (3) Jun 20 (3) Jun 19 (6) Jun 18 (5) Jun 17 (5) Jun 16 (5) Jun 15 (4) Jun 14 (4) Jun 13 (5) Jun 12 (4) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (4) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (3) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (3) Jun 05 (4) Jun 04 (5) Jun 03 (5) Jun 02 (4) Jun 01 (5) May 31 (4) May 30 (4) May 29 (4) May 28 (5) May 27 (5) May 26 (5) May 25 (4) May 24 (5) May 23 (4) May 22 (4) May 21 (3) May 20 (6) May 19 (4) May 18 (4) May 17 (4) May 16 (5) May 15 (3) May 14 (3) May 13 (4) May 12 (3) May 11 (3) May 10 (3) May 09 (3) May 08 (3) May 07 (3) May 06 (3) May 05 (3) May 04 (3) May 03 (3) May 02 (3) May 01 (4) Apr 30 (4) Apr 29 (6) Apr 28 (3) Apr 27 (3) Apr 26 (3) Apr 25 (4) Apr 24 (4) Apr 23 (3) Apr 22 (3) Apr 21 (4) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (3) Apr 18 (3) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (3) Apr 15 (4) Apr 14 (3) Apr 13 (6) Apr 12 (4) Apr 11 (4) Apr 10 (5) Apr 09 (7) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (4) Apr 06 (4) Apr 05 (4) Apr 04 (6) Apr 03 (4) Apr 02 (4) Apr 01 (3) Mar 31 (4) Mar 30 (5) Mar 29 (5) Mar 28 (6) Mar 27 (5) Mar 26 (5) Mar 25 (3) Mar 24 (4) Mar 23 (3) Mar 22 (3) Mar 21 (5) Mar 20 (3) Mar 19 (5) Mar 18 (4) Mar 17 (5) Mar 16 (5) Mar 15 (3) Mar 14 (6) Mar 13 (4) Mar 12 (4) Mar 11 (5) Mar 10 (4) Mar 09 (7) Mar 08 (5) Mar 07 (5) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (4) Mar 04 (4) Mar 03 (4) Mar 02 (6) Mar 01 (4) Feb 28 (4) Feb 27 (4) Feb 26 (5) Feb 25 (4) Feb 24 (5) Feb 23 (5) Feb 22 (6) Feb 21 (6) Feb 20 (3) Feb 19 (6) Feb 18 (7) Feb 17 (4) Feb 16 (5) Feb 15 (7) Feb 14 (5) Feb 13 (5) Feb 12 (6) Feb 11 (8) Feb 10 (4) Feb 09 (6) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (3) Feb 06 (6) Feb 05 (3) Feb 04 (6) Feb 03 (4) Feb 02 (3) Feb 01 (4) Jan 31 (5) Jan 30 (4) Jan 29 (6) Jan 28 (3) Jan 27 (6) Jan 26 (6) Jan 25 (4) Jan 24 (5) Jan 23 (5) Jan 22 (5) Jan 21 (5) Jan 20 (5) Jan 19 (5) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (4) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (5) Jan 13 (3) Jan 12 (4) Jan 11 (5) Jan 10 (3) Jan 09 (6) Jan 08 (5) Jan 07 (4) Jan 06 (5) Jan 05 (6) Jan 04 (4) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (2) Jan 01 (4) Dec 31 (3) Dec 30 (3) Dec 29 (5) Dec 28 (3) Dec 27 (3) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (4) Dec 24 (3) Dec 23 (4) Dec 22 (5) Dec 21 (3) Dec 20 (4) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (7) Dec 17 (5) Dec 16 (5) Dec 15 (5) Dec 14 (5) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (3) Dec 11 (6) Dec 10 (4) Dec 09 (3) Dec 08 (5) Dec 07 (4) Dec 06 (3) Dec 05 (4) Dec 04 (5) Dec 03 (5) Dec 02 (3) Dec 01 (6) Nov 30 (5) Nov 29 (3) Nov 28 (4) Nov 27 (4) Nov 26 (3) Nov 25 (5) Nov 24 (3) Nov 23 (4) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (4) Nov 20 (5) Nov 19 (5) Nov 18 (4) Nov 17 (5) Nov 16 (3) Nov 15 (4) Nov 14 (4) Nov 13 (4) Nov 12 (4) Nov 11 (3) Nov 10 (4) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (3) Nov 07 (5) Nov 06 (4) Nov 05 (4) Nov 04 (5) Nov 03 (4) Nov 02 (3) Nov 01 (4) Oct 31 (3) Oct 30 (5) Oct 29 (4) Oct 28 (5) Oct 27 (5) Oct 26 (4) Oct 25 (3) Oct 24 (3) Oct 23 (5) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (4) Oct 20 (2) Oct 19 (4) Oct 18 (2) Oct 17 (3) Oct 16 (4) Oct 15 (5) Oct 14 (4) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (4) Oct 11 (4) Oct 10 (2) Oct 09 (5) Oct 08 (3) Oct 07 (3) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (5) Oct 04 (3) Oct 03 (6) Oct 02 (4) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (5) Sep 29 (3) Sep 28 (6) Sep 27 (4) Sep 26 (4) Sep 25 (5) Sep 24 (3) Sep 23 (3) Sep 22 (4) Sep 21 (4) Sep 20 (2) Sep 19 (4) Sep 18 (4) Sep 17 (4) Sep 16 (4) Sep 15 (5) Sep 14 (5) Sep 13 (4) Sep 12 (4) Sep 11 (5) Sep 10 (3) Sep 09 (3) Sep 08 (3) Sep 07 (3) Sep 06 (3) Sep 05 (6) Sep 04 (5) Sep 03 (4) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (4) Aug 31 (4) Aug 30 (4) Aug 29 (2) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (2) Aug 26 (3) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (4) Aug 23 (4) Aug 22 (2) Aug 21 (5) Aug 20 (3) Aug 19 (4) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (3) Aug 16 (2) Aug 15 (3) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (4) Aug 12 (3) Aug 11 (4) Aug 10 (3) Aug 09 (3) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (6) Aug 06 (3) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (5) Aug 03 (4) Aug 02 (3) Aug 01 (3) Jul 31 (3) Jul 30 (4) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (4) Jul 27 (4) Jul 26 (3) Jul 25 (3) Jul 24 (4) Jul 23 (3) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (2) Jul 20 (3) Jul 19 (4) Jul 18 (3) Jul 17 (4) Jul 16 (3) Jul 15 (5) Jul 14 (3) Jul 13 (4) Jul 12 (5) Jul 11 (4) Jul 10 (4) Jul 09 (8) Jul 08 (6) Jul 07 (4) Jul 06 (3) Jul 05 (3) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (3) Jul 02 (4) Jul 01 (5) Jun 30 (3) Jun 29 (4) Jun 28 (3) Jun 27 (3) Jun 26 (4) Jun 25 (3) Jun 24 (3) Jun 23 (3) Jun 22 (2) Jun 21 (1) Jun 20 (2) Jun 19 (2) Jun 18 (4) Jun 17 (4) Jun 16 (3) Jun 15 (7) Jun 14 (3) Jun 13 (3) Jun 12 (5) Jun 11 (4) Jun 10 (3) Jun 09 (4) Jun 08 (3) Jun 07 (5) Jun 06 (3) Jun 05 (4) Jun 04 (4) Jun 03 (4) Jun 02 (3) Jun 01 (4) May 31 (3) May 30 (3) May 29 (3) May 28 (3) May 27 (3) May 26 (3) May 25 (4) May 24 (2) May 23 (4) May 22 (3) May 21 (2) May 20 (3) May 19 (2) May 18 (4) May 17 (4) May 16 (3) May 15 (2) May 14 (6) May 13 (4) May 12 (2) May 11 (3) May 10 (2) May 09 (3) May 08 (4) May 07 (4) May 06 (3) May 05 (3) May 04 (4) May 03 (3) May 02 (4) May 01 (3) Apr 30 (2) Apr 29 (5) Apr 28 (2) Apr 27 (2) Apr 26 (3) Apr 25 (3) Apr 24 (4) Apr 23 (4) Apr 22 (2) Apr 21 (3) Apr 20 (2) Apr 19 (3) Apr 18 (5) Apr 17 (4) Apr 16 (3) Apr 15 (2) Apr 14 (4) Apr 13 (5) Apr 12 (3) Apr 11 (3) Apr 10 (5) Apr 09 (4) Apr 08 (4) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (4) Apr 05 (4) Apr 04 (4) Apr 03 (4) Apr 02 (5) Apr 01 (6) Mar 31 (2) Mar 30 (5) Mar 29 (4) Mar 28 (4) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (4) Mar 25 (3) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (3) Mar 22 (4) Mar 21 (3) Mar 20 (3) Mar 19 (5) Mar 18 (3) Mar 17 (5) Mar 16 (2) Mar 15 (4) Mar 14 (4) Mar 13 (2) Mar 12 (4) Mar 11 (5) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (4) Mar 08 (4) Mar 07 (4) Mar 06 (5) Mar 05 (4) Mar 04 (4) Mar 03 (3) Mar 02 (4) Mar 01 (5) Feb 28 (4) Feb 27 (5) Feb 26 (6) Feb 25 (4) Feb 24 (5) Feb 23 (5) Feb 22 (4) Feb 21 (6) Feb 20 (6) Feb 19 (4) Feb 18 (4) Feb 17 (2) Feb 16 (4) Feb 15 (3) Feb 14 (4) Feb 13 (5) Feb 12 (4) Feb 11 (3) Feb 10 (4) Feb 09 (4) Feb 08 (3) Feb 07 (2) Feb 06 (3) Feb 05 (3) Feb 04 (4) Feb 03 (3) Feb 02 (3) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (3) Jan 30 (4) Jan 29 (3) Jan 28 (5) Jan 27 (3) Jan 26 (5) Jan 25 (3) Jan 24 (4) Jan 23 (2) Jan 22 (3) Jan 21 (4) Jan 20 (3) Jan 19 (4) Jan 18 (3) Jan 17 (3) Jan 16 (2) Jan 15 (2) Jan 14 (3) Jan 13 (2) Jan 12 (3) Jan 11 (3) Jan 10 (2) Jan 09 (4) Jan 08 (2) Jan 07 (2) Jan 06 (2) Jan 05 (3) Jan 04 (3) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (3) Jan 01 (1) Dec 31 (2) Dec 30 (2) Dec 29 (2) Dec 28 (2) Dec 27 (2) Dec 26 (2) Dec 25 (1) Dec 24 (2) Dec 23 (4) Dec 22 (3) Dec 21 (2) Dec 20 (1) Dec 19 (2) Dec 18 (3) Dec 17 (2) Dec 16 (2) Dec 15 (4) Dec 14 (2) Dec 13 (1) Dec 12 (3) Dec 11 (2) Dec 10 (2) Dec 09 (2) Dec 08 (3) Dec 07 (2) Dec 06 (1) Dec 05 (2) Dec 04 (1) Dec 03 (2) Dec 02 (2) Dec 01 (2) Nov 30 (2) Nov 29 (3) Nov 28 (2) Nov 27 (2) Nov 26 (1) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (1) Nov 23 (3) Nov 22 (1) Nov 21 (3) Nov 20 (2) Nov 18 (2) Nov 17 (1) Nov 16 (1) Nov 15 (1) Nov 14 (1) Nov 13 (2) Nov 12 (3) Nov 11 (2) Nov 10 (2) Nov 09 (1) Nov 08 (2) Nov 07 (1) Nov 06 (2) Nov 05 (2) Nov 04 (1) Nov 03 (1) Nov 02 (3) Nov 01 (2) Oct 31 (2) Oct 30 (2) Oct 29 (4) Oct 28 (2) Oct 27 (4) Oct 26 (2) Oct 25 (2) Oct 24 (4) Oct 23 (2) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (3) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (1) Oct 18 (3) Oct 17 (3) Oct 16 (2) Oct 15 (1) Oct 14 (2) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (2) Oct 10 (2) Oct 09 (3) Oct 08 (3) Oct 07 (3) Oct 06 (2) Oct 05 (4) Oct 04 (1) Oct 03 (2) Oct 02 (3) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (1) Sep 29 (2) Sep 28 (1) Sep 27 (3) Sep 26 (3) Sep 25 (2) Sep 24 (1) Sep 23 (2) Sep 22 (3) Sep 21 (1) Sep 20 (1) Sep 19 (2) Sep 17 (2) Sep 16 (2) Sep 15 (1) Sep 14 (1) Sep 13 (1) Sep 12 (3) Sep 11 (1) Sep 10 (2) Sep 09 (2) Sep 08 (2) Sep 07 (1) Sep 06 (1) Sep 05 (3) Sep 04 (2) Sep 03 (1) Sep 02 (1) Sep 01 (2) Aug 31 (2) Aug 30 (1) Aug 29 (2) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (2) Aug 26 (1) Aug 25 (1) Aug 24 (2) Aug 23 (2) Aug 22 (1) Aug 21 (1) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (1) Aug 18 (1) Aug 17 (2) Aug 16 (1) Aug 15 (2) Aug 14 (1) Aug 13 (1) Aug 12 (3) Aug 11 (2) Aug 10 (2) Aug 09 (1) Aug 08 (2) Aug 07 (1) Aug 06 (1) Aug 05 (1) Aug 04 (1) Aug 03 (2) Aug 01 (1) Jul 31 (2) Jul 30 (1) Jul 29 (4) Jul 28 (2) Jul 27 (3) Jul 26 (1) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (2) Jul 23 (2) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (1) Jul 20 (3) Jul 19 (2) Jul 18 (2) Jul 16 (3) Jul 15 (1) Jul 13 (2) Jul 12 (1) Jul 11 (2) Jul 09 (5) Jul 08 (1) Jul 07 (1) Jul 05 (2) Jul 04 (1) Jul 03 (2) Jul 01 (1) Jun 30 (1) Jun 29 (2) Jun 28 (2) Jun 27 (2) Jun 25 (2) Jun 24 (1) Jun 23 (2) Jun 22 (2) Jun 20 (1) Jun 17 (4) Jun 16 (1) Jun 15 (1) Jun 14 (3) Jun 12 (1) Jun 11 (1) Jun 08 (1) Jun 07 (1) Jun 05 (1) Jun 04 (1) Jun 03 (1) Jun 01 (1) May 31 (1) May 27 (2) May 25 (2) May 24 (1) May 23 (2) May 22 (1) May 21 (1) May 20 (2) May 19 (1) May 18 (1) May 17 (2) May 14 (1) May 13 (1) May 11 (2) May 10 (2) May 09 (1) May 07 (2) May 06 (1) May 05 (1) May 04 (1) May 03 (3) May 02 (1) May 01 (1) Apr 29 (1) Apr 28 (1) Apr 27 (1) Apr 25 (2) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (1) Apr 22 (2) Apr 21 (2) Apr 20 (1) Apr 19 (2) Apr 17 (1) Apr 15 (1) Apr 13 (1) Apr 10 (2) Apr 08 (1) Apr 07 (1) Apr 06 (3) Apr 05 (3) Apr 03 (1) Apr 02 (1) Apr 01 (2) Mar 31 (2) Mar 30 (1) Mar 29 (1) Mar 28 (1) Mar 25 (1) Mar 24 (1) Mar 22 (2) Mar 21 (1) Mar 20 (1) Mar 18 (1) Mar 17 (2) Mar 16 (1) Mar 14 (2) Mar 13 (4) Mar 12 (1) Mar 11 (1) Mar 10 (1) Mar 06 (4) Mar 05 (1) Mar 04 (1) Mar 03 (2) Mar 02 (2) Mar 01 (2) Feb 28 (2) Feb 27 (1) Feb 26 (1) Feb 25 (1) Feb 23 (2) Feb 19 (2) Feb 13 (1) Feb 12 (1) Feb 02 (1) Jan 31 (1) Jan 22 (1) Jan 18 (1) Jan 16 (1) Jan 09 (1) Jan 01 (1) Dec 20 (2) Dec 15 (1) Dec 13 (1) Dec 11 (1) Nov 30 (1) Nov 27 (1) Nov 20 (1) Nov 11 (1) Nov 10 (1) Oct 23 (1) Oct 20 (1) Oct 01 (1) Sep 30 (1) Sep 29 (1) Sep 24 (2) Sep 15 (1) Sep 13 (1) Sep 12 (1) Sep 08 (1) Sep 02 (2) Aug 31 (1) Aug 28 (1) Aug 27 (2) Aug 24 (1) Aug 21 (1) Aug 20 (1) Aug 18 (3) Aug 16 (1) Aug 15 (1) Aug 14 (1) Aug 11 (1) Aug 08 (1) Aug 07 (1) Aug 03 (1) Jul 27 (1) Jul 26 (1) Jul 24 (1) Jul 22 (1) Jul 21 (1) Jul 19 (1) Jul 15 (1) Jul 14 (1) Jul 13 (3) Jul 10 (1) Jul 08 (2) Jul 07 (1) Jul 06 (1) Jul 03 (1) Jul 01 (1) Jun 28 (1) Jun 24 (2) Jun 20 (1) Jun 19 (1) Jun 18 (1) Jun 15 (1) Jun 14 (2) Jun 11 (1) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (1) Jun 07 (1) Jun 06 (1) Jun 04 (2) Jun 03 (1) Jun 02 (2) Jun 01 (1) May 31 (3) May 30 (1) May 29 (1) May 28 (2) May 26 (1) May 25 (1) May 18 (1) May 17 (1) May 15 (1) May 09 (1) May 07 (2) May 02 (1) May 01 (1) Apr 30 (1) Apr 27 (1) Apr 26 (2) Apr 23 (1) Apr 22 (1) Apr 19 (1) Apr 18 (1) Apr 12 (1) Apr 11 (1) Apr 09 (1) Apr 07 (1) Apr 05 (1) Apr 01 (1) Mar 30 (1) Mar 27 (1) Mar 25 (1) Mar 22 (2) Mar 19 (1) Mar 18 (1) Mar 16 (1) Mar 15 (2) Mar 13 (1) Mar 12 (1) Mar 11 (1) Mar 10 (1)
Online Survey Software Market - Primary Research,Trends, Analysis,Forecast 2017 - 2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=2348

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=2348

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=D&rep_id=2348

Global Online Survey Software Market: OverviewThe ever-changing consumer behaviour patterns and the increasing need among sellers to understand it has largely fueled the growth of the global online survey software market. The growing e-commerce activity that is indicative of the fluctuating and changing consumer spending habits can be effectively scrutinized through online survey software. Widespread internet penetration and the improving access to high-speed internet have drastically propelled the demand for online products and services. Additionally, the increasing expenditure on online marketing have resulted in surveys being conducted to allow companies to reach out to a wider audience in the remotest areas. All of these factors will be collectively responsible for the soaring revenues of the global online survey software market in the near future.Global Online Survey Software Market: Key TrendsThe global online survey software market is likely to witness intense competition in the coming years due to a presence of large number of national and international players in the market. These companies are expected to compete on the basis of technologies, product differentiation, services, quality, and price modeling among others. The geographical reach of these companies is also projected to be instrumental in defining the growth of the global online survey software market.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Currently, the key users of global online survey software are market research firms, manufacturing units, financial services, and the retail sector. Of these, the market research firms hold a lions share in the global market and are expected to dominate in the revenue contributions in the coming years as well. Market research firms extensively use online software solutions, implementation of advanced software, data analytics tools, cloud-based online survey software, along with other features to implement web-based surveys for qualitative and quantitative analysis for various products and services. Analysts project that advantages such as efficient management of complex market research projects, swift data collection, ability to collect responses from global respondents, and tremendous help in generating accurate report based on the collected information is making these software famous amongst market research firms.Request TOC of the Report @Global Online Survey Software Market: Market PotentialExpansion is expected to be an important move for several online survey software companies. For instance, US-based Qualtrics stated that it intends to expand to Asia Pacific region along with its plans to tap into the Australian market. In line with this move, the company plans to open offices in Brisbane, Singapore, and Japan in the coming few years. The talk about Qualtrics going public has also been going around in the industry. Qualtrics recently announced the launch of its new product, the XM Platform, which brings together brand, product, employee, and customer experience to help users understand their consumers better.Global Online Survey Software Market: Regional OutlookFrom a geographic point of view, the global online survey software market is segmented into the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific. The Americas held a dominant share in the global market in 2016. The region is estimated to continue its dominance in the coming years due to a high adoption rate of technology. Users are opting for cloud-based online surveys as opposed to on-premise methods due to their convenience and ease of access. The online survey software market in the Americas will also be propelled by the strong presence of leading players in the region.Get Discount @Key Players Mentioned in this Report are:Some of the leading players operating in the global online survey software market are CloudCherry, Getfeedback, Campaign Monitor, Medallia, Inqwise, QuestionPro, SoGoSurvey, Toluna, Zoho, SurveyGizmo, Confirmit, Qualtrics, and SurveyMonkey.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Signaling Analyzer Market 2017 Historical Analysis and Leaders: Agilent Technologies, Viavi Solutions, Texas Instruments, Yokogawa Electric, Anritsu, National Instruments

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/4464

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/signaling-analyzer-market-4464

Market Research Future published a research report on Signaling Analyzer Market Research Report- Global Forecast 2023  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Market HighlightsIn this rapidly changing world of technology, signaling analyzer market is projected to show major growth prospects during the forecast period. Major factor driving the signaling analyzer market is the rising demand for wireless technologies and hence growing demand for spectrum analyzers. Growing demand from IT and telecommunication sector is one major factor driving the growth of signaling analyzer market. Signal analyzers help in optimizing and troubleshooting complex mobile networks and also help in detecting any problems with the same.The global Signaling Analyzer Market, by geography, has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the World. As compared to other regions, the signaling analyzer market in North America is expected to witness significant growth and hold the largest market share during the forecast period. U.S and Canada are anticipated to drive the growth of signaling analyzer market. This is owing to the presence of large number of established key players like Agilent Technologies, Tektronics, Viavi Solutions and Texas Instruments in that region. Agilent Technologies is the first to add LTE and SAE technology to real time signaling analyzer. Viavi solutions has also launched its signaling analyzer for LTE with 3G capabilities. In addition to this, the region also has a well-established infrastructure which allows higher penetration of devices and ultimately provides better connectivity. Increasing demand for signaling analyzer in IT and telecommunications sector is expected to be one major factor for the growth of signaling analyzer market.In the global signaling analyzer market, Asia Pacific is anticipated to witness relatively faster adoption and is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period as compared to other regions. Within Asia Pacific, signaling analyzer market is projected to contribute faster to the growth of revenue backed by increasing demand for spectrum analyzers from various industry verticals in countries such as Japan, China, South Korea and India. This is owing to the presence of key players like Anritsu Corporation and Yokogawa Electric Corporation in the region.Get Sample of Report @The signaling analyzer market is growing rapidly over 11% of CAGR and is expected to reach at approx. USD 1,790 Million by the end of forecast period.Key Players:The prominent players in signaling analyzer market are  Agilent Technologies (U.S.), Tektronics (U.S.), Viavi Solutions (U.S.), Texas Instruments (U.S.), Keithley Instruments (U.S.), Yokogawa Electric Corporation (Japan), Anritsu Corporation (Japan), Rohde & Schwarz (U.S.), National Instruments Corporation (U.S.), Rigol Technologies (China) among others.Segments:Signaling analyzer market can be segmented on the basis of following:By Product Offering Real Time Software Analysis Data Access Interface Card Data Access Traffic Storage AgentBy Technology LTE Voice/Video Over Wi-Fi UMTS, HSPA & HSPA+ GSM, GPRS & EDGE OthersBy Vertical Automotive & Transportation Aerospace & Defense IT & Telecommunication Medical & Healthcare OthersRegional Analysis:The regional analysis of signaling analyzer market is being studied for regions such as Asia Pacific, North America, Europe and Rest of the World. It has been observed that North America market is estimated to account for the largest share of the market, whereas Asia-Pacific market is projected to grow at the fastest rate during the forecast period. The major growth in signaling analyzer market in North America market is attributed to technological advancements and increasing demand for signaling analyzer across various industry verticals in that region.Get Complete Report @Intended Audience Technology Investors Research/Consultancy Firms Government Bodies Consumers IT & Telecommunication Companies Software Providers Technology Providers Software VendorsAbout Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Ice Maker Market Boosted By Rising Demand of Ice From Healthcare Industry & Expanding Fast Food Chains Worldwide Till 2021 | Million Insights

Million Insights - World's Fastest Growing Market Research Database

https://www.millioninsights.com/industry-reports/ice-maker-market?utm_source=Pressrelease&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=Openpr_Dec20&utm_content=content

https://www.millioninsights.com/industry-reports/ice-maker-market/request-sample

https://www.millioninsights.com/industry/machinery-and-machine-parts

The global Ice Maker market research report is classified on the basis of product type, end-users and geography. An ice maker is a device for making ice, found inside a home freezer, a stand-alone appliance or an industrial machine for making ice on a large scale. The size of an ice maker basically depends on its requirement. A typical ice maker consists of a control module, motor, thermostat, heater terminal, valves, and blades.The primary factor that propels the market growth includes expanding fast food chains all over the world. There is an increased requirement to store perishable items, mainly food and food ingredients. Moreover, there is an increased intake of beverages which require ice. Furthermore, butcher shops also require ice in order to display fresh meat, seafood, and fish.In addition, the healthcare industry also significantly fuels the global market growth owing to increase in life expectancy. The healthcare industry increasingly uses ice maker machines for several critical applications such as storing organs and for rehabilitation procedures.Full Research Report On Global Analysis available at:Furthermore, a number of biotechnology, biochemistry, microbiology, and genetic engineering laboratories also have a continuous need for ice to store biological samples and permit transportation to other facilities. On the basis of product type, the Ice Maker market is classified as ice cube, ice flake, and ice nugget.Among the product type, ice cube market is projected to hold a large share of the Ice Maker market. The key factor that fuels the growth of this segment is owed to the its extensive used in the food and service industry. On the basis of end-users, the Ice Maker market is classified as food and services, healthcare, retail outlets/grocery stores, and residential users. Among the end-users, food and services segment is expected to account a major share of the global market.The key factor that drives the growth of food and services segment is owed to the ever increasing number of restaurants, bistros and eateries all over the world. They need ice in several forms such as cubes or flakes for their day-to-day processes, which comprise storage of food and food ingredients and serving outdoor food.On the basis of geography, the market research report is classified as North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East and Africa.The North American region consists of the U.S. and Canada. Latin America region consists of Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others. The Western European region consists of Germany, England, France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The Eastern European region consists of Poland and Russia. Asia Pacific region consists of China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand. Middle East and Africa region consists of GCC, Southern Africa, and North Africa.In case of geographical region, North America is projected to account for a dominant share of the global market. The key factors that attribute to the significant growth of ice maker market in North America is due to the presence of large number of restaurants, rise in outdoor eating habits of people, and presence of well-known retail chains and supermarkets.On the other hand,Asia Pacific marketis expected to grow considerably during the forecast period due to the rapid development of the food service industry.Some of key players mentioned in the global market report include Hoshizaki, Ice-O-Matic, Manitowoc Ice and Scotsman Ice Machines. The other prominent players operating in the global market report include Bionics Scientific Technologies, Brema Ice Makers, Cornelius, Electrolux, Follett, Howe, KOLD-DRAFT, MAJA, and Telstar.This report studies Ice Maker in Global market, especially in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India, focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with Production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, covering Hoshizaki Ice-O-Matic Manitowoc SCOTSMAN Cornelius MaxxIce Newair SPT WhynterRequest for Free Sample at:Market Segment by Regions, this report splits Global into several key Region, with production, consumption, revenue, market share and growth rate of Ice Maker in these regions, from 2011 to 2021 (forecast), like North America China Europe Japan India Southeast AsiaSplit by product type, with production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, can be divided into Type I Type II Type IIISplit by application, this report focuses on consumption, market share and growth rate of Ice Maker in each application, can be divided into Application 1 Application 2 Application 3Related Reports of this Category available at Million Insights:About Million InsightsMillion Insights, is a distributor of market research reports, published by premium publishers only. We have a comprehensive market place that will enable you to compare data points, before you make a purchase. Enabling informed buying is our motto and we strive hard to ensure that our clients get to browse through multiple samples, prior to an investment. Service flexibility & the fastest response time are two pillars, on which our business model is founded. Our market research report store, includes in-depth reports, from across various industry verticals, such as healthcare, technology, chemicals, food & beverages, consumer goods, material science & automotive.Contact Details:Office No. 302, 3rd Floor, Manikchand Galleria,Model Colony, Shivaji Nagar, Pune, MH, 411016 IndiaPhone: 91-20-65300184Email: sales@millioninsights.com
Big Data Analytics Market Size 2017 Global Trends and Leaders: IBM, Teradata, VMware, Tableau Software, SAP SE, Oracle, Microsoft, Google, Datameer

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/4503

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/big-data-analytics-market-4503

Market Research Future published a research report on Big Data Analytics Market Research Report  Global Forecast up to 2023  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Market ScenarioThe market for big data analytics is growing at a significant rate and includes many new entrants in the big data analytics market majorly in Customer analytics and content analytics solutions due to higher demand of e  commerceBig data is generally termed as large and varied sets of data and examining the data for identifying customer trends and preferences, data patterns, relations for the companies to take better business decisions. Companies use advances analytics techniques for large, and diversified data sets, allowing the researchers, analysts and business owners to make decisions based on the data that was previously inaccessible. Big data comprises of software and hardware components and the data set ranges from Megabytes to Terabytes. A many number of companies are investing in the big data analytics, which has led banking and manufacturing industry to invest more in big data analytics majorly due to security and compliance issues. Many other industries other than banking and manufacturing are more inclined towards finding the customer experience information to better use the data for customer retention and customer delight.The Big Data Analytics Market is segmented on the basis of components, solutions, end users and regions. On the basis of components, the segmentation is further divided into software and hardware which is further divided under reporting and analytics and data warehouse management system on the basis of software component. In this segments, software components lead the market share however the hardware by the component follows the segment with a nominal growth.Get Sample of Report @Key Players:The big data analytics market holds some of the major players like IBM Corporation (U.S.), Teradata Corporation (U.S.), VMware, Inc (U.S.), Tableau Software (U.S.), SAP SE (Germany), Oracle Corporation (U.S.), Pentaho (U.S.) Microsoft Corporation (U.S.), Google Inc (U.S.), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (U.S), Datameer (U.S.).Segmentation:On the basis of solutions, the segment is divided under fraud detection, risk management, customer analytics, and content analytics. Most of the telecommunication industry and media industry are intended towards customer analytics and content analytics solutions for customer experience for new customer acquisition, retention and loyalty. The customer analytics is at the center of telecommunication industry for investments in big data analytics.On the basis of end users, the segmentation is done on the basis of Banking, discrete manufacturing, process manufacturing, government, telecom, insurance, transportation and utilities. Out of these, Banking, discrete manufacturing, process manufacturing are investing highly in the big data analytics with the focus on risk management, fraud prevention and security and compliance issues. Banking, manufacturing and government will account for approximately 50 % of the spending in the data analytics market.The competitive landscape of the big data analytics market is formed by some major players and many of the new entrants. The leaders constantly keep innovating for the new technology and investing in research and development for the cost effective portfolio. The big data analytics market has driven many end users like insurance, banking, media, telecommunication, and government.The Big Data Analytics Market is expected to reach approximately USD 275 billion by the end of 2023 with approximately 12% CAGR during the forecasted period from 2017  2023.Regional AnalysisThe market for big data analytics is divided under North America, Asia pacific, Europe and rest of the world under the region. The North America, especially United States is leading and will continue to lead the market for investments in the big data analytics with more than 80% investments from the region. Another reason for the increased market growth in the North American region is due to the concentration of the large big data companies in the U.S. following U.S is the Europe and Asia pacific region in terms of the investments in big data.The competitive landscape of the big data analytics market is formed by some major players and many of the new entrants. The leaders constantly keep innovating for the new technology and investing in research and development for the cost effective portfolio. The big data analytics market has driven many end users like insurance, banking, media, telecommunication, and government.Get Complete Report @Intended Audience Storage chipset providers Network Security providers Banking Institutions Insurance providers Research firms Software investors Software Developers IT enablers Database Cloud service providers Wireless service providers Government agencies Telecommunication companiesAbout Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst membersMedia Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.com
Surgical Stapling Devices Market - Leading Players,Growth,Forecast 2017 - 2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=2354

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=2354

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=D&rep_id=2354

Global Surgical Stapling Devices Market: OverviewThe global gastrointestinal stents market is expected to show a steady growth in the coming years. The growing concerns about obesity and options of bariatric procedures are expected to favor market growth in the coming years. The growing popularity of endoscopic procedures and availability of technologically advanced surgical devices, especially for tissue and wound management have largely encouraged the growth of the global market in recent years. Rapid developments in technology, well-established healthcare infrastructure in developed parts of the world, and growing demand for powered surgical instruments have been identified as the underlying factors likely to define the trajectory of the global market in the coming years.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Surgical Stapling Devices Market: Key TrendsBesides being used in bariatric procedures, surgical stapling devices are also used in cardiothoracic, orthopedic, and skin grafting procedures. The high incidences for these types of surgeries is expected augment the demand for various types of surgical stapling devices in the near future. The unfortunate rise in the number of emergency cases has also led to skyrocketing demand for powered surgical staplers.Analysts expect that the demand for disposable staples will continue to be high in the coming years as they eliminate the possibility of cross-infection that can be caused by medical devices. The demand for disposable staples will also rise as they can be safely used in case of patients who suffer from allergies to nickel or other metals.Global Surgical Stapling Devices Market: Market PotentialProduct innovation is expected to be the key strategies of the companies operating in the global surgical stapling devices market. Furthermore, a supportive stance of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in granting approvals to these staples is also expected to play a key role in availability of the newer medical devices in the market. For instance, ECHELON CIRCULAR Powered Stapler got the 510(k) clearance from the U.S. FDA. This stapler has been developed to cut down the incidences of anastomotic complications that can occur during gastric, colorectal, and thoracic cancer surgeries. The new technology is aimed at reducing leakages by 61% s without compromising the perfusion. Such innovations and product enhancements are expected to give the patients a better quality of life.Request TOC of the Report @Global Surgical Stapling Devices Market: Regional OutlookFrom a geographic point of view, the global surgical stapling devices market is segmented into the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific. Of these, the Americas is expected to lead the global market in the coming years with the highest CAGR. The high prevalence of gastrointestinal disorders and growing incidences of chronic conditions amongst people such as rectal cancer, colon cancer, and other wide range of severe abdominal diseases are expected to propel the uptake of surgical stapling devices in the region.Analysts expect Asia Pacific surgical stapling devices market to make a significant contribution to the soaring revenue of the global market. The emerging medical tourism industry in the region along with vast unmet medical needs are expected to be the key factors likely to bolster the growth of this regional market.Get Discount @Key Players Mentioned in this Report are:Some of the leading players operating in the global surgical stapling devices market are Intuitive Surgical, Inc., Covidien (Medtronic plc), Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc., United States Surgical Corp, Cardica, Inc., Zimmer Biomet, Smith & Nephew plc, Stryker Corporation, Conmed Corporation, and CareFusion Corporation.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Image Guided Surgery Devices Market will value US$4,998.2 mn in 2025

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pressrelease/image-guided-surgery.htm

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=2541

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/report-toc/2541

The rising healthcare awareness, coupled with willingness to spend on advanced treatment will trigger growth in the global image guided surgery devices market. As a result of expansion reported over the years, the market is likely to witness higher competition in the near future. Besides toying with various policies to strengthen their global footprint, several market players are likely to take on strategic collaborations to attain sustainable growth in the global image guided surgery devices market. Transparency Market Research (TMR) has identified Olympus Corporation, GE Healthcare, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Siemens Healthineers, Brainlab AG, Analogic Corporation, Varian Medical Systems, Inc., KARL STORZ GmbH & Co. KG, Stryker, and Medtronic as some of the prominent companies operating in the market. Strategies aimed at business expansion adopted by these companies are likely to exert considerable influence on the markets future trajectory.According to TMR, the global image guided surgery devices market will value US$4,998.2 mn in 2025, as against its valuation of US$3,068.9 mn in 2016. Therefore, between 2017 and 2025, the global image guided surgery devices market is likely to report a CAGR of 5.7%. Regionally, the rising demand for minimally invasive surgeries and various other factors have put North America at the markets fore in 2016. Besides this, TMR forecasts positive outlook for the market in Europe and Asia Pacific. Based on end user, the hospitals segment accounted for the highest share in the global image guided surgery devices market in 2016. global image guided surgery devices marketReport Overview @Demand for Precise Diagnosis to Increase Uptake of Image Guided Surgery Devices Image guided surgery devices facilitate accurate and precise diagnosis, thus bolstering the overall treatment procedure. Because of high level accuracy these devices offer, their usage has significantly increased during surgeries. Besides this, image guided devices are used as navigation systems as they guide doctors during the planning or a surgery and assist surgeons while performing one. Various factors are supporting the markets expansion. For instance, the growing awareness regarding advanced technologies and devices has helped the market gain momentum. In addition, the market is likely to gain impetus in response to the increase willingness among patients and their families to spend on minimally invasive surgeries. Furthermore, the rising incidence of cancer, ENT problems, and osteoporosis is likely to fuel the demand for surgery devices. Also, the market will significantly benefit from technological advancements in healthcare facilities.Rising Incidence of Chronic Ailments to Exert Positive Influence The escalating global population will have a positive impact on the overall market. Extensive care often become a necessity for elderly population. With age humans grow more vulnerable to illnesses. Also their low immunity level extends the recovery time in case of diseases. Considering this, in the coming years the demand for effective diagnosis and therapies is likely to get stoked in the healthcare sector. This in turn will pave way for the global image surgery devices markets robust growth in the near future.Request Sample Report @While developed regions will continue offering lucrative prospects, the market will gain major impetus across emerging nations. In countries such as India and China, the market witnesses major growth potential. This is due to the expansion of the healthcare industry and rising government investment toward sophisticating their healthcare infrastructure. Furthermore, medical devices can be manufactured at a reduced cost in emerging nations, without compromising on quality, which is a key factor behind the gradual shift of leading vendors towards emerging nations. However, due to lack of awareness, these companies may find it difficult to penetrate in remote areas, which could restrain the markets growth to an extent. Nonetheless, government initiatives taken to educate and make people living in the rural areas aware about widespread diseases and their possible treatments will enable growth in the global image guided surgery devices market in the coming years.Request to Browse Full Table of Content, figure and Tables @Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Transparency Market ResearchState Tower90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453
Global Digital Camera Market Overview 2017, Demand by Regions, Types and Analysis of Key Players

http://www.imarcgroup.com/request?type=report&id=877&flag=B

http://www.imarcgroup.com/digital-camera-market

http://www.imarcgroup.com/robotics-market

http://www.imarcgroup.com/radio-advertising-market

www.imarcgroup.com

The global digital camera market has witnessed a marginal growth over the years. This can be accredited to the increasing penetration of smartphones among consumers coupled with a lack of innovation and consumer engagement by the manufacturers.Request a sample report:The latest report by IMARC Group, titled Digital Camera Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2017-2022, finds that the global digital camera market reached a value of US$ 7.3 Billion in 2016. A digital camera is a device in which photographic images and videos are recorded and stored in a digital form. It is user-friendly, economical and eliminates the need to develop the film. Digital camera offers a variety of functions like removable memory card, auto focus, best-shot selector, aperture or shutter priority, panorama assist, digital zoom, etc. However, with the emergence of high-resolution camera in smartphones there has been a threat to the demand for digital cameras as users can use their easily accessible mobile devices for capturing images.Highlights of the global digital camera market:The increasing adoption of smartphone by consumers is the key factor restraining the market growth.Asia Pacific represents the largest market, accounting for the majority of the total share.The United States is the largest importer and China is the largest exporter.The rising usage of smartphones with internet connectivity which enables the users to upload the pictures on social networking sites represents the major factor hampering the global digital camera market. Additionally, the demand for digital camera in the developed countries is reaching maturity due to high ownership level of digital cameras coupled with a sluggish economic growth. Further, on account of minimal consumer engagement and a lack of innovation, the customers are no longer willing to buy new models of digital cameras, thereby limiting the growth of the digital camera market globally. Owing to these factors, the global digital camera market is further expected to reach a value of US$ 5.4 Billion by 2022, exhibiting a CAGR of nearly 5% during 2017-2022.The market is segmented on the basis of type into built-in lens cameras, interchangeable lens cameras, compact digital cameras, bridge cameras, digital single lens reflex (SLR) cameras, digital rangefinders, line-scan camera systems, integration camera and water-resistant cameras. Region-wise, Asia Pacific currently accounts for the majority of the global share, dominating the market. Other major regions include Europe, North America, Middle East and Africa, and Latin America. On analysing the import-export scenario, the United States is the largest importer and China is the largest exporter of digital cameras. On evaluating the competitive landscape of the market, it is found that the key players are Canon, Inc., Nikon Corporation, Sony Corporation, Panasonic Corporation and Olympus Corporation.Read full report with TOC:The report by IMARC Group has examined the global digital camera market on the basis of:Type:Built-in lens CamerasInterchangeable lens camerasCompact Digital CamerasBridge CamerasDigital Single Lens Reflex (SLR) CamerasDigital RangefindersLine-scan Camera SystemsIntegration CameraWater-resistant CameraRegion:Asia PacificEuropeNorth AmericaMiddle East and AfricaNorth AmericaKey Players:Canon, Inc.Nikon CorporationSony CorporationPanasonic CorporationOlympus CorporationBrowse related reports:Robotics Market:Global Radio Advertising Market:About usIMARC Group is a leading market research company that offers management strategy and market research worldwide. We partner with clients in all sectors and regions to identify their highest-value opportunities, address their most critical challenges, and transform their businesses.IMARCs information products include major market, scientific, economic and technological developments for business leaders in pharmaceutical, industrial, and high technology organizations. Market forecasts and industry analysis for biotechnology, advanced materials, pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, travel and tourism, nanotechnology and novel processing methods are at the top of the companys expertise.Contact usIMARC Group309 2nd St, Brooklyn, NY 11215, USAWebsite:Email: sales@imarcgroup.comUSA: +1-631-791-1145Follow us on twitter: @imarcglobal
4 Elements to a Motivating Life

www.trginternational.com

https://www.trginternational.com/

We all probably more than once felt like we are at the bottom of a pit, felt lost and had no willingness to get out of it. We all have experienced bad day, everything was just dull and grey. More often than not, this is the time we would feel the most negative about life, we would most likely to give up and call it quit at this point. When you are facing a situation like this, what should you do to keep your mind free of negative thoughts, to keep your motivation level high and to keep thinking positively?The fundamentals of motivation and self-motivationTo simply put, motivation is the desire or willingness to do something. Your motivation level can be affected by intrinsic (internal) factors, such as your love for your job, or extrinsic (external) factors, you work because of the rewards you will get.Self-motivation is the force from within yourself that drives you to do things. Self-motivation plays an important role in an individuals personal development as well as emotional intelligence. When you feel motivated, you tend to be more productive, more creative, you feel less stressed and more energised. Research has shown that people who are constantly self-motivated can be more successful in life and dare to achieve their dreams.Build and retain self-motivationBy committing to following the below four basic principles, you will be able to build and retain your own self-motivation.Focus and strong goalsSetting specific goals will give us a clear vision as well as guidance. It is also worth noted that it is much better if you focus on a few goals at a time and actually achieve it instead of overwhelming yourself with everything and not getting anywhere.Self-confidence/ Self-efficacyTrust yourself and your abilities because without confidence, without the You can do it mentality, it would be rather hard to convince others to put their trust in you.A motivating environmentImmerse yourself in an environment that stimulates motivation or finding a mentor, a role model that can help guide you through your adventure of finding yourself.Positive thinkingA positive emotion might not help you to change the world, but when coupling it with self-motivation, you definitely can identify more opportunities and options in life. When you are feeling positive, you are more motivated to learn and to obtain new skills or further enhance your existing ones. Furthermore, a positive perspective generally makes life easier, causes less stress, and you tend to take care of yourself better and you can recover from an illness faster.Just like with skills, positive thinking and self-motivating can be trained and turned into a daily habit. You just got to find the suitable method that fits your needs and wants and apply that to your work and life.Apply the power of positive thinking in your day-to-day activities1. Write down your thoughts throughout the day2. Challenge negative thoughts & replace them with positive ones3. Visualise yourself achieving your goals4. Develop affirmations (mantras) & repeat to yourself throughout the day. These affirmations should remind you of what you want to achieve, and why you will achieve it5. Practice positive thinking until you automatically think about yourself and the world in a positive way, every day6. A positive manager would see the goodness in any bad situation, and generally, their employees would feel much more comfortable interacting with this type of manager.ABOUT TRG INTERNATIONALTRG International is an IT, Talent and F&B company. We help people and businesses to shine. We help people be the best they can possibly be by selecting the right people for the right job and developing them to their full potential. We help companies by providing an IT solution that works quietly and brilliantly in the background, freeing them up to focus on their core and not having to worry about their IT systems. We do this for more than 1,000 clients in 80 countries. Learn more at:Contact-Details: Ngoc DoanPR Communication Officer2nd Floor, 145  147 Nguyen Co Thach Street, An Loi Dong Ward, District 2Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnamngoc.doan@trginternaltional.com2nd Floor, 145  147 Nguyen Co Thach Street, An Loi Dong Ward, District 2
LNG Bunkering Market Trend Growth Forecast Analysis Report 2016-2023

http://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/download-sample-22038

http://www.decisiondatabases.com/contact/buy-now-22038

www.decisiondatabases.com

DecisionDatabases.com offer LNG Bunkering Market Research Report. This Report covers the complete Industry Outlook, Growth, Size, Share and Forecast till 2023. The report on global LNG bunkering market evaluates the growth trends of the industry through historical study and estimates future prospects based on comprehensive research. The report extensively provides the market share, growth, trends and forecasts for the period 2016-2023. The market size in terms of volume (KT) and revenue (USD MN) is calculated for the study period along with the details of the factors affecting the market growth (drivers and restraints).Get FREE Sample Report Copy With FULL Segmentations and TOC @The Strict government norms and Growing number of seaborne trade are the major factors pushing the market uphill. But high initial investment might restraint the growth in the coming years.Furthermore, the report quantifies the market share held by the major players of the industry and provides an in-depth view of the competitive landscape. This market is classified into different segments with detailed analysis of each with respect to geography for the study period 2016-2023. The comprehensive value chain analysis of the market will assist in attaining better product differentiation, along with detailed understanding of the core competency of each activity involved. The market attractiveness analysis provided in the report aptly measures the potential value of the market providing business strategists with the latest growth opportunities.The report also covers the complete competitive landscape of the worldwide market with company profiles of key players such as Barents Naturgass As, Bomin Linde LNG GmbH & Co. KG, Engie SA, Eni Norge AS, Gasnor As, Harvey Gulf International Marine Llc., Korea Gas Corp, Polskie LNG SA, Skangas AS, and Statoil ASA. Geographically, this market has been segmented into regions such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Middle East & Africa. The study details country-level aspects based on each segment and gives estimates in terms of market size.Major Table Of Contents:1. Introduction2. Executive Summary3. Market Analysis4. LNG Bunkering Market Analysis By End-Use5. LNG Bunkering Market Analysis By Geography6. Competitive Landscape Of The LNG Bunkering Companies7. Company Profiles Of The LNG Bunkering Industry (Company Overview, Financial, Major Products & Recent Development)Purchase Complete Global LNG Bunkering Market Research Report:About Us:DecisionDatabases.com is a global business research reports provider, enriching decision makers and strategists with qualitative statistics. DecisionDatabases.com is proficient in providing syndicated research report, customized research reports, company profiles and industry databases across multiple domains.Our expert research analysts have been trained to map clients research requirements to the correct research resource leading to a distinctive edge over its competitors. We provide intellectual, precise and meaningful data at a lightning speed.3rd Floor, Fountain chambers,Nanabhai Lane, Fort, Mumbai - 1E-Mail: sales@decisiondatabases.comPhone: +91 99 28 237112Web:
Global Aerosol Market Research and Analysis, 2015-2022

http://www.omrglobal.com/industry-reports/aerosol-market/

INCREASING DEMAND FOR AEROSOLS IN HEALTHCARE AND PERSONAL CARE INDUSTRY IS AUGMENTING THE GROWTH OF THE GLOBAL AEROSOL MARKETIndore, Oct, 2017: Orion Market Research (OMR), recently published a market research report on the Global Aerosol market According to OMR analysis, the Global Aerosol Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7% during the forecast period (2017-2022). The market is segmented on the basis of application and region. The report provides detailed and insightful chapters, which include market overview, key findings, analyst insights, strategic recommendations, market determinants, key company analysis, market insights, company profiling, market segmentation, geographical analysis, and predictive analysis of the market.Full report of Global aerosol Market is available at:The Global aerosol market is growing considerably due to the increased application of aerosols in a diversity of applications. The personal care segment represents the leading area of the aerosol application. The personal care segment products include hair care and body care products. Medical and pharmaceutical aerosols are estimated to be the fastest growing segments during the forecast period due to the rising aerosol-based medical products flooding the market. The key players in the global aerosols market include Akzo Nobel, BASF coatings, DuPont Coatings and color technologies, Colep UK, Global Fragrances Pvt. Ltd., Coster Technologies, Honeywell International, Kansai Paints, LMA, Uniliver, and Proctor & Gamble.With the rise in the asthma incidences across the globe, the demand for medical aerosols is further increasing. The Aerosol-based pharmaceutical products include pressurized metered dose inhalers (MDIs), aerosol coolants, aerosol disinfectants, and aerosol anaesthetics. Asthma and COPD account for high healthcare expenditure and premature death. The prevalence of asthma varies from approximately 1% in some countries such as Indonesia to over 30% in the U.K, New Zealand, and Australia. Inhalation aerosols deliver the drug directly to the nasal mucosa of nose. Examples for inhalation or nasal aerosol products contain steroids beclomethasone dipropionate, dexamethasone sodium phosphate, triamcinolone acetonide and budesonide. For animal healthcare and wellbeing, veterinary aerosols are also available. The demand for topical aerosols is triggered for applying aerosols in a convenient manner on affected area. Vaginal and rectal aerosols, which have also been introduced in the market includes commercially available aerosol foams containing estrogenic substances and contraceptive agents. Hence, the aerosol market is anticipated to gain significant traction during the forecast period.Geographically, the market is divided into North America, Europe, Asia pacific, and rest of the world. Asia pacific is growing at a very fast pace majorly due to lenient regulations, together with growing demand for personal and household products and increasing healthcare expenditures. North America is leader in this market due to more health consciousness population and more healthcare expenditure in the region.The report covers:Comprehensive research methodology of Global Aerosol MarketIn-depth analysis of macro and micro factors influencing the market guided by key recommendationsAnalysis of regional regulations and other government policies impacting the Global Aerosol MarketInsights about market determinants which are stimulating the Global Aerosol MarketDetailed and extensive market segments with regional distribution of forecasted revenuesExtensive profiles and recent developments of market playersAbout Orion Market Research:Orion Market Research (OMR) is an Indian research company known for its crisp and concise reports. The company is equipped with an experienced team and young brigade of analysts. The company provides quality syndicated research reports, customized research reports, company profiling, consulting and other research-based services. OMR provide global and regional market reports of various domains such as healthcare, energy, IT, chemicals, and automobiles. The company provides a 360-degree view of the market with parametric analysis, key market insights, key findings, statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, extensive segmentation, key trends, strategic recommendations and detailed company profiles.At OMR we strive to deliver quality reports that are based on a 360 degree analysis of the market factors. We provide qualitative and quantitative analysis of the market. We serve clients from 16 different domains which includes healthcare, biotechnology, chemical, agriculture and information technology. We work to add more to our array of clients, services and products. At the moment OMR provides 4 services:Industry ReportsConsultingCustom ReportsCompany ProfilingOrion Market Research (OMR) is an Indian research company known for its crisp and concise reports.We Analyze Future SimplyCORPORATE OFFICE:Orion Market Research Pvt Ltd116, Shagun ArcadeIndore, Madhya PradeshIndia- 452010Email: info@omrglobal.comPhone No. +91-731-4958007Mobile No. +917803040404
Wood Preservative Chemicals with Best Scope and Growth on Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025

https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1279337

https://www.researchmoz.us/wood-preservative-chemicals-market-global-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2017-2025-report.html/toc

"Wood Preservative Chemicals Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025" The Report covers current Industries Trends, Worldwide Analysis, Global Forecast, Review, Share, Size, Growth, Effect.. .Description-' '  Global Wood Preservative Chemicals Market: Overview Wood preservative chemicals are chemicals that are applied on wood for preserving it from various organisms such as termites, ants, insects, fungi and other microbes. The product prevents the wood from decay, decomposition and degradation problem. The major products which are available as wood preservative chemicals are chromated arsenicals, creosote, copper based, zinc based and others. The wood preservative chemical is also available by various technologies such as waterborne, oil borne, organic solvent borne and others. Wood preservative chemicals find application in various industries from furnitures to construction, etc.. .Get Sample Report @' '  Global Wood Preservative Chemicals Market: Scope of Study The report estimates and forecasts the wood preservative chemicals market on the global, regional, and country levels. The study provides forecast between 2017 and 2025 based on volume (Kilo Tons) and revenue (US$ Mn) with 2016 as the base year. The report comprises an exhaustive value chain analysis for each of the product segments. It provides a comprehensive view of the market. Value chain analysis also offers detailed information about value addition at each stage. The study includes drivers and restraints for the wood preservative chemicals market along with their impact on demand during the forecast period. The study also provides key market indicators affecting the growth of the market. The report analyzes opportunities in the wood preservative chemicals market on the global and regional level. Drivers, restraints, and opportunities mentioned in the report are justified through quantitative and qualitative data. These have been verified through primary and secondary resources.The report includes Porters Five Forces Model to determine the degree of competition in the wood preservative chemicals market. The report comprises a qualitative write-up on market attractiveness analysis, wherein applications and countries have been analyzed based on attractiveness for each region. Growth rate, market size, raw material availability, profit margin, impact strength, technology, competition, and other factors (such as environmental and legal) have been evaluated in order to derive the general attractiveness of the market. The report comprises price trend analysis for wood preservative chemicals between 2017 and 2025.  Global Wood Preservative Chemicals Market: Research Methodology Secondary research sources that were typically referred to include, but were not limited to company websites, financial reports, annual reports, investor presentations, broker reports, and SEC filings. Other sources such as internal and external proprietary databases, statistical databases and market reports, news articles, national government documents, and webcasts specific to companies operating in the market have also been referred for the report.In-depth interviews and discussions with a wide range of key opinion leaders and industry participants were conducted to compile this research report. Primary research represents the bulk of research efforts, supplemented by extensive secondary research. Key players product literature, annual reports, press releases, and relevant documents were reviewed for competitive analysis and market understanding. This helped in validating and strengthening secondary research findings. Primary research further helped in developing the analysis teams expertise and market understanding.  Global Wood Preservative Chemicals Market: Market Segmentation The study provides a comprehensive view of the wood preservative chemicals market by dividing it on the basis of end-use and geography segments. The wood preservative chemicals market has been segmented into furniture & decking, marine, construction and others based on end-use. End-users segment have been analyzed based on historic, present, and future trends.Regional segmentation includes the current and forecast demand for wood preservative chemicals in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa (MEA). Additionally, the report comprises country-level analysis in terms of volume and revenue for application segments. Key countries such as the U.S., Canada, Germany, France, the U.K., Spain, Italy, India, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Mexico, and Brazil have been included in the study. Market segmentation includes demand for individual applications in all the regions and countries.  Global Wood Preservative Chemicals Market: Competitive Outlook The report covers detailed competitive outlook that includes market share and profiles of key players operating in the global market. Key players profiled in the report includes BASF SE, Koppers Inc., Lonza Group, Lanxess, Troy Corporation, Safeguard Europe Ltd., Rutgers Organics GmbH, Rio Tinto Borates, Kurt Obermeier GmbH and others. Company profiles include attributes such as company overview, number of employees, brand overview, key competitors, business overview, business strategies, recent/key developments, acquisitions, and financial overview (wherever applicable).  The global wood preservative chemicals market has been segmented as follows: Wood Preservative Chemicals Market  Product AnalysisChromated ArsenicalsCreosoteCopper BasedAlkaline Copper QuarternaryAmmoniacal Copper ArseniteCopper AzoleCopper NapthenateOthersZinc BasedOthers Wood Preservative Chemicals Market  Technology AnalysisWaterborneOil borneOrganic Solvent borneOthers Wood Preservative Chemicals Market  End-user AnalysisFurniture & DeckingMarineConstructionOthers Wood Preservative Chemicals Market  Regional AnalysisNorth AmericaU.S.CanadaEuropeGermanyFranceU.K.ItalySpainRest of EuropeAsia PacificChinaIndiaJapanAustralia & New ZealandASEANRest of Asia PacificMiddle East & AfricaGCCSouth AfricaRest of Middle East & AfricaLatin AmericaBrazilMexicoRest of Latin America. .More Clear Details get Table of Contents @ResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Researchmoz Global Pvt. Ltd.90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United States,Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free),Tel: +1-518-621-2074
Global with Best Scope and Growth on Market Study on Human Insulin: Asia Pacific to Witness fastest Growth by 2020

https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=320834

https://www.researchmoz.us/global-market-study-on-human-insulin-asia-pacific-to-witness-fastest-growth-by-2020-report.html/toc

"Global Market Study on Human Insulin: Asia Pacific to Witness fastest Growth by 2020" The Report covers current Industries Trends, Worldwide Analysis, Global Forecast, Review, Share, Size, Growth, Effect.. .Description-' ' Diabetes refers to a group of metabolic disease characterized by high blood sugar level. It occurs due to inadequate secretion of insulin inside the pancreas. Some of the common symptoms for diabetes are frequent urination, excessive thirst, increased hunger, weight loss and tiredness. Type 1, type 2 and gestational diabetes are three common types of diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease occurred due to high blood glucose level whereas, type 2 diabetes is a lifelong chronic disease caused due to excess secretion of insulin inside the body. Type 2 diabetes is the common form of diabetes. Diabetes is more common in aged people; however, its prevalence is steadily increasing in adults and children. Severe problems such as blindness, kidney failure, coronary heart disease and strokes may result due to lack of proper treatment of diabetes. It also causes blindness, amputation, and kidney failure. Diabetes can be treated by maintaining appropriate levels of insulin in the body. Insulin helps control blood glucose levels and subsequently drives energy for the proper execution of all cellular and biological activities.. .Get Sample Report @' ' North America dominates the global market for human insulin due to large number of aging the population, increasing prevalence of diabetes and diabetes-related disorders. In addition, availability of technological advanced human insulin infusion devices is also boosting the growth of the market. Asia Pacific is expected to show fast growth rates in the next five years in the global human insulin market. China and India are expected to be the fastest-growing human insulin markets in the Asia Pacific region. In addition, the human insulin market in Japan is also growing due to rising number of R&D investment and availability of large number of drug manufacturing companies. Some of the key driving forces for human insulin market in emerging countries are rise in disposable income, large pool of patients and increasing awareness about diabetes and diabetes-related disorders. In recent times, there is increased the use of human insulin due to rise in aging population. Increasing prevalence of diabetes and rising number of lifestyle related disorders such as obesity are also fuelling the growth of the global human insulin market. On the other hand, strict regulatory requirements for drug approval and uneven pricing and limited access to human insulin in emerging countries are restraining the growth of the human insulin market. In addition, increasing usage of insulin pen for infusion of human insulin is a recent market trend in the global human insulin market. Strong pipeline and development of molecules from newer class of diabetes drugs would be an opportunity for the growth of the global human insulin market. Maintaining safety and security of patients while using infusion devices could be a challenge for the growth of the global human insulin market. This report provides in-depth analysis and estimation of the human insulin market for the period 2014 to 2020, considering 2013 as the base year for calculation. In addition, data pertaining to current market dynamics, including market drivers, restraints, trends, and recent developments, has been provided in the report. The human insulin market is categorized on the basis of the type of insulin, diseases and geography. Based on the type of human insulin, the market comprises traditional and modern human insulin. Traditional human insulin is further categorized into short acting, intermediate acting and premixed human insulin. Modern human insulin is further categorized into rapid acting, long acting and premixed insulin. On the basis of diseases, the market comprises type 1 and type 2 diabetes. On the basis of geography, the report identifies and analyzes the market size and predictions for North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World (RoW). Some of the major players in the human insulin market are Novo Nordisk A/S, Eli Lilly and Company, Sanofi, Biocon, Tonghua Dongbao Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Adocia, Merck & Co., Inc., Pfizer, Inc., Wockhardt, Julphar, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Oramed Pharmaceuticals, Inc. These key market players have been profiled on the basis of attributes such as company overview, recent developments, growth strategies, sustainability, and financial overview.  Some of the major players in the human insulin market: Novo Nordisk A/S.Eli Lilly and Company.Sanofi.Biocon.Tonghua Dongbao Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.Adocia, Merck & Co., Inc.Pfizer, Inc.Wockhardt.Julphar.Bristol-Myers Squibb Company.GlaxoSmithKline Plc.Oramed Pharmaceuticals, Inc.Other.These key market players have been profiled on the basis of attributes such as company overview, recent developments, growth strategies, sustainability, and financial overview.. .More Clear Details get Table of Contents @ResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Researchmoz Global Pvt. Ltd.90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United States,Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free),Tel: +1-518-621-2074
Marine, Aviation and Transit Insurance in Ukraine Market 2017By Identifying the Key Market Segments Poised for Strong Growth in Future 2021

MARINE, AVIATION AND TRANSIT INSURANCE IN UKRAINE MARKET

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/2646092-marine-aviation-and-transit-insurance-in-ukraine-to-2021-market-size

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/conferences

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/seminars

WiseGuyReports published new report, titled Marine, Aviation and Transit Insurance in UkraineSynopsis"Marine, Aviation and Transit Insurance in Ukraine to 2021: Market Size, Growth and Forecast Analytics" contains detailed historic and forecast data covering Marine, Aviation and Transit Insurance in Ukraine. This databook provides values for key performance indicators such as policies and premiums (gross written premiums, direct written premiums, net written premiums, net earned premiums, net written premiums (% of GWP) and insurance penetration (ratio of direct premiums to GDP)), claims & expenses (gross claims, paid claims, change in outstanding reserves, incurred loss and loss ratio (%)) and segmented by product type (Marine (marine hull & marine liability), Aviation (aviation hull & aviation liability) and Transit).The research handbook provides the up-to-date market data for period 2012-2016 and illustrative forecast to 2021. Values in the handbook are depicted in USD ($) and local currency by country and number of active policies are represented in millions.GET SAMPLE REPORT @SummaryMAT includes insurance policy which covers the risk of damage to ships, airplanes and their hull or other parts and the damage of goods in transportation either through land or sea or air. It also covers the risk of liability arising out of operation of aircraft and ship.The total amount of gross written premiums in the marine, aviation and transit insurance in Ukraine is valued at UAHx.xx billion (US$xxx.xx Billion) in 2016, which is an increase of xxx.xx% from 2012. The category has recorded a CAGR of xx.xx% during the review period (2012-2016).Marine, Aviation and Transit Insurance in Ukraine to 2021: Market Size, Growth and Forecast Analytics provides a top-level overview and detailed insight into the operating environment of Insurance industry in Ukraine. It is an essential tool for companies active across the Ukraine value chain and for new players considering to enter the market.ScopeMarine, Aviation and Transit Insurance in Ukraine to 2021: Market Size, Growth and Forecast Analytics provides you with the following: Overall values of policies and premiums and claims & expenses in the Marine, Aviation and Transit Insurance Values of policies and premiums by product type (Marine (marine hull & marine liability), Aviation (aviation hull & aviation liability) and Transit)Key points Understand the non-life insurance industry covering marine, aviation and transit insurance life in Ukraine. Enhance your knowledge of the market with a breakdown of data including gross written premiums, direct written premiums, net written premiums, net earned premiums, net written premiums (% of GWP) and insurance penetration (ratio of direct premiums to GDP), gross claims, paid claims, change in outstanding reserves, incurred loss and loss ratio (%) and segmented by product type [Marine (marine hull & marine liability), Aviation (aviation hull & aviation liability) and Transit] Allows you to plan future business decisions using the forecast figures given for the segment. The broad but detailed perspective will help all the companies in the Insurance industry to understand and succeed in the challenging market.Table of Contents1 Introduction2 Marine, Aviation and Transit Insurance3 Marine, Aviation and Transit Insurance - by Product Type4 Appendix..CONTINUEDFor accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest insights and key developments in the area of your interest, we also have a list of conferences in which you will be interested in, for more information, cordially checkFor updating knowledge or for thoroughly understanding various terminologies, we also have vast list of seminars for your reference, for more information cordially checkWise Guy Reports understand how essential statistical surveying information is for your organization or association. Therefore, we have associated with the top publishers and research firms all specialized in specific domains, ensuring you will receive the most reliable and up to date research data available. We also provide COTS (Commercial off the Shelf) business sector reports as custom exploration agreeing your particular needs.WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Dairy Alternatives Market Will Reach Value of US$ 9,570 Mn by 2022

Market Research Report Search Engine

https://www.mrrse.com/sample/3558

https://www.mrrse.com/global-dairy-alternatives-market

https://www.mrrse.com/enquiry/3558

https://www.mrrse.com/

https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/

Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has been serving as an active source to cater intelligent research report to enlighten both readers and investors. This research study titled Dairy Alternatives Market: North America to dominate the market throughout the assessment period: Global Industry Analysis (2012 - 2016) & Opportunity Assessment (2017 - 2022).Click here For Free Sample Report @The dairy alternatives market is growing at a steady pace the world over. The prime reasons for this are the increased consumer awareness coupled with a changing way of life and increased awareness about wellbeing, mainly concerned with the weight management and sugar level control in the body.Other important reason for the boost in the dairy alternatives market is the growing lactose intolerance and milk allergy amongst the masses. In addition, with the increase in the incidences of gastrointestinal diseases, consumers are sidestepping dairy products and this is the reason for the growth of the dairy alternatives market. Moreover, increased disposable income and rising population, especially in developing nations present a huge opportunity for the dairy alternatives market. Some of the people prefer vegan food, and therefore dont drink milk sourced from mammals and prefer plant based milk. Also, some people prefer alternate forms of milk, such as plant based milk for the taste. However, the main limitation affecting the market for dairy alternatives is that the price of alternative milk is higher in comparison to conventional milk. This is hurting the market growth, especially in the developing countries, where people are more concerned about the price.Dairy alternatives are meant to provide an alternative in the form of a liquid to replace the milk sourced from a mammal. This alternative milk in liquid form is whitish in colour and contains similar amount of nutrients like proteins and other vitamins as milk. Such type of dairy alternatives are used to replace milk in tea, coffee or in a recipe.This Future Market Insights report on the global dairy alternatives market forecasts that the global dairy alternatives market will reach a value of nearly US$ 9,570 Mn in the year 2022 and grow at a robust CAGR during the forecast period.To Know The latest Trends and Insights Prevalent in This Market, Click the link below:North America Market Set to Dominate the Global Dairy Alternatives Market in Terms of RevenueThe market in North America is set to dominate the global dairy alternatives market in terms of value and this trend is projected to sustain itself throughout the assessment period. North America Dairy alternatives market is the most attractive market, growing at a robust CAGR over the assessment period.Plain Sweetened Product Type Segment Poised to Touch a Value of Nearly US$ 3,500 Mn in 2022As per the Future Market Insights assessment, the plain sweetened product type segment is expected to reach a value of nearly US$ 3,500 Mn in 2022. This signifies a robust CAGR during the forecast period of 2017-2022. Plain sweetened product type segment is expected to account for more than one-third of the revenue share of the product type segment by the year 2017 and is expected to gain market share by the end of the year 2022.Cheese and Cheese Products Segment to exhibit a CAGR of 7.2% During the Assessment PeriodAs per the assessment of Future Market Insights, the cheese and cheese products segment is slated to touch a figure of nearly US$ 3,225 Mn in the year 2022. This represents a CAGR of 7.2% during the assessment period from 2017 till the year 2022. This segment is expected to gain market share by the end of the year 2022. The cheese and cheese products segment is expected to account for more than one-third of the revenue share of the application segment by the year 2017.Make An Enquiry @About Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:
Health Insurance in Peru Market 2017- By Plan Future Business Decisions Using the Forecast Figures 2021

Health Insurance in Peru

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/2646102-health-insurance-in-peru-to-2021-market-size-growth-and-forecast-analytics

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/conferences

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/seminars

WiseGuyReports published new report, titled Health Insurance in PeruSynopsis"Health Insurance in Peru to 2021: Market Size, Growth and Forecast Analytics" contains detailed historic and forecast data covering Health Insurance in Peru. This databook provides values for key performance indicators such as policies and premiums (gross written premiums, direct written premiums, net written premiums, net earned premiums, net written premiums (% of GWP), insurance penetration (ratio of direct premiums to GDP) and number of active policies), claims & expenses (gross claims, paid claims, change in outstanding reserves, incurred loss and loss ratio (%)) .The research handbook provides the up-to-date market data for period 2012-2016 and illustrative forecast to 2021. Values in the handbook are depicted in USD ($) and local currency by country and number of active policies are represented in millions.GET SAMPLE REPORT @SummaryA health insurance policy offered as a rider along with a life or non-life insurance policy by an accident and health insurer licensed as life or non-life insurer, for covering the medical expenses of individual or group of peopleThe total amount of gross written premiums in the health insurance in Peru is valued at PENxxx.xx billion (US$xxx.xx Billion) in 2016, which is an increase of xx.xx% from 2012. The category has recorded a CAGR of xx.xx% during the review period (2012-2016).Health Insurance in Peru to 2021: Market Size, Growth and Forecast Analytics provides a top-level overview and detailed insight into the operating environment of Insurance industry in Peru. It is an essential tool for companies active across the Peru value chain and for new players considering to enter the market.ScopeHealth Insurance in Peru to 2021: Market Size, Growth and Forecast Analytics provides you with the following: Overall values of policies and premiums and claims & expenses in the Health InsuranceKey points Understand the personal accident and health insurance industry covering health insurance life in Peru. Enhance your knowledge of the market with a breakdown of data including gross written premiums, direct written premiums, net written premiums, net earned premiums, net written premiums (% of GWP), insurance penetration (ratio of direct premiums to GDP) and number of active policies. Allows you to plan future business decisions using the forecast figures given for the segment. The broad but detailed perspective will help all the companies in the Insurance industry to understand and succeed in the challenging market.Table of Contents1 Introduction2 Health Insurance3 Appendix..CONTINUEDFor accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest insights and key developments in the area of your interest, we also have a list of conferences in which you will be interested in, for more information, cordially checkFor updating knowledge or for thoroughly understanding various terminologies, we also have vast list of seminars for your reference, for more information cordially checkWise Guy Reports understand how essential statistical surveying information is for your organization or association. Therefore, we have associated with the top publishers and research firms all specialized in specific domains, ensuring you will receive the most reliable and up to date research data available. We also provide COTS (Commercial off the Shelf) business sector reports as custom exploration agreeing your particular needs.WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Fairly Traded Global Market 2017: Key Players Nestle, Tate & Lyle, Monsanto, Vanini, Lundberg Family Farms

Fairly Traded

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1224100-trendsights-analysis-fairly-traded-understanding-consumers-attitudes-about-social-justice-and

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/1224100-trendsights-analysis-fairly-traded-understanding-consumers-attitudes-about-social-justice-and

www.linkedin.com/company/4828928

https://twitter.com/WiseGuyReports

https://www.facebook.com/Wiseguyreports-1009007869213183/?fref=ts

Summary"TrendSights Analysis: Fairly Traded - Understanding consumers' attitudes about social justice and brands", examines what Fairly Traded means as a consumer trend and why it is important, who are likely to be the target audience, how FMCG brands can best capitalize on the trend, and what will be the future outlook for the trend.GET SAMPLE REPORT @Companies mentionedNestleTate & LyleMonsantoVaniniLundberg Family FarmsBen & Jerry'sFair Squared CondomsL'OccitaneThe Body ShopAlter Eco OrganicCoco CommunityRossmannMongozoFairKomBrewChaSeepjeGizeh XLPeamuttThe Fairly Traded trend is growing because of consumer concern over harmful business practices in modern supply chains. As a result, this has encouraged the development of alternative trade organizations and business models based on philosophical ideals of social justice, fairness, and welfare. This has created a grassroots movement for fair and ethical business practices to address humane issues such as population displacement, poor working conditions, and exploitation in the FMCG market.Scope- 40% of global consumers look for products with fair-trade credentials most or all the time when shopping.- 70% of global consumers have favorable perceptions of grocery products with ethical claims.- 48% of consumers in developed economies say that they will boycott a brand that does not reflect their values.- 54% of women, globally, like to buy food and drink products that are reflective of their attitudes and opinions in life.Reasons to buy- Understand which audiences are most affected by the Fairly Traded trend.- Compare the presence of this trend in each industry across the FMCG space, and learn what the key opportunities are.- See the actions that major brands are taking to get ahead of the greater interest in wellbeing.Table of Content: Key Points1. Trend snapshot2. What?3. Why?4. Who?5. How?6. What next?7. AppendixContinuedACCESS REPORT @Get in touch:LinkedIn:Twitter:Facebook:Wise Guy Reports understand how essential statistical surveying information is for your organization or association. Therefore, we have associated with the top publishers and research firms all specialized in specific domains, ensuring you will receive the most reliable and up to date research data available. We also provide COTS (Commercial off the Shelf) business sector reports as custom exploration agreeing your particular needs.WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Dec, 20 2017: Coverslipper Market Forecast 2023 Sakura Finetek, Leica, Police Microbial, General Data

Coverslipper

http://bit.ly/2kkovZS

http://www.spiremarketresearch.com/global-coverslipper-market-2017-size-share-research-demand-and-forecast-to-2022

http://www.spiremarketresearch.com

Coverslipper Market Research 2017A market study "Global Coverslipper Market" examines the performance of the Coverslipper market 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Coverslipper market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Coverslipper market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Coverslipper Market 2017 report includes Coverslipper market Revenue, market Share, Coverslipper industry volume, market Trends, Coverslipper Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Coverslipper Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Coverslipper Market 2017 : Leica Thermo Scientific Dako Sakura Finetek General Data MEDITE Police MicrobialCoverslipper Market : By Application Hospital Research InstituteCoverslipper Market : By Type 400 Slides/h 600 Slides/hFirstly, the report covers the top Coverslipper manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Coverslipper report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Coverslipper industry, Coverslipper industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Coverslipper Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Coverslipper 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 Coverslipper market revenue worldwide.Finally, Coverslipper 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
Algorithm Trading - Growing Trend in Algorithmic Trading Market by Top Manufacturers with Production, Price, Revenue and Market Share for Each Manufacturers

ReportsWeb

http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW00011241712/sample

http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW00011241712/buying

http://www.reportsweb.com/algorithmic-trading-market

Global Algorithmic Trading Market Report 2017-2025 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.FREE | Request Sample Copy is Available atThe report firstly introduced the Algorithmic Trading basics: definitions, classifications, applications and market overview, product specifications, manufacturing processes, cost structures, raw materials and so on. Then it analyzed the world's main region market conditions, including the product price, profit, capacity, production, supply, demand and market growth rate and forecast etc. In the end, the report introduced new project SWOT analysis, investment feasibility analysis, and investment return analysis. Global Algorithmic Trading Market competition by top manufacturers with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturers.Global Algorithmic Trading Market Top Players1. AlgoTrader GmbH2. Trading Technologies International, Inc.3. InfoReach, Inc.4. Tethys Technology, Inc.5. Lime Brokerage LLC6. FlexTrade Systems, Inc.7. Tower Research Capital LLC8. Virtu Financial9. Hudson River Trading LLC10. Citadel LLCInquire about this Report atObjectives of Algorithmic Trading Market Report To provide overview of the global Algorithmic Trading market To analyze and forecast the global Algorithmic Trading market on the basis of components, application, size and technology To provide market size and forecast till 2025 for overall Algorithmic Trading market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA), and South America (SAM), which are later sub-segmented across respective major countries To evaluate market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend To provide exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions To profiles key Algorithmic Trading players influencing the market along with their SWOT analysis and market strategiesKey Insight of Algorithmic Trading Market- Historical and Future Market- Supply and Demand- Price and Cost- Drivers and Challenges- Key Vendors- Market Strategies- Industry Value Chain- RegionsComplete Report is Available atContact Us:Phone: +1-646-491-9876Email Id: sales@reportsweb.comAbout ReportsWeb:ReportsWeb is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers.533, 5th Floor, Amanora Chambers,Amanora Township, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Dec, 20 2017: Small Li-ion Battery Market Forecast 2023 Lishen, EnerDel, Coslight, Electrovaya

Small Li-ion Battery Market

http://bit.ly/2kMgWdP

http://www.spiremarketresearch.com/global-small-li-ion-battery-market-2017-size-share-research-demand-and-forecast-to-2022

http://www.spiremarketresearch.com

Small Li-ion Battery Market Research 2017A market study "Global Small Li-ion Battery Market" examines the performance of the Small Li-ion Battery market 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Small Li-ion Battery market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Small Li-ion Battery market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Small Li-ion Battery Market 2017 report includes Small Li-ion Battery market Revenue, market Share, Small Li-ion Battery industry volume, market Trends, Small Li-ion Battery Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Small Li-ion Battery Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Small Li-ion Battery Market 2017 : Samsung SDI Panasonic Corp. LG Chem Ltd ATL Sony Build Your Dreams (BYD) Lishen China BAK Battery Coslight Maxell EVE Energy Shandong Heter Lampson Electronic Electrovaya EnerDel HYB BatterySmall Li-ion Battery Market : By Application Consumer Electronics Medical and Healthcare AutomotiveSmall Li-ion Battery Market : By Type Cylindrical Square Flexible PackagingFirstly, the report covers the top Small Li-ion Battery manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Small Li-ion Battery report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Small Li-ion Battery industry, Small Li-ion Battery industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Small Li-ion Battery Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Small Li-ion Battery 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 Small Li-ion Battery market revenue worldwide.Finally, Small Li-ion Battery 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
Reactive Diluent Market Size & Analysis  Forecasts To 2025

GLOBAL MARKET ESTIMATES

https://www.globalmarketestimates.com/global-reactive-diluent-market/

https://www.globalmarketestimates.com/annual-research-partnership-services/

REPORT DESCRIPTION:Reactive Diluent Market InsightsThe reactive diluent market is anticipated to grow at an exponential CAGR over the coming years on account of increase building & construction and residential activities across the world. Reactive diluents are used to decrease viscosity sealants & adhesives. These diluents also help improve water resistance and flexibility.Reactive diluents also find large applications in the metal coating, protective coating, composites, and marine industry. The rising demand for protective coating in the automotive, industrial, aerospace, and marine sector is projected to augment market growth over the coming years.The paint & coating industry is projected to grow at a tremendous rate over during the forecast period. Repair & renovation activities undertaken in the residential and construction sector is projected to positively impact market growth. Reactive diluents also help retain chemical & mechanical resistance and increases tensile strength of paints, coatings, adhesives, and dyes.Request for a sample copy of the reactive diluent market report at:Reactive Diluent Market: Application InsightsOn the basis of application, the reactive diluent market is segmented into building & construction, bedding & furniture, automotive, industrial applications, aerospace, marine, and others. Reactive diluents are anticipated to grow at the highest CAGR in the building & construction segment from 2017 to 2025. The growing investments in construction and renovation activities are expected to positively impact market growth in the building & construction and bedding & furniture industry.Rapid industrialization and automotive production is projected to increase the demand for protective coatings which makes use of reactive diluents to reduce viscosity. The automotive industry is projected to grow at a high CAGR in countries such as China, South Korea, France, the UK, Germany, and Japan. Growing investment in the aerospace & defense and marine sector is also projected to augment market growth.reactive diluent marketReactive Diluent Market: Regional InsightsThe market is anticipated to register high growth in the Asia Pacific region. The growing investment in the residential & commercial construction sector of Asia Pacific is expected to spur the demand reactive diluents used in adhesives, plasticizers, fillers, and roof sealing among others.Countries such as India, Malaysia, China, South Korea, and Singapore are expected to register high growth in the construction sector due to favorable FDI investments and government spending. This is anticipated to positively influence reactive diluents market over the forecast period.Increasing investments in the Middle East & Africa are also expected to experience high demand for reactive diluents. Repair & renovation activities coupled with rising automotive production in the North America, European, and Asia Pacific region is expected to positively influence market growth.Reactive Diluent Market: End-Use LandscapeThe end-use landscape entails a list of current and prospective consumers prevailing across the regions. This section provides company addresses, contact details, products, and regional presence of companies who are purchasing or are likely to purchase reactive diluents over the coming years. Some leading consumers in the market include Bouygues Construction, Royal BAM Group, and Balfour Beatty among others.Reactive Diluent Market: Competitive LandscapeSome of the major players in the reactive diluent market include ADITYA BIRLA CHEMICALS, BASF SE, AkzoNobel N.V.,Hempel A/S, Bodo Moller Chemie GmbH, Cardolite Corporation, Evonik, Silver Fern Chemical, Huntsman Corporation, and SACHEM, INC among others.Technological advancements and development of products is anticipated to provide companies with a competitive edge in the market. In November 2015, Evonik launched TEGOPAC, a reactive diluents with lateral cross-linking functions and silane-modified polymers that release ethanol while curing.Catch our annual research partnership services at :Were constantly identifying and analysing high growth markets and revenue pockets. In consultation with various industry experts, our team of highly-skilled industry analysts study these markets through sophisticated tools and fail-safe, industry-approved methodologies.Name: Global Market Estimates Research & Business ConsultantsAddress: A-9, Silver Croft CHSL, Mumbai:400064, IndiaContact No,: +91 9146632316Email Address: sales@globalmarketestimates.com
Global Medical Sterilization Equipment Market By Mode, Services, End-User : Industry Forecast to 2022

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/1422694/global-medical-sterilization-equipment-by-market-research-reports

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/1422694

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/enquiry/1422694

"The Report Global Medical Sterilization Equipment Market By Mode (High Temperature, Low Temperature, Radiation), Services (In-House, Contact), End-User Industry (2017 Edition): Forecast to 2022 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"A comprehensive research report created through extensive primary research (inputs from industry experts, companies, stakeholders) and secondary research, the report aims to present the analysis of Global Medical Sterilization Equipment Market, Analysis By Mode of Sterilization (High Temperature, Low Temperature, Radiation and Others), By Services (In-House Sterilization and Contract Sterilization), By End User (Hospitals and Pharmaceuticals), By Region (North America, Europe, APAC, Middle East and ROW) and By Country (U.S., Canada, U.K., Germany, India, China, U.A.E and Saudi Arabia).Over the recent years, the global medical sterilization equipment industry has been growing rapidly owing to rise in number of surgical procedures and increase in per capita expenditure on healthcare. Globally, the growth in medical sterilization equipment market is driven by growing prevalence of chronic diseases.According to Azoth Analytics research report titled Medical Sterilization Equipment Market By Mode (High Temperature, Low Temperature, Radiation), Services (In-House, Contact), End-User Industry (2017 Edition): Forecast to 2022, global market is projected to display a robust growth represented by a CAGR of 7.15% by value during 2017  2022, chiefly driven by increase in surgical procedures in conjunction with increasing occurrences of inveterate ailments and growing incidences of Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs).View Report @Among the modes of sterilization, low temperature sterilization equipment is projected to witness fastest growth. Among the regions, North America followed by Asia Pacific is predicted to advance at the highest rate, mainly driven by large population base, rapid economic development and high per capita expenditure on healthcare.The report titled Medical Sterilization Equipment Market By Mode (High Temperature, Low Temperature, Radiation), Services (In-House, Contact), End-User Industry (2017 Edition): Forecast to 2022 has covered and analysed the potential of Global Medical Sterilization Equipment Market and provides statistics and information on market size, shares and growth factors. The report intends to provide cutting-edge market intelligence and help decision makers take sound investment evaluation. Besides, the report also identifies and analyses the emerging trends along with major drivers, challenges and opportunities in the global Medical Sterilization Equipment market. Additionally, the report also highlights market entry strategies for various companies across the globe.Get Sample Copy Of This Report @Scope of the ReportGlobal Market (Actual Period: 2012-2016, Forecast Period: 2017-2022)Global Medical Sterilization Equipment MarketBy Mode of Sterilization - High Temperature, Low Temperature, Radiation Sterilization, OthersBy Services - In-House Sterilization, Contract SterilizationBy End User Industry  Hospitals, Pharmaceutical Manufacturing FacilitiesRegional Markets  North America, Europe, APAC, Middle East and ROW (Actual Period: 2012-2016, Forecast Period: 2017-2022)Medical Sterilization Equipment MarketBy Mode of Sterilization - High Temperature, Low Temperature, Radiation Sterilization and OthersBy Services - In-House Sterilization, Contract SterilizationBy End User Industry  Hospitals, Pharmaceutical Manufacturing FacilitiesCountry Analysis - US, Canada, U.K, Germany, China, India, U.A.E and Saudi Arabia (Actual Period: 2012-2016, Forecast Period: 2017-2022)Medical Sterilization Equipment MarketBy Mode of Sterilization - High Temperature, Low Temperature, Radiation Sterilization, OthersBy Services - In-House Sterilization, Contract SterilizationBy End User Industry  Hospitals, Pharmaceutical Manufacturing FacilitiesOther Report HighlightsMarket Dynamics  Trends, Drivers, RestraintsPorter Five Force AnalysisSWOT AnalysisSupply Chain AnalysisProduct Benchmarking of Key Industry PlayersRecent Product Approvals of Key Industry PlayersPolicy and RegulationCompany Analysis  Steris Plc, Getinge, TSO3, 3M, Cantel Medical, Advanced Sterilization Products Services Inc., Belimed, Andersen Products, Sterigenics, MMM Group.Company Share AnalysisCustomization of the ReportThe report could be customized according to the clients specific research requirements. No additional cost will be required to pay for limited additional research.Send An Enquiry Request @Table of Contents1. Research Methodology2. Executive Summary3. Strategic Recommendation3.1. Increasing demand for low temperature sterilization equipment3.2. Contract sterilization market to witness consistent growth4. Medical Sterilization Equipment Outlook5. Global Medical Sterilization Equipment Market: Growth and Forecast5.1. By Value (2012-2016)5.2. By Value (2017-2022)6. Global Medical Sterilization Equipment Market  Segmental Analysis6.1. Global Medical Sterilization Equipment Market Size, By Mode of Sterilization: Breakdown (%)6.1.1. Global Medical Sterilization Equipment Market Size, By Mode of Sterilization, 2016 (%)6.1.2. Global Medical Sterilization Equipment Market Size, By Mode of Sterilization, 2022 (%)6.1.3. Global Medical Sterilization Equipment Market Size, By Leading Equipment, 2016 (%)6.1.4. Global Medical Sterilization Equipment Market Size, By Leading Equipment, 2022 (%)6.2. Global High Temperature Sterilization Equipment Market: Growth and Forecast6.2.1. By Value (2012-2016)6.2.2. By Value (2017-2022)6.3. Global Low Temperature Sterilization Equipment Market: Growth and Forecast6.3.1. By Value (2012-2016)6.3.2. By Value (2017-2022)6.4. Global Radiation Sterilization Equipment Market: Growth and Forecast6.4.1. By Value (2012-2016)6.4.2. By Value (2017-2022)6.5. Other Medical Sterilization Equipment Market: Growth and Forecast6.5.1. By Value (2012-2016)6.5.2. By Value (2017-2022)6.6. Global Medical Sterilization Equipment Market Size, By Services: Breakdown (%)6.6.1. Global Medical Sterilization Equipment Market Size, By Services, 2016 (%)6.6.2. Global Medical Sterilization Equipment Market Size, By Services, 2022 (%)6.7. Global In-House Medical Sterilization Services Market: Growth and Forecast6.7.1. By Value (2012-2016)6.7.2. By Value (2017-2022)6.8. Global Contract Medical Sterilization Services Market: Growth and Forecast6.8.1. By Value (2012-2016)6.8.2. By Value (2017-2022)6.9. Global Medical Sterilization Equipment Market Size, By End User: Breakdown (%)6.9.1. Global Medical Sterilization Equipment Market Size, By End User, 2016 (%)6.9.2. Global Medical Sterilization Equipment Market Size, By End User, 2022 (%)6.10. Global 70Hospital Sterilization Equipment Market: Growth and Forecast6.10.1. By Value (2012-2016)6.10.2. By Value (2017-2022)6.11. Global Pharmaceutical Sterilization Equipment Market: Growth and Forecast6.11.1. By Value (2012-2016)6.11.2. By Value (2017-2022)About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.State Tower 90 Sate Street, Suite 700 Albany, NY 12207 Tel: +1-518-621-2074 USA: Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948
Application Virtualization Market Industry Analysis and Detailed Profiles of Top Industry Players

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/application-virtualization-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=13208

www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Application Virtualization Market: OverviewApplication virtualization is a technology that isolates applications installed in the primary operating system (client computer) from other end-user computer or target computer without having to install the application directly on the end-use computer. The entire procedure is carried out by the process called sequencing the application, which enables the application to run on the self-structured environment at the client computer. The application files, settings and configuration is copied to the target device and the execution of the application is undertaken by the application virtualization layer.Browse The Report:Virtualization layer replaces the part of runtime environment provided by operating system and captures all the disk operation from the client side redirecting it over the target system. During application execution process there exists a real time interfacing between the target computer and the operating system controlled at the client end. Application virtualization mainly translates the machine code of the application to be executed into newly acquired operating systems machine code on the target system at the user end. The entire operation is carried out by four vital modules which includes graphics interface, hardware interface, input/output interface, and library functions interface.Application Virtualization Market: Key Growth DriversWith recent trends and technical advancements there has been wide scale adoption of cloud based services termed to be the third platform of computing such as software as a service, platform as a service, and infrastructure as a service. Common internet file system (CIFS) which is mainly used to provide access to serial ports, files, printers and others and which acts as a communication channel between nodes on a network has started being implemented on third platform.This technical conveyance has become one of the major driving factors for the application virtualization market. Being a cloud based service there are various restraining factors such as security breaches, isolation concerns and others that may affect the market growth. Furthermore, another key challenging factor in the application virtualization market is the lack of awareness among masses regarding latest technological innovations.Application Virtualization Market: SegmentationApplication virtualization market can be segmented on the basis of technology, application, platform, services, end-use verticals and geography. Based on technology, application virtualization market can be segmented into component object isolation, Dot net isolation, service isolation, application isolation, driver isolation, file I/O redirection and others. On the basis of application, the market can be segmented into security virtualization, application management, business functionalities such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management, digital asset system, content management system and others. Application management includes database monitoring, system management, server monitoring, portal monitoring and others. The market segmentation by platform includes analytical framework virtualization, hypervisor platform, Virtualized X86 Platform and others.Based on services, the market for application virtualization can be segmented into application program interface (API), application enhancement, lifecycle management, IT consulting, infrastructure security and development outsourcing services. End-use verticals deploying application virtualization technology include healthcare, telecom and IT, academic and research, manufacturing, government, banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI), automotive and others. The application virtualization market has been studied for five geographies namely North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and, Middle East and Africa.Request a PDF Sample for this Research Report @Application Virtualization Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players in the global application virtualization market include Microsoft Corporation, Symantec Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Dell Inc., Google, Inc., SAP SE, Citrix Systems Inc., and Red Hat Inc. among others.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth insights, understanding market evolution by tracking historical developments, and analyzing the present scenario and future projections based on optimistic and likely scenarios. Each research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology developments, types, applications, and the competitive landscape.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a next-generation provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendationsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Antibacterial Drugs Market Size to Accelerate at a Rapid CAGR of 1.5% during 2017-2025

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/antibacterial-drugs-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=1567

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/checkout.php?rep_id=1567<ype=S

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

http://www.theglobalhealthnews.com/

Despite strategies toyed by businesses to gain traction, the subpar pace of growth is unlikely to change for the global antibacterial drugs market. According to TMR, the global market is likely to exhibit a CAGR of 1.5% between 2017 and 2025. Given the growth pace, the market is expected to reach US$51,447.6 mn by the end of 2025, from US$45,325.0 mn in 2016. While North America held dominance in the global antibacterial drugs market in 2016, TMR forecasts sluggish growth for the region through the forecast period. In terms of drug-class, the B-lactam segment led the market in 2016.As competition grows strong in the global antibacterial drugs, the leading players are finding it more convenience to collaborate with rivals to expand their product offering as well regional footprint worldwide. In a new study, Transparency Market Research (TMR) has identified Bayer AG, Pfizer Inc., Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline Plc. (GSK), Merck & Co., Inc., AstraZeneca, Johnson and Johnson, Bristol Myers Squibb Company, Novartis Ag, and Allergen Plc as some of the most prominent enterprises operating in the global antibacterial drugs market. To gain a competitive edge, Pfizer signed an agreement with AstraZeneca in August 2016. This collaboration was intended to acquire the commercialization and development rights of late-stage small molecule anti-infective business. Besides this, the market witnessed several other partnerships, collaborations, and acquisitions aimed at catapulting businesses to the forefront of the global antibacterial drugs market.Report overview @The rising population of aged people, escalating number of bacterial strains, which are multidrug resistant, and the rising demand for effective yet affordable antibacterial drugs will give the market considerable boost over the forecast period. In addition, TMR predicts the global antibacterial drugs market to gain significantly from the increasing incidence of infectious diseases. It is also likely to gain from the rising demand for innovative molecules. Despite the aforementioned growth prospects, the advent of genetic drugs for antibacterial activities threatens the overall market. The looming patent expiries are also identified as key factors restraining the market. Furthermore, the research and development activities conducted in the field is insufficient as per many experts. This could pose significant threat to the overall antibacterial drugs market in the coming years.Request to sample report @In the coming years, the market is likely to gain from factors such as the improved efficacy, fewer side effects, and reduced time of action. In addition, opportunities prevalent across emerging nations will enable the global antibacterial drugs market stay afloat during the forecast period. According to TMR, the market will gain considerable traction in emerging nations such as India and China.In the last few years, several synthesis inhibitors have gone off-patent, which has made TMR predict that several of the drugs under clinical trial could be approved in the coming years. The likelihood of benefiting from the commercialization of drug-resistant infections treatment is also rising. Despite the influx of novel protein synthesis inhibitors, vaccines will remain the class of drugs contributing the most revenue toward the global antibacterial drugs market. These factors will enable growth in the global antibacterial drugs market in the coming years.Summary of Table of ContentChapter 1. PrefaceChapter 2. Research MethodologyChapter 3. Executive SummaryChapter 4. Market OverviewChapter 5. Global Antibacterial Drugs Market Analysis, by Drug Class, 2015  2025Chapter 6. Global Antibacterial Drugs Market Analysis, by Routes of AdministrationChapter 7. Global Antibacterial Drugs Market Analysis, by Channels of DistributionChapter 8. Global Antibacterial Drugs Market Analysis, by RegionChapter 9. North America Antibacterial Drugs Market AnalysisChapter 10. Europe Antibacterial Drugs Market AnalysisChapter 11. Asia Pacific Antibacterial Drugs Market AnalysisChapter 12. Latin America Antibacterial Drugs Market AnalysisChapter 13. Middle East & Africa Antibacterial Drugs Market AnalysisChapter 14. Competition LandscapeGet full report now @About TMRTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.ContactTransparency Market ResearchState Tower90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:TMR Blog:
Automotive LED Light Market Forecast, Trend Analysis & Competition Tracking  Global Review 2017 to 2022

https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=243

https://www.factmr.com/report/243/automotive-led-light-market

https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=D&rep_id=243

https://www.factmr.com/

LED light, a semiconductor, releases light energy when it is activated. Compared to halogen, or, xenon light, LED lights are more durable, power saving, and efficient. LED lights offer various advantages compared to other lights, such as less CO2 emission, and long-lasting life. Automotive LED lights form an imperative part of modern automobiles. An electric voltage supplied to p & n junction of an LED via leads brings electrons together, resulting into release of light of energy.Request Free Sample Report @Automotive LED lights were traditionally utilized as back lights, however they were gradually adopted for headlights over halogen, and xenon light, on the back of their power efficiency and better lighting system. LED lighting systems are becoming highly preferred in vehicles, gaining popularity among vehicle owners worldwide. Auto manufacturers are focusing on customer comfort and safety, with the rise in production of electric and hybrid vehicles equipped with LED lighting systems of high-quality. For effectively differentiating from market leaders, and gaining additional market share, the manufacturers are mainly concentrating on development of innovative systems, and cost-effective solutions. Potential of LEDs in the automotive lighting systems is expected to extend, with improved LED modules, and introduction of new technologies such as organic LEDs (OLEDs) that produce homogenous light. Osram, one of the leading market players, recently made an announcement of its flexible OLED lighting systems for vehicles. These factors might influence growth of the global automotive LED light market in the upcoming years.Robust expansion of the automotive sector, coupled with soaring sales of lightweight vehicles, rising focus on energy efficiency, and stringent government policies & regulations concerning utilization of halogen and xenon automotive lights has also fuelled higher demand for LED lights in vehicles. However, high cost of LED lights remains a major challenge to its adoption in few areas, such as their application in headlamps. Currently, the high prices of automotive LED lights affects their aftermarket sales, especially across developing economies including India, China, and South Africa. A recent study by Fact.MR estimates the global automotive LED light market to register an impressive CAGR during the forecast period 2017 to 2022. Global sales of automotive LED lights are expected to surpass revenues worth US$ 6,000 Mn by 2022-end.Browse Full Report with TOC @Automotive LED Lights to Find Largest Application in Headlamps of VehiclesAutomotive LED lights are expected to find the largest application in headlamps of vehicles, with sales poised to exceed US$ 1,000 Mn in revenues by 2022-end. Brake lights are expected to be the second most lucrative application of automotive LED lights in the global market. In addition, sales of automotive LED lights for application in brake lights and sidelights are projected to register a parallel expansion at 8.7% CAGR through 2022.Although aftermarket will continue to be the largest sales channel for automotive LED lights, sales in OEM are anticipated to exhibit a comparatively higher CAGR through 2022. Sales of automotive LED lights in aftermarket will account for over three-fourth revenue share of the market throughout the forecast period.Accounting for more than one-third revenue share of the global market, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) will continue to be the most attractive market for automotive LED lights, in terms of revenues. Europe is expected to be the second largest market for automotive LED lights, with sales expanding at a CAGR of 8.5% through 2022.Competition TrackingKey market players listed in the Fact.MRs report include OSRAM Licht AG, HELLA KGaA Hueck & Co., Koito Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Stanley Electric Co., Ltd., Koninklijke Philips N.V., Valeo SA, Imasen Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., Texas Instruments, Nichia Corporation, and General Electric Company.Check Discount @About Fact.MRFact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized market research reports. We believe transformative intelligence can educate and inspire businesses to make smarter decisions. We know the limitations of the one-size-fits-all approach; that's why we publish multi-industry global, regional, and country-specific research reports.Contact UsFact.MRSuite 988427 Upper Pembroke Street,Dublin 2, IrelandTelephone: +353-1-6111-593Email: sales@factmr.com/Web:
Zeolite Molecular Sieve Market Expansion Projected to Gain an Uptick During 2016 - 2024

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=17000

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=17000

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/

Global Zeolite Molecular Sieve Market: OverviewMolecular sieve is a specialty material used to separate small-sized molecules from a mixture, whereas zeolite molecular sieve is a special class of molecular sieve that uses aluminosilicates as its skeletal composition. Zeolite molecular sieve has small-sized holes that block large molecules and allow small molecules to pass through it. Hence, it can be used as a desiccant. A molecular sieve can adsorb water up to 22% of its own weight. The adsorbed product remains trapped as it is able to penetrate the pore and fill the space in absence of another material. Molecular sieve can be further classified into microporous, mesoporous, and macroporous materials depending upon size of molecular sieve. Microporous materials have pore diameters less than 20 angstrom (A), the mesoporous category lies in the middle with pore diameters between 2 and 50 nanometers (nm), and macroporous materials have pore diameters greater than 500 A.Zeolite molecular sieve is a microporous material where size of molecular sieve lies between 3 and 4 A. Zeolites are highly crystalline material with anionic framework. Thus, they can be used as an adsorbent for liquids and gases. Zeolite molecular sieve with a pore size of 3 A blocks molecules with size more than 3 A; hence, it can be used in diversified applications such as purification of gas streams, drying reaction starting materials, and in the chemical laboratory for separating compounds. The ratio of silica to alumina in zeolite molecular sieve is close to two, which provides it with characteristic features such as fast adsorption speed, good crushing resistance, frequent regeneration ability, and good pollution resistance. These properties help improve durability and efficiency of sieve. Zeolite molecular sieve is used in the petroleum and gas industry for selective adsorption of water from gas so that the latter can be used in applications where moisture from gas can corrode the equipment. This sieve can also be used to filter air supplied for breathing apparatus by removing particulates and compressor exhaust products from breathing air supply.A sample of this report is available upon request @Environmental effects of detergents can be manipulated by replacing sodium tripolyphosphate with zeolite molecular sieve. This type of zeolite molecular sieve can reduce surface tension. This, in turn, assists detergents by producing demineralized water through calcium ion exchange, thereby avoiding deposition of dirt. Zeolite molecular sieve can also be used in soil conditioning. Extensive research and development activities are being conducted to use silver zeolite as an antibacterial agent in medicines. In April 2012, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of sodium aluminosilicate for direct contact with consumable items. As a result, it is employed in personal care and pharmaceutical industries. Zeolite molecular sieves have high selectivity for ammonium ions; therefore, they are widely used to combat eutrophication and other effects in waterways. Zeolite molecular sieves have also been used to remove heavy metal ions present in water due to industrial activities.Global Zeolite Molecular Sieve Market: Regional OutlookDiversified applications of zeolite molecular sieve are likely to significantly propel its market growth during the forecast period. Raw materials required for production of zeolite molecular sieve are abundantly available in China, which makes it the leading producer of zeolite molecular sieve. Additionally, India is a frontrunner in the manufacture of zeolite molecular sieve. This country also exports zeolite to various economies. Asia Pacific accounts for major share of the zeolite molecular sieve market. The market for zeolite molecular sieve is projected to rise in regions, such as the Middle East and Africa due to increasing use of zeolite molecular sieve in petrochemical industries. High cost of zeolite molecular sieve can act as barrier for growth of the zeolite molecular sieve market.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Global Zeolite Molecular Sieve Market: Key PlayersKey manufacturers of zeolite molecular sieve include Tricat Group, Luoyang Jiandong Chemical Industry Co. Ltd., Sorbead India, Pingxiang XINTAO Chemical Packing Co. Ltd, N Shashikant & Co., and Patalia Chem Industries.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About USTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a next-generation provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Abhishek BudholiyaState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030Website:Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com
Customization Global Industry Sales, Supply and Consumption 2017 and Forecast to 2022

Customization

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/2350867-trendsights-analysis-customization-tapping-into-the-hyper-customized-world-of-health

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/2350867-trendsights-analysis-customization-tapping-into-the-hyper-customized-world-of-health

www.linkedin.com/company/4828928

https://twitter.com/WiseGuyReports

https://www.facebook.com/Wiseguyreports-1009007869213183/?fref=ts

Pune, India, 20th December 2017: WiseGuyReports announced addition of new report, titled TrendSights Analysis: Customization - Tapping into the hyper-customized world of health-conscious, expressive, and experience-seeking consumers.Summary"TrendSights Analysis: Customization", explores Customization in the context of TrendSights framework. Customization is one of the 63 trends that covers as part of its TrendSights series. The TrendSights framework and supporting analysis provide structure, clarity, and perspective to aid the understanding of consumer behavior, and how trends and events will shape the future. The analysis uncovers the what, why, and how of the trend, as well as who is most influenced by it and where the future of the trend lies.GET SAMPLE REPORT @Individualistic and empowered consumers desire to take control of all aspects of their needs and lifestyle preferences. To do so, in an efficient, effective, and enjoyable way, consumers turn to three types of customization. Active customization allows consumers to create/co-create products tailored to their needs; passive customization enables brands to meet consumers' individual needs; smart customization incorporates technology advances to facilitate uniquely tailored offerings.Scope- Customization reflects consumers' desire to be in control.- Individualistic consumers seek out products that are customized to their own unique needs and preferences.- With one size not fitting all, consumers are seeking products and services specifically made for them.- Today's consumers are more aware and informed than ever of their individual needs; the pressure is on for brands to give control back to the user. Brands that can effectively do this are likely to gain favor among these individualistic consumers.- Customization facilitates differentiation and uniqueness by creating a product that is specifically designed to meet the needs of individual people. By increasing product relevance this can enhance emotional engagement and create more involved buying behavior. It can also lead to higher consumer loyalty, driving brand equity.Reasons to buy- Understand the relevant consumer trends and attitudes that drive and support innovation success so you can tap into what is really impacting the industry.- Gain a broader appreciation of the fast-moving consumer goods industry by gaining insights from both within and outside of your sector.- Access valuable strategic take-outs to help direct future decision-making and inform new product development.Table of Content: Key Points1. Trend snapshot2. Active Customization3. Passive Customization4. Smart Customization5. What Next in Customization?6. AppendixContinuedACCESS REPORT @Get in touch:LinkedIn:Twitter:Facebook:Wise Guy Reports understand how essential statistical surveying information is for your organization or association. Therefore, we have associated with the top publishers and research firms all specialized in specific domains, ensuring you will receive the most reliable and up to date research data available. We also provide COTS (Commercial off the Shelf) business sector reports as custom exploration agreeing your particular needs.WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Global Therapeutics for Memory and Cognition Disorders market Plying for Significant Growth By 2019

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=1863

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=1863

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/checkout.php?rep_id=1863<ype=S

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

http://www.theglobalhealthnews.com/

Memory and cognitive disorders are mental health disorders that primarily affect learning, memory, perception and problem solving ability. The global market of therapeutics for memory and cognition disorders is witnessing a significant growth over recent years due to aging population in different parts of the world, new drugs development and better understanding of drugs mechanism. However, less number of approved drugs is a major restraint for the market growth. Also, ethical implication has become a major challenge for the market.Report Overview and TOC @Global market of therapeutics for memory and cognition disorders is primarily divided into two segments: based on application and based on mechanisms of action for the treatment. On the basis of applications, memory and cognition disorders treatment market is primarily subdivided into primary and secondary disorders which mainly include Alzheimers disease, vascular dementia, Lewy body dementia, Parkinsons disease and Schizophrenia.Request brochure @Further, the area of mechanism of action for the treatment is also sub-divided into two segments: common mechanisms and development in cognition enhancer. Some of the major players operating in the market are Merck, Roche, Pfizer, Shire and Cephalon.This research report analyzes this market depending on its market segments, major geographies, and current market trends. Geographies analyzed under this research report includeThis report is a complete study of current trends in the market, industry growth drivers, and restraints. It provides market projections for the coming years. It includes analysis of recent developments in technology, Porters five force model analysis and detailed profiles of top industry players. The report also includes a review of micro and macro factors essential for the existing market players and new entrants along with detailed value chain analysis.Pre Book full report@About TMRTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.ContactTransparency Market ResearchState Tower90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:TMR Blog:
Gas Pressure Regulator Market to Register Steady Growth During 2017-2025

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/18322

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/methodology/18322

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com

Gas Pressure Regulator Market: IntroductionSafety of man, material and facility is the prime concern in every manufacturing industry. While dealing with gases, it is of prime importance to maintain flow rates and supply pressure and regulate the flow. These factors bring gas pressure regulators in the picture as a crucial part of various industries, such as chemical, healthcare and oil & gas, among others. Gas pressure regulators not only regulate the flow rates and pressure but also reduce the need for pressure compensating meters, as they can hold steady pressure. These regulators can be small or large depending upon the type of application. Prominent application areas of gas pressure regulators are natural gas distribution, boiler gas supplies, plant air services, oxygen supply, ammonia supply, furnaces and ovens. The market for gas pressure regulators is estimated to witness steady growth from both, upcoming projects and replacement demand from existing installed pipelines.A sample of this report is available upon request @Gas Pressure Regulator Market: DynamicsGrowth of the gas pressure regulator market can directly be co-related with the performance of end use industries, such as oil & gas, energy generation and chemical. The market is also projected to witness significant investment by manufacturers in product innovation and development. Government investment in the establishment of new oil & gas and energy generation facilities and maintenance of existing ones will be a key growth driver. The market for gas pressure regulators is estimated to witness stringent safety regulations over the forecast period. Although replacement demand will play a major role in market growth, declining replacement rates of gas pressure regulators and fluctuating performance of some key end-use industries are anticipated to restrain the growth of the global gas pressure regulator market. Existing price pressures on dealers and distributors are also projected to be key restraining factors for this market.Gas Pressure Regulator Market: SegmentationThe global gas pressure regulator market can be segmented on the basis of gas type, product type and end-use industry.By gas type, the global gas pressure regulator market can be segmented into:Toxic GasesCorrosive GasesInert GasesBy product type, the global gas pressure regulator market can be segmented into:Single StageDual StageBy Application, the global gas pressure regulator market can be segmented into:CommercialIndustrialBy end-use industry, the global gas pressure regulator market can be segmented into:Oil & GasChemicalHealthcarePower GenerationOther ManufacturingGas Pressure Regulator Market: Regional OverviewAsia Pacific is projected to dominate the global gas pressure regulator market in terms of demand. China is expected to be a key market with a dominant market share throughout the forecast period. Strong growth of the manufacturing sector in key countries, such as India will supplement growth of the gas pressure regulator market in the Asia Pacific region. Europe and North America are projected to be the next big markets in terms of demand for gas pressure regulators. Europe is expected to have a relatively high growth rate as compared to North America. Within Europe, significant demand for gas pressure regulators will be from the western region and Eastern European countries, such as Russia and Poland are slated to witness slight fluctuation in terms of demand. The Middle East and Africa region will register significant demand for gas pressure regulators from oil & gas and chemical industries. The Latin America gas pressure regulator market is also pegged to witness healthy growth over the forecast period.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Gas Pressure Regulator Market: Market ParticipantsExamples of some of the market participants identified in the global gas pressure regulator market are Honeywell International Inc., Emerson Electric Co, The Linde Group, Praxair Inc., Colfax Corporation, Maxitrol Company, GCE Group, Cavagna Group SPA, Air Products and Chemicals Inc., Air Liquide, Airgas Inc., Equipment & Controls, Inc. and Pressure Tech Ltd.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Next-Generation Shopping Market 2017  By Analyzing the Performance of Various Competitors

Next-Generation Shopping Market

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/1474081-trendsights-analysis-next-generation-shopping-creating-next-generation-retail-experiences-in

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/conferences

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/seminars

SUMMARYWiseGuyReports published new report, titled Trend Sights Analysis: Next-Generation Shopping"Trend Sights Analysis: Next-Generation Shopping" explores the new and emerging concept of next-generation shopping in the FMCG industry, explaining what it is and asking why it is important. The report also considers the various actors involved and the impact of the trend on consumers, retailers, and supply chains. The conclusions reached are underpinned by unique blend of proprietary consumer insight and innovation knowledge.The consumer desire for convenience has driven rapid technological change in the FMCG retail space, where self-service checkout systems and contactless payment technology provide consumers with a "seamless" shopping experience. The search for immersive consumption experiences, however, threatens to disrupt the primacy of convenience by challenging bricks-and-mortar retailers to create tangible in-store experiences for consumers to enjoy.We are happy to offer a flat 20% discount on this report. Offer ends 30 Dec. 2017GET SAMPLE REPORT @Companies mentionedSephoraFitbitAmazonAmazon GoCarlo Ratti AssociatiChop ChopTargetHikuSainsbury'sUberEATSScope- Digital lifestyles are leading consumers to seek tangible, physical experiences.- The next 10 years will be crucial for bricks-and-mortar retailers as they attempt to balance competing consumer demands for convenience and enhanced in-store consumption experiences.- Next-Generation Shoppers are likely to be digitally minded and experience-seekers.- Food is experience-driven, and consumers enjoy researching it - not only with digital devices but with their senses also - preparing it, and using it for social occasions and moments of indulgence. This explains why online retailers account for only 15% of food and grocery shopping.Key points to buy- Understand which audiences are most affected by the Next-Generation Shopping trend and adjust core value proposition to suit.- Compare the presence of this trend in each industry across the FMCG space, and learn what the key opportunities are.- See the steps that key industry actors are taking to meet the demands of next-generation shoppers.Table of ContentsTrend snapshotWhat?Why?Who?How?What next?Appendix..CONTINUEDFor accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest insights and key developments in the area of your interest, we also have a list of conferences in which you will be interested in, for more information, cordially checkFor updating knowledge or for thoroughly understanding various terminologies, we also have vast list of seminars for your reference, for more information cordially checkWise Guy Reports understand how essential statistical surveying information is for your organization or association. Therefore, we have associated with the top publishers and research firms all specialized in specific domains, ensuring you will receive the most reliable and up to date research data available. We also provide COTS (Commercial off the Shelf) business sector reports as custom exploration agreeing your particular needs.WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Harmonic Drive Precision Strain Wave Reducer Gearboxes and RV and RD Reducers: Market Shares, Strategies, and Forecasts, Worldwide, 2018 to 2024

https://www.radiantinsights.com/research/harmonic-drive-precision-strain-wave-reducer-gearboxes-and-rv-and-rd-reducers-market/request-sample

https://www.radiantinsights.com/research/harmonic-drive-precision-strain-wave-reducer-gearboxes-and-rv-and-rd-reducers-market

The leading vendors in the harmonic drive industry have invested in high-quality technology and processes to develop leading edge reducer strain relief gearbox capability.Download free PDF request sample copy @Other vendors are working to catch up. Harmonic drive market driving forces relate primarily to the implementation of speed reduction capability for robots and wind turbines initially, providing industrial controls that are compelling.The harmonic drive is used in situations where smooth, efficient gear operation is needed. Initial applications are in robotics, aerospace and solar tracking, the materials used in these applications can wear and break if the gearing in a motor is rough. Harmonic gear vendors offer a unique gear tooth profile that optimizes the tooth engagement. Only the high end vendors are able to provide harmonic drives that work, the other units become trash within days.Revenue for harmonic drives was $838 million in 2017, and products are expected to generate revenue of $3.517 billion by 2024. Strong growth is the result of increasing use in industrial robots as they become integrated and able to perform multiple functions sequentially in an automated manner. Harmonic drive reduction gearboxes are presented many new market opportunities from multiple types of applications. The VNTOL aircraft uses the drive reduction to enable vertical takeoff This lifts off like a helicopter and files like an airplane.Demanding applications for the gear box include surgical robots. By application category, there was a substantial year-on-year increase in sales for industrial robots used on production lines for smartphones, tablet devices, household appliances, automobiles, and other products.Sales for semiconductor manufacturing equipment increased due to rising capital investment against a backdrop of increasing demand for industrial equipment, automotive devices, and devices for data centers, among other factors. Sales for flat panel display manufacturing equipment increased due to high levels of investment to expand production capacity for LCD and organic EL panels.Semiconductor liquid crystal production equipment, photovoltaic equipment, optical instruments, precision machine tools and other cutting-edge areas provide target applications.Japan manufactures reliable performance precision gears. Reliable performance of precision gear reducer manufacturing is not yet occurring at scale elsewhere, particularly in China. China with its huge investments in industrial robots would really like to be able to scale manufacture of harmonic drive precision strain wave reducer gearboxes.The market has just begun. Early adopters are the robot manufacturers. Suppliers of the precision gears, Japanese companies, address markets for industrial robots. While the Chinese would like to be the primary suppliers of Harmonic Drive Precision Strain Wave Reducer Gearboxes, it has not happened yet.Harmonic gear reducers are used in aviation, aerospace, energy, navigation, shipbuilding, bionic machinery, commonly used ordnance, machine tools, instruments, electronic equipment, mining and metallurgy, transportation, lifting machinery, petrochemical machinery, textile machinery, agricultural machinery and medical Instruments.Visit full report with TOC @Japan's a precision reducer is used in industrial robots and airplane engines, wind turbines and for solar trackers.Companies ProfiledMarket Leaders Harmonic Drive Sumitomo Heavy Industries Beijing CTKM Harmonic Drive Leaderdrive Zhejiang Laifu Nidec-Shimpo Cone DriveMarket Participants Beijing Harmonic Drive Technology Institute (BHDI) Beijing Zhong Ke Ke Mei Harmonic Drive Limited Liability Company China Harmonic Drive (CHD) Motion Control Products Nabtesco Nidec-Shimpo Parker Bayside Suzhou Green Harmonic Drive Technology Co., Ltd. Totel Industry Group / Ningbo Haishu Totel Imp. & Exp. Co., Ltd.Key Topics Harmonic Drive Precision Strain Wave Reducer Gearboxes RV and RD Reducers Industrial Robotic DriveAbout UsRadiant Insights is a market research and consulting company offering syndicated research studies, customized reports, and consulting services. Our market research studies are designed to facilitate strategic decision making, on the basis of extensive and in-depth quantitative information, supported by extensive analysis and industry insights.Contact Us201 Spear Street 1100, Suite 3036, San Francisco, CA 94105, United StatesTel : 1-415-349-0054Toll Free: 1-888-928-9744Mail: sales@radiantinsights.com
Global Nematicide Market will reach at a CAGR of 3.3% from 2017 - 2025: Analysis and Forecast

Market Research Report

https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=213260

https://www.researchmoz.us/nematicides-market-global-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2014-2020-report.html/toc

http://www.researchmoz.us/

http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG

Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Nematicide Market will reach at a CAGR of 3.3% from 2017 - 2025: Analysis and Forecast" to its huge collection of research reports.Nematicide is a kind of pesticide used to control the growth of nematodes on various crops. Nematodes are parasites which affects the growth of crops by feeding on the plants roots and tissues. As with the damage caused by nematodes, nematicide companies are working towards technological development and launching new products in the market. Due to their volatile properties the companies have shifted their focus from manufacturing synthetic nematicide to natural nematicide.The report estimates and forecasts the nematicide market on the global, regional, and country levels.The study provides forecast between 2017 and 2025 based on volume (Kilo Tons) and revenue (US$ Mn) with 2016 as the base year. The report comprises an exhaustive value chain analysis for each of the product segments. It provides a comprehensive view of the market. Value chain analysis also offers detailed information about value addition at each stage. The study includes drivers and restraints for the nematicide market along with their impact on demand during the forecast period. The study also provides key market indicators affecting the growth of the market. The report analyzes opportunities in the nematicide market on the global and regional level. Drivers, restraints, and opportunities mentioned in the report are justified through quantitative and qualitative data. These have been verified through primary and secondary resources.Global Nematicide Market: Scope of the StudyThe report includes Porters Five Forces Model to determine the degree of competition in the nematicide market. The report comprises a qualitative write-up on market attractiveness analysis, wherein applications and countries have been analyzed based on attractiveness for each region. Growth rate, market size, raw material availability, profit margin, impact strength, technology, competition, and other factors (such as environmental and legal) have been evaluated in order to derive the general attractiveness of the market. The report comprises price trend analysis for nematicide between 2017 and 2025.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The study provides a comprehensive view of the nematicide market by dividing it on the basis of product, crops and geography segments. The nematicide market has been segmented into product - fumigant, carbamate, organophosphate and others and based on crops the market is segmented into oilseeds & pulses, cereals & grains, fruits & vegetables and others. The segments have been analyzed based on historic, present, and future trends.Secondary research sources that were typically referred to include, but were not limited to company websites, financial reports, annual reports, investor presentations, broker reports, and SEC filings. Other sources such as statistical databases and market reports, news articles, national government documents, and webcasts specific to companies operating in the market have also been referred for the report.In-depth interviews and discussions with a wide range of key opinion leaders and industry participants were conducted to compile this research report. Primary research represents the bulk of research efforts, supplemented by extensive secondary research. Key players product literature, annual reports, press releases, and relevant documents were reviewed for competitive analysis and market understanding. This helped in validating and strengthening secondary research findings. Primary research further helped in developing the analysis teams expertise and market understanding.Browse TOC @Global Nematicide Market: Regional OutlookRegional segmentation includes the current and forecast demand for nematicide in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa (MEA). Additionally, the report comprises country-level analysis in terms of volume and revenue for application segments. Key countries such as the U.S., Canada, Germany, France, the U.K., Spain, Italy, India, China, Japan, Mexico, and Brazil have been included in the study. Market segmentation includes demand for individual applications in all the regions and countries.Companies Mentioned in ReportThe report covers detailed competitive outlook that includes market share and profiles of key players operating in the global market. Key players profiled in the report includes Syngenta International AG, DowDuPont Inc., Bayer AG, Monsanto Company, FMC Corporation, Nufarm Ltd. Company profiles include attributes such as company overview, number of employees, brand overview, key competitors, business overview, business strategies, recent/key developments, acquisitions, and financial overview (wherever applicable).The global nematicide market has been segmented as follows:Nematicide Market  Product AnalysisFumigantCarbamateOrganophosphateOthersNematicide Market  Crop AnalysisOilseeds & PulsesCereals & GrainsFruits & VegetablesOthersNematicide Market  Regional AnalysisNorth AmericaU.S.CanadaEuropeGermanyFranceU.K.ItalySpainRest of EuropeAsia PacificChinaIndiaJapanASEANRest of Asia PacificMiddle East & AfricaGCCSouth AfricaRest of Middle East & AfricaLatin AmericaBrazilMexicoRest of Latin AmericaAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Transfusion Diagnostics Market foreseen to grow exponentially over 2024

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=20588

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=20588

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Blood transfusion is a process of receiving blood products or blood into the circulatory system intravenously. Blood transfusion is used in different medical conditions for replacement of lost component in the blood. Earlier blood transfusion included whole blood; however, modern medical methods can use only a component of blood for transfusion. Blood transfusion is among the most common procedures used for patients in hospitals. Hence, it becomes imperative that clinicians have knowledge about the appropriate administration of blood products, along with the symptoms, signs, and transfusion reaction management. Different blood products that can be transfused in the human body are red blood cells, platelets, plasma, albumin, and immunoglobulin preparations.The blood transfusion process is as follows: blood sample is taken and sent to hospital laboratory where tests are performed to ensure that the donor blood is compatible with patient's blood. This process is called cross-matching. Risks associated with blood transfusion are viral infections, allergic reactions, fever, hemolytic reactions, and iron overload. Everything possible should be done to reduce these risks during blood transfusion. Hence, before blood transfusion, several steps are taken to ensure the quality of blood products, compatibility, and safety to the recipient. A definite diagnosis is required for both the donor and recipient blood. Red blood cells are the most common blood products to be transfused. One of the transfusion diagnostics incudes molecular blood group diagnostics. Molecular blood group diagnostic enables safer blood preservation and on-demand supply for patients who have antibodies against clinically relevant, rare or weak antigens. Blood group serology is another blood transfusion diagnostic used to avoid side effects caused due to administration of incorrect blood preservatives or immunizations.Request to View ToC of Report -Based on type, The Transfusion Diagnostics Market can be segmented into instruments, reagents and others. In terms of application, the market can be segmented into blood grouping, disease screening, and others. Based on distribution channel, the market can be segmented into hospitals, laboratories, blood banks, plasma fractionation facilities, military blood banks, and others. Blood banks and hospitals are the major segments of the transfusion diagnostics market.Increasing prevalence of diseases which require complete blood transfusion is one of the major drivers of the transfusion diagnostics market. Rising number of accidents due to road rash or other reasons which lead to blood loss is also likely to propel the market. Another factor driving the transfusion diagnostics market is the rising emergency situations for blood transfusions during surgical blood loss. Rising number of diseases due to improper blood transfusion without diagnosis of blood also fuels the growth of the transfusion diagnostics market. Alternative treatments and better techniques for blood transfusion are the major restraints of the transfusion diagnostics market. More advanced, efficient, and reliable transfusion diagnostic techniques are expected to create significant opportunities in the market.Geographically, the transfusion diagnostics market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America accounted for the largest share of the blood transfusion diagnostics market owing to increasing health care awareness and technological advancement in the region. Europe is the second largest market for blood transfusion diagnostics due to large geriatric population in the region. Asia Pacific is the fastest growing market for blood transfusion diagnostics due to increasing adoption of improved health care technologies, emerging health care infrastructure, and rising accidents, diseases, and other emergency situations which require blood transfusion.Request to View Brochure of Report -Major players in the blood transfusion diagnostics market include Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, Beckman Coulter, Quotient Limited, Novartis AG, Abbott Diagnostics, Diagast, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Immucor, Inc., BAG Health Care, DiaSorin, Fujirebio Diagnostics, Inc., Grifols, S.A., Hologic/Gen-Probe, Biokit, Bio-Rad Laboratories, and Quidel Corporation.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Sound Sensors Market Trends & Forecast to 2022

Sound Sensors Market

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/sample-report/331044-global-sound-sensors-market-2

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/reports/331044-global-sound-sensors-market-2

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/buy-now?format=1&report=331044

https://www.htfmarketreport.com/enquiry-before-buy/331044-global-sound-sensors-market-2

https://www.linkedin.com/company/13388569/

HTF MI published a new industry research that focuses on Sound Sensors market and delivers in-depth market analysis and future prospects of Global Sound Sensors market. The study covers significant data which makes the research document a handy resource for managers, analysts, industry experts and other key people get ready-to-access and self-analyzed study along with graphs and tables to help understand market trends, drivers and market challenges. The study is segmented by Application/ end users [Daily Life, Military, Medical, Industrial & Others], products type [Dynamic Microphone, Condenser Microphone, Ribbon Microphone, Carbon Microphone & Others] and various important geographies like North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan & India].Get Access to sample pages @The research covers the current market size of the Global Sound Sensors market and its growth rates based on 5 year history data along with company profile of key players/manufacturers such as GE Digital Solutions, Siemens, Sensor Technology, Cetacean Research Technology, Rockwell Automation, MaxBotix, Blatek, Bosch, MEMSIC, TE Connectivity & STMicroelectronics. The in-depth information by segments of Sound Sensors market helps monitor future profitability & to make critical decisions for growth. The information on trends and developments, focuses on markets and materials, capacities, technologies, CAPEX cycle and the changing structure of the Global Sound Sensors Market.The study provides company profiling, product picture and specifications, sales, market share and contact information of key manufacturers of Global Sound Sensors Market, some of them listed here are GE Digital Solutions, Siemens, Sensor Technology, Cetacean Research Technology, Rockwell Automation, MaxBotix, Blatek, Bosch, MEMSIC, TE Connectivity & STMicroelectronics. The market is growing at a very rapid pace and with rise in technological innovation, competition and M&A activities in the industry many local and regional vendors are offering specific application products for varied end-users. The new manufacturer entrants in the market are finding it hard to compete with the international vendors based on quality, reliability, and innovations in technology.Global Sound Sensors (Thousands Units) and Revenue (Million USD) Market Split by Product Type such as Dynamic Microphone, Condenser Microphone, Ribbon Microphone, Carbon Microphone & Others. Further the research study is segmented by Application such as Daily Life, Military, Medical, Industrial & Others with historical and projected market share and compounded annual growth rate.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), and market share and growth rate of Sound Sensors in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), covering North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan & India and its Share (%) and CAGR for the forecasted period 2017 to 2022.Read Detailed Index of full Research Study at @What this Research Study Offers:Global Sound Sensors Market share assessments for the regional and country level segmentsMarket share analysis of the top industry playersStrategic recommendations for the new entrantsMarket forecasts for a minimum of 5 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional marketsMarket Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimationsCompetitive landscaping mapping the key common trendsCompany profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developmentsSupply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancementsBuy this research report @There are 15 Chapters to display the Global Sound Sensors market.Chapter 1, to describe Definition, Specifications and Classification of Sound Sensors , Applications of Sound Sensors , Market Segment by Regions;Chapter 2, to analyze the Manufacturing Cost Structure, Raw Material and Suppliers, Manufacturing Process, Industry Chain Structure;Chapter 3, to display the Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Sound Sensors , Capacity and Commercial Production Date, Manufacturing Plants Distribution, R&D Status and Technology Source, Raw Materials Sources Analysis;Chapter 4, to show the Overall Market Analysis, Capacity Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Analysis (Company Segment), Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment);Chapter 5 and 6, to show the Regional Market Analysis that includes North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan & India, Sound Sensors Segment Market Analysis (by Type);Chapter 7 and 8, to analyze the Sound Sensors Segment Market Analysis (by Application) Major Manufacturers Analysis of Sound Sensors ;Chapter 9, Market Trend Analysis, Regional Market Trend, Market Trend by Product Type [Dynamic Microphone, Condenser Microphone, Ribbon Microphone, Carbon Microphone & Others], Market Trend by Application [Daily Life, Military, Medical, Industrial & Others];Chapter 10, Regional Marketing Type Analysis, International Trade Type Analysis, Supply Chain Analysis;Chapter 11, to analyze the Consumers Analysis of Global Sound Sensors ;Chapter 12, to describe Sound Sensors Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data source;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Sound Sensors sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data source.Get customization & check discount for report @Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.Connect with us atHTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Contact us :HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA  08837sales@htfmarketreport.com+1 (206) 317 1218
Hospital Infectious Disease Testing Market to receive overwhelming hike in Revenues by 2024

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=20612

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=20612

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Hospital infectious disease testing is a procedure to identify hospital acquired/related infections. Hospital infections are among the most prominent challenges faced by health care delivery systems across the globe. Hospital infectious diseases are considered a significant cause of death globally. These are acquired while receiving health care treatment. Hospital infectious diseases tests are performed by health care professionals, especially clinical laboratory technicians, for the diagnosis of infections.The UTI segment accounted for the major share of The Hospital Infectious Disease Testing Market, followed by surgical site infections and pneumonia. Hospital infectious diseases are required to be closely monitored due to increase in antimicrobial resistance in some regions. Automated urine microscopy is the most preferred diagnostic tool adopted by clinical technicians for UTI. Prevalence of pneumonia and deaths associated with it are increasing gradually. Other hospital infections include cardiovascular, systemic, joint and bone, respiratory, and ENT (enteric) infections.Request to View ToC of Report -The hospital infectious disease testing market has experienced strong growth in the last decade due to factors such as increased awareness about growth in the incidence of infections globally and development of innovative prevention and treatment solutions. Major factors driving the market are establishment of quality government guidelines and uniform code for prevention of hospital infectious diseases. Lack of funding and skilled manpower in developing countries and lack of stringent guidelines and framework to control the morbidity rate of hospital infections are restraining the hospital infectious disease testing market. Lack of controlling authorities and controlling programs in lesser developed regions is another major factor hampering market growth. Technological development of molecular diagnostics and passage of the Patient Care and Affordable Care Act in the U.S. are likely to offer significant opportunities in the market in the near future.Geographically, the global hospital infectious disease testing market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America accounted for the largest share of the market due to growing patient awareness, favorable initiatives taken by the federal government, and large number of market players based in the region. The hospital infectious disease testing market in Europe is mature due to presence of strong and active hospital infection control and prevention authorities and guidelines such as the NHS in the U.K. Moreover, Europe is considered the hub for the global geriatric population. It is observed that geriatrics are more prone to various infections.This is likely to increase demand in Europe. Asia Pacific is a lucrative market for hospital infectious disease testing products as the overall prevalence of the infections in this region is high. Moreover, stringent guidelines have been set for the prevention and control of such conditions in the health care infrastructure in this region. Countries such as China, India, Japan, Thailand, Australia, and the Philippines are expected to be the major contributors to the hospital infectious disease testing market in Asia Pacific. Latin America and Middle East & Africa are considered the emerging markets for hospital infectious disease testing. This is attributed to increasing investment by governments for effective health care infrastructure in the region.Request to View Brochure of Report -Key players operating in the hospital infectious disease testing market include Abbott Laboratories, Alere, Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. (Life Technologies Corporation), Becton, Dickinson and Company, bioMerieux SA, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Hologic, Inc., Siemens Healthineers, Diatherix Laboratories, Inc., Meridian Bioscience, Inc., Cepheid, Inc., and QIAGEN.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Oleochemicals Market to grow at a CAGR of 6.42% Over period 2017-2021

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/1331140/global-oleochemicals-market-research-reports

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/1331140

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/enquiry/1331140

"The Report Global Oleochemicals Market 2017-2021 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"About OleochemicalsOleochemicals are chemical compounds that are extracted from the hydrolysis or methylation of fats and oils of both plants and animals. The basic oleochemicals include fatty acids, fatty alcohols, fatty amines, and glycerol. Oleochemicals are the potential alternatives to petrochemical products.The raw materials from which oleochemicals are obtained are:Vegetable oils sourced from soybeans, palm kernels, cotton seeds, copra, ground nuts, sunflower seeds, rapeseeds, linseeds, and castor beans.Animal oils and fats sourced from tallow and other animals, fish oils, and lard.Technavios analysts forecast the global oleochemicals market to grow at a CAGR of 6.42% during the period 2017-2021.View Report @Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global oleochemicals market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the retail selling price as the average selling price of the product.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:AmericasAPACEMEATechnavio's report, Global Oleochemicals Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendorsBASFCargillEmery OleochemicalsKuala Lumpur Kepong BerhadProcter & GambleWilmar InternationalGet Sample Copy Of This Report @Other prominent vendors3F Industries(formerly, Foods Fats and Fertilizers)Berg + SchmidtEcogreen OleochemicalsEvyap-OleoEvonik IndustriesGodrej IndustriesKAO CORPORATIONKraton CorporationOleonVantage Specialty ChemicalsVegetable Vitamin Foods CompanyTerraVia HoldingsMarket driverRegistration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH)For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeFluctuating raw material pricesFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendGovernment agencies promoting environment-friendly productsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?Send An Enquiry Request @Table of ContentsPART 01: Executive summaryPART 02: Scope of the reportPART 03: Research MethodologyPART 04: IntroductionMarket outlinePART 05: Market landscapeMarket size and forecastFive forces analysisPART 06: Market segmentation by applicationOverview: Global oleochemicals market by applicationGlobal oleochemicals market for soaps and detergentsGlobal oleochemicals market for polymersGlobal oleochemicals market for personal care and pharmaceuticalsGlobal oleochemicals market for lubricants and greasesGlobal oleochemicals market for food and beverageGlobal oleochemicals market for other applicationsPART 07: Market segmentation by productOverview: Global oleochemicals market by product typeGlobal oleochemical market by fatty acidsGlobal oleochemical market by fatty alcoholGlobal oleochemical market by glycerolGlobal oleochemical market by fatty aminesGlobal oleochemical market by other typesPART 08: Geographical segmentationOverview: Global oleochemicals market by geographyOleochemicals market in APACOleochemicals market in AmericasOleochemicals market in EMEAPART 09: Decision frameworkPART 10: Drivers and challengesMarket driversMarket challengesPART 11: Market trendsAbout usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.State Tower 90 Sate Street, Suite 700 Albany, NY 12207 Tel: +1-518-621-2074 USA: Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948
Accountable Care Solutions Market to Reflect Impressive Growth Rate During 2024

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=20999

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=20999

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

The term accountable care organizations (ACO) represents modification in reimbursement from process based fee for service to fee for quality, disease and condition based repayment with capitated payments to health care delivery organizations on a per case and per capita basis. In order to be commercially operative as an accountable care organization, it needs to determine whether it is delivering an advanced quality of health care and upgraded proficiency. Accountable Care Solutions help aggregate disparate electronic health record (EHR) data, although permitting providers to use their present systems and workflows. The financiers establish an outline whereby provider groups agree to care for a population of patients with the aim of reaching or exceeding prearranged cost and quality standards. Integrating distinct sources of information to build a single organized accountable care solution is hard, but organizations have made significant investments in these software to help and make it easy for experts to swiftly incorporate accountable care solutions software.Request to View ToC of Report -Accountable Care Solutions Market: DynamicsThere is growing importance in the possibility for accountable health care to contain costs while promising patient-centered affordable care. Growing need to abide by regulatory guidelines, high return on investment, government initiatives for eHealth, and the need to restrain increasing health care costs are some of the key factors driving the market. However, hesitancy among end-users to adopt new procedures and lack of in-house IT familiarity are factors likely to hamper the growth of the market. Additionally, reluctance among providers to adopt to these solutions, requirement of infrastructural investments, inadequate patient engagement, low usage of Internet solutions, lack of interoperability, and data security concerns related to cloud-based solutions are other factors restraining the market.Accountable Care Solutions Market Segmentation:Based on component, the market can be segmented into hardware, software, and services. In terms of deployment, the market can be segmented into on-premise, cloud-based, and web-based solutions. Based on end-user, the market can be segmented into health care payers and health care providers.The ability to rapidly access computing and storage resources when needed without the need for a large technical staff is an important factor encouraging the uptake of accountable care solutions. Gradually, health care is molded and critically compressed by software and information technology that surrounds and supports the industry.Accountable Care Solutions Market: Region-wise OutlookGeographically, the market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America holds major share of the global market, followed by Europe and Asia Pacific. However, Latin America and Asia Pacific hold lucrative growth potential in the market due to rising prevalence of various disorders, extensive customer base, rising medical tourism, increasing government initiatives for eHealth, growing demand for quality health care, and large base of aging population in the region. Most of the accountable care solutions products and services in these regions are driven by developing countries such as Singapore, China, India, Mexico, Brazil, and South Korea.Request to View Brochure of Report -Key PlayersKey players operating in the market are Aetna, Inc., Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Cerner Corporation, eClinicalWorks, Inc., Epic Systems Corporation, IBM Corporation, McKesson Corporation, NextGen Healthcare, Optum, Inc., UnitedHealth Group, Inc., Verisk Health, and Zeomega, Inc. The companies in this market are adopting various strategies such as partnerships, collaboration, mergers and acquisitions, expansion, product enhancements and product deployment to proliferate their share and create a strong position in the global market.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Bioreactor DO Sensors Market Estimated to Expand at a Robust CAGR over 2024

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=26000

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=26000

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Dissolved oxygen is the term used while measuring the amount of dissolved oxygen which is present in a unit volume of water. Dissolved oxygen term is widely used in bioprocessing applications such as fermentation or cell culture. Optimizing the dissolved oxygen level is important for the organism to thrive, and at the same time, dissolved oxygen should not cause additional turbulence during aeration.The dissolved oxygen sensors do not measure the actual oxygen content but measure the partial pressure of the oxygen in the water. The measurement of dissolved oxygen is displayed in terms of %, ppm or mg/L.The amount of dissolved oxygen present in a given volume of water is a function of pressure, temperature and dissolved substances such as sugars, salts, and other gases. There are two types of dissolved oxygen sensors, optical and electrochemical. The optical dissolved oxygen sensor is still in a developing phase of use, but electrochemical dissolved oxygen sensors are widely used in several applications, including at the manufacturing scale.Request to View ToC of Report -Bioreactor Dissolved Oxygen Sensors Market: DynamicsConsidering the time that a pharmaceutical or biotechnology company spends to bring a product to the market, selection of bioreactor components plays a crucial part. Unlike small molecules, the cost of production of biologics is comparatively high, and hence selection of cost-saving bioreactor components can add up to substantial profits. Single-use bioreactors have changed the dynamics of the dissolved oxygen sensor market as it has established itself as a popular choice at the preclinical, clinical and production stage. Moreover, the growth potential of the biologics industry coupled with low operational costs is expected to propel the market for dissolved oxygen sensors.Bioreactor Dissolved Oxygen Sensors Market: Region-wise OutlookIn terms of geography, The Bioreactor Dissolved Oxygen Sensors Market has been segmented into five regions including North America, Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa, Latin America and Europe. North America and Europe dominates the market with the presence of prominent international players in the bioreactor dissolved oxygen sensor market. Furthermore, stable government and industrial funding towards R&D activities will also contribute towards the bioreactor dissolved oxygen sensor market. Asia-Pacific is the fastest growing region with economically developing countries such as India, China, and Japan. These countries offer a huge skilled labor pool, large population base, and favorable government policies. In addition, clinical trial and contract manufacturing industry is also booming in the Asia-Pacific region. This is also expected to contribute towards the growth of the bioreactor dissolved oxygen sensor market.Request to View Brochure of Report -Bioreactor Dissolved Oxygen Sensors Market: Key PlayersThe bioreactor dissolved oxygen sensors market is experiencing introduction of novel products such as optical sensors which are easier to use and maintain. Several innovative products have entered the market in recent years, thanks to technology investments by major companies operating in this market. Key players in this industry are Mettler Toledo, Hach, Vernier, Emerson, YSI, Broadley-James among others.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Competitive Dynamics : Flight Simulator Market Globally Grow at a CAGR of 4.61% by 2021

https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1293345

https://www.researchmoz.us/global-flight-simulator-market-2017-2021-report.html/toc

https://www.researchmoz.us/global-flight-simulator-market-2017-2021-report.html

http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG

https://marketinfo247.wordpress.com/

Albany, NY, 20th December : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of "Global Flight Simulator Market 2017-2021" globally.A flight simulator artificially recreates the environment and other aspects of flying for pilot training purposes on civil and military aircraft and covers simulation in the environment, aircraft, and cueing.Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @It is not only used to acquire flying knowledge and experience but also extensively used to learn how to react to emergency situations. Military flight simulators educate the military personnel about the critical situations that they may be susceptible to during missions. They are used for exposing the military and commercial pilots to real-time situations, such as loss of electronics, hydraulic failures, bad weather, and incidents like tire blowouts on landing. Apart from the emergency training, a trainee can quickly learn to use the military combat systems, without the fear of making a mistake. Almost everything from engine failure to air combat mid-air refueling can be learned with the assistance of highly advanced and innovative simulators.Technavios analysts forecast the global flight simulator market to grow at a CAGR of 4.61% during the period 2017-2021.Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global flight simulator market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the new installations, shipments, sales, volume, value, retrofit, replacement, spares and aftermarket services.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:AmericasAPACEMEAView Complete TOC with tables & Figures @Technavio's report, Global Flight Simulator Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendorsCAEFlightSafety InternationalL3 Link Simulation and TrainingRockwell CollinsThalesOther prominent vendorsAirbusBoeingECA GroupFRASCA InternationalLockheed MartinMarket driverIncreasing number of aircraft deliveries in both military and commercial domainFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeAmbiguities with simulation systemsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendEmergence of cost-effective flight simulatorsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportBrowse Report @Key questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?ResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,90 State Street, Albany NY, United States - 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @Follow me on :
Overview Of Global Craft Beer Market To Exceed At A CAGR Of 11.04% 2017 - 2021: D. G. Yuengling & Son (DGYS) and Duvel Moortgat (DM)

Market Research Report

https://www.researchmoz.us/global-craft-beer-market-2017-2021-report.html/toc

https://www.researchmoz.us/global-craft-beer-market-2017-2021-report.html/toc

http://www.researchmoz.us/

http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG

Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Overview Of Global Craft Beer Market To Exceed At A CAGR Of 11.04% 2017 - 2021: D. G. Yuengling & Son (DGYS) and Duvel Moortgat (DM)" to its huge collection of research reports.Craft beer is a type of beer brewed in a traditional manner and usually produced in smaller quantities than that of the conventional beer. The production of craft beer generally takes place in regional craft breweries and microbreweries dedicated intensively for craft beer production. The global craft beer market is primarily dominated by the Americas and Europe, with the US being the largest craft beer country-specific market both in terms of volume and revenue. Craft beers are characterized by various innovative and exotic flavors. They are available in different varieties like IPA, amber ale, lager, bock, wheat, fruit beer, seasonal, and pale ale.Technavios analysts forecast the global craft beer market to grow at a CAGR of 11.04% during the period 2017-2021.Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global craft beer market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the sales of the key vendors and consumption of craft beer in various countries in hectoliters.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:AmericasAPACEMEATechnavio's report, Global Craft Beer Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Key vendorsD. G. Yuengling & Son (DGYS)Duvel Moortgat (DM)New Belgium Brewing Company (NBBC)Sierra Nevada Brewing (SNB)THE BOSTON BEER COMPANY (TBCC)Other prominent vendorsAF BrewAsahi Group Holdings (AGH)BELL'S BREWERYBrewDogBUXTON BREWERYCarlsbergCelt Experience BreweryChimay BreweryDeschutes Brewery (DB)Lagunitas Brewing Company (LBC)Omer Vander Ghinste BrewerySTONE BREWINGThe Gambrinus Company (TGC)Thornbridge BreweryVan PurMarket driverIncreasing number of microbreweries in the worldFor a full, detailed list, view our reportBrowse TOC @Market challengeDistribution challengesFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendIncreasing exports of craft beerFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Global Hexamethylene Diisocyanate market 2017 - Bayer, Vencorex, BASF SE, Asahi Kasei Corporation, Tosoh

Global Hexamethylene Diisocyanate market

https://goo.gl/8D1jiC

https://goo.gl/j8s6Sc

www.apexmarketreports.com

Apex Market Reports, recently published a detailed market research study focused on the "Hexamethylene Diisocyanate Market" across the global, regional and country level. The report provides 360 analysis of "Hexamethylene Diisocyanate Market" from view of manufacturers, regions, product types and end industries. The research report analyses and provides the historical data along with current performance of the global Hexamethylene Diisocyanate industry, and estimates the future trend of Hexamethylene Diisocyanate market on the basis of this detailed study. The study shares "Hexamethylene Diisocyanate Market" performance both in terms of volume and revenue.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here:Top Manufacturers Analysis of This ReportBayerVencorexBASF SEAsahi Kasei CorporationTosohWANHUAThe market research report explores the Hexamethylene Diisocyanate market across the globe along with major regions and countries. The research report provides a detailed study on each and every aspect of "Hexamethylene Diisocyanate Market". The research report studies the entire value chain from raw material to end user industries. The report also shares import/export statistics along with production and consumption for all major regions and countries. Moreover, the research study classifies the Hexamethylene Diisocyanate market based on major product types, application and end users industries of Hexamethylene Diisocyanate. Besides, the report also covers geographical segmentation for Hexamethylene Diisocyanate market. The report further provides production, capacity, price per region, gross margin, production cost, for all major regions and countries listed in report.The competitive landscape of the global market for Hexamethylene Diisocyanate is determined by assessing the major industry participants, production capacity, production capacity utilization rate, Hexamethylene Diisocyanate market's production chain, pricing by each manufacturer and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Hexamethylene Diisocyanate market globally.Enquire Before Buying @The global Hexamethylene Diisocyanate market 2017 is further analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Hexamethylene Diisocyanate production volume, data pertaining to demand and Hexamethylene Diisocyanate supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. The report provides upstream and downstream analysis covering major raw material used in manufacturing of Hexamethylene Diisocyanate along with detailed manufacturing sources. The report also shares list of major raw material manufacturers along with their manufacturing locations. Detailed raw material price trend analysis along with manufacturing cost analysis is also incorporated into the report. Various methodical tools such as investment returns, feasibility, SWOT analysis and market attractiveness analysis has been implemented in the research study to present a comprehensive, detailed study of the industry for Hexamethylene Diisocyanate across the world.About UsApex Market Reports offers elevating market research globally. We have collection of various syndicated reports of different categories. Apex Market Reports provides you to best services, weather youre searching for new trends in market or competitive scenario in emerging market.Customers can buys different reports across various categories such as Chemical and Material, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Food and beverages, Automobile and various sectors. Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Contact UsFrank ValadezCorporate Sales Specialist155 North Wacker Drive, Suite 4250Chicago, IL 60606Phone: +17739042683Email id - sales@apexmarketreports.comWebsite -
Set Top Box Market: Emergence of Advanced Technologies and Global Industry Analysis

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/set-top-box-market

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-4594

www.futuremarketinsights.com

The global set-top box market is anticipated to witness a robust growth during the assessment period 2017  2027. In a new report titled Set-top Box Market: Global Industry Analysis (2012  2016) and Opportunity Assessment (20172027), Future Market Insights studies the factors driving the adoption of set-top boxes across the globe. According to Future Market Insights analysis, the APEJ set-top box market is expected to witness a relatively high growth rate over the forecast period.Revenue from the set-top box market in APEJ and North America is estimated to collectively account for over 55.7% of the global set-top box market revenue in 2017. In North America, the increasing demand for 4K TV is expected to provide support to the growth of the set-top box market. In the APEJ region, due to the increasing penetration of television in both rural and urban areas, the set-top box market is set to receive a huge boost. Besides, a growing middle class and increasing disposable income in the APEJ region is also set to impact market revenue growth positively.Obtain Report Details @Segmental forecast of the global set-top box marketThe global set-top box market is segmented on the basis of product type (Cable Set-Top Boxes, Satellite Set-Top Boxes, IPTV Set-Top Boxes and OTT (Over the Top) Devices) and by video quality (Standard-Definition Set-Top Boxes, High-Definition Set-Top Boxes).In the year 2017, the satellite set-top box segment is estimated to be valued at US$ 8,458.1 Mn and is expected to register a CAGR of 8.1% during the forecast periodThe OTT devices set-top box segment is estimated to be valued at US$ 3,039.1 Mn in the year 2017 and is forecasted to touch a value of US$ 3,406.0 Mn in the year 2018, reflecting a year-on-year growth rate of 12.2%In the year 2017, the SD set-top box segment is estimated to be valued at US$ 5,377.8 Mn and is expected to register a CAGR of 5.1% during the assessment periodObtain Sample Of Report @The HD set-top box segment is estimated to be valued at US$ 16,891.0 Mn in the year 2017 and is forecasted to touch a value of US$ 18,532.1 Mn in the year 2018, reflecting a year-on-year growth rate of 9.7%In 2017, the North America set-top box market is estimated to be valued at US$ 5,748.4 Mn and is projected to reach US$ 9,942.0 Mn by the end of 2027. The market in North America is expected to represent incremental opportunity of US$ 4193.6 Mn between 2017 and 2027In 2017, the APEJ set-top box market is estimated to be valued at US$ 6,652.4 Mn and is projected to reach about US$ 16,703 Mn by the end of 2027. The market in APEJ is expected to represent incremental opportunity of US$ 10,050.3 Mn between 2017 and 2027Global Set-top Box Market Forecast 2017-2027Future Market Insights predicts the global set-top box market to be valued at about US$ 22,269 Mn by the end of 2017 and will continue to grow at a CAGR of 7.5% during the period of study to reach a market valuation of about US$ 46,091 Mn by the end of the forecast period.Competitive LandscapeThe report profiles some of the top companies operating in the global set-top box market including Humax Co., Ltd., Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Kaonmedia Co., Ltd., Technicolor SA ADB (Advanced Digital Broadcast), SA Sagemcom SAS Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., ARRIS Group, Inc, EchoStar Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, ST Microelectronics, Texas Instrument and Broadcom among others.About UsFuture Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centres in the U.S. and India.FMIs research and consulting services help businesses around the globe navigate the challenges in a rapidly evolving marketplace with confidence and clarity. Our customised and syndicated market research reports deliver actionable insights that drive sustainable growth. We continuously track emerging trends and events in a broad range of end industries to ensure our clients prepare for the evolving needs of their consumers.FMIs team of over 200 research analysts provides market intelligence at global, regional, and country level. Our analysts are committed to provide independent insights, relying on our cognitive defusion training module, which conditions them to look at data objectively and unbiasedly.ContactFuture Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email:sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Shares of LNG Re-liquefaction Plants Market in Global Industry : Incredible Possibilities,Growth with Industry Study, Detailed, Overview, Size, Share, Trends, Analysis and Research 2017-2025

Market Research Report

https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1409402

https://www.researchmoz.us/lng-reliquefaction-plants-market-global-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2017-2025-report.html

Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "LNG Re-liquefaction Plants Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.About LNG Re-liquefaction PlantsDemand for clean fuel vehicles running on natural gas is gaining momentum due to the rise in concern about environment protection. Governments across the world are promoting the usage of natural gas vehicles owing to the increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Natural gas global consumption continues to increase significantly.The replacement of liquid fossil fuels, such as HFO, diesel, effects on the environment, with emissions of NOx, SOx, and particulates being almost entirely eliminated and CO2 emissions being notably reduced. LNG is a natural gas that has been liquefied at a temperature of -161C. Its volume is about 1/600 times that of natural gas. As transportation fuel, LNG helps decrease cost and carbon emission when compared to crude oil alternatives. Mini and small scale liquefaction plants are an increasingly attractive complement to large scale LNG infrastructure. Technological advances have made monetization of small and stranded gas reserves possible in new locations.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The re-liquefaction system is a technology used in new LNG ships for the transport of liquefied natural gas. It is feasible to design fast LNG carriers with well insulated cargo tanks. The produced steam is used to drive steam turbines that help propel ships. It is also used to produce electricity.Due to the increasing cost of LNG, the shipbuilding industry is looking for alternative propulsion systems to drive steam turbines, with opting for the efficient propulsion system. Natural gas ship re-liquefaction plant has enabled the use of slow-speed marine diesel engines for propulsion. LNG re-liquefaction is widely used in gas handling on land, boards, and carriers. Currently, re-liquefaction technologies are being applied on-board liquefied natural gas carriers on the basis of economic criteria and energy efficiency. Other areas of the re-liquefaction technology are selected based on the availability of on-board space, compact or light weight, quick startup features, reliability of the operation, high availability and operability, low cost, and easy maintenance.Re-liquefaction plant can be used in combination with two stroke slow speed marine diesel engine, medium speed four stroke marine diesel engine, or gas turbine. Considering the current level of efficiency, two stroke marine engines are preferred. Re-liquefaction LNG plants are used in new LNG ships, which are employed for the transportation of liquefied natural gas. The re-liquefaction plant primarily controls cargo tanks pressure and prevent the discharge of methane gas into the atmosphere.Make an Enquiry about TOC @Based on application, the LNG re-liquefaction plants market can be divided into vehicles, ship, and cargo vessel. The vehicles application segment consists of automobiles running on LNG. These are primarily heavy duty vehicles and other vehicles utilizing the LNG re-liquefaction technique. The ship application segment comprises ships and barges running on LNG.In terms of region, the LNG re-liquefaction plants market can be divided into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. Asia Pacific is expected to lead the market during the forecast period, followed by North America. This dominance of Asia Pacific is primarily due to the large usage of re-liquefaction technique in China. The LNG re-liquefaction market in Asia Pacific is anticipated to expand at a significant pace during the forecast period due to the increase in demand for natural gas as a cleaner alternative for other fossil fuels and rise in number of heavy duty vehicles in the region.Key companies operating in the Re-liquefaction plants market include Cryostar, Clean Energy Fuels, ENN Energy Holding, Kunlun Energy Company Limited, FortisBC, ENGIE, Sinopec, and CNOOC Ltd.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.ResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.us
Asia Pacific Automotive Parts Die-Casting Market Report 2017, Trends, Analysis, Share, Estimates and Forecasts to 2022.

http://www.strategymrc.com/report/asia-pacific-automotive-parts-die-casting-market-outlook

http://www.strategymrc.com/report/asia-pacific-automotive-parts-die-casting-market-outlook

The Asia Pacific Automotive Parts Die-Casting report provides an in-depth analysis of the various market segments and its sub-segments.Products Covered: Pressure die-casting Vacuum die-casting Squeeze die-casting Semi-solid die-castingRaw Material Types Covered: Aluminium Zinc Magnesium OthersApplication Types Covered: Body assemblies Engine Parts Transmission parts OthersThe report focuses on current and upcoming market trends such as Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, and Challenges, technological advancements, Porters Five Forces analysis to assess the intensity of competition in the market. The market values are presented in the form of tables and graphs for better interpretation.For More, Please Visit:Market Size EstimationsThe market assessment is made by the core industry experts using our 360 research approach. The data is derived from the most reliable, authenticated data sources and is validated by the industry experts (Primary Research). Both top down and bottom up analysis are implemented to enhance the accuracy of the market figures. The market projections are calculated for the next 8 years using the actual market numbers of previous year as the base value.Company ProfilingThis section provides the overview of the key players that are leading in the industry, covering their business operations, financials, list of products & services, SWOT analysis, major developments such as mergers & acquisitions, agreements, partnerships, joint ventures, new product launch, expansions etc.Report Highlights:- Market share assessments for all the mentioned market segments and sub-segments- Market share analysis of the top industry players- Strategic recommendations for the new entrants- Market forecasts for a minimum of 8 years for all the given segments- Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)- Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimations- Competitive landscaping, mapping the key common trends- Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developments- Supply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancementsFor More, Please Visit:We offer wide spectrum of research and consulting services with in-depth knowledge of different industries. We are known for customized research services, consulting services and Full Time Equivalent (FTE) services in the research world. We explore the market trends and draw our insights with valid assessments and analytical views. We use advanced techniques and tools among the quantitative and qualitative methodologies to identify the market trends. Our research reports and publications are routed to help our clients to design their business models and enhance their business growth in the competitive market scenario. We have a strong team with hand-picked consultants including project managers, implementers, industry experts, researchers, research evaluators and analysts with years of experience in delivering the complex projects.STRATISTICS MRC17049 King James Way, Gaithersburg,MD, 20877, USA
Low Migration Inks Market Size in Global Industry : Technology, Applications, Growth and Status 2017-2025

Market Research Report

https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1409403

https://www.researchmoz.us/low-migration-inks-market-global-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2017-2025-report.html

Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Low Migration Inks Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.Low migration inks are used in packaging, wherein undesirable migration of chemicals from inks to materials is considered harmful. Passage of inks from the printed side to the unprinted side of the package can occur due to physical or gaseous migration. Physical migration is defined as penetration of the ink through a substrate from the printed layer to the unprinted side of the package. Substrates include paper, plastic, and metal. Gaseous migration includes evaporation of volatile materials in the ink by heating, especially in case of food products, in their original packaging. Low migration inks should not have chemicals that affect appearance, taste, odor, or safety of the product present inside the packaging.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Low migration inks are used in various applications such as food & beverages, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. The food & beverages application segment accounts for major share of the global low migration inks market. Rise in awareness about issues surrounding migration of inks in packaged food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical product is driving the demand for these inks. Low migration ink is a part of the graphics and packaging ink market. SVHC (Substance of Very High Concern), CMR (Carcinogen, Mutagen or Reproductive Toxin), heavy metals, and toxic or very toxic substances should not be present in low migration inks. Different processes are used to apply low migration inks such as flexography and gravure process.Regulations on printing inks have been in place in order to protect consumers from possible health risks involving contamination due to printed food materials and other substances. Authorities in developed regions such as Europe and North America have implemented regulations to monitor food packaging. In these regions, printing inks on the packages of food and beverages is one of the critical terms. Food safety standards are followed across the globe. Europe follows EuPIA Guideline on Printing Inks to the non-food contact surface of food packaging materials and articles. Regulations not only control the inks used for printing, but also the substrate suitable for printing process. Low migration inks are expensive; hence, the high cost is a constraint in the global market. However, printers for food & beverage, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industry in North America and Europe use low migration inks owing to the stringent regulations in these regions. However, conventional inks are preferred by local players in other regions of world.Make an Enquiry about TOC @Europe dominates the global low migration inks market in terms of revenue. Demand for these inks in Europe is expected to rise at a fast-paced CAGR during the forecast period. Printers in Europe not only have to adhere to European Union laws of printing on food materials, but also specific regional laws laid by countries such as Switzerland. Switzerland has a law named Ordinance of the FDHA on Materials and Articles which notes that all raw materials for inks in food packaging have to be listed and comply with specific migration limits (SMLs). Increase in end-use industry applications such as food & beverages, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals coupled with implementation of strict regulations is driving the demand for low migration inks in Europe.Key players operating in the global low migration inks market include INX International Ink Co., Sun Chemical, TOYO INK GROUP, ALTANA AG, Zeller+Gmelin UK Ltd, Agfa-Gevaert Group, Epson America, Hubergroup, Encres DUBUIT, Janecke+Schneemann Druckfarben GmbH, Kao Collins, Marabu Printing Inks, Siegwerk, SPGPrints, T&K Toka, and Wikoff Color Corporation.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.ResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.us
Bric Organic Baby Food Market: Technological Growth Map Over Time To Understand the Industry Growth Rate

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/details/bric-organic-baby-food-market

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-br-333

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Future Market Insights (FMI) has released a new report titled, Organic Baby Food Market - BRIC Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2015-2020. According to the report, the global organic baby food market is expected to account for US$ 5.6 Bn by 2020, registering a CAGR of 10.5% during the forecast period. On the other hand, the BRIC organic baby food market is projected to reach US$ 3,528.7 Mn at a CAGR of 19.5% over the forecast period.Rapid urbanisation, rising parental concern to feed their child with healthy and chemical free products, health awareness programmes by regional governments, emphasis on natural nourishment, and aggressive product branding will contribute to drive the growth of the global organic baby food market over the forecast period.Browse report of Organic Baby Food Market - BRIC Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2015-2020:The BRIC organic baby food market is driven by factors, such as rising number of working mothers, increased organic components, harvesting, and government support in the form of subsidies and other benefits. Moreover, consumer demand for specialised and healthy products is expected to fuel the market growth of organic baby food in BRIC region.The BRIC organic baby food market report mainly covers three segments: product type, distribution channel, and countries in BRIC region. On the basis of product, the market is further sub-segmented into milk formula organic baby food, ready to feed organic baby food, dried organic baby food, prepared organic baby food, and others. Milk formula organic baby food is expected to be the highest contributor to the market of BRICS organic baby food in terms of revenue, followed by prepared organic baby food. Milk formula organic baby food is anticipated to witness a CAGR of 20.3% through 2020 and reach a valuation of US$1,109.6 Mn.Obtain Sample Of Report @On the basis of distribution channel, the sub-segmentation comprises speciality outlet, supermarkets, internet or online selling, chemist/pharmacies/drugstores, and others. Among all the aforementioned distribution channels, the supermarket sub-segment is expected to dominate the market, accounting for US$ 1,414.6 Mn revenue by registering a CAGR of 21.2% in the forecasted period. The ease and convenience of buying products through internet will provide an impetus to the internet or online selling distribution channel and make it a favourable distribution channel for organic baby food, thereby accounting for 19.7% CAGR growth by 2020.Key countries for BRIC organic baby food market include India, China, Brazil and Russia. China represents the most lucrative market, followed by India. China is expected to contribute US$ 2,119.0 Mn revenue in the forecasted period. Growth of the market in China is supported by food safety issues. For example, thethe melamine scandal in baby food prompted consumers to turn towards healthy and hygienic food.Assessing the various factors driving this market, FMI Lead Analyst said, Increasing consumer awareness regarding benefits of greener products, rising parental concern, and doctors recommendation for organic baby food are expected to fuel the demand for organic baby food in BRIC.Key players profiled in this report include Nestle S.A, H.J. Heinz Company, Groupe Danone, British Biologicals, Abbott Laboratories, Bellamys Australia Limited, Campbell Soup Company, Otsuka Holdings Co., Ltd and others.About UsFuture Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centres in the U.S. and India.FMIs research and consulting services help businesses around the globe navigate the challenges in a rapidly evolving marketplace with confidence and clarity. Our customised and syndicated market research reports deliver actionable insights that drive sustainable growth. We continuously track emerging trends and events in a broad range of end industries to ensure our clients prepare for the evolving needs of their consumers.FMIs team of over 200 research analysts provides market intelligence at global, regional, and country level. Our analysts are committed to provide independent insights, relying on our cognitive defusion training module, which conditions them to look at data objectively and unbiasedly.ContactFuture Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email:sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Emmental Cheese Market Analysis, Segments, Growth and Value Chain 2017-2027

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=20969

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/emmental-cheese-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Casein, a milk protein produces emmental cheese by coagulation process, is named after a region in Switzerland. Emmental cheese is called by Emme is a Swiss river and Tal a valley in German. It is made from the unpasteurized milk of cow and kept 120 days to ripe by a traditional method. The holes formed in emmental cheese are the result of bacteria releasing gas bubbles. This sweet smelled cheese is hard in its textures. emmental cheese is distinct from other members of this family as it consists of walnut-sized holes and is fruity to taste. It is rich in taste and has unique looks. It has an ivory or pale yellow color. Emmental cheese and gruyere cheese both are important cheeses in the traditional fondue recipe.Download exclusive Sample of this report:Due to all above features, Swiss emmental cheese is named best cheese in the world in 2014.Emmental Cheese: Market DynamicsEmmental cheese is known as a king of the Swiss cheese due to its authenticity, quality, taste, looks. It has the sweet aroma. Its hard; nutty, fruity flavors are the drivers for its popularity and demand all over the world. It attracts all categories of people as it has health, dental and skin benefits. Increasing influence of western culture, growing number of fast food consumption, growth in cheese demand and thus the market size are some of the driving factors of cheese market. The European market is changing, and thus it forces cheese suppliers to conduct changes in their business. Market drivers are thus targeting growth and exploring global market, promoting health benefits of cheese and emmental cheese improving value-added of cheese.The Proportion of the quantity of milk required to the cheese produced is little, and thus producers face heavy losses in such conditions.Emmental cheese market leaders include Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and North America. Its taste, colors, and its traditional flavors still attract the cheese lovers and thus are some of the driving factors for increasing demand of cheese market.Obtain Report Details @Emmental cheese are in demand mostly in Eastern Europe, North America,Emmental Cheese: Market SegmentationBased on Product type, emmental cheese is segmented intoEmmental AOP classicEmmental AOP ReserveEmmental AOP ExtraEmmental AOP cave-agedEmmental AOP BioEmmental GotthelfRahmtalerEmmental CrownBased on texture, emmental cheese is segmented intoHard cheeseSemi-Hard cheeseSoft cheeseSemi-soft cheeseBased on Maturity, emmental cheese is segmented into3-6 months4 months8 months12 monthsBased on flavors, emmental cheese is segmented intoNuttySpicy, strongAromaticMildCreamyBased on color, emmental cheese is segmented intoIvoryDark YellowDark brownBlackGolden yellowEmmental Cheese: Segment OverviewThe North America and Europe are market leaders of global cheese market by consumption and production.Apart from Regions, emmental cheese is categorized by texture, flavors and colors of the cheese. There is huge variety of cheese available in this traditional cheese.Emmental cheese: Regional OverviewEmmental cheese, king of the Swiss cheese is divided into seven regions, North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-pacific, Middle-East and Africa.Top regional producers for Emmental cheese in North America is United States, that of Asia-pacific is Australia, New Zealand. The Top regional consumer in North America are the United States, Latin America- Mexico, Japan and Asia-Pacific.Emmental cheese has a great market opportunity for India and China in terms of revenue generation from cheese market.Emmental Cheese: Market ParticipantsSome of the players in emmental cheese market areARLA Foods, Cowgirl Creamery, Brewster Cheese Company, Emmentaler Schaukaserei, Traditional Cheese Company, Springbank Cheese Co.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Biochar Market : New Business Opportunities & Investment Research Report 2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1703

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1703

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=D&rep_id=1703

Global Biochar Market: SnapshotThe global biochar market is observing a significantly high rise in its valuation, thanks to the increasing preference for organic food among consumers across the world. The ability of biochar to improve the fertility of soil and enhance the growth of plants has surfaced as the main factor behind the growth of this market. Currently, synthetic and several other bio-based fertilizers are dominating the agricultural scenario, globally. However, the awareness about the benefits of biochar is spreading gradually among farmers and agriculturists, thereby, creating massive opportunities for further growth of this market in the coming years.The global market for biochar includes both organized and unorganized manufacturers of biochar. Emerging countries, such as Japan, Brazil, China, and Mexico report of a prominent amount of biochar production from the unorganized sector, primarily manufactured by villagers in association with research institutes and various non-governmental support groups. However, the number of the organized players is anticipated to increase substantially in these countries over the next few years, thanks to the escalating demand for organic food, worldwide.The full potential of biochar is yet to be realized in the agricultural sector and is projected to surface as a particularly important factor in the overall progression of the food sector in the near future. Water treatment is projected to emerge as an important application area of biochar in the years to come, especially in developing economies.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Biochar Market: OverviewBiochar is a time-honored soil amendment practice and also a fine solution to climate change effects. Regions with insufficient supply of chemical fertilizers, organic resources, and water can significantly benefit from this highly porous and fine-grained charcoal. Along with bioenergy, it can displace fossil fuel usage and sequester carbon in well-balanced soil carbon pools to tackle climate change. Biochar has won worldwide appreciation for its unique soil enhancing properties with the widespread prominence of the Amazons biochar-rich dark lands.Global Biochar Market: Key TrendsWith a substantial rise in population size, organic food has drew in a lot of demand, owing to which the biochar market is expected to invite a handsome growth. The credit for this growth could be given to biochars propensity for improving plant development and soil fertility. The improving agricultural industry in different nations such as Australia, Germany, Canada, and the U.S. is anticipated to aggravate the demand for biochar. As a result, the global market is predicted to record a healthy growth over the coming years.Large-scale gasification projects receiving support from Europe and North America governments and the increasing performance of organic farming are projected to put the world biochar market is a good position. The rise in meat consumption and growing significance of biochar in livestock farming benefiting with key nutrients are forecasted to set the tone for the market.Request TOC of the Report @The growth in the global biochar market could be impeded on account of technological and financial barriers. Besides this, the ignorance of consumers on the part of biochars long-term advantages is foretold to delay the market growth. Howbeit, a considerable expansion of the market is expected to occur as organic food and farming open up new opportunities.Global Biochar Market: Market PotentialBiochar possesses a massive potential to reduce the proportion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, in fact, virtually every greenhouse emission. This could be an epic breakthrough in the elimination of climate-warming black carbon. Capable of enduring the test of time for survival, this super charcoal can sequester carbon dioxide many times longer than trees. For producers which operate in areas where labor cost is economical but maintenance expenditure is large, biochar production could be ideal. This is because of the simple and low-priced equipment required to convert soy hay and other wastes into biochar. In a way, the biochar market is deemed to be a great medium to minimize the gap between smart business and smart environmentalism.Request Discount of the Report @Global Biochar Market: Regional OutlookThe biochar sector is envisaged to be developed at a telling rate on the back of regions such as Europe and North America, registering an elevating rise in the count of small and medium scale manufacturers. A steady progress is foreseen to be witnessed by Australia as the awareness about the advantages and benefits of biochar escalates across the country. Followed by Europe, North America is prognosticated to record a dominant share in the global biochar market. Producers of biochar can also find opportunities in other markets such as Asia Pacific and Rest of the World.Global Biochar Market: Competitive LandscapePlayers in the biochar market receive support from companies supplying pyrolysis technology and wood pellets and residue. Phoenix Energy, Cool Planet Energy Systems Inc., Pacific Pyrolysis, and 3R ENVIRO TECH Group are some of the top firms involved in the pyrolysis technology business. Wood pellets and residue are primarily provided by timber businesses such as West Fraser, Georgia-Pacific, and Weyerhaeuser. Out of the prominent biochar players in the international market, Biochar Supreme, LLC is prophesied to make the cut. The analysts anticipate the market to own a fragmented character.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Why UK's Web and App Both Development and Design Agencies Are Fed up with Client Requirements

App, Web, Development, Design, UK, Agencies

Another Type of competition comes up between Web, App development and design agencies in UK.As Technologies change with the time, client do too now companies are facing problems in fulfilling client's Requirement because regularity in updations & changes they ask for quality work can only be provided by Professional developer's and in market not many companies have enough developers to meet such client needs.While considering companies point of you such requirements are unnecessary burdens on their part and they are facing project completion issues, not being able to resolve customer issues because of not being able to hire talent on all the skill sets available out there. Such issues create imbalance in Company client relationships eventually ruining the company name while the client just takes his business to some other company.To resolve such issue's on priority basis Companies started filling position for experience & skilled developer's in UK.TechTIQ Solutions is one of the top design & development company in London,UK specialized in Web,app,Wordpess, Magento, Ecommerce, Joomla, Drupal, Laravel,SEO Social & Digital Media Marketing.International House,24 Holborn ViaductLondon,England,UKZip Code -EC1 2BN+44 2038 841100Email - chris.k@techtiq.co.uk
Control Valves Market : Business Development Analysis 2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1706

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1706

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=D&rep_id=1706

Global Control Valves Market: snapshotWith the presence of a large pool of well-established regional, as well as international manufacturers of control valves, the global market for control valves demonstrates a highly fragmented structure. The market also displays high competitiveness, as the leading players are increasingly being involved in mergers, acquisitions, and alliances to strengthen their positions in the global market. Continual addition to the existing product portfolios of these players is also expected to help them significantly in the near future.The power sector has surfaced as the key contributor to the growth of the global market for control verves. Apart from this, the substantial increase in the oil and gas exploration activities is also impacting this market positively. The remarkable growth in the product pipelines, globally, is propelling this market considerably on the grounds of fast-paced industrialization.The rising investment in the area of fluid handling technology in the oil and gas and the pharmaceutical industries is also driving the global control valve market. The pharmaceutical industry is looking to develop a state-of-art fluid handling system for the improvement in hygiene and to accelerate the process. In the oil and gas industry, the augmenting investment in the field of shale gas and the installation of pipelines to ensure the efficient handling of fluid, is increasing the demand for control valves, leading to a high growth of this market.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Control Valves Market: OverviewControl valves are a type of valve mechanism which respond to signals directed by controllers in the form of partial or complete closure or opening for controlling pressure, liquid level, flow, temperature, and other conditions. The production of control valves is chiefly driven by the soaring demand in process sectors and high energy consumption. Control valves could be of various kinds, viz. electric, hydraulic, pneumatic, and manual.Global Control Valves Market: Key TrendsManufacturers in the world control valves market could be encouraged with the recent drastic hike in demand as a result of the sophisticated developments in the electric control valves field. Products that are not dependent on periodic maintenance for their efficient functioning are envisaged to find greater importance in the eyes of manufacturers. This has led to the ballooning emphasis on their manufacturing and designing. Low environmental impact control valves are anticipated to rake in a strong revenue growth as government regulations pertaining to environment pollution turn stricter.Request TOC of the Report @Although the oil and gas sector is deemed as a primary scope of growth for the world control valves market, the slacking oil and gas supply because of shredding reserves is predicted to cause hindrance. However, food and beverage is projected to make up for the loss in demand in the previous sector with a surging number of control valve applications. Nonetheless, it is worth taking note of the important applications of control valves in downstream, midstream, and upstream oil and gas activities.Besides animal feed, oils and fats, and dairy industries in the food and beverage sector, control valves could be used in power generation and pharmaceutical sectors.Global Control Valves Market: Market PotentialValve and pump specialist Weir Flow Control has recently announced its newly acquired safety and control valve project of Maersk Oil, which is planning on the development of its Culzean gas field. The Culzean project is considered to be benefited by Weirs combined engineering expertise in the U.K. and France facilities. Awarded by Sembcorp Marine Offshore Platforms (SMOP) in Singapore, the project will feature 130 purpose-designed Blakeborough valves and 132 Sarasin-RSBD special service valves for pressure relief.Request Discount of the Report @Prominent companies such as OCV Control Valves are looking to incorporate fresh talent and veteran recruits with new appointments in their managerial departments. In March 2017, OCV announced Jarrod McCain in the capacity of business development manager and Megan Sutton as logistics and customer service manager.Global Control Valves Market: Regional OutlookThe inert advancement of a majority of industry verticals in North America could be blamed for the listless growth rate in the region. Nonetheless, weighty players in the wastewater management, power generation, and oil and gas sectors making impressive technological and pecuniary investments are predicted to change the situation in the North America control valves market. The market could also gain impetus from the expansion of shale extraction due to the rising energy demand.Asia Pacific, on the other hand, is forecasted to make its presence known in the global control valves market on account of the swelling demand in processed food and semiconductor and electronic manufacturing. In 2015, the Asia Pacific market had secured a larger share and is envisioned to continue demonstrating supremacy while riding on aggressive industrial infrastructure development and enlarging investments in different verticals.Global Control Valves Market: Competitive LandscapeSome of the giant companies in the control valves industry such as Velan, Inc., Flowserve Corporation, and Metso could be checked by firms manufacturing low cost products in Asia, which are expected to penetrate the existing markets. The other leading players in the world control valves market could be IMI PLC, Crane & Co., Samson AG, General Electric, Emerson Electric Co., and Pentair PLC.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Global Metallurgical Coal Market Industry : Focusing On Demand, Production, Price and Trade ,Market Development, Analysis and Overview 2017-2025

Market Research Report

https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1409410

https://www.researchmoz.us/metallurgical-coal-market-global-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2017-2025-report.html

Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Metallurgical Coal Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.Metallurgical coal, also known as coking coal, is a low sulfur, low ash, and low phosphorus grade of coal. It is used to produce high-grade coke, which is an important reactant for manufacturing of primary steel in the blast furnace process. Metallurgical coal can be easily distinguished from thermal coal due to its caking ability and carbon content. Metallurgical coal produces a strong, low-density coke, when it is heated in the absence of air, which softens on heating, and the volatile components, present in the coal, evaporate and flow out through pores. The resulting coke swells upon cooling and becomes larger in volume.Demand for metallurgical coal is coupled the demand for steel. On an average, about 630 kg of coke is required to produce 1 ton of steel. Metallurgical coal is a vital reactant in the traditional basic oxygen furnace (BOF) steelmaking process. As such, its re-pricing is affecting steelmaking economics globally. Moreover, developing economies such as India, China, and Indonesia have substantially contributed in the rising demand for metallurgical coal across the globe. China is the largest producer and consumer of coking coal across the globe and produced about 804 million metric tons in 2015.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Prices for metallurgical coal opened at US$ 78 per metric ton in January, 2016 and rose up to US$ 307 per metric ton by the end of 2016. This increase in price is primarily due to supply deficit, as demand for metallurgical coal has been stable. Therefore, to sustain the required supply of metallurgical coal, companies across the globe are reopening a few closed mines. Furthermore, current producers will now have to compete with new metallurgical coal suppliers across the globe, who had previously exited from the market owing to the low prices of metallurgical coal but have re-entered the market with the expectation that coal prices will stabilize. Therefore, the metallurgical coal market is anticipated to expand in the coming years.The metallurgical coal market can be segmented based on coal grade and region. In terms of coal grade, the market can be divided into hard coking coals (HCC), semi-soft coking coal (SSCC), and pulverized coal injection (PCI) coal. Hard coking coals cost higher as compared to semi-soft coking coals as they have better coking properties. Pulverized injection coal is not categorized as a coking coal; however, it is used as a source of energy in the steel making process.Make an Enquiry about TOC @Based on region, the metallurgical coal market can be segregated into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America. Asia Pacific dominated the market in 2016 and this trend is anticipated to continue during the forecast period. China dominated the global metallurgical coal market in 2016. Most of the coal mining companies in China are controlled by the government. Falling demand of metallurgical coal since 2012 till 2014 has resulted in the drop in its prices. As a result, in February, 2015, the Government of China implemented a top-down approach to decrease the congestion in the domestic coal mining industry.It ordered its coal mining companies to reduce their annual production by 9% or 500 million metric tons (MMTs), between 2019 and 2022. Furthermore, the government transferred 500 MMTs of coal mining capacity from smaller coal mining companies to larger coal mining companies to consolidate the production. However, due to the increase in coal prices, government of China has relaxed some rules in its supply reduction policy. This is anticipated to increase the demand for metallurgical coal during the forecast period.Key players operating in the global metallurgical coal market include Indika Energy, Rio Tinto, Arch Coal Inc., BHP Billiton, Teck, Xstrata, and Anglo America.The study is a source of reliable data on:Market segments and sub-segmentsMarket trends and dynamicsSupply and demandMarket sizeResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.us
New Market Research Report Announced on Social Business Intelligence Market ; Global Industry Analysis 2017  2026

https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1287899

https://www.researchmoz.us/social-business-intelligence-market.html/toc

https://www.researchmoz.us/social-business-intelligence-market.html

http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG

https://marketinfo247.wordpress.com/

Albany, NY, 20th December : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of "Social Business Intelligence Market: BFSI Segment Expected to Emerge the Undisputed Leader by Vertical Throughout the Forecast Period: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2016-2026" globally.Social business intelligence refers to the management technique that merges groups to share data effectively in order to improve overall efficiency of operational processes.Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @It offers better opportunities to employees for recognising customer demand through open management of product and resources. Social business intelligence also aids in improving various aspects of analysis, social media and analytics.Revenue generated from the deployment of social business intelligence solutions worldwide is estimated to be nearly US$ 17 Bn in 2017, and is projected to reach a market valuation of nearly US$ 29 Bn by 2026, reflecting a CAGR of 6% over the forecast period (2016-2026).Increasing adoption of cloud-based technologies and growing usage of social media are the major drivers boosting revenue growth of the global social business intelligence marketGrowing usage of social media is driving the demand for big data globallyPresently, most of the private organisations are adopting big data solutions to capture and store large amounts of unstructured data. Big data supports in managing unstructured data fully or partially from enterprise IT systems, CRM conversations and social media. Big data offers hadoop solutions, which enable users to manage, store and analyse data across numerous resources efficiently. For instance, in September 2014, Oracle launched business intelligence cloud service which aids to improve speed and decision making across organisations by lowering barriers. Moreover, big data solutions also offer secure, comprehensive information access with simplicity and cost effectiveness.View Complete TOC with tables & Figures @Security vulnerabilities is a big challenge hampering revenue growth of the global social business intelligence marketIn social business intelligence systems, one of the main challenges faced by organisations while adopting cloud services is data security. With an increase in the demand for cloud-based services, most of the organisations are shifting their workloads to the cloud from on-premise systems. Security breaches and privacy concerns pertaining to sensitive data are big challenges faced by vendors offering cloud-based solutions.Positive outlook of BI towards Hadoop can be a good growth opportunity for players in the global social business intelligence marketInstallation of new enterprise data operating systems over SQL servers would have a positive impact on the global social business intelligence market. Distributed analytic framework such as MapReduce will gradually turn Hadoop into a general-purpose data operating system. Hadoop offers adequate performance with optimal costs and also handles different kind of workloads such as steam processing and graph analytics. This, in turn, is likely to drive the demand for Hadoop implementation in social business intelligence and will boost the market in the long run.Global Social Business Intelligence Market Attractiveness, By Vertical, 20162026In terms of value, BFSI segment is projected to be the most attractive segment in the global social business intelligence market during the forecast period. However, the travel and tourism segment is expected to register high Y-o-Y growth rates throughout the forecast period. In terms of value, the travel and tourism segment is expected to register a CAGR of 7.5% during the forecast period. In 2017, the IT and telecommunication segment is estimated to be valued at nearly US$ 3 Bn and is expected to witness steady growth in terms of revenue throughout the forecast period.Browse Report @Wearable devices gaining popularity in the North America social business intelligence marketThe growth of the IoT is adding to the vast pool of data with everything from television, cars, smart watches and other devices producing data that may or may not hold valuable insights for the business. Providers of enterprise application software such as Qlik Technologies, along with established players such as Oracle Corporation, IBM Corporation and others are among the main beneficiaries. Health monitoring is gaining traction among the population in North America. Devices that can monitor various bodily data from heart health to sleep patterns and suggest lifestyle adjustments is gaining penetration among the population of North America. In October 2015 for instance, IBM Corporation redesigned its flagship BI solution with built-in accelerated modelling and reporting. Global BI solution vendors are investing in structured R&D initiatives to utilise wearable technology in business. The big game plan is to take big data to a whole new level.ResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,90 State Street, Albany NY, United States - 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @Follow me on :
The Sierra Leonean Insurance Market 2017: Key Players African Risk Capacity Ltd, Africa Re

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/2470854-governance-risk-and-compliance-the-sierra-leonean-insurance-industry

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/2470854-governance-risk-and-compliance-the-sierra-leonean-insurance-industry

www.linkedin.com/company/4828928

https://twitter.com/WiseGuyReports

https://www.facebook.com/Wiseguyreports-1009007869213183/?fref=ts

Synopsis'Governance, Risk and Compliance  The Sierra Leonean Insurance Industry' report is the result of extensive research into the insurance regulatory framework in Sierra Leone.It provides detailed analysis of the insurance regulations for life, property, motor, liability, personal accident and health, and marine, aviation and transit insurance. The report specifies various requirements for the establishment and operation of insurance and reinsurance companies and intermediaries.GET SAMPLE REPORT @The report brings together research, modeling and analysis expertise, giving insurers access to information on prevailing insurance regulations, and recent and upcoming changes in the regulatory framework, taxation and legal system in the country. The report also includes the scope of non-admitted insurance in the country.SummaryThe report provides insights into the governance, risk and compliance framework pertaining to the insurance industry in Sierra Leone, including: An overview of the insurance regulatory framework in Sierra Leone. The latest key changes, and changes expected in the countrys insurance regulatory framework. Key regulations and market practices related to different types of insurance product in the country. Rules and regulations pertaining to key classes of compulsory insurance, and the scope of non-admitted insurance in Sierra Leone. Key parameters including licensing requirements, permitted foreign direct investment, minimum capital requirements, solvency and reserve requirements, and investment regulations. Details of the tax and legal systems in the country.Scope The report covers details of the insurance regulatory framework in Sierra Leone. The report contains details of the rules and regulations governing insurance products and insurance entities. The report lists and analyzes key trends and developments pertaining to the countrys insurance regulatory framework. The report analyzes the rules and regulations pertaining to the establishment and operation of insurance businesses in the country. The report provides details of taxation imposed on insurance products and insurance companies.Reasons to Buy Gain insights into the insurance regulatory framework in Sierra Leone. Track the latest regulatory changes, and expected changes impacting the Sierra Leonean insurance industry. Gain detailed information about the key regulations governing the establishment and operation of insurance entities in the country. Understand key regulations and market practices pertaining to various types of insurance product.Key Highlights The Sierra Leonean insurance industry is regulated by the Sierra Leone Insurance Commission (Slicom). Motor third-party liability insurance, professional indemnity for brokers, medical professionals insurance and employers liability insurance are compulsory classes of insurance. Composite insurance is permitted in Sierra Leone. 100% FDI is permitted in the Sierra Leonean insurance industry. Non-admitted insurance is not permitted in the Sierra Leonean insurance industry.Table of Content: Key Points1 Introduction1.1 What is this Report About?1.2 Definitions2 Governance, Risk and Compliance2.1 Legislation Overview and Historical Evolution2.2 Latest Changes in Regulations2.3 Legislation and Market Practice by Type of Insurance2.3.1 Life insurance2.3.2 Property insurance2.3.3 Motor insurance2.3.4 Liability insurance2.3.5 Marine, aviation and transit insurance2.3.6 Personal accident and health insurance2.4 Compulsory Insurance2.4.1 Motor third-party liability insuranceContinuedACCESS REPORT @Get in touch:LinkedIn:Twitter:Facebook:Wise Guy Reports understand how essential statistical surveying information is for your organization or association. Therefore, we have associated with the top publishers and research firms all specialized in specific domains, ensuring you will receive the most reliable and up to date research data available. We also provide COTS (Commercial off the Shelf) business sector reports as custom exploration agreeing your particular needs.WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Future Scope of Forklift Trucks Market, Analysis of Market Size, Share, Growth and Forecast

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2920

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/forklift-trucks-market-2920

Market ScenarioForklift trucks are used to lift and move materials within short distances. Forklift trucks are used across various industries such as automotive, food and beverages, construction, consumer goods, e-commerce, and retail. Growing demand from manufacturing industry is the primary driving factor of the forklift trucks market. Increase in productivity, reduced injuries & accidents along with operator comfort are some major factors that have positive influence on the market growth. However, high cost of electric powered forklift trucks is the factor that may hamper the growth of market.Global Forklift Trucks Market is projected to reach USD 41.73 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 5.9% from 2017 to 2023.Regional Analysis of Global Forklift Trucks Market:Asia-Pacific dominates the global forklift trucks market followed by Europe. Growth in industrialization in this region, is the primary factor that increases the demand of forklift trucks market. This region is expected to grow at the fastest pace during the forecast period. Europe is another important market and is expected to contribute significantly during the forecast period.Request a sample @Key PlayersThe key players of global forklift trucks market are Komastu Ltd. (Japan), Toyota Industries Corporation (Japan), KION Group AG (Germany), Hyster-Yale Material handling Inc. (U.S.), Jungheinrich Group (Germany), Mitsubishi Nichiyu Forklift Corporation (Japan), Crown Equipment Corporation (U.K), The Raymond Corporation (U.S.), Anhui HELI Co., Ltd (China), and Kalmar Global (Finland).LIST OF FIGURESFIGURE 1 RESEARCH CAPACITYFIGURE 2 GLOBAL FORKLIFT TRUCKS MARKET: BY TECHNOLOGY (%)FIGURE 3 GLOBAL FORKLIFT TRUCKS MARKET: BY CAPACITY (%)FIGURE 4 GLOBAL FORKLIFT TRUCKS MARKET: BY APPLICATION (%)FIGURE 5 GLOBAL FORKLIFT TRUCKS MARKET: BY REGIONFIGURE 6 NORTH AMERICA FORKLIFT TRUCKS MARKET, BY TECHNOLOGY (%)FIGURE 7 NORTH AMERICA FORKLIFT TRUCKS MARKET, BY CAPACITY (%)FIGURE 8 NORTH AMERICA FORKLIFT TRUCKS MARKET, BY APPLICATION (%)FIGURE 9 EUROPE FORKLIFT TRUCKS MARKET, BY TECHNOLOGY (%)FIGURE 10 EUROPE FORKLIFT TRUCKS MARKET, BY CAPACITY (%)FIGURE 11 EUROPE FORKLIFT TRUCKS MARKET, BY APPLICATION (%)FIGURE 12 ASIA-PACIFIC FORKLIFT TRUCKS MARKET, BY TECHNOLOGY (%)FIGURE 13 ASIA-PACIFIC FORKLIFT TRUCKS MARKET, BY CAPACITY (%)FIGURE 14 ASIA-PACIFIC FORKLIFT TRUCKS MARKET, BY APPLICATION (%)FIGURE 15 ROW FORKLIFT TRUCKS MARKET, BY TECHNOLOGY (%)FIGURE 16 ROW FORKLIFT TRUCKS MARKET, BY CAPACITY (%)FIGURE 17 ROW FORKLIFT TRUCKS MARKET, BY APPLICATION (%)The report for Global Forklift Trucks Market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions.Browse report @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting ServicesContact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 524/528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Global Automotive Cockpit Electronics Market Expected To Grow At A CAGR Of 12.0% During 2014 To 2020, To Reach An Estimated Value Of Usd 61.5 Billion In 2020

Market Research Report

https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=320846

https://www.researchmoz.us/global-market-study-on-automotive-cockpit-electronics-infotainment-and-navigation-segment-to-witness-highest-growth-by-2020-report.html/toc

http://www.researchmoz.us/

http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG

Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Automotive Cockpit Electronics Market Expected To Grow At A CAGR Of 12.0% During 2014 To 2020, To Reach An Estimated Value Of Usd 61.5 Billion In 2020" to its huge collection of research reports.With the increasing number of road accidents, vehicle owners are turning towards more automated vehicles. Stringent regulations are leading to the inclusion of advanced features in passenger cars including tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS), electronic stability control, and occupant detection. With the tightening of regulations for the passenger car manufacturers, plenty of opportunity awaits the automotive cockpit electronic companies in the near term.Persistence Market Researchs recently published report on the global automotive cockpit electronics market provides an extensive assessment of the market, evaluating the growth prospects for a six-year forecast period 2014-2020. It comprises key trends and restraints impacting the overall market growth, recent trends and upcoming opportunities, market segmentation, regional analysis, and key players vying for the leading market position. Starting with an overview of the global automotive cockpit electronics market, the report further analyzes the factors that positively and negatively influence the demand for automotive cockpit electronics. It provides deep insights into why automotive cockpit electronics is expected to gain higher traction in developing markets, and what are the deterring factors that will affect the market growth over the forecast period, 2014-2020.Latest trends and opportunities sections of the report highlight the most valuable data to recognize the most lucrative opportunities for the market growth.Segmentation of the global market for automotive cockpit electronics focuses on various automotive cockpit electronics product types. The geographical analysis of the global market examines the market status in four key regions viz. Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, and RoW. The market report elaborates on why developing markets may witness robust growth and outpace the long-term leader during the forecast period. The next section of the report includes all the leading companies competing in the market for a leading position. Strong presence of global players and established local brands makes the landscape extremely competitive. The report throws light on the growth pattern, revenues, and upcoming opportunities for each of the players.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Research MethodologyTo deduce the global automotive cockpit electronics market size, the report considers various aspects based on secondary research. Furthermore, key data points such as region-wise split and market split by product type and qualitative inputs from primary respondents have been incorporated to arrive at appropriate market estimates. The forecast presented in the report assesses the total revenue generated and expected revenue contribution in the global automotive cockpit electronics market.The report begins with sizing the market in terms of value and volume for the base year, which forms the basis for forecasting how the market is anticipated to take shape in the near future. Given the characteristics of the market, gathered data is triangulated via different analysis based on supply side and demand side drivers and other key dynamics of the global automotive cockpit electronics market.To develop the market forecast, Persistence Market Research has also conducted a factor analysis to understand the impact of various forces/factors on the target market. The report provides forecasts not only in terms of CAGR but also presents a detailed analysis based on key parameters such as Year-on-Year (Y-o-Y) growth to understand market predictability and to identify the right opportunities.Browse TOC @Another key feature of this report is an analysis of the global automotive cockpit electronics market and the corresponding revenue forecast in terms of absolute dollar opportunity, usually overlooked while forecasting the market. However, absolute dollar opportunity is critical in assessing the level of opportunity that a provider can look to achieve, as well as to identify potential resources from a sales perspective in the global automotive cockpit electronics market. Further, to understand key segments in terms of their growth and overall global automotive cockpit electronics market performance, Persistence Market Research has developed a market attractiveness index to help providers identify existing market opportunities in the global automotive cockpit electronics market.Company Profiles:Continental AG.DENSO CORPORATION.Visteon Corporation.Harman International Industries, Inc.Alpine Electronics, Inc.Clarion Company, Ltd.Panasonic Corporation.Delphi Automotive PlcRobert Bosch GmbH.Garmin, Ltd.OtherAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Biopesticides Market Is Expected To Reach USD 7,626.3 Million By 2022

http://www.meticulousresearch.com/product/biopesticides-market/

The biopesticides market will grow at a CAGR of 16.3% during the forecast period to reach USD 7,626.3 million by 2022, according to the latest publication by Meticulous Research. The biopesticides market is driven by the increasing investment from leading crop protection companies in biopesticides market, growing awareness about environmental safety with the use of biopesticides, increasing organic farming and demand for organic food, and rising government initiatives to promote the use of biopesticides across the globe.The global biopesticides market is mainly segmented by type, application, formulation, origin, and crop type. The biopesticides market by type is further segmented into bioinsecticides, bioherbicides, biofungicides, and bionematicides. By mode of application, the market is segmented into foliar spray, seed treatment, soil treatment, root treatment, and post-harvest. Based on formulations, market is segmented into liquid formulation and dry formulation. By crop type, the market is segmented into fruits and vegetables, grains, cereals, and oilseeds.Browse In-Depth Report onGeographically, the global biopesticides market is segmented into five major regions, namely North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America commanded the largest share in the global biopesticides market in 2016, followed by Europe, and Asia-Pacific region. The major share of the North American region is mainly attributed to the rising concern over harmful chemicals on environment, increasing demand for organic food, and its most streamlined registration process. However, Asia-pacific region is projected to show lucrative growth potential for the biopesticides market during the analysis period. The growth in the Asia-pacific region is attributed to the increasing demand for organic food production, high prevalence of crop diseases, and government initiatives to develop and increase application of biopesticides in the region.The leading companies have employed various strategies to expand their product & application offerings, global footprint, and augment their market share. The leading players in the global biopesticides market are BASF SE, Bayer CropScience AG, Marrone Bio Innovation, Certis USA L.L.C., The Dow Chemical Company, Monsanto Company (Part of Bayer), Isagro S.P.A., Camson Bio Technologies Limited, Andermatt Biocontol AG, Som Phytopharma India Limited, Syngenta, International Panaacea Ltd, The Stockton Group, BioWorks, Inc., Novozymes, Inc., Koppert B.V., W. Neudorff GMBH KG, Invivo Agrosciences, Valent U.S.A. LLC, and FMC CorporationKey questions answered in the report-Which are the high growth market segments in terms of type, application, formulation, origin, crop type, and regions/countries?What is the historical market for biopesticides across the globe?What are the market forecasts and estimates from the period 2015-2022?What are the major drivers, restraints, challenges, opportunities in the global biopesticides market?Who are the major players in the biopesticides market and what share of the market do they hold?Who are the major players in various countries and what share of the market do they hold?What are the competitive landscapes and who are the market leaders by sub-region in the global biopesticides market?What are the recent developments in the global biopesticides market?What are the different strategies adopted by the major players in the global biopesticides market?What are the geographical trends and high growth regions/ countries?Who are the local emerging players in the global market of biopesticides and how do they compete with the global players?About Meticulous ResearchMeticulous Research is one of the leading independent full service global market research and consulting companies focusing on medical devices, biotechnology, healthcare IT, pharmaceuticals, food and beverages, and agriculture domains. Meticulous Research produces global reports and custom studies for North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, and Middle East and Africa regions.Contact:Viren ShrivastavaAVP- Global Sales and MarketingMeticulous ResearchEmail: viren@meticulousresearch.comDirect Lines: +1-646-781-8004 (North America)+44-203-868-8738 (Europe)+91 744-7780008 (Asia-Pacific)Office No-402, 4th Floor, Pushpak Business Hub, Wakad, Pune-411057
Paints and Coatings Market to Witness Comprehensive Growth by 2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=1712

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=1712

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=D&rep_id=1712

Global Paints and Coatings Market: SnapshotBuoyed by a booming construction sector worldwide, which in turn has received a fillip from the bettering economic conditions across countries, the global paints and coatings market has seen stellar growth in the past couple of years. Going forward too, the market will clock good growth.Some of the main players operating in the global market for paints and coatings are Sherwin-Williams Company, AkzoNobel N.V., the Valspar Corporation, Masco Corporation, Helios Group, Bergers Paints India Ltd., Dow Corning, PPG Industries, Asian Paints Ltd., RPG International Inc., Axalta Coatings System, Diamond Vogel, and KCC Corporation. More aspiring companies are predicted to enter the fray in the near future thus making the competitive landscape even more cutthroat.The big guns operating in the paints and coatings industry are expending a lot of energy and money on enhancing their product portfolio in order to draw greater number of consumers. This coupled with the progress in technology and rise and popularity of environmental-friendly products is expected create more avenues for growth in the market in the next couple of years.Request Sample Copy of the Report @From a geographical perspective, Asia Pacific is slated to emerge as the most attractive market in the years to come due to an explosive growth in the construction industry, particularly in the densely populated emerging economies of China and India. Europe too is expected to offer good opportunities for growth in the foreseeable future on the back of aviation and automation industries driving up demand in the region.Global Paints and Coatings Market: OverviewThe global market for paints and coatings is anticipated to witness a significant growth throughout the forecast period. The high rate of urbanization is predicted to contribute towards the development of the overall market in the coming years. The introduction of nano-coatings and green coatings is predicted to create promising growth opportunities for key players operating in the global paints and coatings market throughout the forecast period. As a result, the global paints and coatings market is likely to exhibit a progressive growth rate in the near future.Request TOC of the Report @Global Paints and Coatings Market: Key TrendsThe development of the building and construction sector and the increasing number of manufacturing activities in developing economies are anticipated to encourage the growth of the global paints and coatings market in the coming years. In addition, the growing popularity for waterborne paints and coatings is estimated to offer potential growth opportunities in the forecast period. On the flip side, the environmental rules and regulations concerning to paints and coatings and the changing costs of raw materials are projected to restrict the growth of the overall market in the next few years.Global Paints and Coatings Market: Market PotentialPaints and coatings are beings used extensively across the globe in order to enhance the look and offer a high level of protection. With technological advancements, the market is predicted to witness a high level of growth in the coming few years. Furthermore, with the rising number of applications across the diverse industries is likely to encourage the participation of new players in the near future, resulting in an intense competition across the globe. The market is projected to face several challenges owing to the discharge of several harmful volatile organic compounds increasing the environmental concerns, which is predicted to curtail the growth of the overall market in the coming years.Global Paints and Coatings Market: Regional OutlookFrom a geographical point of view, the global market for paints and coatings has been categorized into Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the World. In the last few years, Asia Pacific led the global market and accounted for a key share throughout the forecast period. A tremendous rise in the construction activities and the growing demand from diverse industries are projected to fuel the growth of the Asia Pacific paints and coatings market in the near future.Furthermore, the Europe paints and coatings market is expected to offer lucrative opportunities for key players operating in this region. A significant contribution from the aviation and automation industries is anticipated to supplement the growth of the market in the forecast period. On the other hand, the Rest of the World segment is anticipated to register a high growth rate, thanks to the remarkably rising construction activities and the rising rate of industrialization.Request Discount of the Report @Global Paints and Coatings Market: Competitive AnalysisSome of the prominent players operating in the paints and coatings market across the globe are AkzoNobel N.V., Helios Group, Bergers Paints India Ltd., The Valspar Corporation, Masco Corporation, PPG Industries, Asian Paints Ltd., RPG International Inc., Sherwin-Williams Company, Dow Corning, Axalta Coatings System, Diamond Vogel, KCC Corporation, and BASF SE. With the rising number of players expected to enter the market is anticipated to strengthen the competitive landscape of the market.The key players in the global paints and coatings market are making remarkable efforts in order to expand their product portfolio and attract a large number of consumers across the globe. In addition, advancements in technology and emergence of environmental-friendly products are anticipated to offer several growth opportunities for players operating in the global paints and coatings market in the next few years.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Global Cardamom Market - Future Outlook

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1266048&type=S

http://www.qyresearchreports.com

Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Cardamom Market Research Report 2017 to its huge collection of research reports.The global Cardamom market has been deeply evaluated in this publication with the help of both primary and secondary research and useful inputs provided by industry experts. The analysts who have prepared the publication have been among the best in the lot with sound understanding about almost all vital aspects of the market. The publication has come out as a detailed guideline for industry players to explore hidden prospects and take advantage of the best opportunities in the market. Players could also use the information presented in the publication to plan the best strategies that will help them to secure a strong position in the market.By segregating the global Cardamom market into different segments, the analysts have offered crucial information that could help players to gain a competitive edge over their toughest opponents. Each segment studied in the publication has been meticulously evaluated with market figures to go by. This could help readers to tap into unexplored regions or other categories of segments and ensure a continuing success in the market. Besides segmentation, the publication has offered information on factors detaining market growth, backing them up with opportunities to counter the challenges about to show face in the near future.The analysts have also shed light on key aspects of the vendor landscape while profiling some of the leading companies operating in the global Cardamom market. Starting from the nature of the current and future competitive scenarios of the market, the publication has foreseen the future plans of leading companies to gain a strong foothold in the industry. This could help readers to stay cautioned about any surprising changes in the vendor landscape of the market beforehand. Furthermore, readers could use the information to build extraordinary strategies to strengthen their product portfolio and give a tough competition in the market.Fill the form to gain Free Sample of this report @List of Tables and FiguresFigure China Cardamom Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Japan Cardamom Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Southeast Asia Cardamom Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure India Cardamom Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Global Cardamom Revenue (Million USD) Status and Outlook (2012-2022)Figure Global Cardamom Capacity, Production (K MT) Status and Outlook (2012-2022)Figure Global Cardamom Major Players Product Capacity (K MT) (2012-2017)Table Global Cardamom Capacity (K MT) of Key Manufacturers (2012-2017)Table Global Cardamom Capacity Market Share of Key Manufacturers (2012-2017)Figure Global Cardamom Capacity (K MT) of Key Manufacturers in 2016Figure Global Cardamom Capacity (K MT) of Key Manufacturers in 2017Figure Global Cardamom Major Players Product Production (K MT) (2012-2017)Table Global Cardamom Production (K MT) of Key Manufacturers (2012-2017)About USQYResearchReports.com is an unimpeachable source of market research data for clients that comprise acclaimed SMEs, Chinese companies, private equity firms, and MNCs. We provide market research reports on various categories such as Energy, Chemicals, Alternative and Green Energy, Manufacturing, Machinery, Pharmaceuticals and Materials, and Glass.Contact US1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Biotech Flavors Market : Sales Forecast Pricing Forecast 2025

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/biotech-flavor-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=16178

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

According to a research report by Transparency Market Research (TMR), the global biotech flavor market is highly consolidated and competitive in nature, with Naturex occupying the dominant position. The leading companies in this market mostly rely on mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships to improve their visibility and the trend is likely to continue over the forthcoming years, increasing the competition between the players, reports the research study.Read Report Overview @As per the report, the global market for biotech flavors, which stood at US$430.6 mn in 2015, is expected to proliferate at a CAGR of 9.70% during the period from 2016 to 2025, increasing the opportunity in this market to US$991.0 mn by the end of the forecast period. The market is projected to touch 23,980.3 tons in terms of volume over the same period of time. The demand for biotech flavors is higher in beverages compared to other end-use segments. On account of the surging consumption of flavored beverages, globally, analysts predict this segment to continue as the leading end user of biotech flavors over the period of the forecast.North America to Lead Market; Asia Pacific to Report High-paced GrowthThe research report further evaluates the worldwide market for biotech flavors on the basis of its regional classification. The Middle East and Africa, North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Latin America and is led by North America, thanks to the high awareness among consumers regarding the benefits of biotech flavors. In 2015, the regional market, followed by Europe, acquired a share of more than 32% in the overall market. Researchers anticipate the North America market for biotech flavors to retain its leadership over the forthcoming years.On the other hand, Asia Pacific is anticipated to exhibit a high-paced growth in its market for biotech flavors in the near future, thanks to the strong demand for biotech flavors from emerging economies, such as China and India. The health and wellness trend is also expected to support the growth of the Asia Pacific biotech flavor market and prompt manufacturers to apply innovative strategies across the supply chain to ensure wide availability of biotech flavors for consumers over the years to come. Apart from this, the increasing demand for beverages in this region is expected to create vital opportunities for the players in the global market.Request to view Sample Report:Rising Awareness among Consumers to Boost Growth of Global Biotech Flavor MarketThe rising health consciousness among consumers has augmented the demand for natural ingredients and biotech-based flavors in food products and beverages, which, resultantly, is boosting the global biotech flavor market, says a TMR analyst. The growing awareness among consumers in developed economies concerning the negative impact of artificially-produced food flavors and the increased knowledge of consumers pertaining to the nutritional advantages of biotech flavors is projected to propel this market in the years to come.Although the future of the worldwide biotech flavor market looks thriving, the low shelf-life of biotech flavors and issues related to their stability may hinder the growth of this market in the near future, states the research report.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.ContactTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Worldwide Analysis Of Pest Control Market: Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2017 - 2021

Market Research Report

https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1191320

https://www.researchmoz.us/global-pest-control-market-industry-analysis-outlook-20172021-report.html/toc

http://www.researchmoz.us/

http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG

Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Worldwide Analysis Of Pest Control Market: Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2017 - 2021" to its huge collection of research reports.Pest control is the process of managing (by using deterrents or repellents) or removing pests from the house or place of business. Pest control services include screening and sealing of openings to avoid entry of pests inside the premises. Such services are provided in home, offices, schools, ware houses, factories, and laboratories, residential and commercial complexes. General pests like cockroach, ants, lizards, spiders, bed bugs, termites, mosquitoes and rodents are covered under pest control services. Effective pest control requires some knowledge about the pest and its habits.There are many methods for controlling the pests, and many of these methods are tailored according to specific pests or problems. Pest control must be approached from a multitude of directions if it is to be truly effective. The most common types of pest control methods include traps, chemical repellents, poisoned baits, etc.The global pest control market is set to experience favourable growth driven by factors such as increasing global population, rapid urbanisation, rising middle class population and upsurge in disposable income. Further, the scope of growth for this market will be broadened by rise in global temperature and increasing economic activity. However, growth of this budding market can be hindered by stringent regulations, seasonality and hazardous pesticides.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The report Global Pest Control Market: Industry Analysis & Outlook (2017-2021) analyses the development of this market, with focus on North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions. Major trends, growth drivers as well as issues being faced by the market are discussed in detail in this report. The four major players: Rollins, Inc., Rentokil Initial Plc., ServiceMaster and Ecolab Inc. are being profiled along with their key financials and strategies for growth. The report contains a comprehensive analysis of the global pest control market along with the study of the regional markets.Table of Content1. Overview1.1 Introduction1.2 Types of Pests1.3 Pest Control MethodsBrowse TOC @2. Global Market Analysis2.1 Global Pest Control Market Forecast by Value2.2 Global Pest Control Market by Region2.3 Global Pest Control Market by Pest Type2.4 Global Insect Control Market Forecast by Value2.5 Global Termite Control Market Forecast by Value2.6 Global Pest Control Market by Services2.7 Global Commercial Pest Control Market Forecast by Value2.8 Global Residential Pest Control Market Forecast by Value3. Regional Market Analysis3.1 North America3.1.1 North America Pest Control Market Forecast by Value3.1.2 North America Pest Control Market by RegionAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Automotive Oil Pump Market to Discern Steadfast Expansion During 2017-2025

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=33644

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=33644

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Automotive oil pumps are primarily used to pump lubricating and cooling oil within the engine of a vehicle. Every vehicle needs an oil pump to lubricate the internal components, namely, pistons, camshaft, bearings, crankshaft, etc. Without lubrication, friction, wear, and tear will cease the engine and cause damage to the internal components. Hence, a lubricating oil is circulated at high pressure. Lubrication systems, thus oil pumps, vary in accordance with the usage of the automobile, such as an off road vehicle, a normal passenger car, or a heavy commercial vehicle.Automotive oil pumps are an integral part of every vehicle that is manufactured. Rising demand for vehicles and improving manufacturing processes are prime drivers for the global demand for automotive oil pumps. Furthermore, the need to improve the life of a vehicle and engine by reducing wear & tear and improving cooling also are contributing to the increased demand for automotive oil pumps. Hence, the demand for automotive oil pumps is high, especially in production hubs of the world, namely, China, India, and Southeast Asia. An automotive oil pump doesnt have any prominent substitutes; however, the shifting trend toward electric vehicles can hamper the automotive oil pump market in the near future. Electric vehicles completely eliminate the usage of oil pumps, as the power required to drive the vehicle is supplied by electric motors and not combustion engines.Request For Report Sample@Based on discharge, the global automotive oil pump market is segregated into fixed displacement automotive oil pump and variable displacement automotive oil pump. The variable displacement automotive oil pump segment holds a prominent share of the global market. Variable oil pumps have the ability to vary the discharge of circulating oil depending upon the requirement. Based on type, the market can be segmented into electric oil pumps and mechanical oil pumps. As the name suggests, electric oil pumps consume electricity for their operation, while mechanical oil pumps are driven by mechanical energy, usually crankshaft-driven or chain-driven. Both types have specific advantages, namely, electric oil pumps are simpler and highly suitable for compact and small applications. They avoid the necessity to incorporate complicated driving subassemblies. However, for heavy applications, mechanical pumps prove to be more sturdy and tough. In terms of type of vehicle, the automotive oil pump market can be segregated into passenger vehicles, light commercial vehicles, and medium & heavy vehicles. Based on the vehicle segment, the type, discharge, and even the capacity of the pump varies.In terms of geography, the global automotive oil pump market can be segregated into Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. Asia Pacific is the key market for automotive oil pump due to the well-developed manufacturing and automotive industries in the countries of the region such as China, India, and ASEAN. China and India have prominent automotive manufacturing facilities and hence, witness a considerable demand for automotive oil pumps. Followed by Asia Pacific, Europe and North America also witness a substantial demand for automotive oil pumps. Furthermore, the advanced and sturdy automotive industry in Germany, Italy, and the U.S. is a key factor fuelling the significant demand for automotive oil pumps in these countries.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Key players operating in the global automotive oil pump market include MAHLE GmbH, Rheinmetall Automotive, Robert Bosch GmbH, AISIN SEIKI Co. Ltd., Magna International, Hitachi Automotive Systems Americas, Inc., and Johnson Electric.About USTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a next-generation provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact USState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030Website:Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com
Customized Avionic Systems Market to register a healthy CAGR for the forecast period, 2017-2027

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3060

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-3060

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Avionic Systems, also known as aerospace electronics systems, provide detailed information on aircraft operations and help in the navigation, monitoring and communication of an aircraft. Avionic systems consist of various subsystems such as the fuel management system, the emergency system, the evacuation system and the electrical power system, among others which are integrated together to provide real-time data essential in operating an aircraft safely. The avionic system is installed in the cockpit of an aircraft and is liable for the overall operation of aircraft. With an increase in the number of aircrafts for commercial and private use, many aviation industries are focusing on the development of customized avionic systems with various integrated modules.This will ensure the aircraft is safer with all in-flight services; helping them retain their USP while keeping the economic standpoint in mind. Customized avionic systems are designed and developed to be more efficient, accurate, reliable and user-friendly.Request Report Sample @Global Customized Avionic Systems Market DynamicsGrowing concerns of the aviation industry towards operational efficiency,economic and environmental performance, safety & security of aircraft and passenger comfort drive the customized avionic system market. Moreover, application of avionic systems in advanced aircrafts and military aircrafts will help boost demand for customized avionic systems. Adding to this, an increase in the number of aircrafts in emerging economies of Asia Pacific has also led to an increase in the demand for customized avionic systems. Growing aviation industry has created competition among the key companies to stay ahead by providing unique systems to acquire market share, which in turn is expected to drive the market of customized avionic systems. Moreover, demand for the customized avionic system market is expected to increase with technological advancements in the aviation industry, especially for military and commercial aircrafts. Rising investments in the aviation and military sector are expected to boost the demand for customized avionic systems across the globe.Complex modelling and detailed designing of the avionic system and its compilation in order to ensure compatibility of the system with aircraft operation are major restraints in the growth of the avionic system market. Further, the time span between designing and the actual implementation of the customized avionic system is too long; which negatively impacts its market growth. Also, a major threat for the avionic system is its susceptibility to cyber-attack. In some countries, restrictions over technology sharing with others countries will slightly affect the growth of the customized avionic market adversely.Global Customized Avionic Systems Market: Regional OutlookNorth America is expected to dominate the customized avionic system market over the forecast period owing to an increase in the number of private aircrafts and growing demand from the defense sector. Europe is the second largest market for customized avionic systems and it is projected to register healthy CAGR over the forecast period. In the Asia-Pacific region growth of the aviation industry is prompt, especially in emerging economies such as China, India and Australia. This is largely attributed to growth in domestic airlines, which in turn is expected to increase demand for customized avionic systems over the forecast period. Besides this, the Middle East and Africa region is expected to register healthy growth over the forecast period. Latin America and Japan are anticipated to register moderate growth over the forecast period.Visit For TOC @Global Customized Avionic Systems Market PlayersSome of the market participants in the global customized avionic system market, as identified across the value chain include Universal Avionics Systems Corporation, Garmin Ltd., Honeywell International Inc, Esterline Technologies Corporation, Avidyne Corporation., GE Aviation, Genesys Aerosystems, BAE Systems PLC., Curtiss-Wright Corporation, Rockwell Collins., L-3 Communications Holdings Inc., Thales Group, Meggitt PLC, Panasonic Avionics Corporation and Zodiac Aerosystems, among others.About UsFuture Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.Contact UsFuture Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Airport Stands Equipment Market by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2021

Airport Stands Equipment

http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW00011168654/sample

http://www.reportsweb.com/global-airport-stands-equipment-industry-market-research-report-2017-2021

ReportsWeb.com has announced the addition of the Global Airport Stands Equipment Industry Market Research Report 2017-2021 The report focuses on Global major leading industry players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification.2017 Market Research Report on Airport Stands Equipment Industry was a professional and depth research report on Airport Stands Equipment Industry that you would know the world's major regional market conditions of Airport Stands Equipment Industry, the main region including North American, Europe and Asia etc., and the main country including United States, Germany, Japan and China etc..The report firstly introduced Color-Coated Steel Insulation Sandwich Board basic information including Color-Coated Steel Insulation Sandwich Board definition classification application and industry chain overview; Airport Stands Equipment Industry policy and plan, Color-Coated Steel Insulation Sandwich Board product specification, manufacturing process, cost structure etc. Then we deeply analyzed the world's main region market conditions that including the product price, profit, capacity, production, capacity utilization, supply, demand and industry growth rate etc.Get Sample of this Report @In the end, the report introduced Color-Coated Steel Insulation Sandwich Board new project SWOT analysis, investment feasibility analysis, and investment return analysis and Airport Stands Equipment Industry.In a word, it was a depth research report on Airport Stands Equipment Industry. And thanks to the support and assistance from Airport Stands Equipment Industry chain related technical experts and marketing experts during Research Team survey and interviews.The report including six parts, the first part mainly introduced the product basic information; the second parts mainly analyzed the Asia Airport Stands Equipment Industry; the third part mainly analyzed the North American Airport Stands Equipment Industry; the fourth part mainly analyzed the Europe Airport Stands Equipment Industry; the fifth part mainly analyzed the market entry and investment feasibility; the sixth part was the report conclusion chapter.Market SegmentsMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (Global, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Table of Content1 Airport Stands Equipment Industry Definition2 Asia Airport Stands Equipment Industry Product History of Development3 Asia Airport Stands Equipment Industry Key Manufacturers Analysis3.1 Company A3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Product Picture and Specification3.1.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value3.1.4 Contact Information3.2 Company B3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Product Picture and Specification3.2.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value3.2.4 Contact Information3.3 Company C3.3.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Product Picture and Specification3.3.3 Capacity Production Price Cost Production Value3.3.4 Contact Information4 Asia Airport Stands Equipment Industry Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and Forecast AnalysisGet complete access of this report5 Airport Stands Equipment Industry Development Trend6 North American Airport Stands Equipment Industry Product History of Development7 North American Airport Stands Equipment Industry Key Manufacturers Analysis8 American Airport Stands Equipment Industry Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and Forecast Analysis9 Airport Stands Equipment Industry Development Trend10 Europe Airport Stands Equipment Industry Product History of Development11 Europe Airport Stands Equipment Industry Key Manufacturers Analysis12 Europe Airport Stands Equipment Industry Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and Forecast Analysis13 Airport Stands Equipment Industry Development Trend14 Airport Stands Equipment Industry Marketing Channels Analysis15 Airport Stands Equipment Industry Development Environmental Analysis16 Airport Stands Equipment Industry SWOT Analysis and New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis17 Global Airport Stands Equipment Industry Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and Forecast Analysis18 Airport Stands Equipment Industry Development TrendAbout ReportsWeb:ReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queriesContact Us:505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Phone : +91-20-67278686E-Mail : info@reportsweb.com
Global Hotel Property Management Software Market Future Analysis

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1421756&type=S

http://www.qyresearchreports.com

Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Hotel Property Management Software Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022 to its huge collection of research reports.The global Hotel Property Management Software market has been deeply evaluated in this publication with the help of both primary and secondary research and useful inputs provided by industry experts. The analysts who have prepared the publication have been among the best in the lot with sound understanding about almost all vital aspects of the market. The publication has come out as a detailed guideline for industry players to explore hidden prospects and take advantage of the best opportunities in the market. Players could also use the information presented in the publication to plan the best strategies that will help them to secure a strong position in the market.By segregating the global Hotel Property Management Software market into different segments, the analysts have offered crucial information that could help players to gain a competitive edge over their toughest opponents. Each segment studied in the publication has been meticulously evaluated with market figures to go by. This could help readers to tap into unexplored regions or other categories of segments and ensure a continuing success in the market. Besides segmentation, the publication has offered information on factors detaining market growth, backing them up with opportunities to counter the challenges about to show face in the near future.Fill the form to gain Free Sample copy of this market @The analysts have also shed light on key aspects of the vendor landscape while profiling some of the leading companies operating in the global Hotel Property Management Software market. Starting from the nature of the current and future competitive scenarios of the market, the publication has foreseen the future plans of leading companies to gain a strong foothold in the industry. This could help readers to stay cautioned about any surprising changes in the vendor landscape of the market beforehand. Furthermore, readers could use the information to build extraordinary strategies to strengthen their product portfolio and give a tough competition in the market.List of Tables and FiguresFigure Hotel Property Management Software Product ScopeFigure Global Hotel Property Management Software Market Size (Million USD) (2012-2017)Table Global Hotel Property Management Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Global Hotel Property Management Software Market Share by Regions in 2016Figure United States Hotel Property Management Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure EU Hotel Property Management Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Japan Hotel Property Management Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure China Hotel Property Management Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure India Hotel Property Management Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Southeast Asia Hotel Property Management Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Global Hotel Property Management Software Market Share by Type in 2016Figure Large Hotel Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2017)About USQYResearchReports.com is an unimpeachable source of market research data for clients that comprise acclaimed SMEs, Chinese companies, private equity firms, and MNCs. We provide market research reports on various categories such as Energy, Chemicals, Alternative and Green Energy, Manufacturing, Machinery, Pharmaceuticals and Materials, and Glass.Contact US1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Home Security Products And Solutions Market is Expected to Exceed US$ 12 Bn by the end of 2025

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/17251

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/17251

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/home-security-products-and-solutions-market.asp

www.persistencemarketresearch.com

The demand for advanced and state-of-the-art home security products and solutions has been steadily increasing over the last few years in both the developed and emerging economies across the globe. As interesting trends and opportunities present themselves in the global market, Persistence Market Research uncovers the different facets of the global home security products and solutions market in a new report titled Home Security Products and Solutions Market: Global Industry Analysis (20122016) and Forecast (20172025). This comprehensive report presents a detailed analysis and forecast of the global home security products and solutions market over an eight year forecast period 2017  2025 after studying the performance of the market over a four year historical period from 2012 to 2016.Request Sample Report @The global home security products and solutions market has been segmented on the basis of Technology and Services into Fire Protection Systems, Video Surveillance Systems, Access Control Systems, and Services; and on the basis of Region into North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East and Africa.Request to view table of content @Persistence Market Research profiles the leading companies operating in the global home security products and solutions market such as Honeywell International Inc, Robert Bosch Gmbh, United Technologies Corporation, ADT Corporation, Secom Co., Ltd, Assa Abloy, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd, Allegion PLC, Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co., Ltd, Godrej and Boyce Mfg. Co. Ltd., Alarm.Com, Control4, Nortek Security and Control, Dallmeier Electronic Gmbh & Co. KG, Cognitive Systems Corp, and Stanley Security As. Some of the leading companies in the global home security products and solutions market are embarking on strategic collaborations with other players as well as market acquisitions to widen their footprint in the global market. Innovations in new product development and technology enhancements is another strategy that can be witnessed among market players in the global home security products and solutions market.Read Report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Loan Origination Software Market by Development, Analysis, Vendors and Forecast to 2023

ReportsWeb

http://www.reportsweb.com/global-and-regional-loan-origination-software-market-status-and-future-forecast-2013-2023

http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW00011264637/sample

http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW00011264637/buying

Publishers Loan Origination Software from its database. 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. Market Overview, Development, and Segment by Type, Application & RegionFor More Information About This Report:Market Segment as follows:By RegionGlobal (Asia, Europe, America etc.)Asia (China, Southeast Asia, India, Japan, Korea, Western Asia, Others)Key Companies:Ellie MaeCalyx SoftwareFICSFiservByte SoftwarePCLender, LLCMortgage Builder SoftwareMortgage Cadence (Accenture)WiproTavant TechD+H CorpLending QBBlack KnightISGN CorpPegasystemsJuris TechnologiesSPARKAxcess Consulting GroupTurnkey LenderVSCMarket by TypeOn-demand (Cloud)Request Sample Copy At:Table of Content1 Market Overview2 Global Market Status and Future Forecast3 Asia Market Status and Future Forecast4 China Market Status and Future Forecast5 Southeast Asia Market Status and Future Forecast6 Japan Market Status and Future Forecast7 Western Asia Market Status and Future Forecast8 Other Regions of Asia Market Status and Future Forecast9 Key Companies10 ConclusionInquire For This Report At:Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Linalool Market to Significant Growth Foreseen by 2024

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=20561

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=20561

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/

Linalool Market: OverviewLinalool belongs to the class of terpene alcohols, which are widely present in the plant kingdom. It is found in over 200 species of plants, particularly in the Lamiaceae family. This family of botanical plants includes mints and scented herbs. Linalool is also found in the Lauraceae family (rosewood, cinnamon, and laurels) and Rutaceae plant family (citrus fruits). These families are typically found in the tropical to boreal climate zones.Linalool show intense effects on the nervous system. Hence, it is widely employed by herbologists and aroma therapists as a sedative, reliever of spasm of smooth muscle, and local anesthetic. It is also used for various skin ailments, such as skin inflammation, usually in the form of tea tree oil.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Linalool is one of the most common terpene alcohol chemical found in spice plants. It is used in various commercial applications. It has also been found in some fungi and in the family Cannabaceae. Linalool offers pleasing aroma, similar to that of a floral fragrance, with a hint of spiciness.Linalool is also known as linalyl alcohol, p-linalool, -linalool, linalyl oxide, allo-ocimenol, and 3,7-dimethyl-1,6-octadien-3-ol.Linalool Market TrendsLinalool is commonly used as chemical intermediate. It is subsequently used as scent ingredient in most perfumed hygiene and cleaning products including soaps, lotions, detergents, and shampoos. It is also used by pest exterminators as an insecticide against insects such as cockroaches, fleas, and fruit flies.Linalool was also thought to be used in reducing anxiety. However, a study in 2008 showed unsuccessful results in proving linalool as an anxiolytic agent. It, instead, showed strong evidence of its sedative qualities.Vitamin E is a common downstream product of linalool.Linalool Market SegmentationBased on plant source (genus of the plant), the market for linalool can be segmented into Lavandula, Cinnamomum, Cannabis, Ocimum, Solidago, Artemisia, and Humulus.Based on product, the market can be divided into natural and synthetic.Based on application, the market for linalool can be segregated into essential oils, anti-inflammatory, anti-epileptic, sedative, analgesic, and others.Based on end-user industry, the market can be divided into spices, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics.Linalool Market: Region-wise OutlookThe market for linalool is well established and widespread across the world. North America, Asia Pacific, and Europe are the dominating regions in the global linalool market. The linalool market in countries in Southeast Asia such as Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines is anticipated to expand significantly during the forecast period. Budding economies of Asia Pacific and Latin America is one the major drivers for the development of linalool market. The local market in India holds significant share in the regional market and is said to be the strong suit for growth of the linalool market. Asia Pacific is alleged to dominate the growth in fragrance and flavor space during the forecast period. Latin America is likewise anticipated to promote the demand of linalool in the market. The rising demand for cosmetics, foods, household care and personal care products is projected to be one of the key factors propelling the demand for linalool market forward.A sample of this report is available upon request @Linalool Market: Key PlayersKey players operating in the linalool market include BASF, DSM, Arora Aromatics Pvt. Ltd., Menthaallied, Chemical Point UG, Axxence Aromatic GmbH, Fleurchem Inc., Ernesto Ventos S.A., Phoenix Aromas & Essential Oils LLC, The John D. Walsh Company Inc., Robertet Group, Elan-Chemical.com, and Aroma Chemical Services International GmbH.About USTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a next-generation provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact USTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030Website:Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com
4G Network Expansion and Governments National Broadband Plan to Drive Data Revenue Growth

http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW00020781/sample

http://www.reportsweb.com/buy&RW00020781/buy/990

http://www.reportsweb.com/panama-4g-network-expansion-and-governments-national-broadband-plan-to-drive-data-revenue-growth

Panama: 4G Network Expansion and Governments National Broadband Plan to Drive Data Revenue Growth a new Country Intelligence Report, provides an executive-level overview of the telecommunications market in Panama today, with detailed forecasts of key indicators up to 2021. Published annually, the report provides detailed analysis of the near-term opportunities, competitive dynamics and evolution of demand by service type and technology/platform across the fixed telephony, broadband, mobile and pay-TV sectors, as well as a review of key regulatory trends.The Country Intelligence Report provides in-depth analysis of the following:- Regional context: telecom market size and trends in Panama compared with other countries in the region.- Economic, demographic and political context in Panama.- The regulatory environment and trends: a review of the regulatory setting and agenda for the next 18-24 months as well as relevant developments pertaining to spectrum licensing, national broadband plans, number portability and more.Get Sample Copy of Report@- A demand profile: analysis as well as historical figures and forecasts of service revenue from the fixed telephony (including VoIP), broadband, mobile voice, mobile data and pay-TV markets.- Service evolution: a look at changes in the breakdown of overall revenue between the fixed/pay-TV and mobile sectors and between voice, data and video from 2016 to 2021.- The competitive landscape: an examination of key trends in competition and in the performance, revenue market shares and expected moves of service providers over the next 18-24 months.- In-depth sector analysis of fixed telephony, broadband, mobile voice, mobile data and pay-TV services: a quantitative analysis of service adoption trends by network technology and by operator, as well as of average revenue per line/subscription and service revenue through the end of the forecast period.- Main opportunities: this section details the near-term opportunities for operators, vendors and investors in Panamas telecommunications and pay-TV markets.Report SummaryIn 2016, Panama was the third largest telecom services market in Central America, behind Guatemala and Costa Rica, with estimated revenue of $1.3bn or 2.4% of GDP. This represents a 2.4% increase relative to 2015, mainly driven by fixed broadband, pay-TV and mobile data segments.Buy This Report@Key Findings-The fixed/mobile revenue split will continue to be inclined toward the mobile segment throughout the forecast period. Nevertheless, fixed services revenue share will increase, driven by governments national Internet network initiative for expanding Internet penetration in the country and attractive double and triple play services from operators such as Cable &Wireless Panama (CWP) and Cable Onda.- The top two operators, CWP which provides fixed, mobile and pay-TV services and Digicel Panama, which provide mobile services, accounted for 57.7% of overall service revenue in 2016. CWP will continue to lead the Panamanian telecom market, throughout the forecast period, supported by strong investments in 4G network expansion and network modernization of its fixed infrastructure.- LTE network expansion along with the rising demand for high-speed mobile data and increased availability of LTE-enabled smartphones will boost LTE subscriptions in Panama over the forecast period.Reason to Buy- This Country Intelligence Report offers a thorough, forward-looking analysis of Panamas telecommunications and pay-TV markets, service providers and key opportunities in a concise format to help executives build proactive and profitable growth strategies.- Accompanying Forecast products, the report examines the assumptions and drivers behind ongoing and upcoming trends in Panamas mobile communications, fixed telephony/VoIP, broadband and pay-TV markets, including the evolution of service provider market shares.- With more than 20 charts and tables, the report is designed for an executive-level audience, boasting presentation quality.Read More Information and Full TOC of the Report@- The report provides an easily digestible market assessment for decision-makers built around in-depth information gathered from local market players, which enables executives to quickly get up to speed with the current and emerging trends in Panamas telecommunications and pay-TV markets.- The broad perspective of the report coupled with comprehensive, actionable detail will help operators, equipment vendors and other telecom industry players succeed in the challenging telecommunications market in Panama.About ReportsWeb:ReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.com
Future of Electronic PC Accessories Size 2022 Western Digital, Corporation, Logitech, Lenovo, Microsoft

https://www.marketstudyreport.com/request-a-sample/716670/?utm_source=OPR-SL

https://www.marketstudyreport.com/check-for-discount/716670/?utm_source=PAID-SL

https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/global-electronic-pc-accessories-market-by-manufacturers-countries-type-and-application-forecast-to-2022/?utm_source=SL

https://www.marketstudyreport.com/reports/global-haptics-technology-market-by-manufacturers-countries-type-and-application-forecast-to-2022/?utm_source=RR-SL

https://www.marketstudyreport.com

https://www.marketstudyreport.com/category/news-releases/

MarketStudyReport.com Add New Global Electronic PC Accessories Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 to its research database. The report presents a deep study of the market growth factors and drivers. The report spread across 116 pages with table and figures in it.In this report, the market value is calculated in 100 million, which is equivalent to 0.1 billion.Request a sample copy of Electronic PC Accessories Market Research Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Electronic PC Accessories market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and applicatiMarket Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers  Western Digital, Corporation, Logitech, Lenovo, Microsoft, ASUSTeK, AOC, GIGABYTE Technology, Intel Corporation, Advanced Micro Devices, NVIDIA, Kingston Technology Corporation, Ramaxel, Adata, Seagate Technology, Toshiba Corporation.Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers:North America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Table of Contents:Global Electronic PC Accessories Market OverviewGlobal Electronic PC Accessories Market Manufacturers ProfilesGlobal Electronic PC Accessories Market Competition, by ManufacturerGlobal Electronic PC Accessories Market Analysis by RegionsGlobal Electronic PC Accessories by CountriesGlobal Electronic PC Accessories Market Segment by TypeGlobal Electronic PC Accessories Market Segment by ApplicationElectronic PC Accessories Market Forecast (2017-2022)Sales Channel, Distributors, Traders and DealersResearch Findings and ConclusionAppendixMarket Segment by Type, covers Hard Disk DriveDisplayMainboardGraphics CardMemoryOthersMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided into Commercial EnterprisesPersonalsEnquire For Discount on Electronic PC Accessories Market Research Report @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Electronic PC Accessories market.Chapter 1, to describe Electronic PC Accessories Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Electronic PC Accessories, with sales, revenue, and price of Electronic PC Accessories, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Electronic PC Accessories, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Electronic PC Accessories market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Electronic PC Accessories sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceFor More Info on Market Research @Related Reports: -Global Haptics Technology Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022This report studies the Haptics Technology market, Haptic technology,or haptics,is a tactile feedback technology which takes advantage of the sense of touch by applying forces, vibrations, or motions to the user. Scope of the Report: This report foc...Centralize market research purchases across your entire organization in one place.Marketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management.Market Study ReportThe Green Suite #4594,Dover, DE 19901United StatesPhone: 1-201-355-0868US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email: sales@marketstudyreport.comWebsite:News:Connect with us: Google+ | LinkedIn | Twitter
Amenity Kits Global Market 2017: Key Players  4Inflight, AVID, Buzz, GIP, Linstol, Orvec

Amenity Kits Market

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/2651224-global-and-united-states-amenity-kits-in-depth-research-report-2017-2022

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/2651224-global-and-united-states-amenity-kits-in-depth-research-report-2017-2022

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=2651224

Amenity Kits Market 2017Wiseguyreports.Com adds Amenity Kits Market Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities, Analysis of Top Key Players and Forecast to 2022 To Its Research Database.Report Details:This report provides in depth study of Amenity Kits Market using SWOT analysis i.e. Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threat to the organization. The Amenity Kits Market report also provides an in-depth survey of key players in the market which is based on the various objectives of an organization such as profiling, the product outline, the quantity of production, required raw material, and the financial health of the organization.The report is based on the market historical data from 2012 to 2016 and forecast the market trend from 2017 to 2022.This report focuses on the U.S. market and presents volume and value of market share by players, by regions, by product type, by consumers and also changes in prices. As an in-depth report, it covers all details inside analysis and opinions in Amenity Kits industry.Major Companies4InflightAire InflightAMKOAVIDBuzzClip LtdGIPInflightDirectLinstolNowaraRMTOrvecW.K. ThomasZibo RainbowRequest a Sample Report @Key RegionsNorth AmericaUnited StatesCaliforniaTexasNew YorkOthersCanadaLatin AmericaMexicoBrazilArgentinaOthersEuropeGermanyUnited KingdomFranceItalySpainRussiaNetherlandOthersAsia & PacificChinaJapanIndiaKoreaAustraliaSoutheast AsiaIndonesiaThailandPhilippinesVietnamSingaporeMalaysiaOthersAfrica & Middle EastSouth AfricaEgyptTurkeySaudi ArabiaIranOthersMain types of productsAmenity Kits Market, byrst ClassAmenity Kits Market, bysiness ClassAmenity Kits Market, byonomy ClassAmenity Kits Market, by Key ConsumersWomenMenKidsComplete Report Details@Major Key Points in Table of Content:Global and United States Amenity Kits In-Depth Research Report 2017-2022Chapter One Global Amenity Kits Market Overview1.1 Global Amenity Kits Market Sales Volume Revenue and Price 2012-20171.2 Amenity Kits, by st Class 2012-20171.2.1 Global Amenity Kits Sales Market Share by st Class 2012-20171.2.2 Global Amenity Kits Revenue Market Share by st Class 2012-20171.2.3 Global Amenity Kits Price by st Class 2012-20171.3 Amenity Kits, by iness Class 2012-20171.3.1 Global Amenity Kits Sales Market Share by iness Class 2012-20171.3.2 Global Amenity Kits Revenue Market Share by iness Class 2012-20171.3.3 Global Amenity Kits Price by iness Class 2012-20171.4 Amenity Kits, by nomy Class 2012-20171.4.1 Global Amenity Kits Sales Market Share by nomy Class 2012-20171.4.2 Global Amenity Kits Revenue Market Share by nomy Class 2012-20171.4.3 Global Amenity Kits Price by nomy Class 2012-2017.Chapter Eight Top Companies Profile8.1 4Inflight8.1.1 4Inflight Company Details and Competitors8.1.2 4Inflight Key Amenity Kits Models and Performance8.1.3 4Inflight Amenity Kits Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast8.1.4 4Inflight Amenity Kits Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin8.2 Aire Inflight8.2.1 Aire Inflight Company Details and Competitors8.2.2 Aire Inflight Key Amenity Kits Models and Performance8.2.3 Aire Inflight Amenity Kits Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast8.2.4 Aire Inflight Amenity Kits Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin8.3 AMKO8.3.1 AMKO Company Details and Competitors8.3.2 AMKO Key Amenity Kits Models and Performance8.3.3 AMKO Amenity Kits Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast8.3.4 AMKO Amenity Kits Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin8.4 AVID8.4.1 AVID Company Details and Competitors8.4.2 AVID Key Amenity Kits Models and Performance8.4.3 AVID Amenity Kits Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast8.4.4 AVID Amenity Kits Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin8.5 Buzz8.5.1 Buzz Company Details and Competitors8.5.2 Buzz Key Amenity Kits Models and Performance8.5.3 Buzz Amenity Kits Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast8.5.4 Buzz Amenity Kits Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin8.6 Clip Ltd8.6.1 Clip Ltd Company Details and Competitors8.6.2 Clip Ltd Key Amenity Kits Models and Performance8.6.3 Clip Ltd Amenity Kits Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast8.6.4 Clip Ltd Amenity Kits Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin8.7 GIP8.7.1 GIP Company Details and Competitors8.7.2 GIP Key Amenity Kits Models and Performance8.7.3 GIP Amenity Kits Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast8.7.4 GIP Amenity Kits Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin8.8 InflightDirect8.8.1 InflightDirect Company Details and Competitors8.8.2 InflightDirect Key Amenity Kits Models and Performance8.8.3 InflightDirect Amenity Kits Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast8.8.4 InflightDirect Amenity Kits Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin8.9 Linstol8.9.1 Linstol Company Details and Competitors8.9.2 Linstol Key Amenity Kits Models and Performance8.9.3 Linstol Amenity Kits Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast8.9.4 Linstol Amenity Kits Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin8.10 Nowara8.10.1 Nowara Company Details and Competitors8.10.2 Nowara Key Amenity Kits Models and Performance8.10.3 Nowara Amenity Kits Business SWOT Analysis and Forecast8.10.4 Nowara Amenity Kits Sales Volume Revenue Price Cost and Gross Margin8.11 RMT8.12 Orvec8.13 W.K. Thomas8.14 Zibo RainbowContinued.Buy now @Contact Us:NORAH TRENTPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Sales@Wiseguyreports.ComPh: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)ABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.ADDRES:WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
Stack And Nest Containers Market to Remain Lucrative During 2027

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-5294

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-5294

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/stack-and-nest-containers-market

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Budding cross-border trade has opened new opportunities for trade for manufacturers from all industries and to expand the geographical reach, manufacturers are relying on the shipping companies and improved infrastructure and technology for packaging, shipping and protecting goods in bulk quantities. The need for shipping goods securely in bulk quantity has influenced the demand in the rigid packaging market, rigid packaging market is estimated over US$ 589 Bn and is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 3.2% over the forecast period. Stack & nest containers are light and yet durable and strong enough for material handling or to be equipped in many industries. The common area of application for stack & nest containers is retail industry, metal working industry, automotive industry, aerospace industry and electrical and electronics industry.Request For Report Sample:Despite rapidly increasing flexible packaging market share in world packaging market, the rigid packaging is growing at a much faster pace when it comes to industrial packaging due to their material handling capabilities in a bulk quantity. However, use of rigid packaging for may appear to be unproductive to some suppliers or manufacturers due to the inefficient utilization of the space. To overcome these drawback packaging manufacturers have developed stack and nest containers. Stacking and nesting of the shipping containers have significantly improved the goods handling capability and productivity of shipping companies. Properties of stack & nest containers such as Improved material handling capabilities along with reusability has boosted the demand in stack & nest containers market. In addition to material handling capability stack & nest, containers are also cost-effective as the cost of raw material is very low and is easily available. Use of stack & nest containers also reduces the plastic waste created by the packaging hence making it an ecofriendly material handling solution. Rapid industrialization in the Asian market is one major factor for boosting the growth in stack & nest containers market. The wide area of applicability of stack & nest containers has considerably increased the demand in stack & nest containers market.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):APEJ region is expected to be the largest consumer for stack & nest containers market due to the rapid industrialization in the region the demand for stack and nest containers is significantly higher than the other regions. North America is expected to be the second largest contributor in stack & nest containers market as the region has highest per capita consumption of goods. Western and Eastern Europe are expected to grow moderately in stack and nest containers marketand over the forecast period. Japan is expected to account significant portion in stack and nest containers market. Growth of stack and nest containers in MEA region is expected to be sluggish over the forecast period.Some major players of the stack and nest containers market are Georg Utz Holding AG, Polymer Logistics N.V., Greif, Inc., Monoflo International, loadhog.co.za, Schoeller Allibert Services B.V., Exporta Global, Mailbox: Stamford Products Ltd, etc.Browse Premium Industry Research Report with Analysis:ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT US:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Consumer Electronics Market to Record an Impressive Growth Rate of US$ 2,976 Bn by the end of 2020

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/3068

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/3068

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/consumer-electronics-market.asp

www.persistencemarketresearch.com

Persistence Market Research indicates staggering growth prospects for the global consumer electronics market. The market is expected to approach a value of US$ 1,712.9 Bn by 2016 end, which may raise at a CAGR of 15.4% over the next four years. Smartphones will remain the dominant consumer electronics product type, whereas Asia Pacific will continue to be the leading region over 2016-2020.The middle-class population is increasing worldwide, since the past few years. Moreover, urban consumers have been indicating a shift in lifestyle. Growing preference for usage of electronic devices in daily chores is primarily driving the market for consumer electronics. Soaring Internet penetration and increasing disposable income are allowing consumers to use multiple electronic devices. This will continue to fuel the market growth over the next few years. Rapid adoption within a short span from their inception is a prominent factor indicating the potential of wearable electronics adoption.Growing awareness about the benefits of electronic devices will also be a key factor strongly supporting the market growth. Rising popularity of the connected homes concept is likely to push the demand for smart home devices over the forecast period. Smart mobile devices, kitchen appliances, HVAC systems, and intelligent security systems will especially gain traction within the next few years. With rising government support to digitalization of a variety of services, the market is likely to witness surging promotion and adoption of consumer electronics. Moreover, technological advancements and consistent R&D leading to new product launches will boost the market growth during the forecast period.Request Sample Report @Relatively lower technological awareness among consumers in developing regions and higher costs of electronic devices currently available in the market may collectively continue to create a barrier to the growth of the global consumer electronics market. Recently identified quality issues and technological hazards, especially in smartphones, also play a key role in restricting adoption of smart consumer devices on a global level.By device type, the global consumer electronics market is segmented into consumer electronic device, wearable device, and smart home device. The three key categories are further sub-segmented. Among these, the consumer electronic device segment will remain dominant with over 97% share of the global market by the end of the forecast period. On the other hand, the smart home device segment is poised to expand at the fastest CAGR through the forecast period. This segment will, however, continue to attract the maximum revenues from smartphones sub-segment, followed by PCs sub-segment.Request to view table of content @Based on region, the global consumer electronics market is classified as North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, APEJ, Japan, and MEA. APEJ is anticipated to retain dominance with over 31% market value share by 2020 end. While North America followed by Europe, will be the next major markets, APEJ market is foreseen to witness the fastest CAGR.The key players participating in the highly competitive landscape of the global consumer electronics market, include Apple Inc., Sony Corporation, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Hitachi Ltd., Toshiba Corporation, LG Electronics Inc., HP Inc., Panasonic Corporation, and Toshiba Corporation. The market involves a large number of globally established brands as well as newly entering regional brands. Key companies are largely focusing on innovative product launches and cost-effective product development through strategic M&A.Read Report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Purging Compound Market is anticipated to grow lucratively over 2017-2024.

U.S. Purging Compound Market Size, By Process, 2016 & 2024 (USD Million)

https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/2145

https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/2145

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/purging-compound-market

The dire need to make purging highly efficient and less expensive has been one of principal catalysts for purging compound market growth in recent years. In a bid to reinforce efficiency and reduce purging costs, companies partaking in purging compound market share have been making continuous attempts to innovate unique compounds that can be used for myriad end-use arenas such as those of custom molding, packaging, automotive, electronics, healthcare, and consumer goods. Last year for instance, the Dyna-Purge Division of Shuman Plastics Inc. launched the Dyna-Purge A for polypropylene color changes. Apparently, this hybrid product combines the pivotal features of both  the chemical and mechanical purging systems, and encompasses ingredients that penetrate all the stagnation areas.Furthermore, the Dyna-Purge A has been found to demonstrate much more effectiveness than abrasive purging compounds and in-house resins for during PP color changes. Given how conveniently the Dyna-Purge A saved money and time by lowering scrap rates and purging expenses, the product quickly gained widespread prominence in purging compound industry.Make an Inquiry before buying @The Dyna-Purge A apparently has also emerged as a major stimulation for purging compound market players. During the testing phase, the product enabled the successful transition of the purging process from black to natural PP in merely seven shots. Having been engineered to flake off from the machine post leaving behind the next production resin but no trace of any residual purging compound, the Dyna-Purge A has been deemed fit for a variety of arenas such as cast films and hot runners, thereby successfully impacting the product landscape of purging compound industry.The packaging sector is one of the most dynamic end-use domains of purging compound market. The robust growth of this business space has led to a spike in the demand for purging compounds in the extrusion processes in the packaging companies, eventually leading to a change of dynamics in purging compound market outlook. Furthermore, this business vertical comprises myriad sub-verticals such as flexible packaging, medical packaging, liquid packaging, and the like, thereby leading to a rapid rise in the requirement for purging products across the global expanse of this domain.Request for a Sample Copy of this Report @Speaking of which, it is noteworthy to mention that extrusion is one of the most pivotal processes in purging compound industry. Given that it conveniently helps to differentiate plastics from various substrates for equipment cleaning, the process is widely deployed across numerous end-use domains. As per estimates in fact, purging compound market size from the extrusion process is forecast to register a CAGR of 7% over 2017-2024.Driven by its excellent benefits such as ease in carbon elimination, faster color changes, and more, and the rapid expansion of the packaging sector, purging compound market share from the extrusion process is expected to accumulate substantial gains over the years ahead.Browse key industry insights spread across 350 pages with 299 market data tables & 12 figures & charts from the report, Global Purging Compound Market Size By Process (Extrusion, Injection Molding, Blow Molding), By Product (Mechanical, Chemical / Foaming), By Form (Liquid, Powder, Granules), By End-Use (Automotive, Healthcare, Consumer Goods, Electronics, Packaging, Custom Molding), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S, Canada, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Benelux, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Oman, South Africa), Growth Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2017  2024 in detail along with the table of contents:Numerous end-use domains have lately been demanding cost-effective scrap removal solutions, pertaining to the global demand for carbon emission control and corrosion prevention. The chemical sector, specifically, has been in a roll, exhibiting a rising inclination toward efficient and less expensive purging processes. This in consequence, has led to a global rise in the demand for high-grade products, gradually impelling purging compound market trends.Furthermore, it is prudent to mention that this business vertical and the production methodologies it is inclusive of are highly dependent on crude oil. Naturally, the fluctuating costs of crude oil as well as other raw materials are certain to have an impact on the price trends of purging compound industry. As per Global Market Insights, Inc. purging compound market size would apparently double by 2024  having held a valuation of USD 300 million in 2016, purging compound industry share is forecast to cross a revenue of USD 600 million by 2024.About Global Market Insights, Inc.Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Selbyville, Delaware 19975 USAEmail: sales@gminsights.com
Forecast and Analysis on Direct Thermal Printing Films Market for Period 2017 - 2027

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-5298

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-5298

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/direct-thermal-printing-films-market

www.futuremarketinsights.com

In recent few years flexible packaging market have seen a tremendous growth. Direct thermal printing films are heat sensitive laminates used for high volume printing. Direct thermal printing films are mainly used for information labeling such as manufacturing tracking labeling, price, and weight labeling, etc. The direct thermal printing films are used for various applications such as electronics, food & beverages, retail, industrial goods, etc. Direct thermal printing films are highly resistant to heat, water, UV light, chemicals, etc. as a result of this, the market for direct thermal printing films have seen a substantial growth over the forecast period 2017-2025. Direct thermal printing films are easily compatible with various printing technologies such as flexography, letter press, offset, screen printing, gravure, etc. Direct thermal printing films are mainly manufactured from materials such as polypropylene, polyethylene, polystyrene, etc.Request For Report Sample:Barcode manufactured from direct thermal printing films are used in applications such as airport bags, shipping, logistics, etc. Increasing need for safe and secure transport and logistics of goods are positively impacting the market for direct thermal printing films over the forecast period. In addition, direct thermal printing films are highly resistant and tough as a result of this, these films have the relative advantage over the usage of other films in thermal printing. Furthermore, heat sensitive nature of direct thermal printing films is driving the growth for this market. Direct thermal printing films are cost effective solutions as compared to other types of films are the few factors increasing the growth for the direct thermal printing films market. Moreover, the usage of plastic in direct thermal printing films cannot withstand the exposure to sunlight after a long time as a result of this need to be replaced in a couple of months are restraining the market for direct thermal printing films market.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):North America region is expected to lead the market for direct thermal printing films due to its preference in printing by direct thermal printing label manufacturers. Europe region is expected to witness high growth for direct thermal printing films market. Asia Pacific region is expected to register the highest growth for the direct thermal printing films market over the forecast period owing to recent spending in the printing industry of this region. Latin America and Middle East & Africa are expected to hold the substantial share for direct thermal printing films market over the forecast period 2017-2025.Few of the key players in the direct thermal printing films market are Avery Dennison Corporation, Jindal Poly Films Ltd, International Imaging Materials, Inc., Cosmo Films Ltd., Italnastri S.p.A., Daelim Industrial Co., Ltd., Bizerba SE & Co. KG, Namo Packaging Solutions Pvt. Ltd., etc.Browse Premium Industry Research Report with Analysis:ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT US:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Global Automated CPR Devices Market Estimated to be Worth US$ 159 Mn by 2025

MRRSE

https://www.mrrse.com/sample/4061

https://www.mrrse.com/automated-cpr-devices-market-112017

https://www.mrrse.com/enquiry/4061

https://www.mrrse.com/

https://www.industrynewsanalysis.com/

Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has been serving as an active source to cater intelligent research report to enlighten both readers and investors. This research study titled Automated CPR Devices Market: Speciality Clinics Expected to be the Second Largest End User Segment during the Forecast Period: Global Industry Analysis (20122016) and Opportunity Assessment (20172027)Request to view Sample Report @CPR Devices are chest compression systems that provide high quality compression to chest of patients suffering from sudden cardiac arrest to provide a steady flow of oxygen and blood in the brain as well as heart. The CPR device finds application in EMS, hospitals, ambulances, coronary & intensive care units, cardiac catheterization labs, air medevac units, EMT rescue units, etc.The devices does the Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) process mechanically. CPR is a compression technique used in various medical emergencies to maintain or initiate blood circulation in the heart and oxygen supply in the brain.The observational studies have demonstrated that improved hemodynamic effect & better coronary perfusion and increased incidence of return of spontaneous circulation can be achieved by mechanical and automated CPR devices. On the basis of power source used the devices are classified as Pneumatically Driven CPR devices, Battery Driven CPR Devices, and Mechanically Actuated and Battery Driven CPR devices. On the basis of kind of device the CPR devices can be classified as Piston Devices, Load Distribution Devices, and 3D Compression Devices.In terms of revenue the global automated CPR devices market was valued at US$ 50.7 Mn in 2014, and is estimated to be worth US$ 159 Mn by 2025 with a CAGR of 11%.Drivers & TrendsIncreasing demand from EMS (Emergency Medical Services), surge in public awareness about cardiac arrest and clinical benefits of the CPR devices, increasing government funding and grants and growing geriatric population are some of the major drivers of the market. The increasing incidences of cardiovascular diseases and increasing out-of-hospital cardiac arrest across the globe are also expected to drive the automated CPR devices market significantly.Conversely, high cost of automated CPR device, its substantial weight, high training requirements and conflicting results of observational studies are some minor restraints in the global automated CPR devices market.View Specifics Report with Table of Content @Analysis by GeographyGeographically, the global automated CPR devices market is segmented into five regions: Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa and Latin America of which the most prominent regional markets are Europe and North America which together constituted around 62.4% of the current market 2014.Europe market is expected to remain dominant in global automated CPR devices market throughout the forecast period. Highly advanced EMS, high adoption rates of CPR technologies and high consumer understanding of clinical benefits in charge to the increasing need of automated CPR devices in the concerned region.Despite huge investments by key players and new entrants in the North America market the North America market is expected to be at second position owing to some inhibitors such as reluctance of the health professionals to do the CPR process and high capital requirements for employment of CPR devices in the large EMS systems of U.S.Technological advancements coupled with rising awareness of cardiac arrest management in developing regions such as Asia Pacific and Latin America are projected to boost demand for automated CPR devices. This is further expected to present new opportunities for global and regional niche players to enter the markets in these regions with cost-effective offerings in order to gain large market shareMiddle East and Africa market is expected to exhibit a comparatively higher CAGR than other segments.Send an Inquiry @Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.State Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:
Papain Market Global Industry Trends and Forecast Analysis For 2017 - 2027

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=21296

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/papain-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Global Papain Market: OverviewPapain is a natural cysteine proteolytic enzyme present in mountain papaya (Vasconcellea cundinamarcensis) and papaya (Carica papaya). It is native to Latin America and is also called as papaya proteinase I. It is used to tenderize meat eaten as it breaks down tough meat fibers. Papain is an active component in powder form for meat tenderizers and has a huge demand in the global market. Papain also used in chemo-mechanical dental caries removal gel known as Papacarie, as a tooth whitener in mint sweets and toothpaste, to clean up dead tissue in chronic wounds, as a component of many enzymatic debriding preparations, and cell dissociation in cell culture preparations. The end-use industries of the papain include leather, food & beverages, detergents, cosmetic, tanning, optical, photographic, textile, and pharmaceutical. The North America papain market accounts for relatively high revenue share, followed by Western Europe papain market over the forecast period, attributed to relatively strong demand for papain and broad availability of raw material in the regions.Download exclusive Sample of this report:Global Papain Market: DynamicsSome of the important factor fueling the growth of global papain market include rising health concern among the consumers, high demand for meat tenderizers, and increasing demand for natural enzymes. To counter the same, papain market players are investing in research and development and production of papain to meet the regulatory specification with increasing demand. Some macroeconomic factors making a positive impact on global papain market includes increasing population, the rapid rate of urbanization, and growing domestic income. The trend identified in the global papain market is mergers and acquisitions between papain producers and papaya suppliers. The company manufacturing papain products has a significant opportunity in regions such as North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific, attributed to high demand for natural enzymes and growing health consciousness among a large number of population. Companies have a significant opportunity in global papain market through collaboration with raw material supplier i.e. papaya vendor and through backward integration in the market as a raw material is a key factor for the market.Global Papain Market: SegmentationGlobal papain market is segmented by end-use industry and by region. By end-use industry, the global papain market is sub-segmented as food & beverages, cosmetic, textile, pharmaceutical, other industries such as detergents, tanning, optical, photographic, etc. Among these, the pharmaceutical segment is expected to contribute to the significant revenue share with a relatively high growth rate over the forecast period in global papain market. A pharmaceutical segment follows food & beverages segment with a relatively high growth rate concerning both value and volume in the global papain market.Browse Market Research Report @Based on the end-use industry, the global papain market is segmented into:Food & Beverages IndustriesCosmetic IndustriesTextile IndustriesPharmaceutical IndustriesOther Industries (detergents, tanning, optical, photographic, etc.)Global Papain Market: Regional OverviewBy geographies, the global papain market is segmented into seven regions -- North America, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific except Japan, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East & Africa, and Japan. Among the regions, North America accounts for a relatively high share of the global papain market in terms of value, owing to strong demand for natural enzymes particularly in the U.S. Western Europe is followed by North America in global papain market, attributed to high demand for meat tenderizers across the region. Eastern Europe and Japan also accounts for significant value share in the global papain market. The Asia-Pacific is expected to register relatively high growth rate in the global papain market over the forecast period, owing to the robust growth of pharmaceutical industry due to rapidly growing population across the region particularly in the countries such as China and India. Latin America and Middle East Africa is expected to have relatively high opportunity for papain market players, attributed to the rapid rate of industrial growth and high demand for meat products. Overall, the outlook for the global papain market will have a positive growth over the forecast period.Global Papain Market: Key PlayersFew players of papain market include Senthil Papain and Food Products (P) Ltd., FRUZYME BIO TECH INDIA PVT LTD, Shri Ganesh Industrial Enzymes, Aumgene Biosciences, Shree Sai Agros, Parchem fine & specialty chemicals, Ultra Bio-Logics Inc., LGM Pharma, Chemos GmbH, Beckmann-Kenko GmbH, and AXO Industry SA.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Blood Bags Market Research Study for Forecast Period 2017 - 2027

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-5303

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-5303

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/blood-bags-market

www.futuremarketinsights.com

The blood bags are the flexible small pouches that are used for the storage, collection, transfusion, and transportation of blood along with the blood components such as RBC, WBC, and blood platelets. The blood and its components need to be stored in the blood bags. The blood bags are necessary to store blood and its components as the blood are very sensitive to temperature, light, and air. The blood bags prevents the blood from coagulation and contamination. The blood bags market is expected to grow as the use of the blood bags for storage, transportation, and transfusion will be growing. The demand of the blood bags is rising, due to the rise in demand for sterility in the transfusion, transportation and storage of the blood and its components. The blood bags have replaced glass bottles for the collection, storage and transportation of the blood and its components. The blood bags are made in such a manner that the blood collected can be easy for the separation of its components. The increasing accidents giving rise to the growth of the blood bags market. The blood bags are mainly used in the blood banks and hospitals.Request For Report Sample:The global market for blood bags is expected to grow significantly during the forecast period 2017-2025. The blood bags market is mostly driven by the hospitals and the blood banks. The major factor contributing towards the growth of blood bags market is the rise in the accidents, trauma incidents. The market of blood bags is anticipated to expand at a significant rate in the next few years. The demand of the blood bags is rising, as the increases in demand for the sterilization of the blood and its components. The demand for disposable blood bags is rising, due to the increase in demand for sterile processes of transportation and transfusion of blood and its components. The scientific enhancements and increase in the requirement for blood transfusion, storage, and transportation worldwide would accelerate the market growth. The presence of standard healthcare organizations, government initiatives in assisting the use of blood bags, and continuously improving sterility features would further enhance the market in the near future. The blood bags are used in various applications such as hospitals, blood banks, clinical research, diagnostic centers and others. The increase in the number of the blood banks and diagnostics centers is increasing which increase the demand of the blood bags and hence increase the growth of the blood bags market.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Globally, the blood bags market can be segmented into North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Middle East & Africa (MEA). Among these, the Asia-Pacific and European region are collectivelysupposed todominate the blood bags market in terms of volume and value because of the increase in demand towards the sterility aspects, storage, transfusion and transportation of blood and its components.Among these Asia Pacific and North America are major drivers of the blood bags market and owing to high demand from hospitals, diagnostic centers, clinical research and blood banks.Some of the key players of the blood bags market are Qingdao Sinoland International Trade Co., Ltd, The Metrix Company Ltd., Genesis BPS, BL Lifesciences, Terumo Corporation S.A, Mitra Industries Pvt. Ltd., Haemonetics Corporation, Suru International Pvt. Ltd., Fresenius SE & Co., and others.Browse Premium Industry Research Report with Analysis:ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT US:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesTel: +1-347-918-3531Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Leisure Boat Marine Coatings Market Share will likely grow by a CAGR of about 6.5% up to 2024.

U.S. Leisure Boat Marine Coatings Market Size, by Product, 2013  2024 (USD Million)

https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/2118

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/leisure-boat-marine-coatings-market

https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/2118

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/marine-coatings-market

Leisure Boat Marine Coatings Market Size will likely surpass USD 1.9 billion by 2024; according to a new research report by Global Market Insights, Inc.High growth in the Asia Pacific tourism sector will augment the leisure boat marine coatings market development in the forecast period. Asia Pacific continues to be one of the fastest growing tourism region in the world with tourist arrivals growing by close to 6% annually to reach 279 million in 2015 from 110 million in 2000. According to United Nations World Tourism Organization, this number will likely reach 535 million by 2030. China, Thailand, Hong Kong and Malaysia are the most visited tourist hot spots in the region. Japan, Australia, and Indonesia are also key tourist destinations in Asia Pacific. The rising popularity of recreational boating activities by tourists in the region will spur the leisure boat marine coatings market development. The region also provides a lot of unexplored destinations for recreational boating activities which will offer ample opportunities for the leisure boat marine coatings market to grow.The hazardous nature of antifouling and anti-corrosion product types is a major source of concern among industry participants and may hamper the leisure boat marine coatings market growth in the forecast period. Antifouling product type contain toxic biocidal compounds such as copper, zinc and tributyltin (TBT) which gradually leach into the water to prevent formation of fouls in boats. Although, these products are of prime importance for increasing a boats speed and energy efficiency, their usage causes significant harm to the coastal environment. The use of anti-corrosion product type is also regulated according to the amount of volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions. These factors are likely to hinder the leisure boat marine coatings market growth as manufacturers will have to develop products that have lower environmental impact resulting in higher production costs.Make an Inquiry before buying this report @Browse key industry insights spread across 130 pages with 85 market data tables & 10 figures & charts from the report, Leisure Boat Marine Coatings Market Size By Product (Anti-Fouling, Anti-Corrosion, Foul Release), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, Germany, UK, France, Spain, Italy, China, India, Japan, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, GCC), Application Growth Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2017  2024 in detail along with the table of contents:Foul release product segment of the leisure boat marine coatings market will grow by a CAGR of more than 7.5% in the forecast period. The segment will witness high growth due to the environmental friendly nature of the product which is likely to substitute anti-fouling products in the future. Foul release products use silicone technologies to create a super-smooth surface that is difficult for marine life to attach to. They provide significant advantages over the traditional anti-fouling types such as better performance, eco-friendliness, easy application, and lower maintenance, making it a popular segment in the leisure boat marine coatings market.North America is the most significant leisure boat marine coatings market and will account for more than a quarter of the overall industry by 2024. U.S. and Canada have a large coastal area and recreational boating has been a popular activity in these countries. U.S. is a major manufacturer and exporter of recreational boats and yachts which makes it an ideal high potential leisure boat marine coatings market. Canada also has a significant product demand with boating being a popular hobby for its citizens. A National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) of Canada study revealed that about a third of the countrys population participated in boating each year. These factors will drive the North American leisure boat marine coatings market which will grow by a CAGR exceeding 6.5% in the forecast period.Request for a sample of this research report @AkzoNobel NV, Hempel A/S, Jotun, KCC Corporation, Chugoku Marine Paints, Nippon Paint, Kansai Paint Company, RPM International, The Sherwin-Williams Company, PPG Industries, MCU Coatings International, DuPont Coatings & Color Technologies, BASF Coatings GMBH, Katradis Marine Ropes Industry, Axalta Coating Systems, and Baril Coatings are the key participants in leisure boat marine coatings market.Related Report:Marine Coatings Market Size By Product (Anti-Fouling, Anti-Corrosion, Foul Release), By Application (Coastal, Containers, Deep Sea, Leisure Boats, Offshore Vessels), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, Germany, UK, France, Spain, Italy, China, India, Japan, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, GCC), Growth Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2016  2024About Global Market Insights, Inc.Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact UsArun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone: 1-302-846-7766
Software as a Service (SaaS) Industry; Latest Developments, Growth & Demand Future Outlook 2025

The Insight Partners

http://www.theinsightpartners.com/sample/TIPTE100000113

http://www.theinsightpartners.com/inquiry/TIPTE100000113

http://www.theinsightpartners.com/reports/software-as-a-service-saas-market

The Insight Partners added Software as a Service (SaaS) Market to 2025 - Global Analysis and Forecasts by Cloud Deployment Model, Applications and End-user to its research database. The report is spread across 224 pages and supported by 15 company leaders.Paying for a software as per the usage on a subscription basis rather than fully owning can be defined as Software as a service (SaaS). SaaS applications are accessed using a web browser from a remote location and eliminates the hassles of installing, upgrading and maintaining the software for the owner. As a business delivery model for many corporate applications SaaS provides a huge variety of software to industries from various verticals and the software include database management software, messaging software, enterprise resource planning (ERP), gaming applications, service desk management, payroll software, computer designing software, customer relationship management (CRM), content management (CM), development software, virtualization software, collaboration, invoicing, talent acquisition accounting, management information systems (MIS), human resource management (HRM) and antivirus software. SaaS has been integrated by major upcoming and leading software companies with major adoptions witnessed by the SMEs. The advantage offered by SaaS is the cost reductions associated with it and the eliminations of hidden costs.The global Software as a Service market is bifurcated based on deployment model as: private cloud, public cloud, and hybrid cloud. Furthermore, the global SaaS market can be further divided by applications into ERP, HRM, CRM, supply chain management (SCM) and others (Web conferencing platforms, messaging applications and collaboration). Additionally, while considering on the basis of end-user SaaS can be further classified into small & medium enterprises (SMEs), and large enterprises. The end-user classification has been done on the basis of revenues.Request Sample Copy atSoftware as a Service is there to replace the traditional application service provider model on account of various benefits it caters. SaaS basically can be deployed into organizations via three different deployment models. Each model has its own advantages and disadvantages but the public cloud deployment model has been the largest adopted model for this market SaaS providers generally develop and manage their own software. The differentiating point between ASPs and SaaS vendors is that ASPs offer conventional client-server models that require installation of software at the clients premises, however SaaS requires a web browser and eliminates the need to install at the clients premise. In addition, major initial ASPs offered a separate instance of the user application for each enterprise, however, a software distribution model that allows sharing of applications and allowing access to organizations via a single tenant or multi-tenant architecture is basically SaaS.Businesses are seeking paradigm shift in their operations especially in developing economies like India and China of APAC region. Awareness about the benefits of SaaS in these regions has significantly increased the adoptions of Software as a Service solutions by various organizations. Furthermore, developing economies have been the breeding grounds for a large number of SMEs that are the largest adopters of SaaS models. As a result, Software as a Service market is expected to witness a huge opportunity with its rise in the APAC region. On the organizational point of view, SMEs are adopting and implementing this technology on account of significant cost reductions.Inquire and Speak to Expert for More Details atCustomers are the greatest asset for any organization and employees are the backbone of any successful business. Understanding the importance of both these resources, many small and large organizations globally have adopted CRM and HRM applications to establish long-term relationships with their customers and also manage their internal human resource efficiently. Google, Inc., Fujitsu Ltd., Amazon.com, Inc., ADP, LLC, IBM Corporation, Salesforce.com, Inc., Workday, Inc., Oracle Corporation, SAP SE and Microsoft Corporation are some of the major players in the global Software as a Service market.Table of Contents1 Introduction2 Key Takeaways3 Market Landscape4 Software as a Service (SaaS) Market - Key Industry Dynamics5 Software as a Service (SaaS) Market Analysis- Global6 Software as a Service (SaaS) Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025  Competitive Landscape7 Software as a Service (SaaS) Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025  By Deployment Model8 Software as a Service (SaaS) Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025  By End-Users9 Software as a Service (SaaS) Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 - Geographical Analysis11 Industry Landscape12 AppendixView Complete Company Profile and Table of Contents atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.comAbout Us:TheInsightPartners.com is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Media, and Telecommunication industries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township, Amanora Chambers, East Block, Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Global Paraffinum Liquidum Market Reports 2017- Sasol, Shell, ExxonMobil, Farabi Petrochem, Savita

Global Paraffinum Liquidum Market

http://apexmarketreports.com/Heavy-Industry/Global-Paraffinum-Liquidum-Market-Research-Report-2017#sample

www.apexmarketreports.com

The Paraffinum Liquidum Market 2017 examines the performance of the Paraffinum Liquidum market, enclosing an in-depth judgment of the Paraffinum Liquidum market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Paraffinum Liquidum market in the present as well as the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Paraffinum Liquidum Market 2017 report includes Paraffinum Liquidum industry volume, market Share, market Trends, Paraffinum Liquidum Growth aspects, a wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis, manufacturing capacity, Paraffinum Liquidum Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.Global Paraffinum Liquidum market competition by top manufacturers,SasolShellExxonMobilFarabi PetrochemSavitaNippon OilCEPSASEOJIN CHEMSonnebornAtlas Setayesh MehrAPARGet Full Research Survey Copy @At the beginning, the report covers the top Paraffinum Liquidum manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on topographical regions.Further, the Paraffinum Liquidum report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Paraffinum Liquidum industry, Paraffinum Liquidum industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Paraffinum Liquidum Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.The Paraffinum Liquidum 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 Paraffinum Liquidum market revenue Global.To Buy Complete Report Click Here:Finally, Paraffinum Liquidum 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 UsApex Market Reports offers elevating market research globally. We have collection of various syndicated reports of different categories. Apex Market Reports provides you to best services, weather youre searching for new trends in market or competitive scenario in emerging market.Customers can buys different reports across various categories such as Chemical and Material, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Food and beverages, Automobile and various sectors. Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Contact UsFrank ValadezCorporate Sales Specialist155 North Wacker Drive, Suite 4250Chicago, IL 60606Phone: +17739042683Email id - sales@apexmarketreports.comWebsite -
Cardiac Valve Market Is Expected To Grow At A CAGR Of 11.5% - Forecast to 2023

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/560

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/cardiac-valve-market-560

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/560

www.marketresearchfuture.com

Cardiac valve or heart valve allows blood to flow in only one direction through the heart. Human heart consists of four valves. These valves open and closes compulsory on differential blood pressure on each side. Main role is when blood enters the heart first passes through the tricuspid valve and then the pulmonary valve. After returning from the lungs, the blood passes through the mitral valve and exits via the aortic valve as heart valves are one-way valves.Furthermore, valve replacement remains the most widely used technique but the proportion of valve repair procedures is increasing in experienced treatment centres. Moreover, increasing development in medical technology and its wide range of application used in the treatment of various cardiac diseases will fuel the growth of the market. However, high cost of the treatment likely to restrain the growth of the market over the assessment period. The global cardiac valve market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.5% during the forecast period.Get a sample reportGlobal Cardiac Valve Market - Competitive AnalysisMedtronic (U.S.), Edwards Lifesciences Corporation (U.S.), Boston Scientific Corporation (U.S.), St. Jude Medical, Inc. (an Abbott Laboratories Company) (U.S.), LivaNova PLC (U.K), Symetis SA (Switzerland), Jenavalve Technology, Inc. (Germany), CryoLife, Inc. (U.S.), TTK HealthCare (India), Colibri Heart Valve, LLC (U.S.), Lepu Medical Technology Co., Ltd. (China), and Braile Biomedica (Brazil) are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the Global Cardiac Valve Market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.June, 2017- Edwards Life sciences Corporation SAPIEN 3 Valve received FDA approval for Aortic, Mitral Valve-In-Valve Procedures. Expansion of the SAPIEN 3 device indication to include valve-in-valve procedures is a meaningful advancement for patients at high risk of an additional open-heart valve procedure, particularly for those in need of a safe alternative for mitral valve replacement. According to Edwards Life sciences Corporation company report this approval brings a safe and effective transcatheter therapy to patients who would do very poorly with repeat open-heart surgeryMarch, 2017- Boston Scientific is acquired Swiss company Symetis, move made by the medical device giant to strengthen its portfolio of minimally invasive heart valve replacement products. Symetis makes heart products for transcatheter aortic valve replacement, a minimally invasive procedure that uses a catheter to deploy a valve that takes over for an old, damaged one. Moreover, company has commercialized two heart valve systems i.e the Acurate TA and the Acurate neo/TF valve. Both are sold in Europe and some other markets, but not the U.S. The company also has an investigational next generation valve system that is currently in clinical testing.Browse Complete ReportDec, 2016- Boston Scientific acquired Neovasc advanced biological tissue capabilities. Neovasc is a specialty medical device company that develops, manufactures and markets products for the rapidly growing cardiovascular marketplace, including the Tiara technology in development for the transcatheter treatment of mitral valve disease, and the Neovasc Reducer technology for the treatment of refractory angina. Neovasc advanced biological tissue capabilities had integrated into the Boston Scientific structural heart business for use in the manufacturing of the Lotus valve and future heart valve technologies.August, 2015- Medtronic to acquired Twelve, Inc., developer of transcatheter mitral valve replacement device. Twelve, Inc., a privately held medical device company based in Redwood City, California, focuses on the development of a transcatheter mitral valve replacement (TMVR) device. This acquisition had strategically augmented existing capabilities in the transcatheter mitral space, which represents an important growth opportunity for Medtronic. Twelve's technology is a truly creative solution that brings together valve technology with a unique and highly differentiated dual-stent fixation design.For More Information atGlobal Cardiac Valve Market - Regional AnalysisThe Americas dominates the global cardiac valve market. North America is the largest market owing to rising prevalence of cardiovascular patient population in the American counties and well-developed technology in this region. According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, heart disease causes 35% of deaths in the United States. About 610,000 people died of heart disease in the United States every year that makes up 1 in every 4 deaths. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women. According to Texas heart Institute, in the United States, surgeons perform about 106,000 heart valve operations each year and all of these operations are done to repair or replace the mitral or aortic valves.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Market Research FutureP: +1 646 845 9312W:sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Global Broadcasting Equipment Market 2017 - Sencore, ETL Systems Ltd., Harmonic Inc., Ericsson AB

Global Broadcasting Equipment Market

https://goo.gl/UQC5jJ

https://goo.gl/csRXAo

www.apexmarketreports.com

Apex Market Reports, recently published a detailed market research study focused on the "Broadcasting Equipment Market" across the global, regional and country level. The report provides 360 analysis of "Broadcasting Equipment Market" from view of manufacturers, regions, product types and end industries. The research report analyses and provides the historical data along with current performance of the global Broadcasting Equipment industry, and estimates the future trend of Broadcasting Equipment market on the basis of this detailed study. The study shares "Broadcasting Equipment Market" performance both in terms of volume and revenue.Get Free Sample Copy of Report Here:Top Manufacturers Analysis of This ReportCisco Systems, Inc. (US)Ericsson AB (Sweden)Harmonic Inc. (US)Evertz Microsystems, Ltd. (Canada)Grass Valley (Canada)Clyde Broadcast (UK)Sencore (US)Eletec Broadcast Telecom S.A.R.L (France)EVS Broadcast Equipment (Belgium)ACORDE Technologies S.A (Spain)AvL Technologies, Inc. (US)ETL Systems Ltd. (UK)Global Invacom Group Limited (Singapore)ARRIS International, Plc. (US)The market research report explores the Broadcasting Equipment market across the globe along with major regions and countries. The research report provides a detailed study on each and every aspect of "Broadcasting Equipment Market". The research report studies the entire value chain from raw material to end user industries. The report also shares import/export statistics along with production and consumption for all major regions and countries. Moreover, the research study classifies the Broadcasting Equipment market based on major product types, application and end users industries of Broadcasting Equipment. Besides, the report also covers geographical segmentation for Broadcasting Equipment market. The report further provides production, capacity, price per region, gross margin, production cost, for all major regions and countries listed in report.The competitive landscape of the global market for Broadcasting Equipment is determined by assessing the major industry participants, production capacity, production capacity utilization rate, Broadcasting Equipment market's production chain, pricing by each manufacturer and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Broadcasting Equipment market globally.Inquire Before Buying @The Global Broadcasting Equipment market 2017 is further analyzed on the basis of product pricing, Broadcasting Equipment production volume, data pertaining to demand and Broadcasting Equipment supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. The report provides upstream and downstream analysis covering major raw material used in manufacturing of Broadcasting Equipment along with detailed manufacturing sources. The report also shares list of major raw material manufacturers along with their manufacturing locations. Detailed raw material price trend analysis along with manufacturing cost analysis is also incorporated into the report. Various methodical tools such as investment returns, feasibility, SWOT analysis and market attractiveness analysis has been implemented in the research study to present a comprehensive, detailed study of the industry for Broadcasting Equipment across the world.About UsApex Market Reports offers elevating market research globally. We have collection of various syndicated reports of different categories. Apex Market Reports provides you to best services, weather youre searching for new trends in market or competitive scenario in emerging market.Customers can buys different reports across various categories such as Chemical and Material, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Food and beverages, Automobile and various sectors. Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Contact UsFrank ValadezCorporate Sales Specialist155 North Wacker Drive, Suite 4250Chicago, IL 60606Phone: +17739042683Email id - sales@apexmarketreports.comWebsite -
Global Methyl Palmitate Market Reports 2017- Eucerin, Acme-Hardesty, Alfa Aesar, Hebei Jingu Group

Global Methyl Palmitate Market

http://apexmarketreports.com/Heavy-Industry/Global-Methyl-Palmitate-Market-Research-Report-2017#sample

http://apexmarketreports.com/Heavy-Industry/Global-Methyl-Palmitate-Market-Research-Report-2017#inquiry

www.apexmarketreports.com

The Methyl Palmitate Market 2017 examines the performance of the Methyl Palmitate market, enclosing an in-depth judgment of the Methyl Palmitate market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Methyl Palmitate market in the present as well as the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Methyl Palmitate Market 2017 report includes Methyl Palmitate industry volume, market Share, market Trends, Methyl Palmitate Growth aspects, a wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis, manufacturing capacity, Methyl Palmitate Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.Global Methyl Palmitate market competition by top manufacturers,EucerinAcme-HardestyAlfa AesarHebei Jingu GroupAnhui Zengyuan Bio-EnergyHaiyan Fine ChemicalGet Full Research Survey Copy @At the beginning, the report covers the top Methyl Palmitate manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on topographical regions.Further, the Methyl Palmitate report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Methyl Palmitate industry, Methyl Palmitate industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Methyl Palmitate Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.The Methyl Palmitate 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 Methyl Palmitate market revenue Global.To Buy Complete Report Click Here:Finally, Methyl Palmitate 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 UsApex Market Reports offers elevating market research globally. We have collection of various syndicated reports of different categories. Apex Market Reports provides you to best services, weather youre searching for new trends in market or competitive scenario in emerging market.Customers can buys different reports across various categories such as Chemical and Material, Biotechnology, Healthcare, Food and beverages, Automobile and various sectors. Our Website offers safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient payment options.Contact UsFrank ValadezCorporate Sales Specialist155 North Wacker Drive, Suite 4250Chicago, IL 60606Phone: +17739042683Email id - sales@apexmarketreports.comWebsite -
Healthcare BPO Market : Global Top Key Players are - Sykes, IBM , ACCENTURE, Cognizant , QUINTILES , HCL

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1335

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/healthcare-bpo-market-1335

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/1335

www.marketresearchfuture.com

The Healthcare BPO Market is growing with the rapid pace; mainly due to the technological innovations in medical care. According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, the global Healthcare BPO Market is booming and expected to gain prominence over the forecast period.The market is forecasted to demonstrate a spectacular growth by 2023, surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value with a striking CAGR during the anticipated period (2017  2023).The healthcare BPO services enrich resource allocation, boost financial performance and increase the effectiveness of providers. The healthcare BPO provides services such as: medical billing & collection medical billing, medical coding, medical data entry, medical records indexing, medical claims processing, and others.Get a sample report atNotably, minimization of critical mistakes is the key factor driving the Healthcare BPO Market. Increasing incidence of errors in the medical bills has encouraged adoption of BPO services by healthcare organization. The BPO professionals ensure the highest accuracy rates in all tasks such as medical coding, billing, claims adjudication, accounts receivable, records indexing, and others, which will help in boosting the growth of the market. Other factors such as increase in cost saving, rise in recovery audits, and demand for niche services are also fuelling the growth of the market. Despite these significant driving factors, doubts over service quality is expected to decline the market growth. Service quality is the major issues in the developing regions. For instance, in 2015, British Telecom has announced plans to shut down its call centres in India due to complaints of poor customer service.On considering the recent trends, it is observed that with the rise in development of healthcare sector, adoption of the advanced technology, and IT services have also been escalating. The major benefit associated with the adoption of BPO services is the minimization of operation cost and time. Healthcare BPO plays a key role in response to three major trends: managing the claims, electronic health records, and maintaining the financials record. Thus, many healthcare organization are adopting these services to improve the management.Browse Complete Report atThe Healthcare BPO Market is currently dominated by very few players. IBM is one of them and holds a strong share in the market. IBM is a U.S. based company that manufactures and markets computer hardware and software and offers hosting and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology. The prime emphasis of the company is on digital revolution by improving data, cloud, and mobile and social security. The company has entered into various collaborations to expand their product portfolio and market share. For instance, in June 5, 2017, IBM Watson Health teamed up with Novartis to use cognitive computing with an aim of improving results in advanced breast cancer research.Cognizant is also one of the leading providers of BPO services along with information technology, information security, and consulting. In 2017, Cognizant acquired Brilliant Service Co. Ltd. to expand its digital transformation portfolio.The major market players i.e., Sykes, IBM, Accenture, HCL, Cognizant, and INFOSYS accounted for more than 11.12% share of the global healthcare BPO market, in 2016.Ask Question to Expert atMost of the existing market players are concentrated in the Americas owing to well-established market and high healthcare expenditures. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, in 2015, U.S. healthcare spending increased 5.8% reaching USD 3.2 trillion. Canadian healthcare specifically was stressed by an advancing demographic move. The increase of insurance coverage because of health care reform (Affordable Care Act, 2010) in the U. S. additionally prompted an expansion in health care spending. The North American healthcare BPO market is showing a huge potential to grow due to high adoption rate. Various U.S. based organizations such as Sykes, Cognizant, IBM, QUINTILES, and others are continuously putting efforts to come up with newly advanced technology to curb the surmounting healthcare cost, and other management issues. In current scenario, integration among companies have been observed. For instance, on Feb. 9, 2017, Accenture acquired iDefense Security Intelligence Services business to address enterprise security needs.About usAt Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Market Research FutureP: +1 646 845 9312W:sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Dental software market : Global Key Players are - Abeldent Inc., Dentimax llc., Carestream Health, Inc , Ace Dental Software , Datacon Dental Systems , Dexis, llc, Gendex Dental System

Dental software market

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/675

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/global-dental-software-market-675

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/675

www.marketresearchfuture.com

Dental software is a computer technology used by dental professionals, dental laboratories, dental academic and research institutes, and forensic laboratories for the diagnosis, prevention, treatment, research, and investigation of oral health conditions. Dental software has been introduced in the year 1980s, since then, few dentists can say they have a truly paperless office.The demand for dental software is dignified by improving process quality, patient satisfaction and speeding up the process for the treatments provided by dental organizations, and dental institutes. There are various factors and opportunities which help the dental software market to grow but there are some factors which are against the market and hampering the growth and development of the industry. The factor which may hamper the growth of the dentals software market is the complexity of the dental softwares which is not accessible by everyone, and the price of the dental softwares which is not affordable by all dentists, and dental clinics.Get a sample report atGlobal Dental Software Market - Competitive AnalysisAbeldent Inc. (Canada) Dentimax llc. (Canada), Carestream Health, Inc(U.S.) , Ace Dental Software (U.S.), Datacon Dental Systems (U.S), Dexis, llc (U.S.), Gendex Dental System (U.S.), Henry Schein, Inc(U.S.), Imageworks Corporation (U.S.), Open Dental Software Inc (U.S.), Planmeca Oy (Finland), Sirona Dental Systems, Inc (U.S.), Consult-Pro (Canada), Patterson Dental (U.S.), Medicloud (Bulgaria) and many others are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the global dental software market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.Technological advancements is the foremost factor, supporting the growth of the dental software industry. For instance, Consult-pro Company, which is one of the leading player in North America has launched the New Consult-Pro iPod app which will help the patient as well as the dentists to gather and share the information and data more efficiently. Earlier dentists did not have many resources and used to do their tasks manually, but as the information technology is growing and is forcing the dental software industry to keep up with the growth by support with the new developments in the software segments. Dental software plays very important role in the overall dental industry. As new products are being developed and being adopted by the dentists and other institutions of dental industry, demand for good and effective software are increasing. There are various products such as intraoral cameras, X-ray systems, sensors, and many others which can be used only if it is connected to software and without any software, the product cannot be used. As companies are developing the dental equipment products, the demand for software is increasing leading to the overall growth of the dental software industry.Browse Complete Report atMay 2016- Henry Schein, Inc. integrates with Dexis, an dental imaging software company. Henry Schein and Dexis combined their softwares capabilities, where Henry Scheins software is practice management and Dexiss software is an imaging tool. This merger allows the professionals to save time and perform multiple tasks simultaneously.Feb, 2016- Dentsply Sirona Inc. had successfully completed the merger of DENTSPLY International Inc. (Dentsply) and Sirona Dental Systems, Inc. (Sirona). DENTSPLYs consumables platform are combined with Sironas technology and equipment, the company offers more products and integrated solutions than any other dental organization. Dentsply Sironas wide array of products for dental professionals and labs enable the treatment of general and specialty procedures including implantology, endodontics, and orthodontics.Jan, 2016 - Henry Schein, Inc. had announced agreement to gain RxWorks, Inc., a provider of veterinary practice management software in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the Netherlands, etc. Henry Schein have huge products and software that have the power to collaborate with dental industries i.e. an advantage for the software products.Get a discount atGlobal Dental Software Market - Regional AnalysisThe North America dental software market comprises of the U.S. and Canada. Moreover, at present the U.S. is dominating the dental software market in this region as it has deployed the majority of the dental software solutions and its applications. Moreover, the federal government is also helping and encouraging the dental industry personnel and organizations and hence, the dental software market is bound to grow. The U.S. has many dental organizations to help the new business and new software developers in the dental software industry. Some of them includes, the American Dental Association, American Student Dental Association, IADR International Association for Dental Research, Georgia dental association and others. According to the American Dental Association, in 2013, 73.8% of solo practitioners and 78.7% of group practitioners were using dental softwares to keep electronic dental records. Looking at the data reveals that just 14.3% of solo practitioners and 15.9% of group-based practitioners are actually using digital charts or documenting patient notes electronically.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Market Research FutureP: +1 646 845 9312W:sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Off-grid Energy Storage Market in India to grow at a CAGR of 15.17% during the period 2017-2021

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/1331134/off-grid-energy-storage-in-india-market-research-reports

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/1331134

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/enquiry/1331134

"The Report Off-grid Energy Storage Market in India 2017-2021 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.bizAbout Off-grid Energy StorageEnergy storage systems store surplus electricity that can be used during power shortages, blackouts, and peak hours of demand. Off-grid energy storage systems are decentralized structures designed for standalone power and help consumers in remote locations. These systems complement diesel generators or intermittent renewables sources by providing backup during low voltage or power outages.Technavios analysts forecast the off-grid energy storage market in India to grow at a CAGR of 15.17% during the period 2017-2021.View Report @Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the off-grid energy storage market in India for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the new installations and exclude aftermarket.Technavio's report, Off-Grid Energy storage market in India 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendorsDelta ElectronicsExide IndustriesNEC Energy SolutionsSu-Kam Power SystemsOther prominent vendorsABBAmara RajaLuminous Power TechnologiesPanasonic IndiaSaftSamsung SDISchneider ElectricTrojan Battery CompanyGet Sample Copy Of This Report @Market driverNeed for electrificationFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeHigh capital requirementFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendNeed for reducing CO2 emissionsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?Send An Enquiry Request @Table of ContentsPART 01: Executive summaryPART 02: Scope of the reportPART 03: Research MethodologyPART 04: IntroductionMarket outlinePART 05: Market landscapeMarket overviewMarket size and forecastFive forces analysisPART 06: Market segmentation by end-userOff-grid energy storage market in India by end-usersOff-grid energy storage market in India by residential sectorOff-grid energy storage in India by non-residential sectorPART 07: Market segmentation by technologyOff-grid energy storage market in India by technologyOff-grid energy storage market in India by lead-acid battery technologyOff-grid energy storage market in India by Li-ion battery technologyPART 08: Decision frameworkPART 09: Drivers and challengesMarket driversMarket challengesPART 10: Market trendsNeed for reducing CO2 emissionsReduction in PV system costsInadequate T&D infrastructureAbout usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.State Tower 90 Sate Street, Suite 700 Albany, NY 12207 Tel: +1-518-621-2074 USA: Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948
Biosimilars Market By Product Type, Application and Geography (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, And Rest Of The World) - Analysis, Share, Trends, Size, & Forecasts to 2025

ReportsWeb

http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW00011327804/sample

http://www.reportsweb.com/biosimilars-market-2014-2025

http://www.reportsweb.com/buy&RW00011327804/buy/3500

Industry Analysis, Share, Trend, Market Size and Forecast" was estimated to be around US$ 6.45 billion in 2017 and is anticipated to grow with 55.0% of growth rate during the future period. This report segments the global Biosimilars Market by product type, application and geography. Biosimilars are the biologics pharmaceutical drugs which are similar to the reference biologic products. These drugs are an interchangeable biological product that contains synthetically developed protein molecules. When the patent of branded drug is expired, pharmaceutical companies are planning to develop off-patent biologics i.e. biosimilars that offer similar biological activity.The biosimilars market offers many growth opportunities and driving factors as compared to the restraining factors. It is stated by various research scientists that development of biosimilars will drastically reduce the price of pharmaceutical drugs.FREE | Request Sample Copy is Available atIn terms of product types, the market for recombinant glycosylated proteins continue to dominate during the forecast period, while the market for recombinant non-glycosylated proteins biosimilars will see a huge potential during the forecast period. On other side, oncology was the largest application segment in 2016, and expected to be the fastest growing application segment in the forecast period. The rise in the aging population, increasing cancer patients, and rise of hospital acquired infection patients globally are factors responsible for the growth of this application segment. The market size and forecast for each segment has been provided for the period 2014 to 2025, considering 2016 as the base year. The report also provides the compounded annual growth rate (% CAGR) for the forecast period 2017 to 2025 for every reported segment.Browse Complete Report atThe report aims at estimating the market size and future growth potential of market across different segments, such as product types, application and regions. The years considered for the study are:Historical Year - 2014 & 2015Base Year - 2016Estimated Year - 2017Projected Year - 2025Companies reported in this report are: Amgen, Inc, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Inc., BIOCON Limited, Novartis AG, STADA, Teva Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Others. For company profiles in the report, 2014 has been considered. Where information is unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.TARGET AUDIENCEHospitalsManufacturersTraders, Distributors, And Suppliers of BiosimilarsGovernment and Regional Agencies and Research OrganizationsConsultantsDistributorsPurchase this report atSCOPE OF THE REPORTThe research report categorizes the Biosimilars Market in each of the following submarkets to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends:GLOBAL BIOSIMILARS MARKET, BY PRODUCT TYPESRecombinant Glycosylated ProteinsRecombinant Non-Glycosylated ProteinsRecombinant PeptidesGLOBAL BIOSIMILARS MARKET, BY APPLICATIONOncologyBlood DisordersInfectious DiseasesAutoimmune DiseasesOthersGLOBAL BIOSIMILARS MARKET, BY REGIONNorth AmericaEuropeAsia PacificRest of the WorldGLOBAL BIOSIMILARS MARKET, GEOGRAPHIC ANALYSISFurther Breakdown of The North America Biosimilars MarketU.S.CanadaFurther Breakdown of The Europe Biosimilars MarketGermanyFranceRest of EuropeFurther Breakdown of The APAC Biosimilars MarketIndiaChinaRest of APACFurther Breakdown of The Rest of the World Biosimilars MarketMiddle East and AfricaLatin AmericaTable of ContentBIOSIMILARS MARKET OVERVIEWStudy ScopeBase YearAssumption and MethodologyEXECUTIVE SUMMARYKey Market FactsGeographical ScenarioCompanies in the MarketBIOSIMILARS MARKETKEY MARKET TRENDSMarket DriversImpact Analysis of Market DriversMarket RestraintsImpact Analysis of Market RestraintsMarket OpportunitiesMarket Future TrendsBIOSIMILARS MARKETINDUSTRY STUDYPipeline Therapeutic AnalysisPricing AnalysisNew Introduction by Leading CompaniesBIOSIMILARS MARKET LANDSCAPENote: If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Contact Info:Name: Sameer JoshiEmail: sales@reportsweb.comOrganization: ReportsWebPhone: +1-646-491-9876ReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.533, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Tetanus-Pipeline Review H1 2017

Reportsweb

http://www.reportsweb.com/tetanus-pipeline-review-h1-2017

http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW0001767476/sample

http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW0001767476/discount

ReportsWeb.com has announced the addition of the Tetanus-Pipeline Review H1 2017 this report provides an overview of the Tetanus-Pipeline landscape.Publisher's latest Pharmaceutical and Healthcare disease pipeline guide Tetanus - Pipeline Review, H1 2017, provides an overview of the Tetanus (Infectious Disease) pipeline landscape.Tetanus is a serious illness caused by Clostridium bacteria. Signs and symptoms of tetanus include spasms and stiffness in jaw muscles, difficulty swallowing, stiffness of abdominal muscles, fever, sweating, elevated blood pressure and rapid heart rate. The predisposing factors include burns, surgical wounds, ear infections, swelling around the injury and infected foot ulcers. Treatment includes antibiotics, sedatives and beta blockers.Report HighlightsPublisher's Pharmaceutical and Healthcare latest pipeline guide Tetanus - Pipeline Review, H1 2017, provides comprehensive information on the therapeutics under development for Tetanus (Infectious Disease) , complete with analysis by stage of development, drug target, mechanism of action (MoA) , route of administration (RoA) and molecule type. The guide covers the descriptive pharmacological action of the therapeutics, its complete research and development history and latest news and press releases.The Tetanus (Infectious Disease) pipeline guide also reviews of key players involved in therapeutic development for Tetanus and features dormant and discontinued projects. The guide covers therapeutics under Development by Companies /Universities /Institutes, the molecules developed by Companies in Pre-Registration, Filing rejected/Withdrawn, Phase III, Phase II, Phase I, IND/CTA Filed, Preclinical and Discovery stages are 1, 1, 10, 3, 6, 1, 8 and 1 respectively. Similarly, the Universities portfolio in Phase II and Discovery stages comprises 1 and 2 molecules, respectively.Tetanus (Infectious Disease) pipeline guide helps in identifying and tracking emerging players in the market and their portfolios, enhances decision making capabilities and helps to create effective counter strategies to gain competitive advantage. The guide is built using data and information sourced from Publisher's proprietary databases, company/university websites, clinical trial registries, conferences, SEC filings, investor presentations and featured press releases from company/university sites and industry-specific third party sources. Additionally, various dynamic tracking processes ensure that the most recent developments are captured on a real time basis.For more information about this report atReport Scope- The pipeline guide provides a snapshot of the global therapeutic landscape of Tetanus (Infectious Disease) .- The pipeline guide reviews pipeline therapeutics for Tetanus (Infectious Disease) by companies and universities/research institutes based on information derived from company and industry-specific sources.- The pipeline guide covers pipeline products based on several stages of development ranging from pre-registration till discovery and undisclosed stages.- The pipeline guide features descriptive drug profiles for the pipeline products which comprise, product description, descriptive licensing and collaboration details, R&D brief, MoA & other developmental activities.- The pipeline guide reviews key companies involved in Tetanus (Infectious Disease) therapeutics and enlists all their major and minor projects.- The pipeline guide evaluates Tetanus (Infectious Disease) therapeutics based on mechanism of action (MoA) , drug target, route of administration (RoA) and molecule type.- The pipeline guide encapsulates all the dormant and discontinued pipeline projects.- The pipeline guide reviews latest news related to pipeline therapeutics for Tetanus (Infectious Disease)Request a sample copy atReasons to buy- Procure strategically important competitor information, analysis, and insights to formulate effective R&D strategies.- Recognize emerging players with potentially strong product portfolio and create effective counter-strategies to gain competitive advantage.- Find and recognize significant and varied types of therapeutics under development for Tetanus (Infectious Disease) .- Classify potential new clients or partners in the target demographic.- Develop tactical initiatives by understanding the focus areas of leading companies.- Plan mergers and acquisitions meritoriously by identifying key players and it's most promising pipeline therapeutics.- Formulate corrective measures for pipeline projects by understanding Tetanus (Infectious Disease) pipeline depth and focus of Indication therapeutics.- Develop and design in-licensing and out-licensing strategies by identifying prospective partners with the most attractive projects to enhance and expand business potential and scope.- Adjust the therapeutic portfolio by recognizing discontinued projects and understand from the know-how what drove them from pipeline.Ask for Discount atList of Figures:-Number of Products under Development for Tetanus, H1 2017Number of Products under Development by Companies, H1 2017Number of Products under Development by Universities/Institutes, H1 2017Number of Products by Targets, H1 2017Number of Products by Stage and Targets, H1 2017Number of Products by Stage and Mechanism of Actions, H1 2017Number of Products by Routes of Administration, H1 2017Number of Products by Stage and Routes of Administration, H1 2017Number of Products by Molecule Types, H1 2017Number of Products by Stage and Molecule Types, H1 2017About ReportsWeb:ReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queriesContact Us:505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Phone : +91-20-67278686E-Mail : info@reportsweb.com
Blood Glucose Monitors Market By Brands (Freestyle, Contour, Accu-Chek, Onetoch, And Others) and Geography - Trends and Future Prospects Details for Business Development and Forecasts to 2025

ReportsWeb

http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW00011327805/sample

http://www.reportsweb.com/blood-glucose-monitors-market-2014-2025

http://www.reportsweb.com/buy&RW00011327805/buy/3235

The "Global Blood Glucose Monitor Industry Analysis, Share, Trend, Market Size and Forecast" was estimated to be around US$ 8.6 billion in 2017 and is anticipated to grow with 6.0% of growth rate during the future period. This report segments the global Blood Glucose Monitor by brands and geography. Blood glucose monitors market involves the market study for a wide range of blood glucose monitors brand that helps patients to treat or diagnose a chronic diabetic condition. The market for blood glucose monitors offers lucrative business opportunities to the companies due to technological advancements, increased acceptance of home healthcare, and cost-effective alternatives compared to hospital visits.The market for blood glucose monitors is expected to experience steady growth owing to the continuous rise in the incidence of diabetes across the globe. There has been a spree of new launches and products under pipeline to be launched by Accu-Chek, Freestyle and OneTouch. Companies are providing patients the benefits of new technologies to ease their diabetes monitoring and compete with the global players. Of different brands, Accu Check and Freestyle generated highest revenue owing to the rising demand of these brands among end users. However, stringent regulations coupled with rising number of companies attempt to sell their blood glucose monitoring business hampers the market growth. Companies like Roche, Bayer, Johnson and Abbott are considered as the major player of this market.FREE | Request Sample Copy is Available atThe market size and forecast for each segment has been provided for the period 2014 to 2025, considering 2016 as the base year. The report also provides the compounded annual growth rate (% CAGR) for the forecast period 2017 to 2025 for every reported segment.The report aims at estimating the market size and future growth potential of market across different segments, such as brands and regions. The years considered for the study are:Historical Year - 2014 & 2015Base Year - 2016Estimated Year - 2017Projected Year - 2025Companies reported in this report are: Abbott Laboratories, F. Hoffman-La Roche, 3M Healthcare, Philips Healthcare, GE Healthcare, Omron Healthcare, Johnson & Johnson and Bayer Healthcare and Others. For company profiles in the report, 2014 has been considered. Where information is unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.Browse Complete Report atTARGET AUDIENCEHospitalsManufacturersGeriatric PopulationTraders, Distributors, And Suppliers of PDT Devices and DrugsGovernment and Regional Agencies and Research OrganizationsConsultantsDistributorsPurchase this report atThe research report categorizes the Blood Glucose Monitor in each of the following submarkets to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends:GLOBAL BLOOD GLUCOSE MONITOR, BY BRANDSFreeStyleContourAccu-ChekOneTochOthersGLOBAL BLOOD GLUCOSE MONITOR, BY REGIONNorth AmericaEuropeAsia PacificRest of the WorldGLOBAL BLOOD GLUCOSE MONITOR, GEOGRAPHIC ANALYSISFurther Breakdown of The North America Blood Glucose MonitorU.S.CanadaFurther Breakdown of The Europe Blood Glucose MonitorGermanyFranceRest of EuropeFurther Breakdown of The APAC Blood Glucose MonitorIndiaChinaRest of APACFurther Breakdown of The Rest of the World Blood Glucose MonitorMiddle East and AfricaLatin AmericaTable of ContentBLOOD GLUCOSE MONITOR MARKET OVERVIEWStudy ScopeBase YearAssumption and MethodologyEXECUTIVE SUMMARYKey Market FactsGeographical ScenarioCompanies in the MarketBLOOD GLUCOSE MONITOR KEY MARKET TRENDSMarket DriversImpact Analysis of Market DriversMarket RestraintsImpact Analysis of Market RestraintsMarket OpportunitiesMarket Future TrendsBLOOD GLUCOSE MONITOR INDUSTRY STUDYValue Chain AnalysisPricing AnalysisNew Introduction by Leading CompaniesBLOOD GLUCOSE MONITOR MARKET LANDSCAPEMarket Share AnalysisNote: If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Contact Info:Name: Sameer JoshiEmail: sales@reportsweb.comOrganization: ReportsWebPhone: +1-646-491-9876ReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Global Medical Electrodes Market is Estimated to be Valued at US$857 mn by 2022

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=30887

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/checkout.php?rep_id=30887<ype=S

Medical electrode are a key implement used in the diagnosis of several types of diseases, including cardiological disorders, neurophysiological conditions, sleep disorders, and others. Medical electrodes operate by converting ionic current energy into electronic energy, which can be used to detect biomarkers left by a number of diseases. The accuracy provided by medical electrodes at perfect convenience to the patient has made them a crucial part of the healthcare sector. The global medical electrodes market is thus likely to exhibit flourishing growth in the coming years on the back of the rising demand. Steady growth of the healthcare industry in developed regions is likely to help the growth prospects of the global medical electrodes market in the coming years.According to Transparency Market Research, the global medical electrodes market is likely to exhibit a strong 6% CAGR in the 2017-2022 forecast period. The market is expected trajectory of the global medical electrodes market is likely to carry it from US$641.3 to US$857 mn over the forecast period.Rising prevalence of lifestyle conditions in Western economies is helpful for the growth of the global medical electrodes market. The prevalence of cardiac disorders in particular has grown at a rapid rate in recent years following growing adoption of sedentary lifestyles among the consumer demographic in regions such as North America and Western Europe. This has driven demand from the global medical electrodes market as the convenient tool required in diagnosis. The rising risk of cardiac problems in developed countries such as the U.S. is likely to keep this a major driver for the global medical electrodes market in the coming years.Request Sample Report@North America and Europe are the leading contributors to the global medical electrodes market. The North America market for medical electrodes is likely to rise to US$297.9 mn by 2022 at a strong CAGR of 6.3%, while the Europe medical electrodes market is expected to rise to US$247.7 mn by 2022 at a 5.6% CAGR between 2017 and 2022.The rising use of nanotechnology in the medical devices sector could be an important step for the global medical electrodes market. Medical electrodes are operated through a metal detector and conducting paste/gel, which is applied on to the patients body. The use of nanotechnology can improve the efficacy of this process significantly, making medical electrodes even more relevant diagnostically. Rising research into nanotechnology with a view to applying nanotechnology products in medical devices is likely to aid the growth prospects of the medical electrodes market in the coming years.The rising government support to the healthcare sector in emerging regions such as Asia Pacific and the Middle East could be crucial to the global medical electrodes market in the coming years. Rising economies in Asia Pacific have turned up their efforts to improve their healthcare and medical devices sector due to the significant benefits this provides in terms of the overall health of the population, which is likely to remain a key driver for the medical electrodes market in the coming years. The Asia Pacific medical electrodes market is expected to exhibit a robust 6.3% CAGR between 2017 and 2022 to emerge at a valuation of US$154.2 mn by 2022. The Middle East and Africa market for medical electrodes, on the other hand, is expected to generate a significant absolute opportunity of US$7.5 mn over the 2017-2022 forecast period.The fragmented global medical electrodes market is likely to remain intensely competitive in the coming years due to the entry of new players in several regional markets. The steady growth of the electronics sector and steady acceptance of medical electronics is likely to drive new investment in the medical electrodes market in the coming years. Leading companies in the global pacemaker devices market include Abbott Laboratories, Medtronic Plc., Oscor Inc., Boston Scientific Corporation, Biotronik SE & Co. KG, Lepu Medical Technology, OSYPKA AG, Zoll Medical Corporation, and Pacetronix Limited.Get Full Report@About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com
Microsclerotherapy Treatment Market - Leading Sales Trends Expected To Drive Success During 2017-2027

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/microsclerotherapy-treatment-market

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-3074

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/checkout/3074

http://www.futuremarketinsights.com

The very thin and tiny veins that look like a spider web below the skin is known as spider veins or thread veins. Spider vein are also known as small varicose veins. They are caused because of the malfunctioning of the valves in the veins. The bloods gets backed up in the veins resulting into swelling. Microsclerotherapy is one of the best technique to treat spider veins. It involves injecting a substance called as sclerosant, which destroys the veins over a period of time and makes it disappear. The technique is most used on legs and other body parts and rare on face due to the minimal possibility of scarring. Normally the patients require about 2 to 6 session of treatment at 4 to 8 weeks of intervals, also depending upon the size of the veins.Read Report Overview:Microsclerotherapy Treatment Market: Drivers & RestraintsRising incidence of spider veins and varicose veins is one of the major driving factor that can influence the growth of the global microsclerotherapy market. Comparatively painless procedure, minimal invasion, highly effective, fewer post-operative complications, simple analgesic required during the procedure are the important factors that will propel the growth of the global market through 2027. The incidence of spider veins are more prevalent in aging population, therefore rise in geriatric population is another factor that can positively influence the global market. Furthermore, heredity, prevalence of unhealthy lifestyle, obesity are the factors that can influence the growth of the global microsclerotherapy market during the forecast period.Higher cost of the treatment, lack of training for surgeons, other alternative procedures, are few of the major factors that can restrain the growth of the global microsclerotherapy treatment market during the forecast period.Request to view Sample Report:Microsclerotherapy TreatmentMarket: OverviewMicrosclerotherapy treatment market is expected to expand at a significant growth rate across regions. Major players in this segment are working on their research and development process to build advanced products such as improved and effective sclerosants, improved after care and support. Microsclerotherapy is a widespread and a well-established technique for spider veins and with various organizations working to raise and maintain the standards of the treatment the global market is expected to anticipate a higher growth rate. Rise in prevalence of spider veins and varicose vein is one of the major factor attributing to the growth of the market. Furthermore, it is estimated that about 50 to 55 percent of the women in United States suffer from one or other type of vein disease which is one of the major factor that can accelerate the growth of the microsclerotherapy market in North America.Microsclerotherapy Treatment Market: Region-wise OutlookA geographic condition regarding microsclerotherapy treatment market, it has been segmented into seven key regions: North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East & Africa.Buy Microsclerotherapy Treatment Market Research Report:North America is expected to dominate the global microsclerotherapy market which is then followed by Europe. Advance healthcare infrastructure, growing importance of aesthetics, continuous lifestyle associated changes, prevalence of spider vein, high disposable income etc. are few of the factors attributing the growth of the microsclerotherapy market in the North America. The Asia Pacific region is expected to register a highest growth rate during the forecast period due to increase in patient awareness and early treatments, increase in disposable income, improved technological advancement.Microsclerotherapy Treatment Market: Key PlayersSome of the prominent players operating in the global microsclerotherapy market are The Vein Clinic, STD Pharmaceutical Products, Covidien, Kreussler Pharma, VASCULAR SOLUTIONS, Medicetics, and Skin Care Clinic, Maryland Dermatology Laser, Skin, & Vein Institute, LLC, among others worldwide.About UsFuture Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights and an aerial view of the competitive framework and future market trends.Contact Us616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705T (UK): +44(0)20-7692-8790Sales: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
When you think of holiday movies, your mind probably goes to Christmas. But amid all that Yuletide cheer, Thanksgiving shouldn't be forgotten.
DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Industry Is Set to Boom in 2017 And Coming Years

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=953915&type=S

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/report/global-din-rail-terminal-blocks-sales-market-report-2017.htm/toc

http://www.qyresearchreports.com

Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Sales Market Report 2017 to its huge collection of research reports.The general market for DIN Rail Terminal Blocks has been seen on several perspectives that are essentially there, and have fixed up the market circumstance to the huge degree. The report additionally shows unmistakable experience and information related to general DIN Rail Terminal Blocks market. The key explanation behind the report is to detail out certain positive and obstructive concentrations about the market conditions with the target that potential examiners have a right pondered the market they will place assets into. Exact genuine data has been given a specific true objective to give a set view and current status of the market, to the customers of the generation. The market consider report also amasses the features for instance, drivers, restrictions, areas, promote figures, adjust of endeavors, future advancement, and alternate points of view. The examination in like manner join the major market motivations behind premium, which contains specific highlights of the fundamental points of view that are most likely going to trigger change in the market or reasons that may have a negative impacts as well.Get Free PDF Brochure For More Technical Insights@This report goes into additional all around examination of the general market for DIN Rail Terminal Blocks by effectively analyzing current happenings and business systems of concerned market. This is required to go about as a supplementary guide in giving right bits of learning and data on a couple of plots for the market, for instance identifying with pattern of the organization bodies in the zone when in doubt level, progress and course structure, streams drawbacks, volume exchange, and earnings made among others.Table of ContentsGlobal DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Sales Market Report 20171 DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of DIN Rail Terminal Blocks1.2 Classification of DIN Rail Terminal Blocks1.2.1 Screw Type1.2.2 Spring-cage Type1.2.3 Push-in Type1.2.4 Fast Type1.2.5 Other1.3 Application of DIN Rail Terminal Blocks1.3.1 Electricity1.3.2 Mechanical Equipment1.3.3 Rail Transmit1.4 DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Market by Regions1.4.1 United States Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.2 China Status and Prospect (2012-2022)Access the full Report TOC in Detail @2 Global DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Competition by Manufacturers, Type and Application2.1 Global DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1.1 Global DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Sales and Market Share of Key Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.2 Global DIN Rail Terminal Blocks (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 Global DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)3 United States DIN Rail Terminal Blocks (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 United States DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Sales and Value (2012-2017)3.1.1 United States DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.2 United States DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.3 United States DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)3.2 United States DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Sales and Market Share by Manufacturers3.3 United States DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Sales and Market Share by Type3.4 United States DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Sales and Market Share by Application4 China DIN Rail Terminal Blocks (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4.1 China DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Sales and Value (2012-2017)4.1.1 China DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.2 China DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.3 China DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)4.2 China DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Sales and Market Share by Manufacturers4.3 China DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Sales and Market Share by Type4.4 China DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Sales and Market Share by Application5 Europe DIN Rail Terminal Blocks (Volume, Value and Sales Price)5.1 Europe DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Sales and Value (2012-2017)5.1.1 Europe DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.1.2 Europe DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.1.3 Europe DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)5.2 Europe DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Sales and Market Share by Manufacturers5.3 Europe DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Sales and Market Share by Type5.4 Europe DIN Rail Terminal Blocks Sales and Market Share by ApplicationQYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Perfumes Market Projected Growth of 5.9% CAGR in Terms of Revenue During 2016  2026

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-202

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-gb-202

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/global-fragrances-market

www.futuremarketinsights.com

Future Market Insights delivers key insights on the global perfumes market in a new report titled Perfumes Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 20162026. In terms of revenue, the global perfumes market is estimated to witness a CAGR of 5.9% over the forecast period.Increasing demand for perfumes from the millennial population is likely to boost the growth of the global perfumes market during the forecast period. Other factors fuelling demand for perfumes are increasing online retail penetration, product push strategy by key global players, and increasing consumer spending on luxury grooming.Segmentation highlightsThe global perfumes market is segmented based on product type, demographics, distribution channel, ingredient type, and region.Based on product type, the market is sub-segmented into Eau de Parfum, Eau de Toilette, Eau de Cologne, and Eau Fraiche. Among all the product type segments, the Eau Fraiche segment is expected to account for the highest market share followed by the Eau de Toilette segment. The Eau Fraiche segment is expected to register a significant CAGR of 7.9% during the forecast period in terms of value. The Eau de Cologne segment is projected to register the second highest CAGR of 7.0% over the forecast period.Request for Sample @To provide in-depth insights on the pattern of demand for perfumes, the market is segmented on the basis of demographics into Mens Perfume, Womens Perfume, and Unisex Perfume. The Unisex Perfume segment is projected to grow at a significant value CAGR over the forecast period. The Womens Perfume segment is expected to witness Y-o-Y growth rates ranging from 4.0% to 5.2% over 20152026.The market has also been segmented by distribution channel into Online Retail and Physical Retail. The Online Retail segment is anticipated to be the most attractive segment in terms of CAGR over the forecast period. The Physical Retail segment is anticipated to account for a significant market share of 80.5% by the end of 2016.On the basis of ingredients used, the global perfumes market is segmented into Natural and Synthetic. The Natural segment is expected to witness Y-o-Y growth rates ranging from 5.5% to 6.5% over 20152026. The growing concern among consumers regarding use of chemicals in perfumes has forced manufacturers to shift from synthetic to natural ingredients, which will boost the growth of the Natural segment.Request for Table of Contents @Regional projectionsThe global perfumes market is segmented into the seven key regions of North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan, and Middle East & Africa. The Western Europe market is estimated to dominate the global perfumes market, accounting for a maximum revenue share of the market by 2016 end. Collectively, Europe and North America markets are expected to account for over 50.8% revenue share of the global perfumes market by 2016 end. Among emerging markets, Asia Pacific excluding Japan is estimated to exhibit a significant CAGR of 10.2% over the forecast period, followed by the Middle East & Africa and Latin America markets, due to recent expansion by key players in these regions.Vendor insightsThe report profiles some of the leading companies operating in the global perfumes market. Top market players featured in the report are Estee Lauder Companies Inc., LVMH, Coty Inc., LOreal International, Elizabeth Arden Inc., Shiseido Co. Ltd., Puig, Perfumania Holdings Inc., Avon Products Inc., and Hermes. A key trend defining the global perfumes market is that larger players are focussing on enhancing their geographical presence and expanding their customer base by entering into strategic brand acquisitions. Product innovation such as travel sprays and rollerballs, celebrity and youth oriented perfumes, and increasing demand for premium perfumes are the other key trends driving the perfumes market. Furthermore, perfume manufacturers are also increasingly investing in digital platforms and e-commerce sites to keep pace with the ever-changing consumer behaviour.Report Overview @ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Third Party Logistics Global Market in Europe by Geography, Scope, Analysis and Outlook to 2021

Reportsweb

http://www.reportsweb.com/third-party-logistics-market-in-europe-2017-2021

http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW0001508363/sample

http://www.reportsweb.com/inquiry&RW0001508363/buying

Third-party logistics (3PL) service is a business process, through which companies outsource logistics and distribution functions to a specialized logistics service provider. It includes as transportation, warehousing, and freight and forwarding. A logistics service provider that provides these services is called a 3PL service provider.Publisher's analysts forecast the third-party logistics market in Europe to grow at a CAGR of 3.06% during the period 2017-2021.For more informationThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the third-party logistics market in Europe for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated from the outsourcing of various services such as transportation, warehousing and distribution, and others (inventory management, it services, management of call center and fulfilment operations, and supply chain network analysis and design) .The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:- France- Germany- Italy- ROE- Spain- UKPublisher's report, Third Party Logistics Market in Europe 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors- C.H Robinson- CEVA Logistics- DB Schenker Logistics- Deutsche Post DHL- Expeditors International of Washington- J.B. Hunt Transport- Kuehne + Nagel International- SNCF Logistics- TNT Express- UPSRequest Sample CopyOther prominent vendors- ACP Freight Services- Agility- Alkomtrans- APL Logistics- AWT Group- Baltic Logistics Group- BDP International- BLS AG- Bulk Logistics Solutions- Czech Logistics Alliance- Azkar Dachser Group- Damco- DAN-CZECH- DEIJ Transport- DSV- FedEx Supply Chain- FM Logistic- Gondrand International- H.P. Therkelsen- hansa-express logistics- Huktra- IMPERIAL Logistics International- Ital Logistics- Jawimex Logistics- John G Russell Transport- Jordon Freight- KLG Europe- LCL International- LKW WALTER International- LogServ- Mainfreight- Menlo Worldwide Logistics- Move Intermodal- Neovia Logistics Services- OGRIS Logistics- Panalpina- Rhenus- RJ International Freight- Rob Masters Specialist Transportation- Ryder- Schneider Logistics- STEF- VECCHI ZIRONI- VTG AG- Warrant Group- Werner Enterprises Dedicated and Logistics- Ziegler GroupMake an enquiry:Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Saw Palmetto Berries Market: Moving Towards a Brighter Future

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1328330&type=S

http://www.qyresearchreports.com

Qyresearchreports include new market research report 2017-2022 Saw Palmetto Berries Report on Global and United States Market, Status and Forecast, by Players, Types and Applications to its huge collection of research reports.The newly added research study on the global market for Saw Palmetto Berries slices and dices it in every possible way to unravel key facts about it. The report presents the various factors serving to drive or restrain the market and other crucial trends shaping its trajectory.The report segments the global market for Saw Palmetto Berries based on different criteria and examines every segment with utmost care to offer a granular view of the market. Each regional segment of the global market for Saw Palmetto Berries have been scrutinized for their historical and recent figures. Using this data along with various growth driver and restraints, the future trajectory of the global market for Saw Palmetto Berries have been discussed.Get Free PDF Brochure For More Technical Insights@The market study also uses popular analytical tools such as SWOT analysis and Porters Five Forces Analysis to provide a qualitative and quantitative overview of the global Saw Palmetto Berries market. Data gathered from such analysis has been examined by industry pundits to identify important trends and opportunities in the market. The analyst behind the report have also interviewed the experts for their take on the market, which makes the report an authoritative guide to the global Saw Palmetto Berries market.The report throws light on the big shot players in the global market for Saw Palmetto Berries. It takes a close look at their product offerings, revenues, share in the market, important strategies, and future prospects. The report also delves into the macro- and micro-fundamentals governing the market for Saw Palmetto Berries so as to enable stakeholders bet right on the market.Answers to questions provided in the report are:What are the factors are affecting growth in the market?Which factors are posing a challenge to the market?What is the current size of the market?Who are the prominent participants in the market?What are the main offerings of the key players?What are the winning strategies of key players?Table of Contents2017-2022 Saw Palmetto Berries Report on Global and United States Market, Status and Forecast, by Players, Types and Applications1 Methodology and Data Source1.1 Methodology/Research Approach1.1.1 Research Programs/Design1.1.2 Market Size Estimation1.1.3 Market Breakdown and Data Triangulation1.2 Data Source2.1.1 Secondary Sources2.1.2 Primary Sources1.3 Disclaimer2 Saw Palmetto Berries Market Overview2.1 Saw Palmetto Berries Product Overview2.2 Saw Palmetto Berries Market Segment by Type2.2.1 Powder2.2.2 Capsules2.3 Global Saw Palmetto Berries Product Segment by Type2.3.1 Global Saw Palmetto Berries Sales (K MT) and Growth (%) by Types (2012, 2016 and 2022)2.3.2 Global Saw Palmetto Berries Sales (K MT) and Market Share (%) by Types (2012-2017)2.3.3 Global Saw Palmetto Berries Revenue (Million USD) and Market Share (%) by Types (2012-2017)2.3.4 Global Saw Palmetto Berries Price (USD/MT) by Type (2012-2017)3 Saw Palmetto Berries Application/End Users3.1 Saw Palmetto Berries Segment by Application/End Users3.1.1 Reduces Risk of Prostate Cancer3.1.2 Supports Urological System3.1.3 Helps with Hair Loss3.2 Global Saw Palmetto Berries Product Segment by Application3.2.1 Global Saw Palmetto Berries Sales (K MT) and CGAR (%) by Applications (2012, 2016 and 2022)3.2.2 Global Saw Palmetto Berries Sales (K MT) and Market Share (%) by Applications (2012-2017)3.3 United States Saw Palmetto Berries Product Segment by Application3.3.1 United States Saw Palmetto Berries Sales (K MT) and CGAR (%) by Applications (2012, 2016 and 2022)3.3.2 United States Saw Palmetto Berries Sales (K MT) and Market Share (%) by Applications (2012-2017)4 Saw Palmetto Berries Market Status and Outlook by Regions4.1 Global Market Status and Outlook by Regions4.1.1 Global Saw Palmetto Berries Market Size and CAGR by Regions (2012, 2016 and 2022)4.1.2 North America4.1.3 Asia-Pacific4.1.4 Europe4.1.5 South America4.1.6 Middle East and Africa4.1.7 United States4.2 Global Saw Palmetto Berries Sales and Revenue by Regions4.2.1 Global Saw Palmetto Berries Sales (K MT) and Market Share (%) by Regions (2012-2017)4.2.2 Global Saw Palmetto Berries Revenue (Million USD) and Market Share (%) by Regions (2012-2017)QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
2017, Global Clinical Trial Management Systems Industry | Market Research Report by Radiant Insights

Radiant Insights, Inc

https://www.radiantinsights.com/research/global-clinical-trial-management-systems-industry-2017/request-sample?utm_source=Pr&utm_medium=Open&utm_campaign=Jyoti

https://www.radiantinsights.com/research/global-clinical-trial-management-systems-industry-2017?utm_source=Pr&utm_medium=Open&utm_campaign=Jyoti

https://www.radiantinsights.com/research/united-states-transmembrane-prolyl-4-hydroxylase-industry-2017?utm_source=Pr&utm_medium=Open&utm_campaign=Jyoti

https://www.radiantinsights.com/research/global-systemic-idiopathic-juvenile-arthritis-treatment-sales-market-report-2017?utm_source=Pr&utm_medium=Open&utm_campaign=Jyoti

https://pharmaceuticalandhealthcarereports.wordpress.com

In this report, the global Clinical Trial Management Systems market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Clinical Trial Management Systems in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), covering North America Europe China Japan Southeast Asia IndiaRequest a Free Sample Copy of this Report @Global Clinical Trial Management Systems market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players including Medidata Solutions PAREXEL International BioClinica Bio-Optronics ERT eClinforce Merge Healthcare DATATRAK Veeva Systems DSG Inc. Forte Research Systems MedNet SolutionsDownload Full Research Report of Global Clinical Trial Management Systems Industry @On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into Enterprise CTMS Site CTMSOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate of Clinical Trial Management Systems for each application, including Pharmaceutical and Biopharmaceutical Companies Contract Research Organizations Medical Device Companie OthersRead more related reports by Radiant Insights: Transmembrane Prolyl 4 Hydroxylase Industry- Systemic Idiopathic Juvenile Arthritis Treatment Market-Table of Contents1 Clinical Trial Management Systems Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Clinical Trial Management Systems1.2 Clinical Trial Management Systems Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Clinical Trial Management Systems Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Clinical Trial Management Systems Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Enterprise CTMS1.2.4 Site CTMS1.3 Global Clinical Trial Management Systems Segment by Application1.3.1 Clinical Trial Management Systems Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Pharmaceutical and Biopharmaceutical Companies1.3.3 Contract Research Organizations1.3.4 Medical Device Companie1.3.5 OthersTo read more reports of this category, Visit our blog:1.4 Global Clinical Trial Management Systems Market by Region (2012-2022)1.4.1 Global Clinical Trial Management Systems Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 India Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Clinical Trial Management Systems (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Clinical Trial Management Systems Revenue Status and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Clinical Trial Management Systems Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2012-2022)About Radiant Insights, IncRadiant Insights is a market research and consulting company offering syndicated research studies, customized reports, and consulting services. Market research studies are designed to facilitate strategic decision making, on the basis of extensive and in-depth quantitative information, supported by extensive analysis and industry insights. Using a patented and robust research methodology, we publish exhaustive research reports covering a host of industries such as Technology, Chemicals, Materials, and Energy. Radiant Insights has a strong base of analysts, consultants and domain experts, with global experience help for delivering excellence in all research projects.Media Contact:Michelle Thoras201 Spear Street 1100,Suite 3036,San Francisco,CA 94105, United StatesTel: 1-415-349-0054Toll Free: 1-888-928-9744Mail: sale@radiantinsights.com
Cosmetic Ingredients Market is Anticipated to Register 4.5% CAGR through 2025

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/11164

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/methodology/11164

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/11164

www.persistencemarketresearch.com

The global cosmetic ingredients market was valued at US$ 14,671.2 Mn in 2015, and is expected to grow at a year-over-year rate of 4.4% to reach US$ 15,313.9 Mn in 2016. In terms of value, Western Europe dominated the global cosmetics ingredients market with 28.0 % share in 2015. Western Europe and North America collectively are expected to account for 54.1% of the total cosmetics ingredients market share in terms of revenue in 2016Request For Report Sample:Key trends in the global cosmetic ingredients market include rapid urbanisation, introduction of innovative products with more visible effects, growing disposable income, and increasing emphasis on appearance and good-looks.On the basis of product type polymer segment is expected to witness the highest growth, followed by surfactant segment. These two product type segments are anticipated to witness a year-over-year growth of 3.6% and 5.3% respectively in 2016.On the basis of application, the global cosmetics ingredients market is segmented into hair care, skin care, fragrance, make up, oral care and products including shaving kits and body hair removers. Skin care is the largest application segment, accounting for 31.6% revenue share of the market in 2016. This segment is anticipated to grow by 5.2% in 2016 to reach US$ 4,816.4 Mn in revenues.By functionality, the cosmetics ingredients market is segmented into foamers & cleansing agent, moisturising, fragrance, toners and colouring agents. Amongst these segments, moisturising is the largest segment in terms of revenue, accounting for 25.1% share in 2015. This segment is anticipated to witness a yearover-year growth of 4.8% in 2016 to reach US$ 3,856.4 Mn.Regionally, Western Europe will continue to remain the largest market for cosmetic ingredients in 2016. The market in the Western Europe is expected to grow by 3.8% in 2016 to reach US$ 4,256.9 Mn in revenues. The key factors fuelling the market in the region include increasing demand for skin care and hair care ingredients such as surfactant t, emollient, polymer  particularly specialty cosmetic ingredients such as antimicrobial and UV absorber. Other trends driving market growth include rapid urbanisation in developing countries and development of new and innovative products by various players in the market. North America, the second-largest market for cosmetic ingredients globally is anticipated to increase at 4.6% in 2016.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Key participants in the global cosmetics ingredients market include Akzo Nobel N.V., BASF SE, Croda International Plc, Eastman Chemical Company and The Dow Chemical Company. Key end-use companies identified for cosmetics ingredients include Unilever, L'Oreal International, The Estee Lauder Companies Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Company and COTY Inc.The global cosmetic ingredients market is expected to increase at a CAGR of 4.5% during the forecast period 20152025.You can now buy a single user license of the report :ABOUT US:Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.CONTACT:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway,7th FloorNew York City, NY 10007United StatesT: +1-646-568-7751Tollfree: +1 800-961-0353Website:
5th Wheel Hitches Market Production, Operations, Price and Gross Margin 2017

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1380730&type=S

http://www.qyresearchreports.com

Qyresearchreports include new market research report 2012-2022 Report on Global 5th Wheel Hitches Market Competition, Status and Forecast, Market Size by Players, Regions, Type, Application to its huge collection of research reports.The general market for 5th Wheel Hitches has been seen on a few points of view that are in every way that really matters there, and have repaired the market situation to the mammoth degree. The report in like manner shows unmistakable experience and data identified with general 5th Wheel Hitches market. The key clarification behind the report is to detail out certain positive and obstructive focuses about the market conditions with the objective that potential scholars have a privilege considered the market they will put resources into. Correct real information has been given a particular extreme goal to give an established view and current status of the market, to the clients of the age. The market considers report besides accumulates the highlights for example, drivers, limitations, portions, promote figures, change of tries, future change, and exchange perspectives. The examination additionally join the essential market inspirations driving premium, which contains particular features of the central perspectives that are in all probability going to trigger change in the market or reasons that may have a negative effects too.Get Free PDF Brochure For More Technical Insights@This report goes into extra all around examination of the general market for 5th Wheel Hitches by adequately taking a gander at current happenings and business strategies of concerned market. This is required to go about as a supplementary guide in giving right bits of learning and information on several plots for the market, for example relating to example of the association bodies in the zone as a rule level, advance and course structure, streams disadvantages, volume trade, and pay rates made among others.Table of ContentsGlobal 5th Wheel Hitches Market Research Report 20171 5th Wheel Hitches Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of 5th Wheel Hitches1.2 5th Wheel Hitches Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global 5th Wheel Hitches Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2012-2022)1.2.2 Global 5th Wheel Hitches Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Below 20K (13/15/16/18K)1.2.4 21-30K(21/22/24/25K)1.2.5 Above 30K1.3 Global 5th Wheel Hitches Segment by Application1.3.1 5th Wheel Hitches Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 OEM1.3.3 OES1.4 Global 5th Wheel Hitches Market by Region (2012-2022)1.4.1 Global 5th Wheel Hitches Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 EU Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Asia-Pacific Status and Prospect (2012-2022)2 Global 5th Wheel Hitches Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global 5th Wheel Hitches Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.1 Global 5th Wheel Hitches Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global 5th Wheel Hitches Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.2 Global 5th Wheel Hitches Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.3 Global 5th Wheel Hitches Average Price by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.4 Manufacturers 5th Wheel Hitches Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 5th Wheel Hitches Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 5th Wheel Hitches Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 5th Wheel Hitches Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion3 Global 5th Wheel Hitches Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)3.1 Global 5th Wheel Hitches Capacity and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.2 Global 5th Wheel Hitches Production and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.3 Global 5th Wheel Hitches Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.4 Global 5th Wheel Hitches Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.5 North America 5th Wheel Hitches Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.6 EU 5th Wheel Hitches Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.7 Asia-Pacific 5th Wheel Hitches Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)4 Global 5th Wheel Hitches Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2012-2017)4.1 Global 5th Wheel Hitches Consumption by Region (2012-2017)4.2 North America 5th Wheel Hitches Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.3 EU 5th Wheel Hitches Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.4 Asia-Pacific 5th Wheel Hitches Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)5 Global 5th Wheel Hitches Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 Global 5th Wheel Hitches Production and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.2 Global 5th Wheel Hitches Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.3 Global 5th Wheel Hitches Price by Type (2012-2017)5.4 Global 5th Wheel Hitches Production Growth by Type (2012-2017)QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Specialty Oleochemicals Market in the US to grow at a CAGR of 4.54% during the period 2017-2021

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/reports/1331093/specialty-oleochemicals-in-the-us-market-research-reports

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/sample/1331093

https://www.marketresearchreports.biz/sample/enquiry/1331093

"The Report Specialty Oleochemicals Market in the US 2017-2021 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"About Specialty OleochemicalsOleochemicals are produced from animal and plant fats. These feedstocks are renewable and safe for the environment. Thus, oleochemicals are gaining prominence over their petroleum-based counterparts. They have the same functions as petroleum-based chemicals, but advantageous in terms of biodegradability. Specialty oleochemicals are used for specific applications in various industries including cosmetics, industrial, paints and coatings, food processing, polymers, plastics, additives, and others. For instance, glycerides and fatty acids are used mainly in paints and coatings.Technavios analysts forecast the specialty oleochemicals market in the US to grow at a CAGR of 4.54% during the period 2017-2021.View Report @Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the specialty oleochemicals market in the US for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report presents a detailed picture of the market by way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources.Technavio's report, Specialty Oleochemicals Market in the US 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendorsEmery OleochemicalsEvonik IndustriesKao CorporationVantage Specialty ChemicalsWilmar InternationalOther prominent vendorsAmyrisCail & ParsCargillCroda InternationalEvyap-OleoGodrej Industries(Chemicals)P&G ChemicalsPMC GroupProd'HygGet Sample Copy Of This Report @Market driverIncrease in the use of bio-based feedstocks in productsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeStorage and transportation of vegetable oils and animal fatsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendDevelopment of new products and applications through oleochemicalsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?Send An Enquiry Request @Table of ContentsPART 01: Executive summaryPART 02: Scope of the reportPART 03: Research MethodologyPART 04: IntroductionMarket outlinePART 05: Market landscapeMarket overviewSpecialty oleochemicals market in the USFive forces analysisPART 06: Market segmentation by productOverview: Specialty oleochemicals market in the US by product typeSpecialty esters market in the USGlycerol esters market in the USAlkoxylates market in the USFatty amines market in the USFatty acid methyl esters (FAME) market in the USOther specialty oleochemicals market in the USPART 07: Market segmentation by applicationOverview: Specialty oleochemicals market in the US by applicationSpecialty oleochemicals market in the US for industrial sectorSpecialty oleochemicals market in the US for personal care and cosmetics sectorSpecialty oleochemicals market in the US for paints and ink sectorSpecialty oleochemicals market in the US for food processingSpecialty oleochemicals market in the US for consumers goods sectorSpecialty oleochemicals market in the US for healthcare and pharmaceutical sectorSpecialty oleochemicals market in the US for textiles sectorSpecialty oleochemicals market in the US for polymers and plastics additives sectorSpecialty oleochemicals market in the US for other sectorsPART 08: Decision frameworkMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industriesState Tower 90 Sate Street, Suite 700 Albany, NY 12207 Tel: +1-518-621-2074 USA: Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948
Global Measuring Microscope Market Professional Survey Report 2017 : Euromex, Optimax

QYResearchReports

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1342698&type=S

Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Measuring Microscope Market Professional Survey Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.The global market for Measuring Microscope is being molded by different factors and a complete assessment of those have been furnished in the report. The report begins with a brief description of the product and then goes onto study the various growth drivers and restraints in the market. Apart from that, the report also banks upon historical and current data to understand the trajectory of the market, its current and future size, and the pace at which it would expand in the years to come.The study on the global market for Measuring Microscope applies market-leading analytical tools, namely SWOT analysis and Porters Five Forces to understand the prevalent opportunities and threats awaiting players. Such tools also helps it to throw light on the bargaining power of buyers and suppliers and how big a challenge substitutes and new entrants pose. All of these enable it to comprehend the degree of competition in the market.Get a Free PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringOlympusNikonKeyenceMitutoyoEuromexOptimaxMeijiIn order to stay ahead of the curve in an ever changing, always-on business environment, companies need to chart pertinent marketing strategies. The report offers them with just the information, facts, and figures on the global market for Measuring Microscope so that they can take timely, useful decisions. The report is a repository of information on the Measuring Microscope market.The report also scrutinizes the macro-fundamentals such as the recent-most international and domestic policies affecting the dynamics of the global market for Measuring Microscope. It segments the market depending upon different parameters such as applications, products, and regions. Factors shaping the growth in the different segments have been examined thoroughly and attractiveness and drawbacks of each segment has been discussed so as to enable players to bet carefully on the market.Table of Contents1 Industry Overview of Measuring Microscope1.1 Definition and Specifications of Measuring Microscope1.1.1 Definition of Measuring Microscope1.1.2 Specifications of Measuring Microscope1.2 Classification of Measuring Microscope1.3 Applications of Measuring Microscope1.4 Market Segment by Regions2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Measuring Microscope2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Measuring Microscope2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Measuring Microscope2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Measuring Microscope3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Measuring Microscope3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Measuring Microscope Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Measuring Microscope Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Measuring Microscope Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Measuring Microscope Major Manufacturers in 20164 Global Measuring Microscope Overall Market Overview4.1 2012-2017E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2012-2017E Global Measuring Microscope Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2016 Measuring Microscope Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2012-2017E Global Measuring Microscope Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2016 Measuring Microscope Sales Analysis (Company Segment)4.4 Sales Price Analysis4.4.1 2012-2017E Global Measuring Microscope Sales Price4.4.2 2016 Measuring Microscope Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment)List of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Measuring MicroscopeTable Product Specifications of Measuring MicroscopeTable Classification of Measuring MicroscopeFigure Global Production Market Share of Measuring Microscope by Type in 2016Figure Global Consumption Volume Market Share of Measuring Microscope by Application in 2016Table Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Measuring Microscope Major Manufacturers in 2016Table Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Measuring Microscope Major Manufacturers in 2016Table R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Measuring Microscope Major Manufacturers in 2016Table Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Measuring Microscope Major Manufacturers in 2016Table Global Capacity, Sales , Price, Cost, Sales Revenue (M USD) and Gross Margin of Measuring Microscope 2012-2017About Us:QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact Us:1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
North America Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Converters Market Size to Accelerate at a Rapid CAGR of 5.3% during 2016-2024

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/north-america-wheelchair-accessible-vehicle-converters-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=16094

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/report-toc/16094

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

http://www.theglobalhealthnews.com/

According to TMR, the North America wheelchair accessible vehicle converters market was valued at US$1.74 bn in 2015. It is expected to expand at a positive CAGR of 5.30% within a forecast period from 2016 to 2024, eventually reaching US$3.47 bn by the end of 2024.The three leading entities in this market  Mobility Ventures LLC., BraunAbility, and Vantage Mobility International  took up over 65% of the North America wheelchair accessible vehicle converters market in 2015. According to Transparency Market Research in its recently published research report, the market featured a moderately fragmented competitive landscape for that year, and is likely to slowly grow more consolidated over time. A majority of the players in this market are highly reliant on bringing out newer and advanced products in the market as a core part of their strategic expansion plans. It is also likely for the leading players to change their focus towards mergers and acquisitions over the coming years.Report overview @On the basis of the type of vehicle, the North America wheelchair accessible vehicle converters market has so far been led by full size vehicles, in terms of revenue in 2015. This segment took up over 48% of the market for the year, thanks to a rise in the uptake of wheelchair accessible vehicles as a type of family vehicle. However, over the coming years the overall rise in demand for medium size vehicle is expected to be higher in North America.The U.S. dominated the North America wheelchair accessible vehicle converters market in 2015 with a share of close to 95% and is expected to remain in the lead for the given forecast period. This might be achieved by the increasing presence of a disabled and geriatric population, the increasing demand for wheelchair accessible vehicles, and a rise in trauma and accident cases. The market growth rate is further enhanced by increased government funding and the rising number of awareness initiatives.Request to sample report @The growth in the number of disabled patients is currently influencing the North America wheelchair accessible vehicle converters market. In 2015, almost 3.3 mn wheelchair users were already present in North America, a number which is likely to rise over the coming years due to the growth in prevalence of disability of mobility among patients, states a TMR analyst. The massive geriatric population is a primary proponent of this demographic, followed by the obese and the trauma and accident victims. This, as a result, is likely to fuel the demand for wheelchair accessible vehicle converters further over the forecast period.The North America wheelchair accessible vehicle converters market is also being driven by the overall addition of these type of vehicles in the increasingly asked for user-friendly accessible vehicles category. The market is, however, currently being restrained by the high price of these vehicles and the essential components required.Side entry vehicles have so far been a widely demanded segment in the North America wheelchair accessible vehicle converters market. According to analysts, this segment is also likely to propel the market over the coming years, owing to the increased expenditure on them, fueling the development rate of manufacturers.Summary of Table of ContentSection - 1. PrefaceSection - 2. Assumptions and Research MethodologySection - 3. Executive Summary: North America Wheelchair Accessible VehicleSection - 4. Market OverviewSection - 5. North America Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Converters Market, by Vehicle TypeSection - 6. North America Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Converters Market, by Entry ModalitySection - 7. North America Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Converters Market, by Entry PointSection - 8. North America Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Converters Market, by CountrySection  9 U.S. Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Converters Market Analysis by Vehicle TypeSection - 10. U.S. Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Converters Market, by Entry ModalitySection - 11. U.S. Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Converters Market, by Entry PointSection - 12 U.S. Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Converters Market Analysis by Vehicle TypeSection - 13. Canada Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Converters Market, by Entry ModalitySection - 14. Canada Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Converters Market, by Entry PointSection - 15. Competition Landscape16. Key TakeawaysRequest to Browse Full Table of Content, figure and Tables @About TMRTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.ContactTransparency Market ResearchState Tower90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:TMR Blog:
The Willamette Valley Ag Expo is set for Tuesday through Thursday, Nov. 15 through 17, at the Linn County Expo Center, 3700 Knox Butte Road E. in Albany.
Anti-counterfeit Clothing and Accessories Packaging Market Reach $20.5 Billion By 2020

http://bit.ly/2kPJS4D

http://bit.ly/2krWlMk

http://bit.ly/2ksq1ci

The malpractices of counterfeiting activities are majorly associated with premium products as they carry high revenue benefits and a lower risk. The counterfeiting practices of clothing and accessories are rapidly changing from physical markets to e commerce portals. The global anti-counterfeit clothing and accessories packaging market accounted for a revenue of $12 billion in 2014 and is expected to reach $20.5 billion by 2020, registering a CAGR of 9.9% over the forecast period.For More Info, Get Sample :Presently, the counterfeiting rates of clothing and accessories impedes the financial growth of fashion and luxury goods industry. To overcome counterfeiting practices, authentication technologies are highly preferred techniques for low-cost products. The growing trend of multilayered product protection for fashion accessories would largely boost to the authentication technology market. Local manufactures form the key user segment of economic authentication technologies. A high demand is estimated for the segment of cost-effective authentication technologies during the forecast period. A large adoption of track and trace technologies by manufacturers of premium fashion wear and accessories is observed in the market. Barcode technology was the highest revenue-generating segment in 2014 and is expected to sustain its market share during the forecast period. Among all the track and trace technologies, the economic pricing of barcode technology is a factor that would drive its market growth. Also, the segment of RFID and m-pedigree technologies hold promising opportunities for premium product tracking.The growth of fashion and luxury industry across developed regions was largely hampered by the recessionary economic conditions. Leading companies across these regions are capitalizing on newer opportunities through expansion in emerging economies. North America and Europe were the highest revenue-generating regions; collectively contributing to 84% of the global market in 2014. Also, there are potential opportunities for players in emerging economies, particularly in the BRIC countries. All the factors mentioned above along with the increased product vigilance of manufacturers would increase the demand for advanced and cost-effective anti-counterfeit solutions. Key players profiled in the report include Alien Technology Corp., AlpVision, Zebra Technologies Corp., Avery Dennison Corp., Microtrace Solutions, Impinj Incorporation, Applied DNA Science Inc., Brand Integrity International, and RDS Labels.KEY BENEFITS The report highlights key market drivers and restraints across all verticals of the anti-counterfeit packaging market SWOT analysis helps study the internal environment of the leading companies, effectively, for strategy formulation Porteras five forces analysis examines the competitive structure of the global anti-counterfeit technologies market and would help market strategists in making informed decisions The report describes the market intellect along with the current trends and revenue for the period 2014-2020Enquire About Report :KEY MARKET SEGMENTS Global anti-counterfeit technology market is categorized intoMARKET BY TECHNOLOGIES Authentication technology Ink and dyes Holograms Watermarks Taggants Track and trace technology Barcode technology RFID technologyMARKET BY GEOGRAPHY North America Europe Asia-Pacific LAMEAAlso Request For Discount :Table Of Content CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CHAPTER 3 MARKET OVERVIEW CHAPTER 4 GLOBAL ANTI-COUNTERFEIT PACKAGING (CLOTHING AND ACCESSORIES) MARKET BY TECHNOLOGIES CHAPTER 5 GLOBAL ANTI-COUNTERFEIT PACKAGING (CLOTHING AND ACCESSORIES) MARKET BY GEOGRAPHY CHAPTER 6 COMPANY PROFILESAbout UsWe have a large database of quality and precise market research reports that will be very beneficial for your organization. Reports that we sell our authentic in nature and from reputed publishers, hence it can definitely help you with your growth opportunities. Research Beam will always make sure to bring most ethical and high quality reports. We value your relationship with us and look forward for a long term relation.Contact UsGlobal Head Quarters5933 NE Win Sivers Drive,#205, Portland, OR 97220United States+1 (800) 910-6452help@researchbeam.com
Solar Micro Inverters Market Predicted to Witness Surge in the Near Future 2014-2020

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-ap-278

https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/toc/rep-ap-278

The first commercially successful micro inverter was launched by Enphase in 2008, which played a key role in popularising solar micro inverters globally. Currently, the global market comprises numerous domestic as well as international players supplying quality micro inverters.Modularity, safety, and maximum energy harvest will continue to drive the market at a considerable pace through 2020. Till recent years, the demand for micro inverters was highly restricted to North America. However, the market is gradually shifting toward commercial applications, and witnessing expansion in most of the developed as well as developing regions outside the U.S.Adoption of solar micro inverters has gained momentum in the recent past, resulting in a growing market in developing nations, including Asia Pacific. Improved device features and enhanced efficiency are currently pushing the market in APAC, which is projected to continue in the near future as well, creating a lucrative market for micro inverters on a global level.Request For Report Sample@APAC Solar Micro Inverters Market: Key DriversDeclining Prices to Push DemandThe market is currently growing at a considerable pace. Persistent advances in R&D of solar micro inverters and substantial reduction in costs of micro inverters are estimated to boost the market during the forecast period.Size and Modularity to Impact Maximum ApplicationsCompact size and high modularity of solar micro inverters make them ideal for residential applications. These two are the key drivers why micro inverters are currently gaining an impetus at a global level.Superiority over Conventional Inverters is a Key DriverSolar micro inverters are superior over conventional centralised or string inverters in various ways.Unlike string inverters, micro inverters are tolerant to shade and do not let the power generation performance of individual solar panels drop, even if the area surrounding them is shady. This character is identified as one of the key factors positively influencing the demand for micro inverters when it comes to their efficiency.Contrary to centralised inverters, solar micro inverters are compact in size and do not need separate air cooling, resulting in lesser heat loss. This is another factor fuelling the demand for micro inverters in the market.Moreover, a broken string or centralised inverter faces halted performance merely due to a defect in one panel, whereas a defective panel in a micro inverter does not degrade the performance of the entire system because the system architecture allows individual panel monitoring. The maximum power is generated through MPPT. This has been an important driver in popularising micro inverters over the years.Higher Costs Can Create ChallengesHowever, relatively higher initial costs associated with installation and replacement of micro inverts may continue to create a major roadblock for solar micro inverters from becoming a widely commonplace device across Asia Pacific. Furthermore, installation of micro inverters requires the installation of another extra monitoring device - a communication bus, in addition to the basic common monitoring system. This in turn adds up to the final costs.APAC Solar Micro Inverters Market SegmentationFMIs research offers a six-year forecast, segmenting the APAC market for solar micro inverters based on the type, consumer, and application.Based on the type, the market is segmented into standalone solar micro inverter market and grid tied solar micro inverter market. On the basis of consumers, the solar micro inverter market in Asia Pacific is segmented as urban and rural. The urban segment dominates the market owing to rising awareness about alternate energy usage and growing population density in urban areas.According to the application, the solar micro inverters market in APAC is segmented as residential and commercial. As micro inverters are economically lesser affordable compared to other traditional inverters, their residential applications find a lower market share in economically sensitive regions in Asia Pacific. However, the commercial solar micro inverter market application currently dominates the market.Market to Explore Untapped Growth Opportunities in APACAlthough the U.S. is a leading market for solar micro inverters, adoption of solar micro inverters is expected to gain traction in Asia Pacific, especially in India, Japan, and Australia. Soaring fuel prices, burgeoning demand for power supply, and favourable government policies are currently driving the market in APAC.Regional Analysis: APAC Solar Micro Inverters MarketIndia, owing to the availability of ample renewable energy sources, captures a prominent position in the APAC market for micro inverters. Growing awareness about benefits of micro inverters and widespread adoption of renewable energy sources for agriculture are expected to fuel the demand for solar micro inverters across India. The Union Budget of India for 2014-15 has clearly indicated emphasis on using solar for electricity generation. This is a key factor, anticipated to provide momentum to the market for micro inverters in and post-2016.Japan, despite representing a key residential market potential, has been facing limited micro inverter shipments. Stringent certification norms are anticipated to govern the Japanese market but domestic suppliers are expected to encounter growing opportunities.Australia is a relatively emerging market for photovoltaics, which makes it an unestablished market for string and centralised inverters. The Australian market, since the past few years, has been reflecting growing demand for micro inverters and FMIs research indicates string growth prospects for micro inverter suppliers. Recently, Enphase announced to commercially launch their AC battery first in Australia, later this year. ARENA Australia, through ample of renewable energy funds, will continue to provide an additional thrust to the market.Visit For TOC@In addition, there are other expanding market, including Malaysia, Indonesia, and Philippines. Malaysia hosts several off-grid projects, whereas Indonesia is up for a thousand islands project. Philippines is also continually initiating multiple rural electrification projects. Utility companies located in all the three countries are currently prioritising rural electrification.Key Players in APAC Solar Micro Inverters MarketKey participants in the Asia Pacific market for solar micro inverters, include Enphase Energy, Solar Bridge Technologies, SolarEdge, Green Ray Solar, and Enecsys.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACTFuture Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite: http.futuremarketinsights.com
Transmission Fluids Market Research Study for the Period 2017 - 2025

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=34325

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=34325

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/

Transmission fluid is one of the fluids used in vehicles for manual as well as automatic transmissions during locomotion of the engine. Transmission fluid is generally available in red or green color. It is dyed in order to distinguish it from other fluids and motor oils, which are used in vehicles. The application of transmission fluids used in vehicles, for gear lubrication, valve operation, torque converter and for brake band friction. Transmission fluid possesses significant properties such as excellent thermal stability, anti-wear protection for hydraulic and transmission systems, better fuel economy, compatibility with seal materials, and high level of torque capacity for excellent power transfer and acceleration.The type of transmission fluids market can be segmented into automatic transmission fluid (ATF), manual transmission fluid (MTF), dual clutch transmission fluid (DCTF). and continuously variable transmission fluid (CVTF). Transmission fluids are primarily used in passenger vehicles and heavy duty vehicles. ATF has emerged as the leading product type owing to the increase in demand for automatic vehicles. Heavy duty vehicles and agriculture machinery & equipment also utilize vast amount of ATF in order to prolong vehicle lifespan. MTF is used in specific manual vehicles. Innovation in this segment has been a critical factor owing to numerous complexities associated with these fluids.Request For Report Sample:One of the major drivers for transmission fluids in heavy duty vehicle segment is the manufacturers of transmission fluids, which have extensive presence globally and dominating the market with their extensive distribution network along with their innovative product portfolio. Increase in consumer preference for less carbon emission control vehicles has encouraged manufacturers to achieve minimum fuel efficiency and continue to have tie ups with OEM to develop novel transmission fluids for automotive.Others factors expected to drive the demand for transmission fluids include rise in automotive fleet for on-road as well as off-road use and expansion in the industrial sector in developed and developing regions.Rise in awareness about the benefits of industrially advanced lubricants is expected to augment the transmission fluids market. Manufacturers have strong opportunity to introduce innovative transmission fluids which are being useful to fulfill consumer demands of fuel effective & high-performance vehicles. Expansion in automotive and construction industries is estimated to boost the demand for transmission fluids during the forecast period.The automotive sector in Europe is anticipated to expand at a steady CAGR in the near future. After Europe, Asia Pacific and North America are expected to gain key share of the transmission fluids market in terms of value during the forecast period.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):Prominent players operating in the transmission fluids market include BASF SE, Chevron Corporation, Exxon Mobil Corporation, and Royal Dutch Shell. These companies have extensive presence are renowned for their broad research & development operations.About USTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a next-generation provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact USState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030Website:Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.com
CCTV Market Is Set to Boom in 2017 And Coming Years

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/677

CCTV Market [By Camera Type (IP, Analogue) By Technology (CMOS, CCD) By End User (Hospital, Hotel, Real Estate, IT Sector) By Channel (Distribution, Retail) By Country (India, China, USA, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain)]- Global Forecast to 2020Market SynopsisThe global CCTV market is likely to be valued around $19 billion in 2015. This market is expected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 20%. There is a precipitous rise in the demand of CCTVs across the globe due to growing focus of governments towards public safety and city surveillance. Furthermore, the CCTV market is shifting from unorganized sector to organized which is another factor fueling the growth of the market. Citing the demand and potential of CCTV market, various venturing capitalist firms are also investing in this market and aiding companies to develop new and advanced products. This is another major reason for the high growth of this market. However, low awareness of people in the developing countries regarding advanced CCTV products can hinder the market growth up to some extent.Video Content Analysis (VCA) is one of the major trends observed in this industry. There is a clear trend to embed intelligence in the CCTVs for automatically analyzing video to detect and determine temporal and spatial events. Another major trend followed in the industry includes growing preference towards fixed dome camera from box cameras. Fixed dome cameras are easy to install and aesthetically pleasing. The industry is witnessing various other trends as well, which are discussed in report in detailed manner.SegmentationsThe CCTV Market is segmented on the basis of types of CCTVs. Analogue, HD analogue, and internet protocol cameras are the major types of CCTVs. The IP cameras market is further sub divided into wired IP cameras, and wireless IP cameras. The IP camera market is poised to witness the highest CAGR in the CCTV market by type due to technological advancements.On the basis of technology, the CCTV market is divided into CMOS and CCD technology. The demand for CMOS technology is poised to increase in coming years due to its user friendliness. The CCTV market is again subdivided on the basis end users into educational centers, hospitals, hotels, real estates, religious places, government, retail, IT sector, and transport sector. Amongst all the above mentioned end users, government is the largest end user for CCTVs. The large share is attributed to wide usage of CCTVs in government offices and roads.The market is further divided according to the channel structure into distribution channel and retail channel. The distribution channel accounted for the largest share in the global CCTV market. However, the retail market will witness a high growth.Regional AnalysisBased on region, North America is the largest market for CCTV followed by Europe and Asia. The Asian market especially India and China are focus for the growth the global CCTV market. Improving infrastructure, government initiatives, and high economic growth in this region has triggered the growth of this market.Get Sample Report @Key PlayersThe prominent players in this market include Hikvision Digital Technology, Honeywell Security, Bosch Security System, Safran Security, Dahua Technology, AssaAbloy, Tyco Security Products, Flir Systems, Samsung, and Axis Communications amongst others.Scope of the ReportThis market research report covers the global CCTV market by type, technology, end user, distribution channel, and region. Global CCTV Market, by Typeo Analogue Camerao HD Analogue Camerao Internet Protocol (IP) Camera Wired Wireless Global CCTV Market, by Technologyo CMOS Technologyo CCD Technology Global CCTV Market, by EndUsero Educational Centerso Hospitalso Hotelso Real Estateso Religious Placeso Governmento Retailo IT Sectoro Transport Sector Global CCTV Market, by Channel Structureo Distribution Channelo System Integrator/Retail Channel Global CCTV Market, by Regiono North America U.S. Canadao Europe Germany France U.K. Italy Spain Rest of Europeo Asia Japan China India Rest of AsiaRest of the WorldAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 524/528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comAt Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by Components, Application, Logistics and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Office No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, Hadapsar, Pune - 411028 Maharashtra, India
Mechanical Energy Storage Sales Global Market Research Report 2017 | Voith GmbH, Sulzer Ltd, DeWalt, Ingersoll Rand, Hitachi

Mechanical Energy Storage Sales Market

https://www.researchmoz.us/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1386607

https://www.researchmoz.us/global-mechanical-energy-storage-sales-market-report-2017-report.html/toc

https://www.researchmoz.us/

http://bit.ly/1TBmnVG

Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Mechanical Energy Storage Sales Market Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.In this report, the global Mechanical Energy Storage market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report split global into several key Regions, with sales (K Units), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Mechanical Energy Storage for these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesChinaEuropeJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Global Mechanical Energy Storage market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Mechanical Energy Storage sales volume, Price (USD/Unit), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingVoith GmbH (Germany)Sulzer Ltd (Switzerland)DeWalt (U.S)Ingersoll Rand (U.S)Hitachi (Japan)Porter-Cable (U.S)Kirloskar Pneumatic Co Ltd (India)Atlas Copco AB (Sweden)Active Power Inc (U.S)Beacon Power (U.S)Powerthru (Canada)Schwungrad Energie (Ireland)On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoPumped Hydro Storage (PHS)Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES)FlywheelsOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate of Mechanical Energy Storage for each application, includingIndustrialCommercialResidentialTable of ContentsGlobal Mechanical Energy Storage Sales Market Report 20171 Mechanical Energy Storage Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Mechanical Energy Storage1.2 Classification of Mechanical Energy Storage by Product Category1.2.1 Global Mechanical Energy Storage Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Mechanical Energy Storage Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS)1.2.4 Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES)1.2.5 Flywheels1.3 Global Mechanical Energy Storage Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 Global Mechanical Energy Storage Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Industrial1.3.3 Commercial1.3.4 Residential1.4 Global Mechanical Energy Storage Market by Region1.4.1 Global Mechanical Energy Storage Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 United States Mechanical Energy Storage Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 China Mechanical Energy Storage Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Europe Mechanical Energy Storage Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Japan Mechanical Energy Storage Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Mechanical Energy Storage Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 India Mechanical Energy Storage Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of Mechanical Energy Storage (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Mechanical Energy Storage Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Mechanical Energy Storage Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Get Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @2 Global Mechanical Energy Storage Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application2.1 Global Mechanical Energy Storage Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Global Mechanical Energy Storage Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Mechanical Energy Storage Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Mechanical Energy Storage (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global Mechanical Energy Storage Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 Global Mechanical Energy Storage Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.3 Global Mechanical Energy Storage (Volume and Value) by Region2.3.1 Global Mechanical Energy Storage Sales and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.3.2 Global Mechanical Energy Storage Revenue and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.4 Global Mechanical Energy Storage (Volume) by Application3 United States Mechanical Energy Storage (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 United States Mechanical Energy Storage Sales and Value (2012-2017)3.1.1 United States Mechanical Energy Storage Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.2 United States Mechanical Energy Storage Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.3 United States Mechanical Energy Storage Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)3.2 United States Mechanical Energy Storage Sales Volume and Market Share by Players3.3 United States Mechanical Energy Storage Sales Volume and Market Share by Type3.4 United States Mechanical Energy Storage Sales Volume and Market Share by Application4 China Mechanical Energy Storage (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4.1 China Mechanical Energy Storage Sales and Value (2012-2017)4.1.1 China Mechanical Energy Storage Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.2 China Mechanical Energy Storage Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.3 China Mechanical Energy Storage Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)4.2 China Mechanical Energy Storage Sales Volume and Market Share by Players4.3 China Mechanical Energy Storage Sales Volume and Market Share by Type4.4 China Mechanical Energy Storage Sales Volume and Market Share by Application5 Europe Mechanical Energy Storage (Volume, Value and Sales Price)5.1 Europe Mechanical Energy Storage Sales and Value (2012-2017)5.1.1 Europe Mechanical Energy Storage Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.1.2 Europe Mechanical Energy Storage Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.1.3 Europe Mechanical Energy Storage Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)5.2 Europe Mechanical Energy Storage Sales Volume and Market Share by Players5.3 Europe Mechanical Energy Storage Sales Volume and Market Share by Type5.4 Europe Mechanical Energy Storage Sales Volume and Market Share by Application6 Japan Mechanical Energy Storage (Volume, Value and Sales Price)6.1 Japan Mechanical Energy Storage Sales and Value (2012-2017)6.1.1 Japan Mechanical Energy Storage Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)6.1.2 Japan Mechanical Energy Storage Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)6.1.3 Japan Mechanical Energy Storage Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)6.2 Japan Mechanical Energy Storage Sales Volume and Market Share by Players6.3 Japan Mechanical Energy Storage Sales Volume and Market Share by Type6.4 Japan Mechanical Energy Storage Sales Volume and Market Share by ApplicationContinue...About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Beverage Can Toppers - Clever Can Topper Solves Hygiene Concerns

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=30599

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/beverage-can-toppers-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

The beverage can toppers are used as closing materials for packed as well as opened beverages and their market is likely to expand in the forecast period. The beverage can toppers also offer an eye-catching visual appeal to the product and are a part of product design and development. They also help in reducing the microbial activities over the freshly prepared beverages such as tea, coffee, fruit juices, vegetable juices, plant extract beverages and dairy based beverages, etc. They are also useful in keeping intact the carbonated drinks such as low calorie and zero calorie Pepsi, Coke, etc. Companies these days are trying to manufacture the beverage can toppers with the sustainability driven attributes. The advancements in the packaging technology have witnessed the introduction of improved functional features in the beverage can toppers manufacturing.Fill the form to gain deeper insights on this market @Beverage Can Toppers Market: Market DynamicsThe growing demand for the non-alcoholic beverages especially the ready-to-consume health drinks is fueling the growth of the beverage can toppers market. The increasing demand for craft beers across the globe especially in the APEJ and Eastern Europe is another driving factor for the growth of the beverage can toppers market. However, the concerns for global warming coupled with the excessive use of plastic for manufacturing the beverage can toppers; is a restraining factor for the growth of its market. Another restraining factor is the concern for depletion of natural resources used in the manufacture of metallic beverage can toppers. One of the prominent trends in the global beverage can toppers market is the inclusion of IoT (Internet of Things) with the beverage can toppers. Another prominent trend is the use of interactive packaging technology while manufacturing the beverage can toppers.Beverage Can Toppers Market: Market SegmentationThe global beverage can toppers market can be segmented on the basis of end-use industries:Alcoholic BeveragesNon-alcoholic BeveragesOthersIt can be segmented on the basis of seal type:One-time-usageRe-sealableObtain Report Details @It can also be segmented on the basis of material used for the manufacture:PlasticsMetalsPaperOthersBeverage Can Toppers Market: Segmentation OverviewThe beverage can toppers can be further segmented into Crown, Metal screw cap, Maci-P, Maxi-PN, PT (Press On Twist) Cap, Rinpul-P Cap, Roll-On Cap, ROPP (Roll On Pilfer Proof) Cap, Twist-off cap etc. The crown-type beverage can toppers have high-speed applications in the packaging of beers and soft drinks. The rinpul-p-type beverage can toppers have applications in the packaging of fruit juices. The maxi-pn type is used for the packaging of sakes whereas the maxi-p-type is again used for the packaging of craft beers. The roll on type of beverage can toppers gives consumers safe openings and reclosing, also is ideal for packaging of baby juices. The roll on pilfer proof topper comes up with a tamper evident band that breaks while opening the closure to verify the first opening seal. This is widely used for the packaging of health drinks, liquor, soft drinks, etc. The twist off type of beverage can toppers have buttons that make the pop sound when they are opened and are used to package ketchups. The traditional metal screw type of metal cap has a pre-threaded screw on the side of the closure and has application for the packaging of nutraceutical products. The metal beverage can toppers can be further segmented into steel, aluminum and tin plates. The beverages segment is further segmented into alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.Beverage Can Toppers Market: Recent DevelopmentsThe Lipton Iced Tea and The London Beer Factory are some of the brands that coupled with the CROWN Bevcans in Europe and the Middle East. They were instrumental in bringing the beverage can toppers with thermochromic inks. The Orora Packaging Pty. Ltd. is offering the beverage can and beverage can toppers with the resealable feature. The two step pull of the resealable beverage can toppers withstands tampering.Beverage Can Toppers Market: Regional OutlookThe global beverage can toppers market geographically is segmented as North America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Latin America, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Japan, and Middle East & Africa. North America and Europe hold a significant market share of the beverage can toppers market owing to their increasing applications in the re-packaging of health drinks and carbonated drinks. Furthermore, the increase in R & D activities related to packaging technologies, wherein beverage can toppers are used to enhance product attributes, aids in boosting the growth of beverage can toppers market in the region. The market in the APEJ region is more inclined towards the growing demand for beverage can toppers because of the increasing demand for reusable and sustainable packaging solutions.Beverage Can Toppers Market: Prominent PlayersSome of the prominent players in the global beverage can toppers market are:CrownGlobal Closure SystemsBall CorporationNippon Closures Co., Ltd.O.BERK COMPANY, LLCReynoldsTri-sureWestRock CompanyAbout TMRTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Contact TMR90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Rapid Microbiology Tests Market Revenue Predicted to Go Up by 2024

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=T&rep_id=2062

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=2062

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/checkout.php?rep_id=2125<ype=S

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

http://www.theglobalhealthnews.com/

Global Rapid Microbiology Tests Market: OverviewMicrobiology is referred to as a branch of medical science which deals with deals with the treatment, diagnosis, and prevention of infectious diseases. Additionally, this scientific research field examines several clinical applications of microbes for health improvement. The four different types of microorganisms that are known for causing infectious disease are viruses, parasites, fungi, and bacteria, and one is an infection protein known as prion. The branch of microbiology investigates the features of pathogens, transmission modes, and infection and growth mechanism. With the help of this type of information, new treatment and diagnosis methods can be devised. Medical microbiologists also act as consultants for physicians or doctors in order to identify the pathogens and suggest options for treatment. Other tasks comprise theidentification of possible health risks to the public and watching the evolution of possibly virulent or resilient strains of microbes, spreading awareness among the community and supporting in the design of health practices.Report Overview and TOC @Rapid microbiological tests role in assisting in managing low respiratory tract infection is debatable. Many physicians would deny that therapeutic decisions are aided with rapidly provided accurate information about a causative pathogen. Unfortunately, the skill of microbiology laboratories to accomplish a service is inhibited by the limits of traditional diagnostic tests. Culture-based methodologies might be a bit slower and may often be sensitive, might not be able to distinguish between colonization and infection, and might also be influenced by earlier antimicrobial usage. Serological tests are also slow at times and poorly sensitive and specific. Moreover, in many cases, an etiological diagnosis is not made in spite of the best efforts. As a result, several authoritative rules on the administrative of community acquired pneumonia among adults that do not support the daily complete microbiological tests except in some situations.Request brochure @The research report is a broad examination of the growth trajectory based on the historical, current, and future opportunities of the global rapid microbiology tests market. It provides an assessment of the dynamics that are expected to affect the growth of the market and the predominant trends have also been mentioned in the study. The report also presents a diverse outlook of the competitive picture of the market through the value chain and Porters five forces analysis. The report mentions the research and development projects, mergers and acquisitions, details on collaborations and licensing. The study provides insights into the marketing strategies, products, and shares of the key players operating in the global rapid microbiology market.Global Rapid Microbiology Tests Market: Trends and OpportunitiesRapid microbiology tests accelerate the identification of a microorganism triggering a symptomatic infection and thus aid in the selection of approaches regarding its removal. Rapid diagnosis of a contagion with accuracy allows patient for primary instigation of a therapy and employment of suitable infection control measures. Such tests also decrease severance of un-required diagnostic testing and treatment. Existing rapid microbiology tests comprise several genomic testing methods such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technologies, nucleic acid hybridization, and nucleic acid sequencing. These tests are extremely subtle and precise in nature and deliver accurate outcomes.One of the chief factors boosting the growth of rapid microbiology test markets is the rising need for easy and fast diagnosis. Other dynamics boosting this market comprise technological advancement, abridged cost, better patient fulfillment due to the removal of usage of antibiotics and other drugs, awaiting threat of communication of AIDS and augmented prospective of bioterrorism tests. Progressions in molecular diagnostic technologies might pose a threat to the conventional rapid microbiology test market by producing the decrease in sales volume.Global Rapid Microbiology Tests Market: Regional AnalysisGeographically, North America leads the rapid microbiology tests market owing to numerous market-focused companies providing a wide range of products and is trailed by Europe. Developing countries of Latin America and Asia Pacific are anticipated to witness significant progress in the rapid microbiology tests market owing to an upsurge in the number of laboratories in these regions and enhancement of the existing ones for the purpose of automation of several instrumentation systems.Pre Book full report@Companies Operating in the MarketThe key companies in the marker are Quidel Corporation, Sysmex Corporation, Thermo-Fisher Scientific Inc., Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics Inc., Gen-Probe Inc., Bio-Rad Laboratories, Becton Dickinson, and Abbott Laboratories among others.About TMRTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.ContactTransparency Market ResearchState Tower90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:TMR Blog:
Alginates Market, Size, Share, Market Intelligence, Company Profiles and Trends Forecast To 2027

Alginates Industry

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1581

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/1581

Global Alginates MarketAlginates are a group of viscous polysaccharides derived from brown seaweeds and produced as an extracellular matrix by some bacterial species. Traditionally, Alginates have been used as thickeners, emulsifiers and stabilising agents in a number of food applications. A number of new food applications are emerging for Alginates, based on their unique biochemical and biophysical properties. Alginates is a biomaterial that has found numerous applications in biomedical science and engineering due to its favourable properties, including biocompatibility and ease of gelation. Alginates hydrogels have been particularly attractive in wound healing, drug delivery, and tissue engineering applications to date, as these gels retain structural similarity to the extracellular matrices in tissues and can be manipulated to play several critical roles. Over the last decades, Alginates, natural multifunctional polymers, have increasingly drawn attention as attractive compounds in the biomedical and pharmaceutical fields due to their unique physicochemical properties and versatile biological activities.According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, The global market of Alginates has been increasing. The market is expected to grow at a rapid pace during the forecast period (2017  2027). The Alginates Market is forecasted to demonstrate a spectacular growth by 2027, surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value with a striking CAGR during the anticipated period (2017  2027).Request Sample report@Global Alginates Market  Competitive AnalysisThe Alginates market appears to be highly competitive and fragmented owing to the presence of several large and small key players accounting for a substantial market share. These key players compete based on pricing, and product innovation. Well established players incorporate acquisition, collaboration, partnership, expansion, and product in order to gain competitive advantage in this market and to maintain their market position. Manufacturers are striving to find ways to reduce raw material prices. Raw material suppliers apply the power to determine prices of raw materials, which has an impact on the business.Global Alginates Market  SynopsisAlginate is used for substrate of colour paste when applying patterns to print fabrics, scarf, towel, etc. Use of alginate for printing of cotton, jute, rayon is mandatory. Alginate, a seaweed extract, is safer and easier to be decomposed compared with other substrate for textile printing, and gives easier waste water disposal. Alginate is used for the production of welding rod, as a binder of flux. Alginate is used as a binder and thickening agent for pet-food, fish feed, etc. Alginate acid is used in pharmaceutical area with several applications. Alginic acid is compounded into tablets to accelerate disintegration of tablet for faster release of medicinal component. Alginate forms gel in the high-acidic stomach and protect stomach mucosa. Alginate is used in cosmetics area with several applications with its functionality of thickener and moisture retainer. Alginate helps retaining the colour of lipstick on lip surface by forming gel-network.Key PlayersCP Kelco,Ingredients Solutions Inc.,Cargill Foods, P.L.Thomas & Co.,TIC Gums,Linyi Viho Chem Co., Ltd.,Foodchem International Corporation,Qingdao Tocean Chemical Co., Ltd,Ask Expert @Global Alginates Market  Regional AnalysisNorth-America dominated the market for Alginates in terms of demand with the largest market share, accounting for astronomical amounts and is expected to grow further over its previous growth records by 2027, Asia-Pacific is the growing market for Alginates market and is expected to grow at a substantial CAGR from 2017 to 2027.Europe and Asia Pacific regions being the largest producers of Alginates contribute majority of market share in global level market. In terms of value, it is expected that Europe and North America accounted for a major share in terms of value and also as a lucrative market in near future.In Market Research Future we enable our customers to unravel complexity of various industry through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half Cooked Research Report (HCRR), Raw Research Report (3R), Continuous-Feed-Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team has a supreme objective of providing optimum quality of market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by product, services, technology, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, do more which help to answer all their most important questions.Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, India
In-Building Wireless Market: Projection of Each Major Segment over the Forecast Period.

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/inbuilding-wireless-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=12191

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

In-building wireless refers to communication solutions that are used to maintain connectivity inside a building where signals from the core infrastructure are not reachable. In-building wireless solutions are of keen interest to network providers that are seeking enhanced delivery of services to their core clients in the most demanding signal environment. The conventional distributed antenna systems (DAS) based in-building wireless has moved its main focus from providing good signal coverage inside a building towards increasing the capacity for bandwidth-consuming services such as data-centric services.Currently, several buildings and commercial areas are already availing in-building wireless solutions. In addition, various enterprises are adopting this solution to improve the connectivity and manage employees and labor. In order to keep up with the pace of contemporary technologies, customers want to communicate wirelessly without any drops in the communication.Further, it is expected that, over the coming years, in-building wireless connections will be readily available in airports, stadiums and other public places.Obtain Report Details @Global In-Building Wireless Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe growing demand for smartphones and increasing data usage by the customers are the major factors contributing to the growth of the in-building wireless market. Additionally, the customers demand for high availability of services with 100% connectivity is fuelling the growth of the in-building wireless market. Further, the companies in the market are expected to deploy LTE networks and develop small cells that run on 4G or LTE networks.However, the issues regarding interference, designing and installation are expected to pose challenges to the growth of the in-building wireless market. Additionally, the major problem with such systems would be the isolation and authentic use of the services offered with in-building wireless solutions.Global In-Building Wireless Market: SegmentationThe in-building wireless market is segmented on the basis of system components, business models, type of building and its size, end-users and geography. The in-building wireless equipment consists of components such as antennas, cables, distributed antennas such as active and passive DAS, repeaters, amplifiers and small cells such as micro cells, pico cells and femtocells.Request Sample @Further, these components are installed in a building depending upon the model opted by the clients. For instance, there are three types of business models available for the in-building wireless technology, namely, carrier model, enterprise model and host model. Furthermore, these models are based on the type and size of the building in which the in-building wireless solution is to be installed. The building structure is classified under three categories, namely, large buildings, medium buildings and small buildings.Additionally, the installation process of in-building wireless solution is different for new buildings and for existing buildings. Further, the major application of the wireless in-building market is found in commercial sector, government sector, hospitals, hospitality, industrial sector, educational institutes and retail stores among others.Global In-Building Wireless Market: Geographical and Competitive DynamicsThe in-building wireless market is segmented into four regions, namely North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe and Rest of World. The market is fragmented, with several players trying to capture a dominant market share.The major players in the in-building wireless market are Alcatel Lucent, Cobham PLC, Corning Incorporated, Smiths Group PLC, Verizon Communication, Inc., AT&T, Inc., Anixter Inc., Commscope, Inc., Ericsson, and TE Connectivity among others. In addition to these players, there are some players in the market that try to bring new technologies in the in-building wireless market. The major innovators in the market are Ethertronics, Lord and Company Technologies, Betacom Incorporated, Lemko Corporation, Oberon Inc. and Telecommunication Systems, Inc.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Physical Security Services Market: Repository of Analysis and Information for Every Facet of the Market

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/physical-security-services-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=30890

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

The global physical security services market is expected to be influenced by the swelling implementation of automobile tracking and other smart technologies and internet of things (IoT).However, a major chuck of the demand for physical security services could be driven by increasing terror attacks on humans as well as physical properties. Physical security is considered as a vital measure to protect against the surging incidences of terror attacks.Organizations of all sizes and across several regions of the globe are implementing security strategies at a rapid rate. Technological development in the industry and stringent government norms could be key factors enlarging the growth of the market.The global physical security services market is predicted to rise at a CAGR of 11.7% during the forecast period 20172022. By 2022, the market could draw a valuation of US$191.7 bn. In 2017, a valuation of US$110.3 bn was recorded by the market.Obtain Report Details @Market to Honor ACaaS as Leader in Revenue Growth throughout 2022According to the analysis of expert researchers, the world physical security services market is prognosticated to be segregated as per type and vertical segmentation. By type, the market could be classified into four key segments, viz. security system integration, remote monitoring services, access control as a service (ACaaS), and video surveillance as a service (VSaaS). Amongst these, ACaaS could post a dominating revenue of US$80.9 bn by the end of 2022.By vertical, the world physical security services market is envisioned to be divided into several segments such as banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI), education, healthcare, government, manufacturing, retail, residential, transportation, utilities and energy, and commercial.Each segment analyzed in the report is studied in-depth in order to provide the best of information to buyers so that they become well-equipped to take important decisions in their individual businesses.Request Sample @North America to Spearhead Market Growth with Sweeping Revenue ShareOn the basis of geography, the international physical security services market is prophesied to be segmented into five vital regions and one country, i.e. North America, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa (MEA), Asia Pacific except Japan (APEJ), and Japan.Japan and the MEA are forecasted to be among the slow-moving markets as they could lose 139 BPS and 59 BPS respectively in their share by the concluding forecast year. However, APEJ is anticipated to gain 225 BPS in its share by the same year. Europe could create an absolute revenue prospect of US$13.7 bn between 2017 and 2022.The publication presented herewith offers an exhaustive study of the vendor landscape of the worldwide physical security services market with crucial players profiled, including Tyco International Limited, The ADT Corp., SECOM Company Limited, STANLEY Convergent Security Solutions, Inc., and United Technologies Corporation.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Automotive Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) Market Trends And Forecast 2017-2025

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/15412

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/methodology/15412

www.persistencemarketresearch.com

Global Automotive Vehicle-To-Everything (V2X) Market Introduction:Automotive vehicle-to-everything is the transmission of information from a vehicle to any object which affects the vehicle or affected by the vehicle.Global Automotive Vehicle-To-Everything (V2X) Market Dynamics:The growth of the global automotive vehicle-to-everything (V2X) market is driven by increasing need for safer roads, lower fuel wastage, and lesser traffic congestion. Moreover, increasing safety concern with energy saving fueling the global automotive vehicle-to-everything (V2X) market. Macroeconomic factors such as growing economy, rising disposable income, and rapid rate of urbanization as well as industrialization also driving the global automotive vehicle-to-everything (V2X) market. Integration of value chain, increasing automation, and technological advancement are some of the factors trending the global automotive vehicle-to-everything (V2X) market over the forecast period.Request sample copy of the report @Global Automotive Vehicle-To-Everything (V2X) Market Segmentation:The global automotive vehicle-to-everything (V2X) market is segmented by vehicle type, application, communication type, offering, connectivity type, and region. By vehicle type, the global automotive vehicle-to-everything (V2X) market segmented into commercial and passenger. Among these, the passenger segment is growing at a substantial value CAGR in global automotive vehicle-to-everything (V2X) market whereas commercial segment accounts for relatively high revenue share the forecast period. By application, the global automotive vehicle-to-everything (V2X) market segmented into predictive maintenance, remote monitoring and diagnostics, parking management system, fleet and asset management, passenger information system, emergency vehicle notification, intelligent traffic system, and automated driver assistance. Among these, automated driver assistance segment is growing at relatively high CAGR in terms of value in global automotive vehicle-to-everything (V2X) market. By communication type, the global automotive vehicle-to-everything (V2X) market segmented into vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-network, vehicle-to-home, vehicle-to-grid, vehicle-to-pedestrian, and vehicle-to-infrastructure. Among these, the vehicle-to-vehicle segment account for relatively high revenue share in global automotive vehicle-to-everything (V2X) market followed by vehicle-to-network segment over the forecast period. On the basis of offering, the global automotive vehicle-to-everything (V2X) market segmented as hardware and software. Among which software is expected to expand at relatively high CAGR over the forecast period. By connectivity type, the global automotive vehicle-to-everything (V2X) market segmented as cellular and DSRC. Among which DSRC is expected to have significant growth rate over the forecast period.On the basis of vehicle type, the global automotive vehicle-to-everything (V2X) market is segmented into:CommercialPassengerOn the basis of application, the global automotive vehicle-to-everything (V2X) market is segmented into:Predictive MaintenanceRemote Monitoring and DiagnosticsParking Management SystemFleet and Asset ManagementPassenger Information SystemEmergency Vehicle NotificationIntelligent Traffic SystemAutomated Driver AssistanceOn the basis of communication type, the global automotive vehicle-to-everything (V2X) market is segmented into:Vehicle-to-VehicleVehicle-to-NetworkVehicle-to-HomeVehicle-to-GridVehicle-to-PedestrianVehicle-to-InfrastructureOn the basis of offering, the global automotive vehicle-to-everything (V2X) market is segmented into:HardwareSoftwareOn the basis of connectivity type, the global automotive vehicle-to-everything (V2X) market is segmented into:CellularDSRCGlobal Automotive Vehicle-To-Everything (V2X) Market Regional Outlook:On the basis of geographies, the global automotive vehicle-to-everything (V2X) market is segmented into seven regions -- North America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan, Asia-Pacific except Japan, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa. Among the regions, North America is expected to dominate the global automotive vehicle-to-everything (V2X) market in terms of value, attributed to high demand for fuel-efficient vehicles across the region. Western Europe is followed by North America in global automotive vehicle-to-everything (V2X) market, owing to high demand for automotive across the region. Eastern Europe and Japan also accounts for significant revenue share in the global automotive vehicle-to-everything (V2X) market, owing to high technological advancement across the regions. The Asia-Pacific is expected to register relatively high growth rate in the global automotive vehicle-to-everything (V2X) market over the forecast period, owing to rapid rate of advancement in automotive industry across the region. Latin America and Middle East Africa is expected to have relatively high opportunity for automotive vehicle-to-everything (V2X) market players, attributed to growing economy and industrialization. Overall, the outlook for the global automotive vehicle-to-everything (V2X) market will have a positive growth over the forecast period.Request TOC of the report @Global Automotive Vehicle-To-Everything (V2X) Market Player:Few players in the global automotive vehicle-to-everything (V2X) market include Delphi Automotive PLC, Continental AG, Infineon Technologies AG, Qualcomm Inc., Cohda Wireless Pty, Arada Systems Inc, Savari Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Kapsch TrafficCom, eTrans Systems, Denso Corporation, AutoTalks Ltd., Arada Systems, Volkswagen AG, Toyota Motor Corporation, General Motors Company, Daimler AG, and BMW Group.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Wireless Broadband in Public Safety Market: Comprehensive Evaluation Of The Market Via In-Depth Qualitative Insights

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/wireless-broadband-in-public-safety-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=12512

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Wireless broadband services technology is vital to public safety since it helps provide enhanced situational awareness from public safety entities in cases of emergency. There is an urgent need for effective wireless communications networks that can be used by emergency service organizations, such as the police and emergency medical and fire services, to respond to and prevent incidents likely to endanger people or property.Government agencies are constantly looking to expand the applications of wireless broadband in public safety, the key applications being video surveillance, emergency medical telemetry, mobile virtual private network (VPN) access, incident scene management, automated vehicle locating, and geographic information systems (GIS).Obtain Report Details @Wireless broadband enables access to site information, medical records, and various forms of data and video information that are critical for emergency responses. In the U.S., for instance, broadband technology helps improve homeland security. By establishing the foundation for the quick, real-time, and effective transmission of data, voice, or video to various public safety answering points, wireless broadband continues to enhance the countrys present 9-1-1 system.The research report on the market for wireless broadband in public safety offers an in-depth assessment of the global market, highlighting the leading geographic, end-use, and application segments as well as the major factors driving and hampering the growth of the market.Request Sample @Global Wireless Broadband in Public Safety Market: Key Trends, Opportunities, and ChallengesThere has been a significant rise in the incidence of terrorist attacks on enterprises, government headquarters, and major landmarks in recent years. The occurrence of natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, and hurricanes has also increased of late, in addition to road and air mishaps. This surge in security threats and unforeseen casualties has created major challenges for public safety organizations, driving the demand for effective security, response, and rescue measures. This has significantly boosted the importance of wireless broadband in public safety.The rapid surge in the adoption of smartphones, portable modems, tablets, and other mobile devices, coupled with technological advancements in wireless connectivity and networks, has also acted as a major driver for the global market for wireless broadband in public safety. This market is also fueled by the growing need for faster real-time communication and data access.The major challenge, as of now, is concern regarding security breaches. Moreover, the lack of awareness and proper infrastructure in several developing economies also acts as a key hindrance to the wireless broadband in public safety market. Other impediments include the dearth of funding, the challenge of spectrum allocation, and the dependence on analytics in evaluating information gathered during emergency situations.Global Wireless Broadband in Public Safety Market: Competitive LandscapeSome of the prominent companies competing in the global market for wireless broadband in public safety are Ericsson, Harris Corporation, Nokia Networks, AT&T Inc., Alcatel-Lucent S.A., Motorola Solutions, Inc., Airbus Group, Inc., and ZTE Corporation. These companies cater to a number of end users, including the police department, the fire department, and emergency medical services.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Award Winning Author Donna Louis, Author Of Miracles Of Direction, Named As One Of 50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading In 2017 Book Awards

Christian Author Donna Louis

http://www.miraclebook.net

Donna Louis, author of Miracles Of Direction, has been named as a winner for the third year in a row in the 50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading Book Awards. Donna was chosen from a field of hundreds of authors through a public voting process."All the praise, honor, and glory goes to the Trinity. The Father, Son, and The Holy Ghost for this tremendous blessing," Louis stated. "I also want to thank every person who voted for me because without them this would not have been possible. This is a miracle within itself to have been chosen as one of the 50 winners for three consecutive years in a row."Everyday miracles are happening all around us in every shape form and fashion. So many in fact that we can become accustomed to the awe-inspiring things that happen every day. Even now, during the Christmas Season, millions of people are preparing to celebrate the miracle birth of Jesus Christ and the subsequent miracles he performed while on Earth.Donna Louis' book, 'Miracles of Direction, Miracles of Conquest, Miracles of Provision and Miracles of Purpose' explores biblical miracles that took place while Jesus was here on earth. She then references with miracles that take place on a daily basis in the modern world. She separates these miracles into four categories and presents insightful example of each type, taken directly from the Bible.Louis knows her subject well, as she has personally experienced three miracles. As the result of those life-altering experiences, she began an in-depth study of some of Christianity's most well-documented miracles. In her book, she attempts to expand upon and explain both the purpose and the direction of those miracles.Louis was chosen as a winner in the 2015 and 2016 '50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading' awards contest. 'Miracles' has also received rave reviews from readers. One review called it "amazing, uplifting and inspirational". Another stated, "I was profoundly impressed by the writing."Donna Louis is available for media interviews and can be reached using the information below, or by email at louistolouis@aol.com. More information is available at her website. Miracles Of Direction is available at online retail book outlets. More information is available at her website.Donna Louis is happily married to her husband of 30 years Patrick Louis and currently resides in Florida. She lives to accomplish the task that God created her for and on a daily basis to follow Proverbs 3:5-6. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."PO Box 1613Shallotte, NC 28459
Urinary Catheters Market Going to Rise at 5.3% CAGR during 2017-2025

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/urinary-catheters-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=3936

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/checkout.php?rep_id=3936<ype=S

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

http://www.theglobalhealthnews.com/

A report by Transparency Market Research forecasts the global urinary catheter market to grow at a CAGR of 5.3% between 2017 and 2025 to reach a valuation of US$5,003.1 mn by 2025 from US$3,130.7 mn in 2016.The global urinary catheter market features a highly competitive vendor landscape with the presence of a handful of key players that operate globally and several regional players, according to a new report by Transparency Market Research (TMR). In order to outdo their competitors, several players in the market are investing heavily to develop differentiator products that will further intensify competition, especially among local players. However, parity pricing among these products compels companies to sustain the competition at low-profit margins.Another noticeable growth trend observed in the market is acquisitions by means of which companies are not only expanding their shares but also strengthening their position across various geographies. TE Connectivity Corporation, for example, acquired AdvancedCath in February 2015 to enhance its medical business and strengthen its position in the medical industry which is expanding at a fast pace.Some prominent names in the global urinary catheter market are Coloplast, B.Braun Melsungen AG, Teleflex Incorporated, Convotec, Cook Medical, Medtronic plc, CURE MEDICAL LLC, and Hollister Incorporated.Depending upon product type, the global urinary catheters market can be segmented into intermittent catheters, Foley catheters, and male external catheters. The segment of intermittent catheters held a jaw-dropping share of more than 64.5% of the market in 2016 in terms of revenue. The product segment is expected to witness considerable growth over the forecast period due to its several advantages that it offers.Report overview @Among the key geographical segments of the global urinary catheters market, North America held the leading share of 44.9% in the overall market in 2016 in terms of value. Supremacy of the region is attributed to a well-established pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, increasing research activity, and increasing prevalence of neurological disorders and urinary incontinence.The topmost factor driving the global urinary catheters market is technological advancements in urinary catheters. The high incidence of catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) and flaws in condom catheters has necessitated the introduction of technologically advanced urinary catheters made of improved materials. The geriatric population that accounts for a considerable patient pool suffering from urinary disorders, especially incontinence and urinary retention, explains the lead analyst of the study. Hence, the rising population of this group is one of the key growth drivers of the urinary catheters market. Moreover, the rising incidence of chronic diseases is providing ample opportunities to the growth of this market. As per a report published by CamStent Ltd., more than 25% patients that are hospitalized in the U.S. every year receive urinary catheterization for proper bladder drainage. Urinary catheters are also predicted to witness high demand due to increasing healthcare expenditure.Request to sample report @On the flip side, lack of reimbursement policies for urinary catheters is limiting their use among patients that need temporary catheterization during the course of treatment for other diseases. Rising number of catheter-associated urinary tract infections globally is limiting the use of urinary catheters.Nevertheless, high unmet needs of a large patient pool suffering from urinary disorders is expected to provide large opportunities to the growth of this market.Get full report now @About TMRTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.ContactTransparency Market ResearchState Tower90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:TMR Blog:
Vehicle Security System Market : Granular View of The Market from Various End-Use Segments

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/vehicle-security-system-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=12674

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

The global vehicle security system market is projected to grow at a robust pace between 2016 and 2024. Globally, the demand for hybrid vehicles has risen considerably, boosting vehicle manufacturing worldwide. Due to increase in the sales and production of vehicles, instances of hijacking and car theft have also increased. This, in turn, is fuelling the demand for vehicle security systems.Vehicle security systems such as alarms, central locking, remote keyless entry, passive entry systems, and immobilizers are designed to protect cars from hijacking or theft. Recent technologies such as RFID, GPS, and RTLS have also come to into use for tracking down stolen cars. Regionally, Asia Pacific has been showing attractive opportunities for the market, trailed by North America and Europe. Growing awareness about vehicle safety and the increasing installation of state-of-the-art safety gadgets in vehicles have been driving the global vehicle security system market.Obtain Report Details @The report provides a comprehensive overview of the global vehicle security system market. It covers the prevailing trends influencing the market and its growth prospects between 2016 and 2024. Revenue generated from the sale of vehicles across various categories has been considered in order to calculate the markets size. The report also compiles exhaustive information relating to the impact of the latest technological advancements in market. Some of the leading enterprises operating in the market are also profiled in the report to present a holistic overview of the competitive landscape.Global Vehicle Security System Market: Opportunities and Market SegmentationBased on vehicle type, the global vehicle security system market can be segmented into commercial vehicles, passenger vehicles, and off-highway vehicles. On the basis of product type, the market is expected to witness increasing demand for immobilizers and remote keyless entry. In terms of technology, the market can be segmented into global positioning systems, real-time location systems, face detection systems, and GPS. Of these, the demand for face detection and face positioning systems is expected to increase at a robust pace.Request Sample @Regionally, Asia Pacific is expected to emerge as the leading segment. The expansion of the automotive industry in China is expected to drive the Asia Pacific market for vehicle security systems. Despite witnessing robust growth around the world, the high cost of premium security features will restrain its growth to an extent.Nevertheless, the introduction of the latest technological advancements will provide lucrative opportunities for enterprises in the market to capitalize on. The pressing need to ensure adequate vehicle security to theft will also fuel demand from the global vehicle security system market.Global Vehicle Security System Market: Competitive InsightTo study the competition prevailing in the market, the report also profiles companies such as Robert Bosch GmbH, Delphi Automotive, and Mitsubishi Electric. The products offered by these companies are driver assistance systems and components mainly for passenger and commercial vehicles. Using SWOT analysis, the report weighs out strengths and weaknesses of the companies profiled. The analysis also provides insights into the opportunities and threats that these companies could witness in the near future.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Special Mission Aircraft Market : Influential Factors Determining the Trajectory of the Market.

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/special-mission-aircraft-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=12680

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Special mission aircraft are versatile aircraft that can be used by all three sectors of the armed forces for various operations. Special mission aircraft are equipped with surveillance equipment to detect the movement of enemy units but usually lack major offensive weapons. In combat, special mission aircraft are mainly used to support the active combatants through surveillance and delivery of supplies. Maritime patrol is another major emerging application sector of the global special mission aircraft market.The report examines the historical trajectory of the special mission aircraft market and presents solid forecasts for the market in the coming years. The major segments of the global special mission aircraft market are examined in the report to provide a granular overview. Reliable research techniques such as SWOT analysis and Porters five forces analysis are employed in the report, while the competitive dynamics of the market are examined by studying the operations of major players.Obtain Report Details @Global Special Mission Aircraft Market: Drivers and RestraintsOne of the major drivers for the global special mission aircraft market is the increasing geopolitical tension around the world. Due to the growing amount of active engagement, the demand for special mission aircraft is growing due to the crucial role they play in supporting combatants.Apart from engagements between two nations, the prime factor driving the global demand for special mission aircraft is the increasing need to curb illicit activities such as drug trafficking, piracy, and terrorism. The rise in the consumption of illicit drugs in developed countries has given rise to significant trafficking operations, which are also often connected to more serious evils and thus need to be curbed.Piracy is also becoming a serious concern, particularly in regions such as the Indian Ocean. For instance, Piracy in the waters of Somalia has become a major concern for trade operations in the Indian Ocean, apart from adding to the geopolitical tension in the Middle East and Eastern Africa. Marine patrol has thus become a major application segment of the global special mission aircraft market and is expected to exhibit increasing demand in the forecast period.Request Sample @Global Special Mission Aircraft Market: SegmentationBy application, surveillance was the largest segment of the global special mission aircraft market. Apart from military operations, the demand for special mission aircraft in spotting oil spills and aiding recovery operations for the same is growing at a steady rate and is expected to become a major part of the global special mission aircraft market in the coming years. The air force accounted for the highest demand from the special mission aircraft market, followed by naval units.Regionally, North America accounted for the highest share in the global special mission aircraft market in 2015. The dominant position of the North America market can be attributed to the high defense spending in the U.S., which has by far the largest air force in the world and thus operates the highest number of special mission aircraft. Japan and China are the other major national markets for special mission aircraft.Global Special Mission Aircraft Market: Competitive DynamicsApart from a detailed look at the segmentation of the global special mission aircraft market, the report looks into the competitive landscape of the market to aid readers in formulating favorable stratagems. Key players profiled in the report include Boeing, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Bombardier Inc., and Northrop Grumman Corporation.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Prostatic Acid Phosphatase Testing Technologies Market Pegged for Robust Expansion During 2013 - 2019

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/prostatic-acid-phosphatase-testing.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=1640

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/checkout.php?rep_id=1640<ype=S

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/

Prostatic Acid Phosphatase (PAP) test is a type of blood test to determine health of prostate gland by measuring prostatic acid phosphatase levels. PAP is an enzyme found in men and majorly present in the prostate gland and semen. Significant amounts of PAP are also found in platelets, bone, spleen, kidney and liver. PAP measurement is important in the management of prostatic cancer patients especially in monitoring remission or relapse of prostatic malignancy and in assessing the effectiveness of various treatment regimes.Request Report TOC @It was observed that cancer diagnostics market is on a verge of exponential growth in coming years as the R&D activities of major organizations are intensively developing products in the field of tumor diagnosis and therapy, discovery of new specific antigens and understanding of relation between genetics and disease.Request Brochure @North America is the leading market for prostatic acid phosphatase testing technologies, due to factors such as increase in awareness about prostate cancer and anticipated technological breakthroughs in determination of genetic predisposition, detection of specific tumors and monitoring of biological response to cancer therapy. The other regional markets for PAP testing technologies include Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of World (RoW).Some of the key players contributing to this market include life sciences companies such as Abbott Laboratories, Beckman Coulter, Inc., Binding Site, bioMerieux SA, Carolina Liquid Chemistries Corp., Dia Sorin, Horiba Group, Inverness Medical Technology, Johnson and Johnson Ltd., Roche, Siemens AG and Others.Pre Book Full Report @About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Corporate Performance Management Market : Comprehensive Evaluation Of The Market Via In-Depth Qualitative Insights

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/corporate-performance-management-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=27098

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

Corporate performance management is a broader term that describes the metrics, methodologies, systems, and processes used to manage and monitor enterprises business performance. The applications that allow corporate performance management convert deliberately engrossed information to operational plans and direct combined results. These applications are likewise assimilated into many elements of the control and planning cycle, or they address customer relationship optimization needs.Corporate performance management is the area of business intelligence involved with managing and monitoring an organization's performance, according to key performance indicators such as return on investment (ROI), revenue, overhead, and operational costs. Corporate performance management is also identified as enterprise performance management or business performance management. CPM software comprises budgeting, forecasting, and planning functions, as well as graphical dashboards and scorecards to deliver and display corporate information.Obtain Report Details @The corporate performance management market is primarily driven by the increasing demand for upgrading of organizational strategy. Cloud-based corporate performance management software, constructs on the benefits of traditional EPM software, making it faster and easier to deploy, increases innovation speed, reduces the cost of ownership, and supports improved collaboration across the enterprise. It aids organizations automate manual tasks, speed up key finance processes, and fuel better alignment between operations and finance. It helps make strategic plans applicable and understandable, allows human resource performance to be measured instantly and facilitates distribution and definition of strategic targets to teams.Rising need for improved financial planning process is also acting as an important factor driving the expansion of the corporate performance management market during the forecast period. Most organizations have identified that enhancing finance performance management is likely to be an important part of transformation, thereby allowing the finance teams to demonstrate their value and gain support and trust of leadership. The organization is likely to implement the necessary changes to keep up with the modern scenario with the strategic usage of financial corporate performance management tools.Change management is a factor challenging the global corporate performance management market during the forecast period. Corporate performance management software should be kept updated due to the rapid change in organizations. Despite the fact that substantial change is happening, organizations are possessing the existing frameworks but tweaking them to make them more impactful and leaner.Request Sample @Advances in cloud based corporate performance management is likely to be an important opportunity in the global market. Adaptive planning is an easy-to-use, affordable, rapidly deployable cloud-based solution that permits nonprofits and companies of all sizes to improve the strategic value of their finance organizations and uplift their corporate performance management cycle.In terms of deployment, the corporate performance management market can be bifurcated into on-premise and cloud. In terms of application, the market can be segmented into financial and banking institutes, retail, transportation and logistics, IT, telecom, and others. In terms of geography, the market can be segmented into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America.Key companies operating in the corporate performance management market include International Business Machines Corporation (U.S.), SAP SE (Germany.), Oracle Corporation (U.S.), SAS Institute (U.S.), Adaptive Insights (U.S.), EcoSys Management LLC (U.S.), Longview Solutions (Canada), Sightline Systems (U.S.), and VisualCue Technologies (U.S.) among others.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
IV Therapy and Vein Access Devices Market Projected to Witness Vigorous Expansion By 2019

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/iv-therapy-vein-access-devices.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=1656

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/checkout.php?rep_id=1656<ype=S

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/

The global market for intravenous and vein access devices encompasses a variety of devices such as peripheral venous access, central venous access, ambulatory infusion, enteral feeding, syringe infusion, implantable pumps and diabetes insulin infusion devices.These devices are used for intravenous administration of drugs, fluid infusion, blood sampling, venous pressure monitoring, blood and transfusion. Implantable ports, catheters, syringes, needles and needless connectors are examples of various intravenous therapy and vein access devices. Some of the commercially available products are Patrol Enteral Feeding Pump and Pump sets by Abbott Nutrition and OmniPod Insulin Pump by Insulet Corporation.Request Report TOC @The market for IV therapy and vein access devices is growing worldwide due to increasing number of surgical procedures, increasing number of trauma cases and burgeoning incidences of various diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and trauma. Growing incidence of diabetes is predicted to drive the demand for insulin infusion pumps worldwide. World Health Organization suggests that at present approximately 347 million people are suffering from diabetes.Increasing rate of road accidents is also one of the factors considered to be driving the market. Burgeoning aging population coupled with various devices also enhance demand for intravenous therapy and venous access devices. Advanced technologies such as minimally invasive procedures and nanotechnology are also contributing to the growth of the market.Request Brochure @North America and Europe are the market leaders in this segment because of well established healthcare infrastructure in these regions and due to rising geriatric population. Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at fastest rate in coming year as a result of increasing cases of diabetes, kidney failure and other diseases enhancing the demand for these devices.Some of the prominent players operating in this market comprise Medtronic, Inc., Teleflex, Inc., Medex International, Inc., Hospira, IRadimed Corporation, Smiths Medical, Covidien Ltd. and Insulet Corporation.Pre Book Full Report @About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market ResearchState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Advanced Distributed Management System Market: Industry Outlook, Growth Prospects and Key Opportunities

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/advanced-distribution-management-system-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=13085

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

An advanced distribution management system is a software platform that facilitates the full suite of optimization and distribution management. It operates automate outage restoration and optimizes the performance of the distribution grid. Various applications of advanced distribution management system include fault location, isolation, and service restoration (FLISR), planning function, volt/VAR control, and advanced forecasting using supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system.Advanced distribution management systems have emerged as a major smart grid technology innovation with the potential to combine utility distribution IT systems into a single, more efficiently managed platform. These systems function for electric utilities for numerous applications such as fault location, restoration, and isolation, conservation through voltage reduction, volt/volt-ampere reactive optimization, support for microgrids and electric vehicles and peak demand management.Obtain Report Details @The advanced distributed management system market has been experiencing massive growth in the recent years due to rapid development in smart grid technology and rise in global energy demand. Government regulations mandating the deployment of advanced distributed management system to enhance the carbon efficiency and reduce the cost is expected to drive the market in near term.Additionally, increasing need for improved customer service and utility efficiency is further expected to fuel the market growth. However, lack of standard interface and interoperability issues in advanced distributed management systems is hindering the market growth. Also, inadequate financial incentives for utilities is also restraining the market growth.Infrastructural developments such as development of smart cities and integration of advanced distributed management systems with smart devices is expected to create huge opportunities for the companies operating in global advanced distributed management system market.The global advanced distributed management system market is segmented on the basis of type, end user and geography. Based on the type, the market is classified into software and services. Services is further sub segmented into consulting, system integration and support and maintenance.Request Sample @Among these, system integration is expected to dominate the market during the forecast period. Increasing demand for system integrators to install, manage and maintain various connected platforms is a major driving factor for the growth of the system integration segment. In terms of end user, the market for advanced distribution management system is segmented into industrial, commercial and residential end users.On the basis of geography, the global advanced distributed management system market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. Among these, North America is expected to lead the advanced distributed management system market during the forecast period due to rising need for energy, increasing government regulations regarding carbon savings and increasing number of smart grid projects.Some of the leading companies operating in the global advanced distributed management system market with the most significant developments include Oracle Corporation, Schneider Electric SE, ABB Group, Indra Sistemas, General Electric Company, Advanced Control Systems, Siemens AG, Survalent Technology, ETAP/Operation Technology, Inc., Capgemini Consulting, S&C Electric Company, Alstom S.A. and Open Systems International, Inc.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Respiratory Devices Market to Witness US$22.1 bn by 2025

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/respiratory-devices-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=28073

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/checkout.php?rep_id=28073<ype=S

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

http://www.theglobalhealthnews.com/

TMR estimates the global respiratory devices market to be worth US$22.1 bn by the end of 2025 expanding at a CAGR of 6.1% between 2017 and 2025.Transparency Market Research (TMR) in one of its recent reports observes the global respiratory devices market to be fragmented with the presence of several small and medium-size companies that operate in niche market segments. In order to sustain the competition, leading players are striving to leverage new technologies to upgrade their existing products as well as to expand their product portfolios.Some of the key players in the global respiratory devices market are Chart Industries Inc., Koninklijke Philips N.V., Resmed Inc., GE Healthcare, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Teleflex Incorporated, Medtronic plc, Smiths Medical, Dragerwerk AG & Co., KGaA, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Limited, and Getinge AB.The segment of therapeutic devices is the leading contributor to the global respiratory devices market vis-a-vis revenue mainly due to the increasing need for respiratory devices and high cost of these devices. The segment of ventilator within therapeutic devices segment held the maximum share in 2016 in terms of value, and going forward too the trend is expected to continue. This is followed by the segment of monitoring and diagnostic devices in terms of revenue contribution to the overall market.Report overview @Application-wise, asthma is the leading segment followed by COPD in terms of revenue. As per the Global Asthma Report, by 2014, 34 million individuals were registered to be suffering from asthma.North America is the leading regional segment in the global respiratory devices market. The increasing demand for devices for home care settings is an important factor contributing to the growth of this regional market.The rising incidence of diseases such as COPD, asthma, and other respiratory disorders is the primary factor propelling the growth of global respiratory devices market. Rising pollution level and changing environmental conditions has led to the increasing incidence of COPD and asthma. Moreover, the increasing use of tobacco, and a large population of smokers is also increasing the incidence of respiration related dysfunctioning, says the author of the study. According to WHO, in 2015, COPD accounted for 3 million deaths globally, which was 5% of the total deaths in 2015. The majority of deaths due respiratory disorders occur in low and middle income economic groups. Moreover, a large population of the world that suffers from breathing problems from young age that worsens with age also an important factor contributing to the growth of respiratory devices market.Request to sample report @Every year, a large number of pneumonia cases are reported across the world, majority of which are from developing nations. Progression of the disease worsens the breathing pattern that may lead to the need for assisted breathing for patients. This is carried out with the aid of respiratory devices. As per the WHO, pneumonia accounts for 16% of deaths every year globally; in 2015, 920,136 deaths of children were reported due to pneumonia.Some other crucial factors propelling growth of the global respiratory devices market are innovation in medical devices, increasing awareness regarding home care respiratory devices, strategic alliances between market participants for technology transfer and to build strong distribution networks.Get full report now @About TMRTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.ContactTransparency Market ResearchState Tower90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:TMR Blog:
Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Tools Market: Quantitative Market Analysis, Current and Future Trends

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/electronic-design-automation-tools-market.html

https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=27119

http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com

EDA or electronic design automation involves a diversified set of software algorithms that are required for designing of complex next generation electronics products or systems that includes printed circuit boards (PCBs) and integrated circuits (ICs) along with others present in the market. EDA enables engineers to design, analyze and then simulate the semiconductor chips encompassing algorithms and methodologies for designing of VLSI circuits.All the tools present in EDA work together in a specific design flow decided by chip designers for designing and analyzing entire semiconductor chips. Since modern semiconductor chip have billions of components these EDA tools have become essential component in designing. It also helps semiconductor manufacturing companies to reduce product development time of chips further increasing the accuracy of design.Obtain Report Details @The global market for electronic design automation has been classified into product type, verification techniques, end use industries and geography. Based on the product type, this market has been segmented into PCB (Printed Circuit Board), IC (Integrated Circuit), multi-chip module and SoC (System on Chip) among others present in the market. Along with this, the market has been further segmented on the basis of verification techniques that includes clock domain crossing verification, formal verification, static timing analysis and physical verification. Various end use industries that are covered under the scope of this report includes aerospace & defense, healthcare, manufacturing and automotive among others.The market for electronic design automation (EDA) tools market based on geography consists of North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Middle East and Africa.The primary benefit related with application of EDA would be the modelling of the system performance along with estimating the power needs for the designing of specific chips. This further helps the ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) logic designers to handle high complexity of circuits with reduced manufacturing errors. Besides this, EDA also helps the layout designer place millions of transistors over the IC simultaneously checking physical and electrical design rules related to these transistors.Request Sample @Moreover, the EDA tools help the chip manufacturing companies to design more complex chips at a lower cost and within a shorter period of time. All these factors have a positive impact over the EDA tools market and is expected to boost further with growth in aerospace & defense sector. But there are a few factors as well that also pose challenges and act as restraints for this market. One such factor being the growing complexity of VLSI structures and high non-recurring engineering costs associated with this design that pose challenges for the market growth.Considering the geographical segmentation, it is North America followed by Europe that forms the key regions to boost the market demand for EDA tools. Rise in automation across different industries along with growth of aerospace sector has been a few major factors contributing to the overall growth of this market. Asia Pacific is another key region also monitoring one of the fastest growth globally for this market.Some of the key players that are operating in the global electronic design automation (EDA) tools market include Synopsys (U.S.), Cadence Design Systems (U.S.), Siemens PLM Software (U.S.), Aldec (U.S.), Keysight Technologies (U.S.) and Agnisys (U.S.) among others.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Silicon Anode Battery Market is expected to be valued at US$ 484.9 Mn by the end of 2024

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/11011

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/methodology/11011

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/11011

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com

Persistence Market Research delivers key insights on the silicon anode battery market in its latest report titled Silicon Anode Battery Market: Global Industry Analysis and Forecast, 20162024.The global silicon anode battery market is estimated to be valued at US$ 101.9 Mn by the end of 2016 and is expected to be valued at US$ 484.9 Mn by the end of 2024, registering a CAGR of 21.5% over the forecast period. North America is estimated to account for a market value share of 35.4% in the global silicon anode battery market by 2016 end, and is anticipated to remain dominant throughout the forecast period.Request Report Sample@Market dynamicsEnvironmental regulations pertaining to CO2 emissions are expected to boost the use of alternative modes of transport in the transportation sector. Thus, electric vehicles are a good alternative for the reduction of CO2 emissions. Government promotion for adoption of electric vehicles and incentives regarding low emission of CO2 is expected to increase electric vehicles sales over the forecast period. Therefore, demand of next generation batteries such as silicon anode is expected to increase over the forecast period. Moreover, high performance of silicon as an anode material is expected to increase its consumption in smartphone batteries over the forecast period.However, silicon has a property of soaking large amount of lithium-ions. Therefore, volume of silicon anode increases when lithium ions bind with silicon. Hence, repeated expansion and contraction of silicon anode while charging and discharging decreases the performance of battery. This in turn, is expected to be a major challenge to the growth of the global silicon anode battery market.Market forecastOn the basis of application, the global silicon anode battery market is segmented into consumer electronics, automotive, industrial and grid & renewable energy. Consumer electronics segment is further sub-segmented into 3G/4G cellphones, laptops, tablets, MP4, digital cameras, and other electronic devices.Consumer electronics segment dominated the global silicon anode battery market and accounted for 43.7% value share and is estimated to remain dominant throughout the forecast period. This segment is projected to grow 5.1X over the forecast period. Increasing demand for high performance of batteries in smartphones is expected to witness a significant growth of the 3G/4G cellphones sub-segment in consumer electronics segment over the forecast period. Therefore, this sub-segment accounted for a major value share and is estimated to remain dominant throughout the forecast period. Moreover, automotive segment is sub-segmented into plug in HEV, HEVs, EVs and electric bicycles. EVs sub-segment in automotive segment is expected to witness significant growth and projected to grow 5.3X over the forecast period.Visit For TOC@On the basis of key regions, the global silicon anode battery market has been segmented into North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa. North America dominated the market with over 35% of the overall silicon anode battery market share in 2015. This is mainly attributed to product innovation in silicon using nano-technology. Asia Pacific market accounted for over 30% of the overall silicon anode battery market share in 2015. This is mainly attributed to major manufacturing companies of consumer electronics in countries such as China, Japan, and South Korea among others. This in turn, is expected to increase the demand for silicon anode batteries over the forecast period. Moreover, increasing adoption of electric vehicles in Europe is estimated to be one of the major reason for the sales of the silicon anode batteries and this region is anticipated to witness a significant CAGR of 22.0% over the forecast period.Some of the key players identified in the global silicon anode battery market are Amprius Inc., Nexeon Limited, Enevate Corporation, XG Sciences Inc., CONNEXX SYSTEM Corporation and OneD Material among others.You can now buy a single user license of the report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Plasticisers Market to Witness Increase in Revenues by 2026

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/11710

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/11710

http://www.persistencemarketresearch.com

A plasticiser is a chemical substance which is added to another material, usually a plastic, to make it flexible, resilient and easier to handle. There are more than 300 different types of plasticisers out of which around 50-100 are currently used commercially. The most common plasticisers are phthalates and adipates. Plasticisers are added to a polymer matrix to increase its flexibility and enhance its chemical properties in the final plastic product. Addition of a plasticizer can lower the glass transition temperature, melt viscosity and elastic modulus of the polymer. Plasticisers are additives which increase the plasticity or fluidity of a material. Plasticisers also enhance the properties of materials such as concrete, clays, and other related products.Plasticisers Market: Drivers & RestraintsBio-based plasticisers are produced from vegetable raw materials and are used as an alternative of petroleum based plasticisers. In order to assure sustainability, end users are looking for safe, bio-degradable and non-phthalate-based plasticisers. Decreasing supply of harmful phthalate and increasing consumer awareness are factors limiting growth of the global market. At the same time, ban on phthalate-based plasticizers in consumer goods, food packaging material and medical products have led to the development of eco-friendly bio-based plasticizers. Higher cost of bio-plasticizers as compared to phthalate-based plasticizers is a key challenge faced by the bio-plasticizers market players.Request Report Sample@Plasticisers Market: SegmentationThe global plasticisers market is classified on the basis of end use, product type and region.Based on application, the global plasticisers market is segmented into the following:AutomotiveCables & WiresFlooring, Roofing & CladdingCoated FabricsFilm & SheetPackagingHealthcare & Personal CareOthers (Toys, Tubes & Hoses and Inks & Waxes)Based on product type, the global plasticisers market is segmented into the following:Dicarboxylic/tricarboxylic Ester-based PlasticizersTrimellitatesAdipates, Sebacates & MaleatesBio-based PlasticizersPlasticizers for Energetic MaterialsOther PlasticizersPlasticisers Market: OverviewPlasticisers are the most commonly used additives in the global plastic market. The global plasticiser market exceeded 8 Mn metric tons by 2014 end. The most dominant application areas of plasticisers are plastics and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Efforts are in progress by different regulatory authorities to promote environmental friendly products which have led to an increase in the demand for bio-plasticizers in developed regions. Phthalate-based plasticizer was prominent and represented more than 75% share in the global plasticisers market. However, stringent government regulations and increasing health concerns of the consumers, stimulated the demand for bio-plasticisers which is currently a significant trend in the market.Visit For TOC@Plasticisers Market: Region wise OverviewGeographically, global plasticisers market is classified into regions viz. North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan, Middle East and Africa (MEA). By 2015 end, North America held the largest share in the global market due expanding application in flourishing industries of healthcare, chemicals and packaging. Europe all together is an established market due to stable growth in manufacturing and healthcare industry. In Western Europe countries, around 1 Mn tons of phthalates are produced annually, out of which approximately 0.9 Mn tons of phthalates are used to plasticize PVC. Overall, Western Europe, APEJ and North America are projected to hold more than 75% share in the global plasticiser market.Plasticisers Market: Key PlayersThe key research institutes in global plasticisers market are Eastman Chemical Company, BASF SE, Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC, Perstorp Holding AB, Exxon Mobil Corporation, PolyOne, Supreme Plasticizers, Vertellus Specialties Inc., KLJ Group to name a few.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Global Embedded Display Market to Surpass US$ 18,700 Mn by 2022-end

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/18778

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/18778

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/embedded-display-market.asp

www.persistencemarketresearch.com

The embedded displays are utilized to execute color display interface that offers different features such as an embedded functionality, touch screen and smart graphic user interface, which is affordable for mass manufacturing. These displays have the capacity of saving power with higher efficiency and deliver flexibility. It is observed that a dramatic growth in the number of automated equipment and systems in different types of industries, which has contributed to the expansion of the embedded display market. On the other hand, the technological improvements in the embedded display area has helped to the newest products with high end displays taking part in market and subsidizing largely to the expansion of these products. Additionally, greater efficiency and minimum costs are key factors that are accountable for the expansion of the market. Increased utilization of embedded display in the 3D systems has been observed as well as this is generating a lot of opportunities to grow in this market.Drivers of MarketThe embedded displays needs less power compared to other type of displays and this is the key advantage of these type of systems. Additionally, compatibility of these systems with submicron chips is another driving factor that is fueling growth of the market. Moreover, these type of displays are flexible and have decreased interface with the specified wireless services, which is another factor that are propelling demand for embedded displays. Technological developments related to these systems is also boosting growth of the market.Request Sample Report @The recent report developed by Persistence Market Research (PMR) stated that the global embedded display market is anticipated to reach valuation of nearly US$ 18,800 Mn by 2022 and is anticipated to reflect high CAGR during the assessment period (2017-2022).Regional Segmentation of Embedded Display MarketIn terms of value, the market for embedded displays in the North America is anticipated to retain its dominance throughout the assessment period and this trend is going to sustain over the forecast period. The report reveals that the market in North America is projected to remain the most attractive market, growing at highest CAGR during the assessment period.LED Displays to Secure One-Fourth Revenue Share of MarketThe LED display type segment is anticipated to reach market valuation of nearly US$ 4,755 Mn by the end of 2022, according to the forecast recorder by Persistence Market Research. This reflects high CAGR throughout the assessment period. The LED display type segment is anticipated to procure over one-fourth revenue share of the market by 2017-end and is anticipated to lose the share of the market by the end of 2022.Request to view table of content @The wearable device segment is anticipated to reach nearly US$ 1,350 Mn by the end of 2022, according to the forecast done by Persistence Market Research. The segment is estimated to reflect staggering CAGR throughout the assessment period. The report reveals, the wearable device segment is anticipated to procure nearly 10% share of the total application segment, in terms of revenues, by the end of 2017. The segment is projected to gain share of the market by the end of 2022.Competitive LandscapeThe players operating in the market are profiled in the report such as Data Modul AG, Avnet, Inc., Enea AB., Intel Corp., Altia Inc., Green Hills Software Inc., Planar Systems Inc., Anders Electronics Plc, Esterel Technologies SA, and Microsoft Corp. These are several companies that are projected to remain active in the market throughout the assessment period. These players will have large contribution in the growth of the market. Key strategies of these players are also included in the report as well as their long-term vision to remain at the pole position has been included in the report.Read Report @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.PMR stands committed to bringing more accuracy and speed to clients business decisions. From ready-to-purchase market research reports to customized research solutions, PMRs engagement models are highly flexible without compromising on its deep-seated research values.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.commedia@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Global Frozen French Fries Market Professional Survey Report 2017 : Alexia Foods, McCain, Kroger

QYResearchReports

https://www.qyresearchreports.com/sample/sample.php?rep_id=1422307&type=S

Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Frozen French Fries Market Professional Survey Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.The global Frozen French Fries market has been deeply evaluated in this publication with the help of both primary and secondary research and useful inputs provided by industry experts. The analysts who have prepared the publication have been among the best in the lot with sound understanding about almost all vital aspects of the market. The publication has come out as a detailed guideline for industry players to explore hidden prospects and take advantage of the best opportunities in the market. Players could also use the information presented in the publication to plan the best strategies that will help them to secure a strong position in the market.Request a Free sample PDF of this research to evaluate more:By segregating the global Frozen French Fries market into different segments, the analysts have offered crucial information that could help players to gain a competitive edge over their toughest opponents. Each segment studied in the publication has been meticulously evaluated with market figures to go by. This could help readers to tap into unexplored regions or other categories of segments and ensure a continuing success in the market. Besides segmentation, the publication has offered information on factors detaining market growth, backing them up with opportunities to counter the challenges about to show face in the near future.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringOre-IdaCascadian Farm OrganicAlexia FoodsTrader Joe's FanCheckers & Rally'sArbys IP HolderMcCainKrogerThe analysts have also shed light on key aspects of the vendor landscape while profiling some of the leading companies operating in the global Frozen French Fries market. Starting from the nature of the current and future competitive scenarios of the market, the publication has foreseen the future plans of leading companies to gain a strong foothold in the industry. This could help readers to stay cautioned about any surprising changes in the vendor landscape of the market beforehand. Furthermore, readers could use the information to build extraordinary strategies to strengthen their product portfolio and give a tough competition in the market.Table of Contents1 Industry Overview of Frozen French Fries1.1 Definition and Specifications of Frozen French Fries1.1.1 Definition of Frozen French Fries1.1.2 Specifications of Frozen French Fries1.2 Classification of Frozen French Fries1.2.1 Classic Fries1.2.2 Waffle Fries1.2.3 Curly Fries1.3 Applications of Frozen French Fries1.4 Market Segment by Regions2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Frozen French Fries2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Frozen French Fries2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Frozen French Fries2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Frozen French Fries3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Frozen French Fries3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Frozen French Fries Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Frozen French Fries Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Frozen French Fries Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Frozen French Fries Major Manufacturers in 20164 Global Frozen French Fries Overall Market Overview4.1 2012-2017E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2012-2017E Global Frozen French Fries Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2016 Frozen French Fries Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2012-2017E Global Frozen French Fries Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2016 Frozen French Fries Sales Analysis (Company Segment)4.4 Sales Price Analysis4.4.1 2012-2017E Global Frozen French Fries Sales Price4.4.2 2016 Frozen French Fries Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment)List of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Frozen French FriesTable Product Specifications of Frozen French FriesTable Classification of Frozen French FriesFigure Global Production Market Share of Frozen French Fries by Type in 2016Figure Global Consumption Volume Market Share of Frozen French Fries by Application in 2016Table Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Frozen French Fries Major Manufacturers in 2016Table Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Frozen French Fries Major Manufacturers in 2016Table R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Frozen French Fries Major Manufacturers in 2016Table Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Frozen French Fries Major Manufacturers in 2016Table Global Capacity, Sales , Price, Cost, Sales Revenue (M USD) and Gross Margin of Frozen French Fries 2012-2017Figure Global 2012-2017E Frozen French Fries Market Size (Volume) and Growth RateAbout Us:QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact Us:1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Global Biaxial Geogrid Market Research Report Share, Growth, Size, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2022

Market Research Hub

https://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=S&repid=1421679

https://www.marketresearchhub.com/report/global-biaxial-geogrid-market-research-report-2017-report.html

https://www.marketresearchhub.com/enquiry.php?type=enquiry&repid=1421679

www.marketresearchhub.com/

www.industrynewsanalysis.com/

A fresh report has been added to the wide database of Market Research Hub (MRH). The research study is titled Global Biaxial Geogrid Market Research Report which encloses important data about the production, consumption, revenue and market share, merged with information related to the market scope and product overview. The report anticipates that the sector for Chemicals would rise at a positive CAGR during the period 2017-2022.Request For Free Sample -Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Biaxial Geogrid in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGlobal Biaxial Geogrid market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingTensar (U.S.)Tencate (Netherlands)Maccaferri (Italy)Huesker (Germany)Naue (Germany)Pietrucha (Poland)TMP Geosynthetics (China)Wrekin Products (U.K.)Thrace (Greece)Carthage Mills (U.S.)Bostd Geosynthetics Qingdao (China)On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoExtrudedKnitted/wovenBondedOn the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate for each application, includingRoad ConstructionRailroad StabilizationSoil ReinforcementBrowse Full Report With TOC -Table of ContentsGlobal Biaxial Geogrid Market Research Report 20171 Biaxial Geogrid Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Biaxial Geogrid1.2 Biaxial Geogrid Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Biaxial Geogrid Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Biaxial Geogrid Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Extruded1.2.4 Knitted/woven1.2.5 Bonded1.3 Global Biaxial Geogrid Segment by Application1.3.1 Biaxial Geogrid Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Road Construction1.3.3 Railroad Stabilization1.3.4 Soil Reinforcement1.4 Global Biaxial Geogrid Market by Region (2012-2022)1.4.1 Global Biaxial Geogrid Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 India Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Biaxial Geogrid (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Biaxial Geogrid Revenue Status and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Biaxial Geogrid Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2012-2022)2 Global Biaxial Geogrid Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Biaxial Geogrid Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.1 Global Biaxial Geogrid Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Biaxial Geogrid Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Biaxial Geogrid Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.3 Global Biaxial Geogrid Average Price by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.4 Manufacturers Biaxial Geogrid Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Biaxial Geogrid Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Biaxial Geogrid Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Biaxial Geogrid Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion3 Global Biaxial Geogrid Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)3.1 Global Biaxial Geogrid Capacity and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.2 Global Biaxial Geogrid Production and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.3 Global Biaxial Geogrid Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.4 Global Biaxial Geogrid Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.5 North America Biaxial Geogrid Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.6 Europe Biaxial Geogrid Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.7 China Biaxial Geogrid Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.8 Japan Biaxial Geogrid Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.9 Southeast Asia Biaxial Geogrid Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.10 India Biaxial Geogrid Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)ContinueEnquire About this Report -About Market Research Hub:Market Research Hub (MRH) is a next-generation reseller of research reports and analysis. MRHs expansive collection of market research reports has been carefully curated to help key personnel and decision makers across industry verticals to clearly visualize their operating environment and take strategic steps.MRH functions as an integrated platform for the following products and services: Objective and sound market forecasts, qualitative and quantitative analysis, incisive insight into defining industry trends, and market share estimates. Our reputation lies in delivering value and world-class capabilities to our clients.90 State Street,Contact Details:90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United StatesToll Free : 800-998-4852 (US-Canada)Email : press@marketresearchhub.comWebsite :Read Industry News at -
Global Neuropathology Market Research Report 2017 Analysis and Forecast to 2023

Neuropathology Market

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/4978

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/neuropathology-market-4978

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/4978

The Global Neuropathology Market report titled Neuropathology Market Research Report-Forecast to 2023 is a specialist investigation report by Market Research Future includes broad essential research alongside the definite examination of subjective and additionally quantitative perspectives by different industry specialists, key sentiment pioneers to pick up a more profound understanding of the market and industry execution. The Global Neuropathology market is expected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 6% during the forecast period 2017-2023.GET SAMPLE REPORT @Market Research Future published new report, titled Neuropathology Market -Research Report: Global Forecast till 2023.Market Scenario of Neuropathology Market:Neuropathology pertains to the aliment of nerves reculting in pain and numbness of the limbs and it is gaining prominence in this market. The increasing incidence of musculoskeletal conditions and technological advancements in medical diagnostic devices are some factors responsible for the growth of the global neuropathology market.The work of the neuropathologists includes examining biopsy tissue from the brain and spinal cord to diagnose a disease. The biopsy is usually performed if a mass is detected by radiologic imaging. In case of autopsies, the foremost work of the neuropathologist is to help in the post-mortem diagnosis of various forms of neural conditions such as dementia and other that may have affected the central nervous system.The number of patients suffering from cerebrovascular disorders has increased rapidly and has reached an all-time high in the past few years. There has been a significant rise in the number of surgeries associated with the treatment of such disorders. As the neurosurgeries and spinal surgeries are very critical, continuous monitoring during the whole procedure proves to be beneficial as the information about the electrical signals in brain and the nerves can be obtained in real time.Biopsies primarily consist of the skin. The recently developed neuropathy test, the epidermal nerve fiber density testing (ENFD) in which the nerve fibers of the skin is analysed by performing a punch skin biopsy to identify small fiber neuropathies. This pathology test is becoming available in selected labs as well as a few universities; it replaces the traditional sural nerve biopsy test and is less invasive. It is used to identify painful small fiber neuropathies.There are many neuropathologists around the world who have made important clinical and research contributions toward our understanding of diseases that specifically affect the brain (degenerative diseases, multiple sclerosis, stroke, brain tumors, trauma and neuromuscular diseases). A majority of them are members of the International Society of Neuropathology (ISN).The diagnostic samples comprises of aspirates and bone-marrow biopsies, lymph-node biopsies, body fluids, peripheral blood smears, and tissue resections from various CUMC units. Morphologic evaluation and studies, including flow cytometry, immunohistochemistry, next-generation sequencing and cytogenetic analysis are performed in diagnostic laboratories.The laboratory also analyses biopsies using histochemical and immunohistochemical methods to identify glycogenosis, lipid storage myopathy, mitochondrial myopathy, muscular dystrophy, and their inherited disorders. In appropriate cases, further biochemical and genetic analysis of muscle is performed by Laboratory of Personalized Genomic Medicine at CUMC.According to the Labor Force Survey (LFS), about 553,000 cases were registered for all work-related musculoskeletal disorder out of the total of 1,243,000 cases. Many healthcare professionals have started using these diagnostics techniques, especially in tertiary care centers and specialty hospitals which may promote and increase the demand for Neuropathology.Major Key Players of Neuropathology Market:Many new companies have jumped into the market in order to make the most out of the opportunities. Companies are implementing the strategies of mergers and acquisitions with other players.Some of key the players in the Global Neuropathology Market are ARUP Laboratories, Therapath LLC, Abbott Laboratories, Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Sakura Finetek USA Inc., Danaher Corporation, Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, Agilent Technologies Inc., and NeoGenomics Laboratories and others.Segmentations of Neuropathology Market:The Neuropathology is segmented on the basis of diagnosis test, application, and end-users.On the basis of diagnostic test, the market is segmented into the biopsy, body fluids, peripheral blood smears, tissue resections, and othersThe biopsy sub-segment is divided into Epidermal nerve fiber density testing (ENFD), Sural nerve biopsy test, bone-marrow biopsies, lymph-node biopsies and othersOn the basis of product, the application market is segmented into cerebral hypoxia and stroke, perinatal disorders, CNS infections, demyelinative diseases, brain tumors, neurodegenerative diseases, inherited metabolic disorders, peripheral neuropathy, and myopathologyOn the basis of end-user, the market is segmented into hospitals, clinics, research centers and others.GET FULL REPORT @Regional Analysis of Neuropathology Market:The Global Neuropathology Market consists of countries namely America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East.North America dominated the global neuropathology market owing to the increasing healthcare expenditure in North America since 2016. U.S. has some of the best hospitals in the world with state of the art infrastructure. Most of the hospitals and their neurology departments are well equipped with the equipment that is required for the working of the neuropathology techniques. Various organizations and private companies are engaged in the activities of spreading awareness about the benefits of the neuropathology test among common people through various educational and marketing ways. As a result, huge numbers of people are opting for the neuropathology tests as a point of care. The country has been developing number of academic courses to develop skilled personnel in the neuropathology field over the years. Hence the availability of the neuropathology specialists in North American countries is high.Europe is the second largest market for neuropathology market. For Europe, the neuropathology market including the brain tumors market is regarded as a strong competitive market. European countries are now making efforts in promoting the benefits of the intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring services. Patient friendly healthcare and insurance policies are making a positive impact on the people taking medical assistance.Asia Pacific is the fastest growing region over the forecast period. The healthcare spending in Asia increased due to an extension of state health care programs and the increasing affluence of the population. India, in specific, saw an expansion in spending due to a government resolution to enhance healthcare services.Major TOC of Neuropathology Market:Chapter 1. Report PrologueChapter 2. Market IntroductionChapter 3. Research MethodologyChapter 4. Market DynamicsChapter 5. Market Factor AnalysisChapter 6. Global Neuropathology Market, By Diagnosis TestChapter 7. Global Neuropathology Market, By ApplicationChapter 8. Global Neuropathology Market, By End UserChapter 9. Global Neuropathology Market, By RegionChapter 10. Company LandscapeChapter 11. Company ProfilesChapter 12. MRFR ConclusionChapter 13. AppendixLIST OF TABLES:Table 1 Neuropathology Industry Synopsis, 2017  2023Table 2 Neuropathology Market Estimates and Forecast, 2017  2023, (USD Million)Table 3 Neuropathology Market by Region, 2017  2023, (USD Million)Table 4 Neuropathology Market by Diagnosis, 2017  2023, (USD Million)Table 5 Neuropathology Market by Treatment, 2017  2023, (USD Million)LIST OF FIGURES:Figure 1 Research ProcessFigure 2 Segmentation for Neuropathology MarketFigure 3 Segmentation Market Dynamics for Neuropathology MarketFigure 4 Global Neuropathology Market Share, By Diagnosis 2016Figure 5 Global Neuropathology Market Share, By Treatment 2016...CONTINUEDGET DISCOUNT REPORT @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: salesteam@marketresearchfuture.com
Pharmacogenomics Market Going to Rise at 5.8% CAGR during 2017-2023

Pharmacogenomics Market

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1177

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/pharmacogenomics-market-1177

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/1177

Pharmacogenomics defines how genes can affect a persons response to drugs. It is relatively a new field and combines pharmacology and genomics. The aim of Pharmacogenomics Market is to develop effective and safe medications. Moreover by pharmacogenomics, drugs doses can be tailored to a persons genetic makeup. The field of pharmacogenomics is predicted to treat a wide range of health problems including cardiovascular diseases, Alzheimer disease, cancer, HIV/AIDS, and asthma, in near future. The Global Pharmacogenomics Market is expected to grow at a ~CAGR of 5.8% during the forecast period.Get a Sample Report @Pharmacogenomics is the study of how genes effect on a persons response to drugs. This comparatively latest theory combines pharmacology (the science of drugs) and genomics (the study of genes and their functions) to advance effective, safe medications and doses that will be tailored to a persons genetic condition.Some of the factors driving the market are increasing prevalence of several infectious and non-infectious diseases, rising use of drug discovery processes, increasing demand for personalized drugs, and developing awareness about benefits related with pharmacogenomics. Illnesses needs proper effective treatment that should be more reliable and safe at the same time. Pharmacogenomics can help to achieve both. Increasing awareness about its benefits is likely to drive demand globally.Application of pharmacogenomics would seriously benefit physicians in the treatment of a particular segment of population by studying their responses to specific drugs. Additionally, the knowledge of effectiveness of a drug in a patient would make a drug more reliable, and limit the number of drugs to be withdrawn from the market due to different negative reactions in some patients to whom they were reacted.Competitive Analysis:The key players for the global pharmacogenomics market are Myriad Genetics, Inc. (U.S.), 23andMe, Inc. (U.S.), Pathway Genomics (U.S.), GeneTech (U.S.), GeneDx. (U.S.), Future Science Group (U.S.), Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Israel), Assurex Health, Inc. (U.S.), and others.Regional Analysis:The Americas dominate the global pharmacogenomics market owing to a well-developed healthcare sector and presence of developed economies like the U.S. and Canada. Moreover, increasing number of patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases and rising healthcare expenditure have boosted the growth of the market in America. In 2016, according to the Centres for Diseases Control and Prevention in the U.S., heart disease was the leading cause of death for both men and women. Moreover, it was also estimated that the healthcare expenditure for heart diseases in the U.S. reaches USD 200 billion each year.Europe is the second largest Pharmacogenomics Industry, followed by Asia Pacific. Availability of funds for research and development along with government support and presence of huge patient population within the region will drive the market growth during the forecast period. Moreover, the presence of the developed economies like Germany and France within the region fuels the market growth.Order Single User License Copy of 90 Premium Pages is Available @Asia Pacific is the fastest growing region for the market due to the presence of a huge patient population, continuously developing economies like India and China and presence of huge opportunities in the market drives the market. According to the Indian Brand Equity Foundation in 2016, the Indian biotech industry is estimated to reach USD 100 billion by 2025 from USD 7 billion in 2015 with a CAGR of 30.46%.On the other hand, the Middle East & Africa has the least share in the global pharmacogenomics market due to presence of poor economy, low per capita healthcare expenditure and stringent government policies especially in the Africa region. The majority of the market of this region is held by the Middle East due to a well-developed healthcare sector and huge healthcare expenditure. Moreover, developed economies like Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, besides others fuels the market growth within the Middle East & Africa region.Brief TOCReport PrologueMarket IntroductionResearch MethodologyMarket DynamicsMarket Factor AnalysisGlobal Pharmacogenomics Market, By ApplicationGlobal Pharmacogenomics Market, By Therapeutic ApplicationGlobal Pharmacogenomics Market, By MethodsGlobal Pharmacogenomics Market, By RegionCompany ProfileConclusionAppendixAsk to Expert @About US:Market Research Future (MRFR), enable customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
E-Health Services Market on Track to Rise at 12.9% CAGR during 2017-2023

E-Health Services

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1252

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/e-health-services-market-1252

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/1252

Market HighlightsElectronic health records is very important for every healthcare organization. Clinical data management involves use of ICT and softwares for maintaining patient data electronically. E-health Services Market is flourishing with an increasing application of ICT for handling clinical and financial data for hospitals and clinics. Telemedicine is gaining importance in this market due to its advantages like remote consultant, improved patient doctor interaction and real time consultation. Global e-health services market was about is expected to reach USD 250 billion by 2023 at a CAGR of 12.7% during forecast period 2017 to 2023.Get a Sample Report @Global e-health services Market Players:Key players in e-health services market are: IBM Corporation (U.S), Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc. (U.S), GE Healthcare (U.S), McKinsey & Co. (U.S), Motion Computing Inc. (U.S), Epocrates Inc. (U.S), Telecare Corp. (U.S), Proteus Digital Health (U.S) Apple (U.S), GE Healthcare (U.S), Boston Scientific Corp (U.S), and Cerner (U.S)IBM Corporation is a multinational technology company. The company manufactures computer hardware and software and also offers consultation services. Software solutions by the company in healthcare are EMR, digital hospital framework and population health insights and care management. In January 2017, the company announced the use of block chain technology for security exchange of healthcare data.Allscripts Healthcare Solutions is a publically traded outsourcing company providing healthcare professionals with electronic health records technology and practice management. Its solutions include care coordination, clinical and patient engagement. The solutions offered by the company in healthcare include care coordination, clinical services and patient engagement. CareInMotion and dbMotion are the most popular solutions of this company in healthcare. In May 2017, center of Disease Control and prevention selects Allscripts Technology to support National Healthcare Surveys.Order Single User License Copy of 80 Premium Pages is Available @GE Healthcare is an American multinational company providing software solutions for healthcare. Workforce Management, Care Delivery Management, Enterprise Imaging, Applied Intelligence, Health Cloud, Financial Management are the solutions provided by these company in healthcare. In June 2017, the company introduced Encompass, a real time location system solution, helping hospital to manage inventory.Global e-health services market has been segmented on the basis of type of e-health technologies which includes Electronic Health Records (EHR), ePrescribing, Telemedicine, big data systems, Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS), Consumer health IT, Knowledge Management System (KMS). On the basis of service the market segmented into administrative services, clinical services and financial services and the end user are hospitals, clinics, health insurance companies and others.Brief TOCReport PrologueIntroductionResearch MethodologyMarket DynamicsMarket Factor AnalysisGlobal e-health services market by typeGlobal e-health services market by serviceGlobal e-health services market by end usersGlobal e-health services market by regionCompetitive LandscapeCompany ProfileConclusionAppendixAsk to Expert @About US:Market Research Future (MRFR), enable customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Telemedicine Market Size to Accelerate at a Rapid CAGR of 16.5% during 2017-2022

Telemedicine Market

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/2216

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/telemedicine-market-2216

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/2216

Telemedicine (likewise alluded to as "telehealth" or "e-wellbeing") permits medicinal services experts to assess, analyze and treat patients in remote areas utilizing broadcast communications innovation. Telemedicine enables patients in remote areas to get to medicinal aptitude rapidly, proficiently and without travel. Telemedicine gives more proficient utilization of constrained master assets who can "see" patients in different areas wherever they are required without leaving their office. The worldwide Telemedicine Market is encountering gigantic development over the globe by virtue of broad utilization of medicinal services IT arrangements, enhanced media transmission foundation, and popularity for essential care benefits over the globe. The Global telemedicine market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 16.5% during the forecast period.Get a Sample Report @Besides, rising commonness of interminable ailments and mechanical headway in the medicinal services fuel the market development. High establishment cost of telemedicine arrangements and accessibility of web benefits in provincial ranges may control the market development.Competitive Analysis:Key players profiled in the report are Koninklijke Philips N.V. (The Netherlands), Medtronic (Ireland) AMD Telemedicine Technologies (U.S.), General Electric Company (U.K.), Neusoft Corporation (China), McKesson Corporation (US) , Intel (US), and IBM (US).Market Segments:The global telemedicine market is segmented on the basis of type, which includes store and forward, remote monitoring, and real time interactive.On the basis of technology, the market is segmented into hardware, software, and services. The hardware is further segmented into on-site kiosks, telephone, and webcams. The software is further segmented into mobiles apps. The Services are further segmented into consultation, online video conferencing and academics.Order Single User License Copy of 150 Premium Pages is Available @Furthermore, on the basis of application the market is classified into telecardiology, telepsychiatry, teleradiology, telepathology, teledermatology, teleaudiology, teleopthalmology, and others.On the basis of end users, the market is segmented into hospitals, clinical, medical institutes, and others.Brief TOCReport PrologueIntroductionResearch MethodologyMarket DynamicsMarket Factor AnalysisGlobal Telemedicine Market by TypeGlobal Telemedicine Market by TechnologyGlobal Telemedicine Market by ApplicationGlobal Telemedicine Market by End UserGlobal Cell Counting Market by RegionCompany ProfileConclusionAppendixAsk to Expert @About US:Market Research Future (MRFR), enable customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.com
Global Ticagrelor Market Research Report 2017 Analysis and Forecast to 2027

Ticagrelor Market

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/820

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/ticagrelor-market-820

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/820

The Global Ticagrelor Market report titled Ticagrelor Market Research Report-Forecast to 2027 is a specialist investigation report by Market Research Future includes broad essential research alongside the definite examination of subjective and additionally quantitative perspectives by different industry specialists, key sentiment pioneers to pick up a more profound understanding of the market and industry execution.GET SAMPLE REPORT @Market Research Future published new report, titled Ticagrelor Market -Research Report: Global Forecast till 2027.Global Ticagrelor Market  Overview:Ticagrelor is an antiplatelet drug which is a member of a section of pharmaceuticals which tackle the problem of platelet aggression. The global ticagrelor market is expected to grow at a healthy growth rate during the forecast period 2017-2027. The major factors influencing the growth of the market include high patient pool suffering from heart problems, increasing development in the product by the companies, commercialization and improving market access scenarios and funding for research and development by the market players and many others. Moreover there is a huge opportunity in developing countries that is grabbed by various market players for expanding their presence in the region. The market is forecasted to demonstrate a double digit growth by 2027, surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value with a striking CAGR during the anticipated period 2017  2027.Global Ticagrelor Market - Competitive Analysis:AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Boehringer, Ingelheim, Pfizer, Amgen, Merck, Roche, GSK, Alexion, Boehringer, Ingelheim Pfizer, Amgen are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the Global Ticagrelor Market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.Characterized by the presence of several well-established and small players, the global market of Ticagrelor appears to be highly competitive and fragmented. With well-established market in the North America region major companies like AstraZeneca Eli Lilly, Pfizer, GSK, Pfizer, Amgen and various others have their home in the region and generate maximum market share. These companies have expanded their operating unit in various other emerging regions as well. Moreover the other small and medium scale players are generating revenue from local market.GET FULL REPORT @There has been increasing development in the product and commercialization of the product. AstraZenecas a Swedish multinational pharma and biotech involved in the production since the beginning. Brilinta the companys product in 2016 generated a sales of about $ 839 million. The product perceived 45% year on year (YoY) revenue growth in the United States and about 15% year on year increase in sales in the European market. The increase in the product revenue is majorly due to changes in the brand name of the competitor product as well as growing use of Brilinta by patients discharged from hospitals in European region. More over the development in Brilinta with the launch of 60-mg version of Brilinta, which in 2016 accounted for 10% of the total prescriptions of the drug in the United States. This development and improving market access for the product is expected to increase the growth of the revenue in 2017 as well. It is expected that the product Brilinta by AstraZeneca to exceed the $ 1.0 billion sales in 2017 and turn out to be a blockbuster therapy.AstraZeneca furthermore concentrating on commercialization of the product in order to increase product availability across the globe. AstraZeneca announced the collaboration of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., according to the agreement the company Sun Phrma agreed to distribute AstraZenecas new brand of ticagrelor Axcer in India. Sun Pharma is and India's top pharmaceutical company and the world's 5th largest specialty generic pharmaceutical company. This collaboration will authorize AstraZeneca to enhance usage of this molecule through wide reach to doctors and thereby helping a greater number of ACS patients.Global Ticagrelor Market - Regional Analysis:The global market is segmented into the various regions including Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa. The Americas accounts for the largest market share of about more than ~40% of the market share due to extensive use product by the patients discharged from hospitals in the regions, major manufacturers developing the product in the region.Europe is the second largest market of Ticagrelor followed by Asia Pacific. However Asia Pacific market is expected to grow at the fastest growth rate due to awareness of ticagrelor, Asia Pacific accounting for more than 60% of the global population and increasing cardiovascular patients. Particularly, India and China are anticipated to be a growing and the fastest growing market. Many major players seeking opportunity and expand their presence in this region influencing the growth of the market.The Middle East & Africa holds the least share in the ticagrelor market due to lack of awareness, less market access scenarios activities, and poor medical facilities.The report for Ticagrelor Market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions....CONTINUEDGET DISCOUNT REPORT @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: salesteam@marketresearchfuture.com
Digital Coin 2017 Global Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 7.33% and Forecast to 2020

Digital Coin Market 2017

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/470142-global-digital-coin-market-2016-2020

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/470142-global-digital-coin-market-2016-2020

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=470142

WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On - Digital Coin 2017 Global Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 7.33% and Forecast to 2020.The analysts forecast the Global Digital Coin Market to grow at a CAGR of 7.33% during the period 2016-2020.A digitalcoin is a form of electronic currency that uses cryptography to check the veracity of users that attempt to spend the currencies. Such currencies can be used to ensure the stability of national economies, corporations, and individual users. The cryptocurrency can be converted to any real currency, including dollars, euro, yuan, and rubble. Online transaction using digitalcoins is one of the fastest ways of sending or receiving money as the transaction is not subject to any government intervention, chargebacks, or central bank regulations.Get a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comCovered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the Global Digital Coin Market for 2016-2020. To calculate the market size, the report considers the total supply of digitalcoins of the top companies that operate from the Americas, APAC, and EMEA.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography: Americas APAC EMEAThe report, Global Digital Coin Market 2016-2020, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors Bitcoin Ethereum Ripple Litecoin DogecoinOther prominent vendors Dash Factom MaidSafeCoin Peercoin Novacoin NamecoinMarket driver Low transaction cost For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge Regulatory issues For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend Huge capital investments in digitalcoin start-ups For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this report What will the market size be in 2020 and what will the growth rate be? What are the key market trends? What is driving this market? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key vendors in this market space? What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?Ask Query @Table Of Contents  Major Key PointsPART 01: Executive summary HighlightsPART 02: Scope of the report Market overview Top-vendor offerings Other prominent vendorsPART 03: Market research methodology Research methodology Economic indicatorsPART 04: Introduction Key market highlights Definition of digitalcoin Working of digitalcoinsPART 05: Market landscape Market overview Market size and forecastPART 06: Global market outlookPART 07: Geographical segmentation Geographical segmentation EMEA Americas APACPART 08: Market drivers Low transaction cost Increased adoption of digitalcoins Blockchain as an underlying technologyPART 09: Impact of driversPART 10: Market challenges Liquidity limits Regulatory issues Lack of expert knowledge in developing countriesPART 11: Impact of drivers and challengesPART 12: Market trends Huge capital investments in digitalcoin start-ups Central banks to implement own brand of digital currencies P2P cryptocurrency platformsPART 13: Vendor landscape Competitive landscape Performance of top vendors Business overview Available supply of digitalcoins till January 2016Continue.Buy 1-User PDF @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.
Self-storage Software 2017 Global Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 6.77% and Forecast to 2020

Self-storage Software 2017

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/470141-global-self-storage-software-market-2016-2020

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/470141-global-self-storage-software-market-2016-2020

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=470141

WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On - Self-storage Software 2017 Global Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 6.77% and Forecast to 2020.The analysts forecast the Global Self-Storage Software Market to grow at a CAGR of 6.77% during the period 2016-2020.Self-storage refers to a system of renting out storage space like private rooms, box storage, lockers, vehicle storage, or any other space unit to individuals or businesses, usually on a short-term basis. Self-storage software is used by storage owners and tenants for managing operations in the self-storage industry.A large percentage of end-users use self-storage to store personal items like clothing, shoes, antiques, toys, wine, and other household goods. The use of self-storage for business purposes is less as the rent is four times higher than that of factories, grade C office space, and warehouses.Get a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comCovered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the Global Self-Storage Software Market for 2016-2020. To calculate the market size, we considered revenues generated from the sale of self-storage software solutions that include software suits that are stand-alone and integrated solutions.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography: Americas APAC EuropeThe report, Global Self-Storage Software Market, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors E-SoftSys QuikStor Security and Software SiteLink Software Storman SoftOther prominent vendors AndraTech Software Easy Storage Solutions storEDGE Argus Software Axxerion Software Landport Software Property Boulevard ROCKSOFTMarket driver improving global economic scenario For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge inhibition of the self-storage storage industry in most of the world For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend emergence of cloud-based storage software and mobile applications For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this report What will the market size be in 2020 and what will the growth rate be? What are the key market trends? What is driving this market? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key vendors in this market space? What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?Ask Query @Table Of Contents  Major Key PointsPART 01: Executive summary HighlightsPART 02: Scope of the report Market overviewPART 03: Market research methodology Research methodology Economic indicatorsPART 04: Self-storage facilitiesPART 05: Transition of self-storage industry Product life cyclePART 06: AssumptionsPART 07: Market landscape Market overview Property management software industry: Market size and forecast Market size and forecast of self-storage software industryPART 08: Market segmentation by deployment model Global self-storage software market by deployment modelPART 09: Geographical segmentation Geographical segmentation of self-storage software market Self-storage software market in Americas Self-storage software market in Europe Self-storage software market in APACPART 10: Key leading countries US Canada Australia UK JapanPART 11: Market challenges Inhibitors of self-storage industry growth in Europe, Middle East, Africa, and AsiaPART 12: Market trends Improving global economic scenario Emergence of cloud-based self-storage software and mobile applications Increasing number of working womenPART 13: Five forces modelPART 14: Vendor landscape Competitive scenario Vendor matrix Comparative chart for vendorsContinue.Buy 1-User PDF @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.
Global Live Attenuated Vaccines Market Research Report 2017 Analysis and Forecast to 2027

Live Attenuated Vaccines Market

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1101

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/live-attenuated-vaccines-market-1101

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/1101

The Global Live Attenuated Vaccines Market report titled Live Attenuated Vaccines Market Research Report-Forecast to 2027 is a specialist investigation report by Market Research Future includes broad essential research alongside the definite examination of subjective and additionally quantitative perspectives by different industry specialists, key sentiment pioneers to pick up a more profound understanding of the market and industry execution. The global market for live attenuated vaccines is growing continuously and expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.7% during the forecast period 2017-2027.GET SAMPLE REPORT @Market Research Future published new report, titled Live Attenuated Vaccines Market -Research Report: Global Forecast till 2027.Global Live Attenuated Vaccines Market  Overview:Vaccines created by reducing the virulence of pathogens are known as Live Attenuated Vaccines (LAV). These pathogens are weakened under laboratory conditions. The vaccine triggers a potent immune response against infectious diseases. They initiate memory cell production in order to respond to the pathogen that previously invaded the body. Increasing awareness about vaccination, growing government funding for vaccination programs and increasing prevalence of infectious diseases drive the growth of this market. Improving healthcare infrastructure, increasing demand for live attenuated vaccines, and emphasis on prevention of diseases also drives this market.The global live attenuated vaccines market is growing at a very reasonable pace. The global market for live attenuated vaccines is growing continuously and expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.7% during the forecast period 2017-2027. According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, The global live attenuated vaccines market is booming and expected to gain prominence over the forecast period growing rapidly. The market is forecasted to demonstrate a spectacular growth by 2027, surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value with a prominent CAGR during the anticipated period (2017  2027).Availability of funds from government agencies, vaccination programs carried out across the region and technological advancement in vaccine production drive this market in America. World Health Organization (WHO) launched Global Vaccine Action Plan in May 2012 with a motive of strengthening immunization programs and reduce the occurrence of infectious diseases. It was a product of Decade of Vaccines Collaboration (DoV) and consisted of 194 member states. Guidelines were published by UNICEF and WHO to develop a plan for immunization. In 1963 the government introduced measles vaccine, which resulted into a significant decline in mortality rate caused by measles. States in the U.S have made vaccination mandatory before admitting a child to school. Schools are also taking a major initiative in vaccination of children.Global Live Attenuated Vaccines Market - Competitive Analysis:The market for live attenuated vaccines is characterised by the presence of several well-established and small players, the global market of live attenuated vaccines appears to be highly competitive and fragmented. Global players are increasingly expanding their footprint in the emerging nations, making it putting pressure on the regional players, especially in terms of features such as type, product portfolios, and pricing. The market is witnessing intensified competition which is expected to get more intensified further during the forecast period. These players possess state of art manufacturing facilities and strong sales and distribution network which have helped them to gain leadership position in the market.For instance, companies like in September 2017, Merck has launched INNOVAX-ND-IBD, the first live vaccine made with biotechnology that protects against three highly infectious diseases in poultry Infectious Bursal Disease (IBD), Newcastle Disease (ND), and Mareks disease (MD). When given to chickens either in ovo or subcutaneously in the hatchery, it provides life-long protection for ND, IBD and MD simultaneously.GET FULL REPORT @Moreover, October 2017, Company named MedImmune a biotechnology company developing optimized therapeutic antibodies targeting AMHR2 for the treatment of cancer has entered into a licensing agreement under which GamaMabs will use MedImmunes proprietary pyrrolobenzodiazepine (PBD) toxin and linker technology to research and produce an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) as a potential cancer therapy.Moreover, in July 2017, company named Emergent BioSolutions Inc. is licensing agreement with Valneva SE for global exclusive rights to Valnevas Zika vaccine technology, ZIKV. This will help the company to acquire revenue-generating products and advancing products to aligning with partners such as Valneva to develop innovative products that could potentially serve the needs of both government customers and the commercial market.Therefore, the growing innovations in the field of live attenuated vaccines and rising research and development and clinical approvals for various competitive products by the major players has spurred the growth of the market.GlaxoSmithKline, plc. (U.K.), Merck & Co. (U.S.), Pfizer, Inc. (U.S.), Astellas Pharma Inc. (Japan), Johnson & Johnson (U.S.), CSL Limited (Australia), Emergent BioSolutions, Inc. (U.S.), MedImmune, LLC (U.S.), Sanofi (France), and Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd. (India) are some of the Prominent Players at the forefront of competition in the Global Live Attenuated Vaccines Market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.Global Live Attenuated Vaccines Market - Regional Analysis:The report for Global Live Attenuated Vaccines market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different markets segments and regionsLive, attenuated vaccines contain an adaptation of the living microorganism that has been weakened in the lab so it can't bring about disease. Since a live, constricted immunization is the nearest thing to a characteristic contamination, these vaccines are great "tutors" of the invulnerable framework: They elicit solid cell and antibody reactions and frequently long lasting safety with one or two dosages.Global Live Attenuated Vaccines market has been segmented on the basis of types which consist of Measles, Polio, Smallpox, Rotavirus, Tuberculosis, Yellow fever, Varicella zoster and others. On the basis of end users which includes hospitals clinics and healthcare research institutes....CONTINUEDGET DISCOUNT REPORT @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: salesteam@marketresearchfuture.com
Data Center Cooling in Southeast Asia 2017 Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 16.11% and Forecast to 2020

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/477456-data-center-cooling-market-in-southeast-asia-2016-2020

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/enquiry/477456-data-center-cooling-market-in-southeast-asia-2016-2020

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/checkout?currency=one_user-USD&report_id=477456

WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On - Data Center Cooling in Southeast Asia 2017 Market Expected to Grow at CAGR 16.11% and Forecast to 2020.The analysts forecast the data center cooling market in Southeast Asia to grow at a CAGR of 16.11% during the period 2016-2020.Cooling solutions help lower the heat generated by IT equipment housed in data centers. Many computer room air conditioning (CRAC) and computer room air handling (CRAH) units are operated in data centers, including air conditioners, chillers, cooling towers, economizers, humidifiers, and modern containment systems that furnish rack cooling. These cooling units use air and liquid cooling techniques. The cooling process accounts for 40% of the electricity consumed in data centers. Vendors are inventing and testing many cooling methods to reduce the operating expenditure (OPEX) associated with data centers.Get a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comCovered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the data center cooling market in Southeast Asia for 2016-2020. To calculate the market size, the report considers revenue generated from the investments made in new data centers and the renovation of existing ones.The market is divided into the following segments, by country: Singapore Malaysia Thailand Indonesia OthersThe report, Data Center Cooling Market in Southeast Asia 2016-2020, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors Black Box Network Services Eaton Emerson Network Power Geist Rittal Schneider Electric STULZOther prominent vendors 3M Alfa Laval Belden ClimateWorx Colt Daikin Data Aire ebm-papst Fuji Electric Huawei Munters Pentair Trane Tripp-Lite Wakefield-Vette (Coolcentric)Market driver Increased demand for efficient cooling solutions For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge Challenges related to adaptability For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend Construction of green data centers For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this report What will the market size be in 2020 and what will the growth rate be? What are the key market trends? What is driving this market? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key vendors in this market space? What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?Ask Query @Table Of Contents  Major Key PointsPART 01: Executive summary HighlightsPART 02: Scope of the report Market overview Top vendor offeringsPART 03: Market research methodology Research methodology Economic indicatorsPART 04: Introduction Key market highlightsPART 05: Market landscape Market overview Market size and forecast Five forces analysisPART 06: Market segmentation by architecture Room cooling solutions Rack and row cooling solutionsPART 07: Market segmentation by cooling systems Air conditioners Chillers Cooling towers Economizers Other cooling unitsPART 08: Market segmentation by cooling technique Air-based cooling technique Liquid-based coolingPART 09: Market segmentation by liquid cooling technique Chilled water-based cooling Liquid immersion cooling OthersPART 10: Market segmentation by country Singapore Malaysia Thailand Indonesia Other Southeast Asian countriesPART 11: Market driversPART 12: Impact of driversPART 13: Market challengesPART 14: Impact of drivers and challengesContinue.Buy 1-User PDF @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.
Tom Poland is the author of 12 books and more than 1,000 magazine features. Visit Tom Polands website at www.tompoland.net.
An Associated Press investigation revealed that civilian casualties in a US-led attack on the Iraqi city of Mosul were far worse than initially thought.

This past year, Iraqi coalition forces, backed by the United States, attacked Mosul in an attempt to free it from the control of the Islamic State. The battle raged for months, before Mosul was finally abandoned by ISIS in July. The AP conducted an investigation into civilian casualties during the assault, and obtained a list from the city morgue of 9,606 names killed during long battle. Basing their report on this list and several other sources including the UN and Amnesty International, the AP estimates the actual death toll to be somewhere between 9,000 and 11,000 civilians, as they also talked to gravediggers in the city who said they retrieved additional bodies. This overall figure does not include the many mass graves left behind by Islamic State forces, which are filled with thousands of civilians.

The US-led Iraqi coalition has not offered an official death toll, but the Iraqi prime minister had previously said that only 1,260 civilians were killed. Obviously, the AP notes that their new investigation reveals a figure nearly ten times worse.

Of those thousands of innocent lives, the AP estimates that around 3,200 were killed by coalition forcesnot ISIS or other, unknown factors. At one point, the AP says that 303 civilians were killed at the hands of their liberators in just one week at the end of June. The AP reports that the Islamic State tried to use civilians as human shields, even shunting them from one front line to another in an attempt to dissuade the coalition from using heavy artillery fire. The attempt failed to dissuade an attack, as the coalition seems to have disregarded the presence of innocents and fired on those positions anyway.

The AP reports that the US-led coalition knew the civilian death toll was mounting, yet opted to stay the course anyway. They quote Daoud Salem Mahmoud, a resident of Mosul: Everything can be rebuilt, its the lives lost that cannot be replaced. This war, it turned Mosul into a graveyard.
Petoskey players bring in All-BNC soccer honors, seven total recognized

PETOSKEY  The Petoskey soccer team found themselves in 2022 right in the thick of where they expect to be every season: in a tight Big North Conference race.
Riding Mexico with Jeff Kendall-Weed photography by Haitman Rivas // video by Logan Nelson // words by Jeff Kendall-Weed The full moon, visible here from partway down the Nevado de Toluca, illuminated the descent down to treeline.

A local bird of prey glides through the jagged peak of the Nevado De Toluca. The top of this volcano is just over 15,000 feet, and it would be visible from every additional spot we rode for this story.

The sandy dirt allows for some fun, drifty corners! Because of the high sand content, come a night of strong winds, our tracks down the hill would be gone.

A wheelie may be simple, but at this altitude, it's a bit of a mind bender. It feels a bit like riding with tires full of cement, through soggy grass, all while your brain is intensely throbbing from the extreme lack of oxygen.

The sandy dirt on the volcano was surprisingly hard to ride, but things firmed up as we descended to treeline.

Welcome to 'La Diana,' a statue that stands guard upon entering Ixtapan de la Sal, just south of the volcano.

The volcano is visible in the background there. It's the tallest thing around!

Our friends from the local jumps. Apparently the boys had been watching our every move, from the moment we arrived, to each jump.

There's just something thrilling about finding natural jump lines, with no shovels required!

A very neat drop, hidden in the woods, with some cool tree roots. One of the most rewarding aspects of making videos is the extra bit of motivation it seems to provide. We got this drop rideable, and thanks to some camera courage, proved that it's doable--that is, doable as long as one doesn't mind dropping to near flat!

The local downhill track has some rad jumps.

Sometimes the fastest line isn't the most fun, so when it's not race day, why not get those tires off the ground?

Combining a natural rock double with some trials moves...

Riding Mexico with Jeff Kendall-Weed

Videography: Logan Patrick Nelson @loganpnelson

Photography and guiding: Haitman Rivas @haitman

Supported by:

Kinetic Sport SA de CV

Its not just the dogs running the streets, the constant barrage of cars sans mufflers, the crowing roosters, or the intoxicating scents of carne asada wafting from street vendors. Mexico is so much more than that. Mexico is all about freedom.This overwhelming freedom is immediately apparent to someone like me, who has spent the vast majority of life in the United States. On my first journey to Mexico, to a family friends wedding in Guadalajara in 1999, I watched our friend skydive from a teeny silver airplane, his colorful parachute trailing behind him as he circled his way down to the whitewashed church where his bride awaited his arrival. We cheered when he landed, and I remember thinking to my fourteen-year-old self, How come no one skydives to their wedding in the USA?Two summers ago, when I married my beautiful wife, I remember thinking, I hope the park rangers dont hassle us for riding our motorcycle across the parking lot to the reception without helmets.That tremendous juxtaposition, of a skydive with no worries versus a simple 100-yard dash through an empty parking lot on a street-legal motorcycle, is exactly why Mexico is a still an undiscovered mountain bike paradise. This freedom is a wonderful asset to mountain bikers. It means that we can enjoy the myriad trails that have popped up over the centuries, and we can do so without the huge risks that trespassing can carry in the U.S.though it bears mentioning that at the same time, because landowners expect a certain number of passers-by, motorcycle riders or even donkeys will also be enjoying similar tracks.With winter in full force where I live in northwestern Washington, I wanted to go someplace not just warm and sunny, but someplace a bit more culturally interesting than a typical tourist trap. Mexico seemed like it would fit the bill, and I had been looking for an excuse to go back; that freedom to ride and experience the land and sky was especially appealing when I was snowed-in at home, getting work done with the heat turned all the way up. I manage international aftermarket sales for WTB, and a work event this past August brought me down to San Luis Potosi, Mexico. There I met Haitman Rivas, a bright-eyed and enthusiastic photographer from the high altitude town of Ixtapan de la Sal. Haitman doesnt just take incredible photos; he knows how to shred on two wheels as well.When I got the green light to produce a video in Mexico, I immediately called Haitman. The first thing he mentioned was the giant, 15,000 foot tall volcano that lies to north of his town. Its a uniquely tall mountain that watches over not just Ixtapan de la Sal, but the rest of the valleys west of Mexico City. I was hooked at volcano. With my videographer Logan Nelson in tow, I left the rainy gloom of the Pacific Northwest, driving out from Bellingham before 4am and flying from Vancouver to Mexico City. In Mexico City, we caught a local bus to deliver our tired selves to Toluca. It was there in Toluca that we met Haitman and our driver, Orlando. We were set for a few days of adventure. Our goal of making a fun riding video was simply the icing on the pastel (cake).An altitude of 15,000 feet is something spectacular. We opted to shuttle to the top, but along the way we passed many locals who were enjoying a pedal up the meandering dirt road to the summit. Just when I was starting to feel like we had reached a respectable height, Haitman pointed out another, even taller mountain at the horizon: Popocatepetl. It was incredible, but so was the volcano we were already on. I developed a splitting headache on the way up, but there it was masked by more pressing feelings: just being there felt like we were lucky to be somewhere imbued in history, somewhere completely breathtaking. Even if it hurt.Descending the volcano was more an exercise in patience than anything else. The steepest part of the trail we rode, near the top, was very soft and sandy. With my balance a bit off due to the altitude, it took full concentration to keep from auguring into the trail. I managed to lawn dart numerous times, but because the conditions made it hard to go fast, there was the pleasant upside that my numerous tumbles left me unharmed.Riding the lower altitude spots closer to Ixtapan de la Sal, just south of the volcano though within riding distance, floored me just as much. The dirt was still fairly soft, but definitely not sandy. The locals that I met in both spots were exceedingly friendly, wondering what in the heck this crazy guero was doing in their backyard.My goal was to find some fun features, stuff that would be fun to ride as well as fun to feature in a video, but additionally, my goal was to simply meet locals and enjoy my short time in Mexico to the fullest. Haitman, Logan, and I stumbled across a group of teens at the top of the local downhill track: Angel, Josemar, and Angel (yes, two kids were named Angel!), and they escorted me down their favorite trail, La Piedra. I had seen Haitmans photos of it previously, but the trail was even better in person. We took turns leading the train down the trail, and the locals skillfully descended the rocky trail despite not having the newest bikes with the most modern componentryand they were great guys, to boot. I cant wait to get back and do some timed training on that trail!We kept our filming going well past dark. Bombing around town in the bed of Haitmans fathers old pickup truck kept that sense of Mexican freedom present in our minds. Life is short, and something that has always seemed essential to me is to try to look at life through others perspectives. We take for granted that the United States is the land of the free. But here we were, less than two hours (by air) from Houston, TX, and some freedoms were considerably more salient. Ironically, one could argue that these individual freedoms were excessive to the point that they infringed on the freedoms of others, especially with a lesser police presence. But, I found the attitude of, Asi es como es (Thats just how it is) simply explained this. We all get used to our environments, and tend to take them for granted. After our short journey south, Im a little more aware of the repercussions of this unbridled freedombut at the same time, it definitely makes for good riding. And great food, and street markets, and beautiful full moons. And the people there cant be beat. I cant wait to return!
Years of touring the United States as a folk musician gives the artist Dar Williams serious credibility with one of her most ambitious works yet: a persuasive collection of case studies on how communities have tapped the natural world, culture and other passions to build highly engaged places to call home.

Williams, a resident of Beacon, New York, cites many observed ups and downs with community building in What I Found in A Thousand Towns: A Traveling Musicians Guide to Rebuilding Americas CommunitiesOne Coffee Shop, Dog Run and Open-Mike Night at a Time. She lets it all hang out with piercing opinions and shrewd take-aways.

Williams divides her book into three sections: the first on the role of physical spaces in creating community, the second on subject areas like food, supporting community identity building, and what she calls translation  the relational, people-to-people glue of civic engagement.

A key message of the book is that positive proximity  what Williams describes as a state of being where living side by side with other people is experienced as beneficial  is a critical component of creating attractive towns and cities, and that it can be intentionally sculpted in tailored ways that play to a communitys particular strengths, traits, quirks and blessings.

Take, for example, the Philadelphia suburb of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. Williams focuses on the communitys embrace of its steel industry history in her chapter on how some areas have been able to play to the past in order to fuel vitality for the future. She succinctly explains the economic forces that have beleaguered former industrial towns before describing how determined residents have looked to historical assets  like beautiful old buildings and narratives of manufacturing might  to pave a path forward.

One of the most endearing aspects of Williams writing is the heart-on-sleeve human element. In What I Found in A Thousand Towns, readers get a visceral sense of how much she cares about the communities shes visited as a performer since beginning her career in the early 90s. She recalls her initial fear that Phoenixville would not be able to support a rehabilitated historic theater venue. Part of playing in towns is that I worry about them, she writes with an earnest and compelling sentimentality. She has not been a mere visitor, callously passing through all those years. No, Williams has been a champion of these communities all along the way, even if her civic fandom has been transient in nature.

One could imagine that the tour circuit could create a muddled, haphazard memory book. But Williams shares vivid recollections of transformation she has witnessed in particular communities. Her career conveniently traces a period in American history in which many localities have transitioned  rapidly, in some cases  from hollowed out to now so desirable that they have displaced the same people who have lived there through all the economic highs and lows.

The topic of gentrification is inextricably knotted up into conversations around race and power. While Williams doesnt avoid these discussions, she also doesnt sink into the subject as deeply as perhaps she could. Thats a shame, because some of her richest insights come when she describes the dynamics of skin color. Again, the lineup was about 90 percent white in a neighborhood that looked 90 percent black, Williams writes, describing a theater calendar of upcoming shows in Wilmington, Del. I recognized the name of one white woman who was coming at the end of December. It was me.

At times, What I Found in A Thousand Towns gets stuck in a textbook-style quicksand: Williams can belabor her points and overextend case study examples. But that same painstaking detail and narrative elaboration makes for many illustrative stories for those readers who may be seeking inspiration for community rejuvenation in their own towns and cities. And Williams makes balanced points packed with common-sense wisdom thats in short supply in todays fearful, polarized America. Not every army coming up over the hill is a friendly one,,Williams writes as she encourages communities to embrace progress. But if you resist change wholesale, you might find yourself behind the times for no good reason, caught up in blame, resentment and frustration. What I Found in A Thousand Towns is a winning playbook for the sunnier perspective  a patently American bear hug of risk, possibility, and hope for a better tomorrow, starting right there, in the neighborhood.
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.
Kalyn Oyer is a Charleston native who covers arts & entertainment and food & bev for The Post and Courier. She's a music festival & concert photographer and used to write about music for the Charleston City Paper, among other publications.
The area had been blocked off by city officials. No one was hurt and nothing damaged. The wall has been menacing passersby for many years. A fix is in the works. Read morePortion of old brick wall by Charleston's Second Presbyterian Church gives way
There was a combination of superlative hysteria and political opportunism behind the warnings about the end of democracy leading up to last weeks elections, but it wasnt inconceivable that wed have flare-ups of violence and intimidation, that people who embrace the fantasy that the 2020 e Read moreEditorial: Election 2022 gave everybody something to celebrate
PR-Inside.com: 2017-12-20 14:20:08

Press Information

Market Data Forecast

USA



Abhishek Shukla

Sales Manager (International Business Development)

+1-888-702-9626

email

http://www.marketdataforecast.com/





# 625 Words

USASales Manager (International Business Development)+1-888-702-9626

Europe Autoimmune Monoclonal Antibodies Market By Source (Murine, Chimeric, Humanized, & Human), By Application (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis, Transplant Rejection/Graft Versus Host Disease, & Others), and By End User (Hospitals/Clinics, Research Institutes, & Diagnostic Laboratories)  Market Analysis, Size, Geographic Countries Analysis, Competitive Strategies Analysis and Forecasts (2016 to 2021)Europe Autoimmune Monoclonal Antibodies Market is expected to reach USD 8,302.0 million by 2021 from USD 5,718.7 million in 2016, growing at a CAGR of 7.74% during forecast period 2016-2021.Irregular functioning of humans immune system results in autoimmune disorders. Overproduction of self-reactive immune cells (such as antibodies & T-cells) damage regular functions of /cells/tissues/organs. This lead to different autoimmune disorders such as systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and others diseases. Typically, drugs are used as a treatment to cure autoimmune disorders. The adverse effects associated with drugs has made switched to concentrate on monoclonal antibodies.Full report at: http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/europe-autoimmune-monoclonal-antibodies-1172/ Monoclonal antibodies have the ability to offer less toxic and more efficient therapeutic alternatives to treat autoimmune diseases. Recent years have seen the emergence of monoclonal antibodies being used to treat wide array of diseases that are related to immune response. These antibodies are mono-specific comprising of identical immune cells which are clones of a single parent cell and are directed towards a specific cellular target. Thus monoclonal antibodies due to its customizable nature can be used to treat the self-reactive immune cells not impacting the normal ones.Increasing government initiations, growing technological advancements, presence of developed healthcare infrastructure, and rising demand for advanced therapies are driving the growth of autoimmune monoclonal antibodies market in Europe. However, certain regulatories and improper reimbursement policies are restraining the growth of autoimmune monoclonal antibodies market in Europe.Europe Autoimmune Monoclonal Antibodies market is segmented based on source, application, and end user. Based on source, the market is further sub-segmented as Murine, Chimeric, Humanized, and Human. Among these, humanized segment is expected to command the largest share in Europe Autoimmune Monoclonal Antibodies market, by source in 2016. Based on application, the market is further segmented as Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis, Transplant Rejection/Graft Versus Host Disease, and Others. Of these, rheumatoid arthritis application is anticipated to command the major share in Europe Autoimmune Monoclonal Antibodies market, by application in 2016. Based on end user, the market is further segmented as Hospitals/Clinics, Research Institutes, and Diagnostic Laboratories. Among these, Hospitals/Clinics segment is expected to hold the major market share in Europe Autoimmune Monoclonal Antibodies market, by application in 2016.Request sample: http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/europe-autoimmune-monoclonal-antibodies-1172/request-sample On the basis of geographical areas, Europe Autoimmune Monoclonal Antibodies market is segmented as U.K., Germany, France, Italy, and Spain.The key players in Autoimmune Monoclonal Antibodies market include, GlaxoSmithKline plc (U.K.), AstraZeneca plc (U.K.), F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. (Switzerland), Bristol-Myers Squibb (U.S.), Johnson & Johnson (U.S.), Innovent Biologics, Inc. (China), Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd. (Japan), Amgen Inc. (U.S.), Biogen Inc.(U.S.) , and UCB Company (Belgium).About Market Data Forecast:The publisher of this report is Market Data Forecast whose forte lies in Market research and Business Intelligence. Handling both individual and corporate clients across multiple business domains they offer syndicated/customized research to suit the clients research objective. Their research reports section offers a wide variety of market studies ranging from all-encompassing comprehensive market studies to product specific niche markets covering North America among other regions of the global market as well. For more info kindly visit, www.marketdataforecast.com Contact:Abhishek ShuklaSales Manager (International Business Development)Market Data ForecastDirect Line: +1-888-702-9626Mobile: +91 998 555 0206Mail: abhishek@ marketdataforecast.com Visit MarketDataForecast Blog @ http://www.marketdataforecast.com/blog/ View latest Press Releases of MDF @ http://www.marketdataforecast.com/press-releases
Europe Feed Binders Market By Livestock (Ruminants, Poultry, Swine, Others), By Type (Gelatin, Molasses, Clay, Plant Gums & Starches, Hemicellulose, CMC & Other Hydrocolloids, Lignosulphonates, Wheat Gluten & Middlings, Others), By Region - Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends And Forecasts (20162021)

PR-Inside.com: 2017-12-20 10:56:07

Press Information

Market Data Forecast

531/MIG-II, Rd Number 1, Kukatpally Housing Board Colony, Kukatpally, Hyderabad, Telangana 500072.



Abhishek Shukla

Sales Manager

+1-888-702-9626

email

http://www.marketdataforecast.com/





# 844 Words

531/MIG-II, Rd Number 1, Kukatpally Housing Board Colony, Kukatpally, Hyderabad, Telangana 500072.Sales Manager+1-888-702-9626

The Europe Feed Binders Market size was around USD 780 million in 2016. It is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.8% to reach USD 940 million by 2021. It captures 20% of the global market.Feed binders are employed for several purposes such as improving animal digestion, enhancing the nutrition value of feed, and reducing feed wastage.Feed binders produce nutritious and safe products along with preventing the feeds from disintegrating. They further aid the production of water stable and easy consumable feeds. Feed binders aid in enhancing the feed quality, therby improving the health and performance of animals, which, in turn enhances the quality of food and yield produced from animals. They are also utilized for varying quantities and concentration depending on the species. The advantages of feed binders include better animal performance, disease control, and enhanced material handling. Feed conversion is preferred over pelleted feed comparatively which comprises feed fed as mash. Steadily growing cost of raw materials of feed binders is likely to hinder the growth of the global feed binder market and pose threat to the industry players over the coming years.Get Full Report @ http://marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/europe-feed-binders-market-3843/ One of the major factors fuelling the growth of the global feed binders market is the growing consumption of various kinds of non-vegetarian food worldwide. In addition, the shift in consumer preference towards pallet shaped feed is also likely to bolster the demand for feed binders in the near future. Furthermore, the growing trend of organized farming is lifting the consumption of compound feeds by backyard farms and domestic feed integrators. The rising awareness regarding animal health among farmers is also another chief factor that is estimated to boost the growth of the global feed binders market.However, the growing cost of raw materials is likely to act as a prime inhibitor in the growth of the market. The market is also likely to be adversely impacted by the barriers to entry as old players keep challenging the entry of new players.The Europe Feed Binders Market can be categorized into three categories: by brand, by type and by livestock. On the basis of brand the market is segmented into Darling Ingredients Inc.: Pro-Bind Plus, Roquette Freres: Clearam, E.I.Dupont De Nemours and Company (Nutrition & Health): Grindsted, Archer Daniels Midland Co., and Borregaard ASA. If we go by type the market is segmented into Clay, Plant Gums & Starches (Plant Gums, Starches), Lignosulphonates, Hemicellulose, CMC & Other Hydrocolloids (Lignosulphonates, Hemicellulose, Carboxymethylcellulose, Other Hydrocolloids), Gelatin, Molasses, Wheat Gluten & Middlings and others.Download Free Sample Report @ http://marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/europe-feed-binders-market-3843/request-sample By geography, the Europe Feed Binders Market has been categorized into UK, Spain, Germany, France and others. It is third largest in terms of market share. UK is the leading player in the region.Major companies in the Feed Binders Market are Darling Ingredients Inc. (U.S.), Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) (U.S.), E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (U.S.), FMC Corporation (U.S.), Roquette Freres (France), and Borregaard ASA (Norway).Inquire before buying @ http://marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/europe-feed-binders-market-3843/inquire Scope of the Report: Regional and country-level analysis and forecasts of the study market; providing Insights on the major countries/regions in which this industry is blooming and to also identify the regions that are still untapped Segment-level analysis in terms by livestock and type along with market size forecasts and estimations to detect key areas of industry growth in detail Identification of key drivers, restraints, opportunities and challenges (DROC) in the market and their impact on shifting market dynamics Study of the effect of exogenous and endogenous factors that affect the global market; which includes broadly demographic, economic and political, among other macro-environmental factors presented in an extensive PESTLE Analysis Study the micro environment factors that determine the overall profitability of an Industry, using Porters five forces analysis for analyzing the level of competition and business strategy development A comprehensive list of key market players along with their product portfolio, current strategic interests, key financial information, legal issues, SWOT analysis and analyst overview to study and sustain the market environment Competitive landscape analysis listing out the mergers, acquisitions, collaborations in the field along with new product launches, comparative financial studies and recent developments in the market by the major companies An executive summary, abridging the entire report in such a way that decision-making personnel can rapidly become acquainted with background information, concise analysis and main conclusions Expertly devised analyst overview along with Investment opportunities to provide both individuals and organizations a strong financial foothold in the marketAbout us:Market Data Forecast is a firm working in the area of market research and business intelligence. With rich experience in research across various business domains, they cater to the needs of both individual and corporate clients. From all-encompassing umbrella markets to extremely specific niche markets covering all the major regions across the globe as part of the research scope, their research services offer one of a kind specialties with competitive pricing options.For more information, kindly visit, www.marketdataforecast.com
Europe Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Market By Product - (software And Services) By Technology, by Application And By Region - Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, And Forecasts(20172022)

Europe Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Market

PR-Inside.com: 2017-12-20 11:25:25

Press Information

Market Data Forecast

531/MIG-II, Rd Number 1, Kukatpally Housing Board Colony, Kukatpally, Hyderabad, Telangana, India



Abhishek

Sales Manager

+1-888-702-9626

email

http://www.marketdataforecast.com/





# 1023 Words

531/MIG-II, Rd Number 1, Kukatpally Housing Board Colony, Kukatpally, Hyderabad, Telangana, IndiaSales Manager+1-888-702-9626

According to the report Europe Next generation sequencing market, published by Market Data Forecast, the market was worth USD 0.96 billion by the end of 2015 and projected to reach USD 2.33 billion by 2020, at a CAGR of 19.3% from 2015 to 2020.Next Generation Sequencing is a modern technology which assist in sequencing of DNA and RNA much more quickly and cheaply than the Sanger sequencing which transformed the study of genomics and molecular biology. This technique is also known as high throughput sequencing. Its arrival minimizes the requirement for fragment-cloning methods used in Sanger sequencing of genomes. Low cost, high accuracy and speed, and precise results even from low sample input are the main advantages NGS offers over Sangers sequencing method.Get a comprehensive overview of the Europe Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) market: http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/europe-next-generation-sequencing-market-118/ Europe Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) market: Drivers & RestraintsTechnological advancements in NGS platforms and it is emerging at a rapid pace, due to its increasing application in clinical diagnosis, increasing applications of NGS, growing partnerships & collaborations, speed, cost, and accuracy of the technology, efficient replacement of traditional technologies, increasing adoption of NGS among research laboratories and academic institutes, and the decline in the cost of sequencing are driving the growth of this market. However, interpretation of complex data, accuracy and standardization concerns in diagnostic testing, legal & ethical issues and the lack of skilled technical personnel are some of the key factors limiting the growth of the market.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Europe Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) market. Request a sample to stay up-to-date on the main trends affecting this market: http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/europe-next-generation-sequencing-market-118/request-sample Europe Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) market: Segmentation By Producto Softwareo Services By Technologyo Whole Targeted Re-Sequencingo Genome Sequencingo De Novo Sequencingo Exome Sequencingo RNA-Seqo ChIP-Seqo Methyl-Seq By Applicationo Diagnosticso Drug Discoveryo Biomarker Discoveryo Personalized Medicineo Agriculture and Animals ResearchFrom simple data collation through secondary and primary research to ad-hoc research requests relating to specific information, we provide our services via customization. Get customization at http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/europe-next-generation-sequencing-market-118/customize-report Europe Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) market: OverviewNext generation sequencing is used to execute various applications such as biomarker discovery, oncology studies, personalized medicine, agricultural & animal research, and others. The arrival of next generation sequencing technologies has brought noteworthy changes in the sequencing process by providing speed, flexibility and reduced sequencing cost over thousand folds. Next generation sequencing has streamlined nucleotide analysis and has widely replaced conventional tools of genomics, especially microarray efficiently.Europe Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) market: Region-wise OutlookThe Europe market has been geographically segmented into Germany, U.K, France, Spain, and Italy. After North America, Europe has the largest share in the market due to the technological advancements in the healthcare sector, government funding for translational research, and rising partnerships & agreements among market players.Key Questions Answered What is the current and future Next Generation Sequencing market outlook in Europe? What trends are affecting the Europe market? What is the competitive landscape and market share of major players in the Next Generation Sequencing in Europe? What are the key, high growth markets that Next Generation Sequencing should expand into? Which market segments are growing the fastest? What are the unmet needs with the Next Generation Sequencing currently on the market? How will emerging technologies fulfil these unmet needs? What is physician perception and market outlook of Next Generation Sequencing? What are the challenges and barriers that have hindered widespread adoption of Next Generation Sequencing?Europe Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) market: Key PlayersKey players in the Next generation sequencing market are Illumina Incorporated, Thermo Fischer Scientific, Life Sciences (Roche), Pacific Biosciences, Life Technologies Corp. (Thermo Fischer Scientific), Macrogen Inc., Partek Inc., Genomatix Software GmbH, Perkin Elmer inc.,GATC Biotech Ag, Agilent Technologies Inc., Biomatters Ltd., CLC Bio (Qiagen), BGI (Beijing Genomics Institute), Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd.,Pacific Biosciences, DNASTAR Inc., Knome Inc., Illumina Inc., and Qiagen N.V.Reasons to buy Europe Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Market Report: Regional and country-level analysis and forecasts of the study market; providing Insights on the geographical areas in which this industry is prospering Segment-level analysis on basis of product type, application, colour along with market size forecasts and y-o-y estimations to detect key areas of industry growth in detail Identification of key drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges (DROC) in the market and their impact on shifting market dynamics Study of macro and micro environmental factors that affect the market presented in an extensive strategic analyses section containing PESTLE and Porters Five Forces Analyses A comprehensive listing of key market players along with company overview, product portfolios, key financial information (subjected to availability), SWOT analysis and Analyst overview to study and sustain the market environment Competitive landscape analysis listing out the mergers, acquisitions, collaborations in the field along with new product launches, comparative financial studies and recent developments in the market by the major companies Expertly devised Market Outlook along with Investment opportunities to provide both individuals and organizations a strong financial foothold in the marketCheckout other related studies in the Biotechnology Segment:Global Next Generation Sequencing Market: http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/global-next-generation-sequencing-market-116/ Europe Biomaterials Market: http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/europe-biomaterials-market-19/ Europe Biobanks Market: http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/europe-biobanks-market-487/ About Market Data Forecast:Market Data Forecast is a firm working in the area of market research and business intelligence. With rich experience in research across various business domains, they cater to the needs of both individual and corporate clients. From all-encompassing umbrella markets to extremely specific niche markets covering all the major regions across the globe as part of the research scope, their research services offer one of a kind specialities with competitive pricing options.For more information, kindly visit, www.marketdataforecast.com Contact:Abhishek ShuklaSales Manager (International Business Development)Market Data ForecastDirect Line: +1-888-702-9626Mobile: +91 998 555 0206Mail: abhishek@ marketdataforecast.com Visit Market Data Forecast Blog @ http://www.marketdataforecast.com/blog/ View latest Press Releases of MDF @ http://www.marketdataforecast.com/press-releases
Europe Therapeutic Vaccines Market by Disease Type (Autoimmune Disease, Cancer, Neurological Disease, Infectious Disease) and by region - Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecasts (20162021)

Europe Therapeutic Vaccines Market

PR-Inside.com: 2017-12-20 12:40:44

Press Information

Market Data Forecast

531/MIG-II, Rd Number 1, Kukatpally Housing Board Colony, Kukatpally, Hyderabad, Telangana, India



Abhishek

Sales Manager

+1-888-702-9626

email

http://www.marketdataforecast.com/





# 931 Words

531/MIG-II, Rd Number 1, Kukatpally Housing Board Colony, Kukatpally, Hyderabad, Telangana, IndiaSales Manager+1-888-702-9626

According to the report Therapeutic Vaccines, published by Market Data Forecast, the Europe market is projected to reach USD 1.16 billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 31.46% from 2016 to 2021.Therapeutic vaccines help in treating diseases by strengthening of the immune system. Presently, several approaches are being developed in pipeline in order to boost the immune system response to various cancerous and infectious and cells. There are presently around 120 new vaccines in the pipeline of many multinational companies across the planet which are set to hit the market in the coming few years.Get a comprehensive overview of the Europe Therapeutic Vaccines: http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/europe-therapeutic-vaccines-market-74/ Europe Therapeutic Vaccines: Drivers & RestraintsThe Therapeutic Vaccine market is different from any other commodity market since compared to its relatively small size, it looks as if the market is doing well. The reason is that the vaccine market is concentrated on both demand and supply sides. Though the market is highly regulated in Europe and mostly dependent on public donor policies and purchasers, it seems to be flourishing due to availability of resources in this particular region and recent onset of many epidemics. Increased funding from government for vaccine development, rising investments by the major market players, growing prevalence of disease, growing technological advancements, initiatives taken by NGOs are few factors which are resulting in the market growth. However, stringent regulatory policies and massive capital expenditures, high cost associated with treatment are few factors restraining the growth of the market.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Europe Therapeutic Vaccines. Request a sample to stay up-to-date on the main trends affecting this market: http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/europe-therapeutic-vaccines-market-74/request-sample Europe Therapeutic Vaccines: SegmentationBy Disease Type Autoimmune Disease Vaccines Cancer Vaccineso Multikineo PR1 Peptideo TroVaxo CYT004-MelQbG10 Neurological Disease Vaccineso ACC- 001o CAD 106o Parkinson's Disease Vaccineo Alzheimer's Disease Infectious Disease Vaccineso Hepatitis Co HIV/AIDSo Other Infectious DiseaseFrom simple data collection through secondary and primary research to ad-hoc research requests relating to specific information, we provide our services via customization. Get customization at: http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/europe-therapeutic-vaccines-market-74/customize-report Europe Therapeutic Vaccines: OverviewFactors like rising incidence of diseases and technological advancements are affecting the growth of this market positively. However, the growth of this market is restrained by factors such as the requirement for massive capital expenditures and high cost associated with treatment.Europe Therapeutic Vaccines: Region-wise OutlookThe market for Therapeutic Vaccines in Europe region is divided based on geography into United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany and Spain. Europe has the second largest market for therapeutic vaccines in the world by share, after North America region.Key Questions Answered What is the current and future Therapeutic Vaccines outlook in Europe market? What trends are affecting the Europe market? What is the competitive landscape and market share of major players in the Therapeutic Vaccines space in Europe market? What are the key, high growth markets that Therapeutic Vaccines manufacturers should expand into? Which market segments are growing the fastest? What are the unmet needs with the Therapeutic Vaccines currently on the market? How will emerging technologies fulfil these unmet needs? What is physician perception and market outlook of Therapeutic Vaccines? What are the challenges and barriers that have hindered widespread adoption of Therapeutic Vaccines?Europe Therapeutic Vaccines: Key PlayersSome of the major companies dominating Europe Therapeutic Vaccines Market are GlaxoSmithKline, plc., Merck and Company, Bavarian Nordic, CSL Limited, Emergent BioSolutions Inc., Novartis AG, Johnson and Johnson, MedImmune, LLC, Pfizer, Inc., and Sanofi Pasteur.Reasons to buy Europe Therapeutic Vaccines Report: Regional and country-level analysis and forecasts of the study market; providing Insights on the geographical areas in which this industry is prospering Segment-level analysis on basis of product type, application, colour along with market size forecasts and y-o-y estimations to detect key areas of industry growth in detail Identification of key drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges (DROC) in the market and their impact on shifting market dynamics Study of macro and micro environmental factors that affect the market presented in an extensive strategic analyses section containing PESTLE and Porters Five Forces Analyses A comprehensive listing of key market players along with company overview, product portfolios, key financial information (subjected to availability), SWOT analysis and Analyst overview to study and sustain the market environment Competitive landscape analysis listing out the mergers, acquisitions, collaborations in the field along with new product launches, comparative financial studies and recent developments in the market by the major companies Expertly devised Market Outlook along with Investment opportunities to provide both individuals and organizations a strong financial foothold in the marketCheckout other related studies in the Europe Healthcare Segment:Anticoccidial Drugs Market: http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/europe-anticoccidial-drugs-market-23/ Therapeutic Vaccines Market: http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/europe-therapeutic-vaccines-market-74/ About Market Data Forecast:Market Data Forecast is a firm working in the area of market research and business intelligence. With rich experience in research across various business domains, they cater to the needs of both individual and corporate clients. From all-encompassing umbrella markets to extremely specific niche markets covering all the major regions across the globe as part of the research scope, their research services offer one of a kind specialities with competitive pricing options.For more information, kindly visit, www.marketdataforecast.com Contact:Abhishek ShuklaSales Manager (International Business Development)Market Data ForecastDirect Line: +1-888-702-9626Mobile: +91 998 555 0206Mail: abhishek@ marketdataforecast.com Visit Market Data Forecast Blog @ http://www.marketdataforecast.com/blog/ View latest Press Releases of MDF @ http://www.marketdataforecast.com/press-releases
Orphan Drugs Market by Type (Biological and Non Biological), by Therapeutic (Haematology, Neurology, Oncology, and Others) and by Region - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecasts (20162021)

We Think Through Different Layers, We Work Across Different Verticals

PR-Inside.com: 2017-12-20 13:15:05

Press Information

Market Data Forecast

USA



Abhishek Shukla

Sales Manager (International Business Development)

+1-888-702-9626

email

http://www.marketdataforecast.com





# 737 Words

USASales Manager (International Business Development)+1-888-702-9626

Global Orphan Drugs Market was worth $113.99 billion in 2016 and estimated to be growing at a CAGR of 7.86%, to reach $166.40 billion by 2021. An orphan drug is a medicinal agent that has been created exclusively to treat an exceptional medical condition, the ailment itself being denoted to as an orphan disease.View report: http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/global-orphan-drugs-market-1676/ An orphan disease affects a tiny percentage of the populace. Most of the rare illnesses are genetic, and thus are existent throughout the individual's entire life, even if the symptoms do not appear straightaway.The growth of the Global Orphan Drugs Market is mainly driven by factors such as extended market exclusivity, rise in cognizance for prompt diagnosis, and improving healthcare infrastructure in developing countries. Moreover, government enticements in the form of endowments, tax credits, and fees waivers are the other major factors boosting the growth of the market. However, factors such as costly procedures & high initial investment, regulatory obstacles and clinical studies hurdles are hindering the growth of the market.Download free sample report: http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/global-orphan-drugs-market-1676/request-sample The Global Orphan Drugs market is segmented based on Type and Therapeutic. The market for Orphan Drugs, on the basis of Type is segmented into Biological and Non Biological. Non Biological Orphan Drugs lead the global market, on the basis of type with more than 60% of the market share. On the basis of Therapeutic, the global Orphan Drugs market is segmented into Haematology, Neurology, Oncology, and Others. On the basis of Therapeutics, Neurology accounts for almost 40% of the entire global market share.The market has also been geographically segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Middle-East & Africa. U.S accounted for the largest share in the global Orphan Drugs market in 2015, as it spends nearly 20% of its GDP on health. The global market outlook is projected to be positive as more and more governments are adopting policies to encourage this sector, especially in the developing countries.Request discount report: http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/global-orphan-drugs-market-1676/request-discount Presently, the market for orphan drugs represents only about 6% of the complete pharmaceutical market. An extremely conducive environment currently prevails for the growth of the orphan drugs market, thereby encouraging the entry of more companies into the market. The major companies dominating the global Orphan Drugs market are Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, Roche, Alexion, Sanofi, Bristol Myers Squibb, Pfizer, Vertex, Celgene, and Merck.Buy now: https://www.marketdataforecast.com/cart/buy-now/global-orphan-drugs-market-1676 Market Segmentation:Type Introduction Biological Non Biological Y-o-Y Growth Analysis, By TypeTherapeutic Haematology Neurology Oncology OthersScope of the report: Global, Regional and country-level analysis and forecasts of the study market; providing Insights on the major countries/regions in which this industry is blooming and to also identify the regions that are still untapped Segment-level analysis in terms of technology, component, and type along with market size forecasts and estimations to detect key areas of industry growth in detail Identification of key drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges (DROC) in the market and their impact on shifting market dynamics Study of the effect of exogenous and endogenous factors that affect the global market; which includes broadly demographic, economics, and political, among other macro-environmental factors presented in an extensive PESTLE Analysis Study the micro environment factors that determine the overall profitability of an Industry, using Porters five forces analysis for analysing the level of competition and business strategy development A comprehensive list of key market players along with their product portfolio, current strategic interests, key financial information, legal issues, SWOT analysis and analyst overview to study and sustain the market environment Competitive landscape analysis listing out the mergers, acquisitions, collaborations in the field along with new product launches, comparative financial studies and recent developments in the market by the major companies An executive summary, abridging the entire report in such a way that decision-making personnel can rapidly become acquainted with background information, concise analysis and main conclusions Expertly devised analyst overview along with Investment opportunities to provide both individuals and organizations a strong financial foothold in the marketAbout Us:Market Data Forecast is a firm working in the area of market research and business intelligence. With rich experience in research across various business domains, we cater to the needs of both individual and corporate clients. Our analyst team comprises expert professionals in market research, who with their collective knowledge and skillset dedicatedly serve clients from various industries and regions.
PR-Inside.com: 2017-12-20 11:59:02

KKR: An Affiliate of Sun European Partners LLP Announces That It Has Agreed to Acquire a Majority Stake in Afriflora

For Sun European Partners

FTI Consulting

Fergus Wheeler / Alex Le May

+44 20 3727 1522 / 1308

suneuropean.sc@fticonsulting.com

or

For KKR

Finsbury

Alastair Elwen

+44 207 251 3801

alastair.elwen@finsbury.com

An affiliate of Sun European Partners, LLP ("Sun European Partners"), today announces that it has entered into an agreement with KKR to acquire a majority stake in Afriflora (the Company), the worlds largest grower of roses, alongside the Barnhoorn family. The proposed transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals.

Afriflora is the leading supplier of quality roses at fair trade standards to Europe. Established in 2005 by the Barnhoorn family, Afriflora has over 11,000 employees. The Company is headquartered in Aalsmeer, Holland and operates three farms in Ethiopia covering 500 hectares. It cultivates, produces and sells over 1.1 billion stem roses annually with the majority of these to the European market.

The Barnhoorn family, who are the founders and significant shareholders of the Company, are to remain as shareholders and directors in the Afriflora group. With the support of Sun European Partners, they will continue to run the business with a focus on customer service and implementing best environmental and social practices, and with a sense of responsibility for local communities in Ethiopia.

Peter Barnhoorn, CEO of Afriflora said; Our new shareholder will help Afriflora to achieve its growth aims and expedite its continued development. Our company has for many years been committed to investing in the local marketplace and building a future not only for the business but also for the workforce who have supported us through our growth and development, and this will not change. We would like to thank KKR for the support they have provided us to date and look forward to an exciting future working alongside Sun European Partners to take this company to the next level.

Paul Daccus, Managing Director at Sun European Partners, said; Afriflora is a world leader in an attractive sector that we know very well. We look forward to working with the Barnhoorn family and the management team over the coming years, to support the continued development and success of the business.

Nicolas Gheysens, Managing Director at KKR, said; We have been pleased with our partnership with Afriflora and the Barnhoorn family. Over the past years Afriflora has further strengthened its leadership position in its key markets but we are also proud to have contributed  together with the Barnhoorn family  to the development of the region. We wish Afriflora, Sun and the Barnhoorn family continued success.

Sun European Partners has significant experience making acquisitions in the horticulture sector. Its affiliated portfolio companies include Flamingo Horticulture, a vertically integrated horticulture business.

For further information on Afriflora, please visit www.afriflora.nl/en/.

Sun European Partners was advised by Rabobank, Kirkland & Ellis, Houlihan Lokey, and Ernst & Young. The Barnhoorn family and KKR were advised by William Blair, Clifford Chance, Van Benthem & Keulen, Deloitte, and Londen & Van Holland.

-ENDS-

About Sun European Partners, LLP

Sun European Partners, LLP is a leading private investment advisory firm, focused on identifying companies untapped potential and leveraging its deep operational and financial resources to transform results. Sun European is a trusted partner that is recognised for its investment and operational experience, including particular expertise in the consumer products and services, food and beverage, industrial, packaging, chemicals, building products, automotive, restaurant and retail sectors. Since 1995, affiliates of Sun European have invested in more than 345 companies worldwide across a broad range of industries and transaction structures with turnover in excess of 43 billion. Further information on Sun European Partners, LLP is available at www.SunEuropeanPartners.com.

About KKR

KKR is a leading global investment firm that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit and, through its strategic manager partnerships, hedge funds. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and driving growth and value creation with KKR portfolio companies. KKR invests its own capital alongside its partners' capital and provides financing solutions and investment opportunities through its capital markets business. References to KKRs investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds. For additional information about KKR & Co. L.P. (NYSE: KKR), please visit KKR's website at www.kkr.com and on Twitter @KKR_Co.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201712200054
In case of heat sensitive materials and the items which are more prone to damage due to the repeated exposure to heat, chemical sterilization methods is preferred over the high heat sterilization methods.

Sterilization Equipment and Disinfectants Market

PR-Inside.com: 2017-12-20 09:19:00

Press Information

Coherent Market Insights

1001 4th Ave,



#3200



Seattle, WA 98154



Tel: +1-206-701-6702



Mr. Shah

CEO

+1-206-701-6702

email

https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com





# 907 Words

1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702CEO+1-206-701-6702

Sterilization is process of killing all micro-organisms and pathogens to avoid contamination by means of using physical or chemical treatment. Conversely disinfection is a process to control the growth of micro-organisms and kill a define class of micro-organisms. Disinfection targets narrow spectrum bacteria leaving bacterial spores intact, while sterilization works on broad spectrum micro-organisms. Autoclave uses high pressure and steam to sterilize solid and glass instruments, and liquid mediums in biotechnology, research and pathology laboratories. It is the predominantly used sterilization equipment due to its convenient usability and low maintenance operation. Different types of sterilization techniques offers distinct sets of advantages. In case of heat sensitive materials and the items which are more prone to damage due to the repeated exposure to heat, chemical sterilization methods is preferred over the high heat sterilization methods.Request Sample Copy of the Report: https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/1111 Furthermore, rising incidence of hospital acquired infections (HAIs), is driving the need for sterilization and disinfectants in hospitals. According to the FDAs guideline for disinfection and sterilization in healthcare facilities, failure to attempt proper sterilization and disinfection leads risk of person-to-person disease host transmission. Further, it has been stated by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that hospitals in the U.S. with proper sterilization techniques and equipment will be granted Medicare positive payment adjustment in 2017. These will further encourage the use of proper sterilization equipment and disinfectants.However, high cost of maintenance and replacement parts is a still a hurdle on large scale adoption of sterilization equipment in developing economies. Besides, stringent government regulations laid by National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) associated with the use of toxic gas such as ethylene oxide during gas sterilization of heat sensitive devices such as electrical, rubber and plastic equipment in hospitals, is critical to be followed to avoid environmental and health issues.Sterilization equipment and Disinfectants market taxonomy:By Method:Physical method,Dry heat sterilization,Moist heat sterilization,Ionizing radiation sterilization,Chemical method,Gaseous sterilization,Disinfectant,Mechanical method,Filtration sterilization,.By Product TypeSterilization equipment,Autoclave,Hot Air Oven,Filters,Disinfectants,.By End-userHospitals,Pharmaceutical companies,Clinical laboratories,.Request Customization: https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-customization/1111 Rising numbers of Hospital acquired infections (HAIs) to fuel the growth of sterilization and disinfectants marketHospital acquired infections (HAIs) are among the key factors driving the demand for sterilization equipment and disinfectants. According to the HAI Prevalence survey report, 2014, there were 722,000 acute cases of HAIs in the U.S. hospitals of which there were 75,000 deaths during hospitalization.Moreover, the top 5 HAIs - surgical site infections, ventilator associated pneumonia, central line-associated bloodstream infection, C.difficile infections and catheter associated pneumonia are responsible for the major healthcare expenditure. According to the CDC, Clostridium difficile,a bacteria predominantly present in intestine, is responsible for causing infection of intestinal colon and is a major cause of healthcare acquired infections in the U.S. hospitals resulting in US $4.8 billion spend each year on acute healthcare facility.Developed regions are major growth engines of the sterilization equipment and disinfectants marketNorth America dominated the sterilization equipment and disinfectants market. This is owing to high prevalence of the hospital acquired infections (HAIs) such as urinary tract infections, surgical site infections, bloodstream infections and respiratory pneumonia and skin infections.A recent incident encountered in 2017, from a childrens hospital in New Orleans (United States) where at least a dozen of children who underwent cardiac surgery contacted a rare surgical site infection caused bymycobacterium abscessus. The infection was touted to be caused due to the improper disinfection of operating room equipment. According to CDC, mycobacterium abscessus have been known to contaminate medical devices and lead to skin infections. These encourages the further need to follow proper sterilization and disinfection procedures to avoid possible cause of HAIs in near future.High turnover rate of sterile processing technicians will act as constraint challenging factor for the market growthThe sterilization departments in the hospitals of the U.S. face a major challenge of increased turnover rate of sterile processing technicians. Continuous advancement in the surgical devices fuels the demand for highly trained technicians, which hospitals struggle to keep pace with. However, a wise investment in sterile processing equipment will offset the capital cost required to hire and train a new technician.Major advancements to support growth of sterilization equipment and disinfectants market:Key players operating in the sterilization equipment and disinfectants market include 3M Company, STERIS Corporation, Getinge Group, Cantel Medical Corporation, Andersen Products Inc., Advanced Sterilization Products and HARTMANN GROUP (BODE Chemie GmbH is subsidiary company of HARTMANN GROUP). Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the new Biological Indictor (BI) sterilization testing kit from 3M Company Inc., meaning that hospitals can know the sterilization status of their surgical devices within 24 minutes of this test. The technique is much quicker than the present biological indicators present in the market.To know more about the Sterilization Equipment and Disinfectants Market, click the link below: https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/sterilization-equipment-and-disinfectants-market-1111 About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@ coherentmarketinsights.com Visit our news Website: http://www.coherentnews.com
PR-Inside.com: 2017-12-20 09:18:53

Press Information

JCB Co., Ltd.

Tokyo



Kumiko Kida

Corporate Communications

+81-3-5778-8353

email

http://www.global.jcb/en/





# 757 Words

TokyoCorporate Communications+81-3-5778-8353

Hanoi and Tokyo, Dec 20, 2017 - (ACN Newswire) - Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), a major telecommunication group in Vietnam; Vietinbank, one of the largest state-owned banks in Vietnam and JCB International Co. Ltd. (JCBI), the international operations subsidiary of JCB Co., Ltd. ("JCB"), today announced the launch of the Vietinbank-VNPT-JCB Co-branded card (Vpoint Card) in Vietnam.The Vpoint Card is the first point card in the market which allows millions of consumers to earn points by spending at any merchant in the Vpoint network. As a result of the comprehensive co-operation among VNPT, Vietinbank and JCB, Vpoint Card can also be used at JCB's nation-wide merchant network in Vietnam as well as JCB's international merchant network with around 30 million locations globally.The card works not only as an international credit card but also as a Vpoint membership card at the same time. All the cardmembers can enjoy JCB privileges such as JCB Plaza & JCB Plaza Lounge, staffed service counters for JCB cardmembers located around the world. In addition, promotions and discounts of up to 50% will be offered at famous & popular Vpoint merchants like restaurants, taxis, spas, supermarkets and travel agencies.Furthermore, for each purchase with the card, a certain number of Vpoints would be earned which then could be redeemed for many attractive gifts. Currently, the Vpoint community is a fast growing network with more than 2,000 selective & popular merchants such as Kichi Kichi, Saigon Tourist, VinaSun, VnTrip and Bibomart.Mr. Pham Anh Tuan, Deputy General Director of VNPT Vinaphone, commented "On behalf of VNPT, I am very pleased to announce that we are issuing Vpoint Card. This partnership among VNPT, Vietinbank and JCB will strengthen the ties between our business and the two countries of Vietnam & Japan. Our customers can enjoy all the various attractive benefits developed by not only VNPT but also Vietinbank and JCB." Mr. Kimihisa Imada, President & COO of JCB International, said, "I am delighted to establish a close partnership with VNPT as one of the largest telecommunication groups in Vietnam with nearly 40 million customers. JCB cards have been issued in Vietnam since 2011, and we have a strong commitment to the development of the Vietnam cashless payment market, and offer a unique payment experience to our customers. We are convinced that this first endeavor co-brand card will be popular in Vietnam as it is in Japan. I am confident that the Vpoint Card would be successful as it directly inherits VNPT's huge potential customer database, in additional to our diversified privileges as well as outstanding banking services by Vietinbank." About VietinbankAs one of the leading commercial banks in Vietnam, VietinBank always takes the lead in providing a variety of banking products and services, of international standards. In particular, VietinBank card products and services have received the trust of numerous customers across the country. Until now, the card business activities of VietinBank has achieved encouraging results, being the market leader in Vietnam cards market with more than 23% market share of the domestic debit card; approximately 30% market share of the international card; nearly 33% market share in developing POS payment system in Vietnam, etc. VietinBank card products and services are in species diversity with remarkable utilities, which gives customer satisfaction and contributes to VietinBank's pole position in the Vietnam market.About VNPT VinaPhone Corporation (VinaPhone)Vinaphone is a Vietnamese major mobile network operator. Founded on 26 June 1996, as a GSM launcher, Vinaphone is the second network and currently the second largest provider in Vietnam. As a member of Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Corporation, in 1999 VNPT VinaPhone was the first network to cover service in 100% of districts nationwide, including districts in mountainous or remote areas. VinaPhone was the first network operator to launch 3G services nationwide. VinaPhone's 3G, 4G coverage is up to 90% of Vietnam's territory and international roaming to 1.200 service - providers of 100 countries, with the total of 40,000 BTS in Vietnam and in several countries in Asia-Pacific region. Currently, VinaPhone has 30 million mobile subscribes with over 7,000 customer service centers in 63 provinces.About JCBJCB is a major global payment brand and a leading payment card issuer and acquirer in Japan. JCB launched its card business in Japan in 1961 and began expanding worldwide in 1981. As part of its international growth strategy, JCB has formed alliances with hundreds of leading banks and financial institutions globally to increase merchant coverage and card member base. As a comprehensive payment solution provider, JCB commits to provide responsive and high-quality service and products to all customers worldwide. For more information, please visit: www.global.jcb/en/
PR-Inside.com: 2017-12-20 00:31:14

Press Information





Published by

ACCESSWIRE News Network

888.952.4446

e-mail

http://www.accesswire.com







# 401 Words

ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446

FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Vanadium One Energy Corp.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Toronto, Ontario (FSCWire) - Vanadium One Energy Corp. (TSX Venture:VONE). has issued a press release with the following headline:Vanadium One Energy Announces Closing of Private Placement FinancingTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Vanadium One Energy Corp., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/Vanadium One Energy Corp.Source: Vanadium One Energy Corp. (TSX Venture: VONE, FWB: 9VR1, WKN: A2DKRC, ISIN: CA92142L1094)Date: December 19, 2017Time: 6:31 PM EST--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Vanadium One Energy Corp. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2017 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)
PR-Inside.com: 2017-12-20 11:11:56

Press Information

Market Data Forecast

531/MIG-II, Rd Number 1, Kukatpally Housing Board Colony, Kukatpally, Hyderabad, Telangana 500072.



Abhishek Shukla

Sales Manager (International Business Development)

+1-888-702-9626

email

http://www.marketdataforecast.com





# 814 Words

531/MIG-II, Rd Number 1, Kukatpally Housing Board Colony, Kukatpally, Hyderabad, Telangana 500072.Sales Manager (International Business Development)+1-888-702-9626

Global Western blotting market is anticipated to grow at a 5.1% CAGR from 2016 to 2021 and it is estimated that the global market was valued at USD 574.80 million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD 737.11 million by 2021.The western blot is an extensively used technique in molecular biology, immunogenetics, and other molecular biology fields to identify specific proteins in a sample of tissue homogenate or extract. Synthetic or animal-derived antibodies are created to react with the specific target protein. The sample to be tested is prepared and put together with these antibodies on a membrane. After a gel electrophoresis, if the specific protein is present, it will result in an accordingly stained band on the western blot.Get a comprehensive overview of the Market: http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/western-blotting-market-5085/ Increase in research activities and R&D spending by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and rising prevalence of HIV/AIDS are the primary drivers of the market. Factors such as growing proteomics market, the growing number of industry-academic research collaborations, increasing demand for personalized medicine, and new product launches are further expected to drive the growth of the western blotting market in the coming years. Be that as it may, the emergence of alternative technologies is anticipated to restrain the growth of the market. Furthermore, stringent regulations and requirement of high procedural efficiency for accurate results are likely to challenge the western blotting market in the coming years. However, automation in western blotting instruments is projected to pose lucrative opportunities for the western blotting market.Request a sample to stay up-to-date on the main trends affecting this market: http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/western-blotting-market-5085/request-sample The global market for Western Blotting market is segmented into Product, Application and End User. On the basis of product, it is segmented into Instruments and Consumables. The consumables segment is expected to have the largest share in this segment of western blotting market. This is mainly due to factors such as an increase in the use of western blotting in research & diagnosis and rise in the number of incidences of diseases that require western blotting for diagnosis. The western blotting instrument is further segmented into gel electrophoresis instruments, blotting systems, and images. The blotting systems segment is projected to account for the largest share in this market segment. The large share of this segment is attributed to high sensitivity, low run time, and high efficiency.Inquire Before Buying: http://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/western-blotting-market-5085/inquire On the basis of application, it is segmented into Biomedical & Biochemical Research and Disease Diagnostics. The biomedical & biochemical research segment is expected to hold the largest share of this segment of western blotting market. This is mainly due to the increase in government spending on proteomics research, and rise in R&D spending by pharmaceutical & biotechnology companies in drug discovery and development. However, the disease diagnostics segment is projected to grow at the highest in the coming years. This can be credited to rise in prevalence and incidences of HIV, HSV, HBV, and Lyme disease, among others. On the basis of end user, it is segmented into Academic & Research Institutes and Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology Companies. Pharmaceutical and biotech companies segment will lead with the maximum share of this market segment. However, research institutions segment is expected to have the highest growth rate, followed by diagnostic laboratories segment with the least share in this market segment.On the basis of geography, the market is analyzed under various regions namely North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Middle East and Africa. North-America accounts for the largest share of the market. This can be attributed to the increase in the prevalence of HIV and Lyme disease, U.S.China collaborative program for biomedical research, increase in research funding and rising production of genetically modified crops in the U.S., HIV vaccine initiative, and growth in the intensity of pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical clinical research in Canada. In the coming years, Asia-Pacific region is expected to witness the highest growth in the western blotting market, with emphasis on India, China, and Japan.Some of the companies dominating the market are Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., GE Healthcare, Advansta, Inc., LI-COR Biosciences, PerkinElmer Inc., Bio-Techne Corporation, Merck KGaA, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., and Cell Signaling Technology. Market SegmentationProductIntroductionInstrumentsGel Electrophoresis InstrumentsBlotting SystemsWet Blotting SystemsSemi-Dry Blotting SystemsImagersChemiluminescent ImagersFluorescent ImagersOther ImagersConsumablesReagentsKitsOther ConsumablesApplicationIntroductionBiomedical & Biochemical ResearchDisease DiagnosticsAgricultureEnd UserIntroductionAcademic & Research InstitutesPharmaceutical & Biotechnology CompaniesAbout Us:Market Data Forecast is a firm working in the area of market research and business intelligence. With rich experience in research across various business domains, we cater to the needs of both individual and corporate clients. Our analyst team comprises expert professionals in market research, who with their collective knowledge and sksillset dedicatedly serve clients from various industries and regions.
The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, NSIA, on Wednesday announced that it will invest in the Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund, NIDF.

In a statement in Abuja, NSIA said the proposed investment aligns with its mandate to develop and explore opportunities to play a leading role in driving sustained economic development for the benefit of all Nigerians.

Managed by Chapel Hill Denham Management Limited, the Fund is a close-ended fund domiciled in Nigeria.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that the fine details of the investment, including the amount involved and the terms, would eventually be made public as discussions are currently ongoing.

It is the first and only domestic currency-listed infrastructure debt fund across Africa and is focused on mobilising domestic savings, particularly pension funds, life insurance companies, large corporate as well as family office groups  for investing in economically critical and financially viable infrastructure asset.

Details on the Fund obtained by PREMIUM TIMES on Wednesday showed it is used in supporting traditional infrastructure sectors, primarily transport, power, renewable energy, utilities, energy infrastructure, logistics and other public-private-partnership, PPP, type of investments, with Naira long-dated senior debt.

NIDF is able to support these projects with long-term financing and in the process, generates superior risk adjusted returns for its investors.

The Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of NSIA, Uche Orji, said the investment was in line with its strategy to participate in critical investments to develop key infrastructure in the country.

We are pleased to support NIDF, as it is consistent with NSIAs strategy of enabling Nigeria pension fund participation in infrastructure development, makes available long-term Naira financing, and is led by a high-quality management team.

We look forward to working with the NIDF team to ensure the fund grows through further institutional investor participation and access to high-quality investments, Mr. Orji said.

The NSIA was established by the instrumentation of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (Establishment, etc.) Act 2011, to manage funds in excess of budgeted hydrocarbon revenues.

The agency has a mission to play a leading role in driving sustained economic development for the benefit of Nigerians through building a savings base for the Nigerian people, enhancing the development of Nigerias infrastructure and providing stabilisation support in times of economic stress.

It operates three mandate funds, namely the Stabilisation Fund, the Future Generations Fund and the Nigeria Infrastructure Fund.

Chief Investment Officer of the NIDF and Chief Executive Officer of Chapel Hill Denham, Bolaji Balogun, said: Mobilisation of domestic currency sources for funding infrastructure is critical for Nigeria, in order to meaningfully bridge the existing infrastructure deficit.

Mr. Balogun said NIDF would continue to direct institutional investments into productive infrastructure asset, which have a positive development impact, through the multiplier effect on investments, economic growth and well-being of the population.

NIDF has the potential to mobilise a meaningful proportion of this requirement, by channelling the growing pension and insurance assets as well as other long-term pools of capital into infrastructure investment and financing, he explained.

Chairman of the NIDFs Investment Committee, Philip Southwell, said NSIAs commitment to invest in the Fund was shifting the paradigm from the usual, as this was the first time this kind of investment was being undertaken in local currency and by an agency outside commercial banks and other financial institutions and agencies.

Historically, senior debt financing for infrastructure projects in Nigeria has been provided by commercial banks, financial institutions, export credit agencies and multilateral/bilateral investment agencies in US dollars with a substantial proportion in relatively short tenors.

The NIDF changes that paradigm for Nigeria. By listing the NIDF on the Financial Markets Dealers Quotations, FMDQ, Exchange in July 2017, we have created liquidity in an asset class that is inherently illiquid, strengthened the domestic capital markets and enabled a wider range of investors to invest in infrastructure, he said.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said on Wednesday that it has clamped down on three companies for operating illegally in the countrys telecommunications market.

The Principal Manager, NCCs Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Department, Chukwuemeka Obi, made this known to newsmen after two days enforcement in Lagos.

Mr. Obi said that the action followed the reports of its surveillance team.

According to him, the affected companies are Axon Integrated Services, located on Diya Street, Gbagada; Survenet Integrated Ltd situated on Bayo Ajayi Street, Agidingbi and Strem Concepts at Shaha Akowonjo.

We got information that some companies in the telecommunication sector in Lagos are operating illegally without the required authorisation, he said.

Mr. Obi said that the three companies were into services such as installation of masts, towers and illegal vehicle tracking.

He said that Axon Integrated was licensed by the NCC to sell mobile phones and Private Automatic Branch eXchange (PABX) equipment sales.

Mr. Obi said that the company had extended it to installations, which its current licence does not cover.

We have given Axon one month within which it should come to NCC headquarters in Abuja to regularise its operations and obtain the required authorisation, failure of which will attract serious sanctions, Mr. Obi said.

He said that Strem Concepts had been operating illegally without any operating licence from the regulatory body.

Strem was found to be operating Automated Vehicle Tracking Services (AVTS) illegally.

In our earlier enforcement in Lagos, Strem was found guilty for operating illegally.

We sealed the company, asking them to come to the commissions office in Abuja to get an official licence to operate, and the licensing process has started, but not yet concluded.

Unfortunately, Strem went ahead to unseal itself without the commissions permission.

We have come again to seal it, confiscated its radio equipment and asked it to report to Abuja to finalise its licensing process, Obi said.

In respect of Survenet, he said that the company was guilty of illegal installation of towers and other services, which it was not authorised to venture into.

Mr. Obi, however, said that for the two days that the enforcement lasted, Survenets office was locked.

He said the enforcement team would ensure that the long arm of the law definitely caught up with the company.

Mr. Obi said that the Nigerian Communications Act (NCA) 2003, under Section 31, stipulates that no firm should undertake communications services without prior authorisation of the commission.

He said that a surveillance conducted by the commission showed that a number of companies in Lagos were offering communications services without requisite authorisation, hence, the clampdown.

Mr. Obi said that the enforcement was to prosecute the perpetrators or ask them to regularise their licensing with the commission, as the case may be.

According to him, the NCA 2003 has been developed and categorised some telecommunications services under certain category of licences for individuals who wants to undertake communications services.

More or less, they are into installation of masts, setting up equipment and even radio that go beyond the scope of the licences and authorisation they have.

We have those that also use spectrum illegally; we want to assure them that we will go after them to ensure that the culprits are brought to book, Mr. Obi said.

He also warned companies in the sector to follow the legal process for obtaining licence to operate in any segment of the country.

Mr. Obi said that NCC would continue to ensure that a level-playing field was created for all operators, while ensuring that the nation was not short-changed by any illegal player.

(NAN)
American journalist and author, Ta-Nehisi Coates, has deleted his Twitter account following a dispassionate debate with philosopher and social critic, Cornel West.

Peace, yall. Im out, Mr. Coates tweeted on Tuesday on his now-defunct account. I didnt get in it for this.

Mr. West recently lashed out at Mr. Coates in an article for The Guardian in the UK, accusing him of being too soft on former President Barack Obama.

Mr. West, 64, said Mr. Coates, 42, allegedly fetishises white supremacy and holding a preoccupation with white acceptance and an allegiance to Mr. Obama.

It is clear that [Mr. Coates] narrow racial tribalism and myopic political neoliberalism has (sic) no place for keeping track of Wall Street greed, US imperial crimes or black elite indifference to poverty, Mr. West wrote.

The article sparked online uproar after the duo engaged in open disagreement, eventually leading Mr. Coates to delete his Twitter account early Tuesday with 1.2 million followers.

Mr. Coates, whose writes for The Atlantic won the 2015 National Book Award for his non-fiction book which chronicled his experience with racism in America.

He recently published a book titled: We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy.

The book reflected on the historical and cultural transition from Mr. Obama to the incumbent President Donald Trump.

Mr. Coates used his Twitter account for political commentary.

Mr. West has been described as a long-time intellectual whose provocative views are often aimed at driving debates about contemporary issues.
Ace Nigerian broadcaster, Sadiq Daba, who is currently undergoing intensive treatment for leukaemia and prostate cancer, is responding to treatment.

Rights activist, Joe Odunmakin, has shared recent photographs of the 60-year-old actor on Facebook.

In the pictorial stories, the actor looks much more refreshed and full of life.

The actor said he was also thankful to all those who reached out to him in cash and kind.

Meanwhile, a few weeks ago, Sadiq had alleged that his medical reports in Nigeria was wrong.

The 60-year-old media personality revealed this in a telephone conversation with a journalist, Azuka Jebose.

The latter published a transcript of a phone call adding that Sadiq had granted him the permission to share the sensitive information.

Sadiq was reportedly diagnosed with leukaemia and prostate cancer before being flown to the UK for intensive treatment in November.

According to Sadiq, contrary to diagnosis by Nigerian doctors that the disease had spread to other organs, his leukaemia is currently in remission.

The Kano State indigene also revealed that all the tests carried out by specialists in the UK have returned negative; a far cry from his medical results in Nigeria.

He also allegedly revealed that contrary to what his doctors in Nigeria told him, he would not require a surgery.

Azuka wrote,Sadiq will be seeing an oncologist on Monday and will not be needing an operation.

See Azukas Facebook post below:

Sadiqs battle with leukaemia started towards the end of 2015. The disease virtually caught him unawares. At first, he had thought that he was having the first symptoms of a minor ailment.

A foremost Nigerian broadcaster, Sadiq was later diagnosed with prostate cancer, barely months after he was hospitalised for months due to leukaemia.

One of Nigerias most loved television stars, the actor has had a long career in broadcasting with the Nigerian Television Authority.

He also appeared in early soap operas such as Cockcrow At Dawn and Behind The Clouds.

He co-hosted the popular AM Express with late Yinka Craig (who died of a similar illness in 2008) and had an award winning role in Kunle Afolayans October 1 in recent times.

Leukaemia is a cancer of the blood cells and has no known cure. However, with adequate medical care or a blood marrow transplant, the disease can be managed.
The U.S. President, Donald Trump, has threatened to cut financial aid to countries that back a United Nations resolution opposing the recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital.

Mr. Trump earlier in December formally recognised Jerusalem as Israels capital and said the U.S. embassy will be moved to the disputed city.

The U.S. decision was condemned by other World leaders. The UN Security Council voted against recognising Jerusalem as Israels capital. The Security Council resolution affirmed that any decisions on the status of Jerusalem were null and void and must be rescinded, and urged all states to refrain from the establishment of diplomatic missions in the holy city. The U.S., however, vetoed the resolution.

A similar vote is now being taken to the UN General Assembly where there is no veto. The emergency session at the request of the Palestinians will hold on Thursday to take the vote. Nigeria and most other countries of the World are expected to vote in favour of the resolution.

It is in expectation of this vote that Mr. Trump spoke on Wednesday.

They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us, the American leader told reporters at the White House.

Let them vote against us. Well save a lot. We dont care.

Both Israel and Palestine want Jerusalem as their capital with most countries of the World supporting a two-state solution that would see East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine.
The Ugandan Parliament passed a controversial bill to remove the presidential age limit by a large majority on Wednesday, effectively paving way for long-ruling President Yoweri Museveni to run again in 2021.

Parliamentarians voted for the legislation after three days of rowdy debate, with great applause as the motion passed with members of parliament shouting and stamping their feet.

A total of 317 members of parliament voted in favour of the amendment, with 97 against it and two abstentions, parliament Speaker Rebecca Kadaga said.

Therefore the motion has been carried.

The president now has to sign the bill into law.

The current law states that any person over 75 is not eligible to stand for election as president, but the new bill imposes no limit, allowing Museveni, 73, to stand again when his term ends in 2021.

The Ugandan president has been in power since 1986 and is one of Africas longest ruling leaders.

Opposition lawmakers have opposed the amendment, resulting in violent outbursts in parliament over the past months.

On Wednesday, several opposition legislators were arrested as they tried to enter the chamber.

They were blocked and arrested and we do not know where they were taken. Our colleagues went to court and they were bringing court orders to the Speaker to allow our colleagues to vote, legislator Gilbert Olanya said on NTV television.

We are living in a military junta regime, a military state, another opposition legislator, Kato Lubwama, said.

(dpa/NAN)
At least 12 people died and 18 others injured when a tour bus carrying passengers to Mayan ruins in eastern Mexico flipped over on a highway on Tuesday, officials said.

The bus was carrying 31 people, including tourists from the United States, Italy, Brazil and Sweden, in the state of Quintana Roo, according to Public Security of Quintana Roo.

The bus was travelling from the coastal village of Mahahual to the Mayan archaeological site Chacchoben. Chacchoben is about 110 miles south of the popular tourist destination Tulum.

Vicente Martin, a spokesman for Quintana Roo States civil defense office, said the nationalities of the deceased are yet to be ascertained, though as stated by him, seven Americans and two Swedes were among the injured.

Mr. Martin said investigators were working to determine the cause of the crash. The injured were taken to hospitals in Bacalar and Chetumal where five have been released.

Miami-based Royal Caribbean Cruises said in a statement that passengers from two of its ships, the Celebrity Equinox and Serenade of the Seas, were involved in the crash. The company expressed its sympathies and said it was assisting with medical care and transportation.

Part of the statement reads: Our hearts go out to all those involved in the bus accident in Costa Maya. We are doing all we can to care for our guests, including assisting with medical care and transportation.

Video of the crashs aftermath showed a bus on its side in a wooded area off the roadway.

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico said officials were working with local authorities to identify the victims.

We would want to express our condolences to all of those who have been affected by that tragedy. We know that lots of family are travelling as it is holiday time. Were working with local authorities to help if theres any US citizens involved that we dont know. As at now, we dont know how many American involved, State Department spokesperson, Heather Nauert, said.
Fourteen weeks after the first suspected monkeypox case in the country, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, has reported the first death from the disease. The agency also announced 61 confirmed cases.

According to the situation report for monkeypox outbreak released by the health agency for the epidemiological week 49, on Wednesday, the dead patient was a confirmed case with background immune-compromised condition.

The health agency however said it has deactivated the monkeypox Emergency Operations Centre, EOC, this week.

Response to the disease will henceforth be coordinated by a technical working group comprising of all existing response partners.

It added that there has been a decline in the number of new suspected cases reported over the last five weeks.

Since the onset of the outbreak, a total of 172 cases (suspected, confirmed and probable) have been recorded from 22 States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Five additional cases and two probable cases have been recorded since the last update, bringing the total confirmed cases to 61 in 14 states.

The first suspected case of the disease was reported in Bayelsa and later reported at neighbouring River State before spreading to other states across the country.

One new suspected case was reported from Adamawa State in the reporting week, while two new confirmed cases were recorded in the reporting week from Bayelsa.

The health agency said though clustering of cases was demonstrated in some instances, there was no known evidence yet of epidemiological linkages across states. It added that only 7 per cent of the current cases in Nigeria have been linked to human to human transmission, including one health worker.

The NCDC said it would continue to coordinate the response to the disease through its EOC.

To enhance data management and real-time mapping of cases and contacts, the Surveillance and Outbreak Response Management System, SORMAS, app was deployed on November 4, 2017 to the outbreak.

However, the monkeypox EOC has been deactivated this week and the response will henceforth be coordinated by a technical working group comprising of all existing response partners, it said.

Statistics from NCDC also showed that men were more infected by the disease as the male to female ratio for confirmed cases is 3:1 and the most affected age group is 21-40 years.

It said the scare of the disease had disrupted immunisation routine across the country.

The minister of health Isaac Adewole had to appeal to Nigerians to continue allowing their children receive immunisation as monkeypox could not be transmitted through immunisation and has no vaccine.

Mr. Adewole had assured that monkeypox could only be transmitted from one person to another. He said human-to-human transmission occurs through respiratory droplets, contact with infected persons or contaminated materials.

Control measures, he said, include isolation of suspected or confirmed cases, strict adherence to universal precautions, especially frequent handwashing with soap and water, and use of personal protective equipment.

Mr. Adewole said signs and symptoms of the disease include fever, headache, body pain, malaise, lymphadenopathy (enlargement of glands), sore throat, and the characteristic generalised vesicular rash. He said rashes might last between two and four weeks.
A Nigerian woman was allegedly forced out of the employment of Ericsson Nigerian Limited by an Indian and three other staff of the company, PREMIUM TIMES has gathered.

Joy Ndukwe, a former Account Manager for Airtel Nigeria at the company, said she was harassed, maltreated and forcefully eased out of the employment of the telecommunication company by Atul Ojah, the Indian, and three other staff of the company.

Speaking to PREMIUM TIMES through her lawyer, Stanley Imhanruor, the woman also claimed that the company has refused to pay her terminal benefits despite the ill treatment she was subjected to.

According to documents seen by PREMIUM TIMES, Mrs. Ndukwe joined the services of the company as a contract staff in April 2001 and was offered regular employment in June 2006.

Consequently, she was elevated and designated as the Account Manager for Airtel Nigeria Limited, a portfolio she claimed covered 70 per cent of Airtel Nigeria total sales in the 14 countries where Ericsson operates in Africa.

Ericsson Nigeria, a corporate body registered in Nigeria, is a global brand and subsidiary of Ericsson Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, located in Stockholm, Sweden.

According to Mrs. Ndukwe, following her employment as regular staff in 2006, she was placed on an annual salary of N2 million, after which it was reviewed to N2.2 million in 2007. She added that based on the performance of the last review conducted in April 2017, her annual remuneration was placed at N9. 2 million (N9,172,834).

ALLEGED CONSPIRACY

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that trouble started when Mrs. Ndukwe applied for the position of Account Manager for Airtel West Africa after the company called for application to fill the vacancy on its website.

She argued that she performed well at the interview and was tipped as the candidate to fill the vacancy.

Things, however, took a different turn when her Indian boss, Atul Ojha, allegedly launched a series of attacks to ensure she did not clinch the job and was eased out of the companys employment.

She also claimed that several staff of the company sent in congratulatory messages to her, saying her acceptance letter had been deposited with her boss as the only successful candidate. She explained that rather than hand over the letter to her, Mr. Ojha offered to assist her with an external job at American Towers, an offer she rejected.

Subsequently, she said she was summoned to a meeting in September by one Omoniyi Adejoro, another staff of the company.

At the meeting, Mrs. Ndukwe said she was bullied and harassed for having the effrontery to apply for placements reserved for expatriates. She explained that she, however, stood her ground and refused to be intimidated, saying such claims contradict the companys recruitment policy.

Thereafter, she said she was directed to resign voluntarily by Mr. Omoniyi, together with two other non-Nigerian staff of the company, Aaakash Seghal and Rutger Reman.

Mrs. Ndukwe said the pressure and intimidation took a toll on her health, prompting her to embark on medical sick leave in September. She, however, claimed that even while on sick leave, attempts were made by the trio to kidnap her and compel her to sign an agreement indicating that she voluntarily resigned.

Mrs. Ndukwe explained further that she was threatened by Mr. Ojha and others that if she refused to resign and allow them announce the name of their preferred candidate, her position as Account Manager of Airtel Nigeria would be declared vacant and her terminal benefits would be slashed.

The ex-Ericsson staff claimed that after she refused to bow to pressure, Mr Ojha and others allegedly caused her profile to be removed from the companys system globally, a development that created the impression that she had resigned even when she was still on sick leave.

Subsequently, in a letter dated October 10, the company declared her position redundant and purportedly computed her terminal benefits at N25, 708, 969.

The companys decision also led to the withdrawal of her health insurance services at Reddington and Saint Nicholas hospitals, where she had been hospitalized for extremely high blood pressure and nervous breakdown occasioned by the harassment suffered in the hands of her Indian boss and others.

But Mr. Imhanruor told PREMIUM TIMES that contrary to the companys computation, Mrs. Ndukwes terminal benefit for the 11 years and 122 days of her service at the company is N37, 440,610, adding that despite repeated demands the company has refused to pay.

When PREMIUM TIMES visited the head office of Ericsson in Victoria Island, the companys spokesperson, Toju Egbedi, said the matter had been referred to the court and the company would not want to comment on it.

She however sent what she described as the companys official statement to PREMIUM TIMES.

There is an active ongoing court case around this issue and Ericsson can therefore not comment. Ericsson has previously communicated that a key component of the companys focused business strategy is to reduce costs and increase efficiency, the statement read.

Executing on these plans to cut costs has unfortunately had an impact on some of our employees across the world, including in Nigeria. We are, however, making every effort to ensure that our core values of professionalism, perseverance and respect are adhered to in dealing with all affected employees. In addition, Ericsson has a firm Code of Business Ethics, which it ensures all employees acknowledge that they have read and understood at the time of employment.

The acknowledgment process is refreshed every other year. When we uncover irregular activity or employee misconduct, we take action to limit the risk and ensure that this is not repeated anywhere within our organization, the company concluded.

Mr. Imhanruor said the case was important because there is need to look into corruption and unfair treatment of workers in the private sector.

More often than not we just concentrate on the government but the rate of mis-governance is more in the private sector. There is also the issue of racial discrimination because the other guys involved are Indian guys, he said.

The case had been taken to court and it came up for the first time on November 29. It has however been adjourned till January 2018.
The delay in the forensic audit of Nigerian oil and gas firm, Oando plc, by the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, is caused by payment to auditors and other logistic concerns, PREMIUM TIMES has learnt.

A top official at SEC told PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday that the regulatory body was working towards commencing the audit after the festive periods, that is in 2018.

The source, who spoke under strict condition of anonymity, also hinted at a few challenges being confronted by the body in the area of logistics and payments to be made to the external auditors.

The SEC had on December 5 notified Nigerians that the forensic audit of the company would commence, beginning from the next day of its notice. But PREMIUM TIMES reported on Monday that two weeks after the announcement, the regulator was yet to commence the audit.

You know they (External auditors) are private sector people and this exercise too requires money. There may be concerns around payment as the auditors would want to have their payment in full. Some of them would even want 50 per cent upfront because of the fear of change in leadership, the source told our reporter Tuesday afternoon.

So SEC is working on the plans and more likely to begin after the festive periods.

The source also assured Nigerians that the regulatory body would not compromise in its role at ensuring sanity in the market, adding that SEC had no other mandate but to cleanse the system.

We have no other interest in this case; we are regulators, like (a) referee, and our interest is to regulate the market. I can assure you that the audit will be done, the source said.

Oando had been thrown into crisis following the technical suspension of its shares by the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE. The NSE said it acted on the directive of the SEC, which on its part said it received petitions from stakeholders of the company containing allegations of gross misconduct against the management.

The SEC subsequently said it was going to conduct a forensic audit into the affairs of the oil company.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Oando not only said it was yet to be approached by any auditors sent by SEC. It also said it is opposed the proposed forensic audit in order to protect the company against actions taken by SEC under the leadership of Mounir Gwarzo who is currently under suspension.

The statement, signed by its Chief Compliance Officer, Ayotola Jagun, and the head of Corporate Communications, Alero Balogun, said there is no basis for the institution of a forensic audit of the company by SEC.

The company said it will go ahead with its legal battle against SEC on the alleged findings and sanctions following an investigation into the oil firm.

The oil firm acknowledged the appointment of Abdul Zubair as the acting director general of SEC, saying it would provide opportunity for a new and enduring relationship to be established.

Efforts to reach Oando spokesperson, Ms. Balogun, on Tuesday proved abortive as she did not respond to repeated calls placed to her known number.
An Italian federal judge has approved the prosecution of Royal Dutch Shell and Eni in the $1.3 billion controversial sale of OPL 245 oil block.

The judge in Milan also said Eni executive, Claudio Descalzi, and his predecessor, Paolo Scaroni, should be tried for their role in the deal.

The trial is expected to commence on March 5, Italian media reports said Wednesday.

Italian prosecutors had earlier indicted Shell and Agip for their role in the 2011 deal in which Nigeria sold the lucrative oil block to the two oil majors.

A former petroleum minister, Dan Etete, and a former Attorney-General, Bello Adoke, are amongst several Nigerians indicted in the deal, which was approved by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan.

Shell and Enis Nigerian subsidiary, Agip, are among those already being prosecuted in Nigeria.

In a prompt reaction to the judges decision, Shell said it was shocked.

We are disappointed by the outcome of the preliminary hearing and the decision to indict Shell and its former employees. We believe the trial judges will conclude that there is no case against Shell or its former employees.

Shell attaches the greatest importance to business integrity. Its one of our core values and is a central tenet of the Business Principles that govern the way we do business. Shell has clear rules on anti-bribery and corruption and these are included in our Code of Conduct for all staff. There is no place for bribery or corruption in our company, the firm said in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES.
The Senate on Wednesday resolved to wade into the arrest of the Chairman of Innoson Motors, Innocent Chukwuma, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

Mr. Chukwuma was arrested at his residence in Enugu at about 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday.

The Senate mandated its committee on anti-corruption and financial crimes to investigate the matter and report back within 24 hours.

This decision followed a point of order raised by the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.

Yesterday I got a number of messages indicating that Mr Innocent Chukwuma was arrested by the EFCC over a transaction between him and GTB, Mr. Ekweremadu said. This morning I made an effort and I spoke with him, his story is straight forward, he said he was at his house at 5:00 am Tuesday morning when he heard gun shots and he thought they were assassins and so he went into hiding after about two hours he saw some police and he thought that help had come, so he came out of his hiding and ran to the police man who promptly arrested him. As he was trying to find out what was his offence, they told him when they get to the police station they will inform him of the offence. As at today nobody has told him what the offence is.

Any person who is arrested and detained should be informed reason for his arrest. As I speak Mr Innoson Chukwuma is yet to be informed of what led to his arrest or detention but if you go through the media today, the story is that he is owing GTB. As a lawyer Im at a loss how a transaction between someone and his bank will inform the EFCC.

The story he told me is that he is not owing the bank anything, he borrowed money from the bank which he has since repaid but the bank kept charging money and withdrawing it from his account. They set up an audit and the auditor came to a conclusion that they had deducted more than N500 million, he was insisting on 22 percent, the bank said they will pay 17 percent so that is where they had the disagreement and they now went to court and it gave judgement in its favour at the federal high court and the court of appeal and the matter is at the supreme court. The fact that matter is in court and it was a commercial transaction gives no room for the intervention of EFCC, Id like to appeal to this Senate to ensure that Mr Innocent Chukuwma is released promptly.

In his contribution, Sam Anyanwu, Imo-PDP, questioned the Senates silence over alleged continued impunity of the EFCC.

I want to ask a question. EFCC as it stands today, does it have a chairman? Because I knew in this chamber, the head of EFCC was rejected during screening because of poor performance and yet he has been there as chairman.

There was a businessman from Imo State that was killed in EFCC custody. The body is still in the mortuary till today. These are the kind of things we are seeing in this country, why must we allow it to continue?

We have been talking about promoting made in Nigeria goods. This man manufactures vehicles, he has over 5, 000 people in his employment, he has international partners. What are you projecting before them? That he is a criminal? If we as Senate allow this to continue, there is nothing else that will ever work.

We rejected somebody here, yet he is allowed. Are there no other Nigerians who are credible to fight corruption? Every small thing, EFCC. Tomorrow, if a wife refuses to give his man sex, they will go and call EFCC. It will get to that point.

Enyinnaya Abaribe, Abia-PDP, threw the Senate into a rowdy session when he announced that the operatives of EFCC slapped the wife of Mr. Chukwuma.

Another incident happened in his house. The wife asked a question; why are you arresting my husband? What has happened and they slapped her.

Bwacha Emmanuel, Taraba-PDP, said the perpetrator of such act should be fished out and punished.

As a member of this Senate, I sponsored a motion to call for support of the anti-corruption war but as I listen to this story. If truly the wife of Innocent Chukwuma was slapped by a member of EFCC, something has to be done. Somebody must be held responsible, somebody must lose his job. Otherwise, well be wasting our time here.

The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, noted that the EFCC will drag the country into ridicule if the issue is not addressed promptly.

As a society that we are all planning, that our country to be civilised, I think this does not speak well of the country. How a private commercial transaction has now become the focus of the EFCC. I think this area is the focus. Whether he is owing or not, I think we must be seen protecting the fundamental rights of citizens. Ive never seen when FBI interferes between City Bank and Ford Motors, or the financial crime agency in UK intervenes. We are just making a mockery of ourselves and we really should be able to do the right thing.

The Senate resolved to intervene in the arrest of Mr. Chukwuma, while mandating its committee on anti-corruption and financial crimes to investigate the matter and report back in 24 hours.

The EFCC had on Tuesday given reasons for arresting Mr. Chukwuma.

His arrest followed his refusal to honour invitation by the Commission having earlier jumped an administrative bail granted him in a case being investigated by the Capital Market and Insurance Fraud Unit of the Commissions Lagos office.

Chukwuma rather than honoring invitation by the EFCC, mobilized six truckloads of thugs pretending to be staff of his company to his residence, where they manhandled EFCC operatives, EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, said.
The longest meeting of the Federal Executive Council presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday approved a number of memos submitted by cabinet members.

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who was part of the team of four ministers who briefed State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, said the council approved the completion of the Police Service Commission headquarters in Abuja.

The meeting continues on Thursday.

Mr. Fashola said the project was approved for variation to enable its completion over the next six months.

He also said the initial cost of the project was N3.486 billion. But it has been increased to 3.925 billion, following the variation of N439.113 million.

He said council also approved additional funding to complete the Nnamdi Azikiwe Mausoleum in Anambra State. He said the project was started but not completed by the previous administration.

Council approved the additional funding to complete it from N1.496 billion to N1.953 billion.

Mr. Fashola said FEC also approved various road projects such as the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria to Kano road at the cost of N155.7 billion and the Efire-Araromi-Aiyede-Aiyela road to connect Ondo and Ogun States at the cost of N14.4 billion.

He also said for the Enugu-Onitsha highway the Amansia section, FEC approved the variations of the cost of N38.74 billion to enable the contractor progress with the work.

Council also approved the awarded part at the Umunya section at the cost of N23.4 billion. So if you add that N38.74 billion which was the cost of the Amansea section, you will get a total approved cost of N62.06 billion.

This contract was first awarded for N24 billion in 2014 but the scale of work done is, to say the least, appalling, he said.

Mr. Fashola said FEC also approved funds for interventions in education and healthcare sectors and equally approved the provision of independent power plant to nine universities and one teaching hospital.

He said the first phase of the pilot programme to cover 37 universities is put at the cost of N38.965 billion. The project is to provide dedicated power to the universities which include street lighting and workshops to train the students post-completion.

On his part, the Minister of Water Resources, Sulaiman Adamu, said council ratified the augmentation of funds to complete Adada dam in Igbo-atiti Local Government Area in Enugu State, with the aim to provide water to the university town of Nsukka.

He said the project comprises of a dam and some kilometres of pipeline to supply water to some communities along the route and to the water treatment plant.

The minister said, The Enugu State Government is expected to take the conveyance system from where we stop from the water treatment plant into Nsukka town and provide the necessary distribution, storage and reservoirs.

The project was started in 2010. This project has been augmented and council approved that the project be completed now at N5.6 billion by the end of 2018.

Council also approved the augmentation of phase II Galma Dam and irrigation project in Zaria, Kaduna State. The purpose of the dam is to provide water to Zaria town and environs. The phase I dam has already been completed while phase II involves irrigation and some additional structures. So there was an augmentation to raise the project to N16.5 billion in favour of Gilmore Nig. LTD.

Council also approved the review of construction fee for Uguashi-Ukwu dam project in Delta State. The project is almost 100 per cent completed but because of the extension of time over the years, we have to ratify the need to pay consultants for staying on site to oversee that project. So council approved the sum of N133.6 million, Mr. Adamu said.

The Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, who also spoke at the briefing, said FEC approved the production and distribution of core text books for early education classes 1-3 and for primary 4-6 in public schools nationwide.

He said the federal government felt the need to support the funding of education at that level at the cost of N6.9 billion.

Council also gave approval for completion of Jos Central Library and the construction of the faculty of animal sciences and engineering, he said.

Speaking on his ministry, Mr. Amaechi said he had gotten approval for two vessels, called pilot cutters, to escort vessels into the seaport. He said prior to this time, the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, borrowed such vessels. Now we have approval for NPA to buy theirs at the cost of N1.9 billion, he said.

He said council also approved another two vessels of 17 meters in the eastern port that will help monitor and assist vessels into the seaport at the cost of N1.2 billion.

Council also approved the award of contract for direct procurement, installation and commissioning of Wide Area of multi-lateration for the Gulf of Guinea at the cost of N3.9 billion. This is to help capture those equipment flying below the radar, for us to be able to pick them because it will be dangerous if we cannot because a lot of them use helicopters.

There was also an approval for the consultancy services to construct a new terminal building at Mallam Aminu Kano Airport. We just want to complete the payment which is at N621 million.

Council also approved the purchase of flight calibration inspection at the cost of N111.6 million.

One other key project that was approved is the engagement of consultants for the project management, monitoring and evaluation including media and public relations services of the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP report on Ogoni land.

The president has also directed that remediation should start immediately and so the processes for remediation should come to council within the next six months so that we can commence the activities of reclaiming the land from the disastrous stage that it is now.

The president reminded the cabinet that he was in Ogoni during the campaign and had promise that the UNEP report will be carried out, he said.

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mohammed Bello, while speaking said Council approved the completion of the Goodluck Jonathan Way in the FCT that links traffic from Keffi-Nyanya into the city.

We got an augmentation of an additional N3.8 billion and with the funding the road will be completed any moment from now.

Council also approved a critical project which is the Infrastructure development of Wasa resettlement site sitting on about 695 hectares at the cost N26 billion.

The infrastructure development will include the construction of 198 roads within the settlement area totalling about 88.95 kilometres. The project is meant to move about 13 indigenous communities in the FCT in that area, Mr. Bello said.
The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) is stepping up its presence in Southern Nigeria, to provide life-saving support to thousands of people fleeing unrest in English-speaking areas of Cameroon.

UNHCR spokesperson, Andrej Mahecic, said tensions between security forces and pro-independence demonstrators in Cameroons restive Anglophone region intensified in October.

Mahecic said Joint UNHCR and government teams had registered some 7,204 arrivals in remote areas of Nigerias Cross River state.

As they report, thousands more are awaiting registration.

Some 70 per cent of the registered asylum seekers come from the area of Akwaya in South-west Cameroon.

Women and children in their majority, they are hosted by local communities near the border.

As the unrest in Cameroon continues and more asylum seekers arrive, UNHCR is concerned that the local populations capacity will soon be stretched to its limits.

According to him, heavy wet season rains have worsened the state of the road network in the remote region, hampering efforts to deliver aid.

The UNHCR spokesperson said the UN refugee agency and partners distributed food, basic relief items and medical aid.

Mr. Mahecic said UNHCR was also deploying more staff in the region and coordinated with partners, national and local authorities to ensure that the needs of all affected people were met.

According to him, however, additional resources will be necessary to support the arrivals and reinforce UNHCRs coordination and response efforts.

Currently, UNHCR in Nigeria and partners have elaborated a contingency plan in the event of new arrivals, Mr. Mahecic said.

(NAN)
The Director General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, Julie Okah-Donli, has disclosed that more than 25,000 Nigerians have been held in slave and sex camps in Libya.

Ms. Okah-Donli made this known while defending the agencys 2018 budget before the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters on Tuesday.

She said of the figure, about 5000 of the victims were repatriated within the period.

A large number of Nigerians have also been returned from other countries in Europe and Africa.

All these people need to be properly received, profiled and assisted.

NAPTIP has been working in conjunction with other governmental and non governmental agencies such as NEMA, International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and others to provide help to these unfortunate Nigerians,she said.

She lamented that in spite of the evils of human trafficking, not so much attention was focused on the menace.

She said the recent trend which marked the resurgence of slave trade was more alarming and required the attention it deserved.

According to her, the task before the agency is enormous while budgetary allocations have been comparatively low.

It is my honour and privilege to raise a cry for help in this hallowed chamber on behalf of the most vulnerable members of the society, especially women and children.

In recent months the odious and perverse consequences of human trafficking and irregular migration were forcefully brought to our television screens with gory tales,she said.

She said if human trafficking was to be reduced or eliminated, massive public awareness as well as behavourial change campaigns must be sustained from the grassroots to the national level.

The NAPTIP boss further said many victims of trafficking needed to undergo skills acquisition training or formal education.

The NAPTIP boss, however, commended the federal government and other stakeholders for their support in the wake of recent slave trade of Africans.

I wish to place on record my deep appreciation to President Muhammad Buhari for consistently putting the issue of human trafficking at the centre of global discourse at various international fora.

In the aftermath of the recent crisis stemming from the inhuman treatment of Nigerians in Libya and elsewhere, both the Presidency and National Assembly came out strongly with statements band actions to to strengthen national response to irregular migration, she said.(NAN)
A former Senate President, David Mark, has stated how he took possession of a public property in 2011.

Mr. Mark, still a senator from Benue State, was quizzed last week by anti-graft detectives at the EFCC.

In a statement Sunday, he said the grilling was over the campaign finance that went to the Peoples Democratic Party Benue during the 2015 election.

Mr. Mark was the Senate President from 2007 to 2015.

He said he was asked about a N2 billion which the PDP allegedly transferred into a bank account run by the National Assembly in 2010.

The money was then allegedly used to bribe lawmakers of all parties, Mr. Mark said, adding that the claim was absurd.

The lawmaker followed up with another statement signed by his spokesperson, Paul Mumeh, on Tuesday, alleging that the EFCC was after him over a property he purchased from government in 2011.

The EFCC or any other agent of Government are (sic) chasing shadows because the property was dully offered for sale, bided for, and he purchased like any other person would in line with Federal Governments Monetisation Policy that was started during the time of President Olusegun Obasanjo, Mr. Mark said.

I had the right of first refusal. Even if I did not purchase it, someone else would have.

I am a law-abiding citizen. I did not flout any law, the senator added.

PREMIUM TIMES has not independently verified Mr. Marks statement that hes being probed by the EFCC over the controversial purchase.

Wilson Uwujaren, a spokesperson for the anti-graft office, did not immediately return requests for comments.

Mr. Mark also alleged political persecution on the part of the Buhari administration, saying he wasnt the only one who bought official quarters meant for principal officers of the parliament.

Curiously, four houses occupied by the then Presiding Officers of National Assembly were offered to the occupants. All of us, me as the then President of the Senate, Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole and his Deputy Bayero Nafada were all given the same offer.

I am at a loss as to why it is now a subject of contention.

If this persecution is about politics, my political party and the 2019 elections, I dare say that only God and Nigerians would decide. No amount of persecution would alter the will of God.

I had refrained from commenting on this because it is already in the law Court. But they have taken the matter to the Court of public opinion, he said.

The presidential Task Force on Recovery of Government Properties has been making moves to evict Mr. Mark from the property, but the senator said he had dragged the government to court.

He said his lawyer, Ken Ikonne, has been litigating the matter in suit number FHC/ABJ/1037/2017 at the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, saying he followed due process and legally acquired the property from the Federal Capital Development Administration, FCDA, on April 27, 2011.

He recalled that the Federal Executive Council decided to authorise the sale of the properties housing the principal officers of the National Assembly because the general security of the area had been altered/compromised due to the sale of the other houses in the Legislative Quarters to the public.

Consequent upon which the houses were offered for sale and dully purchased.

Mr. Mark said he was given the first option of refusal upon which he dully accepted on April 21, 2011 and he paid the agreed purchase price to the adhoc committee on sale of Federal Government houses on April 27, 2011.

Okoi Obono-Obla, chairman of the properties recovery panel, said the property was grossly undervalued when It was sold to Mr. Mark.

They sold it to him for about N500 million or so, Mr. Obono-Obla told PREMIUM TIMES by telephone Wednesday morning. This is a big property that is sitting on a large land in a choice part of Abuja.

Besides, the official said, the property should not have been sold because it was allegedly amongst a few government properties that were reserved for top public officials under the monetisation policy.

Mr. Obono-Obla, who was recently asked to suspend activities of his panel, told PREMIUM TIMES hes also working to recover the properties purchased at the same time as Mr. Mark by Messrs. Ekweremadu, Bankole and Nafada.

The properties belong to the Nigerian people, and well ensure that we recover them all, he said.
The Federal Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday it had started the release of N750 billion capital appropriation in the 2017 budget to ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs.

The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, who disclosed this while appearing before the Senate Committee on Finance as part of the 2018 Budget Defence, said most accounts of the MDAs were already being credited with their approved allocations.

The accounts of the MDAs are being credited as I speak, the Minister told the lawmakers. If the MDAs check their bank balances, they will have balances different from what they were before.

While reviewing the performance of the 2017 budget when he presented analysis of the 2018 Budget proposal, Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udoma, said out of the capital projects appropriation of about N2.174 trillion, only N450 billion was actually spent as at October 31.

He said priority attention was paid to critical ongoing infrastructural projects, such as power, roads, rail, and agriculture.

At the Senate briefing, Mrs. Adeosun said ongoing capital projects from the 2017 budget would be rolled over under the 2018 approved appropriation of N2.43 trillion.

The minister told the senators that she was optimistic that with the release of capital budget, Nigerians should expect that many of the ongoing projects by the MDAs would be completed as planned.

Mrs. Adeosun, who used the opportunity to thank the leadership and members of the National Assembly for their support in approving the issuance of Eurobond, said some of the funds were being deployed in the execution of the 2017 budget, while the balance was being used to refinance the countrys existing debt.

Similarly, in his presentation, the Accountant General of the Federation, AGF, Ahmed Idris, said out of a total appropriation of N2.988 billion for recurrent expenditure, about N664 million went for overheads, while N792 million was for capital.

Out of these figures, N2.84 billion was actually released for recurrent expenditure, while about N404 million was released for overheads, and N400 million for capital.

For the overall budget performance for 2017, the AGF said of the three components of the Office of AGF, personnel recorded about 94.92 per cent performance rating, against 62.26 per cent by overheads, and 50.49 per cent by capital.
The Nigerian Army on Wednesday said its troops had killed 20 Boko Haram insurgents in a clearance operation in the Lake Chad Basin.

Timothy Antigha, the Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, 8 Division, made the disclosure in a statement in Maiduguri.

Mr. Antigha said that the troops captured 17 insurgents, rescued 100 people, recovered vehicles and ammunition.

He said the six soldiers that sustained injuries in the operation were referred to military medical facility for treatment.

He said the operations were conducted in the past two weeks in Islands in Lake Chad region to crush Boko Haram insurgents inhabiting the islands.

In continuation of Operation DEEP PUNCH 2, designed to smoke out Boko Haram terrorists inhabiting remote Islands in Lake Chad basin lying within Nigerian territory, troops of 8 Division, Nigerian Army, on Operation LAFIYA DOLE, supported by soldiers of the Armed Forces Strike Group have inflicted heavy casualties on Boko Haram terrorists.

The operation which commenced about two weeks ago preceded by coordinated air and artillery bombardments of islands and localities occupied by terrorists.

The insurgents sneak into Magumeri, Kauram and other locations to loot property, attack security personnel and villagers.

Islands and villages cleared so far include: Arena Chiki, Chikun Gudu, Arena Waje, Saada and Juwe.

Mr. Antigha disclosed that the rescued civilians included 100 elderly men, women and children. He added that preliminary investigation revealed that most of the rescued persons were held hostage and forced to work in the farms.

The army spokesman listed the ammunition recovered to include one Mercedes Benz Truck; two gun trucks, two pick up vans, one Anti  Aircraft machine gun, five AK-47 riffles, three Fabrique Nationals (FN) Riffles, two G3 Riffles and one Pump Action Riffle.

Others are: one Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) tube, two bombs, two Very High Frequency (VHF) Radios and one Night Vision Goggle.

The troops also recovered 55 rounds of 5.56 X 45 mm ammunition, 5 Bangalore Torpedo, Two 120mm Mortar Bombs, and 1000 rounds of 7.62 mm Ball Metal Link ammunition.

Other ammunition included 55 rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition, 108 rounds of 12.7mm ammunition, two memory cards, two hydraulic jacks and a 1.5 amp battery.

(NAN)
The Senate on Wednesday called on the federal government to stop the planned sale of the National Theatre and Tafawa Balewa Square, both in Lagos state.

The lawmakers while adopting a motion by Fatimat Raji-Rasaki, Ekiti-PDP, described the move as a threat to national identity.

News of the planned sale filtered in when the Director General of Budget Office, Ben Akabueze, said that TBS, the National Arts Theatre and some selected power plants under the National Integrated Power Projects are part of the key national asset the federal government has concluded plans to sell to finance the countrys annual budgets for the next three years.

Leading the motion against this move, Mrs. Raji-Rasaki said the institutions and structures are historical landmarks and serve as symbols of Nigerias nationhood, and thus, should not be sold off.

The Senate is concerned that Tafawa Balewa Square represents the landmark on which Nigeria got the instrument of nationhood at a ceremony on the morning of 1st of October 1960 when the Union Jack was lowered and the Green-white-green National flag was raised and hosted.

The Senate need be informed that the final symbol of transfer of power from colonial rule to independence took place at the Tafawa Balewa Square Lagos. Therefore, instead of disposing this edifice to private use, the Federal Government can look for other alternative source of developing the Tafawa Balewa Square into an attractive profit making tourist centre. The TBS is a threshold of our new life as Nigerians which should not be disposed.

Speaking in support of the bill, Shehu Sani, Kaduna-APC, advised potential buyers to build similar structures instead of laying pressure to get them sold.

It is very clear that there is pressure on the federal government to dispose of these monuments; but these monuments are part of our soul, as they are part of our history. Those who wish to buy such properties are at liberty to build their own and not to auction such a very important aspect of our history.

These are monuments, if we can commit resources, time and energy to bring them back to shape, they are very much tourist attraction for our people and those who are coming to Nigeria.

Dino Melaye, Kogi-APC, warned the federal government against toeing a wrong path in privatising the national monuments.

Mr. President, it is pathetic that as a nation, we want to re-write our history in the wrong direction by privatising those historical and cultural edifices that explain the history and heritage of our nation.

From antecedents, we have seen in this country that our national institutions are being sold for less than 10 percent of their worth to friends and cronies of those in power.

Places with historical value, places with historical heritage must be preserved for generations yet unborn. And if they decide to go ahead Mr. President, some of us will lead Nigerians to the street to resist this.

The Senate, therefore, urged the federal government to, as a matter urgency, stop the planned sale of the TBS and the National Theatre. It also asked the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture to immediately develop the two into a viable tourist attraction for the country.

The lawmakers also mandated the committee on culture to identify all buildings that could be classified as national monuments and report within one month.
The Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting held on Wednesday was not concluded and has been extended to Thursday.

The meeting, held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, thus becomes the longest FEC meeting by the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

The presidents spokesperson, Garba Shehu, who briefed State House correspondents after the meeting, said it was extended because the agenda of the meeting has not been exhausted.

The meeting began at about 11 a.m. after Mr. Buhari inaugurated seven newly appointed permanent secretaries.

The cabinet members went on a short break between 1:30 and 2 p.m. after which they continued the meeting till about 5:30 p.m. before adjourning till the next day.
The Peoples Democratic Party on Wednesday said it remained united, unfazed and focused, hours after some party members floated a new faction within the party.

About five individuals were reported to have announced the birth of Fresh PDP in Abuja Wednesday afternoon, marking the latest in a series of riveting disputes that trailed the partys national convention penultimate Saturday.

Franklyn Edede, Hassan Adamu, Obi Nwosu, Olusola Akindele and Godwin Duru reportedly unveiled their factional headquarters in Asokoro, in a move reminiscent of the 2013 New PDP revolt that saw the party lose its prominent members to the All Progressives Congress.

Messrs. Edede and Duru contested for the positions of National Youth Leader and National Organising Secretary of the opposition party at the convention, respectively.

Following their loss, the duo teamed up with other disgruntled members of the party to demand an immediate cancellation of the results announced at the convention, including the emergence of Uche Secondus as the partys national chairman.

Today, the PDP Nigerians are yearning for is born, Mr. Nwosu was quoted by NAN as saying about the founding of Fresh PDP. The era of impunity and imposition of candidates on the party is gone.

Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDPs spokesperson, dismissed the individuals and their threat in a statement Wednesday evening.

The PDP is completely unperturbed by the comical act of some individuals who make outlandish claims in the media regarding our party, Mr. Ologbondiyan said.

In a follow-up phone conversation with PREMIUM TIMES, the spokesperson castigated the breakaway politicians as being a tool of an unnamed political party which purportedly aimed to destabilise the party after efforts to scuttle its national convention failed.

We know the party that attempted to frustrate our national convention, Mr. Ologbondiyan told PREMIUM TIMES when pressed to name the suspected party.

The PDP is not divided, we have all our leaders at state and national levels at our ongoing retreat in Abuja, he added. One or two persons who have allowed themselves to be used by those opposed to the PDP cannot divide the PDP.

When reminded that Mr. Edede has been a long-time member of the PDP in Kogi State, the spokesperson said the politician is perhaps the only one the party recognises.

Other than Franklyn Edede, who amongst them can you say duly contested for any office at the last convention?

While Mr. Ologbondiyan did not specifically mention the APC as the party behind the five-man breakaway entity, it was the ruling party that the PDP accused of plotting to disrupt its national convention earlier this month.

Mr. Edede and his comrades are not the only ones protesting the outcome PDP national convention.

Several party leaders from the southwest, including Olabode George, have strongly opposed the emergence of Mr. Secondus, amidst allegations that his victory was purchased by Governor Nyesom Wike through bribery of delegates.

Taoheed Adedoja, a party chieftain from Oyo State who contested for the chairmanship position, had filed a lawsuit seeking to invalidate the chairmanship of Mr. Secondus.

The polarisation of PDP in 2013 is widely considered amongst the major reasons why the party ultimately lost its 16-year grip on power in 2015.

After losing the 2015 convention, the party was plunged into another major crisis that left it virtually rudderless for more than a year. The crisis was finally settled by the Supreme Court in July, paving the way for the conduct of a national convention on December 9.

Dithering on the need to address todays development could prove devastating to the PDPs standing by 2019, said political analyst Shola Oyefeso.

The PDP cannot afford to allow this threat of division to fester, Mr. Oyefeso said, adding that the party is currently facing a serious crisis in the South-west where there are raging claims that the region was no longer recognised or welcomed within the party.

Mr. Ologbondiyan acknowledged the existence and severity of the crises to PREMIUM TIMES Wednesday night but said a reconciliation committee that was raised after the convention had been making significant progress.

Were confident in the ability of the reconciliation committee headed by Governor Seriake Dickson, the spokesperson said. The committees activities still continue nationwide, but it has received good feedbacks from respectable leaders of our party.
Recently, the Innoson/GTBank story has gained so much media prominence, especially following the arrest of the Innonson chairman a few days ago by EFCC. Though the case is pending in court, Innoson has taken the battle to social media. There have been numerous sponsored social media campaigns against the Bank such as #BewareOfGTBank and #WhatIsWrongWithGTBank. The company has also gone Television, with its owner, Dr Innocent Chukwuma granting an interview to TVC, where he claimed he had obtained a judgement of N8bn against the bank. He added that the bank pleaded with him over their inability to pay, and that he graciously offered to accept shares of the bank as payment.

GTBank on their part has chosen to remain silent on the matter, perhaps trusting in the integrity of the legal system as against playing to the gallery. Many attempts by us to get the banks representatives to comment on the story has proven abortive. A staff of the bank who spoke under anonymity, stated Irrespective of the issues we are facing with the company, Innoson remains a customer of the bank and we owe him a duty of confidentiality and to conduct ourselves in a responsible manner towards him. This statement didnt stop us from conducting our own investigations on the matter, and below are our findings, put in bullet points for your optimum understanding.

The obvious:

Innoson is, and still remains, a customer of GTBank.

What we discovered:

1. GTBank (in 2009) granted Innoson several credit facilities (i.e loans) totalling N2,400,000,000,00 (two billion, four hundred million Naira only), to part finance working capital requirements, import new motorcycles and motorcycle spare parts, agricultural spare parts and plastic manufacturing equipment (Imported Goods).

2. Under the loan terms agreed by Dr. Innocent Chukwuma on behalf of Innoson, proprietary interest in the Imported Goods was consigned exclusively in favour of the Bank. This means that the Bank was the exclusive owner of the Imported Goods. Accordingly, the original shipping documents (i.e. the Bills of Lading) were in the custody of the Bank, and have remained in the custody of the Bank at all times.

3. Because GTBank was the exclusive owner of the imported goods, ownership of the goods could only be transferred to Innoson (or any other third party) by the Bank. The condition in the agreement between the Bank and Innoson, for the release of the Imported Goods by the Bank to Innoson, was the payment of 25% of the value of each Letter of Credit transaction by Innoson.

What we learnt:

1. Innocent Chukwuma approached the Bank, on behalf of Innoson, requesting the release of the shipping documents without payment of the agreed+ 25% equity. The Bank declined his request as a result of Innosons failure to meet the agreed conditions.

2. It came to the Banks knowledge sometime in June, 2011 that the Imported Goods for which the Bank declined to release shipping documents to Innoson in view of its failure to meet the agreed conditions, had been fraudulently procured by Innoson.

3. The Bank discovered that Innoson, under the control of Dr. Innocent Chukwuma had forged the Banks endorsement on the bills of lading to the Shipping Line and fraudulently cleared the Imported Goods which were in the name of the Bank. The Imported Goods, being property of the Bank should not have been cleared from the Port without the original shipping documents being endorsed by the Bank in favour of Innoson, or any third party.

4. The signatures of 4 (four) staff of the Bank, to wit, Taofeek Olalere, Dan Attah, Bunmi Adeyemi and Amazu Amalachukwu, as well as the Banks stamp were forged on all the shipping documents used by Innoson to fraudulently clear goods at the port. The Bank did not at any time endorse or transfer the shipping documents to Innoson, as the originals of each of the relevant Bill of Lading remain in the Banks custody to this very day.

5. When the Bank reported the matter to the Nigeria Police, Dr. Innocent Chukwuma claimed the Bank released the shipping documents to him. Consequently, the Police commenced investigation into the Banks complaint, including a forensic examination of the disputed signatures, and established that the signatures of the Banks staff were forged, and the Imported Goods were fraudulently cleared from the Nigerian Ports Authority by Dr. Innocent Chukwuma and his accomplices.

What we heard from the Police:

1. Police investigations confirmed that Innoson and Dr. Innocent Chukwuma deliberately set out to defraud, steal from the Bank and convert the Imported Goods belonging to the Bank by deceptive means and through forgery and misrepresentation. The unlawful takeover of the Imported Goods, which served as the Banks collateral, left an indebtedness in excess of the sum of N1,654,481,895.04 (one billion, six hundred and fifty four million, four hundred and eighty one thousand, eight hundred and ninety five Naira, four Kobo) as at September 26, 2012.

2. Chief Innocent Chukwuma was arrested and interrogated by operatives of the EFCC, following which he agreed to make monthly payments into Innosons account until the full liquidation of Innosons indebtedness to the Bank. However, Innoson defaulted in making the agreed payments. Investigations by the Nigeria Police following a petition by the Bank in September 2013 also found Innoson and Chief Innocent Chukwuma culpable of the criminal allegations levied against them by the Bank, and Chief Innocent Chukwuma was accordingly charged to court by the Police.

3. The Police filed Charge No. FHC/L/565C/2015-Inspector General Of Police And Innoson Nigeria Limited; Innocent Chukwuma;Charles Chukwuma;Maximian Chukwura; Mitsui Osk Lines; Annajekwu Sunny for fraudulent clearance of goods, forgery, conversion, stealing and conspiracy presently pending before Faji J, at the Federal High Court, Ikoyi and adjourned to November 21, 2017 for arraignment/or hearing of motion for issuance of Bench Warrant.

What Innoson did:

1. Innoson approached the Bank for a reconciliation of his account and pleaded for a debt forgiveness. A reconciliation was carried out on the account  which had a debit balance of N1,654,481,895.04 as at December 31, 2011. In the spirit of amicable resolution and EFCC intervention, the Bank said it agreed to forego the sum of N559,374,072.09 which represented default charges that has accrued on the account and debited in line with the loan agreement between the customer and the Bank.

2. Based on this, the Bank decided to accept from the customer, the sum of N1,095,107,822.95 as full and final payment of the customers indebtedness to the Bank, provided that same shall be fully paid not later than (30) days from the date of the letter written to him

3. Surprisingly, Innoson commenced suit no:FHC/AWK/CS/2012 against the Bank at the Federal High Court, Awka stating the bank had debited its account with excess charges totalling N559,374,072.09 and obtained judgement in excess of N4.7Billion against the Bank. Again choosing to dishonour an agreement that was amicable reached between him and the Bank for a full and final settlement of N1,095,107,822.95 wherein the Bank graciously forgave him the sum of N559,374,072.09 which accrued on his account during the period which he abandoned his account.

4. To further stall the criminal proceedings against him, Chief Innocent Chukwuma and his company instituted suits at the Federal High Court, Abuja, as well as the Federal High Court, Awka in January 2014 against The Inspector General of Police, The Nigeria Police Force and Investigating Officer(s), seeking declaratory and injunctive reliefs, including orders restraining the Police from commencing criminal proceedings against Innoson and Chief Innocent Chukwuma. Furthermore, in a bid to stall the Banks recovery steps, and distract the Bank from focusing on the criminal action, as well as civil actions filed for recovery of the debt, Chief Innocent Chukwuma and his company Innoson, have continued to institute various spurious suits before various courts, claiming frivolous and outrageous sums against the Bank.

What GTBank is not saying:

1. In responding to Innosons motion for a stay of criminal proceedings at the Court of Appeal, the Honourable Justice J.S Ikyegh on September 17,2017 dismissed the motion for being unmeritorious and ordered that proceeding in the criminal case against Innson should proceed.

2. On October 12, 2017, the Police through its Charge No. FHC/L/565C/2015- filed an application for the issuance of bench warrant against Innocent Chukwuma; Charles Chukwuma and Annajekwu Sunny for fraudulent clearance of goods, forgery, conversion, stealing and conspiracy presently pending before Faji J, at the Federal High Court, Ikoyi and adjourned to Decemeber 8, 2017 for arraignment/or hearing of motion.

What we think:

Innoson should stop trying to play the underdog and simply resolve his issues through legal means or arbitration. On Innoson playing the Igbo tribe card, this is not in good taste in this moment in history. We are aware of GTBanks strong position on unpaid debts. We know GTBank has gone often several debtors of the bank irrespective of who they are or where they come from. So why is Innosons matter now tribal? Please, this makes no sense. Innoson and GTBank, resolve your issues privately and let us all hear word.

Merry Christmas my people

James Osaremen

Lagos
The Kwara State House of Assembly on Wednesday announced the suspension of further consideration of the 2018 Appropriation Bill following non-implementation of its directive on school fees in the state polytechnic.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the lawmakers had on December 13, in a resolution, advised the state government to compel the management of the polytechnic to revert to old school fees.

The House, in its resolution after adopting the report of its Committee on Education, said that the measure was in view of the current economic hardship in the country.

The Speaker, Ali Ahmad, while reading the Houses resolution at the end of the committees meeting, wondered why the polytechnic management should refuse to accept the old school fees from the students.

Mr. Ahmad said that N300 million had already been provided and approved in the 2018 budget for the institution to cater for the shortfall in the fund to be realised from school fees.

The speaker, while suspending further consideration of the budget, summoned the State Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Hajia Aminat Hammed, the Secretary to the Government, Alhaji Isiaka Gold and Special Adviser on Tertiary Institutions.

He said that they should appear before it on Wednesday by 4.00 p.m for clarification on the 2018 budget for the polytechnic.

The speaker said that the officers were also expected to explain why the polytechnic should ignore the lawmakers directive on school fees payment.

(NAN)
The Chairmen of 21 political parties in Anambra have said they were waiting for decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the court judgments nullifying Anambra Central Senatorial District seat.

The parties, under the aegis of Concerned Chairmen of Registered Political Parties in Anambra, told newsmen a news conference in Wednesday in Awka, the state capital, that they had not taken any position on the matter.

It will be recalled that the Court of Appeal had directed a rerun of the election be conducted on January 13, 2018, while an Abuja Federal High on December 13, ruled that INEC issue a Certificate of Return to Obiora Okonkwo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

It also ruled that Mr. Okonkwo was the authentic nominee of PDP for the election which was won by Uche Ekwunife of the PDP who lost the seat on the grounds of invalid nomination.

Reading the communique after their meeting, Chris Okafor, Chairman of Mass Movement of Nigeria (MMN), debunked the statement by the leadership of Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) in Anambra which said INEC should issue Certificate of Return to the PDP.

Mr. Okafor said that IPAC in Anambra had not met as a body since the governorship election was held and did not at any time take a position on the Anambra Central Senatorial District issue as purported by the chairman of the body.

Our attention has been drawn to a statement credited to chairman of IPAC that we adopted the High Court ruling of December 13 on Anambra Central Senatorial District,

In the light of the above, we the concerned chairmen of registered political parties in Anambra wish to clarify that, IPAC has a code of conduct and not a willing tool in the hands of few selfish people for the prosecution of personal vendetta.

That we did not at any time meet, resolved and agreed on the High Court judgment of December 13, and in as much as we are deeply concerned that Anambra Central Senatorial Seat has been vacant for more than two years, we will not allow emotions to becloud our sense of judgment.

We therefore, dissociate ourselves from the purported statement and advise the public to disregard it as we restate our commitment to wait for INEC Headquarters on its legal consultation as regards the Anambra Central Senatorial Seat matter, he said.

Also, Sam Oraegbunam, Chairman of Hope Democratic Party, said IPAC would not allow itself to be enmeshed in partisan issues.

Mr. Oraegbunam said that most parties had candidate in the election and were waiting for INEC to come up with its position for them to take the next step ahead for the election.

(NAN)
The Ogun State Police Command on Tuesday arrested 20 students of the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, MAPOLY, for allegedy vandalising government and personal property in Abeokuta metropolis.

The students were part of the protesters who thronged the streets on Tuesday to protest the failure of the polytechnic management to fix dates for them to write their semester examination.

The examination had been stalled for over three months, following the unresolved face-off between the government and lecturers over the establishment of the controversial Ogun State Polytechnic, Ipokia.

However, the 20, while carrying out the protest tagged Black Week, were alleged to have vandalised a number of property in Panseke, Oluwo and Iyana Oloke areas of Abeokuta.

They were equally alleged to have set bonfires close to the pedestrian bridge currently under construction in Panseke area of the state capital while a section of the bridge was set ablaze.

The students also reportedly made an attempt to barricade the route to the governors office at Oke-Mosan but were prevented by the police from advancing beyond Panseke.

A witness said police officers had earlier assembled at the Panseke junction to prevent the students from gathering.

The account noted that the students were undetered and later blocked all routes to the school from Panseke and took the protest to the entrance of the school.

At the school, the protesting students requested the acting rector, Ayodeji Tella, to lead them to the governor, whom they insisted must address their complaints.

The rector subsequently rode in an Hilux van driven by the chief security officer of the school, Adekunle Adekoya, while the students hung to the back of the van.

However, there was a twist when the students were told that the vehicle couldnt move again because of a mechanical failure.

The students offered to continue their advancing by pushing the vehicle to the governors office but the driver reportedly suddenly zoomed off injuring about four students in the process.

The state police public relations officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said the arrests were necessary following the alleged destruction of public and private property.

Mr. Oyeyemi told journalists that the officers had to use minimum force to disperse the students.

He said the students, who also reportedly injured a police officer on Monday, would be charged to court on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun hinted that the students would pay for any destruction made to public property.

They are instigating the students. We know how to handle ourselves. If any student destroys anything, they will pay for it, they will pay. We were also made to pay then, he said apparently referring to his time as a student.

I have been getting reports, they will pay, they have to pay for it (destruction) because this is Ogun State money, an irate governor was quoted as saying.
The Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, on Wednesday directed Legionnaires to take charge of security in public schools in the state so as to forestall all forms of crime in schools.

Governor Ambode, who spoke while launching the 2018 Armed Forces Remembrance Emblem at the Lagos House in Alausa, Ikeja, said his administration remains totally committed to ensuring safety of pupils across all schools in the State.

He said: What is important is that we have taken as a matter of fact to take care of our public schools which will henceforth be secured by the Nigerian Legion. We promise to give surveillance vehicles to them to enhance security and keep the safety and security of our children in their hands.

Launching the emblem, the governor said the event has continually served as a reminder of the gallantry and sacrifice of men and women of the Nigerian Armed Forces that have in no small measure contributed in protecting the nations cherished sovereignty.

He said that it was important to remember them, especially for paying the supreme price of keeping the country safe and secure in challenging periods, and for achieving unity at the expense of losing their lives.

It is time to engage ourselves in deep reflection of how such homes have been coping and how the widows and children left behind have been surviving, without important loved ones. It is time to rise in support by alleviating some of their needs, it is the time to express our love, extend appreciation and show gratitude to them for their services to our fatherland.

We must indeed show to each and every veteran that their service to fatherland is appreciated, not just by the nation, and the state, but also by ordinary individual citizens of this great nation.

It is important that we can continue live in unity and peace. Accordingly, we must use this opportunity to convey symbolic messages to our serving military men and women, that services and sacrifices to the nation will always be rewarded and appreciated, to inspire them to be more patriotic and motivate them to give their all in the protection and security of our dear country, Mr. Ambode said.

While urging Nigerians to always treat ex-servicemen with respect and donate generously in the support of the Nigerian Legion, Mr. Ambode announced a donation of N25 million as well as trailer load of rice to aid the welfare of the families of fallen heroes.

Also in this yuletide, we extend a trailer load of Lake Rice and N25million to the Nigeria Legion, he said.

Earlier in his opening remarks, the State Commissioner for Home Affairs, Abdul Hakeem Abdul Lateef, emphasised the need for all citizens to appreciate the gallant fallen heroes through donations for the welfare and upkeep of their families.

Also speaking, the Chairman of Lagos State Branch of Nigerian Legion, Samuel Akanbi commended Mr. Ambode for his efforts at rapidly transforming the state and fulfilling the promises made to the Legion.
Lecturers of the College of Education, Ikere-Ekiti, on Wednesday protested against the direct deduction of taxes from the subvention released to the institution.

The lecturers also demanded the immediate payment of their seven months salary arrears, without which, they said, much hardship would be inflicted on them and their families.

Protesting under the College of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU), they marched from the new Science Complex where they earlier held an emergency congress and then moved to the Provosts Office.

The COEASU Chairman in the college, Adedayo Olokesusi, led the protest and addressed the principal officers at the Administrative Building where the march terminated.

In a seven-point communique signed by Mr. Olokesusi and unions Secretary, Dare Owolabi, the lecturers described the statement governments act of deducting taxes directly from the monthly subvention to the school without the knowledge of the tax payers as highly barbaric.

The union hereby demand the release of the amount deducted from May 2017 subvention by the state government with immediate effect, the communique read.

The union also frowns at the policy of divide-and-rule employed by the state government on the payment of salaries to workers in the state where some categories of workers have been paid two months salaries ahead of the subvented institutions.

The union considers it a wicked act for a government that is owing workers seven months salaries to be deducting taxes from the subvention of the College.

The tax being paid by College staff was duly negotiated during the previous administration and all parties agreed to the payment based on the economic situation in the country.

The previous administration had agreed with the Union on the current tax being paid by members because we made it known that payments like project supervision allowance, hazard allowance, excess work load allowance, leave bonus etc cannot be taxed and all these have been consolidated in the current salary structure.

The union further called on the state government to increase the colleges subvention without any delay.
According to a recent report, Chinese clothing brand Kon has recently filed a lawsuit against Apple for copyright infringement as Apple's App Store logo bears a resemblance to its logo.

Apple changed its App Store logo back in August from a paintbrush, pencil, and a ruler, to three sticks with rounded ends that overlap each other to form a triangle. Kon's logo looks similar, but the ends are sharp rectangles.

According to Phone Radar, KON believes Apple's new logo is a violation of Chinese copyright law. KON is a brand that is been around since 2009, and as The Verge discovered, Baidu Baike, the Chinese equivalent of Wikipedia, says the KON brand was inspired by music like the Sex Pistols, with the logo meant to represent three skeleton bones symbolizing power over death.

KON wants Apple to publicly apologize for using its logo, stop selling devices using the current App Store logo, and pay compensation for economic loss. The Beijing People's Court has accepted the case and should make a ruling over the course of the next couple of weeks. However, since Chinese courts do not upload every case seen, the Kon case is not currently listed on the court website. Phone Radar expects that the judgment can come in over the next few weeks.

Apple in 2016 lost a similar case involving the "IPHONE" trademark that was in use by Chinese leather goods manufacturer Xintong Tiandi Technology. In that case, Apple was aiming to protect its iPhone trademark to prevent Xintong Tiandi from using the iPhone name for its cases, but the Chinese courts ruled against Apple. So, it will be interesting to see how this lawsuit plays out.
For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world's population, while enabling the "elites" to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity's extermination: Operation ENDGAME.

Jones chronicles the history of the global elite's bloody rise to power and reveals how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest warscreating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire.

Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III.





to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever.





Discover how the practitioners of the pseudo-science eugenics have taken control of governments worldwide as a means to carry out depopulation.





View the progress of the coming collapse of the United States and the formation of the North American Union.

Never before has a documentary assembled all the pieces of the globalists' dark agenda. Endgame's compelling look at past atrocities committed by those attempting to steer the future delivers information that the controlling media has meticulously censored for over 60 years. It fully reveals the elite's program to dominate the earth and carry out the wicked plan in all of human history.

Endgame is not conspiracy theory, it is documented fact in the elite's own words.




By: Peabody Properties, Inc.

iPods for Vets Event

End

-- Howard House, a Veteran's Supportive Housing community managed by Peabody Properties, a full-service real estate and property management firm (http://www.peabodyproperties.com), was the site of a recent event facilitated by iPods for Wounded Veterans, an organization that since 2011 has brought thousands of electronics and gifts to badly injured members of the U.S. military who served in the Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and are now recovering at military hospitals.Eight residents of Howard House, located on the grounds of the Brockton Veterans Administration Medical Center, attended the event and welcomed donations including t-shirts, sweatshirts, magazines, gift bags, socks, hats, gloves and candy. The veterans also received hand-written cards from students at Wilmington Public Schools; the students created two colorful banners now gracing the common basement area at Howard House.In addition to providing gifts, iPods for Wounded Veterans raffled off several tablets and other electronic items to Howard House residents; gift bags were set aside for those residents unable to attend the event.By offering to hold this event, iPods for Wounded Veterans graciously included Howard House in their generous undertaking, even though not all residents are badly injured members of the U.S. military who served in Kuwait, Iraq or Afghanistan. Howard House residents have served in various U.S. military conflicts, and are formerly homeless veterans or veterans at risk of being homeless."We were humbled by this heart-warming event and delighted that our residents enjoyed such a great day," said Allen Furey, Resident Services Coordinator for Peabody Resident Services, Inc. Caritas. "Mere thanks hardly seem adequate for the important work iPods for Wounded Veterans does  the support this volunteer organization provides for wounded veterans is outstanding."For more information, or to support iPods for Wounded Veterans, please visit http://ipodsforwoundedveterans.org Peabody Properties is a full-service real-estate firm which manages more than 12,000 units of housing, primarily in New England. The award-winning, privately held corporation and Accredited Management Organization (AMO) was incorporated in 1976 and is under the direction of Karen Fish-Will and Melissa Fish-Crane. In 1995, Peabody Properties recognized its long-term commitment to Resident Services as a unique area of expertise within the field of property management and established a new, specialty sector. Peabody Resident Services, Inc. is dedicated solely to the development of support services and programs for residents of affordable housing. Peabody Properties is designated as a Woman Business Enterprise (WBE), is certified by the Massachusetts State Office of Minority and Women Business Assistance (SOMWBA) and was recently ranked in the top 60 on the 2017 National Affordable Housing Management Association (NAHMA) Affordable 100 List, as well as a 2017 Top Place to Work by the. Peabody Properties maintains headquarters at 536 Granite Street, Braintree, MA 02184. The firm also has offices in New Jersey and Florida. For additional information please visit http://www.peabodyproperties.com
Strategic Acquisition Strengthens In.Corp Group's Presence in the Philippines

incorp- group- acquires- kittelson- carpo- consulting- p

Contact

Press Contact: Eileen Kang

***@rikvin.com Press Contact: Eileen Kang

End

-- In.Corp Group announced today the acquisition of Kittelson & Carpo Consulting, a business consulting firm headquartered in Taguig City, Philippines, with additional offices in Makati City and Cebu City. Kittelson & Carpo focuses on assisting companies with their set up in the Philippines, providing services such as business registration and permits, government compliance, work permits and visas, payroll and recruitment. In.Corp is Singapore's leading corporate services company."Both In.Corp Group and Kittelson & Carpo are focused relentlessly on the same goal  to deliver professional and quality corporate solutions for our clients. We are proud to be a recognised business consulting leader in the Philippine market and we believe by combining our strengths with those of In.Corp Group, we can extend our mission and jointly accelerate success for our clients," said Gregory Kittelson, Kittelson & Carpo's Co-Founder and Managing Director."We are excited to join In.Corp Group and grow our regional presence. This strategic acquisition is a win-win for us and all of our clients," said Amanda Carpo, Kittelson & Carpo's President and Co-Founder.Both Gregory and Amanda will continue to spearhead operations apart from assuming larger responsibilities within In.Corp Group."This acquisition marks a major step forward in delivering our regional strategy and we are thrilled to welcome Kittelson & Carpo into the In.Corp family," said Atin Bhutani, In.Corp Group CEO. "Kittelson & Carpo's market leader position, exceptional reputation and strong management team will enable us to scale and accelerate our Philippine business. I am pleased that Gregory, Amanda and team will play key roles in advancing In.Corp Group's position as the leading corporate services provider in the APAC region and I look forward to working with them."Kittelson & Carpo Consulting is a consulting firm that assists companies with their set up in the Philippines, providing services such as business registration and permits, government compliance, work permits and visas, payroll and recruitment. Kittelson & Carpo Consulting commenced operations in 2007 and is based in Taguig City, Makati City and Cebu City, Philippines. Its clients include small and medium enterprises from diversified industries including outsourcing and offshoring, product import and export, network marketing, recruiting, real estate, travel and accommodation, trading and manufacturing, mining, etc.In.Corp Group is Singapore's leading corporate solutions company, with presences in multiple countries and serving thousands of clients around the world. Our people, services and solutions help the companies of today take on the business challenges of tomorrow. Discover more at incorp.asia/blog and follow us on Twitter at @InCorpGlobal.
PORTLAND, Ore., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- 2018 is shaping up to be a big year for wireless charging. More and more consumers will be introduced to wireless charging through the launch of new devices  and more and more consumers will also become aware of the inherent limitations of those first-generation solutions. AirFuel Alliance, the authority on wireless power technology and standards, is focused on bridging that gap. The organization has put the strategic building blocks in place to ensure it can support the next-generation Resonant-based and RF-based wireless charging solutions  infrastructure and devices  needed to deliver the best end-user experience possible.

Organizational Change

AirFuel Alliance has streamlined its organization to focus exclusively on next-gen technologies including Resonant and RF, along with the Network Infrastructure to support them. This will allow the organization to respond more efficiently and effectively to the myriad of use cases that are emerging for wireless charging  use cases that can only be solved by Resonant or RF.

"The benefits of Resonant and RF are clear and include increased spatial freedom, cheaper and easier infrastructure installation, and faster speeds," said Ron Resnick, president of AirFuel Alliance. "First-generation Inductive technology will introduce consumers and businesses to wireless charging, but next-generation Resonant and RF technologies will deliver on its full potential. AirFuel members are already delivering Resonant products and public charging solutions in Asia and elsewhere, and we'll see more throughout 2018  this is just the beginning."

More Supporters

EPC (Efficient Power Conversion), a leader in advanced power management technology, has joined AirFuel's Board of Directors. As a great example of Resonant wireless power's capabilities, EPC has created a large surface-area power source that enables people to simultaneously power and charge multiple devices on a single surface. Using EPC's GaN-on-Si technology to efficiently power a resonant magnetic field, people can charge their phones and laptopswhile simultaneously directly powering a computer monitor, lamp, Amazon Alexa, Bluetooth headset and other battery-less devices simply by placing these items on the surface. All without the need for power cords. In addition to wireless power, EPC's eGaN transistors and integrated circuits are also integral to a variety of other applications, including autonomous vehicles, advanced medical devices and high-speed data communications.

AirFuel also welcomes recent new member Shenzhen Soling Industrial Co.,Ltd, a China-based researcher, manufacturer, and provisioner of CID systems, as a new member. In 2018, AirFuel will continue to grow the Resonant and RF ecosystem with new members across the consumer electronics, semiconductor, design and manufacturing, and automotive industries.

New Research

AirFuel contacted Utah State University, home of the SELECT Center for wireless power, to conduct a study on the benefits of AirFuel Resonant technology. The independent review tested 5 systems from 4 companies to evaluate zone of rated power, maximum charging area, efficiency, heating effects and usability. Results showed Resonant is as efficient if not better than current Inductive solutions, with the added benefit of spatial freedom and without the hazards like metal heating. Some key findings:

Zone of rated power extends to 50mm or more

Spatial freedom extends to 75mm or more (Inductive is much less)

Measurement of systems show a range of efficiency of 70-80% in real-life use cases. In comparison, some Inductive systems reach 70-80% but with only with very limited power, range, and movement before failing to charge all together; AirFuel Resonant was tested with a wide range of power levels up to charging laptops.

Unlike lower frequency solutions, AirFuel Resonant does not produce metal heating issues. Operating at full power (6.78 MHz), standard metal objects like keys or coins show no noticeable heating effect. This makes Resonant a better option for wearables and devices with metal in them.

New Solutions

Tri-mode chips are going to be an integral part of bridging the gap between first generation Inductive technology and next-generation Resonant. AirFuel members are working on solutions that will help companies get the most from their wireless charging investments. For example, HALO Microelectronics recently announced their new, fully integrated tri-mode high-power charging receiver. The new product, HL6101, enables up to 15W of wireless charging capability and automatic detection and adaption to all common wireless charging standards including AirFuel Alliance Resonant and WPC. HALO is also working with Qualcomm Technologies to develop a tri-mode wireless charging IC for future Qualcomm Snapdragon mobile platforms.

On the RF front, AirFuel member company Energous recently announced its WattUp wireless charging technology was selected by Myant for its SKIIN smart, everyday apparel launching in 2018. The clothing enables measurement and tracking of vitals such as breathing rate, heart rate, hydration, temperature, activity and more via a removable module and wireless charging pad, which leverage WattUp transmitters and receivers for wireless charging. Myant chose Energous because the WattUp receiver technology makes it possible to charge the clothing's integrated sensors using either contact (Near Field) or distance (Mid Field) charging methods. Energous will be demonstrating its Near and Mid Field WattUp technology at CES 2018, with Myant and other partners showcasing new products integrating Energous WattUp wireless charging technology.

About AirFuel Alliance

AirFuel Alliance is an association dedicated to building a global wireless charging ecosystem based on best-in-industry next generation wireless charging technologies, such as Resonant and RF. AirFuel Alliance's mission is to bring a diverse base of interoperable products to the global market to help deliver the best wireless charging experience for consumers.

The organization membership is made up of leading technology and consumer electronics companies, including board of directors companies Dell, Duracell, Energous, EPC, ONSemiconductor, Powermat, PowerSphyr, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics, Starbucks and WiTricity.

Media Contact:

Sharen Santoski

AirFuel Alliance

617-755-6357

[email protected]

SOURCE AirFuel Alliance

Related Links

http://www.airfuel.org


PERTH, Australia, Dec. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Alloy Steel International, Inc. (OTC: AYSI) advises that its 2017 Annual Financial Statements are now available on www.otcmarkets.com website by searching for AYSI then choosing "Filings and Disclosure".

About Alloy Steel

Alloy Steel manufactures and distributes Arcoplate, a technically superior and market leading 'alloy overlay' wear plate, servicing the global market place from its modern manufacturing facilities in Perth, Australia. Arcoplate is used throughout the mining and materials processing industries, from opportunistic one-off specialty applications in small companies to large relationship based repeat business applications with leading international companies.

Arcoplate provides users with superior wear protection due to its premium alloy mix, its high ratio of carbide rich alloy and its unique manner of manufacture. The product's technical superiority combined with its unbeatable 'whole-of-life' cost has resulted in Arcoplate's wide acceptance in the mining and mineral processing industries to reduce wear in a host of fixed plant and mobile equipment applications.

In mining and materials processing industries, where premature equipment wear is the primary cause of downtime, to undertake repairs or refurbishment, Arcoplate can provide users with significant profit improvement. Arcoplate can substantially lower equipment downtime, resulting in higher production, whilst also lowering the overall cost of wear protection.

Furthermore, in applications where material 'hang-up' or 'carry-back' are also a significant cause of lost production, such as sticky materials that do not discharge freely from truck trays, buckets and chutes, Arcoplate's unique characteristic of polishing to a very low friction factor has the potential to virtually eliminate these problems, whilst simultaneously providing enhanced equipment wear life.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

Thushara Sam Dahanayake

Company Secretary

+61-8-9248 3188

SOURCE Alloy Steel International, Inc.
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- App Annie, the most trusted app market data and insights company, today announced key customer and business updates for 2017. The company is also announcing two leadership appointments  Natasha Kehimkar as Chief People Officer and Scott Marcus as General Counsel. As Chief People Officer, Natasha Kehimkar leads global people operations, talent acquisition and engagement. As General Counsel, Scott Marcus oversees corporate strategic legal initiatives for the company.

Across the globe, consumers on average spend approximately 2.5 hours per day in apps. This equates to more than 3.5 days per month spent across nearly 40 different apps  per user. Given this continued shift to mobile and apps, App Annie continues to experience rapid growth worldwide as businesses across industries are being transformed by apps. The company has added the following marquee brands to its portfolio: Visa, Schneider Electric, Pfizer, Adobe, Honda Motor, Starz, LEGO, Index Ventures, SINA and ExxonMobil.

Further, the company recently reached 1 million registered users  a significant milestone in just seven years.

"As we continue on this trajectory, I want to acknowledge our talented teams driving our company's success. It takes commitment and hard work to be where we are, so it is increasingly important to continue focusing on people and culture," comments Bertrand Schmitt, CEO and Co-Founder, App Annie. "That is why I am excited to have both Natasha and Scott partner with our executive team and me. Their leadership experience spans from start-ups to enterprise companies and is crucial as we scale our company and deepen our investment in our people."

"I was drawn to App Annie's strong customer-centric vision, market leadership and, importantly, its focus on its people and culture as the company evolves," says Natasha Kehimkar, Chief People Officer, App Annie. "As we continue to thrive, our commitment to our people becomes even more prominent. Our company's success is a direct result of the great work of our global organization, and I look forward to partnering with the executive team to take App Annie to the next level."

For more information, please visit https://www.appannie.com.

About Natasha Kehimkar

As Chief People Officer, Natasha Kehimkar leads App Annie's global People and Talent team. With cross-industry experience in global HR, talent acquisition and organization effectiveness within both start-up and large enterprise companies, Natasha is responsible for managing strategic initiatives focused on culture, people operations and talent at the company. Prior to App Annie, Natasha served as the VP, People at Guardant Health, a Sequoia-backed biotech start-up company. Prior to that, she was VP of People and Culture at OpenTable where she oversaw all operational and strategic aspects of People Operations & Talent Acquisition for the company. This was preceded by more than 15 years of HR experience at Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson. She holds a BA in Sociology from McGill University, and a Master's in Human Resources & Labor Relations.

About Scott Marcus

As General Counsel, Scott leads the legal team and is responsible for all legal matters at App Annie. Scott has been practicing law for over 15 years both in private practice and in-house at technology companies. Scott most recently served as Vice President, Legal and Corporate Affairs and Assistant Secretary at NetSuite prior to the company's successful $9.3B sale to Oracle in 2016. Prior to NetSuite, Scott advised public and private technology companies in private practice at Cooley LLP in San Francisco. Scott started his career at the law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP in New York. Scott holds a JD from New York University School of Law and a BA in Economics and Spanish Literature from Tufts University.

About App Annie

App Annie delivers the most trusted app market data and insights for your business to succeed in the global app economy. Over 1 million registered members rely on App Annie to better understand the app market, their businesses and the opportunities around them. The company is headquartered in San Francisco with 450 employees across 15 global offices. App Annie has received $157 million in financing, including from investors such as Sequoia Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, IDG Capital Partners, e.ventures, Greenspring Associates, and Greycroft Partners.

SOURCE App Annie

Related Links

http://www.appannie.com


HOUSTON, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Quorum, the leader in digital transformation for the oil and gas industry, recently announced that Dallas-based oil and gas company Arcadia Operating is implementing the latest release of myQuorum Land On Demand software. Arcadia sought out myQuorum Land On Demand based on its functionality, ease of use, and efficiency.

"It's great to see a growing oil and gas company like Arcadia recognize the need to strategically transform through cloud technology, and we are excited to partner with them as they continue to evolve their business by embracing innovation and digital solutions," said Soroosh Seyhoon, Quorum Vice President. "The competitive landscape of the energy sector is rapidly changing, and Quorum's industry-leading cloud-based land management software will help Arcadia remain successful by modernizing their business processes."

"We were looking for a solution that would be easy to use while modernizing the look and feel of our land software," said Dylan Bercutt, Lease Analyst at Arcadia. "That's when we found myQuorum Land On Demand. During the demo, we were especially impressed by its GIS capabilities, including the ability to view leasing activity on the map and to map out lease boundaries. We knew right away this software was best suited for our company."

"myQuorum Land On Demand's recent success reflects the need for leading land management software vendors to address the small cap opportunity with products and platforms tailored to the challenges that these smaller organizations encounter," said Kevin Prouty, Vice President of IDC Energy Insights. "We see significant demand from smaller companies due to the amount of M&A activity and driven by the need for these solutions to be fast to implement, simple to deploy, industry-proven, scalable, and affordable."

About Arcadia Operating

Arcadia Operating, LLC is a privately owned, Texas corporation based in Dallas. Arcadia has been active in the oil and gas industry since the early 1930s. Throughout the years, Arcadia has enjoyed success through exploration and exploitation of oil and natural gas properties. The company currently operates more than 120 wells primarily located in East Texas and along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast regions. The various operations include infield development in the company's legacy area, Talco Field in East Texas, to deep, high-pressure gas wells located in South Texas. Arcadia is committed to ensuring that all field operations meet or exceed state and federal regulatory and environmental standards, and we are proud to be approved to operate wells on both U.S. National Forest and U.S. National Wildlife Reserve surface lands. For more information on Arcadia, please visit www.arcadiaop.com.

About myQuorum Land On Demand

The latest release combines Quorum's proven and industry-leading land management software with the accessibility, affordability, and speed of cloud technology. Over the last 20 years, Quorum has implemented land solutions for more than a hundred oil and gas companies ranging from small independents to supermajors  including 7 of the 10 largest operators in the United States. Proven, affordable, and fast, the new myQuorum Land On Demand package includes software, services, and support priced to maximize value for small and medium-sized operators short on time and resources, while providing scalability to meet business growth.

For more information on myQuorum Land On Demand, visit our product page and webinar on the Quorum website.

About Quorum

Quorum offers an industry-leading portfolio of finance, operations and accounting software that empowers energy companies of all sizes to conquer their most complex business challenges. From the field to the back office, defying complexity is coded in our DNA and our software. This unmatched experience is why Quorum is the choice of eight of the largest public energy companies worldwide, 75 percent of LNG exporters throughout North America and 80 percent of all midstream companies in the United States. Designed for digital transformation, the myQuorum software platform delivers open standards, mobile-first design and cloud technologies to empower innovation at the speed of thought. At Quorum, we're helping visionary leaders transform their business, and the energy industry, for a digital world. For more information, visit www.quorumsoftware.com.

CONTACT: Genevieve Shoemaker, 1-713-377-6438, [email protected]

SOURCE Quorum

Related Links

https://www.quorumsoftware.com


FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- ASAP Tax and Lien Search today reported orders received for the month ended November 30, 2017. The Company achieved an increase in orders of 16%, compared with November 2016. This marks the sixth month in the last seven months with an increase in orders from last year. The only month with a decrease was due to Hurricane Irma in September. Year-to-date, orders are higher by almost 10%.

Francine Citarella, Owner and President, said, "Our recent marketing efforts have resulted in strong gains in 2017, and our experienced and dedicated team, have allowed us to maintain long-term relationships with our customers and convert our new partners."

The Company has received orders from 56 new customers this year as a result of the new marketing program.

About ASAP:

ASAP Tax and Lien Search was founded in 1999 by Francine when she was in her mid-fifties.

A trailblazer who continues to run the only woman-owned company in the industry in Florida, ASAP is one of the oldest and most respected companies that performs Tax and Lien Searches. She is joined at the company by her daughter Lisa, daughter-in-law Sherry, son Anthony and Jayne, making ASAP a true family enterprise.

www.ASAPTaxAndLienSearch.com

Contact:

Mr. Citarella

VP of Business Development

954-229-9877

SOURCE ASAP Tax and Lien Search

Related Links

http://www.ASAPTaxAndLienSearch.com


MADISON, Wis., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- ASKO Appliances, designer and manufacturer of premium kitchen, laundry and professional appliances, announced a new dishwasher line of eighteen built-in dishwashers that meet the highest demands in design, function and durability. The new line-up will be introduced to consumers with a rolling launch beginning January 2018.

"Our new dishwasher line-up is a testament to our commitment to product innovation," said Jonas Lidberg, managing director of ASKO Appliances. "High quality design, innovative features and reliable performance are always top of mind and we are thrilled to debut the new generation of our dishwasher line."

The new dishwashers have the high quality and durability expected from ASKO and will incorporate the following features:

More Stainless Steel: The new generation dishwashers have a true full front door panel made from a single piece of stainless steel  carefully folded and welded. ASKO has also incorporated new stainless steel tact switches to provide tactile feedback on their updated control panels.

The new generation dishwashers have a true full front door panel made from a single piece of stainless steel  carefully folded and welded. ASKO has also incorporated new stainless steel tact switches to provide tactile feedback on their updated control panels. Increased program options: Five new run modes are ideal for a variety of situations: "silent" for a more quiet nighttime operation, "green" to save energy and water, "intensive" to get those extra dirty dishes clean, "speed" for quick and effective washing results and "normal" to accommodate everyday needs.

Five new run modes are ideal for a variety of situations: "silent" for a more quiet nighttime operation, "green" to save energy and water, "intensive" to get those extra dirty dishes clean, "speed" for quick and effective washing results and "normal" to accommodate everyday needs. Decreased noise levels: The new line features noise levels that continue to beat our previous models.

The new line features noise levels that continue to beat our previous models. Clean design: ASKO dishwashers are built-in, and come in two different finishes to accommodate any design style: panel ready or stainless steel and offer three handle options: tubular, pro, or pocket. The new product line-up also features no visible controls or displays on the front of the unit. Everything is hidden on the top control panel giving the kitchen a clean and seamless look.

ASKO dishwashers are built-in, and come in two different finishes to accommodate any design style: panel ready or stainless steel and offer three handle options: tubular, pro, or pocket. The new product line-up also features no visible controls or displays on the front of the unit. Everything is hidden on the top control panel giving the kitchen a clean and seamless look. Larger loading capacity: Homeowners can now load up to 17 place settings, or 194 items to be cleaned at once.

Homeowners can now load up to 17 place settings, or 194 items to be cleaned at once. Power Zones : Dishwashers come with one or two power zones that give you a better washing result. Jet Spray is great for washing tall or narrow items, such as baby bottles or a favorite vase. Wide Spray is efficient for washing larger items, such as pots and pans.

Dishwashers come with one or two power zones that give you a better washing result. Jet Spray is great for washing tall or narrow items, such as baby bottles or a favorite vase. Wide Spray is efficient for washing larger items, such as pots and pans. Updated basket options: ASKO has upgraded their basket options with more tine adjustability allowing for more flexibility when loading those stubborn dishes.

Since April 2014, ASKO Distribution North America, LLC., owned by Sub-Zero Group, Inc., has been the exclusive distributor for the ASKO brand in North America. The partnership is part of parent company Gorenje's strategic activities aimed at boosting the brand's presence beyond Europe and promoting its upmarket products. For more information about new ASKO dishwashers, visit askona.com.

About Gorenje Group

Gorenje Group is a leading European home appliance manufacturer with a tradition spanning 64 years. In addition to standing out with excellent design, their innovative and technologically advanced appliances simplify the lives of users in 90 countries across the world. Their offer of home appliances marketed under their global brands Gorenje and ASKO and local brands Atag, Pelgrim, Mora, Upo, Etna, and Korting is rounded off by a range of kitchen furniture, as well as other home appliances like water heaters and heat pumps. Gorenje is a perennial winner of awards for excellence in design and innovative solutions. The Group generates 92 percent of its revenue in Europe, particularly in Germany, Russia, Benelux, Ukraine, Scandinavia, and Southeastern Europe. For more information on Gorenje Group, please visit gorenje.com and gorenjegroup.com.

SOURCE ASKO Appliances

Related Links

http://www.askona.com


HANGZHOU, China, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Chint Solar/Astronergy signed an 80MW PV module supply contract with Atlas Renewable Energy, which is developing an 80MW solar power plant located in Aquiraz, Ceara, Brazil. The project, Sol do Futuro, is scheduled to be delivered by the second quarter of 2018.

Brazil has abundant and regular sunlight, and has been developing the solar industry rapidly in recent years. The Brazil government plans to increase the installed capacity from 2015 to 2024 by 67GW, an increase of some 48% of the total energy in Brazil. The significant potential market for solar modules in Brazil creates many opportunities for Chinese enterprises to grow their businesses in this region.

Astronergy CEO Dr. Lu, Chuan said: "With the Belt and Road Initiative and the promising global solar market, we are paying more attention to emerging markets in South America, especially Brazil. Atlas is quite professional in developing PV projects and we would like to establish long-term and strategic partnership with them."

Atlas Renewable Energy CEO, Carlos Barrera said: "Atlas Renewable Energy aims to continue developing and investing in high-quality projects across Latin America. We are selective in choosing suppliers to work with and we seek to establish robust relationships that are enduring. We are pleased to work with Astronergy on this exciting Sol do Futuro project."

About Astronergy

Astronergy is a specialized subsidiary of the CHINT group and is engaged in the field of the PV power station development and PV module production. Astronergy is currently one of the largest domestic PV power generation enterprises with 3500MWp of PV Power Stations and 2500MWp module production capacity. The Company's total registered capital is up to RMB 5.32 billion. Depending on the advantage of CHINT group's full industrial chain and the professional teams, Chint can provide the one-stop solution of PV power station to our customers. In 2014, Astronergy acquired the PV module factory located in Frankfurt Germany and it had become the first domestic merger and acquisition of German PV module producer. The local government also named a main road as "CHINT Avenue".

About Atlas Renewable Energy

Atlas Renewable Energy was established in 2017 as a renewable energy developer formed by the private investment firm Actis through the acquisition of the previous SunEdison Latin America team and asset base.

Atlas Renewable Energy is a regional Latin American solar and wind platform, with some 600MW in contracted projects in operation, construction or advanced development stages and over 1GW in early stage projects.

Atlas Renewable Energy's growth strategy is based on developing, financing, investing in, and operating high-quality projects through its experienced team with a deep and robust track-record across the region. Atlas aims to grow an additional 1GW-2GW over the short to medium term, with a focus on Chile, Brazil and Mexico.

For more information contact:

Wanshu Hu

+86-571-5603-2110

[email protected]

SOURCE Astronergy
ARLINGTON, Va., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Trucking Associations today applauded Congress for passing major tax reform legislation, which now heads to the President's desk to be signed into law.

"America's economic engine has been ignited," said ATA President and CEO Chris Spear. "President Trump has said that 'when trucks are moving, America is growing.' With his signing of this bill into law, there will be more trucks on our roads, making the deliveries fueled by an expanding economy."

"Winning doesn't come easy here in Washington and comprehensive tax reform was no exception," said Spear. "The President, House and Senate are to be commended for putting the American people first. This is the first change to our nation's tax code in over three decades and the most sweeping reforms America has witnessed in over 80 years. The ATA and its members are proud supporters of this bill and welcome the countless benefits it will bring to the United States economy."

ATA has been actively engaged on tax reform throughout the legislative process. In October, members of ATA joined President Trump in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to rally support behind an overhaul.

"This bill is a win not just for trucking but for our entire economy," said ATA Chairman Dave Manning, president of TCW, Inc. in Nashville. "The relief this bill provides will enable companies to invest in their growth, by hiring new employees or purchasing new equipment. That creates an economic stimulus with positive ripple effects that reach far and wide."

American Trucking Associations is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. Through a federation of 50 affiliated state trucking associations and industry-related conferences and councils, ATA is the voice of the industry America depends on most to move our nation's freight. Follow ATA on Twitter or on Facebook. Trucking Moves America Forward.

SOURCE American Trucking Associations

Related Links

http://www.trucking.org


The victim was walking on Christmas Eve when the side passenger mirror of a commercial pick-up truck struck Ms. Ming in the back of the head at a speed of approximately 48 miles per hour. The victim was hospitalized and treated for a head injury, including seven staples at Tampa General Hospital. Following the incident, Ms. Ming began to exhibit symptoms associated with a traumatic brain injury, including memory loss, confusion, and other cognitive issues associated with head trauma.

The driver of the truck was a superintendent for Gerelco Traffic Controls, Inc., an engineering and construction company based out of Port. St. Lucie, Florida. Leading up to the trial, Gerelco Traffic Controls, Inc. denied any liability associated with the incident and also denied that the victim had suffered any permanent injuries or damages.

"The pure negligence and disregard for their wrong doing and the impact it had on our client's life was troubling on multiple levels," said Christopher Codling, lead counsel for the case. "Not only the driver, but also the company that was ultimately accountable for the use and/or misuse of their commercial vehicles, circumvented any responsibility in this matter."

After a five-day jury trial in Hillsborough County where the defendant (Gerelco Traffic Controls, Inc.) ultimately accepted fault for the incident but continued to deny the victim had suffered any permanent injuries, a six-person jury awarded Ms. Ming a $30 million verdict for injuries and damages sustained, including past and future medical expenses, past and future pain and suffering, as well as the impact on her past and future quality of life.

Lead attorneys for the firm's personal injury division, Sparks and Codling's accolades include: National Trial Lawyers Top 100 Trial Attorneys & Top 40 Under 40; Super Lawyer; National Black Lawyers Top 100; Top Trial Lawyers in America Million Dollar Advocate.

Givens Givens Sparks, a Tampa, Florida law firm representing individuals and their families in state and federal cases. With more than 135 years of combined professional experience, the Givens Givens Sparks team of lawyers is dedicated to the advocacy and protection of their clients and their families. To learn more about Givens Givens Sparks, please visit: www.givenssparks.com/

SOURCE Givens Givens Sparks

Related Links

https://www.givenssparks.com


SKOKIE, Ill., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- AZEK Building Products, No. 1 in premium decking and a leading manufacturer of high performance, low-maintenance outdoor building materials under the AZEK and TimberTech brands, announced today an agreement to acquire WES, LLC. A leader in the aluminum railing industry, WES, LLC sells engineered railing systems and assembly machines under UltraLox, Harmony and other brands. The transaction is expected to close before Dec. 31, 2017.

"We are very excited to make this announcement and about what this transaction represents for both AZEK Building Products and UltraLox," said Jesse Singh, CEO of CPG International, AZEK Building Products' parent company. "While UltraLox will continue to operate as a separate company with its existing management team, we are bringing additional resources to support the growth of the company through enhanced service levels to its customers and ongoing product and market development. In addition, we expect to leverage the expertise of the UltraLox team in aluminum railing design and engineering to further develop the AZEK and TimberTech railing products."

The partnership will benefit consumers by offering a wider selection in railing products at various price points. Both companies will now also be able to leverage a combined knowledge of best practices in research, design and safety.

"I know I speak for the entire UltraLox team when I say that we are proud to be joining forces with AZEK Building Products," said Edward Peterson, SVP of Sales and Marketing for UltraLox. "For our customers, we will be in an even stronger position to help support their growth and business. And, for our employees, this opens up a range of potential future career growth opportunities."

Headquartered in Skokie, Illinois, just outside of Chicago, AZEK Building Products develops and manufactures advanced building materials engineered to be superior alternatives to wood and other traditional materials.

WES, LLC headquartered in Eagan, Minnesota is a leader in the development of aluminum railing, porch and patio products for the residential and commercial markets. In addition to finished rail systems sold under the Harmony and other brand names, the company developed and markets the UltraLox Interlocking machine that allows customers to assemble standard and custom aluminum railing for a wide array of applications.

About AZEK Building Products:

AZEK Building Products is a leader in the development of premium, low maintenance exterior building products. Available to a worldwide audience, our product lines span AZEK Trim, Decking, Railing, Moulding, Porch, Pavers and Adhesives, as well as capped wood composite Decking and Railing under the TimberTech brand. Both brands, synonymous with quality and innovation and made in America, lead their market areas by continually reinventing product lines and redefining entire product categories. For more information about AZEK, visit www.azek.com. For more information on TimberTech, visit www.timbertech.com.

SOURCE AZEK Building Products

Related Links

https://azek.com


HELENA, Mont., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Bakken Resources, Inc. (OTC: BKKN) recently completed a purchasing program that acquired certain royalty interests in the Eagle Ford basin in Texas and in the Haynesville basin in Louisiana. Bakken Resources, Inc. was the successful purchaser in a total of nine oil and natural gas mineral rights sales facilitated by EnergyNet, a leading mineral rights auction house based in Amarillo, Texas. The aggregate purchase price was $320,410.

The Eagle Ford mineral rights include seven one-eighth royalty interests in the Eagle Ford Blakeway Unit A (Dimmit County, Texas) operated by Chesapeake Operating, LLC. The 480-acre parcel currently has five producing wells averaging 1,903 barrels of oil per day and 3,702 thousand cubic-feet per day of natural gas. Current well spacing rules enable three additional wells.

The Eagle Ford basin is currently the largest tight oil play in the United States producing more than 2.3 million barrels per day. It spans approximately 11,165 square miles in southern Texas. The Eagle Ford play offers excellent opportunities because of its typically high well quality and because it produces oil, wet gas, and dry gas.

Bakken Resources, Inc. also acquired two 50% wellbore interests in a natural gas well operating in the Haynesville Shale basin near DeSoto Parish, Louisiana. The newly completed natural gas well is operated by Chesapeake Operating, LLC. The well averages 19,955 thousand cubic-feet per day of dry natural gas. This wellbore interest contains a royalty interest of 0.051305% (producing minerals) in the wellbore of the Hunter 20&17-12-12 1H ALT horizontal well located in DeSoto Parish, Louisiana operated by Chesapeake Operating, LLC of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

The Haynesville is the third largest shale natural gas play in the United States, estimated at 500 trillion cubic-feet of gas (EIA). The Haynesville basin offers advantages over many other gas basins because of its proximity to natural gas transportation pipelines and the short distance to ports and liquefied natural gas facilities where natural gas can be exported or further distributed. Export opportunities should sustain development within the Haynesville basin for years to come.

"These acquisitions are part of our commitment to expand and diversify our asset portfolio to lower overall risk. While our total expenditure was under $400,000, we believe that current and future production has a strong opportunity to create long-term value for our shareholders. Basins such as the Eagle Ford and Haynesville are strategic priorities," says Dan Anderson, Bakken's chief financial officer.

ABOUT BAKKEN RESOURCES, INC .

BAKKEN RESOURCES, INC. is an oil and gas company with activities currently focused on acquiring mineral leases and non-operating oil mineral interests throughout the United States.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT ABOUT FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, as well as Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Statements other than those of historical facts are forward-looking statements. Such statements may pertain to projections of the Company's future financial position, operations, performance, business strategy, returns, budgets, reserves, levels of production, and costs. They may also address plans and objectives of Company's management for future operations. The Company typically associates forward-looking statements with words such as "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "project," "strategy," "intend," "plan," "target," "should," "goal," "may," "will," and "believe." Forward-looking statements may also be associated with stylistic variants of the terminology just listed.

In particular, express and implied statements concerning the Company's future operating results and returns are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance, and the Company makes no representation about the accuracy of any information presented or derived from any third party sites or information.

For further information please contact Karen Midtlyng, Corporate Secretary, (406) 442-9444.

SOURCE Bakken Resources, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.bakkenresourcesinc.com


ARLINGTON, Va., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Bloomberg Law's 2018 IP, Privacy and Tech & Telecom Outlook tracks the major issues to watch in the year ahead, including a seismic change in European privacy law, a new legal battle over net neutrality, and the possible upending by the U.S. Supreme Court of patent litigation proceedings. A compilation of these articles is available for download at http://on.bna.com/ziYk30hlEz2 .

"In 2018, look for repercussions from an expected Supreme Court ruling on patent challenge procedures, the Federal Communications Commission's rollback of net neutrality rules, and increased court battles and regulatory attention for online platforms that trade Bitcoin and other digital assets," said Barbara Yuill, Bloomberg Law's News Director for IP, Privacy, and Tech & Telecom. "Across the ocean, the European Union's long-anticipated new privacy and cybersecurity laws will require a wholesale shift for companies doing business in the region."

Highlights of the Outlook include:

Intellectual Property: The Supreme Court could change the shape of patent litigation, as it decides the constitutionality of an administrative procedure used to challenge the validity of patents. The proceedings are popular among tech giants, such as Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc.'s Google, and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd, which have used the generally less costly procedure to kill infringement lawsuits based on what they argue are weak patents that should never have been granted.

Tech: Online platforms that trade Bitcoin and other digital assets are likely to face more court battles and regulatory attention in 2018, and Congress appears poised to scale back a legal exception that helps the social media industry thrive.

Privacy: Game-changing new European Union privacy and cybersecurity laws take hold early in 2018.The sweeping General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) covers privacy and data protection in the processing of EU citizens' personal data and will have extensive impacts on companies doing business in the region. Because the GDPR gives member countries leeway to craft their own national laws, companies need to monitor what is a fluid situation as countries have time to implement these laws before the GDPR goes into effect in late May.

Telecom: The repercussions of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai's deregulatory agenda will be felt in 2018. An expected court challenge to the agency's rescinding of net neutrality rules will leave internet service providers unsure about what rules they must follow and which agency is mainly responsible for regulating them, potentially leaving Congress to settle the issue. Broadcasters, public policy groups and the agency itself are bracing for a court challenge to the FCC's relaxation of its media ownership rules, which may reshape the broadcast industry and usher in a wave of consolidation.

About Bloomberg Law

Bloomberg Law helps legal professionals provide world-class counsel with access to actionable legal intelligence in a business context. Combining Bloomberg's renowned news, company, market, and financial data with in-depth analysis, data visualization and analytics, business intelligence tools, and practical guidance as well as comprehensive primary and secondary research materials, Bloomberg Law delivers an advantage to law firms, corporations and organizations handling the most complex legal matters. For more information, visit www.bna.com/bloomberglaw .

SOURCE Bloomberg Law
WASHINGTON, December 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Bridging Voices brings together transatlantic academics and policymakers to share expertise on topics related to religion and international affairs.

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/595500/British_Council_Logo.jpg )



The British Council in the USA awarded three grants for cutting edge research to improve understanding of religion in public life. The following grantee winners will conduct research and convene policy dialogues over the next three years to explore the role of religion in shaping societies, values, and cultures.

University of Exeter and Fordham University (Orthodox Christian Studies Center)

Brandon Gallaher , Aristotle Papanikolaou



Contemporary Eastern Orthodox Identity and the Challenges of Pluralism and Sexual Diversity in a Secular Age. How can representatives of secular democratic governments, organizations and cultures engage effectively with representatives of governments and organizations whose cultural and religious identities are shaped by the moral and theological commitments of Orthodox Christianity regarding the identity, needs and rights of LGBTQ+ individuals? This project aims to identify in what ways opposition to "sexual diversity" has been characteristic of Eastern Orthodox religion and culture in the past and present, as well as how policymakers in the USA , UK, and Europe can respond.



King's College London and George Mason University

Daniel Nilsson DeHanas , Peter Mandaville



The Muslim Atlantic: Exploring Transnational Connections between American and British Muslims. To what extent are the transatlantic ties that connect British and American Muslims giving rise to a distinctively 'Atlantic Islam' that embodies the experiences, challenges, and ideas that define Muslim life in Europe and North America ? This project aims to identify and evaluate the emerging concerns and influences of such a network to prompt policymakers to think more critically about interlinked policies that affect transatlantic Muslim constituencies.



University College London and Yale University

Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Zareena Grewal , Unni Krishnan Karunakara



Religion and Social Justice for Refugees. What is the relationship between religion and the promotion of social justice for refugees? This project aims to examine the role religion plays in promoting social justice for refugees-particularly Muslim refugees-in media discourse, personal experience, and policymaking.





In July 2017, the Henry Luce Foundation generously awarded the Friends of the British Council a second three-year grant to continue the work of Bridging Voices. Since 2013, the program has supported 43 universities, think tanks and NGOs to run 50 dialogues and public events across the USA, UK and Europe. These dialogues engaged academics, policymakers, diplomats, journalists and practitioners to explore a range of issues where religion meets foreign policy.

More information can be found at British Council USA - Bridging Voices.

About British Council:

The British Council is the UK's international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We create friendly knowledge and understanding between the people of the UK and other countries. Using the UK's cultural resources we make a positive contribution to the countries we work with - changing lives by creating opportunities, building connections and engendering trust.

We work with over 100 countries across the world in the fields of arts and culture, English language, education and civil society. Each year we reach over 20 million people face-to-face and more than 500 million people online, via broadcasts and publications.

About Henry Luce Foundation:

The Henry Luce Foundation seeks to bring important ideas to the center of American life, strengthen international understanding, and foster innovation and leadership in academic, policy, religious and art communities. Launched in 2005, the Henry R. Luce Initiative on Religion in International Affairs aims to provide intellectual leadership, develop new paradigms for research and teaching, create new resources and networks, and enhance public understanding of and discussion about religion in the international sphere.

SOURCE British Council
LONDON, Dec. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Vodafone Cameroon closes down operations

The ICT sector in Cameroon contributes only about 3.

Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/3883142



5% of GDP, which is low for the region. The sector requires considerable development for the country to make better use of the digital economy.



To this end the government has in train its Cameroon Digital 2020' program, aimed at improving connectivity nationally. A large number of small ICT projects form part of the overall program. The country will greatly benefit from the SAIL submarine cable providing a direct link to Brazil, and so onto other countries in the Americas.

The cable, expected to be ready for service in late 2018, will improve international bandwidth and lead to further reductions in access prices for consumers.



Cameroon was for many years one of the few countries in Africa with only two competing mobile operators, MTN Cameroon and Orange Cameroon. After some delays, Nextell Cameroon majority-owned by Viettel) launched a third network in late 2014, including the country's first 3G mobile service.

The operator has grown swiftly, signing up more than three million subscribers and claiming a 16% market share. Competition in 3G followed in early 2015 when both MTN and Orange launched services.



Mobile broadband based on LTE was established at the end of 2015 and this has been the catalyst for a fast-developing mobile broadband sector.

The investment programs among operators over the next few years will considerably boost mobile broadband services in rural areas of the country, many of which are underserved by fixed-line infrastructure.

Fixed-line penetration in the country is extremely low, and the privatisation of Camtel's fixed-line business has failed several times. Given these condition, fixed-line services are relatively insignificant in terms of internet connectivity.

Further development is quickening in mobile banking and commerce, with both the MTN Money and Orange Money platforms making considerable progress in facilitating services for customers, the number of which approaches six million.

Key developments:

Vodafone Cameroon closes operations after losing licence;

SAIL submarine cable soon to be laid, linking Cameroon with Brazil;

Three MNOs fined for SIM card registration failures;

YooMe Mobile launches LTE offers as an MVNO;

World bank proposes split-up of Camtel;

Camtel handed newly built fibre loops in Douala and Yaounde;

MTN launches its mobile health platform in Cameroon;

Government calls end to temporary telecom licences;

Delay in MNP launch, to be managed by Huawei;

Nextell planning to sign up five million subscribers on the back of an anticipated LTE launch;

MTN and Orange launch LTE services;

National fibre rollout continues with new funding;

Report update includes regulator's market data, telcos' operating data to Q3 2017, recent market developments.



Companies mentioned in this report:

MTN Cameroon, Orange CM, Camtel, Cameroon Mobile Telecommunications (CMT), Pastel, CamNet, MTN Network Solutions, Matrix Telecoms, Ringo, Nextell Cameroon (Viettel), YooMee.

Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/3883142

About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 208 816 85 48

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

Related Links

http://www.reportbuyer.com


NEW YORK, December 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

With the looming legalization of marijuana in California slated for next month and Canada preparing for legal recreational use July 2, 2018, it is no surprise the North American Marijuana Index is at record highs, up roughly 67 percent since late October. The recent $22.6 billion forecast for the U.S. market by 2021 from leading analyst Arcview, combined with conservative estimates from Canada's Parliamentary Budget Office of around $6.2 billion by next year for the Canadian market, is helping to fuel a massive influx of capital into the sector. Particularly attractive are innovators like biopharma developer InMed Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (CSE:IN) (OTC:IMLFF) (InMed Profile), which has a compelling biosynthesis technology that will allow the company to manufacture bio-identical cannabinoids of every naturally occurring ones in-house, without the need for plant feedstock. Robust, high-yield and cost-effective biosynthesis technology like this could eventually acquire substantial market share that is currently held by some of today's leading medical marijuana producers, such as Aurora Cannabis, Inc. (TSX:ACB) (OTC:ACBFF), Canopy Growth Corp. (TSX:WEED) (OTC:TWMJF), Aphria, Inc. (TSX:APH) (OTC:APHQF), and Hydropothecary Corp. (TSX-V:THCX) (OTC:HYYDF).

With a market cap of around $102 million and a strong pipeline of novel, rapidly developing cannabinoid-based drug therapies, shares of InMed Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (CSE:IN) (OTCQB:IMLFF) are up well over 450 percent year to date. The company's biosynthesis process, while revolutionary in the application of manufacturing cannabinoids, is fundamentally based on a tried and tested methodology used extensively throughout multiple industrial applications. For example, bacteria or yeast-based systems are currently employed to make pharmaceuticals like biosynthesized insulin used daily by millions of diabetics worldwide. The only thing that may be more attractive to investors than the company's potentially disruptive cannabinoid biosynthesis technology is the actual drug development pipeline, which currently spans areas from dermatology (INM-750 for Epidermolysis Bullosa) and ocular (INM-085 for glaucoma), to the enormous pain management market (INM-405).

InMed recently filed a provisional patent application in the United States for INM-405 and other unique cannabinoid-based topical pain treatment compositions, directly addressing a pain management market on track to hit upward of $77.1 billion by 2023, running at a 4 percent CAGR. The need for alternative pain management therapies is demonstrated by the United States' $504 billion nationwide opioid crisis.

In a press release announcing the patent, InMed Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Sazzad Hossain, a co-inventor of the patent, was keen to point out how there is "a significant need in the field of analgesia" for a product like INM-405, which can treat pain via a topical route of administration, and thus "reduce systemic exposure and any associated side effects."

InMed's ingenious use of genetically engineered microorganisms to produce cannabinoids not only opens the gates for industrial-scale manufacturing of naturally occurring cannabinoids, it provides commercially viable access for the first time in history to the rarest and most sought-after ones. The sophistication of InMed's biosynthesis platform for drug engineering is evident from examples like the ocular hydrogel formulation being developed in conjunction with the University of British Columbia. The company recently demonstrated a first of its kind hydrogel-mediated cannabinoid nanoparticle offering, which uses a unique tissue-specific delivery vehicle that forms a thin, uniform, gel-like 'lens' over the cornea, via the natural reflex of blinking.

Eric A. Adams, president and CEO of InMed noted specifically how the aforementioned nanoparticle hydrogel study offers investors, as well as industry participants interested in the company's technology, "further validation of InMed's capabilities in moving the science of cannabinoid pharmaceuticals forward."

Adams elaborated, explaining that such data, in conjunction with the company's renowned scientific team, collaborators, rapidly expanding patent portfolio and list of publications, as well as ongoing R&D efforts - all added up to an unmistakably serious demonstration of the company's "depth of know-how" and supports InMed's "trajectory to becoming an industry leader."

InMed has been making significant progress leveraging its biosynthesis technology to advance its growing pipeline, and the overall R&D effort has been significantly enhanced by the company's proprietary drug/disease targeting bioinformatics assessment tool. These kinds of finer details about the company's capabilities are likely a large reason why InMed has generated such a great deal of market buzz, with TheSeedInvestor.com putting the company as one of the "5 Cannabis Biotech Stocks to Watch."

"Extracting cannabinoids for medicinal applications using an agriculture-based model involves a lengthy, expensive and labor-intensive process of planting, growing, harvesting, extracting and purifying. To avoid the shortcomings of an agricultural approach, several biotechs have turned to chemical processes to produce synthetic cannabinoids that can deliver consistent quality, thereby overcoming some of these concerns and increasing their prospects of gaining FDA approval. However, synthetic production can be expensive and can present potential safety issues. It is difficult to synthesize compounds that are identical to their natural counterparts, and the slightest structural variations can affect the quality and safety of the finished product," writes the sector-focused news outlet (http://nnw.fm/rrmO3).

The Seed Investor also provides a rundown of the sector's top performers of last year, showcasing short-term gains of as much as a whopping 1,600 percent in some cases, most of which are up 100 to 200 percent or more year to date (http://cnw.fm/YJu5Q ). The Seed Investor has its finger on the pulse of the ongoing process of cannabis legalization taking place throughout the U.S. and Canada and is dedicated to delivering the best actionable intelligence on this potential $100 billion by 2020 industry, where investors can look to nail down opportunities of 1,900 percent plus gains or more.

Another cannabis industry market mover is Aurora Cannabis, Inc. (TSX:ACB) (OTCQB:ACBFF), which gained ,419 percent between June 2015 and November of last year, during which period this Canadian medical marijuana producer and distributor received its license to sell. One of only 35 currently licensed producers in Canada, this $2.54 billion market cap producer boasts the lowest cost-per-gram in the country and is the only producer in Alberta, where the company's rurally-located 55,200 square foot facility has access to fresh mountain-fed water, as well as low corporate tax and power rates. With a share price that is up over 210 percent year to date (as of the December 15 close at $5.58 per share), Aurora was the first Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (ACMPR) applicant to construct a purpose-built, state-of-the-art facility and chose a location supremely suited for long-term growth. The company has another 40,000-square-foot facility in Quebec and is currently constructing a gigantic 800,000 sq. ft. facility at the Edmonton International Airport.

Aurora is one of many Canadian producers who could greatly benefit from InMed's consistently high-purity, pharmaceutical-grade biosynthesized product.

Canopy Growth Corp. (TSX:WEED) (OTC:TWMJF) saw gains of 1,090 percent between August 2015 and November 2016, and is currently up 95.53 percent year to date (as of the December 15 close at $15.33 per share), with a market cap of some $2.96 billion. Fortune 500 producer and marketer of beer, wine and spirits, Constellation Brands, known for iconic brands like Corona beer and Svedka vodka, recently purchased a nearly 10 percent stake in Canopy Growth. This leading diversified purveyor of dried, oil, and softgel cannabis products, has become somewhat synonymous with the industry itself via brands like Bedrocan and Tweed, the most recognized marijuana production brand in the world. The company is superbly poised to benefit alongside other large licensed producers under the forthcoming Canadian regulatory regime. Particularly in Canada's largest province, Ontario, where Canopy has its massive 40-acre, 500,000-square-foot campus.

Aphria (TSX:APH) (OTC:APHQF) rose 967 percent starting just shortly after its IPO, from February 2015 to November 2016, and is currently up nearly 182 percent year to date (as of the December 15 close at $11.14 per share), with a $1.7 billion market cap. The company prides itself on producing high-quality, safe and pure pharmaceutical-grade medical cannabis. Aphria hit a big milestone recently with receipt of a key Dealer's License from the Canadian government, allowing the company to possess, sell and transport medical cannabis oil and resin to hungry international markets. The company is progressing nicely with the four-part expansion of its fully-funded Ontario facility, which will soon tout a greenhouse footprint of an astonishing one million square feet. This new capacity will bring Aphira's production up to an estimated 220,000 pounds plus per year of high-quality cannabis, which will be produced at one of the lowest costs in the industry today.

Hydropothecary Corp. (TSX-V:THCX) (OTC:HYYDF) is up nearly 116 percent year to date (as of the December 15 close at $3.06 per share), with a market cap of roughly $271 million. And shares of this ACMPR licensed producer located in Quebec are up over 242 percent since mid-July this year, an uptrend period beginning shortly after the upsize of the company's $25 million bought deal private placement with Canaccord Genuity. Hydropothecary is one of only two licensed producers in Quebec and has an enviable market position with innovative products like the company's Decarb Micro THC and Decarb Micro CBD ready-to-consume, activated medical marijuana powders. Priced at just $3 a gram, Decarb is some of the highest quality, lowest cost premium cannabis on the market and provides a much sought after alternative to smoking, vaping, or cannabis oils.

The soaring stock prices of high value operators in this nascent industry may be just the beginning of the bull market for pot stocks, as truly substantial markets like California and Canada come online via blanket recreational use legalization. And while the obvious foreground plays like plant producers who are focused on the medical market (until the recreational one becomes viable) make a lot of sense, the biotechs are arguably where the long-haul profit taking will most likely eventuate for a variety of reasons. A company like InMed is a triple play here: with scalable high-capacity biosynthesis capabilities allowing them to bypass the growers, a significant R&D capability and associated pipeline of developing cannabinoid therapies, as well as the raw licensing potential that is inherent in the company's proprietary biosynthesis and bioinformatics technology.

For more information on InMed Pharmaceuticals, please visit: InMed Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (CSE:IN) (OTCQB:IMLFF)



About CannabisNewsWire

CannabisNewsWire (CNW) is an information service that provides (1) access to our news aggregation and syndication servers, (2) CannabisNewsBreaks that summarize corporate news and information, (3) enhanced press release services, (4) social media distribution and optimization services, and (5) a full array of corporate communication solutions. As a multifaceted financial news and content distribution company with an extensive team of contributing journalists and writers, CNW is uniquely positioned to best serve private and public companies that desire to reach a wide audience of investors, consumers, journalists and the general public. CNW has an ever-growing distribution network of more than 5,000 key syndication outlets across the country. By cutting through the overload of information in today's market, CNW brings its clients unparalleled visibility, recognition and brand awareness. CNW is where news, content and information converge.

Receive Text Alerts from CannabisNewsWire: Text "Cannabis" to 21000

For more information please visit https://www.CannabisNewsWire.com and or https://CannabisNewsWire.News

Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the CannabisNewsWire website applicable to all content provided by CNW, wherever published or re-published: http://CNW.fm/Disclaimer

DISCLAIMER: CannabisNewsWire (CNW) is the source of the Article and content set forth above. References to any issuer other than the profiled issuer are intended solely to identify industry participants and do not constitute an endorsement of any issuer and do not constitute a comparison to the profiled issuer. FN Media Group (FNM) is a third-party publisher and news dissemination service provider, which disseminates electronic information through multiple online media channels. FNM is NOT affiliated with CNW or any company mentioned herein. The commentary, views and opinions expressed in this release by CNW are solely those of CNW and are not shared by and do not reflect in any manner the views or opinions of FNM. Readers of this Article and content agree that they cannot and will not seek to hold liable CNW and FNM for any investment decisions by their readers or subscribers. CNW and FNM and their respective affiliated companies are a news dissemination and financial marketing solutions provider and are NOT registered broker-dealers/analysts/investment advisers, hold no investment licenses and may NOT sell, offer to sell or offer to buy any security.



The Article and content related to the profiled company represent the personal and subjective views of the Author, and are subject to change at any time without notice. The information provided in the Article and the content has been obtained from sources which the Author believes to be reliable. However, the Author has not independently verified or otherwise investigated all such information. None of the Author, CNW, FNM, or any of their respective affiliates, guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any such information. This Article and content are not, and should not be regarded as investment advice or as a recommendation regarding any particular security or course of action; readers are strongly urged to speak with their own investment advisor and review all of the profiled issuer's filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission before making any investment decisions and should understand the risks associated with an investment in the profiled issuer's securities, including, but not limited to, the complete loss of your investment.

CNW & FNM HOLDS NO SHARES OF ANY COMPANY NAMED IN THIS RELEASE.



This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. "Forward-looking statements" describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as "may", "future", "plan" or "planned", "will" or "should", "expected," "anticipates", "draft", "eventually" or "projected". You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, and other risks identified in a company's annual report on Form 10-K or 10-KSB and other filings made by such company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should consider these factors in evaluating the forward-looking statements included herein, and not place undue reliance on such statements. The forward-looking statements in this release are made as of the date hereof and CNW and FNM undertake no obligation to update such statements.

CannabisNewsWire (CNW) & NetworkNewsWire (NNW) are proud to be affiliated partners of the Investor Based Brand Network (IBBN)

About IBBN

Over the past 10+ years we have consistently introduced new network brands, each specifically designed to fulfil the unique needs of our growing client base and services. Today, we continue to expand our branded network of highly influential properties, leveraging the knowledge and energy of specialized teams of experts to serve our increasingly diversified list of clients.

Please feel free to visit the Investor Based Brand Network (IBBN) http://www.investorbasedbrandnetwork.com

Corporate Communications Contact:

CannabisNewsWire (CNW)

Denver, Colorado

http://www.CannabisNewsWire.com

+1-303-498-7722 Office

[email protected]

Media Contact:

FN Media Group, LLC

[email protected]

+1(954)345-0611

SOURCE CannabisNewsWire
NEW YORK, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- CheapOair, the leading flight-focused hybrid travel agency, has today announced its travel trend predictions for 2018. By analyzing year-over-year data, and taking factors into consideration such as the economy, demographics of travelers, airline trends, and more, CheapOair is anticipating some interesting travel developments for the New Year.

According to recent reports by the FAA1, industry revenue in 2017 is expected to finish out with about a 4% increase. CheapOair predicts that in 2018, the travel industry can expect to see even more growth that could approach 6%. With this growth and with travelers constantly looking for new ways to save money on airfare, fare unbundling will become more popular among both legacy and low cost carriers alike, giving travelers complete control over what benefits they are willing to pay for and omit, in order to find the cheapest prices for their flights.

Another trend that will continue to develop throughout 2018 is the rise of low-cost international travel, with International Basic Economy options. Three of the six legacy carriers have completed the implementation of Basic Economy on domestic routes which will continue to drive down market prices. Moving into 2018, some are expected to add these fares to international routes as well to compete with the rise of international low cost carriers.

Following the entrance of a new air carrier into the market, Hawaii will be a destination to look out for in 2018, with fares expected to be as low as $300 from the West Coast. Travel to Central America is expected to continue increasing as well, according to CheapOair's booking data, as traveler numbers to destinations like Honduras and Nicaragua are up more than 70% over the past 5 years. Additionally, it's likely that travel brands will be using their mobile apps for more than just booking  focuses on unique elements such as trip planning tools, and check-in/check-out features will be a highlight in 2018.

By consistently monitoring travel trends, CheapOair's mission is to educate and aid consumers and travel professionals in both planning their travel accommodations and staying current on the most popular destinations.

For more information, please visit www.CheapOair.com, www.cheapoair.com/mobile, or our social media pages, www.Facebook.com/CheapOair and https://twitter.com/cheapoair.

About CheapOair

CheapOair is a flight-focused, hybrid travel agency that enables consumers to book online, on mobile apps for iOS and Android, by phone or live chat. CheapOair (https://www.cheapoair.com, 1-800-566-2345) bridges the gap between an online and traditional travel agency with certified travel agents available 24/7 to help find deals and offers to destinations worldwide on over 450 airlines, 1 million hotels, and 100s of car rental companies. Partner airlines benefit from access to CheapOair's broad customer base that books high yield international travel and add-on ancillaries at above the industry average. Follow CheapOair on Facebook and Twitter to learn how to travel the world for less.

1 https://www.faa.gov/data_research/aviation/aerospace_forecasts/media/FY2017-37_FAA_Aerospace_Forecast.pdf

SOURCE CheapOair

Related Links

http://www.cheapoair.com


AUSTIN, Texas, Dec. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Epicor Software Corporation, a global provider of industry-specific enterprise software to promote business growth, today announced Chelsea Lighting has chosen the award winning Epicor Eclipse software as its new enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution to consolidate data into one system and better service customers.

Our current system is a combination of multiple software systems tied together with complex Excel spreadsheets. Were looking forward to moving our business to operate on one system, with one source of truth. Having all of our data in Eclipse will give us a real-time, deep-dive look into our business. With better business analytics, we'll be able to run our business more efficiently while identifying ways to improve service to our customers. -Eric Martin, CFO & General Counsel, Chelsea Lighting

Chelsea Lighting was established in 1994 as a lighting distribution firm. Chelsea Lighting employs over 50 lighting and controls professionals and is one of the largest lighting distributors in the areasupplying contract lighting and controls to the construction community, as well as to real estate owners and developers.

A growth in revenue and number of employees in the past several years prompted Chelsea Lighting to look for a more robust system that would improve productivity and efficiency. Moving to the Eclipse next-generation software will allow the company to provide more services and capabilities to its customer base.

"Our current system is a combination of multiple software systems tied together with complex Excel spreadsheets. We're looking forward to moving our business to operate on one system, with one source of truth," explained Eric Martin, chief financial officer and general counsel, Chelsea Lighting. "Having all of our data in Eclipse will give us a real-time, deep-dive look into our business. With better business analytics, we will be able to run our business more efficiently while identifying ways to improve service to our customers."

Industry-specific software to improve business processes

Chelsea Lighting works on very high profile, complex construction projects primarily in New York City and the surrounding area. The Job Management module in Eclipse software was built specifically for project management, which is a major focus at Chelsea Lighting. The company has a team of over 20 project managers who ensure material is ordered correctly and delivered on time to job sites. The Eclipse solution will automate manual business processes, eliminate redundancies, and give management a better view into the business. "The deep understanding Epicor has of our niche industry, business model, and processes was a key consideration in our decision to partner with Epicor," said Martin. "With the changing workforce as one of increased mobility and working remotely, Epicor will enable our business model to adapt, while maintaining data in one place that can be tracked, monitored, and analyzed anywhere, at any time."

"The Epicor Eclipse solution is a proven success for distributors of all sizes, and the software is becoming more powerful and valuable to companies that need a one-stop shop for their services," said Mark Jensen, director of product management, Epicor. "Eclipse software offers a combination of features and functionality that can accurately streamline processes. Pricing, inventory and even quoting becomes automated reducing time consumption."

About Epicor Eclipse

Epicor Eclipse is a leading distribution ERP software solution that offers powerful capabilities for wholesalers in the plumbing, HVAC, electrical, and PVF industries. Eclipse is built upon the premise that it needs to work the way distributors work, while also delivering best practices for distribution operations that help drive costs out of the supply chain, increase sales and margins, and improve customer service. Visit the Epicor Eclipse solution hub to learn more.

About Epicor Software Corporation

Epicor Software Corporation drives business growth. We provide flexible, industry-specific software designed around the needs of our manufacturing, distribution, retail, and service industry customers. More than 40 years of experience with our customers' unique business processes and operational requirements are built into every solutionin the cloud or on premises. With this deep understanding of your industry, Epicor solutions manage complexity, increase efficiency, and free up resources so you can focus on growth. For more information, connect with Epicor or visit www.epicor.com.

Epicor, the Epicor logo, and Eclipse are trademarks or registered trademarks of Epicor Software Corporation, registered in the United States and other countries. Other trademarks referenced are the property of their respective owners. The product and service offerings depicted in this document are produced by Epicor Software Corporation.

Contact: Katie Chubb

Public Relations Specialist

Epicor Software Corporation

+1 512 278 5365

[email protected]

SOURCE Epicor Software Corporation

Related Links

http://www.epicor.com


CHICAGO, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Cision, Ltd. (NYSE: CISN) ("Cision") announced today that it has acquired CEDROM-SNi Inc. ("CEDROM"), a Montreal-based firm specializing in digital media monitoring solutions. The acquisition allows CEDROM customers to benefit immediately from Cision's complementary product offerings, including the Cision Communications Cloud and the CNW news distribution network. The acquisition will also provide Cision's existing global customer base with enhanced access to thousands of sources of media content from print, radio, television, web and social media, helping them better understand and quantify the impact of their communications and media coverage in both Canada and France.

CEDROM, with approximately 110 employees in Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa, Toronto and Paris, offers media monitoring and analytical services through its digital solution, Eureka.cc in Canada, and its European counterpart, Europresse.com in France. CEDROM serves a varied clientele, consisting of large corporate enterprises, government agencies, media companies, and advertising and public relations agencies, among others.

"The acquisition of CEDROM opens up a number of important new customer relationships for Cision in both Canada and France," said Kevin Akeroyd, Chief Executive Officer of Cision. "It's an excellent strategic fit for us within our overall portfolio, and helps to strengthen our global offering."

About Cision

Cision Ltd. (NYSE: CISN) is a leading global provider of earned media software and services to public relations and marketing communications professionals. Cision's software allows users to identify key influencers, craft and distribute strategic content, and measure meaningful impact. Cision has over 3,000 employees with offices in 15 countries throughout the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. For more information about its award-winning products and services, including the Cision Communications Cloud, visit www.cision.com and follow Cision on Twitter @Cision.

About CEDROM-SNi

CEDROM-SNi is a leading provider of digital reproduction rights for hundreds of Quebec and foreign media outlets. CEDROM-SNi's public relations workflow platform, Eureka.cc, provides thousands of customers in Quebec and in France with the ability to search, analyze and conduct media monitoring in an evolving digital media environment.

Investor Contact:

Jack Pearlstein

Chief Financial Officer

[email protected]

Media Contact

Nick Bell

VP, Marketing Communications

[email protected]

SOURCE Cision

Related Links

http://www.cision.com


CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- CollegeVine, a national online provider of student mentoring and college admissions guidance for high schoolers and their families, today announced it is partnering with the education unit within India-based Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) to offer overseas education guidance to Indian schools and families. The services will be offered to Indian students who want to apply to colleges and universities in the United States.

"India is one of the largest markets for higher education in the world," said Mr. RCM Reddy, CEO of IL&FS Education and Technology Services. "We wanted to partner with a best of breed innovator to bring U.S. college guidance to our home market, and CollegeVine was our first choice."

High schools will make CollegeVine's software and near-peer mentorship services available to students in 11th and 12th grade. Students will be able to generate their college lists, see all deadlines and requirements for applications, and work directly with CollegeVine's near-peer counselors to navigate their college applications.

"We think there is a terrific opportunity to open access to American colleges and universities for talented Indian students using our near-peer mentorship model," said Zack Perkins, CollegeVine co-founder. "We will also be using our data analytics tools and software to best match students to the right schools for them based on profile strength, academic preferences, and financial feasibility. Our solution is years ahead of the traditional brick and mortar consulting services that currently serve students looking to study abroad."

CollegeVine will work with 100 schools in the first year in major cities including Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai. Distribution methods include schools purchasing CollegeVine services on behalf of their students as well as families signing up for CollegeVine directly.

About IL&FS Education

IL&FS Education is the social infrastructure arm of the IL&FS Group and were the pioneers in introducing technology to education in the K-12 segment. Today, through its various interventions in education and skills-training, IL&FS Education impacts over 15 million learners and half a million teachers every day, covering more than 30,000 schools and 300 skills-training institutes across India, Africa, and other developing countries.

About CollegeVine

CollegeVine is a leading provider of one-on-one mentorship, academic and test prep tutoring, and college applications guidance. The company features an expansive network of near-peer advisors at the nation's top universitiestheir experience representing more than 20 different majors, substantial extracurricular activities and far-ranging success. For more information, visit www.collegevine.com.

SOURCE CollegeVine

Related Links

https://www.collegevine.com


The NMTC Coalition's Board President Robert Davenport, emceed the event. A longtime NMTC practitioner and past president of the National Development Council, he highlighted the important timing of this year's annual conference with Congress working to reconcile their tax bills, including the NMTC.

"This year's conference came at a pivotal time for the NMTC community. The House tax bill was set to terminate the NMTC, while the Senate maintained the Credit's current authorization for 2018 and 2019 that was provided in the PATH Act, which was passed in December 2015," said Davenport. "The future of the NMTCand the economically distressed rural and urban communities where it is investedwas hanging in the balance. Fortunately, the members of the conference committee understood the importance of the NMTC."

Panels included senior Treasury and CDFI Fund staff, experts on NMTC and the law, a session on the use of the NMTC in disaster recovery and rebuilding efforts, and an investor roundtable. There was also a session on new reports on the NMTC, including an independent report by Summit Consulting, LLC that was commissioned by the CDFI Fund and released in August, as well as the third edition of the NMTC Economic Impact Report that was released by the Coalition on December 8th.

"Both of these recent reports on the NMTC clearly indicate that the credit is promoting economic revitalization in some of the poorest communities in America, far surpassing the statutory requirements. Further, the NMTC Economic Impact Report, which analyzed U.S. Department of Treasury data and survey data from 5,000 projects financed by the Credit, found that those NMTC investments created more than one million jobs and financed nearly 2,000 community services and facilities, including hospitals, schools, nonprofit service providers, and day care centers from 2003 to 2015," said Bob Rapoza, spokesman for the Coalition.

Attendees at the conference were provided time to head to Capitol Hill and meet with their legislators on the NMTC. They shared examples of their work using the NMTC to attract private capital to distressed rural towns and blighted urban neighborhoods, generate economic activity, and create jobs and access to services needed by the communities where the credit is invested.

On the final day of the conference, reports surfaced that the tax reform conferees had agreed to adopt the Senate's position and preserve the NMTC. On Friday, December 15th, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady released the final text of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, H.R. 1.

The bill leaves the New Markets Tax Credit in place through 2019. The final text also repeals the Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). The Senate-passed bill had included a corporate AMT rate of twenty percent, a proposal which would have created significant challenges for tax credits like the NMTC. Today, with a few technical changes incorporated, Congress will send the tax bill on to the President for his signature.

"NMTC investments generated more than $156 billion in economic activity in low-income communities from 2003 to 2015, which results in more than enough federal income tax revenue to more than cover the cost of the Credit. With that kind of track record, and a cost of just $1.7 billion over ten years, it was difficult to understand why the House proposed to terminate the New Markets Tax Credit in the first place. The NMTC is a great deal for the federal government, but most importantly it is a critical tool for our country's small, overlooked rural towns and blighted urban neighborhoods that have been left outside of the economic mainstream for far too long. We applaud the conference committee for their work to maintain the Senate's position on the NMTC and maintain the credit's authorization for 2018 and 2019, as was agreed to in the bipartisan PATH Act that Congress passed in December 2015," said Rapoza.

About New Markets Tax Credit Program

The New Markets Tax Credit was enacted in 2000 in an effort to stimulate private investment and economic growth in low income urban neighborhoods and rural communities that lack access to the patient capital needed to support and grow businesses, create jobs, and sustain healthy local economies. The NMTC is a 39 percent federal tax credit, taken over seven years, on investments made in economically distressed communities. Today due to NMTC, some $82 billion is hard at work in underserved communities in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. For more information, visit www.NMTCCoalition.org.

Contact: Ayrianne Parks

[email protected]

(202) 393-5225

SOURCE New Markets Tax Credit Coalition

Related Links

http://www.nmtccoalition.org/


WASHINGTON, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Cooperative Exchange, the National Clearinghouse Association since 2002 has served as the premier resource and representative of the healthcare clearinghouse industry. The Association would like to announce their newly elected Board effective Jan. 1, 2018.

Board Officers:

Cooperative Exchange

Chairman of the Board - Joe Bell, Senior Program Manager, Product Strategy, eSolutions Inc.

Vice Chair - Crystal Ewing, Manager, Data Integrity, Zirmed

Treasurer - Kathy Sites, Manager, Payer Implementations, Availity, LLC.

Secretary - Debbi Meisner, Vice President Regulatory Compliance, ChangeHealthcare

Immediate Past Chair - Sherry Wilson, EVP and Chief Compliance Officer, Jopari Solutions Inc.

Returning Appointed At-Large Directors:

Doreen Espinoza, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Privacy Officer, UHIN

Newly Elected At-Large Directors:

Pam Grosze, VP, Senior Product Manager, PNC Bank

"I am excited and honored to assume the Chairman position of the Cooperative Exchange," said Joe Bell. "The entire board looks forward to building on the momentum from the prior leadership as we further our mission to promote and advance electronic data exchange for the healthcare industry by improving efficiency, advocacy, and education to industry stakeholders and government entities."

The Cooperative Exchange, The National Clearinghouse Association membership companies represents over 90 percent of the Health Care Clearinghouse Industry, supporting over 750,000 provider organizations, maintaining over 8,000 Payer and 1000 plus HIT vendor connections, process over 4 plus billion claims annually with a transaction value over $1.1 Trillion. [i] For more information about the Cooperative Exchange, contact Lisa Beard, Executive Director at [email protected] or visit the website at http://www.cooperativeexchange.org.

[i] Member Organizations: American Medical Association (AMA), Apex EDI, ASC X12N, Availity, LLC, AXIOM Systems, Inc., Cerner Health Services, Inc., Change Healthcare, CONDUENT, Dorado Systems, eProvider Solutions, eSolutions, Experian Health, Greenway Health, InstaMed, Jopari Solutions, Inc., Mitchell International, NextGen Healthcare, OfficeAlly, OptumInsight, PNC Bank, PracticeInsight, Smart Data Solutions, The SSI Group, Trizetto Provider Solutions, Utah Health Information Exchange (UHIN), WorkCompEDI, ZirMed

SOURCE Cooperative Exchange

Related Links

http://www.cooperativeexchange.org


WASHINGTON, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Corporate Whistleblower Center says, "We are urging a staff member or manager at a nursing home anywhere in the United States to call us anytime at 866-714-6466 if Medicare is being grossly overbilled for insufficient staff to care for the patients. This practice is called short-staffing and it happens in nursing homes in every state nationwide. Frequently nursing homes involved in short staffing also bill Medicare for medical procedures that never took place. If you have proof your employer-nursing home is significantly involved in these types of practices-there can significant rewards for this type of information as we would like to discuss- anytime." http://CorporateWhistleblower.Com

Medicare Fraud

On November 16th, 2017 the Department of Justice announced a $1,250,000 settlement from the operator of a nursing home in Mississippi based nursing home for providing effectively worthless services to residents. The allegations included the nursing home managers failed to meet the nutritional needs of residents, failed to administer medications to residents as prescribed by their physicians, over-medicated residents, hired insufficient staff to care for them, and diverted Medicare and Medicaid funds to other entities affiliated with the operators and in doing so left the facility unable to pay for its basic operations, including food, heat, air conditioning, pest control, and cleaning. While the whistleblower reward has not yet been announced it is expected to be around $150,000.

In 2018 the Corporate Whistleblower Center intends to ramp up their efforts to assist legitimate healthcare whistleblower's package their information in the hopes of increasing their potential whistleblower reward-with a focus on the following types of practices:

Short staffed nursing homes that are billing Medicare as if they are fully staffed.

Hospice providers billing Medicare for end of life medical treatment for people who are not dying.

Drug companies bribing medical doctors with the intent---the physician will over prescribe pharmaceutical products.

Hospitals admitting Medicare patients through their ER for expensive medical testing that should have never happened.

Blood testing companies or imaging centers paying off physicians for unwarranted expensive medical tests.

According to the Corporate Whistleblower Center, "We want the potential whistleblowers who call us to understand their information could result in a significant whistleblower reward-provided it is well documented, and the wrongdoing is easy to prove. If a person in healthcare knows of a multimillion dollar scheme to overbill Medicare please call us anytime at 866-714-6466 about what the reward potential could be. Please don't sit on a potentially winning lotto ticket without ever know what it might have been worth." http://CorporateWhistleblower.Com

Simple rules for a whistleblower from the Corporate Whistleblower Center: Do not go to the government first if you are a major whistleblower. The Corporate Whistleblower Center says, "Major whistleblowers frequently go to the government thinking they will help. It's a huge mistake. Do not go to the news media with your whistleblower information. Public revelation of a whistleblower's information could destroy any prospect for a reward. Do not try to force a company or individual to come clean on overbilling of Medicare, or Medicaid. Come to us first, tell us what type of information you have, and if we think it's sufficient, we will help you build out the information to increase the reward potential and we will find the right law firms to assist in advancing your information."

The Corporate Whistleblower Center wants to emphasize there are high quality whistleblowers in every state including California, New York, New Jersey, Florida, Texas, Mass, Maryland, Rhode Island, Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Washington, or Alaska.

The Corporate Whistleblower Center is the premier advocate for whistleblowers in the United States. Unlike any group in the US, they can assist a potential whistleblower with packaging their information and providing the whistleblower with access to the most accomplished whistleblower attorneys in the nation. For more information, potential whistleblowers can contact the Corporate Whistleblower Center at 866-714-6466 or visit http://CorporateWhistleblower.Com.

For attribution please refer to the November 2017 United States Department of Justice press release regarding this matter. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/mississippi-skilled-nursing-facility-related-companies-and-executives-agree-pay-125-million.

Contact:

Thomas Martin

866-714-6466

[email protected]

SOURCE Corporate Whistleblower Center
SAO PAULO, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Azul and Correios (Brazil's Postal Service) sign today a memorandum of understanding for the creation of a private integrated logistics solutions company with a new business model, to contribute significantly to Brazil's growth.

The new company will have a 50.01% ownership stake of Azul and 49.99% of Correios, and will offer integrated logistics services for cargo transportation, willing to become the best logistics platform for e-commerce in the country.

With the existing demand already served by Azul and Correios, the new company will handle roughly 100 thousand tons of cargo per year. Both companies will have cost savings, operating efficiency and revenue gains, improving the service offer to the consumer.

"Azul is the only company with a broad aviation network, connecting the country with more than 100 destinations served. Correios are present in 5,570 Brazilian cities, with the biggest distribution capillarity from its network. Having a company exploring this synergy, more Brazilians will have access to integrated services, allowing them to be even more active in the development of our country", says Gilberto Kassab, Minister of Science, Technology and Communication.

"We saw a unique opportunity to make Brazil even more efficient in logistics service, with clearer benefits to consumers. The beginning of this company will benefit Brazilians with Correios' current logistics costs reduction and dividends distribution, further improving the efficiency of our operation", says Guilherme Campos, CEO of Correios.

"It is a great opportunity to expand our cargo transportation and to increase operating efficiency. We are the only company providing this level of service, as we are serving most of the cities in the country. In addition, we have a strong presence in Viracopos airport, which is already the cargo hub in Brazil. Further, we have one of the highest on-time performances in the industry, which is essential for this service", affirms John Rodgerson, CEO of Azul.

The memorandum of understanding will be submitted to the Brazilian authorities and appropriate government bodies for approval. Only after their consent, the new company will be established and its activities are expected to begin in the first half of 2018.

About Azul

Azul (B3: AZUL4, NYSE: AZUL), the largest airline in Brazil by number of cities served, offers 755 daily flights to 104 destinations. With a fleet of 118 aircraft and more than 10,000 crewmembers, the company has a network of 197 non-stop routes as of September 30, 2017. Among other awards, Azul was named third best airline in the world by TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice in 2017, best low cost carrier in South America for the seventh consecutive time by Skytrax in 2017, and the world's most on-time low-cost airline in 2015 by the Official Airline Guide (OAG). For more information visit www.voeazul.com.br/ir.

Contact

Investor Relations

Tel: +55 11 4831 2880

[email protected]

Media Relations

Tel: +55 11 4831 1245

[email protected]

SOURCE Azul S.A.

Related Links

http://www.voeazul.com.br/ir


SAN DIEGO, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Fish & Richardson announced today that on December 14 a federal judge vacated a temporary restraining order (TRO) against its client Seirus Innovation Accessories in a patent case brought by Columbia Sportswear North America Inc. The TRO was issued on November 16 to halt Seirus from initiating a proceeding at the Patent and Trademark Office to challenge the validity of a Columbia design patent. The judge also denied Columbia's motion for a preliminary injunction, paving the way for Seirus to request a re-examination of Columbia's patent.

The case involves patents that cover material that is used by Columbia in jacket linings under the name Omni-Heat. Columbia sued Seirus in Oregon in 2013 alleging that material used by Seirus in glove linings under the name HeatWave infringed Columbia's design patent. In 2014, Columbia amended the complaint, adding two utility patents. Columbia withdrew one of the utility patents shortly before trial. The case was eventually moved to federal court San Diego. Judge Marco Hernandez, a U.S. District Court judge for the District of Oregon, continued to oversee the case after it was moved.

In October 2017, after a 13-day trial, a San Diego jury returned a mixed verdict, finding Columbia's utility patent, U.S. Patent 8,453,270, invalid.

The jury did find that Seirus infringed Columbia's design patent, U.S. Patent D657,093, and awarded Columbia just over $3 million. After the jury trial had ended, Columbia requested a TRO to prevent Seirus from proceeding with a re-examination of the '093 design patent. The court initially granted the TRO before Seirus had a chance to brief the issue, but then after receiving briefing from Seirus and additional briefing from Columbia, the court held a telephonic hearing and at the end of the hearing issued a ruling vacating the TRO and denying the request for further injunctive relief.

"We are pleased that the court came to the right conclusions," says Chris Marchese, a principal in Fish's Southern California office who argued the motion for Seirus. "It seemed clear from the onset that there was no merit for the restraining order and Seirus may now proceed in the Patent Office."

Fish & Richardson attorneys Seth Sproul, Chris Marchese, Garrett Sakimae, and Tucker Terhufen, and Markowitz Herbold PC attorney Renee Routhage of Portland, Oregon, represented Seirus.

Fish & Richardson is a global patent prosecution, intellectual property litigation, and commercial litigation law firm with more than 400 attorneys and technology specialists in the U.S. and Europe. Our success is rooted in our creative and inclusive culture, which values the diversity of people, experiences, and perspectives. Fish is the No. 1 U.S. patent litigation firm, handling nearly three times as many cases as its nearest competitor; a powerhouse patent prosecution firm; a top-tier trademark and copyright firm; and the No. 1 firm at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, with more cases than any other firm. Since 1878, Fish attorneys have been winning cases worth billions in controversy  often by making new law  for the world's most innovative and influential technology leaders. For more information, visit https://www.fr.com or follow us at @FishRichardson.

Seirus is an authentic outdoor brand that can be counted on to deliver premium products and technologies designed to enhance the comfort and performance of active outdoor enthusiasts in any condition. For over 30 years the team at Seirus has focused on innovation to develop and deliver groundbreaking technologies and products. Seirus sustains its success by constantly surpassing what is standard and using the best materials and workmanship. Seirus products are easily purchased online at www.seirus.com and at retail shops across America.

Contact: Teresa Warren or Kelly Largey

TW2 Marketing

Fish & Richardson

619-582-5750

800-818-5070

[email protected]

[email protected]

SOURCE Fish & Richardson

Related Links

http://www.fr.com


CHICAGO, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Coveris, (or "the Company"), a premier global packaging manufacturer, announced today that it has appointed Jakob A. Mosser as Chief Executive Officer, effective January 8, 2018. Mosser will take over the CEO responsibilities from Interim CEO Dimitri Panayotopoulos, who will continue to serve the Company as Chairman.

"I am very excited to join Coveris," said Mosser. "The Company has built an outstanding reputation for innovation and service, and I look forward to working with the team to drive new growth and building on Coveris' history of success."

Mosser has built an international career over 30 years, holding a number of senior leadership roles in the packaging industry, ranging from General Manager to CEO, in both Europe and North America. In 2006, Mosser successfully restructured Unterland, resulting in a sale of the business to Mondi. After serving as CEO for the Consumer Flexibles Division of Mondi for a few years, he founded Schur Flexibles and grew the company into a Europe Top 7 flexible packaging business with focus in the primary food, selected pharmaceuticals and tobacco markets. In 2016 Schur Flexibles was sold successfully to the private equity fund Lindsay Goldberg and Mosser continued as the CEO of the company prior to joining Coveris.

"We are very privileged to add an experienced packaging executive to our leadership team in Jakob. Jakob will bring to Coveris not only an excellent understanding of the flexible packaging industry, but also a proven entrepreneurial mindset," said Panayotopoulos. "His strong leadership will enable Coveris to successfully achieve its ambition and vision in the years to come."

About Coveris

As a leading international manufacturing company, Coveris Holdings SA is dedicated to providing solutions that enhance the safety, quality and convenience of products we use every day. In partnership with the most respected brands in the world, Coveris Holdings develops vital products that protect everything from the food we eat, to medical supplies, to the touch screen device in our pockets, contributing to the lives of millions every day. Coveris Holdings is an affiliated portfolio company of Sun Capital Partners, Inc.

All statements included in this release that address activities, events or developments which are expected or anticipated to occur or which may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements convey the current expectations and projections relating to the anticipated financial condition, objectives, and future performance of Coveris. They are subject to uncertainties and factors relating to the operations and business environment of Coveris, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the control of Coveris. Such uncertainties and factors could cause the Coveris' actual results to differ materially from those stated in the forward-looking statements. Further, any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and except as required by law, no obligation is assumed to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which it is made or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events or circumstances.

SOURCE Coveris
MENLO PARK, Calif., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Samitha Amarasiri has joined global consulting firm Protiviti as a managing director in its Security and Privacy consulting practice. Based in New York City, he serves clients nationally within the banking and insurance industries, and locally within the New York City metro area. Amarasiri primarily focuses on enhancing clients' cybersecurity programs to effectively combat cyber threats and efficiently demonstrate regulatory compliance.

Amarasiri brings more than 20 years of experience to the firm, with particular expertise in cybersecurity program strategy, identity and access management, data privacy and protection, regulatory compliance, breach response and cyber crisis management. He also has extensive experience in automating manual risk management processes and enabling organizations to safely embrace technology innovation such as cloud, big data and mobile computing.

Amarasiri recently served as cybersecurity program leader at a Big Four accounting firm, delivering transformational cybersecurity programs to domestic and international banks, multi-national insurance conglomerates and financial regulatory organizations. Prior to this, he gained extensive knowledge of the financial services industry as head of Financial Services Data and Analytics for Booz Allen Hamilton. Earlier in his career, Amarasiri also served as the global head of cybersecurity and technology risk engineering for Goldman Sachs and as global head of identity and access management and head of secure SDLC and test data management for Morgan Stanley.

"Along with the growing trend of digital business model transformations that leverage digital payments, we see the improvement of cybersecurity and privacy performance continuing to be at the forefront of our banking and insurance clients," said Kurt Underwood, managing director with Protiviti and leader of its global technology consulting practice. "Samitha brings deep expertise in cybersecurity program transformation within these industries to help our clients proactively tackle cyber threats, using Protiviti's comprehensive, risk-based approach."

Amarasiri holds a master's degree in electrical engineering and a bachelor's degree in computer engineering from Kansas State University. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and a Payment Card Industry Qualified Security Assessor (PCI-QSA).

About Protiviti

Protiviti (www.protiviti.com) is a global consulting firm that delivers deep expertise, objective insights, a tailored approach and unparalleled collaboration to help leaders confidently face the future. Through its network of more than 70 offices in over 20 countries, Protiviti and its independently owned Member Firms provide clients with consulting solutions in finance, technology, operations, data, analytics, governance, risk and internal audit.

Protiviti has served more than 60 percent of Fortune 1000 and 35 percent of Fortune Global 500 companies. The firm also works with smaller, growing companies, including those looking to go public, as well as with government agencies. Protiviti is a wholly owned subsidiary of Robert Half (NYSE: RHI). Founded in 1948, Robert Half is a member of the S&P 500 index.

Protiviti is not licensed or registered as a public accounting firm and does not issue opinions on financial statements or offer attestation services.

Editor's note: Photos available upon request.

SOURCE Protiviti

Related Links

http://www.protiviti.com


SOUTHFIELD, Mich., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Global automotive supplier and technology leader DENSO continues to re-shape how we navigate everyday life by developing solutions in-house and through strategic investments. Today the company announced it will invest in Ridecell, the leading platform for carsharing and ridesharing operators, as a significant contributor to the company's recent Series B funding round.

Ridecell technology provides an easy platform for automakers, auto dealerships, and other new mobility providers to launch and operate mobility solutions, such as carsharing or ridesharing programs. To-date, DENSO has now provided funding to startups focusing on four core areas: autonomous driving, connected vehicles, cybersecurity, and mobility and IoT.

"The transportation and automotive startup community has transformed over the past few years, and mobility is at the core," said Tony Cannestra, Director of Corporate Ventures at DENSO. "Established industry leaders and startups need to work together to craft products and solutions ushering in the future of transportation. DENSO believes that Ridecell provides a foundational technology for the future of mobility."

Ridecell integrates technology to automate the end-to-end process of carsharing or ridesharing programs, from registration to scheduling and payment. DENSO's investment will help mature the company's offerings.

"Ridecell and DENSO share a vision of safer, more efficient and sustainable mobility solutions," said Aarjav Trivedi, CEO of Ridecell. "Through our corporation with DENSO, we'll continue to develop a platform making it easier for cities, campuses and mobility providers to build and scale carsharing and ridesharing programs."

The investment represents the latest milestone fulfilling DENSO's goal to bring innovative solutions to market that benefit the automotive industry and consumers. DENSO opened a Silicon Valley office in 2011, and in 2014 created a dedicated team to pursue investment opportunities with entrepreneurs and startup companies. DENSO also lends expertise and monetary support at three technology incubators  Lemnos Labs, Prospect Silicon Valley and NextEnergy.

The company continues to evaluate new solutions and investment opportunities in Silicon Valley, Detroit and beyond as part of its innovation efforts.

About DENSO in North America

DENSO is a leading global automotive supplier of advanced technology, systems and components in the areas of thermal, powertrain control, electronics and information and safety. With its North American headquarters located in Southfield, Michigan, DENSO employs more than 23,000 people at 30 consolidated companies and affiliates across the North American region. Of these, 28 are manufacturing facilities located in the United States, Canada and Mexico. In the United States alone, DENSO employs more than 17,000 people in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Iowa, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. DENSO's North American consolidated sales totaled US$9.6 billion for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017. For more information, go to www.denso.com/us-ca/en. Connect with DENSO on Facebook at www.facebook.com/DENSOinNorthAmerica.

DENSO Worldwide

DENSO Corp., headquartered in Kariya, Aichi prefecture, Japan has more than 200 subsidiaries and affiliates in 38 countries and regions (including Japan) and employs more than 150,000 people worldwide. Consolidated global sales for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017, totaled US$40.4 billion. Last fiscal year, DENSO spent 9.0 percent of its global consolidated sales on research and development. DENSO common stock is traded on the Tokyo and Nagoya stock exchanges. For more information, go to www.denso.com, or visit our media website at www.denso.com/global/en/news/media-center/

SOURCE DENSO

Related Links

http://www.densocorp-na.com


AMSTERDAM, December 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

First to Offer Fully-Integrated Design, Prototyping & Developer Handoff Tool, Secures $7.7 Million Series A Led by Accel

Framer (http://www.framer.com), a complete prototyping and developer handoff tool, today announces the launch of a fully integrated visual design studio aimed at attracting the largest segment of their target market - graphic designers. This rounds out a year of releases for Framer, making it a full-service screen design tool and the first to consolidate the designer toolkit. It's now possible to design everything from detailed icons to high-fidelity interactive apps directly in Framer, putting the former code-only prototyping app in the same league as industry heavyweights like InVision, Sketch and Figma. In addition, Framer has secured a Series A funding round of $7.7 million led by Accel and joined by existing investors Foundation Capital, Designer Fund and AngelList. This financial investment will be used to ramp up product development, hire across every team, and invest in design education and training.

In 2017, Framer increased its enterprise accounts by tenfold, onboarding tech giants like Google, Twitter and Facebook as well as agencies such as Huge, Work & Co. and Frog Design. The app is also steadily gaining popularity in Asian markets, such as South Korea and China. The launch of this built-in screen design tool allows Framer to claim a larger piece of the workflow at top product designs teams worldwide. The app now offers the same specs as graphics tools like InVision, Sketch and Figma directly within their own interface. Fire up the tool today and you'll see a an interface that looks much like any of their competitors, though that's mostly intentional.

"We're betting on something that our competitors aren't - that designers will want a tool which does both high-fidelity design and prototyping. We were already the best prototyping tool on the market, so we spent this year integrating a complete visual and graphic design interface into the same app," said Framer's cofounder Koen Bok. "We looked at the other screen design tools on the market, honed in on the features that made sense and perfected them. Our goal was to build something that looked and felt familiar, but with smarter decision-making happening on the back end. Now everything you design in Framer is responsive by default, so you need only to design something once. Based on that, we're able to accurately reshape and resize your original design across any device."

This same line of thinking applies to the tool's vector editing feature. While it resembles what you'd find in Figma or Sketch, Framer's vector tools really shine when it comes to the end product. As a browser-based app, Framer is able to offer perfect SVG output, meaning designers are guaranteed that anything they design in the app will look exactly the same on every screen, and in every browser. Given the rise of retina and high-res displays, this feature presents a major selling point. The obvious upside of having a vector-based toolkit means that now anyone can design illustrations, graphics, and icons directly in Framer, no code necessary. But the real game plan is much more future-facing - Framer wants designers to come for their smarter, more intuitive screen design workflow and stay for the powerful prototyping feature set.

"The Framer team has already done an amazing job of building the industry's go-to interactive tool," said Luciana Lixandru, Partner at Accel. "With the launch of this completely integrated visual design studio, they've further cemented their place as the all-in-one design tool of choice for today's most ambitious companies."

Because Framer is a browser-based app, the tool allows for unparalleled flexibility when it comes to integrations, modules and third-party apps. Here are some ways in which major companies are using Framer:

To start using Framer today, please visit: http://www.framer.com

About Framer

Framer's cofounders Koen Bok and Jorn van Dijk worked at their first company, Sofa, together in 2009. After winning multiple Apple Design Awards, Sofa was acquired by Facebook in 2011. After two years of helping launch major product features at Facebook, Bok and van Dijk realized that the design workflow lacked a tool that allowed designers to create and communicate an end-to-end product experience. The pair moved back to Amsterdam and co-founded Framer in 2013, a high-fidelity prototyping tool used by companies all over the world. To date, Framer has raised $9.3 million in Series A funding from Accel, and seed round investors Designer Fund, Foundation Capital and Greylock Partners.

SOURCE Framer
FLINT, Mich., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Diplomat Pharmacy, Inc. (NYSE: DPLO), has completed its acquisition of Leehar Distributors, LLC, doing business as LDI Integrated Pharmacy Services, from Nautic Partners, LLC; Oak HC/FT Partners, L.P.; and LDI management.

Diplomat has also entered into new $800 million senior secured credit facilities.

LDI Integrated Pharmacy Services is a full-service pharmacy benefit manager (PBM). It includes URACaccredited mail-order and specialty pharmacies, a national network of retail pharmacies, and comprehensive clinical programs. LDI is based in St. Louis, Missouri.

Joel Saban, president of Diplomat, said the acquisition better positions the company to meet growing demandespecially from small and midsize health insurers, third-party administrators, and self-insured organizationsas it evolves from a specialty pharmacy provider to a broader health care company.

"LDI significantly expands Diplomat's ability to create an affordable drug benefit design and increase access to high-cost therapies," Saban said. "Combining LDI with Diplomat's specialty footprint allows us to address unmet market needsultimately helping patients get access to the right drugs at the right time."

Albert Thigpen, chief operating officer of LDI, said the combined company will have the enhanced ability to serve middle-market payors eager for a service model that helps patients with complex therapies while containing costs under the medical and pharmacy benefits.

"Specialty drugsoften new and expensive treatmentsrepresent a majority of medications in the FDA pipeline," Thigpen said. "In such a fast-growing segment, our clients need intuitive, innovative approaches to manage rising cost and new therapies."

Under the terms of the agreement, Diplomat purchased LDI for $515 million in cash and approximately $80 million in Diplomat common stock. The cash portion of the acquisition was funded by Diplomat's new $800 million senior secured credit facilities, the proceeds of which were also used to terminate Diplomat's outstanding indebtedness.

In conjunction with the acquisition closing, Diplomat fully syndicated an $800 million debt financing led by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. and Capital One, National Association. The $800 million financing is comprised of a $250 million Revolving Credit Facility, a $150 million Term Loan A Facility, and a $400 million Term Loan B Facility. The proceeds of the debt financing will be used to finance the LDI acquisition, pay related transaction fees and expenses, refinance Diplomat's current indebtedness, and provide sufficient liquidity for the company's future needs.

"With the strong reception from our lenders in combination with our newly assigned B1/B+ credit ratings, we are pleased to have closed our new senior credit facilities on terms favorable to what we initially expected," said Atul Kavthekar, CFO of Diplomat. "We now look forward to demonstrating Diplomat's commitment to return to our target leverage of 2x to 3x trailing EBITDA by mid-2019."

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements give current expectations or forecasts of future events or our future financial or operating performance and may include the Company's expectations regarding the expected benefits of the acquisition, developments and business strategies. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on management's good-faith belief and reasonable judgment based on current information. These statements are qualified by important risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those forecasted or indicated by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include: delays or difficulties in integrating the combined businesses; and the ability to achieve cost savings and operating synergies and the timing thereof. The foregoing risks should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with the other cautionary statements that are included herein, and in Diplomat's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including "Risk Factors" in Diplomat's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2016, and in subsequent reports filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as may be required by any applicable laws, Diplomat assumes no obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements, which are made as of the date hereof or the earlier date specified herein, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

About Diplomat

Diplomat (NYSE: DPLO) is the nation's largest independent provider of specialty pharmacy serviceshelping patients and providers in all 50 states. The company offers medication management programs for people with complex chronic diseases and delivers unique solutions for manufacturers, hospitals, payors, providers, and more. Diplomat opened its doors in 1975 as a neighborhood pharmacy with one essential tenet: "Take good care of patients and the rest falls into place." Today, that tradition continuesalways focused on improving patient care and clinical adherence. For more information, visit diplomat.is.

INVESTOR CONTACT

Bob East, Westwicke Partners

443.213.0500 | [email protected]

MEDIA CONTACT

Jenny Cretu, Senior Vice President,

Pharma Services and Marketing

810.768.9370 | [email protected]

SOURCE Diplomat Pharmacy, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.diplomat.is


SAN ANTONIO, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Louis Fernand Fabre, MD, Ph.D., is recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Pinnacle Professional Member in the fields of Psychiatry and Mental Health in recognition of his role as the developer of most of the drugs used in modern psychopharmacology.

Over the 1970's, 80's and 90's Dr. Fabre was involved in the clinical development of at least 29 drugs. Twenty-six of the 29 drugs were approved somewhere in the world (90%) with 55% approved in the United States. For most of these drugs Dr. Fabre did the pivotal trials which resulted in approval. Dr. Fabre was often involved in the first study in man. He often found the dose and regimen and the side effect profile of the drug. He did Phase 1 through Phase 4 studies. Some of the drugs are: Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Desyrel, Effexor, Xanax, Halcion, Wellbutrin, Seroquel, Celexa, and Ascendin. For some of these drugs he wrote the protocols and even collaborated in the clinical development plan. Currently he is working on an antidepressant drug that increases rather than decreases sexual function.

Dr. Fabre believes to be an expert in this field one must: do clinical trials, interact with the FDA, write scientific papers, give lectures, and treat patients. He has carried out 500 clinical trials, written close to 200 scientific papers, and given over 1000 lectures.

Dr. Fabre takes a dim view of so called experts that haven't' seen a patient in 20 years. Now he sees approximately 30 patients a day at the Alamo Mental Health Group in San Antonio Texas. A private mental health organization that serves as a full-service psychiatric clinic. The philosophy is to provide timely services that are both effective and efficient for children, adolescents, adults, and geriatrics.

Amassing over forty years of experience in the field of Psychiatry, Dr. Fabre is a prominent figure in the mental health industry and known as the Father of Modern Psychopharmacology. Throughout his career, Dr. Fabre has specialized in the areas of mood, anxiety, and psychotic disorders, as well as child and adolescent disorders, and substance abuse disorders.

Heavily involved in the development of various pharmaceuticals, Dr. Fabre has played a large part in launching numerous brands of psychiatric medications. "I wrote the protocols for Prozac," he says. "I convinced a very skeptical pharmaceutical company that Prozac would be the best anti-depressant on the market. Of course, I was right. It sold five Billion dollars a year at its peak."

Throughout the course of his education and training, Dr. Fabre obtained his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Physiology from Case Western Reserve University in 1966 and attained his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine in 1969. He went on to complete an Internship and Residency through the Baylor Affiliated Hospitals. He is Board Certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. In his early career he held several positions at the Texas Research Institute of Mental Science (TRIMS) including Director of Alcohol Research and Treatment for the State of Texas, and Assistant Director of TRIMS. In 1992 Dr. Fabre co-founded Fabre-Kramer Pharmaceuticals, Inc. where he continues as Chairman of the Board of Directors.

For more information, you can visit: www.alamomentalhealth.com

Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, [email protected]

SOURCE Continental Who's Who

Related Links

http://www.continentalwhoswho.com


NEW YORK, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Embark, the leading global provider of admissions software, announced today it has onboarded a wave of new clients from DecisionDesk, which is exiting the admissions software space. DecisionDesk selected Embark as its strategic partner after a competitive evaluation of more than a dozen companies.

Embark staff at the firm's New York headquarters in SoHo

Sarita James, CEO of Embark said, "We have been delighted to welcome DecisionDesk clients into the Embark community. It's been an exciting milestone, and I've appreciated the efforts of Michael Turbe, Embark's Engineering Lead, and Devyn Gardner and the entire Client Team in working closely with DecisionDesk and their clients."

Christopher Sheppard, CEO of DecisionDesk said, "We are pleased we could offer this soft landing for former DecisionDesk clients. We selected Embark's Campus platform for its modern, user-friendly interface and feature-rich offering. I've heard positive feedback from clients on their experiences with Embark."

The two companies partnered together on the smooth transition of a diverse set of DecisionDesk clients. These include a number of state institutions as well as high profile music conservatories and competitions, such as Placido Domingo's Operalia and the Edvard Grieg Piano Competition. The first 22 clients have already been taken live on Embark with more launches scheduled for late 2017 and early 2018.

About Embark

Founded in 1995, Embark provides admissions software to schools, universities, and fellowships, including the Rhodes Scholarship. The company is headquartered in New York, New York. For more information, please contact [email protected] or visit http://www.embark.com.

Media Contact:

Kyra Solano

(347) 592-7752

[email protected]

SOURCE Embark Corporation

Related Links

http://www.embark.com


AUBURN HILLS, Mich., Dec. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Nearly 300,000 children in Macomb , Oakland and Wayne counties currently qualify for free or reduced-price school meals, yet many still do not access this resource

, and counties currently qualify for free or reduced-price school meals, yet many still do not access this resource Only about 17 percent of kids who qualify participate in the free 'Meet Up and Eat Up' summer meals program

The FCA Foundation, the charitable arm of North American automaker FCA US LLC, today announced a $500,000 grant to United Way for Southeastern Michigan. The grant will help United Way implement two primary strategies to ensure that more children have access to and participate in child nutrition programs throughout the school year and during the summer.

First, the FCA Foundation grant will enable United Way to provide partner organizations (community groups and schools) with the funds and technical assistance needed to run and expand Meet Up and Eat Up summer meals programs. Additionally, the grant will support United Way's efforts to implement robust community engagement, marketing and canvassing strategies to ensure that children and families, school administrators and the public know about both the Meet Up and Eat Up summer program and the School Breakfast Program available each school day.

"FCA US cares deeply about our communities and respects United Way for the work they do. In no uncertain terms, United Way is committed to improving lives," said Brian Harlow, Head of Manufacturing, North America and FCA US United Way Co-Chair. "By focusing on key areas including education, economic prosperity and health, United Way works to connect corporations, non-profits and government agencies to tackle problems as a team, therefore, amplifying what no singular organization could do alone."

Raising awareness about the free food programs remains a priority to United Way. During the school year, nearly 300,000 children in Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties qualify for either free or reduced-price meals. Yet, of those eligible children, only about 17 percent participate in the free summer meals program Meet Up and Eat Up. In response, FCA US sponsored five United Way block parties this summer to increase awareness and attendance of the Meet Up and Eat Up program.

"We are grateful for strategic partners like FCA US for helping us support families throughout the tri-county," said Tanya Heidelberg Yopp, interim CEO, United Way for Southeastern Michigan. "With partnerships that reach more than 700 sites, this significant grant will help further our efforts for greater impact so that children continue to have access to this valuable free, meals program each summer."

According to data from the Michigan Department of Education, the total number of summer meals served in 2016 in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties was 1,210,049.

All donations to United Way this year count toward its overarching 2016-18 Annual Community Giving goal of $100 million, set by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne, who also serves as United Way Campaign Chair.

About United Way for Southeastern Michigan

United Way for Southeastern Michigan mobilizes the caring power of Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties to improve lives in measurable and lasting ways throughout the region. The organization is led by a diverse group of volunteers from business, labor, government, human services, education and the community. United Way provides opportunities to invest in the metropolitan Detroit community through volunteerism, advocacy and its annual campaign. United Way is a leader in convening partners to achieve positive outcomes around Health, Education, and Economic Prosperity. For more information, visit www.UnitedWaySEM.org.

About the FCA Foundation

The FCA Foundation is the charitable arm of North American automaker FCA US LLC, a member of the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCA) family of companies. The FCA Foundation invests in U.S. charitable organizations and initiatives that help empower people, build strong, resilient communities and generate meaningful and measurable societal impacts. In support of these objectives, the FCA Foundation focuses on the following foundational pillars: youth development, education, support for veterans and their families, and community service.

SOURCE FCA US LLC
PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The first wrongful death lawsuit stemming from the tragic and unspeakable slayings of four young men earlier this year outside of Philadelphia was filed today by Ross Feller Casey, LLP, Pennsylvania's preeminent catastrophic injury law firm.

The lawsuit was filed by attorney Robert Ross on behalf of the family of Mark Sturgis, 22, whose body was discovered in July buried on a Bucks County farm.

"With this lawsuit, the heartbroken parents of Mark Sturgis intend to hold accountable everyone responsible for the horrific death of their son, not just those who pulled the trigger. This includes those who negligently and carelessly permitted either of the accused to gain access to firearms and equipment used in these heinous crimes," said Ross, a founding partner of Ross Feller Casey.

The lawsuit names as defendants: Cosmo DiNardo and his cousin Sean Kratz, the two men charged with the murder of Sturgis and three other men; and DiNardo's parents, Sandra and Antonio DiNardo, who own the Solebury Township, Pa. farm on which the men were buried.

Among other things, the lawsuit alleges that DiNardo used a Smith and Wesson 357 owned by and registered to his mother to kill Sturgis, and that DiNardo's parents failed to secure the handgun even though they knew he had a history of mental illness.

The suit, filed in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, also alleges that DiNardo's parents created a dangerous situation to exist on their family farm by allowing their son access to the property and also to equipment on it.

ABOUT ROSS FELLER CASEY

Based in Philadelphia, Ross Feller Casey, LLP is among the preeminent personal injury law firms in the nation. The firm has won numerous multi-million-dollar recoveries, including high-profile cases involving victims of violent crimes. To learn more about the firm, go to www.rossfellercasey.com

Robert Ross will be available for interviews regarding the lawsuit and can be reached at 215 574 2000.

Contact: Mario Cattabiani, Ross Feller Casey's Director of Communications / 215 485 1710 [email protected]

SOURCE Ross Feller Casey, LLP
To celebrate the launch of the partnership , Free Country held an ice-skating event for Fresh Fund children and their families yesterday at The Rink at Bryant Park. The event was hosted by five-time Olympic Medalist Nastia Liukin , who skated with the Fresh Air Fund families and wore the #GetOutThere tee shirt on the red carpet. Celebrity stylist and Fresh Air Fund alumna, June Ambrose was also in attendance.

For over 140 years, The Fresh Air Fund has helped more than 1.8 million children by providing free outdoor summer experiences. In this spirit, the co-branded graphic tee shirt features a bold display of Free Country's new campaign hashtag #GetOutThere, a manifestation of the brand's mission to inspire others to be free to experience the outdoors.

"Like The Fresh Air Fund, we believe in the life-changing potential of the outdoors," says Free Country CEO & Founder Ira Schwartz. "Every child should have the opportunity to get outside and at Free Country we provide high-quality, accessible product that allows you to do just that. We're thrilled to join them in this effort."

"The Fresh Air Fund is thrilled to partner with Free Country. Our similar missions in believing in the potential of the outdoors is perfect synergy. We start by connecting our children in the summer with opportunities where they have the chance to create new friendships, swim, hike, and explore  all in the outdoors," says Fresh Air Fund Executive Director Fatima Shama. "We are grateful for Free Country's support which will help us raise awareness about our programs and serve more New York City children."

The #GetOutThere tee shirt is available now at FreeCountry.com in four colors (Charcoal, White, Turquoise, Orchid) for both women and men. Proceeds will guarantee a minimum donation guarantee of $25,000 and will directly benefit Fresh Air Fund programming, including overnight summer camps, leadership programs, and visits with volunteer host families. As part of their larger partnership, Free Country will also continue supporting the Fresh Air Fund through a variety of ongoing initiatives, including outerwear donations. Free Country will even be providing campers attending the Fresh Air Fund's February 2018 upstate retreat with jackets to ensure they can #GetOutThere all winter long!

About Free Country

In 1990, Ira Schwartz founded Free Country with a mission to make the outdoors accessible for everyone. Today, Free Country's selection of high quality lifestyle apparel continues to inspire people to get out there. While styles evolve, our DNA remains constant, combining fashion and function at a great price. Visit freecountry.com for styles for the whole family.

@freecountryapparel | #GetOutThere

For more information, please contact:

Caity Mae Cudworth | Michael Papirmeister

Bratskeir & Company

[email protected] | [email protected]

212.679.2233

About The Fresh Air Fund

Since 1877, The Fresh Air Fund has unlocked the limitless potential of more than 1.8 million New York City children from low-income communities. Each year, thousands of children experience outdoor summer adventures through visits with volunteer host families along the East Coast and Southern Canada and at The Fund's five overnight camps in Fishkill, NY. Fresh Air children also participate in year-round leadership and educational programs.

For more information, please contact:

Julie Silverman

Director of Communications

212.897.8890

SOURCE Free Country

Related Links

http://freecountry.com


ST. LOUIS, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Graybar, a leading distributor of electrical, communications and data networking products and provider of related supply chain management and logistics services, has appointed Robert Levine as its District Vice President in Chicago, effective January 1, 2018. Levine will replace Jon Novotny, who plans to retire in May after 38 years with the company. Novotny will serve as Vice President, Industrial Sales for the Chicago District until his retirement to help ensure a smooth transition.

Graybar's Chicago District is one of 13 operating districts for the employee-owned company, serving customers in parts of Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin. In total, the district includes 22 locations and more than 650 employees.

Levine has more than 20 years of experience with Graybar. He currently serves as Director, Electrical Sales in the company's Tampa District, a position he has held since 2013.

"We thank Jon Novotny for his continued leadership and service to Graybar," said Robert Lyons, Graybar's Regional Vice President. "We also congratulate Robert Levine on his appointment to Chicago District Vice President. He brings extensive experience to this assignment, and we are confident in his ability to lead our business in this region. I look forward to working with him as he takes on this new position."

Graybar, a Fortune 500 corporation and one of the largest employee-owned companies in North America, is a leader in the distribution of high quality electrical, communications and data networking products, and specializes in related supply chain management and logistics services. Through its network of 290 North American distribution facilities, it stocks and sells products from thousands of manufacturers, helping its customers power, network and secure their facilities with speed, intelligence and efficiency. For more information, visit www.graybar.com or call 1-800-GRAYBAR.

Media Contact:

Tim Sommer

(314) 578-7672

[email protected]

SOURCE Graybar

Related Links

http://www.Graybar.com


TSX: GPR

NYSE American: GPL

VANCOUVER, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - GREAT PANTHER SILVER LIMITED (TSX: GPR; NYSE American: GPL) ("Great Panther"; the "Company") announces that it has completed an updated Mineral Resource Estimate in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 for the Company's 100% owned Coricancha Mine located approximately 90 kilometres east of Lima, Peru. This estimate was prepared by Ronald Turner, P.Geo., of Golder Associates S.A., the Qualified Person.

"This resource update confirms the potential in the Coricancha Mine area and allows the Company to initiate additional engineering studies required to support a positive production decision", stated James Bannantine, President & CEO. "We are all very excited about the prospects for the Coricancha Mine and look forward to taking the next step in Great Panther's growth strategy by adding a base of operations in Peru."

The Measured and Indicated tonnes and grades in this Mineral Resource Estimate compare well with those from the Historical Resource Estimate of 2012, providing a high degree of confidence in the results (see below). The tonnes in the Inferred category are now lower due to the different search parameters used but it may be possible to replace these tonnages with additional drilling.

Great Panther is completing optimization studies and is evaluating alternative mining methods to reduce costs and project risk. The Company plans to release additional technical studies for the project in the second quarter of 2018.

Updated 2017 Mineral Resource Estimate for the Coricancha Mine, Peru

Measured Mine Tonnes Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) Pb (%) Zn (%) Cu (%) Ag eq gpt Aq eq oz (M) Constancia 270,336 6.2 219 2.36 3.44 0.43 1,064 9.24 Wellington 92,328 6.1 184 1.69 3.95 0.51 1,028 3.05 Escondida 15,362 0.9 279 0.28 1.35 3.20 832 0.41 Constancia East 16,315 6.0 143 1.97 2.16 0.11 836 0.44 San Jose 6,922 5.8 212 4.49 2.94 0.30 1,078 0.24 Colquipallana 2,944 3.4 220 3.67 5.26 0.21 995 0.09 Total Measured 404,205 5.9 210 2.16 3.43 0.54 1,037 13.49

Indicated Mine Tonnes Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) Pb (%) Zn (%) Cu (%) Ag eq gpt Aq eq oz (M) Constancia 218,545 6.0 188 2.09 3.08 0.34 968 6.80 Wellington 77,080 6.0 186 1.68 3.66 0.52 1,004 2.49 Escondida 21,406 1.0 238 0.24 1.08 2.84 733 0.50 Constancia East 18,636 5.8 137 1.93 1.95 0.11 798 0.48 San Jose 7,673 5.7 217 4.76 2.93 0.30 1,084 0.27 Colquipallana 5,215 3.4 207 3.31 5.14 0.19 953 0.16 Total Indicated 348,554 5.6 189 1.95 3.05 0.52 955 10.71

Measured & Indicated Mine Tonnes Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) Pb (%) Zn (%) Cu (%) Ag eq gpt Aq eq oz (M) Constancia 488,881 6.1 205 2.24 3.28 0.39 1,021 16.05 Wellington 169,408 6.0 185 1.69 3.82 0.51 1,017 5.54 Escondida 36,767 1.0 255 0.26 1.19 2.99 775 0.92 Constancia East 34,950 5.9 139 1.95 2.05 0.11 816 0.92 San Jose 14,594 5.7 215 4.63 2.93 0.30 1,081 0.51 Colquipallana 8,159 3.4 212 3.44 5.18 0.20 968 0.25 Total M & I 752,759 5.8 200 2.06 3.26 0.53 999 24.20

Inferred Mine Tonnes Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) Pb (%) Zn (%) Cu (%) Ag eq gpt Aq eq oz (M) Constancia 532,422 5.3 215 1.71 3.29 0.40 950 16.25 Wellington 238,811 5.4 219 1.06 3.95 0.78 1,014 7.78 Escondida 96,926 2.2 208 0.26 2.24 1.90 751 2.34 Constancia East 49,234 5.7 125 1.66 1.57 0.21 760 1.20 San Jose 14,174 5.7 213 4.34 2.78 0.28 1,049 0.48 Colquipallana 11,592 3.7 117 2.98 3.15 0.15 743 0.28 Total Inferred 943,160 5.0 209 1.45 3.25 0.64 934 28.36

Notes for Mineral Resource Estimates 1. Cut-offs are based on an estimated $140 Net Smelter Return (NSR)/tonne. 2. Metal prices used to calculate NSR: $1,300 per ounce (oz) Au, $17/oz Ag, $1.15 per pound (lb) Pb, $1.50/lb Zn, $3.00/lb Cu 3. Block model grades converted to United States Dollar (US$) value using plant recoveries of 92.1% Ag, 80.2% Au, 77.3% Pb, 82.6% Zn, 52.7% Cu. 4. Rock Density for Constancia: 3.3 tonnes per cubic meter (t/m), Wellington, Constancia East, Escondida, San Jose: 3.2 t/m, Colquipallana: 2.9 t/m. 5. Totals may not agree due to rounding. 6. Grades in metric units. 7. All currencies US dollars. 8. Ag equivalent ounces (eq oz) million (M) is calculated from gpt data 9. AgEq g/t = Ag g/t + (Pb grade x ((Pb price per lb/Ag price per oz) x 0.0685714 lbs per Troy Ounce x 10000 g per %)) +(Zn grade x ((Zn price per lb/Ag price per oz) x 0.0685714 lbs per Troy Ounce x 10000 g per %)) + (Cu grade x ((Cu price per lb/Ag price per oz) x 0.0685714 lbs per Troy Ounce x 10000 g per %)) + (Au grade x (Au price per oz/Ag price per oz)).

The last published Resource Estimate for the Coricancha Mine has an effective date of December 31, 2012 (see Nyrstar news release February 7, 2013 and table below). Great Panther considers this estimate historical in nature and is referenced for historical purposes only and should not be relied upon.

Coricancha Mine Historical Mineral Resources (December 31, 2012) *

Category Tonnes Au g/t Ag g/t Pb % Zn % Cu % Ag eq gpt Ag eq oz (M) Measured 630,000 5.18 169.85 2.10 2.97 0.38 1070 15.56 Indicated 260,000 4.72 186.07 1.66 3.45 0.54 1090 6.43 Total M&I 890,000 5.04 174.62 1.97 3.11 0.42 1075 21.96

















Inferred 4,880,000 4.91 224.54 1.57 2.98 0.48 1078 124.6

* see Nyrstar news release February 7, 2013

The above updated resource estimates included in this news release were classified per the CIM Definition Standards on Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves and, as such, are consistent with the requirements of NI 43-101. The Mineral Resource Estimate was constructed under supervision of Ronald Turner, P.Geo. of Golder Associates S.A., the Qualified Person. The Mineral Resource Estimate was completed using MicroMine 3D geological software, and the inverse distance cubed estimation technique was utilized in the estimation of grade to each of the blocks in the block models. A Company-proprietary Net Smelter Return ("NSR") calculator, considering mill recoveries, smelter terms, and designated metal prices converted block grades into NSR (US$) values.

The Company's QA/QC program includes the regular insertion of blanks, duplicates, and standards into the sample shipments; diligent monitoring of assay results; and necessary remedial actions. Sample assaying was completed at the independent SGS-Lima lab in Lima, Peru. The gold was analyzed by fusion with 30 g fire assay and atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) finish, with the resulting values reported in parts per million (code FAA313). The remaining 52 elements were analyzed by mass spectrometry of inductively coupled plasma (ICPMS) and the resulting values were reported in parts per million (code IMC12B). Any gold results that exceeded the limit of detection were re-analyzed by fire assay with a gravimetric finish (code FAG303). Any silver results that exceeded the limit of detection (>10g/t) were re-analyzed by fire assay with a gravimetric finish (code FAG313). Any other metals that exceeded the limit of detection were re-analyzed by ICP-AAS (code AAS11B).

The technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Matthew Wunder, P. Geo., Vice-President Exploration for the Company and the Qualified Person (QP) for the Coricancha Mine Complex under the meaning of NI 43-101. Aspects relating to mining and metallurgy are overseen by Ali Soltani, Chief Operating Officer for Great Panther.

ABOUT GREAT PANTHER

Great Panther Silver Limited is a primary silver mining and exploration company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange trading under the symbol GPR, and on the NYSE American under the symbol GPL. Great Panther's current activities are focused on the mining of precious metals from its two wholly-owned operating mines in Mexico: the Guanajuato Mine Complex and the Topia Mine in Durango. The Company is also evaluating the restart of the Coricancha Mine in Peru, which it acquired earlier this year, and continues to pursue the acquisition of additional mining operations or projects in the Americas.

James Bannantine

President & CEO

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT ON FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws (together, "forward-looking statements"). Such forward-looking statements include but are not limited to statements regarding the timing and results of technical, economic and optimization studies, including plans for additional drilling and resource delineation and the overall economic potential of the Coricancha Mine; and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements to be materially different. Such factors include, among others, risks and uncertainties relating to potential political risks involving the Company's operations in a foreign jurisdiction, and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses, physical risks inherent in mining operations, operating or technical difficulties in mineral exploration, fluctuations in the price of silver, gold and base metals, completion of economic evaluations, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in the Company's Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2016 and Material Change Reports filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators available at www.sedar.com and reports on Form 40-F and Form 6-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available at www.sec.gov. There is no assurance that such forward looking statements will prove accurate and results may vary materially from such forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward looking statements. The Company has no intention to update forward looking statements except as required by law.

SOURCE Great Panther Silver Limited

Related Links

http://www.greatpanther.com


MONTREAL, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Groupe Solmax, a Canadian-based company and an industry leader in the production of high-quality polyethylene geomembranes for industrial and environmental applications has acquired GSE Environmental based in Houston, Texas from Littlejohn & Co., LLC and certain funds and accounts managed by Strategic Value Partners, LLC, both Greenwich, Connecticut-based private investment firms. Both Solmax and GSE operate globally in the geosynthetic products sector, supplying large industrial players with high-quality containment systems for domestic, hazardous or industrial waste burial sites, retention ponds, fracking and heap leaching pads. The Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (CDPQ) and the Fonds de solidarite FTQ are Solmax's financial partners for this transaction. Both will have equity positions in the company.

"This acquisition and the combination of Solmax and GSE creates a true global industry leader. In a highly fragmented market of polyethylene geomembrane manufacturing, we will have the opportunity to lead and help reshape the industry, based on competitive drivers such as operational excellence and efficiency, superior quality products and deep R&D capabilities," explained Jean-Louis Vangeluwe, President of Solmax. "Merging GSE with Solmax will also give us a broader manufacturing footprint and an expanded world-wide commercial network which will in turn enable us to work more closely and cohesively with customers, including local service companies and specialized installers who require customized attention. Furthermore, we believe our size and industry leadership will help us work more effectively with global corporations that seek suppliers with manufacturing capabilities around the world and financial means."

"La Caisse is pleased to take an equity stake in Solmax as it acquires one of the largest companies in its industry and creates the undisputed global leader in geomembrane manufacturing," stated Christian Dube, Executive Vice-President, Quebec at Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec. "In addition to supporting a company from Quebec as it grows internationally, la Caisse is investing in a company that is making a difference for the environment."

"Once again, the Fonds de solidarite FTQ is investing in Solmax to support the growth of this Quebec-based flagship company, and a Fonds partner company since 1996. With the leadership of its management team, as well as dedicated employees and quality products, Solmax will become a worldwide leader in its field. This transaction will put the Varennes-based company in a good position to lead the global geomembrane market," said Normand Chouinard, Executive Vice-President, Investments at the Fonds de solidarite FTQ.

"On behalf of my management team, I would like to thank the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec and the Fonds de solidarite FTQ who have been incredibly supportive business partners through this negotiation process. We clearly saw their commitment to enable Quebec entrepreneurs who strive for defining growth and value creation on a world-wide scale," added Jacques Cote, Solmax Founder and Chairman.

Solmax drew on the guidance and services of the following firms to complete this strategic acquisition: McCarthy Tetrault LLP acted as Canadian legal advisors and Jones Day as international legal advisors; PricewaterhouseCoopers Corporate Finance inc. acted as financial advisor. National Bank of Canada and The Toronto-Dominion Bank acted as joint underwriters for the senior credit facilities.

The financial terms and conditions of the transaction were not disclosed.

ABOUT GROUPE SOLMAX

Groupe Solmax is a worldwide leader in the manufacturing of PE geomembranes and offers high-standard containment solutions. Its products are sold in over 60 countries. They are used by the major industrial companies in the mining, energy, waste management, water, and civil engineering sectors. Solmax's products are used to protect soils from contamination in applications as critical as the landfills of the world's most populated cities to the tailings or heap leach pads of mining operating in environmentally fragile ecosystems.

ABOUT GSE ENVIRONMENTAL

GSE Environmental is a global manufacturer and marketer of geosynthetic barrier systems, stabilization products, and drainage systems used for the containment and management of solids, liquids and gases for organizations engaged in civil engineering projects, waste management, mining, water, wastewater and aquaculture. GSE's principal products are polyethylene-based geomembranes, geonets, geocomposites, geosynthetic clay liners, concrete protection liners and vertical barriers. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, USA, GSE maintains sales offices throughout the world and manufacturing facilities in the US, Germany, Thailand, China and Egypt.

ABOUT CAISSE DE DEPOT ET PLACEMENT DU QUEBEC

Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (CDPQ) is a long-term institutional investor that manages funds primarily for public and parapublic pension and insurance plans. As at June 30, 2017, it held $286.5 billion in net assets. As one of Canada's leading institutional fund managers, CDPQ invests globally in major financial markets, private equity, infrastructure, real estate and private debt. For more information, visit cdpq.com, follow us on Twitter @LaCDPQ or consult our Facebook or LinkedIn pages.

ABOUT FONDS DE SOLIDARITE FTQ

The Fonds de solidarite FTQ is a development capital investment fund that channels the savings of Quebecers into investments. As at May 31, 2017, the organization had C$13.1 billion in net assets, and through its current portfolio of investments has helped create and protect 186,440 jobs. The Fonds is a partner in more than 2,700 companies and has 645,664 shareholder-savers.

SOURCE Solmax

Related Links

http://www.cdpq.com/


HERNDON, Va., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Harris Healthcare's newest release of Novus Meds revolutionizes the way physicians reconcile medications. Physicians can now rapidly and safely reconcile even the most complex patient medications in the palm of their hand. The mobility feature is unique in the industry and designed for physicians on the go.

Novus Meds simplifies the providers' experience, while also enhancing patient safety through formal review of medications at all key transition points throughout a patient's hospitalization. When a physician reconciles existing medications or places new orders, the Novus Meds application provides robust screening using embedded Drug Knowledge Vendor to mitigate adverse medication events, even at the point of care.

Harris Healthcare and Hunterdon Medical Center partnered through all phases of the Novus Meds development. This renowned healthcare facility provided valuable input and feedback to the Harris Healthcare development team as the product was being designed, built and tested. Today, Harris Healthcare and Hunterdon Healthcare proudly announce successful transition from beta testing to live implementation of Novus Meds.

Dr. Wayne Fellmeth, Hunterdon Medical Center's Chief Medical Information Officer, said, "We are excited to have helped develop a system that is user-friendly, mobile, and reliable for our physicians, and to see it deployed successfully." He added, "Novus Meds meets a true market need, enabling physicians to reconcile patient medications from a variety of mobile devices, anywhere, at any time."

Santina Allen, Senior Executive Vice President for Harris Healthcare Clinical Solutions, said, "We are pleased to have worked with Dr. Fellmeth and his team on the development and implementation of this leading-edge productespecially seeing first-hand how it transforms the medication reconciliation process."

Harris Healthcare is committed to research and development, and focused on building innovative solutions to the challenges facing the healthcare industry. "We've reengineered the process and improved the medication reconciliation experience for clinicians. Our streamlined workflow and intuitive design bring a much needed, quick, and simple medication reconciliation solution to the healthcare industry," said Allen. Novus Meds is now available for existing QCPR clients.

About Hunterdon Medical Center:

Hunterdon Medical Center treats over 8,600 inpatients annually, with 33,000 Emergency Department visits and over 292,000 outpatient visits per year. The 178-bed teaching hospital provides a full range of preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic inpatient and outpatient hospital and community health services. hunterdonhealthcare.org

About Harris Healthcare:

With a 30-year history as a healthcare IT provider, Harris Healthcare delivers a fully-integrated solution set to hospitals and clinics throughout the United States and Canada. We streamline processes, increase productivity and drive positive clinical outcomes. Harris Healthcare QCPR includes 900 professionals who support clients at more than 1,200 healthcare facilities. Please visit harrishealthcare.com for more detail.

Media Contact: Miranda Hahn, Harris Healthcare | Phone #231.360.7063 | [email protected]

SOURCE Harris Healthcare

Related Links

http://harrishealthcare.com


BEIJING, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Hawtai Motor, a independently-owned automobile brand that is representative of similar automakers in China, recently took its strategy for international growth a step further, in a move to support the implementation of The Belt and Road ("B&R") initiative.

Hawtai Motor, an SUV pioneer in China, is a large industrial conglomerate mainly engaged in automobile manufacturing, owning core power technologies and having strong financial backing. With total assets exceeding 48 billion yuan (approx. US$7.8 billion), the group has built businesses covering four key segments, traditional and electric vehicles, R&D and technology, finance and smart mobility.

Hawtai Motor is one of the earliest independently owned Chinese automobile brands to establish a presence outside of the home market. In terms of R&D and innovation, the company has established technology centers in Munich, Germany, in Russia and in Silicon Valley, USA.

In terms of design research for vehicle interiors and exteriors, Hawtai Motor has partnered with top global companies including UK-based HORIBA MIRA and France-based Faurecia.

For the engine and powertrain, Hawtai Motor has adopted the world's most advanced full-range passenger car diesel engine from Italy-based VM Motori S.p.A. and matched with an automatic transmission from Germany-based ZF Friedrichshafen AG, becoming the only large Chinese automobile power assembly production firm that can claim ownership of these two core technologies.



In 2018, Hawtai Motor will celebrate its 18th anniversary. Company chairman Zhang Hongliang has put forward its development plan for the next three years. The company plans to achieve sales of 200,000 units during 2018, then raise the bar with both production and sales of 500,000 units by 2020, with its complete vehicles, automotive products, engines and gearboxes widely exported to more than 30 countries and regions.

The Chinese automaker has established a manufacturing portfolio across the countries targeted by B&R. The portfolio includes Completely Knocked Down (CKD) assembly plants in Russia and Semi-Knocked Down (SKD) assembly facilities in Angola as well as Knocked Down (KD) arrangements in Brazil, India, Mexico, Thailand, Iran, Vietnam, the Philippines, Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Columbia. Complete vehicles are currently being shipped to Australia, Peru, Chile, North Korea and Ethiopia.

Notably, Hawtai Motor took part in the fourth CICA Summit held in Shanghai in 2014 as the only Chinese homegrown automaker to be invited to the event. In the presence of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Chinese automaker signed a US$1.1 billion cooperation agreement with Russia's Derways to supply KD parts for 80,000 complete vehicles to the Russian company.

The measures that had been taken by Hawtai Motor in response to the B&R initiative have further promoted the automaker's new strategy as we enter the new era in terms of technological developments. The automaker also plans to further expand into world markets with the aim of building a Chinese car brand with international competitiveness.

SOURCE Hawtai Motor
DALLAS, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- HealthMark Group (HealthMark), a leading provider of health information management services for medical clinics and hospitals, was honored as one of the top 100 fastest-growing privately held companies in the Dallas area at the 27th Annual SMU Cox Dallas 100 Awards Ceremony and Banquet, held at the Omni Hotel Dallas on November 16th, 2017.

Co-founded by SMU Cox School of Business and the Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship, the Dallas 100 recognizes the top businesses based on sales and revenue growth over the previous three years. Each year, the awards celebrate area entrepreneurs and the diversity, creativity and resolve required to create and sustain successful businesses.

"It is a privilege to be recognized as part of the Dallas 100," said Scott Bagley, Chief Executive Officer of HealthMark Group. "This honor is a reflection of the hard work and dedication of the tremendous team at HealthMark. We look forward to sustained growth with a commitment to continuous improvement of our services."

About Dallas 100

The SMU Cox School Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship, working with the accounting firm BKD LLP CAP and Advisors, examined sales from hundreds of companies from 2014 to 2016 and ranked them the top 100 entrepreneurial companies annually based on growth percentage and absolute dollar growth over the previous three years. According to Caruth Institute data, the winners represent a broad spectrum of Dallas-area businesses and collectively generated billions of dollars in sales over the past three years.

About HealthMark Group

Founded in 2006, HealthMark Group is a leading provider of health information management services for medical clinics and hospitals. HealthMark plays an essential role in the Release of Information (ROI) process creating a patient-centric experience with advanced management and technology services to more than 4,000 physicians throughout Texas and 450 healthcare facilities nationwide.

For more information about HealthMark visit www.healthmark-group.com.

SOURCE HealthMark Group

Related Links

http://www.healthmark-group.com


SALT LAKE CITY, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- HireVue, the leading provider of AI-driven video intelligence solutions that bring the best talent to top global companies faster, today announced that it has received SOC 2 Type 2 assurance from an independent service auditor.

"The leading global enterprises that HireVue serves can trust in our complete commitment to information security throughout our business operations, wherever their data flows," said Loren Larsen, Chief Technology Officer at HireVue. "HireVue recognizes that this is a critical focus of organizations of every size, and we are committed to meeting and even exceeding data security and privacy standards everywhere our customers do business."

The SOC 2 Type 2 attestation report, issued by Coalfire Controls, LLC ("Coalfire Controls"), an independent CPA firm and leading provider of trusted, comprehensive cybersecurity assessment and advisory services, confirms that HireVue has met the standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants [AICPA] for services organizations.

Coalfire Controls tested the design and operational effectiveness of controls implemented by HireVue for the AICPA Trust Services Principles for Security, Availability and Confidentiality. HireVue has a dedicated information security team operating under the direction of Chief Security Officer Josh Dustin that worked with Coalfire Controls on the certification.

About HireVue

HireVue is transforming the way companies discover, hire and develop talent with its AI-driven Video Intelligence platform. Combining predictive, validated industrial/organizational science with artificial intelligence allows companies to augment human decision-making in the hiring process, delivering higher quality talent, faster. HireVue works with one-third of the Fortune 100 and more than 600 customers worldwide, including leading brands such as Vodafone, Nike, Deloitte, Intel, Tiffany & Co., Honeywell, Qantas and Carnival Cruise Line. For more information, visit www.hirevue.com.

Social Networks

Twitter: www.twitter.com/HireVue

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/HireVue

Facebook: www.facebook/

YouTube: www.YouTube.com/user/HireVue

Instagram: www.instagram.com/hirevue/

SOURCE HireVue

Related Links

http://www.hirevue.com


COLUMBUS, Ohio, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. suffered a number of natural disasters in 2017 that were catastrophic, but just how catastrophic? How much damage did these disasters cause? And how much does it cost to repair all the damage done?

The 10 costliest U.S. natural disasters, as determined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are listed below. For comparison, each contrasts the amount of the damage from the event to the worth of the 10 wealthiest people in the U.S., as listed by Forbes.

Hurricane Katrina was the costliest disaster to date at $161.3 billion. The tenth costliest disaster was Hurricane Wilma, totaling $24.5 billion. The list does not include the most recent disasters including Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria because the final cost of these storms are being determined.

According to J.J. Dimond, Intern, Demotech, "With median American income at $59,000 per year (2016 U.S. Census), the cost of the top ten natural disasters is incomprehensible to virtually all of us. At $59,000 per year, it would take the median income nearly 1.2 million years to pay off Hurricane Sandy. Yet, when I compared the cost of the storms to the worth of the ten wealthiest Americans, some of them could fund the cost of multiple disasters!"

These comparisons illustrate how devastating these events are to the U.S. and its economy and why these events are so hard to overcome. For the full article, including graphs of these comparisons, go to http://news.demotech.com/demotech_news/natural_disaster_cost_20171220/

Hurricane Katrina (August 2005) cost $161.3 billion in damages and would require the top two wealthiest in the U.S. to pool their resources to cover the cost.

Hurricane Sandy (October 2012) cost $70.2 billion. Any one of the top three wealthiest could have written a single check to cover the damages and still been a billionaire.

Hurricane Andrew (August 1992) cost $48.1 billion. The top five wealthiest Americans would still be billionaires if they single-handedly covered the cost of Hurricane Andrew.

In 1988, the drought/heatwave had a price tag of $42.4 billion. If the average person were to pay that bill, it would take 718,170 years to pay off.

The Midwest flooding during the summer of 1993 resulted in a total of $36.1 billion worth of damages. This means that all of the top 10 wealthiest Americans' worth exceed the damages.

Damages from Hurricane Ike (September 2008) were just less than the Midwest flooding event, weighing in at $34.8 billion in damages. Any one of the top 10 wealthiest citizens could have paid it off, and some could have paid for it twice.

The drought/heatwave in 2012 left behind $32.4 billion in damages. Any one of the top 10 wealthiest citizens could have paid it off, yet it would have required a full year's salary from nearly 550,000 people making the average income.

The summer to fall drought/heatwave of 1980 produced $31.7 billion in damages. Any one of the top 10 wealthiest citizens could have paid it off, yet it would have taken 50 people each earning the average U.S. salary 10,745 years to pay this off.

Hurricane Ivan (September 2004) damages were $27.3 billion  well within the worth of any of the top 10 wealthiest Americans, but would take 462,407 years to be paid off by the average American.

Hurricane Wilma (October 2005) cost $24.5 billion, within the worth of any of the wealthiest Americans. Even if 10 average Americans split the bill, it would take 41,498 years to pay off.

Bio: John Dimond is an intern at Demotech, Inc. and attends Columbus State Community College. He intends to continue his studies in the field of engineering. He can be reached at [email protected].

About Demotech, Inc.

Demotech, Inc. is a financial analysis firm specializing in evaluating the financial stability of regional and specialty insurers. Since 1985, Demotech has served the insurance industry by assigning accurate, reliable and proven Financial Stability Ratings (FSRs) for Property & Casualty insurers and Title underwriters. FSRs are a leading indicator of financial stability, providing an objective baseline of the future solvency of an insurer. Demotech's philosophy is to review and evaluate insurers based on their area of focus and execution of their business model rather than solely on financial size. Visit www.demotech.com for more information.

SOURCE Demotech, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.demotech.com


Uppsala, SWEDEN, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- IAR Systems, the future-proof supplier of software tools and services for embedded development, announces tool support for the new LPC54018 MCU-based IoT module from NXP Semiconductors. Using the leading development toolchain IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm will enable developers to quickly and easily create powerful connected applications based on the new module.

The LPC54018 MCU-based IoT module includes support for Amazon FreeRTOS and provides a seamless Wi-Fi connection to Amazon Web Services (AWS), enabling developers to create secure, cost-effective IoT solutions. The module offers unlimited memory extensibility, a root of trust built on the embedded SRAM physical unclonable functions (PUF) and on-chip cryptographic accelerators. Thanks to the easy-to-use software libraries of Amazon FreeRTOS, cloud on-boarding and over-the-air device management is made easy. Now available for this IoT module are development tools from IAR Systems, which provide leading code optimization technology and extensive debugging functionality coupled with professional technical support offered globally.

Thanks to outstanding speed optimizations, IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm and the included IAR C/C++ Compiler generate very fast and efficient code. With the shortest possible execution times, it is the ultimate choice for development of high-performance, low-power applications such as new innovations built on this new IoT module. To enable extensive debugging and profiling, the toolchain includes features such as complex code and data breakpoints, runtime stack analysis, call stack visualization, code coverage analysis and integrated monitoring of power consumption. Through add-on tools for static analysis and runtime analysis, developers gain complete code control.

"We recently announced support for the new IoT microcontroller operating system Amazon FreeRTOS from Amazon Web Services," says Anders Lundgren, Product Manager, IAR Systems. "This support in combination with the powerful code optimizations and debugging capabilities of IAR Embedded Workbench will enable developers to leverage the full potential of the new IoT module from NXP."

More information about IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm is available at www.iar.com/iar-embedded-workbench/tools-for-arm/.

Editor's Note: IAR Systems, IAR Embedded Workbench, IAR Connect, C-SPY, C-RUN, C-STAT, IAR Visual State, IAR KickStart Kit, I-jet, I-jet Trace, I-scope, IAR Academy, IAR, and the logotype of IAR Systems are trademarks or registered trademarks owned by IAR Systems AB. All other products names are trademarks of their respective owners.

IAR Systems contacts

AnnaMaria Tahlen

Media Relations

IAR Systems

Tel: +46-18-16-78-00

E-mail: [email protected]

Stefan Skarin

CEO

IAR Systems

Tel: +46-18-16-78-00

E-mail: [email protected]

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/iar-systems/r/iar-systems-enables-development-of-comprehensive-new-iot-module-from-nxp,c2418914

The following files are available for download:

SOURCE IAR Systems

Related Links

http://www.iar.com


BOSTON and BONN, Germany, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- IFM Therapeutics, LLC (IFM), a privately held biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapies that modulate novel targets in the innate immune system to treat inflammatory disorders and cancer, today announced the appointment of Dr. Michael Heneka to its clinical advisory board. Heneka, who serves as Director of the Department of Neurodegenerative Diseases and Gerontopsychiatry at the University Hospital of Bonn, Germany, will join a group of seven distinguished immunotherapy pioneers on the IFM Therapeutics clinical advisory board.

"IFM Therapeutics is advancing breakthrough research to understand the roles that the innate immune system and chronic inflammation play in some of the world's most critical diseases," said Heneka. "I am pleased to join IFM's clinical advisory board and provide clinical and scientific guidance to help progress their exciting programs, which have the potential to improve the lives of millions of patients with neuroinflammatory disorders."

Heneka is one of the world's experts in neuroinflammation and his research has yielded deep insight into molecular mechanisms of innate immune activation in Alzheimer's disease, Amytrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. For example, Heneka together with IFM Co-founder Eicke Latz, were the first to define a critical role of NLRP3 inflammasome activation in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. Heneka has authored 150 peer-reviewed publications and held prestigious appointments worldwide throughout his career, including a fellowship at the Department of Neurosciences at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, USA, and professorships in molecular neurology at the University of Munster (WWU), and in clinical neurosciences at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat Bonn.

In addition to his roles as a physician, researcher, reviewer and teacher, Dr. Heneka oversees a translational research group that works to improve preventive, disease-modifying, and acute therapy for patients suffering from neurodegenerative disease. The Heneka Lab focuses on biomarkers for early disease detection, new targets for therapeutic intervention, and unique approaches to patient consultation and disease management.

"Dr. Michael Heneka has dedicated his career to addressing neurodegenerative diseases that the world has long known about, but for which few effective therapeutic interventions have been developed," said H. Martin Seidel, Executive Vice President of Research and Development at IFM. "Based on Michael's work, we have begun to understand how the innate immune system, and specifically NLRP3 inflammasome activation, drives diseases such as Alzheimer's and ALS. We are thrilled to welcome him as part of our clinical advisory board and look forward to his valuable input going forward."

Heneka completed his medical coursework at the University of Tubingen, Germany in 1996, and obtained his medical degree in 1998 at the school's Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology. He completed a postdoc in the laboratory of Douglas L. Feinstein at the University of Illinois in Chicago, USA, achieved board certification in neurology in 2002, and received his qualification as professor of neurology in 2003.

About IFM Therapeutics, LLC

IFM Therapeutics, LLC is a privately held biopharmaceutical company based in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was founded by an international group of preeminent scientists and physicians who have spent decades understanding innate immunity and the role it plays in regulating the immune system. IFM's team has discovered and developed small molecules that modulate novel targets in the innate immune system as next-generation therapies for cancer, autoimmunity, and inflammatory disorders. For more information, please visit www.ifmthera.com.

SOURCE IFM Therapeutics

Related Links

http://www.ifmthera.com


LUZHOU, China, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Invited by cross-cultural experience project I'm In China, Atsushi Suzuki became one of the "experience ambassadors" to work for a day as a "baijiu master" in Luzhou, China. His job was to discover China's oldest distillery. For a veteran in Shanghai's nightlife industry, baijiu (a traditional Chinese rice-based spirit, usually exceeding 45 proof) is indeed common; but the ancient craft behind it's production is an increasing draw to projects such as I'm in China.

All "experience ambassadors" taking part in a "Chinese Working Day" were assigned a series of tasks, four of which must be accomplished successfully in order to succeed. That means Suzuki has to face challenges such as fetching water, forking and sorting grain, taste testing and cocktail fusion.

Luzhou is famous for a particular type of baijiu, called Lujiao, and it's streets are often filled with the scent of baijiu production. Atsushi met his mentor for the day, baijiu master Yang Ping, and was thrown straight into the mix with a simple piece of advice - "You need to be strong to do this job".

All the water involved in Luzhou baijiu comes from the distillery's on-site "Dragon Water Well", chosen for it's purity. On that day, Suzuki's first task saw him hauling 50kg of this water for several trips, before being led into China's oldest Baijiu production cellar.

The Luzhou variety of baijiu - Lujiao has been in production since 1500s - 444 years from now precisely, but it hasn't changed much. Rows of pits in which the grain ferments were emptied and filled in cycles, and Yang Ping was amused by seeing Suzuki flail around the pit with a pitch fork. "Workers must perform these tasks for two years before they can move up to the production line," Yang told Suzuki. A little respite finally came when he was sieving the grain to remove any impurities, and separating it for even fermentation.

"The secret," revealed by Yang Ping, "is in the bubbles." Pouring baijiu directly from the barrel, he goes on. "The larger the bubble, the faster it disappears, the better the Baijiu becomes. It usually takes two to three years to tell the difference." Suzuki, however, was on the fast-track and showed his advantage as a wine connoisseur when his tasting technique was given a thumbs-up by Yang Ping. "Suzuki was full of smiles as he finally got to apply the skills that have earned him international awards as a mixologist.

"Being able to get such a deep and various experience," Atsushi recounts. "I have to say that it didn't feel like work. It's more of a humbling lesson in what goes in this traditional art - generation after generation, slowly refining Luzhou Baijiu to become this remarkable product. I know baijiu is still something the world is just now waking up to, but from today I've gained a much deeper understanding and respect for this ancient art form."

SOURCE Im In China
SILICON SLOPES, Utah, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Impartner, the world's largest and fastest-growing pure-play Partner Relationship Management (PRM) provider, has been named a two-time silver honoree in the Enterprise Service of the Year category for this year's Best in Biz Awards and a first-time silver honoree in the New Product of the Year category for this year's One Planet Awards. These awards join more than ten major awards over the past year, maintaining the company's lead as the award-winning PRM solution on the market for the second year in a row.

The Best in Biz Awards is the only independent business awards program judged annually by editorial teams at top-tier publications across North America. The One Planet Awards is an annual industry recognition program honoring employees and companies across all types and sizes in North America, Europe, Middle-East, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin-America.

"Being recognized by the Best in Biz and One Planet Award Series serves as continual validation of the value Impartner brings to our customers in helping them truly manage their channel with precision and accelerate indirect revenue," said Dave R Taylor, Impartner chief marketing officer. "We are providing the world-class technology and partner experience every vendor needs if they want to outpace their competitors in selling through the indirect channel."

For the Best in Biz Award Series, the Enterprise Service of the Year category includes all enterprise-level service providers, including software-as-a-service. To win, companies are required to show innovation through new features that demonstrate how the product or service is helping address pain points for enterprises. Winners of the Best in Biz Awards have been determined based on scoring from independent judging panels composed of prominent editorial teams from some of the most respected national business, consumer, technology and trade media in North America including the Associated Press, Entrepreneur, eWeek, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Security Products Magazine and Wired.

The One Planet Awards honors companies for their business excellence. The series are conferred in category sections which include outstanding individuals, executives, teams, new products and services, public relations, marketing and corporate communications for organizations from all over the world.

For a full list of gold, silver and bronze winners in the Best in Biz Awards 2017, visit:

http://www.bestinbizawards.com/2017-winners.

For a full list of gold, silver and bronze winners in the One Planet Awards 2017, visit:

http://www.oneplanetawards.com/world/

To learn more about Impartner, visit: https://www.impartner.com/. To schedule a demo of Impartner PRM, visit: https://www.impartner.com/demo/.

About Impartner

Impartner delivers the industry's most advanced SaaS-based Partner Relationship Management (PRM) solution, helping companies worldwide manage their partner relationships and accelerate revenue and profitability through indirect sales channels. Impartner PRM is the industry's most award-winning PRM technology and one of the industry's only turnkey solutions that can deploy a world-class Partner Portal in as few as 14 days, using the company's highly engineered Velocity onboarding process, which is guided by an individually customized Customer Success Portal.

For more information on Impartner, which is based in Utah's tech hotbed, the Silicon Slopes, visit www.impartner.com, or in the United States call +1 801 501 7000, for EMEA general call +33 1 40 90 31 20, for London call +44 0 20 3283 4465, and for LATAM call +1 954 364 7883.

Contact:

Kerry Desberg

Impartner

425-231-9529

[email protected]

SOURCE Impartner

Related Links

http://www.impartner.com


"We are thrilled to partner with organizations dedicated to inspiring the next generation of scientists, engineers and chemical industry leaders," said Kim Ann Mink, Ph.D., Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. "At Innophos, science and innovation are at the heart of our business and we are committed to fostering science literacy and sparking curiosity starting at an early age. The CEF and AIChE programs play an important role in improving the quality of STEM education to students of all ages."

The CEF Essential Elements program offers primary and middle school educators access to resources and support to conduct hands-on STEM-based learning in the classroom, at no cost to the school or participating educators. Innophos' sponsorship will support Essential Elements school workshops in local communities and will provide needed supplies and educational resources.

The 2017 AIChE Gala, which took place on December 6 at the Essex House in New York City, recognized companies and their leaders for inspiring the next generation of engineers. Funds contributed by Innophos and other event supporters will help enable programs that diversify, strengthen and retain undergraduate engineering students and improve pre-college STEM education.

About CEF

A national organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., CEF strives to inspire future leaders to pursue science-related careers and to improve the overall understanding and appreciation of chemistry and chemicals. Last year, CEF's STEM programs reached 800,000 students nationwide.

About AIChE

AIChE is the world's leading organization for chemical engineering professionals, with more than 50,000 members from over 100 countries. AIChE's vision is to provide value as the Global Leader of the Chemical Engineering profession, the lifetime center for professional & personal growth, and security of chemical engineers, and the foremost catalyst in applying chemical engineering expertise in meeting societal needs.

About Innophos

Innophos is a leading international producer of specialty ingredient solutions that deliver far-reaching, versatile benefits for the food, health, nutrition and industrial markets. We leverage our expertise in the science and technology of blending and formulating phosphate, mineral and botanical based ingredients to help our customers offer products that are tasty, healthy, nutritious and economical. Headquartered in Cranbury, New Jersey, Innophos has manufacturing operations across the United States, in Canada, Mexico and China. In 2017 Innophos acquired Novel Ingredients and NutraGenesis, further expanding its food, health and nutrition platform. For more information, please visit www.innophos.com. 'IPHS-G'

Investor Contact Media Contact Mark Feuerbach Ryan Flaim Innophos Sharon Merrill Associates 609-366-1204 617-542-5300 [email protected] [email protected]

SOURCE Innophos Holdings, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.innophos.com


SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Invitae Corporation (NYSE: NVTA), one of the fastest growing genetic information companies, today announced that Sean George, chief executive officer of Invitae, will present at the 36th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference on Wednesday, January 10, 2018 at 2:00 p.m. Pacific at The Westin St. Francis in San Francisco.

The live webcast of the presentation may be accessed by visiting the investors section of the company's website at ir.invitae.com. A replay of the webcast will be available shortly after the conclusion of the presentation and will be archived on the company's website.

About Invitae

Invitae Corporation's (NYSE: NVTA) mission is to bring comprehensive genetic information into mainstream medical practice to improve the quality of healthcare for billions of people. Specializing in genetic diagnostics in clinical areas across all stages of life, Invitae is aggregating the world's genetic tests into a single service with better quality, faster turnaround time, and lower prices. The company provides a variety of diagnostic tests with clinical utility in preimplantation and carrier screening for inherited disorders, miscarriage analysis, pediatric and developmental disorders, neurological disorders, cardiovascular disorders, metabolic disorders, and hereditary cancers. For more information, visit our website at invitae.com.

Contact:

Kate McNeil

[email protected]

347-204-4226

SOURCE Invitae Corporation

Related Links

http://invitae.com


TEL AVIV, Israel, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Yam Pro Energy from Israel signed an MOU with Shapoorji Pallonji Group, the owners of the TATA Group, to build a wave energy power station in Ghana. To be completed in the upcoming three years at a scope of 150 MW generation ($180,000,000). The initial phase will be 10 MW and expanding thereafter. The partnership will be between Yam Pro, a local partner and SP with the responsibility to raise the finances.

Right: Zeev Peretz, Law school graduate, 30 years of experience of management public and private, commercial and industries companies. Left: Laser Rothstein 30 years of experience in technological development in the field of Hi-Tech and in renewable energy market. (PRNewsfoto/Yam Pro Energy)

Zeev Peretz and Laser Rothshtein, the joint CEO's of Yam Pro, have released a joint statement: "We are very excited today reaching such a substantial milestone as one of the largest EPC companies in the world is giving confidence in our technology and company and are willing to start a cooperation in Ghana. We are hoping this will be a start of a global cooperation with SP that we can together revolutionize the energy market around the world."

About Shapoorji Pallonji Group:

(SP Group) is an Indian business conglomerate in India with a turnover of $4.2Billion USD and has a workforce of 60,000. The promoters of the group are the largest individual shareholders in Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group . [4] They hold 18% and are the second largest shareholder in the Tata Group.

About Yam Pro Energy:

Yam Pro Energy YPE is an Israeli-based renewable-energy company, subsidiary of Shahar Energy that was founded by Mr. Zeev Peretz and Mr. Laser Rothstein specializing in building Solar energy power stations in Germany and Israel. The company have patented ocean wave energy technology that convert wave energy to electric energy, it is the best cost-effective technology as reported on CNN. It is a proven technology and the system run as pilot system for over a year in Jaffa port. The company have strong management with experience in industry, energy production, and international business. The company has a subsidiary in Scotland with local partners. The Scottish company has secured agreements with a number of ports to build projects on the ports docks and started Front End Engineering studies. We anticipate building 63 MW in the UK (83 million GBP) in the next three years.

Web

Facebook

Contact:

Zeev Peretz, CEO

E: [email protected]

Aslihan Penley, Managing Director

Yam Pro Energy UK

E: [email protected]

SOURCE Yam Pro Energy

Related Links

http://yamproenergy.com/


HSINCHU, Taiwan and WUHAN, China, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- JHL Biotech Inc. (Stock Code: 6540.TWO) announced that it submitted a Phase I Clinical Trial Application on December 15, 2017 to European authorities (Bulgarian Drug Agency) for its proposed bevacizumab biosimilar, JHL1149.

JHL1149 would provide an affordable alternative to bevacizumab, a biologic used for the treatment of many cancers, the most common of which are metastatic colorectal cancer, lung cancer, and ovarian cancer. In 2016, bevacizumab generated revenues of approximately US$7 billion.

JHL is planning to conduct a single-site, three-arm pharmacokinetic study in healthy volunteers in Sofia, Bulgaria beginning March 2018. The data from this trial will support the rapid development and commercialization of JHL1149.

"Bevacizumab is an important biologic that is, unfortunately, very expensive. JHL Biotech looks forward to making bevacizumab biosimilar available to all who need it, and our JHL1149 European clinical trial is the first step in achieving this goal," said Racho Jordanov, JHL Biotech's CEO.

Media Contact:

Jill Liu

[email protected]

Amber Chen

[email protected]

Phone: +886 3-658-3899

About JHL Biotech

JHL Biotech Inc. (Stock Code: 6540.TWO) is a biopharmaceutical startup founded by a group of industry veterans with deep experience in pharmaceutical development and operations. JHL is backed by premier financial firms, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Sequoia Capital, Biomark Capital, Milestone Capital, Fidelity, and the China Development Industrial Bank. JHL Biotech's mission is to provide the world with low-cost medicines of exceptional quality. JHL is focused on research and development of new protein-based therapies and biosimilars. JHL Biotech has two world-class facilities built in accordance with United States, European Union, and ICH cGMP regulations and standards. For more information, please visit www.jhlbiotech.com .

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, which are generally statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the words "expects," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "plans," "will," "outlook" and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are based on management's current plans, estimates, assumptions and projections, and speak only as of the date they are made. JHL undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement in light of new information or future events, except as otherwise required by law. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, most of which are difficult to predict and are generally beyond the control of either company. Actual results or outcomes may differ materially from those implied by the forward-looking statements

SOURCE JHL Biotech

Related Links

http://www.jhlbiotech.com


BALTIMORE, Md., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Kao USA Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Kao Corporation, a leading manufacturer and marketer of top beauty brands recognized around the world for innovation and quality, announced today it has signed an agreement to acquire Oribe Hair Care, LLC from its owners, including Luxury Brand Partners, LLC, an innovator in beauty known for its artist-driven brands and entrepreneurial culture. Daniel Kaner, cofounder and currently co-president of Oribe Hair Care will be named president of the newly acquired entity. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.



Kao USA has signed an agreement to purchase Oribe Hair Care, a move that expands Kao Salon Division's brand portfolio. Oribe logo

Oribe will join the Kao Salon Division portfolio of professional brands, including Goldwell, a full service line of stylistexclusive, premium hair products designed for professional needs, and the KMS line of globally inspired hair care and styling products for creative stylists and their clients.



Oribe has grown from a prestige hair care brand into a global beauty authority that offers hair care, skincare, body care, makeup, tools and accessories. The brand holds a strong presence in the toptier professional salon segment as well as in leading specialty retailers around the world.

"Oribe is a stellar brand and a perfect fit for the Kao Salon Division portfolio," said Cory Couts, Global President, Kao Salon Division. "And Daniel will be an exciting and inspiring addition to our management team. Daniel's appointment not only guarantees the continuity of all that is extraordinary about Oribe but is also a progression of our company's mission to appeal to the most artistic and businessminded salon professionals in the world."

"Kao is the ideal place for Oribe Hair Care to take the next step in its transformative journey," said Kaner. "I have a deep respect for their organization and talented leadership team. Our friendship and business relationship goes back years, most successfully with the strategic alliance in the United States between Oribe and Goldwell color. We have always believed that hair care should be an immersive and luxury experience, and Kao is incredibly supportive of the high standard that we set for ourselves."

"With its focus on luxury products, Oribe will meet the need for a prestige line in the Kao Salon product mix," continued Couts. "And, the extensive global distribution network of Kao Salon Division will enable Oribe to expand internationally."

"It is a bittersweet moment to say goodbye to a brand that Oribe Canales, Daniel Kaner and I founded and created almost ten years ago," said Tevya Finger, CEO of Luxury Brand Partners. "I am extremely proud of what Oribe Hair Care has been able to accomplish since its inception, and I look forward to watching Kao develop the brand on a global scale."

The Oribe business will continue to be based in New York City under current management, reporting to Kao Salon Division.

The acquisition is subject to normal regulatory review and approval.

About Kao Salon Division: Kao Salon Division is part of the Kao Beauty Care Business Division offering salonexclusive products and services to stylists around the globe. It is a thought and trend leader in the professional hair care industry as well as the home of the Goldwell and KMS brands. The mission of Kao Salon Division is to enrich the lives of stylists, salon owners and their clients through partnership, salon business growth and our salon-exclusive portfolio of advanced services, innovative products and inspiring education.

About Oribe Hair Care: Oribe Hair Care has set the standard for professional hair care within the prestige market. Blending innovative formulations, topperforming products, awardwinning packaging and unparalleled education, Oribe has become a renowned beauty authority for experienced stylists and tastedriven consumers alike. These are the products of the hairobsessed.

About Luxury Brand Partners: Luxury Brand Partners develops and nurtures prestige artistdriven beauty brands, with a focus on innovation and a passion for the creative mind. With offices in Miami and New York City, our portfolio of companies offers highperformance products and topoftheline education informed by both an artistic and a business perspective. Luxury Brand Partners includes R+Co, Smith & Cult, IGK, V76 by Vaughn and Pulp Riot.

Kao Salon Division:

Christina Cassera

Tractenberg & Co

212-9297979

[email protected]



Oribe Hair Care:

Tara Lowenberg

TL Communications

[email protected]

212-375-8660



Luxury Brand Partners:

Erin McCaffrey Nenadich

BPCM

[email protected]

646-7956893

SOURCE Kao USA Inc.
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Local businesses often have a long-standing relationship with the communities in which they are situated, and static mixing leader Komax is little different in that regard. Over the past year, they've done quite a bit for their community and beyond.

Ongoing Community Support

Komax Gives Back Throughout 2017

Whether supporting the local fire and police department fundraisers or the high school lacrosse program, Komax has a long tradition of supporting community endeavors. "We believe in supporting our local area. We live and work here too, and creating a stronger local infrastructure or better learning opportunities is absolutely essential. We want to make Southern California a beautiful place to be for all of us," said Nolan Smith/Sr. Applications Specialist.

Training for the Future

Of course, Komax's commitment to community service doesn't end there. The company is in a unique position to introduce important skills and experiences to a new generation of potential employees, so Komax offers free demonstration equipment to collegiate engineering laboratories in order to expose new engineering students to the benefits of static mixing and process intensification. Their innovative designs demonstrate how businesses can reduce their carbon footprint and take advantage of clean energy sources  like gravity  to do the bulk of the work.

Support During Times of Disaster

Special needs call for immediate action, and Komax has a track record of stepping in when the need is called for. From supporting the Red Cross during the horrible tragedies of September 11, 2001 and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina all the way to the International Medical Corps dealing with an earthquake in Nepal, Komax steps in when the challenge presents itself, and more recently in Houston, TX after Hurricane Harvey hit. Komax is there when disaster strikes.

Taking the Long View

Ultimately, Komax provides technology that can revolutionize industries struggling to keep up with the changing times or who have a need to reduce energy costs or stop wasting polymer, chemical or other raw materials, but Komax will continue to provide support as often as possible in any form.

Robert S. Smith President

[email protected]

Komax

15301 Graham Street

Huntington Beach, CA 92649

1-800-826-0760

SOURCE Komax Systems Inc.
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On January 16, 2018, at 12 p.m. ET, Phil Spiegel, Senior Director, Content Management Operations at LAC Group, will join DAM Consultant, Emily Kolvitz, at Bynder in "The path to DAM success" webinar, targeted at the growing number of people tasked with digital asset management. Their cohesive approach to digital asset management incorporates tools, processes and best practices and will provide insight on how to implement and manage DAM systems while avoiding poor metadata practices or lack of input from user groups.

Philip Spiegel - Senior Director, Content Management Operations, LAC Group Emily Kolvitz - DAM Consultant, Bynder

Webinar participants will be able to identify:

Key differences between DAM as product and DAM as practice

How to evaluate a DAM vendor beyond just features

Common barriers to DAM adoption

What successful DAM implementations look like

To register for this webinar, click here.

About Bynder

Bynder is the fastest way to professionally manage digital files. Its award-winning digital asset management (DAM) platform offers marketers a smart way to find and share creative files such as graphics, videos and documents. More than 250,000 brand managers, marketers and creatives from 450+ organizations like PUMA, innocent drinks and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, use Bynder to organize company files; edit and approve projects in real time; auto-format and resize files; and make the right content available to others at the click of a button.

Founded in 2013 by CEO Chris Hall, Bynder is headquartered in Amsterdam with offices in Boston, London, Barcelona, Rotterdam and Dubai. For more information, visit https://www.bynder.com/en/ or follow Bynder on Twitter @Bynder.

About LAC Group

LAC Group is a market-leading, outsourced provider of library, information, and knowledge management services to blue-chip customers including corporations, government agencies, law firms, financial institutions, and universities. Founded in 1986 and based in Los Angeles, CA, LAC is a leader in the outsourced business services market and has a strong track record of delivering high-quality, cost-effective services that help organizations manage and curate physical and digital information, data, and content. For more information, please visit lac-group.com.

MEDIA CONTACT

Bill Perry

[email protected]

+ 1 (614) 975-7538

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

LAC Group Press Kit

LAC GROUP ONLINE

Websites: LAC Group

LibSource

Chase Cost Management

LAC Federal

PRO-TEK Vaults

LibGig

Facebook: www.facebook.com/LACGroup

Twitter: http://twitter.com/lac_group

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/lac-group

SOURCE LAC Group

Related Links

http://lac-group.com


SARASOTA, Fla., Dec. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Local Media Consortium (LMC), a strategic partnership of leading local media companies, today announced that it has elected Christopher Loretto as Chairman of its Executive Board. Loretto will lead the 10-person committee as it guides the organization toward providing increased value and voice for its members and partners.

"The LMC is coming off a very strong year having achieved many accomplishments in 2017, including a 600 percent increase in our broadcast outlet membership, substantial growth in revenue and partnership opportunities for our members, and the formation of a corporate entity," said Rusty Coats, CEO of the LMC. "As we look toward the New Year and toward revenue diversification, expanded collaboration with technology platform partners, a larger industry voice and increased ROI for our members, I cannot think of a person better suited than Chris Loretto to work alongside me to execute our strategic plan. A longtime member of our working board and diligent leader of our ad quality, ad blocking and viewability committees, Chris is a guy who gets things done."

Chris Loretto has served as Digital First Media's Chief Digital Officer and EVP Digital since August 2014. He currently provides strategic leadership for key functional areas across the digital organization including in product, development, technology, revenue, operations, audience, marketing and training. Prior to his current role, Loretto was Vice President of Digital for the Los Angeles News Group from 2011-2014. Prior to Digital First Media, Loretto was Director of Interactive Media, Product Development and Marketing at The Times Media Company of Northwest Indiana before being promoted to Regional Executive for Mid-Valley Newspapers and publisher of three mastheads. He was also publisher for several business-to-business publications at Nielsen Media in New York. Loretto is a veteran of the Marine Corps and a graduate of Stony Brook University with a degree in Economics.

"I feel privileged to take on this role at such a pivotal time in our industry and as the LMC transitions to a corporate entity," said Loretto. "The LMC's membership now represents half of the nation's local broadcast news outlets and nearly two-thirds of the small market newspapers in the U.S., which affords us the opportunity to have a collective voice at the table for important industry issues and deepened relationships with major platform partners. I look forward to collaborating with Rusty and the LMC board and members to implement strategies that drive value for membership and the industry as a whole."

Serving on the board of the LMC since 2014, Loretto takes an active strategic leadership role to drive and support the LMC's mission. Currently he helps lead several committees including Ad Viewability, Ad Blocking and Ad Quality. In addition, he now assumes the role as Chairman of the Board for the newly formed LMC Inc. He is also actively involved with the IAB, INMA and NMA industry associations. Loretto succeeds longtime LMC Chairman Christian A. Hendricks, who is retiring as Vice President/Products, Marketing and Innovation for McClatchy.

The LMC also welcomes three new board members: Andrew Pergam, Washington, DC-based VP, Video and New Ventures for McClatchy, which is headquartered in Sacramento, Calif.; Nicki Purcell, Chief Digital Officer and Senior VP of Consumer Sales for The Dallas Morning News; and Gary Smith, VP of Advertising for The Seattle Times.

Andrew Pergam joined McClatchy in 2014 as Head of Video to develop a comprehensive video initiative across all 28 markets and 14 states nationwide. Prior to joining McClatchy, Pergam was a Senior Editor and the Director of Video at The Washington Post, leading long-term strategy and overseeing day-to-day operations. He helped lead the launch of PostTV with a particular emphasis on emerging distribution platforms.

At The Dallas Morning News, Nicki Purcell leads the company's digital transformation to meet the challenges of a mobile-first world, delivering against the consumer product experience, and growth in audience market share, including print and digital subscription sales. Prior to joining the company in 2013, Purcell reported directly to the President of Nokia, Inc., leading the customer care organization and reverse logistics operations for North America.

The Vice President of Advertising at The Seattle Times, Gary Smith is a 28-year veteran of the media industry and has been involved in the media industry's digital technology and digital publishing since its inception. Prior to the Times, Smith was Vice President of Advertising at The News & Observer in Raleigh-Durham, N.C., where he led the company in digital publishing advancement while growing the business side of the operation.

Rounding out the board, which is comprised of executive digital leadership from a broad range of member companies, are James Green from Lee Enterprises; Eric Johnston of Adams Publishing Group; Thom Kastrup from BH Media; Peter Newton from GateHouse Media; Doug Phares from the Sandusky Newspaper Group; and Tom Sly from The E. W. Scripps Company. All terms are elected and take effect January 1, 2018. The LMC Board meets quarterly in person and bi-monthly via conference.

About the Local Media Consortium

The Local Media Consortium is a strategic partnership of leading local media companies focused on increasing member companies' share of digital revenue and audience by pursuing new relationships with a variety of technology companies and service providers. The LMC was founded in 2013 to address the needs of advertisers seeking to reach high-quality audiences on brand safe local digital properties at scale. In addition, the LMC provides members with access to leading technology and content solutions by fostering key partnerships with companies including Google, Monster, Yahoo and others. LMC membership encompasses more than 75 local media companies in top markets across the United States and Puerto Rico, and includes more than 1,700 publications. The LMC audience footprint currently spans 164 million unique monthly visitors and its member companies serve more than four billion page views to readers. More information is available at www.localmediaconsortium.com.

Local Media Consortium

Rusty Coats, 813-277-8959

[email protected]



Thatcher+Co

Christina Gilham, 646-868-5174

[email protected]

Kristin Brocoff, 949-400-4899

[email protected]

SOURCE Local Media Consortium

Related Links

http://www.localmediaconsortium.com


MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Dec. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Didja, a technology company dedicated to augmenting the television experience in delightful ways, has secured an additional $12 million in funding, bringing the total capital raised to $22 million to date. The round was led by Vestech Partners, a private equity investment group, in addition to other angel investors and family offices. Much of the funds will be used to support the expansion of the company's LocalBTV app, which gives viewers mobile access to local broadcast antenna programming, to new markets, with Los Angeles availability expected for early 2018.

Earlier this year, Didja launched LocalBTV, the first and only app to bring access to local broadcast TV programming to viewers in one seamless mobile experience. LocalBTV is available in Phoenix, AZ and in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, where BayAreaBTV is enhancing the local broadcast TV experience for an estimated 2.7 million households in the 11-county region. Currently, BayAreaBTV has 35 local channels and is continuing to expand its offering regularly.

"Consumers have more TV viewing options than ever before and are finding local broadcast TV to be a fun and casual way to enjoy live TV along with their other viewing options like network direct to consumer apps such as Univision NOW or CBS All Access," said Jim Long, CEO of Didja. "Our users are delighted with the LocalBTV app and this round of funding will allow us to fill out that offering by adding network affiliates and expanding to many more cities in the next two years."

"Didja's LocalBTV gives independent stations and national networks alike access to untapped revenue streams by reaching in-market antenna audiences on any mobile device," said Riadh Fakhoury, founder of Vestech Partners. "Engaging new audiences, like smartphone viewing Millennials, is obviously a huge win for broadcast stations and networks. But the most immediate beneficiaries are underserved households, including a diverse array of bilingual families, who now have access to local and community programming, as well as DVR and channel guide capabilities. We're thrilled to be a part of the growth of a media company dedicated to improving and opening up access to broadcast media to more households in every metro area across the United States."

The LocalBTV app can be downloaded in the iTunes store here and Google Play store here.

Click here for video about LocalBTV. For more information, please visit https://www.didjatv.com/.

About Didja

Didja is based in the heart of Silicon Valley and specializes in consumer apps that help users engage with live linear television. The Didja hybrid cloud platform is also designed to help broadcasters, networks and content owners expand their revenues while both delighting their fans and enabling a more direct consumer relationship. Please see www.didjatv.com for more information.

SOURCE Didja

Related Links

http://www.didjatv.com


ORLANDO, Fla., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Air Force awarded Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) a contract to provide sustainment and upgrades for its fleet of 683 Sniper  Advanced Targeting Pods (ATP).

Valued at up to $961 million, the five-year, Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) contract allows the Air Force to place orders for logistics, spares, software and sensor enhancements, among other activities.

"This contract enables us to respond promptly to the needs of our warfighters, including maintaining Sniper's availability and reliability rates while advancing capabilities through pod upgrades," said Nicole Visosky, U.S. Air Force program manager. "We look forward to continuing our partnership with Lockheed Martin."

"Sniper's availability, reliability and performance are critical to the U.S. Air Force and warfighters worldwide," said Paul Lemmo, vice president of Fire Control/Special Operations Forces Contractor Logistics Support Services at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. "We are proud to continue partnering with the U.S. Air Force to deliver our most advanced targeting technology and support ongoing operations."

Sniper ATP detects, identifies, automatically tracks and laser-designates small tactical targets at long ranges. It also supports employment of all laser- and GPS-guided weapons against multiple fixed and moving targets.

Sniper ATP has been chosen by the U.S. Air Force and 25 international customers. It is interoperable across multiple platforms, including multinational F-2, F-15, F-16, F-18, A-10, B-1, B-52 and Typhoon aircraft.

About Lockheed Martin

Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 97,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.

SOURCE Lockheed Martin

Related Links

http://www.lockheedmartin.com


CHICAGO, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- LotLinx, the industry's #1 Automotive AI, today announced a new integration to strengthen its powerful CX-AMP Vehicle Display Page offering, a vital tool for dealers to convert highly engaged mobile shoppers into sales leads. To emphasize the importance of mobile-friendly sites for its dealers, LotLinx is backing the Google-led AMP Project, an initiative built around the idea of speed being the key factor in a mobile-first world. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) should be a cornerstone of every successful dealer's marketing strategy, as mobile is proving to be the number one source of clicks-to-contact on a dealer's website.

CarNow logo

"Dealers who aren't leveraging chat-friendly, mobile-optimized VDPs are losing money, plain and simple," says Len Short, Founder of LotLinx. "Data shows that most people will abandon a VDP after just 3 seconds of load time, which is why LotLinx' CX-AMPs always load in less than 1.5s. CarNow will benefit from this smart and strategic integration, as our AMP project combines the power of AI with an optimized UX to create higher quality sales leads."

Dealers using LotLinx CX-AMP have noticed up to 5x more VDP conversions when tested against a control group. In an effort to further strengthen its high-conversion AMPs, LotLinx is teaming up with some of the industry's major leading Chat providers to improve the user experience for mobile shoppers. As a result, LotLinx is now fully integrated with CarNow, a next-gen digital communication platform for the automotive industry. CarNow, the first of many chat providers to come on board, works with leading US dealers to improve the way they communicate and transact with customers, allowing customers to seamlessly connect with dealerships via chat.

"Strong communication is the foundation of a successful dealership, and CarNow's platform was built to streamline the customer/dealer relationship," says Aaron Baldwin, Vice President of Business Development at CarNow. "This alliance with LotLinx is an important step in our company's evolution, and we're excited to work with them to drive higher conversions that translate into sales."

Leading up to NADA in March, LotLinx and CarNow will both be participants at the 2018 Automotive Engagement Conference (AEC), a national tour providing dealers with a "digital marketing playbook" to prepare for NADA and set them up for a lucrative year ahead. AEC's mission is to give dealers valuable consumer measurement and engagement tools that optimize website conversions and help them rethink their overall marketing strategies. The tour's first stop takes place January 24 at the Westin Hotel in Fort Lauderdale. To learn more about the event or purchase tickets visit www.pcgcompanies.com/aec

About LotLinx:

LotLinx is an award-winning Automotive AI company dedicated to empowering automotive dealers and the agencies that work with them, up to the OEM level. The LotLinx TURN platform can transform dealer results, dramatically increasing online engagement and net-new shoppers while eliminating digital advertising waste. Founded in 2012 and based in Chicago, LotLinx works with thousands of dealers including rooftops under the nation's Top 100 auto groups, as well as recently expanding into the Canadian market. For more visit www.lotlinx.com

About CarNow:

CarNow is a leading provider of live customer engagement solutions for the Automotive industry. CarNow's live-assistance software platform revolutionizes the way dealers communicate and transact with online customers by integrating dealer data, industry data, and best-in-class technical integrations with elegant live-assisted workflows for digital retailing. Launching with its first customer in December 2014, CarNow has become one of the fastest growing technology providers in Automotive. Additional information on CarNow's products, features, and manufacturer certifications can be found at www.carnow.com.

Press Contact:

Kevin Blomberg

Clarity PR for LotLinx

[email protected]

617-869-1413

SOURCE LotLinx

Related Links

http://www.lotlinx.com


SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- LunchBadger, a serverless microservices platform, and Joyent, the open cloud company, have partnered to support multi-cloud serverless applications. With this announcement, the companies enter a fast-growing market to offer a flexible and fixed-cost alternative to managing serverless applications across multiple providers. The news comes as serverless solutions reach new levels of sophistication for enterprise users hungry for increased efficiencies and reduced TCO.

"Analysis from the Cloud Price Index has found serverless is poised to drive TCO savings for enterprises as a result of improved labor efficiency and scalability," said Owen Rogers, Research Director of the Digital Economics Unit for 451 Research. "A multi-cloud approach to serverless, such as this partnership between Joyent and LunchBadger, has the potential to further drive cost-savings, while avoiding lock-in to any single cloud provider. The Cloud Price Index previously found a multi-cloud approach to delivering applications could save 74% on direct costs as opposed to sticking to a single cloud provider."

An early pioneer of cloud computing and open source, Joyent has evolved to become the open cloud company. Joyent's Triton Private Regions provide the foundation of an open cloud by delivering centralized, low cost storage with low latency access across multiple clouds. Joyent's Triton Kubernetes provides multi-cloud compute using Kubernetes as the delivery vehicle. Customers can provision and manage Kubernetes clusters on any region on any cloud  both public and private  from a global control plane. It helps them simplify Kubernetes operations globally, distribute workloads across clouds, and optimize compute costs. Joyent's open cloud approach enables cloud agnostic, serverless applications. The partnership provides an agnostic alternative to AWS Lambda, Google Functions, Azure Functions and IBM Openwhisk.

"Our partnership with LunchBadger is a key element of our open cloud strategy," said Shubhra Kar, Vice President of Product, Joyent. "Their LunchBadger Serverless Platform has been designed to be cloud agnostic and Kubernetes native. They are the ideal partner for us to work with to provide our customers the ability to break free from the lock-in of proprietary 'as a service' offerings of cloud providers."

"We view this as perfect timing for the industry," said Al Tsang, Founder and CEO, LunchBadger. "Joyent has freed enterprise users from the cloud's storage and computing constraints. We are excited to partner with them to help solve the challenge of microservices and serverless. The time is now for a more agnostic approach to cloud, especially with the latest technology driving code on demand, free of the need to provision underlying infrastructure. Multi-cloud unlocks enormous potential to increase productivity and operational efficiency through an automated modern application stack."

LunchBadger's modern application stack unifies the best of breed open source components into a complete microservices platform. Key components include Express Gateway, an API gateway built entirely on Express.js, microservices composition and integration tooling, developer portal and IDE to write functions, all fused to a Kubernetes Runtime. This optimized stack primes the enterprise and its users to achieve industry use cases and solutions with an accelerated time to market. LunchBadger offers subscription and managed services to its serverless microservices platform.

For more information on the LunchBadger and Joyent integrated solution, please visit: https://www.joyent.com/partners/lunchbadger

About Joyent

Joyent, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung, is the open cloud company. With its Triton Kubernetes service, Joyent helps its customers build and operate hybrid, modern and open cloud native architectures. Joyent's Triton Private Regions provide low cost, dedicated cloud infrastructure that enables its customers to successfully run and scale some of the world's largest cloud-based web, AI, machine learning, mobile and IOT applications at half the costs of other cloud providers. Learn more at www.joyent.com.

About LunchBadger

LunchBadger, a San Francisco-based company, is a multi-cloud microservices platform with serverless capabilities. LunchBadger built its platform and created its first solution geared toward the API use case on IoT, Blockchain and other verticals that were gathered from early customers that could utilize a modern application stack backed by microservices. Learn more at www.lunchbadger.com.

SOURCE LunchBadger

Related Links

http://www.lunchbadger.com


CSE: MDM

FSE: 2M0

OTCQB: MRPHF

KELOWNA, BC, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Marapharm Ventures Inc., "Marapharm" announces that the City of Desert Hot Springs, California has approved Green Leaf Wellness for recreational marijuana use. The closing of the transaction has been extended, and is to be within 48 hours of the assignment of the lease of the property. This is the only contingency remaining and all other due diligence has been completed.

Green Leaf Wellness has successfully been in the medical marijuana retail business for 3 years and has developed a strong following of clients. It currently operates from a leased space within a strip mall located on the main road in Desert Hot Springs. There is 3200 square feet of retail space on the ground level and 3000 square feet of subterranean cultivation space. The retail space is only partially utilized and is managed by 5 employees, and presently nets approximately $35,000.00 USD per month from sales. The cultivation space has not been utilized, although it is licensed to grow and will immediately be used as such.

Marapharm has developed a new website which is ready to launch when the transaction has been completed. Marapharm has developed a "bud tending" training course and all staff will be trained to professionally serve customers with a strong knowledge of the products for recreational use and medical suitability.

"The dispensary gives us an integrated model for cultivation, production and retailing cannabis products and it is great news that the city has approved the facility for recreational sales. Medical licenses in California are allowed to transition to recreational ones January 1, 2018." Linda Sampson, Marapharm CEO.

NEWS RELEASE REFERENCE

Marapharm announced November 27, 2017 that it entered into an agreement to buy an operating dispensary for $1.6 million USD located in Desert Hot Springs, California based on the following terms: One hundred sixty thousand ($160,000.00) cash deposit was paid at removal of contingencies to Marapharm's California attorney which shall be deposited with an escrow company of Buyer's choosing. Once contingencies were removed by Buyer on or about November 15th, 2017, this deposit became non-refundable to Buyer. One million four hundred forty thousand ($1,440,000.00) in cash is payable by Buyer on closing. The transaction will close when regulatory matters are concluded, which is to be on or before December 31, 2017.

ABOUT MARAPHARM VENTURES INC.

www.marapharm.com

Marapharm is a publicly traded company primarily investing in the medical and recreational cannabis space, with corporate operations based in British Columbia, Canada. Since 2016 they have rapidly expanded their footprint to include production locations in the key North American states of Washington, Nevada, and California. They actively seek expansion opportunities worldwide.

SOCIAL MEDIA:

Facebook: facebook.com/marapharm

Twitter: twitter.com/marapharm

Web Program: marapharm.tv

STOCK EXCHANGES:

Marapharm trades in Canada, ticker symbol MDM on the CSE, in the United States, ticker symbol MRPHF on the OTCQB, and in Europe, ticker symbol 2Mo on the FSE. Marapharm also trades on other recognized platforms in Europe including Stuttgart, Tradegate, L & S, Quotnx, Dusseldorf, Munich, and Berlin.

Neither the CSE, the FSE nor the OTCQB has approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. Neither the CSE, the FSE nor the OTCQB accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

MARIJUANA INDUSTRY INVOLVEMENT:

Canadian listings (CSE) will remain in good standing as long as they provide the disclosure that is rightly required by regulators and complying with applicable licensing requirements and the regulatory framework enacted by the applicable state in which they operate.

Marapharm owns marijuana licenses in California and Nevada. Marijuana is legal in each state however marijuana remains illegal under US federal law and the approach to enforcement of US federal law against marijuana is subject to change. Shareholders and investors need to be aware that adverse enforcement actions could affect their investments and that Marapharm's ability to access private and public capital could be affected and or could not be available to support continuing operations. Marapharm's business is conducted in a manner consistent with state law and is in compliance with licensing requirements.

Copies of licenses are posted on Marapharm's website. Marapharm has internal compliance procedures in place and has compliance focused attorneys engaged in jurisdictions to monitor changes in laws for compliance with US federal and state law on an ongoing basis. These law firms inform any necessary changes to our policies and procedures for compliance in Canada and the US.

FORWARD - LOOKING STATEMENTS:

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward looking statements. The use of any of the words "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "expect", 'may", "will", "project", "should", 'believe", and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumption but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and the forward-looking statements included in this news release should not be unduly relied upon.

SOURCE Marapharm Ventures Inc.

Related Links

www.marapharm.com


DALLAS, March 6, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Research has shown the nations' Lone Star State offers competitively affordable fees to renters, outscoring many other states across the United States, with numerous metros in Texas favorably represented and three urban areas marked among the top 15. Marcus Hiles, the state's leading provider of luxury rental communities, credits the impressive standings to Texas' ability to generate well paying jobs, explaining that the high average income allows for landlords to maintain market rates and improve their properties without burdening renters. Hiles, as the CEO of Western Rim Property Services, creates inspired homes surrounded by scenic landscapes, state of the art amenities, and comprehensive lifestyle services.

Marcus Hiles indicated that a common factor among the cities to make the list was the presence of major employers in rapidly growing sectors like technology and healthcare and a higher than average young adult population. For example, in a new study from personal finance website NerdWallet, Austin, TX was rated as the best metro in the country for high paying jobs and affordability. Here, the thousands of jobs provided by Dell, Apple and IBM combined with an eclectic nightlife and live music scene have caused young professionals from around the country to flock to Austin, and they are seeking rentals at reasonable rates. "Affordability is a key part of why millennials are deciding to move to the Midwest, as opposed to job centers on the East or West coast," Realtor.com Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke told Construction Dive in November. "There is a huge disparity in how many dollars are needed to get a home in Des Moines versus San Francisco".

Marcus Hiles is a real estate expert specializing in the development and operation of luxury rental communities throughout the state of Texas. Hiles founded Western Rim Property Services in 1988 with the goal of fulfilling the unmet demand for affordable high-end living. Nearly three decades later, the company operates 15,000 units and is recognized annually as a National Award Winner for resident satisfaction.

Marcus Hiles - Chairman & CEO of Western Rim Property Services: http://www.MarcusHiles-News.com

Marcus Hiles Images: http://marcushilesimages.blogspot.com

Marcus Hiles (@marcus_hiles) - Twitter: https://twitter.com/marcus_hiles

Marcus Hiles - New Luxury Apartments in Frisco, TX - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmsJNbfOh-g

SOURCE Marcus Hiles

Related Links

http://http://www.MarcusHiles-News.com


NEW YORK, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Mazars USA LLP, a leading accounting, tax, and consulting firm, recently unveiled the launch of its Annual Giving Theme, which for 2018 is Fighting Hunger. Mazars USA will donate $100,000 to organizations dedicated to improving the quality of life to those in need, and its employees will increase food collection and volunteer efforts to fight hunger in their local communities.

The initiative is part of the "We Are Mazars" program, which fosters employees' personal and professional growth through volunteerism, donations and giving back to the communities in which they live and work.

The Annual Giving Theme will deepen the firm's relationship with local hunger-related charities, many of which the firm has existing and longstanding relationships with, through prior volunteer and donation efforts.

Mazars USA will be making donations from its Philanthropic Fund to charities in the fight against hunger in New York City, Long Island, New Jersey, Maryland, Philadelphia, Sacramento and Chicago, including:

City Harvest

Community Food Bank of New Jersey

Food for Families

Frederick Rescue Mission

Greater Chicago Food Depository

Mercy Inn

Mustard Seed School

Philabundance

Sacramento Children's Home

"Giving back is extremely important to our firm and employees, and we hope that our donations and additional volunteer efforts will make a real difference in our communitie," said Victor Wahba, Chairman and Chief Executive Office of Mazars USA LLP. "Hunger affects 1 in 6 people in the United States and we are proud to provide additional resources to help address this critical issue."

The contributions from Mazars, of both money and donated food, will provide thousands of meals to those who need it most.

"On behalf of the Mercy Inn Soup Kitchen and Trinity Lutheran Church we would like to thank Mazars USA for their ongoing generous support. Mazars USA's contribution is allowing us to make much needed repairs so we can provide a better experience for our guests in the neighboring communities," said Charlie Ciccio, Food Coordinator, The Mercy Inn.

To see pictures from our food drives and donations to these local organizations, or to learn more about We Are Mazars and the 2018 Annual Giving Theme, visit mazarsusa.com/wearemazars.

About Mazars USA LLP

Mazars USA LLP provides insight and specialized skills in accounting, auditing, tax, consulting and advisory services. Since 1921, our dedicated professionals have leveraged technical industry expertise to develop customized solutions for clients, create value, and optimize their performance. As the independent U.S. member firm of Mazars Group, our global reach includes 20,000+ professionals across 85+ countries. At local and global levels, we are proud of our value-added services in building lasting relationships with our clients and communities. For more information, visit us at www.mazarsusa.com.

For more information, contact:

Mazars USA LLP

Beth More, 732-205-2012

[email protected]

Makovsky

Doug Hesney, 212-508-9600

[email protected]

SOURCE Mazars USA LLP

Related Links

http://www.weisermazars.com


TYSONS CORNER, Va., Dec. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- In a special CEO edition, Industry Era has named MicroTech's Founder, President & CEO, Tony Jimenez as one of the "10 Best CEO's of 2017". Mr. Jimenez has once again proven to be an unwavering trailblazer in Information Technology (IT) services and IT services-based solutions. Over the last year, through Mr. Jimenez's leadership, MicroTech has won almost 100 billion dollars of new multiple-award type contracts, to include the $50 billion, 15-year, Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract, the $5 billion Veterans Technology Services 2 Governmentwide Acquisition (VETS 2) contract, and the $37 billion Responsive Strategic Sourcing for Services (RS3) contract with the United States Army.

According to Mr. Jimenez, a successful company must always be ahead of their industry's needs and requirements; trends and directions. MicroTech's continual success is partly due to the thorough analyzation of past trends combined with an awe-inspiring foreshadowing of future industry movements and developments. Such innovation advances include Big Data, Citizen E-ID, Digital Platforms, Edge Analytics, Enterprise Agile Transformation, Next-Generation Cloud Computing, Internet of Things (IoT), and Web Scale IT, to name a few of MicroTech's revolutionary technologies.

Recently, Mr. Jimenez was named by the Hispanic IT Executive Council (HITEC) to their 2018 "Top 100 Most Influential and Notable Hispanic Professionals in the Technology Industry". Earlier in the year, Mr. Jimenez was also honored to be selected to serve as a Fellow at the World Summit on Innovation in New York City.

About MicroTech: MicroTech is a Certified and Verified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) and certified by the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) with fourteen years of experience delivering innovative products and services to the government. Under Tony Jimenez's leadership, the privately-owned company experienced exponential growth being consistently recognized by Washington Technology's annual list of the Top 100 Government Contractors, until downsizing and reorganizing in 2016 to focus on aligning the company with new technologies and services.

MicroTech now holds 25 multiple-award type contracts with dozens of Federal State and Local Government Agencies providing Telecommunications Services, Solutions & Integration, Cyber Security Solutions, Cloud Computing, Technology and Professional Services, Network Systems Integration, R&D, and Financial Services to the public sector, as well as commercial enterprises - managing more than a quarter of a million technology users daily. MicroTech is also ISO 20000-1, ISO 27001:2013 and ISO 9001:2008 certified, CMMI Maturity Level 3 rated in Services & Development.

MicroTech is headquartered just outside the Nation's Capital in Tysons Corner, Virginia, with key offices in New Jersey, Virginia, Georgia, and Mexico City. To learn more, visit www.MicroTech.net. Follow MicroTech on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Contact:

Jennifer Berman

[email protected]

703-637-3235

SOURCE MicroTech

Related Links

http://www.microtech.net


"We look forward to collaborating with bluebird bio to bring to market breakthrough therapies to fight diseases for which there are limited or no options," said Udit Batra, CEO, MilliporeSigma. "With 30 years' experience in viral vector manufacturing, we remain committed to innovating with academia, hospitals and cell therapy manufacturers to accelerate access to personalized cell therapy for the patients who need it most."

Under the multi-year agreement, MilliporeSigma will manufacture lentiviral vectors for bluebird bio's drug products developed to treat a variety of rare genetic diseases. bluebird bio is a clinical-stage company that develops potentially transformative gene and cell therapies for severe genetic diseases and T cell-based immunotherapies for cancer.

Gene therapy involves the delivery of genetic material into patient cells to produce a therapeutic effect such as correction of a mutated gene or retargeting of an immune cell to fight cancer. To create personalized therapy products, genes are delivered into immune cells using viral vectors like the ones manufactured by MilliporeSigma.

This contract builds upon MilliporeSigma's deep experience in producing viral vectors for gene therapy from clinical to commercial scale. The company has been involved in gene and cell therapy manufacturing tools and services for close to three decades.

MilliporeSigma's Carlsbad, California manufacturing facility, which provides BioReliance viral and gene therapy manufacturing services, has been involved in the gene therapy area since 1997, near the time clinical trials for gene therapy began. In October 2017, this facility completed both a U.S. Food & Drug Administration Pre-License inspection and a European Medicines Agency Marketing Authorization inspection.

MilliporeSigma's investment in the gene therapy space includes a recent expansion at Carlsbad to nearly double its former production capacity  from 44,000 square feet to 65,000 square feet. The site includes 16 modular viral bulk manufacturing cleanroom suites with single-use equipment and two fill/finish suites for gene therapy, viral vaccine and immunotherapy products.

The company also has viral and gene therapy manufacturing capacity and has cell-banking services in Glasgow, Scotland. It has cell-banking services in Rockville, Maryland as well, and offers BioReliance biosafety testing globally for both clinical and commercial stage gene therapy products.

All Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany news releases are distributed by email at the same time they become available on the EMD Group website. In case you are a resident of the U.S. or Canada please go to www.emdgroup.com/subscribe to register again for your online subscription of this service as our newly introduced geo-targeting requires new links in the email. You may later change your selection or discontinue this service.

About the Life Science Business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

The Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, which operates as MilliporeSigma in the U.S. and Canada, has 20,000 employees and 60 manufacturing sites worldwide, with a portfolio of more than 300,000 products enabling scientific discovery. Udit Batra is the global chief executive officer of MilliporeSigma.

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany completed its $17 billion acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich in November 2015, creating a leader in the $125 billion global life science industry.

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany is a leading company for innovative and top-quality high-tech products in healthcare, life science and performance materials. The company has five businesses  Biopharmaceuticals, Consumer Health, Allergopharma, Life Science and Performance Materials  and generated sales of 15 billion in 2016. Around 50,000 employees work in 66 countries to improve the quality of life for patients, to foster the success of customers and to help meet global challenges.

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany is the world's oldest pharmaceutical and chemical company  since 1668, the company has stood for innovation, business success and responsible entrepreneurship. Holding an approximately 70 percent interest, the founding family remains the majority owner of the company to this day. The company holds the global rights to the name and the trademark "Merck" internationally except for the United States and Canada, where the company operates as EMD Serono, MilliporeSigma and EMD Performance Materials.

SOURCE MilliporeSigma

Related Links

http://www.emdgroup.com


MORENO VALLEY, Calif., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Library Systems & Services (LS&S), which partners with public libraries to drive long-term library vitality and growth, announced it would continue to operate the Moreno Valley Public Library through 2021. The partnership between LS&S and the City of Moreno Valley, established in 2013, was also expanded with the opening of a new library branch this month.

As part of the expanded public-private partnership, LS&S will manage the 16,000-square-foot main library on Alessandro Boulevard, as well as opening and managing the City's first satellite branch library at the Moreno Valley Mall at Towngate.

The new 5,000 square-foot branch, scheduled to open on December 21, 2017, will be open 45 hours per week and will boast a comprehensive collection and feature many best sellers. Leveraging LS&S' specialized procurement processes, the City of Moreno Valley has been able to reduce costs and timelines to obtain furniture, fixtures, and equipment necessary for the branch library opening.

Through LS&S' collaboration with the City of Moreno Valley and Friends of the Moreno Valley Public Library over the last four years, the Moreno Valley Public Library has seen the following service enhancements:

Increased public service hours by 25%

Restored 7-day service

Tripled program attendance

Added bilingual program components

Expanded collections significantly with DVDs, CDs, Spanish language books, elementary math, science, and history books, and materials for young children

Introduced new e-books and software

Increased community outreach via a dedicated staff person

Enhanced public engagement by increasing public volunteer participation

Reduced City costs by more than $300,000 annually

The Moreno Valley Public Library offers a comprehensive set of programming, including Bilingual Storytime, California Center of the Book: Community Conversations, Citizenship @ the Library, Covered California, ESL and Veterans Connect @ the Library. It also features the War Comes Home Exhibit, which offers insight into the thoughts and emotions of veterans and their families upon their return home.

"The fundamental goal of the Moreno Valley Public Library is to provide services that contribute to the educational development and cultural vitality of Moreno Valley. By partnering with LS&S, we have been able to significantly increase the level of service to the community, while also reducing annual costs," stated Moreno Valley Mayor Yxstian Gutierrez. "The City's expanded partnership with LS&S ensures that our Library provides enhanced services in a highly efficient, customer-oriented manner."

"We are thrilled to extend our partnership with the City of Moreno Valley and to help facilitate the new branch opening," commented Greg Toth, CEO of LS&S. "Our mission is to provide the best possible service to library patrons and we are proud of the library's accomplishments over the last four years. We look forward to continuing to serve the Moreno Valley community and its growing needs."

Library Systems & Services (LS&S) partners with local governments to drive long-term library vitality and growth. Relied on by 84 libraries across the U.S., LS&S provides a full range of library operation and management services. Leveraging 35+ years of library experience and the most efficient, patron-focused service methods, LS&S is leading the charge in library excellence to better reach, engage and serve patrons and communities.

Related Links:

http://www.moreno-valley.ca.us/resident_services/library/index_library.shtml

http://www.lsslibraries.com

SOURCE Library Systems & Services

Related Links

http://www.lsslibraries.com


Once the property is repurposed, it will have approximately 800 self-storage units with high-tech security features, including indoor climate-control rooms at affordable price points. Propane and professional hitch installation will also be offered on the 10.34-acre lot in the near future.

"This building is just two miles from downtown and Colorado Mesa University," said Tavis Larson, U-Haul Company of West Central Colorado president. "We will have a full range of customers, from college students to retirees. This acquisition gives us the ability to serve Grand Junction more effectively and provide a better U-Haul customer experience with more products and services."

Contact U-Haul Moving & Storage at Lincoln Park at (970) 241-3052 or stop by to see the progress being made. Hours of operation are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday. Reserve equipment at uhaul.com or contact Reservations at 1-800-GO-UHAUL.

Larson expects to maintain a staff of 15 or more Team Members when the facility is fully operational. U-Haul will look to hire locally to promote job growth within the Mesa Valley. U-Haul always encourages local contractors to bid on construction work.

"Grand Junction was recently named a top destination for retirees, and the neighborhoods here are continuously growing," Larson said. "Our building has been here since 1972 and we are excited to preserve and improve it as an environmentally friendly company. We want to give the community a new self-moving and storage center it can be excited about."

The recent acquisition of the Grand Junction facility was driven by U-Haul Company's Corporate Sustainability initiatives: U-Haul supports infill developments to help local communities lower their carbon footprint. Our adaptive reuse of existing buildings reduces the amount of energy and resources required for new-construction materials and helps cities reduce their unwanted inventory of unused buildings.

The arrival of U-Haul Truck Share 24/7 is revolutionizing the moving industry through its more convenient, more secure way to pick up and return a truck. U-Haul live verification technology allows rental transactions to be carried out entirely on a smartphone at any hour  day or night. There are no membership fees. Simply visit uhaul.com to create an online account.

About U-Haul

Since 1945, U-Haul has been the No. 1 choice of do-it-yourself movers, with a network of more than 21,000 locations across all 50 states and 10 Canadian provinces. U-Haul Truck Share 24/7 now offers customers access to U-Haul trucks every hour of every day through the self-service options on their internet-connected mobile devices. U-Haul customers' patronage has enabled the U-Haul fleet to grow to more than 150,000 trucks, 112,000 trailers and 40,000 towing devices. U-Haul offers more than 581,000 rooms and more than 51 million square feet of self-storage space at owned and managed facilities throughout North America. U-Haul is the largest installer of permanent trailer hitches in the automotive aftermarket industry and is the largest retailer of propane in the U.S.

Contact:

Andrea Batchelor

Jeff Lockridge

E-mail: [email protected]

Phone: 602-263-6981

Website: uhaul.com

SOURCE U-Haul
According to a new market research report " Naphthalene Derivatives Market by Form (Powder, Liquid), Derivative (SNF, Phthalic Anhydride, Naphthalene Sulfonic Acid, Alkyl Naphthalene Sulfonates, Naphthols), End-Use Industry (Construction, Agrochemicals), and Region - Global Forecast to 2022 " published by MarketsandMarkets, the market is estimated to be USD 1.53 Billion in 2017 and projected to reach USD 1.85 Billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 3.8% between 2017 and 2022. The market is witnessing growth due to the increasing demand from the textile industry, especially in emerging countries of Asia Pacific. Increasing consumption of naphthalene-based superplasticizers in construction chemicals in developing countries is also an important factor driving the Naphthalene Derivatives Market.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )

Browse 75 market data Tables and 35 Figures spread through 143 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Naphthalene Derivatives Market"

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/naphthalene-derivative-market-39181738.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report

Sulfonated Naphthalene Formaldehyde (SNF): The largest segment of the Naphthalene Derivatives Market, by derivative

SNF was the largest segment of the global Naphthalene Derivatives Market, by derivative in 2016, followed by phthalic anhydride. This segment holds the maximum market share due to the increasing use of SNF in construction and textile industries. Its consumption as superplasticizer and dispersing agent in concrete formulation due to its outstanding water reducing properties is also expected to drive its demand globally.

Get PDF Brochure @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=39181738

Powder: The largest form of naphthalene derivatives

Powdered form was the largest segment of naphthalene derivatives, by form, in 2016. Powder form is easy to transport in comparison to liquid form. Naphthalene derivatives are toxic in nature and their spillage in liquid form can be hazardous. Therefore, the powder form of naphthalene derivatives is more preferred than liquid form which is responsible for its high market share.

Construction: The largest end-use industry of the Naphthalene Derivatives Market

Construction was the largest segment of the global Naphthalene Derivatives Market, by end-use industry, in 2016. The growth in building and infrastructure activities across the globe leads to a rise in the demand for high quality concrete. Naphthalene derivatives are used as superplasticizers in the construction industry to enhance the durability of concrete.

APAC: The largest Naphthalene Derivatives Market, by region

The APAC region was the largest market for naphthalene derivatives, in terms of both value and volume, in 2016. The large market size of the Asia Pacific region is due to the manufacturing facilities being shifted by large players from mature markets such as Europe and North America to Asia Pacific. China's slow economic growth in recent years and initiatives to decarbonize the economy to promote sustainable development is resulting in a reduction of coal production and subsequently affecting the market of naphthalene derivatives in the country. However, extensive consumption of naphthalene derivatives in major end-use industries such as construction, agrochemicals, textile, oil & gas, pulp & paper, pharmaceuticals, paints & coatings, and others is expected to drive its demand in future. Furthermore, abundant availability of raw materials and consumers as well as affordable labor is also attracting market players to establish their production facilities in the region.

Naphthalene derivatives manufacturers, such as Koppers (US), BASF (Germany), Rutgers (Belgium), Evonik (Germany), Cromogenia Units (Spain), King Industries, Inc. (US), Carbon Tech Group (Iran), JFE Chemical Corporation (Japan), Clariant (Switzerland), and Huntsman Corporation (US) are profiled in the report.

Inquiry Before Buying @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_Buying.asp?id=39181738

Browse Related Reports

Concrete Superplasticizers Market by Type (SNF, SMF, MLF, PD and Others), by Application (Ready-Mix, Precast, Shotcrete, High Performance, Self-Compacting, and Others), and by Region - Global Trends and Forecast to 2020

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/concrete-superplasticizers-market-1321.html

Phthalic Anhydride Market and Derivatives (Plasticizers, Unsaturated Polyester Resins, and Alkyd Resins) by Application & Geography - Trends & Forecast to 2018

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/phthalic-anhydride-derivatives-market-179828823.html



Know More About our Knowledge Store @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Knowledgestore.asp

About MarketsandMarkets

MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 5000 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions.

Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve.

MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets.

Contact:

Mr. Rohan

MarketsandMarkets INC.

630 Dundee Road

Suite 430

Northbrook, IL 60062

USA: +1-888-600-6441

Email: [email protected]



Visit Our Blog @ http://www.marketsandmarketsblog.com/market-reports/chemical

Connect with us on LinkedIn @ http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarkets

SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
WASHINGTON, Dec. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Press Club Board of Governors voted unanimously at its December 17th, 2017 meeting to rescind its Fourth Estate Lifetime Achievement Award presented to Charlie Rose in 2014 and the accompanying honorary club membership. Charges about Rose's conduct, acknowledged in part by him, led three news organizations to sever ties with him. The board concluded such conduct does not represent the values of the National Press Club nor the criteria for the award, which goes to a journalist who "has achieved distinction for a lifetime of contributions to American journalism."

The board reaffirmed the commitment of the National Press Club to the right of all journalists to pursue their work free from harassment or discrimination. It also called on the National Press Club Journalism Institute, the educational arm of the club, to continue its professional development programs to assist journalists to cover the story of sexual harassment and to foster newsroom cultures where all journalists can thrive.

CONTACT: Julie Schoo, 202-662-7507

SOURCE National Press Club
WASHINGTON, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- One week after the National Press Club launched their campaign on change.org more than 16,500 people have signed the petition calling for the release of detained Mexican journalist Emilio Gutierrez. On Dec. 22 the National Press Club's Executive Director Bill McCarren will hand-deliver those signatures to the detention facility in El Paso, TX where Gutierrez is being held.

After visiting the detention facility, McCarren will meet with Gutierrez's attorney Eduardo Beckett and local officials at El Paso's Paso Del Norte Port of Entry before making their way to La Fe Culture & Technology Center for a 1:00 p.m. press conference.

In 2008, Gutierrez, along with his then 15-year-old son Oscar, fled Mexico in the face of death threats and sought asylum immediately upon entry into the United States. Gutierrez was forced to flee when his reporting on abuses of civilians by the Mexican military for El Diario del Noroeste resulted in several threatening visits from the military and reports from multiple sources that Gutierrez was on a hit list.

Gutierrez's request for asylum, currently before the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals, reached a fever pitch on Dec. 7, 2017 when during a routine check-in, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials handcuffed Gutierrez and Oscar, and informed them that they were being deported and sent back to Mexico. Thanks to the quick action of Gutierrez's attorney Eduardo Beckett, the Board of Immigration Appeals issued a stay of the deportation order within 10 minutes of receiving Beckett's call.

Now, just two months after accepting the 2017 John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award at the National Press Club, and despite the stay of the deportation order issued nearly two weeks ago by the Board of Immigration Appeals, Gutierrez and Oscar continue to be held - at times in shackles - in an immigration detention center in El Paso.

The National Press Club has launched a change.org petition for release of both men and has filed a letter with the Board of Immigration Appeals. Nearly two dozen professional press organizations are supporting the effort, as is the editorial board of The Washington Post.

WHO: National Press Club Executive Director Bill McCarren, Attorney Eduardo Beckett and local officials.

WHAT: Press conference to discuss the case of detained journalist Emilio Gutierrez

WHEN: 1:00 p.m. (MT) Friday, Dec. 22

WHERE: La Fe Culture & Technology Center

721 S Ochoa Street (Rear Building) El Paso, TX 79901

WHY: A journalist's life, and freedom of speech on the North American continent, is at stake.

The National Press Club, located in downtown Washington, D.C., is The World's Leading Professional Organization for Journalists; through its non-profit Journalism Institute, it supports the First Amendment in the United States and freedom of the press worldwide.

CONTACT: Lindsay Underwood, National Press Club, 202-662-7561, [email protected]

SOURCE National Press Club
FRANKLIN, Mass., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The ink and toner cartridge remanufacturing industry has reached an inflection point. Established in the United States in the 1980s, the remanufacturing industry quickly became a global enterprise and remanufacturers have refurbished billions of cartridges over the past thirty-plus years. Although the industry is well-established and remanufacturers continue to generate billions of dollars in sales each year, remanufacturers are finding it increasingly difficult to thrive and grow as they cope with 21st-century market demands, especially relentless pressures from newly built compatible cartridges, which are often marketed without regard for intellectual property (IP).

Forces Shaping Todays Cartridge Remanufacturing Industry by Actionable Intelligence

In "Forces Shaping Today's Cartridge Remanufacturing Industry," Actionable Intelligence, the world's leading research firm following the markets for printers and copiers and the supplies used in these machines, explores the current state of the remanufacturing industry. The 39-page report, which is currently available free of charge at www.Action-Intell.com, analyzes the regional remanufacturing industries supplying some of the world's largest cartridge markets including China, Europe, and North America.

"Now in its fourth decade of operation, today's remanufacturing industry doesn't look much like the one that back in the 1980s used to poke holes in sides of cartridges to refill them with ink or toner," says Charles Brewer, Actionable Intelligence's founder and president. "Today, the industry is as high-tech as the cartridges it remanufactures. The leading companies are ISO-certified and employ thousands of workers at state-of-the-art factories worldwide." Mr. Brewer observes that the remanufacturing industry is mature and is experiencing consolidation and a decline in the number of remanufacturers. "The next five years will be pivotal as the industry continues to consolidate and demand for remanufactured product declines as more and more end users move to compatibles."

Focusing on remanufacturers in China, Europe, and the United States, "Forces Shaping Today's Cartridge Remanufacturing Industry" examines where the industry is today; how it got there; and what the future holds for remanufacturers worldwide. The report maps the current competitive landscape and differentiates between the various categories of cartridges vying for market share. In particular, the report analyzes the impact that IP-infringing cartridges (a.k.a. "clones") have had on the remanufacturing industry. "Forces Shaping Today's Cartridge Remanufacturing Industry" is a must-read report for anyone involved in the digital imaging consumables market. Click here to download a copy at no charge.

Established in 2009, Actionable Intelligence is based outside of Boston, Massachusetts, and delivers market research and custom consulting related to the markets for home and office digital imaging hardware and the consumables used in these machines. The firm's website, www.Action-Intell.com, features more than 3,000 posts and attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world, making it is the industry's destination website for industry news and analysis. The Actionable Intelligence team understands that the printer and supplies business has changed and is dedicated to providing practical, accurate market analysis that clients can use to succeed.

Media Contact:

Charles Brewer

[email protected]

1-508-528-1297

SOURCE Actionable Intelligence

Related Links

http://www.Action-Intell.com


ATLANTA, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- With 40 decision makers from top Chinese tour operators confirmed to attend Connect Travel Marketplace, Connect Travel has added a complimentary China Ready Workshop to the conference agenda.

According to the Department of Commerce, the United States welcomed 2,972,264 Chinese visitors in 2016, up 14.7 percent from 2015, and these travelers spent $34.8 billion in 2016. "Visitors from China spend over $95 million per day in the U.S., making Chinese travelers the most valuable visitors for U.S. destinations," said Will Seccombe, president of Connect Travel. "We added the China Ready Workshop to the Connect Travel Marketplace agenda to help North American destinations and travel suppliers learn what it will take to increase their business from the fastest growing international feeder market."

Connect Travel will host 200 general managers, product directors and business development managers, including 40 representatives from leading Chinese tour operators, Feb. 18-20 in Orlando, for prescheduled, one-on-one appointments with North American suppliers to develop travel products for the new year. "We have an impressive group of Chinese travel companies joining us for Connect Travel Marketplace," said Shari Bailey, director of international of Connect Travel. "These companies range from large global powerhouses to travel brands that are new to the North American market. Companies originating from all regions of China will participate."

Confirmed Chinese companies include GZL International Travel Service, CTrip.com International Ltd., Alitrip Network Technology (Fliggy), JD.com, Tongcheng International Travel Service Co., Ltd., American Asia Travel Center Inc. (Super Vacation) and China Swan International Tours. The China Ready Workshop is sponsored by Welcome Chinese and the China Outbound Travel & Tourism Marketplace.

"China remains one of the most important booming markets for world tourism, so it is important to know how Chinese visitors need to be welcomed and hosted and how their expectations can be met," said Jacopo Sertoli, CEO of Welcome Chinese. "This is one of the central themes that the tourism industry has to face, and Welcome Chinese Certification has been created right for this purpose. It is an exclusive standard issued by the China Tourism Academy, a government department of the Chinese Ministry of Tourism, which allows the incoming sector to access an officially recognized network and to address, with specific requirements, the huge market of Chinese visitors and to stand out from the competition. We are pleased to present Welcome Chinese to the American tourism industry during the Connect Travel Marketplace and to start a successful collaboration."

For more information on Connect Travel Marketplace and the China Ready Workshop, please contact Shari Bailey, director of international of Connect Travel, at [email protected] or register at connecttravel.com/events/marketplace.

About Connect Travel - Connect Travel is the leisure tourism division of Connect and serves as a strategic marketing partner, connecting destination marketers with the products, services and people that will allow them to thrive in a rapidly evolving and highly competitive marketplace. Connect Travel offers a full suite of marketing solutions and events for destination marketers. For more information, visit connecttravel.com.

About Connect - Connect is a leader in the meetings, travel and tourism industry. Specializing in destination marketing, the company produces a full suite of digital programs, online and mobile solutions, meetings business and travel magazines, trade shows and consumer events, travel guides for newspapers and leisure magazines and destination information, which is distributed through broadcast and custom programs. More information about the company's brands and services is available at connectmeetings.com.

About COTTM - Now entering its 14th year, China Outbound Travel & Tourism Market is the only B2B exhibition in China dedicated to the outbound travel market. COTTM is a unique platform for international countries and travel product suppliers to showcase their destination and services to the ever-expanding Chinese outbound market. COTTM 2018 will take place April 16-18, 2018, at New Hall, National Agricultural Exhibition Center in Beijing.

About Welcome Chinese - Welcome Chinese Certification is the new hospitality standard specifically dedicated to Chinese travelers. CTA's sponsorship guarantees uniformity in the quality of service and supports all the certified businesses to access the Chinese travel industry.

Related Images

image1.jpg

Welcome Chinese

image2.png

COTTM

SOURCE Connect Travel

Related Links

https://www.connectmeetings.com


ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Provisions in the recently passed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, have the potential to reduce the number of Americans who receive a tax benefit for charitable contributions by 28 million. According to several analyses, including a study by Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, the shift could cause donations to charities to drop $12 to $20 billion annually.

Charitable contributions received by The Salvation Army before December 31 will still qualify for a tax benefit under the tax code established in 1986.

"The Salvation Army's ability to serve nearly 25 million people each year is based on the generosity of our fellow Americans  generosity that has been encouraged by the federal tax code for more than a century," said Lt. Col. Ron Busroe, National Community Relations and Development Secretary for The Salvation Army. "We're concerned that a reduction in charitable giving will impede our efforts to deliver food to the hungry, provide relief for disaster survivors, help those struggling with addiction and make Christmas possible for millions of families."

Lilly Family School of Philanthropy research also indicates that itemizers are more likely to make charitable contributions  83 percent of itemizers reported making charitable contributions, compared to 44 percent of non-itemizers.

Current incentives motivate millions of Americans to make end-of-year charitable contributions. The Salvation Army raises more money in November and December than all other months combined. In fact, The Salvation Army raises more money in the last two days of the year than in the entire month of November.

With expected budget cuts in 2018 to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP) and other social safety programs, motivating end-of-year giving is more important than ever for social service providers.

To help The Salvation Army meet need in every ZIP code the country, please visit give.salvationarmy.org. Donations stay in the local community where it was made and more than 82 cents of every dollar donated will be used to provide social services to help everyday Americans.

About The Salvation Army

The Salvation Army, established in London in 1865, has been supporting those in need without discrimination for more than 135 years in the U.S. More than 25 million Americans receive assistance from The Salvation Army each year through a range of social services: food for the hungry, relief for disaster survivors, assistance for the disabled, outreach to the elderly and ill, clothing and shelter to the homeless, and opportunities for underprivileged children. For every dollar donated to The Salvation Army, 82 cents is used to support those services in 5,000 communities nationwide. The Salvation Army tracks the level of need across the country with the Human Needs Index (HumanNeedsIndex.org). For more information, go to SalvationArmyUSA.org or follow on Twitter @SalvationArmyUS.

SOURCE The Salvation Army
Counting on the large and crescent numbers of ISPs, this new Fortaleza Central Interconnection Point will strengthen the distribution of local-based Internet content. "A country with continental proportions like Brazil cannot rely anymore on a single IXP for its critical traffic exchange. Network operators willing to exchange traffic are welcome to connect", says Milton Kaoru Kashiwakura, NIC.br Special Projects and Development Director.

NIC.br is also deploying its first full-service infrastructure out of Sao Paulo on the same location. "The resolution of '.br' domain names and all the operations conducted before by NIC.br only in Sao Paulo will also be available in Fortaleza. Those features aim to make this location the pole for NIC.br North/Northeast operations in Brazil", says Frederico Neves, NIC.br Services and Technology Director.

NIC.br has chosen GlobeNet due the strong and solid infrastructure established in the northeastern part of Brazil, and also due to the:

Higher level of datacenter services availability,

Reliable dual ring-protected fiber-optic subsea cable system that connects north and south America and

Neutrality

"We are thrilled to be able to announce a project like this; it will directly benefit the growing number of service providers in the region," states Eduardo Falzoni, CEO at GlobeNet. "The implementation of the new, regional Fortaleza point of interconnection highlights GlobeNet's commitment to helping our clients expand into new markets and improving access to the internet for end-users in Brazil."

About the Brazilian Network Information Center  NIC.br

The Brazilian Network Information Center - NIC.br (http://www.nic.br/) is a civil entity, under private law and non-profit, which, in addition to implementing the decisions and projects of the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br), has among its attributions: to coordinate the registration of ".br" domain names - Registro.br (http://www.registro.br/), to study, answer and treat security incidents in Brazil - CERT.br (http://www.cert.br/), to study and research networks and operations technologies - Ceptro.br (http://www.ceptro.br/), to produce indicators on information and communication technologies - Cetic.br (http://www.cetic.br/), to foster and promote the evolution of the Web in Brazil - Ceweb.br (http://www.ceweb.br/) and to host the W3C office in Brazil (http://www.w3c.br/).

About the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee  CGI.br

The Brazilian Internet Steering Committee, responsible for establishing strategic directives related to the use and development of the Internet in Brazil, coordinates and integrates all Internet service initiatives in the country, promoting the technical excellence, innovation and dissemination of offered services. Based on the principles of multilateralism, and transparency, CGI.br represents a multi-stakeholder, democratic Internet governance model with the effective participation of all society sectors in their decisions. One of its formulations are the 10 Principles for the Governance and Use of the Internet (http://www.cgi.br/principles). More information on http://www.cgi.br/.

About GlobeNet

GlobeNet connects the Americas with an integrated and comprehensive portfolio of services (Network, IP, IaaS and Security), supported by its award-winning, low latency, and ultra-resilient 23,500-kilometer subsea infrastructure that is complemented by its team's extensive experience and operational know-how. With leading customer service, GlobeNet helps ensure your business is always ready for the challenges ahead.

GlobeNet is a portfolio company of BTG Pactual's Infrastructure Fund II, the recipient of 2017 Frost & Sullivan's Best Practices Award  Latin American, Carrier of Carriers Services, Company of the Year, and named 2017 Best Regional Wholesale Operator at 2017 World Communication Awards. For more information about GlobeNet, please visit www.globenet.com.

Press contacts:

Weber Shandwick

http://www.webershandwick.com.br/

Carolina Carvalho  [email protected] - (+55 11) 3027-0226

NIC.br communications affairs

Caroline D'Avo  Communications Manager  [email protected]

GlobeNet media relations

Raul Fraile  Global Head of Marketing  [email protected]

SOURCE GlobeNet

Related Links

http://www.globenet.com


Sophie Markus, a 12 th grade student at Novi High School, was awarded the grand prize of the Chairman's Award of $1,000. Markus' entry was also recognized as Designer's Best of Show  Digital. Anthony Kennedy, a 12 th grade student at William D. Ford Career Technical Center, was presented with the Vice Chairman's Award of $1,000.

Markus' and Kennedy's winning posters will be featured in the official NAIAS program, available to all auto show attendees. In addition, all winning entries will be posted on the NAIAS website and displayed during the NAIAS Public Show, Jan. 20-28.

"The creativity exhibited by all of the students is inspiring and gives us a glimpse of the next-generation's talents that await our industry," said Ryan LaFontaine, 2018 NAIAS Chairman. "When you look at these young people's work, you can see endless sparks of imagination that may someday find their way into the automotive design community."

In addition to the Chairman's and Vice Chairman's Awards, winners were selected in the following categories and presented cash prizes.

Winner who received a $1,000 prize:

State Farm Award  Jack Lindner , Stoney Creek High School

Winners who received a $500 prize:

Designer's Best of Show  Traditional: Olivia Plochocki , Oakland Schools Technical Campus Northwest

, Schools Technical Campus Northwest 1 st Place, 12 th Grade Award: Adam Weinkauf , Grosse Pointe North High School

Place, 12 Grade Award: , 1 st Place, 11 th Grade Award: Marie Huber , Novi High School

Place, 11 Grade Award: , Novi High School 1st Place, 10th Grade Award: Regan Lee , Bloomfield Hills High School

Winners who received a $250 prize:

Best Theme Award: Sean Peacock , Divine Child High School

, Divine Child High School Best Use of Color Award: Nathan Adermatt , William D. Ford Career Technical Center

, William D. Ford Career Technical Center Most Creative Award: Joanne Kwon , Novi High School

, Novi High School 2 nd Place, 12 th Grade Award: Maxie Masters , Arts Academy in the Woods

Place, 12 Grade Award: , Arts Academy in the Woods 2 nd Place, 11 th Grade Award: Andrew Sosa , William D. Ford Career Technical Center

Place, 11 Grade Award: , William D. Ford Career Technical Center 2nd Place, 10th Grade Award: Tlaloc Flores , Center Line High School

Winners who received a $100 prize:

3rd Place, 12 th Grade Award: Alan Knapp , William D. Ford Career Technical Center

Grade Award: , William D. Ford Career Technical Center 3 rd Place, 11 th Grade Award: Gage Pierce , Oakland Schools Technical Campus Southwest

Place, 11 Grade Award: , Schools Technical Campus Southwest 3rd Place, 10th Grade Award: Alissa Nault , Center Line High School

The posters were reviewed and judged by the 2018 NAIAS Chairmen, a General Motors automotive designer, a College for Creative Studies instructor and State Farm Insurance representatives.

About the North American International Auto Show

Now in its 30th year as an international event, the NAIAS is among the most prestigious auto shows in the world, providing unparalleled access to the automotive products, technologies, people and ideas that matter most  up close and in one place. Administered by executive director Rod Alberts, the NAIAS is one of the largest media events in North America, and the only auto show in the United States to earn an annual distinguished sanction of the Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobiles, the Paris-based alliance of automotive trade associations and manufacturers from around the world. For more information, visit naias.com.

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for highlights and updates.

2018 NAIAS Dates:

The Gallery  Saturday, January 13, 2018

AutoMobili-D  Sunday-Sunday, January 14-21, 2018

Press Preview  Sunday-Tuesday, January 14-16, 2018

Industry Preview  Wednesday-Thursday, January 17-18, 2018

Charity Preview  Friday, January 19, 2018

Public Show  Saturday-Sunday, January 20-28, 2018

SOURCE North American International Auto Show

Related Links

www.dada.org


IRVINE, Calif., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- youtheory is pleased to announce it was once again named one of the 2017 Best Places to Work in Orange County. The 10th annual Top Workplaces event took place in Anaheim, and brought together a record setting crowd. The awards program was created in 2009 and is a project of the Orange County Business Journal and Best Companies Group.

This county-wide survey and awards program was designed to identify, recognize and honor the best places of employment in Orange County, benefiting the county's economy, its workforce and businesses. The 2017 survey hit its own record, with 140 workplaces being awarded this year.

To be considered for participation, employers had to fulfill the following eligibility requirements:

Have at least 15 employees working in Orange County

Be a for-profit or not-for-profit business or government entity

Be a publicly or privately held business

Have a facility in Orange County

Must be in business a minimum of 1 year

A total of 1,325 companies were invited to participate in this year's survey. After over 33,000 employees in Orange Country responded, the results were an impressive 140 employers that scored high enough to earn Top Workplaces honors.

"We are honored to receive this award for the second year in a row," says CEO, Darren Rude. "Our company puts employees' values and feedback at the forefront of everything we do to ensure we are always creating a fun, inspiring environment. It's rewarding to watch the company grow with our employees, and even more rewarding to see it recognized by the community."

Organizations from across the county entered the two-part process to determine the Best Places to Work in Orange County. The first part consisted of evaluating each employer's workplace policies, practices, and demographics. This part of the process was worth approximately 25% of the total evaluation. The second part consisted of an employee survey to measure the employee experience. This part of the process was worth approximately 75% of the total evaluation. The combined scores determined the top organizations and the final ranking. Best Companies Group managed the overall registration and survey process in Orange County and also analyzed the data and used their expertise to determine the final ranking.

For more information and the full list of winners of the Best Places to Work in Orange County program, visit www.BestPlacestoWorkOC.com.

About Nutrawise

Nutrawise, located in Irvine California, is a leading manufacturer of health and wellness supplements including the award winning line of youtheory products which are sold in over 50,000 retailers worldwide. The youtheory line of products include youtheory  Collagen Advanced, Men's Collagen Advanced, Turmeric Advanced Formula, Revive, Maca Root, Joint Collagen, Hyaluronic Acid and Sleep. Nutrawise believes in putting its people first while providing the highest quality products, service and value to its customers. With over 200 years of combined service in the natural foods and supplement industry, Nutrawise executives are committed to its mission of being a purpose built company that continually supports a wide range of charitable organizations both locally and globally. For more information, visit http://www.youtheory.com, like us on Facebook at http://www.Facebook.com/youtheorybeauty, Instagram https://www.instagram.com/youtheory/ and follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/youtheory.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Matt Kovacs

BLAZE PR

[email protected]

(310) 395-5050

SOURCE Nutrawise

Related Links

http://www.BestPlacestoWorkOC.com


NEW YORK, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP today announced that partners Nina Roket and Lori Marks-Esterman have been selected as "Leading Women Lawyers in New York City" in Crain's New York Business inaugural honor roll of 100 female attorneys, found here. They are profiled in the publication's December 18, 2017 special edition honoring "trailblazers who found multiple paths to excellencewho juggle both distinguished careers and exceptional civic and philanthropic activities."

Ms. Roket is a Co-Administrative Partner, member of the firm's Executive Committee, a Partner in the Real Estate Practice Group, and Leader of the firm's Leasing Practice Group. She has been consistently acknowledged by numerous legal and trade organizations as a leading woman lawyer in New York, particularly in the real estate sector. In addition to highlighting her professional accomplishments, Crain's notes that Ms. Roket, "is founder and chair of the firm's women's committee, a networking, business development and mentoring platform for female lawyers."

Ms. Roket is also the head of the firm's hiring committee, serves as a member of WX - New York Women Executives in Real Estate, and also serves as a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI).

Ms. Roket leads a high-profile list of real estate projects, including acting as lead counsel in the leasing, financing and development of TurnStyle, a retail underground market in the 59th Street Columbus Circle concourse, and representing many of the most active New York City owners in their respective leasing programs and noteworthy office tenants in their headquarters' leases.

Ms. Marks-Esterman is Leader of the Litigation Practice Group and co-leads both the Securities Litigation Practice Group and the Commercial Real Estate Litigation Practice Group. She has been consistently named by numerous legal and trade organizations as a leading lawyer in litigation and leading woman lawyer, including as a Rising Star early on in her career.

Crain's highlighted that Ms. Marks-Esterman, "is the firm's youngest practice group leader" and "also mentors other female attorneys at the firm," assisting them in navigating difficult work-life balance issues on the path towards a successful and fulfilling career as an attorney.

In addition to her leadership responsibilities Ms. Marks-Esterman manages a thriving litigation practice encompassing a wide variety of commercial-related disputes. She is one of a handful of New York lawyers with a significant Delaware Chancery Court practice, focused on the representation of private equity companies and hedge funds, and the firm's high-profile activist investment clients.

About Olshan

Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP, a law firm based in New York, represents major businesses and entrepreneurs in their most significant transactions, problems and opportunities. Olshan's clients range from public companies, hedge, venture capital, private equity and other investment funds to entrepreneurs and private companies worldwide. Clients choose Olshan for innovative strategies and sophisticated, game-changing advice in corporate, securities law, equity investment and shareholder activism, complex commercial, corporate and securities litigation, real estate, intellectual property, bankruptcy and creditors' rights, and advertising. Since its founding, Olshan has offered an alternative to the AmLaw 50 law firm business model with responsive, independent and client-focused legal counsel provided by the firm's lawyers.

Contact:

Madelaine Miller Strauss

[email protected]

646.331.2691

SOURCE Olshan Frome Wolosky LLP

Related Links

http://www.olshanlaw.com


SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- ORIC Pharmaceuticals ("ORIC") announces that Rich Heyman, PhD has been appointed acting Chief Executive Officer and Leonard Reyno, MD has joined as Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer.

ORIC is a privately held oncology company focused on addressing mechanisms of resistance. Its lead candidate, ORIC-101, is the subject of an ongoing Phase 1a study and a potent small molecule inhibitor of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR).

"I'm looking forward to increasing my involvement with ORIC," said Dr. Heyman, acting Chief Executive Officer. "It's a very exciting time as ORIC transitions from a research-stage to a development-stage company. Leonard Reyno's significant oncology development expertise will be a tremendous asset to ORIC. We're pleased he has joined."

"ORIC has an outstanding research team with deep scientific expertise, along with respected and highly-engaged scientific advisors and founders," said Dr. Reyno. "The previous work on the role of the glucocorticoid receptor axis in oncology therapy resistance, along with data from the pre-clinical setting and the ongoing Phase 1a study, will be instrumental in informing our development efforts with ORIC-101 going forward."

About Rich Heyman, PhD

Dr. Rich Heyman has over 25 years of biopharma experience. He previously served as CEO of Seragon Pharmaceuticals, a company focused on drugs targeting hormone dependent cancers acquired by the Roche Group, as co-founder and CEO of Aragon Pharmaceuticals, purchased by Johnson & Johnson in 2013, as co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of X-Ceptor Therapeutics, and as Vice President of Research at Ligand Pharmaceuticals. At Ligand he led the development of Panretin and Targretin, retinoids approved by the FDA for the treatment of cancer. He is the author or inventor on more than 120 publications and patents. In addition to serving on the Board of Directors for ORIC, Dr. Heyman also serves on the Board of Directors for Gritstone Oncology, Yumanity Therapeutics, Metacrine Inc , Vividion Therapeutics and Mavu Pharma. He is also the Vice Chairman of The Salk Institute. He was a NIH postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute, and received a Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Minnesota and a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Connecticut.

About Leonard Reyno, MD

Dr. Reyno most recently served as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Agensys, a subsidiary of Astellas Pharma, where he led clinical stage development through clinical proof of concept. Dr. Reyno's prior positions in industry included Global Medical Director for Taxotere/Breast cancer at Aventis, Medical Director and Lead Clinical Scientist for Herceptin at Genentech and Senior Director of Oncology at Cytokinetics. Before joining industry, Dr. Reyno was an academic oncologist, where he had both extensive experience as a clinician (especially in breast and genitor-urinary malignancy) as well as serving as Principal Investigator on multiple trials with the National Cancer Institute of Canada. Dr. Reyno was Head of Medical Oncology and the Oncology Clinical Research Unit at Dalhousie University from 1999- 2003, and previously Associate Professor of Medicine at McMaster University from 1993-1999. Dr. Reyno received his MD from McMaster University in 1986. He completed fellowships in internal medicine and medical oncology at McMaster and further training in drug development at the University of Maryland at Baltimore as the McEachern Fellow of the National Cancer Institute of Canada from 1991-1993. He has authored more than 25 scientific publications in major journals.

About ORIC Pharmaceuticals

ORIC Pharmaceuticals is a privately held oncology company focused on making cancer treatments more effective by addressing mechanisms of resistance. ORIC was founded by Drs. Charles Sawyers MD and Scott Lowe PhD, who have strong records of discovering innovative treatments and targets in cancer. The company has assembled strong leadership and scientific teams and a Board with extensive experience in drug development and financing. It is funded by leading biotechnology investors, including The Column Group, Topspin Partners, OrbiMed Advisors, EcoR1 Capital, Foresite Capital, and Kravis Investment Partners. ORIC is headquartered in South San Francisco, California.

For more information, please contact:

Krys Corbett

650-388-5622

[email protected]

http://oricpharma.com/

SOURCE ORIC Pharma

Related Links

http://oricpharma.com


NEW YORK, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Pareteum Corporation (NYSE American: TEUM), ("Pareteum" or the "Company"), the rapidly growing mobile Cloud Communications Platform company, today announced that it has secured a three year contract with a European global provider of IoT security to network providers and Electronic Sims embedded directly in IoT devices.

The new contract will extend the reach of this communication services provider by enabling the use of Pareteum's Global Mobility Cloud for "Connections" to their IoT devices. Pareteum will receive recurring platform fees and transactional usage fees for each device that is connected. The devices cover a spectrum of uses, including home automation systems, security and alarm systems, intelligent logistics systems, climate and atmosphere control monitoring, as well as smart health monitoring devices.

In conjunction with the recently announced China-focused MVNO ($1 million) and the major Eastern European Smart City ($8 million), Pareteum has added over $13 million to its 36-month contractual revenue backlog in December alone.

Vic Bozzo, CEO of Pareteum stated, "This $4 million contract caps off a strong sales performance this month and continues to establish Pareteum as a thought leader in mobility and communications platform as a service (CPaaS). We are excited about the opportunity to provide connections for hundreds of thousands of devices under this contract."

Hal Turner, Executive Chairman and Principal Executive Officer of Pareteum, added, "The big deal in December, foreshadowed during our Q3 earnings call, ended up as three transactions, each of which demonstrates the value seen by our customers in our solutions, which is why they continue to increase services orders with us. Most importantly, we segue from a highly successful 2017 into 2018, expected to be a year of increasing growth, knowing that we are recognized within our industry and markets for services innovation. We have sold solutions that take us, through our cloud services, into Smart Cities and cryptocurrency secure payment transactions capabilities. Additionally, our sold solutions bring us into facets of Artificial Intelligence, with the machine learning capabilities of the predictive analytics applied to the massive volumes of data we are handling. The shear volumes of data will geometrically accelerate, creating a spiraling viral impact, as more and more connections are added to our cloud. Pareteum has the comfort of knowing the highly scalable nature of its software and how it is optimized for just these opportunities. Finally, we conclude our 2017 sales campaigns with the firm knowledge that it is our mobility cloud and its ability to drive connections, without the requirement of heavy infrastructure and capital expenditures, that attracts the communications services providers and application developers to our growing applications exchange and developers model. It is this full suite of services developed and developing in 2017 that have us looking forward to a successful 2018."

About Pareteum Corporation

Pareteum Corporation and its subsidiaries provide a complete mobility cloud platform, utilizing messaging and security capabilities for the global Mobile, MVNO, Enterprise, Software-as-a-Service and IoT markets. The Company's software solutions allow any organization to harness the power of a wirelessly connected world by delivering seamless connectivity and subscriber management capabilities that provides end-to-end control of millions of connected devices. Mobile Network Operator (MNO) customers include Vodafone, the world's second largest mobile operator by customer count, Zain, one of the largest mobile operators in the Middle East, as well as MVNO customers such as Lebara and Lowi. 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.

Contractual Revenue Backlog Definition:

Contractual revenue backlog is measured on a forward looking 36 month snapshot view monthly, and, is generated by each of the Company's Managed Services, Global Mobility Cloud, and Application Exchange & Developer's Platform customers. The Pareteum multi-year Software-as-a-Service agreements include service establishment and implementation fees, guaranteed minimum monthly recurring fees, as well as contractually scheduled subscribers, in some cases including subscriber usage, during the term of the agreement, and, their resulting monthly recurring revenue. There can be no assurances that we reach the total revenue backlog. The revenue backlog assumes timing of revenue recognition that may vary from actual results.

Pareteum Investor Relations Contact:

Ted O'Donnell

Chief Financial Officer

(212) 984-1096

[email protected]

Hayden IR

(917) 658-7878

SOURCE Pareteum Corporation

Related Links

http://www.pareteum.com


In the past, Cash Luna has received multiple recognitions for his work from SEPA (Spanish Evangelical Publishers Association). His works En honor al Espiritu Santo and the devotional book 22 dias contigo, Espiritu Santo, also published by Editorial Vida, have sold more than half a million copies to date.

The book's launch will receive a robust publicity program from Editorial Vida, including promotional activities for No es por vista, including media tours and book signings in Miami, Los Angeles, and New Yorkas well as special events throughout the United States and Latin America.

"I am a human being with weaknesses and defects, but I am also a passionate believer who trusts in the infinite love and grace of God. That has been the foundation of my life," states Pastor Luna. "This book is part of my legacy. In these pages, I share my life lessons: a thousand experiences, challenges, and blessings when walking by faith, not by sight."

Larry Downs, Senior Vice-President and Publisher of HarperCollins Espanol and Editorial Vida, added: "We are excited to publish the latest book by Pastor Cash about the incredible role that faith plays in our lives. We believe that this book will have an even greater impact than his first title, En honor al Espiritu Santo."

Regarding the content of his book, Pastor Cash Luna said: "It is not a matter of lecturing on blind faith, but about sharing the joy that is experienced by trusting fully in He who has loved us since before we were born. That's what I want to talk to you about, the full potential of your faith, specifically the power that you experience when you surrender that faith to God."

Hardcover: 9780829768558

Softcover: 9780829768718

eBook: 9780829768756

Audiobook: 9780829768565

ABOUT CASH LUNA

Pastor Cash Luna graduated with cum laude honors and a degree in Information Systems Administration from the Francisco Marroquin University in Guatemala City. In 2002 he went on to earn a doctorate in Pastoral Ministries from California Christian University. Previously a dedicated businessman, Pastor Luna heard the call of God into the ministry in 1994. Since then, with the help of his wife Sonia, he has pastored Casa de Dios church. It was here that he witnessed a powerful movement emerge called Noches de Gloria, leading crusades of healing and miracles in several countries throughout the continent. Today, Casa de Dios is a prominent church in Guatemala with over 20 thousand active members, organized into small groups. Pastor Luna also presides over the Food Bank, which he founded in 2006 as the social service branch of his church, dedicated to caring for orphans, seniors, and those affected by natural disasters.

ABOUT EDITORIAL VIDA

Editorial Vida, the Spanish division of Zondervan, publishes Bibles, devotional books, and other resources with the goal of promoting a faithful relationship with Jesus Christ. With offices in Nashville and Grand Rapids, Editorial Vida has the largest catalog of Christian products and resources on Hispanic culturenot only in the United States but throughout Latin America and worldwide.

www.editorialvida.com

SOURCE Editorial Vida

Related Links

http://www.editorialvida.com


RUTLAND, Vt., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Two patient advocacy groups today welcomed a federal judge's ruling that the Vermont Attorney General's consent agreement with physician plaintiffs "does not represent" the court's views in a dismissed lawsuit that sought to weaken the doctors' duty to inform patients about all of their end-of-life care options.

The two organizations, Compassion & Choices and Patient Choices Vermont, emphasized that this ruling leaves intact a doctor's duty to obtain informed consent from patients by providing all their end-of-life medical options.

Kevin Diaz, national director of legal advocacy for Compassion & Choices

The groups intervened in the suit and filed the motion to strike the consent agreement from the court record because it caused confusion about physician obligations to patients under Vermont law, including the 2013 Patient Choice at End of Life Act (Act 39). The law gives mentally capable, terminally ill adults in Vermont the option to receive a doctor's prescription for medication they can decide to take to end unbearable suffering and die peacefully in their sleep. The plaintiffs' misrepresentation of the court's dismissal of the case only worsened this confusion.

In his Dec.18 ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford concluded:

"The agreement does not represent the views of the court on the merits of the parties' dispute  The consent agreement is a purely private agreement-not a judicial ruling-and not subject to review on appeal. But it is far from inconsequential and maintaining it on the court's docket has value in informing the public of the terms of the settlement struck by the parties."

"Judge Crawford's original ruling dismissed the plaintiffs' case for lack of standing, but then the plaintiffs and the Vermont Attorney General's office entered into a private consent agreement that contradicted the plain language of Vermont law," said David Bassett, of WilmerHale, co-counsel on behalf of Compassion & Choices, Patient Choices Vermont and two Vermont patients, Benedict Underhill and Monica van de Ven (who died peacefully in January by utilizing Vermont's Patient Choice at End of Life Act). "Absent the clarification we obtained this week, physicians could have mistakenly believed it was acceptable for patients to make critical medical decisions without being informed of what their real care options are at the end of life."

"The plaintiffs have wrongly claimed victory in a case they lost, so we are happy that the court has set the record straight," said Kevin Diaz, national director of legal advocacy for Compassion & Choices. "We still believe the agreement the state reached with the plaintiffs was unnecessary. We will be watching carefully to ensure that physicians fulfill their duty to fully inform terminally ill patients about all their end-of-life care options and the Attorney General's office enforces the law."

"The Vermont legislature was very clear in Act 39 and in our Patient's Bill of Rights for Palliative Care and Pain Management that patients are required to be informed of all available options near the end of life," said Betsy Walkerman, President of Patient Choices Vermont. "The plaintiffs in this lawsuit sought to muddy the waters and confuse medical professionals about their obligations."

Last April, Judge Crawford dismissed the suit filed in July 2016 against the state of Vermont by Alliance Defending Freedom on behalf of the plaintiffs, Vermont Alliance for Ethical Healthcare and Tennessee-based Christian Medical and Dental Association. The groups claimed Vermont's Patient's Bill of Rights for Palliative Care and Pain Management violated their religious rights by requiring doctors to discuss all end-of-life care options with their patients. Judge Crawford's ruling concluded the Patient's Bill of Rights for Palliative Care and Pain Management and another Vermont law, Limitation of Medical Malpractice Action Based on Lack of Informed Consent, "continue to govern physicians in all aspects of their care of the terminally ill. Under these provisions, physicians must inform patients about all choices and options relevant to their medical treatment." [See page 8 of opinion here].

The plaintiffs then negotiated a consent agreement with the Vermont Attorney General without consulting Compassion & Choices and Patient Choices Vermont. The plaintiffs filed the consent agreement with the court on May 5, the day of the appeal deadline, without notifying the Attorney General, Compassion & Choices and Patient Choices Vermont.

Compassion & Choices is the oldest nonprofit working to improve care and expand options for the end of life in the United States, with 450,000 supporters nationwide. For more information, visit: www.CompassionAndChoices.org.

Patient Choices Vermont (PCV) is the organization principally responsible for successfully advocating for the adoption of Act 39. PCV is dedicated to protecting Vermont's End-of-Life Choice Law, educating communities and working to ensure that all Vermonters have true access to the rights established by the law. www.PatientChoices.org

David Bassett, Samantak Ghosh, Nina Garcia, and Stephanie Neely of WilmerHale, Ron Shems of Diamond & Robinson, and Kevin Diaz are co-counsel on behalf of Compassion & Choices, Patient Choices Vermont and two Vermont patients, Benedict Underhill and Monica van de Ven (who died peacefully in January by utilizing Vermont's Patient Choice at End of Life Act).

Media Contacts : Sean Crowley, 202.495.8520, [email protected]

Betsy Walkerman, 802.448.0542, [email protected]

SOURCE Compassion & Choices

Related Links

http://CompassionAndChoices.org


COMMODORE, Pa., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Acting Secretary of State Robert Torres today awarded Purchase Line High School students the Governor's Civic Engagement Award for their efforts to encourage voting and civic participation.

"The Governor's Civic Engagement Award encourages young adults to begin exercising their right to vote as soon as they are eligible," Secretary Torres said. "It is heartening to see students so eager to claim this sacred right of citizenship."

The Governor's Civic Engagement Award is a cooperative effort by the Departments of Education and State, in collaboration with Inspire U.S., a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to transform young leaders' inspiration into action. The program offers resources and guidance for student leaders as they educate their peers regarding the electoral process and the importance of civic engagement.

Eligibility for the award is measured by the percentage of voter registrations among a school's eligible student population. Students may register to vote if they are 18 years of age or will turn 18 on or before the date of the next primary, special, municipal, or general election.

Schools that attain 85 percent voter registration among their eligible student population will qualify for the Gold Level award, while those that register 65 percent will be honored with the Silver Level award.

"This award reflects long-standing practices within the Purchase Line School District social studies department to instill in the Purchase Line student body their role as future voters," said district Superintendent Joseph A. Bradley. "Furthermore, this award aligns with the PLSD community's strong sense of love of country, respect for those that serve or served, and protection of our citizens' rights. The students identified in the Governor's Civic Engagement Award ceremony embody the PLSD mission of 'Pursue Lifetime Success and Development' by embracing their responsibility and privilege to vote."

In November, Conestoga High School in Chester County became the first school to receive the Governor's Civic Engagement Award.

High schools can sign up directly with Inspire U.S., which will support student leaders as they coordinate peer-to-peer voter registration drives and efforts to get out the vote. Inspire U.S. also assists with materials and data management, and in organizing school celebrations and recognition events.

More information about the award is available on the Department of State website.

Monday, April 16, 2018, is the deadline to register for the May 15 primary election. Applications for new registration, change of address or change in party affiliation must be submitted online before midnight on that day. Traditional paper registration applications must be postmarked no later than April 16.

For more information on voter registration, please call the Department of State's toll-free hotline at 1-877-VOTESPA (1-877-868-3772) or visit votesPA.com.

Printer-friendly Pennsylvania voter education materials can be found on the Department of State's votespa.com website.

MEDIA CONTACT: Wanda Murren, 717-783-1621

SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of State

Related Links

http://www.state.pa.us


LOS LUNAS, N.M., Dec. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Physical Rehabilitation Network (PRN), announces the opening of its newest clinic under the Armada Physical Therapy brand. The Los Lunas clinic is located at 1400 Main Street, Suite I, with easy access and ample parking. With this latest addition, Armada PT now operates 5 outpatient physical therapy clinics in New Mexico.

"We are very excited to expand our footprint in the southern market," stated Regional Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Steve DiPaola, PT, OCS. "With our ongoing commitment to serve the community, we knew it was time to time to offer the same exceptional patient experience to the fastest growing municipality in New Mexico."

The new facility showcases state-of-the-art equipment to augment the high-quality care provided by the clinical team. They will provide an array of physical therapy services including pre- and post-surgical rehabilitation, balance and vestibular training, injury prevention programs and worker's compensation services.

"Armada PT is known for their dedication to their patients and one-on-one care," commented Bruce McDaniel, CEO of PRN. "As a company, we share these same values towards patient care and strive to exceed expectations. This new clinic is a great addition to the Armada brand and the PRN family."

Visit armadatherapy.com for additional information on locations and services.

About Physical Rehabilitation Network

Physical Rehabilitation Network, LLC (PRN) is a privately held physical therapy organization based in Carlsbad, California. PRN is prominently recognized as the leading therapist-friendly rehab organization in the western part of the United States through its partnership model with premier physical and occupational therapists. The company currently operates over 100 locations providing local autonomy and branding to its therapist partners while streamlining all traditional overhead activities of running a practice.

PRN is actively seeking high-quality, entrepreneurially-driven physical and occupational therapists interested in partnering with PRN as the company expands its footprint providing opportunities for therapists to own their own clinic. For more information on our model, our locations or partnership opportunities, visit PRNpt.com or contact Michael Rice at 312.560.6020 / [email protected]. You can also follow us @PRNPhysicalTherapy on Facebook, @PRN_therapy on Twitter or on LinkedIn.

Contact:

Dawn Wild, Director of Marketing

Phone: 720-299-4808

Email: [email protected]

Related Images

image1.jpg

Physical Rehabilitation Network

image2.jpg

Armada Physical Therapy

Related Links

PRN Website

Armada Website

SOURCE Physical Rehabilitation Network (PRN)

Related Links

http://www.prnpt.com


CHANGCHUN, China, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- As an important route serving China's strategic plan on the Changchun-Jilin-Tumen Development Pilot Zone, the railway linking Hunchun in northeast China's Jilin Province and Makhalino in Russia saw a freight volume of 1.66 million tonnes in the first half of 2017, up 49 percent year-on-year.

International freight trains from Changchun, provincial capital of Jilin, to Europe via Manzhouli, a land port in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, has 80 sites for handling goods along their stretches in Russia, directly linking to 18 key railway stations in six European countries. The cargo volume has tripled that of such trains last year, and the growth ranks first among China-European freight trains.

Approved by the Chinese government in 2009, the Changchun-Jilin-Tumen Development Pilot Zone plays a vital role in China's participation in the international cooperation along the Tumen River, through the integrated development of Changchun, Jilin City and the Korean Autonomous Prefecture of Yanbian in the province. The pilot zone covers an area of 30,000 square kilometers and has a population of 7.7 million.

The pilot zone aims to further open up and attaches equal importance to domestic and international cooperation. It is a key supporting area for the China-Mongolia-Russia economic corridor under the Belt and Road Initiative, a core area for regional cooperation in Northeast Asia and a demonstration area for opening up in northeast China.

A planned major international road, starting with Hunchun, passes Changchun, Choibalsan of Mongolia and Russia before extending to European countries. The passageway will be connected with the land Silk Road. With Hunchun a starting point, Jilin Province is also connected with the maritime Silk Road through Russia's Zarubino Port, Rajin and Chongjin ports of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

A joint land and sea transportation line from Hunchun to Busan Port of the Republic of Korea is in stable operation. A cross-border passageway from Hunchun to south China coastal cities via DPRK ports has been approved and realized two-way shipping of containers.

The pilot zone has expanded its economic impact via the construction of various development areas.

The export-oriented economy of Jilin has achieved rapid growth. International logistics, tourism, overseas resource processing and border trade have boomed.

In 2016, foreign trade in Jilin hit 121.7 billion yuan, up 3.8 percent year-on-year, or 4.7 percentage points higher than the national level. In the first half of 2017, border trade in Jilin almost quadrupled to hit 70 million U.S. dollars.

SOURCE Changchun-Jilin-Tumen Development Pilot Zone
LINDON, Utah, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- PM Capital announced that it will be Mark Levin's exclusive precious metals sponsor beginning in 2018. The Mark Levin Show, one of the largest syndicated radio programs in America, is heard by millions each week. PM Capital shares Levin's passion for American values, principles and keeping people informed on issues that impact every citizen.

"Mark Levin is one of America's preeminent commentators and constitutional lawyers who I admire greatly," said Scott Carter, PM Capital CEO. "I've known Mark for many years and it's my privilege to work with him again. There is no clearer voice on talk radio to educate millions of people about events and issues that shape our country," Carter noted. "I'm also excited for Mark's upcoming weekend primetime program on the Fox News Channel entitled Life, Liberty and Levin. Mark's insightful perspective on current events and his extraordinary knowledge and expertise in law, politics and economics is compelling and will help further inform people about issues we all face."

"I'm excited to work with PM Capital," said Levin. "I've known Scott Carter for over a decade and I am looking forward to working with him again," he noted. "There has never been a more important time for Americans to be informed and educated about the financial markets."

About PM Capital

PM Capital is a premier precious metals company based in the Salt Lake Valley that provides gold, silver and platinum investment products to investors who desire to diversify and balance their financial portfolios. With its diverse marketing strategies, exclusive educational content, and unwavering commitment to inform people about financial issues that impact every investor, PM Capital sets itself apart from other precious metal companies.

CONTACT:

Dave McCoy

PM Capital

[email protected]

www.pmcapital.com

SOURCE PM Capital

Related Links

http://www.pmcapital.com


NEW YORK, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Below are experts from the ProfNet network who are available to discuss timely issues in your coverage area.

You can also submit a query to the hundreds of thousands of experts in our network  it's easy and free. Just fill out the query form to get started: http://prn.to/queryform

EXPERT ALERTS

Tax Plan

Mobilizing Voters

Male Leaders and Masculinity

MEDIA JOBS

Editor, Mansion  The Wall Street Journal (NY)

Supervisory Content Editor  Voice of America (DC/NY/CA)

Writer/Editor  LRP Publications (FL)

OTHER NEWS & RESOURCES

Last-Minute Gift Ideas for the Journalists and Bloggers on Your List

12 Writer Residencies That Will Inspire You

Blog Profiles: History Blogs

-------------------------------------------------------------------

EXPERT ALERTS:



Tax Plan

Bradley Heim

Associate Professor, School of Public and Environmental Affairs

Indiana University

Heim, a tax law expert, is available to discuss any aspect of the Republican Tax Bill as it moves through the legislative process. A former financial economist at the office of Tax Analysis at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Heim is an expert on public finance, labor economics, and econometrics. He is well-versed in the impacts of tax policies on labor supply, income and earnings, health insurance purchases, and the analysis of labor, business and household income dynamics.

Heim says, "While this is definitely a tax cut, it's hard to say that it's much of a reform. Tax reforms try to make the code simpler and more efficient. At least on the individual tax side, many of the provisions make things more complex."

Website: https://spea.indiana.edu

Contact: Jessica Brown, [email protected]



Mobilizing Voters

Steve Wuhs

Assistant Provost for Internationalization, Professor of Political Science

University of Redlands

"In any society as unequal as ours, there are more potential left voters than right voters. As a result, parties of the right always struggle to establish the base they require to win democratic elections -- that's why we see their traditional economic platforms complemented by cultural positions on things like abortion and crime. In Alabama, we saw the underlying strength of left parties  sheer numbers, when mobilized. And the candidacy of Roy Moore did mobilize crucial segments of the voting population threatened by his cultural agenda, especially African-Americans. Paired with the allegations surrounding Moore than undercut some of his support among moderate Republicans, strong mobilization by Alabama's African-American voters pushed Doug Jones over the top."

Wuhs is available to discuss state and national politics/elections, international politics, particularly in Europe and Mexico, American politics, political change, and comparative parties.

Website: http://www.redlands.edu

Contact: Jennifer Dobbs, [email protected]



Male Leaders and Masculinity

Mark S. Kiselica, PhD, HSPP, NCC, LPC

Founding Dean and Professor of Psychology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Cabrini University

"Men who embrace positive masculinity will not tolerate nor engage in violence, sexually insensitive behavior, or destructive exploitation. They have an inner knowledge about themselves and are confident, secure, humble, and trustworthy. I urge everyone to evaluate male leaders at all levels of power through the lens of positive masculinity. We must direct our support toward men who exhibit these qualities. We have an obligation to confront male leaders who are sexist, racist, hyper-aggressive, duplicitous, and pathologically narcissistic, invite them with optimism to learn and live by more positive notions of masculinity, and forcefully challenge them if they reject this invitation."

A national authority on positive masculinity and helping boys and men, Kiselica is Fellow and former president of the Society for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinity and the author of 150 publications, including the books, "The Handbook of Counseling Boys and Adolescent Males" and "Counseling Troubled Boys." He believes that fostering positive masculinity is the best way to prevent disrespect and harm to women by men. Kiselica is available to speak on positive masculinity as an antidote to the problem of sexual harassment.

Website: www.cabrini.edu

Contact: Lori Iannella, [email protected]

****************

MEDIA JOBS:

Following are links to job listings for staff and freelance writers, editors and producers. You can view these and more job listings on our Job Board: https://prnmedia.prnewswire.com/community/jobs/

Editor, Mansion  The Wall Street Journal (NY)

Supervisory Content Editor  Voice of America (DC/NY/CA)

Writer/Editor  LRP Publications (FL)

*****************

OTHER NEWS & RESOURCES:

Following are links to other news and resources we think you might find useful. If you have an item you think other reporters would be interested in and would like us to include in a future alert, please drop us a line at [email protected]

LAST-MINUTE GIFT IDEAS FOR THE JOURNALISTS AND BLOGGERS ON YOUR LIST. What do journalists and bloggers really want for the holidays? Aside from a magically clear inbox and a break from all the talk of fake news, they may be dreaming of some of the latest gadgets to up their storytelling game in the new year. So, for you last-minute holiday shoppers scrambling to find the perfect present, we rounded up some of the top gifts for creatives on your list: http://prn.to/2B8oeiP

want for the holidays? Aside from a magically clear inbox and a break from all the talk of fake news, they may be dreaming of some of the latest gadgets to up their storytelling game in the new year. So, for you last-minute holiday shoppers scrambling to find the perfect present, we rounded up some of the top gifts for creatives on your list: http://prn.to/2B8oeiP 12 WRITER RESIDENCIES THAT WILL INSPIRE YOU. Writer's block can be the worst. There are many creative opportunities to help writers write, whether you're on deadline or have some time to sit and put words down. Here are a dozen programs to consider, should you need a change of scenery to start that writing project or push that best-selling novel out of your head: http://prn.to/2kQ6MbY

BLOG PROFILES: HISTORY BLOGS. Each week, PR Newswire's Audience Relations team selects an industry/subject and profiles a handful of sites that do a good job with promoting and contributing to the conversation. This week, they look at a few history blogs: http://prn.to/2oXVOXk

****************

PROFNET is an exclusive service of PR Newswire.

To contact ProfNet: [email protected] or 800-776-3638, ext. 1

SOURCE ProfNet

Related Links

http://www.profnet.com


World-renowned actress, director and social activist Natalie Portman became the 5th Genesis Prize Laureate in November 2017. In keeping with tradition established by the previous Laureates who have "re-gifted" their awards, Natalie Portman announced that award funds would be granted to programs focusing on advancing women's equality in all aspects of human endeavor. A significant portion of the funds will go to support NGOs working in the field of women's rights in Israel.

"I would like to express my gratitude and admiration to Morris Kahn for his incredible support of the 2018 Genesis Prize theme," said Portman. "Morris' generosity once again reinforces how relevant and important the issue of women's equality is today  in Israel, in the US and beyond."

Morris Kahn is a South African-born businessman and philanthropist who moved to Israel in 1956. He is the founder of companies such as Amdocs, the Coral World Underwater Observatory in Eilat and others. An active humanitarian, in recent years he has increasingly focused his attention on philanthropy and venture philanthropy.

Mr. Kahn supports a wide range of initiatives that are close to his heart, including the promotion of successful, ethical and challenge-seeking youth leadership; making cataract and trachoma surgery accessible to Ethiopian villagers; running a summer camp for children with terminal diseases; operating a therapeutic riding center for the disabled.

He funds Save a Child's Heart, a non-profit that provides life-saving cardiac surgery for children from developing countries. To date it has saved more than 4,000 lives. He supports cutting-edge cancer stem cell research and fertility preservation among women cancer patients. Mr. Kahn's latest initiative involves the founding of the Morris Kahn & Maccabi Health Data Institution. The organization will provide a technological platform to support medical breakthroughs in the fields of predictive analysis and precision medicine.

For his contribution to Israel and the Jewish people, Morris Kahn has been named honorary president of the Maccabiah Games (also known as "Jewish Olympics") in 2016.

"It is a privilege to join forces with Morris Kahn, who is widely admired for his thoughtful and innovative philanthropy," said Co-founder and Chairman of the Genesis Prize Foundation Stan Polovets. "This gift doubles the 2018 Genesis Prize Award to $2 million, which will significantly enhance the reach and impact of Genesis Prize programs focused on advancing women's equality."

Earlier this year, Kahn made a gift in support of the 2017 Genesis Prize Laureate Anish Kapoor, whose Genesis Prize theme focused on alleviating the plight of refugees, and raising awareness in the Jewish community of the urgent need to support refugees. Morris Kahn's gift financed treatment of hearing loss among Syrian children from conflict areas that were brought to the Ziv Medical Center in Israel for diagnostic examination, clinical treatment, surgery and rehabilitation.

"I am pleased to have this opportunity to support the 2018 Genesis Prize Laureate Natalie Portman in her noble undertaking," said Morris Kahn. "The Genesis Prize is known for focusing its philanthropy on issues that are both relevant and timely; the issue of women's equality and empowerment is, without a doubt, one of them. I believe that the outstanding Jewish role model Ms. Portman and the Genesis Prize Foundation together are well positioned to make a difference and drive meaningful change. It is an honor to be a part of this effort."

Ms. Portman's award money will be used for grants to organizations involved in promoting women's educational opportunities, economic advancement, health and safety, and full participation in policy formulation and political activity. Details of how organizations may apply for funding will be announced in early 2018.

Natalie Portman will be honored at the Genesis Prize Ceremony in Jerusalem on June 28, 2018.

BACKGROUND

About the Genesis Prize

The Genesis Prize honors extraordinary individuals who serve as an inspiration to the next generation of Jews through their outstanding professional achievement, commitment to Jewish values and the Jewish people.

The Genesis Prize is a global award created to celebrate Jewish achievement and contribution to humanity. Launched in 2013, the Prize is financed through a permanent endowment of $100 million established by the Genesis Prize Foundation (GPF). The Prize operates as a partnership among The Genesis Prize Foundation, the Prime Minister's Office of the State of Israel, and The Office of the Chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI).

Previous Laureates of the Award, dubbed "the Jewish Nobel" by Time Magazine, are former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (2014), actor and peace activist Michael Douglas (2015), virtuoso violinist and advocate for people with disabilities Itzhak Perlman (2016) and prominent sculptor and activist for the rights of refugees Sir Anish Kapoor (2017).

SOURCE The Genesis Prize Foundation
WASHINGTON, NEW YORK and SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Latham & Watkins LLP1 is pleased to announce that Andrew Clubok and Elizabeth Deeley have joined the firm's Litigation & Trial Department. Both Clubok, who will practice in Washington, D.C. and New York, and Deeley, who will practice in San Francisco, are leading lawyers in complex commercial litigation matters with substantial trial experience. Their clients have included key players in the financial services and technology sectors, among others, and both regularly advise clients on disputes in the U.S. and overseas.

Jamie Wine, Global Chair of Latham's Litigation & Trial Department, said: "Andy and Beth are fantastic additions to the talented team of trial lawyers and litigators at Latham & Watkins. They join battle-tested colleagues with vast experience handling the most complex, tough and novel legal challenges that face corporations and executives today. I'm thrilled to welcome them both to the firm."

Clubok will be a Co-chair of the firm's Securities Litigation & Professional Liability Practice and also will be a member of the firm's Complex Commercial Litigation Practice. He has diverse national and international experience in trial, appellate and administrative litigation in a wide range of substantive areas including securities law, tax, environmental, telecommunications, restructuring and commercial litigation. He is a go-to trial lawyer for some of the world's biggest brands and has tried cases and/or obtained dismissals on behalf of financial institutions, automobile manufacturers, telecommunication providers, internet companies, pharmaceutical companies, and others in dozens of securities class actions, shareholder derivative lawsuits, arbitrations, toxic tort actions, commercial disputes, and tax controversies.

Michael Egge, Office Managing Partner of Latham & Watkins in Washington, D.C., added: "Andy is a great addition to our team of strategic litigators and boardroom advisors. His mix of experience nicely complements our practice in the United States and globally, and he will play a key role in further establishing the practice as the preeminent trial team for bet-the-company mandates."

"I am delighted to join Latham's talented team of lawyers. The global group is unmatched in experience, acuity, judgment and ability to effectively resolve the most complex disputes," Clubok said. "The firm's team-oriented approach provides the perfect platform for me to continue to focus on the best resolutions to meet my clients' business needs."

Deeley joins the firm's Complex Commercial Litigation Practice. Her practice covers a broad range of business disputes, including fraud, consumer protection and unfair business practices, securities, antitrust, contract, trade secrets, privacy and other business torts. She is a seasoned trial lawyer with extensive experience defending companies in class actions and high-stakes lawsuits. She has represented top companies, officers and directors across a variety of industries, including technology, social-media, banking, finance, insurance, food and fitness. Deeley has tried cases before federal and state judges and juries as well as arbitrators with significant wins for defendants and plaintiffs.

Kirt Switzer, Office Managing Partner of Latham & Watkins in San Francisco, said: "I'm pleased to welcome Beth to our San Francisco office. She is a talented litigator with particular legal skill in complex technology disputes. Her skills align perfectly to the needs of companies in our innovative community, particularly as they grow and are faced with ever more complex and high-stakes legal challenges."

"I am happy to be a part of Latham's fantastic trial team," Deeley said. "I was particularly attracted to Latham's approach: by bringing together powerhouse trial lawyers and the best multidisciplinary legal talent, the firm excels at deriving the best possible solutions for clients."

Clubok and Deeley join Latham from Kirkland & Ellis. They are the latest in a string of top-notch lawyers who have joined Latham's Litigation & Trial Department in the last year. That list includes Eric Leon, Nicholas McQuaid, and Joseph Serino in New York; Steven Croley and Kevin Wheeler in Washington, D.C.; Leslie R. Caldwell and Michael Rubin in San Francisco; Terra Reynolds in Chicago; Martin Davies and Ian Felstead in London; and Joshua Hamilton and Thomas Nolan in Los Angeles.

Clubok received his law degree with honors from the University of Michigan Law School in 1993 and his A.B., also with honors, from Harvard in 1990. Following law school, Clubok clerked for Judge Frank J. Battisti for the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Ohio. He currently serves as a trustee of and has been a board member for the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs.

Deeley received her law degree from The George Washington University in 1998, with honors, and her B.B.A., from the University of Georgia in 1992. Her past experience includes serving as Deputy City Attorney in the City of San Francisco from 2005 to 2007 and clerking for Judge Roger B. Andewelt on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

About Latham & Watkins

Latham & Watkins is a global law firm with more than 2,600 lawyers in its offices located in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States, including: Barcelona, Beijing, Boston, Brussels, Century City, Chicago, Dubai, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Milan, Moscow, Munich, New York, Orange County, Paris, Riyadh, Rome, San Diego, San Francisco, Seoul, Shanghai, Silicon Valley, Singapore, Tokyo and Washington, D.C. For more information on Latham & Watkins, please visit the website at www.lw.com.

Notes to Editors

1Latham & Watkins operates as a limited liability partnership worldwide with affiliated limited liability partnerships conducting the practice in the United Kingdom, France and Italy and affiliated partnerships conducting the practice in Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore. Latham & Watkins operates in Seoul as a Foreign Legal Consultant Office. Latham & Watkins practices in Saudi Arabia in association with the Law Office of Salman M. Al-Sudairi.

Contacts

Jamie Wine, Global Chair, Litigation & Trial Department: +1.212.906.2904

Michael Egge, Washington, D.C. Office Managing Partner: +1.202.637.2285

Kirt Switzer, San Francisco Office Managing Partner: +1.415.395.8885

SOURCE Latham & Watkins

Related Links

http://www.lw.com


DENVER, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Security leader ProtectWise today announced enhancements to The ProtectWise Grid, its platform which provides automated network detection and response across Enterprise, Cloud and Industrial Environments. Aimed at organizations running workloads in multiple Amazon Web Services (AWS) instances, new integrations between The ProtectWise Grid and AWS, via the DescribeInstances and CreateTags actions of the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) API, allow security teams to quickly locate, investigate and respond to threats.

The ProtectWise Grid provides context fusion through a blend of threat intelligence that allows security teams to identify instances with anomalous activity and tag them for further action. In addition to giving organizations greater visibility into their AWS deployments, the integrations also facilitate efficient communication and coordination between security and developer operation teams that manage networks on AWS.

ProtectWise is an Advanced Technology Partner in the AWS Partner Network (APN) and was one of the first companies to achieve AWS Networking Competency status. The ProtectWise Grid is also available on AWS Marketplace.

"As more global 2,000 enterprise organizations transform their businesses on the cloud, we are seeing important infrastructure, including customized applications and IT services, shifting to AWS," said Ramon Peypoch, ProtectWise Chief Product Officer. "ProtectWise is committed to providing pervasive visibility, automated network detection and forensic exploration for organizations with workloads on AWS, and these integrations are an extension of that commitment."

About ProtectWise

ProtectWise provides automated threat detection and response across time for any network. Delivering security entirely from the cloud, The ProtectWise Grid captures full-fidelity network traffic from enterprise, cloud and industrial environments, to create a lasting network memory. The security platform provides real time and retrospective alerting and analysis in a rich, innovative visualizer. By harnessing the cloud, The ProtectWise Grid delivers unique advantages over current network security products, including the industry's only automated retrospection and the ease and cost-savings of an on-demand deployment model.

Founded in April 2013, ProtectWise is based in Denver and led by a team of security and SaaS industry veterans from McAfee, Palo Alto Networks, and Symantec. The company launched the Immersive Security movement in 2017 to build a new path forward for the security industry. ProtectWise has raised more than $70 million in funding. For more information, visit www.protectwise.com.

PR Contact

MacLean Guthrie

[email protected]

SOURCE ProtectWise

Related Links

https://www.protectwise.com


HOUSTON, Dec. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Over the past four seasons the Professional Sporting Clay Association (PSCA) has made great progress to the benefit of the sporting clays community. By creating and managing the professional side of the sport, it has increased awareness and participation to attract new shooters to the sport.

The PSCA has enjoyed tremendous support from individuals and several key sponsors. Financial support has been graciously provided by key sponsors and from its founders.

As a strategic decision, the PSCA is undergoing a deep analysis on ways to provide even greater value to both shooters and sponsors to ensure the financial sustainability and the continued growth of the organization for the benefit of all.

The PSCA has delayed the announcement of the 2018 Pro Tour while we evaluate and implement changes for the future direction of the PSCA. The staff of the PSCA, in addition to many of the PSCA professional shooters and other interested parties are working hard to ensure the economic viability of the individual 2018 tour events. The events will be announced as these details are secured.

To ensure the PSCA progresses efficiently, it has engaged Ted Sapoznik, a shooter with over 15 years of sporting clays experience, to lead the assessment effort. He will work closely with Scott Robertson and Judy Morris to determine the necessary elements to ensure the support of sponsors and the shooting community. Additionally, the PSCA has contracted with Hearst Media for support in both communications and marketing.

About PSCA

Professional Sporting Clays Association (PSCA) is a professional league for top sporting clays athletes. PSCA provides its athletes with access to media and other notoriety. PSCA has hosted 21 Pro Tour events, produced 52 television shows and created the Junior Tour to allow for youth participation in a Pro Challenge format along with the other divisions.

SOURCE Professional Sporting Clays Association

Related Links

https://www.psca.com


LOS ANGELES, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- "In Your Right Mind," a weekly radio program that features in-depth roundtable discussions of today's behavioral health headlines, aired a provocative show, "Genetic Testing for Personalized Medicine" on Sunday, November 12, at 5 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on TalkRadio 790 KABC-AM. The program focused on a relatively new form of genetic testing called pharmacogenetics testing, which is used by health care providers to determine how a person will respond to a particular treatment or medication. The show was hosted by Tonmoy Sharma, M.B.B.S., M.Sc., founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sovereign Health, who provides an in-depth medical and clinical expertise, and co-host Stefanie Wilder-Taylor.

The show featured an internationally acclaimed neurologist, author and keynote speaker Jay Lombard, M.D., as a panelist. He is also the co-founder, chief scientific officer and medical director at Genomind, a personalized medicine company that uses genetic testing to improve neuropsychiatric treatment of conditions such as depression, Alzheimer's disease and autism. The other panelist on the show was Stephen M. Stahl, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego and an honorary visiting fellow at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Dr. Stahl is an internationally recognized authority in psychiatry, having published more than 500 scientific papers, written 35 text books, edited 12 textbooks and is recognized as the world's leading expert in training psychiatrist on proper psychopharmacology practices.

In recent news, the Food and Drug Administration approved a DNA-altering medication that can reverse an inherited form of progressive blindness. This makes Luxturna, a treatment for retinal dystrophy caused by a specific genetic mutation, the first gene therapy cleared for use in the U.S. to treat a genetic disease other than cancer.

"People often don't understand what genetic testing is about, and it somehow takes on a morbid feel to it, especially when parents ask, 'are you going to do a genetic test on my child?'" Dr. Sharma commented.

Dr. Lombard added, "People fears are not their misconception about what genetic testing can do, but what it can do to help us to refine how we treat patients with psychiatric disorders. What it can't do and most likely never does, is to make a deterministic diagnosis about a psychiatric disorder."

In July 2015, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Society of Human Genetics and the American College of Medical Genetics released a statement regarding genetic testing in children. According to the statement, pharmacogenetic testing in children can be justified to alleviate substantial psychosocial distress, potentially improve drug efficacy, and reduce adverse events, and is acceptable when used for therapeutic purposes with the permission of parents and guardians, and the child's assent when appropriate.

Psychopharmacology medications profoundly alter brain chemistry. Understanding the role of genetics in the efficacy of those drugs is important as they are likely to produce very severe side- effects that may otherwise go unrecognized.

"There's a lot of discrimination against psychiatric disorders', treatments and stigma; the idea is that we should be able to treat these disorders the same as anything else. It is also true that the new medicines are discriminated against more in psychiatry than they are in any other field," Dr. Stahl said.

To access the broadcast, the show is available on demand at www.InYourRightMind.com. For questions, contact [email protected].

About Sovereign Health

Sovereign Health's mission is to provide a broad spectrum of high-quality behavioral health treatment services for adults and adolescents, including support services for family members. One factor that differentiates Sovereign from other treatment providers has been the company's ability to offer separate mental health and addiction or dual diagnosis treatment programs at its facilities. For more information, visit www.sovhealth.com.

About "In Your Right Mind"

"In Your Right Mind" is a weekly behavioral health radio show that covers various topics each week, including mental health disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and addiction/dual diagnosis disorders. Dr. Tonmoy Sharma and Kristina Kuestner are the hosts of the show. In addition, each program will feature guest speakers throughout the United States participating in a roundtable discussion about headlines in behavioral health. The mission of "In Your Right Mind" is to raise awareness about behavioral health issues that get people talking. The hour-long show airs every Sunday at 5 p.m. PST on Talk Radio 790 KABC Los Angeles. "In Your Right Mind" is produced in conjunction with Sovereign Health, a leading national provider of behavioral health treatment services. For more information, visit www.inyourrightmind.com.

SOURCE In Your Right Mind

Related Links

http://www.inyourrightmind.com


NEW YORK, December 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

As the cannabis industry continues its rapid growth, its overall impact on other industry sectors is also dramatically increasing. There are 11 different sectors currently directly associated with the cannabis industry or play a supporting role, according to the Marijuana Index. While quite a few prominent companies focus on the cultivation, biotechnological product development and marketing of cannabis and hemp products, others engage in the support side of the industry. A great example is Global Payout, Inc. (OTC: GOHE) (GOHE Profile), which provides customized payment solutions to optimize global financial transactions. The company's cannabis endeavors are undertaken by its MoneyTrac subsidiary, which offers solutions designed to overcome payment logistical problems and security threats in the cannabis industry. Among other cannabis-related activities, MoneyTrac is also collaborating with PotSaver brand, a supplier of medical cannabis listings. MoneyTrac's solutions could prove beneficial for other companies establishing roots in the cannabis industry, including Medical Marijuana, Inc. (OTC: MJNA), mCig, Inc. (OTC: MCIG), Solis Tek, Inc. (OTC: SLTK), and Freedom Leaf, Inc. (OTC: FRLF).

With more companies expanding their reach into global markets, it is increasingly important to have access to payment solutions that suit the needs of customers anywhere in the world. The role of traditional banks is shrinking, driven by the demand for improved and innovative financial solutions. Global Payout, Inc. (OTC: GOHE) is focused on entrenching itself as a leader in financial technology (FINTECH) and providing customized payment solutions for any type of company that distributes money globally.

Global Payout's web-based Global Reserve Platform is a configurable solution that can satisfy the front-to-back office processing requirements of domestic, foreign exchange and international payment service providers. It improves work flow, operational efficiencies and financial management for businesses operating worldwide, and can be customized for companies in a wide range of business sectors.

The breadth of Global Payout's FINTECH solutions now ripples into the cannabis industry through the company's MoneyTrac Technology, Inc. ("MTRAC") subsidiary, introduced in 2015 to provide alternative and high-risk enterprises with solutions to manage everything from pin debit and virtual currency to compliance and cash flow logistics.

MTRAC provides a solution to overcome payment logistical problems and security threats that plague the cannabis industry. These problems have arisen because marijuana is still classified as an illegal substance at U.S. federal level although legal across most states, which means that cannabis suppliers do not have access to traditional banking options. In August 2017, the company announced that it will incorporate bitcoin as a payment method to overcome these problems for customers of retail and wholesale cannabis outlets.

Global Payout continues to increase MTRAC's market reach, most recently announcing a collaboration with SinglePoint, Inc. (OTC: SING), a leading provider of full service mobile technology and mobile payment solutions to multiple industries, including the legal cannabis market, with the purpose of maximizing Global Payout's existing suite of financial solutions (http://nnw.fm/Ytav8), including those offered by MTRAC. Through this joint venture, the company seeks to boost its existing payment and financial technology platforms.

"SinglePoint's knowledge and expertise in mobile payments and other mobile technology offerings is something we believe could be a significant addition to the financial payment platforms we have developed, and are still developing, for our clients in the many different industries we serve. We are also eager to use this agreement as an opportunity to examine how a partnership with SinglePoint can be leveraged to enhance the payment and financial solutions offered by MoneyTrac Technology, our majority owned subsidiary is focused on offering in the rapidly expanding multibillion dollar cannabis industry," Global Payout stated in the press release.

MTRAC is also collaborating with its PotSaver brand, a supplier of medical cannabis listings, to launch a publication for the cannabis industry called PotSaver Biz. The first Los Angeles release is scheduled for January 1, 2018, a timely endeavor as the State of California begins licensing recreational marijuana sales next month.

MoneyTrac completed the majority acquisition of PotSaver (http://nnw.fm/3I2dg) at the end of September this year in an agreement that provided the subsidiary with access to immediate revenue as well as PotSaver's revenue-generating business model of providing community periodical listings on discounted cannabis products. The publication of PotSaver Biz constitutes another revenue stream for MoneyTrac and Global Payout, generated from the sales of paid listings to the countless businesses engaging in the cannabis industry.

Demonstrating the potential of cross-networking within the cannabis industry, MTRAC has also formed a referral partnership agreement with GreenRush Group, Inc. This agreement is expected to provide MTRAC with a direct source of revenue from the referral of cannabis-related businesses who secure a contract with greenRush for the use of its e-commerce payment platform, and Green Label Platform.

"The greenRush e-commerce platform is truly ahead of anything else in our industry today and is one of the most valuable resources available to dispensaries and other companies and brands who need an effective platform to market and sell their products for both B2C and B2B purposes. This agreement will give us an opportunity to contribute to the growth of greenRush through our referrals and will also play a vital role in the growth and success of our existing and future clients and partners as we work with them to leverage the resources available through the greenRush platform," MTRAC COO Vanessa Luna stated in the press release (http://nnw.fm/7uW3w).

An established company engaged in the research and development of cannabinoid-based products, operating in the medical marijuana and industrial hemp markets, Medical Marijuana (OTC: MJNA) was the first-ever publicly traded cannabis company in the United States. Its products are developed for the pharmaceutical, nutraceuticals and cosmeceutical industries using patented and proprietary based processes. The company also markets and distributes a range of hemp oil-based products, as well as chewing gum-based cannabinoid infused products for pain relief and other medical disorders. Medical Marijuana recently announced that its HempMeds Mexico subsidiary generated the largest sales in a single month in November 2017. During the same month, HempMeds Mexico's president was invited to address the United Nations and World Health Organization, where he urged both international bodies to recognize the benefits of cannabidiol (CBD) as a nutritional supplement.

mCig (OTCQB: MCIG) is a multidimensional company that operates through five divisions, comprising construction and consulting, CBD, vaporizers, media and supplies. Its construction operation designs, engineers and builds greenhouses for growers in the cannabis and hemp markets. The company also offers a consulting service to cultivators in the cannabis industry. mCig's cannabidiol division markets hemp-based CBD products, including a private label VitaCBD, while it devotes another division to the sale of e-cigarettes and vaporizers. The company operates a social platform, called 420cloud, to advertise cannabis products and runs another division that supplies legal cannabis. On December 4, 2017, mCig announced that its wholly owned subsidiary focused in hemp cultivation, product research and production, NYAcres, Inc., forecasts total revenue of $10 million in its first year of operation.

Climate control within greenhouses and indoor cultivation facilities is critical for producing cannabis and hemp crops of consistent quality. Solis Tek (OTCQB: SLTK) designs, develops and manufactures indoor lighting and ancillary equipment for horticultural facilities in the USA and globally. It produces innovative LED lighting products that emit less heat than traditional lighting systems, backed up by the use of digital ballasts to enable more accurate control of lighting within a greenhouse. The company also supplies mercury vapor and high-pressure sodium lamps, reflectors and a range of fertilizers and plant nutrients.

Headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, Freedom Leaf (OTCQB: FRLF) publishes news for the cannabis, medical marijuana and industrial hemp industry. Its flagship publication is Freedom Leaf Magazine, The Good News in Marijuana Reform, which reports on movements in the cannabis industry as well as lifestyle, arts and fashion. In addition, the company provides a creative marketing and talent agency service for creation and launch of business development and private label products. Freedom Leaf also sells cannabis and hemp oil-based products and is actively involved in mergers and acquisitions in the cannabis industry. On December 5, 2017, the company announced that its subsidiary, Leafceuticals, Inc., had concluded an agreement to purchase hemp from producer Harris Farms, Ltd., Pahrump, Nevada, for the supercritical CO2 extraction of hemp oil in its facility under State of Nevada license NV SB396.

If the fast-developing cannabis market is to sustain its growth, it needs the support of enterprises that can bring advanced technology beyond cultivation and product development to the table. These companies demonstrate that there is room for a diverse range of businesses to add value to this industry and create a climate for them all to thrive.

For more information on Global Payout, please visit: Global Payout, Inc. (OTC: GOHE)



About CannabisNewsWire

CannabisNewsWire (CNW) is an information service that provides (1) access to our news aggregation and syndication servers, (2) CannabisNewsBreaks that summarize corporate news and information, (3) enhanced press release services, (4) social media distribution and optimization services, and (5) a full array of corporate communication solutions. As a multifaceted financial news and content distribution company with an extensive team of contributing journalists and writers, CNW is uniquely positioned to best serve private and public companies that desire to reach a wide audience of investors, consumers, journalists and the general public. CNW has an ever-growing distribution network of more than 5,000 key syndication outlets across the country. By cutting through the overload of information in today's market, CNW brings its clients unparalleled visibility, recognition and brand awareness. CNW is where news, content and information converge.

Receive Text Alerts from CannabisNewsWire: Text "Cannabis" to 21000

For more information please visit https://www.CannabisNewsWire.com and or https://CannabisNewsWire.News Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the CannabisNewsWire website applicable to all content provided by CNW, wherever published or re-published: http://CNW.fm/Disclaimer

DISCLAIMER: CannabisNewsWire (CNW) is the source of the Article and content set forth above. References to any issuer other than the profiled issuer are intended solely to identify industry participants and do not constitute an endorsement of any issuer and do not constitute a comparison to the profiled issuer. FN Media Group (FNM) is a third-party publisher and news dissemination service provider, which disseminates electronic information through multiple online media channels. FNM is NOT affiliated with CNW or any company mentioned herein. The commentary, views and opinions expressed in this release by CNW are solely those of CNW and are not shared by and do not reflect in any manner the views or opinions of FNM. Readers of this Article and content agree that they cannot and will not seek to hold liable CNW and FNM for any investment decisions by their readers or subscribers. CNW and FNM and their respective affiliated companies are a news dissemination and financial marketing solutions provider and are NOT registered broker-dealers/analysts/investment advisers, hold no investment licenses and may NOT sell, offer to sell or offer to buy any security.



The Article and content related to the profiled company represent the personal and subjective views of the Author, and are subject to change at any time without notice. The information provided in the Article and the content has been obtained from sources which the Author believes to be reliable. However, the Author has not independently verified or otherwise investigated all such information. None of the Author, CNW, FNM, or any of their respective affiliates, guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any such information. This Article and content are not, and should not be regarded as investment advice or as a recommendation regarding any particular security or course of action; readers are strongly urged to speak with their own investment advisor and review all of the profiled issuer's filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission before making any investment decisions and should understand the risks associated with an investment in the profiled issuer's securities, including, but not limited to, the complete loss of your investment.



CNW & FNM HOLDS NO SHARES OF ANY COMPANY NAMED IN THIS RELEASE.



This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. "Forward-looking statements" describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies and are generally preceded by words such as "may", "future", "plan" or "planned", "will" or "should", "expected," "anticipates", "draft", "eventually" or "projected". You are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, and other risks identified in a company's annual report on Form 10-K or 10-KSB and other filings made by such company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should consider these factors in evaluating the forward-looking statements included herein, and not place undue reliance on such statements. The forward-looking statements in this release are made as of the date hereof and CNW and FNM undertake no obligation to update such statements.



CannabisNewsWire (CNW) & NetworkNewsWire (NNW) are proud to be affiliated partners of the Investor Based Brand Network (IBBN)



About IBBN

Over the past 10+ years we have consistently introduced new network brands, each specifically designed to fulfil the unique needs of our growing client base and services. Today, we continue to expand our branded network of highly influential properties, leveraging the knowledge and energy of specialized teams of experts to serve our increasingly diversified list of clients.

Please feel free to visit the Investor Based Brand Network (IBBN) http://www.investorbasedbrandnetwork.com

Corporate Communications Contact:

CannabisNewsWire (CNW)

Denver, Colorado

http://www.CannabisNewsWire.com

+1-303-498-7722 Office

[email protected]



Media Contact:

FN Media Group, LLC

[email protected]

+1(954)345-0611



SOURCE CannabisNewsWire
Through collaborative and interactive networking and educational forums, RealFoundations, alongside IREI and iREOC council members, will help identify and address the challenges many REOCs encounter when seeking engagement with institutional investors and investment managers. In this role, RealFoundations will have the opportunity to engage with all organization members, providing thought leadership on information exchange methods and guidelines, proven industry practices, and collaboration methods.

"As investors increasingly seek ways to exercise more control and create value at the asset-level, and real estate operating companies seek new sources of capital, RealFoundations sees iREOC serving a valuable and previously unfilled role of facilitating connections," said John D'Angelo, Enterprise Managing Consultant, RealFoundations. "And rather than stopping at helping to establish connections, iREOC will further help facilitate communications and the exchange of information, such that iREOC members don't have to figure out how and what information to exchange. RealFoundations is proud to be a part of this important organization and we see our role as a great opportunity to help real estate run better."

This exclusive membership organization is designed to maintain a high ratio of institutional capital providers to select REOCs seeking equity partnership investment capital, promoting a collaborative atmosphere for investor engagement. Member benefits include leadership recognition in the investor community, opportunities to build stronger relationships among member counterparts at the iREOC Annual meetings, first-hand industry insight through the IREI Market Intelligence Service, recognition in various IREI publications, and discounted priority registrations to IREI's flagship annual conference, Visions, Insights, & Perspectives (VIP) Americas, as well as other events.

"As part of the IREI platform, iREOC is uniquely qualified to bring together leading professionals from across the global institutional real estate investment community to help advance the institute's mission and goals," said David "Mac" McWhorter, Executive Director, iREOC. "Our founding Board of Governors is comprised of many of the industry's most respected institutional investors, investment managers and real estate operating companies. As the recognized leader of operational solutions in the real estate industry, we are proud to have RealFoundations as a Founding Strategic Sponsor of iREOC. In collaboration with RealFoundations, we held a very engaging Board of Governors kickoff meeting last month in Chicago. We are now planning for iREOC's Annual Meeting that will be in Park City, Utah in May 2018 and are actively recruiting select new members."

For more information on becoming a member, visit the iREOC website using the link below.

About RealFoundations RealFoundations is a professional services firm focused on the real estate industry. With offices on four continents, 400+ client-serving professionals and off-shore delivery capabilities in China and India, RealFoundations provides Management Consulting, Managed Services and Energy Solutions to developers, owners/operators, service providers, institutional investors and corporate occupiers. From the building itself to the way it is used, operated and financed, no firm understands the inner workings of the entire real estate ecosystem as well as RealFoundations. "We Make Real Estate Run Better." www.realfoundations.net

About iREOC The Institute for Real Estate Operating Companies is a for-profit, exclusive membership organization and division of IREI. iREOC's mission is to accelerate the development and adoption of workflow best practices in capital raising and operational guidelines for REOC partnership investments that enable investors, investment managers, and real estate operating companies to maximize returns, lower costs, and reduce risk. http://www.ireoc.com/

About IREI Institutional Real Estate, Inc. (IREI) is a global media firm recognized as a critical nexus for the sharing of industry intelligence, knowledge and insights on the institutional real estate and infrastructure marketplaces through its publications, events and consulting services. IREI provides investment fiduciaries with information and insights on the people, issues, ideas and events driving the global real estate and infrastructure investment marketplaces. https://irei.com/

SOURCE RealFoundations

Related Links

http://www.ireoc.com


GENEVA, Ill., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- RedLegg, a global partner for managed and cybersecurity services, announces new partnerships with Value Added Resellers. RedLegg provides a Channel Partner Program with comprehensive advisory solutions for real-world data protection and security challenges.

Three core service offerings include Advisory which includes, Virtual CISO, Enterprise Security Assessments and Gap Assessments. Tradecraft Labs which includes Vulnerability Assessments, Application Assessments, and Penetration Testing. And Managed Security Services with 24x7 managed and co-managed SIEM, UTM/Firewall, Advanced EndPoint, Network Advanced Threat Detection and Threat Intelligence.

The increasingly complex and ever-changing cybersecurity landscape has created a great deal of demand for security services. The partnership with VARs and RedLegg will enable VARs to add additional security services to their already comprehensive full-service technology companies.

About RedLegg

Operating out of Illinois since 2008, RedLegg is a veteran-owned master provider of information security. RedLegg is a boutique, nimble, old-fashioned customer service company that enjoys the technology battlefield. Knee-deep in the community, RedLegg enjoys crafting solutions designed to find, document, monitor, and eliminate the risks and vulnerabilities unique to each client's business. RedLegg's corporate office is located in Geneva, IL.

RedLegg 24x7 Support Engineers are located all over the United States.

SOURCE RedLegg

Related Links

https://www.redlegg.com


SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Reflektive, the real-time performance management company, today announced a new addition to its growing list of accolades this year: recognition as one of the Best Entrepreneurial Companies in America as part of Entrepreneur Magazine's Entrepreneur 360 List.

"Our annual evaluation is a 360-degree analysis of top privately-held companies representing and serving a variety of industries," explains Lisa Murray, Chief Insights Officer of Entrepreneur Media, Inc. "These businesses are real-world case studies for any entrepreneur who seeks to master the four pillars that can greatly impact the longevity and growth of their businesses. With the Entrepreneur 360, success is measured by achieving balance throughout the entire organization, predicated by revenue."

The Entrepreneur 360 List recognizes independently-owned companies that are driving revenue and creating tangible value for customers through a unique vision, extraordinary execution and pioneering innovation in both emerging and mature industries. Listed companies are selected based on success to date, as well as their agility in adapting to new challenges and opportunities in the market, and potential for sustained growth. Honorees are identified based on a comprehensive study using a proprietary algorithm that results in a scorecard measuring the four pillars of entrepreneurship: innovation, growth, leadership and impact.

"We are proud to be recognized for both our success as a company as well as our unique approach to performance management," said Rajeev Behera, CEO of Reflektive. "Our mission is to reinvent people management processes to empower employees to thrive at work, and this award is strong validation of the progress we've made."

Related Resources

Entrepreneur 360 List 2017: https://www.entrepreneur.com/360#

https://www.entrepreneur.com/360# Reflektive Product Overview: https://www.reflektive.com/product/

Reflektive Customers: https://www.reflektive.com/customers/

About Entrepreneur Media Inc.

For nearly 40 years, Entrepreneur Media Inc. has been serving the entrepreneurial community providing comprehensive coverage of business and personal success through original content and events. Entrepreneur magazine, Entrepreneur.com, and publishing imprint Entrepreneur Press provide solutions, information, inspiration and education read by millions of entrepreneurs and small business owners worldwide. To learn more, visit entrepreneur.com. Follow us on Twitter at @Entrepreneur and like us on Facebook at facebook.com/entmagazine.

About Reflektive Reflektive is a leader in providing innovative, real-time performance management solutions for HR leaders and their agile organizations. Founded in 2014, Reflektive securely delivers Real-Time Feedback and Requests, Goal Management, Performance Reviews, and Check-Ins applications in the cloud for more than 300 clients worldwide including AAR, Blue Origin, Comcast, Dollar Shave Club, Healthgrades, Instacart, MEC Global, and Protective Life. Based in San Francisco with funding from Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed Venture Partners, and recognition by Gartner in their 2017 Cool Vendors in Human Capital Management report, Reflektive's mission is to reinvent people management processes to empower employees to thrive at work. Visit www.reflektive.com, follow un on Twitter at @Reflektive.

MEDIA CONTACTS

Nicole Paleologus

SSPR

267-758-2638

[email protected]

Erick Mott

Reflektive

888-577-8929

[email protected]

SOURCE Reflektive

Related Links

https://www.reflektive.com


LOS ANGELES, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Womble Bond Dickinson (US) LLP announced today California-based Blakely Sokoloff Taylor Zafman, LLP will join Womble Bond Dickinson effective Jan. 2, 2018. The addition of the Blakely team will add 24 lawyers and patent agents to Womble Bond Dickinson's roster as well as offices in Los Angeles, Orange County and Sunnyvale to complement the firm's existing Silicon Valley office.

"We have been impressed with the steady strategic growth of Womble Bond Dickinson's IP practice," said Roger Blakely. "We were also pleased to find that our firms share a vision for the future and commitment to clients."

Blakely founded the firm in 1975 and, along with a core group of veteran attorneys, grew it into one of the most respected IP practices in the country. Most of the firm's lawyers have deep technical backgrounds, particularly in software and electrical engineering, making Blakely a favored firm among California's tech giants. The firm's branding practice is also sought after across several industries.

Womble Bond Dickinson has experience working with those and many other tech companies based in California, having opened its first West Coast office in 2011 in Silicon Valley. Still, Mike Gencarella, Managing Partner of the firm's Palo Alto office, said the addition of the Blakely IP professionals to Womble Bond Dickinson's existing IP, transactional and litigation practices is a watershed moment for both firms.

"This combination repositions Womble Bond Dickinson in the technology sector by adding a tremendous technical depth to the IP practice and providing the capability to service broadly the markets of northern and southern California," Gencarella said. "Also, as the firm continues to aggressively add practices in the state, the addition of the Blakely lawyers and their particular strengths makes the firm even more appealing to clients and talent."

The Blakely transaction closes out an unprecedented year of growth for Womble Bond Dickinson. US-based Womble Carlyle and UK-based Bond Dickinson formed Womble Bond Dickinson in November with one of the year's largest law firm combinations. In 2017, the firm also opened a Boston office with another well-established IP team and announced it would add a leading boutique telecom firm to its Washington, D.C. office. However, Womble Bond Dickinson Chair and CEO, Betty Temple, said the firm remains focused on strategy, not headcount.

"The Blakely team is the perfect example of strategic growth," she said. "The addition of this team and our Boston office, combined with our long history in IP law, makes us one of the premiere IP practices in the country. We're focused on growth that enables us to deliver more to our clients."

About Womble Bond Dickinson

Womble Bond Dickinson is a transatlantic law firm with more than 1,000 lawyers based in 24 UK and US office locations. The firm provides core legal services including: Commercial, Corporate, Employment, Pensions, Dispute Resolution, Litigation, Finance, Banking, Restructuring, Insolvency, IP, Technology and Data, Private Wealth, Projects, Construction and Infrastructure, Real Estate and Regulatory Law.

Womble Bond Dickinson has a particular focus on eleven key sectors: Energy & Natural Resources, Financial Institutions, Healthcare, Insurance, Manufacturing, Real Estate, Retail & Consumer, Transport & Infrastructure, Pharmaceuticals Biotechnology & Life Sciences, Communications & Technology and Private Wealth.

The firm's UK offices are in Aberdeen, Bristol, Edinburgh, Leeds, London, Newcastle, Plymouth and Southampton. The US offices are in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Silicon Valley - Calif, Wilmington - Del, Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh, Research Triangle Park, Winston-Salem - N.C., Charleston, Columbia, Greenville - S.C., Charlottesville, Tysons Corner - Va. and Washington D.C.

Through the firm's association with Lex Mundi, the world's largest association of independent law firms, Womble Bond Dickinson also can offer clients access to quality-tested local counsel in more than 120 countries.

"Womble Bond Dickinson," the "law firm" or the "firm" refers to the network of member firms of Womble Bond Dickinson (International) Limited, consisting of Womble Bond Dickinson (UK) LLP and Womble Bond Dickinson (US) LLP. Each of Womble Bond Dickinson (UK) LLP and Womble Bond Dickinson (US) LLP is a separate legal entity operating as an independent law firm. Womble Bond Dickinson (International) Limited does not practice law. Please see www.womblebonddickinson.com/us/legal-notice for further details.

Contact: Russell Thomas, 202-857-4552, [email protected]

SOURCE Womble Bond Dickinson

Related Links

http://www.womblebonddickinson.com


Gary S. Laben Will Lead Combined Organization

PLANO, Texas and SHELTON, Conn., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Research Now and Survey Sampling International (SSI) announce that their merger agreement has received all necessary global regulatory approvals and has closed. Gary S. Laben, CEO of Research Now, will lead the joint organization as CEO.

The combined company is privately held, with Court Square Capital Partners and HGGC, the current majority owners of Research Now and SSI, respectively, remaining as majority owners of the combined business. Financial terms of the deal are not being publicly released.

The company will be known as Research Now SSI. With the merger, it becomes the market research industry's largest provider of online panel data and technology-based research solutions based on opted-in data.

"Together, we are exceptionally well-positioned for growth in our established market research customer base as well as in new, strategic areas that span the entire marketing continuum of data-driven consumer engagement," says Laben. "With our core asset of verified, opted-in data, and an innovative approach to marketing services based on actual voice of the consumer, we can offer existing and new customers new ways to achieve optimized marketing performance."

About Research Now SSI

Research Now SSI is the global leader in digital research data for better insights and business decisions. The company provides world-class research data solutions that enable better results for more than 3,500 market research, consulting, media, healthcare and corporate clients. Research Now SSI operates globally with locations in the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, and is recognized as the quality, scale, and customer satisfaction leader in the market research industry. For more information, please go to www.researchnow.com and www.surveysampling.com.

Editors, for more information, contact:

Barbara Palmer

Research Now SSI

+1 214 918 9933

Andrew Jolls

Research Now SSI

+1 818 827 3440

SOURCE Research Now Group, Inc.

Related Links

https://www.researchnow.com


(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/621071/ETH_Zurich_Logo.jpg )



(Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/621070/Dextra.jpg )





(Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/621069/AnyMal.jpg )



In Davos for the WEF Annual Meeting? From world leaders to the next generation of digital natives and from robotics experts to neuroscientists, ETH Zurich invites the world to come out to play during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2018 in Davos, Switzerland. The ETH Zurich Pavilion becomes an experimental lab of interactive exhibits delving into the inner-workings of the brain and tantalizing the taste buds in its TasteLab cafe.

Invitation to Press Exclusive

Monday, January 22nd, 2018

17:00 - 18:30 (networking until 21:00)

ETH Zurich - ranked among the top ten universities in the world - hosts a pre-Annual Meeting interactive discussion on the topic, "RETHINKING INTELLIGENCE". While future applications of machine learning demonstrate potentially impressive capabilities, they have also sparked deep controversy. "How do we code to ensure a sustainable future while avoiding self-destruction?" As a member of the international and Swiss press, we invite you to join this event for an inside scoop on "superintelligence." Your presence ensures access to top leaders and researchers from Google Research Europe, IBM Research Zurich, Disney Research, Starmind, Silicon Valley Robotics, and ETH Zurich robotics and AI experts.John Fraher, Bloomberg News, will moderate an interactive discussion that explores the risks and potential of AI - possibly the last invention of humankind.

More information http://bit.ly/ETHatWEF2018_Press

RSVP to ETH Zurich's press exclusive in Davos

Robotic and Neuroscience Exhibits

Public Exhibition - January 23 - 25, 2018

Open daily, 11:00 - 16:00

Even if you are unable to join us in Davos, we invite you to write about some of the robotics and neuroscience demos that will inspire future applications in AI. We provide you with advance access to the multi-media packages for the project demos included in ETH Zurich's public exhibition. Here are just two examples, much more to be revealed.

ANYmal

A quadrupedal robotic dog, ANYmal is an autonomous search and rescue robot that can map its environment and navigate its own path. ETH Zurich's Robotic Systems Lab designed ANYmal to operate in challenging environments such as industrial inspection of oil and gas sites.

Dextra

Challenge Dextra to a timeless game of Rock-Paper-Scissors, but do not be disappointed if she seems to anticipate your every move. This robotic hand uses a brain-inspired neural network and camera to recognize your hand gestures and anticipate your every move.

Quotes

"Despite the extensive robotics research effort in the last few decades, robots are still not "intelligent." They do not have real tactile interaction capabilities and still require highly skilled people to program even the simplest tasks." Roland Siegwart, Head of ETH Zurich's Autonomous Systems Lab.

"Creators of intelligent systems currently follow two distinct paths. The first aims to realize brain-like computation by re-engineering the exact properties of neurons and the networks within the brain. The second approach aims to understand the high-level neural algorithms that the brain uses for computation and to replicate it in computer hardware. It is not yet clear which approach will win the race." Benjamin Grewe, ETH Zurich Assistant Professor of Neuroinformatics and Neuronal Systems.

SOURCE ETH Zurich
BOSTON, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Robert Lawrence Beal is recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Pinnacle Lifetime Member in the field of Real Estate in recognition of his role as Senior Officer of Related Beal, Inc.

A fully integrated real estate firm, Related Beal, Inc is located in the heart of the Boston, Massachusetts area. Offering a wide array of services to their clients, the firm specializes in, "all assets, classes and storied local experience in life sciences, commercial and residential development, property management and real estate investments. " As a frontrunner in the industry, Related Beal is specialized in the aspects of, development, acquisitions, management, finance, marketing and sales. Dedicated to customer satisfaction, the company is equipped in real estate development, affordable workforce housing, property management, brokerage services and advisory.

Amassing over fifty years of experience in the field of real estate, Beal is the Former President and Senior Officer of Beal & Co., Inc., also known as Related Beal. Throughout his career, Beal has specialized in the areas of both commercial and residential real estate and is now currently pursuing his philanthropic endeavors.

Throughout the course of his education and training, Beal graduated Harvard College, Class of 1963  graduating with honors, and Harvard Business School, Class of 1965. He joined the Beal Companies in 1976 (now known as Related Beal).

An active member within the community, Beal has generously served many organizations with his time, talent and resources, including the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (former overseer and trustee), the Massachusetts Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Chairman, Council of Fellows), the Boston Zoological Society (former Chair), the Museum of Fine Arts (Board of Overseers), the Combined Jewish Arts and Culture and is on the Board of the United Way of Massachusetts Bay. Recently, Beal has been appointed as Director of the Old North Foundation and Trustee of Tufts Medical Center.

To further his professional development, Beal is an affiliate of several certified businesses and organizations locally and internationally. He is a Past Director and Chairman of the Artery Business Committee, and a Past President of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board. He is the former Chair of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, Chair of the Taubman Center for State and Local Government at Harvard as well as the Chair of the School of Social Science, Urban Affairs and Public Policy at Northeastern University.

Beal dedicates this recognition to his nephew, Bruce Beal, Jr., who is the President of the Related Company in New York. Both are looking forward to continued growth and success in the future in the family.

For more information, please visit: www.bealco.com or http://www.relatedbeal.com/OurCompany/.

CONTACT: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, [email protected]

SOURCE Continental Who's Who

Related Links

http://www.continentalwhoswho.com


"We are exceedingly grateful to Sara and Chris for their longstanding support of University Hospitals and for their generous gift to expand the Connor Integrative Health Network," said Thomas F. Zenty III, CEO of UH. "The Connors recognize the need for approaching health and medicine in a comprehensive and holistic way. We are at a moment of transformation in healthcare and this program is in perfect sync with UH's overall wellness strategy. We are focused on bringing the highest quality and most comprehensive care to our patients."

Through advocacy, education and research, the Connor Integrative Health Network is a nationally-recognized leader in efforts to transform the provision of and access to additional forms of healthcare. Integrative medicine  combining traditional medicine with evidence-based nonpharmacologic therapies  is the future of healthcare as patients take greater control of their own mental and physical wellness. It goes beyond the disease management model, extending care to overall health and prevention and empowering patients to partner with their healthcare team to take charge of their well-being.

"We are inspired by the commitment of UH to develop this comprehensive program," said Mr. Connor. "We have seen great progress in making integrative health an important part of patients' journeys at UH, and we hope our new gift continues this advancement."

The Connor Integrative Health Network's model of quality care aligns with UH's mission: To Heal. To Teach. To Discover. The Connors' gift will enable UH to recruit a core team of physician leaders to treat patients, educate physicians throughout UH and beyond about how to effectively incorporate integrative therapies into their patient care plans, and conduct research. To inspire additional donors, a portion of the gift will match future donations.

Currently, Connor Integrative Health Network physicians and therapists offer evidence-based therapies including acupuncture, meditation and mindfulness, massage therapy, music and art therapy, integrative medicine consults, Chinese medicine, recommendations on supplements and nutrition, osteopathic manipulative treatment and yoga to achieve optimal health. With almost 40% of Americans using some form of complementary medicine, UH is leading the movement.

"Integrative medicine continues to rapidly grow in interest for patients seeking to enhance total well-being and improving their overall health," said Francoise Adan, MD, director of the program, who has been the Christopher M. & Sara H. Connor Master Clinician in Integrative Health at University Hospitals and with this gift will hold the newly named Connor Endowed Chair of Integrative Medicine.

"Research shows that patients who incorporate these kinds of therapies into their care have shorter recovery times, less pain and better outcomes overall. This is particularly critical as we face a national opioid epidemic, increased mental health needs and rising costs of care for the management of chronic disease," added Dr. Adan.

"Recognizing its positive impact on patient experiences and outcomes, physicians at UH Seidman Cancer Center, UH Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute and our other institutes and centers are increasingly using integrative therapies with their patients to enhance the effectiveness of traditional medicine," said Daniel I. Simon, MD, President, UH Cleveland Medical Center. "We have also placed an important emphasis on sharing the program's options with our workforce  a healthy staff improves our overall community wellness. This progressive thinking is driving UH to the national forefront of integrative health."

The Connors have longtime connections to UH and to the healthcare field. Mrs. Connor's background as an occupational therapist coupled with her strong interest in complementary therapies, including Reiki, led to the Connors' initial support. Mr. Connor, former chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of The Sherwin-Williams Company, has been a member of UH's Board of Directors for more than a decade and formerly served as its chair.

"Integrative medicine has been shown to enhance the quality of people's lives. Our donation to UH is about making the program's services more readily available. We're confident these methods will play a key role in the overall wellness of people throughout Northeastern Ohio," said Mrs. Connor.

The Connor Integrative Health Network also aims to boost the health and well-being of UH's 27,000 employees and physicians, creating an environment of wellness and ultimately a greater patient experience.

To schedule an appointment or for additional information about Connor Integrative Health Network services, call 216-285-4070.

SOURCE University Hospitals, Cleveland
"Our initial goal was to turn our $10,000 cash donation into $50,000 worth of toys, but our generous customers really stepped up and donated beyond our expectations," said Brandon Checketts, the company's founder. "Our employees, customers and friends in our industry donated cash, cases and even pallets of toys because they wanted to give to children in need."

Checketts' involvement with Toys for Tots started as a member of the Athens Jaycees when they first partnered with the organization in 2009. He created the Seller Labs Cares initiative to expand his company's involvement in the local community.

"I got involved with Toys for Tots eight years ago when my son was in the hospital over the holidays," said Jeff Cohen, the company's chief marketing officer. "I remember the Marines coming by the hospital several times a day to handout toys. They brought lots of joy to the children and families who were struggling and that's why my family donates every year."

Visit www.sellerlabs.com/t4t for more information.

Seller Labs, LLC is the creator of cloud-based e-commerce applications, Feedback Genius, Scope, Ignite and Quantify. The company's software suite provides third-party Amazon merchants with tools to automate email messaging, Amazon keyword and product research, Amazon Sponsored Products ads (PPC) management, and business intelligence solutions. The company is based in Athens, Ga.

SOURCE Seller Labs, LLC
ROCKVILLE, Md., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Emmes Corporation today announced its participation in a three-year study testing the results of two different opioid treatment medications. The research, published in one of the world's oldest and best known medical journals, concluded that for those able to begin treatment, both drugs are nearly equal in their safety and effectiveness. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) funded the research.

In addition to providing data management and statistical support, Emmes served as the clinical coordinating center. This involved protocol development, pharmacovigilance, quality assurance, safety monitoring and regulatory support. The clinical trial occurred between 2014 to 2017 at eight community treatment programs across the U.S. A total of 570 patients participated, with each group followed for a 24-week period.

This is the first U.S. study providing comparative data on the two opioid treatment medications. A similar study, conducted in Norway, included far fewer patients who were required to complete detoxification and occurred over a shorter time period.

"Opioid addiction has emerged as one of the most critical public health issues," said Dr. Anne Lindblad, Emmes president and chief executive officer. "The U.S. needs to continue to invest in education and prevention  to try to reduce opioid addiction in the first place. This and other studies being conducted now by our team at Emmes address a related concern: how to treat people already addicted and reduce the chances of relapse."

The opioid study, characterized by the New York Times as "long awaited," compared the most commonly prescribed opioid treatment medication, buprenorphine-naloxone (known as Suboxone) with extended-release naltrexone (known as Vivitrol). Suboxone is a partial agonist, which still activates opioid receptors, but less strongly, so that cravings and withdrawal symptoms are reduced. Vivitrol is an antagonist, which blocks the activation of opioid receptors and thus the feeling of euphoria. Patients who take Vivitrol must totally detoxify before starting treatment. The study found that Vivitrol patients who are able to overcome this "detox hurdle" have similar results to those taking Suboxone. The study considered factors such as cravings, adverse effects and relapse rates.

"The detox hurdle and other differences in characteristics and clinical management of the two treatments posed some challenges during the study design phase," noted Dr. Jeanine May, one of the Emmes co-authors. "However, the study's lead investigators valued and trusted each member's expertise, and this helped ensure a well-designed and executed trial. John Rotrosen, the lead investigator, deserves credit for his collaborative leadership."

Dr. Rotrosen, professor in the Department of Psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine, served as the senior author of the Lancet article. He was joined by Joshua D. Lee, MD, MSc, associate professor in the Departments of Medicine and Population Health at NYU School of Medicine, who was lead author. The team members cited in The Lancet article included a number of physicians and researchers at medical centers and treatment facilities across the U.S.

Seven Emmes employees were listed as co-authors: Jacquie King, MS; Robert Lindblad, MD; Abigail G Matthews, PhD; Jeanine May, PhD; Dagmar Salazar, MS; Dikla Shmueli-Blumberg, PhD; and Don Stablein, PhD.

About Emmes

We collaborate with our clients to produce valued, trusted scientific research. Our team members at Emmes are passionate about making a difference in the quality of human health, and we have supported more than a thousand studies across a diverse range of diseases since our formation in 1977. Our research is contributing to a healthier world. For more information, visit the Emmes website at www.emmes.com.

SOURCE The Emmes Corporation

Related Links

www.emmes.com


EDMONDS, Wash., Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Gregory Jantz, Founder of The Center  A Place of HOPE in Edmonds, Washington and the best-selling author of 37 books, helps businesses and organizations avoid the strife, hurt, legal consequences and operational disruption that sexualized relationships and harassment cause in the workplace. With proper education and training, inappropriate behavior can be largely curtailed. More significantly, helping individuals understand why and how their behavior is inappropriate can change individuals, their families and communities.

Dr. Gregory Jantz's Best-selling book Too Close To The Flame. Each attendee receives a free copy Dr. Gregory Jantz. Best-selling author, Keynote Speaker, Treatment Facility Founder, Healthcare Innovator

While inappropriate sexualized workplaces have existed for centuries, victims now have a sympathetic platform where their grievances are not only being heard, but perpetrators are being held accountable. People, mostly men, in the highest echelons of society are taking stunning falls, and falling hard  Hollywood elite, business managers, newscasters, Congressmen, Senators, clergy members, professional athletes, and more. The disruption to businesses, institutions of trust, and indeed our societal fiber, is dramatic.

But it doesn't have to be that way, says mental health expert and go-to media source on sexualized relationships, Dr. Gregory Jantz.

"For 30 years I have counseled clients on inappropriate sexual behavior, including workplace relationships. The good news is that behavior can change. Frankly, it must change. I am heartened by the recent awareness of the issue of sexual harassment. Now is the time to have frank discussions and training for businesses, community leaders, churches, and anyone in a position of authority over another. That's why I wrote the book Too Close To The Flame," says Dr. Jantz.

Too Close To The Flame is a best-seller that addresses and helps change inappropriate sexualized behavior in the workplace. The issue, according to Jantz, is how far we have swung toward "sexualized relationships." Following his book, Dr. Jantz delivers powerful research-based presentations to educate professionals on the causes and behaviors associated with disordered relationships.

When he speaks with businesses and organizations, he helps them understand how a workplace environment may be unwittingly encouraging inappropriate behavior. He helps individuals understand how their behavior can be toxic to a work environment at best, and legally liable in the extreme.

Dr. Jantz also provides techniques to help treat and heal lives, and how to break free from unhealthy relationship patterns. Dr. Jantz's book, made available to attendees of his keynotes and workshops, helps identify patterns individuals use to get what they want from their relationships  sexual or otherwise.

He points out the reality that many, but not all, men who harass or abuse others sexually do not have a clue they are doing so. "Patterns of inappropriately relating to women become so ingrained that men see it as normal, or acting out on 'healthy male impulses.' Still other men are well aware what they are doing is risky behavior, yet are willing to take these risks for the thrill they receive in doing it. It becomes a game they think they can win every time. As many men are now discovering, the 'game,' and our society's intolerance of their behavior, is finally catching up with them. And with the advent of lightning-fast reaction on the Internet, and the permanence of that feedback, long-term consequences can be devastating for both sides, albeit for different reasons."

"The forces driving the sexualized relationships in our society include a combination of toxic components," Dr. Jantz notes. "We have tolerated pornography and hookup relationships to the extent that they now seem normal and even a welcome part of healthy relationships. When men consume pornography they are bound to develop a distorted perspective of sexuality. This has bred a distorted view of powerful men believing they can act out on their impulses with impunity."

In today's frenetic push to uncover sexual harassment or abuse, Jantz says we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg. While many women (and some men) are willing to step forward and share their stories, most are not. They remain silent victims who often live with their pain, sometimes blaming themselves and afraid to speak up. Although some allegations may be untrue, or fabrications, Dr. Jantz says the vast majority have left indelible scars on those who are the trusting victims of the powerful.

Dr. Jantz provides captivating and powerful presentations for business and organizations to help them understand their current environment, recognize inappropriate behavior, and institute measures and safeguards to greatly diminish and, ideally, remove the behavior from the workforce. For business owners and organizational leaders in the current environment, not incorporating sexual harassment training can expose them to liability.

When you schedule Dr. Jantz to present to your group, he covers:

Identifying Sexual Manipulators and climbers

Spotting Danger Signals in friendships about to turn sexual

Protecting Family Members from relatives or acquaintances who are sexual predators

Knowing How To Avoid sexual traps when advising church members

Avoiding Sexual Pitfalls in professional and pastoral counseling

To schedule Dr. Jantz for workplace training, media interviews or events, and keynote addresses on expelling sexualized relationships in the workplace, contact:

Adam Taff

[email protected]

913.484.1140

Dr. Jantz is a licensed mental health counselor with a doctorate in counseling psychology and a world-recognized expert and innovator in the treatment of behavioral disorders and addictions. He is the founder of the Whole Person Care approach to treatment.

The Center  A Place of HOPE is recognized as a top 10 facility in the U.S. for the treatment of depression. In addition to being a best-selling author of 37 books, Dr. Jantz is a go-to media source expert on behavioral-based afflictions and drug and alcohol addictions. Dr. Jantz has appeared on CNN, FOX, ABC, CBS, interviewed for the New York Post, Associated Press, Family Circle, and Women's Day, and is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post and Psychology Today.

Dr. Gregory Jantz: www.drgregoryjantz.com

A Place Of Hope: www.aplaceofhope.com

SOURCE Dr. Gregory Jantz

Related Links

http://www.drgregoryjantz.com


LONDON, Dec. 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Snyk, the leading solution for addressing vulnerabilities in open source libraries, successfully integrated with DigitalOcean, a cloud platform provider, to notify the company of two significant vulnerabilities in Nokogiri, allowing DigitalOcean to fix both in under 24 hours.

Prior to engaging with Snyk, keeping up to date with the latest dependencies and vulnerabilities was carried out by DigitalOcean's individual technical leads on each of their projects. DigitalOcean needed a timely and pragmatic response to vulnerabilities in their third-party dependencies.

"Supply-chain vulnerabilities constitute some of the most preventable vulnerabilities, and are also the most costly in terms of company reputation and blast radius of affected systems. You need to continuously scan for vulnerabilities, and mitigate found vulnerabilities, in your operating systems, applications and libraries," said Tom Czarniecki, Tech Lead and Architect of Application Security of DigitalOcean.

Following notification by Snyk and DigitalOcean's internal impact analysis, DigitalOcean found that the vulnerabilities exposed were in-line for most of their request processing so it became critical to upgrade the version of Nokogiri that was used in their front-door applications. "Such a quick turnaround could not have happened when monitoring for vulnerable dependencies without Snyk," Czarniecki added.

"Snyk simplified the non-trivial task of scanning for vulnerabilities in DigitalOcean's third-party libraries allowing the DigitalOcean application security team to focus their efforts on scanning for vulnerabilities in the code and applications that are continuously produced by their development teams," said Guy Podjarny, CEO, Snyk Ltd.

Over the course of a single work day, DigitalOcean was able to upgrade multiple services and internal libraries to a newer and safer Nokogiri version, rolling them out to its pre-production and, following verification, production environments. Prior to using Snyk, the process of finding and fixing vulnerabilities would have taken much longer, which meant DigitalOcean was previously susceptible to being exploited for greater lengths of time.

About Snyk

Snyk is a developer-first security solution that helps you use open source code and stay secure. Building on its unique vulnerability database, Snyk continuously finds and fixes known vulnerabilities and license violations in open source dependencies. Snyk integrates seamlessly into the developer workflow, tightly integrating with source control (e.g. GitHub, BitBucket, GitLab), hooking into your CI/CD pipelines and continuously monitoring PaaS and Serverless apps in production. To learn more, visit https://snyk.io/

SOURCE Snyk

Related Links

http://snyk.io


LAS VEGAS, December 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Social Play USA, Inc. (OTC Pink: SPLY), ("SocialPlay" or the "Company"), along with development and acquisition partner Spot and Pay, Inc. (http://www.spotandpay.com) is pleased to announce a significant new milestone in the ongoing development of the Spot and Pay universal mobile payment application, by Integrating risk mitigation and user verification security features.

Know Your Customer, or 'KYC' guidelines are widely adopted methodologies used in the financial sector that prevent banks - or a payment application such as Spot and Pay - from being used, intentionally or unintentionally, by criminal elements for money laundering activities and financial fraud. Related procedures also enable banks to better understand their customers and their financial dealings, which aids institutions, and Spot and Pay, in managing risk prudently.

This is highly desirable to Spot and Pay users, vendors, and business providers who use the platform as it ensures secure transactions by verifying that all users are bona fide individuals or business entities. Not only does this give peace of mind to the vast network of users, it also rises to the level of compliance adhered to by all traditional financial institutions around the globe. From an investor standpoint, such compliance also reduces the risk of legal exposure that may arise as a result of potential malfeasance.

This development also means that, in addition to the existing features of accepting credit cards, debit cards, and bitcoins, Spot and Pay will be able to add an unlimited number of bank accounts to their Spot and Pay wallet. Customers can pick their payment option for their purchases or donations through QR codes (Scan and Pay) or through specific search options (Find and Pay). As well, users will be able to transfer money from Peer to Peer within the Spot and Pay network from one account to another without having to access a financial institution outside of their individual Spot and Pay wallet.

About SocialPlay and Spot and Pay

Spot and Pay is a mobile payment application that is used in connection with third party QR codes that have been generated for specific uses; i.e. individual consumer products, specific services or group of services offered to the general public, B2B product and service offerings, monetary donations to charitable organizations, and quick and easy bill payments on recurring monthly accounts.

QR codes allow consumers a quick, simple, and paperless method of making purchases, donating to their favorite charity, and paying bills. The process relies on setting up a Spot and Pay mobile payment account attached to a credit card, direct debit account or Bitcoin wallet, and then simply scanning a QR code with a mobile device for a particular product or service the consumer wishes to purchase. The Spot and Pay application will instantly facilitate the order and purchase of the product associated with the QR code and pay for it from the pre-designated method of payment set up by the user.

The most unique aspect of the Spot and Pay application is the ability to purchase products remotely, without having to visit a website or physically attending a retail establishment. This is accomplished simply by scanning a product's QR code wherever it can be seen; such as from a bus shelter advertisement or other media, i.e. television or computer screen situated in a public space.

While QR Codes have been used for years in direct marketing, they are only quite recently being used more widely for mobile, remote purchasing, banking, and payments. Wal-Mart, which introduced QR code payment solutions as part of its Wal-Mart Pay feature in 2015, reports that usage of its internal application was up 45% as of July 2016, with 38% of payments coming from repeat users in all of its 4,600+ stores nationwide. This evolution speaks to the growing acceptance of QR Codes as a more sophisticated tool for problem solving and information delivery.

SocialPlay USA is a Business to Business solutions provider for online companies; providing marketing, monetization, and support services for companies in the mobile applications marketplace.

This news release was prepared on behalf of the Board of Directors, which accepts full responsibility for its contents. For more information please contact Investor Relations at 855-780-4878 or [email protected]

Robert Rosner

President & CEO

Forward-looking Statement:

THIS NEWS RELEASE CONTAINS "FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS," AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN SECTION 27A OF THE UNITED STATES SECURITIES ACT OF 1933, AS AMENDED, AND SECTION 21E OF THE UNITED STATES SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934, AS AMENDED. STATEMENTS IN THIS NEWS RELEASE, WHICH ARE NOT PURELY HISTORICAL, ARE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS AND INCLUDE ANY STATEMENTS REGARDING BELIEFS, PLANS, EXPECTATIONS OR INTENTIONS REGARDING THE FUTURE.EXCEPT FOR THE HISTORICAL INFORMATION PRESENTED HEREIN, MATTERS DISCUSSED IN THIS NEWS RELEASE CONTAIN FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS THAT ARE SUBJECT TO CERTAIN RISKS AND UNCERTAINTIES THAT COULD CAUSE ACTUAL RESULTS TO DIFFER MATERIALLY FROM ANY FUTURE RESULTS, PERFORMANCE OR ACHIEVEMENTS EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED BY SUCH STATEMENTS. STATEMENTS THAT ARE NOT HISTORICAL FACTS, INCLUDING STATEMENTS THAT ARE PRECEDED BY, FOLLOWED BY, OR THAT INCLUDE SUCH WORDS AS "ESTIMATE," "ANTICIPATE," "BELIEVE," "PLAN" OR "EXPECT" OR SIMILAR STATEMENTS ARE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS. RISKS AND UNCERTAINTIES FOR THE COMPANY INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO, THE RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT, SALES & MARKETING, AND FUNDING AS WELL AS THE RISKS SHOWN IN THE COMPANY'S MOST RECENT ANNUAL AND QUARTERLY REPORTS FILED AND PUBLISHED ON WWW.SEC.GOV. RESPECTIVELY, AND FROM TIME-TO-TIME IN OTHER PUBLICLY AVAILABLE INFORMATION REGARDING THE COMPANY. OTHER RISKS INCLUDE RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH THE REGULATORY APPROVAL PROCESS, COMPETITIVE COMPANIES, FUTURE CAPITAL REQUIREMENTS AND THE COMPANY''S ABILITY AND LEVEL OF SUPPORT FOR ITS EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES. THERE CAN BE NO ASSURANCE THAT THE COMPANY''S SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT, SALES & MARKETING EFFORTS WILL SUCCEED AND THE COMPANY WILL ULTIMATELY ACHIEVE COMMERCIAL SUCCESS. THESE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS ARE MADE AS OF THE DATE OF THIS NEWS RELEASE, AND THE COMPANY ASSUMES NO OBLIGATION TO UPDATE THE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS, OR TO UPDATE THE REASONS WHY ACTUAL RESULTS COULD DIFFER FROM THOSE PROJECTED IN THE FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS. ALTHOUGH THE COMPANY BELIEVES THAT THE BELIEFS, PLANS, EXPECTATIONS AND INTENTIONS CONTAINED IN THIS NEWS RELEASE ARE REASONABLE, THERE CAN BE NO ASSURANCE THOSE BELIEFS, PLANS, EXPECTATIONS OR INTENTIONS WILL PROVE TO BE ACCURATE. INVESTORS SHOULD CONSIDER ALL OF THE INFORMATION SET FORTH HEREIN AND SHOULD ALSO REFER TO THE RISK FACTORS DISCLOSED IN THE COMPANY'S PERIODIC REPORTS FILED AND PUBLISHED FROM TIME-TO-TIME ON WWW.OTCMARKETS.COM. THIS NEWS RELEASE HAS BEEN PREPARED BY MANAGEMENT OF THE COMPANY WHO TAKES FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR ITS CONTENTS. NO SECURITIES REGULATORY AUTHORITY HAS APPROVED OR DISAPPROVED OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS NEWS RELEASE. THIS NEWS RELEASE SHALL NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL OR THE SOLICITATION OF AN OFFER TO BUY NOR SHALLTHERE BE ANY SALE OF THESE SECURITIES IN ANY JURISDICTION IN WHICH SUCH OFFER, SOLICITATION OR SALE WOULD BE UNLAWFUL PRIOR TO REGISTRATION OR QUALIFICATION UNDER THE SECURITIES LAWS OF ANY SUCH JURISDICTION.



SocialPlay USA, Inc.

8275 S. Eastern Avenue, Las Vegas, NV 89123

T: +1(702)430-2850

[email protected]

http://www.socialplayusa.com



SOURCE Social Play USA, Inc.